#I probably would if I wasn’t in the room w/ someone else lol

[cosmo-spams]

you ever think about how no one else initiates any form of hanging out with you and wonder how long it would take for someone to notice if you stopped doing that?

[nicxl333]

hello

Could you write about bllk boy accidentally hurting their s/o badly.

It's okay if you're too busy. No pressure

BABY YOU SOLD ME A DREAM

characters: isagi yoichi, mikage reo, nagi seishiro, barou shouei, itoshi rin

content: major angst, reader is female coded (wears a dress, heels and makeup), mentions of smut in barou’s part but nothing actually happens (lol), vulgar language

☆彡 ISAGI YOICHI

“you think you know better than me? do me a favour and go find someone else who has the time to put up with your bullshit. ‘cause it won’t be me.”

you lay in your cold, desolate bed for the umpteenth time this week alone, which, considering it was only wednesday showed just how often isagi trained past late hours. as much as you understood his passion to climb to the top, it was simply neglect at this point. to you and to himself. you woke up, he was gone. you went to sleep, he wasn’t beside you.

of course, things were never like this in the beginning. he used to be around, take you out, nurture you and show you devoted love for you each and every time.

until he wasn’t.

once his team reached the quarterfinals of the champions league a while back, he changed. 2 hour training sessions in the evening turned into 4, and the time he spent with you halved as a result. it made you feel lonely and simply put, abandoned.

your texts querying his location and when he was coming home lay unanswered and unopened, probably within the confinement of his phone which lay in his bag during training. so you went to bed alone like you always did, missing what your relationship used to be.

as you stared at the pristine, bare white ceiling you heard a key in the lock of the front door. a few moments passed and the door pushed open, pads of feet resounding in the apartment.

you decided to go meet him in the living room, wanting to know if he’s at least okay.

as you entered the room, you were met with his figure, donned in black sweatpants paired with a black compression shirt. his normal post-training gear. the same gear that never failed to make you melt each and every time. he glanced at you in your nightwear and weary expression, due to him returning back so late.

“hey ‘ichi, how was training?”

“alright.”

you immediately frowned. outside the pitch he was never so curt and void of language. especially with you.

you ventured closer towards him, trying to debunk his guarded persona.

“are you sure? did anything happen to you?” you stepped closer still, till you were right in front of him, immediately noticing his dark circles, even in the dim lighting of the living room from the hallway light. you attempted to give him a hug, shrinking back in disappointment once he shrugged you off.

“i said it was alright. i’m fine, just go back to bed, i’ll join in a bit.”

bullshit. you knew full and well he would just retire to the sofa, watching playbacks of his games to further evaluate his performance. even when he wasn’t working physically he would somehow manage to work himself further mentally.

“yoichi. what’s wrong baby?”

“y/n, i won’t repeat myself again. go to bed.”

you stood there in disbelief. as far as you were concerned, you hadn’t done anything wrong, so it’s quite unbelievable that he would take whatever happened today out on you.

“isagi,” you made sure to use his last name to make aware you weren’t fucking around. “come correct with me please. i haven’t done anything to you and i’m concerned for your well-being. you’ve been going to sleep late, training until ungodly hours. this isn’t good for you and i’m now on the receiving end of your misery, god knows why.”

the tone in the room shifted, isagi, now displaying a scowl across his features at your rebuttal. yes, he was well aware he was maltreating himself, but to have you acknowledge his moment of weakness gave him an displeasing itch of anger that no one could scratch, not even you.

before he could think, the next words that flew out of his mouth changed the status of your relationship, whether he meant to or not.

“you think you know better than me? do me a favour and go find someone else who has the time to put up with your bullshit. ‘cause it won’t be me.”

you instantaneously drew back, his words punching you in the gut and twisting your insides. your heart leapt and fell, never expecting those words, out of isagi’s mouth of all people.

it was deathly silent for a moment, both parties having a staring match. you fought back tears, trying so damn hard to not allow him to see how his words affected you. alas, your emotions got the best of you.

you lightly sniffled, before balling your hands into fists. “you know what yoichi? fuck you, i’m done.”

you turned on your heel and made a beeline towards your shared bedroom, grabbing your biggest duffel and shoving clothes into them, not minding what it was that you picked up. only once isagi was the only individual in the living room did he snap out of his state, realising the weight of his words. he listened to the loud shuffling, registering that he may have just fucked his relationship over for good.

he swiftly followed you, watching you in a frenzy, having just changed into an outfit suitable enough for outside. it was then that he grasped you were serious, and slipped into full panic mode.

“y/n! y/n please baby, i didn’t mean any of that! don’t leave me.” he reached for your arm, falling apart, the same way you did moments before, when you pulled away from his touch. you knew if you succumbed to his pleas you might— might just stay. but you couldn’t. his words resonated within you and made you accept that fact that you needed space at the most, before your relationship delved into something irreparable.

you stood, duffel bag slung on your shoulder, tears running down each cheek, until they conjoined at your chin.

“isagi, i can’t. not right now. not when emotions are running this high. i need space. we should probably talk when we’re both calmed down. i’ll be at meguru’s house so you don’t need to worry about where i am.”

he respected your wishes, he had no choice. if he wanted this relationship to survive he had to.

so he let you go.

☆彡 MIKAGE REO

“you’re very much subpar, do you think i need to keep you around? my name alone will help find me someone better than you.”

one thing about mikage reo that really ticked you off was his obsession over his best friend, nagi. simply put,

he was always there.

when you were chilling together, when you went out, even after date nights he would come to your shared condo, playing video games with your boyfriend until who knows what time in the morning. it always felt like you had to share and fight for reo’s attention, which was pretty much a losing battle considering reo gave nagi as much of his attention to nagi as he did.

you did your best to not voice your concerns to him, withholding your true feelings, that you did. but sometimes there’s just moments where you can’t help but snap.

and that moment came at your first year anniversary dinner with reo. hell, you should’ve called it your first year anniversary dinner with yourself, considering the fucker didn’t even show up.

you had dolled yourself up so nicely, a sexy silk black dress (purchased with your own money, you didn’t like to depend on reo too much) with matching heels. your makeup was done flawlessly and not a hair out of place.

you sat at an expensive table at an expensive restaurant, sipping over-expensive wine while you waited for him to show up. you hadn’t seen him since this morning, due to him training all day today, but you had planned this dinner with him together a month ago, reservations and all, with reminders here and there about the upcoming date.

you had waited for about an hour, taking into consideration that there could be traffic, although you hadn’t experienced any on the way here, thus giving him the benefit of the doubt.

however, when no signs showed of him arriving you turned to a waiter and excused yourself, paying the bill and walking out to collect your car from the valet.

once it was brought to you and you were seated, ready to drive off, the first thing you did was call reo via the bluetooth feature, beyond pissed off.

after a few rings he picked up, the sounds of video game gunfire audible in the background.

“y/n? what’s up? where are you?”

you scoffed incredulously, ignoring the city lights whizzing past you as you drove on the highway.

“what’s up? where am i? reo, do you know what day it is today?”

“no, why?”

you gripped the leather of your steering wheel, your frustration hitting a boiling point. “you cannot be serious. does our one year anniversary ring any bells, huh? the fact that i’ve reminded you, time and time again? you stood me up reo! what could you have possibly been doing that was more important than remembering a big milestone in our relationship?!”

he didn’t even have to answer for you, because the answer came in the form of a “reo, why did you stop? our team just lost.”

nagi seishiro.

if you weren’t angry before, you were absolutely livid now.

“reo, so you mean to tell me that spending time with your friend was more important than remembering your one year anniversary with your girlfriend? do i mean nothing to you?”

“y/n it’s not that deep, we can just reschedule for tomorrow or something.” you could hear his exasperation through the phone. the audacity of him, considering he was completely at fault here.

“not that deep? not that deep?! you let me sit there for over an hour in an upscale restaurant by myself and didn’t even think to worry about where i was! why is it not getting through to you that you missed our anniversary to play games? you see nagi everyday, whether it’s at training or at home. you mean to tell me that you couldn’t bear to not see him for one singular day out of the week?”

there were probably a ton of possibilities and explanations for why he said what he said next, but if you had to choose, it would probably be the fact that nagi could most likely hear the argument over the phone, which lead reo to attempt to regain control over the situation, by any means possible, to not appear weak.

“you’re very much subpar, do you think i need to keep you around? my name alone will help find me someone better than you.”

oh. you see how it is.

his words stunned you into silence, knocking the wind out of you. the only sounds that could be heard was the continuous tapping from reo’s controller and the low hum of your engine as you drove.

“look y/n i’m busy now, so we can talk later when you’re ho-”

you didn’t wanna hear what else he had to say, hanging up the call via the steering wheel and letting out a deep breath you didn’t realise you were holding.

without fail you indicated to turn off the highway, making your way to the nearest hotel. nevermind the fact that you didn’t have any clothes, you simply couldn’t handle seeing reo after the way he just wounded you.

once at the hotel and settled in your room you lay swaddled in the crisp white blankets. without any external eyes being able to see your state you let all walls crumble, tears cascading down in waves as you let all the previous bottled emotions fly free.

unbeknownst to you, your phone lay on the side table, softly vibrating whilst the screen lit up to show a picture of you and reo at a theme park, a call coming though from him.

it lay unanswered.

☆彡 NAGI SEISHIRO

“being in a relationship is a hassle already, i shouldn’t have to deal with you bitching and whining on top of that.”

you awoke to the sounds of rapid gunfire emanating from the living room, sighing to yourself. once again, nagi was devoting himself to a night of endless gaming.

it was a never-ending cycle. when he wasn't gaming, he was training and vice versa. as much as you loved and embraced the fact that nagi was lazy, he could at least make some effort to give you attention every once in a while.

rubbing the sleep away from your eyes you trudged your way through the apartment wearily, before being met with his figure, hunched on the sofa, eyes glued to the screen in front of him.

"sei, when are you coming to bed? i miss you."

"in a bit y/n."

"sei baby you said that last night, and i came back to you passed out on the sofa. the bluelight isn't good for you, especially so late."

he barely was around as it is, but when he was, he either slept, or was parked on the sofa.

it made you feel unappreciated, and majorly unloved. he never made the effort to take you out, tell you that you ever looked pretty or even acknowledge you anymore. to you at this point he was practically a roommate with a shoddy title that really shouldn't apply to the both of you.

"y/n, just leave me alone for now. i'm too tired to get into it with you."

"so you're too tired to argue with me being concerned for your wellbeing, but not too tired to invest your time into games, which ultimately drains your thought processes more? really sei?"

he was still focusing on the tv instead of your words, which ticked you off. so, determined to get his full attention, for once, you walked towards the tv and stood directly in front of it, blocking his vision, arms crossed and frowning.

"what the hell y/n? you made me lose."

"seishiro, can you stop being an ass for just a second and focus on me and what i have to say?”

faced with no way out, he had to oblige, placing the controller down with a heavy sigh, letting you know he was agitated. you couldn’t give a flying fuck though. you’d had enough of being neglected by nagi, and weren’t going to let him off this time.

“you don’t spend time with me anymore. you never take me out, we don’t ever talk to each other anymore. is it so bad for me to want to spend time with my boyfriend? is a game really more important than me? or is being with me detrimental to you in some way?”

he rolled his eyes, sinking back into the soft material of the sofa, irises piercing into yours. you shrunk back at his change in demeanour.

“being in a relationship is a hassle already, i shouldn’t have to deal with you bitching and whining on top of that.”

huh?

“nagi, where is this coming from? what do you mean being in a relationship is a hassl- i’m a hassle?”

he shrugged while rising to his feet, placing a hand behind his head and massaging his neck.

“i said what i said didn’t i? look, i’m going to bed, happy now? i don’t wanna argue with you, you’re too loud when you’re angry.”

you stood in shock, registering his words fully before swallowing and deeply inhaling.

“forget it nagi, i’m leaving. lose my number.”

“leaving to go where?” he watched as you briskly walked to the bedroom, following you in as you changed, grabbing your phone and keys.

“that’s none of your concern anymore. i’m breaking up with you.”

he said nothing as you walked to the front door, leaving with a final slam.

he should’ve stopped you, he really should’ve, for he would come to realise soon enough that allowing you to go,

would be one of the worst decisions he ever made.

☆彡 BAROU SHOUEI

“oi, i didn’t get into a relationship with you just so you can make my life harder. fix up or leave.”

when you asked barou out, you knew damn well what you were signing up for. considering he was so headstrong, particularly when it came to football, there would be moments where he might be nonchalant or absent.

what you didn’t anticipate, would be just how bad he would get.

once his mind was focused on football, specifically climbing his way to the top, there were no distractions, especially from his girlfriend, who at times he deemed his biggest distraction.

you did try to help and aid him every way you could, cooking him meals to eat after late night practices, tending to his injuries he may obtain after over-intensive sessions, cleaning up the apartment flawlessly so he wouldn’t be tempted to do it himself. all you really wanted in return was love.

surely that wasn’t too much to ask for, right?

wrong.

even after 7 months of dating, public outings with attempts to hold his hand resulted in subtle swatting away, instead opting to walk side by side. laying in bed together? don’t expect any cuddles from him. quite laughable actually that you’d ever think he’d be willing to do that. don’t think movie nights will be any different either. you’d better be keeping your hands to yourself.

fucking was a rarity, only really when he was very much pent up with frustration from football, libido overflowing from lack of release. and even then, while you were able to cum, that’s pretty much all there was to it. no making love or anything like that. he wouldn’t display his emotions to you enough in the first place for that to ever happen.

when you asked barou out, you knew damn well what you were signing up for. but you didn’t know it would be this hard. you figured he would loosen up eventually, getting used to at least some form of affection towards you. a little peck on the lips, or a hug from behind every once in a while would be nice.

one day, you simply grew tired. you were sitting on the dining table with him, having just finished dinner. barou stood up, ready to leave the table to shower.

“shouei.”

he stopped in his tracks, pivoting on one heel to turn and face you. his face remained blank, save for his usual signature eyebrow, arched in waiting.

“hm?”

“i-” you suddenly grew self conscious, afraid to voice your concerns to him. if you wanted things to change however, this conversation had to happen sooner rather than later.

“can we do more stuff together?”

his face now contorted into utter confusion, genuinely puzzled by what you were trying to say.

“what do you mean? i do enough with you do i not?”

“no, not that that sho’, i mean more couples stuff. like…couldn’t you just be more affectionate? i just— i don’t know how you feel about me at certain points, you don’t tell me anything as it is.”

he looked at you, playing with your hands, trying to look anywhere but him, clearly uncomfortable about this conversation.

“cmon y/n, you know how it goes already, i’m not into shit like that. i may like you and all, but all that lovey-dovey stuff? that ain’t me. never has and never will be. surely you should understand how i feel about you? the fact that i’ve kept you around this long should say more than enough.”

damn. fucking cold. either way, you weren’t backing down. you stood there, holding a firm staring competition with him before opening your mouth to speak.

“shouei, it’s been 7 months and news flash! it doesn’t. when you do shit like this, it makes me feel fucking inadequate. like i’m not deserving of you. long story short, you make me feel like shit. i’m tired of it sho’.”

“y/n, regardless of how you feel, i told you how i feel, and that ain’t gonna change.”

you couldn’t accept what he was telling you, believing that what you were saying weren’t getting through to his thick skull. his stance was too relaxed for your liking, arms simply crossed over the other, looking slightly bored.

“you’re not getting it shouei!” you raised your voice slightly, not quite shouting, but about two thirds of the way there. “you’re not understan-”

“oi, i didn’t get into a relationship with you just so you can make my life harder. fix up or leave.”

you halted, making sure you heard him correctly. to hear that he basically wouldn’t fight for 7 months worth of memories and time with each other left you in denial that it would be so easy for him to let go.

“excuse me?”

“did i stutter? fix up, or leave. two choices, one answer. it’s up to you but whatever you pick is your business.”

he gave you an out, an out from what you were currently going through. and as much as you did love and care for barou, you’d be a fool not to take it. things would only get worse.

you chose the latter, opting to leave, considering how little value your relationship held to barou. weeks passed, and the items you once held in the apartment decreased, leaving a half completed house, just like your heart.

he continued as normal at first, trying to get used to the newfound ‘freedom’. but as days passed on, the emptiness of the household became more apparent. the meals you used to cook were no more, barou having to take on the tasks himself. his injuries were taken care of in a subpar manner. while he could do it adequately, they weren’t bandaged or plastered as well as you used to do it. yes he would clean, but having it done already when he came back from training and to his standard…made him start to realise just how much you really did for him.

and maybe— maybe you weren’t so bad to have around. you did give him a sense of comfort that he could not achieve on his own, filling him on things that happened during your day gave him a sense of normalcy which alternately gave him that balance from his meticulous life as a quickly rising footballer.

he missed you, he missed what you had,

it’s a pity he realised only when it was too late.

☆彡 ITOSHI RIN

“honestly i don’t understand why i got with you in the first place. you’re so lukewarm it hurts.”

you were both busy. you both knew and understood that. rin was constantly abroad on travels for football and you had your own stuff going on at work, often leaving the office late at night.

when your schedules would occasionally match up and you’d both be home, most of the time it would still be you alone. rin would go off on his own to his usual training ground and work himself to the bone. he wouldn’t even tell you he was leaving, disregarding your worries or concerns that may surface.

you jolted awake randomly, looking to your left to see disturbed duvet covers, but an empty side. yet again. next you turned to your phone, squinting at the light from the screen which temporarily blinded you.

2:34am

you could take a guess or two at where rin was. specifically because you knew he lost his last match abroad and was pissed off about it, meaning double the training he usually did. you threw on some clothes, splashed water on your face and grabbed your car keys to drive to the open football field.

the massive stadium style lights lit up the field, illuminating it in a cool white, as you pulled up next to rin’s car. even from the car park you could hear the discernible sounds of rin’s foot booting a ball repeatedly. once closer, you could see him in his normal training gear, sweating profusely, enough to fill a small bucket.

“rin!”

he stopped, just short of making the next ball his victim, making eye contact with you, not expecting to see you there of all places this late.

he waited until you had crossed the distance between you, and stood in front of him to speak.

“y/n, why are you out here this early? i thought you were sleeping.”

“rin, i should be asking you that. it’s too early to be this active my love. come home please, i’m worried for you.”

all was silent for a moment, the only audible sounds on the pitch being a crow cawing in the distance, and rin’s heavy breathing.

“…i’m fine. just go back home. it’s too early for you to be up.”

you stood, hand on hip, showing your determination to get him to give up, not taking no for an answer.

“rin, you need to sleep. you’re overworking yourself. what happens when you’re fatigued and you leave yourself open for mistakes to happen? it’ll be worse for you in the long run.”

“tch, i wouldn’t expect someone who does office work all day to know the inner workings of an athlete. you don’t understand y/n.”

you sighed exasperatingly at his attempts to disarm you. he could be so stubborn when it was really for his own good.

“rin, i don’t need to be an athlete to understand that this isn’t good for you. anyone with two working brain cells can understand that constant working out and lack of sleep isn’t healthy.”

he rolled his eyes and turned back to the football in front of him.

“fine. whether or not you leave isn’t my problem, but i’m not leaving. stay or go, the outcome is the same either way.”

he took position, aiming and shooting flawlessly at the top left corner of the goal, the ball spinning against the net before falling to the ground.

he grabbed another ball, ready to complete the same procedure before you interrupted him once more.

“rin, just please come home, you can come back tomorrow. just because you lost your match doesn’t mean you should overwork yourself like this.”

this time when he turned back towards you, the tone had shifted. his face immediately darkened, eyes thinning into dark slits, eyebrows forming a crease on his forehead. his teal eyes shot daggers into yours.

“listen. we may be together, but that doesn’t mean you get to talk to me like you know what i’m going through. i’m going to be the best football player out there, and if i need to work double to make that happen, then so. be. it. i don’t need someone like you telling me about what i should or should not be doing.”

you stood in silence, effectively stunned and insulted simultaneously. you couldn’t say anything to counter yourself, rin’s harsh words opening up a side to him you’ve never seen before. that wasn’t the worst of it though.

“honestly i don’t understand why i got with you in the first place. you’re so lukewarm it hurts.”

your heart shattered, face hung in desolation and disheartenment.

after not hearing you argue back for a while he scoffed, walking to the side to collect his training bag. “whatever, i’m leaving now.”

he left you there, standing while the gears turned in your head to make some semblance of his words.

you didn’t even register you were crying until the cold nipped at your cheeks, decreasing the temperature of the liquid against your face. you pulled yourself together, just about enough to shakily make your way back to your car and press the ignition button.

you spent the whole car ride crying your eyes out, before wiping your eyes as you arrived back home. rin’s car was nowhere to be seen.

you walked up to the front door, slotting your key in and twisting your wrist to align with the lock.

pushing the door open, you stepped in to see the lights off and the aura dark.

“rin?”

silence.

“rin, are you there?”

nothing.

you sighed, tossing your keys on the table next to the door, making a beeline to your shared bedroom. it was empty, no signs of life present.

you stripped out of your outside clothes and slipped under the covers,

leaving you to cry yourself to sleep, wondering when it all went wrong.

baby you sold me a dream pt.2

[genshin-obsessed]

Confessions | Honkai Star Rail

So i've been super into hsr recently and I thought I'd get back to doing longer hcs because those are always fun! This time I left out Welt and Sampo and I'm not sure how I feel about it lol ✧ Includes: Dan Heng, Gepard, Jing Yuan, Luocha, Blade ✧ Extra: Something a little weird has happened to my Blade lol, he's just a confused man who really likes the reader. It may be ooc- i have no clue

Dan Heng

For Dan Heng, he doesn’t know how long he’s liked you. He just realized it one day when you said something- a compliment towards him- and he just couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Dan Heng’s not the most outward person, so wanting to confess wasn’t something easy for him. He actually needed to prepare, give himself a pep talk and all. His method is invite you to his room and then just tell you- no beating around the bush.

You’re shocked to say the least- I mean it’s DAN HENG. He liked you?! HE CONFESSED?! You sat there for a good minute just staring at him. He looked calm but kinda started panicking on the inside.

“I-I like you too!” You say before he can speak. You were so loud, he jumped a little. Safe to say, he’s extremely happy you accepted because then it would’ve been awkward afterwards.

“Oh good… good.”

Gepard Landau

Everyone knows Gepard likes you before himself. He can say it’s just been a few months but others know it’s been like a year. It’s just the way he acts and stuff.

Gepard has a VERY hard time confessing. He’ll keep trying to do it, but then backs out at the last minute. He’ll keep saying he wants to talk to you about something important then just doesn’t tell you. Finally, one day… it slips out. You two are alone and he barely realizes it until he sees your face.

You’re happy but also shocked. The guy you’ve liked for like ever finally likes you back! Do you go through the statue phase of freezing up and staring? Yes. Did he start panicking because of it? Yes. Your reaction right after was to throw yourself at him and give him a tight hug.

He doesn’t say anything right then and just hugs you back. You not running away, horrified, probably meant you felt the same. That made him happy- so happy he didn’t even know what to do.

“Thank you… for not running away- oh and liking me back.”

Jing Yuan

His feelings had been around for a few months now, he knew pretty much instantly when he was attracted to you. It didn’t take him long to figure out he was in love with you either. It was obvious, his heart pounded when you were around, he couldn’t stop thinking about you, and he was always worried you’d find someone else.

Jing Yuan confesses fancy style. He’ll invite you out to like dinner or something or maybe just to take a late night walk with him. As you’re walking, he’ll coyly bring up the topic of dating and whatnot. You two chat for a bit, then he just admits it. He makes sure to add the “it’s alright if you don’t feel the same way, I won’t be upset.”

Of course, you do feel the same way! Your eyes widen and you gasp as the reality sets in. The General of the Cloud Knights liked YOU! It took a moment to just process his words, and Jing Yuan stood there patiently, giving you time to think. If you were going to say no, that’s fine, he just needed a clear answer. You found it hard to speak but forced the words out, “I-I feel the same.”

Jing Yuan’s over the moon with this newfound knowledge. He’s so happy, he could shout it out from over the rooftops. Honestly! All he can do is give you a tight hug, not wanting to do anything else if you weren’t ready for it- say a kiss.

“I’m glad. We should go on a date then- a proper one.”

Luocha

Luocha is very good at keeping his feelings to himself. At first, he thought it was just a little crush and it would pass. But it didn’t. It just… kept developing. He tried to manage it, feeling that maybe a relationship right now wasn’t the best option for him. But when his heart would start pounding every time you smiled at him, or his mind went back to you and what you might’ve been doing when you two were apart told me he… maybe didn’t wanna wait.

Luocha’s confession wasn’t exactly grand. I mean, what was there to be super grand about? Especially if you were going to reject him. So he just took you out on a little walk and slyly brought up the topic of relationships. Once you mentioned you didn’t mind being in one, he just said, “will you be in one with me?”

You kinda froze. Deer in headlights situation. You needed a moment to process what he’d just said. He… wanted to date you? WELL GOOD! YOU WANTED TO DATE HIM! You happily nodded, a big giant smile spreading on your face.

There was this emotion he felt when you said you liked him too. Pure, unadulterated happiness. He felt so good about himself, about life, about everything. That emotion spoke volumes and all he could do was hug you. Tightly. 

"I'm glad... because I was really, really nervous you'd say no."

Blade

Ok… hear me out. Blade knows he likes you… when he doesn’t hate you. When you ask him for a favor and he says yes. When you hug him and he doesn’t strangle you- honestly, it wasn’t hard for him to know. Kafka teases him and he just ignores her.

Blade… doesn’t know how to confess. He’s not crazy about relationships or… people. So his entire confession was just confusing. You followed absolutely nothing except: “I like you.” You thought he was just admitting he didn’t hate you. That was good news! But you didn’t realize how good it was. “That’s great! I like you too!” You replied to which he crossed his arms, nodded, and said… “we’re dating now.”

Mhm. Yeah. That’s how smooth he is :’) you- you poor soul- didn’t know what he meant at first. So you were beyond shocked when he said what he did. Blade- BLADE- liked you- Y O U- romantically? You liked him too but you never ever expected this. Not in a million years.

You could only manage a dazed nod for a few seconds before a giant smile spread on your face and you practically threw yourself at him. Blade’s usual reaction would be to shove the person away but this was his special person. So… he hugged back.

“That was… rude, I think? Will you go on a date with me?”

[fushiguwu]

enjoying your view? getou suguru

CHAPTER 3 from the Summer Fever's serie!

ft. dilf!getou and gojo’s stepdaughter!reader

warnings: use of alcohol (again,, lol), party, gojo being comic relief, reader finds someone else hot (they're just drunk), jealousy, risky making out, sweat, spit, oral sex (w receiving), breath play, soft!dom suguru but he is just really romantic, use of the names princess, baby, silly bun, love, kind of fluff and a bit crack if you squint.

words: 3.7k

a/n: hope u enjoy it :3

Lucky enough, friday night came like a blink of an eye and you had finally something to do other than mold by your mom’s pool. Gojo almost fainted after hearing you were going to his friend’s daughter's birthday party, as if he wasn’t the one who very much put you in Mimiko’s circle of friends. He, despites, seemed a bit upset for not being invited – and it perhaps was another reason why his dramatic ass almost fainted.

“It’s a young adults party, Gojo. And you are her dad’s friend. Would you want your uncle in nearly forties to get along with you and your twentie’s friends?” You try your best not to sound so rude for him to be more concerned, even though it seemed an impossible mission. Satoru was just so sentimental. “It’s not personal, Satoru. Don’t be such a brat about it”

“You are so cruel with your words, jeez! Could’ve just said I’m not the party’s target group. Now I feel bad AND old” he sits down on the couch with a hand holding his chin, looking absolutely defeated. “In your age, I was an unstoppable party monster, just because I got married doesn't mean I’ve got to become a grimace”. And then he keeps on grumbling by himself while scrolling through the tv channels. Your mom by his side could only laugh at his pityness. Poor woman. 

You’ve seized the chance to go off home and get into your uber, who’s been  parked by your sidewalk for a whole five minutes now, while you had to deal with Gojo’s attitude. You didn’t bother trying to explain the situation for the poor man working so the trip to Mimiko and Nanako’s house was filled with the city sounds outside. 

Their house were huge, and the amount of cars parked made you doubt the party’s surprise factor. The door was wide open and the music as loud as the speaker would allow. A lot of people were dancing in the living room, and it made you question the number of people they knew and how many of them were actually friends — you wouldn’t know that many people for your entire life.

The sisters were nowhere to be found through the crowd. You didn’t know where to leave the present, and the more you got inside, the harder it was to find a space with no couple making out or a young adult drinking like they had two livers. So you go upstairs, hoping to find a safe place for Mimiko's gift — a sweet gold collar with a heart pendant. You open a door to find a bathroom. The next one, an office, smelled like fresh wood and had such beautiful brown furniture. You got too distracted to notice a figure emerging closer and closer right behind you. 

“Excuse me, ma’am” you hear a low voice say next to your ears and immediately jumps out in fright. You quickly get out of the way, without looking back, say a whispered “sorry” and go downstairs as fast as your shoes allow you. Your face probably looked as red as a fresh tomato right now. The man once behind you followed your quickie path with a smirk hidden between his cheeks before getting to his office. Thinking straight after a few seconds in the crowded living room, you’ve realized you actually recognized that voice and perfume. It was his voice. It was his smell. You turn around to seek him on the second floor, but as nothing’s ever happened right in your life, someone brought you to a tight hug and got you back to orbit. 

“Can’t believe you actually came!” Mimiko looked a bit drunk already. Apparently, you missed the surprise. “Is that for me?” she says pointing to the small box in your hands. you don't say anything, just put it on her hands instead. Finally you gave an end to this poor box. She hugs you one more time and says lots of “thank you’s” kissing your cheeks before disappearing again.

You go upstairs again, this time even more anxious than the last. The bathroom was empty, so it just left you with the office: you knocked on the door, no answer. You opened it, empty too. Just the wood smell and fancy furniture. The hallway, empty. The other doors were locked. No one was supposed to go to the second floor, as it seems, and you were looking for someone that obviously wasn’t there — and at this point you doubted yourself and started believing you were frightened by a ghost. so you accept defeat and head to the kitchen to get drunk. It wasn’t him, nor anyone. 

You looked devastated holding your fifth drink sitting by the kitchen counter all by yourself. Perhaps you were too shy to be at a party, you thought. The music playing was trash, you didn't know anyone besides Mimiko and Nanako, and they were nowhere to be found in the crowd. The kitchen seemed to be the loser's spot: there were you, by the counter, alone, a man laid on the ground with a beer bottle in hands, absolutely wasted, his friend by his side trying to get him up, while their other friend threw up in the sink. What a night. 

And you know what? fuck it. You're not going to spend your night sat watching drunk men throwing up. You’re going to honour Gojo’s party rocker memory. You took a long sip from your drink and got up to the living room. Fuck the shitty music, fuck the shyness, fuck the ghost of the man you’re obsessed about. you’re going to enjoy your fucking summer break.

The improvised dancefloor was so hot you wanted to just take off your dress right there. Your hair sticking on your skin, the smell of sweat and vape smoke would have made you sick on any other occasion, but not in this state of mind. A man approached you, he’s blond, not so tall, but what truly got your attention was that he had no shirt on. You shamelessly stared at his abs. 

“Enjoying your view?” he asks you. you nod your head, still not looking at his face. “Yo. I’m up here” he slaps his fingers in front of your face to successfully get your attention.  He, then, grabs you closer enough to meet your lips to his. His hands on your waist as you closed your eyes to let him through —wishing, expecting. Suddenly, when you could finally feel his breath on your nose, he stepped back, and another pair of hands found your waistline, from behind. You opened your eyes and looked back, pissed off. But to your surprise, you are met with both black shirted chest and hair falling down the shoulders. You, then, look up, afraid to be who you thought it was.

“Suguru?” he smiles down at you. Your heart racing to see him again. It’s him, actually him. All flesh and bones — and looking absolutely stunning. “What are you doing here?” you could see him staring down at the dude you were about to kiss. He looked even more surprised. “Sorry, man, didn't know she was with someone. My bad”  he said, frightened by Suguru’s piercing stare and height, and left without looking back. You turned around to match the raven haired man’s embrace. You just looked up at him, not believing he was actually there at all.

“Enjoying your view?” He repeats the strange man’s words, and you smile openly at him. You nod again, but this time looking deeply into Suguru's eyes. He smiles too, and your heart absolutely melts. You were getting even drunker on his perfume, his voice blurring the loud music playing around. You whispered an almost inaudible “yes” to him, completely dazed by his presence and he could see it. “Why’s that everytime I meet you, you’re drunk, princess?”

“I’m not drunk!” you tried to defend yourself. He arched his eyebrows at you.“Then why were you about to kiss that tiny naked man, huh?” his voice was lower than it normally sounded like, and he seemed truly bothered about it.

“You saw him approaching me. Why didn’t you come on first, huh?” you mimic him and arch your eyebrows back. Suguru swallowed dry and looked away, his grip on you loosening.

“Because…” he looks back at you, uncertain. You could see in his eyes that something was going on. You only looked back at him, waiting for an answer. “...Because we shouldn’t do it here. I shouldn’t” he seemed sincere, for your importunity.

“And why’s that? Who says so?” You get his face in your hands, feeling the soft and almost perfectly shaved skin. “It’s a goddamn party! It’s the exact place to do so. Only if you are here with someone else…” and you loose your hands. He quickly puts them back on his face and deeps his gaze.

“No. it’s not that.” he says right after you, laughing a bit — more like a nervous laugh than anything. “It’s just that… I don’t know…” you come closer to his face, standing on tiptoe. You could see him flushing a bit, and it makes you smile.

“You know nothing.” and you kiss him, as you’ve been dreaming for weeks now. And it felt just like the first time: just right, absolutely right. You really don’t know what was making him feel so insecure, but as the kiss deepens, he seems to forget about it more and more. His hand tightens again, and one meets the back of your head, gripping the hair from your skull in a delicious tight. You moan on his lips, your eyes shut, just feeling him over your skin again. His hand on your waist goes down to your ass, squeezing it as hard as you bit his lips. It was starting to get dangerous and you knew it. “Is there… somewhere else…?” you break the kiss to ask, breathless, finally opening your eyes. His lips were red and swollen, his gaze low down at you. He looked as starvelling as you. 

Suguru doesn’t say anything, just takes your hand and leads you away from the crowd, looking all around, afraid to find Mimiko or Nanako on the way, while you had no thoughts in your head at all, absolutely clouded, just following him wherever he takes you. And it is upstairs again. You look back, feeling like breaking some rule for going to the second floor again, but the black haired man didn’t seem to care about it. He opens the door that leads to the office where you first remembered him today. “I’ve been here, and heard someone talking to me with your exact voice” you confessed to him while the door was being closed. 

You watch him coming to you slowly, the anxiety growing at each step he takes. You could feel your heart beating on your mouth. It was finally happening: you’re finally alone with Suguru. You take a step back until you bump into the office desk, a gasp coming out your lips. He meets you, taking your legs up so you could sit on the desk, a few papers and pens falling down on the floor, but neither of you seemed to care. He puts himself between your legs, pulling your dress up your hips, as his face comes closer to your ears. His delicate hands pushing your already dry hair aside. “Yes, silly bun’, ‘cause it was me”  and then kisses your neck slowly, exploring your skin and smells. How silly of you to think it was a ghost, indeed. You could feel him smile between kisses, but you were a bit concerned.

“Don’t…” you try to advise him, for you were all sweaty and sticky just now.  You move away your neck, which he didn’t seem to enjoy. “I’m dirty, Suguru.” He listened to you unpleasantly, and gripped a hand on your throat smoothly, as looked deep into your eyes. His mood suddenly shifted — he was mad at your insecurities.

“I don’t fucking care” your view became blurred. “I want you, I don’t care about a fucking sweat.” you groan to him, trying to pull your legs together, to have a little release, but his own are in the way. It doesn’t pass unnoticed for him, though, as you feel his knees tight in your panties. He never looked away, his gaze seemed to pierce your soul apart, like a devil you gladly let be corrupted by. You wanted more of him, he wanted more of you; your lusts exploding within the walls. No closeness seemed enough. 

 “Open your mouth, princess“ you do as he commands, but he wasn’t satisfied yet, “tongue out” he hards the grip once again. As you show your tongue, he comes closer to you and spits on it, making your eyes widen. “Swallow it.” you pleasurably do, his hot and transparent fluid going all the way down your throat to heat your neglected pussy. He smiles and lets go of your neck, you feel like breathing for the first time of your life again. “Felt good, right?” Suguru glances at you while you nodded at him like a trained puppy. And he kisses you, deeply, almost greedy for it. 

His kisses started to go down your chin, neck, collarbone, and when you blinked again your dress strap was in your elbows and his mouth on your chest. “You’re just so beautiful, princess. So fucking beautiful.” he squeezes your waist, with his face hidden between your tits. “I could stay here forever” He said —more for himself than for you, kissing all the way down to your bellybutton, as getting on his knees, slowly. His hands pulled your panties down and you missed him putting them in his jeans pocket. 

Suguru puts your dress up your hips and sighs at the glance of your naked pussy dripping wet for him, and only him. He really wanted to stay there for eternity: with your knees on his shoulder, his face deep between your legs and your delightful whimpers. He didn’t know why you messed so much with his head, why he got so obsessed with you since the day you first met. Why did his heart race when he saw you again opening the door for his office and it melted when you ran away. He wasn’t supposed to leave the second floor tonight, wished to let his children enjoy their party without a boring parent present. Until he saw you and, then, risked everything just to get to your embrace once more. He knew that if one of his daughters saw you two, would never forgive him. But Suguru knew, too, that you felt the exact same for him: you eagerly, abruptly wanted him close to you. Perhaps it was for your sudden separation previously to blame; the almost that never was in the bar. Your willingness grew immensely, even more for the feeling of never seeing each other again, but now that you did, surprisingly did, it needed to be barbarously released. 

“Hold my hair back, love” Suguru gets your wrist, puts it on top of his head and goes back to work. You try, between groanings and shaking hands, to lock his hair strands in a messy bun. Your grip tightens everytime his tongue pressures harder on your aching clit, and the vibrations of his moans makes your mind clouded by lust. Looking down at Suguru you could see how freaky pussy drunk he actually was: his grip on the fat of your thighs so hard you knew it’d leave a bruise or two, half of his face was wet and spittle ran down his chin. He shaked his tongue like a beast, drank on your floods as if he’s been thirsty his whole life. You felt somewhere else in between him and your pussy. He was clearly doing it because he fucking loved to, not only for yours, but for his pleasure too —and it turned you on like nothing’s ever done. 

“Sugu, please,—fuck, i’m so close, please, please…!” you whined so many ‘please’s’ for him with such a crying voice he just couldn’t stand not giving you what you wanted. He grabs your hips and gets you up from the table, making you choke. You had your elbows holding you on the table and your legs stuck on Suguru’s ears, your hips floating in the air with only his arms to hold. You were starting to actually worry about his breath, though neither did he care. 

For the first time, he distanced himself from your clit. The lack of stimulation made you look down at him breathless, helpless. He looked at you with a smirk, his face red and soaked. “You wanna cum, babe?” you nod at him greedily; his smirk grows and he mimics your nod slowly, saying a “yeah?”  

“Yeah. Ye’Please, Sug’, pleas’ make’m cum, was so close, s’close” you had no breath to speak properly but knew he could understand you. He gathered his saliva and spat right on your swollen clit, then gave your ass a spank. 

“then fucking do it, but I want you cumming looking right into my eyes, you understand, baby?” you nod and get your grip back on his hair, using it to maintain your balance. You felt a wave coming so hard from your tiptoes to your scalp; his twilight eyes looked straight into yours until your vision went blurry, and black, and sparkling, and your body shaked like never before. Mind blank, legs weak, eyes rolling back.  Suguru kept his mouth deepening your orgasm till you pushed him away, trembling, breathless. You had such a dumb face on, he couldn’t help laughing. You looked back as if asking him what was so funny. He kept his laugh and carefully helped you stand still again — though your legs were still shaking, so the raven haired man never left his grip on your waist.

“I’m not laughing at you, baby.” but he still had a smile on. “it’s just that you’ve been fucked so stupid by my tongue, I didn’t know you were going to cum so hard.” your face went red with his words. How could he be just so shameless?

“S-stop saying that! It’s embarrassing.” you cover your burning red ears to protect yourself from his filthiness — not resting long, as he takes your hands within his chest, only making you blush more for the contact with his warmth. You didn’t want to look at his face and Suguru noticed that.

“Look at me, princess. We did nothing wrong, I’m happy that I could make you happy.” he speaks so sweetly, grabs your chin so gently to get closer to your gaze, almost as coercing you to look back at him — and you do. Your cheeks burning as found by his sharp eyes. He’s just so, so gorgeous. All of him, looking back at you so tenderly. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, okay? You did a great job, little one.” his left hand stroking your hair as the right one kept your two hands still on his chest. You loose one up to stroke his silky brunette hair strands too. He smiles genuinely and kisses you, but this time, it felt way more meaningful. Suguru was, indeed, starting to feel something about you. Even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself — like, he’s seen you twice now, how could he feel something, right? Right?

“Suguru…” he left his wonders to the sound of your voice so close to his lips. 

“Yes, love?” you two kept your eyes closed.

A brief silence. A laugh.

“...Your face smells like… vagina…” and you open your eyes nearly together.

“I can’t believe you just fucking said that.”  he said, serious. You thought he was mad at you, until a loud stuck-up laugh escaped his mouth. You laughed too, — in relief. “vagina? oh, my goodness.” he was losing his shit now, holding on his knees, his strength evaporating his body. You didn’t know if kept laughing or helped him up, starting to feel a bit embarrassed again.

“Suguru, stop! But that’s it’s name!”

“I know, I know, sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to say that, of all things.” Suguru cleans a tear running down his cheek and standed up again by your side. “of course it does, princess, I just ate the fuck out of your” he pauses, biting his lip not to laugh “...vagina.”  you slap his shoulder. How dare he make fun of you? Damn you, Suguru. You end up laughing with him, though. You didn’t know that side of him yet, he looked really loosened up; perhaps the alcohol in your blood has been passed to him, somehow? You took advantage of his looseness to ask something you’ve been wondering the whole night:

“So, Sugu, where do u know Mimiko from? She’s, like, waay younger than you. Are you a kind of cousin or something?” and there it is, the question Suguru was afraid of the most. He wasn’t ready for you to know about it, he didn’t wish to scare you away; just when you were getting along so nicely. The deep breath he takes after your questioning makes you feel a bit insecure he was, indeed, trying to avoid this subject.

And just when he was about to speak, his phone vibrated inside his pocket and the atmosphere suddenly changed in the room. A deadly silence as soon as he sees who’s calling him — you failed in trying to see it. Suguru murmurs a very low ‘fuck’ to the blue screen and looks back at you, as saying ‘sorry’ with such doggy eyes. You say that it is okay and he kisses your forehead fastly. “It’s from work, I really gotta go, baby. Sorry for that. You know how to go back down there, right?” you nod as he turns around to go. But something stops him just before closing the door behind you: “Please, don’t kiss any other ugly, short and stupid boy while I’m out.” you nod to him for the last time that day, looking upset. “Promise?” he was looking into your eyes, even as you looked away. He knew you were disappointed, but he wasn’t going to leave while you didn't answer him back. 

You look into his eyes from afar, “Yes, I promise, Suguru.” He gives you an honest smile before leaving. 

“Good girl.”

[mousydentist]

For reverse trope prompts: I feel like fake amnesia could be super cracky and/ or angsty for kimchay post-breakup. Kim pretending to lose his memory to see if Chay will give him a second chance, OR to try to push Chay further away. Chay using fake amnesia to see how Kim reacts if he thinks Chay doesn't remember getting his heart broken. Or Chay doing it just to fuck with Kim's head for a few mins as payback lol.

ok tysm for the ask and sorry this took a while i probably shouldnt have opened asks right before a three hour exam hdjdjd BUT here it is and. this was hard to do in 500 words so i don’t know what this is dhjdhd but i hope you enjoy

It was around noon when Chay got a text from Porsche that had him sprinting for the elevator: You know Kinn’s brother Kim, right? He’s hurt pretty bad. Chay’d been pissed at Kim for a while, of course, but in the wake of it was the fear that he’d never find someone like Kim again, someone he really, really loved, and a desire not to be alone anymore. Truthfully, he’d nearly taken Kim back after he sent the song. At that moment, he’d seen his own loneliness reflected back at him, and his heart ached. But he’d stayed stubborn and refused to forgive Kim, or even acknowledge his existence. He’d tried to pretend he didn’t care for so long - and now, rushing through winding halls to the compound’s infirmary, all he could do was pray it wasn’t too late. Porsche was right, Kim was in bad shape. His unconscious body was connected to a dozen wires and monitors, and his head was covered in a large wrap that had been bled through.  Chay said nothing as he took a post next to Kinn, and in return, Kinn didn’t ask. They stayed vigil for several hours before Kim finally showed signs of life. Kinn immediately called for the doctor when Kim blinked his eyes open, glancing blearily around the room. When he locked onto Chay, his brows furrowed.  Chay stood close to him, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Hi.” The crease in his brow got larger. “Who…?” Chay’s heart skipped a beat, but he didn’t have time to investigate further before the doctor came back with Kinn and started a volley of questions at Kim. “And do you know who this is?” “My brother, Kinn.” “Great, and the other person?” Kim squinted at Chay’s face. “Am I supposed to know you?” Chay bit the inside of his cheek in an effort not to cry, or throw up, or something else that wouldn’t be helpful. “I’m Porchay.” Kim seemed to understand something then, and for a second Chay thought he might have remembered, but then he said, “Nice to meet you, Porchay.” Chay really did try to listen to the doctor when she pulled him and Kinn aside, but he only heard bits and pieces like “short-term amnesia” and “brain damage” and a bunch of other horrible things. He did hear when she said he’d need to stay under observation for the next few days, and decided maybe this was the universe’s way of telling him to start over with Kim. That night, Chay told Kinn to go sleep in his own bed, that he’d watch over Kim and let him know if anything happened. Chay could tell he needed it, especially when he watched how the man drag himself out of the room. Chay refilled Kim’s water and threw a pillow to one side of the loveseat he’d be sleeping on.  “Psst, psst.” Chay turned around, and sure enough, Kim was waving him over conspiratorially. “How was that?” “Uh…” “Do you think he bought it?” Kim whispered like he was sharing a secret. “What are you talking about?” Chay squinted at him. “Do you think Kinn believed that I didn’t know you?” “Wh- you remember me?” Chay screeched, only feeling half bad when Kim cringed in pain. “Kim, why on earth would I want you to pretend you didn’t know me? He knows we’ve met!” Kim shrugged as much as he seemed to be able to. "I asked if I was supposed to know you." Chay let his face fall into his hands as he flopped to the ground, all the stress and grief of the day finally leaving his body as he cried. “Sorry,” Kim muttered, and Chay just laughed. What the fuck was his life. He did stay with Kim that night, and he spent a lot of it on the floor next to him with Kim’s hand locked in his own.

[kim's texts] Kinn: Did you pretend to have amnesia so Porchay would forgive you? Me: excuse me Me: it’s not my fault he assumed i had amnesia Me: i was drugged and delirious i didn’t know what i was saying Kinn: Whatever you say

(from a reverse trope ask game)

[byizoyas]

Heya! I hope your having a good day/night!!

I saw your requests were open and I was hoping to request a fic with either alhaitham, childe or beidou with their workout! I’m just so in love with the three of them and if I ever saw them working out I think I’d pass out on the spot (//∇//)

Thank you so much and I hope this is an enjoyable request for you to write 💗💗💗

genshin impact ; requests

2023/byizoyas. — pls do not plagiarize or repost and claim as yours ! thank you very much

✘ sfw. you witness his workout sessions ✘ alhaitham x gn!reader

a/n. - at first i rlly wanted to write all three of them but in the end i was so invested in alhaitham’s i figured id just post that short drabble w only him. i also took some freedom with the end lol; hope it’ll suit you and sorry for the late writing<3 (also i don’t have the exact vocabulary for working out so I did my best and hope it’ll still be understandable ckwkdj)

you’ve been going at the gym for a while now. you were not the most regular person in this but you were trying real hard.

and at this point, you felt new every single time you stepped inside and saw them all greeting each other and training together while you, were all alone.

you only just understood how the treadmill was working after struggling for a while with all the buttons when you heard a friendly voice from behind you.

‘you’re back.’ he said calmly.

you turned around quite surprised that anyone would recognize you since you weren’t coming in here everyday and certainly not on the same time of the day.

‘um yeah’ you only said before realizing the man talking to you was one of the coaches in here.

alhaitham. his name was written on a small piece of paper sticked to his shirt that quite felt too tight for that muscular torso of his.

‘i saw you struggling with the machine and thought i could help you but it seems you got it now.’ he said, turning his back on you to go back to whatever business he probably had to deal with.

‘thanks ! i’ll ask for help directly next time.’ you added, waving goodbye despite him not going really far.

the room wasn’t the biggest so he was still in your eyesight. and as time passed you caught yourself looking in his direction several times.

he was indeed pretty attractive even when he was just standing nearby the door, organizing some files.

10pm the clock was displaying. the gym was closing around 11 pm but it was pretty rare to find people exercising that late at night.

perhaps he felt comfortable enough with so few people working out because he left the counter and put on his own headphones as he walked towards the rowing machine. and of course, it had to be right in front of you so you found it even harder to look away.

alhaitham was a professional, he probably trained everyday and was used to such basic exercises yet you, found it extremely fascinating how easy it was for him to drag the handle.

his arms muscles contracting now and then pretty quickly and the few sighs he subconsciously let out as he kept on pulling the handle towards him, working out both his legs and arms made the whole scene much more attractive.

you found it quite hard to focus on something else now but he quickly switched to another exercise, laying on the floor ready to do a few push ups.

one. two. three. you started to count them. he wasn’t fast but he was certainly feeling his own efforts as he gritted his teeth.

‘alhaitham. i’m leaving. you’re closing alone tonight. will it be okay ?’ someone asked; most likely his colleague that was already wearing casual clothes.

alhaitham got up, and took off his headphones. ‘sure. see you tomorrow.’ the man left and with that he took a glance at the clock and then at you.

he chuckled while walking towards you and only at the moment he stood in front of you, did you realize how you were the only one left in here. ‘staying pretty late tonight do you ?’ he gulped just as he was trying to regain his composure and control over his breathing.

‘i didn’t realize how late it was.’ you only found to say. of course you weren’t going to admit that you lost yourself while observing his every move for about 15 minutes.

little did you know, he noticed your insistent gaze but he did not say anything about it. he turned off the machine you were using. ‘well we’re both done for today.’

you headed towards the restroom to change to your clothes and put your sports pants on your bag.

‘oh!’ you shouted when bumping into alhaitham again right after coming out of the room. ‘you scared the shit out of me sorry for screaming’ you chuckled to yourself, finding yourself so silly.

but since there were only the two of you now alhaitham only apologized, stating how he should have been careful.

you both went towards the door, turning off all the lights behind you.

alhaitham closed the door and turned to you, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. ‘will you come working out tomorrow ?’

you smiled before admitting how you were not so fond of working out. and before you gave a second thought to what you were about to say, it simply slipped out of your mouth.

‘but maybe if a pretty, good coach helps me i’ll like it more.’

right as you started to cringe at your own comment, alhaitham let out the most beautiful laugh you’ve ever heard.

‘i’ll work harder to convince you to drop by more often then.’

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Scared of Something New

Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Twenty-Nine

A JSE Fanfic

This chapter has given me so much trouble over the past two weeks dhjasklh But! It is now done, and it is longer than the usual! So I won't keep you waiting much longer lol. Onto the summary! Chase realizes he's been brushing over JJ's problems, and gets some advice on how to deal with this. He decides to ask JJ himself how he can make up for this, and JJ proposes a surprisingly risky idea on how to get rid of this doll problem once and for all. And yeah. We have a real Chase and JJ focused episode, though others also appear. Enjoy reading :)

Previous Episode | More of this AU | From the Start | Read on AO3 at CrystalNinjaPhoenix

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Not long after returning from Ireland, the winter term for school started up again. Stacy actually left town for a bit, going on a birthday trip with her family. When she got back, the guys all gave her various birthday presents during lunch period. Chase got her a case for her glasses, on Mom’s advice, while Schneep got her a fancy glitter pen and JJ and Marvin gave her a pair of books. Jackie got her a bookbag with some characters on them. Chase had never heard of ‘Bratz’ before but Stacy seemed to love it.

Between Stacy’s vacation and the new round of schoolwork, the group didn’t have much time to get together and discuss what they’d learned about Anti and Jack. Though... Chase wasn’t sure there was much to talk about. Anti was Jack’s imaginary friend, and Jack’s family seemed weirdly involved with all the weird stuff happening around town. What else could they talk about? Besides... he wasn’t sure he wanted a big group talk. Not while JJ was still avoiding him.

Well... “avoiding” him wasn’t exactly right. JJ was still sitting with the rest of the group during lunch, and if Marvin came over to play video games, JJ would come with him. But... he was even quieter than usual. He only really spoke when someone else talked to him, or when Marvin tried to pull him into the conversation. And Chase could have sworn that JJ never looked directly at him. Chase wanted to give him some space, but also... he couldn’t live with this silence between them.

And so, about two weeks into the start of the new school term, Chase decided to do something about it. But he wasn’t sure what. This whole thing was very confusing to him... and made him feel bad. So, he went to get some advice.

Chase slowly opened the door to Mom’s room. “Um... Mom? Are you busy?”

“Hmm?” Mom was sitting at the desk in the corner of her room. She looked over at Chase as he opened the door, her expression immediately drawing close with worry. “Is something wrong, sweets?”

“I, uh... I-I think I messed up... with something.”

“Is something broken?”

“No no, nothing’s broken! I just, uh... i-it’s friend stuff. I...” He blinked furiously, eyes stinging with tears. “I think... JJ doesn’t like me a-anymore.”

“Oh, Chase.” Mom sighed. “Give me one minute, okay? You can hang out in here for a minute, right?”

Chase nodded. He walked over to Mom’s bed and climbed on top of it, sitting with his legs crossed. He picked at the threads of the comforter as he waited for Mom to finish. He had butterflies in his stomach. Sharp, jumpy butterflies, that just got more and more freaked out as he sat there, bringing tears to his eyes.

Then, Mom was finished. She closed out of whatever program she was using and walked over, sitting next to Chase on the bed. “Now, Chase. I’m sure JJ still likes you. But why would you think he wouldn’t?”

“I-I...” Chase took a shaky breath. He couldn’t explain all the doll stuff to Mom, but he could probably explain the whole situation without that. “JJ’s been r-really pressured a-and stuff lately, and I kept... I kept doing stuff that he didn’t want me to... He told me he didn’t want me to do that, and I tried, I really tried to not do the stuff, but he still got angry with me, a-and said that I didn’t get what he was going through, and I wasn’t trying hard enough... B-but I think I was trying, I think I really was trying!”

Mom blinked. “JJ got angry at you? That doesn’t seem like him.”

“I-I thought that too. JJ doesn’t get angry ever!”

“Whoa, okay, I didn’t say that,” Mom corrected. “Everyone gets angry. Maybe you don’t see it, but everyone gets angry. JJ’s a quiet kid, so you probably don’t know when he gets upset, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get upset at all.”

“Well... I-I know that,” Chase mumbled. “I just... if he’s not gonna tell me when he’s mad, I’m just gonna keep doing the same thing, right?”

“If JJ can’t tell you, then that’s something he should work on,” Mom said slowly. “But you just said that he did tell you. You knew about the problems he had and the things you weren’t supposed to do, right?”

“Yeah... A-and I really tried not to do any of it! But it’s just...” Chase gestured vaguely. “I-I don’t know. It wasn’t enough, I guess.”

“Hm.” Mom paused, thinking. “Alright. Let’s take this one step at a time. Could you have tried more to avoid the upsetting things?”

Chase thought about it. He didn’t give JJ orders on purpose. But he did give him a lot of accidental ones. And... no one else in the group did, right? Maybe... one or two, but... he definitely did it the most. “I... guess... Everyone else was doing it.”

“We’re not talking about everyone else, we’re talking about you. Do you really think you could have done better, or do you think you were trying your best?”

“I mean... I was doing my best, I just...” Chase trailed off. Was he really trying to avoid giving JJ orders? Maybe not. After all, he tried harder for other stuff. Like, Schneep didn’t want him to call him ‘Schneep’ around adults, so Chase always made sure to call him ‘Henrik’ when parents or teachers were around. He always thought about his words very carefully... But comparing that to how he thought about his words around JJ, he wasn’t being nearly as cautious. “Maybe... I could’ve done better.” He ducked his head, ashamed to say it out loud.

Mom nodded. “It’s good that you can realize that. Now that you know that, why do you think you didn’t try your best?”

“Uh... I dunno.” Chase shook his head.

“Can you try to think about it?”

“I am, I just... I don’t know.” Why wouldn’t he try his best to help JJ out? Did he not... like him as much? No, that can’t be it. JJ’s great! Even if Chase didn’t have a lot in common with him, he was still smart and funny and very brave.

Mom tilted her head. “Maybe... it didn’t seem like it was a big deal? Maybe that’s what you were thinking?”

“Maybe... I mean, uh... they weren’t really... I-I didn’t say mean things to him or anything. I just...“ Chase trailed off.

“They were... small things,” Mom said. “Things that wouldn’t hurt him.”

“Yeah!” Chase nodded.

“Well... they must have hurt him after all, right?” Mom asked quietly.

Chase deflated. “Yeah... I-I didn’t mean to, though. I just... Maybe I didn’t really... get it... Th-that’s what JJ said. That I didn’t really get it.” He shook his head. “It just—they didn’t do much! They were just... little things.”

“Little things can still hurt, Chase,” Mom explained. “Sometimes more than the big things. You know what they say. There’s a straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

Chase paused. “I’ve heard that, but I don’t... really get what that means.”

“Oh. Well, imagine you have a camel who’s carrying a bunch of stuff on its back, for a big trip across the desert. It’s carrying so much stuff that the weight is almost too much. When the camel is at its limit, even the tiniest bit of straw could be too much weight, and cause the camel to collapse and break its back. You said JJ was feeling pressured, so like that camel, he’s already carrying a bunch of weight. The little things you were doing felt like a lot.”

“Oh,” Chase breathed. That... would make sense with JJ, wouldn’t it? He mentioned his parents were on him all the time about being perfect, and then he also had the magic doll making him do stuff. Chase’s little slip-ups were just adding more to all that. “I...” Chase leaned against Mom, his eyes stinging again. “I don’t think I’m good at picking up on feelings.”

Mom patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, you’re still young. And you’re learning. Did you talk to JJ about all this?”

“Yeah. While we were in Ireland I talked to him. That’s when he said some of this stuff.”

“It’s good that you were able to tell something was happening and start the talk. Maybe it didn’t go well, but you can always keep going, try to fix that.”

“How?”

Mom shrugged. “You have to listen to JJ. Ask him what he wants, and take it seriously.”

“I wasn’t not taking it seriously!” Chase said defensively.

Mom laughed. “I never said you weren’t.”

Chase sighed... and then thought about it. He definitely knew the doll thing was a serious matter. But... maybe it wasn’t clicking into place for him on the serious scale. Chase didn’t know what JJ was going through with the doll and his parents and everything. He didn’t “get” it, just as JJ accused him of during the trip to Ireland. But just because he didn’t know what it felt like to be JJ, didn’t mean that he couldn’t listen to what JJ wanted. It didn’t mean that he couldn’t try. “Thanks, Mom. I-I think I have an idea for what to do now.”

“Glad I could help, sweets.” Mom smiled.

“You have work stuff to do, right?” Chase hopped the bed. “I’m gonna go, then.”

“Hah. Well I did reach a stopping point, but thanks, Chase. You’re very thoughtful.”

“...yeah, I guess.” Chase didn’t feel very thoughtful with all this JJ stuff. But he could be. If he tried. “See you.”

“See you, Chase.”

Chase left Mom’s room at the end of the hall—and stopped. Schneep was standing there. Right outside the bathroom door, clearly within range to hear Chase and Mom talking. “Uh...”

“I-I did not mean to listen,” Schneep hurriedly said. “I just—I-I just—I, ah—”

“It’s fine, bro, don’t worry about it,” Chase said. “What did you hear?”

“Something about talking to JJ... and Aunt Jess told you to listen to him.” Schneep shifted awkwardly on his feet. “Were you not... listening to him before?”

“I was, I just... I don’t think I was doing a very good job,” Chase said quietly. “But I’m gonna try again.”

“I-is there anything I can do to help?” Schneep asked.

“Uh... maybe?” Chase said. “I don’t know. Do you know...” He paused, thinking. “JJ said I didn’t get what he was going through. Do... do you? Could you explain it to me?”

Schneep looked at Chase seriously for a second. Then he walked over to his room, gesturing for Chase to follow him. He did, and once the two of them were inside, Schneep shut the door. “Aunt Jess told you that my parents were... not very nice to me, ja?”

Chase nodded slowly. “Do you think JJ and Marvin’s parents are the same?”

“Not... exactly the same. I-I think they are a bit nicer.” Schneep fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater. “But... I think their parents really want JJ to be... what they want. They want him to be smart. A-and I know what that is like.”

Chase tilted his head. “Don’t all parents want their kids to be smart?”

“...um... s-sort of?” Schneep said. “But i-it is different. Aunt Jess would never tell you that you are disappointing if you did not get a perfect score on a test, would she?”

“What?! No!”

“Exactly. But I-I think JJ’s parents would.”

Chase shook his head slowly. He couldn’t even picture that. “That’s... that really is mean.”

Schneep gave a dark little laugh. “Yes... it is, isn’t it?” He continued to fidget with his sleeves. “The Jacksons want JJ to be exactly what they want. He does not want to disappoint them. So... there is pressure, ja?”

“Yeah. I’d be so scared of letting Mom down if she called me a disappointment when I did.”

Schneep nodded. “Things could be worse, too... but I do not think the Jacksons get too much worse than that. They feel... They would feel different when they look at you.”

Chase stared at him. “Hey, uh... Schneep, if you... ever want to talk about this stuff, I could uh... I’ll listen. I’m not sure if I’ll be good at it, but I’ll try.”

“You could be good at it, Chase.” Schneep looked up at him, smiling. “I-I know you care a lot. You just... are not sure how to show it, sometimes.”

“I wonder if I cared about JJ and the doll thing...” Chase muttered.

“You do. You just... did not understand, I think. But now you are ready to try and understand, ja?”

Chase nodded. “I-I am. I don’t know if I will, but I’ll listen. Like I did with you, and with Marvin. I-I don’t know why I could listen to you guys and not to JJ.”

“Well, I live with you, and Marvin is loud. JJ is quiet and does not live with you.”

“...it makes sense when you say it like that.” Chase laughed. “Uh, thanks, Schneep. And, uh... what I just said. If you want to talk about stuff, I’ll listen.”

“Thank you, Chase.” Schneep’s smile widened. “Now... go on. I am sure that you have things to do.”

“Yeah. I wanna plan stuff.” Chase nodded. “See you later.” And with that, he turned and left Schneep’s room, thinking about how to approach this JJ situation. He had an idea for what to do, he just had to figure out how to approach it.

++++++++++++++++++++

Hey can you meet me at Zellys after school tomorrow? You can bring Marvin if you want.

Why?

I want to talk about stuff. Say sorry. Is that okay or do you still want me to not talk to you?

No it’s fine. I’ll be there. Marvin will too.

Chase reread the text message exchange over and over, then looked out at the interior of Zelly’s. It was pretty empty this time of year, though there were a smattering of people sitting around drinking hot chocolate. JJ and Marvin hadn’t arrived yet. But they had to be here soon. Chase had been waiting for ten minutes. Mom dropped him off after school, Chase had promised to call her when he needed a ride back, and then said goodbye to her and Schneep and headed in, sitting at a booth near the front entrance. It was a bit cold, but he wouldn’t miss JJ and Marvin coming in... or so he thought. As time went on, he started to wonder if he’d missed them after all. Or maybe they weren’t coming at all.

Nope, the door opened and the twins walked in. JJ had his bag. It was mostly empty, but Chase could see the shape of a notebook and something plush. The doll, of course.

Chase considered waving them over, but they spotted him before then, walking over and sitting down on the booth bench across from him. “Soooo. Hey.” Marvin gave an awkward little wave. “I don’t know what this whole thing’s about, but JJ wanted me here.”

“Y-yeah. Of course, uh. Yeah.” Chase nodded. 

They sat there in silence for a bit. Should we order something to drink? JJ asked.

“Uh, you’ll have to wave down one of the waiters, then, cause they checked on me earlier and I said I was fine.” Chase gave a little laugh. “But... uh, this isn’t about the drinks. We could but... I don’t know, it might be distracting or something.”

Marvin looked back and forth between JJ and Chase. “Is this about whatever happened in the hotel?”

“Basically, yeah,” Chase muttered. “Did JJ tell you what happened?”

“Nope. Not a thing. Even though I keep asking very politely.” Marvin shot JJ a playful glare. But JJ didn’t return the playfulness. Marvin’s expression softened. “Do you want me to go over to another table while you guys talk?”

Maybe... JJ said. Just for a bit.

Marvin nodded. “I’ll just go to the bathroom or something. Be back soon.” He stood up and left.

JJ slumped in his seat. I shouldn’t have asked him to come, but... I didn’t want to be alone right now. With the doll situation.

“Yeah...” Chase picked up a napkin and fidgeted with it awkwardly. “JJ I’m... I-I’m really sorry for all the commands I’ve been giving you accidentally. I didn’t... I-I never wanted to hurt you. You’re my friend. And I... I’m sorry that I didn’t... think about stuff that I should’ve.”

Jameson just stared at him.

“Y-you’re probably angry at me, a-and that’s—that’s okay,” Chase said. “You can be angry. It’s, uh... I-I would be angry too. But I-I want to make up for being... not thoughtful. So... I-I want to ask you what I can do to help. Wh-what do you want? What do you need? I’ll help you with it, whatever it is.” He almost said ‘tell me,’ but he was watching his words carefully. Don’t say anything that could be an order.

Silence. Jameson continued to stare. Then he sighed. Do you mean it? Do you really mean it?

Chase nodded. “Like I said, I wasn’t... I wasn’t doing a good job helping you with the doll thing, with all the... the accidental orders and stuff. So I-I want to make up for it. Cause I’m really sorry for all the... a-all the trouble I’ve been causing.”

More staring. Then, JJ’s brows lowered and he nodded decisively. Alright. I need you to help me get rid of the doll, then.

“Oh, uh, yeah, totally,” Chase said. “But... I’m confused. We don’t really have a way to get rid of it, do we?”

I’ve had an idea for a while, JJ said. I haven’t brought it up, though, because... I know that people will say it’s dangerous. He took a deep breath. When we tried to burn the doll a while ago, it fixed itself, right? But Marvin said that when it did that, the greenlight spiked. So I wonder... Maybe it will run OUT of greenlight. If we messed up the doll a lot, it would have to use a lot of greenlight to repair itself, until it uses all its greenlight up. And maybe after that, we can fully destroy it. Because there won’t be enough greenlight to protect it.

Chase blinked. “You want… to... JJ, that would hurt you! A lot!”

I know, JJ said. But I can’t live like this forever, Chase. Every time my parents tell me to do something, I HAVE to do it. I had to do it anyways, before, but... I could have said no. Now I can’t. And that... that really hurts. More than any of the pain the doll could inflict. Because at least once the doll is gone, it will be over. If I keep having it, I’ll keep hurting forever.

“I don’t...” Chase breathed. “I-I don’t want you to get hurt...”

“What are you two fucking talking about?!” Marvin was back at the table.

Chase blinked. “Uh—”

“JJ, what the fuck are you talking about that would get you hurt?!” Marvin asked, sitting back down next to him and leaning close.

JJ sighed and repeated what he’d told Chase.

“You want to fucking what?!” Marvin gasped. “Jameson! That—wh-what if that—what if you get really hurt? What if you—you h-have to—go to the h-hospital? Or... worse?”

I won’t, JJ said. I’ve been thinking about what it felt like. It was only pain, no actual damage. I checked.

“Pain is still bad! It means something’s going wrong! JJ, you can’t do this.”

I HAVE to do this, Marvin, Jameson insisted. I can’t keep living with this fucking doll.

“But—but—” Marvin was trembling, fists clenched together. “Chase, you agree with me, right?”

Chase was quiet.

“Chase?!” Marvin shouted.

“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Chase said slowly. “But... we don’t have a good idea for getting rid of the doll. You can’t drain the greenlight from it, can you?”

“I-I mean... I can kinda get it to move around a little...”

“But you can’t pull it out of the doll, can you?” Chase prompted. Marvin opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything, and only shook his head. “Exactly. JJ’s idea might work. It’s just a tiny doll. It can’t have, like, an infinite amount of greenlight. Nothing does! Well, except maybe the Fissures. But that’s cause that’s where the greenlight comes from, creatures up here don’t have infinite greenlight. They only channel it or hold it until they run out.”

“Chase, I can’t just stand by while my brother hurts himself,” Marvin said quietly.

Then don’t, Marvin, JJ said. Help us with it. Make sure that it’s as safe as possible.

“Chase isn’t helping you with this crazy fucking idea!” Marvin insisted.

“I...” Chase’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “I promised I’d help JJ out with whatever he wanted. And he wants to try this to get rid of the doll.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Marvin shouted. 

“Marvin, maybe—maybe we could do this in a safe way,” Chase said. “Maybe we could do it in, like, spurts. With breaks. O-or we could do it while JJ is asleep so he might sleep through it. Though... I guess if it really hurts it’ll wake him up... But still! I-I haven’t really been listening to JJ lately... kind of the same way I wasn’t... really understanding you and your ‘weird’ thing. S-so... if JJ wants me to help him with this to make up for that, then I’ll do it.”

Marvin stared at Chase silently. Then he looked at Jameson. “You guys can’t just... talk this out? Like Chase and I did?”

Chase is the one who wanted to do a thing to make up for it, JJ said. But even if he wasn’t... I think actions will speak louder than words for me. Because Chase kept promising and saying stuff, but not doing stuff. 

Chase winced as Jameson said that, but it was true.

I don’t know why you were okay with a sorry and I’m not, Jameson said. But... I want this. I want to get away from this doll, and if Chase can help... then I want his help.

Marvin pursed his lips. “I don’t like it... but... if we try to make sure it’s safe... M-maybe I could... help.” He took a deep breath. “Maybe if there’s less greenlight in the doll, I’ll be able to pull out the last of it.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Chase tore the corner off the napkin he was playing with. 

“Oh my god... we can’t tell any of the others what we’re going to do,” Marvin said. “You know the other three will want to stop us.”

“Part of me says that they have a point,” Chase muttered.

Guys, please. Jameson looked back and forth between the two of them. I have to get rid of this. There’s not another way. If there was, we would’ve thought of it by now.

Marvin groaned, “Ohhh this is a baaaad idea. But I guess... I guess we can’t think of anything better.”

You two are in? Jameson asked seriously.

Chase and Marvin nodded silently.

Good. Alright, let’s come up with a plan...

++++++++++++++++++++

“So you two are going to spend time together, then? Like you did with Marvin?”

“Yeah, I told you this before, you don’t have to keep asking me.” Chase looked out the window. He could see the Jackson house coming up. 

“I just like to be sure,” Schneep said. “So why are you going over to his house instead of to that cinema you went to with Marvin?”

“Cause he didn’t want to go there, I dunno.” And because it would be really bad if they were caught taking a lighter and some knives into a movie theater. Even one that was usually empty.

“Hm.” Schneep pursed his lips. “I just... I would expect that he would want to get away from his parents...”

“They’re gonna go on a date tonight,” Chase said. “We’re gonna be home alone. Apparently their parents leave them home alone a lot.”

“Hrmm.” Mom hummed, listening in on the conversation as she drove. Even Chase could tell she disapproved of that practice. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”

“If things get bad, I’ll call you or Jackie,” Chase said. “I promise.”

“Alright...”

“Mom, you let me skateboard in the park by myself this summer! This isn’t much different!”

“You’re right, Chase, you’re right.” Mom nodded. “Anyway. Here we are.” She pulled to the side of the curb in front of the Jackson house. “Henrik and I will be back to pick you up in about an hour.”

“Good luck, Chase,” Schneep said.

“Thanks, guys.” Chase smiled. “Love you.” He got out of the car and headed up to the Jacksons’ front door.

Immediately, Marvin opened the doorway. He must have been watching from the kitchen window. “Hey, Chase. Come in.” He stepped to the side, and Chase walked into the front hallway. He hadn’t been here since the Halloween birthday party. His eyes were immediately drawn to the stairs, but he quickly looked away. Marvin closed the door behind Chase. “Mam and Dad are already gone,” he said.

“And your grandma left, too?” Chase asked.

“Yep. Granmam’s gone back home to Ireland. But it was nice to have her here. It’s always nice.” Marvin smiled slightly. “Uh... JJ’s in the living room. So...”

“Right, yeah, let’s go.”

The two of them walked down the hallway to the living room. JJ was sitting on the sofa, a textbook in his lap, scanning it intently. The twins’ cat, the small gray Sinney, sat curled up next to him on the cushions, leaning on his leg. Gathered on the coffee table were a couple different things. A lighter, a fireplace poker with two tongs on the end (who knows where they got those?), and a couple kitchen knives, one with a serrated edge. And, of course, the doll. “Before Mam and Dad left they told JJ to study,” Marvin said. “And they said he could stop at five, so... we need a few minutes.”

“O-oh.” Chase looked at JJ again, the way his gaze was completely fixed on the book. “Uh... JJ?”

JJ raised a single hand and waved, eyes still locked on the page.

“That’s... that’s a bit freaky,” Chase said quietly. “Jeez... I-I’m sorry again, JJ.”

JJ nodded.

Marvin sat down on the armchair and picked up the TV remote. “Okay... w-we want this to be kinda calming, so we put a movie on. And we also have this.” He reached back and pulled a fuzzy, cream-colored blanket from the back of the armchair. “And this.” He leaned forward, grabbing a throw pillow from behind him. “Just, you know... comfy stuff. To offset the... the...” Marvin trailed off, his face drawn in worry. “Are we... We’re really doing this, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess we are,” Chase sighed. “It feels weird to be doing this without the others. Kinda like... we’re sneaking around.”

“Yeah. But you know that Jackie wouldn’t let us do this.”

Chase nodded. Jackie was probably right... after all, they’d already established this was a bad idea. But...

The next couple minutes pass in awkward silence, until JJ finally slams the book shut, letting out a sigh of relief. Sinney jumps in surprise, falling onto her other side. Sorry, he signed to her.

“You, uh... were really stuck, huh?” Chase said.

Jameson nodded slowly. I hate it. I can’t wait until this is done with.

“Come on, Sinney.” Marvin hurried over and scooped her up. “You’re staying in our room, out of the way.”

“She’s bigger than she was at Halloween,” Chase commented. “Cats really grow up fast, huh?”

“Yep.” Marvin nodded. “I’ll be right back.” And he hurried out of the room.

JJ grabbed the blanket, pillow, and TV remote Marvin pointed out earlier. He curled up in the corner of the L-shaped sofa, pulling the blanket over his legs and leaning back against the pillow. He turned on the TV with the remote, and a DVD menu appeared. Chase looked at the screen. “The Nightmare Before Christmas? Uh... not what I expected, honestly.”

All our normal movies are still put away for the holiday season, with the Christmas movies still out, JJ explained. Nightmare is our favorite out of all those.

“It’s... comforting?”

Yeah. I know it’s weird but... yeah. JJ started the movie. 

“It’s not weird,” Chase assured him. “It’s not what I’d choose, but I can get it. It’s like... it’s fun.”

JJ brightened slightly and nodded.

Marvin soon returned. “Aw, I missed ‘This is Halloween’?”

“Do you want us to rewind?” Chase asked.

“N-no, let’s...” Marvin took a deep breath. “Let’s just get started. Before I fucking... chicken out.” He picked up the fireplace poker and the doll, hesitating. Then he scrunched his eyes shut and stabbed the tongs into the doll’s chest.

Chase winced. JJ jerked in place slightly, but soon relaxed again.

“Chase?” Marvin held onto the handle of the poker. The doll is solidly stabbed on the end, and he used the poker to hold it at arm’s length. “Uh... start doing shit?”

“Right.” Chase picked up the lighter. This would only be his... second time using one? The last time he used one was to light the candle on Mom’s birthday cake, because he felt like she shouldn’t have to do that for herself. That was months ago. He clicked it on and carefully aimed the flame at the doll’s foot... keeping it there until the flames started to spread.

JJ’s foot jerked in turn. He frowned, folding it under his other leg. As the fire spread across the doll, Jameson shifted uncomfortably, and pushed the blanket off. His face was slowly turning red from the heat.

“Okay okay that’s enough!” Marvin quickly said.

Jameson shook his head, protesting. Not yet!

“JJ you look like you’re burning up!”

I’m fine!

“You’re not!” Marvin looked back at the doll, engulfed in flames. “Chase, go get some water from the kitchen!”

“Uh—sure!” Chase ran out of the room and towards the kitchen. He grabbed an empty plastic pitcher off the counter and filled it up with water from the sink. Then he dashed back down the hall, water splashing around, and threw the water at the burning doll.

Immediately, the flames went out. JJ slumped, gasping and sweating. He raised shaky hands and asked, Did it work?

“If you mean ‘is the greenlight spiking like before,’ then yeah.” Marvin put the doll and poker down. The three guys all stared as the burned fabric as it slowly unburned.

Is there less greenlight? JJ asked.

“Uh... yeah, I guess.” 

Then do it again!

“JJ, I don’t...” Marvin trailed off.

Please. Jameson looked back and forth between Marvin and Chase. I know this will work. Just keep going.

“...I guess we could try again,” Chase muttered. He bent down and poked the doll. “Oh my god, it’s dry now.”

“I guess we can burn it again, then...” Marvin said slowly. He picked up the poker, holding the doll out in the same manner. “Uh... Chase?”

Chase reluctantly picked up the lighter again. He clicked it on and slowly put it up to the doll’s arm, watching as it lit up. Jameson winced, shaking out his hand. He curled up as the fire engulfed the doll, a small whimper coming from his throat—

“Okay do it again water again!” Marvin shouted.

Chase ran out of the room with the pitcher, filled it up again, and returned, splashing the doll once more. And again, Jameson relaxed, gasping.

Marvin dropped the doll. “We can’t keep doing this,” he said.

But it’s working! JJ said desperately. You know it is!

“You got more hurt faster, JJ! I don’t want to fucking hurt you!” Marvin’s voice cracked.

We just need to wait a bit more between doing it. You know Mam and Dad will be out all evening and Chase doesn’t have to leave until eight. We just give it a bigger gap so I can recover more!

“Are you fucking serious?! JJ, I don’t want to hurt you at all!”

Chase winced. “JJ, I... I really want to help you, but... it feels bad. To be doing this. Th-there has to be another way.”

I haven’t thought of one, Jameson said. But I’m open to suggestions.

“...Uhhh...” Chase’s thoughts whirled as he scrambled for a solution. “Have you... have you thought about opening up the doll? Seeing if there’s something inside?”

The Jackson twins both stared at him. Completely silent, and obviously stunned.

“You haven’t?” Chase had expected JJ to say something like ‘yes I tried that and it didn’t work.’ After all, JJ was smarter than him.

“Well it seems obvious when you say it like that,” Marvin muttered.

People put stuff inside plushies? JJ asked.

“Yeah. Like at Build-A-Bear. Or, uh, I-I haven’t seen any of those in town, so maybe you don’t know. But at Build-A-Bear, they put little hearts and voice boxes inside the bears when they stuff them. Maybe whoever made this doll did that, too.”

“...huh.” Marvin blinked. “I guess it’s worth a shot. Right, JJ?”

JJ nodded. He picked up the remote and paused the movie, sensing that this needed serious silence. How do we do that?

“I mean... I guess we have to cut it open...” Chase muttered. “It’ll try to fix itself, but if one of us holds it open while the other reaches inside, I think that’ll work.”

Marvin immediately picked up the doll. “Alright, Chase. I can hold it.” He glanced at JJ. “This... this will hurt you, too, you know... b-but hopefully less... and hopefully it’ll be over after this...”

Jameson nodded. I can handle it for a little bit.

“Okay...” Marvin whispered. “Ready, Chase?”

“Uh... yeah, I guess.” He picked up one of the kitchen knives the two had brought out and left on the coffee table. “Lay it on the table face-down. Oh, a-and take off the shirt.”

Marvin knelt next to the coffee table. “The clothes are sewn on, we tested that, but I’ll pull it up.” He did so, leaving the back of the doll exposed.

Chase knelt down across from him. He gripped the knife tightly and took a deep breath. “Alright.” This felt... bad, but not as bad as what they were doing before. He’d never stabbed anything before. Does he just... push the tip of the knife into the fabric? He carefully tried that.

The fabric gave some resistance, but he was able to cut into it. Chase gritted his teeth and pulled the knife downward. Both he and Marvin glanced over at JJ as they did that. Jameson was stiff, pressing his back against the pillow and sofa, but gave them an encouraging thumbs up as they looked at him. 

Once there was a long cut through the fabric, Marvin reached forward and pulled it so the cut was wider—keeping it from closing up as well. Chase could see a bunch of stuffing inside it. No time to wait! He plunged his hand inside, feeling around—and immediately found something, cringing at the strange texture. He pulled it out, going in two other times to make sure he got it all. On the third time, he couldn’t find anything more... and the cut in the fabric had stopped trying to seal itself.

JJ sat up, his eyes wide. It doesn’t hurt anymore!

“That must’ve been it!” Marvin gasped. He looked at the pile of stuff Chase had pulled out, and his nose wrinkled. “Oh, what the fuck is that?”

Inside the doll was a pile of red-brown crusty... stuff. And a handful of broken crystal shards. “I have no idea,” Chase said, staring at it on the coffee table.

JJ leaned forward. I think that’s dried blood. It caused some of the stuffing to clump together.

“Ohhhh.” Marvin nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. We know blood makes greenlight stron—”

“You ruined it!”

Chase’s face suddenly slammed against the coffee table as someone tackled him from behind. He yelled in pain, Marvin cried out in alarm, and shot a beam of greenlight at the thing that had pinned Chase, knocking away a sudden shadow. The shadow skidded across the ground until it hit the armchair, where it solidified: Anti.

“Ruined what, asshole?!” Marvin shouted, standing up.

“Everything!” Anti shouted back. “You haven’t actually gone to fight the Circle, you ruined the present, you ruined everything! Can’t you just play the game right?!”

“Maybe we could if you explained whatever bullshit rules you’re playing at!” Green spheres of light appeared around Marvin’s hands. “Get out of here!”

Chase scrambled to his feet. “You—We know about you!” He pointed at Anti.

“Huh?” Anti tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean? Of course you know about me.”

“No, no we know about Jack!” Chase said. “You—you were his friend or something, weren’t you?”

Anti stiffened. In that moment, he looked more solid than he ever had before, the blood from the wound on his neck flowing down his throat. “You... found Jack?” he whispered. “You talked to him?”

“Yeah.” Chase nodded. “And he remembers you. You’re his imaginary friend. Did you like, become real through the greenlight or something?”

Anti’s eyes darkened. “You don’t know anything,” he said bitterly. “Jack doesn’t remember me. He forgot about me.” He unfurled to his full height, taller than the kids, feet solidly on the ground for once. “Just like JJ will forget about you.” He pointed at Marvin. “When you’re allll grown up, he’s going to forget about you and leave you behind.”

Marvin blinked, then narrowed his eyes. “You said that we don’t know anything? Clearly, you don’t fucking know anything, either! JJ would never leave me! We’ve been together through everything!”

“You don’t know that!” Anti screamed. “He’s going to leave you! Cause everyone loves him! He’s gonna choose that instead of you! Didn’t you see?! Hasn’t he been doing that these past couple months?!”

“Only because of that fucking doll!”

“Wait!” Chase held up his hands. “How do you know about the doll?”

“Cause I gave it to him, you—you dummy!” Anti snapped. “It took me so long to make it and figure out how to—I put my blood in that doll! Literally!”

Marvin gaped. “But—but he got that from the Circle, didn’t he? The school staff gave it to him.”

“Because I gave it to them first. I had to figure out how to make it so you wouldn’t throw it away right away—it probably wouldn’t have worked if you did that. So it had to be important, so it had to be like a prize or something, and he won so many school prizes, anyway.”

Chase’s knees felt weak. It felt like he was about to fall over. “But—but why? Wh-why would you do that?”

“To show you that he’s like that, anyway,” Anti said. “If the doll is real or not, it doesn’t matter, there’s always a doll there, because JJ is like Jack, he is a doll who listens to people, and cause of that, he’s going to leave you behi—!”

A flash of movement. Jameson rushed the coffee table, scooped up a knife, and launched himself at Anti. The blade sank into Anti’s stomach as the two of them toppled back, smacking against the armchair and falling to the floor. Jameson tried to stab Anti two more times, but to no effect, his hand just passing through his body this time. Anti looked at him in shock—and then disappeared. Jameson stared at the place he’d been, and then growled and punched the floor right where Anti’s face was.

“Holy shit, JJ!” Marvin gaped. “I know he sucks but—but that was so sudden! Did you really have to—”

“I-I...”

Chase inhaled sharply. That voice... JJ was...

“I…” Jameson leaned back, kneeling and clutching his head. “I-I ammm... I-I am nnh...”

Marvin went pale. He hurried over to Jameson’s side, kneeling next to him. “JJ, don’t—you know that it’s hard for you to—y-you don’t have to—”

“I am nn—!” Jameson continued. “I-I am n-nah—n-naht... I a-am nnot a d-dahl. I-I am—not! A d-d-doll!” His breath hitched as tears filled his eyes. “I-I am n-not a doll! I am not a d-doll! I am not a doll!” The tears overflowed, streaming down his face as he screamed the words over and over. Marvin, shocked, silently put a hand on his back, and when Jameson didn’t pull away, he wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “I a-am not a doll! I am not a doll!”

Chase stood nearby, shocked at what he was seeing. Part of him felt like he should leave. But... another part of him knew he shouldn’t. He slowly walked forward, kneeling on the ground in front of Jameson but staying out of arm’s reach, just in case. “You’re not a doll,” he said quietly. “You’re... y-you’re a person. With your own thoughts and stuff. Your own things that you like and want. I-it’s not fair that people just... want you to do what they want. Or that they... just kinda assume you’re not bothered by stuff that would clearly bother you.” He cleared his throat, embarrassed. “I’m... I’m sorry.”

Jameson looked up at him through watery eyes, breathing heavily.

“I... I-I think I was maybe... not all that good at seeing how scared you were,” he continued. “I think... I just thought that since you didn’t say anything, you weren’t bothered. But... clearly, something really bad was happening. If you were okay with being hurt to get rid of it.” He took a deep breath. “But you’re my friend, JJ. I don’t want you to be hurt, by yourself, or by other people, or... by me. You’re not a doll. You’re fun, and brave, and weird in a good way, and I-I like how you can be funny in a quiet way, and I like how much you like your film and theatre stuff, and... and I like you, JJ. The real you, not whatever your parents or the teachers or the Circle people see about you. All the books and smarts and stuff. I mean, you are smart, but you’re so many other things. And I’m sorry I didn’t... I didn’t get you.”

Jameson’s breathing had calmed down, but he was still crying slightly. It was a different kind of crying, though. Thank you, Chase, he said, hands trembling slightly. I’m glad we’re friends. You messed up a bit, but I know you care. I’m glad we’re friends. I’m glad we’re friends.

Chase smiled slightly. “Yeah. Me too.” He took a deep breath. “Um... so. The ‘let’s destroy the doll’ thing was a really bad idea. We can all agree on that, right?”

JJ laughed. Yeah, that sucked. Not very smart of me. I guess I just... really, REALLY wanted it gone. Thanks for suggesting the... doll surgery instead.

“Ha. It was kinda doll surgery, wasn’t it?”

“I can’t fucking believe neither of us thought about that,” Marvin muttered. “Maybe we were just too scared to try. But like—messing the doll up over and over was even scarier, and your idea made more sense. I can’t believe after all that time, it was that easy to get rid of that fucking thing. Ugh.” He looked at the remains of the doll on the coffee table. The blood-crusted stuffing and crystal fragments. “What do we do with that?”

“I say we light the bloody stuff on fire,” Chase said. “And then like... bury the crystals. And the doll. In two different spots.”

JJ shook his head slightly. I don’t think we bury the doll. We should keep it somewhere we can keep an eye on it. The crystals, though, that’s a good idea. I don’t want to touch them, though.

“I’ll take care of it.” Marvin let go of JJ and crawled over to the coffee table, putting the crystals in his pocket. “And let’s also burn this shit.” He put the bloody stuffing into the pitcher, then grabbed the lighter. Greenlight surrounded his hand, and he levitated the lighter down into the pitcher as well, using the greenlight to turn it on and light the stuffing on fire. Then he quickly pulled the lighter back out.

They all watched as the fire burned. 

And once it started to die down, Chase hurried over to grab the pitcher. “I’m gonna put this out with water,” he said. “We don’t wanna mess up the bottom of the jug.” He hurried into the kitchen and filled up the pitcher. All that was left inside was ash, which he dumped out into the sink with the water. Then he put the pitcher back where it was on the counter and returned to the living room. “Well. What d’you guys want to do now?”

JJ looked at the TV. Can we start the movie over? Actually watch it? And can we get Sinney, too?

“Yeah, of course, JJ,” Marvin said.

Chase sat down on the sofa. “We’ll have a nice night with a movie and a cat.”

JJ smiled. He climbed onto the sofa, too, sitting next to Chase. Marvin got Sinney from their room, and they started the movie over, silent the whole time as they watched it to the end.

[quidfree]

Weird question: In both Papenathy and Todobaku, who would notice first if their partner got replaced/possessed by an imposter (presumably with malicious intentions) and how?

this is sooooo fun as a q actually but i could go on abt it forever bc IT DEPENDS ON CONTEXT. so im trying to be very restrained here and just go w the overall most likely outcomes. but know that i am so into this hypothetical mwah

papenathy:

this took me some vacillating bc we get several canon bits where richard thinks he has everything figured out and then francis yanks the rug out from under him / turns out to have a better read on richard than richard has on him. BUT because richard is marginally less self involved i think he has to take the win here bc francis literally didn’t even notice his being shot while in the same room as him.

HOW richard would figure it out is actually the difficult bit here. bc francis can be sneaky / cruel / manipulative as setting demands so none of that would be ooc per se. i think either the ominous impostor just overdoes it personality wise (à la fanon francis lol) and is like, too flirty or too clingy or too whatever and richard gets hives, or it’s one of those minute detail things. like the impostor actually is a very studied copycat and there’s nothing overt, and every mistake just feels like normal human weirdness, but then in some intensely specific situation fake francis does something like use a shoehorn when francis always slips his shoes on with a finger to the heel, or henry goes on one of his grammatical monologues and instead of shooting richard a speaking look from across the room francis isn’t even listening and richard just gets this sudden screaming alarm bell ringing in the back of his head. his way of testing the theory is by having someone call francis and see if he lunges for the phone or not.

if this is in established couple territory itd be easier bc theyre more in tune. lots of more little things to pick up. especially the uglies theyve gotten used to working around. fake francis doesn’t cover his abused wrists enough or doesn’t steal richard’s well-worn hampden shirt for bedclothes sometimes or doesn’t press down on the well-healed bullet scar with gentle cruelty.

also if francis is the one who clocks an impostor i feel like it’d be comically fast for a really petty reason. like fake richard being too normal. or actually straight! “oh i could tell it wasn’t you right away he was entirely unattracted to me”

todobaku:

this is tougher on who would notice first bc they both very well could. i guess again it depends on how good the impostor is at acting like them. bc i feel like katsuki would be the underrated victor at detecting shouto acting just a fraction off, but if the impostor is really good then probably fake shouto would be harder to read and so shouto would call it on fake katsuki first.

how they figure it out depends on if the impostor is good, again. in their case i assume it’s a villain w a quirk type situation (doesn’t toga literally shapeshift) so if it’s a sloppy impression i expect they catch on within like five minutes of entering a room and waste no time in attacking the impostor as everyone else there protests in shock. afterwards when people ask how they knew so fast theyre just like… “todoroki would NEVER coordinate his shirt and his shoes that well.” or “i smiled at bakugou when i walked in and he smiled back. it was like a nightmare.” PR tries to run with a heartwarming friendship narrative despite these quotes.

if the villain is better than that, as above, the noticing is in the subtleties, and bc theyre both ptsd-laden hypervigilant professional superheroes who have been fighting together since long before they were friends i think maybe it’d be out in the field that they’d catch on. shouto stands next to a bakugou who doesn’t roll his shoulders just-so before locking into his gauntlets and immediately goes silently hyperfocused, just waiting for the next slip-up to confirm his gut feeling. katsuki watches a todoroki pull a combo move starting from the wrong side and does the same.

[lanadane1]

About You

(Early November 1984) 

Prologue: The Split 

Eddie Munson x female!harrington!reader 

Chapter Summary:  Eddie confronts you about where you have been.  When you cannot provide an answer, the worst case scenario happens... 

Word Count: 1.7k (this is probably the shortest chapter lol)

 series masterlist here

Chapter warnings: Angst, breakup, aggressive Eddie, cheating allegations (not true)

Your heart dropped to the trailer floor- ripped in two halves.  

The statement your boyfriend just produced felt like he has thrust a knife into your chest, removed your heart, and ripped it in two.  You wished the bed you sat upon would swallow you whole.  Your eyes welled up and obstructed your view of him leaning on the dresser across the room from you as the words he spat reverberated in your brain like a harsh melody.  

“If you can’t trust me enough to tell me then I just… I don’t know if I can be with you.” Eddie hesitated as the weight of his words and the gravity of the situation dawned upon him.  He crossed his arms on his chest and stretched the red flannel he was wearing across his biceps.  It was a defensive stance that reflected his uncomfortable and frazzled state- yet you couldn’t help but recognize how beautiful he was as he did the simple action, no matter how inappropriate the circumstance was.  

You dragged your thoughts away from that of Eddies effortless beauty and pulled your sweater over your hands.  Using the heel of your palm, you wiped the quickly drying the water from your cheeks.

You weren’t crying because you were sad, not even because you were angry.  You cried out of frustration.  Helplessness seeped through your skin and your stomach churned at the fact there was nothing you could say or do to fix the situation.

You cried because he was right.  If you couldn’t tell him what happened, he couldn’t stay with you.  You couldn’t say why you disappeared for a week straight. Why you were talking to that douchebag Billy at school.  Why you have cuts and bruises splattered across your beautiful body like paint. Why you have ignored him except for the unavoidable places like class and lunch. 

“Eddie please,” you plead- no, beg, “Don’t do this.  I just can’t, not now.  Eventually I will I just-”

“Trust me y/n I don’t want to.  This-“ he welled up- a mirror image of the girl standing across from him, “I don’t think you get how much this is destroying me.”

“Then don’t!  Just give me a little while, please- just until things settle and die down- “

“What does that even mean!” he yelled exasperated, pushing off the dresser to close some of the space between you.  His shoulders were hunched like the conversation was physically weighing him down. “Die down? What things? Just tell me where you were! If you can’t tell me that then I have no choice but to assume you- “he stalled.

Eddie’s glassy eyes looked into yours with unprecedented intensity.  Pleading with you to prove his suspicions wrong.  To put his worries to rest and ease his fracturing mind.  

Billy Hargrove was a sorry excuse for a boy- much less a man.  The thought of the misogynistic asshole making Eddie insecure was vile, yet you couldn’t dispel his anxieties.  You wanted nothing more than to cut down the thought and provide an alibi- dispelling all worries from the guarded boy’s sensitive state.  But your alibi was too horrific and legally classified to disclose to your boyfriend, so Eddie had to stay out of the loop.  

Eddie didn’t believe you cheated, but his sad and clouded mind could not come to another conclusion. He did trust you.  Implicitly so.  But Eddie just couldn’t believe his luck.  Getting you to be his girlfriend in the first place, keeping you for so long with so many other eligible options for you to choose from, and you loved him? In his mind, the tables had to turn at some point- and here it was.  

“I wasn’t with him.  I would never cheat on you, Eddie.  I love you.  I need you like I need oxygen- it kills me you think I would ever want someone else.” You whine to him.  

“Then prove me wrong, y/n! Let’s look at the facts.  He’s been hitting on you all year.  I find you and him in a corner at Tina’s Halloween party- “

“He cornered me! Could you not see how relieved I was when you pulled me out of there?”

“-You go M.I.A. for like a week and when you finally resurface, Darren tells me he finds you consoling him behind the gym!  What the fuck is up y/n!”

“Darren doesn’t know what the hell he saw!  Please Eds you have to understand-”

“Then enlighten me y/n! Look me in the eye and tell me you weren’t with him when you disappeared.  Tell me you don’t like him.”

You match his intensity. You leave the bed, meeting him in the middle of the room, and close the gap that separates the two of you- grasping his face in your hands and palms cupping his cheeks.  Your eyes burning with insistence into his melting chocolate ones.  

“I wasn’t with him.  I love you, teddy.  I can’t even- god I can’t even think about someone else.”

He grabbed at your wrists and paused a moment.  He believed you.  He loved you too.  But it wasn’t enough to erase the betrayal.  “Then where were you.”

You closed your eyes and leaned your forehead against his.  You understood why he couldn’t let it go.  Eddie told you once that it felt like he repelled commitment; his parents dumped him with Wayne as a child, most of his classmates avoided all interaction with him, and his teachers all gave up on helping him a long time ago.  But then you came along.  A raft in a raging sea.  A blanket in a merciless winter.  So, you could understand why this broke him.  You were the only shred of light left and if you abandoned him too- he feared he would be left in the dark.  Permanently.  

What you couldn’t do- is tell him what happened. You couldn’t explain that your best friend’s little brother and friends found a bald-headed girl in the woods last year that unlocked a secret world which paralleled Hawkins but was infested with monsters of unimaginable horror.  You couldn’t tell him that the boy you babysat, Will Byers, started seeing a shadow monster in the sky and accidentally blipping into that ghastly netherworld and was somehow connected to said shadow monster that had intentions to take over the boy, the town, and probably the world. You couldn’t tell him that the reason you went off the grid was to team up with your friends and focus on taking down this ominous evil. You couldn’t tell him that Billy's little sister was a part of the motley crew that banded together to take down this monster which caused Billy to come looking for said little sister.  And you certainly couldn’t tell him that you were talking to him behind the gym at school to see if he was alright after taking a bad beating from your brother and recovering from an involuntary drugging by his sister- your kindness getting the better of you.  

So, you didn’t.

“I just can’t explain it. Yet.”

Eddie inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.  He pulled your hands from his face and separated your foreheads from each other. He looked into your eyes- his own begging you to change your mind and not force him to make this choice.  

When your face projected that you were cemented in your decision, he became cemented in his.

“Then come find me when you can.  Until then, I think we- “He stopped as tears left his eyes and found purchase in the shag carpet of his bedroom floor.  He found his voice again and finished his sentence, “We need to be done.”  

He let your arms go and they fell limply to your sides.  You couldn’t feel them, as they dragged your shoulders down.  You couldn’t feel the tears that streamed down your cheeks onto your neck and collarbone.  You couldn’t even feel the floor beneath you- like the news pulled the ground out from under you.  That’s why you can only assume you floated to the front porch since you didn’t feel your legs pull you away from Eddies bedroom where he sat on his floor in a hysterical ball.  

You don’t remember the fight after he said you should break up.  You don’t remember the pleading and begging and shouting from both parties.  You don’t remember calling your brother to come pick you up from the trailer you once considered a second home.  

“I thought he was driving you home. Its only like 6?”

“Stevie, please. Just- just come get me.”

“Oh… okay then.  I’ll be there in a little bit.”

You don’t remember how long you sat on Eddies front porch with misty eyes and a trembling body from the crisp November night air.  

But you will never, ever forget the sound of Eddies muffled sobs of anger through the thin trailer walls, or the look on his face as he watched you climb into Steve’s car through the window in his room- pure anguish and immediate regret.  

Steve gripped the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, as he too saw Eddie visibly distraught through the window.  Only after he slowly pulled out of the Forest Hills trailer park and turned onto the main road, did he finally break the silence.  

“You okay?”

“No.”

You figured there was no point in lying.  Steve always found your bluntness amusing, even as children.  However, the low morale of the car ride has him unable to find the humor in your comment.  

“Do you feel like talking?”

“No.”

You both breathed for a second.  There was no need to talk.  It went unspoken.  You both knew what just happened and you both knew that the next few months were going to be rough.  Grueling. Torturous.  But you had Stevie to help.  So, you wouldn’t be alone.

But you both knew he wasn’t who you wanted by your side.  Who you needed by your side.  

He wasn’t Eddie.

Steve’s heart ached at the state you were in.  The streetlights turned his passenger window into a mirror, reflecting a vision of you with puffy eyes and silent tears racing down the hills of your cheeks.  

Meanwhile, it was like your life was flashing before your eyes.  Memories of you and Eddie filled your head and ripped you apart.  Picnics in the back of his van, private concerts in his room, stolen kisses in yours, strong arms that held you together when it times got hard.  

He came and made everything right.  Now, he has left.  And everything is wrong.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my first story so be kind to it!  I just love writing as a hobby and stranger things (*cough Eddie cough*) and thought I’d take a try.  :)))))

[heartonxions]

@ayyden-apoloe !!!!! Your reblog tags literally made my day!!! OFC I KNOW CRANE WIVES HEHEHEEH <333 AND YESSSS YOU’RE RIGHT MOSTLY WITH UR PREDICTION!!!!!! w e are not so different you and I…… lol.

So to try and give you my thoughts and feelings sort of extensively I wrote all my thoughts corresponding to the lyrics (also I hope that this is uhhhhh cool.. and not stupid.... heh.... .urhm... i love turning literally everysong into gajevy so I am a little delulu

To be fair, I was only given the lyrics you see in the actual picture but I already knew the whole song and I was like shit,, to not overwhelm myself i’ll just focus on those lyrics. And also this was originally going to be sort of angsty as the song’s direction was originally going in but at the time i wanted to draw a happy(ish?) picture of them aldjflsjflsjdflk

Tell me once again I could have been anyone, anyone else Before you made the choice for me My feet knew the path We walked in the dark, in the dark I never gave a single thought to where it might lead

Sort of in Gajeel’s POV, he could’ve been anyone, anyone to him being sort of unforgivable and an eternal sinner and Levy made the choice to try and accept him and be brave. This helped him change his ways and mindset, while he didn’t necessarily know why or where his life was going. Walking in the dark gave me the feeling like budding Gajevy relationship (not romantic, just their whole situation once he joined the guild) where they didn’t know how things would go, the uncertainty of everything, ya know?

All those empty rooms We could have been anywhere, anywhere else Instead I made a bed with apathy My heart knew the weight

The empty rooms give me the image of all of Gajeel’s past stages of life, some repressed and some grew out of. ‘We’ here is a current Gajeel with a younger Gajeel, reminiscing about the past, maybe the good old days with Metalicana but instead he went down the path of evil, sheltering his emotions, got comfortable with being so negative but deep down he knew that it was stupid of him. It hurts him to keep acting like nothing bothers him and that his inner turmoil is soon going to boil over.

Ten years worth of dust and neglect We made our peace with weariness and let it be

In my demiromantic gajevy brainrot and wishing things were more spread out and their development being like even more slow burn, I like to think it wasn’t until sorta well after Tenrou do things start turning, the two of them start (unconsciously) shedding their walls of uneasiness of each other 

The moon will sing a song for me I loved you like the sun Bore the shadows that you made With no light of my own I shine only with the light you gave me I shine only with the light you gave me

Both Gajeel and Levy facing the ‘shadows’ the other made, guilt, being forced to deal with self and retrospection, and the trauma and esteem issues respectively. The light yes yes,, the usual with Gajeel but also both of their self-improvement journeys, the light also being the factors that pushed their characters to change (if you couldn’t tell, we are ignoring canon here,,, especially with Levy,,, i need her to be significantly less all about gajeel romantically) 

Name your courage now We could have had anything, anything else Instead you hoarded all that's left of me

Sort of looking back, at all the parts that could’ve gone wrong, like you could’ve had someone better but you kept and loved me for all my flaws.

Swallowing your doubt Like swords to the pit of my belly I want to feel the fire that you kept from me

Helping each other with insecurities, trying to reassure the other in being vulnerable (kills… guys.. The both of them having issues…. And not just gajeel … gurhh..)

In conclusion, I am weird and silly about them and I should make a podcast about every little gajevy thing ever that passes through my brain, also this is just me I do have a little fear of posting these types of things even though it's probably not that crazy ahahah. Well I hope you enjoy this!!!! IM WAVING BACK AT YOU SO VIOLENTLY LOVE WINS

bore the shadows that you made, with no light of my own, i shine only with the light you gave me

sniffle sniffle …… gajevebebebeytt and this song … GRAH,, also an alternate version under the cut :3

[mercy-burning]

Myth or Movie

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader Summary: Unbeknownst to the two of them, Y/N and Spencer's children have worked up a plan to get them to meet... Category: SMUT (18+) Content: Strong language, oral sex (female receiving), penetrative/unprotected sex, someone is misgendered (nothing too bad, it’s very brief, and it’s sincerely apologized for by the person who misgenders) Word Count: 4.2k

MASTERLIST

NOTE: This is my 2nd entry for Pom’s ( @imagining-in-the-margins ) Enemies To Lover’s Writing Challenge! This one was one of the prompts she provided: You and (Character)'s kids don't get along, so you have to have a talk. Turns out you... really really get along... and I couldn’t wait to tackle it! I believe my exact words were: “I’m gonna Parent Trap these bitches”... So do with that what you will lol

———

"I'm so sorry I'm late!"

Two heads turn to stare at me as I burst through the doors. I'm out of breath from running through the building, something the staff really didn't seem to appreciate, though their shouts and annoyed glances were the last thing on my mind.

As I try to catch my breath, the two heads stand, and suddenly I feel a lot smaller.

One of them I recognize— Principal Anteros. I'd met with her before over some of Sky's academic achievements, all positive things, which is why today's circumstances make being in this office rather uncomfortable.

It's also why I seem to shrink with embarrassment at my tardiness— and appearance. Waitressing has its benefits, but today's whirlwind of phone calls and a mention at meeting another parent are not any of them.

Speaking of, the other person in the room is one I've never seen before. He's taller than both Anteros and I, extremely well dressed, and probably the most intimidatingly beautiful human being I'd ever met. I can barely meet his eyes, and so I try not to think about what he's doing here—to think about having to talk to him.

I shrink even further.

"Ms. Y/L/N," Principal Anteros greets. Thankfully she doesn't sound too upset given the circumstances. "Please, have a seat."

I do, brushing off my uniform as if that will somehow help my appearance. The soft leather of the chairs, however comfortable they might be, fail to bring me any comfort at all.

"As I'm sure you've guessed already, this is Doctor Reid, Vivian's father."

Great, he's a fucking doctor? This already bodes well for me...

Regardless of my reservations, I turn to him and give a faint smile. He waves in turn, and for the time being I'm extremely glad he doesn't insist on shaking my hand.

"It's nice to meet you," he says, surely nothing but a formality.

"You, too," I say quickly, then turn back to Principal Anteros. "Your phone call sounded urgent... Is everything alright?"

As soon as I say it, I feel kind of dumb. Because of course everything isn't alright. My child's principal called a meeting with another parent, and that can never mean anything good, not to mention the fucking intimidation and awkwardness in the room right now. I almost apologize, trying to explain that that wasn't exactly what I meant to get across, but then I would have just been talking for way too long, embarrassing myself further.

Once again, I'm thankful for Anteros's ability to move the conversation along. "I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem so. I only bring this to attention because Sky and Vivian are both stellar students. They've never had any disciplinary issues or difficulties with other students..."

"No one's hurt, right?" Mr. Reid asks. I know he's just concerned for his child, but for some reason it feels like an attack on me, like he assumes my kid had something to do with it.

"No, no one's hurt. Thankfully there weren't any physical altercations. But it seems your girls are quite... loud."

The doctor looks like he wants to say something, but I'm quick to jump in before he can. "Sorry... Sky is non-binary. They use they/them pronouns."

I half expect one or either of them to make a big deal or just roll their eyes at me, as most people seem to do when I correct them on the matter, but Anteros gives a sincere apology and Reid probably couldn't have cared any less.

I still can't tell if I like him or not...

But that doesn't matter right now.

"What do you mean by loud?" I continue.

Anteros sighs. "Well, while there hasn't been any physical violence, your kids seem to have very heated arguments, usually during lunch or in the hallway in passing... We thought maybe we could resolve it here since, like I said, they're both excellent students, but then it started escalating to classroom arguments... It's a lot of screaming..."

I have never known Sky to raise their voice at anyone, not even in a situation where I probably would have. Lord knows I'm thankful they don't have my impatience and tendency to get pissed off easily...

So what happened that was so bad, it made them snap?

"You... You're sure you mean Vivian is acting out like this?" Reid asks slowly, and I can't stop myself from laughing out loud.

"Come on, she's a professional. This has been going on for weeks, in her school, I'm sure she would know if it was your kid having a screaming match with someone else..."

This time Doctor Reid actually looks over at me, an eyebrow raised, and though I very much believe what I've just told him, the way he's looking at me right now drops my heart straight down to my stomach, like he's the principal and I'm the student acting out—No, it's worse than that... I feel like he's a disappointed parent, but not with Vivian, with me.

I avoid his intimidating stare and look down at the ground. "Sorry... I'm just... This isn't like Sky, either, I don't know what to do..."

"Well, usually when we have these sort of disputes, we like to have the students talk it out amongst themselves with a moderator present. But we've tried that, and it seems that they still haven't made any progress. Now, I know your children are good at heart, and it seems like you both are excellent parents— You know your children better than anyone here ever could. So, I'm proposing the two of you take a meeting some time and try to figure out how to settle this."

Seriously? If it hasn't been made clear already, this man is a doctor of some kind, planets away from my league in any capacity, and I can just picture the two of us in a screaming match close to what I imagine our children's looked like...

Maybe we can just e-mail.

"Okay," he agrees evenly, and I'm surprised he seems this calm considering I've just practically yelled at him... "I have free time this afternoon if you want to talk it over."

"I have to get back to work, but I get done at five," I sigh, wanting to get this over with. "Are you free then?"

"Mhm."

"Good," Anteros chirps, standing and leaving Doctor Reid and I to follow suit. "Perhaps over the weekend we can get this settled."

I sure as hell hope so.

———

"Ms. Y/L/N, wait!"

I have no idea what he could possibly want from me now that we've set a time and place to talk tonight, but I'm just praying desperately that he doesn't want to take this time alone in the parking lot to get back at me for accosting him in Anteros's office...

Thankfully, his face when he approaches seems rather kind.

"You can call me Y/N..."

"Right," he says, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and nodding. "I'm Spencer."

"Spencer... So, um... Did you need something?"

"O—Oh, I just... I know you have to get back to work so I'll make this short, but I wanted to see if you wanted to do, uh... dinner tonight?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, I just figured since we probably didn't expect for our weekend to go this way... We should make it worth it?"

"Are you really trying to turn this into a date?"

"W— No, not really, I just... You know, I thought it might be nice to... make this less like a chore, you know? A—And don't feel like you have to say yes, it was just a thought, I'm sorry if I made this weirder..."

The fact that I still can't figure this man out bothers me, but right now he's blushing, and he looks like he's trying to save himself from embarrassment, and it's so fucking adorable that I don't really care that I was just annoyed.

So I tell him, "Sure. Why not?"

"Really?"

"Yeah... Besides, Lord knows I haven't gone out for dinner in a long time."

The doctor is relieved, a smile creeping up on his lips that suddenly tugs at my insides and makes me wish for a second that it really is a date he's offering... "Okay, good. Do you want to meet at Waterstone, seven o'clock?"

The excitement starts to drain from me as he says it, followed by an incoming wave of embarrassment. "Oh, man, that... That place is kind of expensive, I don't—"

"Oh, it's okay, I'll pay for everything. I'll even wait outside for you so we can go in together if you'd like..."

Why he's being so nice to me I have no idea, but it's making my annoyance melt and my heart start to beat faster, and I really don't know how to feel about that. In fact I'm pretty sure it's weird as fuck given the circumstances.

But all I have to do is make it through this weekend, hopefully all will be back to normal, and I won't ever have to think about it ever again.

"Alright... It's a date."

———

Out of all the scenarios I'd pictured for the end of the night, this definitely had not been one of them.

I finished my shift at the diner, imagining on my drive home the look on his face when I inevitably showed up with something on my face or stained on my dress; Instead I showed up to Waterstone and was greeted with wandering eyes and showered with bashful compliments.

I expected to get into some type of argument about how each of our kids were better than the other or something, but we ended up talking through their traits with compassion, interest, and pride, all while agreeing that we just have to sit with them this weekend and explain that there are easier, better ways to sort out disagreements than screaming at each other in public.

I expected not to have much fun at all, but by the time we gathered the check and headed out the door, Spencer and I were laughing, just a little tipsy on Cabernet, our hands gently brushing and sparks shooting up my arm at the feeling.

I expected to go our separate ways and walk to my car and drive home, but instead he ended up telling me he was taking the Subway home, and I offered to give him a ride to the opposite side of town where I lived (Waterstone was right in the middle).

I expected to walk through the door, stumble straight up to bed, and sleep until Sky inevitably woke me up with them saying I've slept in too late and needed to get ready for work, but instead I ended up following Spencer up to his door to say goodnight.

And now we're at a fork in the road, and I can take one of two paths.

I can say goodnight, watch him walk in, and then go home and forget about this whole thing.

Or I can keep letting him stare at me until I find myself leaning in to kiss him. Whether or not he'll actually reciprocate is another story, but the little bit of wine tingling in the surface of my body and the dark, intense look in his eye gives me more courage than I've had since I met him.

Before I can make a move, Spencer talks, his voice small and inviting. "Do you want to come inside?" The beating of my heart quickens immensely as he takes another step forward and brings his fingers out to graze my chin. "Vivian's with her mom tonight."

Yes. Vivian's mom, who divorced Spencer pretty soon in the marriage after she just decided his job was too much to handle. He'd quit and took a teaching job, but even still, she declined his pleading to stay married and eventually admitted that she just wasn't in love with him anymore. At least she had the decency to let him have joint custody once his schedule cleared up, and it seemed like they were decent co-parents. Maybe even friends.

I think about Sky, how much they wish their dad had stayed, and how much I wish he had too. I was devastated when he left without anything more than a note. For years it took a huge toll on us, and I barely had the headspace to even think about dating anyone since then.

But here I am now, standing with this man who has also lost a spouse, who's somewhat of a single parent, and who seems kind and genuine enough that I don't think I'd have to worry about bringing him into the life of my child.

Though, I don't even know it'll go that far. I'm getting too far ahead of myself, and so to slow down I look at what's right in front of me. Right now.

Spencer looks at me like he wants to devour me. My whole body is tingling from head to toe. I want to kiss him, and I'm pretty damn sure he wants to kiss me back. He just invited me inside, which means that if I accept, we'll most likely end up sleeping with each other.

Again... Definitely not one of the scenarios I'd had in mind when I left the school today. But it's a damn good one, and he's so hot I want to cry.

My flirty switch turns on so fast, it nearly gives me whiplash. "And what are you gonna do if I say yes?"

"Depends... How badly do you want to walk tomorrow?"

My first instinct is to jokingly tell him to put me in a wheelchair, but I settle for kissing him instead, hoping that gives the same sentiment.

The way he melts into my body tells me I've succeeded. My arms fly up to his neck and pull him closer, and he holds me tightly to him, waiting for my lips to part so he can expertly slip his tongue past them.

I whine out and take a step towards the door. Spencer comes with me and fumbles with the keys in his pocket before reluctantly pulling away to get us inside.

Once we take our jackets and shoes off, he clings to me like static, drawn to me like a magnet, and I let him near without a second thought. Our lips find each other perfectly, like they've always meant to fit together. And as pieces of clothing come off on our way through the house and up to his bedroom, our limbs fit together just as well. Nothing is out of place.

Hell, I don't even remember how inferior to him I felt earlier in the day. Our jobs and lifestyles might seem like polar opposites, but for right now, the two of us are on very equal footing, coming together like it's always been meant to be.

I nearly fall apart when his fingers gather wetness from my cunt, just enough to tease me before pulling away and bringing them to his lips. I watch with a whine waiting on the back of my tongue as he slips his fingers past his mouth and sighs.

"More," is all he manages, and I want so badly to tease him—tell him how I know he can be more eloquent than that—but words are all lost on me too, when he drops to his knees and spreads me apart with ease. I have no choice but to reach behind and grip the foot-end of the bed as he works his tongue expertly against me.

Each of my sighs and whines are met with more avidity from him, taking the form of sharp flicks of the tongue over my clit, and once he adds his fingers to the mix, pumping them expertly inside me, I'm a fucking goner.

I come with a silent shout, clenching my thighs around his face and gripping the foot of the bed so tightly it feels like my hands might go numb.

Once my body loosens, Spencer gets up and kisses me, nearly knocking me over. I'm breathless and dizzy as the tang of my arousal coats my tastebuds. His hands are gentle despite the hunger in his lips, and the medley of sensations of all of these things has me weak in the knees.

"Getting harder to stand already, sweetheart?" he laughs, catching me as I fall into him. His hands clutch at my thighs and he carries me to the edge of the bed, crawling over top of me and kissing down my neck. "That's okay... I'll take good care of you."

I still can't manage to speak as he gently pushes in, the slow burn of him splitting me in two rendering me utterly incapable of even thought. I gladly welcome the pressure, especially once he's inside me all the way and lowering his body to mine. Our chests press firmly together as he pulls back and starts a steady pace with his hips. He traps me with his arms, bringing them to either side of my face. And when his fingers brush the hair from my eyes, he stares into them with intensity as he fucks me.

It's slow and hard. It's heart-pounding. It's earth-shattering. It's everything that makes sex worth having. In that moment we're two equals, so wrapped up in the mere feeling of each other that everything else is just background noise. He breathes me in and I do the same, and with each cant forward of his hips, he brings me deeper into this world we've both ultimately created together.

I want more than anything to wrap my legs around him and keep him close to me, but he's fucking me so good that I don't have the willpower. Instead, they lay spread out, lazy and open as his hips move between them. I'm warm all over, tingling everywhere our skin connects. When he kisses me, swallowing my pathetic attempts at whimpering his name, I'm positive that this is what Heaven must feel like.

Whether it's hours or only minutes later, eventually my body tenses, unable to hold back any further, and two particularly deep thrusts from Spencer send me barreling over the edge.

"There it is, sweetheart..." he praises, caressing my face with long, gentle fingers and leaving little kisses wherever they trail. His voice only seems to help me along, each warm syllable soothing the muscles that pulled taut at his mercy. "That's a good girl..."

I feel tired, calmed, and relaxed, when he pulls out only to jerk off over my lower stomach. Through tired eyes, I watch as he lets go and covers me with his release. Hearing him grunt out my name as he does it nearly wakes me up again, and it even finally brings some words out of me.

"God, you're so fucking hot..."

Well... Not exactly elegant, but the feeling gets across.

Spencer laughs and rolls over so that he isn't nearly crushing me anymore. He kisses down my neck, my arm, and he ever-so-slightly swipes the tip of his tongue over the mess he made before kissing my thigh and getting up to leave— presumably to get me something to clean up with.

Sure enough, he returns shortly with a wet washcloth and tenderly cleans me up. I manage to sit, leaning back on my elbows once he's done and smile at him. He's practically kneeling in front of me again, smiling back as his lips press featherlight kisses to the inside of my leg.

"How're you feeling?" he drawls, letting me pull him up to lay down with me.

"Really good. I haven't done that in so long..."

"Me either... I um... I hadn't really thought much about seeing other people once Lena and I got divorced... I guess I just wanted to put all my focus into being the best father I could, you know?"

"Mhm," I answer, turning to face him and interlocking our fingers. "I know exactly what you mean."

We lay like that for a few moments in comfortable silence, hands and limbs tangled while we breathe the same air and revel in the afterglow we've just created.

Suddenly Spencer laughs, and I squeeze his hand. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking... We probably wouldn't have met if not for Anteros calling us in, right?"

"Yeah..." I piece it together. "Guess I never thought of it that way."

"I just think it's funny, because in Greek mythology, Anteros was an Erote, known as an avenger of unrequited love, and he punished those who scoffed at romantic advances made by others... You and I never even thought about dating after our separations, and yet... Here we are now, because of Anteros."

Hearing him educate me on Greek mythology only serves to remind me how different we are. Still, the little story brings a comforting smile to my lips. "Well... Remind me to send her a basket of muffins or something to thank her."

"And tell her what? That you're grateful she got you laid?"

"Yeah. And what about it?"

The two of us dissolve into laughter that eventually fizzles and leaves us silent again. Our fingers are still tangled, and somehow we've snuggled in even closer.

"In any case, I'm glad I got to meet you, Doctor Reid."

"And I, you, Ms. Y/L/N..."

———

In the past two weeks since that first meeting, I hadn't received any more phone calls from Principal Anteros, which bode as a good sign.

Spencer and I decided to see each other as secretly as we could, which meant only giving vague details to our kids as to what we were doing in our spare time— It seemed weird to spring it on them if they didn't get along, so we figured it was best to wait until the situation was handled.

I tried to talk to Sky about their progress with Vivian, but they only insisted that everything was fine and they wouldn't have to worry anymore. And after relaying this information to Spencer, he informed me that Viv had said the same thing to him.

It wasn't until we both realized that they'd said the same things verbatim each time we asked, that something odd was going on.

And that's how we end up right here, Sky and I sitting on a park bench bathed in the golden October sun while I patiently wait for Spencer to 'coincidentally' show up with Vivian.

Thankfully I don't have to wait too long, because almost five minutes after we sit, I hear the familiar sound of my name falling from his lips, and it's hard to contain the cocky, playful smile that appears upon my own.

"Spencer, hey!" I call back, standing up and going to give him a hug. He pulls me in and he's nice and warm. He smells like burnt wood for some reason, and I want to breathe him in forever. Instead, I settle for a sweet kiss on the lips, both because I simply want to and also because it should baffle the fuck out of our kids.

Sure enough we pull away and look to them, and they look panicked. They have no idea what to do, what to say...

"Oh! Sorry... Viv, this is Y/N, Sky's mom."

The pure amusement in Spencer's voice makes me feel even warmer than being in his embrace. I look to his daughter and give her a wave. "Hi."

"H—Hi..."

It almost seems cruel to laugh at their predicament, but as I turn to Sky and introduce them to Spencer, they have clear annoyance written all over their face.

"Okay, Mom, I think we get it... How did you guys figure it out?"

"What, that you two pretended to hate each other so your principal would have to call us both in to meet?"

The pre-teens look at each other and sigh, truly defeated once and for all. "Yeah," they mutter simultaneously.

"Well, it surely didn't make any sense when you got in trouble for yelling at each other in the first place," Spencer points out. "And then when we asked you how things were working out, you both said the same exact thing..."

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, but we appreciate the effort," I add, reaching out to ruffle Sky's hair. They jerk away playfully, and I can't help but notice their smile as they peek over at Vivian.

"Our plan worked, though, so I call it a win," Vivian says with a shrug.

"As long as you two don't plan on causing any more disruptions at school..." Spencer looks between the both of them, and then at me, his eyes softening as he takes my hand and squeezes it. "Then yes. I'd call it a win, too."

I lean into him and laugh. "Turns out it wasn't Greek mythology that brought us together. It was The Parent Trap."

He raises an eyebrow, like he doesn't get what I mean, and before I can ask or explain, Vivian does it for me. "He's never seen it."

Spencer looks between the three of us like a lost and confused puppy, and we all laugh.

"Well, then, maybe we'll have to have a movie night sometime soon," I offer, reaching out for Sky.

Hand in hand, the four of us continue down the pathway, walking away from the setting sun while dried leaves rustle under our feet.

———

PERMANENT TAGLIST (tags not working are struck out):

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[loveelle]

The Singer and The Salesman

Jim Halpert x reader

Request from Anon: ok so like jim halpert soulmate au? so they all have tattoos of their partners job (they get these tattoos at age 18)and the reader is like a famous singer and jim is amazed how he has a soulmate like her, but he’s also sad bc he knows he’ll probably never be w her BUT. michael ends up hiring this band to play at his birthday (where he got the money, who knows. its michael lol) and the singer of the band is the reader and they meet and jim notices the tattoo in her wrist says his job and hes like “omg” and she notices his tattoo says “singer” and they find each other and its really cute and stuff :)

A/N: Hi. 👋 I like soulmate au’s :) and I also love reblogs and comments :) I took the request and ran in a parallel line to it so I hope that’s okay lol and I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I’m in a slump and interaction is low and it’s hard to get motivated to write nowadays idk what it is :(

WC: 4.7K

MASTER

---

No one dates when they’re older. It’s hard to go on a causal date with a bartender when the tattoo printed on your skin tells you you’re destined to fall in love with a paper salesman. You have your young years to date and mess around with feelings but once you hit 18, the universe decides to give a big ole “f*** you” to everyone and give out soulmates. Just like you and your mysterious paper salesman.

You’ve always wondered who your soulmate would be and if you were honest, you’ve bought a lot of paper. And by a lot, I mean, enough to donate stacks yearly to the nearest high school.

You didn’t really know what you were looking for and once you reached your late 20s, you were beginning to realize that searching for your soulmate was pointless and instead you should focus more on your own career, instead of someone else’s. Which leads you to sitting on a rather comfy couch with a camera pointed at your face as you smile widely and nod at some interviewers question.

“So, Y/N,” the interviewer begins, scanning her page in front of her as she peaks up at you. “May I just say, I’m a huge fan.” She gushes, making your cheeks heat up and your head dip.

“Thank you, thank you I really appreciate it.” You smile at her.

“No, thank you!” She says. “I mean, your last album was such a success, can you tell us a little more about what inspired you?”

You nod and adjust your position on the couch. “Yeah, so um, in case there’s people out there who haven’t given it a listen, a majority of my songs were inspired by my dog.” You smile, thinking about how funny you were to were write songs about never being alone and always having someone by your side about your fluffy golden retriever who’s most likely currently knocked out on your couch sleeping. Your comment gets a few chuckles from the crew filming your interview as you smile to yourself. “The rest were a combination of caffeine and hitting funny keys on the piano at 4 in the morning.” More people laugh and you cover your mouth, giving the camera a shrug.

Your interviewers’ cheeks were red as she hides behind her paper, the list of questions she planned to ask now being used to shield herself from view. “So, all those songs people concluded were love songs were all for-”

“For my dog? Yep.” You nod as you cut her off, well aware of how much your fans believed you provided them with a pile of love songs. You look to the camera. “I figure you gotta know about love at least a little to write about it and that pup has got all my love.”

The laughs slowly turn to awes but the smiles don’t disappear. “I take it you haven’t found your soulmate yet then?” The interviewer asks and you look at her sadly before shaking your head.

“Not yet. Hopefully soon though.”

---

Jim wasn’t one to watch interviews for musicians. He never did, in fact. There was just one exception and he could thank Pam for that fact. He was headed over to Pam’s one night just to hang out, only when he got there, she was on the phone with her mom. He sat in the living room as she hurried the call, wanting to spend time with her best friend but also wanting to make sure her mom was fine. Jim didn’t mind, he stopped paying attention to Pam and her mom’s rambling the moment he looked to the tv and saw some talk show that Pam was watching before he got here already in full swing. He wouldn’t have paid so much attention to it if your shining smile wasn’t filling the screen as you spoke about some random man proposing to you on a New York subway with an onion ring with a bite taken out of it. Jim found himself laughing with the story as you humored your interviewer and the audience, and especially him.

“My mom says hi, by the way.” Pam sighs as she tosses her cell phone into her purse and glances over to Jim, furrowing her brows. “Why are you still watching this? I thought you’d turn it.”

Jim inhales sharply at Pam’s question, not having expected her back so quickly. “Yeah, uh,” he begins, glancing between her and the tv before looking around the room. “I couldn’t find the remote.” He lies and Pam makes a face of understanding and starts looking, finding it sitting on a pillow not far from him. He chuckles lightly. “Guess I didn’t look that hard.” Pam gives him an amused look before grabbing the remote and changing the channel, only giving Jim enough time to hear your name before you were gone.

That night, after he left Pam’s house, he humored himself and looked you up. Typing your name brought Jim to the sight of your joyous smile once again and after granting himself just a few minutes to see it, he starts reading about you. The first thing he sees?

Singer.

You were a singer. Just like Jim’s soulmate is.

Was it pointless of Jim to believe there was a possibility his soulmate could be someone like you? Or even… you?

Most definitely.

But then he looks back at the millions of pictures of you smiling and he can’t help but wonder how kind the universe would be to him. The thought leads him to listen to all of your songs, all of your albums, all in one night. By the time the sun rose, Jim was sure he has the choruses memorized to each one, as well as bags under his eyes. He didn’t mind though, because as he was listening to your songs and watching your interviews and unknowingly learning everything about you, he’s come to the conclusion that a soulmate like you, dare he again think his could be you, would be amazing. You were amazing and soulmate or not, Jim was starting to get a crush on the famous musician.

---

“It’s my birthday!” Jim’s conversation with Pam was dropped as Michael enters the office. A wide smile on his face causes the friends to look at each other and sigh before smiling back at him.

“Happy Birthday Michael.” Pam says as she quickly takes her seat at her desk.

“Thank you, Pamela.” He gives her a grin and turns to Jim who is spinning softly in his chair.

“Yeah, happy birthday man.” Jim tells him as Michael stands proud next to him, thankful for his friend’s wishes.

Michael gave Jim a pat on the shoulder before looking towards accounting. “Angela?” He calls out and the blondes head peaks out from her desk. “How’s the planning coming for the big party?”

Angela huffs and comes out to stand in front of him. “Small party, Michael.” She sighs. “We’ve talked about this! There’s only room in the budget for a cake and some streamers!”

Michael groans loudly, tossing his head back and marching madly around the room. “Angela, Angela, it’s a big day- my birthday – we need a big party. Think the Met Gala and then bigger.”

“Bigger than The Met Gala?” Jim butts in when he finds Michael’s request ridiculous. Michael nods to him. “That’s pretty big.”

“That what she said.” Michael smirks quickly as Angela rolls her eyes and retreats back to her desk, effectively shutting down Michael’s request for a big party. Michael turns back to Jim, wanting to continue their conversation before seeing a certain tab open on his computer and recognizing the name that happens to be in plain sight. “Hey, I know her.” Michael says and Jim’s brows furrow before Michael points to the tab, your name written clearly as Jim realizes he still had an article about you open that he found yesterday before he went home. He was about to play off Michael’s discovery of it before he realizes what his boss was saying.

“What do you mean, you know her?” Jim asks and leans back in his chair, shooting a look of interest to the older man. “Like you know of her?”

He shakes his head. “No, I know her. We met a couple years ago.”

Wait.

Michael knew you?

Michael knows you?

Jim looks past Michael to Pam who is staring at the two in confusion before Jim directs his attention back to Michael. “You know Y/N Y/L/N, the famous singer?”

Michael nods dramatically as if he’s unsure why Jim doesn’t believe him. “It was before she was famous but yeah. She bought some paper.” Jim deflates a little, realizing Michael only knew you in passing. “She still buys some paper.” Michael mumbles a little quieter, his brow furrowing before he smiles widely. “We’re actually friends! Maybe I should invite her to my birthday party!”

Jim stills in his seat. Michael couldn’t be serious, could he? Inviting you, a famous singer, to a paper company’s office for a birthday party? The thoughts battle in his head. Would that be weird? Would you be mad? Does Michael even have the ability to do that? He said you were friends but what does being friends with Michael even mean.

Jim stops thinking about the possibility Michael could be absolutely wrong about the situation and decides to look at it another way. This could be his chance to finally meet you. “You know what Michael,” Jim begins as Michael starts toward his office again, but now stops and listens again. “I’ll pay for the party.”

Michael gasps as he puts his hand on his chest. He looks around the room at the confused and equally surprised faces. “You’d do that for me?”

Jim smiles at him, standing up and patting the man over his shoulder. “Of course, I will, it’s your birthday.” He says, putting his plan into action. “Gotta throw a great party if you’re inviting Y/N.”

Michael claps his hands together, rambling on about how correct Jim was and to Angela about going full out on the party and finally to Pam as he told her to take a message on any calls he was bound to get in the next few minutes, and Pam was certain that Michael would receive a grand total of zero, because he was going to be on a very important phone call.

As Michael closes the door behind him, Jim stares at the scene and it finally sinks in what he had just done.

---

Michael’s party started not that long ago and Jim was standing around the conference room, engaging with everyone while also keeping an eye on the window. He wanted to see when you arrive. He found himself staring outside far too much but when he glances back to the party, hearing all his coworkers around him chat and when he was just to turn back to the window, Pam ushers him over to her desk.

He hesitates, glancing back to the window before heading over to her and grabbing a grape soda off the table along the way. Pam furrows her brows. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks and Jim shakes his head, not wanting to admit that you have been the constant thought on his head since Michael mentioned you. He wasn’t just excited to meet you because of the small possibility you could be his soulmate but because he really was a fan. But now as he stood feeling stupid in the middle of his office, he was firmly believing he wasn’t ever going to meet you or find his soulmate.

He didn’t know your car just pulled into the parking lot.

---

You look out the window at the familiar office complex staring back at you. It had been years since you’ve been here, it was before you got famous, but the office didn’t seem to change. You took a deep breath as your driver parks your car and your dog nudges your thigh. You turn to her, scratching behind her ears as she looks up at you.

“We’re here, Sunshine.” You coo at her letting her lick your face as you giggle. “I know, I know. You don’t like long drives, but I didn’t have time to drop you back at home.” You pause for a moment, realizing that not only could you not have dropped her off at home, but you were going to have to take her to the party. “Well, I hope they’re dog people.” You mumble and thank your driver before grabbing Sunshine’s leash and leading her inside. “C’mon, Sunny.”

Sunshine follows behind you closely, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as you head up the elevator. Normally you wouldn’t come to office birthday parties like these, but when Michael called and invited you, you couldn’t turn down an old friend. Plus, Michael works at a company selling paper, just like your soulmate. After years of pushing aside the thought of finding your soulmate, maybe you can give an afternoon for the hope.

The doors to the elevator open and you stand there, listening to the music faintly coming from the office next to you as Sunshine starts walking, pulling you with the leash and you snap out of your soulmate thinking and head inside.

There was a young woman sitting at the receptionist’s desk, a phone pressed against her ear and she looks minorly annoyed with whatever costumer was on the other end and you stifle a laugh, wondering if anyone has ever looked that annoyed when you order. The sound of your titter pulls her attention up briefly before she looks back down. Then immediately back.

“Oh my god.” She says loudly, the phone falling from her hands and you smile at her as you approach the desk.

“Hi.” You begin, patting Sunshine’s head as she sits down next to you. “I’m Y/N-“

“Y/N Y/L/N.” She fills in and you nod, used to the shock that fills people at your presence. She seems to snap out of it pretty quickly. “Sorry, I’m Pam. Um, welcome to the party.” She gestures around to the office and you have to smile at how nice the office looks for Michael’s birthday. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Michael was telling the truth when he said he knows you.” She chuckles softly and you have to as well.

“Yeah, it’s not the most expected friendship.” You tell her before the office door behind you opens and Michael steps out.

“There she is, there she is!” Michael says and gives you a hug which you quickly return.

“Happy birthday, Michael.”

“Thank you, Thank you.” He lets go of you and you are well aware of everyone’s eyes on you, as he turns you to face the whole office. “Everyone! This is Y/N. If you don’t know who she is, then get out of that rock you’ve been living under. She’s my great friend, been friends for years, she came to celebrate my birthday with us. Everyone be nice to her.”

“Michael, she brought her dog.” A petite blonde woman calls out, glaring at Sunshine and your dog pants next to you, glancing up at you as you rub her head.

“That’s not a problem, is it?” you ask Michael, worried you weren’t allowed to have dogs in the building.

Michael shook his head, glancing between the blonde and you. “Don’t listen to Angela, she’s just being a bit-”

“Michael.” A new voice calls out and you turn your head to see a shaggy haired man, leaning at the desk next to you. You inhale sharply. Would ‘cute’ be an inappropriate word to describe Michael’s employee? Most likely. But it is still a fitting word to use. Your heart races when your eyes meet and you wonder if he feels the same way.

You don’t get to stare long, neither does he, because before you could even speak to him, Michael has a hold on your arm and is pulling you from the bullpen to the conference room to get some food. You grin and grab a cupcake and a grape soda. The party was really nice and you offered to play a few songs but Michael assured you that you were here as a guest, not to work, but he wasn’t opposed to hearing a few songs if you truly wanted.

Jim was 100% in a daze since you walked through those doors. He was debating between asking Pam to pinch him to wake him up from this dream he’s surely having and not wanting to risk this whole party actually being a dream. Your eyes met his for the briefest of moments and Jim couldn’t think of anything besides wanting to stare into them again and for longer. Before he was able to, Michael whisked you away.

He was on his feet in an instant, jaw-dropping as he leans against Pam’s desk. “Michael knows Y/N.” Pam says in shock.

“Michael knows Y/N.” He repeats and still tries to process everything.

“This must be your dream come true.” The receptionist snickers as she watches you chuckle at Michael’s joke.

Jim shakes his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe she’s here.”

“Are you going to ask for her autograph?” She pokes fun at Jim as he finally looks away from you to lower his voice.

“I’m gonna ask her to marry me.” He jokes and Pam’s brows shoot up impressed.

“Big step there, Halpert.” He nods. “Maybe start with finding out if she could be your soulmate?” She taps Jim’s wrist where his shirt is hiding his soulmate mark, one she’s seen several times. He sighs and nods, knowing Pam was right.

You couldn’t stop glancing around the room, not only were the people in this office a little… weird, but you kept hoping for another glimpse of that man again. You finally caught one. He was leaned over the receptionist’s desk in a close whisper and she was smiling. You wonder if he’s smiling as well. Then, against your best thoughts, you wonder if they were soulmates. Michael would know, you could ask, but the thought of letting someone else know you were a little jealous wasn’t ideal. And so, without a clue what to do, you ignore the cute shaggy haired salesman and enjoy the party.

---

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring a dog to an office.

You turn your back on Sunshine for one minute, one minute to talk to the receptionist who you learned was named Pam and Sunshine took off. She was a big dog, she couldn’t have gotten far, but no matter where you looked you couldn’t find her. You were starting to get worried before Angela sighs loudly.

“Have you checked the break room?” She asks and you mentally slap yourself. Of course, a place like an office would have a break room. You just didn’t know where it was. Picking up on your confusion, she pointed the way to the break room and you left her in the kitchen, eager to find Sunshine.

“There you are!” You shout relieved when you push open the break room door and catch a glimpse of Sunny’s golden blonde coat. She barks at you, her tail slapping against the ground happily as your eyes push up, realizing just why Sunshine was in the break room. The cute salesman. He wore a dopey smile that you couldn’t help but copy. “So, you’re the one who stole my dog.”

Jim chuckles, scratching Sunshine’s head as she leans against his leg. “She uh, she followed me in. I guess I left the door cracked open.”

You laugh at your dog and shake your head. “Nope. That’s my dog. Knows how to open doors, unfortunately.” You sigh and Jim meets your eyes, playfulness dancing across your gaze as you smirk.

“Seriously? Sunshine can open doors?” He questions, learning a new piece of information of your life for the first time not through a screen

You hum and nod, leaning against the door behind you. “Really makes my life hard sometimes but thank goodness she’s trained.” You furrow your brows. “Which makes her following you in here odd.” You say and Jim grows concerned. “Plus, she usually hates other people. But with you… I don’t know.” You watch Sunshine enjoy the love Jim was giving her.

“Must be the T-Bone steak in my pocket.” He jokes and you spit out a laugh when Sunshine barks at his comment, making Jim’s eyes widen for a moment before he was laughing too.

“You said the forbidden word.” You were still chuckling. “Steak.” His mouth turns to an ‘o’ and you meet his eyes, holding the eye contact before stretching your hand out. “I’m Y/N.” You say needlessly because both you and Jim knows Jim was fully aware of who you are.

He takes your hand, his soft and warm hold cupping your hand making you inhale so deep to the point that you almost missed his name entirely. “Jim. Nice to meet you. Both of you:” he says and looks down to the dog before focusing on you. Your hand was still holding his and neither of you were releasing. Not that you really wanted to and by the way Jim was locked on looking in your eyes, he didn’t want to either.

“I gotta say,” you speak up once Jim and you finally drop hands and you pull out a chair next to him, letting Sunshine rest next to you as you look down at her. “I don’t think I told anyone here her name.”

Jim gulps heavily and let’s his eyes fall off you. “I might have watched an interview or two?”

You can’t help but smirk. “An interview or two?”

He hesitates. “Or all of them?”

That’s gets you laughing, that laugh that Jim has only seen on his tv screen and he wants to memorize the sound more than he’s wanted anything before. “You’ve watched my interviews.” You repeat and Jim nods with a sideways smile. “You probably know more about me then me then.”

Jim inhales with a grin. “Enough to know you’re insanely talented and hilarious.” His compliments make your heart flutter in your chest as you bite your lip, trying to keep your smile under control. “And beautiful.” Any chance you had at keeping yourself from making an embarrassed fool out of yourself went flying out the window as Jim kept speaking.

Jim didn’t know what came over him to try and flirt but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let you know exactly what he was thinking. And he quite enjoyed the reaction it brought him. “You’re uh, you’re not so bad yourself.” You tell him softly and Jim’s stomach leaps into his chest. You didn’t think he was weird or runaway from the boring salesman who thought it was fine to hit on you.

The conversation only moves from there. He asks about your career and you ask about his life in the office and learning that the receptionist Pam wasn’t his soulmate, they were just great friends. You almost forgot you were here for Michael’s party until a half hour later and the man himself calls your name throughout the office. Of course, you were willing to put the conversation on pause, it was Michael’s big day, but the trouble lies with resuming the conversation. Would Jim even want to? Would he be free to? Would you? Could there still be a chance that he’s your soulmate? As it turns out, some questions have a way of answering themselves.

Your dog that was once sitting perfectly next to you had moved in front of your feet when you were distracted with Jim. It was fine all until you and Jim stood up and your foot snags on Sunshine. You try your best not to step on her and to do so, you end up jumping almost in Jim’s arms as he steadies you. You would have focused on the fact you were literally in Jim’s arms but you had to make sure Sunny was okay, which she was, before you look to Jim to thank him, finding him bewildered by something else. Your shirt has ridden up on your arm. Your soulmates job which you didn’t even think to cover up was written boldly across your skin as Jim read it over and over again.

“Oh my god.” He whispers after his 7th time of reading “Paper Salesman”. You feel your stomach sink slightly at the nerves spreading throughout your body. You yank your arm away from Jim and cover it back up.

“I uh, I guess that cat’s out of the bag.” You mumble with the smallest of smiles you can muster to hide the fear you’re facing now that Jim knows your very private soulmate mark. You weren’t scared he was going to tell anyone; you were scared because… what if it wasn’t him.

He doesn’t say anything, his eyes locking on your wrist now covered with your sleeve before slowly, a smile spreads onto his face. A smile was good right?

He pulls up his sleeve and your eyes widen.

Yes, a smile is very good.

“Singer.” You read from his skin, the telling of his future and soul as any dread you faced of Jim learning of your soulmate washes away. “Your soulmate is a famous singer.”

He nods, taking your hand in his. “Now I don’t want to assume anything, but how many paper salesmen with soulmates who are famous singers have you met?”

You bite your lip and pretend to think for a moment. “Umm, maybe around…” Jim nerves start up but he couldn’t be wrong, could he? “Around 1 million?” His shoulders slump in relief that you were playing with him. “No, 2 million.” You giggle as he rolls his eyes. “Well how about you? How many famous singers have you met with paper salesman written on their wrist?”

Jim copies you, pretending to think. “Does Beyoncé count?” He jokes and it was your time to roll your eyes.

“Well unfortunate news for you, I’ve met Beyoncé and her wrist definitely does not say her soulmate sells paper.” Jim pretends to frown as you offer him a fake sad smile. “I’m sorry. I guess you’re stuck with me.”

For the first time since you and Jim started joking with each other, his eyes light up and meet yours. It occurs to you then that you felt like a normal person again. You felt like young singer trying to get famous and who could hold a conversation with someone and not be fawned over. With Jim, you just feel special and not because you’ve put albums and made a name for yourself. For the first time, you think you’ve found someone you can really be yourself around.

“Lucky me.” Jim says before he takes your hand and Sunshine’s leash and your dog follows behind the two of you happily until you finally make it back to the others. The smiles on your faces were hints as to what just happened in the break room but Jim and your hands holding the other tightly was what told the story as everyone saw your soulmate marks when they paid attention to you both. Jim was about to explain to those who cared what was going on but Michael drops the plate of cake he was holding to the ground and walks quickly over to Jim and you before throwing himself, literally, into a hug with the two of you. You and Jim laugh loudly and Michael only has one thing to say.

“This is the best birthday present I ever could’ve gotten.”

.

.

.

.

[bubbledumbbinch]

Congrats on 100 followers (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧ you deserve it!!

How about some reactions for Injured Azul, Leona, Malleus, Riddle, Jade and Idia where their fem s!o carries them bridal style? Who's let them and who'd be embarrassed?

Hello!! Thank you so much!!! 🥰 I hope you enjoy these!!! 

Pairings: Azul x Reader, Leona x Reader, Malleus x Reader, Riddle x Reader, Jade x Reader, Idia x Reader

I made these SFW !!! I love fluff!!!!

Important notice: if you like my work, thank you! Keep in mind before you follow me: I post both SFW and (mostly) NSFW, so yeah! Just a fair warning lol

More under the cut for length!

Azul x Fem! Reader

Azul would have just gotten injured in flying classes. Who can blame him? It’s one thing to walk on land as an octomer who usually has 8 legs, now you expect him to fly?!

After he was groaning in pain, you promptly ran by his side, asking if he was okay. The lavender haired boy would verbally tell you yes, but you knew that by the way his body fell, he definitely wasn’t. This prompted you to lift him up into your arms as you started walking towards the infirmary. 

He shrieks and tells you how embarrassing it is! “Y/N, put me down this instant! This definitely ruins my reputation as a business owner, does it not? What if my future clients see me in such a vulnerable state!?”

You tell him to shut it, if he was leaning on you all the way to the infirmary it would have taken 5 times as long to get there.

Azul secretly blushes and leans into your shoulder. He lowkey loves the attention you give to him and being taken cared of.

Leona x Fem! Reader

Definitely would have gotten injured practicing Magical Shift, getting hit in the back of the shin or something causing him to fall flat on his back roughly. You were on the bleachers simply watching until Jack told you what had happened. You both ran over and Jack offered to escort him to the infirmary, to which Leona growled at him.

Leona didn’t make any noises of protest when you approached him, only winced when the pain shot through his body again.

Ruggie also wasn’t allowed near him and he shot you a look of ‘Please help’. 

You opted to carry him in your arms bridal style. “Oi, herbivore, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” “I’m bringing you to the infirmary myself since you won’t let anyone else help you!!”

He folds his arms in annoyance as he continued to be carried by you through the halls.

Leona is embarrassed but he is also impressed with how strong you are, able to carry him so easily! He takes this treatment as it feels like you’re treating him like a king 👑

Malleus x Fem! Reader

I can’t even think of a situation where Malleus would get injured. Is that bad? Like, isn’t he too OP that he could possibly avoid most attacks/accidents? But I digress....

For the sake of the prompt, you didn’t know the circumstances of Malleus’s injuries. Lilia simply texted you to ask you to come to Diasomnia quickly since it was an emergency regarding Malleus.

After you ran into the dorm, you saw Malleus’s large body laying on the couch, and he looked to be in pain. You immediately tensed and ran to his side, grazing your fingers on his body.

“Malleus, what happened? Are you okay?” You stared into his face waiting for a response. Malleus only chuckled. “I’m alright my child of man. I would like you to take me to the infirmary. Sebek’s presence is appreciated but during my pain I would like you by my side.” 

Using the adrenaline in your body, you hoisted Malleus up bridal style as you made your way to the mirror to go to the infirmary.

Malleus says nothing but he widens his eyes, eventually shifting his face into a light smile as he sees how you show such a magnificent display of strength. For his sake, too!

Riddle x Fem! Reader

Riddle must have let his mind slip. The horse he was riding on freaked out during the club practice, effectively making him lose his balance and fall off of the horse with a hard thud to the ground.

You were planning on surprising Riddle by picking him up from his club meeting when it ended, but you ran from your hiding spot as you shrieked out his name, asking if he was okay.

Silver was going to help, but once he saw you he promptly went to calm the horse down, bringing it back to the stables.

Riddle was trembling and had dirt on his uniform, coughing once or twice. He assured you he was fine and that he just needed to go to the infirmary. Once the redhead got up to stand, he tried stepping forward only to have pain shoot back up his back, causing him to fall back.

“Oh, Riddle!” You quickly grabbed him before he fell. He definitely underestimated the damage that fall did to his body.

“Ah- Y/N, may you please take me to the infirmary? I won’t be able to go alone.” His face was already a bit red from the embarrassment and the pain, but he turned crimson once you lifted him up in your arms and started walking!

Riddle was flustered and stammering, but he didn’t tell you to stop! Something about being cradled in your arms made him feel safe, and as much noises of protest as he made he didn’t want you to let go of him.

Jade x Fem! Reader

Jade was fixing a lamp in the Mostro Lounge after it had closed. As he reached over to tamper with another bulb that was farther away, he overestimated his footing on the bar chair and landed hard on his back.

As you were cleaning a table, you noticed your boyfriend fall onto the floor. You audibly gasped and jogged over.

“Jade!! Are you okay?!” a worried voice came out of your throat, only to be met by Jade’s signature face, only his eyebrows were furrowed.

“Oh my, it seems I got into quite the fall. I am not quite sure I can manage my own to the infirmary. Y/N, would you please call Floyd over to bring me there?” Jade only looked minorly inconvenienced even though it was a hard fall. You sighed and told the eel mer that his brother ran off somewhere an hour ago saying he was bored.

Jade only sighed and smiled. But his face shifted to genuine shock when you offered to carry him there! Curious, he would accept your offer, allowing you to carry him to the infirmary. In truth, Jade wanted to see if his lover would be able to handle carrying him in her arms.

Jade was thoroughly impressed with your physical abilities and silently thought to himself. ‘Fufu, I wonder if she would be able to handle my eel form, too?’

Idia x Fem! Reader

Idia was injured in gym class, I imagine he was probably hit with some sort of ball on the head, knocking him down, even though someone already shouted “Shroud, watch out!!”

He was already feeling awful from having to be in an in-person required class, but now having to be embarrassed by getting hurt?! He just wanted to die…

Idia was curled up into a blue and black ball once you finally reached him. You spoke his name and he trembled, quivering even more into the ball.

“Come on Idia, I’ll take you to the infirmary then I’ll bring you back to your room, okay?” You gently spoke, finally getting his head to peek out.

Idia never expected you to scoop him up into your arms and carry you like a bride!!!

“Y-Y/N-shi!!! W-why?! Embarrassing, so embarrassing....” Idia could only bury his face with his fingers, as you chuckled and brought him to the infirmary. Although, he couldn’t help but think this was like some sort of secret SSR situation for him!!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 306: the beginning of the WHAT

Previously on BnHA: Nana and the Gang were all, “hey Deku, we can read your thoughts and feelings so we should already know the answer to this, but for some reason we want to quiz you on whether or not you’d be down to kill Shigaraki Tomura.” Deku was all, “um okay, well tbh, probably not seeing as Saving People has been my entire thing since literally the start of the series.” The Vestiges were all, “yes that makes perfect sense and again we already knew that, but well, good for you buddy and I’m glad we had this talk. Anyway I guess we should ask these two cryptic fuckers in the corner to finally turn around now before we run out of -- ” and then the chapter ended. Because OF COURSE IT DID.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, WOULDN’T IT BE SO MUCH BETTER IF I GAVE YOU A CONFUSING CHAPTER WHERE EVERYONE FINALLY LEARNS ABOUT OFA, AND GOES BACK TO THE DORMS, AND THEN THE CHAPTER ENDS WITH DEPRESSED NOMAD DEKU STANDING ON A PRECIPICE WITH GRAN TORINO’S TATTERED CAPE FLOWING IN THE WIND.” Everyone is all, “???????????” Horikoshi is all, “also the parents are moving to the U.A. campus, and Jeanist’s neck is two and a half feet long, for everyone that was wondering.” Everyone is all, “WHERE ARE KACCHAN AND TODOROKI AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHO ARE THE SECOND AND THIRD USERS”, and Horikoshi is all, “:)” and fades away into nothingness like the fucking fae he is. Like a fucking imp who’s kept his end of the cursed bargain. What, the, fuck.

okay guys, so after the longest Thursday of my fucking life, during which I was secretly hoping that my spoiler containment net would be somehow be breached, inadvertently exposing me to theta spoiler radiation, so that I could be all “oh no... spoilers... there’s nothing I can do... I have no choice but to look” (which sadly did not happen), it is finally Friday and the chapter is finally out. so I’ve got my clown kit at the ready and other self-deprecating memes on standby, and I’m ready to go. and I should note that I’m also ready for Horikoshi to pull some absolute bullshit and be like, “oh you know what, we haven’t checked in with Rat Principal in a while have we” and spend the entire chapter on nonsense like that. I’M READY FOR FUCKING ANYTHING so bring it

(ETA: it would be nice if this man wouldn’t call my bluff every now and again.)

oh, right, we were due a color page! wow look at this

isn’t this supposed to be the future?? what’s with all of these staticky CRT TVs

anyway, so! is this the first time we’ve seen Tomura’s stylish finger prosthetic glove thingy in color?? because I didn’t expect it to be red. also, at some point you just have to give in and change your pants into cutoffs or something, Tomura. start a new trend of stylish villain capris

meanwhile Deku is dressed like he’s going on a journey into the desert to find a mystical oasis. actually this cape looks a lot like Gran Torino’s. I have to go back and see if Gran’s is all raggedy like this

(ETA: it wasn’t before but APPARENTLY IT IS NOW. I also forgot that Horikoshi had showed it sitting on a side table in the hospital a few chapters ago.)

lastly, AFO looks like someone’s thumb after they’ve been washing dishes for twenty minutes. you are just the ugliest dude in history, and as always, fuck you

HAHAHA SOB I KNEW IT

oh, Twowy McTwoface is finally starting to turn around? better CUT BACK TO DEKU’S HOSPITAL ROOM THEN. wouldn’t want to accidentally ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS or SOLVE ANY MYSTERIES, god forbid

well, whatever. whatever!! anyway so now someone’s knocking at the door. I say “someone” but we all know it’s Hawks

yep

they were actually standing outside the door for a while hoping they’d overhear another juicy plot conversation, but no such luck this time

lmaooo Jeanist wtf

acting all embarrassed, but you’re really just as curious as Hawks is. making him do all the dirty work for you huh

ARE YOU SERIOUS THIS IS AN INJUSTICE

so like two seconds after Katsuki gets dragged away you open the door for the rest of them!! well, fine!! I really want it to be a more private/personal moment between the two of them anyway so let the other kids check in on Deku first then

and in the meantime, time to see Hawks put the thumbscrews to All Might’s resolve lol

I wonder how much of it Hawks has already put together in the last five minutes. One for All is something connected to All for One that Tomura seems to want. Tomura was apparently targeting Deku. that’s more than enough to make a few deductions right there. I wonder how much Hawks knows about Deku’s quirk. he did watch the sports festival, and he ran into the kids interning under Endeavor that one time

okay well maybe he hasn’t put the rest of it together just yet, but Hawks is making a pretty reasonable pitch here to All Might

also this is a pretty spectacular view. is this a hospital or a hotel??

AHLKJLKJLKJ ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO TELL THEM

OH MY GOD HE IS?!?!

JUST LIKE WE ALL EXPECTED, THE NEXT TWO PEOPLE TO LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT OFA ARE GOING TO BE HAWKS, AND BEST FUCKING JEANIST

-- LFKLKKLDK ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS. ARE YOU --

( •̀_•́ )

[sitting cross-legged on the ground pulling up little clumps of grass and letting them fall from my fingers one by one] yeah. sure. okay. fine. sure

-- OKAY, NO. NUH-UH. NO

everybody better hold tight cuz I’m about to pick up this whole chapter and yeet it into the ocean like a fucking frisbee lol

HORIKOSHI I DON’T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE SITTING HERE WATCHING TV WTF

-- OH

well okay then. proceed. though lord help me if they’re about to reveal the secret of OFA to the whole fucking world skdkj

oh snap

well, there it is. pretty much what I expected, but it’s good to actually get to see this moment with him taking responsibility

though at the same time, thank you Horikoshi for not forcing us to sit through the rest of that

their fucking faces omg. okay but seriously, what nation doesn’t secretly love a good scandal

the Endeavor Pamphlets, part two. thank you for giving the country something to opine about on twitter in these trying times, Enji

so now they’re asking about Hawks and Jeanist but I cannot even focus on anything all of a sudden because what?!

is Jeanist even a real actual human being you guys?! are we sure he’s not three kids sitting on each other’s shoulders?? are you related to that one guy with the really long neck from the Jedi Council?? are you Orochimaru, bro??

so now Hawks is apologizing for the murder of Twice, and for hiding the connection with his dad

the fact that he has to give this serious formal apology and beg forgiveness for the shameful crime of Having An Abusive Father is really something else, though. just. it’s realistic, but I still hate it

moving on now to the one thing he actually does owe the public an explanation for

not to go all “Hawks did nothing wrong” on you guys yet again, but seriously. 100% facts. fandom can (and no doubt will) debate this until the end of time, but if Twice had gotten away they wouldn’t be having this press conference right now because there wouldn’t be any heroes left to give one. anyways though, I’ve already said more than enough about that in previous posts

so now some severe-looking lady with the weirdest fingers I’ve ever seen is saying that her mother was injured during Machia’s rampage

and she’s basically all “a fuck lot of good ‘I’m sorry’ does us all about now.” true true

wow she’s really getting fired up

and now Enji is basically saying that he understands that an apology isn’t enough, and what they really need now are solutions. okay, well! SO THEN WHAT IS THE PLAN THEN

hmmfsdgh

this eloquent PEZ dispenser makes a good point you guys

wait, hold up

CERTAIN citizens?? um excuse me, what??

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit

holy shit. well, this will go over well

okay! so this tells me a number of things, though

basically the minute that Hawks learned about One for All, he realized that anyone connected to Deku (e.g. Inko) would be a target for AFO. AFO wants OFA, meaning AFO wants Deku, and one of the easiest ways to get to Deku would be to target his family

Hawks therefore realized that Inko needed to be placed into protective custody

but the fact that ALL of the hero course students’ families (and is it only the U.A. hero course, or all of the hero course students across the country?) are being given protection tells me that Hawks and co. don’t want to single Deku out as being important. so then it looks like they’re not going to tell everyone about OFA (or at least not the public. which, good). so rather than drawing suspicion by saying “we’ve got to protect everyone connected with this one kid”, they’re making it seem like all the U.A. kids’ families are getting this treatment

but since the heroes are now spread so thin, they can’t just send a protective detail to each and every family, so they’re bringing all of the families to the same place instead to better keep an eye on them

so that’s all well and good, and a very smart move. except that idk how all of this is going to go over with the general public, all of whom are probably feeling unsafe at the moment, and who will probably see this as preferential treatment -- basically just the heroes looking after their own and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves

(ETA: okay so @hanashimas​’ translation clarifies that U.A. is offering their services as an evacuation shelter for everyone who wants it, not just the families of the U.A. students. that’s much more appropriate so I withdraw my previous “wtf” reaction lol.)

anyway though here’s Mitsuki and Inko

can we take this as confirmation that the two of them really are friends? that’s one piece of fanon that I’ve always hoped was true, so I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s confirmed

(ETA: also this means that Hagakure’s parents (or maybe “parents” in quotation marks) will supposedly be moving in as well. sure am curious as to how that’s going to go.)

now someone in the press crowd is asking whether U.A. can provide adequate security, which is honestly the LAST thing I expected these people would be outraged about lol. shows what I know I guess

(ETA: again though, this makes sense if the “certain civilians” thing was just a translation error.)

LMAO DAMMIT ENJI

YOU CAN’T JUST ALWAYS PULL THE “JUST WATCH ME” TRICK AND EXPECT IT TO SHUT DOWN THE CONVERSATION EVERY DAMN TIME YOU ASSHOLE

-- OH MY GOD RED ALERT

TIME TO ANALYZE THIS BECAUSE OMG

WASH CAN’T BELIEVE HIS FAMILY GROUP CHAT IS STILL SENDING HIM FUCKING MEMES AT A TIME LIKE THIS. HE DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK IF THE DABI DANCE IS TRENDING ON TIKTOK, MOM!!

FOR A MINUTE I THOUGHT MT. LADY WAS HOLDING MIDNIGHT’S TORN-UP MASK, AND BY THE TIME I REALIZED THAT’S ACTUALLY HER MASK AND NOT MIDNIGHT’S, I HAD ALREADY CONSTRUCTED AN ELABORATE HEADCANON IN WHICH MT. LADY AND MIDNIGHT WERE SECRETLY DATING BUT HADN’T COME OUT TO ANYONE YET, AND THEN TRAGEDY STRUCK, AND NOW MT. LADY IS GETTING READY TO SET OUT TO SEEK VENGEANCE. AND WELL, NOW THAT THIS HEADCANON EXISTS IN THE WORLD, I’M NOT SURE IF I’M READY TO GET RID OF IT

MIRKO HAS GOTTEN HERSELF A PROSTHETIC (ROBOT??!) ARM, NOTHING ELSE THAT’S HAPPENING IN THIS CHAPTER IS EVEN SLIGHTLY IMPORTANT!!! HELLO!!!!!

AIZAWA WITH THE EYEPATCH GOOD LORD. THE WORLD ISN’T READY. HE LOOKS LIKE HE HASN’T SLEPT IN NINETY-EIGHT YEARS, BUT SOMEHOW HE MAKES IT INTO THE HOTTEST THING EVER AS PER USUAL

WHO THE FUCK IS THIS FUCKING GUY. ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HIM? IS THIS KAMUI?? WAS THAT THING WHICH I ALWAYS ASSUMED WAS HIS HAIR ACTUALLY A HELMET OR SOMETHING WHAT

LOL AND MEANWHILE

you tell me, Dabi! weren’t you the one who said that wouldn’t be enough to kill him? what even is your endgame here. I’m starting to worry about the villain brain cell supply you guys. I feel like Compress took most of them with him when he left

OH??

“when asked about One for All, Endeavor fucking lied through his teeth.” well, well, well

SLKDFJLSKGDJLKLKGJL THE DORMS

( ⁰ ⌂ ⁰ )

SLDKJFLKJWLKJLK

WLKDJSLKJFWKELKSDJLKHGLK

HDSMFLKGKL:GDSELK

OCHAKO’S HAND IS SHAKING OH MY GOD

THERE’S YOUR KAMINARI, EVERYONE!!

RHA’S SCANLATION TEAM REALLY THREW DEKU’S HANDWRITING UNDER THE BUS HERE HUH

HE TOLD EVERYONE!?

WHY THE FUCK IS HE WRITING IT AS A LETTER

(ETA: 9. also if he really wrote every kid in his class then that means the U.A. traitor -- or Hagakure as we like to call her around these parts -- also knows about OFA, and knows that Deku has run the fuck off and isn’t at U.A. anymore. so that’s just great!)

OH HELL NO

the hell does that mean, you must leave. leave to go where. son you are not up and leaving to go power up and lead us all into a timeskip. and I swear to GOD, if you left Kacchan too...!!

MY GOD I CAN’T PROPERLY ABSORB ALL OF THESE OCHAKO FEELS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I’M TOO TERRIFIED TO SCROLL TO THE LAST FUCKING PAGE, FUCK

I JUST GOTTA DO IT. I JUST GOTTA SUCK IT UP AND DO IT. FUCK

FUCK

WHAT. THE. FUCK

y’all I’m not even gonna waste your time with more keysmashing, JUST ASSUME THAT I AM DOING IT NONSTOP, FOREVER. and let’s just jump RIGHT IN HERE

okay so here I thought that All Might and co. had taken him away somewhere to train, but that is CLEARLY not what’s going on here. this kid is standing here in his Apocalypse Aesthetic hero costume which has CLEARLY seen better days, with Gran Torino’s cloak (GUESS THAT EXPLAINS THAT, THEN?? SO DID GRAN FUCKING DIE EXCUSE ME WTF), and a fucking backpack. this little green idiot has RUN AWAY FROM HOME. this is the absolute LAST THING ON EARTH I ever expected to happen so PARDON ME WHILE I SCREAM CONFUSEDLY INTO THE VOID

he does not look okay. you guys he doesn’t look okay at ALL. he has NEVER looked like this. this isn’t just a “I’m sad because I’m leaving all my friends behind” kind of look on his face, or even just a “Gran Torino died maybe and I’m still having emotions over it” look. this is an EXHAUSTED, dead look in his eyes. something terrible has happened

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ARMS DEKU. THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING DOWN WITH YOUR ARMS GODDAMMIT

love how this random building is just straight up collapsing, like that’s just a normal thing that happens every day now. lovely

APRIL MEANS IT’S NOW FULL ON SCHEDULED ALL-MIGHT-DYING-HOURS, BUT LET’S COMPLETELY IGNORE THAT THOUGH BECAUSE FUCK THAT NOISE

“THE SECOND USER? WHO KNOWS? CERTAINLY NOT ME” HORIKOSHI I SWEAR TO GOD

“BAKUGOU? NEVER HEARD OF HIM!” HORIKOSHI PLEASE

WHERE. IS. KACCHAN

did he go with Deku?? did he get a chance to talk to him before he left?? did he get his own private letter which he read and then promptly blew up in a fit of panicked rage?? is he going to go after him?? DOES HORIKOSHI KNOW WHAT HE’S DOING TO ME RIGHT NOW?? OF COURSE HE DOES, DON’T BOTHER ANSWERING THAT

omg. though actually the fact that we’ve already jumped a few weeks forward makes me hopeful that there won’t actually be another timeskip, or at least not much of one. I’m sure that’ll be the big debate of the week, but I don’t think we can jump too far forward here. for starters because of that All Might prophecy I mentioned. and also because TomurAFO isn’t just going to wait around for months. and also because I’m 100% sure that Deku’s running-away backpack is just filled ENTIRELY WITH NOTEBOOKS and this asshole cannot possibly survive more than 3 days on his own. UNLESS SOMEONE COMES TO HELP HIM THAT IS. OR SOMEONES, EVEN. OMG. omg omg omg. fuck this chapter lmao

[havethetimeofyourstyles]

in which harry’s your soulmate and you don’t quite know that yet.

a/n: hello angels! i bring you soulmate!harry for my loveliest friend @sweetcreatureinthedark​ ‘s fic party! i chose the prompt “i’ve been in love with you, i’ll be in love with you.” i’ll be honest, this was tough to write, and somewhat was testing my writing abilities lol, but we made it through and I love it! so i hope you all do too! be kind and pls leave feedback and rb! :’)

thank you to @sunflowers-styles for beta reading and putting up with the mess lol love you always <3

WORD COUNT: 15.4k of friends to lovers, soulmates, physicaltherapist!harry x professor!yn

WARNINGS: slight angst, mentions of heart condition and flatlining

COME INTO MY INBOX AND LETS TALK ABOUT ‘YOUR BEATING HEART’ i’d love to know your thoughts!

pls rb to share! <3

There was a saying that your Nonna had always said to you ever since you were a little girl, one that she made sure was ingrained into your mind for the rest of your life. 

‘Someone is destined to your mind, soul, and heart.’

Your mother, Kath, had told you that she had repeated those words ever since you were barely a year old. Nonna had said them so much that they could’ve practically been your first words. She would say that statement along with: ‘There is someone out there who already loves you, they’re just waiting for the right moment. That right moment will be up to the universe.’ 

The concept of soulmates has been around for thousands of years, and Nonna was such a sucker for it. Having met hers when she was sixteen years old, she made sure she taught her family the power of having a soulmate. She told Kath that if she wasn’t around for you, then Kath was supposed to teach you. Luckily, she’s still around though because that woman is one of the best you’ll ever know. 

When you were old enough to go to school, the teachers taught you about soulmates as well. When you turn thirteen, you’re able to find who your soulmate is because the power inside of you ignites, guiding you through the world to find your person. The universe was…weird like that; teaching children that they were going to find love at such a young age. You were taught that you were born to be loved by someone, and since you didn’t know any better, you listened. Nonna then started to explain the meaning and importance of soulmates. You were fascinated by it as she would explain it so enthusiastically to you while you listened with wide and curious eyes, making sure you didn’t miss a single word of what she said. 

As a shy ten-year-old, you couldn’t wait till you were older so you could find your soulmate, thinking it would be a fun adventure to see who you would click with. Nonna always said that ‘when you know, you know.’ 

Once you hit seventeen, however, you slowly believed less and less in the idea of a soulmate, and maybe that was because you were trying to force the feeling of trying to click with every person you met, but you lived through your adolescent years listening to your friends rave about how their soulmate was so perfect when yours hadn’t even shown up. They were all smiles while you were all frowns, a disappointed look was planted on your face when you would come to realize you were probably going to be alone and that the universe had forgotten about you. 

At eighteen, living in a world of soulmates, you believed you didn’t have one. 

That’s how you lived your life. 

When you went to college, the idea of being bound to another person was pushed to the back of your mind and you started to live your life more freely. You didn’t have the constant pressure in your head, telling you to find your one true love because you believed there wasn’t a ‘one true love.’ Your Nonna was a bit sad to see you live thinking that no one was out there to love you, but you realized that you didn’t want to sit and wait around for the perfect person, you wanted to venture out. 

Throughout college, you lived…a lot. You met new people, hooked up a bit, and didn’t have the recurring thought in your head about your particular soulmate.

That was until you met Eric. 

You met him your last year of college; and he was a year older than you. You met him on campus while he was meeting up with one of his old professors whose classroom you just happened to be in as he walked in, and you had immediately taken a liking to him. Besides the fact that you were sexually attracted to him, you didn’t think you would see him again until you met him again at a coffee shop that was not too far from campus. Eric invited you to take a seat with him, to which you said yes, and the rest was history. You and Eric were together for three years. In that time you were able to find a stable job, and you lived life together before he proposed to you. You thought life couldn’t get better than this--you had the greatest fiance and a job you didn’t hate, which was teaching Anatomy at a community college. 

Eric had made you believe in love. Soulmates, however? Not quite. Although at times it felt like he was your soulmate, that was just you trying to force something again. He was your soulmate without all of the characteristics a soulmate would have. 

Nonna had always told you that your eyes would sparkle while looking at them, so intently to where you couldn’t stop staring at them, thinking you two were the only ones in the room even with so many people around. That you would feel the spark igniting between you and your soulmate, causing your body to feel warm as the physical pull would bring you together. That your heart would beat ten times faster when you knew who that person was, and that the erratic beating wouldn't seem to stop because your soulmate’s heart was also beating at the same pace. 

When it came to Eric, you were able to look away and you were aware of your surroundings. When you were close to him, you didn’t feel that magnetic pull. When you looked at him, your heart seemed to calm down to where you didn’t feel like it was pounding through your chest. When you looked at him…you didn’t think he was your soulmate anymore. It’s crazy to even think that you thought he was before when you didn’t believe in the concept, but there was no attraction or pull towards him, and the timing could have been better. Actually, it could be so much better. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t do this,” you muttered into the mic as several gasps were heard from the family and friends that had gathered for the moment. 

You were dressed in a white, lace dress with a veil clipped onto the top of your head. It was your wedding day, and you were telling the supposed love of your life that you couldn’t marry him anymore because the thoughts about soulmates had barged inside of your mind during Eric’s vows, making you think thoughts that you wished you wouldn’t, but you couldn’t help it. Eric wasn’t your soulmate, and you damn well knew that you weren’t his either.

“W-What are you doing?” Eric whispered as he looked at you with wide eyes that told you not to embarrass him right here, right now. 

“I’m so sorry, Eric. I can’t marry you,” you said more clearly, not really telling him but also telling the crowd. 

The officiant of your wedding was your friend, Vic, and she looked at you with a shocked expression as she was just as speechless as everyone else. You knew they didn’t have to say or ask anything for you to know what they really wanted to say; they wanted to ask you what you were doing and what caused the sudden decision to not marry someone you’ve been with for four years. 

You could ask yourself the same question. Better yet, you would like to ask the universe why, especially on your wedding day, why they decided to suddenly pop inside your head, reminding you all of the bullshit people feel when they find their soulmate. 

Eric looked at you with worry, eyes slightly watering as if it was his worst nightmare come true. But you couldn’t carry on with this while neglecting the feeling that was inside your heart and mind. You couldn’t marry him as those thoughts were screaming at you, telling you that you made the wrong decision. Those said thoughts were telling you that your true soulmate was out there somewhere, physically and emotionally hurting because their soulmate decided to marry someone else. Your marriage would be ruined entirely if you went through with it. 

“I-I’m sorry…” is what you said to him with a pout on your face as he shook his head. You started heading down the aisle, ignoring the disappointed, sad, and angry looks your guests, especially his family, were giving you as you walked away from the altar that held the man you had given four years of your life to.

Once you reached the middle of the aisle, you started to jog. Picking up your dress so you wouldn't trip over it, you started to run as you couldn’t take the way the people were looking at you. 

Without glancing back, you headed over to the black Mercedes that waited for the newlyweds on the curb. Your driver, Jackson, had turned around in his seat, smiling but when he didn’t see the groom, his smile disappeared, also noticing that you had a disappointed look on your face as well. You found a clean napkin on the side of the door, asking him if he had a pen. 

“How long are you willing to drive?” You asked.

“I’ll take you to wherever you need me to,” he replied. You smiled gratefully, writing down the address that made you feel at home before handing him the napkin. 

He immediately started the car before typing in the address into his phone, driving away from the venue that had relied and counted on you being a wife today. 

And you didn’t regret your actions for one second. 

Soft, cold winds rushed through you as your skin pebbled from the sudden draft while standing against the white wooden railing of the balcony in the main bedroom. The calm waves immediately put you at ease from the anxiety that you were feeling hours prior, as harsh thoughts pushed their way through your head, telling yourself that you were a disappointment—that you disappointed everyone at the venue. 

The shakiness of your hands was replaced by the grasp of the railing as you looked out to the distant sunset. The day wasn’t all that sunny, since the sun was setting behind the clouds. There weren’t that many people out on the beach either, but you were glad because you needed to feel like you were the only person on this Earth. 

Coming to the beach house was the first thing that came to your mind when you decided to walk out. You knew that Eric wouldn’t find you here because he didn’t know about it, plus you just wanted to be alone without the constant questions that came from your ex-fiancé and your family. 

You felt bad, of course you did, and you didn’t know how to begin explaining to Eric that he was just someone that you couldn’t marry because the previously pushed thoughts had come back to your mind right as you stood at the altar. But right now, you were wallowing in fears that overtook your mind, thinking that everyone was going to absolutely hate you, which you think they did anyway once you walked out. 

Setting the wine glass down onto the railing, you looked down at the few pedestrians who walked by on the beach, getting in a last-minute venture before it got too dark. You smiled, thinking about the soulmate crap the universe had made you think about your entire life because any of these people could be the person you would love for your entire life, and you wouldn’t even know. 

You groaned to yourself, leaning your body away from the railing and putting your forehead on your forearms. You stayed there for a moment, thinking about how exhausted you were, especially since wine makes you tired, including the long day of getting ready all for nothing. 

When you stood back up, you had accidentally knocked your glass over the railing, the glass barely making a sound once it landed on the sand. 

“Fuck…” you looked over the railing to see where your glass landed before you headed down the stairs. Once you made it near the bottom, you hadn’t seen the last two steps because they were covered by sand, so you completely fell on your face into the sand, making you gasp loudly from the sudden fall.

Laughing hysterically at your fall as you felt the embarrassment on your cheeks, you rolled over onto your back as you closed your eyes and laughed until you cried. You covered your face as you began to sob, feeling truly sorry for yourself. You never meant for this to happen. You were supposed to be happy, and you were sure you ruined someone else’s happiness. 

After a few moments, you got up and brushed the sand off your clothes and face, and shook your hair so the excess sand could fall out. You sniffled, walking over to where your wine glass landed before your phone rang in your pocket. It was your mom calling, and you knew you couldn’t ignore it. You were planning to ignore everyone’s calls and texts before you went back to your hometown in just a few days, but it was your mother--you couldn’t hit decline, especially right now. 

“Hello?” You answered. 

“Hi, my lovely. You okay?” Kath was surprisingly calm because you thought she would’ve been freaking out. 

“Hi, Mom. Yeah, I’m good.” You walked back to the stairs and decided to sit on the bottom of the steps as you watched the calming ocean in front of you. 

“Can I ask where you are?” She asked hesitantly. 

“I’m at Papa’s house and I’m safe. No need to worry,” you reassured, smiling softly, even though she couldn’t see you. 

“Okay, good. I figured you were there. I understand you need space, but call me if you need anything, got it?” Kath was always a worrier, like every mom, but she seemed to worry about you a lot more than usual. 

“Got it. Love you, Mom.” 

“Love you too, my lovely. Oh, and,” she caught you before you were able to hang up. “I get why you did what you did, and I’m not mad. You’ll find them soon, okay?” Your eyes watered a bit, and you nodded, even though she couldn’t see you. You heard Kath blow a kiss through the phone before she hung up. You always loved how your mom was always able to understand you without you having to say anything at all. She was great like that, and you loved her dearly for it. 

Pressing decline to what felt like the hundredth call from your in-laws and friends in the last two weeks made you roll your eyes and want to turn your phone off completely. 

You knew that you had to call and text these people back eventually, but right now, you didn’t want to explain. You already had the anxiety from your actions weighing you down already, and these people would most likely scream over the phone as they demanded an explanation as to why you did what you did, and you really didn’t need that at the moment. 

All you wanted to do was go back to the beach house and sit on the balcony as you watched the ocean; all far away from your problems. 

You were unofficially a single woman, and you could look at all the men and women you wanted now that you were single. The nagging voice in your head was constantly bothering you, leaving you no room to think about what you might say to Eric when you meet up with him. He had stopped calling you a week ago, and since you weren’t entirely cruel, you shot him a text, saying that you were fine and that you’ll talk to him when you were ready because quite frankly, you needed to wrap your head around your thoughts. He was a sweetheart in that way, giving you space when you were the one to walk out on him and needed to explain things. You truly didn’t deserve him. 

Unlocking the door to Nonna’s house with your spare key, you found her sitting on the couch watching TV. “Hey, Nonna,” you greeted, and she perked her head towards the door. 

She softly smiled, getting up from the couch before she walked over to you. She didn’t greet you like she always did, which made you a little nervous because you thought she might be mad at you, but when her arms wrapped around your body, pulling you into a hug, you relaxed. 

“Hi, Chip.” Her nickname for you came out with a smile against your shoulder. She had started calling you ‘Chip’ ever since you were a toddler. You had always wanted a bag of chips to munch on, and the nickname seemed to stick because you were still the same. 

Nonna pulled back, guiding you to sit with her on the couch. “How are you, love? I haven’t seen you in weeks,” she asked as she pouted, giving you a look of concern. 

You smiled to ease her worry. “I’m doing okay. How are you?” You grabbed her hand from her lap to hold it, the gesture making her smile a bit. 

“Okay as well. Worried about you. Haven’t seen you since the wedding…” 

You huffed out. “Yeah, Nonna, I just wanted to say I’m sorry-” 

“Chip, what do you need to be sorry for? It wasn’t like it was my wedding. I understand why you did that,” she reassured you. 

“You do?” You looked at her with a soft look. If there was anyone that you wanted approval or reassurance from, it was your Nonna. 

“Of course, I do. Look, I know I told you about soulmates ever since you were younger, and throughout the years, it pained me to see you think that you didn’t have one. So, I didn’t push the idea onto you anymore. I wanted you to live your life, and when you met Eric, I thought he was nice, but I just knew he wasn’t the one,” she explained, making your brows raise. 

“You knew?” Nonna nodded. “H-How?” 

“Because you would’ve told me right away when you met him. You would’ve told me that you felt everything that I had told you for years, and suddenly when you met Eric, you didn’t talk about those things. I knew on the outside, you made it seem like you weren’t into the idea of soulmates, and that may be the case, but I know deep down that you still care about it. You want someone to cherish you and love you as we all do. You were excited up until you were seventeen because your friends had found theirs already, and all of a sudden you didn’t care. I know you’re still looking, but just wait a little, yeah?” Nonna always had a way with her wisdom, and she had that kind of intuition that made you feel a little less worried. The words that came out of your mouth weren’t much of a shock to you because Nonna was smart like that. You hadn’t realized all of the things she had picked up throughout your relationship with Eric, but you were grateful that she caught those things because it made it easier to talk to her. 

“You know way too much, stop,” you joked, making her laugh. You laid your head on her shoulder, embracing the moment with her as you thought about how grateful you are for her. She was truly the closest person to you, and you didn’t know what you would do without her. Suddenly, the doorbell rang as she got up from the couch. “Expecting someone?” 

“Must be my personal delivery boy,” she raised her brows teasingly, and you furrowed your brows in confusion. She had always mentioned someone dropping by to drop some things off from her next-door neighbor, and yet, you hadn’t met this neighbor of hers. Nonna opened the door and the person behind it wasn��t someone you were expecting. “Oh, thank you, dear!” She grabbed the set of glass bowls. “Would you like to come in?” 

The man behind the door said, “I wouldn’t want to impose-”

“No, please! Come and meet my granddaughter.” Nonna opened the door wider, so her guest could look into her house, and that was when he saw you, standing in the entryway with your mouth slightly open. “Harry, this is my lovely granddaughter--the one I’ve been telling you about.”

“Hi, I’m Harry,” he said breathlessly. His gaze was trained right on you, and Nonna looked between you two as the both of you looked at one another with shock. 

“Hi, uh, Y/N,” you shook his hand as you were quite speechless. He was quite attractive and looked young. He had short, curly brown hair that was pushed back with a red patterned bandana. He wore a black Nike jacket, shorts, and running shoes. 

There was a moment of silence between you two as the both of you looked at each other. His expression was soft as his eyes seemed to burn into you, making you captivated by his stare. It felt like time had stopped for a moment as you two looked into each other’s eyes, trying to map out what the intent stare really meant. Could it be? Before you allowed yourself to feel the imaginative spark, you broke out of your trance, placing your head down as you thought for a moment. He cleared his throat to relieve the silence as he scratched the back of his neck, looking anywhere other than you. 

“I’m just going to put these away,” Nonna broke the silence as she smirked to herself while leaving the room and to the kitchen before you let out a breath. 

Harry smiled amusingly, chuckling a tad bit. His dimples popped out when he did so and you thought he was the cutest thing to ever walk the Earth. You walked closer to him so you were in the spot Nonna was prior as Harry was still standing on the doorstep. 

“Hi,” you simply greeted. 

Harry’s smile widened. “Hello.” 

“So, uh, how do you know Nonna again?” You asked curiously, tilting your head as you placed your hand on the doorknob on the other side, leaning against the door. 

“My mum lives next door actually. She and Tallie are quite close friends, so I would see your Nonna every time I would visit Mum, and Mum would have me bring things over sometimes—whatever the two talked about,” he explained, and you nodded understandingly, thinking that it was truly a small world. 

“How long has your mom lived there?” You wondered. 

“About a year and a half now,” he answered. Your brows furrowed as you were genuinely confused about why you haven’t met Harry before because you would always visit Nonna. He looked at you oddly as well, wondering the same thing. 

He’s known Tallie ever since Anne moved next door, and also found it strange that he’s never met you before. Tallie had mentioned her daughter, which was your mother, and has met Kath before--many times. She also mentioned you briefly, but he’s never seen any pictures of you, so he wouldn’t have recognized you if he met you. 

“That’s strange, isn’t it?” You suddenly asked, and Harry nodded his head. Before he could say anything more, Nonna walked into the room. 

“You kids doing okay?” She asked, and you smiled at her, nodding your head. “Do you two want to make some bread?” She suggested enthusiastically. You and Harry both chuckled, looking at one another briefly before you both said yes. Nonna clapped her hands, urging you two to follow her into the kitchen. “The dough has been resting for an hour already, so if you two could do me a favor and knead it for me, that would be great.” 

After the three of you washed your hands, Nonna instructed you on how she would like her bread to be shaped like breadsticks. You and Harry complied as she was making the butter. 

“So, Y/N, what do you do for a living?” He sparked up a conversation as he kneaded the dough; you were doing the same. 

“I teach at the college about an hour away. Anatomy and Physiology professor,” you said humbly, and his brows raised. 

“You sure know a lot about the body then…” he suddenly pointed out, eyes widening immediately as he stopped kneading. “That was really weird, I’m sorry.” You laughed loudly as he cringed at himself. “I was just trying to state the obvious since you studied anatomy, and it went smoother in my head.” His cheeks turned into a pink tint color as he scratched his neck--something that you already noticed he did when he felt nervous or awkward--feeling the embarrassment rush through him. 

You chuckled, looking up from the dough. “No worries. You’re…cute.” Harry didn’t say anything but shyly smile. 

“What about you?” 

“Besides living in general,” he started, and you laughed. “I’m a physical therapist. I work at the hospital downtown.” 

“Ah, interesting. So, you would know a lot about the body too then, huh?” You teased, placing his words in your mouth. 

Harry genuinely laughed loudly, filling the kitchen with his sounds. “Perhaps I do. That was a good one,” he said once he calmed down from his laughter. You beamed at him before you studied him a bit, trying not to get caught. 

You were so caught up in how focused he looked while kneading the dough, and the way his lips curled in as he rolled it between his hands. His hands were naked from the rings that you had seen prior before he took them off for this task, but the way his hands were built and what they could do had you limitlessly daydreaming for what seemed like forever. They looked strong, but they were pretty. The orange nail polish contrasted between the bulging veins in his hands, leaving a very fine line between it all. 

If you looked any longer, you would be drooling at the thought of this man’s hands, but luckily, Nonna tapped you and by the look on her face, she had caught you eyeing her delivery boy. “Yes, Nonna?” 

“Might wanna speed up the process, yeah?” She suggested, with her voice in a teasing manner. All you did was nod as you huffed out a chuckle before proceeding. 

After a bit more conversation with Harry, the dough was finally going into the oven, leaving an excited Nonna while Harry was placing the tray onto the rack. 

“Tallie, I would hate to not try the bread after it’s done, but I should probably get back to my Mum…” 

“Oh, go ahead, dear! I’m sorry to keep you for so long. I’ll be sure to bring some by when it’s done.” She reached up to hug him. “Be sure to tell Anne I said thank you for lending me the bowls, and thanks to you for delivering it.” 

“Always a pleasure. I’ll see you soon. Uh, Y/N,” he called out as you gave him your attention. “Walk me out?” You smiled, nodding your head. Harry said one last goodbye to Nonna before you followed him out of the house. 

“It was nice meeting you,” you told him, walking onto the sidewalk. You two were walking slowly since Anne’s house was right next door, and it seemed like you two wanted more time with one another even though it wasn’t said out loud. It was like you two already knew. 

“You as well,” he said honestly. You were standing right in front of you in Anne’s driveway, not quite wanting to leave just yet. 

Your heart started racing uncontrollably fast as you looked up at him. His green eyes still shined bright in the gloomy sky that looked like it was about to downpour any second, but they had caught your eye immediately, and you were completely lost in them. You weren’t able to look away and think how alluring his trance was. Your mind had stopped itself from long jumping into the conclusion that was begging you to finish the story, so you pulled your stare away instantly. 

“Uh, well. I’ll see you soon probably?” You asked, backing away from him. Harry slightly frowned but made sure not to make it obvious. 

“Yeah, you will,” he nodded, stepping back as he offered a friendly smile. 

“Bye, Harry,” you waved at him before you turned around and walked away. 

Harry walked into Anne’s home and straight to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. He took a deep breath as he tried to calm down, heart beating outstandingly out of his chest that he felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore. When Harry walked into Tallie’s home, his heart was beating ten times faster ever since he saw you. He simply couldn’t stop staring at you, and the only way he stopped was when you had broken the stare. He definitely felt the spark there, and he wondered if you did too. He sure hoped so because he had never felt that strong of a feeling inside of him with anyone else. 

Anne walked into the kitchen once she heard the commotion from upstairs, and saw her son leaning against the counter, head down and eyes closed, and that’s when she began to worry. 

“Harry? Love, are you okay?” She ran to his side, placing her hand on his arm. Harry continued to take deep breaths, increasing Anne’s concern. “Answer me, please. You’re scaring me.” The sound of her voice was breaking Harry’s heart as he never wanted his mother to be concerned or scared, but naturally, as a mom, it was her job to be. 

“Mum, it’s her. It’s really her,” he breathed out a laugh as his voice was strained from the lack of breath he had. 

“What?” 

“Her name’s Y/N. She’s Tallie’s granddaughter. My soulmate.” His eyes watered that was quickly followed by slight tears that streamed down his face, feeling so overwhelmed by the joy that overtook him. 

“She’s here, huh?” Anne had tears in her eyes as she felt extremely happy for her son. All the heartbreaks and search for his soulmate had ended once he met you, knowing that it was going to change his life forever. Harry nodded, brushing the tears away from his face. 

All the signs were there; the gleaming stare, the spark that shocked him, the magnetic pull between you two, his heart rate rising, and he felt like you were the only person in the world when he looked at you. That’s when he knew. 

You were his soulmate. 

The rain had poured down quite heavily as Harry ran inside the apartment complex with his small umbrella that had barely kept him dry. 

Shaking the excess water on his umbrella and wiping his shoes onto the floor mat, he rushed towards the open elevator before it closed because it always took a while to land in the lobby. 

“Hold the doors, please!” He called out, quickly running his fastest while trying not to slip. A hand was seen between the doors as the doors reopened. Harry got into the elevator, taking a deep breath. 

“Harry?” He looked back at the other person who was in the elevator, and you were softly smiling at him as you took off your hood. You were wearing a burnt orange raincoat that he thought looked absolutely adorable on you, a university sweater underneath, black pants, along with black leather boots. Your eyes lit up at the presence of him, making him smile widely, feeling the attraction from you once again. 

“H-Hi,” he stumbled over his words, to which he mentally slapped himself. He cleared his throat, “How are you?” I miss you, he wanted to say. It had been about two weeks since he last saw you at Tallie’s house, and considering you were his soulmate, that seemed like a very long time. There was no doubt that Harry had been on your mind since you met him. There was something about the way he looked at you that made you overthink every possible thing he could mean to you. It was crazy to think that he wouldn’t leave your brain considering you had just met him. You concluded that Harry was just an attractive man, the first man you’ve ever looked at that way since Eric. 

“Good!” You said too overly excited, making Harry chuckle at your chirpy voice. You fake coughed, making your voice a tad bit lower. “Good, yeah. What about you?” 

“Doing great!” The elevator doors open, and Harry stepped aside, letting you in first before he followed. “Do you live here?” 

“Yeah, I do. This is me,” you stopped walking and stood in front of apartment 425 as you fiddled with your keys, nervously. You’ve been living here ever since you graduated college, and you didn’t fully move in with Eric because you planned to move in with him after you two got married, so luckily, you didn’t get rid of this place. “Do you also live here or are you visiting someone?” 

“I live here too. I’m actually on the floor above yours, like directly above.” Harry realized that he didn’t even press the button to his floor in the elevator. 

“525?” You asked as your brows furrowed. Harry nodded, giving you a small smile. “No way! Guess we’re neighbors…in a way?” You chuckled, and Harry grinned. 

“Guess we are,” he slightly giggled. 

“Uh, did you want to come in?” You asked. Harry’s eyes widened a bit, surprised by your offer, and you saw how shocked he was. “It’s okay if you don’t want to. It’s raining and thought it’d be nice to have some company.” 

“I’d love to. Thank you,” he responded, nodding his head. You smiled as you proceeded to unlock the door, stepping inside as Harry followed behind you. 

The layout of your apartment was the same as his since he was on the same side and right above you, but there was something about your apartment that felt like…home to him. He thought it had to do with the fact that it’s your space and you were in it because no one’s home felt like this besides yours. You had a few small potted plants along the windowsill along with a large one in the corner. Right next to the plant was a small wooden table with your red record player on top of it. A mustard yellow velvet couch was pushed against the wall facing the TV that rested on a white shelf bookcase that held many books and vinyl records in the cubbies along with random knick-knacks on the surface. A wooden round coffee table was placed in the middle with a vanilla candle on top of a few fashion magazines. Underneath the table was a white rug that looked warm to dig his feet in on a cold day. Three concert posters that were framed were hung on the wall, and he knew you were his soulmate because the three bands that you had on your wall were his absolute favorite; Fleetwood Mac, Queen, and The Beatles. 

His heart fluttered as he looked around, feeling like this was a part of you that he finally knew now. This part of you felt like home to him as he was immediately washed over with the feeling of comfort right when he stepped into your apartment. He felt so welcomed that it was going to be difficult for him to leave your space. 

“Make yourself at home.” Definitely home, he thought. “Would you like some hot chocolate?” You asked, taking out a saucepan from the cupboards. 

“I would love some,” he smiled, sitting on the couch where he could see you pour the milk into the pot. After a few moments, he saw you rush back into the living area. 

“Sorry, let me put some music on.” You kneeled on the hardwood floors to look at your collection before you turned your head back to him. “Any requests?” 

“Any Christmas song would be lovely and very fitting,” he requested. It was the beginning of December, and Harry was in the holiday mood. Plus, you were preparing hot chocolate, so it is more than appropriate. 

You smiled, nodding your head as you ran your fingers along your selection before pulling one out. Harry noticed the cover art as you pulled the record out.  Ultimate Christmas by Frank Sinatra played on the record player, filling the room with melodious tunes. You walked back to the kitchen before flashing him a smile. He sat on the couch and soaked in the music as he heard humming from the kitchen, and he grinned. Harry felt a warm feeling in his chest as he saw you stir in the hot cocoa into the hot milk as you hummed White Christmas. This moment right here and right now was something he wanted to experience every single day--where you would make hot cocoa as he would watch you with sparkling eyes, thinking how Frank Sinatra’s voice fitted so well with the holiday vibe. 

You came back with two red mugs with a bright smile on your face. “Do you mind placing the coasters on the table?” Your eyes pointed at the coasters underneath the candle. Harry nodded and placed two glass coasters onto the table, and he took a good look at both of them. One of the coasters stated ‘Be Kind’ in pink, and the other printed ‘Love Wins’ in multiple colors. He smiled, knowing the smallest things in your apartment was making him fall for you even more. 

“Hope you like it. I also should’ve asked what you liked with your hot chocolate but I just assumed you liked the same thing as me,” you chuckled nervously. You didn’t know why you were so nervous, but you think it had to do with the fact that another man was in your apartment that wasn’t Eric. 

Harry looked down at his hot chocolate. There were several marshmallows in the hot drink and a scoop of whipped cream with chocolate shavings to complete the drink. He smiled to himself as he took a sip, covering up his flustered demeanor. 

“It’s exactly what I wanted. I drink mine the same way,” he replied, and you smirked. 

“Glad I know a man with great taste,” you teasingly winked at him, and Harry nearly melted in his seat, and it for sure wasn’t from the hot cocoa because he wanted to reply with ‘More like your soulmate.’ He wanted to know what you were thinking in that beautiful head of yours. 

He wanted to know if you felt the same things he does. Did your heart beat uncontrollably fast every time he looked at you? Did you get sucked into a different dimension every time you looked at him? Did you have the urge to move closer to him, closing the gap between you two? Because Harry felt all those things with the simple act of you sitting next to him, and he really wanted to know if you felt the same way. 

You crossed your arms as the chilly weather rushed through you. “To be honest, I’m quite shocked that we live in the same building. I wasn’t planning on going back to Nonna’s until the end of the month, so I didn’t expect to see you.” 

“So, you were thinking about me?” He raised his brows teasingly.

“And if I was?” You decided to tease back but came out more like flirting. 

Harry paused for a moment, drinking his hot drink as he looked up at you through his lashes. “Then…I would say I was thinking about you too.” You nodded slightly, quickly grabbing your drink as you took a sip from it, hiding away your blush behind the mug. “What’s it like being a teacher? Can’t imagine standing in front of everyone and practically perform, I guess.” 

You breathed out a laugh, thinking the opposite. He had the look of a rockstar, and his name sounded badass. 

“It’s great. I try being their friend rather than a teacher because I feel like if they’re comfortable with me, they’ll retain and understand the material better. I learned that if you’re comfortable with someone, you’ll listen to them, so that’s what I did. And most of them are doing exceptionally well. Some of my colleagues are always surprised with how many students I get during office hours because I encourage using office hours and my email, so I’m quite busy,” you explained humbly. Harry admired your hard work and dedication, and he already knew you were a great professor just by what you told him. 

“So, what made you want to become an anatomy professor?” Harry changed the subject, feeling a bit flustered himself. 

“I was undecided with my major in college until I had to take a few science classes. One of them was anatomy, and I just fell in love with it. I really enjoyed learning it, and just fell in love with the subject,” you explained. 

“The professor part?” 

“My anatomy professor was the best. She made teaching look so fun and enjoyable. Plus, I’ve heard one too many stories about students having teachers who weren’t compassionate or sympathetic, and I didn’t like that at all. So, I wanted to be one of those teachers who made sure students learned and have a professor who was understanding,” you said humbly. 

“That’s very sweet of you. Unfortunately, I’ve had those professors who were pretty tough and not so compassionate.” You pouted. You always hated hearing or reading tweets when students would type out an email and express what they were currently going through to their professor, only for their professor to lack compassion and support to students who were trying to do their best. 

That’s why you wanted to become an educator. You wanted to make learning fun for your students and have them enjoy going to class rather than dreading it and being nervous to walk in. 

“What about you? What made you want to become a physical therapist?” You asked. 

Harry set his mug down onto the coaster. “The same as you. Something about bones and the muscles fascinated me and how they worked. I grew up loving sports, so that helped a bit, but wanting to help people recover properly was a main goal as well.” 

“You’re kind like that; someone who wants to help out others,” you complimented, and Harry blushed. 

“Thank you. It also has to do with the fact that one of my friends in secondary school, Max. He got injured pretty badly. He played football, or soccer, and he tore his ACL, which you probably know already, but it takes about six to twelve months to recover from that—physically and mentally. He loved the sport like no other, and couldn’t wait to get into it. His doctor cleared him when he was four months into therapy. Four. Doctor said he was looking good, so he cleared him earlier than usual.” Harry shook his head in disbelief as he told the story and you sat next to him, listening as your mouth was slightly open. “Like most of us, we listen to doctors more than we listen to our bodies. So, Max started to play again, and as expected, he hurt himself again…” he trailed off. 

You placed your hand on his knee, comforting him. You could tell that Max meant a lot to him, and by the way he was acting at the moment, he cared enough to dedicate his life towards wanting to be better to people who rely on him. 

“And he couldn’t play again. That was when I realized that I wanted to study the body. It was a long journey to get my doctorate, but I eventually got it at twenty-seven, and I’ve been working as a therapist for about a year and a half now; the same amount of time I’ve been here,” he said humbly. 

“That’s great, Harry. You must be so proud of yourself,” you offered him a smile. 

“I am, yeah. You must be too. Guess we both have a knack for changing some perspective, huh?” He softly smiled. 

“Yeah, we do.” 

Throughout the rest of the night, both of you got to know one another. You found out that you had a lot in common with him, such as your interests in the body (given both of your careers), movies and TV shows, books, and food; told each other childhood stories, and talked about your families. It was nice to talk to someone who didn’t judge you, especially with what happened a month ago. 

It was nearing midnight as the time seemed to go by quicker than usual. After two more glasses of hot cocoa, Harry let out a yawn as he checked the time on his phone. 

“I should probably get going--let you rest up,” he said politely, grabbing his mug. 

You nodded, agreeing as you didn’t realize how late it was. “Okay. Oh, you could just leave it there; I’ll clean up.” Harry was too tired to debate, so he put the mug down before you walked him to the door. “I had a great time. Thank you for inviting me in and giving me hot chocolate.” 

“Of course. I had a lovely time as well. Maybe…we should do it again sometime?” You suggested. Harry’s eyes gleamed as he slightly smirked; a tint of pink formed on his cheeks. 

“I would love that.” You said a soft ‘okay’ as you smiled. He looked at you for a moment, noticing your eyes sparkling in the dim light of your apartment as you stared up at him in such fondness, making his heart melt in every way possible. Harry cleared his throat as he was so caught up in your stare that almost hypnotized him. “Well, you know where I live, so come visit if you want or maybe I’ll see you on another elevator ride,” he playfully joked, earning a giggle from you. 

“Sleep well, Harry,” you told him as he walked out the door, away from the space that felt most comforting to him. 

“Sweet dreams, Y/N.” He flashed you another smile, and your knees nearly melted at the sight of his gorgeousness. Your grip on the door handle tightened, holding you up from falling to the ground. 

You waited for him to turn the corner to head to the elevator before you closed your door. Placing your back flat against the door, you covered your face as a rush of giddiness hit you as your face began to warm up. That was the most fun you had in a while, even if it was just as simple as a long conversation. 

You thought about Harry as you cleaned up and got ready for bed. Thinking about how sweet and kind he was. You never had met anymore who was so polite and nice while looking like that. There was no denying that you found Harry attractive--anyone with eyes could see that, but there was something about his inner aura and personality that you found extremely alluring and intriguing. You wanted to uncover and unravel all of his traits. That was when you knew you were collectively fucked. 

As you went to bed, you dreamt of his green eyes and beautiful smile; drifting off to sleep, unaware that your heart was completing the gaps of Harry’s heartbeat. 

Two weeks had passed since your first hangout with Harry, and you two had been hanging out ever since. Throughout those two weeks, you’d seen him at Nonna’s three times. The first time was unexpected, when you pulled into her driveway, you saw Harry helping her walk. Nonna had a sprained ankle from missing a step when she was walking down the stairs, and luckily, Harry was a physical therapist. Seeing the sight made your heart warm. The other two times were planned and you two decided to drive to her home together. It was very domestic of you two, and the level of comfort was something you never experienced with someone you just met. Nonna was happy to see you two getting along so well, she obviously knew something you were yet to figure out. 

It was nice hanging out with him, you thought. He was a great and funny friend that could make you laugh for hours. But he was also someone you trusted that you could talk to about anything. It was  bizarre to think considering you’d only known him for a short amount of time. Harry was just so open-minded, exciting, and new. Plus, you didn’t have many friends that lived close to you, so Harry living upstairs was just a walk in the park. 

You were getting ready to have brunch with Harry and Anne. It was your first time meeting her, and you were a bit nervous if you were being honest. As Harry’s friend, you wanted Anne to like you, and you really hoped Nonna had talked you up a bit. 

A knock was heard on your front door, and you took a deep breath before answering. Harry was standing behind it, wearing a plain white t-shirt, pink corduroy pants, and a black coat. Something that took you by surprise was that he was wearing brown tortoise framed glasses that fit him so well and nearly made you melt. 

“Harry, you look very…nice.” Your breath hitched in your throat causing you to choke up a breath as he was completely breathless. 

The corner of his lips turned up. “Thank you, so do you.” You smiled. Shall we go?” You nodded and followed him out, locking your door. 

The restaurant Anne picked was not too far from your apartment complex—about 20 minutes. The entire drive to the restaurant, you and Harry sang your heart out to ABBA, pointing at each other as you both screamed out ‘You can dance, you can jive!’ 

“Y/N, it’s so nice to finally meet you,” Anne greeted you with a hug, and your nerves slightly dropped as she welcomed you with a hug. “Harry’s told me so much about you!” 

Harry gave Anne a knowing look as a way to tell his mum ‘don’t tell her everything,’ and Anne gave him the same look saying ‘I won’t.’ 

“I can’t wait to get to know you. Our table is ready,” Anne said as she pulled away from you. You nodded your head in agreement as you all followed the hostess to your table. 

Talking to Anne was something so refreshing. She was so sweet and kind, and you immediately knew where Harry got his best traits from. She also knew how to crack a few jokes here and there, making you almost spit your mimosa out or choke on your food. 

Harry watched you two interact and his eyes watched with so much fondness. His mum and soulmate getting along was something he was so grateful for because he wouldn’t know what he would do if you two hated each other. The interaction was so natural between you two that he thought you were going to be the best of friends. 

“So, I hope this is not a personal question, but have you found your soulmate, sweetheart!” Anne suddenly asked, and Harry choked on his water, making him cough reluctantly as he struggled to breathe. Anne rose from her chair as you gently slapped his back a few times to help him out. Once he was okay from his cough attack, he wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Darling, are you okay?” She gave him a concerning look. 

Harry nodded, his face slightly red from the lack of air. “Yeah, yeah. I’m good, yeah.” 

“You sure?” You asked. Your hand hadn’t left his back, and you could immediately feel the tingly feeling that spread throughout your arm like his touch shocked you throughout. Harry nodded again, reassuring you and Anne. You turned back to Anne, realizing that she had an unanswered question. “Uh, back to your question—no I haven’t found my soulmate.” 

“Really?” Her tone coming out surprising. 

You nodded. “Yeah. I thought I did, turns out he wasn’t the one.” Harry was eyeing you nervously as he sat beside you. He gulped, wanting to know everything. 

“I’m sure you’ll find them soon, sweetheart,” Anne reassured, and you gave her an appreciating smile. “Your Nonna seems quite keen on soulmates,” she pointed out. 

You nodded. “Yeah, she is. She started talking about soulmates since I was young. She found hers when she was sixteen. Her and Papa’s love was so special. Unfortunately, he passed away about five years ago you explained, and Anne frowned slightly. 

“I’m sorry to hear that, love.” 

“It’s okay! Feel like he’s always somewhat around. He owned a beach house that he passed down to me, and I go there every month, but I never change the furniture or take anything down, so it very much feels like he’s still with me,” you smiled as you told them. 

“That’s lovely, sweetheart. I’m sure he is, and I’m sure he’s proud of you.” You softly smiled at Anne’s words, appreciative of them. You felt Harry’s hand on yours that was resting on the table, and you warmed up at his touch. Turning your head towards him, you flashed him a smile and he sent you a subtle and innocent wink, making your stomach turn into knots. Luckily, you were sitting because you would have surely fallen if you were standing. 

“Where’s your beach house located, by the way?” Harry asked. 

“Monterey.” You answered and you noticed Harry’s eyes widen, glancing towards Anne. “What?” 

“I actually have a house there.” Now, that was new news. 

“Really?” He nodded. 

“Yeah, it’s in Pebble Beach. Where’s yours?” 

“New Monterey.” Pebble Beach was about a fifteen-minute drive from where your beach house was at, on opposite ends of the coast. 

Something was interesting about the fact that Harry was on the other side of your beach house. You’d been to Pebble Beach many times, sometimes walking the hour walk there to get away. If you hadn’t met Harry at Nonna’s, would you have met him at the beach house? 

You shook off the thought, realizing that Anne had changed the subject, so you listened. 

Brunch went by, and you were parting ways with Anne. You promised you would visit her when you visited Nonna, to which she beamed and hugged you tightly. Harry and Anne hugged, and they said ‘I love you’ to each other. Your heart warmed at the mother and son duo, thinking they had the best dynamic. 

You and Harry drove back to the apartment complex in comfortable silence, all the way up to his apartment. You two would take turns sharing your apartments because they both made a great hang out spot. His place was your favorite, though. The first time you stepped in it, you felt an immediate calmness to the disarray of what your reality felt like. It was like you never wanted to leave his apartment, simply wanting to cuddle into his couch with a soft blanket over you. You could possibly stay there forever, you thought. 

Harry made you both a cup of hot chocolate as it was starting to become thing for you both. It was nice; having a thing with you. It made him feel involved and important in your life. 

“Do you want to have an honesty hour?” You asked once he set your mug onto the coaster before he took a seat right beside you. 

He raised his brows. “Were you not being honest with me before?” He teased, and you nudged his shoulder. 

“I’m serious,” you giggled, and it was music to his ears. 

“I am too, but yes we could always have an honest hour. Tell me something.” He curled his lips in, and you couldn’t help but look at his mouth before you quickly glanced back up to his eyes. 

“What do you wanna know?” 

“Whatever you want to tell me. I’d be happy to listen,” he reassured. You decided you wanted to tell him what happened a month ago with the whole Eric situation. It was something you could open up to him about since he wasn’t at the wedding, so you knew he wouldn’t judge you.

You smiled softly. “It’s funny how we live in a world full of soulmates, huh?” You started. Harry’s breath hitched into his throat. He started to feel anxious right as you mentioned soulmates that led him to be speechless; he nodded instead. “Well, my Nonna has been telling me everything about soulmates ever since I was born. She constantly went on and on about it--always asking me if I’ve found mine ever since I turned thirteen. I was excited, y’know? She hyped it up so much that I couldn’t wait until I was older to find my soulmate.” Harry gulped, not saying anything. He felt a ‘but’ coming in, so he waited until you were finished. “I went through my teenage years with my friends talking about their soulmates that had found them when they were fifteen or sixteen. I was the only one alone. I don’t know why, but the universe must hate me.” 

“The universe does not hate you,” he disagreed, shaking his head at the hateful words as he slightly frowned. 

“No, it does. When I went to college, I stopped believing in the soulmate shit. I dated whoever I wanted without that pressure. But there was this one person that almost made me believe in soulmates…” you trailed off, and Harry took a deep breath. Maybe she does feel all those things for me? He thought. “His name’s Eric. I met him my last year of college…and we’re engaged--or were engaged.” Harry’s eyes widened as they slightly watered. His heart pounded through his chest as if he couldn’t breathe anymore. 

“Y-You were engaged?” He stuttered, holding back his tears. 

“Yeah. I said the universe hated me because I ran out and left him at the altar. When he was saying his vows, I thought of everything Nonna had told me. The heartbeat, the stare, the pull, everything. I didn’t feel that with him, and it was shit timing as well, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t feel the same way for me too,” you explained before taking another sip. 

“So, do you believe in it now?” He slipped in the question. 

“I mean…possibly. I know there’s someone out there for me--maybe. But I really pushed back the idea of my soulmate ever since I felt left out when I was a teenager, so I’m not entirely sure what the exact feeling you feel when you see your soulmate because I just pushed it out of my head and forgot about it.” Harry nodded understandingly. 

It made much more sense to him, and you answered all of his questions. He knew that you weren’t feeling all of those things with him. It definitely hurt him, but he’d hoped that those feelings would come around soon because he’d sat right in front of you, waiting for the right moment to tell you that he was yours. 

“Have you seen him since?” He carried on the conversation, wanting to know all the details and information that he could get. 

“Since the wedding?” Harry nodded, and you shook his head. “No, I haven’t. It’s been about a month since I saw him last. I’ve just been texting him to see if he’s doing okay because I don’t know where his head’s at, but he told me that he would call me when he’s ready to talk, which I have to respect and understand.” 

“A month?” 

Your brows raised slightly. “Hmm, yeah, a month.” Harry's heart began to beat faster, and he clasped his hands together to prevent them from shaking. “I feel bad, y’know? I feel like I’m now painted as this horrible person, but I know I am-” 

“Hey, no, you’re not,” Harry disagreed, shaking his head. “You’re pretty amazing.” Your eyes lightened up a bit. “I’ve only known you for a couple of weeks, and you’re possibly the sweetest person I’ve met. You’re funny, smart, and really fuckin’ kind. You made a decision that was going to affect your entire life. That doesn’t mean you’re a horrible person.” You didn’t say anything but nodded your head slightly with a small smile at his words. He didn’t need to hear anything from you to know that you were appreciative of his words. 

“I wanna know everything about you, H.” You changed the subject, not wanting to talk more about your failed relationship. 

His body turned warm at the sudden nickname. “Everything?” He raised his brows as he took a sip of his drink. He was a bit wary about your sudden want, but he knew that he could trust you. 

You nodded. “Tell me all your secrets,” you whispered. Your words came out seductive, which you didn’t mean to, but by the way he was looking at you, it seemed like your words had some effect on him. 

He curled his lips into his mouth as you pierced your eyes into his as his heart began to beat harder. He smirked a little, chuckling to himself at his reaction. 

“You're in for it, love. Have a lot to cover.” 

A blush formed onto your cheeks. “The floor’s yours.” He took a deep breath before he proceeding to tell you something very important to him. and he hoped he wouldn’t overwhelm you with this information. 

“When I moved here, a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with Bradycardia Arrhythmia—my heart would beat slowly as you know. They put a pacemaker in after my second collapse. It was so sudden, and I have no idea where it came from, maybe smoking for an entire year when I was in uni, I’m not sure. But I moved here in August, so around that time, I collapsed. Mum rushed me to the hospital and they did a bunch of tests and diagnosed me, and now I have a pacemaker,” he explained calmly. 

The feeling in your chest was something you’ve never felt before. The heart tightened as he spoke every word, causing the pain to increase as your heart sank. Your eyes watered, not wanting them to fall because he didn’t need your pity. 

“Harry, a-are you okay now?” You asked, voice small. 

“Yeah, I think so. Uh, on Saturday at around eleven in the morning, two weeks before we met, I collapsed again. This time, I really couldn’t breathe. It genuinely felt like it was my last day on Earth. My lungs were closing in and my heart was slowing down. My mum was with me at my beach house, and I was lucky that she was there because she immediately called 911 and got me to the hospital.” You looked at him with fear in your eyes as you listened to the gut wrenching story. “I was gone for fifteen minutes, Y/N. Fifteen. It was some sort of miracle…” 

Then it suddenly hit you. 

It all made sense. 

Your heart suddenly opened up fully and the traces of doubt were left behind. Your mind started to piece together the reasons why you haven’t met your soulmate, and it was all right in front of you. The stories and journeys Harry had gone through had all added up. 

The beating organ in your chest had pounded so hard that you felt the beat through your ears, making it impossibly hard to hear, but your heart was fluttering uncontrollably that you couldn’t help but smile and blush. You could see it now—his stare. His eyes captivated yours as he looked so deeply into your eyes that you could stay lost in them forever and never worry about a thing. The magnetic pull and attraction towards him felt like you couldn’t hold back; that you wanted to continue being close to him as you inched closer to him. 

Your mind was coming up with different theories on why your soulmate was taking so long, but they all concluded to him. To Harry. 

It all made sense. 

The reason why it took so long for your soulmate to show was because Harry hadn’t moved here until a year and a half ago. He was still back in England getting his doctorate, and the separation between you two made it impossible to meet. Somehow your mind made up the conclusion that the only reason why you two met after Harry living here, in the same building, for a year and a half was because you were still with Eric; your time was spent on someone who wasn’t your soulmate. 

“Harry…” you whispered. 

His brows raised. “I’m okay now! Really, I am. I don’t think I’ll have any more collapses…” he said knowingly. His tone was like he knew something you didn’t, like he knew you were his soulmate. 

“Harry…” you repeated. 

“Yeah?” You reached forward to wrap your arms around his shoulders. Your actions took him by surprise, but he immediately hugged you back, hurrying his face into your shoulder. 

You had instantly felt the warmth that he provided, not wanting to pull back. You took deep breaths, and you could physically feel Harry’s heart beating in sync with yours as you two sat in front of each other. 

“Why didn’t…you tell me?” You breathed out, eyes glossy as you pulled away from the hug. 

Harry noticed your change of emotion and he looked at you with a concerned face. He gently placed his hands on the sides of your face, stroking your cheek with his thumb as your tears spilled out. 

“Tell you what?” He asked, still clueless. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were my soulmate?” You questioned. 

Harry’s breath was caught in his throat. He didn’t know if you were angry or disappointed with him, but you didn’t show any sign of anger, so he slightly relaxed. Your face was filled with confusion, and he wanted to take that away quickly. 

“You know?” 

“Yeah, I know,” you nodded, tears threatening to spill out. 

“I, uh,” he cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I felt it immediately when I first met you, and I didn’t think you did yet. I should’ve told you…” he grabbed both of your hands and brought them up to his lips, kissing the back of your hand sweetly. 

Harry’s eyes watered. He didn’t know if you were happy that he was your soulmate because you haven’t said anything, so he anxiously kept kissing your hand. 

You inched forward, placing your forehead against his as both of your hands were in between you two. Your lips met with his hand before you pulled away. 

“I felt it. I felt it all when you told me your story and about your condition. It was like your heart opened up for me and my heart finally had the realization that you were right in front of me—this whole time.” You sniffled. Harry’s tears streamed down his face as the overwhelming feeling was present in his chest, making his heart pound through his chest. Your hearts were in sync with one another, so you placed your hand flat on his chest, feeling the beating organ that was giving you so much life. 

“I can’t believe this is happening…” he said in disbelief. 

“Harry…I should tell you that, uh, the first time you collapsed—when you were diagnosed with your condition, that was when Eric proposed to me. Your second collapse, a month ago, that was my wedding day. The time you collapsed was when I was at the altar. There were just so many thoughts running around in my head that I physically and mentally couldn’t be in front of my ex because I just knew he wanted the one for me,” you explained. 

Harry’s mind immediately clicked. “Then when you left the altar was when I was brought back to life…” he pieced together like a puzzle. His missing puzzle piece was you. Your eyes softened, smiling at him because at least you did some good in the last month. “You saved me.” 

“I can’t help but think that I was the one that caused all of this,” you poured, and he shook his head. 

“No, no. You didn’t. If you’re going to blame yourself for that, then I’m going to blame myself for getting together with other people back in England, causing you to not believe that you have a soulmate,” he challenged. You shook your head in disagreement. “Then we have nothing to blame ourselves for, okay? We’re here now.” 

You placed your forehead against his as you whispered,” Yeah, we are.” You close your eyes for a moment, trying to take in the events. You couldn’t believe that after knowing Harry for more than two weeks, he was your soulmate this entire time. 

Pulling away a bit, you looked at him as your eyes glimmered. The tips of your noses touched in the most delicate way as you looked at each other. The room was filled with so much clarity, light, and…love. You smiled softly as the corners of Harry’s lips turned up into a grin, dimples poking out. 

“Can I kiss you?” He finally asked, eyes looking down at your lips and back to your eyes. 

You nodded, your heart beating ten times faster. He moved your hair out of your face and tucked it behind your ear before gently placing his hands on your cheeks as he moved forward to capture his lips with yours. His touch and lips ignited you as the sparks ran through your body, making you pull him closer. His lips were something you’d never felt before. They were soft, gentle, and loving as he moved in sync with you, meeting your tongue with his in such a passionate and deep way. 

You felt completely overwhelmed with happiness as you smiled into the kiss, tears rushing down your face as you knew the wait was finally over. He was here. 

Harry moved you on your back as he hovered over you, lips never disconnecting as it was something he wanted to do forever. You ran your fingers through his hair, slightly grabbing onto his curls as you earned a moan against your mouth from him. Involuntarily bucking your hips against him, you felt him grow between your legs in his flared pants as he grinded against your leg. 

He pulled away from the kiss only to kiss your jaw and neck, nibbling and sucking your skin, leaving a decent hickey on your skin. Your hands raked his clothed back, and Harry felt the way your nails dragged against his shirt, making his excitement increase because he couldn’t wait to actually feel it against his skin, only if you’d let him. 

“C-Can I, uh,” he stumbled with his words. 

“Harry, do you think we could wait?” You asked, indicating sex. His eyes widened, immediately getting off of you. 

“Oh, yeah! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“No, don’t be sorry. I just want to wait to do that with you,” you caressed his cheek. 

“Okay, that’s fair.” He leaned in to press a soft kiss to your lips to see if he wasn’t dreaming. 

The rest of the night was like this—you laid in his arms, stealing kisses from one another. He held you tightly, afraid that you would leave once he loosened his grip, but you were right where you needed to be. 

A week went by, and you were happier than ever. You were in complete bliss with Harry, and you never wanted that feeling to stop. It seemed like Nonna was happier than you because she’d been waiting for this moment for so long. She wanted to see you happy, even Harry, you being happy together just made her heart warm. 

You were just getting back home from doing some shopping when your phone rang. Assuming that it was your soulmate, you smiled as you searched for your phone through your purse. But what you didn’t expect was to see the contact that you have been waiting a month for. 

“Eric? Hi,” you said surprisingly. 

“Hey. Uh,” he chuckled. “This is a bit weird, isn’t it? I just wanted to call to see if you were free to talk.” 

Your eyes widened. “Yeah! I just got home. Do you want to swing by right now if you’re available?” 

“Yeah, that’d be great. The same apartment, right?” 

“The same one. I’ll see you soon,” you confirmed before you bid each other goodbye. 

You waited for Eric for about thirty minutes, distracting yourself by cleaning and tidying up your place as you constantly overthought what you were going to say to him. This was going to be the first real conversation you were going to have with him in a month, not to mention the first time you’re seeing him after you ran away and left him at the altar. 

There was a hard knock on your door, startling you. You took a deep breath before you answered it, revealing your ex-fiancé. 

“Hey, Y/N,” he smiled, giving you a hug. He seemed happier and in a better mood than you’d expected. 

“Hi, how are you?” You invited him into your home. It still looked the same the last time he came over, which had been quite a while. 

“I’m doing good, you?”

“Good as well. Coffee?” You offered. 

“Please.” 

You made him a cup of coffee, remembering the way he liked it because of the amount of times you’d made it for him in the morning. Setting it on the coaster, you sat on the other end of the couch, facing him. There was a bit of silence between you two—both not knowing where to start the conversation, but you figured you needed to get everything out of your system, so you went first. 

“Eric, I’m really sorry for how I left things. I shouldn’t have done it the way I did, and I should’ve talked to you first before we even proceeded to the wedding, but all of a sudden, it clicked. When you were reading your vows, I was just thinking of all the things Nonna said to me, and I realized…you weren’t the one. You weren’t my soulmate,” you explained. Your shoulders relaxed, finally feeling like this was the first step before you got to live your life with Harry. 

“Hey,” he reached over to grab your hand. Now, you could say that you really don’t feel the same love as before. His touch wasn’t the same as Harry’s. Eric didn't give you the spark that crawled up your skin, only Harry did. “It’s totally okay. I mean that. I understand why you did that, and I’m glad you did because I knew you weren’t the one for me either, and it took me a while to realize that until…” he trailed. 

“Until?” You encouraged him to continue, but it clicked so quickly for you. “You met someone?” He smiled, nodded his head. “Holy shit! What?!” You exclaimed surprisingly. You were the furthest from mad, and you were actually really happy for him. 

“I did, yeah. She’s great, honestly. Her name is Mandy and I met her the night of our wedding,” he chuckled. “I went to a bar and met her there. And then I felt it. It’s the most exciting and exhilarating feeling in the world,” he excitedly said. 

“Isn’t it?” You raised your brows, and Eric furrowed his brows until he got what you meant. 

“Hold on…you…wait…you met yours didn’t you?” He speculated, and you laughed. 

“Yeah, I did. Two weeks after our wedding. Actually met him at Nonna’s. Turns out, they’ve known each other for a year and a half. Can you believe that?” 

“Actually, I can. Nonna Tallie knows everything. I’m pretty sure she knew that I wasn’t your soulmate too,” he said, laughing. You laughed along, deciding not to tell him that she actually did know. 

The rest of the night went on like this. You two caught up, and shared stories and memories that made you laugh when you looked back while pouring yourselves glasses on glasses of wine. You realized that you and Eric were much better as friends, and you’re glad that it didn’t end in a horrendous way because you really cherished and appreciated him. 

The night was getting late, and you two were giggling your tipsy hearts out as your eyes were trying theirs best to stay open. You realized you couldn’t fight over your exhausted and drunk self, so you decided to call it a night. 

“Uh, you could take the couch since it’s late and you can’t drive,” you offered. 

“Really? Thank you,” he smiled. You grabbed him an extra blanket and pillow, and bid him goodnight because you went to the restroom to do your skincare because you never forget to do your night routine no matter how drunk you are. 

You crashed onto your bed, closing your eyes as you let sleep and your dreams take over you, dreaming about the loveliest man just above you and how you couldn’t wait to see him again. 

When you wanted to see Harry again, you didn’t expect it to be the way you did. 

After a long eight hours of dreaming of him, you heard a loud knock on the door, causing you to jolt awake. Still groggy as you were sitting up in bed, you heard footsteps walking towards the door, and you had nearly forgotten Eric was still in your apartment and that he was going to answer the door. 

What you didn’t expect was to hear the familiar raspy and deep voice that said ‘Who the fuck are you?’ making you quickly get out of bed and heading towards the door. Eric was shirtless, clearly still sleepy, and Harry was standing on your doorstep with a bag of food in his hands. 

The picture looked bad and wrong. With you and Eric just getting out of separate beds, respectfully, and Eric not wearing a shirt, it really wasn’t what it looked like. 

“Harry-”

“A-Are you cheating on me?” Harry asked, not knowing if those were the right words. Sure, you were his soulmate, but he hadn’t made things official yet. 

“Hey, man-”

“I’m clearly not talking to you,” he interrupted Eric, giving him a stern look. 

You gently pulled his face down so he could look at you. “Listen to me, please?” He didn’t say anything, so you continued. “This is Eric, my ex. He came here to talk last night and we had a few glasses of wine and I let him crash on the couch, that’s all.” 

Harry nodded, but his face clearly said that he wasn’t convinced. You looked at him with a sad expression, feeling useless on what you could do to get him to believe you. 

“You know…” he started. His face looked disappointed, and you wished he flashed you his smile. “I found it odd that you didn’t know I was your soulmate when I first met you, and it hurt me, to be honest. It broke my heart. I waited patiently for you for my entire life, and I waited even more when I met you and you didn’t know that it was me. I get that if you’re still in love with him, I get it. You were together for years, almost forever. But this…” he gestured towards you two. “It looks bad and it hurts me more than ever.” 

With that, he walked away. Rushing towards the staircase, you ran after him, calling for him, but he ignored you. His long strides beat yours as he took two steps at a time, and you barely kept up with him, so you just let him be for now. You sat on the cemented stairs, placing your face in your hands as you cried. Your sobs echoed throughout the empty staircase, and your heart felt like it was ripping in half—Harry’s heart breaking just added to your pain as well. 

And just when you had gotten your soulmate, you felt like you lost him. 

A week had passed since you last saw Harry, and it was one of the longest, frustrating, and painful weeks you ever had to live through. 

The face Harry had given you was something you never wanted to see. The displeasurable look made your heart drop every time you thought about it, closing your eyes, it was the only thing you could see. 

He wasn’t talking to you, no matter how many times you knocked on his door and said sorry to him through the door that most likely came out muffled from the other side. Throughout the week, you tried your hardest not to get angry for being ignored as you refrained from telling him how unreasonable he was being. But you looked at things from his perspective, and you understood why he felt that certain anxiety of seeing Eric in your apartment…shirtless, might you add. 

It took you a while to figure out how that Harry was your soulmate, and you couldn’t imagine the doubt and discouraging feeling he had when you didn’t figure it out right away. You couldn’t imagine what he felt like when he first met you and felt everything indescribable. 

For what seemed like the millionth time this week, you walked into Nonna’s house, immediately feeling the warmth and comfort you felt every single time. But it wasn’t the kind of warmth you longed for from a certain someone. 

“Hey, Nonna,” you greeted once you entered, finding her on the couch, looking through her photo albums. 

“Hi, Chip. Come in and sit with me,” she patted the space next to her, and you gladly walked over, taking a seat, looking at the pictures of her and your grandfather when they were younger. 

“My soulmate. Miss you so much,” she said to the picture of the two of them smiling at the camera, touching Papa’s face. 

Nonna flipped through the album, telling you stories about every single picture. You loved hearing memories about your grandparents as they brought so much joy to you. Nonna’s stories were the last bit of hope you had in soulmates, and you made sure to never let it go. 

You saw Nonna take out a picture out of the slip, pointing at it as she told you another story. “This was me and your Papa when we went to the beach. We were with some friends, and he told me he was going to marry me. This wasn’t where he proposed, but this was when I heard it for the first time. I was surprised, but so in love.” She smiled at the photo of her and her soulmate. Nonna handed you the picture so you could get a better look. 

In the picture, they were both sitting in the sand and she was smiling at the camera while Papa was holding her waist, looking at her with so much love. They were such a beautiful couple and quite the lookers. 

As you studied the photograph, you noticed a couple in the back who equally looked in love as Nonna and Papa were. But to what shocked you was that the couple in the back looked just like you and Harry. You softly gasped, bringing the picture closer to your eyes, making sure you weren’t just imagining things, but sure enough, the couple looked exactly like the two of you. 

“Nonna, look at this. This couple right here,” you pointed at the picture. 

She squinted before she gasped herself. “Well, that looks quite like you and my delivery boy.” 

“W-Why is that exactly us?” You stuttered, a bit spooked out.

Nonna grabbed your hand, holding it tightly. “Soulmates are destined for your future. What they didn’t tell you, or what I didn’t tell you was that, before you’re born or even conceived, the universe already plans for your soulmate because they’re quick like that. They have this stronghold that they can’t help but put together two people who are made for each other, even if they’re not even on this earth yet. In your case, the universe put you and Harry together in your past lives, way before you both were born. You and Harry were made for each other. Don’t let him go, ever.” 

Without even realizing, you felt tears fall from your eyes as she explained. Your heart felt like it was exploding with so much love. 

You needed him. You needed the air he provided. The light in your darkest days. The love that fulfilled your heart. 

You handed Nonna the picture back, but she waved you off. “Keep it. Go get him, yeah?” 

Kissing her cheek in gratefulness, you sniffled as you headed to your home. 

You found yourself exactly where you needed to be, knocking on the dark green door with the number 525 in gold. 

“Harry, please open the door,” you called out from outside. A frown settled upon your face as you continued to knock. The thought of Harry being on the other side of the door and ignoring you, made your heart ache. 

“Can't do that when I’m out here.” You turned your head to see Harry fiddling with his keys with a bag of groceries in his other hand. 

You smiled softly, rushing towards him before wrapping your arms around his shoulders, pressing yourself against him. “Missed you so much.” Your heart warmed when you felt his arm wrap around your waist, and you smiled into his shoulder. “Can we talk? Please?” You asked once you pulled away, looking at him with pleading eyes. And who was he to say no to that?

“Let’s go inside.” He walked past you, opening the door to let you in. You missed the homey feeling, and one week was too long without stepping foot into his place. He offered you a drink, but you declined, and he joined you on his sofa. 

There was an unfamiliar silence where you didn’t know if you should speak or let the silence take over you until the tension finally breaks. Harry wasn’t speaking either as he was waiting for you to speak since you were the one who almost knocked down his door with your fist with the constant knocking. 

“I’m sorry, Harry. This week has been brutal and I never want to go without you ever again. I looked at things from your perspective, and yeah, I would be frustrated and disappointed and hurt at me too. I couldn’t imagine what you were going through when you finally found me and I didn’t even know you were right in front of me. And I just want to say I’m sorry. Eric and I are over, and I don’t love him anymore. He’s already found his soulmate, and I have you…at least I think I still have you…” you said all in one breath, and your mind had gone into a spiral because you really didn’t know if you screwed things up. 

Harry breathed out a chuckle, smiling to himself as he looked down at his lap. You knew you hadn’t convinced him enough just by the way he’s silent, probably debating with himself in his head if he should believe you. So, you took out the picture Nonna had shown you from your purse, hesitantly giving it to him. 

He grabbed the picture and looked at him before he asked, “Who’s this?” 

“That’s my Nonna and Papa. Think they were, like, twenty here. But that’s besides the point…look at the couple in the back.” Harry squinted, observing the couple behind Nonna and Papa. The couple were facing the ocean; the woman was sitting in front of the man as his arms were warmed around her body. They were looking at one another, smiling brightly when the world was right in front of them. But their worlds were right in their arms. 

You noticed Harry’s eyes widen, looking at the couple again just as you did to make sure he’s not just hallucinating. He turned back to you, speechless, and you nodded. 

“That’s us in our past life. Nonna told me that the universe puts couples together even if they’re not born yet. Our souls were born to the stars and the moon. We were destined to be together decades ago, and we are now,” you hesitantly grabbed his hand, and you’re grateful that he didn’t pull away. His touch was on fire that the spark ignited into something so relieving. You looked at him so intently, and you couldn’t pull away. No matter how disappointed he was in you, there was still that sparkle when he looked at you. “Harry, I’m sorry if I made you think that I wasn’t in love with you. There is nothing more in the world than you, and you’re all I want. We’re made for each other, baby. I’ve been in love with you, I’ll be in love with you. Forever.” 

Silent tears streamed down Harry’s face as he curled his lips in. His heart was beating at a normal pace, only because it was now filled with the love and warmth that he’s asked for, and it all came from you. You filled that hole in his heart that’s been waiting to be sealed, and now you vowed to take care of it, and love and cherish it. 

Harry shifted closer to you and you smiled through your tears. He delicately touched your cheek like you were fragile glass, and you soaked in his touch that made your cheeks warm. You turned your head to kiss his palm as he cradled your face. He brought his face closer to yours and kissed the tip of your nose before resting his forehead against yours. You smiled to yourself; you thought the gesture was sweet and you missed his touch and lips so much that it had made your heart physically ache. 

“I’m gonna make you happy, baby, I promise.” 

He nodded as his heart forgave you. “And I’ll do the same. Forever.” Butterflies erupted in your stomach as he spoke so softly, and his voice was deeper and raspier. “I was overreacting the last time--I’m sorry. I just closed myself off and-”

“Hey, it’s okay. Your feelings are valid. Let’s talk about it next time, okay?” You softly suggested, and he offered you a small smile of acceptance. 

“I’m gonna love you forever,” he said.

“You better,” you teased, smirking slightly as he chuckled. 

The tip of your noses touches as you closed your eyes before Harry leaned in and connected your lips together. The lips that were molding with yours had taken you back years, and it was like you had been kissing his lips for the entirety of your life, along with your beating heart that was beating for him all along. 

pls let me know your thoughts and feelings on this! thank you for reading <3

[atlabeth]

hold onto me (im a little unsteady) - sokka x reader

i was listening to the song when i came up w this so feel free to listen to that if you want

summary: a late night with sokka reminds you that even on the worst days, you always have someone in your corner.

a/n: lmao this is 100% self indulgent i have no excuses. my parents are getting divorced and almost every time they're together they argue and so this is just a comfort fic after it happened again tonight bc GD i wish i had a sokka. this one goes out to all my divorce babies or people with parents that never stop arguing. you are very loved<3

wc: 1.7k, this got away from me lol

warning(s): mentions of parents arguing n shit, like the tiniest mentions of implying sex and problems with consent (in general, not with them), but this is all fluff

hey. i know you’re probably asleep right now but could you come over?

It was far too late at night when you sent the text. A question asked on a whim, an offer that would most likely go ignored due to the boy on the other end being asleep.

But goddammit, you really didn’t care. Even if he didn’t respond, just hitting ‘send’ made you feel slightly better. You had already taken refuge in one of the sweatshirts he had left at your house (read: one that you had stolen and refused to give back) and as your eyes fell on the glow of the digital clock on your bedside table, you were once again reminded of how stupid this was.

But you heard the telltale buzz of a notification and all but lunged for your phone, an uncontrollable smile tugging on your lips. You didn’t know why you ever doubted him.

sokka💙: you know i never sleep babe

sokka💙: a curse of my genius

sokka💙: im omw

you’re the best thank you love<3

A pair of fuzzy socks and a refilled water bottle later, you heard the sound of something hitting your window. Though you tensed up at first, a roll of your eyes was all it took before you remembered just who you had invited over. Another smile took over as you pushed yourself off of your bed, pushing the curtains aside in time to see another pebble hit the pane.

A physical effort took place to stifle the laugh as you pushed your window up, and you leaned against the sill on your elbows to get a better look at your ridiculous boyfriend.

“Throwing rocks at my window? I think I’m stuck in a bad romcom.”

He grinned and let the remaining pebbles fall to the ground. “It’s what’s to be expected from your Prince Charming, right? Besides, I’m assuming that your parents wouldn’t just let me walk through the front door at this hour.”

You felt the heat rise to your cheeks. Just the sight of Sokka was always enough to make you feel better, and tonight was no exception. The vice on your heart was already starting to loosen. “Right as usual. Think you’ll catch me if I jump?”

He laughed and made a show of looking up and down the distance and then at his arms. “I’d like to say so, but I think we’d have better luck if I climb up.”

“You sure you can do that, big guy?” you asked with a teasing grin. He rolled his eyes with the same sentiment.

“Of course I can. I just thank nature that there’s a tree so close to your window. It’s saved me from a lot of embarrassing falls.”

You chuckled and backed away from the window, the slight chill from the night air beginning to get to you. “I’ll leave you to it while I get things ready.”

Truth be told, your room was a total mess at the moment. You knew Sokka wouldn’t care, especially not now, but it put you slightly more at ease to have something in your life that you could control. You were in the middle of shoving some previously strewn-about clothes into your closet when you heard the click of your window closing. When you turned around, you were met with your boyfriend’s smiling face.

“You’re so pretty,” you murmured as you walked over to him. He wrapped his arms around your waist as you kissed him lightly on the lips, unable to stop the blossoming smile nor the warmth that the action gave you. “Thank you for being here.”

“Of course.” The softness of his words were in stark contrast to the joking bravado from only minutes earlier, and as you stepped away from his embrace and pushed yourself onto your bed, he joined you on the other side. “And not that I’m not happy to be here, but I just wanna know. What’s going on?”

You sighed, letting one leg hang off the bed as you tucked the other in. It was a testament to Sokka’s power how quickly he had gotten you to forget about the new mess of the night. “The usual showing of fuckall and fuckup. I’m more impressed by how they never run out of things to scream at each other about.”

Your bad joke didn’t get a laugh out of him, which you were secretly glad for. Instead, he snaked an arm around your back and tugged you closer, a contented sigh falling from your lips as you nestled your head into the space between his shoulder and his head. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”

The phrase had gone in one ear and out the other more times than you could count from your parents, but each time Sokka said it, the words held a different weight. You knew it wasn’t your fault in the first place, but guilt didn’t care all that much for logic. You knew he meant it though, and once more the vice loosened.

“I know. But it still helps to hear it.” You glanced up at him, reaching a hand up to twist a loose strand of his hair around your finger. “You should wear your hair down more often,” you mused. “It makes you look like a prince.”

He chuckled, amusement glinting through his ocean eyes. “I did say I was your Prince Charming, didn’t I?”

You smiled, slowly uncurling his hair from your finger. “Yeah.”

“That means I’ll always be there for you. Especially to save my royal from their evil stepparents.”

Another laugh bubbled in your chest at that, and you leaned closer into him. “Thank you. The more I visit your place, the more I want your family to be mine. Hakoda is like, the nicest man I’ve ever met, and your mom? She actually makes me want to cry with how sweet she is. I think I know where you get it from.”

He grinned and bumped your leg with his own. “You know you’re welcome over there any time. But maybe you shouldn’t — I think my mom might actually adopt you with how much she loves you. That… that would be really weird.”

His joy was infectious as you planted another kiss on his cheek, something that earned you a, as you liked to call it, dazzling Signature Sokka Smile. “I’ll make sure she holds off on the adoption papers for now.”

“I’d like that.”

And though the happiness you felt at the moment was almost overwhelming, that was just what caused that tiny sliver of doubt to come in. When people invited their partners over at three in the morning, it usually wasn’t to sit on the bed and talk about their problems. It was… it was for more, and you didn’t want that right now. And because you were an expert at it, you decided to put your foot in your mouth and start talking.

��I— I’m sorry that I called you over here so late, for no reason. I know you probably expected something else than me ranting, but…” you sighed, drawing your knees closer to your chest as you brought your other hand to Sokka’s resting on your shoulder. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea.”

He sighed at that, but you knew it wasn’t one of disappointment. “You know I’m here for you. I don’t care if you just want to sit in silence for the next five hours while we stare at the wall, or if you want to watch sappy rom coms until your eyes bleed. I’m more than okay with staying like this. I didn’t come over here because I expected anything from you — I came over here because you needed me, and so I’m here.” Sokka smiled, an image you didn’t think would ever stop making you melt, and intertwined your hand with his. “This is perfect. You’re perfect.”

You were so stunned at the brazen declaration that your voice got stuck in your throat for a moment, holding back tears. (Happy tears. They were never anything other than happy tears with Sokka.) It hit you then that you didn’t really know what it was like having someone get close to you without an ulterior motive.

“Thank you,” you murmured after a moment of comfortable silence. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” You knew he was smiling, even without having to look up at him. You could hear it in his voice, feel it in the kiss he pressed to your hairline.

A comfortable silence hung in the air for a long time until you broke it. “You know… my dad kinda ran off to a motel for the night after this whole thing, and my mom leaves early in the morning. If you were serious about those rom coms…” You allowed the unsaid question of staying the night to fester so Sokka knew he could say no if he wanted to, but he didn’t even hesitate.

“Of course I was serious. I mean, I’ve gotta get the ideas for our future wedding from somewhere.”

You laughed, a sentiment that had occurred more times in the ten minutes he had been here than the past week, and picked the remote for your little box TV off of your bedside table. You clicked through various movies until you found one Sokka liked, and then you cuddled deeper into his side to prepare for the ride you had ahead of you.

Thirty minutes into 27 Dresses, he had fallen asleep, arm still around you and one of his legs slightly intertwined with one of your own. But it’s not like you minded — the familiar weight of Sokka in your bed had caused all your worries to melt away, if only for the night.

You didn’t expect him to last past the first movie, but you were sure you would at least get through until Katherine Heigl got the man. But there was an overwhelming feeling of safety permeating the air with Sokka’s arms around you, and you ended up knocked out before she could even get through all twenty seven dresses.

It wasn’t lost on you how fortunate you were — he didn’t expect anything like that from you, he just wanted you to be safe. He was there for you. You would never understand how you had gotten so lucky with your boyfriend, but you would never stop being grateful for him.

-

this is the most self indulgent thing ive ever written and i am NOT sorry

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