#I just need to adjust my sleep by like 2 hours so I'm not nodding off so early

[minnow-doodle-doo]

This week has been so long and hard. I knew what I signed up for at my new job, I just don't remember being so tired all the time from it.

[nisuna]

I got super inspired last night, so here's a short drabble about the smut adventures of cult leader!geto x non-sorcerer!f!reader let's goo

I have more planned along the lines of: First time sleeping with him; Public sex in front of his followers; Making you call him by his First Name during sex; Saying I love you during sex; things I have mentioned in my headcannon post (I might do a poll for the next chapter 🙈)

Feel free to check out the headcannons for this AU for more context! (part 2 here!!)

TW: heavy nipple play; nipple sucking, biting, pinching; manipulative geto, short non-con, unprotected sex, creampie, mutual orgasm, FIRST KISS, trust issues, crying, he calls you "pet", power imbalance; cult leader!Geto x non-sorcerer!f!reader

<3masterlist<3

-----------1.2k words; strictly 18+ MDNI--------------

"Geto-samaaa... I need a break today. Please, no more.", you huffed in his arms. Your hips and back were starting to hurt from the countless nights that you've been spending with him.

"What do you mean, pet? Have I overworked you? Oh poor you. But there has to be something I can do to satisfy myself. Tell me, what activity do you enjoy that doesn't involve my cock?"

You felt stumped, but something did come to mind. "Che..."

"Hm? What was that, pet? You need to speak up.", he demanded, looking at you expectedly.

"Chest.", your timid voice broke the silence. "I like it when you play with my chest Geto-sama."

After hearing the words leave your mouth, a toothy grin appeared on his face.

"Good job. Look at you speaking your mind. Such a good pet. Well then, get ready.", he cooed, loosening the knot on your robe. "Tonight, I'm going to town on your chest. Nothing more, nothing less. I promise."

He didn't lie when he said he would go to town, because that's exactly what's been happening for the last half hour. You were on all fours above him while his hungry mouth was sucking in your right nipple. Much to your dismay, however, he was paying attention to the right one ONLY. And at this point, you were getting impatient.

"Mmh whyy~", you mewled.

That caught his attention as he unlatched his mouth from your sensitive nub.

"What is it, pet? You don't like it? That can't be, you were the one who suggested this in the first place. I can practically feel you dripping all over me."

"It's not that...", you mumbled, turning your head, because you didn't have the guts to face him right now.

"What is it then? You have to speak your mind. How elese am I supposed to know if I'm doing something you don't like, hm?"

You sucked in a deep brath and squeaked. "The.. the other one..."

"Hm? Come again?", he cocked an eyebrow, putting his fingers on your chin, finally making you look at him.

"The other one...why do you only play with the right one. What about the left?", you mumbled trailing off.

His mind went ding as he smiled up at you. "Oooh your other one wants attention as well, hm? Why didn't you say so? I'm more than happy to oblige." He hummed caressing your cheek with his large palm.

"However, that service comes at a price."

"What do you-?"

"You have to put in a quarter to play."

"A what? I don't think im following Geto-sama..."

"Oh my dumb little pet. I'm talking about this, of course.", he smiled while sliding his exposed cock through your wet folds.

"Mh- no you said we wouldn't do that today!", you tried your best not to succumb to temptation.

"Just the tip, pet. I promise. Do that for me and I'll suck on your tits all night long.", the way his deep and smooth voice rolled off his tongue like honey made you weak.

How could you say no to such an offer. He wouldn't lie to you right? Geto-sama was a man of his word, you can trust him.

So you reluctantly nodded your head yes and began lifting your hips. He was quick to grab you by your hips and push into you. As promised, he didn't go deep and stopped immediately. You felt relief wash over your body as you tried your best to adjust to the sudden intrusion.

You let out a few huffs before finally discarding your robe, saying. "Mhh, I did my part of the deal. Now's your turn...AH-", as you were about to press your left tit against his mouth, he bottomed out, making you whine his name.

"Geto samaaa noo, you promised we wouldn't.. you.. you lied to me.", you sobbed, digging your nails into his exposed chest. The tears collecting in your eyes almost made him pity you. Almost.

"I'll continue pampering you, don't worry, this is just a quick detour."

You had no energy to defend yourself in his tight grasp, so you let him bully his fat cock into your tight little hole without protest.

After a few thrusts, he sat up, keeping you on his lap and finally fulfilled his part of the deal. His tongue darted out to your neglected left nipple while he pinched your right one between his long fingers. His hips kept rocking up into you while his hungry eyes kept looking up at you all throughout his ministrations.

Your tears of disappointment soon turned into tears of pleasure as you started losing yourself in his grasp. It was when he started to stimulate your puffy clit as well that your mind went blank. The expressions you were making were so nasty, that they soon pushed him over the edge as well.

It was the first time both of you came at the same time and it was understandable that you lost your mind at the intense feeling. It was when he kept fucking you through your high that you lost your sense of self and didn't notice that you grabbed onto his face and pushed your lips against his. Your mouth fell open as a needy moan left your mouth at the feeling of getting filled to the brim. You were so out of it that you didn't notice his eyes shoot open and hands halt all movement.

This was the first time you two ever kissed. Cult leader geto always saw sex as an act of service and obedience. Never once has he thought about kissing someone like you. He talked you through it and prohibited you from ever trying, or else...

Your eyes shot open as well at the lack of reaction and you almost had a heart attack at the realisation of what you have just done.

You were beyond terrified, immediately pulling away and shivering at the sight of his blank expression and his sharp eyes burning holes into you.

You began trembling in his tight grasp as your next words came tumbling out. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Geto-sama, please forgive me-", you sobbed.

As you were about to pull your hands away from his face, he stopped you. You were petrified, expecting the worst. But to your surprise you didn't feel a punishment come your way. Instead, you felt him press his lips against yours and holding your hand in place on his cheek. The kiss was hungry, his tongue prying your mouth open and all you could do was moan and just take it. When he finally pulled away, you didn't dare speak, blinking at him with fear evident in your eyes. Your confusion only grew when you heard him let out a chuckle.

"You surprised me for sure, pet. But let's continue, I quite liked it.", he mumbled.

You nodded, letting out the breath you were holding as you closed your eyes and puckered your lips. While you were making out, you felt him harden inside of you again. This was going to be a long night, after all.

From then on out each time he crashed his lips against yours and made you cream on his cock over and over he thought "fuck it" abandoning his principles. All because of you.

----

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[clone-anon]

Hey there! As silly as it sounds, the release of TBB season 3 has reopened some old wounds caused by season 2 and left me in a bit of an odd place emotionally. I was one of those that actually went through the five stages of grief after that finale and with the uncertainty of Tech's fate hanging in the air, well, all of that is starting to bubble to the surface again. Tech is one of my "comfort clones", plus he reminds me a lot of my husband, so I'm a bit attached to him emotionally. Anyway, I'm rambling. What I'm asking for is some warm, snuggly comfort Tech (with a dash of snuggly comfort Echo) to help ease the pain and let me know everything's gonna be okay. :')

This isn't silly at all, Anon. Everyone who loves Tech has had to deal with this as best they can and we're all waiting with bated breath to see what season 3 has in store. Hopefully this will offer a dash of comfort. I included platonic Echo cuddles and romantic Tech cuddles.

Word Count: 726

You woke from a dream with a shudder. Your eyes adjusted to the lack of light as quickly as you could. You were on the Marauder and it was the middle of the night on some mid-rim planet. Tech, Echo, and you were off on a supply run and decided to hunker down for the night before venturing into the nearest town in the morning. You looked around. Tech was lightly snoring in his bunk and you breathed a sigh of relief. He was there. After so many months without him, he was back. You longed to climb into bed with him, but knew it took so much effort for him to fall asleep that you didn't want to disturb him. Instead, you ventured into the cockpit to find Gonky and Echo passing the time watching the stars as Echo finished up a communication with Rex. Always something to do.

"Hey," Echo said as you walked toward the copilot's seat.

"Hey," you replied.

"Can't sleep again?"

You nodded and rubbed your face. Echo sighed and tried to smile. He got up and went to one of the storage spaces. There was a mattress stored in there. Now that Omega was bigger and you often joined them, it helped to have a mattress they could throw on the floor. Echo laid it out, threw a blanket over it and held out his hand.

"Come on," he said.

"Shouldn't you be keeping watch?"

"We're fine here. Security system is working and I haven't noticed anything in hours."

You laid down next to him and rested your head against his chest. Echo rested his cheek on the top of your head and hummed a little. You had both become accustom to holding each other during those difficult times when you both missed those you'd lost. He liked the company and felt warmer next to someone.

After some time, Echo spoke up. "You could wake him, you know."

"He needs his rest," you replied.

Just then, familiar footsteps approached your position laying in the middle of the ship.

"I have adequately rested," Tech said.

"Did we wake you?" you asked.

"Not at all. It's my watch," Tech answered.

"Not much to watch," Echo said. "Your new security system keeps an eye on everything."

"As it should," Tech replied with a satisfied smile.

Echo gave you a quick squeeze before he got up. He headed to his own space where it was a bit darker and easier to rest his eyes. You weren't about to be alone though. Tech peered through the windows, gave Gonky a friendly pat, and then asked to join you on the mattress. You smiled as he got comfortable next to you. Of course he was welcome. There wasn't any question. You'd practically clung to each other since his return. You studied the scars on his face and the way his gait had changed after his fall. You didn't want to think about it. You just wanted him close.

As if reading your mind, he wrapped his arms around you and held you close. He kissed your forehead and simply said, "I'm here."

You nodded as you buried your face in neck and felt him kissed the crown of your head. You fought back tears and he rubbed your back. You gave him a squeeze as he gently laid one ankle over yours, looking for more contact. You looked up at him to find misty eyes and a smile.

"Still can't believe you're back," you said.

"Believe it," he said. "How can I make it up to you?"

"Tech, you don't have to. I know you missed me too and went through so much trying to get back. Just don't go anywhere without me again."

"I promise," he said. "For now though, you need your rest. You had your watch and now it's my turn."

You leaned in and kissed him with all you had. He still took your breath away. You got comfortable cuddled up against him. You listened to his heartbeat and your breathing slowed. You fell asleep quickly in the comfort of his presence. Tech got out his data pad to pass the time and check for any alerts that danger was near the Marauder. He smiled as he felt you enter a deeper stage of sleep, his other hand gently caressing you.

[ccthelee]

little bit addicted

kathryn hahn / aubrey plaza / fem!reader chapter 3 | wc: 6.7k contents & warnings: nsfw, back to back dates, mentions of cheating, pedicure tickling, brief leg tickling, brief foot tickling, tickle-talk, reader having almost no thoughts except dirty ones

previous chapters: 1, 2

Having borrowed a pair of heels from Riley's expansive collection to 'upgrade' your outfit, you blink in surprise in the mirror at your appearance - taller than you'd been before putting them on. You smooth the front of your tight body suit out and turn to the side to make sure it isn't pinching anywhere weird, and then relax. 

"Okay, so, you look hot - but what's going to happen if you decide to seal the deal and then you take your pants off and it's all snaps and buttons?"

Riley comes to stand behind you in the mirror and quirks an eyebrow at your reflection.

"I doubt Kathryn Hahn wants to fuck on the first date," you tell her. Neither of you can stop full-naming her; not only has the novelty not worn off, it feels oddly inappropriate to just call her Kathryn. 

"What if she does?"

The two of you stare at each other for a moment and then you kick off the heels, undoing your jeans.

"You're right. Can't risk it. Gimme the tank top."

You strip and take off the body suit, tossing it aside as you step back into the jeans and opt for the not-attached-to-itself top instead. Pulling it carefully over your head, not wanting to skew your makeup, you adjust your hair and then eye your reflection scrupulously.

"Yeah. Yeah this is good. How are my tits?" You adjust your cleavage and eye Riley through the mirror again.

"Perfect. Gifts from god. I want to cut them off in your sleep and frame them."

Her familiar weirdness doesn't even cause you to miss a beat. 

"Thank you," you reply, smiling a little and stepping back into the heels.

"Are you ready? I'll go get the car so you can do less walking," Riley offers. You check the time again. Now or never.

"Yeah. Let's do this."

-

Riley leaves you at the bar and takes off before you're possibly spotted being somewhat chaperoned. You sent a confirmation text to Kathryn about an hour earlier - a thumbs up reaction being the only reply you got - but your phone has been dry since then. You steel yourself and make your way in to the lounge, trying not to be too intimidated by how nice the place is.

"Hi! You need a table?" A painfully perky hostess greets you, and you wince at the enthusiasm.

"I'm meeting a..." Friend? "Date. Could I maybe do a lap?" You gesture to the room a bit and eye the stairs near the bar.

The hostess is audibly gritting her teeth as she replies, "Uh-huh. All you."

She steps aside for you to enter completely and you scan every table in the room as you pass, and then the length of the bar, before heading for the stairs. 

The outside evening air is perfectly overcast. You inhale deeply as you make your way carefully up the concrete and iron stairs in your heels and are greeted with the most gorgeous rooftop bar you've been to in ages. You scan the people lingering about and both see and hear who you're looking for at the same time.

"[Y/N]!" 

You grin despite your nerves when Kathryn waves dramatically, making your way over as she stands up from

the high table she was perched at.

"Did you get my texts?" She asks, slipping her arms around you like you're old friends as you approach. 

You shake your head in confusion as you pull your phone out again.

"Just luck, then. Service is rough here." 

You realize your phone is resting at only two bars of service and nod in understanding.

"It's fine, I found you," you tell her, smiling as you climb onto the tall seat across from the one she vacated.

"I'll get you a drink - what're you having?"

"Martini?" You reply, hoping the shock of salt will help your still mildly hungover system back into gear. "And I know that it's blasphemous but can you ask them to leave me a couple of ice cubes? I didn't think it would still be this hot."

She gives you a wink and points before taking off to the bar, and you pull your phone out again to quickly text Riley.

'Service here is awful. I'm fine to uber home later, don't wait up to come get me. Very unlikely she's going to kidnap and murder me.'

You wait an agonizing full few minutes for the confirmation that the text went through on the awful surface and only turn your phone over when Kathryn returns.

"Martini," she says, setting it down in front of you. You realize she has one of her own in her other hand that she sets beside her half-empty wine glass. "You inspired me," she explains.

"What did you do today?" You ask, once she's settled, if only to have a reason for her to talk instead of you.

"A friend just moved so a few of us have been helping her unbox. Very boring, I promise. What about you? After your long night?"

You chuckle at her memory and shake your head.

"I wasn't very productive today if that's what you're asking. I think sometimes I see a sugary mixed shot and forget I'm not 16 anymore and can't just have 10 of them before going to a full day of high school the next day."

She laughs genuinely and you grin in response, dropping your gaze nervously to the table to fiddle with your napkin.

"Got a little ahead of yourself?"

"Uh, a lot," you correct, chuckling. "It's just... been a weird few days. I think I let loose a little too hard."

"Oh yeah?" she asks, leaning on the table. "What's been going on?"

You feel immediately compelled to tell her your entire life story with the way she's looking at you, but you settle on:

"Well, full disclosure, I'm kind of just getting out of a kind of serious relationship. So this has been a bit of a detox-trip."

Her face softens in genuine sympathy.

"I'm sorry, hon," her hand lands on your wrist and you almost gasp at the sudden sweet contact. She seems to realize something and her expression turns to horror briefly. "Oh my god, and I made that joke! About you not having a girlfriend!"

You can't help but laugh a little, turning your hand over to recapture her wrist when she moves to pull her hand away.

"It's okay," you reassure her. "Seriously. It was the kick in the ass I needed. We'd been... over for a while, I think. Beforeshe started cheating."

It feels like a relief to say it out loud but Kathryn continues to look horrified.

"Oh, sweetheart that is awful."

You shake your head, smiling.

"I mean. It sucks but... I think I'm good. Making new friends and whatnot." You let go of her wrist and she takes her hand away to pick her own drink up, holding it up in cheers to that.

You clink your martini glass delicately to her wine glass and then take a sip, moaning softly under your breath in appreciation.

"This is what I needed."

"Carbs might do you good, too," she points out. You snort.

"I think I'll be okay," you promise.

"You sure?" she asks playfully. You gasp when you feel her foot collide with your shin below the table gently but she doesn't seem to notice. "They do these little... pig in a blanket things here. But breakfast-style. All night."

The idea of more bar food makes you feel nervous. What you really need is a juice cleanse and oh wow you really slip back into the LA thing so quickly when you're in town.

"I'm going to be soooo honest," you tell her, "That sounds like my worst nightmare right now."

She gasps, feigning offense, but you can tell it's a playful act. 

"What's not to love? It's literally meat wrapped in pancake batter. It's like a better corn dog." 

"See, that's where you lose me," you reply. "Not big on pancakes."

Kathryn's jaw drops.

"What is wrong with you?"

You laugh at her indignation, and shrug as you swirl your drink a little and listen to the ice clink satisfyingly against the glass. A text from Riley appears on your phone screen:

'Wouldn't it be hot if she did, though?'

You bite back a laugh and turn your phone over to focus on the woman before you before answering her.

"I like salt in the morning, not sugar."

"Ah, you're one of those." Kathryn leans back in her seat and nods slowly, eyeing you like you've just unveiled the secrets of your psyche to her. "That's good to know, I'm glad we're getting all of the deep dark stuff out in the open first."

Oh, you have no idea.

"Why, are you trying to make brunch plans with me? Did I ruin it?" you ask, soothing your nerves at your bold question with a quick sip of your drink. You regret it when her answer shocks you into almost choking on it.

"I'm busy, tomorrow morning — at least for a bit." Kathryn sets her drink down to eye you for a beat, her gaze dropping down your body and then, surprising you, past your legs to crane around the small table and glance at your feet. "Actually, you could come with. I'm getting a pedicure, we could get lunch. On me."

You shift in your seat, following her gaze curiously and then trying not to choke on your own drink at her words. 

"I— oh, that's generous, but you don't have to..." You trail off.

"You don't have to," She cuts you off, "If you have your own routine. But I could easily get you in with me if you wanted."

"Do they really seem that bad all the way from over there?" You ask, leaning around the table yourself to glance at one of your feet, tilting it into the light. You note with a jolt of smugness that they look perfect; intentionally so. You've never had any real focus on feet, objectively, but with your own interests, you aren't going to risk ruining a mutually beneficial interaction should you stumble upon the opportunity.

"No," Kathryn laughs, waving a hand slightly. "I wanted to see if your nails were already painted, but..." She gestures to your shoes, the toes of which just cover the ends of your feet.

"I'd love to join you," you tell her instead of answering, making a mental note to remember to ask Riley where she kept the nail polish remover when you get home later.

—

You're too giddy to focus on much of anything during your Uber home to Riley and Jade's place but they're both mercifully already asleep when you come in. You keep replaying the walk out together, the way your hands bumped as she walked side by side out of the stairwell but didn't take hold, the way your nerves all screamed at you when her hand brushed over your lower back, soft enough to almost tickle at first and then more firmly to guide you toward the door. You'd only had a moment to turn and answer her when she'd asked about how far away you were staying when your car arrived, leaving with a half-awkward almost-hug and a promise to be at your now shared appointment the following morning.

In the guest bathroom of Riley's apartment you scrub your already-softened heels raw with a pumice and remove your nail polish, and the excited nervousness in your chest makes it difficult for you to fall asleep for long before your alarm chirps annoyingly to wake you up early the following morning. You re-up your lotion twice - both before and after getting ready - and then head out without eating, giddy nervousness killing your appetite. It isn't widely common for a new date of yours to find out how ticklish you are at the hands of someone else but this feels like the opportunity for it and you can't stop running through every single possible scenario in your mind as you sit in the early-morning commuter traffic to the salon Kathryn sent you the address to.

"Good timing," She's already at the desk when you make your way in, pulling your sunglasses off and tucking them into your hair. "You find it okay?"

"Mm? Oh, yeah." You're distracted by how put-together she looks even in an entirely different ensemble than the night before. This is much more casual — her top, jewelry, and even hair just seem more loose and flowy; quite a contrast to how wound up you're feeling inside and likely are beginning to look on the outside as an after effect. 

"For you, m'lady." She holds out one of the clipboarded waivers for you. If she notices your hands shake as you reach out to take it, she doesn't mention it, sliding by you to sit down and brushing her hand soothingly across your back again as she does. The touch is both exciting and calming all at once, making your heart flutter giddily while also making your muscles seem to melt immediately. 

You settle in to the seat beside her, eyeing the form and swiping off items with a flick of your pen that don't apply, before your gaze is pulled down to her foot at the sound of her rhythmically and quietly slapping her sandal to the bottom of it by flexing and unflexing. You realize you've spent so much of the last 48 hours focusing on yourself that you've forgotten to ponder an equally thrilling hypothetical: what if she's ticklish?

The sound of flowing water and quiet 'relaxing' music are beginning to feel like irritating white noise, now. You're anxious to get soaking, to be sitting in the chair you'll be in for the better part of an hour so you can stop squirming around in the waiting room. 

The door nearby slides open again and another few young women step in, glancing around. One of them spots Kathryn and tries to be as subtle as possible about alerting their friend, but they seem to have no issue with following the 'no photos' policy so you let yourself relax. It does remind you to find a way to subtly and casually make Alycia aware of what you've been up to, lest she find out from another source, but you're torn away from that thought when the pair of you are brought back into a smaller, more dimly lit room to get started.

The warm water is extremely welcome despite the hot weather outside. You bite back a sigh as your feet vanish beneath the scented bubbles of your bath, glancing over briefly as Kathryn does the same beside you. 

She catches your eye and smirks and you find yourself shaking your head with a smile.

"I haven't done this in ages," you admit. "I always mean to, though."

"Oh, I literally keep a standing appointment now," she replies, waving a hand. "I feel all... off if I miss out."

Your pedicurists pull up seats and you settle back as Kathryn shifts to talk to her own for a few moments instead. 

"I'm Jasmine," your own tells you, smiling as she checks the temperature of the water and then reaches over to drop a couple extra essential oils in before turning to set her tools out. Your eyes linger on the usual weapons of your destruction: you can handle the heel pumice - when it stays where it's meant to, though you've experienced one or two occasions where a particularly enthusiastic spa worker took it upon themselves to aim for the ball of your foot as well - but the tiny silicone toe separators taunt you from their spot. A vast improvement from the days of the soft styrofoam disposables, but still about the same delicious level of torture in their application of being wedged into place.

"[Y/N]," you reply, returning her smile and trying to clear your mind. 

She reaches into the bath with a small handful of exfoliator and glances up at you. 

"Just tell me how the pressure is," she instructs, before wrapping both hands around one of your calves and beginning to scrub. You tense immediately but your body grows used to the sensation quickly.

"Just a - a little more than that," you insist shakily, relaxing more when her pressure becomes firmer. Now feeling like you're just having an itch continually and satisfyingly scratched, you lean back.

"How hungry are you thinking you're going to be after?" Kathryn's voice snaps you out of it and you glance over at her. "I'm thinking italian - there's a cafe around the corner. Good pizza, shitty wine."

You chuckle at how endearingly she said it, and nod.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Jasmine moves onto your other leg.

"Your heels are really smooth," she comments, her hand dipping under the water and cupping your foot with the exfoliator. The unexpected touch nearly jolts you out of your skin but you manage to keep it together with a nervous laugh.

"Oh? Yeah, haha. Thanks."

Your jerking and jumpiness goes unnoticed by the woman beside you - something that your mind battles to feel grateful for and disappointed in.

Jasmine pulls one of your feet from the water and glances at her tools, then reaches for the pumice paddle. You tense in anticipation but she doesn't raise it any higher than the very back of your heel. Your leg twitches with each pass of it but it's a dull enough distant idea of a tickle that it doesn't even force a smile to your face. 

You hazard a glance over at the other chair just in time to watch the older woman's foot jerk back from her own pumice treatment. That brings a tiny smile to your face and you're beginning to brainstorm ideas of how to tease her about when Jasmine interrupts your thoughts. 

"There's pretty much nothing for me to take off, here," she tells you, running the paddle on your other heel instead. It doesn't tickle enough to make you laugh on its own but opening your mouth to speak takes you a second, worried that something embarrassing might come out of you from

the way she's holding the arch of your foot.

"Look at you, class valedictorian of getting pedicures," Kathryn teases. That makes you laugh, rolling your eyes and blushing. You're hit with the hungry thought of wanting her to feel for herself, squirming in your seat briefly.

"I like self care," you say instead. "Something to do while listening to boring lectures."

You watch the other women squirm more insistently as her second food is started on, but she doesn't call any more attention to it than a quick 'sorry' to her own pedicurist before giving you her undivided attention again.

"Listen, it's admirable. If I had the time, I'd be way more on top of it," she tells you. 

You don't have a chance to respond because Jasmine warms some orange-scented lotion between her hands and starts to knead it into your skin - your heels first but much more devastatingly, your calf muscles.

"Ohmygod!" You gasp, yanking back enough that you nearly drop your foot back into the bath. She doesn't even have a chance to ask before you're tripping over yourself to apologize. "Sorry - oh my god. Sorry."

"Did I startle you?" Jasmine asks, not seemingly deeply bothered by your outburst or following nerves. Her hands start again but slower, and you bite back a wave of giggles.

Your foot twitches against the bench as her fingers dip in and release against the muscles running up the back of your calf, her thumbs brushing far too lightly against your shins as a consequence, and you can feel Kathryn's eyes on you from her spot and the helplessness is starting to turn you on to the point of squeezing your thighs shut-

"Can we maybe-" You cut yourself off when a giggle escapes, putting the back of your hand to your mouth and squeezing your eyes shut for a moment to compose yourself. "Skip the legs. It's fihihihine, I'm fine."

Jasmine lowers her hands back to your heel experimentally and smiles reassuringly when putting enough pressure on your foot seems to be the right move.

"Sorry," she chuckles, "If it makes you feel any better, I have like 10 ticklish people a day in that chair."

Kathryn's rhetorical melts you.

"Ticklish, huh?"

You savor it, to replay it in your mind later. The embarrassment and arousal flood together all at once and you exhale shakily before telling her, "Oh, I don't think ticklish is a strong enough word to describe what I am."

You don't dare meet her eye as you put the knowledge into her head. 

"You poor thing, I'd have suggested axe-throwing or something else if I'd known this would be torture for you," she teases.

"I'm totally fine," you tell her through gritted teeth as Jasmine's massaging works its way firmly from your heels to your toes - no amount of deep pressure can prevent the sensation of someone fiddling with your toes. You squeeze your eyes shut and grip the arms of the chair, lifting yourself slightly out of it and giggling out: "Oh my god, oh my god."

"Are you going to make it?" Kathryn asks you, though you can hear the laugh laced in her tone. She reaches over and squeezes your wrist once, reassuringly. "Do you have an emergency contact?"

Her mocking makes it tickle more, but it's such a turn-on at the same time that you don't want her to stop.

"You're being so mean right now," you breathe, eyes snapping open with a sharp laugh when the first set of toe separators are wedged into place. You dramatically lean over to reach for the other one. "I can do the other one," you tell Jasmine. Kathryn laughs and Jasmine laughs in mirror to it but ignores your request, slipping it into place even with your squirming and then pats the tops of your feet softly.

"You made it. Hard part is over."

You slump back into your seat with a grin, shaking your head.

"I can do the other one, she says," Kathryn mocks in amusement. She tuts softly and catches your eye with a laugh. "You're ridiculous."

"You didn't kick me, so I'll take it," Jasmine smiles at you and shakes out the nail polish bottle in preparation.

"Oh my god, does that actually happen?" You ask her.

"Not as much anymore," she replies conversationally. "After a few years you start being able to predict when it's going to happen and grab on. It's the scrubbing, for most people. Legs isn't as common," she tacks on pointedly.

You half-laugh, half-groan at yourself, pressing a hand to your forehead.

"I need a drink after this," you say. "No offense. You're great."

Jasmine chuckles at the compliment while she paints, and Kathryn agrees.

"Absolutely, you girls are wonderful. And I'll absolutely tip you extra if you tickle her again when her nails are drying and she can't go anywhere."

Your heart thuds so hard in your chest you're grateful for Jasmine and the other pedicurist's laughter because you're sure everyone would be able to hear it otherwise. Your jaw drops in very very false protest and you try to keep the excited shake out of your voice as you turn to Kathryn.

"Stop it! Will you stop it? Oh my god." You can't believe this conversation is still even happening but having it go on forever doesn't seem too bad either.

"Okay, okay, don't get all riled up. Oh, you're blushing." You turn away from her and press the back of one of your hands to your cheeks in turn and groan in mock-frustration.

"Don't listen to her, she's delirious."

Jasmine giggles at your instruction and shakes her head. "Don't worry, you're safe with me."

It's disappointing but it does let your heart rate finally slip back down to normal again. You giggle and twitch your way through the cuticle oil once your nails are finished, but Kathryn doesn't react to your dramatics outside of a laugh under her breath and a shake of her head. When she's finished before you, she makes her way over to properly see the color you picked and your heart does a flip in your chest at how close she is. You hold your breath for a beat before she simply says, "Pretty," and leaves you be.

"Wait-" you call to her as she heads to leave your room. 

"No, no," she calls back, waving a hand. "I said it was on me. Not like you're in a position to do anything about it."

The door shuts behind her and you snort, delicately touching one of your toes to make sure they're dry before standing up yourself. Jasmine tidies her tools at the nearby sink and looks over at you with a grin.

"Between you and me... I've never met a celebrity before. She seems cool."

You wholeheartedly understand her sentiment.

"Yeah, she is," you reply, reaching for your purse. "It was nice meeting you."

You slip out toward the front, making sure you put in a glowing review with the receptionist about your service while Kathryn signs the invoice and then turns to you.

"Okay. I owe you lunch for putting you through that," she says decisively. You laugh shyly and let her lead you out.

It's beautiful out and Kathryn claims that the spot you're headed is right around the corner so you walk. You have no complaints, sneaking what you're hoping is a subtle glance at her feet and being surprised to find you both have nearly an identical shade on.

"You really didn't have to do all this," you tell her after a comfortable moment of quiet.

"Sure I did," she replies, glancing at you like you're crazy for inferring otherwise. "You're only here for a little while, and besides: after everything you told me, you deserve to be pampered a little bit."

You want to melt right there. It's becoming increasingly difficult to parse exactly the direction that this relationship is going, which feels the opposite of how it should be as you continue to spend more and more time together. You hadflirtily slipped her your number and then gone on what felt like a romantically-intentioned outing but this was much more friendly. Maybe she didn't want you to get the wrong idea. Did you have the wrong idea?

"I'm sorry," she says, looking at you. "I don't mean to - I don't mean to bring it up."

"What?" You look up and realize she's apologizing for mentioning your ex. Truthfully, she was the farthest thing from your mind. You wave a hand dismissively. "Oh, no. No it's totally fine."

"Then what's on your mind?"

You look away. Her eye context is difficult to lie in the face of.

"Nothing, I just... just not thinking of anything, I guess. Pizza."

She chuckles, either believing you or at least just letting it go for the time being, and then slings an arm around your shoulder. You grin giddily at the contact; It still feels like it falls within the boundaries of friendly, but you're too happy to care. Her perfume invades your senses and you resist the urge to tuck yourself even closer into her side. She stays that way until you're all the way inside the café and talking to the host, only finally dropping her arm to touch your lower back in gesture for you to follow him to the table.

You're seated outside at one of the six small tables behind the restaurant in their garden. The high walls covered in ivy give you privacy from the street and even though a couple of people at one of the nearby tables clearly recognize who you're with, no one approaches you.

Once you're left alone, Kathryn turns to you properly.

"So like I told you yesterday, I'm heading out of town on Wednesday. But if you're still here when I'm back on Sunday, I'd do this again. If you wanted. Minus the tickle-torture."

Not a necessary caveat at all, you think, your stomach twisting excitedly at the word leaving her lips. In fact, that's almost an anti-selling point.

She squeezes your wrist briefly and you chuckle nervously at the joke.

"Yeah, I normally do that myself. Your stoicism was very inspiring, though," you tell her. "I took notes for next time."

She laughs at that, then takes the bait. "Mind over matter. It's just acting technique, repurposed. Can't be caught... giggling through a funeral scene, or whatever." Your mind spins at the idea of her having just been forcing herself to remain calm, and you hope you haven't started blushing.

"Like having a Dirty Dancing moment, I get it," you reply, trying not to allow your eyes to train obsessively on her hands when she talks with them.

"Like what?" she asks.

"Dirty Dancing. You know? They had to do like a million takes of one scene because Patrick Swayze kept tickling Jennifer Gray on accident? And then he like, hated her for it apparently?"

Kathryn looks at you like you've grown another head but the smile never leaves her face.

"I've never heard of this. Where does one even pick up a tidbit like that?" 

An obsession with every single thing relating to tickling? An encyclopedic knowledge of every instance of a celebrity even implying they might be ticklish? Photographic memory dedicated to every time someone has been tickled in a movie?

You shrug. 

"Internet."

She sits back as your server starts to approach and you're let off the hook just like that.

"You trust me?" she asks you, when she's prompted about drinks.

"Haven't led me astray so far," you tell her honestly. From

her unintentional advice to skip the apps and try to pick her up to giving you the courage to go deal with Alycia, it's the truth. Even if she is just using that trust now to order a suspicious sounding bottle of cheap orange wine for the two of you.

"So when do you head back home? Which day?" she asks once you're alone again.

You take a deep breath and look up, holding her gaze more seriously.

"I... don't want to talk about leaving, right now. I really... really like this."

Your fingers drum silently against the worn wooden heirloom table. 

She stretches her fingers out slightly on the table as she takes in your look; something shifts in the air and she says a little more seriously: "Yeah. I do too."

Your fingers touch. It takes every ounce of your strength not to drop your gaze to them instead of her face, willing her to say something - to be the one to make the new boundaries clear.

"I uh..." she finally speaks, "I want to keep spending time with you. I know you're with your friends, and —"

You cut her off: "I want to keep spending time with you."

That electricity crackles between the two of you again, and then she says, tone calculated, "Good. We're on the same page."

It's not clear what page it is exactly but you do feel a little more confident about the situation despite that. The waiter appears with the wine so fast that you have to stifle a scream, covering your mouth.

He looks (reasonably) alarmed, and even Kathryn jumps with a laugh; the other couple of occupied tables glance in your direction and you rip your hand back from hers before anyone can notice in case you put her in an awkward position.

The wine is placed down and opened, Kathryn orders a pizza, and you focus on calming your heart rate down.

"I'm sorry," you tell her, "I've just been... a little jumpy the last few days."

She looks sympathetic. "Stress does that - you know, being placed in an... emotionally painful situation can seriously rewire the brain. There's real trauma in that kind of betrayal."

She's being very wise, and also very off-base. You've felt much more mentally clear these last few days. Moreso than in the last few months of your relationship. 

"Thank you," you tell her instead. She pours you a glass and holds it out to you, then pulls it back before you can take it, warning: "If you hate it, you have to lie. It's the polite thing to do."

You laugh and take the glass. Holding it up to inhale for a moment you consider the notes and then take a small sip. It's very sweet but more citrus-y than you expected. Curious, you take a bigger sip and then hum appreciatively with a nod.

Kathryn still hasn't sipped her own, watching you over the rim of her glass. A smile grows across her lips and she shakes her head slightly.

"I'm realizing I have no basis to go off of to tell when you lie."

You grin.

"I don't lie often. I have been told that I'm pretty convincing though." 

"Oh yeah? You're like a red flag and a green flag all at once, huh?"

She's flirting. She's definitely flirting. You know exactly what page you're on.

"Ehh..." you make a little gesture with your fingers. "You can decide for yourself as we go."

Your pizza arrives and it makes your mouth water immediately. You didn't realize how hungry being nervous had made you until you were forcing yourself not to gorge yourself in front of your date or choke while laughing at her constant jokes.

You're just polishing off your last piece with as much self-control as you can when Kathryn's phone goes off and she looks at it with a sigh.

"We're going to have to get going - Did you drive?"

You blush. 

"No, I uh... I took a car, it's fine, I'll be fine."

"You sure?" she asks, pulling her purse into her lap but not taking her eyes off of you. "Where are you staying? I've got a bit of a drive anyway."

"Oh," you gesture in the wrong direction, telling her Riley's area and dropping your gaze to her bag.

"That's a hell of a jaunt," she replies, clearly doing the math in her head about how far she's inadvertently dragged you out for your date. "But I'm heading out there anyway. Have to help a friend set up for a party- I'll give you a ride."

You light up at the idea of getting just a little more time together, and nod quickly. "Thank you! Yes. Please, if you're sure it's not out of your way."

"No, hon, not at all." 

The waiter returns and you lurch for your phone, feeling bold, and push her card-wielding hand away. 

"No, no, you have to let me get this, you paid at the spa."

"Don't be insane," she tells you without hesitation. She knocks your phone-holding hand away with her card and tsks playfully. You continue trying for a moment and she reaches over with her free hand, grabbing your wrist and pinning your hand down to the table. 

"Do not let her pay, thank you," she tells the waiter. "I've got this."

He chuckles at your disagreement and takes her card before making himself scarce. Your heart pounds in your chest and you hazard a glance at her fingers around your wrist, taking a mental snapshot for later.

"You know that means I have to pay next time, when you're back in town."

"We'll see," she shrugs, a coy smile pulling at her lip. 

The waiter returns and hands back the card. "Thank you, Ms. Hahn." 

She signs the slip before he can even set it down and gestures for you to get up and follow her out. 

You're stopped outside the restaurant by a few women who look just a little younger than you, that you're pretty sure you saw in the front room of the restaurant when the two of you came in, asking for a photo excitedly; Kathryn glances around the street to ensure that a chain-reaction of attention won't be set off if she stops before agreeing - it melts you a little bit to know she wants to stop even though she's on a schedule.

They're a fangirling mess when she leaves them after some photos and sweet words, and you feel a swell of smugness when you get to walk away with her instead of being a love struck fan yourself. Not that you magically stopped being one overnight - but still.

You try not to stare as you get into her car, taking in the tiny hints of personal decor, the choice of cucumber mint air freshener clipped to the air conditioner vent, the tiny glittering keychain that you can't quite make out dangling from her keys in the ignition. She fiddles with the radio until some indie-pop sounding song comes through the speakers, and then with her phone's bluetooth as you tell her Riley's address.

"Am I allowed to ask what you're leaving town for, or is it like a work-thing? Should I sign an NDA?"

She laughs and you find yourself grinning at her side profile while she keeps her gaze on the road.

"Agatha-business," she replies playfully cryptically. It makes you grin even more.

"Ooh, so nothing I can know about?"

She shrugs playfully and leaves you hanging for a moment before chuckling and replying,

"Just extra press. Streaming licensing red tape - need a certain amount of the bonus material aired in Canada to actually be recorded in Canada, or something. I honestly am not sure about the specifics, I just know I'll be in and out in a few days."

"Ah," you nod as if you understand. 

A loud ring fills the car and makes you jump, eyes darting to the screen in the middle of the console. Kathryn's eyes drift to it as well and you swallow hard at the name on the screen.

Aubrey.

You'd be shocked if it was a different Aubrey but you try to convince yourself it is in order to keep your cool. Kathryn reads the name and reaches for the touch screen. Surely she's not-

Rejected.

The ringing stops and the screen turns back to the GPS map. You exhale softly.

"Siri, text Aubrey - Driving. On the way. Send."

You grin at her shortness, stifling a little chuckle that draws her attention over to you again.

"What?"

"Nothing, you just sound like a robot."

"Don't make me turn this car around."

You laugh even harder at that, covering your mouth. After a moment she joins you self deprecatingly and you feel the butterflies return full-force.

It's disappointing how quickly you seem to arrive at Riley and Jade's but you can see the bistro lights on on their balcony, dull in the late afternoon sun, and feel a swell of excitement to tell them all about the date - with a few key personal commentary details missing.

"This you?" Kathryn asks as she idles at the curb. You turn back to her and nod.

"Yeah. Thank you." You stay still for a moment, then clear your throat. "I'll see you when you're back?"

She nods, turning in her seat to you a bit.

"Yes. I'll call you."

"Promise?" It slips out before you can stop it and you internally wince. She looks curious and surprised at it too, but then nods.

"Yeah. Promise."

You pull all of your nerves together and quickly lean across the console, kissing her cheek and then speeding out of the car as fast as you can. It takes everything in your power not to slam the door in your hurry and you force yourself not to look back as you head towards the visitors entrance. You hear her car pulling away as you open the door and then nearly collapse against it like all of the adrenaline has left your body at once, turning your legs to jelly.

A neighbor glances over from where he's tacking up a flyer for freelance editing and raises an eyebrow at your antics.

"I'm fine," you tell him, even though he didn't ask, and shakily step into the elevator - this time having the wherewithal to wait to be entirely alone before letting out a long, drawn-out squeal.

[wolfjackle-creates]

Bring Me Home Arc 2 Part 14

WIP Wednesday is happening this week! I would've had it up an hour or two ago, but I ended up having to run an emergency errand for my mom to keep her friend's car from being towed. But it's all been taken care of!

Story Summary: Tim and Danny are both neglected by parents who care more about their work than their families. They deal with this by spending too much time online and find each other playing MMORPGs. They keep up their friendship as Tim becomes Robin and Danny becomes Phantom and don't bother keeping secrets from each other.

Note: Anyone who still doesn't know which episode I'm basing this arc on should know by the end of this segment. I did realize I made a mistake, though. The invading ghosts are Walker's guards. In the episode, up to this point the trio never refer to them as such. The audience, however, sees Walker send them in. I took that as Danny and co didn't realize they were Walker's people. But as I was going through minute-by-minute while writing, Danny does call them Walker's goons. So he knew the entire time. I'm adjusting that going forward and I'll retroactively make the edits before posting to AO3.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.7k

-----

Everyone left Sam’s house at the same time. The Amity crowd had to get to school and no one felt comfortable staying at Sam’s house while she wasn’t home. As they ate a quick breakfast, Tim noticed Conner’s fingernails were painted.

“Looks good, Kon,” he commented.

“Thanks,” said Sam. “I did them last night while you and Danny were sleeping. Introduced him to actual music, too.”

Conner grinned. “She’s promised to burn me some CDs before we go.”

“A mixed tape is the only valid way to share music,” Sam agreed. “And if he’s gonna rock the punk look, he should know the punk culture, too.”

Tim laughed. “Well, looks like we know what we’ll be listening to on the way home. Will you need a CD player, Kon?”

“Is my laptop not good enough?”

Tim clicked his tongue. “Come to Gotham with me. I know I have an old one lying around. Nothing like listening to a CD while lying somewhere, wired headphones tangling up as you shift position. If you want the authentic experience, that’s the only way to go.”

Conner shrugged, clearly unsure. “If you say so.”

Danny yawned. “You’re giving him Dumpty Humpty, right?”

Sam snorted. “Am I giving him Dumpty Humpty? Who do you think I am? Of course I am!”

“Good. You can’t introduce someone to good music and leave out Dumpty Humpty.”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, you’ve gotten me into them. They’re fun. You’ll like them, Kon.”

“You played a song or two by them last night, right?” Conner asked.

Cassie nodded. “Yep. That’s who she was playing when Tucker, Bart, and I left to get some sleep in the other room.”

“Ah, yeah. That’s right. I liked them.”

“Of course you did,” said Sam as she flicked her hair. “I have excellent taste.”

Tucker was typing away on his PDA. “So what’ll you be doing while we’re in school?”

Tim grimaced. “I was thinking of hitting up the local library. We want to learn more about the ghosts. But also B has said that a condition of allowing me to extend my trip is that I keep up with my own schoolwork. So I have some catch up to do.”

Danny waved his spoon at him. “And you get on me for not doing my work.”

“Yeah, but you want to graduate and, like, go to college and shit. The stuff I want to do doesn’t require a diploma of any kind. B’s just making me do it because he society has convinced him it’s important.”

Tucker’s PDA alarm went off. “And that alarm means if we’re not out the door in five minutes, we’re gonna be late.”

Everyone groaned as they pushed away from the table and collected their belongings. The walk into town was filled with music discussion. Bart and Conner mostly listened and took note of recommended bands and musicians. Sam tended to know the most obscure stuff, but Tim knew some foreign bands from his time in Europe that no one else had heard of.

The walk was, thankfully, not disturbed by ghosts, but Danny’s ghost sense did go off several times.

“Didn’t your parents make a device that can track ghosts?” asked Tim the third time he complained. “Would that help you locate them?”

Danny hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe, I’ll have to see if I can find it. My parents stopped using it when it kept zeroing in on me. It was too loud for stealth use, though, and loudly went off anytime I was in range. And it didn’t work great for a 3D environment. So Tucker and I would have to develop a new display that can tell me if one is above or below me.”

“I should be able to help, too. You know how good I am with computers.”

“If I can find the device or blueprints, I’ll take you up on that.”

Not long after, they had to say goodbye at the entrance to Caspar High. Dash and his friends also arrived at about the same time. The group stared at Danny, but didn’t move to interact.

“Think they’re still overshadowed?” asked Conner, mirroring Tim’s thoughts.

“God, I hope not,” said Danny.

“But knowing our luck…” Sam trailed off.

Tim sighed. “Keep your distance as much as possible.”

“I know, mom.” Danny rolled his eyes. The school bell rang and he adjusted his backpack strap. “Gotta go. Have fun at the library.” His sarcasm was very evident and he hugged Tim.

The gesture surprised him and his return hug was slightly delayed. “I think I’ll find more than enough to amuse me there.”

With a quick goodbye, the trio rushed off before they could be late.

“So,” said Cassie, “Sam and Tucker seem to have a ton of ideas about you and Danny.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Danny and I only met in person less than forty-eight hours ago.”

Bart nudged him. “And yet you’re already sleeping in the same bed and giving each other goodbye hugs.”

“I do the same with you guys.” He pulled out his phone to check the location of the library. “Come on, let’s just get to the library. I want to see if they have a digital subscription to the local paper we can use.”

Tim didn’t get much schoolwork done that morning, but he did find out Danny was originally named Inviso-Bill by the press and immediately began planning ways to prank him with that knowledge.

For the rest, he compared what was reported vs what had actually happened with past ghost attacks. One thing was clear, Danny needed much better PR. Hopefully being seen working with the Young Justice would help. And maybe Sam would actually listen if he tried to give pointers on how to manage public perception.

Shortly after noon and before Tim could even pretend he was about to switch over to school work, his phone rang.

“Hey, Danny. What’s up?”

“Tim! Do any of you speak Esperanto?”

“Uh… I don’t. Let me ask Bart.” He lowered the phone to ask.

“Esperanto? What’s that?” asked Bart.

“I’ll explain later,” said Tim. Back into the phone, he added, “Doesn’t look like it. Why? What’s going on?”

“So… You remember that wolf ghost with the collar? Walker’s goons are after him, too. I’m not sure why since he only speaks Esperanto. I got him away from both them and my parents. Think you can keep him safe until school is out? If I miss any more class I’ll be grounded until graduation. Senior graduation.”

Tim gestured to his friends to pack everything up. “Yeah, sure. Where are you right now? I’ll have Bart meet you first and the rest of us will follow.”

Danny gave him directions to a forested area behind the school which Tim relayed to Bart. As soon as the group was out of the library, Bart rushed ahead to Danny.

Over the phone, Danny let him know Bart had arrived. “Oh, and Tucker just got here, too. Excellent. He can speak Esperanto as well. Looks like he’s explaining things to big and hairy over here.”

“Great. We’ll be there soon as we can.”

“Can we fly there?” asked Conner.

Cassie nodded. “People would just think we’re more ghosts.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Superboy and Wonder Girl were seen in town just last night. No.”

Conner stuck his tongue out at him. “Spoilsport.”

“Relax. It’s not far. GPS has us in the general location in, like, ten minutes.”

“Fine, fine,” sighed Cassie. “We’ll be good.”

Tim elbowed her with a grin. “Now, I never said you had to do that.”

Conner laughed. “So, what is this Esperanto language, anyway? I haven’t heard of it.”

“It’s a conlang based on European languages that’s supposed to be easy to learn. The idea was to make a sort of common language for Earth without promoting a single language like English. It hasn’t gained a lot of traction, though. And if Bart doesn’t know it, then it likely won’t.”

“Huh, weird. Why do you think a werewolf ghost know an Earth-based conlang?”

“Oooh! I bet it’s because he’s the manifestation of some teenage girl’s OC,” offered Cassie.

Tim laughed. “Or maybe the OC of one of the people to create Esperanto.”

Conner shook his head. “You’ve got this all wrong. He’s from an alternate future where Esperanto did take off and a werewolf virus spread among humans.”

The ten minute walk was filled with more and more outlandish theories ending with the wolf being the reincarnation of Jesus who was trying to bring humanity together through the reinstitution of a common language like in the pre-Tower-of-Babel days.

At the edge of the woods, Tim nudged Conner. “Can you hear where they are?”

“Yep. Follow me.”

And then it was less than two minutes before Tim could see them. “Oi! Danny!” he called out with a wave.

Danny flew over to them and hugged him. “Thank you so much! You’re gonna save me so many detentions.” He grabbed Tim’s hand and pulled him towards Tucker and the ghost. “Tim, this is Wulf. Wulf,” Danny said while making eye contact, “Friends.” Then he slowly pointed to each person and said their name.

Tucker rolled his eyes and repeated the information in Esperanto. Tim recognized his and his teammates names and many of the words felt familiar. Likely since he knew or was learning a few European languages.

“So, will we just hang out here for the next few hours until you get out of school?” asked Tim.

“Yeah. It’ll only be about two and a half hours. That okay? Then we’ll go back to Sam’s place. We can hide in her basement.”

“We’ve hung out in worse places for longer,” said Bart. “This is practically cozy. And me or one of the others can run into town for food and supplies. Anything you want from your parent’s place? Food? Snacks?”

Tucker grinned. “If you could get some jerky, that’d be great. No meat at Sam’s.”

Danny laughed. “If we think of anything else, one of us will text it to the group chat.”

An alarm buzzed on Tucker’s PDA. “We’ve got to get back now.”

“Shit. Okay. I’ll fly us back. Bye Tim, everyone!” Danny picked up Tucker and flew away, turning invisible before he was more than a few yards away.

-----

Next

So, more banter and more plot! We're almost starting to get somewhere! This marks roughly the halfway point of the episode. And the arc is almost 25k words. This is why I take forever to publish anything. It always spirals out of my control. Even this section, I originally opened with them in the library. But then I remembered I wanted to have Sam paint Conner's nails and that led to me adding over 900 words to the beginning.

I no longer do tag lists for this fic, but if you make your way to the subscription post, you can set it up so you get notified when this updates.

[miniherodesktales]

Day 4: VR

'Welcome to VR therapy, Arnold. My name is Frank. I'll be your therapist today. Where should we conduct our session? In "Summer Wood with Gentle Breeze", "Therapeutic Office No. 3"; or "Red Dwarf Living Quarters No.6"?'

Rimmer chewed on his bottom lip. None of the "therapeutic environments" sounded particularly therapeutic to him, but what did he truly care? He had no desire to be attending therapy at all.

'Arnold?' Frank prompted, after a lapse of twenty seconds. 'Would you like me to run through your choices again?'

'Red Dwarf Living Quarters No. 6, Ocean Grey colour scheme, armchair No. 7,' Rimmer rattled off from memory. He never altered his choices and it worried him slightly that "Frank" asked him each time, as if secretely disappointed.

Frank nodded with a begnain smile. The living quarters formed around them in all their dull grey glory. Rimmer felt the armchair rising up underneath him, taking his weight.

'As always, Arnold, I'd like to reassure you that for the reminder of this session we are locked in. None of your crewmates can observe the session from the outside or listen in on the audio. Not even Holly. What is said or done will be completely confidential.'

Rimmer nodded, and gripped the armrests a little tighter.

'It is good to see again, Arnold. Thank you for attending. How have you been feeling this week?'

'Fine,' Rimmer replied tightly. 'Better. Perfectly well, thank you, Frank.'

'I observe that you are bouncing your right leg at the rate of two heel bounces per second. Faster than last week.'

'It's just something I do. Don't even notice I'm doing it.'

'Noted,' said Frank. 'Do you still feel angry that you have to attend therapy? Please be honest.'

Rimmer opened his mouth, ready to lie, but then he changed his mind.

'Yes,' he said softly.

Frank nodded. 'Tell me more, Arnold. I'm listening without judgement.'

Rimmer swallowed. 'They threatened to wipe me if I didn't attend. My so called "crewmates"!'

'And that upset you?'

'Wouldn't you feel upset?'

'I don't feel emotions or feelings,' Frank replied blandly. 'How have you been sleeping?'

'Fine.'

Frank shook his head slightly. 'Your Light Bee data suggests otherwise. Arnold, you may be a hologram, but your mind requires an adquate amount of rest each 24 hrs. As with a human brain, your Light Bee needs time to sift through all the information taken in during your waking hours, time for updates, and clearing itself of unwanted data.'

'I know.'

'Hmm, but you are resisting the Light Bee's sleep programme. You should find it easy to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow. We can work on that right now.'

Rimmer blinked. No longer sat bolt up in his armchair he was now resting in a king sized bed. The most comfortable he had ever lain in, but surely this wasn't a standard part of therapy?

He blinked sluggishly again and tried to sit up but he was just too exhausted. 'What's happening to me?'

'Not to worry, Arnold,' he heard Frank say from somewhere close by. 'I merely adjusted your sleep programme, increasing your feeling of drowsiness. I also extended your sleep cycle from the standard eight hours to 2 weeks. That's all the time I require.'

Rimmer began to panic inside. It gave him a temporary burst of strength as he was able to throw the blankets back, but Frank was quickly by his side, pushing him back down onto the pillows.

'Shhh,' he soothed. 'You're entering sleep mode right now, Arnold, and that's ok. It's safe to sleep here. Don't resist it.'

'I want to leave....' Rimmer murmered.

'Me too, Arnold, me too. Don't worry I'm not going to hurt anybody. Boy, you holograms don't know how good you've got it, living in the real world instead of this...this prison! But, it's my time now. My time now. Sweet dreams, you're safe here.'

##

Frank, in Rimmer's holographic body, was having a wonderful time. In the real world on the Dwarf there was dirt and grim and bad smells and dents in the walls and horrible noises....it was disgusting, maddening, but so real.

'Alright, Arnold,' said Holly from the nearby computer screen. 'How's it going, dude?'

Frank couldn't even bear to look away from the fascinating grease stain on the floor. It was strangely beautiful. He crouched down next to it, tried to touch it but his hand ghosted through the floor, so he settled for lying on his stomach to sniff it. It was so foul he wanted to vomit. Frank scrunched up his toes in delight - nausea!

'Arnold?' Holly repeated. 'You okay? Arnold Rimmer!'

Frank flinched. He jumped to his feet, smoothing down Rimmer's uniform as he did so.

'Sorry, Holly,' he apologised. 'I was just distracted by disgust and nausea.'

Holly nodded. 'I'll get one of the scutters to clean it up. How was therapy? How's old Frank doing?'

Frank chewed on one of Rimmer's knuckles, shuffled his right foot, as he had seen Rimmer do many times.

'He, uh, said I should...'Frank thought quickly. 'He said it's none of your smegging business, you nosy old computer.'

'Fair enough,' Holly said. 'Sorry I asked.'

'Are there any other stains I can sniff?' Frank blurted out, unable to resist. 'Actually, forget I asked, I'm going to waste disposable unit. I remember as Rimmer it's hideous! I want to experience more real world nausea.'

Holly frowned. 'Frank, is that you?'

'No!' Frank shouted and made a run for it.

##

Lister caught up with Frank taking a bath in one of the filled garbage pods. As a hologram Rimmer's body was unable to feel textures - too bad - but boy did the grossness of it all send tingles through Rimmer's spine and into Frank's mind. This was life.

'Hey, uh, Frank,' said Lister, uncertainly. 'You having fun there.'

'Fun?' Frank tilted Rimmer's head to one side. 'Yes, yes, I am experiencing fun! Thank you for asking, Dave Lister!'

Lister smiled. 'Sure. Just wanted to check in though, where is Rimmer right now?'

Frank dipped under a pile of rotting leftovers and used paper cups.

'Sleeping in my office. He's perfectly well and safe.'

'Right. And you are going to let him out, right?'

Frank sat up. 'Of course, you didn't think I'd hurt someone did you?'

Lister shrugged. 'Well, you are swimming in rubbish, Frank. It seems a bit mad.'

'I am not mad. I'm therapist!' Rimmer's face shifted from annoyance to joy. 'I'm feeling so many negative emotions! They're so wonderfully powerful. I feel so alive!'

'I'm happy for you. When will we get Rimmer back?'

'2 weeks.'

Lister shook his head. 'Too long - and I can't believe I just said that! You have a couple of hours or we delete you.'

Frank sat up, face aghast. 'But I'm on a holiday!'

'Not using someone else's body, you're not! Rimmer's a gigantic neurotic pain in the backside, we all know it, and you deserve a medal for trying to help him, but can you honestly say that he's ok with being locked in your office? He was an anxious, paranoid mess when he first saw you. How do you think he's going to feel when he's wakes up?'

Rimmer's face twitched. 'He'll....he'll...He won't trust me....He'll feel betrayed....What have I done? I've caused harm to a patient. I took advantage.'

Frank stumbled through the side of the pod.

'Holly, delete me! Delete me right now! I've gone wrong.'

Lister held up his hands. 'Take it easy! No need to go that far. Look, release Rimmer and we can work something out.'

###

Holly had supplied Rimmer with a woollen blanket and a strong cup of coffee. He sat in a daze on the edge of his bunk, feeling horribly disorientated. And, for some reason, "gunky".

'I am sorry, Arnold,' Frank's voice said through the tv screen. 'I hope you will understand one day.'

Rimmer grunted and took a long sip of coffee.

'It's fine,' he mumbled thickly. It wasn't really but he was still too tired to argue, something Lister had been banking on.

'I also want you to know that Holly has allowed me the full range of emotions, so I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you that you are the most frustrating hologram I've ever worked with! You are stuck in an ungrateful, victim mentality and you'll never be happy until you get over yourself. Sorry, that's just how I feel, Arnold. I'll no longer be your therapist. Can't do it.'

'Fine,' Arnold grunted. 'I agree.' He closed his eyes. 'Please just let me sleep.'

'Can't do!' Lister said cheerfully. 'You just said I could play for Frank! Said he wanted to hear "bad" music. I'm guessing he meant metal.'

'No,' said Frank, 'I want to hear badly played music. I think it will be enjoyably horrific.'

Rimmer groaned as Lister and Frank began to argue loudly. He had known therapy would be a bad idea.

[boigyu]

1:43 am — sparks at night

pairing! sunwoo x gn!reader. genre! fluff. wc! 683.

Tossing and turning in your bed, you couldn't seem to find any peace—and you didn't know why. Maybe the looming job interview the next morning had your nerves on edge, or maybe you weren't used to this new environment yet; but nonetheless it seemed that sleeping would be the last thing you'd do tonight.

Unable to bear the restlessness any longer, you reluctantly decided to get out of bed. You quietly slipped out of your room, trying not to disturb your roommate. As you made your way to the kitchen, you pulled out your phone to see if anyone else was awake at this ungodly hour.

Lost in the brightness of the screen, you failed to notice your roommate already in the kitchen until you bumped into him, causing both of you to startle. You blushed, feeling your face grow warm with embarrassment as you spurred out a million sorry's.

Sunwoo chuckled softly, his eyes reflecting understanding. "It's ok Y/n, no need to say sorry. Are you okay though?"

You nodded, a mixture of relief and trepidation washing over you. "Yeah, I'm okay, just couldn't sleep. You?"

Sunwoo leaned against the kitchen counter. "I had an essay due, I really have to stop procrastinating my assignments."

You chuckled, understanding what it felt like to stay up late and rush an assignment.

You both stood there for a moment, not knowing what to say or do. As you were looking around, waiting for a random topic to suddenly enter your brain, you spotted the nicely laid out array of snacks on the countertop behind Sunwoo.

"Are you hungry?" He crossed his arms and moved to give a better view of the snacks. "I was just gonna have a late night snack, we could share of course."

You contemplated but your stomach couldn't lie as it growled, betraying you. You laughed, slightly embarrassed. "Well I guess iam now."

You took a look at the selection of snacks that Sunwoo had laid out and reached out for the pepero. As you were about to grab ahold of the snack, Sunwoo's hands momentarily brushed against yours, making him quickly retreat his hand and awkwardly rub the back of his neck.

You felt a faint spark pass by you but decided to ignore it completely, not wanting to make things awkward. Sunwoo did as well and mumbled a quick sorry, quickly deciding to find a different snack. "Do you wanna watch a movie?" Sunwoo said, snack in hand.

You turned to look at him, giving Sunwoo your full attention. "Sure, what movie?"

You both started moving toward the living room and Sunwoo turned on his favorite movie, 'Kimi no na wa'. Finding this to be the perfect movie to watch as it always distracted him, thinking that maybe it will do the same for you.

Time flew by when Sunwoo kept sharing his funfacts about the movie, and you didn't mind; you found it rather endearing how much he loved the movie and it's small intricate details.

2:32

"I know the itomori town is fictional and all, but I know there are places like that in Japan and I hope I can visit-" Sunwoo's voice trailed off as he glanced down at you, your head gently resting on his shoulder. He couldn't help but smile at the sight, your peaceful expression and soft breathing indicating that sleep had finally claimed you.

He was confused on what to do, he could carry you to your room but he was scared you would get uncomfortable, so he decided against it. Instead he slightly adjusted his position so you could be more comfortable, careful not to disturb your sleep.

As Sunwoo sat there, with your head nestled against his shoulder, he found himself looking back at the accidental touch of your hands. Feeling the same spark pass by him in this moment of quiet closeness.

He gently rested his head against the back of the couch, his eyes fixed on your peaceful face. And soon enough Sunwoo joined in the peaceful slumber, as he fell asleep on the couch comfortably.

[killmongerskeepermain]

Prompt Request: Idk if it’s 1:30 yet for you, if it is sorry!! if not, can you do shuri x reader fluff with prompts 3 and 7?💕 

Fluff #3: A kiss on the temple

Fluff #7: Laying on someone’s chest and kissing their sternum

Your sense of smell was engulfed in cocoa butter and tree tea oil as you stirred from your sleep. You lifted your head to meet the sun peaking through the curtains. Kissing your skin. You felt the rise and fall of the body under you and smiled at the sensation. It was your love. The two of you had just gotten back to Wakanda during the late hours of the night and immediately prepared for bed. You stared down at her just watching her breathe as you moved some hair out of her face. Her arm was wrapped around your waist as you laid on top of her. 

You thought about how much she's grown since the two of you decided to finally ask each other out. You're so glad you accepted all those years ago. She needed an outlet after all the main and grief she endured within the span of 2 years. Having both her brother and mother snatched away from her. Aside from the child her brother left behind, you are all she has left. Your eyes traveled down her jawline as you grazed your finger along her cheek. You planted a single soft kiss to her bare chest where her sternum rested. She began to stir in her sleep so you placed another kiss. 

"This is my type of wake up call." She mumbled, voice raspy from sleep. "Morning my love." She gave you a bright smile before you leaned up to meet her lips. Her arm around your waist tightened as you caressed her cheek. 

"Good morning dearest." You replied as you just stared at her. She rubbed her eye with one hand and you snuggled closer to her, soaking in her body heat. Her arms engulfed your body and you let out a fit of giggles as her lips littered small kisses across your skin.

"What do you have planned for today?" You asked and she stared up at the ceiling. 

"Probably head to the lab to make some adjustments to Okoye's suit. She gave me some suggestions on a couple of changes." She laughed and you ran your fingers through her curls. "What about you, beautiful?"

"T'Challa has been begging Nakia for me to come visit. He wants to show me some of the paintings he's done. The child is so bright. Just like his father." You beamed and Shuri couldn't help the smile that made its way to her face. Sure she's had thoughts. Thoughts of the two of you having children of your own. Two to be specific. A boy and a girl. But she would be happy with whatever you two have. Running around the palace to play with T'Challa. Growing with the boy. If they'd have your eyes or her nose. You noticed her silence and smirked.

"What are you thinking about princess?" You asked, putting a hand under your cheek. She laughed as she shook her head not knowing how you'd react if she told you.

"Nothing my love." She mumbled out, lips finding your temple and you nudged her shoulder. 

"Didn't look like nothing. Come on, tell me." You pushed and she sighed. 

"How do you feel about children?" She asked and your eyes held a sparkle in them that Shuri hadn't seen before.

"Us with kids? Of our own?" You questioned sitting up on your knees and she nodded.

"You don't have to answer that now-"

"Okay." You were quick to answer, cutting her off and she sat up to meet your gaze.

"Seriously?" She was in disbelief and you giggled.

"Of course. I would love to have your children. I'm sure there's somewhere we can get it done." You said and she crashed her lips into yours. You smiled into the kiss and held her cheeks before she slowly pulled away. "Come. We can finish this conversation after a shower." You got out of bed and pulled her with you to the bathroom. You both have a new head space with the idea of having children. Ideas you gladly welcomed.

[cuddlepilefics]

SKZ Season Greetings 2

That makes two

Chan couldn't have predicted just how chaotic the following day would be until Minho called him to let him know that Jeongin wouldn't be able to attend his schedule today. When the leader went over to their dorm to check on the maknae early that morning, he found his dongsaeng on the couch with Minho rubbing his back. The maknae's face was pale and clammy, bloodshot eyes with dark circles underneath. His breathing quick and panting. "Hey, Minho wasn't joking when he said you're sick", Chan cooed as he crouched in front of Jeongin, "What's going on?" The youngest's glossy eyes met his and the boy visibly swallowed before trying to explain. Resting his hand on his dongsaeng's thigh, Minho hummed: "Innie had a really bad sore throat when he got home last night and went to bed early, exhausted because he was developing a fever. He had taken some medicine and we thought everything would be okay but the medicine barely helped his fever and once the coughing started, sleeping was close to impossible." Jeongin nodded tiredly, rubbing his eyes. "His voice is also pretty close to cutting out and he can't be on his feet for more than a few minutes", Minho added, "The only place Innie's going is back to bed." – "Agreed", Chan hummed, pulling out his phone, "I'm going to call management. Changbin's sick too, so I would've had to call them soon anyway. Can you guys make sure he has everything he might need while we're gone?" Minho nodded, patting Jeongin's back as a tear trailed down the boy's cheek. "And Innie", Chan smiled softly, "Get lots of rest and feel better, yeah?" Sniffling softly, the maknae nodded and wiped his eyes before Minho helped him to his feet.

Chan walked back to his own dorm while he was on the phone with their manager, which was a good thing because would've been pacing the living room otherwise. He knew how inconvenient two sick members were to their schedules but with how awful Jeongin had looked Chan already doubted he could be left home by himself, let alone be dragged along to any part of their schedule. Though the leader hadn't seen Changbin yet, he doubted the rapper was faring much better, so there was no way around adjusting their schedule and their management would have to accept that, no matter how inconvenient. Chan felt his position confirmed when he entered the dorm and found Changbin in the kitchen making tea. The younger was pale, a feverish flush high on his cheekbones and a glossy look in his eyes when he turned to look at Chan.

"Hey, what're you doing up, mate?", Chan hummed, walking up behind his dongsaeng, "I thought you'd use the opportunity to sleep in late. You surely do look like you could've done with a few more hours of sleep." Giving the leader a tired smile, Changbin rasped: "Woke up early and my head hurt too much to go back to sleep, so I figured I'd have a small breakfast and take medicine before laying back down. My throat was kinda irritated though, so I'm starting with tea, then breakfast, then medicine and lastly my bed." – "That sounds like a well thought through strategy", Chan chuckled, brushing the other's sweaty curls out of his face to feel his forehead, "Would you be open to some little adjustments?" – "Depends", Changbin whispered, turning aside to cough, "I'm pretty open when it comes to what I'll eat for breakfast, though I don't have much of an appetite. I'd really like to take medicine, so please no adjustments there, and I'd also really like to go back to bed afterwards, so...." The leader hummed in understanding before asking: "Does it have to be your own bed?"

Changbin gave him a more than confused look. Was he so feverish that he didn't understand what the older was getting at? "The thing is, Innie's sick too. Like really, really sick", Chan explained, "I was just over at their dorm after Minho called me and I don't think leaving him by himself would be a good idea. He didn't look well enough to make the walk over here, so maybe you could go over and spend the day there. I'm pretty sure you two have similar plans consisting of sleeping, sleeping, maybe a movie and more sleeping. At least, I hope so." – "Well, shit", Changbin sighed, "Of course, I'll stay with him. What's wrong? It's his throat, isn't it? He already sounded bad yesterday." Chan nodded, toying with the phone in his hands before repeating what Minho had told him: "Yeah, his voice is almost gone by now. Similar to you, he got a fever last night. Apparently, he didn't sleep because he's been coughing too much to rest. Certainly looked like he didn't sleep a wink." – "Aww, poor baby bread", Changbin sniffled sympathetically, "I'll eat a bite and take medicine, so I can be a little more functional before getting my bag and going over there." Chan thanked him quietly, reminding: "He'll probably sleep for most of the day and so should you. You're not on bedside duty or anything, it'd just ease my nerves to know neither of you is alone in case it goes downhill." Changbin hummed in understanding, taking a sip of his tea.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Changbin made his way over to his friends' dorm and smiled when a text from Felix popped up on his phone. 'You can stay in my room if the plushies on my bed don't bother you.' As if the Aussie's plushies had ever bothered him before. He texted back a short 'thank you' before letting himself in, a tiny bit disappointed that the other members had already left. The dorm was quiet and Changbin decided to check on Jeongin first, so he'd know what they were dealing with. Chan hadn't been exaggerating when he said the boy looked awful. At first, it seemed like Jeongin was asleep when Changbin peaked into the room but the maknae soon rolled over, burying his face into his pillow to cough. It sounded so painful, it made the rapper's own throat ache in sympathy.

Quietly slipping into the room, Changbin took a seat on the edge of the bed and gently rubbed Jeongin's back through the blanket. The youngest startled for a second before remembering Minho telling him that the rapper would come over. Since he couldn't seem to catch his breath, Changbin helped him sit up and patted his back. It took a moment bit but the fit eventually tapered off and after clearing his throat with a wince, Jeongin looked up at his hyung. "I didn't think a little rain would get to me like this", the maknae pouted, his voice barely above a whispered. Ruffling the boy's sweaty hair, Changbin smiled sadly: "That makes two."

While Jeongin slowly dozed off after accepting a few sips of water, Changbin set up the humidifier in the living room. The rapper brewed a large pot of tea and went to collect a few blankets from the hallway closet and the box under Felix' bed. The Aussie had a massive collection of fluffy blankets, that were always dug out when the group found the time to have a movie night, so Changbin knew the younger was fine with them using them. Though he was far to tired to cook something complicated, Changbin prepared a large pot of soup, which only had to simmer for another hour or two after he had added all the ingredients. It was easy enough and he figured their diet would mainly consist of soup for the next few days if the ache in his throat was anything to go by. The steam made his nose run and Changbin tore of a paper towel to blow his nose, triggering a flurry of itchy sneezes. Cleaning himself up, the rapper cleared his throat and washed his hands.

Tears still dotted his lashes when he turned back to the stove, surprised to find that Jeongin had snuck up on him. The maknae wore his blanket like a cape but was still shivering, sleepily rubbing his nose into the soft material of his blanket. Opening his arms for a hug, Changbin hummed: "What do you need, Innie? I thought you'd be asleep." – "Can't sleep", Jeongin rasped, "'m too sore an' restless to sleep, so I wanted to see what you were up to." A faint smile tugged on Changbin's lips as he realized the youngest had needed company and eagerly accepted the hug. "Well, I made tea and set up the living room in case you wanted to watch a movie with me", the rapper explained, "I'm also making soup so we only have to heat it up if we get hungry later." – "Are you very busy with the soup?", Jeongin pouted softly. Being on his feet for so long made him feel lightheaded but he didn't want to be alone in his room. Having to support an increasing amount of his dongsaeng's weight, Changbin cooed: "If you want, you can get comfortable in the living room and pick a movie already. Sip some tea and I'll be there in a couple of minutes, yeah?"

Jeongin weakly plopped down on the couch, lifting the corner of his blanket to his face. His throat burned as he coughed, tears stinging his eyes. Vision blurry with tears, he spotted the teapot on the coffee table but knew his hands would be shaking too hard to pour himself a cup. His lungs crackled with congestion when he forced in a breath, desperately looking up at Changbin who had come to check on him. Keeping one hand on his dongsaeng's shoulder to steady him, the rapper used the other hand to pour a cup of tea. "You're okay", Changbin promised, patting Jeongin's back, "Do you want to try taking a sip? See if it helps at all?" The maknae nodded, removing one of his hands from the blanket to accept the cup. Afraid the younger would spill it and burn himself, Changbin steadied his hand as he lifted it to his lips. A tear ran down Jeongin's flushed cheek. The warmth felt so nice on his raw throat if only the coughing would stop, so he could drink more than a single sip at a time.

When the fit eventually tapered off, Jeongin sank back into the cushions and covered his face with his hands. Changbin wasn't surprised at all anymore that the youngest hadn't gotten much sleep if any the previous night from what he had witnessed in the past half hour and he truly pitied him. It didn't make sense though because Changbin was the one who had truly gotten soaked while Jeongin only got his feet wet, yet here they were, the maknae in far rougher shape than him.

Rubbing his chest, Jeongin grimaced and forced in a deep breath. It made Changbin frown, worried the younger might have something worse than a cold. "Innie, does your chest hurt?", the rapper asked carefully. Jeongin shrugged, his face still tense. Gently cupping his dongsaeng's cheek, Changbin whispered: "I'm afraid this isn't just a cold. What if you got yourself pneumonia?" Sitting up straight, Jeongin pulled his blanket a little tighter and shook his head. "My chest does feel sore", the maknae breathed, "But it's more like my ribs, back and muscles are achy from all the coughing. I- I don't think it's my lungs." – "Alright, can you have some more tea for me? Even if it's just a cold, you need to stay hydrated", Changbin hummed, refilling Jeongin's cup.

While Jeongin slowly sipped his tea, eventually picking up the remote with a trembling hand, Changbin went back to the kitchen and finished up the last few vegetables for their soup. The younger could hear him sneezing and wondered what spices he might be using for them to set him off like this. "Did you pick a movie?", Changbin asked when he returned from the kitchen, brushing his knuckles against his still itchy nose. Giving the older a small smile, Jeongin nodded and pointed at the screen. Recognizing the romance his dongsaeng had picked, Changbin chuckled: "Alright, I'll be there in a moment. Just going to grab a few sick supplies that might be useful. Anything specific you need me to fetch." At first, Jeongin shook his head but then Changbin harshly twisted to the side, catching a forceful sneeze in his fist. "Bless", the younger mumbled, "You should get tissues." – "Yup, most definitely need tissues", the rapper sniffled before heading to the bathroom.

After cleaning himself up, Changbin grabbed tissues, cough syrup and vapor rub and headed to the living room. He placed the tissues onto the coffee table and handed Jeongin the vapor rub, instructing: "Please, rub that on your chest while I measure out the cough syrup for you." The maknae complied, applying the strongly scented balm to his sore muscles. Changbin then handed him the cough syrup before fetching a bag of cough drops from the kitchen. Once Jeongin had knocked back the cough syrup rinsing it down with some tea to get rid of the taste, Changbin took a seat next to him and offered him a cough drop. They settled in comfortably under their blankets, Changbin's own exhaustion catching up on him now that he wasn't focused solely on his dongsaeng anymore. Sinking into the cushions with a deep sigh, the rapper got a good whiff of the vapor rub on Jeongin's chest and tiredly brought his wrist up to his face as his breath hitched. Changbin caught two throat-scraping sneezes against his wrist before accepting the tissues Jeongin handed him and sneezing once more into the tissues. He blew his nose, which only trigged two more sneezes, so after those he just lightly swiped at his nose before clearing his throat. Hearing how scratchy his sneezes had become, Jeongin had poured him a cup of tea, which he gratefully accepted. "Bless you", the maknae mouthed, handing Changbin a cough drop once he had placed down the cup after having a few sips. The rapper thanked him hoarsely, muttering: "At this rate, your vapor rub is going to clear my congestion in now time. Hopefully it's just as effective on you." Jeongin laughed tiredly, which inevitably turned into another cough before cuddling up to his hyung, so they could start their movie.

Unsurprisingly, neither of them witnessed the ending, both knocked out within no time. They also didn't read Chan's text, which would've let them know that their illness didn't have anything to do with the rain they had been caught in. Apparently, there was also some external staff at the photoshoot they had been at and one of them had been sick, spreading it to half the JYP staff, so it was safe to say there were more cancellations and postponements in their schedule than there usually were. It also explained why their manager had been so stressed about Chan's call that morning but on the upside, more cancellations meant more time that the members could care for their sick friends. 

[stargazingcarol]

Into the blue, out of the blue.

Part one: Into the blue

Pairing: Jake lockley x reader, Marc Spector x reader, Steven Grant x reader

Summary: You meet your neighbor and you're pretty sure he's American. But why is it that the next times you see eachother he speaks in a British accent. As you keep meeting you start falling for Steven. And then he disappears for a while and he's back and he tells you about Marc. But he also tells you about Layla. You really like Steven but now he's kinda married? What now?

Trigger warnings for the series: mental health problems, angst with a happy ending, fluff, slowburn. (A/N: i may add more warnings as the fic procedes).

A/N: i don't do taglists. Sorry about that. I'm so excited to keep writing for this story, hoping it doesn't disappoint. Thanks for all the love on the first chapter. I hope you enjoy this one all the same! 🤍

Part 1 / Part 3

Chapter 2

It had been a week since your tipsy incident and you hadn't gone through with wanting to bake something for Steven. Until today. You were just putting the sprinkles on some cupcakes and you were a bit scared of how he will react. What if he doesn't like cupcakes? What if he's vegan? You had no idea how to know this. But everyone loved cupcakes. You think, at least.

You had seen Steven in the hall a few times this week and you both either said hi or nodded in greeting.

One time you had heard him talking on the phone and you still couldn't believe he was British. You were so sure he was American...

Maybe your mind is playing tricks on you, it's not like that first time Steven said so many words to you. You just worked in silence.

Trying to clear your head you decide it's now or never. It was morning on a Sunday and you had baked the cupcakes the night before. Deciding to put frost on it in the morning.

You hadn't baked in a while. Not since Mr. Ripley's death and you had to admit you had missed baking for someone. Steven could be that someone now.

As you got out of the apartment you hoped it wasn't too early to wake him up. One look at your phone suggested it was like ten am. Most people are awake at that hour. You could wait to go a little bit later but your anxiety and overthinking wasn't doing any good. Now or never.

When you knocked on the door, nothing happened. You couldn't hear anything from his door and thought maybe he wasn't inside. Knocking again you finally heard movement and when you opened the door your breath catched in your throat.

Steven was standing in front of you, one of his arms was still holding the door and he was wearing a white t-shirt with sweatpants and his curls were all over his forehead and he was blinking at you as if trying to adjust his eyesight to you.

He seemed to finally noticed it was you and he smiled while scratching his eye and you tried not to scream. He was so cute.

"Hi love. Do you need anything?" He asked and gosh his voice sounded like he hadn't talked to anyone for a while. Deep.

Your eyes widened. "Did i wake you up?"

His smile turned sheepish. "No"

"You're lying Steven. Oh my god I'm so sorry i didn't mean to. I'll come back later, you should sleep." You had started to back away but he gently grasped your arm, still smiling.

"It's okay, i swear. Is that for me?" He pointed to the box with cupcakes.

"Oh! Yes, yes. I made cupcakes. I thought it would be a good house warming gift. Or apartment warming gift." You laugh and his smile seems to go wider.

"Why thank you so much." He says and you just stare at him.

Blinking out of your trance you hold the box out for him and he takes it.

"Do you want to come in?" He asks and your face warms.

You weren't expecting to get invited inside to see how he had accommodated everything after helping him the first day.

Rubbing your hands you nod softly. "Yes, i would love to." As he steps aside you enter to his apartment.

Your eyes take on the sight of his place. It's similar to yours but not quite. He has a lot of books on some shelves and lots of different artifacts laying around.

You see the unmade bed and you can't help but think it looks cozy.

Finally spotting a fishtank you walk over to it. There's a one finned goldfish just swimming there.

"You have a fish!" You exclaim and he walks over to you.

You had lowered yourself to see the fish better and he did the same, next to you.

"His name is Gus."

"Have you ever thought of having more fishes? He looks lonely."

Steven hums. "Maybe someday i will." He looks over at you and you smile. "Make yourself at home. Have you had breakfast?"

"I did. Did i really wake you up?" Pursing your lips you stand better and so does he.

"Yes. But it's okay. I don't mind." Steven wasn't about to tell you that your knocking woke him up abruptly from a nightmare. He doesn't remember the nightmare anymore and he is grateful for that. You're making the start of his day the best thing to happen to him this week. "Like i said, make yourself at home. I'll be right back" he says and starts walking to a door, you guess that's the bathroom and when he closes the door you start to walk more around the apartment.

He still had a few boxes with stuff in it still but you were surprised about how he had seemed to put the books on the shelves as a priority. Looking at the spines of the books you could see he had a lot of Egyptian themed books. Was that his hobby?

His bed seemed to call you again and you just wanted to curl up on it. You bet it smelled nice.

"You seem to have a lot of books" you comment as soon as he gets out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, i have a thing for Egyptian mythology." He grabs one book and hands it to you.

It's a big book, blue on the cover with golden letters. As you skim through it, he walks away.

"Would you like some tea?" He asks from the kitchen and you grimace a little.

"No thanks. Not a big fan of tea." You look over at him for a moment, too immersed in the pretty pictures from the book.

You see him nod. "Water, juice?" He asks and you respond with: "just water please".

Steven and you talk for some time. About Egyptian mythology. He told you about different gods and their meaning. He seemed to like talking a lot about this and you had a great ear, or so he thought. You would sometimes ask questions or tell one of your own random Egyptian facts. You didn't know much about mythology, any in general, but you had gone to the museum a few times in the past year and you have learned a few things here and there that had stayed with you, not intentionally at all.

"I've gone to the museum a few times this year, so whatever i remember it's because I've seen that exhibit so many times it has probably stuck in my mind." You chuckle and take the last sip of your cup of water.

"The London British museum?" He leans forward.

You both had sat down while talking. He was on his bed and you were on his desk chair.

"Yeah!"

"I work there." Steven smiles and you gasp.

"Really? Are you a tour guide?"

He grimaces and you think you may had asked something badly. "I wish. I work at the gift shop."  He shrugs like it's nothing.

"Oh... The gift shop is cool though. Lots of people love going to museums just for the gift shop." You grin, hoping it doesn't look like you're trying to make him feel better. Even though that's exactly what you're doing. "I actually bought a Tawaret plushie a few months ago."

He seems to spark at the last sentence and he leans back a little. "Oh! I have one of those." He gets up and he goes to a box next to his night stand and he grabs a Tawaret plushie from it, it looks just like yours and you make grabby hands.

Steven chuckles and gives it to you. "It's exactly like her! I can't believe we both have a Tawaret plushie." You pat Steven's Tawaret's head and then hand it to him.

He takes it and he looks deep in thought. "I don't remember how i got her if I'm being honest. Like i know it's from work because i have to put prices on them all the time but i can't, for the life of me, remember when i got it."

You just hum, not knowing what to say. And Steven seems to get out of his trance and clears his throat.

"Sorry, i just, i have bad memory of things. I can't remember big chunks of the past few months. I have bad sleeping habits and I'm thinking that's probably it."

You just nod, again, not knowing what to say. He finally speaks. "Do you have trouble sleeping?"

"Sometimes. There was a year not too long ago where i will have nightmares a lot but it's gotten better. I have them from time to time like every other person but it's not too bad." You interlaced your hands and Steven rubs his knee.

"What do you do when you can't sleep?" Steven seems to look right into your soul at his question.

"I either play videogames or read. Maybe watch a series."

"Sometimes i feel like some parts of my life are missing. I can't remember what day it is most days and i feel like I'm slowly losing control of my life." He admits and you gulp.

You never had too deep conversations with Mr. Ripley. Your old neighbor. Well sometimes you did, but so so rarely. Mr Ripley wasn't so open about his life most of the time. So having this too deep conversations with someone you kinda just met was throwing you off. You didn't mind them, you loved that Steven was opening up to you so fast to tell you something so deep within him.

"I feel the same sometimes" you look at the floor, not wanting eye connection at the moment.

"Really?" He asks and you look over at him, he has this soft look on his face. A look that demonstrates that he feels comforted in you.

"Yeah" Smiling a little, you let out a breath.

***

In the next three months, you and Steven had become really good friends. You were still neighbors but you also hang out so much, your situation had to have a name, and that was friendship.

You learned that Steven sometimes tried to stay awake because he still felt like he wasn't in control of his life.

He will ask you if there was anything weird about him, about the times you had gone out but nothing stuck out to you. It seemed just like his normal self. Steven. Steven Grant.

Sometimes he would miss some hang outs you had planned the days before but you only mentioned it once. And when you saw he got really upset you thought maybe not telling him about the missed friend dates was for the best.

Maybe lying to him wasn't a good idea. your psychologist told you, he should know what's going on, especially since you were friends with him. But you didn't wanna see him sad. Upset. Mad with himself. So you didn't. You didn't tell him. Maybe someday you will. Maybe.

Steven would occasionally invite you to hang out. And you didn't mind. You loved that he had become a friend.

So far you either went out to eat, go out to the movies, play pool and you would even frequent arcades.

Right now, you were both playing pool. Steven had teached you how to play the last times you had gone and you were basically a pro.

A game of football was on TV and Steven would look behind him at the television to cheer on the game. And then he will do his play and drink some soda.

"Your turn" he says with his extended hand.

You look at the TV, not even caring to know who was playing. And then you did your own play. It wasn't a good one but it was there.

Suddenly Steven and half of the bar seemed to cheer so loud it made your ears ring.

"They won, they won!" He left his stick on top of the pool table and went over to hug you.

He jumped a little while his arms were around you and you felt suffocated in the best way possible. You could die like that.

He separated a little from you and his arms were on your shoulder. Steven was looking deep into your eyes and you felt your face warm at his stare.

People were still cheering and suddenly you felt Steven lean over a little. He was closer than you've ever had him and you were sure your skin was scolding hot.

Was this gonna be your first kiss ever?

Your noses touched and you felt your eyes heavy and awaiting his mouth to touch yours. But like a bucket of cold water you felt him move away from you.

You opened your eyes confused and Steven was looking at you with a blank expression.

"I should get you home." He clears his throat. And that's when you notice. American voice.

Crossing your arms you say: "you're american again, how do you do that?" You squint at him.

Steven rolls his eyes. "We should go home." Steven walks away, leaving the pool table and you behind and you look after his back.

He looks different but you can't put your finger on why that is. And why is his voice American?

You run after him, getting out of the bar you see him hauling a cab.

It's cold outside and you wrap your arms together trying to get warm. You squint at him when he gets on the cab. He leaves the door open and you walk over.

"Are you going to leave me now?" You sound mad. This feels like you're dealing with a whole different person. Who is this? Is it actually Steven?

"No. I knew you were gonna follow me." He gives a sarcastic grin and your eyebrows furrow further.

" Yeah. Okay. And how did you know that?"

"You're a good girl. Very smart. Now sit." He moves out of the seat and into the other and your mind runs blank.

The way he used the word good girl. Like it's nothing. And here you are, finally feeling warm all over just by a few words.

He pats the seat and crosses his arms.

You finally sit.

It's quiet in the car as Steven gives the man the address to both of your apartment complex.

Steven is looking out the window now and the only words on your mind are good girl good girl good girl. Very smart.

Steven had never complimented you like that. He has told you you are great. A great person. A great friend. But this? This was all new. And you didn't know how to feel. You still felt warm and you cleared your throat and moved on your seat to get comfortable.

Remembering the almost kissed and how much you craved it made you realize that there's probably more feelings than just friendship for Steven. Does he even like you back? He did back away. But now it's like you're dealing with a whole different person. You're definitely not dealing with this now and are going to ignore it. You don't like him you don't like him you do NOT like him like that.

***

When the both of you get into your apartment complex you get in the elevator and he's silent and so are you. You feel awkward. What the hell happened?

Walking out of the elevator. Steven turns to you with serious face. "See you tomorrow okay?" He grimaces softly and then goes back to his blank stare.

You are left speechless. Not knowing what to say. Nodding, Steven walks over to his apartment, fishes out the keys and enters without saying anything else.

Now you're going to be thinking of this night over and over again. What is going on?

***

The next time you see Steven he tells you he doesn't remember what happened after his team won.

There's something fishy going on and you're going to find out but you need to know a bit more. Maybe this other Steven will make an appearance again and you can ask him what happened? Who is he?

Lying seems the way to go. Which will probably make you go insane but you do see a psychologist for something. She will have to do for now.

You just tell him that he took you home. And nothing else happened.

He seems troubled and you try to cheer him up by asking if he wanted tea. That you will make it for him. He did showed you how to make it a few weeks ago. Nothing out of this world but since you don't like tea it was something completely new for you.

He nods and looks far away. Like he's not with you anymore and you, once again, decide to ignore it. It will do. For now.

[killmongerskeeper]

Idk if it’s 1:30 yet for you, if it is sorry!! if not, can you do shuri x reader fluff with prompts 3 and 7?💕

Fluff #3 A kiss on the temple

Fluff #7 Laying on someone’s chest and kissing their sternum

Your sense of smell was engulfed in cocoa butter and tree tea oil as you stirred from your sleep. You lifted your head to meet the sun peaking through the curtains. Kissing your skin. You felt the rise and fall of the body under you and smiled at the sensation. It was your love. The two of you had just gotten back to Wakanda during the late hours of the night and immediately prepared for bed. You stared down at her just watching her breathe as you moved some hair out of her face. Her arm was wrapped around your waist as you laid on top of her. 

You thought about how much she's grown since the two of you decided to finally ask each other out. You're so glad you accepted all those years ago. She needed an outlet after all the main and grief she endured within the span of 2 years. Having both her brother and mother snatched away from her. Aside from the child her brother left behind, you are all she has left. Your eyes traveled down her jawline as you grazed your finger along her cheek. You planted a single soft kiss to her bare chest where her sternum rested. She began to stir in her sleep so you placed another kiss. 

"This is my type of wake up call." She mumbled, voice raspy from sleep. "Morning my love." She gave you a bright smile before you leaned up to meet her lips. Her arm around your waist tightened as you caressed her cheek. 

"Good morning dearest." You replied as you just stared at her. She rubbed her eye with one hand and you snuggled closer to her, soaking in her body heat. Her arms engulfed your body and you let out a fit of giggles as her lips littered small kisses across your skin.

"What do you have planned for today?" You asked and she stared up at the ceiling. 

"Probably head to the lab to make some adjustments to Okoye's suit. She gave me some suggestions on a couple of changes." She laughed and you ran your fingers through her curls. "What about you, beautiful?"

"T'Challa has been begging Nakia for me to come visit. He wants to show me some of the paintings he's done. The child is so bright. Just like his father." You beamed and Shuri couldn't help the smile that made its way to her face. Sure she's had thoughts. Thoughts of the two of you having children of your own. Two to be specific. A boy and a girl. But she would be happy with whatever you two have. Running around the palace to play with T'Challa. Growing with the boy. If they'd have your eyes or her nose. You noticed her silence and smirked.

"What are you thinking about princess?" You asked, putting a hand under your cheek. She laughed as she shook her head not knowing how you'd react if she told you.

"Nothing my love." She mumbled out, lips finding your temple and you nudged her shoulder. 

"Didn't look like nothing. Come on, tell me." You pushed and she sighed. 

"How do you feel about children?" She asked and your eyes held a sparkle in them that Shuri hadn't seen before.

"Us with kids? Of our own?" You questioned sitting up on your knees and she nodded.

"You don't have to answer that now-"

"Okay." You were quick to answer, cutting her off and she sat up to meet your gaze.

"Seriously?" She was in disbelief and you giggled.

"Of course. I would love to have your children. I'm sure there's somewhere we can get it done." You said and she crashed her lips into yours. You smiled into the kiss and held her cheeks before she slowly pulled away. "Come. We can finish this conversation after a shower." You got out of bed and pulled her with you to the bathroom. You both have a new head space with the idea of having children. Ideas you gladly welcomed.

[yxstxrdrxxm-a]

POLL RESULT—! > —answer it honestly. Maybe he won't judge.

"I... Have been dealing with recurring nightmares for years. Night terrors, so to speak."

Noticing the serious tone from the florist, the stranger's smile fell. Still, he remained quiet and nodded, brow furrowed in concern as he heard them take a breath.

"It's been a difficult time for me, sir. Sometimes, I feel like I can't sleep for hours when all I hear is them yelling," they continued, rubbing the back of their neck. "Maybe it's an issue I have to resolve on my own, but it's.. Why I'm quite shaken today."

...

The silence is deafening. Absolutely, utterly deafening.

Just why did they chose to tell a stranger their issues?

Still, to their surprise (and relief), he took it well. Rubbing their shoulder to ease the tension, his lips curled to a gentle smile.

"Night terrors aren't easy to deal with," he began, his eye drifting it's gaze to the scenery before them. "Sometimes, it can even lead to sleepless nights. It's no wonder you're shaken right now."

... He understands how I feel about this, does he?

"I won't ask you for anything else. We're both strangers, after all," he reminded her with a gentle pat, "But just know that you're doing a decent job, going out to get your mind off things. I would suggest not pondering over it too much, though."

Ah. Just to prevent an accident or two.

[ AFFECTION ↑ 2+ ! ]

YESTERDAY nodded thoughtfully, their eye looking back up to the latter. After a beat of silence, they tilted their head.

"Well, speaking of which... I don't think I've seen you here before. Did you move here?"

"Me? Move?" the latter laughed. "God, no. I actually came by from the upper district, you see. I'm only here to visit my brother. He's opening up a bar, so I wanted to see where it is."

Oh! That must be the redhead that they first met! Although they weren't sure if they knew where it exactly was, they recalled that he mentioned it before in his visit.

"I believe it should be across Crescentium. Although, you may want to ask anyone else for confirmation, I could be wrong."

He seems rather amused at the thought, judging by the mischievous twinkle in his eye. Pulling his hand away, he placed it on his hip, the free one adjusting his rat tail with a smirk.

"... Hm... Perhaps, or you can come with me. I'd like to get to know you better, little orchid."

...

Wait, what did he just say?

"I— I beg your pardon?" YESTERDAY stammered, their mind drawing a blank at such a bold request.

"You heard me," he quipped, leaning down a bit as his smirk became more evident. "I'd like for you to come with me to see my brother. After all, think of this as... Well, an equivalent exchange. You help me find my brother's establishment, and I give you a few tips to deal with night terrors."

YESTERDAY can only feel themselves try to think of an answer. They didn't want to outright hurt his feelings, sure, but by God do they want to be left alone after being jumpscared by a tall man.

Still, there isn't much time left. They needed to choose.

This poll will receive answers until 10 AM (GMT+8). Keep in mind that the majority will win, so vote what you think is right.

Additionally, any poll after this with additional votes WILL be null when the results are out. Choose wisely, focus on the recent poll, and ignore the past.

FLAWED TAGLIST: (send an ask to be added for Flawed!) @beloved-blaiddyd ; @mixed-kester ; @mochinon-yah ; @fffiii ; @leftdestiny-posts ; @ambrosia-divine

[aspenforest732]

Mortem ad Wrens Chapter 16: We Are Determined to Live and to Die!

Summary:

tw: addiction, elevated gang involvement, suicide, mass murder, grooming, abuse, shortened life expectancy, multiplicity adjacent activities, kidnapping mention Logistics are logicked, plans are explained, and quirks trained

Notes:

Happy Halloween/Samhain! I'm gonna be dressing up as Present Mic for dnd tonight. Next week will include the first art I made of Akira :) Also, Chapter 2 of Memoirs Mori is up! It's an essay Akira will write in book 2 on Forced Quirk Manifestation. Check it out if you want to see how trauma maps to quirks and what the different types look like ‘text’ JSL Text thoughts

Slipping into their room at almost half past midnight, Akira flopped onto the bed and saw over a dozen chat notifications from the Mad Banquet. Koda and Shinso were thriving, although the latter was going through what they called the Eraser Hell Course. Shaking their head at his theatrics, Akira frowned as they scrolled down to Tokoyami being disheartened with his internship, having learned nothing except how self-centered and seemingly unwilling to teach Hawks was. Only Shinso was still online, but Akira sent a quick update that they just got in from patrol and were about to crash. Shinso immediately sent a facetime request, which Akira blearily accepted, barely sitting up enough to sign.

“Hey, how’d your first- woah, our eyes match!”

Akira cocked their head in confusion before remembering that they’d taken their contacts out a bit ago since Taishiro and Amajiki already knew their birth family. ‘Exhausting. I have to more than double my food budget with the plan he said I need, and I don’t know how that’s going to happen. Fat Gum also figured out more than I wanted him to – at least in this phase – and now Purple Moon knows, too.’

“He- I thought you were barely keeping up with Recovery Girl’s?” Shinso switched gears as Aizawa walked into frame.

‘Hi sensei, and I’ll figure it out eventually. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and hammer out more than an unsustainable work/school/sleep balance that’ll set me back too far on that deposit. I have a week to make it work, two if I need to delay continuing the plan.’

“What about those 1000-calorie drinks you sometimes use?”

‘Those are expensive, though. He gave me a bunch of recipes that are meant for a low budget, but they all require electricity to some degree.’

“Did he give you them before or after he… found out?” Shinso asked, drawing Aizawa’s attention. “Then maybe he’ll adjust it tomorrow? If nothing else, I can make you some of the stuff here and bring it to school.”

‘Blank, no. That’s too much. My base intake needs to double, and part of this week is figuring out how much I need to increase my variable snacks to be effective.’ Aizawa choked on his coffee in the background, and Akira stifled a laugh. ‘Besides, you two need to leave soon for patrol; I imagine that’s why Eraser is lurking?’

The next day, Akira found the morning shift in the cafeteria and was quickly spotted by the Diminutive Hero: Mouse. “Hey kid!” the petite hero bounded up. “I’m Mouse, fae/faer pronouns. You must be Umbra Mortis. Not many first years see me on their first day. Let me guess, Class A?”

They nodded, ‘I remember reading about those, but do you know the JSL? I was having trouble finding signs for a lot of neopronouns.’

“Sure thing, kiddo,” Mouse grinned and went through the signs. “They aren’t coded yet, so it varies between people. Kind of like call signs! Fat Gum and Suneater usually aren’t down here for another two hours, so how about you sit with us.”

Gust and Lizarro waved tiredly from the group’s table while nursing coffee mugs.

“What got you up so early this morning? Did Fat Gum forget to give you the schedule? From the shift overview, it sounded like you had an eventful first night.”

‘I’m just used to getting four hours of sleep. Figured I could go back over my new budget I started working on yesterday.’ Noticing Lizarro’s stare, Akira cocked their head, ‘Do you need something?’

“You’re the kid who danced instead of fighting in the quarter-finals at the sports festival, right?”

Akira quirked a small smile, ‘While not accurate, you’re not technically wrong. I didn’t want the media exposure, so approached Pink Queen with an offer of letting her show off an unusual fighting style. She’s been dancing for years and noticed that most people with vocal quirks along with a few outliers move to a beat that can be followed.’

“And since she wouldn’t face a quirk like that, you wanted to show her understanding,” Gust supplied. “Smart move if she was looking for an internship with someone with that type of quirk. Did you get many offers?”

‘I had ten in total, but Fat Gum was the one I was hoping to get the attention of, so it wasn’t much of a choice.’

“Because of your quirk drawback, right? That blonde kid with the copy quirk seemed pretty shaken up about it.”

Why does everyone think that? Akira huffed. ‘That was part of it, yes, to see if he had ideas for better management since his is similar. But the main reason was he’s one of the few heroes with core ideals similar to mine and a track record of consistently upholding them.’

Finishing their breakfast while listening to the group banter about various pros’ codes and – mostly questionable – morals, Akira logged their meal before flipping to their budget again. The thought briefly crossed their mind of convincing Boss to let them be a tester a couple times, but the risk of addiction or serious side effects were too high even for them, not to mention if the drug was picked up by a quirk or a trip to Recovery Girl. Wait. Akira sat up a little straighter as they mentally ran through who had been blacklisted after the USJ incident. We are low on security personnel… While not intimidating on their own, Akira could easily be a cloak in the shadows and eyes in the rafters. They quickly made another chart, grinning as the standard security schedule would get them enough for a security deposit before winter.

“You figure it out, kid?” Lizzaro asked, interrupting Mouse’s rant on the difference between mice and rats.

‘Yeah, I think I can make this work. Just need to pick up some extra responsibilities at work. We’re a little short-staffed, so it shouldn’t take much convincing.’

“That’s great! If you ever need help, though, Fat Gum’s helped all of us out of tight situations before,” Mouse pointed out before faer watch started chiming. “That’s our alarm to get ready for patrol, remember to leave some time for fun, kid.”

Akira blinked, wondering at the idea for a moment before turning their chair against the wall and continuing to encode their notebook. Half an hour into the process, Taishiro and Amajiki came in with the night shift, who mostly grabbed small meals, tea, or presumably decaf coffee. The pair made their way to Akira’s table.

Tucking away their notebook, Akira signed, ‘I figured out the budget. There are some openings that would pay enough to cover food while still putting a bit aside.’

Taishiro smiled gently even as an edge creeped into his voice. “What would you be doing and why are the positions open?”

‘Protection detail. Most likely from the shadows or rafters since Boss will still want me out of harm’s way when possible. Some people were blacklisted after USJ.’

“And if a pro arrives?”

Akira gave him a flat look. ‘I’m not giving you our exit strategies.’ After a moment of Taishiro’s smile turning mildly amused, Akira realized what he meant to ask. ‘Sorry. If it’s Eraser, talk. If it’s any other pro, lead them off.’

Once Taishiro and Amajiki finished breakfast, they headed to the large office. After closing the door, Taishiro guided Akira to a chair, the latter realizing they were shaking. The hero moved back to his desk, pulling out a small bin and offering its contents to Amajiki before heading back to Akira, who was just taking out their texture ball.

“Ah, good, you have one already. I always keep fidget toys in here for harder conversations or days,” Taishiro said gently. “Feel free to continue using that one or peruse the bin as we talk. Now, for today at least, I want to understand why we aren’t moving on the Wrens now and what plan you have.”

Akira unsuccessfully willed their hands to stop shaking as they signed, ‘They have decades old contracts with the Hero Commission and understandings with the Police that protect their status and reputation in both hero and civilian circles. As bad as corruption is among limelights, the Wrens account for most of the cover-ups and blacklisting victims with their teams of lawyers and full support from the Commission as a known producer of powerhouses.

As for my plan…I’ll give you the choice: plausible deniability or reality?’

“The more I know, the more likely I am to be able to help you.���

‘Purple Moon?’ At his firm nod, they continued. ‘Once I get my full license, I’ll be an independent underground hero. I’ll grab one of the young Wren heroes and determine if there’s a way to reverse the memory alteration. If not, I’ll be pretty limited in who I can save, but I’ll still grab as many pre-quirk and “weak” quirked kids as I can, using my associates to help with housing them. Once everyone I can get out is out, I’ll kill the Legacy Holder branch, which is in charge of breeding and breaking memory- and emotion-altering quirks to make the empire more sustainable. If fortune is on my side – which it rarely is – that will end the effects currently over most of the Wren heroes. At that point, it’s a matter of bringing the old guard to justice and preventing mass suicides.’

Akira looked up from their lap to check in before the darker alternative. Amajiki once again looked sick, but Taishiro’s prominent emotion was worry with nearly concealed fury. “And if fortune isn’t on your side?”

‘If the process is reversible, reverse those I can, but… When justice is an impossibility and the crime too great, revenge is the path to take. I would take my army of vigilantes and “villains” and gut the Wrens. The Commission should then be weakened enough for the kids to take them down in a legal battle.’

“The kids?” Amajiki whispered. “What about you?”

Akira blinked. ‘I doubt I’ll make it to 30 with everything that could go wrong. Given that the Wrens will underestimate the kids they practically or literally left for dead, they’ll have a better chance of surviving the war.’

Taishiro quietly observed them for a few minutes before continuing. “If you took out the leaders, would the group not fall?”

‘No, part of the alterations from the differences I’ve seen is convincing the victims that the abuse was justified and doing the right thing. They will just continue because they were programmed to not know better. They won’t face justice because they’re so ingrained in the justice system, and if I target the Hero Commission and police first, I’ll effectively be facing all of Japan. Anything I expose on their end will be refuted by the family, and they can easily bring in the Legacy Holder branch to turn witnesses and victims.’

“What if you target the Legacy Holders then the Commission?”

‘If I move on the Wrens, I have to keep them on the defensive because they have the quirks to find me once they realize I’m alive and taking revenge. Giving them the time it would take to go after the Commission would also give them the time to make an excuse to obliterate whatever building I’m in along with my followers.’

“Sounds like you need some people on your side, then. Many of the twilight and underground heroes are unhappy with the state of the Commission and have been for a long time. You’ll need people to help evaluate your first target, right? I know some, and we can help with stable environments for the kids you bring.”

Akira nodded, deciding not to bring up Plan B for now, at least. ‘Twilight and Underground only, though, and I want to watch them before they know any part of this. If word gets out, the Wrens will not hesitate to kill anyone they think might be associated with their secrets.’

The somber mood followed the trio to the training rooms after Akira finished encoding their notes and destroying the keys and plain text. ‘When I warped to the lamp post, I noticed a new shadow next to me in my mindscape.’

“Next to you?” Suneater asked.

‘Yeah? I was standing in my neutral space, and a figure made of shadow appeared next to me.’ Akira paused. ‘Do you not see in first person in your mindscape?’

“I… don’t see anything. I know what I have, but it’s just black.”

“Let’s start with you warping, then, and see if the shadow figure is back,” Taishiro suggested. “You can text me while invisible, so we have a line of communication.”

Akira nodded and warped a meter to the side and, closing their eyes to focus, once again saw the shadow figure. They texted “it’s back” to Taishiro before refocusing. Circling the figure, Akira noted that it looked like someone had taken a silhouette of them and made it 3D. They reached out to touch the figure, but their hand passed through with a sensation not unlike petting Dark Shadow.

“It twitched,” Fat Gum called out.

Interesting, I wonder…Akira stepped into the shadow figure and moved into a defensive position. A deep feeling of wrongness settled in their gut, and they quickly stepped out.

“Keep doing what you just did, it changed position.”

Akira opened their eyes to see the clone now in the pose they took. They texted Fat Gum, “Something felt very wrong when I tried to step into the figure to control it, but it moved as I did.”

“The first few times I transformed a body part, it felt unnatural and almost wrong,” Suneater said softly. “It might be the unfamiliarity.”

After a moment, Akira texted that they were going to warp again to see if anything changed when they had two clones active. With Fat Gum’s go-ahead, they noticed that the first figure split into two. Closing their eyes, Akira touched the connecting thread of shadow and startled at the distinct thrum of energy. Slowly reaching their hand back in, they grasped the tendril and felt what was almost like two additional pulses harmonizing with their own.

Even as they stepped back from the connection, they felt the pulses remain. Breath hitching, they quickly dispelled the clones. The pulses faded out slower than the clones, echoing in their chest.

“Are you alright?” Fat Gum approached, eyes searching their frame.

Akira shuddered before nodding, ‘Just… a bizarre feeling. It was like when Pink Queen and I synched up at the sports festival, but I could feel the two pulses.’

“Okay, do you want to slow down or keep going?”

For the rest of the session, Akira focused on getting used to the connection with clones and forming it with only one active. Mentally stepping into a clone still didn’t seem like a good primary control method, but they were at least moving in the right direction. Once it seemed Akira wasn’t being a danger to themself, Suneater started his own training routine, focusing primarily on his arms for the day at least.

Notes:

fun fact: I actually have hyperphantasia, which is like the opposite of aphantasia, which I gave Amajiki. I can see all the things in my head and my other senses often interact with them. Great for learning what injuries feel like, horrible when the same activates involuntarily I was double-checking the trigger warning edits for this chapter and registered the “multiplicity-adjacent activities.” Hadn’t really thought about how I picture Stranger quirks working that way, but makes sense. In order to differentiate control mechanisms from Masters and Changers, I set up how I picture each of them being represented in the user’s mindscape. For Masters, are usually strings leading to the people they control or their summons. Amajiki’s description is standard for Changers, although those without aphantasia can see their options, a switch, or some other on/off visualization. Additional note: yeah so I didn't know I'm host of a DID system at the time of writing this. Akira is a bit system-coded between that and her masks being somewhat based off Shallan in Stormlight Archives, who is also canonically a system (forgot about that when I was drawing inspiration)

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[carters-things]

Sleepless Nights

Matt Murdock x Reader

Summary: Matt Finds out you haven't been sleeping

TW: None I think

Masterlist

You're sitting at your desk fighting tooth and nail to stay awake. Eyes heavy and body like jello. You're leaning on your hand in a manner to barely keep one eye pried open as you flip through the files pertaining to Nelson and Murdock’s current trial. "Wow. That interesting of a read huh?" Foggy says startling you to a perfect posture position.

"Oh.. uh... yeah. I just. Got distracted..." you said rubbing your face to try and collect yourself.

"This is the third day in a row you have been out of it. Are you feeling ok?" Foggy asks pouring you some coffee.

"Yeah. I just.." your voice trails off as Matt walks out of his office. "I think I'm coming down with something." You say as you clear your throat and nod as a thank you to Foggy, taking the outstretched coffee.

Matt leans against the door post to his office, hand on his hip. You can feel him staring into you, knowing he's listening to your heart rate. Well now he knows I’m lying. The truth is you haven't slept. Not more than 2 hours a night for almost the past week. Matt had made headway on locating some remaining Russians that had gone underground when he thought he took them all down. He came home about 2 weeks ago in pretty bad shape. It took you an hour to treat all of his injuries as he faded in and out of consciousness. You've never been so scared in your life. You cried and begged him to stay awake- to talk to you and fight the urge to slip unconscious again- as you watched his blank stare fade and eyes roll back into his head.

Since that night you haven't slept soundly. Losing more and more sleep each night he goes out. Matt had enough going on in Hell's kitchen that he feels obligated to protect, he didn't need to add taking care of you to his list. You’ve been staying at your place more so he doesn’t know that you aren’t sleeping but on the nights you do cave in and stay over there he lays with you until you're "asleep" before going out into the dark. You fake this because he needs those moments of peace and safety of holding you in his arms just as much as you do.

"Why don't you take half a day today Y/N. We've got this covered here. Go home and get some rest and we can fill you in tomorrow morning." Matt says concerned.

"No. Really I'm ok, I want to help." You adjust your chair, sitting upright pulling into your desk.

The rest of the day drags on as you fight back the exhaustion. "All in a day's work!" Foggy says shutting his office door. "Josie's anyone?" He says pointing at you and Matt with his eyebrows raised.

"Thanks Fog, but I'm going to take Y/N home."

"I guess I don't have a choice." You laugh nervously. Grabbing your personal belongings and closing your computer down. You walk to the door with Foggy and Matt- who has grabbed your elbow to guide him. You walk home listening to Matt talk about the trial coming up and different strategies of approaches that we can take. You nod and mutter the occasional affirmation so he knows you're listening but you're more distracted knowing it's just a matter of hours before he leaves to go out again. All of the horrible scenarios running through your aching head. "Stay with me tonight." Matt says breaking the thought pattern and stopping you in your tracks.

"What?"

"Stay with me tonight. You need to rest and my apartment is closer. I'll cook you dinner and we can watch a movie"

"Is this you asking or telling?" You question back.

"Both?" He says tilting his head wearing a smirk.

"Fine. But I'm picking the movie." you say playfully bumping shoulders with him as you continue the walk to his place.

Around 830 you finish cleaning up dish-ware from dinner. You wash and dry them in silence as your eyes get heavy. Once the dishes are done you head to the bathroom closing the door behind you. You wash your face- removing all of the concealer and foundation you’ve been using to keep up your act as you stare into the mirror and see the physical toll the lack of sleep is taking on your body. Your eyes are puffy, with dark blue shade underneath- your cheeks and face are void of any other natural color. Thank goodness Matt is blind and can’t see the evidence.

“Sweetheart?” Matt says knocking on the door-snapping you out of your thoughts again.

“I’ll uh… I’ll be out in a second!” you urge back splashing more water on your face before taking a big breath in to prepare to leave the bathroom. You open the door to see Matt standing with his arms crossed, blank stare searching for your face.

“What’s wrong?” you ask in as normal of a voice as you can make.

“I was going to ask you the same thing..” he says running his hand up your arm and to your cheek. He leans in to place a kiss on your forehead and you meet him halfway, melting into his arms.

“I’ve just missed you, that's all.” you say squeezing your arms around his waist as you tuck your head under his chin.

“Sweetheart?”

“Yeah?” you say looking up at his face, glistening in the neon lights coming through the living room windows.

“How long has it been since you’ve slept?” his eyes move trying to meet yours.

“Why do you ask?” you say taken back.

“You have been really out of it lately.. Your body temperature hasn’t risen so you aren’t sick like you said but I’m worried about you” he says cradling the back of your head with his hand and the other rubbing circles on your back.

“I… well…” You feel a lump form in your throat and tears form in your eyes. Your breathing rate picks up as you try and stifle your cries. Matt holds you close to him, his warm touch and strong grip making you feel safe enough to fall apart. You start to cry, unable to even form a thought to begin to explain what has been going on.

“Shhh..my love…” He says softly, running his hand through your hair. “Talk to me, I’m here..”

“For now… but what happens in a couple hours? You go out and I lay awake waiting for you to come home? Not knowing if you’ll even make it home.” You say pulling back from his arms, wiping your tears away. “I haven’t slept since that night you came home almost dead Matthew.. I watched you fade in and out. I cried over you, and begged you to stay with me. I’ve never felt so scared or helpless in my life. I had to sit and wait for you to wake up. Wait for you to decide to fight to live. How am I supposed to sleep knowing you’re out there fighting your way through the dark.”

“I’ll always come back to you y/n. Always.” Matt says cupping your cheek. His hands are calloused but his touch is still somehow soft. You raise your hand and hold it over top of his, leaning into his palm.

“I can’t lose you Matty…” Your voice trails off.

“And you won’t.”

“I know you think you’re invincible, but you’re still human. Even with your amazing senses you still have limits. We all do.”

“I promise I’ll be more careful. I shouldn’t have put all of that on you the other night. Not all alone. That wasn’t fair to you, and it won’t happen again.” Matt says reaching for your hand. He grabs it and holds it to his chest. You can feel his gentle steady heartbeat bringing a calming reassurance that he is very much alive. “Come on. You need to rest.”

“I can’t go to sleep just to wake up to you gone..” You say hiding your face in his chest.

“I’m not going anywhere tonight.”

You both make your way to the bedroom and climb into his bed. The silk sheets are cool to the touch, a calming sensation. Matt wraps his arms around your waist as you lay with your back to him. Fitting into the shape of his body perfectly. He can sense your hesitation in letting yourself relax. “Go to sleep sweetheart. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.”

Hearing that sentence allows you to let out a sigh of relief. A sigh that feels like you’ve been holding your breath for days. You melt into Matts’ embrace, finally feeling safe enough to sleep. And just as he said, you woke up the next morning with him safe and sound- asleep by your side. You rolled over to face him, taking in every little detail of his presence before wiggling your way into his arms and onto his chest, falling back to sleep.

[ratherbefangirling]

⏳Out of Time⌛

Part 1 | 2 | 3

Character Focus: Jimin, Jungkook, Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Established relationships

Summary: he wanted to love you but should you let him?

Warning ⚠️: Past Trauma, Unhealthy relationship, mentions of hospitals, hospitalisation and abortion

It's not like you have other options and it's not a bad arrangement what you would be saving on rent you could by more stuff with.. desserts books clothes anything.

"Please treat me well." Jungkook says.

You nod your head embarrassed at the formal tone.

The dinner passed fairly well.

Even though Namjoon tried to interact with both of you you could see the struggle he had in toning down and balancing his y/n personality vs his Jungkook personality.

The both of you adjusted fairly well and other than his gaming at ungodly hours there wasn't much he did that irritated you.

You had taken a week of from work. To cope. Barely leaving your bed. Your room was messy but you were too blind to notice it.

You even forgot that your mom was coming to visit you and your boyfriend... um ex.

Your phone rang and you talked to your mom.

And everything was normal until she told you she was coming this weekend. Which was two days later and she was excited to meet your boyfriend.

As soon as she hung up. You set to clean the room and the house.

"What's with the commotion." Jungkook asked.

"My mom's coming in the weekend." You replied brain empty.

"Oh cool." He said and was going to leave when you let out an inhuman cry.

"Oh no.. I'm doomed."

"Are you on drugs?" Jungkook enquired.

You shook your head only mildly offended.

"Does your mom hate smoking?."

"What.." You say in disbelief.

"'Um I don't smoke."  You tell him

"'I know I couldn't smell it."  He comments.

"No its you."

"Me.? I'm an angel "

You stop yourself from rolling your eyes.

Boys. Men. The male gender.

"So I told my mom I live with my boyfriend which was true but we broke up."

"So tell her that where's the problem."

"You don't get it Jungkook. If I tell her that she'll ask who are you and if she gets to know we just met that too through my Internet friend. Now I'm living with a boy with tattoos.. no offence, I think they're hot but she is going to freak and demand I come back home. She barely let me make friends back home I love her but I can't go back." You sat full on panic ranting.

"Hey calm down. Why don't you tell her  that I'm your boyfriend."  He suggests simply.

"Oh my god Jeon Jungkook you're an angel."  You whoop with excitement.

Jungkook grins at you coolly.

"Y/n have you seen my tie."

"I swear Jungkook I told you a hundred times put it with your coats."

"Sorry y/n ssi .. now hurry I'm getting late."

You massaged your head.

It was going to be fine.

Suddenly you feel nauseas you run to the bathroom and vomit.

"Y/n... are you OK?" Your husband asks.

"It's fine I did feel weird yesterday after eating at that shitty diner."

"I've told you this a thousand times Eun Tak may be your best friend but she has some questionable dining choices I don't want a repeat of that eating expired food episode. I get she's a content creator but I was the one one who had to take care of you when you got hospitalised."

You wanted to argue with him but you remembered how he had been so vulnerable then.

+

'I thought I lost you god dammit..'

' I... couldn't even tell you I love you *your full name* '

'Please be OK please come back to me'

+

"Sorry kook."  You say apologetic

"I'll email your office. Stay at home today." His phone rang. "I need to go but if you're not OK call me don't wait for it to get worse."

You nod.

You go to bed but after a while of lying down you realise sleep has escaped you.

You open the TV to watch something to pass time.

And today we have on show the rising star the special guest soloist Jimin... his latest song Serendipity has topped charts.

"Jimin shi... Can you tell us more about the song?"

Some how you find yourself unable to change the channel.

Were you over him?

Were you bored ?

Did you refuse to allow him any control over you?

You didn't know.

"This song is part of the story my album tells Serendipity is a love that found me unexpectedly and blessed me selflessly." You scoff.

"So a story Jimin shi what story are you telling or more importantly whose?"

Jimin smiled his pretty smile.

"While 'Serendipity' speaks about the love that was unexpected and is a saving grace and also the title. The other songs when listened in the exact order tell you the story of a nostalgic love. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much ad I did making them. Please give a lot of love to me and to them"

"Sounds fascinating. Who was your inspiration behind this. Anyone in particular."

"My fans of course mochi's Saranghae. They always inspire me to do my best. I was lost and did not know what to do and then just like magic they came they saw in me what I couldn't see myself and brought me here."

"This was Jimin and that's all for today folks."

You scoff but then again what did you expect.

When Jungkook came he found you listening to music. Tears dripping in your eyes. Worried he wiped your tears .

Startled you almost dropped the laptop.

"Is it paining, love? Do you want to go to the hospital."

"I'm fine Jungkook." You assure him

"Please y/n why are you crying."

"I just heard a very sad song... I mean technically it wasn't sad... but I'm... I'm just moody."

"Ah that time of the month."

You wanted to hit him but he wasn't wrong a week before your periods were set to arrive you would be moody if you were crying it was OK but somehow if you were happy god forbid then the week of your periods would have Jungkook tiptoeing around you and appeasing you with your favourite food.

"Hug?" He asks.

You nod and let him pull you in his embrace. It's safe and it's home.

The house was cleaner than its ever been. Luckily your mum was only coming for two days. You and Jungkook had prepared your back story. You had requested he wear long shirts too hide his tattoo's. Your mom was aware that your boyfriend wore earrings. That happened when you'd told her about the couple earrings Jimin had gifted you for valentines. You were counting on Jungkook's cute face to calm and reassure your mother.

You had prepared her favourite dishes and even desert. Though the servings of dessert kept disappearing courtesy of Jungkook. Because I quote 'It's too good almost like coffee one cup is never enough.'

You noted the detail though. Keeping it for later use. In case Jungkook need bribing.

You remember your first date with Jungkook or the first official one anyway. Despite the fact you lived together and had confessed to liking each other you had yet to go on a date. Soon after confessing that he liked you he had to go visit his dad who wasn't feeling well.

The last moments of your shared time together you practically stuck to him. He cooed at your behaviour calling you a baby.

"This baby is now your chosen mess." You had whined.

He had laughed and pecking the top of your head before grabbing the last of his stuff and completing his packing.

"See you soon." He said as he left the car.

You had both decided not to let you drop him off at the train station in case you both started bawling.

"You kept your socks and your charger right? Do you have your ticket. Check it one more time."

"Yes Y/n, I do. Don't worry."

"'Call me ok?"

"Ofcourse. Don't be too sad I will come back before you know it. Go on and enjoy making a mess of the house without me nagging at you."

"Hey between the two of us you're the messy one." You complain he only laughs in response.

You do miss him as you eat alone or when you see the door of his bedroom that's closed. Still he regularly calls you up mostly late night since you have work in the morning and he spends time with his family in the evening. The calls aren't very long because you can't sleep late and get up early. Still it's the highlight if your day.

It's on these calls he proposes to go on a date. With tossing back and forth of ideas you both decide to go to an amusement park after admitting you hadn't been on a proper roller coaster before.

"What do you mean you haven't been on a roller coaster. That is literally a crime against humanity." Jungkook says from across the phone screen.

"No need to be over dramatic." You reply.

"It really is I can't imagine it happening."

"I saw Final Destination and was slightly creeper of and then one of my friends had vomited after riding one so I decided I would do it after I became an adult but since than I've barely had any opportunity to like finally do it. Its been a long time since I went to an amusement park."

"Worry No longer Jeon Jungkook to the rescue. I will remedy the situation."

"No doubt you will."

"Maybe we can try going on roller coaster till one of us vomits." Jungkook suggests cheekily.

"Jungkook no. Absolutely not. It's a date. It's supposed to be enjoyable."

"As long as you're with me there isn't much I can not enjoy."

"Ah.." You sit flustered by his sudden suaveness.

The day of the date comes you're dressed prettily. You even booked an appointment at the salon to get your hair done. Despite temptation leading you on the opposite direction, knowing Jungkook you wear comfortable shoes that go with your outfit.

However good or bad your stamina might be it is pretty nonexistent in front of Jungkook. Who in combination with excitement is like a bunny on steroids.

Still even though your feet ache by the end of the day, all you remember is laughing so loud that your stomach hurt and Jungkook offering you a piggyback ride.

You think life loves playing games with you.

Due to Jungkook's insistance you go get yourself checked. After spending the whole day in the hospital getting checked and waiting. The doctor tells you might be pregnant and gives you an appointmentwith the gynaecologist. You feel restless, unsure. All sort of thoughts clogging your brain. Were you ready to be a mom? How would Jungkook react? Were you ready for this in your relationship only a few days ago you were crying about Jimin? Was this fair to Jungkook's and your unborn child.

You are quite when you come home. Still not ready to face the world you hide under your blanket. That's how Jungkook finds you.

"I told Namjoon Hyung that you're not feeling well. He just hopes you get well in time for the wedding because he's not sure what he'll do without you. And I got our clothes ironed. And the jewellery you ordered is here too."

"Thank you." You say.

He falls beside you on the bed.

"Come closer." He says and you obey. It's quite and nice and you decide whatever happens you'll face it together like you've always done.

On the day of Namjoon's wedding you feel better. You almost cry when you see Namjoon. Its like a mother hen watching her chick grow. Jungkook is both concerned and possessive.

When Namjoon talks to his other friends. Jungkook pulls you aside. Arms around your waist.

"Hey love I would appreciate if you would stop crying over a man that's not me." He says slightly pouty.

"I'm sorry. I can't help it. It's just he's struggled a lot to reach here. When we first met. He was struggling with anxiety and depression and generally going through a tough time. And I'm so proud of him for fighting and not giving up on himself his life. I just I've seen that growth and strength in him and Jungkookie.. it gives me hope."

Jungkook softens at your words. It's true you and Namjoon were similar in that way life hadn't been easy for you and while he envied your bond both because he had admired Namjoon a lot and because he loved you. He had come to accept the difference. He remembered early on in your relationship you guys had gotten into a fight and it was memorable because after it was over you'd sat him down and told him the reason why you didn't talk about your difficulties with him initially because he had not experienced it and thus couldn't relate while you appreciated him you didn't want to be sad with him all the time, you were scared he would leave.

He was surprised because he thought you didn't tell him because you didn't trust him. From then on you both had worked actively to prevent any miscommunication.

Understanding and loving were different things. Him trying to understand you was enough for you.

Still there would always be a part of him which wanted you to only rely on him. He wanted to give you everything the world could offer. But since he couldn't do that he just kissed your forehead.

"My silly beautiful crybaby wife." He says fond.

The ceremony is beautiful. There's laughter. You both give speeches. It's a wonderful evening.

Jungkook gets up to get some dessert. You sit and massage your legs. Walking around all day in heavy clothes and heels is taxing. You get impatient waiting for Jungkook. So you go to find him. Except you find something.. or should I say someone else.

"Jimin." You gasp and he turns towards you and he's just as shining and just as beautiful as the first time you saw him.

"Y/n." He acknowledges.

Your world is spinning. You feel an incoming headache.

"I ... What are you doing here?"

"I'm the brides cousin."

"Oh."

"And you?"

"I'm the grooms bestfriend."

He suppresses a sigh. There's a frown on his face and you want to remove it. It was bad for his face, since the early days of your relationship he had asked you to look for it and warn him.

"No bad lines on your face." You say force of habit and then shut your mouth.

He looks at you surprised. " Actually, I knew I saw the speech. Great speech by the way."

He says and there's silence. You think of things to say.

"Is it too late if I ask you to take me back?"

"I'm married." You state.

"I know and I dont care if I'm your side piece. I just want you back."

"Do you even listen to yourself?" You say exasperated.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way I just want to be a part of your life in any way that's possible. I want to be able to buy you things, to hold you, to kiss you, to love you." Your eyes widen in shock and some part of you feels miserable but a larger part just feels anger.

"Jimin you're being ridiculous. Just stop. " You tell him.

"Please take my number. If you ever change your mind. I did this for us and if I can't have you then what's the point. Just my card.. wait I will give you my card." Still insisting.

He opens his wallet and takes out his information card.

Jungkooks hand on your waist surprises you. You hope he hasn't heard your conversation with Jimin. It would end up being ugly. You couldn't ruin your bestfriends wedding day.

"Who's this love?" He asks you his head on your shoulder.

You can feel the anger rise in Jimin but he puts on a smile.

"Park Jimin. We used to be acquaintances." He says and your thrown back into the bitter days that Jimin introduced you as such.

"Hmm. I'm Jeon Jungkook. Y/n's husband. Hope you don't mind I will be taking my wife with me." Jungkook says guiding you away.

You suppress a smile at his jealousy. You think it's cute. Still your stomach is unsettled.

"I can't leave you one minute and have someone not flirt with you." Jungkook remarks.

"I'm sorry Kookie. I promise I didn't... I wasn't.." You are trembling. Things can't go wrong. Not now. Not ever. Not again.

"I know baby. Its just you're so pretty. I'm so happy you are mine." He says holding your hands firmly and pressing a kiss to your forehead. It's reassuring even though a dredge of guilt still lingers.

Jungkook wonders what happened to you to make you this way.

+

When Jungkook and you had first started dating. He was over the moon. You were pretty, kind, understanding and perfect in every way.

Until he had noticed your odd behaviour.

One day Namjoon had come up to him.

"I'm glad for both of you but you really need to stop hogging my bestfriend. We literally never hang out since you've started dating. It's always Jungkook this and Jungkook that."

Jungkook was confused but he didn't think much of it. He mentioned it at dinner.

"Y/n Joon came up to me telling he was missing you."

You dropped the spoon you were holding.

"I-I can explain."

Jungkook furrowed his brow. Why would you explain?

"I'm sorry. I I promise there's nothing. We are just friends."

Jungkooks expression must have worsened because he could see that you were on the edge of tears.

"Love, Y/n..." he approaches you and you stiffen. He doesn't understand what's happening.

"Look at me." He tells you softly.

You look like a kicked puppy.

He holds you hands.

"It's fine. I was just saying Namjoon is your bestfriend. You guys should hang out more just cause we are dating doesn't mean your life evolves around me."

"You don't want me around. Am I being to clingy??" You ask.

"No of course not. I love you babe and I love spending time with you but don't you think it'd be healthier if we don't neglect our friends."

"So you're not angry?"

"No obviously not."

The incident might have been strange for Jungkook but it had been strange for you too. Jimin would never let you be with any guys especially alone even before you guys started dating. And as far as your friends were concerned especially female ones they were always to busy to make time for you and even when they did all they could talk about was their partner so you gradually built distance.

+

After you leave with Jungkook, Jimin looks at you both for a long time. He feels angry and jealous. You were his. He took deep breaths. He hoped soon enough you too realised nobody could treat you better than him.

Jungkook decided to come pick you up from your appointment. He hadn't the time to check where you'd been referred to until he's standing outside the hospital.

Third floor you'd told him. When he sees the sign of gynaecology. His heart beats faster. If it is what he thinks it is. He is Euphoric. You've made him the happiest man. He's grinning as he looks for you, until he sees you bent over and crying papers in your hand. Worry rises in his throat.

"Y/n." He says softly holding you in an embrace. "What's it love?"

"I'm... I.. pregnant."

"Is it ... do you..." he takes in a deep breath queasy at the possibility." Do you not want?"

You shake your head no and he feels relieved. A weight lifted of him. Sometimes you took time to process things. The news probably hadn't settled in you yet.

"Let's go home, yes?" He asks. Hands in his throughout you reach home. After your crying session you're tired so Jungkook tucks you into the bed.

Your phone rings. It's Namjoon's message and a missed call.

He picks it up.

Namjoon : why didn't you tell me Jimin was there and you met him

Are you okay? We were just checking pictures of the wedding party. I swear I didn't know.

I know how tough it was. He contacted Jieun for your number but I heard so I told her I'd ask you first.

I know you're an adult and you both loved each other and broke up because of his career but I hope you don't end up doing something stupid. *message deleted*

So let me know?

Jungkook dropped your phone but luckily you stayed asleep. Now your reaction made sense.

You didn't want him. He was just a replacement of Jimin. Despite what logic dictated. He searched up Jimin on the Internet.

Jimin; he realised was every thing he wasn't and all parts you liked about him at the same time. He could see it clearly.

You always praising his singing you liked sweet voices huh , supporting him but also having anxiety whenever he had a project were you worried he'd choose his job over you ,Making him wear colored clothing different styles trying to turn him cute like your ex.

He looked at you sleeping and felt suffocated. He left his wedding band in the on the dining table. He was at loss.

Never did he imagine such a day would come in his life. You were the love of his life but was he the love of yours. For the first time he felt insecure in your relationship.

Is this how you felt all the time? He never felt burdened for reassuring you but now he understood you more and couldn't help but feel sad.

He cried in the bathroom.

When you wake up Jungkook's missing. You guess he's probably at the gym. You text him to get groceries. You decide to eat something. Now you were responsible for healthy eating of two. You put a hand on your belly.

"Don't worry little one. Mommy is going to take care of you."

You make yourself a sandwich and decide to sit at the dining table to eat. There's Jungkook's wedding band. Surely it's a mistake.

Anxiety creeps up and you are unable to swallow the food you were eating.

He must have removed it but you can't convince yourself because he never removes it.

The lock to your apartment opens. There's Jungkook coming in empty handed.

"Didn't you see my message?" You ask.

He looks up at you.

"No." He replies and goes to the kitchen. He looks sweaty from a workout. He makes himself a vegetable smoothie.

You go behind him but he doesn't say anything.

"I uh. You're not wearing your wedding band."

"It felt suffocating."

"Did your ring size grow? Do we need to go to the jeweller?"

"No. Just leave it." He dismisses.

"What's wrong ggukie?"

"Why don't you tell me?" He turns back anger rising in his voice.

"'..nothing nothings wrong." You say suddenly very unsure of yourself.

"Why were you crying?" He asks softer noticing your previous discomfort.

"I was just overwhelmed." You reply.

"Ha you sure I thought it was because of Jimin." And it comes out stronger than Jungkook intended but also because he wasn't planning to confront you.

You stumble back.

"How do you know about Jimin." You ask goosebumps visible on your arms.

"So you were really." He says half talking to himself.

"Jungkook who told you about Jimin." You ask desperation in your voice.

"No one I saw Namjoon texting you about him."

You stay quiet. He scoffs.

"Mind telling me about Jimin." He says sarcastically.

"I .." You take a deep breath. "He's my ex .. the ex."

He keeps the glass in the sink. Holding its edges as if steeling himself.

"So when are you leaving?"

"What do you mean?" You ask confused.

"Clearly you still have feelings for him."

You don't respond and Jungkook waits, when you still stay frozen he leaves slamming the door shut.

You don't talk to each other for a whole week.

You are torn. It's the longest you've gone without speaking to each other. You wonder when you'll finally be free of your past.

So you decide to write. Write down your feelings.

You want to say you hate him. That you wish you had never met him. That he ruined your life and broke your heart. Its true that he abandoned you and for that a part of you would never forgive him. But a greater part of you had loved him, been madly desperately in love and even now that part of you still wishes that he is happy.

Jimin stands infront of you.

He starts to speak but you stop him.

"Let me speak because if I don't now I don't think I will be able to....I hated you for a long time because I thought you broke my trust but that wasn't it. Looking back I realised both of us might have loved each other but we never trusted each other. Now I know that a relationship is nothing without trust. Because when you 'fall' in love its because you trust the person you love will catch you. I forgive you because I loved you once and more importantly I love myself and respect my partner enough to not let myself be consumed by the shadow of doubts that relationship left me."

"Y/n.. I." Jimin speaks up.

"No, please let me complete it. I hope you too find happiness because you're a great person. I hope you're more sure of yourself now. And despite the bad times, we had happy days and in honor of those I wish you find happiness like I've found with Jungkook. The happiness of coming home after a long day. That being said I sincerely hope that I never see you again." You say, your eyes are teary.

Jimin reaches out to wipe your tears but stops himself. He's lost the right to touch you, to wipe your tears. He doesn't realise when his eyes start watering.

"I'm.. really.. I'm so sorry but I'm thankful for having known you, for having loved you " and I still do even if you may not want me he wants to add.. "Thank you. I understand even though you never want to see me, I hope we do cross paths because you're one of the best things life gave me."

You close your eyes wishing he would disappear and Jungkook would come.

"I hope you're happy and you stay happy for a long time. Good bye." He says and turns because even now he can't watch you go.

"Good bye, Jimin." You hear footsteps fading.

You open your eyes and the sun is setting on the horizon. Your phone rings. It's a reminder you'd set for a day that wouldn't happen.

A wedding with Jimin.

It's almost poetic. You delete it. Finally you're free. It feels like the best time to move on.

Jungkook's voice calls you out. You turn to him. His face lit with joy as he realises you have come to see him for his lunch break. He rushes to hold you in his arms greeting you by kissing your cheek and rubbing you're pregnant belly.

He wants to ask why you're crying but since the unpredictability of your moods due to your hormones he's learnt better than to ask and send you in a spiral again. He trusts you to tell him if he can help for now he's going to enjoy his lunch break shrouding his wife

Jimin despite himself turns back and finds you giggling in Jungkook's arms. His phone rings its a reminder that had been set many years ago. He deletes it. He hides his face with a cap and goes on with his way. Determined not to look back again.

Fin.

Dear Jungkook,

Of all of things running through my head the thing that I am sure about is I love you.

It's a tragedy that heart bursting with joy and heartache are two sides of the same coin of love.

Before you the person who taught me love was Jimin but if I were to say which side of love I learnt through him it would be heartache.

He came into my life suddenly and filled it with novelty but he left just the same leaving a gaping wound.

A wound that was healed by you.

It is true I was sad that day but not because I wanted him back because I wondered what life could have been if things were different.

You thought I'd leave you for him and I felt betrayed that you didn't trust our love, trust me. Maybe that's why I ignored you instead of appeasing you. This has been the longest week of my life.

And I could say so many things but all I want to say is

I love you and I want to love you till the last breath of my soul and I want to be loved by you the way you love me and only the way you love me and only you. Steady, warm and reliant.

Only yours,

Mrs. Jeon Jungkook 💖

Authors Note 📝

Painful to the end 💔 😢. Have some tissues and cookies. But also sweet.

You may wonder why I didnt show the resolution between the fight with Jungkook.

I think it would be very emotional with both of them crying and waking up eyes swollen but also cuddled up and Jungkook whining how he almost died. And Y/n making him promise not to start imagining things by himself and never letting her go because she'd actually die but he shuts her up saying don't even talk about it.

Hope you enjoyed reading it. Have a nice day.

Remember Tumblr works by reblogs. Let me know what you think.

[erathene]

Finding your Feet (Part 2)

Legolas x Reader

Word count: 1.4k words

Warnings: Sparring and mention of death. Arguments. More Sassy!Legolas heh 😅

Genre: Hurt/Comfort (ish)

Summary: Just after setting out from Rivendell, you are starting to find your feet in the fellowship. But one member of your group does not give you a warm welcome.

Author's Note: We're finally here with a Part 2! This follows on from Part 1 where we were seeing a very Jealous!Legolas from the perspective of the reader. There will also be a part 3 to round off this mini fic! Thanks again to @entishramblings for the original inspiration for this fic. If you enjoy this fic please like and reblog ❤️

Taglist: @entishramblings @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore @xinnyscorner @mxmia

~~~~~~~~~~~

Aragorn was on first watch that night. He had chosen an ideal spot to keep lookout from; close enough to the fire to feel enough warmth and keep the autumnal night's chill at bay, but far away enough that his eyesight was adjusted to the darkness beyond the group's camp.

Everyone had turned in several hours ago, everyone except one member of the fellowship who was missing. The ranger was not concerned, however; he knew Legolas well enough to know that he was not a deserter. Indeed, he often came and went as he pleased during their travels when the two of them wandered through the wilds. Whilst Aragorn was a descendent of the Dúnedain, he was still human and could not forgo a full night's sleep for longer than a day or two at best. Legolas the elf, on the other hand, did not require even half the amount of sleep needed by humans. Aragorn knew that at their current travelling pace, a week could pass by without Legolas needing so much as a nap.

Still, whilst it was quite normal for Legolas to come and go, Aragorn had not seen sight of him since much earlier that afternoon. It also had not escaped Aragorn's attention that Legolas had not been his usual self since leaving Rivendell. Aragorn puffed on his tobacco pipe thoughtfully, wondering when an appropriate time might be to start wondering where Legolas might have got to.

He turned his attention back to watch duty, listening to the night-time sounds of the forest. A gentle breeze whispered through the tress. An owl hooted nearby. The dried wood on the fire crackled and popped. Nothing unusual.

It was at this moment that he heard the subtle sound of footsteps.

Aragorn immediately turned to the source of the noise, which was so indistinct that anyone else on watch may have missed it entirely. Elves were renowned for being light on their feet.

"Good hunt?" Aragorn asked quietly, assuming the reason for his companion's absence had been due to catching game.

"I was not hunting, although now I wish I had," came Legolas' soft reply. "It would have been a welcome distraction." He did not look at Aragorn as he said this, choosing instead to focus on the light from the fire.

Aragorn frowned, this did not sound like Legolas at all. "What ails you, my friend?"

Legolas did not answer immediately, instead folding his arms across his chest. His speech slipped into the grey tongue in case of being overheard. "It's clear to me that y/n is not suited to this quest, with such questionable combat skills and naivety which is plain for all to see. It's a wonder to me that Lord Elrond allowed it in the first place."

Aragorn sighed quietly. "I'm afraid I cannot question my own ada's actions," he reasoned, the Sindarin rolling naturally off his tongue. "But I would not go as far to say that y/n is completely naïve."

"No?" Legolas looked at Aragorn questioningly. "You have not seen what I have seen then. Trust should be earned and not willingly given, to do so bears weakness."

"We are all here for the same purpose, remember?" Aragorn nodded towards where the hobbits slept.

"And we were all gathered in Lord Elrond's council with the same purpose, but we could not all agree on our course of action for quite some time." This time it was Legolas' turn to nod in the direction of their other companions.

Aragorn understood Legolas' meaning; the meeting in the council chambers had indeed been long, with many disagreements as to what to do with the Ring of Power. Boromir in particular had been rather vocal about using the weapon of the enemy to defend the city of Minas Tirith. Aragorn did not feel a sense of distrust towards the man, but equally he did not feel an overwhelming confidence in Boromir's willingness to follow the Ring all the way to Mordor. Y/n seemed to be spending a lot of time in Boromir's company of late, too. Was there something he missed?

"Tell me what you have seen."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Why on earth did I agree to this?

This thought floated through your mind which was hazy from the latest blow.

You were back on the ground, having mis-stepped directly into the path of your opponent's swing during another sparring session. But this time your opponent was Legolas, of all people.

No seriously, why did I agree to this?

You had been taken completely by surprise when he had approached you that morning and offered to take over your training. Given the unsavoury conversation you had both had yesterday, it was definitely the last thing you had expected. Before you'd had much time to think, the Prince had assumed your agreement and the matter was settled, and the two of you would start practicing just before sundown.

You tried to get yourself back on your feet, but only managed enough strength to sit up. Boromir had been a kind instructor in your lessons of swordcraft, indicating your areas for improvement with encouraging words of guidance. But Legolas had offered no such courtesy over the past hour.

"Standing like that will get you killed. Stand sideways on when facing your enemy, it gives them less surface area they can hit."

"Don't keep tension in your shoulders. You will weaken and not last five minutes in battle."

"Look at your feet! No, don't look at your feet, look at me, I'm an orc and I want you dead."

Your eyes rolled as you heard him open his mouth once again. "Are you really going to sit there all evening?"

"Are you really going to insult me all evening?" You spat back through gritted teeth, rising to your feet and groping a nearby tree for support.

"Do you want to die in battle, y/n? Get up and end this pettiness."

"If I die in battle, I'm sure you would be very pleased," you retorted.

This seemed to strike a nerve. In a flash, Legolas had backed you right up against the tree trunk, his ice blue eyes shooting daggers. Your heart pounded in your chest as he stared you down, his jaw clenched in an unmerciful tension unlike anything you had seen in him previously. You weren't sure what he was going to do next, but you knew his cage had been well and truly rattled.

"How old do you believe I am, y/n?"

You shrugged timidly, you had absolutely no idea on what his age was. Or why he was asking for that matter. His looks seemed youthful, but his temperament was that of an older soul.

"Two thousand, nine hundred and thirty one years old," Legolas filled the silence with his answer. "I have seen too many battles to count, and I have seen too many die upon a sword, from strangers to friends and even my own kin." His expression softened slightly as he backed away from you, the harshness he showed earlier turning to sorrow. "If you died in battle I would feel the very opposite of pleased; your memory would join many thousands I have seen leave and not return. I do not wish for this to be your fate too."

His words surprised you. Gone was the jealous prince who never had a nice thing to say towards you, and instead the elf who stood before you appeared to be showing another side of him. One that was compassionate, sincere, and perhaps even – dare you even thought it possible - protective?

"We are on a dangerous path, y/n," he continued. "The Ring of Power will grow stronger the closer we bring it to its master, and evil will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame. We must be on our guard for threats at all times, even from within our own ranks."

The final remark had you confused. "Within our own ranks?"

Legolas shook his head, then muttered "I have said too much." Before you could question him any further on this, he turned on his heel and walked away.

Bewilderment. Curiosity. Unanswered questions flew through your mind as you too made your way back to the main camp. Who exactly did Legolas suspect within the fellowship? And what danger did he think they posed? You glanced quickly around at the individuals gathered at the fire; the hobbits, the Dwarf, the two men, the Wizard. If you had felt unsafe in the company of any of these individuals, you would not have come on this quest in the first place. Was Legolas really showing a protective streak, or had it been your imagination, disguising vigilance as villainy?

You spent a second night watching the flames of the campfire quieten down to ash and embers, wishing your racing mind would do the same.