#I'm still writting this i'm so happy!!

[glubsurleseuil]

Don't be scared - Chapter 2

A Pennywise X F!Reader fanfic. First - Next

Chapter warnings: Violence, blood, discreet mention of a desire to die. It's just the beginning, it's about to get worse.

(Note: It was translated by Deepl, English is not my mother tongue, so I apologise for any mistakes. If you want to correct me, don't hesitate!)

(Note 2: I found the gif at @pennydaddywise)

(Note 3: The "lyrics" of the song are actually quotes from Mr Stephen King.)

It was a difficult night. First, when you arrived home, your body's first reflex was to throw up in the toilet. Then your brain's reflex was to search your apartment from top to bottom to make sure no one was home. Then, finally, you curled up in a ball on your bed, scared out of your wits, unable to sleep. Every minute, you checked your phone, not wanting to believe that the clown's damn message had disappeared. You'd searched your whole phone but couldn't find it. And you hated for most of the night the incredible capacity of the human survival instinct to try and make you believe that all these strange and terrifying events never really happened. Finally, you fell asleep convinced that no, you're not crazy.

Of course, like every night for some time, you had a dream. But not the same one this time. This one was just as hazy and incomprehensible, but less terrifying, and you woke up more peacefully. It made you remember the clown's message: Don't be scared... You laughed nervously, shivers running through your body just thinking about your adventure the day before.

The day had gone by too fast for your liking, and you'd been unable to concentrate on anything, that damn clown haunting your mind at every turn. Then it was finally time for work.

It was a quiet evening, without too many customers. These evenings are often pleasant to spend, but this evening in particular, you could take advantage of it and go home early. The very idea of not seeing the sun when you leave the bar terrifies you.

"Are you sure? There's no one on stage tonight. You can sing if you want."

Your boss suggests you go on stage when there's no one there. You love these moments. Singing and playing on stage is the only time you feel your life isn't miserable. But singing tonight means coming home later, when it's dark... Fuck.

You can't refuse. These moments are too rare. You get up on stage and take advantage of this moment to forget everything, your rotten life, the sadness, the anguish... The clown...

Monsters are real, And ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Your voice trembles slightly and you close your eyes to concentrate.

God is cruel. Sometimes he makes you live. The devil's voice is sweet to hear.

At the end of your song, the few remaining customers applaud. You hate that noise. It reminds you of harsh reality.

Finally, the bar closes and you leave through the back door. The cool silence of the night reminds you of the horrors of life and you look down the dark, empty alley. The lights are still malfunctioning, and there's a large section of the alleyway plunged into darkness. Obviously...

You reassure yourself that you don't have to go into the forest this time. Phone in hand, you make your way down the alley, lighting every nook and cranny, and you're soon relieved to see that there's nothing and no one there.

You move forward, a little more reassured, towards the exit, towards the light. And as you put your phone back in your bag, something touches your back. It's light and it bounces against you. You turn around slowly, cautiously, holding your breath...

A balloon? A balloon. Red, floating in the middle of the path, alone. The first thing it brings to mind is your dream from last night. Yes, there was a red balloon in it, which you grabbed and flew high into the sky...

Looking at it more closely, you see a piece of paper hanging from its string, wriggling like a hanged man. You untie it and unfold it. On it, in ink as red as blood, a message.

DON'T BE SCARED

You swallow your saliva as thick as sand and your whole body shakes with tremors, preparing to run. But as you turn to leave the alley, two gloved hands grab you, one by the nape of the neck, pulling your hair as you go, the other by the mouth, pressing down hard enough that you can't scream. And you find yourself facing those predatory golden eyes, one of whose pupils squints outwards. A multitude of gleaming, pointed teeth, dripping with slime, smiles at you, just inches from your face.

Faced with such an apparition, your first instinct is to punch the face you recognize as the clown's, but you instantly regret it. True, the grip of his hands has loosened, but you note with horror that his features have deformed where you struck him, his uneven teeth protruding from his mouth in an excruciatingly inhuman way. Blood is dripping from his lip... floating upwards would be more accurate.

You push him back hard and turn to flee, knowing full well it's no use. He grabs you by the arm and pushes you violently back against the alley wall. You grit your teeth as you feel your back and the back of your skull crash against the hard surface. With one hand, he grips your neck and lifts you to his full height. No matter how hard you pull on his arm, you're unable to free yourself and breathing becomes difficult. The clown brings his face close to yours like an enraged predator.

"I said... don't be scared!!!"

He finishes his sentence by slamming you back against the wall. You close your eyes in pain, your head begins to spin and you no longer feel strong enough to push him away. All you can do is watch him rage at you, hoping it's just another nightmare.

"You don't want to live, I know it! Then why are you afraid? Stupid, ridiculous humans... This fear... So beautiful, so appetizing. How am I supposed to resist this?!"

The clown hits you once more, more brutally. This is too much. As your arms fall unconscious to your sides, you faint under his fingers and everything goes black. The last thing you hear is the clown swearing to himself.

When you open your eyes, you're unable to understand where you are. An old-fashioned smell of mildew assails your nostrils and you see dust flying in the dim light of the room. You realize you're lying on something soft, covered. Probably a mattress on the floor. Soon, the pain in the back of your skull reawakens. You run your hand through your hair to find dried blood tangled in your locks.

You sit up abruptly, the events before you fainted coming back to you in an unbearable headache, and a question forces you to hold your breath. What else has this clown... this thing... done to you? Trembling, your hand raises the old grey blanket over your legs and you begin to inspect yourself... Nothing. At first glance, anyway. Everything suggests that he's just put you down there, nothing more. You breathe again.

Your gaze finally settles around you: you find yourself in an empty room, apart from the mattress you're lying on. The light is diffused, so unnatural that you want to define it as dark, even if that doesn't make sense. The windows are so dirty that you can't tell if it's still night. You have no idea what time it is or how long it's been since the clown attack.

You suddenly see your shoes tossed haphazardly around the room, as well as your bag. That's all it takes for you to rush out of the mattress and rummage through it, your phone being your goal. But you panic when you realize it's buggy. It doesn't look particularly broken though, it simply refuses to work, the screen displaying bizarre glitches and... The message the clown marked last time, in the forest. You throw your phone to the ground in anguished annoyance.

Close your eyes. Inhale. exhale. You've got to get out of here. A hint of determination returning, you pick up your phone, your bag and put on your shoes. Passing as quietly as possible through the first doors you come to, you arrive in a corridor with a staircase leading down a few meters from you. You descend carefully, the steps creaking beneath your feet. But there's no sign of the clown, and the door opposite the steps seems to be the entrance door. You suddenly have the foolish hope of getting out of here without any trouble.

You approach slowly, your hand sliding noiselessly over the handle of the closed door. You turn it slowly... but nothing happens. You pull, you push, quietly at first, then louder and louder, suddenly panic-stricken. But nothing happens. The door doesn't move. It doesn't move at all. As if it were an optical illusion painted on the wall. A groan of despair escapes and you hold back your tears. Inhale. Exhale. All is not lost, there are always the windows.

They're as dirty and dimly lit as those upstairs, plunging the house into an atmosphere of eternal twilight. Some are boarded up, but not all. In a room that looks like a living room, you work hard on one of them, but get the same result as with the door. In a fit of anger, you end up banging on what's supposed to be the glass, even throwing a stool lying around, in vain.

A few seconds pass before a cry of rage comes from your mouth. And you knew that all the noise you'd made would attract the clown. A weak but piercing laugh pushes you to turn towards the entrance to the room. There he is, leaning against the wall, mocking you without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

"Silly, silly little human. Thinking you can escape from my house. So stupid, so angry..."

He pauses, and you can see his mocking smile break down, giving way to annoyance, his features turning stern.

"...So scared... again..."

You step back as he moves closer to you. You'd have thought his eyes were blue a second ago... You quickly bend down to grab the stool you threw at the window, tossing it at the clown to distract him and get around him, running towards the living room exit. You already knew it wouldn't work and you're not surprised to feel him propel you to the floor. He barely gives you time to turn around before pinning you down on your back. Your eyes see his face blurred by tears, while you feel warm drool running down your shirt. Above you, the clown shakes frantically, as if arguing with himself about what to do with you.

"Fear... so delicious... Maybe I should... eat you.... No! Or maybe... just a little...?"

He shakes his head like an animal shredding a piece of meat, and the comparison terrifies you.

"No. No! You are..."

His gloved hand caresses your face with a gentleness that makes you sob. Your eyes close tightly, as if that's enough to make you forget everything that's going on.

"...perfect. I need you."

You feel the clown's breath coming closer and your eyes reopen in panic. You can see his lips curling over his sharp teeth, many more of them. Your brain refuses to believe what it's seeing and you start laughing nervously.

"Don't. Be. Scared."

It's an order and he emphasizes it by snapping his teeth together in a jaw-clenching sound that echoes in your head. At this point, he lets go and walks away, leaving you alone on the floor with your migraine, covered in drool. All you hear is the echo of your own delirious laughter, resonating in your eardrums as if it belonged to someone else. 

[simpxxstan]

HELLOOO!!! CONGRATS FOR THE 550 FOLLOWERS ON TUMBLR I HOPE U GET MORE FOLLOWERS BC UR WRITTING?? DELICIOUS 💗💗

But I would like to request seungcheol + dilfism ?? Like have u SEEN that man??

Thank you!! Have a good day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVOURITE MAN <333 thank you for sending this in! LOVED writing dilf cheol. i swear this man and his sexiness of 30s will be the death of me. inspired completely by his new glasses look at caratland 2024.

this is a part of my 550 followers event, but requests are now CLOSED.

genre: smut, enemies to lovers, age gap, dilf!seungcheol, lawyer au.

word count: 13k words.

warnings: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT 18+ nsfw content. 13 YEAR AGE GAP, mention of suicide, single dad!seungcheol, a ton of legal terms (not vouching to be accurate because i am neither a lawyer nor a law student nor is my research perfect), seungcheol is a bit selfish and toxic (but there's a redemption arc), ANGSTY angst, but A LOT OF FLUFF TO COMPENSATE. smut warnings: protected sex, oral receiving (f and m), mild dirty talk, implicit size kink, implicit spit kink.

"it's my first case!" you whine in surrender, slumping on the shoulder of your friend, as you both re-read the case file in front of you for the n-th time this morning. yoona pats your head, but she knows even she can say nothing to console you. it must be either sheer bad luck or some unknown person's vengeance, that you're against choi seungcheol in the very first case of your life.

y/l/n y/n: the lawyer of the plaintiff, hwang seola.

choi seungcheol: the lawyer of the defendant, KNT enterprises pvt. ltd.

nothing can save you from losing your first case in the worst way possible. not even the stellar letters of recommendation from your professors. not even your exceptional performance in the national lawyers examination process. not even your diligence during your interning years that's earned you the title of golden rookie. everyone expects you to make it big, including yourself- but that's clearly not going to happen if you lose the very first actual case you have to face in your life.

"at least no one will mock you for losing," yoona says in a meek voice. you scoff indignantly, "as if that's any comfort. still doesn't change the fact that i'm going to start off my career on the worst foot possible. why does my luck have to be so shitty?"

"hey, think about the positives. imagine how much of a learning experience it'll be. i know best how much you consider seungcheol as your idol."

you sigh. five years ago, when seungcheol had blown up across the country because of his historic debut in the court of corporate law, winning case after case and setting precedents that were welcomed with open arms, you'd looked up to him. five years ago, he'd walked into your college for an invited seminar during your first semester and blown your mind away. five years ago, you would cry in joy at the opportunity to even spend a minute in the same courtroom as seungcheol and see him in action. five years ago, he'd been the ideal man of your dreams- perfect in every damn way possible.

the only issue with that is that he's still the ideal man in your eyes. even if losing the case against him won't make your nervous, just being in close quarters with him for long hours will make you infinitely nervous.

"maybe i should recommend boss to let you take up the ca-" you tease yoona, and she squeals, whining protests instantly. "no thank you!" you laugh, hoping to lighten the tension of the moment. but the relief is only temporary, and the weight of the upcoming case lingers in your mind for hours later.

_

the first trial of the case is a week later. before that, you decide to change your mindset to a better thought process- even if you simply assume that you're going to lose this case, you're still going to give in your 100% so that you can step away with no regrets and only more knowledge gained. the first step to that, of course, is speak to your client personally, without the intermediation of the firm you work at.

mrs hwang turns out to be a woman just a few years older than you. the primary reason why she's suing the company her husband used to work at is because her husband had been driven to suicide by the constant pressure in his workplace to keep some illegal activities and fraud under the covers, which had not only harmed his mental health and morals but also affected the way his superiors judged his work performance. she may be young, but she's lost her husband merely three years after their marriage, and just one look at her face makes your heart ache in sympathy.

this isn't the first time you've seen such a case. during your years of study, you've studied plenty of cases involving companies ill-treating their workers and leading them to take up drastic steps in desperation. not only does this case come under a serious mistreatment of employees under labour laws, but also violates laws governing corporations which demand them to steer off illegal activities and maintain integrity. it's a very interesting case, and you're highly intrigued and instantly drawn into the case. there are several nuances that you know you may miss out by a hair's breadth if you're not careful. but you cannot take chances. if you have to even put up a fair fight against choi seungcheol, you're going to have to leave no stone unturned.

at the end of your discussions with mrs hwang, you're fully convinced that the company is indeed at fault here. however, you're going to have to prove it in court with the meagre evidence you have- which is low anyway, considering how big companies use their financial and social capital to turn such cases remarkably in their favour. the primary example of that being them getting seungcheol, the country's top corporate lawyer, to represent them, while mrs hwang can only hire you, a rookie lawyer at a lesser reputed firm.

however, as you walk into the courtroom, you convince yourself to not think about how the odds are against your favour from the first moment itself, to calm your nerves. you're here to debut with a bang, and you will fake it till you make it.

_

it doesn't work.

it doesn't work because the moment you enter the courtroom, you see choi seungcheol sitting next to the defendant's CEO on the other side of the room, dressed in the most immaculate suit, his glasses perched on his nose as he inspects the documents you've submitted in court prior to the trial as preliminary evidence. when you walk towards the bench you're going to sit at, he looks up at you.

it's a careful, measured glance. a glance of confidence, a glance of self-awareness. he knows he's going to win. and yet, he smiles at you indulgently.

moments later, he meets you halfway across the room.

"good morning. i'm seungcheol," he extends his hand for a shake, his nose upturned as he looks down at you with an aura that nearly blows you away. you wish that you hadn't worn heels tonight- because if he keeps looking at you like that, your knees are going to give up.

"of course, who wouldn't know you?" you steady your voice mustering a smile.

seungcheol's smile does not change. "it's nice to meet the golden rookie finally."

his words send shivers down your spine. there's just something about meeting your idol from so up-close that you want to submit instantly to his infinitely higher knowledge and experience to you. there's also something particular to him that's affecting your mind and body- because if seungcheol at thirty-one was handsome, he's absolutely godly at thirty-six. he's aged like fine wine- the rimless glasses sitting firmly on his nose, tiny wrinkles around his eyes, and a few graying hairs around his sideburns.

you don't get a chance to respond as the judge enters the court and you're pulled away to your bench, sitting next to a very nervous-looking mrs hwang. you forcefully drag your eyes away from seungcheol, who still has that tiny smile on his face as he talks to his client, and focus on your client, giving her much-needed confidence boosts (needed both by her and by you).

_

as anticipated, the first trial does not go well. it's just your fucking luck that the judge knows seungcheol already- but then, it was wrong of you to not consider that already, knowing how famous he is. on top of it all, mrs hwang breaks down in the middle of seungcheol's questioning, shaken completely by his straightforward questions and uncaring gaze, and the court gets adjourned, leaving you stranded without any proper progress against seungcheol's stronger case. the next trial is scheduled for a week later. you wish you could think that your work has been cut out for you, but it's far from that.

the second trial comes quickly- but it doesn't let you progress much further. seungcheol looks even more nonchalant on the second trial- dressed in another suit, he's less fierce today during his questioning. you don't notice it, because you're too flustered with your own work, but his eyes stray towards you more often. his eyes glaze over with something soft every time you make eye contact, and you immediately look away, like you've been caught in the act. but seungcheol doesn't let it slip- he keeps up his passive aggression when he's shaking hands with you before exiting the courtroom.

"tough luck, rookie. focus between the lines more."

his words make you even more nervous than before, but you put on a brave face for seola's sake. this motivates you to change your gameplan, and you decide to stop focusing on existing evidence, which is scarce, and use more verbal reports of other employees who have willingly stepped up to speak the truth after the suicide of their friend and colleague. by the time you're just three days before the third trial date, you have a solid set of verbal witnesses who will provide evidence on your side, but every time you feel slightly more confident than earlier, seungcheol's voice rings in your ears and you lose all hope.

on the morning of the fourth day, you receive an email from your boss.

y/n, please attend a lunch meeting on my behalf with some of our older clients (whose list i have attached below) today.

you jump to the opportunity- being provided a chance to interact with the old clients of the firm is a lucrative opportunity to impress those who've stayed with the firm from the beginning (and naturally, have graduated into stakeholders at the firm).

so it's safe to say you're in for a rude shock when you reach the lunch spot at a five-star restaurant along the banks of the han river, and find none of your clients but instead you find seungcheol waiting for you.

_

"close your mouth and stop drooling," jeonghan's voice somehow appears in his mind when he sees you enter the restaurant. "you make it obvious how hot you find women in suits."

but seungcheol cannot take his eyes off you. hasn't been able to for the last two times he's seen you. even if the courtroom is no place for indecency, he's had plenty of indecent thoughts whenever he's seen you, dressed in your suits and blazers, your curves prominent and your hair tied up in a practical ponytail. he should not think like this about you- he knows it. you both are set up at natural odds because of the case- but somehow, that makes him more interested in you. and seungcheol would not have it any other way. he looks forward to each trial of an otherwise boring case just to see you- the passion on your face whenever you're arguing your case, the way your mouth opens in shock whenever seungcheol casually dismisses a piece of information you've clearly worked hard on, the way you stare in exasperation at the witnesses when they speak against your stance, the hunger in your eyes whenever you're questioning his client, and the fire in you that burns you to work harder before each trial. seungcheol hasn't seen a lawyer as passionate as you in many years- most would have given up even before starting just due to his formidable reputation, but you're not even intimidated by his on-brand dead stare that works on everyone.

"i was told i'm here to meet clients of my firm. i didn't know you hired our firm for your personal needs," you cock an eyebrow as you stand in front of him, and seungcheol smirks. that attitude does nothing to filter his thoughts.

"would you have come if i'd invited you personally?"

you open your mouth to say something but he beats you to it. "have a seat, please. let's enjoy lunch."

you do so immediately. submissive. "but i still don't understand why i'm here." bratty.

he places a finger on his lips as the food he's pre-ordered arrives. the smell of the delicious food breaks your frigid attitude, it obviously helps that seungcheol's ordered your self-proclaimed favourite dish on your public instagram account. "i'm sure you must be hungry." seungcheol digs in himself, his eyes on yours as he carefully licks the spoon clean. your eyes flicker to his lips instantly before you're staring back into his eyes, defiance laced in your gaze. you pick up the spoon and start eating as well. seungcheol smiles.

i'm a dad to two daughters. i know how to tame brats.

after a few minutes, he finally speaks. "do you know the first step to winning a battle, rookie?"

you look up and tilt your head slightly in question.

"knowing your opponent."

"i already know you."

"that's what you think. that's why you're not going to win."

your eyes flash with anger. "are you just going to rub that into my face? is that why i'm here?"

"so what? you don't want to win? isn't the most loved story of human history the tale of the underdog?"

"frankly, my opponent isn't even you. it's your client, who isn't even here. so i don't understand the point of this meeting."

"so much can be learnt merely through observation, rookie. you can't know someone by looking at their annual reports and how much money they pay their employees."

"i don't need to know anything more than that! unlike you, i don't wish to meddle in people's personal lives to win cases. i don't need your brain games."

seungcheol chuckles. "the courtroom is nothing but brain games, rookie. think how far facts can take you, and then think how much further imagination can take you."

you gasp, pinching your nose. "i'm sorry, what? imagination? i'll win on evidence and evidence only. i used to admire you as an icon of law. but now, when i see you defend an obvious criminal with such blatant stubbornness, i'm having second thoughts."

"obvious criminal? are you telling me you've obtained the evidence you need to prove my client guilty in court?"

"and what if i do?"

seungcheol sits back, squaring his shoulders to his full stature. "you shouldn't tell me about it then, rookie."

"when you'd walked into my law school five years ago for a seminar, this wasn't the choi seungcheol i'd grown to love as an icon."

fuck. five years ago? just how young were you?

"i'd advise you not to get emotional about the case. the courtroom is no place for admiration or lov- or any other emotions."

"and yet, you have no desire to live up to the expectations of hundreds of law students like me who look up to you? you don't care about the youth you're letting down with this attitude?"

"why should i? i'm surviving just fine, aren't i?"

by this point, seungcheol can see the way your nails dig into your own palms in frustration. it's so amusing, how emotionally you're dealing with this. in a world of black and white, seeing you behave gray in every scenario makes seungcheol think he's lived thirty-six years of his life incorrectly.

finally when you cannot come up with any rebuttal, you stand up, dragging your chair on purpose to make noise. "there's absolutely nothing more for me to talk to you about. i hope you've learnt about me today, choi seungcheol. i've certainly learnt a lot too." and you walk away before he has the opportunity to say anything.

_

lunch with seungcheol leaves you shaken and stuttering. even as you open the door of the cab outside and ask the driver to take you to the office without a second thought, you spend the entire journey lost in your own thoughts. every little moment of the meeting lingers in your mind, unsettling your confidence. from the way he calls you rookie to his quiet arrogance and confidence, everything about him is so frustrating and yet... he draws you in. your perception about him has definitely changed after today, but even with the added understanding of just how selfish choi seungcheol can be, you can't ignore the sheer attraction you feel towards him.

it stays on your mind through the next three days. and on the morning of the third trial, you're stuck with two different thoughts plaguing your mind.

the first: a genuine concern about how the third trial is going to pan out. it's likely to be your last chance to even bring the judge's opinion to your side, because if you can't present good enough evidence today, there's no way to sway the jury to your side.

the second: choi seungcheol is a man who annoys you but you also have this innate craving to impress him. your respect for him hasn't changed, but your conversation with him has revealed to you just how cutthroat the world of law really is. and his suave attitude, the confidence with which he's so sure he's going to win, and his infinitely superior experience to you makes some part of you so desperate to seek his attention and impress him. show him that you can do well too. show him that you're not going to make beginner's mistakes. show him that you're more than a mere rookie.

but when you walk into the courtroom, seola next to you, your sunglasses perched on your head, you stare at the empty bench behind you. it was supposed to be full with the four witnesses you'd invited today and were relying on to sail through the the third trial. frantically, you ask your colleague who's assisting you in the trial, "where are the witnesses? are they running late? can you ple-"

"they're not going to come today, y/n."

seungcheol's icy voice cuts through the chaos and reaches you sharply. you spin around to find him dressed immaculately in a midnight blue turtleneck that shows off the stubble growing down his jaw.

"sorry, what?"

"you heard me the first time. none of them are going to come today."

"and how do you know?"

seungcheol smirks as he shrugs and takes a step closer towards you. "i have my ways, rookie."

you're fuming at this point, but you really can't speak your mind because seola breaks down in tears right next to you and you can't help but shift away your focus from seungcheol's dangerous eyes and take care of her.

it's honestly a miracle that after the complete sweep that seungcheol presents in the third trial, with no new evidence nor substantial evidence from your end, you still get another chance at a fourth trial, scheduled two weeks from now, in a pitiful announcement from the judge, imploring you to use this final chance to collect as much as evidence as you can.

_

when the trial ends, you ask seola to go home, and you lock yourself up in a bathroom stall in the court building, trying to come to terms with everything that's come to pass today. it's been an overwhelming morning and you're still shaken badly by it all. every moment you spend in this world with seungcheol, he seems to make it his personal mission to show you that there's no place for softness or emotions in this cut-throat world.

when you exit the washroom, you find seungcheol standing outside, an unlit cigarette between his lips.

"did you bribe them?"

he turns to look at you, his eyes clearly wide in surprise. "what are you saying?"

you take a step closer to him, your entire body shaking with fury. "did you bribe the fucking witnesses?"

"we're in public, woman, control your tongue."

"i'm not ashamed of anything i'm saying though, are you?"

seungcheol's lips twist in distaste and he drags you away from the public place to a quieter spot secluded near the parking lot. "i understand you're frustrated because of that no-show today, but you're speaking nonsense-"

"i'm speaking perfect sense, seungcheol! only you knew that i was going to bring in witnesses today."

"only me?"

"except two people at my firm, one of who is my best friend, and the other is a colleague who's assisting me in the case."

"who knows? maybe your friend's the snitch-"

you step closer to him, seething in anger. "don't you fucking make false allegations, choi seungcheol!"

"you're the one making false allegations here, really."

"you'll have to admit it, seungcheol. someday. if all your fame and reputation has been through such cheap tricks and under-the-table dirty business, you'll have to pay for it-"

"or what?" seungcheol puts back the cigarette between his lips, and lights it with a lighter. he takes in a big puff, and exhales right into your face. "or what, y/n? maybe you should take my advice instead. and stop making rookie mistakes."

as he walks away from you, you shout behind him, "i'm going to expose you, seungcheol!"

"empty threats, la la la." his voice trails back, sending shivers down your spine, as you're left alone in the dark parking lot, wallowing in your own pathetic helplessness.

_

your search for further evidence has led you to a complete dead-end. the most important thing that you need, the one that will clinch the case for you absolutely, is any - even one- document directly coming from KNT to seola's husband. unfortunately, you've gone through his emails and fax multiple times, but found nothing. nothing on his laptop, no hard drives, no soft drives, no external devices, nothing on his mobile phone or other such devices either. today you're searching all his belongings again and again, but it's still the dead-end. you realise that there's no point looking for more witnesses because seungcheol's just going to drive them away by whatever tricks he's using. and you're confident that seungcheol's thinking a step ahead of you- so any new evidence sources that you might come up with now might have already been dismissed by seungcheol through some back-up plan of his.

"seola, i need you to think once more, please. did he use any other device apart from the one at his office and the one at home? any laptop or any other mobile phone?"

"no... i can't remember anything else, really. we couldn't afford anything more too..."

you grimace. "i hope you don't get offended, but i'm sure he received quite a bit of money from whatever services he was providing KNT. enough to motivate him to keep quiet and hold on for so long. otherwise an honest man like him wouldn't want to get into this mess, would he?"

seola doesn't reply immediately, tears silently dropping down his cheeks.

you sigh and place a hand on her shoulders, rubbing softly as she breaks down into more tears. in the last few weeks, you've become surprisingly quite close. you've comforted her through her worst moments, feeling compassionate both as a woman and as a lawyer. and she, in turn, has helped you without any qualms, in not just the case but also lent a patient ear to you whenever you've wanted to rant, made ramen for you whenever you've worked till late, and let you stay over at her place whenever the rain outside's become too torrential for you to take the bus back home.

after a few long moments, seola is finally able to gain back her composure. "y/n.... he did mention something about an outstation office... towards the outskirts of the city. he used to go there twice a month. he told me it was for sending out packages to the other branches of the company... but maybe you could see there once?" your eyes light up with excitement as you hear seola's words. is this finally the breakthrough you'd been looking for through high and low? is this finally going to be your trump card to win the case? your rational side tells you to not become overjoyed immediately, but something in you is desperate to see that cockiness wiped off seungcheol's face, and bring him down to earth from whatever higher place his arrogance has placed himself at.

"seola, can you give me any tentative location for it? i'm going to go check it now."

"now? but the forecast is showing there's going to be thunderstorms tonight! there's so much thunder grumbling out there-"

"it doesn't matter, seola. i can't afford to lose any more time."

_

seungcheol's been stuck in traffic for almost an hour now, and the windshield wiper is absolutely useless in preventing the rain from cascading on his front window. the rain is relentless- just like the thoughts tormenting his heart. the reason he's returning home so late is because there had been a dinner party at the workplace cafeteria, hosted by his colleagues and closest friends, jeonghan, joshua, wonwoo and minghao. they're all lawyers with their own reputations, and the only friends they all have now. the point of the dinner? celebrating seungcheol's (upcoming) win in the KNT vs mrs hwang case. (and also to get seungcheol's mind off y/n, who's distracted him from his work all week, ever since their encounter at the parking lot of the courthouse.)

it'd been a mistake to stay out for so long. a sheer lapse of judgement, and seungcheol has not choice but to curse at himself right now. his daughters have called him already, their voices sleepy as they stay up for their father to return home to eat ice cream with them, before they fall into bed.

"and yet, you have no desire to live up to the expectations of hundreds of law students like me who look up to you? you don't care about the youth you're letting down with this attitude?"

y/n's words ring in his mind.

as the rain pours down cruelly, seungcheol's heart lets out silent cries.

he's a failure.

he's failed his family. thirteen years ago, when his parents had cast him out of their house after he'd failed to get a job at a good law firm.

that attitude's gonna get you nowhere, kid! stop running your mouth and focus on your work!

he's failed his first love. nine years ago, four years before he'd finally made his mark in the country's law scene, his wife had divorced him and left their children with him, because he'd not been able to earn enough for her.

stop being such a social activist, seungcheol! the world isn't soft like you. stop being so stuck up and emotional!

and now he's failing his daughters. day after day, they'd stay up late, waiting to spend some quality time with their father. night after night, they'd end up sleeping alone because seungcheol's insomnia didn't let him sleep with them. month after month, he'd promise to take them to their long-due vacation, but he was always too busy to take leave for two weeks at once. year after year, they'd wait for him to come to sports' day but seungcheol could never make it.

appa, if you can't take us to jeju... can we go for the school trip this year to jeju? all our friends are going to go for it...

all these painful thoughts triggered simply by one person- you. you're an unprecedented variable in his life, someone he couldn't even imagine to be a part of his life even a month ago. and yet, you've made him feel so many emotions, that had become dormant for years, in such a short span of time.

he's disappointing you too.

he doesn't know why it hurts what you think of him. seungcheol had thought that at thirty-six, he's finally ascended from these petty thoughts. but somehow your judgemental gaze, your innocent words and your fresh perspectives have shaken him to the core.

or perhaps he does know why, and he doesn't want to acknowledge it.

you remind him of himself.

but you're far better than he was. he'd been a coward, a loser, too quick to give up, and too hasty to drown in his own pity party. you're a fighter, a challenger, not accepting the cruelties of status quo, and too passionate to give up your sense of justice just to fit in with the cut-throat dirty reality.

you're 10 times the lawyer than he could ever be, and something about that makes him so inexplicably drawn to you.

because you're the person he's always wanted to idolised.

no wonder that when you'd told him that you'd looked up to him as an idol, he'd laughed at himself.

the traffic jam disperses slowly, and seungcheol breaks out of his daze. the clock shows 10.30 pm, and the rain shows no sign of stopping. thankfully, the traffic is now moving smoothly.

_

after almost half an hour of standing at the bus stop, waiting for something to pass by, there's finally a car with a very bright beam slowing down in front of you. it's a private car, but you hope it can give you a l-

"what are you doing here?!" the words escape your mouth as soon as you notice who's in the driver as the car window rolls down.

"get in, rookie."

you consider hesitating, but seungcheol's car looks warm... and safe. so you do get in, hating how there's water everywhere you're touching, spoiling the clearly expensive leather of the seats. but seungcheol doesn't say anything even as you shuffle in and finally settle on the passenger seat.

he thankfully doesn't ask you anything as he lets you take a breath and get warm enough. so about five minutes pass before he asks you, "what were you thinking, standing out there in this rain?" his voice is low, almost cracked, but laced with serious concern. you notice that he's still dressed in his typical suits. is he returning from work so late?

"i had work here," you say carefully avoiding the connection about the case.

"so late at night?"

"it was important."

"that it couldn't wait till the morning?"

"no."

you're aware by the way his jaw is clenched that he's getting annoyed by your short answers. but you have no option except to be as vague as possible- his mind works too fast for you.

"where's your home?"

you tell him the locality, and he sighs. "that's on the opposite side of town."

"i know, just... maybe you can drop me at a more crowded bus stop? the one where i was waiting was a bit remote, but a more crowded one will definitely have more frequent buses-"

"you're out of your mind."

"huh?"

"just because you're irresponsible doesn't mean i will be too. i cannot and will not leave you in the middle of the road in this rain so late at night."

"seungcheol, i don't want to barge-"

"you're not barging into anything. you'll come home with me, change into drier clothes and sleep in for the night so that you don't fall sick."

"y-your home?"

"yes. do you have a better idea?"

you gulp, his gaze stern. you don't have a better idea, in fact getting to change into warm clothes and get into someone's house sounds divine right now. the only problem is that it's.... seungcheol's home. if you can't handle him in his everyday suits, you wonder what thoughts seungcheol in his natural abode will spark in you.

"i'll always be grateful to you."

seungcheol nods, and the rest of the journey is silent.

_

seungcheol doesn't know yet if it's a good or a bad idea. he did it as an impulse- perhaps some part of him hopes he's still redeemable in your eyes, so he wants to do the right thing for once. but he won't know if it's the right think for everyone until he reaches home.

when he parks the car and takes you up to his flat, he can hear the television blaring harry potter from outside the flat, and he can see the way your eyebrows furrow at the sound. so he slowly unlocks the door, to reveal his two daughters sitting on the couch, undoubtedly watching their favourite harry potter movies again, wearing identical pyjamas specially designed for the identical twins.

he can hear you gasp as you step into the house, and the girls come into your view.

there's an awkward moment of silence and staring, before sol comes running to him and wraps herself around his waist. "appa! we're right at the last scene of prisoner of azkaban, your favourite part!"

seungcheol almost tears up. how can they welcome him so warmly every night even though he's come home so late?

he clears his throat. "sounds like you've been having fun, girls. but first, say hello to y/n unnie-"

"imo," you whisper next to him, your figure shrunk with the cold.

"no unnie," he whispers back. "this is choi sol, our maknae, and that's choi byul, my eldest." the girls wave and shyly say hello, their dimpled smiles flashing politely as they bow. you bow back, "hi sol and byul! sorry you're meeting unnie in this state~"

"are you also a lawyer?"

"did you get caught in the rain?"

"do you work with appa in his office?"

"do you want fresh clothes?"

you giggle at the contrasting questions from the two girls, their starkly different personalities evident. "yes, yes, no, and yes please, if you could be so kind," you smile back, your dainty lips curving into a pretty bow that takes his breath away. sollie shifts from where she'd been wrapped around seungcheol to take your hand gently. "do you think my clothes will fit you? i think byul's clothes will. she has a very warm nightdress..." and she drags you away to her room, welcoming you in without even a single moment's hesitation. byul is more reserved in her welcome, but still warm. she follows the two of you shortly, and seungcheol is left at his doorstep alone, but filled with such a flurry of emotions in his heart that leaves his soul warmed unlike he's felt in years.

about twenty minutes later, he comes out of his bathroom after a refreshing warm shower, his hair soft after the shampoo. he can hear voices from the kitchen, loud-pitched voices of his daughters and the softer, lower voice that he recognises as you.

"unnie, do you want to have ramen?" byul's voice rings out. "we were going to have ice cream but you might feel too cold for that." sol adds, "did you eat dinner, unnie? didn't appa eat dinner with you?" "no, w- we- he picked me on the way when he saw me stranded in the rain. we didn't have dinner... together."

seungcheol's heart breaks and heals a little at the same time. he's taken the right step for now... but seeing his little girls like this have generated images and thoughts in his mind that he had shelved away forever.

the idea of a family.

the idea of giving them a new mother figure.

as he walks towards the kitchen, he can see the way sol and byul cling to you although they've met you barely half an hour ago. perhaps it's because they don't have any cousins and you feel like a sister? perhaps it's because they like bossing over adults, especially since they boss over him so much? perhaps it's because they've already been charmed by your magnetic appeal- your softness and your innocence, mingled with an intelligence that lets you befriend everyone.

"are y'all annoying y/n already?" byul immediately faux pouts, and he can see your eyes light up. "seungcheol, she looks exactly like you," your voice whispers with the revelation. "yes, she's my daughter. kinda expected, don't you think?" he laughs. it's sarcastic of course, because sol and byul actually resemble him more than any other father-daughter pair he's seen in his life. it's almost like they haven't gotten any of their mother's genes. and seungcheol doesn't really regret it. it's been nine years, he's gotten over that pain. his only regret is to not be able to provide a second parent to his children, who'd grown up in spite of being cut off completely by their mother. and his busy life has left him with no space to date or even think of marriage...

except right now.

right now, when he sees you wearing byul's nightdress that barely reaches your knees, cooking ramen with sol sitting on the kitchen counter next to you, chatting away about harry potter, and byul carefully carving out ice cream into bowls for the four of them, seungcheol thinks maybe it's time.

maybe he's found the one.

and maybe, he's already fallen beyond scope to return.

_

you didn't get much chance to talk to seungcheol last night, but when you wake up on the guest bed the next morning, you can see him as soon as you open the door. he's sitting in the balcony, sipping a cup of tea, reading a newspaper, his glasses sitting prettily on his nose.

"morning," your voice is still raspy in spite of your sleep being perfectly fulfilling.

he turns to look at you, his gaze uncharacteristically soft, much different from how he sees you at court.

"hi. tea?"

you nod, and wobble over to sit next to him. the tea clears your throat a lot, and you can finally open your eyes wide enough to see the glorious view from his balcony. so you soak in the nature for some time, while seungcheol buries his nose into the newspaper again.

"i didn't know you were a father."

seungcheol hums. "did you like them? my girls? they liked you a lot."

"can't help but not like them. they balance each other so perfectly- as if they're your twin personas."

"that's deep."

"but it's true."

seungcheol chuckles and goes back to his newspaper. the morning air hits your face and you feel so much more alive than you'd normally do on a thursday morning. "when do you have to get to work?" he asks you.

"i still have about an hour and half left."

"will you go home and then-"

"yeah. the office is really close to my place, like a minute's walk. so i'll leave soon, don't worry-"

"you'll stay for breakfast." seungcheol says firmly. "the girls will want to see you before you leave."

and you can't turn that down. so you simply nod in agreement, carefully taking a look at the man sitting across you. seungcheol at home is so unimaginably different from seungcheol at court. if he's fire in the courtroom, then he's water at home. he's cold and practical in the real world, but with his daughters, he's the most gentle person you've met. something about the soft smile he gives when he indulges his girls. something about the way his eyes light up whenever they talk to him about anything, even if it's trivial. something about the way he's taken care of you since last night, not just giving you a shelter during a terrible night but also giving you so much warmth from his personal life. it's all made you see a completely different side to seungcheol than you'd met at the courtroom, and it's changed the way you've grown to see him completely.

now you know that seungcheol was not harsh to you that day at lunch, he was simply being realistic. his cockiness and arrogance is just self-confidence, it doesn't define who he is as a person. and he's still a man you can look up to and admit, without shame, to yourself that this is the ideal man in your eyes.

your phone pings right then, and you open it to see the mail that's arrived.

the cup of tea almost slips and falls from your hands as you jump up in your seat in joy. seungcheol looks up at you in alarm, "what happened?" your smile is bright, just like the sun this morning. "i have an emergency at work, i'll have to leave now! please say goodbye to sol and byul from my side!" and you rush into your room to change into your clothes from last night, still damp but at least cleaner, and you literally run out of the house, waving and thanking seungcheol again and again, leaving him very very confused indeed.

_

seungcheol feels incredibly at peace the next day when he walks into the courtroom. even though you'd disappeared suddenly like that without any explanation, he's quite sure that he's back in your good books. not that it matters much- because what really counts is how he's feeling about himself. and after many years, he's feeling good. the usual guilt that engulfs him as a whole every day as he wakes up to face a new morning, isn't bothering him. he feels like he's achieved something, he's done something right, and he's going to get better from now on.

but as soon as he pushes open the doors of the courtroom, he feels like he's missing something out. everyone on his side of the bench seems flustered as hell, papers rumpled and expressions distraught. but he doesn't get an opportunity to ask what's going on because you catch his attention first.

"seungcheol, can we talk for a second?"

"not right now, i have to talk to my team-"

"this is urgent. you'll want to hear this, i promise."

seungcheol lets out a long sigh as he takes in your words. there's a crisp confidence in your words today that intrigue him. "okay go ahead," he finally replies.

"in private, if you please." he follows you wordlessly out of the room, and you lead him out towards a small isolated office in the corner of the building, that's totally deserted. seungcheol leans back against the closed door, completely silent as he waits for you to settle your papers and finally look up at him.

"so what's this about? you wanna kiss me or someth-"

"you're going to lose the case today. i've found enough evidence to prove the absolute guilt of KNT, and the ceo will go to jail by the end of the court session today."

"you're bluffing me."

"i can show you the evidence, but i'd rather you'd see it in court."

"then why are you telling me this now? to pity me?" seungcheol's mouth fills with bile as a dread settles over him. the tables are turned- now he feels as rattled as he had seen you feel that day at lunch. what if you're being serious right now? what if you've actually found incriminating evidence? but he's gone through all potential sources of evidence with his client, left no stone unturned to hide all tracks-

"so that maybe you can step off the case in time. do you really want your daughters to find out you've been defending your client for so long knowing you're defending a criminal?"

seungcheol's heart skips a beat.

"do not bring them into this."

"i'm not bringing anyone into anything. this is just me being nice to you because i know what it feels like to be disappointed by someone you look up to."

"do you hear what you're saying, y/n?" he takes two steps closer to you. "this is borderline blackmail. i don't even know if you're bluffing or not, and you're already blackmailing me using my daughters. have you fallen to the same crude level i'm in? are you going to disappoint me like this?"

his words have the expected effect on you. he can see your cheeks flush pink. "seu-seungcheol, don't twist my words." you take a step back, your back straightening as he sees confidence seep back into your face.

"and maybe you should stop worrying about my morals and worry more about how badly you're going to lose the case. from next time, don't make rookie mistakes." your finals words, before you leave the room, ring in his ears and cause goosebumps to erupt all over his skin.

as soon as you're gone, seungcheol slams the desk in front of him, his brain running at a hundred miles an hour. what might have slipped from his sight? what might he have missed? he immediately calls the ceo of KNT enterprises.

"what have you been hiding from me?"

"oh? mr choi, what happened to greetings? good morning to yo-"

"nothing's good about today morning, mr kim. what have you been hiding from me? i'm not going to ask you again."

"nothing! i've bared my entire soul to you for the case."

"mr kim, there's a fresh piece of incriminating evidence that's been found, and i cannot do anything to stop mrs hwang's lawyer from submitting it to the court unless you tell me what it is exactly."

"mr choi, you're mistaken, there's nothing left to be wiped-"

"the first rule of a client and lawyer relationship," his voice is seething and snarky, volume rising with each word, "is that you should never lie to your lawyer." seungcheol knows if mr kim was in front of him right now, he'd be quaking in his shoes. he can imagine a similar situation on the other side of the phone too. he knows he's intimidating enough when he wants to be.

"i didn't think it would be important-"

"you're not the person to judge what's important and what's not, mr kim."

there's a sigh and the voice becomes shaky.

"there's an outstation branch..."

_

the case ends unceremoniously. there are no paparazzi waiting for you outside the courtroom, ready to capture your life's first win. there are no cameras flashing on you, no historic moments being documented, no crowds gathering to celebrate this win for the masses.

there's just seola's happy tears and a wildly beautiful feeling of victory in your heart as realisation ultimately sinks in for you. it's a clean win- the evidence showing unmatched proof of orders coming from KNT to mr hwang, detailing all sorts of illegal activities and even records of payments being made to mr hwang. it's really crazy how it's not been eradicated cleanly already by seungcheol. clearly, either he or his client had underestimated you.

but you'd proven them wrong.

yoona's the only who comes to see you outside the courtroom after the win. there's a bright smile on her face as she hugs you and congratulates you. seola promises that she's going to take you out on a treat right now. other colleagues from your workplace call you to congratulate you on the win.

and yet you feel empty.

seungcheol's gone. he hadn't come for the trial. he'd not been in the courtroom for the final statements, his aide quoting something about a family emergency. he'd run with his tail between his legs, ashamed of his failure and finally realising his stupidity. this thought should be giving you satisfaction, but surprisingly, it doesn't. it leaves you feeling empty, still wanting something even though you've won the case just now.

but there's no way to reach out to him. you don't even have his number for god's sake, and it would be awfully awkward to go to his house. and what would you say? that you missed seeing his sad face in court when the verdict was announced? that you wanted to see if he'd be proud of you for winning the case? that you wanted to impress him by beating him in the case cleanly without any dirty tricks? so you go to eat out with yoona and seola, and decide to stop thinking about seungcheol any further.

_

it's about seven in the evening when you make it back to your tiny flat in a shabby part of town, the house dark as you'd left it in the morning after rushing home from seungcheol's place. you smile to yourself when you unlock your home using the password on the door, thinking of how you'd been with seungcheol's adorable daughters last night, and how much fun you'd had with them.

your bag falls from your hand as you open the door.

"seungcheol?!" your voice is a shaky whisper, shocked to see him inside your house. "how the fuck did you get in?"

he's still wearing the suit he'd worn in the morning, and yet he looks divine in the dim reflection of lights from the world outside the window.

"your password's your birthday. got it on my first try."

"and how do you know my birthday?"

he takes a step closer, his body towering over yours. "shhh. it's called knowing your opponent."

there's something so oddly intimate about seeing him in your flat, in the shadows of your home. the street light illuminates one side of his face, and you can't breathe because of how gorgeous he looks.

"why do you know my birthday, seungcheol? really it's not going to help you in any way-"

"it did help me get into your house."

you lightly pick up the bag from on the floor next to you, and you walk past him. "which brings me back to the first question. why are you here?"

you're purposely avoiding his gaze, the intensity making you feel things. there's a plethora of emotions in your heart right now- finally the emptiness in your heart dissipates as you can feel yourself surrounded by seungcheol. you're taking off your blazer, untying your hair, walking over to the sink to wash your face... but you can't ignore the way you can feel seungcheol's eyes on your back. his heady scent clouds your senses, and you feel weak in your limbs. first he's intruding your house, and now your heart too?

"i have a question to ask you." he speaks after a long time, when you've finally cleaned up and taken out a cup of strawberry yoghurt from the refridgerator.

"you could've asked me on the phone." you lean back on a wall, putting yourself as far away from seungcheol as possible in your tiny flat. he's in the darkness, you're in the light, but you're still feeling small and vulnerable under his gaze.

"i couldn't. it's serious." he starts walking towards you.

"seungcheol, if this is about me trying to expose your shit, i'm not going t-" seungcheol puts his hand on your lips, pushing you against the wall.

"fuck that. this isn't about that."

you cock your eyebrow, mumbling against his hand, "then what is it about?"

seungcheol doesn't answer at once, his gaze continuing to pin you against the wall, and a hand comes around you to trap you between his bigger body and the wall. "seungcheol?"

"answer me honestly, okay?" his voice is raw, slightly wobbly, and you're getting more and more curious. you nod slowly, encouraging him to say whatever's on his mind. but he doesn't say anything. a few minutes pass just like that- or maybe an hour. his scent makes you dizzy, you can't think of anything but how his big figure is over you totally.

"when you said you looked up to me in college... i know i ruined that image. b- but... can you... fuck. wait. canyoueverforgiveme?"

"what?" you ask, confused at what he just said. he removes the hand from your mouth, standing even closer than before.

"can you ever forgive me? will you let me show you a better side of me? can i ever get in your good books again?"

your breath stops for a second. why does this matter for him? doesn't he already know the state he's left your heart in since last night- ever since he'd brought you into his car, he's already been promoted to your ideal man again.

"show me a better side of you? what do you mean, seungcheol?"

he sighs for a second, before straightening his posture, becoming impossibly even bigger.

"will you ever see me as a man, y/n?"

your knees almost give in. the fuck is his implying? are you dreaming this? is this a fever drea-

seungcheol leans in and kisses your cheek, close enough to your lips, his breath falling on your skin, and making your body tingle. "will you let me show you myself to you like this?" on instinct, you tilt your head away to give him more access, your body shivering with the intimacy. so he kisses your cheek again, closer yet to your lips, and you turn your head slightly to capture his lips, but he moves away.

"y/n, don't leave me hanging please. i know you might find this odd... but i've come to feel things for you that i didn't even know remained in me. you're an extraordinary woman, one of a kind. in all my life, i haven't met anyone like you. not even my ex-wife. you don't know this yet but you're the ideal image of perfection i've always thought of."

then he stops talking for a second, clearly expecting an answer from you. but your mind can't form words, not with the way you have tunnel vision on his face right now, your eyes drifting to his pretty cherry lips, to his long eyelashes, to the beautifully expressive eyes you've fantasised about since your college days.

"y/n, say something please." his voice is desperate, and you break out of your daze.

"you're my ideal man too, seungcheol. you have no idea for how long." there's a blush creeping on your cheeks, but in the dim yellow lighting, you can see an identical blush rise on his cheeks too. so you lean in and finally kiss his elusive lips, feeling the taste of his chapped but pretty lips on yours, feeling the way his body steps even closer to yours, one arm wrapping around your waist, pulling you to him, and your body melts as you feel the warmth from his body. the kisses slowly grow in pace, the momentum rising, as he kisses you more and more hungrily, his tongue entering your mouth too, as he begins to bite your lips and leaves you breathless and moaning just from a few kisses.

"god, rookie. you sure know how to kiss."

"i know how to do a lot of things, seungcheol." you know you're bad at dirty talk, you've never really succeeded at it during your few college experiences of sex. but somehow, seungcheol's eyes roll back at your words and you feel his heartbeat quicken up too. maybe it's working on him?

you try to test your hypothesis by gently wrapping your hands around his neck, slowly untying his tie, slipping it to the floor. once it's off, you rub your hands all over his chest, feeling the pure hard muscle flex under your muscles. his breathing is as hot and heavy as yours, and you slowly untuck his shirt from his pants, unbuttoning it carefully.

"must you torture me like this, y/n?" his eyes are glazed over, but you look up at him innocently. "what, seungcheol?" "fuck it, you're such a tease, princess." princess. he pushes you against the wall and kisses you again, one hand wrapped around your hair as he pulls you in, and another hand helping you unbutton his shirt and get it out of the way. seungcheol doesn't stop kissing you even when he begins to unbutton your own shirt, but his hands wander all over the skin he slowly unravels. it's like his own adventure mission, the gentle but urgent way he touches your skin, almost worshipping.

"you're so perfect, y/n." you whimper when he cups your breasts from over your simple black bra that does nothing to flaunt your tits, but somehow seungcheol's appreciating it all. are you really his perfect woman?

"do you mean it, seungcheol?" your voice is so weak, but it takes seungcheol aback. "what do you mean, y/n? you don't think i find you beautiful? is that why i've been dreaming about you every night these days? is that why you're always on my mind? is that why i died and came back from heaven last night when i saw you with my kids?" your breath hitches as he tilts your face to look at him. "you're the most perfect woman i've ever met, i told you. you've gotta believe me, y/n. or do i have to show you?"

"maybe, yes?"

he groans at your words, and his eyes become darker. "fuck, where's your bedroom, babe?"

_

seungcheol's touch is like moonlight caressing the ripples of a pond at midnight. a soft, gentle touch that lights up every inch of your skin that he touches. as the moonlight kisses the water and makes it ebb and flow with it, seungcheol's movements guide your body too. he's laying you out on a bed, his hands wandering all over your skin. as he takes in your figure, you let him, because he's making you feel so good. he kisses all over your body, your limbs tangling as you can't get enough of each other. seungcheol is all muscle, his hard planes flexing against your supple skin. he pins you against the headpost of your small double size bed, one hand wrapped around your waist, and the other caressing your breasts, making sure there's not even a single inch of your skin that's left untouched.

"did i tell you i think you're perfect?" his words are feverish, and leave you lost for words. so you can't reply to him, hoping he gets the way you feel about him too through your desperate whines and moans, pulling him closer if he puts even a hair's distance between your bodies. something about him being so big and engulfing your smaller stature is so hot, you can feel yourself getting aroused by the minute.

"seungcheol, i w- want to... touch you," you finally whisper out, and he pulls away from where he's been kissing your neck. "but you are?"

you shake your head and shove him lightly until he's on his back, and you're hovering above him. he's still wearing his pants while he's stripped you naked, so you do the honours for him. "what are you doing," his voice is strained. "want to touch you there," you focus on taking his trousers off until he's just in his underwear under you- his bulge quite obvious to you. if you weren't wet enough earlier, seeing the massive wet patch on his grey boxers leaves your own underwear soaked. is he this aroused because of you?

seungcheol seems to read your mind as he brings your face towards his own, whispering with hot breath, "do you see what you do to me, princess? got me wrecked and ruined." his confession is so raw, you lean in to kiss him again. as you do, your hand wraps around his clothed dick, and he groans into your mouth. "fuck fuck fuck," he curses as you begin to rub it softly. "i'm going to cum right now if you do that- babe, p-please!" he finally gets your hand off his dick, eyes large.

and then you giggle. something about seeing seungcheol so desperate triggers something off in you, makes you more determined to ruin him. so you pull off his boxers and take his erect, red cock straight into your mouth. seungcheol's body trembles with surprise, your name leaving his mouth in broken moans as he cannot take the pleasure of your mouth sucking him off in an excruciatingly slow speed. and you don't stop, even when his hand comes around the nape of your neck to keep you in place, even when you feel his entire body tense up with the imminent orgasm. you don't stop until he comes inside your mouth, spewing string after string of his hot seed, and you swallow it all. his breathing is laboured as he watches you lick off the last bits of the orgasm from his dick.

but your self-satisfaction of having the upper hand only lasts for so long. seungcheol's competitive side kicks in soon and he quickly flips over to pin you under him on the bed, his teeth nibbling at your chest, leaving pretty hickeys all over.

"let me return the favour, darling."

you don't know what he means right then by return the favour, but never in your wildest dreams, did you think it would include seungcheol burying his face into your cunt, his nose rubbing against your clit as his tongue laps up your wetness.

"fuck! no- seungcheol- pl-please, cheol!"

"do you want me to stop?" he asks you, his face barely moving up inches from your pussy to look into your eyes.

you hesitate before answering, so he softly kisses your stomach. "tell me, princess."

"i've never done this before..."

"what? sex?"

"no. oral. like no one's ever gone down on me before..."

and seungcheol doesn't waste another minute. he uses his teeth to push aside your panties and inserts his tongue right into your sloppy cunt, and you scream out his name. he doesn't go slow, and you don't want him to go slow. he's showing you all the stars in the sky, so you grab onto his hair to move his head back to a particularly good spot, and he moans incoherently when you tug at his locks. and within minutes, you're reaching your high, your screams getting stuck in your throat as you close your eyes and arch your back off the bed.

thankfully, seungcheol gets his face out of your cunt and hovers over you to take in your writhing figure under the impact of the orgasm.

"so how was your first experience?" he asks you when you finally open your eyes and look at him, his lips smeared with your essence and his body.

"heavenly," you whisper, before pulling him into you, and kissing him again. you can get drunk on his kisses. he's leaving your lips abused and raw, but when he's spitting into your mouth, you wrap your legs around his waist to pull him closer, feeling the toughness of his back muscles shift under your touch. this position ends up making his cock graze against your clit, and you jerk in overstimulation. but you can feel how hard he's getting with the kissing and the way your hands are tugging his hair. the heavy length rests on your stomach, and seungcheol pulls away.

"need to be inside you now, princess." his words have this rawness to them- long gone is the smooth-talker lawyer choi seungcheol. it takes several moments for you to process that you've caused him to descend to this desperation.

"do you have a condom?" he asks you.

"hmm, i do." you point towards the dresser next to your bed, and he casually bends away to take it out from the dresser. you're getting more turned on by his easy flexibility, and as soon as he's got the condom rolled on to his dick, you pull him for kisses again.

"patience, baby," he laughs, as he pulls away again after kissing you, to nudge the tip of his dick on your folds. "nooo, need you now. need your lips." "did my kisses break you?" "i think so," your voice is a whisper and he leans in to kiss you again, a beautiful smile showing off his dimples.

and then he's slowly pushing inside you, making you whine out his name as you feel him stretch you. it's not an easy fit, but his kisses make the pain easier to bear. when a tear escapes your eyes, he asks you, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, "is it very painful?" "not very but it's been a while." he leaves kisses on your hairline. "i'll be gentle, princess."

you grip his locks tighter, pulling his face away to make eye contact.

"you better not dare, choi seungcheol."

something breaks in him. his hips begin to move faster, as he pushes your hands above your head, holding them as if handcuffed, and he's biting hickeys all over your neck. he's thrusting harder now, and your second-hand bed is already making noises. but it seems to arouse you more for some reason. something about him shaking everything around you and moulding you and everything about you to him makes you want him more.

you can't stop moaning his name, as he whispers into your ear, "i can feel how close you are baby. can feel your cunt clenching around me." "pl-please, cheol. need you more, please!" "more? faster?" you nod feverishly, and he pulls away, biting his bottom lip in concentration, one hand gripping the bed, and the other your leg around his waist, as he fucks into you.

you take in his full form, towering over you like adonis. beads of sweat falling down his pecs and his hair falling into his eyes. the sight is so beautiful that you cum right then, even as seungcheol fucks you through the orgasm.

you can feel that he's close, his dick twitching inside you, as he's making your eyes roll back. even after one orgasm, he keeps fucking you. "give me one more, baby. cum with me." and then he shifts one hand to rub your clit, and you moan under the additional touch. the last straw is when you clench around him so hard that he lets out a strangled moan and reaches his climax too. you can feel the condom become warmer, and you tremble all over as you cum again because of that sensation.

when your eyes open again, seungcheol's pulled out from you, but he sneakily lets in a finger in between your folds and licks it clean.

"seungcheol?" your broken whisper makes him look up at you.

he smirks. "you taste like nectar, baby."

_

seungcheol's insomnia doesn't let him get a full night's sleep on most nights. if he's lucky, he'll sleep for four hours at once, dreamless rest that leaves him fully charged for the next day. on other days, he'll stare into the night sky for hours, sleep eluding him. some nights he'll go to his daughters' room, and watch them sleep, his heart filling up with a warmth that's comforting like chicken soup. on other nights, he'll open his laptop, put on his glasses and finish his case files.

everyone wonders how seungcheol is so efficient at his profession. only he knows why.

but ever since you've come into his life, everything's changed.

he can no longer focus on work. he's distracted, making silly typing errors and forgetting details. but he's sleeping the best ever in a long time. he doesn't remember when was the last time he'd slept this well. it must've been before the fights had started with his ex-wife.

today, seungcheol sleeps for eight hours straight.

and he knows why.

it's because he's wrapped around you, your body melting into his under the duvet. your head's resting on his arm, but his arm doesn't hurt at all. your hair shines with the sunlight streaming in through the gaps between the curtains, but you sleep through the slight pouring into your eyes. you look particularly angelic today morning, and he feels his entire being shiver with the new-found affection for you.

you're his.

finally.

well, hopefully.

jeonghan had told him yesterday when he'd told him about his feelings for you, you've not been turned down until you've been turned down. so shoot your shot.

and oh, he had shot his shot. shot it too fast in fact. the clarity of the morning makes him suddenly worry if going straight into your bed last night had been too quick and you'll think poorly of him now. then there's the worry about you going to sleep without eating dinner last night- what if you wake up angry? another worry crops in his head as he realises it's a saturday. he doesn't have to go to work today, but you might have to. what if you get upset at him for not waking you up on time? the warm, glorious light in seungcheol's heart dims slightly as he realises you have so many reasons to turn him down.

so he lightly shakes you, whispering your name in your ear, until he feels you whisper out a soft five minutes. it makes his heart melt again, but he's more worried about you missing a work day.

"wake up, princess, you're going to be late."

as if hearing a magic word, you jolt awake, staring right into his eyes.

"late?! what's the time? fuck, it's nine-thirty!"

"it's saturday though. do you have work today?"

and then you fall back on his arm with a huff.

"saturday! of course i don't have work today. why did you wake me up!" you whine and turn around so that you're now snuggled into seungcheol's bare chest, your hair only slightly tickling him. the warm light in his heart shines bright again as he feels you cling to him.

"i didn't know if you work on saturday or not." seungcheol leaves a kiss in your hair, and you let out a satisfied sigh.

"now you know. never forget, okay? never wake me up on weekends."

never forget.

"i won't." another kiss in your hair. another sigh that makes his chest buzz. another kiss. and then you open one eye to peer at him, and he smiles at your cuteness. so there's another kiss, and then another, and then-

"stop!" you move out of his arms, giggling, your eyes finally open.

"i can't. you're too cute."

"shhhh!" you lean in to kiss him on the mouth, a gentle peck, and seungcheol takes the opportunity to wrap you in his arms again. "don't go far away." he's more serious that his tone implies, but somehow you realise that too. so you snuggle in closer, your head almost on his chest now. "i won't."

after a few long minutes of you being still in his arms, and him smelling your scent through your hair, you finally shuffle and pull him down so that his head is now resting on the pillow and you're resting your head on your palm, perched on the pillow using your elbow as support, looking down at him with clear fondness in your eyes.

"you're very romantic today, mr choi."

"do you not like it?"

"no. on the contrary, i love it."

at your words, he smiles, and you let out a fake gasp. "the rabbit has dimples!" and you attack his face with kisses, leaving him giggly and blushing as you smother him with love.

when you're finally done, he pulls your face in for a kiss and then you go back to your position to look at him from above.

"come lie down next to me."

"no this view is prettier."

seungcheol scoffs, hiding the way his heart is racing with your words. it's been years since anything barely romantic- a few dates here and there. but this is teenage seungcheol again, falling head over heels for a girl with a pretty smile and a cute way of speaking her mind.

"this view is the prettiest," he says and he's rewarded with your pretty smile again. so he spends a minute staring at the view, taking in your beauty.

you've not been turned down until you've been turned down. so shoot your shot. somehow jeonghan's nagging voice comes up in his head again and makes him remember that he's yet to ask you properly.

so he counts to three and says it.

"i like you, y/n. a lot. as i told you last night."

a strawberry latte blush taints your cheeks.

"and as i told you last night, you're pretty much my dream man, seungcheol. i've been crushing on you since my freshman year."

well that was easy.

"that long?" seungcheol feels his confidence cruise back, a smirk on his lips.

"don't laugh at me."

"i'm not. it's just unbelievable that you liked me back then. i wasn't even well off back then."

"who even cares about that! you were confident, manly, intelligent and passionate about your work. and so, so handsome. how could anyone not like you?"

"am i not handsome now?"

"of course you are, silly. that's why i still like you." you roll your eyes, as if it's so obvious. "i couldn't even date guys for a long time because i kept comparing them to you in my mind."

seungcheol's eyes go wide. "wait, really? that's kinda sad."

you laugh. "maybe, but who cares? none of them were nice in the end. that's why i kept going back to crushing on you." you lean in to kiss the mole on his cheek.

"how long has it been since your last relationship?"

"hmmm, about seven months? broke up before i graduated."

"and sex?" he hopes you can't see the way he's holding back his breath as you answer. "about a year."

and then he lets out his breath.

"and you?" you ask him, running your fingers through his hair.

he hesitates before replying. "nine years," his voice is weak.

and then you do what he's been fearing for so long.

you laugh.

"wow. that's like... that is long." but your expression changes into a serious one soon. "but you haven't lost any of your technique yet. so it's a win in my books. i don't even have to be jealous of anyone else. who was your last lucky lady?"

"my ex-wife." seungcheol winces as he mentally prepares himself for all the reasons you might turn him down.

but you don't. your serious expression remains even as you're surprised. "you were married? is she the mother of sol and byul?"

"yeah."

you nod your head slowly, digesting the information. after a second you say, "i can't fathom why anyone would leave you and your two perfect little girls."

seungcheol's smile turns bitter. "she did. but it doesn't matter. she's found a better life now, after moving away to the US with her new husband. and i've found a better life too, moving away from her."

you nod again. "you're very brave, cheol." and you kiss his cheek again, and seungcheol's heart swells at how maturely you've handled this conversation. but there's yet more reasons for you to reject him.

when you pull away to look at him again, you softly ask him, "are your daughters okay with the idea of you dating again?" dating. there are tingles all over seungcheol's body as you finally quash all worries from his mind. "i haven't explicitly discussed this with them," he says with some hesitation. "that being said, i think they like you a lot. you made a very strong first impression. and trust me, for ten year olds as stubborn as mine, a first impression is all that matters."

"they're just like you," you giggle, your hand fondly cupping his cheek. "but seriously. they like me as a friend... as your colleague. what if they don't like me as your... girlfriend?"

girlfriend. seungcheol wants to flip you down on the bed and make love to you all over again, but he resists his urge. he settles for wrapping his hand around your hips and caressing them. "they'll love you, princess. they've longed for a mother figure for long enough." after a pause he says, "i'm worried they'll not see you as a mother figure but as a sister."

you burst out laughing. "what?!"

"i'm much older than you, y/n."

"so?"

"i'm thirty-six, y/n."

"that's not old. i'm twenty-three."

seungcheol chokes on his own words. "exactly. i'm literally old enough to be your father, y/n."

"well, you'd have to become a father really really early then," you say, laughing.

"y/n, be serious."

"i am being serious. i've met men who're twenty but act like they're forty. what really matters is what you've got here-" and you poke at his chest where his heart's supposed to be.

"i'm going to die thirteen years before you!"

"darling, i don't think that's how death works."

darling. seungcheol's heart hammers against his chest as he pulls you in for a deep kiss. and then you pull away from him. "you're a dilf, seungcheol. that's like 80% of why i'm attracted to you. bet i wouldn't be attracted to twenty-three year old you." there's a teasing glint in your eyes, but seungcheol still whines as he feels upset at your teasing words. "babyyyy!" you laugh at his deepening pout, and lean in to kiss his pout in a peck, before getting out of bed.

seungcheol's mouth falls open as he takes in your soft curves which look even more alluring in the daylight. something about the way your ass sways as you walk makes his dick twitch in interest, but seungcheol curses himself. he can't be thirty-six and this hormonal, for fucks' sake.

you open the closet door to pull out a loose t-shirt and shorts, wearing them without any underwear. "do you want to stay for breakfast?"

a lazy grin spreads on seungcheol's face as he stretches his body in bed, relishing the way you ogle his stretching biceps, and he casually pushes the blanket away from his hips to reveal his toned stomach to you too.

"i want to stay for the rest of my life, rookie."

he's left with no doubt of reciprocation of his feeling as he sees the blush on your face as you hide and run from him at his cheesy words.

[elllisaaa]

imagine you're breastfeeding your baby and Sunghoon gets jealous and starts feeding on you too 🫦 Sunghoon with a mommy kink omg 🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐

i'm not really comfortable with writting about lactation, i'm sorry but mommy kink on the other hand...

SUNGHOON who has a MOMMY KINK means that he's literally obsessed with being good for you, with pleasing you and making you proud of him. you can ask him to do anything and he's gonna do it, even if it's humiliating, because as long as it makes you happy, he is too.

"hoonie ? where are you ?" - "in the bedroom, i'm folding some laundry." as soon as you cross the door, sunghoon turns to you and his jaw falls slack as he's met by the sight of your already almost naked figure in front of him. "put all of that away baby, i had a long day at work, i need you." and sunghoon doesn't need more than that to throw all the clothes to the floor. you giggle at his eagerness but you love it.

you push him by his shoulders to lay down on the bed, immediately getting on top of him. "you're gonna let me ride you hoonie ?" - "fuck, yes baby, use me." these are the words you want to hear. you reward him with a passionate kiss, shoving your tongue down his throat as your hands go south to unbuckle his belt and pull down his clothes enough to free his already hard cock. "you're always ready for me, baby. it's cute." you look at the way sunghoon's cheeks grow red immediately. he feels a little embarrassed at how easily you turn him on, but seeing how quickly you push your underwear to the side and sink down on his cock, maybe that's not a bad thing.

"fuck ! you're such a good boy, feeling so good inside of me hoonie." but sunghoon is already too far gone to answer, your pussy always sending him into overdrive. he's only able to moan out your name as you move on top of him. "come on, baby. you already forgot how to talk ? am i that good ?" - "y-yes, mommy… always perfect, love your pussy." a smile takes over your features at the nickname. you thrive for the moment he's calling you that, for the moment he's so gone that he doesn't even feel the shame his words bring him in a normal state.

"yeah ? you love when mommy's riding you ?" sunghoon nods as best as he can, trying not to bust his load already because he wants to be good for you, to please you. a string of whines and whimpers escapes his lips as you sink up and down on him. "i'm close… mommy, please." - "think you deserve to cum this soon, baby ?" tears gather in his eyes as he stares up at you, gaze filled with lust and desperation written all over his face. "please, please ! i've been so good for you, mommy…" he's so cute like that, you cannot resist him. "mmh, yeah, you've been such a good boy. go on, hoonie, cum inside of me."

the loud moan sunghoon lets out as he shoots his load is enough to make you even more wet, if that's even possible. but even as he drops down on the bed, spent and exhausted, you still move your hips, his cock still hard inside of you. "ah ! n-no more, please… 'm too sensitive !" you smirk as you pin his wrists down so that he cannot stop you from dropping down on him again, relishing in the way he's squirming around and crying out. "my sweet baby, you can give me one more, right ? you want to be good for me, right ?" sunghoon is quick to nod at you again, and maybe he should be embarrassed of the effect you have on him, but he feels too good to care. "i'm gonna be good mommy, it's all i want." you smile and kiss him again, ready to give him whatever he wanted when he called you that.

[yakichoufd]

Is it weird that I don't feel excited for the Deadpool and Wolverine movie?

I feel like X-Men 97 already scratched that X-Men itch and obsession in my head. Plus I feel satisfied with artists like you making Wolverine polycule fanart and fancomics.

Is something wrong with my head???

I think your feelings are valid cause you don't need to watch something else if you already feel satisfied. I am hype for that movie because I enjoyed the first two Deadpool movies. I am not expecting to fall in love of Logan there, or the other x-men we might see. I am expecting to watch a ridiculous movie with silly jokes and funny action scenes. I am hoping Scott will have a cameo but I think it won't happen. I've never been a super fan of Logan movies. He is fun and interesting (plus the actor is very handsome so my eyes are always happy when he is on screen), but his big lone wolf energy was a bit too much for me. Maybe he is too handsome and awesome and in the animated serie, he is a grumpy short king who has a lot to say and his lone wolf personnality seems more understandable to me. I really enjoy how unhinged he is in the 92 show and how he was in 97. It satisfies me a lot. I think you can take whatever please you in any adaptation and play around that. You don't need to enjoy every new adaptation from a franchise you like. There are some X-men comics where I find Scott really boring and not interesting at all. I enjoy very specifics things about him and therefore it makes me very picky about how he is portrayed. I still think I am a fan. I am a picky fan, but a fan regardless. Even if I mostly know the animated shows. I am tired of that childish fight "Oh I am a better fan cause I read the comics!" it is not a competition lmao! Enjoy whatever you want!! I personnaly read the comics cause I want more Scott content. That's my personnal reason. I want to know everything about him haha! I think we are many to be tired of the Jean/Scott/Logan drama ( where they are rivals instead of lovers) cause that rivality, usually, has a layer of misogyny and sexism. Jean is the prize and the 2 males love interests can't think straight and have to claim her. As if Jean has no choice but to accept the one who fight the hardest. I'm sorry but that is really stupid, and not how feelings work imo. That kind of relationship is based on something so weak, it will break at the first issue they would meet . I personnaly find that kind of writting insulting for every character involved, and it breaks the sincerity and depth of the romance. It removes all kind of feelings, character development and personnalities. It makes them so immature too. The polycule road on the other hand shows they could build something different. They could break the rules and be free to make their own. And as mutants, they don't care about humans society stupid rules. The can write what works for them and gain maturity over their relationship and sexuality. I am not saying every couples have to become a polycule to be mature. But for Scott, Jean and Logan it seems like a better fit for them. They can still act silly and fight over randoms things, but removing that very unhealthy incomplete love triangle and make it an actual love triangle, where each individual have romantic feelings for each other is better for them imo.

[infamous-if]

I'm sorry if this is weird (and I hope is not offensive, bc is definitely not my intention!!) but I'm so glad you're "free" of the first chapters??? lol I think this is so weird to say, but I guess writting then rewritting something (and with chapter 2 doing this over and over again) must be something that really takes a toll, I can only imagine that, so I'm super happy that you are progressing with the story and can write "new" stuff :>

(Again, I'm sorry if this sounds rude or anything, is really not my intention :<)

It's not offensive at all because I AGREE! I've grown tired of the first couple of chapters of this demo even though it's entirely on me lmao I've never reread and reread and reread something more than I did with prologue-chapter 2

Of course I'm still fixing the errors/bugs in the demo but I feel like that's a hell of a lot better than having to write those chapters again lmao

Plus outlining 4 and 5 together is really exciting! I'm really excited to work on the second-week Challenge hehehe. No one has "guessed" what it is so far but people have been close!

[moonydustx]

Hey!

I loved your story about the one piece boys and pregnant reader so much! Could you pretty pretty please write something to Law and Kid with the same plot? If you want, of course, and when you have time <3

Loved your writting, really!

hey hey! It took a while, but I arrived with your request :) In fact, as we already have Law's version, I brought the second part of that story. I really rlly hope you like it and thank you very much for all your support and requests <3

one piece masterlist

Warnings are place individually in each story.

*in both we have a brief smut (there are no descriptions or explicit content). Please stay alert and of course, minors do not interact.

Eustass Kid

warnings: Kid alone is a big warning. Brief mention of smut at the beginning, use of safe words, violence. But as always in this series, fluff with a happy ending. Killer is mentioned a lot in this one because, for me, there is no Kid without Killer and also the opposite (they are so good, I love this duo)

Your legs hung on his shoulders, the sweat between the two of you mixing each time he thrust deeper into you. Kid's grunts filled the entire void in the room, however, your mind wasn't there. It was more precisely under your bed, in a small box of things that you didn't use that often and therefore, it was the perfect hiding place.

"My fucking good girl, taking me so good." his teeth found the side of your leg, biting not so gently.

"Kid." you tried to stop him, it wasn't so good to have him there when your own mind couldn't even be there.

"You fucking needy, huh? I'm going to fill you up, make you stuffed with…"

"Red… Kid, please red." the safe word reached Kid's ears and immediately your legs found the bed back, his head almost hanging trying to understand what had happened.

For a brief second, the only thing the two of you were able to do was stare at each other. Him, waiting for you to explain what had happened while you - or at least a scared part within you - waited for an angry version of him.

"Did I hurt you? What happened?" he tried to reach you, but you were already sitting up and shrinking between the sheets. "Do you need me to ask for help? Do you want me to get out of here?" You had never reached the point of needing to stop the act like this, still, such kindness and concern were the last things you expected to receive from your boyfriend. You expected maybe a little silence, or him asking something like why you stopped. In fact, it was a somewhat different situation for both of them.

"Can you get my clothes, please?" you asked and watched him do it immediately.

As you got dressed, you watched Kid do the same, but he always took a few seconds to look at you, making sure you were okay. As soon as the last piece of clothing found your body, you reached under the bed and pulled out the tests hidden there. It didn't take long for the bed next to you to sink.

"I'm sorry I stopped you like that." you asked, staring at the tests and avoiding your boyfriend's eyes. "But we have to talk. I can barely look you in the face and hide this from you."

"What is that?"

"Pregnancy tests." you passed it to him, your eyes still locked on the ground below you. "All positive, Tass, I'm pregnant."

The silence in the room seemed to last forever. Enough eternity for you to think that maybe Kid was plotting a way to get you out of there. It wasn't until his laugh reached you that you could look at him. One hand holding the tests steady and the other covering his own face, while he laughed.

"I do not believe that." he said through laughter, standing up. "I'm going to be a dad, can you believe that? I need to tell the guys."

"Kid?" You stood up and watched him leave the room euphorically.

Before you could get caught up in fear and insecurity or before Kid had even had time to cross the hallway, you saw him coming back through the door. The arms - the arm and the metal prosthesis in this case - lifted you from the ground, covering your lips with his red ones.

"I love you so much." he stole a few more kisses, while you were still trying to process what was happening. "I love you! You're going to be a mom and I'm going to be a dad. Isn't that great? A little brat of ours?"

"Serious?" your excited voice was already joining his, a huge weight lifted from your shoulders.

"Come on, we need to celebrate."

If you didn't expect Kid to accept the pregnancy so easily, you expected even less to become a little puppet to reassure him. It didn't take long for the others to realize how much the captain was even more attached to you. Taking you out of activities, always leaving someone on your trail - which most of the time was himself. Killer was the first to realize he could use this to the entire crew's advantage.

You watched Kid shout something almost intelligible to other companions, the only thing you could point out was that his mood wasn't the best at the moment.

"Excuse me." Killer's voice startled you, appearing behind you. "Can you lend me your and the baby's presence?"

"What do you mean lend?" Instead of answering you, he guided you by his shoulders until he stopped you next to Kid. Sneaking up behind the two of you, Killer managed to leave you almost glued to the captain and it was only seconds before he threw one of his arms around you.

"I didn't see you arrive darling, how are you?" different from the shouts you heard, Kid said in a much calmer voice.

"I am great, what about you?"

"Just sorting some things out." he answered you and then turned to the others. "That's it, we need to catch that idiot and solve this problem once and for all." it was like watching another Kid talk, without shouting or rudeness.

The next time, all it took was an indication from Kid's first mate for you to end up next to the captain, or on his lap, or making some minimal physical contact. It was as if Kid's hard shell melted with your every touch. When the baby started to appear more in your womb, it became even worse. It was like your belly was his little stress ball, but seeing him calm was something you wouldn't complain about.

You wish you could go back to the past and understand what Kid's arrival into the world was like. After all, the arrival of your baby was being turbulent. A huge storm was shaking the ship, practically no doctors on board or supplies and a baby who decided to arrive a few days ahead of schedule. You could only think if when your boyfriend arrived into the world, it was the same way. With one last scream and almost tearing off Kid's remaining hand, little Vicky came into the world. Reddish hair and a cry as imposing as the screams and orders that the girl's own father always gave.

"A little girl, Kid." you spoke in a low tone, placing her in your arms. Next to you, you watched your boyfriend, still perplexed by everything he had seen. "Our little girl."

“I-I…” Uncharacteristically, you saw the words trail out of his mouth, lost in some ecstasy you had never seen. "She's so tiny, so fragile… so beautiful." the last part was nothing more than a small whisper.

"Do you want to hold her?" your question seemed to pull him back to reality, fear appeared on Kid's face, making it easier for you to understand what was stopping him. "I will help you."

"Are you sure, I mean…" he began, eyes going straight to the metal arm. "Won't it hurt?"

"Let me help you."

Holding the baby in one of your arms, you took the sheet next to you and folded it in parts, forming a small padded rectangle. When you handed it to Kid he immediately placed it against the metal arm and sat on the edge of the bed, next to you. Carefully, you placed the girl in his arm and watched him.

For a while, you saw Kid just analyzing, attentive eyes roaming over the newborn baby. Soon, a smile adorned his red lips and the hand - the one that originally belonged to him - touched the girl's cheek and soon allowed her little fingers to attach themselves to just one of his fingers.

"You look like a doll. A perfect little doll." he said without even taking his eyes off the child.

You didn't need much to know that the minutes he spent in silence, just contemplating the girl were actually filled with promises, in an almost mental transmission between the two. Something that maybe one day, you would discover what it was.

"I promise to take care of you forever, buddy. And I promise to be your friend too, well, they say parents should be friends with their children and I want to be your friend. Your mother will also be a great friend and you will love everyone and of course, they'll be drooling over you… Wow! You're beautiful. It's the most beautiful thing your mother and I could have done."

With each passing day, Vicky became even more like her father. You thought the similarities would only be in the reddish hair. When you least expected it, she was already walking up and down with him, spending hours in the workshop and bringing back some crazy inventions that she and Kid had wasted hours making. As a result, she became a shadow of Killer too - according to Vicky, she was his best friend, just like he and his father were. It was when she said she was going to make a metal arm that you and Kid - begrudgingly - had to stop her. Maybe she shouldn't look so much like her own father.

The clock already indicated that lunch time had passed hours ago and you hadn't seen any sign of the two red hairs that completed your existence. After gutting the ship, you found the two of them piled up in your room. Next to them, some of your and Kid's makeup. The typical red color of his lips had been replaced by pink, along with some glitter-filled blue eyeliner.

"What's going on here?" you closed the bedroom door, trying to avoid laughing when Vicky turned to you and you saw her wearing a much more chaotic version of the makeup on Kid's face.

"Daddy said I could get him some makeup. He'll look really nice."

"See, love? I'm going to be the handsome one in this relationship." this time it was almost inevitable not to laugh. "I think your mommy wants to put on some makeup too."

"Can we save this for later? It's lunch time." you warned and saw that they both remained standing still, a pretentious smile on each of their faces.

"Just today, mommy, pleeeease." Vicky asked, with bright eyes in your direction.

"Yeah, just today mommy." Kid repeated in a much more cynical tone, patting the ground next to him. "Sit here."

Without complaining - not that you had much room for it when those two asked you for something - you sat down next to Kid and Vicky immediately jumped into your lap. Her colorful fingers were responsible for part of the makeup, while Kid took advantage of the opportunity to paint you awkwardly too, exchanging ideas with his daughter.

As with all other things, Vicky had also inherited Kid's sense of fighting. A small part of him had become more cautious after the girl became part of the cew, a small part. This did not prevent him from retaliating against any threat of attack on his group.

When you heard the sound of gunfire in the distance, you knew something was wrong. The screams coming from the direction of the ship caught your and Killer's attention, who had disembarked in search of useful information for your journey. Almost connectedly, the two of you started running back to the ship, one thing on your mind.

Upon reaching Victoria Punk, you saw that most of the fight had been resolved - and thank whatever kind of god you could thank, almost all of it was enemies arranged on the ground. Your eyes, however, couldn't find the person you were looking for most.

"Where's Vicky?" Your scream attracted the attentive looks of your companions. Your eyes immediately searched for Kid's, who understood your concern.

"I want everyone hunting my daughter on this boat now!" Kid shouted and everyone immediately started circling Victoria Punk.

"Kid, what if…"

"They wouldn't leave here with her." he reassured you before you could even bring up your concerns. "They didn't leave here with her." he repeated, but this time it just sounded like he wanted to believe the words he had said.

"I found her!" you barely had time to recognize the voice that called you when you took off running in the direction of what you had heard.

If you looked to the side, you would find Kid and a few other companions running to the same place, almost as worried as you were.

"This was already here when I arrived." Heat warned as you were the first to enter the small room.

Vicky was standing next to him, one hand holding her wrist. Behind her, two bodies piled up, grunting in pain.

"What happened, my dear?" you leaned down to look her in the eyes. Relief hit you when you saw that in her expression, there was nothing but tranquility.

"My redhead" Kid bent down next to you, unlike the gentleness you had used, he already bent down checking every inch of the girl. The air in the room almost dissolved when he located the slightly marked fist. "What happened?"

"They said I would be a good bargain." She spoke with a smile, intriguing you both. "And then I did what Uncle Killer taught."

"What did he teach you?" You looked between her and the man who had just arrived.

"Knees, private parts, eyes and private parts again." she simulated the blows. "Oh, that one held me." she pointed to one of the fallen men. "And then I remembered private parts again." she simulated another kick.

The silence that followed was soon infected by Killer's loud - and genuine - laughter, soon followed by Vicky and Kid. Surely the two were already teaching the girl how to defend herself and this time, you were relieved that you hadn't won the argument with Kid when they brought up the subject the first time.

"You're awesome, baby." Kid squeezed her in a crushing hug, watching his daughter groan and try to free herself. As soon as he released the girl, Vicky lay on his shoulder. "What is wrong?"

"I'm just a little tired." she explained and he nodded, before making the decision.

"What do you think, you and your mommy go ahead and I'll find you two soon. We can rest for the rest of the day." he proposed and felt her nod.

"Actually… Killer, can you take her?" you stood up and saw Kid do the same, the girl tied to him "I have a few things to take care of, but I'll catch up with you soon."

"Leave it to me!" Killer promptly bent down and turned his back, giving the girl space and height to jump on his shoulders. "Ready?"

"Uncle Kill, instead of resting, can we make hot chocolate?" "Yes" "With marshmallows?" "For sure." "And chocolate balls?" "Your mother is going to kill me… but yes!"

Their voices began to become increasingly distant, as did the small murmur of the other companions. Once you and Kid were alone, a simple exchange of glances was enough for him to understand what you meant. Passing through the space he gave you, you bent down and picked up the man who Vicky had directly pointed out as the main cause of trouble for her.

"Hello dear bastard." with fake care, you patted his shoulder a few times. "Ready to say what you want to my daughter?"

"That stupid brat" your fist found his face, sinking him into the ground again.

"Wrong answer. Shall we go again?"

Kid watched the scene with a sadistic smile on his lips and one foot on top of the other man, preventing him from interfering in his activities. If they messed with him, that was fine, but it was better if they didn't mess with his girls.

Law - Part 2

you can see part 01 here

warnings: a little bit angst, a looot of fluff. mentions of common pregnancy problems (such as nausea, dizziness). At first, a jealous and insecure Rosi with the appearance of a brother or sister, but spoiler alert, they become best friends. And again, Law is such a great dad. Mention of the Straw Hats (mentions of Robin x Franky), brief discussions, but as always, a happy ending, very brief smut at the end (again, nothing explicit) (I should have taken a little more time to write this second part more carefully).

When the news reached Rosi about her being promoted to big sister, you and Law could see the girl filled with doubts. What do you mean big sister? When would this sibiling arrive? Why would arrive? Her critical and curious sense were directly derived from Law and you couldn't find it more adorable. It was like watching two versions of him - at different ages and heights - arguing. Law trying to explain how a sibiling would reach you and Rosi with questions and more questions that left him in a tight spot to explain how babies were made.

For the first week, everything seemed to go well. Despite the barrage of questions, you could both see the girl being genuinely curious and excited for the arrival of another member of the family. You saw the happy questions turn into a more serious doubt the first time she saw you feeling sick, being helped by Bepo. The second time, she followed you and Law into the bathroom, opening the door and seeing him holding you while you were leaning over the toilet.

"Mommy?" the thin voice, no louder than a whisper reached you both, immediately, you tried to demonstrate the best expression possible. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I am my sweetie." with Law's help, you stood up and leaned against the sink, washing your face. "I'm just a little sick."

"Daddy, aren't you going to give mommy any medicine?"

"That's normal, princess. Remember we said that some things would change while your brother or sister didn't arrive? Because of that, mom will get a little sick sometimes."

The girl just nodded and remained there at the door, both you and Law knew it was impossible to get her out of there. It didn't take long for the two of you to realize that your explanation wasn't enough for the girl to understand. This hit you both when you noticed her asking less and less about the baby that would arrive in months, or her becoming more and more attached to you, practically claiming that you were her mother and exclusively hers.

"Take it mom." she pushed her plate of fruit towards you, while the three of you drank coffee at the table.

"No need honey, I don't want to eat right now, but thank you very much." You smiled in her direction and saw her insist, with a discouraged face.

"Mommy?"

"What is it, my little one?"

"Can't we send this baby away?" she spoke naturally, you watched Law place the coffee mug against the table and analyze his daughter from afar, waiting for an answer. "I don't want to have a sibiling anymore."

"Why do you say that, Rosi?" Law's tone was more serious, while you just looked at what the girl had to say to you.

"Because I want him to go away, just get away from Mommy." the girl's voice became louder and even angry. "I already hate him."

"Rosi!" this time it was Law's voice that had raised a tone, much more serious than the girl had ever seen in the few years of her life. "Apologize to your mother now."

"No."

"Everything is fine." you interrupted the two and saw her eyes full of tears towards Law, who looked stunned.

You didn't need much to know that even he didn't expect such a reaction from himself. Rosi pushed the plate away and left the table, her feet stamping firmly against the floor. You and Law tried to call her, he was much calmer this time, but it seemed to be in vain.

"What the fuck did I do?" Law murmured to you, seeking affection as he nuzzled against your neck. "Why did I scream?"

"Babe, I've seen you yelling and swearing so many times, that was barely saying it out loud. I just think you're weirded out because we never have to do that." You took his hand, placing a quick kiss. "I think there are a lot of changes in her head, it's normal for her to feel lost."

You watched him take his face away from you and give a light laugh, followed by a wave that seemed to want to get the thoughts out of his head. Your look indicated that he wasn't going to leave without telling you what was interesting that had crossed his mind.

"Now that you say that, I clearly remembered a day when my mother was still waiting for my little sister." This explained why he was reluctant to voice such a thought. "I remember I asked if we could exchange it for Sora's new collection." he laughed weakly, once again tormented by the longing and distant memory of what it was like to have a sister, even if for a short time. "I should go talk to her, shouldn't I?"

"It would be amazing if you did."

He tried. He tried to talk to her, get to her, but Rosi made it clear with her little genius that at that moment, she didn't want to talk to her own father. The day practically passed with him hunting for her and without any answers. It was only when night fell that he could hear three light knocks on the door of his small office.

"Dad?"

"Hi, my princess." Law took his attention away from the book and turned to Rosi, standing at the door. Her eyes were redder than the last time he had seen the girl. "Are you sleepless?"

"I wanted to talk to you… Can you stay with me for a little while?"

Instead of responding in words, Law just closed the book and headed towards the door, ignoring Rosi's giggles and grumbles as he threw her over his shoulder.

"Um, where are we going?" he turned her around on purpose, he didn't really care that his daughter's laughter might wake someone up. The girl had already been too stressed that day.

"Daddy! To my room." he turned her around again and placed her on the floor, the girl was still panting from both the gyrations and his laughter. "Come with me."

She pulled him by the hand and the two crossed the hallway in silence, only their footsteps echoing off the metal walls. Law was surprised to enter the room and find you already sitting on the bed.

"I called mom too." Rosi guided Law to sit next to her.

Automatically, he placed a kiss on the top of your head and sat down, watching Rosi step in front of the two of you. You watched the girl take a few deep breaths, her hands clasping together in anxiety.

"Rosi, what's going on?" you called her and saw her stop, collecting the concentration she was missing.

"I know I was rude to you, mom, I'm sorry. But I'm worried." She began to speak, approaching the two of you.

You could see a certain insecurity in the way Rosi looked at you and then at Law, as if the words were too difficult to bring awareness to both of you.

"I don't want to have a little brother anymore, I know I said it would be cool, but I don't want it anymore" she said emphatically, waiting for a reaction from the two of you. Unlike earlier, her voice this time had no anger, just choked and low. The only thing you and Law could do was look at each other and turn your attention to Rosi.

"Why don't you want more?" Law started and you opened your arms, giving Rosi space and freedom to come and snuggle into you.

"The baby is hurting you, mommy. Today daddy had to help you and the other day it was Bepo." Her eyes shone with a few tears. Damn, your own eyes were already burning knowing that she was worried about that. "I don't want another little brother or sister if they're going to hurt you."

The idea that had crossed your mind, of how difficult it would be for her to understand the appearance of someone who would share the little world of the three of you with her, became even clearer after the girl's concern. Without thinking much, you squeezed her tightly, showering the little girl with kisses.

Little promises that everything was okay came out of you as you squeezed her while Law watched. At the same time that he found a certain grace and cuteness in his daughter's behavior, he remembered a smaller version of himself, the small fragment of memory he had given you that day. Rosi was nowhere near the little drama he had at the time.

"Rosi, look here." Law asked and the girl, still glued to you, just turned her face towards him. "What you saw today and what you saw before is normal."

"Exactly and it will soon stop happening." you completed.

"But it will take a while?"

"Maybe a little." Law resumed in a welcoming tone, you had realized that after Rosi had entered your lives, the little girl had unlocked a patience and calmness that you didn't know about in him. "All babies do this when they're in their mommy's tummy."

"Even me when I was inside?" she completely freed herself from you, sitting in the small space between you and Law.

"Even you." you and Law responded almost in unison, laughing together at the girl's euphoria.

"What else did I do?"

"You loved kicking when your dad was around, it was like you heard his voice and started making a mess." you explained and saw her smile, her eyes were now shining with pure curiosity, which you hadn't seen in a few days. "And to help, he kept tickling you."

"Like this." Law squeezed the girl's side, eliciting a surprised scream from her and then loud laughter. "And like that, then some more like that." Every time he moved, scratching the girl, she seemed to laugh more.

Her little face was already red and the tears that were once worried seemed to have been replaced by the overload of laughter and euphoria that settled in Rosi. Law finished tickling her as soon as he saw her lack of air and pulled Rosi into his arms, filling her with kisses on top of her dark hair like his.

"You know you'll forever be our little princess, right?" the girl nodded, earning a few more kisses from him. "And that we will always love you."

"A lot?"

"A lot." you replied as Law opened the girl's arms as wide as she could.

"A million times like this here." he reiterated, seeing you nod. "Now it's time for bed, don't you think?"

"But I still don't want to sleep." She mumbled and you stood up, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm dying for some sleep." You gave her one more kiss and then moved up your body a little, giving Law a quick kiss on the lips. "What do you think about dad staying with you for a while?" you blinked at him, so only he could see.

A thank you was muttered silently to you as a good night was exchanged. When you left the room, Law adjusted himself so that the girl was looking at him.

"I wanted to apologize to you about earlier today." he began, seeing her paying attention to what he was saying. "I shouldn't have spoken like that."

"And I was mean to Mom. She always taught us that we can't say mean things like that, right?" the girl replied, taking him by surprise by her little confession.

"Yeah, we shouldn't be mean." he lay down and patted his arm next to him, so she could do the same. "Did you know I already had a sister?"

"Same as what I'm going to have?"

"Well, we still don't know if you're going to have a brother or a sister." he pointed out, feeling her nod and snuggle into him even more. He knew her well enough to know that she must be falling asleep, but she wouldn't give in. "She was younger than me, her name was Lammy."

"And where is she?"

"Today she is a little star, just like your grandparents." As much as he didn't believe in this cute fantasy about life after death, it was the way you and he had found to explain the lack of some other blood ties in Rosi's life without traumatizing her. "But when she was still here, she was my best friend."

"And what did you do?"

"She loved playing tea time and between you and me, I hated it." he laughed at the memory, tormented by the idea that the old Lammy would get along great with Rosi. "But she played ninja fights with me afterwards, so it was worth it."

"Did your grandparents still love you after she was born?" the question made Law turn to her, trying to understand where that was coming from.

"Of course, our parents loved us very much, just like your mother and I will love you when the baby arrives." he explained and she seemed to be deep in thought. "You know, don't you? That regardless of anything, your mother and I will always love you."

"Promise?" she asked

"Promise."

"You pinky promise?" she raised her pinky and then Law crossed his with hers.

"That was the easiest promise I've ever made, you know?" he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, seeing the girl smile. "Now are we going to sleep?"

"I want to hear a story, the story of the ninja bear who stole honey."

Law started the story with a probably different beginning than the other thousand times he told it - the story was clearly made up about Bepo stealing food, but Rosi and you had agreed not to tell Law that you had noticed. It took a few minutes for sleep to take them both away.

In the following months, Rosi seemed to be much safer and more integrated into waiting for the baby. She helped decorate part of the room, participated in your consultations since Law knew that the girl liked practical explanations, it was an easy way for her to understand that her mom was fine. The name was her choice too, Linn, in her justification, remembered the name of the story that her father had told some time ago, about a nice girl called Lammy. The resemblance was very little, but her intention was enough to warm both of your hearts.

When Linn was born, Rosi was almost on duty at the bathroom door - again, the hot tub had been her best friend during the birth process. You and Law wish you could have recorded the first time she held her brother. Bright eyes, firm hands, there you two knew it was a partnership for life.

Apart from the small dispute over who would be the assistant every day when Law would deal with something more practical in the medical wing, the two complemented each other. All of Linn's fear was supplied by Rosi's courage, all the hard shell that she had inherited from Law were supplied by Linn, who had pulled your side of the molten feelings. And when the two of them got together, talking wasn't an impossible task for anyone. Whether it was when they asked to dye Bepo black and make him look like a panda or when they found the straw hats - which Rosi had already met - and all she had to do was say that she wanted a party like last time and immediately the banquet was organized. .

How long has it been since you wore this type of piece on your body? Looking in the mirror was like seeing a new version of yourself. A few more stretch marks and marks, but all with a good meaning: having brought two of your loves into the world. It was the voice of one of them entering the room that brought you out of your reverie, small hands clinging to your leg.

"Mommy, let's go!" Linn hung onto the dress you were finishing putting on. The four year old seemed to have more energy than you had ever had in your entire life.

"Where are your father and sister?"

"They've already gone to the party, mommy." you picked him up, feeling the boy celebrate as you started to leave Polar Tang.

The deck of the Sunny, where you were anchored, was full of people, crew members from the Straw Hats and the Heart Pirates gathered, talking, drinking and partying. It was already something common every time the two crews met on the way, of course, with a lot of influence from your eldest daughter who loved the lightness of your friends.

"Linn!" Nami came towards the two of you, picking the boy up and squeezing his cheeks. "How big you are!"

His cheeks flushed at the compliment, earning a laugh from you. Nami warned you that she was going to steal the boy for a few minutes to take him to show the other companions and you trusted her too much to oppose that.

In the distance, you saw Law sitting talking to Robin while Rosi was between his legs, practically being slathered in sunscreen.

"Mommy!" she called you, trying to get away from your husband. "Daddy's making me all dirty."

"It's just what's necessary dear." you replied, giving Robin a quick hug. "And how are you?"

"Great! I was even discussing with Law how you guys have been, how the kids are doing." she made room for you to sit next to her.

"It's been challenging, but amazing at the same time. Are you thinking about having one?"

"I don't know, Franky and I talked a lot about this subject, but if one day I have them and they look like yours, it would be lovely."

"Lovely?" Law inserted himself into the conversation, a cynical smile on his lips made even Rosi turn around. The girl's dark hair was being braided by Law, he certainly had more skill than you in that task. "Lovely until they get rebellious and against sunscreen."

"You put a lot of it on me, I'm sticky!" the girl grumbled and he lightly tugged on the finished braid in her hair, laughing when he saw her get even angrier. "Mommy, daddy pulled my hair!"

You and Robin just laughed at the implications the other two had towards each other, watching the girl run off to play. The three of you stayed there for a while, making small talk.

"Now it's your turn." Law warned you as soon as Robin left to get the three of you some drinks. "Come on, sunscreen for you too."

Without hesitation, you pulled off the dress you were wearing and let it pool on one of the chairs. A malicious laugh crossed your lips when you saw Law's inability to form any cohesive thought until you turned your back to him, arranging your hair to stay out of the way.

"You make things so much more difficult that way." he whispered, applying the lotion to you and sliding it down your body. "You look so hot in these."

"You say that because you're in love with me."

"That too, but other than that part, you should wear this bikini more often." He placed a light kiss on your shoulder, along with a small bite, almost as if testing if your skin - and you - were real at that moment.

"I found you!" Ikkaku interrupted the two of you, running until he stopped in front of you. "Shall we play? We find a ball and we can improvise a net."

"Let's go!" you answered her and looked at Law over your shoulder. "Want to come, baby?"

"Not this time." he almost completed it, saying that he would choose to just enjoy the view, but decided to keep the information to himself.

Well, at least he thought it was just for him. Anyone who looked at Law could without much effort tell which direction he was looking in and by the type of gaze, what his main intention was.

"Captain…" Shachi leaned next to him and Law didn't bother to look to know that he was accompanied by the two other parties - Penguin and Bepo.

"We have a proposal for you." Penguin started, not getting much of his attention. "Of course, when you can stop drooling over your wife's body."

"What do you want?" Upon realizing that he had been noticed, Law with great difficulty looked away from you and back to them.

"We want to make an exchange: two days of no service for an hour of safety for both of you."

"What does that mean?"

"For an hour we take care of the children, but not only that." Shachi bent down, creating some suspense until he got close to the captain's face. "For one hour, no one, I repeat, no one will come near Polar Tang."

"Three hours." Law responded immediately, taking the boys by surprise. When did it become so easy to make deals with the captain?

"Do we have a deal?" Bepo stretched out his paw and Law quickly shook it and walked towards you.

The excuse he gave was that he needed your help with something about Linn, he knew that for any other reason, he would make you suspicious. It was only when he took you to an emptier corner of the Sunny that you realized his real intentions - and you couldn't be more interested.

With no time to waste, as you were transported with his powers, your body barely found your room and Law's hands immediately claimed possession under your skin. His mouth covered yours and as he explored every inch of paradise inside your lips, his hands slid across your bare skin.

"No, love, please no." He held your hand that was about to undo the knot of the bikini you were wearing. "You look too hot in this for me to miss the opportunity to have you like this."

"I didn't know you liked it so much, you thought I was so…"

"Don't you dare continue this." He placed you on the small table, fitting himself between your legs and taking your lips again. "It was fucking torture, seeing you walking around, anyone being able to look at what's only mine."

"Fuck, you're mean." his hand slid down the front of your bikini, getting closer to where you needed him most. "Law?"

A grunt from him, as his face buried itself in your still covered breasts was the only thing you heard. Before he could sink too far into pleasure enough to not be able to think, you gently pulled him by his dark hair until his face reached yours.

"Condoms, Law."

"But babe…" he mumbled, almost like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Do you remember the last time we didn't use it?" You pointed to the height of your belly and saw him nod, sobriety returning to his features.

"Yeah, condoms are a good choice."

[breathinlove]

airport crush ellie williams drabble

read this

cw: none?? js cuteness and v poor writting.

u are both coming back for school after spring break? she had missed her friends and dad. for u, u js wanted to take ur summer clothes to uni.

this cute girl stares at u in line for the boarding... are u actually gonna be sitting in the same plane as her? she might faint!!! mmm she's staring and u can feel her green eyes burning the back of your neck so u turn around and she TRIES to be subtle and look somewhere else. u fucking grin, she's lowkey scared of u... u are sooo pretty!!! someone help her!!!

u are both getting on the plane and she doesn't know if she wants u to sit next her or if that's the last thing she wants... but naturally, since u are soooo lucky u got sat in the front line next to an arrogant lil man and his teenage son. how lovely!!! ellie on the other hand, got sat next to A MOTHER W A BABY??? god it was boutta be a flight.

when u looked around, she looked at u as if ud known each other for ages and mouthed "save me" so u mouthed "save me" god u hadn't even said hi to each other, she was embarrassed but... u went along w it so.

u were thinking, and sure the mother was comfortable back there but u remembered when ur aunt had ur cousin she asked to sit at the front lines. when ellie saw u getting up her eyes shined, like actually, she looked like an anime character right there. u fought ur awkwardness and started talking to the mother sat next to ellie.

"excuse me, would u wanna sit in first line? there's much more space for u and ur baby's stuff. u'd probably be way more comfortable." oh, u were such a sweetheart, ellie is inlove w u already.

the lady actually took the offer. she thanked u and gave u a lil shoulder caress. u both exchanged seats and well everyone's happy i guess!

not everyone, ellie's scared.

she's sat next to this sweet caring selfless girl, who happens to be soooo sooo soooooo pretty. she's terrified and she thinks she might be feeling more than js butterflies in her stomach.

"hi..." she mutters. "saved us both right there."

"sure did." u smiled, putting ur seat belt on, she forgot those... she started putting it on immediately. u chuckled and told her ur name.

"that's pretty, i'm williams, i mean, i'm ellie williams. mmm erm, just ellie." she, is, adorable.

"that's real long and pretty." she dropped her head in embarrassment. "where are u going, ellie?"

she coughed and started talking about going back to college and u kinda yelled "same!", bro why was this convo the most embarrassing ever?(,#&@&@ turns outtttttt u went to the same college!!! wowza...

"no way." she deadpaned.

"yes way, ellie..." u giggled and so did she.

u 2 talked ab ur majors and shit, nothing crazy but ellie was js so cutesy likeeee omg she's so awkward she's kind of a nerd :((( she tried acting cool tho but u were js so pretty and nice she got shy.

she couldn't believe u actually fell asleep while u 2 watched the exact same movie on ur tiny screens... 30m in. she had js met u and she got the honor of seeing u peacefully sleeping. u were outrageously embarrassed when u woke up at the end of the flight tho.

ellie asked for ur number before u even left the plane, thinking you'd would say goodbye then. but... u still had to go all the way out of the airport and grab a taxi. it was awkwardly silent, saying bye and walking side by side for like 6 minutes before she got closer and said "i guess not goodbye." what kind of sentence is that???

u talked ab music and u found out ellie played guitar, u were so happy ab it?? she didn't get why but she felt cool and mentioned she had her own songs and u beggedddddd to listen to them. bro she js thought u were so attractive SOMEONE SHOOT HERRRRR RN. u thought the exact same... like... u play guitar AND write ur own songs??

talked and talked until u both found a taxi, because when she found one, she decided to leave it for u but u wanted her to have it, so u both idiots let someone else have it and waited till 2 taxis were available??^÷×&*!*@

after getting home u waited for a text from her, dying to hear from her. you got it!!!

[vaguely-concerned]

To the ‘themes I am picking up on in Veilguard’ list, let's go ahead and add what I have a sneaking suspicion will actually turn out to be The theme:

— the world has changed and can never be as it was again.

— I have been changed and can never be who I was again.

— in this simple unavoidable truth there is endless grief and endless hope.

And I… may be getting a bit emotional about it haha. Let me show my work a bit: 

if da:o is a game about people who are already dead or half ghosts in some form (through societal forces, psychologically, functionally, literally, in body, through the joining etc.) coming together anyway to save the world from being swallowed by total nihilism and despair (symbolized by the blight) through the power of love and friendship and also this sword/potential heroic sacrifice that I found, da2 is a game about people who have lost their homes and been set adrift finding and building new homes in each other (while completely failing to save the world. also through the power of love and friendship. as well as years of petty bickering <3 we must imagine kirkwall if not happy then worth having been because the love was there the love was there and that's the only sanctifying force we can ever have in this doomed world and city of ours), and da:i is a game about old stabilizing-but-unjust comfortable lies vs. disruptive but potentially liberating uncomfortable truths, and the power of friendship to help us distinguish the one from the other and navigate through them...

folks… I'm starting to think that veilguard might be a game specifically about moving towards recovery and acceptance after trauma — about how even in this flawed, severed, scarred state, what is here right now is worth loving and worth caring for. even in an imperfect and impermanent world and self, there is worth and joy. and of course the first real tragedy — and threat — of Solas is that he just cannot find it in himself to accept this and move on, to let go of what was, the regret won’t let him go or he won’t let go of it. which means that even though on the surface it’s Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain (and the will to subjugate and violate they represent) who are the main villains, the real antagonistic force in this story beneath that is the Dread Wolf’s despair. A despair Rook must make an answer to by the end of the game, one way or another, compassionately or with righteous fury, triumphant or pyrrhic.

The world will change again and again and so will you — BUT the crucial element is that so will everyone else who exists along with you, you are fundamentally not alone in this existential truth. all we’ll ever have is each other and my god that is plenty, my god that is enough!!! Which is the second thing Solas just can’t accept, he keeps himself separate and completely alone out of an awful mix of fear and pride and feeling himself unworthy of anything else. Rook and the player want to save the world of Thedas because it’s where everyone we love lives, Solas wants to go back to the past because that’s the only neighbourhood where he can still visit those he loved — and the person he himself was, before. A very sympathetic and human instinct/trap to fall into when touched by trauma, I think, if only it wasn’t backed by godlike power, a fundamentally oppositional personality, and a catastrophic lack of therapy to make it literally everyone else’s problem too lol. It’s varric and solas’ banter about the man on the island and where meaning in a life comes from all over again, writ large and with detail work — and the added idea of ‘what if there are also other islands out there, though. With other people on them that you could find if you reach for each other’. Rook with the best of intentions has to make choices to which there are no perfect outcomes and live with what happens — and not cut themselves off from everyone else around them even when there is regret or shame. You get back up every day and you make a life with other people doing the same and you do your best, and that’s the only victory this world will give you. In the end, that is more than enough, that is essential. And I um. I love that. So much. It’s why some of the writing clumsiness on top can’t hurt me because this thematic spine is so solid and so beautiful to me. It’s DA2 all over again that way for me personally — I forgive this story for what it isn’t and couldn’t be, and I love it with my whole stupid open heart for what it actually is. Thank you for coming to my TED-talk and goodbye etc.      

(For my fellow TLT heads out there — you know what this story is reminding me of most of all, actually? It has some big Nona the Ninth vibes down there in the deep. It’s about… the horror and unspeakable beauty that can only be found in liminality, and the role of love in making that basic fact of existence bearable. And also even more unbearable at the same time. I'm so sorry.)

[marshallsgirl]

Marshall revealing his new song to Y/N

Pairing: Eminem x Fem¡Reader

Warnings: 🔞 MATURE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Recommended song: Remind Me - Eminem, In Too Deep - Eminem

Author's note: Hey, guys! I was so bored and I wrote this. I may delete it later or idk. Hope you all enjoy it. I love you guys so much! Sending all of you a warm hug🫂🤍

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■♡■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

"I have a surprise for you" Marshall said to me as he enter the living room. Inmediatly I turn off the tv and give all my attention to him. "Guess what" he said.

"What?"

"The song is complete!"

"Whoa baby!"

Here's the thing. He told me he was writting a song about us, but that's it. He didn't talk about ever again. Even if I asked him about it he had changed the topic. So, I was very nervous about it. Because this has happened before. It was with the Revival album. That one song called Remind Me. That one was for me. I still remember when he show me that song.

" did you...That's my fav rock&roll song!" I said when I heared the beat.

"Yeah, that's the song you kept singin' and singin' while you're cooking" he said wanted to laugh at me.

I loved that song. Perfect combination but it was crazy. I mean...he did that for me? He united rock&roll and rap that was so crazy.

"Damn, that's crazy babe" I said.

"See y/n, u make me do things I normally wouldn't do"

"Awww, I love it and I love you baby!"

So, this time I was really nervous because I've been singin' a lot and very different genres. And Marshall...Well, he is so crazy. I didn't know what to expect.

"Are we going to the studio?" I asked him ready to go change if needed.

"No, let's just get in the car". So, we got inside his car. "Are u okay?" suddenly he asked me.

"Yeah, I'm good! I need to hear your song!"

I got too excited and I get very excited when I'm nervous I don't know why, but It's like I got a lot of energy all of the sudden. Anyways, so he says:

"Okay, okay but you need to know that I just got the final mix and I haven't heard it. I mean I know the entire song but I didn't hear the final mix yet" he explained.

"Omg..."

"What?"

"Wait, let me just make myself comfortable" I said while adjustin' my seat a little bit.

At this point he doesn't even hide that he's laughing at me.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, ready"

"Wait, look at me" he ordered and I obey. "I love you"

"Okay, now play the song!"

"Yo, say it back!" he replied.

"I love you, babe!"

And so the music started and he is lip singin': "This could never work, " is what we said at first. But whatever this is, it's working. But we're in two different worlds and (yeah) I'm not your husband (nah), you ain't my girlfriend. All I know is that (what?) When I'm with you, I'm a different person, yeah. And I ain't never met a chick as perfect. Girl, you're a ten, so here I am (yeah)

I literely screamed and Marshall had to stop the music.

"No, keep it goin'!" I argue.

He laughed and let the music continue: ...Can't tell if I'm cheating on her with you or cheating on you with her. But really, nobody's at fault, can't help who you love. Hope they don't ever hear us talk

'Cause we both are getting sloppy. Probably subconsciously part of me's hoping we get caught 'cause I'm not happy here (nah)

With her. Rather have you (yeah) Rather have me too. 'Cause you're not happy there (you're not happy there) With him. Rather have me (I know, but) We just in too deep (I'm in way too deep)

Marshall started singin' it out loud and I was vibin' with it the whole time. It was a good damn song. Honestly, I loved it. It truly was about us, about the start of our relationship, but there were a few things that weren't true like me havin' a wedding ring. It should say: I got a wedding ring. So it's her instead of you.

"That's it. What do u think?" he said not being able to stop smilin'

"Please, play the song one more time"

And he started to laugh again.

"Marshall!"

"Are for real? Did you loved it?" he was surprised.

"Yes, I love it!"

"Y/n..." he laughs again.

"Marshall! You're being so freakin' annoying. Play the song one more time!"

"Yo, you are just sayin that. You didn't loved it!"

"What? I do love it! Marshall!"

"Okay, okay"

He played the song again.

"I'm gonna cry" I said.

"Yo, you're hillarious!"

"That song is good as hell!"

[tiredsmashbros]

and so we are gathered here today, to hear TSB's horrible 1k sobbing {LONG}

well guys, it's been officially a week later since the end of the "birthday party" event. crazy it already flew by fast but formerly something i really wanted to say from the very start: thank you.

quite frankly i know i could've just made a simple thank you text as a normal person does, but i wanted to really to show my gratitude by giving something nice. and that something nice was the discord server until... my chaotic brain decided to make a daily week event inspired by scott cawthon UIGHJDSXUKGJH but otherwise- i hope everyone enjoyed tuning in everyday and i've personally been having a blast talking and hanging out with everyone since.

now, i got my secret final card up my sleeve that i've been wanting to do. was to give back something to some specific folks. amazing folks. folks that one: were my introduction to this amazing smg4 community, and two: friends i've made that has genuinely changed my life for the better, and three: been the greatest support i could've ever asked. it's still insane to me that i knew my life would be changed the moment i clicked on a youtube video of someone yapping about a specific blue and purple character from a gmod meme show and if they would work canonical. following up with me just 3 hrs later my first fanart doodle for myself. with just recently that moment being so happy i reached 100 followers on here... if you would've told me four months later that it'll exceedingly grow 10x i would laugh at you and walked away... you guys are insane in the best way possible it has scared me to death, but never have i done better improving my skills and mental health.

and with that, i give to thy, my absolute wholeheartedly appreciation:

@theartistisme43 you were the, if not one of, my first exposure to the community on twitter when i was looking for fanart on day one. i remember vividly being so captivated by your smg4 au by implementing sign language to your smg4 rigs. especially cause despite i've been meaning to relearn sign language for years, it has a special place in my heart for personal reasons. i remember being so obsessed with your animations replaying it again and again and adoring your art style so much. i've been {and still am} really shy expressing my feelings but seriously man i genuinely love your work so, so, SO much. it's still insane to me how you get the unfortunate rope under your feet by some nasty ass fools on twitter, but ong, they're just so jealous our your gmod rigging talent and storytelling. seriously man keep going!! always excited to see what you cooking up next! 💛

@ominus-potato + @bluestrawberrybunny adding you both together because ong it will feel weird to me if i didn't. of course, i am a fanfic addict once i get into a new fixation... and you two have been feeding me graciously. ominus, i love and get inspired by your fics SO MUCH it's insane to me how i'm alive after reading a new piece you've made /pos. you were also my introduction to marware and i've stayed since even if it was started of as a joke UIGHJV. strawberry i remember discovering you on artfight but exploded when i found out you were the creator of the apprenticeship au fic. i was shy to read it but i've been wanting to give you something before artfight started i finally caved in to the lore and my only regret is not getting into it sooner. i love both of ya'lls writing styles so much it's inspired me to genuinely get back into writing fanfics. thank you both so much and please continue writting!!!! i get so excited every now and again going to bed reading them. 💛🌈

@aquaproductions and speaking about artfight... yoU! i remember discovering you actually from trap sanchez's smg4 map BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF TIMES I WAS PAUSING TO SEE EVERY PEICE TO THEN EXPLODE WHEN YOU SHOWED THEM AT THE END HIUGJHFEDS i LOVE you style so much and god when i got the message from you on artfight i actually fucking screamed. even getting that attacked for you has never once failed to make me smile. i've overcome it by now,, but i genuinely was really shy because you are just so cool and i'm still going crazy the fact your a fan of the boys LIKE BROOOOOOOOOO IUGHJDSXYUJ. ahem- anyways... kEEP BEING SLAY AQUA!!!!! 💛💕💛

@coralalala64 + @cookiepopcat ah yes another duo bc im trying to shorten this but cause you both played a similar role for me. you two, i kid you not, are the first folks i followed while joining the smg4 community. i am in love with your traditional work sm corala i am just obsessed with comics and seeing someone was making 34 comics just made me jump in glee. additionally i love the c r e a t u r e gag sO MUCH T&*YGUIHJK. cookie in general i adore your artstyle so much and especially how you add those little sparks on the hair GUHH ITS SO CUTEEEE!!! i became more of a bigger fan from your shark au and now a fan of ur new au with 3! so excited to see what you guys got cooking up next!!! 🌿💛

@zurkton i know we don't get the opportunity to talk much more but i seriously wanted to feature you in as my appreciation from the insane support you've been giving me. seeing your comments make me smile in glee and even a bonus seeing something new you make. i adore your gmod style of these silly mario recolors BUT SRSLY MAN UR OWN STYLE IS SO GOOD AND SEEING U MADE AN OC FINALLY GUH ITS BEEN IN MY TO DO LIST FOR SOOOOOOO LONG. JUST GUH I LOVE UR WORK SO MUCH PLEASE CONTINUE BEING AWESOME AND I HOPE WE CAN GET MORE TIME TO BE ABLE TO YAP MORE!!! /GEN 💛🍳

@clownypillar oh yeah. you bet your buggy ass i added you on here. cause bRO i was surprised to find someone else who loves bugs it made my little me so happy. and i still have not gotten over that smg4 cult of the lamb au you made since, i love that game sm seeing that on my feed just made me immediately become a fan. doesn't help the fact blue/silas says really amazing and silly things about you in our talks i was so shy finding the right opportunity to try and talk to you qnq,, and when the opportunity did come up {bot issue} I GOT EVEN MORE NERVOUS IHKJFEGDSXUGJH /POS i love your humor sm man you are so fun and i apologize silas has gotten you under the theory trap sigh... but other than that i need to get back into my retired bug fixation and find more ways to make fun of you as we yap and appreciate dr pepper 💛🌈🥤🐛

@libbytwq i still remember the day i got that tsb piece from you on artfight and literally screaming and running around my room in glee seeing my silly man in a silly looney pose. seriously man, ever since i saw that i immediately became a fan of you. i just am a sucker for your style man /srs. hECK i remember struggling so hard to pICK someone to fight back bc i genuinely loved all your ocs and wanted to do everyone- i also find it sO funny and ig coincidental theres so many like coincidences with you??? ong i need to say this or im going to continue going crazy- like ong libby {oc} reminds me one of my trusted friends oc and brings me back to my 2016 nostalgia days, i actually have an oc name lore who has a similar hair style as smgl:e, AND THE FACT WITH OUR SMG4 OCS LORE SIMILARITIES LIKE BRO WE LIVE IN A MATRIX OR SOME SHIT THIS MAKES MY BRAIN EXPLODE AAAAAIOYUIGHJEFDSXZ /J but in all seriousness bro, i love talking with you and seeing your silly work so much. i know you're gonna be makin awesome things bro and you bETTER WIN THOSE MARCHING BAND COMPETITIONS IUGJHEDS 👑🍔🌈💛

@its-a-me-mango mango mango mango... YOU BRITISH FREAK- anyways. you seriously were one of my favorite artist when i joined and ngl i was absolutely terrified talking to you to the point i legit thought you hated me at some point IOKJEHFDWS heCk getting that attack from you on artfight blew my fucking mind bc i was screaming over the tari duck since af was the only place i dropped the tari love interest and i didnt realized it until i looked at your page that you were THE MANGO... bro i actually fucking exploded you have no fucking idea how happy i was 🌈. like you are one srsly one of my favorite inspirations man i love your artwork, your humor, and just everything man. i'm still going internally insane that im talking to you sm bro and the memes we mAKE BRO IM UYIGJHFDWSXZYUITJG THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH A SILLY MANGO HORSE DOCTOR DUDE, YOU ARE SO COOL, INCREDIBLE, AND MAN WHERE IS THAT SNOWTRAPPED 1K YOU PROMISED /J i could go on a bit more but im literally exploding just writing this rn so now imma just lalalalalalalala 🍔💛🌈🥭🐴

@josiekatxd / josiekatxd jo. you are one insane creature /pos. LIKE DAMN MAN YOU DRAW SO FAST IT WAS WILD GETTING ALL THE AMAZING TSB GIFTS AND GETTING TO KNOW MORE OF UR OC 7 JUST BECAME A MORE JOYOUS RIDE!!!! i love your work so much man and the amount of support i've gotten from you makes me so so SOOSOSOSOS HAPPY ITS OVERWHELMING /POS. i enjoy talking with you man {even if i may be slow at timess..} pLEASE dont be afraid to send me smth, more yummy art or MEMEMSSSSS i appreciate anything and everything!!! this was honestly such a joy getting to draw 7 again she's been stuck in my head for so long hELPPP /SILLY 🌿⭐️💛

@rr3d2y AKO!!!!! YOU!!!!!!! YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY MAN EVER SINCE THAT ATTACK YOU MADE FOR ME FROM ARTFIGHT I HAVE BEEN A DIEHARD FAN SINCE. I WENT ABSOLUTELY INSANE OVER IT SO MUCH I HAD TO SHARE IT WITH MY IRL FRIENDS IT MADE ME SO HAPPY. EVEN MORE HOW YOU ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT MY INTERESTS EVERY TIME YOU ATTACKED??? LIKE HELLOOOO??????? AND DAWKO??????? AND JUST UR OC IN GENERAL I LOVE HER SO MUCH BROOOO IUYGJHEFWDCSXZUYHKJ EDWSHJDCS LIKE DUDE I HAD NO IDEA HOW MUCH I COULD WRITE A FULLBLOWN ESSAY UNTIL YOU BARGED IN WITH YUMMY ART EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. YOU SPOIL ME SO MUCH AKO YOU ARE INSANELY INCREDIBLE AND SUCH A JOY TO TALK TO AND BE SILLY WITH. IT MADE ME SO HAPPY TO FIND SOMEONE WHO SHARES MY INTERESTS FROM THE START AND I STILL GO CRAZY EVERY TIME ANY OF IT IS MENTIONED. WHETER ITS SMG4, DAWKO, CG5, FAIRYOFFPARENTS, SONIC, WOLVERINE UYIGJHEFDSCXUIGJH IT ALL MAKES ME JUMP UP AND DOWN KICKING MY FEET MAN. I MEAN IT WHEN I SAY IM A BIG FAN AKO. I APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE 1 MILLION PERCENT AND ADORE YOUR SUPPORT SO MUCH. THANK YOU AKO THE GREAT!!!! LIFETIME SUPPLY OF CHOCOLATE MILK FOR YOU!!!!!!! 🍫🥛💛🌈🍔💕

@radiantrevolt i know your not in the smg4 community whatsoever let alone know anything but i srsly meant it that receiving your support was such a big deal to me man. i never expected you to join the server but it genuinely made me feel more secure knowing i got you right my side just like old times. your support means the world to me man even if i suck as explaining or expressing that. you genuinely mean a lot to me man and the fact your still sticking around if still mind boggling to me evermore. thank you ander for staying by my side and willing to do so even at a space your unfamiliar with. being able to talk to you again has been such a joyride 💛💛💛💛🌈🐈‍⬛

and lastly...

these two freaks...

@strange0-0storm + @bluesbox... honestly... i owe you two a lot. genuinely. storm i remember you specifically when i first started acknowledging the smg4 community bc of how recognizable smg8 was on tumblr and immediately finding you to be so cool. so cool in fact, I WAS TOO SHY TO INTERACT TYIGHJFEDS. i LOVE smg8 so much and getting to see your other ocs such as jessee, cold cash, spamton... 8YIUGFEDSU J ITS JUST SO COOL AND HOLY FUCK MAN I LOVE YOUR ART SO FUCKING MUCH. I AM STILL FUCKING OBSESSED WITH THE TSB PIECE FROM ARTFIGHT MAN VDCXZUYJHGF ITS JUST SO PERFECT I CAN GO FUKING GO OFF AGAIN IHUGFJEDS but in all seriousness man, thank you so much for having the courage to respond to my lipbite comic, to me having the courage to follow you back and interact with you more, to giving me the courage again to join ur server, and the courage to say yes to watching popee with you and silas. finn you have no idea how much your silly words have an impact on me you make me so nervous in the most positive silliest way you have no idea how genuine happy i was being in that call for the very first time. even tho i know how quiet and anxious i was from the start, it was cause i was so shy and nervous bc man it was you! YOU!!!! you're such a fucking awesome guy finn i want you to seriously never forget that!!!! silas, thank you for even talking to me. hell, even after finn left to sleep we stayed and yapped for few more hours. i was never expecting that outcome ever in my life due to past experiences, and im so glad to the earth and back that it did come out as it did. i love talking to you man, i love seeing your work so much, and adore and appreciate to the fullest all the gifts you made me. thank you even more for getting me into the great gatsby and returning my hidden sherlock fixation back to light. i appreciate it way more that i can ever express it man. whether it may us talking about our day, silly nonsense, or me bullying you /j, it makes me so happy. and so grateful i can call you and finn my friends. you guys seriously helped me get out of my darkest angst shell i've had caged inside myself for the past, i didnt think i would ever escape from let alone actually be able to heal from. i didn't think i could ever be the happy ever again. like guys, i look forward to every week getting to get on a call with you guys so much its honestly my favorite activity/event of the week. i know im just silly guy i don't ever show my sappy self ever to ya'll but i mean it wholeheartedly ya'll helped me out so much more than you guys could ever imagine. i love you both so much i just wanna pick you two up and throw you into a canon so we could all go to disney world together and be just be silly. thank you finn, thank you silas 💛🤍💙🍔🍟🥤

i could honestly continue yapping but i was not expecting this to take longer than i was originally expecting so imma just end it here for now. i do want to thank everyone in the smg4 community for your continuous support. the amount of appreciation and love i get is still insane for me to grasp and i adore every single piece of giftart i've ever received. never did i expect to grow this big let alone meet such incredible and talented people ever in my life. i genuinely love all of you guys. thank you so much and onwards to more silliness!!! 🍔🌈 ⛅️🌿

[brucebocchi]

Summer 2024 anime roundup: ALL IN ONE

hey! i also post these reviews on my ko-fi. this is a labor of love so if you like the stuff i write, i'd really appreciate it if you'd throw a few bucks my way. thanks!

Well, I'm much busier now than I was in the first half of the year, so that means less time for anime and less time for writing about it. I managed to watch only (ONLY?) nine shows this season, so might as well put it all in one post.

As always, each show's OP is linked in the title.

Let's jump in.

Returning anime

NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a, part 2

After a COVID-plagued production delayed the last few episodes of its first half last year, A-1 Pictures’ adaptation of Yoko Taro’s landmark action-RPG returns to deliver the real meat of the story. And as with the game, the first half of NieR: Automata Ver. 1.1a was something I’d classify as “pretty good!,” while the remainder is what makes the entire endeavor worthwhile.

I’m happy to report that not only did the studio not lose a step, but they improved on the presentation of Ver. 1.1a immensely. The action sequences are superb and expressive throughout, and the CGI integration is actually, y’know, integrated this time out. The score, both original and borrowed from Keiichi Okabe’s contributions to the NieR duology, remains as evocative as ever. They also ramped up the cheesecake more than a little bit, and let’s be real, that was the draw for a lot of people in the first place.

If there’s any one thing Ver. 1.1a can claim as an advantage over the game’s narrative, it’s that the former does a lot more work in building on A2 as a character. There’s just enough to chew on in the game, but having more of her backstory from the YoRHa stage play and manga adaptation integrated into the narrative makes for more of a meal. Having A2’s history and real personality pinned up as a backdrop as she struggles to suppress both really fleshes out her journey and eventual resolve as shit continues to hit the fan. She’s also just a big ol’ tsundere sometimes. And not for nothing, but they gave her an absolute DUMPY for no reason, but I can’t really pin that as a negative.

9S’ whole thing happens too. I really don’t have much to add to that.

When I reviewed this show’s first half at the end of 2023, I mentioned that the initial concern with the anime’s very existence is that it’s adapting a narrative that is functionally being told through the very fact that it’s a video game. The delivery of the game’s true ending, especially, is so innately A Video Game that it’s functionally impossible to adapt directly into a television show. I’m happy to say that although that function is lost, Ver. 1.1a’s ending is still plenty satisfying (and I’m told especially so for Drakengard fans, without giving too much away). Something is still very much lost in the transition, though. In his review of the penultimate episode, Anime News Network’s James Beckett wrote:

What the anime of NieR:Automata has not been able to capture in these critical final moments is the way that the game makes its players complicit in the tragedy in a way that they could never be if they simply sat down and passively watched these events unfold from behind the safe veil of the fourth wall. It would be like if we were each individually guided on stage to place our hands on Hamlet's shoulder and push him gently onwards to his final destination. It doesn't change anything about what happens in the story, but it changes everything about what it means to us.

These acts of “ludonarrative culpability,” as Beckett called it, are the reason why Yoko Taro is considered an auteur in the gaming sphere. Both NieR games are tragedies writ large, and Yoko’s genius lies in making you, the player, carry out the tragedy, often well before you realize what you’ve wrought. And to Beckett’s point from his review, NieR: Automata is a perfectly fine sci-fi story in its own right, but the game puts the blood squarely on the player’s hands and inserts them into the narrative in a way that simply watching cannot. The connection I felt to the story was only there because I’d already played the game myself; I can only imagine how it would feel if this was your introduction to NieR.

So to return to a question I suggested at the end of last year: Do I recommend this to people who haven’t played the game? Eh, not particularly. It’s a well-made show, to be sure, but there’s enough missing from what makes Automata such an exceptional game that I’m not sure I can recommend it wholeheartedly if you’re not already familiar. Then again, I wouldn’t really know how it reads from the other side. To those who know and love the game, Ver. 1.1a isn’t quite the “Rebuild of NieR” some were hoping it to be, but it’s an interesting companion piece that takes surprising strides to tie it even closer to the preceding franchise. If you’re a newcomer? YMMV. Either way, play the game.

Oshi no Ko, season 2

I spent far more time than was necessary in the Discourse Mines following Oshi no Ko’s thunderous debut last year and a controversial (but fortunately inconsequential) turn of events in the manga shortly after the season finale. Though I remain one of the series’ foremost glazers, I’ve had my moments where I worried that maybe I overrated it a bit in my head, that I carried too much water for writer Aka Akasaka, and that I’m still riding the high of the series’ premiere.

Oshi no Ko’s second season completely erased any lingering worry almost immediately and reminded me and the world that yes, it Really Is That Good. The “It’s So Over” switch flipped to “We Are So Back” as soon as best girl Kana Arima and co-lead Taiki Himekawa dazzled their co-stars and one another with literally colorful displays of their acting prowesses. My expectations continued to rise as an active reader of the source material, and studio Doga Kobo continued to surpass them. This adaptation is just that good.

Aqua’s quest for revenge and Akasaka’s continuing examination of Japan’s entertainment industry both lead us into the world of stage acting, specifically 2.5D adaptations of famous manga and anime. Aqua is cast alongside Kana and his sham girlfriend and former reality show co-star Akane in an adaptation of the fictional smash hit shonen manga Tokyo Blade, along with several members of a theater company to which Ai once belonged. While Aqua is more concerned with getting dirt on Ai’s background than he is with acting, Kana and Akane have much more personal stakes as they try to show one another up and still put on the best play they can. Kana can’t stand Akane’s absolutist, matter-of-fact approach to acting (nor the fact that she’s fake-dating the guy for whom Kana’s down abysmal), while Akane, who idolized Kana as a child and is disappointed to see her take a step back as an actress, is trying her damnedest to rekindle the spark that convinced her to pick up acting in the first place. On the fringes, rookie actor Melt Narushima is trying to make up for a heinous performance in the first season that earned him the scorn of his more experienced castmates as well as a mangaka’s permanent ire.

A good amount of this arc does feel like Akasaka was still sorting through his feelings about the Kaguya-sama live adaptation when he wrote it, but he also gave himself some room for reflection on his own side of the equation as a mangaka. Tokyo Blade’s creator, Abiko Samejima, holds her creation very dear and is not impressed with the script. Her friend and former boss, Yoriko Kichijouji, is entirely too familiar with how badly the process can go; her own manga, Sweet Today, was horribly botched in this show’s first season, and she wants to help Abiko-sensei keep a level head. Kichijouji-sensei is the voice of reason this time out as she points out all of the concessions creators may need to take in order to get their work adapted and the unimpeachable truth that mangaka are basically crazy people (and you can practically hear Akasaka screaming through her lines; four months after Kichijouji said this in the manga, Kaguya-sama published its final chapter, marking Akasaka’s retirement from illustrating serialized manga). At her urging, in addition to an all-nighter helping Abiko-sensei make a deadline, the play goes off without any more hitches.

I didn’t much care for the Tokyo Blade arc in the manga but I knew full well that it would translate well to anime just as well as the acting sequences in the first season had. Akasaka’s decision to have the actors treat the stage as a battleground felt a little silly on the page, but experiencing everything again in sound and motion reminded me that this was the same genre of psychological competition that made Kaguya-sama one of my all-time favorites. Doga Kobo is just stupidly good at adapting manga. God, the animation is incredible. Character animation is as deliberate and mesmerizing as always, and emotional moments are punctuated by interpretive splashes of watercolors. Melt’s breakout on stage was a standout moment in the manga, but the abstract, expressionistic depiction of his redemption was so perfectly conceived on screen that life imitated art: Kichijouji-sensei cried in the anime, and manga artist Mengo Yokoyari cried in real life.

I could go on and on and on, but if you’re already this deep into Oshi no Ko I really don’t need to tell you anything else. This season, for all its gorgeous visuals and onstage glory, does not hesitate to remind you at the worst possible moments that this is still ultimately a revenge story and pulls the rug from you just as gleefully as it dazzles. The first season was already exceptional, but the second cements Oshi no Ko as an all-time great adaptation. As a fan of the manga, this is as good of an anime as I could ask for, and then some.

Mixed Bags

My Deer Friend Nokotan

I’m just exhausted.

I’ll admit, I bit a little too hard on the marketing. The preview trailers promised madcap, nonsensical fun on the level of Nichijou or Asobi Asobase, the cast was exceptional, and the OP’s refrain was a total earworm (Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan! Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan! Shikanoko Nokonoko Koshitantan!). It even has the cast jumping in the air! And we all know the Ryo Yamada rule! This was going to set the bar for gag anime!

Oh, how little I knew. Y’know how sometimes you see a trailer for a middling comedy movie and you can tell they already gave away all of the movie’s best jokes? Turns out My Deer Friend Nokotan did just that. I did temper my expectations; it’s not like I thought this was going to be the second coming of Nichijou or anything, but I guess I was still expecting something, I dunno, funnier?

The premise seemed to lend itself to a good comedy either way: Torako Koshi, a former delinquent, has successfully expunged her prior reputation and worked her way up to becoming her school’s student council president. All of that is nearly thrown away when a bizarre new student, Noko Shikanoko, immediately clocks her and almost spills the beans. Also, Shikanoko (who prefers to be addressed as Nokotan) has antlers and can commune with deer. She may even be a deer herself. She hoodwinks Koshi into starting a Deer Club at school, where they recruit Koshi’s upsetting younger sister Anko and the languid, rice-obsessed Bashame. Allegedly, shenanigans ensue.

Take this with a grain of salt, as humor is very subjective, but this show just plain isn’t very funny. Nokotan’s gags hit at least as often as they miss, and a lot of them just feel unforgivably dull. One bad segment can feel like an entire episode. The only reliable gags are gross-out humor, outsized slow-motion violence, or Nausicaä references. Everything else is just Koshi barging into the lower third of the screen to shout about how wacky the joke was just then.

Look, I know that humor doesn’t always translate across cultures. The things I don’t understand about Japanese humor could fill several libraries. I do, at the very least, get the basics of the boke/tsukkomi dynamic (fool and straight-man, basically) and how the reaction to a silly thing is usually the real punchline. I’ve absorbed enough Japanese media to adapt to that momentum. That nearly goes out the window here, because Koshi’s role as the tsukkomi is a straight-up momentum killer. It’s rarely just a “wait, what?!” or a “yeah, that’s rich coming from you;” it’s usually more like “wait, that is so ridiculous! You couldn’t possibly have pulled that off! And what’s that you’re wearing all of a sudden?” The rhythm is just gone. Comic timing? Don’t know her. Even if I thought the joke was funny at first, you could probably see any semblance of a smirk fading off my face by the time she was done. And hey, maybe some of this stuff doesn’t translate. Maybe it’s not that funny in Japan either.

The other characters outside of our main two really don’t help. Anko’s whole “yandere siscon” act isn’t very funny to start with, and she brings nothing to the table otherwise. Bashame is such a nothing character that even Koshi was sick of her by the end of the season. And while I feel like a good narrator can add a good level of je ne sais quoi to a comedy anime (see: Kaguya-sama), an overly intrusive one can actively take away from the humor (see: the Kaguya-sama dub). Nokotan’s narrator comes at it with a sort of winking, nudging “HEY, WE’RE A GAG ANIME” energy that gets too grating, too quickly. What doesn’t help is that he eventually affects a fake-desperate “please watch this show and tell your friends!” bent that called to mind Ron Howard’s narration in Arrested Development’s third season as it was approaching cancellation. Meta humor, as in the latter, can absolutely elevate the level of comedy; 100 Girlfriends in particular wielded it like a machete. In Nokotan, on the other hand, it betrays a clear lack of confidence in the writing, and there’s nothing less funny than comedy that doesn’t even believe in itself.

It’s not all awful, I swear. There are genuinely some very good gags; Nokotan’s cat-and-mouse game with an anachronistic matagi was a blast from beginning to end, and the skin-suit gag got a bigger laugh out of me than almost anything else I saw this season. Any good anime, especially a comedy, lives and dies by its voice cast, and Megumi Han’s performance as the titular Nokotan is this show’s whirring, beeping life support. She makes the absolute most of her considerable range as the jokes call for it, while somehow never stepping on her own toes by dipping into her Kana Arima voice from Oshi no Ko. Koshi shares a VA with Hatsune goddamn Miku. Bashame is pretty much only tolerable thanks to the languid performance of relative newcomer Fuuka Izumi, whom I’m very glad to hear in something that isn’t Gushing Over Magical Girls.

And aside from the music (the OP, to be fair, is infectious), that’s about all there is to like about the production. Did Studio WIT really make this? It looks like it could’ve been made by anybody, and that’s not a compliment. The uncanny CGI deer were the only real visual standout, and even those lost their shine before long. Something attempting to be this audacious needs to have a look to match, and Nokotan falls flat. Again, maybe that’s on me for trying to hold it to the standard Nichijou set.

I’d honestly be surprised if this gets picked up for another season. I’d be hard-pressed to come back for more.

No Longer Allowed in Another World

(CONTENT WARNING for discussion of suicide)

Osamu Dazai was one of the most complex and fascinating figures in Japan’s modern literary canon, right up there with his ideological opposite and real-life rival, Yukio Mishima. Dazai was, frankly, a disaster. He was a serial womanizer, terrible with money, repeatedly disowned by his family, unemployable, a deadbeat dad, and hopelessly addicted to drugs and booze. His magnum opus, Ningen Shikkaku, or No Longer Human, is a stark semi-autobiography, just barely fictionalizing his repeated failures of dignity and self-preservation, including his several failed attempts at double-suicide with his many illicit lovers. The same year it was published, however, Dazai was successful in his final attempt, drowning himself alongside his mistress in 1948.

But like, what if he got hit by the isekai truck instead?

Isekai Shikkaku, or No Longer Allowed in Another World, fully Goes There. The series begins with the legally distinct, unnamed Sensei and his lover Sacchan blindsided by an anachronistic truck along the riverbed. Sensei comes to, alone, in a monastery inspired by the JRPGs from well after his time. He doesn’t know what’s going on and he doesn’t care. All that matters is that he’s still alive, and that sucks for him. Sensei is greeted by Annette, an elf priestess in a virgin killer sweater, who is shocked to discover that not only has he not gained a single stat boost by coming to this world, but he’d also rather kill himself than take her up on the standard offer of an OP cheat skill (and he’d also just rather kill himself in general). So he bounces to go find Sacchan. His refreshing outlook on the new world, as opposed to the other excitable losers who got isekai’d before him, completely melts Annette’s brain to the point of falling in love with him on the spot, so she dons her sluttiest Persona 3 battle armor to chase after him.

Sensei hates this shit. Contemporary western fantasy hadn’t made its way to Japan yet in his time, so he has zero point of reference in this world, and he sure as shit has no clue what a JRPG is. The level-up jingles give him migraines. He has no self-preservation instincts and the only solace he has in this strange new world is a jar of toxic sleeping pills that he munches like M&Ms. He has no interest in or aptitude for fighting, so when he encounters a big-tiddy catgirl being squeezed half to death by a walking tree’s branches, Sensei sees the perfect opportunity to get himself killed. Unfortunately, his blood has become so toxic from said pills that piercing his skin instantly kills the tree, saving the young lady he incorrectly names Tama. Much to Annette’s consternation, she joins the party, and they set out on Sensei’s quest to find his lover and finally die in peace.

As you can guess, that’s not what happens. For some time, we see Sensei throwing himself in harm’s way, floridly imploring various fantasy monsters to kill him in one shot with their big bats, to the point where they get creeped out. His vaguely-threatening exhortations for death make for a fine formula, but one that can wear thin quickly. Before it gets that chance, though, the seed planted in Annette’s introduction bears fruit: The visitors to this world from our own aren’t here in isolation, and they have succeeded in completing the usual isekai goal of overthrowing the demon king. There’s now a massive power vacuum, and nature abhors that shit, so a cabal of erstwhile isekai protags dub themselves the Fallen Angels and decide to take over.

This turn was, to put it bluntly, the main thing that kept me watching. There’s a fine bit of commentary inherent to this framing that the type of wet-noodle, borderline faceless self-insert isekai protags tend to appeal to antisocial losers who would rather give into their basest impulses than see an opportunity to actually better themselves. This is not at all lost on Sensei; his keen eye for the human condition leads him to interrogate the Fallen Angels his party encounters so that he can write about their own failures as humans, as well as the gaping voids in their previous lives that led to them acting like petty tyrants as soon as they gained a bit of power and treating a brand new world like their own personal playground. Sensei’s writings reveal that he did indeed gain a power when he came over to this world; if he sees fit, a finished book will surround its subject and reanimate them back in their original world and afford them a second chance to right their wrongs or, in one particularly moving case, start over on the right foot.

For as audacious as No Longer Allowed’s premise is and as impeccable its comic timing and voice cast (you will find some absolute heaters completely buried on the call list), I just didn’t find it all that compelling. Isekai as a genre is so oversaturated that it was old hat to call it oversaturated even five years ago, so while I do try to pan for gold, sometimes I just come up with a neat-looking river stone. Hell, I can’t even say this one’s all that neat-looking; there’s nothing that looks all that great about it to begin with. The character designs and backdrops are pretty standard JRPG-style stuff that you’re just as likely to find in the likes of Helck, with lackluster animation to match. Didn’t care too much for most of the characters either. Even for its commentary on the isekai genre and the type of person it caters to, No Longer Allowed just ends up shaking out like another isekai series. 

There’s clearly more at play here, and I might just go ahead and read the manga because I didn’t really find myself looking forward to watching the anime. Maybe it just didn’t translate well. No Longer Allowed in Another World does clearly have something to say under its silly premise, but its method of getting that message across is, ironically, buried underneath the usual trappings of the genre it’s trying to say something about. 

Wistoria: Wand and Sword

I’m gonna preface this by saying that Wistoria is probably the best anime I watched this year that I’ve classified as a “Mixed Bag,” save for Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night. I’m generally of the mind that excellent production can make up for a middling story (my enjoyment of the likes of Solo Leveling and Wind Breaker this year was pretty emblematic of that), and that is the case here for the most part. Wistoria, story-wise, is nothing special; it’s your standard power fantasy set in a magical school, but the entire presentation is just almost fascinating enough to overcome that hurdle.

Hell, it’s almost not even worth going over the plot. Unassuming boy named Will goes to a magic academy, he doesn’t have any magical aptitude, so he makes up for it by honing his hand-to-hand combat prowess in the school’s designated dungeon. It’s Mashle meets Solo Leveling. Will gets picked on (like, a LOT), but he doesn’t care, because he made a promise long ago to reach the pinnacle of magical society to reach his childhood friend, who happens to be a genius mage. There are duels, there’s a tournament, there’s monsters, you know how this goes.

Will has allies in the school, namely a female friend who’s madly in love with him as well as a professor who covers for his shortcomings in magic-related subjects, but remember that this is a self-insert fantasy: There are also increasingly menacing bullies for him to put in their place. Will is challenged by a Snape-like instructor, a classmate who just hates him so much for not having magic aptitude, and a top performer at the school who’s just flat-out evil (and racist to boot!). And of course the latter two also have goon squads of snickering hangers-on. Will always succeeds, of course, because despite his shortcomings, he’s the strongest and most specialest boy. It’s almost like an isekai without the isekai. Too bad we find out that Will is hilariously shredded, which kinda blows a hole in the self-insert aspect.

Goofy shonen-isms aside, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Varying types of magic, artifacts, and fantasy races abound, and lore is sprinkled throughout the show in character biographies in the commercial break eyecatches. The story does get gradually less stupid as the season goes on and characters are better fleshed out. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with watching a really strong dude beat the shit out of monsters and assholes.

The only thing that really kept me coming back to Wistoria was that, plainly, it looks and sounds fucking awesome. It’s not the best-looking anime I watched this season (that would either be Oshi no Ko or one of the next two anime on this list), but Wistoria takes such a surprisingly cinematic approach to such an uninspiring story that I couldn’t help but keep watching. The lighting effects are lush, combat animation is bonkers in its best moments, and the score is pretty darn good too. It definitely takes some big swings at simulating camera movements and perspective shots that don’t always accomplish what they set out to do, but I can appreciate the ambition bleeding through. I can see the vision, and that’s what counts.

The actual content is pretty paint-by-numbers, but Wistoria is well-made enough that it’s worth a shaky recommendation. Maybe just turn your brain off until the action picks up. I've heard the manga gets pretty good from here on out, so I'll probably stick it out for another season.

The Gems

The Elusive Samurai

If you’re not already familiar with this series, do me a favor and watch the OP linked right above. Pretty good character animation, right? Expressive, weighty, plenty of personality. The colors pop like crazy too! A lot of the time, an anime series will heavily stylize its OP to attract eyeballs and YouTube metrics, oftentimes bringing in outside animators and directors for a unique feel. In the case of The Elusive Samurai, I cannot stress enough that all that animation is the standard.

Yes, this show looks exceptional. Even putting aside the fact that it’s historical fiction, this show has a truly timeless look to it that I still struggle to put into words. The Elusive Samurai is clearly a modern production but bears all of the hallmarks of what great animation has always looked like when a studio is willing to invest in it: Colors are so bold and saturated that I want to take a damn bite out of them, backgrounds are painstakingly hand-painted even for brief cuts, and there even seems to be a film grain overlay to really sell the classic feel. It’s not perfect (I’ll get into that later), but holy shit is it a feast for the eyes.

Adapted from the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, The Elusive Samurai is a heavily fictionalized retelling of the fallout of the Siege of Kamakura in the 14th Century. Tokiyuki Hojo, left without a family in a bloody coup of the shogunate, is prevented from committing suicide by enigmatic priest Yorishige Suwa and then thrown right back into the fire of the battlefield. Yorishige, who has prophetic visions of the future, foresaw Tokiyuki’s ascent to leadership and wants to see how he fares in battle. Tokiyuki didn’t bother with his training as a young master, instead playing elaborate games of hide-and-seek with the Hojo clan’s advisors, so in the face of certain danger, he’s left with no choice but to do what he does best and run the fuck away. And as with evading his training, Tokiyuki realizes that it’s way more fun than actual combat, and the future is suddenly even more clear to Yorishige: Evasion, not bloodthirst, will guide Tokiyuki’s path to revenge.

At Yorishige’s increasingly unnerving behest, Tokiyuki goes into hiding at Suwa Shrine and begins building a squad to take down the usurper, Takauji Ashikaga. Along with Yorishige’s daughter, Shizuku, he teams up with young warriors Kojiro and Ayako, and in their travels pick up the crass, kitsune-masked thief Genba and the food-obsessed swordsboy Fubuki. It’s fine as extended casts go, though we don’t get much from a few of them past their introductory arcs. Tokiyuki is an absolute delight, though. He’s a sweet and joyful kid despite his circumstances; real shonen protag material. And most importantly, he’s completely over Yorishige’s shit.

I’m a sucker for magical realism, and The Elusive Samurai delivers. Yorishige really does appear to be a prophet, to the point where he can even predict Dragon Ball Z (yes, really), and he and Shizuku are capable of pulling off acts that any actual person would consider a literal miracle. Mythical beasts roam the land and those that were slain appear to reside on a different realm accessible to the Suwas. All of Takauji’s top soldiers have senses and abilities far beyond anything human or animal, and Takauji himself seems to have borrowed some of his prowess from the devil himself. With this show’s commitment to top-tier visuals and animation, the sky's the limit for what we can see, and it kept me glued to my TV every episode. It almost made me want to watch Demon Slayer. Almost.

The cast has some solid performances from familiar names and voices: Yuichi Nakamura is his usual blusteringly silly self as Yorishige, Aoi Yuuki is a riot as Genba, and Katsuyuki Konishi (Kamina himself!) infuses Takauji with appropriate menace. There’s some Chainsaw Man and Bocchi sprinkled into Tokiyuki’s clan of rookie warriors as well. Good stuff, but what really caught my attention was a surprisingly familiar voice giving life to the bug-eyed villain Sadamune Ogasawara: None other than Yutaka Aoyama, the narrator of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Nobody could have more perfectly infused Sadamune with the appropriate level of self-serious goofiness than the guy who narrated Kaguya-sama’s balloon game like it was an NFL Film. Perfect casting.

As incredible as this show looks most of the time, the remainder does have a critical issue: CloverWorks didn’t seem too invested in hand-animating horses or any of the show’s characters riding them, so it opted instead for CGI. Very poorly-implemented CGI. I really try to take stuff like this as it comes, but the modeling looks way too video-gamey for the style the rest of the show is going for, to the point where I’m taken out of it. There’s really no excuse for something this uncanny with the high bar The Elusive Samurai set for itself early on (and yes, Uzumaki is airing as I write this, and I’ll talk about the similar problem that show has at the end of the year).

I know I just said this about Wind Breaker last year, but this may be CloverWorks’ other Big Shonen Hit. It certainly has the juice, between the wacky gags and shockingly brutal violence, and CGI issues aside, the studio has clearly invested in it. A second season is already on the way, and I’d say it’s paid off. If the studio can iron out the kinks, this could end up becoming an all-timer.

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

If I haven’t made it clear enough, my anime journey has turned me into a bit of a romcom guy. Couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it’s because Tenchi Muyo was a formative anime for me, or maybe it’s because I got on Kaguya-sama relatively early in my return-to-weebdom trek and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. I could go on and on about the ones I’ve watched and which particularly stood out, but we’d be here all day. At the same time, though, a burgeoning market for the genre, particularly among the shonen demographic, means that there’s gonna be some real slop out there. Plenty of anime, manga, and especially light novels are targeted at the “lonely boy who wishes cute girls would attach themselves to him just because he’s A Nice Guy” type, and while there are some genuinely excellent series that cater plenty to that kind, there’s a well-defined line between the good and the trash.

Makeine is well aware of that line and elects to skip rope with it. Genre subversion is at its best when the work in question shows a genuine care for the milieu it’s satirizing, and Too Many Losing Heroines is to trashy light novel romcoms what The Eminence in Shadow is to edgy isekai and Bang Brave Bang Bravern is to vaguely homoerotic mech warfare. It’ll slap you in the face with every dumb threadbare cliche you’ve come to expect from the genre, and it’ll do so with a smile.

These stories are usually fronted by a total wet noodle and Kazuhiko Nukumizu is the soggiest soba you’ve ever seen. His main interests are water fountains and hey, wouldn’t you know it, light novel romcoms. As far as he’s concerned, he’s a background character with the personality to match. He’s thrust to the forefront, though, when he’s caught staring at his classmate, Anna Yanami, embarrassingly picking up the pieces from being brutally rejected at a cafe. She forces herself into Nukumizu’s booth and helps herself to several courses’ worth of stress-eating on his dime, which he never agreed to. As recompense, Anna decides to cook him lunch until her debt is more or less repaid, and would you look at that, Nukumizu just made a friend!

As the title would suggest, Anna’s not the only lovelorn maiden finding her way into Nukumizu’s school life. He’s exhorted into joining the school’s literature club, where he meets the track runner, Lemon Yakishio, and the lit club’s stammering stalwart, Chika Komari. He also has to bear witness to each of their own crushes backfiring and deal with the fallout. And amidst this chaos, there’s plenty of botched confessions, getting locked in storage closets, boob faceplants, and all the other nonsense you’d expect from the genre. And it’s terrific! And in the midst of all this, even as Nukumizu seems to be a passenger in this journey, you see him ever-so-slowly realize that he has some agency and grow closer to these girls. Makeine is plenty silly and more than a little stupid, but there’s plenty of heart in here as well.

The offbeat character dynamics and clever dialogue are what really make this. Everyone is just refreshingly weird in their own ways. Anna is a complete menace and totally convinced she’s the protagonist of life, and she may not even be wrong. I almost don’t care whether she and Nukumizu get together or not; they’re such a fun “serious guy/goblin mode girl” pairing that I’m not that interested in their dynamic changing. Komari and the lit club VP Koto are a dynamic fujoshi duo, ensuring that the club’s shenanigans aren’t too shonen-centric (and funny enough, Koto has her own idea for an Osamu Dazai isekai). Everyone in the student council has something demonstrably Wrong With Them, the homeroom teacher is a disaster, and the school nurse probably belongs in prison. I love every single one of them. I could’ve done without Nukumizu’s offputtingly-clingy little sister (and learning about her analogue in this season’s other romcom LN adaptation, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, was enough to put me off of watching it), but it looks like one of her own female classmates is in love with her, so that could be gold in later seasons.

A-1 Pictures, to borrow an industry term, put its entire pussy into this production. As with last year’s Heavenly Delusion, there was so much love put into the lighting effects, background art, and character animation that I felt like I was watching a Makoto Shinkai film at times. All of those elements working in tandem massaged my brain in such a way that when every episode ended, I was left confused because hey, where the hell is the rest of the movie? Makeine is also loaded with killer visual gags, and I give A-1 a ton of credit for letting those jokes land without calling too much attention to them, unlike a certain other show I watched this season. The opening and endings were real treats, with three different EDs as the season progressed, each depicting one of the titular heroines’ personal journeys (and performed by each respective girl’s VA, no less). This is some real investment on the studio’s part and it absolutely paid off.

I promise that every time I compare a romcom to Kaguya-sama, it comes at a great inner struggle to prevent myself from doing so, but if that anime is truly over and this is where A-1 is focusing its resources, Makeine may very well be a worthy successor. I really can’t say for sure whether this or The Elusive Samurai was the best new anime of the summer season, and it doesn’t help that they aired on the same day and I’d always watch them back-to-back. Just know that they’re easily two of the better anime I’ve seen this year.

Mayonaka Punch

If “mega-cancelled YouTuber starts up a new channel with a bunch of disaster lesbian vampires” isn’t enough of a hook for you, I really don’t know what else to tell you.

Masaki got kicked off her popular NewTube channel after punching one of her co-hosts, and the internet is letting her hear it. Maybe barging in on the “we’re firing Masaki” live stream and tackling one of them didn’t help either. Rather than film the bog-standard apology video, she figures she can just wing it and start up a solo channel. Masaki decides to start by playing the hits and drunkenly recreate her first channel’s breakout video in a spooky abandoned hospital, and finds more than she bargained for in a vampire named Live (pronounced like it’d be short for Olivia) who really, really wants to drink her blood in particular. Masaki nearly falls to her death in a panic, only for Live to save her and reveal that she has the very filmable ability to fly, so Masaki cuts a deal: If Live can help her get a new channel off the ground, Masaki will let her drink her blood.

This is tremendous content, so Masaki moves in with Live at Banpai Manor along with her vampire roomies to produce a new channel, co-starring the eternal 10-year-old day trader (night trader?) Ichiko, the soft-spoken fujoshi musician Fu, and the heavy-vaping gambling addict Tokage. They name the channel Mayonaka Punch (because mayonaka means “midnight” and because Masaki punched the shit out of her former co-host) and quickly get to work trying to beat Masaki’s former channel to their goal of a million subscribers (and a delicious lunch for Live). Even though they try to pass off their vampire shenanigans as Very Good CGI, they run afoul of a vampiric authority figure for exposing their identities, so they have to get internet famous the old fashioned way: Cute Girls Doing Cute Things.

I can’t quite put into words what a blast this show is. Mayonaka Punch frequently barrels along at a madcap pace, often punctuated by an electro-swing score, as its cast of loud idiots (and Fu) carom off of one another to chaotic effect. The voice cast really sells it, too: Ikumi Hasegawa (Kita in Bocchi the Rock!, Vladilena in 86, Übel in Frieren) owns every ounce of Masaki’s mounting exasperation as she deals with all the vampire nonsense while continuing to avoid the consequences of her own actions. Fairouz Ai continues her MVP-caliber resume for 2024 in style as Live, infusing her with a kind of desperate manic energy as she scratches and claws for Masaki’s approval. This was easily my favorite of her many roles so far this year, and two years removed from Chainsaw Man’s debut, it’s been a treat to hear her once again voicing a feral, bloodsucking loser.

As silly as Mayonaka Punch gets, though, it delivers some serious emotional blows when you least expect them. The fourth episode, centering on Fu’s history, is one of the best of any anime I watched this season. There’s also some very interesting history between Live and the head vampire’s go-between, Yuki, that was told through (though partially buried by) a series of video game facsimiles, and I hope there’s more there someday. And, of course, there’s Masaki’s evolving relationship with Live, with romantic undertones so tantalizing they might as well be overtones. I really thought there wasn’t enough time left in the season to reach a satisfying conclusion, and though it might not have fully reeled in the yuri bait, I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything tied together.

Mayonaka Punch’s ending is open enough that I can only hope it gets a second season, but I’m not about to hold my breath. That’s a tall order for original anime that don’t set the world on fire, but this one has all the right pieces for a future cult classic. Liked and subscribed. 

Suicide Squad Isekai

When this was announced, the only reaction it really got out of me was “Sure dude, why not.” As far as what this show is, it does what it says on the tin. It’s an isekai featuring a motley crew of anti-heroes plucked directly from the David Ayers and James Gunn Suicide Squad films. You already know what you’re in for.

Sure enough, this is a straight up Suicide Squad story from the jump: Harley Quinn and the Joker (the latter sporting yet another heinous makeover) try to pull off a heist, it goes sideways, Harley gets arrested and forced into Amanda Waller’s scheme to mine rare resources in another world alongside Deadshot, Clayface, Peacemaker, and King Shark. It’s your standard JRPG-style isekai fantasy world, except the previous Suicide Squad of Enchantress, the Thinker, Ratcatcher, and Killer Croc seem to have run roughshod over tensions between races and kingdoms, leaving Rick Flag alone to pick up the pieces.

And what ensues is pretty much what you’d expect. Everyone looks appropriately anime; Psycho-Pass character designer Akira Amano did especially good work with Harley, to the point where I’m shocked that a billion-yen idea like “anime Harley Quinn” was slept on for so long. All of this makes it even funnier that Peacemaker is still very much just John Cena. Character designs aside, Suicide Squad Isekai only seems to look good when it wants to; most of the moment-to-moment stuff looks a bit muted but absolutely pops off when business picks up. There’s even a flashback sequence of Deadshot and Ratcatcher that has a sort of loose, crumbly Masaaki Yuasa look to it. Despite the genericism of the setting and inconsistency of the aesthetic, though, Suicide Squad Isekai still carries plenty of style with it. The intro and outro are both blasts; I didn’t realize until the season ended that the “Tank!”-style OP was by Tomoyasu Hotei, the composer of the most iconic piece of music from Kill Bill. The ED (content warning: Mori Calliope) heavily features Amanda Waller getting down in ways I can only hope to one day see Viola Davis recreate. 

The fusion of American and Japanese styles is definitely awkward at times; the occasional references to other Warner Bros properties like Lord of the Rings and Tom and Jerry feel particularly shoehorned in considering this is a Japanese production, but the voice cast makes up for a lot of faults. Anna Nagase captures Harley’s freewheeling energy perfectly, and her penchant for nicknames is extra cute in Japanese when she’s calling the Joker “Purin-chan” or King Shark “Nana-chan.” Jun Fukuyama is a real standout as Clayface, channeling the flashy spirit of Joker (not this one, the Persona 5 one) to animate Basil Karlo’s irritating showmanship. Takehito Koyasu as Peacemaker doesn’t quite have the self-serious goofy energy we’ve come to expect from the live action version, but it’s such funny casting on its face that I don’t really mind. Can this tradeoff go both ways? I want John Cena as DIO yesterday.

For a Studio WIT production and a story by Re:Zero’s writers, Suicide Squad Isekai may occasionally feel like less than the sum of its parts (par for the course for the property’s recent adaptations, unfortunately, save for the Gunn film), but if you don’t come at it expecting too much you’ll have a good time. Far from my favorite this year, but it’s a crowd pleaser, and those, I like.

[thisgirlnamedblusy]

Hello, I really enjoy your reader and Donna writing and I’m always happy to see you update. No pressure, but could you write something where reader starts teasing g!p Donna by grinding against her lap while she’s trying to read or sew or something, and she continues stimulating her this way until Donna is a trembling mess and she finishes in her dress still fully clothed? Donna can then return the favor for the reader as well.

Yess!!!! Thank you for your kind words, your support is very important to me!!! Thank you for your request!!! I hope you like it and sorry about the language mistakes!!! :))))

To avoid the shyness

Pairing: Donna Beneviento x Fem! Reader

Warnings: G!P Donna, smut, Minors DNI

Word count: 6,184

Summary: Maybe you have to be more direct for her to pay attention to you...

N/A: Sorry about the language mistakes!!! Requests are open!!! I'm waiting yours!!! I love you all!!! :)) This weekend I'm not at home, so I won't be able to write!! You can keep sending requests anyway, on Monday I'll continue writting your worderful ones!!! :)))))

Carefully, you opened the door.

Darkness had already fallen over the old estate when you returned from one of your usual visits to the village.

It hadn't been long since you had abandoned your boring village life to venture into a stage, one you hadn't expected, but for which you couldn't help but thank the Black Gods.

Life in that place was always a difficult task. Isolated from the world, locked in that stretch of land for the rest of your life, villagers like you reacted in different ways.

Some gave up, others fulfilled their obligations, and others ignored the problem. You were part of that last group, one that accepted where they were, that looked for ways to forget that situation in the simplest way: adapting to it.

You didn't have an unhappy life, you had friends, family; you had everything necessary to think that, unlike many of your friends, you had been lucky.

But that kind of innate fortune only improved with the passage of time, and, as a reward for your devotion and attitude towards that dark life, love appeared for you.

An unexpected love, a dangerous love and one that you considered impossible.

No one in their right mind would dare to think of any of the Lords in a romantic way, but, again, you were an exception in that place. Little by little, and after proving you were not like all the villagers, you managed to gain the attention of Miranda, and of the Lady of the Castle.

An extraordinary milestone, but it was nothing compared to winning the love of Donna Beneviento by chance, chance which might not be a trustworthy entity, but for you, it was much more powerful than the Gods themselves.

Problems, psychosis, nervous breakdowns, fear of losing you... The flaws of the lady in black went far beyond what an ordinary person could bear. Once again you overcame those obstacles with admirable grace.

Nothing, no previous romance had ever made you feel anything like being in Donna's arms, receiving her kisses, her caresses, contemplating that beauty she tried so hard to hide. You were hopelessly in love, and determined not to return to your old home, except for fleeting visits.

Like many people before you, with effort and determination, you managed to forge your own path, your own love story, one that you would never want to change, one that you had committed to forever.

After one of those visits to your old life, you returned to the mansion after nightfall and, discreetly, you walked through the house trying not to disturb the lady's rest, although, deep down, you knew she was awake, waiting for you nervously, as always, as if afraid of you would never returning.

But that night was different, since the attitude of the Angie doll was chaotic and she always looked for an opportunity to get on your nerves. That night she hadn’t come out to meet you.

Slowly, you walked towards the living room, where a dim light illuminated your usual reading corner. A black figure rested on the sofa, Donna, surely tired of waiting for you.

You smiled when you saw her asleep, seeing how her hands held a book that she had not been reading for a while. You could probably consider yourself the luckiest girl in the village. No one would be able to see something that beautiful.

Carefully, you crouched over her, placing a hand on her shoulder, angry for disturbing that innocent sight of someone you knew wasn't innocent.

“Hey, Donna,” you whispered tenderly, accompanying your voice with the movements of your hand, eliciting an adorable grunt from the brunette, who shifted on the couch before startling, causing you to step back in amusement.

“Non sono stato io!” she shouted hurriedly, confused, with her eye wide open. You, holding back your laughter, let yourself fall on the couch next to her, gently rubbing her back.

“What were you dreaming about?” you asked curiously, taking advantage of her newly awakened confusion to steal a tender kiss on her lips, with which she sighed in relief, rubbing her eye with her hand.

“(Y/N)… You're back,” she murmured with her voice still sleepy. You nodded with a mocking smile. “What time is it?”

“Late,” you whispered amused, keeping the smile with your eyebrows slightly arched. “Hey, you did it again.”

“Mm?” she murmured, yawning and looking at you curiously.

“Oh, come on, you know, waiting up for me, well, trying to,” you whispered in her ear to which she responded by shaking her head, with a fake smile.

“You know that when you leave the house I’m nervous, (Y/N),” she said with a more serious voice, stopping your attempts at affection with a hand on your chest. “I'm afraid that one day you won't come back.”

You snorted, rolling your eyes and looked for her hand to caress it.

“We've talked about this, Donna,” you said quietly, wishing with all your might that those jealousies and absurd fears would disappear. “You know I always come back.”

“I can't help it,” she said, looking away

“Well... It's okay,” you said, with a different sparkle in your eyes, with a desire that you had been having since you started the way back.

“Besides...”you whispered seductively, planting several kisses on her neck, causing that adorable laugh that indicated her fears were locked away again. “I’m hungry.”

“You always come back hungry,” Donna whispered in a joking tone, laughing at the caresses on her neck, at the hands that began to run along her legs. “But don't worry, I had already anticipated it.”

“Oh, really?” you said, with a frown and the same mischievous smile. “That's good because I really want to…”

“I've made you some dinner, I'm sure you haven't eaten anything,” the lady said suddenly, getting up from the couch and leaving you with your eyes wide open and your mouth dancing, confused by her attitude.

“Um, no, but, I, what I wanted to say…” you stammered, following the lady to the table, as if you were hypnotized.

“Here, eat, tesoro,” she indicated with a smile, discovering a small banquet just for you.

“Thanks, Donna, but…” you said automatically sitting down in the chair, receiving a kiss from the brunette, silencing you.

“I'm going to get something for me, that way it can be like we had dinner together,” she whispered with a tender smile, running a hand over your cheek, thus making you forget your true intentions.

“Uh, I… Okay,” you said, taking the cutlery and shaking your head. A sinister laughter got a little closer, squeaking in your ears.

“Loser,” a childish voice reached your ears and you turned your head sharply. The Angie doll attacked again.

“Oh, please, give me a break…” you sighed, clasping your hands together to emphasize your plea.

“(Y/N) fool, she wanted to make babies with Donna and she just…” the doll sang, abruptly interrupted by a slap that knocked her off the table.

“Shut up,” you hissed with a dangerous look, but mocking at the same time. “Tell me, Angie, why are you so damn shameless, and Donna seems to be so naive?” you asked curiously, a bit frustrated by your recent attempts to dance under the sheets, to feel again that intimate love that Donna seemed to have been ignoring for a while, surely without wanting to.

Donna had spent too much time alone.

The doll climbed back onto the table and shrugged, swinging her legs childishly.

“You’re part of the same mind, aren’t you?” you asked again, admiring out of the corner of your eye the delicious delicacy the lady in black had prepared for you.

“More or less,” the puppet replied, offended. “Do you want some advice?”

“No,” you replied curtly, shaking your head and keeping your gaze on the elevator hallway.

“Well, I’ll give you some,” the doll said, ignoring your answer, as always. “Donna doesn’t work with subtlety, if you want something from her, you have to be more direct.”

“I told you I didn’t want advice,” you protested, filling yourself a glass of water. “It’s none of your business, Angie.”

“Well, it turns out that seeing you begging for Donna to pay attention to you is not a pleasant sight for me, so yes, stupid, it is my business,” the doll defended herself, crossing her arms.

 You bit your lip to avoid an insult and decided to ignore the doll.

“Can I have dinner in peace?” you asked ironically, with your legs shaking with impatience. You wanted Donna to come up as soon as possible to end that uncomfortable conversation.

“She will never get your hints, you silly village girl,” the doll insisted, putting a wooden finger on your nose that you pushed away with another slap. “If you want something from her, you have to ask her or she will continue in her world of dolls and cheesy things.”

“Do you want to leave me alone? I told you that it is not your business,” you complained again, crossing your arms, with the blush of your discomfort appearing on your cheeks.

“What you have to do is be a little more direct, you know, for example: you can kneel down pretending that you dropped something and start sucking her…”

“Shut up!” you shouted embarrassed. “Just what I needed, a living doll giving me advice about my sex life…” you said incredulously, shaking your head.

Luckily, the sound of the elevator appeared before you threw the puppet into the warm fire of the fireplace.

“I'm here, tesoro,” the lady said, carrying some fruits with her to accompany you in your late dinner. You sighed in relief, with a smile.

“Thank you, because I was about to commit a ‘dollicide…’” you joked. Donna looked at the doll with one fiery eye and Angie fled the scene laughing mockingly, laughing at you, of course.

The dinner was quiet and you avoided thinking about the words of that doll by all means, although it was a difficult task.

“How do you do it?” you asked, wiping yourself with a napkin once you finished eating. The lady in black finished her orange and looked at you smiling, with a confused face.

“What do you mean?” she asked in a relaxed tone, tilting her head in an adorable way.

“I mean, of course, these edible masterpieces. You have an incredible talent, Donna,” you said, turning the conversation to a calmer one, without innuendos or ulterior motives.

“It's not talent, (Y/N) it's a matter of practice,” she said, with her usual modesty and insecurity. You sighed and nodded with a grimace of approval.

“I see,” you said with a tired sigh. “Hey, maybe you'd like to teach me.”

“Do you want me to teach you how to cook?” she asked, with excitement adorning her face. You smiled back, also excited by the idea.

“I would love to…”

The next day, just as you had asked, a culinary lesson that you had been wanting for a long time, awaited you. Angie's words kept echoing in your head, but they would surely fade away with a perfect morning with Donna, one like the thousands of them you wanted to live.

“What are you going to teach me?” you asked amused, already in the kitchen next to the lady in black, who smiled tenderly because you appreciated her skills.

Neither evil nor dangerous, Donna Beneviento was just a poor unfortunate soul who didn’t have the same luck as you. That was something you already knew, and you loved to see for yourself, to see that kindness, that tenderness.

“What do you know about cooking?” she asked back, blushing because of your hands on her waist and your expectant look.

“Well, I know… That is… a tomato, right?” you joked, pointing at the vegetables on the counter. Donna laughed amused, shaking her head and moving your hands away from her waist.

“Okay, first I'm going to teach you how to cut vegetables with a knife,” she said, ignoring your mischievous hands, your dangerous look. You put on a feigned look of surprise and blinked repeatedly.

“Oh, that sounds dangerous, what if I cut myself?” you joked, letting the lady put two of those tomatoes on top of a wooden board, picking up a knife amused and blushing at your attitude.

“If you do what I tell you, you'll never cut yourself, Tesoro,” she answered in a soft voice, indicating for you to take a look at the way she held the tool.

You looked at her, curious.

“See? If you put your fingers like this, the knife will never be able to cut you,” she explained, with a more serious tone while the silver dagger cut those tomatoes as if they were butter.

“It seems complicated,” you whispered with a frown, mesmerized by her quick movements.

“It may take you some time to get used to it at first, but it's basic to do everything else. You can't cook without fingers,” Donna said amused, with a somber voice and a mischievous look that you returned.

“Can’t I? Well, my aunt's neighbor only has three fingers and by his appearance he doesn't seem to be hungry,” you said ironically.

Donna laughed again, sighing and shaking her head.

“Take it seriously, tesoro, I don't want you to get hurt,” she whispered tenderly, without reproach.

“I’m taking it seriously,” you joked, crossing your arms. Donna sighed again, moving the knife with an elegant acrobatic movement and extending it towards you.

“Try, (Y/N),” she said with a satisfied smile, throwing the already cut tomatoes into a pot.

“Okay…” you said with the knife in your hand, approaching the wood and holding it in a way similar to her.

Well, if it wasn't your point of view, I would probably say that it didn't look anything like it. Advantages of an omniscient narrator…

“No, no, that's how you're going to cut yourself,” Donna interrupted you, holding your hand so you didn't sink the knife into the fruit, standing behind you. That position made you shiver, which you made disappear by blinking hard. “Let me help you…”

Slowly and with a delicacy impossible for anyone else, Donna took your hand, gently placing it in the correct way, poking her head over your shoulder, giving you more shivers.

There was a small tense moment when you turned your head and your smiles met. Having Donna behind you, moving your hands in such a… Sensual way, made you remember the puppet's words, made you unable to think of anything else.

“Just like that,” the lady whispered in your ear, moving your hand, carefully guiding the knife, cutting that tomato slowly, but almost perfectly. “Let it slide, don't force it...”

It could be the lack of intimate relationships or that you just had one thing on your mind, but that phrase made you squirm, forcing you to bite your lip.

You sighed at that sudden heat, exhaling something more like a moan than a sigh. As usual, Donna didn't seem to notice your sudden arousal.

You have to be direct

Angie's phrase involuntarily resonated in your ears

With a look she couldn't see, you moved, just enough for your bodies to collide irremediably. Your hips were asking for friction, and they were going to get it. Donna gasped in surprise at your sudden movement, holding you in case that unexpected contact was the result of a stumble. That made your arousal even worse, starting to move slowly against her.

Silence fell in the kitchen and your movements tirelessly brushed against the already incipient bulge between her legs. Donna was so sensitive, so… Perfect…

But your desire to play was even stronger than your lust. Without moving away from that erotic touch, you slowly cut a couple of tomatoes, following her advice while the hand that circled your waist kept you right where she wanted. Amused, you moaned softly, noticing how her hand moved away to go to the edge of your skirt, threatening to pull it down.

That touch, that touch with your clothes on was a sensation you didn't know you liked that much, and that you didn't want to lose so easily. With an indiscreet clearing of your throat, you moved away from the brunette, but without stopping to brush against her erection.

You glanced at her with dark eyes, biting your lip to provoke more involuntary movements of the doll maker's hips, who, with just a small touch, was already breathing nervously.

“How about this, Donna? Am I doing it right?” you asked in a velvety, hoarse and sensual tone. She swallowed and nodded, closing her eye to enjoy the contact even more.

That face beginning to be devoured by pleasure tickled between your legs, thus revealing to you a new way of feeling pleasure, of making her feel pleasure. The lady nodded, running her arms through yours, removing the knife from your hands and turning you around.

“What is the next lesson?” you asked with a smile, running a hand over her heaving chest, pulling her so she was very close to you again.

Donna didn't say anything, she simply returned that friction to her hips, rubbing against yours, grabbing your legs and leaning you over the counter, increasing the intensity of the rubbing of her erection between your legs, a new sensation for you, which you didn't want to lose.

As if the simple fact of provoking that lustful contact was already enough to make the lady in black go crazy, she put her hands in your dress, lowering your underwear slightly while you climbed onto the counter.

The kisses were wild and her movements followed that same rhythm. Well, at least it hadn't been that difficult to make the brunette see what your body was screaming for.

With a hurried moan, she released her erection from her black skirt, positioning herself at your entrance quickly, not wanting to waste time with the usual kisses and caresses.

Donna's haste only excited you even more, forcing you to hug the brunette with your legs while you felt the tip of her shaft in your wet folds.

“Hey! Let her go!” a terribly inopportune Angie shouted, appearing by surprise at the kitchen door.

Donna backed away in fright, keeping her embarrassment to herself again, trying in vain to pretend that nothing was happening.

“What the fuck...? Angie!” you shouted, pulling up your underwear and getting off the counter, exchanging pleasure for anger in less than a second. “Go away!”

“No!” the doll shrieked as the lady in black tried to compose herself, terribly embarrassed.

“Donna, it's Miranda, Miranda’s called,” the puppet said, ignoring your protests and pulling at Donna's black dress. She looked at her furiously.

“What does she want?” the lady asked, adjusting the fabric to hide her arousal.

“Meeting, there's a meeting,” Angie sang, having fun with your disoriented and frustrated look.

“Oh, come on…” you protested, running a hand through your hair, over your flushed face and crossing your arms.

“I'm, I'm sorry, (Y/N),” Donna stammered, picking up the doll in her arms and giving you a quick apologetic kiss, one that you growled indignantly at.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” you mocked unpleasantly, causing the lady to stop fleeing the kitchen, sighing and approaching you again.

“Hey, don't worry, tesoro, we could continue when I get back,” she whispered affectionately, moving Angie in her arms so she would stop hitting her shoulders impatiently.

“Yeah, sure,” you said, taking off your apron and looking away, letting her leave the room in a hurry.

No, you weren't going to continue. Meetings were always a torment for the lady in black. She loved her siblings, but she couldn't stop her fears, her irrational hatred for people, from making those meetings a bad experience for the doll maker.

She would come back exhausted, leaving you hanging once again.

But if that little encounter served any purpose, it was for you to find a new way to provoke her, a direct one, just as the annoying Angie suggested. It seemed innocent, a simple touch, but, of course, it was much more than that for Donna.

Normally, turning her on wasn't a complicated task, she was very sensitive and you loved it. You simply looked for a way to do it in a subtle way, with just your words, or with your soft touches. But her gaze, her throbbing erection against your body told you that this was going to be very funny, too much funny.

The idea of ​​intimacy disappeared the moment the lady returned, as you thought, exhausted.

But you didn't take it badly, not at all. In fact, that night you slept very well, with a naughty idea in your mind, one that you would put into practice the next day.

Just as you had evilly planned, that day started normally: kisses, words of love, innocent caresses, nothing that seemed to remind the brunette of your growing desire.

But that would end soon.

During the quiet hours of tea and reading you shared with Donna, your instincts moved through you, forcing you to brush against her body again, to grant her that look, those gasps of pleasure. In a less subtle way, you climbed into her lap, rubbing yourself against her body, provoking that previous excitement again, feeling pleasure for it. Maybe that was much better than a passionate outburst.

But you had a flaw, and that was your vengeful side. If you had to find someone to blame, it would be Angie, but you couldn't forget that moment when everything vanished and abstinence returned to your way of life.

With that evil intention, you tried to let Donna not be able to release, to go further, lifting you from her lap when she was already a trembling mess. That game of yours lasted for several days and Donna didn't seem angry about it, she only protested with high-pitched moans and a pleading eye.

Could it be that this lustful touch was also terribly exciting for her?

Shortly after her breathing calmed down, naivety returned to her face and the smile returned to her mouth, as if she forgave that little moment of pleasure that didn't come to an end, as if she felt the same fun as you.

“Hello,” you greeted amused, bursting into the doll workshop while Donna was working on her dolls, as concentrated as always. Yes, of course, your plan was to make her lose that concentration.

“Mm,” a murmur was her answer, along with a gesture of her hand for you to come closer.

After spending days distracting her with your touch, you only had one moment left, one moment to make her lose her cool, in a good way of course.

Following the steps of her family, Donna spent hours making those dolls that you had no special sympathy for. That was the only time she could escape your lust, you hoped until that moment.

“What are you doing, my love?” you asked, hanging on to her shoulders and capturing her lips. Donna's tender smile almost made you forget your intentions, almost.

For her, a kiss from you was an eternal reminder of fidelity, that you would never abandon her.

“I’m working on my dolls,” she answered innocently, relaxing her smile and concentrating again on the dress she was sewing.

“Oh, I see,” you joked, resting your head on hers, massaging her shoulders slowly. She moved a to push you away, indicating that you were bothering her. “If you want, I'll go…” you sighed, pretending sadness and getting up.

She stopped sewing and looked at you with a sad eye, with an apologetic look.

“No, tesoro, I… I'm sorry,” she said with a soft voice, caressing your hand so you wouldn't move, so you would stay there. “I just don't want to stick the needle in my hand.”

“Mm” you murmured, nodding, coming closer again and watching her work, something you could do for hours. “I'd like to learn how to sew,” you said with disinterest, admiring her quick movements on the old machine.

Donna laughed and shook her head, admiring that new little dress, ready to be sheathed in one of the porcelain pieces.

“You want to learn a lot of things lately,” she whispered, running her finger along the seams, checking that she had done a good job despite your annoying presence.

You nodded, blinking mockingly.

“I like the way you teach me,” you whispered in her ear, massaging her shoulders again. She laughed nervously and shook her head, looking at you with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“I think what you like to do is something else, tesoro,” she commented amused, grabbing your hand and kissing the back of it quickly.

Well, yes, maybe you shouldn't have taken her for a stupid woman, she wasn't.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” you said, feigning confusion, biting her earlobe, causing the lady to fidget nervously in her chair.

“I think you have,” she replied dryly, admiring the other pieces of fabric on the table.

“You're so tense, Donna…” you hissed in her ear, intensifying your massage.

“You've made me tense, (Y/N),” she said, breathing hard.

“How?” you asked amused, surrounding her so she had no choice but to look at your face.

“You, you know how…” she said, starting to babble while you maintained a cocky pose and a dark look. “Doing… That to me…”

“Oh, this?” you said abruptly, standing in front of her and settling on her lap, something she didn't reject, as her hands surrounded your body.

“Yes…” she sighed when your hips began to move in a subtle way, in a way you knew drove her crazy, even though she still didn't admit it, yet.

“You don't like it?” you asked in a melodic voice, slightly increasing the intensity of your hip movements, already noticing that delicious bulge between her legs.

“Yes, yes, I, I like it but...” the lady stammered, embarrassed because her body had given her away, following your touch in a rhythmic way, silencing any protest by drowning it with a moan, with her eye closed while her hands caressed your back.

You smiled triumphantly, kissing her neck slowly, running your tongue over her pale skin while her hands guided your hips to deepen that subtle touch. Well, you had managed to distract her from her dolls, it was quite a milestone.

“You're so sensitive, Donna, I love you…” you whispered lovingly, taking your time to move, to feel her erection as intensely as possible, which caused her nails to scratch the fabric of your dress and rest her head on your shoulder, making an amused attempt to nod.

“Don’t, don't go this time, please,” she begged with another moan, when your kisses reached her lips and her hands pressed your hips against hers, harder than usual. Maybe Donna had already reached her limit, good.

“Mm,” you murmured amused, playing with your body on her lap, increasing the intensity of her discreet moans with your touch. “Only if you behave, Donna…”

“Yes, yes, I…” she whispered, moaning more indiscreetly when you stopped your movements to slide your hand between her legs, to grab her erection through the black fabric of the dress. “Take it out, please, I need you…”

“Oh, you're so impatient…” you mocked, letting her shaft go and cupping her face in your hands, her confused and disoriented face. “No, no, Donna…”

“Please, stop…” she said, nervously, pulling at the fabric of your dress when her words weren't enough to stop you from moving.

Her body trembled and her breathing betrayed concern. Only one thing could happen to her, something that just thinking about it made you writhe in pleasure.

“Why? You like it,” you said, pouting, kissing her lips in a treacherous way, caressing her breasts, squeezing them gently in your hands.

The increase in your impudence only served to make her protest with a moan, moving her legs in frustration at your refusal to grant her that pleasure. No, that was a game you thought you would win.

“Yes, I like it, (Y/N) but I want… I want to make you mine, please…” Donna said, resting her head on your chest, running away from your provocative caresses while your body kept insisting, kept dancing with hers, kept brushing against her arousal.

“Are you in a hurry, my love?” you mocked, lifting her chin with your finger.

Her forehead was sweating as she nodded profusely, panting and moaning desperately for that desired contact, contact that you gave her, but not in the way she wanted, of course.

“Yes, if you don't stop, I'm going to…” she said, closing her eye tightly, but involuntarily increasing the friction with your hips.

“You are going to what? My precious Donna…” you mocked again, fighting your own moans, wanting to be the undisputed queen of the situation. “Oh, honey… Don't tell me you're going to…”

“(Y/N), please…” she murmured erratically, outlining with her words a mischievous smile on your face.

You really didn't think you'd go that far, but this situation was being terribly exciting, the moisture growing between your legs confirmed it.

Could she reach the limit just with your touch? There was only one way to find out.

“Shh, relax… You're so good, Donna, so sensitive, so… Beautiful,” you whispered tenderly, relaxing your movements, showering the lady in black with compliments, with those words that you knew sent shivers down her spine.

A muffled moan left her lips, leaning towards you, keeping the pressure of your body on hers as her body trembled with her shameful release, causing her wetness to soak the fabric of her dress.

“Cazzo, (Y/N)…” she sighed, letting her body relax after her unexpected ejaculation caused by your incessant rubbing.

She was wonderful, certainly, and as dirty as it seemed, you could only feel tenderness.

“What a mess you've made, huh?” you said amused, looking down at that subtle stain of moisture that corrupted the darkness of her dress. She kept her eye closed, and her cheeks flushed.

“This is… Embarrassing…” she sighed, shaking her head, trying to relax her breathing.

“Why? I found it so sexy,” you purred in her ear, running your hand over that moisture, enjoying her heat, a treacherous and improvised heat. Donna shook her head, also looking down and running a hand over her forehead.

“Are you happy now?” the lady asked, looking at the mess in her dress, but keeping you on her lap while you covered her with caresses. “Look what you've done.”

“Um…” you laughed amused, stealing a kiss from the embarrassed lady, who narrowed her eye at your shameless attitude. “I’m proud.”

Donna laughed ironically, looking away. Although she seemed upset, you knew she wasn't at all.

“Now what, huh? Oh, I'm going, I'm going to clean me up,” she said, pushing you off her lap and looking sadly at the stain on her dress. You were quicker than her, stopping her embarrassed escape with a hand on her wrist.

“Hey, hey, hey, where do you think you're going?” you said in a husky tone, pulling her body towards yours, running your tongue over your lips.

“I already told you, I'm going, I'm going to clean me up,” she repeated, displaying her infinite naivety. You pouted and shook your head, wrapping your arms around her neck and whispering very close to her lips.

“No, no, no, my precious, Donna, I think you owe me a favor,” you said sensually, running your tongue over her lips. Her gaze remained dark, but her hands traveled to your cheek, gently brushing it with her thumb as she shook her head.

“The favor of ruining my dress?” she commented, with a tender look, far removed from the embarrassment of moments before. You pretended to think about it and then nodded with a smile.

“Exactly,” you said in a brusque tone, arching your eyebrows in a threatening manner. Donna seemed to think too and then shook her head, stealing an unexpected kiss from you.

“Okay, but let me take a shower first,” she whispered, kissing your cheek before letting your hand go and turning around. You, again, prevented her. “(Y/N)…”

“Stay still, huh? You’ve been running away from me for too long,” you said in a threatening tone, kissing her and slowly bending down until you were kneeling on the floor.

“What are you…? (Y/N)!” she squealed in surprise when your mischievous hands lowered the bottom of her dress, giving you a privileged view of the mess you had caused.

“Relax, I’ll take care of this. Do you think that will be enough to be able to return the favor, Donna?” you said amused, grabbing her shiny shaft with your hand and moving it slowly with a mischievous look.

“(Y/N), don't do that, not now,” she protested.

Well, she protested with her words, actually, she didn't make any attempt to get away from your intentions.

“Why not? You're delicious, Donna,” you whispered mischievously, running your tongue over her skin, tasting the product of your provocation, the sweet taste of her release.

“Don't, say... Those... Things...” Donna sighed, not being able to help but moan when your mouth embraced her flesh, when your lips withdrew her shame while your hand followed the rhythm, stimulating, noticing how her erection was forming again.

“It's the truth,” you said, pulling away for a moment, looking at the result of your obscene gesture before sucking the tip, causing a moan from the brunette, who grabbed your head keeping it in the desired place.

Perfect, she was crazy with pleasure again.

“It's so hard…”

“(Y/N) I… Don't stop…” she moaned, now freed from her shyness, gently moving her hips so your mouth could travel all over her shaft, so your hand could play with it slowly while your lips caressed it.

“Mm yes, I'm going to stop,” you said with disinterest, getting up from the floor, but continuing with your caresses.

“(Y/N),” Donna protested, already at the limit again. “Go down, go down again, per, please...” she said with a pleading tone.

You shook your head, pulling her hand and dragging her towards one of the work tables, getting rid of your underwear and shamelessly showing your wet entrance, separating your legs.

“Come here, doll face, return the favor to me...” you hissed, making a suggestive gesture with your finger. Donna nodded, grabbing your face and pulling it to kiss you passionately, while her body was already burning in contact with yours.

“You are incorrigible,” she whispered in your ear, positioning her shaft at your entrance, moaning at the moisture that made contact with hers as she entered slowly, letting your body get used to it.

“Donna… You are so… Big…” you moaned, feeling a pleasurable relief at noticing her inside of you, at feeling again that pleasure you had such a hard time getting from the shy Beneviento woman.

“Don't protest, you owe me this,” she said, in a dark voice, entering completely and starting to move, making your walls stretch in a way that made you moan, completely losing control of the situation.

Now your moans were the ones that bathed the workshop. The obscene sound of your bodies colliding seemed to want to crack the walls.

You burned with pleasure, moving as best you could, avoiding feeling too close, avoiding Donna thinking that you were the desperate one, although she may have already known that. She wasn't stupid, she never was.

“That's it, that's it, darling…” you gasped when her hands lifted your legs, positioning them on top of her shoulder so she could harden her almost rabid thrusts. “Oh, Donna…”

“(Y/N),” the lady moaned in response, closing her eye and letting herself be carried away by the inertia of her erratic movements, stopping right in the places you needed. “You, hold me… so tightly…”

“Of course, my body loves you, I love you, Donna,” you said with the tenderness that the growing intensity of the movements allowed you, just before your body gave you away, leaning, tensing and emitting a thunderous moan that bounced off the wooden limbs hanging from the ceiling.

Your orgasm and the nervous tightening of your walls caused the lady in black to release herself again, like in a coordinated symphony, flooding you with her heat, letting out a gasp of exhaustion from her lips, leaning her head forward and trembling again, staying hopelessly inside of you.

“(Y/N)…. You are… You are…” she murmured, moving closer to give you a quick kiss while you laughed in amusement.

“Now you know what happens when you neglect me for too long, Donna,” you joked, moving your body so the mixed moisture between your legs massaged your hot entrance.

“What?” Donna asked, confused, frowning. “Did I neglect you?”

“Uh-huh,” you affirmed with a childish look, with a good girl smile that didn’t match your posture. “But don't worry, I can teach you to change that, unless you like having to do the laundry more often…”

[radsoldier]

Runaway

Pairing: Jenna Ortega x fem!reader

Summary: you end up in a city you hate but maybe the company makes it worth the while.

Words: 1.3k

Warnings: none?

a/n: this is my first time writting for Jenna and english is not my first language so keep that in mind <3

It was 4am and you were stranded at the airport. your flight was delayed due to a raging storm and you decided to stay the night instead of booking a room. you were used to airports by now anyway.

Your job required you to travel a lot. You were a firefighter and you also worked as a volunteer with the IFRA (International Fire and Rescue Association) so yes, you spent a lot of time wandering around airports.

You were training some mexican units and the weather was horribly hot, so as soon as the job was finished you found yourself desperate to find a way back home. You knew there would be no direct flights from Mexico to Iceland in fucking November so you settled for a connecting flight via New York.

That's how you ended up slouched over a small table questioning every decision you ever made.

You knew the weather in Iceland, you weren't born there but it was the place you proudly called home. So you knew this storm could either be over in a few hours or block all the flights for at least a week. You didn't like that thought though.

You looked around and saw a large group of people walking towards some free seats near you so you made the smart decision of getting up and gathering your small suitcase and the book you were reading. You were not in the mood for chatting with strangers and you felt the need to move your legs anyway so you plugged your headphones in and started walking with no direction in mind. You found a much quieter and less crowded corner and you unconsciously sped up in hopes to get there before someone could spot the couple of empty chairs under some burnt lights. You were lost in your thoughts and inmersed in the music until someone bumped into your side, throwing you off balance and making you drop your book. You turned around to see a small figure crouching over and picking up your book.

"I'm sorry" it was a beautiful voice.

She looked at you and smiled and you just froze.

"Sylvia Plath, huh?" she smiled and your eyes became fixated in the small dimples on her cheeks.

You just nodded, somehow keeping a sense of calmness in your words when you spoke.

"Would say it's my toxic trait but I like to think it's more like my biggest flex."

She laughed and you found yourself unable to look away from her.

"I'm Jenna" she simply said, extending her hand.

"I know" you answered meeting her hand in a soft handshake. "I'm Y/N."

She just smiled, not breaking eye contact.

"It's a beautiful name" she said, disentangling your hands. "Now, Y/N, please tell me we can share that secluded corner for awhile?" she sounded a little desperate despite the playful tone and the lingering smile.

You motioned for her to go ahead and she took a couple steps forward before looking back at you.

"You coming?" her smile made you feel warm inside.

You followed her and sat in one of the chairs, ready to pull your phone out and go back to your playlist.

"There you go" Jenna said handing you the book. "Did you get here too soon too?"

You frowned at her shaking your head.

"My flight was delayed" you answered. "When's yours supposed to take off?"

"In a couple of hours" she said tiredly.

You couldn't help but laugh, earning a fierce glare from Jenna. "She looks cute" you thought.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" you said, still laughing a little.

"No, you're not" she retorted with a smile. "So… Where are you flying, Y/N?" She asked curious.

"Iceland" you said with a happy sigh. " But seems like the weather doesn't like my plans."

"Sure" she snorted. "Iceland seems like an amazing destination, though. Business or pleasure?"

"Neither" you said "well, for pleasure I guess."

She looked at you with a weird look, like she was trying to decipher some kind of mystery.

You cleared your throat and tried to explain.

"I live there. Well, at least when I'm not working or on a mission. I usually go visit whenever I have a few days off."

"A mission?" she said, as if it was the only thing she heard.

"Yeah, well" you touched the back of your neck, unsure. "I'm a firefighter so sometimes we volunteer to go on training or rescue missions."

"Really?" she said, her eyes shinning with a strange glimmer in them.

You nodded, not knowing what to say.

"And you live in Iceland? Whoah" she gestured with her hands while mouting the word "mindblowing".

You had to laugh at that.

"Yeah, but I spend most of the year working on England or traveling, you know" you explained.

She nodded at that.

"Seems like your full of surprises, Y/N" she smiled at you.

You checked the time on your phone only to be met with a notification saying "CANCELLED FLIGHT 18-705".

"Fuck" you cursed under your breath. "They cancelled my flight."

Jenna looked at you serious but didn't say anything until she saw you getting up from the chair.

"Where are you going?" she asked scrunching her face.

"It's almost 6am, I'm getting you to your boarding gate and then I'm calling a friend to see if I can crash at her place" you explained with a smile.

Without saying anything she got up aswell and checked her phone for the info she needed then she started walking toward the gate without much thought.

Until some guy grabbed her arm and started screaming about how he got so lucky to run into THE Jenna Ortega. Her face was showing clear signs of discomfort and… pain? Was the guy hurting her? You inmediately stepped toward them and took his wrist in your hand and with just enough force you made him let go of her.

He wasn't happy, the looks he was giving you made it clear but he wouldn't try anything by the slight fear in his eyes.

"Maybe you should try asking first next time" you said coldly before leading Jenna away from him.

She was quiet and wouldn't look at you and you wondered if she was maybe angry because of what you did?

"I'm sorry, I was out of place but he seemed like a bit too much" you started, smiling tentatively. "I'm really so…"

"Don't be" she cut you off, still not looking at you. "He took me by surprise" she admitted. "Thank you" she continued lifting her face to look at you with some sense of… fondness?

She seemed genuinely grateful and you couldn't shake the feeling that accompained the thought of this kind of situation happening to her everyday.

"It was nothing" you said shrugging it off.

You continued walking toward her boarding gate in a comfortable silence.

"This is me" she said with a nervous smile.

"Be safe" you said. "Have a nice flight, Jenna."

You turned to leave but her voice made you stop.

"Wait" you turned again, now facing her. "Thank you, Y/N."

You smiled at her starting to walk backwards as people you assumed wanted to board the very same plane started filling the space and when you could no longer see her you turned fully determined to find the exit and then call Gio to ask for a ride and a couch to crash on.

Meanwhile, Jenna got seated on the plane when a thought came into her mind.

She forgot to ask for your phone number!!

[yakichoufd]

AWWWW, the way you draw Evolution Scott is so cute!! I recently watched Evolution and really enjoyed it!! I’m so glad there’s at least one adaptation of Scott that isn’t constantly suffering. He deserves at least some sort of happiness in his life. :,)

What’s your opinion of Evolution? I think you have good takes on anything Scott-related, so I must hear from the source!!

I already shared my opinion on that show several time so I might repeat myself haha! X-men Evolution is one of my all time favorite. I watched it as a kid and it made me fall in love of Scott (and Kurt). He is very mature for his age (but you could understand it if you know his past) and very kind. He struggles with things that fit with his age and highschool (ofc he has other bigger struggles with his mutation and the x-men too) but the show gave a good balance between daily life and being a mutant/x-men. Or at least for the first 2 seasons, after, I started to enjoy it less. I like how his romance is written. Scott isn't too obsessive and he keeps his distance when he thinks his love interest is not receptive. He is still awkward but it is not over done. I think Jean should have been written a bit differently, I don't think they are a super good match here (like Rogue and Scott actually got many bonding time and they are very good friend). I'm really sad that once Jean and Scott are together, he doesn't hang out with Rogue anymore. I think the writers should have give them some scenes together as friends. We lose a bit of Scott's personnality and character development once he is with Jean. which is a pity. But they are still a cute couple, I guess! I loved how they added angst for Scotty. Too bad they never really do anything with the angsty episodes, cause his brother and him deal with a lot. Same when Mistique kidnaps Scott and abandon him in a desert without his visor. He should have end up a bit traumatized for an episode or two...but nope everyone are acting like it was not a big deal.

SO if you like good boy Scott, then X-men Evolution is your show haha! there is a mini comic serie about the show. I read then and they are fun. Scott is a bit more goofy in his writting there but still a good boy that you want to hug!

[flowery-mess]

One of my boys

For my birdie anon🦜💚 I had fun writting this, thank you for your request! Also I don't know anynthing about birds, so of someting doesn't makes sense I'm sorry and feel free to correct me

Noah x reader

It goes without saying, this is work of fiction, don't mistake it for real story!

You and Noah first met at Sumerian Christmas party last year where you talked for a bit, but that was it. Until just a few months ago.

You work at the Sumerian law department, so before their tour started you had to go through some papers with the band and their team. You never got to work together before, so you were happy you finally had a chance to meet with Noah again.

Even tho you expected Noah not to remember you. But he did. When you walked into room full of BO crew he said “Oh it’s you!” with more excitement than you would expect. He gave you a little wave before you went through the things you needed to.

After you were finished with them, everyone slowly started leaving the room as you were packing your papers and things you brought with you.

“I’m sorry for that earlier. I just didn’t expect to see you today. Actually I never saw you around I thought you maybe quit.” You heard Noah behind you when you were zipping your bag.

“Oh, quit my lovely 9 to 5 job, really?” You said with sarcasm in your voice. Even tho you like your job, working with musicians and doing law, it still was office job with lots and lots of papers. Noah just chuckled at your comment.

You two continued to talk for another 20 minutes before you excused yourself for having another meeting in a few minutes. You saw Noah’s face drop a little when you said that, much to your surprise.

“Yeah I wouldn’t want to make you late. I guess I see you around then.” He gave you same little wave as in the beginning of the meeting and left the room.

You felt the same feeling as you felt at the party. Another nice talk and nothing out of it. Girl can have dreams, right? And you kinda wanted to get to know Noah more. He was friendly, polite and hot… who wouldn’t want to get to know more of that.

.

Next morning you sat behind your desk with your favourite coffee from the coffee shop next to Sumerian. You did your morning routine to check and answer new emails. You had replied to 3 emails and opened the next one, surprised that this one had just two lines of text.

“Hi, I’m sorry for bothering your work email, but I didn’t know how to approach you. Would you be interested in dinner or movies sometimes? We could continue to discuss how monkeys aren’t really pets. Noah:)”

Oh. You didn’t realize that you were holding your breath in while reading that email. You didn’t expect that at all. And his comment about monkeys made you laugh, because that wasn’t even from yesterday’s conversation. You talked about pets and animals at the party, and you mentioned monkeys are cute.

Your reply said that you would love to discuss monkeys with him and you agreed on coffee in your favorite coffee shop. It was down the street you lived at, small and private space, because you know that Noah is more and more famous everyday, so you thought that this place will avoid anyone seeing you two together. You made reservation for booth at the back, where you two would have privacy.

-

Week before Noah had to leave for European tour, you had two coffee dates and dinner date at his place. You said it’s only fair to have dinner at your place next time.

You live in little cozy apartment by yourself. You have little bedroom, kitchen joined with living room and bathroom.

Well actually, not really by yourself. You have four little baby roommates.

You warned Noah that you have four little birds at home and made sure he’s okay with coming over. You thought about locking them up in their big cage in your living room for his visit, but decided against it. They are home and he is the guest, so you thought you’re gonna let him have a full experience.

.

You heard knock on your door as you were putting the meat in the oven. You decided for meat and vegetable mix for dinner, easy and delicious. You went to open the door just to see Noah standing there with flowers in his hands.

“Hello there.” You said with welcoming smile.

“Hi. These are for you as thank you for the dinner.” He handed you small bouquet of tulips, gerberas and other flowers you couldn’t name. He matched color of the flowers to your apartment very well. You had pretty colourful place, so those green and yellow flowers went with it so well. And it also matched your birds, which is Noah about to meet.

Talking about birds, one of them, Milo, sat on your shoulder staring at Noah, who was just taking his shoes of.

Noah stood up noticing this little friend on your shoulder.

“Oh hi there. Let me guess your name.” oh cute, he remembers names of your birds you mentioned the last time you saw each other.

“Hmm Simba?” Noah said that more as a question and got loud whistle as answer.

Before you had chance to correct him, Simba flew to your other shoulder.

“I hate to disappoint you, but this is Milo,” you pointed to your left shoulder “and this is Simba.” You pointed to your right shoulder.

“Nice to meet you guys, I guess.”

He earned one little squeeky “Hi” from Simba, but not from Milo. Let’s just say Milo is the most protective one and he takes the longest when it comes to meeting new people.

“Don’t worry, they’re gonna warm up to you. Milo is the hardest to win over, but he will come around. Come on in, dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

You led Noah to your kitchen slash living room space. He was amused by the big cage you had in there.

“Wow. That thing is big.”

“Yeah, pretty expensive, but everything for those lil bitches you know.” You love them, but they can be annoying if the want to “Mavi, Kovu!” you called out.

They flew out from the bathroom, Mavi straight to Noah’s shoulder and Kovu to his head.

His face was priceless. He stood still, scared to move and scared they’re gonna bite him.

“Okay what do I do?” Noah asked with fear in his eyes.

“They like you! They are birds, they like heights and you are tall person. Those two are the easiest to get along with, obviously.” You laughed at the scene. Noah was like a statue scared for his life.

“And can I move?”

“Of course. If you don’t like them sitting on you, just tell me or you can tell them the word ‘leave’ and they should fly away. I don’t know if they’re gonna listen to you though.”

“Oh I don’t mind it, I want them to like me so I’m going to let them sit there for how long they want to.”

“Okay. Let me show you one more.” You lead Noah to your bedroom, but first you called Mavi and Kovu off Noah, because they can’t go in your bedroom for now.

“This is my foster baby bird that I took as a foster parent for now. Her wings are broken, so she can’t fly and she can’t hang around the boys, because they would take advantage of her state and probably attack her or something.” You explained Noah as you were both watching this little white baby in her cage.

“You took her in? That’s so nice of you. Poor baby, she’s so cute. I mean the boys with their colors are nice, but this is different, all white. Cute.” Noah studied her some more and you took that as a chance to study Noah’s face.

He was cute too. He was handsome and hot. And he was nice person, you liked hanging out with him. You didn’t really know where this was heading, because you haven’t been physical with each other yet. You planned on asking him, but didn’t want to make things between you weird.

“Yeah, we will see if she can heal. I am thinking of keeping her.”

“That’s really nice of you, really.” He said again and this time with his eyes on you, which made you blush a bit.

“Let’s go back, the dinner should be ready.” You went back to the living room and Mavi found his place on Noah’s shoulder again.

“I think he likes me the most so far.” Noah said with proud face on his face.

“Seems like it. He’s the friendliest so it’s no surprise.”

“Wow, way to make me feel special.” You both laughed at how your comment sounded ironic.

“Wow” Mavi talked back to us. I am used to them imitate me, but Noah isn’t and his face was priceless once again tonight.

“Did he just imitate me?”

“Yep he did.”

“Yep” another one of Milo’s words.

“And now he did imitate you.” Noah pointed at you.

“Yes. They do that. They can’t talk like parrots tho, but they can try and imitate what they hear.”

“Those are little interesting creatures.” It was funny watching Noah explore this kind of animals. Most people are amused when they meet them.

“They are, that’s why I picked them over typical cat or dog.” You smiled at the sight in front of you. You wanted to take picture of Noah and Mavi, but you didn’t know if Noah would be comfortable with that. “Let’s eat dinner Snow White.” You couldn't help with that little comment, he was looking like her and you bet his voice would have the same effect.

.

Just a few seconds after you dig into your food, four little creatures flew to the table.

Kovu, once again, on Noah’s head, Mavi on your right, Simba on your left shoulder and Milo sat on the table.

“I’m sorry I can put them in their cage so they don’t disturb us while we eat.” You said rushing from the table. You were used to their company while you eat, but not everyone has to like it.

“No that’s okay. I want them to like me, so I’m going to have dinner with them, maybe even Milo will crack up after this.”

“Oh, okay.” You sat back and started eating again.

After minute Milo hopped closer to Noah’s plate and started eating little piece of carrot.

“Milo!” you shouted at him, waving him back off of Noah’s plate, but Noah took it well and laughed it off.

“Don’t send him away! I’m going to share my dinner with him if it makes him like me, he can have it all.”

“Oh my god Noah. You don’t have to do that, he’s going to like you sooner or later.”

“Well it better be sooner, I don’t want any enemies.”

You couldn’t stop laughing at Noah’s attempts to make Milo like him. Because him letting Milo eat from his plate made others have a bite too. So the dinner was full with laughs and full bellies for all six of you.

.

As the night went on you and Noah sat at your sofa just talking about everything, while from time to time they boys made an appearance to make sure they don’t lose your attention.

At the end of the night even Milo sat on Noah’s head, which was like the biggest compliment Noah could get.

You had great time, so when Noah said he should leave you were a bit sad.

“We’re leaving in a week and I have a lot to do before the tour starts, but we can hang out again the next week?”

“Yeah sure, I’d like that. How about Wednesday?”

“That sounds fine with me, but I’ll make sure the boys won’t need me and let you know.”

You just nodded your head as Noah put his shoes back on.

When he stood up the silence fell over the two of you. You felt something change suddenly.

“Soo.” Noah said.

“Soo?” You didn’t really know what answer you should give him to that.

Before you noticed it, he was standing closer to you, his hand on your cheek.

“I had a great time tonight, thank you.” He whispered.

“Me too, I am glad you met my boys finally.”

“Yeah I think they gave me a pass to be one of your boys too actually.” He said with a smirk.

He leaned closer to your face, looking at your lips, then at your eyes looking for a sign if he could kiss you or not.

Well, before he could see anything in your eyes, Milo flew to you and started whistling at Noah. Which made him pull away with fear in his eyes.

“Milooo stop.” You chuckled. “I said he’s protective. Not sure about your pass though.”

“Yeah well how do you ask a bird for permission to ask his mum?” when he noticed what he just said you both started laughing.

“Maybe you don’t ask the bird, but ask the mum.” You sent Milo away and waited what’s going to happen now.

“Can I kiss you then?”

“Yes you can.”

So he did. And it was nice. And you wanted him to stay at your place and never leave. But you weren’t there yet.

“Good night Y/N.” he pulled away, placed last little kiss on your forehead and took his jacket.

“Good night Noah.” You watched him walk down the hall until he disappeared in the elevator.

You closed the door with hope that no one is going to need him on Wednesday because you needed to see him again before he leaves.

[fandomfucker]

hey! I hope you are doing well.

I was wondering if you would like to write a rhea x femreader x Dominik? (reader is a very young wrestler) do you remember when Rhea told Dom if he doesn't get the title he doesn't have to come back? Dom and Reader both get scared that she really means this and comfort each other. When Rhea realizes that she has seriously scared both of them, she tries to get their trust back.

If you don't like it, it's no big deal. have a great day ! I really Love you're writtings!(ps. Its my First request for you) 💖

I went back and watched the episode for the exact dialogue and everything cause I'm insane. So, please enjoy

Word Count: 3,182

Reader’s POV

As a pretty new wrestler, I jumped at the chance to join the already established and successful team of The Judgment Day. It was definitely overwhelming at first but the blossoming relationship between Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley, and me made me much more confident in myself and my abilities, knowing that they were all there to help me should I need it.

It was now Monday Night RAW and Rhea was finally back after having been gone for a little while after Nia Jax had injured her. And because of that, I was just itching to get into a fight with that bitch.

Damian, Dominik, and I all stood backstage waiting for Raw to start. Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were going to kick off the night with a fight and I wanted to watch Nia get her ass kicked. But before the actual show had even started, we saw on the screen as Shayna and Nia began fighting just outside the entrance, nowhere even near the ring yet.

Nia dragged Shayna's jacket off of her, both dragging and pushing her toward the ring. Shayna clutched her arm in pain as Nia threw her into the ring before climbing in herself.

Despite me and Shayna not being friends, at all. I was still rooting for her to win over Nia. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Even if they don't know that they're my enemy.

I started doing little happy claps to myself as Shyana got the upper hand and jumped onto Nia's back. Dominik was standing next to me icing his eye again and I could see him give me a soft smile out of the corner of my eye.

Nia managed to get Shayna off, screaming at a ref in the process and went to keep going when Raquel's music began to play and she was shown jogging up and into the ring.

I groaned in annoyance, locking eyes with Dominik who shared my grievances.

Raquel tried to attack Nia but missed and wound up hitting Shayna instead. Nia, seeing the open opportunity, kicked Raquel to the ground. She stood there with her two opponents on the ground and began to smile at the camera, oh so proud of herself.

And then Rhea's music started playing.

My eyes widened as I looked at Dom before turning around towards Damian. "Did you know she was here?"

Damian stalked over from where he was sitting on the couch behind us, a look of both confusion and anger swirled on his face, "No, I didn't."

I watched as my and Dominik's girlfriend ran down the walkway down to the ring. She slung herself up in the ring and immediately went after Nia Jax.

Raquel and Shayna were already out of the way so she started pummeling Nia.

Raquel pushed her off of Nia and they began to fight as Shayna got up and began to fight Nia again.

Rhea and Raquel fought to one side of the ring while Shayna and Nia were on the other.

Multiple security guards and a few referees ran out from backstage and attempted to get all the women off of each other and out of the ring.

The guards managed to pull apart Nia and Shayna but had to swarm Rhea and Raquel as they struggled to get them off of each other.

The guards now had Rhea in that corner with the other three women against the ropes across from her.

My eyes widened even further as I watched Rhea kick one of the refs in the face, Nia slipping out of the ring in the corner.

One of the guards holding Raquel started to make his way towards Rhea as everyone else left the ring. I continued watching in horror as Rhea grabbed the guard and riptided him, leaving him to shake in pain on the floor of the ring. "Holy shit," I breathed.

Dominik slung an arm over my shoulders, bringing me into his side as he stroked his hand up and down my shoulder in comfort. I fell into his side as he held me, resting my head against his chest as we watched our girl.

She was livid.

We watched in silence as Rhea continued to scream at the women outside the ring who were now making their way back to the gorilla.

Nia was dragged backstage by the security guards, meanwhile, Raquel and Shayna were trying to fight each other and Rhea continued screaming like a maniac.

The crowd started chanting 'Mami' which only fueled her. I could see her arm outstretched for a mic just before the camera cut to the announcers.

I wasn't listening to anything the announcers were saying as I looked up at Dom to see his reaction.

His jaw was clenched while his mouth was turned slightly in a small frown. I turned to glance at Damian, to see his expression solid and unreadable as stone.

Turning my attention back to the TV screen, I watched as the announcers kept speaking only to be interrupted mid-sentence by Rhea.

"Mami's back on Monday Night Raw," cue the cheers from the crowd, "And I'm not done yet, so I'm staying in this ring because I got somethin' else to handle."

Her Australian accent came out thick as she still struggled to even out her breathing, from both being so mad and from the little show she'd just put on.

"Judgment Day! Get out here. We need to talk."

My breathing stopped for a second, only starting back again when Dominik squeezed my shoulders from behind me, gently directing me towards the gorilla.

Damian was in front, with me and Dom flanking either side of him. He held one of his belts while the other was around his waist, his Money in the Bank Briefcase in the other hand.

Our song, The Other Side, began playing throughout the arena and we began our walk out.

I made sure to drop any and all expressions from my face, no matter what was going on between us, I still had a show to put on.

Faintly, I heard one of the announcers say "Mami is in a mood. Hell hath no fury like Rhea Ripley scorned."

The camera came in close on the belt around Dom's waist as we walked. I kept my head up and my eyes forward as I saw Rhea yelling at us from the ring the entire walk-in.

I followed behind Damian, in front of Dom up the metal stairs and up to the ring. Damian went in first and held the top rope up for me as Dom took Rhea's belt off before sitting on the middle rope for me.

I slipped in right as the cameras cut off. Standing slightly off to the side, Rhea and Damian glared at each other as Damian walked around to the other side of the ring. She turned back in my direction when Dominik grabbed her attention with a small "Mami", handing her her belt back.

She stalked over, grabbing the belt from him and then my arm, shoving the belt at me as she turned around, wordlessly demanding that I help her put it on.

I tapped her lower back, just above where the top of her belt lay to let her know I had finished securing it.

She turned around and gave me a small, secret, wink before turning back around and making her way to the middle of the ring.

I made my way back over to Dominik and he and I stood about a foot away from each other, facing Rhea in the center of the ring with our backs to the entrance.

Damian faced Rhea from the other side of the ring as our music played out and the noises of the crowd could be heard.

Rhea paced back and forth in the aisle between the two sides of JD members, saving whatever she had to say for the cameras.

The lighting soon changed to our signature purple hue, and the signal went off for us to know we were going back on air.

Rhea said something into the mic, addressing each of us in turn with an aggressive outward arm gesture, the crowd booing loudly when she said Dom's name and gestured to him.

"Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I have some Judgment Day business to attend." She looked between the three of us, ultimately starting her walk towards Dom.

"Now we all know, that there is no leader of the Judgment Day. Correct?" She turned and made her way toward Damian, "Correct?" And then made her way back to Dom and me.

No matter how many times it's said, Judgment Day does, in fact, have a leader, whether some of the members wanted to get their head out of their asses and admit it or not, there's only one person that every single person will listen to without question. And that's Rhea even if she herself denies it.

"But we each have our own responsibilities to handle." She spared a glare at Dom, softening slightly as she looked at me before focusing on Damian.

"Someone has to come up with a game plan so things don't go down for the Judgment Day. Right, Dom?" I shot a look over to Dom as Rhea addressed him, seeing him keep his eyes locked on the floor as he nodded his head quickly in agreement.

"Right. Correct.  So what happens? Mami gets taken out for two weeks by Nia Jax, and all of a sudden things start falling apart for the Judgment Day."

While she was gone, Dom had lost his title, Finn and Damian were now both hurt, and I had been taken out by Bayley on my way to the ring to fight Iyo Sky for her title and now still not yet medically cleared either.

"Because Mami is the one that makes the pla-plans." Her accent slipped up and she had to correct herself mid-word which I had to keep myself from laughing at. I'd for sure be bringing this up backstage.

"But at the end of the day, me being out, I left that responsibility to someone and they disappointed me. I left that responsibility to you, Priest." She spat, stalking right up to Damian. She stood right in front of him, making sure not to remove her focus from him as he uncomfortably looked away.

They stared at each other for a heartbeat more before Rhea brought the mic back up to her mouth. "I go and you can't handle the job."

Damian idly scratched his face nonchalantly, still refusing to look her in the face.

"After the brawl last week, Finn's out injured." She shoved her finger against his chest. "You can't even compete tonight against Jey because you're not medically cleared."

Damian looked down towards the side, a pissed-off smirk growing on his face as the crowd 'ooh'ed in response.

"And what else happens, Priest? What else happens?" Rhea outstretched her arm, gesturing towards both Dom and me. "Y/n gets hurt and Dom loses his NXT North American Championship to Trick Williams at No Mercy." At this the crowd began to cheer again, causing Rhea to outburst at them, "Shut up!"

"All because you weren't there to help him like I told you to. And now we have a Cody and Jey situation. They don't fear us Priest. You know why? Because there's tension here. Because we're not a threat to them. And you know what they're going to try and do? They're going to try and take your tag team championships away from you. What are you going to do, huh? You can't even do anything about it." The crowd cheered in response to her little speech.

Damian drew up the microphone, bringing it to his mouth, finally looking at Rhea. "With all due respect, Rhea, you're not saying anything I don't already know. Yeah, Cody and Jey are coming for the titles. But when push comes to shove, I will push harder. With that being said, screw Cody Rhodes. Screw Main Event Jey Uso. While we're at it, all these talks about the Judgment Day falling apart, screw that too." The crowd cheered.

"You know, the way I see it, I have my titles. I have my contract. I'm not trying to point fingers and start nothing but, Mami, where's Dom Dom's title?" Damian pointed towards Dom with his briefcase, and I saw Dom looking back at Damian like 'What the fuck man?'.

I couldn't see Rhea's face from where I was standing but I could see her body tense up before rolling her shoulders and slowly turning her head around. I caught a glimpse of the glare she sent his way and a shiver went down my spine. And not in a good way.

She actually looked pissed to high hell.

Fully turning her body around, she shot one last glare at Damian over her shoulder before stalking up to Dominik. I could hear the crowd chanting something unintelligible in the background as she made her way over.

"Dom, I'm your Mami, right?" Dom nodded his head in response.

"What does that make you? That makes you my Papi. So tomorrow night at NXT, you have a rematch against Trick Williams. You're welcome." She leaned into his face, inches apart, and put her finger under his chin to make him look at her when he turned his head.

"But if you don't come home to me with that championship, then don't bother coming home."

The crowd cheered and 'ooh'ed at her words. However, my breathing stopped short and the blood drained from my face. I did my best to keep the bored, neutral look on my face for the show as I darted a quick look over at Dominik to see him secretly scared shitless too as Rhea yelled in his face away from the mic, not letting me hear what was said.

Jey's music began to play and Rhea walked away from Dominik and over to me, gripping my arm and dragging me behind her as all of us from Judgment Day stood in a rough line on one side of the ring, now facing the gorilla as Jey made his entrance and hopped into the ring.

He paced in front of us for a second as the crowd continued to cheer and chant before he finally brought his mic up and began to address Rhea.

"Hey, hey. First and foremost, importantly, can we please welcome back Miss Rhea Ripley." He held onto the top rope, hanging off of it as his legs were crossed. "Hey. We missed you. We all miss you."

Rhea sneered at him from my right as Damian told him off from my left, "Take it easy over there."

Jey continued his monologue despite the mixed reactions, "Because it looked like there was a new tribal chief on Monday Night. And apparently, she has bigger balls than Roman Reigns ever did."

My eyebrows raised in surprise at the words that just came out of his mouth. This would undoubtedly cause issues but it was really not my problem.

The rest of my time in the ring was a blur as I was more focused on trying not to completely freak out over what Rhea told Dominik about not coming home at all. She seemed super serious about it and as a throuple I was terrified.

Rhea kinda just dragged me behind her the whole time the boys were fighting, keeping me behind her protective shield until our segment was up.

As a group, the four of us made our way back up the walkway and into the gorilla. I could feel the tears beginning to well up behind my eyes as we walked.

Once we made it back, Rhea stormed off God knows where with Damian following quickly after her. Dominik and I managed to make our way to the Judgment Day locker room before I broke down in tears, having to have Dominik hold me up.

He guided me over to the armchair on the far wall, taking a seat in front of me to better be eye level with me.

"I d-don't like her b-being mad at us." I hiccupped through my sobs to Dominik. He had both hands resting on my biceps and gently ran circles over them with his thumbs to try and calm me down some.

"I don't either, Cariño." Dominik soothed me.

I could see the worry in his own eyes and the tears forming. I stepped forward so I was standing between his legs and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, resting my cheek against his head as his arms came to snake around my waist.

We held onto each other tightly for what felt like hours but was realistically only minutes.

We paid no attention to anything that wasn't each other until the door opened, Rhea's worried face and frenzied breathing.

"There you two are, I've been looking all over for you." She sighed in relief as she came in, closing the door behind her.

I lifted my head from Dominik's and she stopped dead in her tracks seeing my red-rimmed eyes and wet cheeks.

Her gaze flitted to Dominik's face, seeing his face matching mine.

"What's wrong, my loves?" She asked gently, cautiously stepping towards us.

My arms tightened around Dom's shoulders in fear as she came closer.

Seeing this, she immediately stopped, a hurt look overcoming her face.

She held out her hands in a gesture of peace. "Y/n," she started cautiously, "What's wrong, Love?"

I sniffled before responding, my voice quiet and breaking, "You're gonna break us all up."

Her expression turned devastated. "No. No, no, no. Baby, that was all just for the show. I wasn't allowed to tell you guys because they wanted your authentic reactions. I'm so, so sorry." Her voice cracked as she tried to hold back her own tears.

Gingerly, I unwrapped Dominik's arms from my waist and walked over to Rhea. Hesitantly, I held my arms out to her.

She immediately ran into my open arms, rushing into me so fast she almost knocked me over. Taking a couple of steps back to steady us, I hugged her back tightly.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't real I swear, I didn't actually mean it." She croaked into my hair, her voice full of emotion.

I hugged her back tightly, sticking my face in her collarbone and breathing in her scent.

"Mami," Dominik spoke up from where he was sitting. Pulling away from me, Rhea turned to look at him, apologies swimming in her eyes.

He stood up slowly, never looking away from her. Rhea began to nervously pick at her nails, not saying a word. He made his way over to her and just fell into her arms. I could hear him crying into her shoulder in relief that it was all just for show as Rhea also sagged into him in relief that he trusted her. "It won't happen again, Dom, I swear."

I let them hug and cry it out by themselves until Rhea held out an arm for me to join the hug with them. I bounded over to them, squeezing myself between the two of them, holding onto Rhea as Dominik held onto me from behind and Rhea.

"You say 'plans' weird," I laugh-cried into Rhea's chest as I squeezed her mid-section tighter.

She chuckled into my hair, giving the top of my head a lingering kiss as she squeezed me in return.