#I'll edit it once i open up my laptop

[iristial]

I didn't realize until now that I haven't made or posted any new gifsets since 2024 started. I even had to scroll through my own tag just to be sure ^^; My brain must've been tricked by all the notifications I keep getting for the Geats edits I did last year

[sturniqlo]

Love You From The Start- C.S

summary: more bff!chris and bff!y/n and a bit of bf!chris and gf!y/n headcannons

cw: fluff, slight cursing, a pinch of angst ntm, very minimal smut

an: tysm to @probablyoutyappingorsomething and this anon for all of these ideas💋 | lowercase intended

masterlist

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bff!chris who loves tickling you to make you laugh

"chris! stop it!" y/n cant stop laughing as chris' fingers dig into her sides and tickle her. chris also giggling and smiling so hard that he gets to hear her laugh and he's the one who's making her laugh and smile. "okay, okay!" chris' fingers eventually stop tickling her and he rolls on top of her and smothers her face in kisses, missing her lips.

bff!chris who always buys her online shopping carts without her knowledge

"oh my god no!" y/n whines, rubbing her hands over her face in disappointment, her laptop placed on top of her blanket. "what is it? what happened, hm?" chris asks worriedly. "my sephora cart! it's gone, i was going to buy it right now!" she goes to the sephora search bar and starts searching up the products she remembered she had in her cart. "wait, don't do it." chris stops her and grabs the laptop from her. "what? why not." she tries to look at the screen but he moves it from her view. "because," chris flips the screen back to her and shows her an online receipt. "i bought it for you when you were showering." he continues. y/n gasps. "chris, you didn't! it was almost three hundred dollars." she looks at his in disbelief.

"your package got here!" chris enters y/n's room. "my package? i didn't order anything." she's confused. "you didn't, i did. but, it's for you. i bought your amazon cart." y/n swats his arm. "chris! what'd i tell you about buying my cart without telling me." she grabs the huge box from him and opens it up. "thank you though."

bff!chris who takes y/n on many shopping sprees

"come on, it'll be fun!" chris drags her through the mall. "you know i don't like spending your money." chris groans. "i've told many times, i don't care! i'll buy you a fucking house and i wont complain! i love spoiling you." he wraps his arm around her shoulders. "fine, let's go to bath and body works first!" she soon gives in.

"i'd say this was a successful shopping trip!" chris lightly kicks y/n's room door open and places her many shopping bags down. "thank you for my new stuff chris, how can i pay you back?" y/n says. "i can think of a few ways." chris smirks and wraps his hands around her waist. "you dirty animal! not like that!" she throws her head back and laughs.

bff!chris who takes the opportunity to pretend to give y/n backshots whenever she's bent down

"i felt that!" y/n scolds chris when she feels a small gust of wind coming from behind her as she tries to grab a new sponge from under the sink. "not sure what you're talking about." chris acts clueless.

"boom! boom! boom!" chris grabs y/n's hips as she's bent over and pretends to give her backshots. "chris! you're so stupid!" she laughs as she's used to his behavior. "stupid for you." he lets her go and places a kiss on her neck.

bff!chris who teases you when you two are filming for his channel with his brothers

"behave." y/n mutters to chris once they're out of the frame from the camera. "but you look so good in this." he whispers and runs his hands over her ass in her shorts. chris, throughout the video, has been rubbing his hands over her ass and y/n is concerned that nick will miss it while editing and fans will take notice of them.

"and today we're here with y/n and we're going to be-" nick says and chris hugs y/n from behind and grabs her boobs for a second before letting go. "chris! i'm going to have to cut that out! let's redo the intro."

bff!chris who give you his honest opinions on your outfits and accessories

"okay, what about with this necklace?" y/n turns back around and shows chris the new necklace on her neck. chris, laying against her headboard, looks her up and down seeing if the necklace matches. "mm, i think the second one is better. this one is so thin and you can't really see it. i almost ignored it like you ignore my love for you."

"absolutely not." chris shakes his head at the shirt y/n is currently trying on. "yeah, i thought so." y/n looks down at the shirt as if it's going to magically change and look any better. "looks like something my eighty year old neighbor would wear." y/n gasps and they both look a girl who is walking into the changing room going to try on some clothes wearing the same exact shirt. "chris!" she covers her mouth and locks herself in the changing room leaving chris on his own.

"yes, this one looks so good on you!" chris immediately gets up as he sees her in a tight fitting dress. "look at you, holy fuck." he rubs his hands up and down her figure. "thank you, i'm guess you love it?" she looks up at him. "oh yeah." he pushes her into the tiny room.

bff!chris who will sit and yap with you for hours on end

"and i told him, no you're fucking crazy if you think i'm touching that snake!" chris tells y/n a story of what happened on his hike with his friends and they encounter a small snake. "remember when we accidentally kissed?" he forgets all about the snake talk and moves onto another topic.

"really? tell me more about it." chris looks into her eyes as she takes chris about a time where she was into pottery. "i have a few pieces in my family storage unit. maybe we can go one day and i'll show you. i think there's this one piece you'll like and you can have it." she fixed his earring as it moved out of place. "i'll keep all of 'em if i have the chance to."

bff!chris getting jealous when he sees you talking or laughing with another guy who isn't him

"who was that you were just talking to?" chris says in an angry tone. "not sure, he just came up to me and started talking to me." she says casually. "well i don't like him." y/n sighs. "chris you don't even know him." she says.

"woah, calm down. looks like you're about to explode." matt says next to him as chris looks at y/n talking to one of her guy friends. she's told chris about max, one of her old friends, and how close they used to be. "am not." he lies, feeling jealousy all over him. he then sees y/n wave him over and he goes up to him. "chris, this is max. max, this is chris." max sticks his hand out for chris to shake it. "it's nice to finally put a face to name, she's told me so much about you." max says and y/n blushes. "hush!"

bff!chris introducing y/n as 'his girl' to new people

"y/n! come, let me introduce you to some people i just met." chris says in her ear as he finally found her. "okay!" she grabs his hand and follows behind him. "guys! look, this is my girl, y/n." he puts a hand on her waist and y/n blushes at what he just called her.

bff!chris doing anything and everything to make her smile when she's upset

"come on, give me smile. please?" chris hovers over her, trying to pull her hands away from her face. "noo!" she whines. "please? just a small one." he finally manages to remove her hands. "look how pretty you are." that makes her break out in a smile. "there she is." chris smiles. "i promise you, that grade doesn't define you, okay? that professor doesn't know what he's talking about."

bff!chris overhearing y/n tell his brothers she doesn't like him, but he misses something.

chris could help but eavesdrop on y/n's conversation with his brothers. he was currently standing on the stairs behind the wall. "so, do you like him?" he hears matt's voice. "i- uhm, i don't know? no?" chris' heart breaks and he freezes for a couple of seconds before turning back and slowly walks down the stairs back into his room. however, y/n continues. "fine! yes, i do, i fucking love him. i'm just scared to tell him." back in his room, chris sniffles into his pillow. the girl who he has major feeling for doesn't like him back. was she just leading him on the entire time?

bff!chris ignoring y/n after overhearing what she said

"hi, i'm back." y/n comes back down happier than usual. chris stays silent on his phone. "wanna watch a movie or something?" she says, plopping down in her usual spot on his bed. he ignores her. "chris? do you want to watch a movie?" she tries once more, maybe he didn't hear her. "hello? earth to chris?"

bff!chris and bff!y/n expressing their love for each other

it's been an hour of chris ignoring y/n and he finally break the silence. "i heard you up there. heard what you said." he mumbles. "you heard me? like everything?" she questions. he nods. "oh i heard everything, alright." he says. "then why are you ignoring me, i thought you'd be happy." chris finally snaps. "happy? why the fuck would i be happy? you clearly told my brother you don't like me after all these years of me flirting with you? we fucking kissed for crying out loud! were you just leading me on?" he gets up from off the bed and runs his hand through his hair. "what?! no, chris you missed the part where i clearly said i was scared of telling you that i love you!" she says back. "what?" chris says, pausing his movements. "i said no at first because i was scared of admitting it. but then i said i do, i love you, chris." she gets up off the bed and walks to him. "i feel so stupid, oh my god." he groans into his hands. "i love you too, y/n."

bf!chris who can finally show y/n how much he loves her

"can i?" chris kisses down her neck. "can i show you how much i fucking love you?" he nips at her sweet spot making her let out a soft moan. "yes, please. please show me."

"mm, you feel so good around me, baby." chris groans into her neck. her nails scratching down his back. "fuck- keep- keep going." y/n gasps as she feels the familiar knot in her lower belly. "gonna come for me, hm?" she can only nod.

gf!y/n who overhears bf!chris telling her mom he wants to marry her

"you really love her don't you?" y/n hears her moms voice in the kitchen. she had came down because chris was taking a bit to long from getting water. "i do, i really do." she stands behind the wall that goes into the kitchen feeling bad for overhearing this conversation. "i want to marry her one day." y/n gasps quietly and smiles. she goes back upstairs once he mentions that he's going to head on up. once he enters the room he sees y/n slightly out of breath and smiley. "you head me down there didn't you?" he throws himself on top of her. "maybe." she giggles. "i really mean it, okay?" he kisses her lips. "okay, i agree with you too. i want to marry you."

[bbydoll18xx]

Keep the Edits Cordial

A tik tok edit of two best friends coaxes out admissions of feelings (and orgasms)

Paige Bueckers x reader

word count: 3.2k

themes: mutual pining (LOML), friends to lovers, smut!!

warnings: i like using the word ‘fuck’, 18+

Thanks for the love on my first post! This is my first attempt at writing smut, so bear with me. I have a few more ideas if y'all are interested!

Despite not being on the uconn’s women's basketball team, or having any shred of athletic ability, you had befriended Paige Bueckers, and her teammates, as an extension, had adopted you with open arms. So you weren't out of place sitting in the apartment of Paige and several of her teammates while she was in class.

“Oh fuck, shit, shit, shit,” you hear KK Arnold swear over on the couch across from where you were sitting, attempting to get some homework done.

A sensual R&B song plays from her phone several times, as her eyes nearly pop out of her head while she watches.

You look up, mildly annoyed at the noise, but you were used to KK’s antics and her overdramatics. 

“What the hell is the issue?” you ask.

“Umm…nothing,” she drawls. “Be right back, girly pop. Don’t move.” She runs into Azzi’s room, where Azzi and Caroline were attempting to also be productive. 

That was damn near impossible when KK was around.

Your interest peaks as you hear the same music play from KK’s phone again several times over and the giggles and gasps of the three girls fill the bedroom. 

“Paige is gonna flip if she sees this,” Azzi says matter-of-factly, as you strain to hear the full conversation.

‘What would make Paige flip?’ you wonder. 

“I gotta show this to Ice!” You hear KK exclaim a little too loudly, causing the other two girls to shush her. 

KK runs back into the main living space of the apartment where you were sitting. She picks up her stuff with a shit-eating grin before waving to you and rushing out the door.

She was so fucking weird.

Giving up on the essay you were supposed to be finishing, you toss your laptop down and head into the bedroom where Caroline and Azzi are heatedly whispering. They stop as soon as your footsteps near the door. 

Why were they acting so suspicious?

“Ladies, would you mind telling me what the actual fuck just happened?” you ask sarcastically. Being out of the loop was not fun.

“Oh you know, just KK being KK,” Azzi said, brushing it off. “Nothing that concerns you really.”

“But it concerns Paige?” you prod, trying to get any information out of her. Being around Azzi for years at this point, you had grown to learn her weak spots. 

Your eyes narrow, and you stare her down in a way you could only hope was somewhat threatening. 

“If it concerns Paige I wanna know. We’re best friends, c’mon please,” you whine. “Is it another one of those thirsty edits?” 

Azzi shakes her head and makes a zip of the lip motion. 

You roll your eyes at her childish behavior and look over to Caroline expectantly. She just shrugs. They were no help at all.

“Fine!” You say with a tone of indignation. “I'll find that stupid tik tok myself and see what all the fuss is about.” You spin on your heels and walk out of the room with sheer determination. You miss the smirk Azzi and Caroline share once your back is turned. 

You were so fucked.

You type ‘Paige Bueckers’ into the tik tok search bar and begin to scroll with the volume up to identify the same sound blasting out of KK’s phone just a minute ago. 

Your head gets a little fuzzy as your vision is assaulted with video upon video of Paige. You were used to calming the jump of your heart when you were around her, but the hedonistic edits made you want to scream. Each edit you came to had clips of her flexing, grinning, and sticking her tongue out in a way that made you want to rub your thighs together. They were paired with lascivious lyrics that caused you to nearly let out a whine. 

You had been avoiding tik tok recently for this exact reason. Trying to act normal around Paige all the time was difficult enough. You did not need a ridiculous app to fuel the fantasies that threatened to creep into your mind at every waking moment.

At least your screen time was way down.

Your scrolling quickly stopped as you felt your heart quite literally stop. It was you. In all its glory, with a staggering amount of likes, comments, and views, was what looked to be an edit of you and Paige.

What the fuck?

Your hands shaking, you clicked onto it, hearing the same song as earlier. This was the one the girls were freaking out about. 

“Azzi, Caroline, get your asses out here,” you yell, trying to conceal your panic.

They slowly strolled out of the room looking worried. 

“I see you found it,” Azzi said with a laugh. “So what do you think now that you’ve seen it?” 

Both girls tried to gauge your reaction, but you were more concerned about the fact that Azzi had said earlier that Paige would be pissed about it.

You shrug. You had to choose your words carefully. “Well there are edits of you and Paige together,” you reason. “Lots of people think you two are in some secret relationship, and P has never minded. Why would this be any different?” 

“Everyone knows that you and Paige have a special friendship,” Caroline alludes. It goes right over your head.

“Well if she is bothered by this then we are not as close as I thought,” you say quietly, still watching the tik tok, as it plays again. You wanted this edit burned into your retinas. 

Occasionally you allowed yourself to feel a tiny sliver of hope that you and Paige could ever be anything more than friends. Everytime she gave you a late night cuddle or placed a hand around your waist, as if it naturally belonged there, made you long for more. You knew better than to feel hopeful though. This stupid edit did nothing to quell the burning need for the tall blonde.

Throwing your phone down, you look up at the two basketball players with a look of indifference you’ve learned to master. “It doesn’t even matter,” you whisper dejectedly.

“C’mon, we all know how you actually feel about Paige. She’s the only one dense enough not to see how crazy you are for her,” Azzi soothes. “Maybe it's time to be honest with her. You never know what she’s feeling until you talk to her.”

You laugh. Fuck that. Feelings are meant to be kept inside until you die or they go away. 

You’re hoping the latter will come sooner rather than later, but you doubt you'll get that lucky.

“I don't think so,” you scoff. “I need to go before Paige gets back.” 

You leave despite the protests of the two girls, and you make a plan to hide from Paige for the next few days. You knew it was only a matter of time before Ice and KK went running to Paige to show her the edit. 

45 fucking minutes. That was how long it took before your door was being bombarded by Paige and her delightfully rambunctious children, Ice and KK. You swore under your breath as you quickly weighed your options. Option 1 was simple: pretend you were gone, although the smell of your microwave popcorn could have easily given you away. Option 2 was the grown up thing to do: open the door and have a conversation like an adult. Option 3 was straight up crazy: jump out of the window and run for the damn hills. You glanced at the open window of your bedroom before shaking your head. You needed to stop watching too much television. 

Option 1 was it. Fuck being an adult.

You stood next to the door, waiting for the three girls to give up, but they refused to leave.

“I know you’re in there, c’mon let me just talk to you,” said Paige through the door. “KK and Ice can leave.”

You hesitate, but still reach for the knob of the door. 

“Please?” Paige asks again, causing you to let out a sigh of defeat and turn the lock so she can come in. 

“Are you pissed?” Paige questions, somewhat harshly, as she walks through your door.

You give her a look of confusion. 

“Of course not!” you exclaim. “I thought you might be, though. I heard Azzi tell KK and Caroline earlier that you would flip if you saw it. I was just worried it would make you feel uncomfortable, and then our friendship would feel awkward, and I-” you ramble, trying to make some sense of what you were feeling.

Paige cuts you off with a wave of her hand. “You could never make me feel uncomfortable. I was worried it made you uncomfortable. I wanted to come check on you as soon as KK showed it to me,” she replied gently. “Me and Azzi, we’re used to the rumors, but I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about people thinking we’re, ya know, in love.” She whispers the last two words as if it was some big secret.

You let out a shaky laugh. “It means nothing to me. That would be ridiculous anyway,” you lie smoothly. Burying your feelings for Paige was an artform for you now. 

A quick shadow of something that was hard to read flickered over Paige’s face. You chose to ignore it. ‘It’s easier that way, less messy and complicated,’ you thought sadly. Little did you know, things would get even messier and more complicated. 

Two days later you were sitting in class when you hear the same fucking R&B song playing from your classmates phone. You look over at her, meeting her eyes. She smirks and slides closer to you. 

“So you and Paige Bueckers, huh?” she says curiously, almost like a taunt. “I’d imagine she’s incredible in bed.”

Her hypothesis startles you.

Who the fuck says that to someone they barely know? You feel your pulse rise in anger, wanting to defend your friend. You feel hot with jealousy. Anyone thinking about your Paigey in a sexual manner made your blood boil. In your mind, she was only yours.

You decided it would be fun to play into it. You lean closer to the gossipy bitch, and with a whisper you say, “you have no idea the things she does to me. Fuckk, I mean, we’ve all seen the edits. Her tongue is always out.” The obnoxious brunette to your left looks shocked, and she rolls her chair further away from you. 

With a satisfied smirk, you try to calm the pounding of your heart. ‘What the fuck did I just do,’ you thought. Rule number 1 of being Paige’s friend and only her friend was to avoid thinking of her in the way you really want to. That means no fantasizing, no tik tok edits, and absolutely no talking about having sex with her.

You lay your head onto the desk. What an idiot you were.

As the class comes to a close, you escape quickly to avoid any awkward looks from other people on campus. The last few days have left you feeling unsettled as the edit of you and Paige reached ridiculous levels of popularity. Everyone was now thinking you were somehow involved. You hated how much you wished that to be true.

You had promised Paige that you would hang out once you were finished with your class, trying to keep a semblance of normalcy to your friendship. You rolled into her apartment anxiously, calling out for her. Paige pokes her head out of her bedroom, waving you in with an equally anxious smile.

This worries you. Paige was always the grounded one of the pair of you. Her nervous demeanor makes you think something is wrong. You take a deep breath before sitting opposite her on her bed. It smelled like the lotion she always wears, and you subconsciously inhale a bit longer than normal.

Fuck she smells so good.

Paige stares at you for a few seconds, making you feel hot under her gaze. Those eyes piercing into your soul made you want to scream her name until the neighbors could hear. She takes a breath. “So basically everyone thinks we’re in love,” she deadpans. Her nonchalance makes you squirm. How the hell does she feel about being uconn’s newest gossip train? It's hard to tell.

“Yeah, I kind of figured when I was just asked in class about how you are in bed,” you mutter, blushing at the confession.

Paige looks vaguely surprised at first, before replacing the look with a smirk. “What’d you tell ‘em?” she questions.

With a sudden surge of confidence that you typically only get from ample amounts of alcohol, you reply, “I told her that all those edits of you with your tongue sticking out could only mean one thing.”

Paige grins cheekily. “You’re not wrong. I am great with my tongue. Maybe one day I can show you.”

You think your heart had never beat this fast in your entire fucking life. You were still feeling particularly bold, so you murmur, “I’m free now?” There was no way Paige was going to agree to that, so you get up to leave, before you feel her hand grab yours, pulling you back into her.

“Don’t fucking play with me right now,” Paige demands. “Do you actually want this? Do you want me?” 

You nod your head embarrassingly fast. You felt like an overexcited puppy. “P, I’ve wanted this since the first time I saw you.”

“Good,” the blonde replies. “Me too. Now let me show you all of my little tongue tricks.”

Paige grabs your jaw with one hand, placing the other around your throat to keep you right where she wanted you. Your lips meet finally, and everything around you fades into nothingness. 

Oh my God, she tastes so good. Paige presses hot, open-mouth kisses down your throat, sending shivers through your whole body and right down between your legs.

“Need you naked for me, babe,” hums Paige. ‘For her you would fight a war,’ you thought, as you stripped your sweatshirt off, revealing the pretty pink lace of your bralette.

You mentally high five yourself for your underwear choices this morning. Showing up in your granny panties would’ve been terrible.

Paige helps you out of your jeans and starts placing tantalizing kisses over your inner thighs and stomach. You can feel your arousal leaking out of you already, making you feel slick with the anticipation of what was to come.

Paige notices the wet spot on your panties, grinning as she lightly blows air over your clothed pussy. You arch your back wantonly, needing more-so much more. 

“Please, Paigey,” you whine in a way that gives Paige a big head. “Need you so bad.”

“Use your words, baby. What do you need?” she coaxes, still alternating between kissing your inner thighs and swirling her fingers against your clothed clit. 

“Please just touch me, I’ll do anything for you,” you moan brokenly. You could feel yourself start to slip into some sort of subspace. At this point, you’d do anything just to get some more stimulation.

“So polite, aren’t you, babe? I’m gonna take good care of you,” Paige promises before ripping your soaked panties off in one quick motion.

For the first time, you were splayed out naked in front of your best friend, with her having all the power in the world over you. Before you could begin to feel insecure under her piercing gaze, Paige swirled two long fingers into your sopping pussy, admiring how easily turned on you got for her. She brought them up to her mouth, sucking them in and moaning about how good you tasted. 

“You taste as sweet as I’ve been imagining for years,” she whispers. “Have a taste.” She brings the same two fingers up to your mouth and drags them across your swollen lips.

You lick your lips and groan at the taste of your own arousal, wiggling around on the bed and humping the air to get any sort of pleasure. Paige presses your hips flush against the mattress, keeping you from moving. She was yours to control as she wished. Finally, she brought her mouth down to your burning heat, starting with a long and slow lick up your pussy. It felt so good you could cry.

“More, P, need more,” you cry. She was being a fucking tease, and you could feel yourself go crazy as she ate you out slowly, as if she was eating her last meal on earth.

She granted you some reprieve as she entered a finger and then another into you, slowly stretching you out with scissoring motions. 

“So wet for me, aren’t you my pretty baby,” she gloats, and you try to avoid rolling your eyes back into your head in pleasure. Her fingers pick up a cruel and punishing pace, targeting your g-spot as if it had her name written on it.

She fucking owned you.

Paige, still finger fucking you, presses kisses up your belly, onto your tits, before meeting you in another searing kiss. You want to sob at the sheer pleasure. It was overwhelming; the heat of your best friend’s body pressed flush against you, the moans ricocheting off the walls, and the tightening in your lower belly that threatened to spill everywhere.

“Fuckkk, Paigey, I-i’m gonna cum,” you moan breathlessly. “Please, please let me cum, please I need you,” you whine in an incoherent babble of pleasure. 

“Cum for me, baby, I’ve got you,” Paige pants out, riding the highs of dominating you and ensuring the unceasing assault of your g-spot.

With a guttural moan and a string of words that would make a sailor blush, you ride out your high. Paige’s fingers slow as you pant, coming back to reality. She watches your chest rise and fall a few seconds before removing her fingers from your fucked out pussy and licking them clean.

“You did so good for me,” she praises, causing you to squirm, activating your praise kink once again.

“Thank you,” you whisper. “This isn’t going to make things weird now, is it?” you question anxiously. That was the last thing you wanted to happen.

“‘Course not,” promised Paige, linking her pinky finger with yours. “I’m plannin’ on wifing you up now.”

You giggle as the last bits of awkwardness fall away, feeling blissfully fucked out. “What about you, though?” you ask. You wanted to make Paige feel as good as she made you.

“We’ve got all the time in the world, baby,” she replies. “You look like you’re about five seconds away from fallin’ asleep.”

You smile sleepily at her. She knew you a little too well.

 “I should send a thank you card to whoever made that edit of us,” you murmured against Paige’s chest, making her laugh.

“And I'm definitely getting rid of all three of my vibrators,” you announce, causing Paige to grin proudly.

Paige was unquestionably okay with that.

[hamiltonells]

ALWAYS ~ JUDE BELLINGHAM

[sort of based of this request! so thank you for request. please let me know what you think! always welcome to criticism, also let me know if you would like a series based or this little family! 🍓]

[SUMMARY: being soon to be parents is hard especially being so young as well, but Jude and y/n takes everything in their stride]

[WARNINGS: fluff, smut, morning sickness? not edited, swearing spelling mistakes? ]

You’re feet shuffled across the cold kitchen flooring as you soothed your bump with one hand and held a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the other, Your seven -month bump slightly peaking out of Jude’s shirt.

“Are you still okay for tomorrow, beautiful?” Jude’s voice reaches out over the FaceTime call, as you sitback down on the sofa and put the blanket over your bump.

With Jude being in Madrid, it was decided that you would have dinner at his parents' house in England. Due to your frequent travels between England and Madrid, you rarely have the opportunity to spend time with his family, especially with his mother being in the middle.

you placed the laptop on your lap during the ongoing FaceTime call with Jude, “Yeah all good jude, what time is your flight back” your voice grew tired with every sentence you speak.

“flight is about four in the morning will get back home at seven”Jude's voice making you grow even more tired and relaxed.

You knew it was difficult for Jude to balance being at the top of the football world and being a father at just twenty years of age, but he never complained about it once

It was unexpected for you to become pregnant, and it came as a surprise since you are only nineteen and Jude is twenty years old, but you both took it as your little blessing.

"Is my little one okay? It seems like she's wearing Mommy out" Jude's voice echoes through the FaceTime call, "we're okay, just tired and the usual sickness," your voice tiredly drawls out.

Since discovering you were pregnant, you have been experiencing severe nausea, even if it was morning or night It felt like a constant battle to keep any food down, and the smell of certain foods would instantly trigger your gag reflex.

"Plus, we miss daddy a lot," you said "fuck,don't do that voice, it turns me on" he added with a rough accent, you tutted “better hurry up home then”

"I'll be back home shortly, my Love," he said in his gentle Birmingham accent.

you was sound asleep when you heard the keys jingle in the door, the door open and Jude's footsteps slowly and carefully plodding up the stairs.

You hear Jude carefully open the door to the bedroom where you both share. As you shuffle yourself up to sit against the headboard, you reach for the switch to switch on the lamp, and you switch it on.

"What are you doing awake?" Jude's tired voice broke the silence of the room. You turned to see him rubbing his eyes, looking disheveled and exhausted.

"I missed you, heard you trying to be quiet" you admitted "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to disturb you" he replied, a sheepish smile on his face.

"You could never disturb me. I always want to hear your voice." you said softly, Moving to swing your legs out of bed holding your pregnant belly as you trying to ignore the persistent pressure on your bladder.

You sigh, knowing you have to get out of bed to relieve yourself.

“oi what you doing, let me help” Jude’s voice fills your ears, as he rushes to be by your side, you feel a pair of strong arms wrap around you, supporting your weight.

As he presses a soft kiss to your head, Your loving Jude gently helps you out of bed and guides you to the bathroom, making sure you don't trip over your own feet.

Once you’ve emptied your bladder, you get back into bed with a kiss on the cheek from Jude.

You snuggle into the bed sheets, Jude’s bare back now facing you as he’s rambling on about something with his toothbrush in his mouth, you don’t realise your eyes have started to close until you feel the bed dip beside you.

“Sorry baby, didn't mean to wake you again” Jude whispered as he pulled the duvet over the pair of you, with your back facing Jude he slides his arms around you and on to your bump.

"I love you and we both missed you," you murmur softly in response to him, you feel him snuggle into your neck as he presses a soft kiss there.

“hey Jobe”you slightly laugh out his name as he opens the door only to be thrown into a headlock by his own brother, the pair of them shuffling into the living room as they play fight with each other.

You shut the front door and clean your feet on the doormat before untying your shoelaces and removing your shoes.

You enter the living room and see the two brothers sitting on the sofa with a sour expression and Denise giving them a look.

"Y/n, lovely seeing you again” Denise greets you warmly as she glances up and sees you standing in the doorway “you look amazing, not long left now” she hugs you as you smile and look down, “thank you Denise” you gushed as you sat in between Jude and Jobe.

“only a couple more months left, did Jude show you the scan pictures” you continued.

"Yeah, he did," she replied with a smile. "They're amazing, aren't they? I can't believe how much the baby has grown already."

"I know, it's incredible," you said, excitement evident in your voice. "I can't wait to meet him or her."

"As long as they don't look like Jude, they will be alright" Jobe joked “You’re literally like a mini Jude, Jobe” You laughed as you put your hand onto Jude’s thigh.

“It's nice to know that I can actually grow a beard at the moment" Jude mumbles to himself, but loud enough so that Jobe can hear, "you call that a beard" Jobe laughs as he’s dodging Jude's kick.

As Denise calls all of you over for dinner, Jude gets up first to assist you up, putting one hand on your back as he guides you over to the dinner table, he sits next to you his hand on your thigh.

Mark, Jude’s dad is sat across from you, making slight conversation as you start eating your food.

As you took another bite of your food, your stomach churned you felt a wave of nausea wash over you, you reach out to take a sip of your water to hopefully wash it down.

But as the night went on, the feeling only got worse, your hand went straight over your mouth mumbling your apologies as you rush through the house to get to the bathroom.

He trails behind you, apologizing to his family before heading to the bathroom to assist you, gently rubbing circles on your back as you lean over the toilet, feeling him gather your hair up in his hands.

“you okay baby?” His voice soothing you, you lean back into him breathless as the embarrassment washes over you.

”Jude, I am deeply embarrassed. Your mother and your entire family are under the impression that I became sick because of the meal she cooked.“You convey your concern by covering your face with your hands.

“she doesn’t think that, don’t be stupid they know your struggling with your pregnancy” Jude tries to calm your down by wrapping his arms around your shoulders as you both sit in the bathroom floor.

“You okay y/n?” Denise’s worried voice makes you look up, as you see her standing in the doorway “she’s okay mum, bit tired though I think” Jude answers for you as he puts a strand of hair behind your ear.

"I'll set up Jude's room for you both, and maybe it'll be best if you stay overnight, I'll bring some lemonade up to help it helped my morning sickness with Jobe" Denise smiles at you .

In a pair of shorts and an old shirt, you lay on the bed of Jude's old bedroom, covered in the familiar smell of his old clothes.

Jude is right next to you, scrolling through his phone on his lap with his hand on your inner thigh as he softly squeezes it, as he as he speaks with Jobe who is laying across the end of the bed, who is also scrolling on his phone.

"How much longer do you have left?" Jobe asks quietly as you open your eyes to his voice. "Just a little over a month, why are you excited, Uncle Jobe?" you playfully respond.

he just hums to your question, focusing back on whatever was on his phone.

The next thing you notice is Jude placing his phone on his bedside table, and then shuffles over and settles his head on your chest while his hands go straight to shirt to lift it up, his hands go to your bump to soothe it.

In your hands, you are gentle touching the ends of his hair gently twisting it and reaching to his scruffy beard gently scratching it as he hums softly to.

When he presses a soft kiss against your bump, your unborn baby gives him a small kick as they responds to his kisses

“Did you feel that?” Jude’s face snaps around to face you as he realizes what has happened “yeah, going to be like there daddy” you smile as you stroke his cheek.

“what? let me feel, move Jude” Jobe says as he rushes to your side and he places his own hand on your bump he pushes Jude's hands away as he presses his own against the bump.

“Jobe, fucking hell it's my kid.” Jude leans down for a for a kiss before getting up and making his way to the bathroom. You giggle as you see Jude's scrunched up face as he gets up and goes to the bathroom.

you’ve just gotten into bed when Jude come in with a glass of water and places it on your bedside table, “mum says goodnight” you hum to answer him while tugging him down to yourself.

"Careful," he laughs as he catches himself on his hands as he's above you, your hands go around his neck as you press a kiss to his lips.

His laughter fades into a soft sigh as he leans in for another kiss, his lips meeting yours once more before he puts his face into your neck and presses a few light kisses.

“You have a good day, baby?” He mumbles into the crook of your neck “the best thank j” you the nickname you call him slides off your tongue easily.

Jude hums“I love you so bloody much”

“I love you more” you giggle even more when be nips your neck.

He seals your lips together once more, using his knees to spread your thighs a bit further apart for him as he spreads them apart.

In the midst of your kiss, he lets out a breathy moan, courtesy of the fingers which are holding his face, interrupting your kiss with a breathy moan.

Jude utilizes the chance to break away and snag a pillow from his side of the bed, urging your hips up by tapping the fluffy thing against your side.

your lift your back up, and he settles it under your lower back and bum to prop you up. Fortunately for him, he has had extensive experience navigating the challenges of your pregnant belly.

he grips your shorts and carefully pulls them off, taking your knickers off and softly pressing a kiss to your thigh in the progress.

Settling between your thighs, Jude giggles when you wraps your legs around his hips and tugs him closer.

Jude’s body hovers over yours , love-sick smiles a breath away from meeting each other, and he drags his fingers through your folds, groaning at how slick you’ve become.

“Oh fuck” you whisper into Jude’s ear, biting back a grin as Jude grips his cock with the fingers that had previously been fondling you.

Jude smiles as their chests are pressed together, enjoying the feeling of their stomachs touching while he guides himself into your slit.

Jude hums appreciatively, eyes fluttering shut as he basks in how warm and gooey you are for him. He'd almost forgotten how it felt to have you this desperate for him and his touch.

“Need to be quiet, Jobe next door” he whispered as a moan ripped though your body.

"Oh it's so good darling," he mumbles to you, dropping his head into the crook of your neck. He made a gentle backward slip, pulling the hips back gently as he slipped forward again, his breath stuttering as he dutifully slipped forward once again.

Guiding him, you softly release a moan, lowering one hand to the lower part of his back. With a whisper that tickles his ear, you affirm, "Jude, So so good." Tickled by the sensation, he squirms slightly and responds with a small laugh.

Jude soft with his movements, cautious of the baby between yourself, "made for being wrapped me huh?" And jude thinks nothing ever been truer.

Your arms were made to hold him, youe hands were made for pulling him closer and closer, and your heart was made to completely consume his.

you reached your high before him, rolling your hips up to try and bring him to the edge, grinding down into your heat as his cock twitches and buries deep in your walls.

Jude knows you’re watching his eyes scrunch shut and his gaping mouth curl into a breathy laugh as he comes “sorry baby, too tired for another one” he breathes into your neck.

As you nod and brush the sweaty spots from his forehead to soothe him and just like that, he is already able to feel lighter. He never has to sorry with you, you’ll always be here for him.

[cumonstevie]

Home Sweet Home Part 3

Summary: "It's good to be home," you think as you arrive back in Hawkins, Indiana; not only three years older, but also as a mother.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Warnings: Just a shit ton of fluff

A/N: This took 8 consecutive hours to write so I hope you guys like it!! It's 3.8k words 😬 my back hurts from slouching over my laptop for so long so I'll edit this later.

A year and a half later

You and Steve have been doing so well at co-parenting for Penelope thus far. You had slowly eased Steve into her life, and she happily accepted him. It took her a while to comfortably call him ‘dad’ but once she started, that’s practically all she could say.

Steve doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the day when she confidently called him ‘dad’ without him or you having to tell her.

It was late at night- well, it was late for Penelope to still be awake, and you were trying everything to put her to sleep but she wouldn’t stop crying.

“Shhh, Penny, it’s okay.” You try to comfort her in your arms.

Her cries echo off your newly purchased apartment and you groan, rocking the toddler to try and calm her down.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.

“Baby, please calm down-”

“I want daddy!” She cries louder and you halt your movements.

“What?”

“I want daddy!” Penelope sobs in your arms.

“I-” You’re stunned for a moment because this was the first-time hearing Penelope call Steve ‘daddy’ on her own without you or him coaxing her to say it. “Daddy will come over tomorrow, okay? But you need to go-”

“No!” She yelled, “I want daddy now!”

It didn’t seem like she was going to let up any time soon, so you walk over to the phone and hastily dial Steve’s number. It was only 8 o’clock so you knew he’d still be up- hopefully.

It rang twice before he picked up. “Hello?”

“Steve,” you breathed. “Thank god you’re still awake. Listen, I know it’s kinda last minute but Penelope won’t go to sleep and she keeps crying and asking for you so do you think you could maybe-”

“I’ll be there in a bit. Leave the door unlocked for me, yeah?” You could hear him moving around at his place, probably putting his shoes on.

“Okay, thank you so much.” You let out a sigh of relief.

Penelope’s cries get louder and you think Steve can hear her because he murmurs, “My poor baby…” You hear his car keys jingling soon after. “I’m on my way.”

A few minutes go by and Steve knocks two times before coming in. You know he probably sped all the way over and you make a mental note to scold him after Penelope goes to sleep.

“I’m here,” he huffed out, seemingly out of breath.

Upon hearing Steve’s voice, Penelope lifts her head from your shoulder and turns to her father all teary-eyed. “Daddy!” She cried, leaning out of your arms and toward him.

He visibly freezes at her words and his eyes pan over to you, wide. “Did she just-” he’s cut off by your daughter's cries of ‘daddy’ as she tries to grab him. “Come here, baby. Daddy’s here, don’t worry, sweetheart.”

He rubs her back soothingly and she slowly lays her head on his shoulder, doing the little hiccup-sob combination as she starts to calm down.

“Daddy…” She cried, “Stay.”

“It’s okay, sweet girl.” He hushes. “Daddy’s not going anywhere, alright?”

This seems to ease her mind because a few minutes later, she’s fully asleep in his arms. You silently guide him to her room where you watch as he puts her down and tucks her in. She stirs a bit but Steve gently pats her chest and she stills.

Once the both of you were sure she wasn’t going to wake up, you exit her room and walk back to the living room. The moment you enter the room, Steve pulls you into a hug.

“She called me daddy.” He beamed happily. “She fucking called me daddy, oh my god I feel like my heart is gonna burst open, I’m so happy right now.”

You hug him back, giggling a bit. “Yeah, it surprised me too.”

The both of you stay like that for a bit before he tears himself away from you and checks the time.

“It’s getting late, I should head home.” He says with a bit of a frown. “I can come by tomorrow if it’s alright with you?”

“Nuh uh,” you shake your head. “You promised your daughter that you’d stay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

You tell him he can take your room and you’ll sleep on the couch, but he refuses and says he’ll sleep on the couch instead. You protest but he shuts it down and you let out a huff but say ‘okay’ before going to get him a spare pillow and blanket for the night. You had started easing Steve into Penelope’s life little by little, starting with him visiting her at your place whenever he could (which he made sure to visit every single day no matter what). After she was comfortable with him being around, you segued into him taking her out, whether it be to the park, or to get ice cream (you also tagged along so that she was more comfortable). From that, he started taking her out, just him and her and not too long after, she started staying the night at his house.

He had done up a spare bedroom at his place just for her and she loved it so much. He pulled out all the stops for his little girl. Telling his parents about Penelope was a bit rough. He told you that they were a bit skeptical about him being the father but when Steve whipped a picture of little Penelope out of his wallet and showed them, they went silent.

From there, they were disappointed that he was so careless that it resulted in a child. He told them that they could be mad at him all they want but that he has a daughter now and he’s stepping up and although he doesn’t have a great relationship with them, he would love it if Penelope did.

They were obviously a bit hesitant but after meeting Penelope, they let their guards down. It made Steve happy that they showered her with love and affection but it also made him a bit upset because he never really experienced that from them.

He felt like this was a turning point for them, though. A good turning point.

Today was Penelope’s 4th birthday party and Steve insisted that it should be at his house. You didn’t fight him on it. You figured his house would be better suited for a birthday party than your little apartment.

A knock on the door alerts your ears and you quickly glance into the backyard, seeing Steve run around with Penelope, before opening the front door.

“Sorry I’m late,” Eddie huffs out, “the band stayed and performed late and I didn’t get home till way later and then when I woke up I couldn’t remember where I put Pen’s gift so this whole morning I was tearing up my place looking for it.” He then shows you a poorly wrapped gift box with a smile. “But I found it.”

You giggle. “You didn’t miss much, Penny’s just been playing with the kids and Steve so far.”

“Thank god.” Eddie sighs. “Where do I put this?”

“We have a table outside for gifts. Come on.” You beckon him to follow you.

Eddie sets the gift on the table then makes his rounds saying hi to everyone. Steve is chasing Penelope around the yard and he lets out a playful roar as he picks her up and catches her. She screams and he laughs, giving her a kiss before setting her down carefully.

It was then that she spotted one of her favorite Uncle’s. “Uncle Eds!!”

The little girl runs over to Eddie as fast as she could, her pink tutu that she insisted on wearing even though it was cold outside, flowing about.

“Pen!” The curly-haired musician exclaimed as he knelt down and captured her in a hug. “How’s my favorite birthday girl?”

Penelope giggles. “Uncle Eds, I’m the only birthday girl!”

“You’re right.” He smiles before giving her a big kiss. “You’re getting so big, Pen. Don’t go growing up on me too fast.”

“Ima grow bigger and faster!”

“No! Don’t say that, I’ll cry!” Eddie pulls a dramatic frowny face which makes Penelope laugh.

Steve walks up beside you with his hands on his hips; a typical Steve Harrington pose. “Please tell her to stop saying that, she tells me all the time that she’s a big girl and it breaks my heart.”

Steve pouts at his daughter and she giggles in Eddie’s arms. “Daddy don’t be sad, when I get bigger ima take care of you!”

Steve’s eyebrow quirks up and he points a finger at her. “I’ll hold you to that, little lady.”

“She’s not getting bigger, not on my watch.” Eddie says as he squishes her in a hug. “I’m gonna squeeze you in a little box so you stay little forever!”

Penelope gasps. “No!”

“Yes!”

Penelope wiggles out of Eddie's grip and starts running away from him. “No! Never ever ever!”

Eddie runs after her, telling her that he’ll never let her grow up. You giggle, watching the two and Steve turns to you.

“Everyone here?” He asks.

“Yeah, Eds was the last one to show up.”

“Alright,” he nods. “I say we let her play for a little while longer then sing happy birthday?”

“I was thinking the same thing, Harrington.”

He points to his head, then to yours and says, “Great minds think alike, Y/L/N.”

It was fairly easy to slip back into your friendship with Steve. After the awkwardness of him finding out that Penelope was his, the two of you acted as if no time had passed. It was refreshing and you didn’t realize how much you missed being around him.

To say your feelings for Steve were gone, would be a lie. Your feelings for Steve never really went away. Even if you tried so very hard to leave them behind, they only grew more when Steve would play with Penelope or spend time with her in general. He adapted to his role as a father rather quickly and you weren’t going to lie, it was attractive.

You would never tell him, though. You didn’t want to ruin the dynamic that the two of you had. Everything, so far, was good.

You had tried going on a date a while back but it fell through once you told the guy that you had a child. Steve was very upset about it. The date had lasted less than an hour. You were having a good time, asking questions about each other when you mentioned you had a daughter. The guy’s demeanor changed quickly and he closed himself off. It was awkward after that. He confirmed that you had a daughter once more and when you said yes, he cleared his throat.

“Um, I’m sorry but I don’t think this is going to work out.” He says. “You’re a great girl but-”

“But me having a kid is a problem.” You finish his sentence in a mono-tone pitch.

“No!” The guys exclaimed. “It’s just- It’s kind of-”

He stumbles over his words, trying to save face but you shake your head and pull out money for your meal, placing it on the table.

“It’s fine. I know me having a child isn’t ideal but maybe you should try to at least be an adult about it.”

The guy scoffs. “I’m not about to play step-daddy to someone else’s kid.”

You roll your eyes and stand up. “Grow up.” You say before walking out.

You understand that dating someone who has a child could be a bit scary but he didn’t even give it a chance! He closed off the minute you mentioned Penelope.

You pull up to Steve’s house and slam your door shut in annoyance.

‘I’m not about to play step-daddy to someone else’s kid’

Get real.

You knock on the door and patiently wait for Steve to open it.

“Hey,” he says when he sees you on the other side. “Why are you here so early? I thought you had a date?”

“I did.” He can sense the annoyance in your voice and he moves aside to let you in. You put your purse down on his table and turn to face him. “He wasn’t too keen on the fact that I have a kid.”

Steve’s eyebrows furrow and he’s about to ask what the dude said but it’s like you read his mind because you tell him.

“Said he’s not about to play step-daddy to a kid that’s somebody else’s.”

“What the hell?” He has a look of disgust flushed across his face.

“Yeah,” you nod. “He didn’t even wait a few minutes before he was telling me that it ‘wasn’t going to work out’ between us! The minute I mentioned Penny, he shut down.” You huff out, running your fingers through your now messy hair.

“What a dick!” Steve is visibly baffled. “Welcome to the real world! There’s a chance that you might date someone who has a kid!”

“Right?” You agree. “Like I get it, I’m young and I have a toddler and yeah that’s kind of scary but he didn’t even give it a chance!”

Steve’s hands are on his hips as he shakes his head. “God, what an asshole. I’m sorry, Y/N.”

“Eh,” you shrug. “Probably dodged a bullet anyway.”

“Definitely.”

“I’m never gonna date again. I’m gonna be lonely forever!” You groan.

“No you won’t,” Steve reassures as he pats your shoulder. “There’s someone out there who will want to be with you and doesn’t mind that you have a kid.”

“Suuuuuure,” you mumble. “When you find him, let me know, alright?”

Steve chuckled. “You got it, sweetheart.”

Penelope comes running into the room shortly after, practically leaping into your arms and you cradle her to you. She tells you that her and Steve are gonna watch movies all night long but both you and Steve know she’s most likely going to fall asleep in the middle of the first movie.

She asks if you’re going to stay and watch movies with them and Steve encourages you to do so.

“What, you’re gonna go home and sulk about what a crappy date this was? Nuh uh. Stay and watch movies with your family.” He tells you.

“Yeah!” Penelope adds. “Watch movies with family! Daddy got the movie with the kitties!”

Aristocats has been Penelope’s favorite movie recently.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay.”

Penelope is happy and the three of you move to the couch. Steve puts the movie in and Penny sits in between the two of you, knocking out exactly midway into the film.

Steve puts her in her room then comes back out, coaxing you to stay for another movie. It works and he pops in ‘Just One Of The Guys’. You two enjoy each other's company and toward the end of the movie, you and Steve are fast asleep on the couch.

You gathered everyone around the table that held the cake as Penelope climbed on top of the chair. Steve puts a pink birthday hat on her little head and she insists that both you and him put one on as well.

You oblige with her wishes and put a pink hat on. Jonathan wastes no time with taking pictures of the three of you. He’d develop them as soon as he could and give them to you.

Penelope’s eyes scanned the yard as she beamed happily at everyone. Both yours and Steve’s parents were there, the Party, Eddie, Nancy, Robin, and Jonathan- all in attendance for your daughter's fourth birthday party. Your heart swelled knowing all the people that were present loved your daughter just as much as you and Steve did.

You all sang happy birthday to Penelope and she blew out the candles, causing everyone to cheer.

“Wait!” She shouts with her eyes squeezed shut. “I’m still wishing!”

“Oh! Sorry, sweet girl. Everyone shhh!” Steve says.

Everyone quiets down and Penelope is heard murmuring underneath her breath but no one can make out what she’s saying. After a bit, she opens her eyes and smiles.

“I’m done!”

Everyone cheers again and you cut the cake and plate it while Steve hands them out. When Penelope’s done eating her slice of cake, you start opening the gifts.

“Okay, this one is from Uncle Dusty.” You hand her the gift and she tears it open excitedly.

“A tea party!!” She yells out happily, turning to her father. “Daddy, we can play tea party! Thank you, Uncle Dusty! You’re my favorite!”

Dustin tells the four-year-old that she’s welcome as he beamed at her words. Eddie, however, wasn’t taking it too well.

“What?!” He exclaimed. “What about me? I was your favorite earlier!”

Penelope giggles. “Uncle dusty gave me a tea party so he’s my favorite now!”

Eddie sulks as she continues to open her gifts and Dustin sticks his tongue out at the musician in a mocking manner. Not too long after, however, Penelope opens Eddie’s gift.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” She enunciated every word. “It’s a guitar!! Uncle Eds, it looks like the one you have!! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!”

Although it was a toy guitar, you and Steve knew you would never know what silence felt like after this moment.

Steve rubs his face with his hands when he sees the gift. “Oh no…”

Penelope had been obsessed with Eddie’s guitar from the moment she saw it. She always wanted Eddie to play it and she always wanted to touch it. Eddie would tell you she was a musical prodigy in the making.

You and Steve give each other the same look before you say, “Say goodbye to the peacefulness.”

Steve groans while Penelope jumps up and down happily. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re my favorite now, Uncle Eds! We can play guitar together!!”

“Any time you want, Pen.” Eddie smiles at his niece before locking eyes with Dustin who stared at him with a blank face. Eddie mouths, “In your face!”

You finish up the gifts and the kids play with Penny for a little bit before you can tell that she’s beginning to get tired. You and Steve end the birthday party, thanking everyone for coming as they left. Once they were gone, Steve put Penelope down for a very much needed nap while you started picking up.

Steve joins you not too long after and when you’ve finished cleaning up, the pair of you slump down on the couch, exhausted.

“Penelope’s fourth birthday party was a success. Nice work, Y/L/N.” He raises his hand for a high-five, and you meet him halfway.

“Can’t take all the credit. You did most of the work.” You tell him.

“Yeah, but you gave birth to her. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be here celebrating her turning four.” He smiles at you affectionately before his smile drops. “Oh my god, she’s four. My baby’s four.”

“Yep,” you nod. “And she’ll only get older from here.”

“Don’t remind me.” He pouts. “I want her to stay little forever.”

You laugh as he sulks for a bit. The two of you sit in silence and you close your eyes for a little before you feel Steve shift in his seat.

“Y/N?” He says and you open your eyes to find him facing you.

“Yeah?”

Steve bites his lip and his fingers tap against his jean-covered thigh. His habit every time he’s nervous.

“Um,” he starts. “We’ve been doing good, right? I mean, co-parenting and all.”

“Yeah…” You have no clue where this conversation is headed.

“And our relationship with each other is good. We don’t fight or argue or anything-”

“Steve,” you cut him off. “Spit it out already.”

You start to think he’s trying to ease into telling you that he was seeing someone, and you were preparing yourself to hear it, but his next words threw you off.

“I have feelings for you.” He says quickly and your eyebrows furrow as you sit up to look at him more clearly. “Well, I’ve always had feelings for you. They never went away. I just never said anything because you said you weren’t ready to revisit us romantically but, I don’t know, today just-” He sighs deeply, his fingers combing through his hair. “You look so beautiful today- well, you look beautiful every day and we work so well together that it got me thinking about what life would be like if we were, you know, together. As a couple.”

“Steve…”

“I know, okay? I know I fucked up back then and I know you’re hesitant but god, Y/N, you take up so much space in my head. You and Penny. That’s all I care about. That’s all I want and that’s all I’ll ever need. Ever since you walked out of my house almost five years ago, I haven’t stopped thinking about you. I haven’t been on a date since- well, since I was with Nancy because I didn’t want to be with anyone else but you. I want to be with you, Y/N. I want us to be a family, officially. Me, you, and Penny in a big house. I wanna come home from work and know that I hit the jackpot because I get to see my two favorite girls every single day of my life. I want-” He takes a minute to breathe before he takes your hand softly. “I want you.”

He’s looking into your eyes and you just know that he means every word that he’s said just now.

You don’t know if it’s butterflies in your stomach or if you’re gonna throw up.

“Steve,” you breathe out.

“Please say you feel the same way.” He says softly. “If you don’t, that’s okay and we can just go back to how we were before I confessed all of this but if there’s even a slight chance that you feel the same way, please give me the chance to make you happy for the rest of your life.”

A smile makes its way to your lips and your eyebrow quirks up. “For the rest of my life, huh?”

“Mmm Hmm,” he hums. “For the rest of your life, for the rest of my life, for the rest of our lives… I’m in it for the long run.”

“Steve,” you say softly. You watch as the boy in front of you hangs on to your every word, anticipating what you’ll say next. He looks nervous and scared, but also hopeful. You lean in and kiss his cheek softly. His eyes close as he relishes in the feeling. “You’re in luck because I feel the same way.”

His eyes snap open and they sparkle in the light. “Really?”

“Really.” You giggle. “My feelings never went away either.”

“Oh my god.” He breathed out, pulling you into a hug.

You stay like that for a bit before pulling away. “I want to take this slow, though. I wanna do this right, I don’t want to rush things, Steve.”

He looks at you affectionately, rubbing the skin of your cheek with his thumb.

“I’ll do whatever you want, Y/N, as long as I get to be with you in the end.”

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[skz-bee123]

You fall asleep on them

Stray Kids reaction

Word Count: 6.9K

This has not been edited so if there is any mistakes I'm sorryyy. Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this!

Bang Chan

Chan knew that no matter what you did you would always put 100 percent into it. You would always go above and beyond to prove to only to others but to yourself that you could, and would do it. You never gave up and always gave things a shot. Sure, sometimes things did throw you on the ground but you always, always got back up.

And that was a trait of you that Chan greatly admired.

Normally.

But there were those times that you pushed yourself beyond your limits. Running on only little to no sleep. If you consumed food at all, it was take out and even then most of it would be life to go cold, forgotten as you were too busy doing something.

You were always doing something.

Now don't get him wrong, Chan knew that he could be just as bad at taking care of himself but he knew that despite how hard you were working yourself, you always had time for Chan. To remind him that he needed to take a break, take some time for himself, to clear his mind out.

Yet, Chan never seemed to be able to do the same for you. You kept things to yourself, insisting that you didn't need someone watching over you.

Chan did not want to push you, the last thing he would ever want to do is make you upset but it was the boys saying something to him that he realised that maybe he did need to step in.

"Hyung?"

Chan looks up from where he's sitting on the couch, taking his headphones off with his laptop on his lap. "Yeah?"

The other members of Stray Kids had come over to yours and Chan's place. The plan was to have a movie night and the kids would stay over. The thing was, you still weren't home. And the boys insisted that no movie would be played until you got home.

"Do you know when noona will be back?" Felix asks.

Chan's eyebrows furrow, "what's the time?"

"It's 9:32." Minho holds up his phone with the time for everyone to see.

"I-I'm not sure, she should've already been home by now." Chan says. "I'll try calling her."

Your phone goes straight to voicemail and Chan sighs before shooting you a quick message.

Channie

Hey love, the boys are here waiting for you. It's movie night, remember? Just checking to see when you'll be home.

Love you and be safe.

"She didn't answer but I texted her, she should be here soon though." Chan says as he looks at his members. "Alright what is it?"

"Noona always takes care of us right?" Hyunjin says. "I mean, she always makes sure we're taking a break, that we're eating, and sleeping well."

Chan smiles at that, "yeah she does. She talks about the whole lot of you all the time. She really loves you all."

"We get that and we love her too. I mean don't even get me started on how many times we've all called her eomma, heck, even Minho's done it once." Jisung says which gets a laugh out of everyone and a glare from Minho. "But..."

Jisung didn't need to carry on for Chan to know what he's saying.

"I know, I worry too."

Before anyone can say anything else, the sound of the front door opening catches all of their attention. They hear you sigh before the sound of your dropping your shoes on the ground before they see you walk into the dining room when you put your bag on the table, grabbing the edge of a chair.

You're completely drenched.

You still don't seem to notice that they are all watching you and Chan goes to say something before a choked sound escapes you making him freeze, it makes them all freeze.

They all watch as you start to sob, falling to the ground holding yourself.

"Noona..." Jisung's voice rings out.

The sound makes you whip your head up and you freeze before frantically wiping the tears off your face.

"Oh my gosh, I completely forgot that it was movie night tonight. I'm so sorry, I'll go get changed then we can watch the movie." You say, trying to stand up but end up tripping over yourself. But before you could even hit the ground again, Chan was there, pulling you into his chest.

You try your best but you just end up breaking down. No longer able to hold it together anymore. Chan, holding you tightly, speaks to you quietly enough that the boys can't make out what he says before he lifts you to your feet where he leads you to your bedroom, shutting the door behind you both.

The boys don't speak as they wait and it isn't long until Chan comes back out.

"She's alright, just had a very bad day, it was just too much for her." Chan says.

"Do you, or well, does noona need us to leave? We can do movie night another night." Jeongin asks.

"No, no. She doesn't want you all to leave. I think she'd be more upset if you did." Chan answers.

"Has she eaten?" Minho speaks.

Chan shakes his head, "no, I'll go make her some food now."

Minho stands up, "it's alright hyung, I'll sort out some food. Just go be with her."

Chan hesitates, "are you sure?"

"Yeah." Minho nods, "besides, I'm sure this lot is also hungry again."

"I mean, I could eat again." Changbin raises his hand.

"Of course you can," Minho rolls his eyes, a smile on his face before turning back to Chan. "Go."

It's 30 minutes later that you finally emerge with Chan from your bedroom. You're wrapped up in some sweats and a hoodie that it way too big for you, obviously being Chan's. You look much calmer now, but your eyes show just how tired you really were.

"Noona! Come sit with us?" Felix asks as he points to the spot between him and Jisung. The boys seem to have placed a bunch of blankets around the place and have your favourite movies set up.

You look towards Chan who only gives you a smile and small nod. You walk towards the boys and sit down between them. Felix and Jisung wrapping their arms around you instantly.

You watch as Chan walks into the kitchen, soon coming out with food, followed by Minho who was carrying more food. They lay the food on the table, dishing it out for everyone. Chan hands a bowl of food to Jisung and Felix before grabbing one for you, pressing a kiss to your forehead before he sits down on a different couch with Minho.

Everyone starts digging in and you catch Minho watching you out of the corner of your eyes. He doesn't touch his food until you've eaten a couple mouthfuls before digging into his own. It bring a small smile to your face.

After the food is done and bowls have been put away the first movie is put on. You lay your head on Jisung's shoulder as Felix snuggles into your side. You get comfortable then make eye contact with Chan who was looking at you with a smile on his face.

'I love you', you mouth towards him.

'I love you more.'

The next time Chan looks over at you, you're sound asleep, Jisung and Felix too. Chan look s around the room and sees Changbin and Jeongin snuggled together sound asleep, seungmin and Hyunjin still invested in the movie.

"She's gonna be alright." Minho's words catch Chan's attention and he looks at him with a confused gaze.

"With us, I mean. We'll look after her. She's family too." Minho gesture towards you.

"I know." Chan reaches over and pulls Minho into his side, squeezing him tight. Despite the complaints coming from his mouth, Minho doesn't pull away.

Chan smiles to himself as he looks at his family around the room before his gaze rests on you.

Yeah, he thinks to himself.

Everything will be alright.

Lee Minho

It had been a couple days since you had last seen Minho, he had been busy in the studio. Learning new choreography and all that comes with being an idol, left him with little to no time to see you.

Minho had texted you a few hours before, he was supposed to come over to yours but was stuck at the studio, saying that since it'll be late once he's finished he'll just head back to the dorms.

It left you a bit worried and you decided to go over to the studio. Picking up some food along the way.

You quietly open the door, just in case Minho was practising, you didn't want to disturb him. But to your surprise, he was sitting against the wall with a towel over his face, breathing heavily.

You shut the door which catches Minho's attention but he doesn't take the towel off his face.

"Go away." Minho says.

You raise your eyebrows in amusement, obviously the boys have been in, annoying Minho and he thought you were one of the boys.

"Rude, I was bringing you some food too." You say, a smile on your face.

Minho takes the towel off his face and looks at you with surprise.

"Y/n?" Minho says.

You nod your head, "mhm, it's me and I've brought you some food. You sure you want me to go away?"

Minho just rolls his eyes at you before he stands up walking over to you where he gently grabs your waist and places a kiss on your forehead.

Minho, with his hands still on your waist, leads you over to where his stuff is and you both sit down.

You take out the food you brought and dish some out for both you and Minho.

"What are you doing here though? You should be at home." Minho asks after you've both started eating.

"Yeah, but you texted me saying you were gonna be here for the night, so I thought I'd just come and bring you some food. Possibly stay for a bit is that's okay with you?"

Minho smiles and nods his head before picking up his chopsticks and holding them out to you, "eat, you're still in your work clothes, it's obvious you came straight here from work. I'm sure you're hungry and tired as well."

Seeing you not moving, Minho nudges you. "Eat." He says, still holding the chopsticks up to you where you finally open your mouth and let him feed you.

"How was your day?" You ask sometime later after you've both finished eating and you're putting away the rubbish.

Minho just shrugs his shoulders as he watches you walk over to the bin where you chuck away the rubbish. "You?"

"It was tiring but I got quite a lot of things done that I wanted to, so I'm happy with how today went." You reply as you walk back over to Minho where you sit down next to him and lay your head on his shoulder.

"That's good," Minho grabs your hand, playing with your fingers as he speaks. "I'm happy that you're happy with how today went."

"Do you wanna talk to me about what you're working on at the moment?"

Minho starts to tell you about the new dances he was preparing for, not only for the comeback with the boys but also a personal dance too.

You try your hardest to listen to him, you really do. Everything Minho does, especially when it comes to dance, always captivates you entirely. He puts his heart and soul into what he does, it's one of the reasons you fell more and more in love with everyday that passed.

But try as you may, the comfort of your boyfriend's shoulder, the comfort of his hands playing with your fingers, the comfort of Minho's voice as he told you about all the things he was working on was just so warm and made you feel so cosy, so soft, so tired.

It isn't until Minho feels dead weight on his shoulder that he stops talking and looks down at you. You were fast asleep, a little smile on your face.

Minho reaches over to grab his hoodie that was laying on the ground and drags it over you as a makeshift blanket. He notices a bit of your hair has fallen onto your face and softly pushes it behind your ear, trying his best not to wake you.

He knows he needs to get back to practising but at this very moment, your rest, your happiness was much more important to him than dance. Because yeah, Minho loved dance, he wouldn't be who he was right now if it wasn't for dance. But Minho had been slowly coming to the realisation that perhaps he loved you even more. And as scary as that was, maybe, just maybe, that wasn't such a bad thing.

You snuggle in closer to Minho in your sleep and it brings a smile out on Minho's face.

Yeah, that wasn't a bad thing at all.

Seo Changbin

You and 3RACHA had been in the studio for the past couple of hours. It had started off with only you and Changbin, with Changbin working on music and you working on stuff of your own.

It was silent between the two of you but that silence was welcomed. It didn't matter that there was no conversation happening between the two of you because you were together, you were in the comfort of each other's presence.

"Hey babe?"

You look up from your work as Changbin calls for you, "yeah?"

"You mind if Chan hyung and Jisung stop by for a bit? I got a few things I wanna rub through with them."

A smile forms on your face, "of course I don't mind."

Changbin wheels his chair over to you, giving you a kiss before wheeling back and picking up his phone.

You carry on doing your work, getting so focused that you don't hear the door opening, nor do you head Chan and Jisung come into the room.

But hands grabbing your shoulders and someone whispering 'boo', into your ear makes your jump and scream slightly.

You see Jisung back away slowly with his hands up, all three boys chuckling at you. Turning towards Changbin you whack him softly.

"What? Why'd you hit me? Jisung scared you, not me." Changbin whines.

"Yeah but I bet it was your idea and besides, you know I can't stay mad at Jisung."

Changbin catches a proud grin of Jisung's face before turning back towards you with a pout. "But baby."

"Nah ah, you're getting no sympathy from me."

Changbin huffs and you giggle, placing a quick kiss on his cheek.

You exchange greetings with the boys before moving to the couch to give them more room to work. The chatter of the boys as they worked was a comforting background noise for you and it didn't take you love before you were finished with your work and just sat there and watched them as they did their thing.

Their way of working was harmonious. They just worked so well together and it was something that you greatly admired about 3RACHA.

Changbin eventually turns around in his seat and notices you watching them, he smiles at you before standing up and making his way over.

"You alright baby? Get your work done?" Changbin says as he sits down next to you, after which you place your head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, once I got into it I flew through it pretty quickly."

"Of course you did."

"What about you? How are things going?"

Grabbing your hand and intertwining your fingers together, Changbin answers, "pretty good actually, the track is coming along just how we want it to."

"That's not surprising though."

"No?"

"No, it's not, come on, you guys always come up with the most out of world music like it's nothing."

"We are pretty good." Changbin says, looking smug.

You just shake your head at him with a smile on your face. "Well, I was thinking..." you say turning your body so that your back is against Changbin's chest as he pulls you in tighter against him.

"Yeah?" Changbin hums.

"You have a day off this weekend right? Saturday?"

"I do."

"We should have a movie day, or like a self care day? I can order some food and we can just, I don't know, relax together?" You ask, playing with Changbin's fingers.

You feel a kiss being placed on your forehead before Changbin answers, "sounds absolutely amazing babe."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm, I honestly think that it's something that both of us deserve."

"That's true, we have been working pretty hard lately, we deserve a break."

"That we do my love." Changbin agrees with you.

The two of you converse quietly for a little while longer until your words become nonexistent. Jisung turns around in his seat after hearing your talking grow silent. it was weird, but having the two of you softly talking in the background while he worked was oddly comforting. So, not hearing your voices, he turns around to see what was up, smiling when he notices why.

"Oi, hyung." Jisung nudges Chan who takes off his headphone and turns to Jisung.

"Yeah?"

"Look." Jisung points.

Chan follows where Jisung is pointing and sees you and Changbin sound asleep on the couch, cuddled up together.

"Ahh, so that's why they stopped talking." Chan says, voicing Jisung's exact thoughts.

Jisung stands up and grabs the blanket on the side of the couch, the ones that's always kept there for the late nights the boys pull, the ones for when they inevitably fall asleep in the studio.

"Cute, aren't they?" Jisung says as he tucks the blanket over the two of you, turning around to see Chan smiling at them.

"They are, well I guess we should let them rest, we'll wake them up when we're done."

"Sounds good to me."

Hwang Hyunjin

The kids had been looking for the both of you for a little over 10 minutes now. Neither of you were answering your phones and they were starting to panic. The boys had all been sitting in the room together, you had gone off to find a bathroom but did not return back, Hyunjin went off to find you. But after 10 minutes neither of you had come back and they were panicking. 

“Maybe they just got lost?” Jisung questions. 

“Maybe, but then why aren’t they answering their phones?” Chan panics. 

“We’ll wait here for another 10 minutes, if they still don’t return we’ll go look for them okay?” One of the Skz staff members reassures the boys. 

They all nod their head as they wait, watching the clock for those 10 minutes to pass. And when those 10 minutes pass and there is no sign of either of you, they really start to freak. 

“Something could have happened, we should've gone looking for them as soon as they didn't come back.” Chan paces back and forth. 

“Hyung sit down,” Changbin grabs Chan, “there’s no point stressing out, the staff will find them okay?” 

It’s not even 5 minutes later when a staff member walks back into the room and the boys jump to their feet. 

“What happened? Did you find them? Are they okay? Where are they?” The boys ask question after question. 

“We did find them and they are all right.” A fond smile makes its way to the staff’s face and he gestures for the boys to follow him. 

They all follow him until the staff member stops in front of a door. “We passed by a few stylists who had asked Y/n to grab something for them in the door that was by the bathrooms.” He gestures to the bathroom which was right next door. “The only thing is, the door locks from the outside, so when she went in, she got stuck.” 

“And Hyunjin?” Seungmin asks. 

“Well we’re assuming that when Y/n didn’t return, when Hyunjin went to look for her he must've heard her, went inside the room the door shut behind them and they both were stuck.” 

Chan shakes his head as he reaches over to grab the door and pushes it open. The door opened to reveal you and Hyunjin snuggled up on the floor, both sound asleep. 

“So that’s why they weren’t answering our calls.” Minho says. 

“Scared the absolute daylights out of me and this is why.” Chan smiles fondly as he looks down at the two of you before he walks into the room to wake you both up. 

“Hyung? You found us?” Hyunjin wipes his eyes sleepily. 

“After you both send us on a wild goose chase, yes, yes we did.” Chan says. 

“We?” 

You and Hyunjin look to see the rest of Stray Kids as well as a few staff members standing there and you both blush. 

“Sorry, this was all my fault.” You say. 

“No, it’s alright,” Chan says, holding a hand out for you to grab as he helps you stand back up on your feet. “It will be a pretty funny story to tell so we’ll forgive you, besides we didn’t freak out THAT much.” 

“That isn’t true, you were the one who was freaking out the most.” Seungmin says. 

“No I wasn’t.” Chan defends himself. 

The rest of Stray Kids all start to argue and you and Hyunjin look at each other before bursting out with laughter.

Han Jisung

It was well past 2am and you both were still awake. Maybe it was the cold, or perhaps something else that was keeping you awake. But there was something different about being with someone, with existing with them, breathing with them, at 2 in the morning.

It was these moments that Jisung appreciated the most. Sure, it's always absolutely amazing going out and doing things with you but he loved these quiet moments when you both just had each other.

There's no one bothering him about things he needed to get finished, no dance practice, no music, no thinking.

Jisung loves what he does but sometimes he likes to switch off too and he can't argue that his members are a huge help, they've been with him through his hardest times but it was different with you.

He hadn't realised how much he craved it, how much he would miss it, until he met you.

You just came into his life in full force. If left him confused, scared, but in the end you completed him. You completed him in ways no one else could.

After a long day, it was late at night when Jisung really got to enjoy you all to himself, no distractions, just the two of you. And yes, he did have an early start tomorrow, would spend the day running on 3 hours of sleep but god were you worth it.

"Ji?"

Jisung hums softly, letting you know that he could hear you and was listening.

"How was your day?"

"My day? It was fine, I was in the studio with Channie hyung and Changbin hyung for most of it. But how was yours? Tell me all about it, yeah?"

You go into detail about your day, knowing Jisung wanted to hear every little bit that happened.

Jisung listens to every word you speak because to him, they were all important. Your entire being was so important and Jisung sometimes feels bad that he can't be there for you as much as he'd like.

So he uses these moments, he stores them away. Every little detail has a little pocket inside his brain that he stores away for when the time comes to use them again. A new restaurant here you mentioned once, or a co-worker you mentioned you didn't like. Every word you say means something to him.

"And what else baby?" Jisung pulls you in closer, gently guiding your head to his chest.

His undivided attention is always on you. Every time you open your mouth, Jisung is there to listen. He wants you to know that he cares, he cares so much for you that sometimes it seems untrue.

But his feelings for you could never be more genuine.

"Baby?" You snuggle in closer to him.

You're his person.

You will forever be his person if you'd let him.

The one he turns to when he's getting overwhelmed with life.

The one who knows what he's feeling without him ever needing to say a word.

You get him.

"Sleepy?" Jisung whispers. He feels you nod your hear against his chest. You were still telling him about your day but your words were starting to slur and it was honestly the most adorable thing Jisung had ever seen.

To be fair, everything you do Jisung thinks is cute.

Jisung can no longer hear you voice, instead all he hears is your breathing. Placing a kiss on your forehead, Jisung wraps the blankets around the two of you tighter, before closing his own eyes.

He loved you so much more than he's ever loved anything else. And Jisung hopes that you will never forget that.

Lee Felix

“Movie night!” You say as you jump onto the couch next to Felix. 

Felix laughs as he wraps his arm around your waist. 

“I’ve been looking forward to this since we started to plan it.” You say as you lay your head on his shoulder. 

“Me too love, I’ve very much been waiting for this day.” Felix replies back. 

You and Felix had both been very busy that past few weeks so one night while you both were laying in bed you discussed spending some time together. 

You both made sure that you would have tonight to just spend with each other, no distractions, no work, no nothing, just the two of you. 

You had decided on doing a movie night, earlier on today you had gone out to get some snacks for the two of you to eat and had everything set up so that when Felix returned home, all he had to do was shower and get changed into some comfortable clothing. 

Which is exactly where the both of you were right now. 

“So, should I start the first movie?” You reach forward as Felix nods his head to start the first movie. You both had previously picked out some movies you wanted to watch so that it would make things easier for you now. You had the movies lined up that you wanted to watch and all you had to do was play them. 

After the first movie is finished you both decide to get some food, deciding on ordering some takeout. You start the second movie as you wait for the food to arrive and when it does Felix hops up as you pause the movie. 

“I’ll grab it love.”

You smile at Felix and nod your head, waiting for him to return with the food and when he does you wiggle slightly in your seat with excitement causing Felix to laugh. 

“You’re so cute, baby.” Felix says as he dumps the food on the table in front of you both. 

“Says you, the cutest thing to ever exist.” 

“Thing? So I’m a ‘thing’ now?” 

You roll your eyes with a smile on your face, “oh you know what I mean.” 

“No, I don’t think I do.” 

You look over at him with a raised brow before turning towards the food. But before you could grab anything, Felix grabs your wrist. 

“Ignoring me now huh?” 

You still don’t look towards him, biting down on your lip to stop from smiling. You feel Felix’s fingers wander down to your waist and your head snaps towards him. 

“Don’t you dare-” your words are cut off by Felix tickling you, knocking you on your back as he hovers over you. 

You’re overcome with giggles as you try to fight Felix off you. 

“Lixie!” You plead. 

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.” Felix says with a smirk on his face. 

“Stop! Please!” You say between giggles. 

“Hmm, I guess I’ve punished you enough.” Felix says as he stops what he’s doing before leaning down to place a kiss on your lips. You wrap your arms around his neck and once you’ve broken free from your kiss, he pulls you back up so that you’re sitting. 

“Let me get you your food.” Felix breaks away from you as he reaches into the bags of food in front of you both. “I’m sure you’re hungry.” 

“I am very hungry.” 

“I know, I can hear your stomach.” Felik pokes at your stomach causing you to squeal before handing you your food. 

“Thanks Lixie.” 

“No worries at all babe. Now let's eat and watch our movie.” 

About 2 movies later, Felix looks over to find you asleep on his shoulder. You’ve got a bowl of popcorn on your lap and some hanging in your hair. 

A fond smile makes its way to his face as he looks down at you, picking the popcorn out of your hair and grabbing the bowl off your lap, placing it on the table. 

God he was so in love with you that it hurt sometimes, but he wouldn’t ever replace this feeling with anything in this entire world. 

Kim Seungmin

Seungmin had said he would be home at about 8, you told him that you would wait up for him.

It's now just before 10 and he's still not home. You had texted him and was slightly worried. The logical part of you just assumed that practice went later than expected and he was held back, not able to go on his phone. The other part of you worried that something had happened to him.

It was not long after 10 that you received a call, expecting it to be Seungmin you rushed to your phone, only to see that it wasn't Seungmin calling you but Jeongin

"Jeongin? What's up?" You ask as you answer the phone.

"Y/n, I um...I'm sorry if I woke you."

"No, you're fine. I was up waiting for Seungmin. He said he would be home around 8 and it's 10 so I'm assuming that practice went late?"

"I..I don't. Seungmin he.."

"Jeongin? What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, no yeah I'm alright, it's just that..."

You could hear Jeongin's voice start to break and you can tell that he's on the verge of tears.

"Hey, why don't you give the phone to one of your hyungs, yeah? Are they there with you?"

"Yeah."

"Alright let me speak with one of them okay?"

The line goes quiet before a new voice speaks.

"Y/n..."

"Jisung? What happened?"

"It's Seungmin."

You feel your heart drop into your stomach. "What happened Ji?"

"He..I don't know what happened, it all happened so fast. But he just, I don't know, he just collapsed at practice. He had such a high fever so we just rushed him into the hospital. We haven't heard much, but we know he's still not awake."

"Where are you?"

Jisung tells you the hospital they were at and you quickly say goodbye before hanging up. You don't even throw on a jacket, just grab your shoes, your wallet and keys then leave the house.

Following behind a manager who had come to collect you, you walked down a corridor were you spotted the rest of Stray Kids and ran over to them.

"What happened?" You ask panicking as you look around at the members.

“We were practising and Seugmin just collapsed, so we rushed him straight to the hospital. All we’ve heard so far was that he was severely dehydrated.” Chan explains. 

You bring a hand up to your face as you feel tears well in your eyes, you feel a hand on your shoulder before you’re pulled into someone's arms. You look up to see Jeongin and notice that he’s also got tears in his eyes. 

“It’s okay,” you whisper to him as you wipe his tears away. “He’ll be alright.” 

“I don’t know, I just-I feel like I should have noticed it you know?” Jeongin squeezes his eyes shut. 

“No, we are not doing this.” 

“Doing what?” 

“The blame game, none of this is anyone's fault you hear me? Seungmin would hate to hear you blame yourself like this, okay?” 

Jeongin nods his head and tries to smile, giving up half way when he realises it was too difficult. 

“Has anyone eaten?” You look around at the boys and watch as they all shake their heads. 

“Okay, I’m gonna…I’ll go and get you all some food alright?” You say. 

“No, it’s okay Y/n, you don’t have to.” Chan shakes his head. 

“Really it’s fine, you all need to eat.” 

“But-” 

“Please Chan,” you close your eyes and take a shaky breath before continuing, “let me do this okay?” 

Chan grasps your hand and softly nods his head, “okay.” 

While you’re out getting food for the boys you receive a text message from Chan who explained that he doctor had been there to see them and gave you a bit of an update on Seungmin. Basically he had been neglecting his own needs and overworked himself, explaining why he had fainted. The doctors wished to keep Seungmin overnight but said that it was nothing serious, he just needed some fluids and a good rest. 

“Okay, so I got a bunch of things, I probably went a bit overboard but I’m sure you all will eat it anyway.” You say as you walk into the room the boys were in with Seungmin, holding bags of food. 

Minho and Changbin rush over to you and take the bags from you, you smile at them before your eyes catch Seungmin’s. 

You watch as the boys all dig into their food before walking over to Seungmin’s bedside. 

“Before you say anything,” Seungmin says, grabbing your hand, “I’m alright.” 

You bite your lip as you stare down at him, Seungmin reaches up and with his finger pulls your lip out from your teeth. “Y/n?” 

“Yeah?” You grasp his hand tighter. 

“Lay with me?” 

You don’t say anything but instead lay with Seungmin on his hospital bed, sure it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world but it was what you both needed at that very moment so neither of you really cared. 

You feel Seungmin’s hands playing with your hair and you grip onto him tighter with your hands, it felt as if you let go, Seungmin would disappear from you and you weren’t going to let that happen, not yet. 

It isn’t until Seungmin feels your grip go lack that he looks down at you and sees you sound asleep on his chest. Seungmin places a kiss on your forehead before leaning his head on yours. 

“Hyung?” Seungmin calls out, getting the attention of everyone in the room, even Jeongin who wasn’t Seungmin’s hyung. 

“Yeah?” Chan is the one to speak. 

“I know you all have to leave soon.” Seungmin says. 

“Yeah we do,” Chan nods his head. 

“But we’ll be back first thing tomorrow.” Jeongin exclaims. 

“Yeah I’m sure you will be, but I just want you all to do something for me yeah?” Seungmin asks. 

“Of course Seung, anything.” Chan leans forward in his seat, encouraging Seungmin to speak. 

“Her,” Seungmin gestures down to you with his head. “Take her home with you please, don’t let her go back to her place. She can stay in my room but I don’t want her to be alone for the night. I can’t imagine receiving that call when I was in the hospital. It must not have been easy for her.” 

“Of course Seung, we’ll take care of her, but you should worry more about yourself at this moment, okay? Getting better yourself.” Chan says. 

Seungmin shakes his head, looks down at you. “I could tell you that I would but that would be a lie. My priority will always be her. She does so much for me and it always feels like I never have any time for her and I hate it. Don’t get me wrong I love being an idol, I love you all and I love Stay but sometimes I think about the days when we’re older and it’s just the two of us that’s left, no more work, no more anything, just us.” 

“I’m going to marry her.” Seungmin looks up at the rest, “this is just the beginning for the both of us.” 

“I don’t think any of us has ever doubted that.” Jeongin gently nudges Seungmin from where he was sitting beside him. 

Chan stands up and gestures to the mess from the dinner, “well we should clean this up and head on home to get some rest, I have a feeling we’ll be back bright and early so some rest for all of us will do some good.” 

The kids all start to pack up as Seungmin gets to waking you up and enough everyone has left the room and you’re standing by the door. 

“I love you.” You say. 

“I love you too.” 

You blow a kiss to Seungmin who reaches out to grab it, pulling it towards his heart where he lays his hand. 

“We’ll be back before you know it, as soon as we’re allowed back in, I’m going to be waiting right outside this door.” You say, a determined look on your face. 

Seungmin smiles at you as you blow him one more kiss before disappearing behind the door, “I know you will.” 

Yang Jeongin

Jeongin tried to be as quiet as possible, shutting the door behind him with care and slipping his shoes off silently. Tiptoeing into the hall, he frowns when he hears the tv playing, he’d hoped you would be asleep by now, not waiting up for him. 

Dumping his stuff on the kitchen table, Jeongin walks into the lounge. Jeongin pauses in his steps when he sees you, a sleepy smile makes its way onto his face as he rounds the couch. Sitting on the ground by the couch, Jeongin reaches forward and brushes a few strands of hair out of your face before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on your forehead. 

You’d obviously fallen asleep with the tv on, a blanket wrapped tight around you and there were snacks on the table in front of the couch. He could tell, from the look of things, that you had not meant to fall asleep and that makes Jeongin smile even more. God were you adorable. 

Standing up, Jeongin turns around and turns the tv off, looking back at you once again before picking up the leftover snacks and taking them into the kitchen. Once he’s disposed of the snacks, Jeongin heads into the bathroom where he gets himself ready for bed. Showering off the day's work away, doing his skincare before getting changed into some sweats and an old tshirt. 

Jeongin walks back out into the kitchen where he opens up the fridge, food from the dinner you had cooked in there and he takes them out, heating them up. He tries to be as quiet as possible as he sits down at the table to eat, not wanting to wake you up just yet. 

As he scrolls through his phone, Jeongin eats the food you made and it isn’t long until he’s eaten it all and he’s washing away his dirty dishes. 

Once he’s finished there, Jeongin then walks back into the lounge and over to you, who still sleeping. Bending down so that he’s level with you, Jeongin very gently rubs his hand along your cheek. 

“Baby,” he whispers a few times, watching as your eyes slowly flutter open. 

“Jeongin?” You sleepily ask while rubbing your eyes. 

“Yeah babe, it’s me,” Jeongin smiles as he helps you sit up. 

“What time is it?” 

“A little after 11.”

“Oh, I was watching a movie, didn’t realise I would fall asleep.” 

“It’s alright babe, let’s head to bed now yeah?” Jeongin holds his hand out. 

“Wait, have you eaten yet?”

“Yeah, I ate and showered, let you sleep so that when I woke you up we could go to bed together.” 

You smile up at him as you grab his hand and he pulls you up. Following behind Jeongin as he leads you into your bedroom, you flop onto your bed under the covers as soon as you reach the room. 

“Sleepy baby?” Jeongin laughs quietly as he watches you snuggle under the covers, only your head peeking out. 

“Mhm, ‘m sleepy.” You mumble out, your eyes falling shut. 

Jeongin climbs on to the other side of the bed and pulls you into him, laying your head on his chest as your legs tangled together under the sheets. 

“Did you have a good day?” Your voice is muffled but he understands what you’re trying to say. 

“Yeah baby, I did, did you?” Jeongin traces invisible lines on your back and he feels you nod your head against his chest. “That’s good.” 

It’s not too long after that Jeongin feels you relax completely against him, no longer conscious of the world around you and it makes him pull you in tighter as he plants a kiss on your head. “I love you.” He whispers before closing his eyes himself, letting sleep overtake him. 

[toomuchracket]

all i want for christmas (birthday party!matty x reader fluff)

back from the dead (a depressive episode) with a fluffy pre-dating fic that's honestly longer than it needs to be. whatever. it's christmas. this fic is also part of christmas75/twelve days of christmas, organised and curated by my lovely friend @abiiors. hope you all enjoy <3

wednesday, 3:34am

as soon as the “email sent” pop-up appears, you feebly close your laptop and lay your head on the desk, ready to finally give in to the sleep that's been edging ever closer to your eyelids for the past hour. but before you get the chance, your phone buzzes with an incoming notification, the vibrations rattling through the wood of the desk and into your skull.

swearing, your voice scratchy with underuse, you open one eye and tilt the screen towards you - the name it bears above the unread text makes you shoot back up to a sitting position, and knocks all traces of grumpiness and tiredness from your brain and body.

matty.

pointedly ignoring the butterflies in your stomach when you see he's opened his message with hi, darling, you continue reading: hope you're alright, and that the new book isn't kicking your arse too much. saw a group of kids in barnes & noble raving about your last one earlier. would've joined them if i wasn't in a hurry, to be honest. fucking brilliant. anyway, i know it's late, but i had to text you before i forgot. can you give me a call when you get this, darling? flying home early tomorrow so i'll be up from about… 8am your time? i've got a favour to ask you. nothing crazy, though, and nothing urgent. but yeah, just phone me when you can. thanks, darling. miss you, talk to you soon. bye! X

just as you're reeling from the three darlings and the kiss and the miss you, another text from your best friend comes in, accompanied by a photo: also look at who you were next to on this display. i got so excited. my three favourites!

you laugh out loud, a combination of shock at the fact your collection is between slouching towards bethlehem and consider the lobster and adoration at matty's beaming face next to it all. fuck, he's cute.

so cute. enough for you to forget that it’s 3 o'clock in the morning, and happily pick up your phone and dial his number - you've spent so much time poring over your message threads that you know it off by heart - as if it was mid-afternoon. you kick your legs back and forth as the call connects, smiling to yourself at the thought of hearing his voice for the first time in over a month.

luckily, you don't have long to wait; your heart flutters as he picks up on the second ring, voice thick in the way it only goes when he's smoking. “you know, you didn't have to call me right away, darling. thought you'd have been asleep. but hiya!”

“hi, matty,” you smile. “and come on, it's deadline week, of course my sleep schedule is fucked. questioning why i'm not asleep, christ, thought you knew me better than that.”

he takes your teasing in good faith. “i do, darling, i do know you,” matty's voice is soft, his tone as tender as you've ever heard it. it's driving you batshit insane. “but you know me. i just want to make sure you're not stressing yourself out about your work too much. rather have my best friend's wellbeing intact than another book, even though your writing is my favourite. speaking of, that display! i'm recreating it at home. genuinely. s'amazing.”

you can feel your cheeks burning. “i can't even comprehend that display right now, m'too tired. but i’ll text you my thoughts once they make sense. and i'm alright, matty, honest. please don't worry about me, lovely.”

“that'll never happen, and you know it.”

“god, you're obstinate. but thanks. i appreciate the care.”

“even when you're insulting me, you're so eloquent. you've got a gift,” matty laughs down the phone. “how's deadline week going, anyway?”

“it's done. just sent the final draft away for edits. s'why i'm still up, actually.”

“really? congrats, darling!” the genuine happiness in his tone makes your heart hurt. “god, i wish i was home now, so we could go out and celebrate.”

“me too. but we'll see each other this weekend for early christmas dinner, yeah?”

“that's what i wanted to talk to you about, actually. you know those roast potatoes you made last year?”

“you mean the ones you and alexa fought over the last spoonful of?” you laugh, remembering the two of them racing to the tiny kitchen in your flat to try and nab them.

“m'still fucking fuming that she got them. bitch,” matty grumbles, then giggles. “nah, she's like my sister, i love her. but yeah, those potatoes. can i have the recipe for them, please?”

you suck air in through your teeth. “well… no. that’s a family secret, lovely. m'sorry.”

“oh,” matty sounds so genuinely deflated that you could cry - you seldom see him upset, but the thought of his pretty face all sad makes you feel incredibly guilty. “that's alright, darling, i understand. my nana was the same with her soup recipes. you'd have to marry me if you wanted them.”

you hum out a laugh, brain suddenly scrambled at the thought of walking down the aisle towards him. god. get a grip! 

scrunching your eyes closed and blinking them open again - a tried and tested way to stop yourself going off on tangents - an idea pops into your head, so obvious that you’re not sure why you haven't suggested it already. “well, in lieu of us getting hitched within the next week,” you smile, enjoying the way matty laughs softly at the other end of the line. “i could come over early to yours and make the potatoes for you, if you'd like?”

“i quite like the sound of the first option, to be honest…”

what the fuck?! you have to clap a hand over your mouth to stop a gasp. or a scream. perhaps even a moan.

“...but i'm more than happy with the second one. thank you, darling,” matty's smile is as audible as his relief. “you're a lifesaver and a legend. come over whenever on sunday, yeah? wake me up if you have to. actually, no, i'll pick you up. s'the least i could do to thank you. and it means we get to spend even more time together.”

“that sounds nice,” you all but sigh into your phone. “i'm excited to see everyone.”

mostly you, though.

“as am i, darling,” matty yawns. it's the cutest sound you've ever heard. for fuck's sake. “m'not bored talking to you, honest, just tired. this is actually the most fun i've had in weeks, this phone call.”

you want to assume he's lying out of politeness, but something in your brain tells you he's being sincere; it's not like you can say anything to dispute him, either, given it's also the most fun you've had in weeks. “matty, you’re in new york. at christmas time.”

“yeah, alone! s'boring. macaulay culkin made it seem a lot more fun when i was a kid,” matty snorts. “plus, i saw you the last time i was here. any trip you're not on is just automatically a bad one.”

christ, what is with him today? “flatterer,” you smirk, before grimacing and continuing to talk. “but i assume you've not been… totally alone, the whole time? i don't like the thought of that being the case.”

you hope to god he's too tired to pick up on your actual meaning; the sight of him with another girl isn’t unfamiliar to you, but that isn’t to say you don't mind it. quite the opposite, in fact.

thank christ, he misses it. “no, i’ve been good. slept by myself every night,” he laughs.

you giggle, relieved. “really? wow.”

“why are you surprised at that?”

“you're you, matty.”

“yeah, well, i'm going through a metamorphosis-”

“kafkaesque of you.”

“knew that one was coming as soon as i said it,” matty sighs. “but in all seriousness, in the past couple of months, i've just… fully realised what i want in life, you know? and it's not what i used to want, or get up to.”

interesting. “well, that's good. m'happy for you, lovely.”

“yeah, thanks. and what about you, miss? you, um, bringing anyone to christmas dinner?”

you snort. “obvs not.”

matty hums. “why'd you say it like that?”

“like what?”

“like,” he pauses, trying to find the words. you can just picture the shape of his eyebrows as he does. “derisively. as if it's a silly question.”

“because it is a silly question, matty.”

“is it?”

“yeah,” you giggle. “i wouldn't even have time for a one night stand, let alone a relationship. not that there's anyone particularly interested, right now, anyway.”

“oh, there is,” comes the reply. “there really is.”

“if you say so.”

“believe me, darling, people want you. they're down bad. totally in love with you.”

“oh, you are so high right now, aren't you?”

“i mean, yeah. but i'm right!”

“uh huh,” you smirk. “i think you need your bed, matty.”

“pot, kettle.”

“alright, point taken,” you peel yourself off your chair, joints cracking slightly worryingly as you stand and pad across the flat to your room. “i'm going there now.”

matty sighs happily. “good. but send me a selfie as proof. accountability and all.”

it's an innocent enough ask, and not a totally unprecedented one - in the times where your self-neglect was at its worst, you would send matty and your other friends selfies so they could make sure you were alright - but the concept of sending matty a late-night pic from your bed does something quite odd to your brain and stomach.

still, you’ll oblige. but will he?

matty giggles when you ask him as much. “yeah, i'll send you one in return. i'm all about reciprocation, me.”

the words leave your mouth before you can stop them. “good to know.”

he laughs, that stupid hyena cackle of his that might be your favourite sound in the world. “christ, i've missed you.”

“it's reciprocated,” you smile, switching your phone between hands as you get into bed and hissing quietly at how cold the sheets are. “alright, i'm in my bed. and you should be too.”

“you're right, i should be,” matty says. his voice is lower than you've ever heard it, the rasp of his cigarettes prominent; despite yourself, it goes straight between your legs. “soon, though, darling. promise.”

“good,” your voice comes out breathier than expected, a setting you haven't used in some time. “i think we both need it.”

“yeah, i think we do, too,” matty yawns again, following it up with a sigh. “right. i'm going to hang up now, darling. i really don't want to, but i feel like if i don't then one of us is gonna fall asleep before we can exchange pics. and i can't be having that, honestly. miss looking at you.”

you giggle, rolling onto your stomach and kicking your legs back and forth. jesus christ, what is this man doing to you? “don't get too excited, i look like shit.”

well, you've looked worse lately - you at least showered and clipped your hair up and put on a clean outfit today. but still, far less glamorous than matty's used to.

or not - “i've literally held your hair back while you yoshed in a plant pot, darling, i think you're alright.”

“and on that note, let's wrap it up,” you laugh, rolling back to lie down. “what time should i be ready for on sunday?”

“oh, um… half twelve? that should be enough time to get everything sorted.”

“half twelve it is,” you yawn. “ok. bedtime. have a safe flight, lovely. talk soon?”

“‘course. don't forget that selfie, by the way. eagerly awaiting it.”

“et toi. lots of love, see you soon.”

“back at you, darling. goodnight.”

the call ends. you close your eyes and, for the briefest of moments, let yourself dwell on the fact your best friend - who, let's be honest, you have a bit of a crush on - shamelessly flirted with you to the point of bordering on phone sex, and let yourself believe that maybe, just maybe, there's a chance he might feel the same way you do.

but it's matty. sweet, cheeky, affectionate matty, who'd find a way to flirt with a brick wall if he was bored enough. because that's what he is, really - bored, high, alone on a phone call with a girl late at night. it's just a natural thing for him to do in those circumstances. you're not special, you were just… there.

that notion stings more than you expected. but you persevere, opening your camera and fixing your glasses. he's your best friend, after all, and he asked you to do this to make sure you were alright. nothing more than that.

still, as you close your eyes and smile, you hold the phone with both hands so your boobs push ever so slightly more together. just in case. then you caption the pic as requested, and hit send.

matty’s reply buzzes in a few seconds later, eliciting a shocked giggle from your lips: fucking love it when you wear your glasses. a follow-up appears in another few seconds: if that's you looking like shit… you're defo the sexiest bit of shit i've ever seen.

fuck him for getting you flustered like this. honestly, fuck him.

and, oh, when he sends a selfie in return, shirtless in low light, hair in its natural state, one hand behind his head… don't you want to do just that?

you bite your lip as you compose your response: my condolences to the single girls in nyc who are missing out on you looking like that tonight.

matty: i know, poor them lol. but their loss is one specific single girl in london’s gain, though, yeah?

you: fuck yeah

matty: you crack me up

matty: miss you sm

matty: anyway, sweet dreams. see you in them, i hope

matty: but see you irl on sunday lol xx

you: miss you too, lovely. goodnight xx

***

sunday, 12:56pm

a mass of black fur rams into your legs as soon as you step through matty's front door. you laugh, dropping your bags and crouching to pet an over-excited mayhem, while matty grumbles behind you. “at least let her get in the house, mayhem, christ!”

“don't listen to him,” you coo at the dog, nuzzling into you quite adorably. “i'm just as happy to see you as you are to see me, baby. got a present for you and everything.”

“you did not buy the dog a christmas present,” matty groans, gently pulling the coat from your shoulders.

“of course i did. got you one as well.”

“thought we agreed we weren't doing presents this year?”

“well, i'm a dirty liar,” you brush down your dress and turn to face matty, smiling. “that, and i saw something when i was in glasgow that i couldn't resist getting you.”

matty's eyes widen near-imperceptibly as he takes in the dark red fabric clinging to you like a second skin, raking up and down your body almost too quickly for you to clock. 

almost. you bite back a smirk. got him!

much to your chagrin, though, he recovers quickly and turns the tables. “well, it's difficult to keep control when you see something… attractive,” he murmurs, gaze lifting to meet yours. “i like that dress, darling, you look gorgeous. and,” his tone and face brighten. “i actually got you a gift, too.”

the revelation is just as shocking as the way he looked at you is. “you did?”

“we're both dirty liars, it seems,” matty grins. he nods towards the kitchen. “make yourself comfortable in there, darling, and i'll go and get it. only be two minutes, promise, and then i'll help you find whatever you need, yeah?”

“you've not done a mad rearranging of your kitchen cupboards since the last time we all came over for dinner, have you?”

“nah.”

you wave nonchalantly. “then i'm good, i know where everything i need is.”

matty smiles down at you - there's an expression in his eyes that you can't quite name - and gently nudges you down the hall. his hand is light against your back, but it sends shockwaves through your nervous system regardless. “alright. give me a shout if you need anything, though, please.”

“i will, lovely,” you smile back just as sweetly. “want me to put some christmas music on? get into the festive spirit and all?”

“anything but band aid.”

you laugh, and matty joins in. “i was thinking more sinatra, anyway.”

“perfect.”

and that's exactly how he'd describe the scene in the kitchen he walks into thirty minutes later. the room is warm, made cosy by the oven that's been slow-cooking turkey for a little while now, soundtracked by frank crooning out have yourself a merry little christmas. mayhem snoozes in his bed by the massive window, which shows snow dusting over the garden like icing sugar on a cake, and then there's you. still keeping an eye on the potatoes bubbling on the hob, you sway gently to the music as you pour dried spices and seasonings into a bowl, your face as content as matty feels.

it breaks into a big smile when you see him in the doorway, white dress shirt hugging his chest quite deliciously. “oh! you got changed. i like it.”

“had to keep up with you, didn't i?” matty smiles, wandering into the room and laying a gift bag on the counter. he peers into the pan of potatoes. “thank you for doing this, by the way, darling. means a lot.”

he opens his arms, and you slot into them before they wrap around you tightly, resting your chin on matty's shoulder and smiling. “no one else i'd do it for.”

matty hums happily. “god, i've missed you. you're always a total peach to me. makes me feel good.”

“a peach? you've spent too much time stateside, matty,” you giggle, pulling away just enough to look at him. “thank god you're home for a bit. but thank you, lovely, i'll take the compliment.”

“for once, you'll take one,” matty teases. his face turns slightly more solemn. “yeah, m'glad to be home. it's a shame you won't be at any of the UK shows, though. i always like them more when you're there.”

“well, when hollywood calls, you have to answer,” you shrug, then smirk. “you just want me at the shows so i'll praise your narrative structuring again, don't you?”

matty's eyes close in bliss. “don’t tease, you literally barrelling towards me backstage screaming about midpoints and how proud of me you were is genuinely the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

“oh, shush,” you roll your eyes, suddenly shy.

“i'm serious! it'd be like joan telling you she thought one of your sentences had perfect structure. a writing compliment from you is a gift, darling.”

“well… thank you. and speaking of gifts,” you - with great reluctance - pull away from matty, bending down to grab a wrapped box from your bag. “here. joyeux noël.”

your best friend takes the present from you, murmuring a “thank you” and smiling at the tag addressed to him. he holds it to his ear and shakes the box, eyebrows raising at the slight rattle.

sighing, you roll your eyes. “just open it, matty.”

his face lights up. “alright.”

after carefully peeling the tag from the box and placing it in his pocket, matty tears through the paper and lifts the lid off. he squints at the sides of the smaller plastic boxes inside, before realisation hits and his jaw drops. “this is…”

“cassette recordings of ten blue nile gigs throughout the eighties and nineties, in their entirety,” you finish, smiling. “thought you'd like them.”

“like them? darling, this is- i don't even know what to say, other than thank you,” matty looks at you, awed, and pulls you into another tight hug. “how the fuck did you manage to get them?”

“the guy in one of the record shops i went into in glasgow was selling them. they're his recordings,” you say, half into matty’s neck. “and he'd digitised them, so he didn't need the tapes anymore, and he wanted them to go to someone who'd genuinely use them. remembered you saying you'd bought a tape deck, and i know how much you love that band, so… i kinda had to buy them.”

matty turns his head and presses a kiss onto your temple; while you bite the inside of your cheek to keep from screaming in delight, he speaks again. “you really are one of the best people i know. christ, i'm so overwhelmed by how perfect that present is. i need a drink,” he pulls away and heads to the fridge. “d’you fancy some champagne, darling, before i give you your gift? you might need it, actually.”

“that's not ominous at all,” you quip, then nod. “pour me a glass while i sort the potatoes and get them in the oven, please.”

matty nods, pulling out a bottle of perrier and grabbing glasses to take over to the table, while you drain and pat-dry the potatoes. he hums along to the background music while he fiddles around with the foil covering the champagne cork; you smile, eyes flicking up periodically to look at his cutely confused face, then back down to the food you're currently buttering and seasoning. it's incredibly domestic, a cosy little christmas dinner tableau, so much so that it hurts your heart to think that life isn't always like this for you and matty. and mayhem, obvs, curled up so adorably in his bed that you have to resist awwwwing every time you look at him.

still, it's hard to be melancholy when matty's irritation at the bottle foil is so amusing. you giggle at his grumbling, turning around to look at him scowl once the potatoes are safely in the oven. “need a hand?”

“no thanks, darling, i'm- ok, yeah, please,” matty sighs, leaning back in his chair and stretching. you pretend not to notice the way his shirt rides up and exposes his hip tattoo. “can't find the tab on the foil.”

“hmm, let me see,” you wander to the table and sit beside matty, moving your chair closer to him. well, to the bottle. “ah - that's because there isn't one.”

“well that's fucking stupid. how are you meant to open it?”

you smile, swiping your index nail across the foil; it slices clean through, and you're able to peel the covering off the cork. “like that. these aren't just for aesthetic purposes, you know.”

“that was actually quite hot. let me see them?” matty gently takes your hand in both of his own, admiring the abstract line pattern on your fingernails, tenderly rubbing his thumbs over the gel. “yeah, definitely hot. let me open the champagne from here though, darling, yeah? can't risk these pretty nails being damaged.”

you bite the inside of your cheek again; this time, to stop from giggling flirtily. “have at it, lovely.”

“i like it when you call me that,” matty smiles, grabbing the neck of the bottle in one hand and the cork in the other, and slowly twisting. “makes me feel good.”

“well, you are lovely,” you smile back. “and opening that champagne quite effectively, i must say.”

“learnt from the best,” matty winks. “you're right, though, it's a lot less messy. although i don't mind that, sometimes. s'fun.”

“yeah, me too,” you smirk, glad to be sitting down and not having to worry about your legs caving in at matty and his words. “kinda fun getting it all over your hand, isn't it?”

matty's eyes widen again, and the cork breaks free with a loud pop; before either of you can cringe at or make light of it, though, mayhem jolts awake with a yelp at the sound, and quickly runs over to sit at your feet. 

you coo at him, reaching down to scratch his sweet head and reassure him (and berate his dad). “aww, mayhem. you scared the baby, matty! look at him, he's terrified! s'ok, sweetheart, i'll keep you safe. come on, you can have your christmas present to cheer you up.”

matty rolls his eyes, but he can't keep the smile from his face as he watches his dog eagerly follow you to your bag. “you know, mayhem, you're such a sap, honestly.”

“oi, don't talk about my friend like that,” you frown, face lighting up as you find what you're looking for in your bag. “aha! here you go, mayhem. merry christmas.”

the dog takes the guitar-shaped dog toy with relish, plodding back over to his bed and playing with it contentedly. matty leans to the side to look at mayhem's gift, bursting into laughter when he sees it. “fucking brilliant. that'll be his new favourite, by the way. but you're his favourite, so it checks out, i s'pose.”

“really?”

“oh, he loves you. he never gets so excited to see anyone else,” matty nods, pouring champagne and sliding a glass to you. “bet he'd enjoy seeing more of you. as would i, actually - i really like spending time with you, darling.”

you nod, touched. “so do i,” you raise a glass. “to seeing more of each other next year.”

matty clinks his glass off yours, repeating your words with a soft smile. you take a sip of your respective drinks, humming in satisfaction as the champagne hits your lips. you nod again as you swallow. “christ, that's good.”

“agreed. and now that we've had a drink,” matty puts his glass down, then leans back in his chair and reaches to grab your gift from the counter. he presents it to you with a grin. “merry christmas, darling. save the box til last, yeah?”

“ok. thank you,” you smile sheepishly, opening the bag and pulling out its contents: a notebook, with a pen tucked into the front cover, a book, and a thin, a4-size box. laying them on the table, you inspect each facet of the present in turn, starting with the notebook. “a parker pen? matty, this is beautiful.”

“that one's also kinda a congratulations gift for getting your manuscript in. there's a little message on the inside, too,” comes his reply. 

you flick your gaze up to find him blushing, and it makes you smile even wider. carefully, you lift open the black cover, and find matty's familiar scrawl on the inside: to my favourite writer… this is for the next one. lots of love, matty ♡. a little giggle leaves your lips, and you reach for your friend's hand to squeeze it. “you really are the loveliest, you know.”

“shhh, it's nothing,” matty softly rubs the back of your hand with his thumb. “the next bits are the good ones, really. m'excited to see you react to them.”

“better not keep you waiting, then,” you smile, reaching for the book; you let out a little cry of excitement when you read the title. “on beauty! i haven't read this since i was at uni, my god. thanks, matty, i can't believe you remembered me saying that! oh, this is amazing.”

“open it.”

your head shoots up. “what? why?”

matty smiles. “just do it, please.”

“alright,” you do as requested. when you see what’s on the title page, your jaw drops. “matthew…”

“oh, shit, the full name. am i in trouble?” matty quips, smirking as he takes another sip of champagne.

“no, no, just… you got zadie fucking smith to sign a book for me? with a personal message?” you all but sob, lip quivering, completely overcome. “she's telling me she loves my work? what the fuck?”

“well, she's got good taste.”

“matty,” you wail. “this is the best gift i've ever been given.”

matty giggles. “no it isn't.”

“i'm telling you, it really is.”

“nah,” matty gently tugs the book from your hands and replaces it with the box. “this might be, though. but you need to stop crying before you open it, though, darling. can i just…?”

tenderly, so tenderly, matty takes your face in his hands and uses his thumbs to carefully wipe the tears pooling on your lower lashline. at his touch alone, your breathing starts to regulate; the same can't be said for your heart or brain, which both go haywire at the intimacy of his actions, something not helped by him whispering reassuringly to you. “there you are, darling. you're alright.”

it's not a question, but you nod anyway. “thank you.”

“anytime,” matty lets go of your face and sits back; you miss him as soon as he lets go. “right. now you can open it.”

with a smile, you lift the lid from the box - it falters, though, as soon as you take in the words on the paper in front of you. “these are outlines.”

“yeah, they are. look closer, darling.”

you squint at the paper, a choked noise escaping your lips. “feel free… fuck off. zadie gave you her essay notes?!”

“she did. and told me to give them to you.”

“how?”

“well,” matty grins, shuffling in his seat. “i went to see her and nick while i was in new york, and i asked her to sign the book while i was there. when she found out it was for you… she insisted you have those. printed more off for me and everything. she thinks you're the shit, darling.”

“you're sure she didn't say i was shit?” you hiccup, sliding the box onto the table before your tears hit the paper and picking up your glass for a long drink.

“positive. she only had lovely things to say about you,” matty takes your glass and refills it, beaming at you. “so, yeah. bit of a weird present, i know, but i knew you'd appreciate it.”

you laugh through your tears, wiping your eyes and shuffling your chair next to matty's to hug him. “i really do. and i appreciate you even more. thank you, lovely, you're too good to me.”

“nah, you deserve the best, darling,” matty’s hand comes up to rest on the back of your hair, stroking it gently.

you wallow in the tender moment for a second, before pulling back to smile at him. “m'sorry for crying, christ.”

he shakes his head. “don't worry about it, s'cute. and you still look fit when you cry, so…”

“shut up,” you laugh, shoving his shoulder.

“really, you look perfect,” matty smiles, eyes soft. “m'glad you came over early today. not just because it means we get the good potatoes, but because we get to do this, have a bit of peace before everyone gets here. s'nice. really nice.”

you nod. “it is. thanks for having me. and for the gift.”

he kisses your hand. “anytime. thank you for my gift. and just for being you, i s'pose.”

“it's like you want me to keep crying.”

“well, like i said, you look fit,” matty grins. “but nah, i'll stop. let's have a nice time and get rid of this champagne before everyone else gets here, yeah?”

“sounds like a plan.”

so that's what you do - sit at matty's kitchen table, drinking champagne and watching mayhem playing with his new toy, talking and laughing with your best friend. outside, the snow falls faster and faster, blanketing the garden in pristine white, but it's falling nowhere near as quickly as you are for matty. when the front door goes, you’re actually welcome for the excuse to leave the table, the kitchen, the intense care in those beautiful eyes that threatens to shatter your sanity and perspective.

it's your newly engaged friends, laden with more champagne and christmas crackers. once you've exchanged pleasantries, your friend sends her fiancé into the kitchen with the bags so she can interrogate you. “now why are you here so early? you're a little bit unsteady on your feet… oh my god, did you and matty fuck?”

“no! christ! and keep your fucking voice down,” you hiss, looking back down the hall to make sure the coast is clear. “i came over early to help with dinner. and we opened champagne. that's it.”

her eyes narrow. “but you want to fuck him, don't you?”

you open your mouth to answer, but pause for a split-second too long; she cuts back in again. “oh, you do! well, you should.”

“i don't just want to fuck him, babe,” you sigh, leaning against the cold concrete wall. your brain is screaming at you to shut up, but you can't. “i… like him. in a more-than-platonic way. like in a deep way.”

“so… tell him that.”

you blanch. “today?”

“yes! it's christmas. we've all seen love actually - it's the perfect time!” she quietly claps, beaming. “and you won't see him again until my birthday dinner, so if the revelation goes tits up… you've got two months to get over it.”

“really filling me with confidence here.”

“sorry,” she kisses your cheek. “i just like the thought of the two of you being happy, that's all.”

“i know, it's just-”

“darling?” matty wanders down the hall to you, pulling your friend into a welcoming hug, then turning to face you. “sorry to interrupt, but your timer is going off.”

“oh, thanks, lovely,” you smile at him. “be in in a minute, yeah?”

“alright. looking forward to it,” with a wink, he's gone again.

your friend smiles at him, then turns to you. “he is looking forward to you returning to the same room as him. how interesting!”

“yeah, because it means we all get the roast potatoes i made. that's it.”

“oh, you made those again? amazing,” she nods appreciatively, then looks at you and tilts her head. “he could still just be looking forward to being in close proximity to you again, though. wonder if there's any mistletoe around.”

“shut up, please, i am literally begging.”

she laughs, tucking you under her arm and walking to the kitchen. “alright, i'll leave it be tonight. but i'm just saying - i think you have to seriously consider that matty might want you under his christmas tree this month just as much as you want him under yours.”

“and i think you have to seriously consider that you might be delusional.”

“well, we'll soon find out, i'm sure.”

[gegewrites]

Dr.House- rough day

I had a rough day during the week so this was created.

6/2/23

2.3k words

Not edited

Houses Pov-

It was now eight am, the group and I have already reconvened twice in the conference room. Yet there's no sign of (y/n). No phone call, we can't reach her either. So we're waiting. She's usually in the office by seven or seven thirty. eight at the absolute latest. She'll also take Any excuse to stay late...she's weird.

"Run some more tests." I glanced over at the conference room door and then back to the team,"anything to waste time, the one with all my answers isn't here."

"Are you-" I swiftly cut Cameron off, walking away from the white board.

"Go get a coffee while you're at it." I took hold of the handle to my offices door and foreman spoke.

"You can't be serious." I looked over at him and raised my brow.

"When have I not been serious? Come get me when (l/n) is here, or you have answers." I let my office door close behind me when I finished the sentence and walked over to my office. Leaning my cane against the side and sitting down in the rolling chair.

I had answers. This case simply wasn't that serious to really care. foreman, Chase, and Cameron can figure it out, and they will. If they don't, I'll spoil the surprise that its simply just a child that desperately just needs some anxiety medication pronto.

Your Pov-

This morning has been rough, and it just seems to be getting worse as the minutes drag on.

First, I wake up late, I wake up at five thirty everyday, I'm out of the house by six thirty. I like to have time to calmly get ready.  Well, I woke up at Six, which leaves me already half an hour behind.

Then I find out The coffee pot never brewed, the timer never set. It was still flashing the set time of 5:20 AM at me, alerting me to my stupidity. I got a call on the home phone when I was making it…So now I need to get coffee at work, so now I'll be in a bitchy mood till I get it.

By the time I had gotten dressed and put on my basic makeup, and grabbed some other things I needed,  I only have five minutes left to spare.

Today I put on these heels I had, I could walk miles in them, they were perfect. They were also right by the door and I wasn't looking for something to match this outfit properly, but these go with everything.

I grabbed my bag putting my phone, laptop, and other simple items into it, but realized the lanyard with my keys on it was missing. I quickly threw my doctors coat on, and scanned the table. I had my bag on a table by the front door. I opened it only drawer and it wasn't in there, only junk mail. I even shuffled it around. Now I was scrambling over my one level apartment. Stressfully lifting up my couches cushions.  feeling in between the loveseats cushions, looking under them on my hands and knees.

I moved into the kitchen, which was a simply archway away from the living room left of the front door. I pushed away the simple litterings on the counter- newspapers, magazines, opened mail. Coming around the breakfast counter to scan the grey granite counter. I looked in the fridge, I looked in the mug cupboard.

"Where the fuck are they!" I yelled between gritted teeth, careful of the volume because of the time of morning and the presence of neighbors. I rushed into the bedroom and look along the dressers and night stands, getting down on my hands and knees again to look under the bed and as to my surprise. They weren't there. But my cat, Simon, was.

I let out a heavy and long exhale and I walked out of my bedroom, the tip hitting the floor angrily, avoiding using my heels to the best of my ability due to, once again, the time of morning and neighbors.

I was now a minute late according the the watch on my wrist. as I approached the door, I caught Glimpse of the doorknob, now approaching the whole situation with a different level of stress snd adrenaline.

They were on the fucking doorknob.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." I manically laughed through sentence as I grabbed my bag and slung a strap over my shoulder.

I had to park further down the street last night,  my normal spot was taken. So I had to walk a block away from home.

Adding two minutes to my late tracker.

I rushed over to the driver side, stepping off the curb simultaneously pressing down on the unlock button on the Keys. I heard the locks click open and I pulled the door open. Tossing my bag into the passenger seat. Closing the door and shoving the key in the ignition and turning it. When the dials settled, I had a near empty tank of gas. To think  I debated stopping yesterday. Ive got twenty miles, closest  one is five miles away.

Adding ten minuets to the late tracker. It was seven, I was supposed to be in the office. I was surprised I had no calls yet. So I reached into my bag to check my phone. Flipping it open to find out it was dead. So i dropped it back in and resumed on driving.

Apparently everyone needed the fucking gas station this morning.  I had to wait in a line of three. Luckily the guy at the pump was finished when I pulled in, so he drove off and the first car pulled in. Four minutes. The second car, three minutes. I also checked the other line. Definitely not going there. A boat, and some dude with four wheelers. God must really hate me because that's unusual for this town. The third car took five minutes. So Twelve minutes waiting in line. It look me seven minutes as i ran in to get coffee, I needed it. The adrenaline has worn off.

Adding nineteen minutes to the late tracker.

Of course since rush hour was starting, I got stuck in some traffic but not much. I also hit every red light possible. It only takes me twenty six minutes to get to work. I was already four minutes late.

Traffic was going steady, at least for twelve minutes it was, before some dude ran a red light and t-boned a car that had the right away.

I slammed my head down onto my hand gripping the steering wheel and silently flipped out. I'm officially late. I don't have a phone charger on me, I'll have to use the one in the office, but I can't call to say I'm going to be late. Traffic on our side was stopped and all turns to the right lane.

The current time is now eight thirty. I'm five minutes away from the hospital. I like being at work. I'll admit it, I like my job.  It's not bad working for House and there's always something to do. House can be an ass, but I get paid to be entertained. The others aren't bad, they're nice to work with. I don't see them outside of work which is completely fine.

I finally pulled into the main entrance of the parking garage. Took me a minute to get up to my spot on the third floor...which was taken?  I just looked at the BMW from my car, blinking rapidly, my shoulders bouncing from the silent laugh in my chest which soon erupted into another fit of manic laughter as I started driving back out of the parking garage.

I picked a spot in the lot, luckily it was close to the entrance of the hospital. It’s now 8:37. I parked, and grabbed my bag as I opened the door, throwing the strap over my shoulder. I reached in and grabbed my coffee before I closed the door. I locked it as I briskly walked away, my heels clacking hard against the asphalt.

I stepped onto the curb to the front of the hospital, my right heel caught the curb. I heard a crack and I fell onto my knees and hands. My coffee spilling onto the pavement. I just stayed on the ground for a few seconds, savoring the feeling of what would soon be a bruise on my knee. I sat down, taking my heel off. The heel was hanging on for dear life, the tip of the nail which went through the base of the heel cracked out of the wood. It was broken.

“Motherfucker.” I groaned standing up back on the pavement, I kicked my other one off and held them in my left hand, picking up the paper coffee cup and throwing it in the trash by the door.

I have shoes in my locker, so until I can get to my locker that’s means I’m walking barefoot. At least it’s a hospital.

I walked past the front desk, giving them a nod as I quickly walked towards the elevator. I knew people were looking, but I hope they see the fact my heel is broken at an 110° angle. I pressed the up button to the third floor, im gonna stop by the office before the locker room, I have priorities.

Houses Pov-

“Nothing.” Foreman said dropping a folder onto the glass conference table. Cameron pulling a chair out to sit in, and chase standing by the door with his arms crossed over his chest. I was at the counter.

“I suspected as such.” I looked at them over my shoulder, I just started a new pot of coffee.

“So what is it?” Chase asked as I turned around, leaning against the counter.

“It’s not serious that’s for sure.” I looked past him and into the hallway,”anyone seen (y/n) yet?”

“No and she’s still not answering her phone.” Cameron answering and I groaned in annoyance, my head falling back.

“She’ll be here when she gets here, what’s the damn diagnosis?” I looked over at foreman, his hands sturdily placed on his hips.

“God this coffee can’t brew fast enough.” I deflected his question, once again looking out into the hallway, this time to see the person I wanted to see.

(y/n) rushed to the door and pushed it open. Her heels in her left hand, one broken.

“I’m so-“I cut her off quickly.

“Why does a seven year old girl have a spiking heart rate, random outbursts-“ she cut me off,

“It’s fucking anxiety, take it to psych.” She lashed out, Cameron and chase sharing a glance at each other as she walked towards me, her desk was by chases against the glass windows.

“Rough morning?” Foreman asked and she nodded sharply.

“Everything that could go wrong, fucking did. Phones dead, wake up late, coffee pot never brewed, lost my keys for like seven minutes but they were on the door,” she ranted on as she unpacked her bag, her heels thrown on the floor,”a stupid fucking car crash four cars away-oh!” She turned to us, her arms throw out by her sides,” and some prissy ass BMW took my spot in the the garage so I had to park in the normal lot, broke my heel and spilled my coffee.”

Listening to her rant was very entertaining. Very animated, Very profane….very hot.

“Someone go find something interesting and get that girl to psych.” I didn’t look away from the stressed out doctor who was fumbling through her drawers for something.

“Well be quick with it.” Chase remarked, i heard Cameron’s chair lift and the door open and soon close.

“Where the fuck..” I heard (y/n) whisper as she closed the top left drawer and opened the bottom right, grabbing her phones charger out.

“You’re late, but at least your tits look great.” I said to her as I turned around, leaning on my left leg, grabbing a mug from the shelf.

“Thanks for noticing.” I could hear the dramatic eye roll she gave me. I heard her phone clack down on the desk as I grabbed hold of the coffee pot, pulling it out as the following drips sizzled on the heater,”I’m-“

“Coffee?” I asked, glancing over my right shoulder to her. Sliding the coffee pot back onto the burner. I grabbed the cream which was next to the coffee maker, twisted the cap off and splashed some in.

She stood on my right and I handed it to her, my eyes going from hers right to her chest. Dark grey button up, the top three buttons still undone.

“Thanks.” She took the mug from me before scoffing,”don’t make tjis day worse.”

“Push up?” I raised my brow, finally meeting her eyes again.

“I don’t know, probably.” She walked past em towards the door,”I’m clocking in, getting shoes, and going to the clinic. Page me when there’s something.”

“You have small scratches on the shoulder of your coat.” I pointed out, seeing the dark grey peaking through the white.

“Shut the fuck up House.” She held the glass door open, looking at me with a smile before looking away and walking out.

I might’ve had something to do with her lateness. The hour long phone call we had at eleven….started with some medical questions, ended with me knowing what that toy she keeps in her nightstand sounds like in between her legs over the phone. Maybe next time I’ll just show up at her door.

[neoarchipelago]

Madripoor High (Part 1)

A/N: ok so hum... First part of something new... I have no idea for a title so please throw some ideas in the comments... Yes i have added a little hint of marvel but it is not in the marvel universe! I just love Madripoor. I kinda have the tittle 'Madripoor High' in mind but I'm not sure... Don't even know if I'll keep this going just... Let me know in the comments. Also edited this on my phone... Kinda sucky, I'll put it back correctly if I do keep it going.

Warnings: sexual talk, weapons etc.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Cars passing by and people walking to their destinations. The busy city boomed around you, muffled by the headphones on your head. Your music blocked the chaos of London. You enjoyed London. You found it beautiful. Amongst all the countries you've been to… and that list was quite long, you enjoyed the weather. Exactly. The gloomy, rainy weather. The black umbrella shielding you from the crystal droplets as you walked to a small cafe. You were greeted as you entered, dropping your shield at the entrance before taking place at a table in a corner far from others.

Your coat was removed, your backpack opened to free your laptop. The nice waitress walked to you after several minutes, asking for your order.

"I'd like a hazelnut cappuccino and… the crumble please" you answered with a smile.

As she walked away you looked around, the almost empty cafe was quiet, the few people chatting or working. You smirked, turning to your laptop you went to check for your payment. You smiled as you watched the enormous figure in your credit account. Yes. Credit. Because in the underground, money is important, but credits… Those are so much more valuable. The Madripoor currency.

Sighing, you let yourself lean back on the sofa chair, crossing your arms. You were proud. After everything you've gone through, you have managed to become one of the most prized citizens of Madripoor. The hard work you've put in has paid off, the contracts have piled up, the price tag always climbing up. Your speciality? Tracking. To get into details, it was hacking. Now you mostly used it to track down targets for big mean people who always have something against another big mean one. You were good. You were the fucking best. So yes. You were proud, even if you had no one to be proud of you.

Cup placed in front of you, you were taken out of your daydream. You smiled up, thanking the waitress, closing your laptop and pushing it to the side to bring your little treats closer to you. Contract over, now you were free until you accepted the next one. It would fall quite fast, yes, but you thought you might get some rest. Go back to Madripoor, to Hightown, and rest.

You took a bite of the crumble, feeling the sweetness of it making you relax. You thought you might go shopping once you'd got back. Maybe you'd stay in and play, watch some movies. Maybe you'd go to Downtown…

A soft buzz captured your attention. You grabbed your phone, looking at the screen. Someone was calling. No one called. Very few… barely anyone had this number. It was used for emergencies only and it had been a year and half since it rang. You frowned. It foreshadowed something entirely different than a break. You sighed. Curiosity eating at you. Before it was too late you answered.

"Hello?"

"Tracker."

You frowned. A woman's voice. A woman who knew your screen name. Only people from Madripoor knew it. Or people extremely close to Madripoor.

"Be quick." You said.

"You were never patient muñeca."

Muñeca. Doll. In Spanish. You sighed, closing your eyes.

"Valeria, you fucking bitch, I thought you were in jail."

"I was. I got out. Then that cabron de Alejandro trapped me."

You smirked. Alejandro. You haven't met the man, but by the amount of times she had complained about him, it's like you knew him already. A little voice was heard behind her, notifying you that she wasn't alone in that call.

"Where are you calling me from?"

"A military base. I need your help."

"No."

"You didn't listen."

"Go on I'm listening."

"We need help to find-"

"No."

She sighed. Helping her? It was already risky. You could. You could get her out and free her but she'd get herself into trouble again. Helping the military? You? Tangled in the deepest roots of criminality? It was the stupidest thing to ask of you.

"Come on. You love a challenge. And I have one just for you."

"It doesn't matter if I love a challenge. You're on high speaker aren't you?"

"Well-"

"Of course you are. They wouldn't let you call anyone without supervision. They know who I am? They know what I do?"

"They do." She said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"So what's going to happen? I help and then what? They got pretty little pink handcuffs for me?"

"Well you can ask the skull face to put them on. Or the ADHD Scot." She answered even more amusedly.

"Valeria… what?" You asked confused.

"Come on. It'll be very interesting. I know you're curious. And this… is like tracking a sin cara."

"A no face?"

Damn. She might succeed to make you interested. But she might be bluffing as well.

"Yes. We need to find Echo."

"Echo? The scientist working for various cartel's and Mafia bosses? The man that no one has ever met or even seen?" You asked, irony dripping from your tongue.

"Are you skeptical?"

"Echo doesn't exist. It's a stupid invention from some idiots to sell products at a higher price. You're wasting my time. Goodbye and good luck Valeria" You rolled your eyes.

"I have proof."

You froze. Proof? Now curiosity prickled your skin. What kind of proof? How did they get it?

"Hello?"

"Shut up. I'm thinking."

She chuckled on the other side.

"We've heard that your work is based on contracts. We'd like to offer you a contract." A voice rang.

The raspy voice was soft but commanding. A man, probably in his 40's. He sounded calm, determined.

"And who might you be?" You asked, taking a sip of your cappuccino who was growing cold.

"I'm Captain John Price."

A captain. Fair enough.

"What kind of contract?"

"You help us, we find Echo, we neutralize him and get Intel. You get immunity on this mission and after your part is done, you have 24 hours to vanish."

You thought about the question. Finding Echo. Might be the golden contract for you. Not that you needed it. But this… this was a challenge. Not the boring easy tracks that you had to do. You knew how even the high table of Madripoor was starting to get annoyed about this intriguing character. Countering rules in Hightown and Downtown. This might be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. You looked around you, at the calm cafe. Fuck… you might not get that break after all. You closed your eyes, preparing yourself to accept a deal you might regret.

"48 hours. Full immunity from the moment I step into your base until the end of the contract. I do things my way. You get your guy, your Intel. That's it. I'm not getting in the middle of the cartel's and other big brainless gorillas." You stated.

"Fine." You heard after a few pending seconds.

"Alright. I'll think about it." You finished.

"Didn't you just agree?" Another voice rang.

This time it was more… alive. The Scottish accent meant it was one of the men Valeria had mentioned.

"I'll agree when you'll receive the contract. I have to check something before I agree. I'll contact you and travel to you. Don't worry, you'll get an answer in the next few hours." You explained, opening your laptop.

"Should we send you a location? An email?" Another voice again. British accent but cute voice.

"No. I know where you are. I know how to contact you. I'll do so when the time's come."

"How?" The Scottish voice echoed in your ear.

"Oh… she'll have no problem with it." Valeria answered.

"See you soon." You concluded, hanging up.

Entering the base was easy. The new recruits keeping the gates were easily distracted. You infiltrated the base, making sure to deviate the cameras and stealing a 'visitor' badge.

You walked around, white wool shirt, black shorts with tights. Thigh high socks over your tights and comfy running shoes. Your black backpack and phone in hand. Sometimes, the best way to hide is to get attention… especially from men. You'd feel the looks, the way they were directed to your thick thighs, or neck, in plain view as you had pulled your hair back.

You were chubby, not exactly thin, tummy showing and chubby cheeks. At least, that was what was usually romanticized, the thighs, ass and boobs being overly sexualized. You wanted to roll your eyes. But eventually sometimes, men or women easily fall for it.

You took your time to walk around, discovering the grounds, the badge often being watched by what seemed to be higher ups. You'd fain innocence and bat your lashes when getting caught in places you shouldn't be, before letting them turn their backs and walking straight to where you wanted to. You weren't exactly wanting to be hidden right now. You were good at it. Hiding. But right now you wanted to explore.

The contract had been sent, signed and sent. You had gotten a chance to engage with the high table who agreed to such a contract. You didn't really need their approval. But you didn't want your place in Madripoor to be compromised by working with 'the good guys'. Not only did the high table saw no problem in it but they greatly appreciated you going after Echo. You were right, the character was definitely getting on their nerves, the echoes of him creating some ruckus in downtown.

You walked around a huge warehouse, military gear sprawled around. Most were used for training. You heard some noise not too far, deciding to hide behind big wooden shipping boxes. Voices echoed through the big place. You tried not to look too much. If you can see them, they can see you. You'd rather use your other senses to localize them. You only took one glance at two men standing back to you near a table full of items. One was overly talking while the other one rummaged through what seemed to be his gear bag. The man talking had a mohawk. It made you smile. The other one… was obviously wearing something over his head, but with their backs turned to you, you couldn't make out any more details.

The light reflected into the shinny blade of a combat knife. You blinked, almost hypnotized by it. You wanted it. The two men walked away, still babbling. You waited a few minutes before stepping out of your hiding place, going straight for the bag. You opened it, looking through the different things, looking for the pretty black mat combat knife. You almost jumped in place when you found it, taking the thingy with you before skipping back to your little exploration. This time, in a much more concealed way.

You watched, you spied. You wanted to understand how the base worked before letting yourself meet your contractors. Above the training ground, higher up in some kind of level that was used to put away all the training mats and other training things. It was the perfect spot to look over the training grounds, inside of the warehouse. You watched the men fight each other. It was almost entertaining. Your eyes caught the mohawk boy again, teasing another man. The boy with a cap seemed to joyfully indulge in whatever he was saying.

They looked next to them, a big figure stepping into view. You frowned. The man's face was veiled with a mask, a skull… it wasn't printed. Was it a real skull? You put two and two together, now realizing this was the owner of the combat knife. You chuckled to yourself. As he stopped into the training ring, young recruits palling, your interest peaked.

Thirsty minutes passed by in a flash. You watched in amusement and almost in awe how the mountain of a man threw around the soldiers. He was strong. Fast. You could hear him scold every wrong move of the poor soldiers who faced him. He seemed to look around swiftly every time he had a break.

You stretched, feeling your limbs getting sore from sitting here watching the show. You blinked, watching down again, telling yourself that you should get going.

Eyes. Dark eyes. Looking straight at you. Your breath caught in your throat, a cold wave running through you. His gaze was cold looking up through the mask. You immediately rushed back behind something to hide. How? How?! You wore nothing shiny. You made sure that nothing could reflect light. You were hiding perfectly. How?!

You wanted to take another glance but it was too dangerous. You decided to get moving, your position now compromised. You hopped around to reach ground level. You skipped your way into an empty part of the warehouse. You remained as silent as possible, making sure that even your steps were inaudible. After twenty long minutes you allowed yourself to breathe. Maybe he hadn't seen you in the darkness and you were fine. It had been three hours that you were on base, and you were getting slightly hungry. Perhaps you'd get a snack before finally meeting the contractors.

You looked around, trying to figure which way out could lead you to a building where there was food. The empty warehouse only seemed to echo the voices of soldiers outside, barely audible and muffled. You grabbed your phone, walking towards a back door. Maybe you'd get off base to eat and then come back. You were craving pizza, perhaps-

You slammed against a wall. Not exactly a wall. A wall of a man. You looked up. Eyes falling into a skull mask. Shit. Something told you. That playing innocent. Batting your lashes, won't help with this one. You took a step back, his brows furrowing. You both froze for a split second, tension giving you goosebumps before you reacted the only way your brain could at the moment. You ran.

Throughout the warehouse, jumping over gear, boxes and other stuff that you didn't mind to look at. Why were you running? You were supposed to have immunity. But he didn't know who you were. Not yet. The sound of his heavy boots was the only thing you could hear. Shit the man was swift. He was fast and nimble. You parkoured your way to the back door, almost reaching it until you were tackled against a wall. The shock made you wince, cursing out. You were stuck. Stuck in between a wall, and a strong body. Unfortunately you had both run to a dark corner of the warehouse. You could barely see his eyes in the darkness. You were panting.

He shared your gaze. Eyes never leaving yours. The darkness of them made you shiver. It was odd. That tingly feeling all over you. You barely realized how your wrists were pinned above your head, in his large hand. Didn't even notice his other hand… around your throat. He wasn't applying pressure. He was securing you in place, warning you. You were trapped. You have been trapped very often at the beginning of your… career. However, it had never made you feel like this. Small. Hunted. Like a prey under the claws of a predator. There was no ego, no dumb boy trying to prove something. He had chased you down on instinct, caught you in a primal way. Honestly. It was hot. Thrilling.

"Who are you?" His deep voice said.

Shit… even his voice was hot. Putting your new kink aside, you frowned, gaining back some composure.

"Santa Claus." You let out ironically.

The hand around your throat squeezed menacingly. You gasped. He remained silent awaiting your new answer.

"I.. I'm a visitor." You tried, maybe the innocent act would work.

He pulled on your wrists, having you on your toes now. A last warning.

"T..tracker…" you mumbled.

He seemed in thought for a few seconds before releasing the pressure on your neck and wrists, but keeping them in his hold.

"How did you get in?" He questioned.

Ah yes… the usual interrogation.

"The young boys at the entrance are easily distracted…" you mumbled again.

You weren't pissed. You weren't exactly pouting… maybe a bit. You weren't expecting to be caught, or to be put in your place. You weren't expecting to be under someone's hold like this. You looked away.

"You armed?" He asked.

"I have my phone. It's the only weapon I need." You said, keeping the combat knife a little secret. Mostly because you wanted to keep it and he won't let you. He straightened himself, towering over you.

"I'm going to let you go. You better behave." He warned.

God.. you wanted to brat. You wanted to anger him and test him. You rolled your eyes at him, as the hand holding your wrists released. However the other remained on your throat. You frowned looking up at him, as your hands wrapped around his wrist. He stepped closer to you, eyes never leaving yours. Now what was he doing? He said he was letting you go…

Eyes widening, you felt the other hand roam your waist. You tried to push him away but he squeezed at your throat keeping you in place, your hands flying to his chest to fist in shirt. The hand traveled to your sides, down your back, then back to your side to finally reach your thighs.

"S..stop!" You let out, blushing.

"Breathe… I'm checking for weapons." He said in a chuckle.

He frowned, his hand meeting the handle of… shit. The combat knife was tucked into the back of your shorts, hidden by your shirt. You closed your eyes as he pulled it out.

"No weapons huh? You're already-" he stopped looking at the handle. "That's my fucking knife. You stole it?"

"I borrowed it. Sharing is caring right? We're on the same team…" you answered with a smile.

He put away his knife before spinning you around, bringing your back to his chest. How the hell did he move so fast?! How did he manage to pin your wrists behind you… and HANDCUFF YOU?

"Hey! Where's my immunity?" You complained.

"I'm not arresting you."

"You're handcuffing me to satisfy a kink?" You teased him in a bitter tone.

"I'm keeping you from stealing again. And I'm taking you to Price."

"Who?"

No answer, he simply pulled you forward, holding your wrists behind your back. Well. Wasn't this the perfect start to a contract?

[0oolookitsme]

It's Buzzcut Season, Anyways!

Eeeeekk!!!! Hi Hi everyone!! I hope you are all doing well, here comes the first post of the year! <3

So.. It is my birthday today, and I'm very excited to tell you that I'm introducing to you, another one of my pairings! This a little excerpt from the fic (wip) I'm writing about this chaotic pairing, and I really do hope this gets you as excited about their story, as I am! This was supposed to be up in December but for some reason, I didn't post it?? Anyways, other than that, you shall see more, further on in 2024 :)

Also, shoutout to @cupid-styles and @elioslover for picking my ice hockey!Harry to be the one to get a buzzcut, hahah! My indecisive self (who lowkey wanted you guys to pick him), could've never 💗

All the love always, A.

Verse - NHL Player!Harry x Figure Skater!Y/n (uni era)

Word Count - It's just an excerpt so it's short!

Warnings - None that I can find but if there are any, do tell me and I'll edit them into this!

Y/n is reluctantly trimming Harry's hair when her nose feels funny, and she sneezes. Its good though, that Harry asks for her opinion regarding a change that he would rather appreciate.

Please rb to share! | Masterlist

Y/n sat on her unmade bed, hair unbrushed and messy since she woke up from a 3-hour nap. Her fingers typed away on her laptop, her face showing zero signs of any stress regarding the assignment she's going to have to turn in un-edited.

Probably because of the breakdown she'd had before taking nap. She'd been so stressed that she had drawn blood from her lips and broken two of her nails -- which was rather disappointing to her considering she'd got them done not so long ago in the honour of the upcoming season of winter.

The temperature was still as hot as summer, but half of the world was snowed in, and she wanted the peace of mind that winter brought her; so, she deluded herself into thinking that it was indeed her favourite time of the year.

A silent burp made its way up her throat, as she drank the day-old diet coke she'd been drinking before her meltdown-that-leads-to-an-amazing-nap.

Just as she slurped on the last sip that wasn't anything but melted ice, she heard the door to the flat open and her eyes rose up just in time to catch the sight of a sweaty and out of breath Harry, through the open door of her room.

"Y/n?" He called for her, walking towards her room when she only hummed in response. He passed her an apologetic smile on reaching her doorframe, and she knew he was going to ask something of her that the both of them know she wouldn't be willing to do quite easily.

"I need your help," he grinned at her. "...And Immediately."

She looked at him suspiciously, before deciding to shift her focus back on her assignment, knowing that he would lure her in if she were to continue looking at him.

But Harry was at once kneeling beside the side of bed she was sitting on. With his hands joined, he contorted his face in a way that looked like he was about to cry. "I beg of you, please! If you don't help me right now, my life will be ruined forever!"

Y/n's eyes had fallen into untrusting slits by now as she minimized the document that she had been writing in. "What is it, Harry?" She asked him in a monotonous tone, shutting her laptop as if procrastinating the essay any longer would be a great help.

"Cut my hair."

Instantly her jaw dropped open. Shaking her head, she began reopening her laptop and Harry took a hold of her wrists. "Harry, there's no way!" She yelped as he began making her get off the bed.

"I'm not asking you to give me haircut like Zayn!" He exclaimed, as if that'd ease her. "Just trim it a bit," he shrugged, walking out into the small living-room with Y/n thrashing behind him. She even threw a few hands at him, but he had a feeling that she wasn't as opposed by the idea as she was pretending to.

He pulled out a chair in front of the mirror that, though they had been living in this flat for nearly two months, had yet to be pinned to the wall. "C'mon, you work at a salon -- surely you know how to trim a guy's hair," he teased her, knowing that questioning her abilities would get to her and she'd cut his hair better than any hairdresser ever could.

Looking at her reflection glaring at him through the mirror, he winked at her before bending down to unzip his bag. He pulled out an electric trimmer from inside it and handed it to her, pulling the towel from the coffee table that he had left there earlier in the morning.

Once done draping it over his shoulders, he handed her the trimmer and added a touch of his puppy-dog eyes even though he knew they simply don't work on her.

"Okay. If you end up bald, don't complain then," she grumbled before running her hand through his hair. "Is this sweat or did you wash your hair after practice?" Her face was already contorted in disgust, like she knew he surely couldn't have done the latter.

"Don't you worry, I washed it after practice," he assured her, looking at her as if she should appreciate him.

She turned on the trimmer and held his hair in sections by one of her hands. "Why didn't you go to a salon?" She asked him, trimming the hair on his sides with her mouth parted.

Harry shrugged and immediately retorted when Y/n shrieked, mumbling an apology. "The salon's too far. I don't have the time to get there; got a handful of assignments to turn in before midnight." He told her. "And I mean, saving some money never hurt anyone."

"You do realize that I've put doing my assignment on pause to do this silly shenanigan with you?" Her eyebrows rose up as she fired another question at him. She suppressed a smile when he passed a dimpled-lopsided grin to her. "God, I hate you," she said, and a smile slipped on her lips as she moved to the other side to trim the rest of his hair.

She had no reason to be doing a parttime job at a salon, it wasn't going to help her in the future in any way, but it did help her in the present with its money. The money she got by being apprenticed to a dance company went straight into the flat-bills and some other necessary purchases that she couldn't avoid.

But she wasn't complaining about it. Living among frat people was a nightmare for her. She did have fun with people but being a clean-freak and a morning person didn't match well with the frats. They did love her dearly, but when Harry came in asking if someone would be willing to be his flat mate, everyone had chanted for Y/n. And, when he asked Y/n at the rink, she had quite literally jumped at the opportunity and in the joy of the moment, hugged Harry with a tight grip that still had his heartbeat rise whenever he thought about it.

With her touching his hair, Harry's heart was beating so hard in his chest that he was afraid it was going to break a rib. His eyes never once left her reflection in the mirror, not with the way she was being so careful and serious. Her lips had parted without her knowing, and she wasn't even blinking often enough.

That was when Harry saw a hair-strand fall in her face, and her face scrunch up in a way it does when she's about to sneeze. He saw as she turned to sneeze in her elbow -- a habit that she still hadn't gotten rid of. He shifted his gaze down on his hands in his lap, to prevent her catching him staring at her.

When Y/n caught her breath after the sneeze, her eyes grew wide. Her hand began shaking as she brought the other hand to cover her mouth, looking at his head in horror. She wasn't sure if she should laugh or begin spewing apologies and decided on the latter one.

But as she opened her mouth, Harry looked at her. "Should I just buzz it off?" He questioned her and thought that she had paled at the thought of him going bald. "I mean, the match season is finally over. I don't have anything to do but study, do my parttime and of course practice hockey." He shrugged explaining his point of view, looking at her to help him decided.

"S-sure! I mean, you'd look good with any-any type of haircut." She was shaking and stuttering, but Harry was too lost in his train of thoughts to question her. "A-and its buzzcut season, anyways!"

That seemed to be helpful for Harry. He smiled at her, "Shave it off, then. I'm basically on vacation from tomorrow... and I guess I'd really appreciate a change like this!" He was back to grinning and Y/n's sweat was beginning to cool off.

She imagined sitting with Harry on a sofa on some ordinary-night with her feet in his lap like he were her closest friend and telling him about today -- a movie playing on the lowest volume possible in the background. She stopped herself before she could get lost thinking about his reaction and mess up even his buzzcut.

[tblsomedoodles]

I

C R A V E

more Donnie VS The World content. It makes me vibrate and scream and wiggle like I'm off my meds. I would love anything, even a solid block of text, but your doodles/full artworks/comics are my favorite.

Please? All I've found so far is what we see in the donnieverse comic and the MVA/AMV (music video animatic/animatic music video). So many questions, like - is Casey (Sr) involved in any way, whethercas a fellow captive or rescue mission teammate? Is this the True Apocalypse or Averted Apocalypse timeline? If the latter, where is Casey (Jr)? How is Splinter handling it? (Is he even still alive to be Having Emotions About It?)

(Please feed me.

B L E A S E)

(If you don't mind, could you show/tell how Donnie escapes, one of his first Big Leads that gives him so much hope he cries, and/or the Big Reunion? One would be nice, two would be great, and all three would be amazing. If they aren't planned/are too spoilery, that's okay. Anything you can/are willing to give would be lovely.)

Thank you!! I'm glad you like it : ) I don't think I've answered many asked about this particular au, so i'm more than willing to talk about it! : )

I don't really have much up for it, mostly b/c it deals with a lot of angsty material that i can be a little uneasy about posting. I have a bit of old concept art, and an unposted fic i'm editing/rewriting (b/c it's the first fic i wrote for Rise and i did not have those character voices down lol.) I can probably post the first bits of it later this week. I did say at one point that i would once 'proud family tradition' was over, and it now is.

but yeah, here's the concept art, i'll put the explanation under the break b/c i'm going to be rambling lol.

So Donnie vs. takes place after the thwarted apocalypse (not-apocalypse future). They get taken by Bishop a few months afterwards, and it isn't until about a year after that, that Donnie gets free.

He's the last one still with Bishop at that point, and had been told/convinced through various means that his brothers were dead.

Bishop did a lot of experiments on him, leaving a lot of scaring. One of which was injecting him with Krang DNA to see what would happen. (the eye and veins thing. I think he has some side effects from that but i'm not entirely certain what they are atm)

The fic itself starts after his rescue, b/c i'm focusing on Donnie's search for his brothers (and his own recovery) Rather than the traumatic event itself.

The rescue itself, was certainly a rescue. April, Casey, and CJ worked together to get him out of there as well as gain whatever information they could before they were found out. (Casey went undercover and was able to get some incomplete files and help get donnie out before she was discovered and had to leave.)

donnies in...pretty bad shape at that point, mentally and physically. Physically, he's malnurished, injured, scared, the works. Bishop did a number on him in the year he had him.

Mentally, he's pretty much shut down. He's completely non-verbal, unresponsive most of the time, when he does respond it's very slow and seemingly difficult for him to do so. He describes it that it feels like he's behind several plates of thick glass. He can see and hear what's happening, interacting (or even just feeling anything about it) is very hard to get past the glass.

How he goes from that state to hunting down his brothers is fairly simple. One of the broken, encripted files Casey acquired was Leo's file. None of the three could open it, but they managed to get Donnie to try to do so. He manages it, sees the file, and for the first time in about a year, has hope. He doesn't even wait to show the other three, he just takes off while no one was looking, with April's laptop and CJ's coat (he steals a backpack along the way.)

I don't really want to say much past that. A lot of the rescues/reunions are pretty spoiler heavy, and i don't want to ruin some of the mystery of what's going on in the fic. But know this, he does get all his brothers (and family in general) back. Also, splinter is alive and is part of this, but again, that's spoilers for some things i don't want to ruin.

Again, i'll probably start posting this sometime this week. It's an interesting fic that i've put quite a bit of time into at this point, so i'll be excited to see what is thought of it.

Thank you!

[poeticpains]

Poe's Giffing Tutorial (From One Beginner to Another)

Hey, everyone! So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and decided to finally make it happen. This post aims to be a giffing tutorial that isn't a bunch of technical jargon that nobody except experienced giffers understands. This is for the person that I was when I first started out: someone who wants to make gifs, for free, without having to learn the entirety of a new program. As such, if you're already familiar with the basics, this probably won't be super helpful to you.

In this, I'll cover the basics of actually capturing a gif, the how-to of color correction (though without getting into the nitty-gritty detail of it), some basic text effects, and some more decorative effects like overlays and ~fancy coloring. I'll also show you the program I use to resize gifs.

I don't have a fun quip to lead us into the next part, so, uh, let's just dive in.

Tools*:

A PC capable of handling heavy processor loads (I use a mid-range gaming laptop; it's a little slow sometimes, but it works)

Whatever you're giffing (obviously...)

ScreenToGif (a free, basic screencapture program)

Photopea (a free, in-browser Photoshop dupe)

RedKetchup (a free file resizer/converter)

*Note: These are not the end-all, be-all of gifmaking. They may not even be the best tools for the job! But they're free, they work well, and they're relatively intuitive.

Step 1: Capture your gif.

I'm going to use ScreenToGif for this. The first thing I do is open the program and click Recorder, which opens the recording interface.

I click and drag (or manually input dimensions in the boxes next to the recording button in the lower right corner) to set my dimensions, and then I press record. The red "Record" button will change to a blue square that says "Stop," and a timer will appear in the upper right corner, showing how many seconds your gif is.

Generally, I'll pause the video 5-10 seconds before my desired start time, to give myself a buffer (you'll be able to delete those frames later), start the recording, and then start the video. You'll probably find a system that works for you once you do it a few times.

Once the scene that I want to capture is done, I'll click the blue "Stop" button, and the overlay will close itself. A few seconds later, depending on how long/complex/large your gif is, the program will pop up with a new window where you can edit. Here's what it looks like:

You can do a lot with ScreenToGif, but we'll be using the dead simple stuff today. Click the "Edit" tab, fourth from the left, and this will show up.

"Delete All Previous" and "Delete All Next" are our friends here. Go to the FIRST frame that you want in your gif, using either your arrow keys or just dragging the slider, and select it. Then hit "Delete All Previous." This will make that frame the first frame of your gif. Then, go to the LAST frame of your gif, and hit "Delete All Next." This makes the last frame of the scene that you want the last frame of the gif. You can also use the "Delete" option to delete frames by selecting them with your cursor if you want a more manual option.

Now you have your raw gif! Go to the "File" tab, the first one on the left, and select "Save As" from the menu. You want to make sure that it's saving as a .gif file, not an .mp4 or .apng --- you can check this up at the top. Don't worry, though, as .gif is the default, so unless you change it, you should be golden. Select whatever folder you want to put it in, name it, and save it.

You could absolutely stop here. It is by no means required to color your gifs or slow them down or any other number of things associated with giffing. But if you want to, here's how I do it.

Step 2: Edit your gif.

Head on over to Photopea. You'll see this:

What we want is the "Open From Computer" option. Click it, and your File Explorer will show up. Navigate to whatever folder you saved your gif in and select it by double clicking or clicking once and hitting "Open."

It'll open in a new workspace that looks like this.

You may be saying, "Gee, Poe, that sure looks a lot like Photoshop!" Yes, it absolutely does. If you're familiar with Photoshop, you will most likely be able to find your way around Photopea just fine, and can probably go from here. But if you're not familiar with Photoshop, here's the basics.

First thing's first: gifs are frequently pretty fuzzy/blurry. Luckily, sharpening them is easy.

Select all your frames (the list on the right with all the numbered layers) by clicking one end, scrolling up/down, holding Shift, and clicking the other end. Then go up to the tabs and do Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. This will automatically sharpen each frame using a percentage; the default is, I believe, 150%, and this is usually what I use because I am fundamentally lazy.

If you don't select all your frames, only the one that you're currently on (the one highlighted in a lighter color) will get the effect applied to it. This goes for basically anything you do, so it's good to get in the habit of selecting all.

Now that it's sharpened, we can color it. Go up to the tabs again, and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > [whatever you want to adjust]. Most commonly in Escape the Night, you'll have to adjust brightness, because there's a lot of dark, moody scenes; Season 3 is also especially yellow/orange tinted, so you'll probably want to color correct it, too, using the Color Balance adjustment layer. This is a total guessing game based on the exact scene you're doing and my method is just selecting random things and adjusting sliders until it looks good (remember: fundamentally lazy). Honestly, I'm not an expert in coloring gifs, so I won't pretend to be — especially since people can and do write entire posts just dedicated to it. For this gif, I'm just lightening it a little.

And if this is all you want to do — no text, no effects — you're done! Go to File > Export As > GIF. It will take a few moments to load, so don't panic when your page freezes. A new window will pop up that allows you to do things like set looping, time, etc. but you can also just "Save" and you're done!

But let's say you want something fun. Maybe you'd like to overlay a quote or make it a cool color. If that's the case, continue on...

Step 3: Make your gif shine.

Three parts in this: text, fun colors, and overlays. You can combine these three to do some awesome things, and they're all very simple to do, once you know what you're doing. Think of them less like steps and more like a mix-and-match deal. You can use one, two, or all three!

So, here we go.

Option 3a: Add some text.

The easiest option of the three, this one works exactly like you think it does. The uppercase T symbol on the sidebar will create a new text layer where you can type something and set a font, size, and color.

I'll spare you the lecture on typography that I could give you — you can find better ones than I could make. Generally, though, you have a decorative/display font for headings and emphasis, and then a different, more generalized font for subheadings and other things. In this, the display font is Heavy Heap, which was used on the Season 3 tarot cards, and the general font is a relatively generic serif font.

(Sidenote: you can load fonts into Photopea! Just go to a font website like Dafont, download the font you want, and then open it as you would any other file by going to File > Open and selecting it from your files. You should get a message that says "Font [Your Font Name Here] Loaded," and then you'll be able to use it in your design. That's how I got Heavy Heap in there.)

You can change size and color with these, which will show up at the top when you select the text tool. Keep in mind that if you're making changes after you type something out, you will need to select (highlight) the text you want to change — it won't do it automatically.

I will admit that Photopea's text editor is not the cleanest, simplest, or nicest to use, especially at first. I came from Canva where it was much faster and easier. The downside, of course, is that Canva is highly limited with what you can do.

There are also ways to warp the text, change the blending, and do outlines, but I'll leave that for another time as to avoid making this any longer than it already is.

Option 3b: Make it a cool color.

You have a couple different ways to do this. Probably the most intuitive is to go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Select the color box, pick the color you want using the picker or a hex code, select your desired density, and click OK. Boom, color over your gif.

It defaults to this vintage-y orange, but you can pick whatever color your heart desires.

However, I usually use a different method using Gradient Maps. This is also pretty easy; Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. If you leave it black and white, by the way, you get a B&W gif (you can also just select the Black and White option in the Adjustment Layer menu). Click on the gradient, select the white square on the right side of the gradient line, and then select the square down at the bottom of the window and change it to whatever color you want.

For this gif, I'm leaving it B&W.

(You can have a lot of fun with gradient maps. Play around with them!)

Option 3c: Overlay another gif on top.

Ooookay, so, this is the most advanced and tedious of effects to do (at least of the ones documented in this post), but it's worth it, I promise. For this, you'll need at least one other gif. I usually use a base gif that's relatively neutrally colored, oftentimes B&W but sometimes just faded or pastel, plus one (or more than one) colored, brighter gif. These are, of course, just guidelines — combine whatever gifs you want. The only real requirement, per se, is that they have the same amount of frames. If they don't, it'll look weird. (But if you do end up with two gifs that have different amounts of frames, you can delete the difference right in Photopea, so I don't stress about it too much.)

You also generally want to add text after this step, so if you're planning on doing this, save the text for last.

First things first: color your gifs the way you want and then save both of them. Then re-open them both in Photopea. Yes, this is annoying. I did say it was tedious.

So now I have both of them in my navbar, labeled as "tutorial base" and "tutorial overlay."

Go to your overlay gif and right-click on the gif folder. This is the top layer with a little arrow and folder icon next to the name of the gif.

Select "Duplicate Into" and then pick your base gif in the popup. In my case, it's named "tutorial base."

Now you'll click over to your base gif, and you'll see that your accent has been put on top of your base. Now you get to have fun with blending!

Right click on the overlay gif's folder again. Then, select Blending Options, which is the first menu item. It'll bring up a popup with all sorts of options for styling your layer.

The default setting is Pass Through, which is what we see here. If you want, you could just change the opacity to get your desired effect.

You could also play around with blending options such as Overlay, Color Burn, Lighten, and Screen. Every gif is different, and every gif will look different with different options, so experiment and see what looks best! You may have to go back and recolor it a few times, so I recommend just keeping the project open in your navbar for easy access.

For this gif, I think I'll go with Darker Color at 67%.

One last step, and then you're done with blending!

Go to Layer > Animation > Merge. This will merge each frame of your animation (the gifs) with each other, meaning that they'll play at the same time. If you forget this step, as I do frequently, you'll go to save your gif and find that it plays as a sequence.

Once you've merged your gifs, you can add texts, more effects, PNG overlays, whatever you want! Congrats! You did it!

Step 4: Resize your gif (if necessary).

Maybe you've made a gif, and it's beautiful, and it's amazing, and you wanna show everyone...but it's five million megabytes and you can't send or post it anywhere. Tumblr's max file size is 10 MB, while Discord's (standard) max file size is..7 MB, I think? Either way, if you try to upload something bigger than that, you'll get an error message and the familiar taste of disappointment.

Never fear, Redketchup is here!

This is Redketchup, and it's super simple.

Go to "GIF Resizer" under Animation Tools. Upload your gif, then scroll until you see the Resize GIF section. Input the percentage you'd like to reduce it by (presets are 25%, 50%, and 75% smaller, but you can set it manually, as well).

This is also the step where you can slow it down if you desire if you didn't do it in Photopea — it's in the next section down. Set the speed, if you'd like, and then go down to the bottom and hit Download.

It'll take you to a preview tab where you can check if your gif is small enough. If it is, hit Download again up in the top left, and that's that! Go share your gif with the world!

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading! I am by no means an expert gifmaker, but I want to spread the love and give other people the option to do it. I wouldn't know any of this stuff without the people who taught me, and I'll put a list of tutorials down at the bottom that I referenced when I was first learning to make gifs.

At any rate, if you use this post to make a gif, feel free tag me or send it to me so I can see! And for those of you who are on the fence about learning or starting to gif...

Do it. I double-dog dare you.

:)

References:

Blending Gifs by @the-mother-of-lions

Photopea Coloring Tutorial by @heroeddiemunson

Merging in Photopea by @bellamyblakru

And, though not a specific reference, I frequently browse @usergif for inspiration (they have tutorials there, as well, but I haven't checked them out yet).

[makeitmingi]

Cause Baby You're My Muse [Chapter 29]

Genre: Romance, Idol!AU, Music, Slight angst

Pairing: Mingi x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Producer!Reader, IdolLyricist!Mingi, IdolProducer!Hongjoong, Idol!Seonghwa, Idol!Yunho, Idol!Wooyoung, Idol!San, Idol!Yeosang, Idol!Jongho, cameo(s) by other celebrities

Summary: You always preferred producing underground, having an unknown face and governed by your own rules. But when you start freelancing for idol groups, you say goodbye to your lone wolf lifestyle as you learn to work with idol producers and lyricists.

Word count: 3.3K

Warning(s): Maybe not a warning but they take a bath together... Purely innocent though!

"Good work everybody." You clapped and bowed to those that came in for the additional recording. It has been back to back schedules of back up vocals, adlibs and editing.

"I got to go for another meeting. I'll see you soon." Hongjoong gave you a brief hug before running out of there.

"Great work today, Indigo. Make sure you go home and rest." Jongho smiled, packing his lyric sheets into his clutch and tucking it under his arm.

"Thank you. You too." You chuckled. Once you packed up your things and turned off the recording studio lights, you headed back to your own studio to start on the editing. All the sessions have been productive and yielded good results.

"Boo!" Mingi jumped out when you opened the studio door. You just stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"A little reaction would have been appreciated, love." He gave you a flat look and crossed his arms.

"Oh my gosh, you scared me..." You spoke monotonously as you headed to your desk to put your things down. As you were plugging in your laptop, your eyes caught sight of something new.

"What's this?" You asked softly, picking up the photo frame. Mingi came up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist.

"A present." Mingi chuckled.

It was a mirror selfie of you and Mingi, the day where you were both doing facemasks and he stuck his cheek to yours. You couldn't help but laugh at the memory.

"I love it, Mings. It's a great surprise. Thank you. I'll treasure this." You turned around and wrapped your arms around his neck, giving him a kiss. Mingi leaned over you like he always does because of his towering frame. His hands held your waist securely as he closed his eyes, savouring the kiss.

"We're at work." You panted as you pulled away. Mingi couldn't help but chuckle, seeing your flushed face.

"Stop~" You whined, hugging him so he wouldn't see your face. Your cheek pressed against his chest, letting you listen to his heart beat. Mingi stroked your head.

"You're cute when you're all flustered."

"Okay, now I know you're just making fun of me." You lifted a fist to hit his chest.

"I have to go back to work now..." You mumbled but didn't make an effort to move. Mingi's familiar warmth made you yawn. Your eyelids suddenly felt heavy.

"Uh, baby, are you falling asleep standing up?" Mingi asked in amusement when he noticed you leaning more of your body weight on him. You let out a tired hum, not even bothering to deny it at this point. He didn't mind, continuing to support your body.

"I'm falling asleep on you. You're my boyfriend, I can do that." You grumbled like a tired child that was annoyed from being disturbed.

"That's true." Mingi laughed. The fact that you called him your boyfriend made Mingi's heart flutter. He hoped you couldn't hear the way his heart was racing.

"Why don't we go home and nap, hmm? Then you can wake up and work there." He suggested.

"I'm not productive at home." You sighed. As much as you wanted to just be in your bed with Mingi, you knew you had to work now.

"Why?"

"You should know why..." You finally raised your head to squint your eyes at him accusingly. You and Mingi were always getting distracted by each other when you worked at your home studio together.

"There's nothing wrong with me wanting your attention." He defended innocently, leaning down to affectionately bump his head against yours. You snorted as you laughed, patting his shoulder before moving to get a bottle of cold coffee from the fridge. You took a sip and held it out to Mingi.

"Come here you." He grabbed the coffee with one hand and his free other hand pulled you down while he sat on the arm chair so you ended up sitting on his lap.

"Mings!" You giggled and tried to get up but he anchored you down. He drank the coffee, a nonchalant look on his face.

"Let me just go a little bit of work. We'll go home after, I promise." You squirmed.

"Fine." Mingi let you go. You got up and kissed his cheek before going to sit at your computer to start editing. Mingi didn't leave though, he pulled up a chair to sit beside you and watch you work.

"Do you have any schedule today?"

"Nope. I'm free tomorrow too since management wants Hongjoong hyung and I to help with producing. So I'm all yours." He grinned.

"Good because I don't intend to wake up until the PMs tomorrow." You chuckled, typing on your computer and editing the tracks as you spoke to him.

"I like that plan." Mingi placed his hand on your thigh. He leaned over slightly so he could see your screen. You didn't do too much editing since you knew your brain was compromised with exhaustion. But you were able to layer the vocals accordingly.

"How was the recording session today?" He finally asked.

"It was good. Jongho and Joong are good. We were able to wrap up and I got what I needed today so it's all the post editing work now." You explained.

"Fingers crossed, hopefully we won't need to call any of you back in to do any re-recording." You sighed.

"Even if you do need to, I'm sure none of the boys won't mind. It's not something any of us can control. If we need to, we need to. So don't worry." Mingi shrugged.

"Thank goodness, you guys are understanding of that then." You chuckled, knowing some artists do not like having to come back to re-record things. Mingi smiled, patting your head.

"You do what you think will make the song good." He encouraged. You softened at his words. Everyone, not just Mingi, the Ateez boys and other producers had so much trust in you and your ability. Even if this is your first time working together, they still believed in you and encouraged you.

"Jongho... San back up..." You checked the scribbles on your notebook to make sure you were labelling the audio files properly. You scrutinised your work on the screen.

"What's wrong?" Mingi blinked, seeing you suddenly frown and lean closer to the screen with a conflicted look on your face.

"Nothing wrong. Just wanted to make sure I lay the correct audio tracks over each other." You explained.

"Here you go." Mingi handed you your headphones, knowing you would want it.

"Thanks." You smiled gratefully, wearing your headphones.

Wearing your headphones helped you to isolate the sound, almost visualise it in a way. You were able to listen to the different voices of the Ateez members coming together.

"Mmm." You hummed before nodding in approval.

Even thought Mingi whines about you working and how he just always wants you to cuddle with him, he can never take his eyes off you when he sees you so focused on your work. You glowed, there was this passionate fire in your eyes. It was mesmerising to watch you work your magic.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" You asked Mingi when you glanced to the side and just saw him looking at you. He didn't say anything, merely moving himself to be closer to you.

"Nothing." He shook his head. You moved your arm to let him rest his head in your lap.

"Oh, they wrote back about the OST..." You said.

"Mhmm." Mingi hummed to tell you he was listening even though his face was planted on your thighs.

"They didn't like the first draft. They want it revised entirely." You summarised. Mingi didn't react at first. He didn't want to coddle you right away, knowing you didn't like that.

"It's fine, I might just have to ask for an extension now." You sighed. You were accustomed to people asking you to make changes, not everyone was going to like your work. Honestly, you were more worried about the additional workload and meeting deadlines.

"I'd rather you ask for an extension then to overwork. You already have a lot to do." Mingi scoffed.

"Usually, it's small edits. To redo the whole song is going to take a while. My schedule doesn't let me sit down to look at it thoroughly." You pulled up your schedule.

"Wow." Mingi lifted his head when he saw all the coloured events on your calendar.

"It's all just producer meetings and time set aside to edit the tracks, that's blue and yellow tags. Red tags are the deadlines or check ins with management on the progress." You explained.

"Still... That's a lot." He laid his head back down.

"You're going to be even busier than this when you start learning the dance, the pre-comeback trainings and the actual promotion period." You chuckled. You knew that idols were the busiest during their comeback periods and the period leading up to the comeback. Plus Mingi had producer meetings like you.

"Don't worry, I'll still make time for you." He held your hand, kissing the back of it with a cheeky grin.

When you were done with your work, Mingi was quick to help you pack up your things. You could only watch in amusement. After that, you both took a taxi back to your house.

"I'm going to shower." You dropped your bag, shuffling into your bedroom to get clothes.

"Okay." Mingi said. When you entered the bathroom, you saw Mingi running a bath for you, sticking his hand in to check the temperature.

"Thank you, Mings." You smiled tiredly.

"I'm not sure if the bath bombs are Haneul's but I dropped one in. It's so pretty when it fizzes. Very colourful." His eyes sparkled with amazement. You couldn't help but laugh.

"It's alright, she has plenty of bath bombs." You patted his shoulder. You never really take a bath in your own bath tub because you never had the time to. Haneul, on the other hand, loves taking baths and watching the bath bomb fizz and melt.

"Have you used a bath bomb before?" You asked.

"No. It's my first time using one. I didn't know they put glitter in it. Won't it be a pain to wash after?" He tilted his head.

"I think they use a special dye and glitter, it washes away easily." You chuckled, looking into the mirror and tying your hair up into a bun. Mingi scooped some of the water.

"You're right. It's not sticking to me." He looked at the glitter move in the little bit of water he had in his palm.

"Better get in before the water gets cold." Mingi stepped out to give you your privacy. You sunk in, sighing blissfully as the warm water relaxed your muscles.

"Is the water good?" Mingi asked from the other side of the door.

"It's perfect. You can come in." You giggled. Mingi opened the door and saw you sitting amidst the bubbles, the water up to your chin.

"I didn't know I needed this but now that I'm in here, I really needed this. Thank you, Mings." You leaned forward to give him a sweet kiss. Mingi smiled, proud of himself. He stayed by your side, the two of you on separated by the wall of the bath tub. He didn't say anything as he wanted to give you peace and quiet.

"Mings?"

"Hmm?" He lifted his head from his phone to meet your eyes.

"Want to join me?" You blinked. Mingi's eyes widened at your question. He was frozen, staring at you as if you had two heads.

"J-Join you?!"

"There's more than enough space. If you're comfortable and want to, that is." You shrugged. You just wanted him to hug you and you felt bad for leaving him to sit there on his own.

"Ummm... Okay." He scratched his head, a faint blush taking over his cheeks. You moved up for him to sit behind you.

The water sloshed and moved as Mingi settled behind you. He kept his boxers on and you didn't question him, if that's what he was comfortable with then it's fine. He gently held your waist, moving you back to lean on him.

"What's this?" Mingi asked, noticing something on your left shoulder blade for the first time.

"Haneul's birth flower and name in brush strokes." You replied. His thumb smoothed over the ink, making you shiver.

This new thing Mingi learnt about you made him smile. It was just a whole new level of trust and intimacy that showed how close you were now.

"It's pretty and suits you. I love it." He complimented, mesmerised by it.

"Thank you." You laughed. The brush strokes wrote 'my sky' in Hangul since Haneul's name meant sky and she was your sky. It wasn't something you paraded around since it meant a lot to you.

"Wooyoung, Hongjoong and San have tattoos too. But San said his hurt a lot." Mingi stated.

"The area he got it at does hurt quite a bit." You nodded, remembering the friendship script above San and Wooyoung's knee. You knew Mingi wasn't one for needles because of the pain, that's why he wears clip on earrings. Even though he maintains that he's just lazy to care for it after.

"Did yours hurt?"

"Not really. The lady that did it for me was Hyuk's friend. She's very gentle and I guess the area doesn't hurt as much. Hyuk's neck one hurt a lot more." You shrugged. Mingi kissed your shoulder.

"I don't know if I could get one. But I guess if the meaning compels me enough to get one, I would." He thought out loud.

"Sure, I mean, I didn't get one just because. I got it for the meaning. Getting random ones isn't something for me, I think." You chuckled.

The both of you just sat there, with your eyes closed, savouring the warm water.

When you both found yourselves falling asleep in the water, you and Mingi decided to get rinsed off. He left you to wash your hair while he stepped out. He retrived and changed into some fresh clothes that he had in your house.

"Mings? Where are you?" You dried your hair, looking for the tall male.

"In the kitchen! I made fried rice with stuff I found in the fridge. If that's okay." Mingi said, standing by the stove.

"That's fine. Thanks for cooking. I was gonna suggest ramen." You laughed. You hung the towel over your shoulder as you bent down to get two cans of beer from the fridge.

"Beer?" You cracked open the can.

"I'm guessing you've learnt how to open the can one-handed from San?" Mingi chuckled, taking one of the cans from you.

"It was a cool party trick...?" You shrugged with a giggle. You clinked your can with his before taking a sip. When Mingi finished cooking, you both decided to eat out of the frying pan he cooked in to minimise the dishes to wash later.

RINGGGGG

"Ugh." Mingi groaned. You looked at him in confusion. He turned the phone to you and you saw Hongjoong's face on the screen. You giggled, swiping to answer for him.

"Why did you accept?!" He yelled. The camera moved a little before Hongjoong's face came into view.

"Oh, hi Indi." Hongjoong waved.

"Hi, Joong." You smiled with a small wave. Mingi squinted his eyes at you, turning the phone away so Hongjoong looked at Mingi instead.

"What do you want?" Mingi groaned. You giggled, focusing on your phone while Mingi spoke to Hongjoong. You didn't pay attention or listen to their conversation, you were too tired to focus.

"Joong, I need you to save me. They don't like the OST draft track I sent them and want me to redo it so I need your help. Tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I should do." You leaned on Mingi's shoulder, interrupting their conversation and adding in your request since you suddenly remembered.

"Oh, a redo? Sure, Indi. Let me know when you're free to work on it." Hongjoong chuckled. Mingi turned to look at you but you just grinned innocently.

"I still don't know how I feel seeing you together like this." He said.

"Get used to it." Mingi wrapped an arm around your shoulders, kissing your temple, a playful smile on his face.

"Yah, yah, yah. That's enough!" Hongjoong scolded and scrunched his nose with a frown. You pulled away from Mingi, throwing your head back as you laughed.

After the food was finished, you left Mingi to finish up the call with Hongjoong and went to do the dishes and clean up. Mingi noticed you were just wearing a big shirt and covered you with his body.

"Ah, captain. Can't you text me this or tell me this tomorrow? I want to spend time with my girl." Mingi groaned.

"Exactly. I'm only doing this because I know you're there with her." Hongjoong smirked.

"I'm hanging up. I'll see you at the dorm tomorrow." Mingi hung up despite Hongjoong yelling at him. You shook your head with a smile at how the two of them were acting childishly. Mingi slipped his arms under you and carried you up in his arms.

"Mings!" Your arms went to loop around his neck to hold onto him. He kicked the bathroom door open so you could both wash up and get ready for bed.

"I just realised you're wearing my shirt." Mingi smiled, his arms pulling you closer as you cuddled on your bed.

"Yeah, it's so long on me. But I guess that's what happens when I do our laundry together. I'll put it back after I wash it." You laughed.

"Mm-mm. No need to return it, I think I prefer seeing you in my clothes more than me." Mingi kissed your cheek. You ran your hands through his hair, resting your leg over his waist.

"I'm sorry your OST didn't get approved." He whispered, hand coming the cup your cheek, his thumb gently smoothing the skin.

"It's okay. Rejection is a part of the process." You smiled softly, leaning into his touch.

"But I don't want you to overwork." He said. He tucked a lock of hair behind your head, not wanting to bother you. That's another thing you've noticed. While you loved his big acts of love, Mingi was also observant. It was the little things that he did with you and for you that made your heart flutter.

"I won't. I promise." You gave him a kiss. Despite your words, Mingi still had a worried look on his face. You looked so tired with all the recording sessions you've been having.

He didn't like seeing the toll on you and was worried that you would burn out soon. It was common for those in the music industry.

"All I need is for you to be with me. And I'll be okay." You smiled.

"You know, I'm always with you, baby." He laughed, bumping his forehead against yours.

"I know that. I just had to say it." You buried your face against his chest shyly. You couldn't directly express your feelings like Mingi could but he knew the underlying meaning of your words.

"Don't do that... I'll fall asleep..." You yawned, referring to how Mingi was lightly patting your back.

"That's the intention. You should sleep, baby." Mingi kissed your head, continuing his actions. He watched how you didn't even fight the sleep, your eyelids slowly drooping before you fell asleep. Mingi smiled proudly, happy to know he had this effect on you.

The effect that made you feel safe enough to fall asleep around him so quickly. You trusted him to be able to be so vulnerable around him. Mingi yawned and fell asleep, holding you close to him.

~

Series Masterlist

[celestialking]

Cerulean BAT

Pairing: gn!reader , Dream

Warnings: gn!, music during, light hair tugging, real name usage,

An: welcome back to day 2 >:) also I'm not editing

You had been taking a nap upstairs while the boys were watching something down. The first few days had been tiring you were almost like a babysitter to the crazy trio.

Did you know you were about to be interrupted napwise? No.

Dream slammed open his studio door, laptop in hand.

"Wake up babe, you know what time it is?"

"Dinner?" You mumbled sitting up. Attempting to rub the sleep out of your eyes you caught his shit eating grin out of the corner of your eye.

"Nope, Sex,"

"What?"

He ignored you clicking play on his laptop and set it down on his laptop. It took a few moments to recognize the music but by the time you had he was a few strides closer.

Cbat. Cbat was playing from this asshole's speaker.

"Dream!" You shrieked as he grasped your ankle. "You are not fucking me to that," you screamed trying to playfully kick him away.

He, himself, is trying not to wheeze. His hands grasped your waist pulling you closer. "But babe-"

"Absolutely not!" You giggled pushing his chest gently. "Dream was taken. No,"

If you listened hard enough you could hear the other two's giggles down the hall.

"You're right," he kissed the tip of your nose. "I accidentally put the wrong song on, one second baby,"

Dream pulled away, fingers twitching.

You watched him move over to his laptop typing a few things.

"Just wait for the ad," he grinned moving into the small bed with you. He had cornered you up against wall of the space, smiling as you wrapped your arms loosely over his shoulders.

"Multi-millionaire Dream can't even pay for youtube to get no ads?" Your fingers scratched into his hair tugging lightly.

His eyes fluttered shut as he leaned his head back slightly. Just as your lips brushed against his throat the music begun playing.

"Du du du du,"

Your grip in his hair turned harsher. "Clay,"

He stiffled a small noise. "Yes my love?"

"You're not fucking me to your Manhunt music playlist,"

He grinned lazily at you. "Not even once,"

"I'll tell you what, you win your IRL Manhunt and I'll let you,"

His head snapped to you quickly.

"Careful! You're gonna get whipla-"

"I'm going to win,"

"I was joking-"

A/n vol 2: trick or treat bitchessss, you got trick, This fic is just lighthearted and a joke, and not the real day 2- Cerulean Bat? CBat?🤭 I'm so funny /j you can thank 🐦- all their fault /lh (the real day 2 didn't get finished cause of the face reveal I hope you understand♡)

[nothingbutaspaceman-writings]

It's Always Supernatural in Philadelphia (chapter 1/? WIP)

[Perhaps the dumbest project I've ever started. This idea has infested my head for over a decade. A couple years ago, I posted a pic of the cold open but recently decided to pick it back up. At about 1400 words, this is far more a proof of concept than anything. I've never written/read a fanfic. I know I need to look into posting this on a site more formatted for this stuff. I'll be mapping out the story soon so posted chapters can have some consistency. Should edit this chapter a bit too. I also haven't watched either of these shows in a long time. The story ostensibly takes place in 2016 but what's happening in either canon continuity at the time? I've no clue. AU, I guess.]

11 AM.

October 28th, 2016.

On a Friday.

Philadelphia.

Dennis made small talk while finding a clean glass.

“You guys from around here?”

“Nah. Passing through.”

“Don’t get a lot of suits in here. Don’t mind me askin’, what’s your business, fellas?”

Sam cleared his throat. “We’re, uh... P.I’s.”

“Any interesting pic-”

With a clatter, Charlie stumbles to the counter. “Dennis. It’s not dying. I keep whacking and-”

Shushing, “Did you use the spiked bat?”

Offendedly stammering, “Of course! Never seen a rat like this. And you know I’ve seen a lot-”

“Like what?” Dean interjected.

“Oh, hey guys. Green.”

_________________________________

The Gang Hunts El Chupacabra

_________________________________

Chapter 1

Charlie leads Dean toward the basement door.

“Okay, I guess it’s fair to warn you, seeing as how you’re a guest and all-”

“Warn me of what?”

“I have a shit-ton of crows down here. So, like. Please don’t spook them?” Charlie opens the door and leads the way down the stairs. “Ya know they’re more afraid of you than you are of them. Also, like, crows are super smart. I once saw one smoke a cigarette.”

“Cool. Now show me that rat.”

Blood pools in a spot a bit over a foot in diameter a couple steps away from the bottom of the stairs. Charlie is chuckling to himself repeating, “That rat, that rat, that rat” under his breath.

Dean crouches down with a flashlight to examine the blood then does a 360 checking for escape routes under pallets and cabinets. No tracks. He lightly dips his finger into the blood as he catches Charlie doing the same. “So you’re say-”

“What?”

“Did you taste the blood?”

“Nah, man. I’m just... Chewing my nails. Protein.” He stands up and puts his hands in his jacket pockets.

“This was a rat but not a rat?”

“Ima level with you,” Barely keeping his balance, Charlie hunches down and continues in a hush, “I’ve seen a lot of rats. A lot of rats in my day. But this was something else. Actually,” he claps his hands once and the crows squawk in a frenzy, “can I interest you in some Crow-Nog?”

“What?!”

Upstairs, Sam is trying to get his laptop working. He’s looking under each booth for a socket with power. The only one is being used by a couple charging their phones.

“Hey, do you guys mind if I borrow your socket for a minute? I can charge your phones on my laptop.” The young couple look across at each other waiting for the other to say something. “Alright. Um. Sir? If you wouldn’t mind swapping sides. Your lovely date would appreciate it, I’m sure.”

The young man gets up. “I’ll go order us a couple more drinks.”

“I’m okay,” Sams blurts before realizing his social faux pas. He makes eye contact with the woman and she smiles. He taps his fingers nervously and his eyes look to the table.

“Actually. I think the two of us are leaving. Come on.” The non-descript couple leaves with one rushing the other.

Dennis, watching the situation unfold, stands at the table. “Did you- was that intentional?”

“I’m sorry...”

“Dennis.”

“I’m sorry, Dennis, but I need to get to work.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.” Dennis lingers a couple seconds longer than Sam would like but goes back behind the bar. As he does, Dean and Charlie emerge from the basement. Dean’s eyes quickly meet Sam’s and he slides into the booth.

Sam exhales, half annoyed he’s being interrupted again, half in preparation for what Dean is gonna reveal. “So what happened?”

“I think we’re on the right track. Freddy Got Fingered over there told me he has seen weird things around here. He tried to get me to drink something called Crow-Nog but there’s other witnesses.”

“Other witnesses? Friends with that guy?” Sam points to Charlie trying to open a bottle of super glue with his mouth.

“Yeah, why?” Dean returns assuredly. “Anything good in there?”

“Well, nothing to report as of yet.  I don’t know if this place even has internet.”

“Did you ask your friend over there?” Dennis is failing to look natural as he wipes and re-wipes the bar top.

“I’ll ask mine when you ask yours.” Charlie is trying to open a bottle of nail polish remover with his glued shut jaw.

“Fair enough. Didn’t we order drinks already?”

“Yeah. I’m going to let mine go. I wouldn’t drink anything here even if it was out of a bottle.”

“What do you mean? Alcohol kills all the germs.” Dean smirks. “Yo! Two beers. Your worst and your best.”

With a thumbs up, “You got it.” Dennis turns to the taps and rambles to himself unsure of how to fulfill the request. In one pint glass, he pours a pungent lager. He once read that good lager smells like rotten egg so, even if it is spoiled, he has the plausible deniability of it being fancy. “Charlie.”

Charlie is already right behind him, wiping nail polish remover from his lips in embarrassment.

“I’m not even going to ask. Charlie, what’s the best beer here?”

“Crow-Nog, duh, Dennis.”

“I’m not!” Hushing himself, “I’m not giving anybody your bird moonshine, okay?”

“Then whatever is in that third tap. I’ve been,” his eyes dart back and forth, “metaphorically sucking the spout.”

Another pint glass is grabbed and filled with a brick red tinted liquid. “This better be beer.” Dennis places the two glasses on the table. The lager in front of Dean. Charlie’s pick spilling over onto Sam’s laptop.

“They’re both for me, buddy.” The lager is already half-drank before the final syllable escapes.

“Sorry about my janitor over there. He can get a wee excited for guests.” They all look at Charlie as he licks a nail polish brush. “Let’s ignore him. So what are you guys working on?”

“Mr...”

“Reynolds.”

“Mr. Reynolds,” his empty pint is scooted towards the wall as he lowers his voice, “have you seen anything out of the ordinary around here.”

“Out of the ordinary,” a million flashbacks, “around here?”

“Yeah. You know. Strange. Unnatural.”

Ready to follow their monsters-are-real scripts, Sam and Dean both focus on Dennis

“Did Charlie put you up to this?” Dennis gulps and flatly repeats, “Did Charlie put you up to this, huh?” He chuckles, puts his hands on his waist, and looks at the ground before looking through Dean. “Wow. Okay guys. How about you finish your drinks and,” he clicks his tongue, “hit the old dusty trail.”

“We’re being serious.”

“So am I. It was nice, guys.” Walking away, Dennis scolds Charlie for eating nail polish. As Dean begins to drink the mystery drink, “And quit putting your whole mouth on the beer taps. I’m not going to tell you again.”

Deans spits out his drink and Sam laughs. “Let’s get out of here, Sammy.”

Mac holds the door as the brothers exit. He lets them by, straightens his posture, and sizes them up.

“Who were those guys?”

“Assholes,” replied Dennis.

“I thought they were kinda cool. Didn’t wanna try my nog but that’s okay. Can’t all be winners.”

“Dude, we need to move the nog.”

“Man, I know. Those guys were cool too. They were also super packing.”

Mac’s eyes widened. “No shit?”

“Definitely. The shorter guy,” he whistles, “was in the basement with me.”

“And?”

“And what. He had ‘I’m packing’ energy, dude!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Dennis interrupts, pouring a red beer for Mac to get him to sit down, “Maybe that guy you talked with. Tall guy, nah. Don’t buy it.”

“I do. I buy it, Charlie. I was checking those- I was,” Mac takes a quick sip, “ assessing those guys. Tall guy. I bet he’s packing. I mean, did you see his hands?”

“Oh yeah. I was glad he stayed up here with Dennis.”

“Why were you in the basement together? Is it about the crows?”

“The murder?”

“The what?!” Almost spilling his drink, Mac stumbles to his feet. “I actually. I just remembered a thing. I gotta go.” Mac leaves the bar.

“You gonna finish that?”

“Mac’s beer that is infested with whatever diseases hide in your saliva glands?”

“Yeah.”

“Take it.”

Charlie pulls a plastic mini-bottle out of his jacket and pours the white substance into the beer. “I’ll be in the basement. Call me up if Frank comes by, yeah?”

[kykyonthemoon]

Dream 9451

Prison is when you have to live in darkness and yearn for what you never had.

He was a traveler from year 9451 to meet her, the girl who had died before he existed.

❀ Rafayel x OC/MC | AU

❀ This story was based on a dream that I had after a day in this game. Hence, there's a cliffhanger.

❀ L&D Masterlist

𝑳𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆

Afternoon sunlight penetrated through the open window frame. The curtains were blown by the wind and disturbed above the small bed. Leaning on the edge of the bed, with her body sliding to the floor and her head nestled on the soft duvet was Lucielle. 

It was late afternoon, well past one o'clock. She covered her shoulders with her purple-purple pastel headphones and massaged her eyes. A nonchalant exhale escaped from her lips. A rather significant heat was coming from the laptop that was open on her lap, indicating many hours of continuous work.

As soon as she turned off the laptop and set it aside, Lucielle's phone vibrated again. She reached for it and picked it up:

"I'm here."

On the other end of the line came the voice of her best friend Cery:

"Hey, meet me at the mall later, okay?"

"At the shopping mall, or at the claw machines area?" Lucielle asked with a chuckle. She knew that her friend had invited her there only because the girl had her eyes on a guy who would show up at the arcade often lately.

"You know it! Shall we meet at three o'clock?"

"Sounds good... But I'm a little tired..." 

Sniffing Lucielle's intention to retreat, Cery said immediately:

"Let's go. I've read your tarot for today. Undoubtedly, you would meet the destiny of your life there. So you must come! Don't let fate slip out of your hand."

"Absolutely." Lucielle replied with a laugh. "Your tarot cards never say anything good about my love life."

"They do, this time!" Cery gave a solid reply. "I'll see you at the entrance then!"

Lucielle could only agree. It's good to hang out once in a while. She had spent too much time sitting in her room getting her work done. And it was another day off. While others were out on dates, or having fun with friends, she chose to lull in her room for the day.

Lucielle was just an ordinary office worker, living in a tiny apartment full of plush toys that she had won from claw machines. Besides from work, she just hung around at home holding her computer or phone, or spent time and pennies on claw machines at the arcade. Sometimes she got bored and really lonely, but in any case, life still went on. She did not have big ambitions. She just stood outside of this ever changing life, watching others live theirs, as if she was just an observer.

Perhaps all she was waiting for was a magical adventure. An encounter by chance. Something only happened once in a lifetime.

Alternatively, it could be that her wishful thinking came from having read and watched far too much fiction. 

She reflected on what Cery had just said, about meeting her destiny today. Then she laughed at her nonsense thoughts. The fate Cery refers to may be a special edition plushie. If so, that would be nice.

It was more than three o'clock in the afternoon. Lucielle stood under a tree outside the building rebuilt from the old structure. What was now the city's largest commercial building nonetheless held remnants of the past. That's how Linkon was — a modern place where the past met the present. Lucielle impatiently glanced at the watch before shifting her gaze to both sides of the wide road ahead of her.

She did not see Cery. But Lucielle's attention was drawn to someone at once. On the opposite side on the same sidewalk, a slender figure stood out from the crowd. Dark curls tinged with purple glow intertwined, resting down his brow and eyes were firmly looking in her direction. Lucielle let go of a heartbeat. The whole street froze and the only thing moving was the stranger's footsteps heading in this direction.

He came to a halt in front of Lucielle. The thin lips curled up into a smile. If someone had painted a dream, it would be exactly like this. Because this was so unreal. Why would there be such a perfect shaped person? Lucielle only dared to look up once, and their eyes met. 

"There you are!"

A soft voice spoke, drowning out all the noise in the street, birds singing in the trees and rustling leaves. It was as if the only sound in the universe. Lucielle was perplexed. This was a man she had never seen before, but he gave the impression that he had known her for a long, long time.

Just as she was about to say something, Lucielle heard a loud call of her name from another side. Turning her head, she caught sight of Cery walking happily towards her.

Lucielle raised a hand to wave. Then when she returned to the stranger earlier, he was long gone.

"How long did you wait? Today's bus was running a little late." Cery moved over to stand beside her. "But... What are you looking at?"

"Nothing..." Lucielle shook her head and said. "I’ve just met a very strange person..."

Lucielle paused. How could she put it into words; that she had just met a picturesque beauty?; that he had just vanished without a trace in a split second? She must have been dizzy and she blamed all the milk coffee she had had for the day. 

She took another glance at the street, before stepping inside the building in deep thought.

𝑹𝒂𝒇𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒍

Rafayel darted a gaze across the busy street, where sunlight fell alternately through the foliage, covering her with a soothing aura. 

He had found her. In the world where she was truly alive.

Rafayel's mind was as deep as the ocean. Somewhere in the raging waves laid the memory of another land. In that place, she slept soundly, for eternity. 

Year 9451,

After a series of catastrophic disasters many millennia ago, the entire world was submerged in seawater.

A new species appeared. They resembled humans but possessed fish tails, with strength and longevity far exceeding those of humans. They were Lemurians.

Humanity entered a new life form. They drifted into slumber inside peculiar cocoons kept in the lowest depths of the ocean. In anticipation of the day the human eventually awoke, the Lemurians watched over them.

However, nobody had ever awakened. The cocoons that the ocean cherished for thousands of years began to rot, eventually dying out. 

Those humans’ eyes would never be able to open again…

*

* *

Reaching out to the glass, Rafayel removed the black seaweed that was holding the cocoon in place. They purposefully obscured the lovely sleeping girl who was drifting in an oceanic dream. He brushed the moss off the metal board attached to the cocoon to the side.

Lucielle Caelum

81000xxxxxx

Her face was pale, but relaxed as if she were just taking a long nap. Not a scratch, unscathed by the outer world. She was the best preserved specimen that the Lemurians had recovered from an ancient natural disaster.  And she was one of the humans placed in Rafayel’s care here.

Rafayel approached the cocoon until his nose came into contact with the glass. He had been to this place thousands and thousands of times, watching her fall asleep and sketching her dreams. Perhaps she was dreaming of the world in which she had lived, where people could walk with two feet on the ground. Little did she know, what awaited her when she woke up was the darkness of the ocean. 

Rafayel consequently created innumerable illustrations of the lands, or stories that he had learned about the ancient world. When she woke up, she would see them. She herself would tell him her story before slipping into this never-ending slumber. Rafayel allowed himself the autonomy to envisage her life, her family, her friends. He was daydreaming of a Lucielle he had not ever met.

For millennia when his eyes were only on her, Rafayel had fallen in love.

Yet, despite all their attempts to awaken humans, the Lemurians never succeeded. Eventually, the cocoons were unable to support the inhabitants within.They collapsed, and the tide carried the frail human bodies away, transforming them into bubbles that soared skyward, as though their souls yearned to rise above the waves once more. One after another, slowly, they were all gone.

Except for this only left.

"There is nothing we can do for humans anymore."

"They are too fragile for the world today."

"Let’s give up..."

The Lemurians voiced. But Rafayel, and he alone, had not given up. He assembled a group of other distinguished Lemurians and constructed a machine, before it was too late.

"Must you do this, Lord Rafayel?"

"Lemurian cannot be without a leader. Please reconsider your decision!"

"There is instability with this machine. Once you go back to the past, chances are you won't be able to return here..."

The discussions echoed across the vast sea as they carried on. Rafayel was adamant, though. Prison is when you have to live in darkness and yearn for what you never had. Going back to when it all began and preventing that event of doom was the only way. No matter how dangerous it was, he had to give it a try.

On the day of his departure, he came to see her one last time. 

The cocoon that held her did not last much longer. Having to watch her vanish was as if watching himself die. Rafayel's slender hand touched her face behind the glass as he said farewell.

"I'll find you."

And then, he went. The gears of the machine turned, forming countless rolling waves, and then the ocean disappeared. She disappeared.

*

* *

He found her in the third millennium. As vivid as his dream came true.

There were only three hundred and sixty-four days remaining before her world began to crumble.

-The End?-