#I signed it?? there's something I thought was worthy of a signature and a date??? guys I don't know what to do right now

[biowho]

The first woman I ever fell in love with should at least have a tarot card if she's not going to be in Veilguard

here's bethany

Edit!!! I’ve never been more happy to be wrong

[the-hem]

"Food and Faith." The Rape of Tamar, Part 1. From 2 Samuel 13.

Tamar is the "Tallest, most fruitful date palm" which represents the Free Market Economy in Judaism.

The noun תמר (tamar) means palm tree but it's not immediately clear from what verb it comes, and thus how the ancients saw the palm tree — in the Bible all trees (oaks, figs, olives, and so on) relate to certain aspects of the wisdom tradition.

Female judge Deborah had her seat under a palm tree, which seems to suggest that the palm tree related to a kind of popular court.

Noun תמר (tomer) also means palm tree but secondarily refers to a kind of sign post or pillar. Nouns תמרה (timora) and תימרה (timara) refer to palm-like artistic expressions; the first word describes an image of a palm tree and the second a palm-like pillar.

Since the word "palm-like" does not necessarily mean to look like a palm, but merely to imitate some kind of signature quality of the palm, it's debated what a palm-like item might actually be.

It appears that the palm tree reminded the ancients of a social focal point that was spontaneously and organically established (rather than by some decree or violence or trickery).

A palm is like paths that form in an open field with a well at the center, or it's like the effects of a free market, which drives society to unknown heights that no single trader could have imagined.

What does it mean to rape the free market? 2 Samuel was written around 550 BCE, when the Jews and Greeks were starting to mix and read and write and think together. The concept of democracy, the free market, class warfare were emerging as critical topics in academia and public practice.

The Greeks contended with these ideas using strange stories. While the stories of the Jews were certainly strange too, they contained one element missing in the rest: all the characters are human. The rape of Ganumede by Zeus, for example, commentary for and against sex with ephebes is an example. "Zeus did it, so why not?".

The story certainly changes when the gods are absent and the rape takes place between a brother and a sister as we will see. Even still, as with the Greek versions of such things, alas, this one is not meant to be taken literally:

13 Now David’s son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Amnon, her half brother, fell desperately in love with her. 

2 Amnon became so obsessed with Tamar that he became ill. She was a virgin, and Amnon thought he could never have her.

3 But Amnon had a very crafty friend—his cousin Jonadab. He was the son of David’s brother Shimea.[a] 4 One day Jonadab said to Amnon, “What’s the trouble? Why should the son of a king look so dejected morning after morning?”

So Amnon told him, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 “Well,” Jonadab said, “I’ll tell you what to do. Go back to bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, ask him to let Tamar come and prepare some food for you. Tell him you’ll feel better if she prepares it as you watch and feeds you with her own hands.”

6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. And when the king came to see him, Amnon asked him, “Please let my sister Tamar come and cook my favorite dish[b] as I watch. Then I can eat it from her own hands.” 

7 So David agreed and sent Tamar to Amnon’s house to prepare some food for him.

In Judaism, familial relationships have symbolic meaning stemming from Adam and Eve. Men are commitments, females are habits. When they are both noble in purpose, a genealogy is formed.

The entire purpose of Judaism is one unbroken genealogy of nobility from Adam onward in faith, subtely, reality, personally and globally. If Adam and Eve make something good together, so will Cain and Abel, etc. except we know this is a process that is not without hazards. Abel was an idiot, Cain was a genius. They fought and Cain won.

To outwit the sibling that is not worthy and succeed is how the genealogy is built. The Torah emphasizes this process of elimination between siblings quite a lot. It is continued by God and the Synagogue, which together produce lots of little bouncing baby Jews.

Here, the siblings are not brothers, they are brother and sister and the competition, the survival of the fittest is decided by trickery and a rape.

What is a rape in Judaism before we get all messed up about it? The rape of a man or woman in the Torah refers to the loss of that person's voice by force. Ancient Greeks and Jews differed on this a great deal. Women in Greek culture were nothing. Oppression of women was usual and customary, there were few restrictions regarding the mistreatment of women.

The Torah and the Mishnah however, all speak of compensation and lashes in some case as punishment for the rape. What is really supposed to happen, however is the oppression that allowed the rapist to silence the other woman's or man's voice has to be lifted.

Rape in the Torah and Tanakh refer more to the pre-existing conditions of the rape than the rape itself. The Mishnah says "This...shall not enter your mind."

So the story of the Rape of Tamar seems to be about a pattern of abuse in society that originates in the Court of the King as a thought rather than an act. Let us see what kind of thought that is and how it pertains to silencing the voice of the Free Market:

v. 1. David= persistent beauty

son Absalom= "father of peace"

Tamar= the open market

Amnon= faith

"Faith in the open market leads to persistent beauty."

v. 2. the Gematria value is 846, ח‎דו‎‎, heydo, "lively, able to speak."

Amnon, faith, therefore felt as if it was not going to find its voice and lusted for the Marketplace.

=Free Speech

v. 3.

Jonadab= to volunteer

The verb נדב (nadab) means to give, donate or volunteer, and by implication to be noble. From it derive the noun נדבה (nedaba), freewill offering, the noun and adjective נדיב (nadib), generous or noble, and the noun נדיבה (nediba), generous deed.

Shimea=to report, but this could mean rumors as much as free speech

Amnon is a prince, and what do they do besides act like shmucks? Princes are supposed to descend into the depths of human suffering on behalf of the people and emerge victorious. Princes are supposed to be the heroes of the people. The King is in charge, the Prince is the lifeblood of the kingdom. Princes represent humanity's most intense and profound fantasy.

This one, Amnon, faith, however is having a few problems.

v. 4. The value is 11146, קיאםו, kiamo, "because of the burden"

The substantive כי (ki), expresses "a temporal, causal, or objective relationship among clauses expressed or unexpressed" (in the elegant words of HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament). It's used more than 4,000 times in the Old Testament and can most often be translated with "that" or "in that (= because)" or "in that (= when)".

Both the verbs עמש ('amas) and עמס ('amas) mean to load or carry a load. Noun מעמסה (ma'amasa) means load or burden.

"The burden of the Prince is always Mashiach. The Free Market and the burden of Mashiach on humanity are one and the same."

v.5. Food is always the impetus for one's conduct. If one consumes the Torah, one's conduct for example, is expected to be non-violent. The appetite for non-violence feeds the habit for consuming the Torah and then the food and the appetite reciprocate in creating the energy needed for the ongoing effort to curb violence.

The value for v. 5 is 11151, קיאהא, kiaha, "the cause for a fellow member of a social economic node (a "house") within a broader economic whole."

Faith in the government and the market is not enough, there needs to be a cause. What is the cause?

v. 6-7, the value is 10008, י'ח, Eighteen. 18 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word "chai" which means "life." It is a Jewish custom to give monetary gifts in increments of 18, thus symbolically blessing the recipient of the gift with a good long life.

So if we want to have faith, we need free speech, we need a voice and a marketplace for it. The reason we would create such a thing is to bless humanity with a long and blessed, violence and oppression free way of life.

More on the Rape of Tamar to follow.

[enhyupn]

paring: jake x gender neutral reader

disclaimer: this isn’t proof read so there might be som mistakes here and there :[

word count: 2.3k+

genre: fluff, just pure fluff + crack!?!? reader and jake are insanely oblivious

a/n i kinda realised this was centred around jungwon and sunoo messing around but! there is kinda some romance… anyways i wrote this on my other account and and this is pretty bad since i feel like the ending is rushed too T___T

yang jungwon and kim sunoo were taught to never, big emphasis on never, meddle in things that weren’t their business. however, it’s safe to say that the two threw away that lesson for something they found more important. and that was y/n and jake sim, their loving but yet so so oblivious friends. at the start, the blushing and giggling at each other’s terrible jokes were tease-worthy, maybe even cute? but now, it’s so unbearable and exhausting that even their homeroom teacher can’t even understand why they aren’t dating.

that’s why the two friends devised a plan, actually multiple plans. plan a, for when things will go smoothly. plan b, for when there’s a tiny bump in the road. plan c, for everything above have failed. three plans filled with clichés to get their friends to finally ask each other out, what could go wrong?

i. PLAN A

the plan was simple, a (fake) love confession placed inside the locker of an unsuspecting y/n. the contents of the letter were laughable, the pair having a good time trying to make jake sound childish and silly in his love letter.

“you’re making him look like a seven year old jungwon” sunoo told him in between laughs. “why did you draw this in crayon? you and i both know jake’s a muji pen user”. the two were standing right in front of y/n’s locker, both keeping an eye out to see if one of the two oblivious idiots were passing by.

“it’s all i had on me!” jungwon cried out as he eyed the end of the hallway, ‘okay hurry! the coast is clear no sign of dumb and dumber’.

sunoo, not really trusting jungwon’s eyes, takes a good look of their surroundings. he made sure to look out for sunghoon too as he tells jake everything, and that means everything. the boy will never forget about the time jake had teased him for telling a cashier to ‘keep the change’ when he still owed them thirty more cents, something only sunghoon was present for.

“okay” sunoo carefully slid in the love letter into the thin opening of y/n’s locker. “it’s in, hurry and hide! i swear their class ends in- ”.

“hurry!” the sound of the bell causing the two to run off in opposite directions, their hiding places letting them get a good view of the show they (technically) directed. the pair watched as y/n left their classroom, unsurprisingly with jake following closely behind them. the sickly sweet smiles plastered on their faces? the heart eyes? the giggling at every single word being said? they were in love, but the two fools were so oblivious to it.

eyes followed them as y/n headed to their locker, sunoo and jungwon couldn’t understand why they were sweating so much. was that a sign that their plan wouldn’t work? nah, it was bound to work. only someone incredibly stupid would not see the huge letter right in front of them-

“ready?” jungwon overheard jake speak. jungwon knew that sunoo was just as confused as he was. did they not see the love letter? it was so big and stupid looking that they couldn’t have missed it. maybe he shouldn’t of doubted the two, maybe they were as incredibly stupid as he had doubted them to be.

“yup!” y/n said cheerfully. sunoo could feel his forehead wrinkle in annoyance when he realised the two didn’t even acknowledge the letter, in that very moment he knew he had to make the next step.

“y/n! jake!” the boy walked up to the pair, jungwon’s eyes widened when he realised his partner left his hiding place, what is he doing? he watched as sunoo glanced over at him with a look that basically said ‘leave this to me!’.

“sunoo!” jake greeted him warmly, “i thought you had algebra now?”

“nope! i have a free period right now”

“oh, then why are you here?” jake sounded and felt confused, sunoo never visited him during free period unless he wanted something or he needed something. “i don’t have five dollars by the way”.

“i don’t need money! it’s kinda harsh that you think of me like that jake” sunoo pouted through his words. “i just wanted to say that i’m inviting everyone to my house tonight! since it’s a friday and we haven’t all seen each other in a while”.

“oh! that sounds fun” y/n replied with a cheery smile, “i’ll be there, well jake and i”. sunoo couldn’t help but notice the growing blush on the boy’s face at the sound of his name, gross.

“great, see you two tonight”

sunoo smirked as he waved the two off as they headed towards their next class. not forgetting jungwon, he signalled the boy towards him to tell him the rundown of what had just happened.

“so plan a was thrown away after a mere three minutes?” jungwon looked at sunoo confused.

“stop thinking it failed!” he rolled his eyes, “it didn’t! it just, helped us get on the next step”.

“so basically plan b is a go?”

“plan b is a go”.

ii. PLAN B

what could get more cliché than a movie night date? a scary movie night date. sunoo and jungwon both knew that this was the plan that was going to start the blossoming relationship of jake and y/n. the plan was simple, jake and y/n will obviously be sitting together and when a jump scare shows up, y/n will jump into his arms! sunoo bets that they’ll look at each other in the eyes and confess their feelings right then and there. jungwon bets the opposite, he thinks that they’ll awkwardly pull apart from each other, the rest of the night they won’t stop think about each other and when they walk home together that’s when they’ll simultaneously confess to each other!

“y/n! sit beside me!” a voice across the room caught the attention of the two boys. they knew for a fact it wasn’t the voice of jake, meaning it could be the only other person glued onto the other hip of y/n.

“ riki!” y/n flashed another smile, “of course”. the two boys watched as they left jake’s side to sit in the empty space beside the fifteen year old.

“what do we do now…” jungwon whisper shouted in sunoo’s ear. the boy flinched at the loud noise before swatting the boy away. the pair could tell that this plan wouldn’t work as well as they thought, maybe it was the dependance they had on clichés? maybe it was that the two were unpredictable at times? they didn’t know, all they knew was that they wanted all the credit for the (almost) new couple.

“don’t worry my good friend, i have the perfect plan” sunoo’s annoyed expression morphed into a smirk.

“you said that last time! now riki’s the one that’s gonna be in y/n’s arms during scary jump scares while jake is sitting crisscross applesauce right in front of them!” jungwon’s frowned, “if anything let me handle it”.

“do whatever you want but i’ll- ”

“riki!” a sudden voice in the room causes the bickering boys to turn their heads, “don’t you need help with your world history homework? you asked me if i could help you while they watch their movie”.

“i did?” riki replied in a rather confused voice.

“yes, you did” heeseung said through gritted teeth. the group of boys watched as the oldest lightly dragged the youngest into sunoo’s kitchen. y/n watched in concern, not knowing if they should help riki or scold heeseung for being so uptight during a movie night.

“can i sit here?” jungwon and sunoo squinted when they realised jake was asking the question. the two didn’t know why they felt butterflies over the simple question.

“sure!” another one of y/n’s signature smiles blinding the boy in front of them. “i mean now that riki’s been taken away! wait no- i didn’t mean it like that. obviously i want you to sit beside me- ”

“y/n it’s okay” y/n’s embarrassingly long spew sending a second hand embarrassment shiver down the two boy’s body. jake laughs quietly as he place’s himself down beside them, a growing blush placed on their ears and cheeks.

“do they both not realise the whole room is watching them?” jungwon whispered into sunoo’s ear. sunoo looked around and it was true, the scary movie was quickly replaced by the bashful (almost) couple.

“what are you two doing?” sunghoon joined their conversation. the boys jumped in surprise, not expecting him to even talk to them. everyone knew that sunghoon took movie night seriously, he would watch the movie without making a comment unlike his talkative friends and finish his night up researching the movie’s end and plot.

“talking about the movie obviously!” sunoo smiled innocently.

‘“liar” jay whispered, “we all know your little scheme, you never invite us over”.

“hey” jungwon whisper shouted at the group of boys surrounding him, interfering so the two wouldn’t start bickering. “wouldn’t jake and y/n get suspicious over the fact we are grouped together in the corner of the couch whispering to each other?”.

“dumb and dumber wouldn’t even notice if we threw a rock at their heads right now” the group glanced over at the pair, their stiff positions and the small i’m-in-love smiles plastered on their faces were enough proof that the two were in la la land.

“you guys meddled too?” jungwon tilted his head in confusion.

“why did you think riki was so confused when heeseung said he’d help him with world history?” sunghoon sighed, “he doesn’t even do world history!”.

“you could of told a better lie” sunoo rolled his eyes, ‘jungwon and i had an amazing plan- ”.

“but heeseung! i don’t even do world history, why do i need help with homework?” sunoo couldn’t understand why he kept getting interrupted.

“i guess it would of been smarter to let riki into our plan” jay rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“riki, i’ll explain! now get back in the kitchen, don’t you want to know who anne frank is?” riki and heeseung entered the room, heeseung with a frantic look on his face while riki looked annoyed.

“i know who anne frank is!” riki frowned, “you weren’t even asking me about world history anyways! you kept asking me about our dance club, the one we are both in”.

“i’ll talk about world history now! um, world war one?”

“wait” riki squinted his eyes at the jake and y/n, who were sitting rather close. ignoring the oldest’s question, he walked closer to the pair.

“what is he doing…” jungwon whispered.

“are you two dating?” the sudden question from the youngest’s mouth caused y/n to flinch in their seat.

“oh my god” sunoo blurted out.

“did he just start plan c without even knowing what plan c was?”.

iii. PLAN C

plan c, or what the two boys would like to call it, plan confirmation. the final plan if all things went wrong, in all honesty nothing in plan b went wrong. however the curiosity of nishimura riki quickened the pace up. the contents of the plan were simple, straight up asking the pair if they were dating. it was a simple but not so romantic way to start dating, and that was the main reason it was the ‘if all else fails’ plan.

“no” the group of boys didn’t know that one word could shock them, i mean they saw it coming due to the fact they were completely oblivious but they didn’t know it would shake them up this much.

“no it’s okay you can tell them y/n” jake’s words only shocked the boys even more, their eyes widening in surprise to hear the almost confirmation of their relationship.

“what do you mean? you said the letter in my locker wasn’t from you?”

“it doesn’t mean i don’t don’t like you?” jake said confidently.

“wait…” jungwon stared at the two, “you found our letter?”.

“jungwon! you weren’t supposed to say it out loud” sunoo scolded him through gritted teeth.

“shut up” jay whispered in their ears, “something’s gonna happen i can feel it”.

everyone could notice the red tinge on jake’s ears. they watched as he rubbed the back of his neck while y/n stared at him in utter confusion.

“i like you, y/n” the blushing boy said quietly but just loud enough that they could hear it. “i swear i was going to confess in a better way but i’m kinda under pressure right now…”

“oh?” y/n tilted their head to the side, “i thought you rejected me?”

“i did?” jake looked as confused as everyone else in the room.

“you told me on new year’s eve to wait and i thought that was you letting me down easy”.

“you did?” the bewildered look in jake’s eyes confused y/n even more.

“that’s why you left early?”

“i feel like they needed to speak about this a while ago” sunoo whispered into jungwon’s ear.

“it doesn’t matter now! what matters is that i like you too” y/n smiled happily.

“oh” jake let out in surprise.

“this is way more sickly than i thought this moment was gonna be” jay mumbled bitterly.

“so you two are dating?” riki asked, not really processing what had just happened.

“are we?” jake turned to y/n.

“yes”

maybe the plans a to c did work? i mean if it wasn’t for the help of the meddling jungwon and sunoo did, the almost couple turned into a real couple. the pair in all honesty really didn’t care that much, they were just happy they got the real thing they wanted.

the satisfaction knowing that they were the ones that played wingmen.

“thanks riki, i couldn’t of done it without you” jake smiled at the youngest.

or maybe, this was gonna be a long night.

[marshmallow-phd]

Nine Little Letters

Genre: College AU, Fake Dating AU, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before AU

Inspired By: This graphic made by @rcse-tvler​

Pairing: EXO x Reader

Summary: Just when you thought life was done shoving you down, it got much, much worse. After finding out that your latest crush was already in a relationship, you did what you always did when emotions ran high: you wrote a letter. Signed and sealed, you put it away with the eight other letters you’d written to past one-sided loves, never to be seen again. That is, until a mix up accidentally sends those letters out to their respective recipients and you find yourself in the middle of one confusing web of love. With fake relationships, insecurities, and revelations swirling around, things are bound to get a little messy.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11

This was the worst kind of humiliation. Standing there on the sidewalk staring open-mouthed at the one person you were excited to see today, you were crumbling into a million pieces. And no one even noticed. That was what made this humiliation so bad; there was no one to witness it. You were breaking and no one cared.

You should have known better, really. This morning was going too well. You had woken up on time, had a delicious, filling breakfast, and had managed to put an outfit together worthy of any Pinterest board. Your confidence was through the roof and you were going to do the one thing in your life you swore you would never do.

You were going to confess to your crush.

Signing up for math tutoring was the last thing you wanted to do. Who in the world wanted to spend their valuable free time learning more about equations and algorithms? But you needed to pass this class. It was the second time you’d taken college algebra and the thought of taking it a third time made you want to crawl under your bed. So, you buckled down and took the walk of shame into the math lab. (Yes, that was an exaggeration. Everyone knows there is no shame in getting help. Didn’t mean you had to like it.) When you got the call from your assigned tutor, you ignored it. You didn’t like talking on the phone to anyone let alone a number you didn’t recognize. No voicemail was left. Then a text came through.

Hi, (y/n)! This Kim Junmyeon! I’ve been assigned as your math tutor. When you get a chance, let me know when you’re free so we can create a schedule that works for you. Have a great day!

You waited an appropriate amount of time before replying. So, an hour and half later, you texted him your schedule and made a plan to meet up in the library the following Thursday. You marked that day on your calendar with exactly zero enthusiasm. In your head, this Kim Junmyeon was the cliché nerd from movies: dorky glasses, snort-like laugh, and clothes that looked better on a grandfather. Oh, boy were you so happy to be wrong.

Sitting down at one of the tables by the large, ceiling high windows, Junmyeon was nothing like you’d imagined. He had a sophisticated aura about him. He dressed nicely, a thin long-sleeved shirt over a patterned button down, the collar laid nicely over the top of the shirt, and was blessed with sharp, handsome features. You knew you were in trouble. But you didn’t care. You sat down at that table eagerly, ready to… learn.

For the past month and a half, you’d met Junmyeon twice a week to go over the lessons and work on the assignments. By some miracle, your grade was actually going up in the class. Somehow you were able to better comprehend the material and secretly fawn over your tutor simultaneously. At this point, you were sort of feigning how much you weren’t understanding to keep the tutoring sessions going. The nice thing about algebra, once you understood the basics, everything else built on top of it.

But today – today you had decided that you were going to step over the line from tutor and student into the realm of perhaps something more.

You liked Junmyeon. You liked his math puns and the way he scrunched his face when he thought hard about something. His lips would pucker whenever he lifted the sheet of paper to check over your work. Each time you met up with him your heart acted like it was in the middle of a NASCAR race and it was determined to win. You had it bad. This wasn’t the first time you’d had a crush like this, but you had set your mind on making this one different. This time, you wouldn’t hold it inside. You were going to be the brave one, the bold one. The fact that birds were tweeting as you rode your bike onto campus should have been a sign that things would only be downhill from there. Unfortunately, like the optimistic idiot, you took it as a positive instead.

After locking your bike up, you headed straight for the courtyard near the pond. Junmyeon had told you that he often spent his mornings there to finish up homework or to read a book (the fact that he read so much was another factor in your liking of him). In your head, he was all alone, flipping through a novel as he leaned against the trunk of a tree, looking like a prince taking a rest in the shade on a warm summer’s day. The water would be glistening in the background as a lovely, lighthearted melody played softly through the air. He would see you approach and smile that wide, brilliant smile. Your heart would skip as you sat down in the grass next to him and poured out your feelings. The daydream turned into a nightmare the second he came into view.

Junmyeon was not alone nor was he sitting under a tree with a book. He was on one of the benches, splayed out on the wooden beams with his head resting in the lap of a very pretty, more his league type of girl. She laughed as Junmyeon told a story. A delicate hand ran through his soft brown hair. Your heart fell to the ground, forming a crater at your feet.

Shoulders slumped and day ruined, you turned and headed for the student union. If today was going to suck like this, then you were going to sprinkle it with an overly sugary coffee drink. Preferably with extra chocolate drizzle. It helped - a little bit.

Your morning classes went by in a blur. You were certain you took notes, but none of the information sank in. Later you would have to transcribe your quick scribbles to a word document to help you study. You would learn the information then. By lunch, you were starting to peel yourself off the sidewalk of humiliation. Especially when the one person you could always rely on joined you for lunch.

“How did it go?”

You remained silent, continuously munching on the sandwich in your hands as your best friend sat down across from you at the small, two-person table near the middle of the cafeteria.

Baekhyun laughed his signature, SpongeBob-like laugh. “That bad, huh? I told you not to do it.”

“Technically, I didn’t do it,” you corrected. “He already has a girlfriend.”

“Ouch.”

You nodded. How could you not see this before? Did he mention having a girlfriend and you just blocked it out? Junmyeon and you talked casually between math problems, about your friends and fun things you liked to do on the weekends. He’d failed to mention one very important detail.

“Well,” Baekhyun reached over and plucked a potato chip off your plate and plopped it in his mouth, “at least you found out before you said something. I told you he wasn’t worth it.”

“Just because he has a girlfriend doesn’t mean he isn’t worth crushing on.”

“Okay. Whatever you say.”

You rolled your eyes at him. “You’re so much help.”

Ignoring your quip, Baekhyun snatched another chip. You smacked his hand, but all that managed to do was break off a few pieces, the crumbs falling to the table. Smiling proudly, Baekhyun popped the half-chip into his mouth. “So, are you just going to go home and write a letter?”

“Are you just going to go home and write a letter?” you mocked with a scrunched face.

Byun Baekhyun had been your best friend since the two of you had met in the first grade. He’d stolen your popsicle that your mother had packed as a special treat for your first full day of school. When he saw you start to cry, he broke off the piece he’d been sucking on and handed the rest back to you. There was a bit of a disagreement on the level of nice-ness that act achieved since it was your popsicle to begin with, but somehow it caused the two of you to be inseparable ever since. Being your best friend meant that he was privy to the more private parts of your life.

Like the letters.

Starting as young as ten years old, you’d developed a bit of a tradition when it came to your crushes. Emotions were hard to process, but you found them easier to work through if you thought about them and translated them into words. Those words would fly across the paper, transferring the feelings that made you both laugh and cry into the graphite that formed them. Not to mention, the act made you feel like the heroine in a rom-com. Certainly it was something that Meg Ryan or Rachel McAdams would do once they realized how they felt about the male lead.

The first letter you ever wrote was during your final year of ballet class. Dancing had been a part of your life since you were three, but a new passion had been discovered so you’d decided to quit after this last cluster of classes. A terrible decision, really. Because right after your mind was already made up, a new boy had joined the class.

Kim Jongin.

He had just moved into town after his father was promoted to a new position and had to transfer to headquarters. You’d never seen him at the park or the grocery store before. He was completely new. And beautiful.

He was blessed golden skin that glistened, shining brighter the longer he danced. And, oh, the way he danced. It was well beyond what anyone else could do. His movements were fluid, water-like, as if the very beat of the music were pulling and manipulating his limbs to convey what the notes had to say. Each move was a word and when he formed them together, they could make you smile or cry. And when he smiled… oh, his smile was like starlight. The kind of brightness that stayed in the sky even as the city lights flickered on. To this day, you’d never found one that could rival it. He was a dream that every composer coveted. So, what was your young heart to do?

Well, the movies told you to confess. But there was no way you could find the courage to do so, especially since you only saw him in class and you couldn’t confess in front of everyone. The only other option was to write it out; to write it out like Jane Austen pouring her heart out for Tom Lefroy.

 Dear Jongin,

I’m not sure how to start this. Do I compliment you on your dancing? It’s nothing like I’ve seen before. Prima Donnas in the Russian Ballet would be jealous of you! But you probably hear that all the time. And about how handsome you are, even under all that hair. I can’t help but watch when you pull it back for class so you can see yourself in the mirror. Why can’t I look like that? I somehow ended up looking like a frizzy wet cat that just climbed out of the tub.

I guess what I’m trying to avoid saying is that… I like you. A lot. I like your laugh and your wide smile. I like how much you love music and how you interpret the melody with your moves. No one can freestyle like you! My heart does a dance of its own whenever I see you. I hope you don’t have anyone that you like, just so I can stand a chance. Would you ever think of me like that? If not, it’s okay. I just needed to tell you. Someday, you’ll be on stage dancing to an audience of thousands and I’ll be right there in the front row, cheering you on! Until then, I hope you always find happiness in what you love.

Love,

(y/n).

 That sentence about watching him on stage made you cringe in hindsight. Cute for a ten-year-old, but a bit stalkerish. Luckily, though, you never gave it to him. You chickened out every time up until the last class. The idea of him opening it and reading right there in front of you was mortifying. So, then, you decided to mail it. The teacher gave you his address after you told her you wanted to invite him to your birthday party (it should be a little worrisome that a teacher was willing to pass on private information like that… perhaps it was because you were a kid). Three times you went to the mailbox to send the letter out and three times you ran back inside to hide it under your mattress.

That was the beginning of your weird little tradition. Though you never sent the letter to Jongin, you felt better having somewhat confessed your feelings and worked through them without the humiliation of actually… doing it. So, the next time you had a crush so overwhelming that you needed to get the feelings out, you wrote a letter. You even went all the way each time to address the envelope, giving the confession a sense of finality. There was no fear in them ever going out. Baekhyun was the only other one in the world who knew of their existence. At the current moment, eight were hidden in a drawer in your vanity. The way your fingers were itching, a ninth one was on the way.

“I might,” you finally replied.

Baekhyun leaned forward eagerly. “Can I read it when you’re done?”

“No!”

He snapped his fingers as he sat back in his chair. “Darn.”

“Why am I even friends with you?”

“Because I’m charming.”

There was no question in his voice. He one-hundred percent believed it. And… to be honest, he did have his moments. But that was all in the past. “Like a plank of wood.”

Shaking his head, Baekhyun rapped his hands on the table before standing up. “Alright, I’m going to class. Have fun with your pencil and imagination.” For emphasis on his stupid remark, he stole one last chip before walking off.

You finished off your sandwich in a bit of a rage. By the time you were finished, your mouth muscles were aching as if you’d spent several hours at the gym and it was jaw day.

You only had one class left for the afternoon. But it was algebra. How were you supposed to concentrate on functions when your sad attempt at getting into a relationship with your tutor failed so epically? Somehow you managed, though, and you packed up at the end of class with a new sort of determination. As you hopped on your bike and rode home, you thought over what you were going to write. You were so lost in your head that you hadn’t notice the car pulling out of your neighbor’s driveway, nearly hitting you before the driver hit their brakes.

“Shoot!”

You back peddled to break. Your heart thumped in your chest. No life memories flashed before your eyes, but you were sure you almost died. Slowly, you moved forward to get out of the way of the car. 

“I’m sorry!” you yelled over your shoulder.

The driver leaned out the window.

Oh, great.

It was your neighbor. Or, at least, your neighbor’s son. Do Kyungsoo. He stared at you with an expression that could be blank but could also be a glare. It was hard to tell with him. Shaking his head, he pulled back inside the car and drove away.

Fighting off embarrassment for the second time this day - albeit this situation was much lower on the scale and it happened a bit more often than you’d like to admit - you put your bike up in the backyard and headed up to your room. Your mother, a literary history professor, and your father, a doctor at the local hospital, were both at work and wouldn’t be home until well after dinner. You were used to it. Besides, you were an adult and you liked being able to decide to have pizza for dinner and not worry about what other people wanted for toppings. Once you put your order in, you sat down at your vanity and got to work.

 Dear Junmyeon,

Has anyone told you how your hair looks in the sunlight? The dark brown hues seem so warm and inviting, like an ebony chair that was warmed by the unfiltered rays. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to run my finger through it. Would the strands be as soft as they look? Would you wear the same smile on your face that you do during our sessions? But I guess I might not be meant to feel them. Today, I intended to tell you how I felt. I woke up with a determination, a goal to say how much I like you to your face. I was so nervous riding my bike to the university, but it was the good kind of nervous; the kind that makes you keep going. It seemed, however, that I was too late. Or maybe I simply never had a chance at all. I’d missed any signs that said you were already someone else’s.

I hope she knows how lucky she is. I hope she makes you laugh and listens to you when you’re having a bad day. Your laugh is like a symphony. Does she tell you how light and lovely it is? Or how infectious it is? When you laugh, I can’t help but laugh along. It’ll be sad not to hear it anymore. Or have our talks filled with random subject changes. But I think I’ll miss your smile most of all. The way it crinkles your eyes yet still lets them shine. The way it spreads across your face and the way your cheeks grow. It is truly a sight to behold. I hope wherever you go, you are always smiling. You always let your light shine even on the cloudiest of days. That’s what’s so special about you and what made me fall for you. Even when I was frustrated or couldn’t understand, you were patient, taking my mind off of the negative and turning me so I could face the positive. That’s a rare kind of person. You are a rare kind of person. Please always be happy, Kim Junmyeon.

Love,

(y/n)

 With a sigh you sat back in your chair. The letter had done its job. Though you were still sad about the way things turned out, you no longer felt defeated. The words you needed to say were now out there without being “out there”. Okay, so he had a girlfriend. Big deal. It wasn’t the end of the world. There were more potential love interests out there that you could find. He was only one and obviously wasn’t the one.

Beginning to smile again, you folded the letter and put it in an envelope. You didn’t have Junmyeon’s address, so you wrote out the address for the math lab. Opening the top drawer of the vanity, you placed the latest addition to your collection under the first envelope. The doorbell rang right as you closed it up again. Oh, thank goodness. Food.

Practically skipping down the steps, you hurried to the front door.

“Hi-” You stopped as soon as you’d opened it. The person waiting on the other side was not the pizza delivery guy - it was Baekhyun. The boxes holding the pizza and cheese sticks you’d order for no one but yourself were in his hands. Over his shoulder, you barely caught sight of the delivery man driving away. “Really?”

“What? I was bored. And hungry.” He flipped open the lid to show you the hot, melted cheese of the appetizer. “Cheese stick?”

Rolling your eyes, you stepped aside so he could come inside.

Baekhyun had been to your home plenty of times in the past so it was easy for him to make himself at home. He didn’t wait for you before pulling plates out of the cabinet and pouring a drink. He even went as far as getting you glass as well. “Thirsty?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

The two of you ate at the kitchen table as your mother had a “no meals in the living room” policy. Small snacks like nuts and popcorn were okay, as long as you didn’t spill any on the couches.

“So… how did the writing go?” Baekhyun asked cheekily between bites.

You shrugged. “Fine. I’m deciding that I’m getting over it.”

Now it was Baekhyun’s turn to roll his eyes. “You always get over them fast.”

“What’s the point of dwelling on the things you can’t change?”

That was always your answer. Yes, the hurt was immediate and painful, but Baekhyun was right, you tended to push it aside rather quickly. That was the whole point of your letters, anyway. Get the feelings out of the way so you could move on. What was the point of clinging on to something like that? You would only end up worse if you stayed in that spot. So, you pushed yourself to move on. And eight times out of nine, it had worked. There was only that one nagging letter that failed to do its job. That particular set of feelings refused to go away even as you looked to other crushes, as you found other boys to like. It was the one you would always wonder about, the one that was completely off limits. The dull ache still crept up every once in a while. If moving on was what you had to do, you would do it. Because you would prefer if you never had to go through something like that ever again.

[luvhypen]

wingmen!

paring: jake x gender neutral reader

disclaimer: this is my first fic in a while and also this isn’t proof read :[

word count: 2.3k+

genre: fluff, just pure fluff

a/n i kinda realised this was centred around jungwon and sunoo messing around but! there is kinda some romance... anyways i hope this isn’t too bad :)

yang jungwon and kim sunoo were taught to never, big emphasis on never, meddle in things that weren’t their business. however, it’s safe to say that the two threw away that lesson for something they found more important. and that was y/n and jake sim, their loving but yet so so oblivious friends. at the start, the blushing and giggling at each other’s terrible jokes were tease-worthy, maybe even cute? but now, it’s so unbearable and exhausting that even their homeroom teacher can’t even understand why they aren’t dating.

that’s why the two friends devised a plan, actually multiple plans. plan a, for when things will go smoothly. plan b, for when there’s a tiny bump in the road. plan c, for everything above have failed. three plans filled with clichés to get their friends to finally ask each other out, what could go wrong?

i. PLAN A

the plan was simple, a (fake) love confession placed inside the locker of an unsuspecting y/n. the contents of the letter were laughable, the pair having a good time trying to make jake sound childish and silly in his love letter.

‘you’re making him look like a seven year old jungwon’ sunoo told him in between laughs. ‘why did you draw this in crayon? you and i both know jake’s a muji pen user’. the two were standing right in front of y/n’s locker, both keeping an eye out to see if one of the two oblivious idiots were passing by.

‘it’s all i had on me!’ jungwon cried out as he eyed the end of the hallway, ‘okay hurry! the coast is clear no sign of dumb and dumber’.

sunoo, not really trusting jungwon’s eyes, takes a good look of their surroundings. he made sure to look out for sunghoon as well as he tells jake everything, and that means everything. the boy will never forget about the time jake had teased him for telling a cashier to “keep the change” when he still owed them thirty more cents, something only sunghoon was present for.

‘okay’ sunoo carefully slid in the love letter into the thin opening of y/n’s locker. ‘it’s in, hurry and hide! i swear their class ends in-’.

‘hurry!’ the sound of the bell causing the two to run off in opposite directions, their hiding places letting them get a good view of the show they (technically) directed. the pair watched as y/n left their classroom, unsurprisingly with jake following closely behind them. the sickly sweet smiles plastered on their faces? the heart eyes? the giggling at every single word being said? they were in love, but the two fools were so oblivious to it.

eyes followed them as y/n headed to their locker, sunoo and jungwon couldn’t understand why they were sweating so much. was that a sign that their plan wouldn’t work? nah, it was bound to work. only someone incredibly stupid would not see the huge letter right in front of them-

‘ready?’ jungwon overheard jake speak. jungwon knew that sunoo was just as confused as he was. did they not see the love letter? it was so big and stupid looking that they couldn’t have missed it. maybe he shouldn’t of doubted the two, maybe they were as incredibly stupid as he had doubted them to be.

‘yup!’ y/n said cheerfully. sunoo could feel his forehead wrinkle in annoyance when he realised the two didn’t even acknowledge the letter, in that very moment he knew he had to make the next step.

‘y/n! jake!’ the boy walked up to the pair, jungwon’s eyes widened when he realised his partner left his hiding place, what is he doing? he watched as sunoo glanced over at him with a look that basically said “leave this to me!”.

‘sunoo!’ jake greeted him warmly, ‘i thought you had algebra now?’

‘nope! i have a free period right now’

‘oh, then why are you here?’ jake sounded and felt confused, sunoo never visited him during free period unless he wanted something or he needed something. ‘i don’t have five dollars by the way’.

‘i don’t need money! it’s kinda harsh that you think of me like that jake’ sunoo pouted through his words. ‘i just wanted to say that i’m inviting everyone to my house tonight! since it’s a friday and we haven’t all seen each other in a while’.

‘oh! that sounds fun’ y/n replied with a cheery smile, ‘i’ll be there, well jake and i’. sunoo couldn’t help but notice the growing blush on the boy’s face at the sound of his name, whipped.

‘great, see you two tonight’

sunoo smirked as he waved the two off as they headed towards their next class. not forgetting jungwon, he signalled the boy towards him to tell him the rundown of what had just happened.

‘so plan a was thrown away after a mere three minutes?’ jungwon looked at sunoo confused.

‘stop thinking it failed!’ he rolled his eyes, ‘it didn’t! it just, helped us get on the next step’.

‘so basically plan b is a go?’

‘plan b is a go’.

ii. PLAN B

what could get more cliché than a movie night date? a scary movie night date. sunoo and jungwon both knew that this was the plan that was going to start the blossoming relationship of jake and y/n. the plan was simple, jake and y/n will obviously be sitting together and when a jump scare shows up, y/n will jump into his arms! sunoo bets that they’ll look at each other in the eyes and confess their feelings right then and there. jungwon bets the opposite, he thinks that they’ll awkwardly pull apart from each other, the rest of the night they won’t stop think about each other and when they walk home together that’s when they’ll simultaneously confess to each other!

‘y/n! sit beside me!’ a voice across the room caught the attention of the two boys. they knew for a fact it wasn’t the voice of jake, meaning it could be the only other person glued onto the other hip of y/n.

‘riki!’ y/n flashed another smile, ‘of course’. the two boys watched as they left jake’s side to sit in the empty space beside the fifteen year old.

‘what do we do now...’ jungwon whisper shouted in sunoo’s ear. the boy flinched at the loud noise before swatting the boy away. the pair could tell that this plan wouldn’t work as well as they thought, maybe it was the dependance they had on clichés? maybe it was that the two were unpredictable at times? they didn’t know, all they knew was that they wanted all the credit for the (almost) new couple.

‘don’t worry my good friend, i have the perfect plan’ sunoo’s annoyed expression morphed into a smirk.

‘you said that last time! now riki’s the one that’s gonna be in y/n’s arms during scary jump scares while jake is sitting crisscross applesauce right in front of them!’ jungwon’s frowned, ‘if anything let me handle it’.

‘do whatever you want but i’ll-’

‘riki!’ a sudden voice in the room causes the bickering boys to turn their heads, ‘don’t you need help with your world history homework? you asked me if i could help you while they watch their movie’.

‘i did?’ riki replied in a rather confused voice.

‘yes, you did’ heeseung said through gritted teeth. the group of boys watched as the oldest lightly dragged the youngest into sunoo’s kitchen. y/n watched in concern, not knowing if they should help riki or scold heeseung for being so uptight during a movie night.

‘can i sit here?’ jungwon and sunoo squinted when they realised jake was asking the question. the two didn’t know why they felt butterflies over the simple question.

‘sure!’ another one of y/n’s signature smiles blinding the boy in front of him. ‘i mean now that riki’s been taken away! wait no- i didn’t mean it like that. obviously i want you to sit beside me-’.

‘y/n calm down!’ y/n’s embarrassingly long spew sending a second hand embarrassment shiver down the two boy’s body. jake laughs quietly as he place’s himself down beside them, a growing blush placed on their ears and cheeks.

‘do they both not realise the whole room is watching them?’ jungwon whispered into sunoo’s ear. sunoo looked around and it was true, the scary movie was quickly replaced by the bashful (almost) couple.

‘what are you two doing?’ sunghoon joined their conversation. the boys jumped in surprise, not expecting him to even talk to them. everyone knew that sunghoon took movie night seriously, he would watch the movie without making a comment unlike his talkative friends and finish his night up researching the movie’s end and plot.

‘talking about the movie obviously!’ sunoo smiled innocently.

‘liar’ jay whispered, ‘we all know your little scheme, you never invite us over’.

‘hey’ jungwon whisper shouted at the group of boys surrounding him, interfering so the two wouldn’t start bickering. ‘wouldn’t jake and y/n get suspicious over the fact we are grouped together in the corner of the couch whispering to each other?’.

‘dumb and dumber wouldn’t even notice if we threw a rock at their heads right now’ the group glanced over at the pair, their stiff positions and the small i’m-in-love smiles plastered on their faces were enough proof that the two were in la la land.

‘you guys meddled too?’ jungwon tilted his head in confusion.

‘why did you think riki was so confused when heeseung said he’d help him with world history?’ sunghoon sighed, ‘he doesn’t even do world history!’.

‘you could of told a better lie’ sunoo rolled his eyes, ‘jungwon and i had an amazing plan-’.

‘but heeseung! i don’t even do world history, why do i need help with homework?’ sunoo couldn’t understand why he kept getting interrupted.

‘i guess it would of been smarter to let riki into our plan’ jay rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

‘riki, i’ll explain! now get back in the kitchen, don’t you want to know who anne frank is?’ riki and heeseung entered the room, heeseung with a frantic look on his face while riki looked annoyed.

‘i know who anne frank is!’ riki frowned, ‘you weren’t even asking me about world history anyways! you kept asking me about our dance club, the one we are both in’.

‘i’ll talk about world history now! um, world war one?’

‘wait’ riki squinted his eyes at the jake and y/n, who were sitting rather close. ignoring the oldest’s question, he walked closer to the pair.

‘what is he doing...’ jungwon whispered.

‘are you two dating?’ the sudden question from the youngest’s mouth caused y/n to flinch in her seat.

‘oh my god’ sunoo blurted out.

‘did he just start plan c without even knowing what plan c was?’.

iii. PLAN C

plan c, or what the two boys would like to call it, plan confirmation. the final plan if all things went wrong, in all honesty nothing in plan b went wrong. however the curiosity of nishimura riki quickened the pace up. the contents of the plan were simple, straight up asking the pair if they were dating. it was a simple but not so romantic way to start dating, and that was the main reason it was the “if all else fails” plan.

‘no’ the group of boys didn’t know that one word could shock them, i mean they saw it coming but they didn’t know it would shake them up this much.

‘no it’s okay you can tell them y/n’ jake’s words only shocked the boys even more, their eyes widening in surprise to hear the almost confirmation of their relationship.

‘what do you mean? you said the letter in my locker wasn’t from you?’

‘it doesn’t mean i don’t don’t like you?’ jake said confidently.

‘wait...’ jungwon stared at the two, ‘you found our letter?’.

‘jungwon! you weren’t supposed to say it out loud’ sunoo scolded him through gritted teeth.

‘shut up’ jay whispered in their ears, ‘something’s gonna happen i can feel it’.

everyone could notice the red tinge on jake’s ears. they watched as he rubbed the back of his neck while y/n stared at him in utter confusion.

‘i like you, y/n’ the blushing boy said quietly but just loud enough that they could hear it. ‘i swear i was going to confess in a better way but i was kinda under pressure right now...’

‘oh?’ y/n tilted her head to the side, ‘i thought you rejected me?’

‘i did?’ jake looked as confused as everyone else in the room.

‘you told me on new year’s eve to wait and i thought that was you letting me down easy’.

‘you did?’ the bewildered look in jake’s eyes confused y/n even more.

‘that’s why you left early?’

‘i feel like they needed to speak about this a while ago’ sunoo whispered into jungwon’s ear.

‘it doesn’t matter now! what matters is that i like you too’ y/n smiled happily.

‘oh’ jake let out in surprise.

‘this is way more sickly than i thought this moment was gonna be’ jay mumbled bitterly.

‘so you two are dating?’ riki asked, not really processing what had just happened.

‘are we?’ jake turned to y/n.

‘yes’

maybe the plans a to c did work? i mean if it wasn’t for the help of the meddling jungwon and sunoo did, the almost couple turned into a real couple. the pair in all honesty really didn’t care that much, they were just happy they got the real thing they wanted.

the satisfaction knowing that they were the ones that played wingmen.

[shijiujun]

[ENG] History3: Trapped Novel - Chapter Eight

Translation Masterpost can be found here

Disclaimer: Translations are entirely mine - these are not official translations and some phrases have been changed for better English interpretation so you’ll definitely see better/different translations elsewhere. Also keeping in mind when we translated this we aren’t exactly thinking about the style of writing and this translation is as close to the novel as we can make it XD So yes, some parts may be a little awkward to read. And yes some teeny weeny details and words may not turn up in the translation because the Chi to Eng mind acrobatics didn’t work out. If you see asterisks, scroll all the way to the bottom for notes!

Full chapter below the cut

*Note: ERMMMMM I’M BACK? So there was a plan for Chapter 8 and 9 translations, but I didn’t want to leave this until like 2021, so I’m trying my best to just clear it before New Years. Not sure how many of y’all are still reading this, but... I just don’t want to remember that this is incomplete hahahaha, so yeah, I did Chapter 8, and Chapter 9 should be up within the next couple of weeks, so it’ll be pretty and complete for 2021!

Chapter Eight

The act of handing Li Zhi De over to the police force led to the emergence of dissenting voices within Xing Tian Meng, and even the elders that were initially approving of the reform were beginning to shift towards a neutral position, stopping the biddings that were proceeding at hand.

Jack is walking towards the spot where he parked the car, and suddenly, someone emerges from behind a pillar and stops him in his tracks.

“Chen-ye would like to speak to you.”

After coldly shooting the man a glance, Jack gets into the other’s car and is brought to a tea house. Jack walks inside, and as expected, he sees a man with a scar on the right side of his cheek — Chen Wen Hao.

“I didn’t expect Chen-ye’s invitation.”

“When it comes to talented people, even if I have to personally make the trip, I will,” Chen Wen Hao pours a cup of tea for the other, and Jack raises the cup in a sign of respect for the man, before drinking it.

“Liang Dian, based on your intellect, you should have long established your own gang.”

“…”

Jack shudders, the sensation coming straight from his chest, and looks at the old, scheming fox before him without the slightest change in his expression. Fang Liang Dian, that is his real name, and the people who know this name are mostly dead already. From this, he can see that Chen Wen Hao has indeed gone to great lengths to obtain this information.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the ends of his lips curve up in a smile as he picks up the teapot and pours a second cup of tea for himself.

“Tang Yi spared no efforts in sending his own subordinate to the police, is such a person still worthy of being followed? Aren’t you afraid of becoming a second Zhi De?” Chen Wen Hao says as he looks at the young man before him, sliding a document filled with a list across the table.

“This is everything Wang Kun Cheng has in Taiwan, I can hand them all over to you.”

The red-haired man plays with the black leather gloves he has in his palms and without looking at the contents of the document, he returns, “How immense these benefits are, but… what do I have to exchange with Chen-ye?”

“You’re indeed interesting,” he answers, his eyes filled with impress at Jack, “I want Xing Tian Meng and Shi Hai Corporations’ data on their flow of funds, their current client lists, and also their proceeding bidding cases, as detailed as you can get them.”

“Aside from Tang Yi and Zuo Hong Ye, even Gu Dao Yi may not fully have a grip on all these you mentioned, Chen-ye, don’t you think that your exchange offer of Wang Kun Cheng’s power in Taiwan lacks sincerity?”

Jack raises an eyebrow, and bored, he takes out his butterfly knife and begins to flip it in his hands. A young henchman immediately steps up to stop him upon seeing this, but Chen Wen Hao interrupts him.

“Speaking to me with this attitude, aren’t you afraid that I’ll kill you?”

“Since Chen-ye is the one with a request, he can surely be like Liu Bei, and lower his position humbly to obtain what he wants.”*

Chen Wen Hao pats at the surface of the table, and loudly says, “Good, I did not place my bet on the wrong person! Liang Dian, Xing Tian Meng’s pool is too small, and it is a pity for you to stay here. You should come and discuss the Cambodian business with us.”

“Okay,” Jack smiles at Chen Wen Hao, the movement of the butterfly knife in his hands coming to a stop.

—

Investigations Team Three

Tonight, Zhao Zi is taking the night shift with Shao Fei, and one of them is standing in the office with the glass door closed, a cardboard box opened on the table and taking out the items inside one by one.

The box contains the last of Li Zhen-jie’s belongings, there are medals and awards, her police badge and also a team photo of Team Three.

“Boss, think back carefully, was there some connection and interaction between Li Zhen-jie and Chen Wen Hao?”

“When Li Zhen was transferred to Team Three, Chen Wen Hao was already in prison, so I don’t think they knew each other.”

“But there is Li Zhen-jie’s signature on the prison’s meeting logbook, I confirmed this, and it is indeed her handwriting. And she even went to see Chen Wen Hao with Tang Guo Dong!”

“Wait, when was this?”

“1990.”

Shao Fei looks through the things Li Li Zhen left on one hand, and recalls his conversation with Shi Da Pao.

“Since Boss said that Chen Wen Hao was already in prison before Li Zhen-jie transferred into the team, then she might have gone to see Chen Wen Hao for a case? But even if she was investigating a case, why would she have gone to see Chen Wen Hao with Tang Guo Dong? What is the relationship between them? Why did the both of them die in the same place?”

Opening the circular tube containing a graduation certificate, he doesn’t see anything else, and rifling through the books left in the box, he doesn’t find any other clues hidden between the pages either.

“Ah!”

Shao Fei yells in frustration, his hands pulling at his hair hard.

Incorrect! There has to be a clue he missed, he doesn’t believe that Li Zhen-jie was in cahoots with Xing Tian Meng, and so before she died, her meeting with Tang Guo Dong was definitely not because she wanted to leak information to him.

There has to be some other reason that made Li Zhen-jie contact Tang Guo Dong, there has to be!

It’s just, where exactly is the missing clue to the puzzle? Where is it?

“Damn it!” Shao Fei swipes Li Li Zhen’s belongings to the ground, and regrets it immediately the next second. Holding his head in his arms, he tries hard to breathe and calm his emotions down. Seeing the photo of himself and Li Zhen-jie, he remembers that when he first entered the team, he brought quite a lot of trouble to her because of his impulsive nature, but she never once chided him for it. Instead, she would generously teach him everything she knew.

“Li Zhen-jie…”

Looking at the him dressed in his police uniform and making a stupid face standing right next to Li Zhen-jie in sadness, he picks up the music box at the bottom of the box, turning the latch at the bottom to open it up as he listens to the melody repeat itself.

Suddenly, he sees a corner of what looks like paper trapped inside the box, and so he carefully uses the tip of his fingernails to grab at the corner of the aged paper, wanting to open it to see.

Shao Fei looks at the paper in disbelief, his eyes wide, this is actually something Chen Wen Hao wrote to Li Zhen-jie… a love letter?

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and the only right thing I’ve ever done is to love you. — Wen Hao

“My god!”

Shao Fei cannot believe his eyes, and so continues to explore every corner of the music box, and as expected, he finds a birth certificate issued by a hospital and on it is printed…

Name of Mother - Li Li Zhen

Name of Mother’s Significant Other - Unspecified

Date of Birth - 21 October 1990

Gender - Male

“Li Zhen-jie had a kid? And the date of birth is 21 October 1990?”

How strange, why is this date so familiar?

Hold on!

“Don’t be too touched, after all I did chase after you for four years, of course I would know today is your birthday. 21 October, Libra, people who are born on this day have extraordinary personalities and thoughts, especially when it comes to personal matters, they are more persistent and firm in attitude.”

“Pfffft…. how accurate! Super accurate!”

21 October 1990, isn’t this Tang Yi’s birthday? Also…

“How coincidental, Li Zhen-jie also has a similar music box.”

“Is that so? This is the only thing my mother left me.”

“Could it be…?”

A thought suddenly flashes across Shao Fei’s mind, and so he picks up his jacket and rushes out of the office. He almost bumps into Zhao Zi, who has just come back from buying supper.

“Huh? Ah Fei where are you going? Ah Fei? Ah Fei?”

Shao Fei holds onto his steering wheel tight, his thoughts jumbled up in a mess as he drives at an urgent speed on the road.

Suddenly, the phone he left on the passenger seat rings. Turning his head for a brief glance, he sees that it is Tang Yi.

“I’m working on a case, let’s leave it at that for now.”

He quickly responds after picking the call up, and then hangs up immediately after, slamming his foot down on the accelerator to a destination unknown.

“…”

Inside the Tang mansion, a Xing Tian Meng leader sitting behind his study desk in his office, looks dumbly at his phone.

Someone actually dared to hang up on him?

“Forget it,” Tang Yi sighs, looking at his dark phone screen helplessly, and continues working his way through unfinished work.

—

Investigations Team Three, The Next Day

Lu Jun Wei hurriedly runs into the office, and seeing their Captain, he rushes until he’s right in front of him, “Bad news! Li Zhi De died in the prosecution’s holding room!”

Shi Da Pao tugs at his own shirt, his face filled with alarm and fear, “What happened? Why did he suddenly die?”

“I’m not very sure either, all I know is that it is all under investigation at the moment.”

Shi Da Pao looks at Zhao Zi, who was in the interrogation room together with Lu Jun Wei after midnight, and asks, “Did anything strange happen yesterday during interrogation?”

“No. Li Zhi De refused to speak, and thankfully, Guan Zhi-ge was there, that’s how we managed to get some information out of him.”

“Zhou Guan Zhi? Why was he interrogating with you guys?”

Zhao Zi scratches at the back of his head, and seeing his unusually furious captain, explains, “Because Li Zhi De was very tough to handle, and Guan Zhi-ge said that he could assist us.”

Shi Da Pao immediately shoves the documents in his hand away and walks out of the team office. Seeing their boss suddenly leave like this, the rest of the team exchange looks, revealing concerned expressions.

—

Tang Household

“Ah De’s death was sudden, we need to find out who exactly did it.” Tang Yi instructs while simultaneously walking into the house as he loosens his tie, his expression serious as he faces Jack.

“Yes, boss.”

“And take note of the reactions from each Xing Tian Meng faction, we must reassure our own people. After all, I was the one who sent Li Zhi De into the station, if we don’t handle this well, it will affect the progress of Hong Ye’s current accounts.”

“I understand, I will handle this immediately.”

After Jack leaves, Tang Yi picks up his phone and once again dials for Shao Fei’s phone number, but he is still directed to leave a message after no one picks up.

“I’m Meng Shao Fei, leave a message if you have something to say, if not, hang up, thanks!”

“Meng Shao Fei, where exactly are you?”

How could he not pick up his calls or return any of his messages for a whole day?

Irritated and frustrated, he walks towards his study, and the moment he pushes the door open, he sees the man who has been missing in action for almost 30 hours standing right in front of him. The man is smiling, delighted as he presses at the phone’s mic function, and replays his previous voice messages.

“Meng Shao Fei, my whole life, no one has ever dared to not pick up my calls, and not return any of my messages!”

“Where are you? Why aren’t you picking up my calls?”

“Shao Fei, it’s been a day, it’s okay if you don’t pick up my calls, at least send me a text message to let me know you’re safe, okay?

“Shao Fei, I’m really worried about you. Can you call me? I want to hear your voice…”

Shao Fei stares as Tang Yi’s expression morphs from embarrassment to anger, and smiles, “59 calls and 15 messages, you were that worried about me?”

Tang Yi glares at the person before him, and angry, he says sarcastically, “I thought Officer Meng had evaporated from the face of the earth.”

Shao Fei walks over and apologises, tightly hugging the other, “I didn’t realise that my phone fell under the car seat, and was out of battery. I’m sorry I made you worry for so long.”

Turning his hand and returning the hug from his lover, who always manages to make him feel unlike his usual self, Tang Yi sighs, “The next time you go missing, I will put a tracking device on you. What super important case is this, that you would not even realise you didn’t have your phone on you?”

“…”

Shao Fei looks at Tang Yi, hesitant as he wonders if he should tell him what he has found so far.

“What is it?” the other asks, sensitive to Shao Fei’s unusual reaction.

“Tang Yi, do you remember the names of your adoptive parents?”

“He Ru Yu, Li Shou Xing.”

Tang Yi’s brows are furrowed, as if incredibly unwilling to bring up these two people. Shao Fei takes out the notebook he has with him and flips to a specific page. He lets Tang Yi confirm the details.

“This address here, is this the place you used to stay at when you were younger?”

“Why are you investigating my past?” Tang Yi asks, staring straight at Shao Fei with alarm, caution and confusion.

“I’m not investigating you, I was actually on another case, and who knew I found some leads related to you.”

“Leads that are related to me?”

“Mnn,” Shao Fei nods, and inhaling deeply once, he gently says, “Tang Yi, I found your mother, your biological mother.”

Before he can finish speaking, the sound of a phone ringing interrupts him. Tang Yi’s looks at Shao Fei, startled, before picking up the call.

“Boss, xiaojie was taken away by He Hang’s people, he said he wants you to go over personally in exchange for xiaojie.”

“He. Hang!”

Tang Yi says these two words through gritted teeth, then pushes away the person hugging him and rushes out of the study.

“Tang Yi! Tang Yi!”

Shao Fei chases after him, worried, and unheeding of the other’s disapproval, he squeezes into the passenger seat and follows the murderous Xing Tian Meng leader to the destination highlighted by He Hang.

—-

Investigations Team Three Office - Staircase Landing

Zhou Guan Zhi is slammed heavily against the wall in the staircase landing, held up by Shi Da Pao via his collar.

Because the impact of the force used was too heavy, the man whose back struck the wall ends up in a coughing fit.

“Li Zhi De’s matter, were you the one?!”

“The person died at the prosecution’s office, how is that any of my business.”

Zhou Guan Zhi pushes Shi Da Pao away, turning around and about to leave, but the other man immediately grabs at him.

“If it wasn’t you, how would you have known that he’s dead? And you also know exactly where he died?”

He deliberately used the word ‘matter’ to replace ‘death’, and so if Zhou Guan Zhi really had nothing to do with this, then his first reaction would be similar to that of other Team Three members. It would be disbelief, fear and alarm, and not this look, as if he knew about this much earlier. Even the fact that Li Zhi De was transferred to the prosecution’s interrogation room from their own after midnight, he knows such a detail this clearly.

“You were afraid he would implicate you, and so you killed him, didn’t you?”

“Of course I’m afraid he will expose me, but boss, aren’t you afraid?”

Shi Da Pao’s eyes shift, and he retorts, “You were the one who murdered him, it’s nothing to do with me.”

“How could this not have anything to do with you? The one who let Ah Fei do as he like and investigate this case was you, the one who allowed him to protect Tang Yi right at his side was also you. In the end, we even got to the stage where Li Zhi De was brought back to the station, of course I had to silence him! If I wait until he reveals everything then you and I both are done for.”

The man, his gaze murderous and cold, laugh as he pats at the captain’s face.

“You actually knew what I was doing all along, but when have you ever stopped me during these four years? You gave the silent approval to your subordinate to sell off the drugs the police force obtained in return for a profit. Shi Da Pao, do you still think this has nothing to do with you?”

“…”

Shi Da Pao is speechless as he hears Zhou Guan Zhi’s accusations.

“Besides, that case four years ago, you were also a bystander who did nothing to stop it. What was Li Li Zhen’s relationship with you, that you would allow the rumours of her cooperating with Xing Tian Meng run rampant in the station? And you never once helped to clear her name, so you’re an accomplice. You are an accomplice who caused the death of others for your own greed, just like me!”

The last few words smash through the last of Shi Da Pao’s strength, and he numbly sits on the stairs. Covering his face in guilt, his voice weak, he says, “Why didn’t you just stop at the incident four years ago? Ah Zhi, you have already earned so much in the past few years. It’s enough! Stop already!”

“Enough?” the person who hears this cranes his neck upwards and sneers. “We police officers put our lives on the line day in and out only to earn this meagre salary. It’s not even enough to stuff the gaps of my teeth, how do I deal with those chasing me to repay debts? Stop putting yourself on a high horse, you are no different from me.”

Shi Dao Pao puts down the hands covering his face and looks at the person who’s slowly descending into insanity, and shakes his head, “You’re like this because you gamble, and this is your just desserts. And me… I did it to save my daughter. These four years, I’ve never once had a restful night, and I live in terror and regret everyday.”

Zhou Guan Zhi smirks, his eyes slanting to look at the person seated on the stairs, “Boss, as long as you took the money, your hands are dirty. No matter if it is because I deserve it, or if you were forced into a dead end, you’ve been tainted, and it is what it is.”

“Besides, isn’t it the money you took that year which allowed Xiao Ya to live on happily, all the way until now, when she’s able to have her wedding? So it doesn’t matter who wants to dig up the case from four years ago again, I will definitely not let him get away!”

He knows Zhou Guan Zhi is referring to Shao Fei, who has been so focused on the homicide case from four years ago, and he finally stands up, grips at Zhou Guan Zhi’s shirt collars and yells for him to stop.

“Ah Zhi, stop! Don’t fall any deeper into this!”

“Boss, don’t worry. I’ll be very subtle, no one will be able to find out. As long as you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, after a period of time, this will be slowly forgotten by everyone,” Zhou Guan Zhi says, arrogantly slapping away the hands at his collar and turns away.

“Ah Zhi, aren’t you afraid that I will turn myself in and expose you?”

“You!”

Zhou Guan Zhi turns back abruptly, his eyes betraying his impulse to strangle Shi Da Pao to death right at that very moment, but Shi Da Pao is no amateur either, and if they really do get into a fight, he will not have it easy. Instead, he tries the soft approach, lightening his tone as he tries to convince his Captain that they are both on the same boat.

“Boss, don’t do foolish things. Xiao Ya is about to get married, and you’ve done so much for her. Don’t you want to see her happily get married, and become the most beautiful bride?”

“,,,”

Shi Da Pao’s eyes tear up as he keeps silent, Zhou Guan Zhi hitting him where it hurts. Seeing that he has gotten his way, Zhou Guan Zhi smiles, smug as he stuffs his hands into his jacket’s pockets. He leaves the staircase, whistling casually as he goes.

—

In an Abandoned Factory

Chen Wen Hao sits on a chair, two men standing next to him on his sides. On the other chair, Zuo Hong Ye’s hands have been tied behind her, and a cloth is stuffed into her mouth, but she displays no sign of fear as she glares at He Hang, who has a gun pressed to her temple. Tang Yi, who arrived with Shao Fei, nods at Gu Dao Yi, who has been waiting outside for a while, and the three of them walk into the abandoned factory that is filled with a metallic stench.

“I’m here, let Hong Ye go.”

“No problem. My target is not her. He Hang, let Zuo-xiaojie go.”

“Boss, aren’t we making it too easy for Tang Yi by letting Zuo Hong Ye go?” He Hang refuses to loosen the ropes on Hong Ye as he glares at Tang Yi in fury.

“Tang Yi, I’ve been in Xing Tian Meng for so long, why did Tang Guo Dong let you become leader? How much authority does Xing Tian Meng wield in the underworld, and you want to go legal and reform? Aside from cutting off our brothers’ path to riches, you also handed one of us over to the police! I might as well just kill you here, lest you get in the way.”

The gun that was pressed to Hong Ye’s brain suddenly shifts to the Xing Tian Meng leader standing before him, but all he gets in return is the other’s cold laugh, full of ridicule and mockery for He Hang.

“You? If you were really capable, how would you have repeatedly failed in trying to assassinate me?”

“Fuck! I will kill you right now with a single shot, do you not believe me?!”

“He Hang, did you forget that I am still here? You’re in no position to talk here.”

“Chen… Chen-ye… but…”

Chen Wen Hao’s seemingly light tone belies a chilling warning under it, and He Hang retreats, not daring to say another word.

“Yes… yes, Chen-ye…”

Drenched in cold sweat, the man immediately keeps his gun, and loosens the ropes on Hong Ye, then pushes her towards Tang Yi. Tang Yi catches Hong Ye, and asks, concerned, “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Dao Yi, take Hong Ye and go.”

The bespectacled man stands between He Hang and Hong Ye, as if guarding against the possibility of another attack should the other man change his mind.

“I’m not going to leave, I want to face this together with you at your side.”

“If you get hurt I will hate myself, so, just go!” Tang Yi says in a low voice, tightly holding onto Hong Ye’s arm.

“I understand, you be careful,” Hong Ye bites at her lips, her eyes reddening as she leaves the factory under Dao Yi’s protection.

Chen Wen Hao gets to his feet from the chair and circles Tang Yi as he walks, just like a predator playing with its prey, and says, “Do you know why I had to find you today? Is it because you killed Wang Kun Cheng? Because you cost me losses of several ships worth of goods? Because you sent a bunch of my brothers to jail? Or-“

Suddenly, Chen Wen Hao stops in his footsteps right before Tang Yi, and stares into his eyes.

“Is it because four years ago, you saw the crime scene of Tang Guo Dong and Li Li Zhen’s death?”

“…”

Anger flashes in Tang Yi’s eyes, and the moment he takes a step, he is stopped by the other’s raised gun.

“No! None of that! I got you to come here because you are Tang Guo Dong’s son. Tang Guo Dong stole my woman, caused the death of my and Li Li Zhen’s child, and found someone in prison to create trouble for me, made me go through 24 years in jail. Twenty. Four. Years!”

“…”

Shao Fei stares at Chen Wen Hao in surprise, recalling the brith certificate he saw not long ago.

Li Zhen-jie’s child, was Chen Wen Hao’s? Tang Yi’s biological mother, is Li Zhen-jie? So… Chen Wen Hao is Tang Yi’s real, biological…

Chen Wen Hao does not see the young officer’s face go white, and continues, “When I came out, Xing Tian Meng became yours? What a joke, how is it that Tang Guo Dong could have everything, but I ended up with a broken family and nothing to my name? No, this is not fair, isn’t it?”

He pauses for a while after, and a dark, vicious smile emerges, “So… I want you… dead!”

All the men that were guarding outside of the factory suddenly rush in, surrounding Tang Yi and Shao Fei from the back. The both of them have no choice but to put up both their hands and pretend to surrender. Shao Fei takes half a step, opening his mouth to say, “Chen Wen Hao, Tang Yi, he’s-“

“Shut up, this is no place for you to talk.”

Tang Yi suddenly falls to the floor, avoiding the line of fire from the barrel of the gun and kicks out at the man holding the gun on him. It is only after the man falls does Tang Yi snatch the gun away, turning back to face Chen Wen Hao, the gun pointed at him.

At the same time, Chen Wen Hao has his gun turned towards Tang Yi.

“Chen Wen Hao, I’ve devised this plan for four whole years, all to force you to come back from Cambodia to take revenge for Tang-ye, because, it was you who killed him!”

“No! I didn’t kill him!”

“Shut up! You’re going to pay with your life!”

“Tang Yi!”

“Don’t stop me!”

Seeing that things are about to spiral uncontrollably, to a point of no return, Shao Fei can no longer care about anything else, and quickly blurts out the truth from that year.

“Don’t shoot! Chen Wen Hao is your father!”

===

*This is a metaphor and you can temporarily ignore who Liu Bei is.

[reyescarlos]

you and i || a buddie fic

for my yeehaw darling @buckleys-diaz who has a heart bigger than her home state. i’m wishing you the absolute happiest of birthdays! forever grateful the fates decided to let our paths cross. ily 💕💜

word count 4.7k || read on ao3

We can meet in the middle Bodies and souls collide Dance in the moonlight When all the stars align

There are few people Eddie would drive six hours for on a Friday afternoon but with one goal in mind, for one person in particular, the journey— he knew— would be well worth it.

Putting a label on what Buck was to him now was a difficult thing to do. They were exes. They were friends. They were co-workers. But they were so much more than all of that combined. Those titles did not begin to tell the story of what Buck meant to him. But finding the words, let alone saying them out loud was just as futile a task as trying to parse through what he felt each time Buck so much as said his name.

Eddie’s feelings were many and varied and he wasn’t particularly skilled at speaking his mind. But what he could do was show a person what they meant to him and today would be no different.

Six hours behind the wheel was exhausting but it was worth each and every second to see the look on Buck’s as he pulled up to Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego.

Buck had stared for a moment up at the shop. A line was starting to form

“You drove us six hours to go to a bookstore? There are so many great ones back in L.A.,” he said, confusion coloring his tone and features.

“True but none of them are doing an in-store signing with Andy Weir today, now are they?”

Eddie had thought Buck short-circuited with the way the man held his breath, jaw slacked, and eyes unblinking for a moment.

“No. No way,” he finally said, tearing his eyes away from Eddie and swiveling back to look at the store. He’d craned his neck a bit closer to the glass, taking notice of the poster in the store's window advertising for Andy’s latest novel.

“Eddie,” he breathed, shaking his head. “Are you serious right now?”

“Like you said, I drove us six hours. Do you think I’m kidding?” he laughed. “Come on, let’s grab a spot in line before it turns into a complete zoo out here.”

Eddie had gone into the backseat and retrieved an item he’d hidden back there this whole time. He came around to where Buck anxiously stood on the sidewalk

“I wish I had my—,” he started to say but stopped short as Eddie held out Buck’s personal copy of The Martian.

“I may or may not have nicked it off you the last time I was over at your place.”

Buck took the book from him and smiled so brightly it made Eddie’s heart ache. To be able to make Buck smile like that even after they called it quits felt like a gift.

“Unbelievable, thank you,” he remarked holding on closely to the well-loved book.

Eddie knew how much he loved it, so much so that Buck had made it a goal to get Eddie hooked on the novel. Buck was a huge fan of Weir’s but had unfortunately missed out on his signing back home due to work. Eddie had happened across an ad online promoting Andy’s new book and had clicked around to see more about it, the author’s name etched into his mind thanks to Buck’s repeated mentions.

Watching Buck get the chance to meet his favorite author and chat briefly was something he would never forget and Eddie knew for a fact that Buck never would either. Eddie had stood off to the side, taking pictures of Buck with the author,  practically beaming with Buck as the writer expressed how happy he was to see Buck’s well-loved copy of his first novel. Buck’s copy had tabs and annotations in the margins. There was no doubt that he’d read the novel repeatedly.

As they leave the store now, Buck’s happiness just seems to roll off of him in waves, the edges of it reaching Eddie until he’s consumed entirely by it as well. It’s something to relish in.

In the car Buck still clings to his books as if they're a lifeline of some kind. Eddie looks at him for a moment, a perfect snapshot of the man he loves reveling in the high of a perfect day before he starts the engine and merges with traffic.

“I still can’t believe you did this for me, Eds,” Buck reveres, staring down at the books in his hands. He opens up to the title page once more where his name is scribbled alongside Andy’s message and signature.

Eddie pulls his gaze back to the road, Buck’s enthusiasm rubbing off on him as he smiles to himself. It does something to his heart to see Buck this happy, moreover to know that he’s the cause of that joy. It’s a comfort to know he’s capable of such a thing.

“I know how bummed you were when you missed his L.A. stop and he’s your favorite. It only seemed right. It was nothing.”

“Wrong. So wrong, Eddie. It’s everything. Thank you,” Buck says as they pull up to a red light.

Eddie takes advantage of this short reprieve to look over at Buck again. He feels that all too familiar twinge in his heart that he always does when he stares into Buck’s eyes for even a second too long. All those feelings he tries so hard to stifle live so close to the surface. Eddie feels like it’s a full-time job trying to keep them at bay. Times like this really put him to the test, especially when he can see something mirrored back in Buck’s expression. If he was a braver man, he would ask but fear is a worthy adversary and Eddie is left with no other option than to concede defeat.

He offers up a small smile before pressing his foot against the pedal the moment the light turns green. It serves as the perfect break to the trance.

“I will get you to read The Martian one day, if it’s the last thing I do,” Buck jokingly warns.

“I’ll watch the movie and we’ll call it even.”

Buck scoffs and falls silent again. Eddie can hear the rustling of the book’s pages as Buck combs through it once again. The ease to which they’ve always been able to move around each other is something that Eddie will never grow tired of. Considering the fact that they’re no longer together, he’s even more grateful for the fact that they’ve been able to maintain a close relationship.

Far too often Eddie is wracked with guilt and doubt over his decision to end things. They hadn’t even been official long before he broke them up. He had surrendered to fear and succumbed to the voice in the back of his head that told him he wasn’t good enough, that he would inevitably find a way to screw things up. He felt Buck deserved better and had decided to set him free.

It’s a moment in his life that Eddie revisits constantly. He remembers with stunning clarity the way Buck’s face had fallen when Eddie had him over that night to talk. Eddie had been selfishly glad when Buck said he wanted to remain friends. He wasn’t sure how that would work or if it was simply Buck trying to ease the tension but it’s been a few months now and they’re still so tight-knit. Eddie knows how lucky he is for it, that so many people in his shoes would simply just miss out on maintaining any connection to their ex.

Eddie never wants to lose this. He isn’t sure how he’d be expected to carry on if he didn’t, at the very least, have Buck in his corner as a friend. But he also knows that he will always long for what they had. It might not have lasted long but the feelings they both had were quite real and serious. They’d had a solid friendship before getting together, one built on love and trust. It made dating seem like the only logical next step but Eddie had retreated.

He tries not to think about that now. Dwelling on his missteps never leads to anything good. He opts to focus instead on the fact that he’s still able to bring a smile to Buck’s face and do something special for him.

Eddie has only been driving for about thirty minutes when smoke begins to billow from the hood. He turns on his indicator, pulling over onto the side of the road.

“Just great,” he mutters as he kills the engine, unbuckling his seatbelt and exiting the car. He heads to the front and unlatches the hood, fanning the smoke away from his face as he peers inside.

Buck is right beside him seconds later, trying to gauge what’s the matter. Eddie leaves him to investigate; between the two of them, Buck is the more mechanical one. Eddie watches with furrowed brows as Buck pokes around for a bit, tracking a bead of sweat as it races down the side of Buck’s neck and disappears into the collar of his shirt. Eddie quickly shifts his focus. The priority right now is tending to his vehicle, not getting distracted by his ex. It’s far easier said than done as Buck stands back and wipes at his brow. He looks particularly rugged, his fitted t-shirt hugging his frame just so. It’s enough to make Eddie’s throat feel dry.

Eddie reins himself back in, all too glad when Buck speaks so that his thoughts can get back on track.

“I’m sorry, Eddie. I think we’re going to have to call this one in,” he says with a sigh. “Looks to me like you’ve got a cracked cylinder.”

Eddie purses his lips but nods, taking his phone out of his pocket and pulling up the number for a local car service. He explains the situation they’re in to the man on the phone who assures him that he’ll get a tow truck out to their location as quickly as possible.

“And now we wait,” he says to Buck, heading back to the car to take a seat.

Buck is grinning as he settles back into the passenger seat.

“And I know just how you can kill the time,” he replies, holding up his tattered copy of The Martian.

Eddie jokingly groans but takes the novel from a smug Buck before turning to the first page. The opening line couldn’t be more accurate to how he feels about being stuck on the side of the road with an ex-boyfriend he’s still very much in love with:

I’m pretty much fucked.

He steals a glance at Buck but quickly sees there’s no reason for him to try and be covert. Buck is already engulfed by his new book. Eddie can’t help but to silently observe him, taking notice of the way Buck’s whole demeanor changes when he’s relaxed and zeroed in on the task of reading. It’s such a familiar expression and once again, it makes Eddie feel wistful for their relationship. How many nights had he spent in bed beside Buck, nose in a book swearing that he just needed to finish off a chapter before turning off the light? It’d always been endearing to see Buck in his element, soaking up as much from a story as he could before calling it a night.

If Eddie could go back in time and stop himself from ending things, he would in a heartbeat. At times Eddie would get the crazy idea in mind that he should just tell Buck he’s made a mistake, that he wants for them to try again. But to do so would be to disrupt the balance they’ve been able to find and maintain for themselves.

He can’t risk that nor would he place Buck in the awkward position of being put on the spot. This was Eddie’s error and he has already resigned himself to the fact that he’ll just have to live with the consequences of his decision.

They sit in a silence so comfortable for so long that Eddie has made significant progress on the book by the time their tow truck arrives. Buck’s copy is so dog-eared and well-worn that Eddie has to use a random receipt from the center console to mark his place. Buck reluctantly sets aside his new book, careful to put it back inside of the bookstore bag to keep it protected before hopping out.

Eddie climbs out of the car yet again too and greets the mechanic. The man gives the engine the onceover and confirms Buck’s theory.

“Can you fix it here?” Eddie asks. They’re hours behind schedule and the last thing he wants is to be delayed any further by having to go down to the shop.

“No, ‘fraid not. I can take it in overnight and let you know in the morning or early afternoon.”

Eddie blows out a breath and runs an impatient hand through his hair but Buck doesn’t seem bothered by the sudden change in plans at all.

“Is there somewhere nearby that we can crash for the night?” he asks.

“There’s a motel just up the road there. I can drop you fellas off and give you a call tomorrow when your car’s ready,” the mechanic says.

“Works for me,” Buck replies with an indifferent shrug. “I like a good adventure.”

That was one of the things Eddie had grown to love most about Buck. His optimism could almost be blind but it meant he chose to see good in people and situations. That was a trait Eddie would always respect. Looking on the bright side wasn’t always easy for him but with Buck, he had learned how to let the light in. That kind of thing left its mark on a person and Eddie’s life hasn’t been the same, in the best ways imaginable. But holding on to good wasn’t a skill Eddie had ever truly mastered, even when he had someone so perfect for him right within his grasp.

He fights the thought from lingering now. He’s spent the last few months falling down that spiral and it’s yet to assuage him of the regret he feels.

Instead, he follows after Buck to the car to grab their stuff before piling into the cab of the tow truck.

This evening isn’t going at all like Eddie envisioned; the last thing he pictured for either of them was being smushed in the front section of a tow truck or having to stay overnight in San Diego. But life, he knew better than most, seldom went according to plan. What mattered most was that this day was still special for Buck and wasn’t overshadowed by the sudden turn of events.

The mechanic drops them off at the motel and Eddie trades contact information with him before thanking him and parting ways.

“Do you think we should have called ahead to make sure they even have rooms available?” Eddie asks, suddenly realizing the gamble they are taking.

“Maybe but I’m sure it’ll be fine. If they don’t have any vacancies, we can always try somewhere else. Come on.”

Eddie nods and follows Buck inside. As far as off the road motels go, this one isn’t too sketchy which comes as a mild comfort to Eddie. Their night is already feeling like some kind of parody.

He marches to the receptionist counter where a middle aged man is writing something down on a notepad.

“Hi, excuse me,” Eddie greets. “Would you happen to have any rooms available for the night?”

The man looks up and glances between Eddie and Buck. “For you two?”

Eddie stands up a bit straighter. “Yes.”

“Lucky you; I’ve only got one free one left. Everything else is booked up solid.”

Eddie sighs in relief. “That’s perfect. We’ll take it.”

He hands over his card for the man to charge before taking it back and the key he hands to him for their room. Eddie leads them both over to their room, toying with the motel keychain attached. It’s silly to feel nervous when he’s spent so much time around Buck but he hadn’t been planning on spending the night with him like this. The plan was to just drive straight through, maybe trade off if he felt tired and let Buck bring them back to Los Angeles. Nowhere on the itinerary did he expect to be sharing a room with his ex.

Eddie opens the door to the room once they arrive and falters for a moment. He retraces his conversation with the receptionist, suddenly realizing he hadn’t been clear in seeing if the room had two beds. When the man asked if they would be sharing the space, Eddie realizes now that the clerk hadn’t been prying or being standoffish. He must have assumed that Eddie and Buck were a couple who wouldn’t have any qualms about sharing a bed.

He steps further inside and drops his bag down on the floor at the foot of the bed, staring at it as if it’s something he has to decode. He then looks to Buck to see if he’s just as taken aback as he is but he can’t detect any unease or discomfort at the situation they’ve now found themselves in. They haven’t shared a bed in months, not since they broke up and Eddie doesn’t know if this is pushing boundaries.

“I can take the floor or see if they can bring up a cot or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t bite you know,” Buck teases. But Eddie’s face heats up thinking about all the times that wasn’t true when they both got carried away in bed. Buck must realize the inaccuracy same as Eddie because he laughs and says, “Well, not always, anyway.”

Eddie laughs in spite of himself and shakes his head, stuffing his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Alright. If you’re cool with it then I am, too.”

Buck smiles reassuringly at him before setting his duffle bag on top of the bed and scrounging around for a change of clothes. He manages to find something and Eddie lets out a breath when Buck takes his findings to the bathroom to get changed for bed.

This is going to be a long night, Eddie thinks to himself as he follows Buck’s lead and grabs a change of clothes for himself. He makes quick work of swapping out his jeans for pajama bottoms. As he’s tugging down his new t-shirt he hears a small creaking sound of a door to the left of him.

“Sorry,” Buck mumbles where he stands frozen in the doorway of the bathroom, pulling his gaze away from Eddie’s frame.

Eddie stays in place, rooted to his spot as well. “You’re fine.”

He wonders at how long Buck may have been standing there but he casts the thought aside. It’s ridiculous to think that he could have still have that effect on Buck. What they had was over and done with. It didn’t matter if his heart still wanted Buck, if every part of him still longed for his ex. He wouldn’t drag Buck back when they already agreed to move forward.

Buck taps his fingers soundlessly against his thigh before he joins Eddie in the main space of the room.

There’s an odd energy between them now, living in the silence that cloaks the room. Eddie can feel the weight of it pressing against him but he has to wonder if it’s just all in his head.

“We should get some sleep. With luck we’ll be able to get out of here early,” he says with a small yawn.

It’s been an extremely long day of driving all the way up from L.A. and the thought of closing his eyes and getting decent rest sounds appealing. But once again he looks at the bed they’re going to have to share and suddenly his fatigue dissipates.

“You’re right, yeah.”

Buck braves climbing into bed first, taking a spot on the left side of the mattress, his usual place in bed. Just the familiarity of that makes Eddie feel nervous but to dawdle would be to raise suspicion and the last thing he wants is to make Buck feel as if he can’t be around him.

Eddie shuts off the bedside light as he lays on top the covers. His mind is a storm sending his thoughts crashing around his head. It’s all so loud and disorienting, so much so that all Eddie can do is stare up ahead at the darkened ceiling above him and wait for it to pass.

He doesn't hear the usual soft sounds of Buck’s breathing, the telltale sign that sleep has found him. He knows what this means, that beside him Buck is wide awake too. He wonders about what Buck could be thinking of. A part of him— all of him, truthfully— is hoping that Buck is awake now for the same reasons he is. There’s so much on the tip of his tongue that’s been trying to come out. But for months now, Eddie has been able to hide it safely behind friendly smiles. It’s been taking its toll though and now, laying beside Buck, being close enough to feel the warmth of his body, it feels like he only has seconds left on the clock before this little game is over.

“Are you awake?” Buck asks.

Eddie sits up a bit and turns on the lamp before shifting to see Buck.

“What’s on your mind?”

Buck turns his head to look at him. All Eddie can do is stare silently, studying the features he’s long since grown accustomed to. It’s how he knows there’s a hesitancy in Buck’s eyes, that there’s something he wants to say but isn’t sure how to.

“I’m just thinking about how awesome today has been.”

“You mean car trouble and impromptu overnight stay aside?”

Buck laughs softly. “Maybe even more because of it. I actually wasn’t ready to go back home yet. I really like having this time with you.”

Buck holds his gaze and Eddie’s traitorous heart beats faster at the implication of these words.

“Yeah, me too. I wanted today to be special. You deserve that. I’m glad you had a good time.”

Buck opens his mouth to speak but just sighs instead, casting his gaze downward to where Eddie’s hand rests in the small space between them. Eddie holds his breath to see what his ex will do, silently praying for some kind of contact, some kind of sign that Buck wants to get closer too. Eddie knows he can’t be alone in feeling this pull.

Silently Buck places his hand over Eddie’s and gives it a soft, barely there squeeze.

“It means more to me than I think you’ll ever know. The fact that you went out of your way like that...I don’t know. I’m just lucky to have you,” Buck says. “I mean, as a friend. I’m uh, I’m really...um, grateful.”

Buck frowns a bit to himself and it’s obvious to Eddie that there’s more Buck wants to say. If Buck could be brave enough to breach the conversation that’s apparently long overdue, Eddie knows he can be too and take the baton from Buck and continue this race.

“Friends, right.”

Eddie clears his throat and braces himself for what he’s about to say. Jumping in headfirst is terrifying but if it leads to complete transparency and the chance at speaking honestly, Eddie decides it’s more than worth it.

“I don’t think we’ve ever really gone back to being friends. At least I know I haven’t, not completely. You know, sometimes I’d think it’d be easier if I could just move on from this. But I know how lucky I was. I don’t ever want to forget what we had or how it felt to be loved by you,” Eddie says boldly, cutting right to the chase.

The weight of the truth off his chest is an instant relief though, quickly in its place, comes the worry that he’s said too much too soon. With him it always seems to be all or nothing, one extreme or the other. But Eddie feels that he’s been quiet for too long about this as it is. These last few months have been torture with the true nature of his feelings eating away at him. Now isn’t the time to cower anymore.

There’s something about being out of Los Angeles and miles away from home that makes him feel brave, as if he and Buck are somehow on a different plane of existence. Whatever is spoken now is truly just between the two of them now. There isn’t any concern of anyone coming along and interrupting. True to form, with Buck he can be his full self. He can be candid and vulnerable with him in a way he would never even dream of letting his guard down around anyone else.

“Past tense,” Buck notes quietly. “You say that as if I’m somehow over you.”

This comment catches Eddie off guard and he knows it must show in his face from the way Buck smiles at him.

“Are you really surprised by that? I didn’t want us to break up. I just respected the fact that you weren’t ready just yet. That didn’t mean I stopped caring about you in that way. I could never.”

“I’m sorry I got scared,” Eddie says, intertwining their fingers and pulling Buck’s hand to his chest.

Buck shakes his head. “You don’t have to apologize; I’ve never been upset with you. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

Eddie cups Buck’s face with his free hand, watching the way his stunning blue eyes drift closed, lashes casting shadows on the apples of his cheeks. Another snapshot from this already perfect day: the sight of Buck in what could only be described as bliss from his touch. Eddie takes in Buck’s expression, the softness of his face, the openness and trust being expressed here.

In a word, it’s perfect. And in this moment, it’s his.

Eddie leans in tentatively and Buck’s eyes open once again, tracking Eddie’s movement, his lips parting in anticipation. Eddie breathes him in as he closes the distance, allowing himself to free fall right into this kiss.

He strokes Buck’s cheek with the pad of his thumb, tracing the contours of his face like a sculptor. This moment is a masterpiece and Eddie wants to give it the time and care that it rightfully deserves.

Buck matches his pace, his mouth roving over Eddie’s with such ease. This is nothing new to them and yet in some capacity this feels different. Second chances don’t come around often too often for Eddie but this time around, he’s certain he can get it right. These last few months without this level of access to Buck had been trying. So many weeks stretched out before him, each day fading a memory of what he once had.

Kissing Buck now is like breathing new life into him. The void that had taken up residency in the center of him is being filled with each touch, each soft sound leaving Buck and being entrusted with him. Eddie kisses him back deeply, letting go of all those fears that plagued him before, that he would somehow turn out to be the opposite of what Buck wanted. This man was very clearly choosing him, and has deemed him worth the time it took to wait for Eddie to finally accept a good thing that was being presented to him.

Now that they’ve crossed this threshold, there’s no turning back and that’s precisely how Eddie wants it.

Eddie pulls away to draw in a clean breath after a few moments, his chest heaving. Buck’s face is flushed, his lips slightly swollen and upturned in an almost embarrassed smile but Eddie doesn’t think he has any reason to be bashful. He leans in once more and places a gentle kiss on Buck’s lips, feeling the smile wipe away as Buck grows serious and wraps his arms around Eddie, holding him tightly.

This day has turned into something he couldn’t have ever seen coming but Eddie knows one thing to be true:

The safest place he could ever dwell is right here in Buck’s heart.

[saiilorstars]

Dare To Forget Me

Ch. 27: Shock-worthy

(Previous chapters)

Fandom: Law & Order SVU

Pairing:  Rafael Barba x OFC

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel​​ [If you’d like to be added to this specific OC’s stories/edits, send me a message!]

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ` 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: The case SVU has going on is a particularly terrifying one. It has a few of the detectives feeling sick to their stomachs. Meanwhile, Sonny comes to a shock-worthy realization that might hurt a few people...

"So you guys didn't really...get anything, did you?" Montserrat couldn't help ask Amanda as they walked down the corridor of Riker's. At Murphy's command, the two detectives were supposed to visit Gordon and extract more information on Wilkes.

Amanda's bob of head said exactly what she thought about their undercover job. They hadn't really gotten anything from Wilkes directly, so now they were supposed to get Gordon to talk again. "We tried. Murphy tried."

"Hm…" was all Montserrat had to say.

They stopped at the front desk where they had to sign and relinquish their guns.

"I get that you don't like him, but he is trying to do his job," Amanda leaned against the desk while Montserrat finished writing her last signature.

"Oh, I can't say that I don't like him this early in the game," Montserrat looked up with an expression that read 'But I'm close to saying it'. "I just feel like he needs to sit back and let us show him how we do things. He should be taking notes from Olivia. She's practically a Lieutenant already."

"Well, as long as you don't say it this early," Amanda's light sarcasm made Montserrat roll her eyes.

The two detectives were allowed into the visitor's ward a short moment afterwards. Gordon was brought out and immediately had something to say to them.

"Can you get me into solitary? Everybody's looking at me all the time."

Montserrat so badly wanted to respond with 'Why do you think?' but knew it would hinder their investigation. So, she kept her mouth shut until she had something better to say.

"Might be able to do that, but you gotta stop holding out on us," Amanda was the one to respond. "Your pal Erastes, did he ever talk about actually hurting boys?"

Gordon shook his head. "No, I'm not a part of that, okay? I-I-I just like to watch. He is into things that I would never do."

"Hm, like what?" Montserrat gave him a hard, levelled look warning him he better not lie.

"Well, there was this live-streaming Webcast from Estonia a few months ago. Erastes kept sending messages to the master asking him to hurt the boy...make him bleed. Now, I-I turned it off, but then later, Erastes bragged that he had watched the boy die. And then he said to me that we should find a boy that nobody would miss."

Montserrat exchanged a glance with Amanda. This could be exactly what they were looking for.

"Listen to me very carefully," Amanda leaned forwards, "What was the name of that webcast?"

~0~

Once they had gathered sufficient information from Gordon, Montserrat and Amanda reported back to Murphy about what they learned.

"Gordon told us about a Webcast for something called 'damage groups'", Montserrat said, though the more she explained the more uncomfortable she looked. And that was saying something considering what they worked at. "They take live requests to torture young kids. The darker the skin, the worse they get it. Bruises don't show."

"Okay, any way to access it?"

"It streamed live three months ago," Amanda replied. "And everything's been turned over to interpol."

"That won't help," Murphy turned to the other detectives in the office. "Take over Gordon's chat room accounts. Keep fishing."

The detectives filed out of the office with their new tasks. Though at the end of the day, they really didn't come up with much to work with except for another UC job.

"How about tonight?" Nick was asking the others as they left the precinct.

"Tell me where," Olivia agreed.

"No, I got to head uptown, going to a meeting," Amanda said as she backtracked in the opposite direction.

"Okay. Safe home," Olivia waved her off.

"She's really working her program," Montserrat was happy to see. It wasn't too long ago that Olivia was threatening to transfer Amanda and now here she was doing better than ever.

"Least someone's doing good around here," Nick shrugged, though his attempt at being casual failed miserably.

"Jesus Nick, you could at least pretend to be civil with Murphy," Montserrat turned to him. "You know, like the rest of us do. Right?" she glanced at Sonny, but the detective just shrugged.

"He's alright," his choice of words prompted Olivia to make a 'thank you' motion at him.

"Guys, I think you all just need to give him a chance," Olivia felt tired of having to repeat herself. Everyone just seemed on the plan to hate Murphy.

"You should be C.O. now," Nick said, "He comes in and…"

Olivia was not interested in hearing the same thing again tonight. She guessed why Nick seemed more on edge today. "Maria and Zara are in town, right?"

Nick knew where she was going and shook his head at her. "Yeah. I'm not crossing the line. Maria asked to see me. She got a job offer in California and wants to take Zara with her."

Now it was really easy to understand why and Nick was so on edge.

"And she brought up the idea of me going with them."

"What?" Olivia blinked.

"Yeah, I know. I mean, a month ago, she's calling you, telling me to back off. I do, and then…"

"Are you thinking of going?" Montserrat had to wonder. It wasn't easy separating from your child, much less when that child would be going to the other end of the country.

"My life is here," Nick said without a moment's thought. "I don't want to fight, but Maria's not taking my daughter away from me."

"We're here if you need anything," Sonny said. Nick thanked him and the others. "Hey Montse, Kara just texted me saying you weren't answering her."

"My phone's dead,"Montserrat shrugged.

Sonny gave her a look that indicated how irresponsible that was, but all the ginger did was shrug. She was going home anyways, what was the point?

"She's having dinner with her brother and wants you...and me…there…"

Montserrat gave him an amused look. "You, uh, don't sound so excited about it."

"Having dinner with your girlfriend's brother isn't exactly what I had in mind when I asked her to have dinner with me," he said in a straight face, one that made it incredibly hard not to laugh.

"Damian is nice and you're going unless you want to die by Kara's wrath."

Before Sonny would answer that, he briefly looked to Olivia and Nick. "Now you know who did it if I ever disappear."

Now Montserrat had to laugh. "C'mon!" she grabbed him by the arm. "I wonder what she made for dinner? I hope it's not pasta again. She's the one dating the Italian, not me." Sonny rolled his eyes while Montserrat dragged him away then waved goodbye to the others.

When the two got home, they found Kara in the kitchen, taking something out from the oven. She was dressed in a nice sleeveless, purple jumper. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail and when she turned around they saw her light make-up.

"Don't you look nice," Montserrat remarked. She began to take off her blazer. "Making me feel underdressed."

"Makes 2," Sonny said rather self-consciously as he fixed the collar of his button shirt.

Kara set down the tray of casserole on the table and smiled. "You guys are fine. It's just a casual dinner."

"It's never casual for me," Sonny said with a frown on his face.

"Jesus, you are so dramatic," Montserrat patted his arm and went straight for the table.

"Ah! Don't touch!" Kara smacked Montserrat's hand away from the food.

It was always the rule: don't touch the food until every guest is there. Lucky for Montserrat, who happened to be starving, Damian arrived only 5 minutes of waiting.

"Oh thank God, sit down!" Montserrat gave Damian a quick hug then yanked him towards the kitchen.

"Hello to you too," Damien said with a laugh. "Guess we're not giving hugs to anyone else?"

Kara stood by the table with her hands on her hips. "Guess not." Her disapproving look on Montserrat didn't faze the ginger at all.

"It's fine. She gets a pass," Damian smiled at Montserrat.

"I do? Why? Just so that I know how to use it when I need it," Montserrat pushed her chair in and signaled Kara and Sonny to do the same.

"Because you're you," Damian looked at her with type of expression that almost made Sonny do a double-take.

Was he seeing right? Was anyone else seeing right?

They started eating together and having conversations. It started with Kara's day which, as it turned out, had been stressful.

"This lady was just so difficult to work with! She asked for a bob and I gave her a bob but then she started saying it wasn't!" Kara huffed angrily. The mere reminder of the frustrating woman made her blood pressure go up. "How do you not see what a bob is!?"

"You want more to drink?" Sonny asked her, making Montserrat and Damian laugh on the side.

Kara pointed but nodded her head. "Yes, please. I really hope I never see her again."

"If you pissed her off that bad then she won't be coming back anytime soon," Damian pointed his glass at her. "Drink up, little sister." Kara all but drowned her glass that Sonny had just filled up.

"Dare I ask how was your day, then?" Damian looked to Montserrat.

"Eh, I don't think you would want to know," Montserrat crossed gazes with Sonny. Wilkes was quite the man and his doings weren't something you'd want to talk about at the table.

"Gloomy, got it," Damian nodded. "I don't know how you guys do it, honestly. Seeing all that stuff…"

"We do it for the victims," Sonny said without a second thought.

"So what do you prefer doing?" Damian asked Montserrat. "Homicide or SVU?"

Montserrat bobbed her head while she thought about it. Each time she did, though, she always came up with the same answer. "SVU. Homicide gave me the luxury of not having to deal with live victims, but SVU gives me the ability to get full justice for victims. They're here to see it be done."

"And I guess you get to talk to them and make them feel better?"

"Well, gotta admit sometimes it feels like there's not a lot of words we can say to make them feel better," Montserrat said with a small sigh. "Though it does get better when they get to hear the guilty verdict."

"But you're there, helping them through the process," Damian gave her a soft smile. "I'm sure you give them a lot of comfort."

Montserrat automatically smiled back. "Thanks."

Whether or not he planned to, Sonny looked over to Kara. He wondered if she saw the same thing he was beginning to, but Kara looked none the wiser. She ate and laughed along with them. But another thing Sonny saw was that Montserrat didn't even appear to notice anything.

Maybe I'm overanalyzing things, he thought after a moment. This was meant to be a dinner, after all. Just a casual night with his girlfriend and friends.

But then Damian pointed out the watch Montserrat was wearing around her wrist - it'd been his gift for her on her birthday. It was a beautiful Kate Spade watch with light pink crystals over the hour the glass. Sonny, as well as the others back at the precinct, had remarked over the elegant watch when they first noticed it. Montserrat absolutely loved it.

When Damian remarked he'd gotten the watch on a good deal, as a joke of course, Sonny went into shock with his realization.

~0~

Thanks to the latest UC job Murphy conducted, SVU had been been led straight to Wilkes' torture room that turned out to be quite supplied.

"Oh, this is horrendous," Amanda was just one of the people completely stunned by Wilkes' "torture room" and what it consisted of.

Montserrat felt like she wouldn't be able to walk further into the bright, white room for fear that something might snap her ankles. Every part of the room seemed to be part of a torture instrument. Who's to say there wasn't anything on the floor ready to capture their ankles and keep them still?

"Well, that's the view he talked about," Fin stood in front of the small window that gave the perfect view to a school across the street. "Right out onto the school yard."

"Gordon was right," Sonny said with a scowl.

"Luminol every inch. Check all film and storage spaces," Murphy was busy giving orders to the incoming forensics. "Pull up the floors. Knock out the walls."

"This place is pristine," Nick stopped by Murphy and gestured to the cleanliness surrounding them. It could almost sparkle from how clean it was. "He brought boys here?"

"So he scrubbed it clean. He's careful," Murphy moved past him.

"So what does he do with the bodies?" Olivia dreaded to think the more she gazed around the room.

"Open up the drains and test for chemicals," Murphy called to the nearest forensic. "I want a drop of blood, a shard of bone, something, anything."

"Lieutenant," another forensic's walked up with several pictures in hand, "CSU found these hiding behind a fake wall."

Murphy all but snatched the pictures from the woman. He flipped through them in disgust. "Sick son of a bitch. Pick him up, now."

And that was one order none of the detectives minded following.

~ 0 ~

Wilkes had his face buried in his hands, rubbing from his forehead to his chin while he listened to Olivia's and Amanda's findings in the interrogation room.

"It was all fantasy!" he tried arguing for the tenth time since he was brought in. "Nothing happened."

"Nothing?" Olivia gaped at the blight lie being thrown her way. "Found your little…" she scrambled to find the right pictures for him to see in case he'd forgotten he owned a torture room. "We found your room! Photos of boys being tortured in that room? Who are they?"

"What? No, I photoshopped those," Wilkes tried to reach for the pictures but Olivia snatched them from his reach. "I'm an art photographer. I took photos off the lnternet and manipulated the images."

"Yeah, stop lying now," Olivia let the pictures fall back to the table. She felt Amanda's hand on her arm and was overly confused to see her not appearing to be as frustrated as she was.

"Let's hear his side."

Now Olivia was convincing herself she was hearing wrong, but Amanda looked dead serious. "His side?" she repeated, almost tapping her ear so she could see what she was doing. "We have him on tape, negotiating to buy a boy that no one would miss from Mexico, El Salvador." She settled a death glare on Wilkes. "Does that ring a bell?"

"That was just a game-"

"-A game? Do you think it's a game to torture young boys, huh?" Olivia practically slammed her hands on the metal table, creating a loud clang that made Wilkes flinch in his seat. "You like to be in control? Well, guess what, that game's over. New game, my MY rules, not yours." Amanda knew that the closer Olivia got to Wilkes' face, the less willing Wilkes would be to speak without a lawyer but Olivia seemed hellbent on making Wilkes realize his situation.

Outside, on the other side of the glass, were the others watching keenly.

"If she keeps this up, we'll have nothing," Rafael warned Murphy, practically telling the man to pull Olivia out already. He was already on edge from this difficult case considering there was, so far, no concrete evidence except for those pictures.

"I know," Murphy said, his hand already nearing the door. He just wanted to give Olivia a chance to reclaim her control...but it didn't look like it was coming back anytime soon.

She was face to face with Wilkes, spewing out some hard threats. "How about we play this game? You start talking now, or I'm gonna take you back into that room, and I'm gonna strap you into that chair, and I'm gonna slice you open until your blood runs out-"

Murphy flung the interrogation room's door and shouted for Olivia, "Sergeant!"

Olivia basically ignored him and continued with Wilkes. "How about that game?"

"Hey!" called Murphy again.

"I need a minute!"

"Take a break!" Murphy commanded and left no room for arguing, especially in the vicinity of a suspect.

Olivia withdrew from the table and turned away, storming out of the room. At Murphy's second order, Amanda was brought out as well. The blonde might have been a bit pissed Olivia went overwhelmingly head-on with their suspect that now she too was being pulled out of the interrogation.

"I've been here for 15 years. And you've been here for two minutes, and you're pulling me out of an interrogation?" Olivia was right in Murphy's face, much to the surprise of the others.

"You weren't asking him questions. You were yelling at him," snapped Murphy. "You do know the goal is to align yourself with the suspect, not to judge him?"

"Yeah." Olivia released a small breath, probably the way to begin calming down. She crossed glances with the rest of the squad and realized they were all giving her strange, startled looks. She might have gone a little overboard, but had Wilkes not done enough things to provoke it?

"Then what the hell was that?" demanded Murphy.

Olivia wouldn't bother answering because no matter what she said, it wouldn't be right. "I'm going to take that break," she muttered and turned to leave.

"Don't be hard on her, it's not like the guy doesn't deserve it," Montserrat folded her arms over her chest.

"You better not show that type of feeling when you get there," Murphy's subtle order startled Montserrat. She blinked and even pointed at herself, asking if he really meant her. "Go in there and align yourself."

"Are you kidding? I go in there, I cannot guarantee I won't follow in Liv's footsteps."

"I can go back," Amanda volunteered but Murphy shook his head.

"No, I need someone fresh. Someone he hasn't seen yet," Murphy pointed at Montserrat to go. "Amaro, you too."

"Fine, guess we can kill him together," Nick mumbled under his breath, though not as quiet. Still, he didn't look so bothered by the disapproving looks.

"Detectives," Rafael's warning voice stopped the two in front of the door.

"We'll tone it down," Montserrat promised but then mouthed a 'maybe' at Nick. They shared a smile before going into the interrogation room.

It irked Rafael how close those two were acting lately. And he was going to be sticking to the 'irk' description because there was no way in hell he would be admitting to anyone, even himself, that it was more jealousy than annoyance. Just...where did that closeness come from? When - You need to stop, Rafael berated himself when he realized he was letting his thoughts get to him. He wasn't even paying attention to the interrogation happening in front of him.

The irony is that this was one of the reasons why he told Montserrat they couldn't be together, because their jobs would be affected. If they clashed before, then who knows what could happen if they got together? And yet here they were, not together, and he still couldn't focus on his job. Great.

Inside the interrogation room, Montserrat and Nick weren't exactly getting much from Wilkes. And it was a real struggle to keep trying to bond with Wilkes over his "Photography".

"It's true," Wilkes kept insisting over his photography. "I have images in my head, and I try to re-create them, but it's digital trompe I'oeil. I don't expect you to understand."

"I don't think we do," agreed Montserrat. She sat across Wilkes but, probably like Olivia, she would really like to climb over it and slam Wilkes' head against the table.

"I imagine your jobs-" Wilkes made a gesture at her then Nick, "-often times put images in your head...from everything you've seen. I just get those images...and I watch videos at night...as an outlet."

Nick wanted to scoff but if he did that then his 'bonding' would end there and then. So, he kept it cool. "That's what you're saying this is, a release?"

"Yes, I swear!"

"But you crossed over when you started talking about buying a boy," Montserrat snapped. Her hands on the table started gripping the edge of the table, something Nick caught. "Literally... buying…" she struggled to say the sentence in one go, "...a boy."

"Your guys were talking about that!" Wilkes argued. "There was no boy. There never has been one. I didn't give any money!"

"Yeah, but, Simon, that chamber…" Nick reminded, but Wilkes shook his head and refused it to be true.

"That's...My meditation room. I'm the only one who's been in there. Tear the place apart. You won't find anything."

Montserrat's lips curled into a humorless smile. "It's a meditation room," she repeated sourly. "Sure."

The door flung open to let in a woman who made a beeline for Wilkes' side. "Mr. Wilkes, I'm Minonna Efron. Your wife's waiting right outside. She's retained me as your attorney. Detectives-" the woman gave Montserrat and Nick a look, "-give us the room."

Montserrat figured it was better to give space before she lashed too. She left the room first and glared directly at Murphy. "Cannot believe we had to bond with that guy."

"Nothing you haven't done before," Murphy said. "It's called doing your job."

"Hey, I've got two kids," Nick reminded. "A ten-year-old son. I want him gone."

And for that, Montserrat turned to Rafael. "Get him gone."

Suddenly Rafael's irkness - that was not jealousy - disappeared. There was a certain feeling that usually came when Montserrat laid her absolute faith in his prosecuting abilities. "I'm going to need evidence," he warned, but Montserrat didn't care. She needed to see Wilkes behind bars.

"I'll get it done," she promised and took off.

[scribeofmorpheus]

Miss Midnight (Steve Harrington x Vampire!Reader)

For the SPOOKTOBER 2018 Competition

Requested by @electroma89 : This is my Halloween themed request! I was thinking on a Steve Harrington x vampire!reader with prompts 118 and 155. Reader was trying to hide being a vampire (only dates at night, "I'm not really hungry", etc.) from Steve but he discovers her on Halloween night.

MasterList

Words: 4072 

Warnings: Fluff and pining?? Sadly, despite the raunchy gif its quite tame!

A/N: Okay, turns out, for all my bashing of the mishandling of the vampire genre in YA books I’ve read, I am, in fact, equally terrible at writing for a vampire character. So I humbly offer this weird fic as penance for all the years I’ve spent shit-talking YA Vamp Books! Prompts in Bold-Italics. I tweaked one of the prompts btw!

Songs: Monster Mash and Spooky Movies

The night was young. You had decided to venture out into town -being bored and hungry were your two life staples at this point. First, you would hunt, the woods in Hawkins were surprisingly well stocked with adequate prey when there were no derelicts loitering about in dark alleys. Once sated, you would find something to chase the boredom away, maybe go to the arcade if it was still open.

While strolling through town, most of the shops were closed except for one, the local diner. You weren't hungry, not anymore and certainly not for human food, but you were bored and there was obviously going to be a jukebox or an arcade game stashed in the corner somewhere. You had a few quarters to spare so you walked over. In the window, a sign read: "NIGHT Shift Staff Needed @ Hawkins Movie Drive-Thru"

You laughed at how much emphasis was put into the word 'Night'.

When you walked through the diner's doors, your appearance no doubt drew the attention of the few strangling locals sipping down iced cokes and eating cherry pie. You could smell everything in the diner. From the sugary sweet strawberry shakes being prepared behind the island to the musky leather of the Greaser sat in the back, devouring a meaty cheeseburger. It was overwhelming and a little strange. This was one of the reasons you tried to avoid humans. Unless it was Halloween. Then you loved being around oblivious mortals and their unexplainable fascination with the things that went bump in the night.

You grinned, finding subtle irony in the fact most of the people were judging you based on your proclivity for wearing leather, studs and biker boots, and not the fact you actually were one of those creatures that went bump in the night!

You ordered a vanilla shake as an excuse to seem like you belonged, walked over to the Jukebox and played Spooky Movies before moving onto the arcade game plugged into the wall in a dark corner.

While you wracked up quite the high score, your keen senses picked up a new scent. You turned to see who it was. A young man of average stature, impeccable hair and a swoon worthy smile walked in. His hair damp from the rain that you hadn't realised had begun to pour. He racked a hand through his long-ish hair and walked over to the counter with a goofy smile, shrugging off his soaked letterman jacket.

"I'll have the usual!" He smiled and placed a few coins on the counter. Something about him intrigued you. Maybe it was his smile, maybe it was the sound of his voice… or maybe you just found that face of his a little too dashing. You took a slow slurp of your shake, forgetting that you hated its hefty dairy consistency. Your nose crinkled and you made a disgusted sound from all the cold sugar sliding down your gullet. When you put your shake down, you laughed at your own silliness and noticed that the handsome boy from the other end of the island was looking at you with an interested gaze. Feeling a bit cheeky, you winked at him before turning back to your game, finally breaking the high score.

When you sauntered out of the diner like someone who had just slain a dragon, you made sure to give the handsome boy one more cheeky wink before giggling mischievously as you walked into the pouring rain -doing a little dance to the song that was now firmly stuck in your head. Your ears picked up the low chuckle of the boy from inside the diner.

Two Weeks Later

"Would you like butter or salted popcorn with your corndog?" you asked the movie-going dates in front of you. Your eyes drooping and voice lifeless from boredom. The two dates eyed you unpleasantly.

"N-no popcorn, just--" He looked around the confection booth, "A bag of gummy worms." He pulled out his wallet.

When they got their order, you heard his date whisper in his ear when she thought you were out of earshot, "Jeez, would it kill her to smile a little?" When she turned around to look at you, you turned on the cringiest grin you could manage to pull, your vampire fangs fully extended. She gasped in shock and then rolled her eyes, "Jesus, I'll never understand people who wear Halloween costumes before Halloween!"

You laughed. As more and more people parked their cars into the Drive-Thru, you began to fill space by eavesdropping on all the dates that seemed to be going poorly. Strictly for entertainment purposes, of course.

In a blue Cadillac, an older married couple sat silently, the tension between them almost palpable.

"I still can't believe you, Mark!" The wife whisper shouted with a livid expression. The man sighed, "I swear I didn't mean to do it. It just happened so quickly. I--"

The wide held up a single finger and took a slow breath.

"Ooh, an affair?" You guessed allowed.

"You knocked my Father out of his fishing boat!" The wife said with a serious face.

You placed your hand on your mouth to withhold your snort of laughter.

"I told you fishing wouldn't be a good idea, honey!" The husband protested.

"He can't swim!"

"Then why does he have a fishing boat?"

The couple folded their arms and stared at the screen right as a particularly gory scene played out.

You turned your gaze to another couple, younger and not as tense. The young blond sat in the front waved giddily at her troupe of spunky friends who were pretending not to be spying on her and her date. You could just about make out the smell of her lip-gloss: cherry-red.

"So," Her date spoke, his voice familiar. "When I asked you on a date, I didn't actually think I'd be taking all five of your friends out too." He laughed nervously.

"What?" She asked confused. Her date pointed at the throng of girls sat on a stack of hey. Her eyes went wide from embarrassment. "Yeah… Well, you can just pretend to not see them."

"Right..." He said sheepishly, looking at the group of girls staring at him and his date. "Easy."

"Awkward," you commented.

"So, what do you do?"

"I uh, work at Scoops Ahoy," he said.

"You work at the mall?" She asked while twirling a strand of hair. Her expression was visibly disappointed. "I don't get it. Aren't your parents like… rich or something?"

"My parents, yeah." He said flatly. After a beat of silence, he asked: "So… you're a senior?"

The blond nodded enthusiastically, "Soon to be Prom Queen with a 3.8GPA and bound for Penn State! What about you? Future plans?"

"I- Uh… I'm taking life as it comes." He said.

"Ooh, Little Miss Perfect does not like that answer," you giggled.

"So…you aren't in college, you work at the mall… What do you do with your free time?" She asked, not at all thrilled by any of her date’s answers so far.

"I babysit. Mostly."

"Babysit?"

"Oooh, she really didn't like that answer!" You rested your chin on your hands, watching with eager eyes unapologetically.

He nodded. He drummed his fingers against his steering wheel then he turned to his date, visibly claustrophobic and asked: "Want any snacks?" His date nodded a little too enthusiastically and he was all too happy to comply, he practically threw himself out of his car and jogged to the concession stand.

When the familiar boy got to the stand, his face lit up with recognition. A smirk on his lips. "Miss Midnight." He said absentmindedly.

You cocked your head to the side playfully, "I'll be honest, most people just ask for a coke and a box of goobers." You teased. He blushed.

"The high score, at the diner. It's you, isn't it?"

You leaned in close, "Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to keep."

"As what?"

"The town introvert and resident trouble maker," you smirked. "Trouble in paradise?" You wiggled your eyebrows to the sight of his date pouting with her arms folded around her chest.

He shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the next, "Yeah, you could say that. I think she's just having her first disappointing date." He said in a low voice.

"Hey, don't worry about Little Miss Perfect. Something tells me she'll get over it. Besides, if you asked me, you're the lucky one. She seems like the kinda girl who would draft up a twenty-year life plan after a successful first date!"

He found some comfort in your words, "I think you're right! I'm Harrington. Err, Steve. Steve Harrington's the full name and apparently, I can't stop making an ass of myself tonight." His words fumbled as his cheeks reddened. You found it cute.

"It's nice to finally put a name to the face, Harrington, Steve. The name's Y/N." You said smoothly.

Steve rubbed his neck shyly, "Right. I guess I’ll see you around." He began back towards his car.

"Hey, Harrington, Steve!" You shouted. He looked back with a curious expression. You tossed him two cans of Coke, one after another. He looked at you with an arched eyebrow.

"Don't wanna go back to your date empty handed, now do ya?" You gave him your signature wink. He smiled and jostled one can about.

"Thanks. I owe you."

"I'll hold you to that!" You teased, flashing you fangs without thinking about it. Steve halted for a moment but then decided that whatever it was he saw, it wasn't important.

You watched as Steve juggled the cans about until one clumsily fell out of his hands. He made sure to place that one under his arm, probably as a way to tell which one was most likely to fizz when opened.

"Took you long enough. What did you get?" She asked. Steve gave her an apologetic shrug as he manoeuvred into the car, somehow managing to mix up the cans.

He held out a can of Coke.

"Wrong can Harrington," You noted as you watched on.

His date looked at it unamused. "It's not even diet," she mumbled to herself. When she popped open the can, she was immediately met by angry fizz spraying all over her cashmere pullover. Steve's face went pale with horror, his mouth hanging low in a half moon shape as his eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets. His date let out a high pitched shriek in protest, and like the ancient art of yodelling, all five of her spying friends made the exact same noise in response. Steve had to pretend to cough so as to not let her find out he almost laughed.

***

Steve had turned into a regular aficionado of the cheesy slasher horror film and you guessed it wasn't by choice. He'd been spending more and more time with you. And the longer you were near him, the more you began to find his charm even more contagious. You liked being around him, you liked how he made you feel when he'd laugh or smile with you. If your heart wasn't dead you'd swear that on some days when he got close enough to you, or when his hand grazed your skin, it would threaten to start beating once more.

On this particular weekend (your favourite weekend since it was actually Halloween) Steve had used the excuse of babysitting as a reason to come by again -even though you both knew the monster film being screened wasn't intended for kids. You and Steve talked about nothing and everything, cracking jokes and being all handsy. To prying eyes, you most likely looked like a couple. In this instance, you were talking about what either of you did during the day.

"It's not like you're allergic to sunlight, Y/N!" Steve jabbed.

"Oh big deal Harrington, so I don't enjoy tanning and going to the beach," You replied. "It's not that uncommon for people to dislike Summer time!"

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes childishly before offering you some of his popcorn.

“No thanks, I’m not really hungry.” You lied.

"Okay, but think about it. I've never once, not once, seen--"

"Steve! Shhh!" Lucas placed his finger on his mouth, giving Steve a look. "We're trying to watch the movie!"

Steve rolled his eyes and threw a handful of popcorn at the group of kids. "Why don't you just go sit closer?" He asked with a shake of his head. He gave you an apologetic look, "Sorry, as soon as I mentioned the Drive-Thru, they all just tagged along. I had no say whatsoever even though they weren't invited!" He made sure to shout that last bit so they could all hear. Dustin turned around and gave him a big goofy smile and two appreciative thumbs up.

"But seriously, how long have we known each other?" Steve asked as he leaned on the hood of his car as though it were a La-Z-Boy. You eyed his frame from the corner of your eye, enjoying how laid back and open he was right now. Before you could answer, one of the kids he brought with whipped around.

You let out a dark rumble, "Hmmm… Let me think," you pursed your lips and placed a finger under your lower lip. You noticed Steve's eyes flicker towards them with a look of longing before they darted back to the screen, a flush of colour spreading along his nape. You smiled. "Films at this very sophisticated establishment screen for two weeks, and we officially met during the first week of the Great Slasher Marathon. So that makes it-" You mouthed out counting the days to sell your performance. "Ah, yes! Three weeks and two days." You said with a beaming smile.

"Careful, all that math might just overheat your brain," Steve teased, touching your forehead softly with a single digit. You looked up at his finger, paused and then jumped at him with playful chomping noises as you pretended to try and bite his hand away. His hand recoiled and he laughed at your quirkiness before he popped a peanut into his mouth.

"Right, what was I-- Yeah! Three weeks and two days and I've never once seen you out during the day!" He said.

"But Harrington, isn't it the very air of mystery that drew you to me?" You batted your eyelashes flirtatiously, turning your head to the side.

"Nah," he cradled his neck in his laced fingers, looking at the screen with a breezy look. "It was the free Coke's." You punched his side lightly and he grabbed both his sides dramatically.

"Ow!" He chuckled. His fingers brushing against your cold hands. "Are you cold? Your fingers are freezing." He asked with concern.

"A side effect of being immortal," you jested half-heartedly. Steve rose his brows at you. When the silence dragged for too long you smiled at him menacingly and dawned on the thickest, most stereotypical Dracula accent you could, "Muahahaha, foolish mortal. You have fallen into my trap! Now whimper before the immortal Countess Y/N! Or be banished to the concession stand, where thou shalt bring forth snacks for the little critters you hath taken on to babysit!" You pointed a straw like some ancient stave towards the group of kids Steve had dragged along with him.

"You are singlehandedly the second weirdest girl I've ever met, you know that?" He said in soft awe.

You blushed, "That better be a term of endearment, Harrington!" You scolded.

"Oh, believe me! It definitely is..." He looked into your eyes for an extended amount of time. The heat in his eyes and the soft opening of his mouth made your throat ache, and suddenly you were all too aware of just how much you hungered for Steve Harrington. And the hunger wasn't entirely related to the crunching of your empty stomach.

With more haste than you intended, you snapped your face away from Steve's and focused on the screen. Steve shifted subconsciously, suddenly going more rigid. You shook your head, your raven hair bouncing about, before clearing your throat. "How about I get those snacks."

"I can come with if you-"

"Stay and watch the movie. I'm pretty sure I've mastered the whole script of this one. Besides, I get an employee discount." You tried to put on your most winning smile to make sure Steve didn't feel like he was to blame for your weird behaviour. From the way his shoulders drooped at you turning him down, you weren't successful on that front.

You stood in line at the concession stand tapping your feet in exasperation. You were hungry but more than that you were antsy. Suddenly, a jock who was standing around with his drunk buddies made catcalls at you. His wolf whistle not at all subtle.

"Hello, Dolly!" He slurred, stumbling towards you -his breath holding the stale notes of cheap beer. You rolled your eyes. "Hey now, don't be like dat. Come on, sthmile for me..." He motioned to grab your ass when, out of the drunk jocks blindside, an arm grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around followed by the sound of a fist connecting to an open jaw.

"Get your hands off my girl!" Steve declared.

"Nobody shaid she was taken, man!" The jock protested. Then one of his friends scurried to try and tackle Steve, but your heightened senses picked up on this and you simply stuck your foot out to trip him. He crashed into the dusty ground, grazing his chin.

The boys looked at you with open mouths.

"Is this my cue to declare that ‘nobody touches my Harrington?’" You teased with a sly wink.

Steve shrugged, "That would be nice actually."

You took an instinctive step towards Steve, and he seemed to mirror your actions, but before you could reach him, another jock blindsided him and managed to tackle him.

As Steve wrestled with the musclier jock, you walked over to a group of bystanders who came to watch the commotion, grabbed a soda from one of them and marched over to the fight. You pulled the plastic lid off the paper cup and poured ice cold soda all over the jock -and Steve in the process. Both shrivelled from the cold touch of the ice and broke away from each other.

"Nobody touched my Harrington!" You said with serious eyes before helping Steve up.

When the crowd dissipated, you laced your fingers into his. "So… Is this the customary tradition one performs when asking a girl out?"

Steve squeezed your fingers, "Only if it worked."

"It did," you replied before closing the distance between you and kissing him passionately. Behind you, you heard the kids make kissy noises and the occasional 'Eeww'.

When your lips broke apart, the two of you laughed in glee as Steve wrapped his arms around you. As he walked you back to the car you couldn't help but notice the smell of blood on the ground where the jock scrapped his chin become more and more enticing. You swallowed hard, trying not to focus on Steve's neck pulsing with more vigour from the fight.

Midway through the movie, you noticed the drunk jock from before stumble into a dark corner behind the concession building. "I'll be right back," you told Steve, who was half asleep nuzzled in the crook of your neck.

***

When Steve had noticed you'd been gone for much longer than he anticipated, he got a little anxious. His hands kept fidgeting about, his mind racing back to the image of that asshole jock trying to grab your ass. When he couldn't talk himself down anymore, Steve went looking for you. After searching behind several cars and hey stacks, he finally found you, but he was not at all prepared for what he saw. You, standing over the drunk jock from before, fangs extend and bloody with a look of pure elation on your face. Steve's jaw all but fell to the ground as he flung his arms in the air in exasperation.

 ***

"Steve?" You asked, caught off guard and feeling the life drain from your body -a feeling that held more irony than you liked. You glanced down at the unconscious jock at your feet and then back to a nervous Steve. You noticed him pacing about, hands on his hips. The silence was killing you.

"Steve, I can explain-" you started, your eyes shining with sadness from the eventual panic and fear he'd undoubtedly have towards you now.

Steve held up his finger and wiggled it around, "You know, I've kept up with a lot. Demogorgon’s, demo-dogs, a kid with magic powers, literally almost getting eaten alive, but… but Vampires? Can't this stupid upside-down place cut me some slack?" He sounded like a grumpy old man who was addressing a group of annoying kids that would steal his newspaper every morning.

"Okay, I guess this is exactly what you think it is..." You walked towards him. He took a step back, pointing at the jock with crinkled eyebrows.

"Is he dead?"

"No. No! Of course not. I- I usually don't… He was just so drunk, and an asshole- besides, he won't remember anything tomorrow." Your voice came out shaky. “Are you mad at me?”

 Steve nodded his head repeatedly, "Okay. Good, good." He then kept quiet for a long minute. "My girlfriend is a vampire..." he whispered in bewilderment.

”A vampire?" He questioned the universe, looking up at the sky like it held the answers. "What else are you going to throw at me? Werewolves?"

"Did you say… girlfriend?" Your cheeks blushed.  

Steve looked at you as if you said something offensive, "That is what you take away from all this?"

You shrugged, "A girl's gotta have priorities."

Steve laughed nervously before he continued to pace, his mind in deep thought.

You wiped the blood off your lips with your sleeve, taking a slow step forward. This time Steve didn't recline away from you. You felt a glimmer of hope. "Steve, talk to me." You whispered. "Please," you pleaded.

He looked wounded by the way your voice quivered just then and instantly he strode over held you close. After two or three breaths, he let you go again.

"Is this… a permanent condition?" He asked.

"So far," you said playfully.

"Don't joke."

"Sorry," you bit your lips and rose your shoulders above your neck with a pout. You noticed a small smile try and force its way onto his face.

"And… is this," he waved in distaste at the passed out jock, "eating of people also a permanent thing? Because it may put a dampener on any future family dinners where you're the guest and we're the three-course meal."

You held back a laugh, "It doesn't have to be."

Steve let out a breath of air, "Aww, good because if you ate my Mom we'd have some serious baggage!"  

You looked at him in surprise, searching his eyes. "Are you not afraid of me? How are you so… okay with all this?"

"If I told you half of what I go through… Half! You'd understand why." He made a 'mind blown' gesture with his hands. "Besides, you're the only non-boring person in this town… And now it makes sense why."

"Does that mean we're okay?"

"That depends," Steve placed his hands on either side of yours. "Were you sent here to do some evil bidding by some nightmare monster that exists in a parallel dimension called the Upside-Down?"

You furrowed your brows, unsure if he was being serious or not. "No?"

He squinted his eyes at your uncertainty. You cleared your throat and spoke again, "I mean, no! Certainly not."

Steve wrapped his arms around you, relief in his voice, "Good because I don't want to ask Eleven to vanquish my new girlfriend."

He leaned in, about to kiss you when he remembered where your fangs had been a few minutes prior. He gave you an odd look, "Maybe we should make it a rule that we only kiss after a thorough brushing after your… meals."

You giggled into his chest, "Deal!"

As Steve walked you back to the car, arm placed protectively around you, you asked: "What's an Upside-Down?"

Steve just sighed and let out an annoyed moan, "Oh, don't get me started!"

***

Note: This fic just kept getting out of hand, it just kept growing longer and longer... I may do a sequel, but no promises. Enjoy and sorry for the wait!

[dimensionwriter]

Robot Roomate

You bit you lips in anger and anxiety. Your robot roomate, Elliot, has just vanished from your flat with no trace. If he were to leave to do anything, he would always tell you. So him just disappearing for almost a week, with no sign of communication, had you all over the place.

You thought back to last week to see if anything could cause this. He wasn't acting weird in any way at all. He actually seem to be in a better mood then usual. So, why did he leave all of a sudden?

You actually missed him. You missed that sleek screen that he had a face. He wasn't able to talk, so he used his screen to communicate. If he were too angry, he would start spamming angry emojis or just a knife emoji. You missed his sleek black body that shine even in the dark. He would get so angry in the summer when he would easily over heat and his fans would whirl very loudly.

Gosh, you really did miss your best friend. But it didn't seem like he miss you at all. Not a single text or email, not even a fake ad. He is very capable of hacking into anything he wants, so sending you a simply text or email is completly easy for him.

You snatched your phone off the table and checked it for the thousandth times. Still nothing. You open your app message and clicked on his name. You quickly sent him a passive agressive message.

"Hey, just checking in on you since you left in such a hurry you couldnt tell me."

You waited, but got no response. You closed the app and threw it on the other side of the couch you were laying on. You stomach let out a small growl causing you to sigh.

Usually Elliot would be the one to make you lunch. He was such a good cook and loved to show off with any chance he could. His favorite meal to cook was breakfast because he truly did believe it was the most important meal of the day, even though most of the time you would wake up past 12.

A soft knock at the door caused you to look over at it in confusion. Who is visiting you without calling you first? Unless...

You stomped over to the door and slammed it open. You were met with a black screen that a puppy on it. The puppy eyes were widen and seem to be getting closer.

"Don't you dare try to pull those puppy eyes on me," you yell flicking his screen. The image corrupted and the puppy eyes disappeared. "Explain yourself mister."

Nothing appeared on his face and you started to worry. Did something happen to him? Was he kidnapped?

You glanced at the side of his screen and you noticed that he had a red lining the bottom amd sides of the screen.

"Wait a mintue," you mumbled taking a step back to look at your best friend. He was wearing a tight white shirt with some black jeans that was low on his hips.

Through the white shirt, you could that he now had red lights outling his abs, causing them to be very noticeable through the shirt. Another line appeared on the edge of hips and disappeared underneath the pants.

"What the hell did you do?" You said in shock as you grabbed his arm which was folded behind his back. You pulled his arm up to see that the blue band around his upper arm was now a glowing red. It seem to be flowing around in a delicated dance behind the thick glass.

Something soft gently pressed against you face causing you to look down. His hand was was bigger than yours, which was usual. But the bottom of his hand, which use to have a sleek glossy finish, now was mat black with black silicon on his finger tips.

Your head was pushed up to see he had typed something on his screen. "Do you like it?"

You open your mouth to say something, but you couldn't. How could you say, 'You are the most beautiful thing I have laid my eyes upon and I love you so much. No matter what you do or how you change physically, I will always love you' in a friendly way?

You went for the giant smile with thumbs up. The words faded off the screen leaving only the shiny reflected screen.

1's and 0's flodded the screen and moved rapidly across. You tried to decode it, but it was moving too fast for you to understand him. Is he glitching out?

"Elliot," you said grabbing his face and pulling it down towards you. The numbers stopped and you were capable of reading one word before it all faded away: Rejection. "What was that? Do we need to go to the repair shop?"

His giant hand slide ontop of yours and slowly slide his fingers into yours. The silicon softly rubbed against your fingers as he let out an inaudible sigh.

"Do you like me?" The words appeared quickly before disappearing. Your eyebrows scruntched up in confusion. Elliot seems to be upset for some reason. He usually likes to use emojis or hand gesture with his words to let you know what he's feeling. All he doing is using words in a normal robot font.

"Of course," you said instantly looking at his screen.

"Well, I don't," he typed out in the plain font. Your heart dropped and you felt like your throat was closing up. You must have did something to anger him. Why is he acting like this? "I love you."

His screen came closer allowing you to see every pixel in the words. The bottom half of his screen slide up, but before you could look, you felt something press against your lips.

You jumped at the sensation of something soft and plump. It was warm and made your lips tingle. The thing pressed harder against you, almost like it was desperate.

Elliot pulled away and that where you actually saw it. Half of his screen was there and all that remain was a mat black chin with a pair of red silicon lips. The screen started to extended again covering the new feature.

"Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry," the words covered the screen complete as he took a step back. His hands covered the screen as 1's and 0's started to appear.

"You have lips," you stuttered out in shock. You pressed your fingers against your own lips and still felt thw warmth. Elliot's lips touched your lips. He kissed you.

"I do," he typed in a small blue cursive font. "I'm so sorry. I got caught up in the moment and I should have asked for your permission. I don't even know if you like me. I don't even know if you are willing to start dating a robot. I'm so stupid. 11001001000." His screen covered itself with the numbers. He's panic rambling again.

You grabbes the front of his white shirt and pulled his down. You pressed your lips against his screen and relaxed at the sensation of the cool metal against your lips. The sounds of whirling fans met your ears making you laugh.

"Give me a chance to say I love you too, idiot," you muttered staring at the red lines going across his screen. You chuckled as you saw you lip print on his screen.

"You love me," he said in bright blue with a bold font. You nodded your head with a smile on his face. 1's and 0's and zeros appeared and were bouncing around the screen. You translated it to," She said she love me."

"So, wanna tell me why you got such an upgrade?" you asked grabbing his hand and webbed your fingers inbetween his. His squeeze you hand as he looked down at it.

"I felt like I was too plain for you and looked just like any other robot. I wanted to be special for you. You deserve something better than me. Hell, even the universe isn't worthy of you. You are just so… beautiful, wonderful, and extraordinary. While. I'm just D.C.X. version 102. There's millions just like me, so why would you chose me?" The text got smaller as he went on. You gripped his hand harder and put your hand under his face to lift his screen up. You gave him a gentle patience smile to show you woul still be here no matter what.

"So, I thought that if I changed that I could catch your eyes for a little bit and show you that even though I'm not much that, I can make you happy." You were speechless from his accusation. Something that was built to be perfect felt like it wasn't enough for a creature whose species is still trying to find ways to fix themselves.

"Elliot, if you ever doubt yourself again, I will hit you with a screwdriver. You are perfect the way you are, you don't need to change. I'm the one who feel like they aren't worthy of you." His screen flashed a dangerous shade of red as he shook his head. He gripped your hand tighter and pulled you into his chest. You were met with the scent of metal with a slight hint of vanilla.

"I could give your a million and five reasons on why you are wrong. But since that will take too long, how about I take you to dinner and prove you wrong?" he type in a red cursive still with a red rose emoji at the end. He brough his right arm arouns to reveal a bunch of white and red roses.

You smiled with pure happiness as you grabbed the flowers from him. You looked up at him with a smirk. "I'll go only to prove you wrong."

He leaned down as the bottom of his screen slide up. His lips pressed against yours and you closed your eyes.

"I do appreciate that upgrade," you mumbled open your eyes to see his screen. A low hum came from him which was his signature laughter.

"I also have a tongue that I can stick out for when you do stupid things," he said in orange comic sans and his lips parted to show a bright orange silicon tongue. You laughed as you pushed him away.

You loved science.

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

Hey, would you guys be interested if I did hcs (well I guess cannons) for my OC's. If you guys have any question about them, I would be happy to answer.

[noona-clock]

Shoulds and Shouldn’ts

oooh I hope this gets to you in time, if not that's ok!! but maybe you could write some type of cute (maybe suggestive? if it fits LOL) boy next door!au/neighbor!au scenario with jongdae? 👀 love you T!! ❤️

GIRL, even if it didn’t, I would’ve written for it anyway but it did!! So, I got very, very carried away with this all because of @ayojongdae attacking me with Jongdae pictures. But do let me know what you think, @castieltrash1!! (I feel like this needs a part 2 but we’ll see!!) Love you right back!! 

Genre: Neighbor AU, Bad Boy AU and Slow Burn AU

Pairing: Jongdae x You 

By Admin T 

You met him when you were moving in. You’d had boxes and boxes of things that you wondered when you started becoming a hoarder. You were lucky to find an apartment complex for yourself, just enough for you with a kitchen where you can see the living room complete with a view for those days when you felt pensive. You (finally) had your own room and another to spare (because why not?).

“Need a hand?”

His voice was soft, friendly and you swear you could hear his smile even before you saw it. Your knees went weak and you’d almost dropped the box that you were holding. He rushed over with a chuckle, his hands gently touching yours accidentally as he carried the box for you. Good thing he did because all you could think of was ‘damn, who is this?!’.

“You are…” you stammered, suddenly feeling very conscious of yourself. You had no care in the world today with just a shirt and jeans, wanting nothing than to be completely comfortable for the move.

“Your neighbor!” he grinned. His smile took up almost all of his face but you noted that his lips curled in such an endearing way that all you could do was stare. “I’m not trying to steal your things or… I’m innocent, I promise!”

You blinked, chuckling nervously, only now realizing how you’d reacted and how he’d reacted to your reaction.

“So… mind if I help?”

You tried your best not to look too excited. “Sure. Why not?”

He smiled once more and you were sure that your heart fell.

It was a bad idea to fall for Kim Jongdae. You hated his smile and you hated his laugh but you smiled back and you laughed right back. When he said hello, your heart leap and you waved and grinned as if he was the highlight of your day. When you happened to see him in the hallway, you asked him how his day went and he asked about yours, truly wondering how it went and pausing to just listen to you.

He was charming and you shouldn’t have been surprised when you noticed the many, many dates he went on on an almost regular basis. You didn’t think much of it when you saw the first girl but then, came the second different one, then the third and your image of that friendly, boy next door neighbor was gone.

“So, what’d you think?” he asked and you blinked, trying to come back down to earth.

He laughed in amusement as he waved his hand in front of your face playfully and you huffed, giving him a gentle shove on the shoulder.

“Ah, c’mon, Y/N, help me out!” he said with that signature whine. He tilted his head back and he let his bottom lip protrude so he could give you the best pouty face he could.

“Ah, Jongdae!” you said, rolling your eyes as you reached to close your door. He was standing in the hallway, asking for your opinion on blue and black suit he donned for his business event that night.

He looked drool worthy. He looked so good when he was put together, all clean lines with his suit, his hair pulled back to compliment his sharp jawline but warm smile. You were sure he had a date that night.

He swiftly placed his foot between your door and you wondered why you didn’t hear the door slam.

“You always have the best taste, Y/N,” he said, his voice soft this time. “Besides, you said I look good in blue and black.”

You turned around and nodded in return as he leaned on your doorframe, a lazy smile on his face.

“You look good in anything, Dae,” you said with a teasing smirk.

His eyes were soft as if he’d wanted to say something, the teasing Jongdae was gone in a flash but suddenly back as he blew a kiss at you and closed the door with a wave.

“She was horrendous.”

“No, she wasn’t. She was…” he muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

“Ha! You can’t even think of how to – .”

“Flexible.”

You reached for the nearest couch pillow and promptly threw it at his face.

“YAH, Y/N, NOT THE FACE,” shouted Jongdae as he fell back on the couch. You laughed in amusement but your smile fell. He was too preoccupied as he muttered to himself about dangerous neighbors while he reached for the nearest pillow so he could plot his revenge.

“You have a coffee maker at your place, Jongdae, why do you keep coming here?” you asked, dodging the flying pillow expertly before grabbing your mug to get more coffee. Jongdae had shown up on your doorstep, a sleepy smile on his face and simply walked in, telling you that he was going to start making coffee.

“It’s more fun here,” he said with a shrug. “And you have a view.” He followed you to the kitchen as you poured more coffee into your mug.

“Ah, okay, so you’re just here for the apartment, I get it,” you smirked.

You were used to the banter, the quick responses and the teasing but he replied with silence. You looked up at him questioningly and he gave you a small smile.

“Hey, Y/N,” he said softly. “How come I never see you hang out with anyone? I mean, uh, y’know, go out? On a date?”

You frowned, suddenly bothered by the personal question. Then again, it’s not like you both weren’t close. You were both pretty close. Close friends though. Friends.

“Why do you care?” you murmured, trying to pass it off as a joke but Jongdae moved closer as if hesitating.

“When was the last time you had a kiss?”

“You’re being annoying, Dae, stop.”

“What?” he laughed softly, his eyes on your neck as he licked his lips. He was close enough that you could smell his shampoo mixed with coffee mixed with Jongdae. Your knees felt weak and your hand gripped the counter.

“Y/N, what if I kissed you?” he whispered, his face inches from yours and his breath fanning your skin.

Your breath caught in your throat.

He leaned forward and you turned your face away from him, your heart hammering against your chest.

Silence filled the air but the awkward atmosphere was worse.

As if something switched in his brain, Jongdae gulped and took a step back. “Y/N, I…”

“I think you should go home.”

Jongdae avoided you. He stopped coming over to ask what you thought about his outfits. He didn’t visit you during the mornings just to catch up and tell you about his escapades. When he saw you in the hallway, he ran back to his apartment.

The apartment complex suddenly became quiet during the day. You tried to preoccupy yourself with other things. Cleaning. Binge watching movies. Reorganizing your closet. You even planned nights out because it killed you to know that Jongdae was right next door and you couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing. And because, even though, you hated how he dated so often and that he tried to pull a line, a kiss, something with you, you also wanted it too.

So, when you heard Jongdae shouting your name while knocked on your door, you froze. Your knees wobbled and you stared at your door.

“Y/N, are you home?” he called, his voice urgent. But you knew him well enough. He was trying to sound okay and, yet, you could hear the tremble in his voice and you found yourself opening your door and there he was, his smile lazy, his hair mussed as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around you.

“You’ve been drinking,” you muttered, ignoring the fact that this was the first thing you’ve said to him after a week of ignoring each other.

“I didn’t bring anyone home this time,” he slurred.

You rolled your eyes and pushed him towards his apartment but he fought against you, keeping his feet still and shaking his head while he held you tighter. “No, I want to stay.”

“Jongdae!” you signed in frustration. Even when he was inebriated, you couldn’t resist him.

“I’m sorry,” he said so quickly that you would’ve almost missed it. “I’m sorry. Can I stay here with you tonight? I won’t do anything, I promise. I’m sorry.”

His arm was around your waist, your head on his shoulder and your legs tangled against each other. The couch was small but it was small enough that it was perfect for cuddling. You both hadn’t meant to do it. Jongdae was flailing and you could only go as far as your couch, so you both fell as he proceeded to apologize and finally fall asleep.

He was the first to wake up. His eyes snapping open as he gasped softly to realize where he was but, more importantly, to realize what he was doing with you. He licked his lips and bit back a smile. You nuzzled against him, your walls finally down, and it was then that he knew that you felt the same way.

His lips met your forehead, gently, softly and cautiously grazing your skin. You hummed in contentment. He knew he shouldn’t, you’d pulled away last time, but a smile played on your lips and that only motivated him even more. His kisses moved towards the edges of your eyes, your nose, your cheeks. He couldn’t get enough of you and you sighed happily.

His hands found your waist and all he could think of was touching every part of you, your skin, your hands and every inch he could find. He was drunk on you and he couldn’t help himself.

Then, your eyes blinked open and he looked at you hesitantly. He cleared his throat and tried to find words but the only thing he could think of was, “I should…”

“Stay,” you interrupted. “You should stay.”

He looked at you in awe as if questioning what you’d just said but you closed the gap between the two of you, your lips finally touching his. It was a chaste kiss, no tongue, but soft and sweet enough that it made him moan while your knees quivered.

He’d never experienced a kiss like this and he knew why. It was because it was you. You mattered and he cared for you, his heart falling for you every time he saw you in the hallway, at your place or passing by. He hadn’t meant to but your smile won him over and he wished he was brave enough before to had told you how much he meant to you.

His hand trailed underneath your sweater, his touch warm and inviting that you let out a gasp, his kisses turning urgent as he rolled on top of you. A pillow fell on the floor and then another. It was as if all that pent up tension was finally bursting and present.

“Dae…” you muttered softly and he paused, his breathing heavy and his heart pounding but he stopped for you.

He gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he leaned his forehead on yours.

“Y/N… geez, what you do to me…” he murmured while your cheeks blushed. He let out another breath as he pushed himself off of you. You laughed in amusement at his hard on and his messy hair but he stretched out his hand and you pushed yourself off the couch to take it.

“Will you go out with me?”

There was no teasing, his eyes focused all on you as he waited with baited breath. When all you could do was stare, he continued, “Properly. I’ll take you out properly. Not like what you’ve seen or heard or… I like you, Y/N. I think I’m falling for you and I just want to be with you all the time.”

He tried once more. “Will you go out with me?”

You pressed your lips and nodded. You hated him. You hated him because you’ve always wanted to be with him and now that he’d finally asked you, you couldn’t find your words.

He laughed that full laugh, his joy brightening up the room as he picked you up and twirled you around before setting you on the ground so he could kiss you once more and over and over and over again.

[maladaptive-ninja-returns]

J.B.B.

Bucky x Reader

Content: Fluff I guess

Warning: There may be a body bag somehwere in here

Word count: so much that my editor on the phone said it couldn’t take it anymore. so...sorry about that.

PS: This is just experimentation. Is this a one-shot or a series, I don’t know that yet, but if it does get some attention, I’m definitly writing smut for this one. *sharp exhale* About time I stepped deeper into the water.

MASTERLIST

^J.B.B., ^Part 2, ^Part 3, ^Part 4, ^Part 5, ^Part 6, *Part 7, !Part 8, ^Part 9, ^Part 10, !Part 11, ^Part 12, Part 13

"How can you love someone like that?" You looked at your recently made friend, Gina, from work, thinking whether to invest your time in all the possibly great explanations or to stick to the shorter version of it. "Because loving is far easier to deal with than hate. Hate makes you feel bad." You scrunched your nose as both of you walked past the poster of the Frankenstein remake as Gina rolled her eyes at you. "You do know that's not true, right? Commitment sucks babe. It sucks real hard." You giggled as her curls bounced so gracefully even as she moved her head in colourful disgust. "I don't know, man. I've never really found anyone 'relationship-worthy' yet." "Really?" She sounded surprised, "How many people have you dated?" You shrugged your shoulders and raised your hands in approximate gestures, "uhh...two." Gina stopped in the middle of the street and looked at you, her head tilted in question. "Girl, what is a beautiful woman like you doing in your free time if not making out with someone?" "Hanging out with a crazy friend," you responded nonchalantly, breaking into a smile on seeing Gina's surprise turn into her signature smug face. "Alright you cocky angel. Looks like I'll have to play your wingwoman. I'll be taking details on Monday. Bye babe." You waved as she crossed the road and skipped towards her home while you walked straight ahead. You turned towards your street, bumping into a wall. "Oof!" Or so you thought. You tried to find a footing as your legs retrieved from the huge structure standing right in the middle of the sidewalk. And of course, you failed miserably, landing on the hard tiles with a sad groan while your groceries spilled everywhere. "Apologies, ma'am." A man at least six feet tall, with a built that could put all Greek Gods to shame, kneeled before you, bringing forward his right hand for you to sit up and began collecting the scattered plums and putting into your paper bag quickly. You were not able to get a good look at his face covered under a cap. But you did not miss his sharp jaw or his long brown hair playing near his neck. You would’ve never stopped looking at him had he not turned his clear ocean eyes back at you. "Sorry, I uhh didn't see where I was going," you apologised, too embarrased to look at him, and moved towards the bread loaf lying beside you. You picked up the loaf to find what looked like a journal. It didn't have anything written over it, just tiny initials on the inside of the cover page- J.B.B. You turned around to find your groceries neatly standing in the paper bag with no sign of the human form of the Alps. You turned again to look around the corner. No one. No sign of even the shadow of a man. Just a lingering scent of his, letting you know that you hadn't dreamt it. Putting the journal in your bag with the thought of returning it to its owner, you started walking to your destination, with a really interesting incident to overthink about for the day.

Your neighborhood didn't have much to speak about except the different hues of white on every apartment and an abandoned building right opposite the one you had begun calling home. The rent was cheap, thanks to the abandoned heap of bricks in front of your apartment-that for some people was too much to look at- and the facilities were good. You'd found a job of an assistant manager at a local bookshop that was, for you, unusually large and filled with content you'd never even heard about. Gina worked in the maintenance section for the 'limited copies' and 'local history' area and your curiosity had been the reason you two had met and bonded over your love for all the pages that smelled old and dusty. Your apartment was small- the door taking you straight into the hallway with a couch and TV that was at one foot distance from the kitchen, that stood opposite your bedroom- but you'd made it pretty cozy for yourself. You went straight into your routine once you were home. Keeping your belongings on 'the chair' in the bedroom, you opened the bathroom door while putting on a playlist according to your mood- randomizing when you felt daring- and came out of your clothes to get under the shower. Today the mood list was sensual and the water pressure was strong. You liked it cold, sometimes lukewarm when the cold European winter made you miss home. The shower would be followed by making dinner and snacks- the latter being the supper for cats and kittnes that would visit you or the ones that had inhabited the building opposite yours. Their company was the best. They loved anything and everything you brought for them and they ate it till there was nothing left or they experienced food coma. You wanted to keep a cat but your apartment was too small-according to you- and you'd rather they have their freedom than be cooped up in a small space for the entirety of their life. You picked up the basket full of mildly roasted bread smothered in butter and all the Tupperware containing milk and your dinner along with a small mat and made your way to your little friends. "Aah! No wonder they've been crying so loudly. They must have smelled the delicious bread." "I still don't know how they do that Mr Kline. It's like an inbuilt clock that tells them exactly when I'm home." "They do, actually. But for them it's less of a biological clock and more of a 'Y/N has come home-let's party' clock upon hearing your arrival." Mr. Kline was the handy serviceman of the building. Even though he was a reputed professor of world history at the local college, he preferred to be simply known as the building's caretaker. You hadn't understood why a man as wise as him would chose to work for a building he practically owned with his husband and not be standing in a lecture hall somewhere talking about all the knowledge he had gathered in half a century. His well-kept golden brown hair and his soft personality towards the people he liked made him look younger than he was, never giving away the sass and the wisdom that was kept at the edge of his tongue for the ones who thought they knew it all. He'd been the one to recommend you for the job at the library and you made sure to thank him this wonderful man with whatever little unpopular knowledge you could share with him about your birthplace. You shared a greeting with him as you left the building and crossed the street towards the unkept one. The building, like any other in this town, was quite sturdy. It still had wallpapers over the corridors and stairs from the previous owners. Almost everything was intact- the stairs, the apartment doors, nearly all the windows, even some punk rock poster wall in one apartment. Some walls had been grafitti-ed on with memes and uplifting messages, others had weird symbols drawn on them. Some walls had been taken down on various floors for whatever had been the plans for this place before they were dropped. So, yeah, nearly everything was intact. The only thing that you knew was not, was the heating. You climbed up to the second floor and turned to the apartment space to your left. The places where the walls and door were supposed to be, had been taken down on both sides. It was nearly an open space except for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Turning on the working lightbulb in the apartment space you announced your presence. "Hey my little furballs!" You were met by half a dozen of meows and tails standing straight up in the air on seeing you. The cats and kittens, cuddled into each other over the heating pad Kline had put up for them, got up and came over to you, rubbing themselves with your legs and purring. One of them, with black fur that shined blue under the lights like a clear night sky, stood up on his two feet and looked you with his big green eyes before meowing loudly. "Yes, Panther, I've got your buttered toasties. Come on, Nina. You too, Sakura." Everyone looked at you with the same curiosity as you put down their share of milk and bread in a line. You watched them eat and drink with such excitement in your heart as you opened your dinner and sat down on your mat. You were about to dig into your vegetables when you heard a tiny creak from the wooden floors. You turned around to look at the dark space opposite to where you and your furballs were. The apartment next door was only lit by the glow of street lights from the sidewalk outside. Only silence clad the darkness there. You were about to go back to your dinner when a reflection in the window of that apartment caught the corner of your eyes. You turned back but there was nothing there. Alright, Y/N, you thought to yourself, you've been coming here for quite some time now and nothing like this has happened before. So there is definitely someone or something here. You stood up, your hand slowly moving to your back as you took careful steps towards the space next door. Moving your grey T-shirt up, you felt the cold metal side on your fingers before they found the wooden handle and took out the knife. The cats were too busy in their food to notice you enter the space next door. The floor creaked as you moved in. This apartment was covered in yellow wallpaper everywhere with patterns of what looked like green coloured plants. The kitchen counters had gathered dust everywhere except one tiny spot at the side that faced you. You positioned yourself and hovered the edge of your right palm over it, finding the similarity in the imprint on the dust. Someone was here. And they had been watching you. And the only places where they could have disappeared to were the cold outside through the sealed windows or behind the bathroom and bedroom wall. Everything rational inside you told you to get out of here. And like any person outside a horror movie, you heard your reasonable brain and slowly backed away from the who or the what you could not see. "The building looks empty boss." You heard voices, moving around below you. "Go look upstairs. I don't want the body to be found before at least a month." Fear eroded your senses for five seconds. Just as the sixth came, you gathered yourself and removed your shoes- thanking whatever force made you buy these no laces loafer looking things- and went across the space to turn off the lights. You could here footsteps approach the floor below you. "This one's empty t-oh look, there's a punk rock wall here!" The cats looked at you in confusion as you frantically looked around for a place to hide before turning back to the only wall standing there staring at you. "Fuck," cursed under your breath. "Okay, okay, I'll check upstairs but I'm telling ya I want something like that in my room too." Oh screw it, you thought, running on your toes towards the door standing in the wall with your hand tightly gripping your knife, I'd rather be scared by a ghost than end up in a body bag. Quietly opening the door, your entered inside the room and closed the door cautiously just as the footsteps announced themselves on the floor. "What the hell? Where the walls at?" You jumped at hoarse voice reverberating throughout never letting your eyes leave where you came from as you moved away from the door. "Well, I'll be damned. Look, boss, there are little furries purrin' over here." Oh no! The cats! Oh no your tupperware you idiot, your brain shouted, so much for being cautious. A pair of footsteps thumped up the stairs making you move further back into the room and wanting to dissolve in the wall behind you. And that's when you noticed the wall closet. "John, there's food here," a deep voice hissed. "Yeah the cats gettin' hungry." "You thick bamboo of a head! There's plastic everywhere. Look! It's warm. Someone's here," the cold voice declared. It didn't take you more than ten seconds to open the closet and climb inside. You had your shoes huddled close to your chest with one hand while the other had the knife at ready. "Check that fucking room, John!" You tried to steady your wavering breath, inching away from the closet door that had tiny slits letting in the already filtered light coming from the window. Your back came in contact with the wall in a single step. The space was smaller than you'd thought. The curses grew louder as reluctant heavy footsteps came near the bedroom's door. Suddenly your senses noticed a vague familiarity around you. Like a blink-and-miss memory. Your mind walking away from the danger lurking outside and entering this dark square space, noticing a scent. A familiar scent. The one you'd come in contact with this morning. The wall behind you getting warmer in your back. Chilling electricity passed throughout your body at the realisation as your defense system took over and tried to turn around, only to me stopped by a pair of strong, ripped arms wrapping themselves around your mouth and your hand that held the knife. "Shh shh shhh." You heard a familiar voice whisper in your ear before both of you heard the door click open. "Yello'. Is there anybody there?" You froze at the creepy voice that called out from the entrance of the room. "It's okay I won't hurt you. I promise," the man behind you persuaded, "I can't say anything about the men outside." Your arms ached at the position it was being held at but you did not want to move it for letting the shady men outside know about your presence. And as much as the claustrophobic space was killing you besides a complete stranger, you didn't let go of your knife. The stranger's breathing was frustratingly normal as his chest rose and fell behind you so languidly. His heart beat too never showed any signs of panic whatsoever. "I'm taking away my hands now, okay?" Came a pleading whisper of a question. You nodded just as a tear fell off from your cheeks onto the back of his palm. His body remained motionless behind you, never feeling the urge to move away from you, if there was space to move away, that is. "I'm sorry," he muttered under his breath as he loosened his grip around your mouth calculatingly, his fingers grazing your lips as they moved away. The other hand, gloved, just left your arms as if it wasn't putting any effort in keeping you from stabbing him. "Hey boss!" The loud voice made you jump, making the man behind you grab your waist gently as he whispered, "Move behind me." You shook your head, turning your knife, making it graze along the skin on your wrist while your thumb rested on the top of the handle. You had one way of getting out of here and you were not compromising it. You could have sworn you felt his breath get stuck in his lungs in surprise at your choice. "What?" The 'boss' entered the room as well. "I think we can dump the body here. The cats can eat 'em up and no one gon's ta know." The tensed air inside the entire room went silent for a moment as three humans questioned the sanity of the fourth one. "Keep talking like that and I'll bury you too, John. Now come with me to the basement. No one's going to go there anytime soon. Faster John! We are not getting paid by the hour by that Russian!" The footsteps receded downwards and you waited for a moment to let go of your breath and move towards the closet door when the arms still wrapped around you stopped you. "No, they're still here." The whisper now turned into a mumble, allowing you to hear his actual voice. Nearly five minutes passed when the warm body towering from behind you finally shifted, letting go of your waist. "Okay they're gon-ghh" You drove the knife through his thigh and dash out of there, nearly breaking the closet door off the hinges, never looking back at the door, the cats, the tupperware, stopping only when you had climbed up two storeys, opened your apartment door and bolted all latches. Your breathless state and the nausea caught up as the rush receded, making you fall down on to the ground.

It took a while for you to collect your thoughts as you got up and stared outside the window overlooking the building you'd just run out from. The same windows that had lit up the dark space stared right at you, sitting in silence until you saw a shadow move. The vibration of your phone forced out a small scream. By the time you turned back, the shadow had disappeared. "Hello?" You tried to smoothen out the tremble in your voice. "Hey Y/N, quick question- beer or whiskey?" "Huh?" "Pick one." You looked back at the window. "Uhh...Whiskey." "Nice! Netflix or Local Cable?" "Uhh...I don't... Gina can we do this tomorrow?" "..." "Hello?" "Are you with someone right now?" A cold pain ran through your heart as your eyes went back to the building, searching for shadows. "N-no." "It's okay, darling. We'll catch up tomorrow." "Yeah." It took you a while to finally look away from the building and draw up all the curtains in your house and double check all the windows. Turning off all the lights, you picked up a knife from the kitchen and took to your bedroom, planting it under your mattress- just in case- before allowing your body to melt down into the sheets, smacking your head in frustration at the fact that this was not what you had planned to overthink about while going to bed, knowing full well you weren't going to sleep that night as well anyway.

What you did not know was that the world's deadliest assassin had seen you cross the street to enter the leftover of an apartment building with your hands full while searching for his journal. He'd followed you inside from the backdoor and had curiously but cautiously seen you from the shadows as you mingled with a bunch of stray cats. He'd tried to move closer to get a good look of this smile you had on your face when the floor gave away his presence, making him turn around the corner and into the room. He'd expected you to give up on searching the source of the noise like any rational human being who knew fear would but he'd seen the pair of scruffy men enter the building from the window, with a huge suspicious duffel bag that he was too familiar with. He was about to warn you when he felt your light footsteps approach the door, making him retrieve into the closet. Standing still as you searched around for a place to hide had been difficult for him. He could see the fear in them as you hugged your shoes close to your chest while the knife was kept away from your body like someone who knew how to use it but only for defense. What had been more difficult was the wave of panic that seared through him as he saw you open the closet door and stand right in front of him, your heated body touching his. The familiar slight scent of sweet oranges filled his nostrils as your hair brushed his stubble. He could feel himself relax as his senses started taking your presence in. He had seen you go stiff for a moment and he knew. Without wasting any time, his reflexes took over, wrapping his arms around you. He had felt your tear on his hand, wanting to apologise as many times as he could once you two were out of this mess. He had felt your heavy breaths waiting to get out of the closet. How he wished to help you calm down. And as soon as the threat had passed, he had wished to apologise and ask for his property back before you stabbed him in his thigh and ran away. For a flash of a second his anger had known no bounds. But something changed. Just as he saw you standing in the building opposite him, looking out in his direction, his anger broke, giving way to something new. He took out the knife from his leg and sat down beside the cats, who looked at him with pure judgement in their eyes. "Mwerr," Panther said angrily while Sakura meowed in question. You had left quite a deep cut in him. He estimated it may take the entire night to heal and had slumped down into your mat. "I'm sorry," he whispered into the air around him. He felt the pain. He felt your knife in his hand. He felt a smile creep onto his face after ages. "Brave gal."

The alarm made your sleep deprived head pound in frustration. You got up and welcomed the warm morning sun rays until last night's incident crept back into the bed with you. Pushing it away, you moved up and to the door to go and tell Kline that you wanted to get your door locks changed. As you opened it, you were welcomed by all your Tupperware, now clean and neatly stacked up at your doorstep with a note. I apologise for yesterday. Here's your property. I hope I can have mine back. I’ll wait in the City Park for you. -J.B.B.

^J.B.B., ^Part 2, ^Part 3, ^Part 4, ^Part 5, ^Part 6, *Part 7, !Part 8, ^Part 9, ^Part 10, !Part 11, ^Part 12, Part 13

Taglist:

@greenarrowhead @magiclolipopqueen @choke-me-sweet-pea @classy-swiftt @smexylemony @hazzastyles2471 @lokis-lady-death

(Send me an ask if you’d like to be tagged. Feedback is forever welcome.xx)

[ashleigh-luvs-14cats]

Finding the Right Present

This fic is a present for my greatest friend in the whole world, I thought I have a lot of things to say, but sadly I don’t at the moment.

Its in the same universe as my Rencounter Fic, with our two main Ocs, Amy is hers and Ashlen is mine; please check out her blog if you like My Hero Academia, Game of Thrones or Marvel. She makes great content and I love her for it

Happy Birthday @ice-cream-kitsunegirl

Enjoy this Fic I made for you.

“Come onnnnn. . .”

“No. .” deadpanned as Shinsou stared into his game system. Which I’m fighting the urge to throw it across the room and pin him to the couch and try out the new technique I’m working on.

“Please,” I begged, “I never did this before, and you know her better than anyone.

“Why don’t you ask the ‘Pomeranian’ to help you?” He countered, he still hasn’t looked up from his game.

“Weeeeelll,” recalling the bicker three hours ago, “let’s just say we turn it to competition after asking, and then we may have broken a gallon of orange juice or two.” Which led to a full hour of the Class Pres lecture of proper conduct inside dorms and owe him a gallon of orange juice. Shinsou paused his game and face me with his usual dead expression that clearly said, ‘You idiot.’. Usually, I find that endearing when it’s not towards me.

“Sooooo, will you please help me find a perfect present that’s better than the fluffy dog for Amy?” It has been close to a half a year being here in U. A and remembered that on July 9th, which is more than a week away, will be Amy’s birthday; plus it’s been a year since we were friends when we talk through the internet. Now I had a chance to know her beyond that, I wanted to give her something special as thanks for being my first friend and best friends.

Then I gave Shinsou my saddest look since all my cute faces don’t seem to work. But in all seriousness, I’m kinda nervous. “Please Shinsou, I never have done this before, and you know this.” Shinsou stares at me, which it always gave me a funny feeling, but I ignore it for the hopes that he will help me.

I added a small pout on my bottom lip, which is my trump card whenever I really want something; it works... most of the time. It only works on one of the older sisters and my stepfather. His left eye and a corner of his lips twitched and turned his back towards me, and I swore his ears are red, and that’s when I knew I won.

“Fine, I’ll help you out, but I won’t just hand over on what to give her. I’ll give you some ideas, okay?” he relented. To which I squealed and wrapped my arms around his neck and give a little squeeze,” Aww Thank you. Thank you!” I nuzzle on the side of his head, I noticed that his ears are a bit warm. “That’s all I need! I’m sorry that refer you as the living zombie!”

“What…” He turned to the side and looked at me with a slight annoyance along with some redness on his cheeks. I gave him a guilty grin, “Oh, it’s nothing really.” I let loose my grip, and with only one arm around his shoulders, “Sooo, when shall we get started?”

“Get started on what?”

I bit my lip to prevent me from screaming, and my shoulders tensed up; I also felt Shinsou’s shoulders tense up as well. We both looked back and behind the couch was Amy with her signature shit-eating grin, all with casual, yet she made it look fancy clothes. With hands on her hips, “Welll,” she giggled and glanced at my arm around Shinsou, “I REALLY hope I am not interrupting anything.~ And you didn’t answer my question. Soooooo can I assume you guys are a ‘thing’?

Her question snapped us back to reality, and we both looked at each other and just now realized how close we are. The second, after looking at each other, I pushed him away to the other side of the couch and scrambled off the couch. “N-no! I j-just asked if he could help me do some training exercises that Aizawa-sensei taught us, and I wanted more practice!” I rambled, and I rubbed the back of my head as I continued, “So I asked Shinsou to be my sparring partner. Right Shinsou?” Please buy this! Please buy this!

Shinsou also got up from the couch, straighten his clothes and gave me a slight rude look, although it might have worked without the small red tint on his cheeks, “Yea, its because she slacked off on the lessons, so she asked me for my help since she’s a total airhead.” he smiled smugly. I growled and merely looked away from that so called charming smile and muttered, “Am not.” Amy starred as us for a  second, trying to see our lie, but she merely smiled “OOOO-kayyy,” she snickered, a telling sign that she didn’t believe us. She’s a witch, of course, she can sense what’s wrong and all that; a quirk that I like about her except for this very moment. I shrugged and gave her a lopsided smiled and winked at her, a telling sign of me saying, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Soooo, how was the date with Yap Dog?” I asked Amy; not a second later, from the kitchen, “I HEARD THAT MS. FANCY!!” barked Bakugou.

“YOU WERE MEANT TOO!!”

Amy giggled at our antics, “Now now, guys chill out,” and answered my question, “It was great!∼We went to our usual restaurant, and we were surprised by the owners saying that we were their 5,000 customers and we get to eat the buffet FREE!!” She pulled out her cellphone, “They took our picture so they can place it in their wall along with other customers who are also thousandth customers! They gave me a copy! Which is SO CUTE!” and showed us a photo. Right at the center is Amy, with a happy grin, with her arms around Bakugou with his usual bitch face, and along with two old guys, who I assumed they are the owners, one on either side of the happy couple. The owners hold a banner above them saying, “OUR 5,000th COSTUMERS!” in bold letters and all decorated in sticker balloons and stars.

“How. .cute. .right Shinsou?” I looked over at Shinsou, he was done looking at the picture and went back sitting down the couch and opened up the game system, “Very cute.” he deadpanned. I rolled my eyes and smiled at Amy, “Wow, free buffet, huh? Lucky. Is that all you did?” Amy shook her head, “No, we did some small shopping at the mall, but it most of it was window-shopping, there were a lot of cute stuff that I wish I can get, but man those prices are so cringe-worthy!” As she continued on, Bakugou came out of the kitchen with a two sports drinks in hand and a bag of chips in the other, he spotted me staring and gave me his cocky grin in his face. DAMN IT! He already has an idea on what to give her! No doubt it was one of the things she was mentioning at the mall!

I force my smile to remain as I continued to listen to Amy, “Me and Katsuki are going to my dorm room and gonna watch a movie to finish our date! I’ll text you and Shinsou to come over after it’s done, okay?” she waved and walked along with Bakugou and head upstairs. Once they’re gone, I sighed and collapsed in the couch; grabbed the remote to turn on the tv and surf through the channels. Once I found the channel I wanted, I turned to Shinsou, who once again playing the game system. “Shinsou deeear?” I strain out the last word, he tensed but remain firm into looking at the screen of his game system. I faced him and took his off his hands and gave him my playful glare, “You said you would help me,” I gave my him my pouty face.

He turned flustered and cave in immediately, “Alright! Alright. Just answer me this then, what were things that you talk about when you talk to each other online?”

I thought about it and list some topics in our earlier days when we started being friends, “We talk about puns, stories of our favorite tv shows and movies, friends and family, and lastly our music.” I fondly think about our taste in music, it was almost identical that we freaked out when one of us mention bands that we like, especially our favorite songs from those bands. It was one of my best days ever, I started to go on till I paused...

I . . .

I think I know what to give her. . .

I hug Shinsou, “Oh my goodness! I think I know what to give her! Thank you so much! You are the best!” I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, he gave me a startled look, and his face turned a deep red, and rush to my room and begin preparing my gift for my best friend!

Day of the Party

Everyone is having a blast at the party, everything is Amy’s favorites, the snacks, drinks, music, even the theme colors! The Baku Squad, minus PomPom, were dancing to High Hopes on the dance floor with the birthday girl at the center with the silliest moves I have ever seen. Me and Shinsou were with the Deku Squad at the snack table with the birthday cake at the center, and the rest of the class were playing or watching video games at the main tv. At one corner are a pile of presents for Amy. I haven’t put mine in there because I’m a little nervous about what would she think, so I kept it in one of the large pockets of my jacket.

Shinsou senses my nervousness and tries to reassure me, “Don’t worry about it, no matter what you give her, she’ll be ecstatic by anything.” “Yeah, I know, it’s just that she’s my first friend ever and I want to give her something to repay all that she’s done for me, ya know?” Shinsou gave me a smug smile, “Heh, yea I get it, Amy... .is a type of person that really gets into your skin and will annoy the heck out of you,” we laugh in agreement and he continued, “yet. . for us. .we don’t mind at all.” To which I fondly look at Amy, who is trying to convince the Pomeranian to dance and he’s working so hard to remain where he is at till Amy gave him a tearful look. He relented and let her pull to the dance floor, and everyone including Amy cheered.

I chuckled at her antics and agreed with Shinsou, “Yeah, she’s pretty unforgettable.”

After 10 minutes of dancing and eating, Amy demands her cake, me and Shinsou put on the candles and light them up; she stood in front of her cake, and the whole class sang her happy birthday.

“Happy birthday dear Amy!! Happy birthday to YOUUU!”

She blew out her candles, and we all cheered and gave her hugs, Kaminari asked, “Hey Amy! What did you wish for!?” She shook her head, “Can’t tell you!” she sang song, “Otherwise the wish won’t come true!”

“AW!” Mina whined, “I bet it’s a really cool wish!”

“It IS!” Amy jumped right in front of her presents, “ITS PRESENT TIME! I WANNA OPEN THEM NOW!” “Will you chill out Sabrina!? It’s not like they are going away if you don’t open them!” Bakugou scolded.

“Whatever!!”

Each one gave her their present, Izu-chan gave her new headphones with cat ears, which she squealed and gave him a bone-crushing hug, but not to Izuku’s standards. Shinsou’s present is an actual witch hat, which made Amy laugh as she put it on, “OH MY GOSH TOSHI!! This is the cutest hat I ever had! Thank you so much!” She gave him a hug but with enough force that almost made him fall. “Geez Okay. You are welcome, you really shouldn’t eat so much sugar sticks.”

“Hehe! Sorry I couldn’t help it Toshi! They are just sooo good!”

Bakugou rolled his eyes as he gave his present to her, “Don’t say I don’t give you nothing! Got it?!”

“Aww,” she kissed him on the cheek, “I Luv You Too babe!”

“Yea Yea.” and Amy opened the small box, which I couldn’t help but bit my lip as she removed the wrappings from the present. She gasped and showed it to everyone, it was lapis lazuli earrings shaped into a small hearts. She squealed even louder as she jumped into PomPom’s arms, “These are the ones I saw at that Mall, you were paying attention! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!”  Bakugou growled but hugs her anyway, “Of course I pay attention you’re my girlfriend aren’t ya?!?”

“Yes, you are! And I love you for it!” She lets go and look at the present table, all of her presents was open, but she kept looking for more, and I have a feeling what’s she’s looking for.

I teasingly asked Amy, “Whatcha looking for Amy-chan?”“Yours, of course, It must be hidden from all the wrappings for the other presents! And I know it is yours cuz you haven’t given me your present!”

I shook my head as I pull out the box from my pocket, “That’s because I didn’t put it at the table, silly.” She saw the box and squealed as I give her my present, this time she carefully unwrapped the gift and opened the box. What she pulled out was a cd case with a white cover that reads:

Happy Birthday Amy!: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflxyrJQiDpqho2tU44l1_NBJmHh8mCe_

Amy opened the case and saw the disc and found the note that I wrote for her, which she read aloud:

To my best friend. . . who always have my back when I need the most. These songs represent our treasured memories, so whenever we are apart, these songs will bring each other closer. No matter how far the ocean or land parts us.

With love, Ashlen

Amy looks up with her eyes started to water as I added, “One of our first conversations was about music, so I gave you song that we talked about, and there’s a list at the back. Look at the last one.” Amy flipped it to the back where there’s the list of songs.

And the last one is from the Queens: You’re My Best Friend.

I was surprised when she hugged me out of nowhere, I felt tears fell from my neck, “Amy? You okay?” She sniffed, “Yes! This is the best present you could ever give me!”

My eyes widen and hesitantly hugged her back, “I mean it’s not extravagant as Bakugou’s or cute like Shinsou’s.”

She pulled back a bit so I could see her head shake, “That doesn’t matter Ash! Sure they are really cool presents, but yours came from the heart. And no one can beat that ever!”

I felt my eyes started to tear up and smiled so bright and hugged her again, everyone ‘aww’ our moment except Puff Ball, which he rolled his eyes, muttering “whatever.”

“Happy Birthday, you’re my best friend, my witch-bitch,” I said fondly. She laughs and squeals happily, “Oooh bitch! And I say that playfully… You’re my homegirl for life!”

[randombtsprincessa]

Absinthe || 6

Author: Randombtsprincessa

Characters: Jung Hoseok x Reader

Chapters:  01  02  03  04  05

Warning: Explicit Smut Scene Ahead!

If there was one thing that Hoseok was, it was persistent. The date after the ice rink was spent in lavishly courting me. He took me on a small picnic near the hillside, took me on a library date, and to a small Chinese restaurant where we spent the time trading stories.

It was a fortnight later that he brought me to his and Yoongi’s shared apartment. It was stark, almost cold. The only sign of warmth was in the kitchen. We sat on his couch eating ice cream and watching movies as he began to ask me more of my private life. It almost felt like an interrogation.

“What about you?” I asked finally.

“What about me?” he asked.

“Tell me about your life. We only ever talk about me. What about your parents?” I asked.

There was a pause as Hoseok stared at the screen. The atmosphere tensed as I watched his gaze sharpen and his jaw clench.

“My parents are dead, Y/N.” he spat out finally.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t kill them.” He said.

“I can still convey a sentiment.”

He let out a scoff and I turned to him in alarm as he straightened up. “You wouldn’t need to if you hadn’t asked.” He turned to look at me. “Don’t ask about my life, Y/N. I don’t like talking about myself for a reason.” His eyes were cold as they bored in mine.

For a moment, I was back in my class, the first time I’d seen him playing back…his aura was dangerous, hiding secrets and dripping with mystery.

“Ok,” I said softly, looking back at the movie, wrapping my fingers around each other.

His eyes softened and he wrapped an arm around me again. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just…I’ve done a few things to survive that are not something you’d…understand. Please, let’s just leave it at that.”

I nodded and from then on, every topic of conversation was me and I never dared breach my boyfriend’s boundary again.

Her lips tasted of her usual vanilla chap stick as his lips wrapped warmly around them. Her hands buried in his hair, he himself tangled his own fingers in the long strands of her mane.

Just as he felt her tongue brush against his top lips, a small pang went through his chest.

It felt uncomfortably like guilt so he backed away, putting on a mischievous smile on his face as he watched her huff. “What, did you want more, Princess?” he asked but she smirked right back.

“Oh, we wouldn’t want you getting uncomfortable, would we?” she asked.

Hoseok laughed, trying to hide the strain in his vocals as she bid him goodbye, shutting his car door gently behind her as she slipped inside her house.

With a whirr of smooth wheels, he quickly pulled out of her mansion gates. He always tried to not linger, not to show his face too much in case one of them caught him about. It wouldn’t end well for him.

He sighed as he glanced at his rearview mirror, watching the Y/L/N estate grow smaller.

His mind drifted to the dossier he’d been allotted on both her and her father, wondering if his added notes could be cause for concern.

They were both loving people. It was clear that Mr. Y/L/N loved his daughter very much, having gone to so much trouble to protect her from people who would take advantage of her. People exactly like him.

Thing was, there was no one like him. He operated silently and even if people saw his face they would never put him up to what happened to them later. He was always given a while to disappear before the Master brought about his real goal.

This was the only mission he was running where he had more of a risk of recognition but till now he had not seen them about again and he was glad about it. Not only would the mission be in trouble so would Y/N.

When he entered their shared apartment, Hoseok knew Yoongi was lying in wait. He sighed, switching on the lights, illuminating a cold gazed Yoongi on the armchair, legs and arms crossed.

“Yeah Yoongi, you totally pull off the Godfather look. Very suave and creepy,” he commented drily, kicking off his shoes and dropping in the opposite chair.

He didn’t answer, which was cause enough for concern.

“We have another appraisal tomorrow. With the clients,” Yoongi said before getting up and leaving for his bedroom, leaving Hoseok to grind his teeth in worry and anger.

This was not going to go well.

Hoseok drummed his fingers on the polished wood impatiently, his fingernails tapping out an erratic rhythm that he knew was irritating Yoongi but at that moment he just didn’t care.

He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be sitting in the darkened conference room with his partner next to him, in a suit that cost more than the damn table he was sitting at.

He wasn’t surprised at that particular thought. He hated appraisals and this was one more than he had ever attended in his entire career.

What he was surprised at was the fact that he would rather be with the one person who was the source of this misery. He would rather be watching a movie with her or maybe have an ice cream sitting at the park.

His fingers stuttered in his pursuit of mindless tandem.

That was exactly when the door flung open and a bunch of men walked in, each looking disgruntled. Hoseok and Yoongi exchanged a glance, finally standing up with the entrance of their boss.

The Master was in a similar suit as Yoongi and Hoseok, waving a hand to indicate for them to take their seats. He didn’t seem concerned much about this appraisal. Maybe because Hoseok had already weaved his way into Y/N’s life. He was just waiting for him to finish his job now.

“So,” he began first and the first man to Hoseok’s right burst out.

“It’s been months! We’re losing too much money!” He spluttered.

The Master raised an eyebrow. “I see; well, you have already fulfilled your side of the payment so I have no problems. After that, the fact that your business is losing profits is no concern of mine. You need signatures from Y/N Y/L/N and that is all I am to give you.” He said.

“Where are those signatures though? Your best man here is riding about as that silver spoon’s boy toy and we’re the ones suffering!”

Hoseok turned his head to the right, fixing the stout man with an unnerving glare. The man met his gaze, his cheeks flushing at the obvious displeasure in Hoseok’s eyes and looked away.

“That’s what he does and Hoseok’s work has a hundred percent success rating, unlike your down trodden and backward business. Since you’re our clients, we’ll be polite but if you insult my employees and our methods again,”

He didn’t have to complete the threat.

The clients stood up one by one. “If we don’t have results by the end of this week,” one of them said slowly, trailing off as he looked at his co conspirators.

“I will be happy to let you go.” The Master smiled pleasantly.

“With full refund,” the first man said.

“Which is definitely not possible,” The Master said.

There were protests immediately as the boss leaned back in his plush leather chair. “The money has already been invested; if you would like to take it up with law, I will be happy to provide a statement that you came to a law abiding establishment with plans to kidnap the daughter of the man who pays most of their salaries.”

The protests died down as the clients reluctantly filed out.

After the conference room emptied, the smile faded off the Master’s face.

“Hoseok, you should go tend to Miss Y/L/N,” he said, his voice leaving no room for argument. Even as Hoseok rushed out, the Master reached out and gripped Yoongi’s wrist as he made to follow his friend.

“Sit; I want to have a word.”

“Let’s play something,” I suggested bored finally, dropping my pen on my book. I spun in my chair to look at Hoseok who was lounging in his bed with no care, watching the small flat screen mounted on his wall. He glanced at me once before diverting his attention back to the screen.

“Don’t you have studying to do?”

“I’ll be leaving in a few days anyway, besides I’m sure I won’t need,” I turned to read the title of the book, “Etiquette and Concierge Management in this life time. I already got through all that in France.” I slammed the book shut, smiling as I clambered onto the bed.

His position didn’t change, one arm curled under his head with legs bent, one leg tapping out a beat as he watched the news.

“What’s so interesting about that channel?” I asked.

He shrugged, “It’s nice to stay in the loop.”

“Hoseok, please,” I whined.

He sighed in annoyance, sitting up and turning the volume down on the news channel.

“Why do you want to play something? Can’t we watch a movie?” he asked.

I bit my lip. “That’s all we do, Hoseok. I want to do something different.”

He stared at me for a bit before sighing again, this time one of resignation. “What do you want to play?”

“Truth or Dare,”

His eyes lit up with confusion. “Truth or Dare…?” he asked again, making sure he heard me right. I nodded and he groaned and dropped his head. “What are you, seven?”

I just giggled at his worn out expression. To be honest, I was only playing the game hoping he’d pick truth and I would get to quiz in – discreetly of course – on his life.

“Fine, you go first.”

“Hang on; we need rules, don’t we?” I asked.

He raised his head slowly to look at me, a smirk breaking out on his gorgeous face. “Rules…? Oh baby, what fun is a game if there are rules involved?”

I shrugged. “Ok, truth,”

“Have you ever thought about the first time we kissed?”

I paused, looking at him with a frown. “Um…why would I?”

“So, you’ve never thought about it? It wasn’t worthy to be thought about, was it?” his voice dipped.

“That…that’s not what I meant, I mean. I just had a lot of things on my plate.”

“Hmm,” he reached up to place his thumb along his lower lip, attracting my eyes to it. “Would you like to brush up your memory?”

“That’s more than one question. It’s my turn.” I said quickly.

He swept his hand in a ‘go on’ gesture. “I pick Dare,”

Damn it.

“Um, dance with no music on,” I said, eager to get him to move through his dare so he could pick truth next time.

His face fell but he stood up obediently, seeming as eager to get it over with. He bopped his head, swaying his body to the left then right, snapping his fingers before doing a spin and flopping back down. “Your turn,”

“Truth,”

Hoseok pouted. “Come on, you’re boring me with this game,” he chastised and I rolled my eyes.

“Fine; Dare.”

“Kiss me,”

I pursed my lips, leaning forward to give him a peck on the cheek but at the last moment he turned his head, letting our lips crash together.

It was less messy than our first kiss, lips moving almost synchronized as he raised his hand to cup my face, bringing me in closer to him.

I moved away from him, watching his eyes flutter open; his pupils dilated and playful.

“I have a better game for us to play.” He said.

“What would that be?”

He smirked, “Too hot,”

I backed away, my turn to raise my eyebrows. “Are you serious? What are you, fifteen?” I asked, mocking him in the same tone.

“Come on,” his voice dropped seductively. “Let’s see how resistible you find me, shall we Princess?”

I huffed, reaching out to pull him in by the collar.

He reciprocated the action enthusiastically, grinning against my lips, even chuckling as I delved into his laughing mouth, making sure to keep my hands off of his skin as he placed his own firmly on the mattress to keep his off mine.

Soon the light din of the new channel faded into silence as the sounds of slight intakes of breath, soft pants and lips smacking against lips filled the room.

He broke away suddenly, his eyes smoldering as he looked at me, almost warring with some thought. “Fuck it,” he said finally before reaching out and grabbing my shoulders and smashing our lips together again, a deep grunt falling from his lips as he nibbled harshly on my bottom lip.

“Wait, wait,” I said backing away from him. “What about Yoongi?”

“He’s out, won’t be back till tomorrow,” Hoseok said, lunging forward to capture my lips as his hands slipped in slowly under my shirt, his fingers licking up my skin, barely touching, the feather light pressure of his cool pads against my increasingly heating skin raising goose bumps in its wake.

I shivered as he finally reached the back of bra before he pulled away to pull his own shirt off.

I sucked in a breath as my eyes trailed down the smooth, toned torso. He smiled at my stare, grabbing my hand and placing it on his sternum, just under this throat before dropping his hand, encouraging me to move with his eyes.

Slowly, licking my lips, I trailed my hand down the centre of his chest, the tips of my fingernails gently raking at the flicker of happy trail leading into his tight black jeans which showcased his long legs.

He jumped at the sensation, eyes rising to look at me with hot desire. His hair was ruffled, falling and darkening his eyes as his nostrils flared. His hands were soon on my own chest, unbuttoning the crimson blouse with hasty and nimble fingers.

He pushed the two free flaps of fabric aside, his body already reaching up on his knees to tower over me, devouring me with his eyes.

“Damn,” he said, his index finger running against the strap of my bra before sliding and flicking it off my shoulder before his mouth clamped down on the delicate skin. My back arched into his warmth as his teeth gently sunk in while his tongue laved over the sting, leaving a wet trail right up to the edge of my ear.

His hand moved the other strap down roughly, making the cup slide down from one breast just until the nipple was barely visible. He let go of my neck with a last suck, looking down at the almost exposed mound before looking into my eyes. Slowly, very slowly, he bent down, neck craning as his warm tongue swiped against the skin, before his two fingers hooked into the front clasp of the expensive bra, unsnapping it with ease.

His nose nudged down to the hardened nipple and his mouth engulfed it, sucking long and hard on it. I keened, a loud moan erupting from my throat as his other hand came up to my other breast, his thumb pressing into the bud, rotating the digit, small pricks of tantalizing pleasure running to the centre of my body.

He was leaning over me, pressing his weight into me and my hands reached out desperately to get some traction and my fingers hooked into his waistband, nails digging in just around his hip bones.

He grunted again, the suction on my breast vanishing as he looked down at my hands.

He looked up at me with an inflamed expression on his flushed face as he reached down and undid his belt, the dull clang of the buckle unhooking making heat pool slowly down my stomach and abdomen.

He unbuttoned and unzipped his pants just enough for the band of the Balenciaga brief to peek through. “Go ahead, baby, easy access,” he smiled as he returned his lips to mine as I hooked my fingers into his underwear, pulling it away from his skin before letting it snap back against the sensitive skin around his pelvis.

“Fuck,” he growled, breaking away and pushing the shirt and bra off my body as his arm hooked around my waist, pulling my lower half closer to his as laid me down on the bed.

As I stared up at him, I smiled slowly, watching lust pool into the darkness of his eyes as he glanced down at my fingers still on his waist.

“So, are you going to undress me or what?” he asked.

I blinked at how suddenly he was foregoing his dominance and I smirked, more than willing to pick up the gauntlet.

I pushed him to sit up before yanking down the skinny jeans he was wearing. He kicked it off all the way off the bed before he reached for mine. I swatted his hands off, taking the jeans off on my own.

“You wanted me to undress us, didn’t you?” I cooed, rolling over so that Hoseok was on his back, looking up at me with a hint of amazement as his lips quirked with amusement.

I slowly let my weight press just shy of his growing bulge, the silk cotton cool around my thighs as I grinded at an excruciating pace, torturing both him and me.

“Goddamn it, Y/N. Sit on it,” he ordered, hands curving around the edge of my ass, trying to physically pull me onto his clothed cock.

“You wish,” I giggled before running the nail of my index fingers right into the boxer, teasing the skin just at the beginning of his member. “Jesus,” his head buried right into the pillows as he felt the wetness seep from me onto his leg.

“Want me to ride you?” I asked mirroring his smirk as his eyes hardened just slightly.

“How about you sit on my face first?”

I paused just a second before starting the roll of my hips again. He was just trying to get back control and while I desperately wanted to give it to him, I knew he wouldn’t let me live it down for a long time.

“You…fucking…wish,” I growled back, pulling the boxers down to his thighs, trapping them as I sat on his shins, grinning up at him. “Y/N,” he said in warning but I ignored the warning as I captured just the tip in my mouth, sucking on it with the same hard drags that he had employed on my nipple.

His back arched as I let it pop back out and nibbled down the length with my lips sheathing my teeth, playing with the skin near his balls. “I see France agreed with you,” he let out a breathy laugh, rubbing his hands down his face before hiking himself up on his elbow while his free hand went to my hair, stroking it back.

“Look at me,” he said, his voice low and husky and I shot him a smug look, making a show of slurping around the member, making it push against my cheek and he groaned deep in his throat. I moaned right back, creating vibrations around his length while using my nails to draw patterns around the flushed delicate skin.

“Do it again,” he growled and I giggled, pulling away from his cock to give him a coy look while innocently scratching a trail down his hips.

“Shit,”

“Do you have a condom?” I asked. His eyes flew up to me, a wildness growing in them. “I’m clean. What about you?” he asked, his voice laced with frustration.

“I got a shot just last week, should be good for three more months,” I said.

Without another word, his hand was wrapped around the back of my neck, pulling me up to kiss him, his tongue delving against mine to taste himself. I finally sat on his cock resting rigid on his stomach, rolling my hips to coat him with my slick and he maneuvered himself straight as I sunk down on it.

Hoseok let his head fall back as his girth went deeper into me and with a downward thrust he nestled inside me to the hilt.

“Fuck,” we both muttered then laughed as his head dropped back, lips raw from biting it, a feverish look on his face.

“Move, Y/N,” he said and I began to grind down at the same slow pace as before but he let out a complaining moan at that, moving his own hips to rush at me.

“Shh,” I pressed down against his chest, increasing my pace till my eyes closed at the burning heat setting aflame in my lower stomach, pulsing and tightening, just waiting to burst at the seams.

“Yes, yes, Princess, you feel so good,” he whispered as he gripped onto my waist, fingers digging into the skin, surely leaving bruises as he bounced me faster on himself.

Sweat dripped down his forehead, our chests shining with the thin sheen as he brought one hand to rake his trimmed nails into the valley between my breasts.

“Play with them,” he said, his eyes fixed on them and I teasing pressed them closer and he let out a low whimper, before he sat up and pushed me back flat on the mattress.

He threw my legs over his shoulders before ramming harder into me, setting a bruising pace. He reached down, his thumb pressing onto my engorged clit as his eyes fixed on mine, watching me climb up to my high.

“Come for me, Princess. Let go,” he panted and I dug my nails into his forearms, cries of his name spilling out as his own eyes closed, muttered praises worded as he chased his own high.

His mouth fell open, before he was pulling out, hand wrapping around his base to jerk himself hard and fast. His eyebrows were scrunched; breaths coming out in harsh pants before with a deep resonating groan erupted from deep within his chest.

His head thrown back his expression cleared out as his hot seed spilled over my core.

His hand shot out to catch his weight as he looked into my eyes, something playing behind his eyes as he leaned in and very gently placed a kiss on my forehead.

Yoongi watched with narrowed eyes as his best friend and partner leaned forward, one hand braced on a locker as he captured Y/L/N’s lips in a kiss, watching her reciprocate with a heady sigh.

His eyes widened.

He might not be a field worker per say but he was so familiar with Hoseok’s work by now that he could recognize his tells from miles and this one particular tell was the easiest to differentiate.

He’s done it. He’d slept with her, taken the relationship to the next level, and established a form of bond that women so easily believed to be one of commitment. He was so close to his goal.

Something was off though…

Maybe it was the way he didn’t pull away from the kiss quickly…teasing and leaving the victim wanting more. No, he pressed in, before finally breaking away, his eyes soft and a gentle smile of his mouth.

Yoongi’s eyes narrowed again as he marched forward, latching onto Hoseok’s arm harshly.

Y/N and he both jolted, looking at him with wide, surprised eyes before he gritted out, “I need to talk to him,” and dragged him away with him.

“What the hell, Yoongi?” Hoseok grumbled when they were near the student lounge.

“Do you have feelings for Y/N Y/L/N?” he asked bluntly.

Hoseok paused before raising his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t act dumb with me, Hobi. Do you fucking like her or not?”

There was a pause in which Hoseok glared balefully at his handler. “What will you do if I say no?”

Yoongi shrugged. “Obviously, let you get on with your work.”

“And if I say yes…?”

“Follow protocol,”

“You mean you’re going to get me off the case and get someone else? No way in hell,” Hoseok crossed his arms.

Yoongi pursed his lips, “So, what’s the answer?”

“I don’t like her, which is exactly why I will not let you get one of the others anywhere near her.”

Yoongi sighed, pinching his nose bridge, “Hobi, be practical; I can tell you like her, you’re compromised. If the Master finds out,”

“He won’t because there’s nothing to find.”

“I’m on your side, buddy. You get yourself the girl but the clients…”

“The clients can leave as they please. They want her signature. I will get them her damn signature. They will get a share in her company and they will kiss our ass but no way am I letting someone like Wang get anywhere near her. I’m fine Yoongi. Someone like Y/N Y/L/N isn’t going to get me to settle, no matter how good a lay she is.”

With that he spun on his heel and strutted off.

Even as Yoongi hurried to keep up with his long legged stride, two boys stared at each other just around the hallway bend, stunned into silence.

“What the fuck?” Jungkook cursed.

Taehyung shook his head, too shocked to even say anything.

They looked down at their shoes before looking back at each other before nodding solemnly.

Y/N needed to know.

[rather-impertinent]

Girl Next Door chpt. 9

A/N: I haven’t proof-read this because I can’t be arsed lmfao but I am sorry if there’s any mistakes! Sorry it took so long to finish this one, I hope you can forgive me! I promise I’ll try to be quicker with the next chapter! Love u guys thanks so much for reading xo

Dr Dwight Enys sighed tiredly as he made his way to his office to complete the paperwork for the gastrectomy he’d just performed. It had been a routine procedure, he’d even gotten close to beating his personal best of one hour and forty-nine minutes, but a last-minute drop in the patient’s blood pressure meant that they procedure had ultimately taken just over two hours to complete. The minute Dwight closed his office door behind him, his thoughts drifted back to his conversation with Morwenna a couple of days ago.

“So, what have you been up to for the past six months?” “Nevermind what I’ve been up to, what have you been up to?” Morwenna, asked, wiggling her eyebrows. “What is this?” She motioned to the pink mug adorned with a pug. “Explain.” Morwenna took a sip of her proffered cup of tea, examining Dwight closely over the rim, waiting for him to speak.

He fidgeted with the handle of his cup. “Can I get Loveday anything? A cup of milk? Orange juice?” They both glanced at the 8-month-old baby playing contentedly on the rug as she rammed the leg of an unsuspecting stuffed octopus into her mouth. “She’s fine. Stop trying to stall! So, what’s your girlfriend’s name?” Morwenna was grinning widely, the smile of a friend who had long been waiting for another friend to find happiness. Dwight sighed slightly. “Well, first of all, she’s not my girlfriend and–” “–but you wouldn’t mind if she was your girlfriend?” He nodded slowly, grudgingly admitting the strength of his feelings to another person. “Her name is Caroline, she’s my neighbour. She’s–” “–Oh! Demelza told me about her! She works with Dem now sometimes, right? Is she the really beautiful blonde one?” A small smile crept up on his face, coupled with a light blush. “Yes, and yes.” Morwenna took a big gulp of her tea and tried to settle a fussing Loveday, who was now feeling put out at not being the centre of attention. “Wow, impressive. So, what are you going to do? Have you asked her out? Does she like you back? Oh, my God, you have to bring her to Sam and Emma’s wedding next month, so I can meet her!” Dwight groaned. Why do women get so excitable over nothing? “Ugh, Wenna I feel like I’m back in high school! I’ll sort it myself.” She raised an eyebrow and him and scoffed, “No, you won’t! I know you won’t, Dwight. You’ll dance around the matter for far too long and then she’ll think you’re not interested and meet someone else and then we’ll all have to send care packages to your flat to keep you alive because you’ll go into some mental self-depreciating coma and convince yourself you’re not worthy of food or something!”

Dwight laughed at her not entirely false hypothesis. “Well, I have told her I like her. At least, I’m pretty sure I have. And we’ve kissed. She’s stayed over a few times – nothing’s happened though,” he added hastily as Morwenna’s eyebrows shot up, “But I’ve not asked her out officially yet, I want to but I just don’t want to fuck it up like–”

“Dwight, I swear to God, if you’re about to finish that sentence the way I think you are then shut your mouth right now. You can’t keep on letting what happened in the past ruin your future!” She looked at him pleadingly.

Dwight made a face and then smiled into his mug as he took a gulp of tea. “That was very philosophical of you.”

“Those of us without medical degrees do still have the capacity for deep thought, you know,” Morwenna teased with a deadpan expression. Dwight opened his mouth to tell her he didn’t mean it like that, but she burst out laughing. “I’m only joking! Now, are you going to ask her out or not?”

Dwight grimaced. Whenever he’d talk to Demelza about things like this, she was just quietly supportive and blessedly patient. Morwenna, on the other hand, was much more assertive when it came to matters of the heart. She and Drake had wasted no time in getting married, waiting just eight months from when they started dating, which raised everyone’s eyebrows, but three years later, they were probably the most stable couple of all his friends. “I, um, I guess so. I’m just not really sure how to go about it,” he sighed, necking his tea and placing the cup on the coffee table.

“Stop overcomplicating it. Just do it, it’s a simple seven-word question.” She bent down and picked up Loveday, bouncing her on her knee. “Uncle Dwight is being silly, isn’t he, sweetheart?”

Loveday clapped her chubby hands together in agreement, though not entirely sure what she was agreeing with.

Dwight swiped her cheek gently with his index finger. “Whose side are you on, huh?” He and Morwenna exchanged smiles. “So, where’s Drake? I haven’t seen him for ages!”

They’d gotten off the topic of Caroline for the evening then and chatted about this and that until Morwenna left. Dwight felt invigorated by her visit and appreciated her honesty and straight-to-the-point manner of speaking. He decided he was going to ask Caroline to be his girlfriend this week.

“Dr Enys?” a voice came from the door of his office, bringing him back to reality.

Dwight blinked, a patient form coming into focus, a pen held in his slack grip. He wondered how long he’d been spaced out for. He cleared his throat slightly. “Yes?”

The nurse smiled in amusement at him. “How many days should we keep Mr MacDonald in for?” she repeated.

“Oh, of course. I think maybe nine or ten days as opposed to a week, just to keep an eye on his blood pressure after such a major surgery.”

She walked into the room and handed him a clipboard. “Cool. Can you sign it off?”

Dwight wordlessly scribbled his signature on the forms, completely absorbed in his thoughts.

Once the room was vacated, Dwight sighed and quickly checked his phone. Caroline still hadn’t answered his text from yesterday morning or this morning. Oh well, he only had two more consultations until his lunch break, he would go see her then.

Dwight locked the car door behind him as he made his way across the car park. His car clock had informed him that it was 11:27am; meaning he’d been allowed out a little early. It had been weirdly quiet in the hospital all week, practically everybody had had time to eat an actual whole sandwich, salad or pasta, as opposed to the usual quick energy bar. Though grateful to have a break from cocoa orange Nakd bars for a few days, the idleness unnerved Dwight, as it almost felt like the calm before a storm.

The doorbell chimed as he stepped into the café, which was quiet for this time of day – only an elderly couple and what looked like two students playing truant from school occupied the building.

Dwight smiled and waved at Caroline, who was standing at the counter. She met his gaze but neither smiled nor waved. Instead, she leaned over and whispered something to Demelza and then disappeared somewhere around the corner.

Dwight thought it was a bit odd that she hadn’t stayed to greet him, but maybe it was her break and she was going to join him for coffee. “Hey, morning, Dem,” he chirped, failing to note the tense atmosphere in the room.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Demelza growled.

Dwight blinked, taken aback by her question and stung by the anger in her voice. “What do you mean?” he asked, the hurt and panic in his voice plain. “Dem, what’s–”

She shook her head, her nostrils flaring. Was he really about to lie to her? “I can’t believe after everything that happened you would even fucking entertain the thought of seeing her again. Keren brought nothing but trouble into your–”

“Keren?” Dwight blurted out, his brows creased almost painfully, his confusion at an all time high. “What? I haven’t seen her for–”

“Don’t lie to me, Dwight!” Demelza hissed, her face turning red in anger. “I can’t believe you would do–”

“I haven’t done anything! I have no idea what you’re talking about!” he shouted, causing the teenagers sat by the window to look up from their phones in interest. “Why the fuck would you think I’ve been talking to Keren? I haven’t seen her for about four years, I don’t even know if she’s still alive!” A bit dramatic but not entirely false. “What is going on?” he demanded, staring at her intently.

Demelza exhaled, releasing the breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding – Dwight had never raised his voice at her before. Had he ever even raised his voice at anyone before? She nodded her head to the left, signalling him to follow her to an empty table. Demelza fidgeted with the sleeves of her long black shirt. “The other day,” she began slowly, “Caroline saw you with a brunette girl outside your flat. She said you gave her a massive hug and seemed really into her and that she came inside your flat and she–”

Dwight’s barely audible “oh, God” coupled with a hand over his face stopped Demelza’s speech. Dwight whined and ran a hand through his hair. “That was Morwenna, Dem. She came over for a quick catch up and brought Loveday!”

Demelza joined Dwight in placing a hand over her face. “Oh, thank fuck,” she breathed, so relieved he hadn’t gone back to the absolute travesty of an ex-girlfriend he had five years ago. “You had me worried! Shit, though, what are you going to do?”

He met her wide-eyed gaze with confusion. He blinked at his red-headed friend several times. “I don’t understand, what do you mean?”

She gestured helplessly at him. Why are men so stupid? “About Morwenna. About Caroline.” The penny slowly began to drop after a few seconds, but in his defence, he did get up at 4am. “You’ll obviously have to explain to Caro that it was Wenna and not Keren, but she’s so upset with you, Dwight. I doubt she’d believe you if you told her just now.” Demelza chewed her lip in apprehension, checking the counter to see if Caroline had emerged from the staffroom yet. She hadn’t.

Dwight followed her gaze and put two and two together. “But why is she upset with me? I’ve done nothing wrong!” He insisted stubbornly, annoyance creeping up on him. Why do women always jump to conclusions? What’s wrong with simply sitting down and talking about something?

Demelza cocked her head to the side and shot him a sharp glare before slapping his hand which rested limply on the table, as if she was telling off Julia. “Oh, stop being such a man child, Dwight! Try to see this from Caroline’s perspective; she had planned a nice surprise for you and then she saw you with–”

“What?” This came out as a sort of pathetic squeak. Dwight cleared his throat, guilt beginning to submerge his entire being. “Caroline planned a surprise for me?”

Demelza sighed, “Yes and when she saw you with Morwen–”

“What was the surprise?”

She glared at him and sighed loudly in impatience. “Dwight Stephen Enys if you interrupt me again so help me God I will leave you to sort out this fucking mess yourself, do you understand?” Dwight’s mouth remained firmly shut after he’d finished gulping. “So, when she saw you with Morwenna she got really upset because she thought you’d been seeing someone, who she assumed was Keren – I didn’t realise the two of you were that close, by the way –,” she added, raising a suggestive eyebrow at him before continuing, “and that you’d been playing her this whole time. She thought Loveday was yours because you looked so natural. She tried to say all this casually, as I’m sure you’ll know, but I could tell she was hurt, like… trying not to cry. She really likes you, Dwight. You better fucking fix this. You will literally never get a girl as hot as this ever. I know I’ve only worked with her for a few months but she’s really great and lovely and I think you guys are well suited.” Demelza’s eyes were soft as they meet his. “So, fix this and fix it quickly,” she ordered, rising from her seat and returning back to the coffee machine to clean it while the place was still quiet.

Dwight noted apprehensively that Caroline was still nowhere to be seen. Would she really not come out and talk to him? In any case, Dwight was nowhere near finished his shift and knew he had return to the hospital very soon, but before he leaving he approached Demelza once more. She slid him his usual order – a mocha with a double espresso shot – across the wooden countertop. Dwight smiled at the gesture – at least there was one less woman in the world who was mad at him. “Will you still be here when I get off later on?”

Demelza shook her head as she wrung out a wet cloth before beginning to swipe it across the wooden surface. “No, I’m finished at midday – I’m teaching two lectures this afternoon.” Demelza, as of two days ago, was now officially a part-time music lecturer at the local college. He had truly never met a more hardworking person than Demelza Poldark, and she never once complained about it.

“Well, what do you think I should do? For Caroline, I mean?” He checked his watch, and then danced on the spot impatiently – he had exactly eleven minutes to return the hospital, where he was now on rota for A&E.

Demelza continued to wipe down the serving counter and chewed her lip in contemplation. “Well, obviously you’ll have to apologise and explain… but you’ll have to do it in a way where she knows you truly mean it.”

Dwight shrugged helplessly and displayed both of his palms. “What does that even mean?” he groaned. Women and feelings were too complicated. He should just become a hermit.

Without warning or hesitation, Demelza hit him on the head with the wet, bleach-soaked cloth. “Stop being a whiny twat, it doesn’t suit you. I don’t know, you’re the one that’s in love with the girl, you figure it out.”

“I’m not in love with her,” he mumbled pathetically, averting his gaze, suddenly very interested in how he’d managed to scuff his shoes.

Demelza smirked and raised her eyebrows at him. “Very convincin’, Dr Enys,” she taunted, her Cornish accent coming through due to her amusement. She eyed the time on the clock and noted that his usual break-time was coming to an end, “you better get back to the hospital and do some actual work. God knows what your lot are always striking for, you never do anythin’!”

Her tease evoked a smile from him and he quickly leaned over the counter and hastily pressed his lips to her cheek. “Thanks for your help, Dem, you’re the best,” he said sincerely before rushing out of the building, hoping that being 20 seconds late won’t cost someone their life.

“Remember what I told you!” she called after him before the door closed. She shook her head at Dwight and his terrible luck with women and sighed. She hummed a Cornish folk tune softly as she continued doing some cleaning.

“Is he finally gone?” Caroline asked as she emerged from the small staff room around the corner, her tone a mixture of nervousness and iciness.

Demelza turned around and looked at her sympathetically. “Yes, but you see, we’ve got it all wrong.” Demelza grinned in relief. She approached Caroline to explain everything that Dwight had just told her, but she stopped short and hesitated. “I could explain... but I reckon Dwight would prefer to do that himself instead.”

Caroline stared at Demelza for moment, her expression unreadable. Then, she pressed her pink lips into a thin line and crossed her arms stubbornly across her chest. “Try me.”  

[styomi]

Fifteen study dates | 15-day prompt challenge | Sweet Pea/OC | Day 12

AN: And, with this one, we’ve officially entered into the kink territory… Enjoy the ideas, you little curious ones :D

Info:

Fandom: Riverdale Pairing: Sweet Pea/OC Rating: T Word count: 1718 + 120 bonus Chapter count: 12/15

                                                   Stay still for me

Ruby was seriously regretting taking Mattie’s challenge and signing up for the art class at school. It was positively kicking her butt. The worst part, though, was the fact that her current assignment was to draw someone important in her life. And, she probably would’ve asked Jo to sit down for a portrait, because he wouldn’t’ve bothered her, no matter how crappy it came out. But, her father was out of town for work, like usual. So, that left her with the next best thing. Ruby groaned in advance and grabbed her phone, dialing a familiar number.

“Hey, short stuff,” Sweet Pea’s attractive rumble came from the other side of the call. “What’s up?” Ruby closed her eyes, praying for patience.

“Are you busy?” She asked, opting to take the least destructive road. Teasing would come, she knew, but that didn’t stop her from attempting to postpone it as much as she could.

“Not really, just hanging out with the guys.” Toni’s voice protested from his side, making Ruby grin. “And girls.” Sweet Pea corrected himself pointedly, more for his friend’s sake than anything else.

“Well, then… um… Canyoumodelformyartclassportrait?” Ruby rushed to get it all out, the words jumbling together in a smushed sentence.

“Errr, can I what?” Sweet Pea asked. “Didn’t catch that last part of mumbo-jumbo.”

“I’m in art class.” Ruby started again, her face on fire.

“A beautiful fact well-known to all, I don’t doubt. What’s that got to do with me?” Sweet Pea was quick to shoot back teasingly. She was already regretting calling him. She should’ve asked Toni or Fangs. Maybe even Jughead.

“We have a portrait assignment. Someone important in your life.” The girl couldn’t back down then. She’d already stepped into the mess with one foot.

“Oh, want me to ask Toni to come over?” He asked, voice going a bit distant as he moved away from the speaker, undoubtedly looking for the purple haired Serpent.

“No, you,” Ruby quickly cut him off. “I want to draw you,” Sweet Pea laughed. He actually laughed at her. Ruby snapped and cut the call off. She would just draw Jo from memory or something. Her phone rang again from the spot on her desk where she’d tossed it in mild anger and embarrassment. She watched Sweet Pea’s name flash on the screen for a few seconds before giving in and picking up the call. “What?” Ruby’s tone was anything but courteous.

“I’m coming over,” Sweet Pea replied in his usual rumble. “I’m leaving the quarry now, so I’ll be there in ten.” Ruby felt her anger vanish at his calm tone.

“Alright. See you in a bit.” When the line cut off, the girl placed her phone on her sketchbook gently, looking at the dark screen for a few moments. Then, she jumped up from her chair. Ruby rushed to her wardrobe, throwing the drawers open and looking for something nice to wear. Finally, she settled on a light blue sundress with a golden pattern of a phoenix on the front, which Mattie had drawn with some fabric paints when she’d come over. It took the girl a few minutes to have the dress on, tame her long hair with a brush and finally apply some casual mascara and her Chapstick. With a final check in the mirror, she decided that she looked nice enough, but not date-worthy. So, perfect. The doorbell rang Chili’s barking ringing throughout the house. Ruby jumped and rushed down the stairs barefoot, pulling the door open with a sharp motion.

“So, how naked should I get for this assignment?” Sweet Pea was leaning in the doorway, a smug smirk on his lips.

“It’s just a portrait. So, not at all.” Ruby shot back with a small smile, letting him in. Instantly, her dog started singing a different tune, trying to get the biker to pet him with passion.

“Bummer, I think that I’d be a great nude model.” Sweet Pea bent down a bit, petting the eager Chili across the back, then ruffled his ears and let the pooch go. As Ruby led the way to her bedroom, the dog stopped following them, retreating downstairs, where he usually hung out.

“Sit there and don’t move, if that’s possible,” Ruby instructed, making Sweet Pea plop on the window seat and get settled in. He shrugged off his signature leather jacket and tossed it on her bed, before starting to mess with the pillows on the seat, checking out the books and notes on it and looking out at the driveway.

“So, how’s it coming?” The boy asked after the first half an hour. Ruby was focused on her sketchpad, her pencil always moving and eraser coming up from time to time to correct something. She tossed him a glare at the question. Sweet Pea threw his hands up and leaned back, taking up one of the books she’d been reading and opening it. He started skimming through the pages at first. Then, he actually focused on it, becoming immersed in the storyline and reading it slowly. It gave Ruby plenty of time to draw him.

She wasn’t a good artist by any means. Mediocre, at best. But, at Mattie’s challenge to take an art class and develop that skill, she couldn’t resist. Now, drawing Sweet Pea, she wished that she was better. She knew that she couldn’t do his handsome face justice on the paper. After a while, Ruby lost focus and just ended up staring at the tall biker, ridiculously out of place in her window seat, reading a romance novel she’d been given for her birthday by her best friend, Mattie, as a joke.

“Am I distracting you?” Sweet Pea asked after a while, his eyes leaving the page and meeting hers over the top of the book.

“Incredibly.” Ruby sighed, closing her sketchpad and tossing it on the table, along with her pencil and eraser.

“Does that mean that we’re taking a break?” Sweet Pea eagerly suggested. “Because this thing has some very interesting suggestions that I’m just dying to try out.” He put the book up in the air, waving it. Ruby couldn’t resist laughing. She knew that the book had quite a few intimate scenes, rather descriptive, too.

“Mattie gave it to me,” she elaborated. “As a joke, of course.” But, Sweet Pea was already grinning wide from his spot.

“Maybe your bestie just wanted to help us spice it up from time to time,” he waggled his eyebrows and she lost it, bending over with laughter. “Seriously, that scene with the blindfold… Damn, it sounds good.”

“Do you want to try it, then?” Ruby suggested, rising from her seat. She walked over to the door of her room, taking a scarf from one of the hooks. When she turned, she saw that Sweet Pea’s eyes had been glued to her behind the whole way.

“Sure,” he replied, swallowing thickly. Ruby walked over to the window seat, pushing the books to the side to sit next to him and handed him the scarf. Sweet Pea’s hands were cold when they wrapped it around her head, covering her eyes. It told her that he was beyond excited about their little game. “Can you see anything?” He asked, voice coming from right in front of her. Ruby felt his hot breath on her face, smelling of peppermint and some kind of food. He’d probably chewed a gum on his way to her house.

“All dark,” Ruby replied, her voice trembling.

“Alright. Tell me if we go into weird territory, okay?” Sweet Pea’s rumble sent a pleasant chill down her spine.

“We passed it some time ago.” But, the comment wasn’t a biting remark, rather, a sentence of consent, which Sweet Pea knew well. It was like pressing the play button. The first thing Ruby felt was a soft brush of Sweet Pea’s fingers along her neck, down to her collarbone and then they traced the top of her dress and vanished. She took a shaky breath, waiting. Next, his hand took hers, interlocking their fingers. For once, hers were warmer than his. His lips were on her cheek then, gently trailing over it, without a kiss, but with a teasing touch. And, as he neared her mouth, Ruby leaned in, expecting a proper kiss, but met air. She huffed in disappointment.

“Relax, cupcake,” Sweet Pea whispered into her ear, almost making Ruby jump out of her skin. She had had no idea that he was there. “I’ve got you.” The next touch came in a form of a kiss to her neck, making her sigh. Sweet Pea knew what he was doing when it came to neck kisses. They were open-mouthed, hot, coupled with gentle and hard nips, along with promises of hickeys which usually stained Ruby’s skin for days. She couldn’t resist reaching up with her hands, letting go of his fingers, and following his arms up to his shoulders, neck and finally settling for pulling on his hair. It was gelled, an annoying fact that made running her fingers through it hard, but she wasn’t in the business of gentle toying with his locks then. Ruby just wanted to tug on the damned thing and make him kiss her properly. So, she did.

Sweet Pea obliged, his lips meeting hers gently at first, but she deepened the kiss immediately, her tongue seeking out his. It was sloppy, as Ruby couldn’t see anything, and she’d always preferred having her eyes open when kissing. However, the two managed. Then, Sweet Pea pulled away and his arms came around her, hefting her small body up and carrying her somewhere. Ruby sighed, excited by the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen next.

Then, her back met the mattress and she felt Sweet Pea lean against her body, the weight a familiar and welcome feeling. Ruby’s arms came up to go around his shoulders, but he pushed them down.

“No touching, tater tot,” Sweet Pea ordered her. “I sat still for you earlier. Now, it’s your turn.” Ruby nodded shakily and her fingers twisted into the covers, holding on for dear life. She managed to let him do as she wished for a while before she abandoned all thoughts of obeying his wishes.

I’m looking forward to hearing what you guys thought of this one :D

Taglist: @enticinghell @projectcampbell @sweetscamille @xoxodege

Previous parts: Day 1: A way to memorize Day 2: How to prepare for a study date (?) like a proper gentleman Day 3:  With proper motivation, anything is possible Day 4:  PG13 PDA sugar can be good motivation Day 5: Autumn time is picnic time Day 6: It’s best when we can compete Day 7:  Master of procrastination and his jailer Day 8: Take me anywhere, everywhere, away from here Day 9:  Dirty French for beginners   Day 10:  I need… sleep?… no, you… Day 11:  Delirium   Day 13:  Debate? Apparently, a turn-on   Day 14: Two-seater and Chinese   Day 15:  Unintentional intentions  

                                                          Bonus

“What the heck is that?” Toni asked, looking at the drawing Sweet Pea had pinned to the DIY cork board he had above his desk.

“Ruby drew me for her art class,” the tall Serpent shrugged. “I managed to convince her to let me have it.” The purple haired girl leaned away from inspecting the portrait done in pencil in order to raise her eyebrow at her friend.

“Sweet Pea, I love Ruby and all, she’s a darling in a small package…  But, that’s just plain ugly.” Toni spoke slowly like he couldn’t understand her. Sweet Pea laughed heartily and nodded.

“I know, but don’t let her hear that. If you ask me, she needs to drop that class ASAP.”

Now, I’m done :D