#I'm probably going to work on this later but i had to share it bc like???

[starflungwaddledee]

Oooo starstruck dee has little stars at the bottom of her feet! Are they just aesthetic or would they make imprints into the ground? (like pawprints)

exactly like that! though she's not the only one...

edit: might need to add some additional dialogue to this to make it more clear, but a clarification in the interim; he knows about his own footprints. he's just surprised to see something similar already there when he knows he's only just landed. he lifts his own shoe to confirm that they're not identical (and also to reveal this to the viewer). seems his stoicism beat off the clarity in this one, sorry 😭

[7-deadly-cats]

killing me softly | 21

K M S M A S T E R L I S T | <- P R E V I O U S | N E X T ->

✿ G E N R E ✿ she fell first, he fell harder | slice of life | drama

✿ P A I R I N G ✿ s1!rafe cameron x overthinking!reader (f)

✿ C O N T E N T W A R N I N G ✿ swearing, suggestive language & themes, mildly jealous!reader, possessive!rafe, silly!rafe, reader having a heart attack at the end (not literal, tho... maybe), cliffhanger bc i wanna keep things open for how i'm gonna handle the situation

✿ S U M M A R Y O F L A S T P A R T ✿ molly got added to the girls' group chat, and while you and rafe stayed curled up watching transformers, she kept the others updated about the two of you. the girls also ended up talking about rafe leaving earlier, and pretty quickly decided it probably had something to do with ruthie. you and rafe stayed cuddled the whole movie. you suggested filling topper and kelce in on everything but you weren’t gonna tell anyone anything he didn’t want shared. he also apologized for grabbing your wrist earlier, clearly feeling bad about how he handled it. you both added each other on TrackerBuddies, the little friendship tracker app. after the movie, you rejoined the others (minus the pogues). rafe openly admitted he regretted punching topper. when cara brought up ruthie, rafe shut her down fast. not long after, sarah called cara, asking to come join you guys. you asked rafe to dip with you. as you took an uber to your place, he grabbed your dad’s corvette, and the two of you headed out for another one of those sweet late-night drives. (18+ extra summarized) rafe missed you a lot back at home and tried feeling close to you by having a little solo session. afterward, he regretted it and also came to the realization this pull toward you was more than just a sexual need.

✿ W O R D C O U N T ✿ 10k+

✿ A / N ✿ probably one of my weakest chapters yet in comparison to the previous bangers. i also feel like it's 80% dialogue but i just have way too much fun w it and yeah. PLUS not sure if i’m jumping around too much but i really wanted to squeeze all the important scenes in. hope you guys enjoy anyway and pls lmk your thoughts <3 xx ᓚᘏᗢ

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

for those who skipped the extra including the aftermath of the open-air event, please go back and read it as i've decided to promote it to a main chapter as it contains way too essential info and changes in dynamics. -> Chapter 20 (former extra)

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

also just to be safe: avoid the comment section until you’re finished

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

W E E K T W O // M O N D A Y 6 : 4 2 A M

One week ago, your whole life had been turned upside down.

Because exactly one week ago, on a seemingly uneventful Monday, your art teacher had decided to put you and Rafe Cameron together into a group for a two-week-long project.

And exactly one week ago, you'd thought this would be the end of you.

You remembered how he’d approached you after class, that unbothered expression on his face, not even properly looking at you, as he asked you to "just get this project over with" during lunch.

God, you remembered how you'd panicked afterward, how clammy your hands had gotten at the mere thought of working—no, TALKING—to Rafe. How Molly had found you pale as hell in the girls' restroom, how you'd freaked out while waiting for him in front of the gym.

You two had been classmates, project partners, no, actually, total strangers thrown together by some twisted coincidence named Arthur Smith, who wore washed-out art smocks and hair like a bomb had exploded in his face.

And now, exactly one week later, on yet another seemingly uneventful Monday, you could call yourself Rafe’s friend.

You couldn't even begin to describe how crazy, insane, downright batshit surreal that felt. Especially considering he’d been your crush for the past few years and now, within just one week, you’d gotten so close that you EVEN FUCKING CUDDLED LAST NIGHT LIKE WHAT.

HOW.

WHAT. HOW WAS THAT EVEN—like, you didn’t know what parallel universe you’d entered last Monday but LET’S FUCKING GOOOOO.

GOOOOSH, JUST THINKING ABOUT LAST NIGHT MADE YOUR HEART THUNDER LIKE CRAZY IN YOUR CHEST.

Starting from him being such a sweet gentleman, paying for your stuff, to you first sitting on the lounge bed and then scooting closer to warm each other up (after he’d had a boner but let’s never think about that again), and how sweet and relaxed he’d seemed, just for Ruthie to ruin your little cozy bonding moment with her fucked up bullshit game.

Oh, how badly you’d wanted to find that bitch after your argument with Rafe in the parking lot and slap that stupid grin right off her face. Sure, violence was never the answer, but this bitch? She could catch hands for playing him like that.

Really quite a weird coincidence though, that she’d been nowhere to be found at the event site after she’d talked to Rafe.

You’d found out through the girlies' group chat that she’d left in the middle of Barbie and had never come back. Gracie and Samantha had followed her shortly after.

As soon as Rafe had dropped you off at home, you’d gone straight to bed and scrolled through the dozens of messages in the girlies' group chat, aka them commenting on you and Rafe while trying to solve the mystery of why he’d left you behind.

And funny enough, they’d actually kinda solved it. But you hadn’t commented on anything because Rafe had made it very clear he didn’t want anyone getting involved.

Also, not them playing fucking Sherlock Holmes and talking about you and Rafe as if you weren’t in the group chat. Like, girls, come on, at least make a secret chat for that, geez.

You’d giggled nonetheless. Happy that Molly was now in the group too and also touched by how much they were cheering you and Rafe on.

Anyway, Ruthie being the reason two poor souls had to spend half the night alone? Fucking bitch.

And that just made you feel even worse about being annoyed with Topper last night. He’d probably felt just as awful as you had ughhhh.

Though, you had absolutely zero energy to spiral over how he might’ve felt because—BECAUSE—

Because Rafe.

YEAH RAFE.

Rafe who’d placed his fucking hand just inches away from your butt when he'd nudged you forward, both when leading you back inside the venue AND when you'd left. Like, okay, it was still just your lower back but from a different angle, that was just inches from your butt.

HAHAHAHAH the butterflies in your stomach had been already screaming like crazy and ripping each other’s wings off from panic and excitement, but no, this guy had taken it one step further.

Him. Always by your side. Like. The whole night.

Always close to you in some kind of way.

Not pushy, not clingy, or in any way uncomfortable. No, it felt more like he wanted to be near you, to feel the comfort of your presence, to reassure himself that you really weren’t leaving. Maybe grounding himself after being so shaken earlier.

So, when you two had settled back in on the lounge bed (ignoring Kelce’s and Molly’s surprised, smiley glances), he’d pulled you right back under the blanket. Held it open for you to scoot closer, and when you’d hesitated to cozy back up to him, he gave you this look with his big blue eyes—equal parts amusement and confusion—and said, “Don’t you dare be shy with me now.”

Yeah.

You kinda died in that moment. He'd looked genuinely afraid you might be scared of cuddling with him again, when in reality you just didn’t want to overstimulate him or crowd him after his crashout, especially considering he’d still been a bit jittery from the coke in his system.

Somehow, that restlessness faded fast once you cozied back up to him, his arm instantly wrapping around your waist as you settled back on his chest, your hand resting on his stomach. He even picked up where he’d left off, playing with the charms dangling from your bracelet—a gesture that somehow grounded both of you.

And in that very moment, you let yourself accept the fact that Rafe liked you.

He liked being around you, liked hanging out with you, and he also seemed to like the way you handled him and his little crashout moments. Because if he didn’t, he would’ve dipped after your argument. He wouldn’t have begged you to stay and apologized. And he definitely wouldn’t have spent the rest of the night by your side AND LEFT TOGETHER WITH YOU.

Of course, deep down, in some very dark and twisted corner of your brain, there was still that fear that he only liked the feeling you gave him. That he just liked that you stuck around. That he enjoyed the idea of having some girl around. Or worse—that he was doing all this for the project. That he was only keeping you around so you’d carry him through it, boost his GPA, and then drop you the second he got what he wanted.

But those thoughts felt so absurd, so ridiculous, you were ashamed to even think them, ashamed they even surfaced for a second. Especially after Rafe had opened up to you like that, gotten emotional and vulnerable, showing a side of himself you didn’t even think Topper or Kelce had ever seen.

Nah, fuck those thoughts.

Fuck that little asshole minion in your head that even dared to speak them out loud. Yeah, mentally, you kicked that little guy’s ass.

Better.

AHDHEKJEKW you couldn’t stop grinning to yourself as you packed your bag for school, thinking about how sweet he’d been after the movie.

Sliding right next to you on the bench at the bar, KNEES TOUCHING AND HIM FUCKING PLAYING WITH THE FABRIC OF YOUR DRESS AT YOUR SHOULDER LIKE JESUS YOU HAD LITERAL GOOSEBUMPS FROM THAT.

And oh my god—him helping you into your jacket in the parking lot after you'd left the venue, complimenting your dress again followed by a dumbass comment (“You sure you not into hookups? Shit, aight, sorry, don’t look at me like that”), which you THANKFULLY hadn’t spiraled over because somehow you’d accepted that flirty, suggestive comments were just part of the Rafe Cameron starter pack.

And also, YOU KINDA LIKED HEARING HIM SAY STUFF LIKE THAT HIHIHIHHI.

Because the fact that he found you attractive, even being down to sleep with you, and showered you with comments like that... yeah, that DID something to you. Huge ego and confidence boost and let’s just say it stirred another part of you as well.

While lying on Rafe, you felt that tingling sensation surging through your whole body, a buzzing warmth low in your stomach. That desire for his hand on your waist to slide a little further down to your butt, or maybe even higher… to rest on your boobs. Or how you wondered what his abs felt like under that stupidly well-fitting polo, or what his lips might feel like on yours. How those same lips would taste, how they’d feel on your neck, shoulders, stomach, thighs, and—

HE HAD!!! HE’D LET HIS HAND WANDER FOR JUST A TINY SECOND, JUST A TINY INCH TOWARD YOUR HIP AND… then he’d pulled back.

Had you been absolutely overwhelmed in that moment? Yes. Were you still disappointed he hadn’t left his hand there? YES. But did the fact that he did pull back—because he cared about not making you uncomfortable—make you want him to touch you even more BECAUSE HIM CARING ABOUT YOUR COMFORT WAS SO FUCKING HOT?

ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY.

You’d always found Rafe attractive (I mean, duh, even fifth-grade you had good taste), but now? This didn’t feel like just a crush anymore, like some cute guy you liked looking at. No, this was… different. Like there was this magnetic pull toward him and— okay, let’s be real, it felt like you wanted him to rip your clothes off and rock your world.

And the wildest part? Rafe apparently wanted to do exactly that, as he’d stated two days ago, and WHAT'S STOPPING YOU THEN HHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

Oh right.

Probably the crippling fear of rejection, the fact that you're a virgin with zero real-life experience outside of chaotic fanfiction, and also the sheer vulnerability of baring your entire soul and body in front of a guy while handing him the key to the most fragile little drawer of your being.

Hah. Yeah. Nope. Sex definitely wasn’t happening anytime soon.

Besides… didn’t you technically just become friends two days ago? And that only because you basically forced him into it during that horrible spiral over his intentions. And if you suddenly told him (not that you even had the balls to do that) that you’d maybe potentially be down for… something, he’d probably smash your head against the wall for being so damn indecisive and for driving him to the brink of insanity during that conversation.

HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah not happening.

Anyway.

School.

You slung your bag over your shoulder and were just about to text Rafe when your phone buzzed at that exact moment, nearly giving you a heart attack.

Seriously, this freaking guy.

How was he one of the “cool” guys at school when he didn’t even know how to use the basic features on his phone? Like, excuse me? -100 aura.

Also, him saying he hated cats for being moody when HE acted like a moody stray cat himself? The irony was almost poetic.

AND NOT HIM CALLING YOU ‘BABY’. WHAT.

Okay, yeah, he very professionally crossed the word out, but like, he could have drawn over it completely.

But he hadn’t.

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN OMFG.

Not a single day went by without him completely messing with your head with those weird, mixed (but also not mixed at all) signals. I meaaaan, he’d made it pretty clear that he wanted to bend you over, but was also totally fine being friends who flirted for fun???

Okay, the more you thought about that, the more ridiculous it sounded soooo, let’s push that thought away before you spiraled again and Rafe ended up actually smashing your head into a wall hahaha.

So you just—

Bzzrt.

You grabbed your phone again and chuckled.

You never would’ve guessed Rafe was such a drama queen and kind of needy. Not sexually (okay, maybe a little), but more like emotionally needy?

Like, the way he'd called you out for needing reassurance during your argument, and, look at him, the very same night clinging to you like a second shadow, blowing up your phone at every opportunity like you were the only friend he had.

And honestly? It kind of made you feel… wanted. Because he did it in this passive-aggressive, caring kind of way that made your chest warm up in all the right ways.

Shit, Rafe = Doberman confirmed (again).

Also, it was really sweet how comfortable he seemed with you. The way he let his guard down, showed vulnerability and affection, let himself be attached like that. He definitely didn’t act like that with Topper and Kelce.

Well, to be fair, they also hadn’t been cuddled up to him with their boobs pressed against his chest last night sooo… yeah.

Okay, you really needed to head downstairs now before Rafe showed up and gave you some kind of speech about making him wait 0.3 seconds.

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

"Your mom loves me," he said as he pulled his Benz out of your driveway, grinning so wide he looked like the Cheshire Cat.

And, well, yeah, your mom had stood at the front door waving at him with a smile when she said goodbye. Actually, she was still standing there, her grin mirroring Rafe’s.

Ughhh, why was this so embarrassing.

"I think she’s just relieved I’m not taking her car again," you said with a small laugh. You’d kinda scratched the side mirror that one time trying to park in some hellishly narrow underground lot, oops.

Rafe shook his head, still grinning, and waved back to her before driving off. "Nah. Looks more like she just found the perfect son-in-law."

A baffled laugh escaped your lips at the absurdity. "Don’t know about that."

"Yeah? And why’s that?" He raised a brow, smirking at you as he glanced over. "Seemed like your mom and your dad pretty much threw themselves at me on Saturday."

You exhaled through your nose, amused. "Well, yeah. You looked wrecked with that bruise. Still do," you said, eyeing the purple blotch on his cheek. "Plus, my dad’s a doctor. It’s literally his job to care about people."

If only he knew how deeply your parents actually cared about him. How concerned they were after speaking to him once.

Rafe scoffed. "Yeah, sure. Next time I see them, they’ll probably start planning a wedding."

"And I’m pretty sure they’d ask for my consent first," you chuckled, though your heart did a little jump at him even mentioning marriage.

And your pulse spiked even more when Rafe gave you this weirdly serious look, almost more confused than amused. "What? Am I not living up to the princess’ standards?"

OH. WHAT.

Boy, if you only knew. You were the standard.

ALSO WHY WAS THIS THROWING YOU OFF SO BADLY, WHAT THE HELL.

Oh god, how were you supposed to respond without offending him but still giving an answer that satisfied him enough to let it go, without completely exposing your feelings but maybe still dropping some kind of hint AHHHHH???

Cheeks heating up, you let out an awkward laugh, fiddling with your bracelet. "Well, I mean… you don’t exactly strike me as the relationship type."

OH GIRL.

Rafe scoffed, amused. "Shit, what? So you’re saying I’m never settling down or what?"

UMMMMM.

Heart racing like crazy in your chest, you let out a strained chuckle, shaking your head. "No! No, of course not. I didn’t mean it like that, I just… I meant right now, you know?" You fidgeted with the little key charm on your bracelet. "I’m just not sure how to say it without you taking it the wrong way."

"It's that hookup topic again, huh?" Rafe asked, not entirely clear whether he was annoyed or entertained.

You shook your head. "Yes—I mean, no! Not that exactly. I just…" You sighed, feeling your neck heat up as well. "I only meant to say it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in anything serious right now. You brought up marriage and all, but that kinda needs a relationship as a foundation, right? Not that anyone our age is actually thinking about marriage." You grimaced, cringing at yourself. "Okay, please ignore everything I've said. I'm talking nonsense."

Rafe let out a chuckle and glanced sideways at you. "You know, I can have fun now and still settle down later."

UGHHHH PLEASE DROP IT.

"Yes, of course," you said, nodding like a lunatic. "I’m not judging. I was just objectively describing how you come across to me. That’s all."

He gave a tight-lipped smile, scratching his jaw, like he was letting your words settle. "I guess."

Oh no. Oh god. You’d offended him.

SHIT.

QUICK, FIX IT.

"I didn’t mean anything bad by it," you said quietly, watching his jaw clench.

The car stopped at a red light.

Rafe nodded, lips pressed together, and squinted out the windshield as he let out a strained laugh. "I dunno. You kinda made it sound like I’m incapable of committing."

WHY WAS HE TWISTING YOUR WORDS.

You shook your head, eyes wide. "Rafe, no, that’s absolutely not—"

"I mean, family’s important, right?" he cut in, his tone softer now, meeting your gaze for a split second. You nodded and opened your mouth but he kept going: "It’s about blood, loyalty, and all that shit. That’s what you build your life around." His brows twitched. "Just actually finding someone worth sharing this shit with, that’s the part that sucks."

He scoffed, raising his shoulders. "I mean, shit, there’s not a single girl at school I could tolerate for longer than a class period. Either they’re the most exhausting person alive or the most basic, boring chick ever."

Alriiiiiight.

Okay, first of all: him having this view on family and commitment? Wow. Unexpected. But then again, okay, not that surprising considering Ward Cameron was known to value family above everything else and Rafe practically worshipped his dad. So, okay, yeah, it made sense he shared that belief.

And second: wow… what were those last words supposed to mean? Did that mean he couldn’t actually tolerate you either? Which made no sense because he clearly—

“Don’t,” he scoffed, amused.

You blinked. “What?”

“Can hear your fuckass brain minion preaching some bullshit again.”

Uh…

“Obviously I wasn’t talking about you,” he said and pulled the car back into motion as the light turned green.

OH. WHAT.

WHAT WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO— WHAT. OKAY NO, THIS JUST SENT YOUR SPIRAL INTO OVERDRIVE BECAUSE WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THAT.

A baffled little laugh left your lips. “Not sure how I’m supposed to take that.”

For a moment, he didn’t say anything, brows furrowed as he stared straight ahead, fingers drumming against the steering wheel. Then he shrugged. “You’re fucking weird, so you’re not basic shit. And yeah, you are fucking exhausting, but not in a ‘buy me this, why didn’t you call me’ kinda way, blah blah,” a crooked smile tugged at his lips, “more like ‘I make easy things complicated’ exhausting.”

Uh-huh. Should’ve never asked.

You nodded slowly, raising your eyebrows. “Right.”

“Right,” Rafe mocked you with a scoff. “Just told you for like the hundredth time I fuck with you. Dunno what’s so hard to understand about that.”

Man, this guy and his attempts at expressing himself. You two really needed to work on that.

You raised a brow at him, lips tugging into a small grin. “Did you just mock me?”

“Did you just mock me,” he mimicked again, only to get smacked (more or less gently) on the arm for it.

A boyish laugh escaped him as he raised his brows at you. “Shit, nearly dislocated my shoulder.”

Idiot.

“Keep it up and Cacty’s gonna be raised by a single parent,” you said flatly, your expression amused.

Yes, during your Uber ride yesterday you’d both heavily debated what kind of plant to choose for your TrackerBuddies plant and, even more importantly, what to name it.

In the end, you’d compromised (okay, Rafe had given in because you threatened to kill the seed off). He got to pick the plant (“cactus are tough as fuck, aight”) and you picked the name (“fuckass name, plant’s gonna be a loser”).

Yeah, well, and now Cacty was already on level 3 because via notifications you’d seen how Rafe had been grinding that app since 5am this morning (not him paying for in-game coins and farming XP).

Rafe shot you the most dramatic scowl alive. “Shit, I already am a single parent. You only watered that fucker once since yesterday.”

“I didn’t have time this morning,” you replied with a chuckle.

“It’s literally one tap of a button.” Rafe raised a brow at you. “Fingers busy with something else or what?”

DUDE.

Immediate heat rushed to your face as you let out a very strained laugh. “You’re nasty.”

“Imma take that as a yes.”

HELP OH MY GOD. WHY WOULD HE SAY THAT.

Wait, no—fuck that. Last night you hadn’t been shy at all, why were you acting all flustered now? He’d literally had a boner lying next to you, like????? That hadn’t bothered you but this did?

Nah.

Time to throw that shit right back.

You gathered your courage and gave him a deadpan look. “Maybe you should use yours more often. Might help keep your libido in check.”

He only scoffed in amusement but ha! You caught that tiny furrow between his brows, the way his jaw tightened as he rubbed it.

Making Rafe uncomfortable? Shouldn’t feel as satisfying as it did.

He was just about to throw a smart-ass reply back when both your phones buzzed at the same time. His in the center console, yours in your bag.

Immediately your stomach tightened with unease. You couldn’t help but think of Ruthie. Was she trying to play real-life Gossip Girl now?

Before you could reach for your phone, Rafe grabbed his and tossed it into your lap. “0510. Who’s being annoying?”

ALRIGHT. TRUSTING YOU WITH HIS PHONE AGAIN AND EVEN GIVING YOU HIS PASSCODE. I MEAN. OKAY.

Heart beating a little faster, you unlocked it and tapped on the notification, leading you straight into his email app.

You blinked. “Mr. Smith.”

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

“I think we should use the free period to work on the project,” Rafe said as he crossed his arms on the stone table, biceps flexing while he did.

Mr. Smith had very kindly announced ahead of time (10 min prior the lesson) that he wouldn’t be in today because he was going to an art exhibition out of town. But he’d left the art room unlocked for anyone who wanted to continue working on their project.

You pulled your iPad from your bag, eyes scanning the display as you skimmed through your school notes. Shit, maybe sitting in the courtyard hadn’t been the best idea. The screen was reflecting.

Ugh, whatever.

“Again, I’ve got a math test afterward and I really don’t wanna fail,” you said, glancing up for a second. “I mean, you could already head to the copy shop and we can do the rest after school.”

PROPS TO YOU FOR INDIRECTLY ASKING TO HANG OUT LATER HIHIHI.

Rafe grimaced and leaned back, scratching his jaw. “Nah, I’ve got no clue about that crap. Besides, I’ve got no time this afternoon. Need to talk to my dad.”

Your heart sank. You’d really hoped to see him again later and spend more time together, but he was right. The Ruthie situation took priority. He only had six more days till the Gloaming to convince his dad to accept the deal and get the video deleted from Ruthie’s stash.

So you just nodded, opening your math folder. “Do you already know what you wanna say to him?”

You’d offered to talk about it last night during your late-night drive around, but Rafe insisted on saving that for today.

Rafe furrowed his brows, rubbing at one. “Shit, I don’t know. I mean, I gotta make him reconsider the deal.” He exhaled and shrugged. “But it’s fucked. The terms are shit, and agreeing to it would be like submitting to a guy way below him. No way he’ll even listen to me.”

Yeah, the whole thing would’ve been way easier if Rafe had to propose a new deal. But trying to make his dad rethink one he’d already dismissed? Practically impossible.

You nodded. And good thing you’d given this some thought before falling asleep. “Okay, three options,” you said. “First, you present the deal in such a way that he has to reconsider and say yes but even I think that’s the hardest route.” You pointed your Apple Pencil at him. “Second, we get Ruthie’s dad to rethink his terms. Maybe he’s open to talk. Or, I dunno, if we’re lucky maybe Ruthie is.”

Even as the words left your mouth you knew it was stupid. Ruthie never gave in. That’d just drag Rafe deeper into the shit.

“Fuck that,” Rafe said, crossing his arms on the table again AND GOD THEY LOOKED DELICIOUS DMKNCJKNCJKDS. “This bitch can’t be trusted and I sure as hell won't give her the satisfaction of handing her even more control over the situation.”

You chuckled. “I’m just laying out all the options, okay.”

Rafe exhaled and nodded, flicking his hand. “Aight. Option three?”

The juicy one.

“We play Ruthie’s own game,” you said, snapping your Apple Pencil back into its case with a soft click. “Either we hit her with an uno reverse and blackmail her so she has to delete the video.” You tilted your head. “Or we take care of it ourselves.”

An amused scoff escaped Rafe. “Yeah sure, let’s just ask her for her phone. I’m sure she’ll gladly hand it over.”

You frowned. “Rafe, I’m just trying to help you.”

He nodded, brows furrowed, running a hand through his hair. “I know, I know, I just…” He exhaled hard and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. “Shit’s pissing me off so bad, I can’t even put it into words.”

It's not like you’re capable of putting anything into words but yeah.

Still, how badly you wanted to see Ruthie burn for distressing this already distressed boy so badly. At least—and that was the only comforting thought at the moment—he didn’t seem to be falling deeper into his addiction (at least for now). His pupils looked normal, and by Rafe’s standards, he was acting pretty normal too.

“I know,” you said softly, giving him a small smile. “But again, you’re not alone in this shit, okay? And I still think it’s a good idea to let Topper and Kelce in on it. I mean, they’ve pieced most of it together by now anyway, might as well tell them the whole truth.”

Rafe grimaced, eyes fixed on the golden ring he kept fidgeting with.

“I know you’re kinda suspicious of Topper,” you went on, “but maybe we could use his closeness to Ruthie to our advantage. You know, get him to somehow delete the video or something, I don’t know.”

Then he looked up at you, eyes holding a weird glimmer, and said the last thing you expected to hear: “Or Gracie could.”

Your smile faded instantly.

Somehow that made your heart sink right away, a sick and ugly feeling twisting in your gut, and you could physically feel some butterflies die in your stomach.

“I mean that bitch follows her around everywhere,” Rafe continued, brows furrowed. “She’s basically glued to Ruthie. If anyone could actually get to her phone, it’s her.”

Sure, he always talked shit about Gracie whenever she was brought up, and yet… she was still some kind of ex-girlie of his and—UGH GIRL PLEASE.

"Yeah," you said, your voice a little too detached. "You said it yourself: she’s glued to Ruthie. And even if you somehow convinced her to betray her best friend, how are you even planning to talk to her without Ruthie getting suspicious?"

Rafe shrugged, leaning back again. “Getting her to talk isn’t the problem. I could just hit her up, say I wanna hook up again. Should be easy enough.”

...

A few more butterflies lost their wings in that moment and your stomach practically turned inside out.

You just stared at him, genuinely overwhelmed and not knowing what to even say to that.

Shit, on one hand, that wasn’t even a bad idea. Out of everyone, Gracie did have the best shot at getting Ruthie’s phone. And Ruthie being betrayed by her own best friend? That was poetic justice.

But on the other hand...

The idea of Rafe and Gracie working together when this was supposed to be you and him, and worse—what if they rediscovered their thing again and actually went through with it?! AHHHHHHH.

No. Just no. Please don’t.

“What?” Rafe asked, clearly confused, pulling you out of your downward spiral.

You shook your head, brows furrowed. “Nothing, I… I just don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Rafe raised his brows, waiting for more.

“Well, like I said, I don’t think Gracie is that easily convinced to betray her best friend,” you said, the distant edge creeping back into your voice. “And let’s say she does agree to... talk. There's a high chance she runs straight to Ruthie the moment you even bring it up. You’d just be shooting yourself in the foot.”

That THANKFULLY made him pause.

Please say I'm right. PLEASE SAY I'M FUCKING RIGHT.

“Shit, what else am I supposed to do?” Rafe said, clearly frustrated. “It’s my only chance at getting rid of that fuckass video. Like, how the fuck am I supposed to blackmail Ruthie, huh?” He gestured to himself, shoulders raised. “Her nudes already leaked and no one cared, her dad fucking their housekeeper—no one gave a shit for whatever reason, and I bet anything else we could dig up on her, she’d just talk her way out of. This is fucked.”

He rubbed his eye and motioned with his other hand. “Might as well just go ahead and show my dad the fucking video myself.”

NO!

Your expression softened. “There’s gotta be another option. But I really feel like using sex as a last-ditch effort to get what you want is—”

“Shit, no,” Rafe cut you off quickly, shaking his head, face twisted in disgust. “I wouldn’t actually hook up with her.” He tapped both sides of his temple, eyes intense. “Bitch is fucking crazy. And I’m not talking ‘got some dumbass minions in her head’ crazy, I mean like, ‘asks to roleplay as Ruthie during sex’ crazy.”

ALRIIIIGHT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

As much as this was the biggest relief ever, more than anything it absolutely horrified you. Then again… Gracie did seem to worship Ruthie a little too much, so this actually sounded kinda legit.

UGHHH. EW.

You let out a disbelieving laugh. “I really could’ve gone my whole life without knowing that.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Rafe scoffed. “What do you think it felt like for me? Right in the middle of bending her over, she turns around and—”

“OKAY! I believe you! No need for details,” you cut him off with a strained chuckle and—SHIT! Only twenty minutes left until math class. “So, how about we continue this after school? Or uh, after your convo with your dad?” You smiled sheepishly. “I really gotta study now.”

Rafe’s brows twitched, but he nodded. “4pm? I don’t think that talk’s gonna take long. If my dad’s even open to listening.”

Slowly, the butterflies in your stomach began to piece themselves back together. A warm smile tugged at your lips at the thought of hanging out with him again later. “Sounds good. Hoping things go well.”

And just like that, a smile appeared on Rafe’s face too.

“Aight,” he said, getting up and walking around the table to your side, practically bumping into your hip as he sat down next to you. “Now lemme see how we can save your math grade from sucking ass.”

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

"There you two cuties are," Cara said as you and Rafe arrived at the table, holding your lunch trays in hand.

Funny, haha. You both just happened to arrive at the dining hall at the same time and just happened to get your food together hihihi (they were serving wraps and you could choose your own fillings).

The other three (+ Cara, obviously) eyed you with the biggest grins ever. Molly was seated between Kelce (obviously again) and Topper, and Cara sat across from them (which, kind of weird they were seated 3 + 1 instead of 2 + 2 but um… yeahhh).

You slipped in next to Cara and Rafe moved in beside you, immediately manspreading so his knee touched yours again.

THIS JUST MADE YOUR NERVES BUZZ A TINY LITTLE BIT BUT YOU LEFT IT THERE (ANOTHER OBVIOUSLY HIHIHI).

"How was last night?" Molly was the second to speak, and you could feel how badly Rafe wanted to throw a scowl her way.

So you beat him to it with a sheepish smile: "It was nice."

"Yo, we want details," Kelce said, grinning like an idiot.

UGHHHHH THIS SOUNDED WAY TOO MUCH LIKE “DID YOU GUYS DO IT?”

"Took her dad’s Corvette and we drove around," Rafe answered, a cocky smile tugging at his lips (him not crashing out? a first).

Kelce’s eyes widened. "Shiiiii, for real? Bet it felt like sliding down clouds."

"Better," Rafe answered, still grinning, and Kelce squinted like he’d just tasted something absolutely delicious.

"Your dad allowed that?" Topper asked, directing the question to you, swallowing a bite of his wrap. His bruise somehow looked worse than Rafe’s after one day.

Cara rolled her eyes. "Duh. He’s not your mom."

The table chuckled. Only Topper frowned, but you quickly said, "Well, I figured he’d allow it if someone capable was driving."

And that actually drew a genuine smile from Rafe as he looked down at his wrap, kinda struggling to hold it together (good thing you hadn’t told him to ask for it wrapped in a paper bag, but sure, what did you know).

"So, what happened after?" Cara asked, her face way too smug.

GIRL PLEASE.

"You always this fucking nosy?" Rafe lifted his gaze from his tragic wrap to meet Cara’s eyes with an irritated smile.

EXCUSE ME SIR, that’s my bestie!

You kicked him under the table but that idiot kept holding Cara’s gaze with a straight-up challenge in his eyes.

Help. They were both stubborn as hell. This could go downhill fast.

"We got some food and that’s basically it," you said with a tense smile, hoping those idiots would get the cue. And to quickly change the topic you asked, "And what about you guys?"

WAIT NO. SARAH AND THE POGUES HAD COME OVER AFTER YOU AND RAFE HAD LEFT.

OH MY GOD. SOMEONE SHOOT ME.

"I asked out Molly for the Gloaming," Kelce said (OMG MASTER OF READING SOCIAL CUES, THANK YOU).

You smiled genuinely and turned to Molly. "I assume you said yes."

"He dragged me to the beach and gifted me a necklace," she said, giggling, cheeks pink. "So yes."

OMDNJKSCHNSDKHNCKVDSHCNKVSHVSDK.

CUTEST COUPLE IN THE UNIVERSE FR OMG (let’s ignore Rafe brooding next to you).

And now you spotted it. A silver sun-shaped necklace resting against her freckled collarbone.

I LITERALLY CANNOT.

Cara nodded. "I want at least that and a fancy dinner and the biggest bouquet of roses possible."

Lmfao, the way Topper immediately looked up from his food, probably taking mental notes. Also not Cara very obviously saying that out loud.

So she was done with JJ. After one day.

Wow. Got her cheeks clapped and dipped. Queen.

"And you?" Kelce asked, turning to you with that gleaming white grin.

You smiled sheepishly, feeling your cheeks flush. "What?"

"Well, what’s your dream ‘getting asked out’ scenario?"

OH HELL NO. YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING, SAYING THAT IN FRONT OF RAFE, AND THAT JUST MADE EVERYTHING. SO. FREAKING. AWKWARD. BYEEEEEE.

"Or someone already done that?" he added, eyes flicking over to Rafe for a second who was very focused on not letting his wrap fall apart (you were this close to snatching it and wrapping it properly for him).

Ummmmmmm. Literally though, if Rafe asked you out?

Dead. Instantly. Because holy shit, that? That’s what little you had always dreamed of, always hoping that the impossible would happen and Rafe freaking Cameron asking you out to Midsummers or the Gloaming.

You just let out a nervous chuckle and shrugged. "Um… no."

AND THEN THE WORST THING HAPPENED.

Kelce’s gaze shifted to Rafe again. AND YOU COULD ALREADY HEAR HIM GEARING UP TO ASK RAFE IF HE’D BE THE ONE TO ASK YOU OUT OR SOME SHIT BUT—

"Rob’s still in town until Sunday," Topper stated, and you could feel the gust of wind from how fast Rafe’s head snapped up beside you. "He’s been asking about you."

Oh… um.

A baffled smile tugged at your lips because you honestly didn’t know how to feel about this fact.

Flattered? Uncomfortable? Annoyed that Rafe hadn't asked you out for the Gloaming just after two days of befriending each other hahahahha ???

"Why the fuck is that fucker still hanging around?" Rafe asked, scowling so deep you could see the minus friends symbol appear above his head like he was a Sim.

Topper eyed him for a second, clearly still bitter about the punch, and shrugged. "High school doesn’t start for him until next week, so he’s sticking around at his aunt’s place a little longer."

Um, the tension at this table was basically tangible now. Rafe was glaring at Topper like he was more pissed at him than Rob being in town.

"And I thought if Y/n wanted a date to the Gloaming," Topper continued, "they could go together."

Cara nodded in agreement (HUH?) and turned to you. "Yeah, oh my god, you vibed so well and you’d look so cute together."

Oh, you knew what she was doing. What all of them were trying to accomplish here. And it just made you want to crawl under the table and disappear.

You knew they meant well, but trying to get Rafe to ask you out by making him jealous or competitive or whatever? Absolutely and definitely the wrong move.

And Rafe thought so too. His smile twisted with irritation, and--

OKAY GIRL LET’S DE-ESCALATE THIS.

You very politely shook your head with a smile, trying to ignore the way your palms got clammy. "That’s a nice thought, Topper, thanks, but I feel like that would just give him the wrong idea."

Topper’s brows twitched but he nodded. "Still, you could keep it in mind."

MY MIND IS FULL ALREADY, THANKS.

"Yes, thanks," you replied anyway, relaxing a little when Rafe seemed to shift his attention back to his food, finally grabbing a fork and eating his disaster of a wrap like that.

Wait.

Oh no.

You saw it. Everyone (except Rafe, who was fully focused on stabbing his wrap) looked at Molly with this quiet, knowing anticipation.

COULD THEY PLEASE DROP IT. THIS WAS GETTING OUT OF HAND.

Molly let out a small breath and gave Rafe one of her signature sweet smiles. "What about you, Rafe?"

"Huh?" He looked up, mouth full of wrap.

"You planning to ask someone out, or are you going solo?" Molly asked, and wow, instead of snapping at her, Rafe just furrowed his brows.

Molly really was an angel.

And holy shit, everyone at the table seemed to hold their breath. YOU INCLUDED BECAUSE JCDKWLSJSDHJFUJDFLS.

Rafe swallowed his bite, a deep crease between his brows, and said: "If every girl keeps being this fucking annoying—"

“Yo, dude,” Kelce cut him off firmly, and oh. My. God. The way he actually looked intimidating when he wanted to, voice soft but with just the right amount of warning. Um… kinda hot, BYE.

Molly just chuckled softly, AND THANK YOU QUEEN for not taking Rafe’s moody ass to heart.

“What?” Rafe said, gesturing to his food. “Just trying to fucking eat here and y’all keep pissing me off with annoying-ass questions. If I wanted to giggle about the fucking Gloaming, I’d have sat with a bunch of 6th graders.”

Cara snorted. “Then maybe let them show you how to eat properly too.”

All of you chuckled. Except Rafe, whose face turned into a full-on scowl (keep it up and it’ll stick like that forever). He aggressively stabbed his fork into a slice of avocado (and when it slipped off, you nearly lost it).

Then he raised the now-empty fork and pointed it at everyone, a crooked smile on his face. “You know what. You’re all fucking lucky I let yesterday’s bullshit slide.”

Duuude.

Was he seriously still salty about everyone spending a few hours with Sarah and the Pogues? Pleaseee, this weird class war in his head needed to be eradicated immediately.

The funniest part was how everyone just stared at him with the most deadpan looks ever (even Kelce and Molly BAHAHAHA) over the way this boy was acting up, and how he'd behaved yesterday.

Like, stupid idiot not realizing he was lucky they let his bullshit slide, But alright, go off, king of dramatic tantrums.

For a good ten seconds, the table was dead silent—just muffled voices from the other tables and the faint sound of the dining hall’s radio—until Molly finally spoke, her kind eyes and soft smile doing the absolute most.

“Did you guys know there’s a new museum opening in town?”

And just like that, the others jumped straight back into the convo like Rafe hadn’t said a damn thing.

You barely managed to stifle your laugh as he turned his head to meet your eyes, giving you such a fucking deadpan look like he was in The Office. “Next time we’ll fucking eat alone.”

AJSDFJKDFJKS OKAY.

The fact he kept including you in everything like it was the most natural thing in the world since Saturday? MADE YOU FEEL ALL KINDS OF SPECIAL.

Cheeks on fire, you chuckled and nodded toward his plate (which honestly looked like a bomb had gone off on it). “First, you gotta learn how to eat alone.”

Instead of snapping back, he just snorted, lips twisting into the cutest smile ever.

The rest of the lunch break actually went pretty smoothly. Luckily, the others mostly avoided any topic that might trigger Rafe (which was like, a solid two in total), and they even stayed away from talking about their night with Sarah and the Pogues.

Topper brought up the upcoming surf tournament again—the one he’d already mentioned last week at Kelce’s—and got kinda grumpy about the fact that the bruise on his face might still show up in the photos if it didn’t disappear by next week.

To which Cara simply said: “Don’t be such a baby. Just make sure they only shoot your other side. That one’s better anyway.”

“See,” Rafe added, looking at Topper. “Did you a favor.”

As soon as the bell rang, everyone got up to head to class.

Molly gave Kelce a kiss (they claimed they were only dating but yeah, wedding bells were ringing loud and clear), and headed off with Cara. You didn’t even get a real chance to say goodbye to Rafe and Topper because Kelce already started dragging you away, way too excited about the fact that Rafe was using TrackerBuddies again.

“He still hasn’t added me back, though,” he said with a slight frown as you walked down the hallway.

You chuckled, remembering they’d already had a plant together before but Rafe hadn’t watered it. “I’m sure he will. He’s probably still mourning the loss of your first plant.”

“Nah,” Kelce said, waving a hand with a grin. “He’s too busy with yours.” He nodded, impressed. “Level three already after just one day.”

Um, if he only knew Rafe kinda farmed the XP using real money. You definitely needed to tell him to stop doing that.

“Yeah, I think the only reason he re-joined that app was to beat your level with me,” you said, amused.

Kelce snorted. “Not surprised. If ‘competitive’ was a person, it’d be him.” He let out a laugh as you rounded the corner. “Back in 6th grade, he started surfing just to beat Topper.”

WAIT. RAFE COULD SURF??? OMFG.

The mental image of a wet, sunburnt Rafe in perfectly fitting shorts, riding waves and jogging back to shore with a surfboard under his arm, breathing heavy and—GIRL.

“And did he?” you asked, trying to chase away those unholy thoughts.

Kelce nodded, eyes wide. “Totally did. Dude devoured Topper with every wave. If he hadn’t quit after a month because he got bored of the sport, he probably could’ve gone pro.” His voice turned a bit more serious. “That’s the thing about him. He’s got so much potential, picks up on stuff so damn fast if he actually wants to. He could do so much more with himself but he just… doesn’t.”

Yeah, you’d noticed that too.

He crushed science and economics classes and even adapted quickly in art. Like when you were working on your collage? You only had to show him a few examples and he picked exactly the snippets you would’ve chosen. Not to mention his driving skills.

He already handled his Benz like he’d been born behind the wheel, but your dad’s Corvette? He adapted to that thing like it was second nature. Which, hot as hell.

Watching him drive in general? HOLY SHIT. That was one of the few times he got that concentrated, that focused and… ughhh you needed to chill.

“You and him are closer than he makes it seem, right?” you dared to ask, voice and expression full of genuine curiosity.

Kelce laughed. “I was his first friend in elementary school. He almost beat me up after I accidentally bumped into him.” A big grin spread across his face. “But I beat him up first and I guess that tamed him. He's still salty about it to this day.”

That made you laugh too, just as you came to a stop in front of your classroom. “I’m guessing that’s where the love-hate relationship between you two comes from.”

“Nah, that's his perspective,” Kelce replied with a soft smile, tapping his chest. “I love that guy, even if he acts like a rabid dog sometimes.”

You didn’t even get the chance to respond because Mrs. Richman was already calling the two of you into class.

Yay. Two hours of English with the way-too-enthusiastic teacher in her twenties who was already married and had two kids like OKAY.

And not even ten minutes into the lesson, your phone buzzed in your bag. Richman usually didn’t care, as long as you delivered during class.

So you fished your phone out of your bag and were immediately greeted by this absolute bomb:

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.

What a fucking rollercoaster of emotions that conversation had been. Like, the literal heart spike that first picture alone had given you should’ve been enough to get you rushed to the ER.

AND THEN HE HAD THE AUDACITY NOT TO STRAIGHT-UP SAY HE WAS ASKING YOU OUT AS A DATE FOR THE GLOAMING, HELP OMG. 

For one tiny fucking second, you’d actually thought he was asking you out to be his girlfriend (the delusions were truly getting out of hand). OH MY GOD, YOU COULD STILL FEEL YOUR CHEEKS BURNING AND THAT TINGLY FEELING UNDER YOUR SKIN JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

Okay no. This was too much.

And here you thought you’d mastered the art of being chill around Rafe and just being yourself, which—this nonchalant persona you’d projected during the chat? Yeah, that was just you gaslighting yourself into staying calm BUT OH. MY. GOD.

Rafe Cameron. Wanted. You. To. Be. His. Date. To. The. Gloaming.

That was.

Crazy.

Insane.

Absolutely batshit impossible.

LIKE HAD THE OTHERS MANIFESTED THIS JUST EARLIER??? OR HAD RAFE ACTUALLY FALLEN FOR THEIR 'LET'S MAKE HIM JEALOUS' TACTIC????

I’m fine :) Totally fine :)

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP PASSING OUT AHHHHH.

And god, AGAIN, how freaking clingy that guy was. It was kinda sweet and sad at the same time. He seemed genuinely excited about you, but also? The way he clung to you so tightly probably meant he was scared you’d slip through his fingers or whatever angsty stuff was going on in that boy’s brain.

The broken sound of his voice as he called after you last night, begging you to stay, still echoed in your head, making your chest clench whenever you thought about it.

However, you needed to set some boundaries. As much as you loved his attention, this couldn’t spiral out of control. Clingy was just a short step away from possessive and controlling. And since Rafe only did extremes and already had a tendency to slip into that kind of stuff real quick, you needed to be careful.

Not cold or distant, just a little more mindful.

Like when he mentioned having a claim on you for the Gloaming... Sure, yeah, he was the first to ask you out, and yeah, he technically had dibs since he wanted to give it another shot (and also he was your crush...so) but calling it a claim?

Hmm. Definitely a grey area.

HAHAHAHA. FUNNY.

From not even speaking to Rafe for literal years to friendship, cuddling, and (almost) being each other's dates for the Gloaming in just one week? Yeah.

The fact that your brain had kept up with all of that without combusting or exploding? Impressive.

“Miss Y/l/n?”

Startled, you looked up from whatever void you’d been staring into.

Shit.

Mrs. Richman was eyeing you with one brow raised and that well-known face that screamed I knew you weren’t listening.

Ughhhh.

Your face immediately flushed as the whole class turned to look at you, Kelce included, who gave you a huge shit-eating grin from the side.

Okay. No other choice.

You plastered on your friendliest teacher-face, a sheepish smile tugging at your lips as you said: “Sorry, could you repeat the question please?”

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

“Why don’t you two just get it over with already and fuck?”

You let out a baffled laugh at Cara’s deadpan expression.

After school, you’d met up and decided to grab some smoothies at the beach. And well, obviously you’d filled her in on everything since last night after you and Rafe dipped.

Oh, and kinda everything before that too. Your little heated conversation, how you ended up cuddling again etc. etc. (you did skip the boner incident because... yeah).

AND. You respected Rafe’s wish not to tell anyone about Ruthie’s blackmailing. As much as your whole body was itching to tell Cara—because SHE would definitely know how to beat that bitch at her own game, and also she was your bestie, you usually told her everything—you kept quiet.

Luckily, she was solely focused on the fact that Rafe had asked you out for the Gloaming anyway.

“I’m serious, Y/n,” she said, blinking dramatically at you. “Like...” she gestured randomly through the air, “you like him, he likes you. You’re obviously into him, and he’s so down bad for you, too. And god, don’t even get me started on that tension between you two.” She shook her head, pointing both hands at you. “I don’t even get why you two agreed on this whole friendship thing when you could’ve just started dating.”

UM.

Another surprised laugh escaped your lips, and Cara frowned. “I mean, you basically went on three dates already, sooo.”

“C, what are you even talking about?” you asked with a chuckle, sipping your iced smoothie.

“He took you out on Saturday,” she replied, raising her brows. “Twice, actually. And last night? That was pretty much a date.” She started counting on her fingers. “Paid for your ticket and snacks, sat down with you on one of those couple lounge beds—”

“That was just a regular lounge bed.”

“For couples, yes. Anyway,” she went on, “you fucking cuddled! I’m genuinely shocked you two haven’t kissed yet. But whatever.” She held up four fingers. “And then you dipped together afterward. Tell me that wasn’t a date.”

Okay. She had a point. But.

“Rafe’s straightforward,” you said, playing with your straw. “If he wanted it to be a date, he would’ve said so.”

Cara shook her head with a smug uh-uh expression.

“What?” you asked, raising your brows.

“He’s nervous,” she said, and you almost laughed out loud. “He’s only ever had short little things with girls. But with you? You’re not into hookups or meaningless stuff, so he knows it’s either all or nothing.” She tilted her head, smiling crookedly. “Plus, it’d be his first real relationship as well, and he’s never actually dated anyone before.”

“C, please.”

Cara blinked. “What?”

“I get what you’re saying,” you said with a small smile, “but like I already said yesterday, I don’t wanna ruin this thing with him by jumping ten steps ahead.” You let out a slightly overwhelmed laugh. “I mean, I gotta adjust to this situation at first. And I wanna get to know him properly before I even start thinking about that kind of stuff.”

Cara nodded like a maniac, motioning at you. “Exactly. That’s what dating is for. Getting to know each other, spending time together, seeing who the other person really is.”

“So basically what we’re already doing,” you said, amused.

She slapped her hand on the table. “Girl, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. Just make it official already. Talk to him, say the obvious out loud, and tell him nothing needs to change but instead of calling it your little meetings hangouts, you’d like to call them dates.”

Why was she so good at being convincing? Oh right, there was a reason she was in the debate club.

And honestly? If you brought that up at the right moment and made it sound like a little joke, you could test the waters and see how he reacted and then actually talk about it.

AGAIN: With Rafe, you never had to be afraid of doing dumb shit or embarrassing yourself.

He literally didn’t care. He might joke about it for like a second, and then drop it.

And didn’t he just say earlier during the ride to school that he’d be open to something serious with the right person? And didn’t Kie say just yesterday that you could be that person? And didn’t she also say he was probably into you (which, hello, you still hadn’t fully spiraled over)? 

AND APPARENTLY EVERYONE ELSE THOUGHT YOU TWO WOULD BE PERFECT TOGETHER TOO??????

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. THIS WAS TOO MUCH FOR YOUR BRAIN TO PROCESS AND DIGEST.

“Just think about it,” Cara said, her tone soft this time. “I honestly think just the fact you’d have the guts to bring it up would make him submit instantly.”

You laughed. “I don’t want him to submit. Both sides should want it."

Cara shrugged, lips tugging down. “Couldn’t be me.”

“Yeah, speaking of,” you said, a huge grin spreading across your face. “How’s it going with Topper?”

And that’s how you spent the rest of the afternoon—chatting, giggling, and sipping on delicious smoothies on the wooden deck of Harry’s Smoothie Bar, overlooking the sea.

Cara told you all about how last night had gone for her. 

AKA how she cuddled with JJ during Barbie, how she later found out he shared a blanket with Pope during Transformers (jjpope confirmed?), how extremely whiny Topper had been in the first aid tent and how much he’d complained and sulked, ranting about Rafe the whole time.

How Cara had told him to shut the fuck up if he didn’t want her to leave, and how they were the only ones left after Kelce and Molly had dipped too, along with Sarah and the Pogues right after, because they wanted to go skinny dipping or something.

“God, I would've loved to join, but drama queen Topper obviously didn’t wanna come along,” she said, rolling her eyes. “So I stayed with his pitiful ass.”

Then she told you how impressed she was with Topper’s knowledge of politics and his take on the whole system, and how she’d almost considered blowing him in the toilet stalls for that but held herself back because she wanted to keep him on edge a little longer.

“He’s gotta work a little harder than just pulling this pathetic act,” she said.

You chuckled. “Don’t think it’s an act.”

“Yeah, no, me neither. Anyway…”

Eventually, you decided to head out—Cara had a hangout planned with Topper later (why was she allowed to call it a hangout??? whatever), and obviously, you were meeting up with Rafe.

Right on time, at 4 PM, you got home, said hi to your parents, and went straight to your room. HEART ALREADY RACING WITH EXCITEMENT AT SEEING HIM AGAIN (help I'm falling way too deep).

But when you pulled out your phone and sat down in your desk chair, a weird feeling started creeping into your chest.

Zero messages from Rafe.

You’d expected more weird or suggestive reaction pics he found on Pinterest, or maybe an update about how the conversation with his dad had gone but nothing?

Weird.

And you couldn’t help but wonder if it had gone that bad. Like bad enough for him to fall back into a coke-fueled high to drown his emotions like yesterday.

You'd kinda been ignoring his addiction and little criminal side hustle because just a boy doing dumb shit HAHAHAHA RIGHT, but if he was already—

The buzzing of your phone in your hand snapped you out of your near-spiral.

RAFE!

But he wasn’t texting you. NO THIS GUY WAS CALLING YOU.

HELP.

Okay okay everything’s chill, it’s not like this is the first time he’s calling me. GIRL YOU CUDDLED LAST NIGHT WITH HIM BFFR OMFG.

“Hey,” you answered, your voice pitched higher than it should be.

“Hey,” he said, chuckling. “You good?”

You nodded—AND THEN REALIZED HE COULDN’T SEE YOU—so you quickly said, “Yeah, Cara just dropped me off and I was getting ready.”

Another chuckle, though this one sounded… slightly off? “Aight. Just wanted to check if you're already home and let you know I'm gonna hop in the shower real quick, then I’ll head over. So I’ll be there in like 20.”

You very quickly pushed away the rush of images of RAFE IN THE FREAKING SHOWER and asked, totally normally: “Perfect. How’d things go with your dad?”

Oh no.

That pause said everything.

“Uh, yeah… maybe better if I tell you in person,” he replied awkwardly (?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!).

Um, no. He couldn't give you a teaser like that and just leave you hanging… for like a few minutes BUT STILL.

You let out a strained chuckle. “Short version?”

“Trust me, it’s better if I tell you—”

“Just tell me if it went well or not.”

Another pause. Then: “For you or me?”

UM WHAT.

Heart rate skyrocketed. Immediate panic rushed through your nerves. And you couldn’t help but wonder if this had something to do with Gracie.

“Uh, what?” you asked, forcing a smile into your voice.

ANOTHER FREAKING PAUSE.

“I mean… for me, it could be real good,” he said, sounding way too excited for some reason. “But that depends on you.”

THIS WAS GETTING WORSE BY THE SECOND.

You frowned. “Am I supposed to convince my dad to take the deal or what?”

Rafe chuckled. “Shit, no, don’t think that’s something he’d be into.”

DUDE.

“Then what? Just spit it out please.” Your nerves were about to snap if he kept dragging this out.

A cute laugh escaped his lips. “Alright, alright.”

AND THEN ANOTHER STUPID PAUSE, I’M ABOUT TO LOSE IT.

“Okay, uh,” he started, clearing his throat awkwardly. “You know the stuff Molly does around Kelce?”

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.

“Being herself” you stated, completely tensed.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS THIS HEADING?

“Yeah, no,” Rafe said, letting out a nervous breath (HIM BEING NERVOUS ALWAYS MADE YOU 200% MORE NERVOUS). “That whole acting like she just chugged a love potion thing. Heart eyes, giggles, and shit like that, you know.”

UH-HUH.

“I don’t think she’s acting,” you said, smiling nervously, feeling your hands grow clammy. "Pretty sure that's called being in love."

Rafe let out a breath that was somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle. “Yeah, whatever.”

PAUSE.

And then he dropped the biggest bomb yet:

“I kinda need you to do the same.”

w h a t .

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

K M S M A S T E R L I S T | <- P R E V I O U S | N E X T ->

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

T A G L I S T F O R M (taglist for this series is CLOSED but you can sign up for my other stuff through this link)

@ursogorgeous13 @my-name-is-baby @moneybaby07 @jjasmiineee @sttaejoon-blog @vogueprincess @princesspeaxhh @wtfisastiles @wefelldowntherabbithole13 @rafes4 @kathryn-maraudersversion @wuluhwuhmaster @torturedtypewritersdept @sfotiegiuls @ltristessedureratoujours @stoned-writer @lunaleah @akobx @cokewithcameron @b00klvrs @rafesdrew @mattyskies @yktayy9669 @beabafreakbee @c1gsafterwhat @drewstarkeyswife-7 @wtfdudesblog @akobx @wintercrows @miaaaoa @setmefreemyg @pogueprincesa @chimchimjiminie16 @drewstarkeysrightarm @wtfdudesblog @wolfstarsimpxx @emmiesummers @brycesfav @ayy1234567 @rgeraldg @stanseventeen @louvrgirl @chaoticromantic @drewstarkeysrealwife @drewstarkeyswifehoe @psychicnatural @mysticbby2009 @oreocheescake-12 @miniiminie @drunkinthemiddleoftheday @drewstarkeyywife @persiar9

[bonbonly]

Sooooo first of all you haven't seen me here imagining things for lando bc I was not, somebody took over my account and i'm sending this thot to you bc it would be a shame to not share whatever my friend has cooked up there (it started out as a charles thot but the more my friend thought about it it fit better to a certain papaya twink than to our reigning ferrari princess) ANYWAY...

Streamer!Lando but also only fans creator!lando. Started out with CoD streams, maybe a bit of Rainbow Six, is decently successful with it. has a blast with his mates online but after some time he's frustrated with it bc he'd love to create something of his own. not just stream and showcase other people's work, do something himself yk?

So he starts a little photography account where he posts some impressions from his daily life and his fans love it but it just doesn't hit the spot for him. Nothing really does until one time when he's about to send some low effort nudes to some random girl he thinks fuck it and puts some effort into it, poses himself, adjusts the lighting, sets up the tripod to get some special angles and what can i say…

He likes it. Loves it even. Loves it more than the nudes he gets back. Just thinking about staging himself gets him hard again. So he does what every normal human being with a voyeurism kink does, opens an only fans. But on the down low. Nobody needs to know that it's him. He starts simple, nothing explicit yet, just his chiseled abs and pecs on display, a bedsheet draped delicately low across his lap, showcasing his tiny waist beautifully, his head just out of frame.

Then he upgrades to videos. the best microphone on the market, catching up every little moan and gasp he makes imagining the hundreds of people watching him jerk off. a high-quality camera recording every little droplet of sweat running down his torso when he's bouncing on a big silicone dick later. Mood-lighting, that makes every spurt of cum on his stomach glisten in the camera.

He does numbers on the platform, skyrocketing to the top 1% of creators in less than a month. He gets off on the thought that maybe some of his Twitch fans are unknowingly watching him on OF too. But he's not afraid of being discovered. He's careful not to mix the two worlds. He has it handled.

That is until you stumble over some pics of an OF creator that look suspiciously like some nudes you got a while ago from a certain high-profile streamer…

- 🍪

well 🍪 anon, you've outdone yourself and for that im going to ask you to start building a house on my campsite (im never letting you leave) can imagine the way your brows must furrow when you glance at your phone, your laptop and then back to your phone. maybe you even hold the devices side by side and notice the same details.

the glistening torso, the veins on his cock as his hands wrap around it. and lets say he - as a streamer - never responded back to you after he sent you those nudes, it was just a small thrill anyway for him so nothing too serious so you raise an eyebrow and think to yourself what would be the best way to get this man's attention again, he didn't even respond to you when you sent him your nudes back!

so using the same name you had on twitch - which was how you even met lando since you had donated a hefty amount to his stream - you subscribe to his OF and send him a donation there, maybe a teasing message only meant for him to see, but the message is clear.

you know it's him. and he might've been a bit confused at first until he finally realized that this was the very girl that made him understand himself better to starting that OF page. he probably smirks, tugging at his curls and thinking about how to approach this because obviously these two worlds have to be separate.

so after one night when he places a plug up his ass, his stomach coated with his cum, he might give you the honor of sending you more personal photos, just for you since you're doing such a good job at keeping his secret. he'll ask for you to send some back and there's probably no conversation going on, no hi how are you? hey what'd you think of this video?

because he knows you're watching each one, knows you're probably touching yourself on your bed thinking its his hand and not yours thats covered in your slick. he has the videos of you himself, your fingers deep in your cunt moaning his name while watching his videos. that knowledge alone is enough to keep him going, as long as you don't try to reveal his true identity.

little does he know that you miiiiiiight be a bit influenced from your own greed to try and make him bend for a more... personal fan interaction.

[sephines]

Declan O'Hara x Reader: you say you wanna go slow

Declan O'Hara x cis woman reader

Summary: Takes place after Maud has left for London. You're working for Venturer, and you and Declan have been secretly sleeping together for a while now. After a long day of pent up sexual tension shared between the two of you at a garden party at the Priory, you're finally alone together, and desperate to get your hands and mouth on him.

Word count: 3.8k

Content: pure smut, 18+, reader age not mentioned so can be whatever you want, mostly reader pov w small instances of Declan pov, swearing, infidelity (sort of), smoking, alcohol, lots of teasing, dirty talk, relatively fluid power dynamic (both Declan & reader alternating between being a little more submissive or a little more dominant), slight instances of inflicting pain, blowjob (inc face fucking), not enough here to constitute a praise kink but definitely praise, basically all about my oral fixation

Author's note: This is the first time I've ever written smut so I'm a little apprehensive to post but I really enjoyed writing it! Not me saying 'I'm only going to write little snapshots' and then writing almost 4k words of achingly slow, drawn-out foreplay culminating in a blow job. This is essentially a long, slow, sensual tease. Not sure if it'll be everyone's cup of tea but I tried to just write from a place of my own fantasy. Bc of the slow pace I imagine it would be best read slowly and taking time to imagine everything if possible!

There are probably some inconsistencies wrt what Declan's study looks like. I also initially played around with writing in an Irish dialect for him but wasn't sure about it so scrapped that - so imagine him speaking in his gorgeous accent.

Title is from the Haim song Gasoline.

If you enjoy it I would really appreciate feedback/reblogs/likes! Thank you 🌹

It’s dusk on a hot July day. You and Declan are in his study, the taste of cool whiskey and melted dark chocolate on your tongues. You’ve been at a garden party for Venturer at the O’Haras all day, and the grounds had only cleared out about half an hour ago. The two of you have spent the day teasing one another from afar - a stolen glance here, long, lingering eye contact there. About two hours into the sweltering afternoon, knowing how much it turns you on to see his chest hair peeking out, Declan had caught your eye over the buffet and loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, smirking at you before turning around to speak to someone you didn’t recognise. Forty five minutes later, when you noticed him watching you from across the dancefloor, you rested your hand on the bicep of the good-looking man chatting to you and leant forward to whisper something in his ear, knowing that seeing you flirt with someone else would amp up Declan’s desire for you. The day was littered with moments like this: loaded looks, subtly suggestive comments in company, finding small ways to push each other’s buttons.

You’ve been alone in the Priory, having encamped in Declan’s study armed with a leftover bottle of whiskey and slabs of dark chocolate from the party, for thirty minutes now, and still neither of you have made a move. You’re relaxing in the sunshine streaming in through the glass doors, but the tension in the air is thick - it’s like you’re each silently daring the other to give in first, neither wanting to buckle. 

Declan’s sitting in his chair, legs splayed, head tilted back over the headrest as he takes drags from a cigarette, letting the low evening sun fall over his cheekbones, his mouth, his neck. In the heat, he’s taken off his shirt, and his bare chest rises and falls slowly, luxuriously, in front of you. You take in the coils of dark hair - thick up top and leading down his stomach to the top of his belt - and the light sheen of sweat glistening atop it. Your breath hitches and you feel your own head tilt back in desire, your teeth biting down on your lower lip.

Declan’s eyes are closed. He can’t see you drinking him in like this - it adds a thrill to the experience, almost lends him a little vulnerability, you a sense of getting to indulge in your own desires unwatched, unseen. The thin gold chain draped across his collarbones catches the sunlight, and there’s something about the delicacy of it against his strong, muscled shoulders and torso that you find impossibly sexy. Declan doesn’t usually put an enormous amount of effort into his appearance, and imagining him taking the time to clasp the chain around his neck feels so deliciously at odds with how unbothered he comes across.

He slowly lets his head fall back down to center, and opens his eyes lazily. He sees you looking at him intently, and immediately clocks the look in your eye. A smirk spreads across his face as he stubs his cigarette out in the ashtray beside him, not once taking his eyes off of yours’. He knows the effect he has on you. It’s enough to make your pulse quicken. 

Involuntarily, you bite down harder on your lower lip. You feel exposed now - it’s an entirely different experience to watching him without his knowledge. You feel suddenly as though you’re the one under inspection. You’re sitting on your knees on the hardwood floor across from him, dressed in a low-cut crop top and flowing mini skirt, palms on your thighs. Your hair is pulled into a claw clip at the back of your head, and you can feel beads of sweat across your neck and your cleavage. Declan might be shirtless, but you feel just as naked, achingly aware of how little fabric covers your body, of how little Declan would need to do to have his hands on your bare skin.

He tilts his head at you, raises his eyebrow almost imperceptibly, exhaling the last plume of smoke from his cigarette. You know what he’s saying: I know what you’re thinking, and I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of telling you, “c’mere.” I need you to act. I need to see how much you want me. You meet his gaze, frustrated and turned on in equal measure, and smirk at him in return. You love the little games you play, the way he teases you, the way you can communicate without words.

You crawl forward until you’re kneeling between his thighs, letting your eyes drink in the swell of his chest and the slope of his stomach. His body is muscular, but there’s a slight softness to it, too. There’s something about this that feels rawer, more primal, more sensual to you than if he were incredibly chiselled. You let out a sigh. You’re so heady with want for him. You let your palms slide down his pecs, move to follow them with your mouth. Before you can feel the touch of your lips against him, he reaches down and cups your chin in a strong hand, lifting your jaw gently but firmly, to look up at him. You let out a whimper of frustration. He brushes his thumb over your bottom lip, your mouth opening slightly in response to his touch. 

Desire glows in his eyes - it’s intoxicating to see how much you want him. He wants your mouth all over him just as much as you do, but he wants to tease you, too, to build the suspense for both of you. Your big eyes look up at him intensely, heavy lidded with lust. Both of you are breathing heavily, letting the moment of anticipation stretch out. 

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he says.

You moan and take his thumb into your mouth. He lets out a groan and grasps the other side of your face, pulling you up towards him. His thumb slides across your bottom lip as your mouths meet. The kiss is hard and messy, your lust for each other spilling over. You clasp one hand across his throat, feeling the cold metal of that delicate chain under your thumb. The other is tangled up in his hair, pulling sharply on his dark curls. He removes the claw clip from your hair and tosses it to the side, allowing loose tendrils to fall down around your shoulders. You feel as though you’re melting into one another. 

Declan breaks away to murmur, amidst ragged breaths, against your mouth, ‘I’ve wanted you like this all day.’ The kisses you share become urgent, fervent, hard. ‘Needed you like this.’ 

Hearing him say this makes you moan. You pull away from his mouth just slightly, catching his eye and murmuring, ‘I know,’ a smirk spreading across your face. 

He chuckles and shakes his head. ‘You’re such a fucking tease.’

You smile at him, smug, before he pulls you into another kiss.

His hands travel down your shoulders and over your tits, your waist, until he reaches the waistband of your skirt and slides it down your hips along with your white lace underwear. You feel a little thrill at being so exposed. 

Declan positions you gently away so he can look at you, taking in the swell of your breasts in your crop top and the curve of your hips, your lush pussy and swollen clit. You’re so gorgeous. He feels his cock straining against his trousers. He sighs and shakes his head at you, ever so slightly, as if in wonder. His thumb circles your nipple, causing you to sigh in pleasure, before his hand travels down your waist and to the soft swell of your ass, squeezing hard. 

You reach up to kiss him again, your touch firm yet caressing on his jawbone and neck, and this time it’s deeper, more languorous. Your tongues slide against each other and you moan into one another’s mouths. 

Moving one hand to those dark curls, you tug gently at the nape of his neck until he tips his head backwards, letting you kiss lightly across his jaw, then deeper down the soft skin of his exposed throat, feeling the vibrations of his low moans against your lips. This is what you’ve wanted all day: to put your mouth on every inch of him, to feel his hot, strong body against your lips, under your tongue. You’re so hungry for him. 

You pepper your kisses with little bites, and he responds by tightening his grasp on your hair, making you moan in turn. Your kisses meet his collarbone, and then you sink onto your knees, moving down to his chest. You’re just melting into the moment, into him, into the swell of his pecs against your lips, finally, when he uses his grasp on your hair to tilt your head back and away from his torso. His thumb brushes against your jaw. You look up at him, whimpering in frustration. 

He returns your gaze intently. You’re breathing heavily, dizzy with desire. The moment unfurls out in the silence between the two of you, in the eye contact you share. The anticipation feels delicious - so overwhelming you almost can’t bear it, and yet somehow satiating in itself. 

‘Declan….’, you breathe, ‘...please..’

You can see his breath quicken in the way his chest moves. He moves his thumb gently from where it rests on your jawbone to stroke your lower lip. ‘I just want to hear you say it. How much you want me.’

You let out a sigh. The desire you feel for him, the frustration in not being able to fulfill it, has you weak. You want to tell him just how much he drives you crazy, how incredibly sexy you find him, but you can’t find the words - they swim in your mind untethered from one another.

‘Declan…I…’ you begin in between ragged breaths, looking up at him, ‘...I don’t even…have words for how much I want you.’ Your voice is quiet, almost a whisper. He’s brushing his thumb ever so lightly, ever so gently, back and forth over the center of your bottom lip. You let your gaze drift down to where his muscled chest rises and falls in front of you. ‘You’re so fucking…sexy to me…’ You shake your head slightly in wonder. ‘I can hardly stand it…’

He lets your words hang for a moment, his eyes growing heavy with lust, his pupils widening.

You’re wondering how long he’s going to keep you waiting, if he's going to make you say more, when a softness fills his eyes. 

‘Open your mouth,’ he says, gently. It’s more like a suggestion than a command, and you feel safe following his instructions - Declan knows your desires so well, knows what you want and need. You can trust him to give it to you.

As you do so, he reaches to the bronze side table beside him and curls his fist around his glass of whiskey, lifting it towards the two of you. Drops of perspiration coat the outside of the glass. 

Catching his eye and realising what he’s doing, you offer up your tongue to him. Slowly, one hand still wrapped up in your hair, pulling your head back, he tips the glass downwards, pouring the cool, strong whiskey onto your outstretched tongue. The feeling of the cool liquid hitting your tastebuds, the rest of your body so hot in the evening sun streaming through the windows, sends a shock down your spine. Declan continues pouring, so the whiskey flows onto your collarbones and down to your breasts, soaking through the white cotton of your crop top and coating your nipples. It feels luxurious. 

It feels like he’s touching you without touching you.

Declan watches intently as the whiskey drips down your body. Your hair is messy, your lips swollen. Your cheeks are flushed, and a slight tan has formed after a day spent in the sunshine - across your forehead, your cheekbones, the bridge of your nose. Across the swell of your cleavage, which rises and falls heavily, droplets scattered atop your bare skin. His gaze gets stuck there - the now wet, whiskey-soaked cotton of your white top clings to your breasts, revealing the full curve of their shape. Your nipples peek through your lacy white lingerie, even harder now, having been drenched in the cold liquid. Seeing you like this has his cock aching for your touch. He lets out a sigh, the hand in your hair softening slightly.

Slowly, deliberately, you reach up and take the glass from his hand. His eyes follow your movements. After a moment’s pause, you position the glass just below his jaw, and pour the remainder of the whiskey onto his chest. He tips his head back in pleasure as the amber liquid flows down his pecs and onto his stomach. 

Without thinking, you lean forward and lick, slowly, from the soft skin of Declan’s stomach upwards to his chest. The taste of the cool, strong whiskey mingles with the salt of his sweat on your tastebuds. Feeling him hot against your tongue like this, finally, makes you moan. He lets out a groan simultaneously, the hand in your hair tightening its grip. Finally, you have him where you want him. You begin kissing the soft flesh of his throat again; bite down hard on his earlobe.

‘Fuck,’ he whispers.

‘I love it when you swear for me,’ you whisper, almost inaudibly, into his ear. You know the feeling of your breath against those sensitive nerve endings will send shivers down his spine.

He lets out a small noise - half moan, half chuckle - and then tightens the grip on your hair, hard. The movement sends a sharp sting through your scalp. You gasp in both pain and pleasure, just as he had intended.

Moving down, you pepper his collarbones with light kisses, before placing a deep kiss on his chest. Your hands roam across his strong shoulders and arms, and you let your desire overtake you. You’re guided less by what Declan might want, now, and more by what you need - where your mouth wants to go, the sensations you want to feel against your lips, against your palms. You’re barely even thinking at all. You want to taste all of him. You let your mouth roam, kissing deeply across his pecs - the taste of his sweat and of the whiskey, the texture of the dark coils of hair coating his chest, the hardness of his muscles against your lips and tongue all make you moan into him. You kiss down his stomach slowly, luxuriously, taking your time.

As you inch closer to the waistband of his boxers peeking out from over his belt, you feel his breathing quicken, and feel achingly aware of the rock hard bulge just centimetres from your face. You let your lips brush delicately against the soft skin of his lower stomach, looking up at him as you do so. He’s gazing intensely down at you in anticipation. 

You undo Declan’s belt and the button of his trousers, unzip his fly. He lifts his hips, watching you, so you can slide his trousers down to his ankles. As you do so you sigh at the sight of his hard cock constrained in tight grey boxer shorts, at his thick, strong thighs, covered in those same dark coils of hair. You sit back for a moment, taking him in, and stroke him from his stomach to his inner thighs. You squeeze slightly, feeling the strength of his muscles, then use just the lightest touch of your fingernails to stroke the sensitive skin there. His breathing quickens more still. He can’t keep his eyes off of you. 

Hungrily, you lean down to kiss deeply along his inner thighs. You can hardly control yourself now - you want to be full of him. Pausing once you reach the edge of his boxer shorts, you look up at him, lift his hand to your mouth and suck his index and ring fingers in one motion, deep and slow.

Declan can’t help but let out a deep moan. Seeing you like this - your face mere centimetres from his throbbing cock, your lips wrapped around his fingers - and feeling your hot, soft mouth around him, so close to where he wants it, is almost too much for him to bear. The look in your big eyes only adds to the intoxication: there’s a mixture of mischief and innocence there. He knows you know what you’re doing to him, and at the same time, you’re surrendering to your desire for him. 

Desperate now, impatient, you slide down his boxer shorts and let out a sigh at the sight of his thick, hard cock breaking free from its restraints. You feel a pleasurable tightening in your lower stomach, in your pussy. You hover above him, letting your heavy breaths tease him, before brushing your lips gently up his length. You moan softly at the feeling of him hard against your lips, at the feeling of finally getting what you’ve been aching for all day. 

Declan bites his lower lip, breathes in hard. He doesn’t want to let himself go, not just yet, but it’s taking every ounce of his willpower not to moan. He reaches a hand down and brushes the side of your cheek and jaw gently, before using his fingers to pull those messy waves away from your face, keeping them clasped in a fist at the back of your head. He wants to see you, and he wants to make things easier for you.

Unable to hold back any longer, with your hands on his hips, you take Declan into your mouth in one swift motion, both of you moaning loudly at the sensation. You don’t have the patience to tease him any longer - you’re greedy for him. You take him deeper, sliding him in and out, sucking him deeply. His moans drift down to you, consistent now - he can’t stop himself. Neither can you. It feels so fucking good to have him hard and aching in your mouth, finally. His grasp on your hair tightens, and you pause for just a moment at the tip of his cock, looking up at him. His eyes are glazed over, and an expression of frustration overtakes his face as you let the seconds pass, unmoving. Needy, he begins to thrust, slowly, into your mouth. You feel your own eyes glaze over as he does so, let them close as you begin sucking him again. 

Your hands are clasped on his hips, feeling the soft flesh of his stomach and the hard muscles beneath, your thumbs circling around the dark hair. The feeling of your hands on him like this; of his hot, thick, throbbing cock thrusting slowly in and out of your mouth, against your tongue, filling you, his fist bunched up tightly in your hair, is bliss. You feel entirely in the present moment, lost to anything but the sensations overtaking you. 

Declan is the same. His head is thrown back now, eyes closed too, overcome with pleasure.

A sudden cool breeze floats through the ajar glass door, caressing your bare clit, your wet opening, your nipples still coated in whiskey. Your moans deepen in response to the new stimulus. The cool air against your naked skin only highlights your arousal, how exposed you are. 

The same sensation is enough to break Declan out of his dazed state for a second. He dips his head down in your direction, watching you through heavy-lidded eyes. He lets his thumb trace down your jaw. The sight of you on your knees, flushed lips wrapped around his cock, eyes closed, blissed out, makes him dizzy. 

‘You feel so fucking good,’ he murmurs, through ragged breaths. ‘You’re so fucking good to me.’

You whimper at the sound of his praise in that thick irish accent, and his grasp on your hair tightens again, sending sharp stabs of pleasure through your scalp. Declan leans back again, giving way to his pleasure. His fist clenches in your hair, his breaths quicken, his groans deepen. You muster up the energy to open your eyes and look up at him, and see his head tipped back, mouth open, strong chest heaving. The hand not clasped in your hair is digging his fingernails into the soft flesh of his thigh. That delicate golden chain glints against his throat in the soft sunlight. God, he’s gorgeous.

There’s something about being in the position you’re in that allows you to feel submissive and dominant all at once: on your knees below him, your pussy slick, exposed and aching for him, his cock sliding in and out of your mouth, you desperate to take him. And at the same time, seeing him come undone before you, unravelling, entirely at your mercy. Exactly where you want him. 

You move your arms down to his thighs and hold them down, sending a signal to him to stop thrusting. He follows your lead, sighing as he looks down at you for a second before tipping his head back. You wrap one hand around the base of his cock and begin pumping, working in tandem with your lips and tongue.

Declan lets out a loud moan, his fist curled around your hair even tighter now. As you work him harder and faster, his breaths become quicker still and your name begins to float down from his mouth to you repeatedly, peppered with the occasional ‘fuck’ and ‘Christ’. 

Suddenly, he stiffens, moaning loudly, and you work him fast through his orgasm, his release filling your mouth. You swallow deeply, and feel the hand in your hair soften, his body going slack. 

You kiss up his stomach and chest lazily, before positioning yourself flush against him and placing gentle kisses on his neck, caressing his collarbones. His head is still tipped back, chest heaving, spent. He brings a strong arm up to your head and strokes your hair, the other on your waist.

‘You’re amazing,’ he murmurs, finally lifting his head to look at you. He tucks your messy waves behind your ear and brushes his thumb across your cheekbone, before pulling you in for a long, deep kiss.

When you break apart, you lift your top and bra over your head, needing to feel your bare skin against his. He sighs at the sight of your bare tits and gives you a lazy smile. You let yourself drape over him, your nipples brushing up against the hair on his chest, your arms wrapped around his neck, lips brushing against the soft skin of his throat. Declan moves his strong hand through your hair tenderly. Both of you catch your breath, spent, the rest of the evening laying luxuriously ahead of you.

[cc-kote]

Nine people I'd like to get to know better

WOOPS I did not have time to do this for the past like, week but I've been wanting to bc I love silly little memes like this. Tytyty @ithillia for the tag :3

Last song: All Our Bruised Bodies And The Whole Heart Shrinks by La Dispute (It makes me think about Fives and it hurts so fucking much) 

Favorite colour: GREEN!! and also blue 

Last movie/TV Show: TCW of course, I had a Bad Autism Time™️ and my gf put on the fucking Umbara Arc to calm me down. It worked like a charm what the fuck is wrong w me lmfaooo. 

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: All of the above but spice hurts me. I do it anyway tho, mama raised a little bitch but she didn't raise a quitter lmfaoo. 

Relationship status: So fuckin down bad for my girlfriend hhh 

Last thing you googled: fuckjgn AO3 LMAOOO 

Current obsession: clonesclonesclonesclones forever. I haven't had a special interest/hyperfixation this deep since I was like 12-14 so like this is one of the most important things in my life tbh. Specifically like thinking about how their culture would work, and their solidarity, internal conflicts, shared trauma and how that would relate to those things. Their ideas about personal and cultural identity and how that would vary individually. Things like how their upbringing must have felt, how that affected them and who they became later in life, the things they're taught vs what they truly come to believe once they're out on the field, the psychological effects of O66 on the clones who survived and the devastating impact it must have had- Bro stop me or I'll keep going forever like. I'm in deep and tbh? I wouldn't change it for the world. 

NPT: LMFAO bold of this title to assume that I know 9 people on this site, or am brave enough to tag ppl I haven't talked to often fhsjdmksmf SO if you see this consider yourself tagged. Yes, You. idc if we've never talked It's probably bc I'm too baby, so (unless u don't feel like it) do it 👀 also @mamuzzy and @whatislifewithoutangst if y'all haven't already and wanna do this here u go! 

[oh-no-its-bird]

hi listen i just had a divine intervention or smth lmk if you don't like it but

what if your team Ro time travel au + my time travel Tobirama

Team Ro would have memories of the canon and they got to this different timeline and there's Tobirama actively trying to seduce Uchiha fucking Madara. They didn't teach THAT in the Academy

They got in the time when Tobirama still orchestrated meetings, but Butsuma is already dead so if everything goes well, Tobirama would get Madara and peace soon.

And then there suddenly spawn a Hatake with a sharingan with 2 Uchiha kids and a Mokuton user. Political nightmare.

Later Tobirama recognises Kakashi and was like "The fuck? It's that Hatake from the war. What is he doing there, he should not have been born yet!!"

OHHH THATS SO GOOD THO???

I'm gonna be real I love the concept of "team ro time travel au but they time travel into someone else's time travel au," that's so good

If we go with your au, there's a really interesting immediate aspect of like: hey ! Tobirama might recognize Kakashi or maybe even Tenzo from the war, but these guys are way fucking younger than when they met !!!

Idk what exactly can be done with that but it's interesting to consider. Also Tobirama talked ab Itachi and his crimes before I'm p sure? So like he knows what happens to the Uchiha and that it was Itachi who did it for the village. I wanna see him faced w the kid who he once praised for slaughtering his own clan to prove his loyalty.

I wanna see him feel the consequences of the stress Itachi is under when he (and possibly Shisui) attempt to kill Madara.

Stop interfering with his fix it fic you brats!! He's already got it covered!! You're just causing a mess!!!!

They get zapped in, like, in the middle of Tobirama's happy ending epilogue too. Tobirama is peacefully eating dinner in his house w his new husband Madara thinking "well. Alls well that ends well." Then BOOM Kakashi Shisui Itachi and Tenzo crash out of fucking nowhere directly onto their table, getting covered in food and breaking the table in half

Immediatley arrested !! I feel like Tobirama would instantly understand what happened by recognizing their uniforms + potentially Kakashi + he's already a time traveler himself so it's really no stretch for him to go "oh fuck I didn't think we'd get a double jepordy in this bitch but I guess not"

But like it's not like he can just SAY that ? Or he could but it would bring a lot of questions he probably does not want to answer.

Now another problem arises in like. I don't think Tobirama is especially attached to any of these guys. I can see him maybe having a lingering "pay it forward ig" feeling just bc they're "loyal konoha soldiers" and it'd be a waste to let that resource just burn. But also like. Under no circumstances can Tobirama have these guys share certain aspects of future knowledge.

Tobirama worked so hard to get here !!!! Literal years of planning !!!! He got his happy ending and it very much rests on Madara staying safe and sane and NO ONE IMPLYING HE WILL BETRAY KONOHA EVER !!!!! Tobirama does not even wanna RISK that becoming a rumor, he will take no chances.

Anyways I think his best course of action would be to reveal himself as a time traveler specifically to team ro, then position himself as their hokage who they should remain loyal to, say that it is for Konoha's best interests that they do not reveal certain things, and play it by ear from there.

Tobirama deciding he can't risk team ro going forward in time again and potentially fucking up the time stream or smthn. They need to stay here. He can not risk losing this shit. Sorry guys it looks like your trapped here <3

Anyways team ro being scary loyal to him bc he is the closest approximation to their (current?) Hokage and only person w the knowledge to enforce that power over them (at this time)

In my original post, like, all of team ro are already established to be kind of at their worst and most loyal to the village at that point to. They are at THE age(s) to be manipulated like that tbh, rip

It's not too bad tho. I think Itachi would feel relieved but also very guilty. Shisui too. Tenzo is violently neutral bc hes still in his "learning to be a real boy" phase from root, but it's all positive for him tbh. Kakashi is tricky bc his mental state is the equivalent of someone rapidly bouncing a ball on a thin pane of glass trying to prove it's bullet proof (it's not) and has like MOUNTAINS of complexes around the words "konoha authority figure" and what he's leaving behind. He's probably the most determined to go back

Anyways uhh. Izuna gets Itachi to help him be skeptical of Tobirama and spy on him. Itachi only agrees bc he violently reminds him of Sasuke (this will develop into a complex if not stopped. Shisui is working on it.)

[bcacstuff]

Hey BC,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about after reading your post.

First, regarding Sam’s location—he’s usually private about where he is, especially when he wants to keep things low-key. But if that’s the case, why would he follow that account and give a hint? What makes you think he’s still in Sayulita? He might have already left and gone somewhere else… you know where I mean.

Also, the fan who posted the picture is very careful when it comes to Sam. She would never post his location if he were still there. So while he might still be in Mexico, I highly doubt he’s in the exact place that was tagged.

Now, about the video with the voice—it’s not easy to confirm or deny if it’s Sam’s, especially with all the noise from the waterfall. But when Sam posted that video with Jush, the way he said “Yay” sounded really similar to the voice in the waterfall video. Just my take, though!

As for VF, I don’t think she’s there alone. I don’t follow her, so I’m not sure if she’s posted anything about who she’s with, but maybe those who can see her stories have more insight. It’s possible she and Sam were both in Sayulita and then moved to the spot she tagged.

On Sam’s appearance—he’s already worked long hours with her, so I don’t think he needs to make any extra effort to impress her. They’ve probably already seen each other at their best and worst by now!

About tracking Sam’s online activity—out of 24 hours, he could check his phone at any random time, even if just for a few minutes. Since there’s not much to catch up on about him right now, he could be online at any point—before bed, or just whenever. Do you remember when he took Alice to that tennis match? He was on his phone immediately when she wasn’t there even if for a few minutes.

Don’t take me wrong—I’m not saying for sure that he’s with her. But these are also possibilities.

Thanks!

Thanks for your thoughtful message!

Regarding the location: I don't really think he seriously cares that much about (mainly) us here looking at his following, which led to the location. The average fan wont care about it at all. I also think the fan that posted the pic is just the average fan who isn't really aware about the, dare I say somewhat idiocy of this fandom and how she was gonna be bothered by fans asking her questions. She just posted a, what to me looks like a dump of her days at the location, tagging the location. I really don't think she thought for a minute about how this would show where he is or that people care about that. Did you see how she removed the tag of him on the pic? She had him tagged first when I saw it, but later on removed it.

I don't know if he's still there, or left or is doing a roadtrip or whatever. Anything is possible. All I did was looking at the location, where surprisingly later on a fan pic appeared.

About the male voice on the video, well you see, like I said, could be or could be not. It's never 100% for anyone here. I'm not saying it's not him, I'm also not saying it is him. I accept that it could be or could be not and don't see it as factual evidence, if you get what I mean. I received more messages about this, where one is convinced it is him, the next one isn't 🤷‍♀️. So it doesn't bring us anywhere... that's all!

I think VF is perfectly able to travel alone, I had a few Anons going on about that. She's an adult and she traveled alone before to places. IIRC she was in Morocco when Sam was enjoying his Everest adventure. She only posted this one story (so far).

His appearance doesn't give me the vibe that he's on some sort of romantic getaway. I don't know about those 'long hours' Anon, they often have several crews working on several locations simultaneously. Last season she was on the AD team.

I just notice his activity times on IG as indication, it's not solid proof and I do not promote it like that. Hence my reservations in what I say or write in here. Most of the time I discuss with some about options, or when we have this suspicion it could be this or that.... but I rarely post that upfront as I do not want to jump to conclusions. It's only when there is confirmation, like the fanpic in Mexico, when I post and can say, ah my interpretation of things was correct. I rather want to give the correct (or as correct as possible) information, than to post juicy speculations.

And when there is additional information, then I post it. Just like now, or actually I know this since last night (but didn't feel like posting it right away). Being that we saw VF followed Pedro, the guy Sam started following in Sayulita as well. So to me that sort of confirms she was there as well and doesn't seem a coincidence anymore. Which adds more credibility that it was his voice, but still not 100% confirmation 🤷‍♀️

[tinystepsforward]

automattic vs wp engine mastterpost

adrienne's GitHub recap is probably the best place to see a comprehensive timeline of what's going down. it's been kept up to date. my (very out of date) previous writeup is here.

what's happened/other links

Matt has not logged off, just switched platforms, so there's lots on X/Twitter, Reddit, and Hacker News. it's really not worth wading through.

WP Engine actually filed suit.

the complaint includes some truly remarkable screenshots of Matt trying to blackmail the CEO of WP Engine.

which... personally i would not happily work for someone who just blackmailed me while not even my boss, but that's just me. he hasn't denied this at all, in fact confirming on Hacker News:

I haven't doxxed any private texts from other parties like they have. [source]

and, notably,

I even invited her to my 40th birthday on Jan 11, another text message she decided not to share. [source]

this gives me the creeps. in the context of the rest of the way he's talking to her, and the ways in which he's interacted with women in general, it's. not great.

also he slid into an ex-employee (also a woman)'s DMs asking why she was being mean to him bc he'd never been nothing but nice to her, while also making legal threats. so y'know, pattern of behaviour.

a good writeup of the social side of things

if you don't care so much about the open-source stuff, Steph Lundberg's writeup is, like her previous one on Matt's Tumblr meltdown, pretty solid and people-focused.

Mullenweg has already demonstrated egregious lapses in judgment and abuses of power, it’s just that up until now he’s wielded his power against vulnerable populations without access to high-powered lawyers and their own massive platforms.

a more technical writeup

this one is melodramatic in the same ways Matt was (uses war terminology), which i don't agree with, and which led to some... internal arguments at Automattic. that part's not my story to tell, but a little more on that later. it's a solid writeup of the actual WordPress side of things. there's some seriously dodgy trademark behaviour going on here.

of note: this blogger locked comments on his post:

and then Matt, uh, found a way around that:

wild!

10% of Automattic leaves

that's a link to Matt's blog post. here's an Internet Archive link.

in short, staff were offered a severance deal of the higher of $30k or six months' salary. while that's very generous, it's still very risky in today's tech market, especially (for the same reasons i mentioned when Matt was melting down on here) for people outside the US, people who need the health insurance, or people with young kids. despite that, 10% decided with very little notice (they had two days to decide) to leave.

However now, I feel much lighter. I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay. As the kids say, LFG!

i'm thrilled to see some of my ex-colleagues make it out. i'm keeping the rest who have stayed on in my thoughts. i don't know anyone who's wholesale shilling for Matt.

Matt's been pressuring staff to post in support of him, @-ing the entire company to vote on Twitter polls in his favor, and so on. many of the people who stayed have written blog posts about it, all starting with "I stayed". people on social media have pointed out the very clear pattern of Automatticians jumping into discourse to defend Matt, and it doesn't look good.

i don't have a lot to say about those posts, except to highlight Jeffrey Zeldman, whose "I stayed" post is perhaps one of the more honest ones. (his Rodney King reference was in poor taste, and he... i don't like his role at automattic, tbc) but like. he's nearly 70. he helped shape the modern internet and develop its accessibility standards. he has often put his neck on the line for disabled staff who don't have as much clout as he does. given the financial troubles he talks about and the state of this market and how old he is, i personally have read between the lines of what he's saying in a particular way.

fuck, man. i'm sad. i'm sad for all my friends who are creaking under the strain and watching others leave but who can't do that. i'm sad that many of them are left in teams which are half-empty or divisions where significant senior leadership are just gone, with no time to document what they had in progress.

i'm sad for Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the former executive director of the WordPress Foundation, who was dealing with a personal emergency and ended up having to miss WordCamp US (where Matt started publicly starting shit with WPE). she came back from that to a gigantic fire in the community she's invested a decade of careful, Matt-negotiating, stewardship to, and decided to take the severance offer. she deserved better.

other things Matt's been up to

mostly linking to comments or posts which compile things here, bc it's too scattered otherwise.

blocking people from the official WordPress X account if they disapprove of his actions.

publicly talking about a vulnerability in ACF, a plugin WPE maintains, which could put thousands of sites at risk. this is not normal, and he met with so much horror even from current staff that he deleted his post.

saying he comes across badly because he's "a little ASD", which is driving me personally up the fucking wall. he's never once said it before and he really is turning into Temu Elon.

generally bragging that he still has more planned. jesus fucking christ

continually saying that WPE's suit is against WordPress.org and the community, which is not true. on which note, his pinned tweet is certainly something:

his choice of lawyer is uh. the kind of guy to defend nestle against literal child slaves.

as always, while i think WordPress crumbling will disproportionately affect websites in poorer parts of the world, there are certainly tyrants who are causing much more immediate and potent suffering. if you've read this far, please do send anything you have spare to gazafunds.com.

[thejilyship]

Rereading the hunger games (listening to the audio book while annotating, my favorite way to reread.) Here is a list of things I forget about/don't think about unless I'm reading the book:

The district that the winner of the games is from gets prizes throughout the year following the crowning of their victor

There were people in the districts that would run a betting pool about which kids were gonna get reaped and if you refused to bet in the wrong way they would report you to the peacekeepers for some law you broke

Gale and Katniss, and if these two kids then def other people in District 12, knew from chapter 1 that the Captial had set things up to keep the district citizens from getting along with one another too well. They knew the poor kids were purposefully incentiviezed to put their names into the reaping more times, making them more likely to get picked. They knew this wasn't the fault of the kids who grew up better off, but it still worked. Gale still gets pissed at Madge.

Katniss refers to bears and wild dogs and the like as 'flesh eaters', and cites them as the reason that the fence was put up, to keep the people of district 12 safe. But then she says the woods is the only place she can relax and talk however she wants with Gale about politics and the Capital. It's the only place she smiles. The Capital can't watch the woods like they can watch the town, but she still believes the fence is there to protect them. Most people are so afraid of wild dogs that they'll starve rather than risk going into the woods. The fence is another Captial weapon.

Haymitch is described as middle aged, which always made me think 50s, but the man is barely 40. Like he was 16 when he went into his games, and 24 years later, on the day of Katniss' reaping, he turns 40. That's so much younger than I usually think of him as.

Katniss says that everyone is 'supposed to celebrate' after the reaping. She and her family set aside good bread, fish, and strawberries for after the reaping. It's makes sense that people would be relieved after the reaping when their loved ones don't get picked, but 'supposed to celebrate' adds another darker layer to it.

Peetas dad sells Gale a loaf of good bread for a squirrel, which Katniss thinks is cheap. Was he kind to Gale bc it's reaping day, bc he's kind when he can be, or bc he knew Gale was probably going to share with Katniss? We know so little about Peeta's family.

[suguwu]

here have just under 1k of a nanami draft i found in my docs bc apparently that's the vibe today

"you're being weird."

nanami raises an eyebrow. "i'm not," he says.

"you are," you say. "you're being weird about dumplings."

you'd picked them up on the way over, sending nanami a vague text to say that you'll be late. it's one of his favorite stalls, a humble little thing tucked away near a busy izakaya. it's a long wait, but you've never minded. you like to watch the vendor make shumai while waiting, marveling at the quick precision of her bent fingers. she works with an easy, fluid familiarity.

shoko teases you when you say the vendor's dumplings—shumai, gyoza, all of her offerings—are made with love, but you think that knowing something so well that it's etched in your fingertips couldn't be anything but.

it's always felt right to share them with nanami.

he picks one up and eats it. you stifle a smile. the stiff way he's holding his chopsticks and the way he's not looking at you speaks volumes. it's almost childish.

you think you love him most in these moments.

you point your chopsticks at him, ignoring the way he rolls his eyes at your rudeness. "see? you're being weird."

you probably should have known this was coming. you'd tipped the scale as soon as you'd arrived with the takeout containers.

"i'm eating dumplings," he says.

"weirdly."

"what does that even mean?"

you peer at him, scrunching up your brow to match his. he's unamused. or rather, he'd like to be, but you know better.

"i dunno," you say. "you just are."

he sighs. you think if you kissed him now, you could taste the smile he's swallowing down. "i don't know what i was expecting."

"me either. you really should know better."

he doesn't answer you, too busy stealing a dumpling out from beneath your chopsticks. you gape at him as he pops it into his mouth.

"kento!"

"yes, sweetheart?"

you grumble out a soft insult. he chuckles, a low, sweet rumbling, and you consider letting everything go. consider just basking in the warmth.

but he reaches for another dumpling, and you think of the way he'd looked when you brought them. how you could practically see him flipping through your favorite things like recipe cards, searching, searching, searching for what to do next.

"kento," you say.

"what?" he asks, starting to nudge a dumpling—your favorite kind—towards you. he raises a brow when you don't reply.

you take a deep breath.

"you know that you don't have to earn everything, right?" you ask carefully.

nanami goes still.

"excuse me?"

"you don't need to earn everything," you repeat. you shift in your seat, trying to ignore the way your heart is rabbiting in your chest, the way heat is spreading beneath your skin.

he puts his chopsticks down.

"what do you mean?"

"don't do that," you snap. "don't pretend you don't know what i'm talking about."

nanami's dark eyes sharpen. "you're being unfair," he says, blunt as always, and you hate that he's right. "i have an idea of it, but i want to make sure that i understand. i think i should be able to ask for clarity."

each word is calm. cool. you think of early winter, when the ice is thickening with each passing day.

your chopsticks are leaving imprints of their pattern on your palm. it almost hurts. nanami's gaze darts down to your hand; his lips thin.

"i don't—you don't need to earn everything," you say helplessly, scrambling for better words. "surprise dumplings can just be that. you don't need to do something in return. you don't need to reciprocate every time i do something for you."

you hadn't thought anything of it. not at first. you're not even sure when you noticed. but you had, and now you see it every single time. you've never given him a present—no matter how small—and not received one just a day or two later. it's sweet in its own way, but the longer it goes on, the more it sits like tar between your ribs, heavy and sticky and noxious.

"i enjoy gifting you things," he says. "you're aware of that. it's never been an issue before. what is it, exactly, that you need?"

"i need you to let me love you without feeling like you owe me for it."

his shoulders go tight. you've teased him before about the mountain ridge of them, how solid he is, how immovable, but there's something fragile to them now. a rockslide waiting to happen.

"fuck," you hiss, your stomach roiling. "i just—you're so bad at being taken care of. i want to do things for you. just because. i want to do things for you without you needing to do something in return, because sometimes it's like you don't think i love you enough to stay."

nanami takes in a sharp breath.

[isadollie]

hi hi!! i saw your request for some drabbles!! so when you have the time i would like to request something sweet with gojo(or toji) and possibly what you think his love language would be and how he expresses it!

happy writing and have a good day/night! <3

love language w/ gojo & toji

a/n: hi hi hi!! tysm for this request, i know it's late lol, but i didnt really have a chance to get to it before! anyway, i hope you like it:)

gojo satoru — words of affirmation & gift giving.

★ my first thought was: this man is all of the love languages combined

★ but it's probably just bc i'm a gojo girl at heart 😔 anyway

★ as his top2 love languages i chose words of affirmation and gift giving

★ the gift giving part is a bit obvious i think

★ that man has money, a lot of money

★ and he would love to use it to spoil you for sure

★ all it takes is for you to look at something in the store, an hour later you already have it

★ he says it's nothing, he would buy you anything you'd ask

★ and he doesn't expect anything in return, he just likes to see you happy

★ as of words of affirmation, i think he's both about giving it and receiving it

★ he's the strongest, people love him, bla bla bla. but all he needs is for you to hold him and tell him he's doing his best and that you appreciate him for it

★ especially if he's had a rough day, just you saying that you want to help him, and that you're there for him, it already makes him feel better

"i got you something" was the first thing satoru said when he got back home. he smiled when he found you sitting on the couch. he grinned and walked closer to you.

you raised an eyebrow curiously when he gave you an envelope. "open it. but wait, hold me when you do" he chuckled as he said that, immediately making himself comfortable in your arms, as usual.

you carefully opened his gift, your eyes going wide. "no way..."

satoru giggled. "you wanted to go to that concert, no? so there you have it"

"front row too? 'toru, you're crazy-"

"nah ah." he pressed his face in the crook of your neck. "tell me again that i'm great, amazing, and how much you love me. c'mon, don't make me wait."

toji fushiguro - acts of service & physical touch

★ okay, hear me out

★ i think he's big on physical touch in general, both receiving and giving

★ when in public, he's not afraid to show affection at all

★ his arm is always around your shoulders or waist

★ he'd kiss you a lot too

★ and if anyone gets annoyed by seeing it? he'll only do it more often

★ he also likes when you hug him, stroke his hair, or especially when your hand touches his biceps

★ but about the acts of service

★ i think he's more about giving it

★ mostly because he's not good with his words

★ so instead, he just shows you with his actions that he cares (or that he's sorry after a fight)

you had to stay late at work that day, which, let's be honest, is never a pleasant thing. you texted toji beforehand, letting him know you'll get home later that night. you also made sure to text him all about how annoyed you are, and how your boss is stupid.

then, when you finally got home, your mood wasn't any better. the traffic was terrible, even though it was practically night by now. you opened the door to your shared house, and suddenly your annoyance left.

toji stood by the door and greeted you with a hug. he took your jacket and shoes off. the dinner was ready; your favourite dish was already on the table. the whole house was clean, your comfiest pajamas warm and ready for you to change in. toji even placed on the table everything needed for you to wash your makeup off and do your usual skincare routine. soft music played in the background, and your favourite movie on tv was waiting to be watched.

even though you were grateful for what he did, toji just shrugged it off, saying it's nothing.

[willmiwi]

Buck and Eddie moving in together is going to be so beautiful bc i can kinda see it as buck not being able to leave Eddie's side after breaking up w Tommy and Eddie not wanting him to. He sleeps on the couch at first but then Eddie suggests they share the bed, jokingly saying something like 'i don't bite, promise !' and so buck does and at some point he may feel like he's overstaying and imposing but then Eddie will tell him after work "you're coming home with me right? I'm ordering in Chinese" and buck relaxes back in on himself bc if Eddie had a problem w him staying over too much, he would tell him. instead, he seems to enjoy his company as much as he does. And so then at some point buck never leaves except to go water his plants at the loft and to get his bills. Then, Chris comes back and nothing changes. He doesn't seem the least faced that buck hasn't gone back to the loft in 2 weeks, if anything he seems thrilled he's there all the time. And so, they settle into this routine: Buck always wakes up first, take the first shower and starts cooking up breakfast before going to wake Chris up for school. it's a bit later before he hears Eddie in the shower and then he's there in the kitchen with them, coffee in hand talking with Chris about school and what they can have for dinner tonight. Then, they hop in buck's jeep (buck drives) and they drive Chris off to school while chatting about how they're running low on groceries so they should probably go get some after their shift. They drop Chris off with a kiss on the cheek and a loud MWAH while Chris groans and walks off and then they head off to work. And. the thing is. no one even bats an eye at them getting to work on the same car, both freshly showered. No one questions it. And the entire thing is so comfortable and so easy to sink into buck doesn't dare say anything about it. he doesn't think he needs to.

That is, until Maddie corners him weeks later and tells him. "you're dating him" buck splutters and goes "no I'm not!" "you are living together. I know that. chimney told me you both get to work in the same car. You moved in with him and I know it's not at your place bc i dropped by the other day after ur shift and u weren't there" "...... I could. be somewhere... I have a life u know " "buck." "okay FINE I'm living with him but I'm not dating him" " what is it you said to me? you're dating him without dating him. I thought when u dated someone u Actually dated them" And buck can't do anything other than pout bc yeah okay she's got a point but also. Rude . So rude.

[kalolasfantasyworld]

My recent Zobra arts got very popular on twitter and I received many questions about them so I decided to make a thread explaining the appeal this ship has for me.

Since I already wrote it, I want to share it here as well.

Zora x Nebra - ship appeal

A thread about why I am personally a big fan of Zora x Nebra and how it's more than just a silly crack ship

@f-oighear with who I'm co writing a Zobra fanfiction helped with this

Let's start with the basics

Zora - a peasant who hates royalty

Nebra - a royal who hates peasant

This ship would go against class barriers, but even more as these two would have to overcome their own prejudice which they've had since they were little.

They have (kind of) a canon interaction!

During the elf attack Zora saved Solid and Nebra's lives. It's a point where both siblings were humbled and I'd say a point where their redemption can slowly start.

Enemies to lovers

I personally love this trope and Zobra have great potential for it. I don't think I need to expand here.

Their magic

Both of them have "vaporous" kind of magic and rely on tricks to overcome their opponent. It's a game of thought and preparation.

Ash and mist are also more subtle versions of primal elements (fire and water).

They could be really compatible if they worked together.

Aesthetic

Black & white, that's a classic

Edgy & princess

You can't say they don't look good

And now probably the most important (and long) part of the thread their characters and later surprisingly many similarities

Zora wouldn't be afraid to call Nebra out and she NEEDS it. Nebra doesn't see people as her equals, she's used to being looked up to which Zora wouldn't do.

He would do it right, point out her flaws, harshly. Nebra would hear how she really is.

Hopefully reflect

It would also annoy her and a chain of (sometimes hilarious) interactions would start.

They're both very smart so their comebacks would be intelligent and snarky. None of them would hold back and I think at some point they would start enjoying the game of trying to one up the other.

"The smirk"

Zora snickers, Nebra giggles. They can both be very mean.

See if you put them as enemies it's fun, but imagine having them both against one person. I'd feel sorry for them. (we have a scene like that in our fic and it's perfect)

Prejudice

Both of them are greatly prejudiced against the other’s class. And isn't it BC's thing to break those class differences?

It would require work, effort and time but just like other Royal/Peasant ships they could bring an example of the world Asta dreams of.

Now to issues

A dead parent who they used to idolise and passing of that parent messed them up in... many ways

We use that similarity to have them bond on a deeper level

After Zara's death Zora goes on a vendetta

While Nebra feels inadequate and takes it out on innocent Noelle

Neither of them copes well and it just pushes them to extremes.

Zora luckily gets better with his found family (the Bulls we love them), while Nebra... I won't defend her, it's a long way to go even after the last manga chapters.

However these two could help each other grow.

Noelle is Nebra's sister and Zora's squadmate

This topic would need to be brought up at some point. Zora cares about his squadmates.

Nebra was awful, toxic and simply terrible. I think that talking about it with someone who won't beat around the bush could help her redemption.

I think Nebra could start seeking out that honesty at some point.

Zora had crossed out all of the nobility, but seeing himself an actual example of someone as rotten (yes I said it) as Nebra changing could help him too.

It's about seeing a different perspective.

"They wouldn't interact if not made to"

True, thus in fics @f-oighear and I put them in situations where they have to interact such as a mission together, or in our Formula 1 AU they're both drivers on the grid, or we send them to the same resort for summer break.

Things we like to do in fics

- they call each other names, starting of offensive (Princess and peasant are classics)

- making them work together -> they hate it -> miraculously it works out

- hair and clothes comments

- personal development

Taking into account all of the above, they would need specific circumstances to work out, thus I understand why they don't have to be everyone's cup of tea (I need at least a 100k slowburn), but I hope I brought to you closer this ship and why I personally find it appealing.

[seelestia]

we missed you, welcome back!

i had a thought for a few days now and then i saw that you were back and i just had to share this

so imagine that you wake up in teyvat one day and you speak a different language bc they probably don’t speak english in teyvat, and no one understands you, but then there’s the smart haravatat ppl like alhaitham and faruzan (idk if there is anyone else) who use their smart language brains to figure out how to talk to you, i think that would be super cute

.💭

BRAINROT ANON— my comrade on tumblr, i missed you too!! i'm so honored that you thought of me aww :') you knew i'd be glad to brainrot with you anytime!! /gen. i focused less on how they communicate with you, but rather more on the events surrounding this concept. hope ya don't mind! so good to see you again <3

extra note: this was written from a platonic pov! yk those movies where a protagonist helps out their 'otherworldly' companion to go back to their home world? yeah, that's what i'm going for here. movies like 'home' and 'cj7' came to mind immediately. that's us and faruzan!! oh, and alhaitham is here too, i guess. /j

-

imagine waking up one day to find yourself transported to the middle of the hypostyle desert. the sun burns, scorching hot on your skin then suddenly, it's gone? oh no, some strange turquoise lady is peering at your face with disapproval. you suspect she thinks you're a reckless traveler who forgot to bring ample supplies to a place like this. “███ ███ ████ ███?” she says and you realize you don't understand a word.

[translation: did your water storage run out?]

imagine the confusion on faruzan's face when you mumble a few sentences? noises? grumbles? she specializes in semiotics (and ruins), not speech pathology so how is she supposed to know? anyway, she graciously takes you in! and brings you back to her residence. yes, yes, how generous, applaud her later but she cannot hand you over to the akademiya just yet. (who knows what they'll do with you? you're obviously not of this world.)

imagine trying to communicate with faruzan using other means besides language. one of them includes pointing at the fresh apple slices on her kitchen counter. she gives them to you and notes how you say 'tenk yu' (?) which she takes as a sign of gratitude. of course, she also jots it down in her notes alongside her observations. how interesting.

and she manages the grand feat of roping alhaitham in, somehow someway. he's a youngster (everyone is a youngster if you're one hundred years old at this point) far too solitary for her liking — plus, notoriously hard to convince but that helps: he's someone who won't tattle! that's her logic here. she even had to invite him over for dinner and introduce him to you herself! ugh, she really had no more funds left to spare... so this better works.

it did, oddly. alhaitham's first instinct is to question and his deductions conclude that you are far too genuine (for lack of a better word) for all of this to be a ruse. the way you pointed at his fit and gave him a thumbs-up he assumed that you meant to say you thought it's “cool”.

alhaitham observes you; when you speak, none of the words sound familiar to his experienced ears and trust him, his quota of languages exceed many. he is not here to brag, so don't twist it. nor do you seem to understand anything whenever he or faruzan speaks. you don't even react in the slightest when he mentions or addresses you directly, only a tap on the shoulder works. it's safe to assume you do not know teyvatian language.

the guy in gray green turns to madam faru with a hum. she taught you to refer to her that way. it took hard work and lots of apple slices. “██... ██ ███ ████ █ ████?” he asks.

[translation: so... do you have a plan?]

“██ ███ █████!” she puffs out her chest in determination.

[translation: in due time!]

he sighs.

you blink, eternally confused.

[yarameijer]

Heyyy, how are you?, no memes this other time 🥲 (i am storing them for when the time is right)

ANYWAY 🙂 I wanted to seek advice from you about OCs. Like how do you introduce multiple OCs in the story at once? I get that people might not like a story full of OCs, but the nature of my story doesn’t allow me to avoid this entirely.

Characterisation has been so much fun but, introducing them. Is. Worrying. I’m asking you bc Out of Sight is pretty much the only IE story that I think has good OCs, I see some truly well written stories out there but, they’re loaded with OCs and it just ain’t the same :(

also, if you haven’t already, please do consider making a bundt cake, yoghurt in the batter will make it taste heavenly 🤤 (greek yoghurt if you want it to be fancy shmancy)

Have a good day (or night)!

No memes? 🥺

To be honest, I used to have a hard time with OCs. Didn't like writing them, certainly didn't like reading about them - still don't, in many cases. A lot of time OCs are overly perfect, overly extra or just plain annoying.

One big issue with that is the characterisation itself. We've probably all come across a Mary Sue OC at some point. The most flawless, beautiful, quirky appearance you can imagine, super cool fighting or dancing or singing skills, outshines everyone else and makes them seem dumb. Utterly flawless. Utterly boring. So, while this is not what you asked, I do want to add this short piece of advice: treat your OCs as humans. They've got flaws. They're not endlessly beautiful. They mess up. They don't make half of the cast fall into love with them by walking into a room.

The second trick, is timing.

You might think the moment your OC is introduced is important. It's not.

Well, okay, yes, it is. But maybe not in the way you think, so let me explain: you've got this new original character, you've got them worked out, they're legit fun to write and read, they're not gonna Mary Sue through life and story, and you're super excited because the moment they first show up has finally arrived! So you introduce them and share all these little details you've given them and what they look like and all these things that you've put into them and by infodumping like that, you completely ruin the flow of the story.

Here's a fact: very few people are gonna be as excited for your new OC as you are.

Why would they be? In fanfiction, they read these stories because they like the original work. They like the original characters. They don't care about a random OC. And they certainly don't care for the three paragraphs of background information you've just written on them, which 1) your reader is definitely going to forget by the end of the chapter, and 2) doesn't come naturally. To give an example: I once read a story in which a character was rushed to the hospital, all their friends and family were waiting anxiously in the waiting room for news, and then the OC doctor arrived. The first thing that doctor did was introduce themselves, what kind of doctor they were, which school they went to, which university they went to, make a joke, and this all took up a long paragraph, and then told friends/family ''character A had surgery for this and this, and this and this, and this and this, and oh yeah they're alive.'' This completely threw off the scene for me. The first thing out of this doctor OC's mouth should've been, ''my name is doctor X, I'm character A's doctor, character A will be alright''. Nothing more, nothing less. There was absolutely no need to describe their entire academic career, because that's not a realistic situation.

That's what I mean with infodumping. Trying to introduce everything about the OC all at once - usually all that information is not relevant right then and there, it distracts from the original scene, and it doesn't come into the story naturally at all. When you introduce an OC it's because they've got some sort of purpose, or because they will have a purpose later and in their first scene they fit into the background without doing anything relevant - for example, if they work in the library and your characters are there, you can mention the OC in maybe two sentences max without putting much focus on them. If they're a small OC, that's enough. If they'll be more relevant later, you can build them up like that. Don't throw in all their mannerisms at once. Don't give them more dialogue than the other characters in that scene. In this situation, often, less is more.

If they do first show up during an important scene, that's fine! But if that's the case, have them focus on the purpose of that scene. Are your characters being chased, and your OC is their miraculous savior? No time for introductions, no time for standing still and long talks, just go go go and keep focusing on the ''oh no, zombies are chasing us!!!'' concept, rather than the ''hey, a new character!!'' After that, when they've made it to safety and are catching their breath, it's much easier to introduce them in dialogue naturally. This works for other scenes too - OC passes on a message, put the focus on that message rather than the OC (if they're important, they'll show up more often, and naturally gain more depth and attention from the other characters) - if the OC stands out by answering a question in class when everyone else is falling asleep, don't spend a paragraph describing them, keep it short, keep it to the point, and you can even reinforce them a little by shortly saying a bit later that ''even at the end of the hour, the girl in the front is somehow still paying attention'', and move on from there.

Another thing, which for example counts in Out of Sight - the amount of OCs. Out of Sight has so many, it's overwhelming even to me sometimes, and I'm the author. What would that be like to my readers, who don't even know most of them?

In Out of Sight, the second team has a total of sixteen players - that's fifteen OCs. It's been six chapters since they showed up, and so far the only ones I've really introduced are Shinji and Maeyama, Fukui, Yamaki and Teruya. There's some more mentioned by name, but that's all. The reason I'm doing it like this is because there's no way readers will remember all of them, so I'd rather focus on a few select ones, introduce them in the course of a few chapters, establish them as characters, and then move on to the next OCs. That way it doesn't get overwhelming.

OCs themselves are not a problem. They're, first of all, a tool that adds to the story. If done well, they're fun. But they're also a problem specifically related to fanfiction, because if you write original fiction, all your characters are OCs and they all have to be introduced at their own pace. As a fanfiction writer, often you skip that step, and that's part of what makes fanfiction fun - getting right to the action! But you don't develop your characters the same way unless you're an exceptional and/or experienced writer writing a slow-paced story. You don't easily learn how to introduce new characters to the story, because all your readers already know most of your characters. Maybe something to keep in mind.

So my advice, in short:

Develop your OCs as humans. Make them different from each other, make them flawed, give them habits and hobbies and one or two notable characteristics that you can fall back on to remind the readers who they are (Shinji has red hair and wears glasses, Maeyama is bubbly and ashen blonde).

Don't introduce everything about them all at once. It's unnatural. It's an overload of information that readers usually aren't interested in. It disturbs the scene.

Introduce them slowly and develop them over time. If you meet a new person, you need time to get to know them, right? You don't notice all their little tics the first time you meet them.

At least at first, stick to their role in the story, and don't go too far beyond it. That's why they're there. That's why they're important. That's the way you get them into the story itself - they don't show up out of nowhere! If you write realistically, everyone other than your main characters also have their own lives, and giving a bit of insight in that develops your characters further (but be careful not to infodump here).

And finally, if you've got a lot of OCs, focus on a limited few and develop them first. If you need to introduce a lot of them all at once, you can do that too - but honestly, you don't even need to call them by name. Do you remember twenty new names at once? No, you don't, and your characters won't either. You can still focus on introducing one or two specific OCs even if your main character is surrounded by twenty strangers.

So, I hope this might help a little! If something's unclear, please feel free to ask more.

Also, my baking spree has unfortunately ended as uni picks up again, but I will definitely keep that cake thing in mind 😮

[kannymaei]

Beyond All-Knowing (EWTG - Special Chapter 1) Jing Yuan x Reader

MASTERLIST

Author's Note: This has been in my drafts for like idk 5(?) months or 6 months (Teya if you're reading this, pls dont read this bc this is def someone else's personality smh ASOINDJADKANDAK :crocodile: :pensive:) I'm just happy this is alrd posten I aint doing this again jk jk

Synopsis: When you and Jing Yuan were sent to a mission to attempt testing some experimental medicine to mara-struck soldiers but it seemed to have a different side effect.

Genre: SMUT (ITS NOT ME, I THINK ITS SOMEONE ELSE SMH)

WC: 3.4k

"S-s-so! Miss Y/N would you like to…" One of the physician's assistants was about to ask you something when Jing Yuan interrupted. 

"Would she like to what?" Jing Yuan rested his back at the wall and caught your attention. 

"Oh! Jing Yuan, you're here!" You happily replied, the assistant looked like he was upset because of the sudden appearance of the honored one. 

"Y/N why won't you finish getting the herbs so I can finish my share of work." Jing Yuan sighed annoyingly and walked away. 

A few hours later.

“Jing Yuan! I got the herbs you need, as ordered by Sifu… Although I found some weird new herbs growing too and I plucked them out.” You said opening the door to his bedroom-slash-laboratory like, carrying a basket full of herbs and other berries that can be eaten for snacks.

“I’m so frustrated about making herbal medicine, shouldn’t we just pass this responsibility to the physicians?” Jing Yuan rants as he faces the bane of his existence, making herbal tea.

“Well, you are, in fact, a candidate to be the successor of Sifu, you must be all-knowing Jing Yuan.” You sighed and explained to him.

“Let me just give you these herbs…” You added and quickly left the room since Jing Yuan doesn't like to be bothered that much especially when he's studying herbs and medicines.

After roughly 3 hours and a half, Jing Yuan has finally finished making 20 identical vials of very concentrated experimental cure against mara. 

You and Jing Yuan were assigned to a mission where you'd fight against mara stuck soldiers and force them to drink the vial after being revived in battle. It was hard but Jing Liu knew that there's no pair in Xiaozhou Luofu that can execute this mission with no flaws, she knew her students better than anyone.

You and Jing Yuan took your leave and headed to cloudford. 

"Don't you find it odd Jing Yuan, there's no soldiers around here." You said and sighed as your eyes wandered above and beneath every box in the area and not a single mara struck cloud knight was to be found.

"Yeah, it is weird. I wouldn't be even surprised if we were to be ambushed right now by the enemy." He said and laughed as if the two of you would get defeated by a rookie assassin. 

"Say, Jing Yuan, I'm quite curious if you're fancying someone… Perhaps I want to know what kind of ladies you are into. I think it's a privilege to know the future general, the successor of Jing Liu, what's their type, hehe." You said and laughed as you jumped box after box, playing around the area and stopped after you spotted something. 

Jing Yuan was quick to follow you and sneaked behind you. 

"I'm more curious what made you ask that question suddenly… Hmmm, let's see. I would probably love someone that's a carbon copy or someone who shares the same discipline and characteristics of Sifu." He held his chin with his hand and then wrapped them around your waist and pulled you closer and whispered something to your ear. 

"You see, that's the enemy." Jing Yuan pointed out a mara struck soldier sitting in the middle, it appears to have an abnormal behavior compared to other cursed soldiers. 

You and Jing Yuan disappeared in a second to ambush the cursed soldiers quickly to force their revival and attempt to use the vials Jing Yuan had created earlier.

Except everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. 

You and Jing Yuan were completely unaware that the cursed soldiers' abilities had mutated, therefore they wouldn't act the same as the others. 

Instead of being revived, the mara struck soldier has self-destructed in front of you and Jing Yuan and a flash of light has appeared between your eyes. 

Little did you know that, that flash of light was just to blind you temporarily and is something that you should not worry about. 

"Jing Yuan!" You shouted. 

"Y/N, there's a chance that we may have been inflicted with the curse-" Jing Yuan didn't hesitate to drink one vial of the experimental cure that he made because he knew that it's better to be safe than sorry. At that moment, he was quite confident about his knowledge on herbs but he was wrong in one thing. 

As a matter of fact, Jing Yuan did not create a cure at all. It was something different.

You were too slow to stop him from doing so and before you could dash towards him, he had swallowed the entire vial already. 

"Don't worry about me Y/N, let's just… stay here for a moment." He said and sat on a nearby corner, you thought that he sounded like he was tired and assumed that it was probably because of the flash of light that appeared. 

"Then I should also take this vial-" You said but Jing Yuan stopped you from doing so.

"No, if anything goes wrong with me because of the medicine. You would be the one to carry me back in the city and therefore a proper diagnosis can be made. 

Jing Yuan's body temperature began to rise a little and he has sweat profusely. As a response, you took one of your clothing that covers your front and used it to wipe Jing Yuan's sweat which made him have a good view of the cleavage of your lovely soft breasts. 

Jing Yuan has realized that he may have created an aphrodisiac instead of the cure earlier. He was too vulnerable to speak right now because of his blood rushing somewhere else in the bottom of his body because of the beautiful sight that he is currently blessed with right now. 

"Is the vial not working?! D-damn, Maybe you need more. I'll get them for you Jing Yuan." You attempted to find the vials but his manly arms had captivated your entire body, preventing you from finding the vials. 

Due to Jing Yuan's weakened state, you managed to break free and grabbed as many vials as you could gather. You thought that if he doesn't want to drink more of it, he might be still under the control of the curse. 

So you opened 9 vials and poured them in your mouth and kissed Jing Yuan to force him to swallow the vial. 

You wrapped your tongue around his as you were exploring every bit of his mouth when you felt his arms wrapped around your body with one hand traveling its way slowly to your head, pulling you closer to him. 

The two of you shared a passionate kiss together with saliva mixed with the vials stringing out from both of your mouths. 

Your cheek heated up after the kiss, somehow you still have no idea what the vial contains and felt aroused. 

Jing Yuan gently cupped your left breast and you let out a gasp and moaned a little because of his actions. He squished it a little and tried to feel your hardened nipple.

You kissed him again and said in a very seductive tone.

"Let's do this somewhere private like your bedroom or your office~" 

"Does my office sound good to you, hm? Darling?" 

You nodded and kissed him again and he carried you in a bridal way back to the city. 

—

"What happened to Y/N? Is she injured?" The physicians asked when Jing Yuan walked towards his office.

"She's not, just tired. I'll take good care of her." Jing Yuan said as he held you tightly and pulled you closer to him. You realized how huge of a man Jing Yuan is and you're about to be dominated by him. 

He enters his office with you and locks the door as he places you in his bed. Jing Yuan started to remove his clothes leaving his pants, making him half naked. You blushed, admiring seeing his toned body and you knew that you are also the only person seeing Jing Yuan like this. You imagined your hands going on his six-pack abs while kissing him. 

"Like what you see?" He joked about it.

"No, I love it." You smirked and replied.

He joins you in bed and kisses you. 

"Should we continue where we left off?" He said in a seductive manner and you just turned yourself on top of him and pushed him down in bed to just kiss him.

His hands traveled on your thighs, grasping it and pulled your tight skirt up, exposing your soaking wet panties. 

You got up from your kiss and were about to remove your clothes but Jing Yuan stopped you from doing so.

"Allow me to strip you naked, love~" He said in a very deep tone, it felt like he was begging you to make him see every inch of your skin. 

He got up and trailed his hands from your breasts to your waist, down to your ass. 

He kissed your cleavage hardly enough to leave a hickey in the middle and smelled your body. He kept on kissing your breasts as he began to unbutton your clothes. 

Jing Yuan was a few moments away from seeing your lovely soft breasts, his tongue has been aching to lick and play with your hard nipples. 

He looked at you for a moment before pulling away the cloth covering your precious pearls and he was stunned and astonished by how delicate your breasts are. 

He kissed both of your nipples and played with it. You sat on his hardened crotch and began to grind against it. 

Jing Yuan whimpered from your sudden movement. 

"Hngh~ I want to be inside of you-!" He said in your ear. 

You grabbed one of the vials again, the faintly sweet aphrodisiac that brought the two of you into this and poured it down your breasts to lure Jing Yuan. 

He was shocked and immediately grabbed your boob and sucked and licked on every drop of the vial that has been boosting up his sex drive while you continued to grind your soaking pussy against his hard bulge. 

Jing Yuan grabbed the tiny piece of clothing that's covering the last of the remains of your dignity and broke it leaving you completely naked against him. 

He pulled his pants down and whispered "You ready love? This might hurt a little~" He smiled and kissed you. 

You nodded because you haven't had a glimpse of how huge his penis is until you did. 

"W-wait!" You said but you felt a sharp pain as his thick cock slowly made its way inside you. 

"F-fuck, you're so tight love-" Jing Yuan, whimpered as he tried not to move a lot in order not to hurt you. 

"The thought of S-sifu might actually knock on your door right and o-or even little Yangqing coming over, asking if you could p-play with him- The thought of us getting caught in a position like this makes me so h-horny!" You said and moved up and down to adjust yourself but it still hurts a little. 

"You're so beautiful, love" Jing Yuan placed his head on your neck and began to kiss and bite it while he had one of his hands on your back and the other one was playing with your boob. 

"Should I unlock the door?" Jing Yuan jokingly reached out on the door of his bedroom but you struggled to reach for his arm and attempted to stop him from doing so and you felt like his penis as thrusted inside-out of you within those seconds except it no longer hurts. 

You wanted to confirm that something felt really good and you bounced once again and felt the tip of his penis hit your upper walls that helps stimulate your clit. 

You rode his penis slowly and created small moans. 

"I love to hear you create louder sounds like that, princess." Jing Yuan said and began to fuck you. 

"Oh gosh~ Jing Yuan, you're so good~ You're hitting a spot, you're making me feel good-! Gosh! You're going to make me cum!" You said as he held on your thighs tightly and fucked you good, he admired your round breasts bouncing up and down. 

He carried you with his cock inside and went outside his bedroom.

"Where are you taking me?" You asked but he said nothing. He began to wall you on his office door and pound you hard leaving these sounds across the walls of the room. 

"Y-you're going to create suspicions with the workers!" You said. 

"Exactly, moan my name loud or I'll stop fucking you" He ordered and you just began to moan his name out loud. 

"Jing Yuan! You're so good! It's so hard, big, and strong~ Do it harder!" You moaned out loudly and he kept on pounding you harder, enough to make the walls shake. 

On the other side of the wall, Yukong was the first to notice what on heaven's sake was happening in Jing Yuan's office. The other workers had taken notice of it but they just blushed and remained quiet because they have high respect for you and Jing Yuan and should never speak anything bad towards the two of you. 

"Knowing Jing Yuan, I think he wants to show off his ownership against the people fancying Miss Y/N. I'm pretty sure you're well aware that Miss Y/N is a very beautiful lady and being under Jing Liu just makes her one of the most respected women in this place." Yukong stated to some of her workers. 

"Kindly avoid passing through the hallways of Jing Yuan's office or get your salary deducted" She added and the workers nodded. 

Some of the workers that had a crush on you were even jealous and were very curious to see your womanly face in bed. 

But they can't do anything even courting you because as they speak, you are being marked as a part of Jing Yuan's territory that no man has the courage to step foot on.

—

"God darling! You're so good! Can I plant my seed for you?" Jing Yuan asked as he attempted to catch his breath because he's been pounding you non-stop and a knot is beginning to form in his lower abdomen. 

"Yes! Give it all to me! Plant your seed for me!" You moaned out and kissed him. 

"I'm going to give you my children Y/N! I want you to stop training under Sifu and be my wife. I'll swear to protect my wife until the end of time and carry my duties as a husband whilst being the general." He said and began whimpering.

"So the woman that you've been fancying for so long~ was me?" You said and he just kissed you hard with his tongue exploring every bit of your mouth. 

"Y-yeah!" He continued to whimper while thrusting his cock inside and outside. 

"Y-you almost slipped away from my fingers! The assistant of the physician was about to ask you out- I've been wanting you for so long but I never had the courage to do so!" Jing Yuan added as he hardly pushes his big and long cock, destroying you, stirring up your insides. 

"I'm going to make you mine" Were the last words that he said before finishing inside of you.

Jing Yuan doesn't pull out as he wraps his arms around you and spoons you in bed in front of him. You could still feel his pulsating member throbbing inside of you while he brushes your hair and you curl up in front of his toned chest getting ahold of his manly smell. 

"It's gonna be so embarrassing when I come out of your office later" You said and buried your face more onto him, cheeks heating up.

"Who said you'll come out here? You're not going to come out of here until my cock calms down. Let's just… take a rest for now." He said hugging you to sleep. 

—

"Jing Yuan, you aren't slacking off with my task aren't you?" A familiar voice was heard behind the doors. 

Jing Yuan's eyes immediately opened and he stood up naked, trying to find a robe he could cover himself with temporarily.

It's Jing Liu, he could never mistake her voice. 

"Hey-" Jing Yuan opened the door a little but Jing Liu grabbed the handle and opened the door widely. 

"You're… quite different." She said, 

"I was really tired yesterday and the task you gave me took everything outside of myself" Jing Yuan firmly stated as his words hold double meanings. 

"Go prepare yourself… I'll get Y/N in her room" Jing Liu took a deep breath and began walking away when Jing Yuan grabbed her arm. 

"I… I'll get Y/N, err… we were having bets yesterday and had a little fun with the task you gave me." Jing Yuan lied which Jing Liu obviously knew and decided to play it off and have it his way. 

"Whatever." She says. 

—

"Y-Y/N! S-sifu's waiting for us-" Jing Yuan frantically tapped your cheeks in an attempt to wake you up. Your body was wrapped in his blankets due to the mess you made last night. 

Your drowsy eyelids open a little and you see the majestic form of Jing Yuan on top of you. 

"Jing Yuan, I'm too sore to even stand up- Gosh, you're so handsome" You wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Y-Y/N, now's not the time for this-" Jing Yuan pulled away as the blanket began to unravel. 

"You had it your way last night!" You said and pinned Jing Yuan in bed. 

Jing Yuan looked away as you began to remove the blanket leaving you completely naked and used it to tie his hands at his back. 

"Look at me, I only want you to look at me" You said as if you were a witch manipulating him, he immediately obliged and looked at your heavenly body. 

As if a few moments ago he was panicking within the presence of Jing Liu, he was immediately focused on you.

You positioned yourself on his pulsating member and caressed his chest slowly with your soft fingers. 

"Y-Y/N, l-let me touch you" Jing Yuan begged as his hands were struggling to be free.

"I guess you need to ask for it" You said as you slid your glistening folds up and down on his cock, enjoying the whimpers that Jing Yuan was creating. 

"Y-Y/N, please let me be inside of you! Slide it gently and slowly-" Jing Yuan said followed by a loud moan when you inserted his member inside of you faster and roughly. 

You gasped.

"That feels good~" You said in his ears before kissing his neck as you indulge in his hard member. 

Jing Yuan takes this opportunity to attempt unraveling the knot that you made on him, making sure that you won't notice a bit. 

You stared at the ceiling with your mouth open wide and tongue out near Jing Yuan's mouth, your breath has become short and it becomes faster as each thrust goes by.

He felt so special that you consented into offering yourself to him.

And at last, he finally untied himself. 

Jing Yuan stared at you enjoying yourself on top of him, he loved how your hands were traveling and your fingers tracing his body.

"I'm about to cum-" You said as you bounced your hips a little faster until you felt your hands on your back. 

"You're having the fun all by yourself" He smirked and grabbed your waist and fucked you rough and faster on that moment. 

You uncontrollably moaned as you felt like your cum was induced and wanted to feel it again to make sure that you weren't rushed into doing it.

"Cream me" You whispered to his ear. 

"I know." He replied back and hugged him tightly, nails burying at his back as he continues to fuck you rough in bed and make sure that you're filled of his cum until you're full and leaking.

—

"Where are your students?" Yukong asked Jing Liu. 

"I supposed they're training somewhere together, they do not wish for me to be involved" Jing Liu sighs as she knew exactly what the two of you were doing. 

—

A month after, Jing Yuan immediately asked for your hand in marriage which you happily agreed to. He couldn't wait any longer to make you his wife. 

He wanted to make sure that everyone sees you as his wife and you get the treatment you deserve. 

Then one day you don't know how to break the news to your husband that there's going to be a new family member that's currently residing in your womb <3