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xddaengx · 4 years

Text

Little Baby Bear

⚬Pairings: Jungkook x Reader

⚬Genre: Romance | Hybrid AU | Hurt/Comfort AU | Angst |

⚬Warnings: Hybrid Abuse | PTSD? |

⚬Word Count: 3.2k

⚬Summary: You never thought you would see your ex again... especially not at your front door with his hybrid.

⚬Author’s Note: This was requested...It took a bit longer to write than I thought but I hope you enjoy. (there is definitely to be a second part)

The loud knocking on your front door - was what startled you out of your bed that morning. The pounding continuing until you swing open the bright blue door with a huff.

“What do you want?” You snap at the man in front of you - not particularly excited to see your ex-boyfriend at six-thirty in the morning on a Saturday.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for weeks.” Your ex chides, looking you up and down with a smile before glancing behind you into your small house. “Ever since you moved out here - it’s become really hard to get in contact with you.” He adds, motioning to the wide country side that surrounds your small brick cottage.

“Seriously what do you want, Hoseok?” You cut him off from continuing on another tangent, the sight of the suitcases besides him finally catching your attention. You look down at the hard top plastic with a frown, before turning back to look at the lean man.

“I just need someone to look after him…Just for a little while.” Hoseok says quietly his body moving slightly to the side to show the overgrown man crouched on your front steps. The large boy sends you a quick grin, before turning back around to look at your front garden in awe.

“What do you mean?” You question quickly, hushing your voice a little more as you watch Jungkook chase the butterflies around the garden, obviously excited by the new environment. Hoseok just grimaces as the hybrid behind him squashes one of your flower patches.

“I just have some things I need to sort out - and he’s already comfortable around you.” Hoseok begins, the raising of your hand making his sentence fade off.

“We broke up two years ago, Hoseok…Frankly after you cheated on me, I was hoping to never see you again.�� You hiss, the change in your tone catching Jungkook’s attention, he stands quickly moving to stand between you and his owner.

“Please, you’re the only person I know that already knows how to look after him - and I can’t apply for a foster because no one excepts his species.” Hoseok snaps back, his hands balling at his sides as he looks over at Jungkook, who seems to falter at his owners words, his smile fading - the hurt obvious in his eyes.

Jungkook had always been self conscious about the hybrid he was mixed with…The bear part of him obvious by the size of his hands and feet - obviously too large to be a humans making the hybrid clumsy but lethal when he needed to be.

Jungkook is quick to hide his hands in his pockets once he notices you staring at them, his eyebrows furrowed as the soft round ear atop his head flatten.

You let out a long sigh before grabbing Jungkook’s forearm pulling him to move inside your house.

“Fine, he can stay…for now.” You mumble, Hoseok’s face lighting up as he moves the two suitcase inside your front door before rushing towards his car before you can change your mind. He waves quickly to Jungkook who stand behind you, his hands still shoved deep in his pockets, as he watches his owner drive away.

“Well, welcome…I guess.” You say turning to the hybrid, who’s eyes stay focused on his suitcases, the tears welling in his eyes, sending a strong pang in your heart.

“Kook, he’s going to be coming back - you’re just going to be visiting with me for a while…” You begin trying to console the sad hybrid before adding, “It’ll be like a sleepover.” You words seems to cheer the hybrid up the slightest bit as he finally lifts his gaze, finally pulling his hands out of his pockets to tip furiously at his eyes.

You decide quickly to show Jungkook around your humble abode, showing him where he can sleep while he’s staying with you - the boy getting excited at having his own room.

“At home, I always had to share with Taehyung.” Jungkook says as you smooth out the fresh blankets on his bed, the hybrid unpacking his clothes into the dresser.

“Who’s Taehyung?” You question, your attention only half on the hybrid as you fluff the pillows you had pulled out of the cupboard.

“He’s the mistresses hybrid…He’s a tiger.” Jungkook says quickly, not noticing the way you tense up at the words. “She never let me call her by her real name…She’s so much nicer to everyone else.” He adds quickly, the words boiling something inside of you.

You were well aware of the way Hoseok’s, new partner thought of hybrids. The way she would treat them, was never something you agreed with, even when she was your best-friend. You huff, throwing the pillow into the spot on the bed, sending the hybrid a quick smile when you spot the panic on his face.

“I’m just going to take a quick walk, did you want to come?” You question the boy who nods quickly, pulling a large jacket out of his suitcase, sliding it on before following you to the back door. “Just wait here, I just need to change.” You mumble, looking down at your baggy pyjama’s - a combination of five year old sweatpants and the same shirt you had been wearing for the past three days.

Jungkook, nods, standing directly in front of the back door, his hands clasped tightly together, as you rushed up the stairs pulling the first pair of leggings and the first clean-ish shirt you find out of the cupboard, slipping them both on with the decision to worry about showering later.

As much of a sweet person Jungkook was, you know he was the worst when it came to touching things he shouldn’t. His large hands, throwing any spacial awareness he had out the window. When you come back down the stairs, you’re surprised to find Jungkook standing in the exact position you had left him in - his hands clasped in front of him, looking out the window in excitement at the forest that sit behind your house.

“Ready to go?” He questions, the small flicking of the waistband on his pants, letting you know his small tail was wagging with fury. You nod, unlocking the back door, swinging it open, not being surprised when the hybrid bolts off in the direction of the forest - technically what he would consider his natural habitat.

You walk slowly around the pathways that had been carved in the dirt of the forest, watching as Jungkook rushes through the trees, occasionally trying to catch a bird.

Hoseok had gotten the bear hybrid from a local circus that was closing down. It had been one of his favourite places to go as a child, and seeing that they were “adopting” out their attractions had Hoseok feeling nostalgic and giddy. You remember the first time you met the bear hybrid - it was a few months before the end of your relationship with Hoseok, the hybrid trailing in happily behind his new owner as he looked around the large apartment.

“And this is my girlfriend…Isn’t she pretty?” Hoseok coos at Jungkook as he motions to where you stand by the lounge, still surprised at the new addition. The hybrid nods behind his owner, his ears flattening against his head as he gives you a shy wave - one you are quick to return. “You two are actually the same age.” Hoseok adds, as he pushes Jungkook to move closer to greet you.

Jungkook was quick to become a close companion to both you and Hoseok, most evenings you spent with the bear hybrid curled up between you on the couch. When things had gone to hell between you and his owner, Jungkook had been understandably devastated.

The day he had spotted you packing your bags, he had pleaded with you to stay, to not let the Mistress tear your family apart. You shook your head - eyes teary as you pulled the suitcase out of his hands.

“I can’t stay, Jungkook…I don’t belong here anymore.” You sighed, giving the boys ears one last scratch before you swung open the front door.

“Well, don’t come back then…I never want to see you again.” The hybrid had shouted - wiping away the tears that fell on his cheeks. His words hit you like a ton of bricks - Jungkook was never one to yell, especially at someone he loved so dearly, but he had been hurt…You had hurt him.

Though as you watch him race through the trees now - sending you a bright grin every time he trips over a tree root, you can help but think that maybe he had forgotten about the things he said to you that day.

It had been an hour of aimlessly wandering before you decided to wrangle Jungkook and try to guide him back to the cottage - bribing him with making his favourite vegetable soup for lunch. Jungkook had never been a timid hybrid when Hoseok had first gotten him - he was usually very open with affection and any thoughts or feelings he had, but as you take off your muddy shoes, leaving them at the back door making your way into the kitchen, something tells you to turn around.

So you do.

“What’re you doing?” You ask the hybrid as he waits outside your backdoor, his hands clenching and unclenching as he look towards you in the kitchen.

“I can’t come in, if I’m not invited in.” Jungkook says quietly, his hands remaining clenched as he continues to stand at the door, looking like there was a war going on inside his head.

“Oh…Well you don’t have to ask here. If you want to come inside, then come inside.” You say quickly, swinging open the door to the fridge, not watching as the hybrid slowly slips off his shoes, tip toeing his way into the kitchen, almost as if he was ready for you to retract your statement and tell him to go back outside.

You take all the vegetables you need out of your fridge as well as a carton of vegetable stock - beginning to slowly cut each vegetable into large chunks, making sure to cut extra potato - jungkook’s favourite - before throwing it all into a pot with the stock and two large cups of water.

“It’ll take an hour or two for the soup to settle.” You say quickly turning to where Jungkook hovers behind you - watching you throw the dishes in the sink, wiping your hands on your pants with a huff, deciding to come back to the dishes later.

“I need to have a shower - Feel free to make yourself at home…There’s plenty of movies in the cabinet under the T.V. if you want to watching something.” You say quietly, Jungkook nods moving towards the cabinet with a grin when he spot his favourite movie series along the collection.

When you come down from your room - after a long shower and sitting on your bed for an hour going through your phone - your surprised to see Jungkook curled up tightly on the couch, your small knitted throw blanket sitting over his lap. You can’t help but let out a small chuckle at the sight of the large boy covered with such a small blanket.

As quietly as you can manage - you make your way over to the basket in the corner of your lounge room - pulling one of the larger fleece blankets out, slowly making your way over to the hybrid, draping the blanket over him gently. The hybrid shifts when the weight of the blanket surrounds him and you freeze not wanting him to wake up from his nap.

The hybrid lets out a content sigh - snuggling further under the blanket, a small grin spreading across his face. You let out a breath of relief as you try to slip away from the cuddled up hybrid.

“Thank you, Y/n.” You hear the deep voice rumble, the tone and volume much different from what you were used to with Jungkook. You make your way into the kitchen, trying not to think about the change in the hybrid voice.

Jungkook had always had a tendency to act almost childlike - something he had been taught to do in the circus…to appeal to the masses - his voice was usually much higher, as if he was constantly speaking in a soft whining tone. But the voice that had just left him was much different. It was deeper, stronger and much more like what you would expect from the large man.

Poking your head around the corner - you check Jungkook one more time before deciding that you would let the soup simmer for a little longer while he sleeps.

He must be exhausted.

“Kook, don’t you think that’s enough carrots?” You question the bear hybrid who run in from the backyard his arms piled high with carrots. He shakes his head, a smile blooming on his face as he reaches the back door, proudly showing you his harvest of carrots from the garden.

“Don’t worry…I’ll eat all of them.” He chirps, moving over to the kitchen counter to place the carrots in the sink for a rinse in clean water.

“I don’t doubt that you will.” You huff, watching the hybrid move around the kitchen freely.

Jungkook had been settling in quickly. It had only been three weeks but he already knew the forest around your house like that back of his hand - a routine for the two of you being set quickly.

The morning was for walking and picking produce out of your garden.

The afternoon was for eating and preparing for dinner.

And night was time to relax - eat delicious food and watching gordon Ramsay swearing at people until the two of you made you way to your respective rooms. You hadn’t had much incident with jungkook about his past with your ex-boyfriend until the night after you had broken routine, opting to go grocery shopping instead of for a walk through the forest.

You had been cooking the stir fried vegetables when a loud crashing sound came from the lounge room - followed by a soft whimper. You drop the wooden spoon against the kitchen counter, rushing around the corner to see what had caused the ruckus, stopping in your tracks when you see Jungkook knelt on the floor holding the broken photo frame in his hands.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I really didn’t mean to, I just wanted to look at the photo.” He’s quick to explain dropping the photo frame on the floor, straightening his arms above his head, in a straight line, his eyes turning to look at the floor. You can see the small shivers that rake over the hybrids body as you take in the rest of the damage.

You walk slowly over to the hybrid looking at the shattered glass around him, his hand littered with small cuts. You shake your head with a small sigh, the shaking in the hybrid growing stronger.

“What have they done to you, little baby bear?” You coo to the hybrid, slowly leaning down, bringing his arms with you. You clasp Jungkook’s hands in your own as you wait for him to raise his head. “It’s okay, Kookie…You’re not in trouble.” Your words drag a sob out of the hybrid as he pulls his hands out from your own, shuffling forwards before throwing his arms around your shoulders tightly, his face burying in the crook of your neck. His sobs get louder, his body flinching as you wrap your own around around his waist, stroking his back soothingly.

“I don’t want to go back…I want to stay with you.” He whispers.

“I see you haven’t change your number yet.” You hiss as a tired Hoseok answers the phone, his voice groggy on the other side.

“It’s midnight Y/N, why are you calling me?” He groans, a voice next to him asking him who it was.

“What have you done to him, Hoseok? Why isn’t he allowed inside uninvited? Why can’t he behave like a person?” You look at the half closed door of Jungkook bedroom as you speak into the phone. You huff when Hoseok doesn’t answer.

“I knew you were a horrible person, but I never thought you were that bad.” You sigh, rubbing your forehead softly, as you take one more look at Jungkook’s door before walking into the kitchen. “Let’s be honest with each other, Hoseok…Were you ever planning on coming back for him?” You question, your frown deepening as Hoseok sighs.

“No…My fiancee…she’s allergic to his fur, she wanted me to get rid of him - he was burdensome to everyone here.” He says in a hushed voice through the phone, and you can’t help but curse the world for being so cruel to such a beautiful human.

“Just send me the adoption papers, with your signature. Don’t ever contact us again.” You finish, hanging up the phone without waiting for a response, letting out another string of curse words, before making your way to your own bedroom.

It takes two days for you to finally break the news to Jungkook, not being sure whether he would be upset or excited to be able to stay with you forever.

It seemed to be the latter.

“Oh, Thank god.” He coos - his voice dropping an octave as he visibly relaxes - as you finally tell him that you had decided to adopt him, that he could stay with you forever.

“I hated it there, after you left things changed…he wasn’t as loving as he was with you.” Jungkook begins, his hands clasped tightly in his lap, as he lets out a long sigh. “When the mistress moved in, he started drinking, and would often take out his frustration on us.”

“Us?” You question.

“Me and the other hybrid Taehyung. He’s the mistress hybrid, he had lived with her his whole life and didn’t know much different, but it was horrible compared to when you were there. We weren’t real people to her, she treated us like animals.” Jungkook continues, his knuckles turning white from how hard his hands are clasped together.

“Oh, Kookie.” You sigh, watching as he begins to shake his head.

“Don’t feel bad…I knew as soon as Hoseok told me to pack my bags that we were coming to you, I knew that things were going to be okay with you - though I can’t help but feel bad for Tae, he’s stuck there on his own now, and I have everything I could dream of.” Jungkook finishes, his smile widening on his face, as he unclasps his hands, reaching to take your own.

“I couldn’t be happier now that I’m here.” He adds, and you return his smile, the two of you flinching as a loud knocking sounds of the front door. Jungkook’s ears move of his head, taking deep sniffs of the air as his eyebrows furrow.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” You say quickly, letting go of Jungkook’s hands, moving towards the door. You begin to pull open the door as Jungkook lets out a low growl.

“You have to be fucking kidding me.” You hiss, as you look at your ex-boyfriend standing at your front door a large envelope in hand, a black haired boy standing behind him, suitcase in hand.

#bts #bts imagines #bts scenarios #bts fanfiction #bts hybrid au #bts hurt/comfort au #jungkook #jungkook imagines #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook hybrid au #jungkook hurt/comfort au #jungkook bear hybrid #taehyung #taehyung imagines #taehyung fanfiction #taehyung hurt/comfort au #taehyung hybrid au #taehyung tiger hybrid

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marshmallow-phd · 4 years

Text

Catching Rain

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Minseok x Reader

Summary: You were more than satisfied with your life. You attended a nice college, had nice friends, a nice boyfriend. That’s what your life was: nice. You weren’t looking for anything more, so what were you to do when this seemingly harmless boy walked into your life and turned your nice little world into one much more dangerous?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Epilogue

Cheerful mess was the understated way of putting the current scene. Tonight was the first evening of a long sleepover at the farmhouse. It was a holiday weekend which meant you had unlimited access to Minseok for three whole days.

The two of you had been "together" for about a few weeks but it felt more like a lifetime. You and him fit together like puzzle pieces, like that Greek myth of the origins of people and soulmates. Both of you had walked the earth for years, not even realizing what you could have been missing. You didn't feel complete, necessarily, but… more.

"You're going to run out of battery here soon," Minseok teased.

You were sitting up on your knees clicking picture after picture of your favorite subject. How could you stop when nearly every angle of his face was so fascinating? He looked sharp then soft then older then younger. You wanted to capture every possibility.

"It's not going to die," you said as you checked the focus. "It's still on full battery. You're stuck with this for a while."

"I'll endure it. Only because it's you."

"Are you camera shy, wolf boy?"

Minseok's answer was a low growl. He reached out and pulled you down for a kiss, careful to not crush your camera. Somehow he managed to pry the device from your hand and place it on the floor while keeping you occupied.

"(Y/n)?"

"Hm?"

With soft eyes, he caressed your cheek. His lips were taunt, tension creating the tiniest lines around his pink mouth.

You propped yourself up on your elbows. "What is it?"

"There's… something we need to talk about."

"Okay?" Sitting up all the way, you braced yourself for whatever he was about to expose.

Minseok kept his eyes down, fidgeting with the sheets between his fingers. "I'm sure you've noticed how… protective I've been lately?"

Protective was probably the soft way of putting it. Since you and Minseok officially accepted the bond between the two of you, you'd spent nearly every day up here at the house, soaking all the time with him that you could. It was impossible to ignore the way he shifted closer to you when one of his brothers walked into the room or the subtle growls if they said something cheeky. While it took time to get used to, you'd shrugged it aside, owing it up to his supernatural nature. It had never gotten too much out of hand or uncomfortable for you. Apparently, there was much more to it than a simple instinct.

"The reason I've been like that is because you're my mate."

You snorted. "Yeah, I kind of figured that."

"But not just my mate." He let out an elongated sigh. "My unmarked mate."

You held up a hand, palm facing out. "Okay, hold up. Unmarked? Like… I have to get a tattoo?"

Minseok snickered. "No. There's no ink involved." He sat up. Fingers soft and tender, he traced the outline of your neck and shoulder. "When a wolf finds their mate, they are protective. And… we need a way to tell other wolves that their mate is under that protection and not to… touch them… for a lack of a better explanation. So, we mark our mates. Once that happens, our instincts calm down a bit. Or so I've been told."

"Okay." You clicked your tongue a few times, processing this new information. "You're asking to mark me? Is that it?"

Minseok chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Okay," you said. Nerves were brewing in your stomach. Though the answer seemed obvious once ink was ruled out, you still asked, "What does that entail?"

Scooting closer to you, Minseok kept eye contact. "I have to…." Blush exploded on his cheeks. He scratched the hairline behind his ear.

"To do what?"

"I have to bite you."

"BITE ME!"

"Shshshsh." Minseok pounced on you, covering your mouth as he pinned you to the bed. He cocked his head to the side as if listening for additional noise. Right. Supernatural hearing. The house was full of extraordinary ears. When no one came, he eased off. "It won't hurt. I'd make sure of it."

"But you have to bite hard enough to leave a scar," you said.

Minseok nodded. "I'd… distract you."

You started to imagine what he meant by that. You cleared your throat. "I guess I can go along with that."

Those were the magic words, apparently. He grabbed your face like he did that night downtown and kissed you deeply. A rush of giggles bubbled in your throat. They grew louder and louder until-

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Can you guys keep it down? Its getting annoying!"

Minseok half-groaned, half-sighed. "Jongdae."

"Just let him be," you said, though you were feeling a little embarrassed yourself. "Some people just don't like being around couples."

"You're right." A mischievous smirk pulled at his lips. "But I still hope that he's next. It would help loosen him up."

"Maybe."

"Until then, we'll just wait until the house is empty."

You smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

On the morning of the last day of the holiday weekend, you were a little sad. The nonstop Minseok time was coming to an end. But alas, it was inevitable so you rolled with the punches.

Minseok was already downstairs when you woke up. You freshened up before deciding to join him.

Several of the boys were sitting around the table eating breakfast as they chatted happily. Minseok had a full plate in front of him waiting for you before the others could shovel it down. When he saw you enter the kitchen, he waved you over. You took the empty seat next to him.

"Hungry?" he asked. You nodded. He slid the plate over to you along with eating utensils.

Junmyeon walked in then, a newspaper in his hand. He must have run to town early this morning. Tossing the newspaper down on the table, he sighed.

"What is it?" Sehun asked.

"There was another death on Saturday," Junmyeon announced.

"What? Why are we just hearing about it?" Minseok asked.

"The police kept it quiet. Its just now hitting the newspapers. I got an email last night from the university."

Baekhyun frowned. "Why did you get an email?"

"The hiker was a pre-med professor from the University. The board wanted to prepare the rest of us."

Yixing reached for the newspaper and scanned through the article.

“We need to find this guy and stop him," Chanyeol said worriedly.

Kyungsoo nodded in agreement. “He’s bringing too much attention.”

“The last thing we need is for some vigilante hunter coming into the woods,” Jongin added.

You swallowed, unable to keep eating. The image of a hunter with a gun was making your stomach churn. “That won’t happen, right? Minseok?”

“Everything will be alright.” Minseok reached over and squeezed your hand reassuringly. Rolling his eyes, Jongdae stood up and left the room.

“He just doesn’t like me, does he?” you asked quietly. Though the two of you would joke about Jongdae needing a mate of his own to loosen him up, you couldn’t help but feel it was more personal than that.

“Jongdae takes a long time to warm up to anyone," Junmyeon said. "Don’t stress about it.”

You pursed your lips. “Easy for you to say.”

“Don’t worry, the rest of us like you.” Baekhyun said happily as he munched on a cookie. “Especially if you keep making goodies like this.”

You had gotten a little bored last night while the pack went on a run, so you went through the cabinets and found ingredients to bake a few… dozen cookies. There were approximately three left at this point and you were worried that it might become an outright war for the morsels.

Minseok starred at Yixing, who was lost deep in thought, reading the article over and over again. “Yixing? Is something wrong?”

“This hiker was my professor," he explained. "I’m just worried about what the consequences of another death could be.”

“You sound so morbid,” Sehun complained.

“Campus will be in an uproar tomorrow when we get back,” Minseok commented. To Yixing, he asked, “Do you think they’ll cancel your class?”

Junmyeon answered instead. “No. In the memo we got they said they would combine her classes with others.”

“Seems a bit weird,” Baekhyun said.

Junmyeon shrugged. “It's the option they went with. Yixing, you should be getting an updated schedule and syllabus in a day or so. As for us, we're going to up our presence in the woods. Take shifts running perimeters."

"Is that safe?" you asked. The last thing you wanted was for Minseok to get hurt. Or any of them, really. You were growing attached to the pack as a whole.

"We're supernatural creatures," Minseok smirked. "There's more of us than of him. If anything, its him to be worried about."

You nodded, but your concern didn't ease up. Your own instincts told you this wouldn't be as cut and dry as the pack was making it sound. They may know what they were capable of, but they weren’t invincible. You had to agree with Yixing. There were to be consequences of this new death. But that was the thing about consequences: they could be either good or bad. Only time would tell what they would be.

#exo #exo wolf au #exo wolf!au #minseok x reader #kim minseok #xiumin #exo werewolf au #exo werewolf!au #exo supernatural au #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exo series #The Untamed Universe #Catching Rain

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greekowl87 · 4 years

Text

Fic: Watching in the Shadows

A/N: I’ve had difficulty bringing myself to write anything since October. I had some personal issues to work through regarding my anxiety and life. I’m still trying to work through it right now but I managed to cobble this together over the past month. This isn’t my best work and I’ve probably done something like this before (another fic that was a post-ep of FTF), but I at least managed to write something. Sorry. If you've gotten this far, thanks again for taking the time to look it over.

Also, no beta. Is AO3 more your thing, you can read this here

Tagging @today-in-fic @improlificinsarcasm @suitablyaggrieved @baronessblixen

The nightmares had started shortly after Mulder’s one-in-a-million successful rescue and their daring seascape from Antarctica. Somehow, they had made it with some minor scrapes, bruising, and some frostbite. They came back to D.C. and it was questionable whether they still had jobs or not. The x-files had been burnt in a flash of lost hopes and dreams. Only the ashes were left, smeared by the boots of the notorious Them.

After their latest jaunt in Arizona chasing more would be aliens exploding from human chests and poor Gibson Praise, Scully wondered if God was trying to take a cue from James Cameron. That ended roughly too. In addition to the nightmares she refused to acknowledge, the added insecurity of Diana Fowley was like a harbinger of the future.

Scully twisted in bed, her cotton sheets coiling around her like a python. It was suffocating. She was in that weird twilight of waking and still traipsing through a dream. Those that said you didn’t dream of color were wrong. She remembered flashes of being locked in that tube with that thing shoved down her throat. The cold that had eaten into her bones and down to her core, making her feel brittle. She remembered seeing those gelatinous bodies in Texas and remembered her fear. That would be her. That would be her fate.

Of course, she wouldn’t tell Mulder. Why would he believe her anyway? His thoughts were up in the clouds trying to get their work back. Scully finally woke up gasping. Her hand clutched her chest to feel her racing heart, mentally calming herself that nothing had exploded out of her chest. Her fingers touched the tiny gold cross and she squeezed it so hard so it would be indented in her finger pads.

“I’m alive,” she whispered to the shadows in the room. “I’m alive.”

The fragments of memory were still there, just like something you couldn’t see out from the corner of your eye but you knew it was there. She glanced at the alarm clock. 4:01 am. It was a Saturday so she would not have gone to work. She could afford to sleep. But was she going to?

During the past six years, she did not get nightmares. Not normally anyway. There were a few after Pfaster and then with her cancer. Without ignoring the science...damn her own words. She turned out the bedside lamp and got out of bed. Without really thinking (it was still night in her opinion), she went to her kitchen and filled her teapot. As she tried to decide what tea to drink, she heard a light knocking on her door.

There would only be one person who would knock on her door this early (or late).

Scully opened it without ceremony, replying, “The last time you came to my door, you were drunk and dragged me across the country. It’s Saturday and I’m not going anywhere.”

He looked tired, worse than usual. The bags under his eyes indicated something much worse. He read her unspoken question. “I haven’t slept in over 24 hours, Scully. I’m not planning on anything. I just didn’t know where else to go.”

He knew what just to say to pull at her heartstrings. She took his hand and pulled him into her apartment, locking the door behind her. “I can’t either.”

“Nightmares?”

The word was effortless, showing just how well he knew her. “Something like that. I was about to make tea. Do you want some?”

“Do you have anything stronger?”

“How about we settle in the middle? A hot toddy? You can stay here in the meantime.”

“What? You’re not going to kick out self-deprecating and self-pitying Spooky Mulder?”

“Of course not,” she said. “Is that even a question?”

She selected two bags of Chai tea with two mugs. She went to another cupboard and stood on her tiptoes, trying to reach a rarely used bottle. In three easy strides, Mulder was behind her. “The rum?”

She nodded and felt him press behind her, easily getting the bottle. “Grog?”

She chuckled. “Not quite. Hot toddy. I think it might be better for helping get us back to sleep.”

“A sleepover?”

“A sleepover,” she chuckled. This is how she liked her Mulder and she felt those insecure thoughts replaced with a warmth that she had come to know. “Maybe I’ll let you even play twister.”

“Scully,” he chuckled.

“Go make yourself comfortable. I’ll be there in a second.”

She heard him kick off his shoes and take off his leather jacket, indicating he had no plans to leave anytime soon. Scully was fine with this. He flipped on her television, keeping the volume low. She laughed when she saw James Cameron’s ‘Alien’ come on and Mulder looked at her funny. “What?”

“I...it’ll sound stupid…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

“Tell me,” he encouraged.

“I’ve had trouble sleeping since Antarctica.” She nodded towards the television. “My nightmares. I wonder if James Cameron is playing a role. I keep seeing myself back on that ship. And after...the face-hugger.” She motioned to her chest. “Bursting out in all the bloody glory.”

“But it didn’t, Scully. It didn’t.”

“Still doesn’t stop the nightmares.” She first added generous amounts of the spiced rum and then the Chai tea. “I was awake and aware when I was in that tube. Not all the time but I was awake. I remember. I remember the coldness...” She shook her head and her voice faded.

Mulder nodded gently. “I get the impression that you don’t want me to talk about the subject.”

“I don’t want to fight, Mulder. I don’t want to fight about the report, the work, or Fowley right now. I’m tired.” She rubbed her eyes. “Nor do I want to scold you on what happened in the Bermuda Triangle. We both know how stupid that was.”

Mulder was quiet. “I do trust your judgment, I do trust you. Without you...I probably would have been stuck in 1939 with no way home.”

“Mulder.”

“I do trust you,” he repeated, with more certainty. “More than anything.”

Scully nodded, satisfied with his response. She took the two mugs and walked them over. “So,” she said, “you had to pick Alien after I told you God is consulting with James Cameron?”

“Run of the luck. Do you want me to change it?”

“No, no. It’s fine.”

Mulder sipped the hot toddy, his eyebrows arching in surprise. “You didn’t go light.”

“No, but it works well together. Don’t you agree?”

“Very good.”

“So, Scully, since we’re having a sleepover, wanna play truth or dare?”

“Excuse me?”

“Truth or dare?” He smirked.

She was tired. Maybe her brain wasn’t working correctly. Maybe the lack of sleep had something to do with it. She decided to indulge him this time. “Truth.”

“Okay,” he paused. “What was your nightmare about?”

“Very smooth and not at all obvious.” He shrugged, sipped the hot beverage, and watched her. She sighed. “What could have been if you had not gotten to me in time when they took me.” She recognized that look and she hated it. “Stop profiling me.”

“I’m not.” He looked almost insulted. “I was just hoping to hear more. But it’s your turn. Truth or dare?”

“Truth. Ask your question, Scully so we both can get it over it.”

The sharpness in his voice took her off guard. “What are you talking about?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I asked you first.”

“Truth. No. Fact. I do love you.”

“I…” She felt panic rise in her chest. No. No, no, no. “Mulder…” He held his hand up and she grabbed it, shooing it away. This was getting out of hand. “Not like this. Quit messing with me, Mulder.”

She got up quickly and downed the scalding liquid. She winced. “I’m not.”

“It’s not funny,” she said again in warning. “Stop messing with me. This entire game is stupid. Why did I even let you talk me into this?”

Scully remembered how her mom used to force Melissa to include Scully in her sleepovers. Even though there were only two years between her and Missy, Scully always felt like the odd one out. Nerdy Dana who always had her nose buried in a science book. Why don’t you marry Einstein they would tease. As much as she loved her sister, that game left nothing but bitter memories for her.

Mulder frowned, surprised by her sudden reaction. He didn’t know why the words fumbled out of his mouth the way they did. But now that it had happened, he couldn’t see a reason why not. He watched her set the forgotten drink on the kitchen table and pace.

“Scully.”

“Why did you come here? Why did you come here, Mulder?” She wrapped her arms around herself. Maybe she was caught in the throes of another nightmare. “Answer me!”

“Do you want me to leave, Scully?” He asked. “If that’s what you want, I have no problem doing that.”

“I didn’t say that. Stop twisting my words.”

“Then come back here and sit down.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she bit her lip and nodded. She sat at the opposite end of the couch. Mulder suddenly felt the dynamic shift between them and it was like a game of chess. “For the record, I do not feel comfortable about this.”

“Noted. Now, what did you dream about?”

“The first time I was abducted, there was some trauma there. Bits and pieces. But this time was different. I dream that I die. You don’t come. That thing explodes out of me like those crime scene photos. I performed the autopsy on that body and saw what happened. That was going to become me.

“And I die to expect during all this, I am alive and I feel every sensation. I don’t know what is worse: knowing that I almost died from the virus or the chip in my neck.” Scully found herself confessing fears that she had managed to repress for the past year. “Ruskin Dam. Skyline Mountain. The cancer. And now this same Earth-based virus that we also found in Gibson Praise. What do you think it means, Mulder? It terrifies me.”

Mulder fumbled over her words in his mind. Where does he even begin? “I came here because I didn’t know where else to go. The bar…” He snorted with displeasure. “After what happened in Dallas, I was devastated. After almost losing you, well, let’s just say I got my priorities straight.”

“Priorities.”

What the hell was going on between them? “What are we doing here, Mulder?”

“What do you mean?”

“This. You come over at 4 am. Make me confess my soul.”

“It is Saturday so it’s not like we have to work.”

“We may not even have jobs.”

He held up a finger. “Prohibition period, remember? We do have jobs. We just to get to do background checks and chase shit around the country.”

“I don’t see what’s so great about it.”

“I have you. You’re still here with me. She wasn’t.”

“She?”

“Diana.”

Scully frowned at the mere mention of the name. “I still don’t see why you trust her or what you see.”

“She was there when I found the x-files. But who is here now, where she could still have a promising career in medicine despite the fact most of her patients are dead?”

“Except for one.”

Mulder smiled. “You’re still here. After all this, after all that we’ve been through. You’re the one I trust the most.” He sighed and sipped the hot toddy. “I still trust her because how could I not, Scully? But she’s not the one I went to at four am.”

She remembered going to him at the reflection pool at twilight, taking his hand, a wordless promise to each other. “Touché.” She relaxed. “Look, I’m sure you didn’t mean that…”

“I did.”

Shit. “Let’s put a pin in that thought,” she said quickly. Mulder sat his mug on her coffee table. “Coaster.”

He grabbed two and slid them across her oak coffee table. “Why is it so hard to wrap your mind around it?”

“Well,” she began, struggling to find her voice. “There’s different types of love. You love me like a friend, a sister, a comrade…”

“And then are is also the type between…”

He said this as she was trying to put her mug on the table but, uncharacteristically, the mug fumbled, spilling all over the table. “Shit.” The hot tea burned her hands and Mulder was already rushing back into her kitchen, grabbing towels and the ice pack. “Mulder…”

“I got it.”

He quickly cleaned up the mess and Scully took the extra towels. She wiped the mess off her hands and frowned at the red swelling starting on her knuckles. Mulder wrapped the ice pack in another towel and took her hands. “Mulder.”

“I gotcha, Scully.”

“Mulder, I’m fine.”

“Will you just let me?” The sharpness of his voice silenced her as he took her hands gently and held the ice pack against it. “I know you want to be this badass FBI agent…”

“Want to?”

“I know you are a big, badass FBI agent. Just let me for once?”

“Fine.”

They sat in silence as Mulder held the ice pack over the top of her hands. She cleared her throat. “I meant what I said, Scully. I do love you.”

She scoffed. “I’m sure.”

“You aren’t a replacement.”

Scully shook her head, refusing to believe him. “You always do this.”

“Do what?”

“Twist words.” She tried to pull her hands away from him without success. “Mulder, let me go.”

She felt Mulder squeeze her fingers tighter. “No.” He was staring at her. Those goddamn— “Look at me, Scully.”

Why did she feel tears in her eyes? Her eyes did feel dry from lack of sleep. “No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sick of the lies.” She rested her chin on her chest. “I’m tired of the smoke and shadows. For once, I just want someone to tell me the truth and mean it.”

Mulder sighed. She winced hearing it. “What do you want me to do, Scully?”

“Tell me the truth.” She looked

“I am.” He removed the ice pack and kissed her knuckles. “I love you. You aren’t a replacement. Nothing could replace you.”

“Then what am I to you?”

“You’re Scully.” He looked at her as if that was even a question. “When it came to Samantha, I was able to live with it. I have for 27 years. But when I lost you on Skyline mountain…” Mulder put the ice pack back on her knuckles. “I couldn’t...I didn’t know what to do. I was filled with such rage. I almost killed Duane Barry. The months during your absence, I didn’t do so well.”

Scully watched him. “You rarely talk about it.”

“Because there isn’t too much to say. I took a couple of profiling cases. Coming back to the basement office—it didn’t feel the same. It wasn’t the same.” He nodded to the small gold cross on her neck. “I wore your cross when you were gone.”

She remained quiet.

He snorted derision and looked down at their hands. “It’s stupid. There was a point, right after you came back, that X wanted me to just take a plane ticket and leave you and forget everything. You. The x-files. The shadowy men without names. Everything.” He adjusted the ice pack. “And maybe, at one time I would, but not when it came to you.”

“Do you know why seeing run off with Agent Fowley hurt me?”

“Why?”

“It’s our work,” she specified, emphasizing the word ‘our.’ “She comes out of the woodwork and, all of the sudden, I take the backseat on this. I thought it was my science that kept you honest, Mulder.”

“Your science does,” he quickly caught himself, “quit twisting my words.”

“I’m not. My hands are fine, Mulder.”

“I guess they are.” He pulled back the ice and Scully flexed her numb hands. “Do you want another cup of tea?”

“Yes, please.”

“I left you with Gibson because I know he would be safer with you rather than Diana.”

“Yet, I still lost him.”

“No. He was at the nuclear facility. I have a hunch he is safe.” Mulder looked over his shoulder. “How generous, Special Agent Doctor?”

“Shut up. Make it a generous one.”

Mulder smiled and called, “Did you know I was a bartender for a couple of months in Oxford?” Scully’s mind was trying to reel with everything that was happening. But she forced her insecurities into the backseat and let Mulder take the lead. He frowned “If I were just here for something else, we’d be halfway across the country right now.”

“I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing, Mulder.” Scully watched the tv, flinching at a particularly gory scene with a face hugger. “Do you have nightmares?”

“Hm?” Mulder shrugged with his back to her. “Sometimes. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t sleep.”

Scully was quiet as Mulder returned to her with a new mug of hot Chai tea. She took it and sipped the mug. “Good. Thank you.”

“And for the record, Scully, the nightmares aren’t just of Samantha. It’s you too.”

She closed her eyes, annoyed with this vein of conversation. “Is that why you decided to profess your undying love?”

“I thought it was a good moment. But that’s not all of it.” Mulder rejoined her on the couch. “Are you ready to talk about that?”

“I still think you’re full of shit.”

He laughed and sipped his hot toddy. “That’s why my eyes are brown.”

“Hazel.”

“I’m only half full of shit then.”

Scully snorted into her drink. “I honestly don’t know what to believe.”

“I want to believe,” Mulder teased in a fake E.T. voice. She snickered playfully and slapped his thighs. “See? Made you smile. Careful. It might stay that way, Scully.”

“Shut up.”

“Okay,” he said. He checked his watch. “It is almost 4:30 am, Agent Scully. Your guest is intoxicated. What are you going to do?”

“I thought we were having a sleepover?”

“Did I say that?”

“You’re words, not mine.”

“At least take off your shoes.”

She heard Mulder kick them off and he grabbed the remote. He changed the tv to the Sports Channel. After seeing raise a questioning eyebrow, he shrugged. “So, do you watch Sports Center or a movie to fall asleep to?”

“What happened to Truth or Dare?”

“Okay, truth, or dare?”

“Dare,” she said.

“I dare you to have a sleepover on your couch.” That eyebrow. “Just...whatever we are, Scully.”

After a few moments of hesitation, she nodded. Scully felt him squeeze her hands and smile. She stood still like a painting. He smiled at her and she forced herself to return it. Mulder unwound her like a knotted piece of string and lounged himself. Despite their height differences and oppositeness, they still were made for each other. Scully found herself curling up next to him as he grabbed the remote and changing it to a 4 am playing of ‘Mystery Science Theatre 3000.’ Mulder grabbed a knitted, over large Afghan from the back of her couch to tuck around them.

“What does this say to you, Agent Mulder?”

“I love you,” he whispered. He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And I tell you without hesitation.”

Scully was quiet. “Why did you come here again?”

“There’s nowhere else where I would rather be.”

“Good enough for now.”

Scully quickly ran through possible scenarios. What did she have to lose? Everything. “This won’t change anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to lose us,” she replied cautiously.

“This will change nothing. If not, only for the better.”

She wisely chose not to say anything. She tried to relax but she shook her head. She pushed away towards the other end of the couch. There was a visible look of hurt on his face. “It’s not you,” she replied quickly.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it before. It’s me.”

“For once, it’s is me, Mulder. I can’t...I can’t get past my insecurities.”

“What insecurities?”

She ghosted him a smile. “The hallway? Either we have really bad timing or bees don’t like us.”

“Or?”

“You mentioned it earlier. I don’t want to be a replacement for Samantha or her…”

“Her?” It took a moment for Mulder to recognize what she was telling him. “Why do you say that?”

“I overheard what you said to Arizona. She’s staying on the x-files because it’s the best way to represent your interests. Before that, when we still had the office, I caught you all holding hands. She seemed so excited about something. That is when I called you. I told you I was driving back. I was just sitting in the car in the garage outside.”

“Watching in the shadows?” Mulder sighed. “Scully…”

“I feel like I’ve been on the outside a lot lately.” She sipped her hot toddy, the alcohol burning in the back of her throat. “So I can’t help but feel somewhat insecure. Just talking about it…” She snorted into her mug of tea. “It’s taking a lot.”

“I can understand that.”

“Do you?”

He hesitated. “I...like to think so.” Mulder leaned forward. “I know things have been tough. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re still here.”

She titled her head in question. “What do you mean?”

“I thought that you have left. Maybe try to go back to Quantico or quit the FBI all together.”

“I almost did that night when they told me Salt Lake City. But you’re my partner, Mulder. It’s as simple as that.”

He took her free hand and entwined their fingers. “And for that, I am grateful for that of every moment of every day. Do you want to know the difference between you and her?”

“Our heights?”

Mulder snorted in muted laughter. “I guess, physically, but where it counts, you tower above her.”

She arched a skeptical eyebrow.

“She left me. No warning or note. Just up and left. I haven’t been in contact with her since she left. She wouldn’t have chased me like you have or been thrown in contempt of Congress for lying to save my ass.” Scully smiled as she looked down. “She wouldn’t have thrown everything out the window to deal with her crazy partner. You are so much more than she was, or is, Scully.” He brushed her hair out of her face. “And I have never loved anyone more than I love you. Truth. I meant what I said in that hospital. I love you.”

“You really overcomplicate things.”

Mulder shrugged and grinned. “So, Scully, where does this leave us?”

The insecurities raged inside her and she averted her gaze. “I’ve had nightmares about this too,” she said softly.

“Why does it always feel like we are watching from the shadows?” He asked her softly. “Especially in our nightmares? We feel like we don’t have control?”

“I don’t know. I thought you were supposed to be the psychologist?”

“It was rhetorical.”

“I know.” She sighed and looked at the tv for a distraction. “After all we’ve been through, Mulder…”

“What about it?”

“I do love you.” She said as quickly exhaled so it came out in a jumble of words. Scully doubted he had heard her. But his playful grin suggested otherwise. “You heard it?”

“Ears like a fox.”

Mulder bent forward again to kiss her again, forgoing all shyness. She felt him bring her closer, snaking his arms around her. He sighed audibly before she returned it with much gusto. Senses alight for both of them, Scully managed to be the level headed one between them both. “Mulder,” she breathed. “I hardly think this is the place?”

He pulled back and blinked in confusion. His senses were drunk off her that it was heard from him to make sense. “What?”

“I don’t think the couch Is the best place for this.”

“Why?”

He was only now capable of single-word answers and questions. She smiled. She felt lighter. The nightmares that had plagued the back of her mind for months now seemed like a distant memory. “Just because.”

It seemed like she was incapable of speaking too. She pushed the Afgan aside and got to her feet. The cups were forgotten and Mulder clicked off the television. Words failed them but their unspoken communication did otherwise. He took her hand and squeezed. “Are you certain?”

“No,” she admitted truthfully, “but I know what I feel. I’ve learned to trust my instincts.”

Mulder smiled. She led him to her bedroom. She kept the lamp near her bed on and he looked at her tossed sheets. He exhaled, letting out a heavy sigh. “I wish you would have told me sooner.”

“What would you have done, Mulder?”

“Acted sooner.”

“Well, you’re here now, right?”

“Of course. You haven’t kicked me out yet.”

“I’m not planning to.”

Scully took his hands and pulled him closer. She felt emboldened and the room felt hotter than it was. He smiled. “So…” She grabbed him by the scruff of his t-shirt and pulled him downwards. Mulder’s spine protested but he didn’t care. Let Scully take the lead. His arms reached downwards to bring her closer. Suddenly, she felt frozen. Just a second ago she had felt so confident. Now, she was unsure. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you certain about this?” Her voice was soft but the lingering hesitation could be heard. “About this thing between us?”

“Yes, I’m more certain than anything else.”

“Okay.” There was another pause. “So...how do we do this?”

“We just do,” he laughed.

She shook her head and said, “Isn’t this better than a stakeout, watching in the shadows for some would-be informant, and then finding out it was a waste of time.”

“Scully, are you proposing role-playing?”

“No. It’s just…” She laughed despite herself. “I never imagined this.”

“Are you certain you want to go through with this? You don’t have to if you’re…”

“No, I want this.”

Mulder kissed her softly at first but deepened it. He walked her backward to her bed until she bumped up against it. Mulder smiled as pushed her to sit down. “It’s, uh, been a while.”

“Same.”

He sat next to her and laughed. “I expected this to be different.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going to do this, aren’t we? I expected it to be a bit more...fevered? And look at us, like two scared virgins.”

Scully laughed. “So, Mulder, do you want me to take the lead?”

He rolled his eyes. “Or we can just go back to watching TV. I’m sorry. I guess it’s the sleep deprivation talking.”

“We aren’t watching TV. I thought we were having a sleepover. At some point, we do have to sleep.” She got to her knees and pushed him onto his back. “Besides, Mulder, we’ve come this far. When have we ever done anything halfway?”

“What have you done with Dana Scully?”

“Invasion of the body snatchers?”

Scully felt her courage return. She swung her leg over his hip and straddled him. “Now, correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember this being a part of a sleepover.”

“Well, it’s a thing between partners, right?”

She slid lower, squeezing her thighs in the process. He grunted in response. “Right. I’m not complaining by the way. I was just stating.”

She hummed. She was alight was all new sensations. Mulder let his hands drop to her waist. “I like those pajamas by the way. It’s not silk for once.”

“Cotton.”

“Huh.”

“My mom says…”

He couldn’t take it anymore. “I don’t care what your mother said.”

His long arms twisted around her and pulled her down. She braced herself, sticking her hands out on either side of his head to brace the impact. She collided into an Earth-shattering kiss. Stranger thing how time and physics worked. She sighed happily as her tongue delved into his mouth. This was good. “This is wonderful,” she whispered between breaths.

“Do you know what makes this better?”

“What?”

“Give me some control?” She paused. “Do you trust me, Scully?

“Yes.”

He smiled. “You know that you’re the only one I trust, right?”

“Do you?”

Instead of answering her, he skillfully changed their positions so she was laying on her back and he was laying on her side. His left hand carefully undid the button down her pajama top. She breathed sharply at the first contact of his fingertips caressing the swell of her breast. “I do.” He watched her thoughtfully. “You see, before you...I had a few partners. They came and went. It was like they wanted nothing to do with me. But you...you challenged me, you made me better. I can’t place the exact moment but it may have been laughing with you in that graveyard in Oregon at five o’clock in the morning.”

She hissed at his touches. “That was nearly six years ago.”

“So, I like a slow burn. I have never felt this way about anyone except you.” She laughed but she bit her lips to keep herself from crying out. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Do your nightmares involve this, Scully?”

“I don’t let myself indulge in such fantasies.”

“Why not?”

He was growing bolder with his explorations. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Lately, with everything, I don’t know.”

“What do you say we change that?”

He bent down to kiss her again and pushed up on her top. He wasn’t rushing nor did she mean his slow advances. Soon, she found herself growing restless. “Mulder?”

“Hmmm?”

“Enough of this. Let’s finish this.”

This is not how neither one of them imagined things. Scully had it imagined it fast and quick after the turmoil from a case. Mulder, on the other hand, imagined it slow after one night of verbally sparing with one another. Who needed guidance when you had your better half?

The lamp remained on. There was no hiding from this. Six years of tension resolved.

The clothes were peeled artfully like it was nothing new. She laughed between their kisses. “At least I don’t have to save you this time.”

He suckled her hungrily. “You already did. A long time ago.”

Mulder reached to turn out the light on her nightstand and Scully grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “No, leave it on.”

The first time was always awkward. They both remembered being told that my friends when they were teenagers. “I expected this to be different,” he admitted.

“Mulder, shut up.”

“This has got to be a sleepover for the record books.”

At the clock turned 5:00 and the red numbers faded against the lamplight, Mulder continued. Clothes were shed, and they crawled beneath the covers. The fire ignited and fears were extinguished. Gone was the cold that plagued the nightmares and shadows that kept them in hiding. Their bodies entwined, just as their souls had been for years.

Their ecstasy came to a crescendo as Scully felt her last orgasm leave her and Mulder followed soon after. He was laughing as he rolled off to the side and she grinned like a fool. He started to laugh too and any tension that remained fade as she came down from her high.

“Well, I certainly don’t remember sleepovers being like that,” he remarked.

Scully could hear the fatigue in his voice, finally evident from someone who had not slept in over 24 hours. She smiled goofily and nodded toward the window. “The sun is coming up.”

“How can you tell?”

“It’s summer and during that time, the sun comes through the window sometimes. It’s been so long. I can’t remember the last time I stayed in bed this late.”

“We haven’t been here that late.” He yawned and pulled her closer. “Where are you going?”

“Give me a sec.”

She reached to turn out the light and moved to get out of bed. “Where do you think you’re going? And why did you turn out the light?”

“Because, Mulder, this is supposed to be a sleepover,” she said, “and we need to sleep.”

“And based on what scientific evidence?”

“I’m a doctor.”

He watched her jog nude across the bedroom in the dark shadows to open up the blinds slightly to let in the morning light. She rushed back to bed. “Oh, your cold,” he complained.

“Knock it off.”

Scully reclaimed her spot next to him. They both turned beneath the covers to face the newly opened blinds as the early morning light began to shine through. “No more shadows, Scully.”

“No more shadows.”

#xfiles #xf fic #txf #txf fic #msr #msr fic #mulder #scully #season 6 angst #ust #rst

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theonlinemuse · 4 years

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R E B I R T H A N D R E C O L L E C T I O N — [ co-created with @incorrectprodigalsonquotes ] A Brightwell AU

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day When it's cold outside I've got the month of May Well I guess you'd say What can make me feel this way? My girl (my girl, my girl) Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl)

sofia wylie as young dani powell | levi miller as young malcolm bright

This AU came about when thinking of how small things cause big changes as a result of reading too many Chinese rebirth webnovels. The idea of the rebirth is for a character to live their life for a second time; a little bit like time travel except that the character is reverted back to the age they were at the time. We both liked the idea of Malcolm and Dani growing up together because they definitely would have been friends given the chance. This was also a way to be able to change some things we didn’t like the show did, including not giving Dani enough screen time. It’s very interesting to think about what could’ve changed about the whole story if Dani had grown up with Malcolm. It’s also a chance to give our favourite detective (sorry JT) some much needed backstory. This is a chance to make this not just Malcolm’s story but both Malcolm and Dani’s story.

After being fatally shot during a case, Dani is sent back in time to when she’s five years old and ends up becoming Malcolm’s childhood friend.

Dani didn't even really intend to reach out to Malcolm so early, she had been more interested in connecting with Gil in addition to making sure her father and aunt, Dinah Senior didn’t die early this time around

The first time that Dani met Malcolm after being reborn, there was a public performance for her ballet class in the park that day and it was also Dani's first solo performance

So Malcolm ends up seeing this tiny girl with her curls flying while she dances to “My Girl”

She was wondering how to approach him because he's just so young, but he's not much different than the Bright she got to know as an adult

His eyes are still the same in any lifetime

Malcolm wanted to approach Dani too because he thought her dancing was great and they ended up meeting in the middle

It’s also the day Malcolm tries ice cream truck ice cream for the first time

Dani thinks the way that Malcolm's eyes go wide at his first taste is cute

She tells him that the twist is the best flavour because you get both chocolate and vanilla

She gets hers dipped in chocolate and Malcolm ends up ordering the same thing because he's curious about it

He ends up loving it. He's never had so much sugar in his life and he loves it

Ainsley is attached to Dani from the start and she's clinging to Dani and going “no” when the nanny tries to separate them

And they end up talking for so long that the nanny tells him they have to go in order to be home in time for lunch

And Ainsley is not even close letting go

Malcolm tries to convince her to let go for all of two seconds. "Ains, come on, you have to say bye to Dani." "No!" He just looks at the nanny with a look that says, ‘well, I tried’

Dani just finds the whole thing funny and she even encourages it by hugging Ainsley tighter

Dani's mom, Zipporah is giggling in the background

And that's when Malcolm decides to ask Dani if she wants to have lunch with them. "We have a pretty good cook, plus Ainsley likes you."

Which is good because Ainsley was glaring at everyone for daring to take her away from Dani

Ainsley gasps when she hears Malcolm invite Dani and turns the puppy dog eyes on Dani and the nanny and clings to Dani even more

Zipporah finds it hilarious because Dani is maybe a foot taller than Ainsley but the toddler is clinging to Dani like a baby koala

Ainsley is practically on Dani's hip. Dani doesn't really mind, but she looks at her mom to see if she can go. Dani knows that it's gonna be a disaster, but she kind of wants to talk to Malcolm more

He’s still weird, but she likes him

When Jessica allowed the nanny to take Malcolm and Ainsley out to the park, she didn't expect them to come home with a ballerina

"Malcolm, who's your little friend? And why is Ainsley clinging to her like a limpet?"

She did think that Dani was precious and was amused at how Dani already seemed so used to Malcolm and Ainsley's antics

Jessica immediately saw that she was a very calm and mature little girl

And Malcolm knows that look in her eyes means that she wants to keep Dani with them too. "She has a mom already, you can't keep her." "Malcolm dear, there are plenty of other ways to keep her around."

Malcolm was pretty attached to Dani despite the age difference. He could tell that she's supposed to be younger than him because of her round cheeks and small hands

It's her eyes that make him think otherwise

Dani called him ‘Bright’ since they were kids because that was she was used to calling him before the rebirth happened and she called him sunshine boy and says that's when he's ‘Bright’

Dani and Malcolm's family end up catching Watkins much earlier

He still kidnaps Malcolm, but here's a twist, he didn't just threaten Jessica and Ainsley, he also threatened Dani's safety. So Dani knows that the camping trip is coming up, but she knows she can't stop it from happening without Martin getting suspicious

So she prepares. She talks to Ainsley about her "imaginary friend" and slips Malcolm a walkie talkie so they can at least stay in contact

She's ready to arm him to the teeth to help get him out of there relatively unscathed. She gets him a collapsible baton that he can easily hide on him.

She plays it off as just some things her dad always has ready for a camping trip (even though they have never been camping)

It's what he uses to knock out Watkins in the end

And she makes him promise that the next weekend, they go to see Tarzan in theatres so that she can kind of reassure herself that he'll come back and she knows that in a couple months, Malcolm will find out about his father and call the police

And then Malcolm accidentally starts talking about Dani to Martin and Watkins because he's saying things like "Me and Dani usually like to go to the movies on Saturdays. She showed me this cool trick of when you buy popcorn and candy and mix it in the popcorn bag so every bite is a surprise. Dani likes the sour lemon lime gummies and M&Ms so we usually get those."

He doesn't realize that talking about Dani is making Martin and Watkins curious about her, he's just a kid talking about his friend

And when Watkins kidnaps Malcolm, he taunts him with; "Once I'm done with your mother and sister, I'm going after your little girlfriend.” And Malcolm just flies into a blind rage, shouting things like getting Watkins arrested if he so much as looks at Dani wrong and, "If you even get close to her, I won’t think twice about calling the police!"

He didn't even want Watkins to know what Dani looked like

Unfortunately, Martin told him in very good detail what she looked like. "Oh, she's this pretty young girl that Malcolm's quite taken with." And when Watkins starts describing Dani in perfect detail, almost as if he's been watching her for some time and Malcolm has never been more terrified

In reality it was Martin, who's amused by Dani most of the time

So Watkins gets caught after the camping trip. He kidnaps Malcolm because Martin didn't go through with killing him and takes Malcolm to the little room under the Whitlys' house

Malcolm escapes similar to how he escapes in the original timeline

Only thanks to Dani preparing in advance that he doesn't need to break his hand this time

Dani gave him a lock pick set disguised as a Swiss Army knife

Malcolm managed to hide it up his sleeve before Watkins kidnapped him

Dani was relieved to hear that Watkins hadn't been able to hurt him because he managed to escape

He managed to find Ainsley and Dani in the living room and told them to find Jessica

Dani managed to call Gil right before Watkins cut the power

Watkins had an axe with him and was aiming for Dani. Cue young Malcolm flying into a rage and knocking him out. Dani and Malcolm shove Watkins in the box together

Gil shows up and is like, "Should I ask how he got in the box?" Dani and Malcolm look at each other and eventually go, "He's not as heavy as he looks"

Gil doesn't say anything because he can tell that Watkins tried to hurt them, particularly Malcolm

Both of them are a little bruised, but they both have fighting spirit

Gil reminds Jessica to get them checked out in the meantime, giving poor Zipporah another heart attack

Poor Ainsley was clinging to Dani and Malcolm the whole time. She doesn't understand why police were showing up at their house or why Dani and Malcolm got hurt

And Jessica fusses over Dani and Malcolm. She even allowed the kids to have breakfast in bed

She has the chef make all their favourites like Dani's cinnamon and brown sugar waffles with strawberries and maple syrup. Malcolm let her convince him to eat some of her strawberries. And then Ainsley wants to be fed strawberries and it leads to the siblings fighting for Dani's attention

It was one of many instances where Malcolm and Ainsley were competing for Dani's attention

Dani forgets that she's been reborn for a little while and just enjoys her friendship with Malcolm until she meets Martin

She makes sure she's never in a room alone with him

Instead she invites Malcolm and eventually Ainsley over for sleepovers

She always hugs Malcolm's arm if Martin enters the room, even if he's just picking something up

Martin can tell that Dani is more than meets the eye, but he still underestimates her

She does impress him by keeping up with Malcolm and sussing out details and she's not happy about it because she doesn't want him to like her

Malcolm is a little amused at Dani treating Martin as if he's her nemesis

He's horrified when he learns the truth and immediately tries protecting her from Martin

He thinks that she'll stop being his friend now like his other friends did

Dani is creeped out by Martin because not only is she meeting pre-arrest sweater vest Martin but he's much taller than her

It's the eyes that creep her out, especially since he reminds her of a sociopathic Mr Rogers with the sweaters, but it's Dani's steady and knowing gaze that starts to unnerve Martin

She wasn't there the night The Surgeon was arrested, but she was there early the next morning. She had her grandma drive her to his house and Dani ends up being the first thing Malcolm sees when he wakes up

She ends up waking him from a night terror much like in the pilot

Jessica was horrified and didn't notice how calm Dani was about it

She was about to pull Malcolm off, but then he wraps his arms around Dani and starts calming down after she sings to him. And Malcolm just slowly wakes up, not realizing what just happened, though he does question why they're in the hallway

He's bewildered over why he's in Dani's arms. Then he sees a scrape on her cheek and reacts in horror

That's the incident that prompt him to seek help earlier than in the original timeline and it's the first time he cries since the arrest

He does go nonverbal for a shorter period of time, but he's more eager to communicate

They both learn sign language so that they can understand each other

If Malcolm doesn't want to talk, that's fine but she's not going to lose her friend and he writes constantly so he's communicating just fine, he's just choosing not to talk at the moment

Jessica thinks this is better than Malcolm shutting everyone out

She also appreciates Dani for sticking with her son when she had no obligation too

After a month, after Dani sleeps over for the tenth time, Malcolm finally talks

It's only one word, "Dani", but it still almost makes Jessica cry

And Malcolm laughs when Dani all but tackles him with a hug

It releases the floodgates and he keeps repeating her name as he buries his face in her hair

Later, Jessica squeezes Dani tight. She keeps stroking her hair and thinking that it's a miracle that Malcolm brought Dani home that day

She makes it clear that while she hopes it will never happen but if Dani ever needed her, she would protect her the way she'd protect her own children

Jessica is even more fond of Dani in the new timeline. She thinks she's adorable and that her friendship with Malcolm is precious. She's always gushing about Dani's maturity and intelligence

Malcolm isn't jealous. It's the first time he and his mother really agree on something

Malcolm and Dani had matching Halloween costumes when they were growing up together

Throughout Dani's childhood, she had dreams where she and Malcolm have odd conversations while dressed as characters from children's books

One dream had her dressed as Alice and trying to get a straight answer out of Mad Hatter!Malcolm. MH!Malcolm tells her that the answer she’s looking for will appear after she finishes her Earl Grey and when she drains her cup, she finds two words painted at the bottom

She can’t remember when the words were, but it shocks her to the point where she doesn’t even realize that Malcolm has practically flipped the overly long table that was between them and he slowly and deliberately walks up to her. She wakes up just as he’s grasped her chin in his hand and tips her face up to look at him

Gil and Jessica have a long standing bet on when Dani and Malcolm will finally get together

Malcolm talked to Dani when he came home to visit from college and told her that he was thinking of applying to Quantico because by the time he told Martin, he had already applied. And he asks what she thinks of it

He shares his fears about being told that he's his father's son and she tells him that Malcolm Whitly is his own person

She gives the idea of changing his last name and he chooses Bright because she calls him that all the time. She said that he was old enough to change his name without anyone's approval

He didn't call himself Bright for her approval but he did it because Dani's the only person he has in his life where he doesn't have to pretend that he's someone he's not

Jessica is a little miffed at the name change at first. She suggested that he take her maiden name, but then Malcolm talks to her about his discussion with Dani and she now thinks it's sweet

Malcolm is the first to realize his feelings for Dani. She comes by to congratulate him and they talk until late at night. Dani ends up falling asleep on his shoulder and Malcolm stares at her as if she'll disappear if he looks away for a second. Dani has him promise not to drop off the face of the earth before she ends up falling asleep and he kisses the top of her head

During his first year in college, he comes back for Christmas with his Walking Dead look.

Dani and Jessica are a little horrified, but Malcolm just wants his hug and he playfully chases Dani

They're both laughing and they nearly fall over when Malcolm has her in a bear hug

Dani's dad, Christophe died when she was sixteen in the original timeline, but he lives in the new one

Christophe and Dani's sister Naomie were riding home from her swimming lessons one afternoon when a truck ran a red light and hit them in the side. Naomie survived, but she was traumatized to the point when she had night terrors for months afterwards

Dani and her oldest sister Mona took turns sleeping with her to take care of her whenever she had one

This time, Dani was with them and helped them avoid the accident in the nick of time, but she didn't come out of it unscathed

Dani got a bad concussion and was unconscious for two days. That was the first time she caught glimpses of the original timeline

Malcolm came running after Jessica called him in hysterics, especially since he had literally been away for a few weeks because his second semester of college had started

He was a mess when he arrived and he practically collapsed in Christophe's arms

He was half-demanding to see Dani and Christophe let it slide because he knew that the demands were coming from grief and worry

Christophe still had to tell Malcolm to calm down and rubbed his back until Malcolm was somewhat calm before he went in and all the while he was sobbing that he can't lose Dani and it was heartbreaking for Christophe to see

That's when he knew (though he always suspected) that Malcolm loved Dani

Jessica, Christophe, and Gil had to force him to eat and for him to go home for an hour to get cleaned up. Jessica makes a comment about Dani would be complaining about his stench and that earns a watery chuckle

He keeps talking to Dani hoping that she's listening. He gets hopeful when he's talking and he feels her squeeze his hand the tiniest bit. "Are you just trying to get me to shut up?"

And even while unconscious, Dani still has a sense of humour because she squeezes his hand again

Malcolm falls asleep in the chair next to her and Christophe is on guard because he knows Malcolm has night terrors too

He's still surprised when Malcolm actually sleeps through the night

He chalks it up to it being the effect that Dani has on him

Dani wakes up eventually and is surprised to see him

Her voice is still croaky from disuse, but she manages to rasp out "Malcolm"

Malcolm almost lunge-hugs her and he presses his forehead against hers and cries tears of relief. "Sorry," He wipes away a tear that fell on her cheek. "You're awake for one second and I get salt water all over you."

She just smiles at him. She looks tired and worn and she's covered in bandages, but he can still feel her breathing under his fingertips

And he always liked her eyes, but he's never been so grateful to see them open. He swears there's no more beautiful sight than in that moment

At one point, Dani falls into a coma and she sees glimpses of the original timeline where she died. She bleeds out in his arms while he's yelling for an ambulance and begging her to stay awake

In the aftermath of everything, Malcolm takes to talking to Dani whenever he's particularly stressed or sad. He talks about her family and Gil and Jessica getting together and how much everyone misses her. And how he wishes he had been selfish about his feelings for her and admitted it when she was still alive

“I’m still mad at you,” he says one day, “for dying. You didn’t have to, you know. If you weren't always looking out for my selfish ass--maybe you'd still be here. You weren't supposed to leave us. You weren't supposed to leave me… I would’ve switched places with you in a heartbeat..."

In the new timeline, Malcolm does think that Dani has some sort of secret with how she came into his life

He looks at her for a second and thinks that her eyes are still the same as they were twenty years ago and he thinks that with all the coincidences and how knowing Dani has been in the last twenty years and realizes there's something going on. But it's not dark like Dr. Whitly's secrets. It's warm, bright, and gives him hope. He's okay with not knowing

Because Dani is not Martin and her eyes are still the same as ever. It's those eyes that make him think that instead of growing up, Dani just grew into who she was all along

#Prodigal Son #Rebirth and Recollection #Dani Powell #Malcolm Bright #Brightwell #ship it #not exactly my best work #my graphics

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makomori · 4 years

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TWO | FAMILIARITY (Brand New Story)

Ushijima Wakatoshi x OC

Nishimura Yua has to take her nephew to his first rep practice with the Tohoku Tigers at Shiratorizawa Academy. Ushijima Wakatoshi is filling in for the assistant coach on said team.

She's recovering from a nasty breakup and he's reeling from a stunning finals loss against the Jackals.

Yua's drawn to his composure and honesty.

Wakatoshi finds her warmth and tenacity intriguing.

It's the start of a Brand New Story; can they heal from past hurts and endure new challenges in order to help each other trust and love again?

CHAPTERS

ONE | NEW TERRITORY

Length: 2.8k words

Yua's well-earned vacation starts with breakfast at her favourite cousin's house. But her habit of being early brings her face-to-face with a certain left-handed wing spiker.

If you don't like where you are, change it. | Jim Rohn

SATURDAY, 7:33 A.M.

I could get used to this.

Nishimura Yua fully intended to go into Tetsuya’s house to have breakfast. But she was currently leaning against the roof of her car, chin resting comfortably between her hands. The sun was out, a light, crisp breeze swept through the ends of her long, ink-black hair. And the temperature was steady at a cool, but comfortable fourteen degrees Celsius. All signs to the start of a good vacation.

Oh, I could definitely get used to this.

It was hard to describe spring in Sendai. “Beautiful" wasn’t enough to describe how beautiful the city really was. She had as few weeks off until the renovations at Peak 1’s new event management office were finished. A picnic in Mikamine was definitely in order; Amaya would join her in a heartbeat. Or they take a trip to Shiroishi with the kids. Yua loved how quiet it was along the riverside.

After everything that happened in Tokyo, she needed peace in her life right now.

Yua shook her head; it was too early for her mind wander into unsavoury places. Tetsu asked her to grab some eggs because he was making her favourite— scrambled eggs with furikake and rice. Her stomach groaned loudly at the thought, so she locked her car, snatched her bags, and quickly made her way to her cousin’s compact, but welcoming suburban home. As soon as she let herself in, the familiar sounds of fish being grilled, and the warm scent of rice threatened to overwhelm her senses.

“Ojama shimasu!” She called out as she hastily put on a pair of slippers. Tetsu had always been an excellent home cook, and she was happy that she’d get to eat his cooking more often. She wished Amaya could’ve joined them, but she was on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until Monday.

“You’re late,” her cousin teased when he saw her come in. He was still sporting his Dragonball pjs, but his shift at Sendai City Hospital didn’t start until nine, and it was just past seven-thirty now. “I was just about to send out a search party.” He was trying not to laugh because he knew that she always arrived at least a half hour early for anything.

“Well, I was gonna break the door down at seven, but I feel like you would’ve given me shit about it,” Yua huffed as she handed him the eggs. While he deftly cracked a few into a new pan, she moved to the counter to start chopping vegetables. But Tetsu’s right hand shot out and protectively covered the chopping board and its contents.

Before she could protest, he pointed at the dinner table and scolded, “You’re on vacation and I’m treating you to breakfast. Now, sit.”

Yua gaped at him for a few seconds. As one of the Event Directors at Peak 1, she was usually the one giving out instructions, not taking them. But Tetsu was right. She was on vacation, and she made Tetsu promise to remind her to relax.

But that was easier said because she was used to always having a hand in things, even if it was something as simple as helping with breakfast. Kazuki, as a joke, said she was a control freak when they first met. Ironically, it ended up being one of the main reasons they broke up a month ago. This was one of the few times she saw one of her greatest strengths as something negative.

And she still didn’t know how to feel about it.

A gentle nudge from Tetsu brought her back to reality. “You’ll need a good breakfast to deal with the twins later. Natsuko and Sayuri don’t know you’re babysitting, so they’re gonna freak out when they come back from their sleepover.”

Yua pulled out a chair and made herself comfortable. No point in dwelling on past mistakes now. “They’re growing up so fast,” she whined. “I can’t believe they’re eleven now. And Rui’s starting high school in two years!” She sometimes forgot that Tetsu was thirty-six, eight years older than her. He had always been fitness nut, and still somehow managed to be a dad and full-time nurse.

Her cousin laughed and flipped the now-scrambled eggs in the air with ease. “I can’t believe it either. I saw more white hairs pop up the other day, but Amaya says they make me look distinguished.” Yua’s eyes flicked to the back of his head and was surprised when she saw silver peppering his black, low fade. Silver also made an appearance in the beard lining his defined jaw.

“You’re getting old,” Yua ribbed, taking satisfaction at the dark scowl he shot back at her. “Good thing I stopped by Ishiiya last night. These should make you feel much better.” She pulled a tray of chocolate rolls out of her bag and presented them triumphantly on the table.

“Fuck, you got the large ones, too,” Tetsu groaned. “Hide those. I don’t stand a chance against the kids if they find them.”

“Don’t worry,” Yua soothed. “These are just for you and Amaya. I bought apple and custard buns for the little monsters.”

Tetsu’s relieved sigh brought a smile to her face. If he was still fighting over sweets with his kids, he wouldn’t feel old until they were grown and had kids of their own. Ten minutes later, breakfast was ready. In addition to the grilled fish, furikake, and rice, Tetsu had made sunomono and ensured a generous amount of nori was right beside her.

“Itadakimasu!”

The endless gurgling in Yua’s stomach was finally soothed a few plates later. Despite not seeing each other for nearly a year, the two of them spoke and laughed as if they’d seen each other the day before. Tetsu was an only child and lived just a few streets away when they were in Osaki, so he immediately took on the big brother role when she was born.

When he was in high school, he was never embarrassed when she came around and always made time for her, even when he was with his friends. A big part of why she volunteered to move to Sendai and help set up the new office was because Tetsu and Amaya lived only a short drive from her apartment. Plus, her parents and childhood home were now less than an hour’s drive north. It felt so good to be close to home and to people who loved her.

“Thanks again for taking Rui to his first practice with the Tigers. He’s been talking about it nonstop for the last few weeks.”

Yua popped another nori piece into her mouth. “Oh, hush. You know I’d do anything for you and Amaya. And I love Rui-kun to pieces.” They had helped her out countless times in the last few years, so this was the least she could do for them. “I still can’t believe it’s hosted by the Shiratorizawa Academy. Tak is so proud of him.”

“I’m pretty sure Saitou-sensei coached Tak while he was at Shiratorizawa,” Tetsu said with a wide grin. “He said that Rui has the potential to become a great outside wing spiker.”

“Looks like you have a baby ace on your hands,” Yua laughed. Rui was currently at Chidoriyama Junior High. But if he was already noticed by a coach at Shiratorizawa, the chances of him getting into the academy had already increased.

“Rui’s had his eyes set on Shiratorizawa ever since he saw Tak play,” Tetsu chuckled. He started to gather the empty plates and didn’t protest when Yua moved to help. The look she gave him left no room for argument. “I’d be scared shitless for their entrance exams, but Rui’s way smarter than I ever was at his age.”

“Tak said they were brutal but making the volleyball team was worth it.” It was the first time she’d seen her younger brother want something so badly and put in all he had to achieve it. He took that work ethic with him when he graduated and now, he was the starting middle blocker on the men’s team at Waseda University in Tokyo. She knew that Rui could go down that same path if he worked hard and continued to love the game.

“Ugh, tell me again why I decided to switch with Ryo-kun and take the early shift?” Tetsu yawned and tried to sit back down, but Yua pulled him up and shooed him toward the stairs.

“Because you have three lovely children, a beautiful wife, and freeloading cousin to feed, that’s why!”

“The freeloading cousin can afford to feed herself,” he snickered as he grudgingly started up the stairs.

“Nuh uh! I just went through a breakup; everyone should be feeding me.”

“Yua-chan? Yua-chan, wake up!”

Yua groaned and wondered who was ruining the best nap she’d ever taken in her life. Maybe it was just a dream. She tried to chase the blissful weightless of sleep, but it quickly fled her grasp. Her eyes blinked open and she saw a Rui standing over her, a toothy grin on his youthful face. He looked almost exactly like Tetsu with angles defining his features, but his eyes were soft like Amaya’s. She returned his grin and sat up from the bed in the spare room, working the odd kinks from her neck slowly.

Rui was wearing his red Chidoriyama tracksuit, and a yellow and blue volleyball was tucked under his right arm. Suddenly, Yua remembered why she was at Tetsu’s house in the first place.

“Rui-kun, what time is it?” She asked, her breath hitching in her throat. Had she overslept? That was one of her greatest fears. Damn, she forgot to set an extra alarm—

“It’s 11:25. I was gonna wake up you earlier, but it looked like you were having a good nap.” The laughter in his voice was evident, but he also sympathized with her because he felt the same after a long practice.

Yua heaved a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. She’d feel terrible if Rui were late to his first practice because of something she did. “You’re right, I was having a good nap. But thank you for letting me sleep.”

“Kaa-san always lets me sleep after practice,” Rui replied, taking a seat beside her. “She says it’ll help me grow.”

“I guess she’s right because you’re taller than me already,” Yua teased. It looks like he’d grown almost two inches since the last time she saw him.

“Well, you’re not that tall anyway, Yua-chan.” The laughter was back in his voice. He was definitely Tetsu’s son.

“You’re sounding more like your dad every day,” She pouted as she ruffled his thick black hair. “He always gave me a hard time about my height.”

Rui was so happy when he heard that Yua-chan moved to Sendai. He never got to see her because Tokyo was far, even by train. She and Tak-kun had always treated him and his sisters like siblings and they took them to the best places whenever they did come to visit.

Yua checked her phone. 11:28. Shiratorizawa was only twenty minutes away by car. It was early, but she wondered if Rui wanted to go early to check things out and get a head start on warming up. The coaches and managers were usually there to set everything up, anyway.

“Rui-kun, I know it’s early, but do you want to leave n—”

Her nephew cut her off by jumping to his feet. “I’ve got my bags by the door already!” Before she could answer, he hurried to the door and down the stairs. She smiled. Tetsu wasn’t exaggerating when he said Rui was excited for practice.

Half an hour later, they pulled into Shiratorizawa Academy. Yua had forgotten how big the place actually was. But she had visited enough to remember how to get to the office and the main gymnasium. She was worried that the office assistant wouldn’t let them in, but fortunately, one of the coaches had already arrived and was setting everything ready for practice.

Yua could feel Rui’s excitement build with each hurried step they took towards the main The grip on her hand grew firmer as the sharp, repetitive thud of a volleyball hitting the wall reached their ears. His pace quickened and she matched it so her shoulder wouldn’t be ripped out of its socket.

“Someone’s doing a wall spikes drill!” He all but squealed just before he dragged her through the doors. “Coach Hayate made us do that yesterday!”

Yua grinned at his energy; it reminded her of Tak when he started playing. “Tak hated that drill until he learned how to snap his wrist down properly,” she chuckled. “He almost drove mom crazy because he’d practice outside against the kitchen for hours.”

But Rui had barely heard her. He had tossed his duffel onto the floor and begun rummaging through it quickly, muttering something she couldn’t quite hear. Not wanting to disturb him, Yua checked her watch. 11:58. Practice didn’t start until 1, and she still hoped that they weren’t imposing by being this early.

Punctuality was a hard habit to break since being an event planner repeatedly taught her that there was no such thing as “too early”. She had witnessed several events almost derail despite everyone arriving early and trying to account for any surprises. It never hurt to be on the slightly paranoid side.

Yua quickly found the source of the steady THUD, THUD-THUD, they heard on the way in. At the back of the spacious gym, a man was diligently performing a wall spikes drill just like Rui had said. He wore black shorts and a white, long-sleeved shirt. Yua could tell that he was tall, but that was no surprise as most players were close to six feet and over.

What did surprise her was his technique. Even from this distance, she noted that his movements were effortless and precise; habits that could only be honed through hours and hours of practice. As the ball bounced toward the man, he cranked his left arm back and paused for a breath before a hard and fast overhead swing sent the ball hurling back to the wall to start the endless cycle again. Yua wasn’t a player by any means, but she knew enough about volleyball to understand this man’s skill was something special.

No doubt he was a wing spiker.

That surprised Yua even more. There were very few lefties in any sport, and she only knew of one volleyball player who made a name for himself playing southpaw. As she eyed him more closely, she thought his features and bearing seemed familiar, but she wouldn’t be able to discover more until he turned around.

She saw the net, posts, and antennas laying haphazardly on the ground nearby; he must have started to set up for practice before deciding to warm up instead. Besides, it was easier to set up with two people. He’d most likely accept her offer to help if she extended it.

As Yua considered more options, she was reminded about how much she missed going to Tak’s games. The Waseda campus was only a twenty-minute train ride from her apartment, but she could barely find time for even herself in the last six months because of the back-to-back events she had to plan and execute for Peak 1. Anything social had to take the unfortunate backseat. She always made sure to watch replays of his games, though. It made her heart clench every time she thought about it, because she was his biggest fan other than mom and dad.

Yua shook her head, opting not to give her guilt a chance to creep in. There was enough of that to deal with in her other relationships. She crossed her arms and went into planning mode. Eyeing the man again, it was safe to say that he was either the head coach or, at least, an assistant coach. Ideally, the net had to be up and level before the rest of players and coaching staff arrived, so he’d definitely benefit if she offered to help him.

Plus, she could introduce Rui and ask if he’d be willing to pepper with him or practice a drill before everything started. Yes, that could work. It was a win-win situation. Tetsu probably knew the other coach’s name, but she forgot to ask him before he left this morning. Ah! She turned back to Rui, hoping that he’d be able to help, but her brow furrowed when she saw him gaping at the man on the other side of the gym.

“Rui-kun?” He instinctively reached for her and she closed her hand over his, hoping to provide him with some reassurance.

“Yua-chan…” His normally strong voice was timid, so she could barely hear it above the ball’s constant thudding.

“Sweetheart, what’s the matter?”

He swallowed, trying to find his voice again. He turned to her, his brown eyes blown wide with awe and realization.

“T-that’s Ushijima Wakatoshi."

#mywriting #ushijima wakatoshi #wakatoshi ushijima #ushiwaka #ushijima x oc #ushiwaka x oc #ushijima #wakatoshi #haikyuulovestory

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trying-to-figure-it-out · 4 years

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I hate clothes shopping.

So I went shopping a few days ago with my mom at Zara and I bought all these new clothes which made me feel so good about myself. There wasn’t an operating fitting room there because covid so we just bought the clothes we thought would fit. And they did. And it felt so good. Except a pair of jeans. I couldn’t even fit them around my waist. So we had to go back and my heart felt like it was exploding because I hate having to size up. It feels like an announcement to the world that I’m fat. And I was so scared my mom would make a comment about my legs. She didn’t and we exchanged them for a bigger size and it was fine but... I don’t know. I hate my legs. I need to get smaller. I have to. My school schedule’s been pretty weird with COVID. I only have at school days on Thursday and Friday. It’s great for me because on those days I don’t eat breakfast or lunch. On my hour walk home I get a grande starbucks, maybe I’ll have a small snack, and then I have dinner. Usually after those two days I end up weighting 118 or 117. But of course from Friday to Saturday I somehow ended up at 123. How does this happen? So new rules. I’m going to work out every day (which I should’ve done on Friday but I had a sleepover, and on Saturday I was so tired when I got home). In addition to working out every day I’m going to try a liquid diet. Not completely, just whenever I’m hungry I’ll have a glass of water and then a glass of some kind of milk. When my parents are home and I have to eat with them I’ll eat a normal meal (or dinner will always be normal). And I’ll never have breakfast. All I want to do is slim down. I need my legs to be smaller and I don’t want any stomach fat. It’s necessary. I have to. Maybe if I’m skinner guys will look at me and I’ll be more popular.

#shopping #newclothes #skinny #popular #diet #liquiddiet #skinnyjeans #jeans #weight #workingout #zara #parents #ana #annorex

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babbushka · 4 years

Text

Howdy folks! Happy Saturday :) I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their weekend so far!

My body is in shambles (chronic illness + menstruation = kill me now please lol) so I think I am going to be treating myself to a hot bubble bath this evening, and hopefully will get some writing finished for everyone! Lol I’ve got these kinktober oneshots that you guys voted on nearly finished, in addition to that supreme leader kylo oneshot, let’s cross our fingers that I’m not too ill to actually get them posted!

If folks are in the mood, maybe we can have a sleepover this evening and i’ll write up some headcanons you might like to see? Let me know!

Sending everyone love :)

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virgilsinferno · 4 years

Photo

meet me in the middle || logince

chapter 2 — leave the window open for me

summary: the twins try to set up patton & virgil by hosting a sleepover. remus makes questionable life decisions.

pairings: high key moxiety, dukeceit (if you squint)

tw: mentions of hospitals & injuries

word count: 2987

[logan is not in this chapter but he is mentioned like once]

taglist: @dragonwithproblems @b0mblebee

ao3 || 1

♡

At the back of the shop, there’s a tiny storage room filled with boxes and a wall of post-it notes. It’s a cramped space, but the twins figured out a way to make it bearable. There’s a bookshelf, some fake plants, a few pictures, and of course, the whiteboard. The whiteboard was previously used for reminders, but bit by bit, they started filling it up with random doodles.

They constantly tried to one-up each other with every new addition to the whiteboard. Who could draw the most accurate anatomy? Who was better at dynamic poses? There was always an unspoken competition between the two siblings. It was practically in their nature to be competitive.

So far, Remus was winning but only because Roman’s usually the one at the counter while Remus took care of packages and inventory. Or at least that’s what Roman liked to tell himself.

Working at his dad’s flower shop wasn’t too bad, in fact, Roman loved working there. During his first few months at the shop, he was obsessed with flower meanings. And making bouquets. What he didn’t expect though, was cleaning. He had somehow forgotten that he was working with plants, and working with plants got messy. Petals and leaves kept falling off, dirt got all over the floor, and children loved messing with everything they could touch.

It’s been a busy day. Roman sat behind the counter, thinking that he’ll finally be able to relax after he finished trimming flowers and sweeping the floor. He was thankful that he only worked on Saturdays, otherwise, he’d have to stress about strangers’ wedding preparations as well.

Speaking of weddings, he had to attend one in about 3 weeks. They weren’t in charge of the flowers so he didn’t have to stress about that, but he strongly disliked a certain cousin of his. He was not looking forward to it. He’s probably ranted about how much he hated this particular cousin to all his internet friends.

“Boys, you two go on ahead, I’ll close up the shop!” their dad yelled from the storage room. The twins shared a look.

“Race ya!” Remus said as he dashed out of the shop. Roman quickly ran out after him, chasing him down the street.

It was part of their post-work ritual. The racing, that is. After work, they would run to Espresso Feelings and whoever arrived last was paying. Sometimes Patton would be there and they’d talk about the latest gossip they’ve heard at school.

The sky was getting dark and droplets of rain began to fall. It was only a matter of seconds before it would start pouring. Neither of the two brought an umbrella, but the coffee shop wasn’t too far away. A group of kids passed by, running and giggling with their arms stretched to the side, enjoying the breeze that came with the drizzle. They reminded Roman of him and his brother when they were much younger. They still do that sort of shit as teenagers.

Remus was winning, but only because Roman was waiting for the rain to lash down. Or at least that was his excuse for not running faster. It was getting chilly though, which only gave him more reason to buy coffee at this hour.

“You’re paying, slowpoke!” Remus said as he dramatically opened the door to the shop. He immediately went to the counter to order their usual.

Roman sat down at their usual spot, the table near the corkboard. He spotted Patton speaking to some guy in a purple hoodie on the other side of the shop. The guy looked familiar, so Roman assumed he had seen him around at school before. He called out Patton’s name and waved, and he waved back as well. The guy left with a brown paper bag in hand and Patton walked over to the twins’ table. The rain was already pouring, so it was a good thing that the guy had an umbrella with him.

“Ro, you’ll never guess what just happened!” Patton said with a huge grin on his face. He was practically bouncing with excitement.

“You won the lottery?” Roman asked, eyes wide, with the same level of excitement Patton had.

“No, even better! I got Virgil’s number!” Patton squealed with delight as he sat down next to Roman, flaunting Virgil’s contact on his phone.

“Oh, great,” Roman said with fake enthusiasm. Who the fuck?

Remus sat down opposite to Roman and placed a tray down on their table. “I didn’t know Emo was your type.”

“Wait, are we talking about the guy with the purple hoodie?” Roman asked as he pointed to the front door.

“Yeah, him!” Patton said, stealing a forkful of Roman’s chocolate cake. “I assumed you would know him since, you know, he’s Logan’s best friend? And you hate-read his social m-”

“I do not!” Roman interjected, taking his fork back from Patton in a playful manner.

“You do,” Remus said in a sing-songy voice. “Sometimes he barges into my room in the middle of the night just to tell me what atrocity Logan posted on Instagram.”

“It was one time!” Roman finally admitted. “Why are we talking about me, we’re supposed to be talking about Patton’s love life!”

“Oh, right! I do have to get back to work though, but I could come over later and we could talk about boys?” Patton suggested. They often had sleepovers especially during finals week, but as much as they’d try to focus on studying, they always ended up goofing off and doing typical sleepover activities.

“Fuck yes, sleepover middle-school-style!” Remus said, high-fiving Patton.

Patton patted the top of their heads before returning to the counter. Since Roman had already finished his chocolate cake, he stole a piece of Remus’s blueberry muffin. It quickly escalated into a competition between the two of them to see who could finish their coffee first. That was the fun part of having siblings. Everything was a competition.

Roman slammed down his cup, grinning from ear to ear. He basked in his moment of victory as Remus scowled. By that time, the rain had already stopped, which meant that it was probably time for them to go home. The twins waved goodbye to the baristas before walking out the door and heading home. The pavement was wet, and knowing Remus, he was going to run, slip, and end up with an injury. Roman kept a close eye on his brother just in case. Remus had already been in and out of the hospital 4 times in the past two months and frankly, Roman was getting tired of his constant injuries and poor decisions.

Their house wasn’t too far away, so they walked home most of the time. They learned not to trust Remus with a car after the whole driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road incident. No one liked to talk about it. Well, except for Remus, who mentioned it several times to everyone he had ever sat next to in class.

Once they arrived in front of their house, Roman got momentarily distracted by the sound of soft meows. An adorable little kitten was playing in their garden, and as much as Roman wanted to pick it up, he was highly allergic.

“Ree, look! It’s a-” Roman paused and looked around, noticing that his brother was no longer beside him. “Oh no.”

He frantically ran to the backyard and spotted Remus already on a tree branch, attempting to get to his room from the tree. He saw his brother and waved at him.

“Ro, could you open the window from my room?” He yelled, gesturing to the closed window. He momentarily lost his balance, but caught the tree branch above him before he could plummet down to the ground.

“Absolutely not, you incorrigible buffoon!” Roman yelled back. He sighed, tugging at his hair. On one hand, it would be funny. On the other, they would get in trouble and that won’t be funny at all.

“Aren’t you even the slightest bit curious? I know you are!”

So maybe he was a little bit curious. But that didn’t mean it was safe to do. Then again, he wasn’t the most reasonable person either. As long as Remus knows what he’s doing, he should be fine, right? Then again, Remus never knew what he was doing and he turned out okay.

“Okay, I’m convinced,” Roman said after much thought. Remus cheered and did a victory dance, careful enough to not fall off of the tree.

Roman ran inside the house, greeting his parents a quick “hello” as he passed by the kitchen. He dashed straight to Remus’s room, opened the window, then gestured for him to get in.

“Wait, get this on video,” Remus said as he tossed his phone through the window. Thankfully, Roman had good reflexes and caught it, otherwise, it might have shattered.

Roman gave him the signal. Remus pounced off of the tree and caught the windowsill. Using his upper body strength, he pushed himself upwards and rolled right into his room.

“Holy shit,” Remus panted, clearly out of breath. “Give me my phone, I wanna see!”

“I am never letting you do that again,” Roman said as Remus replayed the video.

“Oh you will. I can tell.” Remus said, forwarding the video to multiple group chats. Several people were typing. He watched in amusement as people freaked out over his little stunt. The twins could tell that it would be the talk of the school on Monday. Not that they didn’t like the attention, in fact, they loved receiving attention.

After the excitement and adrenaline died down, Roman lied down on the bed, listening to Remus rant about his plans for the upcoming auditions for the Battle of the Bands. They held the auditions as early as 3 months before the event, which would give enough time for the contestants to practice.

“So far, there’s me on the bass, Virge on the drums, and you as lead vocalist. You think Jay would wanna be lead guitar?” Remus said as he tuned his electric bass.

“I don’t know, ask him.” Roman replied. “Hold on a sec, Virgil? As in Patton’s crush?”

“Of fucking course, how many damn Virgils are there at school?” Remus rolled his eyes, chucking a pencil at his brother.

Roman sat up. He had a brilliant idea. “So, Patton’s coming over. Why don’t you invite Virgil and we do a little bit of matchmaking?”

Remus’s eyes widened. “Fuck, shit, you’re a motherfucking genius!” He scrambled to get his phone and sent a quick text to Virgil. It only took Remus mentioning that Patton would be there for Virgil to agree. Patton usually arrived around 10-ish, so Remus told him to come around 9. It would give them enough time to pull some strings.

Roman returned his attention to his phone, which apparently had dozens of notifications from Twitter. As always, he checked his dms first before the mentions. He was sure that several people had already posted Remus’s stunt and tagged both him and his brother.

Vi, his internet friend, was at the very top of his dms. It could only mean one thing. Or two things, rather. Boy problems or life problems. Or both at the same time. Ironically, they started out as enemies on the internet. A misunderstanding, of sorts.

personification of anxiety

@vergeofdeath

vi: yo princey

vi: fuck

vi: i’m spending the night with my crush

vi: holy shit

vi: i just gave him my number like a few hours ago??

princey: 👀

princey: don’t be too loud

vi: BITCH

vi: NOT LIKE THAT

vi: we’re staying over at my friend’s house

princey: that’s funny ‘cause my bro & i are hosting a mini sleepover too

princey: he invited over a friend bc our other friend has a crush on him

vi: dude

vi: coincidence???

vi: i’ve never spoken to my friend’s bro before but he’s gonna be there ofc

vi: he’s like enemies with my best bud

princey: omg that’s so weird

princey: my twin’s bff is my enemy

princey: but like,, you know that,, i tell you that all the time

vi: woah hold on u have a twin??? u never mentioned a twin???

vi: i just assumed ur bro was near ur age??

vi: bitch my friend has a twin

vi: the fucking coincidences,, they’re everywhere

princey: don’t tell me ur a drummer too jhksdgfks

vi: BITCH

vi: I AM A DRUMMER

princey: holy fucking shit

vi: holy fucking shit indeed

“Boys, dinner!” Their mom called out from the kitchen. The twins immediately dashed out of the door, pushing each other as they tried to get to the dining table first.

Since it was a Saturday, they were having seafood. Dinners were always eventful. Roman and Remus told their parents about the sleepover and Remus jumping off of the tree, which should’ve gotten them in trouble but their mom found it hilarious and let it slide. Their dad talked about his clients that were planning on a halloween-themed wedding, and their mom talked about the new tv show she was in.

Overall, dinner went well. It was Remus’s turn to wash the dishes, so Roman returned to his room. His room was bigger so they would be using that one for the sleepover. He noticed that his nail polish was starting to chip off, so he brought out his pouch of nail polish from under the bed. There was a lot of clutter there, things such as old textbooks from freshman year, Remus’s broken drumsticks, some guitar picks, and expired makeup. He should get around to cleaning that, though he’s been meaning to do that for months now.

By the time Remus finished washing dishes, there were several post-it notes stuck to the wall with various reminders such as to clean the space under the bed, buy new shoes, upgrade to a loft bed, buy oil paints, and water the plants. Roman already started on the pillow fort, so Remus lounged on the bed and looked up what good horror movies are on Netflix.

Another reason why they often used Roman’s room for sleepovers was that he had a tv. It was originally supposed to be in Remus’s room, but he had a habit of breaking everything he could touch. It was a wonder they could trust him with dishes. On the other hand, Remus’s room was good for band practices or jamming out in general. He had instruments all over the place and they had it soundproofed so that the neighbors would stop complaining about the loud drumming at 2 a.m.

Once Virgil arrived, their plan was set into motion.

“So, I know we don’t talk at all, but just pretend that we’ve been good friends for a long time. I have a plan.” Roman said as he led the way to his room.

Virgil looked at him skeptically. “You know, Logan’s told me a lot about you.”

“All good things, I hope?” Roman asked.

“Quite the opposite actually,” Virgil smirked. He notices a few posters put up of Fall Out Boy and Waterparks. “But since you do have a good taste in music, so I’ll let it slide.”

During the short period of time that he left his brother alone in his room, Remus managed to trash his vanity. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Roman took this opportunity to strike a conversation. “Ree mentioned you play drums?”

“Yeah, we’re planning on auditioning for the Battle of the Bands.” Virgil said, sending a quick message to one of his internet friends. “Has he asked you to join our band yet?”

Roman’s phone buzzed.

“Well, yeah. He sort of asked? I agreed, of course. Then he was like, ‘Oh good, I was going to poison you if you didn’t’. I’m used to it by now.”

Virgil chuckled. “He tried to poison me once ‘cause I stomped on his foot with my combat boots.”

“That was you? Oh my god, I owe you for that one!” Roman said, laughing at the memory of his brother crying in the school clinic. Turns out, they got along quite well.

Their conversation was cut short when they heard knocks at the door. It was Patton and he arrived way earlier than expected. Remus pushed Virgil towards the door and mouthed “open it”. The twins high-fived each other and hid inside the pillow fort.

“Hey Pat-”

As soon as Virgil opened the door, Patton’s face turned pink. He took a deep breath, puffed his cheeks, and closed the door. Virgil was too confused to move and the twins were slightly worried.

Patton reopened the door and held out a container of cookies. “Hi Virge! I uh, didn’t expect to see you here… haha… what a coincidence?” He said awkwardly.

Virgil took the cookies, but Remus bolted out of the fort and took it from Virgil’s hands.

“You fucking gremlin!” Roman yelled, chasing Remus out of the room, who had started devouring cookies. Remus laughed maniacally, shoving past Virgil and Patton in order to get away from his brother.

“Are they always like this?” Virgil asked, pointing at the twins who were now wrestling in the hallway.

Patton hummed. “Yeah, most of the time.”

The twins fought over the cookies for a while until realization hit them.

Roman paused. He whispered something to Remus, and he stopped as well. The two began cursing and muttering something about “the plan” whilst pointing in Virgil and Patton’s direction.

Right, the plan.

“Music!” Remus shouted, dragging Virgil and Patton to his room.

“What he meant to say was that we should play something together,” Roman informed the two. They nodded awkwardly.

“Is Janus coming too?” Patton asked.

Shit. Roman forgot to invite him.

“Oh um, I don’t know? I’ll have to ask.” Roman said.

He took out his phone and sent a text that read “COME OVER ASAP”. Janus replied immediately, saying to leave the window open and that he’ll get in the room in a Remus fashion.

Great, he was going to be the fifth wheel tonight.

#meet me in the middle #logince fanfic #logince #sanders sides #thomas sanders #enemies to lovers #roman sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #deceit sanders #janus sanders #high school au #virgil sanders #patton sanders #dukeceit #demus #moxiety

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maknaesdancersrappers · 5 years

Text

Attempt #12: Recreate a movie scene

<< the eleventh attempt

wc: 1.9k

The annual senior retreat is on Sunday and while Joohyun is making sure everything is going smoothly behind the planning and preparations with the student council, the twins have taken it upon themselves to plan what to bring and who will bring them by gathering everyone (minus Joohyun and Taeyong) at a cafe on a Wednesday afternoon after class.

“Yebin is in charge of the drinks, but to be fair, we need two other people to buy other drinks.” Minkyung brings out her phone to list everything down on her notes app.

“I can buy cola and,” You squint at Yebin, who bats her lashes at you, “Chasers.”

She looks pleased with your suggestion, doing a little shimmy with her shoulders. “Jungwoo said he has tequila he can try and sneak in.”

Jungwoo nods, “I’ll bring that and some snacks, too.”

You sipped on your chocolate frappe, listening to your friends volunteer on their contributions. Jaehyun says he’ll bring chips or maybe try and bake something with his mom that gets everyone riled up.

The day after the movie marathon, you felt paranoid that Jaehyun heard your little confession that when he asked you to come with him to the greenhouse, you lied and said Joohyun needed help. You told her about it and she was annoyed at first, accusing you of running away from your feelings but relents, confirming to Jaehyun that she needed you and all you did was bum in the council room with her.

Even yesterday, Jaehyun tried to bring you there, but you insisted you weren’t feeling it and wanted to eat lunch at the cafeteria with everyone else. He didn’t try asking you today and you thought he’d be hurt or annoyed, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it.

“[Y/N],” You look at Minkyung and she pouts, “I said, can you ask Taeyong what he can bring?”

“Oh, okay.” You open your phone, “What else do we need?”

As you type out a text to Taeyong, you don’t see Jaehyun slumping back on his seat and Mingyu nudging his shoulder. Jungwoo puts his head on your shoulder and peers at your phone, “Ooh! You’re going on a date with Taeyong on Saturday?”

“Yeah, the one he won.” You try to shrug Jungwoo off of you but he whines, clinging onto your arm.

“Ooh, he says he can bring sweets.” Jungwoo reads off the new message notification that popped on your phone and you push him away, annoyed. “Bring jellies!”

“We leave early in the morning on Sunday.” Mingyu says, “Let’s sleepover at someone’s house on Saturday night and just go to the airport all together.”

Jaehyun snorts, “Just ask me and [Y/N] already.”

Minkyung smiles, clasping her hands together, “Thank you so much for offering!”

“We weren’t offering.” You and Jaehyun said in unison, sharing a defeated glance at each other.

“So girls at [Y/N] and guys at Jaehyun’s.” She ignores the both of you and turns to Miyoung and Sora, asking if they knew where you lived.

You move your attention to Jaehyun and watched him push around the crumbs of the chocolate cake he had. He looked a little bored… almost peeved? He hasn’t minded the guys inviting themselves over for a sleepover before; his parents were more lax with him inviting people over when he moved up to high school. He catches you looking, gaze almost pointed and piercing right through her, but she gives him a small smile and his expression softens to return it.

On Friday, as you made your way to the cafeteria, you overhear the passing maintenance staff talking about how the flowers have started blooming in the greenhouse and you’re curious to see them now. You dart towards the back of school, promising just to take a peek and feeling a little guilty that Jaehyun had been asking you to come with him but you kept denying him.

You’re going to assume the greenhouse is the little building by the soccer field hidden by the looming oak trees. You trec over there, cautiously peering inside to make sure Jangmi or anybody else was in there When the coast looks clear, you push the glass door open and gasped at the sight. There’s shrubs of varying heights and budding flowers in every color, a seedling table with benches, and even a persimmon tree. You don’t want to stay for too long, taking another appreciative glance around before stepping back.

Someone was behind you, though. You bumped into them and practically shrieked in their face until you realized it was only Jaehyun. “Oh my god! Why are you sneaking up behind me?”

Jaehyun laughs, eyes crinkling, “Why are you sneaking around in the greenhouse? I asked you thrice to come with me here and you refused.”

“Well,” You shrugged, “I didn’t feel like it until now.”

“Then let’s go inside.”

“Oh, we should probably meet with others—”

He has a firm grip on your shoulders, spinning you around and guiding you inside, “Five minutes, [Y/N]. It’s not like they’re going to file for missing persons..”

It’s a little warmer in the middle of the greenhouse, but it was nice; there was still a soft breeze going around that picked up the subtle floral scent of the area.

“No wonder could Jangmi fall asleep in here.” You quietly comment, letting your eyes soak up every corner. “Imagine if it was on the rooftop… I’d sing my heart out to any song.”

On cue, music starts playing and you spin on your heels to find Jaehyun seated at the bench with his phone out, playing ‘Can I have this dance?’ He cheekily grins up at you and urges you to sing when you missed the first lyrics.

“Keep your eyes locked on mine,” You sing along with a roll of your eyes, “And let the music be your guide,”

“Won’t you promise me,” His voice will never fail to make you feel something whenever he sings. You’d never be caught dead doing this in public, but you two were alone; you might as well indulge yourself.

“Now won’t you promise me,” You pluck the phone out of his hands and set it on the table, taking his hands into yours, “That you’ll never forget.”

He smiles at you, widely, and stands up, “To keep dancing,”

“Wherever we go next.”

You owed him a proper dance from prom and this is it, with a hand in his and another on his shoulder. This was so much better than dancing to some slow songs; even better that you’re both singing along.

There’s pure mirth in your voices, almost laughing out the lyrics when he spins you around. When he pulls you back to him, you hold your breath at how close he was.

“Take my hand, I'll take the lead,” He sings, twirling you once more, “And every turn will be safe with me.”

Something in his eye changes; his gleeful expression morphing into something you could describe as melancholic, “Don't be afraid... afraid to fall, you know I'll catch you through it all.”

You lean your head on his chest for a moment, “Even a thousand miles can’t keep us apart.”

“‘Cause my heart is wherever you are.” He squints at you, cheekily as you pull away to sing with him.

All of a sudden, he picks you up by your waist and spins you around, making you shriek in panic. He bursts into laughter, putting you down on top of the bench and stepping up to join you. It wriggles a bit at the sudden addition of your weight, your hold on each other instinctively gripping harder. When you were both balanced out, he still tries to lead you into dancing a carefully paced waltz, stepping forward and backward together in the sliver of wood of the bench.

He jumps back down to the ground, scooping you behind your knees and supports your back as he carries you down from the bench with a dramatic twirl.

“At least it won’t rain in here.” You quip, pertaining to the scene in the movie when it starts pouring all of a sudden.

“But there are sprinklers on timers, I think.” He hums, nevertheless continues dancing with you to the rest of the song. Neither of you were singing anymore, smiling to yourselves at the thought of how funny it would be if the sprinklers were to turn on all of a sudden.

You adjust your hand over his shoulder and before you were aware of it, you trailed it up his neck to his nape, until it reached the soft, little hairs on the back of his head.

The wall you built up between the platonic and romantic areas of your relationship had reduced itself to a line; blurring so quickly when your eyes meet and you’ve let your guard down.

His lips are soft and warm, perfectly slotting your bottom lip against them. You don’t know how long your lips are pressed together until you feel his hand cup your jaw and you’re reminded of what you’re doing and who you’re with.

You pull away with a gasp, eyes wide and face burning. His expression mirrors yours, but his brows are knitted together.

“[Y/N].” He cautiously says in a low voice and you step away from him, shaking your head.

“I… I don’t know why I…” You catch his eyes flitting behind you and you glance back. Your heart drops when you see Jangmi stopping in her tracks with tears streaming down her face. You look back at Jaehyun, “I’m sorry. I-I shouldn’t have—”

“Wait, [Y/N].” You rush away from him before he could grab you, trying to avoid Jangmi as well but she stops you.

“[Y/N],” She sniffs, holding your arm. As she quickly wipes her cheeks with the back of her hands, you see Jaehyun coming after you and you break free from her hold to run away.

They’re calling after you but your legs don’t stop until you reach the entrance of the school building. Before going in, you glanced back at them to gauge how far they are to know where you can hide from them, but you falter a step; seeing Jaehyun’s hand on Jangmi’s shoulder as he shakes his head.

The same bottom lip that was between his lips moments ago is now trapped under your teeth in hopes to stop them from quivering. Everything felt like it was burning; your face red with shame, eyes stinging as they begged to shed tears, your throat wanting to let out a scream.

As you walk aimlessly along the empty hallways, you hear your name and the voice doesn’t belong to either of the people you want to see right now.

Taeyong has a worried look on his face when you face him; he had a water bottle in hand and a lollipop in his mouth.

“I don’t want to be here.”

He blinks at you, probably noting the signs that you were about to break down, and nods his head. He holds out his hand, “Okay.”

the thirteenth attempt >>

#nct scenarios #jaehyun scenarios #14ways2

198 notes · View notes

bettsfic · 5 years

Note

for the sleepover saturday: what is it that draws you to jo/laurie’s relationship? and what do you think of jo as possible ace/aro rep?

their relationship is so playful yet intense, and simple-seeming but complicated. i think the 2019 version is the first time i’ve really seen the story while also considering it might be an ace/aro narrative, and that makes it so much sadder. in addition to it being a story about womanhood, it’s also a story about people who are all loving each other in different ways but don’t necessarily have the language to express it.

i tend to avoid talking a lot about asexuality because the negative response to it can be very invalidating, and it’s a battle that most days i’m not willing to fight. recently i did a twitter thread on how to tell if you’re asexual, and had to mute responses to it because i got a lot of sass, some of it downright malicious (even from mutuals, which surprised me), and some of it well-meaning but ultimately misguided. and the consensus i saw before i decided to mute was “you are describing normal sexuality,” and “micro-labeling is bad.”

so, the assumption they were making is that asexuality is abnormal, and it is bad to have more words for an extremely complicated and important thing in the lives of literally every human who has ever lived. and i’ve been thinking about that a lot recently though i’m not ready to write about it in full, and so watching little women and seeing that aspect of myself in the film was surprising. what would the story of little women look like in a non-allonormative world? (and i know i will get blowback for the term “allonormative” and yet it’s the only one i can think of to describe the idea that sexual attraction is the default, and most important, kind of attraction.) who would jo be if she didn’t exist in a world of gender norms and sex and romance?

jo’s relationship with laurie isn’t unlike my relationship with my bff, who proposes to me on average every week or so, and has been for 15 years. i’m not aro in that i’m capable of romantic attraction, but i also don’t prioritize romance above other kinds of love, which maybe makes me an honorary aro, i don’t know. anyway, this is all a roundabout way of saying that particularly greta gerwig’s little women, with its subversive atonement-y ending, makes a compelling argument for ace/aro jo, especially in context of her other films. i am certainly not against people who see lesbian jo, or bi jo, or any other kind of jo, but i agree, anon, that ace/aro jo is definitely what i saw in this most recent version.

#sns #little women #asexuality #Anonymous

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eddieeatsass · 6 years

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Hanbrough - Mike stumbles upon one of Bill's sketchbooks (maybe he left it over after a sleepover) and *a gust of wind blows it open or hey Mike Hanlon is allowed to be flawed and curious* he notices that he is unusually prominent in Bill's drawings... ♥ ilysmbtweeee!

“See you at school tomorrow! Bye guys!” Mike shouted out thedoor, waving cheerfully at the receding car pulling out of his driveway.

Bill and Stan had just left after spending the night on theHanlon’s farm, which had become somewhat of a ritual over the past few months. EverySaturday the three would gather at Mike’s house in the afternoon and make theirway out to the barn in the evening. They’d set up sleeping bags in the hay loftand spend the night whispering to each other between bouts of disrupted sleep. Sometimesthe other losers would join, they were always invited to, but usually it wasjust the three of them. Bev was a girl and wasn’t allowed to sleepover with theboys, the Hanlon’s farm was too far for Eddie to sneak out to, Richie usuallyopted to sneak into Eddie’s room and keep him company anyway, and Ben babysathis cousins on the weekends.

Mike stretched his arms up above him, yawning as he peeredout the window, looking to the barn they’d occupied last night. He decided now wasas good a time as any to clean up their mess. He opened his front door, lettinghis dog, Mr. Chips, run out in front of him into the sun-kissed grass of theearly afternoon. Mike followed Mr. Chips around for a while, watching as hestopped to smell certain spots, tail wagging when he’d find a particularly goodspot of dirt to dig in. Eventually they arrived at the entrance to the barn andparted ways, Mr. Chips running off into the field as Mike made his way into theold building.

Thankfully, they hadn’t made too much of a mess the nightbefore. Their sleeping bags and pillows were still in their spots with somegarbage strewn about from when they’d eaten their weight in junk food, but allin all it wouldn’t take long to get it all together.

Mike began rolling one of the sleeping bags up when he feltsomething hard tucked into the Nylon. He pulled out a hardcover spiral boundsketch book, already open to a specific page.

On the paper, in light graphite scribbles, were threesketches of Mike’s sleeping form. He smiled to himself as he observed the caretaken to get all his features right. He wondered how long these must have takenBill to draw. He’d known he was talented, but not this talented.

He began turning the pages mindlessly, looking over the variousdrawings Bill had done over the past few months. Some were abstract, somereplicas of scenery around Derry, but most of them were of their group. Eddiemid laugh as Richie posed like a walrus with chopsticks in his mouth, Ben andBeverly tucked into each other on the couch, Stan lighting the menorah during Hanukkah.The intimacy of the pictures blew him away.

As he continued to observe the sketches, he started tonotice how often he was featured. Most of the singular pictures were of him,and even in the group pictures, the focus always seemed to be on his form. Hisfeatures would be fleshed out in detail as the rest of the Loser faded into thebackground.

Mike’s heart did a little somersault at the thought of Billpaying special attention to him. With an auditory gulp and shaky fingers, heflipped all the way to the end of the sketch book, stopping at the last pagewhen something caught his eye.

The page was erupting in color, unlike the rest of thegreyscale portraits that had littered the book up until then. Reds, pinks,whites, and deep purples complimented the black shapes, surrounding theportrait in hearts and question marks. It had a cartoon vibe, stylistic in itschoice, but what really made his breath catch was the realization that theportrait in the middle was a picture of him and Bill. It was a recreation of aphoto he recalls seeing in Bill’s bedroom, a snapshot of the two of them fromwhen they were just 13. Below it were words that made Mike freeze.

“Will you be my Valentine?”

It was so stupidly cute Mike almost forgot to breathe. He snappedthe book closed as if Bill could suddenly see through it, as if closing itmeant he had time to think before he reacted.

A nudge on his leg caused Mike to jump, falling backwardsonto one of the sleeping bags. He searched for the culprit and came face toface with a slobbery kiss, Mr. Chips had returned from his adventure.

Mike started laughing at himself, his laughter elevating whenhe thought to the absurdity of the situation. Bill wanted Mike to be his Valentine.More than that, he’d been planning on asking him with a fucking handmadeValentine. Stupidly cute.

Mike sighed as he stood back up, patting the back of his pantsto wipe off the dirt he’d collected from falling. He continued gathering up thethings from the barn, wobbling back to his house as he tried to balanced threesleeping bags, a bag of garbage, and the most important thing he’d ever held inhis hands.

Bill slugged towards his locker, letting himself be bumpedaround by the bustling teens around him. Today was Valentine’s Day. Today, he’dplanned on finally confessing his feelings for his best friend. But today, hisplan had been ruined when he couldn’t find his sketch book anywhere in hishouse. He’d finally admitted defeat when Stan had honked the horn from where hewaited outside to pick Bill up for school.

When he got to his locker he slowly put in his combo, drawingout his actions as if that would make the day go by with less emotionalturmoil. He opened the door, expecting to find the History text book he needed,but instead his eyes landed on a different book. A familiar book. His sketchbook!

Immediately dropping his backpack to the ground, his handsshot into the locker to check if what he was seeing was real. He was sure he’dbrought his sketch book home with him this weekend. He’d been using it at Mike’s,hadn’t he?

He flipped through the pages as if to prove to himself thatit was really there, sighing in relief when everything seemed to be in place,everything except… the last picture. The edges of the page were torn wheresomeone had ripped the paper out. Bill’s heart leaped into his throat at the implication.

Someone knew Bill had a crush on Mike. Someone was going touse this to blackmail him. Someone was going to-

The sound of a throat clearing interrupted his spiraling. Helooked up to see Mike, leaning against the row of lockers, genuine smile andkindness in his eyes.

“You left that at my place on Saturday. I hope it’s okay, Iput it back in your locker this morning.” Mike supplied.

Bill nodded slowly, his eyes unblinking and throat dry.

“Cool. Hey, do you want to hang out later? We could go getmilkshakes at Ronnie’s Diner after school?” Mike asked.

“Uh, s-sure.” Bill stuttered out, his head still reeling.

“Awesome, I’ll meet you back here after school.” Mike turnedto walk away, stopping after a few feet and spinning back around.

“Oh! Also, here.” Mike pulled something out of his pocket,handing it to Bill before finally disappearing down the hallway.

Bill watched as he walked away, only reverting his eyes backdown to the paper in his hands when he couldn’t avoid it any longer. It wasfolded up, hiding the contents within, but Bill knew what it was.

Mike had found his sketch book. Mike had seen the picture,gotten weirded out, and tried to find a gentle way to let Bill down.

With a shaky breath, Bill stilled himself for the worst. Heslowly peeled the folds apart, heart hammering in his chest as more and more ofhis drawing became visible.

Sure enough, there it was. His Valentine, with a smilingBill and Mike staring back at him. Only there was something different about thepicture, an addition that Bill hadn’t added.

Floating above Mike’s head was a little speech bubble,holding a single word.

Yes.

#hanbrough #hanbrough prompt #hanbrough drabble #bill denbrough #mike hanlon #my writing #I LOVE YOU BABY THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS HAVING THE BEST PROMPTS #jacksbrak #ask

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