#I usually don't mind close the loop at the end style

[cromulentreader]

I wish the deleted ending for TQoN was the real ending and not what we got in the mortal world.

[chvoswxtch]

court, you’re the only person i can think of that would understand this on the level i do…

jessica and elektra fighting for readers attention and just end up both having their way with r after realizing they can (competitively) share

that’s all..🩵

I don't think i've ever written something so fast

I got carried away (as usual) but I have a feeling you're not going to mind at all

happy valentine's day from me to you <3

warning: swearing, explicit sexual content (minors please dni), word count 2.3k

sharing.

At first it was confusing. You couldn’t comprehend why two of the hottest women in New York, two of the hottest women you had ever seen period, seemed to want to spend so much time around you. Jessica Jones, who never wanted unsolicited advice or help from anyone, seemed to want your opinion on every case she was working on lately, claiming she needed an extra pair of eyes. And Elektra Natchios, who could have anyone out of the countless people throwing themselves at her feet, was constantly needing a last minute plus one to lavish galas and decadent events, and you were the company she chose.

You didn’t think much of it. Alias Investigations was only composed of three people, and Jess had been taking on a lot more clients lately. She knew you had a strong interest in investigative work, and she enjoyed your fresh perspective. Ellie told you the tenuous small talk was easier with you at her side, and she had said the events would be a great networking opportunity for you to make influential connections in your chosen career path; to which she hadn’t been wrong. 

On the surface, it seemed like they were both just being really good, yet unexpected, friends.

However, when Jessica and Elektra crossed paths in your company, you noticed something strange.

In the rare instances the three of you happened to all be in a room together, there was an undeniable tension between Jess and Ellie. Initially you thought it was just because the two were so starkly different. Jessica was a brute force to be reckoned with that had an affinity for whiskey and zero tolerance for petty bullshit. Elektra was a charming manipulator that had more money than God and could cut people down with words sharper than the blade strapped to her inner thigh. You thought it was the graphic dissonance in their personalities that made them appear to despise one another until Karen cracked the code with a knowing smirk on her pink lips.

“They’re both into you.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Oh come on, babe. You’re not that dense. Think about it.”

Ever since Karen planted that seed, it had been uncontrollably growing inside your head like wild ivy, each sprout blooming with new buds of realization. Everything began to shift into focus. Elektra sending outfits to your apartment that were elegant, but left little to the imagination, and were styles that she had specifically chosen for you. Jessica coming by your place late at night, the case she feigned needing help with long forgotten on your coffee table with each refill of your glass. Elektra looping her arm through yours every time the two of you went somewhere, like a possessive show of ownership. Jessica placing her hand on your lower back to usher you inside every time she opened the door for you, shooting anyone that dared get too close to you a menacing glare.

The hunger in both of their eyes every time they looked at you.

You couldn’t believe you had been so blind. The clues had been right there in front of your face the entire time, but you hadn’t even been aware there was a mystery to solve. It never once crossed your mind that the two women you fantasized about late at night when tides of loneliness had your hand slipping between your thighs, pretending it was one of theirs instead, that they could actually be craving the exact same thing.

Once it all clicked in your brain, you didn’t know how to act around them anymore, and you weren’t sure how to bring it up. Now when Elektra treated you to lunch and reached across the table to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, you didn’t see it as a friendly gesture anymore. That was something a lover would do. And when Jessica let herself into your office, setting an iced coffee on your desk from your favorite cafe while plopping down in the chair across from your desk to complain about her latest case, you saw it for what it really was. An excuse to see you.

Knowing they were both into you had your mind unraveling strand by strand. How could you just pick one of them? Did you have to? Would they be upset if you didn’t pick?

After overthinking it to the brink of insanity and guzzling an entire bottle of wine for liquid courage, you impulsively invited them both over to your apartment. Despite the late hour, both of them responded immediately and were at your front door in record time. 

To say they were annoyed to see each other was an understatement, but before they could get stuck in yet another passive aggressive argument, you cleared your throat to get their attention.

“I want you both.”

A crease of puzzlement furrowed in the middle of Jessica’s forehead while Elektra raised one of her perfectly arched brows in an expression of amusement complimented by a ruby painted smirk. 

“Sharing has never been my forte, darling.”

Swallowing thickly, you straightened your shoulders as you appeared to make yourself seem a little taller while crossing your arms across your chest. 

“Sharing is what you do when you care about someone, Ellie.”

Elektra let out a dark laugh, tilting her head to the side slightly as her deep brown eyes narrowed in your direction. Her ruby painted lips parted when she bared her teeth in a wolfish grin, and it sent an icy chill down your spine.

“Look how cute she is, pretending she’s in charge. Over indulged a bit and feeling brave, are we?”

Elektra motioned with her head towards the empty wine bottle lingering on the coffee table, and your lips parted as you went to speak, but nothing came out. You hadn’t really planned this out well. In your perfect scenario, the two of them would simply give in and agree to your demands, but you seemed to forget that you were dealing with two of the most headstrong people you had ever met. 

When Jessica seemed to grasp what was going on and what you were implying, her full lips tugged upwards into a devilish smirk, and she slowly peeled her leather jacket off her shoulders and down her arms.

“I think she is. You gotta admire her attempt. It’s kinda cute.”

Elektra crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes roaming over your entire figure, the ravenous hunger in them further amplified by the glow of the moonlight filtering in through the curtains.

“What should we do with her?”

“Why don’t we give her what she wants?”

Elektra turned her head to look at Jessica with an expression of incredulity.

“You think she’s earned it?”

Jessica took a step closer towards Elektra, staring down into her eyes intently, their noses barely an inch apart. Elektra had such a large personality and a commanding presence that you forgot she wasn’t the tallest person in the room.

“I don’t give a shit what she’s earned. I know what I want, and I’m pretty fucking tired of waiting. So, do you really wanna hold off just to teach a lesson? Or do you wanna help me fuck her senseless?”

Nothing could have prepared you for those words slipping out of Jessica’s mouth, or the way they knocked the very breath out of your lungs and made you nearly come on the spot. The way they were speaking about you like you weren’t even there should have made your blood boil, but it only aroused you further. And when Elektra turned her head to look at you with a wicked grin, you knew you were done for.

“Alright then. I suppose I could make an exception.”

And that’s how you found yourself tied up to your own bed, helplessly watching as Jessica and Elektra ate your pussy at the same time. It didn’t take much of Jessica’s strength to keep your hips pinned down to the mattress, and no matter how hard you tried to move, she wouldn’t let you budge. It was a struggle to keep your eyes open from the intensity of the pleasure, but you didn’t want to miss a second of the erotic sight in front of you.

Elektra and Jessica were both naked and nestled between your thighs, making them spread as far apart as they could go. They took turns gliding their warm tongues along your soaked cunt, lapping at your clit and suckling it between their lips. Each of them had a finger slipped inside your tight heat, pumping steadily at a synchronized rhythm that had your lower stomach contracting. When they turned their heads to lick you at the same time, your clit got caught in the tandem of their tongues tangling together, and it had you arching your back off the mattress.

“Fuck…”

A soft whimper escaped your lips when Elektra and Jessica turned their attention to each other for a moment, and you watched as they shared a sensual kiss, tasting your arousal on one another’s lips, all while fingering you still. It was the hottest sight you had ever seen, and it had you on the edge of combusting. It was absolute torture not being able to touch them or taste them in return.

“Jess…Ellie…please.”

“What is it, pretty girl?”

Jessica’s tongue darted out to swipe along her bottom lip as she looked up at you through half mooned eyes, and Elektra grinned while she leaned in to teasingly brush her lips over your clit.

“I think our pretty girl wants to come.”

Elektra wrapped her soft warm lips around your clit, flicking her tongue over it repeatedly, and Jessica took the opportunity to reach behind her to slip her other hand between Elektra’s thighs, slipping two of her fingers into her wet pussy. Elektra let out a savory moan that rippled against your clit in a way that had your thighs trembling.

“F-fuck-”

“Is that it, baby girl? You wanna come?”

“Yes…yesyesyes, please.”

Jessica sank her teeth down into her bottom lip, glancing between the look of sheer desperation on your face while you begged, watching the way Elektra devoured your soaked cunt, and then admiring the way her fingers were slowly fucking you and Elektra simultaneously.

“I bet I could make you both come at the same time. What do you think Ellie, you wanna come too?”

Elektra retracted her lips from your clit only for a moment, looking up at Jessica in pure insatiable desire as breathless pants escape her parted lips.

“I like a challenge.”

Jessica’s full lips parted into a huge grin as she leaned in closer, nipping at Elektra’s bottom lip roughly. 

“Then keep going.”

Jessica was fucking you with her fingers at a pace that was almost inhuman, curling them upwards to rub against that divine spot inside of you that made you forget your own name. Elektra was sucking on your clit ardently, and her own moans of pleasure were frantically vibrating against your sensitive nub from the way Jessica was fucking her with her fingers. Your jaw was completely slack, nothing coming out besides incoherent noises. You had never felt anything like this before, and the intensity was nearly overwhelming. The obscene sounds of Elektra slurping on your pussy, her salacious moans, the lewd squelching of Jessica’s fingers fucking both yours and Elektra’s cunts, and Jessica’s filthy praises were only pushing you closer and closer to the edge.

“Is this what you wanted, baby? To be fucked like a good little slut?”

“Jess-”

“Oh I wasn’t just talking to you, pretty girl. I was talking to her too. Seems like all you both needed was a little attitude adjustment.”

Jessica slipped her fingers out of Elektra’s pussy only for a second to smack her palm roughly against her ass, leaving a perfectly reddened outline of her handprint on Elektra’s skin. Elektra let out a sharp moan in response, fisting the sheets tightly in her hands when Jessica suddenly slipped her fingers back into her eager cunt without warning. Jessica let out a dry laugh when Elektra raised her ass higher in the air.

“I knew you’d like that you spoiled brat.”

You weren’t sure if it was Jessica’s fingers or Elektra’s mouth that sent you catapulting into the void of ecstasy, but your throat was raw from the scream that ripped through it as you began to convulse uncontrollably. Your entire body trembled violently from the aftershocks of such a potent explosion of gratification. The restraints around your wrists had rubbed your delicate skin sore and tender from how hard you had been tugging at them, but that pain didn’t even register in your brain at the moment. All you could focus on was how weightless you felt, as if you were floating amongst the clouds with a blissful fucked out smile on your lips.

“I think we broke her.”

Elektra’s velvet cadence was distant in your ears, but it still filled your body with a sense of warmth along with the familiar sound of Jessica’s dry laugh.

“I think she just needs a minute. Clearly her sex life has been a goddamn joke.”

“Well, while she recovers, I’d like to see just how unbreakable you are.”

“Do your worst.”

“Oh, I intend to.”

A tingle spread throughout your lower half when you felt the two of them shifting on the mattress, and you forced yourself back into a conscious state, wanting to witness the spectacle you were about to have a front row seat to.

You could definitely get used to sharing.

tags: @ninejloveb0t @firesunflamed @kmc1989 @storiesofsvu @geeksareunique

[your-goth-sis]

hi hi!! can I request separate Frank, Pyramidhead and Wesker with a survivor gf that is like The Trickster? Like a famous singer from a kpop girl group with a gyaru theme. a lot of fashion and colors and makeup and that she simply stands out a lot like a really bright highlighter among a grey environment. plus if she's really smart and great at looping but like secretly

kisses!! 💕💕

O-M-GOSHHHHHHHHHH YASSSS

Frank Morrison

He's all over you

He absolutely adores you

Though he gets frustrated when you end up looping him for 5 gens and the entirety of endgame

"Your mind games are crazy"

He will ask you a lot about your career and will listen to your music.

Not his cup of tea but will only listen because of how much he likes you and will force the rest of the Legion to enjoy your music.

If you are the rapper in the group, he'd start nerding out

"Listen closely! This is the best part"

Thinks you're beautiful and will even say it out loud in front of others.

Pyramidhead

Honestly, the colors are almost too bright for him.

He'd chase you during trials only to run his hands all over your body in hopes of getting the colors to fade (don't ask questions).

You'd blush heavily but when he puts you down he'd continue the trail as usual.

He grows frustrated when he can't reach you with his power and will eventually leave you for an easier target.

Albert Wesker

Ah yes

He'd admire your style, but he never heard of your group

You show him your music one day outside of a trail

Bro didn't know you could sing (or rap)

You two had friendly competition, constant taunts going back and forth between each other and in the end, he'd face camp you because you were the only kill he could get at the end of the match.

He thinks you're stunning and will even admit it do your face, making you blush and result in teasing.

[nocandnc]

2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 14, 16, 24, and 25 for OkoHoshi

Whoa, so many... I'll do my best!!

By nature of the prompts, some of these get a bit racy - nothing too explicit (just isn't my style) but proceed with caution below the cut ^^;;;

2) Who is always horny and will have sex at any time, at any place and at any time?

Hoshina is always looking for opportunities to fool around - during work, at home, in the ICU - anywhere at all, really. But he's also sort of calm about it? Regular training and live combat serves as a pretty good outlet for all that energy, so even if he's down for a good time anytime, he's not going stir crazy for it either.

Okonogi is usually the opposite. She conducts herself seriously and will refuse to entertain Hoshina's frisky impulses on most days. But unlike the Vice Captain, she doesn't have a convenient outlet for that frustration - so it builds up, and if Hoshina does manage to flip her switch then she's so much more desperate.

3) Who is more into taking showers/baths together? Who tries to make it relaxing and who tries to make it sexy time?

Coming from a more traditional household, Hoshina is used to just... taking baths with people? He's not actively thinking of it as something sexual, so he's plenty happy to just relax together. That said, he won't turn down an opportunity for sexy time if Okonogi's in the mood for it.

Okonogi insists that she is NOT, face red from more than just the water temperature.

6) Who takes photos of the other while they sleep?

Okonogi takes photos of him quite often, sleeping or otherwise. She got used to doing so after having to gather promotional materials for the 3rd Division, which seeped into her off-duty habits as well. The rare photos Hoshina takes of her are for the express purpose of bragging in the work group chat.

Hoshina: New wallpaper pic~ Ain't my girl the cutest? Kafka: Not cool Vice Cap :'( Ichikawa: Please stop... Captain Ashiro: Did you receive Okonogi's permission to share this? Narumi: FUCK OFF

7) Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?

There are lots of scenarios that come to mind where either of them confesses first, but in most cases I'd say Hoshina. Maybe he plays it off like a joke, very much into her but hesitant to really go for it in case he dies and leaves her suffering it makes work awkward. Maybe he says it in a deadly serious way, shocking Okonogi to tears because he's not allowed to do that. It's too cruel. What if she actually believes him this time, only for it to be just another joke?

I don't think either of them would be keen on ending a fight by pulling the 'because I love you' card... But if I had to say, Okonogi would probably be the first to let something like that slip - boiling mad and sick with worry after he starts taking his battles too far all too often. 11) Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?

"You looove me" Soshiro preens, pulling Konomi close. "You wanna huuug me, and kiiiiiss me, and—" "We're married" she groans.

14) Who starts the hand holding? Who grabs the others butt? Who slides their arm around their waist? Who likes to put their fingers in the belt loops?

The first time Okonogi dared to hold Hoshina's hand was during a particularly long stay in hospital. After waiting for what seemed like hours, she entwined her shaky fingers with his still ones and prayed for him to wake up soon.

Hoshina was never informed of this, so in his mind, he was the first one to do any hand-holding along with most other forms of PDA. He loves flaunting their relationship and loves how much she blushes when he does so. Okonogi is a little braver about reciprocating in private, but it takes her a while to get used to the idea that she can just... grab him sometimes.

16) Who is more seductive when they are drunk? and who is louder in bed?

I wouldn't call her seductive but I do imagine Okonogi being a lot more aggressive and confident when drunk, sexually or otherwise. The Vice Captain is incapable of seducing anyone while drunk. He just gets all sappy.

Hoshina isn't especially loud in bed, but he is very talkative. Okonogi on the other hand can barely form a sentence without screaming.

24) Who starts random slow dancing with the other in the kitchen? Who holds the other just above the ground and kisses them?

I don't see either of them being very into slow dancing to be honest. Hoshina prefers a faster pace, and Okonogi is too awkward about it one way or the other. Hoshina definitely picks Okonogi up to kiss her though - it's so damn easy and he loves showing off. Then again, making her struggle to kiss him from the very tips of her toes is equally tempting.

25) Who says shitty puns and sex jokes just to see the other giggle and blush?

Hoshina is a full-time clown, much to Okonogi's thinly veiled amusement annoyance - but every now and then she'll hit him (and anyone else within earshot) with surprisingly wild sex joke of her own.

[whohasthecards]

Top Gun "Cafe" AU (part 2)

part 1/part 2

"Thanks for letting me work here even though I know I suck at baking," Jake said evenly as he walked in the room.

Instead of wearing his usual attire of flannel and jeans, he was wearing a sleek black suit, tie perfectly knotted, everything fitting perfectly. From the tailored jacket to the shiny military grade combat boots.

Jake went to the other side of the room and opened up a briefcase, he briefly scanned the contents before giving a nod to Coyote in approval. He started assembling his guns and loading them.

"I'll deal with the mess that just happened, don't worry, it was my fault anyways they went after you, I did not tie up enough loose ends," Jake said muttering darkly as he harshly put his guns in their holsters.

"It wasn't your fault, Hangman, they would have made their move either way." Coyote said standing beside the man and handing him a folder.

"Nevertheless, they have been making their moves too hastily, the underground is restless, their moves are going to start an all out war, and although I do not mind a little mess, this would be getting too out of hand," Hangman said opening the file and scanning the contents before handing it back to Coyote.

He turned towards the stunned staff of the Top Gun Cafe. Bob's face was pinched, mouth opening and closing as if he did not know what to say. Phoenix's face was blank, brows furrowed. Mav's usually happy demeanor was gone, replaced by a frown, and a cold, calculating, glint in his eyes reminiscent of his husband's.

"I would say I was sorry for not telling you guys shit about me, but it's not like I knew about you either," Hangman said putting on his gloves.

Mav's eyebrow shot up, "You didn't know? You? The alleged, Hangman?"

Hangman shrugged, "What can I say Maverick? I was fully prepared for retirement, I was trying hard not to look. Also, I did not expect you guys to underestimate your own skills."

"We didn't expect the Hangman to be a blind idiot," Phoenix sharply cut through.

Hangman looked at her for a couple of seconds, eyes troubled as he seemed to be debating with himself whether or not to say what he wants to say before sighing and shaking his head.

"Well, that blind idiot won't be seen anymore," Hangman said walking away. "I'll keep you in the loop when I deal with them, I'll also send money for the damages. Have a great life, you guys," Hangman said flashing back a smirk as he gave one last jaunty wave, Coyote following half a step behind him.

---

It's been dealt with.

This was the message left behind on the cafe's counter one early morning, written on a receipt with an order for a hot chocolate with whip cream and rainbow sprinkles.

A couple hours after, news of the head of the organization's decapitation was buzzing around the underworld. The head was hanged up in the rafters of the organization's old hideout, body no where to be found. Whispers have been heard all around as everyone have been speculating on this style of assassination.

Hangman is back after a 8 month hiatus.

He wasn't dead, and he was back leading the game.

With vengeance.

---

Life was different at Top Flight Cafe. They weren't betrayed, per se, Jake didn't come in with any ulterior motive, heck, based on the evidence, he didn't even know they were part of the underground (even if it tickled the back of their mind that they should have told him, he managed to pull himself in the inner circle after all).

It made them uneasy that they unintentionally pulled Jake back to the life he decided to leave behind. No matter what he said that it was partly his faulty those armed group came, they didn't believe it.

The day after Jake left, Bob went inside the employee locker rooms, and he couldn't help but stop in his tracks when he saw Jake's cubby, open and empty, apron neatly folded, left behind.

He pointedly ignored it, as he stalked towards his locker right beside Jake's. He fiddled with the lock, and once he opened it, a piece of scotch-tape laminated paper fell out.

Jake

It had tiny planes decorated around it.

Bob couldn't help but smile as he kneeled down to take it, it was the locker name tag Bob made and decorated for him months ago.

He remembered the empty locker and he sighed as he stood up. He supposed Jake won't have a use for it now. He paused when he saw a familiar scrawl on the back of the paper.

Thanks, stay safe, Bobert.

Bob felt his throat clench as he involuntary crinkled the paper in his fist before taking a deep breathe and smoothening out.

He wondered if he acted better when the armed group came, would Jake have stayed?

He might never know, and all he could do was tape the piece of paper on the inside of his locker. The last piece he had of someone he would still call a friend.

---

A week after Jake left, Natasha burst inside the employee break room, ranting about how a customer kept on rudely changing their order, and how the ratio of chocolate sprinkles to whipped cream was wrong, or the temperature was apparently not perfect.

She turned her head to see what Jake thought, wanting to trade sarcastic remarks, when she met, empty air.

Her rant died on her lips when she realized that all that was left of Jake was an old computer chair he dragged from somewhere to sit in the corner of the room.

She pursed her lips. She didn't realize that ranting or talking to Jake during their breaks became such a habit that she didn't even bother scanning the room before she started going off.

It was quite a routine.

People in their business should be able to change their routine whenever they have to. Or else they die.

Phoenix stalked back out of the room, intending to simply have lunch out for once.

---

Bradley leaves the door to his office unlocked to make sure the other employees were always free to come in about anything and everything. Whether that means bothering him for markers, talking about business (or business), or even just to talk or hang out. It was a Saturday, one of the busier days due to everyone coming out for some sun. It wasn't all that busy for Bradley, all things considered, he was mostly holed up the whole day in his office dealing with beauracracy. He couldn't help but feel uneasy, though. The hair in the back of his neck was standing in anticipation, he couldn't help but keep looking up at the door. He shook his head as he kept on doing his paperwork, checking the clock every so often. (9:58, 11:25, 12:01, 13:17, 14:34, 16:00, 16:45, 17:59, 18:30, 19:00, 20:00) He probably refreshed his google calendar 100 times before confirming, that no, he did not have any meetings today.

The tightness he felt on his shoulders continued.

21:40, a knock on his door and Mav peeks in, "Hey kid, have you had dinner, yet?"

Oh.

He hasn't eaten all day.

"Not yet," Bradley said, voice slightly raspy from misuse.

He hasn't talked to anyone all day.

"Figured, Ice and I are ordering pizza, want to join us?"

"Sure, Mav," Rooster said, voice even, sighing when Mav left the room.

Jake was gone, and so were the random interuptions throughout the day, the breaks he didn't know he needed through interacting with the younger man, the breaks his stomach needed whenever the blonde would barge in and force Bradley (and everyone else) to try the new recipe Ice taught him how to make.

Rooster forced himself to believe that the hollow feeling in his chest was simply hunger from forgetting to eat.

---

Mav let the chocolate milk settle on the stove as he started making the team their drinks. Or at least, what he would assume would be their preferred drinks for the day.

Ice loved a good espresso, and so Mav took care of that first. Smirking as he made sure to use the man's favorite cup (Black, with the words '#1 Baker' on it that Mav gave him when they opened the shop). He'd need the caffeine with all the orders he would have to bake.

Bradley likes to take his time sipping on his coffee. Mav made him a standard Americano with condensed milk in it, making sure the milk was all the way stirred. His son had a sweet tooth.

Bob didn't consume as much caffeine as the other kids, preferring less or no caffeine unless necessary (he once saw the boy chug 3 Red Bulls during a particularly stressful situation--). He started on the batch of chai that he serves to the customers. He opened a new bag of Assam tea, and threw in some fresh spices. He was trying a new blend, it would be the special drink of the day. If it goes well. Bob would taste test.

Nat he made a standard Americano for. She likes putting all the fun stuff herself. Well, if she wanted too that day.

Mav poured the cooled down chocolate milk into two cups, adding a 2 shots of espresso in one of them. Adding whipped cream to both of them. He grinned as he grabbed the airplane-shaped-sprinkles from the shelf. They came yesterday, and Jake would lov-

Oh.

Right.

Mav's lips tugged down to a frown, as he looked down at the sprinkles.

Jake betrayed them, yet for some reason...

It wasn't really betrayal, was it?

Hangman wasn't in the business anymore, so he didn't have a reason to tell them. If it was anyone, it would be the cafe who betrayed Jake, they should have told him. Them not telling him made Jake an unknowing accomplice to their crimes. Them not telling Jake, was potentially the reason Hangman was back in the world he left behind.

Mav sighed as he looked upwards. He sprinkled the sprinkles on both drinks. Leaving the other drinks in the break room for the others to get them when they arrive. He grabbed both hot chocolates as he went for a walk to the nearby park. It was still early.

He sipped on his drink as he walked, a contemplative look on his face.

He stopped by the table with the embedded chess board he and Jake used to play in. Kid was a good opponent. He smiled when he remembered the boy rejoicing when he beat him the first time, pumping his fists in the air grinning wildly. When they went back to the cafe, he was bragging about it to everyone, hair wild with the wind, as he crowed about his victory.

That same kid was Hangman.

Hangman who singlehandedly eliminated problematic groups from the underworld.

Who was said to be skilled in every weapon.

Who started and led his own group a couple years back, cementing themselves as a prominent group in America. Jesus-- How old was the kid when he started in the underworld?

He sighs as he put down Jake's drink on the table, it was probably lukewarm by now, exactly how Jake would have liked it.

He left it there as he went back to the cafe.

---

Iceman felt nothing from the events that happened. He wasn't even there when it happened.

He just came back from his trip to find the whole team in his office, a hard expression on their faces.

Jake was nowhere in sight,

Another man gone. They analyze the situation. No problem. They move on.

Hangman would not be a problem. Iceman had more experience and connections than him.

They move on.

When Ice clears the counters to bake, he unintentionally preps the table for two bakers instead of one. Even on the days where he knows he's supposed to bake alone, now.

He saves an overly-sweet pastry recipe he found on that TikTok application from his phone. It would be a sweet treat and decent breakfast, he could even put some protein powder to make it more nutritious.

He takes the trays of pastries, a name dying on his lips. He used to always ask Jake to take the pastries to the front, also so that the boy would be able to have a quick snack. He sighed, before bringing the tray to the front himself.

He clenched his jaw. Another man he wasn't able to say goodbye too. He was just gone.

---

Hangman sighed as he holstered his guns and leaned back on the wall, tilting his head upwards to the glass ceiling. The moon shining a bright yellow in the dark sky.

Another mission accomplished.

It was a simple takedown mission, one he chose to do alone to blow off some steam. Targets are all eliminated. Data already retrieved. Nothing left in the building but him and the ghosts he just made.

He close his eyes, listening to the dripping of the pipes, when he heard steady footsteps.

His eyes shot open as he whipped out his gun and dashed behind a pillar. Lightly peering behind it as a familiar man stepped out.

He knew Ice, but this was the Iceman.

In a crisp light grey suit, dress shoes, and a blue tie, instead of sweater, jeans, and an apron.

"Quite a mess you've made, Hangman," Iceman's voice rasped out.

Jake decided to stand before the man. He found it amusing that they both had a penchant for wearing suits while doing this job, his was just black.

"Well, you didn't really give me some time to clean it up before ya came," Hangman drawled. "Gotta say, though, impressive outfit, never met this one before."

Iceman rolled his eyes, "Cut the shit, Jake, just because we currently do different jobs doesn't mean we completely change personalities."

"Yeah, you're still a hard-ass no matter what job you do," Hangman said, switching off his gun's safety. "Whattya doing here, pops?" Hangman asked, internally wincing at the way too familiar address.

"Nothing, just checking in," Iceman said shrugging as he nudged a dead body out of the way to pull a chair out and sit down. "So, how are you, Jacob?"

Jake blinked, once, twice, "That's all you have to say? We haven't seen each other since you left for you trip, you come here in mob-boss style clothes, and that's--"

"Well, I was also going to ask if you still want to learn how to make bialys, I did say we would make it once I came back," Ice shrugged.

Jake paused.

Well, he was hungry.

"That's it? No motive? You come here, and that's it-?" Jake asked bewildered.

"Well, I was here to take down this group as well, but you seem to have it handled," Ice said before meeting Jake's eyes with an intense stare. "You came into my shop and worked hard with no ulterior motive, what happened with the armed group was not your fault. You are always welcome there, son."

Jake let his gun hang limply to the side.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Because I won't hide the truth from now on, I don't need too. Hangman doesn't have to be part of Top Gun, Jake, but you? You're always welcome to the cafe. They won't admit it, but the team misses you." Ice said, groaning as he stood up.

"But you decided to talk to me, not them, don't bullshit me, Ice, you knew I was going to be here," Jake's face broke out into a shit-eating grin, "You do miss me."

Ice snorted as he walked towards the younger man, "Yeah, I did, kid, now come on, the dough won't rise by themselves." Ice said slinging an arm around the boy and pulled him in to a side hug.

Jake relaxed in the older man's hold, letting his head rest under the man's chin.

Maybe he hasn't lost everything after all.

"Although, we have to get those cuts, treated, son, you were sloppy today, and I do not want blood on my dough," Ice said thumbing away some blood off his cheek.

Jake shrugged, "Was a bit distracted."

Ice hummed, "Let's get Mav to make us some coffee before we start then," Ice said leading the boy outside.

[clone-lover]

Something to Drink

Hunter X Singer Reader

Warnings: Alcohol/drinking... that's about it

I don't know if anyone will like this cause it's a little bit of an insert on my part. When I preform, I always imagine my fav character is in the crowd cheering me on so... anyways enjoy!! (I have had to rewrite this so many times. Safe to say I hate it now)

Masterlist

Anxiety bubbled in your stomach as you turned on your mic. It was your first time preforming here and you didn't know anyone in the crowd. Your heart thumped in your chest, threating to burst out. You closed your eyes and breathed out with little effect on your nerves.

The cantina band began to play and you tried to soothe your nerves by swaying to the music. The music was slower than most cantina music is and wayyy more sensual but the cliental likes it that way.

Little did you, your rapid heart rate caught the attention of a man in the crowd. This man would later become known as hunter but for now, it was time to open your mouth and sing.

Your words, tone and stage presence mesmerized him. I'm an instance you captivated him, unknowingly bewitching him. The cantinas light danced to your chorale. Your harsh washed away by the dancing ray as your softer ones flowed through the air and into Hunter's longing eyes.

You were truly marvelous. He couldn't pry his eyes away. Too soo, the song ended. You heard a clapping from the back. Odd, you were sure no one would like it, being it was your first time with that style.

Hunter received weird looks for clapping. He didn't mind. In fact, he would prefer they remained ignorant to your beauty. He wanted you to himself.

You left the cantina dug out and headed to the bar to soothe your throat. When Hunter saw your u eyeing the bar he ordered you a drink in foresight.

"one for the preformer."

"well, alright. They is'a new around here." Hunter pointed out a sweet drink with sour hints and a bitter after, while listening to the tender's accented words. "The everything," he named the beverage. "They is'a bound to liking it." That was a relief. "Smart man. Even smarter, if you asking 'em what they is'a running from." He looked up at the alien man confused.

"Not normal to leave," he smiled "old cliental." He drew out the word cliental before promptly making a disapproving noise with the shake of his face skin. "No, it is'a bad," he paused to shake his face again at the word bad. "For business." He poured the drink into a loopy glass and placed a lid on top. A soft gradient between pink and yellow filled the loops and twists of the bottle. "Who wants to start fresh anyways?" He shook his cheeks as he walked away with the bottle.

Hunter looked over to find you talking to the alien bartender. You were shining as if there was a spotlight on you. The tender jabbed a finger towards hunter.

The tattooed man looked beautiful and you almost couldn't tear your eyes away. Hunter's feet moved his body to you. You were even more beautiful up close.

"thank you for the drink," You paused hoping for him to introduce himself. "Hunter." He smiled and stuck out his arm. "You don't really get out much do you hunter?" You said taking his hand in yours. He scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "is it that obvious."

A lingering awkwardness strained the conversation. Luckily the cantina music and usual noise filled the silence. You took a sip from the drink waiting for him to take charge. "Are you hungry, this place is rather loud and I know a pretty good spot to eat right around the corner."

A date? You took another sip to think. Hells what do you have to lose. "That sounds great. The patrons might be upset that I left without a closing show." Hunter offered you his hand and gracefully eased you down from the bar stool. "Don't worry, I'll have you back before then. Besides, I wouldn't mind another show." His words, warm on your cheeks. This would be an interesting night.

Ahhhh this wasn't supposed to post yetttt the ending is a little rusheddd so sorry!!!

[shmowder]

seeing a lot of asks regarding poly daniil and artemy and I'd love to join in too. i think it would be real funny if whenever daniil or artemy fought with eachother they used the reader as some type of relief, can be nsfw or sfw.

the idea of them getting all angry over the other only for both of them to use the same person as some type of break is a bit funny.

Could I interest you in some modern au?

Fluff

They've been at it for hours.

You'd think three grown adults could easily come to a compromise when it comes to a trival matter as picking a movie to watch, especially two whole doctors who save lives on the daily.

Apparently not.

You groan against the pillow you've been hugging, burying your face into it as Daniil and Artemy's voices somehow become even louder as they attempt to talk over each other.

This is even worst than the time Daniil thought it was a brilliant idea to take Artemy tie shopping, or that other time Artemy left the front door open and his pet—the family's pet bull managed to get inside and left a very clear–and smelly–personal statement on Daniil's leather shoes.

Since when did either of them even care about movies or watching TV at all?

Maybe it was the "baby shark" music video Murky kept on loop all morning, which fried their brain, and now control over the TV remote is one short hill they'll certainly die on.

This is it, you're too done with those two gaint babies. With a quick motion you snatch the remote from the No Man's land coffee table and click on the first option you see. Announcing that this is the movie now, they've both lost their chances and since you have the remote it means you get to decide.

...What you didn't realise was that all they heard is "whoever gets the remote will decide" You know, the current remote in your hands.

All sense of decorum is thrown out the window as the Bachelor of Medicine himself gives you a polite smile before bouncing on you like a snake chasing after a mouse.

Your back slamming against what felt like a gaint bear, Artemy's hand akin to a claw as it easily envelopes your own with the remote and keeps it out of reach from Daniil's grubby fingers.

The two are in a standoff with you in the middle.

In an instant, you're pulled closer from opposite directions and tugged around, their hands gunning for the prize held tightly in your own, only for the other man to immediately pull you out of reach.

Daniil's hair is a complete mess. The usual combed style black strands each developed a mind of their own as they faced completely different directions. The catty man is this close to resort to biting Artemy's hand away, which keeps a steel grip against yours on the remote.

Meanwhile, this hulking surgeon is struggling not to slide off of the couch from Daniil suddenly cornering you against him at the far end. He considers pulling the remote–alongside your hand–under his sweater to protect them from Daniil's unusually sharp fangs.

-

Smut

Of course the two most petty men to have walked the face of the earth couldn't have left their disagreement at the door when bedtime rolled around.

Now it's Artemy's teeth grazing your neck, so much for giving Daniil shit for biting his hand when he himself isn't sparing a single patch on your skin without marking it in some way or form.

You try to adjust your legs, but Daniil keeps them secured against his shoulder, face buried directly between your thighs. Kissing alongside your sensitive spots, looking incredibly smug for a man on his knees as he swallows down the remains of your cum.

They're unbelievably stubborn as they use your body to settle their argument. You don't think they even remember which movie they originally wanted to pick. At this point, it's too personal for them to back down.

God Daniil's mouth is relentless, to think Artemy's cock was stretching you open not a minute ago and now it's replaced by the Bachelor's tongue.

You feel Artemy's semi-hard against your back, grinding against you as. His arms wrapped around you so tenderly as if he wasn't just using your as his personal fleshlight, setting a merciless pace as he bounced you up and down his cock.

The taste of Daniil's cum is still thick on your tongue, as if he deliberately made sure to be the last to finish inside your throat so you may spend the rest of the night thinking of him. So you can taste nothing but his cum even as Artemy's cock stretches you open.

One minute, they're intense and passionate as they fill your holes and flood your brain with pleasure so much it's borderline painful.

The next they're soft and gentle as they lick your bruised skin and press kisses against your temple, massaging your shaking thighs, Daniil's honeyed words of reassurance washing over you, putting you into an almost trance of wanting to obey and please him.

Artemy's embrace making you feel so safe, being held by him, protected by your husband who will never let anything bad touch you in this world.

Daniil's sinfully angelic moans as you ride him, how pretty he looks with his hair sprawled on the pillow, framing his face as he holds intense desire in his eyes.

Artemy's hands guiding your hips, making you grind down until Daniil's cock is pressing against that rough patch of skin inside you, how easy it is for him to move your body around and lift your hips up and down.

[mdhwrites]

The demon realm isn’t diverse despite the show saying all myths from the demon realm influenced Earth even back in the deadwardian era it very European inspired there are also POC witches but their skin color makes no difference and the demons in the show barely have any resemblance to demons from mythology or religion I feel like the Crew could not write different Cultures and sticked to the Fantasy European Model because it easier and because some people will take issue with the show depicting their monsters as demonic What do you think?

Punctuation. Is. Important. This post is... weird without it. BUT it does actually bring up an interesting point, in part because... Well, I'd be in a pretty similar boat unfortunately.

See, western/European fantasy may have a WIDE variety of options but it also has the easiest when it comes to having a good selection of easily available creatures, settings, etc. to take from. Everyone knows dragons, dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc. At least, here in the west. Unless you do deeper digging, a lot of people will have a pretty limited reach for what they can do monster wise and I think that is reflected in the show.

And I suffer from it myself. I've never done real deep dives into all the monsters out there so while I like them, my mind ends up freezing on only a handful of common ones to use in my writing or the like. It's something that I would like to get better about due to just the sorts of things I enjoy writing. But because a lot of fantasy sticks to these close knit groups of easily useful monsters and myths, you kind of get stuck in a loop.

The show did give itself an out though for worry about potentially insulting other cultures and that was that everything is BASED on something from the Isles. They didn't have to make one to one portrayals but could have taken inspiration. Theoretically, that is in fact what the show did since we don't actually get anything named after a regular monster. The closest are the fact that the witches and wizards actually use those terms and I guess giraffes. Otherwise, they're all purely made up. Which, you know, isn't a bad thing so long as they're interesting.

Unfortunately they're not for most of the like... five that show up in the series? Cool designs usually but little in the way of making them unique obstacles or having real personalities besides "Creature."

The other potential excuse is that the style of the Isles was specifically based on a Dutch/Netherlands artist named Hieronymus Bosch. While his art is weird, it still is steeped in his culture as his buildings and the like are still European in inspiration. Of course, then we get into the fact that they don't include any of the actually surrealist elements of his art which is part of why the Isles is so boring. Strip that part away and all you're left with is... Europe but it's a little weird.

However, the reuse of European history, even including people who look like Vikings, is much weirder to me. At that point, you're not basing this on artwork or fantasy... You're just copying history. Like you point out: Their architecture, style of dress, etc. like that actually mimics common, HUMAN clothing trends just as much four hundred years ago, before a human ever ruled them, as it does in the present day. That's a bizarre disconnect that adds to the feeling that this is just kind of a lazy fantasy setting.

And no, I don't expect every fantasy world to look like Hylics and be this unknowable, abstract landscape. I am fine if something just steals medieval fantasy for its style and creatures after all. The thing that makes most fantasy distinct are its cultures and the interplay of them, or how they diverge from our world despite being so close to it at the same time. Skyrim is not a bad or boring fantasy world because it is THE style you go for with generic fantasy. It's world is vibrant to many because it feels more alive and like there are conflicts that are motivated by things like magic, monsters, etc.

It doesn't even have to be something big. My favorite book series of all time is a medieval fantasy series with some magic for two books and then NEVER BRINGS IT BACK. The mythos around the Rangers of Ranger's Apprentice though, them genuinely engaging with the different countries they come across (even if many are just replacements for real world countries) and the exploration of those cultures, how they differ, their beliefs, their tactics, etc. helped make each place feel like a unique challenge and world in and of itself even though it was lifting so much from reality. It drips with what makes these countries interesting and fun to take from for a fantasy world.

TOH though? They wrote in explicitly an excuse to take literally EVERY fun part of every religion, story, myth, video game even, etc. that has EVER been told... And decided to snark at all of it instead and act like it was better than all of that. Which is potentially a reason to go with the generic, European-centric style BECAUSE it is the most generic. Because most people will know about it from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. As such, it is the one that is the easiest to ridicule because they are actively choosing the elements that are the easiest to mock. It's like when people say that Madoka Magica is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre because they have literally only seen Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura.

And yes, there is an argument to be had about Dana potentially not feeling comfortable including other cultures' mythologies due to cultural appropriation and... I'm not going to try to deliberate that. I am the second to last person to get to behind the British. I also won't say it would be exactly a bad reason to avoid it even. Just that it is a thing and... *shrug*

A lot of this in fact kind of doesn't have a conclusion besides a shrug. After all, I like D&D. I like the Forgotten Realms. They are not, by default, that unique a fantasy world, in part by design. But, you know, a good DM makes that generic world into a playground. TOH never feels like it's willing to expand to even add a slide.

======+++++======

Btw, if you want a monthly-ish D&D show to watch, I HIGHLY recommend Dan Jones and Dragons. It has a more casual feel to it than I feel like a lot of D&D stuff I've watched tends to have while not devolving into jokes and gags. Everyone is taking it seriously but they're willing to diverge for thirty seconds about a good joke that happens. All of the characters, their personalities, the drama they go through and the care they have for each other is also just SO GOOD. Cannot recommend enough.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Portrait of a Dead Girl

Summary:

Alina Starkov was given to Duke Aleksander Morozova of Os Alta in marriage when she was fifteen years old. Within a year, she was dead. The official cause of Alina's death was marked as putrid fever, but many at the time believed, and many in the future will go on to believe, that she was poisoned by her husband.

-

This fic is completely inspired by The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrel, which is a work of historical fiction based on the real lives of Duchess Lucrezia d'Este (née de' Medici) and Duke Alfonso ii d'Este of Ferrara. You don't need any prior knowledge of The Marriage Portrait or history to read and enjoy this fic, but know that my writing is very much going to mimic that of O'Farrel in format and although I'm hoping to write the story in my personal usual writing style I will definitely be borrowing a lot of my descriptors, symbols, and so on and so forth from O'Farrel - there will be some of mine too though :)

Warnings for this chapter: non-consensual touching, fear of violence, discussions of death, discussions of murder, implied abusive relationship, manipulation

AO3 link

Chapter Eight - A Killer’s Response to a Kiss

Krepost, near Pykan - Now

“You still look cold, my love,” says Alexander, after Alina has finally finished forcing herself to swallow the venison down, “Come, sit by the fire,”

Alina tries to shake her head but she is shivering as she does it, and her husband only seems to find her faint protest amusing. He thinks she does not want to be any trouble, perhaps, and enjoys the humility of his little duchess. His hand closes over hers and Alina lets him lead her towards the hearth. The heat of it is immediately intense, as though she has passed some unseen border into a warmer, maybe even nicer world. No sooner has she stepped towards the small of the two chairs that lay waiting for them in front of the grate than Aleksander’s arm has looped around her waist, and Alina finds herself pulled, not roughly but somewhat unexpectedly, onto his lap. 

Is he being affectionate, she wonders, or does he intend to finish her this very moment? Will his large, strong hands close about her throat? Will he thrust her towards the flames? Are these her last moments to draw breath? 

But Aleksander’s hand is loose, where it sits just above her left hip. She can feel the shape of his thumb, as though it is scratching at her bones, as it begins to circle very lightly on her side. He smiles at her. His other gentle hand is laid against her knee, and Alina is trying not to stare at it. 

Is it possible that she has let her imagination get the better of her, after all? She has always been told it is too wild, too unruly, too unseemly. And he is looking at her so kindly, now. His hands are soft, his eyes are calm; everything feels safe and gentle. He surely does not mean to hurt her. Does he? 

Without being entirely certain of why, Alina leans in and presses her lips briefly against Aleksander’s cheek. What is she doing? She really doesn’t know. Maybe she is testing him, somehow. How would a killer respond to a kiss? 

Aleksander is smiling, looking up at her with the expression of one who has received a pleasant, if rather benign, surprise to end their day. Alina tries to return the upturning of her lips. 

“What was that for?”

She has to search her mind, quickly, to reach for a response. Words that would appease him, maybe even something that would convince him to spare her if he truly does have darker plans. 

“Just… to say thank you,” she manages, after a horribly fraught moment that, to Alina, seems to stretch for years, “For bringing me here. For everything you’ve done for me,”

“You don’t need to thank me,” he murmurs, and the hand by her knee drifts a little higher, “But you can definitely kiss me again.”

He leans his face up towards her own, and Alina drifts away from herself as she lets her lips press against his own. Their foreheads are touching. The hand on her hip moves upwards, finding purchase flat against her back, fingers spread wide, holding her in place as the kiss deepens. He hand on leg moves to her right hip, now, and its thumb finds a new shape to draw into her skin. 

He cannot mean to hurt her. It isn’t possible. 

Alina has let her imagination carry her to wild, foolish places, and she needs to calm herself. It is purely fiction. No-one could kiss someone that they intended to kill. Not like this. Not with passion and depth, with care and hunger. He does not want to kill her. 

They draw away from each other slowly, faces still close, hands moved to hold each other’s in their own. Alina opens her eyes and sees her husband has already done the same. His cheeks are flushed. He is staring deep inside her, his thumb circling tenderly against her palm. 

The temperature in the room, she thinks, feels entirely wrong. One half of her body, the side facing the fire, is too hot. Far too hot. In fact she feels like it is burning, as though beads or sweat are forming on her forehead and the bare skin of her hands and wrists is turning red, or even flaking off. Aleksander shifts slightly beneath her, and her dress rustles as though in response. The side of her that is facing the rest of the room is still too cold. Her skin might have paled and turned blue, for all she could tell, and there might have been tiny icicles growing from her eyelashes. She wants to laugh again, though she couldn’t possibly say why. 

Aleksander shifts again and she realises he is making to stand up; she hops to her feet, one hand still tucked inside of his, and he follows her up. 

“It’s getting late,” his voice is made of silk, “Let me show you to your chamber,”

Alina nods. Her husband has led her most of the way across the room, almost all the way out of the door, in fact, by the time she finally summons the courage to voice the question that has been bothering her ever since they left court this morning. 

“When will - when will my maid servants arrive?”

Her husband does not look back at her when he says: 

“Oh, I should think it will be sometime tomorrow, perhaps the day after,”

Alina falters. 

“But you said they would leave straight after we did and-”

Aleksander does turn now, and his grip on her hand tightens. It is only brief, but for a moment Alina’s fingers are squashed against each other as though they are being suffocated, or crushed into fine pieces. 

“It is late, Alina,” her husband says, and there is something in his voice that does not  beg further question, “The roads will be dangerous at this time. You wouldn’t want your women to fall into trouble, would you?”

“No, of course, it’s just-”

“I’m sure you can survive without them for just one night,” 

His voice is cold. Alina smiles. 

“Of course,”

As though the moment had never even happened in the first place, her husband’s features soften. His hand reaches out, a slow and deliberate movement, to twist the end of Alina’s plait between his fingers. 

“I miss your long hair,” he says, voice low, and she does not say that she misses it as well, that she never would have cut it by choice, “But you are still beautiful,”

She thanks him, and they walk upstairs in the kind of silence where Alina cannot entirely decipher whether it is weighted or not. It feels strange. They walk down a hall and then up a staircase, then take a few turns before another, narrower set of steps comes to greet them. Alina is so badly aching from the day of travel that she is half-tempted to suggest she simply slips into a smaller room and moves up to her own chamber tomorrow when they are greeted by a third, steep stone staircase, but thankfully this is the final one. A few more turns, another hallway, and that is all. Alina finds herself trying to remember the pathway that they’ve carved through the krepost, as though she may need to traverse her way quickly, and alone, back out again. Left at this hall, right at that door, right again at the top of the stairs. She tries to hold it in her head but it’s like clutching at wet soap; the firmer she attempts to grip, the quicker it slides free and jumps away. 

“Here we are,” says her husband, as they finally reach the right door. 

It is ornate; carved wood with a heavy metal handle, flowers and woodland creatures dancing idly on the wood that had been delicately painted by a talented hand. Red spider lilies; a distant bird silhouetted in the sky; chrysanthemums; foxes; roses; rabbits. Aleksander’s left hand opens the door and holds it open. His right hand is balanced on the small of her back. 

“After you, my love,”

Alina smiles again, and something deep and ancient seems to relax inside her chest and allow her to breathe easily once more. He doesn’t mean to kill her. Of course he doesn’t. What foolish notions her mind carried; truly the runaway wonderings of a child, not of the young, beautiful, sensible Duchess of Os Alta.

Aleksander has no intentions of killing her. He loves her. 

Tomorrow, she will wake up vomiting.

[zuzsenpai]

Work nonsense ahead.

The animations I make for work are generally well received, though I'm limited on the styles I can use based on the program I have access too, specifically when it comes to the "style" of animated people (I can't draw so I rely on a program with already made customizable characters). The character customization and animation options are very robust within each style, but there are only two "styles" to choose from. If that makes sense. I have used one particular style for 95% of the animations I make, because I like how it looks for corporate videos (the other style in my opinion is wildly amateurish and shouldn't be used for anything professional).

Anyway, keep in mind I work for a single company (a healthcare organization), so my "client" is the marketing department who sees all of my work before it goes out to the public. Because I use that one particular style so often, marketing is super familiar with how it looks.

I got a project recently where one of the marketing higher-ups (referred to as marketing partners) wanted to emulate a style they saw from another healthcare organization. Most of it I could do easily, but the "people" in the video they wanted to emulate were obviously not in the styles I have access to. I have been using that one style too much, soI figured I should try my best to give them something else closer to what that wanted.

So.... the best I could do were static images of illustrated people I found through our adobe stock account. It looked similar to the video they liked. I only have basic skills when it comes to animating from scratch in after effects, so I couldn't give these characters a whole lot of movement or customization. If I had used the style in my animation program, I could have made the people do hundreds of different things movement-wise. But yeah. I decided against using my program. In the end, I didn't feel like it was my best work. In my opinion it wasn't terrible, as the "people" weren't a huge focal point of the video's message anyway.

I sent over the draft almost a month ago and haven't heard back. Before I made the project, the marketing partner had been asking me how soon I could get it done, which made me think it was pretty urgent. Usually when I do animations, even for this exact person, I hear back within a few days. I've literally made other smaller projects for her in the meantime and she's gotten back to me right away.

Finally, after a month, I sent another email asking if it was approved or if it needed changes, because I wanted to close the loop on the project. But also because I have been sitting here for a month thinking I did a shitty job on it and this marketing partner doesn't know how to tell me that she would rather scrap it and send it out to a freelancer. I've been feeling inadequate and untalented. Like the fact that I don't know how to draw and can't really animate is finally coming back to bite me in the ass. I sent her that second email around noon yesterday and now it's the end of the following day and I haven't heard back. She's literally answered other emails from me today about other things.

She's definitely drafting a huge email about how she thinks I "missed the mark". I just know it. This is going to reflect poorly on me and my self esteem and I'm going to think about what a shitty job I did every time I make animations from now on. And honestly? If I had just used the fucking program, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess. But I use it so often that I was worried the marketing partner would tell me to do something else. And yet... now all I want to do is email her again and tell her I'll start over and make it better with my tried and true program. Please don't farm it out to a freelancer. I'm useless to the company if I miss the mark and we farm it out. Useless.

[mostly-functional]

Not exactly nt but I dont really have any sensory issues so like. I buy clothes based on what looks nice, what feels right style wise. I'm personally someone who values fashion above comfort and I just like, usually don't think about how my clothes feel? It takes something straight up irritating my skin for it to bother me. Comfortable, soft fabric is a plus, and at the end of a long day I can't wait to change into my pajamas, but clothing texture isn't something on my mind.

Depending on the person, if someone cares more about comfort than style, then they're probably just buying whatevers soft, breathable, got good movement. Idk. Fabric is fabric and unless there's excessively rough tulle on a skirt turning my skin pink I rarely have feelings about it. Idk if I'm answering right like if you want me to describe a specific fabric feel or something give me an example and I'll answer

I'm not really a clubbing person, but I love going to concerts and thats close enough. I like being able to physically feel the music and I love being in the pit, surrounded by other people. It feels energetic, electric. It's a release. When it's loud enough it kinda drowns out your background thoughts, so you're just very present in the moment. Clubbing with friends can be nice. Everyone can kinda hype each other up, like a feedback loop. The only time this stuff feels bad is if you're really stressed or just not in a good place emotionally. Then it can get overwhelming, and you might wanna step out to get some fresh air, or just go home.

I cannot attest to anything on the quiet brain question. I have anxiety.

Small talk is boring and annoying. You ask someone about their day, the weather, how their doing. Polite topics with memorized generic answers. Then, when it comes up, you hope you can bring up something more interesting and lead a conversation from there. If a person is clearly uninterested, conversation can politely fizzle out at this point. The curteous part of social obligation has been fulfilled.

I tend to hyperfixate on things, so I know I could talk about the same thing for hours, but a nt conversation is going to naturally move and progress from topic to topic way more, usually with causal and polite interest in each. If someone finds a topic uninteresting, or they dont want to discuss it, theyll find a polite way to try and change the subject. If you're very passionate about something, you save talking about it unless it's relevant or unless you meet someone with the same interests. There's not really info dumping.

Idk if any of this helps! sorry it's super long

This is actually very helpful! Thank you :)

[amaya-writes]

I really love your writing style/what you write. May I request Belphie and Beel with a fallen angel? One that didn't become a demon despite the fall. Thank you so much.

Note: Since they didn't become a demon I decided to tweak your req a bit and make it that they accidentally fell. I hope that's fine. Also thank you! I'm glad you like my work!

Warnings: Lilith's death spoilers.

Characters involved: Beel and Belphie

Gender-neutral reader, you/yours

Beelzebub

Protective Beel mode activated.

Beel literally will not leave you alone with demons who aren't his brothers because he's so terrified of losing you/you ending up corrupted and actually turning into a demon.

He doesn't mind the idea of you turning, in fact, he's constantly thought about making you live at HOL when you do, but he wants that decision to be yours, not some random demon's.

He once threatened a teacher because they refused to let him steal you away just because he wasn't in that class with you.

Beel isn't usually the type to be rude or anything but once he gets close to and falls for you he just can't allow himself to not protect you.

He thinks he'll mess up like he did with Lilith and you'll die.

LOVES it when you cup his face and tell him he has nothing to worry about because you will protect yourself. It just warms his heart and reassures him so much.

Beel ends up calming down once the two of you make a pact but if you ever summon him with your pact trust that he'll be scary enough to put Lucifer to shame.

Outside of his protectiveness, Beel would just be so damn innocent when he's with you.

He thinks you're the prettiest being he's ever seen and jokes about how he could just eat you up.

Unlike some of the other *cough* Belphie *cough* Beel is more inclined to protect your 'innocent' personality rather than corrupt you.

He thinks it's so cute how you're oblivious about some things but always makes sure to keep you in the loop and explain things so you don't feel left out.

Beel 100% fell in love when he saw your angel form.

Makes you work out at the gym with him. This just means you assist him (like holding his legs while he does sit-ups) and in return, he spoils you with a date at Madame Screams.

Constantly buys you food because you just need to try the best food the Devildom.

He gets very sad whenever he thinks about Michael possibly showing up to take you back and always gets a little clingy when that happens.

Basically, Beel's love for you is essentially puppy love.

Belphegor

Belphie is obsessed with the idea of corrupting you.

He doesn't particularly like angels and hasn't interacted with many of them after Lilith's death but there's something about you that just draws him in.

By the time the two of you actually get together, he's already got you wrapped around his finger. You're drawn into him like a moth to a flame who just can't see how the light could be bad for you.

He doesn't actually do anything bad to you, though. Belphie just likes the idea of being the one who corrupts you.

He wants to be the one who gets to see you squirm and look at the ground as you comprehend the sinful words dripping from tongue like venom.

And in a way, it is. It's the sort of venom that will poison your brain until you're too gone to be able to leave him for heaven.

But if any other demon even dares to think about doing it? Well, he'll just put them in an eternal sleep that will be nowhere as peaceful as Aurora's was.

He might seem malevolent and mean but Belphie is also sweet to you.

He's always tugging you in the right direction by hooking his finger into the belt loops of your uniform. Always calling you a ditzy angel as he does things for you because you weren't doing them right.

And he rewards you when you listen. He places small little pecks on your forehead when you nod cutely and thank him for helping you out or explaining things.

Belphie loves your innocence, and he's not trying to take it away, he's just slowly ensuring you're not oblivious while also amusing himself in the process.

He's also really cute when you're alone together. He lets out cute little yawns and slumps against you complaining about how he doesn't sleep as much as he used to because of you.

If he falls asleep on you Belphie will have a death grip on your waist. Good luck trying to go anywhere or get things done.

He LOVES your wings and constantly expresses how he could just sleep on you forever. When he falls asleep with his head on your stomach and your wings wrapped around him Belphie feels at home.

He also has a habit of subconsciously carding his fingers through your feathers when you're in your angel form.

Belphie once found a fallen feather of yours and he loves wearing it as a necklace (like it dangling from a chain that's long enough for no one to be able to see the feather).

Whenever he sees you feeling unsure about your relationship he's quick to pull out the feather and tell you how he's yours and yours alone.

Belphie also has a habit of making his voice low and sleepy whenever he wakes up after a nap on you and whispers about how comfy you are.

He doesn't even realise he's doing it but if you get flustered because of his voice he will 100% tease you because

of it.

Calls you angel, baby, dove, little lamb, my pretty little thing, doll and other names that are normally considered cute and pure but sound super suggestive coming from him.

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Let the Stars Witness

Okay okay holy— omg I did it! My first request and from an admired writer of mine no less!

From @kim-monsterlings : Hi and welcome!! Really looking forward to seeing your work! ~ If you would, could I request some form of friends to lovers with an orc? (Prompts maybe like, "you deserve better.") Thank you! <3

Since it wasn't specified on what their genders are, I hope your okay with what I went with! And I kinda trailed off from the prompt (or rather it's different but similar)

Anyways you'll know when you read!

•

Pairing: Male Orc (Duruk) x Human Fem!Reader

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: None.

•

"You know, I never thought I would be friends with anyone here, especially with someone other than my, well, species," you tell your companion, your eyes not leaving the cloudless night sky as you lied on your back on the roof of his house. The stars were out tonight.

If you told your younger self that you'd be having great escapades (if running away and getting into a series of trouble fall under that) with an orc, you would most definitely cry your eyes out because you thought were being teased, taking it as a hurtful comment. You were sensitive like that. Part of the reason why no one would even go near you, afraid they might hurt you with a pat on the shoulder or with one word alone. You became the prime target of bullies, finding twisted amusement at your pathetic reactions. A crybaby, they called you. But it wasn't your fault you didn't have much control over your emotions. You were weird, asocial, timid, maybe even depressed. Having a neglectful family didn't help either, it just worsened.

•

The morning you met Duruk was after the orientation. And it was not so good for a first impression.

Long story short, you cried.

But since you're perhaps curious as to what happened exactly, let's elaborate.

You had your headphones on, the melodic sound of gentle rain played in a 3-hour loop and blocked out other noises, your eyes glued to the path you were on. You took long and hurried steps, wishing you could teleport to your classroom and hide in the back, disappear or become invisible.

You were distracted, or should we say, focused on the ground and expecting everyone to step aside and let you through.

Well, except for the one who had his back on you.

You crashed—not an exaggeration— into something- someone massive. You stumbled back and landed on your bum, wincing from the impact. Luckily, your headphones were safe (ah yes, priorities), detaching from your ears and landing on your shoulders. When you looked up to see who it was, you thought your eyes were gonna fall off, grow little legs, and scamper away.

Before you stood an orc, halfway turned to glance at whoever it was that tried to push him, his sharp tusks jutting out from his maw. His brows were furrowed as he looked down on you. Sure, he wasn't as tall as the orcs you've seen around the city and campus but still was over 6 feet, with muscles thicker than your thighs, easily hulking you.

You tried to get out an apology and run as far as you could go, but you just sat there, frozen as you strained your neck to meet his gaze, you couldn't look away. Your heart was trying to claw its way out into the surface.

Then you felt the tears swell up.

They cascaded down your face before you even could stop them.

The orc's eyes widened at your reaction and crouched down to your level in an instant that he almost fell over. His hands hovered, not sure what to do.

"Hey, hey, please don't cry. Please don't—"

"I-I-I'm re..really s-sorry p-please don't hurt m-me..." You managed to choke out pathetically, hiccuping in every word.

"Shhh now hey, it's okay. It was an accident— what? No! Why would I do that?" he replied. The orc peeked over his shoulder and to the sides. "Let's get you to somewhere, uh, less crowded," he added. You turned your head and saw that you had an audience, whispers went around as they sent pitiful and disgusted glances in your direction, only making you cry even more.

He proceeded to unceremoniously lift you into his arms, bridal style, and dashed away. You gripped the front of his shirt and shut your eyes. You were trembling now, scared of what he might do to you. How could you even fight back with your small stature?

It wasn't long until you felt him slow down and placed you carefully on a bench. The orc knelt in front of you, brows scrunched up as he studied your face.

"You okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

You didn't reply, only staring at him through your glassy eyes as you heaved.

You flinched when his hand started rubbing your back, his other hand placed on the side of the bench to balance himself.

He continued to caress your back and murmured soothing words in hopes of calming you down.

Your tears didn't stop falling until moments later when you came down from your initial fear, the warmth of his palm leaving your back once you did. All the while the orc remained where he was, at a loss of what to do next.

You rubbed your sticky face with the collar of your pale and blotchy crimson sweater, sniffing and taking slow, deep breaths before you spoke.

"I... I'm sorry for causing you trouble. E-Even going as far as to take me somewhere quiet. I...appreciate that." You thought you'd pass out with the way people gathered around you, it was suffocating. "Thank you..."

"I panicked," he started, "Sorry—I mean, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. I get that a lot of people run away from the sight of me, but you didn't, and just froze there on the ground so..." he shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck.

You shook your head. He was such an imposing figure to many, their first thought was most likely to get away or scream at him.

"You looked angry... When I bumped into you." You slammed into him actually, but he didn't budge an inch. Guess it was one-sided.

"Oh, that? Well, my brother scolds me a lot for having such a grumpy face, scaring humans away. Like he was the one to talk when he's taller and bigger than me! People would faint on the spot when they see him, I bet!"

The image your mind conjured up tore a laugh out of your body, two orcs arguing about how not to terrify people at sight was damn hilarious. When was the last time someone made you laugh like this?

The orc grinned, your reaction a contrast to that of earlier.

You opened your mouth to say something but the ringing of the great bell resounded, cutting you off. The two of you stood up as you realized you were late for your first class of the school year.

"So, uh, what now?" you asked.

"How about we go to our class, then maybe meet up later? Oh, fu— my mother will gut me— I haven't introduced myself!" He blurted out, his voice making you yelp with the sudden outburst.

Clearing his throat, he reached out, "I'm Duruk."

In turn, you gave him your name, taking his hand and smiled. "Hello, Duruk."

•

True to his word, you met again later when lunch came. The cafeteria was packed so you settled on getting the convenience food they offered and eat somewhere quiet.

Your conversation that day spiraled when you found out the two of you had a lot in common. From your favorite rock band to your favorite flavor of ice cream.

You both strongly agreed that vanilla ice cream was superior.

You agreed to meet up during breaks, always having something to chat about.

Eventually, you became inseparable.

He even changed and transferred to your class just so the two of you could be together at the start of the day rather than walk half of the campus to see each other every time.

You became best friends, sharing each moment in school, may it be helping the other stay awake in a boring class, or copying homework when one of you forgot to do it. Soon enough, Duruk started inviting you to his house to hang out. He did mention he had four other siblings, but he lived alone. You came by almost every night and on whole weekends to escape from home, only a few miles in between. No one would notice you gone anyways, but you returned around midnight, not wanting to impose on Duruk no matter what he says, so he walks you back instead.

You basked in each other's company. The odd and scrutinizing glares didn't go unnoticed when you two were together, but you shrugged them all off.

It didn't take long before you started having feelings for the orc, a little wishful thinking that you could be more than friends. You noted lately that his touches would linger seconds longer than usual, hugs and even a hand on your shoulder and back seem to be warmer and —you dare say— affectionate. It weighed heavily on your heart, your simple crush turned into something else, and it only grew with each passing day, and every laugh you shared.

But of course, you swatted those away, buried them deep inside every damn time they climb back up. Who could even love you? Yes, you have Duruk, he likes you, you think. But that's the end of it. Just close buddies. You can't take the risk of ruining your friendship with him and make things awkward with the only one you had! What if he stops talking to you, weirded out by your confession? You don't want to go back to being alone again, your heart can't take the rejection that came with it.

So you endured.

•

A little over five months ever since the embarrassing accident, here you are now, stargazing with your best friend.

"Well, good thing you didn't watch where you were going that time then," he says, chuckling beside you. His hands cushioned his head against the hard surface. "I wouldn't have..." he trails off.

"Hm, what?" you ask. Duruk went silent and didn't answer you for a time. You were about to let it slide but then he breathes in audibly.

"I wouldn't have met an angel if you did. Should've caught you in my arms, but sadly I didn't move fast enough." He replies, his voice deep and mellow.

You straighten up and turn to face him, your brows shot up, incredulous to what he just implied.

"W-Wait. What?" you squeak, your heart thumping hard in your chest, your skin warming up even in the chilled night air.

Is he—

"You're so cute, y'know that? Fuck it, it's all or nothing," he whispers under his breath as he sits up to face you. His expression was unreadable, but you see in his mahogany eyes a familiar glint of determination. "I'm not good with long-ass speeches so I'll make this short," he breathes in before he continues, "I feel something for you, for a while now, more than a best friend does, like...in a romantic sense. I want to cherish you and hold you in my arms every time I see you, I- ah fuck- damn it I just—" he growls, "I love you, so much and if you don't love me back then please re—"

You shut him off with your lips against his, Duruk's tusks pressing against your cheeks as you held his face in your hands. He was stunned for two solid seconds before returning the kiss, his arms snaking around your waist and pulling you close and into his lap.

You feel something wet roll down your hand and you immediately jerked back to see his face. The orc was crying.

Did you do it wrong? Were you so terrible at it—

"I don't deserve you... A monster like me doesn't deserve an angel like you."

Where was this coming from??

"Say that again, I dare you."

"I don't de—"

This idiot!

You pecked his lips to cut him off.

"You big dummy," you begin, "I love you too, idiot. You may be a monster but not what everyone else defines you as. I love you as you are. You're my best friend, and dare I say my l-lover now. Is that right...?"

Duruk gives you a small, gentle smile, "If you'll have me, then yes, for as long as you want me to be." He says, sniffling a sob as a couple more tears tumbled down his rugged face.

You never thought you'd see him like this. He was the one who kept making you laugh with his stories and terrible jokes. Before you, in your hands was someone vulnerable, his eyes soft and fond as he gazed into yours.

It made your heart pound and it hurt.

You leaned in and he met you halfway, kissing once again, deeper and more intimate this time. Real. You brought your arms around his neck, your tears spilling out and he tightened his grip around you. It felt like a dream, too good to be true, but the way he hugged you like you were the only thing that anchored him in this world made you believe it wasn't. All of this was real and you couldn't be anymore happier.

From above, the glittering stars, the light gentle as they shone, bear witness to two freed hearts, bottled up feelings gushing out like a broken dam as you embraced one another and lost yourselves in the moment of bliss, cheeks stained and clothes lightly damp from the tiny rivulets of liquid that dropped down.

It's a lovely night, isn't it?

[kdramabrainrotstation]

Hello, may I ask headcanon that Elijah and Jinjoo are now friends, they both are brilliant in their own expertise areas, but also bonds with girl things and oh, also fashion? So they love to go shopping together and play dress up with each other when they meet in korea and switzerland

this ask is so refreshing. i always get stupidly happy when people bring up jinjoo, and to add elijah to the headcanon just lakjdsfkljaslkdfj thank you for this ask nonnie~

so one thing that i feel like resonates both with elijah and jinjoo is that they don't take kindly to bullshit. it's part of why elijah handles yohan the way she does, and also why she and gaon got close as quickly as they did. as for jinjoo, the minute she realizes she's being kept out of the loop between yohan and gaon, she reacts to it. and when sunah starts manipulating her, she knows from the beginning that she's being fucked with. and then she comes out of the whole scenario taking charge and surprising yohan in the best kind of way with her forwardness. an apology and a demand weaved together is so her style and i adore her for it. she owns up to what she did wrong and then inserts herself into the equation without leaving any wiggle room, which yohan appreciates and maybe even anticipated with her

but i'm rambling because i love these girls so much alkdjflkajsdf

anywho, i bet elijah and jinjoo would get along swimmingly. elijah would probably start calling her noona pretty much right away. jinjoo was probably invited to stay at the mansion for a few days, or to come with gaon to switzerland to visit the kangs, and she and elijah just kind of gravitate toward each other. by the end of the visit, elijah is calling jinjoo 'noona' and they've exchanged phone numbers and emails

i live for the headcanon that yohan and elijah come back to korea after their stay in switzerland, so i imagine jinjoo visits a lot more once they're back. she takes elijah to clothing stores and they spend hours trying out hairpieces and clothes and bags. they come back to the mansion with too much shit, but not even yohan and gaon mind because it's just such a breath of fresh air to see the girls having so much fun together

they're attached at the hip the entire time. elijah learns about how much jinjoo admired yohan before she became his associate judge and elijah loudly gets grossed out. elijah shows jinjoo her painting of gaon and jinjoo begs her to paint something else so she can watch--she winds up posing in one of her newly-purchased outfits they bought together for elijah to paint her

they both talk smack on yohan and gaon (usually intentionally within earshot) playfully, and jinjoo develops a strong sense of pride in elijah for how intelligent she is upon witnessing one of her online classes. she also gets to see her hacking skills put into action when elijah pokes around for whatever reason (probably something gaon asked her to do)

and to top it all off, now it's jinjoo AND gaon planning family game nights. gaon cooks and jinjoo comes up with festivities, and quite frankly, the lawful family just got a little bit bigger

my heart swells at the thought alone

[mooniefics]

— in the grand scheme of things [ 1 ]

pairings : zeke jaeger / reader, referenced eren jaeger / reader

word count : 8.4k

tags : unhealthy relationships, relationship discussions, implied cheating, drinking, break ups, eventual smut, praise kink, mutual infidelity, dubious morality, love triangles

warnings : contains nsfw, sexual coercion, intoxicated reader, rlly toxic behavior

summary : you and eren hadn't been doing the best these past few months, and no one that you knew seemed to have any answers for you, or pointers in the right direction. who better to offer you some sound, insightful relationship advice than his older brother. or so you thought.

note : i apologize if the text convoformatting is a little yucky, i pinky promise it looked wayy better on ao3 (//▽//)

— originally posted 1 / 20 / 21 on ao3 —

you would reluctantly admit that you and eren had been experiencing a few issues as of recently.

it was the run-of-the-mill turbulence: ignored texts and phone calls, unexplained hostility, hanging around with your shared group of friends—more his than yours—without you. you'd been able to ignore it around midterms, being so busy with studying and getting all your family affairs in order for the end of the year that you didn't have much time to worry about how he hadn't bothered to respond to your "happy new year, baby!!!" message you'd sent days ago.

but winter break came and went with no reply from him, you spent christmas and new years in the company of your parents, who couldn't seem to keep quiet about asking about "that jaeger boy". you couldn't really blame them for their questions, you'd been friends for nearly four years now, in a relationship since the night of senior prom, even followed each other to the same university with a few other high school friends just to stay close. the summer that preceded your first year of college was so full of love and life, celebrating your newfound freedom that you had always thought would come with adulthood. but you supposed that it was just the hopeless romantic in you talking, it was called the honeymoon phase for a reason.

consulting his best friends about his sudden detachedness yielded nothing—mikasa had never held much besides poorly hidden disdain for you, and all armin had to offer was nervous glances over to the uninterested girl as he assured you that he was probably stressed about his classes, or had another disagreement with his mother about his choice of major, just excuse after excuse for his friend's behavior. you were feeling desperate. you had little desire to break things off, to throw away nine months of commitment despite how your relationship had soured. you were in love with him, and he hadn't explicitly expressed that he wanted to end things, just left you out of the loop for a bit, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a nice long conversation over dinner, right?

but how could you reach him if he wouldn't answer your calls, if his friends only seemed to want to placate you rather than actively help, you felt like there was nobody to turn to—except him.

zeke, the ever-elusive older brother. you'd met him upon one of your first visits to eren's house, a brief, somewhat awkward exchange when you'd ventured into the kitchen by yourself to grab a few things for your friends in the living room. he'd startled you when you turned out of the pantry to find him standing by the fridge, eyeing you and your armful of chip bags curiously, only wearing a pair of thin-framed glasses and grey sweatpants, revealing the sculpted expanse of his muscular arms and torso, an unopened can of beer in his hand.

"you one of eren's friends?" he'd asked, cracking open the tab and taking a generous gulp.

you replied with a quick nod, adding a sheepish "yup..! everyone else is in the living room, i'm on snack duty" with a shaky smile.

he chuckled, shaking his head and running a hand through his shaggy blonde hair. "typical eren. 'm zeke, good to meet you."

he didn't bother to ask your name before he disappeared into the adjacent hallway, the distant sound of a shutting door finally letting you release the breath you didn't know you'd been holding. that was how a majority of your exchanges went over the last few years, the longest conversations you'd had was when he'd offered to help you on your physics homework more than a couple times, his number was only in your phone because of the one time you'd worn the teeshirt of a band he happened to like and he wanted to send you a playlist. there were plenty of things you didn't know about him, but he was eren's older brother—half-brother, if you wanted to get technical—and after seeing the deflective nature of his closest friends, zeke seemed to be your next best option.

so now you were here, nervously standing at the door to his new apartment, dressed nicely so you didn't risk making a bad impression after not having seen him all these months. he seemed sympathetic over the phone when you'd called him last night, not minding how you'd contacted him out of the blue or that it was only for the sake of asking something of him, inviting you to discuss things more thoroughly over dinner. you didn't know whether he'd extended a helping hand for his brother's sake or your own, but you would be grateful no matter what if he gave some sound advice and a few words of reassurance.

you were startled out of your thoughts by the sound of the lock unlatching, the door swinging open to reveal zeke, smartly dressed in a pair of dark jeans and dress shirt, the top few buttons left undone. "sorry if i kept you waiting," he said, stepping aside to allow you in, "dinner's just about ready."

"no worries." you replied quickly as you slipped off your heels, hoping the heat warming your face wasn't flushing visibly on your cheeks.

he had always been a good-looking guy, an effortless sort of attractiveness that was only magnified by the relaxed yet perceptive air he carried. but he'd changed since that day you first met—his shaggy hair had been trimmed back into a shorter, more manageable style, the usual scruff of facial hair had grown out into a well-maintained beard, frames that similarly complimented his handsome features perched on the bridge of his nose. flashing a polite smile, you stepped into the apartment, trying not to let your anxiety get the better of you as the door was shut and locked behind you.

"nice place." you mused, peering about at the spacious, well-decorated interior as you followed beside him.

"thanks, honestly i'm glad i could find someone that was willing to split the rent," you felt nerves stir in the pit of your stomach, the thought of having to meet the other tenant leaving you feeling a bit uneasy. he turned down to glance at you, grey eyes glinting as he offered you an easy grin, "you don't have to worry about my roommate, i kicked him out for the night so you didn't feel uncomfortable."

you were sure the blush on your face was evident now, biting at the inside of your cheek as you both entered into the kitchen. "oh.. thank you. sorry if i caused any trouble, i know this was kind of last minute."

"no worries." he echoed your earlier sentiment, motioning you to the table just beside the kitchen before he returned to the skillet on the stove. the warm scent of coriander and turmeric filled the air as he lifted the lid and set it aside on the counter, stirring the simmering contents within. "hope you like curry," he said over his shoulder, turning down the gas on the stove and opening up the cabinet beside him to pull out the plates, "i didn't make it too spicy, just in case."

"i don't really eat it too often, but it smells amazing."

you felt yourself starting to relax into the chair, shedding your jacket and hanging your purse on the side of the chair as you watched him scoop a generous portion of white rice onto each plate. it was just you two here, he was willing to help, and you were incredibly grateful for his hospitality.

you pulled your phone out of your pocket to fiddle with while he was still plating the food, aimlessly tapping through your apps to kill some time. your text to eren from a few days ago still read "delivered", and you felt a slight twinge prick in your chest as you closed out of your messages, opting to scroll through your feed on one of the few social medias your friends had convinced you to download. it was relatively safe to look there, seeing as eren didn't post all that often, if at all, but seeing everyone your age, people that you knew from your classes posing with their boyfriends and girlfriends and going out on excursions with their peers made you feel jealous. you couldn't have imagined what you had done to deserve such a shitty situation.

your thoughts were interrupted by the dull clink of the plate being set before you, the clatter of silverware following as he rounded over to the opposite side of the table to place his things down. you switched your phone on silent just in case, tucking it back into your purse and sitting up a bit straighter in your chair. but instead of sitting down, he wandered back over to the kitchen, reaching up into a different cabinet to fetch two glasses.

"i'm assuming talking about your relationship troubles isn't the easiest, so pick your poison. i've got gin, tequila, beer—" he listed off the myriad of drinks he had at his disposal, pausing to throw you a glance. "but i honestly pegged you as a vodka kind of girl."

you felt a nervous giggle bubble up in your chest, fingers twisting in your lap, feeling more than juvenile as you replied. "i'm still under twenty-one, so i'm not really much of a drinker.."

"come on, you're in college now," he said, pulling a bottle of vodka from one of the lower cabinets and stepping over to the fridge, "most of the people hosting parties don't give much of a shit whether you're of legal drinking age or not, and i've got a feeling that you really don't either. i know i got shit-faced plenty of times during my freshman year."

you mentally debated the principles of accepting, he was right in saying that you had attended plenty of parties where you drank with your friends, suppressing a grimace at the memories of you throwing up in a stranger's bathroom while an equally drunk historia or sasha held your hair back. but those times you'd been looking to get wasted, drinking in this context would just be for the sake of loosening up, easing the sting of ripping off the metaphorical bandaid that was the thought of your relationship slowly crumbling right before your eyes.

"you're right," you relented, much to his delight, "and, yes, i guess i am a vodka kind of girl."

you didn't appreciate how charming the grin your words garnered was, fixing your eyes on the steaming plate of chicken curry in front of you before you could embarrass yourself. you were here to figure out how to smooth things over with your boyfriend, not oogle at his unnecessarily attractive older brother.

"here, something simple to start you off." he set down the glass on your place mat, finally taking his seat across the table, "there's plenty of ginger beer and limes in the fridge, and plenty of vodka still left."

you stole a glance at his drink. "whiskey, on the rocks.. how refined."

he gave a low chuckle at your sarcasm, taking a slow sip. "it's an acquired taste, i wouldn't expect someone your age to appreciate it." that was right, he was older than you, significantly older than you. just because you were legally an adult didn't mean your life experience could crop up to zeke's.

"old man." you murmured, a small smile perking up at both of your lips as you spooned some of the curry and rice into your mouth, "wow, thi' i' really gu'!" you managed to speak around the mouthful of food, grey eyes watching you intently with an obvious bemusement from across the table.

"i'm glad you like it. guess those years working at a couple restaurants around town weren't a complete waste." he said, tasting his own bite of the food, "cumin's a little off, hope you can forgive me for that."

"are you kidding me? this exceeds restaurant quality. i can barely put eggs in a pan without burning the kitchen down."

you were nearly a quarter through your plate already, setting your utensil down to take a sip of the drink he'd made for you. it was simple, bubbly, a nice mix of ginger, vodka, and lime to cool off your tongue. you could barely taste the alcohol, which somewhat eased your worries of becoming a drunken mess that required him to babysit you for the rest of the night.

you were both silent for a moment, the air occupied with the scrape of spoons and quiet sips from your respective glasses, and you were beginning to dread ruining such an easy mood with the topic of your emotional turmoil. but zeke beat you to the punch, clearing his throat as he settled his gaze onto you.

"so, you and my brother. you wanted to talk about that, right?"

you allowed yourself to frown a bit, taking a generous sip of your drink before you answered. "yeah. i don't really know where to start.."

"when did you first start noticing problems?"

you felt somewhat eased by his calm tone, bright grey eyes that were entirely focused on you, wordlessly reassuring you that you could trust him with this. you'd come this far, there was no point in trying to back out now.

"well, i guess it was around november." you began, scraping all of the food left onto one side of your plate to keep your hands occupied, "we'd all met up for halloween, me and eren and mikasa and armin—" you prattled off the other names of your friends, even some that you weren't sure he knew from your high school days, but he nodded along all the same. "and we all had an amazing time. got all dressed up, wandered around campus and crashed in on the frat parties, drank ourselves stupid, like you said. and at one point i just completely lost track of eren, and i didn't see him or anyone else besides sasha, connie, and mina for the rest of the night. after that, he kind of dropped off the face of the earth, wouldn't pick up my calls or answer my texts, always told me he was busy when we ran into each other on campus, and he wasn't at his dorm most of the time i came to try and check on him."

by the end, you'd finished off your drink, zeke wordlessly getting up to grab everything to pour you a new one without you asking. you were more flustered at his attentiveness, forcing yourself to chalk it up to him being an excellent host as he returned with a freshly opened can of ginger beer, pouring it over the ice in your glass and adding at least two shots of vodka, finishing it off with half a lime before returning to his seat. had he put that much alcohol the last time?

the thought slipped your mind as he swallowed a few spoonfuls of curry and spoke. "hmm.. so everything was going just fine, and then all of a sudden radio silence?"

you nodded, working on your remainder of rice, watching his face take on a pensive expression.

"if i'm being honest, eren has always been a little shithead." you suppressed a giggle at that. "he's rude, he's immature, and most of all, he's a terrible liar."

"mhm, the ears are a dead giveaway." you added, earning a grin over the rim of his glass.

"exactly. my stepmom— his mom always called him on his shit with that." you shared a moment of laughter at that, the memory of how defensive he would get over in when you'd first pointed it out making you feel a distant nostalgia creeping in the back of your mind.

you remembered how easy the days where all you had to worry about was catching up on all your late work and forcing yourself to learn about nintendo games for the sake of impressing your crush. now on top of school, you had bills and parties and shitty professors and an even shittier situation with your first long-term relationship that had started off so well yet devolved into feeling like you were a million miles away despite living on the same campus.

"so, eren is a shithead. and a terrible liar. go on." you took a long sip of your drink, unable to distinguish the warmth of the alcohol from the warmth of the curry in your stomach.

"well, he's just— how do i say this..." zeke murmured the last bit more to himself than you, pushing up his glasses on his nose and scratching the back of his neck, "he doesn't know a good thing when he sees it." you felt your heart skip at that. "like that mikasa girl, her and eren have been friends since grade school, and never once in all those years has eren ever acknowledged the way she's fuckin' head over heels for him." the mention of mikasa made you feel a sharp pang echo through your chest, suddenly feeling much more disheartened than before, especially at the mention of her perpetual affinity for him.

"but, i do have to give the kid some props," he continued, taking a sip of his whiskey, "at least he had enough of a brain to realize that you're a real catch. if i'm being honest, you're out of his league, and when you first started dating, he knew that."

you couldn't tell if your face was feeling hot because of his words or the fact that you'd just finished off your second drink in one long gulp, already reaching for the unopened ginger beer and vodka. blinking away the glassiness starting to settle over your vision, you met his gaze, suddenly feeling much smaller before him. he waited until you'd finished refilling your drink before he began again, not saying anything about how you'd accidentally poured much more vodka than you meant to.

"i think eren's problem is that he's getting too cocky," your appetite was starting to disappear as you focused on his words, still trying to finish what was left on the plate, "doesn't know his ass from his elbow, but he still thinks he's got everything figured out. you know what i mean, right?"

you nodded with an affirmative hum, a series of incidents that made you want to rip the boy's head off flashing through your mind only added credence to his claim. your tongue was starting heavy in your mouth, movements sluggish as you washed away what was left of dinner with more of your drink. you hadn't been truly drunk in months, not since that halloween party, only indulging in the occasional mimosa over breakfast with your family and your celebratory champagne for new years.

you hoped the heaviness weighing at your lids didn't show on your face, or that your words didn't string together when you replied. "i know exactly what you mean, can't imagine how hard that was to deal with for the last nineteen years."

he chuckled, finishing off his whiskey. "i've saved that kid's ass more time than i could ever care to count. being the older brother is a thankless fuckin' job if i've ever seen one. you done with dinner?"

"yeah. thank you again, it was amazing."

he grinned at your praise, rising from his seat as he spoke. "here, table's kind of crowded, we can move to the couch. i'll take care of dishes later. you want a refill?"

"sure." you responded before you could really think about your answer, trying to subtly steady yourself on the table as you got to your feet, head already starting to spin.

blinking away the blurriness fuzzing at the edges of your vision, you wandered past him through the kitchen and into the adjacent living room, falling into the cushions of the couch before you could trip up over your own feet. you felt embarrassed by your lack of tolerance, but felt some of that tension ebb away when he made his way over to sit next to you, fresh glass of ginger beer and vodka in hand. you didn't expect to feel the warmth of his thigh pressing into yours when he settled down, placing your drink on the coffee table before he turned down to speak to you.

"alright, i haven't said much in the way of advice, so here's what i think."

you grimaced internally, reaching over with an unsteady hand to grab your glass and take a long sip to brace yourself for his thoughts. you weren't expecting that it would be an easy pill to swallow, he'd probably be realistic about things and tell you to just suck it up and break things off while you could still maintain a shred of dignity.

"i know this is probably not what you want to hear, but i really think you should break up with him."

your lips pressed into a thin line, partly from his assertion but mostly because of the burn of alcohol sliding down your throat. there was definitely much more vodka in this than there should be, but you didn't want to seem weak before him, trying not to shudder as you continued to take small, fast sips.

you nearly spat it up on yourself when his hand settled on the skin of your thigh exposed by your skirt, wide eyes raising to meet his intent gaze. "don't tell me you think a guy that ditches you for just about three months now is worth your time, even without everything else considered."

"everythin' else?" your words were starting to slur together, but you still tried to drown out the dread tangling in your gut with the bubbling contents of the glass.

"you haven't figured it out yet, have you.." he faltered, a slight frown drawing across his lips when you gave a hesitant shake of your head, sighing as he pulled his glasses off of his nose and folded them neatly to place on the coffee table. "think about it; he disappears on you while he was drunk at a party, most likely with hanging around alone with the female friend that's clung onto him for a majority of his life, and then after that night he just completely gives you the cold shoulder, avoids you every time you try and come talk to him, like he's running away from you." he paused, adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "like he's hiding something."

you felt your heart sink, biting firmly down on your bottom lip, a thick lump forming in your throat, eyes stinging. "s-so, you're saying th-that—"

you couldn't blink away the first tears as they dribbled down your cheeks, choking back a small sob. he carefully took the nearly empty glass from your hands and replaced it on the coffee table, you could make out the expression of pity drawn across his handsome features through your watery gaze. you didn't protest when the arm closest to you moved to wrap around your waist, the other curling around your shoulder and drawing you against him. restrained sniffles gave way to hiccuped sobs, your own hands linking around his neck and squeezing him tighter against you as you wept out into the empty air behind him.

normally you would've put on a brave face, maybe excused yourself to the bathroom to let out a few silent tears before you returned to thank him and stammer out some excuse to leave and spend the rest of the night wallowing on your own. but the alcohol had melted away any barriers you would've put up against zeke's compassion, made you crave the security his warmth provided as he pressed his face into your shoulder, a large, gentle hand rising to stroke over the crown of your head. he let you cry on your own for a while, not minding how your fingers clutched tightly at his shirt or how your snot and tears wet the pale fabric, petting your hair and rubbing soothingly over your shuddering back.

your adjacent thighs were nearly overlapping each other, but all you could think of was how your hammering heart felt like it was one beat away from bursting at the seams, the dim glow of the lamp in the corner that blurred into a shapeless ball of light, his steady breath fanning across the skin of your neck.

"that asshole doesn't deserve you." he murmured, voice low as his lips ghosted over your shoulder, strong arms fastening their hold around you.

you couldn't help but shudder at the feeling as you sniffed, swallowing down the tension balling in your throat before you managed a shaky reply. "h-he's your brother, i thought you'd b-be on his side.."

"what makes you think i'd be on his side after hearing how he treated you?" his fingers worked their way deeper into your hair, palm cradling the back of your head. you forced yourself not to squirm when his face nestled further into the crook of your neck. "you deserve someone mature, someone who can treat you right.. someone who can make you feel good..."

you let out an alarmed breath at the feeling of a soft kiss over your skin, then another, posture stiffening as your grasp around his neck slackened. "wait, i c-can't," you started, the sudden sensation of his fingers sinking into your waist and drawing you closer against him making you lose your words for a moment, "i haven' officially broken up with eren, just because he might've ch-cheated on me doesn't mean-"

"there's no use trying to deny what he did.. what's done is done, you need to do what's best for you—right here, right now." his voice lowered even further, barely a whisper as he implored, "what do you want to do?"

you bit back a weak sound when his tongue drew a slow lick over the sensitive skin, the involuntary heat stirring between your legs making your thighs clench. this was wrong, you shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be letting this happen, an endless stream of muddled thoughts flashed through your mind as you desperately searched for some sort of excuse to buy yourself a few more moments to think. a distant memory popped into your head, the blurry mental image of zeke with his arm draped around a dark-haired woman when you'd dropped by to visit eren just before you'd both moved in on campus.

"g-girlfriend!! don't you have a girlfriend?!" you blurted desperately, a small whimper slipping out of you as he gave a brief suck over your pulse.

"girlfriend?" he paused his motions, chuckling lowly and giving a small shake of his head when he realized who you were thinking of, "oh, pieck? i'd hardly call her a girlfriend, just an old buddy. honestly, it's no wonder you got stuck in this sort of situation, you manage to find an excuse for everything."

you couldn't ruminate on his patronizing tone for longer than a moment before he returned to kissing at the sensitive skin of your neck, testing the waters of your resilience. you were afraid of your responsiveness to his touch, your body's unabashed honesty, afraid of how your protests had devolved into uncertain whimpers and shifts in your seat.

"good girl," he murmured, sending a jolt of heat racing up your spine, "see how easy that was? this is what you want, isn't it?"

you allowed the fingers in your hair to gently tug your head back, exposing more skin to his eager mouth as he teased a bite just under your jaw, drawing a soft whine and an even deeper flush of heat over your cheeks from you. your movements were sluggish, limbs leadened with inebriation falling down easily when he urged you down onto your back. in one slow blink he'd settled on top of you, warm lips melded easily against your own as his fingers began to work at unbuttoning your blouse.

maybe he was right, maybe you just needed to accept that you and eren's time had come to pass and indulge in what you really wanted—and now that he'd made it an option, what you really wanted right now was to feel the warmth of his bare flesh on yours, taste more of the whiskey on his breath as his tongue slid between your teeth, replace every hint of eren that still resided on your skin with his scent of expensive cologne. you could already feel the ache of a forming bruise at the base of your neck, fingers messily tangling in his hair and back arching up to his hands when they began to smooth across your chest, snaking under your body to undo the clasp of your bra.

"you never told me what exactly you wanted, baby.." he murmured over your lips, low-lidded eyes meeting yours, "do you want us to just kiss, or do you want me to touch you?"

"touch me, please.." you mumbled restlessly, quickly becoming impatient with the fact that his hands had halted after slipping the straps of your bra free from your arms and tossing it somewhere behind him to be forgotten.

but even after you answered, he didn't continue, a smug smirk tugging at his lips as he gazed down at you. "and then what after that? do you want me to touch you here? his fingers ghosted over the swell of your breasts. "or here?" one hand trailed down the length of your abdomen, forefinger just barely hooking onto the waistline of your skirt and giving it a teasing tug.

"zeke." you whined in frustration, mind foggy with lust and alcohol, uncoordinated hands wrestling with his shirt despite not having undone the buttons first, "you're being mean.."

"sorry," he said without a hint of remorse in his voice, only pride as he returned his hands to your chest, "you're just too easy to tease, so responsive, i'd never get bored of playing with you."

you took it as a compliment, as praise, rather than what it really was. it was easier to think of it like flattery in the moment, to push the obvious reminder that his brother had gotten bored of you out of your mind. despite the implication of such a statement, you couldn't help the odd sense of safety you found in such an equivocal intimacy, hazy, not sound of mind, not entirely yourself as you offered him your body, his to kiss and grab and bruise if only for the night.

you hummed with approval when his lips trailed down to the valley of your chest, fingers sinking into the soft flesh of your breasts, but making a point to avoid your nipples, only further denying you the stimulation that you thought he'd finally assured you with that last arrogant taunt. you could feel his smile on your skin, nearly huffing at the realization that you couldn't squeeze your thighs together to give yourself some friction with him positioned between them like he was, buzzing with warmth yet entirely unfulfilled.

"patience is a virtue.." he murmured sagely, unfazed by your second sound of annoyance.

"what about trying to fuck your brother's girlfriend is virtuous." you bit back, momentary anger leaving you in a surprised pant as he gave a gentle tug to one of your nipples.

"ex-girlfriend." he corrected after a quiet chuckle at your forthrightness, mouth closing around the pert bud not being rolled between his slender fingers.

you moaned out a soft curse, hand threading back into his thick hair and pressing him further against you. the fog that had been momentarily sobered clouding your senses once more, hips rutting up into nothing as he worshipped your skin with his lips, teeth, and tongue. you felt the spark fully reignite when one hand moved back down your stomach to wrestle with the button of your skirt, the zipper sliding down easily after it was undone, fingers delving under the loosened waistline to palm at you through your underwear. he pulled away from your nipple with one last gentle bite over the tender skin, low voice at a husky mutter.

"have you ever had sex before?"

you quickly nodded down at him, seeing your own dazed stare reflected in his darkened eyes, pupils almost entirely overtaking the cool grey.

"was it with him?"

you swallowed thickly, suddenly finding yourself unable to meet his gaze, turning away to focus on your long finished drink on the coffee table, ice already half melted in the sweating glass. "yes." you barely whispered.

"was it good?"

you bit the inside of your cheek, blinking fast, trying to dispel the blanket of unease that was quickly settling over you, suffocating you. you only answered with a non-committal shrug, feeling your face burn with a humiliation that he couldn't have thought such a line of questioning would have not inspired.

he maintained a steady gaze with you for a moment longer, lowering his head back to rest at your shoulder without another word and picking a place on your neck to bite and lick at, fingers rubbing slow circles over the drenched fabric beneath them. a small moan bubbled up in your chest, squirming at just the easy attention over your clit, lids falling shut as your head sank back into the cushioned arm of the sofa.

you sighed out a small whimper of relief when he finally tugged your underwear to the side, fingers instantly slicking with your arousal when they met your bare skin, sliding in with little resistance. he'd started out with just two, but the incessant desire to be filled was quelled for the moment with them, drawing a pathetic mewl out of you when they curled just right within you.

"are you always this excited?"

another question you didn't know the honest answer to, but you shook your head anyways, accompanying it with a weak "n-no" to stroke his ego like you knew he wanted you to. you went stiff with a sudden tension when felt a third finger prodding at your pussy, eyes flying back open as you made a disconcerted sound of protest.

"relax.." he murmured into your shoulder, biting softly over one of the fresher marks, "if you can't handle this, how can you take me?"

you took a shaky breath, taking your bottom lip between your teeth as you let your thighs fall open a bit more, doing your best to not clench your muscles. and you could feel how he let out a low groan over your skin when he finally slipped in all three, burying them knuckle-deep, rewarding you with a smattering of open-mouthed kisses across your bruised flesh.

"good girl. good girl." he nipped at your jaw, adjusting the speed of his wrist to match how your hips rolled up to meet his hand, the pad of his thumb rolling firmly over your clit.

you could feel that warm knot in your stomach tangling further, the tantalizing thought of release ebbing every bit of trepidation out of you as you allowed your moans and whines to spill out into the open air, heels digging into the felt of the couch around him. but just moments before you could find your high, his touch gone, and he was rising off of you to sit back on his calves, absentmindedly wiping the wetness from his fingers away on his pants, making quick work of his shirt, standing briefly to kick off his pants and help you out of your displaced bottoms before he settled back over you.

your skin was hot with need against his own, arm linking around his sturdy back and pressing his lips back over yours, letting him guide one leg up against his side as he lined himself up with you. you squeaked when you felt the tip of his cock press into you, hands bracing themselves on his shoulders, wide, unfocused eyes gazing up at him for some sort of reassurance. and that sense of security filled your heaving chest, that knowing look he focused solely on you, only made for you in this moment, forehead pressed to yours, breath fanning over your lips.

a strained, shuddering whine broke from your throat as he eased himself inside of you, inch by inch, barely able to hold your eyes open enough to maintain his fixed stare, mouth falling open in a feeble attempt to gasp back in all the air he'd pushed out of you.

"fuck." he growled lowly, fingers sinking almost painfully into the thigh in his grasp, trying to fit his body as close as it could possibly be to your own.

another sound rumbled out of him from deep in his chest when your nails dug into the firm muscle beneath them, hungry, greedy lips capturing yours. his pace was mercifully slow, given that he was probably just as eager for his own release as you were for yours, but the overwhelming fullness that you felt each time his hips met yours drove whatever tiny breath you'd been able to catch between his kisses.

you spread your legs as far as the narrow space of the couch allowed it, whimpering, feeling how you were already making a dripping mess of your thighs and the fabric beneath you. your heart was practically beating out of your chest, so loud in your ears that you wouldn't be surprised if he could hear it too, his mouth catching every pant and moan he drew from you, the steady pace of his movements falling away into an ardent, frenzied rhythm. his mouth strayed back to your neck, grunting and biting into the abused flesh, and without the barrier to muffle your sounds you were whining out into the open space of the apartment, gasping in the air humid with your shared arousal, nails scratching down his back without care for whether they'd leave a mark, only dragging them back across his hot skin over and over again just to hear him groan out your name once more.

you could feel yourself climbing back up towards that delightful precipice, legs wrapping around his body and forcing him deeper into you so he could reach that spot that made white stars burst across the darkness of your close-lidded eyes. you tried to force your mouth to form coherent words, to warn him about how dangerously close you were, but all that spilled from your lips was more breathless sounds, body arching up to press against his as heat scalded over every inch of your bare skin, limbs shuddering and clinging desperately to him as he continued to roughly thrust into you.

tears were pricking at your eyes by the time he moaned a jumbled string of curses into your neck, arms nearly giving out beneath him as he spilled himself inside of you, your chests heaving in an unmatched, ragged unity against each other. he stayed there for a few moments, still inside you, struggling to catch his breath but still pressing the occasional kiss over your neck and shoulders. your fingers released their grasp on him, not realizing how hard you'd been clenching your hands until you felt the stiff ache resonating through your joints.

you tried to murmur something to him, but all that escaped was a weak whimper, legs slipping back down to lay on the couch, arms resting heavy on his back. you hadn't meant to fall asleep so fast, but your head had already been spinning from warm shocks still echoing through every fiber of your body, let alone the alcohol and the sheer physical exertion. you let your eyes fall shut, lids far too heavy to keep open, and slipped away easily into a dreamless slumber.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

zeke blindly reached about for the towel he'd set aside near the sink, finally grabbing it and pressing it to his dripping face, patting his skin and beard dry before tossing it into the hamper by the door. replacing his glasses onto his face, he blinked away the grogginess in his eyes, running his fingers through his hair to flatten it into a somewhat presentable style. he turned to the open door, catching a glimpse of you nestled under the comforter of his bed, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

he'd carried you to his room last night, but didn't get the chance to clean you up until this morning. by then, the bruises that had been an angry shade of red over your neck and chest had settled into your skin and darkened significantly, some bordered by deeper teethmarks that still had yet to fade. you hadn't stirred when he'd pulled the covers away from you for just a few moments, peeling off your underwear that he'd haphazardly replaced on your body to keep the mess to a minimum and gently wiping his cum away from your skin with a wet washcloth. he'd really tired you out, and something about seeing you so exhausted after just one night with him made a flicker of pride swell in his chest.

flicking off the light in the bathroom, he didn't bother to add a shirt over his relaxed attire of just a pair of sweatpants as he left his bedroom, making sure to quietly shut the door behind him.

"rise and shine." his back was still to the kitchen when he heard reiner's voice, turning to face his roommate who was looking at him with a mix of disapproval and curiosity, most likely having gotten a good look at the scratches you left down his skin last night.

"how was your time at bertholdt's?" zeke asked, ignoring reiner's frown as he glossed over his intrigue, wandering over to the fridge to grab some water for himself.

"not great." he grunted, reaching into the cabinet below the stove and fetching a pan, "he decided to invite annie over when he heard i was coming. you can imagine how boring it was to watch those two make eyes at each other the entire night."

zeke chuckled at that, cracking the top off of the cool bottle in his hands and taking a refreshing gulp, glancing at the table and noticing its lack of plates and the leftovers of night-old curry. "oh, you did the dishes. thanks."

"yeah, yeah, just glad you had your fun last night without me having to hear it." he stepped aside to let reiner put a carton of eggs and the butter out of the fridge. "but seriously man? the couch? you're gonna have to get that dry-cleaned or something, and i'm not helping you pay for it either."

"don't worry about it, i'll take care of it." he replied with a lazy smile, quickly adding on to his smooth response, "and be nice, alright? it's someone we know."

"who?" he asked, not at all looking it but obviously interested in his answer, flicking on the gas under the pan and dumping a spoonful of butter into it.

"one of eren's friends." reiner's eyes shot briefly over to him at that, prompting him to give a brief description of you, "remember? you saw her that time we all met up to watch that horror marathon while i still lived with my parents."

"wait.. you told me about her. isn't she dating your brother??"

"was dating my brother." he corrected, rolling his eyes at the disgruntled bewilderment etched across his friends face, "what? i had to show her that this generation of jaegers wasn't a complete disappointment.."

"whatever, man. your business." he finished off his water bottle in silence, watching reiner crack a few eggs in a bowl and whisk them together with a fork, finally breaking the silence with a generous offer. "you want me to make something for her?"

a slight grin broke out across zeke's face, dumping the empty plastic into the recycling bin, slapping reiner's back affectionately. "thought you'd never ask. thanks again, man."

"at your service." was his grumbled, monotone reply, the shadows weighing under his eyes clearly showing how late he'd arrived home last night and how little sleep he'd gotten. zeke was sure that once he'd got some coffee in him he'd cheer up a bit.

he was sure reiner wouldn't be done for another few minutes, so he wandered back into his room, wondering if you'd woken up yet so he could direct you to the shower if you wanted one. in the time that he'd been in the kitchen, you shifted around in bed, having rolled onto your back and knocked the covers away to reveal your bruised chest, hair covering half of your face but still identifiable. perfect.

zeke fished his phone from the pocket of his sweatpants, unlocking it and tapping into the camera app, taking a few steps closer to the bed and zooming in a bit before he snapped a picture of you.

                  10:39 am  you you sent an image to eren

eren  10:40 am uhhh did you send that to the wrong person

eren  10:41 am wait hold on who is that zeke who the fuck is that

eren  10:42 am is that my fuckingngirlfrined

you missed a call from eren

eren  10:43 am why the fuck aren't you fuckign picking up

you missed a call from eren (2)

eren  10:45 am holy shit what the fuck this can't be fucking happening zeke what the fuck is wrong wjth you you piece of fucking shit

zeke tapped out of his messages with his brother, sliding over his notifications setting to "do not disturb" before dropping his phone back into his pocket. he couldn't help the low chuckle he let out at his frantic replies. maybe if he'd held the same enthusiasm with you then he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. moving over to your side of the bed, he took a seat on the mattress beside you, perking up at the sound of your small groan, eyes sleepily fluttering open to gaze up at him.

"g'morning." you murmured, letting out a quiet yawn as you sat up in bed, holding the sheets up to cover your bare chest despite him having already seen you naked.

"how'd you sleep?"

"like a fucking rock." he laughed softly at your bluntness. "my head kinda hurts.. sorry i fell asleep on you last night."

you looked positively adorable right now, and he was glad you weren't panicking or having any second thoughts about him, that you had fully digested the reality of your situation and come to peace with it. well, at least the situation before he'd sent that picture to eren.

"don't worry about it," he assured you, keeping the thought of his brother probably blowing up his phone and leaving the usual voicemails of him screaming at him when he was angry in his inbox, "i'll get you some breakfast soon. need any ibuprofen?"

"yes please." you smiled gratefully up at him, his heart twinged. "and could you grab me my purse? i left it in the kitchen, my roommates probably wondering why i didn't come back last night."

he began to say yes, but thought of how you were probably receiving a similar slew of alarmed messages by this point made him stop. "how about a shower first? you'd probably feel a lot better after that."

you hummed thoughtfully for a few moments, rubbing the sleep from your eyes with the back of your hand. "a shower sounds nice.. if you don't mind."

"wouldn't have offered if i did, babe." he grinned at the way your cheeks flushed, waving a hand over to his bathroom door, "shower's in there, plenty of towels on the rack by the tub."

he stood, turning to begin making his way to the door to give you some privacy, but felt your fingers gingerly wrapped around your wrist. "zeke.. thank you. for everything. i've been in a really tough spot for the last few months, and now everything seems... it all seems a lot clearer to me, like i just took the hardest step and it'll be a breeze after this."

your smile was genuinely, infectious, eyes full of gratitude, and had it not been for the heavy news that you would most likely be finding out about within the hour, he probably would've responded with one of equal radiance. but he managed to perk up the corners of his lips for you, tracing back to press a quick kiss over the top of your head.

"at your service."

he was pleased to see that his copied, more charmingly delivered words garnered such a positive response from you. and so he made his way back out into the kitchen, pulling out his phone to briefly check the amount of notifications that had racked up on his lock screen. thirty-six messages and sixteen missed phone calls. damn was that little brat persistent.

despite having essentially thrown you under the bus, he didn't feel any semblance of guilt for the action of having sent that incriminating photograph. the only remorse he felt was for leaving you as the sole recipient to his brother's rage, and the fact that he was starting to feel a strange sort of affinity for you, something lighter and more innocuous than the lust that he had shown you the previous evening. so he slipped over to the dinner table, acknowledging reiner's announcement that your eggs were ready with a short hum, finding your purse exactly where you said it had been.

he could hear the sound of the shower being turned on, and he felt safe unzipping the small bag and rummaging around to fish your phone out from beneath your other belongings. as he'd expected, there were a few missed calls from a "sasha", who he assumed to be your roommate, the messages from "eren <3" quickly beginning to pile up on your home screen. and as the "incoming call" text showed on the screen and the phone began to vibrate, zeke held down on the power button, completely shutting it off before he pocketed the device.

he just had to keep you busy, get you to focus on anything besides your desire to get to your purse and check your phone, or figure out a polite way to quickly shoo you out of the door and get home before you realized that you didn't have it in your bag. he hadn't really planned for this outcome, he usually didn't have this sort of compassion for others when he set his mind to getting something done, but he had a feeling that the extra work would be worth it in the grand scheme of things.

⥼ next chapter

[monsoonblooms12]

Priyotomo (Ethan Ramsey x f!MC)

Summary: The Last Day at Amazon and Ethan's first day back at Boston from Ethan and Pooja's POV

Priyotom(o/a): (Bengali) Dearest, Most Beloved

A/N: Time for another hopeless attempt at poetry!! Anyway, this is my take on Dr Ethan Ramsey running to the Amazons. I really hope that this is not absolute crap and makes so sense🧡

Thank you so much to Simone for Pre-reading! Love you Gurl🧡

If you enjoyed the story, please like it, leave a comment or reblog. Your feedback keeps me going🤎

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey X f!MC (Pooja Sharma)

Word Count: around 1.8K

Rating: General

Category: Angst

Warnings: (Very Brief) Mentions of blood, fainting and drinking

Title Inspo: Priyotomo Hai - Rabindra Sangeet (Rabindranath Tagore's composition)

OTHER WORKS

Pooja

16 years.

The date was displayed with vivid eloquence by the woody beige cubes that adorned the desk, posing a match with the minimalism of the room.

It was a preposterous fact.

Glassy ambers switched perspective in a progressive motion, and they interpreted the solitary shine of the table lamp on the transparent surface.

Four glowing smiles, two tiny toddlers sat on their parents' lap.

It does not feel surreal. Neither a tale of a bygone era.

It was not her past. It was her present, her life's gears were turned by this very photograph.

Her bracelet adorned hand held it close to her heart, which beat in a meteoric rhythm.

The cacophonous tunes from the fiesta painfully pierced through her reverie, cajoling her to close the mahogany doors that lead to her cocoon.

The flamboyant kantha stitched lehenga proved to be burdensome to carry.

With ponderous steps, Pooja settled down on the couch, pulling her feet to herself.

She wanted to be ten again. Not eleven.

Terminate the time when she could be that blithe girl, rolling dices with her mother.

But there was a specific reason why the reminisces came back stronger than any usual day.

Somewhere in the remote land, in a cholera-stricken district, a summery blue-eyed man spent his days in seclusion.

And occupied the chambers of her cerebral hemispheres.

What was the pain of being left alone with only emotions as a companion without as much as a message?

She wiped her cheek, only to discover the black of her eyeliner now adorning her fingers.

She had been crying.

When? She could not feel the tears that left smokey meanders on the map of her face.

The heartbreak and the circumstances had numbed her feelings. All she wanted was an embrace.

Why did his peach lips mark her as his if this was the end in sight?

She refused to accept it. The end.

She placed her foot down, not feeling the pierce of a pin fallen down against her skin.

Drops of scarlet marked her track as she retouched the smear of her face.

Time to go and socialize.

Ethan

Of everything to look at in the shiny cellular, his eyes now traced the pristine form of the lady who now inhabited every one of his senses.

The comely picture made her look ravishing and the adamant neurons started pulling out manila folders with her memories kept in them.

No. He cannot.

The fiery golden liquid disappeared faster than it had been poured.

He had found himself on the crossroad of whether to type out the words that played in a loop in his mind or not.

I miss you!

He always chose the latter.

He had already given her a false hope.

Of a future of them.

He did not want to do it again.

Only now he realizes that it was a hope he had given himself as well when he first took that sacred form of hers into his arms.

And that he ran away. Like a coward.

Ethan Ramsey the coward.

Who could not fight for them.

Who could not fight for her.

Who could not fight for Lo-

No.

He did not let the word complete. The very thought was dangerous.

Throwing the classy cylinder he had been holding with a deathly grip, he poured the last bit of that glass bottle in him.

And walked over hurriedly, the tiny glass pieces stabbing him, to again begin the reset.

One which would never complete.

Next Day

Pooja

The ethereal moon spread out the beams of serenity all over the ceremonious night.

It was a lively affair. Merrymaking and cultural programs went on, as she stood amidst the cheery atmosphere with a sombre expression.

In front of Pooja, was the masterfully sculpted idol of the Mother Goddess, standing majestically as the centrepiece of the celebration. She was the epitome of power, the Mahisasura Mardini.

The recollections of an unforgettable past come as paper-planes drifting in a gentle air, carrying the playfulness, a child's happy smiles. A time when her mother would take Pooja to the mythological lands through her words, and they would get lost like flying butterflies in fairytale land.

The tunes of Bengali music float in the gentle air, and she hums along. The first song her mom had taught her, also for a Durga Puja function. Her mom was deeply rooted in all of them, the culture of Bengal kept alive by her. She was the reason why Pooja could become a part of a community she takes pride in.

Even now, so many years later, things don't change. They hold on to these roots like they are holding onto their life, not letting them disappear.

It feels like holding onto her, keeping her alive.

Recreating a small piece of her favourite Kolkata in Bhopal.

But the aura of calm hid like the clouds covering the sun's shine. The piercing pain of heartbreak came back, the wound untreated.

The soft sand of her life's hourglass prickles, solitary grains floating to join their siblings. The wish of them defying gravity and going back to bring the 10th year of her life had never been so strong as it was now.

The heavy jewellery tugged at her ears, letting her know their presence and the styled hair gave her a throbbing headache.

Her tiredness and exhaustion, now fuelling back in her veins refusing to let her bring back that sense of peace she experienced moments ago.

Around her people wore phoney smiles. All they cared about was unimportant Tommy rot. Not a single one of them stepped back from criticizing the others behind their backs.

It was a saga of inflated egos, of constant competition, to make the next person look inferior.

She was tired.

Of people running away, Of abandonment, Of hopes getting dashed.

Why did his thoughts keep coming back? After all, he did make it clear, didn't he?

But did he really succeed? Did his efforts head? Did his heart finally give in to his relentless demand?

Did he really forget her?

All the messages that lay not replied, unheard voicemails, she was sure he had.

But that colour of his he left on her?

The piece of his heart that was protected by her?

Would he be able to forget them?

An earthen lamp flickered in front of her, bud she did no rush to save it.

If it goes out, then let it.

Just like the never-ending load shedding of her life.

But it didn't.

It was a wish, a hope that kept it alive.

The sweet nothings he had whispered to her, the gentle kisses he lined on her forehead.

They had promised her forever.

His being enveloped her, she doubted if it would ever break.

The hope of him & her flickers every now and then, just like the earthen lamp.

But did it go off?

It couldn't.

Because there was no wind strong enough to extinguish it.

The possibility of him and her.

The realization and a blackness hit her at the same time.

And as she fell, her mind held on to only it.

The possibility of him and her.

Ethan

If the Great Thinkers from BCs before were asked if going to a beer garden after spending 2 months in another continent and a 13hr long flight was a sensible thing to do, they would have watched the questioner in bewilderment.

And he agreed. He was not being sensible, not even 1%.

The urge to see her, to gaze at her moonly face, to know that she okay.

It had never been so strong. He felt his mind would give up on him if he could not locate her today.

Not that he had stopped the forgetting process, absolutely not.

It was just a solace, a bandage to the scars he had given himself.

That she would be okay even if he was not there with her.

Focus fixed on keeping his gaze as unhurried as possible, he looked around, putting the well-trained ears and eyes to work.

And then he saw them.

All her friends clustered at a table, merrily clinking beer bottles and sharing happy glances. His eyes pierced into the scene, but he could not locate her.

A step or two brought him close, the desperateness making his heart go crazy.

But the conclusion shattered every bit of sense and calm, dissipated the hope of getting to see here.

She was not here.

His face fell like someone who had lost the thing they hold the closest to their heart.

She, really, was not here.

He really wanted to ask the residents sitting at the table in question, to get some, any, news on her.

But his rational mind still existed, and it was the only thing that stopped him from going haywire.

She was not here.

He took out the notorious cuboid chiming in his pocket, full of satirical typed phrases his cerebrum refused to decrypt.

But it was adamant to get his attention.

A scoff escaped like a habit.

As if anyone could be powerful enough to take his attention away from her.

He was caught in a maze of her memories, his time in the continent thousands of kilometres away and the ghoul of feelings chasing him deeper into it, making him yearn for her solace, the moistness of a forlorn kiss on his forehead, the gentle swipe of a thumb to take his tears away.

His way was lost in there, every turn making him end up more challenged. But even if he did not want to, he had to find the way out.

His soul was like a thorn who could only hurt the tender flower that she was.

What he did not realize was that she was a rose, her being was amidst thorns.

She had the power to beautify them.

The click of the turn-on sound, brought him back to the piece of work his fingers were creating on the light emanating screen.

And in seconds that passed too fast, he saw his heart's treasure,

She was here.

Not in footsteps & whispers.

She was here.

Not in touches and kisses.

She was here.

Not in muscle and bone.

But in labyrinths of his heart, in filmstrips of his memory, in sensations that made him go wild,

She was here.

(With him forever, she was not the one to leave his side)

PS: I HC the end of 1st year of their residency being in Sept-Oct, which is the time of Durga Puja in India. And since Poo is half Bengali, and she never misses any tradition involving her mom's side of the fam, so she would not have been at Boston then. (Or take it as an excuse to increase angst potential) Anyway, Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day ahead! Love, Manamee🧡.

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