#I showed my girlfriend this ask + the skin for context and she told me to draw her in a suit

[gothducky]

i know your recent horn drawing was based off of her expression in a sticker sheet, BUT i like to imagine that it's a candid image that was taken as soon as someone told her she had to wear a really femme dress for a fashion line photoshoot. she looks incredibly pissed off in her newest skin (you just know she did NOT want to be in that dress!!!) and i mean it in the best way possible when i say your drawing looks like the moments before.

top 10 pictures taken seconds before disaster type beat

This is literally so funny anon bc I want you to know I'm redrawing that sticker set and I was like gonna keep it a secret till I post the full drawing this friday but just for you (everyone look away /j) I'm gonna show you the base sketch

Now THIS is a "I have to wear a WHAT" face

[magics-neptunes-things]

Secret Love

Hey guys!

I watched Alexia’s report today and it made me want to write for her.

For context, this story takes place during the 2023 World Cup in Australia.

Mentionning of smut, jealousy and insecurities.

Enjoy ♥

Edit : Part 2 is HERE

____________________________________________________________

"What's happening?"

You remain frozen in the frame of the door, while you were about to enter the cloakroom. A small group, apparently led by Jenni, is around Alexia who has slightly pink cheeks. You frowns, not used to seeing these kinds of scenes in the dressing room. Alexia is more of a not to be bothered type.

"Alexia has a secret girlfriend!" Jenni sings while tickling her best friend’s ribs.

"I do not!" Alexia answers, snaping her hand away.

"Chicas, leave her alone"

You turn around to see Ona tying her boots, signalling your teammates to leave your captain alone, a small smile on her face. Jenni pouts, while Alexia gives a grateful smile to her future FC Barcelona teammate. And you, you go to your locker to change and put your training shirt on.

You didn't turn around when your hear some of them getting out of the room, lost in your thoughts. Preparation for the tournament is hectic, the agreement between the players and some members of the staff is unfortunately not always easy.

"Nice tattoo."

You smile recognizing the voice and a circular glance in the room tells you that you are now alone with your captain. Alexia is talking about the wings on your back, even if you have some others.

"Thanks. It's my girlfriend's favorite too"

You grin before turning around to have a better look of the say girlfriend.

"Your secret girlfriend, who almost get us catch"

"What happened?"

You ask, tenderly pushing a strand of her now light pink hair behind her shoulder. Alexia shruggs while getting closer to you, looking about you.

"That was stupid of me. I just unlocked my phone to show a picture of my cousin’s niece to Jenni and I hadn’t closed our Whatsapp conversation the last time I turned off my screen. Thanks God you changed your name in my contacts list."

You smile at the memory, laying your hands on Alexia’s hips to squeeze her against you. You sigh with ease feeling her skin against yours, savoring this feeling felt too little since your arrival on this side of the globe. One of your hand get on her neck, tenderly caressing the skin revealed by her ponytail.

"I miss you" Alexia whispers against your skin.

Being also part of the FC Barcelona team, it is much easier to find yourself discreetly in the evening. When one is sleeping at the other's appartment, you just need to arrive with a few minutes after her to avoid getting caught. Not living in the same neighborhood, it would be weird to carpool.

"I miss you too" You pouts. "I can't sleep without your hugs"

Alexia smiles, retreating her face to have a better look of you. It was obvious she will sharing her room with Jenni. No one in the team, no one of your friends and almost no one at all knows about you too. Alexia only talked about you two to her mother, during a night of doubts. Your love story wasn't easy at first.

Alexia always put her career ahead of everything else and panicked when she realized that she has no longer control of her feelings. So she made the decision to break up with you, right after you lost to Wolfsburg. Between that and the lost final in Turin, it was probably the worst period of your life.

You could never blame her that said, you had at the time a small inferiority complex that made you constantly wonder how Alexia could even find it interesting to speak to you. So being in a relationship with her was kind of like a daydream. You told Alexia about it at one of your sleepover and she told you you were an idiot. Then she kissed you and you didn’t think about standing up to her. But that feeling stayed.

Then she tore her ACL and you gave up on avoiding her as much as possible. You were there for her and the feelings you always shared were stronger than the rest. But you have decided to remain secret for the time being, despite everything.

"I’d tell you to ask Ona, but I’m not sure I’d appreciate it if I found out you really did"

You smile thinking about your roomate, that you’re getting to know a little more during this tournament. You lean in for a kiss, savoring the sensation of Alexia’s soft lips against yours. You get lost in the embrace, before jumping when you hear footsteps approaching the door quickly. You barely have time to take off from Alexia before Mariona came in.

"Hurry girls, Vilda is in a bad mood"

You nod before taking your jersey, mouthing a "Go" to Alexia.

**********

In the milddle of the common living room, you were playing ping-pong with Ona, Salma, and Aitana. Pairing with Aitana, you were beating the shit of the other duo up, your screams of enthusiasm resounding throughout the room. It doesn’t seem to bother the rest of the team though and you come across Alexia’s amused look several times. She finds herself sitting on a sofa, stuck between Eva and Irene.

"Vamoooooos!" cheers Aitana after you win in the victory point.

She hugs as you smile, before laughing when you see Ona moving away from the table to find refuge in front of the television, alongside Alba. Salma rolls her eyes and smiles, best loser, while Aitana lays a drooling kiss on your cheek.

"Ew" you wince, wiping your cheek with the back of your hand. "Back off"

With another laugh Aitana goes to Salma and your gaze instinctively goes back to Alexia. This is not new, it has the same effect as a magnet on you. She looks at you too, but this time her face seems stoic, deserted by the fun that was on it until now.

You frowns, asking her if everything's fine remotely. But she doesn't answer, before her attention is caught by Irene. And despite your attempts to cross her gaze for the next few minutes, Alexia will never shift her attention to you. As time passes, the feeling of incofort becomes too big and you end up telling that you are tired to escape the room.

Taking your phone out of your jogging pocket, you reach your room by sending a message to Alexia.

You - Is everything's alright?

She didn't answer at first, but you didn’t expect an immediate answer. She is surrounded by your teammates and Jenni having almost caught you the other day, it's obvious that she will be careful. But, when you are showered, changed and Ona joined you in the room, you still have no answer.

You - Alexia?

You hesitated a long time before sending the second message, not wanting to seem too sticky. But your heart rate is too high, showing your concern.

"You're alright Cariño?"

Ona's voice makes you jump and mumble a "Madre mios" before answering.

"I didn't know you weren't sleeping, sorry if I wake you up"

"You didn't. But you didn't answer my question either."

You shrugs, biting your lips. But you couldn't answer. Small one because you're a bad liar and small two because Ona already seems to know the answer.

"You didn't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but just know that I'm here if you need to"

You smile this time, feeling an rush of (friendly) affection towards the Catalan.

"Gracias Ona."

**********

You wake up a little later, a look on the alarm clock informing you that it's only 3 in the morning. You glance at Ona who seems deeply asleep, her chest rising and falling at regular intervals. You turn around in your bed and a few seconds later a light makes you open your eyes. It’s the screen on your phone, and you grab it and see that you got a message from Alexia. Three, actually.

Mi Reina ♥ - I'm sorry, can we talk ?

Mi Reina ♥ - Please?

Mi Reina ♥ - I'm at your door

If the first two messages are about an hour old, the last one is only a few seconds old. Frowning, you get up from your bed and join the door most discreetly. After taking one last look at Ona, you open the door, swearing inwardly when you hear it squeak. And in spite of yourself, you can’t help but let go of a cry of surprise when you feel that a hand takes hold of your arm to draw you further down the corridor.

"Shh!"

Before you know what’s really going on, you find yourself in a room used as a maid’s storeroom, obviously recognizing the silhouette of your girlfriend despite the darkness. And you just have time to see her honey eyes sparkling in the dark before you feel her body crashing against yours, her lips kissing yours with a hungerness you’ve never known her until now.

You need two seconds before answering her kiss, moaning when she bits you lips and leave them to alternate kissing and biting along your neck.

"Alexia... No marks" you stutter, feeling her sucking a sensitive spot in your neck.

"Why? You are mine." she growls

She sucks harder and you have to bite your lip to stay silent.

**********

"What was that about?"

You look at her, catching your breath after a long, intense and busy time. Your eyes having adapted to the brightness, you have no trouble to realize that if she takes time to answer it is only because she seeks her words. So you don’t press it, more than happy to find a box to sit on. After a few more seconds, you finally reach out to her so that she settles by your side.

"Alexia don't mess with your head. It's me, talk to me"

She sights, answering without looking at you.

"Imaybewasjealous"

"I'm sorry, what?" you laugh, leaning to her.

"I was jealous, ok? At first you were having fun and I didn't mind, I was happy because I have a real reason to looked at you. But after she kissed you and I don't know something snapped in my brain"

You are so surprised by her monologue, said in an increasingly fast and annoyed tone that it takes you a few seconds to answer.

"Are you talking about the kiss slash dog-licking Aitana gave me after our ping-pong match?" you ask, completely amazed.

"But I should be the only one allowed licking your face" Alexia wines and you can't help but laugh.

Alexia bites her lip so as not to mix her laughter with yours, but cannot mask her smile.

"You don't have to be jealous of anyone bebita" you say after you resume breathing, making Alexia smile with the surname she loves the most. "I only have eyes for you"

She's still smiling but didn't answer. Only with that you can understand that there is something else.

"Alexia talk to me"

She looks at you and take you by the hand to draw you to her knees. You let yourself obviously, too happy to find yourself in her arms even if what happened between you a few minutes ago was the most intense. You never get tired of the moments of tenderness she offers you.

"I think I’m getting tired of having to hide our relationship. I know the decision not to talk about it came largely from me, but we’ve been together for more than a year. But I'm scared of what people will say about us. I'm scared they destroy us."

"Nobody can destroy us, not even ourselves when we tried"

Alexia smiles again and stroke your cheek with his nose before talking.

"You know what? If we win the final, I’m ready to shout from the rooftops that I’m crazy about you."

[lovebvni]

the people have spoken — here’s my lore <3

hellooo!! <3 you guys said you wanted to see my lore from my main dr that i actually got from js thinking about my dr!!!

for context, this is for my main mha dr <3 i am siblings w himiko toga but she also has 2 more siblings including me, kuro (kurtis is his american name; he is also himiko a twin sibling) and himari (halo) (i just changed her name as of typing this)

i js realized how y/n this sounds but ykw it’s cool shit ok?

tw for assault (or battery idk im not a lawyer), cutting of skin, drug use of minors, getting drugged .

please stop reading if there is anything that is a trigger to you. and also know this is all FICTIONAL in this reality so please do not worry abt anyone lmfao 😭😭

im going to be as brief as possible! i dont wanna type long blog although this is interesting <3

soooo our family moved back from america when i was in ~5th grade. i was like what… 10 because i started school early (i started developing fast oopsie‼️), himiko n kurt were 14/15 idk man i can’t do math their birthday is after mine 😭 but we were all still young. halo was 6/7ish

so around the time we moved back to japan and himiko real REALLY didn’t wanna go back to japan. she had friends in the us who she felt like accepted her n whatnot, she has a girlfriend she had to break up with because of the move, etc. there was lot going on in her head — it wa as big change to move back to japan so our mom could thrive in her business.

so, himiko came up with a plan — to drug her family, run away and fly back to america to continue living her life.

now, obviously, she didn’t complete the whole thing because she felt bad. she would be without her twin and two younger siblings.

she drugged all of us at a family celebration dinner. i don’t know the details for this i didn’t think it through/didn’t get told what she used. it started with an a though, idk LMDAO 😭😭

anya ways she drugged us at this family dinner then decided, as a way to show her love, she was going to take some of all our blood and cut a heart out on a various part of all our bodies.

my mom got a heart on her outer right thigh, my dads was on his right shoulder blade, kuro’s on his left arm, mine on my left eye and kiara’s on her left hand.

i don’t quite know why she did this but obviously, right for her parents, left for her siblings. idk if it means anything to her but yeah!

anyways hospitalized stitched, blah blah medical recoveries whatever.

now with this next part i’ll be kind of brief. some of kurt’s school friends found out abt the incident and they were like “hey we got set that could help u” but he decided to bring me since i was his next closest sibling — whatever.

they were older or something so they had like drugs (😧😧😧😦😦) ( i can’t take this seriously it’s insane) anyways we went to a lot of parties like every friday n saturday night but on saturdays we wouldn’t get as high bc we have church on sundays (we watch the american one online 💀)

it was crazy tho bro!!! but anyways both kurt n i have nic addictions 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️ woopsie poopsie!

i didn’t script all of this btw. i just scripted the part abt himiko drugging us then fucking dipping. all this other shit was included.

also dw i won’t get cancer or anything serious from using anything 😭😭 js temp shit!

anyways yeah! sorry it’s shorter than u expected. i have a weird headache that keeps coming n going (along w migraines) so i tried to keep it short so i wouldn’t stress myself

anyways!!! i hope yall enjoyed! if u have my questions feel free to ask or smth idk 😭

[xtrablak674]

A Delayed Gift from My Father

You may not know but my father died in September of nineteen ninety-three, found dead and rotting in his apartment by his parents, an event that would haunt his mom until the day she died, well at least her memory of the event did. But this isn't a story about his death, this is the story about the kind of dad he was in the context of something he did for me, before I could even speak.

When you're an orphan you don't have a point of reference to get clarity on details about your life before your recorded memory, you have to do your best to be a detective and piece together the piece left behind to figure out the story, meaning and significance.

As a part of my Monday binge-watching I was partaking in the second half of the first season of Smallville, finally watching this early aught series about Kal-El, better known as Superman before he donned a cape and blue tights. In the episode in question the character Whitney's dad has just died and he had found his father's metals who like my dad was a Vietnam veteran.

Whitney was sharing the metals with his girlfriend Lana Lang. I actually had to pause the video because clearly the property team did an amazing job with accuracy, and one of the metals staring at me from the screen was the exact same metal that had been mysteriously returned to me a couple of years ago by a former co-worker of mines. We aren't going to get into why this friend had my father's medal, but it was odd enough to be noteworthy.

I was taken aback because I remembered this small corduroy yellow change purse with a bronze-coloured zipper from my childhood. I didn't recall the medal as much as I did the large liberty dollar coin from 1924, I think for a child a coin was more familiar than a trinket from a war no one really wanted. But the maize colored purse with the green stripes and the coin were indelible etched on my recollection.

Now this is where my age betrays me, because if my mom told me more about the strange trinkets I don't remember, and since she proceeded her alleged husband (I have yet to see an actual marriage certificate) by nine years its not like I can ask her to corroborate my piece-mail memory. I recollect she showed me the pieces near the closet to the front door of our apartment at 1101 Brown Street, yes where I lived, and my last name were the same, there were so many jokes I got about this in elementary school.

Memory is funny, I remember exactly where I was, to even the position in the room. I remember the colors, the weight of the coin because mom let me handle it, but the sounds of her voice and the words that she attached to these moments elude me. There was one thing that was undeniable to me now as an adult putting this together, this was a gift a loving father gave to his first born son probably as a baby, and left in care of the mother of his child to be given at a future date. Something out of a television movie or a book, and the kind of parental love you usually see given to whyte children. Black fathers loving their children wasn't something that was a regular part of my diet growing up as a dark-skinned child in America.

My father as I keep referring to him, because he had an odd relationship to the role, and never embraced it in any traditional way. I don't recollect a moment of calling him either dad or father. It was B.R. (his initials) or Khule (nickname) but usually nothing more than 'hey you'. This awkward dynamic spilled over into my relationship with his parents, not by their fault, but unintentionally by his. In formal conversations I would refer to his mom as my grandmother and his dad as my grandfather and together as my grandparents, but unlike calling my mom, well mom. I never used either honorific to refer to my father's parents.

He died with us being estranged, for reasons I don't want to taint this particular story with, which is a moment of me directly feeling his love for me, something I sometimes had trouble resolving because of his unforgettable words to me as a young teenager, he loved me but didn't like me!

I realize that my father's sardonic sense of humor was reflected in my own humor, but at this age I took these words as more hurtful than humorous. And this intensifies my judgement of him not always making the best parenting choices. During those years of puberty when so many things are changing in your body the one thing you want more than anything is to be liked, why doesn't my father like me? #RhetoricalQuestion

But at least one mystery has been solved this mysterious pouch and its metallic contents were an attempt at a new dad to show how proud he was of having progeny and his attempts to endow them with something of meaning and significance.

This was momentous as I would learn later about my dad, was that he loathed his service in the Vietnam war and the war itself and I don't recall ever seeing one memento of his service. His saving this sole medal and giving it to his first-born was a very loud and clear declaration of his love that took thirty years to be delivered.

[Photos by Brown Estate]

[b4b3tte]

“ I WOULD APPRECIATE IT…IF YOU’D STAY WITH ME “

Summary: After a Friday night studying you and Wednesday decided to sleep together. When it’s 8:00 AM and you have to get ready to meet up with your friends, Wednesday decides she wants you to lay down with her for a bit longer. Pairing: Wednesday Addams x Fem!Reader. Warning: None. Genre: Fluff | One shot | pretty short | !!!

A/N : A master list and introduction list is coming soon btw!!

Oh my god last night was just a big pain in the ass, all those classes all those hours of end less studying and for what? Just for us to probably spend the rest of our lives rotting in prison for murder? This is pointless but to stay in nevermore academy having good grades Is a must especially to Wednesday. She values intelligence, little too much someone would say, But even Wednesday was a bit stressed out. What’s more better than peacefully sleeping with your girlfriend with no trouble on the world.

Shit shit shit. It’s 8:15 I’m supposed to be at the cafe by 8:35! I slowly move Wednesdays hand from mine and get up and quickly head to the bathroom. Of course Wednesday is a light sleeper and she sensed you got up, her eyes shot open and quickly got up at the sight of you not being next to her she looks around and sees the bathroom light on she somewhat relaxes knowing you are still here but she wonders why you are out of bed so early. Usually Wednesday wakes up around 6:15 but when she is cuddling or sleeping next to you she can’t help but relax in your arms and sleep much longer than she usually does. I finished brushing my teeth,hair and doing my skin care I just need to put on my clothes and some makeup products in my bag I’ll do my makeup in the car or something, I open the door and see Wednesday staring at me, at the sudden person awake I do freak out at first glance.

“ JESUS..my god you scared the shit out of me at least give me a warning damn “ “ You know that use of vocabulary was unnecessary, and at first you startled me when you weren’t next to me..what’s the rush anyway “ “ Remember I have to meet up with my friends at the cafe, I thought I told you last night “ “ oh yeah..I forgot I apologize.. “

Huh…Wednesday seems little upset at the fact I’m leaving, I probably shouldn’t pay any mind like she says I’m being dramatic I just really need to find my blush compact and change, But then suddenly Wednesday speaks up again.

“ Y/n. “

“ yes? “

“ um..I absolutely hate having this sentence come out of my mouth but I would appreciate it if you’d stay with me…at least for a little bit “

You look over to Wednesday and soften at how honest and vulnerable she is being, she struggles and hates showing affection through words and physically so she just gives gifts but this is the first she is actually asking which caught you by surprise and herself too, she never thought she would have the courage to or even have the right person to even say that “ disgusting “ sentence. You just nodded and quickly send a text message to your group-chat saying you won’t be able to make it with no context whatsoever, Wednesday moves a little bit the the side for you to have enough room and lay down next to her. You sit on the bed and lift your legs on the mattress covered with sheets that are black since Wednesday would refuse to sleep on anything bright. You lay down next to her and she just scoots closer to you and turns on her side ( with her hands still criss cross on her shoulders) and nuzzles her head into the side of your chest while you just have your hand on her back ( if that makes any sense at all) as you get even more relaxed Wednesday just mouths the words “ I love you “ as she drifts back to sleep.

EXTRA🤗!!! :

This would be Wednesday when she feels that you aren’t next to her and wakes up and waits for you to come back so she can either yell at you or ask you to come back and lay down with her

“ y/n I feel hurt, It feels like the coldest nights of the year and you left me to freeze didn’t you, usually it’s a relaxing feeling but coming from you it doesn’t feel so relaxing so would you care to explain why did you leave? “

Or

“ you’re finally back, this is horrifying to say but do you mind joining me back into bed..I would appreciate it more then you’d know so would that be a yes or no y/n? If you say no I will rip out each of your organs, yes? Okay great “

[laughing-with-god]

The Unsaid Vow (Prologue)

Synopsis- You always knew when you weren't wanted. And the way things are going in your marriage with Jungkook, a divorce is looking more and more likely. While he's getting closer to a woman at work that you're certain he's having an affair with, you're planning your escape with your four-year-old son. However, five years of marriage did not expose you to a certain side of your husband. A side of Jungkook that only gets triggered when you try to leave and break apart your perfect 'family'.

Warnings- Yandere behavior, graphic language, violence/murder, women bashing on other women, heavily implied infidelity, bad parenting, absent father, broken family vibes, very slow buildup bc Jungkook doesn't really snap until you leave him so just give him a min lol, inexperienced author writing for a four-year-old (I never wrote for a kid before pls gimme a break), also I chose my future son's name for this fic but pls feel free to name him whatever you want :)

Slow burn Yandere Husband Jungkook

Word Count; 5.4k

Unlike the vast majority of married couples, neither you nor Jungkook donned wedding rings.

Never in your five years of marriage did you regret this decision, given it was brought upon by you and your husband’s lack of funds for fancy wedding bands at the time of your rushed marriage.

Well, you were never annoyed....until tonight, that is.

The scene before you was exceptionally intimate, so much so that you felt the instinctual need to look away in respect of the two before you.

The woman was gorgeous, effortlessly attracting all the attention the small conference room had to offer. In addition to this natural charisma spurred on by her borderline enchanting looks, her short and skin-tight red dress showed off her pleasantly curvy body. Her long, silky, and jet-black hair was pulled back into an elegant ponytail that provided a simple background for her darling features. Utterly doll-like was her face; petite, creamy in complexion with bright doe eyes and berry-pink lips.

Such a beautiful woman was currently in the arms of an equally, if not more so, attractive man.

He was tall and slender, yet not at all lanky given his sturdy build that was a testament to his strict workout regime. His olive skin was complimented with occasional tattoos, a mix of faded and fresh ink that you knew like the back of your hand despite only the tats on his hand currently showing in his crisp Valentino suit. His mid-length inky black hair was down to frame his sharp face, and indeed it was a very handsome one consisting of full eyebrows, bow-like lips, a fleshy yet impish nose, and two large, yet seemingly bottomless, raven orbs.

This man had his arms encircling the middle of the mysterious woman, her expression lifting into a light-hearted giggle as she leaned forward to whisper something in his ear.

Whatever she said must’ve been amusing to the man, given his usual stoic facade briefly melted away as he allowed a small smile at her words, his pearly round teeth peeking out for a split-second appearance.

If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought that these two were lovers.

But there was only one problem with this scene.

That was your husband, Jungkook.

And that woman in his arms was not you.

As if sensing your distress and wanting to soothe your well-founded suspicion, Jungkook pulled away from the woman and ran his gaze across the room- only stopping when he spotted you. Your spouse then gestured at you, the girl following his line of sight and landing on you and your pitiful spot by the snack table. Her joyful expression briefly dropped for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it second, but she quickly plastered on another grin and nodded. The two then strode their way over to you, barely giving you enough time to steel your nerves and muster a polite purse of the lips.

Before you knew it, the woman was right in front of you with your partner at her side instead of yours. Much to your dismay, she was only more attractive up close, and you narrowly held back a grimace as she held out a hand in introduction. You took it and shook it lifelessly.

“Hello, you must be Mrs. Jeon. I’m Sana, Jungkook’s colleague.” Even her voice was pretty, musical and light to the ears.

“H-Hi, nice to meet you but please call me Y/n.” A brief and awkward pause as Sana briefly sized you up and down. “Um, Jungkook has never mentioned you….” you trailed off, side-eyeing your husband in hopes he would intervene and add context to this random goddess he’s thrust upon you.

Jungkook gracefully took his cue and explained, “Sana transferred from another branch out of the city and has only been with us for five months. I’m her case supervisor and have been taking care of her, showing her the ropes and whatnot.”

Sana didn’t even spare you a glance as she fondly looked up at your husband, coyly biting her lip and saying in a much softer tone that could've been just for his ears only, “And he’s been really good at taking care of me.”

You didn’t consider yourself a jealous stay-at-home wife who obsessed over the tiniest details between her husband and other women, but the double meaning behind her badly-whispered comment was enough to make you splutter in disbelief. However before you could even gather up the courage to ask just what the hell ‘taking care of me’ consisted of, two new faces waltzed up and joined the conversation.

“Are you all enjoying this fabulous Christmas party?” A tall, broad-shouldered but nice-looking man asked in a tone of familiar amicability.

You thankfully smiled up at him, having met him many times before.

His name was Jin, and he was the one who got Jungkook this job.

It occurred about five years ago when you first told Jungkook that you were pregnant. Being the romantic but overall good guy that Jungkook was, he insisted that you two get married so that your child could have parents who were at least husband and wife. In addition it would also lessen the judgment in your two families, which at the time was extremely appealing to you. You had agreed to marry on one condition: after running to the courthouse you two would need to move in together in a decent apartment with a room for the nursery. But getting an apartment would mean month-to-month rent, and Jungkook’s tattooing gigs weren’t stable enough to ensure that.

Jin was originally a friend of Jungkook’s older brother, but when he heard through the grapevine about the issue, he bought Jungkook a couple of suits and offered him a job at the corporation he worked at.

Now Jungkook made more than enough money to support your little family, and it was all because Jin took a chance on a college drop-out and his knocked-up girlfriend.

You opened your mouth to respond but were cut off by the unknown lady beside Jin.

“I’d say a little too much fun if anything. Sana and Jungkook, we get that you're the infamous office couple but maybe tone it down a bit, huh?” She joked while raising her brows at the close proximity between the two.

A long and tortuous silence swept the scene.

Jin glanced at you, pity swimming in his usually carefree eyes.

Not trusting your voice to say anything and desperately wanting to hide your face from the piercing eyes, you distracted yourself by taking calculated sips of watered-down eggnog.

“Daehyun...this is actually Y/n, Jungkook’s wife,” Jin told the lady in an uncomfortable voice.

You didn’t know what stung more, the fact that this stranger thought that there was more chemistry between Sana and your husband than with you, or that it was Jin who corrected this mistake and not Jungkook himself.

“O-Oh, well it’s nice to meet you.” Daehyun awkwardly said to you while avoiding direct eye contact.

You offered a tight smile, “Pleasure.”

Whatever gratitude you could���ve had for Daehyun’s clear embarrassment quickly vanished when the woman went on to continue, “I’m sorry. Jungkook never mentioned being married and he doesn’t wear a ring so I didn’t even know. I bet it must be interesting for his housewife to meet his office wife though, right?”

She laughed, not realizing that she only succeeded in putting a foot in her mouth right before stomping it all over your pesky little heart. The group didn’t seem to share your uneasiness, all three of them politely chuckling along to the lukewarm joke at your expense. Once again, you focused on your dwindling beverage to avoid the burden of speaking or even facing them directly, too scared that your miserable expression would be unanimously inspected.

“Well, we just came over to recruit you all for some karaoke!” Jin cheerfully announced, clearly trying to change the subject, “There’s a machine in the break-out room and it’s more fun to sing with a group.”

“More like you want an audience.” Jungkook wittingly teased, a handsome smirk on his face as Sana playfully scolded him with a push to the chest.

“I’ll take your jabs now Kookie because I know they stem from your insecurity that I can actually upstage you in the vocals department.” Jin rebutted in good nature, even letting your husband’s old nickname slip.

Daehyun and Sana both guffawed at this declaration, exaggerated disbelief present on their faces.

“Jungkook is the best singer in the office. He’ll upstage you without even trying.” Daehyun said in a tenor of utter confidence.

“Only one way to find out!” Jin brushed the comment off, pointing to the direction of the assumed breakout room, “Karaoke anyone?”

The so-called office wife nodded enthusiastically, taking your husband’s arm and looking up at him to plead, “Can we do a duet of that one song we like?”

Jungkook, for the first time in seemingly hours, shot you with a questioning gaze.

Be married to someone for a while and you’ll learn how to decipher what they’re trying to say with just mere looks. Your husband was wordlessly inquiring if you were going to join, if he should go along with the group or if you two should break away and do something else.

The ball was finally in your court.

Not wanting to be rude but needing to get away from these people before you lost your cool, you decided on a subtle excuse.

“I need a refill, but maybe we can meet you all later?” You said, shaking your empty paper cup as if to prove your case.

“Oh, well the drinks are right behind you.” Sana condescendingly pointed out, tightening her hold on your husband and began steering him towards the exit, “We’ll save a seat for you.”

Bewildered, you watched as Jungkook obediently followed her lead with the Daehyun girl trailing behind.

He didn’t even spare you a glance.

You wanted to be angry.

You wanted to storm up to your husband, yank him out of the clutches of his colleagues and practically drag him back home under the premise that he would never speak to Sana ever again.

But instead of a righteous rage fueled by the marital vows you two took, utter exhaustion bestowed upon you and prevented any instigation on your part.

Maybe earlier in your marriage you would’ve fought for his attention, but now you simply just wanted to go home and lick your wounds with the help of a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while self-obsessing over Sana’s outrageous attractiveness. After all, who could blame any hot-blooded man for choosing that goddess over you? What could you possibly do but lean back and accept that she was the obvious choice?

Other than her being a knockout beauty while you were merely average on your best day, she had other qualities that made her a more appealing catch. She was most likely younger than you, obviously fit, more ambitious and professionally driven than you, and presumably has no kids.

Meanwhile, you were just an old stay-at-home mom who lived off of her husband’s paychecks while he fucked his coworkers behind her oblivious back.

Before you could draw more detailed comparisons between Sana and yourself, you felt a large hand place itself on the middle of your back, successfully guiding your attention to the only person who bothered staying by your side.

Jin smiled sadly at you, sympathy shadowing his expression as he gestured with his other hand to the empty cup still in your hold. “Let’s get you some more eggnog.”

You nodded wordlessly, still speechless from the interaction, and allowed the taller man to guide you towards the snack table. Jin then took your cup and refilled it himself, providing you the opportunity to pick at the catered food in some cheap attempt at stress eating. By the time Jin came back with a full cup, you were halfway done with a sugar cookie and eyeing the meatballs next.

“Here ya go,” Jin said as he handed over the drink to you. You took it and nodded in thanks but kept your eyes glued to the food, not wanting him to see just how defeated and tired your face probably was. But, Jin wasn’t going to let the whole thing go. “Y/n….I know what you saw and heard looks really bad but trust me….nothing is going on between Sana and Jungkook.”

You snorted. “It doesn’t just look bad, Jin. It was like they were practically rubbing it in my face. Him having an affair isn’t the problem, it’s the way they’re not even bothering to keep it down. The least they could do is be discreet.”

Jin’s jaw slightly dropped, “‘Him having an affair isn’t the problem’? Y/n, do you even hear yourself? Of course that would be a problem! Do you not care about your own marriage anymore?”

And there it was.

The big question.

Did you truly even care about this marriage?

Well, let’s look at the facts.

One: The disrespect of his alleged mistress was more offensive to you than the fact that she was a mistress.

Two: Jungkook dragging you along to this office Christmas party was the first time in over a year that he bothered to take you out.

Three: You two had humble beginnings and could barely afford food, much less wedding bands when you first got married, but now he was a very wealthy man and had no excuse for not buying you or himself a ring. Unless, of course, he enjoyed acting single around other women.

Four: And on top of all this, it had to be factored in how distant he has been with overwhelming work hours that prevented any alone time with your husband. Sex with Jungkook has been off the table for almost a year now.

But did any of this really bother you until tonight? The answer was a resounding no. You were willing to take all those burdens in stride but tonight it wasn’t just about the fact that you were the unwanted wife Jungkook got sacked with, it was the fact that you were humiliated and forced to face the type of girl Jungkook should’ve been married to all along. That was all you were truly upset about.

The conclusion that you indeed didn’t care about your marriage and haven’t in some time now hit you in a sudden wave, but in no way were you shocked.

Voice shaky and brittle, you allowed yourself to be vulnerable with Jin and say the one thing you always secretly thought but never dared utter out loud. “I-I guess I always expected it to end like this. When we were younger, he was always the popular one and all the girls wanted him. We were only dating for three months when I got pregnant, and if it weren’t for our son he probably would’ve dumped me eventually and left for another girl. But, he stuck around for his kid because he’s a good father. And I’ve been nothing but a burden to him for a while now.”

Tears began to blur your vision, forcing you to quickly duck down and quietly sip at your drink so as to not embarrass yourself even more.

You heard a shuffle and suddenly Jin was holding you, using both of his lengthy arms to cage you in and rest you against his broad chest. It had been a long time since a man had held you like that, and you practically went boneless at the contact. You closed your eyes and tried to will away the incoming tears, even going so far as to solely focus on the scent of Jin’s cologne as he soothingly said, “Y/n, listen closely to what I’m about to say. You and Hugo were never a burden to Jungkook, and you two never will be. Your marriage was sudden, but it doesn’t make it less valid than any other marriage out there. Jungkook has been with you for so long, he just doesn’t realize when other women are interested in him because he’s been off the market forever. But I promise you, if I knew for even a second that he cheated, I would tell you right away.”

You didn’t say anything.

Although Jin’s words were comforting, they weren’t necessarily true. A marriage that started from a healthy courtship and true love instead of inconvenient circumstances was of course more valid than yours. And even though you were sure of Jin’s honesty and loyalty to you, Jungkook could’ve easily kept his affair secret from Jin as well.

However, you didn’t wish to concern Jin anymore. You already put him through too much awkwardness tonight and didn’t want to keep him by your side as some sort of emotional sponsor any longer than you already have. Jin always loved parties and was the life of any one he was invited to, even if it was just a lame annual office gathering. You then felt guilty for putting Jin in a situation where he would even have to console you when he should be out enjoying karaoke with the rest of his coworkers.

You promptly pulled away from Jin and wiped at your face. He released you and also took a step back, carefully studying you for any signs of further turmoil. Once sure that your face was acceptably dry, you gazed back up at him and offered a thankful smile. “Thanks Jin, I’m sorry I just dumped all of that on you. I really have to use the ladies' room though, can you point me to it?”

“It’s right by the conference room,” Jin informed, pointing out the general direction for you. You nodded and took a few steps toward it before he grasped your wrist to stop you and ask, “Do you want me to wait for you?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just find you and Jungkook when I’m out. Go and join the others for karaoke.”

Jin nodded but seemed unsure.

You didn’t look back to see if he actually went to follow the others, instead just advancing to the restrooms, secretly looking forward to some alone time even if it had to come from a public bathroom.

Once you entered the restroom you were relieved to find it completely empty, you weren’t sure if you could handle another run-in with Jungkook’s female colleagues. They all seemed to have a personal vendetta against you.

Instantly, you dashed to the mirror to inspect your makeup, assuming at least the mascara was ruined from your little cry. Thankfully, the damage was minimal and you were able to clean the smudges up with a damp napkin. You focused all your attention on the dreadfully small task, trying not to study your reflection too much given it would just conjure up more mental comparisons to all the other prettier women you encountered that night.

Yet the small task couldn’t last a lifetime, and you had to resort to looking at your phone in search of things to do. You weren’t emotionally ready to go out and search for your husband, so you wanted to prolong your time in the bathroom. Although it hasn’t been that long since you left the house, you decided to text the babysitter for any updates about your son.

To Emily: Hey, is everything okay with Hugo?

It only took about 40 seconds for the teenage neighbor girl to text back an answer, clearly on top of things and overly eager to provide any updates.

Emily: Yes! He ate his dinner, took his bath and we’re about to get ready for bed.

Your motherly instincts were satisfied with that response, but it didn’t do anything to subdue your desire to return back home. Your thumbs briefly hovered over the keypad, somewhat hesitant with the next text you were about to send.

To Emily: Great, thanks again for doing this. Listen, I think we might head back home sooner than we thought. Don’t worry tho, I’ll still give you the pay for the full four hours.

Before you could wait for a response from her, the sound of multiple incoming footsteps interrupted the steady silence in the restroom. Muffled female conversation could also be heard, the slight laughter and bickering amongst a group of women approaching the bathroom. Your fight or flight instinct was triggered, and to avoid any more awkward encounters you rushed to the nearest stall and shut the door- fully prepared to wait out the faceless group of female colleagues.

You heard the restroom door swish open before the women burst in, chatting and giggling with their heels clicking against the tile floor. One of the unknown females made way to the stall beside you, the others presumably hovering by the mirror if the sudden comments about their appearances were anything to go by. You quietly sighed and pulled out your phone again, ready to drown out their office politics talk.

Only for the conversation to somehow steer towards you.

“Did you see her?”

“Of course, I was very confused, to be honest.” One of them replied. “I mean….look at Jungkook and you just assume that whoever he’s with is drop-dead gorgeous, and she was just eh.”

“Yeah, she was pretty plain. What was her name again?”

“Y/n.” A third voice cut in, this one eerily familiar to you.

You glued a hand over your mouth to silence your gasp.

It was Sana.

“Did he ever mention her around you? You are the closest to him in the office Sana, and we didn’t even know he had a wife until tonight.”

“No, I didn’t know until tonight either.”

“What?! That’s insane. Literally all the time he spends with you: getting coffee, buying you lunch, driving you home after late nights, and he conveniently never mentions that he has a wife at home?”

“That’s suspicious. But I guess if I had a dog like that at home, I’d never mention her either.”

Cruel laughter from all of them.

The toilet from the stall next to you flushed, then opened as a new voice entered the discussion while she approached the sinks.

“It’s more than suspicious. He doesn’t even wear a wedding ring. And he’s so close to Sana but never mentioned that he’s married?” A pause as she washed her hands. “It’s obvious what he’s trying to do. Jungkook is trying to have an affair with Sana.”

Although this exchange was extremely hurtful to you, you felt somewhat relieved that you weren’t the only one to see what your husband was doing.

A pause hung in the air as none of the women spoke for a minute, they were willing to gossip but apparently outright declaring the obvious was a step too far for them.

Eventually, one of them chimed in with their own observation.

“Can you blame him? Sana you’re the most beautiful person in the office and you look so good next to him anyway. Much better than that cow Y/n.”

Another round of obnoxious laughter that broke your heart.

“C’mon guys. We gotta head back. Jungkook is gonna get anxious if Sana is away for too long.” Someone teased.

They all murmured in agreement, heading towards the exit as a group before one stopped them with a final question.

“Wait, Sana. If Jungkook does want to have an affair with you, what are you going to do?”

Although you couldn’t physically see Sana, you practically heard the smirk on her face as she said, “Who says we already aren’t having one?”

--

Needless to say, you ditched the Christmas party almost immediately after the bathroom incident.

You texted Jungkook a white lie about Emily struggling with Hugo, although a good father would’ve known something was up because your son had never given babysitters any trouble before. But luckily, your husband also wasn’t doing so hot in the dad department either.

You would’ve felt bad for not telling the truth if the truth wasn’t so fucking embarrassing.

“Hey, I’m gonna go home to cry like a little girl because I caught your coworkers talking shit about me. Oh, and also your little girlfriend accidentally let it slip that you’ve been fucking her this whole time. K talk to ya later!”

You grimaced at the thought of actually sending that text.

Sure it’s what that cheating bastard deserves, but you just weren’t emotionally ready for that fight yet. Especially after the night you endured, you needed some time to pick yourself up and figure out what to do next.

Divorce was the next logical step, but you were financially dependent on Jungkook. If you moved out and took Hugo with you, where would you two stay? How could you afford to be a single parent? And if Jungkook were to try to fight you for custody or the divorce in general, you would need a damn good lawyer. Unfortunately, lawyers weren’t cheap, especially one that stood a chance against Jungkook and all his wealth.

Your shoulders sagged with the imaginary weight of all these burdens.

When you entered the high-rise penthouse that you called home, you were surprised to see Emily anxiously pacing the foyer in waiting for your arrival.

“Hey, how was Hugo?” You greeted politely, already opening your clutch to pull out the agreed-upon salary.

“M-Mrs. Jeon, I swear I tried to have him in bed by eight like you said but he’s being stubborn and said he won’t go to sleep until you come back and read to him-” The teenager rushed out all at once, clearly nervous that you would scold her.

You held a hand out to stop her rambles, using your other hand to give her the money, and offered her what you hoped was a comforting smile, “It’s okay, Em. Thanks for doing this on such short notice. Why don’t you run home now and try to enjoy your Christmas Eve?”

Emily looked relieved that you weren’t mad, gratefully taking the cash before grabbing her jacket and shoes to make her exit. “Thanks so much for this Mrs. Jeon. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas.” You farewelled while walking the young girl out, locking the door behind her.

You turned around and proceeded down a long hallway that led to the bedrooms, stopping at the door beside the master room which belonged to your four-year-old son. You opened it to peer inside, the familiar deep blue walls with painted-on sea creatures greeting you back, swiftly reminding you once more of Hugo’s obsession with the ocean.

Your son was bundled up in a twin bed so big that it practically drowned him, his small frame barely being recognizable in the large fish-printed duvet wrapped around his tiny frame, only his small and adorable face peeking out to stare right back at you.

Hugo was essentially a carbon copy of Jungkook. At first you were somewhat resentful about this, how was it possible that you carried a baby for nine months and he came out with absolutely none of your features? But after a while of watching Hugo grow up and come into his own slowly but surely, you were pacified by the conclusion that while he may look exactly like his father, his personality and heart took after you.

“Dumpling, why did Emily say you were giving her a hard time and wouldn’t go to bed?” You asked gently, sitting by his side and petting his black hair.

‘Dumpling’ was a nickname you chose for Hugo since you first found out you were pregnant with him. It stemmed from your sudden pregnancy craving to eat dumplings and nothing else, you once even going two straight weeks surviving off the food. There were many times where Jungkook had to bribe you into eating other things, playing on your guilt for not providing your baby all the nutrition he needed. But even now ‘Dumpling’ still stuck, if Hugo’s chubby cheeks were anything to go by.

“Mommy, I-I’m sorry but-” His big doe eyes looked up at you in teary guilt, “I really needed you here. It was a nece-necess-”

“Necessity, bub.” You finished for him, grinning at his attempt at a big word.

Part of you wanted to scold the boy for being difficult, but you didn’t have the heart to. Lately, Hugo has been more clingy to you than ever before. Yet it was practically impossible to punish him because Hugo has always been a good kid and you knew deep down that he didn’t act out unless there was something else going on. You suspected that it had something to do with the lack of his father’s presence that forced him to hold onto you like his life depended on it.

“Well try not to do it again, okay? Emily is a nice girl and she’s just following my orders when she tells you to go to bed.” You said, ducking down to peck the crown of his head and continue running your fingers through his hair.

Hugo nodded in understanding but ultimately stayed silent, basking in your cuddles.

All was silent for a passing moment, and while Hugo enjoyed his mother’s touch, your mind gradually returned to the turmoil that was your marriage.

A sudden epiphany struck you and bit your lip as you debated an idea.

Should you expose your son to your future plan?

The victim of any divorce has always been the children who were left behind. And the last thing you wanted to do was blindside Hugo. Perhaps you should play the hypothetical game just to see where your son’s head was at? It went without saying that Hugo was closer to you than Jungkook and you were more of a parent than your husband. But still, every kid deserved to have a say in their parents’ divorce.

“Bub, how would you feel if….it was just me and you?” You hesitantly inquired.

“What do you mean mommy?” Hugo titled his head in bewilderment and craned his neck to look back up at you.

“What if me and you went away to live together?” You clarified.

“Like a va-vayca-”

“Vacation? And no. But forever. Just me, you and no one else.” You whispered, as if Jungkook himself would storm in and catch you planning your escape with the toddler.

“Oh.” A pause as you could practically hear the mechanisms in his four-year-old brain trying to work out the logistics of what you just proposed. “Okay.”

The nonchalance in his youthful voice had you taken aback.

“It’s a really big decision, Hugo. You wouldn’t mind...not living with daddy anymore, right? You would hardly ever see him, dumpling.”

The boy shifted to lean more of his body against you, essentially resting against you with his head on your chest as he said, “But it’s like that already, mommy.”

Your heart broke.

You wrapped your arms around him and pulled him closer to you, feeling a maternal instinct to comfort and protect.

“Okay Dumpling. I need you to promise me not to tell daddy what we talked about.”

“”Kay.” Hugo yawned and closed his eyes, inhaling deep breaths of your scent and beginning the process of falling asleep. “When do we leave?”

“It’ll take some time, bub. You start school in a few months, so mommy will try to find a job while you’re there.” You told him, not bothering to try to explain the concept of a lawyer or apartment deposits on top of that. “But we can do this. It has to be a secret but you're my partner in crime.”

“Like spies?”

You chuckled, “Yeah, like spies. Promise to work with mommy in utter secrecy?”

You held up a pinky, one that Hugo grasped with his own.

“Promise.”

Author’s Note:  So....A while ago before I took my long ass hiatus, I did a poll for which yandere story I should write next.  The Unsaid Vow won but that was around the same time that shit hit the fan in my life.  Recently was scrolling through my notes on my phone and found some of the plot points for this story and I needed a lil break from QQ.  Plus I know so many ppl were hyped for this concept so....Here ya go lol.  This is kinda short but it’s just a set up, Chapter one’s plot line will start a few months after this when Hugo will start kindergarten and Y/n will actually start looking in to jobs, lawyers and apartments.  Also I’m sorry but I’m really bad at writing for kids lol, and I absolutely refuse to write that gross ass baby talk so just pretend your son is a lil genius okay? Also srry Once but I needed really pretty girls to be villians in my story so yeah, Twice girls in here aren’t likable but aren’t reflective of how i actually feel about them lol.

Big thanks to @sushireads​ once again for creating the cover art for this fic.  They literally are becoming my go-to for fic art.

And my beta readers @bigbuffjoonie and @mustardpop​! They beta’d for QQ and I came to them really early about this fic.  They were with me since the beginning and have given me advice with creative choices to just simple grammar.  They easily could’ve leaked the first draft of this too but they didn’t and kept it secret for a while.  I was really insecure about getting out of my comfort zone with this plot but they really guided me.  

[lsholland]

London Lights (pt. 1) - Tom Holland

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader (1st person)

Genre: Party!Tom

Warnings: swearing; alcohol; nothing much but I don’t recommend -18 to read.

Word count: 1.9k

Author’s note: Hey guys! That’s my first story on this blog. I hope you’ll like it. I’m not native so there may be a few mistakes. I’m trying a new genre of fiction. It’s my first Tom Holland fiction. It’ll be a series of 2-3 chapters. If you want to be part of the master list for Tom please like this post and message me. 

Synopsis: Quarantine has been tough. I’ve lost my boyfriend, and I’m feeling lonely. Clubs and restaurants are open again, but I feel like it’ll never be like it used to. My friends have been pushing me to install Tinder and go on dates. Well, tonight, I’m going on a date. I don’t really want to but I’m going to try and have fun for once. Just a few drinks and I’ll go home. What else could happen?

PS. You can read the story on Wattpad.

What am I doing here? I think to myself.

I matched with this guy on this famous dating app . . . And now I'm supposed to meet him here, at this bar. But I don't want to. I'm just hoping he won't show up so I can escape from this shit-place.

I've been seated at the table for a good 5 minutes. The waitress cleans up the table next to mine and asks if I'm ready to order.

No, I want to leave.

I quickly glance at the drinks menu.

"Ehm . . . A pour over Irish coffee, please."

She nods and leaves. I don't even know what I just ordered. I hope it tastes good. Hopefully it'll make me drunk enough not to remember this awful date.

It hasn't even started yet.

I'm sweating.

"Hey there" says a husky voice right behind me.

I turn around and see my date. His name is Jordan. He's good-looking and I bet he's intelligent, but I don't have this feeling with him. I don't know why I accepted to go on a date in the first place. It's awkward.

"Hey!" I grin.

"Have you ordered something already?" he asks, touching his short, clean beard. "I'm thirsty!"

He looks nice.

*

The waitress hands me my third drink. They help the clock tick a little faster.

He's been talking about his job, his passions. He loves football and practises daily. He has 2 sisters and lives in Camberwell.

Cute.

For a moment, I feel sad for him. He drove all the way to this East London bar, put effort trying to look nice and being cool . . . and yet, he doesn't know it but he has no chance to get lucky tonight. Not with me.

I shouldn't be sorry.

But I am.

I glance around looking for something that might be a little more entertaining than him. I realise I've avoided eye contact since he arrived. I finally glimpse at him. He has beautiful hazel eyes.

Still not enough.

I quickly check my phone. It's getting late. I don't know how to end this.

"Look," I slightly bend over the table. "I'm so sorry but I don't feel like it tonight"

"I noticed." He smirked. "Kinda awkward, innit?"

I chuckle. I am so embarrassed.

"It's okay, though." He added. "I'm just trying to meet new people. I broke up with my ex-girlfriend a few weeks ago. My mates told me I should try these apps."

Okay, now I feel worse than ever. He's been so nice with me and that's how I treat him. I grab my drink and gulp it down.

I shouldn't have done this.

"Let's go dance. I owe you one." I say as I grab his hand and walk towards the dancing area. It becomes difficult to keep my head straight.

I'm drunk, I must admit.

I'm going to regret it, my sober-self shouts in my head.

I don't care is what I reply.

The dancing area is not crowded, but there are already a few people. Most of them are girls.

Girls . . . I wish my friends were not so busy all the time. I would've come to this bar with them instead of wasting my time with strangers.

I start dancing. I stare at him. He looks amused.

A group of guys join the dancefloor and all the girls on my right start screaming. It's so high pitched I cringe.

"What the fuck guys?" I shout, trying to focus on the music.

"Woah, that's Spider-Man!" says my date. He grabs my chin and makes me look in his direction.

No way, I think. It's actually him.

I know he lives in the area, but I've never met him before. It's always weird to see movie stars in real life. They look so much more attractive.

He is so much more attractive.

I try not to be a drunk fangirl and shyly wave to him. He doesn't notice.

"You wanna go and take a picture with him?" my date asks.

"Oh, no, no!" I answer. I'm blushing. "I don't even know what I'd tell him."

He laughs.

The worst thing that could happen is to annoy him during a night out. He needs privacy and I must respect it.

But it's so difficult.

I can't stop staring at him. I don't even control it. Being drunk doesn't help.

"D'you want a beer?" I ask my date whose name I completely forgot.

He nods.

I weave my way through the crowd. I can't believe there are so many people on the dancefloor. The area is so busy since the Spider-Man actor walked in.

Even the bar area is crowded.

I let my body rest against a barstool but quickly lose balance and almost fall on the dirty floor. The flickering lights are making me feel dizzy. I grip the counter and get up. I peer around to make sure nobody saw me.

He did.

I dust off my dress trying to save the dignity I have left.

"Want something?" someone asks behind me. I turn around, it's the barman.

"Two pints of Guinness, please."

I glance back at the same spot, but he's gone. It must've been a dream. I'm so drunk I can't trust everything I think I see.

I'm grabbing both my drinks and look around trying to find my date, but there are too many people. I take a sip of my beer and hold the other one above my head.

Someone hits my arm.

Oh no.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" yells the drunk blond girl.

I look at my dress. It's soaking wet. I politely smile at her. "It's okay," I mouth.

What a mess. I glance at the lavatory door. I need to go and save my dress.

"You haven't been lucky here."

I turn around to find out who's talking to me.

It's him. Tom Holland. Talking to me.

"What?" is all I manage to say.

"Do you need a hand?" he politely asks.

I blush so much it's noticeable in the dark.

I'm choking. I'm panicking.

I give him my two beers and walk towards the lavatory. I'm surely starstruck. And drunk. This isn't a good mix.

Once in the room, I grab a handful of tissues and try to soak up my dress. I groan. Did I expect to make that beer mark disappear? Yes. Did it work? Of course not.

I watch my face in the mirror.

I look like shit, I think.

A door slams shut. Two young girls just walked in.

"OH, MY G—THAT'S TOM HOLLAND!" shouts one. They are both panting.

I roll my eyes.

Oh . . . I've given him my beers. What about my date?

"Shit!" I hiss.

I violently open the door and frown my eyebrows as the lights blind me.

He's just here gazing at me. Two beers in his hands. One of them is half empty, the rest being displayed on my dress.

"I'm so sorry!" I say embarrassed as ever.

He smirks. "No worries." He hands me the full glass of beer.

I give him a questioning look as I grab it. What about the other one? Oh, right—He's drinking it.

"What's your na—"

I stop him.

"I know who you are." I peer down. "I'm sorry I didn't wanna disturb you" I say as I'm walking away.

This time I'm smart enough to avoid the crowd on my way out.

"That's rude to leave without saying goodbye!" Tom shouts from a distance.

I turn around and stare at him. He's got a soft smile; he doesn't look drunk at all. I wave him goodbye.

Now, he's approaching me.

"I meant to your boyfriend" he nods in the direction of my date who was dancing with a group of other people.

"He's not my—" is all I can say before he chuckles.

"I figured."

"How?" I clench my jaw. I'm hypnotised by his hand running through his hair. And his smile. And his lips.

"I can barely hear you," he points at a booth in the corner of the room "maybe we could sit there" he suggests.

My mouth softens into a smile.

It's difficult to walk with Tom Holland. Every couple of seconds he's stopped by fans requesting a picture. And he accepts every time.

I'd never be so patient.

"What's that?" he asks.

"It must be so annoying sometimes." I tell him as I sit on the booth.

"When they're nice and ask me, it's cool." He chooses to sit next to me. I can feel his arm touching mine. My heart is racing. He uses his other arm to hold his chin; he looks at me with so much intensity. Sometimes peering down my lips.

His face is so close, but he keeps talking. I can feel his breath on my skin. I'm going to burst into flames. "But when they're taking pictures without asking first, that's delicate."

I nod. I can't really listen to what he's talking about. I'm trying not to lose control.

"So, what's your name?"

He smiles when I tell him. "Why did you leave your date alone?" he asks.

I'm so nervous I stutter. I can't find my words. "I . . . I wasn't in the mood. He knows it. I shouldn't have come here."

"I'm happy you came." He says looking me in the eyes.

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you flirting with me?"

He barks out a laugh and breaks the eye contact. He rests his head on the wall behind us.

He isn't as confident as I thought he'd be. I don't know what's up with him, but I enjoy it.

I suddenly remember he's a movie star. He's always being watched. I glance at the crowd and see flashing lights. They're taking pictures of us.

I'm getting dizzier.

I don't want to see my face on a dumb article talking about Tom Holland's mysterious partner. I don't even know him.

"This is stupid" I mumble.

Tom is intrigued. He hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about. He hasn't even noticed the fans stalking him.

"I'm sorry, I gotta go" I abruptly say as I stand up. "Have a good night."

I grab my phone and leave the venue. I'm upset because I really wish I could've met him in a different context. I open my Uber app: there's no driver available.

Shit.

How's that even possible on a Friday night? In London?

I refresh the app, but it doesn't work. I guess I'll have to walk home.

A part of me wants to go back in this bar and spend time with Tom. He's sweet and I'm sure we would've had so much fun together. I glance through the window trying to see his face one last time, but I can't find him.

"What are you looking for?"

I cringe.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

It's him. It's Tom.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Going home too. The fun of the party is leaving . . ." he sighs. I smile back at him. I'm embarrassed.

I stand in front of him, none of us say a word. It's awkward. I'm getting anxious and walk away. I'm so overwhelmed.

He grabs my shoulder. "Wait, are you walking home?"

"Yeah, it's okay don't worry." I smile.

"I can drive you home."

"Sorry, but you've been drinking. I won't let you drive me." I curtly say.

He grins. He looks at one of his mates and nods.

"No way I'm letting you walk home alone," he sighs "besides, you're drunk."

"Come with me then" I instantly reply without thinking.

He nods.

What?

He's coming with me. My heart is racing. I won't survive a 30-minute drunk walk with him.

Not with his beautiful glossy eyes staring at me.

Not with my burning desire to kiss him.

[dontmindmyshadowhunting]

When Clary meets Ash (Fan Fic)

Hey :) this is how I imagine Clary and Ash's reunion (after the events of TDA) in the fic I am currently writing.

It's Chapter 5 of "The new Shadowhunter Academy" (Ao3 link to the full fic is here but don't click or skip Chapter 4 if you are not in for Kitty sexy times).

Thanks to @amchara for providing beta work and to @blaidr for letting me bounce my ideas off him.

To give you context, Ash met Dru in Faerie and they exchanged their numbers. Clary seized the opportunity to obtain Ash's number from Dru and write him the following text message:

“Hey, Ash. Dru gave me your number and please don’t be angry with her, I am very strong headed and there was absolutely no way she could have refused. I am Clary. You may have heard of me. I am your late father’s sister. That’s right, your aunt. You can call me whatever you like. Emma told me what you did in Thule, how you saved her. How you saved everyone. That was very brave of you. In a way, both of us were faced with a very difficult choice and made the same. Doing what we thought was right. I would love to meet you and tell you about my mother – your grandmother – or just talk about anything. It can be things totally unrelated to the Shadow world. Hobbies, movies, books and games we like. You can pick the time and place. Neutral territory. Hope to see you soon. Clary.”

This is what happens following the text:

*****

Clary wrapped her oversized woolen coat tighter around herself, as she made her way through the crowded streets of Manhattan. The route was familiar. She took it almost every week to meet up with her parabatai and have what they called their “mundane hour”. They talked about everything, from Clary’s art to the latest TV shows they had binge watched. No topic was off the table, save for anything related to Shadowhunter duties, and the Shadow world in general. As co-head of the New York Institute and since recently, artist owning her own gallery, her weeks were very busy so she looked forward to those rare and precious moments when she could escape with Simon. Her heart rate seemed to accelerate with each of her steps, and it didn’t help that she also had the strange feeling she was being observed. When she reached her destination, she took a deep breath and opened the double glass doors leading her inside the coffee shop. She and Simon had their regular routine there, and her gaze went automatically to their usual spot, near the large windows.

A broad-shouldered jock with a baseball jacket was already sitting there, speaking loudly to his cheerleader girlfriend. Two of his friends were standing next to him, mock punching his muscular arms. It made her realize that Ash probably never had this. High school friends and romance. Ash. She was still struggling to figure out why he had asked her to meet up at this place, at the exact time she usually got there with Simon. Was it him being considerate, a clumsy way to make her feel comfortable in familiar surroundings? Or was it a warning? I know your habits, and precisely where you take your coffee, when and with whom.

Her gaze swept over the crowded room - her heart seemed to have moved up her throat, the frantic pulse almost choking her - and zeroed on a tall, white blond haired boy ordering coffee at the counter, standing with his back to Clary. She sucked in a breath. Ash. He was fully clothed in black - Dru had told her that was his usual style - and huge headphones were covering his ears. She slowly and cautiously approached him and when she was close enough, put a tentative hand on his elbow. “Ash,” she whispered. The boy glanced over his shoulder, his blue eyes quizzical and… it was not Ash.

She mumbled an apology.

“Clary,” said a voice coming from behind, and she froze. It was not a boy’s but a man’s voice, the sound beautiful and ethereal. She just stood there for a few seconds before she slowly turned.

What had she expected? Merely a taller version of the young boy with pointy ears and a sour expression that she had met three years before, dressed in the same refined velvet clothing threaded with gold that identified him as fey royalty?

If so, she had clearly been mistaken.

She blinked a few times to make sure her mind wasn’t playing tricks. He was tall, as she had anticipated (Sebastian had been after all). At least two heads taller than her and probably taller than Jace. But he was also very different from the Ash of her memories, from the sketches she had drawn of him after they had crossed paths. He had amazingly grown into his features, his face now the best combination of the Seelie Queen and Sebastian’s. As if he had picked the most alluring colours of the palette. And the result was… Stunning. Clary’s hand twitched, aching for a pencil.

He was not dressed in black, but in plain blue jeans and he had stuffed his hands in a very elegant, long pale gray cashmere coat. His white blond hair and pointy ears were concealed under a deep green beanie, the same colour as the scarf around his neck.

He arched a silvery eyebrow at Clary, his expression bemused, and she realized she was staring.

“Clary, seriously?” he said, his gently scolding tone at odds with his enchanting voice. “This guy isn't even half as good looking as me." He glanced pointedly at the patron in question, who was gaping at him, and shrugged. "No offense, dude,” Ash added as an afterthought.

He turned his attention to the barista. She was beautiful, dark skinned with long braided hair and pouty lips. “Hello, gorgeous. We’ll have a double espresso with oat milk and a dash of cinnamon for the lady and a plain black coffee for me.”

Clary stifled a gasp and tried to hide her discomfort. He knew exactly how she took her coffee, and she didn’t know how she felt about this.

The pretty barista nodded eagerly, her cheeks red and her big dark eyes dreamy as she stared at Ash. “Why don’t you… Go sit at your table and I’ll bring you your beverages when they are ready?” the girl offered enthusiastically. The long line of patrons that had formed behind Clary and Ash would probably disagree but she didn’t seem to care.

“That would be lovely,” Ash said in his euphonious voice. “And so are you.” He winked at her, and Clary wondered if she would need to catch her while she swooned. He paid before Clary even had a chance to reach for her purse.

“Come,” he said in a commanding tone, as he made his way to Clary and Simon's usual table. This was unnerving.

The jock seated there paused in the middle of his conversation with his girlfriend when he saw Ash stand casually next to him. Clary braced herself for a heated exchange, but she should have known better.

“You want to sit somewhere else,” Ash said evenly, one hand inside the pocket of his designer coat and the other stretched out in front of him as he studied his fingernails.

“I want to sit somewhere else,” the jock repeated in a monotonous voice, his gaze blank. He stood, as if in a trance, and his girlfriend and friends followed him, puzzled, to an empty table at the far end of the room.

Ash drew a chair for Clary and she sat. He did the same, opposite her. He pulled off his beanie, and shook his silvery hair, like a crown of liquid white gold. He wasn’t dressed for the part but he had never looked more like a prince.

“Ash… please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Your mind tricks.”

He cocked his head and observed her, his face unreadable, for what seemed like an endless minute.

“You’ve been my aunt for what? Five minutes? And you’re already trying to boss me around?”

“I am not trying to boss you around, Ash. Simply asking you not to abuse your powers.”

A shadow flickered across his green eyes.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, Clary. I spend much more time and energy holding back than using my powers. If I did let go, trust me, you would know.”

Clary opened her mouth to reply but was cut short as the barista popped in front of them and placed the mugs on the table. She slid a paper napkin to Ash, her phone number scribbled on it. Clary tried not to roll her eyes, as Ash flashed his dazzling smile at the girl, who almost tripped on her own feet as she returned to the counter.

Clary lifted her cup to her lips and paused, as she caught sight of the cinnamon powder floating on the surface. She put it down.

“What about this?" She pointed at her coffee mug and waved around them. “ What is it, if not a show of power? What are you trying to tell me? That you know everything about me? That you’ve been spying on me?”

Ash pulled on a fake shocked expression, mouth open and green eyes wide in mock innocence. “Spying on you? What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Ash. The evidence is right here.” She lifted her cup abruptly, and hot liquid splashed out of it. “You know exactly how I like it. When I take it, where I take it.”

Ash’s mouth twitched. “Where did you pick up these lines? From the script of some lame X-rated movie?”

“Adult movies have storylines?” Clary asked, arching her eyebrows.

“Of course they do. Where do you think the Grimm Brothers took their inspiration from?”

He grabbed the paper napkin and started mopping the coffee she had spilled on the table. The blue ink faded and the barista’s phone number vanished.

“You lost that girl’s number,” Clary noted.

Ash shrugged. “I have a girlfriend now.”

Right. Drusilla Blackthorn. From the moment she had met her, Clary had known that the smart and quiet turquoise-eyed girl would someday turn heads.

Clary knew that Dru hadn’t really confirmed their relationship status yet, but it was neither the time nor place to broach the subject with Ash. She was, after all, on a mission to win over her nephew and had not been doing a very good job so far.

A young lanky boy with pink hair and piercings covering his skin walked by and dropped a glossy flyer of the upcoming Mortal Instruments concert on the table between them. Clary hid a smile. It reminded her...

“I have something for you.” She said as she fumbled inside her bag and took out the drawing she had made of Jocelyn, Luke and herself, in front of Luke’s upstate farm (before it was turned into the new Shadowhunter Academy) and laid it on the table.

Ash looked at it hesitantly, like a kid who really wanted to grab the candy but was afraid there was a mouse trap under it. He hunched his shoulders forward and clasped his hands under the table, as if to keep himself from temptation.

“I recognize your art. I like it. I also appreciate Julian Blackthorn’s but I may not be as objective where… one of the subjects of his drawings is concerned.”

“You’ve seen my art?”

He leaned back on his chair, crossing his long arms behind his head. Somehow, he managed to make it look graceful.

“Which Shadowhunter hasn’t? I noticed that you often drew Jace with angel wings.”

“Yes. That’s how he used to appear to me. In recurring dreams.”

“Was it?”

“Was it what?”

“Jace. In your dreams.”

“Who else would it be?”

“Someone who looks like him, but who actually has wings.”

“You mean Kit.”

Ash shrugged. “It would make more sense.” His gaze flickered back to the drawing, which still lay on the table, untouched. “You look a lot like your mom.”

“So do you”, Clary blurted before she could take it back.

Ash shot her an unfathomable look.

“How is she?” She asked.

“You mean, the Seelie Queen? You tell me. You must see her more often than I do.”

“Well, not really. I am not that involved in politics, even though Alec is Consul. Julian Blackthorn is the one who deals with her most of the time. She appears to have... a fondness for him.”

“Who doesn’t?”

Clary’s mouth quirked up.

“I am glad you are getting along with the Blackthorns. They are such an incredibly strong and talented family.”

“They are.” He turned his face away, but not before she could see the expression of longing plain on his delicate features.

She swallowed. She was painfully reminded that Ash never had a shot at a happy family. Born of a political union, and dragged here and there, though interdimensional portals, by people more interested in his powers than anything else he had to offer as a person. And judging by how Dru talked about Ash, he had a lot to offer.

“I imagine it must have been awful living in Thule… But what you did for Emma and Julian back there... if it hadn’t been for you…”

“I don’t want to talk about Thule,” he interrupted her. “Can I borrow this?” He asked, his long fingers brushing the Mortal Instruments concert flyer.

“Sure.”

She watched as he started folding the paper, realizing with a jolt of surprise that he was making an origami and wondering what shape would come out of it. It was odd seeing him doing such an innocuous thing, as if he was not a faerie prince with a heavy heritage and a giant target on his back, but an ordinary boy. She remembered what Emma had told her of her encounter with Ash in a nightclub in Thule. The way he had shown no interest, playing a video game in a corner of the room, while Sebastian was committing atrocities. Had he really been as indifferent as he looked?

“Ash, we don’t need to talk about Thule if you don’t want to, but if I can help you… If there is anything I can do-”

“Why?” He looked up sharply. “Are you able to create a rune that could undo the things I saw?” His tone was even, but his delicate fingers had started slightly shaking and he suddenly dropped the paper - his work unfinished - to fold his hands under the table to hide it. From that moment, she knew.

“No…” Clary said, drawing the word out. “But trust me, coming from someone whose memory has been tampered with... it’s not a solution.”

“I said undo. Not forget.” He snapped. “I am not such a coward that I would choose blissful ignorance over knowledge.”

He caught himself, blinking, then clenched his jaw and looked away. As if he was ashamed he had allowed himself to show any emotion at all. But Clary had managed to catch a glimpse of what lay underneath the mask and wanted nothing more than to see the rest of it.

“I don’t think you are a coward,” she said.

He looked over at her, a silver eyebrow raised. “I let it all happen, didn’t I? I didn’t lift a finger.”

“Because you couldn’t. Sebastian would have killed you. And you, Ash, are just like me. A survivor.”

He snorted and crossed his arms in front of him, leaning back on his chair. He had stretched out his long legs and Clary realized that he was tapping a foot nervously next to hers.

“Wrong. I could have. I chose not to. Because I am selfish. I don’t care about other people’s fate.”

His face split into a lazy, wicked grin. Clary could see Sebastian’s influence in his leer, but she wouldn't let it deceive her. Just as she wasn't fooled by his laid-back demeanor.

“I think it’s the opposite, actually. I think it’s because you care too much. It’s not death you are afraid of. The thing is, you have such a tender heart, you need to protect it from an affliction far greater than any physical pain you could endure. So you’d rather lie to yourself and pretend you feel nothing.”

From the long conversations she had with Tessa about her ancestors, Clary knew of a Fairchild boy who had been too compassionate for his own good. And he had been surrounded by loyal friends and loving parents, even though he had shut himself, putting on a facade while burying his grief in alcohol. Ash never had that kind of support. Throughout his life, he was left to figure things out on his own. If he was as empathetic as Clary thought he was, Ash probably had no other choice but to deal with his sensitivity alone. It was a miracle he had turned out the way he did.

“You have a lot of imagination,” he said after a moment. The ghost of a smile was still playing on his lips but something had passed across his eyes. “Then again, you are an artist. You seek beauty in the ugly. You find colors on a blank page. I admire your faith, but in this case, there is nothing to see.”

Clary jutted her chin stubbornly and they held each other’s gaze - his green eyes glittering in amusement and hers dead serious - in a staring contest.

“Still,” he said when he finally broke, first. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. I am sorry.”

Clary softened. “Don’t be. I am glad you are finally showing your true self. You don’t need to wear your mask around me, Ash.”

He chuckled. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“It’s funny that you would quote Oscar Wilde.”

“And why is that?”

She shrugged. “Just another thing you share in common with a Fairchild I heard stories about.”

“Clary,” he said in a gently reproving tone. Her name sounded like a caress in his melodious voice. “Are you being purposefully cryptic to arouse my curiosity?”

She moved closer, so she was sitting at the edge of her chair, and leaned forward, hands folded over the table.

“If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” she whispered. “Let me in. Shed all pretense.”

“I can’t promise you that,” he whispered back in confidence, leaning closer still so that their faces were inches from each other. “It’s like fabric that burns and melts into skin. If you peel it off, the skin goes with it.” He grimaced, reclining on his chair. “It won’t be a pretty sight. I don’t think even my level of hotness could sustain it.”

“Ash…” Clary said, sensing that she finally had an opening to say what she had been brooding over ever since she had learnt of Ash’s return from that forsaken land. “I wanted to tell you… I am sorry.”

Ash’s green eyes widened.

“Sorry for what?”

“I should have looked for you. I should not have given up on you.”

Ash’s jaw clenched and he looked away. “Don’t,” he said through gritted teeth. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“I do. Seb-...Ash, we...”

“What did you just call me?” He snarled. His eyes snapped back to her, suddenly cold as ice.

“Sorry, Ash. What I meant to say is… we are family."

“I already have a family.”

“I know that you care about Janus…”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” he cut her off.

“And we don’t need to. I just wanted you to know… I understand that he’s been like a father to you, and I don’t plan on moving against him, unless he strikes first or makes it impossible for me to overlook his actions.”

“Because of me?”

“Of course, because of you.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Ash… You are my nephew, my blood. You may not feel the same way about me, but that’s how I feel about you. I want you to know that, if things go wrong, for any reason, you can always turn to me. My home is your home.”

“What you are actually telling me is, Ash, if I kill the one person who has ever really cared about you - and it might definitely come to that - you can always grab my hand, still sticky and warm from his blood. Well, how nice of you. To quote Oscar Wilde again, true friends stab you in the front.”

“That’s not what I am-”

“Clary,” Ash interrupted as he stood. “Do not make me choose between you and him. Because…” Looking down at her, he swallowed hard, as if the words pained him. “Because you will lose.”

She knew exactly what he was telling her. Because they were the same in that way. Ruthless, even with their own blood, when it came to protecting their loved ones. If I had to choose between killing him and you, I would not hesitate. I would end you. Yet, despite his cold statement, despite his sharp and resolved tone, his eyes seemed to carry a deep regret.

“Ash, I understand what you're saying and I swear I am not trying to make you pick a side”, Clary said, suddenly desperate, as she mirrored him and stood. “Please don’t go. I am sorry I brought it up. We will stop talking about him. Starting now.”

“This was a bad idea. Never try to contact me again.” He drew his green beanie from the pocket of his coat and put it back on. He turned and strode toward the exit. She grabbed the family drawing that still lay on the table, stuffed it in her bag and followed him, half-running, as he was quickly losing here with his long legs.

“Ash! Please. Give me another chance. I am so sorry.”

He paused right outside the coffee shop, closed his eyes and sighed. “Don’t be. It didn’t change what I had planned to tell you anyway. I don’t want to know anything about you or your mother. I don’t want to have anything to do with either of you.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” she said, and he whipped his head around to look at her in surprise. “I know you were under house arrest. You probably had to break out of whichever place they were holding you in to come here. You wouldn’t have done that unless you wanted something. Something from me. Tell me, Ash. Tell me what it is.”

He turned his face away so she could not see his expression. A full minute passed and she had almost given up on receiving an answer, when he finally spoke.

“My fa… Sebastian. How different do you think he would have been if not for the demon blood?”

“Oh. Ash.” she whispered. She brought her knuckle against her sternum instinctively, as if to cover the gaping whole in her chest. “I saw him, you know. The brother I should have had. The father that should have raised you. If only for a few minutes.” She paused to bite back tears. “In those few minutes, he told us how to get rid of the Endarkened and said he was sorry. It’s not much to go for, but… that’s not all. I have recurring dreams of the green eyed boy that was robbed from us. And I know in my heart he would have been the best brother a sister could ever dream of.”

He was still looking away and she could see the sharp line, the stubborn set of his jaw. She wanted to hug him, to tell him she would not fail him again. That they could mourn her brother, his father, together. That he didn’t need to bear the anger at everything that was wasted alone.

He finally turned to look at her. A tear had escaped to run freely down his cheek. He had completely shed off his mask, and what Clary saw was like a stab in her gut. She shivered. Wordlessly, he reached for his deep green scarf and tied it gingerly around her neck. The way Sebastian had when they had walked down the streets of Paris. Ash looked nothing like her brother had then. His green eyes held an infinite sadness that spoke of a grief deeper, older than the short years of his life.

“It doesn’t change anything.” He said - she hadn’t imagined his beautiful voice could sound so hollow - and turned to leave.

“Ash, wait.” She grabbed him by the elbow and he froze. His eyes widened as his gaze zeroed on the fingers covering his coat, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. She realized she had never touched him before.

“Clary, what do you want from me?” He asked in a tired voice.

“I just want to get to know you.”

“Trust me, you don’t. I am not the brother who was stolen from you. I cannot replace him. If anything, I am just like Sebastian was before me... my father’s broken toy. There is no way to fix me.”

“I don’t believe it for a second,” she said, almost frantic. “And I don’t want to find my brother's replacement, I want to get to know you! Ash. The real Ash.”

“I already told you. That’s not happening. Don’t ever try to contact me again. I am serious.”

“So that’s it?” She tried not to sound too whiny but panic was eating away at her stomach and she thought she would throw up. “You went through all this trouble spying on me, learning how I take my coffee to simply disappear from my life from one moment to the next?”

He gazed at her for a moment, his expression unfathomable. It seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke.

“I was not spying on you, Clary. I was merely following your stalker.”

“What? You were… protecting me?”

“Take care of yourself, Clary.”

He said as he stepped away from her and vanished into the crowd.

****

Clary threw herself in Jace’s arms as soon as he opened the door to their bedroom at the New York Institute. He froze, then started stroking her hair in a soothing gesture.

“Clary, what happened? Is everything okay?”

“No,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Tell me, Clary. What is it?”

She pulled away and wiped tears with the back of her hand. Jace’s face was a mask of shock. Clary couldn’t blame him. She almost never cried.

“I messed up.”

“What did you mess up?”

She walked to the bed and sat on the mattress. She took a deep breath, bracing herself for his reaction. “Ash. I met up with him earlier today.”

Jace tensed and his hands clenched into fists. “WHAT- Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you would have insisted on coming.”

“Damn right, I would have. And I would have been right, too. Look at you, you look miserable.”

“It’s my fault,” she said in a small voice. “I pushed him too far.”

Jace sighed and came to sit next to her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulder. “I am sure you did nothing wrong, Clary.”

“I thought- When I showed him the drawing… the way he looked at it, Jace. He is not indifferent. He cares.”

“What drawing?”

“The one I made of the family,” she said absently, as she grabbed her bag and started fumbling inside.

She sucked in a sharp breath. The drawing wasn’t there. Peeking out in its stead, and folded out of the flyer of the Mortal Instruments concert, were origami faerie wings. The Fairchild family symbol.

[the-sound-of-her-wings]

I Am Not Starfire, And That's Okay

I recently read I Am Not Starfire and I had lots of thoughts, which are under the cut. It is spoiler-heavy and an analysis of the main character, who I find to be a charming, flawed, and incredibly human character.

Mandy is a fascinating character and a great look at a teenage girl who feels ostracized by the people around her and who feels disconnected from her parent. Mandy is by no means flawless, and that's what makes her very interesting. It also makes her relatable.

Mandy starts by talking about how she's noticeably different from her mom, being the "Anti-Starfire". She's a regular kid, can't fly, and doesn't own a swimsuit, while her mom is a superhero, can fly, and always wears bikinis.

On page 11 she mentions "her mom hasn't liked how I looked since I was twelve. She wears less than a yard of fabric every day, yet somehow, I'm the one who's dressing weird". While I understand people who call this slut-shaming, and I'm inclined to agree, but I think it's a little more nuanced than that. The next page reads, "My friend Lincoln convinced me this is the cultural divide that happens between family generations born in different countries or universes. His parents were born in Vietnam." This tells me that the authors intended to point out the difference in dress more as another difference between Starfire and Mandy, and less as a reason to blatantly slut-shame Starfire. I think there's absolutely a conversation to be had about why the authors decided to use this language instead of conveying the point differently. I also think it speaks to how Starfire has more or less been sexualized from inception, and how people look down upon her character because of that. In the context of this book, though, it's one of Mandy's character flaws that I think fits her both as a character and reflects what I've seen from actual teenage girls. Our society coaches us to view women who dress a certain way as less than women who don't and unlearning that takes time and effort. I don't think this comment about her mom should have been put in there by the authors, but I do think it fits in with the values American society in particular teaches about women.

Page 15, 16, and 17 all point to a far more complicated state of existence than Mandy points out within the first few pages. For one thing, Mandy has to deal with people who love her mother and only want to use her to get information about her mom and the other teen titans. This is shown by the "Titan groupies" who ask her to tell Starfire what they say about her. Another thing she has to deal with is the expectation to be a superhero and have powers like her mom, and the questions about who her dad might be. She gains her first real friend, Lincoln, because he tells the people asking about her parentage that they are assholes.

It is revealed that Mandy has a crush on Claire after she gets assigned a group project with her. Mandy is in denial over the crush. She thinks about the fact she's meeting Mandy at the end of the day throughout the rest of the school day, causing her to explode something in Chemistry Class. I find this to be highly relatable and gives her character a softer side to the edginess she desperately tries to portray herself as.

While talking about the project with Claire, it is revealed that Mandy ran out of her SATs and didn't complete them. While Mandy tries to paint this as a cool badass moment, the way the comic artist portrays the scene makes me think Mandy had an anxiety attack. Mandy didn't run out of her SAT because she's some kind of alternative badass who doesn't need to take them. Mandy ran out because she got overwhelmed by the sounds of people chewing and the pressure of the test. While she frames it differently, it's clear to me that Mandy is avoiding taking the SAT again because she doesn't want that to happen again.

When Claire invites her to hang out with her friends, Mandy gets treated like she isn't there, or as some kind of unwanted outsider. The topics they discuss seem to be specifically made to make Mandy uncomfortable, like mentioning how stretchy jeans are only made for fat people, and asking if aliens don't go to college. Jaded by this, Mandy makes up that aliens actually have to go through this huge blood right and battle to the death, but tells Claire's two friends she was joking before leaving. This tells me that Mandy deflects her pain by using humor to cope and has no issue clowning on people who are trying to belittle her for being an alien.

Starfire tries to bring up going to college after this, and Mandy just flees to her room. She hasn't told her mom she didn't take the SAT yet or that she isn't going to college. She feels distant from her mom, which is explained further through a montage of birthdays where she never got her powers. Her mom expects a lot from her, and Mandy thinks Starfire is disappointed about her lack of powers.

Later, Mandy invites Claire over to her house to complete the project they are working on. The Titans are still there when Claire arrives, but she seems to ignore them, as they leave shortly after. Mandy and Claire bond as they continue the project. Mandy reveals to the reader that she's never had a girlfriend, except for one time at sleep-away camp where she kind of dated a girl for four weeks. She didn't tell her who her mom was because she was tired of living in the shadow of a superhero. But the relationship ended because Mandy had lied about who her mom was, and the girl she was dating didn't understand why she would lie. I think this really shows just how much Mandy actually wants to be a normal girl like everyone else, to the extent that she'd lie about who her mom was. Her edgy demeanor at school and around town where her mom is known to be her mom is a defense mechanism to having lived under the shadow of a superhero her entire life.

When it's revealed that Claire took a photo with the Titans at Mandy's house, Mandy is understandable heartbroken, and furious. She thought she had been making a real connection with Claire, but this photo makes her think she's been used, again. Claire seems genuinely baffled by Mandy's reaction to this, thinking little of it. But to Mandy, it is a breach of trust from someone she thought cared about her. I think her angry reaction to Claire makes sense because of this, even if it might have been disproportionate to the offense.

On top of this, Starfire has discovered that Mandy walked out of the SAT and doesn't plan to go to college. After a heated conversation, she runs away, but her mom finds her. And then Blackfire finds her. Turns out the fake story she told Claire's friends earlier in the story was actually true, even though Mandy didn't know it.

Since Claire actually cares about Mandy, she tracks down Lincoln who explains to her why Mandy reacted badly, and that she should probably apologize for taking the photo. Claire also admits that one of the friends from earlier, Deb, actually dared her to take the photo. Claire is a good person at heart, but this action shows that she can still be influenced to do something that would hurt another person. And while she might not have known it would hurt Mandy, Deb probably did.

Starfire and Blackfire fight since Mandy has no powers, but Starfire gets injured causing Mandy to realize just how much she loves and cares about her mom, even though they don't see eye to eye on most things. This finally unlocks her powers, as she's let go of most of the resentment she's held against her mom. She even gets asked for an autograph by someone in the audience after the battle.

The story ends with Mandy training her powers, studying for the SAT, and reconciling with Claire, sharing a kiss, and becoming girlfriends.

I've seen a lot of discourse that frames Mandy as being "not like other girls". I don't believe this framing actually fits Mandy very well. The only girl Mandy ever says she is not like explicitly is her mom. She is the only woman she compares herself too, and the only person who she seems to have a lot of resentment for, aside from people who use her to get to Starfire. Additionally, Mandy falls for someone who is what a stereotypical, normal popular girl is often portrayed as. She's preppy, wears makeup, gets good grades, has friends, and runs a fairly popular Instagram account. If Mandy was extremely into the "Not like other girls" rhetoric, she would've made fun of Claire for all those things. Instead, she admires her for them. Mandy is fat, has acne/freckles, dresses goth, and wears a nose ring. If this is the reason people are identifying her as a "Not like other girls" girl, then they don't understand that trope. Simply dressing differently from your peers, being fat, and hating your mom does not make her the "not like other girls" trope. It actually makes her like other, real-life girls who dress and act similarly, because that's who they are, not because they somehow think they are better than other women.

I'd also make the argument that, fundamentally, Mandy IS different from other girls on the account of having a superhero mother and potentially a superhero father. Her life is completely altered by Starfire's existence as her mom and is likely only relatable to the children of other superheroes and celebrities. She is not like other girls because of her mom, and that still doesn't make her someone who falls in line with the conception of being "not like other girls".

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope others do too. I read Mandy as a flawed character who was trying to figure out how to exist outside the Shadow of her mom- and eventually succeeds, by learning to embrace her mom. I would've preferred if Mandy had a slightly darker skin tone, as her features seem black-coded to me and Starfire is also often black-coded. Otherwise, I do think this was one of the best DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults I've read, alongside Teen Titans: Beast Boy and Teen Titans: Raven.

[undyingskies]

Just Fine

Request: yes; “hii, could you maybe write an owen imagine where fans take pictures of his gf kissing a guy on the street so there is rumors and of course owen's pissed, but she was actually filming a scene so everything was fake please”

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy, I have a decent amount of requests I am working through! As well as a two part fic for Owen, they are going to take some time so if you requested please be patient with me! I promise I am working on them!

Warning: None

——————————

Your show, Charmed, season 3 was renewed at the same time as season 2 of Julie and The Phantoms. Which means you and your boyfriend Owen were both incredibly busy filming in two different time zones. You guys tried your best to talk when you were free and keep each other updated with what was going on in your shows, but it got more difficult as time went on.

You loved your boyfriend and you missed him but between your two schedules you felt like you were putting more effort in talking to him than he was you. You guys actually haven’t talked in a few days and you were the last one to text and call him.

You get he was busy, you were too, but it still felt like he wasn’t putting even a little effort into trying to talk to you.

So here you are today, reading lines sitting in your makeup chair getting ready for today’s scenes. This season they introduced a new character to play your love interest and today was the big scene between the two of you.

You were nervous, really nervous. Charmed was your first ever show that you booked and so far you’ve had no love interest so you didn’t have scenes like the one today. You were a professional and you knew you could do it but still you were nervous. It would be nice to tell your boyfriend about it, Owen is usually really good at calming your nerves but he just seems to be ignoring you.

“Y/N it’s your time to shine, let’s go!” You hear Tami your director yell.

You sigh at her words, stand up and shake your hands at your side; before you walk onto the street for your scene.

You think to yourself, you’ve got this, it’s only one scene. You’ve done plenty of other scenes in the past that have made you nervous before so it’s okay. It’s just why did this one feel different?

“Alright, you guys ready?” You hear Tami yell again.

Both you and Jake, your love interest, nod yes and get in your places.

“Okay, awesome. We’re gonna take it from the spot where you guys are talking about how you feel and you’re walking to Lily’s apartment” Tami tells the two of you.

She walks back to the camera and sits in her chair. Everyone on set quiets down as the lights flash, and you see her hands counting down from three to one.

Then one hits, that’s your cue.

“You know Steven, you really didn’t have to walk me back to my apartment.” You tell him and turn to smile at him, placing a hand on his arm.

“I know Lily, you can totally handle yourself but it was an excuse to spend more time with you.” He tells you.

You respond with a smile. The two of your characters walking through the street making small talk with one another.

Until the two of you reach the destination of where your two characters were going. This is when it’s gonna happen, just take a deep breath and it’ll be okay.

You stop and turn to look at Jake, who’s character is Steven. You grab one of his hands and say,

“Well thanks again Steven, I appreciate it. I liked having the extra time with you too.”

He smiles back at you and takes a step towards you. He places a hand on your cheek and you lean into it slightly.

“Me too.” He whispers out. You both just look at each other smiling and that’s when he leans in. The two of yours lips meeting for a kiss.

You two stay standing with your lips interlocked for a few more seconds until you hear Tami yell, “Cut.” At her words the two of you step apart.

“That was great the two of you really, perfect! Could have not gone better!” She tells the both of you. You send her a small smile.

You think to yourself that really wasn’t that bad, your nerves no longer getting the best of you. You grab your things and make your way to your trailer; it was a long morning and a nap wouldn’t hurt.

Upon making it to your trailer, you fling yourself  onto the bed you have in there. Almost immediately falling asleep, face first in your pillows, letting slumber take over you.

You have no idea how long you had been asleep for but the constant buzzing of your phone on your bed besides you wakes you up.

Rubbing the sleep out of your eye, you reach over to grab your phone. You squint at the sudden bright light from your phone reading the few messages you have. One catches your attention first. It’s from Owen, it reads.

“You should really check twitter. Thanks.”

You think to yourself that’s a lot of periods and does not seem good. You can’t help but panic a little that’s not a normal text from Owen, especially after not talking for a few days.

You close the message app and quickly open the twitter app. It doesn’t take long in your scrolling for you to stumble upon what seems to have upset your boyfriend.

It was pictures of you and Jake kissing in front of the building. The photos don’t show the cast or crew filming the scene, it really is just the two of you. Your heart picks up at the sight of the photo, it doesn’t look good. How did someone get this photo and how did it blow up so fast? You think to yourself, right now that doesn’t matter though. Owen is what matters.

You quickly call Owen wanting to explain to him the reality behind it. Your phone rings twice then it gets sent to voicemail. You scrunch your eyebrows and call him again, voicemail again. You call again and again, and then finally you get an answer.

“What do you want Y/N?” You hear Owen snap at you.

“I wanted to call you to explain what that photo was as I can only assume that’s why you’re so upset.” You tell him, trying to stay as calm as possible.

“Oh what you could only assume is what I’m upset by?? I actually loved seeing photos of MY girlfriend kissing another guy. It was actually really great getting to see that and hear about it from Charlie.” Owen snaps again.

“You don’t have to be so rude about it Owen, it’s not what it looks like. That’s Jake, not some random guy! It was for-“ He cuts you off.

“Oh great to know it wasn’t some random guy. You know what I really don’t feel like talking to you right now. I’ve got to go.” He says quickly trying to get you off the phone fast.

“You better stop that Joyner and listen to me for one second.” The tone of your voice making him stop his movements to end the call. He doesn’t say anything so you take that as your cue.

“First of all that’s Jake, my co-star, and that was a scene for our show. He is playing my character’s love interest actually.” Your frustration building as you take to him. “And you would know that if you took any time to actually talk to me instead of ignoring me for days on end. You don’t put any effort into this like I do, I know what’s going on in your scenes. I bet you could not tell me one thing that’s going on in mine!”

Your met with silence.

“Ya that’s what I thought Owen, so you know what goodbye, have fun learning about my show through the internet.” You tell him before you hang up, not letting him get another word in.

Tears slip from your eyes as you gather your things to go home. You checked the time and it was 6 PM. Your nap was a lot longer than you thought but you could go home now, they told you if they didn’t get you by 5, they wouldn’t need you for the rest of the day.

Tears continue to cloud your vision as you drive through the streets of LA to your apartment. You have music playing quietly during your drive hoping it would help calm you down but the tears still fall.

You feel bad, guilty even. If you were in Owen’s shoes and saw photos like that on the internet with no context you would be just as mad and hurt by it. You shouldn’t have reacted that way, you should have stayed calm but he didn’t give you the time to explain. Your hurt from not talking to him for days and feeling like he was ignoring you just built up and took over.

Once you reach your apartment you quickly shuffle into the building and into your unit. You didn’t want to be far from your bed much longer, the comfort of it calling you. You quickly strip from your clothes and into you pajamas, which was just underwear and one of Owen’s shirts.

You crawl into bed and check your phone one last time, nothing. No notifications, absolutely nothing. You lock it and put it on its charger. You settle into your pillows and pull the sheets over you, covering half of your face, letting sleep take over you and a few more tears slipping from your eyes.

You don’t know how long you were asleep for but a loud banging woke up you, déjà vu. The pounds don’t stop as you turn over and check the time on your phone. It read 6:02 AM. A lot earlier than you would have liked to be woken up.

You stretch and pull your shirt down to cover your thighs. You let your feet lead you to the door where the banging continued. You open the door not even thinking twice, getting ready to yell at whoever decided it was a good time to wake you up this early.

You stop dead in your tracks, the words lost in your throat, your mouth just hanging open slightly. Your face to face with Owen.

He doesn’t say a word, he just pushes past you to get into your apartment. Your left standing at your door alone, still shocked and confused.

“You know it’s probably a good idea to close the door Y/N, especially with the whole no pants thing going on.” Owen says facing you.

You blush slightly at his words, closing the door and tugging the shirt down hoping it would cover more of your skin. It’s not like it’s nothing he’s seen before but his gaze on you right now, left you feeling vulnerable.

“What are you doing here O?” You ask him, walking into the living room and going to sit on your couch. Owen follows your lead.

It’s so quiet, and the atmosphere around the two of you is awkward. It was never like this between you and Owen, neither of you liked it very much.

Owen sits next to you, leaving space between the two of you so he could turn to face you, putting one of his legs on the couch.

“Soooo...” You trail off hoping to start some type of conversation, anything was better than the silence.

“I didn’t like the way we left off on that conversation, both of us obviously hurt and it didn’t feel like something that should have been fixed over the phone.” He tells you, one of his hands grabbing onto yours. “I jumped on the first plane after that phone call, I needed to see you.”

“I-okay...” You say, taking your hand from his to rub your eyes and yawning. The mix of exhaustion and confusion not helping you put together words. You place your hand on his again.

“I’m sorry Y/N, I should have given you a chance to explain or even say something before I got so frustrated. I should have let you talk before trying to hang up on you immediately. I just, it was really hard seeing those photos and knowing nothing.” He tells you, leaning forward a little more. He’s able to catch your gaze.

“No I know, I’m sorry too O. I know I overreacted a bit just yelling and hanging up on you. It was just you called and yelled without giving me a chance to really speak, and that was the first time we’ve spoken in days. I let my own frustration get to me.” You tell him.

“If it was the other way around, I would reacted similarly too. I don’t even want to think how I would feel seeing a photo of you kissing a girl with no context.”

Owen lets go of your hand to push some hair out of your face. He lets his hand cup your cheek after.

“I think we both were upset and instead of talking it out we just took it out on each other instead.” You nod your head agreeing with him.

“You know I’ve missed you love, it’s not easy being so far away.”

“I know Owen, that’s why I was so upset. I feel like whenever I have the chance I’m facetiming you or texting you just to give us some time to be together in some way, but it never felt reciprocated. I know you’re busy, you know out of anyone, I understand that. But baby, I stopped trying and we didn’t talk for 4 days before yesterday.” You’re able to get all of that out without tears falling and you feel proud of yourself.

Owen’s looking at you as you tell him those things. He sees you gulping a little harder and the glaze over your eyes, he knows you’re trying not to cry. He still has his hand cupping your cheek.

“I know Y/N, I want you to know how sorry I am about that. We’re both busy but it’s not okay that I but you on the back burner just because I know you understand. It just work has gotten extra busy it feels like lately and then I’m exhausted, I know that’s not a good excuse but it was never my intention to make you feel not important or like I don’t care about what you have going on.” The tears finally slip from your eyes. His fingers brushing them away as they fall.

He pulls you closer and into his chest to hold you. It breaks his heart seeing you like this and knowing it was because of him.

“I get it O; I miss you so much and sometimes it gets super hard. All I wanted to do was tell you about what was happening in my scenes this week, especially because I was so nervous to do it.”

“I miss you too and completely understand that. You know how much I love to hear about what you’ve got going on in your scenes, especially this week’s scene I would have liked to know that one.” He tells you with a small laugh as his hands rub your back. You lean back a little and leave a small slap on his chest, a small chuckle leaving you as well.

“Trust me I would have liked you knowing what was going on too. I would have liked that a lot more than you finding out over the internet.” You tell him.

“It did get you here though, so maybe it wasn’t so bad.” You offer him with a laugh, him reciprocating.

“Oh whatever Y/L/N.” He says before leaning in to give you a kiss. Your lips meeting his, you melt into the kiss. Oh how you’ve missed your boyfriend and the feeling of his lips on yours.

You smile as the two of you break apart.

“We good now?” He asks you.

“Yes, we’re good now.” You tell him with a smile.

“Also I promise no more ignoring and I will put more effort in. I wanna know what you’ve got going on, that way I can pretend I’m here with you and the distance doesn’t seem so bad.”

You lean into his chest at his words, his arms wrapping around you and squeezes your hips.

“As long as we’re both in this together O, it’ll all be just fine.”

His lips meet yours for another sweet kiss. You lay happily in each other’s arms for the next few hours until you had to go to set. You leave for set Owen in tow, hand in yours, as you update him on everything you’ve got going on and answering all his questions. Both of you happier than ever.

[bookofmirth]

Hola! What is your take on Feyre's POV? I'm seeing a lot of people talk about Elain being the common denominator in both bonus chapters but I simply don't see why that would mean her book is next. Yes, she was mentioned in both but I honestly took Feyre's POV as just fluff for the Feysands out there since this was the first book that was not in her POV. I apologize in advance if you already answered this.

I haven’t actually talked about this at all! Thanks for this ask! I put it off for a few days because I wanted to reread it and think about it.

First off, that was my initial response too, that their tidbit was self-indulgent fluff. Sjm still loves feysand, lots of readers do, she’s probably like “I don’t want to let them go!!! I need to write them being happy in first-person POV one last time!!!!”

So for context, this happens right after chapter 21, after everyone is trying to figure out how to find the Dread Trove, Elain offers to help, Nesta and Az do their angry bit, Elain goes off on Nesta and Feyre, and then Feyre says that she is pregnant and so they all decide that Nesta will try.

In the short, they start by talking about Elain because that’s literally the most recent thing that they have to talk about. It’s later that day. There is discussion of her behavior, Feyre thinks about her being “a pleasant companion”, and they basically say “well, she’s nice I guess.”

Rhys says:

“With time and safety, perhaps we'll see a different side of her emerge.”

My emphasis on the word time. I don’t think I need to interpret this much - Rhys says that it will take time. She’s had two years, but she’s also done a whole lot of nothing with that time. She’s nearly immortal. There’s no reason that she has to show that other side right now in the next book with the same urgency they had with Nesta and her faux intervention. The way Nesta’s mental health was portrayed was much more urgent and dire than Elain’s has been. It was clear that it needed to be dealt with ASAP, but with Elain they’re just like “give it time”. Which is also what Mor said (I believe in acowar?)

The fact that Elain is mentioned in this short doesn’t say anything to me in terms of her being next. It makes sense for her to be mentioned because of when this scene takes place in the story. We do get a tad bit of insight, not necessarily into her but how she continues to be viewed by the people around her. 

And that’s a big sign to me that she’s not next. We know she’s coming but we have no idea what she wants, what is motivating her, what moves she’s planning, how exactly she would be tied to a plot other than a vague “well Koschei maybe? Lucien knows Vassa and she’s had visions of Vassa?” But how would she tie in, exactly? Why would she willingly fuck off to the Continent and help someone she’s never seen? If one of the extras had been about her and her nightmares, or her and her powers, or maybe if she is connected to the Dread Trove, or SOMETHING. But she’s got the attention at the beginning of both these stories and IT’S KINDA HORRIBLE to realize, but Azriel, Feyre, and Rhysand kinda drift off and think about other people by the end of their stories. They don’t really see her and so it’s easy for them all the move on.

(This is still my thinking for Az being next, though I could obviously be wrong! I can answer those questions for Az. I know what is driving him, what plot he would be tied to and how, and what he wants. I can’t say the same for Elain.)

Then re: the gloves,

“And torn up by thorns," I mused, recalling a morning this past summer when Elain had come into the house, her right palm bleeding from several gashes thanks to a stubborn rosebush that had pierced her gloves. The thorns had broken off in her skin, leaving sharp splinters that I’d had to pull free.

I didn’t dare mention that if she had been wearing the enchanted gloves Lucien had gotten her last Solstice, nothing would have pierced them at all.

Elain knows what she’s doing. She’s an experienced gardener, she’s High Fae and magic-y, so the way I read this is that she intentionally let herself get hurt. Not even to spite Lucien - she’s worked with plants well before she ever received those gloves. Her connection to Lucien and the gloves are not the only thing in the world that could have protected her. I suspect that her nightmares are getting to her and she was angry and careless? That’s total speculation, but it seems odd that someone whose personality to this point has largely been “gardening” would get so injured while doing the thing she spends all her free time on. 

I wonder... okay this is a total side headcanon, but what if she realized that she would have to try really, really hard to actually get hurt as a High Fae? What if she was angry about her body not doing the same things it used to do when she was human? Feyre said that it was the previous summer, so maybe 1-1.5 years after being turned? Imagine her being angry at the thorns for failing to sting the way they used to.

I’ve seen this highlighted for no good reason:

“I'd never do such a thing. You must be thinking of your other mate."

“Yes, the cruel, overprotective, half-insane one." I smiled as he kissed my jaw, then my neck. My toes curled.

“Cruel?” Rhys purred the word against my skin. “You wound me."

So I just want to point out that this is a joke that couples make all the time IRL? “Oh, I must have told my other boyfriend about that.” “Oh, did you buy that jewelry for your other girlfriend?” I’ve even heard people do that with friends or siblings. It’s not that deep. I’ve done it myself, I’ve heard other people in relationships do it. Not to mention the fact that Rhys is the “other mate” she’s talking about because it’s a joke, and he knows that when she says her other mate is cruel. Moving on.

Okay so actually now that I’m rereading this, there is something interesting about this short, which is that Feyre suspects that something is bothering Rhys. We find out later (chronologically in the story) about the problems with the birth, and so maybe sjm was trying to say “Rhys isn’t being a total asshole and Feyre isn’t a total dumbass”?

Feyre thinks this:

It had always been part of our friendship: to give each other the space to decide when we were ready to talk.

Which I guess is her way of explaining why Feyre 1) knew something was off but 2) didn’t press. 

Also it’s probably just a nice scene where we can see them coming up with the name for the baby! It could have been done before the birth, but Nesta and Feyre were not yet close enough for them to have had a conversation like that.

Basically, I think that people are trying to center Elain in these shorts even though I don’t see her as being the focus, especially since she is only discussed for a quarter of the feysand one, she’s in a third of the Az one, and both shorts end without a thought or mention of her. The focus is feysand being pregnant, Feyre recognizing that something was wrong, and then them naming Nyx. The focus was Azriel’s emotional state and volatility. I KNOW we will get an Elain book. I just don’t see how it would be now when we’ve gotten nearly ever POV except hers, and we could have gotten it but didn’t. Could I be wrong? Yep! this is just how I’ve read it!

[agayobsessedwithmurder]

Small town boy

runaway!mike au

inspired by @lilithisamess

The wheelers household, 1987

"Mom! it's Wills birthday! i have to go, dustin and lucas are busy this weekend and he can't be alone!" Mike yelled, standing up from his kitchen table.

"maybe you should have thought about that before joining that demonic cult." Ted argued.

Cult? are you serious dad?

"Mike, I know your bestfriend's and girlfriend's moving away really upset you but you can't keep acting out and expecting no punishment in return. Nancy's boyfriend moved away but shes still attending college, and not failing every class and skipping school." Karen scolded him.

Of course, bring up how nancy is better than me in every fucking way.

"You cannot talk about no punishment in return mom! i know what you did, or more like who you were doing!" Mike yelled catching everyone by surprise, but Ted was oblivious so just took a bite of the rotisserie chicken.

"Michael Wheeler! go to your room. NOW!" Karen screamed and made him flinch a little.

He started walking towards his room but hesitated to hear what they had to say.

"You should just tell him he shouldn't be seeing that boy, i never thought we would get rid of him. I tell ya he was changing mike, making him go through that phase." Ted said, not knowing mike was in hearing distance.

Thunder struck the outside of the house, just as Mike ran up his stairs. Once he got into his room he slammed the door shut and sat on his new queen sized bed in replace of his bunk bed he had whenever will would stay over.

Mike grabbed the binder of Wills drawings and opened up to a random one. He started flipping through the pages, tears falling down from his pale skin onto the artwork.

Shouldn't i be missing El alot more than Will? Shouldn't I still be mad at him for calling El st- no. i can't be mad at him. He's too precious, plus he was being ignored and it was the heat of the momment so i guess he had a reason to lash out.

I can't believe i can't see him on his birthday. hes going to be fifteen! Nancy can see Jonathan whenever she wants, it's not fair.

wait? Nancy seeing jonathan isn't like me seeing will right? because they are dating, me and will are just friends. yeah, friends. i need to stop overthinking my own thoughts.

I need to see him, but mom won't change her mind. Nancy wont drive me there.

wait. that bus stop! it goes to California!

Mike smiled, not bothering to wipe the tears that were stained on his cheeks and ran to his dresser. Mike grabbed a sweater that was always Wills favorite and grabbed some socks and converse shoes.

He put the socks and shoes on and grabbed his bookbag and put the binder in there, and a walkie talkie, and a red and orange colored wrapped present along with a picture on his nightstand.

a picture in two pieces held together by a piece of see through tape. a picture of the party on the Halloween mike told will they would go crazy together.

without really thinking he put the backpack on and opened up his window and felt the rain and cold air hit his face.

He held on tight to his window sill and moved his legs to the point were hes dangling from his window.

Mike jumped down onto the smaller roof and closed his window from there. Then he sat down, ignoring the rain pouring onto his body, and then jumped down onto the sidewalk.

He kind of was surprised it was that easy. He then walked to the garage and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. "Shit." He cursed but decided he didn't need his bike, he could walk.

He started running down the street until he got to a certain distance. He pulled out the walkie talkie and set it to a certain channel.

"Lucas, dustin? do you copy?"

static.

"Lucas and Dustin do you fucking copy?" Mike screamed as he kept walking.

"Oh my god what is it! im hanging out with max." Lucas said through the walkie talkie.

"Okay, I'm going to be gone for a little bit, tell dustin, and max i guess that im safe. make sure my parents know too, but do NOT tell the cops I'm calling you. I just need to see someone, but i promise im safe so don't let my family freak out too much, or atleast nancy. Okay thank you, bye!" Mike carefully explained and turned off the walkie talkie and put it back in his backpack.

And with that, mike started walking.

Mike finally reached the bus stop just as the bus was getting there.

literal, great timing.

The bus' doors opened and he walked in, the rain dripping onto the bus steps. He said nothing but continue walking and sat down in a seat across from this old, sweet looking woman.

Mike looked down at the bookbag he took off and put in his lap.

I wonder how Will is going to react when im there. Do you think he's going to hate me? who am i even talking to? oh god i hope he doesn't think im fucking crazy. i just, i haven't missed one of his birthdays yet. im not going to let that happen, ever. I know friends grow apart but, but Wills diffrent. Me and him, we are different. On August 27th we will have been friends for ten years. I can't, i can't lose him. I wonder if he was kidding when he said he would run away with me to California, or a warm state. We did promise to do that, anyway. But we promised alot of things. Like that we would never have girlfriends. But I can't talk, i do have a girlfriend. speaking of el, I haven't heard from her in weeks. I should probably talk to her.

His thoughts got cut off by that sweet old woman. She was wearing a green cardigan with mushrooms on the bottom and a long brown skirt and a heart necklace with a rose on it. She had white long hair captured in a low bun and a leather bag that was open that showed a knitted blanket and a book. The bag had a few buttons on it and a knitted heart on it. She had wrinkly skin with light freckles on her face, she wasn't the societys definition of beautiful but she definitely was beautiful to mike.

"Hello pumpkin, may i sit down?" She asked. Of course, he said yes and she took a seat next to him. "So where are you heading?" She asked him.

Mike recalled almost all of the memories he had with Will.

"Home." He smiled. He noticed that was extremely weird without context. "Oh uh, I'm going to see a friend." Mike said. "It's his birthday, or it's going to be in a day anyways." Mike smiled.

"Oh hunny, that's adorable. Tell me about him, and how you got all the way here." She asked, obviously worried about this cold, distressed, underage, alone boy.

Shouldn't I not be speaking to strangers?

"I-im sorry i don't even know you." He said in the nicest way possible so he wouldn't get killed.

"Oh, no. I'm not trying to attack you, or anything darling. I'm just worried, you seem young and there's bad people out there. I don't want you getting hurt." She said, and anyone listening would have known she was sincere.

"oh. well his name is Will, we have been best friends since kindergarten, and I was a total jerk to him this past summer. and I need to make it up to him, I care about him so so much and I can't have him being alone on his birthday. he deserves better than that. I got into a fight with my parents and they talked bad about him and wouldn't let me see him on his birthday, so I walked about one and a half miles to here, just so I can get on this bus. I can't leave him, he's my cleric, after all." Mike spilled out his heart.

"wow, you seem to really miss him." She chuckled. Mike takes some seconds to answer, but then does. "Yeah, i really do."

"just from what I know, be honest with him. you really care about this boy, and I know you said you were a jerk but, just talk to him. I'm sure he cares about you too. and your girlfriend will understand, she cares about you, and your happiness but you can't keep lying about and to her. You know she hates that, and Will, will love his present." She smiled.

"I will, thank you...and how do you know all this, you're really good at advice." He asked.

She laughed and pulled up her sleeve to see her arm that had a tattoo on it. '003'

"holy crap." Mike whispered.

"or because I'm going to visit my wife for fifty years." She chuckled.

Mike was stunned, shocked at the fact people could be married for fifty years.

I think i understand how they could have been together for fifty years, if you truly love someone, you wouldn't hate being in their presence. maybe that's why.... maybe that's why my parents aren't that close anymore. or why it's so awkward when I call El.

And if mike wasn't too busy thinking, he would notice the sign they just passed, he was leaving hawkins.

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Mermay - Dilliam - An Introduction

Happy Mermay!

William discovers that Mark’s girlfriend is hiding a secret known as ‘Damien’. He’d never guess the truth.

Word Count: 2,807 (I got a little carried away, and this wasn’t even what I intended to write!)

-

Even if William had known Mark and Celine for two years, he always felt like he was on the outside of the group.

(Aside from feeling like the third wheel as Mark and Celine had been in a steady relationship since Mark first introduced his childhood friend to his girlfriend)

Mark, Celine, and her family seemed to have a secret. Whenever they would chat, there would be mention of "Damien" in passing. But when William tried to ask for context, he was never given it. Mark and Celine would conveniently slide the topic elsewhere to avoid answering the question, while he was in no position to ask her parents. All William could gather was that Damien travelled but occasionally returned to the family home. Was he a businessman, forever on the roam? Was he a soldier like William? Was he family or a friend? After several years of being left in the dark, he had accepted that he'd never learn the truth.

In January, he had been sent overseas with the military as part of a peacekeeping mission. Even if there were opportunities for video calls, the three decided to write letters to give William something to do while on duty and to make the time go by a little faster. The young Colonel realised something interesting - by Celine's fourth letter, she had mentioned Damien. He guessed that the vagabond must have returned while the soldier was overseas. He noted in his next letter that he was surprised Celine willingly mentioned this mysterious figure (William? Bitter? Of course not!). As though adding to the mystery, the letter he received in reply was a curious one:

"I'm sorry I couldn't explain it before. Damien is my brother, but he's very shy. He doesn't like others knowing about him without being told first. I have told him about you and he's rather interested in what you're doing."

William was FLOORED. He'd known Celine for two FULL years and there had never been mention of a sibling?? He didn't remember a family photo with unfamiliar faces. Deciding it was a better argument to have when he was home, he instead crammed two letters into the one envelope - one for Celine, one for Damien. If the brother was secretive, it might be best to prove that William was a trustworthy friend. Friendly, short letters would be a good way to start.

--

For the next two months, the letters became a great distraction from his duties. Mark was asking William for advice on how to propose. Celine was updating William on the house she and Mark had bought, including sending photos of the ocean just at their doorstep. Damien, while proving that he was a secretive individual, wrote short letters about himself. The mysterious brother kept to himself, and it got William wondering about how shy Damien was. It was endearing, in a way. William accepted that he was wrong to take the news so harshly at first. Celine was merely doing right by her brother. 

It wasn't long after William sent his letters in response that his squad was ambushed. The attackers were defeated, but not without William having his leg broken in the process, among other things. He was sent to a local hospital before it was decided that getting him home would be more beneficial. Any letters that arrived at the base for William were instead returned to sender, as the soldier was being transferred too frequently while being treated to determine where he would be at a given moment.

-

It was June by the time William arrived home. Not even a medical boot and a crutch could dampen his spirits. Mark's hug of relief nearly knocked them both down, but Celine joining the hug successfully toppled them over William's rucksack as they erupted into laughs. The couple gave William the grand tour of their new home. It was as charming and elegant as Mark would like, while secluded from frequent public activity as Celine desired. Not only that, the house was near a cliff edge, which allowed a beautiful view of the ocean. William took in this view as he sat in the living room with a glass of water.

"Will?" Celine's voice stirred him from his daze. "I know you've done a lot of walking to get here and you're likely tired but… Would you like to meet Damien today?"

"Would I like to what?" William repeated blankly, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Your idea of sending him letters worked a treat. He asked me every day if there was a new letter for him. He's very curious about you."

"From what you told me, I thought he would have been gone by now." William's observation had Celine shaking her head.

"He waited to see you. I think learning about your injuries worried him." Celine's gaze lifted briefly to the water before she added, "He'll understand if he needs to wait until tomorrow -"

"No, no. I'll admit I've been curious to meet him as well. All this time you've had a brother and no one could tell me. What time will he arrive?"

"Actually, he's already here. Come on. I'll show you. There's one more part of the house you haven't seen."

-

William was fully expecting there to be a secret basement. Instead, he was led out to the back garden. It was small and neat, complete with a small wall to give some semblance of shelter. It looked like it belonged to a farmland cottage, especially given the gate at the bottom. Celine unlocked it and went first. William could see a path that led down to the ocean. The steps were man-made and weren't too steep. It would be a slow walk down but he could manage it in the medical boot.

"Damien is my twin brother," Celine began as she guided William down the steps, "and nearly everyone who knows my family doesn't know he exists. You and Mark are the only one of my friends who know and, well, you'll understand soon."

At the bottom of the steps was a seating area protected by some large rocks that created a safe area to swim in without worry of sudden tides whisking you out to sea. William hobbled over to one of the large rocks so he could sit down, gather his energy and curse the boot. Celine followed, climbing onto a neighbouring large rock.

"Damien? Are you here? I have my friend William, the Colonel!"

Ripples began to spread through the still water. William watched with wide-eyed curiosity when he caught movement below the surface. He had been watching the water while coming down the stairs, and there weren't any items or clothing strewn about. Before he could ask Celine, a head popped out of the water in front of him.

It was a man, or what looked like one. His smooth skin was as white as porcelain and shimmered in the sunlight. There were tiny bubble-like markings that William swore looked like scales. His hair was as dark as Celine's, but with a blue tint with the right light. It appeared to hold its shape by being stylised into smaller 'chunks' to form larger strands of hair. The ears were finned and had a pale blue along the edges. His face, despite not looking fully human, reminded William of both Celine and her father. The eyes were a different shape to the rest of the family - presumably more rounded and large to help with hunting - but the 'nose' and mouth were a perfect match. Even the eye colour was the same as Celine's.

"Damien, I take it?" William thought it absurd, but his hunch to ask immediately proved to be a good thing. The head ducked back under the water. Celine gave a knowing smirk and stepped back. In a flash, a large blur pounced for the rocks and climbed up with surprising agility, revealing what was actually a merman in full display. From head to tail, the skin kept that white tone, unlike what William would have seen in movies. There were fin-like protrusions emerging from his collar bones and his upper arms, which went from that pale blue on the edges to a dark purple at the base, almost like a sunset. This coloration was also on the frills that went down his stomach and on either side of his tail, before all three trailed off at differing points to allow the splendour of the large tail tip. William did remember Celine having posters of betta fish in her room when they met, was this why?

"The Colonel, yes? Oh, it's such a pleasure to meet you! Celine has told me so much about you! I'm so sorry I wasn't able to meet you sooner." Damien had snatched up William's left hand with both his webbed ones and shook eagerly, until he caught himself and quickly pulled back. "I'm so sorry. It's not often I get to meet new people." As quickly as he had sprung forward, Damien pulled back as his sister sat down beside him, ears flattened in embarrassment. The twins had such a likeness once the obvious differences were put aside.

"Don't apologise. I've been looking forward to meeting you too. I can't believe no one told me before I left. I'm offended!" William put a hand on his chest and dramatically sighed, only to erupt into cackles when Celine reached over and slapped his arm.

-

The three sat on the rocks for the afternoon. Celine and Damien took the time to explain to William about their genetics. Their father's grandfather was a merman who had decided to leave the life of the water behind and marry their great-grandmother. The merfolk genes became a passive trait. Their descendants had natural aquatic talents but all were completely human. Their mother, however, had magic in her bloodline, and this strengthened the recessive merfolk gene. When she was expecting twins, one was a regular human pregnancy, while the other was cocooned in water. In that regard, Damien was a miracle that he survived and had a healthy childhood...

"- but it meant no one outside a small circle knew I existed," Damien sighed. "Celine was able to go to school, make friends, while I was taught by our grandparents, as well as Celine who showed me what she learned in school. Because I'm not human-passing like movies show, I couldn't use a wheelchair and a blanket like I wanted." Not only that, there wasn't a large community of mythical creatures that they knew of. "But don't take this to be me lamenting my fate. I've had a wonderful life and have made connections with many merfolk communities around the world who welcomed me in while I am studying."

"Studying?" William looked confused, but Celine took the moment to wrap her arm around Damien's shoulder.

"You are looking at one of the top merfolk experts on culture and tradition, as well as a general fish expert. Speaking of," she patted Damien on the shoulder as she rose to her feet, "I should go back up and help Mark. We're having dinner down here." With that, she hopped off the rocks and began the ascent back up the house. Damien and William watched her go, before the soldier turned back around.

"So, an expert, eh? I happen to be rather unintelligent compared to your sister and Mark, so I'm afraid you'll have to tell me everything." He rested his elbow on his good leg, and propped his chin on his hand as he grinned at the merman. Damien's eyes darted aside and his ears flattened in embarrassment.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself an 'expert'," Damien admitted quietly, "but actually… I'd rather hear about you. I really enjoyed receiving your letters while you were away. Is that why you wear those clothes?" 

"Oh these?" Whoops. William had forgotten to change when he arrived. He barely had a moment to drop his bags to the guest room. "This is my military uniform. It's commonplace to wear it when you're on duty, even if you're simply being sent home. It's not the normal battle uniform, not anymore. That's just regular camouflage. This is an everyday uniform that shows off any badges you have earned and -" William stopped as he felt his hat being plucked off his head. He hadn't noticed Damien crawl over until it was too late. Instead of snatching it back, he ruffled his hair so that it lost the 'hat hair' look.

"How can you wear this? I've never seen anything like it!" Damien, after a brief examination, decided to try it on. The strange shape of the hat meant that it kept falling forward on him, no matter what he did to try and keep it in place. Instead of helping, William simply laughed at the merman's misfortune.

-

When William eventually agreed to help Damien wear the hat in a way that wouldn't fall off, he began to share stories of his early days in the army. Damien was enthralled, asking questions in a bid to learn more. It was no wonder that both were startled by the arrival of Mark and Celine with lanterns and all the necessities for a feast by the sea. Damien returned to the water while the humans set up, only to resurface when they were ready. His skin needed to be rehydrated for what he knew would be a long evening ahead.

Food, drink and merriment were had that night. Damien had hoisted himself onto the bench so he could fully join in. William honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a good night in the company of his dear friends. Perhaps not having to worry about a secret made it a lot easier to converse. For the first time in a long time, William didn't feel like an outsider amongst his own friends; but he didn't dwell on it much. Instead, he gave witty commentary during Mark's dramatic retelling of events the pair went through as youths.

At some point, Celine had fetched blankets from a sturdy, weathered box hidden amongst the box and wrapped one around herself and Damien. The twins nestled together as time passed, and Damien was content to enjoy being in the company of Celine and all her closest friends at last. 

The low flickering of the lanterns was the cue for the humans to return indoors. With William staying for a few days, Damien was content to let them go without feeling too sorry for himself. There would be plenty of time to chat. He sat on the rocks as he watched Mark help William back up the steps. Even from a distance, he could hear William barking something about how "this means nothing and I'm still stronger than you" and "I swear to God I'll push you down the stairs if you keep laughing at me Mark". 

"He's a good man, that Colonel." Damien jumped when Celine spoke. When did she move to sit beside him?! "When Mark introduced me, I was worried that his loud voice and brashness meant bad things, but he's been such a good, loyal friend over the last few years. I hope that he wasn't too 'much' for you today."

"N-no, no. I… he's exactly like you said he'd be." His eyes were on the two men as they disappeared out of view. "He's not angry that he didn't know about me, is he?"

"Nah." Celine leaned back, enjoying the light sea breeze. "He knew we were hiding something. I think he's happy to know he can be trusted. And he'll be stuck here for at least a day or two while Mark and I are working thanks to that broken foot. I'd bet he'll make it his mission to come down here alone just to show he can."

"I'd like that. He has a lot of stories to tell… Would it be weird if I ask him to keep talking?"

"Not as weird as it is that you've caught some sort of feelings for him. Did you get bitten by a love-bug, brother dearest?"

"Shut up, darling sister," Damien quickly nudged her, only to receive a counter-shove in response. "Just… don't tell him, alright? I know better than to interrupt a human marriage like that." He'd content himself with the company of the man who had captured his attention from the first letter. Celine slid off the rock and stretched. She glanced over her shoulder with a knowing smirk, gesturing to her left hand, which Damien knew was the hand with her engagement ring.

"His ring is on the other hand, Damien. It's a birthday present from his father. Goodnight, brother~" And off she went, gleefully ignoring her brother's confused questions.

"What do you mean he doesn't have a partner??"

[cherryhanji]

softdrinks and letters

drabble. changbin x fem!reader

genre: fluff, high school au, friends to lovers au, cutie neighborhood store owner's son! changbin

words: 1.5k

warning(s): none really

alexa's note:

i never experienced having a neighborhood store with a cute and handsome son ever *cries in filo anyway i hope u enjoy this. (the original member isn't changbin but i decided to change it bcs why not?)

•••

You clank the coin on the metal railings of the store to grab someone's attention inside. You just got home from school and wanted to have some cold refreshing drink (because your refrigerator broke last night so there aren't any cold beverage you can enjoy)

"Oh sorry! What is it?" You smiled as you heard the groggy, yet familiar voice of a guy who went inside the store, rubbing his sleepy eyes off. He smiled as soon as he saw you from the outside, fixing his shirt as if there are any crinkles from the short nap that he took.

"H-hey Y/N!" His voice wavered a little bit making you chuckle.

"Did I disturb you from your beauty nap?" You joked while he shook his head vigorously in response.

"No! It's totally alright. I was playing on my phone I didn't realized I feel asleep and I thought Mom was here. But I heard someone clanking their coins and saw that Mom isn't here so..." He grinned and shrugged his shoulders bashfully.

"Okay then! But can I have a bottle of coke please? I'm hella thirsty, our fridge is not yet fixed" You shyly said and made him jolt to the store's fridge to grab one, handing the cold bottle to you. You muttered thanks and hand your payment to him but he simply refuse it, again.

"It's okay. It's on me." Changbin said making you frown. He's always been like this ever since the two of you got close to each other. Always telling that he'll be the one to pay it. You try your very best to pay everytime you buy from their store, silently wishing that the one who'll assist you is his mother but it seems he has a strong radar and immediately knew you were the one buying. You feel sorry for his mother when she doesn't have any idea that his son is giving you free drinks from her store.

"Changbin. I feel like I need to pay my debts now. What if Mrs. Seo finds out?" You said as you were not yet opening the bottle, contemplating on giving it back to him.

"You don't have to pay. Mom really don't notice it. I told you, it's on me." Changbin said before going out of the store and outside their house to sit down on the bench in front of their store. The frown never left your face as you sit down on the bench, while the guy did it after.

"Why aren't you drinking your coke yet? I thought your thirsty?" Changbin grabbed the bottle and opened it for you, making you jump. He hands it to you back, smiling at you. You clicked your tongue and decided to chug the liquid down your throat, hissing at the cold feeling of the beverage.

"Why are you still on your uniform? It's already five and class ends at one." He said as he observe you on your uniform still on your body.

"I know, I just went to Yeji' house because we need to revise the last chapter, Ms. Jung is already fuming. How about yours?" You asked while fiddling your uniform's untied ribbon.

"We went to Jisung yesterday. So we're able to pass the paper to our research adviser." You nodded and gasped when your hands went inside your pocket to put the money back, feeling a folded paper inside, only grinning bashfully when you realized that the paper was one of the letters you're receiving these past few days. The sender was anonymous, even the penmanship was utterly unfamiliar to you. The paper on your pocket was the one you received today. You grabbed the paper to show it to Changbin, not knowing that he silently gasp. A pang of nervousness crept inside him. He remembered asking Hyunjin a favor for the umpteenth time a while ago to put the paper on your table and how the other boy always refuse his favor but did it anyways.

"Why don't you just confess to her in person, so you don't have to write letters and bother me?"

He considered Hyunjin's suggestion, but he doesn't know how and when. He bit the inside of his cheeks, cringing about what he wrote on the paper, thinking of a lyrics from a song to express what he feel.

"Even a fool knows this

You're the best thing I've got

Once again towards you

One more step, I will never stop

I shouldn't turn away..."

"This is nuts, I'm still wondering who's giving these letters with song lyrics in it. Actually, this is the tenth letter this month and I'm gonna add this to the ones I received back then" You said as you fiddled with the paper. Changbin's face brighten, his heart skipping a beat when he knew that you're keeping those letters that he made.

"I felt cringy at first. I don't know, maybe because the person used lyrics to tell their feelings for me. I'm not used to receiving love letters. Well, if that's what you call this one. But I really appreciate the effort and honestly speaking, I'm anticipating for more." you giggled and continue.

"The lyrics are from my favorite song actually... Look" You said and showed to him the paper which he gladly read. A quivering smile on his face.

"R-really? You appreciate the effort?" You nodded and folded the paper, putting it back in your pocket.

"Of course! You know what, I love receiving, and writing letters. I can see people's effort in it. I can feel how they pour all of their emotions in it." You really love receiving letters. In truth, you have a box full of letters you received from family and friends. You also keep there all the letters you wrote. For Changbin. You want to give him all of it, but you just can't find the courage to do so. You don't even know if he loves reading those cringy letters.

"Wow, I see..." Changbin muttered while his mind is rambling with different thoughts. He's glad that you appreciated it. It's like there's a small thorn that pricked his skin and finally removed it. But the thought of telling you that it was him still makes him edgy.

"Uh... Y/N... Uhm– I" His speech was out of context as nervousness still lingers in him. While the lines on your forehead slowly becoming prominent, trying to understand him

"What is it, Changbin?" You asked and wait for him to pull himself together. You sensed his nervousness and decided to pat his shoulders, encouraging him.

"Come on, is there any pro—"

"I like you." You muttered a "huh" at his unexpected confession. The cliche butterflies took flight in your stomach, the wild beating of your heart against your chest is the only one audible to you.

"I'm sorry..." Are the first words that came out of your mind. The sudden urge to say sorry after telling the person who gave you the letter that it was cringy bubbled up on you. Changbin felt a sudden horror after hearing you mutter the words.

"Oh..." Changbin mumbled, a tone of defeat evident in his voice. Maybe what he did doesn't fit with the timing.

"I'm sorry, because I told you that it was cringy... Turns out you're the one who gave it to me." You said and turned your face away from him, trying to hide the blush creeping on your face. Changbin smiled in relief. But, does that mean you like him too?

"A-ah... Okay." You grinned and faced him again. There's no reason to hide your feelings for him when he, the guy you like already confessed.

"Anyway, I like you, too. And I'm so happy that you gave me this." You said, still feeling a tad shy when a thought suddenly strike in your mind, a mischievous grin on your face.

"You... Is this the reason why you're not letting me pay everytime I buy in your store?" Changbin fidgeted on his seat, catching your tone. Well, you're not wrong. As corny as it sounds, It's his way to tell you that he likes you, he feels like a boyfriend treating his girlfriend.

"Y-yeah?" Changbin smiled sheepishly, scratching his nape. You frowned at him and pinched his forearm making him shriek.

"What was that for?" He pouted while rubbing the part that you pinched.

"Don't you dare do it again, okay? I'm afraid of your mom finding it out and suddenly stormed to our house, asking for my payment." You taunted making his lips puckered more.

"I told you Mom won't kn—" you shut him by giving him a peck on his cheek

"I said no. See you tomorrow Changbin!" You said before storming off, leaving him astounded and a blushing mess. There's only one thing that you know you need to do: Give Changbin all the letters you wrote.

[lockefanfic]

Business Trip: Pt 26 - Temperature

“I’m just saying I bet fucking a girl is easy. I bet you don’t have to do very much to make them cum. I bet you just give them a little touch, a little lick, and suddenly they’re quivering little messes. And that’s before you actually fuck them.”

You are a little taken aback by her sudden insults, even if they were only half in jest.

“I mean, yeah, when you and Momo and I had our little party in Seoul it was fun… but it was also because Momo’s dildo was in my ass while you were in my pussy. I wonder if it had been as good as it was it was just you?”

“On behalf of the girls and myself, I feel a little insulted, detective.”

Jihyo sits up from the pool chair and swings her long, naked legs around until she is fully facing you.

“If you want an apology, you’ll have to fuck it out of me.”

---

“What the hell are you doing here, Nayeon?”

 The girl lets a look of distaste appear on her features as she turns to face you, as if your question annoyed her. You had just caught up with her on the street as she was leaving the bar after the rather tense meeting with Jihyo – the Korean detective, perhaps uncomfortable with the tension between you and Nayeon, had excused herself to head back to the hotel and catch up on some work. 

 Before she left, Jihyo briefed you on the plan she had hatched with Nayeon’s assistance,  whom she had met and befriended at some point in the years since you and Nayeon had broken up. Nayeon was now working in law enforcement as a criminal profiler; a masters’ degree in psychology, it appeared, was a highly sought after qualification for someone working in law enforcement.

 “I’m here to meet with a fellow law enforcement officer who needs my assistance with a case,” Nayeon answers.

 “And that’s it? You must’ve known she’d been assigned to our case. JYP’s case. You knew I still worked there. You should have told me.”

 “Maybe,” she admits, folding her arms in front of her before tapping on her chin with one finger as if pretending to be deep in thought, “...Maybe she did mention at some point that JYP would be involved. But that doesn’t really matter to me. And why would I need to tell you? You and I don't know each other anymore.”

 Her last statement angers you more than you thought it would. The look on her face hurts you more – that look of contempt and disdain, as though you were some insect that had the gall to step in front of her path. She is a little older now, that cute, naïve student tempered somewhat with the experience and grace of a young woman – but there are still traces there, still hints of the girl you knew and loved… which made her tone all the more hurtful, because they were words you never thought you'd hear come out of lips you once treasured.

 “So that’s it? You’re just going to pretend we didn’t happen? You're gonna show up out of the blue one day and pretend we weren’t together?”

 “Far from it. I'm not gonna deny that we have history. I knew you once. I loved you once. I don’t anymore.”

 “Nayeon-“

 “It’s in the past,” she interrupts, the annoyance fleeing from her face and being replaced with what seemed like honest contempt, “we were young and stupid. You had a dream you wanted to chase and so did I. So we went our separate ways. We’re better people now because of it.”

 Silence lingers in the air for a few tense moments. She was the last person you expected to see tonight – you had resigned yourself to never seeing her again given what passed between you two a few years ago, and you'd not talked or even emailed each other since then. To see her again suddenly, out of the blue, was overwhelming - but to have her react the way she did to you only intensified the shock of her reappearance.

 “So that’s it, then,” you state slowly, “we’re going to pretend we’re strangers.”

 “Yes,” Nayeon answers, her tone firm, as though she had no doubt whatsoever that that was what she wanted.

 You take a moment to consider her answer. It was more hurtful to you than you had thought it would be. You nod softly in understanding, although it is almost as much to convince yourself as it was to convince Nayeon.

 “Fine,” you finally say when you gathered the necessary amount of composure, “…fine. When this trip is over and we regroup in Seoul, we’re just strangers again. Nothing more.”

 “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

 “Good,” you snap, although the single syllable hurts you to say. You give her one last look before turning away to flag down a cab, doing your best not to turn around and look at her again – the same way you did many years ago. History repeated itself.

 Unbeknownst to you, history repeated itself for her as well – although this time, she was able to wait until she had returned to her hotel room before she let the tears overwhelm her.

 ---

 “I had no idea you knew her.”

 You don’t have any reason to believe otherwise, and so you take Park Jihyo’s words at face value. How could she have known otherwise, afterall?

 “It looked like you guys had history, though,” she continues, “and I don’t want to pry, unless you feel that filling me in would be beneficial in some way.”

 “She’s an old flame,” you begin, seeing no harm in giving Jihyo some context, “one I never thought I’d see again. It was a bit of a shock seeing her. But I wouldn’t be too concerned… I won’t let our history be an issue,” you finish, although you had to admit you weren’t sure whether you were trying to convince her or you.

 Jihyo gives you a look, her large eyes covered by the large lenses of the sunglasses she was wearing, but you could tell by the bend in her eyebrows that she didn’t completely believe you.

 You had to admit it was a little difficult to keep your eyes focused on her face - as beautiful as the young detective was - when the rest of her was clad in a rather scant white bikini, laid out on a poolside deck chair. You were on your way back from lunch with Momo and Sana when you came across Jihyo catching some rays, and so you grabbed a beer from the nearby pool bar and took a seat on the pool chair next to hers and decided to set the record straight about you and Nayeon.

 “Well if it won’t be an issue… spill the deets. Was she a girlfriend or just a fuckbuddy? You seem to collect those like Pokemon,” Jihyo asks as she turns onto her side, propping her head up with her hand. You had to admit the delicious looking cleavage formed by her new position was more than a little distracting, her large, perfectly formed breasts stacked atop one another.

 “She was… a girlfriend. A long term one.”

 “Ooooooh.” Jihyo says, suddenly curious, “what happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”

 “This job happened,” you answer, “I was offered a position at JYP after graduation. She couldn’t leave her graduate program at school. And so I left town, she stayed, and we broke up.”

 Jihyo frowns a little.

 “I’m sorry to hear that. That must have sucked.”

 “Yeah,” you admit as you take another swig of your beer, “but whatever. It’s in the past now.”

 “And now you have a gorgeous new girlfriend and a new little harem of little girls to fuck at will,” Jihyo says flatly. You detect more than a little derision in her tone, one that catches you off guard.

 “You don’t approve, detective?”

 “I didn’t say that,” Jihyo says quickly, “It’s the fact that they’re all little girls that I find... a little beneath you.”

 You bristle at her implication.

 “What? They’re all in their twenties-”

 “That’s not what I meant,” she answers, turning once more until she is on her back again, “I’m not referring to age. It’s that so far you’ve been fucking girls. And not women.”

 You suddenly catch on to the slight hint of seduction in her voice, and your initial surprise at her forwardness quickly fades away.

 “What are you implying, Jihyo?”

 Jihyo gives you a look, a sly smile appearing on those full lips of hers. She shrugs cutely.

 “I’m just saying I bet fucking a girl is easy. I bet you don’t have to do very much to make them cum. I bet you just give them a little touch, a little lick, and suddenly they’re quivering little messes. And that’s before you actually fuck them.” 

 You are a little taken aback by her sudden insults, even if they were only half in jest.

 “I mean, yeah, when you and Momo and I had our little party in Seoul it was fun… but it was also because Momo’s dildo was in my ass while you were in my pussy. I wonder if it had been as good as it was it was just you?”

 “On behalf of the girls and myself, I feel a little insulted, detective.”

 Jihyo sits up from the pool chair and swings her long, naked legs around until she is fulling facing you.

 “If you want an apology, you’ll have to fuck it out of me.”

 Jihyo leans forward and snatches the beer out of your hand before taking a long swig. Then she stands and grabs you by the wrist before standing and leading you away.

 ---

The temperature, the woman atop your lap - everything about it was hot.

 Even on a surface level she was already more woman than the others, with her perfect curves - her large breasts, those full thighs, and that round, plump butt of hers. It was a body that was earned with many long hours in the gym, toned with muscle but still full and curvy where it counted. You knew for a fact that Momo, Jeongyeon and a few of the others were older than her, but she already seemed more mature, more woman than they did.

 Jihyo had divested herself of her bikini top almost as soon as you entered the sauna, leaving her most delicious assets - those gorgeous, perfect breasts of hers, exposed to your hungry hands, mouth, and tongue.

 Your tongue finally leaves her erect, stiff nipple and you lean back against the sauna wall, taking a moment to savor the sight of her as she writhed atop your lap, your ministrations on her chest building the pleasure steadily within her body. Sweat dripped generously from her in the heat of the sauna, lending her tanned, perfect body a glistening appearance even as it gave her skin a delicious saltiness.

 You reach for the beer that she stole from you from where it laid on the bench next to you, but Jihyo grabs it first, bringing the bottle to her lips - before, with a sly, devilish smile, she tips the bottle over, pouring the light amber liquid all over her chest.

 It might have been the sexiest thing you’d seen all week - and you’d seen plenty of lust and desire over the past few days. You watch, enraptured, as the beer flows over her generous mounds, over her stiff nipples, and finally down onto her firm, flat stomach. This woman was intoxicating - now literally, as much as metaphorically.

 You already knew that she loved it when you went down on her breasts, and you dive right back in, capturing her left mound in your mouth, your tongue enjoying the taste of her sweat and the slight bitterness of the beer - it was so sexy, so utterly succulent, that you found yourself losing a little bit of your control as you feast on her ripe, young body.

 “Oh, fuck… fuck… you like… my tits, don’t you?”

 “Fuck yes,” you manage to get out as you continue to slurp the alcohol from her chest with long, wide licks, “you’re fucking delicious, Jihyo.”

 “Mmmm… I love when you suck them… I love it more when you fuck them.”

 Jihyo quickly hops off your lap and drops to her knees before you. You knew what was coming, had experienced it before - but as she almost rips your shorts off your body and presses her large orbs around your stiff shaft, you knew nothing could prepare you for the pleasure that was about to come.

 Nothing could compare to it - none of the girls you’d been with recently was as well endowed, and so none could even try to compare - and it was altogether different than their other orifices. It felt so warm, so hot. So perfect.

 Jihyo lets a soft moan out of her lips as she wraps your shaft with your breasts, the action evidently pleasuring her just as much as it did you. Your gaze is locked to her large eyes, glazed with pleasure, as she presses her breasts together with her hands, finally trapping you with her chest, before she slowly begins to move the mounds of flesh up and down around your cock.

 When she last gave you a titfuck in Seoul her breasts had only saliva, hers and yours, to lubricate your shaft - but now, with the ample sweat on her skin from the hot sauna, and the beer she had poured on herself moments before, her breasts felt better than ever. 

 “Oh, fuck,” you groan, trying to find some sort of release from the pleasure quickly spiking up from your crotch as Jihyo takes you in and out of her cleavage. You watch as Jihyo’s hands, which were pressing her breasts together, move towards the front of her chest, allowing her to pinch her own nipples with her thumbs and index fingers.

 “Oh, fuck,” she echoes as you continue to fuck her breasts, “fuck, that feels so good.”

 You watch as Jihyo continues her work, watch those large, perfect eyes on that innocent face, so twisted now with lust and need - a juxtaposition added to by the fact that just below that innocent face, she was wrapping her breasts around your cock, the tip and head of it poking out between the large mounds with each thrust into her delicious, wet, hot cleavage.

 You knew you wouldn’t have lasted long, and you knew you owed her from the last time you fucked her breasts in Seoul, when you got off but she didn’t - and so you stop her, slowly lifting her hands from her breasts, relishing one more time in the sight of your hard shaft between her mounds before slipping from the bench and falling to your knees. Jihyo takes the hint and rises from her knees and swapping positions, spreading her legs wantonly as she sits down on your former position.

 She looked like an absolute feast sitting there, her sweaty, wet body making her glisten from head to toe - sweat and beer, but by her crotch, a third liquid - her slick, wet juices.

 You peel her drenched bikini bottom from her hips and, without wasting another moment, devour her. 

 Your mouth on her crotch drives Jihyo crazy, if the loud gasp that leaves her throat is any indication. Just as she didn’t waste any time with you, you don’t with her - quickly you are giving her long, slow licks from bottom to top with the flat of your tongue, before finally settling on her exposed clit and swirling the tip of it around the hard little bud, enjoying the bittersweet taste of her juices in your mouth as you feast on her. Her warm, sticky thighs wrap themselves around your face, and you are happy to bury yourself between them, happy to devour the delicious, mouthwatering flesh of her body.

 “Oh...oh, fuck! You eat me so good,” Jihyo gasps, her voice given new tone by the pleasure coursing through her body. You wonder, absentmindedly, if she were a good singer, and whether she could reach an even higher note.

 You raise your right hand to her opening and slip your middle and index fingers inside her, her wet, slick flesh parting easily for your questing digits as they curl upward, quickly finding and scratching that wonderful patch of flesh at the front of her pussy.

 The sound that leaves Jihyo’s lips tells you that yes - she was capable of an even higher note.

 You smile, devilishly - even as you continue to devour her, your lips locked around her swollen bud as your tongue teases it a little rougher, and your fingers continue to scratch her g-spot with your fingertips, swirling in random circles against her most sensitive areas.

 Soon Jihyo orgasms - one that built quickly and takes her completely by surprise. Her body twitches, quivers and writhes on the bench as the pleasure completely overwhelms her, and you can just barely hold on to her wildly shaking thighs, struggling to keep your mouth locked onto her crotch as she squirms.

 “Oh my… oh my god,” she says, her orgasm still coursing through her veins, “Oh… oh god.”

 You smile devilishly to yourself, finally raising your mouth from her crotch and watching as her lust-addled body recovers, her perfect body still quivering. With the back of your hand you wipe some of her juices from your mouth, before licking it off, savoring the taste of her on your tongue.

 “Fuck me now,” she says with half-lidded eyes, “Show me how you really fuck.”

 Still kneeling, you bring your aching, rock hard shaft to her splayed, wet pussy - and you enter her with one firm, strong stroke, burying yourself inside the tight flesh of her body.

 Jihyo lets a long, drawn-out moan out as she is filled with your cock, her moan soon turning into a long string of pleasurable sounds as you begin to fuck her, her thighs open and spread as you begin to fuck her quicker and with stronger thrusts - not roughly, not fucking like an animal like you did with Seolhyun or Tzuyu - but firmly, making sure she felt each entry and exit in and out of her tight, young body.

 You delight in the sight of it - of those perfect curves of her, those large round breasts and her full, flush thighs as they bounce and quiver with each thrust. Her large eyes are still half-lidded with pleasure, still locked on yours, still warped and corrupted with lust. You loved every moment of it, savored each sensation sparking between your hot, wet bodies.

 “Oh!” she moans, “Oh fuck, you fuck me so good. Yes! More!”

 You quicken your pace, truly hammering and pounding her now - but not wildly, still ensuring each thrust is firm and strong, enjoying the sight of her being rocked with each entry into her body. For a few long minutes you fuck her like that, but her rising gasps and moans, and her demands for more, drove you to action.

 “You want more… don’t you?”

 “Yes! More… Fuck me more… I want more!”

 You give her one last, firm thrust, burying yourself as deep inside her as you could, bending forward until you are almost face to face. Jihyo reaches up with her hands and captures your face in her palms, kissing you passionately, her tongue quickly pressing itself against yours.

 “If you want more,” you hiss as you tear your lips from hers, “then you’ll get it.”

 Your gaze drifts down, past her wet, sweaty body, to where your shaft is impaled inside her. You pull it slowly out, both of you watching intently as your slick cock leaves her body. You straighten your back, and, shifting slightly to ensure you were lined up, press the head of your cock against her asshole.

 Jihyo gasps softly in surprise as the head of your cock touches her other opening - but the look quickly gives way to the lust that was overriding her senses. You watch, intently, as she bites her lip, and gives you the slightest nod.

 It is all the invitation you need, and with firm, steady pressure, you push forward, and penetrate her ass.

 You’d not had her ass before, even if you were inside her when it was last taken by Momo - a memory that still gave you quivers of pleasure when you remembered it. But now, as you enter her ass for the first time, you couldn’t help but close your eyes involuntarily as her tight, hot flesh wraps around your shaft. It was almost too much to handle.

 But the fierce, strong look in Jihyo’s eyes is enough to remind you that you had a point to prove. She had challenged you, had challenged your sexual prowess - and you found yourself wanting to prove her wrong.

 Slowly, but with the same firm, strong strokes you gave her when you were in her pussy, you fuck her ass, each thrust long, slow, and powerful. Jihyo takes a little time to get used to it, but when she does she soon becomes a mess of pleasure as the pounding of your shaft drives her to new heights of pleasure.

 Fucking her pussy had already begun to dismiss any doubts she had of your prowess - fucking her ass had now confirmed it.

 “Fuck,” Jihyo hisses, drawing out the word into a long moan as you continue to pump in and out of her ass. Her fingers turn into claws and dig into your shoulders, seeking some outlet for the pleasure coursing through her loins. The sight of her wet, hot pussy, its lips still splayed slightly open from your recent fucking, was utterly beautiful - a sight made all the more enrapturing by the sight of your hard shaft pumping in and out of her ass, just beneath its wet, pink lips.

 “Oh god… oh god, you’re so big in my ass,” she gasps.

 “You like it in the ass, don’t you, Jihyo?”

 “Yes… Yes! Oh, fuck!”

 “You like… being fucked like this? Being taken and fucked like this?”

 “Yes! Oh god… Mmmm! You’re… you’re gonna make me cum again!”

 “Fucking cum then, Jihyo… Cum on my cock in your ass,” you hiss, savoring the feel of having met her challenge, having made her cum twice now, having shown her that you could fuck a woman like she wanted to be fucked.

 “Oh… oh god! I’m gonna cum!”

 Jihyo’s body is wracked with pleasure as she orgasms, the constant, strong pounding of your hard shaft in and out of her ass causing irresistible spikes of pleasure to course throughout her veins. She is soon a quivering, writhing, wet and hot mess on the bench - much the same way she had described the other girls you’d fucked. The realization of it satisfied you - you’d convinced her, finally, and now it was time to get your own.

 “I’m gonna fucking cum,” you admit, the words a hiss - although you hadn’t been inside her for too long, her ass was too much, too hot, too tight around you.

 “Fucking cum… wherever you want! Just cum… Cum for me!”

 You pound her with fierce, strong strokes, wanting to savor every moment that you were inside her ass before the end finally came. You consider cumming inside her, filling her with semen, but the thought of covering that drenched, slick body of hers with yet more wetness was just too overwhelming. 

 Just as you reach your peak, you pull your shaft from her body, and with just a few quick strokes from your right hand, you cum hard, your semen spraying from your shaft in long, thick streams, landing on Jihyo’s torso in long, wet streaks.

 The look on Jihyo’s face is one of pure lust as the thick streams land wetly onto her neck, breasts and flat stomach. She was sweaty and wet already, and the semen only added to her glistening, messy body, her perfect curves now drenched with sweat and beer and cum.

 You fall over her body, finally exhausted by the session and by the heat of the sauna, your arms keeping you upright on the bench.

 “So where’s my apology, detective?”

 Jihyo captures a stream of your semen from her breast, bringing it to her tongue and swirling it around her mouth, as though she were sampling some delicacy.

 “I’m just sorry we didn’t fuck sooner.”

 ---

 "Say it ain't so, Mina," Momo says, giving voice to the thoughts of everyone nearby.

 Miyoui Mina looks up from her luggage as she hands it off to the waiting taxi driver. The entirety of your team had gathered at the resort's entrance to see her off.

 "Boss's orders," she begins, a hint of sadness in her usually steady, clear voice.

 Mina had informed everyone at the morning meeting, the final one before the end of the Hawaii vacation, that she had been reassigned to oversee JYP legal operations in Europe.

 "Gee, I'll miss you guys too," Choa pipes up from behind you, where she is struggling with a large pink luggage carrier. Tzuyu and Seolhyun rush over to help her, the Taiwanese girl grabbing her carry on luggage while Seolhyun takes over the carrier.

 "Aww, unnie," Sana says, greeting the older girl with a hug, "we'll miss you too."

 Like Mina, Choa had been reassigned to Europe as well, but not without some resistance on your part - she was an invaluable member of your team, and you were loathe to lose someone with her logistics management skills. But JYP needed someone to head up the Europe contingent, and Choa's years of working under your tutelage made her more than qualified. It took some convincing, but JYP eventually managed to get you to let her go.

 "My first task will be hiring a personal assistant to carry all my stuff," she states, somewhat exasperated by the amount of physical effort it took to haul her luggage down from her room.

 "We'll miss the two of you," you begin, "but we know you'll kick ass over there."

 "You bet your ass we will," Choa says confidently, "but my only regret is that we won't be around to help you track down Irene and bring down SM."

 "She'll pay for what she did to us," Jeongyeon says with an edge in her voice, "I promise you that, unnie."

 Choa gives the younger Korean girl a soft, long hug. The two had been through a lot together, and had become good friends. You could tell the news of her departure had hurt Jeongyeon the most. Soon the smiles turn to tears in her eyes, and Choa hugs her tighter and strokes her hair in response as she tries to soothe her younger friend, whispering words of comfort into her ear.

 "Take care of this one," Mina says with a nod towards Momo as she approaches you while the others congregate around Choa to give her goodbye hugs, "she can be quite the handful."

 "I know," you answer. Your girlfriend squeezes your arm in response.

 "You take care of yourself," Momo says to Mina, "I mean that."

 "I will," Mina answers, before opening her arms to Momo and giving her a hug.

 "Go get her," Mina says as she comes close to you for a hug, "get Irene. Bring her down," she adds, a hint of seriousness and gravity in her words that you weren't used to hearing. She had always had a demure, aloof nature to her that some people mistook at coldness - but in truth she had a soft, warm side to her as well that you were fortunate enough to have been able to witness.

 "We will," you answer into her ear.

 Mina eventually frees herself from your arms, and giving you one last smile that carried a little more emotion than you had ever seen from the Japanese girl, she turns to say goodbye to the others. Momo joins her.

 "It's been a real ride, hasn't it?" Choa asks as she approaches you. You had dreaded this moment since you first heard the news of her departure; Choa had been the rock on which the rest of your team was built, and to lose her was to lose a big part of what made your team tick.

 "It has. It won't be the same without you."

 "I'm sure you'll find someone to take over for our afternoon meetings," she says with a sly smile on her lips, turning her head to nod towards the waiting taxi, where Tzuyu and Seolhyun are still struggling with stuffing the large pink plastic luggage carrier into the trunk.

 "Maybe," you admit, "but no one as good as you."

 Choa smiles, her round face and bright smile beaming in the early morning light.

 "Thank you, Choa. You were the best team member I could ever ask for. And you were an even better friend."

 "I know," she agrees, adding a cute wink for emphasis, "I'm pretty awesome."

 "You are."

 Choa smiles, looking away off into the distance as she tries to choke back tears. Eventually she gives up altogether and throws herself into your arms as she begins to sob, wrapping her arms around your neck. After what seemed like more than just a few minutes, she lets you go and steps back, but keeps her arms on your shoulders.

 "Promise me, if you're ever in Europe, that we'll have a meeting. In the afternoon."

 "I promise," you say with a smile, struggling yourself to not let your emotions get the better of you. Choa steps back, finally, and looks towards the group of girls that are trying to simultaneously wish Mina good luck in Europe and while trying to find a way to stuff Choa's massive pink luggage into the trunk of the taxi.

 "And promise me... promise me you'll find someone that makes you happy."

 You are a bit taken aback by her statement, but the look in her eyes tells you all you need to know. Of all the girls you'd known, she knew you best, knew all about your history and the trials and tribulations you'd had with each of the young women in your life. 

 You also noticed that she decided not to mention Momo specifically, despite the fact that she clearly knew you were in a relationship with her. Was it her way of saying something without saying it? Was she giving you advice again, even now when she was about to leave your life indefinitely? You feared the days to come - days without her guidance and steady friendship.

 "I promise," you answer, finally.

 "Promise I'll get an invite to the wedding?"

 You giggle a little bit at the idea of getting married, when it was the furthest thing from your mind. But whenever it happened, you knew Choa had to be there. 

 "You'll be the first on the guest list."

 Choa and you share one last sad smile together before she turns and joins Mina at the waiting taxi. With one last exaggerated bow, she enters the waiting vehicle. Mina joins her after a brief, classy goodbye wave, and soon Park Choa and Miyoui Mina depart to start a new chapter in their lives.

 When their taxi is beyond sight, the girls slowly begin to turn and return to their rooms for their last night at the resort. Momo takes your hand, and with a soft smile on her beautiful face, she walks back to your room with you, where you share one last night together.

 The next day would see you return to Seoul to re-face Irene and SM. You knew that Nayeon would be there too, and that you’d have to confront the feelings of Sana and Jeongyeon sooner rather than later. Choa and Mina’s departure left holes in your team that you’d have to fill, either with your existing staff or perhaps by recruiting new members.

 But that could all wait until tomorrow; for now you were content to find bliss in sleep, spending one last night in paradise.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Hmm, Yeah, Who Knows Where He Spent The Night.

Previously: Armando and Betty went on a date after their first fight. Armando was anxious to get back to Betty, even though he as well didn't want to be there. He kept mentioning to Mario that he had to get there and Mario made fun of him and told him that he was more worried about Betty than Marcela who showed up at the cocktail to try and catch Armando in the act.

Once he got back to Betty they chatted, Betty delivered her ICONIC line: What condemns a man to spend the rest of his life with a woman isn't marriage but love. Armando seemed affected by that statement.

Betty kept insisting for him to go to Marcela so that he wouldn't get in trouble with her just because he was there with her. She told him not to worry about her that she could get a cab and Armando told her over and over that he wanted to be there with her.

A small analysis of that scene:

Betty really places all of Armando's needs before her own. She makes him the forefront of the relationship and always looks out for his best interest, even when they are not hers.

Armando is still confused, in denial, and over-all still ignoring(Denial is refusing to accept something while ignoring is failing to take notice of something. The little that he is aware of he denies while most of what he feels he ignores.) his feelings.

Most of what he does when it comes from the heart he chucks to him only doing it for the plan, so when he does take notice of some feeling he has towards Betty he thinks he's only doing it for the sake of the plan instead of realizing that it is coming from his subconscious and the secret desire that he has to make Betty happy and to be with her, when he does realize this he decides to deny and the cycle just repeats itself.

This has been their official first date, the other two don't count as one was Armando being drunk confessing his feelings and the second was him being sober confessing his feelings.

So this has been the third night they've spent together after work and where they've kissed. Though the first time he was drunk, the third sober, and this time... well he wasn't drunk, maybe tipsy, just not sober and they had to kiss. At least Armando thinks that. However he was more inclined to do so as he doesn't open his eyes as much and when he seems to actually get lost in the kiss the big shining spot light is placed over them and they pull from the kiss.

In the last breakdown of a scene where the three mean girls of Eco Moda were cackling and making jokes about Betty and her relationship I mentioned that Armando was witnessing one of his fears first hand: Public humiliation.

However in this scene as he looks around the audience with a face of panic he doesn't see people pointing fingers at him or saying the things that Marcela, Patty, and Hugo said though he is sure they are secretly thinking it. When Betty starts to sing he continues to look around, scared(and it isn't because he's afraid someone from the crowd knows him as Betty mentioned that none of his acquaintances would ever be there).

When it's his turn to sing you take notice that he is feeling total public humiliation in his mind but as he stares at Betty and as he starts to sing to her soon he gets out of his shell and starts to enjoy the moment until he realizes once again where he is and he stumbles in his singing.

Armando mentioned once he was a very boring man. However he does like to go out to cocktails and to social places as well and for the first time he isn't in some societal setting where everyone needs to be perfect or the exact same with conversations to just go skin deep but he's had a heart to heart about his relationship woes with Betty. He has had an intelectual conversation with her and then he has a small, tiny moment, of sweetness. Where he sings to Betty and forgets where he's standing BUT the fears he has about public perception are deeply embedded in him and because of that the moment is very short lived.

When he dropped off Betty as soon as she shut the door he drove off and that was the end of their date.

Currently:

Betty is on the phone with Mantilla.

Armando hasn't be heard or seen from since he left the cocktail to get to Betty.

As he enters his office Betty lets Mantilla know that Armando has arrived and is well. As Bertha walks out she tells him she's glad he showed up and is well and smiles.

Betty walks away from Armando's desk and goes to shut the doors while Armando walks to his desk and asks Betty who had shown up and why had Bertha said that.

Armando takes notice of Betty's body language a lot in this scene.

"What's going on? Hmm? Do you all think I'm not here? Do you all want to drive me insane? Where was I supposed to turn up?"

"Sir the whole world is looking for you like crazy and Ms. Marcela was inquiring about what time you left Colorink and with whom." He stares at her while touching his lips with a worried expression.

"What did they tell her?" he asks a bit alarmed but looks Betty up and down.

"Well I'm guessing they told her what time you left" She places her hand on her hip. "and that you left by yourself." Armando looks away from her. "Mr. Mantilla called very worried because he didn't know where you were, Sir." Armando stares at Betty while rubbing his chin with his finger(he's worried about Marcela's reaction). "i was calling you on your cell phone but you have it off and to your apartment but no one answered."

Now Armando has been moving his head but staring at Betty while he rubbed his finger on his chin or mouth but as soon as Betty said that she had called his apartment and no one answered he stopped and just stared at her, eyes slightly wide.

Betty here implied that Armando could have had someone else in his apartment because unlike when she mentioned that he didn't pick up his cell phone this time she said no one, meaning more than one person had to have been there.

Armando's reaction is surprised. He's surprised at Betty's response and her behavior and it doesn't end here as Betty continues and tells him:

"When you spend the night out of your apartment at least let me know, Sir." Armando here arches a brow just a slight and straights up a bit from his seat as he stares at Betty. He drops his hand and begins to speak.

"How is that? How is it that I spent the night away from my apartment? Then where did I stay?" Betty worries the inside of her lip and looks at the floor, with her hand still on her hip.

In this exact moment Marcela walks in.

We get two contrast in these scenes.

Betty is in her own way showing her anger as she doesn't bluntly question Armando's whereabouts or ask questions; she just lets him know that everyone was worried and that if he's going to be out there hoeing about to let her know so at least as his assistant she can cover his track. Aka very professional. She is controlling her feelings but Armando picks at her jabs and it surprises him.

It surprises him not only because Betty is questioning him but because she isn't screaming, yelling, throwing accusations, insulting, or making a scene. She is being mature.

Betty in her own way is asking Armando where he spent the night and with whom without throwing accusations or making the conversation unbearable. She isn't yelling at him and throwing in his face how unfaithful he is.

Armando's response though is defensive is still communicative and open to feedback.

They're both willing to listen to each other and settle the dust.

However the moment Marcela walks in we get something that is the complete and total opposite of what was going on.

Marcela walks into his office being authoritative and pissed.

She as well has her hand on her hip. As she tells Armando.

"Bravo. You finally showed up."

"Who did?"

"Sir Armando Mendoza." She points and says sarcastically. "The one who said they left the cocktail at ten at night and he just showed up." she briefly turns to look at Betty who has the exact same pose as her.

This shows us that what Marcela is saying, Betty is thinking.

Armando looks away from them and for a brief second struggles to find his footing until he speaks, he's pulling this out of thin air now.

"Marcela." He speaks loudly. "You're completely wrong about what you're saying and lets not start with all of that, yes?" his tone of voice here is different from the one he had when Betty had insinuated he spent his night with someone else. This time it is annoyed.

Betty stands there, silent and with the exact same expression. She's pissed as well but unlike Marcela she isn't throwing a fit.

Marcela turns to look at Betty and basically kicks her out of the office as she tells her "What? Can I not talk to my boyfriend alone?" The irony in that is not lost. Betty looks reluctant at first but nods and goes to her office.

"Next time you go out with your girl friends or your lovers." He glances towards Betty's office and then stares towards the couch as he tugs his ear and squints his eyes.

Taking into account the context of this scene one can assume that Armando is self soothing as he tugs his ear but is also trying to control his anger as he stares off while squinting. This is the opposite of how he was when he was talking with Betty.

"please let that moscorrofio there know." She points towards Betty's office. "so we know you're fine and don't die of anguish."

"But what girlfriends, Marcela? Tell me, what lovers?" we then get a frame of Betty in her office doing the "oh crap" face. "Prove it. What are you talking about?"

"Oh dear lord, poor man. Now you're a victim of slander. Since you've always been so shrewd(well behaved) but this time, Armando Mendoza, I won't let you get away with it." We see Armando have his lips tight and clench his jaw for a brief moment so we can determined that he's uncomfortable and anxious with the conversation. "Last night you left the cocktail at ten pm, false?" She states.

Every time she "asks" these kinds of questions she is stating rather than asking as she points her finger as if she were to have the proof right there in front of her and she was showing it to him.She does so so sure of what she is saying it.

"Yes, I left around that time."

"I called you at ten thirty and you said you were still at Colorink, false?"

"I told you I was out."

"Outside of Colorink, false?"

"I only said out, Marcela." (no you didn't, son.)

"From there you said that you were going to your apartment, false?" he turns towards Betty's office for a brief second. "You turned off your cell phone, false? At one in the morning I called you to your apartment and you hadn't arrived, false?"

"No-"

"No! I'm not done!" Armando rolls his eyes and jumps from his seat, falls back and tries to control himself. "This morning I called you to your apartment and you didn't answer. I called your cell phone and it was off. What time did you wake up? No,no,no, forgive me! At what time did they wake you up."

"Oh, what a ridiculous thing you're doing, Marcela. You're completely wrong, you know?"

"I'm not asking for any explanations, Armando. I've got it all clear. The only thing I'm asking you for is that next time let me know because I don't want to go from hospital to hospital searching for you or from police station to police station or from morgue to morgue or from motel to motel to see where you spent the night or apartment to apartment, just from all of the apartments from your girl friends did you wake up?"

"Are you done?"

"Yes. Good-bye Armando Mendoza and you know what? Enjoy your new lover."

"False. Stay right there, Marcela. I already listened to you, perfect, but now you're going to listen to me." He grips her arm.

"Let go of me because I don't need to listen to you."

"I listened to your nagging now you're going to listen to mine. Betty! Beatriz, come over here."

"Yes, sir?" Betty doesn't turn to look at them. In fact she stands under her doorway and leans her back away from them on her door frame with her hands in front of her.

Betty is now in a dilema as she too wants to know about his whereabouts but now she is also listening to the aftermath of her date with a man who is engaged and in a relationship. She is listening to Marcela's "crazy" assumption and Armando being in the hot seat because of it.

"Do me a favor and call my apartment[...] and put it on speaker." Betty walks to his desk to his phone.

"What are you doing?" Marcela hisses.

"Shsh." He points to her. "Just listen." He walks away from her towards his desk. Betty walks away from behind his desk and stands in front of it, behind Marcela.

"Good day."

"Ruben, good day, you're speaking with Armando Mendoza. Could you do me a favor? Could you remind me what time I left my apartment this morning?"

"At seven thirty, sir."

"Thank you, tell me did I leave by myself or was I accompanied by somebody else?"

"By yourself, sir."

"Who was on last night's shit? Francisco?"

"Yes sir."

"Okay good, do me the favor and when you change shifts with Francisco tell him to call Marcela Valencia's phone so he can confirm what time I arrive to my apartment."

"As you order, sir." Marcela then hangs up the phone.

The music playing is now tension inducing.

"Don't be so ridiculous."

"As you just heard, Marcela, I slept in my apartment last night and if you've noticed I am perfectly changed[from yesterday's clothes] and impeccable."

"No,no,no."Marcela speaks and Betty takes notice of what he's wearing and takes a breath of revelation. "I wouldn't doubt that you'd go change[clothes]" Betty then glances to Armando's desk and see's the poem she left there. She no longer is concerned for Armando's whereabouts as she believes him(this shows the total trust and faith she has in him) and now she is worried about Marcela finding the poem. "I'm also not doubtful that all of this is just another one of your montages." Marcela places her hand on Armando's desk. "How much did you pay them, Armando?"

"I'm fed up with you." Armando says annoyed and walks away from his desk to the double doors of his office the connect him to the halls of Eco Moda. "You want a war, fine. Freddy! Freddy come over here!" Betty jumps and Marcela flinches and covers her ear, she's annoyed at his yelling.

Betty is now breathing rapidly. Marcela turns towards Armando's desk again as he walks back towards it. Betty now looks at Marcela and then at the desk to where the poem is.

"Cause a scene because of me! but if you think that you'll get it out of my head that last night you were with a woman that is your lover you're delirious." She picks up the poem and uses it to point. "because Armando Mendoza I am going to prove it to you!" Betty pulls her glasses and moves nervously behind Marcela.

Phew, what a long scene and it isn't even over!

The contrast here is very noticeable and if you've ever doubted whether Marcela is a toxic girlfriend, than you can clearly see it in this scene that she is.

As an audience we are completely aware that Armando did sneak off to be with his girlfriend Betty last night. So we can understand why Marcela is pissed.

HOWEVER we are not getting the POV of the audience but from the narrator and we are being told that Marcela has no concrete proof and all she is going off by are past incidents in which she didn't actually have proof either. Her behavior, though understandable to the naked eye, isn't correct.

As she is questioning Armando she is actually accusing. When Armando wants to explain things, she doesn't allow him to as she interrupts him and yells at him that she isn't done yet.

Lets just say this isn't Marcela and Armando "conversing" but just an everyday couple you see out and about and that the boyfriend seemingly is an innocent guy but the girlfriend believes he has gone off and cheated on her the previous night because he didn't pick up her calls and causes a whole scene. If you saw that you'd think the girl is being crazy but add that to the mocking, the clear show of power in the conversation, and you'd call that toxic or even abusive.

Many think that women are justified for being controlling and possessive because men can be cheating whores but that behavior whether true to the boyfriend being that way is not correct. To expect someone to always answer your calls, send you pics of where he is and what he is doing and with is is not right. It is demanding a person to center you as their universe and forcing them to comply with all of this or they will have to deal with the consequences of emotional warfare.

Again one could argue that Marcela has every right to behave this way because Armando is cheating on her. The problem here is that Marcela doesn't actually know this as she is basing it all on speculation with no concrete evidence, the only being that he didn't pick up any of her calls therefore she has every right to behave this way.

In the court of law, the case would be dismissed. You can't take someone to court for trail if you don't have any convincing evidence or concrete proof and all you're basing it off of is speculation.

Again, we as an audience know this, but she doesn't! She doesn't know any of this and she is still behaving like she does.

While Betty was open to hear Armando's side and Armando was willing to listen to her and talk with her about it(same as Betty), Marcela has not. She's been willing to talk to Armando. These are two very different things. While Betty is willing to speak and listen, Marcela is willing to be the only one to speak and be heard. One shows to want to resolve the problem while the other shows to want to be in the right.

You cannot resolve a problem by wanting to be the one who is right. You cannot resolve a problem by only speaking but not listening to the opposing team. You cannot solve a problem by being the only one allowed to speak.

Armando does show anxious behavior and he does show anger but still manages to control that anger to some degree.

We know he is a cheating whore bag and we know that he does warrant Marcela's distrust. We have all the evidence, we have witnessed it so we can sympathize with Marcela for it but even empathy doesn't ignore someone's bad behavior.

It's like if the cops arrested you for simply walking with your hands in your pockets because it looked suspicious and then the judge told you that you had to pay a fine to get out of jail because the cop was right.

Yeah sure you could have had w3*d in your pockets and ditched it the second you saw the cop near by but did the cop know that? Did they find it near you? Was it even confiscated and used in your trial? No.

You were simply arrested for having your hands inside your pockets and that's enough to get you to jail.

I hope this made sense.

Betty standing behind her and looking mad paints us the picture that she too is mad and not trusting Armando HOWEVER what sets these two apart is that the moment Armando has physical and concrete evidence that proves his innocence she believes him because unlike Marcela, she actually has evidence, as she herself, is the person he was with.

Betty knows where he was when he left Colorink and with who. She knows what he did and with who and she knows when they said good-bye. She also knows that Armando always finds a way to sneak off with his lovers. She knows that somehow someway that man always manages to get away with it and have proof that he was well behaved even though he wasn't. She knows this because she knows him and has either witnessed it or been an accomplice but unlike Marcela Betty doesn't bring up the past and she doesn't stay angry as she sees that he in fact is wearing different clothing and looks unscathed. His word and his evidence are enough for her.

When Armando tells her that what they have is harmonic he means it. It wasn't for him to manipulate her to stay for the sake of the plan. It wasn't because of his ego. He really did take notice that Betty, unlike Marcela, wasn't controlling or possessive of him and that Betty is truthfully a loving person.

In this next post I'll be talking about that :)