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bio-hazard · 2 months ago

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Now I've Found A Real Love (You'll Never Fool Me Again)

Charlie Slimecicle x Reader Fake Dating

ladies and gentlefish it's finally done. i think this is the longest fanfiction i've ever written and i cut a large portion of it out just to be able to get it done before christmas so i hope that you guys enjoy this (please enjoy this. i'll cry.)

15k words, only warnings for implied weed and cheating, drinking and a lot of guilt. i don't know why i gave reader anxiety. SFW with a few suggestive jokes but minors please dni with my work !! happy holidays ppl !!!!

. 🎄 . 🎁 . 🎄 .

Christmas time is supposed to be the “most magical time of the year”, with love and joy spread through the hearts of many. Apparently that wasn’t in the cards for you this year. You were supposed to go home for Christmas week with your boyfriend to introduce him to your family. Everything was going so well and you had been hyping him up for months now, bragging about how he was the perfect boyfriend.

Until he made you eat those words a day before you were supposed to leave, sitting among clothes and general things you would need for the week scattered around your bed when your phone buzzed and lit up to show the lockscreen of you kissing his cheek.

“hey so. i hate to say this but i dont think this is going to work out. i dont want to see you hurt and your a great person but i dont think im ready to meet your family yet. i think i should spend time alone to find myself. its not your fault ml”

Your smile fell as you read over the message again and again.

“merry xmas btw”

After a couple hours of coping very healthily and no emotional outbursts whatsoever, you wiped the last of your tears. Okay. This was fine! It was a single day before you were supposed to drive home and see almost all of your extended family for an entire week, and the man you had made sound like a fairy tale prince just dumped you over text!

If you showed up there, heartbroken and alone, you would never hear the end of it from all sides of the family.

…

You needed a new boyfriend.

Running through the list of people you knew would probably be easier than trying to find a stranger within a day, but you quickly ran into the issue that your family already knew most of your friends, and none would be able to easily pass as a boyfriend for a whole week without blowing it. So you moved on to secondary friends. People you had the number of for classes or your neighbours, people in your study group. Nothing. You fell back against your bed and stared at your contact list hopelessly, scrolling up and down as if that would make some new number magically appear. You had to face the reality of the situation; You were screwed.

The next morning you picked yourself up and got ready, showering and packing the rest of whatever items you hadn’t already shoved into a bag. The idea of cancelling on your study group appealed to you greatly, but some part of your mind reminded you that you had notes that a few of the others needed to copy down, and you wanted to stay in their good graces. So you gathered every inch of mental tape you had and held yourself together until you resembled a stable human being, and locked the door behind you as you left.

Walking into the library, the warmth hugged your face and you let out a quiet sigh as you loosened your scarf, kicked the snow off your boots, and moved deeper into the building to find the usual area everyone gathered in. It was a long table toward the back that a handful of you had claimed weekly for study meets. One of your close friends and a few others who had the same class, and a few who just liked the company and atmosphere. You knew everyone there by name and occasionally after studying you would all go out for food. Of course, you couldn’t stop thinking about your dilemma as you sat down and pulled out your books. You wouldn’t be able to focus on work much, but you could at least pretend you were being productive.

Handing your notes around the table, you took a look at everyone again and weighed your options. Either they didn’t fit what you remember telling your family, or they had met your family in one way or another. You sighed and stared down at the still shut textbook in front of you. None of the material seemed like it was near interesting enough to derail your current train of thought. Sitting up to say something to your friend, the sound of approaching footsteps caught your attention.

“Sorry, hope I’m not late!”

Turning your head the other way, you see a dark green jacket and look up at the man holding the back of the chair next to you. “This seat isn’t taken, is it?”

Your eyes widened. Charlie. Of course. He was a newer addition to the group, invited by a couple others you weren’t too close with. You didn’t know him too well, at most having been left alone at the table with him once or twice, but he was nice and funny and.. Well, you’d be lying to say he wasn’t conventionally attractive. He would match what you had told your parents almost perfectly. You just had to figure out how to ask him such a thing. Nothing you came up with sounded normal, or it just made you seem like some kind of creep trying to lie to their family. He’d mentioned doing a little acting before though, hadn’t he? Maybe you would have to bribe him— Before you knew it, everyone else had left the table, leaving you and Charlie alone in that area of the suddenly far too silent library.

He sighed and put his pencil down, closing his book and starting to pack his things. You panicked, cutting him off as he stood up and opened his mouth to speak.

“Can I ask a favour of you?”

He seemed slightly taken aback at how quickly you had spoken, but nodded slightly regardless.

“Sure.. What’s up?”

You took a deep breath and hoped you weren’t about to make an idiot of yourself.

“It’s.. a huge favour, and if you don’t want to, you can say no and we can pretend like I never asked but-” Pausing from nerves, you peeked up at him but he just seemed amused by your nerves, waiting for you to go on so before you knew it you started spilling your guts. “My boyfriend dumped me last night and tomorrow we were supposed to drive home to spend the week and visit my whole family for Christmas, but now he isn’t coming and I just spent the last few months acting like he was gonna be a big surprise so they don’t know too many details but I can’t go home alone or I’ll be embarrassed until the day I die and-”

Charlie waved his hand with a soft laugh and sat back down to be on your level.

“Hey- Hey. Take a breath.” He smiled patiently and waited for you to take a deep breath. “How can I help?”

“I need you to.. Pretend to be my boyfriend for the week in front of my whole family..?” You shakily asked, knowing how messed up that sounded.

Charlie stared at you with a strange look in his eye, but the same soft smile on his face. After a moment he shrugged and nodded. “Sure, why not?”

You blinked.

“Sorry?”

“Honestly, I didn’t have any plans for the holidays anyways so… A week full of free food and entertainment doesn’t sound half bad.”

You felt like your heart might explode. Charlie laughed softly at your reaction.

“Thank- Oh, god Charlie thank you, you don’t know how much this means to me.”

“What can I say, I'm a simple man. Here, I can give you my number and you can text me in the morning when you’re ready to go. Okay?”

You nodded and handed him your phone, ignoring the flutter in your stomach when his hand encased yours to take it. It’s not like you had feelings for him, he was just a nice guy willing to do you a favour. That’s all this was.

You waved as he excused himself and headed out.

What had you gotten yourself into?

The next morning, at a frankly unreasonable time to be awake, you had shoved all your things into your car and parked where Charlie had said would be the easiest to pick him up. The radio hummed Christmas music on the local station as you looked through the messages between you two so far. One of the first things Charlie had sent was a picture of a knitted christmas sweater that looked like it had seen many holidays and a collared shirt that looked ironed, asking what kind of people your parents were. You had to appreciate the dedication to being the perfect boyfriend, and said whatever he’s most comfortable in - But that you probably had a similar looking sweater waiting for you at home somewhere, to which he responded he couldn’t wait to see.

A knock on the passenger window snapped you out of your thoughts and only then did you realize you were smiling like an idiot. Charlie waved through the window, his face illuminated by what bits of moonlight remained as the sky began to lighten before the sun had fully risen, and motioned to his bags. You popped the trunk and hopped out, opening it and going to help him load it all in.

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” He politely waved you off and lifted it in with ease, and you definitely didn’t stare at the way the fabric of his jacket stretched across his arms as he did. He slammed the trunk shut with a hearty clunk before turning to you with a grin. “Shall we?”

You huffed out a laugh and nodded, getting back in the driver seat. He quickly slid into the seat beside you, stretching.

“It’s a long trip… Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Are you asking if I want to do the drive, or do this for a week?”

“I-”

“Because I do.” He nodded, a little too earnestly. “It’ll be okay, I’ll try not to make you look bad.” Charlie winked and glanced at the radio, then at your phone sitting in the cupholder beside you. “Your car, your rules. Who controls the music?”

The way he seemed so unbothered about the situation seemed to put you at ease for now, and you unlocked your phone and connected it to the car speakers before handing it to him.

“Surprise me, will you?”

“I won’t let you down.”

The two of you quickly took off and grabbed something to eat from a drive-through; Stopping to eat now would risk making you late. The weather seemed to be alright for now, but you were a bit nervous something would kick up before you were in the home stretch of your parents house. Charlie managed to calm your nerves every time with a joke or comment that would distract you from your worries. Eventually you two agreed that you needed a cohesive story to pull this off well, so you started by listing off things you remember having told your family about your ex, and Charlie nodded as he seemed to internalize all those traits, though you doubted he needed to fake most of these traits for your sake. Eventually you moved on to your story. How you met, dates you’d been on, mutual friends, and other various stories to sell that you had been close for the better part of a year rather than having maybe three conversations that weren’t purely about schoolwork and studying. Charlie even shared a bit more about himself for you to build on, and it shocked you a little how much you had in common and how little you really knew about him. Talking with him came so naturally, and he was so effortlessly funny that you wondered how you hadn’t become friends sooner. Part of you wondered if it could stay like this after you got home.

The conversation moved to boundaries. Knowing your family, there would be mistletoe somewhere in the house.

“Well,” Charlie hummed, thinking about it as he glanced out the front windshield. “I’m a pretty physical person, and I'm fine with PDA if that’s what you mean.”

You nodded and chewed the inside of your cheek.

“I just.. It’s all pretend, right? I don’t want to overstep-”

“We’ll probably be pushed together at one point or another anyways.” Charlie cut you off, looking at you. “So I’m fine with anything. Let’s maybe keep any kissing to a minimum though. Try to avoid mistletoe, yeah? Oh, and-” He tapped his bottom lip with his finger, smiling. “- No lips.”

There was a sigh, and you realized you had been holding your breath.

“Yeah, of course.”

He let out a little laugh as his smile grew.

“I know, that must be such a disappointment, nobody can resist this.” He sighed, as if this were a recurring issue. You ignored the way your stomach flipped at the thought of kissing him and laughed in response.

At one point you had stopped to refill the tank and Charlie offered to hold the pump while you ran inside to pay and get snacks (but no eggs, despite how many times he asked. You were not making your car smell like whatever gas station eggs must have smelt like.) Grabbing a drink for both of you and a handful of snacks, you plopped them all down on the counter and smiled at the cashier who started scanning the items.

“Is that your boyfriend on pump 2?” She asked, glancing at Charlie, who leaned against the car as he waited for you.

You stopped, and for some reason found yourself unable to answer. You were going to say that no, he was just a friend. …But then again, this was someone you’d probably never see again, and who probably didn’t actually care who he was in relation to you.

“Yeah, why?”

“Let him know that one acts up when it gets cold, he might have to be a little rough to make it work.” She shrugged and typed something into the register. “How much?”

You finished the transaction and walked out with a small bag of items, walking up to Charlie, who looked up from his phone.

“All good?”

“Yeah, she said it gets weird in the cold, be a little rough if you need to.” Charlie laughed a little and bit back a smile, and you felt a slight warmth in your cheeks that wasn’t from the cold.

“I can be rough.”

“Oh my god.” You groaned and shoved his arm as he grabbed the nozzle and pushed it into the car.

You didn’t mention that she called him your boyfriend. You kept it to yourself as you got into the passenger seat when Charlie insisted on driving until the next refuel. You let those words stew in your brain until he got in the driver’s seat and adjusted it to his size, familiarizing himself with your car as you stretched your legs.

After a few more short breaks and another gas station refuel where you took over driving, it’s dark again as you arrive. Charlie is intently watching all the lights on the houses as you drive up and pull into the driveway of your parents house. The whole place was decorated expertly, just as it had been every year for as long as you could remember. The sight was nostalgic.

Movement on the porch caught your eye as your mother and father came out to greet you. You killed the engine and gathered your things inside the car. Charlie was watching you when you looked up to him.

“Last chance.”

His hand slipped into yours with a gentle squeeze.

“I know.”

You look at your hands and smile softly before pulling away and exiting the car with a warm smile for your parents. It’s a moment of you three alone before the passenger door opens and Charlie steps out.

“There he is!” Your mother gasped and put a hand on your shoulder. “I was starting to think you were just making up fairytales.”

You laughed softly and shook your head.

“Mom, Dad, this is Charlie… My boyfriend.” Charlie walked up and wrapped an arm around you, extending a hand to your father, who shook it with a nod. Your mom pulled him in for a hug, and he quickly reciprocated, pulling away with a mirth in his eyes you hadn’t seen before.

“Oh, he’s just as lovely as you said, dear.” Your mother smiled and Charlie shrugged one shoulder as he moved his arm back around you.

“Well, I do my best.” He chuckled. “I gotta say, I'm a huge fan of your work.” Charlie motioned to you, and your mother laughed. “I didn’t believe angels were real until I met this one.”

You flushed and glanced away, which only made your mother laugh more. He instantly fell into rhythm with your family, giving off this perfect charm that made him nearly glow along with the Christmas lights around you all. It felt so genuine, every compliment that fell from his lips and the way he spoke to your parents was nothing short of naturally impressive.

Part of you wondered if it would play out like this if you had genuinely brought him home. If he would have his arm around your shoulders the same, make jokes that enamoured your parents just like he was now. You wondered if he would kiss your cheek and you would be rid of this weight in your chest. This guilt that came with lying to your parents, and soon enough your whole family. Before you could spiral any further into this train of thought, Charlie is nudging your shoulder.

“Oh, sorry- Yeah?”

He smiled down at you reassuringly, squeezing your shoulders as if he could read your mind. You wondered if he could. You wondered if he would leave you if he heard your thoughts now-

“Can you unlock the trunk for me?”

“Yeah, of course.” You reached for your keys and hit the trunk button.

Once again he’s insisting on taking his own luggage, so you grab your bags and bring them inside as your mother talks about the plans she has for the week and your father leads the march inside and up the stairs. You take a moment to admire the house, mostly decorated with little christmas details and festive colours covering every surface. Your parents loved to go all out for the holidays. The bigger decorations were still missing, and you figured they had been waiting for you and your boyfriend to come home and help them with those. Free labour, of course.

Quickly following up the stairs after Charlie, you see him standing in a doorway you immediately recognize. Oh no.

You had entirely forgotten that with extra guests coming over, the guest rooms would be taken up by other family members, leaving you in your old bedroom. Alone with Charlie. With one bed.

That was fine! It was fine, really!

Looking at Charlie’s face, he seemed to have connected the same dots as you.

Your dad left you to unpack and get settled in, saying he would meet you both downstairs and that dinner would be ready soon.

“I’m so sorry, I totally forgot about.. This. I can sleep on the floor if you-”

Charlie cut you off by shaking his head with a flustered laugh. His cheeks were slightly flushed as he looked to you with a hapless smile.

“It’s fine, really. Wouldn’t be the first time I shared a bed with someone. Besides, it's a queen by the look of it. We’ll both fit just fine. Try not to hog the blankets though, I might have to fight you for that.” He moved to the foot of the bed and dropped his bags to the ground, looking around. “So this is your room huh? It’s..” He seemed to bite something back, and it gave you a rush of worry. “It’s nice. I like it.”

You definitely weren’t freaking out right now. You were so normal and were doing fine as he ran his hand over the top of your dresser and looked at all the decorations. Admittedly it was a bit strange to see your room so.. Un-lived in, but it still felt like yours.

“We should probably head down and wash up for dinner.” You ignored the fluttering in your gut as he giddily pointed at a few items he recognized, brushing it off with a smile.

Surprisingly, dinner was rather uneventful. Charlie complimented your mothers cooking and answered a few questions about himself, and the four of you mostly talked about college, what had been going on in the neighbourhood and how the drive here had gone. You told Charlie that you’d help clean up by yourself, but he insisted on helping you clear the table and do the dishes. It felt oddly domestic, especially as you two started flicking water at each other, having to be stopped by your mother scolding you for getting water on her floors.

Your parents retired for the night shortly after that, and you and Charlie figured it would be best to follow suit. Heading upstairs with a quiet conversation, you were faced with a dilemma. You two weren’t about to change in front of each other, and you were not about to just have him cover his eyes and turn around.

“There’s always the bathroom,” Charlie offered, jabbing his thumb back towards the hallway.

“Yeah but- You’re the guest, making you change in the bathroom is a bit rude isn’t it?” He shrugged.

“This is your room, it’s only fair you get to change in here in my opinion.”

You went back and forth a bit more, before Charlie just grabbed his bag and headed to the bathroom anyways. There wasn’t much you could’ve done to convince him anyways, you assumed. A quick change later and there was a soft knock.

“Am I good to come back in?”

“Yeah, come in.”

Sitting on the bed, you went over your options until you had agreed to just bite the bullet and try to sleep on the far sides of the bed to avoid any awkwardness of sleeping with each other. As you stared out the window, the stars glittered, snow fell, and you drifted to sleep trying to guess what was a star and what was a snowflake.

The sun hit your face as you woke up, groaning. You rolled over and threw your arm over your face to shield yourself, only to find yourself now beside something warm. It only took a second to remember it was Charlie, and it took a couple more seconds to pull away and open your eyes to see he was raising an eyebrow at you with a quiet laugh.

“Good morning.”

“... Hi.”

He looked back to his phone in his hand, typing something out before turning it off and putting it down.

“I wasn’t sure when your family got up, I didn’t want to be sitting down there alone.”

“So you sat here and watched me sleep..?”

“No!- No, I didn’t-” Charlie’s eyes widened as he shook his head, only relaxing when he saw you smile and try not to laugh. He sighed, then squinted. “Wait..”

“What?” You sat up to look at him, rubbing your eyes and making yourself a little less dishevelled.

“If you were sleeping… And I was watching you sleep…” He turned to you, doing his best mewing expression. “Who’s watching Foxy..?”

You blinked a few times before dissolving into giggles. Charlie grinned at the praise as you covered your face and groaned. “Wanna go get breakfast now? It’s a little after nine.”

Swallowing down the last bubbles of laughter you nodded and pulled the blanket off of you as you got up. Charlie followed shortly after. Another bout of arguing over who would change where began until he once again moved to the bathroom, and you figured that trying to fight him any more on this would get you nowhere.

Padding down the stairs, you got to looking around the kitchen for something to eat. The only thing you could think of was cereal so you pulled out a box of something plain, and Charlie made a face.

“What?”

“I mean, is there.. Anything else? It’s okay if there isn’t just..”

You look back in the pantry and hummed.

“I don’t see anything. Knock yourself out though.”

Charlie walked over as you moved to your bowl and poured out the cereal. You looked over to see him stuck halfway into the shelves, kicking a foot up before pulling out a colourful box triumphantly. You laughed and recognized it as something you hadn’t gotten to eating before you moved out as he opened it.

“How old is that? When does it expire, even?”

“The bag is still sealed, so it's still fresh right?”

The bag popped open as he pulled it apart and dumped it into his bowl, taking a piece and eating it. “Still crunches.”

You laughed and shook your head, passing him the milk. The two of you sat there, you on the counter and him leaning against it as you two ate and talked quietly as the snow outside reflected warmth and light in the window and made miniature rainbows through the frost and decorations.

Your mother poked her head into the kitchen with a box full of decorations hanging out of it.

“There you are! When you’re done, can I borrow you two for a bit to help me finish getting these decorations up? Your father is out shovelling and handling the front of the house. Lord knows Ashley will have something to say if there’s no wreath on the front door..” She sighed and shook her head.

“Yeah, of course Mom.” You smiled and nodded, and Charlie gave a thumbs up with his mouth being full. She caught a glimpse of the colourful cereal in his bowl and gave it a strange look, but seemed to brush it off as she walked away.

“Ashley?” Charlie looked at you with a raised eyebrow after he swallowed.

“One of my aunts,” You glanced at him, then realized you should probably give him an idea of who he would be dealing with for the rest of the week. Charlie nodded intently as he brought another spoonful to his mouth while listening to you list off family members. “Then of course, there's my Aunt Ashley. She’s… She has high standards.” That was probably the easiest way to describe her eccentricities. “She lives the closest, so she was over a lot with her kids, Bella and Alice. Uh.. Be careful with Alice. She’s a bit of a hopeless romantic.”

Charlie squinted like he was trying to mentally write this all down.

“Don’t worry,” You laughed. “I’ll be sure to refresh you when they show up.”

He nodded, looking incredibly serious before he tilted his head back to drink the rest of the milk in the bowl, and there were a handful of thoughts you couldn’t repeat out loud that went through your mind when he pulled the bowl away and licked the remaining milk off his lips.

“Let’s uh- Let’s go help Mom, yeah?” You swallowed and glanced away, shaking the thoughts from your head. Charlie nodded and the two of you finished up in the kitchen before going through the house to find your mother.

Standing in the den, she was staring intently at the large Christmas tree with her hands on her hips. You knew this stance. She was probably planning out every possible way she could put garland and ribbons onto everything in sight, and would try to execute as many of those plans as possible before settling on one. At least you had Charlie, who was currently staring in awe at what decorations were already out.

“Just wait,” You leaned over and whispered. “It gets better.”

Charlie gave you a wide eyed look.

She quickly got everyone to work, pinning and taping things to the walls, lining each shelf with white stuffing to mimic snow, pulling out box after box of trinkets and little ornaments to set along everything. You wondered how many of these would get broken this year if the younger kids would be running around.

After the den was lathered in Christmas, you moved on to deck every hall and doorway with garland and lights. It would make for a magical walkway at the end, but for now you were watching Charlie struggle to not break a sweat with how much lifting and back and forth your mother had him do. Leave it to her to immediately put people to work when it comes to Christmas.

Taking a short break while she stepped outside to talk with your dad, you and Charlie sat down on the stairs after he finished wrapping the railing with glittering lights and tying bows to every other bannister.

“Where do you guys keep all this stuff year round?” Charlie glanced up to you as you straightened out one of the bows. “I mean it looks great but…”

“Storage containers in the basement. Trust me, getting it all out and decorating is the easy part.” A look of concern flashed across his face, which only made you laugh harder. “Don't worry, we’ll be gone by then.”

Charlie rubbed the back of his neck with a quiet laugh.

“It's nice, though. Like it really adds to the atmosphere and everything. Makes it feel cozy.” He glanced around and flicked at one of the lights gently. “How many people are gonna show up anyways? It’s a big house but I feel like it's gonna get cramped pretty quick.”

You had to think about that for a while. Each side had quite a few people on it, but knowing who would actually be showing up was always a bargain. Humming quietly, you reached into the box of decorations and pulled out a little bell on a string, reaching forward and hanging it on Charlie's ear with a grin.

“I’m not sure. I'll do my best to give you a rundown on everyone before they start talking your ear off though.”

Charlie tilted his head and felt for the foreign object on his ear, giving a confused laugh as he pulled it off and looked at it, then immediately turned back at you with mischief in his eyes.

Your mother walked back in the house to see you two laughing and shouting as you practically wrestled on the stairs to adorn each other with decorations.

She cleared her throat and the two of you quickly stopped to look at her, having been caught. Your mother crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow as she looked between you two and the mess of decorations you'd made.

“Having fun?”

After being made to clean up your mess, the three of you moved all over the house throughout the day decorating and redecorating, only stopping to get a drink or small snack. While looking through the remaining boxes, you held up a handful of mistletoe and looked at your mom.

“Do we really have to put all of this up? It seems a little… Much.”

“Of course we do, hun!” Your mother nodded like it was obvious and grabbed one from your hand, moving over to one of the doorways to hang it up among the garland. “It's tradition. Plus, it's nice! That's how you get all the cute candid pictures of people kissing.”

You sighed and resigned yourself to just trying your best to memorize where all of them were hung to avoid while walking around with Charlie.

“Go hang at least one in the front foyer for me, please?” She motioned to the remaining mistletoe in your hand then waved you towards the front of the house. You sighed and dropped the extra mistletoe back in the box, grabbing the stool she had pulled out a while ago and moved to the front of the house.

“Oh, there you are.” Charlie smiled as he walked up to you, watching you struggle to reach the garland to tie the mistletoe up.

“Yeah- Hey-” Reaching further didn’t seem to help either, the stool being just a bit too short to get up to where you needed. After a couple more moments of struggling, you sighed and turned to Charlie. “Care to lend me a hand?”

What you hadn’t expected was for Charlie to wrap his arms around your thighs from where you stood on the stool and lift you onto his shoulder.

Your mind went blank.

Why was that so easy for him??

“Is that tall enough?” Charlie’s voice was enough to snap you out of your daze and hang the mistletoe, trying your best not to think about how easily he grabbed you or about how you two were technically under mistletoe.

“Uh- Yeah that’s- Good- Great. Yeah, thanks.” You stumbled through the words, bringing your hands down to his shoulders to steady yourself before he set you back down and smiled up at you like he didn’t do anything.

Maybe this was an overreaction. Maybe you just had to calm down and he didn’t realize you meant for him to hang the stupid plant. Surely that was it! He was just taking the easiest path for him and there were no hidden intentions in his actions. Charlie was just an acquaintance doing you a major favour, and honestly you had to think about why he would even do such a thing? Someone like him must’ve had a nice family, or at least someone deserving of his charm to spend the holidays with, rather than spend a week keeping up some silly ruse and oh- Oh, he’s talking and you absolutely aren’t listening.

“Sorry, uh- Pardon?” You shook your head and looked down at him from your place on the stool.

“I asked how much you think is left?” Charlie tilted his head and looked around.

You stepped off the stool, silently praying you didn’t fall on him. That was the last thing you needed.

“Probably not much, Mom could handle the rest.”

The two of you walked around the house, collecting and stacking the empty decoration boxes. Hints of your mother’s work popped up around the house, the two of you almost constantly walking into mistletoe. Maybe keeping up with what doorways had it would be a bit harder than you expected.

Eventually everything was decorated and cleaned up, and you were helping your mother start supper. The radio gently hummed Christmas music through the room as you peeled potatoes and listened to your mother speak about some drama or other you had missed and she hadn’t told you about.

Charlie walked into the kitchen and watched you for a moment before resting his chin on your shoulder.

“Oh- Hi, Charlie.” You glanced at him slightly, to see him softly smiling with his eyes shut. He just hummed warmly in response and moved his hands to your waist. You hardly skipped a beat falling back into conversation with your mother, despite the way you felt your face warm. He didn’t move for a while after that either, only pressing his face into your neck after a while, to which your mother gave a look that you waved off. After a while you had to quietly ask him to move so you could keep helping to prepare the dinner, to which he kissed your shoulder and whispered to you that he was going to take a nap. Your mother teased you when you seemed to short circuit after he pulled away. You finished helping and did your best not to think about the warmth emanating from where he had kissed you, and when the oven timer went off an hour or so later, your mother asked you to go wake him.

“Charlie..? Are you awake?” You gave the door a soft knock. There was the sound of some kind of movement in the bedroom, and then the door opened. Charlie’s hair was messy and his eyes were still tired. “Oh. Uh, dinner is ready..”

“Oh, already? Alright..” He yawned and nodded. You tried to ignore the way his tired voice got to you. He had always woken up some time before you, is that really what he sounded like after an hour of sleep?? “I’ll wash up and be down there soon.”

The conversation at dinner seemed to be entirely around Charlie and his interests and history. You wondered if they were trying to do some kind of weird interrogation or shovel talk, but when he started talking about some of his nerdier interests you saw your mother light up. There it was. You definitely knew what this talk was about.

The day ended with your mother telling you that tomorrow would be full of baking and that the sooner you could get up and help, the more the two of you could get done. Mentally preparing for that, you nodded and wished her goodnight. Charlie stayed up a bit later, waking you slightly when he came to bed, apologizing quietly as he moved the blankets. You don’t exactly remember falling back asleep, but you could’ve sworn you felt something warm press against your forehead.

You woke up before Charlie this time, watching him for a moment as his chest slowly breathed. Slipping out of the bed, you grabbed your clothes and slipped into the bathroom to change before you headed downstairs.

It was mornings like these you really missed. The sun freshly risen, pouring onto the tiled floor through the frosty windows, giving the perfect mix of warmth and chill as you padded into the kitchen and quickly made yourself something for breakfast. The birdsong outside melted into the sound of the radio as you turned it on and lowered the volume to a non-disturbing hum. Rifling through cabinets you pulled out the usual cookbooks and recipes you’d need today and any of the usual baking necessities. Your mother yawned as she walked into the kitchen and smiled at you as you tied an apron around your waist

“Someone’s eager this morning. Did you miss this that much?” She laughed quietly and hugged you before making herself something to eat. The two of you quickly got to work after that, making doughs and mixtures, prepping for any later baking. There were a few things she had already gotten the headstart on earlier that she took out of the fridge to check on.

Charlie walked down a while later, rubbing his eyes. He seemed a little taken aback to see the kitchen already so messy, taking it all in. You stopped to admire his tired look, the way the sun glowed against his skin and lit his hair up, the dust roaming the air making him look like he glittered. He moved his gaze to you and gave a lopsided smile before walking up and gently brushing his thumb across your cheek.

“Wh-?”

“You had flour on your face,” He hummed. His voice was tired like yesterday, and it took all of your power to not melt into his hands right then and there. You almost forgot your mother was in the room.

“I have to help with baking all day, so I’ll have to stay in the kitchen, I’m sorry.” Charlie shook his head.

“I’d love to help, if that’s okay. My mom owns a bakery, so I’m not unfamiliar with baking.”

It reminded you how little you actually knew of him. Sure, you could talk for hours but with such little time in general, there was still a lot you were completely unaware of. The sobering pang of guilt that ran through your nervous system ruined the soft moment between you at the thought of it.

“Are you sure?”

He nodded and you found him another apron to wear, but the only one left that was his size was half of a pair for your parents. Your moms had been stained and discarded a while ago. You tried not to laugh at the awful baking pun on the front, but Charlie seemed to light up as he read the apron. He proceeded to make similar puns throughout the day, and no matter how hard you tried to groan and act like you hated it, you couldn’t fight the smile on your face whenever you heard the pride in his voice while he made one.

Your mother handed baking off to the two of you after the first batch, and you had half a mind to assume it wasn’t because she needed to “do things” like she said, but rather that she was just giving you room to be alone with him. Not that you needed it, you were just two just two friends baking together. ..Though you supposed she didn't know that part.

You sighed as you kneaded the dough in your hands against the counter. You’d been working at it for a couple minutes now and couldn’t figure out what was going wrong or why it wouldn’t come together properly. Charlie walked over from where he was mixing icing and stood next to you to peer at your hands.

“It keeps falling apart, I don’t know what I did wrong...” You glanced at him for a moment before squishing it all together again. Charlie hummed and turned to look for something as you tried to start a proper conversation. “You said your mom owned a bakery? I didn't know that.” He walked back over with something in his hands, and you quickly lost your train of thought as he came up behind you and wrapped his arms around you to grab the dough, leaning into your ear with a quiet tone.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

You were suddenly very glad he was pressing you against the counter, because you swore your knees would’ve given out from under you right then and there otherwise. Your face felt warm as his chest pressed against your back and his arms flexed on either side of your shoulders. His breath was soft against your ear, and you could almost feel his grin despite how hard you tried to avoid looking at him until you remembered how to breathe and wow, was it warm in here? It was really warm. Maybe you left the oven open? God, it was so warm–

“There. You just needed to add a little moisture. Butter works fine for that.” He slowly pulled away, and it felt like you had freezer burn everywhere he had touched. You peeked at him from the corner of your eye, desperately trying to act normal.

“Yeah.. Thanks.” Your voice cracked as you spoke. Of course it did.

Charlie chuckled and went back over to the icing and checked on it before moving over to where the piping bags sat for now. You took a deep breath and reached for the rolling pin, trying to keep your cool. What the hell was that?? There was nobody but you two in the kitchen right now, right? If that was part of the act, who was it for? Did he see something you hadn’t? Some hopeful part of you piped up with the thought that it wasn’t an act. That he wanted to do that. That he meant it. A much more realistic part of your mind suggested that he simply didn’t realize what that just did to you. From lifting you yesterday to what just happened? Yeah, maybe he was just a little oblivious. You couldn’t see the dramatic irony to this.

After you had finally rolled out the dough and put a few batches into the oven, you moved to help Charlie with the icing. He seemed to be lacking a bit, and it was taking up your cooling racks.

“Need some help over here?” You smiled and glanced around at the cookies.

“Uhh,” He started, squinting as his tongue poked out in focus. “Mm.. Maybe. I thought I'd have more done by now.” Charlie stood up and looked across the eight cookies he had so dutifully iced thus far. His eyebrows furrowed. You grabbed one of the other colours and wiped off the excess that had leaked out with your thumb.

“Don’t worry. Worst case, we just eat the rest of the icing and tell mom we ran out.” You shrugged with a playful grin, bringing the icing on your thumb to your mouth — only for Charlie to grab your hand and steal the icing with his own finger. “Hey–!!”

He shot you a grin as he licked his lips, so you squeezed a little more out. This time he grabbed your wrist and pulled it towards his mouth. You gasped and shoved your hand forwards, smearing it on the corner of his lips and onto his cheek. Five minutes later the two of you were messy and covered in icing, bags now much lighter from smearing it on each other and trying to eat the icing.

You only stopped when there was a knock on the door and your mother walked through the kitchen to reach it, stopping to look at you two with a bewildered gaze for a moment, before continuing on when another knock sounded.

You two looked at each other and tried not to laugh, before you ultimately failed and burst into laughter. It only took one warm cloth and a couple minutes to wipe up most of the mess, meanwhile you heard the door open and the sound of shuffling and muffled talking.

A familiar face poked into the kitchen, breaking out into a grin.

“Ohh, there you are!” Isabella grinned and straightened up, walking in with a bag over her shoulder and her arms out for a hug. You gasped and handed the cloth to Charlie before making your way over to hug her.

“Bella! How are you??” You pulled away and looked her over with a matching smile.

“Not as good as you apparently,” She leaned over to look at Charlie. “Who’s this?”

Her younger sister, Alice, came around the corner and nearly fell over as her socks made her slide to a stop. A shout came from where she had been, likely from her mother scolding her for running in the house.

“Oh my god!!” You quickly felt two arms around your waist as she careened into you for a hug, once again unable to stop short due to her socks. “I missed you so much! It’s been like, forever??” Alice stared up at you with a gasp from where she was bent over to hug you.

“You saw me at Easter, Alice.” You laughed and pulled her up to hug properly, where she quickly gasped again.

“Hello there, handsome-”

“Al, give him a chance to introduce himself before you start with that.” Isabella groaned and pulled her sister back by the shoulder.

You laughed at their usual antics and glanced back at Charlie, who was quickly trying to wipe any leftover flour and icing off himself to look presentable.

“This is Charlie. My boyfriend.” The word came out more confident than when you had said it to your parents, but you tried not to dwell on that.

“Your boyfriend.” Isabella raised her eyebrow suspiciously. “The boyfriend?”

A bit of that guilt came back as a burning sensation in your throat you couldn't quite swallow down. Isabella was always the one to see through your lies no matter how hard you tried. You never quite forgave her for telling your mother you were lying when she found the broken TV as kids.

“Not bad.” She nodded approvingly.

You tried not to make your sigh of relief too obvious.

“Sooo…” Alice started, slipping out of her sister's grasp before looking Charlie up and down. “Got any brothers? Maybe some cute friends..?”

Charlie laughed nervously and pushed his hair out of the way, coming up to your side and leaning against you slightly. Alice could be a bit much at first, so you leaned back against him in what you hoped was read as a reassuring movement.

“I don’t know about that..” He smiled apologetically.

“Alice, come help your father with the bags please?” Your Aunt Ashley’s voice came from somewhere closer out of sight, saving Charlie from this conversation for now. He sighed, but you knew better. She’d be back.

A dinging started behind you signaling that the oven timer was through, causing Charlie to pat your shoulder as he turned to get it. Conversation with Isabella came as easy as ever, only for her to fall silent after a minute. You turned and followed her gaze to see Charlie bent over pulling out a rack of cookies. His hair fell over his face and the apron hugged him rather nicely. Any heat on your face was silently blamed on the open oven.

“Nice.”

You scoffed and shoved her halfheartedly. You weren't disagreeing with her, but she didn't need to say it.

Charlie turned and kicked the oven door shut in one smooth motion, raising the tray with a grin as he moved to the cooling trays.

“Bella, was it? Care for a snack?” He motioned to the pile of undecorated cookies, then glanced at the subtle remains of your icing fight and quickly smudged it away with his hand.

Isabella glanced at you, then at him. She didn't need to say it, there was some snarky comment bouncing around up there loud enough for you to hear it anyways. She had always been like this, since you were kids really. It drove her mother mad, but she managed to worm her way out of any sort of punishment every time. You really wished you knew how she did it.

“Yeah, I'll take a cookie.” She shrugged and raised a hand. Charlie looked at you, then around for your mother, and tossed a cookie toward your cousin.

They quickly got settled in, already having usual places from how often they come over for more than a night, meanwhile you and Charlie finished up what baking was left and tidied up the kitchen.

You moved in such sync that it almost felt natural, like this is what you were meant to be doing with your time. It made you feel warm inside, easily passing things to him and sweeping as he wiped the counters down. By the end, the kitchen looked like it had never been touched and smelled like all sorts of freshly baked treats.

The sun had already begun to set, and you had managed to escape the constant questions of your Aunt for now. You loved her, really! But from the moment she had seen you it was a hug, a kiss on each cheek and nonstop questions ever since. Doing your best to answer didn't seem to help much either because every answer opened up a hundred more questions thrown at you too fast to possibly answer them all. Sure, you felt a little guilty throwing Charlie under the bus here by slipping away when he would surely be the next victim, but he had it handled! … Probably.

The front of the house was shoveled to create a simple salted walkway that you followed to the front of the garage to sit on the hood of your car.

“Oh, hey.”

Your attention was caught by Isabella leaning against your parents car, out of sight of the windows and front door. She had something in her hand that she pressed to her lips and pulled away, turning her head to exhale smoke. Oh. That was how she stood her own mother.

“Hey, Bella.” You walked up and leaned against your car across from her, to which she held the pen out to you.

“Hey. Wanna hit?”

“No, thanks. I'm trying to at least keep it together for the week.” You laughed and shook your head a little, putting your hands in your pockets as you looked out across the street at the glittering snow and colourful lights.

“Ohh, yeah. Trying to keep it together for that so-called boyfriend of yours, right?”

“... So-called?”

“Yeah,” She chuckled and nodded. “There's no way you're actually dating him, right?”

“Look, if you have something against Charlie-”

“No, dumbass. He's fine. I'm talking about you.”

You stared at her, confused. So, she continued. “You guys have something going on, but whatever it is, it isn't dating. Not for as long as you say, at least. So either you've been lying about this guy and only recently started dating, or you aren't dating at all and you're faking it.”

“When did you get so perceptive?” You crossed your arms. Trying to lie to her would get you nowhere. “And what's it matter to you?”

She shrugged and took another puff, blowing it into the wind away from you.

“It's not too hard to see. You might have to step your game up though. If Alice catches on it's over for you.” Isabella joked. “I dunno why, though. It doesn't seem like you to pull this kind of stunt.”

Sighing, you figured hiding it from her would only make things worse.

“I got dumped over text by my actual boyfriend.”

There was a beat, and then Isabella broke out into laughter, covering her mouth.

“Over text??”

You gave her an unimpressed look.

“Oh my god- You aren't gonna let that slide, right? You totally have got to kick his ass for that one.” She shook her head, trying to stifle her giggles. After a couple moments she took a deep breath. “Have you even let yourself come to terms with that? I mean, c’mon. When was it?”

“A couple days ago. Just before we drove out.”

Isabella's eyes bulged.

“And you're just? Okay with that?? Acting like nothing happened? Cuz’ you gotta, like, go kick his ass and then properly cry about that or something. You earned it after it. … Can I see the text?”

Sighing, you pulled your phone out and opened the texts, handing it to her. Isabella nodded as she read over it and hissed.

“What an asshole…” There was a minute of silence as she handed you back your phone and took another hit. “I'm sure your man in there wouldn't do the same, though.”

“Oh shut up-” You shoved her, to which she laughed.

“I’m just saying! He seems like prime boyfriend material. You should get on that. Literally.”

The two of you continued talking a little, and you really had to reckon with that thought. Did you like him that much? Surely you wouldn't be having these feelings about anyone else had they come, right? She pocketed her pen and went inside, leaving you to watch the occasional car drive by and the lights on each house flash and change. Eventually you followed her back in and hung up your coat, grabbing a pair of cookies as you made your way back to the main gathering. Charlie was sat on the couch trying to keep up with the conversation, so you just sat next to him and handed a cookie. He lit up at the sight of you and thanked you as he took it, wrapping an arm around your shoulders when you leaned up against him.

Isabella gave you a playful look, to which you rolled your eyes and slightly moved closer to Charlie.

You found yourself warming up to the thought of this being something you could strive for, something reasonable and within reach. When that guilt started to rise again, Charlie squeezed your shoulders and made a small joke. The warmth of his arm and his tone drove away whatever bad feelings there were in your mind. Right now, everything was okay. You and Charlie were warm and happy and having a good time. That's all that mattered.

Considering you had a much earlier start than usual, you excused yourself to bed and Charlie quickly agreed. Isabella made some comment about you two having fun, and you had to try not to laugh as her mother smacked her arm. You walked up the stairs after Charlie and changed in your respective places. After you finished you fell into the bed and sighed, shutting your eyes. There was a knock and Charlie walked in a moment later, seeing you there.

“Tired?”

You nodded, letting out some sort of groan in response.

“Yeah, me too. I'm whipped.”

You peeked an eye open to see him grinning.

“Charlie.”

“Completely cooked. ” He walked over to his side of the bed.

“That doesn't even make sense.”

“I'm just saying…” Charlie followed your lead and fell onto the bed, smiling at you when you turned to look at him. “We really got that bread.”

“Stop.”

“Hey, at least I wasn't like your cousin. She was baked.”

You groaned loudly and shoved a hand into his face, biting your lip to stop from giving him the reaction he was looking for. Charlie laughed and pulled your hand away, continuing to make awful quips until the two of you fell asleep.

In the early light of Christmas Eve, you slowly blinked to life after a dream that was already melting away like watercolours before realizing there was something warm wrapped around you. In your haze, and the chill of the room around you. This didn’t ring any alarms in your mind at first, instead opting to hold it closer. You entwined your fingers with the ones against your stomach before you stopped. Fingers? Blinking open your eyes, you look down and see what you immediately put together to be Charlie’s arm wrapped around you. The world seems to hold its breath as you do, carefully picking up his arm and moving it back onto his own chest. He groans and stretches, and you quickly avert your gaze as his shirt rides up. Looking through your closet is when you hear him yawn and the bed creaks slightly as he sits up. You poke your head out and smile at him.

“Good morning.”

He rubs his eyes and yawns again, looking over to find you, nodding and smiling softly.

“Good morning. Anything planned for today..?”

You hummed and grabbed your clothes for the day.

“I think it’s just going to be a lot of socializing. The kids are all excited for Christmas tomorrow and most of the adults are here. It uh…” You hesitate and glance away in thought, before looking back to Charlie apologetically. “It might be a bit stuffy today. I’m sure we’re gonna get swarmed with those cliche family questions that they’ve been nice enough to hold off on. Once that wine gets uncorked though, we’re in for it. Ashley is well acquainted with how to pour a new glass of wine…”

Charlie laughed and stretched again, standing up and moving over to his suitcase to grab clothes. The two of you split up to get dressed and walked down the stairs together.

The day was warm and filled with your family running about and chatting, but you knew this was tame compared to what tomorrow would look like. Christmas music filled every silence and there were multiple glasses of eggnog laying around. The tree looked more and more full as new gifts were added to the underside, eventually spilling out and off the tree skirt. Conversations felt like the same interaction over and over again, asking how they were, they asked how you were. You’d give the same generic answers over and over with a little extra here and there for flavour depending on who you were talking to. Sure, it was repetitive and a little boring at times, but it was Christmas, and this was the most you’d talk to some of these people all year. It wasn’t that you were distant, they just had their own busy lives.

Charlie would occasionally pop in and join the conversation, talking about his own life when asked, or about one of your made up stories of your supposed love life. That guilt swirled in your gut again, rising like bile in your throat. Your realization last night wasn't helping either, making this even worse. The way he got along with your family so easily, the way they would make remarks when he wasn't there about how lucky you were to have found him. Honestly, you agreed. You couldn't understand how you'd lucked into getting such a wonderful man to ever agree to such a stupid plan, but here he was, playing the part perfectly.

Stepping into the backyard and out of the general hum of chatter in the house, you took a deep breath. The cold winter air stung in such a sobering way that it calmed you instantly. It was just an act, you reminded yourself. You'll go back to school and act like this never happened. Sure, your relationship with him would have changed by now, but what did that matter? It didn't change that this meant nothing. You were just putting on an act for your family.

Your feelings were different, but how could you possibly bring up the thought of actually dating after this? Sure, nothing had gone too wrong - which you were thankful for - but surely it would be awkward to drive home just to ask him out again, right? Considering he had agreed just for entertainment's sake, you figured he probably didn't share your feelings. Sure, he’d been much more forward than you had expected but maybe that was part of his act.

Wallowing in your wishy-washy thoughts, you almost missed the way the door opened and shut behind you, and Charlie stepped out with his jacket on. He smiled and gave a quiet wave as he walked over and sat on the side of the porch next to you, bumping his shoulder into yours.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

You two didn’t say more than that for a while, sitting there and watching the stars in the sky as snow started to fall. It was hard to see the stars normally at home, so you appreciated every moment you could watch them glitter and shine. The snow was small and light as it fell, flashing little shimmers of light caught from the house behind you. Charlie stayed silent in your peripheral vision, and you let your leg fall against his. Sure, this was all an act, but it felt nice nonetheless. Would it be so bad to allow yourself the guilty pleasure of enjoying this just a little?

A shooting star flashed across the sky, disappearing so quickly you almost weren't sure you’d seen it in the first place. You gasped as you pointed to the sky and turned to Charlie, only to see him staring at you.

“Did you see that? The shooting star??”

“Oh,” He breathed and looked up at the sky. “No, I must've just missed it. Are you gonna make a wish? Make sure you get what you want for Christmas?”

You looked at the sky again too and tilted your head. Sure, you could’ve made a wish. You could have wished for a lot of things. Good grades, a better new year, a new car might be nice, but…

“Honestly? I don’t need to.” You shook your head and turned to face Charlie with a smile. “I already got what I really wanted for Christmas.”

“Really? You haven’t even opened any presents.” Charlie laughed a little, looking at you.

There were snowflakes adorning his hair and eyelashes, his cheeks slightly pink from the cold outside. Each breath he took let out a little puff that circled his head and made him glow under the moonlight.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better than you.”

His face changed, ever so slightly, but you kept talking.

“I mean, honestly, you were the best thing I think I ever could have asked for. You showed up right when I needed help and you didn’t turn me away or call me crazy when I asked you to do this with me. My parents love you, I’m sure my aunts and uncles are going to miss you from every other family gathering I attend, and you get along with my cousins like you’ve always been part of the family. You’re an amazing guy, Charlie. You’re funny and sweet and so, so genuine that I just… I don’t know how to thank you enough for this. You saved me from what would’ve been a week of the same question over and over again, having to tell everyone that my ex wasn’t what I thought he was. Embarrassing myself. Stuff like that doesn’t die in this family, y’know? I mean, Alice still gets it from people about this boy she dated in middle school who embarrassed her. I couldn’t handle that this Christmas.” As you finished your ramble, you looked him in the eyes and felt your heart tighten. He looked.. Upset. It wasn’t anger, probably, but he looked conflicted. Maybe hurt? “Charlie?-”

“I..” His hand twitched in his lap, starting to move before it fell limp against his lap again. He took a deep breath and avoided your gaze. “I think I should go.”

“What? Charlie, wait- Did I say something?-”

Shaking his head, Charlie stood up and brushed the snow off of him before quickly going back inside.

Your stomach writhed with even more guilt as the area around you was silent, save for the whistling of the wind that drove a chill down your back. Did you just ruin something? Did you say too much and let your feelings leak through? Maybe you had made him uncomfortable with such an emotional confession. Tears stung your eyes as a lump gathered in your throat. It was Christmas Eve and you had just fucked up.

Snow continued to fall around you, swirling in the wind as you put your head in your arms, trying not to cry. You weren't sure how long you spent out there, but when you couldn't feel your cheeks anymore, you had figured it was long enough that you should probably go inside and warm up before you got frostbite.

It seemed like all of your family had gone to sleep by now, and the lights were slowly being turned out one by one as your mother made her way around the house. She caught up with you in the den, watching you stare at the lights on the Christmas tree. New presents had appeared since the kids had gone to sleep, labeled that they were from Santa. A set of bikes, newly stuffed stockings, even the milk and cookies had been taken from to keep up the magic. The kids would love it.

“Merry Christmas, honey.” She came up beside you, her smile faltering when she saw your face. “What's wrong?”

“I think I messed up, mom.” You sniffled and the sting of tears made themselves known again. Turning to face her, the Christmas lights lit up the room with soft colour and reflected off her face that made the world seem just a bit less real. You figured it would be best to just admit it. “I.. Charlie isn't actually my boyfriend.”

Your mother raised her eyebrows and nodded, leading you to the dining room to sit at the table. The wood was cool against your skin as you tried your best not to choke up or spiral any further. You had already made a mess, you just had to figure out how to clean it up. When your mother sat down across from you and took your hands in hers, you continued.

“He isn't my boyfriend. My actual boyfriend dumped me a day before we drove out here over text because he.. Wanted to work on himself, I guess? I probably should have listened when my friends told me they thought they saw him with someone else at a party. I thought he was good, Mom. I really thought he was different, like everything I said he was. And then he suddenly ended things and- And I wasn't sure what to do, I couldn't come home without anybody. It would've been salt in the wound to be humiliated in front of everyone after letting myself get hurt like that.

And then I found Charlie, and I asked if he was willing to just.. Come and pretend to be my boyfriend and- Honestly I didn't expect him to agree at all. But he did. He did, and he's so..” You laughed tearfully and shook your head. “He's so perfect. He's everything I thought my actual boyfriend was. It's like it all comes naturally to him, like he doesn't even have to try to be funny and make people comfortable. You saw how well he got along with everyone this week, and you said yourself you love him! But I… It was supposed to be easy. A week of avoiding embarrassment with a guy I only sort of knew, and then we would go back to school and I’d tell everyone we broke up. Make it seem like this whole thing where I threw him out and I was in the right. Not dumped over text.

But I don't think I can do that, Mom. I.. I think I’m in love with him? How could I not? He's been nothing but kind and perfect to me and so sweet and I never want this week to end because I know that it means things will go back to normal and I don't know how to ask anything more of him after this- I don't even know why he agreed to this in the first place!! But I tried to tell him how much I appreciated him outside earlier and he looked so… Upset. Like I had done something wrong, and then he said he had to go and came inside. And-” The world blurred and smeared as tears filled your vision. “I think- I think I might've ruined what little I had with him-”

Your mother nodded, listening to you ramble on with an intent look on her face. She squeezed your hands and brought them to her mouth to kiss. Taking a deep breath, she nodded and looked at you until you silently took a couple of breaths yourself.

“Honey… I don’t think you ruined anything. Charlie seems like a wonderful man, he would tell you if you had truly ruined anything. He didn't seem angry when he came in, I saw your uncle ask if he was heading upstairs and he just seemed a little.. lost with himself.” She shook her head and smiled. “I knew from the stars you two weren't dating.”

“What??” Your eyebrows furrowed. Were you really that obvious?

“You had said things about your boyfriend that didn't quite line up with Charlie. Things you wouldn't have said about him, that I'm sure you had just forgotten you said.”

“Mom I’m sorry-” She cut you off by squeezing your hands again.

“Don't be sorry, dear. I knew you had feelings for him anyways.” You gave her a quizzical look, going to speak before she answered your question. “Mothers always know these kinds of things. I know how you act, and I love you, but honey you're not the best actor in the family… I've been watching you two all week, and I’m surprised you haven't said something sooner. I would've kept it to myself, though, because I think you need to see how this plays out.”

“I don't know how I can fix this though, Mom. I- I don't even know what I did wrong!”

She smiled knowingly.

“I don't think you did anything wrong, dear. But if you keep these feelings to yourself I think you'll find yourself worse off than if you didn't.” Your mother squeezed your hands again before letting go and standing up. “I've seen the way he looks at you, too. When he thinks nobody is looking, or when you aren't paying attention. When he thinks nobody but you and him are there.” Patting your shoulder as she walked towards the stairs, she gave you one last smile. “It’s Christmas after all. Maybe you got another gift you didn't know you asked for.”

With that, she bid you goodnight and made her way upstairs to her bedroom, leaving you alone in the dining room under the light. The house was near silent aside from the whistling outside of the wind.

You shut the light off and swallowed as you tried to reason through your mothers words. She was a bit of an optimist, so maybe she was just being hopeful, or maybe she was right. Maybe she had seen something you hadn't yet noticed.

The door to your room was left slightly open when you walked up, giving a soft knock as you pushed the door open. Charlie was under the blankets on his far side of the bed. There was no movement other than the steady breathing of his chest. You changed quickly and walked up to the bed, hesitating.

“Charlie..? Are you awake?” Your voice was quiet and dry. There was no answer from Charlie, and he hardly even shifted. Assuming he was asleep, you sighed and resigned yourself to sleeping on your far side of the bed, trying to ignore the tightness in your chest. Tomorrow would be the busiest day of all and if you had done something to upset him, you really weren't sure how well this would go. Maybe it would have been all for naught if you went and messed things up on Christmas Eve. Drifting to sleep as you tried to ignore the way the soft sound of his breathing made you feel, one final sigh made your exit from the waking world known.

You were woken in darkness, blinking your eyes open to barely see Charlie in the very same knitted sweater he had shown you at the start of the week.

“Good morning sleepyhead.”

You groaned and rubbed your eyes, yawning.

“It's still dark..?”

“Merry Christmas.” Charlie's voice was little more than a whisper, and you felt yourself smile at the pure warmth of the tone.

“Oh… Merry Christmas..”

“Your little cousins are running from room to room, I figured I would wake you up a little nicer than that.”

“You're too sweet, Charlie..” You hummed and looked up at him. Even in the darkness he looked beautiful, and you blearily wondered if you were still dreaming. Having such a wonderful man wake you in your bed to go downstairs for Christmas morning with your family, not a care in the world, seemed like a dream come true.

“I'll go stand in the hall and let you change, I think if someone doesn't stop Elliot he's gonna tear open every package and parcel he can get his hands on.” Charlie quietly slipped out of the room and you immediately heard him make his presence known to the distant chaos you slowly became aware of as you woke up.

… Okay, there were a few cares in your world. The strangeness of last night came back to you slowly. You had expected him to be cold, maybe. Or mad. At least a little upset! But he spoke to you like you were a literal angel, like waking you any faster than your body wanted to would have broken you. It was attractive, to say the least.

A scream from downstairs broke you of your thoughts and you remembered there were gifts with children's names on them, and they wouldn't wait around for you.

Stepping up to your closet, you fished out the sweater you had told Charlie about, smiling down at it. It was a bit old and a gift from your Grandmother, but it still fit nicely and had softened over the years to be a little less itchy. You wore a shirt underneath just to be safe.

With each step down the stairs you had to take a breath and remind yourself that you had an act to put on with Charlie. If you had messed up, you at least owed it to him to keep your attitude nice for the day. You were both adults, you knew any issues you had could be resolved in due time. Charlie wouldn't just let it fester if you had hurt his feelings or said something wrong, right? You had to hope that was the case, at least.

Right as you step off the last step, your younger cousins come running up to you with excitement, shouting about Santa Claus, the half eaten cookies, and the new gifts. You do your best to wave off the lingering sleep in your mind to match their enthusiasm. When that's enough to satisfy them before they can actually open their gifts, they loudly run off to their next victims – You catch Charlie's eye from across the den.

His eyes crinkle at the sight of you, then flick down to your sweater and he sits up, pointing at his own for a moment with his mouth slightly agape, before patting the seat beside him enthusiastically. It takes you a moment to mentally unstick your feet from the floor and walk over to him. It was Christmas morning in front of your family - if anything was wrong, this was probably your last reprieve before things fully went wrong and you could see the damages. As selfish as it sounded, you felt as though you should take advantage of that.

“So you really do have a matching sweater?” Charlie giggled and pulled you down to sit next to him, wrapping an arm around you. “I'm glad you decided to match with me.”

“And leave you hanging? Just wait until you see whatever Mom has got on this year. It's gonna put both of us to shame.” You leaned in to whisper as early morning chaos still reigned.

“Hey lovebirds, say cheese!” Your aunt had her phone out already, and you perked up just in time to smile as the flash dazzled you and Charlie.

“You ready for a whole day of.. That?” You glanced to Charlie, who chuckled.

“Bring it on.”

Rolling your eyes, you waited for everyone to wake up and join the family in the den. The younger kids instantly started opening gifts and throwing wrapping paper everywhere when they were given the go ahead. Eventually your dad started a garbage bag of scraps and tried his best to rally the kids into one area with their new toys as the adults started opening their much smaller gifts.

It was always amusing watching people open gifts, seeing the way even grown adults would get excited over certain things they wanted, or how they tried to hide their dislike or disappointment over certain other gifts. One of your aunts was given an ornate music box that seemed to be hand-crafted, and it seemed like she was ready to cry as she hugged your uncle, thanking him. Meanwhile one of your uncles got a pair of socks with little reindeer printed on them, and you swore you could see him try to set them on fire with his eyes.

Charlie would lift his arm whenever it was your turn to open something, watching you make a neat little pile at your feet of opened gifts. He seemed content to just sit and watch, making little jokes about certain gifts until your father walked over with a small box. He lifted his arm again, but your dad held the box to him a little more insistently.

“Wh.. For me-?” Charlie pointed at himself and sat up, taking it hesitantly.

“Well… We didn't want you to feel left out, but the stores were a bit scarce so close to the holiday when I went to get you something. So we hope it's okay.” Your dad smiled and nodded, stepping back to his place by the tree.

Charlie looked at you a bit bewildered, and carefully tore open the wrapping paper. It was a couple of Pokémon card packs from the store, and a set of six-sided dice. You almost went to say something about how they just did their best to understand, but Charlie's eyes lit up as he pulled them out of the box, carefully holding the dice as he inspected them. It was a set of black dice with white dots, subtly reflecting the lights on the tree.

“You didn't..” He looked up at your parents and shook his head slowly. “You didn't have to get me anything.” His hand slipped into yours, squeezing so tight it shook a little. Glancing at Charlie, you could tell he was trying so hard to play it cool, but the way his lips twitched and fought off a grin was undermining all of his attempts.

Your mother shook her head.

“What kind of parents in law would we be if we left you out?? We’ll get you something better next year, we promise.” She sent a wink your way, and you knew it was more for you than it was Charlie. You tried to ignore the warmth that crawled up your neck at the implication there. Next year. Did she really have that much faith in you to fix things? Did she have so much confidence in her ability to see what you can't that she believed Charlie would come home with you next year?

The next gift was picked, and Charlie turned to you with wide, excited eyes as he held up the card packs. It snapped you out of your thoughts and you smiled at him. You hadn't expected it would make him so happy, but the way he glowed was so much better than you could've imagined.

“I take it you're happy then?” You whispered, and he nodded, flipping through the handful of packs.

“I didn't- They didn't need to get me anything! I didn't expect to get anything..”

“Well,” You shrugged and leaned against him, sighing. “If you're part of the family, they're gonna get you something. I'm just glad I didn't tell them what he would've wanted, in case they got something you would've hated.”

Charlie shook his head as he chose one of the packs, setting the others down in his lap gently.

“I wasn't expecting anything, though. I would've enjoyed just watching you open things.” He fiddled with the wrapping of the pack and you looked down at it, then up at him.

“Well.. Go on.”

“What?”

“Open the pack. I wanna see what you got.”

He smiles and you set your head on his shoulder, watching as he opens the pack and flicks through the cards. He explains each card to you, explaining the differences on each of them, and you were more than happy to let him quietly ramble on as he grabbed the next pack.

“Do you wanna open this one?”

“Nah. All yours.”

Charlie nods, peeling open the next pack. It was impressive how quickly he put you at ease, and you couldn't find it in yourself to worry about what may come later, so long as you could stay in the moment of him explaining the rarity of certain cards. It was cute.

The rest of the day went by in a blur as people showed up and left, some family friends popping in for the day just to visit, a few neighbours showing up to gift some treats that you watched your younger cousins sneak into just a little too early. Your mother walked around at one point with her phone facetiming your grandmother, who insisted on having an entire conversation about you wearing the sweater, to which you just had to drag Charlie into frame to show that you were matching. This started a whole new slough of questions about your relationship, and the two of you had to explain repeatedly that you weren't ready for marriage, let alone kids.

Christmas music played loudly and the sound of far too many conversations loudly filled the air during the afternoon, and after being pulled between so many, you found your head was spinning too fast to keep up with, so you snuck out to the front foyer for a bit of space. Charlie seemed to have the same idea as he stumbled out of the kitchen, followed by the sound of your uncles laughing.

“They aren't getting to you in there, are they? Do I need to go tell them to lay off?” You teased lightly, leaning against the doorway as you took a deep breath.

“Pshh, No..” Charlie shook his head and walked up to you with a warm smile, though you noticed his cheeks were slightly pink. “Just got a little warm in there. Your family is really, uh..”

“Nosy?”

“Thorough.”

You laughed loudly and shook your head as you straightened up. Your gaze drifts up and your face falls slightly.

Mistletoe.

Charlie's gaze follows yours and he freezes. The buzz of the house seems to fade away as you focus on it, as if you found yourself locked in this little bubble with Charlie, and suddenly every guilty feeling writhed under your skin all at once.

“Oh.”

“I'm- I’m sorry,” You start, shaking your head as you turn to step to the side. You had been doing so well acting normal, of course you'd find yourself under the very same mistletoe he helped you hang. “We can move-”

“Wait.”

Charlie's arm stops you, and you look at his face to see him flushed, with the same expression from when you started talking last night.

“I..” He shifts, and you move back to standing under the mistletoe with him, looking at him intently. “I know that when you asked me to help you with this, you were a bit desperate and just looking for somebody to help you, and I’m sure I wasn't your first choice considering how little time we had spent together, but… This week has been the best week of my life I think, and I don't ever want it to end if it means we have to go back to the way things were. I don't want to go another day without hearing your voice, or watching you try not to laugh at my jokes - which I know you think are funny. I know this was mostly to save face in front of your family and that we haven't gotten much of a chance to genuinely get to know each other, but I would love to get to know you better, if I can.” His eyes soften and the confliction on his face fades into something much more vulnerable. Charlie's hands move up to your shoulders, and that feeling of freezer burn starts radiating under his touch again. “I want more of this, if you're okay with that. More of you.”

Charlie's eyes flicker between your own, carefully watching as you stand there, stunned.

“And.. Stop me, if I’ve taken this wrong. If my attempts to get your attention this week have been unwarranted. Stop me if this isn't what you want.” His hand moves to your cheek. “Please.”

You don't stop him, shaking your head and leaning into his hand.

“I won't.”

Charlie smiles as he pulls your face to his, gently kissing you for just a moment. He pulls away, just enough to breathe. You wrap your arms around his shoulders and quickly pull him into a deeper kiss.

The sound of cheers and whoops fill the hall and you pull away to see a handful of family members standing in the hallway, watching you two. Your mom gives you a knowing smile before you stare and silently wave them all off. Isabella is the last one to leave, holding her phone up with a mischievous grin and a thumbs up.

Charlie chuckled lowly and kissed your cheek, and when you were sure your little audience had dispersed, you two smiled at each other and kissed again.

“I told you I’d surprise you.”

“You didn't let me down.”

The rest of the night was full of playful gazes and quick kisses when nobody's looking. Quiet whispers of private conversation passed back and forth with no room for anyone to eavesdrop. Gentle touches and subtle movements, with something a little more genuine behind them – you find that not much changes in these little acts from the rest of the week, as if they've always had the same intent behind them just with more hesitation.

Dinner goes about as well as you'd expect, with one of your uncles trying to stir up some trouble and having to be talked down as a big scene was made. Usually you'd be much more upset about this sort of thing, but whenever you sighed or tensed up, Charlie's hand squeezed yours from under the table, and everything was okay again. You stayed up and drank a little after with the rest of the adults in the family, the conversations around the house a little more soft spoken, albeit a little more loose lipped as well. Those who were either already planning on staying, or had drank more than they meant to, trickled off one by one to their rooms, and slowly the unused lights were turned off until it was you and Charlie alone in the den with the glittering lights of the tree.

Sure, you were a few drinks in, but so was he as the two of you hummed and danced along to the Christmas music emanating from the radio. His arms wrapped around you and it was like there was nothing else in the world you could possibly bring yourself to think about other than the smell of Charlie and the sound of his low hums as he swayed you two back and forth.

You knew there would have to be a proper conversation about what you two were going to do now, about what this meant for your relationship and how it would affect the people around you, but for now, you were content with what you had, which was Charlie in your arms, smiling warmly at you.

The song changed to something more upbeat, and he grinned, laughing a little as he pulled away and spun you to the tune. The two of you kept up with singing along, even if you wavered a little as Charlie pulled you along. It was fun and it was carefree and you were very dizzy by the end, where Charlie leaned you into a dip and smiled down at you.

“Merry Christmas, Charlie.”

“Merry Christmas, Angel.”

He leans down and presses a kiss to your lips, and you chase him as he leans up to press another kiss to his lips. After a couple more chaste kisses, he pulls away and glances towards the stairs then back at you with an unspoken question, and you find yourself quickly pulled up the stairs, giggling and shushing each other all the way to your room.

#⁉️ ; bang !#🐾 ; checkmate !#slimecicle x reader #charlie slimecicle x reader #if you see any mistakes no you don't

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facefullofsadness · 1 year ago

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The world needs guitarist winter!! 🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥 (i die a little each time i see her with a guitar)

AGREE!!! everyday that has passed since 230225 winter playing guitar at synk hyper line in seoul for the first time has just been me trying to recover and seek guidance bc damn, she ruined my life and it's all I've been able to think about

content - rockstar guitarist!winter, best friend's sister!winter, dom!winter, includes txt members (beomgyu and yeonjun) and giselle, song references, smut (messy and wild sex, slight degradation, fingering, cunnilingus, strap-on usage, choking, breeding kink, quickies, squirting, vibrator usage, semi-public sex/voyeurism)

wc - 3122

a/n - a loaded one since it's been a while. I had sm fun writing this in general, but especially a certain part (I think u'll be able to tell when u get there), I was laughing my ass off so fking hard. also I just got a haircut that's very wolf-cut-y so it helped a whole bunch to get into writing this lol, committed to the bit!

winter's a damn good guitarist.

she's fuckinggg hotttt too when she plays and she knows it. watched a vid of her recently doing her guitar solo during girls and after the final riff she smirked at the camera and I LITERALLY COMBUSTED DEAR LORD.

anyway, I imagine her in a rock band, one with beomgyu, and they're both just the hot, wolf-cut, dark emo guitarists. you're the lead singer and front man of the band and were the reason the band formed in the first place. you were besties with beomgyu and you two wrote and composed music from time to time, always having the idea of a band as a passion project at the back of your minds.

eventually, gyu recruited his sister, minjeong. the three of you worked together diligently, recruiting yeonjun as a drummer who knew and dragged along aeri as a bassist. it was truly a dream come true, getting to pursue what you're passionate about the most with your best friend and a group of people just as enthusiastic as you were.

though, it was hard to focus with such a pretty girl like kim minjeong breathing down your neck at all times. you, beomgyu, and minjeong would primarily work together on music, usually going from the afternoon until after midnight hours. while minjeong was only a few months older than your best friend, she'd boss him around and push him to go home, saying it was late and that their mom needed to see at least one of them to know they were okay. he'd groan and complain about it, especially since you and him were the main collaborators for songs and were the best when you were together, but she'd always promise to take good care of you, whatever that meant (huehuehue).

beomgyu cares more about you as a little sister than he does his own sister so when he gets confirmation that she'll take care of you, he accepts it and goes home early, leaving you and minjeong in the studio alone. you bite your lip as you watch the door close, your friend leaving you behind with her.

"just you and me now, huh pretty?" the girl leans into you on the couch.

you shift uncomfortably at the close proximity and try to subtly scooch away, "uh yeah, I guess so... we should try to finish this arrangement before we get out of here."

you try your best to compose yourself and act professional, hearing minjeong's deep chuckle next to you, "alright then."

actually getting work done and writing some lyrics alongside figuring out the instrumental arrangement with minjeong since she's the other guitarist, besides beomgyu (also bc he left). you tell her that you get frustrated with the fact you're not that good at playing, her having asked why you don't just make the arrangements yourself. and so, she decides to teach you! well, "teach you."

placing her acoustic Silvertone on your lap and crawling up slowly behind you, her warm body pressed up against your back, the brush of her lips against your ear making you shiver. she brings her arms over and places her hands over yours, guiding them around the strings and assisting with the chords.

she whispers deep and raspy into your ear various instructions, "if you cover this entire fret and press down on these strings, you'll get the F Barre chord. it's a little difficult but nothing you can't manage, right princess?"

"the placement kinda hurts..." you complain, feeling the burn of the metal strings against your skin.

"it'll be a little painful when you start, but with practice you'll get better. you have to press down harder than that though," her pressing your fingers down harder against the nylon strings.

whining softly at the pain, making her lips come closer to your ear, "come on baby, you can do it, a little pain goes a long way. I know you can handle it."

a chill runs down your spine at her words, proceeding to repeatedly attempt to strum the chord correctly until the sound was full.

"good girl, it wasn't that bad right?" you turn to face her, her lips just centimeters away from yours.

your breath picks up at her proximity and a smirk tugs at her lips, moving her face into your neck and hotly sighing against it.

"how badly do you want it, hm? how badly do you want me to fuck you like a rockstar?"

your grip on her guitar tightens as her mouth trails around your neck, gasping when you feel her tongue drag across slowly.

"what do you think you're doing?"

"nothing you don't want me to already, sweetheart."

you lean into her touch, moving your hand away from the body of the guitar to lace your fingers through her soft wolf-cut hair, pulling her head in further into your neck, now placing wet kisses against the skin.

you suddenly shoot your eyes open at the realization of what you two are doing and stutter, "I-I don't think we should be doing th-this... we need to finish the arrangement... and also, y-your brother, what will h-he think?"

you stumble over your words as minjeong just hums in response to, continuing to leave sloppy marks across your neck, feeling her make hickeys on parts of your skin that wouldn't be noticeable.

"we have all the time in the world to finish the song. but what about gyu? did you want him instead then?" she asks, almost threateningly, challenging you to say yes.

in response, you whimper and pull her head in further towards your neck, practically begging her not to go away.

"don't you feel ashamed letting your best friend's sister do this to you? or are you just a slut?"

you don't answer, only shut your eyes and bite your lip. minjeong doesn't like that, resulting in her hand to pull you by the hair backwards, head facing the ceiling. your eyes shot open at the contact and you see her blown pupils staring into yours.

her voice comes out low and dark, "answer me whore. tell me what you are, I wanna hear you say it."

you gulp down a lump in your throat, debating if you should listen to her or to your morals. all sense jumps out the window when she sexily raises her eyebrow at you, an expectant expression sitting on her aroused face.

fuck it whatever, she's too fucking hot, "I'm your slut, minjeong, all yours."

finishing the arrangement? what a joke! she has your legs spread wide open on the soundboard, skillful fingers pumping in and out of your squelching cunt, your head thrown back, moaning into the hot air of the studio. her one hand plunging deep into your pussy while the other one is wrapped around your waist, holding you close, keeping your thighs propped open with her body. and she's just watching you, her mouth slightly open and lips a deep dark plump red, her messy hair tousled, bangs sticking to her sweaty forehead. she loves watching how your face contorts in response to her digits curling to hit that delicious spot in your hole, hitting it repeatedly, her palm slapping against your clit with every quick thrust of her hand. the sounds of your croaky moans, wet and clenching pussy, and her heavy breathing fill the sound-proof room, the thought of productivity not even grazing either of your minds.

the pleasure built so much, you felt that knot in your stomach tighten. minjeong quickened her pace as she felt your legs start to shake around her, sensing how close you were to cumming. it was all too much and you suddenly orgasmed, crying out moans with every wave of delight that surged through your body, thighs trembling, eyes rolled back and mouth hung open, your hands gripping her shoulders for dear life. she intently watched with a lustful stare at every expression your face made while you came, memorizing how good you looked when she fucked you. pulling her fingers out and collecting every drop of cum you leaked onto her hand and wrist, licking it clean until a thin sheet of her saliva remained.

"open your fucking mouth and stick your tongue out," she demanded with a deep voice.

you obeyed and gagged, feeling her tongue shove itself down your throat, forcefully swallowing her saliva and your cum. drool seeped out the sides of your lips as she continued her onslaught in your mouth, feeling her clothed hips grind against your sensitive clit, moans slipping out of your throat in the form of gags.

she'd pull away suddenly, tongue exiting your mouth with a wet slurping noise, making you cough. "you. are. mine. remember that."

she'd remind you, running her damp fingers through her hair.

these late night escapades continued to occur with every single long session held in the studio (she definitely recorded some audios of you guys fucking for sureeee). the creative part of you wanted beomgyu to stay and help with the music, but the sinful part of you so desperately wanted him to leave as soon as possible to have his sister all to yourself. your best friend never caught on to you and minjeong, but oh, yeonjun and aeri caught on like THAT. the tension between you two was so palpable, the two older members would side eye you during practices and giggle to each other, watching the two of you eye fuck from across the room.

eventually, the band's popularity would build and proceed to skyrocket, leading to your guys' first tour. tour meant performing together, traveling together, being with each other, and ultimately, tour meant being with minjeong. and so when management would get 3 hotel rooms for you all, 1 for the boys, 1 for the girls, and well, 1 for aeri being the sleeping beauty she is, rooming with minjeong meant a few things. practicing together, writing and composing together, and sleeping together (for the girls in the back, SEX).

throwing you onto the bed as soon as you reach your hotel room, tearing your clothes off and pinning you down, sloppily kissing each other. she'd prep you by eating you out, sticking her wet muscle inside of your leaking core, caressing your walls and flicking against your g-spot. you bit down hard on the pillow, muffling your moans as her thumb covered in her saliva rubbed against your throbbing clit. her pulling away right before you came and putting on a strap-on she brought on tour (for you of course!), wasting no time in thrusting it into you.

the pillow probably did nothing to silence your screams as she mercilessly fucked you into the mattress, hand pressing down on your lower stomach to feel her cock pumping in and out of you, the tip of her dick hitting your cervix again and again, her thumb still stimulating your clit. minjeong had your back arching, your hands flew everywhere, trying to grip onto anything to ground yourself, but nothing was enough, even as you screamed and bit down on your pillow. your eyes watered and your vision blurred as she rammed into you, the dark-haired girl moving her hands to wrap around your neck, choking you, gradually adding pressure with every rough thrust. her pants eventually became moans too, loving the feeling of the side of her strap hitting that delicious spot inside of her too, slapping her clit against yours as she bottomed out in you.

"I'm gonna fucking cum in you y/n, I'm gonna knock you up, fill you up until you're leaking both of us," minjeong growls above you, lowering her face to level with yours.

you feel tears fall down the sides of your face and your throat sore from another scream ripped out of you as well as her hands around your neck as she throws the pillow in your mouth onto the floor, attaching her mouth to yours instead. you cry onto her tongue as you orgasm against her strap, toes curling and legs wrapped around her waist, nails digging into minjeong's shoulders, cum gushing out of you as you feel her cock shoot fake ropes of white liquid into you, filling you up. you feel her shake in your arms too as she cums, her pleasure leaking out onto your thighs, soaking the bedsheets. she collapses on top of you, both of you desperately gasping for air, her dick still inside of you, keeping the fake cum from leaking out.

"good thing we have another bed."

of course being on tour also meant fucking in the green room before a performance. having done interviews all morning, having a concert for the tour tonight, minjeong was so mean! she had you wear a vibrator the entire day! it would be on the lowest setting up until the interviewer would ask you a question. she would turn up the intensity and you would squirm as you tried to answer, gripping your ripped jeans, almost causing another tear. and so when you two were left alone in the green room for just a minute, she took you right then and there, your legs wide open on the sofa, her mouth stimulating your clit while she increased the vibrator's setting to max, thrusting it in and out of you.

you were screaming in pleasure, all the built up tension in your stomach finally being relieved with each pump of the sex toy in your pussy. you clutched onto her leather jacket for dear life as you came all over her face, squirting everywhere. she licked as much as she could and you both worked quickly to clean before anyone came back. your members, staff, and the fans would notice you limping around on stage that night, winter with an especially evil smirk resting on her face.

being on tour also meant getting fingered in the bathroom backstage. it's literally 10 minutes to showtime, but minjeong NEEDED to fuck you now! her calloused fingers pumping in and out of you while you reciprocated fingering her too. both of your skirts hiked up and panties pushed to the side (no safety shorts? idk this is fiction, ignore it!), moaning desperately into each others mouths as you messily and sloppily made out against the bathroom stall door. curling your fingers at the same time, biting down on her lip while her fingernails dug into your thigh at the feeling. rolling your hips against her palm to stimulate your clit, her repeating the motion and pinning you harder to the door so that your bodies were flush against one another.

screaming into each other's mouths as you came at the same time, cum dripping down your wrist. quickly cleaning one another up (with your tongues, yup) and running to your places since there was literally THIRTY SECONDS to showtime! beomgyu confusedly looking at you two in frustration, asking where you guys had been, yeonjun and aeri rolling their eyes laughing, still lowkey irritated that you guys were LITERALLY FUCKING instead of getting ready to perform smh. everyone definitely noticed the redness in both of your cheeks. winter had fingered you with her calloused hand, the dampness making it more difficult to play the chords during that show, the band noticing the change in effectivity too (how technical!).

at some point, the fans would notice the tension between you two. who wouldn't ship the lead singer with the guitarist in a band anyway right? especially when it's the hot dark wolf-cut emo guitarist winter and the stunning pretty charismatic lead singer. but of course that wasn't the only reason, you guys were soooo obvious. you're singing the flirty and seductive lyrics towards her, minjeong returning a smirk back at you and sticking her tongue out while she fingerpicks her guitar, raising her eyebrows when she does. trailing your fingertips over her bare skin in skimpy outfits they'd put her in onstage, singing the lyrics into her ears.

or literally just flat out fucking saying it. like having those soundcheck Q&As where fans would ask you questions like "if you were to date one of the members, who would you date?"

answering each other's names at the same time, causing everyone to laugh in the audience, beomgyu gagging, and yeonjun and aeri holding back laughter. minjeong following up by saying something like "I mean, it's not like it hasn't happened before." LIKE WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

or when you and winter are in an interview and they ask what the inspiration was behind a particular song, let's say a more sexy song, and she responds first, "well, every song that we've written has influences from our own personal experiences."

the interviewer would be like, "so then is it true when you sing quote 'I might fuck your friend, I made my mind up'?"

you blush profusely and winter just dies laughing, "I'll let you guys decide that one."

"y/n, you wrote "we go for hours and it's still good" correct?" the interviewer continues.

"yes yes but the details don't really matter do they?" you nervously laugh while minjeong drills holes into the side of your head, staring at you with a playful and sinister smirk on the side.

my favorite headcanon to think about is online discourse regarding you and minjeong. your guys' new mv dropped for your latest single and there are a bunch of scenes with you and winter acting like an angsty couple in the rain, making up in the end by having an alluded to sex scene (lmao, wild if this actually would ever happen).

I just imagine twt going INSANEEE.

slut4winter: DID Y/N AND WINTER FUCK AT THE END OF THE VIDEO?!?!?

y/nonechancepls: i literally cannot defend minjeong and y/n anymore...

beomgyuswolfcut: bro, winter fr cucked her brother from y/n 😭😭

aerifuckinguchinaga: win-y/n's chemistry is a lil too real yall 💀

drumjunyeonjun: not them saying it was their fav scene to film, the closet is made out of AIR, IM SICK OF U F WORDS !!!

and of course, despite all of this, your dear bestie and minjeong's brother doesn't catch on. at times, beomgyu will be all what the fuck is going on when you two say something that has double entendre or has some sort of underlying meaning.

yeonjun usually just pats him on the back while laughing, "oh my friend, never change, never change."

aeri being such a nosy friend LOVES hearing you rant about it, chin propped up on her fist, leaning forward against the table, a cheeky grin on her face. with every spicy detail, she's always just like, "girllll, you're insane and wild, but good for you!"

a/n - like rq, through a guitarist pov, winter is so attractively good at guitar it pisses me off. also headcanon songs this band would make are like wdywfm by the neighbourhood, sex by the 1975, do I wanna know by arctic monkeys, and slow down by chase atlantic. incredibly self indulgent hc and WHAT ABOUT IT!!

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riskyraiker · 2 months ago

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Sex pollen

TFP!Optimus Prime x Reader

Everything has been going fine with team Prime since no decepticons were causing chaos and MECH has been quiet as well. The day was supposed to go well, if a pod of some kind wouldn't have landed on earth. Ratchet detected it first on the computer, notifying Optimus about it. Bee was with Raf, Arcee with Jack and Bulkhead with Miko so Y/N was the only one left to tag along.

“What is the origin of the pod?” You ask Optimus with a raised brow walking through the groundbridge, seeing forestry afterwards. “The origin wasn't listed on the signal, and we don't have any visual of it yet.” Optimus replies and looks for the signal. Walking around, being wary of any decepticons, you spot something. A pod like the signal said. “Optimus, i've found the pod. It isn't opened yet but it has no insignia on it. Should I open it?” You commlink and receive a negative answer from Optimus. “Wait for me, Y/N. It's never clear what's in there.” You wait for Optimus, following his instructions until you hear a click. It was the pod, it's making noise, is it…opening? And POOF some form of gas hits your faceplate and you inhale some of it in shock. “Y/n what happened?” Optimus arrived at the scene, checking on you. “The pod” cough ��opened and exploded some gas all over me and right on my faceplate, inhaled some of it.” You cough and hold onto Optimus so you won't fall. Once your state has stabilized, Optimus grabs the pod and contacts Ratchet for a groundbridge.

“Old friend, would you check on Y/n they inhaled whatever came out of the pod.” Optimus asks, leaving with the pod, taking it away from the others. Sigh “Well come on Y/n. Let's check your stats.” You were about to walk over to the berth in the medbay until everything felt off, it was unbearably hot and your fans went on, working on 60%. “Ratch..I don't feel so great. Like I'm overheating and so much more” Ratchet knew immediately something was off when you froze and your fans were humming quite loudly. He's already by your side, helping you to the berth. He scans you, noticing something was off in your tanks. He checks everything possible until he finds the source of your overheating. “Not good.” Ratchet mumbles and turns around. “Y/n you need to be quarantined for a bit. Go to your berthroom for now, and don't let anyone in! You inhaled some hortuan gas, it makes your processor overwork your frame and crave…interfacing.” Ratched explains more about it for example the so-called “heat” will end if you empty your tanks with interfacing, antide or on its own, which is a month. The medical facts leave you shocked. He shooed you away and got to work on how to solve it. Goddamnit! You were unlucky at least for now.

Retreating to your berthroom, you lay down and try to relax, hoping your cooling system won't overwork itself. After a while you find out it's useless to even try to relax, your processor is now running through every possible situation where you're interfacing with somebody. God, it would be nice. Lubricant was leaking now between your legs, your plates were not able to keep it hidden. If this was the effects of a few earth hours how would the rest of the day be or possibly the whole week? Others were informed of your state and how you wouldn't be able to leave your berthroom for a few days or longer until Ratchet figured out how to stop the side effects. The bots brought you energon time to time and talked with you, except Optimus. He was busy doing research and anything else on his datapad. He was worried about you, of course, he was since he's the team leader, but this was something else. He wanted to help you, to do something but he isn't a doctor of any kind.

The first day wasn't that bad but after a few days? You're like a zombie with only one thought, craving brains except you were craving sex. A lot of it. And the only bot who you thought about was Optimus. His beautiful hips that you could hold tightly when thrusting into him or his neck cabling that you would bite into. You had enough, you won't wait for any form of antidote or the heat to pass. Walking out of the room searching for a specific door, groaning and rubbing your thighs together while walking. Knocking on the one specific door you hear pedsteps and once the door opens, you check. It's Optimus with a quite surprised look. “Y/n shouldn't you be in quarantine?” He asks while you breathe heavily, staring at the Prime. It wasn't long until you launched yourself straight against Optimus, pushing him down, while the door closed automatically. “Let me have you, please?” You beg still breathing heavily and already grinding against the bot below you. “I've been thinking of nothing else except you. You, you, and you full of..me. Let me have you.” it wasn't a question anymore, more like a demand. If the Prime was against this he could overpower you most likely. Your lips crash against his and your glossa slides right through. Your servos grab onto the sides of Optimus’ faceplate, pulling him closer. You get more aggressive with your movements, grinding harder against Optimus and tugging his helm closer if that's even possible. The making out continues while you lift him up somehow and carry him over to the berth. “Open up, open up, open the plates, please!” You growl against Optimus’ lips and you can hear how his interface plating opens, how lubricant leaks all over the berth. “Oh love, can I taste you?” You ask patiently even though you can barely hold back yourself and your actions. Optimus gasps and takes a moment to answer “You may. Please do.” Even if Optimus is losing his composure he still is polite as always.

You dive in between the Prime’s legs and start devouring the wet valve, not having enough so you suck on his external node. The stimulation makes Optimus clench his thighs and wrap them around your head, making him groan. Sticking your tongue into the wet warmth, you can't help but moan at the taste. The lubricant gushing and squirting everywhere, as you eat the Prime out, gives the air a sour odor. You felt like you were…high? It's the gas or the fact that the Prime was holding your helm between his peds. “Ugh! Ray, please do not stop, I'm about to- nghh!” Optimus groaned and like on command your intake is filled with cum. You eat the mech out a little more since you don't want to waste any single drop. That taste is so heavenly and you need more of it. The click of your own interface plating opening makes Optimus glance at you only to be bit gently on his neck cables. The stimulation on his cables distracted him so much that he didn’t realize you were pushing in, the sudden stretch in his valve made him moan and throw his head back while you leaned your helm against Optimus’ shoulder bottoming out. The moment your spike has completely vanished into the Prime’s warmth, he shrieks. Your spike touched Optimus’ ceiling node perfectly, while you were loving the sounds Optimus made he was embarrassed and covered half of his face with his battle mask. “No. Take it off. Now.” You growl and start thrusting hard right into the mech's ceiling node. You can hear the sound of the mask deactivating and you grin that lust-filled smile until you kiss the prime again. The clanging of metal continues as you two make out, both close again to overloading. The moment you reach your climax, a few seconds after Optimus, you pull out, flip the Prime over, and push back in. You growl of pleasure (Fucking animal…) and pull the smokestacks located on the Prime’s back, which surprises Optimus who gasps at the sudden force. Now his back is pressed against your chest you nibble at the sensitive cabling, you remained the same since you walked through the door, while Optimus’ act has completely fallen. His calm and strong mentality was broken to nothing except moaning and whining since his legs shaking with too much tension and hips meeting your thrusts. It takes a while until your thrusts and stimulation make both of you overload, but this time Optimus is starting to get overstimulated while you continue. “R-Ray..Agh! Too much.” Optimus whines as you tug harder at his smokestacks. “I assume Ratchet tol- ngh! He told you about my condition and how it stops. Well, I’m no- ahh. I’m not stopping until my tanks are empty and spilled into you, sweetspark.” You whisper into his audio receptor and bite the little piece of it. Optimus knew that you wouldn’t stop, driven by the bio-gas in your system so he tried his best to endure the overstimulation, but after his fourth orgasm, he couldn’t bear it anymore. You hear the whines and pleas of stopping, but you’re so close to emptying your tanks. “One more, sweetspark. One more.” And you go on with deep yet painfully slow. As your climax arrives the seventh time, Optimus overloads one last time which is his fifth. While Optimus has tears bubbling in his optics and letting dry away, you’re gasping for air. Your tanks are empty so the effect of the gas goes away, and the moment you become conscious, you tense up. Seeing the prime in such shape and you were the one who caused it made you feel awful until the Prime understood the state you were in he talked you back to reality. “You do know I could’ve stopped you if I didn’t want it.” The words almost went through your other audio receptor until your lips met Optimus’. He kissed you to bring you back of your head.

The two of you clean up and head out of the berthroom to inform Ratchet of your well-being. You both also know if you tell Ratchet he will know what you did. While walking over to the main area Ratchet does recognize Optimus’ walk pattern so he starts to talk. “Optimus I’m almost done with the antidote for Ray.” You cringe in embarrassment and cover your face while Optimus surprisingly chuckles. “About that old friend. We’ve come to inform you of Ray’s well-being.” Ratchet heard Optimus just fine, but does his research a few seconds before turning around, spotting Optimus and… you. “Ray. Don’t tell me you did what I think you did.” Ratchet whispers. You snicker and blurb it out “I couldn’t handle it, marched over to Optimus’ room, and finished what I started!” Ratchet just groans since he is close to finishing his project on the antidote. “No wonder Bumblebee mentioned metal clanging in the hallway.” The medic mumbled just loud enough for you both to hear. While you laughed at the new statement Optimus was the one embarrassed this time. “I hope it was just the clanging he heard.” You whisper and snicker once again.

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AN: This is my first time posting smut on tumblr SO if you want to read more do go on AO3 and there is more of fics like this one!

My AO3 profile:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/risky_writer/works

#tfp x reader #optimus prime x reader #dom reader #sex pollen #smut #bottom optimus

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thatssonanii · 4 days ago

Text

Chapter Seventeen

A/N: Finally I've come back *baldy voice* 😌😂 Soooooo...I realized I was putting tooooo much into this chapter so I moved some stuff to the next chapter but 17 is still that girl! Lol! ENJOY!! 🫖LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, REBLOG🫖

Warning: Cursing, Mentions of Death, slight violence/aggression, mentions of abortion EXCUSE ANY TYPOS, 18+ ONLY MINORS DNI

DO NOT POST MY WORK ANYWHERE ELSE AND/OR CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN!

Masterlist

Chapter Sixteen

“Bereaved parent headed your way,” Toni whispered as she breezed by Moriah.

Quickly, Moriah took a deep breath to calm her nerves. When she looked up, she looked directly into Nia’s mother’s eyes and her heart lurched into her throat turning into an uncomfortable lump in her throat. Though only a few seconds it felt like an eternity before the two met on the side of the ED hallway.

“Hey, Mrs. Jones.” Moriah greeted, fidgeting with her badge reel. “Um, if you’re looking for Dr. Harris, I can take you upstairs to his office.”

“No,”she shook her head, “I came to talk to you. If that’s okay, Nurse DeBreaux.”

She badly wanted to say no, in fear that Mrs. Jones was trying to set her up on recording, cuss her out or jump her. All things she would understand but still didn’t want to happen. Mrs. Jones noticed her hesitation and tried to give her a reassuring smile.

“I promise I’m not here to hurt you or anything, I just wanna talk. Please.”

Moriah made eye contact with Toni, who gave her a slight nod. “Sure, follow me, Mrs. Jones.”

Moriah led her to the break room and offered for the two of them to sit at one of the tables. They sat across each other in silence. Moriah didn’t plan on saying anything until the other woman did.

“I um … I wanna start off by saying that I apologize for pushing you and screaming at you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Mrs. Jones,” she stopped seeing the other woman put a hand up.

“Call me Amira, please.”

“Okay, um, Amira, You don’t have to apologize for that. It was a very intense and unexpected situation. That was a very valid reaction.”

“I do need to though,” she sighed, ‘You took such good care of Nia. She was so scared when we got to the emergency room the first time but when we got to the pediatrics floor from the moment you came into the room to introduce yourself, you made her feel so much better.”

“I’m glad I could do that for her. She deserved it.” Moriah took a chance, reaching across the table to gently hold one of Amira’s hands, a small smile on her face. “When I went home I would always tell my boyfriend about my favorite little patient. He was actually the one that found her little gopher game I gave her. I couldn’t find it and I felt so bad cause I promised to find it. Then him and his best friend drove two hours to pick it up. It was all worth it seeing the smile on her face.”

Amira wiped away her tears. “Yeah, she played that game all day and took it everywhere she went. She told everybody that Nurse Rye got it for her cause she was your favorite.”

Moriah laughed a little. “I can imagine it. I know you’re not doing alright so I won’t ask but if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know.”

“Actually, there is something.” Moriah nodded for her to go ahead, hoping it wasn’t something she was going to have to say no to. “Her service is in two days, I know she would want you there and me and my husband would like for you to be there. Is there any way you can come?”

Biting her lip, Moriah thought for a moment. She knew Toni would be able to finagle it for her to be off for a few hours to do so but a part of her wasn’t sure if she could handle it. The dreams, or nightmares rather, had finally stopped and she didn’t want them to return. But .. it was the least she could do.

“Just let me check with my supervisor but I should be able to come. Here, take my number,” Moriah paused waiting for her to pull her phone out and rattled off her number, “Send me the information, please.”

Amira smiled, tears glistened in her eyes. “Thank you. I appreciate you and Dr. Harris.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along that message. If you need anything else, you have my number. Use it.”

After they talked for a little while longer, Moriah parted ways with the grieving mother and went back to join Toni at the wraparound desk. She rested a bit of her weight on her friend, waiting for her to finish up her phone call. From the way she was talking, she could tell that it was Bronco and absolutely not a patient or another hospital employee on the line which brought a small smile to her face. The couple had come a long way, she had to admit Bronco had much more patience with Toni’s constant declaration of them being friends and friends only than she would have thought.

“How was it?” Toni asked once she hung up.”You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. She wanted to apologize and asked me to come to the service.” Moriah answered solemnly.

“When is it?”

“In a couple of days. She’s supposed to send me the rest of the information. Do you think I can get a few hours off to go? I’ll come as soon as it’s over.”

Toni laughed a little under her breath. “You don’t have to use those doe eyes on me. You know I’m not gonna say no. You need to go, I think it’ll be good for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, for one,” she started pausing to direct a few of the nurses, “It’ll bring you some closure to the whole situation. And for two, it’ll help you with your grieving over Angel. It won’t be his service obviously but a child nonetheless. I’m sure it’ll bring up some unresolved feelings and regrets and because of that I’m gonna give you the whole day.”

With a frown on her face, Moriah turned her body to stare at her friend. “I don’t need a whole day. Even if that does happen, work will help me feel better. I feel like you just tryna get rid of me.”

“Girl, please.” Toni laughed. “I couldn’t get rid of you if I tried. But work will not make you feel better, it’ll just help you push those feelings back down and we’re not doing that.”

“You think you just know everything,” Moriah sassed playfully.

“Don’t think, I know I know everything.” She laughed. “Zilla should be able to go with you, right?”

“I think so. If not, I’ll be okay to go alone.”

Toni squinted at her. “No, you won’t. So you need to ask him now if he can go. If he can’t then I will go or you call and have your mother in law or auntie come here to go.”

“No, no, all three of you have to work. I’m a big girl, I can handle it.”

“You heard what I said. Call that man and ask him,” Toni fussed passing her the receiver, “Matter of fact, call his number out and I’ll dial.”

Moriah sucked her teeth. “You act like you don’t trust me.”

“Cause I don’t. Number, please.”

After dialing the number, Toni turned the volume up on the phone so she would be able to hear the conversation without disturbing the ED by putting the call on speaker. Moriah hoped her boyfriend was busy with work so he wouldn’t answer the phone and just as she thought luck was on her side, he answered slightly out of breath.

“My bad, baby. What’s up? You good?” He asked all in one breath.

She rolled her eyes at her grinning friend before answering. “Yeah, I’m okay. Were you busy?”

“Not for you. What’s up?” He asked once more. He was trying to gauge the situation with her tone but she was giving him very little to work with. “Toni good?”

“Toni is fine, gettin on my nerves,” she complained with an eye roll, “But um Nia’s service is in a couple days. Do you think you’ll be able to come with me? If you can't, that's okay, I’ll find someone else to go with me.”

He spoke to Booker in the background for a few minutes before answering her. “Uuuuh, I really don’t know, Fat but ima try. I might have to travel for Smackdown.”

“Then no, go to that. That’s important, Zay, I don’t wanna take you from that.”

He sighed a bit. “It ain’t really set in stone yet. We just goin to do a backstage thing but I should know by the end of the day. If I can’t, can Toni go witchu? Ion want you goin by yaself.”

“Toni has to work but if you can’t go then I can go by,” she was cut off by Toni snatching the phone from her. When she tried to get the phone back, Toni popped her hands and told her to back up.

“Don’t listen to her. Her ass is not goin by herself,” Toni fussed, staring directly at her friend.

Zilla’s laughter carried through the phone. “I agree witchu. Ion like the thought of her goin by herself. That’s a lot. She ca’ hear me?”

She turned the phone down a bit. “Not anymore.”

“Heey!” Moriah pouted. “That’s rude! Me and Bronco don’t do that to yall.”

“Girl, go check on your patients. The grown folks is talking. Shoo.” Toni waited until she left from the desk and into one of the bays. “Alright, she’s gone. What’s up?”

“I know I ain’t gon be able to go. I told her I wasn’t sure and would let her know but I can’t.” He huffed. “If you can’t then I’ll get my mama to come go with her.”

“Sounds good to me and I agree. I think it would be better if your mom went with her, not that I mind going but she’ll have someone with her afterwards because I would have to come to work.”

“I trust your opinion, T. You think she should be goin to that?” He worried about the after effects it could have on her, if it would undo all the progress she had made.

Toni looked around making sure she didn’t see Moriah. “Yeah, I think it’ll be good for her. Give her some closure with the whole thing and help her progress a little further with her grief over Angel.”

Zilla hummed, agreeing with her. “Yeah, yeah, you right. Ima go head and get my mama a flight.”

“Alright, I won’t say anything. You get back to work.”

“Aight,” Zilla’s voice faded for a second, “Oh Bronco want me to tell you something.”

She chuckled. “I just talked to him. What does he want?”

Zilla asked his friend to repeat it one more time and laughed. “He said don’t forget that Javi gon be at a sleepover tonight so you know what that mean.”

Laughing loudly, Toni quickly apologized to the people standing near her. “Tell him to leave me alone. I’m going back to work. Goodbye.”

Once Moriah was done checking on her patients, she sulked back to the nurses station continuing to pout at her friend. Toni could feel her constant stare, a small smile formed on her face but she didn’t turn to face her or acknowledge her.

“Was everything okay with them?” She asked without looking away from her work.

“They were fine,” she sassed. “But I’m not.”

“Do you need to be checked out?”

Moriah stomped her feet playfully. “No, I need my friend to pay attention to me. Stop ignoring me.”

“Nobody’s ignoring you, crazy.” She laughed. “I just already know that you’re pouting and I don’t wanna see that.”

Moriah moved closer, poking her lip out even more and pushing her friend. “Toniiiiiiiiii. You can’t ignore me. You better ask Zay, I’m like a hemorrhoid. I always come back.”

“Girl,” she laughed loudly, “I’m about to send your lil ass home. What is it that you want?”

A triumphant smile spread across Moriah’s face as her friend finally turned to look at her. “I wanna know what you and that man was talking about.”

“You already know what we were talking about, Rye.”

“Nah uhn cause you shooed me away.”

“Because you would’ve kept tryna tell us that you can go by yourself and we don’t wanna hear that. I know that your mama made you feel like you couldn’t turn to anybody and that you have to deal with things on your own but you don’t. You’ve got a big ass support system, let us do something sometimes. Okay?”

Moriah nodded solemnly as she rubbed her temples. “I hate it when you make sense.”

“Mmm,” she answered, eyeing the younger girl, “What’s wrong with your head?”

“I’m fine, just a little headache. It’ll go away.”

“Uhuh. Did you eat today?”

“Yes, mother. I ate breakfast and I bought my lunch.”

Toni watched her a little longer, noting the rubbing never stopped. “And you’ve had water? I haven’t seen your cup up here all day.”

“I,” Moriah started then stopped, “Maybe I forgot it in my locker.”

“Girl, go get that water and drink it. Is this the first headache you’ve had all day?”

Moriah started to back away from her, headed for the break room. “No. It’s been on and off since we left Atlanta a few days ago.”

“You need to make sure you tell the doctor about that at your appointment. That could be important to note.” She yelled after her, making Moriah frown.

“What appointment, T?”

“With the specialist next week, Rye. Did you forget that quick?” She chuckled.

Racking her brain for a good fifteen seconds, Moriah tried to remember the appointment until it hit her. She had pushed it to the back of her mind after she and Zilla had made the appointment or at least that’s what she was going to tell anyone else who asked.

“No, I didn’t forget. I just wasn’t thinking about it.” She retorted smartly.

Again, Toni chuckled. “First you forgot the water, now you’re forgetting your appointment. Do you know where your car keys are?” Moriah flipped her friend off before turning to walk the rest of the way to the break room. “Not my fault your memory is bad.”

At the performance center, the talent had gone in and out of meetings with Shawn and both Pauls with the upcoming appearance of Dewayne. They wanted it to be clear how things were to go especially with the talent who would have run-ins with said man. Zilla was the last one they met with per Dewayne. He couldn’t count how many years it had been since he’d seen his older cousin, it might have been a little while after his father died but his memory was hazy on that. Getting into the office, Zilla took notice of Shawn and both Pauls and beside Heyman sat Dewayne and Ava. He greeted all of them before taking a seat.

“Sorry to have you wait so long. I’m sure you’re dying to know what we’ve got for you.” Paul started then gestured to his bigger cousin. “Dewayne thinks very highly of you as does the rest of your family which is why myself, Heyman, and Dewayne thought of this. As you know I asked you to travel to Smackdown but didn’t tell you why. Dewayne would you like to?”

Dewayne smiled that wide smile, extending a hand slap to his younger cousin. “So we're two months away from Wrestlemania and we wanna go big. We already have Bloodline taking over Raw and Smackdown but we need NXT as well right? We have Simone now she’ll be GM,” he explained gesturing to his daughter, “And we have you. We’re going to have you with her, sort of like an enforcer for her but not a mute like Sefa. When the time is right, we’re going to add a few more of the cousins but for right now just you and Simone. You following?”

He nodded quickly looking at all of them individually. “Yeah, I got you.”

“Good, so on Friday you’re gonna do a run in and tear the whole place down. You got me?”

“Yeah, then what?”

Dewayne chuckled. “Tuesday, Aldis is gonna come to NXT and him and her will have a thing then you attack him.”

The meeting went on for another two hours because as Zilla found out, Dewayne loved to talk especially about himself and his involvement with everything. By the end of the talk, he felt good, he felt excited and he couldn’t wait to share the news with his girlfriend. The only issue was the sporadic traveling he would have to do on those weeks they wanted him on Raw and Smackdown. It wouldn’t be too often but enough that he would be away.

Dewayne stopped him in the hallway and beckoned him over to where he stood with his daughter.

“What’s up?” He asked, looking between them.

“Just wanted to reintroduce you to my daughter, Simone. Not sure if you remember her. Yall were really little the last time you saw each other.” He placed a loving kiss on the crown of her head.

Zilla moved in to give her a tight, one armed hug. “I don’t but you still lil cuz no matter what. Preciate you for picking me for this, Dewayne. Ima do yall proud.”

“I remember you a little bit,” she admitted, her hands behind her back, her nails digging into the palms of her hands.

“I know you will. I have no doubt about that. Don’t wanna keep you from whatever you were doing. I’ve got your number now so I’ll let you know if anything comes up.” Dewayne waited until Zilla walked off to turn and face his daughter. “You remember what I told you, Simone?”

“Yeah but why do I have to do that? You’ve been handling it so far. I’m not getting anything out of it.” She complained.

Quickly, he snatched his glasses off and stared into her eyes. “Do you not have this easy job that you’re getting paid way more than you ought to, Simone? Your contract has many perks in it that some of these people would give their souls to have. That’s why you have to do it.”

“I was fine wrestling,” she shot back, arms now folded across her chest.

“Uhuh and they wanted to get rid of your ass cause you and wrestling was like oil and water. I saved your ass and now you’re gonna do what I asked you to do. Are we clear?”

Anger ran rampant through her body, if anybody looked too closely at her they might see steam coming from her ears. She stared back at her father. “Why are you helping this lady ruin their relationship?”

“It’s a long story that I’m not gonna bother telling you because you still wouldn’t understand.” He spat harshly. “Just do what I asked you to do. That girl is moving too slowly, I need you to light a fire under her ass starting now. I want this shit done by Summer Slam or you’ll be back to the unemployment line. I’m sure AEW will take you in.”

Pressing another kiss to her head, Dewayne put his glasses back on and strolled away the cockiness and swagger still very present. Nadine had a way of doing things that got messy because she was too emotionally involved so he did what needed to be done so the both of them could live in peace. There was just one more piece of the puzzle that needed to be taken care of to make sure everything stuck.

Getting to catering, Simone looked around until she spotted her target. She sucked her teeth when she saw her playing kissy face with Trick. Going over to the table, she tapped Gia harshly on the shoulder. She chuckled when she saw the irritation on the woman’s face. Same here, she thought to herself.

“Excuse us, Trick. I need to speak with her.” Simone said then turned on her heels knowing the other woman was behind her. She didn’t stop until she got to the office she would be using.

“You know why you’re here.”

“Listen, like I told you dad I don’t know what more to do. I’ve been trying and he’s not going for it.” She huffed. “He loves her and I’m not enough to change that.”

Simone walked close to her until she had the shorter woman backed into the wall. “Either you’re gonna do whatever it takes to get this done or you’re gonna wish you never brought your ass down here. He’s a man, it doesn’t take much to get him in a compromising position.”

“That’s your cousin. I get why your dad is doing it I guess but you. Why are you trying to come in between his happiness?” Gia’s voice quivered as she spoke. It was hard to speak with the frog in her throat.

Simone frowned at her words. “What do you know about why he’s doing this?”

Gia started to retell the conversation she had overheard between Dewayne and who she now knows as Nadine. It was the first day she had come down to Florida to start at the performance center. Dewayne ubered her from the airport to the penthouse he was staying in. He had her waiting in the living room while the two finished their conversation.

“Listen, listen, don’t worry about them. Calm down, you’re gonna hurt yourself.” Dewayne cooed, his voice muffled through the closed door. “I told you to just let it be.”

“How can I when she’s ruining everything?”

There was silence that led Gia to believe he was either kissing or hugging the mystery woman.

“She’s not ruining anything, she’s just blinded right now. Listen, those Fatu men always show their true colors. I know my family. Why do you think so many of them are divorced or have fathered multiple broken homes?”

There were some sniffles that made Gia extremely uncomfortable. She felt like she was impeding on something personal, the thought to make a hasty exit came to her until she heard his voice move closer to the closed door.

“This thing will take care of itself, Nadine and then you and I can be together like we’ve always wanted. Okay?”

Moments later the door swung open and his big body stepped out of it, making sure to close it up tightly behind him. She stood from her spot on the sofa to shake his hand, taking note of how her hand was swallowed by his. He gestured for her to sit as he did so, a big smile plastered on his face.

“Glad you made it here safely, Gia. I won’t keep you long but I wanted to go over a few things before I let you loose. Is that okay?” He asked, not really caring about her answer either way. Her meek nod made his smile widen even more like an animal finding its prey. “Zilla is who you need to get. He may be a tough cookie to crack but he will crack. You’ll do what you can to make that happen as we’ve discussed before. Right?”

She nodded once more. “Can I … Can I ask a question?”

“Sure. Fire away.”

“Well, I don’t mean for this to sound rude or judgy but,” she sighed softly, “Why are you doing this to your cousin? I mean is she a bad person or?”

Her body shook seeing the flash of anger in his eyes while his smile never faltered. It was creepy to say the least. He rubbed a hand over his bald head, exhaling through his nose harshly.

“Not that it’s your business but she’s not a bad person, this is just a bad relationship that neither of them should be in.” He explained gently, underlying anger in his tone.

She nodded but then her lips started to move faster than her brain could stop her. “It’s a bad relationship because you and that woman can only be together if they’re not?” The smile was gone, replaced with a deadly look in his eyes and a frown to match. The anger rolled off of him in waves, bringing heat and fear to Gia’s body. “I … I–I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I—I just wanted to know.”

“You just make sure you get this done or I’ll have to renege on our deal. Are we clear?” She nodded frightfully. “Words!’ He barked, scaring a shriek out of her.

“Ye–yes, we’re cl–clear.”

“Good. Leave.” He ordered watching her scramble to get onto her feet and walked to the door. He called out to her just as she turned the knob, stopping her in her tracks. “I’ll be checking up on you. The faster you work, the happier I’ll be. And as far as the deal goes … you want me happy, Gia Miller.”

Nadine … Nadine … Nadine

The name sounded so familiar to Simone but she couldn’t place it. It wasn’t anybody she was related to but she couldn’t place the name. The sudden shuffle of feet brought Simone out of her thoughts. She glared down, hot air from her nostrils heating up Gia’s forehead.

“Nadine. Who is Nadine?’ Simone asked with irritation in her voice. “I know you know.”

Gia stuttered until Simone slapped the wall next to her head and she screamed. “Na-nadine is um she’s the girlfriend’s mom. She’s her mom and I guess her and your dad are in some kind of relationship. That’s it, that’s all I know.”

“What? A relationship?” Simone repeated. Disbelief washing over until it hit her, she cursed under her breath. “Get out and go do what you’re here to do. Stay out of Trick’s face and I mean it.”

Without a second thought, Gia scurried out of the office thankful to get away while the latter went to collapse into her office chair. Her memories flooded back to her with all of the random play dates she’d had with this little girl that her dad said to keep a secret, the supposed daddy daughter dates that turned into daddy daughter and this other lady dates. This is why he wanted her to do this, so that he could be with this woman with no problems. He was using her like he always did. Simone always wanted love and attention from her father but as she got older she realized the only time she got it from him was when he wanted to use her.

Still trying to pull back old memories, her phone started to buzz on the desk in front of her. She answered without looking at it.

“What?”

“Damn, lil cuz. What I do to you?”

Simone exhaled harshly realizing it was only Josh. “Sorry, you caught me at a bad time. What’s going on though?”

“Oh my bad, I can call you later or something. I ain’t mean to bother you.” He told her quickly. “Or if you wanna talk about it, we can do that.”

“No, noo,” she answered quickly, “It’s okay. Go on.”

He paused for a few moments to give her space to change her mind, continuing on when she didn’t. “Heard you and Zilla traveling with us to Smackdown, we gon go out to eat and prolly party a lil bit. Yall coming.”

She laughed a little. “It sounds like you’re telling me and not asking me, Josh.”

“Glad you know it,” he exclaimed happily. “He can finally go somewhere without that damn girl on his hip and have a good time.”

“You talkin about his girlfriend?”

“Mmmhh. Her. You met her yet?”

Simone rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Can’t say that I have but it sounds like you don’t like her. Why don’t you?”

“I don’t. At all. Her mama wither but I can’t get into it right now cause my brothers finna be with me but we’ll talk when I see you.”

That brought a smile to her face, she knew that the men in her family liked to confide in each other so maybe he could tell her something about Zilla and Moriah thatGia could use to get the job done.

“Sounds good to me.”

“I think we all gon fly out together but if not, let me know when yall get to the hotel.”

When they hung up, Simone leaned back in her chair with a smile on her face. This could really work out in her favor but she wondered why he brought up Nadine. But knowing that he was one of her older cousins, she knew he was privy to a lot of family information that the younger generations weren’t. The more information she could pump out of her cousin, the better.

The day of the service came much quicker than Moriah anticipated. Since finding out all the details, she had been trying to prepare herself to face it but now that she stood on the mirror doing her makeup, she was stuck. Halfway done and she started to panic wondering what everything would be like, the atmosphere, the feel, how her parents would be. Her thoughts were crippling her but she willed her tears away for the time being.

“Manamea,” Leata called out, knocking on the frame of the bathroom door. “You okay? I usually hear you singing while you get dressed.”

As much as Moriah fought with her boyfriend and best friend about being able to go by herself, she was glad they knew better than she did and planned accordingly. When she was waiting for Zilla to check his bag, Leata approached her with a wide smile and a warm hug. She threw herself into Zilla’s arms once she was able to let go of Leata, thanking him profusely and kissing all over his face. And now seeing her stand in the doorway made her even more thankful.

“I think I’m okay. My mind is just racing,” she admitted softly.

Leata approached her, gently sliding the makeup brush from her hand and put her hands on her shoulders, “Look at me, Rye. Let’s take some slow, deep breaths together. In … out. Slowly.”

Following her instructions, her heart rate, thoughts and anxiety started to slow until it was back to normal. The exertion of her thoughts had tired her out and she hadn’t left the house yet. Feeling the tension still lingering in her body Leata hugged her tight, rubbing soothing circles on her back.

“See? You’re okay. It’s all just your mind trying to scare you with its what ifs,” she encouraged softly, “It's that part of the mind you really wanna tell to shut the hell up sometimes but we don’t because its voice is a little louder than we can be at the time. But then another part of our mind protects us and brings our thoughts back to important things. Like your favorite headache, if he’s getting on his cousins’ nerves yet.”

She laughed softly, pulling away from the hug. “I’m sure him and Jon are getting on Sefa’s nerves since they met up.”

“Yeah, i’m inclined to agree. But I feel sorry for the poor people who have to deal with them all while they're traveling,” she joked. “But better them than us, no?” Moriah agreed softly. “I’m pretty much done getting dressed so how I about I finish your makeup? It’ll be like when you were in high school. You remember I did your makeup for your first date with my big head son?”

“Thank you. I remember that,” she laughed. “You did my makeup and Auntie Kami did my hair. EJ volunteered to drive us.”

“And Arthur and Naio had to help him pick somewhere to take you. That boy thought you were getting pretty for him to take you to McDonalds or whatever.” Leata admitted through her laughter.

Moriah stared at her until she busted out laughing. Leate guided her to have a seat on the closed toilet lid. “I mean not that I would’ve minded but he was really gonna do that?”

“Yup,” she responded, finishing Moriah’s foundation, “There and to the arcade like you two did every other weekend.”

“I can believe all of it. That’s my Zay.”

Leata continued to tell little stories while she did Moriah’s makeup, trying and succeeding in keeping her mind occupied.

“Your first time traveling with us and your ass glued to that damn phone. Shit, maybe Rye was right,” Sefa joked. Zilla immediately looked up from his phone, a playful glare on his face and flipped him off. “Don’t be mad cause she was right. You finna cry, ain’t it?”

“Boy, fuck you. Ain’t nobody finna cry.” Zilla barked out through his laughter.

Jon smacked Zilla’s arm laughing. “That’s right, tell em ain’t nobody gon cry without Rye. She at the house cryin without you with her big head ass.”

The two slapped hands, agreeing with each other while Sefa looked between the two still laughing.

“Aight now, number six, don’t get beside yourself. Not too much on my homie, I’d hate to tell her that you need to move down the list some more.”

The laughter that filled the hotel room came to an abrupt stop when Josh rounded the corner with Simone in tow. They spoke to the younger woman but only her being that Zilla had filled the two of them in on what happened between Josh and Moriah at the performance center and were still very much upset with him.

“Did we interrupt or?” Simone asked, very aware of the tension.

Before anyone else could say anything, Zilla rushed from his seat on the sofa barrelling towards Josh like a bat out of hell. He grabbed him by the collar of the too small polo shirt rushing him backwards until he hit the wall. His older and younger brother rushing behind them attempting to to diffuse the situation, Simone stood back confused.

“I should beat yo ass! Fuck you think you was doin talkin to her like that? Then you lied in my fuckin face, bitch! I shoulda beat ya ass the first time you said some shit about her!” Zilla yelled pointing a finger in his cousin’s face. “Talk that shit you was talkin to me. Tell me that shit!”

Jon tried to pry Zilla’s hands off of the shirt, while Josh held his hands up trying to show his cousin that he didn’t want to fight with him although that decision was no longer and probably had never been in his hands. Zilla kept replaying the conversation he had with Moriah about not fighting his cousin, the purpose being it would keep him from doing so because she had asked him not to and it was up to her. However, replaying the conversation had the opposite effect. Instead of thinking about the promise she made him agree with, all he could think about was the look and the tears in her eyes when she was telling him what happened. That alone was enough to take his own cousin’s head off. He had had enough of people trying to hurt her.

“Aye, aye, I know it was fucked up, uce but this ain’t the way to do that shit,” Sefa tried to reason with him. “Let’s talk.”

“Nah,” he said. His voice was low and steady.

Josh grabbed his younger cousin’s wrist and pushed him away as far as he could but the grip was still on his shirt. “See how angry she gettin you at your own family? Look at this shit, uce!”

Jon groaned, still trying to separate them. “You need to shut the hell up before we let him beat sense into your dumbass. Damn! Zilla, we get it. He shouldn’t have done that shit but think about your job. He can’t show up to work with visible bruises that he didn’t get from Monday night. Let’s just take a minute to cool off.” Jon slowly eased the hands off of Josh’s collar and held his wrists gently as he stepped into Zilla’s line of sight. “Simone gon take Josh to get us some food and me and Sefa gon stay and talk about this shit then talk it out when they get back. Okay?”

Zilla’s nostrils flared as he stared at his cousin, giving a quick nod. “Thank you. Sefa reach in my pocket and get my card out, give it to Josh. Josh and Simone yall get outta here and go get food.”

Zilla’s eyes followed Josh and Simone until he could no longer see them. His anger came out as a roar as he snatched away from Jon. His cousins gave him space to feel all of his emotions hoping he would all of the volatile ones out. While they watched, Zilla paced back and forth, his arms swinging at his side as he mumbled here and there.

“Say sum,” Sefa whispered.

Jon did a double take, his eyes wide in disbelief talking just as softly. “What? I just separated them. It’s your turn. Yall closer anyway.”

Sefa shook his head, “Don’t matter. You got better deescalating skills, you got it, big bruh.”

“Just say sum, he not about to bite my head off and I’m too old to fight him if he get to swingin’. You a spring chicken, go head.”

“Get on my damn nerves,” Sefa mumbled stepping closer. “He not here no more, just take some deep breaths. Don’t work yaself up and get your mind off what you gotta do tonight.”

“Go head with that, I ain’t tryna hear that shit. Fat more important than all this shit. I don’t give a fuck about gettin in trouble.”

Sefa glared at his brother with an ‘I told you so’ look before stepping back allowing them both space. Like Jacob, Sefa knew how their cousin got down about Moriah. He regretted a lot of shit he’s done in his life and the only exceptions are anything he’s done for or about Moriah.

“Nobody is sayin that she ain’t important, we all know how you feel about Rye and anybody disrespecting her but Sefa is right.” Jon held his hands up when Zilla looked up at him with the meanest mug he’s seen in a long while. “Your job got everything to do with Rye. You wanna take care of her and support her but you can’t do that how you wanna do that without your job. And if you’re gonna say fuck it and beat his ass, it’s a pretty good chance you won’t have this job no more.”

Zilla popped his knuckles, he tried to calm himself down but he was still seething with anger. The words Jon said to him were true, he understood it all but the lines always blurred a little when it came to her. After being away from her for years, unable to protect her, he made a promise to her and to himself that he wouldn’t ever let her go without protection and avenging any wrong done to her.

“Listen,” Sefa called out softly, “We not sayin that he don’t deserve to have his ass beat or that you should let him get away with what he said to Rye. All we sayin is he not worth ya livelihood. Just calm down and at some point while we together this weekend let em know verbally what it is goin forward. Aight?”

Zilla rubbed his face out of irritation. “Yeah, yall right. Plus, I can’t beat his ass anyway.”

“I know you ain’t scared.” Jon joked.

“Fuck no,” Zilla responded quickly with laughter, “Fat made me promise to just give him boundaries and shit. Said since he hurt her feelings that she should get to decide what happens to him.”

Jon and Sefa both laughed.

“So you was pump fakin? Had us thinking you was bout to beat uce ass forreal.”

“Oh nah,” he chuckled, “I was gon beat his ass cause I wasn’t thinkin bout that promise until you pulled me off em, uce. Fat was just gon have to be pissed at me so I guess she got you to thank for that.”

Jon grinned cheerfully. “Aye, that mean I can move up from number six. Can’t wait to tell her.”

“You childish as hell.”

“Shit you ain’t taking me and Arthur spot so you better hope for 4 or 5,” Sefa added walking back towards the sofa and tossed his phone towards him. “Your phone ringing, Zay. Catch.”

He caught it and answered quickly, seeing Moriah’s picture on the screen. “What’s up, Fat? You good?”

“Not Fat. It’s your mama,” she laughed softly.

A wide smile stretched across his face. “Oh what’s up, mama? You good? Why you callin from Fat phone?”

“Left mine in the car. I’m alright, Rye just needs some kind words from you.”

“Where she at? Something else happened?” He asked, now concerned. His cousins wondered out loud if everything was okay but he put up a finger and walked away from them to give himself a little privacy. “I can come home.”

“No, no, you don’t need to come home. Just encourage her and give her some reassurance when I give her the phone.”

“Zilla can do that but what happened?”

Leata sighed a little. “When we got to the church, she talked to Nia's parents and they asked her to leave what she got Nia in her casket. I went with her but she still didn’t react very well. She’s been crying and now she’s throwing up. So, please uplift her. She wants to stay for the service and repass so she’s gonna need that from you, Isayah.”

“I got you, Mama. Just give her the phone.” He assured her. While he waited to hear her voice, he filled his cousin’s in quickly. The two of them gave him some quick, last minute things he could say to her and how to make her feel. He stepped back from them when he heard rustling on the other end of the phone. “Fat,” he cooed softly.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” she hiccuped.

His heart ached at the sound of her voice. Having to be on the road instead of with her made him upset with himself. It was for the betterment of them and their future but he still didn’t like not being able to be there for her. The whole situation gave him a glimpse into what their relationship would have to endure during his career the higher he made it.

“You’re not and it’s okay to not be okay, Fat. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with feelin’ some shit. But when is it something wrong?” He asked, trying to coax the saying Dr. Barnes taught him out of her.

She hiccuped a few times trying to slow her breathing down. “It’s something wrong when I don't let myself feel something.”

“That’s right so just breathe and let yourself feel that shit, Fat. You got Mama right there with you, she got you. You know she not gon leave you.”

“Its harder than I thought it would be,” she whispered.

He nodded as if she could see him. “It is but it ain’t nothin’ you can’t do. You made it this far and I know how much it mean to you to go and how much it mean to Nia people. You strong as hell. You know that?”

“Not really.”

“Aye,” he called out a little louder, “What I say? Don’t downplay yaself, you are strong.”

She took in a big deep breath trying to ignore the returning wave of nausea that returned. “Okay.”

“Nah, say it.”

“Zay,” she laughed softly, bringing a smile to his face.

“Nah, that ain’t it. Try again.”

“I’m strong.”

Her voice came out softly, so much so he barely heard her.

“Can’t hear you. Say that shit again.” He demanded with a light chuckle. She repeated it a little louder and with more conviction. “Yeaah, that’s my girl. You just remember that, aight? I’m proud of you.”

Another giggle came through. “Thank you, Zay. I love you.”

“Luh you too, Fat. Call me when you need me. Aight?”

“Aight,” she mimicked playfully.

He spent a few more minutes talking to her before his mama called out to her for them to join the service. After ending the call, Zilla sent a few follow up encouragement texts and a few to make her smile for her to see afterwards. He joined his cousins, letting out a long breath as soon as he sat down.

“She good?” Sefa asked.

He nodded. “As good as she gon be right now. Ion know how she gon be afterwards though.”

“You think you needa go home?”

“Uhn uhn. I want to but if I did, she’d beat my ass for missing this to come home.” He joked. “She in good hands with my mama and I got her when I get home.”

Jon nodded, turning the television on. He searched through the channels. ‘So you know what you wanna say to Josh?”

“Shit, I know what I wanna say but I can’t say that. I got what me and Fat talked about to say to him.”

“How much different is your version from Rye’s?” Sefa asked, looking up briefly from his own phone.

Zilla raised his brows, tilting his head a bit. “A big ass difference. Mine wasn’t nice at all. But she tryna save our relationship so she just want me to give him boundaries and shit where we don’t discuss her at all together. If we’re in a group setting, if she’s brought up or she’s around he just doesn’t need to comment on her and he get ta keep his fuckin teeth.”

Jon sucked his teeth, “Rye ain’t say that last part. You adding shit.”

“And she ain’t gon know I added it either or you gon be toothless like ya twin.” Zilla threatened playfully.

Josh and Simone waited in his rented SUV for the restaurant to bring out their large order listening to music. Simone wrestled back and forth with how to ask about what she witnessed without sounding too excited. Her phone laid face down in her lap so he wouldn’t see that she had been recording the entire conversation so she didn’t miss a detail.

“I know you prolly wondering what that shit was back there and my bad that you had to see it in the first place.” Josh stated sincerely. “I really ain’t expect for him to do that or for her to tell him what I said but I should’ve known better.”

She breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to brainstorm ways to get it out of him any longer. “You don’t gotta apologize, I’m good. I just .. what was that?”

“Basically me and him got into it a lil while back about Moriah. I told em point blank that he ain’t need to be with her and that I ain’t like her. And then me and him got into it a lil bit that day me and her had a conversation.” He scratched his face in thought for a moment, “Then somewhere between me and her having that conversation and today, she must have told him what I said to her.”

“Why don’t you like her? From what I’ve heard everybody likes her.” Simone was truly intrigued.

He huffed, shaking his head a bit. “They like her cause they don’t know about her damn Mama. Like they know how she mistreated Moriah and disrespect Zilla and the family but that’s it.”

“And you know something else?” She finished.

He nodded. “Yup. It’s a few people in our family that know the sheisty shit she did. My pops used to tell me shit that my uncles and him talked about cause he knew I wasn’t gon say shit. I let it go cause I figured with him gettin locked up that she would move on with her damn life but here we are.”

Simone had started to get confused. On the one hand, she was glad to have someone she could potentially be on her side and help her but on the other, she was confused as to what her mother had done had to do with Moriah.

“I can tell you but ion want you to be offended or hurt your feelings cause some of it gotta do with your dad.”

She waved him off. “You can tell me, I won’t. Me and him are not as close as y'all think.”

“Makes sense.” He nodded. “So the reason Nadine stopped fuckin with our family out the blue was cause she was fuckin our family. Literally. Her and your dad had an affair after she became your speech therapist.”

Simone frowned at that. “Wait, she was my speech therapist? I barely even remember taking speech.”

“You was little, like older than 3 or 4 but younger than 10 so that’s prolly why,” he explained. “But yeah so they had an affair goin on for years and then Dewayne brought her up to my pops and my uncles cause he wanted them to meet her. He was in love with her despite still being married to your mama at the time. He told them he was gonna divorce your mama so he could be with her.”

“Is that why they got divorced? What the fuck,” she mumbled under her breath.

Josh glanced at her to make sure that she was okay before he proceeded. “So they end up goin to dinner or whatever and obviously Zilla’s dad is there and immediately recognizes her. He don’t say shit until after the dinner but the two of them knew. He talked it over with my pops and the other uncles that was there, ultimately they told him to just stay out of it, that it would work itself out and it wasn’t their business.”

“I’m sure he didn’t listen,” she chuckled.

“Nah,” he laughed, “Unc and Moriah’s dad was real cool. Like best friend shit. He set up a meeting with Dewayne and Hassan and from what my pops said unc told him, Hassan was calm as shit about the whole thing. They talked and exchanged details on shit and that was that.”

“And then?”

“Unc talked to Nadine about it, he never told her about Hassan and your dad meeting up though. Nadine admitted to some shit before she cussed his ass out. And he still promised to keep her secret as long as she stayed away from your dad. And he kept his promise till the day he died.”

“What did she admit to?” Simone asked quickly.

He rolled his neck around until it popped then checked his phone for the time. “You sure you want me to tell you? Cause it might piss you off.”

“Yes, I want you to tell me. You’ve told me this much, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

He shrugged. “Aight then.”

Looking around the floor, Eddie searched until he found the door with Nadine’s name on it and knocked. Her receptionist had probably gone out for lunch as her desk sat idle with no one to stop him or alert her to his visit as they had done before. Not receiving an answer, he knocked again much harder, finally garnering a response.

The look on her face when he walked in made him chuckle. Despite her shock, he took a seat in the chair on the other side of Nadine’s desk.

“I’m glad I finally caught you. How’s your day going?” He asked politely.

“It was going well. How’s yours?”

“The same. I won’t keep you long but we do need to talk,” he relented, “And we’re not gonna keep putting it off.”

Nadine sat down her pen and braced her arms on her desk. “What do we need to talk about, Eddie? Is it the kids?”

“It’s not the kids and you know that it’s not them. It's about you and my cousin.”

She rolled her eyes to high heavens. “For fucks sake, I didn’t know he was your cousin okay? If I had, I wouldn’t have allowed him to pursue me.”

“Him being my cousin shouldn’t have been the reason you didn’t start a affair with him, DiDi.” He frowned, put off by her attitude. “You’re married to a good guy. Hassan would pull down the moon for you if you asked, yet here you are stepping out on him.”

“What are you? The morality police? It was a mistake, okay?”

“A mistake happens one time, it’s been quite some time, Didi.”

She groaned, now leaning back in her chair. “Okay so what are you gonna do? Tell him?”

Although, he and Hassan talked about it after meeting with Dewayne and Hassan asked him not to say anything about it to anybody else, that he would handle it, Eddie knew his best friend very well so he knew that Hassan wouldn’t do anything about it and just sit on the information. He knew how much Hassan loved Nadine, blindly he felt but love nonetheless. While he would support his best friend’s choices, he was going to make sure he protected him as much as he could.

“I’m not gonna tell him as long as you promise to stay away from my cousin. You don’t wanna ruin your marriage like this, Didi.” Eddie reasoned softly. “Hassan loves you and I know despite your transgressions, you love him just as much. You don’t want to tear your family apart. Hassan doesn’t deserve that and neither does Moriah.”

Nadine sat in thought, twisting her chair a bit from left to right. She never thought it would be possible to love two people at the same time but here she was. Their marriage wasn’t perfect by any means but Hassan had always made her feel loved, taken care of and protected but on the other hand Dewayne made her feel alive, he made her feel sexy, he made her feel needed. Was she really ready to give that up?

Eddie could see the wheels in her head turning and turning. “Do you love my cousin?”

“What?” She spat loudly. “No, I don’t.”

He raised a brow at her reaction. “Then it shouldn’t take you that long to agree to not see him again.”

“I’m just thinking about everything that’s happened and you’re probably right that I shouldn’t see him anymore.” She sighed. “If I continue on I’m gonna have to tell him.”

Eddie leaned forward at that. She seemed to be in a confessing mood, if so, he would listen intently. “Have to tell him what?”

She covered her face attempting to gather herself and her emotions. “I’m pregnant.”

He choked on his spit at that, patting his chest to help calm his reaction. “You’re pregnant. Didi? Are you sure? It could be Hassan’s though, right?”

Slowly, Nadine shook her head. “I mean there’s a possibility but I’m pretty sure it’s DJ’s baby.”

“Didi … you’re gonna have to tell Hassan. He’s gonna be able to tell that’s not his baby.” Again, she covered her face signaling to Eddie she was getting ready to drop another bomb. “What? What is it?”

“I’m not keeping this baby. I can’t keep this baby just like I couldn’t keep the others.” She responded with tears falling from her eyes.

Eddie had no idea how to react to that news. It hurt and angered him for both his cousin and his best friend. Neither of them deserved to have to deal with her, they both deserved so much better than her. He had no problems with women deciding to go down that specific route but what he did have an issue with was Nadine doing that to hide what she had been doing.

“Others? How many times have you,” his voice trailed off. He was unable to finish his sentence.

More tears fell in rapid succession before she could stop them. “Three times.”

“Nadine,” he admonished. “Three times and at no point between the first and the third did you think it was probably a good idea to stop or use a fucking condom?”

“How are we gonna get condoms and not get caught? We’re married!” She yelled jumping up from her seat.

“That’s exactly the point, Nadine! You’re both fucking married!” He yelled not moving from his seat. He took a few deep breaths. “Listen to me, you’re not doing this a fourth time. Just tell Hassan, we both know he’s very forgiving. Nobody else has to know and I know Rye would love to have a sibling. Plus I don’t think your body is gonna react well to a fourth one. What if you want to have another child with Hassan and you can’t? What then?”

At that moment, Nadine’s sadness and embarrassment became anger and all she could see was red. It was enough that she thought he was coming here as her friend to help and comfort her while she stood at this crossroad but here he was preaching to her and trying to tell her what to do.

“Who are you to tell me what the hell I’m gonna do with my body? If I wanna send this baby back along with its siblings, that’s MY business, MY choice! If I want to continue to fuck your cousin, I’m gonna do that too! And if you tell Hassan, I’ll just deny it! You think he’s gonna believe you over his wife?” She spat viciously.

Eddie was taken back by her tone, he finally saw what was really hidden inside her. “No one is telling you what to do. I am trying to help here because clearly you’re not great at making decisions.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Nadine. You choosing to abort this baby and continuing to see my cousin is selfish and you know it. What, what,” he stuttered, his anger overwhelming him, “What if the kids decide they want to be together when they’re older and have kids? You and my cousin still gonna be together then and ruin their happiness?”

She screwed her face up. “And what makes you think I care about that? Your son is not the only boy in the world, she can find somebody else. It won’t be the end of the world.”

“You can seriously not be this selfish, Nadine? Not when it comes to your child.”

She waved him off. “They're nine years old … they don’t even know what it means to like each other yet. By the time they do, they can find other people. Stop tryna use Moriah to guilt trip me.”

Eddie stared at her. “What kind of evil woman did Hassan marry?”

She smirked. “Apparently the same kind you want your son to be with. My baby is gonna be just like me. I secured everything I needed and wanted in this life and I’m still able to do what the hellI want. So good luck to your son if he ends up with my girl.”

“Moriah is nothing like you. She has never been and I thank God for that.”

“Maybe that’s what she wants you to think. Ever thought of that?” She asked with an evil chuckle.

Choosing not to engage in her tactics, Eddie stood from his chair and held her stare with a disgusted look on his face. “Unlike you, I don’t betray the people that trust me so I’m not gonna tell Hassan. I’m also not gonna tell him because I know how much it would hurt him and I don’t wanna do that. But I never told you I wouldn’t tell DJ. You and I both know how he feels about abortions.”

With that, Eddie walked out of her office leaving the door wide open leaving her calling out to him to come back. He gave her one last look before stepping onto the elevator.

Knocking on Josh’s window interrupted his recount, jarring them both with a startle. He let his window down to accept the food and politely posed for a picture with the excited woman. The ride to the hotel was quiet outside of Josh trying to make conversation here and there. It was obvious the information he divulged had her in deep thought and he hoped he hadn’t upset her too bad.

Simone walked back into the suite first, carrying a couple bags while Josh followed slowly behind her carrying the rest of the bags cautiously to the kitchenette. He spoke after she did, taking note that he’d heard three voices speak back. Jon approached Simone, helping her look through bags.

“Listen, I ain’t tryna kick you out but it’s prolly about to get heavy again so if it's too much for you, you prolly needa head to your room.” He whispered.

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Aight but feel free to change your mind later.” He encouraged. “And you might wanna sit closer to me or Sefa just in case.”

With the food dispensed to the rightful people, they sat around the living room eating in silence. Jon and Sefa kept making eye contact and mouthing things back and forth to each other. They were getting a little worried that another altercation would break out.

Sefa cleared his throat. “We gotta work together in a few hours and people are gonna be able to tell if some shit is off. It gotta be seamless so the two of yall needa talk about this shit.”

Josh looked over at Zilla, who was slowly looking up from his food.

“Look, uce, I apologize for makin her cry and sayin that to her.”

Zilla nodded. “But you meant that shit though, right?”

“I did mean it but I shouldn’t have said it to her.” He repeated. “It should have stayed a conversation between you and me. But I … look, I was just tryna help.”

Zilla sat his food down which prompted Josh to sit his down as well. “Ion remember askin you or nobody for help, uce. If I wanted help, I woulda asked.”

“As a big uce, I felt like it was my place to tell you the truth regardless of if you wanted to hear it or not. I’m not tryna make you mad or hurt you or her, I just want the best for you.” Josh further explained. “You don’t know what the rest of us know.”

Jon dropped his fork looking between his brother and his cousin. “Wait, you better be specific with that ‘us’ shit, uce. Zilla, ion know what he know or who that us is. And neither do Sefa. Don’t put us in that shit, uce.”

Josh sucked his teeth. “I wasn’t includin yall in that. Shut up, man.”

Zilla felt himself starting to seethe again. “Since ion know what you and whoever else know, tell me.”

“Nah, you ain’t ready to hear that shit. Just trust me.” Josh warned.

“Nah, fuck that.” Zilla pushed. “Tell me. You tryna be a good big uce and shit, so tell me.”

Josh huffed. “I’m tellin you, you don’t wanna know.”

Simone looked between them and felt compelled to jump in. “Maybe he’s right, Zilla. Maybe you don’t wanna know. It could hurt you."

He looked over at her with the same mug. “Ion mean no disrespect but this don’t really got shit to do witchu and I really don’t know why you here. I like you and I wanna keep likin you but I ain’t if you keep tryna help his ass.”

Simone nodded and went back to eating her food. She wanted to help but she needed to not have any bad blood between them if she was going to go through with the plan.

“You ain’t gotta talk to her like that, she ain’t the one you mad at.” Josh chastised making Zilla suck his teeth.

“Either you gon start talkin or ima start swingin. You pick, uce.”

“Ain’t no need for that,” Jon butted in quickly, “You brought it up so now you gotta tell em, Josh.”

Josh stared at them for a minute, weighing the options in his head. “You remember how you said her mama made her have an abortion and made her get her tubes tied? How you really know, her mama made her do that shit?”

Sefa frowned. “No offense, Simone but why the fuck you say that shit in front of her? We wasn’t even supposed to know that shit.”

“No, hell nah. Don't get mad at me when yall wanted me to say it. Look, I said that to say that it’s real similar to some shit that happened with her mama. The only difference is her mama did the shit cause she wanted to.” He explained. “You don’t think that shit weird, Zay? It’s the exact same.”

Dropping his head into his hands, Zilla took a long, slow deep breath replaying what Josh said. The things Josh accused her of were crazy to him. Unbelievable even. And it all pissed him off. Whether or not he believed anything his cousin was saying was of no one in that room's business.

He brought his head up slowly shooting daggers at his cousin. “Ima say this shit one time and one time only, after this moment right here don’t comment on nothing about Moriah, about our relationship, nothing. I don’t care if the rest of us talkin’ bout her, you don’t say shit. If we at a family function, the most you better do is say what’s up unless she asks you something. That shit clear? Cause ion want no miscommunication.”

“I got you, Uce. I got you.”

Zilla nodded then thought for a second. “Oh I know one other thing than you can say to her.”

“What’s that?” Josh asked.

“Tell her fuckin thank you. She the only reason I ain’t beat yo ass this time.” He chuckled. “It’s fuckin crazy to me that even though you been mean and rude as shit to her that she still care enough about us havin a relationship. She care about our family and shit, yet here yo ass is bein a asshole. But be clear, if there’s a next time yo brothers, her or anybody ain’t gon be able to stop me. Feel me?”

Zilla grabbed his phone and slid his feet back into his shoes then left ignoring Jon calling his name. He needed to go back to his room to calm down before the show and before he talked to Moriah again. He had to put everything with Josh to the back of his mind, there were more important people and things he needed to be worried about.Dr. Barnes always told him that he didn’t have to wait until their appointments if he needed to talk or help, reminding him that was the reason he’s given the young man his number. This was the first time since starting with the doctor that he was taking up the offer.

“Zilla, this is a first.” Dr. Barnes chuckled into the receiver.

“Yeah, I uh …. You ain’t busy, is you?”

“Nope, not busy. Just in my recliner letting the television watch me.” He joked. “What’s going on, young blood? And don’t say nothing because you wouldn’t have called me if it was nothing.”

Zilla recounted his interaction with his cousins, adding his own frustrated gripes and almost empty threats towards his cousin. He also relayed how he was trying to get it off his mind of the whole thing so he could focus on work and being there for Moriah.

“That’s quite the encounter, huh? First and foremost, I’m proud of you for practicing restraint. It wasn’t your cousin Jon that did it, it was you. Because you and I both know they wouldn’t be able to stop if you really wanted to lay hands on him.”

“Yeah, I guess you right. I appreciate that.”

“You’re welcome. So what is it that you need my help with in this moment right now?”

He mumbled his thoughts to himself before responding to the doctor. “Just what Josh said kinda botherin me. It’s kinda stuck in my head.”

“We’re gonna take the kinda out and say that it is bothering you and that it is stuck in your head.” Dr. Barnes corrected. “Is it bothering you because you think it’s true? That she did it because she wanted to.”

Zilla laid back on his bed, throwing his arm across his face. “No, Ion believe she did it cause she wanted to.”

“But?”

“But I think Nadine did that shit to her as like payback or some shit and it’s pissin’ me off.” He answered honestly.

Dr. Barnes let him sit with his feelings for a moment before responding. “Okay so your cousin said that Nadine had something similar to what she did to Moriah happen to her. What is it that he said she did?”

“Ion know, never got to ask him cause I was gettin pissed off again. You think I should go back and ask him?”

The older man chuckled heartily. “Since you’re asking me that, you already know the answer to that question. But before you do, figure out whether you're upset with Josh or Nadine in this situation.”

“It can’t be both?” He laughed, moving his arm from his face.

“It can be both another time but not right now,” he responded through his laugh, “Right now it sounds like your anger with Nadine is making your anger with Josh a little heavier than it ought to be.”

Zilla huffed loudly. He knew Dr. Barnes was right but he still wanted to be just as pissed off with Josh as he had been this entire time. “Aight, aight, aight. But I’m still mad at his ass.”

“I know you are and that’s okay. For now though, it would be good for you to go and talk to your cousin one on one and be as nice as you can.”

“Nice?” He spat. “Nice to who? Ima be as nice as his barber is to his hairline.”

Dr. Barnes laughed loudly, having a small coughing fit. “Now, Mr. Fatu, I don’t think that’s nice. But let’s try a better word … be as tolerant as you can. That better?”

“Yeah that’s better, I guess. But he still better be glad ion want Fat mad at me for hitting him.”

“Given the difficult situation you’re having in certain areas, wouldn’t it serve you for Moriah to be mad at you?” He asked jokingly.

“Mane,” Zilla laughed, “Doc, you gon make me beat his ass now.”

“Just joking, Zilla. Do what you need to do but sit on it until your next session.” He paused to cough. “And we can talk about it and your next steps. Sounds like a plan?”

“For now it do but if I hit em, I guess we’ll talk about that too.”

Moriah was in awe of Amira, the way she carried herself during the service and repass, how strong she had been consoling her husband and their parents when needed. She saw a few tears fall from Amira’s eyes but that was it. Here she was at the end of the repass still trying to keep herself from vomiting and ugly crying. Leata and her stayed to help the family clean up even though they told them they didn’t have to. Leata had Moriah running food out to Amira’s car as well as their parents and her own. On her way back from one of her trips, she heard sniffling coming from the side of the building and followed the sound.

“Hey,” she said softly, approaching Amira. “It’s just me. Only me.”

Amira wiped at her face, trying to be presentable. She plastered a smile on her face. “Hey, I’m sorry I was supposed to be helping. I’m coming.”

Moriah stepped in her way when she tried to pass. “Uhn uhn, we got it. Well they got it now. You obviously need some time to yourself. You’ve been there for everybody else, it’s your turn now.”

“No, I’m okay. I just needed to have a little cry, I’m all better now.”

“A little cry is not enough, Amira. Have you actually cried since the initial news?” She asked rubbing her shoulder. “And not a little cry, I mean an ugly one. Real ugly.”

Amira laughed a bit, tears forming in her eyes. “No. I can’t. I have to make sure Marcus is okay and our parents. And then I had to plan all of this. I have to keep going.”

“No ma’am you don’t. I’m sure your parents would be there for you and Marcus too, he’s your husband, girl. You can’t keep holding that in, trust me.”

“I’m the strong one, I can’t do that.” She argued softly.

“I am too but I had to realize that I can still be the strong one and let people help me, let them see me feel something.” Moriah smiled a little. “Just coming here today, I had my mama in law with me physically and my boyfriend couldn’t be here but he encouraged me over the phone. As much as I tried to fight it, I needed it.”

“I’m sorry if this was too much for you. If I made you feel obligated, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think how being at a child's funeral would make you feel.”

“No, no.” She shook her head. “You do not have to apologize to me. I wanted to be here for you guys and for Nia.Just being here meant I had to confront the rest of my grief over my son.”

“Your son? Your son died?” She asked with sad eyes.

Moriah rubbed at her nose feeling herself about to start crying. “When I was a teenager I got pregnant and after I’d found out the gender, done all the shopping with my mama in law and everything, my mama made me have an abortion.”

Amira gasped, reaching for her hands. “That’s terrible, Moriah. I … I’m sorry that you had to deal with that. At least I got time with Nia but you … you never even got to hear his cry.”

“Yeah but I heard his heartbeat.” She wiped her tears away. “But the loss of a child at any point is sad enough. The amount of time or experiences either of us had with our babies doesn’t lessen the hurt. You had to say goodbye to your baby today, it hurts so please don’t act like it doesn’t.”

“I don’t want my husband to feel like he can’t grieve because I am.”

“From what I’ve seen he would never feel like that. Neither of you have to stop so the can grieve, Amira,” Moriah assured her, pulling her into a hug, “You can grieve together. I promise it’s so much better going through it together. But you have to say something to him. Be honest.”

She could feel Amira nod against her shoulder as well as more tears dropping. She rubbed her back soothingly, allowing her own tears to fall. “I’m gonna tell you what my boyfriend tells me. It’s okay to feel some shit but what’s not okay is to not let yourself feel some shit.”

Amira pulled back a little look at her through misty eyes. “Your boyfriend said that? That’s pretty good.”

“Yeah , he learned it in therapy but we’re gonna keep it between us that I taught you that. He’s gonna get the big head,” she joked, making them both laugh as they pulled away from the hug completely. “It’s gonna be hard but you have what looks like a great support system so lean on them. And you can always reach out to me.”

“Thank you truly for the way you took care of her and the way that you’re taking care of me.” Amira gave her another tight squeeze. “I had been wrestling with this. Whether I would tell you or not but I have to.”

“What’s up?”

“Dr. Harris has been calling me, he wants to know if I want to look more into Nia’s … death. I talked to him before the service and told him that I did.”

Moriah smiled. “Did you think it was gonna upset me? I promise you I am not upset at all, Amira. That is your right to do that for your baby. I know that I did everything I was supposed to and then some for your baby. If this is gonna help you and your family then you do it.”

“Oh thank God,” she breathed, “I thought I was gonna lose you.”

“No, you’re not but,” Moriah paused, “The hospital is probably gonna tell me that I can’t have contact with you.”

“But … I mean I guess I understand.”

Moriah rubbed her arm, giving her a soft smile. “It’s okay, you’ll still have me when it’s over. I promise.”

Leata called out both of their names standing at the door of the center, the women shared one more hug before going back. Leata and Moriah made sure the family had everything they needed before departing.

When Moriah got out of the bathroom from her shower, Leata was sitting up against the headboard on Zilla’s side of the bed, remote in hand and snacks waiting on the bed. She smiled and patted the bed.

“Come on. It’s not often we have alone time away from my big head sons.” Leata joked.

Moriah climbed onto her side of the bed, a bright smile on her face. “Was I in the shower that long for you to go get this?”

“You were but I didn’t leave. My son had it delivered.” She explained turning on a movie. “How’d the talk with Amira go?”

“It went good. She was holding her feelings in to take care of everybody else.”

Leata hummed playfully. “That sound familiar?”

“Nope,” she laughed, “But I hope what I said to her made her feel comfortable enough to talk about it with her husband.”

“I’m sure it did. How are you feeling after that?”

Moriah reached for her gummy bears, fiddling with the package as she attempted to answer. “I’m feeling a lot but I don’t think in a bad way. It was hard seeing her like that because of obvious reasons but also it just reminded me that I never got to see Angel. I never saw his face.” She paused, finally getting the bag open. “And then when I was talking to Amira and I told her the short version of it, she mentioned how bad she felt that she’d gotten time with her baby but I’d never gotten to hear Angel cry.”

“Did having that conversation with her help you feel a little better?”

“Yeah, it did.” She ate a few bears. “Talking her through her own feelings was like talking to myself about it.”

Leata nodded, flipping through the guide. “I was hoping going and talking to her mom would help you and not hurt you. Zilla told me about your appointment, I hope you don't mind.”

“You know the only thing I care about is that his ugly self told you before I could,” Moriah laughed. “I've been writing things down so I remember to tell them.”

She raised a brow. “Your memory has always been good, you're writing things down now. Why?”

“It's still good, I just don't wanna get there and I'm too nervous to remember things.”

“Oh okay,” she nodded, still not convinced, “What's on your list?”

After stuffing a few more bears in her mouth, Moriah scrolled through her apps for her notes then passed her phone over. Leata read them to herself.

“Headaches for hours?”

“Yeah, I think it's just stress but Toni told me that I should include it.”

“How many hours are we talking here, Rye?”

She shrugged. “No more than 3 so far.”

Leata eyed her a moment longer then went back to the list. “Forgetfulness? You told me your memory was fine.”

Moriah sucked her teeth, leaning over to look. “Toni put that on there. She get on my nerves, it was not that serious.”

“What wasn't that serious?”

“I forgot my cup a few times this week, misplaced my keys twice and forgot where I parked but … but in my defense we worked a double.”

“Mmhm. You make sure you tell them everything on here. Even that.”

“Yes ma'am,” she sighed. “I didn't tell Zay but I really hope this works.”

Leata smiled. “I do too but you know we'll all still love you the same. There are other options.”

“I know but I really wanna be able to carry my own baby again. Angel had me down bad at the beginning but I enjoyed carrying him.” Moriah's mind drifted, her hand creeping up to her stomach absent-mindedly.

“When I was pregnant with Zilla he was so easy going. I was barely sick or uncomfortable,” Leata recalled fondly, “Until the end. He would not bring his ass out. He was two weeks late, nothing worked. Waited until I laid down to take a nap.”

Moriah laughed, all of her attention on the woman before her.

“After he was born, Eddie took the other boys to get food and take them home, right? Soon as they were gone, I thumped the bottom of his foot. Not hard but enough and so you know what he did?”

“Screamed?”

“Nope. He just stared at me with that little mean face of his.” Leata laughed along with Moriah. “You and my son are gonna be good parents.”

“You think?”

“I know so. Especially seeing how you two are with Sienna, who by the way wants to come stay for a little while.”

“Whenever EJ wants to send her, I'll fly there to get her.”

Having calmed his nerves, Zilla pulled Josh into an empty area in the arena. Jon tried to get him to do it around other people but he had already let out enough of his and Moriah's business in front of Simone, he didn't want that to happen again in front of more of his family.

“Tell me.”

He didn't have time to beat around the bush with his cousin nor did he want to. Talking to Dr. Barnes had calmed him just enough to not want to tear Josh's head away from his body and he wanted to stay that way for now.

Josh scratched his beard, he thought to ask if he was sure but thought better of it. “I know you low on patience so I'll shorten it for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Nadine was having a affair with DJ. She had a few abortions and either that caused her to not be able to have kids or she made sure she couldn't.” Josh watched Zilla carefully but noticed the younger man didn't even flinch, he just stared at him. “Nadine been doing a buncha shiesty shit, that shit in her, uce.”

Zilla took a few deep breaths, his lips turned up into a small smirk. “You said that right. Nadine got that shit in her, not Fat.”

“Listen, all ima say is watch out for yourself.”

“I think you the one that needa take that advice. Is that all you know?”

He shrugged. “I know that your dad knew about it when yall was nine, but he ain't ever get to tell Moriah dad.”

Zilla nodded knowing why. “Preciate you. We good, aight? Just don't speak on my lady no more.”

“I got you. Ima do my best, uce.”

Eyeing him for a moment, Zilla almost got upset again then realized who he was talking to. Jon definitely got more of the sense than Josh did and it showed. The cousins walked back to the locker room their family was sharing, Jacob was the first to speak up.

“I see his ugly ass still got his teeth!”

“We going out to celebrate him keeping all 32! Simone, you coming, don't shake your head!” Jon yelled out.

Josh laughed, shooting a bird at both men while Zilla settled into one of the chairs focused on his phone.

Fat

5:15pm

Zaaaaaaaaay! Thank you for my snacks and for earlier. You're the best boyfriend…most of the time. 😂 I love you!!

Zilla

7:02pm

Most of the time? Yeah aight. U welcome love ya mean ass 2

Tamara

6:45pm

Hey! Next Wednesday from 10AM to 4PM. I found some really good ones! 4bed/5baths and 5beds/5 1/2baths, right?

Zilla

7:05pm

Yeah that's perfect cause Fat gon be at work. Thank u! I got your hotel

Tamara

7:08pm

No you don't, I got my hotel plus I have plus 3 coming with me 🙄

Zilla

7:09pm

😂😂 I got all yall. Forreal, lemme handle it.

Tamara

7:11pm

Rye was right, you are hard headed

Zilla

7:12pm

Got it from my fat!!!😌

#aao #zilla fatu #zilla & moriah #the bloodline #the samoan dynasty

37 notes · View notes

foxaftershocks · 10 months ago

Note

Hi!! I just wanna say first that I absolutely adore ur writing :) and I've literally never done this before, tbh, so I'm so sry if I've done anything wrong or smth. :)

But I wanted to suggest maybe a reader thats also an engineer and scientist for the Ghostbusters, who Lars always considered less able than him since reader was quite quiet, and would run their expermients in peace, never rly interacting with people. Until one day reader is talking to lucky or phoebe or smth, and goes off on a tangent when talking abt smth they're working on, and it's a very sudden realisation to him that reader is actually rly knowledgeable, that their intelligence is much greater than he anticipated.

Totally fine if u don't wanna write it, remember to take care of urself!! <3

I always take care of myself <3 you did nothing wrong, a totally perfect request. I hope you like it

You were sitting across the room from Lars, absorbed in your work, headphones on as your head nodded in time to the beat of whatever music you were listening to. He hadn’t heard you arrive that morning. Not an unusual situation. He never heard much from you ever.

You seemed to be so unaware of his gaze on you, watching as your hands moved, fingers typing, adjusting your equipment, writing something down in a notebook. That was something he’d noticed. You kept paper notes.

Insane. Absolutely nuts.

Your head tilted up and he realised he’d been caught watching. His nose wrinkled and he looked back to his own work. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t busy. He had enough to get on with.

There was no reason for you to be there. He kept trying to figure out what it was you did, what you contributed to the lab. You kept to yourself and no one else could tell him what it was you did. You preferred to work alone, and while he could empathise with that as someone who didn’t love working in a team, he did enjoy leading a team of researchers. You’d never agreed to joining him.

He had to assume it’s because you knew you weren’t up to the task.

When he next looked up, you were gone. The workstation was empty and there was nothing to indicate where you’d gone. He couldn’t imagine you were rushing off to tell someone of a great discovery.

You’d never had one before now.

It wasn’t that he felt contempt for you. Surely there was a reason you’d been hired. He just thought everyone should be on his level and you just weren’t. The proof was in the output.

Stretching, arms above his head, he figured it was time for another cup of tea, the one he’d made earlier having gotten cold as he lost himself in his work. Taking the mug, he sauntered towards the small kitchen set up in the back corner.

“So if I can just figure out where the spectrometer has gone then I think I’ll be back on track.”

He paused outside the door. That was your voice. At least, he was pretty sure it was. From the few times he’d heard it he thought it probably was.

There was something there in your voice, not something he’d heard from you before. It was close to excitement. Lingering out of sight, he continued to listen. He certainly wasn’t about to offer the information that he had the spectrometer you were looking for. It would be put to better work in his possession.

“You really think you’ll be able to figure it out?” That would be Lucky. He didn’t realise the two of you talked. Lucky was meant to be his intern, not yours. He didn’t know why it rankled him so much.

“Sure. I mean, Nadeem keeps letting me study him to figure out where the source of his magic is so… I can’t see why I wouldn’t,” you said, “oh but you remember when I hooked him up to the EEG machine?”

“Yeah. You got those weird readings, right?” Lucky prompted.

“Right and I spent hours staring at them trying to work it out. And then inspiration struck. So I thought maybe there was some kind of electrical field going on. Which would be crazy because usually we don’t think the two are linked. But fire conducts electricity and so can humans. So what if the magic is connected to ions? Seems simple, right? Only, the electrical charge usually comes from the gas around the flame rather than the flame itself. So does he actually manipulate the gas? Or, is it this pyrotron subatomic particle we haven’t found yet? I mean, in order to prove that one I have to find quarks in isolation and I think that would rock the science community more than proving the science behind pyrokinesis,” you said, almost all in one breath.

It was easily the most he’d ever heard you say before.

“Because in order to prove that I’d need to show that Nadeem is manipulating pyrotrons with psychic powers, probably through the electric signals in his brain, and making them hit isolated quarks, which don’t exist so… I’m back to looking at electricity in flames because clearly it’s to do with the electrical activity in his brain,” you said, with a sigh at the end.

Lars felt his breath catch. There was so much going on in your brain, so many thoughts, so many theories, and you were investigating something he hadn’t even considered looking at. Maybe that’s why you always worked alone. Your projects were on things no one considered researching. You looked at the world differently.

It was… refreshing.

He’d thought you’d ket silent because you knew you couldn’t keep up with the rest of the scientists. Instead, it looked as if you kept silent because your research was so different from everyone else’s. They were so focused on ghosts. You were trying to understand everything in its entirety.

He felt dumbstruck. Everything he thought he knew was wrong. It wasn’t usual for him and he felt on the backfoot. It was like you’d been lying to him but for that to be true you would have had to have talked to him. This was so much worse. This was him lying to himself.

You were so much smarter than he’d thought and it left him questioning so many things.

Walking through the door, he felt combative, like he wanted to start a fight. Your voice died as he did, eyes widening when you saw him. He offered a tight smile, pouring out the cold tea into the sink. He glanced over his shoulder, finding you turning away.

“I’ll see you later,” you mumbled to Lucky.

You slipped out of the room, not even offering him another look. He scrubbed at the mug, not wanting to bother making another cup, taking his frustration out on it.

“Rough day?” Lucky asked, sliding up to him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied.

“No sweat,” she said, “but maybe don’t glare at people when you enter a room. It sure does clear it.”

He didn’t have a response to that, refusing to be shamed by a teenager. He left the mug on the rack to dry and walked out of the room, lips pursed, trying to work out how to feel about everything. He wasn’t used to feeling stupid and yet that’s where he was. He’d judged you because he never heard you talk. Because you kept to yourself. Because you didn’t feel the need to show off like the others around the lab did.

You were sitting in his sight again, the headphones back in place over your ear, pen tapping your notebook in time with your music. You didn’t even look up when he sat down, staring at you. If he allowed himself to admit it, you were lovely to look at. Even trapped in a world of your own, there was something there that he found pleasing. You were soft, like the worries of the world had never curved your shoulders, and your wide eyed gaze left him feeling like there was no pretence. You had never lied. He’d just been a fool.

He stood, hands already grasping the spectrometer he’d stashed in the storage behind his desk. trying to project confidence, he sauntered over with it. Placing it down in front of you, he waited a moment for you to notice. Your gaze dragged up to him and once again he was struck by how lovely your face was. You were slow to tug he headphones off, leaving them hanging around your neck.

“I heard you were looking for this,” he said.

You looked down at the machine in front of you then back up to him. There was a slight curve to your lips, an almost smile marred with a hint of confusion. Your eyelashes fluttered and you tilted your head down, looking back to the spectrometer.

“Thank you,” you said, voice sweet.

It was a sudden thought that he could probably listen to you talk for hours. Not that he’d ever be offered the chance.

“And uh, if you ever need help or want to talk through anything.” His hand came up, rubbing at the back of his neck. He hadn’t felt this awkward since his university days, “I’m just over there. I don’t know if you know. You seem to keep to yourself. So maybe you don’t want the interruption. But yeah, I’m just over there if you need anything.”

Christ, he was rambling. It wasn’t like you were the first pretty girl he’d ever talked to. He didn’t even have a crush on you. What was wrong with him today?

“I’m sure you’re too busy to help me,” you replied, voice quiet and far more put together than him, “you’re always working on something.”

“Oh,” he said, shoulders deflating. You were being polite but of course you didn’t want his help. Especially when you seemed to be a genius in your own right and more than capable of being brilliant without his input.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the offer. But you’re working on important things and I don’t want to bother you with my stuff. You’re probably working on some new weapon that will save someone’s life or something. My stuff is pretty silly in comparison.” Your head was bowed and he wished he could see the expression in your eyes.

“All science is important,” he said.

“No, I know but you know, my stuff isn’t saving the world like yours so, I don’t want to take time away from that,” you said, voice growing quieter the further along you went.

“I’m always happy to help,” he said, hoping it would be enough.

Your eyes darted up to him and he saw panic there. He took a step back, reeling from the look. He knew he wasn’t always the friendliest guy but this was a not the kind of reaction he ever expected from his words, especially when they were meant to be nice. He took another step back.

“Right, well, I’ll stop bothering you,” he said.

Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he wandered back to his own station, shoulders curved forward, trying to figure out what he’d done wrong. Other than ignore you, he couldn’t think of anything you would know about. It’s not as if his thoughts were broadcast over the tannoy system.

Only he hadn’t really been ignoring you, had he? He’d noticed you enough to form an opinion. He watched you. He’d grown used to your habits. He thought about you. Earlier that day he’d been watching you. There was no way he could pretend like you had been a non-entity in his life.

When he looked up at you again, your head dipped down as if you’re been looking at him just a moment ago. He found a flutter in his stomach, like a butterfly taking flight. The thought of you watching him was pleasing. Unless it was because you were wary of him and felt you had to keep an eye on him.

Finally taking the chance, he went to make himself another cup of tea, if only to try and ease you again. Maybe his presence made you uncomfortable. He didn’t like the thought that he made you uncomfortable.

He decided perhaps to keep his distance for a while.

A few days and he stayed away. He didn’t try to engage you in conversation, allowing himself to watch you when he thought you wouldn’t notice. The more attention he paid, the more he realised exactly how wrong he’d been. You kept to yourself, but you were confident in what you were doing. Something had alighted in him, the flame fanned by your confidence. Someone so capable at science was a turn on. He hadn’t expected that. He should have. But he hadn’t.

And he should have expected to hear you in the kitchen again.

“I just find him really intimidating,” you said, just through the doorway.

“Why?” Lucky laughed.

“He’s so smart and I know you’re going to make fun of me for this, but he’s really handsome. I’ve never been good around smart pretty people,” you said.

He lent closer, wanting to hear more. He didn’t know who you were talking about and the thought someone else in the lab was receiving such compliments made him feel disgruntled.

“Just talk to him,” Lucky said, “he’s not that scary.”

“I can’t,” you whined, “I get all tongue tied around him and he offered to help me and I just… I totally put my foot in it.”

Who else had been offering you help? He would hunt them down and make it clear to stay away from you. Or, no, that would just make you more scared of him. He had to gentle dissuade them from helping you.

“Yeah, trust me, he’s done that plenty of times,” Lucky snorted, “seriously, just talk to him again. Two awkward nerds deserve each other.”

You gave a small chuckle and he could imagine the soft smile on you face, small, underfed, and yet still there.

“I didn’t think he even know I existed,” you eventually said.

“Look, Pinfield is awkward and not always nice. But it sounds like at the very least he’s never outright insulted you. That’s more than Dan over in R&D can say,” Lucky said.

Pinfield. He was Pinfield. You were talking about him.

“Yeah, well, you crush on guys who actually give you the time of day. I crush on the silent guy who’s science is brilliant but who couldn’t be bothered with so much as a hello,” you said.

That wasn’t true, was it? He’d offered you help. And then gone back to not talking to you at all. He’d gone about this all wrong.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t take my frustration out on you,” you said.

“No, you should take it out on him.”

This was met with silence before Lucky’s laughter burst out, loud and long and he could inly imagine the look on your face. Not that he wouldn’t enjoy… He was sure it would be… Well, he was very open to it if the chance arose.

He slipped away to mull over what he’d overheard. He intimidated you. Because you had a crush on him. And you thought he didn’t like you in any way, that he didn’t even notice you.

Yeah, he’d fucked that one up. No one but himself to blame.

He paid attention for when you returned to your work station, across the other side of the room, quiet and focused. And beautiful. How hadn’t he thought that before? Or rather, how hadn’t he noticed it?

He was so caught up in his own assumptions about you he hadn’t taken the time to notice. He cursed his past self for being so caught up in his own ego to notice what was sitting right under his nose.

Steeling himself, he rose and made his way over to you. He loitered across the bench from you. You were still listening to music and hadn’t seemed to notice him. Tapping his finger on your notebook, he tried to get your attention. You looked up, startled, eyes widening when you laid eyes on him.

“I was thinking of going out for lunch and was wondering if you wanted to join me,” he said, trying to sound confident but also approachable. He realised he was treating you like an animal prone to startling.

“Oh, uh, I actually brought lunch today,” you said.

“Maybe tomorrow?” he asked, “I’d love to hear more about your work.”

“Why?” You sounded so bewildered it was almost offensive.

“I don’t know much about what you’ve been working on. Is it so odd I might want to know about it?” he asked.

“You’ve never asked before. Have I done something wrong? Because if I have I’m really sorry and I’ll stop doing whatever it is,” tumbled from your lips and he was reminded that you found him intimidating, “I really am sorry. If you just let me know what it is I can stop doing it.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong,” he was quick to say before you could continue rambling an apology for something that hadn’t happened, “I’m just interested in what you’re working on.”

“Why?” You sounded defensive now.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was trying. He was really trying. And you just weren’t getting it. You were making it so difficult.

When he opened his eyes you were frozen, as if waiting to be told off. Taking a deep breath in, he offered you a smile, his best attempt as he tried to when he felt such roiling emotions.

“You’re an asset to our team and you’re working on things I’m not involved in. I’m curious. That’s all,” he said, desperate to put you at ease.

“Oh.” You voice was so quiet.

“If you don’t want my company I understand. I thought it would be nice to get to know one another a bit better. Whatever. I see I was wrong.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from you. He must have misheard. Clearly you and Lucky hadn’t been talking about him.

“Wait,” you said. He paused, looking back at you over his shoulder, “lunch would be nice.”

His shoulders relaxed and he let the corner of his lips curl up in a small smile. Your answering one stole his breath.

“Come on then,” he said.

You hopped off your stool and he realised you didn’t even come up to his shoulder. He could wrap you up in his arms and you would be completely engulfed in him. He found that thought tempting.

Walking beside him as you left the lab, you weren’t looking at him, gaze turned towards your feet. His hand closed around your arm, steering you in the right direction. You looked up at him, eyelashes fluttering. His head dipped towards you, not able to stop himself. There was something about you.

He spent the entire lunch watching you, basking in your presence. You were slow to open up, answering his questions about your work softly. But once he got you going, your eyes sparked and the words tumbled from your lips faster than he could have thought possible. Your passion was clear and it only drew him in further.

“I dunno. Maybe’s its stupid,” you said, tucking some hair behind your ear.

“I don’t think it sounds stupid at all,” he said and noticed the way that seemed to turn you bashful. Your chin dipped and you couldn’t look at him. He lent forward again, over the table, trying to catch your eye, “you sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

It was a quick flash of a smile, that same piece of hair falling forward again. You reached up to tuck it back again but his fingers were already there, doing it for you. You looked up, mouth falling open but you didn’t seem to be drawing back from him. His fingertips brushed over your jaw before he retracted his hand, pulling it back to his side of the table.

“Oh,” you said, almost a whisper, practically nothing but the movement of lips without sound.

“I’d like to do this again,” he said, assuming honesty was better than beating around the bush.

The look of surprise that passed over your face wasn’t what he’d been hoping for. But then you softened, that small smile reappearing.

“Really?” you asked.

“Sure. I find myself fascinated by you,” he said.

“Like I’m one of your experiments?”

He hadn’t expected that.

“No. Christ no,” he said, perhaps louder than intended, “fascinated like I like you.”

“Oh.”

“Can you say something other than that,” he demanded, then realised that wasn’t a good idea, “please?”

“Okay,” you said, giving him a shallow nod, “we can do this again.”

“We can?” He brightened, “we can.”

“But only because I like you too,” you said, not looking at him again.

So he had heard right. He felt a sense of satisfaction hearing the words from you. He would never admit it, but it wasn’t often someone liked him. Maybe that’s why he’d been doing so badly with you. Or not so badly since you were going to go out with him again.

He led you back to the lab, hand resting on the small of your back, the material of your jumper soft against his skin. You were half a step closer, leaning into his touch more.

It was a good sign.

Thank god he’s listened in to your conversation with Lucky otherwise he never would have been able to find you. And he thought you might be changing his life for the better. Your smile was already capable of brightening his day.

He was excited to see what was to come with you.

#lars pinfield #lars pinfield imagine #lars pinfield x reader #request #anon

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muddyorbsblr · 1 year ago

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feels like mine pt2

See my full list of works here!

Summary: On the worst day of his life, Tom receives an offer impossible to refuse: getting you back. Well, almost…

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: major character death; possibly a wonky timeline (the math wasn't and still isn't mathing in my pea brain); probably a wonky depiction of soulmates [let me know if i missed anything!]

Things to be aware of: sad meow meow hours

Three days ago…

After a good dozen takes on the same sequence from a variety of angles, Tom finally had a moment to himself, giving his assistant a signal to retrieve his phone so that he could give you a call. You'd been apart for nearly a month at this point and he missed you terribly.

The only remote relief he'd get was hearing your voice as often as he possibly could. You'd tell him all about the plot of the book you were reviewing, or what details you could divulge on the shows you were working on. Considering that you often had ironclad NDAs for them these days, you'd usually tell him of the former as it was less of a minefield.

Once his assistant handed over his phone, however, his heart caught in his throat at the screen that greeted him. Over a dozen missed calls from an unknown number in the last few hours, preceded by a text message from you.

Tom, sweetie, I'm in the hospital. It's no big deal, just a little road accident, don't worry about me. I might not be able to answer your calls for a while, since they're taking me in for surgery in a few minutes. I love you. Always.

With trembling hands, Tom returned the call from the unknown number, his heart so heavy in his chest it was a struggle to even breathe right. The next words felt as if they passed through him in a blur; he could only pick up on bits and pieces from the other end.

Drunk driver. T-bone. Internal bleeding.

And the worst words of all. I'm deeply sorry for your loss.

He took the soonest possible flight back to London, everything around him seemed a blur until he finally got to the home you two shared, his and your mothers waiting for him inside. That was the moment he finally broke, dropping to his knees and breaking out into sobs, the horrible reality cruelly sinking in once he saw their completely distraught faces.

They took your body to be cremated that day, allowing him a few minutes to say goodbye before they began the process. Your mother advised him against looking into the body bag, insisting that he wouldn't want that as his last memory of you, that he should at least get to live on with his final memory of your face being that of the loving, beaming wife he knew and loved.

The next time that you came out, it was in an urn, weighing just about the same as a baby, and he cradled you as such. For the entire car ride back to your home until he settled you in his study.

"We didn't have enough time," he said through his tears, stroking the golden urn as if he was stroking your hair. "We should have had more time."

At that moment, a voice pierced the solemn silence of your home. "I'm sorry for your loss, Thomas."

When Tom turned to see who the unwelcome visitor was, he couldn't find any words to say except one. "Impossible."

"Quite possible, really," Loki shot back, stepping into the study with palms open in a sign to tell your husband that the god meant no harm. "Anything's possible in this multiverse, I'm slowly coming to find. And in that realm of possibility, I have something to offer you."

"All due respect, I want nothing that you can give," Tom declared sullenly. "You can't give me my wife back."

"And what if I said that I can? Well, in a way."

That suddenly got Tom's full attention, placing an arm in front of your urn as if he was still trying to protect you. As if that could really do anything against a god. "I'm listening," he said cautiously.

"I've recently learnt that in every universe, there is an iteration or an echo of me, and a corresponding iteration of Y/N. In this universe, Thomas, you are my echo. In every universe, Y/N's echo is destined to fall in love with mine, and in almost every universe, that love is reciprocated," the god began to explain, creating an illusion with a wave of his hand of your wedding day.

It was nearly enough to mesmerize Tom completely, almost losing himself in the memory. In happier times. "Hang on, what do you mean almost every universe?"

"Ah, yes. That part. Well, you see, Thomas…in the universes where my echo takes on your form, world-famous actor, hordes of adoring men and women and everyone in between at his feet, getting an entire crowd to fall silent with a finger to his lips--"

"I get it, I get it, can we keep it moving, please?"

"Right then. In the universes where my echo is…Tom Hiddleston, while it is a guarantee that Y/N will love Tom, it is not a guarantee that Tom will love Y/N. There are universes where Tom barely even knows of her existence. She's in the hordes, a part of her soul knowing that she's doing exactly what she was designed to do, but confused as to why she feels as if a part of her is missing somehow."

"That's--" Tom's words choked off in a sob at the back of his throat, a new type of sadness overcoming him as he imagined a world where he never even knew you. Never loved you. "That's miserable."

"It is," the god agreed. "My offer to you is that I can reach into one of these universes where her love for you is unreturned, and I can bring her to you. Fulfill what her heart yearns for, and in return, you have an echo of your wife. Have the time that was stolen from you so harshly. So unfairly."

Tom considered the offer carefully, only moments passing before he had his first question. "What of her universe? Her family?"

"In these worlds she doesn't have much of one. For the most part she's alone, and has learnt to fend for herself in lieu of a support system." Both their hearts broke for those iterations of you, the thought of you taking on the world without anyone by your side was nearly enough to bring both men to their knees. "If you were to accept, then it would be a simple enough spell with barely any ripple effect to nullify her existence and memories of her from the minds of those still around to remember her."

Every part of him wanted to jump at the offer. To accept it without thinking. Getting another chance to spend a life with you? There should have been no hesitation at all. Except…

"If she's anything like my Y/N, she'll be smart enough to ask questions. Why her life's different from what she knew before. Whose remains are in the urn in my study. What do I tell her then?"

"That is entirely up to you." Loki's answer was not in the least bit comforting. "You can conjure up a story that she will be inclined to believe, or you can tell her the truth. Alternatively, I can offer you an easier way out of this as well. Surrender your late wife's remains to me and I can keep her somewhere safe. That way you can live on with creating your new life with this echo of your Y/N without being as tethered to your past; after all, if you wish to start this life with her, then she deserves to have you love her to the fullest extent you can afford. She deserves not to be loved half-heartedly by someone still clinging to the ghosts of his past."

Much as he agreed completely with the sentiment, Tom found himself hesitating at the thought of simply surrendering your ashes to the god. He knew what the trade would mean, and that he in turn would have more time with a version of you; however, a part of him still protested.

For would this not be a dishonor to your memory? To simply let go of you and the time he'd gotten to know you and fall in love with you in exchange for something that might not even live up to his memory of you?

And on the other hand, he thought about the version of you that was doomed to live your life with an unrequited love. The knowledge that your souls were only partly intertwined in that world had him hurt for that iteration of you. You did deserve to be loved with the same magnitude that you gave love. And if he could give that to you, then the only way that he could do so was to accept that this wouldn't be a life wherein he picked up where you and he left off. He would be building something new entirely.

It was a near impossible choice. But ultimately he knew which way he would go.

Loki's offer meant more time with you. It meant having you again. Even if it was an echo of you. At its core, it was still you.

Right?

"What would you do?" he asked the god.

"If I lost my Y/N? I'd turn the multiverse inside out to have her again. Rearrange the Realms itself until she was by my side." He paced the room as he continued his answer. "Any version of her." A smirk tugged at the onyx-haired man's mouth before tilting up his chin, assuming an all-knowing stance. "But seeing as you are an echo of me, you already knew that this was the answer, didn't you? You simply needed to hear it outside of your own thoughts. Solidify your decision."

Tom could only nod, the depth of the situation still tremendously lost on him. All he knew was that if he did this, he would have you back.

He placed your urn on the desk, pushing it towards Loki. "What do I do now?"

The god held out his hand. "Firstly, your wife's ring. I'll need it when I find an echo of her that leads her life all alone. It will be her first tie to this universe. Your universe." Tom placed your wedding ring into his hand. "Secondly, you grieve. You've suffered a great loss, and what I am to do is not a replacement of your late wife, and should not be treated as such. Mourn your loss for the next day. Then after tomorrow night, go about your morning routinely, as if she were alive."

Tom nodded again. "How will I know that it worked?"

Loki only shrugged at the actor. "Have faith. Faith that you'll see your wife again the morning after next."

With that, the god disappeared, taking both your remains and your wedding ring with him. And Tom heeded the advice, crawling into the bed you shared with him, all the memories of the life you built together and the possibilities of the life you were yet to build overwhelming him. The weight of your lost future all but crushing his heart into a million pieces.

And he wept himself to sleep.

Today…

On the second morning after Loki's offer, Tom rose from your shared bed and listened to the god's instructions from days before. He laced his shoes up, went on his usual morning run, changed into business casual attire as if he was scheduled for a Zoom call in a short while, and proceeded to start preparing a breakfast for two.

Once he had coffee brewing, he started preparing a lavish breakfast for you two to share, starting with a fruit platter. "Have faith," he whispered to himself, making the last second decision to make it a touch more decadent with a small bowl of Nutella to dip the fruit into.

If this truly was going to work, he would spoil you at every turn moving forward. Never another minute squandered, nor another craving denied.

"Have faith," he whispered again, putting on an apron to prevent any spills from ruining his white dress shirt and proceeding to slice up the fruit.

Then he heard the bedroom door open. And for the first time in days he felt the tiniest glimmer of hope.

He waited until you made your way down the stairs, fighting every urge to meet you halfway and take you into his arms. He knew you needed to acclimate into this life you'd been suddenly thrust into; Loki had done his part, now it was his turn to ease you into your new reality.

Your footsteps got closer and closer until finally they stopped just outside the kitchen area. That was the only time Tom allowed himself to turn around and look at you, relief flooding his system once he laid his eyes on you. In the silk navy blue nightgown, wearing your wedding ring.

He finally felt like he could breathe again.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

A/N: *peeks from the corner* I promised I'd have a sequel for 'feels like mine' up, and here it issssss 🫡 This isn't 'sworn fealty' after all 🤣 (in all seriousness though I will be working on a sequel to that I just have 0 idea when)

And technically this isn't a sequel but more of a prequel to part 1…all I can promise you is that there is a part 3 and it's spicy 😳👀 Dunno when that'll be out tho because I'll be returning to the requests pile but we'll see where the vibe takes me

'everything' taglist: @simplyholl @loopsisloops @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemis @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @kats72 @kikster606 @asgards-princess-of-mischief @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @lunarnights95 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @elizabethmidnight2017 @holdmytesseract @smolvenger @gigglingtiggerv2 @lokidokieokie @lunarnights95 @superficialdomina @kmc1989 @november-rayne @goddessofwonderland @buttercupcookies-blog @peaky-marvel @lokiified

#tom hiddleston x reader #tom hiddleston x female reader #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston fanfiction #tom hiddleston imagine #muddyorbs writes

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dazziesrantzone · 2 months ago

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Please do one where fade accidentally hits Reader with her nightmare 🙏🏻 and maybe locks herself in her room because she was so upset with herself but reader wasn’t mad

Your wish is my command! This took some time because I wasn't home for two weeks and didn't really use my laptop and I do NOT enjoy doing the editing and doing a layout on my phone.

(also tell me if this is how the continue reading thingies work I've never used one before, I made this a fic because I felt like it hehe)

Fade accidently hitting you with Nightmare

You were in the kitchen at the Valorant HQ unsuspecting of anything, preparing yourself some cornflakes and getting a pot of coffee ready for the agents that were supposed to return soon. The clock read 3am when you got up, when it hit 3:15 something weird happened. Everything went dark for a second, then red lights and an alarm turned on. You guessed HQ has a generator for emergencies but what would've caused something like that to happen?

Your questioning was cut short when you heard glass shatter and footsteps approaching fast. In your mind hiding anywhere was better than hiding nowhere and just standing there being an open target, whoever it was breaking in surely did not come in peace. Hastily you made your way to the pantry cowering somewhere in between the shelves, useless rugs hanging over the brooms in the corner hopefully covering your silhouette enough to go unnoticed. Minutes went by but to you they felt like hours.

Suddenly your vision went blurry and somehow something in your vision made the pantry seem even darker than before. You understood what happened when you heard your partners voice deep in your head. "Like a fly in a nest".. Surely she'd never mean harm to you so you confirmed your suspicion that the invaders must've been hostile, why else would Hazal use her Nightfall?

Well at least this meant she made her way home safely if she was able to use it. You still decided to keep hiding until everything is clear. Eventually someone would find you, you hoped.

And indeed your partner was the lucky one to find you, or .. unlucky one? Fade did not seem happy to see you, rather upset. You couldn't hear what she said when she stormed off, Nightmare still occupying your vision and hearing, stumbling you got up, finding the rest of the agents in the kitchens having an emergency meeting about whatever happened you were guessing. Some splatters of blood on walls but no body bags in sight, you guessed if it truly was mirror agents attacking your base they left by now. After stumbling into a chair you sat down for a few minutes, turns out getting hit by Hazals abilties really takes a toll on you when you're not some highly trained agent, her not being seen anywhere did worry you though. You asked the others but their last info was also just seein her storm off, but they agreed you should be the one to go looking for her.

So you went to your shared room first, since this is usually the place to find her wrapped up in your blanket. The corridors of the base never seemed this endless before, you know you didn't do anything wrong but seeing her so upset truly made your stomach churn.

When you arrived you gently knocked on the door, trying to open in you noticed that it's locked. She could be somewhere else, but you didn't lock the door when you left so you assumed she locked it from the inside and started trying to console her.

"Hazal, I know you didn't mean to hit me with your powers." No response. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt because of you, I promise it's alright, imagine what would've happened if the intruders found me first. But they didn't because you were there, .. now if you'd please open the door." You heard some shifting, this truly must have upset her if she looks herself in her room, she avoids a lot of people a lot of the time but never you, up until now.

After what felt like an eternity you heard the door unlock and a pair of arms wrapping around you. "I'm sorry", is all she said in a weak tone. "I told you, you don't need to be. I'm just glad you're home safely.", you whispered in her hair but you knew she heard. Hastily she took you inside your shared room and as often went to bed to cuddle with you. You took her into your arms again, hoping she wouldn't have nightmares about hitting you with her abilities after what happened today. You turned on the TV for some background noise since she usually took a long time to fall asleep. Surprisingly not today, and she also didn't seem to stirr a lot in her sleep, hopefully that meant she's having a good rest. You pat her head gentls and give her a forehead kiss before falling asleep yourself.

#valorant headcanons #valorant x reader #valorant x you #headcanons #valorant fade #fade x reader #fade valorant #valorant fade x reader #valorant fanfiction #fanfiction #fade

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armpirate · 11 months ago

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Anti-romantic || JJk | Ch. 13

Pairings: Boxer!Jungkook x fem!reader || Enemies to lovers, neighbors

Genre: smut, angst, fluff, curse, illegal boxing, violence

Warnings: fuckboy!Jungkook x reader, smut, dirty talk, curse, mention of tarot and fate

Summary: Jungkook had always been carefree when it came to love. He always believed he was worth sharing himself with everyone, and thought it was selfish of him to ever think of keeping himself exclusive to just one person.

And maybe that was exactly what got him into the big problem he was in.

A curse that kept him away from love didn't seem an issue for him. The fact that his ex-girlfriend thought he'd be affected by the idea of the girls he slept with running away from him after sex was ridiculous. She actually did him a favor, and took a burden away from him.

At least that was what he thought at first.

He had never found himself thinking of the possibility of repeating with neither of his hook ups, because they disappeared before he was able to even think about it. But when he makes the mistake of sleeping with the sexy neighbor that lives in front of him, he finds himself hoping to get the chance for a second round every time their paths cross.

Y/n hated him the second he set foot inside the building by the way he started making her life a miserable mess for no reason. Sleeping with him was a big mistake she wasn't thinking of repeating. At least not until he came up with the excuse that she rejected him for a curse. Not only she thought he was annoying, but she was also convinced he was crazy.

There was no way she could take him seriously.

Aprox. time of reading: 28 minutes

Chapter warnings: Smut, dirty talk, protected sex, oral sex (female receiving), female masturbation, pubic hair, teasing

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MASTERLIST

His hand was almost rubbing her shoulder, embracing her back as she moved closer to him to give him no space to think about anything else that wasn't her. Jungkook had been working almost all night to get her attention.

He knew women like her were difficult to find, and even more difficult to keep engaged. He played nice and funny, his conversation was eloquent until he saw in her eyes how hooked he was. And then, he made the tactic move of telling her he didn't want to bother and that he'd go back to his table, only for her to insist him to stay a little longer.

Her fingers made the quick move of sliding in his locks, moving through his scalp as she approached her lips to his.

Until his ringtone interrupted.

—It'll be quick —he assured her.

His right hand left her thigh over her trousers to reach the back pocket of his pants and take the phone out.

Peter's name on his screen made him sigh, wondering why he was calling so late into the night, and why he was even thinking of bothering him out of training hours.

—What?

—There's a girl that looks exactly like your girlfriend here.

—My girlfriend? —he quickly smiled at the girl, who frowned at that word.

—Yeah, that petty girl that entered the gym like she owned it a few weeks ago.

Jungkook sat straight, moving away from the girl he was ready to hook up with, when the description sounded a little too familiar.

A petty girl? That acted like she owned places? And that was in his gym? That could only be Y/n.

—Are you sure it's her?

—It looks like her for sure —he sighed—. She's wearing boxing gloves, and one of the trainers is with her. But I'm not sure if she's here to fight.

Jungkook was convinced all those hits at his head were paying a tough consequence faster than it should.

—Well, so what? —he chuckled— She isn't my problem. Focus on your things, and ignore her.

After hanging up, Jungkook turned to the girl that was giving him a rough look after that call, expecting an explanation.

—It's a misunderstanding —he started—. It's just someone who's obsessed with me, and goes around telling people we're dating.

—I mean, I'm not surprised —her fingers moved up to his chest—. I'm obsessed, and I've only been around you for a few hours.

His hand went back to that spot in her thigh, leaning over her to go for that kiss he was interrupted from getting, only to be interrupted again. His thought froze him on the spot, stopping just a few millimeters from her face, and barely feeling anything when she linked their lips together.

What was Y/n doing in a place like that? And why the hell was she even thinking of fighting? So that was why she had those boxing gloves in her house the other day?

Jungkook shook his head, trying to focus on the kiss that he barely corresponded to. Y/n wasn't his problem.

But they'd eat her alive in that place? She could seem to be rough, but she wouldn't last a round.

The girl lost her balance when Jungkook moved back quickly, letting his thoughts win and his worry take over him. He wasn't doing it because of her, that was right, he was just worried that his conscience would make him feel guilty because he had the chance to avoid it. That was the reason.

—You're amazing, so hot and sexy —the girl smiled, sinking her shoulders with fake shyness—. But I need to go.

He got up and started making his way to the door, stopping when he realized he had no way of getting to the place the fight was taking place. The girl sat straight, faking pride -even if her heart skipped a bit- when she saw him walking back to her.

—Perhaps... Did you come here by car? I really need someone to drive me somewhere.

She got up, and for a quick second he genuinely thought she'd agree on taking him where he needed to be. His face quickly moved to the side after she slapped his face, and walked away from his mumbling several insults.

—"No" would've worked —he complained, rubbing his cheek with the palm of his hand.

Well, he had to get there by uber or taxi. Not only did she cost him a fun night, Y/n also cost him whatever price the drivers settled for the night.

She was so determined when she first agreed to the fight, thinking that she'd find a way out before she actually had to go up in the ring, that she didn't even think of the possible problems that could come up and that could avoid her from dodging being beaten up by another woman that was twice of her body in muscles.

Her blood pressure went down to the tip of her toes when she saw that fighter, keeping her hair away from her face with two boxer braids.

She hadn't even been training for a week.

Of course she knew how to hit a punch on someone, or how to dodge a hit before it actually reached her face. Her brother taught her before he died. But that situation was completely different. She had never had to think so fast and react at the same time the thoughts were kicking in her system.

She agreed to the fight, thinking she'd overhear some information that could be useful to her, thinking that someone important would show up and show the face so she could try to expose him as part of that web of illegal fights. But there was nothing she could use.

Nothing.

—How am I supposed to win? She looks like she'd eat me with one bite and burp all of my bones out —she whispered, hating herself for being unable to hide the way her voice shook.

—Oh, don't worry about that.

A ray of hope fell on her with those words coming from her trainer, thinking that maybe she was better at fighting than she thought -he agreed on her showing up at the fight due to something-, or maybe the other fighter was all appearance and she was indeed as bad in boxing as her.

—You're not supposed to win.

Y/n opened her eyes wide, turning to her trainer, who was looking at her with a calm smile.

—I'll earn more if my fighters lose than if they win —he whispered—. Just take the hits. Pam, pam —he simulated the punches—, and stay up until the fourth or fifth round.

—I should just allow her to punch me until the fifth round? —she hysterically asked.

—You got it right —he patted her shoulder—. Don't think about it too much, because you're next.

It all happened so fast, that she didn't know where the other fight came to an end until she saw that other young boy almost being dragged out of the improvised ring. She gulped thick, seeing what her future would look like in the next fifteen minutes.

—Wait —she urgently spoke, trying to stand her foot on the ground as hard as she could—, couldn't you give me two minutes more to think about it?

—Two minutes more? Of course —but his fake smile quickly dropped—. What do you think this is? Let's go.

She was already ready to face her fate, dealing with the consequences of her own decisions that took her there. Until another bigger hand got a grip on her forearm, next to her trainer's hand, and a wide back almost covered her whole body, barely allowing her to see further than it.

—Why am I not surprised? —the middle-aged man scoffed, looking away before his eyes fell on Jungkook— Get out of my way.

—She's not fighting, Ramon —Jungkook slowly spoke.

Y/n looked lower on the hand holding her, frowning when she thought of how familiar those tattoos looked. And that voice... Usually, she was so annoyed just seeing Jungkook, that she was always tempted to do the opposite of what he'd like her to do, but that day he showed up like a guardian angel, making her feel like she had never been happier to see him before in her life.

—At least I'm here supporting my fighters —the man answered with a cocky tone.

—You know nobody from my business is fighting today —he hissed.

And it wasn't like he ever sent any of his fighters to fight, unless he had no other choice. And he always made sure they were prepared to confront any fight they were signed on.

—Let her go unless you want me to break each bone of your body.

—If I let her go, you know they'll do more than just break each bone of your body, Jungkook.

—It's alright —Y/n interrupted, finally making him turn to her—. I'm here because of that, and it isn't like I need your help.

Y/n moved her arm away, getting rid of both of their grips to be able to walk past her neighbor. She turned again, looking at him one last time.

—Calm your dick down while I get on the ring. Just let what happened the last time happen again.

Her voice and body language were saying one thing, but her eyes were asking him to do another.

His brain was working at full speed, looking around to anything that could help him come up with something to help her. Those fights are never stopped. No trainers oppose, no fighters step back, no one from outside can come in between. The only few times it was ever stopped was because cops suddenly popped up.

And he saw the light.

Moving around the crowd, he looked for Peter, until he found him supporting his weight on one of the columns as he saw the ring from afar.

—Hey, Kook —the young boy greeted.

—I need you to do me a favor.

—Sure, what is it?

In a hurry, Jungkook leaned over the boy, able to whisper what he was planning to do in his ear, so nobody around would know.

—Get out of here, and call the police.

—What? Why?

—Just do what I'm telling you —seeing that Peter wasn't moving still, he spoke again—. Now.

Once the young man disappeared among the crowd, Jungkook turned his back to the ring again, hoping his idea would work out.

At the sound of the bells, Y/n could only feel her stomach sinking deeper and her legs feeling as weak as jelly, before she started running around the ring to escape her opponent. She wasn't fast herself, and right in that moment she was regretting not being in shape, just like one of her coworkers had recommended her.

—Why don't we pretend you hit me? It's the same result —Y/n tried to convince her.

But another punch flew her way, quickly making her run back to get as far as possible from the tall woman.

—I'll give you fifty bucks —she begged—. Sixty? I can go up to seventy, but that's my limit.

Her negotiation stopped when the first punch laid on her face, making her lose balance and fall to her knees. She thought that the smartest would be not to get up, and stay there until the time passed and the fight was lost on her side, but she received another hit that made her fall to her side.

She forgot where she actually was when she thought that, being on the floor, would stop the other from touching her.

Jungkook saw everything from the crowd, wishing for Peter to have understood his order and done them properly - even feeling tempted to send him a message to confirm he actually did what he was asked.

Until he heard those familiar alarms and all those loud shouts that tried to keep everyone in their places.

It was his sign to run to the ring and run to Y/n.

—Please, tell me I'm dead —she begged when Jungkook made her roll on her body.

Jungkook knew that in her state she wouldn't be able to move properly, and they probably would get caught. Either by the people behind those fights, or by the cops that were running after them. He opted for lifting her body, carrying her up his shoulder to run away from there.

Y/n felt dizzy, finally waking up from her momentary commotion when the chill breeze hitted her exposed arms. She lifted her head from his back, seeing two men running after them, suddenly making her enter a new panic that had her hitting Jungkook's lower back as if she were hitting the loin of a horse.

—Fast, they're catching us —she panicked—. The car isn't that far.

—Why the fuck did you park your car so far? —he complained.

—Exactly because of this —she replied back, trying to lift her body to see him—. Go faster.

After a few seconds that were eternal for the two of them, she finally cheered when she managed to see Allan's car not that far from them. To earn time, he left her on the ground and looked for the bag she had hidden in the bushes to be able to open the car. Jungkook almost threw her on the backseat to not waste time surrounding the car when he heard a thick male voice calling them out, and got on the driver's seat.

The rest of the way back home was in silence, only filled with the roaring of the engine and their shaky breaths as they tried to understand everything that had happened.

—Well, my plan worked out —he sighed, finally able to calm down.

—Your plan? I was the one who gave you the idea.

—You? When? Do you seriously have to take my merit away? —Jungkook complained, taking a quick look at her through the rear view.

—I was the one who gave you the idea. Dick, slang for cops? Just let what happened the last time happen again?

—Who the fuck would've ever thought you were referring to that?

—You, clearly! —Y/n answered back.

—So you think you saved your own ass?

—No, of course not —Jungkook almost smiled when he heard her saying that—. It was teamwork.

—I did all the work —he turned to her—. I thought about it all, I carried you to the car...

—It was sixty, forty.

—You did nothing.

—Alright... Seventy five, twenty five, then.

Jungkook simply sighed at how stubborn she was, deciding not to speak up again until they reached their building. He had been carrying her bag all the way to their places, hanging it up on her neck and making her think they'd separate their ways after the elevator reached their floor.

But his hand on her wrist again stopped her from doing so, guiding her to his apartment.

—I can clean it up —she assured him—. I've actually dealt with this more times than you think.

—Have you seen your face? Just let me do it.

He helped her take the boxing gloves off, throwing them over his couch so she'd have the mobility of her fingers back. While he left, Y/n just shyly moved around the coffee table to take a seat in his leather couch, looking around as if she hadn't been there before.

When Jungkook turned, he sat at the edge of the coffee table, in front of her. Her throat completely shut in surprise when his fingers hooked around the back of her knees, separating her legs and dragging her body to the edge of the couch to pull her closer to him.

She was used to having him so close unprompted. It had been like that since they saw each other for the first time, and that only got worse after the first time they slept together. But, somehow, that night something felt different.

—Thank you for tonight... shhh —she tried to hold back her whine by clenching her teeth together, as he cleaned up the wound on her lower lip.

—I guess this makes up for the spice incident —he sighed.

—How did you know I was there?

—I have ears and eyes everywhere —Jungkook tried to play mysterious, giving a vague answer—. One of the guys I train was there to get familiar with all of that —he finally answered—. But the real question is: what were you doing there?

—I needed to come up with another way to write the article —she justified herself.

—Sure, because letting someone break your face would work so well for it.

—The editor said I needed to make it more personal, and what's more personal than that?

—Are you seriously going to justify it? —Jungkook shook his head in disbelief— Is this only for that article?

Y/n squinted her eyes at that question, trying to understand where he was trying to get with it. Was he actually wondering if she had any other reason to go through all of that?

—Yeah, what else would I be doing all of this for? —she nodded, coming up with the fastest excuse— With this, I was able to see how they choose the fighters, how they get the locations, and how it works —she shrugged—. If you had helped me, I wouldn't have had to do this.

—There you go again blaming me —his eyes rolled while his head was thrown back.

—I'm not blaming you, I'm saying that talking with you was the easy way.

—I was serious, Y/n. Drop it. You don't want to deal with those people —he tried to warn her.

—I know exactly what those people are capable of, I know what I'm getting myself into, and it's exactly why I think I need to go on with the article. Ah! —she complained when he pressed his fingers harder on her wound, moving the cotton coated in alcohol— You're so gentle —she ironically said.

—Oh, sorry. I thought that since you were so tough and brave, you'd be able to handle it.

Her tongue clicked in discomfort, looking him up as he sighed, leaving all the things he had used back on his left.

—I can handle that, but it hurts —she whined, touching the corner of her mouth carefully.

She quickly moved back as she saw him leaning over her way too close, having her looking back confused.

—Didn't you say it hurt? Stay still.

She couldn't explain the way her whole body reacted when the cold air coming out of his mouth in a blow reached her lips. It was as if she was waking up, she could even hear her own hormones boiling by having him so close to her. Jungkook was aware of her gaze, looking at him with such intensity that it was making him nervous.

He was aware of the way she was slowly approaching him, cutting the distance between their lips. And he just let her act. He didn't move back, he didn't move with her, he just waited for her to come his way.

—Shouldn't I be the one rejecting you now? —he whispered, stopping her advance.

—Why do you always have to open your big mouth? —she huffed.

His comment almost made her move back and make her way out of the trap his body and the couch formed, but his hand moved faster, hooking her chin with two of his fingers to cut the small distance that there was left between them.

That first kiss led to another one, that had her wrapping her fingers around his neck and moving closer to him, hanging completely at the edge of the couch. Jungkook groaned when he tasted the metallic taste of her blood mixed with the bitter savor of the alcohol she had used to cure her.

As the tip of her tongue sneakily moved in between his lips, Jungkook supported the weight on his body on each side of her, sinking his knees on the edge of the couch to completely cover his body with his.

He could only hope that wasn't one of his daydream fantasies that had him in more than just one trouble.

A pop sound echoed the four walls of his living room when he broke the kiss to move down her neck, hearing how she took a deep breath when he sucked on that spot between her jaw and throat as he slowly laid her body down against the backrest. His fingers moved the elastic of her black top up, exposing her perking breasts and moving his mouth down as soon as he got the first sight of them.

Y/n wasn't thinking, she slowly allowed him to intoxicate her system so she could allow herself to lose herself to him at least for once. Her back arched when his warm mouth wrapped around one of her nipples, feeling the other tightening painfully as it begged for the same attention from him every time his tongue swirled around the button.

—Have I ever told you how much I love your tits? —his husky voice praised her, sucking on the swollen button one last time before he started moving lower in her torso.

Once his lips reached the elastic of her shorts, she realized the situation she was in, and the little problem she had down there.

—Stop.

Jungkook looked at her confused, making one last move to be sitting on his knees in front of her.

She had been so busy with the article, so focused on anything else but herself, that she didn't worry to keep herself trimmed down there. With any other hook up, she probably would've tried to come up with an excuse or a valid reason to stop it all and try to keep some of the information to herself, but it wasn't like she cared about her image with Jungkook. That rivalry situation they had going on allowed her to not to care about what he could think of her.

—I didn't shave —she stuttered.

Jungkook simply scoffed, feeling even more relaxed after hearing that. If that was the only problem that night, then so be it.

—And do you think I care?

There was no way he'd give up on that chance for something so vain as hair.

His fingers hooked on the elastic of her shorts and her panties, pulling them down her legs and throwing them next to the boxing gloves on the couch. As he kissed her belly, he could smell how aroused she was, sending a message straight to his shaft. He moved his digits through the wet curls, opening her slit with two of his fingers. His cock tightened against his pants at the vision of her leaking pussy, giving it no second thoughts as his tongue moved from her entrance to her clit to get a first taste of her.

A gasp escaped her mouth like she had been holding it for a lifetime, being the first time she opened her mouth, not knowing she wouldn't be able to close it for the rest of the night.

The tip of his tongue traced eight-shaped lines on her clit, getting the first reaction from her. Her fingers sank in his scalp before he changed those movements into small circles and kitten licks that had her hips grinding against his mouth for more.

He was teasing her, testing the waters with her, examining each one of her reactions to know what she liked and what she loved.

—Suck it —she demanded with a heavy voice, turning into a short moan when his mouth captured her swollen button.

Trying to get rid of anything that could limit her movements, Y/n took off the top, sinking deeper on the couch to spread her legs a bit more and focus all of her attention on how his head moved with soft bops in the middle of her thighs.

One of his fingers slid into her, stretching her out for the second finger that would come right after, pounding in and out of her with a lower intensity, decreasing the way he pulled from her clit for a moment before it went back to the way he was doing it. Y/n quickly turned into that moaning mess that made him regret ever wearing those tight black jeans for his night out.

—You look so good keeping your tongue busy —her voice cracked in the middle of the sentence, when his teeth softly trapped her clit.

—And you look so hot when you just moan.

He moved his flat tongue against her bundle of nerves before trapping it again, sucking it in between his lips to flick his tongue from side to side while his fingers kept working inside of her, curling them up to rub against a spot that had her pulling his hair so tight that he was sure he'd rip some locks apart.

Y/n was needy, but not the type to beg. She encouraged him to go on when she was close. He knew it by the way her pussy clenched around his fingers, but he loved the way she slowly lost herself to the pleasure he was giving her. It was like being rewarded with a power she always denied him.

He moved his face away when she cummed for the first time, admiring how perfect her neck looked completely stretched out as her head fell back. But his fingers kept moving, stroking her through her high and demanding another one from her.

His hand was supporting his weight on the backrest, next to her head, where she found another support as her fingers digged on his tattoos. With her digits still hooked on his wrist, his hand to her jaw, forcing her to look at him as her second orgasm approached her.

He never thought seeing that woman so close to the edge would be so satisfying, but she for sure topped his expectations with that naughty look he was giving him back instead of looking away.

She was lost in him, but she still was completely conscious of what was happening and who she was with. As much as she loved what he was doing to her, she loved even more letting him know she was in command just as much as he was. Until her high hit her again fast, enabling all of her senses the few seconds it lasted.

Even if she hadn't recovered yet, and with her legs still trembling, she managed to sit on the couch, reaching for his belt to undo it and just have him the same way he had her just a moment ago.

But Jungkook stopped.

—If you suck me off right now, I'll cum in your mouth and I won't even get to fuck you first —he justified himself.

As he bent over, her hand pulled him closer by his nape, linking their lips together before she started taking that black shirt off.

—Who did you dress so well for? —she teased him, raising her eyebrow when she broke the kiss.

—It's what I wear on Saturday afternoons at home.

Jungkook picked her up easily, as if she weighed nothing, locking his hips with her legs before he kissed her again. His room was the main objective, but he ended up pinning her up against the wall roughly, making her gasp against his lips.

—I need you so bad, 3A —he heavily whispered.

—Then take me to that damned room and fuck me.

Despite cumming two times already, she sounded just as desperate for it to happen as he was, and that was driving him insane.

The mattress squeaked under her when he threw her body onto it, almost ripping his clothes off to get rid of anything that kept him from feeling her directly against his skin. And Y/n did the same, taking off the boxing boots and the socks to drag her body in the middle of those black sheets.

Jungkook's growl filled the room when he finally pounded into her after putting the condom on, feeling how perfectly she wrapped around him, taking him in like he was never meant to spend so much time without filling her.

His movements started slow, trying to get her to get used to him and his size, holding onto her thighs to rub his thumbs on her sensitive skin, before she spoke.

—Go faster —she asked, lifting her hips for him.

He went in faster, and deeper, hitting her hips faster with each thrust, just like she asked him to. That was exactly how she wanted to see her the other night. Her hair spread all over his pillow, her face breaking all of the emotions he was making her feel, her breasts bouncing in sync with the rhythm his hips marked and his cock disappearing in her pussy and coming out completely coated in her juices. His thumb moved further, reaching her clit to rub it in circles and give her the last push she needed to start moaning out loud.

—Fuck, you're so tight, baby —he groaned, just when her walls gulped him in tight.

Jungkook was so annoying, but at the same time was so addictive, that Y/n was sure she'd be thinking about that night for weeks. He moved so deliciously well that it seemed like he wasn't even trying.

—You feel so good —she moaned, feeling her eyebrows sinking on the bridge of her nose.

And when he changed the speed and the angle of his thrusts it was game over for her. Having his tip hitting and stroking that spot made her pull the sheets in her fists, while her eyes went blank. He went in as deeper as their hips allowed him to, slowly pulling out before he moved back in again.

—Do you know you sound better live than when you're just touching yourself? —before she had time to ask him what he was talking about, he pointed with his eyes to the small hole she made on his first weeks there— And every fucking time I have to end up stroking my cock because of you. Aren't you tired of being like this?

She smirked, lifting her body up a little, supporting her weight on her elbows to be closer to his face.

—Maybe that was why I was doing it?

The frustration of not even wanting to find someone outside always left her alone with the thoughts of her neighbor doing the nastiest things to her. And it always ended up with a better orgasm she would have if she had gone out to meet somebody.

Was she too loud to tease him? Most definitely, yes. Just the idea of Jungkook hearing her moans was another push to her orgasm.

—Hmm? Let me show you how you can sound even better, then.

His movements were animalistic, out of control, he was hard and fast, barely allowing her to process anything that wasn't pleasure.

—Touch yourself while I fuck you, honey. Let me see how you do it.

Her fingers rubbed her clit with the same energy his hips collided against her -and that made her think they'd leave a mark the next day. She could feel her juices leaking out with each thrust, only driving her closer to that heavenly place she misses, after being there not even that long ago.

—Jungkook —she moaned his name for the first time.

—Say that again.

—Jungkook —the desperation in her voice made her crack in the middle of his name.

How needy she sounded and looked while his name left her lips gave him that one last push he needed to feel like he was floating. His thrusts started getting sloppier and arrhythmic, but he still pounded into her, twirling his fingers with hers to rub on her swollen clit.

Until she stopped hearing, and sight went blurry, feeling all of the hairs in her body raise as she lost control of herself.

Jungkook fell next to her, trying to gain his calm nature back as he controlled his shaky breathing and his fast heart beating, which only went faster when he looked at the woman next to her. Y/n had her eyes closed, moving her locks away from her face, before she finally opened them.

—Are you going to stay the night?

Y/n frowned, quickly turning to him to confirm whether he was kidding her or not, surprised when he looked completely serious.

—You want me to spend the night here?

He just nodded, looking at her with big brown puppy eyes.

—Did they hit you instead of me? —she looked at him surprised, lifting her upper body to look at him properly.

—Last time you made a scene because I left.

—So it's not because you want me to stay here, but because I called you out the last time? —she squinted her eyes, seeing him nodding again— Do you even know why I got mad?

—Because you look tough, but you're a romantic either way —he smiled—. You need a bit of love. It's alright, I'll give it to you.

Why did he always have to speak?

—It's... Are you serious? —she sat up on the bed.

—You don't need to hide it. You grew a crush on me, which it's totally normal —Y/n could only scoff at what she was hearing—. You were right: I need to be a bit more sympathetic with those who like me.

—Those who like you? Are you going to act like you aren't literally begging for this to happen every two business days?

—You don't need to hide it —he sighed, getting up from the bed.

—I'm not hiding anything! —she raised her voice out of exasperation— Is there a camera filming me? Because I really can't believe you're real.

—Oh, a camera... Next time we should try it —Jungkook winked at her.

—There would be no next time, Jungkook. This is the biggest mistake I could've ever made —she whined.

—Sure, sure. Last time you said the same thing, and see where you ended —he chuckled, acting like she was pretending not to like him—. I'll get cleaned up, you can go later.

When the door clicked with him inside, Y/n huffed, dragging her body out of the bed to pick up all of her clothes and her bag to get out of there. She complained when her feet hit something hard on his pants, feeling tempted to pick them up and throw them against his bathroom door, until he touched it and felt a familiar shape.

She only chuckled when she was able to unlock the phone by just sliding her finger through the screen. Not only did she get three orgasms, and a good night -despite Jungkook's big mouth-, she was also going to get rid of the only thing that kept him from helping her.

Jungkook smiled victoriously when he looked through the peephole to find Y/n completely dressed, wearing a simple t-shirt and tight jeans, while she waited for him to open his door. Her face looked a bit swollen, and there were a few bruises on her cheeks, and the wound on her lip took a darker red color, but she still looked as good as always.

He knew it was a matter of time before she came back.

He understood why she escaped to her place and decided to sleep on her own. He didn't mind seeing his room in silence after he took a quick shower -although it made him feel a bit uncomfortable with himself when he found himself a bit disappointed over not being able to spend the night with her.

—What brings my favorite neighbor here? Do you need a bit of sugar?

—No —she pushed him away, stepping inside his house without asking for permission.

—Come in. Make yourself at home...

—I came to talk about what happened yesterday, but not about what you think.

—So you aren't here to talk about sex? —he guessed, seeing her shake her head— Then what is it about?

—The article —she answered before continuing—. I don't care about that video you have. Post it online, do whatever you want. I need your insight on those fights. You have more to lose than I do if you don't help me...

—I'll do it.

—I knew you'd say that. Check your phone and change your mind... What? —Y/n looked at him confused at that sudden change of mind.

—I said I'd do it.

Seeing the lengths she was going to write that article, Jungkook couldn't just let her deal with it by herself. He knew that the previous night's fight was only a start, and she'd only get deeper in all that world she had no business in.

He had nothing to lose, it didn't cost him anything, and no one would know it was him. He didn't know why that article was that important, or if there was something deeper in all that issue that had her digging for it, but it was something she wouldn't be able to do by herself.

—When you abandoned me yesterday —he accused her, making her roll her eyes—, I had a lot of time to think.

—In the ten minutes it took you to fall asleep?

—How do you know?

—You snort like a bulldog. And that hole not only lets you hear my moans, but also your snoring —she pointed out.

—Anyway —he continued—, I'll be the better person and help you. It'd be a waste not to do it. By the way —he stopped—, why should I check my phone?

—Last night I deleted my video while you were in the shower.

Unbelieving of what she said, Jungkook took his phone out to check by himself that the video was indeed gone from his gallery, making him feel so dumb for not making a copy of it.

—Well, thank you for that —she sighed—. I'll tell you how we'll work on it tomorrow —she smiled widely.

—Wait, are you going? We aren't celebrating? Yesterday we left it at...

—Nowhere. We left it nowhere —she interrupted him.

As she closed the door, Jungkook smiled. She tried to hide it, but he was able to tell how much it excited her to have him agree on something she had insisted on so much. He quickly grimaced at himself, shaking his head and taking himself out of that web of thoughts.

He was doing her a favor to be the bigger person in the future, not because of her.

Taglist: @jk97bam @ttanniett

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