#I’m staying off the bird app for today

[therealjammy]

Following more HOTD people on the bird app was probably a mistake; the amount of discourse they participate in is scarily astounding…

I just want to see gifs of my blorbos and gushing over certain scenes and how much people love them, not constant fighting over who’s more morally pure than different users

[strwbabydoll]

Steve Harrington × fem!reader

[16K] 18+

grumpy college student steve, tutoring sessions filled with tension, drunk confessions, smut and an accidental kiss.

We gather here

You’ve always loved mornings, you loved being able to wake and watch the sun rise. You loved being able to listen to nature’s song, the birds chirping, the different buzzing and humming of the insects and the various sounds of all the animals that stay around your house. You always wake with a bright smile on your face and enthusiasm to start your day, you’ll turn on your favorite playlist and sing along as you begin to start your day.

Today was different though, you had stayed up much later than normal which caused you to wake with a slight frown and you can’t help but to huff as you shut off the blaring beep coming from your alarm clock.

“I get it, I’m up. Now shut up.” You mumble as you tiredly rub your eyes and stand up. You grab the various sheets of paper strewn across the bottom half of your bed and stack them neatly on the wooden nightstand next to your bed. It's become a habit as of lately, falling asleep while you’re attempting to study, your eyelids fighting to stay open as the time slowly seeps into the early morning hours. You sigh as you stretch your arms over your head and lean back some, feeling slightly better as you feel your body loosening up.

You make your bed, tucking the thick blanket underneath your pillow before grabbing your phone and clicking on the ‘Music’ app and clicking your morning playlist. You smile as one of your favorite songs begins to play through the speakers and fill the room as you walk over to your closet to pick out your outfit for the day. After several minutes of aimlessly searching through your clothes you finally settle on a Ralph Lauren knitted sweater, a brown tartan skirt, some white open toe sandals and a small white mini purse.

You head into your en suite bathroom and set your outfit on the gray granite countertops before turning on the faucet and letting the water warm up. You hum along to the current song playing as you splash the warm water on your face and dry your face slightly. You grab your face wash and begin to do your daily morning routine, the small feeling of normalcy making you feel better already.

Once you’re dressed, done with your makeup and in a somewhat better mood, you head into the kitchen while singing along to whatever the next song is and begin to grab a banana and some leftover oatmeal from the fridge. Making your way to the small dining room table, you sigh happily and set the bowl of oatmeal down and begin to peel the banana and break it into small uneven pieces to eat in your oatmeal.

After eating everything, you wash the bowl and sit it in the dish rack placed next to the sink and grab your purse from the back of the chair you were sitting at and your phone, putting all your essentials in the small bag and walking to the front door. Smiling as you shut off the living room light and close the door behind you, you begin to make your way to the front of your apartment complex and towards the small bike rack, filled with various bikes of all sizes and colors.

————

It takes roughly less than twenty minutes when you finally reach Hawkins University and you sigh softly as you hop off your bike and tie it to the bike rack in front of your school. The air is warm and humid against your skin, the breeze only cooking your skin just a smidge. As you make your way into the school, you stop when you notice a few new flowers on the side of the steps. As you make your way over, you can feel your smile growing, the flowers are absolutely beautiful. They’re a beautiful shade of pink carnations, the bright color popping against the stark bricks of the stairs and you quickly take out your phone as you get ready to snap a picture of them.

“The flowers’ not going anywhere.” You hear your name being called, a cocky tone seeping into his words.

“No need for photography.” You turn around and a frown appears on your face when you realize who the voice belongs to.

His chestnut brown hair styled to perfection, a cotton white t-shirt paired with a pair of light wash denim jeans and a black leather jacket. His signature smirk is plastered on his face as a couple of his friends laugh and pat him on the back. For as long as you can remember you and Steve have been at each other's throats or more like he’s been dead set on giving you absolute hell since the start of their college years while you ignore him.

“I’m serious, nothing special about those flowers. Shouldn’t you be getting to class anyways?” He asks and snickers, your frown deepens as you stare at him briefly before turning around and making your way to the entrance door. Just before you open the door, you turn around and stare at him, a small smile taking over the frown.

“I suggest you do the same Harrington, last I heard failing English class isn’t gonna get you to graduate.” You yell back before quickly walking in the door and heading to your first class of the day.

While you love your classes, love interacting with the teacher and adding your input in group discussions, the lack of your normal amount of sleep makes your brain unfocused and easily distracted. your eyes flit across the room with every sound that occurs, you can’t seem to sit still. You're fidgety, your hands play with the pen in your hands as if you're not supposed to be taking notes right now, you can’t sit still, you can’t stay focused on anything before your attention being grabbed by something new.

Time seems to fly as you look down at your bare page in the notebook; nothing written on it beside the title of your notes and you sigh. Quietly you lean over and ask the girl behind you if you can take a picture of her notes after class, you quietly thank her when the girl nods before going back to writing, quickly jotting down what’s on the board.

A knock on the door grabs your attention and you watch the teacher make her way to the door. The clicking of her heels echo in the small classroom and finally her hand reaches for the door knob, she begins to twist it and pull the door open. You can hear him before you see him, his voice carrying through as he speaks.

“Mornin’ Liz. How’s my favorite girl?” You watch as the teacher frowns and swats his arm as he goes to give her a hug.

“You’re late Mr. Harrington. Have a seat.” She says as she makes her way back to her desk and Steve chuckles as he opens the door fully, his eyes scanning the room.

The only available seat is next to you and he scowls, a look that passes through his face quickly, briskly walking over to someone at the table furthest from you and asking to switch seats quietly, they shake their head and he sighs. He walks over to another table and asks to switch and in response he gets another no. Frowning, he walks over to your table and grabs the chair and moves it as far away as he can, mumbling a few words under his breath as he sits down.

Not bothering to pay attention, he lays his head down on the desk and closes his eyes. Allowing the outside noise to become faint murmurs, he bounces his leg quickly as he begins to drift to sleep.

“Can you stop please? You're shaking the table?” He huffs and rolls his eyes as he lifts his head.

“It’s not bothering you.” He says and you shake your head gently.

“I’m trying to take notes.” He scoffs as you point to your notebook.

“Hm, doesn’t look like it. The page looks quite empty if you ask me.” He says sarcastically and lays his head back down. He can hear you sigh and the crinkling of the paper as you move over some towards the opposite end of the table. He snickers softly to himself before closing his eyes once more.

————

He wakes up to the feeling of someone shaking his shoulder, it’s soft and small and gentle as it shakes him. He groans as he sits up and stretches his arms over his head. When he turns he sees you standing next to him, your side of the desk cleaned up and the room silent.

“Whaddya want?” He mumbles and frowns, he’s never been on to be happy whenever he’s woken up.

“Class is over, just figured you’d want to head wherever you need to go.” You say, your voice soft and sweet and he frowns once more.

“Uh huh.” He stands up and moves the chair back to its original position. He barely catches the sight of a small frown etched on your face before he’s heading out the door and onto his next class. He doesn’t care that you're upset, you live in your own world and don’t seem to grasp the fact that not everyone is as nice as you are or was raised with such manners, it’s not his problem.

On the way to his next class, he hears his name being yelled from behind him. He turns around and sees the principal yelling and jogging his way.

“Steve! A moment please?!” He yells and Steve frowns. He knows what he wants to talk about, it can only mean one of two things, it’s either his failed midterm or be found out that it’s him graffitiing the various parts of the school walls and parking lots.

He shakes his head as he begins to walk opposite of the voice calling his name.

“Steve Harrington!” The voice booms and he huffs before turning around and grumpily begins the short trek to the principal.

“Yeah?” He says and crosses his arms, the principal nods shortly before asking Steve to follow him. As Steve follows the older man into his office, he grumbles the whole time about how unfair and stupid all of this is. Passing by all the lockers and the small gaggle of students littering the halls as he walks, head held high and confidence is his walk because he can’t be seen being embarrassed.

It’d be the end of the world if that were to happen.

When the principal opens the tall wooden door leading to his office, he steps aside to let Steve in and smiles as he mumbles a rough thank you in response. Sitting behind his dark oak desk and opening up his laptop, the sound of clicking filling the room as he types.

“So, Steve, you know why I brought you here?” The older man asks and Steve nods.

“Think so, it’s about the midterm right? And if so I have some words. Knapick’s crazy if she thinks that test was anywhere near suitable to give to us. I suggest you look into that.” Steve says and the principal shakes his head.

He leans back and adjusts his glasses as he stares at Steve.

“No, Steve. It’s just you I believe. Almost everyone else passed the exam with at least a C average.” Steve frowns at that and shakes his head.

“No way, the test is rigged I tell you. I knew Knapick never liked me. She’s trying to get me, Oscar.”

“No, you barely made an effort. And if you wanna be able to graduate on time, I suggest you get a tutor.” The principal says and Steve’s frown deepens.

“No way.”

“Yes, Steve. I’m serious. I’m trying to help, I can give you a list of our best tutors in the school.”

Steve shakes his head furiously and the principal just watches him.

“It’s either you get the help you need or you’re gonna be repeating, and you know you don’t have the best reputation with the staff.” Steve huffs and rolls his eyes once more.

“Fine, who’s on the list.” The principal sighs as he begins to list off the students' names and ending it with your name.

“She’s real patient and won’t fall for your game Harrington.”

“There’s no game. I just know what the ladies want, Oscar.” Steve says and smirks.

“But I don’t want her, give me someone else.”

“I’ll see what I can do but I think she would be best. You’ll get the quickest response and I’m sure she works fast.”

Steve huffs obnoxiously loud as he uncrosses his arms.

“She makes me want to tug my hair out.”

“I’ll let her know. Have a good day Steve.” Steve grumpily walks out of the office and heads to the main door. His thoughts become a chant of how much you annoy him and why you have to be so smart and how life’s not fair. If he had to be paired with you, he’d make it the worst tutoring session ever. He’s really gonna make your life hell. And with that, he gets in his car and starts driving to his house to begin his plan.

You’ll be made of ashes too

Steve wakes up to the sound of his phone ringing and he grumbles as he sits up and stretches. He looks around and stops his tired gaze at the small window next to his bed. It’s dark with just a hint of sunlight beginning to cut through the glass windows, this is definitely not the scenery he’s used to seeing when he awakes from his slumber. Groggily he grabs his phone with one hand and rubs his left eye with the other, turns on the phone and hisses as he squints.

He quickly turns the brightness of the screen down to a manageable setting and mumbles under his breath when he sees it’s a little past six in the morning.

“Who the fuck is awake right now and why are they trying to talk to me. Someone better be fucking dying.” The call is from an unknown number, the numbers staring at him tauntingly.

“Hey!” Your voice rings through the phone and Steve can only laugh dryly before he hangs up. Your number pops up on his screen almost immediately and he declines it, just for you to call once more. He grumbles under his breath before clicking the answer button and bringing the phone to his ear.

“Don’t know what happened there, just wanted to say it's me! I got your number from principal Oscar! He said you were interested in tutoring? Let me know whatever time works best for you and I’ll do my best to arrange my schedule otherwise!” He sighs before shaking his head at you and slowly gets back into bed, only barely listening to you ramble on in his ear.

He rolls his eyes as he mumbles, wrapping himself up in his blanket before responding.

“Yes, it’s me. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s six in the morning. I was asleep.”

“Yes I know! Why are you still sleeping? I like to get my day started early!”

“Because literally no one in their right mind is up this early.”

“Well sorry for waking you! I just wanted to see what times and days work best for you. No need to be so grumpy.” She huffs playfully causing Steve to roll his eyes, he can’t imagine anything in his tone of voice to make you think you could talk to him as if you both were friends.

“M’not grumpy. Not everyone can be so happy early in the mornings. Except you.” He huffed and he could hear you laugh softly.

The line falls quiet for just a moment before you begin to speak again.

“What times work best for you?” He rolls his eyes before huffing.

“Uh, any time after four.”

You hum softly before beginning to speak.

“Okay! Um, how about tomorrow around 6 at the library?” He all but sighs as he agrees quickly and bids you goodbye, hanging up before you can say anything else. He wraps himself up in the blanket and lays back down, resting his head on the soft pillow as he closes his eyes.

Opening his eyes once more, he gets up and stretches once again. The muscles in his back popping smoothly and he groans softly. He gets out of his bed and quickly makes his bed, wrinkles sit in the middle of the blanket as he sets his pillow on top. He feels much better after getting another couple hours of sleep.

He heads into the bathroom and relieves his bladder, sighing in relief as it empties. Shutting the lid down, he flushes the toilet and heads to the sink so he can wash his hands. After he’s finished, he runs his fingers through his hair, applying product as he styles it just how he likes it.

Walking over to the small dresser where he keeps his clothes, he opens his needed drawers and pulls out an outfit. Settling on a white Rolling Stones t-shirt and some black skinny jeans, he gets dressed and makes sure he puts on his signature rings. Once he’s done with that, he sprays his favorite cologne and grabs his phone, responding to the very few notifications he does have and stares at your number in his call list. He heads out the small bedroom in his dorm and heads to the front door. He passes the various pictures of his roommate and his girlfriend and a couple of pictures showcasing his orange kitten, Delilah, in various moments. She was wrapped up in a soft towel from the day Steve brought her home, and other moments where he thought she looked pretty and decided to capture the moment.

All the pictures are neatly hung in a long cardboard frame, colorful tacks adding a pop of color to the otherwise boring wall of pictures. The small hallway leads to a basic living room, a simple gray futon sits alongside the cream colored wall with a modern artistic sketch hanging above it, a dark brown bookshelf holding all their movies and the very few books and textbooks they happen to own is placed next to the futon, and a small dresser underneath a decently sized tv.

In the corner of the living room area sits a small gray cat bed and Delilah lays there peacefully sleeping in a little ball, her tail twitching occasionally. The ends of Steve’s lips begin to curl upwards at the sight as he slowly walks over to the small dresser designated just for her. He silently opens the top drawer and opens the small can containing her food. The smell quickly floods his nose and he grimaces as he walks over to her food bowl and pouring it in there, silently gagging as it squelches into the bowl.

He throws away the now empty can in the small trash can and grabs her water bowl walking over to the dresser once again and fills it with a small water bottle sitting in the top drawer. He sets it down beside the food one carefully because he doesn’t feel like cleaning up water right now and walks back to the dresser. He opens the second one and grabs a few of her favorite toys and sets them under the coffee table in the living room, allowing her something to do while he’s gone and turns on the tv. Quickly pulling up her favorite tv show ‘Animal Planet’ he walks over to her and very gently rubs the top of her head. He coos at her softly to coax the sleepy kitten awake.

Delilah stretches and yawns as she opens her eyes, focusing on Steve crouching above her, she lets out a tired but happy meow as she nuzzles her face into Steve’s hand.

“Good morning, sweet girl. I gotta get to school but you got everything set up for you, just how you like. If Antonio is ever a bitch to you, just know you have full permission to smack him. I love you and I’ll be back soon.” He says with a small laugh as he gives the small kitten a couple extra pets and gets back up, stretching slightly as he heads to the door, making sure to grab his signature leather jacket from the futon as he opens the door and heads out.

————

It doesn’t take him long to head to the campus thanks to his dorm being a short drive from the campus. He parks his car in an empty space nearest the school and he sits in the car after he turns it off. He watches you as you walk to the bike rack, your hair flowing gently behind you as you walk due to the wind blowing. You’re dressed in an olive green sweater and dark blue Levi pants that flare at the end, you’d pair it with some white Nike Air Forces, a medium sized gray tote bag and a matching olive green thin belt, he can see the small shimmer of your jewelry shine when the sun hits it as you tie your bike to the small rack.

He turns the key to shut off his car and opens the door, slowly stepping outside the car as he puts on his jacket. He closes the door with a soft slam and locks it, the beep alerting the girl as you turn around, your hair briefly swishing in front of your face as you turn. He watches as you frown in anticipation of a snarky remark but returns to normal when it doesn’t happen. He slowly makes his way to the entrance, purposely avoiding eye contact with you as he grows closer.

“Hey!” He hears your voice ring out from behind him but his pace doesn’t falter. He makes it to the top of the steps before he feels a soft hand grip his shoulder and a tug, signaling him to turn around. He slowly turns around, face deadpanned and he takes a deep breath.

“Yeah?”

“Any place specific you want to meet in the library?” You ask softly and he shakes his head as he starts his journey into the school once again. He can feel your presence behind him and his frown begins to form.

He chooses to ignore you as he walks, the chatter of the other students in the hall filling their ears as they continue. One of Steve’s friends, Tommy, walks up to Steve with a big smile as he pays his shoulder and glares at you.

“How you doin’ Steve?” He asks and Steve’s frown only deepens at the unwanted conversation.

“Not now, Tommy.” He shakes his head as he heads to his locker. He can hear Tommy scoff as he walks away but he can still feel your presence behind him.

He huffs lightly as he gets to his locker, one hand reaching up to twist the little knob to the correct numbers and opens the door. He quickly grabs a textbook and slams it shut and he walks away, leaving you standing at the locker, your face etched with hurt and confusion.

Even on my worst day

You can’t help but frown at Steve’s more than usual grumpy behavior as you head to your own locker , true enough you were the main reason why he’s so grumpy but you just love helping people! You should know better than to assume they’d be friends simply because you��re tutoring him, but you assumed they’d at least be better than this. You wish they could at least be cordial and have him not act as if he hates your guts, and you can only wish that during the sessions they can meet in the middle.

You huff in frustration when you can’t get the lock to open, your combination not seeming to work as you twist and twist. You swear it’s the right one, so you try once more and you’re met with once again the lock not opening.

“Come on!” You huff as you stare at the lock intently. Beginning to think that maybe you changed the lock combination, you try a different sequence of the same numbers and after a couple of tries you finally hear the satisfying click as the lock opens.

You quickly grab the textbooks for your first two classes and shut it gently as you walk to your first class, your tote bag gently bouncing off your hip as you walk.

You just barely make it to your first class before the teacher closes the door, your hand pushing on the tall wooden door as you cry out ‘wait please!’ The door opens and you see the teacher smile softly as he lets you in.

“Just in time, have a seat quickly please.” He says and you nod silently, with your head down quietly making your way over to an empty seat towards the back of the class. Grabbing your notebook and a pen out of your bag, she begins to write down the title of the notes she’s gonna be taking and pulls your assignment due from the front of the notebook as well.

————

Time seems to fly in front of your eyes, the day taking not nearly as long as it usually feels like as you get released from your last class of the day. With a smile on your face, you plug your earbuds in your phone as you walk through the halls, stopping briefly to answer any questions from your classmates and to wave goodbye to your teachers.

You spot Steve talking to a pretty brunette, her lips smiling as she twirls her hair around her finger as she speaks. Hesitantly, you make your way over and tap him on the shoulder, meekly saying ‘excuse me’ and you’re greeted with a very nasty glare from the girl.

“Um, we're talking.” The girl says with a frown on her face. you can’t help the flush of embarrassment that begins to creep it’s way up to your cheeks.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to remind Steve of the library. It’s at six, if you can’t make it or gonna be late, just let me know.” your voice comes out quietly as you speak, your hands subconsciously moving to your front as you begin to play with your fingers.

Steve lets out a very unenthusiastic ‘uh huh’ as his eyes never leave the brunette’s and he begins to talk to her once more, completely ignoring the other girl behind him as the brunette smirks and plays with the collar of his t-shirt. When you realize that he isn’t paying attention, you frown slightly before making your way out of the school building as music plays in your ears.

You mumble curses to Steve under your breath as you untie your bike and set the cord in your bag. Hopping on your bike, you begin your ride back to your apartment. You smile as you pass the cars and families out and about, their joy and love radiating off of them making you smile and aw. As you continue biking, you make a quick stop at your favorite flower shop, propping your bike against the side of the store and you quickly walk in. The smell of all the flowers welcome you warmly as well as the bright smile of the lady standing behind the counter.

“You! So good to see you! How’ve you been?” She asks and you smile as she walks up to the counter.

“Hi Tameka! I’m good, how are you?” you ask and Tameka responds with great enthusiasm as she starts telling the younger girl about her kids and how the store’s been getting along.

You love coming to this flower shop because no matter how long you stay away, she’s always greeted with a warm welcome, one that reminds you of your mother at a young age. The shop gives you a sense of family no matter what happens, and you’ve never been more grateful. After Tameka finishes rambling on about her life, she turns her attention to the younger girl as she props her head onto folded manicured hands and flashes you a warm smile.

“Here to get the usuals? Anything new to update me on chica?” You shake your head with a small laugh as you lean on the counter.

“Of course, I never stray. And no new updates unless you count having to tutor the boy who seems to hate my existence an update.” You say and sigh, the thought of having to do so is heavy.

You can’t help but to wonder how it’ll go, will he be the same as he is in school? Is he gonna spend the whole time mocking you and poking fun, or will he be kind and listen to you, asking questions whenever he’s confused. Will the session end in a screaming match as he tests your limits or will it be calm as he complies and agrees to your help.

As you pay for your flowers, you can’t help but to ask yourself those questions. You know wondering won’t help determine the outcome of the coming day, and you know there’s only one way to find out.

Did I deserve, babe

“Oh fuck, just like that baby. Doing s’good f’me.” Steve moans as his grip tightens in the brunette’s hair. Her mouth feels heavenly as she chokes, her throat tightening around his tip when she takes too much. He rolls his eyes back and curses out loud when she slows her pace, her tongue circling his tip when she reaches it before slowly gliding back down.

She pulls away long enough to spit onto her hand and quickly takes his leaking dick back into her more than welcoming mouth. She begins to bob her head slowly as she uses the hand she spit on to quickly jerk off the rest she can’t fit in her mouth. Steve hums in appreciation as she slows her pace again, taking her time to suck him off.

Steve can feel the spit dripping from her lips and onto the fern tattoos on his v-line as she continues, alternating between fast and slow, and she experiments with different things. As she comes back to his leaking tip, she runs her tongue over the slit and Steve shakes in pleasure.

“Oh fuck, just like that baby. You’re g’nna make me cum, your mouth feels so good.” He says between moans when she picks up her pace and uses the hand that was wrapped around him to cup his balls as she moans softly around him.

He can feel his stomach beginning to tighten as he slowly begins to fuck her mouth. He’s close, he’s so close he can taste it as she goes lower and lower. More spit falls from her lips and she begins to get messy, more careless, just wanting to taste his seed going down her throat. The sound of her soft gags and the wet sounds of him slipping in and out of her mouth only egging him on.

She speeds up just slightly and goes back up, choosing to suck softly on just the tip. He can feel his balls drawing up and his length beginning to twitch as his hips begin to falter.

“Oh fuck, I’m cumming, s’good baby. So good for me, that’s it, swallow it all.” He moans as he slowly continues thrusting in her eager mouth, milking himself for all he’s worth as his eyes flutter shut and he releases the grip on the brunette’s hair.

He sighs as she gets up and sits next to him, her hand gently rubbing small strokes on his thigh as he comes down. He can feel her begin to kiss his jawline softly, slowly trailing down his neck and he hums softly.

“Wait, where’s my phone?” He asks as his eyes open and he looks around. He quickly gets up from his bed and scrambles around his room in search for the small item.

Quickly grabbing a pair of black Calvin Klein boxers from his dresser, he yanks them on before searching the pile of clothes on the floor. In the process of him pulling his pants up to search the pockets, the desired phone falls and lands onto the brunette’s shirt. He grabs it and turns it on and curses under his breath when he sees the time.

He instinctively turns his attention to the halfway dressed girl sitting on his bed, and frowns.

“You gotta go.” He says as he throws on a hoodie and some shorts, messily throwing his hair in a bun as he gets dressed.

“What do you mean you gotta go? Don’t tell me your girlfriend is on the way?” She asks, her voice raspy as she frowns at him.

“No, but you gotta get out like now. I gotta go somewhere.” He watches her shake her head as she searches for her discarded bra and curses at him, yelling at how horrible he is and what’s she supposed to do now as he yanks a pair of socks on.

She angrily huffs as she walks out of his part of his dorm and slams the front door. He rolls his eyes as he slips on a pair of vans before grabbing his lone textbook sitting on the edge of the bed, heading to the front door. He gives a small pet to Delilah as he opens the door, telling the small kitten he’ll be back soon and closes the door. He quickly locks it and jogs through the dorm building, down the stairs and outside towards the parking lot.

He’s never been more grateful for parking nearest to the building as he quickly spots his car. He picks up the pace slightly as he gets closer to his car, the wind pricking at his eyes causing him to squint. The short jog feels like forever as he get closer, close enough to unlock the door and reach a tattooed arm to the door and pull it open. He rushes into the car, pulling the door closed behind him as he puts the keys in the ignition and turns them, the car stuttering to life as he quickly backs out and begins his journey to the library.

He passes different trees, stores and restaurants on his way. The world seeming to move in slow motion and he huffs angrily.

Fuck you for being so smart and fuck you and your schedules. He hates you, if it weren’t for him needing a tutor, he’d be balls deep inside of the brunette from earlier.

All the hell you gave me

He huffs in annoyance as he pulls into the parking lot of the library, choosing to park in the spot closest to the building he spots your bike sitting in the rack all tied up and he’s kinda grateful you chose to stay. He turns off the car and quickly heads to the entrance as he clicks the button on his keys to lock the door. He opens the door and looks around, tall bookshelves lining the walls and standing in straight rows block his view of finding you.

He huffs as he wanders through the library, eyes scanning for any sign of you in between the walls of books and at the tables scattered throughout the empty spaces. As he wanders through the building and makes his way to the back of the library, he can’t help but to feel a slight flutter in his chest; it’s definitely not one of excitement but he doesn’t think he’s nervous so he’s not sure what exactly he’s feeling.

His eyes scan over his surroundings and he finally spots you standing at one of the empty tables in the corner. He begins to slowly make his way over to you and he watches as you begin to put all of your belongings into the tote bag. Even though he can tell you’re upset, you still manage to gently place everything away. He clears his throat and you quickly turns around, your eyes narrowed and a frown sits on your face as you glare at him.

You gently place your bag on the back of a nearby empty chair and begin to cross your arms.

“You’re late..” Your voice wavers but he knows better than to comment on it. He chooses to avoid the conversation, simply nodding in response as he moves to sit down next to your bag.

“No explanation? I think I deserve something since you’re over an hour late Steve. You were supposed to text me and let me know…” You pull your textbooks out from your tote bag and set them gently on the table.

You sigh softly as you pull a couple worksheets from one of your binders and set them alongside the textbook.

“You know.. don’t even know why I allowed myself to get upset, you were never one to be on time.” You say with a small laugh and he furrows his eyebrows ever slightly, the frown only increasing with every sentence that comes from her lips.

He’s never been so close to you like this and it throws him off. He can make out the mascara coated lashes that fan your cheeks with every blink and your perfume fills his nose which only increases his already grumpy mood. In a feeble attempt to distract himself, he scoots his chair away from you subtly and rests his head on the back of his hand.

The library’s quiet, the only sound in the room is the humming of the air conditioner and the faint shuffling from the students as the walk around. The smell of old books fills the air and a few rays of light filter through the glass windows sitting high on the white painted walls. Students walk in, idly whispering among each other as they quickly silence their phones as they walk over the tall wooden shelves and search for the book they need.

His eyes quickly flit back to yours, his brown orbs meeting soft irises filled with annoyance as you tilt your head to the left ever so slightly.

“You’re not even listening to me. I’m trying to explain all these so your attention would be very much appreciated.” You say and he hums quickly, eyes staring straight ahead as he crosses his arms and leans back into the uncomfortable wooden chair.

As you begin to explain the basics of poetry, pointing to all the different elements as you list them off, Steve can feel his mind wandering once again. Small glimpses of happier times, easier ones flash through his mind, quickly jumping from one scene to the other. He breathes through his nose in annoyance, the action not going unnoticed by you but you choose not to speak on it. You figure you’ll allow him to wallow in his grumpiness as long as he pays attention.

You can’t help but to sneak peeks of Steve as you speak, turning your head ever so often as you explain what each element is and why it’s important. A couple stray strands of hair have fallen and frame his face, a furrow formed in the middle of his brows as he stares at the middle of his side of the table, and you can’t help but the smile softly at the fond memories.

“Reminds you of something?” You ask and all you get in return is a very soft grunt, one that could be considered either agreement or disagreement.

You gently turn the pages towards the grumpy boy sitting next to you, your polished finger points to the beginning part of the poem.

“Can you tell me what this is?” You ask, your voice slightly above a whisper so he can hear you. He hums once, turning his gaze to you as a small smirk begins to form on his lips. He shrugs once as he pushes the paper away with one hand, his intense gaze never leaving yours. He watches your features begin to harden and turn into frustration.

Your brows begin to furrow and your mouth turns downwards, your eyes darting between his and the paper on the table as he pushes it away. You stare at him in disbelief before shaking your head and shutting your eyes, one hand coming up to pinch the bridge of your nose as you sigh.

“I can’t do the work for you Steve, you have to do it so you can remember it. You don’t wanna fail again do you?” He hums twice as he keeps his gaze on your face, mapping out the three little lines resting in the middle of your eyebrows.

You bring one hand over to the discarded paper and pull it back towards him, your eyes narrowing just slightly as you pull your hand away. The silence is deafening as they stare into each other's eyes, frustration meeting stubbornness, warmth colliding with cold, two complete opposites fighting internally as the stare-off continues.

The sound of someone laughing breaks the silence, but it’s only briefly; the air conditioning fans cold air through the building and goosebumps begin to form on the back of your neck. You sigh softly as you break your gaze away from his intense stare, moving your hands to fidget with the ends of your long sleeves as you stare at the paper laying on the desk.

You know he’s always been stubborn so this shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s like this with everybody but you can’t help but to wonder why he seems to treat you worse. You don't expect the two of you to be best friends but he definitely shouldn’t hate you. As your thoughts run through your head, you bring one hand back to the table and move the discarded paper in between them.

“I cannot do the work for you and I will not do it. You should want to pass this exam Steve. I get that it’s the first lesson and I wasn’t expecting this to be smooth sailing - but I was at least expecting some cooperation here. It’s okay if you don’t like me, but for your sake can you work with me here? This will all be done a lot faster if you *try*.” You say as you point to the paper between them, a finger pointing towards the beginning of the poem where they left off.

Steve stares at the paper briefly before reluctantly opening up the textbook laying in front of you and flipping the pages to the section you're attempting to teach from. His eyes skim over the page, aiming to get the session done as soon as possible and for him to not have to hear your voice more than he has to.

He quickly finds the answer and he silently points to it. He can hear you sigh sadly and it’s full of disappointment. The ends of your hair graze his hand as you lean over just slightly to check his textbook page. Your floral scented perfume fills his nose once more and he frowns at just how well it suits you, soft and sweet, inviting and comforting. A soft smile begins to form on your lips as you lean back to your own seat.

“It wasn’t that bad right? You got it right, good job Steve.” You murmur as you turn to look at him.

You take note of the way his mouth is turned downward and you wonder how his muscles aren’t in pain constantly from having to sit like that all the time. you pull the paper to you and quickly mark on it with your pen, highlighting important parts and little things you think might help him remember. You gently slide the paper back over to him and smile softly.

“I’ve left some notes about everything so as long as you study this after we’re done, next time won’t take as long.”

————

The time passes rather slowly but you can’t help but to think it’s simply because you're the only one talking. you tried to initiate conversation with him, asking him about his classes, the latest tv show, and even attempting to talk about the weather! He refuses to talk to you, either replying with a blank stare, a simple huff or gruff hum accompanied by a shrug.

You don't mind the silence usually, but not when there’s supposed to be a conversation. You thought you’d have to answer all of Steve’s questions - work related and unrelated - and at least they’d make small talk about school. This silence is anything but comfortable, it’s awkward and full of tension; it’s the kind of silence that makes you blurt out all these random questions to try to fill it so you won’t end up packing up all your things and running out as fast as your legs can carry you.

You should be used to this type of tension between them, the way he’s always picking on you, throwing harsh words and nasty glares that you do your best to ignore. But to you, this tension feels different, it feels thicker; it could have something to do with the fact they’re in close proximity, sharing the same table and the way your hair keeps grazing his hand which causes him to freeze up and scowl at you until you move back to your seat.

You don't have to wonder if you're the only one to feel the difference because Steve’s body language tells you everything you need to know. You can see how tense his shoulders are, how he’s been bouncing his leg from underneath the table for the past hour and the way he’s moved his chair as far as the table will allow him but kept the worksheets and textbook in the middle so you can see.

Your phone buzzes from your back pocket as you explain the different types of poems, you quickly excuse yourself as you grab her phone and unlock it. You see a message from your best friend asking you to come over so they can binge watch their favorite tv show together, you can’t help but to smile softly as you reply quickly - telling her that you’ll be over as soon as your study session with Steve is over. You quickly put your phone back into your pocket and go to apologize to Steve when you’re met with him already looking at you.

The frown is no longer plastered in his face but his eyebrows are still furrowed. He doesn’t look as angry anymore, he simply looks confused. He looks lost in his own thoughts as his dark eyes stay locked on your face. The silence that fills the building seems to become even more deafening because the look on his face is one you haven't seen before and it confuses the hell out of you.

You don't know whether to comment on it or to simply ignore it and move on with the session. There’s two ways this interaction can go; if you comment on his behavior there’s a chance he’ll get upset and leave early, and if you ignore it you're afraid whatever tension is happening between the two of you will get awkward.

You exhale loudly as you break eye contact, your eyes choosing to focus on the textbook in front of you instead of the brown orbs beside you. Your hands play with the corners of the pages, your thumb running upwards causing the pages to slide against it as they fall. You bite your bottom lip nervously as your eyes graze over the words written on the page explaining all the different kinds of poems and the best way to use each one.

You can’t tell how much time has passed, but you can’t help but to wonder how long until their session is up. All of the silence and tension between them is draining you, all you wish to do now is curl up on your bed and take a much needed nap. Your eyes feel heavy as you continue scanning the pages, your hand now resting on the bottom corner of the page.

You slowly turn your head to face Steve, you can’t help but to see how tense he looks. His hands enclosed in a tight fist as they rest on top of the table, the frown prominent in his face accompanied by the deep furrow in his eyebrows, his leg bouncing rapidly underneath the table and his brown eyes focused on the wall ahead of him. The question you were gonna ask is now stuck inside your throat, the fear of upsetting him any more takes over the want to make sure he understands the information they’ve gone over today.

You hum softly as you gently begin to pull the worksheet from beside him and closer to you. You grab your favorite pen and begins to write a few small notes on the empty space on the bottom, leaving a few smiley faces in the corner as you makes sure to write clearly so he can understand everything.

Your notes are simple, but you feel like it’s just enough to pass him over until they decide when to meet up next for their next session. You smile softly as you look over everything and then slides it back over to him. His eyes quickly glance over in your direction as your hand gets closer in his space and then quickly moves back to their original spot focused on the wall.

You can’t believe how he’s acting as if being close to you is such a problem, you've only seen him this quiet and stiff once but that was years ago. After he got over whatever it was, he started hanging out with different people, becoming louder and completely changed who he was.

That’s when everything changed and now your mere presence bothers him deeply, one strong enough that he looks like he’s about to burst if he has to stay at this table any longer. There’s a faint beeping from the elderly librarian checking out books combining with the soft tapping of the keyboard as other students type up papers for classes and doing research that fills the silence that sits between them.

You open your mouth but quickly shuts it, you're afraid that you're just going to upset him even more and then he’ll call off for the rest of their session. You hate this, you hate how he always makes you afraid to speak and you hate how he knows that he has this effect on you.

You clear your throat and shut your eyes, if you can’t see him then you should be able to talk to him properly.

“I’ve written some more notes on it, and if it’s hard to understand I can type it all out on a separate document and give it to you. I’ll probably do that anyways if I’m being honest. Hopefully it all makes sense to you! If you have any questions or if you don’t get something, you can always text me and I’ll respond when I can!” You open your eyes just in time to watch his figure make its way through the space and towards the entrance.

Your mouth opens and closes a couple of times before you find your voice and at this moment, the frustration takes over the logic that you're still in the library. You huff in annoyance as you slam the textbook shut.

“You could’ve at least grabbed the textbook!” you yell as his frame exits through the door, causing all the students and the librarian to look at you with accusatory looks on their faces.

You’re too annoyed to even think about apologizing, gathering all the extra paper and the textbook as you stacks everything together. You grab your tote bag and stuff everything in there, mumbling under your breath as you clear off the table. You’re upset, you’s mad, and honestly you’re confused as fuck.

You can feel the tears begin to well in your eyes as you stare at the door, your hand clutching the strap of your tote bag as you hold it close to your body. you sniffle as you make your way to the entrance, softly apologizing to the librarian as you pass. The short walk feels as if you're walking in slow motion, the door feels heavy against your hand as you push it open.

As soon as you step outside and the sun is setting in the sky, painting the sky with beautiful pink and orange meshing together, the soft breeze blowing your hair behind you slightly makes you feel even more upset. The tears begin to fall freely from your eyes, staining your cheeks as they cascade down your cheeks.

You’re upset at him for leaving so coldly after being late and barely even acknowledging your existence. You’re mainly upset at yourself though, you gave yourself this stupidly false hope that this one session would somehow make it easier for them to tolerate one another. you're upset for arriving early and staying up later than you would’ve liked to plan out everything and print out the worksheets for him. you're just sad!

You knew that this wasn’t just gonna magically change anything, and you knew that the first session more than likely wasn’t going to be easy, but you wished that it went better than how it did. you felt a little embarrassed by how little attention he gave to the lesson, let alone you during the hour and a half they spent in the library once you check your phone and see the time.

You sigh as you head to the bike rack and bend down to undo the lock holding your bike to the metal rack. You wipe your tears before setting the chain and lock in your tote and pull her bike away, swinging one leg over the middle as you get yourself situated. You begin to pedal, your bike moving on the far end of the sidewalk as you begin to make her journey over to your friend’s house.

Look at how my tears ricochet

You huff, slightly out of breath from the long ride from the library to your friend's house as you set her bike against the front of the house. You gingerly walk up to the white framed door and raise your hand to knock on it as the door swings open. You’re met with your friend sporting a big smile as she warmly wraps her arms around you.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so happy to see you! Come in, come in!” she exclaims and you nod happily. You follow her friend inside and sit beside her on the beige colored couch.

“So how was the session?” With the reminder of how it ended, a frown forms on her face.

“Oh it was so bad! First he arrived late, and then didn’t even explain why! To make matters worse, he didn’t even speak to me for the whole hour and a half we were in the library, and then he just walked out without even letting me know he was leaving!” You exclaim, your voice watery and shaky and you can feel your eyes begin to burn as tears start to form in your eyes.

Your friend doesn’t waste a second before she’s embracing the young girl in her arms, wrapping around her shoulders tightly as you begin to sob in her shoulder. You can’t recall a time you were so upset, and it’s almost embarrassing how this little incident is making her so upset. You just wish everything that has to do with Steve wasn’t so.. hurtful.

————

You knew logically there was no reason for you to be upset, especially not about something so small and more than likely had nothing to do with you in the first place. He was just being his normal self - well as normal as he is whenever he’s around you, he was in a mood and just didn’t want to be there. Deep down you wanted everything to go differently, you wanted to see if there was a chance he could maybe not like her a little less, he might crack a smile or at least talk!

The whole time he was silent aside from the hums and grunts he would answer with that you had a hard time deciphering. You had to fight back a smile every time they made eye contact but the small moment was ruined when he’d look away and huff.

The following days after their study session seemed to drag on for you. The days’ they go to school haven’t changed, you try to approach him to discuss when to meet next or to ask him if he has any questions, and he ignores you. He’ll carry on with his conversation as if you're not standing right there and you're left to walk away with your head held down and a sad smile on your lips.

So you stopped trying, you stopped texting him about the worksheets he has, you stopped trying to talk to him in between classes, you hate the way he treated you and you’re tired. You figure that he’ll come to you whenever he’s ready. So you went on with your normal routine and didn’t focus on him as much, and if he never comes back then it’s not your fault. You continued with all your studies and preparing for your own exams, spending time with her friends and making short trips to your favorite meadow.

You’ve always found the breeze blowing against your skin comforting, the silence of the field aside from the couple of birds chirping and the insects that have made the grass their home almost feels like a hug. You loved being outside even as a young girl, it seemed to be the only place you could go to escape the chaos and loud feelings of your life. You never hesitated to step outside whenever your parents began to raise their voices, or after a long day filled with stress. As you sit against the tall oak tree, the leaves shading you from the heat of the Florida sun, you can feel the stress of the past few days leave your body. You smile happily as the grass tickles your skin, and at this moment you feel at home.

The next couple of days, you still haven't heard from Steve about their next session and midterms are coming soon and you’d hate to be the reason Steve fails. The only thing coming into mind is to make your way to the principal’s office and demand that he comes to sessions but you know that won’t work. It’ll just cause Steve to hate you even more if that’s even remotely possible. You sigh as you walk out the school doors and down the steps, a slight pep in your step and a soft smile placed delicately on your lips.

You skip over happily to the bike rack and untie your own, slowly pulling it backwards until you're a good distance from the rack. You stop briefly as something catches your eye. With one hand shielding your eyes from the harsh sun as you scan the crowd, you smile brightly as your gaze lands on a familiar figure, the perfectly styled hair and the leather jacket are all too familiar to you, so without thinking you begin to move towards him. Your legs carry you through the crowd of students until you're standing directly behind him. Your hand comes up to tap gently on his shoulder, stepping backwards so he can turn around.

He turns around, scowl already forming on his lips as his eyes meet yours. His fists clench at his side and he shakes his head. He quickly turns back around and opens his car, not caring about the conversation he was in the middle of. You frown slightly before walking behind him as he aggressively opens the door and gets in, making sure to glare at you when your hand reaches out to rest on his door.

“What the fuck do y’want?” He asks and you frown slightly.

“You’ve been ignoring me.” He scoffs lightly at your response as he sticks his keys in and starts the car.

“Get the hint then, lala.” He gently begins to tug on the door, just because he’s an asshole doesn’t mean he’s just gonna let you get hurt physically.

You frown as you keep your hand on the door.

“Just because it was one bad study session - keep in mind it was only bad because of *you* - doesn’t mean you can be even more of an asshole to me. I know you don’t wanna fail, you wanna get the hell out of here as fast as possible.” He stares at you blankly as you speak.

“I don’t care if you like me or not because frankly I don’t like you right now. I’ve tried to schedule sessions and all I get is radio silence. If you want this to be over as soon as possible, then you need to try. You need to work with me, not against me. If you wanna pass, I’ll be at the library in the same spot all week. If you don’t, then you better tell principal you canceled our study session and whatever bullshit you need to say. I want you to know that if you fail, you can’t blame me because you did this yourself.” You say as your grip on the door loosens. He furrows his eyebrows as he stares at her intensely, his frown prominent as his eyes size her up.

He lets out a defeated sigh as he shuts his eyes and turns his head slightly.

“Fine, two days from now I guess we can meet up and study some more. Is that all?” His voice lacks any eagerness but that doesn’t deter you from cracking a big smile at him before you skip off towards the bike rack. His eyes never leave your retreating figure even after you peddle out of the parking lot and down the street.

He’s so stuck in his brain that he doesn’t hear his friend Tommy walk up beside him, the feeling of a hand slapping him on the shoulder startles him from the trance he was in. He snaps his head around and nods his head once in acknowledgement, Tommy smiles at him briefly.

“Wassup man, why’re you being weird?” Steve shakes his head as a frown quickly begins to form on his face.

“The fuck are you talking about?” Steve asks and he chuckles, a hand flying out to grasp Steve’s shoulder in response.

“You’ve been staring into space since what’s her face left. She try to start something?” Steve shakes his head in response as he chuckles.

“Nothin’ like that. S’all taken care of.” Tommy nods once before releasing his hold on Steve’s leather clad shoulder.

“Me and a couple buds are going to the bar tonight, you wanna come?” Steve nods once in agreement before they say their goodbyes.

And you can aim for my heart, go for blood

You sit on the couch beside your closest and best friend, Leya, aimlessly scrolling through the channels on the television. Their phones are discarded on the coffee table in front of them as they make small talk as they search for something to watch. The day’s been boring for both of them, you went to school and then headed over to Leya’s house where your friend’s been cooped up all day.

“We should go out tonight.” Leya says after settling on some cooking show.

She sets the remote on the table before turning to face you beside her, her eyes meeting confused ones.

“It’s a school night… Why on earth would we go out?” You ask and Leya chuckles.

“We won’t be out late, promise. Just tired of being cooped up inside and we haven’t hung out outside of these four walls in forever it seems. You’ve been busy.” You smile softly as you tuck one leg underneath you as you bite your bottom lip.

You know your best friend’s idea of ‘not late’ is much different than your own, they’re more than likely to be heading back to their places around one in the morning, meanwhile you usually only stay out until eleven p.m. since you have early morning classes. You sigh before turning your gaze to your best friend, eagerness and excitement is written all over her face and you can’t help but to return the excitement. A bright smile forms on her lips before you nod her head.

“Where did you want to go and we’re only staying out until midnight at the latest, I have to get up early.” You can’t help but smile at her friend's excitement after you finish speaking.

They both turn their gaze to the television, smiles etched on their faces as they focus on whatever the man on the screen in cooking. You know this isn’t a good idea because you know they’ll be out much later than intended simply because time won’t matter once they’re having fun. No one will be checking their phones and you don't even know where you’re going!

You know you haven't had much time to properly hang out with your best friend because you’ve been doing a lot more. You’ve been juggling school with tutoring two different students and trying to snag some hours in at the local library for a little side cash. You can’t help but to feel bad, but there’s nothing you can do about it now and you’re sure your friend understands why.

Leya goes on and on about a bar nearby that’s under new management and is supposed to be so much better and how she wants to try it.

“They have a better selection of drinks, live music! This sounds like so much fun I promise you won’t regret it. Please say you’ll go, you have to! I’m afraid I’ll die if you say no.” Leya says, placing a hand on her forehead to feed into the dramatics as she rests her upper half over the couch rest.

You can’t help but to laugh at your friend as you roll your eyes playfully.

“You’re silly. You know I was gonna say yes regardless, you deserve a proper fun night out.” Leya’s face might be broken with how hard she’s smiling, teeth showcased fully and her eyes barely showing as she quickly shortens the small distance between to embrace her best friend into a tight hug.

“I could quite literally kiss you right now, you’re the best friend ever! I’m so excited, thank you thank you!” She squeals before pulling away to plant a sloppy kiss on your cheek causing the girl to laugh as you wipe it away with the back of you hand.

A comfortable silence falls over them as they turn their attention back to the television, the man’s voice playing in the background as he talks about whatever dish he’s making for the day. Your head lays on Leya’s shoulder as they continue to watch tv, a happy smile on your face as you enjoy the company and peaceful bliss.

————

Several hours later, you find yourself standing in front of the standing floor mirror holding two different dresses. You take turns in holding the dresses up to your body as you try to decide which one you want to wear. You don't want to put too much effort in your appearance since you know it’ll all just be sweated off by the end of the night.

You end up choosing a simple black dress, one that hugs your frame nicely with lace detailing around the edges and stops mid thigh. It’s plain enough so you won’t stand out too much, but dressy enough to show you actually put some effort into your appearance. After you slip it on, you apply some light makeup and quickly fix your hair.

You walk out of Leya’s room and into the living room where you’re met with your best friends’ figure leaning over the kitchen island as she applies a pink tinted lipstick over her lips, the burgundy dress compliments her skin, hugging her curves but flaring out towards the bottom with a open back and stops mid thigh. Her hair has been pinned back as it rests in the matching burgundy hair clip. You can’t help but to smile as you watch your friend add the finishing touches to her makeup before choosing to speak up.

“You look super pretty, Leya. Is that dress new?” Leya turns around and smiles just as big as she nods.

“Yes! Oh my gosh, you look to die for! Spin for me baby!” Leya exclaims and you can’t help but to giggle as you do a spin, her heels clicking against the tile floor with every step.

They both laugh as they embrace each other in a tight hug before walking out the door and towards Leya’s car. The soft breeze blowing against your skin and you smile dopily as you step inside the car. Leya hops into the driver seat and starts the car making sure to roll your window down as she drives down the street. The trees and houses turn into a blur, the breeze fanning your face as you lay your head on the open space on the car door.

————

The smell of weed quickly fills your nose as you step out of the car and lets your eyes sweep over the building. There’s a couple of guys huddled in the far side of the building, you can only assume they’re smoking the weed by how clouds of smoke keep blowing in the air every couple of seconds. You can see the side profile of one of the guys and you can’t help the small gasp that escapes from your lips when she realizes that one of the guys is Steve.

He’s dressed like normal, a white dress shirt halfway unbuttoned to show off his toned chest, a pair of black skinny jeans and his signature white sneakers. You can hear Leya clear her throat from behind you and you turn around to meet her gaze with a sly smile.

They don’t say anything to each other before Leya’s grabbing your hand and heading towards the entrance and you laugh as Leya yells.

“Party time baby!” The sound of your friend's voice causes Steve and his friends to look over and you catch a glimpse of his signature frown beginning to form.

You refuse to let him ruin a perfectly good night so you send him a smile before you’re being dragged through the door and directly to the bar, you stagger behind your friend as her heels clack against the wooden floor. You quickly apologize to everyone you bump into as you try to make yourself as small as possible, earning a few nasty glares in the process. It doesn’t take long for the two girls to reach the bar and they quickly hop onto the bar stools, the leather squeaks underneath with every move.

The music is loud and you can feel the vibrations through the stool, even though you just walked in the heat from all the dancing bodies enveloping you, wrapping you in a warm hug. The bartender comes over and sends both of them a flirty smile as he leans on the counter top.

“And what can I get for you lovely ladies?” He asks and they both let out a giggle. Leya’s the first to answer as she smiles back.

“I’d like a sex on the beach please!” The waiter nods in response as he gathers everything he needs and begins to make her drink.

You don’t know what you want to drink, you’ve never really been a heavy drinker, you don’t like the bitterness of beer or the burn of tequila as it flows down your throat. You usually stick with water or tea, something non-alcoholic or occasionally opting for something sweet and fruity when you’re out so you turn your head and plead with Leya. Wide eyes begging for help to make yourself feel better about your decision which causes your friend to laugh softly before nodding her head.

The waiter comes back with a smile as he hands Leya’s drink to her and turns to you, flashing you a flirty smile as well.

“And what can I get started for you, pretty?” You smile politely back at him before Leya interrupts them.

“Do you by any chance have anything fruity?” The bartender nods and quickly mixes your drink and hands it to you, it’s orange and looks just like orange juice and you can make out a few ice cubes floating around.

You hesitantly bring the cup to your lips and take a small sip, expecting to feel the burn in your throat or taste the bitter aftertaste that’ll linger on your taste buds. Surprisingly you don't taste any of it, it’s sweet and tastes just like orange juice. You lick your lips before taking a longer sip and nod.

“I like this! What’s it called?” You ask and the bartender chuckles softly before he replies.

“It’s called a screwdriver. It’s orange juice and vodka. I’d be careful with that, because it’s so easy to drink it’ll get you pretty tipsy fast. Don’t just drown it, small sips.” You nod gingerly in response as you turn to Leya.

“Want some?” Leya shakes her head softly as she sends a smile to you, one full of love and happiness that you can’t help but to send a reciprocated smile back.

The bartender leaves them to chat idly as the music plays, loud enough to cause them to lean into each other to make sure they’re heard correctly. Leya talks about how she can’t believe that you're out and drinking, making jokes about where has her friend gone because the girl she knows wouldn’t be caught dead in a bar, let alone outside her apartment at this time. You laugh softly before playfully pushing your friend’s shoulder and taking another sip of your drink.

As their eyes glaze over the crowd full of dancing people, Leya nudges you softly causing you to turn your head briefly where you’re met with a smirk.

“You know Steve’s here?” You smile before nodding.

“Saw him outside before we came in. Didn’t look too happy to see me.” You shrug before taking another sip of your drink. You watch as your friend shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

“Still nothing huh? I don’t even understand why he dislikes you so strongly. You said you confronted him in the parking lot? Did nothing happen?” You can feel your frown beginning to form at the thought of your outburst at him.

“No, he just stared like a statue the whole time before he very reluctantly agreed to another study session. I hate to feel like I’m forcing him but I refuse to let him fail under my watch you know? I know he can do better.” You take another sip of your drink as you begin to drum your fingers on your thigh to the rhythm of the song playing.

Leya smiles as she sips her own, she loves that most about her best friend. The fact that no matter what you’re always seeing the best in people and never treating

them the way they treat you.

“Let’s play a game.” The smirk is back on Leya’s lips as she sets her drink on the counter behind her.

“What could we possibly play at the bar Leya?” Your curiosity is getting the best of you, you always have fun with her and this wouldn’t be any different.

“Let’s see how many people end up fucking tonight. You take a sip if you end up losing your guess, and the other person takes a sip if you guess correctly.” You can’t help the shiver of excitement that runs through your body at the game description and so you nod your head excitedly as both sets of eyes trail over the crowd.

But you would still miss me in your bones

Several wrong guesses and a couple correct ones, you can feel the warmth of your cheeks and you’re a giggling mess. You’ve never felt more at peace as you lean your head on your friend's shoulder. They’ve left their multiple glasses behind as they sway lightly and slowly to the very upbeat song, not caring about the nasty glares they’re receiving or the way the bass of the song vibrates in your chest. They’ve forgotten the game a while ago, after Leya’s guesses got more incorrect and your guesses became slurred words and giggles.

You’ve never been a heavy drinker so most would consider herself a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and at this moment it shows. You’re more gone than Leya is - she’s borderline tipsy, still able to form sentences and can kinda walk in a straight enough line if she concentrates hard enough. So you lean your weight on your friend as you wrap your arms around her waist and snuggle your face into her neck, neither girl caring about your makeup that’s definitely leaving a stain as they sway.

“Leys..” a giggle escapes your lips at the new nickname coming from you before you turn your head upwards to gaze at your best friend.

“Yes?” Leya asks, your own nickname falling through her lips as she brings one hand up to your head and softly runs her hand over your hair, she can feel you begin to relax in her hold and she chuckles softly.

“Love you.” You mumble and you can feel a soft kiss on the top of your hair and the tightening of Leya’s arms around your shoulders.

“Love you too sweets. You feeling okay?” You nod your head softly against Leya’s chest.

A couple seconds past, a comfortable silence looming over them before you gasp and pull away.

“What? What’s wrong?” Leya’s face is laced with concern, eyebrows raised and eyes wide as she stares at the drunk girl.

“You’re my best friend!” You exclaim and let out a small giggle. Relief floods over Leya’s face and turns into a loving smile.

“And you’re mine, forever and always.” You can’t help but break into a big smile at the returned sentiment, one that makes your cheeks hurt and shows off all of your teeth, one that seems to brighten up the decently lit building.

The music has seemed to fade away into the background, it doesn’t seem as loud anymore but you can still feel the bass of the guitar vibrating through your body as you very clumsily dance alongside your best friend. Hands, arms, and sides bump into one another throughout your time shared on the dance floor, but you can’t bring yourself to care about any of that. The only thing that matters at the moment is that you’re happy and they’re having fun, you can’t remember a time you’ve felt so loose.

You stop dancing around to stumble over to the bar once more, both of their glasses cleaned up and the bartender already ready with a medium sized glass cup.

“You thirsty?” He says as he pushes the cup towards you, the condensation leaves a wet trail against the wooden countertop and you shake your head.

“New cup please, no drugs.” You giggle slightly at yourself and set your hand on the table. You focus your attention on the bartender as he pours out the water and rinses the cup. He quickly pours you some fresh water and you giggle as you thank him, their fingers brushing over another as you grabs the cup

from him and take a sip.

You’ve managed to lose Leya in such a short timeframe, your eyes flitting over the crowd but you can’t seem to focus on finding your friend when your eyes land on Steve’s signature hair and leather jacket. You laugh quietly to yourself before taking a big sip of the water and set your cup on the counter as you hop down from the stool and begin to clumsily make your way over to Steve. You bump into a couple people on the way over, quickly saying excuse me before bursting into small fits of laughter with every bump.

You almost trip over someone sitting near Steve, your hand coming out to grab onto the closest thing to you and you quickly grab onto someone’s chair.

“Watch it!” The guy yells and you quickly push yourself up and apologize, a soft laugh falling out from your lips as your eyes lock onto Steve’s. His face is bare, no frown placed on it but his hazy eyes show just the hint of annoyance. His eyes wander over your body as you just stand there before he leans forward and his eyes flick up to yours as his hands slowly come up to your frame. He ever so gently and very carefully takes the end of your dress and tugs it down from its resting position from at the top of your thighs to the middle of your thigh.

After he’s satisfied he quickly pulls back and grabs the joint from Tommy’s hand and takes a hit, he enjoys the burn in his throat as he inhales and watches the smoke as he exhales. He finds that your presence isn’t as infuriating like this, his eyes travel down your frame - taking in your hair, and the dress and just how well it compliments your curves, the way you play with your fingers and the slight sway you have as you stand in place.

You then quickly break out into a big smile and stumble closer to Steve.

“Hi!” He frowns slightly before nodding to you in acknowledgment.

“Have you seen Leys?” You hiccup softly before letting out a small laugh. He shakes his head before turning to his friend.

“Seen her friend?” His friend shakes his head as well and he turns his gaze back to you.

“Go look around. Couldn’t have gone too far. She shouldn’t have left you like this anyways.” You can’t help but to frown at that before shaking your head.

“I left her, got thirsty. The nice bartender gave me water with no drugs.” You giggle before turning around and pointing to the man standing behind the counter, his eyes already fixed on you.

Steve leans slightly to stare at the man before looking back to you and sighs in annoyance as he stands up. He tells his friends he’ll be right back as he walks the couple steps to stand in front of the intoxicated girl.

“C’mon then, let’s see if we can find her.” His voice gruff as you turn around and begin to stumble your way through the crowd, bumping into a guy and causing him to spill his drink.

“Fucking bitch. You owe me a drink!” Steve watches as you flinch away slightly at the already drunk man’s tone.

Steve can’t help but to frown as he steps forward and stares at the man with anger clouding his eyes.

“I’d watch your mouth, talk to her with fucking respect.” He says as he steps back and reaches into his pocket to grab his wallet, opening it up and grabs a couple dollars and roughly hands it to him.

“Now shut the fuck up and get your drink.” He says and walks over to you and just barely lays his hand on your shoulder as he pushes you to the bar gently. The girl giggles and thanks Steve for saving you from the ‘scary man’ as they make it to the counter.

“Are you ready for another one, pretty girl?” The waiter asks and you shake her head softly. Steve can’t help but to clear his throat in an attempt to get his attention away from the girl beside him.

“We’re actually looking for her friend, have you seen her?” The bartender's eyes flick back and forth between you and Steve before nodding his head.

“Yeah, she went into the bathroom with some guy a little bit ago.” Steve scoffs as he grabs your hand and leads you to the door.

You squeal before you smack Steve’s hand.

“Hey! Steve! Slow down! Wait! She’s in there!! Can’t leave her!” You yell, but Steve shows no sign of stopping. His grip firm on your hand as he drags you to the door, the sound of your heels clicking against the wooden floor just barely audible over to the sound of the drums on the stage. He doesn’t stop until they’ve made it outside the door and he stops abruptly and runs his hand through his hair.

“Can’t leave Leys, Steve. Love her. She’s my best friend! We gotta go back!” You huff and he shakes his head.

“No can do, lala. Your best friend is hooking up with some random fucking guy instead of making sure you’re okay. M’taking you home. What’s your address?” He takes out his phone and opens the Maps app, you do nothing but glare at him.

“Don’t want you, want Leys.” You say with finality as you turn around and head to the door.

He rolls his eyes as he moves to stand in front of you and softly places his hands on your shoulders.

“C’mon now. M’not gonna hurt you. Just let me take you home.” He says and you shake your head and cross your arms, you don’t miss the way his gaze drops to your chest ever so briefly.

“You’re not Leys.” He rolls his eyes at this.

“M’doing you a favor by continuing these sessions, it’s the least you can do. You’re drunk off your fucking ass and your best friend obviously isn’t too worried about you. C’mon and let me take you home. Can you not be so stubborn for once, you’re in no condition to be anywhere but in your own bed.” Your bottom lip juts out and begins to wobble and he sighs.

“Leya cares ‘bout me, she’s worried right now. Let me inside, you don’t care. Just gonna hold this over my head tomorrow.” She mumble softly as you reach into your purse for your phone.

You quickly grab it and unlock it, your finger clicking on the phone icon and clicking on Leya’s name and clicking the speaker icon. The phone rings several times and you bite your bottom lip nervously, the time taking forever with each second that the phone doesn’t click and your friend's voice comes through. After a while the phone goes to voicemail and you can’t help the few tears that fall from your eyes and onto your cheeks. You dejectedly nod her head in agreement and follow Steve to his car and you only manage to bump into a few cars along the way.

Steve sighs before coming next to you and ever so gently wraps his arm around your waist, not touching you but enough to keep you from stumbling too much and setting off someone’s car. It’s almost too easy for you to melt into his hold as your head comes to rest on his shoulder and you wrap your own arm around him, you’re too far gone to take note of the way his body tenses up underneath your touch. It takes the both of them longer to get to his car than it would if it was just him because of the way you keep stumbling over cracks in the road or just your own two feet. He opens the door for you, allowing you to get in and sets his jacket over your lap just in case. He’s careful when strapping you in - trying his best not to touch you too much and announcing his every move for you to nod and giggle.

And if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake

After a couple wrong directions from the drunk girl talking over the voice coming from the speaker, Steve manages to pull into your driveway and parks the car. He gets out after telling you to stay put, walking around the car to your side, opening the door and unbuckling your seatbelt, being unusually gentle with you as he helps you out of the car and towards your house. When they reach the front door, he taps you on the shoulder and nods to the door.

“You got your keys?” His voice comes out softer than usual, taking on a more gentle tone with the girl and it only confuses him more. You nod tiredly before reaching into your purse and surprisingly fast you pull out your keychain, the various keys jingling against each other as you use the other hand to pick at each key.

Right when your fingers begin to wrap around your house key, they slip through your grasp and make a loud jingle as they hit the floor.

“Whoopsie.” You giggle as you bend down, Steve follows suit as his own hand reaches out to grab it and he manages to beat you to it as his right hand wraps around the keychain. They both stand up at the same time causing them both to hit their head against the other, you frown as one hand comes up to rub your head. Steve can’t help but to crack a smile at the sight before he shakes his head and unlocks your door, opening it fully as his arm wraps around your waist.

His fingers are just barely touching your dress as he guides you into the house, quietly shutting the door before asking you to lead you into your own room. You smile softly as you nod, your own hand coming to rest on top of his as they walk into your room. Steve’s not disgusted by your room, in fact it reminds him of earlier years, the various posters of plants and paintings, post it notes with words of encouragement and a decent sized calendar line the plain white walls, your beige comforter set contrasts the soft pink carpet that rests underneath the bed and he can spot a flower vase full of various flowers sitting on top of your dresser accompanied by other small decorations.

Your room is exactly how he figured it’d be, it’s something that you’d expect to see from you and he can’t complain. For as long as he can remember you’ve always been so predictable when it comes to anything really, and so as he leads you to the bed your foot catches on the leg of your dresser causing you to begin to fall forward. You squeal as you prepare yourself for the hard impact against the floor but it never comes, Steve’s arms are wrapped around you securely, his fingers digging into your waist as he pulls you up.

“For fucks sake, slow down will you. Need you alive so I can pass this stupid test. Don’t want you to damage that useful brain of yours huh?” He can’t help to add a teasing tone to his voice and you shake your head.

“Can you get dressed by yourself?” He asks and you quickly nod your head in agreement.

He quickly heads to your dresser and waits for instructions that never seem to come, so slowly he opens one of the drawers - wary not to open one he definitely does not want to open, and he’s met with a collection of hoodies and large shirts. So he quickly grabs one and tosses it to you, not bothering to look back as he speaks.

“D’ya need shorts or anything?” He’s met with silence and he turns around to see your gaze set on him, your features soft and a hint of smile plays at your lips.

“Did ya hear me?” He says, your voice being called after the question and still no response, so he steps closer and bends down so they’re eye level causing you to break from whatever trance you were stuck in.

“Huh, what?” You slur as you blink fast, your breath fanning over his face so he quickly leans back.

“I asked if you need shorts to sleep in?” You shake your head as your cheeks begin to warm slightly in embarrassment.

“What were you staring at?” He knows he doesn’t care but his curiosity gets the best of him.

“You’re jus’ really pretty, s’all.”

He shakes his head at you before heading to your door.

“I’m pretty now? Be careful or someone might think you like me or something. But thank you, you didn’t look half bad tonight.” He says as he walks out the door and closes it behind it. Your head is swimming as you stand up and begin to tug your dress off of your body. It takes you a couple of attempts but you finally manage to drag the garment off your frame and you quickly toss it onto the edge of your bed before slipping on the shirt Steve tossed at you.

You quickly sit on your bed and grab the closest thing to you to help cover your bare legs, resulting in his jacket covering the lower half as you tell him to come in. The door squeaks as it opens and he sticks his head in before walking inside. His eyes flick to his jacket covering your bare thighs and one hand clenches into a fist.

“Steve?” His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of your voice and he opens his eyes to stare at you.

“Why don’t you like me?” You tilt your head forward as you gather your hair into a bun.

“Never said I didn’t lala girl, don’t go into that big head of yours.” He leans backwards against your doorframe and watches as you take a big breath.

“You always get irritable in my presence and you’re more mean to me than anyone else.” You begin to fiddle with your fingers as you duck your head down.

Steve sighs before coming to sit next to you on the bed, choosing to sit on the farthest side to protect anything from happening.

“All I’m gonna say is I don’t not like you. Now come lay down so I can leave.” He says and stands up, pulling your blankets down and helps you get into bed, making sure you’re covered fully. His head is tilted down as he finishes the last touches and you turn your head to the side to tell him thank you and apologize but you’re met with the softness of his lips. It’s quick and most definitely was an accident by the way he jerks back as if he got burned.

You let out a nervous giggle before you sit up, your shirt beginning to slip down your shoulder and Steve frowns.

“I’m sorry, so sorry! I actually wanted to apologize when I turned. So uh sorry about everything, fuck I’m sorry.” Your mouth is moving a mile a minute, the words slurring together as they spill from your lips and a faint red begins to tint his cheeks.

[charlotte3eee]

Something fluffy but weird with Kylian where you love him painting your toes and tickling your feet, he always loves painting your toes white because he thinks it’s sexy, anytime you rest your feet on his lap while sitting on the couch he always runs his fingers up and down your soles and wriggles your tootsies because he knows you love it even though it your ticklish💗

pairing : kylian mbappe x female reader

White toenails

summary : kylian loves to paint his gf y/n toe nails.

warnings : none not proof read? lol

a/n : let me know if you guys want a pt . 2 !! (inbox is open!)

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping and early morning traffic. As I turn around from my bedside table which was on the right, I see my darling boyfriend sleeping peacefully.

Kylian always looked so relaxed when sleeping, not having a care in the world. His lips always looked so plump, and his messy hair and eyebrows, overall it was a damn well beautiful sight.

I run my thumb on his cheek and kiss his temple. “I love you so much my love,” I say in a whisper tone. I turn back around, not trying to make too much noise to wake my Kylian.

I grab my phone off my bedside table and check the weather app. I check for the whole day hoping it would be nice and sunny out to do something fun.

Today was one of those days where me and Kylian had the day off. It was hard having not always just me and Kylian time, not including our daily dinner dates. Luckily summer is here, meaning my job is very flexible/ not have to work too much. And he does not have training with PSG because he is off-season and EDF.

Now we have all the time in the world to stay in bed with each other as long as we want. I go back to the weather app, realizing it was going to be cloudy and cold all day. Though we have other days to do fun stuff, a frown appeared on my face.

I sighed and went to go put my phone back on the bedside table when it slipped off falling to the floor, which also took my water bottle with it. Making both of them make, the loudest noise possible.

I turn to Kylian who now has his elbows resting on the bed, with his eyebrows furrowed together.

I smile and let out a small giggle at his expression.

By his face, I could tell he wanted an explanation and wanted to make sure I was ok, but too tired today so. I love this about Kylian and me, we can always tell each other what we want, without having to say it.

I soon place a kiss on his cheek and explain that I’m alright, and it was just my phone and water bottle that fell. I move the covers off my legs to get out of bed. But all of sudden I feel a gentle grab on my bicep.

“Where do you think you're going amour?” he spoke. I replied saying “I'm going to start on breakfast I’m pretty hungry, you?” “I’m hungry for you,” Kylian said with a smirk. Rolling my eyes, I quickly got up and ran to the door so he couldn’t catch me.

“Come on Ky, we have all day, I promise we can eat quickly and go watch a movie on the couch or go back to bed.” Slowly kylian got out of bed, walking over to the door where I was.

My eyes widen when I saw he was extra big this morning. Kylina had always been big, but when he would just sleep in his boxers or wear them around the house, it was different. 

I started to walk out the door when slide his arms around my waist, picked me up from behind, and carried me to the kitchen. Kylians placed me down spun me around and gave a peck to my lips. His lips always tasted so good in the morning.

I tapped his shoulder and told him to sit down on the couch when I got started on breakfast. Kylian and I decided on pancakes, he told me mine were the best and only mine. I do make so pretty good pancakes.

I made flap jacks and put them down on the island, I also made some eggs and bacon for some protein. Kylian is a big boy, gotta keep him full icky.

I ran around behind the couch and kissed his neck and whisper to Kylian the food was ready. “Ugh I can smell it from here, so good baby,” he said with a kiss on my cheek. “Thank you, my love,” I replied.

Kylian and I sat down on the barstools on the island and began to eat. He went down and ate every last bit of food there was on his plate. Kylian and I talked about all the things we want to do this summer, the places we wanted to travel to, and all the activities he had in mind, etc.

After our delicious breakfast, I stuck to my promise to go watch a movie on the couch. Kylian went and grabbed the big blanket from our room and went to sit down on “his side of the couch”.

He claimed the longer side of the sectional, ever since I moved in that’s always been his spot because he loved it when I rested my feet on his lap. When I did this he would take advantage and tickle my feet, knowing I’m the most ticklish person ever.

When we both got comfortable, Kylina looked down at my toes and a small smirk appeared on his face. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “Is everything ok?” I asked while giggling. “I have an idea,” Is all he said before he pulled me off the couch.

With his hand wrapped around mine, Kylian started running toward our master bedroom. I ran as fast as I could with him. Boy, this man is so fucking fast.

Once we both got into the bathroom, Kylian started digging into the cabinet under the sick. I stood at the door with my arms crossed, still in confusion.

“Will you grab me a towel, please bébé?” Kylian said staring right up at me. I walked over to the rack to grab a towel, once I turned back around, Kylian sat in front of me with a set up to paint my nails.

He loved painting my toenails especially white, he found it very sexy. He also was the only one who could do it as he said. He was pretty good at doing it too, his niece made him do it once. And ever since he’s gotten better and better. So he likes to practice on me.

“Come sit down chérie,” he said. I walked over and gave him the towel, I couldn’t get over him sitting so patiently still in his boxers. I sat down in front of him with my legs out. He began one by one filling, clipping, and buffing my nails. All of the prep.

Kylian pulled out the base coat painting it on. A small laugh came out of my mouth, Kylian wasn't even trying to tickle me it was this bad. “Are you ok mon amour?” Kylian said with a smile on his face.

“Oh yes, I’m ok!” I said trying to keep a straight face. Before I knew it, Kylian was all done putting on the top coat. I sat there on the towel waiting for my toes to dry to the pretty milky white color. Kylian cleaned everything and put all the supplies away.

Kylian and I stayed seated on the cold tile of the bathroom floor waiting for the polish to dry.

After what felt like ages of waiting for them to dry, they were finally finished. He grabbed my hand picked me up and carried me bridal-style back to the living room. Small giggles from both of us leaving the hallway.

Once back to the couch, I grabbed the remote and pressed play on the movie. We went back to the same position before. Now with just a happy Kylian this time.

As the movie went on I keep glancing over at Kylian, the whole time he wasn't watching the movie but just staring at my feet. I just let it slide not thinking anything about it.

All of a sudden I felt soft strong hands at the soles of my feet. Oh fuck I’m not surviving this. Slowly he went up and down. “Kylian stop doing that I’m not fucking around!” Y/n quietly raised her voice.

“Doing this?” Kylian began to full on tickle my feet. Now I was bursting out laughing. “Kylian quit-“ I couldn’t even get out a full sentence it was so bad.

I soon felt relief when I didn’t feel his hands anymore. But now he was on top of me?

[accio-victuuri]

hello to another episode of toxic fandom practices and douban being a little shit. there are “studies” floating around about douban scores for works of both of them being rated maliciously as 1 star. and no one is surprised, really, the result is xz “fans” rated wyb’s works and vice versa. i don’t even care who made this “study” because clearly what it all does is shift the blame on “crazy fans” and paint douban as an innocent platform. which it’s not btw.

the fandoms are not exactly blameless tho. if you follow big name fan accounts for both sides on weibo ( which i do, sadly ) you will see how they mobilize their followers to do shady things ( always locked and for friends only posts & i’m sure they have wechat groups but i don’t hate myself enough to join those ) and this is what really turns me off with c-ent fandom. the big name fans. the same ones who lecture about doing the right thing in public, in private are posting links to attack whoever is the enemy of the day. it’s so disgusting. i know this is all because of the “broken” fandom culture that’s been here for years & years. it’s what they know. “fighting” for your idol is considered noble. but like, being an international fan and seeing this manipulation — what’s the point? do i even wanna be in this toxic environment? the sad thing is, not everyone has this awareness. you only need to spend not even a minute in the bird app side of c-ent and you will see the same thing.

this is why i stay here cause it’s mostly drama free. for my sanity more than anything. I just wanna focus on their works and not have to worry about what bs is happening in the “fandom” side of things. yes there are legit paid antis, but let’s not imitate the things they do which fans claim they hate.

fandom is supposed to be fun and about making friends but it has turned into this twisted operation. most days i do my best to ignore it but today is just too much. ❌

[mrs-johansson]

Strangers in the night - Scarlett Johansson x Fem!Reader

Part 10:

“What does it say?” I looked through the mirror at my agent Ester who had just found an article about Scarlett and me.

“The title is, Valentine’s Day meeting for Jojo Rabbit.” She read it out loud and I immediately rolled my eyes. “The pair met up on a very odd day, that being Valentine’s Day. Lady Bird actress Y/n Cole and pal Scarlett Johansson enjoyed dinner at Pablo’s Jazz Bar in Manhattan on the day of lovers. Sources say, the pair were having a great time, cozy with each other and they left together. It is known that Cole is directing her first movie Jojo Rabbit later this year, with Johansson as the starring actress.” “I feel like I can’t meet up with anyone anymore without having tabloids everywhere,” I murmured while looking at the first dress. Melanie, my stylist, held the dress’s skirt part as I turned around, facing Eater. “What do you think?” I asked, smoothing over the material. “Did you have to go out on Valentine’s Day?” She spread her arms.

Letting out a sigh I stepped back up to the podium in front of the mirror. “Let’s look at the next one,” I told Melanie and once we took the dress off and she left the room, I reached for my robe.

“It was just a friendly dinner. We’ve been talking a lot lately and we thought we should meet up before filming, getting to know each other. It was just a coincidence that it was Valentine’s Day.” “And how was it?”

How was it? It was amazing. I had the most fun of my life, and I’m just mesmerized by this woman.

“Great. We had fun.”

***

Scarlett🌷: how was the fitting?

me: it was fine, got the dress and the accessories so everything’s done

Scarlett🌷: can I get a sneak peek?😏

me: hmm… I promised didn’t I?😌

me: (let’s pretend it’s a picture)

Scarlett🌷: god if they don’t give you the award in this dress then I’ll be very upset

Scarlett🌷: you look stunning y/n

me: thank you❤️ but I don’t think I’m going to win

Scarlett🌷: why wouldn’t you? You did amazing

me: there’s meryl who even though has a 100 of them, she still gets them every single time

me: Margot who played a real person and let’s not even mention the rest

Scarlett🌷: and still you’re there because you did a spectacular job at such young age

me: I don’t know

Scarlett🌷: whatever happens, I’m proud of you and I think you should win💛

me: it means a lot Scar❤️

***

It’s been a week since our date and honestly I kind of miss her. Yes, we talk almost every day, but Rose got home this week and of course, I understand that she has less time for me, but we’re gonna meet this weekend.

And today my dad is staying till we go to Los Angeles and I told him I’ll pick him up from the airport. Usually, he says that he’ll just catch a taxi, but I wouldn’t want him to suffer through an hour drive with a stranger.

Mom doesn’t have time to visit, as usual, honestly, I’m not even disappointed anymore.

Waiting for dad at the parking lot I was just reading the Bombshell script trying to memorize my lines then the text from dad popped up, that he was here.

Stepping out of the car I looked around the parking lot, hoping to catch his tall figure.

Even though I made sure to put glasses and a baseball cap on, some people still let their eyes linger and two younger girls even came up to me. But they seemed nice.

“Hi, we wouldn’t want to bother you but we’re big fans of you, is there any chance we can take a picture?” The girl on the left asked with hopeful eyes, she was shy but the other one seemed more anxious.

I couldn’t say no, they were polite and respectful. “Of course, what’s your name?” I took my glasses off, so I don’t look like an asshole in the pictures, no offense, but I don’t like when famous people do that.

“I’m Ava and this is my sister Nora,” the same girl said and her sister smiled shyly, picking on her nails.

We took a couple of pictures and the girls asked me about Red Sparrow a little bit but I couldn’t tell them much of course. Mostly Ava was the one who was talking

“And you Nora? What’s your favorite movie?” I looked at her and her eyes widened, cheeks got tinted with color. She shifted in her place and uncrossed her arms. “I like Lady Bird. I just relate to her a lot and I think you’re amazing in it. I hope you get the Oscar,” she said and I smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you.”

After a couple of minutes, my phone started ringing and I said goodbye to the girls and then took the call. “Hi honey, I just got out. Where are you?” Dad spoke. “I’m in the parking lot, you should see me if you come out on the A exit,” I kept looking that way then a couple of minutes later I saw his gray hair and waved to him which he thankfully saw.

***

“How was your flight?” “It was great, I got some work done,” dad said. “That’s great, what do you want for dinner?” “We can have takeout, you don’t have to cook.” “Are you sure?” I glanced at him and he nodded. “How’s mom?” I looked back at the road, watching the light turn green.

“She’s good, she says hi,” he said awkwardly. “Great.” “How are you? What have you been up to lately?” He quickly changed the topic.

“I’m good. I spend a lot of time with my friends a lot. Actually, this weekend, not sure if it's Saturday or Sunday, but I’ll have a friend coming over and it’s kind of new and I’m not sure if it’s time for you guys to meet yet…” “I’ll be gone for the day, don’t worry. Is it a guy or a girl?” I saw from the corner of my eyes that he was looking at me with a smirk. I glanced at him carefully then turned back. “A woman.” “Oh a woman, okay. Do I know her?” Dad asked with a teasing voice. “Probably,” I cleared my throat, already nervous about the whole conversation. “So she’s famous?” “Yeah, but it’s like really new. We only had one date so far,” I smiled shyly, trying to control my joy. “That's great, kid. And how was it?” “The best date I ever had. I don’t know, I feel like it’s already serious you know. And I really like her so I hope everything goes great.” Really hope it will, honest to God. She’s one of the best things that happened to me in the past couple of months.

“I’m glad Y/n. What’s she like?” “Well… She’s like a ray of sunshine, to be honest. She’s really funny and flirty and she makes me blush like all the time. She is uhm divorced and she has a daughter. She’s amazing really.” “A daughter?” The surprise in his voice. “Yeah, she’s three and she’s really cute.” “So she is older than you?” “Yeah, a little but it doesn’t bother me. She’s very intelligent and doesn’t really care about other people’s opinions, so she’s just… I don’t know, open-minded I guess.” “Maybe that’s what you need. I mean someone mature and seen the world.” “Okay, she’s not that much older, only by 8 years.” Furrowing my eyebrows, I pulled up to the driveway. “Oh, that’s not much. Will you tell me who it is?” Dad asked as we got out of the car.

“Hmm…” “Oh come on, you told me basically who she is, just not her name.” He got his suitcase from the back and I walked up to the door, unlocking the house. “You swear not to tell anyone though,” I watched as dad rolled the suitcase in, closed the door behind himself, and looked at me with big eyes.

“Swear on my mother’s grave,” he put his hand over his heart. “Especially not mom,” I took my coat off alongside my shoes. “Why can’t you just tell me? You know, you can trust me,” he spread his arms. He's right though.

“Okay… uhm,” nervously walking around the living room, I finally sat on the armrest of the couch. Dad stood at the living room door, on the edge for sure. “She’s a friend of Chris’s,” I started. “Okay…” I saw the wheels turning in his head. “It’s Scarlett Johansson…” I mumbled quietly, looking everywhere but at him. “Who?” Dad pushed his head forward, since I was so quiet. “Scarlett Johansson.”

He leaned to the door frame, crossing his arms. “Didn’t I raise you right?” “Oh my god…” I closed my eyes, hanging my head low. “What? She’s a very good-looking woman and she’s very successful. And from what you told me, she’s an amazing person. I’m proud of you, kid.” He walked up to me, wrapping me up in a big hug. “Thank you? I guess… but we’re not dating, you know?” “Yet! It seems like she’s got you wrapped around her finger pretty bad.” I smiled at his words and nodded. “She really does.”

***

In the next couple of days, we were at home mostly. Once or twice we went out to dinner or lunch or just walked around town for a while.

It was Friday night, Dad thought it was the perfect time to watch a movie after we had dinner. Opened a bottle of wine and settled down on the couch, watching a film of his choice.

“I don’t even like this guy,” I murmured as I watched Matt Damon on the screen. “Why not?” “Because he has an asshole face. I’ve never met him though.”

I’m not mean I swear, I just have people who I look at and I don’t like them, does that make sense?

My phone started buzzing next to me and I quickly reached for it to see that it was Scarlett. “I’ll be back,” I said as I was getting up from the couch, taking the call.

“Hi,” I said swiftly, really nervous about the call. Gosh, I felt my Palma being sweaty and I swear my heart was racing. “Hey, I just wanted to check if we’re still on for the weekend,” Scarlett spoke and I smiled like an idiot as soon as I heard her voice. “Yes, of course. Which day is better for you?” I fidgeted with my fingers anxiously, waiting for her answer. “Tomorrow is great if that’s alright for you.” “It is, yeah…” I felt the nerves linger through the phone call, neither of us knowing what to say.

Taking a sharp breath in, I had to break the silence. “I uhm… I miss you,” I bluntly stated and I felt like someone knocked all the air out of my lungs. I was so nervous and scared about how she was going to react but then she spoke. “I miss you too, darling. I honestly can’t wait to see you. It’s a shame you’ll leave for three months, I hope you won’t forget about me,” she said and I could imagine that smirk on her face that drives me oh so crazy. “Of you? Never. On the other hand, I hope you won’t forget about me, there are a lot of people who would like to get their hands on you…” I smirked, hoping to hear a good reaction. “Oh Y/n, no one compares to you. I met you for a reason and I’m throwing that away,” okay my heart just burst out of happiness and joy. “You’re making my ego so much bigger with this,” I chuckled shyly, feeling the heat creeping up my neck right to my cheeks. “You started this when you were screaming my name, don’t you remember?” Now, I was definitely blushing at that sentence and how she lowered her voice… god this woman. “Isn’t Rose there with you?” I cleared my throat. “No, she wanted to sleep over at my mom’s.” Oh wow, she’s so much. Of course, she’s doing this on purpose. “You’re something else, aren’t you?” I asked, walking up to my bedroom. “Don’t tell me you don’t like it,” yeah she’s just really good at this. Talks her way into my head then somewhere else… “I did not say that. Don’t put words in my mouth,” I grabbed some jeans from the wardrobe and started to get dressed. “I thought you liked having things in your mouth, but I guess I was wrong,” she sighed dramatically. “You’re hooked already wow… so desperate,” I murmured with a smirk. “You’re the one who’s already getting dressed, who’s desperate now?” How proud is she… but she’s right, I was almost out of the house. “This was your plan all along, don’t pretend it wasn’t,” I grabbed a leather jacket and walked downstairs. “Oh, it was.” “I know, I’ll be there in 20 minutes.” “Can’t wait.”

[corpsedaydream]

hiya!! would you mind doing a fic where corpse and reader are just being really cute while they're cuddling?? 👉🏻👈🏻🥺

i got u, i hear u, i see u. here u go!!!!!!!!!!

warnings: mention of sex but its literally just a line

word count: 650-700 i can’t remember exactly lmao

_________________________

flappy bird

Today was a quiet day. In the most comfortable way possible.

You and Corpse had woken up about half an hour ago, but neither of you had made any effort to get out of bed. You were simply enjoying each other’s company too much. And you really didn’t want to move, anyway.

Last night, you’d both had your fair share of wine, and what started as slow dancing quickly became a heated make out and groping session on the bench top which then progressed to pleasure in the form of him being buried inside of you in bed. So today, you were both a little more slower, a little worn out and no longer drunk on wine, but still drunk on each other.

The two of you were facing each other, both pairs of legs a tangled mess beneath the blanket. His hands had made their way under the shirt you had on when you’d both woken up. Corpse loved to feel your soft skin, you always were so warm in the mornings. His head was nestled in your neck, warm air feeling comforting as it hit your skin while he took in those post waking up, quiet, slow, deep breaths.

Pillow talk had become your favourite time with him, being in bed with him felt like you two were in your own universe. Everything else didn’t exist, it was only you and him and that was all you really needed.

“Wait, what?” You paused your movements of your hand combing through his bed hair. He only let out a low, inward growl as a response, wanting your hand to continue the relaxing motion. “No, no,” you continued, you went to move back to look at him, but one of his hands suddenly gripped your hip and his other hurriedly crept further up your bare back, wanting to keep you exactly as you were in that position.

“Stay there.” He told you stubbornly. He didn’t want his morning peace disturbed yet.

You sighed and relaxed back against him, but you couldn’t move past the information you’d just realised about your boyfriend. “But as if you don’t remember Flappy Bird.” Your brows furrowed, in thought. An easy morning conversation topic had been apps that either of you had become really obsessed with at one point in time. 

“Must’ve been shit.” His lips were moving against your neck as he spoke, seeing as he had kept his face firmly planted in it’s place.

“It really was,” you agreed with him, “but that’s what made it so good.”

“What?” He laughed, “what was it?”

“Now you want to know.”

“I’ll download it later.”

“You can’t!”

“Hm?”

You huffed and he laughed, he loved when you would be talking about something really not that significant, but you would act like it was the most important thing in the moment. “See, this is why I don’t get why you can’t remember. It was, like, only on the app store for a little bit and everyone downloaded it, hated it, but still continued to play. Then suddenly it was just gone.” You exclaimed, pausing your story for some response, but he remained quiet. “But, the thing is, that people who had it on their phone when it was deleted, can still play it.” This time, you thought you’d get a reply, but he stayed silent. “Are you listening?”

“Of course, baby.” And he was, kind of, but it was more that he was just comforted in simply hearing your voice. It was all about being in your presence, listening to you, holding you in his arms, breathing you in, he was happy.

“I’m gonna show yo-”

“No.” He cut you off, once again the strength of his hold on you intensifying as your effort to make a move was halted. “Told you to stay here.”

“Fine.” You let out a deep breath, but it was content, because a smile was on your face. How much you loved when all he wanted to focus on was you.

[spiltscribbles]

Miss you and your marvelous writing!!!! Just a prompt if you’re up to it 😊 exes wolfstar staying friends but sirius gets into a new relationship and he brings his new boo to somewhere he took remus and remus gets sad 😭 but they get back together eventually

Notes: OMFG BABEY! this is so SO beyond precious of you! i adore you to bits! thank you for the sweetness and for this scrumptious angst🥺🥺 i really hope you like it😭😘😘💜

.-

SEND ME A PROMPT  |  A Reblog means SO SO much! I ADORE YOU💜💜

.-

“He can just be so… So” James pauses right then, takes off his cap with the hand that’s still clutching his baseball bat, and ruffles his hair with the other.

“Un-opinionated,” Remus offers half heartedly as they turn the block to the small coffee shop nearest school, both of them freshly showered after the required morning workouts for Tuesday and Thursdays. It’s the first semester in which Remus has actually joined in on the seven minute track, considering the fact that even despite their crazy contradictory schedules with all the sports and extra curriculars they each had, Sirius always made it a point to buy their ice coffees and drop it off to Remus, sometimes leaving them a quarter of an hour late for first period, or as just a quick drop and dash if one of them had an exam. 

It was sweet, considerate. It was Sirius showing how much he cared because he’s never been one for words, even if he would frequently print off the little texts Remus would send him about how Sirius made him feel, and hang it up on the wall besides his bed, along with photos of them and Remus by himself and a few of their other friends too.

But yeah… None of that is really a thing anymore, not the coffees or the texts or the promises of being one another’s always. Not after calling it quits in early January because they knew by August they’d be working with thousands of miles between them and a three hour difference on top of that. It just wouldn’t have been feasible in the long run, and sure— Remus was the one to broach the topic and he knows that Sirius was hesitant about the logical side of it, but sometimes Remus wishes Sirius had fought harder, had argued louder, had wanted Remus more. But that’s a ridiculous expectation, and he had only admitted as much to Lily. And at the end of the day, it was the right choice, because it’s only early May now, and Remus can’t imagine how sick he’ll feel once catching his flight to Berkeley, and they’re steadfastly back in the best friends category of things. He can’t fathom how it would’ve been if they spent all these months and the ones after being together in all those intimate ways, knowing that they’ll be so far apart soon enough.

It was the right decision for the both of them and their friendship.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go with that,” James says, bringing Remus out of his gloomy contemplations while opening the glass door to Three Broomsticks, sporting a thin smile that he always has on when he’s trying to be kind even when he’s irritated as all get out. 

Remus snorts at him, elbow checking his side as he walks past. “Well he’s sharing that dorm with you and Sirius in New Haven, so I guess you’ve got that to look forwards to.”

James’s face pulls into a grimace and their typical barista nods their way, already receiving their orders through the app and sparing them having to wait in the queue. “Maybe Pete’ll grow his own personality in university, yeah?”

“Sure Prongsie,” Remus says, noncommittal as he checks his phone and lies against the windowpane, already exhausted by the morning. “And if he doesn’t, I’m sure Sirius is about to blow his lid any day now.”

“It’s going to be funny as fuck, and you won’t even be there to see the debris,” James counters, sounding pleasant enough even though Remus knows that he’s nearly as pissed off as Sirius is about the decision for him to go back to his home state for undergrad. 

“You’ll send pictures though.”

“Of course Moony my old friend,” James jokes, tossing him a wink as they straighten once spotting their coffees being rung up. But as Remus takes a step forwards, he notices that a familiarly tan pair of hands are reaching for them, and when Remus looks up he feels like an idiot for not noticing him sooner. Because there Sirius is, dashing as ever in their school’s maroon blazer and tan pants, and his hair is windblown and shining as it falls midway of the nape of his neck. But Remus doesn’t really have the chance to appreciate just how damn good looking his ex-boyfriend is, rather, he’s more distracted by how Sirius doesn’t even notice him or James as he pivots around and hands over the second cup to a beaming Gideon Prewett. Their heads incline while they exchange a few words that are absolutely impossible to pick up in the crowded cafe before they bump their shoulders together and walk out the opposite door.

And it feels like nothing else watching that exchange— like their was a hammer and pick chipping away at his stupid, weeping heart.

“I think they’re just doing a project together,” James says lowly in Remus’s ear, clapping him on the back in reassurance, and Remus loves him, but he’s not in the mood for false platitudes, feels like there is a ugly, burning fire festering deep in his stomach and making Remus want to hurl all over the wooden floors.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he replies instead, mild as he discretely picks up his phone again and opens up to the last conversation he had this morning.

R: need intel 

L: Say more sexy things to me, lover 

R: sirius and Gideon

R: what’s going on there

L: I’ll take a look, dw

Buoyed by Lily’s scary levels of detective skills, Remus returns his phone to his satchel and signals James to follow him to pick up their actual drinks. “C’mon, Flitwick hates it when we’re late.”

.-

“Do you want the good news first, or the bad.” Lily asks Remus later that morning during their shared free period, dropping her bag on the tabletop that they typically commandeer towards the back of Hogwarts’s library, nearest the windows and tucked away by the shelves.

“Is there actually any good news? Or are you just saying that to make me feel better.” Remus asks, single brow cocked as he shuts his history book and tosses it to the side.

“Well your hair looks especially nice today,” she offers with a small smile, sitting besides him and ruffling his curls.

“Thanks, I suppose. But I’d rather just get to it. And don’t sigh at me like that! All long suffering and all.”

Rolling her eyes, Lily gathers her hair into a high pony before turning to Remus fully. “You’re my best friend, I love you more than just about anyone. You know that, right?” Lily asks him, stiff stance relaxing when he nods in turn. “Then understand that I’m saying this from a place of love, but you don’t get to be mad at him, okay. You’re the one who called it off Re, you’re the one who wanted you guys to go back to being friends to avoid that messiness in August. And you know I respect the decision, but also it wasn’t the only one to be had. I mean look at James and I—“

“You’re going to Columbia Lils,” Remus bristles, hates how defensive he’s getting all of a sudden. “That train ride is like two hours and some change at the very most. It’s not the same.”

“You guys could’ve made it work,” she insists, green eyes blazing in the dim light. “He’s crazy about you, and you’re in love with him— Like ass backwards in love. You can’t just cut that off like it’s nothing, damn it, Remus.”

He can feel his own ears reddening and Remus hates it, hates how today had started off so innocuous and now it’s an absolute shit show. Remus hates that Lily is always correct about everything, and hates how Sirius probably is regretting telling Remus he still fully intends to ask him out to prom, and hates how much he loves him— how whenever he looks at Sirius it’s just a deluge of wanting and adoring and regretting and needing to feel his lips against Sirius’s own again like a drug, how he’ll never forget how he tasted like coffee beans and cigarette smoke and the strawberries he ate every morning besides his breakfast. Remus hates it all and he can’t figure out how not to feel like suddenly everything is slipping out of his hands like sand drifting through his fingers.

“He’s probably not that crazy over me anymore considering he’s getting Gideon Prewett coffees now, so maybe it’s the right decision after all.” Is what Remus decides to tell Lily instead of that whirlwind of clashing feelings.

“Oh Christ,” Lily huffs, dropping her head back like she’s asking for strength from the heavens above. “Look, Dorcas tells me that they’ve only been out twice. And Marlene says that it’s nothing intense. Just a movie and then he went to go watch his nephew’s little league game.”

“Oh,” Remus intones, because, no. No he will not start crying like this is some fucking Nicholas Sparks novel, and he’s the wayward lead making all the worst decisions. He’s not going to cry damn it!

He is not a bird, and this is suppose to be happening, and none of this has any real consequence at the end of the day. He and Sirius broke up, and Sirius can go out with whoever he pleases— even if it’s good looking, ginger athletes.

Remus is fine.

“Remus,” Lily gently consoles, lacing her fingers into his own that’s resting on his lap, and squeezing for good measure. “Benjy told Mary, who told me during Calc that Gideon doesn’t expect anything. Sirius told him he’s not looking for anything long term.”

“That’s dumb,” Remus retorts, trying to hold everything in so that Lily doesn’t give him that concerned, doe eyed face of hers, like when he’s spent a week living off of protein bars and double shot espressos preparing for finals. “Gideon’s great, and there on the soccer team together, they would be perfect.”

“Remus, stop.”

“And he’s going to Dartmouth, so he’ll be super close for like weekend excursions and all of that.”

“Remus!”

“The more I think about it, Lils, the more it makes sense. They just fit.”

“Sure, those are all nice attributes,” Lily says, peering up at him disappointedly. “But he’s not you.”

Like a legion of angels singing in the distance, the bell begins to shrill for next period and Remus is spared from giving that statement any mind.

.-

He spends the rest of the week acting as if he hadn’t even seen Sirius that morning whenever around him, and internally analyzing each and every exchange between them, and comparing to them to when he sees Sirius chatting with Gideon. And it’s not fun to say the least. It’s like a flashback to when he was trying to hide his crush on Sirius back in Freshman and most of sophomore year, but somehow worse. It’s worse because Remus had him, had Sirius in all the ways someone could ever want an other. He had Sirius’s languid morning kisses, and Sirius’s bark like laughter. Remus had Sirius being nervous the first time Lyall came for his typical Christmas visit, and Sirius had to try and impress him along with Remus’s mom as more than just the friend he hung around with at school. Remus had Sirius’s gruff voice when they were in bed and getting tangled into one another, and Sirius’s dopey looks in the middle of class when he’d be gazing over at Remus instead of the board. And if Remus is being honest, he knows he still has all those things, but it’s suddenly and searingly clear that some time— sooner rather than later— they’ll all leave, abruptly disappearing and shattering Remus’s world in their wake. Because eventually all of those different facets of Sirius’s won’t be Remus’s anymore— they’ll be Gideon’s or some other boy he meets in New Haven. And Remus can’t even be upset at it, he doesn’t have a claim to any of Sirius anymore, doesn’t get to call any part of him his.

And it’s probably the worst Remus has felt since that first night after their break up, because he’s eating every moment he has with Sirius like he’s famished and Sirius is the last meal he’ll ever know. He wants to memorize every part of him before he can’t have any of it. He wants to unravel every layer of Sirius, and kiss it for the final time, and it’s like saying goodbye a thousand times over, strangling his heart and splintering something desperate deep inside of him.

Like now.

It’s edging on midnight, and they drove up to the lake front near their suburb, with Sirius lying with his head on Remus’s lap and his long, muscled body lying against the tattered blanket beneath them. And his eyes are fluttered shut while the speaker they brought croons out the indie playlist they like most from Spotify.

And Remus can’t help but feel like this is one of their last nights like this, alone and quiet and together without any other specter of some other partner. So he watches him, watches the moonlight pacing over his nose and the high bones of his cheeks and across Sirius’s eyelids too. Remus watches his ink  like lashes kissing his skin, and wants to touch the divot of his cupids bow like so many times before while his other hand cards through Sirius’s hair. 

And Remus lets himself want Sirius and wonders if he’ll ever stop wanting, craving, loving him.

“I can hear you thinking Moons,” Sirius says, fluttering his eyes open and crunching up before Remus can even respond. “What’s going on?”

“Huh? What do you mean? I’m fine.” Remus all but sputters, folding his knees against his chest and wrapping his arms around them, feeling somehow vulnerable in blistering ways. “Nothing is going on.”

“Pff,” Sirius gives him a pointed look, settles down so that they’re side by side and tries to get Remus to look at him head on. “You’ve been strange all week, Moony.” 

“That’s not—“

“And then tonight, you didn’t even tease your ma when she was telling us about that patient who puked all over her shoes.”

“Just tired is all.”

“But had enough energy to smoke half the joint I brought.” Sirius says with a snort, looking frustrated again when Remus didn’t even flinch a smile at the counter. “Remus, talk to me.”

“It’s fine Sirius,” Remus sighs, suddenly remembers how exhausting all their arguments were in the past. How Sirius tries getting him to speak everything in his mind, as if Remus could even put them into words. 

“Okay, then tell me why you rejected my offer to go to that Frank Ocean concert. You’re obsessed with him.”

“’S in July,” Remus reminds him lightly, focusses on the way they can see the North star glimmering against the horizon instead.

“And, so?” Sirius asks, sounding more than a bit scathing. “You’re not leaving for another month after that, you trying to cut me off completely by the summer or something?”

“Don’t be an idiot.”

“Don’t be condescending.”

“Sirius, just leave well enough alone. Holy shit.”

“I can leave it alone if you can actually tell me what the fuck is going on with you,” Sirius snaps, standing up now, probably because he always likes using his height advantage on most people whenever he gets all pissy.

“You can be such a prick sometimes, you know that?” Remus snarls at him, following suit and dipping his head back just slightly so that they’re eye to eye. “Not everything is on your schedule, you know that.”

“My schedule!” Sirius’s brows jump to his hairline, and he breaks into that manic laughter that springs up only when he’s so angry he can’t put his thoughts together. “I’m trying to do as much shit with you as possible before you leave, because for some stupid fucking reason I’m going to miss you when your across the fucking country! But yeah, whatever. If you’re actually just sick of me and my presence or what the fuck else, you can just—“

“I would’ve assumed you wanted to go with Gideon,” Remus blurts out, simply unable to hold it back any more, unable to pretend like he’s not suffering a thousand fresh paper cuts every time he even glances Sirius’s way these days. He can’t do this, can’t pretend to just be friends when they were— when they are— so much more than that. “To the concert I mean. I just assumed—“

“No,” Sirius says, seething as he storms up to Remus— close enough that the tips of their noses brush up against each other. 

“No? Excuse me?”

“No Remus you don’t get to do this!” Sirius repeats, voice going frayed at the edges as their glances level. “You don’t get to pretend as if I want anyone more than I want— than I’ve always wanted you. And you don’t get to float around for the rest of your life pretending as if this’ll ever change for me. As if you can’t hit me up in fifteen years when I’m married with kids, and ask to get back together, and think  that I wouldn’t drop it all for you.”

Remus’s heart begins to thud, loud and painful against his ribcage, and his lungs feel like they might collapse the instant Remus let’s the tears swimming in his eyes sprinkle out. “Sirius, I ca—“

“I’ve been in love with you since before we were suppose to mean what that meant, damn it, Remus! And you’re the one who called it off!”

“It was the right decision.” Remus croaks out, plunging his hands into his hoodie’s pockets, doesn’t want Sirius to see the way they’re shaking.

“”For you. The right decision for you.” Sirius presses, his gray eyes dark underneath the stars. “And you know I’d do anything you wanted of me, but you don’t get to be mad at the ways I cope. And you sure as fuck don’t get to be jealous of fucking Gideon Prewett, as if he can hold a match to you.”

“Oh.” Is all Remus can gather to say, peering back down at his shoes and pressing together his lips, feels the most lost he ever has while around Sirius. “I love you too, you know that. You know I love you so much that it hurts sometimes— That was never the problem.”

Sirius makes a strangled sound deep in his throat, and the next second, Remus can’t feel the warmth of his body besides him because Sirius is darting over to the cusp of the lake and kicking at a rock. “Fuck, Remus. You can’t just say that, all right! You can’t because none of this is fair, or okay. And I fucking hate it and I hate this and—“

“Maybe we can try,” Remus says, quiet but unshaken. And he watches as Sirius slowly turns back around, face scrunched up in utter confusion, but eyes glittering with something like hope. “I love you Sirius, and you love me. And Lily’s right, fucking hell she’s so right. I can’t just turn it off, okay. I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I can’t. I can’t be around you and not want every part of you. But I also can’t let myself stay away from you. So let’s try, and it’s probably a stupid difficult decision, and we’re going to be frustrated and we’re going to miss one another but I know there’s going to be no one I want more and I think you migh— Oof.”

Remus can’t continue rattling off any of the reasons why they should get back together, because Sirius is somehow magically popping up in front of him— his large hands cupping against Remus’s jawline and his thin lips crashing against him, and Remus can only wrap his arms around Sirius’s torso and give him back all he’s pushing forwards.

And it might’ve been a minute or an hour that past, but Sirius is pulling back with a face that looks lighter in ways Remus hasn’t seen on him since the breakup all those months ago. “I’d literally agree to anything if it means we can stay together, Moony. Absolutely anything.”

Remus feels the strain against the apples of his cheeks as he beams at him at the sound of the oath. “Yeah, me too Padfoot. Always and forever, it’s you.”

.-

My Other Wolfstar FIC💜

[anonsally]

Days 0-1 of Portland vacation

The trip didn’t start off great--the airport was a ZOO, much closer to pandemonium than I have seen it in years. We were trying to find the end of the line for security (and I had resigned myself to missing the flight) when we lucked into an employee calling out that anyone with departure times at or earlier than 12:30, which was our departure time, should follow him. So we got inserted much earlier in the line, though it was still a long wait in close quarters with a lot of people, only about half of whom were wearing masks. But we did get to our gate while there was still a bit of a line for boarding, so at least we didn’t miss the plane. The flight wasn’t very long; I got about 1/3 of the way through my book. I think this is the first novel I have attempted to read since the pandemic started, not counting rereads.

My childhood friend picked us up at the airport and, before heading “home”, we popped into an outpost of Powell’s Books (though of course we will still have to make our pilgrimage to the big one) to get a guidebook, went to Salt & Straw for ice cream, and did a preliminary grocery shopping. In the early evening I took a neighborhood bird walk. I didn’t see any particularly exciting birds--just a lot of birds that are common around my neighborhood too--but I did see some friendly cats and, to my surprise, a pet pig in someone’s front yard! 

Today we had a leisurely start, but then we went to a farmers’ market and got slightly carried away buying produce, chocolate, bread, honey, and dry-roasted salted hazelnuts. 

Next we ate a fabulous late lunch at a Mexican-inspired, Pacific Northwest-influenced restaurant (Verde Cocina), complete with cocktails. 

After that, we went home to put away the food we’d bought. By that point it was late afternoon, and Wife was peopled out and tired so she stayed home. Friend and I went to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and took a 2.5-hour, 1.5-mile bird walk! It was great. The most exciting sightings were:

3 wood ducks (not particularly rare, but new to my eBird life list)

an osprey (also new to my eBird life list, and fun to watch it flap-hovering over the water)

a black-capped chickadee (new to my eBird life list and possibly to my life list in general! We don’t have them where I live)

a hairy woodpecker (new to my eBird life list; it’s rare for me to get a good enough look to distinguish hairy woodpeckers from downy woodpeckers, but the beak was much too big for this to have been a downy woodpecker)

3 adult downy woodpeckers (Merlin’s sound ID app helped me distinguish when we didn’t get a good enough look at the beak, but I also did get a good enough look at two of them). But the most exciting thing about this was that we saw two of them bringing food to their nestlings in a cavity in a tree! We could hear the nestlings but couldn’t see them from where we were. I reported 5 total since I figured we could hear at least 2 nestlings, and I included a breeding code of NY (nest with young (confirmed)). (@lies​, please let me know if this was right) 

3 brown creepers, including two that flew onto a tree right near us so we could get a good look even without using the binoculars. Before that happened, I was impressed that Friend spotted one of these without binoculars. Such good camouflage!

a great blue heron, which we saw flying and hunting

cedar waxwings (so elegant!)

a fledgling brown-headed cowbird being fed by some adult bird I didn’t get a good look at. Since this bird is a nest parasite, it’s probable that some other species of bird was feeding it. (I am relying on the Merlin sound app here a bit since I wouldn’t recognise a juvenile of this species, but we did see it and compare it to the pictures and I’m fairly sure it was right.) (@lies, should I report this with breeding code FL?)

We identified 17 species, but someone who was at the same park in the morning had seen 77!!! And someone who submitted a list after me saw a Bald Eagle. But we were told by some other birders that there are Bald Eagles nesting in a park near where we’re staying, so maybe we can see them another day.

[pretend-writer]

Demolition Lovers (Hargreeves x sibling!reader)

Summary: Klaus and Y/N helps their brother, Luther find a perfect date.

Title Reference: Demolition Lovers x My Chemical Romance

Word Count: 1.6k words

Warning: swearing, mention of sex

✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤  ·  ✤

It was a typical day at the Hargeeves mansion. Klaus and I hanging out as we lay across the couch next to each other, scrolling through our social media and sharing celebrity gossips that was trending that day.

Diego would then barge in, bothering us to get up and be productive but then end up eaves dropping and joining our conversation.

Then we'd have Vanya that'll feed us our daily snacks. She was like a mama bird; Hearing the rest of us complaining and bickering then feeds us the goodies to shut our mouth. It honestly worked every time and now I start to wonder if that was her trick all along.

After our snack was nap time, where Klaus and I would lay there for two to five hours, usually get up when the sun was down. Then we would plan our night, typically out for dinner or a night out if it was the weekend.

But our schedule, our precious paradise time was ruined by the one and only. Luther Hargreeves.

It wasn't supposed to be this way; Allison would go out to run errands, Ben worked all day like the responsible man that he was, and Five would just be Five, roaming town and doing God knows what. Luther would be home to research and dig through dad's old stuff.

Today however, wasn't the case.

He instead came in during mine and Klaus' precious nap time, groaning and yappin' about some girl on an app. Didn't know why he had to do this in the family room but there he was.

'Do you not see us sleeping here?' I complained as I lifted my head from the pillow, trying not to move a lot so that Klaus could stay asleep.

'Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to be loud.' He apologized as he stared at his phone, depressed and upset.

Klaus rolled his eyes. 'Well you are and you're still here.'

Luther froze in place, continuing to stare at the screen. Klaus and I looked at each other, nudging one another to see who was going to talk to him first.

The both of us got up, sitting down side to side as we looked at Luther and back at each other. Klaus seemed like he was unbothered, so I sighed and broke the silence. 'What's wrong buddy?'

'Nothing.' Luther frowned.

Squinting my eyes, I grabbed the pillow from the couch and threw it on Luther's head. 'You bitch! You woke us up from our nap and you're going to say "nothing" is bothering you?'

'Ow!' Luther rubbed his head. 'Okay, okay. Damn. It's this girl on tinder, she doesn't want to go on a date with me.'

'Well, what did you tell her? Did you say something stupid?'

Luther got up, 'See. This is why I didn't want to tell you guys becau-'

'Sorry, sorry.' I stood up and pulled Luther back onto the couch. 'Mind if I see the conversation?'

His face immediately turned red, 'Uhm. Do you have to?'

'If you want me to figure out why she's turning you down, yeah.'

Hesitantly, he pulled up the messages he had with the girl and then passed me the phone. Scrolling through the messages, I shook my head. 'Luther, she's DTF.'

'Yeah, I know that's why I don't understand why she turned me down. She brought it up first.'

Klaus blinked, 'What do you think DTF stands for?'

By the look on Luther's face, I knew he was confused. He looked over at the ceiling, thinking for a while before he replied to Klaus. 'Don't tell me I was wrong this whole time.'

'So what do you think it says?'

'Uhm... Date This Friday?'

Klaus awed, shaking his head as he left my side and took a seat next to him. He wrapped his arms around Luther, 'Buddy. No. That's not what it stands for. But that's cute of you.'

'Wait, huh? So this whole time me and her were on the wrong page? What did she mean then?'

'She wanted to fuck you.' I blurted, I felt bad that Luther was so confused. 'It stands for Down To Fuck.'

It was a dead giveaway that he had no clue what his whole conversation really meant, his whole face turned redder than ever. He buried his face into his hands. 'Oh no.'

'I didn't think you were talking to girls, honestly.' Klaus chuckled. 'You clearly got game, your noggin is just a little... outdated.'

'I got what? Game? No, I just deleted Candy Crush, it was too addicting.'

Klaus kept his laugh in, curling his lips as he slowly nodded back at his brother. 'Oh my gosh.'

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

It had been about two weeks, helping Luther get a dream girl that he deserved. Despite Luther being the annoying sibling, he had been there for me countless times and I wanted nothing but the best for him.

We've tried talking to the girls on the app, few weren't looking for anything serious, some trolling in the messages. After constant matching and messaging, Luther found someone he potentially saw a relationship with.

'Did you check your message from Claire yet?' Klaus asked.

'No. I'm kind of nervous, actually.' Luther laughed a little under his breath, shaking his legs as he gripped onto his phone.

Resting my hand on his shoulder, I reassured him. 'Don't be nervous, I'm sure she said yes to your date.'

Luther sighed, turning on his phone and scrolling through his messages. As his face lit up, he jumped off his seat. 'She said yes!'

Klaus got up and cheered, hugging Luther tightly. 'I knew it! So what time and where?'

'Ah- Uhm. Why... do you need to know?' Luther paused.

'Cause we're coming to watch.'

'No, no, no. I don't need you two spying on me. I'm already nervous as it is.'

'Yeah, Klaus let's just let him be. He's a big boy now.'

'But-'

'Let's give him the space he needs, Luther definitely needs his alone time with his girl.'

Klaus rolled his eyes, 'Okay. Have fun and tell me everything when you get home.'

A smile hasn't fade away since he saw the text; He was grinning widely than ever, never seen him this happy in my entire life. 'This is going to be so awesome!'

'Good luck buddy.' I smiled as I watch him do his little happy dance going up the stairs to get ready.

Klaus groaned, crossing his arms and pouting like a little child. 'Why can't we go spy on Luther?'

'But we are. I just wanted him to think we weren't.' I wanted nothing but the best for Luther, if it meant that he was going to have a perfect night with his perfect date, I was going to be protective of my brother.

'Perfect! I need to get my spy gear on.'

✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤ · ✤

With the binocular in my hands, I looked into the restaurant Luther picked for the both of them. 'Oh my gosh, he looks so cute with his little bow tie.'

Luther was blushing, talking nervously with Claire. It seemed like it was going well, no awkward moment or embarrassing moment between them.

I looked over at Klaus, who was being too quiet next to me in the passenger's seat. He had a rather thick file in his hand. 'What are you reading?'

'Claire's life.' Klaus chuckled. 'She's smart as hell, really pretty. I'd say we did a pretty good job helping Luther.'

'How did you get a file on her life?'

Klaus smiled innocently, 'Ah. I followed Diego into his ex's job and got Ben to steal it for me.'

'You what?' I leaned my head back, staring at the car ceiling as I sighed. 'Klaus, Eudora is my friend. If she finds out that you stole someone's files from the police department, she'd hate me.'

'My bad, Y/N. If it makes you feel better, Ben rejected me a bunch of times. I made a deal with him that he could take over my body for three hours for the files.'

'Whatever.' Looking through the binoculars again, I asked him another question. 'So you didn't ask Diego to get it for you?'

Klaus shook his head. 'Nah, if I ever told him I knew he'd want to come with us to stalk Luther. I wanted some Klaus Y/N alone time.'

'Aw.' I said but immediately stopped. 'Are you saying this to make me forgive you?'

'Is it working?'

'Depends how the night goes.' After a sarcastic smile, I snatched the file off of his hand. 'Why did you want to steal this anyway?'

'You ask so many questions.'

'I know.'

It was rare for Klaus to do "the responsible thing", that was more of a me, Allison or Five's criteria. I couldn't think of a possible reason why he'd go out of his way to take a file to investigate on this girl.

'It's Luther, you know. I wanted to make sure he was going out with someone that won't screw him over again.'

'That's the nicest thing you've ever said.'

'Luther better appreciate this because I'm not going to jail for this shit.'

I smiled at my brother. 'Don't worry. I gotchu.'

A loud scream came from the entrance of the restaurant, Luther approaching us quickly as he eyed the both of us.

'Duck!' I yelled at Klaus as we tried to hide ourselves from his sight.

'Don't bother. I saw you guys from the restaurant!' Luther said as he knocked on the window. 'Why are you guys here? You told me you wouldn't come.'

'I know, I know.' I rolled the window down and squealed as I reached for his bow tie. 'I just couldn't resist! You look so adorable, brother.'

He grunted, 'Stop. Guys go home, you're going to ruin this date with the woman that I love.'

'Woah! Love!?' Klaus and I said in sync.

Luther covered his mouth. He mumbled into his hand. 'Pretend I didn't say that!'

'Pretend?' I laughed, 'Luther. I can't pretend, I'm sorry. That was sort of funny. A little little little bit cute but mostly funny as hell.'

Klaus reached over me to grab onto his hand. 'Dude, you're already whipped but that's okay. But Y/N's right. It's a bit funny not going to lie.'

'I'm whipped?' Luther cocked his head. 'I don't do that sort of foreplay during se-'

'Luther, that's not what it means!'

[nugnthopkns]

dance me to the end of love (iii)

word count: 4.3k

warnings: fem!oc, cursing, potential percy jackson & the olympians spoilers, alcohol consumption, motion sickness and vomiting

series masterpost: here

a/n: this took me a hot sec to finish but here it is! there's a dumb little latin joke in here but that's just because i'm a nerd lmao

Ryan is certainly giving Bette a run for her money in the best friend department.

Magdalene has no intentions of usurping her best friend, but Ryan is quickly becoming the person she talks to most frequently. It started on social media but quickly moved to regular texting, both of them being twenty-five and capable of communicating through more normal channels. The text thread between them isn’t indicative of their newfound friendship – it looks like they’ve been friends since high school. At any given moment at least three conversations are going on, and Magdalene regularly sends him random updates throughout the day. Ryan likes hearing about any interesting artefacts she encounters at work so she keeps mental notes to tell him during their frequent phone calls.

Despite talking to him almost constantly, Magdalene hasn’t seen Ryan since they grabbed lunch at Barn Owl nearly two weeks ago. The lake house trip is a couple days out, and she’s been busy trying to get all her ducks in a row. At work, the current project is coming to an end and Magdalene will be sad to see it go – it’s the first thing she’s been on from start to finish. She’s got a neighbour coming to spend time with Caligula while she’s away so he doesn’t get too upset. Though the days are passing by in a haze as she tries to get ready, Magdalene is excited to get away for a little bit. It’s been a few years since she’s left Denver for more than a night, electing to skip on Bette’s previous vacation invites, and it will be nice to slow down. Life is moving at a comfortable pace, but having some time to pause and breathe will keep Magdalene from feeling too overwhelmed.

Halfway through her last day of work, Magdalene gets a text from Ryan that makes her nearly double over in laughter.

Julius Caesar walks into a bar and says to the bartender “I’ll have a Martinus please!” The bartender replies “Don’t you mean a Martini?” Caesar shakes his head and says “If I wanted double I would have said so.”

It takes her a minute to catch her breath, which piques June’s curiosity. Magdalene recites the joke and her boss rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but does let out a chuckle.

June didn’t think it was funny, but I did. Thank you for making today infinitely better. You riding with us tomorrow?

Magdalene tucks her phone back into her purse, determined to remain focused for the last few hours, and misses the reply telling her that Ryan won’t be riding with Bette, Tyson, and herself, but rather with Cale and his girlfriend to leave enough space for all the gear getting brought. She doesn’t see it until she’s walking across the parking lot to her car and it fills her with a sadness that doesn’t make much sense. He’ll be there for the entire week, so does it matter that he’ll be in a different car for the four hour drive? Magdalene has a sinking suspicion about why she’s upset, but she pushes it down. There’s no space in your life for a relationship right now, she reminds herself as she unlocks the door to her apartment. Caligula is waiting patiently at the door and distracts her thoughts from the handsome man with the kind smile that’s been all she can think about recently.

The cat is incredibly perceptive and knows the regular routine is going to change, making him particularly clingy. He follows Magdalene as she finishes packing, meowing and begging for pets, and she considers bailing on her friends. Caligula has mild separation anxiety and Magdalene doesn’t go away often partly because of it – though another reason is her homebody nature. Only the thought of seeing Ryan keeps her from hanging all her clothes back up.

“Don’t worry little boots,” she coos, “I won’t be gone long. Maria is going to check on you while I’m away, and I’ll be home before you know it.”

It seems ridiculous to speak to her pet as though it’s a child, but Magdalene knows Caligula comprehends what she’s saying. He’s always been smart, and the two of them share a bond that’s hard to explain. She picks him up, puts him in the pocket of her hoodie, and they spend the rest of the night packing and dancing along to the radio.

☼☼☼☼

Bette forgot to mention that the road to the lake house is winding, and Magdalene spends the entire ride with her head between her knees. Motion sickness is something that unfortunately plagues her during journeys longer than a couple of hours and she wishes she would have thought to take anti-nausea medication before leaving the house. Tyson tries to crack a joke about her being a bad passenger, but his girlfriend swats his arm and passes her friend a water bottle with a concerned smile. The two of them speak in hushed tones, almost certainly for Magdalene's benefit, and she does her best not to throw up on the floor of Tyson’s car. After what feels like two decades the vehicle rolls to a stop at the end of a gravel path.

“Mags, we’re here,” Bette says softly, praying that her friend will begin to feel better after stretching her legs and feeling firm ground underneath her.

There’s an unintelligible groan from Magdalene, but she rises out of the car and stumbles into the house. Tyson and Bette insist that she rest and they’ll handle the unloading of the car, so she crawls into one of the empty beds and falls asleep as soon as her head touches the pillow. It’s a dreamless slumber, one fuelled by the pure exhaustion of battling illness while travelling, and when she awakes hours later Magdalene feels oddly refreshed. Her energy level is still relatively low, but she knows that intaking food won’t be an issue.

Padding down the stairs as quiet as possible in an effort to not break the peaceful atmosphere, Magdalene is met with a quiet house. She’s utterly confused – she didn’t sleep long enough to miss dinner and judging by the way the sun is low in the final car full of people should be arriving any minute. For a moment she thinks the group left her in the mountains alone, but then the sound of a trunk closing breaks the silence.

“I fucking told you bro, you should have let me drive!”

Ryan’s voice echoes in Magdalene's ears and her heart skips a beat. She didn’t realize how much she had missed him or how excited she is to see him. Despite everything inside of her saying she should run into his arms Magdalene stays put in the kitchen, running the tap to get a glass of water. She focuses on the mountain on the other end of the lake, framing the setting sun and creating a postcard ready photo. The camera app on her phone is open and angles for the best shot are found. Ryan tumbles through the door a second later, arms filled to the brim with luggage and bags of food.

He drops them the second he sees her, running up behind her and lifting her off the ground. “Mags! Cale almost hit a deer!”

The shock of Ryan’s onslaught of affection catches her off guard, and Magdalene shakes her hand, forcing the picture to turn out as nothing but a blur.

“No hello?” She laughs as Ryan lets her feet touch down on the wooden floor. “It’s the least you could give me after destroying my chance of getting a National Geographic worthy picture.”

He smiles but doesn’t let his hands drop from their perch on her waist. “There’s six more days for you to nail it. I’ll even help if you ask.”

Other bodies enter the house then, causing Magdalene to slink away from Ryan’s touch even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. They’re simply friends, and she doesn’t want Bette to get any ideas. The last thing Magdalene needs on her plate right now is her best friend forcing her to paint a custom denim jacket with Ryan’s number across the back. “I can’t believe you almost hit a deer,” Tyson sighs in disbelief.

“It wasn’t even close,” Cale grumbles, picking up his bags and stomping off to find a place to claim as his own the next couple of days. A petite redhead follows after him, giving a small wave to those in the kitchen before scurrying away. When she asks, Ryan tells Magdalene the girl’s name is Livy, and that she’s Cale’s girlfriend from back home.

Everyone shrugs at his moodiness and disperses. Bette and Tyson stay in the kitchen to make dinner, Ryan goes to claim the final room, and Magdalene slips outside to sit on the patio furniture. The sun has dropped drastically in the past five minutes, causing the air to chill. She wraps her arms tighter around her legs and watches a pair of birds fly over the lake below. It’s so peaceful, a complete one-eighty from the insanity of her life in Denver, and Magdalene thinks about never leaving. She knows it’s impossible, but as she closes her eyes and listens to the quiet laughter of her friends inside the idea seems like a pretty good one.

The sliding door creaks open and Ryan goes through as quietly as possible. He tosses a sweater in Magdalene’s direction as he walks over, plopping down beside her on the small couch.

“Thanks,” she mumbles, slipping the fabric over her head. “I didn’t realize how cold it had actually gotten.”

He smiles in response and shuffles his body a little closer to create extra warmth. Magdalene leans into him, trying to appear casual even though her heart is beating rapidly, and pulls on the strings of the sweater Ryan gave her.

“So, are you excited for this week?”

It’s more awkward than she thought it would be – seeing him in person again, especially since they’ve been texting almost constantly, and the words kind of stick in her throat.

“Honestly? Now that I’m here I am, but I was a little leery about taking time off,” Ryan explains, detailing how he’s trying to improve some aspects of his two-way play and is worried his progress will plateau. Magdalene understands and shares her own worries about taking time off work even if her boss encouraged it.

After catching up quickly and running out of things to say, the pair of them sit in silence watching the sun set until they’re called inside for dinner. It’s nice to just exist, especially with Ryan beside her, and Magdalene feels her heart sink as they separate and he goes to make sure Cale isn’t actually mad at him.

☼☼☼☼

It storms the first two days at the lake house, forcing everyone to stay inside. Tyson complains about how he has less time to drive the boat that came with the property but the others take it in stride. Magdalene spends most of the time reading for pleasure, something she hasn’t been able to do much of the past few years, and Ryan joins her for large chunks of the time. It turns out that he too is an avid reader, and the two of them discuss their favourite novels and series while the other four play board games.

“So you’re telling me you wish Annabeth would have joined the Hunters of Artemis?” Magdalene shrieks in shock, almost knocking the wine out of her glass as her arms flail in disbelief.

“I think it made sense for her to,” Ryan defends.

“But she’s perfect for Percy!”

He sticks to his guns. “I’m not saying she isn’t. I just think that at the time the offer was presented it was the most logical choice. You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about what would have happened if she did.”

She ducks her head in defeat because she had imagined it, on many occasions in fact. When reading the series for the first time in middle school Magdalene had desperately hoped Annabeth would choose the Hunters over Camp Half-Blood, gaining the family she herself never was privy to. They return to reading quietly beside each other, occasionally knocking elbows when trying to turn a page.

Tuesday brings sunshine and clear skies, which means Tyson is trying to corral everyone into the boat as soon as they’re up. Magdalene tries her hardest to get out of it but her pleas fall on deaf ears.

“You’ll be fine, stop being such a wimp,” Cale jests. She knows that he’s just anxious to soak up some sun, but the words hurt more than Magdalene would have liked them to.

Livy swats her boyfriend across the chest. “Enough! If she doesn’t want to come she doesn’t have to.” The smaller girl sends her a kind smile before speaking low enough that only Magdalene can hear her. “I know your book is just getting good and you look like the kind of person who needs alone time to function properly. Enjoy yourself.”

Seemingly excused from the day’s festivities, Magdalene gives a sheepish wave before climbing the small hill to the house. Ryan meets her halfway and is appalled when he hears of her plans.

“Nope, I don’t think so. You’re not leaving me alone to be the ultimate third wheel!”

He has her off the ground and over his shoulder in a millisecond, jogging lightly to catch up with the rest of the group. Magdalene’s laugh bounces off the tree lined shore, and she’s too busy having fun shrieking at Ryan to complain about being forced to spend all day on a boat away from her book. Tyson peels away from the dock before she can regret tagging along, and Bette tugs Magdalene to the bow.

The two girls chat quietly, giggling and sipping on the mimosas they made earlier. Magdalene isn’t a huge day drinker, but Bette makes sure there’s more orange juice than champagne to make her feel less guilty. Livy joins them a while later after becoming sick of the boys and their shenanigans. It’s nice to hang out with a group of girls that aren’t competing for the top spot in a class, Magdalene decides, and she revels in the stories they tell of going to hockey games and babysitting the children of players so they can catch a break. Twinges of jealousy creep up at the wonderful family dynamic the Avalanche seem to have, but she stomachs them. She reminds herself that other people deserve to have support systems and excuses herself from the conversation.

Magdalene slides into the free space beside Ryan, and without thinking he wraps an arm around her shoulder. It feels so natural that she wonders if it’s how he greets all his friends, but the looks of shock and Tyson and Cale’s faces say otherwise. After a bit more cruising they find a small bay to anchor in for a while. The sun had climbed to the middle of the sky and is unbearably warm, leaving everyone no choice but to jump into the water to cool off. Magdalene does her best to float peacefully a short distance away from the group but is somehow brought into a splashing war because the teams aren’t equal.

Eventually the constant barrage of water chills her to the bone, and Magdalene swims back to the boat. She watches from the sidelines and cheers for her old teammates with a towel wrapped snugly around her. Ryan breaks from the group too, insisting it isn’t fair to have teams on unequal strength. Once dry, he picks up the baseball cap he brought and places it delicately on Magdalene’s head.

“Your cheeks are starting to go pink and I don’t want you to burn,” he explains, passing her a bottle of sunscreen as well.

“Thanks Ry.”

They muse about the idyllic beauty of the scene in front of them until everyone rejoins them. For reasons unbeknownst to Magdalene Tyson is in a rush to get back to the house, which leads to him driving very fast and a little erratically. The contents of her stomach threaten to come up but she holds them down, tightening her grip on the leather seat. A wave crests and Tyson hits it head on, causing the boat to lurch and rock. Magdalene knows it’s going to happen before it does and leans over the side to save a mess from being created. All the alcohol and food she’d consumed throughout the day is no longer in her body, and heat creeps up the back of her neck. She’s embarrassed – what twenty-five year old gets sea sick?

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked, not bothering to hide the concern in his voice.

She tries to smile but it comes out more like a grimace. “I just, uh, get motion sick really easily.” Bette passes her a water bottle and she drinks it quickly, eager to get the taste out of her mouth.

Ryan lets Magdalene curl into his side the rest of the way home, and rubs comforting circles on her back to ease her discomfort, doing his best to ignore the stares from his friends.

☼☼☼☼

The trip comes to an end much more quickly than Magdalene would have liked. Tomorrow morning they’ll pack up and drive back to Denver, returning to their normal hectic schedules. Cale and Livy are heading back to Alberta for the rest of the summer, and Bette and Tyson will be going for a visit as well. She’s heard Ryan mention going home in passing, which most likely means he doesn’t have plans to stay. Magdalene will be all alone in Colorado, but she’s used to it. The only issue being friends with professional athletes is that they leave. She’s been dealing with the loss since Bette and Tyson got together years ago – having them around as her support system most of the year and then them disappearing for a couple of months.

Not wanting to think about how soon she’ll be alone, Magdalene heads outside and starts a campfire. It’s a skill she picked up as a kid and it has come in handy over the years. The newspaper crinkles under the flame from the lighter, and soon the kindling is burning well. Everyone else is still inside, cleaning up from dinner and preparing for one last night in paradise. She places a few blocks of wood in the fire pit once there’s a good enough flame and curls up in a chair, lost in thought about what comes next. There’s rustling from somewhere behind her but she pays it no mind, assuming it’s a small animal wandering through the forest.

“Can I offer you some company?” a voice says softly, waiting for a response. The movement wasn’t a raccoon but in fact Ryan, and Magdalene gestures at the chair beside her with a smile.

He passes her a glass of white wine, which she takes with an appreciative hum. They sit in silence for a moment, admiring the beauty of the setting sun. “I’m going to miss it,” Ryan sighs, leaning back in his chair and extending his legs.

She nods. “Me too. It’s so quiet up here. Denver gets too loud sometimes.”

“Tell me about it. I’m not just going to miss the lake though, it’s also lounging around and not having to worry about hockey. And you.”

The ending comes out rushed, and Magdalene isn’t sure she heard him correctly. “Me?”

Ryan looks at her like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Yes you. Why wouldn’t I? You’re funny, smart, and catch all of my West Wing references. There’s no one who gets me quite like you, even back home.”

It takes her by surprise. They’ve only known each other for a few months, and only really started associating after the party at Bette and Tyson’s. There has to be somebody who knows him better than she does. When she voices her opinion Ryan just scoffs, saying that people treat him as one-dimensional because he plays hockey. Somehow the conversation shifts to Magdalene, and when she lets it slip she gets lonely in Denver without her friends, Ryan asks the question she’s been dreading.

“So why don’t you get a boyfriend?”

“I can’t just get a boyfriend because my friends are gone,” she laughs, but there’s an edge to it, like she’s unsure of where this will go and how to question the follow ups.

He rolls his eyes. “I know that, but like, I don’t know, wouldn’t it be nice to not be alone all the time?”

It would be, Magdalene thinks, but she just shrugs. “I guess I’m not looking for a relationship right now. I just finished school and for the first time in a long time I can focus on myself.” She leaves out the part where Ryan gives her butterflies and that if he asked she’d probably jump headfirst into a relationship with him.

The topic is dropped then because Tyson comes out of the house screaming about the night is going to be wild because it’s their last together for a while. Magdalene and Ryan share a look of mild panic, but both of them are itching to have fun with friends so they raise their glasses in salute before finishing them in one gulp.

Magdalene drinks more than she should and wakes in the morning with a killer hangover. It seems that no one else is better off though, all stumbling around looking for Advil and coffee like it’s going to be their last meal. Packing up takes a bit longer than expected, but they’re still out before the official checkout time. There’s a bit of discourse on who Magdalene will travel home with. Bette wants her in Tyson’s car, no doubt to talk about how close her and Ryan seem to be, but Cale offers to bring her with them. His reasoning is that Ryan is driving him and Livy directly to the airport, and having the front seat could be good for her motion sickness. It’s ultimately Magdalene’s choice and the idea of having more time with Ryan before he leaves is too enticing to pass up. She bids her other friends goodbye, promising to come over for dinner before they fly out, and climbs into the cab of Cale’s truck.

Once again she’s a less than ideal passenger, but this time it’s because she sleeps the entire way back to Denver. The drinking took it out of her and coupled with the queasiness in her stomach from the winding roads sleep is the only thing that makes sense. So much for extra time with Ryan she thinks as she wakes up in the airport parking lot.

“Sleeping beauty has risen!” Ryan chuckles, “Why don’t you get out and stretch your legs for a sec? We have the parking spot for another fifteen minutes.”

Magdalene does as suggested because truthfully her joints are a little stiff, and finds Cale and Livy grabbing their bags from the back. She hugs them goodbye and wishes them safe travels, which Cale returns with a warning not to get into too much trouble before heading for the entrance. Once both of them are safely inside the confines of the airport, Ryan and Magdalene get back in the vehicle and finish the last leg of the trip.

She directs Ryan to her apartment complex, and he mentions that he’s never been in this area of the city. “That’s because you have no need to be around a bunch of university kids,” she laughs. Once they pull into the parking lot, he offers to help her take up her bag. It’s only a small suitcase Magdalene could definitely handle herself, but she wants him to come up, to prolong her time with him.

Magdalene’s keys jingle in the lock as the door opens. Ryan follows her in and shuts the door carefully, not wanting to disrupt the aura of peace that permeates the space. From what he can tell, the average size apartment is the perfect reflection of Magdalene – packed full of books and plants and feels very put together despite the owner being only twenty-five. After their shoes find a home on the boot rack and the coats they brought for the drive home are hung in the closet she leads Ryan into the living room. There’s a soft purring by his feet, and Ryan looks down to see an animal. He never pegged Magdalene as someone to keep pets.

“Who’s this?” he asks, bending down to pet the small white cat.

“That’s Caligula.”

A puzzled look graces Ryan’s features. “Who?”

“Caligula,” Madalene giggles. “You can call him little boots if you’d like. He’ll respond.” She picks up the animal when it comes to her and scratches gently behind its ear.

“Why would you name your cat something dumb like Caligula, and why does it respond to little boots?”

It’s then the woman realizes that not everyone understands the reference. “Caligula was the third emperor of Rome,” she explains, “But his real name was Gaius. He gained the nickname Caligula as a child and it just stuck. It translates to little boots in Latin.”

Ryan is in awe of Magdalene for what feels like the millionth time. Of course someone as smart as her would have a crazy name for a pet and have the knowledge to back it up. He feels his chest tighten with affection but he wills it away. She isn’t looking for anything right now, he reminds himself. Magdalene’s self-professed inability to reciprocate his feelings is frustrating, but Ryan knows he’d wait forever for her.

☼☼☼☼

additional notes: catch some extra content here!

taglist: @scrunchmakar @marcoscandellas @toplinetommy @ricohenrique @lovethepreds @cutiesara23 @hockeyallthetime @stlbluesbrat21 (add yourself to the taglist!)

[suggiebabe]

hii! can i request for hawks and shinsou getting hit by a quirk that either does one of two things; makes them really tired because awe orrr makes them really overly affectionate/clingy?? thank you!

I Swear It’s Just A Quirk

A/N: HEY ANON!!!! Sorry for answering this so late :(((( I’ve finally found the time to, and honestly I was torn over who to give what LOL! I hope you enjoy it! <3

Pairing: Hawks, Shinsou x Reader

Warnings: Fluff and Angst if you squint REALLY hard, like REALLY REALLY hard

As Keigo’s assistant, you were no stranger to his shenanigans

Every day he was up to something, whether it was continuously trying to talk with you to continuously trying to flirt with you, you were used to it already

Today seemed to be different though

At first it started off like a normal day, the usual “Good morning, baby bird! Did you dream about me last night?” as he walked up to your desk, to which you always replied, “Not in a million years Mr. Hawks.” while keeping your eyes focused on your computer.

You expected him to walk away, like he usually does, but he continued to stand there looking at you. When you looked up, you noticed he had a frown on his face and his arms were crossed

“May I help you, sir?” You asked, finally turning your attention towards him

Once he had your full attention, he walked towards your chair, and to your surprise, he picked you up bridal style

“U-um, Sir? What are you doing?” The confusion clear in your voice as he walked towards his desk

“You’re gonna work with me today, baby bird.” He said as he sat in his chair placing you on his lap

You were incredibly confused. Usually, he left you alone after you replied to his flirty comment, so why were you on his lap right now as he was logging into his computer?

When you realized the situation, you started blushing like crazy

You had to admit, you did have a pretty big crush on your boss, but you always hid your feelings, fearing that it would interfere with your work.  

When he hugged your waist, you were snapped out of your daze. He didn’t seem to care about you little jump though, because he placed his head on your shoulder and started typing away on some reports

Remembering you had your own work to do, you tried to slip your way off of his lap, to which he reacted by squeezing you tighter and grunting 

“Uh, Mr. Hawks, I have some work I need to finish, can you please let go of me?” The blush on your face turning darker because of his reaction

“I’m giving you the day off, just stay here.” Now, you weren't going to complain about getting the day off, especially if you were able to spend it on your crushes lap

ith nothing to do, you decided to check your phone to see if there were any hero updatesKeigo had night patrol, so you wondered if he were to have done anything interesting

Once you tapped on the news app, the first thing you saw was his name in bold letters, “Pro Hero Hawks Hit With A Cling Quirk After Fierce Battle” you kept on reading, the article explained that the quirk makes the victim cling to the person they love the most

After reading the article, you decided you should act bolder around the office from now on...

You and Shinsou did everything together, the two of you were best friends and you went to the same school, did you really expect anything else?

So when he didn’t meet you after school to walk back to the dorms, you knew something was up

You texted him at least 20 times and called him about 12 times, all to which he didn’t answer

Feeling disappointed, you walked to your locker and put your stuff away, then started to walk to the dorms alone for the first time in 2 years

It had been about 3 hours after school let out, and you still hadn’t heard anything from Shinsou, panic starting to run through your head

As you got ready to go out to look for him, you heard a light knock on the door in the familiar pattern you and your bestie came up with your first year of high school

You quickly walked to the door and opened it, a drowsy looking Shinsou in front of it

As soon as he looked up to your face, he yawned and reached his arms out, as if asking for a hug

Confused, you leaned into him, and hugged him

What you were not expecting was for him to completely collapse in your arms, leaving you to almost topple over 

As you gained back your footing, you stood there in silence, not sure what to do

When you heard his breathing get heavy, you figured you should probably lay him down somewhere.

You dragged him to your bed and tried your hardest to not wake him while lifting him up 

You knew he got poor sleep, but you didn’t know it was this bad

“Jeez, you gotta start taking better care of yourself Hitoshi...” you said, running your hand through his hair, he opened one eye and looked up at you

“s’ not my fault... some loser... hit me with their quirk or something...” his voice heavily laced with sleep

Understanding his situation, you chuckled, he opened his eye again and scooted over making room for you, “Sleep with me...” he said groggily

Now, this was an offer you weren’t going to pass up! You got in the bed next to him and he wrapped his arms around you

You hugged him back, and sooner than later, the two of you slipped into a deep slumber together

Another A/N: HI AGAIN!!!! Did I give Hawks a cheesy ending? Oopsie my bad... This was my first time writing for Shinsou, I hope I did him justice hehe, tysm for your request<3

[paisley-print]

10:00am : Five More Minutes

About: A morning spent in bed. 

Rating: 18+

Word count: 1696

Characters: Agent Whiskey x Reader

Warnings:  Smut (Oral Fem receiving, fingering, mentions of sexual fantasies) Pregnancy, family drama

Series Master-List

-

Tag List: @sherala007​ (I remembered to tag you this time! Sorry for the mix up! :) ​

Notes: *sigh* a calm before the storm. Enjoy a nice moment.

“Close your eyes”

“How did you -”

Jack cut you off, sighing and shifting closer to you in bed. “Because I can feel you starin’, you’ll do fine.” He flipped onto his stomach, moving a hand up under your t-shirt to place his palm flat on your belly.

Daylight was spilling through the curtains, but you just wanted to stay in bed with him. The soft opening of the bakery was tonight for the members of the city counsel. It was a tradition in the town. You couldn’t tell if the nausea you felt was from the pregnancy or your nerves.

What made it worse was that most of the food there had been made by your staff. They were your recipes, but somehow it still felt like cheating.

“Jack?” You whispered, moving your hand to thread through strands of his coffee-colored hair. He shifted closer and kissed your cheek - his eyes still closed. You took this as a sign to continue, “you’re gonna make it, right?”

His voice was deep and husky from sleep. “Course I already spoke to the boss about it. He said it was fine. I wouldn’t miss this for the world darlin’.”

“Has your family said anything about tomorrow?”

“No, but I’ll ask em’ again.”

“...do you think they like me?”

Jack groaned “we’ve had this talk a million times sugar, of course they like you. They just have a funny way of showin’ it is all.”

You listened to the birds singing from the oak tree outside. Normally you two didn’t stay in bed this long unless it was a weekend, but Jack called in late today. You rubbed his arm idly under the sheets. 

“Have you thought of any names yet?”

“We only found out it was a girl yesterday.”

“I’m watching this show and the main character’s name was Houston…. I thought that was pretty cute.”

He was quick to shoot you down, “no.”

“Why?”

“I refuse to name my daughter after the enemy.”

“Unpack that for me.”

“The Tennessee Titans formerly known as the Houston Oilers have had a rivalry with the Houston Texans since the team was founded in 1999.”

“Jesus Christ Jack Football?”

“If my daughter is gonna be a winner then she’ll need to have a winner’s name.”

You reached over onto the bed stand and unplugged your phone. You opened the web search app and started typing. “It says here that the Tennessee Titans have never one a Superbowl.”

“At least they’ve been there darlin’.”

You scrolled “yeah once twenty years ago. Says they lost to the St Louis Ra-”

He snatched your phone from your hand and placed it under his pillow. “They’ll get em’ this year darlin’ - don’t you worry.”

You snorted with laughter. 

“Just for that her first birthday will be Titans themed.”

You smiled and settled in closer to your husband as the sweet scent of lavender filled your senses. “Do you think she can hear us in there?’

“I dunno.” he raised his voice a little. “Baby girl - if you can hear this, tell your mamma to get her cold feet off my leg.”

You kicked him playfully. “Tell your daddy to stop hogging all the covers and I won’t have to put my feet on his leg.”

“Tell your mamma that I need the blankets as my shield for when she decides to flail about in the night.”

You cackled. “I do not flail about.”

“Uh, trust me darlin’ you do - I gotta be ready at any moment for an elbow coming at my face.”

You giggled “that was one time.”

“It hurt like hell.”

“I was asleep! Besides, I said I was sorry.”

He shuttered dramatically. “You're worse than-” he cleared his throat, saving himself quickly. “Maybe I’ll call out today.”

“You don’t have any more vacation days,” you remind him. 

“They can’t fire me.”

“Why?”

“Cuz’ then they’d have to kill me …..and you.”

Your eyes went wide. You lifted yourself up a little to look at him, only to notice the smile on his face.

“I’m only jokin’ hon. They would torture us both before they killed us.”

You rolled your eyes.  

He snuggled closer to you. “Don’t worry darlin’ I won’t let that happen.”

“Oh, you won’t?” you asked, teasing.

“Nope.” 

“What are you gonna do? Tie em’ up and bore them with football facts?”

He hummed, pretending to be annoyed - but you knew he was only playing.  There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again. “I can still feel you staring-”

“I’m not tired I can’t just fall back asleep-” a gasp escaped your lips as Jack moved his hand from your stomach to brush against your panties. He traced the hemline of the fabric before moving his hand underneath.

His index finger stroked over your center with a feather light touch. You twitched and reached out to halt his hand. “If you're still tired you don’t have to-”

“Does it feel good?”

“Yes but-”

“Do you want me to keep going?”

“Yes.”

“So close your eyes and let me do it.”

You nodded and relaxed into the mattress. Jack shifted upwards, so he was holding himself on one arm. He pressed a kiss to your forehead and started to rub tight circles around your clit. 

You flinched uncomfortably; he knew what it meant without you even having to verbalize it. Reading your body was something he had become excellent at these last few years. He had learned your patterns and made a mental note each time something worked and something didn't. 

The sheets ruffled against each other as his body weight moved lower on the bed. You didn’t realize what he was doing until his lips brushed against your upper thigh. 

“I can do you next,” you told him quickly, not wanting to seem selfish. 

He shushed you and hooked his fingers around your panties to pull them off. You lifted your hips and felt the fabric glide down your legs and off your feet. A shiver shot through your spine as his facial hair brushed against the inner part of your leg. He smiled and trailed kisses all the way down to the apex of your thigh, pausing a moment before starting to suck a mark into your soft skin. 

You felt yourself buck already. He laughed at how eager you were and laid a hand flat on your hips, stopping your squirming so he could finish making a little bruise with his mouth. One of his favorite things to do was paint you with a hickey or two.

Especially in places that are visible to others, it served as a reminder to everybody that you were his. He got high off of it. Watching that spark of jealousy cross over peoples faces as soon as you flipped your hair or removed your jacket and unwittingly displayed for them the purple mark that he had kissed into your skin not hours before…..yeah he would never get tired of it.

He loved watching other people lust for you and often found himself wondering just what they were imagining. Was it the way your nipples perked up whenever he ghosted a hand over your chest? Or perhaps the sound of your breathless moans beneath him as he pumped into you and you submitted to him entirely? Sometimes when he was fucking you, he imagined someone watching or listening from outside the door. 

The daydream that came most often was bending you over his desk and work and looking down at you. Your face pressed against a stack of files, mouth open and eyes squeezed shut. In the dream he wouldn't try to silence your cries of pleasure as they echoed through the long corridors. He would make certain that you were heard clearly by every single coworker walking by the office.  It was his dirty little secret that he never planned to confess because it made him feel guilty.

A large hand gripped your leg and nudged it apart, you could feel his hot breath ghosting over your sensitive skin as he lingered there, teasing you. You whined, grasping a fistful of the sheets in your hand and rolling your head against the pillow. 

You bucked again and thankfully he was merciful this time. He swiped his tongue upwards through your folds slowly, and your hips followed. Your hands released the fabric and found their way to his curls. His hair was mused and knotted from sleep. 

“Fuck, I love you” you sighed.

His fingers spread you apart while his tongue started to swirl gently on your sensitive bundle of nerves. You arched your back and moaned something unintelligible.

Jack loved hearing you sing for him. When he first met you, he had noticed how much you held back. After that, each time he took you, he made it a game to pull as many trembling cries or melodical notes from your lips as he could. It worked too, because god did you sing. 

His beautiful little instrument, carved by the gods themselves. 

He moved his arms around your thighs, keeping them open as you squirmed from pleasure. He kissed you harder, losing himself entirely in the sensation of your wet sex against his lips. The tug on his hair made him smirk and dip his tongue inside of you. Hot waves of pleasure shot straight into your stomach. 

The feeling of absolute bliss made you dizzy. “Jack,” you whimpered, voice cracking a little. 

When you started to lift your hips into his touch, he knew that you were close. 

You always squirmed a little more as you approached the edge. Pulling away and then moving right back,  as if your body couldn’t decide if the pleasure was too much or not enough all at the same time. He withdrew his tongue and pulled you downward on the bed a little, positioning himself over you more. 

“Please,” you begged, needing to feel him again. 

He was quick to respond, clamping his mouth over your clit and flicking quickly with his tongue. The knot in your stomach tightened ever more, and you felt yourself moving your hips against his mouth. 

He urged your legs to open an inch wider and that extra burst of sensation was all you needed to slip over the edge. Your eyebrows knit together and your mouth fell open in pleasure. You didn’t even hear yourself finish, but Jack sure did. 

‘That's it, just like that darlin’,’ he thought triumphantly. He continued to kiss you, your walls fluttering at his touch until your hand came up to bat weakly at his shoulder. A signal for him to stop. He pressed one more kiss to the inside of your thigh before moving back upwards and settling on the pillow again.

He laughed when he saw you laying there, momentarily immobilized from ecstasy. The smirking cowboy snuggled closer to you again, forearm draping over your heaving chest as you tried to catch your breath. 

“Yeah,” you panted “I can do five more minutes.”

[suituuup]

pandemic shenanigans

Chloe discovers TikTok and decides to do a bunch of pranks on her girlfriend

rated: T

word count: 3k

ao3 link

*

It’s the pandemic’s fault. 

Chloe was bored af one day at the start of quarantine, and decided to download TikTok, the app Gen Z has been raving about. Little did she know five minutes on the app could turn into four hours without her being aware and brought procrastination to another level. 

She quickly becomes addicted to cute animal videos (duh) and couple pranks. So addicted that the temptation of trying a few on her girlfriend is too great. 

i. Did you forget what today was

“Morning,” Beca mumbles, rubbing her eye with the heel of her palm as she shuffles towards the coffee pot. While Chloe’s an early bird, Beca rarely makes it out of bed before ten on the weekends, and Chloe is usually already showered and dressed by the time she does. 

She and Beca live in that same studio which they used to share with Amy, until their Australian friend inherited some serious money and moved out. 

It’s been really nice to have an actual bed instead of that crappy pull-out couch. 

“Good morning,” Chloe chirps, craning her neck to accept the kiss Beca brushes to her lips. Beca slides in the chair across hers, pouring some milk in the bowl Chloe’s set out for her, followed by cereals.

(yes, she’s that weirdo who puts the milk first.)

“What?” Beca pauses with her first spoonful halfway to her mouth, finally noticing Chloe staring at her. 

“Did you forget what today was?” She asks with a raised eyebrow, cradling her mug in her hands.

Beca blinks, and Chloe can nearly see the fuck popping up in her brain as panic flashes in her eyes. “Uh, Saturday?” 

Chloe purses her lips, both to appear annoyed and to keep her bubbling laughter in. “Beca.” 

Beca’s nose scrunches up. “I know, I know, gimme a sec. This is not our anniversary, or your birthday, you’re not working today so there’s nothing important regarding your job,” she lists off, her eyes lighting up a beat later. “Oh! Is it this weekend Aubrey’s coming up?” 

“No,” Chloe sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe you forgot.”

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Beca rushes out, standing up and crossing the distance between them to sit across Chloe’s lap. She kisses her softly, looping her arms around her neck. “I’m sorry. What’s going on today? I promise I’ll make time for it. And I’ll give you a massage tonight to make up for being a bad girlfriend. And we can eat whatever you like.” Smirking mischievously, she adds in a lower tone, “And, I’ll let you do whatever you wanna do to me later.” 

Chloe grins, unable to hold it any longer. “Nothing’s going on, babe. I was just messing with you.” 

Beca’s jaw falls open as she pulls back, glaring. “Not cool, dude!”

Chloe simply giggles, nuzzling her neck and pressing an apologetic kiss to Beca’s skin. “You’re cute when you’re panicking.”

A huffs puffs free and Beca pouts. “Whatever.”

Chloe tightens her hold around Beca’s waist so she can’t get away. “Can I still do whatever I want to you tonight?” 

The whimper that rises from Beca’s throat shoots a chill down her spine. Beca’s cheeks redden and she squirms a little in Chloe’s lap. “Yeah--yes.” 

Safe to say Chloe won’t be uploading that video on TikTok. She also won’t tell Beca this was a Tiktok prank, because this turned out to be a lot of fun and she’s got more up her sleeve.

ii. climb on their lap while they’re busy doing something else

Friday nights are Chloe’s favorite. As none of them work during the weekends, it means they get two whole days of quality time with each other. Tonight though, her highly professional girlfriend needs to take care of a few work things to make sure she can spend a stress free weekend, but it’s been hours, and Chloe is kind of craving some attention. 

Beca’s working on her laptop while sitting on the couch, and after changing into her PJ’s, Chloe unceremoniously curls up sideways on her lap, looping her arms around her shoulders and resting her forehead against the side of Beca’s neck. 

“Oh,” Beca breathes out, setting her computer aside before her arms loosely wrap around Chloe’s body. “Hello.” 

“Hi,” Chloe murmurs back, brushing a kiss to Beca’s neck and releasing a soft sigh of contentment. 

Beca’s hand runs up and down her thigh as she pushes a kiss to Chloe’s hair. “You alright?” 

Chloe hums, forgetting all about her phone propped against one of the shelves capturing the moment to make a TikTok, instead basking in the instant comfort being in Beca’s arms provides. 

Beca peppers her face with soft, featherlight kisses that make Chloe warm from the inside out. She really is a slut for Beca’s affection. “M’sorry I had to work tonight.” 

Chloe smiles. “It’s okay.” She pecks Beca’s lips and brushes her nose against hers. “I’m heading to bed. Don’t work too late, babe.” 

Beca nods, winking softly. “Right behind you.” 

True to her word, Beca slides under the covers less than five minutes later and tugs Chloe’s body against her own. Chloe releases another happy sigh, which is cut-off by a yelp when Beca runs her freezing toes along Chloe’s bare calf. 

“Becs!” She cries, moving away and slapping her arm. “Your feet are freaking icicles!” 

Beca snickers like a teenager, seemingly very proud of her act. 

“Put some socks on.” 

Beca’s nose scrunches up adorably. “Ew. No way.” 

“Then stay on your side,” Chloe grumbles, tugging the covers higher around her as she rolls away from Beca, settling on her opposite side. 

“Sorry,” Beca whispers into the dark, shuffling closer. “I won’t do it again.” 

She feels her resolve break as Beca’s lips trace a trail from her exposed shoulder blade to the side of her neck. She hates her traitorous body for not having any willpower when it comes to Beca’s ministrations. “You better not, or I’ll kick you,” she half-jokes. 

“Kinky,” Beca breathes along with a soft laugh, pressing one final kiss to Chloe’s cheek as she drapes her arm around her middle. “I love you.” 

Chloe laces their fingers and squeezes. “I love you too, weirdo.” 

iii. walking out naked while they’re in a zoom meeting 

“Well what doesn’t he like about it?” Beca’s voice carries from the living-room as Chloe stands in their bedroom, a towel wrapped around her naked frame. 

That video of her and Beca cuddling on the couch blew up, hitting 3 millions views and about 400k likes. The few homophobic comments that popped up were quickly drowned out by thousands of people gushing over their relationship or crying about wanting the same kind of relationship. 

Beca was of course aware Chloe would post that video on the internet and weirdly wasn’t opposed to it. 

“Again?” She hears her girlfriend sigh and steps out, losing the towel as she rounds the corner. “I mean, yeah, sure. I’ll see what I--” 

Beca’s words die on her tongue the second her eyes flicker up from her computer screen. Her jaw drops and her mouth gapes wordlessly for a few seconds. 

Chloe is briefly concerned she might have broken her girlfriend.

“Beca?”  Her boss’ voice carries through the speakers, snapping Beca back to her meeting. 

“Yes, yeah-- um-- sorry, I…” She stammers as her cheeks burn, and clears her throat. Her eyes quickly glance back to Chloe, who is fighting against a string of giggles. “I’ll-- I’ll work on something else, no problem.” 

“Alright, keep me posted.”

Beca nods. “See ya.” She shuts her computer so fast Chloe’s concerned she might have damaged it. “You’re evil,” she mutters, shaking her head. 

“Are you complaining?” Chloe husks, strutting over in her birthday suit and tossing her phone on the couch.

Beca visibly swallows, bracing on Chloe’s waist as she settles down her lap. “Never. But next time try not to give me a heart attack?” 

“Deal,” Chloe murmurs, bending down to capture Beca’s lips in a searing kiss. 

iv. Ask them what they would do if they were at a party and a hot girl came up to them

“Hey Bec?” 

“Mm?” 

It’s a rainy rainy afternoon, the ones Chloe loves as they don’t have anywhere to be, and she gets to chill on the couch with her favorite person while listening to the rain pelting against the window. 

Chloe’s head is on Beca’s lap as she lies on the couch, reading a book while Beca messes around on her phone. Beca has absentmindedly been scratching her scalp, and Chloe was about to fall asleep when she got a prank idea. She discreetly propped up her phone against her mug on the coffee table a minute ago, pressing record. 

“What would you do if you were at a party and a hot girl came up to you?” 

Beca lowers her phone, peering at Chloe over it. “What do you mean?” 

Bending her knees, Chloe shifts to sit up and faces Beca. “What would you do if a hot girl flirted with you?” 

“You know I don’t know when people flirt with me, right?” 

Yes, Chloe does know. She lost count of how many times she’s flirted with Beca over their four years of friendship pre-getting together without Beca having a freaking clue. 

“Okay, but still,” Chloe clears her throat and straightens a bit from her slouched position, tucking her legs underneath her. “Let’s say you’re at a party, and I’m a random girl, not your girlfriend, alright?” 

Beca rolls her eyes but nods anyway, setting her phone down and angling her body towards Chloe a bit more. 

Chloe props her elbow on the back of the couch and cradles the side of her head in her palm as she smiles softly, getting into character. She reaches out to run the tip of her pointer finger along Beca’s forearm while keeping her gaze locked on hers, her teeth racking over her bottom lip in an over-the-top flirty move. “Hi.” 

“Hey you,” Beca murmurs with a small smirk, leaning closer a little. Chloe swats the back of her head. “Ow! What was that for??” 

“It’s not me,” she reminds Beca as the brunette rubs the spot with a glare. 

“Sorry, it’s just hard to remember that with those eyes of yours,” Beca laughs. “I can’t focus, they’re pulling me in.” 

“Aw,” Chloe beams. She leans in to peck Beca’s lips, raising an eyebrow when Beca pushes her away. 

“Dude, I’ve got a girlfriend.” 

Chloe rolls her eyes, shoving her as Beca laughs. “Touché.” 

v. ask them if they still get butterflies

“Bec?” 

“Mmm.” 

Spring morphed into summer. A hot, sticky and humid summer. The pandemic is still very much a thing, and Chloe can’t even tell you what day of the week it is anymore. To make things worse, their AC is down, which is why they find themselves on the rooftop of their apartment building that evening, laying on a couple blankets as they stare up at the night sky. Chloe misses the hundreds of stars she would gaze at when she was a kid in Oregon, but she sort of finds the steady sound of cars passing by in the street below them soothing. 

Or you know, maybe it’s the joint she smoked twenty minutes ago with her girlfriend that is finally hitting her. 

“Do you still get butterflies?” 

Beca’s head rolls to the side so she can look at her. “Still?” She asks, smirking softly. “They never left.” 

Chloe giggles, shoving her lightly. Beca is known to grow sappy and affectionate when she’s high, and Chloe absolutely loves it. “Dork.” 

“Felt them just this morning when you were singing in the kitchen while making breakfast and almost pinched myself because I still have to wrap my head around the fact that I get to marry you.” 

Chloe does a double-take as she registers Beca’s words. “What?” Her voice is barely there, hidden under the layers of emotions seizing her throat. 

“Well… yeah,” Beca shrugs, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re like, it for me, you know?” 

Moments where Beca splits herself open like that are rare, and they never fail to make Chloe’s heart soar. 

“Are you going to say something Beale or keep staring at me like a weirdo?” Beca eventually quips, chuckling softly. 

Chloe shakes her head a little, then leans forward to push a lingering kiss against Beca’s lips. “I love you, future wife.” 

She feels Beca sigh contentedly as she curls up against her side, her arm wounding around Chloe’s back. “I love you, too.”

vi. sigh loudly in front of them

“What’s wrong?” 

It’s day two hundred something of quarantine. Chloe is bored out of her mind. 

“Nothing,” she whispers, keeping her tone unconvincing on purpose. She’s lying on the couch while Beca sits at the end working on her computer, a Friends rerun playing low on the TV. 

Beca shuts her computer and sets it on the coffee table before crawling up Chloe’s body and settling on top of her. She presses a light kiss to the side of Chloe’s neck. “You sure?” 

“Mhm,” Chloe hums, looping her arms around her girlfriend’s waist. 

“I can stop working,” Beca suggests softly, placing another kiss to her chin, then to the tip of her nose. “Wanna go grab some Chick-fil-A? Then we can watch one of those cheesy rom coms that you like.” 

“M’okay,” Chloe agrees quietly. “Can we just cuddle for a bit?” 

“Yeah,” Beca breathes. “Course we can.” She settles her head on Chloe’s chest, lifting it a second later. “Wait, is this a TikTok thing?” Upon Chloe nodding, she groans. “My reputation is taking a blow with each one of those, you know that right?” 

A giggle bursts past Chloe’s lips. “I’m sorry, your what?” 

That earns her a glare. “Bite me, Beale.” 

vii. wipe their kiss away

“I hate this fucking pandemic,” Beca grumbles as she makes it inside, kicking the door shut with a little more force than necessary. “I hate those Karens who don’t wear masks,” she continues as she hoists her two grocery bags on the kitchen counter. “Scratch that, I just hate people in general.” Beca eventually takes off her mask, heaving out a sigh as she drops it onto the counter. “Finally.” 

Chloe smiles in amusement, walking over to start putting the groceries away. “Thanks for going out, babe.” 

“No problem.” She pecks Chloe’s lips on her way to store the yogurt in the fridge, doing a double-take when Chloe wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Did you just… wipe my kiss away?” 

“What? No I didn’t,” Chloe replies innocently. 

Beca stares at her, cocking an eyebrow. “Was it not up to your standards or something?” 

“I mean…” Chloe shrugs nonchalantly. “It was just a peck.” 

“Mmm.” She resumes her task, closing the door to the fridge behind her before making her way over to where Chloe is standing, setting her hands on her hips from behind and coaxing her to turn around. 

“What are you--” the rest of her sentence is cut off by a moan as Beca’s lips capture her own. Chloe’s knees wobble from the heat of the kiss, its intensity sending shockwaves throughout her body, all the way down to her toes. She’s left in a daze by the time Beca pulls away, blinking twice in slow succession as she rolls her swollen lips together. “Holy shit.” 

Beca puffs out her chest a little, smirking. “That’s better.” 

Groceries forgotten, Chloe slides her hand into hers and drags her to the bedroom. 

viii. call them your spouse during a phone conversation

“I’m home,” Chloe calls out as she steps inside their studio apartment. She pauses in the doorway, taking in her surroundings. 

Their small kitchen table is beautifully set, two candles lit on each side and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers sitting in the center. Soft acoustic music is playing through Beca’s portable speaker. “Hey, you.” 

“What’s all this?” Chloe asks, smiling brightly as she slings her purse off her shoulder, setting it down. 

Beca approaches, a sheepish smile spreading across her features. “Well… because of this freaking pandemic, we haven’t been out in months, so I thought we could just do a home-date. I ordered from your favorite sushi place, should be here any minute.” 

“Aww.” Shrugging off her jacket, Chloe steps up to place a soft kiss to Beca’s lips. “You’re sweet. And very sexy,” she adds with an eyebrow waggle, taking in Beca’s fancy jumpsuit and hairdo. “I’m gonna go change real quick.” 

Chloe hurries to the bedroom and opens her closet to pick something; she can’t remember the last time she wore a dress, her main outfit having consisted of a hoodie and sweatpants for the better part of the year. Plucking her navy blue, knee length dress out, she changes into it and takes ten minutes to arrange her hair and put on light make-up. 

Beca is on the phone as she steps back out into the kitchen, grinning when Chloe appears. “Yep, got it. Listen, I gotta go, my wife and I are about to eat dinner.” 

Chloe freezes mid-step, her heart stuttering as she registers the term Beca used. 

“Sorry about that,” Beca says once she’s hung up, casting Chloe a smile as she sets her phone down. 

“You just called me your wife,” Chloe murmurs, her eyes shrinking suspiciously a beat later. A gasp follows when it hits her. “Wait, are you TikTok pranking me??” Her gaze quickly sweeps the room. “Where’s the camera, Mitchell?” 

Beca simply grins, shaking her head as she reaches for something in her pocket. “Not a prank, babe.” 

Shocked eyes lifting from the square velvet box nestled in Beca’s palm, Chloe watches as Beca steps closer and lowers herself on one knee. Her heart trips dangerously and she stops breathing altogether. “Bec, you better not be lying.” 

The way she seems nervous all of the sudden tells Chloe this is definitely not a prank. “Chloe--” 

“Yes,” Chloe croaks out, tears pooling in her eyes as her head bobs up and down in a frantic nod. 

Beca’s chuckle comes out strained as she blinks back the moisture in her own eyes. “Dude, let me ask the question at least.” 

“Sorry.” Chloe clamps her lips together and squeezes Beca’s hand to wordlessly let her know she may keep going. 

“Chloe,” Beca repeats, her voice wavering slightly. “This year has been weird as fuck, and the most challenging one yet, but despite everything, I had a near constant smile on my face because of you. You’re my best friend, and the most beautiful person I know, inside and out.” She sucks in a deep breath through her nose, letting go of Chloe’s hand to open the box. Chloe gasps softly at the sight of a simple, yet elegant oval cut diamond set on a rose gold band. “Will you make me the happiest person on earth by accepting to become my wife?” 

“Yes.” She tugs on Beca’s hand, capturing her lips in a searing kiss as soon as she straightens. “I love you so much.” 

Beca grins against her mouth, backing away just enough to seek out Chloe’s eyes. “I love you, too.” 

As she stands there basking in this new, overwhelming wave of feelings, Chloe decides that 2020 wasn’t that bad, after all. 

[karimac]

...in the details, Part 2

A/N: Warning for this series: 18+ audience (minors DNI), some cinematic level violence, some fluff and angst. Doubt that smut will be involved, but it may be implied. I’ll make sure that is noted clearly if it pops up.

All relationships, at this point anyway, are platonic.

Please do not repost or translate my work. Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

A bit about the OC Kari

Part 1

All mistakes are my own.

Word count: 2,249

Before you ventured into Westview, a flight of birds overhead reminded you of Redwing and Sam. Poor Sam. That sixth sense you had told you that fight at the compound was going to lead you all into very weird places. And the first one left you very squarely not in the room once again.

This time it was Steve and Bucky being thick as thieves, and you and Sam were…making a sandwich run? Couldn’t exactly get GrubHub to make a delivery to an attack site, could you? Bruce did not want some driver with a cellphone putting video up on Snapchat. “How would that look?” he bemoaned as he worked on the time travel platform. “We’d be getting tourists left and right. I don’t need that.” So off you and Sam went.

“You know, you could just, you know,” Sam started to say as he waved his hands like he thought a wizard would do, “and just poof up a plate of stuff. Right? With extra food for Banner, of course. He inhales tacos like nobody’s business. Just ask Tic Tac.”

“Sam, what have I told all of you before? Magic is the transfer of energy and matter. No suitable food stuff means no sandwiches. I can’t just think about the deli counter at Wegman’s and make a sandwich and a side of coleslaw appear in my hand. So, we’ll order on the app and pick it up. Just like everyone else. Before I hit the button, any changes to your order?”

“No, it’s fine. But don’t tell me you’ve never done shit like that when you’ve had your back against it,” Falcon huffed as you went to the rental car you’d gotten earlier in the day. That, thank Heaven, was easy to get at the local but extremely small airport.

“I’ve killed small rodents and eaten them, and I don’t mean just rabbits. Snakes, too. And, well, birds of prey, like falcons,” you groaned as you started to get into the car, but you stopped and headed back to the passenger side. “And I know you hate my driving, so here you go,” you said as you handed Sam the keys. “Sorry it isn’t a Ferrari. I was lucky to get this Kia. They didn’t exactly have anything race course worthy.”

As Sam climbed in, he saw bags of gear in the back seat. “You pulling a Wanda? Need some me time away from all us testosterone jockeys? Cyborg is going to be pissed.”

“Bucky has other stuff to deal with, trust me,” you said as you rolled your eyes. “He does not need to add Crazy Old Broad to his growing list of things to do and people to take care of this week. I heard him talking to Steve…”

“You? Eavesdropping? You are human!” Sam smirked, but then he saw the comment had hit a nerve. “You know I was kidding, right?”

“I know you are,” you said as you swallowed hard. In reality, you were not exactly buying that last comment. Sam was a sweetheart, but his comment sounded like things Tony and Steve had said about you in the weeks before the Time Heist. It depended on the situation, but one or the other of them seemed to question you, your motives, your powers and what they could do, and, at times, your grasp on reality. You did have a connection to a goddess they couldn’t see. Blaming them for having those questions just was not in your wheelhouse. “And yeah, maybe I just need to go figure a few things out. You guys know how to get me back here if you need me.”

“Somehow I don’t think Steve, Bucky and I would look so great standing and screaming your name in the middle of a fight,” Sam noted as he finally turned the key in the ignition.

“Now who is having issues with gender roles?” you said with a very pronounced side glance. “Sam, we are all human. We all need a save now and then. Maybe you’ll never have to utter my name again after today, unless you guys can’t find something you think I hid? Thor will be back once he’s done exploring the universe, and you can always get him here fast if you have Strange find him. And Wong is just dying for his shot as a full time Avenger. We all know that! And I can go back and do, well, goddess stuff, I guess. And raise horses. Just, please, make sure no one drops the ball on Parker. He lost his parents and his uncle. Losing Tony will hit him harder than anyone likely expects. He’s a good kid. He just needs support and guidance. Now, want to get this thing moving, or do you want me to drive?”

“And have you antagonize the local cops by going Mach 1? No thank you!”

You had to laugh at that one. You did tend to floor it. A lot.

++++++++++

A short time later, you and Sam rolled back to the site Bruce had chosen to set up the time travel platform. After you two handed out all the food, you realized it was really time for you to get going. No, you didn’t have a train, plane or bus to catch or someone to meet. You just knew it was going to get harder to make the break the longer you stayed there.

“She’s pulling a Wanda on us,” Sam said as he finished off the last of the sweet tea he had grabbed at the deli where you’d gotten food. “I think it’s too much he-man macho stuff, but she won’t fess up to that.”

“Wilson, how many brothers did I have?” you asked as you cleaned up the trash from the table Bruce had borrowed from a local park that had been wrecked during the battle. It had a huge hole in the end, but hey, it was good enough for the moment.

“Eight,” Bucky replied before Sam got the chance. “Just don’t quiz me on all their names. I remember your twin, Branan, and the one who was the vampire. Ewan? Right?”

“Yup, that’s right,” you grinned at Buck. “And no quiz. Promise,” you said as you raised your left hand and crossed your heart with your right.

“Why are you leaving?” Bruce asked as he adjusted the sling on his still injured arm, putting extra emphasis on the word “are” as he uttered it. “We need all the help we can get.”

Bruce, heaven help him, was suddenly one of the last active OG Avengers standing on Earth. Thor was off finding himself with the Guardians, and no one could really begrudge him that. He needed time to heal, and you knew all too well that was not easy nor time limited. Clint had more or less retired again after Natasha’s sacrifice on Vormir. Steve was getting ready to take the stones back, but upon his return, he’d likely join up with Sam and Bucky again to root out any remaining Hydra cells. That left Bruce in a very different place this time around.

“Bruce, you don’t really need me being a head case. Trust me. You do not need me giving any news outlets ammunition to blast headlines that make the team look less than spotless. I need to go home, at least for a little while,” you replied, knowing full well you were not telling him or the others everything. “And as I reminded Sam, you guys can just call me, and I’ll be here. Just whisper my name. Or yell it. Whatever works. Text me! If it’s an emergency, and if I’m not in the middle of some new damned war on my end, I’ll come running. But I have a feeling you guys are going to be just fine. Hell, I’ll give you a blessing before I head out.”

Yeah. A blessing. More like the final nail in the coffin. The words to start the spell to make them forget you.

“Big guy, you first,” you said as you put your hands on Bruce’s injured right arm. “And no, I am doing this, Bruce. It won’t be a full healing, but it should speed things up. You got this, big guy. Biggest brain. Biggest heart. May you realize just how much this team was built with your sweat and tears as it was anyone else’s.”

“I can’t change your mind?” Bruce asked as he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye and pout a bit. “And I am not asking because you are likely the only one of us who can cook…”

“I’m pretty sure all of you guys can cook something. Maybe not a good Colcannon or a fine Dublin coddle, but you’ll survive. As for the cupcakes, you guys may need to get a bakery on speed dial,” you added with a laugh because you knew they’d make that bakery rich. The Avengers loved their sugary snacks.

“Just don’t bug my sister, Bruce,” Sam noted as he waited for you to come over to him. “I still remember asking why the Cupcake Lady had a sword that night when those demon things attacked near the tower. I never asked. Why the cupcakes?”

“And not why the demons or the sword?” you said as you nearly choked on your words. “You realize that was before Steve saw me at Peggy’s funeral. That night was truly a fluke, Sam. No one was supposed to see that side of me then. As for the cupcakes, they were my entry to your world. Gifts from a fan girl. They’re easy to carry, a synch to personalize when needed, and everyone can have their own without fighting,” you said with a grin as Sam shook his head. “What?”

“You sound like Sarah.”

“Then I am in good company. Tell her the good stuff you’ve told me all these years. The words of wisdom. The little jokes. The pep talks. Tell her often. A single mom with two boys needs that. Be there for her, and drag these guys to see her, too. It would do the boys a world of good to have all their uncles stop by. Now, Samuel,” you said as you gave him a hug, “remember to keep these guys flying right. And if the world drops opportunity in your lap, whatever it might be, do not look at it and push it away without a lot of thought. The world needs Sam Wilson, the hero with a heart.”

And now the hardest part of this good bye had you wiping tears from your eyes. “I know. I’m a big mush. Girls from Brooklyn would laugh at me for this, right? Sorry, but girls from Naas and Athy do cry sometimes. I’m going to miss you two lugs. A lot.”

“Lugs. Last time you called us that was in ’43,” Bucky said as he looked down at his feet for a minute. “Somehow Hydra missed that memory.”

“You’ll see us again,” Steve said as he turned briefly to see where the case with the stones was on the platform. “But this time, it better not take 70 years.”

As you looked at the best friends, something about their auras seemed off. They had been planning something when you almost walked in on their chat a few days ago. You had no idea what it was, and you suddenly didn’t want to hang around to find out what the next act was going to bring.

“Just…watch your back, Steve. From what Clint said about Vormir, that one is going to be tough. And Buck, whatever comes next, I’m rooting for you. Even if you can’t see me doing it.”

“You really don’t have to leave,” Bruce kept insisting as you hefted your backpack on your shoulder.

“Dr. Banner, do you really want to fight my demons after all this? I have enemies. You just haven’t seen them yet. Frankly, the only reason that Hydra didn’t grab me before I hooked up with the Howling Commandos was because I was pulled into another dimension by one of those enemies. It was only by some weird twist of fate that Peggy found me when she did. If the veil between worlds had not been so thin near that camp, I might never have made it back, or Hydra might have found me first. It was pure dumb luck.”

{{And, Heaven help me, part of it was these two lugs over here}} you thought as you turned to head to your car. Then you stopped. This was a lot harder than it had been any time before, but it was the curse of an immortal to have to keep moving on. “I wish you luck, joy and happiness. I wish you peace. And, if you are truly lucky, memories long enough to have little space to spare for the likes of me because they are filled with so much more! See you in my dreams, for now anyway, fellas.”

++++++++++

You rolled out of there before Steve started his mission to return the stones, and you got a text from Bruce hours later telling you everything that had happened. Steve not coming back as planned. Then an older version of Steve shows up, sitting on a bench near the platform, and he gives Sam the shield. Right in front of Bucky.

It was now weeks later. No. It was months later, and here you were staring up at the sign for Westview. You’d gotten out of your rental car so you could get a feeling for the area around this little town.

“You made it back,” a voice said behind you. “How are you, after all that mess with Wanda and that Agatha woman? She was a real piece of work.”

The person speaking to you was Dr. Darcy Lewis. Friend of Thor and Dr. Jane Foster. Why was she even here?

You couldn’t fully figure out what the hell she was talking about. You didn’t remember being here before. Yet, you knew who she was, and you had never met her before. Or at least you couldn’t remember meeting her, here or anywhere else.

“Apparently not as great as I thought I was,” you muttered as you winced again. “Dr. Lewis, how long ago was the blip?”

“Give or take a week, about six months ago,” she replied as you started to pace. “Why?”

“Shit. Not this again,” you hissed as you looked up at the sign once more. “I think I’m going to need your help. How much do you know about Celtic myths and Irish history, Dr. Lewis?”

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 9

First

Previous

Next

Chat laid back in his bed but, for once, he wasn’t tired.

He was set to go on patrols that night, so he’d pretty much done everything he’d wanted for the day earlier. He’d gotten all his sleep, watched every video, finished his skin and hair care routines…

Only to find out that, hey, he didn't actually need to do that because Hawkmoth had chosen today to akumatize someone.

So patrols were out of the question. Hawkmoth had a recharge time of a few hours it seemed, but he usually didn’t do multiple akumas on the same day. They were always less powerful when he did too many in quick succession.

Well, at least he could go fight the akuma, right?

Wrong.

Because it was quickly brought to his attention that he actually couldn’t go, because the akuma was Mr. Pigeon and he quite famously had a bird allergy.

So the three women had all headed out (Carapace had stayed behind to finish an essay) and Chat had been left behind.

He scrolled through TikTok for a while. The app was definitely watching him, because almost all the content on his For You Page was animal videos…

Not that he minded.

But he could only handle so much cuteness at once, so that only worked for a few minutes.

Next, he went on Twitter to see what everyone was currently arguing about. That was bound to be entertaining…

Unfortunately, it seemed everyone in Paris was more concerned with the akuma than anything else at the moment. He didn’t need action shots of his housemates or to know more about Mr. Pigeon’s new plan to take the birds to space or whatever so he can… feed them? What?

The only other notable app on his phone was Instagram, but he wasn’t about to go on that. He was supposed to be in Tibet at some fancy private school, if people saw he was active he’d have to come up with answers to the millions of questions he’d inevitably get.

Now what…?

He pushed himself up to a sitting position with minimal groaning and attempted to run a hand down his face despite his mask.

Screw it. He was bored. He’d go bother Carapace.

He shuffled two doors down. He knocked twice…

There was a scrambling sound before he got a yell to come in.

When Chat actually did so, he found Carapace fastening his mask to his face. He was sitting at his desk, the area around him littered with crumpled pieces of paper.

“Salut?”

Chat batted away some with his feet as he made his way towards Carapace. “Salut. Chloe would kill you if she saw how much paper you’re wasting.”

“Paper is biodegradable, isn’t it?” Said Carapace with a slight grin.

“True.”

“... is there a reason you’re here?”

Chat didn’t answer, instead he slung himself over Carapace’s lap and laid there like a giant housecat. Which he pretty much was.

Carapace wasn’t even all that surprised.

All of the miraculous holders were well aware that the miraculous had side effects for them. They seemed to have attributed his constant need to be in contact with others as one of the side effects.

Chat knew that wasn’t the case, he was just Like That, but who was he to tell them they were wrong?

Carapace reached down and gave his hair a tiny ruffle and then went back to work.

Chat pulled out his phone again and started scrolling idly through Twitter for something to do (also he was kind of curious about the space pigeons now). The sound of Carapace’s pencil on the paper and his tiny sighs and curses were the only noises in the room for a while…

His eyes slid over the room. The bed looked untouched, there were a few empty energy drink cans strewn about, but other than that...

“So, wait, is homework literally all you do when you’re in here?”

“It’s all I have energy for outside of working out and patrols most days. Why?”

Chat rolled over to look up at him. “It’s just… you’re so…” He tried to think of a way to phrase it nicely, but when he couldn’t he settled for: “boring…?”

Carapace frowned a little. “And you’re so annoying!”

Chat flinched. As most people do when someone insults them.

His face softened and he groaned a little. “... sorry. That wasn’t… I’m just a little stressed out about school. This paper is due at midnight and I don’t know what to write.” He cracked a half smile and motioned to all the wads of paper. “As you might have been able to tell.”

He relaxed as well. “Yeah. I hear school is stressful.”

“You hear…?”

He hesitated. They were supposed to keep most things about their lives as civilians a secret, but… there was no way he could figure out who he was from this piece of information, so: “I was homeschooled.”

Carapace raised his eyebrows, thought about it, then nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Huh?”

“You have sheltered rich kid vibes.”

“... thanks?”

“No problem,” he responded easily. He set his pencil down and stretched as much as he could with someone still laying across his lap. “So. You had to have had a good education. Have any tips for my essay?”

Chat yawned and closed his eyes. “Depends. What’s the subject?”

“Film history.”

“... I don’t know anything about that, I don’t think, sorry. Ladybug or Rena might, ask them when they get back.”

Carapace laughed a little. “I don’t need information, if I did at least then I could just look it up, I just don’t know how to… write?”

He blinked his eyes open and then looked at him. “I can help if you just need to get your thoughts in order.”

“Really?” Said Carapace, his face lighting up.

Chat groaned a little as he stretched out. “Sure. Let me get a whiteboard.”

“We have paper…?” He said, watching his housemate get up and start walking out of the room.

“Shhhh, it’s for the aesthetic.”

Chat walked to the fridge and grabbed the whiteboard and markers from it.

He took a quick picture of the board so he could put everything back on it when he was done. Rena had apparently been doing some calculations on it. He remembered, vaguely, that she had mentioned calculating Hawkmoth’s height…

Holy crap. That’s tall. Sure, Hawkmoth was tall, but was he really THAT tall?

He shook his head slightly and erased, then returned to Carapace’s room. He smiled as he held them up for him to see.

“Tada.”

“So… what are we doing?”

“You --” Chat pointed a marker at him. “-- are going to talk about everything you know on the subject. I --” He pointed at himself. “-- am going to put everything in categories and we can go from there.”

Chat very quickly discovered why he was having so much trouble getting anything down. Carapace was… let’s call it ‘passionate’. The moment he started speaking his words tumbled out so quickly that Chat had had to scramble to pull the cap off of the marker so he could start sorting.

But, really, it always is nice to hear someone ramble about something they’re passionate about. Chat had to fight an urge to just watch and listen to Carapace as he talked about how ‘absolutely insane the textbook is for not going that much into eastern theater when there’s so much to talk about about kabuki theater alone --.’

Two hours and many struggles to fit so much information into such a compact space later, Carapace had run out of things to talk about.

“... is there a page limit?” Said Chat as he tossed over a water.

Carapace caught it without even really looking and took a few sips before speaking again: “Uh… yeah. Five pages max. That’s… my main problem.”

Chat looked at the board. What was on there alone was probably two pages in itself and that was just the general names of the topics…

He tipped his head from side to side and then circled a part of it. “Behold. That’s probably around four, and then you can do a bit of extra plus an introduction and conclusion.”

Carapace looked like he was going to cry.

“Are you… okay?”

He sniffled and wiped his eyes. “Where have you been all my life?”

“Uh… being homeschooled?”

“Oh. Right.”

Chat slung himself over Carapace’s lap again as he got to work. He scrolled through his phone for a while.

He jumped a little when he got a text. Still not used to that.

He opened the message.

Ladybug: We’ve washed off and changed clothes so your allergies won’t be irritated. Heading home now.

Kittychat: Thanks :D

He got left on read by three people, but that’s fine.

“They’re on their way back.”

Carapace grinned. “Wow, they beat Mr. Pigeon? Shocker!”

When Chat laughed a little, Carapace’s grin got a little more mischievous.

“Seriously, though, imagine losing to Mr. Pigeon. Couldn’t be me.”

“I am allERGIC --!”

He was cut off by Carapace’s laughter and, after a moment, he joined in.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence…

Then Chat got an idea. A small smirk made its way onto his face.

“You said that your account was going to be showing the world that we’re all normal people under the masks, right?”

“Among other things…?”

“Want to mess with the others and get some footage?”

“You complete me. C’mon.”

Carapace snatched his phone off his desk and they headed down to the living room to prepare.

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @mialuvscats @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0

[tundrainafrica]

Title: Lovebug (2/10)

Summary:  

“It might be a bug.”

“A bug?”

“Sometimes the developers of this application make mistakes. This is our first time meeting I’m sure so…Isn’t it a bit weird that we just met for the first time and it rings like this? And for two strangers to coincidentally ring each other’s alarms?“

Levi is the developer of the Love Alarm App and Hange is married to Zeke.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Other Chapters: 1 3 4 5

Notes: I was torn between publishing the next chapter of lovebug or outlier tonight so I opted to just go for lovebug. I'll post the next chapter of outlier mid next week. As always, feedback is very much appreciated.

“We’re gonna delay the release of our next fix…” Levi repeated, just a little slower that time. He didn’t trust himself then to speak in anything faster or with a tone any louder.

It was too early in the morning for a meeting, just a little past eight in the morning. He was called into Erwin’s office right after arriving into company grounds and Erwin, a natural early bird, was talking louder than what could have been considered bearable for Levi.

At eight in the morning though, not a lot of things were bearable, especially if they involved a huge change of plans and a glaring reminder that he had a long work day ahead of him.

More importantly, Erwin’s voice was grating in a way that most bosses’ voices were grating when laced with a little more urgency than necessary. “Yes Levi, we’re delaying our fixes indefinitely, not just for Love Alarm but all of our other apps as well.”

Levi raised his eyebrows. “Really? You know we’ve been announcing this big fix for months.”

“I’ve contacted the marketing team. We are pushing the fixes back a week. You think that will be enough for you to finish everything you need?”

Levi shook his head. “There’s no need to push back the release. I can work on this bug now and I can have the other developers and the support team work on getting the regression testing done and getting the release out.”

Erwin shook his head. “I do not want to give Mr. Jaeger the impression that we aren’t prioritizing his complaints. Levi, you have to understand. He’s an important client.”

“I understand that. And I will be on top of things. I’m testing this issue myself.” Most days, Levi left the testing option to the support team. Given the nature of the bug though and the severe urgency of getting it fixed, it had been an easy decision for Levi to take it upon himself.

Erwin hummed in approval. “Yes and I’m happy to hear that you're going to be investigating this bug. I would rather that we didn’t release anything while investigating this.”

“May I ask why? This bug doesn’t involve any of our other functionalities. I can test this myself.”

Erwin hummed. “Zeke Jaeger is an unpredictable man. I don’t think he would appreciate us improving our product while such a glaring bug still exists. He is a very vocal and he might give us some bad press.”

“Oh?” Levi heard the derision in his own tone then, a smooth yet venomous sound. Zeke Jaeger had been outwardly friendly yet for some reason Levi couldn’t explain just yet. He wasn’t at all drawn by the charisma that accompanied it. In fact, the blonde had just been annoying and the conversation only cemented Levi’s first impression of Zeke Jaeger as bad, maybe even terrible.

What the hell does Hange see in him? He added to himself then. How that had entered his own contemplations then, he didn’t know. He quickly brushed it away and mustered the most seemingly uninvested face he could make then.

Erwin had that special talent of seeming uninvested either. As he settled on the sofa in front of Levi, he mixed the coffee just a little too loudly. He had an aura about him that very much meant business. “Have you done some prior investigation?”

“I did,” Levi said. As he soon found out, that aura was contagious.

“Anything new?”

“I’m entertaining the idea that what if…. The application is working fine?”

“Can you explain why his partner had two hearts while he had none?”

Levi cleared his throat. “Assuming the application is working perfectly, we can draw two conclusions. One, someone in love with Hange Zoe had their application on and Two, Hange Zoe isn’t in love with Zeke Jaeger.” That last conclusion couldn’t have easily been true, but still such words left such a sweet aftertaste in Levi’s mouth that he had to make some considerable effort not to smile.

Erwin raised his eyebrows inquisitively. “Any leads on whose application could have been on?”

It had taken some strength, some self confidence and some self discipline on Levi’s side to pull his phone out then. “My love alarm was on yesterday, I forgot to turn it off after the demo…” He navigated to the ‘history’ tab and opened his history to the exact time to late afternoon yesterday.

One person nearby is in love with you. Levi read silently to himself. In that split second, he was contemplating display issues and front end bugs that maybe just maybe accidentally chalked Hange’s heart as ‘love.’ It was highly unlikely though so even before that idea had ripened into something worth an explanation and a support ticket, Levi brushed it aside.

“So your application was on the whole time.” Erwin murmured, looking intently at the phone in front of him.

Levi nodded. “But it’s a good step in the right direction. That means there’s a bug to investigate after all. I just have to isolate it to either Hange Zoe’s application build or mine,” he explained.

“That seems promising and do you need any help organizing a meeting with her.”

“She’s coming today for a little testing.”

“Just like my best engineer to think a few steps ahead.” Erwin asked, a smile curling up his lips. “And you think you can get it done within a week?”

“If all goes well… Even less than a week.”

***

It had turned out that that small meeting had worked well to organize Levi’s thoughts. He had a quick action plan from there and with an action plan, a new burst of motivation, or at least enough of it to carry him from Erwin’s room to his own small office space in a little less than five minutes.

A week to investigate. Levi thought to himself as he leaned back on his office chair. He looked back up at the ceiling for a good few seconds before writing his deadline down on the white board next to him.

He didn’t need that whiteboard, their workflow trackers and excel sheets worked well to always keep Levi in the right state of mind. Yet there was something organic about white boards, something natural about being able to write the numbers with his own hand, freely changing his fonts with just the slight of the hand, impulsively changing formats at just a quick motion.

So he kept it there next to him, a large annoying waste of space to most people. But Levi had taken great pains to make it look organized in his room, measuring each frame to the millimeter. It was a large clean slate right next to his desk in his very small office. And more importantly, it was something that was very much his to play around with like he wanted to.

Under the deadline, he put the new release date of their fix.

We’re delaying the release of the next fix by a week.

Such wise words from someone who didn’t know how the investigation process actually worked. But with an employee and boss relationship, emphasis on Levi being the employee, he had to make it work. That’s how it had always been in the office. Erwin wasn’t a developer. He was a manager. And Levi was being paid by him.

Levi though never liked the idea of delaying fix releases. Once the date was announced, he liked to make sure all of the quality assurance testing and the regression testing was done two weeks ahead. And with that habit becoming custom for the Love Alarm project, he was sure they would have managed to make the release next week. Staring at the workflow interface, he noted the bar was more than half full already, most bugs were tagged as fix. All test builds were submitted and passed and they could have easily moved on to the final regression testing before release.

And regression testing never actually failed. The Love Alarm app after all was a very functionally simple application.

With the weight of a wasted timely release and the powerlessness of corporate politics bare on his back, Levi let out a long sigh.

He opened up his slack channel and typed out a few words.

We’re delaying the next fix release.

But it wouldn’t just be the Love Alarm which would be affected, all the other applications would be affected as well. His notifications exploded within five seconds, all feedback from each time. Levi started to wonder, maybe he should have put everything in one message.

So he edited his old message.

We’re pushing it back a week.

Under that, he put a new date and time as a reminder to all other employees. There were many why’s, many protests and his application continued to shake with notifications.

He checked the time on his phone. Hange had agreed to meet at nine and she should be texting soon. With little to no brains pace to create a summary of his meeting with Erwin in less than ten minutes, Levi typed out two words.

Erwin’s orders. Without waiting for anymore protests, he closed his laptop, packed up his things and ready to move to the small conference room he had reserved for him and Hange.

It was a few floors below. A small room among others but Levi was familiar enough with the layout of their offices to know it was very much soundproof.

Any unwelcome alarms, unwelcome notifications and unwelcome conversations would stay in that room. Even before Levi had dropped off his things in the conference room, Hange had already texted.

Her car was by the gate already.

Meet in the lobby. Levi texted back as he quickened his pace, quickly turning back towards the elevator, laptop bag still in hand.

He could have been too slow. Or Hange could have just been too fast but by the time he had arrived in the lobby, she was already on one of the seats next to the reception, playing around with her phone.

She was wearing a light sweater, her brown hair was pulled up messily into a half ponytail. Levi though had to note that it still looked very much like it fell into place. For a second, he had given her a good onceover, admiring everything at once.

Only a split second later, he was cruelly reminded that he had made her wait, long enough for her to have to sit down in one of the lobby sofas. “How long were you waiting?” It wouldn’t have been the first greeting Levi would have liked to give then. His heart was racing though and soon he realized, maybe he had taken up the unnecessary challenge of jogging down those five flights of stairs while keeping his laptop safely in tow.

Hange looked up from her phone seeming surprised. “Are you busy? Was this a bad time to visit?” Hange asked. “We could reschedule... “

More and more, the first greeting then was seeming less and less ideal. “No, no. This is great. I don’t know what just came over me. Thank you for taking the time to test this bug with me.”

Hange shook her head. “No, no, I asked my partner to invest in this application for a reason. I see great potential and I’d be happy to tweak some of those bugs with you.” Her lips widened into a smile. “So what’s the game plan?”

Levi gestured towards the elevators. “We do some simple testing. I just need to isolate the cause of this bug.”

“Oh? How does application testing work?”

“We use the application,” Levi answered matter-of-factly. Was there any other way to test it? It didn’t seem like something he should be asking the very important partner of a very important person though so Levi kept that last question to himself, instead keeping his face then as something both subtle and questioning.

“That’s cool,” Hange said. “So how’s your job?”

“It’s fine,” Levi answered. “The investigation will keep me busy.” He stared at the numbers on the elevator, getting lower and lower and Levi could have sworn it couldn’t go any slower. He could have found some consolation if anybody else had joined them in the elevator then, to at least abate that awkward need to carry some conversation between them.

Any other employees though had chosen for themselves to wait in front of other elevators. Levi was almost considering doing the same thing.

After all, Hange was talkative. She was asking questions. When they entered the elevator together, the very slow elevator, there would be more than enough time to send two to three questions back and forth. And Levi was quick to realize, he was an incredibly boring person.

“So do you have any hobbies?”

“Programming.” What about you? Levi had readied himself to ask in that long split second of silence that followed.

Hange though was quick to respond even before he could take control of the conversation. “Well aside from your actual job.”

“I like to clean,” Levi answered. He started to wonder how dorky that hobby sounded like. He needed to rephrase. “I meant--- organize things…” He added a second later. “Like Marie Kondo.”

“Oh yes, I’ve heard about her,” Hange said. She had at least allowed for a split second silence then, long enough for Levi to take the reins of the conversation.

Hange though was a high profile person, her partner was one of the richest men in the country and Levi’s mind was racing with hypotheticals. Was it okay to ask her about her hobbies? Her interests? Or was that supposed to be an exclusively professional meeting?

Soon, with all the questions nagging at him at once, he unearthed a question at the back of his mind that he had been meaning to ask since he had met Hange down at the lobby.

So how’s your husband?

Where’s your husband? Do you hang out with him often? Do you usually do stuff alone? A question that couldn’t so easily be answered by a single google search on an incognito window, only that night, he had tried searching keywords just to be sure.

Hange Zoe Zeke Jaeger Relationship

And soon after searching that just once. He had made sure to clear his browser history just in case he didn’t do it in some incognito window. After all, night mode and incognito mode had almost the same interface.

He soon found out though after jumbling around keywords over a search engine that Google wasn’t omnipotent as it turned out. The only one who could have satisfied his curiosity at that moment was the brunette next to him then.

He couldn’t bring himself to ask it just then though. So he went for another question, a very vanilla one but it seemed like a safe bet. “What about you?”

“What about me? What do you mean about me?”

Levi was starting to doubt the flow of the conversation of a while ago. Did he remember it correctly?

The elevator dinged like it was announcing some coming of a messiah. That had been more than enough to break the awkwardness of that exchange and Levi quickly slammed the open elevator door, just a little more loudly than usual. He gestured for Hange to go ahead.

“Hobbies,” Levi said as he met her outside the elevator.

“I like research,” Hange answered.

“Is that your full time job?” Levi asked. He didn’t need to ask. He had read more than enough articles of Zeke Jaeger’s partner to have seen ‘neuropsychologist’ used as an epithet enough to be convinced that that was her full time job. The last thing he wanted to do though was actually accidentally imply in a conversation that he had googled a few keywords for answers before clearing his browser history.

Hange nodded. “Yes it is.”

“Well… Hobbies aside from your actual job?” Levi asked. He kept his own word usage and his own phrasing similar to what Hange had used with him. If Hange asked it that way, that should have been a socially acceptable way to ask.

“I like plants,” Hange said firmly. She wasn’t looking at him. Although Levi had wanted to see the face she was making then, he started to realize that craning his neck to get a good view of her face might just look a little too weird.

So he settled for her side profile. From his view he could see eyes were everywhere at once from the hallways to the doorways just a little further away from the area that opened up as soon as they exited the elevator. “Where are we going?”

“Over here,” Levi said, he was quick to pull her towards the other side though, before she found out that he had taken a good few steps already in the wrong direction. “The conference room is over here…”

“We have a meeting?” Hange asked, her voice suddenly very tense.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I just thought it would be better that I reserved a room, so we could do some testing where we wouldn’t bother anyone.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I thought I was supposed to be preparing something.”

In those few minutes, he had made her wait, made her navigate some awkward conversation and made her panic. Then and there as he led her to the room, he was guessing what kind of dashing review she’d be giving Zeke about their first meet up.

More importantly, was he giving a great second impression? It was nine in the morning, too early for him to be confident that he was a fully functioning human being. Or so, that was what he repeated to himself then. He could make up for it after lunch.

Hange settled on one of the chairs nearest to the door. “Do we sit together?” She asked. The meeting room was designed for a maximum of ten people and for a good few seconds, he wondered if he should have gotten something much smaller.

Even before he had figured it out for himself, he was looking between sitting right next to her or towards the other side of the room. They weren’t married. Could he sit beside someone who was married?

But if he sat too far, he might not be able to hear her. He went for a very safe in between. He dropped his laptop bag on the seat next to her with some flourish, as if to say, he was married to his job and he was happy with that arrangement before sitting on the seat right next to his bag.

There was a bag between them, they were a safe distance away and Levi pulled his laptop out and booted it up. “I’m suspecting that the issue with your application might be the build. Can you redownload it for me?” He asked. The laptop had been a reminder at least that they were there for business. And business meant that they had a topic of conversation and he had practiced that script enough times to know, he probably didn’t sound like an idiot.

“Are we testing now?” Hange pulled her phone from her bag.

“Yes we are. Just download the app from the app store. I need to confirm that this isn't just your build in particular being faulty,” Levi brought out his own phone, deleted the application from the folder before redownloading it into his phone.

The ‘downloading’ message next to the love alarm application served some form of inspiration for conversation topics at least. “So, how does your husband like the app?” Levi asked. That line was straight from the basic customer service manual and he was very much sure that was acceptable territory for a professional conversation topic.

“Ahh Zeke? He loves the application. He told me himself, he sees potential in it too.”

Did he tell you over dinner? Over car rides? Somehow, Levi was picturing them over a happy dinner in their European style dining room in their very expensive penthouse apartment down town. He knew how it looked. He had seen it in one of the lifestyle articles he had googled just the night before. “That’s good,” Levi said, he felt that comment catch at his throat. He cleared his throat. “The bug... How does he feel about it?”

Hange’s face fell at that. Subtly at least, but with Levi had been staring at her for the past few seconds, it was very much noticeable as a split second movement. “Yeah, about that…”

“Did he say anything about it?”

“We did research on the application last night… And we were theorizing… so the heart could have been from him… and from someone else right? Someone else had their application open then. And he was saying it was you.” Hange’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “But I remember you said, it could be a bug right? And I’m sure you turned off your phone before we tested it…”

“And we’re testing again,” Levi said as he opened the newly downloaded application on his phone. “Log into your account.” He ordered, looking pointedly at Hange’s phone.

The biometrics were already in his account, all he needed was to log his fingerprints again. Levi took a glance at Hange’s phone laid out on the table.

She had gone through the log in process quickly. He turned the love alarm on and rested his chin on his hands and waited. Hange only needed a few seconds. Soon she had turned it on.

And within a second, her phone buzzed then his phone buzzed. It did wonders to shake the whole table then, enough for Levi to have to grit his teeth as the table shook sending a bolt of shivers up to his chin.

He could have sworn he felt blood rush to his face then. He quickly turned off the alarm. “It might be a problem with our phones. I”ll bring down some test devices and we can try this again. He avoided Hange’s gaze only brushing his hands on her shoulders long enough to make his point known. “Just wait here.”

Hange mumbled something with a seemingly obedient tone. Levi didn’t bother to guess. He quickly made his way out of the room, up the stairs--- he was in no mood to run into anyone in the elevator.

It had taken him roughly ten minutes to go back up to the office and come back down with a bag full of gadgets. He dropped the bag on the meeting table, maybe a little too loud and a little too roughly. “These are the most common gadgets used for testing the love alarm. They’ve all been factory reset so just set any one of them up and we try the application again.”

Hange seemed frozen with surprise, at the least she had managed a nod.

Setting up the device was a simple process and Hange didn’t ask too much about it. She had at least kept quiet through the whole ordeal and although it was second nature for Levi to set up a device, he made sure to keep his head down, his eyes intent, feigning deep concentration.

Or maybe he needed to concentrate. His hands were shaking just a little bit, his heart was racing.

He was sure he only needed to try it one different device, one commonly used model for both of their phones to rule out any problems with build or model. It was a decisive move.

And the climax of such a process came once again when Hange had motioned to click the love alarm again before looking up at him. Before they even met eyes, Levi clicked the on button on his end.

It was at the moment when the alarms rang in unison again did Hange avert her gaze. Levi bit his lip as he stared back at his phone.

One person nearby is in love with you.

He glanced up, at Hange’s phone. Although he couldn’t make out the words on it, the characteristic heart near the center was enough. She was getting the same heart.

He grabbed the phone from her. “It might be related to the model,” Levi said, Years of experience working with applications and phones were telling him, it wasn’t related. One working phone was more than enough proof. Looking at the watch at the end of the meeting room, he saw it was far from lunch time, he had at least ten devices in the bag. “Let’s try it on other phones… Just to be sure.”

***

“Levi, what if…”

“What if…” Levi nodding his head at Hange slowly, a subtle gesture for her to continue speaking.

For lunch, they had settled for one of the diner just along the wide shopping streets only a few minutes walk from the building.

An eventful few minutes walk. Levi had turned on his love alarm, put an earbud to one ear and listened to the alarm ring on repeat as he followed Hange through the streets. There were a few other notifications that popped up and left as he listened. But the ringing coming from that one heart which he had already surmised long ago, was from Hange’s heart had settled into even the cadence of his steps. It became an ubiquitous part of the short walk to the shopping street.

When they had settled in the diner though, Hange was quick to drop her phone in front of him and show him the history of her application. On her phone, there was one heart that remained steadfast through the whole ten minute walk as well.

At that moment, Hange pointed at it, then glanced quickly at Levi’s own phone. “What if… You are attracted to me. And I’m attracted to you? Because this love alarm, it doesn’t just check love right? It checks attractiveness. So if a passer by thinks you’re attractive, your alarm rings,” Hange said.

Levi leaned back on the diner behind him, picking at his fries with a fork. He couldn’t bring himself to eat one, just the results of their testing that morning had him losing his appetite. Consequently, he had ordered the burger meal at the front of the menu, something he was in no mood to eat.

“So maybe…” Hange said.

“Hange, we just met. During all the tests. I have never made anyone’s love alarm ring. Besides, I don’t think I’d be the type of guy to get attracted to someone at first glance. I don’t believe in love at first sight.” And someone who’s married at that. If Levi had something in his mouth then as that thought ran through his mind, he was sure he would have choked. He was more grateful than ever that he hadn’t started eating.

“But, we saw it already… The application was giving the same reading and when we were walking too… It never stopped ringing…” Hange explained. Still she looked like she was still finding the right words.

Levi understood her clearly though. “Hange, are you in love with me?”

Hange turned a bright red. “What? No, I'm married. Also, we just met and I don’t believe in love at first sight either”

“So do you believe there’s a bug?”

Hange nodded. “Maybe? Or maybe the data you put into the application was flawed. Maybe there are things that need to be improved.”

“That is a good point. So what do you suggest then Hange?”

“I’ll help you research. I pitched this application to Zeke because I wanted to try rolling something out similar to hospitals, psychiatric units. And if he invests maybe we could improve the application, work to make it more accurate?”

“That’s the plan. But he said so himself, he’s not going to invest in the application until the bug is fixed.”

“But what if it is working as expected… What if it’s just a matter of fixing the data?” Hange looked out the window, seeming deep in thought. Levi wondered if that last question had been for him or for herself.

“I can do further testing on this. Just to make sure,” Levi said. “The problem is… How are you gonna convince Zeke to invest in this?”

Hange sighed. “I guess it's going to be a question of timing. I'll catch him when he's in a good mood and--”

“Hange, are you willing to admit to your husband that you might just be attracted to some stranger?”

That shouldn't have been such a difficult thing. He had heard before of married couples who window shopped so Levi amended that question in his mind.

Are you willing to admit to your seemingly unhinged husband that you might just be attracted to some stranger?

***

Sometimes, the only way to find the bug is to break the application.

Levi and Hange got caught in the lunch time rush. But Hange wasn’t a typical worker, Levi wasn’t a typical eight to five employee either.

So Levi saw opportunity for a little test. “Open your love alarm,” he whispered. He put one earbud to his ear, motioning for Hange to do the same. He turned on the application once again, letting the shill ring grace his ears one again.

It was annoying at first, but over time, he had started to see it as an old friend. He was far from the denial stage already and he was already threading the lines of acceptance.

He was a developer. He had fucked up the coding and a bug had appeared. And that issue, it was a bug for sure, a bug he needed to investigate.

And any opportunity for data and evidence, was an opportunity he couldn’t waste.

“We walk through the lunch crowd,” Levi said. “Usually when I walk through, I get two to three rings. Sometimes more. There have been issues before that getting too many at once, sometimes the application would conceal all the hearts and the only way to get it to work again is to reset the application.”

“So what do we do?” Hange asked.

“Turn on your application and we walk through the crowds,” Levi repeated matter-of-factly.

The crowds around him though were disconcerting and he could understand how Hange would have needed some guidance then.

What did she know about testing? When Levi asked himself that question, he started to pick out another question too. What did he know about testing?

He was an engineer and he had been working with applications for years. He had experienced a lot about testing. But he had never experienced testing with a customer married to one of the biggest opportunities of a company and being accused of being in love with her by his own brain child.

He was treading unfamiliar grounds.

The ringing of the alarm was always unsettling at first. By the fifth ring, it always found a rhythm. Or maybe it was his own brain that found rhythm in it.

And he walked to that rhythm, he pushed past the crowds to that rhythm and every two to three rings, he would take a glance to see Hange beside him, her face had settled to some rhythm too. Sometimes, she would look back at him, other times she would look behind her, as if she suspected someone had set her alarm off.

But he had become part of her rhythm too. From his peripherals, he could see she snuck glances at him. Very quick glances that Levi had been perceptible, invested enough to notice.

They could have been walking for five minutes, or maybe even ten. Soon, Levi realized, the love alarm had embedded itself into the background noise, an annoying ring amid faint voices, conversations, public announcements.

It had only seemed loud once again when the street had opened up to an open space at the center.

In front of them was an empty park, and it usually was empty when the lunch crowds had made their way back to their offices. Levi had worked there long enough to know.

The chaos of the alarm had subsided into one noise. He turned to Hange to see that she was looking up at the sky then, one hand over her forehead, shading the view from the bright afternoon sun.

The light from the sun had done wonders to make her cheeks look a bright pink and for a second or so, Levi just stared, long enough for Hange to have noticed. Or maybe it was her plan to look to him eventually.

“Did it stop?” Levi asked as soon as he became aware of those hazel eyes on him. He averted his gaze and looked around the empty park. Nobody should be ringing his alarm. Nobody should be ringing her alarm. But them.

It should have been a win-win situation. If that had worked to break the application, Levi could have clocked that as the bug and investigated that instead. If it worked as expected, if the two applications continued to ring, then maybe it was working.

His alarm was still ringing. He did a thorough 360 of the park. No one was near enough to even meet the ten meter radius. Just to be sure though he turned to Hange. “Anyone around our ten meter radius?”

The park was empty save for one old man on a bench a good distance away, definitely more than ten meters. He hoped it had sounded like a redundant question.

Hange shook her head. “Nobody. But the application is still ringing.”

“Did it stop at all? During the walk?”

Once again, Hange shook her head.

Levi took a deep breath and dropped his shoulders back. “Erwin gave me a week to figure this out. I’ll do some of my own personal investigation after this.”

“Hey, I’ll do what I can too. I really want you to get those funds.” Hange took her hands in his and Levi had half the mind to pull away. If her hands weren’t so soft and maybe a little too warm even for a cool spring day.

Levi had been almost disappointed when Hange dropped his hand and turned back to her phone. Just ‘almost’ though. They just met, he couldn’t be too invested in hands.

So he thought back once again to backend work to the numbers that made up the love alarm. And he thought of Hange’s little suggestion. “You said something about flawed data right?”

***

“My plan is I’m gonna see if I can convince Zeke to take up that love alarm,” Hange said.

“No need to hurry. I have a week to get it working,” Levi muttered. He wasn’t looking at Hange then. His laptop was propped on his lap and he was looking through open support tickets.

They had a support team and being a developer, answering customer queries wasn’t his job. At that rate though, he was looking for anything to keep him busy. Zeke would be coming to pick up Hange and the last thing he wanted to be was free enough to stare at them.

“I have some books on love, I could send them over,” Hange suggested

Levi looked up from his laptop. The support ticket on ‘how to download the app’ was not very interesting after all and he found reason once again to stare at Hange’s bright hazel eyes. “Why would I need books about love?”

“You seem… inexperienced with love?” Hange started. She seemed unsure with that answer.

“Inexperienced with love?” Levi narrowed his eyes at her.

“Allergic to love,” Hange repeated. “so I thought it might help if you read on them.”

“Why would you care if I read them?”

“If we’re gonna work together to improve the accuracy of your alarm, I think you should learn. I’ll do my part too. I’ll learn a bit of coding.”

Levi shrugged. “Send them over then. I’ll look through them if I have time. First things first, I need to get a little more testing done.”

“They might be useful for testing. Or maybe they’ll be able to help you pick out which sensations in particular point to love.”

“I loaded the data. I would know,” Levi said.

Hange raised one eyebrow at him in playful suspicion. It had done some magic in helping Levi recall that all he remembered were the numbers and some hints about sweating, palpitations and some quickening paces. But machines had a tendency of learning more about the users over time.

“Maybe I’ll read one or two before bed," he added a second later.

“Great. Then I’ll do my homework too. I’ll see what I can get from Zeke. Hopefully I can convince him to invest, even with the bug.”

“You have my number---” Just update me. Before Levi could let those words out, he had fallen back into that support ticket about that one person not knowing how to download the application.

It was still a boring and stupid support ticket. But when Zeke had padded into the lobby like he owned the place with a butler in tow, Levi decided that the idiot of a ticket was still a better view than Zeke at that moment.

“Thank you for picking me up,” Hange said in an almost melodic tone, a tone that made Levi’s ears bleed.

“My meeting ended early and I don’t think we had a good dinner since last week. What did you have for lunch?”

“Burgers and fries.”

“Burgers and fries? Hange, I gave you more than enough money for a good meal." Zeke sounded mortified.

Levi froze. He had suggested the diner for its strategic location. He found himself running his right hand slowly over his wallet in his front pocket. He was sure he had the money for anything more expensive.

“It was good.”

“Well, I’ll make sure we get something better tonight. There’s a new restaurant, just outside town, they sell the pink fatty tuna and Kobe beef imported straight from Japan, same day shipping apparently so it’s definitely the freshest we can get here. What do you think?”

“That sounds great,” Hange said.

She had said it in such a tone, a tone she had never used with Levi before. Like she was tasting the food as she spoke of it. Of course she wouldn’t use it on you. You just met her. Levi thought to himself. As he willed himself to get back to his senses, he realized the ticket was still untouched. Although he had been staring at it since a while ago, he hadn’t made any progress at all.

He looked up at Hange then at Zeke. “Apologies for only taking her to a diner. Next time, I’ll make sure to take her somewhere a little…” Rich, expensive, snazzy, exclusive, snobby?  Too many adjectives were running through his head then but Levi settled for something seemingly more professional, or as professional as he could go. “More your tastes.”

“That would be very much appreciated,” Zeke said. He took one of Levi’s hands in his, too suddenly and too forcefully that Levi had to smack his laptop to keep it balanced on his lap. “Thank you again for taking very good care of my Hange here.” He had slipped a hundred dollar bill in between Levi’s hands and maybe he had expected Levi to smile and say ‘thank you.’

And most days, Levi was polite enough to have mustered one but his ears were still ringing, not from hearing the love alarm non stop that day but from those last words Zeke had said.

My Hange.

Hange waved, motioning with her hands to ‘text soon,’ then she turned her back on him.

Levi couldn't’ even get a good view of Hange as she walked away. Soon enough, Zeke had wrapped one arm around her shoulders. From Levi's angle, he couldn’t tell whether Hange had pushed closer to him or Zeke was the one who pulled her closer.

For a second longer, he pondered it. Of course Zeke would pull her closer, that’s his Hange. Of course Hange would move closer to him, she’s his.

Levi looked back at the support ticket, he had opened again.

How to download application. Please help.

He closed his eyes and leaned back on the sofa. He closed all his open tabs before laying his eyes again on the empty draft.

Within seconds, he had closed that tab as well. There were larger issues then than a customer not being able to download an application.

***

Hange had sent books about love in a drive folder and she had emailed it to him. When Levi opened it, he was quick to figure out, they were all self help books

Scott Peck? He could have sworn he had heard that name somewhere and when he opened it, he found the book was hundreds of pages long. He didn’t have the attention span for that.

Maybe I’ll read one or two before bed. He had promised Hange that evening. But he didn’t actually have to read it right?

So instead, Levi googled the summary.

Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truly loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. ...Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love.

Levi was quick to close it after that. If that concept of love was real, that would defeat the whole purpose of the love alarm. The last thing he had wanted to do so late at night was invalidate his own brain child.

“Book one for the night. Done,” Levi whispered to himself as he opened the next book on file.

Before you love others, you must learn to love yourself.

“Cliche,” Levi said. But soon after reading it, he turned back to the application on his phone. He turned it on to see an empty blue screen void of hearts. There wouldn’t be hearts, he was alone in his apartment.

He thought back to Hange’s mention of flawed data. He thought back to the alarm that wouldn’t stop ringing. They had been testing it that whole day, there was nothing wrong with the application and the developer in Levi knew there weren't any glaring bugs.

But the testing would continue. He hadn’t completely tested all the scenarios after all. The alarm ringed with Hange but would it have alarmed with anybody else? His five years worth of experience testing the application told him 'no.'

Or maybe he just hadn’t been actively looking for the right people.

Even at night, the gears in his mind managed to turn and soon, he had a plan albeit a vague one. But the first few steps were clear at least. Levi navigated to his play store and typed a few words on the screen. A few minutes later, he was downloading an application with a familiar flame icon on the screen.

He took a deep breath. "This is part of the testing process," he muttered to himself. He was gonna be spending the whole night swiping.