#I flew across the country for this lady and she found someone who would do that and more

[gumdropgamespot]

💍

[evermoreholland]

in harmony | tom holland

-> singer!reader x tom holland

-> summary: after a nasty break up, you go to london with your two best friends in hope to find inspiration for your upcoming album and a london boy soon became your muse.

-> word count: 5.7k

-> a/n: wow. this is probably my favorite fic of mine. i hope you all enjoy it as much as i do. big thank you to @rainbowrobin for hyping this fic up and being its biggest fan. also thank you to @cali-holland for beta reading this for me! your support means the world to me and you inspire me every day to keep writing. love you to bits <3

~~~

Breaking up with someone you used to care about was never easy. In fact, grieving and eventually getting over that person was the hardest thing to do. You were a singer so relationships that went public usually ended up terribly wrong. The good part about it is that you can write a hit song about the experience.

Breaking up with your past boyfriend was probably the worst experience for you thus far. You thought that he was the one, every move you made was for him and you ended up depending on him constantly. And he broke your heart. He played you like a fiddle and played with the strings of your heart. He cheated on you with someone you were insecure about the duration of your relationship with him, which made everything feel worse.

You decided that you needed a change of scenery in hopes to clear your head. You had been spending time in your Los Angeles apartment moping around, trying to get over your ex-boyfriend. You also had a deadline for your new album and you haven’t even started. Your album was due towards the end of the summer, and it was now spring.

You sat down on your sofa with a pen and notebook in your hand. You were determined to write something. You didn’t want to write songs about your breakup, but that was all you were thinking about. You saw your phone on the coffee table light up and buzz. It was your manager and agent, Cassandra. You picked up the phone nervously, knowing that she was going to ask about your progress or lack thereof.

“Hello?” You answered.

“Hello, Y/N,” Cassandra greeted sweetly. “How’s the album coming along? We need to start recording soon.”

“Funny you ask.” You always tried to make fun out of an uncomfortable situation.

“Y/N.”

“I’m sorry, Cass! I have no idea what I should be writing about for this album.” It’s not like you didn’t want to write. You did, but you had no idea what to write about.

“Maybe you need a change of scenery, dear. You haven’t been out in months,” Cassandra suggested.

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Where would you want to go? You can stay there for the rest of the spring and the beginning of the summer.”

You thought about it for a moment. You definitely wanted to leave the country.  “How does London sound, Cass?”

“Sounds nice. I’ll book you, Natalie, and Sarah tickets for this weekend and I’ll rent the three of you an Airbnb for your stay,” Cassandra confirmed. Natalie was your personal assistant and your best friend. Sarah was your older sister who traveled with you everywhere and she helped you with many of your songs. She was good to bounce ideas off of. You had the perfect team.

“Perfect. Thank you.” You both said your goodbyes and hung up.

***

Tom got off the airplane and sighed in relief. He was finally home. After many months of filming on another continent, he was back in London. Tom was ready to finally sleep in his own bed and hang out with his brothers and friends once again.

Harry and Tom took an Uber back to Tom’s apartment. It was fairly late and all Tom wanted to do was sleep. In the Uber, Tom and Harry made light conversation.

“You want to go to the new pub by our flat this weekend? Haz and Tuwaine want to hang out,” Harry asked.

“Sure,” Tom mumbled. To be quite honest, Tom had absolutely no desire to go out at all this weekend, but he knew that his mates wanted to see him. He did want to see them too, so he agreed.

“Sounds good.”

***

You packed your suitcases for London at the last minute. In your defense, Cassandra only booked Thursday night’s tickets on Wednesday, so you didn’t have that much time in the first place. You were planning on using your time in London to relax and to create a healthy headspace to write your next album.

You called Natalie to ask her opinion on some of your outfit choices. “Nat, am I going for a  casual look this trip? Like sweatpants and t-shirts?”

“Absolutely not, Y/N. Are you insane?!”

“It was just a question, Natalie.” You defended yourself. “What should I pack then?”

“I don’t know, just look hot. You need to get out of the post-breakup sweatpants phase.”

“Fine,” you grumbled. You grabbed some cute spring sundresses from your closet and threw them into your suitcase. You packed some jeans and blouses as well.

You hung up with Natalie and took a look at your bag. “Should be good.”

***

The flight to London from Los Angeles was long and exhausting. You arrived at Heathrow airport in the early afternoon on Friday. You immediately went to the house to rest up from jetlag. Once you woke up a few hours later, Sarah was pressuring you and Natalie to get dressed. “We’re going to the pub! Get up, ladies!”

“What? Why?” Natalie groaned. You and Natalie were laying on your beds in your shared room. Sarah jumped onto your bed and tackled you.

“Sarah, we’re exhausted,” you said. You pushed your sister off of you and sat up. “We can just go tomorrow.”

“It’s the pub’s grand opening! It’s supposed to be fire!”

“Fine,” you mumbled. You got up and began unpacking your suitcase. “But I refuse to wear heels.”

***

Harrison made his way to his best mate’s flat to pick him up for the Cheer Beers grand opening on Friday night. Harrison used his spare key to get into Tom’s place. “Tom,” Harrison called out. He made his way to Tom’s bedroom to make sure he was ready for the night.

“In my room!” Tom exclaimed. Tom sounded upset and agitated. Harrison entered his room anyway because he wanted to hang out with his best friend. He opened the door and noticed Tom laying his bed under the covers.

“Are you alright, mate?” Harrison asked. Harrison noticed Tom in his pajamas while in bed. “Why aren’t you ready to go? Harry already went out with Tuwaine to wait in line.”

“I want to hang out with you all, but I’m just so jetlagged, mate.”

Harrison took his phone out of his back pocket to check the time and noticed an Instagram notification from you. He opened it out of curiosity and it was a direct message. It said that you would be at Cheer Beers tonight with your friends and asked if he was going. Harrison and you had met at an award show a few months back and you became friends. “You know what I just found out, Tom?”

“What?”

“Y/N L/N is going to the grand opening tonight.”

“You’re lying just to get me out of bed!” Tom accused him. Tom didn’t want to admit it, but he fancied you. He has been following you on social media and listening to your music for a while now, so Harrison saying you were going to be at the pub caught his attention.

“I’m not.” Harrison showed Tom his phone with your direct message. “I had no idea she was in town, though.”

“No clue, either.”

“Now will you come?” Harrison asked. “I know you have a huge crush on her.”

Tom eyed him skeptically but then let out a sigh. “Fine, I’ll go.”

***

You waited in line outside of Cheer Beers with Sarah and Natalie. You were wearing a black sleeveless cocktail dress with black slip-on vans. You saw a few familiar faces approach you and you realized that it’s your friend Harrison and his mates. You recognized one of his friends to be Tom Holland.

“Hey, Haz!” You greeted. He pulled you into a hug and squeezed you tightly. You pulled away and said, “Following me, I see?”

“Very funny,” he replied. “We were coming to opening night anyway. We were planning this in honor of Tom’s return from filming.”

“Oh, that’s right,” you said and then turned to Tom. You put your hand out for him to shake. “I’m Y/N.”

He shook your hand and you felt his sweaty palm touch yours. You could assume that he was either unwell or nervous. “Tom. Nice to finally meet you.”

“Likewise.”

You introduced Natalie and Sarah to Harrison and he introduced the rest of his friends to the three of you.

“Would you like to share a table with us?” Harry, Tom’s younger brother, asked you.

“I’m sure that Y/N L/N would have much better opportunities than to sit with us, Harry,” Tom interjected.

“Actually, Tom, we would love to.” You all entered the pub and grabbed a table in the back room. Harrison sat between Sarah and Tuwaine. Harry sat by Natalie. You sat between Natalie and Tom, per Natalie’s whisper in your ear to go for it. You all got your first round of drinks.

“So what brings you to London?” Tom asked.

“Needed to clear my head,” you said and then ate the olives from your martini.

“So you flew halfway across the world?” Tom was amused and you could tell. He wasn’t trying to laugh at you particularly, he just thought it was funny that you chose London of all places.

“Shut up,” you teased. “We’re here for the summer. A vacation, or holiday, if you will.”

“Nice, nice.” You could feel the slight awkward tension between the two of you. You were basically strangers so it made sense. You decided to try and break it. “How was filming for the third Spider-Man film?”

Tom’s eyes lit up at your sudden interest in his work. “Can I tell you a funny story?”

***

Three hours passed by and you decided to call it a night. You talked with Tom the entire night. You enjoyed his company but you were also jetlagged. “Tom, I’m tired,” you said as you leaned on his shoulder.

“Me too.”

“Want to walk me home?” You asked.

“Would love to.” You both got up from the booth and Tom paid for your drinks, even though you protested. Harrison, Tuwaine, Harry, Sarah, and Natalie didn’t look like they were ready to leave any time soon so you said your goodbyes to them and left with Tom.

“How far are you away from here?” Tom asked you.

“About a ten minute walk.” You began walking in the cool London air.

“So, Harrison told me that you were writing for your new album. How’s that going?”

“Not well,” you said as you crossed your arms over your chest. “It’s been fucking difficult.”

“I’m sorry, love.” The pet named warmed your heart and body even more. Tom wrapped his arm around your shoulder and pulled you closer to him. “I wish I can help you out somehow.”

“It’s alright. Getting out tonight helped me get into a good headspace,” you said.

“Glad to hear it.” You arrived at your Airbnb and Tom walked you to the front door. “I had a great time tonight, Y/N.”

You smiled, the first genuine smile that you’ve had in a while. “Me too, Tom.” You opened your door to enter.

“Wait.” Tom stopped you. “Let me get your number.”

“Sure.”

***

Two weeks had passed since you arrived in London and you and Tom have been texting back and forth. He had even taken you on a tour of London. He took you to all of the hot spots. Occasionally, Tom, Harrison, and Harry would come over to your Airbnb to hang out with you, Sarah, and Natalie. You were developing friendships with everyone, but you felt a bit stronger about Tom. He was charming, kind, and really funny. You enjoyed his company and you finally got the chance to start writing for your upcoming album. You realized that you didn’t want to write about your breakup with your ex, but instead write about your crush on the brown-haired London boy.

“How is the album coming along?” Cassandra asked you on the phone.

“Pretty good. I have a killer single coming your way and many other songs too.”

“Remember, we need to start recording at the end of July.”

“You got it.”

“You sound happy,” she commented. She was right. You were happy and finally completely over your ex. “It’s a good look on you.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you writing about?”

“Oh, you know… London, pubs, boys,” you trailed off.

***

Harrison was busy planning his upcoming date with your sister, Sarah. They hit it off extremely well at the opening of Cheer Beers. They got each other’s numbers and planned to go on a date. To be honest, Harrison was stressed out. He scored a date with Sarah L/N, which ultimately shocked him. So, he decided to go to his best mate for some advice.

Tom was sitting in his living room and Harrison entered with two dress shirts in hand. One of them was a white button-down and the other one navy. “Which shirt should I wear on my date with Sarah?”

“Black slacks, right?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, and a black leather jacket.”

“Go with white,” Tom suggested.

“Thanks, mate. Another question,” Harrison proposed. It felt natural for Harrison to ask Tom about his lady troubles, even though Tom had been single for a while.

Tom nodded his head to urge Harrison to continue.

“What if I fuck this up?” He asked nervously. “I really like Sarah.”

Tom got up from the couch to come closer to Harrison and put his hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be fine, mate. Just be yourself. She’ll fancy you, I promise.”

“How are you so good at giving me advice but you can’t get a girlfriend?”

Tom mocked being bothered. “Rude,” he scoffed.

“What are you waiting for?”

“If I say the perfect girl, will you slap me?” Tom joked.

“Yes, yes I will,” Harrison laughed as he replied. “I think that you already found the perfect girl at Cheer Beers.”

“We’re still getting to know each other. Why must we move so fast?” Tom wondered. He wanted to take things slow. His life had always moved fast and he wanted something to move at his pace, for once. Too many relationships have moved too fast and he ended up hurt.

“Because she’s only here for so long and I have a feeling that she likes you,” Harrison reasoned. Tom was starting to feel the same way about you too.

“Fine. While you go on your date with Sarah tonight, I’ll see if Y/N wants to hang out.” He picked up his phone from the coffee table and texted you asking if you wanted to come over. You replied saying yes and he smiled. “We’re hanging out.”

“Great. Don’t forget to use protection,” Harrison said as he ran away to go get dressed for his date.

“Fuck off, you div!”

***

Tom went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and beers before you came over to his flat. He tidied up the living room once he got home and made sure to fluff the pillow to make them look nicer. Even though you and Tom were only friends, he couldn’t help but make sure that everything looked perfect for you.

You arrived 30 minutes later. You wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt, along with your slides. Your hair was out of your face and Tom thought that you looked stunning. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Tom blushed. “Nice sweatshirt.” Your sweatshirt was light blue and it had butterflies on it. Tom realized that he loved that color on you.

He led you to the couch and he sat beside you. “So what did you do today?” You asked.

“I worked on a script that I’m writing and then I helped Harrison get ready for his date with your sister. What about you, love?” The pet name made your heart flutter. Tom was definitely charming.

“I worked on some songs for the album,” you answered proudly.

“Care to share?”

“Willing to share what the script’s about?” You asked back, already knowing the answer.

“I’m legally not allowed to share, so no. I’m sorry, darling.”

“Then my answer is the same.”

“Well played, pretty girl,” he flirted. “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“Avengers: Age of Ultron?”

“Yes, it’s one of my favorite Marvel movies!” You exclaimed. “I have a feeling that you knew that already.”

Tom smiled at you as he picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned on the television. “I may have, but only because Haz told me. Don’t worry, though. It’s one of my favorites too.”

Tom found the movie and before he hit play he got up from the couch. “May I offer you some popcorn before we start the movie? I have beer as well.”

“Yes to both, please.” Tom went to the kitchen to pop the popcorn and grab some beers. He came back around five minutes later with everything.

“Here you go,” he said as he handed you a bottle of beer. “I know it’s not a martini.”

“It’ll have to do,” you teased. You pat the seat beside you to urge Tom over. “Now, come sit.”

Tom pressed play and the Marvel introduction appeared on the screen. You moved closer to Tom and he wrapped his arm around your shoulder, just like he did that night at the pub. “Is this ok?” He asked.

“It’s perfect.”

Around an hour into the movie, the popcorn was finished along with your first bottle of beer. Tom’s hand was still resting on your shoulder but now your head was resting on his. “Y/N?” Tom called out.

“Yeah?” You asked as you moved your head away from him so you could look at him.

“Can I be honest with you about something?” You nodded so he would continue. “I really want to kiss you.”

“Can I be honest with you?” You asked while smiling.

“Yeah.”

“I really want you to kiss me,” you said as you leaned in. He pressed his lips against yours in a soft first kiss. You kissed back almost immediately. After a couple of seconds, you pulled away from him.

“Wow,” he said.

“Ditto,” you said and then pulled him back towards you. You kissed him again and you knew that from now on, you couldn’t get enough of him.

***

Tom and you didn’t finish the movie the other night. After your many makeout sessions with him, you decided to go home, and you promised him that the two of you would get together again soon. You went home with the biggest smile on your face. Since your kiss, you and Tom have not talked about the status of your relationship. As of right now, you were just friends who have kissed before. No biggie.

It was now the 28th of May and you were sitting on a park bench having coffee with Harrison. It would be Tom’s 25th birthday in four days and the two of you were attempting to plan the perfect party for him.

“You’ll get the decorations, Sam will cook a few dishes, and I’ll provide booze,” Harrison said, listing things off. “We’ll host it at my new flat and I already called everyone.”

“Sounds great, Haz. I just hope he has a great time.”

“I’m sure he will,” he said as he winked at you, indicating something.

“What is that supposed to mean?” You asked, referring to his wink.

“I know that something happened between the two of you last week. Tom hasn’t stopped smiling since the two of you started hanging out. I’m sure he’ll be happy to know that you planned a party for him.”

“We all are planning it,” you corrected him.

“Yeah, but it’s not like he fancies me,” Harrison laughed.

You rolled your eyes at the blonde-haired boy in front of you. “Whatever.” You got up from the park bench and began walking towards his car. “Come on, Harrison. We need to go to the market.”

***

It was the 1st of June; Tom’s birthday. You woke up early to make sure that everything was ready to go for the party tonight. Harrison and Tom’s brothers planned a golf trip with Tom while you set up Harrison’s flat. You brought Sarah and Natalie along with you to help.

“Move that banner a little more to the right,” you told Sarah. She moved it as you requested. The banner said, Happy 25th birthday, Tom! in light blue glitter. “Looks great. Thanks, sis.”

You blew up balloons, set up tables for the food and drinks, got streamers and ribbons, and finally assembled the cupcake tower with the cupcakes you and Natalie baked the night before.

“Red velvet. Nice choice,” Sarah said as she took a look at the cupcakes on display.

“They’re Tom’s favorite,” you pointed out.

“Seems like you know a lot about him.”

“Well, he is my friend.”

Natalie laughed at your response to your sister’s comment. “Is that all he is?” She asked.

“For now.” You pulled out your phone from your pocket to check the time. It was the early afternoon and the party would start in a few hours. “We better get going to get ready. Sam will bring the food and set it up within the hour.”

Before you got into the car, you texted Tom to wish him a happy birthday and he responded with a heart emoji. You smiled to yourself and then got into the car to drive to your Airbnb.

The three of you washed up and got dressed for Tom’s party. You decided on wearing a light blue sundress with daisies on it. You matched it with white wedges and you did your hair to your liking. Once you were all ready you drove to Harrison’s. When you got there, Harrison, Sam, Tuwaine, and a few other friends of Tom’s were already there.

“Harry is bringing Tom in around 15 minutes,” Harrison told you.

“Ok. Everything seems to be going pretty smoothly.”

“We make a pretty great team,” Harrison said in appreciation for all of the work to make Tom’s party happen.

“Tell that to Sarah over there,” you teased him. His date with your sister went well from what she told you, but because of Harrison’s nervousness, they haven’t talked much since. “She’s been dying to hang out with you.”

“Are you just saying that so you can have Tom all to yourself when he gets here?” He tried to joke.

“No,” you said seriously. “Go talk to her, Haz.” You pushed him lightly in her direction to encourage him to go talk to her.

“I see Harry’s car pulling up!” Sam said a few minutes later. “Everyone get ready.”

Harry used Harrison’s spare key to get into his flat and once both of them entered you all yelled, “Surprise!”

“Thanks, guys!” Tom said in shock. Tom made his rounds to greet everyone to say thank you. You waited patiently in the kitchen for the birthday boy. He finally approached you after a few minutes. “Hey, love.”

“Happy birthday,” you said as you pulled him in for a hug. “You look very handsome.”

He pulled away to look at you. “Thank you, but you’re absolutely stunning.”

You leaned in to kiss his cheek and then said, “Thanks, Tom.”

“I should be thanking you,” he said and then grabbed your hands to intertwine your fingers together.

“For what?”

“Harrison told me that you helped him plan all of this, so thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure,” you said genuinely. “You like it?”

“I love it. He looked over to the counter and saw the cupcakes. “Is that a cupcake tower?”

“A red velvet cupcake tower,” you confirmed. “I baked them.”

“You’re a goddess.” He kissed your lips for half a second and then grabbed a cupcake from one of the tiers. He unwrapped the cupcake and then took a bite. He hummed in delight.

“I’m taking that you like them,” you giggled at the man in front of you. He could seriously make anything look cute.

“They’re heaven,” he moaned. Tom dipped his finger in the frosting and swiped your nose with it. You looked at him in shock. “Aw, you look so adorable,” he said.

You laughed at his antics. “Glad you think so, babe.”

Tom’s lit up at the pet name. “Babe? Hmmm.”

“Yeah, babe.” You took some frosting from what was remaining of his cupcake and placed some on his nose to match you. “You look very cute with frosting on your nose, babe.”

Tom grabbed a napkin from the counter and cleaned the frosting off the both of you. “We’re both very cute.”

“Ok, lovebirds,” Sam called out for the two of you. “Let’s get this party started!”

“Before we go out there, I have something to ask you,” Tom said.

“And what may that be?”

“Will you go out on a date with me?” He asked nervously. You felt your heart skip a beat and you could’ve sworn that you felt Tom’s heart beating rapidly from how close you were standing to him.

“I would love to, Tom,” you said and then kissed him to confirm that you really wanted to.

***

The rest of the night went well and Tom enjoyed his time with his friends. You, Sarah, and Natalie crashed at Harrison’s place along with Tom and Harry. The party ended late and the five of you were too tired to drive home, so Harrison offered to let you all stay there.

You woke up early and made your way downstairs to heat the kettle for tea. As you were waiting, you heard footsteps, and soon enough a pair of arms wrapped around you. “Good morning, beautiful,” Tom said and then kissed your clothed shoulder.

“Morning.” You turned around so you could face him. “How did you sleep?”

“Not so well,” Tom said as he stretched out his arms. “Harrison’s a kicker.”

“Poor baby,” you teased, and then Tom pouted. “Quit pouting, Tommy. I know you’re faking it.”

“Fine,” Tom mumbled.

You turned to the stove and saw that the kettle was ready. “Want tea?”

“Please. A splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” you said as you poured him a cup. “So where are we going on our first date?”

“That’s a surprise, darling.”

***

A week after Tom’s birthday, Tom texted you asking if you were available to go on your first date. You had been working on the album the entire morning so you thought it’d be nice to go out with Tom. You replied yes and he told you to be ready within the hour. Tom knocked on your door around an hour later, with a bouquet in his hand. “These are for you, love,” he said with a smile as he handed them to you.

“Thank you, Tom,” you said and then sniffed the flowers. “Come in while I put these in some water.” Tom entered your Airbnb and you searched for a vase in one of the cabinets. Once you found one, you filled it up with water and put the flowers in. “We should be good to go now.”

Tom held your hand as he led you to the car. He opened the door for you and then got in and started the car. “You ready?”

“Where are we going?” You asked.

“You’ll see in around 15 minutes, angel.” Tom grabbed your hand that was resting in your lap and brought it up to his lips to kiss it. “I don’t think I told you this, but you look ethereal.”

“You’re quite the charmer, Holland.”

“I aim to please,” he joked. “But in all seriousness, you always look gorgeous.”

Tom was by far the kindest man you have ever met in your entire life. You have known him for barely two months but he made you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. You had never felt this way about anyone before.

Tom drove down to a lake. “It’s one of my secret spots,” he told you.

He led you down to the grass near the water and he set up a picnic there for the two of you. “I made sandwiches, cut up some fruit, and some apple cider.”

“It looks good. Thank you, Tom.” He pulled everything out from the picnic basket and handed you one of the sandwiches.

“Anything for you.”

“So this is one of your secret spots, huh?” You asked.

“Mhm,” he mumbled as he took a bite from his sandwich.

“So you bring a lot of girls here?” You teased and you could’ve sworn that you saw Tom almost choke on his sandwich. “Is that why it's so special?”

“Very funny, love,” Tom said. “No, I actually come here alone.”

“I’m guessing because it’s quiet.”

“Yeah, I come here when I need to clear my head.”

You looked around the area and you immediately understood why Tom liked it so much. There was a beautiful, cool breeze and the birds chirping sounded like music to your ears. “It’s beautiful. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I can drive you here to write songs if you’d like,” Tom offered.

“That would be lovely.”

You and Tom spent a couple of hours at the lake. You talked about anything and everything, and you finally felt yourself get closer to him. You felt him opening up to you too, which you felt good about.

“Would you like to go on a drive with me?” Tom asked once you both packed up the remainder of the picnic.

“Will there be music involved?”

“What would be a nice evening drive without music? C’mon, let’s go.” Tom led you to his car and you began your drive. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. “It’s wonderful outside, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is,” you said.

“I had a great time with you, Y/N.”

“Me too.”

*** Once Tom dropped you off, you began writing another song. His date left you inspired and you were starting to like him more and more. Each time you saw him your feelings for him grew. He inspired you to write your song, London Boy.

Tom wanted a second date. He felt so good leaving the first one and knew that he wanted to pursue a relationship with you. He knew that it would be hard but relationships won’t always be easy. He decided to call you the next to ask when he could see you again.

“Tom, we just went out,” you teased.

“I know, Y/N, but I like you. A lot.” You thought that it was cute how Tom was eager for a second date. You were excited too.

“I like you, too. I would love to see you again, too,” you said.

“Coffee? I don’t drink it but I know how much you like it,” Tom offered.

“How about tea? Know any good spots for a cup of tea and maybe breakfast?”

“I know just the place. See you soon, Y/N.”

***

Many amazing dates with Tom and a bunch of fun days in London later and you know that you’re ready to start recording your next album. People had their assumptions about you and Tom. Rumors had gone around but Tom and you didn’t address them.

London inspired so much of your album that you decided to record there. The rest of your team flew out and you began recording.

You called Tom asking him to come to the studio. “I’m recording one of my favorite songs today. I would love for you to come if you’re free.” You were recording London Boy today and you wanted Tom to hear it since he hadn’t before. It would also be a good way to officially tell Tom that you’re falling in love with him.

“I would love to come. Send me the address.”

“You got it. See you in 20.”

You sent Tom the address of the studio and he was there within 15 minutes. You greeted him at the front. “Hey, babe.”

He kissed you on the cheek and then asked, “Are you excited for today?”

“Very. I’m excited for you to hear the song,” you said as you led him into the studio. You introduced him to Cassandra and the rest of your team.

“Y/N, get your pretty ass in the booth,” Cassandra said. You walked into the recording booth and put on your headphones. “Let’s do this.”

“Tom, sit up in front,” you said and then he took a seat beside Cassandra. “This one is called London Boy.”

The upbeat music came on and you knew that you were skipping the intro for now so you went in with the first verse.

I love my hometown as much as Motown, I love SoCal And you know I love Springsteen, faded blue jeans, Tennessee whiskey But something happened, I heard him laughing I saw the dimples first and then I heard the accent They say home is where the heart is But that's not where mine lives

You heard Cassandra tell you to stop so they could play it back. You saw Tom smiling at you as you were singing and you took that as a good sign that he was enjoying it.

“Now for the chorus.”

You know I love a London boy I enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoon He likes my American smile, like a child when our eyes meet Darling, I fancy you Took me back to Highgate, met all of his best mates So I guess all the rumors are true You know I love a London boy Boy, I fancy you (Ooh)

You ended up finishing the recording of the song in an hour. You left the booth for your break and you first greeted Tom. “What did you think of it?”

“I love you, too,” he said. You leaned up to him and kissed him with every fiber of your being.

“That’s good because many of these songs are about you.”

“And I can’t wait to hear them all,” he said and then smiled.

“I can’t believe how I’ve only been here for three months and I already feel this way,” you said honestly. You have never fallen so fast for anyone, but it feels right with Tom. Everything feels right with him.

“Well, believe it because it’s real,” Tom confirmed. “Be mine, Y/N?”

“I thought you’d never ask, lover.”

~~~

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tagging: @tomsbabymomma @canwekissforever-hazzy @pinklxmonade​ @tomsbrina​ @storybookholland​ 

[13uswntimagines]

Cliche (Tobin x Reader)

Request: Marriage Proposal 

Author’s Note: Special Thanks to @literaryhedgehog​

“I’m just saying, I opened my inbox. SOMEONE should have messaged me,” Tobin said, tugging on her hair frustratedly. You watched in amusement, loving the way the sunlight caught her hair, as you exited the movie theater. She was so focused on her tirade that she didn’t even look down as she stumbled over an uneven brick in the patio, just continued walking. “It’s been open for days and I reblogged several of those ‘send me a number and I’ll answer a question’ posts!”

“Babe, you run an anonymous fandom blog for a sci-fi television show that stopped running 15 years ago,” you said, rolling your eyes. 

“19 years, ago,” Tobin corrected, “and it has a pretty strong fanbase! That fanart I made got at least 100 likes.”

“You’re just lucky they didn’t match the brush strokes or something and figure out it was you. Like they did with your other fake Tumblr. They’re like crazy detectives,” You said side eyeing your girlfriend. 

“I mean, I was making fanart of us on that one, it was pretty obvious.” 

“I love it when you paint me, but It’s really creepy that you put it on the internet,” You huffed, crossing your arms tightly across your chest. 

“Oh come on, I only posted the ones I made from press photos. You have a problem with the high definition, you talk to Alyssa’s girlfriend. She’s the photographer.”

“As long as you keep your drawings just for us, yeah?” You asked. Tobin had quite the eye, and she often found her greatest inspiration when you were relaxed. When you let your guard down. That mess the that many of her sketches of you were most certainly not suitable for public consumption. 

“Anything I draw from life instead of from a screen I keep.” Tobin winked at you and linked her arm through yours. “So, what did you think of the movie? Or was it too romantic for you, you action-thriller loving fiend?”

You shrugged. “I think it was a little too cliche. Like who the fuck brings a diamond ring to the airport and uses the intercom to propose to the girl who just dumped him for a job across the country? And then she chooses him?” Some plots just made zero sense. At least your action movies didn’t force a girl to choose a person who was completely wrong for her. 

“Oh come on, everyone loves cliches. I’ve seen the number of ‘there were only one bed’ fics you’ve read.” 

“Those aren’t forced heteronormative love stories that don’t actually care about the characters” You scoffed. 

“I have seen your archive of our own bookmarks, do we want to continue this conversation?” Tobin said sweetly, looking at the windows of the shops you passed, though you could see her suppressing a smile. She loved winning, be it argument or soccer game. 

“My archive history doesn’t count,” you grumbled, pouting. It wasn’t your fault you had been kinda into Bellatrix dating Hermione, especially when they were both the same age and you got to see some Hogwarts hijinks (it helped you weren’t a Ron fan either). 

“Sure, sure. Tell you what. You don’t like my new favorite Rom-Com? Show me you can do better,” Tobin gestured to the outdoor coffee shop along the route ahead. “Real life coffee shop AU. Here’s your chance to defy heteronormative love stories and cliches in the most romantic way possible.” 

“Just please don’t spill your drink on me ok? You already have my number,” You asked, raising your eyebrows. You happened to like this shirt and didn’t want it to get ruined. 

“That would be a cliche, wouldn’t it? I thought you wanted to avoid those?” Tobin said, raising her eyebrows to mirror yours as she pulled out a chair from one the tables, “you’re chair, mon chere?” 

“You can be quite the Gentlelandy miss Heath if I do say so myself,” You smirked, settling into the chair she had pulled out for you, kissing her cheek. 

“Why thank you,” Tobin said, tossing her hair back playfully before settling into her own seat. She grabbed the menu and opened it up. “So, what are you thinking? Asking the barista to make heart-shaped foam? Splitting a pasta dish and reenacting lady and the tramp?”

“I was thinking a cafe mocha with no whip, and I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t sell spaghetti,” you said, setting your chin on your hands, leaning on the table. 

“I think I’ll get a nice chai latte. And a muffin on the side.”

“Lame. How do you live in Portland and hate coffee?” 

“I thought you were supposed to say nice things. We already know each other, this can’t be enemies to lovers AU!”

“You’re still stuck on that?” You asked, sighing when Tobin raised her eyebrow at you. “Fine. How nice of you to choose a predictably unusual drink, and healthy snack for our date. Better?” 

Tobin snorted. “Undeniably.” 

“Good,” you watched her as she placed your orders with the waitress, thinking over what to do. She managed to place the order with her usual level-headedness, but she had the slightest smirk as she turned back to you. It was both loving and a challenge. 

“Babe,” you said, “I literally have no idea how to make this a living coffee shop AU. I can’t remember the last time I read one of those where neither of the characters was a barista.”

“First I think we talk about random things while sipping our drinks, wondering how we get each other so well,” Tobin started, setting your drink on the table in front of you. 

“So basically do what we normally do, but with added pressure?” 

“Yep! Wanna start? You can tell me about that new fanfic writer you’ve been reading? The one who writes the really cute Sonnett fics?”

“Oneanddone has a couple… it’s like they actually know about Snippets from her and Lindsey’s relationship,” You said, your lips ticking up. 

“That sounds fun and not at all creepy,” Tobin said, leaning forward. 

“The best one was where Lindsey flew all the way to Sweden to propose. It was cute, but entirely too cliche,” You winked at Tobin, so she knew you were continuing the joke. “She just showed up and proposed after Emily won the championship and Emily kissed her hard hat and all. Like they would give the fans that much PDA in one shot,” 

“Hmmm, better check for cameras then,” Tobin said, ruffling in her pocket. You heard the sound of candy wrappers, as usual following a movie with her. 

“What?”

Tobin got down from her chair and kneeled in front of you. “Y/M/N, I have liked you since the first day I met you. You were smart, beautiful, and had a hell of a right hook. Watching you on that punching bag was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen, up until the day you agreed to go out on a date with me. And the date after that, and the date after that. I fell in love with a woman who’s not afraid to have an opinion, who will ask to pet every dog she sees, and who loves listening to me rant about any subject over the moon. Now I know you don’t like cliches, so I didn’t get you a diamond,” She pulled her hand out of her pocket and held the ring pop up for you to see, “I got you a cherry. I also have a grape and orange in my purse. Will you marry me?” 

“Yes,” You breathed out, forgoing the ring pop in favor of kissing your girlfriend- fiancé. 

“Such a cliche,” she murmured against your lips, threading her fingers through your hair. 

“Shut up and kiss me,”

[stellarrmoon]

Before I die, I'm tryna fuck you, baby

Pairing: Bokuto Koutaro × fem!reader

Genre: Smut

Honorary Mention: name??? kink

Status: unedited

You were at a volleyball tournament that your cousin was playing at. You had to support him since you hadn't seen him in a year or so and his team was playing against the nationally known Fukurodani volleyball team. The actual game hadn't started yet but you were there early because you wanted to cheer him up before he had to go play.

"You're gonna do amazing, cuz. I believe in you!"

Your aunt's eldest son looked down at you with a smile, embracing you in a hug of gratitude. "Thanks, y/n. I hope we win but if we lose then we'll lose with dignity. The country's 4th top ace is in their team after all."

"Wait really? That's insane. I wonder what he looks like."

You didn't know that that curiosity of yours would be solved in the next 5 minutes. When it was time to go to the stands, you bumped into a quite beefy (in your words) person's chest and judging by the number 4 on the front of his shirt, you guessed that he was on one of the teams in the tournament.

"Hey, hey, hey, be careful, pretty lady." He had a pretty playful voice and you looked up to see a smirk on his handsome face.

"Oh. Excuse me, sir." You bowed your head and walked on when he stepped aside for you. But you couldn't help but look behind you as you continued your journey and the grey and black back of his head stayed in your mind the whole walk to the stands.

Once you got there, you saw that the teams were already on the court, in their huddles, getting themselves fired up for the match. People were cheering all around you for their respective teams and you called out your cousin's name in support. He looked up and found you instantly, putting a thumbs up in the air.

The Fukurodani team did a small warcry before dispersing to their positions and when you saw who their wing spiker was, your jaw dropped. The smirk that was on his face was a bit different that the one you saw earlier and as soon as the whistle blew, you figured out why.

The match was intense and while you were meant to be looking at your cousin, your eyes were stuck on the wing spiker, who you realised was the 4th ranked ace your cousin was talking about. He flew and slammed each and every ball that was set to him and after each spike, he let out a cry of victory. You thought it was quite attractive, seeing how fired up he got but at the end of the match, your heart broke a little for your cousin seeing how they were beaten 2 sets to 1.

"I'm so sorry, cuz, you'll get them next time."

You spent the next 20 minutes cheering him up and catching up with him before his team had to leave for their next match. Before you knew it, the tournament was over and you bid your cousin adieu as their team bus left for their home school.

"Was that your boyfriend, pretty lady?"

You gasped when a sudden presence appeared beside you. It was the beefy dude. Aka the wing spiker, ace and captain of Fukurodani. "Wow, when did you get here?"

"I've been watching since the other team entered the bus. Wanna answer my question?"

You shifted your position to face him and damn, you could've swooned right there. His nose bridge was perfectly straight and the only curve was the upturn between his nostrils. His lips were a luscious baby pink and his eyes a golden brown. Coupled with his confident aura, this man was hot.

"Enjoying the view? I don't blame you."

You smiled in amusement, "If you must know, that wasn't my boyfriend, that was my cousin."

"Oh, well that's good news for me."

"And may I ask why?"

He looked you up and down before biting his lip and saying, "That means you're free to take."

You couldn't help but get embarrassed at his statement and suddenly, you wondered why you hadn't called a taxi yet. "You're very... confident with your words sir."

"It's my specialty." He smirked again but this time, it was a bit lazy, which made him seem more attractive to you. "Are you waiting for someone?"

You got out your phone and started to call a local cab agency, "No, I've got to order a cab."

Unexpectedly, he gently took the phone from your hands and ended the call just as the number had answered. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. I've got a car."

Even though you had just met this guy, you decided to accept his offer. He told you that his name was Bokuto Koutarou, which had a nice ring to it once you got used to the pronunciation. You told him your address and before you knew it, you were back home. "Hey, I didn't even give you directions."

"Well, sweetheart, that's because I live right next door to you." He said it so casually as if it was a mystery why you hadn't met each other till then.

"What?! Since when?"

"We moved in last month but since I'm always having practice, I usually come back home later than everyone else in the neighbourhood. Anyways, it was nice meeting you, pretty lady. I'll be sure to see you again."

You exited his car and walked to your porch chuckling at the odds. You had a feeling there was more to happen than you thought.

Weeks went by and it turned out that your room was directly across Bokuto's, which meant that you could wave to each other through your windows every morning when you got ready. He'd be wearing his uniform to go to his school and so would you when you saw each other before leaving.

He didn't take his car though, which meant that you couldn't get any more car rides from him. But it was probably for the best since you couldn't stop having dirty thoughts about him. It's how your day would start, seeing as you imagined having his school tie wrapped around your neck while he pulled you towards his face so you could-

See?

Sometimes you would have conversations through your windows but they were often short seeing as you were both in your final year and had to study for the last exams and for some reason, everytime he cut your chats short to go back to the books, it made your heart pound.

But it wasn't to say that it wasn't the same for him. Seeing you in that short, plaid skirt did something to him and he didn't particularly enjoy having a boner while going to Fukurodani High.

One day, he came back home early since there wasn't any practice and saw you changing through your window. Well, not exactly, but he could see your silhouette through your thin curtains and my, my, did he not almost drool.

You took off your shirt first and threw it on your chair, then your skirt came off next. The curve of your spine blended perfectly with the rounded shape of your butt and he subconsciously bit his lip while his eyes stayed glued to your form. He guessed that you were now only in your underwear and the thigh high socks you had to wear and his pants immediately felt tighter at the image. "Fuck."

Before you continued to take anything else off, he turned away and went to go have a cold shower. Deep down, he was nervous wreck. The confidence was natural to him but when it came to you... it seemed that it was wearing thin.

Only a few days went by and Bokuto caught you every time after school when you were changing. He felt like a pervert for using the short scene to masturbate every single night.

That saturday, your mother asked you to go take over some muffins to the house next door, because she had met the parents of the home earlier that week. You were fine with it until you realised that it was the Bokuto Residence and you would see... him.

Softly, you knocked on the door and unbeknownst to you, a shirtless Bokuto Koutarou answered the door. Both your eyes widened, his with shock and yours with embarrassment. He was sweating and you watched as a few drops travelled down his hard chest, six-pack abs and into his shorts via his very prominent v-line. "Woah..."

"Hey, hey, hey. Nice to see you in front of me again, pretty lady."

He propped his elbow on the side of the door so you could see his laterals and biceps become more prominent and you felt yourself swallow. "Uh- my, uh- mom. Cupcakes. Bring over. I–"

He took the container from you and opened it, while raising an eyebrow. Inside were red velvet cupcakes, with white, cream icing on top and they looled good so he took one. One bite in, he closed his eyes and moaned, "Mmm, sweetheart, that's delicious."

When he opened his eyes, they were lazier as he licked the icing on his lip off. "T-thanks. I'll tell her that..."

You left immediately after that and as soon as you entered your room, jumped onto your bed and screamed into the pillow. Even Bokuto heard it from his kitchen while finished his 3rd cupcake and he furrowed his eyebrows.

You couldn't believe you saw him like that. He looked so... hot. His black and white hair was drenched in sweat and instead of classically being styled up, it fell over his forehead. Not to mention his amazing body and the... the veins that disappeared into his shorts.

"What the hell? What just happened?"

You stared at the ceiling for longer than you thougt and before you knew it, it was nighttime. Looking over to Bokuto's window, you saw that it wasn't covered by curtains. His bedroom door opened and he plopped onto his bed without noticing you. You were about to greet when he flopped onto his back and suddenly, his dick sprung up in the air.

What. The. Fuck?

You were frozen in astonishment and it was worse when you saw his hand start to slowly move up and down his shaft. He was moaning softly from the little you could hear through the open window and before you knew it, he was thrusting into his hand. He seemed so desperate trying to catch his high that you clenched your thighs as you felt yourself get wet.

"Mm, fuck, Y/N!"

And he exploded. You saw his cum shoot up into the air before it landed somewhere, you didn't know the exact place but, as soon as it happened, you closed your curtains and went to your shower.

Bokuto heard the noise but when he looked back, nothing was out of the ordinary. Except... his window. Wide open. "Shit."

When you were done with your (cold) shower, you saw a text from Bokuto that read:

Bokuto Koutarou: Hey, did you hear anything weird today?

You: what do you mean?

Bokuto Koutarou: like... from my house.

You contemplated your answer before responding.

You: nope.

He left the message on read and let out a huge sigh of relief. Thank God you didn't hear him or else he would've buried himself alive.

Both of you went to sleep feeling weird that night; none of you knew of the rest to come.

On Sunday, you were home alone and suddenly remembered that your mom asked you to fetch your container from the Bokutos before she left on a business trip. "Oh shit!"

You went over immediately, without thinking of what you were wearing and knocked. Luckily, Mrs Bokuto answered the door but she looked as if she was leaving. "Hi Mrs Bokuto. May I please fetch my mom's container?"

"Oh, of course, darling. Me and my husband are going away on holiday for the week and we have to leave for the airport now so help yourself, please? It's on the counter. The kitchen is to the right."

With that, she exited her house and her husband followed with two suitcases on either of his hands. He smiled in acknowledgement and without any more time to waste, their white Lexus sped off.

Like she said, you helped yourself in and went to the said kitchen. You were glad it was easy to spot the container because it really was on the counter. But what you didn't particularly enjoy was freezing when you heard a familiar voice speaking to you.

"Hey, hey, hey, pretty lady. Any reason why you're in my house?"

You turned and saw Bokuto Koutarou leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Thankfully he was dressed today. "Bokuto. Hi. I'm here to fetch my mom's container."

"Oh. And here I thought you were here to visit me."

You smiled sheepishly and started moving forward, container in hand. As you were about to exit the room, he moved in front of you, arms still crossed.

"Um..." you stepped to the side but he followed you. "Can I get passed?"

"No."

"Wh-"

"You can't get passed. I'm tired of playing your games, pretty lady."

"Bokuto-"

"Koutarou. Call me by my name."

For some reason, his hostile behaviour was making you... horny? The way he crossed his arms so his jacket stuck to his muscles like a second skin; the way his jaw was locked as he looked down on you with his golden eyes. The way he towered over you with his legs apart, his stance mimicking that of a predator about to catch its prey.

"Go on. Say it."

You hesitated and stammered. Instead of you usual strong voice, his name came out as a defeated whisper, "Koutarou..."

He took the container in your hands and threw it into the counter so that it banged against the wall between the cupboards and the former. You flinched at the loud sound, but impressed with how good his aim was. He took steps forward which made you step back in turn. This continued until your back hit the island in the middle of the kitchen and you had nowhere else to go. "You know what I'm talking about right?"

It sounded more like a statement than a question. "No..." You had a feeling that:

"I know, y/n. I know you saw."

"Saw what?" You didn't know why you were still acting clueless because it didn't seem to be working. But what made you finally succumb to his interrogation was when he forced his knee between your thighs and pressed his body against yours.

It was hot. Or was it you? Maybe him? You couldn't think straight with his cologne engulfing you. "Mmm... just like you to get sll flustered. You know how cute you look when that happens? Now I'm going to give you one more chance to admit to your actions."

"I... I did see." You sighed.

"Mhm. Tell me what you saw, pretty lady."

You closed your eyes and went limp, "I saw you cum. When you said my name."

He grabbed your thighs and lifted you so you could sit on the counter of the island, situating himself between your legs. "And did you enjoy that, princess?"

"I don't know."

He squeezed your waist.

"I think you're lying." He moved his head so that his lips were by your ear. "You know what I hate? It's how you don't know how sexy you are to me. Look at you." He was speaking so lowly and slowly that you were hooked on his every word– it was making your pussy quiver. "You think you can come into my house wearing that thin fucking sundress?"

Suddenly, his other hand moved under your dress, caressing your thigh and stopped at the apex where he rubbed his thumb back and forth on the soft skin.

"You don't even have any panties on." You could feel his smirk against your ear. "It's like you knew you were going to see me."

He pulled back and you could breathe again. He walked away, his large back moving further and further away from you as he stopped his antics. "Bokut- Koutarou, wait!"

He stopped and craned his head. He had such a beautiful side profile.

"I did see. And... I liked it. I liked it a lot. In fact, I've fantasized about you so many times since we met and I can't take it anymore."

"So what am I supposed to do about that, sweetheart?"

"Bokuto Koutarou... please fuck me."

It sounded like a plea for help and honestly, it was all he needed to unleash himself. The next few moments were a blur for you because you went from being on the island to being in Koutarou's bed, watching him strip down to nothing without shame.

"Koutarou." You breathed when you saw his dick – it looked even bigger than before. Was that going to fit inside you?

"I'll make it fit, princess." He grinned and beckoned you over to him at the edge of the bed.

You crawled on all fours, feeling your dress ride up over your ass and it was met with cold air. So now you were face to cock with Bokuto Koutarou and it looked like you were about to know the true meaning of choking.

"You're staring at it like you want it in your mouth." He caressed your cheek and let his thumb run along your bottom lip, pulling it down before releasing it. His strong hand grabbed a hold of his hard shaft and you felt a sudden slap against your face. "Is that what you want, princess?"

He slapped you with his dick. Due to the size of it, it was a bit painful but instead of feeling offended, you felt your wetness drip down your thighs. It was still in his hand, but this time, when he moved it, he placed the tip against your lips.

"Hm? You want this cock down your throat?"

You were looking up at him with your pretty brown eyes that looked like they were tearing up and it turned him on to no end.

He leaned over and to your surprise, swiped his hand across your slit from behind, collecting a sticky puddle of your wetness in his hand and placing it on his dick. Your eyes widened as he coated his shaft with it while your lips were still on his tip. "I'm gonna need you to be a good girl for me and take my cock well, okay?"

You nodded without hesitation and finally, you opened your mouth. In went his dick and you gagged immediately at the shear size as it touched the back of your throat. It was already slippery due to the coat of your juices but one thing was prominent.

"Can you taste yourself on my cock, baby? Hm? Do you like it? The way you're slobbered all over my dick?"

You couldn't do anything except blow him. Your cheeks hollowed out as you took him in and out, and in and out. Eventually he had his head thrown back and he was moaning out every other word like "baby", "fuck", and "you're killing me, princess".

It was another 5 minutes before he had enough and he pushed you onto your back, spread your legs as wide as they could and dived into your cunt. "Fuck, Bokuto!"

He slapped your thigh hardly which led you to yelp, making you wonder what you did to deserve it. "I told you to call me by my name."

You understood him perfectly. But the way his tongue moved against your clit didn't warrant any say of his name, or any word, even. All you sounded like was "Mmm" and "yes" and "please"; it was music to his ears. He coupled his tongue movements with two fingers inside you. You were tight around them so that he could barely separate them but the way he curled them towards himself hit a spot you didn't know you had. "Ohhhh my God, Koutarou."

"That's right, say my name, princess." He growled against your clit. He started getting more aggressive as time went on and eventually, he started hitting you on your abdomen, your thighs, and even your clit. Your nipples were straining against your dress as you arched your back, feeling a particular knot get tighter and tighter.

"Koutarou, I'm going to-"

"Do it, baby. Cum on my face."

He sucked and fucked until you did as he said, hips locking as lapped his tongue along your slit while you rode out your orgasm. Your legs were trembling by the end of it but he didn't feel like giving you a break.

"I'm going to fuck you so good, princess." He said as he climbed over you, kissing you deeply and letting you taste yourself on his lips. His tongue entered excitedly and he moaned into your mouth. Your dress was long gone now seeing as he ripped it straight down the middle.

Your chests were pressed together so your boobs were against his pecs and it felt so good to you that you let out a small mewl. While he planted kisses and bites down your neck, you caught your breath and looked up to the ceiling to see... a mirror. There was a mirror on the ceiling and that meant you could see everything that was happening.

Your worn out face. Koutarou's back muscles rippling as he paid attention to your chest and neck; his ass that you could imagine gripping onto as he thrusted hard into you.

He stopped what he was doing and looked into your eyes, "Are you ready?"

"For what?- Ohhhhh." You looked at your own face through the mirror above as he slowly pushed himself in. The stretch of your cunt felt so good that it hurt and you couldn't help but cry. "Fuck, Koutarou."

"Say it again." He started thrusting, "Say my name again."

"Koutarouuuu." You droned out.

His hips moved relentlessly. It seemed that he was waiting for this for a long time and now you understood why. It felt so good. "I fit so perfectly inside you, princess."

As his dick slipped in again, he hit the spot from earlier except, it felt so much more intense. "Yes, Koutarou, do it again."

And so he did. He was moaning along with you, whispering dirty words into your ear and the deeper he went inside you, the closer you were to cumming. You pushed his shoulders up so that you could see his face and as soon as you made eye contact, he smiled. It was so devilish and hedonistic and it fit him perfectly.

He bit his lip as he looked down to see yourselves colliding. In, out. In, out. That's what his dick was doing. In and out of your squelching pussy and so easily, that he could've sworn that your hole was made for him. "Koutarou, I'm going to cum again."

"That's a good girl. Do it for me, princess. Cum on my cock."

He went back to thrusting deeply and languidly and as you watched his big form move above you, you went over the edge creamed with him inside you. "Oh yes, oh yes, Koutarou, I love it."

"You love it?" He asked as he pumped through your climax.

"Yes, baby, I do. Give it to me, more, please, Koutarou."

He groaned, "I love it when you say my name. Can I cum inside, princess?"

"You ca- do whatever you want, Ko- koutarou." You belted out as more orgasms overtook you.

"Say it again."

"KOUTAROU, MY GOD!!!"

That was what it took for him to cum inside you. He stayed in there for a while, sweat dripping from his chin onto your face. Your bodies were sticky and sweaty from his sex and it both of you were worn out.

"Koutarou..." you started but were interrupted by him pulling out and roughly turning you onto your stomach.

He pulled your hips up so you were face down, ass up and licked his lips when he saw your combined cum squeezing out of your cunt. "Round Two, pretty lady."

I guess, you were the only one worn out?

[sincerelyella]

RAMifications Chapter 8 - Butterflies Pt 2.

Book: The Royal Romance (AU)

Pairings: Liam x MC (Ella)

Song Inspiration: Butterflies Pt 2. by Queen Naija

Characters belong to Pixelberry; MC Ella Brooks belongs to me

A/N: The entire idea for this came from @burnsoslow​ and her unBEARable series. RAMifications is the story of how Ella met the love of her life Prince (and then King) Liam of Cordonia.

Catch up here

Warnings: Adult language

Words: 1498

“Well, well, well, look what we have here.”

“Hello, I’m Ella, and you are?”

“Je m'appelle Kiara,” the dark haired woman spoke in French. “C'est Olivia,” Kiara gestured to the red headed woman.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Ella said calmly, even though inside her stomach was in knots.

“Oui, it’s nice to … finally see you in person,” Kiara arched her brow and Ella could tell she was studying her.

“Cut the shit, Kiara!” Olivia snarled. “I wouldn’t say it’s a pleasure! How dare you come in the middle of the social season! Where’s the other American?”

“Lady Ella! We’re ready for you.” Bertrand called inside the ballroom.

“Excuse me, ladies,” Ella quickly turned from and hurried to take her place across from Ana. Bertrand went to close the ballroom doors since he could see the women peering inside out of curiosity.

“Alright, Lady Ella,” Ana began. “I have a video camera set up to film us. I also have a photographer here who will take photos of the interview as well as afterwards. I won’t be releasing anything without House Beaumont’s approval,” she looked up at Bertrand who just nodded. “Are you ready?”

Ella sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “Yes.”

“Okay,” Ana looked to her cameraman and nodded.

“In 3, 2 … “ he pointed to Ana to indicate they were recording.

“Alright, Lady Ella of House Beaumont, thank you for this opportunity. The people of Cordonia are eager to hear more about you.”

“I’m happy to be here, Ana.”

“So firstly, tell us a little bit about you, where are you from in the States? What brought you here?”

“Well, I’m from Los Angeles, California. I originally came here for a nursing internship at the children’s hospital.”

“You actually worked at the hospital?”

Ella laughed. “Yes, I was in the emergency room, as an intern. We did not get paid for that. The program was for six weeks and I had already fallen in love with Cordonia and its people. After my internship I decided to stay permanently.”

Ana had a small smile on her face as she scribbled in her notes. “Wow. Okay, so you decided to stay, what happened after that?”

“Well, I found a job so that I could stay as a resident; I delivered flowers.”

“Ah, yes, I know the one. It’s the flower truck in the capital, right?”

Ella nodded. “Yes, that’s the one. They were extremely sweet and were lenient with my schedule since I was in school as well.”

“Oh! You’re still in school then?”

“I had to actually push back school until January after the social season, but yes I attend Cordonia University.”

“I see.” Ana scribbled some more words on her notepad and looked up smiling. “So, how did you end up meeting the prince?”

“Well, I was delivering flowers here at the palace and we ran into each other - literally.” Ella laughed at the memory.

“That’s like a real meet cute!” Ana exclaimed, her and Maxwell laughed. Bertrand arched his brow at Max and Ella and they both abruptly stopped laughing.

“He’s been extremely supportive throughout all of this, just like House Beaumont.” Ella gestured to Max and Bertrand next to her.

Ana nodded and wrote more in her notebook. “What is something you love about our charming Prince Liam? He is the people’s favorite royal.”

“I am not surprised at all by that, Ana,” Ella smiled. “He is ... the kindest person I have ever met. He would take the shirt off of his back to give to anyone if they needed it. His people are important to him as is his country and he wants to do right by them.”

“Well said, Lady Ella. I just have one last question, a question that all of Cordonia has been wanting to know.” She gave Ella a small smile. “The social season is, essentially, for Prince Liam to find a queen.” Ella nodded. “Why do you think you’ll be an appropriate choice? What makes you different from the other suitors that will make him choose you?”

Ella sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. She told King Constantine the exact reason why she was an appropriate choice. She just needed to say the same to Ana, just not as … angry. “I believe Prince Liam needs someone to rule by his side that understands the people. I am clearly not from Cordonia, or have any kind of noble blood in me, however, I have lived among the people. I’ve worked hard to put a roof over my head; I’ve had to manage finances and handle a budget. I know it’s not a secret here in Cordonia that the royal family must marry for a political alliance of some sort with other countries, but …” Ella hesitated for a moment to think about whether she should say what she truly thought. “I … truly care for the prince and I believe he deserves to have a queen as well as a wife. One that supports him as a man and a king.”

Bertrand beamed at Ella’s response; Maxwell grinned like a fool while he bounced in his seat. Ana had a wide smile on her face and nodded, impressed. She leaned back and gestured for her cameraman to stop recording. Ella, Maxwell and Bertrand posed for a few more photos until Ana signaled for the photographer to wrap it up.

“Well said, Lady Ella. It was an honor to meet you, thank you so much for your time.” Ana leaned forward to shake Ella’s hand.

“That was amazing, Ellaaaaa!” Maxwell lept from his chair and pulled Ella from her seat as she laughed loudly. He threw his arms around her and she almost fell backwards from the force.

“Thanks for being here with me, Max.” Ella murmured in his ear. They parted and smiled down at her.

“Lady Ella, that was a great! I’ll get everything written out and contact Duke Ramsford to approve it.”

Ella looked at Bertrand who cleared his throat before speaking. “Thank you, Ana, that would be wonderful.”

Ana had the crew pack up and Bertrand showed them out. Max and Ella decided to change and get ready for dinner. As soon as they exited the ballroom, they saw Liam and Constantine walking down the stairs. He caught her eye and quickly winked, flashing a small smile in her direction. Ella blushed and smiled back as she headed to her room.

**

After deciding to have a movie night instead of dinner in the stuffy dining room, Maxwell and Ella raided the kitchen and snuck back to her room with their spoils.

“I got the Doritos!” Max shoved a whole chip in his mouth enthusiastically.

“You and those chips,” Ella laughed. “What movie do you wanna watch?” She tossed some kettle corn into her mouth and washed it down with some Cordonian apple juice.

“You pick! Here.” He handed her the remote and Ella clicked through the selection on the smart tv and found one of her favorites.

“Ooh! A rom-com! How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days!”

Maxwell scrunched his nose up. “I haven’t seen that one. Why is she purposely trying to lose him? What kind of rom-com is that?”

Ella let out a loud laugh. “Just watch. You’ll love it.”

True to her word, he did love it. He loved it so much he now had a mini crush on Kate Hudson and vowed that they would watch every movie she starred in. Just as the night was winding down, Ella got an alert on her phone. Seeing who it was, she grinned.

Liam: Hey gorgeous.

Ella: Hey you! Thought you’d be busy tonight.

Liam: Just finished up some meetings with my father. Can I see you? I just wanted to come say goodnight.

Ella: If you have a moment. I’ll be in my room.

Liam: On my way

“What? Why are you so happy?”

“Liam is going to stop by.” She felt her neck start to get warm and her cheeks flush.

“Aww sookie sookie now!” Maxwell waggled his eyebrows and laughed. “Well, I think I’ll take all of my junk food and meander over to my room.” He stood to gather the chips, chocolate, juice and popcorn.

“Max! You don’t have to leave. He just wants to say goodnight.” She snatched the bag of kettle corn from him and started pour some in her mouth.

Maxwell snickered. “You and I both know … that’s not what’s gonna go down tonight.” He gave her the side eye and smirked at her facial expression.

She choked on some popcorn. “I don’t … what do you mean?” Ella stuttered.

Before Max could retort, there was a soft knock on the door.

“I wonder who that could be?” He gave her a knowing look as Ella just rolled her eyes. Maxwell flew over to open the door and there stood Liam with a smile on his face.

“Hello - oh! Hi Max.” Liam rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks turned a slight pink as he sheepishly smiled at him.

“Liam! What. A. Surprise.” Maxwell tried to plaster on a shocked look on his face but instead, he gave his longtime friend a big grin. “I was just leaving. Byeeee Ellaaaaa!” He called over his shoulder as he bounced out of the room with all the snacks and pushed Liam inside.

[lesbianecrivain]

Retourne-toi!

Summary:  Denise decides to travel, hoping to take her mind off everything, only to end up doing more work as she makes the mistake of admiring a castle that has remained hidden from humanity for years.

AO3 link HERE! 

(I’ll be posting all of the chapters on AO3. If you liked this, check that out more often because updates would be there. This is not too related with the game. F/F pairing)

Warning for a little bit of violence when OC remembers her childhood. Also, should I continue this? Reviews and kudos are highly appreciated!! 💕

Now, let us simp for the tall vampire~

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Chapter 1: Wandering Traveller

The wars never stopped. Up until today, humans still fight amongst themselves for silly reasons instead of working together to be united. Anyone would want to take a break from all these wars. Especially someone who had done everything they could to, at least, lessen or slow the effects of these unending wars. So, that is what Denise Rodriguez is going to do. She took a break from everything, flew back to her country hoping to feel snow again. She really loves the snow despite having low tolerance for cold. If lucky, there might be children on the street who would be willing to play snowball fight with her. A smile broke the straight line on her lips at the thought, heart warming at the images of children smiling as they throw the snowballs at each other. She couldn't wait to reach their destination, she made sure that the place is snowing this time of the year. Having been born from the tropical side of the planet, snow can quite be something desirable for someone like Denise. Something spectacular and worthy of attention and praises.

Here Denise was, sitting by the window seat and staring at the bright cloudy yet calm view outside, a small smile playing on her lips as the plane continued heading towards its destination. Only a few more hours until they reach Europe. Her heart bloomed at the thought of returning to a land that it acknowledged as home more than her land of origin.

When Denise opened her eyes, the sun was not shining anymore. A grin crept up to her face. The person beside Denise stared at her weirdly before going off with their own life. Denise couldn't care less though, she is finally back and she would never allow a mere stranger to ruin her vacation here. She will be staying here for some time, taking the opportunity to stay here for as long as she'd like to. Perks of dual citizenship. She badly needs a break from handling a lot of environmental issues and having to provide for hundreds of students, she almost forgot about her corporation. Yes, when she says she needs a break, she needs a damn break. From everything, especially her other country that has been a shit show ever since she became aware—this having started when she reached twelve years of age, and she is in her early 30's now. It has been a long time yet within the years she lived in her country, not even a single road in her street has been fixed.

"Alright," She muttered, bracing herself while her hand gripped her baggage tightly. "Romania, here I come!"

Denise went straight to her house and after organizing the stuff she brought, she glanced at her phone. There laid on her bright screen, 19:34 in black as her eyes wandered to the other time zones as well. The way to her house was splendid, she can't help but to marvel at the various infrastructures that passed as she rode the taxi despite seeing them for the nth time. She has observed how great the difference is between this foreign land and her own, and then she was again further disappointed with her own land. Enough of that, she is here to free herself of worry, Denise reminds herself, eyes quickly ridding of all the gloom and anger as they caught sight of the marble structure that she has been longing for ever since she departed from this land two years ago. She has always been a regular here the moment she found out about this place, around seven years ago. They just served the best pizzas Denise has ever known to exist, though that could change when she further travels across Europe in the future.

"Miss Rodriguez!"

Denise smiled at the chipper servant and greeted them back just as gleeful. She is glad to know that they are the same servant from two years ago. Even the other staff smiled at their guest, knowing how prominent she is in this place, seeing that she is a regular customer here and actually treated them properly than how other customers would, disregarding them as if they were lower than them.

"Denise!"

Her head turned toward the all-too-familiar light voice, almost squeaking, as soon as their eyes caught sight of Denise. A wide grin set itself comfortably on her lips, turning around to open her arms, preparing to envelop whoever had greeted her.

"Sophie!" Denise was too slow to react as the other woman practically threw herself in her arms. "Looks like someone had missed me," she chuckled, patting Sophie on her small back.

"You damn bet I do," Sophie pulled away but the smile on her lips was relentless. "I told them all to prepare your favorites as soon as you informed me that you will be coming here, and it seems like I am not the only one who missed you,"

Confusion was briefly on Denise's face then her eyes darted behind Sophie. There she saw people carrying a tray, enough to feed all the people inside, with smiles plastered on their faces. Denise knew herself that she couldn't finish it all by herself. Sophie seemed to close the restaurant earlier because the only people here are the staff, herself, and Denise, their guest. Warmth spread through the small woman like a drop of milk spreading lightness to a black coffee.

"Y'all," Denise shook her head in disbelief. "C'mere, let's eat. I cannot finish these all by myself!"

The place was filled with laughter, the faint glow of gold surrounding the place and adding to the calming and light atmosphere. They all took a seat on the long table with Denise on the head and Sophie on her side while the staff sat along by them. They all looked genuinely happy, as if this was the only time they could take a break from all the stress the day has brought upon. The wide grins, sounds of soft laughter filling the room, and the gleam in each of their eyes were enough to take Denise's worries away, even for the briefest moment.

"Y'all didn't have to do this," She told them, shaking her head.

"But we wanted to!" chorused most of the staff while some just kept smiling at her. Sophie then raised a brow in her direction. "Save your irrational guilt, sunshine," she told the small woman who seemed to be rethinking her decision of informing her of her coming. "We missed you and here is our way of showing you. So, shut up and eat, young lady, we've got so much to catch up on."

"Alright, Soph," Denise sighed in defeat yet the grin never left her face. "Y'all dig in too! I'm tipping all of you extra because y'all look extremely happy right now," and that warms my heart, Denise wanted to add but didn't want to sound cheesy or seem like a softie as she wasn't either of those.

Sophie hummed her disagreement. "Ugh ugh, this one's on the house! You keep eat—"

"No." interrupted Denise with a frown. "The least I can do is to pay and leave a huge amount of tip for you all individually, and no Sophie, this is not up for a debate."

Denise was determined and Sophie knew that there is no way she can convince the raven-haired woman when she is determined. She shook her head and released a sigh. "Fine, you are lucky you're handsome."

Denise was thankful for her brown complexion that a blush didn't appear on her cheeks at the sudden compliment. She wouldn't want to be blushing in front of anyone. She coughed, "So, how's everything with you?" She said, clearly dismissing the compliment and hoping that her friend wouldn't push it.

"Eh, nothing eventful while you were gone. Same old same.." Sophie shrugged, mind wandering to the events in her life in the past two years that Denise was gone. "How about you, busy bee? I've seen you on some article while I was surfing the net last night.." She grinned then teased the smaller woman, nudging her softly with her elbow, "You're really doing something big out there! Planning to contribute positively to the world along with a bunch of other stuff!"

At this, Denise's hand crept to the back of her head where her palm was able to feel her shaved head, all while she huffed as she smiled. Maybe it was the time where she joined in one of the protests against the passing of a ridiculous nonsensical bill. "I'm not doing 'something big', you silly," She rolled her eyes at the exaggeration. She doesn't want anyone thinking that what she is doing is grand, especially with all her wealth. "I'm just doing my responsibility as an inhabitant of this world.." She shrugged, and in her defense, she really was although Sophie has told her a lot of times that she is being a hero by doing so. But, Denise had quickly countered that what she does is not a heroic act but her moral obligation as a human. It would be natural to want to help in any way you can, at least that is how Denise thinks, which further amazes Sophie.

"Well, whatever you say," Sophie took a sip from her glass. "How long do you plan to stay? And tell me all the places you'd go to!! Maybe I can tag along if you want to or if I've got the time..."

"I think I'm gonna stay for a while and go to the old times.." Denise explained when confusion crossed Sophie's expression. "I plan on visiting this ancient village. I heard that the sceneries there are spectacular.. I'm going for this old-y vibes for my book that I'm currently writing.. and I plan to take pictures as well." Then she showed Sophie her phone which displayed the village she is referring to. The other woman nodded approvingly at her choice as she kept scrolling through the pictures.

"Well, what exactly are you looking for?"

Denise shrugged as she put her phone back to her pocket. "Nothing really specific.. If I go there and feel it, I would immediately take a picture. I hope to find an abandoned infrastructure or if I'm lucky enough, maybe a castle?"

Sophie grinned at her. "Look at you being all things at once," elbow nudged Denise again, urging her to shake her head. "I really wonder how the hell you're able to do all your responsibilities at once!"

Denise rolled her eyes. "That is why I'm taking a break, silly."

A chuckle bubbled its way out of her throat. Laughter filled the room along with the small conversations among the staff and themselves. Having this unfold in front of her prompted another smile on Denise's lips as one word screamed loud in her mind;

Home.

—————

Denise would have already started her travel, or adventure as she likes to call it, the day after she met with Sophie; however, works keep holding her back and as a result, she has been occupied by them for a whole week, unable to do anything exciting and relaxing other than to play her musical instruments or catch up on series. Why couldn't she just bring her stuff along with her so she could work when she reaches wherever she wants to go? Denise isn't certain if the area she plans to go to has internet or even supply of electricity. Either way, she finally has finished all her follow-up tasks, releasing a sigh—whether it be from relief, exhaustion, or both—as her palm pushed down the screen of her laptop.

"Fucking finally," She sighs again, leaning back on her office chair. She rubs her eyes before closing them. The silence in her home provided a calming effect after her long day of work. Imagine coming here to relax only to be haunted by those damned works. The city was calm. The loud sirens fading from a distance, honking of the car horns, and sometimes a loud chatter would bloom from a small crowd, created a soft cadence lulling Denise to sleep on her position that she would surely regret next morning. But, whatever worry she may have for tomorrow was left unthought of as the night progressed with much ease she hasn't had for quite a while.

The same calm she has been seeking for.

The following morning, the dull ache on her back was quicker than her eyes to open and be aware of their surroundings. "Dammit," grumbled Denise with her voice hoarse. She slowly stood up, still groggy from waking from such a deep slumber that she hasn't had for a while. Her hand immediately reached to rub her back, seeking for relief albeit brief, before she proceeded to go to the bathroom to clean herself. After doing her morning routine—cleaning herself, exercising then eating breakfast, Denise started prepping for her long journey. She had informed Sophie that she will be gone for quite a while and that her brunette friend may occupy her house during her leave, to which the restaurant owner quickly agreed to—saving both of them time and money.

Denise felt like a scout because of all the things she is going to bring with her. She nearly brought her house with her. Better ready than not, she thinks to herself as she packed her razor that she uses to keep her head shaved. Along with that are the various tools she deemed necessary (she brought her toolbox), and some weapons that are easy to hide and bring, for precaution. She also packed a lot of foods and clothings, and of course, money. After packing all of those stuff, she went to put her portable generator on the back of her van, just in case.

When she is satisfied with everything, Denise ceased her movements before sitting on her couch, a sigh escaping past her lips before she could even think of it. She took a deep breath and then closed her eyes, letting the silence envelop her in its tranquilizing arms. The comfort se found in silence started reminding her a moment from her childhood. Something she didn't want to remember. It was midnight back then and she jolted up from her bed because of the tingling sensation in her abdomen. Realizing this, she stood up and went downstairs, only to halt on her way as she heard a whimper below— on the living room where her parents sleep. The lights were off but the soft glow emanating from the television was enough to show her father strangling her mother. At that very moment, Denise completely forgot about her bladder's needs and went straight back to the bedroom she shared with her siblings as silent as she could. The confusion, fear, anger, disappointment, and sadness that she felt that night were too overwhelming. Since then, she promised to herself that she would never marry or have children if she would only act like her father.

"I am so ready!!" Denise practically bounced as she moved, hopping like a bunny on a meadow, as she stepped into her huge van. She decided to bring some of her musical instruments and some of her books to have something to keep herself entertained. Sophie stood by her doorway, waving and smiling at her as she drove away and into the unknown.

Denise had promised that she would take a lot of pictures so that when she shows them to her, Sophie would feel as if she were with her all along her journey. She hasn't reached her destination yet, however, the tall trees she kept passing by as she was hours into her drive were always able to amaze and put a smile on her face. Nature has always been enough to make all her worries drift away, one of the reasons why she does all her best to take care of it. She is a devoted environmentalist, writing articles about the issues regarding nature in her free time while also using her resources for further development of restoration of deforested lands. It may seem like a big work, just like what Sophie insists because it truly is, but for Denise herself it isn't. She loves what she is doing, she wouldn't feel the exhaustion if she weren't mortal. Unfortunately, she must take breaks every now and then for her to be able to continue doing her passion.

After two days of driving and taking breaks to get some sleep, Denise finally arrived at the said village. She immediately felt the atmosphere she needs for the inspiration of both her book and its cover. The village itself wasn't grand, quite the opposite. The way of living here seemed to be simple almost as if the people here are still living in the olden days, and she thought it is possible that they still are. She parked her van near the entrance of the village. The village was small so she didn't bother bringing her van inside, for it would be easier to leave it outside of the village. She greeted the people who met her eyes with a small smile, hoping that they are not hostile to tourists. Thankfully, she felt welcomed enough although some just glanced at her and didn't really pay her any attention but at least no one scowled at her. She doesn't plan on staying here for too long. In fact, after she bought some supplies and asked for the elder for permission to take pictures and after taking pictures, she was already bidding her goodbye and gratitude to the elder before she hopped back to her van.

Something in the north caught her eye as she scrolled through the pictures she's taken, which pulled her gaze away from her camera. The sun was still up, there's still time for her to travel further and find a place to park her van safely— she doesn't need to spend night in a hotel or motel since her van is big enough to host, but she still needs a place to stay for her security. Denise carefully placed her camera back to its place, securing it, then proceeded to drive further up north. What caught her eyes is the enormous structure that seems like a mountain covered in snow on top, a perfect scenery to add to her choices. But as she neared the said mountain, another caught her sight. This time, she also completely forgot what it is that she went for as she was utterly amazed by the sight in front of her eyes.

Her mind couldn't think of anything except;

Perfection.

A castle. It hadn't been in the map nor did the elder of the village informed her of this. It wasn't even on Google when she searched for this area. She thought that maybe this beauty was meant to remain hidden from the outside world. The reason behind for this possibility? She couldn't care. All she could give a damn about is that she finally found what she is hoping to see. So, she did what any people would do. She took her bag and her camera before stepping out of her van—making sure to bring the keys with her, after she parked it in front of the gates.

"Woah," Denise couldn't help but gape at the infrastructure.

Jackpot, she internally celebrates.

The structure seemed to be a mixture of both Gothic and Romanesque style, with its round walls yet pointed arches and stained glasses. Overall, the castle was impressive. Its walls were enough to tell about its age, which to Denise's opinion, this castle might have been built around 18th century. She went to the gate, searching for any doorbell or anything that would notify the inhabitants of the castle—if there were—of its visitors, only to find none. But, luckily, she found out that the gate is left unlocked. Maybe, the castle is abandoned? Denise thinks then smiles as she proceeds further outside the castle grounds. The gate squeaked as Denise pushed it slightly just enough for her figure to fit perfectly.

Denise walked around as if she were strolling around the zoo for the first time, gaping at the size and the details of the castle. The castle emanated a vibe she can't quite put her finger on. She wasn't sure what it was but she felt calm and relaxed. This is perfect for my book, she thinks as she turned around once more to gape at the place. She felt like a person entering an aquarium for the first time, amazed by all the aquatic creatures.

When she was in the middle of the property, not inside the castle yet since the outside was a wide space that would have been green if it weren't winter, Denise finally pulled her camera to her chest. Hesitation kept holding her back. She doesn't want to take pictures without the owner's or at least the caretaker's permission, but whom would she ask if there seemed to be no one to ask for permission? Denise felt as if she just invaded the property despite not going fully inside the castle. She felt horrible, knowing that she must desert the place because she doesn't have the permission to be here, yet the curiosity and wonder in her became stronger than the guilt she felt creeping in her earlier. And soon enough, the latter completely overthrew any hesitation she had.

"Just one picture," Denise promised to no one in particular, trying to drown the voice in her head that screams at her to just walk away. "Let me take just one picture of this masterpiece, then I will leave." Her eyes closed in concentration as she did her best to drown any guilt creeping in her. Obviously, she didn't listen to the rational part of herself as she went to crouch and angled her camera where it covers mostly the upper part of the castle together with the plain sky and the snow falling.

It was perfect, the shot she took was splendid. Denise smiled to herself as she dusted herself off while getting up. A smile graced her face before she could even process it. She took another look at the single picture she took, after all she promised that she would only take one picture then she will go away, and that is what she is about to do if it weren't for the picture she took. The curve on her lips was immediately set straight.

Something caught her eyes the longer she stared at the picture. There. In one of the castle windows, there stood something—someone, she wasn't sure which, but it seemed to be a figure dressed in white and smiling down at her? Denise shook her head, closed her eyes then took a deep breath before looking at the picture again, squinting her eyes at it. It was still there, the...she wasn't sure what name to put to it... The creature? Either way, it doesn't seem like this castle is abandoned at all. She took one last glance at the part of the castle where she also caught the figure. There was no one there. Not the dress, not the smile, not the figure, nothing. Only darkness. Weird. Maybe it had been one of her imaginations? But she looked at the picture and the same figure was smiling at her. It couldn't be her mind's doings. Maybe the castle wasn't abandoned at all, and maybe she could ask for permission? All while Denise thinks what she could do to be more polite to whoever is living inside the wondrous castle, standing dumbly in the middle of nowhere, another thought occurred to her. This one she didn't like;

What if they're not human?

[sabraeal]

Desert & Reward, Chapter 10

[Read on AO3]

There’s someone in his room.

The windows are shut against the night air-- Yori, and by that he means Morel, has ideas about air flow and general health that he can’t wait for Miss to hear-- but a faint whisper skates across the stillness. It’s not his own breath; that’s been trapped in his chest since he flinched awake, fully conscious of the shade lingering in the shadows.

How gauche to kill a groom before his wedding night. Everyone knows corpses are only fashionable when found fresh on their marital bed.

But style is the least of his concerns right now. With a conscious effort, every tense muscle eases, his limbs flopping out like a limp starfish. Miss might complain about his sprawl after spending a cold night curled at the edge of the bed, but it was the perfect posture to imply a solid, dead to the world sort of unconsciousness.

There’s only one way to really sell this perfect deception: a snore. Not a dainty, fake one, oh no, but a wall-rattling, chest-and-throat-involved extravaganza of sound. There, obnoxious and oblivious: the perfect victim.

The sound of rustling cloth is muted beneath his act, but Obi hasn’t lasted this long by being a slouch in the perception department. His hand slithers under the pillow, clasping his fingers around a hilt. He hopes his murderer is enjoying the show; it’ll be the last thing they ever see, after all.

“My lord.”

Obi winces. That’s-- that’s much closer than he would have thought. His grip tightens, back tensing--

“My lord,” his attacker whispers again, beleaguered. “Get up.”

“Yori?” His eyes slit open, the dark room viewed from behind the cage of his lashes, and-- ah, there. Yori, his hair oddly askew, shirt glowing white in the dim. Ah, what did he always say? Assassins and domestics.

Obi rolls over, blinks. His valet is half-dressed. “Did you get in a fight?”

“A--? No, my lord.” He sighs, straightening from his servile crouch. “If my lord would be so kind, I’d feel better if you weren’t poised to attack me with cutlery.”

His grip loosens, blade dropping back to it’s place on the mattress. “It’s not cutlery.”

“Well, it’d certainly be more at home in a kitchen than the bedroom,” his valet huffs, hands wrapping around his hips. Mrs Carre will be so pleased to know he was getting a proper scolding even out of her care. “If you’re plan to keep that habit back home, then I’m going to start asking for hazard pay.”

He makes a sound half laugh, half snort, and entirely derisive. “Ah, come on. It’s not like it’s a new...”

His well of words dries up as Yori stares at him, head cocked and curious, arms crossed like a mother waiting for a weak explanation, and--

He hasn’t at Cacciatore. Purposefully, at first; there’s no better way to root out a traitor than to play into the expectation of a hapless lord. But then...

Well, the bedside drawer is just as good a hiding place as a pillow. One the maids were less likely to find, at least. Lili would take a discovery like that with her usual aplomb-- in his experience, Tanbarun made their ladies particlarly unflappable-- but any of the others...

Well, he could only imagine the sort of dressing down he’d get if one of Mrs Carre’s girls cut themselves changing the linen. He might be lord of the manor, but Obi’s under no illusions about whose house he lives in.

“What time is it?” He squints toward the widows. It’s impossible to tell; night’s faded from black to a thick blue, but his room faces west, not east.

“Early,” Yori replies, shirty. “You need to get up.”

Obi groans, throwing his arm over his eyes. If he closes them now, he might have a chance of slipping back into sleep. “We’re in the city, Yori. We keep city hours.”

“I understand, sir, but however--”

He rolls over, burying his face in the pillow. “Wake me up when breakfast is here.”

Yori heaves a long-suffering sigh. “Although there’s nothing I would like more than being able to ignore my duty and return to bed, my lord, there’s a message for you.”

“It’ll keep.”

“Sir--”

He opens a single, dubious eye. “Is something on fire, Yori?”

“No, but--”

“Then it can wait until morning.”

That should be the end of the conversation; it always was when he tried to pester Master-- Zen into action in the wee hours. But instead Yori shuffles, put-out, at the edge of the bed. “It’s from the gate, my lord.”

Obi’s never been one for pulling rank-- it stuck him as a little uppity to expect sirs and milords when he’d been dragged out of the gutter-- but oh, he’s tempted to now. If even the gate guards think they can rouse him in the middle of the night on a whim, it seems prudent to cultivate at least an inkling of noble bearing. “And?”

“Someone’s waiting for you.”

They take the servant’s corridors; the palace’s halls might be empty this time of night-- or morning-- but these are what Obi knows best. He might have a title now, but back in those days, he’d been an up-jumped gutter rat. Even with his shiny messenger tag, the court rested a little easier if the riffraff didn’t sully their air by breathing it.

It’s an advantage now; with no guards to ask their their business, they’ll make better time. From chambers to Starlight and back again, in bed before he can lose his beauty sleep.

“I hope you are aware, my lord--” if only Yori could teach him how to infuse so much derision into a title, Obi would die a happy, if thoroughly stabbed, man-- “that a man of proper breeding would submit to the whole of their toilette before even thinking of stepping foot out of their--”

“You got this robe on me.” A testament to Yori’s powers of persuasion, considering what an eyesore it is. “Don’t push your luck.”

“A banyan is the least you could do.” The crisp cut of his words channels every last stuffy inch of Mr Morel. “You might as well be walking around in your drawers.”

“Aw, come on.” He grins, letting the robe gape; even the peep of pajama brings a frown to Yori’s face. “You know better than anyone that I don’t wear any.”

His valet could teach a master class on sighs. “For someone so devoted to their line of their trouser, you might wear ones where it matters.”

He clucks his tongue. “And ruin the mystery?”

Something utterly intriguing ripples across Yori’s face, pinching his mouth and furrowing his brow, leaving him more Morel than man. “My lord, the trappings of the court may not suit you, but I beg you to concede to at least some form of propriety.”

He glances back at him, waggling his brows. “And why would I do that?”

“Your wife.”

Ah, now that stops him dead in his tracks. “My...?”

Yori squeezes a steeling breath through his nose. “It may have escaped you, my lord, but you are going to marry in the morning.”

All at once, he’s aware of how much his body aches. Last night-- no, only hours ago-- is...foggy, blurred by the patina of alcohol, but he could never forget the warm weight of Miss on his back, of the sweet way she clung to him as they flew through the air-- nor the sickening crack his bones made on that landing. Miss may be light, but unlike snow banks, balconies are hell on the knees.

Miss, who he was only carrying because she was too drunk to walk. Who was only drunk because she’d been at a hen party. Who was only at a hen party because it was being thrown in her honor. An honor she only had because she was due to get married in the morning. The same wedding he’d be having because they were marrying each other.

He needs a minute. A long one. His death grip on the wainscoting isn’t going to be enough to hold him. “It is morning.”

Yori’s mouth pulls thin; not the way Morel’s can, but close enough. “When it is more morning.”

There’s no blush of dawn linger at the horizon, only the mist of its breath, but oh, that is...more than enough. His Majesty sprung this impossibility on him only days ago, and now--

Well, he’d better enjoy his bachelorhood while he can. In a few short hours, he’ll be Miss’s ball and chain.

“And to a margravine,” Yori continues, sulkily keeping pace. “I know you’re content to hide away in the country for the rest of your life, my lord--” a lie, if Obi ever heard one-- “but your wife’ll want to keep a presence at court.”

He tries to picture it, tries to think of Miss weighed down by a dress so bejeweled it practically has its own economy, wearing a courtly mask for every occasion, talking of nothing but the latest fashion or the most shocking scandal and not hating every minute of it--

But it’s impossible. Tanbarun’s king can slap a title on her, but not even Master could make her enjoy it. She might come when a crown calls, but they’ll be prying her out from between the pages of a book.

Yori’ll learn all that soon enough. Or he would, if Miss came to live at Cacciatore. Which she wouldn’t; no reason to halt all her actual, important work for a fake marriage that’ll be nothing more than ashes in the pan in a handful of years anyway.

But Yori doesn’t know that-- can’t know that, if he wants to keep Miss away from whatever plans Tanbarun has for her. So he lets his mouth tilt, lets a sly smile creep up the curve of his jaw. The first rule of being a good gambler is never telling a man when he puts his money on the wrong bird. “You don’t say?”

“Of course I do.” His valet glances at him, cheeks puffed and brows bent, and tells him with all the undue confidence only an umarried man could, “If you’re to be married, sir, you might learn about the wants of women.”

He doesn’t laugh. When all this is over, His Majesty should put a medal on his chest for it. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Yori.” Obi blinks, eyes adjusting the the brilliant flare of the lamps. “This isn’t Starlight.”

His valet sighs. “No, my lord. It is not.”

“But you said there was a message for me--?”

“At the gate,” Yori confirms, beleaguered. “Poet’s gate.”

Obi would rather die than admit it but-- he’s starting to regret the banyan. Well, he’s always regretted the banyan, but the pajamas beneath it--

Well, he’s definitely under-dressed. For whatever this is.

Not that it looks like much. A coach idles at the foot of the stair, paneled all in black, but the rest of the courtyard is empty. Well, save for the swarm of footmen buzzing around, combing the carriage for every last hair of the lord that abandoned it. What sort of sadist arrives in the wee hours, Obi can’t say, but he’s glad all their wedding guests are accounted for, otherwise--

The door shuts, and there, staring him dead in the eye, is the horned hind of Forenzo.

“Obi!” Long limbs flail out from the swarm, and in the first blush of dawn, one of the footmen resolves into more inches than sense.

“Suzu?” He tries to tell himself to walk forward, but his legs stall numbly beneath him. The past three days have felt like a dream-- a nightmare, really-- but the sort he can control, the kind he can choose to wake up from.

“What...?” A foxish face looms just over him, grinning lazily. Suzu’s here now, and it’s all suddenly real. “What are you doing here?”

“I came with Lata,” he says, as if that explains anything. “He had an invitation.”

“Right.” Of course he did; not that Obi had ever expected him to use it. “But what are you doing here?”

“Oh, well, we figured if he was coming, we should go too.” One large hand sweeps over the ill-fitting Forenzo livery. “So here I am.”

Obi blinks. “And Lata just...let you?”

“Oh, no. Definitely not.” He shrugs, sending arms everywhere. “He told us it would be a cold day in Yuris before he let a single one of us show up as his plus one.”

That sounds right, at least. “Mmhm.”

“So we played roshambo for it,” Suzu continues, “and I told him I’d be his servant or whatever.”

“And that...worked?” Maybe this was all still a dream. It’s following the same sort of logic, at least.

“Yeah! Actually--” Suzu rubs at his chin, just the way Shidan does, only with far less reason or facial hair-- “he seemed happy not to have to go and interview people for it.”

That made sense, at least.

“You’re Lord Forenzo’s valet?”

Suzu glances up, blinking at where his own stands, just three steps up from where they’re talking. “Yeah, that sounds like what he said.”

Yori, for his part, looks politely horrified. Obi can’t blame him; Suzu doesn’t give off the air of being in charge of himself, let alone another person, especially one expected to participate in a toilette of some kind.

Still, that’s not the part that bothers him, personally. “But why?”

“Well--” Suzu sucks in a breath, hands hooking around his hips like Yuzuri does right before she lays into him-- “my guess would be his complete lack of social skills--”

“No, not that.” He doesn’t exactly need a primer on Lata Forenzo being a misanthrope. “I mean why did you bother going through all that trouble?”

Obi’s come face to face with a fox once, years ago now. He’d been doing the long walk of shame that came from country kills, no trees to help him along and no reason to hurry back to his cramped quarters, when two foxes darted across his path. Or at least one did, scurrying across into the long grass in a rusty streak. The other--

The other sat there, right in front of him, one paw raised. Like he couldn’t be seen if he didn’t move. Or maybe that the scarecrow staring down at him couldn’t attack as long as he kept him in his sight. Obi had to turn his back before the thing dared to dart away, and only once his friend let out an eerie whimper.

But for that moment, amber burned into gold, and the gulf between human and fox seemed so, infinitesimally small--

Well, it’s what he thinks of as Suzu stares at him, those sharp angles of his cheeks limned in the dawn’s light.

“C’mon.” Suzu’s mouth curls into a sure smile, one fist tapping him on the shoulder. “The best man can’t miss the wedding.”

“Ah...” Obi rubs at the back of his head. “About that...”

“Prince Zen is Marquis Conti’s best man,” Yori offers, strangely bitter. “You know, the second prince.”

Obi cranes his neck back with a scowl. “That’s not my name.”

Yori, with not a contrite bone in his body, says, “Apologies, my lord.”

Obi turns back, a much more sincere apology brewing behind his teeth, but Suzu is too busy frowning over his shoulder to appreciate it. “Who is this guy?”

“Ah...” Obi had left Lyrias with a jaunty wave and a promise to be back before the next snow; he’d thought that a royal reward consisted of a fancy title and some cash, a quick trip down to sweat in the capital before coming back to freeze at the castle.

And then, well--

“I am my lord’s personal valet,” Yori informs him, giving Suzu’s slapdash livery a perusal that could only be described as scathing.

“Oh!” Suzu’s mouth parts in a grin that usually means he’s about to get punched. “You have one of these too? Am I going to get one?”

“Ancestors forfend,” Yori mutters at the same time Obi adds, louder, “I think only lords get them.”

Suzu hums. “Well, I suppose I can’t mind being second fiddle to a guy that is, you know, a prince.”

“It’s political,” Obi assures Suzu with a grimace. “Not personal. If I ever get married for re--”

His teeth clack shut. Ah, so many months out in the country have dulled his edge. Or at least loosened his tongue.

“It’s all right, man.” Suzu’s gaze darts pointedly over his shoulder. “I’ll forgive you this time. I still get to come, right?”

Yori steps in. “The tables are already--”

“Yes.” For the first time in what feels like days, Obi actual smiles. “I’ll make sure there’s room for you.”

He deserves at least one real thing on his wedding day, after all.

“Great!” Suzu’s mouth stretches wide. “I’m famished.”

[azuchifairy]

The Corpse Bride

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13672392/4/The-Corpse-Bride

“What is hidden, what is unseen, what is behind your eyes?”

Chapter 4: Concealed

Dust flew across the room as Gray brushed a curtain out of his way with his arm. He coughed waving his hand viciously trying to clear the air. The attic was slightly organized but because of everything just sitting up there it tended to get very dusty. Gray had gone up there many times throughout his life to hide during the times his father brought guests over, or whenever he was missing his mother.

He saw her vanity in the corner and approached it carefully through the other boxes surrounding it. In the first drawer of it were all her photos of Gray when he was a child and their old family portraits. But his favorite picture was at the bottom, he pulled it out carefully and looked down at his mother’s face. She was a beautiful woman with silky black hair that she always kept very long. Most of her hairstyles included barrettes and pins with butterflies since she rarely wore all her hair up.

In the portrait the younger version of himself sat in her lap looking up at her dressed in the finest clothes for a toddler. Mika was dressed in an elegant dark blue gown with a black lace corset. The bell sleeves also had black lace trim and ribbons just before the fabric met her forearm. His mother was smiling at him in adoration hugging him around his waist against her.

Staring at the picture intently Gray cracked a smile at the fond memories he could recall, like he could hear her laughter in his mind. His eyes narrowed in curiosity and he could see that his mother was wearing the ring in that picture. He thought of Juvia again with the ring on her finger and how it would be possible that she had it.

It was something Silver had specially made for Mika when they got married and his mother absolutely never took it off. His memory failed him however when he tried to recall what they had done with the ring when his mother died.

“What is going on..?” he asked himself in a low voice. He directed his vision to the boxes of books on the ground and set the picture on the vanity. As his search began and dust flew up in clouds again, he had the feeling that his mother was trying to lead him to something. Whatever it was had something to do with Juvia, whether he knew her or not. He was finally able to think clearly after his fright in the woods and the startling meeting with Juvia so things were starting to piece together in his mind.

Gray was good at puzzles, good with looking at things from a different perspective and it occurred to him that he would need those talents for a mystery like this. While going through the books of nature spells, he came across something unexpected. It was one of his mother’s butterfly hair clips, only it looked still new and barely any dust was on it.

“This would look nice on Juvia..” He thought about examining the colors and design. Then it was like he suddenly flashed back into reality, as if his thought was completely involuntary. He held his head incredulously, “What on earth am I thinking? I have no idea who she is!”

Regardless of his contradicting thoughts, he pocketed the hair clip and would think about what to do with it later. With the remaining books not containing anything useful he sighed thinking it was the end of the road. He felt drawn however, to a strange box behind the one with the majority of his mom’s magic books.

He had gone through them hundreds of times on his own in secret, but he had never come across this particular box before. He slid it out and by turning it around he saw the lock on the front and puffed out a breath in frustration.

Gray let his fingertip run over the keyhole and jogged his brain to think of where a key would be. Again he went to his mother’s vanity remembering that it was made by a famous maker of puzzle boxes from the neighboring country. If Gray didn’t want someone to find a key he would hide it somewhere no one would think of. Usually the drawers would consist of numbers that each click was associated with, meaning there was a code. Gray stepped back analyzing the piece and immediately thought of years as the code. It could be his parents wedding year, or either of their birth years.

He tried all three with no luck and saw the picture staring back at him. As if someone else was moving his body he picked up the picture and turned it over. On the back of it in the top left corner was a four digit number, the year the photo was taken.

His eyes widened and he tucked the photo away in his jacket and got to work. He opened each draw until he heard the correct clicks and on the fourth drawer a compartment opened under the vanity. When he stuck his hand inside he could feel the cold metal of a key tied to a string and smirked at his victory.

Then he was finally able to twist it in the lock of the box to reveal a black book with white markings on the front that seemed different from her collection. When he turned it from it’s side he could see the skull on the cover clearly and the thick leather was somehow torn and worn at the edges.

He knew instantly that if he could find something about what was happening, it seemed like the right book. To keep it hidden Gray waved his hand over the cover, a simple spell used to make books smaller and easier to carry. He placed the now small book in his jacket pocket with the photo and concealed the books back up to cover his tracks.

Outside the window of the attic the moon had begun rising higher in the sky with clouds littering the view. Gray had already predicted that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.

***

Juvia’s infectious giggle filled the room, “These must be Gray-sama’s, he sure does do a lot of sketching.” She flipped through the book she found on Gray’s nightstand thoughtfully. She was careful with every page, noticing his delicate hand in every line. There looked like there were many other books on his desk across the room. It made her wonder what her fiancee was interested in, if he was an author or more of an artist.

“You must be so curious,” Lyon inquired watching the strange blue haired girl as she gazed upon every page like it was a masterpiece, “since I’m Gray’s stepbrother, I could tell you anything you’d like to know about him.

“Unfortunately I just met him so I won’t be of any help with Gray.” Meredy chuckled as she remembered his attitude. She had shrugged it off easily because both Lyon and Ultear had warned her that it’s a natural thing for Gray.

Juvia took in a small gasp, “That’s right! Please, tell Juvia everything! There isn’t anything Juvia wouldn’t like to know about my darling.”

Lyon was charmed by the blue haired girl sitting up in Gray’s bed as was Meredy. She was sweet and innocent, yet something was different about her. She had woken just as they entered Gray’s room and their meeting seemed to be fated. After a quick introductory moment they seemed to all talk normally, like old friends.

“You see my mother, Ur, married his father, Silver, years ago when Gray lost his mother. Her name was Mika and she was actually a very skilled magic user.” Lyon explained piquing Juvia’s interest. “He was very young when she passed away, but Ur has been very kind and we’ve lived as a family since then. Gray’s the only heir of the Fullbuster family so it’s his responsibility to take over as head of the household.”

“Oh, how interesting..what does he do?” Juvia asked, “It does seem he likes to do art.”

Lyon nodded, “The Fullbuster family specializes in business trade, something Gray has been learning all his life. Silver owns many different companies and oversees their trading partnerships and investments. Gray is passionate about very few things, but art is one of them. He has plenty of sketchbooks and he’s quite good. I suppose he just likes to keep that side of himself hidden. I couldn’t tell you why, but Gray has always been a rather cold person.”

Juvia was silent, yet still smiling glancing back down to the sketchbook.

“He’s never brought a woman here,” Lyon said with a grin, “The only women who have ever been in this room, by invitation should I say,” he sheepishly looked at Meredy, “was Mom, and our sister Ultear.”

“Ultear?” Juvia questioned, “That’s a beautiful name.”

“She’s my best friend, and the reason I met Lyon.” Meredy said as she gazed at him lovingly. “She’s married now but she lives pretty close by if we want to visit!”

“What about you, Juvia-chan? Tell us about yourself, we’re rather interested to know.” Lyon said with his signature charm as Juvia looked down at her ring.

“Juvia was having a hard time remembering at first, maybe because of meeting Gray-sama. But now it’s starting to come back..” she said slowly fading her last words out.

“That’s understandable, sometimes after you faint you need a second to recall everything.” Meredy noted in her friendly tone. “Plus you’re in a new environment, it’s a lot to adjust to.”

Gray burst through the door and quickly turned around so he could close it with his back. Upon looking up he noticed the two intruders.

“What are you two doing here?!” He raged taking his voice from low to loud. Gray clenched his fists knowing Lyon was the mastermind behind the intrusion.

“Oh Gray-sama! Juvia is so happy to see you!” She cheered from her place in his bed. Her legs were criss crossed with the book in her lap covered by the sheet still with Meredy beside her. Lyon was the only one, apart from Juvia, who didn’t seem concerned with his brother’s anger at all. He strolled over to him noticing his brother’s hostile stance.

“Meredy and I took it upon ourselves to meet this lovely lady, who just happens to be your fiance? I thought you were me-” Gray smacked his hand over Lyon’s mouth knowing exactly what trouble he was trying to stir up.

“Lyon, I need to talk to you for a moment. Outside.” Gray said in a deadly tone. Lyon put his hands up and Gray slowly backed down. Lyon wore a smirk, “Alright, have it your way. Meredy, I’ll be right back. Please do keep Juvia-chan company while her fiance and I are gone.”

Gray gritted his teeth at his brother, “She’s not my fiancée.” He said following him out of the room as Meredy settled again next to Juvia. Lyon shut the door behind him and Gray let out an exasperated sigh.

“You always do this to me when I make a mess of something. What’s it going to take to get you off of my back with this one and not tell wardens?” Gray asked, addressing their parents.

“Please Gray, stop being so ornery with me. I want to help, don’t you see? I was making her feel comfortable so I could find out who she was. Unless you know already?” Lyon replied looking smug. He loved being able to catch his brother like that.

Gray stayed silent for a moment, “What do you think I was doing? Look, something happened..it has to be magic. You saw the ring on her hand right? It’s my mom’s. I picked it up in the forest, it started shining and then suddenly she was there. I have no explanation as to how it's possible other than magic, and not only that but as you can see, she thinks she’s going to marry me!”

“Well trust me, if I didn’t have Meredy already I would take her from you. She’s a beauty and she’s rather sweet. I don’t sense any malicious energy from her at all. Maybe it’s a sign that she’s the girl you’ve been waiting for. After all, you could’ve left her in the forest once she fainted, but you didn’t.” Lyon pointed out.

Gray felt a faint blush on his cheeks from his words and tried to push away the thought. Although it made him slightly jealous to think of her with Lyon, that didn’t mean anything. He needed to find out why she appeared and how she wore the ring related to his mother, that was it.

“I-I couldn’t just leave a lady out in the forest, father would kill me. I was just being a gentleman, that’s all.” Gray explained stubbornly, his attitude showing its face again.

Lyon shook his head, tutting at his brother, “Oh Gray. You never learn when to just admit you’re lying. You can deny that you don’t feel anything all you want, but you wouldn’t have laid her in your bed and scrambled to the attic to find answers if she wasn’t a little important to you. Taking her out of the woods, fine that could be considered something a gentleman would do. But going as far as you have already just to ‘help her’ says something completely different. My gut tells me you’re about to go even farther for this girl.”

Gray opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by Lyon holding his hand up, “I won’t tell them, but don’t do anything I can’t cover up. I may be able to fool father, but mother is a different being altogether.”

He let out another sigh, “Alright, fine it’s a deal. Also, don’t mention the Heartfilia’s to her. I’d rather avoid having to explain it to her..”

“Just so you know, Father is coming back from their estate. I'm sure there’s going to be a whole other fight if he sees Juvia. Especially since you ran out after making a scene.” Lyon warned.

Gray cringed, “Uhg, how did you know about that already?!”

Lyon laughed placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder, “Word travels fast in a small town, apparently it's all anyone can talk about. Dad has people looking high and low for you.”

Gray swallowed hard thinking about the awful trouble he had gotten himself into. It made shudders run down his back as he imagined what his parents were going to do to him. But he didn’t have time to think about that, if he had to he would sneak out with Juvia and hide out until he could figure out what to do. In the back of his mind he had already started forming a plan.

“Let me find out who she is, I’ll come to you if I need advice. But remember, that’s only if.” Gray said, opening the door to his room once again.

Meredy and Juvia looked up and saw Lyon and Gray enter again. “Come Meredy, we’ve got something to do for now,” he bowed to Juvia from beside Gray, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again Juvia-chan. Thank you for keeping us company.”

Meredy gave Juvia a hug, “It was lovely to meet you, I’m sure we’ll be great friends. Ultear will be so excited to meet you too!”

Juvia smiled very big, “Thank you, Meredy. Juvia does hope we can be great friends. And thank you Lyon-san, for the information and your kindness.” She bowed her head in gratitude and Gray felt a small pang of jealousy.

Lyon sauntered towards her making it a grand gesture to take her hand, “The pleasure was all ours, please do come see me if you ever need anything else. And I truly mean, anything.” He bowed just head and kissed the back of Juvia’s hand briefly, making Gray’s skin crawl.

“Alright, she definitely gets it. Now take your leave before I throw you out.” Gray growled in a protective manner making Lyon snicker.

“Ahh, you always have such a way with words brother, I’m sure you have no trouble charming Juvia with your poetic genius.” Lyon teased as Meredy stepped through the doorway.

“Get out.” Gray said flatly with a glare making even Meredy stifle her giggle.

The couple left the room and Gray made sure the door was shut before crossing back to the bed. Juvia smiled brightly at him which was rather distracting, “Lyon-san is quite the character, he seems to be the complete opposite of you Gray-sama!”

“You could say that again. Lyon is my least favorite subject.” He saw the window had been cracked open, feeling the cool draft of wind coming in. “You must be freezing in that dress.”

Juvia shook her head, “Oh no, Juvia quite enjoys the cold.”

Gray pulled up the chair where Lyon sat closer to the bed looking down at his sketchbook in her lap, “You know you shouldn’t snoop in things that aren’t yours.”

Juvia’s eyes went a little wide, “Oh! Juvia is very sorry Gray-sama, but they are very lovely. Juvia likes all of them. Juvia can remember..drawings like this and playing the piano.”

Gray’s cold demeanor was cracked, “You play? I do too.”

Her eyes lit up, “You do? Juvia would’ve never guessed!”

Gray almost chuckled, “Yes, I do. Not much anymore. I used to be quite good.” He held out his hand and Juvia slowly placed the sketchbook in it to which he closed. Once he set it aside he looked at her, deeply. He tried to find something wrong with her, something dark. Yet all he could see was the light of innocence in her blue eyes. Juvia was silent gazing back at him as well and for a moment, he was okay with it.

“Tell me. What happened to you? Why did you appear from that ring?” He asked, trying to keep things simple at first. He was testing her to see if she knew anything about his mother or not.

Juvia looked down, “The memories are still a bit hazy but Juvia remembers being told only her true love would set her free. After that it felt like a long sleep, alone and full of darkness.” She pulled her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Clearly it wasn’t a good memory for her, but Gray tried to understand the darkness that she had already mentioned once before. It was beginning to sound like she was trapped in that ring.

“When did this happen?” He questioned pulling the book from his jacket trying to ignore the talk of love.

Juvia shrugged her shoulders, “Juvia only remembers, good things before the darkness. Pretty dresses, and butterflies. It’s scattered, Juvia is sorry she can’t tell you more. Juvia will try her hardest to remember anything.”

Gray shook his head noticing how much she wanted to please him, “No it’s fine. Your memory might come back if you try harder to jog it, so we’ll work with what we’ve got for now.”

He dug into his pocket pulling out the butterfly clip, “You said butterflies right? That’s all I’ve been seeing today.”

Juvia’s eyes sparkled at the clip, “Pretty…”

He held it out to her trying not to blush, “Well here, it’s yours then. Maybe it’ll help you remember something.”

A sudden squeal from her startled him, “An early wedding present from Gray-sama?! Juvia couldn’t be happier, it’s so lovely!”

She slid the clip into her periwinkle locks and fixed her hair since it had gotten a little messy after their run in. Once she smoothed it down she looked to him again, “What do you think?”

Gray nodded, “It suits you.”

As he looked over the book again it dawned on him that something that was only meant to be read about could be in its pages. From the events in the forest, Gray could tell it had something to do with the deceased. He could recall what his mother said even then, so long into the future.

*

“Magic is made up of our essence, Gray. Good people produce good magic.” His mother said as the young Gray sat in her lap looking through old photo albums of their relatives. She pointed down at the family portrait of her and her parents smiling, “Those are your grandparents, see?”

Gray looked to his mother innocently, “Where are they now?”

“They’ve passed on now, but trust me dear they’re in a much happier place.”

Gray pouted, “But I want to meet them! Can’t you call them with your magic?”

His mother’s face fell, “No, that’s one thing a mage must never do. It’s a rule that magic should never be used to manipulate the dead. It’s disrespectful to their resting and brings about malicious energy. We only use the good kind of magic.” She smiled as she finished her sentence.

“Like the magic that makes it snow!” Gray exclaimed looking up at his mother’s face. She let out a gentle laugh, “Yes, like this.”

She held out her cupped hands and had Gray do the same. She took a deep breath and suddenly there was snow falling from the ceiling inside. Gray’s eyes lit up as he felt it fall onto his hands. “Whoa! Look at it all!”

The snow glittered around them and Mika smiled at her child, “See? I can make snow because I feel my love for you.”

Gray was mesmerized by how gorgeous it looked that when it suddenly disappeared he looked back at his mother, “That’s so cool!”

She nodded, “Yes it is. But you must be careful Gray, there are people who would use magic to fulfill bad wishes. Hatred, anger, and jealousy should never be mixed with magic. Remember that magic is meant to be pure and come from a place of love. You must never use magic to hurt others to benefit yourself. There will always be a consequence.”

Gray nodded and smiled as his mother created a small ice sculpture in the palm of his hand. The butterfly flew upwards leaving behind a snowy trail until it disappeared.

*

Even after he was told those words from his mother, Ur said the same thing. Using dark magic came with cost and he wondered for a moment if Juvia had performed the dark magic, or if she had been on the other end of someone’s hatred. The ring was the key to this mystery however, since it had been enchanted. That would mean it wasn’t Juvia who used the dark magic.

“Juvia,” he stared down at the skull on its cover with the other macabre designs, “I think somehow, you’ve been cursed.”

Juvia gasped suddenly, “A c-curse? But how?”

Gray opened the book and began skimming the pages, “I’m not sure, this isn’t really my specialty. Some of this seems to be in another script.” There were different runes he couldn’t recognize on every page and he had no idea if anyone would be able to read it. There were notes in it written in the margins that could’ve been from his mother but there were different shades of ink.

Juvia looked down her lap, “So this was the work of someone else,” she looked at her hand where the ring was, “Juvia doesn’t know who would do such a thing..”

Gray read something that caught his attention and zeroed in on the paragraph, “From what I understand it says here, ‘Whoever should curse another out of hatred, anger, or jealousy, must prepare to offer the ultimate price.’ So whoever this was, really didn’t like you because no one would offer ‘the ultimate price’  over someone they didn’t loathe.”

Juvia tilted her head, “By ‘ultimate price’ you mean…”

Gray nodded solemnly, “It means someone offered up their life. Also meaning if the curse would break or undone it should result in that person dying.”

Juvia covered her face, “B-But Juvia can’t remember, Juvia is trying so hard.. Who..?” Gray noticed that she seemed truly frightened by this and in his rare moment of sympathy he rubbed her back in comfort. It felt awkward, but also like he was supposed to be doing it.

Juvia raised her head with a surprised grin like her panic melted away, “Oh Gray-sama, you’ll be such a wonderful husband for Juvia.”

Gray froze lifting his hand with a look slightly less than irritated on his face, “There you go with all the husband talk again. Have you forgotten we’ve never met before this? And that you came out of my mom’s ring?”

Juvia gasped ignoring the first part, “This ring was your mother’s? Juvia had no idea.. it must’ve been very special for you to give it to Juvia.”

Gray tried his best to explain, “You see, I don’t have any memory of giving it to you.”

“But you must have, why else would Juvia have it?” She asked innocently and she had a point. That was the entire mystery that he was trying to figure out, why did this woman have it?

While he was lost in thought Juvia stared at him with eyes of adoration. She touched her heart and extended her other hand to his chest to touch his. He stiffened feeling the iciness of her fingers even through his clothes.

“Juvia’s soul recognized you. When Juvia saw you, it was like she was seeing you again for the first time. Like a bride on her wedding day.” She giggled very softly and somehow it set his heart fluttering in soft beats like bumble bee wings. Part of him couldn’t deny that it felt like that for him in a way, yet the other part wanted nothing more than to figure this whole situation out.

He cleared his throat and stood up, “I think I have an idea of where we can go. We need someone that can decipher what's in this book.” He held it up before setting it on his desk. “Lucky enough, there is someone close by that might be able to help.”

“A mage, yes that makes perfect sense!” Juvia cheered, “You know one, Gray-sama?”

He headed over to his closet as he finally got his tie loose enough to pull off, “Yeah I know of her, her name is Erza Scarlet. She’s very famous among magic-users, she has a shop to the west of town before you hit the woods. It’s near where one of my family’s acquaintances lives. I’ve never met her though, didn’t need to.”

He unbuttoned his shirt quickly after he tore off the tight suit jacket and Juvia gasped quietly with her eyes stuck to him. She was certain she would faint again and suddenly he was shirtless in front of her pulling clothes out of his closet. His arms had strong definition around the biceps and he had rather broad shoulders that connected to the rippling muscles of his back. Gray was heavily built no doubt, and it only made Juvia feel even more overwhelmed that he was her husband to be. They were to be married of course but clearly, in Juvia’s mind, he wasn’t trying to take things slowly by so confidently showing off his body. He turned around and Juvia almost squealed at the sight of the front. He laid his new clothes on the bed and looked to Juvia casually.

“I’ll have to find something for you to wear. You can’t go around town like that.” He said unbuttoning his pants. It was then that Juvia squealed covering her face but peeking through the cracks. Maybe he couldn’t wait to be married and just wanted her from then, but there were traditions to uphold!

“G-G-G-Gray-sama!! J-Juvia hopes you don’t do this in front of other women!” She said after noting how normally he undressed. “Of course, we’re to be married but shouldn’t we save something like this for the wedding night?” She gushed, shaking with delight.

“That’s not-!” he was going to scold her for having her head in the gutter, but given the circumstances he would’ve assumed the same thing. He always had the habit of stripping down, in front of people or not.

Gray pulled up his fresh pair of pants while blushing slightly, “Actually no I don’t, we’re just in a rush, okay? I also have no shame.” He had never minded being semi-naked or naked before, but her comments couldn’t help but make him think vulgarly.

Juvia swooned, “Or it’s because you’re marrying Juvia..that’s just a sneak peek..Juvia could too!”

“W-Would you stop that!” He scolded bashfully doing his best to not let her see his red face. Juvia continued to lightly giggle to herself, a sound he didn’t mind hearing. He finished buttoning up his clean dress shirt and put on his long dark coat and boots. After he flipped up the coat collar and adjusted the cuffs he went to the door.

“Let me see what I can find for you to wear, I’ll be right back.” He said as he exited the room.

In moments he returned with a dress that seemed suitable enough for where they were going. He had also gotten a cloak and gloves for her since the weather was starting to turn cold. Regardless if she said she didn’t mind cold weather, he thought it would benefit her to have them.

“These should do fine, I’ll give you a moment to change but try to hurry,” he looked over to the grandfather clock and predicted his parents wouldn’t be gone for much longer, “we’re on a tight schedule.”

Juvia got up from the bed and although she had been sitting for long she didn’t need to stretch her body. “Juvia will be fast, she would hate to leave you waiting.”

Gray nodded and went out of the room again standing outside the door to make sure no one else went in. He tapped his foot feeling a bit of anxiety which was unusual. He was usually cool and level headed, something about this situation made him feel flustered and nervous.

Juvia smiled at the pretty blue of the fabric and thought surely Gray had picked it just for her. Maybe it was his sister’s, or mother’s? Regardless when Juvia slipped it on it fit nicely along with the gloves and boots. It felt strange to have so much clothing on but after taking a twirl in the mirror, Juvia adored it. All she had left was the cloak, a beautiful dark grey color.

The sound of the front doors opening startled Gray and he realized that he was out of time. His parents were arriving and they still hadn’t gotten out of the estate. In a panic he opened the door to his room abruptly and in his scramble he remembered to grab the book from his desk. He looked to Juvia and saw she was fiddling with the clasp of the cloak instead of having put it on yet. Gray huffed taking it from her, draping it around her shoulders, and quickly fastening the clasp.

“Juvia, it’s time to go. Right now.” He said sternly, going to open his bedroom window after securing the book in his coat.

Silver entered the estate as a man on a mission, pounding through the halls. “Gray!” His father’s voice bellowed from the hall. The sound of it seemed just as angry as he had been before, maybe even a little more so.

Juvia perked, “Who’s that?” Her tone was rather excited despite the growing tension.

Gray swallowed hard as his panic began to increase, “My dad, and if he comes in here it’s not going to be pretty.”

“Oh, but Juvia would love to meet him!” She said, turning towards the door.

“Gray! You get down here this instant!” Ur shouted with the trot of her heels on the wood floor.

Gray grabbed Juvia by the shoulders to focused to notice how close they were, “They cannot see you-”

Juvia piped, “But why-“

“Yet.” He hissed quickly trying to get her to comply with him as he stepped up to the window sill. His window was tall enough for them to stand in and hold onto the wall above for stability. The height to the ground below was the same as always, he used to sneak out as a child so it was nothing to him.

Juvia gasped in realization, “Oh right! Because we aren’t married, being seen together.. alone.. by your parents..!”

Gray had no time to deny her while trying to coax her into following him, now hearing the footsteps close in, “Exactly, so come on then!”

“Mother, Father! It’s so good to see you back! Meredy and I were missing your company. I already have them preparing dinner downstairs.” Lyon said loudly, clearly trying to let Gray know he was stalling. For once in his life he mentally reminded himself to thank Lyon later.

He took her hand and helped her step up to which she stumbled after seeing the height. She started shaking her head, “Gray-sama..it’s so high!”

“Enough of this nonsense, where is your brother?!” Silver bellowed just outside his door.

Gray was so exasperated by this escape attempt that to avoid further distractions he simply picked her up in his arms like a bride and jumped down from the window into the bushes below. Juvia held on tightly and felt safe in his arms. Luckily the brush was soft enough that it didn’t scratch Gray when he took the brunt of the fall.

Juvia even felt him squeeze her a bit tighter for a second as they rolled over and waited in the bushes. Voices could be heard overhead as Gray remained still and looked down at her briefly putting his finger to his lips. Juvia knew to be quiet for another moment or two as the wind rustled the leaves of the bushes.

“Gone again?!” Silver raged, “That does it, I’m sick of these games! Find my son immediately! Bring him back here or there will be hell to pay.”

Gray could tell he was talking to the guard and only seconds after the window closed did he take off into a sprint with Juvia in his arms. He went around the estate to the back stables and quickly mounted one of the horses and pulled Juvia up behind him.

“Hold on tight, and keep your hood up. It might be bumpy on the road.” He explained gripping the reins. Soon enough the rain began to fall again and Juvia’s arms hugged his waist for security. She nuzzled his back with her face and got comfortable as he led the horse out of the estate stables and onto the cobblestone streets. She kept her eyes closed the whole time until they disappeared into the coming fog where the trees broke.

A woman stepped out from the shadows after watching the ordeal her tainted red eyes glaring at the ghost of their figures. She extended her hand in a calm anger, “How unfortunate,” she clicked her tongue, “tch, no matter.”

Shadows dripped from her fingertips like black blood and once they hit the ground they rose up into phantom-like apparitions, awaiting commands from their master. They were constantly giving off a shrill cry of pain.

“Get the girl.” She ordered her voice slick with a sinister tone , “Leave the boy.”

[ladyanput]

Seeing Green Ch. 2

Oh wow! Thanks for 115 followers, guys!

I'm going to put in a minor warning for you guys, of stalking and a bit of voyeurism. Nothing graphic, it's only mentioned is all.

[[MORE]]

"Am I being stupid with this?" Marinette stared at herself in the mirror, fretting over the grey knit dress she wore, nervously tugging it down lower on her stocking covered legs. Her gaze flickered down to Tikki casually sitting on the vanity table, nibbling on a cookie. "I mean, I just met him this morning, Tikki, and I'm going on a date with him tonight. What if he thinks I'm easy? That I'm some French floozy?"

"Marinette, this doesn't have to be a romantic date." Tikki flew up, slowly circling her Holder, before hovering before her face. She offered a kind smile. "This can be a date for you to get to know each other. And you can't get to know each other unless you spend time together, right?"

"You're right, I'm just overthinking things again." Marinette let out a small giggle, then took a seat at the vanity. She had chosen to let her hair loose, the dark waves reaching far past her shoulders, as she had decided to grow it out forever ago. She smiled at her reflection, then began painting her lips a soft pink colour, as Tikki returned to her cookie, munching happily. "He's not expecting anything, I'm sure. I.. I won't go further than a kiss. If he tries anything, I'll just drop him altogether."

"You're taking Eva's advice on dating again." Tikki giggled, watching Marinette pick up her signature purse, the kwami quickly flying inside. Marinette merely smiled in response, heading towards the elevators. As soon as she pressed the button, she heard a door open. She turned to see Alix stepping into the hall, frowning.

"You going on your date?" Alix sounded stiff, awkward when she spoke. Marinette merely blinked, and Alix's face reddened, and she crossed her arms. "Listen, just.. Don't let him get up to any funny business. I'm not.. I haven't been the greatest friend, I've been a real shitty one, but I still worry. I.. I know she's lying now. I should have before, but I was stupid."

"Alix, what.." Marinette shut her mouth as soon as she saw tears welling up in Alix's eyes, but she stubbornly refused to shed.

"I should have fucking known. I kinda did, but I didn't want to get in the middle of the shitshow, so I tried to stay neutral. But today, we left you behind in Gotham, a place that's really dangerous. And I'm sitting with Lila and Alya, listening about how you're mooching off this hot intern to make Adrien jealous, maybe get a threesome, and I'm just sitting there thinking 'aren't they worried about her? This is Gotham, the Joker and people are here. This isn't Paris, people get kidnapped and die here, and they stay dead, there's no Cure!'

"And I try and bring this up, and Alya has the fucking nerve to say that you deserve whatever you get, because you're a worse bully, have been ever since Chloe transferred to a different school. It.. It was a wake up call for me, Mari, and I realized how much I screwed up and that I was so horrible to you. We all have been. And I'm sorry, I really am.. And.. Please, be safe. I want you to come back safe."

"Alix..." Marinette stepped forward and hugged Alix tightly, surprising the girl. She felt tears in her eyes, and let them fall as she hugged Alix tightly. Something in her that had long since been locked away, came forth. "I am so happy to hear that. I... I've missed you. I miss all of you."

Marinette pulled away after a few minutes, wiped away the tears, and smiled brilliantly, a real smile.

 "And don't worry, I can take care of myself. If he tries anything, I'll make sure he'll never walk right again." The fierce grin she gave caused Alix to burst into laughter. 

"Not if I get to him first. He does anything funny, they'll never find the body!"

Both girls shared grins, once destroyed bridges finally beginning to mend.

…

When Marinette got down to the lobby, she felt a little better. It wasn't by much, but that bit certainly helped lift her mood. She smiled at the sight of Damian standing in the lobby. He was a really handsome guy. Tall, broad shoulders, dark messy hair, he even had muscle, muscle that could be well seen with the black turtleneck he wore. 

In her unashamed ogling, she hadn't noticed that he was talking with someone. Or that that someone was Miss Bourbon, who did not seem impressed with whatever Damian was telling her.

Mari rushed over before the TA could scare her date away.

"Hello Miss Bourbon, I take it you're giving Damian a lecture." She spoke up, grinning when she saw pink dust the older woman's cheeks. 

"Not a lecture. Just a warning that you're my student, and if anything happens to you, I'll bring the wrath of Hades down upon him." Eva grinned, and giggled with Mari, before turning back to Damian. "But in all seriousness, I want her back by nine o'clock sharp. We're going to Gotham City Park tomorrow for a picnic, and we don't want the students abandoning Marinette again."

"Completely understood." Damian gave her a small smile, then held out his arm for Marinette to take. Even Eva had to admit, Damian was an attractive man, not that she'd touch him. A twenty three year old should never go after a seventeen year old. Ever. "I will just be taking Marinette out for dinner, then I'll bring her straight back."

"Well, good.. I understand the whole… Young love thing, just don't go overboard, okay?" Eva found herself smiling at Damian, then gave Mari a wink. "An old lady like myself knows exactly how that type of thing can go badly."

"Bon soir, Evangeline. I'll bring you a piece of cheesecake, if they have any where we're eating at." Marinette assured her, before she was guided out of the building. They were greeted with the sight of a driver opening the door of a very expensive looking car for them. "Damian.. You… You have a personal driver?"

"It's not too much, is it? I just thought it would be easier to talk to you, if I didn't have any distractions." Damian gave an almost embarrassed smile, helping Marinette into the car, then sliding in after her. As their thighs pressed together, Marinette could feel the heat radiating off of him, and her heart began slowly picking up speed. "You know, your English is pretty good for someone from France."

"O-oh, thanks. Miss Evangeline is from Canada, she came to France to strengthen her French. So she helped me with English, while I helped her with French. A fair trade." Mari felt her cheeks go scarlet, trying to ignore the heat of him, of his charming smile. It should be illegal to look so good. "She.. She really cares, you know? Miss Bustier, she wants you to ignore what anyone does bad to you, she wants you to be an example to the bullies, to cause little fuss, just smile and be the bigger person."

"So, what you're telling me,is that you are being gaslighted by your teacher, you are being bullied by everyone in your class, and only a person from a different country believes you?" Damian's brows rose, and Marinette glanced down at her folded hands, then clenched them tightly to keep them from trembling. "Do you want me to kidnap you, so that you'll never have to deal with them again?"

"What? No, no, it's fine! I just have to deal with them until graduation. Besides, some of them are coming around." Marinette shook her head, Alix flashing in her mind, but she ignored it and smiled up at Damian once again. "Let's not talk about it, okay? I want to get to know you better. I like you Damian, but I don't really know anything about you. I don't even know your last name."

They shared a smile, and began to talk as they drove along the streets of Gotham. Marinette explaining how her parents were bakers, of her aspirations in fashion, meanwhile Damian went on about his father and brothers, though he was very careful not to mention his last name. He liked how Marinette looked at him. At him because he was Damian, not because he was Damian Wayne. He wasn't lying to her, but he wanted to keep that look, at least for tonight. 

"I mean, life has been hectic, ever since the akuma attacks started a few years ago.." Marinette began, as the car slowed to a stop. Damian's brows drew together as he thought over her words. 

"Akuma attacks? What's an akuma?"

"Master Damian, we have arrived." The driver spoke out, cutting off Marinette's attempts to respond. The two exchanged a glance before they climbed out of the car, standing before a small diner. Damian took Marinette's dainty hand into his massive one, and guided her inside.

When they stepped inside, Marinette decided it felt warm and comfy there. It was a quaint diner, a few people scattered here and there, enjoying warm meals. It was a relief, so see this, instead of some upscale restaurant where it would be so fancy, her head would spin. The smells of spices and something faintly citrusy filled the air, as a perky waitress guided the couple to a booth, then left them alone with their menus and ice water.

"Now.. Want to explain what an akuma is?" Damian glanced up, meeting Marinette's gaze. He noted out her hands tensed, gripping her menu tighter.

"You really don't know what an akuma is? But they've been terrorizing Paris for years, how can no one know about them?" Her voice became soft, hollow as she spoke, those blue eyes of hers seeming to close off their expressive nature. "How is that possible? Is that why.. Why the Justice League wouldn't come and help? Because they didn't think it was actually happening?"

"Marinette? Angel, are you alright?" Damian touched her hand, drawing Marinette from her odd trance she went under. She seemed a bit shaken, but forced a smile and returned to reading the menu. Damian took that as a sight to refrain from pushing the subject. So he gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and went back to look at his menu as well. Maybe chicken alfredo would be nice.

…

Chat Noir scowled as he watched the diner from across the street, perched on a building. He didn't like the guy Marinette was out with. He just didn't seem right. It's not because Adrien was jealous, not at all. Marinette was just a friend. Or would be a friend, if she'd stop trying to expose Lila. He didn't want to have to deal with Lila being akumatized. Again. For the tenth time.

He snarled when he watched Marinette blush, watched her and the intern guy laughed. He didn't miss the body language they had towards each other. Chat Noir tried to assure himself that it was only physical attraction. That when Mari saw passed the guy's shiny exterior, she'd see he's only after a quick fling with a cute girl from France.

A very cute girl. When he had seen Marinette step into the lobby, dressed up for a date, a part of him wanted to go over and take her on that date. Maybe convince her to wear her pigtails again, cut her hair again. He wanted her back to the way she was, before Lila, before that stupid miss Evangeline and her encouraging Marinette to stick up to herself, to rock the boat.

You never rock the fucking boat. Ever. 

Chat Noir sat there for hours, scowling. He shouldn't be this hung up on a friend. He had His Lady afterall. His courageous, gorgeous Ladybug. She was waiting back for him in Paris. He had a new idea for trying to get a date with her. He was Chaos, she was Balance. They were meant to be, she just needed to realize it.

He was brought out of his daydreams of kissing Ladybug, stripping her out of her costume, but watching Marinette and Damian leaving the diner. He hated how cuddly they were. His claws dug into the stone of the ridge he was sitting on. 

He followed the fancy car back to the hotel, watching as Damien walked Mari up to the doors of the hotel. His jaw clenched when Marinette kissed Damian on the cheek, leaving the guy looking dumbstruck as she practically flounced into the hotel, like she was floating on air.

Fury curled in Chat's gut and he launched himself onto the roof that was opposite of Marinette's room. He had to warn his princess, he couldn't let her get hurt, not by some sleazy rich guy she barely knew.

And he sat there, watching her enter her room, opening her purse, and his heart stopped. The flying red kwami had bolted from the purse and flying around Marinette, the two obviously in quite giddy conversation.

And it clicked.

Marinette… Was Ladybug. His Princess was his Lady. And everything in the past made so much more sense. He grinned, realizing now why he was so protective of Marinette. Soulmates knew each other outside of the masks, so that's why he knew her, but didn't realize it.

So Chat sat there, grinning, as Marinette stripped off her knit dress, taking in her beauty. She had grown such beautiful curves over the past few years, she had such pretty skin. When she unhooked her bra, he purred, already lost in a daydream of him being in that room with her, carefully caressing her and making her his. And he could practically taste the salt on her skin, as she whispered his name. His green eyes stayed transfixed on her, as she stripped before his eyes.

Tag list: @realrandomposts @2sunchild2

@interobanginyourmom @ladybug-182 @ladylb @zalladane @mochinek0 @poshplumcot @urbanpineapplefarmer @vixen-uchiha @angelofmusickaterinapetrova @thewheezingbubbledragon @northernbluetongue @violatiger8 @thequestionablyhuman @ginamarie1512 @maude-zarella @saphiraazure2708 @ayuchan07 @virgil-is-a-cutie

[whichwaytowonderlandep]

Evermore | Ch. 1

Pairings: (Yoongi/Reader)

Genre: Romance, Angst

Words: 3,638

Tags: Beauty and The Beast AU, Modern au, eventual smut, drug mentions (sort of)

Series: The Disney Series

Chapter One

Your hand flew out of the sheets, flying across the side of the bed blindly before you finally made contact with the annoying device that had decided to wake you up at the ungodly hour of six in the afternoon. Too early for you. 

You let out a loud groan, feeling slightly buzzed as the hangover from last night comes at you in full force. The sounds of the cars running and the people having fun outside of your apartment building filtered into your small and run down apartment. 

You don’t remember much of last night, having completely checked out of your body as the night progressed, you continued to work the streets until the ungodly hour of three in the morning. 

You get up from your bed, bones cracking as you smack your dry lips together. One of your hands comes up from under the covers as you push your tangled hair out of your face. The warm air coming from the fan in the corner doing little to stop you from sweating like hell while you slept during the day. 

You knew your roommate must’ve been here during the day by the leftover weed smell that continued to linger in the air coming from the kitchen. You ignore it, already having been used to the smell before you move to the bathroom. 

Your eyes instantly meet your unruly hair as you really take a look at yourself, seeing all the makeup from last night still on your face — smudged and not at all pleasant looking. 

You decide to get ready for the night, taking a long cold shower as the knots that had formed under all that stress and that hard as a rock bed wasn’t helping make matters any better. 

The heavy metal music and the sound of cars honking filling in the silence as you got ready in the sluttiest clothing you could find in the shared closet you and your roommate, Olivia had. You had promised her to finally join her tonight, after weeks of asking you finally agreed to join her and maybe make some money on the side while you were at it. 

A tight, black dress that landed too far from your knee but that still left something to the imagination. Your makeup was done heavy — black eyeshadow and eyeliner, as well as dark red lipstick coloring your lips as you made your way out of your apartment… through your window. 

It’s not that your door didn’t work well, it was the people behind said door that you were wanting to avoid. Your rent was due soon and your front door neighbor had this thing about grabbing your ass every time he saw you. So, climbing out of a three story apartment window and into your fire escape seemed like the safer choice of the two at the moment. 

You make your way down the street, heels clicking loudly as your hips sway side to side. The dirty streets of the city were filled with late night party goers, drug addicts looking to score and ladies of the night looking to make a quick buck. Your smile flirts with the man you pass, throwing small waves at the ones who almost break their neck to get a glimpse of your ass. You break out in a giggle as one of them trips over his friends.  

Your hair bounces on your shoulders as you quickly make it down the street, catching sight of your friend’s bright purple hair. “Oli!” You shout her name as you stand a few meters away from her, waving your arms around as you try to get her attention from the other side of the street.

Olivia Alvarez was an old friend from the days before you became a college drop out — her following you right along. What mostly attracted you to her was her loud as fuck personality and her will to give less fucks in any situation. “I’ll talk to you later baby, my girl is here.” She pats the guy on the ass, startling him slightly before moving to wrap her hands around you as you ran towards her. 

“I haven’t seen you since yesterday!” You exclaim, hugging her tightly. You let go of her as you wrap a hand around her shoulders. “Where have you been, buddy?” 

“Oh you know…” Oli wiggles her eyebrows, making an action zip her lips and throwing the key away. “A lady never reveals her conquests.” She whips her hair around as she wraps her arm around your waist. Her height making it possible for her to lay her head on your shoulder with no problems — leading the both of you to stand at the corner of the street. 

“Manny was looking for you again last night” you say, watching her smile quickly disappear from her lips. “Told him you left the country… again.” 

“Yeah, well next time you see him, tell him that I died.” Oli ‘s heavy Argentinian accent coming out as memories of him come to mind. “And that my body was cremated, that you scatter my ashes into the ocean so that I may find my way back home and blah blah blah” 

You chuckle at her dramatic ways, finally separating from her as the catcalling around the two of you becomes even more noticeable. “You’ll be fine, just avoid him for a couple of more days and he’ll get bored… eventually.” 

“So what are we doing tonight?” You change the subject quickly, trying to keep the mood a happier one. 

“We are going to hit a couple of clubs, meet some new friends and have the best fucking time if our lives” Oli counts each one of them on her fingers, reaching into her jacket’s pocket and pulling a small plastic bag of different colored pills. 

Your smile only wavers slightly as she pulls two of them out, offering one of them to you before shoving the other one into her mouth. 

You eye the one in your hand, not sure how taking random drugs is going to get you through the night without making a plethora of horrible decisions. It would sure as hell make it a whole lot easier. “Come on (Y/N)” Oli says in a mocking manner, “Live a little!” 

You smile, a slight grimace on your lips before taking the pill into your mouth. 

Right, (Y/N)... it’s time to live a little. — you think to yourself, already regretting what was going to happen tonight. 

//

Min Yoongi couldn’t be even more than happy to get the hell out of that party. If it could even be called a party. His fingers twirl around the emerald ring on his left hand. His face showing no emotion as he took another long sip of his watered down tequila — he had no plans on getting drunk tonight, but as the night went on he was going to quickly change his mind. His black hair crazily moving to the California breeze as he leans on the glass railing overlooking the bright city lights. 

All he wanted to do was to go back to his hotel room and take a nice long and well deserved nap. But no, he had to stay here in the middle of a city where he knew absolutely nobody. Where he was only asked by his company to appear for appearances sake. 

“Hey grumpy!” A loud voice startles him as a taller body crashes into his. Hoseok’s blinding smile moves to the corner of his eyes, a hard pat on his back. “What the hell are you doing out here when the girls are all inside?” 

He would have almost forgotten about Hoseok’s presence if it wasn’t for the way he would constantly come outside and check up on him every couple of minutes. 

“You’re missing out, man!” Hoseok continues as Yoongi gives him an uninterested glare before moving his gaze back to the city. “Why don’t you just come back inside, I might even have the right girl for you.” THe younger man chuckles. 

“Not interested” Yoongi grumbles, already knowing where this was going. He had seen it all before, the parties, the glamour, the celebrities — hell, he has lived in the spotlight most of his life and there was nothing he had grown to hate more. He drinks what was left in his glass, hoping that the younger male would finally take the hint. Unfortunately, that was still not the case. 

“Oh stop being such a grump! I know you used to like to party!” Hoseok whines as he leans over the railing, trying to get Yoongi to meet his eyes. “I want my best bro back” 

“You know, I’m doing just fine with this bottle for myself” Yoongi points to the bottle sitting on the ground beside him. “I was also having a great ass time, so why not let me continue doing that?” With a grim smile, Yoongi looks back at the scenery in front of him. 

Hoseok gives him one last smile before wrapping his arm around the giggling girl beside him. He had always known Yoongi to be the biggest grump he had ever met — nothing mean that he said was ever taken to heart. Hoseok, even after everything they’ve been through, would still consider him one of his best friends. 

Hoseok lets out a deep sigh as he realizes the older man isn’t really in the mood to party so he reluctantly takes his keys out of his jacket, placing them on the flat railing before taking his leave.”Don’t scratch it” Hoseok yells back before disappearing from the patio and into the lively atmosphere. 

Yoongi takes one look at them, his tongue pushing against his cheek as he places the bottle on the metal railing with a thunk, grabbing onto the keys before he makes his way down and through the backyard — possibly avoiding every person he possibly could. 

His mind was slightly buzzed from the alcohol, nose red from the cold and his body feeling only slightly heavy, and yet, nothing was stopping him from climbing into the front seat of Hoseok’s car and pulling off into the dark road. 

// 

You’re extremely sweaty, a little bit hot and definitely feeling like you might pass out any second. At the same time... you felt euphoric, high on life and you would admit a little bit horny. Olivia and you had found yourself gaining free entry to one of the nearby clubs, stepping onto the dance floor as soon as the two of you arrived. You had some idea of what Oli might have given you, making a note to ask her tomorrow if she had any more. 

The strobing lights made you dizzy and the vibrations coming from the surrounding speakers were beginning to give you a heavy migraine. You stop dancing as you feel someone pull at your hand, looking back with your fuzzy vision you see Olivia’s wild hair in your present view.  You could hear her saying something, although it sounded like nothing but gibberish to you. 

You don’t know what she said, but your hazy mind was able to put two and two together as you saw her smirk at you before turning around and grabbing onto some random guy’s arm. She has found a client for tonight and from here on out you were flying solo. 

You’re no longer paying attention to her as you see her making her way out of the club, instead your eyes start scanning the rest of the barely lit club. As a high-end escort, Olivia knew the clubs where all the rich, married and very lonely trophy husbands and CEOs liked to hang out and relax. It was her hunting ground. 

The men in her life didn’t last very long but from the moment they met her, they could only assume they were done for. Once she had her claws on him she wouldn’t let them go until she got bored or she got a large sum of money from them. Olivia gets bored very easily. 

You hadn’t been okay with the idea when she had first suggested you joined her while she worked, knowing rent was due next week and you barely had enough food to last you the next few days. So, you took her up on her offer. To let her teach you her ways of manipulation. 

You lick at your dry lips, feeling lost and alone as you no longer have someone familiar around you. You push your hair back as you step off to the side, your body starting to feel sore as you move towards the crowded bar. You try to find an empty spot, looking as the poor bartender gets pulled in all directions — the idea that you would possibly get a drunk any time soon is long gone as you unwrap your jacket from your waist and head towards the exit. 

The fresh air hits you with full force as your body cools down. You could still hear the loud music thumping from inside the club as you move through the empty alleyway. Your mind is still a little fuzzy as you put on your jacket, getting the last of your cigarettes from the inside of your jacket. 

You stumble out of the alleyway, fighting to make your lighter work as the wind starts to pick up as you step onto the street. You groan out loud, shaking the lighter in your hands as if that would make it magically work. “Stupid thing better work, I just bought it last week!” ‘

You weren’t really paying attention as you kept on walking, the migraine you had back at the club making its presence known. You were not looking at your surroundings, or at the empty and wet street as your boots slap against the puddles and you were certainly not aware of the very bright lights coming down the road at a very alarming speed. 

Yoongi looks up at the road, the bright red jacket shining as the headlights of the car he was driving hit you. His foot slams down on the brakes, his heart beating a mile a minute before the care fortunately stops only inches from your body. He did not need a criminal record. 

 Your startled eyes meet his as you drop your lighter to the cold, wet asphalt with a clink. It would be a lie if you said that you didn’t almost pee your pants. After the initial shock wears off, you feel relieved and then, you feel only anger. It could be the drugs talking or it could be the alcohol that made you act way out of character. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?! You almost ran me over!” You angrily yelled as you slam your hands against the hood of the very expensive-looking car. Hair falling all over your face as you try to take through the tinted windows, trying to get a look at the culprit’s face. You stumble around, your boots not helping out the matter. 

You didn’t have to wait long before the man stepped out of the vehicle, anger apparent on his face as he made his way to the front of the car. “You didn’t scratch it, did you?” He ignores you as his eyes scan the hood, looking for any kind of scratches. “Are you serious right now? You could’ve killed me and you’re worried about your fucking car?!” 

He lets out a sigh of relief as he makes his motives there are no scratches on the car. “Key word, almost.” he mumbles, not sparing you a glance as he gets back in his car. 

“Uh, no you dipshit. I could have died.” You continue on, following him to his window —smacking your hands on it as you try to get his attention again. It seems as if you succeeded as he rolls the window down all the way. 

“Please don’t touch the window, I don’t want it to get filthy” The man says as he looks at you up and down with nothing but a bored expression plastered on his face. 

“Way to be rude, asshole” You mumble, leaning against the car. Your head leaning towards the window as you try to maintain your balance— your stomach starts to feel kind of funny, but the feeling of anger is still surpassing anything else that you could possibly be feeling. 

“I could be splattered in front of your car and you only car if your precious car doesn’t have a scratch on it.” You continue mumble, “It’s exactly how people like you are ruining our country!” There it is again, that funny feeling in your stomach. 

“You mean drug-addicted prostitutes like you aren’t?” Yoongi finally looks your way, an eyebrow raises as he gives you a skeptical look. He knew he was judging you without even knowing you but he was stressed enough as it is and you were the closest thing he could take his frustrations on you. Some stranger he might never get to see again. 

He can tell by the way your eyes widen and your mouth opens in a little gasp that he had offended you, he could feel guilt bubbling up in his chest as he realizes that he offended you deeply. He doesn’t let you see he feels that way as his face and demeanor becomes cold again— pushing the button to close his window, cutting your words as you continue cursing him out. 

You continue to tap on the window as you hear the sound of a revving engine. The rude motherfucker thinks he can get away with anything just because he has money. The  migraine and the feeling  you had in your stomach is something that you can no longer keep pushing down and as you throw up the little food you had managed to eat that day onto the side of his very slick and very clean car you knew that you had fucked up. You smirk as he parks the car once more, wiping at your lips. You take a step back as you watch him angrily get out of the car with eyebrows furrowed and disgust clearly showing on his face. 

You don’t get to live in the moment for long as your vision becomes blurry and your eyes catch only the glimpse of the headlights as your world becomes dark and you hit the ground with a loud thud. 

Yoongi instantly turns around, his eyes searching for your body before he finds you passed out in the middle of the road. “For fuck’s sake…” He mumbles angrily to himself.  For once, he was glad that he got lost on a road with little to no traffic at all. He takes one more look at the vomit on the ground, feeling queasy at the sight of it. He skips over it, careful to not get it on his very expensive shoes as he squats down next to your body. 

“Hey, stupid...Wake up.” Yoongi says as he nudges your shoulder, hearing soft snores coming from under a mountain of hair. He pushes you fully on your back, your hair falling back onto the wet concrete as he sees the peaceful look on your face -- along with some of the vomit still present on your chin. “Why does shit like this always happen to me?” Yoongi has an inquisitive look on his face as he looks around his surroundings, the cold air making his breath visible in front of him as he notices no one around the surrounding area. He could easily leave you right where you were, get in his car and just get the hell out of there. Another part of him is telling him to at least move you to the sidewalk, to the ‘nice’ and ‘comfortable looking garbage so that you at least don’t get used as a speed bump. 

And yet, something in his consciousness tells him that he was human not too long ago and while you were rude to him… he couldn’t just leave you to rot in the middle of nowhere. He had no idea where you had appeared from and as he gently patted the pockets of your jacket he could tell you didn’t have a cellphone or anything he could call your loved ones with. He could always call the police, but he’s sure he wouldn’t be able to explain the scene in front of him or how long they would take to actually get there. 

“Mom…” He hears you mumble in your deep sleep. 

“Hey..Wake up. You can’t stay here…” Yoongi tries one more time and as you offer no more words, he finally makes up his mind. He unbuttons his silk jacket, moving to place it on your legs before he moves his arms beneath your knees and your shoulders. “Damn, could you be any heavier?” He complains, adjusting you as best he could in your arms before moving back towards his vehicle. He struggles with opening the back door as he tries to not drop you, he ends up using his leg as he hooks his foot onto the handle and struggles to open it. Succeeding after a few minutes, finally placing you into the back seat. He steps away, making sure all of your limbs were inside the car before he slams the door—  hoping that it would wake you up and you could go on your merry way, but as he watches your unmoving body still sleeping in his back seat he knows that it was a futile attempt. 

“Fucking…..” He grumbles in annoyance as he skips over the vomit on the asphalt, getting into his car and driving off. 

Masterlist>>

[kagemajaya]

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu - Your run-of-the-mill seasonal fanservice show turned into something charming

Baka & Test - Summon the Beasts - Winter 2010, Silver Link. - 7/10

Cute and dumb boys and girls of Fumizuki Academy will take you through a sweet journey of open-minded fanservice tropes, friendship and love

In my first post about a non-seasonal, I will be covering all the pieces of BakaTest until its 2nd season: the first season, its specials, Matsuri OVA, and its specials. I’ve watched this package in what passes for a binge for my 30-something self, pretty much every moment I could throughout one week. I had started it with not many expectations, having even forgotten that a “trap” legend was among the cast. What I found was a charming surprise. BakaTest was one of those rare shows whose next episode I actually looked forward to. Whilst not every episode focused on elements I particularly liked, no episode was offensive, boring or uninteresting, and no character annoyed me. Quite surprising, since Inoue Kenji also wrote Grand Blue which I could barely stand for a full episode due to its obnoxiousness about basically the same themes (a lesson here to not judge a book by its author.) It flew by in a jiffy thanks to its light-heartedness and most importantly its cast.

The show isn’t necessarily anything unique. In fact, it relies heavily on tropes anyone who’s watched any anime would be familiar with. We have the perfect girl who is a bit frail and we have the flat childhood friend whose flatness is a constant gag. They both love our dumbass MC by virtue of him being our MC. We have the voyeur character who is constantly trying to look up girls skirts, and so on and so forth. The thing is I actually liked all of these things in BakaTest. One thing the show owes its non-vulgarity to is how sweet the girls and boys of Fumizuki Academy are. They might remind you of a supernatural version of your high school days if you liked your high school days and was in a class filled with dumbasses like I was. 

Which high school kid doesn’t?

On an ensemble cast level, they work really well with each other and are just plain nice kids.  They are actually, genuinely friends, and that feeling coming across makes a huge difference - even if Akihisa is sacrificed every once in a while, or the boys don’t mind seeing their female friends in states of undress. It’s all give and take. Maybe the boys like seeing the girls naked (but like really, which high school boy wouldn’t?) but Himeji and Minami are also quite invested in Akihisa’s crossdressing photos (not sure I’d have wanted to see my high school crush in drag but hey, Akihisa is a bishounen.) Even someone like Muttsulini, whose sole purpose in the show is being the guy who takes upskirt pictures, didn’t bother me - a huge surprise indeed. The context provides all the relief. The entirely self-aware nature of the show possibly helps a lot in this regard. What matters is as the audience we shouldn’t be taking the show or ourselves too seriously. I don’t know whether there will come a point in season 2 where they take it too far, but so far, it is dumb comedy at its best. 

The size of girls’ breasts coming up in any anime is a major eye roll moment for me but I laughed out loud here. They are not wrong. Flat is flat in any country. Sorry Minami-chan!

On an individual character basis, BakaTest’s biggest success is everyone’s favorite Fumizuki student: Kinoshita Hideyoshi. His existence in the show is not only about the gag on his gender and his sexuality. His dumbness and beauty are combined perfectly to show one thing about the show - it’s not homophobic in the slightest. First of all, Akihisa (and the FFF) genuinely find him attractive. This is especially evident with his twin sister Yuuko being in the picture. She looks exactly like him and is a girl but no one ever looks at her like that. What they want is Hideyoshi!! And this is not an attempt at a social message but just the nature of the show. It’s quietly accepting, which makes it much more genuine to me than shows where diversity is forced into the narrative to make a point. We do of course have more than that in BakaTest when it comes to queerness. We have Kubo who has a crush on Akihisa, Miharu who is obsessed with her onee-sama, and half of the show is about crossdressing, literally. So if you want dumb mainstream fanservice entertainment, with actual queer acceptance, look no further!

Outside of that all, Hideyoshi is just a sweet character of his own accord. He wants everyone to know he is a guy but also, he doesn’t exactly mind being girly either. The episode where everyone loses important things to them, he is quite adamant about finding his female nurse outfit because it means a lot to him. While he is exasperated by Akihisa’s antics, he doesn’t really lose his mind trying to stop him. And he makes full use of Hideyoshi Changing Rooms, a true queen. I could gush about Hideyoshi for hours - he is just so sweet, and hot to boot. However, since there is no depth to explain, I’ll just do it visually instead. 

Round girl Hideyoshi introduces us to the summoning system of Fumizuki Academy.

Hideyoshi in a swimsuit: the biggest rival of any Akihisa lover.

He won the ladies division too.

I’ll give up on the commentary, I just wanted to see him naked.

Here ends my Kinoshita Hideyoshi appreciation post. Looking forward to a day where we can see his nipples.

[datheetjoella]

Fantober 2020, Day 14: Emergency

Author: DatHeetJoella Fandom: Free! Pairing: MakoHaru Rating: T Part: 14/31 (read the full collection here) Word count: 1,622 Tags: Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Firefighter!Makoto, Baker!Haru, Fluff, Light Angst, Acquaintances to Lovers Read at: AO3, FFn, or right here!

                                            -----------------------------------

The second Makoto was about to sink his teeth into the chocolate cornet he bought at the bakery this morning, the signal went off. He dropped his lunch to the table and sped downstairs on muscle memory alongside his colleagues. They slipped on their protective suits and leapt into the truck. With blaring sirens, they rushed to the fire in the hopes of putting it out before it got out of hand.

Over the past year he spent as a firefighter, Makoto had grown accustomed to this. Although he'd been quite panicky at his first couple of fires, that quickly had to change in order to protect not just himself, but also his colleagues and their community. The reason he aspired for this profession was to keep people from harm's way, so he had developed the cool, level-headed demeanour this job required.

But this fire was different. The moment he heard where they were headed, blue eyes flashed through his mind and the anxiety crawled back with a vengeance, adrenaline levels spiking.

Every morning before work, Makoto visited Nanase's Baked Goods and Pastries, a small family bakery located on a street corner between a florist and a clothing store. The bread and sweets they sold were absolutely delicious, so he got both his breakfast and lunch there - and sometimes, an extra muffin as a treat. But now, this routine was endangered.

While the others voiced worries of the fire expanding to the stores beside it, Makoto was more concerned about the kind lady behind the register who always rang him up with a smile and the baker around his age who solely came out of the back to restock the shelves. The thought of anyone being hurt in a fire was awful, but especially if it were people he knew, or who he frequently saw but hadn't had the pleasure to get to know yet.

Makoto clenched his fists and willed himself to calm down. He needed to be ready to come to their aid if necessary. Collected and focused.

The fire truck arrived at the scene in record time, for the bakery was only a few blocks removed from the station. A large cloud of smoke wafted from the shop, but flames didn't lick out of the windows. Maybe it wasn't too late to prevent escalation.

The firefighters leapt out of the truck and, after assessing the situation, began to hose down the building. Along with one of his colleagues, Makoto went over to the small crowd of people that were gathered at a safe distance from the toxic fumes. His heart sighed in relief when he spotted Mrs. Nanase among them, but her face was contorted with fear and she clutched at her chest. That was when he realised the young baker wasn't beside her.

"Is anyone still inside?"

"My son, Haruka," Mrs. Nanase said, "He yelled at me to go and I thought he was following me out. It wasn't until I got outside that I saw he wasn't with me. I wanted to go back to get him but-"

There was no more time to waste. Makoto and his colleague put on their masks and entered the bakery. The front of the store was clear, but the door to the back was slid shut and smoke emerged from the crevices. When they opened it, they were hit with a thick wall of ash clinging to the air and could barely peer into the kitchen.

Through squinted eyes, Makoto could make out the source of the fire: one of the large ovens was engulfed in orange and yellow flames, blackening the heat-resistant metal. But he didn't see Haruka anywhere.

"Haruka! Are you here?"

A small cough broke through the crackling and Makoto's eyes scanned every corner of the room. Someone was lying on the floor next to an extinguisher, face covered with their shirt and Makoto dropped to his knees. When they cracked open an eye, Makoto confirmed it was Haruka; he'd recognise those immensely blue irises anywhere.

"I found him," Makoto said to his colleague and he scooped the baker off of the floor. "I've got you," he told Haruka, who gripped onto him for dear life and buried his face into his large coat, trying to stifle more coughs.

While his colleague confirmed there was no one else inside, Makoto took Haruka out of the danger zone, out of the claws of the smoke and blaze.

An ambulance had appeared in the meanwhile and he carried Haruka to it. The instant she spotted them, Mrs. Nanase ran over to her son, crying out his name and thanking Makoto profusely for rescuing him.

Makoto would've loved to stay and make sure Haruka was alright, but duty called. He flew back to the truck and grabbed a hold of a hose to assist his fellow firefighters in securing the perimeter.

The fire was resilient but not as powerful as initially seemed. They had responded quickly, before the fire had taken over the entire kitchen and had it under control about an hour later. When his colleagues assured him they could handle it from there, Makoto went back to the ambulance.

Haruka sat at the rear end with his legs dangling over the edge, wrapped up in a blanket and sipping on a bottle of water. A weight was lifted off Makoto's shoulders at the sight of him: he seemed to be doing okay. His mother stood by his side, but when she saw Makoto walking over to them, she approached him first.

"I never knew you were a firefighter," she said, then she bowed so deeply her long dark locks nearly swept across the floor. "Thank you so much for saving my son. I'll forever be grateful to you."

"Thank you, Nanase-san, but that's not necessary at all. I'm simply doing my job," Makoto said with a smile. This was the most rewarding part of his work: not being thanked, but knowing he made a difference.

Mrs. Nanase copied his smile and said, "I'll leave you two alone for a moment." She winked and before Makoto's blood had the chance to rush to his face, she was gone.

Makoto stepped closer to Haruka, but despite having had conversations similar to this a dozen times prior, he found himself at a loss for words. On numerous occasions, he had thought about making small talk with the handsome baker, but he never imagined that the first time they would speak to each other would be in a situation like this.

"You're the man who saved me," Haruka said, voice a bit croaky because of the smoke he inhaled. "Thanks. I suppose I owe you a lifetime's worth of pastries now."

"That's not necessary at all, I'm simply doing my job," Makoto said again, awkwardly waving his hands.

"Heroic deeds deserve rewards, don't they?"

"Knowing you're alright is enough of a reward for me."

The instant the words left his lips, Makoto wanted to tape himself up into a box and ship it to the other side of the country. Before he could begin to apologise, though, Haruka smiled. It was tiny, a slight twitch of the corners of his mouth, but it was definitely there and Makoto's chest filled with warmth. He spontaneously forgot what he was feeling embarrassed about.

"What's your name?"

"Makoto. Tachibana Makoto," he said, smiling a little too, "And yours?"

When Haruka frowned at him, he realised his mistake. "It's Haruka. Nanase Haruka," he spelled out and for a second, it was as though Makoto could read his mind. Idiot, it said. "But Haru is fine."

Makoto would've loved to chat about more nonsensical things and embarrass himself even further, but there were some important matters that needed to be addressed. "Say, Haru, what happened in there? Why didn't you follow your mom out?"

Haruka averted his eyes, fingers fumbling around his bottle. "One of the ovens suddenly malfunctioned and caught on fire. It was pretty small, so I thought I could put it out myself. I closed all the doors and windows to stop oxygen from getting to it, but when I tried to use the fire extinguisher, it didn't work. The smoke built up quickly and it was very disorienting. Before I knew it, I couldn't find the door anymore," he mumbled under his breath. "I'm sorry for the trouble I caused."

Makoto shook his head. "It was brave of you to try to put out the fire yourself, but it can be dangerous. Fire can spread really fast and inhaling a lot of smoke is bad, so for your own safety, it's better to get out of there when you can if the fire is too big to manage. I understand the bakery is very important to you, but nothing is more important than your life."

"You're right. I'll leave the extinguishing up to you professionals from now on," Haruka said, "Again, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, your intentions weren't bad," Makoto said with a slight smile, "But from now on, I'll take care of the fires if you take care of the baking. Because that is something I better stay away from for my own safety."

"Deal," Haruka said, but then he looked away again, abashed, "And maybe I can cook you dinner sometime too? To thank you for saving me."

An adorable pink blush lit up Haruka's cheeks and Makoto's stomach made a backflip of giddiness.

"I'd like that a lot," Makoto said, and he already couldn't wait.

Their dinner date took place the next weekend, and the weekend thereafter, until they ate together almost every day. Although the stove never malfunctioned, Haruka ignited a fire in Makoto's heart that was beyond extinguishing.

[uyuganyu]

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚 2/5

*gif not mine*

PART 1 PART 2

CHARACTERS: Crown Prince!Todoroki x Midoriya!Reader, Prince!Bakugo x Midoriya!Reader, (slight)  Crown Prince!Todoroki x Regina!Yaoyorozu

WARNINGS: none!

GENRE: little angst, lotsa fluff, and maybe a lil make out shesh later ;)

WORD COUNT: 1.2k

A/N: I decided to shift the point of view to the 3rd person, just so there’s a better grasp of the emotions felt by the characters.

*NOT PROOFREAD

“What do you mean by that?” the prince asked with a confused gaze, which the girl responded with a quiet “You’re not usually like this towards me, your highness.”  have I really been that spiteful towards her all this time? The crown prince thought. The girl panicked as she thought she had offended the future emperor. “I didn’t mean to offend you, your highness. Please excuse me.” Frozen, he stood. Still bewildered my the fact that the other regina was feeling uneasy around him. He watched her leave the room, possibly heading to her own chambers. He sat on the king sized bed, with a disappointed look painted on his face.

•

The head maid, Alice, caught a glimpse of the young woman leaving the room and followed her to her chambers. “I think I offended him, Alice.” the head maid went to her side and comforted her “I’m sure you didn’t, m’lady. May I ask what you had told the young master?” The young Midoriya had tears flowing from her eyes endlessly. She could not fathom the pain growing in her chest which was spreading to her head. “M’lady, please calm down-” before the head maid could say comforting words to the regina, a knock startled them both. “y/n, please open the door.” panicked and bloodshot eyes stared at the old maid, silently asking her to make the crown prince leave. “Your highness, m’lady doesn’t mean any harm, but she is asking you to leave for she is not in the right condition to see you right now. She hopes for you to have a good rest, your highness. Please excuse me.” 

Both prince Todoroki and lady Midoriya had trouble sleeping that night.

When the sun came up, she woke up to the sight of roses and lilies surrounding her. From what I remember, these are common apology flowers. What did that porcupine do again? What she didn’t know was, while she was asleep, the prince had asked one of his servants to buy the flowers surrounding her room. It was not from the blonde prince from the neighboring country. She had only realized that after seeing the ever so familiar wax stamp on one of the envelopes placed on the largest bouquet, she was unsure of what to do. She wanted to open it, but was too anxious to even find out what was written on the letter written by the crown prince himself. But, alas, she opened it despite her mind telling her not to. After all, curiosity killed the cat. 

Dear, lady Y/n Midoriya

I’m writing this to you to excuse my unruly behavior from last night. I crossed the line. Both for you and my fiancé, I would like to ask you to leave the palace as soon as you can. Please stay at the other palace if you want, just stay away from here. Thank you very much.

-Prince Todoroki

The young Midoriya stared at the paper before her and immediately called for Alice. It was time to go back home, and ask for her father to take her back.

“I take that the prince is currently training in the field?” she asked Alice, who responded with a nod. It was obvious that she was sad to see the lady she had grown to be loyal to going away for a long time. “Don’t be sad, Alice! I’ll be back soon. Though I doubt I’ll be staying here for a long time.” The last sentence was left unheard my the older woman in front of her. “Please send my regards to the other girls and congratulate the Crown prince and Lady Momo for me. Thank you for all your hard work, Alice. I’ll be taking my leave now.” The head maid bowed and raised a handkerchief to her eyes to wipe the tears that had unknowingly escaped. The emotional farewell was cut short by a strong wind, the two closed their eyes to avoid getting anything into their eyes.

Opening her eyes, they were greeted by a loud voice, a familiar spiky hair, and a red dragon, Kirishima, to be exact. “Katsuki, what the hell! I told you not to use Kiri when coming here!” She approached the red dragon and proceeded to pet its snout while scolding the blond prince. “Mother found out that you were going to ask uncle to take you back home so she asked me to come pick you up.” she found it suspicious that her aunt had already known what she was planning when it was only planned only hours ago. “Did you ask Denki to plant something in my room last time you visited? I only planned to leave this morning, how can auntie possibly know that I was trying to leave?”  The explosive blond could only look away while mumbling something under his breath. A hearty chuckle erupted from the girl’s chest, and said “It’s fine. If anything, I’m thankful that you did. You know auntie is the only mother I’ve ever had.” 

“But seriously, stop using Kiri for quick transportation. You literally have one of those floating carriages.” the man rolled his eyes before hoisting her up by the waist to get her up on the dragon. Before flying away, Bakugo looked at the old woman and told her, “Tell icyhot that I’m stealing her away and he can never get her back. She doesn’t deserve to get treated that way.” y/n looked at him as if he were her knight in shining armor. Until, “Only I can treat her like shit.” His smug expression was immediately wiped off as he felt a fist hit his chin. “OW THAT HURT SHITTY WOMAN.” She rolled her eyes at the angry blond “Let’s go, Kiri!” As they flew away, she waved to Alice before disappearing into the clouds.

From the field, the prince saw a glimpse of the red dragon and the flowing lavender dress. As soon as he noticed who owned the dragon and who owned the dress, he ran into the palace in full speed. Asking all the maids he came across about y/n’s whereabouts, to which they all answered with, “Didn’t you ask her to leave, your highness?” upon hearing the same continuous answer, he rushed to the lady’s chamber.

As he entered, he was greeted by Alice looking down at the letter he wrote. Alice looked at the prince with anger evident in her eyes, but still remained respectful. “Alice, where is she?” I don’t remember asking her to leave, he thought. “perhaps reading the letter will refresh your memories, your highness.” She handed the letter to the confused man and thought, I never would’ve thought the young master could say such harsh things.

“Alice, ask someone to trace the origin of this letter. I don’t recall writing anything in this letter. I clearly remember inviting her for tea and offering her a better room.” The prince said with a dark look embedded on his usually emotionless face.

Alice took notice of that and immediately went to ask a servant to do so. “Prince Bakugo took her to their palace, your highness. But prince Bakugo told me to tell you that ‘ I’m stealing her away and he can never get her back. She doesn’t deserve to get treated that way. ‘, those were his exact words, your highness.” his expression darkened, and he stepped out of the room. “Grab the griffin, I’m heading to the dragon country.” 

TAGLIST: @starsandkeysruler​

[440mxs-wife]

Girls Night

You had been cleaning the bunker for the past two weeks, room by room. It was your turn to host the "Girls Night" this month, and you wanted it to be perfect. So far, you had heard from Donna, Jody, Charlie and Rowena, who all said they'd be there and were looking forward to it. Anael (Sister Jo) had just called you today and said she would be there. You even asked Mary, because you wanted to get to know her better and you loved her boys. Especially one in particular.

Last week, you checked to see that you had all your provisions. You were having cheesecake bites, chips and salsa and your fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. You had ordered pizza, which Charlie agreed to pick up in town for you. Everyone texted you their favorite drink, so you made sure to have that on hand as well. Beer for Donna, Jody, Mary and Charlie, red wine for Rowena, strawberry daiquiri mix for Anael and margarita mix for you.

You also made sure that the spare rooms were all made up with freshly-washed sheets, in case anyone wanted or needed to sleep over. You were extremely excited about hosting the party this time, but a little nervous, because Mary would also be attending. You knew that alcohol tended to loosen tongues, and you didn't want a certain secret to be blurted out for her to hear.

It had to do with Dean and your feelings for him. You've been hunting with Sam and Dean for the past 8 years, after having hunted by yourself since you were 17. At first, you and Dean didn't get along at all, due to your past experience with male hunters. Usually, they charged ahead and tried to leave you behind. It was arrogant macho crap, and you detested it.

Dean tried to do that when you were hunting a wendigo together, but you ended up rescuing him and Sam by torching the monster. After that, you and the boys had an unspoken agreement: equal partners, no macho crap. For the most part, you were able to keep to the arrangement, with a few exceptions, such as when you needed a bit of rescue.

Sam and Dean never let you forget it, either, especially not this last hunt with the werewolf. It had knocked the boys against the wall, leaving them a bit dazed. You were so focused on making sure they were okay, that you missed the second werewolf, its mate. She sliced her claws into your side, then knocked you over. That caused your .380 with the silver bullets to go sliding across the floor. Fortunately, it was within Dean's reach, so he took care of both creatures, then came to check on you.

Once you got back to the Impala, you were placed gently in the back seat. As Dean drove back to the bunker, he let loose with a lecture to you. All about how you didn't pay attention and what you should've done instead. He was upset that your carelessness ended with you getting hurt. He pointed out that the "arrogant macho crap" actually saved your ass this time.

You listened to his arguments, and for once, you actually agreed with him. You were upset with yourself for getting hurt by not paying close enough attention. During his lecture, you drifted in and out of consciousness, with as much blood as you'd lost. That meant that you didn't see that Dean breathed a sigh of relief that you were still alive. As he drove, he kept checking on you every so often through the rearview mirror of the Impala.

When you got back to the bunker, Dean took you right to the infirmary and Sam carefully stitched you up. Dean stayed by your side the entire time, holding your hand, not minding if you squeezed his to get through the pain of the stitches. As tender as those moments were, though, it was back to business as usual after Sam was done patching you up. Dean seemed to be even more guarded than ever around you, almost like he was trying to avoid you.

Jody and Donna were the first to arrive, and it looked like they had both packed an overnight bag. You greeted them with hugs, and showed them to their rooms. You told them to meet you in the kitchen, where you would hook them up with a beer to get started.

As you made your way back to the kitchen, Mary caught up with you. "Thank you for including me on this. I don't have many female friends to speak of, but I know that the ladies that will be here tonight are good friends of yours and my sons," she smiled. "I'm looking forward to getting to know them better, and you, of course," she added.

"It's my pleasure, Mary, I'm glad you could join us. Sometimes there's just a little too much testosterone flowing in this place, especially when Castiel shows up," you explained with a grin. "Makes me want to hide in my room with a book," you laughed, as Mary joined in.

"Everything looks great, is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"Yes, there is," you replied. "Have fun," you whispered then winked at her as you continued on your way to the kitchen.

Anael was the next to arrive, also with an overnight bag, so you asked Mary to show her to one of the empty rooms. In the meantime, Rowena made a graceful entrance and made herself comfy in your favorite reading chair.

You had just served Rowena her red wine, when suddenly the bunker door flew open with a bang. "What's up bitches!?!" shouted Charlie, pizzas in hand. She bounced down the spiral staircase, careful not to drop the pizzas and announced, "Let's eat!"

Everything was set up in the kitchen with the pizzas and other snacks, so you handed out plates to everyone. Once plates were filled, you all adjourned to the living room for more comfortable seating.

"So, where are the guys?" Jody asked.

"In town. Dean's meeting up with his friend, Leo Webb. Sam said he was going to hang out in the library for a bit, then head over to the bar to meet Dean and Leo. At least that was the plan the last I knew," you explained.

"I remember Leo, he was one of Dean's best friends. His dad occasionally hunted with John, so the boys hung out a lot. As they got older, they got to be good friends," Mary added.

"Yeah, I've met Leo a couple of times. He gave me his number, and I mentioned that we were doing our 'girls night' tonight. He said he'd call Dean and arrange to come into town so they could get together," you remarked.

That was nice of her, Mary thought. Hmm. I wonder....

"There's plenty of food in the kitchen, ladies. Anyone need a drink refill?" you asked.

Rowena and Anael said they were good on their drinks. Donna, Jody, Mary and Charlie all needed another beer, and you were working on your second margarita.

A couple of hours later, you all were still working on catching up in each others' lives. Donna and Jody shared some details of their most interesting cases up to that point. Names were left out, but their stories were still hilarious. Anael and Rowena were considering traveling together, seeing the world, one country at a time.

Charlie was still heavily involved in LARPing as the Queen of Moondor. She told the group about the LARPing Tournament that she had just attended. Her army was still somewhat rebuilding, but it was enough to claim victory in the tournament.

Donna turned to Mary for an update. "What about you, Mary?" she asked.

Mary blushed a little when she said she'd been hanging out with Bobby from Apocalypse World. Even though their timelines were different, there was still a bit of history between them. With their respective spouses gone, they found that they enjoyed spending time together. And not just when they were hunting. All the girls started hooting and hollering, but with love behind the teasing. They were all happy for Mary, that she and Bobby had found one another.

"Speaking of new developments...." Charlie looked directly at you, wanting you to spill your details. You gave her the death stare as you replied, "There's nothing to tell for me. Just hunting with the boys, coming home, getting patched up. Excitement level zero."

The girls all looked around at each other, checking to see if anyone was buying your story that there was nothing going on with you, romantic or otherwise. Everyone but Charlie excused themselves and went into the kitchen for another drink and/or more snacks.

In the kitchen, the ladies were discussing your response to Charlie. "So if that wasn't someone covering something up, I don't know what," Jody observed.

"She was a little quick to deny that anything was happening in her life, other than hunting," Rowena commented. "Mary, you're around her a little more, what do you think?"

Mary paused a bit before sharing her thoughts. "Well....from what I've seen, it's like she said, on the surface anyway." Everyone groaned, as they were hoping for a bit of dirt from the "inside woman". "Notice I said, 'on the surface'," Mary grinned conspiratorially. "I think there's something going on with her and one of my boys that she's afraid to admit either to us or herself."

"So how do we get her to open up?" Anael asked.

"Leave that to me," Donna replied with a sly grin. "We'll have her spitting truth in no time."

Back in the living room:

"How could you say that, Charlie?" you hissed. "I told you that in strictest confi--well, you kind of dragged it out of me, but still. I can't talk about my feelings for Dean, not in front of his mother. How awkward would THAT be??" you grumbled.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I think you need another margarita, though. Give me your glass, and I'll get you a refill," Charlie ordered. Reluctantly, you held up your empty glass, your head resting in your hands.

When Charlie came back with your next margarita, Anael asked what the next activity should be. "We could put in a movie, or play cards, or--" you started.

"I think we should play 'Truth or Dare'," Donna suggested, looking around the room. Each of the other ladies in your group were nodding or voicing their agreement.

You took a large gulp of your drink, looked at Donna with one eyebrow raised in a challenge. "Really? All right, bring it on, Sheriff Hanscum. I can roll with the best of them," you remarked, starting to slur your words a bit. In your current state of intoxication, you missed the knowing looks that passed between the other women.

Jody started the questioning, then it went around the room in a circle. It was mostly "Truth" being chosen, with Charlie and Rowena choosing "Dare". Finally, it was Mary's turn and she turned to you. "So, 'Truth' or 'Dare'?" she asked.

You thought that by choosing 'Truth', you were playing it safe. Mary looked directly into your eyes and asked her question. "Which one of my boys are you in love with, Sam or Dean?"

All of the color drained from your face as you tried to come up with an answer. When you couldn't, you bolted from the room, leaving everyone staring after you. Mary got up from her chair and followed you to the kitchen.

You leaned against the counter, willing the tears not to fall. From the corner of your eye, you could see Mary approaching your position. "How did you know?" you whispered.

"Oh, honey, I've been keeping an eye on you and the boys for some time now, trying to figure you all out. From your conversations, your body language and all....it's Dean, isn't it?" she asked gently.

All you could do is nod your head in agreement. "He's so wonderful. I know he likes to show the world how tough he is, how nothing seems to bother him. But I've been there for him when he's had nightmares. He worries so much about everyone else, that he doesn't leave any room to care about himself.

“But I care. It's not just about the physical attributes either, although let's face it Mary, your son is gorgeous," you both chuckled. "I wish he cared for me the way I do for him. That, and I'd give almost anything for him to see himself the way I see him," you finished.

"Have you tried telling him all of this?" she asked. 

"No, I can't do that. We have the best friendship going, and I wouldn't want to ruin that with my one-sided attraction. Besides, I've been a little worried about how you would react. I was afraid you would think I'm not good enough for him," you said softly.

Mary gave you a sidelong glance and put her hand on your shoulder. "Well, you're not," she remarked. You nodded and tears started rolling down your face. She laid a hand on your arm and smiled. "You're perfect for him. You are exactly the kind of person he needs in his life, and I hope he realizes that, sooner rather than later."

"Thank you," you whispered hoarsely. Mary pulled you into a hug and explained, "Everything's going to be fine. Now, you might want to think about sharing this info with the women you've invited here tonight. They are your closest friends, and they will support you no matter what."

You nodded, wiped your tears and walked back out to the living room. "Everyone? I have an answer to Mary's question. I am in love with Dean Winchester," you declared.

The entire room was silent until Jody spoke up. "Sweetie, we know," she said. You looked around and each woman was nodding in agreement. "Really? All of you knew?" you said as you sank into one of the chairs and put your head in your hands.

"Och, darlin', I've seen the way you two look at each other. Dean likes to show the world his rough-and-tumble side. Mark my words, dearie, he goes all soft when you walk into the room," Rowena remarked.

"Yah, you betcha, she's right. He kind of follows you around with his eyes to make sure you're okay," Donna chimed in. "And honey? You're just as bad with him," she said as she leaned over and tapped the end of your nose.

Charlie piped up. "I've actually seen worse. Not only are her eyes glued to him, but if he's in the room first? She has this inner debate with herself about whether to go sit beside him or not. Usually it ends up being 'not'," Charlie mentioned.

"Seriously, though. You should tell him how you feel. I know it's scary to put yourself out there like that. But, you could end up missing out on something pretty great if you wait too long," Anael pointed out.

"Thank you, everyone, I appreciate your advice and your support. I definitely have some thinking to do. Probably best not to do anything about it, though, until I'm sober," you remarked.

Everyone stayed up talking for a little while longer, until one by one, your friends headed off to their rooms. Mary was the last one to say goodnight, and she gave you a hug before going to her own room. "Don't worry, honey. I have a feeling it'll all work out for you and Dean," she said.

You went to the kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag, then went back out to the living room to clean up the remnants of your party from tonight. At one point, you paused in your cleaning and smiled to yourself, remembering how great it was to have friends like this. Also, how fun it was to get together and spend time with each other. You were so engrossed in your memories that you didn't hear the bunker door open or Sam, Dean and Leo come down the stairs.

You shoved paper plates and napkins into the garbage bag, then picked up some of the empty beer bottles. Once you had the living room cleaned up, you started putting away the leftover pizza and other food. You got to the cheesecake bites and realized you hadn't had one yet this evening. You set aside the last chocolate chip cheesecake bite and put the rest away just as Dean walked into the kitchen. "Hey," he said. "Some party, hmm?" he remarked.

"Sure was. Thank you for letting me have the run of the place tonight. Don't worry, I'm not going to make it a habit. I think it's Charlie's turn to host next month," you said quickly as you finished putting things away.

"Yeah, Sammy and me ended up at Jonesy's in town, having some beers and shooting some pool. And hey, even my old friend, Leo Webb, called and said he was in town this weekend, so he met us there. He came back here with us tonight, since I didn't want him to chance driving back to the motel," Dean finished.

"I-I suppose you three guys didn't lack for female company, either," you remarked.

"It was 'Ladies Night', if I recall correctly," Dean explained with a grin.

"Oh. Well, I'm going to have this last chocolate chip cheesecake bite, then I'm going to bed," you said as you unwrapped the dessert.

"That's the last one? Aw, that's my favorite flavor," Dean pouted.

You hesitated before taking a bite and instead held it up for him to take from your fingers. To your surprise, he dove in and plucked the entire bite from your fingers with his mouth. Such an intimate move caused you to blush furiously. "G-goodnight, Dean," you stammered, quickly exiting the kitchen.

You reached your bedroom and quickly closed the door. You leaned against it, trying to calm your hammering heart. When it had slowed down enough, you went to get some Tylenol and a glass of water before bed. You hoped that would be enough to keep your anticipated hangover at bay.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning, Mary was in the kitchen sipping her coffee when Dean came strolling in. She wished him good morning, as she looked up to meet his eyes. He returned the greeting and kissed his mother's forehead. They each shared how their evening had gone. Mary informed Dean that she'd had a lovely time. She said that she was welcomed as if she'd been part of the group since forever.

Dean told his mom about his night, with Sammy joining him at the bar after going to the library. "And get this, my old friend, Leo Webb, was in town this weekend, so he hung out with us. He came back with us, crashed in one of the spare rooms," Dean replied.

After a breakfast of coffee and cinnamon rolls, the girls all took their leave, with Charlie being the last one to depart. As she hugged you goodbye, she whispered in your ear, "Remember what we talked about last night. Go for it." She stepped back and picked up her bag. "My place next month. Adios, bitches!" she called. You laughed at your friend then closed the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later in the afternoon, you found you had some free time. You grabbed your book and blanket, then settled into your favorite chair in the library. Before long, your eyelids began to droop, and you eventually fell asleep, book still open to the page you were reading.

Dean was passing through the library on his way to his room. He stopped when he saw you, and took a moment to study you as you slept. Your hazel eyes, although closed now, had a way of drawing him in, capturing his attention. There was a light dusting of freckles across your nose that he'd never noticed before, and your delicate eyelashes fluttered as you slept.

A small smile came across his face, thinking how peaceful you looked, all curled up in your chair, asleep. He also thought of how vulnerable you were, especially considering how that last hunt with the werewolf had gone.

He came so close to losing you that it scared him, which is why he gave you such a harsh lecture. He half expected you to argue back at him, but you didn't. He held your hand while Sam stitched up your wounds. Since then, he's tried to distance himself from you, not wanting to admit to himself the thoughts and feelings he was having.

Leo came up beside him and followed his gaze over to where you were sleeping. "Damn, Dean, how do you do it, man?” he asked.

“Do what, Leo?” Dean wondered.

“Concentrate with someone as beautiful as her around?" Leo asked. "I've talked to her on the phone a couple of times lately, about coming out here. Her voice is pure honey, music to the ears. And I gotta say, brother, the body matches the voice," he finished.

"She's a great hunter, has great instincts and can kick ass with the best of them. She's fun to be with, too. Great sense of humor and the most musical laugh. She takes real good care of Sammy and me, and well, now Mom too. Sometimes I think she forgets to do things for herself, she's so worried about everyone else," Dean mused.

"Sounds like you might have a thing for her," Leo observed.

"What? No, we're just good friends. Great fr-best friends," Dean corrected.

"You sure? Because I was thinking about asking her out. I don't have to be back for another couple of weeks, might as well have some fun while I'm here. Unless you don't want me to," Leo added.

"Why would I care? You're single, she's single. Why shouldn't you get together?" he muttered.

"Good, I'll ask her out for tonight. Thanks, Dean," Leo clapped him on the shoulder as he left.

"Yeah. You're welcome," he murmured. Dean didn't know why, but the thought of you going out with Leo upset him. To him, Leo was only looking for a good time while he was here. He could see how you might end up getting your heart broken when Leo left town. No, Dean decided that wasn't going to happen, not on his watch.

You awoke refreshed from your nap and returned your belongings to your room. As you were tidying things up, you heard a knock on your door and saw Leo standing there. He asked if you would like to go out on a date with him tonight, to which you agreed. He was heading back to the motel to get changed, but said he would be back to pick you up at 6:00pm for dinner.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Your date with Leo ended a little early, around 9:00pm. You went to your room and changed into your pajamas, then wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. As you passed through the library, you noticed Dean, a glass of whiskey in his hand.

"How was your date?" he asked, an edge to his voice.

"Fine, is something wrong?" you inquired cautiously.

"No, nothing's wrong at all. Wait, why are you home so early?" Dean said.

"Can we please not play twenty questions right now? I was headed to the kitchen to get some water and saw you sitting here. I'll be right back," you replied.

Dean wasn't satisfied with your answer, so he followed you. "Did something happen on your date?" he asked.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it right yet, let me get my drink of water first," you retorted.

"Why won't you answer my questions about your date?" Dean demanded.

"Why are you so concerned about my date? What are you, jealous?" you threw out.

"YES! Yes, dammit I'm jealous! That should've been me out there with you tonight, but I didn't have the guts to ask you out before Leo did. I don't know what happened that you're back here so early tonight. But I guarantee you that if I took you out on a date, we'd still be out having a great time," he finished. "So, what happened?" he asked, more gently this time.

"I told him that he was a nice guy and a good friend of yours, but that I didn't see us going anywhere. Especially since he's only going to be around for a couple of weeks, and I want something more. Besides, I told him that I'm in love with someone else," you admitted, taking a step closer to Dean.

"Really? Who?" he asked.

"Well, he's....how do I describe him? He's about 6'1", blond-ish hair, strong, loyal, caring, great sense of humor and the most piercing green eyes I've ever seen. He's got some walls up, though, and it will take me some time to get through them. But, I'm willing to try, because he's definitely worth it. He has my heart, and I love him so much," you finished.

Before you knew it, Dean's lips crashed into yours. His kiss started out rough and raw with emotion over what you'd said about your feelings for him. Then it turned softer as he finally realized how he felt about you.

"Since we're making confessions, I should tell you about this girl I know. How do I describe her? She's about 5'3", curly brown hair, sweet, caring, always thinking of others first, also great sense of humor. Her hazel eyes are the perfect swirl of brown and green. They're so mesmerizing, that I get lost every time I look in them. If I could give her one thing, it would be that she could see herself the way I see her. She has my heart and I love her so much," Dean replied.

He leaned his head down until your lips met again in a slow, luxurious kiss. Your mouths moved together in perfect harmony. Dean's hand on the back of your head kept your lips in constant contact. Your hands traveled up his muscular chest until you clasped them behind his head.

"I love you, Dean," you whispered.

"I love you too, sweetheart," he whispered back.

[caffeinated-mendes]

amethyst - shawn mendes

word count: 1.3 k

synopsis: (intentionally written in lowercase) it’s the renaissance, and your father has sent you to the royal court of portugal to marry two of the king’s sons, and create a strong alliance between your nations. when you have the choice to marry the eldest, gabriel, who is a cruel heartthrob, or shawn, the kind and playful son, you feel a strange certainty about the boy you want.

a/n: i’ve had this little one-shot for a while, but i’ve decided to finish it today. sort of inspired by what i’ve been learning in history about the renaissance lol :) comments and likes are always appreciated!

warnings: none

*if you prefer, you can read this on ao3 instead of here

you paced the castle halls as your dress flowed along with you, your heels tapping on the stone floor quietly. your heart was racing, the castle’s noises unfamiliar, as you were a guest in this kingdom. your father sent to you to be married and make an alliance with the portuguese, a strong bond between your nations. however, you had two choices; to marry the quite frighteningly handsome eldest son of the king, gabriel, or the youngest, shawn. gabriel didn’t talk much to you, he stayed confined to his bedroom, a guard posted often to allow no visitors. every woman fawned over him, he had gorgeous green eyes and slicked back, dark hair. he acted like a true royal. and that is exactly why you didn’t like him. he was narcissistic, you had overheard conversations between him and his father, and he had spoken that he knew you would pick him over his wild younger brother.

gabriel was wrong. shawn sat next to you at every meal, would talk to you, play games with you in the courtyards, go on horseback riding to the shore where you would watch the sun set. he was quite literally your best friend. he had curly hair that couldn’t be tamed, one curl always in his face, a smile that lit up the room, eyes that were brown from far away, but when you looked closer, had flecks of green and amber, and most of all, he respected you. he saw you and himself as equals. the talk of the town was that you would pick gabriel, it was more admirable to marry the eldest son. the king didn’t mind you choosing differently, but you knew he had a preference.

clutching onto your necklace, you wanted to rip the pins from your hair, take off the heavy dress, and just feel at peace without all your physical restraints. pacing the halls brought worry to the servants, always asking, are you alright, my lady? do you need anything, my lady? you sometimes wished you were born a peasant, that way you didn’t have anyone doting on you constantly. earlier, you had left a letter to be delivered to shawn, saying that you needed to meet him in the east hallway. as you turned back around, you saw a flurry of dark hair, thinking at first it was shawn, but it was his brother, gabriel. he stopped at you, surprising yourself. “y/n, would you care to join me for tonight’s festivities? i would love to be your escort.”

“i’m sorry, gabriel, i don’t think i’ll go tonight.” you kept your gaze trained on him, but your breath ran from your lungs as his brow quirked.

“why, wouldn’t you want me to present you to everyone? show you off like the beautiful thing you are?” you recoiled in disgust as he said it. you were not a pretty necklace to be shown off, only something to look at. yes, the seventeenth century was not the time of a woman, but you did not accept being treated that way.

you cleared your throat, and clasped your hands in front of you, “as flattered as i am,” you choked, “i cannot attend tonight. i’m preoccupied.”

“that’s enough, gabriel,” said the warm, familiar voice from the hallway, “leave her alone. she doesn’t want to speak to your kind.” shawn grinned as he stood next to you, taking your hand and placing his lips on it. 

gabriel’s glare was menacing towards shawn, “i am your elder brother, and you will listen to me-”

“i’d rather not.” before gabriel could decipher what shawn said, he took your hand and began to run, down, down, down the hall and out to the fields, where the horses grazed. “i’m sorry he said that to you,” shawn gasped as you ran, holding chunks of your green silk dress in your hands, wishing to wear pants.  “you wanted to ride?” you confirmed his statement, and into the stables you went.

you laughed as you neared the horses, the summer day nearly fading as the sun neared the edge of the plains of grass and flowers of every color. the two of you were silent as you rode your horse, luna, yours a jet black color that you loved, and shawn rode a brown horse named artemis. following their familiar path, the two stallions neared the crashing waters, the cliff absorbing the orange light from the sunset. the two of you got off of their backs, and sat near the cliff’s edge. “shawn,” you said, looking at him, his white shirt flowing back from the wind.

“yes?” he looked at you as your hand neared his, feeling his fingers meeting yours, a warmth spreading throughout your body. 

“i’ve been thinking about why my father sent me here.” you clutched your necklace with your other hand, watching his eyes meet yours, a stare so intense you felt your cheeks fire away. “he wanted me to make the right decision. something to bring my family honor, make sure i am pure and good and to sustain the alliance between our countries. and i know i was given an offer that not many future queens have. to choose between two people. find which one fit for me, and not be engaged to one boy since i was a child.” your hand left your necklace and began to touch the grass, a dew covering your palms.

“i understand,” shawn turned to you in the grass, your breathing, the wind, and the tiniest sounds of the horse hooves against the grass all that there was. “i can never know what it is like for you. women are given little choices, while men have free reign. and i want to be loyal and to protect someone for as long as i live. i know kings have mistresses, affairs, but i feel as though i could never do that to a woman. i never want to.” shawn chuckled, and reached his hand to your collarbone. you watched as his hand took the stone on your necklace, the lavender color of it shining in the sun. “amethyst. it is supposed to make someone pure, fend off evil and give protection.”

your hair flew behind you, tickling your back, a sparking sensation everywhere in your body. “i want you. i want to marry you.” you didn’t understand how you had the courage to say that and didn’t comprehend what you had said until a spark erupted in shawn’s eyes, the brown suddenly consuming you. and you blurted out the rest, “gabriel is cruel, and only thinks of himself. i want someone that is faithful, that i can learn from my mistakes with, and i think i have known it for a long time, but it was always you.” your hand reached out, out of the grass as you pulled his face toward yours, his lips latching to yours. they were soft, contrasting a burning sensation in your stomach as his hands found the roots of your hair, pulling out each pin carefully as you kissed him. 

when you separated, your hair was free, long and flowing across your shoulders. everything seemed to fit together as he kissed you again, biting your bottom lip teasingly. pushing you onto the grass, flat on your back, he pushed a strand of hair behind your ear, then nipped at your earlobe, slowly kissing his way on your jaw down to your neck, leaving you breathing heavily.

the dull ache at the bottom of your stomach grew more intense by the second as you put your hands under his tunic, running them along his bare back. as the sun set, everything seemed to quiet, the sky peacefully showing a single ray of moonlight as the clouds shifted across the tiny sphere. just as the lights from the festivities began to show in the distance, you didn’t mind being late to them.

all that you could focus on was the rosy face of the boy you loved in front of you, and somehow, that brought you peace to imagine that this is what you’d have to look at, all yours for the rest of your life.

[jbbuckybarnes]

Burned into my mind

Bucky x Reader Soulmate AU (name on their wrist) Warnings: None, I think. Not Beta read.

M A S T E R L I S T

If there is one thing that has always been natural to you it was covering your left wrist. Not because of a dark past, not because you disliked your wrists, just because there was this name. Everyone had the name of their soulmate on their left wrist and while you didn’t mind finding your soulmate you didn’t want to pressure yourself and constantly be reminded of it was definitely pressure. And the last thing you wanted in a job surrounded by people was constant reminder of them knowing someone with that name. Most of the time you had your Fitbit, a watch or a thick bracelet over the cursive “James” on your wrist and the people around you were used to it. If they asked you explained to them that you wanted things to happen naturally. You weren’t desperate to know your soulmate. Sure, once you had him, that would be nice, but you could lead a normal life without him. You were just about to bring your empty coffee mug to the kitchen of the compound when a blob of color flew past you. Bucky. And then there was another more colorful blob shortly after. Steve. The only way you could tell them apart when they were running past you on top speed was their taste in clothing. Bucky had seemingly managed to get a cream pie into Steves face and you definitely needed to keep your reaction hidden. You had no fair chance of running away from the blonde giant of a man and you weren’t keen on getting cream pie onto your favorite shirt. “James Buchanan Barnes!” you heard the serious voice and instead of letting your eyes widen at the shock you swallowed it down. Sure, it could be Bucky, but James was a common name. And Bucky quite obviously didn’t have his left arm anymore, along with tons of past memories. You wondered if he had a soulmate in the 40s. There must’ve been a lucky girl with his name on her wrist. Maybe he could remember her and missed her. You shook your head to get out of your thoughts and vanished into the kitchen.

“Can I ask you something?” your small voice got his attention. Both of you were relaxing on the roof of the building by the quinjet. The last mission had been quick and you had ordered some food. “Sure.” a small smile formed on his face with an attentive look at you. “Do you remember your soulmate?” your tone was cautious of potentially hurting his feelings. His eyes weren’t in the now anymore for a while, “Never found her. She’s probably 100 or dead by now. If Hydra didn’t make me kill her.” “Do you remember her name?” your legs were by your chest now and your head on your knees. He nodded, “It’s burned into my mind like nothing else.” Without more context. That was his little secret and you totally understood. You would tell him the name on your wrist if he asked, but that was only because it was also his name. “Do you think she had your actual first name on her wrist or Bucky?” you smiled. “Probably my actual first name. I only started getting called Bucky when I began going to school.” he smiled into the distance. “I feel like nobody ever hears my actual name. My soulmate has it extra hard. An Avenger that doesn’t have their name on public record that much? Yeah. Sounds like a pain in the ass.” you both giggled. “He’s definitely missing out on you scream singing the Lion King intro multiple times per week.” he chuckled. “And my legendary cookies.” you smiled at him. “Y/N’s legendary cookies are an Avengers-only thing.” he looked at you with a serious face before you both broke into laughter. “He can have ONE. C’mon.” “I’ll steal them all before he can have one.” “Bucky with 10 cookies in his hoodie pocket. Not suspicious at all.” you grinned. “In those moments I appreciate that I can look scary.” a soft smile played on his lips. A few weeks later Pepper, Nat and Steve had actually managed to push the team to go on a small vacation together. “Bonding outside of the job,” they said. As if the didn’t live together at pretty much all times. “Who the hell picked India out of all countries?” Sam yelled. “Shut up, birdman. It’s a multicultural place that we can appreciate and pressure Tony to spend money in.” you came back at him which earned you a smirk from the two ex-spies in the room. “Varanasi. Never heard of that.” came from Wanda. “It’s a very spiritual city. Holds a lot of value for Hindus. Lots of cows, lot’s of spiritual places.” Vision, the wandering human internet gave a small rundown. “Sounds like a good place to calm down.” you shrugged. “Not really. It’s a place where tons of people go to die actually. But I guess we should learn more about their culture.” he explained. You left the room shortly after to pack some stuff. Busy streets, dogs, cows, dirt and a lot of praying people. That was your first impression of Varanasi. You had learned a bit more about the city on the flight there and you were definitely intrigued. “I’m excited for all the stuff that isn’t burning people and bathing. I like how they do it, very spiritual, but my western brain can’t handle the directness of burning dead people and drinking river water. But I also can’t handle basic christian church sometimes, so what’s new?” you let your brain go. “I hate to say it but I’m so down for the food and touristy stuff. And the cows.” Nat smirked. “I hope you all have good shoes.” Tony yelled from the pilot seat. “Combat boots.” the group of people yelled back. “We’re here.” Clint now yelled. You were greeted with masses of people and animals, quite a few of the people were asking if you wanted things and you kindly shook your head. It didn’t take long for Nat, Wanda and you to be decked in vibrant fabrics. “Glass Beads,” you said and the three of you looked into the direction of the shop you had just found. “Those are prettyyy.” “You can get them engraved with your initials. Charges them spiritually.” the old man that owned the shop explained to you. You loved to collect all kinds of spiritual and handmade things and this was right up your ally. “I need your full name.” “Y/F/N Y/N Y/L/N.” you smiled and looked at Bucky’s reaction from your peripheral vision. His mouth stood slightly open and he looked between you and the glass bead bracelet you held out to the man. “I’ll be right back.” the man smiled with your dark blue bracelet in his hand. You stayed in a more luxurious place a bit further away from the city. It was a bit like a resort. The team was definitely grateful for that after the culture shock they had just been faced with. You were sitting on the porch of your little house, overlooking an insanely pretty lake. Soft steps came towards you and a tired Bucky sat down next to you on the bench. “You look pretty in a sari,” he smiled at the beautiful silk sari you were still wearing. “Thanks. Definitely makes me feel pretty. I mean look at it.” you went over the pretty patterns. “Where’s the bracelet?” he asked and you held out your left arm with a proud smile. “Why didn’t you buy one?” “Wouldn’t wear it.” a shrug. “I think it would look cool on your arm.” you pointed at his left wrist. “Well, I don’t have anything to cover there.” he rubbed over the space that had his soulmates name on it once. “Do you think you’ll be without a soulmate? Or do you think she’s alive and actually synced up to your weird life?” you smiled. “I think she lives. I know she does.” he grinned down at the blank space. “I didn’t see the name since I lost my arm and I can’t think of anything else that was burned into my mind like it.” He looked up at you with a little frown, “Y/N? What name is on you wrist? I know you don’t like to talk about it, but...we talked about this so much and you never told me.” “It’s in the top 10 of most common English names. Could be anyone.” you shrugged before pushing the glass beads down and the band of your watch up. His name was written across your wrist in cursive and a wall of overwhelm hit him. Visibly. “I know, it’s also your name, but…” you shrugged and looked towards the lake again. “Y/A/N.” he stared at you cause he couldn’t keep himself from doing so. “Hm?” you looked back into his direction. “Y/A/N, that’s the name that I’ve have burned into my mind.” he was searching for your eyes. “Really?” you finally met his eyes with a little frown. “That’s the last topic I would joke about, Y/N.” he said serious. You needed to laugh, earning a confused look from him. “Wow, we really made this harder than it needed to be.” A soft smile came onto his face with a nod before he took your left hand again. “Wish you could see mine.” his finger went over his name. “You can be damn lucky that I like your metal arm without the name on it just as much.” you smiled up at him, making him blush. “God, I didn’t know you were capable of blushing.” you said fake shocked. He grabbed you to shut you up but you only started giggling more. “There’s probably a picture of you from back then, right? Why don’t you get the name tattooed onto your right wrist?” you smiled up. “Only if you let me take you out to my favorite places in Brooklyn.” he smiled at you on his lap. “I can get behind that, James.” you said his name extra sweet. He stared at your lips for a second before his eyes shifted up, “Can I kiss you?” With a short nod warm lips were landing on yours and you suddenly understood why he was such a lady killer back in the day. Not too innocent, not too intense, just sweet but loving. “You’re gonna have to shave.” you blinked up at him and got a chuckle back. “Fine.” he wanted to sound annoyed but that was impossible with the big happy grin on his face and his left hand caressing your face.

M A S T E R L I S T