#I have not done much art before all this outside notebook paper doodles

[intotheelliwoods]

Gonna ask this to a few people that inspire me, but how do you take inspiration from things without feeling like whatever you make is just bad in comparison? Or like a downgraded version of the thing(s) that inspired you?

(If this is too negative feel free to delete/ignore, I'm sorry)

Oh gosh this is such an interesting question since, I dont think I really have feelings of thinking my version is bad? Or that I am just a copy?

I am honestly just grateful my work became as popular as it is in the first place haha- low expectations going in to begin with. That and, I am very aware my art style isnt as defined and polished as other peoples styles, but I have come to terms with this! And hey the improvement in my own artwork over the past year is a massive trip if you go back through some of my older stuff- I am improving, slowly.

I mean, 2AL started by complete accident, and was "inspired" from me wishing the Leos from OMO or MNMC would hug it out already- but if you were to compare 2AL to one of those, they are very different. Hell even comparing OMO and MNMC, same starting point, but still very different.

I think my only advice to other people trying to make an AU is to try and find some core theme/idea and work around that, rather than gather a bunch of little things from other sources you like into a big pile. Find some key message to start up a base with.

[getitinbusan]

The Music Room -

Min Yoongi 18+ Smut

Part of the Lost Boys Series

JIN • NAMJOON • YOONGI •

Warnings: 18+ smut, MF sex, MF oral, A playful bite, Swearing.

Words: 3075

Summary: A stand alone series about a misfit friend group of seven boys. These stories are a day in the life snip it of who they are, where they came from and how they love.

The melody drifting up the barren hall floated through the air like it was made for your ears alone.

The poetic rhythm of the keys made you pause, listening enviously at the talent of whomever was playing.

But who was playing? It was 8 am on a Friday, the room should be vacant. Pulling up the music rooms schedule on your phone, you weren't wrong. The first spot of the day was yours for the entire semester. 

You knocked lightly. The sound stopped and the bench made it's familiar dragging noise across the concrete floor. 

Pulling the heavy windowless wood open by it's cold handle you peeked inside. He scrambled, seemingly embarrassed, shoving his sheet music into his backpack. 

"You should be more careful with your notes, don't want to ruin any masterpieces." 

"No fear in that," he mumbled.  "They're just a bunch of scribbled ideas."

 Pulling the zipper shut he slung it over his shoulder.  "Sorry, I didn't know this was your time slot." 

"It's fine." you tried to smile at him but he kept his eyes down.

"Don't you have the schools app? I can check to see when you're supposed to be here." You tapped the widget,  "What's your name?"

"It's fine, I'm actually not on the schedule." 

"Oh, why not? You sounded great. If you missed the cutoff you can still be added to a wait list. People drop out all the time." 

He looked up and grinned. By God if he wasn't the most beautiful boy you'd ever seen.

"I don't belong here." 

"Don't say that. I was listening and you're really talented, you deserve to be here just as much as any of us." 

"I don't though." His eyes met yours and you were done for. "I don't go here, I'm not a student." 

"Ahh, I guess that's a problem." 

"I already said I'm sorry," he got defensive. "I'll just get out of your way."

He started towards the door.

You tugged his backpack. "So is breaking into schools and playing piano a weird hobby of yours?"

You tried to lighten the mood, "you've got a little Phantom of the Opera University edition kink?" 

He laughed. "I'm not technically breaking in, I do have a key fob." He held up the school ID. "It's my roommates. And if you want to know about my kinks you're gonna have to get to know me a little better." 

You stepped closer and took it from his hand.

"Park Jimin, Performing Arts." Handing it back you eyed him up and down. "So what's your story….."

"My name's Yoongi."

Pulling a chair out from the corner you sat and rummaged through your backpack until you pulled out your breakfast. 

"Listen Yoongi, I was just going to sit here. I need logged practice time for course credit." 

You peeled your clementine, "So if you want to stay and play, be my guest."

He looked at you unsure, "Why would you do that for me?" 

You smiled and shrugged. "I like your face." 

Turning red he plopped his knapsack back onto the floor and reclaimed the bench. 

You waited until his fingers were just about to land on the keys. "I do have one condition though." 

He froze, "Yeah, what's that?" 

"You have to take me for coffee later and tell me your story. Agree?" 

"I Agree. But you didn't have to give up your time for that, I was going to ask you out anyway." 

You probably wouldn't have given up your time but you were intrigued. Park Jimin was an amazing dancer. The curious boy who was here on scholarship was often the subject of conversation in the dining hall. Not only was he good looking but he was a mystery. He hung out with the strangest group of friends, seven misfit boys who were proud to not fit in. In this small University town they stood out as odd, everyone referred to them as The Lost Boys. Yoongi, now being revealed to you as one of them, seemed harmless enough and the opportunity to get to know a piece of them was too good to pass. 

Walking and talking up the worn concrete path you made your way through the bustle of pajama clad students trying to get to class. 

"Don't you have to be somewhere?" 

"Yeah, but I don't care. I'd rather get to know you." 

"You should go, I'm not so important that you should lose a day of school over me." 

"It's all bullshit anyway Yoongi, it's not going to get me anywhere." 

He stopped abruptly, now just outside the small coffee shop. "You sound like a spoiled brat." 

You were shocked, who the hell was he to speak to you like that? 

"I'd kill to be in your position and you don't even give a shit about just squandering it away." 

He pulled the door open and looked at you crossly. "Still want that coffee?" 

You stepped in front of him and shot him a dirty look. "I do. You owe me AND because I'm a brat I'm going to order the fanciest thing on the menu. TO GO!" 

He silently walked behind you, following to the counter while you placed your ostentatious order. You stood studying him while he asked for an iced Americano. His blond shaggy hair skimmed his chocolate eyes and his sexy lips seemed to  always sit in permanent pout. They looked like they'd be nice to kiss. 

"You want to stop staring at me and take your expensive drink. You're holding up the line." 

You blushed, knocked from your daydream admiration by his deep voice.

You huffed while pulling the chair out, making a show of your annoyance, situating yourself at the corner table.

"I thought you were getting it to go?" he barbed. 

"Why would I do that when I can be a pain in your ass a little bit longer? You promised to tell me your story, let's hear it?" 

His inhale was deep. Anxiety? Apprehension? A mix of both? His eyes stared at his coffee while his fingers fiddled with the straw. "I want to be a musician." 

"Well I figured that much." 

"Listen, if you really want to know can you just shut up? This isn't an easy thing for me to talk about, I don't just tell everyone." 

"If you don't want to tell me don't" 

He cut you off. "But I do want to, for some stupid reason."

"What reason?" 

He exhaled with a smirk. "I like your face." 

You smiled, "Then please continue." 

"I want to be a musician. I write music and lyrics and it's all I've ever wanted my entire life."

He took a sip of coffee. "My parents didn't approve of my choices so I decided to move out on my own and live my life how I wanted." 

You nodded in understanding. 

"I didn't take into consideration how hard exactly that would be, but I'm a proud man, and there's no going back." 

"So what do you do? You're not a student, do you work?"

"Yeah, I deliver food and groceries part time. It doesn't pay much but the basics are covered." 

You looked down at your shitty expensive coffee in guilt, maybe you were just a spoiled brat.

"So whenever I'm not working I try to get as much practice and writing in as I can. I use Jimin's fob to get into the music room and that's where I am most nights...all night." he shrugged in omission. 

"So no time for a girlfriend?" you felt silly the moment it left your lips. 

"I didn't think so." He looked up for the first time since the conversation started. "But," he smiled, "I think given the right person priorities could definitely be changed." 

Talking into the afternoon time flew away. Several less expensive coffees later he looked at his phone and frowned. "I've got to go to work." 

He stood up and gathered his things. "But I'd love it if we could see each other again." 

You stood to go too. "Next Friday 8am? I can let you in with my fob?" 

"That sounds really nice." His hand reached out and his fingers brushed across yours as he took the tray from you. "But I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait that long. We're having a party tonight at our place...will you come?" 

You sat on the edge of the sofa watching the group around you getting drunk and philosophical. Definitely nothing like a frat party, these guys were a different breed.

His roommates were all handsome in their own way and something about them just set you at ease. No pretensions, no apologies, they were just who they were having fun.

Finally seeing him walk through the door your heart raced when his eye caught yours.

"I'm sorry I'm late, they kept getting orders." 

"It's okay. Your roommate..." you pointed to Seokjin. "The one with the really broad shoulders, he kept me entertained with some pretty good jokes." 

He scrunched his nose, "really, really sorry." 

You pulled a bottle vodka out of your purse and raised your brows. "Are you ready for some fun." 

He grabbed your hand and pulled you up from the couch until you were close enough to hear without having to shout.

"I'd like to grab a shower. Do you want to wait in my room for me? I mean...if you're uncomfortable down here by yourself." 

It was a no brainer, the sexual tension and chemistry you'd had all day was like a current of electricity running between you.

"Lead the way." 

You looked around his room while he was showering. Sure the mattress was on the floor but the bed was made and his clothes were hung neatly in the closet. His dresser was stacked with notebooks that were overflowing with lyrics. Pieces of paper with doodles and random words loosely spilling from between the pages. 

Pictures, they must be family, small resemblances in their smiles and it looked like he had a brother. 

He had a shelf full of colognes. Picking up the Paco Rabanne he walked in as you were pulling the cap off to sniff it. 

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to be nosey, I just wanted to know what you smelled like." Idiot, of all the creepy things to say. 

He smiled, "It's alright, I'm not hiding anything." 

"No," your cheeks flushed when it finally registered that he was half naked in front of you. "I guess you really aren't." 

"Shit, sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just forgot to grab my clean clothes before I went in." He opened a drawer to pull out a shirt. 

"It doesn't," you blurted embarrassed. 

He pulled his hand away from the clothing and raised his brows quizzically, "So you don't want me to get dressed?" 

You walked towards him, he was gorgeous. Water droplets still clung to his muscular chest like he couldn't afford the time away from you to fully dry himself. 

"I think," you stammered, "That I'd actually prefer if you didn't."

You placed your hand on his bicep and waited for his response. 

It didn't come from words, it came from two soft warm lips attaching themselves to yours. 

"You're a good good kisser Min Yoongi. Is your mouth that good at everything?" 

"You mean like singing?" He teased your lips with his while he popped the button on your jeans. 

"No," you giggled. 

"Then you must mean biting?" His teeth lightly bit the flesh of your thigh as he kneeled to lower your pants and underwear. 

"Nope, that's not what I meant either." 

"Oh, I know, you must mean eating?" His warm tongue found your clit and gave it a little flick. "I think I'm pretty good at it." 

You ran your fingers through his hair while he looked up at you hungry. 

"Prove it," you moaned." 

Stepping out of your pants you leaned back against his dresser. Ass resting on the edge he opened your thighs, a low mumble of, "fuck" drifting out of his mouth before he dove in. 

His large hands held you open while his silky tongue explored every crevice of your sex sending your senses into a frenzy. Coming up for air every so often he'd moan at the loss of your taste before inhaling and going back in for more. He wasn't methodical, his mouth was unpredictable. One minute his tongue would be deep inside you and the next he'd have his lips around your clit sucking softly. 

"Come over here with me."

He led you to the bed, taking off your shirt before guiding you down. Your eyes ran over his body stopping at the bulge under the tightly wrapped terry cloth towel. The wetness in between your legs grew just thinking about getting to see it. 

He laid down beside you, holding your face and kissing you while you reached to undo his shroud.  

Smiling, he pulled your hand away, "I'm not done with you yet. Tell me what you want me to do to you." 

You had to rub your legs together for friction, he was driving you wild. "This morning, when I watched you playing?" 

He smiled like he knew.

"All I could think of was how sexy your..." He stopped your words by hooking two fingers  into your mouth and rubbing them against your tongue. 

"You were thinking about how good these would feel inside you?" He kissed your neck, "You really know what you want huh?" 

"Some people even say I'm spoiled."

"Do you always get your way?"

He plunged them inside of you changing your words of, "I hope so," into a long drawn out moan.  

Kissing his way down your neck and over your collar bones his mouth lingered on your breasts. Skimming his lips across your nipples he watched as they hardened into excited little buds. A small smile graced his face, he was clearly proud of how he was making your body react. 

His long piano fingers played skillfully inside of you while he latched onto your nipple and suckled. Your heart beat loudly like it was part of the parties soundtrack, the music  reverberating through the floor as he fingered you. The whole unfolding scene felt like a dream. Dizzy and intoxicated from lust and heavy breathing you didn't want to wake up to a reality other than this one.

A thud outside the door snapped you back, your thighs clamping shut on his hand as you pulled the covers up to hide yourself. 

"It's locked, nobody can get in, don't worry." He pulled the sheet back off of you to continue his work. 

"Are you sure they can't get in?"

A loud moan rang through the hall and the thuds against the wall gave away the truth. 

"I'm sure they have their own agenda." 

You flopped back trying to regain the moment while his fingers  stroked your walls. 

It was distracting at first, people fucking right outside his door. But a few minutes of listening to their pleasure, of hearing their moans and the pleas of harder, you were more turned on than ever. 

He watched you unravelling at the  pornographic sounds. "You wanna cum when they do?" 

"Please..please," you begged in time with the drag of his fingers. 

The sounds escalating on both sides of the wall seemed to add fuel to the fires of both immanent orgasms. Just as the stranger in the hall screamed her end, Yoongi pumped and sucked harder until you finished longer and louder than your unknown counterpart. He laughed as he pulled his fingers out of you, the strings of excitement cleaned off with a lurid suck of his own digits. 

Your head was still reeling when he pulled his towel off. His thick beautiful cock looked so hard and ripe as he reached in his drawer for a condom. 

"Can I put it on you?" You took it from his hand and ripped the package open. Holding it between your fingertips you got closer and ran your tongue around the head of his cock. The taste of pre cum on his freshly washed dick made you ready for more.

Giving him a few deep sucks and pumps you needed him now. He watched while you rolled the thin latex tightly over his twitching thickness and straddled him, wasting no time to begin bouncing on his cock. 

Your kisses were messy, hands entwined in his hair, your breasts grazing against his skin with every thrust while you rode him. "Fuck, you feel so good." 

His hands gripped your ass squeezing as he moaned underneath you. Orgasm building like a hurricane, the eye of the perfect storm became more imminent with every slide of your pleasure point against his soaked pubic trail.

"Make me cum Yoongi." 

He flipped you swiftly onto your back and his hips picked up the pace to the finish line. Thrusting in between your open thighs his cock drove you to convulsively cum, your cunt squeezing his own warm liquid into the condom between you. 

He lay with his arms around you in silence. Your head on his chest listening to his heart slowly make it's way back to a normal pace.

"I can't promise you anything more than who I am. I don't have anything to offer you but dreams that may or may not come true."

He stroked your hair as he spoke his truth. "I'm working hard, but I can't guarantee that I'll ever amount to anything more than a delivery boy." 

You sat up on your elbow and stared at the man you'd just fallen in love with. "I want to share all of my time with you Yoongi. In fact, I insist you take it. I've heard you play and I believe in you."

You waited until your lips were just about to land on his. "I do have one condition though." 

He tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, "Yeah, what's that?" 

"You've got to promise you'll write me a song. Agree?" 

His fingers splayed caressing your back, he couldn't help the huge smile that took over his face when he kissed you. 

"I agree. But you didn't have to give up your time for that, I was going to do it anyway."

[summonerscenarios]

Ello! I can't get this out of my head but I like to imagine the protag loving to draw and doodle, and when they run out paper they draw using marker on their arms or legs and wanted to know how the rest of the summoners would react to seeing the protag show up to class one day with their arms covered up with random doodles they drew on themselves the night before out of boredom dksbsksns

Shiro knows about your doodling habits - during meetings he’s watched you doodle patterns on your fingers and hands as you listen to the latest news and updates, and just as often has watched you after said meetings having to viciously scrub it off over the safehouse sink because of the stains using markers and pens have left behind on the tables. It’s never been too much of an issue though, since you only resort to doodling on yourself when you’ve got no paper on hand, so Shiro’s been mindful of having a notebook or two stowed away at the safehouse for you to doodle on while you’re there. With that being said, that only accounts for the safehouse and not whenever you’re not there, so keeping up your paper supply in your room has always been your responsibility. So when you run out, on top of being bored in the late hours of the night, you end up drawing patterns on your fingers, then your palms, then the back of your hands, then your forearms...With class being on the next morning you’d had to rush out of your room before you’d had the chance to clean up your arms, so when the Summoners see you there’s a mixed bag or responses. Shiro just about topples out of his chair when he turns around as sees you enter the classroom, grinning as you offer the Summoners a wave and move to toss your bag onto your seat. Your arms are covered in drawings, all the way up from your hands to your elbows and disappearing under your shirt - he’s never seen you get so far up your arms with your doodlings before, and many of them are so neatly packed together you could almost say they looked like tattoo stencils. Most of the marks stick to one color, but there’s a couple that differ and those are the ones with more detail - clearly, you’d gotten carried away on them, but not in a bad way. Even though they’re only temporary, Shiro has a feeling that if one of the stricter teachers catches you, you’re going to end up getting an earful about the drawings and tells you that it might be a good idea to roll your sleeves down just in case one of them’s teaching this class. Sure enough, Mr.Triton comes in not a moment later and you drop your arms from your desk, tugging your sleeves back down to your wrists as you cast Shiro a sheepish grin at the close call.

Kengo has absolutely let you draw on him whenever you’ve run out of paper at the guild house - his arms are thick and broad giving you more than enough space to doodle just about anything you want. It’s gotten the two of you scolded more than once because he wouldn’t tell you to stop and you could quite easily doodle up to his elbows if left unsupervised, but of course this is mostly outside of school hours since you’ve got plenty of paper to doodle on when you’re in school or at your dorm. So that’s why Kengo does a double take when you come strolling into class covered right up to your elbows (and probably above if he’d have to guess) in just about every color marker that you possess. Kengo doesn’t even need to ask you why your arms are covered in scribbles, instead when you sit down Kengo shuffles his desk as close to yours as he can, asking if you’d brought any of those pens with you. In response you smirk, fish around in your pockets, and retrieve some metallic markers as you gesture for him to budge closer and uncap the gold stationary. It’s a miracle the two of you don’t get caught, considering you’re exchanging harsh whispers, with you biting back snickers as you chide him to keep still, and him trying to flex his arm because you’ve kept it pinned in one place for so long. You have to admit, the metallic markers look damn good on him, a mix of bronze, gold and silver making for some cool looking patterns against his skin by the time that you’re satisfied enough with your work to stop. You’re just thankful that the two of you don’t get called out on your arms, but you don’t stick around long enough to get stopped anyways, the two of you booking it the second that the bell rings and down the hall as Kengo brags about the new penwork you’ve given him.

Ryota loves to doodle with you! Whenever you’re drawing at guild meetings you’re quick to offer him one of your pens or markers and shuffle next to him so that the two of you can draw things together. He thinks you’re way more talented at it than he is, but he likes seeing how happy you get whenever you’re doodling, and he enjoys hearing you praising the drawings he makes by the time that the two of you have filled in just about every spot of the page. Sometimes he’ll see you drawing on your hands, but you never draw any higher than your wrist and he honestly thinks that your drawings look so pretty on your skin, especially the ones where you use bright colored ink! He just thinks it's sad you have to wash away all that hard work by the time you’re done, so you end up taking a picture of them whenever you make a new pattern on your hands. However, for what it’s worth he’s never seen you doodle on your hands in class, maybe because you could probably end up getting told off if you got caught doing it in lesson. That soon changes when you end up having to rush into class after staying up late doodling, not having the chance to clean up your arms by the time you have to leave to get in on time. You hadn’t even thought about rolling down your sleeves until you enter the room, and you can see Ryota’s expression light up at the sight of your arms when you drop down into the seat next to him, sleeves up to your elbows revealing a fraction of the doodles that now decorate your skin. He leans over to look at them, wondering how long it took you to finish drawing on your arms - everything looks so detailed! You must have been up for ages last night to get them all done! You nudge one of your arms against Ryota’s comparing your doodled arm to Ryota’s significantly less doodled one and hum in thought; then, you reach into your pocket and dig around for one of your pastel markers, pulling it out and showing it to him as you ask if he wants some. By the time the class is over Ryota’s got some pretty yet subtle new doodles thanks to you, fanning out across his palm, back and fingers ending just shy of his wrist; he’s happy as he admires them, and you can’t help but find yourself smiling at how good the patterns look on him as you fish out your phone, reaching out for his marker covered hand with your own and interlocking your hands as you snap a few pics to commemorate your newest doodles.

Toji nearly chokes when he sees your arms, not realizing that they’re drawings until you sit down and rest your arms on your desk, doodle covered fingers tapping on your desk as you wait for the class to start. Similar to Shiro, he’d say that it would probably be a good idea to cover up your drawings lest you want to get scolded by the teacher, only to watch you shrug and grin in response. Toji does allow his eyes to wander over some of your drawings, and for what it’s worth they are rather visually appealing; some of the markings are flowers, detailed lines to make up specific patterns, and others are scribbled words hidden between blocks of art close to the inside of your elbow. It’s clear you let your creativity run away with you when you were drawing, though he’s sure drawing them on paper would avoid the future hassle of trying to scrub them all off when the time came. You catch him staring and tug your sleeves up a little further, saying that if he thinks those are cool he should see the ones on your legs - you had a way bigger canvas to work on the little details on the images you drew. Toji gives you an incredulous look, searching for your bluff, but he realizes it’s not when you reach down you tug up your pant legs. He doesn’t get the chance to see the doodles in question when the teacher walks into the classroom, and at the sight of Mr. Triton you just about yank your sleeves down, flashing a convincing innocent smile as you greet the teacher like nothing’s out of place, catching Toji shaking his head out of the corner of your eye.

Moritaka has seen you draw on both your own skin as well as others whenever you’re bored and have no paper to use; however, he’s never seen you doodle anywhere past the wrist, sticking to just the palm of your hand or your fingers since you don’t always have time to sit down and focus when you’re not at school or at the dorm rooms. Which is precisely why he doesn’t expect you to come into class with pen markings up your arms, past your elbows, and even disappearing into your shit. When you take a seat next to him, Moritaka turns to greet you briefly, only just catching sight of your arms on your desk when he turns back to face the front. He looks again, then again, and by the third time his eyes are comically wide as he tears his gaze away to look at your face, brows raised as he looks into your face for some kind of explanation. Your only explanation is that you were almost late and didn’t have the time to scrub it all off before you had to get into lesson, though you take advantage of the opportunity to show him some of your favorite doodles. Leaning over to his desk you show him some of the things that you were able to draw the night before, still as vibrant as when you’d first drawn them; on one section there’s even a collection of flowers close to the center of your hand, with one of them being a peony that you can’t help but quip that it looks pretty close to Moritaka’s mark. You remark that you guys can match now and Moritaka finds himself chuckling a little at how proudly you show them off; though you unfortunately don’t have the time to show him much more than that, as being close to the front when the teacher walks in you drop your hands into your lap to hide the majority of marks, whispering to the therian that you can show him all the rest once class is over.

[lovely-necromancy]

A Cure for Insomnia CH.6

You wake up sometime around one. Not too late in the day given your morning. With a decent amount of sleep under your belt you roll over and start striping your bed of its sheets. Then you make your way across your room, picking up stray clothes as you go to your hamper and dump your collection of dirty linens and clothes into it. You carry the hamper to the bathroom where you load half into the washer. There's no real point in separating the clothes from colored items and pastels or whites. You're only twenty-four and don't have your life totally figured out yet. You can be a little lazy with laundry.

Once your first load of laundry is being washed you go to do your weekly tidy of your home. The one good thing that came from the paranoia of your car's break in was you rearranged all the furniture of the home, thus cleaning as you went. So that means it's more of a quick wipe down of counters and sweeping today. Maybe you'd organize your art supplies while doing your laundry. It's an activity that wouldn't distract you too much and make you forget you had laundry in the wash.

You finish washing the dishes from this morning you begin wiping the counters and tabletop when you notice your fidget cube is still on the table where Toby left it earlier.

'Don't want to lose this. Back to the bookshelf where you belong.' When you get to the living room's bookshelf you notice one of your book's is missing. Ironically it's The Book Thief.

'Tobias probably picked it up and put it down somewhere.' you'd keep your eyes peeled for the book while you cleaned.

After wiping down bookshelves, tables, counters, even the mantel over the fire place you still hadn't found your missing book. You probably picked it right up and placed it right back down without even realizing. You'll just keep an eye out until you find it. You don't even reread books, you really just kept a copy to lend out to people when they ask what your favorite books are. It isn't a real big deal if you can't find it, plus there's bound to be a copy floating somewhere in a thrift shop or yard sale.

The washer chimes right as you grab the broom to sweep. Pausing this task to go retrieve your laundry and do the rest. You empty the dirty clothes left in the basket onto the floor and place the clean wet ones inside the basket. After starting the final load you carry the basket out back. As nice as this home is its still small and doesn't have a dryer, which early summer is fine but come fall and winter might be more cumbersome. Seeing as you have to hang the laundry out to dry outside. Maybe when it gets cold you'll just do smaller loads and hang them up in the bathroom or over the fire place. But that's a thought for future you. Right now current you is struggling yet again to get a fitted sheet to sit on the line. Fitted sheets are probably Satan himself in disguise.

When you finish stringing all the laundry up you take a moment to just enjoy the quiet and the peace that comes with the outside. It's nice out here, maybe after you finish the last few chores today you can come out and just draw, it'd be a good way to also keep an eye on this weather in case it turns. While it hasn't happened yet you're very aware of the risks you take by ignoring the existence of meteorologists. And by that you mean just not bothering to look up the weather for the day.

Heading back inside you restart your task of sweeping. Like you thought you've finished before the washer has even completed it's first cycle. The house isn't too big so it's easy to clean it from top to bottom within a day normally, but today you had even less to do thanks to this week's rearranging. So you move on to organizing your art supplies and separating all materials by medium.

Of course arranging materials is never easy, after all you end up staring at all your horded empty sketch books and note how your thumbnail notebooks are just covered in doodles and random scribbles but no real art or ideas. Maybe it's time to start kicking yourself into gear. You ran into a major period of burnout before moving and now with this fresh start you might be able to focus on progressing with art, even if you don't pursue it as a career. You've always loved the ability to draw and create images that make others happy. But right in this moment you just want to make yourself happy. Maybe you could start small just a few still lifes and see how you feel after that.

Hearing the chime of the washer you hurry to finish putting away the supplies in their newly assigned places. Just as before you transfer the wet and clean clothes into the awaiting basket and take them out to be hung to dry. You don't have another fitted sheet this go round so it goes by much faster than it previously had. Now with all of your washing for today hung you head back inside to grab a fresh sketchbook.

Having never been one for scenery, more of a portrait artist, you start off with small things. A few stills of a flower under the window, the old tire swing on the tree, and even the blue jay that dove for dinner right in front of you. Of course all of these were warm ups done in a few minutes, though you really wish you had more time on the blue jay one. You really need practice with things that aren't people.

The warm ups of course don't look very good, but you can still see what you'd been going for. The hatching and smudging you'd done, to increase depth and give the quick drawing more life, did help a little but it was clear this was an area where you weren't skilled. But that didn't deter you, after all you  needed more practice and wouldn't be getting better without it.

Deciding to draw the scene before you, a small open meadow surrounded by trees, in other words your backyard with your drying laundry. You start off slow and make sure to actually look and take in the yard in front of you, doing your best to not just make up the trees and their shapes as you go. Soon you are lost in the meditative muscle memory of drawing. The scratching of pencil scrapping across paper further lulling you into a trance like state as you etch out the scenery.

A harsh breeze blows through and the loud flapping of sheet hitting sheet knocks you loose from your trance. Checking to make sure none of your laundry was flying off, it hadn't the laundry was still secured to the line. Smiling you glance down to actually see what you've sketched out so far. It isn't too bad, though you aren't sure how long you've been working on it, the trees all have a distinct shape rather than your typical cartoon one size fits all attempts. Scanning the page your eyes catch onto something off, out in the tree line it looks like you'd drawn a figure hiding behind a tree.

Hearing the beating of your heart that's currently hammering against your chest you look around. Did your mind do that as a joke or had someone genuinely been watching you draw? Your mouth is dry as your eyes scan the tree line for any sign of what could've been mistaken for a person, but you saw nothing. No one was there. Had anyone ever really been there? Why would you draw that? Why wouldn't you remember doing it? You don't feel safe out here anymore. There are eyes watching you you can feel it. They may not physically be there but the phantom eyes that surround you and cause your skin to crawl make sure you know of their presence. You take that as a sign to head inside for the evening, one that doesn't need to be repeated.

You lock the door immediately behind you and check your phone. It's seven, and you have an email notification. Thanking whatever power for the distraction you slide down your back door and open the notification. It's from Hollis!

YN r u  coming to SND? It's that teen beach zombie movie u love. Y;know the awful D list one Blk and wht with the 50yos playing teenagers

Lemme know I'll save your seat.

Sent 6:47 P.M.

They're so sweet to remember you loved this awful D list zombie movie. Horrible subplots and main plot and all. But you're a little spooked right now and watching even that joke of a horror movie is probably too much for you. You doubt you'd feel better by the time ten rolls around to watch it. Not to mention your battery's still drained from Toby this morning. And knowing for a fact you'd probably stay late to talk till morning with Hollis, Jake, and Kirby you decide it's best to skip this week. Just not having the energy to handle Saturday Night Dead.

Nah, sorry man. Battery's dead from being social earlier. Thanks tho, I do appreciate you! ….....,.... lemme know what next week's movie is!

Sent 7:10 P.M.

It'd probably be a good time to make something for dinner, there's a box of mac n cheese in the pantry. Simple but always beloved. As you wait for Hollis to respond you start on boiling water. But you didn't have to wait too long since they'd answered near instantly.

Chill, don worry we'll catch ya next week

…..oooop

ot not...Kirb's said it's the start of watching the entire warren file collection

starting from the beginning

...well the first movie released, Insidious. LOL we probs won't ever see you again.

Sent 7:12 P.M.

How dare Kirby betray you like this. First off those movies are awful, and like not cheesy awful just awful awful. Not to mention he knows how you feel about the Warrens and their cases. You have a power point presentation ready for that dick the next time you see him. ...well not literally but you'd make one to prove a point!

Where's Kirby now? I just wanna talk, I just wanna talk is all.

Sent 7:18 P.M.

Already ran off toy vermont probably

will we get blessed with a ted talk nxt week?

Sent 7:20 P.M.

I can't tell if you're joking or not. If you aren't then yea I can make a power point and we'll play that instead of the movies. Every week until this town understands the severity of this.

Sent 7:21 P.M.

Ya just jkin.

Your passionate hate is funny tho, so could be good to do something mid warren marathon.

Sent 7:23 P.M.

Guess the dissertation on how horrendous the “exorcisms” were will have to wait. They'd just been joking. This is probably a good ending of the conversation anyway, it's hard to tell sometimes but you feel you'll just run in circles with the current topic or worse fall into a rant that they won't read all the way through because they'll have left with the rest of the stunt gang to get dinner before heading over to the Cryptonomica for Saturday Night Dead. Hollis is typically a real good sport about this kinda thing but you'd rather not bog down their night with your hate boner for the Warrens.

'I'll let them know later that I'll still come to Saturday Night Dead next week.' you think as you dump the pasta into the water that finally came to a boil. It's quiet as you cook your macaroni dinner. You'd normally not notice the lack of sound or life in your home before, but maybe having Connor and Toby over put things into perspective. Guests aren't really a thing you've ever had, you always feel rude if your social battery runs out before someone's stay is over. But maybe you're lonely, and it's put you on edge.

Though this week would've put anyone on edge, you have still been alone in this house for two months. That can't be healthy for your mental well being, humans are social creatures by nature after all. Maybe you could get a pet, something that'd make it's fair share of noise and give the home a bit more life than your normally hollow shell wondering the halls. Are you even sure you want a pet? Do you have time for one? You have the standard nine to five, but what about when you're off on a nightly trip because of your sleeplessness? What if you forgot about them? Hell your brain's been so foggy these last few months, it wouldn't be surprising.

Like a sign from the divine themselves, the pot of water boils over. Steam is rising as the sizzling is heard. Your head snaps twice to the right as you scramble to lower the heat and raise the pot off the eye. Putting it down on an unused eye you give it a quick stir and thankfully no pasta got burned to the bottom of the pan....this time. The pasta seems a little crunchy but a texture you'll eat so you kill the hot eye and start on the cheese portion of your mac n cheese.

As you eat you continue your original debate about getting a pet. Ultimately deciding that you just aren't ready for that kind of responsibility right now. Sure you'd had tons of pets in your parents' home but that was with a financial safety net and back when your mental health wasn't all over the place. Not to mention the pets were family pets and responsibility was split three ways.

There isn't much room in your home for you to have a roommate, and that presents a whole nother set of challenges. You could try to make friends through online forums again! It's hard to talk to people in general but you always get scared off before replying to a comment or post. Or overshare to the point people infantize you. Even better trying therapy out could help with your loneliness. Hah ok good one, even if you had money for it consistently you don't think you could trust someone knowing all your secrets but not knowing any of theirs. And while that in and of it self is an example of why you need it, you're rational enough to realize you aren't ready for that either.

After finishing your meal you put away the left overs and clean the dishes. You'll be happier tomorrow knowing they aren't your problem to deal with. You start to make your way to your bedroom but freeze just before the hall.

'You shouldn't stay here...you need to leave.'

A glance at the time tells you it's eight thirty-nine, if you left right now you could make it to Saturday Night Dead with time to spare. You don't need to fill the loneliness with new friends, just spend time with the ones you already have. Duh. Turning you grab your keys off the bookshelf and take one of the masks hanging from a hook by the door.

Checking your door was locked and locking your car once you were in, you're ready to drive. Knowing you're still overstimulated you forgo the music on this drive, hoping it will calm you down enough to enjoy the movie and some down time with friends. And that would help put a pin in your self isolating habits. It'd really be nice if you brought movie snacks over to surprise the gang. You're pretty sure the mini mart carries everything you need. Jake likes swedish fish, Hollis is addicted to those extreme sour airhead ropes, and Kirby's a weirdo with his love of red vines and surge. Hahaha that man will die before he's thirty-eight.

Still having the extra time you deiced to stop by the mini mart and grab the candy. What's the worse that can happen you have another panic attack in front of strangers. Plus you hadn't seen Magnolia the last few times and you'd hate for her to think you'd been ignoring her. Pulling into the empty mini mart parking lot you take a breath to steel your resolve before leaving your car.

Tim looks at the door when he hears the chime and stiffens when he sees you. Fuck you did have a panic attack in front of this guy last night, plus you really haven't formally met. But didn't Toby say his roommate was named Tim? And he and Brian were both here talking with Tim last night before you came in. That can't be coincidence.

“uh...hi?” you say awkwardly standing in the doorway, door closed behind you.

“um, hi?” perfect he's just as awkward in this situation as you are. You can work with this.

Moving through the first two isles you keep your eyes peeled for Magnolia, even though you can make this an in and out trip for candy, you do miss the little bodega cat.

“Wh- hey are you, are you even ok to be here?” Tim calls as he rounds the counter and makes his way to you.

“Huh? Oh...oh yea. I'm chill now.” you hear the bell before you see her. The little ting tin ting of her bell that comes with the grace only fluffy cats have.

“You literally collapsed on the floor last night after blacking out while driving.” his tone is very stern. He and Nate would probably get on like a house on fire. The grumpy old men who secretly care a lot duo.

“I don't remember collapsing...but I know I didn't drive.” well you don't know that but you do firmly believe that.

The man is just turning into the isle when you spot the floof sauntering just behind him. Magnolia didn't spare either of you a glance as she made her way to the counter. Probably going to her bed, an old shipping box for apples, you'd just meet her over there then. With no warning to the man you squeeze past him and and follow the cat. Agitated footsteps following after you in your quest to pet the cat.

Magnolia perks up upon seeing you, the flicking of her tail letting you know she's anticipating her pets. The huffing Tim hovering behind you isn't as pleased with your actions as the cat is. The man is radiating negativity, annoyance maybe or is it concern that breeds frustrated anger? The second he starts to clear his throat, as if to remind you of his hovering, you roll your eyes.

Looking back at him over your shoulder you see him in all his grumpy man glory.  His brow was furrowed so hard his thick eyebrows nearly covered his eyes. But with the way his lips emoted the man before you looked more like a pouting muppet. It would be funny if it weren't for the foreboding feeling of the moments before being reprimanded by a teacher.

When you straighten up you take note that your eyes meet perfectly. He's the same height as you that's surprising, you thought he'd be taller than 5'7. His eyes widen slightly at seeing your full height, it must've thrown him off since the first time he saw you, you'd actively been trying, and had succeeded at looking smaller.

“What are you doing here?” well he doesn't get thrown off for long.

Running a hand through Magnolia's fur a few more times as you respond, “Petting Magnolia.” you really are a little shit sometimes.

“No...no, why are you out? Toby had to take you home last night, you shouldn't just be waltzing around town after that.” maybe it was frustrated concern.

“Oh I'm fine now.”

Magnolia at this point has jumped up on the counter and is headbutting you for more attention. Chuckling you turn your attention back to her. Meanwhile Tim behind you is at a loss for words.

“Fine?? You don't just...bounce back from a panic attack.”there's personal experience behind those words.

“I just rationalize things fast.” Hearing the trill of the clock on the wall reminds you that you need to grab those snacks and head over to the Cryptonomica for movie night.

Going to the candy isle you grab one of each of the gang's favorites, you snag a bag of white cheddar popcorn on the way to the counter and place your items there. Tim doesn't get a word out before you rush off to the cooler near the back that is in all honesty pretty sketch. Like who even makes  Fruitopia anymore? That stuff got discontinued in the early 2000s. The cooler even has Hi-C Ecto Coolers...you might actually check if they're in date and grab a few.

Rummaging around the cooler you finally spot the weird tech green and black splattered can proudly stating SURGE. It has no date...questionable at best. But hey it's only Kirby drinking it, and it's been well established that man will die well before middle age.   Grabbing a can to check the Ecto Coolers, luck is on your side! These cans are from the re-release that happened as a promotion for the Ghostbusters revival a few years back, they'll be good for another two years! For now you'll just take one so you won't have to worry about lugging cans around for the movie.

Once your new items are placed on the counter the expression on Tim's face cannot even be described. The questions of the surge are probably the ones easiest to read...or they're just the most predictable.

“Kirby likes red vines and surge, sickening right?” Maybe a little joke will break the ice.

“...Like that little round pink...thing?”  What?

The laughter is coming out before you can stop it, the image of said pink Kirby consuming red vines and surge only to accessorize as your friend comes to mind. It's adorable and cursed at the same time. Adorably cursed. You'll have to draw that and print a few copies to hang around the Cryptonomica.

“No,” you're choking on giggles at this point, “Kirby, the owner of the Cryptonomica.” catching your breath and regaining your composure, “It's that tourist trap just across from the RV park.”

“Oh.” normally such a short cold reply would make you shut down the conversation. But This is Toby's roommate, and if you want to be friends with Toby, you'll probably run into him a lot more. Plus if he's a new night shift cashier it wouldn't hurt to be on good terms with him for when you're out on adventures.

“Yea, hey Toby mentioned you three just came to town, so you might not have known but the Cryptonomica does a weekly movie night on Saturdays. Saturday Night Dead. Normally it's awful old horror movies but next week they're starting a Warren Case files “arch”.” Tim doesn't take the conversation bait at the pause.

“It's a great way to meet other locals, you guys should check it out if you get the chance. It starts at ten and runs till one or so on most weeks.” Olive branch has been extended.

Tim relaxes for the first time since you got here tonight. The sheepish look on his face and twitchy pupils give the impression he's thinking it over. He sighs and nods before saying, “Yea, that sounds...nice.”

Olive branch skeptically taken! You'll count this one as a win in your book. With the mood lightened Tim breaks the ice a bit further.

“Surge and red vines can not be good for you.”

“Right! If living off mountain dew and pizza rolls doesn't kill him, this for sure will.” you both have a small laugh at that. It's nice to finally have cleared up the mix up from the beginning of the week. Which reminds you.

“Oh...um...I'm YN by the way. It's nice to meet you...sorry for the two,” your neck tics to the side, “previous nights.” you finish.

“Tim...and it,uh happens sometimes...'s fine.” Score awkward acknowledgment of previous meetings and you can now erase those from your nightly anxieties.

Tim finishes ringing and bagging your items and you pay. Giving another pet to the curled up kitty on the counter you nod farewell to Tim.

A trill rings out from the clock on the wall. It's ten.

Two heads snap to look at the wall. You take a second glance at your phone while Tim checks his watch. Both say the clock on the wall is correct. But it just turned nine not even ten minutes ago. Right? You can brush off yourself loosing track of time but when you involve another person that just doesn't make sense. Tim looks just as concerned as you. Only Magnolia lays unaffected by the lost fifty minutes.

“I should go.” Tim nods numbly to you as you exit the store.

You won't be able to make it to the movie, well you could but you'd disturb someone if you walked in mid movie. Choosing to go home instead you drive, once again without music. Entering your home you hang your mask back on the hook. Putting away the drinks and snacks for next weekend, you make your way to your bedroom. Once again freezing just before the hallway. Turning to your living room you can see a book in the middle of your coffee table. You definitely don't remember the book being there, and doubt you'd miss it out in the open. But as you got closer you could confirm, even in the dark, that it was The Book Thief.

[whatsseobb]

More Than Meets The Eye (Crystal x Gigi Fanfic) - Chapter 5

AO3 Link

[A/N: Updates are still slow but thank you really for waiting. I’m sorry.

I hope you enjoy this fic and leave me your thoughts!!]

Synopsis:

Too bad that you couldn’t see See the girl Crystal could be There is more that meets the eye I see the soul that is inside~

Based from Avril Lavigne’s Sk8ter Boi but with different twists.

Chapter Five - Partners

The whole class was slowly coming inside their classroom by the second floor of the building. The students’ noises surrounded the floor, some were walking by the halls with their friends and chatting on their way to their rooms, there were a few who rushed around with their projects for their subject, some were chilling as they gathered on their friends’ table and giggled about boys and celebrities. At the back of the room, there were a few boys tossing their football around, mindlessly playing and not thinking of the students around them that they may hit with their ball. It was utter chaos.

“See you later.” A cheery voice bid goodbye to her friend as she and her group walked towards their classroom. A tall blonde girl appeared on the door, hugging her books close to her chest as she entered the small yet crowded classroom. She made her way to her seat by the second row in the middle of the class. She settled her books on top of her table and fixed her place as she readied herself for class. She was minding her own business when she felt a light object hit her shoulder, almost missing the back of her head. She looked at the direction where it came from and saw a bright-haired girl with a nose ring.

“Crystal!” The girl stood up from her seat and walked to the back of the classroom where her newly-found friend sat. She settled on the seat in front of her, facing her and resting her chin on the back of the chair. “So this is why you are familiar.”

“What do you mean?” The sapphire-haired girl brushed her fingers through her hair as she rested her back and slouching slightly on her seat.

“I mean when I saw you last Friday, I knew I met you somewhere.”

“I’m surprised you even notice me.” The two shared a laugh as they both glanced at the door, waiting for their teacher.

“Barely did I. You’re always sleeping here. Tsk.” Gigi shook her head jokingly as she looked at the other girl. “Better not sleep today. You have to listen to Ms. Visage.”

Crystal smiled as she noticed the other talking much more than she was used to, especially after the lunch they shared yesterday. It was something she was getting confused still, the other’s varying personality. Sometimes, she was talkative while most of the time, she appeared to be shy. She was enjoying this kind of Gigi though, the one who was willing to continue a conversation rather than the girl who was silently playing with her cup while staring at the horizon. She looked at her and muttered, “Maybe I do have a reason not to sleep anymore.”

Their conversation was interrupted when they noticed the other students hurried back to their seats as their teacher made her way towards their classroom. Gigi quickly stood up, flashing a soft smile towards her new friend, before she walked to her seat in the middle of the classroom. Crystal had her eyes on her back as she moved to her seat, the corners of her lips slowly forming a happy curve. She continued sitting upright, which wasn’t what her usual routine was when the teacher arrives to class. She would either be caught sleeping or looking down on her notebook and doodling. Well, not this time.

“So good morning, class. Today, I’ll discuss with you your upcoming project. I am fully aware you all are looking forward to a free winter break and that is why I am giving this as early as now. You have to create a book report and prepare a presentation. It’s not just you reading your book report in class but you and your partner must create a movie poster about the book you will be assigned to. Use your creative minds to portray what the story is about in your posters.”

A student raised his hand, making Ms. Visage sigh before continuing, “Yes, Mark. This project is to be done with a pair. You get the freedom to choose your partner. Now, go find a partner and sit with them for the rest of the class to discuss your plans.”

The classroom was surrounded with loud chatters as most stood up and looked for their partner. Most of them paired up with their friends, some were having a small discord at the corner because they were three in a group and were deciding who would be partners with who.

The blonde was about to approach her seatmate when her classmate stood up and went to sit with her boyfriend. She bit her lower lip as she looked around the classroom, building up courage to ask a classmate to be her project partner. She was surprised when she heard a notebook dropped on the table beside her before a figure sat down on her seatmate’s chair.

“Partners?” The skater girl offered her a kind smile, holding her hand out for her as Gigi accepted the proposal and shook Crystal’s hand. They all waited for the class to settle down, the blonde taking down some notes on her notebook for their upcoming project. “I wonder which book we will be getting.”

The Literature teacher walked around the room to each pair, making them pick a piece of paper from a small jar. It contained the book they would be assigned to for the project. Crystal nodded at Gigi, signaling her to be the one to pick a paper for their pair.

“We have The Great Gatsby.” The blonde pushed the small piece of paper to the other girl which she kept inside her pocket. Gigi wrote it down on her notebook before she turned to Crystal. “So when are you planning to start on this project?”

“Are you free after class? I am also planning to buy some art supplies by the mall. Maybe we can talk about it.” The taller girl tapped her fingers on top of her desk before nodding.

“Okay, I’ll see you later then. I have to pass by the library to borrow a copy of the book.”

“Wait for me there then, 4 in the afternoon?”

 The day was getting slower as the sapphire-haired girl kept looking at her watch, waiting for the bell to ring as she could hurry towards the library to wait for the other girl. She was in her last class for the day. As per usual, she was not listening in class and instead was looking down on her phone, texting Daya.

Daya: Bio teacher dismissed us early. See u later?

Crystal: Cant watch your practice today. Going to the mall. : )

Daya: Aw. : ( Ok. See u tom.

Crystal: Good luck and have fun! U’ll rock it, for sure.

As the bell rang, the teenager immediately got up and hurried to her locker to return some of her notebooks before getting her things as she walked straight to the library. She sat by the bench outside, glancing at the door from time to time, waiting for the tall blonde.

It took a few minutes before she saw someone open the door of the library, a pair of students making their way out.

“I’ll see you later, Geege.” A low voice spoke before he bid goodbye to her friend. Crystal’s eyebrows jerked as she watched the tall masculine figure walk away.

“Oh hey, Crystal!” The blonde walked towards the bench where her friend was sitting on. She had some books in her hand which she put inside her bag beside the sapphire-haired girl.

“Who was that?”

“Eli.” The guy was attractive, with his blond hair styled into a clean pompadour, his prominent chiseled jaw paired with his sky blue eyes that surely would make any person have a second look back at him. Crystal felt a slight, unknown feeling at the pit of her stomach as she watched the girl in front of her fix her books. All that escaped her mouth was a soft “oh.”

“We are gonna be quick at the mall, right? He promised to buy me dinner later so I’ll just meet him there at 6. Maybe you could join us, if you’re free.” The girl squinted her eyes before glancing at her wrist watch.

“I don’t think I can join you. We should get going if you wanna make it on time for your dinner with Eli.” She had no idea why she emphasized on saying the guy’s name which the other girl didn’t even notice. They walked together side by side towards the school’s gate, heading to the mall nearby.

 The pair first went to the supplies store, their conversation still full of their plans for their project. Crystal was surprised to see Gigi getting excited with it, laughing as the taller girl showed her a list of the materials that they would be getting from the art supplies shop. Seeing the excitement in the girl’s eyes made her captivated by the dedication Gigi was putting in their project. At first, Crystal was nervous to be working with her, even if she was the one who asked her to be her partner. But as they continued working on their plan, she got more and more excited, not just to do the work but also to be with the ballerina.

After buying all the things they needed, the two went out of the art supplies store with bags in hand. They took a stroll around the mall, looking at the different store windows when something caught Gigi’s eyes. She wrapped her arm around the skater girl before pulling her inside a small bookstore. “Come with me.”

“Hold your horses, Gee. We have a lot of time left.” Crystal chuckled as she let the taller girl pull her inside the shop. They walked around, picking up a few books and scanning them.

“I need to find Jac- I mean, I need to find a gift for Christmas.” Her eyes quickly skimmed over the book titles, looking for the perfect present for their exchange gift. “Maybe something like empowerment or I don’t know… what do editors like? Hmm, fine. I think you know already who I’m talking about. So what do you think Jackie will like?”

“Jackie? Well lately she’s been liking detective cases. Like Sherlock Holmes type of books. I think they have something like that around here.” Crystal walked around to the thriller books, looking at the books to help her friend. She glanced over the shelves to look at Gigi who was too focused into finding the best gift for her new friend. The serious look on the ballerina’s face made her crack a smile which she quickly shook off. She called Gigi’s attention, pointing at a shelf full of writing pads. “Or maybe not necessarily a book? You can get her one of those planners. She loves those.”

“How about you? Have you bought a gift for the Secret Santa?” Her eyes were locked at the bookshelves as she spoke with Crystal.

“Not yet really.”

“Oh. Good luck with that, Crystal.” The taller girl held a book close to her face as she read the synopsis at the back before shaking her head and putting it back to the shelf.

Crystal walked to a different shelf, scanning the range of books before her eyes, smiling slightly as her eyes caught the girl with her. The sound of her soft voice saying her name echoed inside her mind. There was just a weird feeling she can’t explain as she looked at her. All she knew for now was that she’s enjoying her company. She continued walking around, seeing a book entitled Denial. She picked up before walking up to the in front of Gigi, standing on the other side. “Hey. I have a question for you.”

“Mhm?” The other girl didn’t look up to where Crystal was, her eyes still glancing over the books.

“I didn’t know we can also find Denial River here. I thought it’s just in Egypt.” The taller girl jerked an eyebrow while Crystal was trying to hide the laughter she has been holding in as she showed the book to the other girl. Gigi looked up and rolled her eyes, a snicker escaping her lips.

“You are so funny, ha ha Crystal.”

Crystal picked another book with a green leaf on it as a cover. She put it beside her face, showing a small pout. “Aww. Should I just leaf you alone?”

The taller girl looked around and her eyes lit up as she saw two books. She pulled it out of the shelf, showing it one by one as she replied to the skater girl. “Hey, donut dare leave me yet. We have a lot to taco ‘bout.”

“Wow, Gee. You’re catching up.” Crystal followed Gigi to the shelves with foods, laughing as she got another book to show to her. “I didn’t know you’re good at this. You’re a latte fun to talk with. But you’ve got muffin on me.” The shorter girl showed a book about coffee shops with the pastry and a cup of coffee on the cover, the other girl covering her mouth as she tried to conceal her giggles.

The ballerina picked up a book about cheese, smiling as she showed it to Crystal. “Don’t you know it? I’m actually gouda this.”

The two continued exchanging puns, their laughter echoing through the small corner of the bookstore they were in. Crystal was getting lost as she watched the other laugh at her jokes. She enjoyed the sound of her giggles, making her smile as she watch the taller girl cover her laughs and scrambling to find a comeback for her puns.

“I seriously didn’t expect you to be this punny, Crystal. Well, pun intended.” The pair couldn’t stop laughing as they made their way to the cashier to pay for the colorful journal notebook alongside a short mystery book Gigi got for their exchange gift.

Crystal followed along, standing beside her as she watch the taller girl pay. She saw her take out a colorful yet worn out coin purse. “Wow, that wallet looks nice.”

“Thanks. I made this back in middle school for a project. It’s quite old and dirty already, I know.” She offered her a smile as she took the bag with her purchased items. “Shall we get going?”

The two were about to go out of the store when Gigi felt her phone ringing inside her bag. Crystal took the bag from her to help her out as she answered the call. She followed the taller girl as she walked out of the story, talking on her phone. The shorter girl glanced at her wrist watch and noticed the time. 7:04 pm

“Oh my, I completely forgot about Eli! I didn’t notice him calling me.” Gigi showed her phone screen to Crystal, reading 3 missed calls from the guy she was supposed to have dinner with. “He said he went to his teammates instead because they have a quick meeting.”

The skater girl wanted to feel bad for Gigi missing her dinner date with the tall athlete but she couldn’t understand the hint of happiness inside her mind when she realized Gigi spent time with her instead. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the thought as she followed the taller girl towards the exit. “I think we should head home. I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Yup! Text me when you arrive home safe. See you!” Gigi waved her goodbye after she got the bag from Crystal, flashing her sweet smile as she walked towards the bus stop. The shorter girl couldn’t stop herself from smiling as she fixed the bags in her hand and tried to fit them inside her backpack, taking her skateboard and skated her way home. Whatever it was that was building inside her chest for the ballerina was giving her warmth through that winter night.

[A/N: Okay, maybe I went too far with the puns but I like puns, please bear with me. Hahahaha. I just find them cute with those puns. Okay bye! Hope you enjoyed.]

[all-hail-the-witcher]

im in high school and it sucks do you have any advice you could give me

aright ive been thinking about this one for a little while, trying to actually come up with something helpful. in interest of accuracy, i graduated high school in 2019 and am about to enter my sophomore year of college. 

first and foremost, you're in high school. i dont know what grade you're in, but at most you've got 4 years left. and after that you never have to see Any of the people you go to school with ever again if you dont want to. i know this one might seem kinda stupid, but it was one of the few thoughts that got me through junior and senior year. (also when i was home on college breaks (and right now during *this*) the only people ive seen from school are the ones that i choose to see and if i happen to run into someone else we either wave or just ignore eachother. i also live in a fairly smallish town) 

find a spot to eat lunch thats not the cafeteria if possible. idk what kinda school you go to, and this is not possible at all schools, but if it is, take advantage of it. i would eat lunch in the crafts room 99% of the time and work on whatever project i was currently doing. sometimes my friends would join me and sometimes id be by myself, but either way it was nice to get away from the nonsense for a little bit. 

make fun of your awful teachers. not to their face obviously, but with your friends. it makes the class that you absolutely cant stand so much more bearable. i had a teacher in my senior year who was absolutely awful and my friend and i who had the class together would make fun of him outside of the classroom.

doodle. some teachers do notebook checks, so dont do it in that notebook, get some plain lined paper or do it in a different notebook entirely, but doodling is a great way to relieve some of the stress and shit that goes on in class. 

go on your phone. i probably shouldn't be advising this one, but i spent a fair amount of time on my phone in high school, esp as i got into senior year. i think i might have spent more time on my phone than paying attention honestly. theres definitely an art to it. but once you figure it out, its pretty simple. just make sure you're still getting decent grades. 

snacks! figure out which of your teachers let you eat food in class and bring snacks. you'd be surprised how much snacks improve your mood. (maybe not this year tho cause of the whole pandemic thing. but if you're taking classes from home, do it!)

try to take at least 1 class that doesnt require a lot of brain power. my classes of choice were dance and crafts. if your school offers stuff like that, its nice to have a break in your schedule that doesnt require you to be sitting and taking notes and thinking about things. 

know your limits when making your schedule. just because you place into all honors or get reccomeded for ap classes doesnt mean you Have to take them. obviously, parents (and sometimes guidance counselors) dont agree with this. but if theyre cool with it, only take honors or aps in areas that you actually enjoy. that way you will be more motivated to do the work. it also gives you a break in your other classes. when i was in high school, the bulk of my honors and ap classes were in history and english because that was what i was better at and liked more. i took non honors science and math when possible. those classes had significantly less homework, which left me time to do my homework for my harder classes without feeling stressed. 

determine which classes you *actually* have to pay attention in. there will usually be one or two ones that you actually have to pay 100% attention in, and then you can kinda get away with not completely paying attention in the rest of them. 

listen to music whenever possible. if you have a teacher that lets you have your earbuds in, take full advantage. or listen to music while changing classes, or during lunch. music does so much to improve your mood and its something to look forward to. just be careful of that one teacher every school has that makes you take out your earbuds. dont get in trouble.

give yourself an outlet. something that you can enjoy that is absolutely not connected to high school. it could be a youtube channel, a fandom, writing fanfic, a book, a movie, some form of media. and let yourself indulge in it after (or even during) school. i wrote a lot of fan fiction in class. i wrote character maps, hcs, song lists with themes, shit like that. and then when i got home i let myself watch like an hour or so of youtube before i did my homework. just because you're in high school doesnt mean you cant give yourself breaks. again, parents can be annoying about that because they see you not doing your homework and think you're a bad student, so dont get in trouble. but definitely give yourself breaks when doing homework. 

try not to start or get mixed up in drama. its a lot easier said than done, but it makes everything so much better. also in the grand scheme of things, high school drama is not important. 

find a few friends to be close with and stick by them. if you have one or two close friends in high school you're pretty much set. of course you can go through high school with no friends and make it out, but its easier to have a few close friends. it makes it fun. and if you dont have any friends at your school, internet friends work too. 

dont get caught up in the whole college application thing. yes its stressful, but whatever school you end up at will be fine. and people often get so consumed by the process that they get incredibly stressed and forget to take care of themselves. make sure you're still hanging out with your friends and making time for yourself. 

high school seems like the most important thing in the world when you're in it. but it's not. and you'll get through it. i hope this wast least a little bit helpful. if not feel free to message me or send me another ask!

[uni---verse]

Ten concrete tips that help me study / be productive as a procrastinator

- Sometimes I find it easier to multitask than to sit still during online lectures, but the side task has to be a "brainless" activity such as unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, making pasta, or anything else that's automatic and still allows you to listen. It's often even easier to remember the content of e.g. an audio file or online lecture if you associate it with the image of making a toast in your head, it's like certain aspects in your memory are linked to certain movements or images (similar to the street strategy where you go for a walk and associate certain buildings with certain bits of information). Doodling helps as well, but with other tasks you get the feeling of double productivity and have more time during the day.

- Summarise texts paragraph by paragraph and write down the most important information from them so you don't have to re-read the whole text to find one important fact.

- Break your tasks down and state clearly what you need to do and how long each step will approximately take. Timetable your week (or just your day if you can't plan that far ahead) and start each task at a specific time. THEN DO NOT LEAVE YOUR TO-DO LIST UP TO INTERPRETATION OR VAGUE LIKE “DO WORK”. WHEN YOU WAKE UP, START DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR THE DAY. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. DO NOT GIVE YOURSELF A CHOICE. THIS IS THE PLAN.

- Got a small but annoying task to do? Do it IMMEDIATELY. Before breakfast. Before getting comfortable. With your coat still on if you just came home. You won't even notice doing it.

- If you have to do something easy that takes a little longer, like hoovering, cleaning, copying a text into your notebook, cutting paper into smaller pieces, or clicking the ad button 100 times to get free cash on FishLive, you can either listen to music while doing it or set a timer/microwave/kettle/oven and see how fast you can do it. Little chunks are the most helpful, e.g. set a timer for 30 seconds to 1 minute and see how much you can get done during that time. Then set another one, and another one, and another one. Soon it will be done.

- Start small: Say "I will work on this for 5 minutes". (Or if you have an event later in the day that can serve as a "deadline": tell yourself you'll work until e.g. your boyfriend gets home.) That way it doesn't seem overwhelming at first but gets you in the zone. Chances are you'll want to finish once you've started. And if not, try again later / tomorrow.

- If you can, set a specific time for each task if you have several ones. That way you won't be doing one task and feeling guilty about not doing another. There will be a time for everything. You can't do everything all at once, or you'll end up doing nothing.

- If you're stuck on an essay because one word is difficult or you don't know how to phrase the next sentence, do another paragraph first. Stuck on an exam question? Do another question first! Mark it as incomplete, and even if that one sentence remains incomplete in the end because time ran out, at least it didn't keep you from writing entirely.

- Split each task into segments / categories, for example: "unpack boxes" sounds overwhelming and vague. "Sort through boxes and categorise items by: memories / art / rubbish" makes more sense and gives you a pointer where to start (in this case: start by marking three areas on the floor for memories / art / rubbish). For an essay, you can aim for a certain word count, topic, paragraph, or chapter each day. That way you'll remember to take breaks while still feeling like you finished something and are making progress. And you'll have an overview of how long it's gonna take if you work on it consistently every day, which will make it easier to get into a routine.

-If you consistently fail to motivate yourself to start a task, take one step now to prepare everything for the task. For example, if you can't bring yourself to watch that lecture - have the tab open on your laptop, so when you start it up in the morning, it'll be there and all you have to do is click Play. If you have trouble going outside, lay out your clothes for the next day so that hurdle is out of the way. If you don't like cleaning your room, put large bits of rubbish away first so you only have to take them to the bin.

[over-a-new-leaf]

self-care 101 (covid-19 period)

Since we’ve rolled round to another May bank holiday, I thought it’d be nice to share some tips with you. As a homebody, and someone who will do absolutely ANYTHING to avoid one specific boring activity, I’ve racked up quite a long list over the past few years. Obviously, I’m no professional - but I find these help. There’s no specific chronological order to these - just pick and choose as you like!

Get out of bed!

Or lie in if you need to. Whatever makes you feel good

Start off the day with some yoga or meditation, or basic stretches

Or pray for a bit if you’re religious

Make your bed: tuck your sheets in, rearrange your pillows, etc.

Brush your hair and tie it up nicely

Pick out a cute outfit - could even be your favourite PJs - and lay it out

Go take a soothing shower, or a bubble bath

Use a bath bomb, get some nice candles if you feel like it

Put on some nice music to relax to

Try out a new hairstyle or style your hair the way you would if you had somewhere to be!

Slap on some makeup, why not? :) 

Floss your teeth, or maybe use that teeth whitening formula you never picked up again after using it for the first time

Pick out a recipe for a hair mask or face mask and put it on

Before doing any of these, make sure they suit your hair & skin type

E.g. if you have frizzy and dry hair, use a moisturising and rejuvenating mask vs if you have sleek, straight hair - use a volume-enhancing mask. Same goes for your skin - evaluate whether you have dry skin, oily skin or combination 

Stick to the recommended leave in time! It can be extremely difficult to get out later otherwise

Or make your own mask! There’s tons of recipes on YouTube and Google :)

Make yourself a nice breakfast

Breakfast smoothies are amazing! A really simple recipe I use contains a few spoonfuls of oats, handful of fruits (e.g. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes), honey / sugar by taste and yogurt.

Or a nice bowl of your favourite cereal

Avocado toast - there are so many different varieties of this online, and I bet you’ll find that you like.

A fruit salad!

Eggs done the way you like

A full English if you’re feeling ambitious

Workout for an hour or so

This doesn’t have to be really equipment intense or challenging if you don’t want it to be

Some YouTubers I recommend: Chloe Ting, Emi Wong, Fitness Blender, MadFit, Blogilates, Yoga with Adrienne, etc. 

Don’t over exert yourself. Take longer than the recommended break time between exercises if you need to

Grab a new book, or a book you just enjoy reading

You can browse through Spotify for any playlists to listen to while reading - or use a playlist of songs you like

Listen to some music you like

Or discover some new music using Spotify’s ‘Discover’ feature

Preferably something that lifts your mood!

Pick out a recipe you’ve been meaning to try and just make it!

Dance around the house to some music

This can also be a sort-of-workout!

You can try learning a routine

TikTok dances are so stupidly fun

Maybe get a friend on vid-call and learn a dance with them

Make some TikToks

Or duet some on the app!

Get out a new bottle of wine - it’ll make you feel boujie ;)

Or your drink of choice - I’m not big into alc so I usually love a cool mint lemonade or iced coffee

Sit outside if the weather is nice

Or even if it’s rainy! I particularly love rainy days

Go for a walk around your neighbourhood

Do some grocery shopping! It can be surprisingly fun when you’re in no rush - plus, that’s a task off your future to-do list

Go meet a friend - stand at least 2m away and have a chat

Or text/ call your family / friends

Houseparty is great to use because it’s got games that you can play together if you’re not big on talking

Watch that TV series / movie you’ve been trying to get round to

Play with your pet, if you have one!

Do a cute lil photoshoot

Put on a nice outfit and take some nice pictures using the timer

Pictures with your pet

Or take pictures of your surroundings when outside

Or of the new dish you’ve impulsively made

Grab a pretty notebook

Start a bullet journal

Or a diary!

Do some journalling using journal prompts online

One really simple activity I really like is writing out 3 things that made my day :)

If you’re a poet or writer - write write write!

Maybe take the first step towards starting a blog (like I did last week, aha)

Play a musical instrument 

Or pick up something you haven’t played in a while

Try learning some basic chords online

Or just play your favourite music if you’re a professional

Sing along to your music!

Search up some online webinars and virtual events to attend

Lots of professional webinars on LinkedIn, even Facebook at times

Live museum and art gallery tours on Google!

Try some meditation

Headspace is a great freemium app, among others

Use a guided meditation from YouTube

Create a Pinterest account and start making boards

These can be pretty pictures

Or things you’ll have in your future house

Workout routines

Even more self-care recommendations

Sketching

There’s this activity where you put your playlist on shuffle and draw what comes to your mind when you hear each song

Or just search up an image online and draw it

Doodle in your bullet journal / book if you have one

Embroider/ stitch some of your old clothes

Plenty of tutorials online!

You can stitch in some cute images :)

Try a new podcast 

There are so many to explore on Spotify under the Podcasts section

Or watch something on YouTube

Learn something new if you feel like it

Pick up a subject area of interest and search it up on YouTube

You’ll get so many results!

Reorganise your house / room

Put on some music to jam along to while doing this!

Vacuum

Or just tidy all those papers off the desk

Reorganise your drawers

Fold your clothes

Dust any surfaces - super satisfying!

Maybe spice up your furniture placement

Try moving things around - be careful not to strain yourself

Do some laundry maybe

Yawn, but can be satisfying once you’ve done it!

Purge your wardrobe of any old clothes

You can donate them to charities

Or sell them on apps like Depop

Do some online shopping

Be careful not to spend too much though! :)

Download a photoprint app and get some pictures printed

There’s a lot of apps that offer you __ amount of free prints with delivery costs - not a bad deal!

You can finally make a photowall / collage

Try some scrapbooking 

Get out some old newspapers and magazines and cut out any pictures of words that particularly catch your eye

Make pretty lil collages or spreads with them

Reorganise your digital folders

E.g. bookmarks on Chrome

Saved folders on Insta

Email folders

To Do lists

Give them pretty names so you’re more likely to use them in future

Catch up on some much needed sleep 

Afternoon cat naps are actually lovely!

Make yourself some tea or coffee and just sit by the window with some music

Cliché and niche, but makes you feel calmer!

Try some chai recipes online if you’re into relatively milky tea or trying out new recipes

I’m not a big fan of chai ^ which is surprising as an Indian, but my family and friends love it soo

Do something with your family / roommates

Movie night!

Group dinners (even better - themed dinners!)

Or a fine dining wine night (bonus points if you dress up!)

Board games night

Or just games night e.g. charades, Headbandz, Psych (app)

DnD - never tried it but sm people have recommended it!

Make some TikToks

Sit around and chat

This is random but you can make PPTs about things you like and present them to each other - good for shit n giggles :) 

Play an old online game e.g. Fireboy and Watergirl!

Create each other in the Sims 

Organise some friendly competitions :)

Truth or Dare? 

Look at star sign stuff with them - whether you believe or not, it’s an interesting thing to do nonetheless

Do Enneagram tests - extremely interesting and scarily accurate from my personal experience

Experimental cocktails maybe!

Some DIY arts and crafts!

Pitch a tent outside

Or make a pillow fort inside

Speaking of which - pillow fights!

Karaoke night

Or set up your own club - make a playlist, get some strobe lights or turn off the lights and get everyone to switch on their phone flash and just dance around. Get some drinks if you want as well!

Have a BBQ - great to do especially in the afternoons or early evenings!

Have a date night if it’s just the two of you :)

Have a picnic outside

Text someone something nice!

Win-win for the sender and the recipient :)

Great chance to reconnect with someone

Cleanse your devices & social media profiles

Change your profile pictures, bios

Archive / delete some pictures (we’re all guilty of this)

Maybe restart your account if you haven’t used it in too long, have too many random followers or just want to start afresh

Check your phone storage and delete stuff accordingly

Change your wallpaper / theme

Back up old pictures and delete them off your device 

And that’s my list for now! I might add to it later if something comes to me but I hope you guys enjoy this! :) 

Image credits:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/151574343695926876/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/579627414531062674/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/AQzIfTN5EwSc9JESrIo1l8AQw6cznXq2HLFq_SQk6La00-yL2As1QnY/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/499055202462999051/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/328481366576228467/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/6262886962801682/

[hetalialoverwrites]

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Part 5

First  -  Previous  -  Next

        You woke up on your bed, the two mattresses laid on the floor and opened your eyes to see Mal. Sitting up, you looked over to your nightstand to see the letter you were supposed to send last night to Aurora. It reminded you of last night. Everything seemed to go wrong. Once you found out where the wand was with Evie's magic mirror, which her mother had surprisingly given to her before you all left, you found out it was in a library. Once you got there, there was an issue with the security guard needing to fall asleep and the door opening. Luckily it was just a few spells and another minute for you and Mal to make everyone invisible. But then it took ages to find where the wand was, it was also protected by a magic barrier which Jay just had to touch, and then the alarms went off. Luckily Carlos managed to soothe the authorities with a convincing lie, but then you also found out that the mailboxes were locked up at night for some reason. So obviously, nothing went right last night. Sighing to yourself, you got ready for school. 

        In Remedial Goodness 101, you spent your time taking no notes and drawing in your notebook. Mal was doing the same but was much better than you at doing realistic artwork. You, on the other hand, were better at doodles or pretty designs that you would decorate your paper with. Less realistic and more... Animated. So, while Mal was answering all the questions Fairy Godmother asked for the class, you were drawing your friends as patterns. You had Carlos as a spikey and fiery pattern of lines, Jay as smooth and masculine lines, Evie as fluid and feminine flowers, and Mal as sharp scales and fire. A girlish squeak caught your attention and you looked up from your doodling to see Fairy Godmother's daughter, Jane in an old and plain looking pastel blue outfit. Her hair was a straight bob that wasn't very flattering on her. She glanced back at you and your friends with a frightened look and handed her mother a clipboard, "Oh, hello dear one." Fairy Godmother greeted warmly.

        "Hi. You need to sign off on the early dismissal for the coronation." Jane stared at you all cautiously as Fairy Godmother signed the paper. "Everyone here remembers my daughter Jane." Fairy Godmother said causally to the 'class', much to her daughter's displeasure. "Mom, no!" Jane whispered. "It's okay!" Her mother reassured her brightly, "Jane, this is everyone!" Fairy Godmother introduced, gently nudging Jane towards you five. "Hi..." Jane almost whimpered out, a frightened look on her face once again. She was surprised to see small smiles on everyone's faces, all a little different from the others. Evie's was gentle, yours was soothing, Mal's was polite, Jay's was causal, and Carlos' was friendly. She was a little confused as she passed once again, still just as quick but she didn't squeal in fright this time. The class continued with Evie and Mal making plans silently through only eye contact. Once the boys were fighting loudly on top of their desks for something you didn't care enough to pay attention to, the class was dismissed.

        You went outside with Mal and Evie and after a few minutes, you broke off from them to find out how to mail the letter to Aurora. Wandering around the school, looking for a mailbox, you were surprised when a raven flew in front of you. It landed in front of you and looked around, noticing you two were alone. You looked at it oddly before it changed into Diaval. You gasped in delight and hugged him, "Diaval!! You made it through the barrier in time!" You squealed, feeling him hug you back. You both pulled away enough to look at each other and grinned at one another, "Of course! Did you think I was going to leave you all to yourselves on this journey?" He questioned, his giant grin never faltering. You laughed happily, "Thank you! And I can see you're ecstatic to be able to change into your true form now." You observed with an amused grin. Diaval just changed into his raven form and cawed loudly in what you could only guess was a delighted yell.

        You laughed as he turned back and hugged you tightly, lifting you up and spinning before letting you back down. Suddenly, you got an idea, "Uncle Diaval!" You exclaimed, making a delighted and touched look come over the man's face. "Yes?" "Would you mind sending mom's letter to Aurora? It would give you a chance to fly some more. That and I really can't find a mailbox anywhere in the school to mail the letter." You paused a moment, thinking aloud, "And it would probably be a little suspicious if a VK decided to send a letter anyway..." You realized. Diaval nodded, "No problem, little one. I'll take it straight to Aurora, promise! And I will let the faeries know to expect you, your sister, friends, and your Mother soon." You smiled thankfully and watched as he turned back into a bird. You took out the letter and rolled it up before tying it to his leg. He nodded to you and flew off to deliver the letter, making you sigh happily. Now that was done, you could focus on getting the magic wand.

        You checked the time on the clock tower and realized you had awhile till the bell rang and your next class began, so you went to find Mal. After looking around for a bit you spotted her purple hair by your lockers. Jogging over, you grinned, "Mal!" You called, catching her attention. She stopped spraying her locked and looked at you, smiling as she saw you and catching you in her arms as you jumped into them, hugging her tightly. "Mal!" You exclaimed happily, making her laugh. "Hey (Y/n), what's up?" Mal asked curiously, hugging you back before pulling away to look at you. You whispered excitedly, "Diaval got off the isle! He's taking Mom's letter to Aurora right now!" You were practically shaking in her arms from excitement as you told her. Mal could feel a weight lift off her shoulders and she sighed in relief, grinning brighter, "That's great! Good job sis!" She praised before hugging you again. After a moment, you both pulled away and the sight of her locker caught your attention, "Are you spray painting your logo onto your locker?" You asked curiously, looking at it closer. "Yeah, figured I might as well. Brings back a bit of home, you know?" Mal looked at the locker as well. You hummed, glancing at yours just a locker away, "Mind if I borrow some?" mal glanced at you curiously for a moment but realized quickly what you meant as you studied your blank blue locker. Smirking, Mal nudged the bag of cans towards you, "Go for it." 

        A few minutes before the bell rang, you and Mal packed the cans away and threw away the empty ones. Using magic, you both dried the paint so you could touch your lockers and open them to get your books for your next class. Once you both were done, you closed your locker and were shocked to see Ben standing super close to you, leaning against the lockers. You could feel the heat radiating off him against your wing and you pulled it away. "Hey." Ben greeted, his voice smooth as he stared into your eyes. You ignored a small feeling in your chest as you and Mal replied in unison, "Hey." "How was your first day?" He asked with a twinge of playfulness in his voice, glancing at Mal to let her know the question was towards her as well. You couldn't help the slight smile that came onto your face, "Great." "Super," Mal said sarcastically. He studied the lockers for a moment, Mal's decorated with 'Long Live Evil' written on a figure that looked like Mom, green flames around the whole thing. Yours looked a lot like what most people assumed magic to look like. Sparkly, ethereal, and warm. It was gold just like your magic and in the background looked to be a forest. "You know, you should really take this talent off the lockers and into art class. I could, uh, sign you two up if you want." Ben said, his eyes flicking towards Mal before landing on you once again. 

        Mal opened her mouth to respond before catching sight of Fairy Godmother's daughter Jane. "...Way to take all the fun out of it. See you later (Y/n)." She waited a moment for your reply before following Jane. "Oh. What about you, (Y/n)?" Ben asked, focusing all his attention on you as he awaited your response. "Sorry, I don't like being graded on my art. Makes my hobby a job, you know?" You asked, leaning against your locker, mimicking his stance. You watched a small smile creep onto his face, and he dropped his head a little, laughing quietly, "Yeah, yeah I can see that." He agreed, lifting his head once again to look at you. You felt your cheeks heat up slightly and you cleared your throat, "Uh, is that all?" You asked, stepping back to put more distance between you two. "Oh! Yeah, sorry." Ben apologized sheepishly, though he didn't seem to look all that sorry. You shifted your weight on your feet for a moment before nodding, "Okay, well I have to get to class. See you." You said, leaving before he could manage a reply. Ben stared after you with a small grin on his face before looking down to his feet, grinning wider, glancing at your locker, and turning for his back to rest against the locker fully. He leaned on them, looking out into the yard, "...Huh."

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Thank you so much to fanfiction.net user DOAWOTA for asking "where is hades during this time?" You helped me out a lot, making me realize that I had a lot more story to plan out. I really appreciate questions and comments like this or even ones that are just about how you feel towards the story. To answer the question, more information about Hades and how he relates to the story and to the girls will be released gradually into the story until he is introduced. Thanks so much for the question!

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Leagues - Mikey Way x Reader

Request: I know you'll be away from doing asks for a while and you have a long list of requests, but I would love a story with like a rich girl and someone (Gerard, Mikey, Pete, Brendon, who ever you feel like writing, idc) has a crush on her but thinks she'd never like him back, but she does k thanks xoxo

Reader: female

Word count: 1 887

Mikey could not help but stare at her as she walked past him in the hallway. She was looking as cute as ever as she strode past the other students. It seemed like she was untouchable, no one even dared walking in her way. But it was not the scared kind of making way, it was the impressed kind. She simply had something about herself that Mikey could not place his finger on. Maybe it was the way she dressed in simple clothes, a short skirt and a shirt that was a little too big for her, making her seem tiny and fragile, maybe it was her posture, the way she always held her head proud, but lowered so she glanced out from under her wild strands of tastefully messed up hair, maybe it was the way she walked so gently, as if she was almost floating. It was not something you would assume on the first glance, or the second, or the third for that matter, but Mikey knew her parents had money. Lots of money. Everyone in the whole school knew about it, and many kids still tried to befriend her just because of that, but not Mikey, no. He just loved watching her, and he melted inside when he heard her soft voice. There had been a rumor that she had gotten a car for Christmas, but nobody knew if it was true, since she always took the school bus, like all the other kids. Something that was no rumor though, was that she had had a long fight with her parents until she had convinced them to allow her to attend public school. Otherwise she would have been homeschooled.

“Dude, forget it, she’s out of your league,” Frank, Mikey’s friend snored and leant against his locker.

“Am I not allowed to dream,” Mikey wondered, annoyed that Frank had stolen his last precious seconds to watch her before she turned around the next corner.

“You always dream,” Frank whined and grabbed Mikey by the arm to drag him to class. “You should get out there and find someone who you could actually have a chance with.”

“Tomorrow maybe,” Mikey answered, his heart beginning to hammer in his chest when Frank dragged him towards the classroom door, that was right next to (Y/n)’s locker.

~*~

You quickly turned towards your opened locker when you saw Mikey being pulled down the hallway by one of his friends, a boy called Frank. You had successfully ignored him earlier, but now you felt your cheeks heat up at the mere thought of him. Something about him was different. You had gotten used to all the envious stares and glances when you walked in public. Not your fault your father was a bestselling author. But with Mikey it was different. There was tenderness in his eyes, interest that reached beyond your financial situation. His eyes seemed to follow you whenever you walked past him, but when you turned to meet his eyes, he always looked away. You loved the way he doodled on his notes in class, the way his quiet voice barely reached the front of the classroom when the teacher asked him to answer a question. He was really talented when it came to drawing and you admired that his notebooks were covered in superhero doodles that his brother had made, which Mikey had stuck on all of his school books. It really showed how much Mikey admired his brother.

Now he was being pulled past you, and only for a split second yours and his eyes met. You felt your insides warm up comfortably. Something about him made you feel safe, like he really was only interested in you and no one else.

When you finally took a deep breath and faced the corridor again, he was gone.

~*~

Music class was Mikey’s favorite class of the whole day. Not because it was the last lesson, but because you were in it. Nervously he tried fixing his hair in the bathroom mirror, but as soon as he stepped outside, Frank messed it up again but rubbing his head.

“Hey,” Mikey complained, trying to duck away from Frank’s attack but it was too late, his hair was already messed up again.

Of course he stumbled a few steps further, bumping into a girl, and when he looked up, his heart almost stopped. Of all the people in the school he could have bumped into, he had fallen against you, almost taking you down in the process. Quickly he extended his hands and grabbed you, saving you from a fall.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry, sorry, are you okay,” he babbled incoherently, his cheeks burning.

You had hardly realized what happened, only that two big hands were securely holding your upper arms, saving you from falling to the floor.

“I’m fine, thanks,” you mumbled, looking up into brilliant hazel eyes that scanned you worriedly and almost… afraid.

“I- I didn’t mean to- ahm- he- yeah, sorry again,” Mikey sputtered, letting go of your arms and waving around helplessly, pointing at Frank, trying to explain the situation.

“It’s okay…” you tried to tell the nervous boy, but he had already turned around and quickly disappeared around a corner.

~*~

You could barely concentrate in music class that day. Mikey was sitting at the other end of the room, absentmindedly picking the strings of an electric bass that was not plucked in, and you were dying to hear what he was playing.

So you took all the courage you could summon and walked over to him. At first he did not notice you, too focused was he on playing a little tune you immediately liked. But then, out of nowhere, Frank popped up at his side.

“Hello there,” he winked at you, making you roll your eyes, and Mikey look up.

He was obviously surprised to see you standing right in front of him and his cheeks reddened at the same time as yours once your eyes met.

“That sounded really good,” you complimented, deciding to ignore Frank’s comment.

“Thanks,” Mikey whispered almost inaudibly.

“He wrote it for a girl,” Frank added knowingly.

Mikey shot him an angry glare that you did not see, instead your heart sank a little.

“Oh,” you managed to get out, trying not to sound too disappointed, but that failed terribly. “She’s a lucky girl to get songs written about her.”

“It’s not a good song, so…” Mikey tried to explain, hoping that this would somehow not end up with him accidently confessing his feelings for her.

“I think it’s good,” you disagreed, “and even if it wasn’t, it’s still very special and incredibly valuable.”

“You think so,” Mikey asked, not yet allowing himself to hope that he might actually have done something that could impress you, you of all people.

“Of course! It’s something really personal, and it takes a lot of time and talent to write a song, or even just a melody,” you explained, trying to make him understand how much you adored his work.

“You think I’m talented,” Mikey asked with wide eyes, completely forgetting what Frank had just told him this morning; you were out of his league.

“Hell yes! That melody just right there was so beautiful, and dude, have you seen your art? It’s so gorgeous,” you told him excitedly, fully aware that you sounded like an excited fangirl.

“Thank you,” Mikey grinned.

For a moment you just stared at each other, and it felt like you had finally made a connection to the quiet boy you had been admiring from afar for almost a year now.

“The song is a really romantic gesture,” you finally said, breaking the silence, “I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“Really,” Mikey asked, deciding that he had waited long enough.

“Totally, she is really lucky to have you,” you answered, suddenly feeling sad again. You really hoped she was good to him. He deserved to be happy.

“Well,” Mikey hesitated, but then grabbed the notebook that had fallen shut next to his feet. He lifted it up and turned the pages until he had reached the one with the chords to the song he had been playing. He ripped out the page and folded it in half, handing the paper to you.

Confused you took the page out of his hand, and with a quick glance at Mikey you unfolded it again. Neat handwriting covered the page, lines of a song written down in tiny letters with chords for the bass written above it. You scanned the lyrics, a song about how the boy thought there was nothing he could do to gain the girl’s attention because she was too good for him, from a rich family while he was the son of workers. Only then her eyes caught the title. ‘For (Y/n)’.

Her breath caught in her throat as she read the title again and again, not realizing how nervous Mikey grew with every passing second.

“This is- this is so not true,” you finally breathed, looking up from the paper in your hand, “It so doesn’t matter who our parents are, or how much they earn or how big the houses are we live in, Mikey. And I am not, I repeat, not ‘too good for you’ or ‘out of your league’ because I don’t believe in that bullshit and also it would be really rubbish because I like you at least as much as you say in this song that you like me, and I really, really want to prove you wrong on the ‘not worthy of your love’ part.”

Mikey stared at you, still nervously holding his breath but with each second he felt like a weight was falling off his shoulders until he was feather light.

“Does that mean-“

“I like you, a lot,” you answered his question before he had finished it.

“Oh,” he mouthed.

“Don’t be so surprised, what is there not to like,” you laughed, feeling relieved to have finally admitted to your feelings for him.

“Uhm, a lot,” Mikey answered, still nervous and unable to believe he was not dreaming, “the glasses, the hair, the mouth…”

You shook your head.

“Your glasses are really cute, your hair,” you ran your fingers through the brown locks Frank had messed up earlier, “are super silky and your mouth,” you could not help the smile on your lips as you leant down to press them against Mikey’s who was still sitting with the bass in his lap, “are really, really soft.”

You leant back up and watched as a big grin appeared on Mikey’s face.

“Wow,” he whispered.

“Yeah, wow, pretty soft lips indeed,” you chuckled.

“No, I mean-“ Mikey put the bass aside and stood up, placing his hand on your cheek and gently pulling your face closer to his again, “this.”

He kissed you again, gently, without pressure and your eyes fluttered closed at the sensation.

“Hey guys, that was really, really kitschy, just so you know,” Frank commented from next to you, having watched the whole time.

“Shut up,” Mikey giggled, not finding it in him to care that Frank had seen everything. At least he had proven him wrong, you were not out of his league, because there was no such thing as leagues.

[rattycattyfanfic]

stroke by stroke

Fandom: Once Upon A Time Pairing: Regina/Emma, Alice/Robyn, Regina & Henry, Regina & Zelena Genre: Family/Fluff Rated: T Words: 2,255

Once upon a time, Regina paints.

5 times Regina struggles with her secret penchant for creativity + 1 time she finds her muse.

Read on AO3

this grew out of the plot in the regina rising book, where regina takes art classes for a bit. if you haven't read it, it's not crucial for this, just the inspiration. purely wrote this because art school has been kicking my butt recently and i must live everything through the cathartic distance of fictional characters. enjoy!

warnings: suggestions of childhood abuse, swearing, bit of brief alcohol use.

Once upon a time, Regina paints.

She’s not good, not by a long shot, but she loves it all the same. Loves to paint the horses, the tall, breathing trees and the horizon with its promise of freedom always just out of reach. The thick oils feel luxurious in an unfamiliar way, a far cry from the extravagance of corsets and jewels and feasts. They feel sumptuous, soulful, vibrant as she lays down rich colour, and she delights in it, escapes into the stables through her mind every time she picks up the paintbrush.

Her tutor, Jasper, is handsome and smiles when she masters a new technique or finishes a work, and Regina blushes all the way down to her toes. And therein lies the problem; because mother rarely allows her daughter the distraction of hobbies, let alone friends or boys not specifically approved by her, and she’s eagle-eyed looking for any excuse to put a stop to this. The excuse comes in the form of Jasper hovering at her shoulder, guiding her hand gently and his breath in her ear, and that’s that.

Jasper is ordered to leave, banned from the estate, and mother gets her digs in about Regina's poor painting skill, and the pressure to find an eligible prince to wed heats up. She no longer has time for frivolities between other lessons and dances and tea with suitors, so she gives it up.

When Henry is little, he’s a prolific little artist. He scribbles and scribbles as she works at her desk, and they’re the most beautiful thing Regina’s ever seen. She laughs and kisses his cheek as he proudly holds up his latest masterpiece, and gently takes it from him and puts it up on the fridge with the other favourites, cooing praise all the while.

She remembers, sometimes, well, we can’t all be good at everything, Regina, and feels her stomach twist in humiliation even years later, and promises herself this is another way she will never allow herself to be like her mother.

Seemingly chaotic spirals of waxy colour become slightly messy colouring book pages – delightfully disordered as Henry colours inside the lines as best he can but takes creative liberties: blue Spiderman, green sky, pink dog, all boldly unapologetic like happy children are. “Mommy, help,” he pipes up one day during one of their Saturday Granny's breakfasts, and spreads out his crayons across the table and Regina freezes for a half-second before picking up the red.

She puts the new art up on the fridge with alphabet magnets and puts the old ones carefully into a box. Later, she’s grateful she had the foresight to save everything, because during that awful year she returns to it on the worst nights. After he finds out about the adoption in the worst way possible and gets stuck on fairy tales, Henry demands she takes everything off the fridge in a fit of anger and pre-teen embarrassment, and so those go in the box too. Between snarling fights with his birth mother and shaking panic, Regina spends all too much time gazing over those pages of childish shapes until her vision is swimming and all she can see is a garish blur.

• 

• 

They never pick up their comfortable colouring sessions after everything gets better again. Henry gets too old, too preoccupied with being a hero or the author or college or adventures, and Regina mourns it.

She fills her house with expensive paintings, artisanal prints of mythology, illustrations of plants in an attempt to fill the hole, make it warmer on those nights he’s gone. Her favourite is a huge horse painting that hangs above her fireplace and Regina imagines maybe she would have painted something similar if she’d been allowed the time, the encouragement to learn.

And once, in the Underworld after trying and failing to sleep curled up on one of the couches, she tries. The injured horse from earlier had stuck in her mind, had looked so much like her Rocinante but wasn’t, and the loft is dim, silent but for soft snores of Snow and Charming close by. Beyond a few minutes in the bathroom here and there it’s the closest to privacy Regina has had since they got here.

Enough for her to pick up a scrap of paper and pencil and hunch over the coffee table to draw. Regina tries to remember the arc of her steed’s neck, the angles of his muzzle, the soft fuzz at his chin, and sketches until her hand aches and her eyes grow tired.

It’s bad, but it’s not awful. She feels calmer, in the dark where no one can see her failure, mother long gone. She stares at the dark shapes meant to be his eyes, the glint and it’s off but she feels sixteen again, bringing the outside inside with her. And she feels tired, at last. Slowly, Regina lays back down under the soft blanket and allows herself this small ounce of serenity.

• 

• 

In Seattle, she is Roni and owns a bar and dresses in leather and old denim. She has pain – a failed adoption, an uncaring mother, an absent father, streetwise beyond her years and more loneliness than she knows what to do with, oh yes, she has pain. But the curse has taken away specific old agonies of forced marriage and murdered lovers and a mother who abuses and shames, and she might be relieved if only she knew that she’d forgotten anything.

Roni doesn’t remember never being enough in any way at all, being groomed for marriage and marriage only, denied the simple pleasures of hobbies or friends, and she’s something of a fixer-upper – handy enough to maintain the pub, physical and creative in a way Mayor Mills hadn’t ever been. Not to mention financially fucked. She can’t spare the cash for Regina’s extensive designer wardrobe even if she could stomach the idea of fast fashion.

So she does the next best thing – cuts up her tees, alters the fit with simple stitching, and one day when she has a spare few hours after a relatively slow shift, she picks up a set of cheap paints and goes to town on a jacket sitting in the back of her closet. After hours hunched over the jacket, a couple of cold beers, and a few loud spins of the Ramones, her mind is clear and her body pleasantly tired. The paint dries, and she marvels at her newly personalised jacket, adorned with tasteful flowers, unique to her, and for once, there’s no insecurity.

•

•

When Roni remembers and becomes Regina again, she admires the jacket hanging on the back of her door, trails her fingertips over the paint before finally slipping it on. Her cursed self had surprisingly done quite a good job and it’s hers and she won’t waste a perfectly comfortable jacket. (Zelena comments, one day, nudges her gently when she gets a closer look and sees the slight imperfections of a hand-paint job. “Never knew you had an artistic side, ‘Gina,” and Regina rolls her eyes and snaps a towel playfully after her, says “I don’t,” but has to hide her flushed cheeks.)

Robyn arrives in Seattle, tall and grown now, if a little rougher around the edges – her fault and in hindsight maybe the ticket to Amsterdam she hadn’t even run past Zelena had been a bad idea, much like the spellbook she’d passed on because we all experimented, Zelena. Robyn is brave and kind and funny, though, had never succumbed to the darkness or to vices like they both had even given the chance. She’s doing well, besides being, y’know, cursed, and some evenings, that bright-eyed, wild-haired girl Tilly – Alice – comes to visit and they exchange soft touches and warm smiles. (It reminds Regina painfully of a different blonde lost to her, and she turns her face down and pours out a shot.)

While Robyn dries glasses or wipes down the counter, Alice splits her time gazing at her girlfriend and hunching over a notebook, writing and doodling. Regina had seen over her shoulder once by accident, the pages and pages of loopy handwriting and beautiful drawings of stormy seas and far-off dream-realms (real, if only Alice would make the connection she’s so close to). And when Robyn gets off shift, they sit side by side and Alice explains each drawing with glinting eyes. “What about you? What do you dream about?” Alice asks, and so Robyn picks up a pencil and tentatively tries to illustrate a dreamt childhood filled with magic and mythical beasts.

(The curse breaks and for a short time, they all sit in Roni’s bar aware of what they mean to one another. Robyn smiles softly and says, “I remember when you and mom would colour with me, Aunt Regina,” and slides two pages across the bar counter towards the two witches. Regina’s mouth closes around a silent protest and she smiles too, exchanges a soft look with her sister, and grabs a purple pencil.)

•

•

The realms are united, and everyone is back together. Everything is good.

Regina sucks in a breath as she stands in one of the castle towers, looking over the kingdom. She still has her mansion, but occasionally, she likes to come up here and allow the treetops and winding rivers to clear her mind.

She sits down on a wooden stool near the window, brought up here especially for today. Actually, all of this had been acquired very discretely, just for her today. She could have summoned it, but she’s really trying to not use magic lazily these days and the ritual of gathering everything had been strangely soothing.

In front of her is a wooden easel and a small table laden with paints – oils, like she’d used as a girl, and fluffy brushes and spirit for rinsing. The blank canvas is terribly intimidating, but Regina keeps her breathing steady and reminds herself no one has to see if it turns out bad, this is just for her. To see if she can still, if it’s still as fun as she remembers. She picks up a brush and dips the tip in the pale blue and begins to work.

The time passes easily, and as the hours slip by the sky begins to turn pink, the sun warm and red and all the colours changing too fast to keep working. That’s about the time that the door creaks, and in comes Emma, a small quirk of a smile on her lips and blonde hair tumbling down her back. “How’s it going?” she murmurs, and Regina nods.

“I missed this,” she admits and surveys her work with her bottom lip between her teeth.

The blonde grins, and steps forward, her head tilted – “Can I see?”

Emma is tentative, always careful and considerate in these quiet moments despite her naturally chaotic state, and so Regina nods again, and breathes steadily. Arms wrap around her waist and a cheek rests on her shoulder as the blonde gazes at the painting, and for a long moment Regina is half-expecting disappointment or a stilted falsity.

Emma just makes this dragged out ohh sound though and tightens her embrace. “That’s really good, Regina, you never said you were good,” and Regina flushes deeply and shushes her, would maybe chuck something small and light at her if she wasn’t enjoying this hug so much.

“It’s just – practice,” Regina excuses, and lightly pushes away to spin and take Emma into her own arms, their eyes meeting. “But thank you.” She cups Emma’s jaw and brings her down to kiss her lightly, sweetly, awing all the while at how they finally got here. Her other hand trails down Emma’s cheek, and the woman feels slight wetness and whines, “Reg-ina.”

Regina smirks as Emma rubs at the smudge of wet emerald green on her cheek, only spreading it even more. “I’m so gonna get you for that,” the sheriff says with a childish grin and flicks a brush still covered in purple paint at her lover.

The paint splatters over Regina’s browbone and she gasps and then laughs, “Emma,” as she grabs ineffectually for the brush that Emma holds high above her head. Emma jumps back, bright laughter ringing against the stone walls, and her eyes are bright. Regina’s chest feels light looking at her, lunging for the brush again until she gives up and picks up a brush of her own. Emerald eyes widen and Emma murmurs a warning, backing up and still grinning until she hits the stone wall.

Regina closes in on her, presses against her, and then her sly smirk drops. Her hand closes around Emma’s wrist, pinning it as she leans in and brings their lips together tenderly. The kiss heats up, Emma moaning into her open mouth and flicking her tongue teasingly against red lips, and the brushes drop to the floor with a clatter.

And maybe they’ll regret this little paint fight when it comes time to clean up, but Regina thinks, this is what creativity, art is supposed to be like – serene solace, laughing with her lover over spilt paint, colouring with her son, drawing dreams with her family. They part, their breath huffing warm and unsteady, and she is contemplative, meeting Emma’s eyes and trailing her thumb over the woman’s plump lower lip. She’s beautiful, glowing in the soft sunset. Regina feels good and breathes into the space between them, “I think I know what I want to paint next.”

[ineffablepjm]

No Panties - One Shot

Notes - Hi guys! So I randomly got really inspired to write a JK one shot while I was at f21, this legit was all inspired by a dress I saw lmao. I hope you guys enjoy this <3, let me know if you want a PT 2!

Triggers - Smut, Oral, Fingering, Dirty Talk

Word Count - 3.8k

“I just don’t understand why I have to like someone that bullies me!” You groaned out and threw yourself on your best friend, Jimin’s bed. He smiled and shrugged.

“That’s typical guy behavior, he has a crush on you.” He spoke and shrugged. “Or maybe he hates you.” You groaned and rolled your eyes. You and Jimin had known each other since you guys were only in the 1st grade, ever since then you’d be inseparable. However, you and Jimin never developed feelings for each other even though the two of you acknowledged that you were both good looking, The bond of brother and sister was way too strong to break for a relationship that most likely wouldn’t work because of the differences you did have. “You know what you need to do?” He questioned. “Show up to school without panties, get him into a quiet location and show him you’re not one to mess with.” Immediately you sprang up and stared at Jimin.

“Are you crazy? First of all, I don’t know how to get him alone with me, and second of all I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I pretty much only wear dresses to school and if my dress rises up everyone will know.” You shook your head. “Plus you know I tutor Namjoon, and if he finds out it’ll be awkward.”

“Please, you’re acting as if Namjoon hasn’t had his fingers buried in you before, listen everyone and their mom knows that you and Namjoon tutor and that’s just code word for, he fingers you and calls it a day. Why don’t you date Namjoon?” Jimin asked sitting on the ground stretching out his legs. He was a dancer so he was constantly stretching and or practicing dance moves since he was on the dance team, and at the end of the semester, he’d be going to a very prestigious performing arts university.

“Chim, Namjoon is good for a quick getting off session, not for a committed relationship. Plus you know that I like Jungkook even though he’s a total ass to me.” You sighed. “Namjoon doesn’t give me the butterflies that Jungkook does.” Jimin nodded and shrugged throwing his arms behind him and stretching.

“I’m saying do what I said. It’s a solid plan.” He smiled.

You sighed softly staring into your locker. You had done what Jimin said the previous night and here you stood not wearing any panties underneath your dress. You felt extremely self-conscious and you kept pulling down your dress as if that would hide the fact that your face was now a permanent shade of pink. From the corner of your eye, you saw him approaching your locker. He had his books in his hand and he was smiling. “Hey _____.” Namjoon spoke. You turned to face him and smiled.

“Joon, hey. How’d your test go?” You asked the last time you ‘tutored’ him he had an upcoming math test.

“It went well thanks to you.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to your cheek. You were caught off guard and you stared at him for a second. Namjoon was the type of guy who usually liked to show his affection in public, and it always made you uncomfortable because you clearly didn’t feel the same way he did.

“O-oh well um that’s great, I have a test so I have to go to class.” You quickly shut your locker and smiled at him before turning your heels and walking the opposite direction of him. From across the hall, Jungkook leaned against his locker, he had seen the whole scene, starting from the moment you continued to pull your dress down.

“Did you notice that ____ was acting a bit strange?” He questioned to his best friends, Yoongi and Hoseok. They both glanced at Jungkook and chuckled. “I mean and not to forget that asshole just fucking kissed her cheek as if he was dating her.”

“Why don’t you just ask her out?” Hoseok ruffled his hair and then leaned down to tie his shoe. “It’s clear you like her man, who bothers a girl as much as you do? And who cares as much as you do?”

Jungkook rolled his eyes and picked his bag up from the ground. “Shut the hell up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” And with that, he walked off in the direction you went. You stood outside of your homeroom and stared at the sheet of paper that you were studying from when he interrupted. “What is it with you and dresses ____? You always wear them. Do you like your legs? Is that what it is, you like showing them off?” He asked and licked his lips.

“J-Jungkook..” You mumbled and then glanced down at your legs suddenly feeling self-conscious and once again pulling the dress down, Jungkook, of course, was taking notice of your actions.

“Why do you keep doing that? You don’t normally do that.” He pointed at your hands that fisted the hem of the dress. Your cheeks turned bright red and he cocked his head. You had no idea that Jungkook paid such close attention to you that he noticed when you did something odd. “What? Are you not wearing panties?” He chuckled and when he realized you were even more red-faced he smirked. “You’re not?”

“N-no I am.” You spoke your voice shaking. “I just am... uh cold.” God, you were really bad at lying.

Jungkook chuckled and shook his head. “Did you leave the panties at home to make it easier for Namjoon to get into you?” He asked stepping closer to you, his bottom lip is tucked between his teeth. You quickly shook your head no. “No? So why then huh?” He was dangerously close. “Did you leave them at home so I could show you what it’s really like to get finger fucked?” You gulped. “Fuck ____, I knew you were dirty but I didn’t know you were filthy.” His words only made your knees weak and you knew that everything was saying was true and you also knew that he knew his effect on you. “Come with me to the bathroom. I’ll make you feel so good, better than Namjoon ever will.” He stepped closer and his body was practically pressed against yours.

“Jungkook-ah.” You mumbled and he smirked. He loved the sound of that, your soft sweet voice. “I-I can’t I have a test.” He nodded and stepped away from you. Jungkook stared at you for a second and he smirked looking at his feet.

“I’ll be in the 600 hall bathroom during 4th. Just so you know.” He winked at you and turned walking back towards his friends. You were stunned, this was the first time Jungkook didn’t make fun of you, instead, he was trying to make you feel good. Your knees still felt weak and it felt like you hadn’t taken a breath in forever. Wait till Jimin heard of this.

You sighed softly as you headed towards your 3rd period, your last class had you feeling all types of stupid. The test was nothing like the study sheets and it was nothing like you’d imagine, you thought you had been prepared but you clearly weren’t. When you walked into your 3rd period and sat down you placed your head down. If you failed this test it would bring your grade down tremendously and you couldn’t afford that when you were on the verge of going off to an Ivy League school. Yale, specifically. Ever since you were little you dreamed of attending and finally, your dream was so close to you. Throughout all of high school, you managed to stay above and beyond all your other peers and your friends assured you, you had nothing to worry about it but you still worried. Who wouldn’t?

Your thoughts clouded your brain so much you didn’t even notice your best friend sitting beside you until he spoke up. “I saw you and Jungkook this morning. He was very close to you. And if I’m not mistaken could’ve sworn I saw his hard-on.” He smirked. You looked over at your blonde best friend and rolled your eyes.

“Shut up Jimin, Jesus you’re worse than a girl, and to think you’re straight!” You shook your head. “You know a lot of people think you’re gay, and you just keep giving them reasons to believe so.” You smiled jokingly. Jimin simply shrugged and grinned.

“Hey they can think what they want, all that matters is that I know I like women and that I am my best friend is gonna get fucked by Jungkook, her high school crush.” He winked. “Ah so tell me details what happened?”

“Well...” you smiled and blushed. “He knows about... you know.” You pointed at your crotch. “I didn’t really have to say much I think my face gave it away. He wants to meet in the bathroom during 4th.” You confessed and hid your face behind your hands.

“And I’m assuming you’re going?” He questioned.

“Well, I’m not sure... I don’t wanna just fuck him... I really like him despite his asshole antics, I think he’s cute and I wanna get to know him.” You said sheepishly. Jimin rolled his eyes and chuckled leaning back in his chair. He didn’t say anything just shrugged and started writing in his notebook. You knew what you wanted was a lot to ask and you knew that Jungkook had not had a girlfriend at all his entire 4 years of high school. He was known as the player, he got the girls he wanted and that was it. Then he left them. But you wanted more, you wanted to be that girl that broke his way. Cliche, you knew that but it didn’t matter.

You pulled your notebook out of your bag and opened it up to a blank page. You didn’t take notes instead you doodled, your mind was too clouded with thoughts of Jungkook that it was hard to concentrate on anything else. The teacher went on about his lesson and for the first time in what seemed like forever, you weren’t paying attention to a word he said, all you could think about was the way that Jungkook’s hands would feel against you.

Soon enough class was over and as you put your notebook away Jimin glanced at you once more. “Well? What’s the plan?” You looked over at him and stood pulling your dress down.

“I don’t know Chim.. what would you do?” You sighed softly.

“Well if it was someone I really liked to the point where I wanted to date them, I wouldn’t go because my feelings would get hurt, but ____ if I can live with the fact that I just got the best fuck I could and that was it then go,” Jimin spoke and you knew he was right. You nodded and smiled at him.

“I’ll see you at lunch, okay?” Jimin nodded and you waved bye as you made your way to the 600 halls. The entire walk you thought about all the different possibilities of what was about to go down. At this point, you no longer cared whether or not you’d get to call Jungkook yours.

By now the bathroom was in view and you saw a bunch of boys surrounding the entrance. Still, you didn’t see Jungkook. You decided to just go into the girl's room and wait it out.

“So let me get this straight, you told ____ to meet you in the 600 hall bathroom, so you could what? Finger her? Fuck her?” Yoongi crossed his arms over his chest and licked his lips. “Are we talking about the same ____? The one that you tease all the time?”

Jungkook nodded and sighed. “Yes, okay listen I know I’m always an ass to her but she’s literally the only girl who doesn’t flirt with me ever, she never tries to stand out for me, she stands out without trying.” He sighed. Yoongi laughed and looked at him.

“Dude you like her like actually fucking like her, you’re mixing your heart feelings with your dick feelings.” He laughed and shook his head. “Don’t fuck around with her man, she’s such a good girl, she’s got a lot going for her.”

Jungkook licked his lips, he knew Yoongi was right but how could he stay away from her? “I don’t have a lot going for me?” Jungkook groaned and Yoongi looked at him before they both chuckled. “You’re right.. so what do I do then? Avoid her?”

“Don’t go to the bathroom, go to class and just live your life. Forget about her man, she doesn’t deserve what Jungkook has in store for her.” Yoongi shrugged. “Cmon.” He said beginning to walk away. Jungkook glanced at the 600 hallway doors and sighed, he turned his back to it and walked to class. Jungkook wanted to think that he wouldn’t hurt her, but he knew that eventually would. He wouldn’t be able to be the man she deserved.

“So he never showed up.” You sighed talking to Jimin. He rolled his eyes and sighed. 

“I should’ve known better than letting you trust Jeon Jungkook.” He groaned. “Whatever honestly fuck him, you’re hot and Namjoon wants to fuck you so like I said screw him.” Jimin offered you his granola bar. 

“Thanks, Chim, you’re right, what was I thinking? I should’ve just gone to class, anyways, enough about Jungkook, he’s not important enough to be discussing him during lunch.” Jimin nodded in agreement and the two of you ate some snacks and talked about classes and about Jimin’s new conquest until you felt a tap on your shoulder. You quickly looked back and smiled to see Namjoon. “Joon hey.” 

Namjoon didn’t smile instead he took a seat beside you and pushed his tongue through the inside of his lip. “What’s going on between you and Jungkook?” He snapped. Your eyes widened and you shook your head. 

“Nothing, why would something be going on?” 

“Well, he just stopped me from coming in here to tell me to not speak to you.” Your eyes widened. “And if I recall I have never seen you talk to Jungkook a day in your life except when he’s making fun of you. So why the hell would he just come up and say that?” 

Quickly you shook your head and shrugged, you scanned the cafeteria till you saw him. “God..” He was staring right back at you a smug smirk on his lips. “I’ll be back, watch my stuff Jimin.” He nodded and you quickly stood practically jogging over to Jungkook. He crossed his arms over his chest and continued to smirk as you stood in front of him. “What the fuck Jungkook? Why would you tell Namjoon to not speak to me?” 

“Follow me.” He said and began to walk off. You glanced back at Jimin and debated for a second before sighing and following. “He has to know that you’re not interested in him.” He began. “Plus I don’t really like him.” The two of you made your way towards the science hallways and he opened the empty classroom letting you in before coming in and shutting the door locking it behind him. 

“Jungkook, there is nothing going on between Namjoon and me, and if there was you have absolutely no say in anything.” You crossed your arms over your chest your jaw tight. You can’t believe he had the audacity when he just stood you up in the bathroom. 

“Oh ____, you’re so clueless, obviously Namjoon is crazy for you, or else why would he go and snitch on me?” Jungkook sat back on the desk. “Come closer.” You shook your head no. “Oh c’mon, you think I don’t know you spent 4th period in the bathroom waiting for me to come, why’d you go?” He smirked again. “I thought you weren’t gonna show up--” 

“Actually you didn’t show up!” You almost yelled your anger boiling up. “I spent all of my stupid 4th period sitting on a toilet just waiting and you never showed up.” Jungkook stood and came over to you, his hands reaching down to your hips, the sudden touch made you tense up and he looked at you. “Don’t, you lost your chance.” 

“Im sorry, I listened to Yoongi when I shouldn’t have.” He leaned in closer to you. “Forgive me, baby?” The pet name made your stomach crumble into a million butterflies and you tried stepping back but hit the desk behind you. “Baby please, let me make it up to you.” His half hooded lust filled eyes looked at you. 

“Jungkook we’re in a classroom.” You whispered. 

“And we were gonna do things in the bathroom, I don't know about you but I think the classroom is better.” he purred and leaned down softly kissing your neck. A soft sigh escaped your lips and he smirked. “Like that?” Jungkook proceeded to plant soft wet kisses down your neck and he reached your collarbone softly licking them. His hands traveled up to cup your neck and he pulled away from your neck to look at your closed eyes, he smiled and leaned in catching you by surprise. His lips were soft as they met yours and he started by kissing you softly. You reacted by kissing him back and sitting on the desk where your legs wrapped around his waist, your body was quickly becoming hot and you could feel the pulse in between your legs. 

Jungkook’s lips were so addicting and you swore you could stay like this for the rest of the day but he broke the connection and he smirked. “Fuck you look so good after a makeout, can’t wait to see what you’ll look like after you cum.” The words were so filthy but they were enough to make you wet. Jungkook’s hands met the hem of your dress and he hoisted it up around your waist revealing you completely naked pussy. Jungkook tucked his lip between his teeth and he allowed his hand to travel down towards your lips, with his index finger and ring finger he opened you up admiring the juices forming and slightly leaking. His eyes met yours for a second as you observed his every move. “Can’t believe you didn’t wear panties under your dress,” he mumbled and leaned down pressing chaste kisses against your inner thighs. “You’re so wet and I haven’t even touched you, baby.”  

You softly hummed and leaned back on the desk to get a better view. Jungkook was so mesmerizing, you never would’ve been able to resist him. His lips taunted around your thighs a bit more and then he rested his head on your thigh his eyes glancing from your eyes to your leaking entrance. He smirked softly and then softly used his middle finger to tease into your entrance. 

“O-oh.” You moaned out. Your eyes shutting, he slowly pushed his finger all the way in and began to pump into you. 

“Is this what Namjoon does to you when you tutor him?” He purred. He pumped his finger slightly quicker causing another moan from your lips. “Answer me.” He demanded. 

“Y-yes...” You moaned, the answer made Jungkook’s lip slightly twitched and he pushed in another digit without warning pumping you fast. 

“Do you moan his name?” He groaned and slightly nipped at your thigh. “I can’t believe he got to see you like this before me.” He continued his swift motions making sure that he focused purely on you and not on his tightening pants. He stopped pumping his fingers and then looked at you. “Let me fuck you, you’ll feel so fucking good.” Your eyes widened and you bit your lip softly. 

“I-I’ve never... Im a virgin.” You confessed and he smirked nodding. 

“I know, you’re pussy is still tight baby, Namjoon has slim fingers, he didn’t stretch you out much.” He spoke and smirked, your cheeks heated up and you shook your head. 

“Not here Kook.” He nodded understanding but just a little bit disappointed. 

“Let me make you cum at least.” You didn’t have a chance to reply when, he purred and slowly inserted his finger again, you moaned back and he pumped his finger quickly. Jungkook kneeled down and tucked his head between your thighs, his tongue lapped against your clit and his fingers pumped you slowly. He let his tongue slip right under his fingers where he could feel your juices leaking down, he removed his fingers from your entrance and his tongue made it’s way in. Your moans clouded the room and your hands found their way to Jungkook’s hair. 

“K-kook....” You moaned out. He smirked against you and moved up to your clit sucking on it and removing his mouth with a pop. His fingers jammed back into you without warning and he began to quickly and roughly fuck you with his fingers, the sound of his hand hitting your soft skin was filthy and the noise your pussy made when he entered and exited was just sinister. “Oh-oh!” Your moans were getting louder and Jungkook swore he could get off by just listening to your moans. “I-im c-clo--” You moaned out loud unable to finish. 

“I know baby, tell me does Namjoon ever finger fuck you this good?�� He asked and continued his dirty moves. Your walls were clenching around his fingers and the heat in your stomach intensified as you felt your whole body twitch. 

“Jungkook-ah”! You moaned and laid back on the desk letting your orgasm take over your body. He smirked softly and removed his fingers from you watching your cum run down and fall onto the desk. He stood up and came towards you. 

“I want you to taste yourself, baby, because Jesus you taste good.” He practically moaned his words. Namjoon never had you do this. You opened your mouth slightly and Jungkook slid his fingers in, you wrapped your lips around his fingers and sucked your juices off, allowing your tongue to rub against his fingers. He slightly moaned and his free hand went down to his pants as he rubbed himself slowly. “You’re so good to me baby.” He leaned down and kissed your forehead removing his fingers from your mouth. 

Jungkook smiled and walked towards the front of the room grabbing some hand sanitizer and tissues, you got up and pulled your dress down. “You made such a mess.” He chuckled and cleaned up the desk where you had laid. You blushed hard and then looked at him. 

“S-so what now Kook?” You softly bit your lip. 

“Well, next time I catch you without any panties on, I’m gonna spread that pussy of yours,” He threw away the tissues and came close to you, his hands going back down to your waist. “And I’m going to shove my cock into your tiny hole and I’m gonna fuck the shit out of you.” His filthy words made you feel weak and you nodded. “Go back to lunch, and think about when you plan to not wear panties next.” He winked and let go of you exiting the room. 

“Fuck.” You breathed out and then bit your lip grinning. 

[theeeveetamer]

Helloo! Hm, if you don't mind, I have a request for some more of the modern omegaverse? Particularly how Leo and Takumi met, or the scene with good ol protective Ryoma :)

Alright here we go. I know nothing about this is specific to high school, but in my modern Omegaverse I always envisioned Leo and Takumi being high school sweethearts.

I had a lot of fun writing this, so it ended up being really damn long. Like, almost 40 pages. Couple of notes: I know Mikoto isn’t their canon mother but since she has an established relationship with all of the Hoshidan sibs I think she’s easier to write and makes more sense in Omegaverse. I based this on my high school’s class scheduling, which was four classes a semester, 90 minutes per class. We called them blocks but most places have ‘periods’ so they’re referred to as such for simplicity sake. Finally, I’ve arbitrarily decided that America’s drinking age is 18 in this fic because it should be.

Tags: Omegaverse, High School AU, Omega!Takumi, Alpha!Leo, falling in love, Lower Middle Class Leokumis, Mentions of child abuse/alcoholism

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282396

“Alright are we ready?”

“Yep! On three!”

Takumi slid his finger under the lip of the envelope, and his friends followed suit.

“One… Two… Three!”

They all tore the glue seal, some more elegantly than others. Hinata got impatient half way through and just ripped the envelope down the middle. Oboro’s wasn’t much better, but at least she’d managed to tear it lengthwise like she was supposed to.

They all pulled out their class schedules at the same time and compared.

“Alright I have geometry first thing… Ugh.” He groaned. He liked math as much as the next guy, but that early in the morning?

“Damn, I have it third.” Oboro pointed out. “But we have the same teacher, so we can at least do the homework together.”

“Wait, I thought we were taking that next semester!”

They tried to schedule their class preferences so that they matched up, but that still didn’t guarantee they would get classes together. Hinata always mixed up at least one class and took it in the wrong semester.

“No, Hinata. We were going to take art next semester, remember?”

“Well shit.” He laughed. “You guys’ll still help me, right?”

Takumi rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“C’mon Takumi, what do you have next?”

It didn’t take them long to hash out the schedules. He was on his own first period, but he and Oboro had gym together fourth period. He and Hinata shared American History during third period, which also meant they had lunch together. They were all taking different language courses anyways, so he knew he’d have at least one class by himself.

With that settled he was scanning his schedule again just to ensure they shared the same teachers.

“Fuck…” He muttered under his breath.

“What is it?”

“I just realized that we have Izana for history.”

“So?”

Hinata was the oldest in his family and Oboro was an only child, so they didn’t have the ‘benefit’ of having older siblings go before them. Sometimes it was nice because he knew which teachers were good, and sometimes it was awful. If he had a quarter for every time a teacher said ‘Oh, Shirasagi? Are you Ryoma’s little brother? Well he was a joy to have in class!’ he’d be loaded.

“Ryoma and Hinoka both had him! They say he likes to play matchmaker with the Omegas in the class. Plus, he assigns a lot of group projects.”

“Ugh, great! You’ll be my partner right?”

“Obviously, dude.” Even though working with Hinata usually resulted in both of them getting distracted and goofing off until last minute, he wouldn’t have it any other way. As long as he got his A he didn’t really care how the project got done.

Though, he was concerned about a little more than just the group projects. There were definitely more Alphas in their school than Omegas, and ever since he’d presented he’d been dealing with dumb ‘matchmaking’ teachers. Heck, they were doing it before he’d even presented! And pretty much every time it happened the Alpha fell head over heels for him, and he absolutely did not reciprocate.

He couldn’t even count the number of calls Mama needed to make to the school about it on both hands. And whatever number that was, he’d probably have to double it to even get close to the number of overstepping Alphas Ryoma beat the shit out of on his behalf. In fact, most Alphas were beginning to treat being seated next to him as a death sentence, which wasn’t exactly doing wonders for his romantic life. The only Alphas in their grade willing to go within fifteen feet of him were Hinata and Oboro.

He tugged anxiously at his collar. Oboro seemed to notice because she finally changed the subject.

“Well, we only have a few weeks left of summer! Let’s not waste it thinking about school!”

“Damn straight!” Hinata agreed.

“Come on, Mama said dinner would be done around six. And hey, she bought a ton of popcorn for movie night!”

_________________

The first day back was always the worst. Farewell to staying up until four am and waking up at noon, hello dragging his ass out of bed at seven am. At least Ryoma was a senior this year, so Mama let him take the car to school. Hinoka took shotgun and he sat in the back with Sakura. She was fiddling with the strap of her messenger bag and biting her lip nervously.

“You look cute today, baby sister.” She really did. He could tell she’d woken up early to do her hair and makeup, and she’d picked out one of her favorite dresses. It was a far cry from his ratty old jeans and tshirt or Hinoka’s athletic shorts and tank top. He hadn’t even bothered to comb his hair out when he woke up, he’d just thrown it in it’s regular ponytail. He almost envied his sisters’ shorter hair.

“T-Thanks! I’m just so n-nervous, you know?”

“You’ll see! High school isn’t so scary!” Hinoka threw over her shoulder from the passenger seat. “Heck, you’ll be sick of it before long!”

“Come on Hinoka. Let her have one day before you make her jaded.” Ryoma chuckled.

“You’ll do great.” He patted her hand. “Let me know if you get lost okay? I can help you walk to class.”

“A-Alright.”

______________

The day went pretty quickly. It was the first day, so most of the teachers were just going over their syllabi and doing some dumb icebreakers so the class could get to know each other. It was mind numbing, but at least he could doodle in his notebooks and just pretend to be paying attention.

He’d been silently dreading third period all day, and all was well until then. He wasn’t sure what he wanted. It would be nice to sit next to Hinata, but if Izana really was a matchmaker then that could make things awkward. Then again, he’d rather things be a little awkward with his best friend than get harassed by some Alpha that needed to learn the definition of ‘boundaries’.

Hinata was already inside the classroom. He waved at Takumi from around the middle of the classroom and motioned to the empty seat beside him. The desks were laid out very strangely: Each row had six desks, and  three columns consisting of two desks pushed together.

“No alphabetical order?”

Hinata shrugged. “He just told us to sit wherever.”

The man in question was currently behind his computer at the front of the room. The bell rang, but he still seemed intent on whatever he was working on. A few minutes of idle chatting later he stood up and stepped to the center of the room.

“Good afternoon everyone. I’ve created a randomized seating chart for you all. Please come sit in your new seat when I call your name.”

They were about ten desks in when the pattern became obvious. Of course every Omega just so happened to be paired with an alpha, despite the sizable portion of Betas in the class. Randomized. Sure.

“… Shirasagi, Takumi!” He squinted his eyes at the paper for a moment. “Weird, I think I had your brother. Or was it a sister?”

“It was both…” He mumbled dejectedly as he took his seat.

“Alright then let’s see… Windmire, Leo!”

Oh gods. Anyone but him.

Their brothers had been feuding since Ryoma’s freshman year, he couldn’t even remember what about. Something about a failed science project that both of them insisted wasn’t their fault. After that it was pretty much silently agreed upon that the Shirasagis would avoid the Windmires, and they would do the same. He’d never personally met Leo, but he’d heard stories. Mainly about how he was a stuck up pretty boy.

And yeah, just looking at him walk across the room he’d believe those rumors. He had a way about him that was hard to miss. He never slouched or shuffled; He strode along like he was above it all. And he was tall. At least six foot or so. Which, Takumi supposed wasn’t all that impressive for Alphas in general, but at fifteen or sixteen most of them were still growing and stood at around five foot eight to five foot ten. That meant he was constantly looking down his nose at everyone else. It was a little intimidating, at five foot six he’d pretty much stopped growing, and he was considered tall for an Omega. Sakura was only five foot two.

The blonde dropped his newly acquired textbook and notebooks down on the desk next to him. They didn’t say a word to each other as Izana finished assigning seats. It seemed like his siblings hadn’t exaggerated: Every Omega in the class was paired off with an Alpha. When that was done he handed out the syllabi and moved back to the front of the class to go over it.

“In this class I believe in learning the value of teamwork! So, you’ll have four group projects. Three due throughout the semester and one final project. Your project partners will be the person you’re sitting next to. No exceptions. These are big projects and will require outside work, so be sure to get your partner’s contact information.”

He heard the Alpha beside him audibly groan. He was, quite frankly, a little offended. Sure he and Hinata goofed off, but he was still a straight A student damn it! Where did this asshole get off?

They suffered silently through the remaining eighty minutes of class until lunch. When the bell rang he reluctantly turned to his seatmate.

“So…” He was loathe to do it, but unfortunately he had to. “We should probably exchange numbers.”

The Alpha rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone.

“I’m sorry, do you have a problem with me?”

“Just don’t tank my grade. It’s bad enough that I have to associate with a Shirasagi, but an Omega?”

Ah, there it was. The old stereotype that an Omega couldn’t be smart, too. Boy, was this asshole in for a rude awakening.

“Look, I’m not happy about this either.” He growled as he typed his number in. “But I’m not about to get a B just because I’m stuck with you as a partner.”

With the exchange done he collected up his backpack and met up with Hinata, who was waiting by the door for him.

________

“Ugh, can you believe that guy!” He groused, shoving his sandwich into his mouth. Hinata was similarly scarfing down his food, but they were sitting on their own because Oboro had a different lunch.

Between complaining he was also scanning the room for Sakura. She’d texted him that they had the same lunch and he wanted to make sure she wasn’t sitting on her own. He finally caught sight of her – she was kind of hard to miss with the pink hair – sitting a few tables away with her friend Hana and some blonde girl he’d never met. Reasonably assured she was in good hands, he continued his complaining about Leo.

“I mean, the nerve of the guy! Implying that I can’t do work just because I’m an Omega!”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it either.” Hinata added through a mouthful of chips. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I would have failed algebra if it wasn’t for you.”

“Exactly! I mean–” He realized quickly that he probably shouldn’t be insulting his friend’s intelligence just to prove a point. “Sorry, Hinata.”

His friend just waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. Come on, let’s talk about something else.”

He tried to keep his attention off of the blonde Alpha, but he kept catching him out of the corner of his eye and getting infuriated all over again.

__________

The rest of the day was, thankfully, pretty uneventful. He’d almost forgotten all about Leo and his prissy attitude until he got home and he and Sakura were helping Mama with dinner. He and Sakura were chopping up vegetables while she prepared the meats. Hinoka was still at baseball practice and Ryoma was in his room working on his college essays.

“So how was school?”

“Great!” Sakura started excitedly chattering. “Hana and I have a lot of classes together s-so that was good! And I met a r-really nice girl named Elise in first period!”

“That’s great, sweetie! What about you Takumi, did you have fun? Make any new friends?”

He shrugged. “Not really. But there was this one guy in my history class…”

“Oh? You met a boy?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Mama! It’s not like that! He’s… He’s completely insufferable!” He let out a frustrated sigh. “Mister Izana paired us up for every class project, and this dumb Alpha thinks I’m stupid just because I’m an Omega!”

“Oh dear… Well I’m sure it won’t be so bad. Once he gets to know you I’m sure he’ll warm up.”

“I dunno, he’s a Windmire. They’re, like, predisposed to hate us or something!”

“I’m sure he can’t be that bad. You know what I always say, never judge a book by its cover!”

“Yes, Mama.” He rolled his eyes. Of course she didn’t get it. She hadn’t even met Leo, she had no idea how rude he’d been!

He finished up slicing the vegetables and Mama shooed them both out of the kitchen so she could finish cooking. He didn’t have much to do since there wasn’t any homework, so he decided to bum around on his laptop until dinner.

He hadn’t really intended to start cyberstalking Leo, it had just kind of happened. It started when he tried looking up the Alpha’s social media, but the guy was a ghost. None of the Windmires seemed to have any online presence, and the only pictures he found were from what he was guessing were Leo’s friends. He’d just wanted to get a general idea of the guy, but after an hour of coming up blank finding anything became an obsession. How could he not have anything online? It was just so weird!

He finally stopped when Mama called them all down to dinner, and he realized how ridiculous he was being. So what if he couldn’t find any information? Why should he care about this asshole anyways? He shut the laptop and hurried to the dining room.

____________

The first month or so went by without too many problems. He and Leo mostly just ignored each other during class, and once it was over he made a quick escape to lunch with Hinata. They didn’t get the details about their first project until late September. It wasn’t much, just a paper. It was about three pages and due in two weeks, so he wasn’t too worried about it just yet.

He stuck the project requirements into his folder and headed down to lunch. The second he left the room his phone buzzed in his pocket.

We should get started on this project today.

He glanced over his shoulder. Leo was literally standing ten feet away from him. Was he for real?

He pulled his phone back out to respond.

Dude, you’re literally standing right there. You couldn’t talk to me?

He watched as the blonde’s phone buzzed and he typed his response. This was ridiculous, was he really so conceited that he couldn’t even talk to him?

Look who’s talking.

“Ugh!” He stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “Come on Hinata, let’s go.”

All of lunch was a back and forth.

The project isn’t even due until two weeks from now.

I’m not going to fail this class because you wanted to wait until last minute.

Fine! We can start working on it tonight then! Your house or mine?

Better do yours.

Alright, meet me by the exit after school. My brother will drive us.

Gods, what an arrogant asshole! As if waiting a week would kill them! If he were working alone he could get it done in two days! Not to mention the fact that he wanted to start working on it on a Friday night! Sure, Takumi had just planned to stay in and watch movies, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have had plans!

Sakura was already waiting by the door, along with her blonde friend. She waved at him as he approached. “B-Big brother! This is my friend, Elise.”

“Oh, uh, nice to meet you.” Now that he was closer he could see that she was an Omega as well. The heat suppressants could make it hard to tell sometimes, but only Omegas wore collars like that. Hers was made of dyed black leather and it was studded with little purple rhinestones to match her black and purple dress.

“Ta-ku-mi,” She enunciated every syllable in his name carefully. “Did I say it right?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s right.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you too, Takumi!” She beamed up at him. Geez when Sakura said Elise was friendly she wasn’t kidding. They hadn’t known each other five minutes and she was already chattering away like they’d been friends for decades.

Leo turned up a few minutes later. Takumi caught sight of him down the hall, and he seemed confused as he approached.

“Elise? What are you doing here?”

Did they know each other?

“Aw, Leo! Did you make friends too?”

The Alpha side-eyed him and then shook his head. “Absolutely not. We’re just working on a project together. What are you doing?”

“Xander said I could stay over at Sakura’s tonight! We’re gonna get together with Hana and Effie to do girl stuff!”

“Did you ask father too?”

She pouted. “You know how he is.”

“… Alright, but you need to finish your homework beforehand.”

“Yeah, yeah. Camilla already gave me the lecture. Sakura and I are gonna get it all done before dinner.”

So, Elise was Leo’s little sister? He hadn’t really considered the possibility that Sakura’s new friend was a Windmire, but he supposed it made sense. He’d forgotten about the youngest sibling since she was the grade below him and they’d never had classes together or anything.

It was almost cute watching them; It reminded him a lot of his relationship with Sakura. That didn’t mean Leo wasn’t still a complete asshole, but he supposed even assholes had their moments.

Ryoma finally came down the hall, backpack slung over one shoulder and spinning his keys around his finger.

“Who are your friends?”

“We aren’t friends.” He and Leo said it in unison. Ryoma raised and eyebrow, and Sakura giggled.

“W-We’re just working on a project.” He finished lamely.

His brother shrugged his shoulders, but he was glaring daggers at Leo already. It wasn’t angry, more like don’t you dare fuck with my little brother, asshole. Leo shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

“Alright, well let’s get home.”

He’d never really felt self-conscious about his house before. It wasn’t the biggest, and it certainly wasn’t the nicest. He’d known Hinata and Oboro for so long that none of it mattered because… Well it never had before. He didn’t know much about Leo, but this stuck up pretty boy was probably used to nicer stuff.

Mama couldn’t work because she didn’t have an Alpha to sign off on it. Papa made pretty good money, but after he died they had to cut back and make do on the insurance money. They only owned one car since Mama only left to do errands, and she could do those once they got home from school.

Their house was a standard split-level with three bedrooms and a basement. He and Sakura actually shared a room, and Ryoma and Hinoka did the same. Mama took the smallest room and his older siblings had the master bedroom. The basement was a general family room, with a nice but old flat screen TV, an old Nintendo that he’d found for twenty bucks at a neighbor’s garage sale, and a big sectional couch. The upstairs had a much smaller TV and couch that Mama mainly used to watch the news. Or to stop arguments when everyone wanted to watch something at the same time.

The nicest piece of furniture they owned was probably their dining table. Mama had been saving up for a new one for years because the old one was too small for a family of five, and she liked it when they all ate together. Plus, one or more of their friends usually came over for dinner more often than not and she liked entertaining company. It made the small space a little cramped but Mama always made sure it was clean and overall it was pretty cozy.

They all kicked their shoes off, and Takumi tried not to look at their guests faces when they stepped inside. He wasn’t sure if he could stop himself from punching Leo in the face if he got condescending about it.

“Come on. We can work on our project in my room. Sakura, are you and Elise okay in the living room?”

“Y-Yeah no problem!”

It would be a little too cramped in their small space with four people in there. Usually when they did homework they all set up on the dining room table and did it together. But he didn’t want to disturb Ryoma and Sakura since he and Leo would probably be pretty distracting with their talking.

Mama greeted them at the top of the stairs.

“Perfect timing. Ryoma dear can you give me the keys? I need to go grocery shopping.”

“They’re in the key bowl by the door.”

“Great!” She looked over their two guests. “Are you two going to be staying for dinner?”

“Oh, right! Mama this is Leo, and that’s Sakura’s friend Elise.”

“Nice to meet you Missus Shirasagi.” Leo extended a hand for her to shake.

“Please, you can just call me Mikoto.”

“I don’t know how long Leo and I will be working on our project, but Elise will definitely be here for dinner.”

“Alright I’ll buy a little extra then!” That went without saying, though. Mama always bought extra for guests. She grabbed the keys and headed out, and Takumi led Leo down the hall to his room.

“Takumi!” Ryoma called out to him from the living room.

“What?”

“Leave the door open!”

“Ryoma!” He could feel his face heating up. Gods, like he would ever do anything with this guy!

He left the door open anyways, mostly because it was better than having Ryoma randomly barge in and “need something” like he always did if Takumi shut the door.

There wasn’t a whole lot of room to spread out. Most of the space was taken up by two twin beds. Their room was about ten feet wide, and there was about four feet of open space between the beds. They each had their own nightstand, and there was a dresser shoved in the closet. It was a pretty wide closet, but they had to share. Three of the four dresser drawers belonged to him, but two thirds of the closet belonged to Sakura because she owned so many dresses.

All in all, it was pretty obvious what belonged to whom in the room. Sakura had a lot of decor of her namesake: Her lampshade and bedspread both featured cherry blossom patterns, and she had a variety of little bobbles including a little glass cherry blossom tree that Mama made for her by hand. She also had a few canvasses hanging from the walls with several different designs, one of which featured cherry blossoms once again. Most of it wasn’t her choice, it was just what people bought her for birthdays and Christmas. It was a good thing she liked pink.

His side was a little plainer decor-wise. In addition to his bed and nightstand he also had a bookshelf that was overflowing with books on history and philosophy. There were so many that he’d begun stacking them on top of the shelf as well. On top of those books an old Shogi board was perched, just in case any of his siblings ever wanted to play with him again. They had a few other board games on the top shelf of the closet. Sometimes they had game nights on the weekend, but for the most part they went untouched. His bow and a quiverfull of arrows were currently leaning in the space between the nightstands. He didn’t really have anywhere else for it, since his kendo equipment was underneath the bed and there was no more room in the closet.

“Sorry it’s not very big.” He dropped his backpack on his bed and pulled out his laptop. Mama bought them all the same cheap little chromebook one year for Christmas when they were on sale. It wasn’t the best, but it got the job done.

Leo just shrugged and followed suit. His laptop was bigger, but it also looked pretty old. He brought out the charger as well.

“Got an outlet somewhere? The battery on this damn thing is burnt out.”

Once they were finally set up on the floor he pulled the assignment sheet back out of his folder.

“Alright, looks like we have to discuss the fallout after the civil war. Three pages, double spaced, yadda yadda. And a presentation to the class.”

“You haven’t even read the assignment yet?”

“When was I supposed to read it? Izana gave it to us at the end of class, and I wasn’t going to read it over during gym class!”

“Gods I’m going to fail.” The Alpha muttered under his breath.

“Hey!” Takumi growled. “Would you stop treating me like I’m some ditz! I’m trying to get an A too, you know! So just start the damn powerpoint and I’ll start the paper.”

He flipped his textbook open to the relevant chapter and started scanning for information.

The Alpha sighed. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I’m just used to my partners slacking.”

Well of all the things he’d been expecting, he certainly hadn’t seen an apology coming.

“I-It’s fine. Let’s just get this done so I can actually enjoy this weekend.”

They worked for a solid hour, only talking to ensure that their points matched up. He was probably a third of the way done with the rough draft of their paper, and Leo was about half done with the powerpoint when they were interrupted by Elise entering the room.

“Leeeeooo!” She called from the door.

“What is it, Elise?”

“Can you help me with math?”

“Have you done all of the problems you can solve?”

“Yep! And Sakura helped me with some, but there are a couple we can’t get.”

“And you finished your other subjects?”

“Uh huh! We did those first.”

“Alright, I’ll come help you in a few minutes.”

“Okay!” She skipped back down the hall and sat down with Sakura at the dining room table.

Leo shut his laptop and shoved his books back into his backpack.

“I thought you wanted to get this project done?”

The blonde rolled his eyes. He was just now noticing, but had they always been that color? Or was the dim light in his room playing tricks on his eyes? He hadn’t really been paying attention, but he swore he would have remembered such vivid red eyes.

“This is exactly why I start projects when they’re assigned. We don’t have to do it all today.”

He left all of his things on the floor of Takumi’s room and headed back out into the main living area.

Takumi had managed to get all of his homework done in class today. He was pretty bored in geometry, so he usually did the homework as he was taking notes. Plus with ninety minute classes their teacher usually gave them half of that time for homework. His language class usually made it a point not to assign any homework, and their history class assigned the project in lieu of any real homework. So he decided to take his laptop into the living room and start picking out a movie for tonight. Ryoma had disappeared to somewhere, probably over to Saizo’s house to hang out.

He was actually currently stealing his good friend’s netflix, and with October on the horizon most of the queue was horror movies. It was just easier to stay logged in since they usually hung out at his house. Hinata didn’t usually mind, as long as he didn’t hog it or remove things from his list.

Elise and Sakura really only had two math problems they couldn’t get on their own, and once Leo walked them through the first one they didn’t even need help on the second. He got the sense that this was something Leo did a lot, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t impressed by it. Maybe he wasn’t as stuck up as everyone seemed to imply.

“So,” The Alpha finally spoke directly to him. He’d been so focused on his computer that it startled him. “You like horror movies?”

He shuddered at the thought. Horror movies always made his nightmares so much worse. “No, actually. This is my friend’s account. I take it you do?”

“Mhmm. That’s too bad, I know a few good ones you might enjoy.”

“… Nothing too scary?”

“I suppose that depends on your definition of scary.”

“Hmm… Well I don’t do paranormal. Hard no on anything paranormal. I also don’t really like monsters or ghouls or anything like that.”

“Home invasion?”

“Yeah I think I could do that.” If he were being honest he would have said not in a million years, but he also didn’t want to seem like a complete wuss.

He grinned. “I have the perfect movie. Do you want to watch it on my laptop?”

“W-What? You mean, right now?”

He shrugged. “I’m here, and obviously we’ve both already checked out of this project for today. Besides, I don’t want to leave in case Elise needs me for something else.”

Just then he was saved by the bell – or rather, his mother.

“Takumi! Come help me get the groceries in!”

He hopped up and ran to the car, thankful to get out of that conversation. Maybe he wouldn’t have to watch a horror movie after all.

“Would you like some help with those?” Leo asked, indicating the bags she was carrying. She handed them off to him gratefully and he finished getting them into the kitchen. Then Leo helped him bring in the few bags from the car, and they were done in one trip. He tried to help put things away, but Mama shooed him back out into the living room.

Leo was standing by, waiting for him to get done.

“So, how about it?”

“I don’t know if we have time for a movie. Mama when is dinner?”

“Oh don’t worry about it sweetie. There’s plenty of time for a movie.”

Fuck. Looks like he was doing this.

“Alright, sure. Sakura will probably want the basement so she can get ready for her sleepover, so we can watch it in my room.”

With Ryoma out he could finally shut his door. It wasn’t that he wanted to do anything, he just liked having the privacy. Leo set his laptop up on the bed.

“Turn off the lights.”

“W-What?”

“Come on, it’s a horror movie. You have to set the mood!”

He flicked the lights off and sat down. He tried to keep a respectable distance, but it was hard when they were watching on a laptop. They had three or four inches between their shoulders at best.

It was a little weird, if he was being honest. He’d never had an Alpha on his bed unless it was Hinata or Oboro. He hadn’t realized how weirdly intimate it was until he was sitting with the blonde. His heart was racing, though that was probably just from the movie. Though, by the end of it he was actually clinging to Leo’s arm and hiding his face in the sleeve of the blonde’s hoodie.

They were nearing the end of the movie. By now there had been a few tense moments of this woman trying to escape her would-be killer, and a few jump scares to set his nerves on edge. She was trying to crawl back in her window while the killer chased her, and he had to stop himself from shouting go, go, go, go!

The door to his room slammed open and he screamed. Not a yelp or a cry of surprise, he actually yelled out in terror and hid his face behind the Alpha’s shoulder.

“Takumi?” It was just Ryoma. Apparently he hadn’t been as gone as Takumi thought him.

“Gods, Ryoma! You scared the shit out of me!”

“My apologies. I just wanted to know if you needed anything.”

“Yeah! A new damn pair of underwear! Geez Ryoma, can’t I have the door closed for five minutes without you barging in!”

His brother put his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. Finish your movie, mother said that dinner will be ready soon.

As soon as he backed out Leo chuckled. “I didn’t think you would be that scared by this movie!”

“I-I wasn’t scared! He just surprised me is all!” He scooted away from Leo and drew his knees up to his chest.

“Of course, obviously.” Leo nodded. “Alright pay attention. We’re almost at the end.”

They very end of the movie was more action packed and didn’t have as many jump scares, so it was a little easier to get through. She managed to fight off her attacker and call the police in the end. And hey, the cat didn’t even die. When the credits started rolling Leo shut his laptop.

“So, what did you think?”

“The entire plot of this movie could have been avoided if this woman just owned a landline.”

“That’s… Exactly what I always say.”

There was an awkward lull in the conversation. After a moment he finally responded again.

“W-We should get to the dining room. Mama is probably waiting for us.”

He reached for the light, but in the dark he didn’t see the stack of books hanging a few inches over the edge of his bookshelf. He accidentally bumped them and brought the entire pile down.

“Shit!” He muttered. He managed to flick the light on. Only five or six books ended up on the ground, and he quickly picked them up and re-stacked them on the shelf.

“The Stranger?” Leo picked the top paperback off the stack and flipped it over.

“Well aren’t you nosy!” He shot back, defensively. Most people that saw his book collection automatically labelled him a huge nerd, including his older siblings.

“I’ve been trying my hardest not to snoop, but it’s kind of hard not to notice when you’re a complete klutz and knock over piles of books. Besides, it’s one of my favorites, I couldn’t help bringing it up.”

“I actually haven’t finished it yet.” He admitted. “Nihilism isn’t really my thing, and I can’t stand the main character!”

“Really? I think it leans more absurdist myself. How far did you get?”

“Uh, I think I was about half way through part one.”

“You should try again. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

He took the book from the Alpha and tossed it on his nightstand.

“You know, for a pretty boy you’re kind of a dork.”

He was into philosophy and history? What was next? Would Leo tell him that he’s on the school’s chess team?

“I could say the same of you, Takumi.”

Wait, did Leo just call him pretty? Did he just call Leo pretty? To his face? Oh gods, like he needed another reason to go red as a tomato. He hurried past the Alpha and took his seat at the table with the rest of his family and Elise. There were seven places set at the table. Ryoma was sitting on one end, Mama on the other, and Elise, Sakura, and Hinoka on one side. That left two places on the other for he and Leo to sit. He took his usual seat nearest Mama, but Leo hung back a moment. He checked his watch.

“Actually I think it’s time I headed home.”

He wasn’t about to stop Leo, though he was a little disappointed. He’d just found out that they had so much in common, and he’d been kind of hoping that they could chat more.

“Please stay for dinner at least! Sakura was just telling me about how helpful you’ve been, it’s the least I can do.”

He looked conflicted, but he ultimately sat down.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Mama smiled at him, then leaned over and whispered conspiratorially in his ear.

“Is this the boy you’ve been complaining about? He’s so polite!”

“Mama please!” His face was already red enough from that earlier pretty boy comment.

“So, Leo.” Oh gods. Ryoma was going to do this to him? Tonight? “You’re working on a project with Takumi?”

“That’s right.”

“Uh huh. How’s your GPA?”

“Ryoma…” He muttered under his breath.

“I have a perfect GPA, actually.”

“Good, good… Because, you know, my brother doesn’t waste his time with stupid men.”

“Ryoma!” He growled. Mama patted him on the arm.

“Now come on Ryoma, he’s our guest. There’s no need for this.” Yet. He could hear it in her voice. Gods, had his entire family gone crazy?

The rest of dinner went pretty normally, aside from Ryoma’s incessant what-are-your-intentions-with-my-brother grilling. When it was over he helped Mama clear the table, and Leo excused himself.

“I really must get going.”

“Do you live far? I can drive you home, if you’d like?” Mama called out from the kitchen. She was in the middle of doing the dishes, and Ryoma was helping her dry.

“It’s not far.” He answered quickly. “Really, I’d prefer to walk.”

“Alright. It was nice meeting you!”

Ryoma was just glaring daggers at him over her shoulder. Takumi pushed him toward the stairs and followed him into the entryway.

“Uh, sorry about him.”

Leo just shrugged. “Believe me, I’ve seen worse. Why don’t we get together on Sunday to finish the project?”

“Y-Yeah, sure. Sounds good.”

“I’ll text you.”

He headed out and Takumi shut the door behind him. It was still pretty warm out, but he hoped Leo didn’t have to walk too far. It was starting to get dark, and it looked like it might rain later that night.

All in all he was no longer absolutely dreading seeing Leo again. Hell, he was a completely different person than he usually was in school! He’d even called Mama ‘ma’am’!

He headed back upstairs to see if any more help was needed. Sakura and Elise had long since retreated into the basement to get things set up, and Hana and Effie would probably be there soon.

“Your friend seemed nice.” Mama was just finishing up the dishes and wiping her hands on a nearby towel.

“I don’t like him.” Ryoma slammed a plate down in the cupboard a little harder than usual.

He rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to like him, Ryoma. We’re just doing a class project together. Besides, he hates me anyways.”

It was true. Just because he was polite didn’t mean he liked Takumi. He was probably just minding his manners for once.

“Oh I don’t know about that, sweetie. The two of you seemed to get on just fine.” She had this glint in her eye.

“I told you, Mama, it’s not like that.”

“Good.” Ryoma muttered under his breath.

Gods, what a pain! He loved his brother, but he could be too overprotective sometimes. Heck, he still glared daggers at Hinata, and they’d been friends since they were five!

“I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

He spent the rest of the night watching dumb youtube videos to try and shake the horror movie from his mind.

_____________

Saturday went by pretty uneventfully. He and Hinata went to kendo practice in the morning and then they spent the rest of the day bumming around the park while the weather was still warm. Then later that night Oboro came over for their regular movie night.

Hinata hooked his laptop into the TV and started flicking through the movies. He and Oboro were already sitting on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn between them.

“So how did working on your project with Mister Prissy-pants go yesterday?”

“Actually, not terribly. It was, uh, actually kind of fun.”

Both of his friends stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

“Woah, hold the phone. You had fun. With Leo?”

“I mean… Look, he was still kind of a dick but I don’t know. We have a lot in common, and he was actually really sweet with Mama and his sister.”

Hinata whistled. “Well looks like it’s the end of the world everybody. Oboro, do you still have that zombie invasion action plan we wrote up?”

She shoved him. “Who said it was going to be a zombie invasion?”

“Who said it wasn’t?”

He was thankful that they didn’t push the subject, at least. Mama had been giving him that look ever since and Ryoma kept pulling him aside to have the talk. Just the memory of it made him shudder, and he was glad that Hinoka needed him for something before he could really get into it.

“I know you don’t like them, but can we please watch a horror movie? I know of a really good zombie flick now that you mention it!” Hinata urged.

Zombie movies, strangely enough, didn’t really bother him. Maybe because he knew how unlikely a zombie apocalypse was, and most of the movies were pretty bad anyways.

“Fine. But no more until Halloween!”

He started playing the movie and sat down on the couch next to Oboro. They were only about ten minutes in when he got distracted by a text from Leo.

Hey, sorry but I’m not going to be able to meet tomorrow.

What? Why?

Some family stuff came up. Sorry, we can talk about it more on Monday?

Alright, just don’t go tanking my grade with your slacking.

“Hey!” Oboro snapped her fingers. “Eyes on the screen!”

“Sorry, sorry!” He shut his phone off and set it aside.

He was a little disappointed. Maybe Leo got scared off by his family after all? But still, they could have met up at the library or something. He just hoped his overbearing brother wasn’t about to be the reason he failed a class.

______________

After awhile he started wondering what exactly came up to stop Leo from working on their project. Just three days ago he’d been so insistent that they get the project done immediately, but now he was delaying?

Though, it didn’t take him long to figure out what had happened. He walked into third period, and the first thing he noticed was the blonde in the second row. His left eye was swollen and bruised up. Takumi took his seat and set his backpack down.

“Geez, what happened?”

“Oh this? It’s nothing.” He brushed it off. He didn’t seem interested in talking about it, so he dropped it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant.

“… Did you want to get the rest of this project done today? I was thinking we could go to the library after school.”

“Yeah, sure. Sound’s good.”

He couldn’t pay attention for the rest of class. He knew it wasn’t any of his business, but he couldn’t help speculating. What the hell happened? Heck, he wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ryoma hunted him down after he left their house. Not that it’d happened, he could think of plenty of people that would want to punch Leo in the face.

______________

They decided to head to the library separately after school. Takumi arrived first. It was a pretty big library, and they’d agreed to meet near the back. There was a section specifically designed for teens to hang around in. There were a few tables, some computers, and a couple of board games, TVs, and even a game console. He didn’t usually come back to this section, but it was the most recognizable one so he’d picked it on a whim.

He was currently sitting at the chess table they had back there. He didn’t really have anything to do until Leo got there, and his phone was running low on battery so he was absentmindedly moving the pieces around.

There wasn’t really anyone else around, so he perked up immediately once Leo came in.

The Alpha nodded at the board. “You play?”

“Oh gods, you are a chess nerd. I knew it.”

Leo shrugged and dropped his backpack on the ground next to his chair. “My father used to play with me when I was a kid.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah, it was… Do you want to play a game?”

“Sure, but I’m not that good. I prefer shogi.”

“Show-gee? Is that like chess?”

“Yeah, a bit.”

As it turned out, Leo was quite good. He won pretty easily, and as much as he wanted to let his competitive spirit out he pushed his chair out and moved to one of the tables.

“You don’t want to play another game?”

“Oh believe me, I’m going to kick your ass in the future. But Mama wants me home for dinner so we should probably work on the project.”

They managed to finish up their project over the next two hours of working. He finished the paper, Leo finished the powerpoint, and then they swapped to proof read. He was pretty happy with the work overall, but he did veto some of Leo’s color choices for the slides.

When they were done he packed up his things, and Leo did the same.

“Would you like me to walk you home?”

He didn’t live too far from the library. It was about half way between their high school and his house. All together it would be about a fifteen minute walk from there to his house, but Mama and Ryoma wouldn’t usually let him walk anywhere by himself. They lived in an okay neighborhood, but they definitely bordered on a bad part of town. Another fifteen minutes of walking past his house and there was nothing but ramshackle ranch houses and trailers. He’d originally planned to call up Ryoma or Hinoka to get a ride, but it was a nice day, and if he had Leo with him…

“Are you sure? I can get a ride?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s on my way.”

“Y-Yeah, sure.”

It would be nice to get some time to talk without his family or school projects getting in the way. He was vaguely aware of the fact that he was actually starting to like Leo. But hey, how couldn’t he? It was like someone reached into his head, pulled out all of his favorite things, and stuffed them into the body of a tall, pretty Alpha. And those eyes? Gods, those piercing, red eyes. It almost wasn’t fair.

He found out that they had even more in common on the walk home. His favorite food was beef stew, which was kind of like a soup. Though it was second only in his heart to tomatoes. Takumi had brought up the subject accidentally, and Leo had begun rambling on about them.

“… And when you bite into them! Gods it’s divine!”

“Woah, hold up. You eat raw tomatoes?”

“Yes, don’t you?”

“No. Actually, I don’t think anyone does.”

“You’re missing out.”

He scrunched up his nose. “Gross.”

Leo gently nudged him as they walked. “Hey, don’t make fun. Someday I’m going to have a garden full of just tomato plants. Then you’ll see.”

Takumi pushed him back, just a little harder. “Don’t be such a weirdo, then!”

Those fifteen minutes almost went by too fast, and before he knew it they were standing at his front door. He didn’t really want to say goodbye, but Ryoma would probably just embarrass the hell out of him, and if he didn’t come home for dinner Mama would be upset.

“So I’ll uh, see you in class tomorrow?”

“Couldn’t miss it if I wanted to.” He answered dryly. It was one of those jokes that wasn’t really a joke, the kind Takumi couldn’t help laughing at.

Leo waited for him to get inside the house before he left.

“Takumi? I thought you were going to call for a ride? You didn’t walk home alone, did you?”

“No Mama, Leo walked with me.”

“Really, he did?”

He rolled his eyes. “He was just being polite. He said it was on his way anyways.”

“Is it?”

He shrugged. He’d just taken Leo’s word for it but he didn’t check to see if the Alpha had turned back the way they came or not.

“I’m going to finish up the rest of my homework. Do you need anything?”

“No I’m fine dear. Dinner in an hour.”

Ryoma and Sakura had long since finished their homework, but Hinoka was still sitting at the dining room table when he put his backpack down. She’d probably just walked home from practice and taken a shower – Mama always made her take a shower before dinner so she didn’t stink up the place.

He loved Hinoka, but he didn’t really get to spend that much time with her. Once she got to high school most of her free time was spent either at practice or hanging out with her teammates. That, and she and Ryoma were quite close. Pretty much anything he shared with her got passed on to his brother, whether he wanted it to be or not. He supposed it made sense, he was far closer to Sakura and they were far closer to each other, but it made it much harder to relate to her.

“So…” She opened up the conversation. “Leo?”

“Oh gods, not you too!”

“Hey, I’m not judging! I think it’s great that you’re getting along! He’s a good kid.”

“He’s sixteen, he’s not a kid. And how would you know what he’s like?”

She shrugged. “Just the impression I got from him at dinner. And sometimes his sister helps out at bake sales and things for the team. She talks about him a lot.”

He did vaguely recall a busty, purple haired Alpha coming by a few times in the past to see Hinoka. She hadn’t been around long enough for him to register the connection, but now that he thought about it he did hear quite a bit about Camilla. Mostly jealous rumors from the girls in his grade, or the guys bemoaning how she only ever seemed to flirt with other girls.

“Well you don’t have to go running to Ryoma. Like I told him, we’re just doing our class projects together.”

“Alright little brother. I believe you.”

_______________

The due date for their first project came and went. They got an A, obviously, and strangely enough Takumi couldn’t wait for the next one. He and Leo worked well together, and it was nice having a project partner that didn’t distract the hell out of him for once.

In the meantime, they started spending more and more time together. In addition to his Saturday movie nights with Hinata and Oboro, he and Leo had a Friday movie night now too. Sometimes they watched them in his room, sometimes the basement. They’d begun switching off between B horror movies and terrible sci-fi flicks. Sometimes they didn’t watch a movie at all, they just played video games or a board game or just talked.

It was a few days before Thanksgiving, so they’d decided to have their movie night after school on that Tuesday instead. Though they’d never gotten around to picking a movie. His computer was lying a few feet away, HDMI cable plugged in and idling on the Netflix home screen.

He was lying down on one end of the couch, knees bent, and Leo was on the other. Their legs were just barely close enough to touch.

“What do you guys do for Thanksgiving?”

“Nothing really.”

“Really? Nothing?”

“Father hates holidays.”

“Your father sounds like a dick.”

The Alpha snorted. “You don’t know the half of it.”

He’d been wondering for awhile. Leo never talked about his family, or at least he didn’t talk about his dad. Over the past few months he’d been slowly piecing some things together, but the picture was still frustratingly incomplete.

“… Hey Leo?”

“Yeah?”

“You remember that black eye you had a few months ago?”

“What about it?”

“… How did you get it?”

He immediately regretted asking. Leo sat up, and Takumi mirrored him.

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Leo just shrugged. “Why bother hiding it? My father isn’t exactly the most even tempered guy. He kind of flipped his lid when Elise came home that Saturday morning. Kept ranting about how she was whoring around with Alphas – I guess he smelled your siblings on her. I tried to stop him from throwing her out.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It is what it is.”

Takumi scooted closer to him. He didn’t really know what to say, so he did what he always did when one of his siblings was upset. He hugged him. The Alpha seemed surprised, but he didn’t pull away.

Leo smelled nice. Like a forest on a sunny, warm day. Like dirt and grass and… honeysuckle? It was a lot to take in at once. And he was so warm and his skin was so soft…

Footsteps pounded down the stairs, and he pushed the Alpha away quickly just before Ryoma could see them. Leo scooted back quickly and he turned to his computer screen so Ryoma wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Are you two doing okay down here?”

“Get out of here, Ryoma! Mama told you not to bug us!”

He was trying to hide his blushing face from his brother, but it was a losing battle. He might have been mistaken, but he thought he saw a small tint to Leo’s cheeks too.

“As long as the two of you are… getting along.” He gave Leo the I hope you aren’t fucking around down here look before he went back upstairs. Gods, he was only fifteen, why did Ryoma not trust him to keep his hormones in check?

“A-Anyways… Do you want to spend Thanksgiving here? I’m sure Mama won’t mind, she always makes too much food.”

“You don’t have to be nice to me just because of my father.”

“It’s not because of that! I would have invited you, anyways. Geez, who doesn’t have a holiday celebration?”

“… I’ll think about it. And thanks for the offer.”

______________

He’d been friends with Hinata and Oboro for a long time. They were both Alphas, but he’d never felt anything special for them. He’d never gotten butterflies in his stomach thinking about them, and he’d never spent hours going through his closet to find the right outfit before he saw them. But here he was, Thanksgiving morning, doing exactly that.

He tried to justify it. Well we’ve never had guests before. At least, no guests that weren’t Hinata, Oboro, or one of his siblings’ friends.

But then wasn’t Leo just one of his friends, too?

Mama was okay with him coming over, just like he knew she would be. Ryoma was less than thrilled, something about how he was “too young to be dating”. Whatever, he’d get over it. He and Leo weren’t even dating. He wasn’t even sure if the Alpha liked him.

He pulled at least five things out of the closet and laid them over the bed. He was staring at them hopelessly when Sakura came into the room. She was already dressed for the day in an oversized orange sweater-dress and some plain black leggings. She even had a pair of matching orange slippers and a matching headband and gods he’d never envied girls for having so many cute clothing options, but he was right now.

“A-Are you trying to look good for Leo?”

“Help.”

He’d never in a million years admit to crushing on someone to his older siblings, but Sakura was different.

“J-Just be yourself! I’m s-sure he likes you just the way you are!”

“Yeah, but I still want to look nice! But I also don’t want to look like I’m trying to look nice, you know?” He’d been wearing sweatpants and plain v-neck t-shirts the last couple of times they’d hung out. He couldn’t help himself, it’d been Friday! That was his comfy day!

“A-Alright, let me see what I can do.” She giggled.

It wasn’t too far off what he’d normally wear, in the end. She pulled out one of his usual black v-necks and a pair of jeans, but she also managed to dig out an old button down that he was pretty sure he’d gotten as a hand-me-down from Ryoma. The sleeves were a little long, so he just rolled them up to the elbows and left the front unbuttoned.

The only accessory he really owned an extensive collection of was hair ribbons. Mama usually bought him the same thing for every birthday or Christmas: A book and a hair ribbon. He loved both, so he wasn’t complaining. Sakura found a plain orange one to match the Thanksgiving theme and he quickly tied his hair up with it.

With that all sorted, they spent most of the rest of the day cooking with Mama while Ryoma and Hinoka cleaned up. They didn’t really do the traditional American thanksgiving, instead Mama tried to cook everyone’s favorite foods. There was almost always miso soup for him, salmon for Ryoma, and pickled vegetables for Hinoka along with rice, duck, a salad, and some stir-fried vegetables. She also made tea, and Sakura’s favorite mochi for dessert.

It was a pretty big task to cook it all, and they always had a ton of leftovers. Mama joked that she was glad they were finally old enough to help her out, since she used to do all of it by herself.

Hinoka popped her head in around four o’clock.

“How many places should we set?”

“Hmm… I think we’ll be having nine?”

“Nine? Who all is coming?”

“Well there’s the five of us, Leo and Elise makes seven… And since they’re coming I told them to just invite their whole family, so Xander and Camilla makes nine.”

He heard Ryoma groan from the living room. “You invited Xander?”

“Well I wasn’t going to invite everyone but Xander! That would be rude, Ryoma!” She yelled back.

He’d considered inviting Oboro and Hinata as well, but Oboro was travelling to visit family this year and Hinata’s parents were inviting over some relatives so he had to be at home. Plus, he’d avoided having Leo meet his friends thus far. Not that he was embarrassed of them or anything, he just wasn’t sure how well they’d all get along.

Everyone arrived around five, and he ran down to get the door before Ryoma could jump at it. Only Camilla, Leo, and Elise were at the door, and the eldest was holding a bottle of something. It was lightly snowing outside, so he ushered them in quickly.

“Thank you so much for inviting us, dear!” She handed over the bottle.

“Yeah, no problem. Make yourselves at home.” He hung their coats up on the nearby coat rack. Camilla and Elise ran upstairs, but Leo hung back with him.

He pulled the bottle out of the bag to get a better look at it.

“Sake? Where did you guys even get this?” As far as he knew, none of them were of age. Well, Xander might be eighteen, but he wasn’t there.

“Father won’t miss one bottle. He doesn’t even like sake, it’s just been sitting around the house.”

He shrugged. Mama sometimes drank sake, and usually she would let them have a taste around the holidays. He just put it on the kitchen counter and started getting down the serving dishes for the food. Camilla wandered in a few minutes later.

“Is there anything at all I can help with?”

He’d never seen an Alpha offer to help with kitchen stuff, but there was a first time for everything. Ryoma and Hinoka would usually help out, but only if directly asked.

“Oh don’t worry about it. You’re a guest! Besides, we’re almost done here. Just go take a seat, dinner will be in a few minutes.”

He caught a few snippets of conversation as he and Sakura carried dishes out to the table. Mainly Hinoka and Camilla discussing what the baseball season would look like come spring. Ryoma occasionally added to the conversation, but overall it was nothing he was too interested in. Elise must have been in the bathroom, and Leo was boredly sitting at the table. It didn’t take long to get everything on the table, so when it was all ready he took his usual seat next to Leo.

“Won’t Xander be joining us?”

“I’m afraid he had to work, actually.” Camilla answered. Mama took the empty plate away and he, Leo, and Hinoka all shifted over a little to make things even. He ended up sitting directly across from Sakura, Leo was in front of Elise, and Hinoka was facing Camilla.

“This all looks wonderful ma’am! I hope you had some help!” Camilla added as they began passing things around the table.

“Yes, Takumi and Sakura are quite the little chefs now!” She laughed. “I remember when they were little they tried to help cook and they nearly burnt the house down! Little Takumi came sprinting down the hall, hair singed to drag me out of bed… And what do I find in the kitchen? Ryoma and Hinoka standing over a smoking pan and Sakura crying in the corner!”

They all laughed about it now, but he remembered that year all too well. That was the year Papa died. He was maybe five? Mama didn’t get out of bed for weeks unless it was to take care of them, and little seven year old Ryoma thought it might help cheer her up if they cooked for her. Of course they were kids so none of them knew how to cook. It got her out of bed, though. It was easy to laugh at in retrospect, but at the time it had probably shocked her back into being alive and a mother.

But it wasn’t really the time for such discussions, so he laughed along.

“Mama kept the knives out of reach and I wanted to make soup. So I just dumped whole vegetables into a pot of water. Didn’t even turn the stove on. I thought her head was going to explode!”

“Kids just do the strangest things, don’t they?” Camilla added. Though, wasn’t she still a kid herself? “When we were little Elise wanted to play princesses, and unfortunately poor Leo was the only one around at the time. Elise dressed them both up in mother’s clothes and used up every last bit of her makeup! By the end they both looked like something straight out of a clown horror movie!”

“Oh? Is that where the love of headbands stems from?” He teased, nudging Leo’s foot under the table. The Alpha scoffed.

“Coming from the guy with a collection of hair ribbons.”

“Hey, don’t knock ‘em. Do you even know how hard it is to use scrunchies when you have all of this hair?”

“Why not just cut it?”

He mock-gasped. “Blasphemy.”

Leo kicked him playfully under the table, and he laughed.

Thankfully, it ended up being a very bearable holiday. Ryoma didn’t spend half of dinner re-grilling Leo like he usually did when the Alpha came over, and his brother even seemed to get along with Camilla. Plus, after dinner they all went down to the basement to watch dumb holiday movies. It was a pretty big couch, but with eight people was still a squeeze. So, naturally in the interest of making space he had to get as close to Leo as possible.

He wasn’t on top of him or anything, but he was practically glued to his side. They also didn’t have too many blankets in the basement, so he and Leo had to share. About half way through the movie the overwhelming scent of honeysuckle and grass and Leo was starting to get to his head, and he was getting antsy. They didn’t normally sit this close when they were alone, and his Alpha scent was doing very weird things to his hormones.

He started fidgeting with his hands, scratching his nails down the leg of his jeans or tapping his fingers. Leo tapped the back of his hand with his knuckles. He froze, and once he was still the Alpha grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together under the blanket.

He was at a complete loss for words. At no point did Leo’s eyes leave the screen, but he did squeeze his hand when Takumi looked over at him from the corner of his eye. He felt like he was about to explode. Leo was holding his hand. He could have died happy then and there.

When they left he was on top of the moon. Maybe Leo did like him back. He was so giddy he could barely get to sleep.

________________

He was hopeful when he returned to school the following week, but the Alpha didn’t seem keen on acknowledging that anything had happened. He didn’t bring it up, and it certainly didn’t happen again. Even when they were completely alone in his basement.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to happen after Thanksgiving, but it certainly wasn’t nothing. They finished their last two projects together, and they kept their regular Friday night hangouts, but nothing happened.

Tomorrow was their last day before the end of the semester. He and Sakura were already in their pajamas and ready for bed, but they weren’t sleeping just yet. He was lying face down with his head buried in the pillow, and she was sitting on the end of his bed with him.

“I don’t know Sakura, maybe I’m an idiot. I thought he liked me.”

“Maybe he does? I m-mean, he did hold your hand.”

“But that was a month ago! Why hasn’t he done anything else? I thought he’d ask me out or try to kiss me or something, but he’s acting like nothing happened!”

“W-Why don’t you ask him out then?”

“Are you crazy? What if he said no? Gods it’d be so embarrassing!”

“Maybe he’s j-just waiting until the end of the semester?”

He looked up from his pillow. She had a look to her that immediately set something off in his head.

“Sakura… Do you know something?”

She giggled. It wouldn’t be unusual… She was friends with Leo’s little sister, and Elise was becoming notorious for being a bit of a blabber mouth. Sakura got up and scurried back to her bed.

“C-Come on, it’s late. Worry about it t-tomorrow.”

It didn’t make him feel better, but it did give him a little hope.

___________

He waited anxiously for third period. It was the last day of classes before winter break, so most teachers didn’t have anything for them to do. He had his Geometry final in the morning, but that was about it. He hadn’t even bothered studying because even if he completely failed he’d still be getting an A in the class. Third period they were just doing presentations for their final projects, and he and Leo had already presented theirs.

Leo leaned over to him when he sat down in class.

“Hey… Can you wait for me after school? I want to ask you something.”

His heart was already pounding, but now it was doing double time.

“O-Okay.”

The rest of the day couldn’t go by fast enough. He barely even touched his lunch, and Hinata spent the entire time teasing him about his “future boyfriend”. He didn’t want to get his hopes up too high. For all he knew Leo wanted to talk about something completely unrelated.

When the end of the day came he anxiously waited by the exit for Leo. Ryoma still had to drive them home, but he hoped that his brother wouldn’t show up and kill the moment until after Leo had asked him whatever he was going to ask him.

The Alpha was with one of his friends, the white-haired one with the eyepatch. They looked like they were debating something, and eventually Leo gave an exasperated sigh. His friend apparently got his way, at least if his giddy look was any indication. The other Alpha sniggered and pushed the blonde his way.

“Hey, Leo!” He tried to be casual, but his excitement was bleeding through in his voice.

“Hey, uh… Look this is going to sound stupid, but Niles wanted me to ask…”

“Uh huh?”

“I was just wondering…”

“Yeah?” He tried not to get his hopes up, but damn were his hopes up.

Leo sighed.

“How much would it be?”

“For what?”

“For you to blow me in the bathroom.”

He had no words. He just gaped at the Alpha for a minute, and finally stuttered out an “Excuse me?”

Ryoma was less calm about it. He’d apparently been coming down the hall behind Leo, and unfortunately for the blonde Alpha he’d heard the whole thing. His backpack thunked to the ground behind him. Leo’s eyes widened as Ryoma grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

“What makes you think that you can talk to my brother like that?”

“W-Woah, hey hold on-”

But he didn’t get to finish his sentence. Ryoma punched him straight in the mouth. Leo recoiled, then bolted in the opposite direction. His brother tried to run after him, but Takumi grabbed him by the arm.

“Ryoma no!”

“You’re just going to let him disrespect you like that? I know you like him, but come on Takumi!”

“He’s not worth it. You only have one semester left until graduation, do you really want to get suspended or worse?”

That seemed to level his head. He took a deep breath, then picked his backpack up off of the floor.

“Come on. We’d better get home before I change my mind.”

The drive home was a quiet one. As soon as they were home he dropped his backpack in the entryway.

“Hey how was school?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He called over his shoulder and ran up to his room. Mama tried to follow him, but he slammed the door and curled up in bed.

What an asshole! Just when he’d started actually liking Leo, he goes and acts like every other Alpha! Was that all he was to these people? A set of fucking holes? They had so much in common, they’d had so much fun together over the past few months, but all he cared about was getting his knot swallowed? Fuck it, he was never talking to another Alpha ever again. They could all shove it, for what he cared. He’d just die alone.

He’d just resigned himself to wallowing in self-pity when there was a soft knock on the door.

“Not now, Mama.”

She came in anyways and sat down on the end of his bed.

“Ryoma told me what happened. Do you want to talk about it?”

He sat up and let her wrap an arm around his shoulders. He buried his face in her shirt and just let the tears loose.

“I thought he r-really liked me! I’m s-such an idiot!”

“Shh, it’s okay baby. There’ll be other Alphas.”

“They’re all the same! They’re just looking for somewhere to stick their dicks!”

“You’re still young. There’ll be other Alphas. I didn’t meet your father until I was in my twenties.”

“Yeah, but Papa wasn’t awful!”

She let him cry it out, until his chest hurt and his eyes were dry and he was sniffling and hiccuping. It probably took a good three hours, but she didn’t leave his side. She just held him and waited. Only once he’d cried himself dry did she speak up again.

“Why don’t I take you all out for dinner?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Consider it a reward for your good grades?”

“We haven’t even gotten our report cards back.”

“But I know you all did wonderfully. Come on, it’ll be fun. You can have all the miso soup you want!”

“… Alright. Thanks, Mama.”

He blew his nose and washed his face off. His eyes were still a little red and puffy still, but he grabbed his coat anyways.

Everyone else was already ready to go. Ryoma must have filled them in too because Sakura ran over and gave him a hug as soon as he got to the living room.

They almost always went to the same restaurant when they went out for dinner. It was a little Japanese place on the other side of town. Mama liked to go there sometimes because that was where she and Papa met when she used to waitress there. The food was pretty good, and they ran special all-you-can-eat sushi deals so they could get a lot for pretty cheap. Plus, Mama got a discount.

Everyone tried their best to keep it light. He ate about five bowls of miso soup, and by the end of it he was feeling a lot better. He even managed to smile at a few of Hinoka’s dumb jokes.

By the time they were done it was snowing pretty hard outside, and it took them awhile to get home in the blizzard. It was already pitch black outside, but when they pulled up to the house there was someone sitting clearly on their front stoop. He caught a flash of blonde hair as their lights went past, and he heard Ryoma swear from the front seat.

“That bastard!”

Mama pushed him inside the house as soon as they were in the garage. Takumi tried to follow her, but she stopped him.

“Just go talk to him, sweetheart.”

“But Mama–”

“I understand, just ask if he wants a ride home. I’d send your brother to do it but…”

He rolled his eyes and pulled his scarf over his nose. Leo stood up when he saw him come out of the garage. His lip was busted and bloody, and he was shivering but otherwise he seemed fine. He brushed off a fine dusting of snow from his shoulders.

“Takumi I–”

“Don’t.”

“Look, I understand if you don’t want to talk to me, and after I say this I’ll leave if you want me to.”

“Fine. What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Why would you say that to me in the first place?”

“It was just a stupid dare. I was going to apologize afterwards, but your brother kind of decked me and I wanted to avoid being beaten to a bloody pulp.”

He shook his head. “You don’t get it! It isn’t funny! Do you know how many times I’ve had Alphas seriously say that kind of stuff to me?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you would be so hurt by it, I thought it would just be a dumb, harmless joke. There’s no excuse, and all I can do is apologize.”

He was shivering like crazy now, and his cheeks and nose were bright red. He must have been standing out there for awhile if he was in such a shape. He knew Alphas ran a little warmer, but Leo’s coat wasn’t very thick to begin with and he didn’t have a hat, gloves, or scarf.

He let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed the Alpha by the wrist.

“You’re going to freeze to death out here, come on.”

He dragged him into the house. Ryoma was already waiting for them in the foyer.

“What is he doing here?”

“Don’t start, Ryoma.”

Takumi pulled him into his room and swapped Leo’s coat out for one of his thick wool blankets. He tossed his own coat and scarf aside and sat down next to the Alpha on the bed.

“… Thank you.”

“You looked so pathetic out there.”

Leo chuckled. “I must have just missed you, I’ve been waiting for an hour.”

An hour? It must have been ten below out there!

He bumped him with his shoulder. “You’re an idiot. Why didn’t you just text me?”

“Because I felt like an ass, and my father took my phone away when he saw the split lip.”

“Still, it could have waited until tomorrow. You could have frozen to death.”

“But I didn’t.”

“No, I guess you didn’t.”

Leo shivered under the blanket. He pulled one half of the oversized blanket over his shoulder and scooted closer. Leo’s skin was cold to the touch, and now that they were in the light he could see his lips had been turning a bit blue. His blonde hair was dripping as the snow melted off of it, but he rested his head on Leo’s wet shoulder anyways.

“Takumi?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to ask you something, too. I mean, I meant to ask you something after I completed Niles’s stupid dare.”

His heart was beating out of his chest. “What was it?”

“I wanted to know if you would go out with me? I mean, the theater is doing some showings of old documentaries and I thought you might want to go with me… But I understand if you don’t want to, after all of this.”

“Y-You mean like… On a date?”

“Well… Yes, that was the intention?”

He’d been waiting for this for months now. And, in spite of the events of the day he was still ecstatic.

“… Swear you’ll never talk to me like that again?”

“For as long as I live.”

Leo didn’t hesitate in his response. So, neither did he.

“Alright, but you’re on probation. And you’re buying the popcorn to make it up to me.”

“Of course, I am a gentleman after all.”

“A gentleman that asks Omegas to choke on his dick?”

“Not all Omegas, just the ones I like.”

He laughed in spite of himself.

“Well, good luck getting Ryoma to like you after that one.”

“Baby steps, Takumi. Baby steps.”

[shelbybroslimited]

I requEST MY DREAM AS A PROMPT BITCH LETS SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO I LOVE U

I’m sorry it’s so late- but HERE IT IS I LOVE YOU!

post-it notes

Joe was sweet, almost too sweet. When he’d leave the house before I’d wake up, he’d leave notes and post-its in the weirdest places.

But it was sweet.

Even if it was just about taking out the trash, picking up milk, or “I’m gonna clean up the kitchen I swear,” it was always…..

Sweet.

As time went on, the notes changed from words to doodles, often very crudely drawn.

“What the fuck is this?”

“That’s you, baby.”

“Are you sure?”

“What’s that s’posed to mean??”

I tried to keep as many of them as I could, taking them and sticking them into a notebook, often having to tape them down as pages were flipped over and over again.

But even with all the notes, the bed sharing, and the whole fact we were kinda somewhat living together, we still weren’t…. Official? I hated thinking about it, labels. And I didn’t want him to think that I was obsessed with that kind of thing, I wanted him to think I was a “cool girl” who didn’t need approval from the guys she was kinda with.

It’s not even like Joe was home a lot. He had his own place with his own things, but he always seemed to end up in my house. Clothes ended up in my wash, a toothbrush in the restroom, and a pillow on my bed. But what did that mean other than he forgot things at my house so often that I just started keeping them there?

I wasn’t the greatest at drawing things, but I certainly wasn’t bad. I took up an art class in my uni courses, but I didn’t tell Joe. I didn’t want him thinking I took an art class to make better drawings than him to leave around the house (even though that’s exactly why).

It was nearing the end of the semester, and one of the final events for this class was for a portfolio display.

“So what are you gonna put up?” Marie asked, she was always so kind in helping the both of us make it through this class.

“Not sure, I don’t even really want to put anything up if I’m honest.” I replied.

“Aw why not?? I love looking at your stuff!”

I raised my eyebrows and rolled my eyes at her.

“I DO!”

“You’re just being nice.”

“Oh my goodness do not get all ‘I’m unworthy’ bullshit.”

“I NEVER said that.”

“Your eyes did and you know it.”

I finished putting things into my backpack when my notebook fell out and a few post-its fell on the floor.

“What’s that?” Marie asked, reaching down to pick the papers up.

“No no don’t look at-” I exclaimed, Marie already turning them over, “those…”

Marie studied the notes and post-its with an amused look on her face. I reached out to snatch them from her hands.

“These are so…”

“Horrid? Terrible? I know.”“ADORABLE!”

I looked at her in confusion, “Excuse me?”

“These are like, really good. And so cute. You should enter these in the portfolio display.”

“YEAH like Dr. Humphrey would let me do that.”

“She might… put them in little frames or something it’d be cute!”

I considered what she said. They would look really cute posted up. Lots of other people have done things similar to this, right? Text messages, love notes, regular pieces of paper? Surely if I could do it right it would look cool… right?

Marie and I stood talking for a it longer before I headed home. I sat on the bus and looked out the window, thinking about homework, what to make for dinner, and of course, Joe. Would he be there when I got home? No, he’s at work. Wait what day is it? Maybe he is there? Maybe he went to his own home. Maybe he took all his stuff and left. MAYBE-

My thoughts were interrupted with the bust halting at my stop. I jumped off and walked toward the building, up the stairs, and dug out the keys to my front door, finding a folded note between the door and its frame. Gently pulling it out as I opened the door, I unfolded the note to see a picture of two stick figures and words around them scribbled in Joe’s writing.

Had to run out for something, but be back ‘round dinner.

-Joe

P.S. the picture is us, if you couldn’t tell :)

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t planning on taking all his stuff home and never coming back. Good.

“Your display looks lovely.”

I looked at Marie, setting up the last few panels.

“Think so? Not too cheesy or weird?”

Marie draped her arms over my shoulders as she stood (much taller) behind me.

“I think it looks perfect.”

I smiled. It did look better than I thought it would. Then again, I imagined it looking like an on-fire garbage can- but that was Stephen’s display outside, not mine.

“Did you invite him?”

“I told him I had something tonight but wasn’t specific.”

“Are you kidding.”

I looked at Marie, a mix of disappointment and annoyance on her face.

“Marie he doesn’t know that I was even taking this class. Plus he’s probably busy with work or something…” I trailed off.

“Honey,” Marie put her hands on her hips, “you two need to have a talk on whatever… this is.”

She moved her hand around in a circle in my general direction, obviously talking about our “relationship” status.

“Marie he is a very well known and successful man who most likely does not want to be tied down to some uni student who doesn’t know what the fuck she’s doing.”

Marie rolled her eyes, “Well I’m going over here by my display. When you drop the pity-party attitude you’ll know where to find me.”

It was my turn to roll my eyes as I chuckled putting up the last frame. I kinda hoped Joe would show up, but at the same time I think I’d throw up if he did. Would people here get all fangirling if he showed up? If Joe Cole showed up to some small uni art portfolio show? I tried not to throw up.

Time passed and sooner or later there was a decent crowd making their way through the presentations. Dr. Humphrey actually thought the notes were cute, and commended me on a well organized display.

“‘Scuse me miss? What’s all this about?”

“Well all of these are-” I turned around and froze mid-sentence.

Joe stood there, hands in his jacket pockets, dumb smile on his face, looking at me.

“Uh-”“That one’s s’posed to be a camera innit? ‘S what you told me at least.” He pointed to a very badly drawn camera I made when we first started leaving notes for each other. It was before I took the class so I knew I’d gotten better since then.

“You gonna say anythin’ darling?”

“How- how did you know this is where I was going I- I never told you…?”

“Your girl Marie sent me a message. Guessin’ she took your phone to do it.” He nodded his head over towards Marie and her display, where she waved her hand and winked as her girlfriend kissed her cheek.

Joe took a step closer to the board and I remained frozen, staring at him staring at my work.

“‘notes to tell you I love you’” he said, turning his head to look at me, “‘s that what this is all called?”

I was going to throw up. No wait, pass out. No, definitely throw up. Wait- both.

“Did you do this to tell me you loved me?” he whispered as he walked closer to me, “Answer me, darling.”

I nodded, “Y-yeah.”

He let out a low chuckle and stood inches from my face, “Really?”

I nodded again. This is it. He’s gonna say I was crazy and never wanted to see me again.

He turned to get something out of a bag I didn’t realize he had on his shoulder. What is it? Is it the key to my apartment? Is it a card saying it’s over?

It was a….. Notebook?

He put it in my hands, “Go on, open it.”I cautiously took the notebook and started flipping through the thicker pages. They were… doodles? Like the ones we left each other? Some of these are exact copies of notes he’s left me, some I’ve never seen before. Some had words around them, some didn’t.

“I-”

“Take a look,” he smiled, “they’re all for you.”

I looked up at him, “….really?”

“Yeah,” he smiled bigger, “gotta do something personal for my girl, right?”

“Y-your-”

“My girl, that okay with you?”

I nodded my head, unable to think of words better to say than “HELL FUCKING YES.”

“Been meaning to talk with you ‘bout that, really. Sorry I’m so shit at this… relationship stuff.”

“That’s okay,” I blurted, “me too.”

We stood there awkwardly, me still holding onto his notebook.

“Right,” he coughed, “when’s this thing over, gotta proper show off my girl, eh?”

I laughed as Joe put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my hair.

Maybe Marie wasn’t wrong after all.

[imagines-forthe-soul]

Heya, can I please request Iwaizumi, reacting to his S/O who absolutely has the biggest crush on him, and is too shy to talk to him and they constantly draw him secretly until one day Oikawa accidentally sees they drawing his best friend and tries his best to set them up. Honestly Iwaizumi's arms give me life, please and thanks babe! Hope to see your writing soon!!

Girl me too. I love me some Iwa-chan! If he put me in a headlock I’d thank him!!!

Why couldn’t you just talk to him?

Why couldn’t he just talk to you?

It pained Oikawa to see the way both you and his best friendacted towards each other, always shying and blushing messes, hardly ever beingable to have proper conversations without the other making up some lame,stuttering excuse to leave. He knew that Iwaizumi liked you and he was sure thatyou liked him back, so why couldn’t either of you just build up the courage totalk to each other?

He has seen the way you both look at each other, blush onyour face and admiration clear in your eyes as you gazed and daydreamed abouthis friend. He found that Iwaizumi did the same to you when you weren’t watching,looking like a love-sick puppy with his hand holding up his head, faint blushon his face. He really didn’t understand how the two of you hadn’t confessed toeach other as yet when it was more than clear that the mutual pinning was there.

Oikawa would constantly try to convince his best friend toman up and talk to you, telling him that nothing could go wrong if he justshowed that he was confident enough to approach you. Like any normal best friendOikawa wanted to see his friend in a happy and healthy relationship and woulddo all that he can to ensure that, but Iwaizumi was really making that difficult,for both himself and Oikawa.

He and Iwaizumi would constantly work together to come upwith ways for Iwaizumi to confess to you, or at the very least talk to you, buteach plan always ended in failure, either his best friend chickening out or yousaying some odd excuse to leave.

There was one point when Oikawa was sure that Iwa-chan wasgoing to confess, but instead had ended up asking you for a pencil, thanking youbefore running away with his tail between his legs

He had had enough.

He didn’t want it to have to come to this, but it was timeto take matters into his own hands.

Oikawa figured he had to set the both of you up himself andhe had a pretty solid idea on how.

One day he approached you by your lonesome, listening tomusic and doodling in your notebook. As he got closer to you, he peered overyour shoulder about to get your attention when something caught his eye.

He looked down at the notebook you were drawing in, watchingyour hand moved as you continued to draw what you were drawing.

Or more so…who.

Right there on the lined paper was none other than his best friend,smile drawn perfectly on his face, eyes squinting as if his laughter was gettingthe best of him.

It was amazing how much detail you had put into this drawing,guessing it might have taken you days to get it to this level of perfection.

He continued to lean in closer to the drawing, wanting toget a better look at it, but he ended up alerting you of his presence, making youyelp and jolt in your seat.

He moved back, spooked by your sudden jump, but he soonsmiles down at your frantic and blushing face.

His plans had changed.

“I didn’t know you could draw. You’re really good at it.” Hewould say, holding his hand out towards you, prompting you to hand over thebook to him.

You would shake your head in protest, not wanting him to seewhat other embarrassing things you had drawn, but his next statement reallyleft you with no other choice.

“Come on. I’ve already seen this, you might as well let mesee the rest. Your art is amazing.”

You shakily hand him the note book and watch him closely,scared of what he thought of your art and how he would react to you drawing hisfriend.

He held the book with one hand, the other pressing the knuckleof his forefinger to his lips as if he were examining something difficult, noddinghis head as if he slowly began understanding it.

“Yeah, like I said this is really good. I especially likethe way- “and before he finished, he bolted out of the room, heading towardshis best friend.

You were left stunned for a few beats, but soon you were onyour feet, chasing him down, blush deepening as you called his name within theschool halls.

Eventually, Oikawa had made it to his best friend, ploppingthe book down in front of him.

“Here! Take this and you’re welcome, bye!” he rushed, soonleaving the classroom and passing you on the way out.

You looked inside to see that Oikawa had already given Iwaizumiyour notebook and you felt you knees shake as he looked over the drawing youhad made of him.

You noticed his expression look rather frazzled, thenconfused, and then surprised, his cheeks turning rosy. You were afraid of whathe might say, of what he might think of you for drawing him.

You stepped forwards, hoping to quietly approach him andsnatch your book back and leave before he had a chance to shame you, but onyour way towards him you had bumped into a table, alerting him of your presence.

You both locked eyes and for a moment it felt like it wasonly the two of you in the classroom, in the whole world.

You didn’t know what to think as he slowly approached you,your notebook in his hand. Your mind was running too wild to think of anythingto say or do, but there was nothing to be done on your end, for Iwaizumi had spokenup.

“Did you draw this?” he would ask you, looking between youand the drawing and watching as you eventually nodded.

A shy smile would form on his face at your response, closingthe notebook and handing it back to you.

“I’m sorry that that jerk, Trashykawa stole it from you andended up showing me like this,” he would begin, looking down at his feet, handrubbing the back of his neck. “but how about… How about I take you out to eatas a way of saying sorry… for yunno… all this trouble.”

That was the last thing you expected to hear him say,completely stunned by it. You simply looked at him dumbfounded before you slowlynodded, holding your book up in front of your face to hide your growing smile andblush.

All the while, Oikawa had been watching form outside theclassroom, smile on his face despite the inevitable reality of the thrashing hewould get for this later.

The mission was accomplished at least.

[deducingfangirlsofhell]

An Artistic Mind

Pairing: MoriartyxReader

Warnings: None, I don’t think?

A/N: Soulmate AU!! Kinda funny?

He could practically feel the strokes being created on his arm. Really, this soulmate business was a nuisance. He had to be careful about what he wrote on his skin, if the ink from his notebook would transfer over to his flesh- whether or not he caused his soulmate to hate him before they even met. And before you ask, yes. The world’s most nefarious criminal mastermind was worried about what his soulmate thought of him. Heck- he had been since he was a child.

Most people’s soulmates didn’t become set until their teens, and therefore, most kids didn’t have little pictures of stick people and abstract kittens drawn on their arms. No, it’d only been him. It was… comforting. His soulmate always seemed like such a happy and loving person, and in his darkest days, he would sit and watch the colorful doodles stretch across his skin while his father drunkenly destroyed what little he had to call ‘home’ in the background. He’d let the drawings take him far away, to a place where someone cared for him. His soulmate.

Now, he played off the drawings as that “soulmate-nonsense” to anyone who asked, and well, too. Sebastian was positive that Jim didn’t even believe he had a soulmate, that this was just a phenomena that people convinced themselves was more than it was. That was, until he witnessed Jim photographing a particular set of drawings on his arms, smiling to himself like an idiot. It was really quite telling. He wished he could stop himself, but- he couldn’t. Each work of art adorning his flesh was a reminder that, out there, somewhere, was you. With the most gorgeous handwriting he’d ever seen. Sometimes, with a very precise hand, he’d go over each letter, practicing the carefully constructed lines as if his life depended on getting them exactly right. He’d sometimes even sign off using the calligraphed letters.

The idea itself, he thought was idiotic. The idea of your skin showing up with the marks your soulmate made on themselves seemed stupider than anything else in the world. Yet, he chose to believe the pathetic rumor. But that was because it was, well… you. He didn’t exactly know who you were, but the random doodles and drawings you made was all he needed.

But that’s besides the point. The point is, you were out there. Whether he met you or not, you were out there. But that was the thing…

If you were out there, he had to be very careful what he wrote down on his skin.

“I don’t know, they haven’t written anything in a while.” You giggled at Mariah. She’d been your best friend since preschool and if there is one thing you can always remember you guys talking about, it was your soulmate.

“Oh crap—what if they’re dead?! Before you two even had a chance to meet!?” She cried, clearly horrified by the idea. It wasn’t unheard of, actually… it was tragically almost common. Then again, it was just as common for a person’s soulmate to have another person as their soulmate. Just like love could be one sided, so could a soulmate.

It wasn’t like you had to worry about that, it was proof enough that you two were each other’s when they would trace your words.

“I don’t think they are, Iah.” You said, sighing softly as you rolled your eyes. She had a way of reading too much into things, this was actually the fifth time she suggested they might be dead. She went to try and argue, when you suddenly felt the usual tingling on your wrist.

“Wait—I think they’re writing something?” In all the years you’d known you had a soulmate, never once had they written something first…

“Hold on one second—no, Mr. Crump, I’m not trying to ignore you, just let me find some paper-!” Jim was still scouring around. This wasn’t good, if he didn’t figure something out soon, he’d lose the client. And a presidential candidate who wanted to conspire outside their country wasn’t a client he was willing to lose. Without thinking, he wrote down the request on his forearm as the man was saying it.

“Yes, My men will handle it right away—yes sir, thank you.” Jim ended the call, and sighed in relief. That relief was soon replaced with an utter feeling of sickness as he looked back down at his arm. Right beneath the looming sense of doom;

“Russia dignitary + win guarantee… American election rigging… 10,000,000 quid’? What. The actual. Hell?” You stared at the words on your arm, suddenly feeling something pressing into your opposite palm, as well. Your jaw dropped, looking at the words that had appeared there…

“Shite-” Jim cursed as he looked at the imprint he’d just left on his hand from the still drying ink, '3 billion pounds for disguised explosive—nitroglycerin base.’

“Y/n, what’s wrong?” Mariah asked, seeing your utter panic. The message was quickly being clouded, like they were panicking to get rid of it, but the damage had been done. You tried to stand, but your legs immediately gave out beneath you.

“I-I can’t- I can’t believe this…” It had to be some sort of nightmare… right?