#Not grabbing my pen again. They use they/them exclusively

[selfcontainedunivcrse]

.. it is so hard to properly gender your old sona that didn't get the pronouns dlc

[justmeinadaze]

I Have Nothing (If I Don't Have You) Part 6 (Steddie X You)

Warnings: Security Dom Steddie X Sub (slightly bratty) Singer Fem Reader, SMUT, spanking, dirty talk, slight rough play (they show her a bit more of what they are into), FLUFF, they go on a date through Paris and she shows them around, they do discuss being more exclusive (as if she or they would want anyone else🙄 ), ANGST, slightly so with her talking briefly about being sober and her fears of being in a relationship again.

Word Count: 4812

“Obviously, you’re taking us to the Eiffel Tower, right?”, Steve grinned in your direction as you three walked the streets of Paris. 

“Yes but tonight when it’s all lit up.”

The day couldn’t be any more perfect for you and you were the happiest you had been in a long time. You took them around to each place you could think of that didn’t have a long line, stopping at bakeries and little shops to have them taste everything while looking for little trinkets to bring back home. 

They seemed to really be enjoying themselves which made you smile. Eddie had befriended a street musician who handed him an acoustic guitar and he sat beside him as they played a couple of songs. You took them to a vintage store where they had a blast looking at the clothes. Steve keeping trying on different hats asking you how he looked. One had a brim that three sizes too big causing you to spit out your water as you laughed at him. 

After grabbing lunch, you took them to a park nearby and had a picnic. 

“Seriously, I’m going to gain like thirty pounds off of this bread but so worth it.”, Steve chuckles as he takes another bite of his sandwich. 

“Oh, yeah. The food is phenomenal but you have to watch out for the butter and the sauces. Don’t even get me started on the chocolate.” Eddie smiles when your eyes playfully roll back.

“Did you parents show you all these places or did you find them yourself?”, he asked.

“A bit of both. The first few years I came here I basically recreated that vacation but as I wondered the streets I found more places and things to enjoy.”

“Excusez-moi.” A little girl shyly comes up to your blanket holding out a pen and paper. “May I have your…”

“Autographe?”, you smile up at her comfortingly as she grins. “Of course. Um… Quel est… ton nom?”

“Chloe.” She beams in your direction.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. My French isn’t great.” 

“It’s…okay.” Her grin grows as you give the paper back to her and lean up on your knees to give her a hug. 

“Merci, Miss Y/L/N!”

“Merci, Chloe.”

The three of you watch her as she runs back to her parents. 

“That was adorable.”, Steve smirks.

“It was. I didn’t know you had fans that were so small.”, Eddie adds. 

“Yeah, that’s another reason I want to be better. I’m supposed to be a role model for them you know?”

“And you are, honey. You’re already doing so much better and we are extremely proud of you.”

***

“Why do I have to wear a suit?!”, Eddie shouts from the bedroom as he adjusts his tie.

“Because we’re taking her to dinner, you idiot.”

“I’m just asking!”

“Plus, this will technically be our first date with her so we should look nice.”

Both men turn when they hear you exit the bathroom and their mouths fall open in shock as their eyes drink you in. Your hair was pulled up into a neat bun displaying a pair of earrings that shimmered when you moved your head. The thin spaghetti straps held up a gorgeous, black, V-neck style dress that just barely touched your ankles. When you nervously shifted your weight, the slit in the fabric exposed your leg up to your mid-thigh showing off some fancy, matching black high heeled shoes. 

“What, um, what do you think?”

“You…you…Jesus, I may be underdressed.”, Steve breathily chuckled.

“Eddie?”

“You look beautiful, princess.”

Blushing, you loop your arms into theirs as they escort you out of the hotel. When you three arrive at the restaurant, they watch you in amazement as you talk to the people in charge and an antsy gentleman leads you to a table. Steve pulls out your chair and you thank him as you take a seat. 

Both boys straighten up when a man comes out from the kitchen and heads towards you but immediately calm when you smile, assuring them that this is someone you know.

“Miss Y/L/N! It’s been so long, my love! How are things?”

“Things have been rough but they are getting better. Julien, these are my friends AND security, Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington.”

They grin as they shake his hand and he returns their smiles with a bright one of his own. 

“Who better to watch your back than a friend that loves you, ah? Now, mon amour, should we start with the usual champagne?”

“Oh, no. Um, do you have something without alcohol?”

“Hmm? Oh! How about citron pressé?”

“Sure, I trust you.”, you giggle as you shrug, watching him disappear without asking the guys if that was ok with them. “I have no idea what that is but—what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Both men had been starring at you with a cute, goofy smile plastered on their face. 

“Nothing. You’re just adorable.”

“It’s nice seeing this side of you to. You really needed a break, sweetheart.”

The rest of the meal couldn’t be described in any other way beside perfect. They talked to you more about some positive things in their lives trying to keep the mood uplifted. Eddie told you about his love for fantasy related things like D&D which made you laugh when the other man rolled his eyes. Steve surprised you by telling you of some movies he actually really liked.

“Ok you can’t sigh aggressively when I talk about sci-fi fantasy shit but then tell her that one of your favorite movies is Star Wars!”

“It’s completely different, Munson.”

“How!?”

“It’s actually not that different.”

“Thank you, princess!”

“But to be fair, George Lucas said he made Star Wars kind of like a western so Steve may drift more towards that then regular sci-fi.”

“Ok, you’re not on my side anymore. Hush.”, Eddie responds playfully.

You did your best to tell them more happy memories with you and your family but you struggled because it hurt. Every time you stuttered through a story, though, one or both of them would reach for your hand and urge you to continue. 

After you were done eating, you kept your word and took them to the Eiffel Tower as it was all lit up. The people in charge cut off a section so you three wouldn’t be noticed or bothered which you greatly appreciated. 

“Wow, check out that view.” Steve exhaled as he took a few pictures pausing when he noticed your face as you leaned against the railing. “You alright, honey?”

“Yeah. I just wish I could stay here in this moment. I’m having a lot of fun with you two and I think this is the first time in a long time I’ve actually been…happy.”

Eddie’s palm gently reaches out to run down your back before bringing you to his chest to wrap you up in his embrace. 

“I know what you mean. Stop me if I’m wrong Harrington but we’ve never felt like this about anyone before. We really like you, Y/N.”

“We’re all in if you are.”

“You barely know me. What if I fuck up again? What if I hurt you? What if…I’m not what you thought I am?”

“She’s doing that thing again.”, Eddie murmurs to Steve as he releases you and leans against the railing. “It’s like her own brand of self-harm…or maybe self-protection?” He raises his eyebrows inquisitively and you quickly shift your gaze. “Ah yes. There it is. She keeps says ‘What if I’ but what she really means if ‘What if you’.”

“Baby, we’re not asking you to marry us or anything. What we’re asking for is MORE nights like tonight. To be able to take you out more and get to know you better and vice versa. We know you’ve been through a lot and still are. We would never push you like they do.”

“And quite frankly, sweetheart, I don’t think there could be any more surprises because you’ve already showed us you’re not who we thought you were originally.”

“Spoiled, washed up singer.”, Steve explains when you look at them in confusion. 

“When it comes to the I’s, babe, we got you covered. You slip again and want to run all over Vegas, we’ll come get you. You have one of those moments where you try to verbally hurt us, don’t worry, we got you. We have ropes and handcuffs for situations like that.” You can’t help but giggle when he winks. 

“When it comes to the you’s, you can ask us anything and we’ll answer. If there’s something you need or need to know just let us know and we can talk about it.”

Glancing out towards the city, you feel everything run through your brain at once. You knew from the moment you met them that they were different. You trust them with your life so why were you so scared to trust them with your heart?

Because everyone who’s supposed to love you, hurts you…

Do they even love you? They can’t possibly…like you said they barely even know you. I guess it couldn’t hurt to jump in with both feet.

“Ok. Can we…we keep it between us?”

“We honestly assumed you would because of the press and everything.”, Eddie answers with a small smile. 

“I think that’s another reason Simon was with me. He liked the attention from the press.”

“Hm. Well, coming from a small town where everyone was in everyone’s business, trust me, we don’t want that kind of attention.”, Steve retorts as he leans over the railing like you had. 

Looping your arm through his, you lean your head against his shoulder as Eddie holds your hand and looks out into the city.

##############

“I have a request.”

“Oh lord.”, the metalhead playfully sighs making you smile.

“Calm down, Mr. Munson.”, you giggle. “The other night I asked you two to show me how much you care about me…” They nod when you pause, urging you silently to continue. “Can you show me how to take care of you?”

Both men, who were now sitting on the couch in the hotel room looked up at you now with slight confusion. 

“When we first got together, you said you liked it rough. The other night you implied there was more to what you both were into. I want to give you what you want.”

“You do, honey.”

“You really do.”, Eddie follows almost too eagerly. 

“I still don’t think your ready.”, Steve sighs as he takes off his jacket and starts rolling up his sleeves. 

“Isn’t this all about trust? Not only do I trust you two but you should trust me to know my limits. Well…in this regard.”

The other man takes off his jacket as well, removing his button up shirt underneath along with it now donning a white tank that displayed his muscles and tattoos in a way that had you salivating. 

“Oh, come on, Stevie. We can start slow. Maybe we can show her what a punishment would look like. Something small for running away and having us worried.”

Steve sighs playfully as he motions with his fingers for you come closer. As you sit beside him on the sofa, he gently pets the back of your head while they both continue to look at you with nothing but care. 

“If you feel uncomfortable at any point, just say the safe word, ok?”

“Ok, Steve. I promise.”

He grins as his hand slides down to your back and guides your body till you’re laying across his lap on your tummy. While he flips up the underside of your dress Eddie runs his fingers through your hair, moving any lingering strands away from your face. 

“How many you think, Ed? 10?”

“10 sounds good. I think she can handle that.”

As your stomach tightens into knots with nerves, Steve’s palm soothes you as it runs down your spine and over the meat of your ass. Abruptly, it lifted and came down spanking your behind eliciting a shocked gasp from your lips. He didn’t hit you hard as it was meant to test.

“How did that feel, babe?”

“Um, odd but g-good.”

“Has anyone ever spanked you before?”, Eddie asked.

“No. Not like this.”

“Honey, I want you to count for me, ok?”

“O-O-Okay. One.”

His hand come down much harder and this time you let out a little moan especially after Steve soothes you by running his fingers along the reddening skin. 

“Two.”

“Good girl, sweetheart.”

He spanks you twice in quick secession and they both let out a groan of their own as you breathily count them off. Steve tugs down your panties, his hand coming back to travel a bit between your legs as your mouth falls open when his thumb slides between your sex. 

“Oh, Eddie. Little baby is so wet right now. I think the spanking doesn’t feel so odd anymore, huh?”

When you didn’t answer, ringed fingers gripped your hair tightly and tugged you back. 

“He asked you something, your highness.”

“Feels…good…AH! Five!”, you moaned as Steve spanked you again.

Eddie held a tight grip on you as the other boy began steadily rubbing your clit while occasionally delivering a harsh smack to your ass. 

“What number are we on, baby? Wouldn’t want Stevie to lose count and have to start all over again.”

“Mmm—Nine—Please, Steve. I’m gonna…”

You didn’t see it but they smirked at each other as he slide two fingers into your core and rapidly pumped them inside of you. Your eyes rolled as the coil snapped and as you moaned his name his hand came down one final time while you panted out that final number. 

“Good girl, honey.”, he cooed as he delicately lifted your dress over your head. “Let’s get this off here.” You keened into his neck as he sat you up and placed you in his lap while Eddie ran his palm along your legs. “Did you like it, baby?”, Steve whispered.

“Yeah, I liked it a lot. Did you like it? Spanking me?”

He chuckles under his breath, trying to stifle the moan that wants to come out at the sound of your little voice. Reaching for your hand, he places it directly on the bulge in his slacks. 

“I loved it.” Your eyes flutter closed as his lips tenderly trail up your cheek to your ear. “You like that, pretty girl? You like making us feel good?”

“M-More. Please. I can handle more. I swear.”

They glanced at each other mischievously knowing you were all riled up. 

“No.”

“Please! I can handle it!” As you begin to whine they smile and you can’t help but laugh. “You’re messing with me?”

“A little. We’re kind of curious in this headspace how far your brat can go.” Eddie’s grin grows as you climb on to his lap and wrap your arms around his neck. 

“Do you want me to be more bratty?”

“I think you’re capable of it. I work with you remember?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Hey. In here, honey, you answer us, not the other way around.”, Steve scolded. 

The metalhead tries to keep the upper hand as you grind your hips against his own. His eyes remain heavily on yours as he licks his lips to keep any other sounds from escaping. 

“In here, sweetheart, we have control.”

“You do out there to!”, you whine as you point absently outside. “Where do I have control?”

“Stop moving.”, he says sternly.

“Make me.”

His eyes grow dark as the smile he was adorning falls from his face. 

“Stop. Moving.”

You falter for a second as his voice and demeanor throw you off guard but you remain steadfast as you continue. Steve laughs from your side before Eddie lifts you up with one arm and carries you to the bedroom. 

Throwing you on to the mattress, he holds your down with his palm on your chest as he uses his other to unbuckle his belt and free his cock from its confinement. 

“If you want to stop, just tap twice, ok?” When you nod, his fingers grip your hair as he hovers his face above yours. “Ok?!”

“Ok! Yes, sir! Tap twice!”

Steve nonchalantly throws himself beside you as he watches Eddie slide his cock into your mouth. 

“She’s so fucking stubborn sometimes. I swear.”

While the metalhead takes over thrusting his length down your throat, Steve is always alert, watching you to make sure you really were ok. They genuinely did trust you would say the safe word if you needed but neither boy wanted to push you that far. 

“Fuck, princess your mouth feels so fucking good. With all that fucking sass, I’m not sure she deserves our dicks in her pussy tonight, Harrington.”

Eddie tried to control his eyes from rolling back when he felt you groan around him. 

“Did you have something you wanted to say?”

“Please. I’m sorry, Eddie. I’ll do whatever you want. I promise I’ll behave.”, you beg as you shift up to your knees and continue stroking him with your hand. “Please. I need you inside me. I need to feel you.”

Pinching your cheeks between his fingers, he brings your lips to his before firmly pushing you backwards onto the bed. 

“Go show Steve how much you’ll behave.”

As you crawl over to the now naked man, you tenderly kiss his stomach making him smile as he strokes your hair. Delicately running your tongue along his slit, he moans as he pulls your hair into a ponytail with his hands and watches you fully take him into your awaiting mouth. 

Eddie jostled you around a bit till your ass was fully on display for him and you both whimpered as he guided his cock into your entrance. The warmth of his chest encases you as he leans against your back and kisses your shoulder. 

“Come on, sweetheart. I know you can take him better than that especially with the way you run that sassy mouth.” Taking over Steve’s hold of your hair, he guides your movements making you gag and drool as the man mewls with pleasure. “Atta girl. There you go.”

Eddie rolls his hips hard, roughly nudging against that tender spot inside of you that has your eyes rolling back. 

“Is that the spot, pretty girl?” Pulling your head, he forces you to look at him. “Is it? Right there?” You struggle to form words as he continues to grind against you. “Answer me, Y/N.”

“Ah! Y-Yes, there. D-don’t stop. Please…”

The metalhead grins as he pushes you back down on Steve’s cock before releasing his hold on your hair to grip your waist as he leans back on his knees and pounds his hips into yours. 

“G-Good girl, honey. Fuck. You take us both so well.”, Steve coos as he pets your head.

Eddie’s fingers slide underneath you, rubbing fast circles into your little bundle of nerves, driving you crazy in the best way as you throw you head back in pleasure. 

“FUCK! Eddie please!”

Ringed fingers wrap around your throat and pull you up to your knees as you lean against his shoulder. 

“That’s right, baby. Say my name again. Who’s making you feel this good?”, he murmurs into your ear as he slams into you harder. 

“Eddie! I’m…Eddie, please…”

Your hand takes hold of his wrist as your other clings his hair while your arm wraps around his neck. His fingers move faster to match his pace while you continue chanting his name until the ball drops and your body trembles against him as you cum. 

“Fuck me.”, Eddie groans, shoving you back down against the mattress and holding your wrists behind your back as he chases his high. 

Grunting above you, his rhythm becomes sloppier and you mewl as you feel him release his seed inside of you. 

“Good girl, princess.”, he praised as he gradually pulled out of you and kissed any part of your skin his lips could reach. “It’s Steve’s turn, sweet girl. Whenever you’re ready.”

Your head shot up in search for him and as your eyes met his soft ones, his fingers reached out to caress your sweaty face. When you nod, he motions for you to come closer, taking hold of you under your arms and scooting you both up closer towards the pillows. 

“Come here, honey. No, the other way.”, he instructs as you started straddling his waist. After turning away from him, he guides you down till your back his against his chest. One of his strong palms holds on to your chest as his other holds the base of his cock and runs to along your dripping lips between your legs. “Jesus. Eddie made you feel real good, didn’t he, baby?”

Nodding, you turn your head to kiss his cheek and he moans as he breaches your entrance, sheathing himself inside of you with minimal resistance. As he thrusts his hips up against you, his fingers move around to massage your nub as the hand on your chest takes hold of tit making you growl in ecstasy.

“Steve! So…so deep…oh god.”

“Yeah? Does that feel good, Y/N?” Picking up his pace, the bed begins to move underneath you as he clings to your sweaty, messy frame. “Fuck, that’s it. That’s our girl. Your pussy is just fucking clinging to me, pretty girl, God damn.”

 Pushing up, you balance on your hands as your hips push down to meet his. 

“Can you see it? My cock disappearing inside of you?”

“Steve, please. Please!”

Tugging on your hair, he pulls you back against him, hugging your tightly as he thrusts into you harder. The sound of skin hitting skin fills the room and your eyes roll back as you drag your nails against his flesh.

“I’m…I’m…”

Without warning, he shoves against your back pushing you up and pulling himself out of you, yanking your hips backwards till your pussy was hovering over his face. Roughly, his hands pushed you back down, urging your lips over his cock as he wrapped his arms around your waist, holding you still as he his tongue devoured you. 

Your hips grinded against him as his head moved quickly from side to side causing you to lift your head and scream as you came. As he continued to lick your clean, you bobbed your head around his length wanting him to feel as good as he had just made you feel. 

His grunts reverberated in your cunt as he pumped his hips upwards till you felt rope after rope of his spend hit the back of your throat.

Falling to the side, you both panted till Eddie’s voice broke the silence. 

“Yeah, that’s cool. Just put your feet by my face.” You giggled as you lifted your leg and touched his nose with your big toe. “Ew, gross. With these beautiful pedicured, toes. Still purple, I see.”

“I like purple and no one is looking at my feet that closely in an arena style concert.”

“Do you want to take a bath, Y/N, or a shower?”, Steve asks.

“I want to curl up into a cocoon and sleep for 100 years.”

“Ok, bath it is.”, he grinned as he rolled over the side and lifted you into his arms. 

While he got everything ready, Eddie’s hands lightly gripped your shoulders and tilted you forward. When your eyes shifted to the mirror, you realized he was looking at your behind.

“It doesn’t hurt. I mean, it’s sore but…”

“I figured. I just need to take a look and make sure you don’t need any ice or anything. I’m sure you’ve noticed but Steve Harrington has big hands so sometimes he unintentionally leaves marks that last for a couple of days.”

“Part of the reason I ask questions.”, he winks as he guides you into the water.

“No one has ever asked me questions before or even done any kind of aftercare. I like it. It makes me feel cared for. 

“We do care… a lot.”, Eddie smiles as he holds up your hair while Steve continues to clean you. 

“Is this normal for you two? The shared partner thing?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘normal’ but we’ve done it before. Never with a client, however.”, Steve sighs. 

“So…this could look bad for everyone if people found out?”

Both men stopped moving as they gave you their full attention. 

“Yes. And not just because of the press.”

“People may not hire us anymore if they thought our judgment could be altered when it came to protecting them.”, Eddie followed in a serious tone.

“Are you implying Mr. Munson, that your judgment in keeping me safe has now changed?”

“I’m saying, Y/N, I would take a bullet for you but, for example, us keeping you sober isn’t a part of the security job description. If…If you wanted to get drunk right now we shouldn’t have any say in that…”

“Unless it leads to you roaming Paris in your underwear or makes someone want to hurt you.” Steve glances over your serious face. “What are you thinking, honey?”

“I just…I see what you mean. I wouldn’t want either of you to take a bullet or get hurt because of me. I’d rather it be me…”

It had been a while since you saw their eyes shift into this particular authoritative glow. Steve almost too roughly cupped your cheeks in his hands as he forced you to look at him. 

“Don’t ever think or let us hear you say that again. It’s our job to keep you safe not the other way around. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, I understand.”, you whisper as your hands takes hold of his wrists. 

“Y/N, like I said, we care about you but if your safety is on the line BECAUSE of us then we would end this right here right now.”

You pushed down the urge to cry at the thought of them leaving you. They had done so much for you in the short time they had been a part of your team. 

“I promise I won’t interfere. I trust you both to take care of me.”

Steve’s eyes flick to Eddie’s for a moment before he kisses your forehead and lets you go. 

##########

The following Monday, the three of you were sitting in your manager’s office waiting for him as he burst through with Sarah in tow. 

“Well, look who decided to finally grace us with her presence. How was the vacation, Y/N?”, Jack sassed. “I don’t know why you two are even here. You’re fired.”, he gestures towards the boys. 

“No they aren’t.”

“Excuse me?!”

“I said no they aren’t and you lower your voice when you speak to me!” Sarah smiled from her seat as the men on either side of you contained their excitement for you. “Jack, I’m tired. You were one of the ones that kept pushing me to get sober and now that I’m trying…I shouldn’t be on tour right now especially not with people like Mark shouting at me every 10 seconds. I need time to really have go at this.”

“Y/N…”, he sighed. “We’ve had this tour set up for months. Now I’ve put up with a lot from you but—”

“But nothing. I’m telling you no. I need a break. I can do interviews and keep working on the album. I can do little shows here but I can’t do a country wide tour right now.”

“Y/N, listen to me. Hear me. If you do this, if you cancel this tour, I will be forced to drop you as a client.”

You straighten up as you exhale, tapping into that sassy girl that resides within you. 

“So be it. Sarah? Have you thought about being an agent?”

“Me? Oh, um, I mean…”

“You’re honestly the only person I trust who has always had my well-being in mind. I’ll pay you what I pay Jack and then some.”

She smiles as she glances towards your now former agent. 

“I guess I just got a promotion.” You both stand, giving her a big hug before she pulls back to cup your face. “I’m really proud of you. I’ll come by later today and we can talk about a statement for the tour.”

“Y/N, please! Don’t do this! Look, why don’t you sit down and we can talk about this rationally.”, Jack begs. As he reaches for your arm to stop you from leaving, Eddie swats it away. 

“I’m sorry, sir. You aren’t allowed to touch Miss Y/L/N.”

“But if you would like to speak with her, feel free to call her agent Sarah to set up an appointment.”, Steve grins as they both follow you out of the office. 

#############

@rckstrbee @melodymishahiddlestan @strangerfreak

@siriuslysmoking @micheledawn1975 @cositaslua

@munsonmoonshine86 @unfocused81 @paleidiot

@dad-steddie @aol19 @strngrlytn @mrsjellymunson

@needylilgal022

[xolliwritez]

Tripping Up || FMAB Tk Fic

A/N: exclusive thanks to @adrienisweird for the title <3, ilysm my dew drop it's insane qjxhehdh. Anyways, enjoy!! Do keep in mind I'm still rather new, so if I make them ooc, I apologise in advance.

Summary: Riza has had enough of Roy's behaviour, she takes it in her stride to fix it herself.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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"Gah.. seriously!?"

Riza heard Mustang groan in his office space behind closed doors, as she heard the ruffle of paper, as if he was scrunching it into a ball. She sighed and shook her head gently, a small smile tugging at her lips as she then knocked on the door.

"Not no- Riza?" Roy's frustrations subsided for now, as he looked at the blonde, she gazed down as she saw the torn paper, scraps in the bin.

"You throwing a hissy fit again?" She asked, amused as Roy rolled his eye's, pen back onto a new blank piece of paper, he held the pen there for a good minute before he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"I'm not in a good mood, Riza. If you want to chat, we can later." Roy gruffed, she saw him a puppy going through a mood swing, as she shook her head gently.

"If it's frustrating you that much.." Riza walked towards Roy, as his gaze went slightly flushed, embarrassment hitting him. "Why don't you take a break?" She asked, standing infront of his desk, leaning against it slightly to emphasize.

Roy looked and groaned, he knew she wouldn't let him talk her out of it, so he got out his seat and placed the pen down, as he walked around his desk.

"Fine! Let us have a-woah!" He grunted as he hit the ground, he looked at her extended leg, seeing she purposely tripped him over, which only made his blood boil. "Riza-"

"Roy." She spoke back, rolling her shoulder's and cracking ger knuckles as she quickly straddled his waist, satisfied as he made a small 'oof' sound at the sudden weight ontop of him.

"Riza, what's the meaning of- Hngh-!?" His breath hitched, eye's darting down as Riza's gloved hand prodded against his lower stomach, a satisfied smile gleaming over her features as she kept it up. She seemed amused, watching him strain, attempting to keep his upset facade as she kept prodding against the same spot.

"Roy.." She leaned down to his ear, as he let out a loud gasp feeling her breath hit against the rim of his ear. "You know you can't hold back forever~" She purred, a cheshire grin spreading over her features.

Roy raised his hands as he extended them to grip around her wrists, he watched as his feeble attempts to limit her movements grew inefficient, as he let out a soft giggle, he free hand squeezing at his hip bone, making his body jolt and quiver under her touch. "Rihihiza! W-Watch it! Y-Yohou can't juhust- mhmhmhm!"

"Oh but Roy, I have." She smiled, her lips close to his ear still, making his cheeks swell with each tingly sensation. She couldn't lie, his giggling was rather addicting to listening to, especially when it was done by her very own hands. "I'm starting to think you actually like this, Colonel." She mused, watching as his eye's widened.

"T-Thahat's not truhue!"

He lied, the both of them knew how much he enjoyed being tickled, it was a way to relieve, refresh, relax for him. Riza couldn't help but find it adorable, and despite never admitting to it, she adored every single millisecond she spent near him.

During her daze, she was pulled back to reality as Roy let out a shriek, she took a moment to clasp her heart from the adorable sound before looking down, noticing the hand prodding at his mower stomach now slithered it's eay towards his side.

"Oh? Perhaps we should finish with a big bang, right?" She asked, holding back a laugh as feeble hands clasped the collar of her uniform, she feigned offense and gathered his hands up, she adjusted herself as she now sat behind him, his hands uselessly grabbing for thin air, as both her hands were now free.

"R-Rihihihiza- AHAHACK!? Rihiza! Noho! D-Dohohon't!" He jolted, loud whines and giggles slipping between his lips, all over her hands hovering above his worst spot - his side's.

"Roy.." She started, as he used all the might he could to try and lay still. As he tried, she grinned, a hand landing down and patting the top of his stomach, making his breath hitch as she spoke in a playful manner. "Good boy, staying still just for me." She said, as she slowly traced down, single digits syncing as they looped circles over the side's of his stomach, making him let out merely stray giggles.

"Gahahah- mhmhmhm! W-Wahahahait! Rihihirihihi!"

"Mustang, you sound like a girl giggling like that."

"D-Dahahahahamn yohohou!" He said, before his eye's went wide, he watched as he hands stopped, before hovering above his side's once more.

"W-Wahahahait! I'm sohohorry!" He giggled out loud, as his torso quivered under her suspense, yet she didn't reply, as hysterical laughter howled in the room once she descended. She scribbled against the fabric of his uniform, which served little to no protection, as he cackled aloud.

"My oh my, quite the loud mouth, aren't we?" She teased, her right hand stopped scribbling and went to give his right side some stray pokes to keep him slightly on edge, as he naturally leaned into his left side, legs kicking like he was on the marathon.

"R-RIHIHIHIZA!! Ohohoh- ohohoh my- OHOH GOHOSH!" He arched his back off the ground a few time's, as his heels dug into the ground, hysterical laughter being heard throughout the building. His head threw back, smooth yet adorable cackles escaping his lungs.

"Aw, look at you go! Kicking your legs like a mindless hamster on their wheel!" She purred out. She stopped for a moment, watching as he heaved slightly, as tears if mirth slightly showed.

"Are you going to behave, Roy?" She asked, looking at him upside down, amusement playing on her lips like strings on a harp. He did his absolute best to give her a confident grin, (however it came out more so silly) watching as Riza awaited his response.

"No way." He said, sighing as he closed his eye's. He thought he won.

..Before he heard the sound of leather peels away, the leather from her gloves subsiding, as she placed her gloves aside, watching as her pale hands slipped under his uniform, as her cold hands gripped his side's firmly, making him hitch out loud.

"Suit yourself, Roy." She said, but before he could reply, laughter invaded him once more, as she scribbled her nails along his sides rather gently.

She looked at Roy's face, stifling the urge to aw aloud. His eye's squinted shut hard yet adorably, a wide, genuine smile playing his lips as he kicked and wiggled underneath her. "AHAHAHA RIHIZA!! Ohoh my goho-GAHAD- NOHO! RIHIHIZA!"

He cackled out sweetly, and the two were absolutely enjoying themselves. She felt under her palms and fingertips, as he yelped and cackled aloud.

All until the door burst open, if was Hughs.

"I heard scre- oh?" Hughs narrowed a brow, a large grin on his face. "So, you really did get a wife! I'm proud of you, Ro-"

"Hughs.." Riza said, watching as he shivered and closed the door, a distant 'sorry!' erupting in the distance. She shook her head and chuckled, pulling her hands out and putting her gloves on. She got up and was ready to leave, until she felt a hand on her leggings.

"Roy, what do yo-"

"C-Can I get.." He mumbled the rest, a small blush on his features. She narrowed a curious brow, as she kneeled down to him.

"I couldn't hear you, speak up."

Roy grumbled, his cheeks growing more red, "I said, can I get a cu-" He paused as Riza gave his lips a peck, his entire face turning red, as he clung onto her like a needy koala. She chuckled and rubbed his back, kissing his forehead, as he whined into her shoulder, making her smile.

"You're such a baby."

"I know."

[concealeddarkness13]

WHG 20 Prompt 7 - Triel

Content warning for mentions of abuse. This one’s a lot shorter! I’ll just be writing the interview. Tagging: @ratracechronicler, @maple-writes, @pen-of-roses, @drabbleitout, @grailfish, @forthesanityofsome, and @pied-piper-of-hamlet!

I walked out onto the stage after Chess had been hurt, and good thing Ashont was still there! I was wearing this lovely dark purple evening gown with a long coat and a wide hat, and I hadn’t gotten this because I threatened the stylist, surely not!

I snagged Ashont’s arm before he could slink off the stage, and I grinned wider when I saw how bruised his damn face was already. I sat him down and took Caesar’s chair before Caesar could sit down. I hooked a foot on Ashont’s chair and pulled him closer so he couldn’t run before I could grab him again. And he was dazed enough to not say anything about it.

Caesar stared at me with wide eyes, and I grinned and ignored him to look out at the audience. “I hope this has been a good night, dear audience, because I have a treat for you! Instead of learning about me—I must be very boring, alas—you can learn about dear Ashont over here! Such an exclusive interview! You don’t want to miss it, do you?” When Caesar tried to take his seat back, I just shoved him to the side, and the audience laughed.

The audience cheered an answer to my question, and Ashont looked over at me with real fear in his eyes. Not so confident now that one of the brats from the districts could fight back without the Peacekeepers beating her within an inch of her life, now was he? I smirked at him and tapped his nose, causing him to flinch. “No worries, dear Ashont. I would never lie about you. So, let’s start with an easy one. How many tributes have you sponsored in the Games?”

He tried to smile, knowing he couldn’t convince the audience otherwise to stop this. “Why, about ten.”

“And how many of them have won?”

He looked out at the audience, who was dead silent by the way, and swallowed hard. “None of them.”

“And how many have magically reappeared for one year before they mysteriously disappeared before the next Games?”

He blinked and looked over at me, not saying anything. I leaned forward and smiled wider. “Please answer the question. Or maybe you’d like to answer how many of them were victims of the prosthetics experiments?”

He smirked, as if this would help him and not me. “All of them, of course. They deserve this treatment.” The audience cheered, of course.

I rested my chin on my fist. “Yes, but you’re Ashont. The loose Snow advisor! You always seem to have a new woman at your hip for every party! And not all of them were from the experiments. Or from the districts. You seem to have sway with the Gamemakers, getting them to take tributes illegally from the Games. But what about the other women? They never seem to have a name.”

I paused, letting the silence hang for a bit. “Have you heard of Allanah Vaca? She disappeared two years ago from the Capitol. An up and coming socialite, super promising.” I looked out at the audience. “I have evidence that Ashont has been dealing with Peacekeepers, having them kidnap young women from the districts to use and then dispose of!” I swung my head back to Ashont. “But you became a little too greedy, eh? I have proof that you had Peacekeepers kidnap Allanah for your pleasure, and that you had her killed after you were done with her!” I grinned at the audience, who was staring, dead silent. “Tune in after the Games for the shocking evidence! Should you trust Ashont around anyone? Or should he be locked up for kidnapping a daughter of the Capitol? Please be assured that no matter what happens in the Games, the information will be released!” I grinned and stood up, bowing at the audience. “See you then!” I winked and left to stunned silence.

I checked on Chess that night, but she was already sleeping, so I left her to it, and I went back to my room to banter with Nesri and Shine as we all stayed up to make sure the plans were perfect.

[demoreelrewound]

Episode 1 excerpt: Company Trailer

The screen shows TRAILER - DEMO REEL PRODUCTION STUDIO. The classic countdown plays.

Important sounding music starts- the logo moves as it does in the show intro, then match-cuts to a live-action clapperboard closing then revealing DONNIE DUPRÉ. He reads the contents of a folder in his director chair with an obviously arranged set of '"tools of the trade" on shelves behind him - some in boxes, some loose. There's an identical clapperboard to the one just used on the table beside DONNIE.

DONNIE looks up from the folder on his lap and smiles, at once charming and staged.

DONNIE: Oh, hello! My name is Donnie Dupré, and you've reached the official website for my production company, Demo Reel.

Now you may be asking, "what is Demo Reel?" Well, I'm glad you asked! We are a group of like-minded creatives ---

Shot fades as he continues. A selection of soundless clips play, showing low budget recreations of various films gradually zoom in, beginning with a scene of DONNIE laughing directly at the camera (laughing at the viewer).

These scenes include one or two clever shots hampered by very obvious set dressing, as well as cheap digital effects and actors who only stuck around for one film - this is made clear with two of them of the exact same build and ethnicity playing characters originally played by the same actor. (Likely a Black actor to call forward episode 2's focus.)

DONNIE (voiceover throughout): -- dedicated to crafting high-quality homages to some of your favourite movies, all in the name of furthering your appreciation of them. As you can see, we opt for a home-made, minimalistic style, so all the focus can go on what's most important, recreating memorable moments for a new audience...

The montage ends by going full view on a scene of Braveheart also including REBECCA STONE trying her best with the material she's got.

[Blogger note: I've not seen Braveheart so I've no idea which scene would be best here, but the parody is clearly in the self-referential style of Channel Awesome and HISHE-era YouTube parodies, only with slightly better production value. They're in a real woodland but the sky has been cut out as much as possible and changed to sunset with greenscreen. A flat orange filter has been put over the actors in post-production.]

The clip ends and we cut back to Donnie in the chair smiling proudly and nodding once.

DONNIE (wryly): Felt just like the real thing, didn't it?

The shot switches to that of another camera - this one has a tighter shot of DONNIE'S head and shoulders but you can see the very edge of the previous camera.

DONNIE: With the help of my talented crew of both local and international talent --

Beat. He realises his redundancy then shakes his head.

DONNIE: (regains confident mask) I hope to eventually take the Demo Reel Production Studio beyond the Internet and into the real world. And who knows, maybe even Hollywood!

The shot lingers just a bit longer than it's supposed to with his face still on the last syllable before it switches to a screen grab of a basic looking website.

DONNIE (voiceover): Here on our official website, you can access our trailers, contact information, and the opportunity to become a part of the Demo Reel VIP club, featuring a newsletter, exclusive behind-the-scenes content and previews for our upcoming releases.

The things said appear on screen. As well as DONNIE and REBECCA, one of the candid shots catches KARL COPENHAGEN in profile, intently working on repairs to his camera - he's turned his head away sharply enough to blur his face. Another shows TACOMA NEWELL smiling in surprise with a pen in his hand, having been going over a typed-out script to edit. One image shows all four, implying a fifth person, but it's followed up with a close up of a gross-looking microwave meal.

DONNIE: We hope you enjoy your stay on our little corner of the web, and experience the magic of movies all over again.

(Beat)

Demo Reel: we don't make films, we remake them.

DONNIE lifts the spare clapperboard.

DONNIE: Aaand cut!

It claps shut and the video ends.

[kellysbookblog]

SHE WAS MINE FIRST 

M. Robinson 

Release Date: October 30 

My GR Review: Kelly Williams’s review of She Was Mine First | Goodreads

My Amazon Review: Loved this one! (amazon.com)

Discreet Cover 

He’s a determined billionaire used to getting what he wants, and she’s prepared to marry the wrong man to prove to them she’s moved on. But neither of them is ready to let go of the past…  

A small-town, friends to lovers, second chance romance from Wall Street Journal & USA Bestselling Author M. Robinson 

Being the man of honor in my best friend Rosie’s wedding wouldn’t be such a big deal… 

If I wasn’t in love with her.  

But I won’t turn her down. No matter how much it’ll tear my heart out to watch her walk down the aisle toward another man. 

It should have been us—from friends to lovers and back again. But after college, I was so busy building my empire that I let her slip through my fingers. She was my first. And once she realizes he’s the wrong one for her… 

I’ll be her last. 

Grab Your Copy! 

Meet M. Robinson: 

M. Robinson is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of more than thirty novels in Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense. Crowned the “Queen of Angst” by her loyal readers, you’ll feel the cut of her pen slicing through your heart as your soul bleeds upon the words of her stories with each turn of the page.  

Most notably known for the Good Ol’ Boys, M’s newest venture has graced her with the #1 Bestseller on Apple Books with Second Chance Contract. The Second Chance Men are powerful, intelligent and will sweep you off your feet and leave you weak in the knees–every woman’s wildest dreams.  

M. lives the boat life along the Gulf Coast of Florida with her two puppies and real life book boyfriend, the inspiration for all her filthy talking alphas, Bossman.   

When she isn’t in the cave writing her next epic love story, you can usually spot her mad-dashing through Target or in the drive-thru of Starbucks, refueling. Yes, she’s a self-proclaimed shopaholic, but only if she’s spending Bossman’s money.  

You can follow M, Ted, Marley, and Bossman on Facebook, Instagram, and her absolute favorite social platform-TikTok.  

Subscribe to her newsletter now to receive exclusive access to upcoming releases, sales, and freebies. 

Keep up with M. Robinson and subscribe to her newsletter. 

To learn more about M. Robinson & her books, visit here! 

Connect with M. Robinson: 

Hosted By: 

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Once Upon a Halloween Night

Seven authors present romance novellas that have one big Halloween Party in New Orleans in common. I went in thinking I would read one or two romances and move on but each story grabbed my attention and soon I found I had read them all.

DATING IN DISGUISE by Lauren Helms: Blind date with one night stand expected with strong connection but neither able to forget the other. Will they meet again?

HAUNTED MELODIES by Kate Stacy: Age gap romance that has been a slow burn on both parts but finally culminates beautifully at the Halloween party.

GHOSTED by Susan Renee: Bride left at the altar goes to New Orleans to trash her wedding dress. She attends the Halloween party with her cousin’s hockey playing teammate and there is a definite connection.

HURRICANES & Halloween BY Katrina Marie: Second chance to get it right when two meet at their class reunion, attend the Halloween party, and realize the time is finally right for them to be together.

MASKED LOVE by Courney W. Dixon: M/M age gap romance with the boss and his Personal Assistant finding something special at their fake date while attending the Halloween party.

HOT HEX ON A PLATTER: by Louise Lennox: A reality show where two find true love, are parted, and meet again at the party. This book has a bit of a cliffhanger as there is a book to follow.

Did I enjoy these stories? Yes

Would I read more by these authors? Yes – this collection provided me the chance to read a few authors I have read before and read new authors I would gladly read again.

Thank you to IndiePen for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

Congratulations! You’ve been invited to attend the exclusive Once Upon A Halloween Night bash. This year, join us in New Orleans Warehouse District on Halloween Night for an evening of fun, costumes and… romance? Wait. What? That’s right. The Indie Pen PR and Beyond the Bookshelf Publishing are proud to host Lauren Helms, Aubree Valentine, Kate Stacy, Mel Walker, Susan Renee, Kartina Marie, Courtney W. Dixon, and Louise Lennox - in this fun Halloween romance anthology. So, throw on your best costume and get ready to sit back and enjoy eight brand new novellas to celebrate this spooky season with a romantic twist.

Buy Now: https://books2read.com/u/3k2QKG

[askthechronoverse]

Chapter Seven: It All Seemed so Fine...

Last Chapter •||• Next Chapter

"Princess, have you given consideration to how we will be celebrating the anniversary of the founding of the Unikingdom?" Rick floated next to Unikitty, who was at a desk with a large notebook that was probably made exclusively of glitter.

"Of course! It's gonna be my best party yet! I'm inviting everyone! Even Master Frown." She pat a large stack of rainbow hued invitations. "I'm gonna hand deliver each one later today!"

"You may want to hold off on that for the time being. We are expecting an important guest today." The brick slid a piece of official looking paperwork on the desk. "Her Highness is coming here all the way from Syspocalypstar and we need to make sure everything is in order in the castle and beyond before she arrives." There was a cross of anxiety and the joy that came from potentially seeing an old friend again in Richard's voice. Unikitty looked over the paper and grinned.

"I haven't seen her since the wedding! It'll be so nice to see her again!" The cat put that paper aside. "But you deep cleaned the castle yesterday. What else would we need to…" The brick turned her head to the window, where the Rexcelsior hung in the late morning sky. "Ohhhh. Yeah. He may need to move that."

"Hawkodile has been looking for Rex since we got the letter and has had no luck finding him. This may be a good thing, since that could mean he's off planet right now. We need to make sure that's the case, all while making sure we get ready to receive our guest."

"Yeah, I'm sure he left the planet." Hawkodile slammed a hastily written note on the desk, startling the two. Unikitty read the note:

Puppycorn.

Gone to Syspocalypstar to take care of something important.

Should be back after your bedtime, so don't wait up for me.

Rex

"Well. That was easy." Rick nodded, relief washing over his face. "If Rex isn't even here, we can avoid some awkwardness from their shared history."

"Yep! I really think he should have stayed and tried to apologize, but that's not my business. Annnnnyway! We're going to make this meet up super fun! Will she be with us long?" Unikitty pushed Rex's note aside and pulled the announcement to the center.

"The note said he had important business to take care of, Unikitty. That's not important to us right now, however. From what I was told, she won't be with us long. She does have other planets to visit before getting ready for other celebration festivities." Rick's nervousness was turned up to eleven now. "We shouldn't need to prepare a whole party for her, but I would recommend providing at least snacks. We don't have a timetable for her arrival, but I would assume we are going to be one of the last planets she arrives to, given our distance to Syspocalypstar."

"Has she started her journey?" Hawkodile asked, arms folded.

"She should be on her way to the Systar System's Space Corps base right now. You should hear from the general of the naval command a few hours before she reaches the atmosphere. Have you had any luck contacting the Rexcelsior's engine room to have them move the ship out of the atmosphere?" Richard spoke with a seriousness that almost worried Unikitty. The way he spoke, it sounded like something he was both dreading and something he'd been through before

"They won't listen to me. Keep askin' for Rex or another authorized party to confirm the move. I got no idea who that is and Rex is probably halfway to Syspocalypstar by now." Hawkodile shook his head. "I'm goin' back to work on it, but I thought you'd want to know Rex himself won't be a problem." The chimera left to tend to the captainless ship.

"Speaking of parties!" Unikitty grabbed a pen and began to make a list. "We can do the meet up in Flowery Park by the fountain! I'll get some tables to set up a cupcake tower and some punch!" She tapped her pen on her cheek. "What else can I put out?"

"Maybe we should wait for the Space Corps base to get back to me about the nature of the visit." Richard said with a soft sigh.

"Of course! This could be something that begs for ball gowns and glitter! Well, every event needs glitter." She started to write some things down.

Meanwhile, Hawkodile approached Rex's cabin, to see the door was wide open. "Rex? Bro, I thought ya woulda left by now, but ya gotta move your ship. Queen Wa-!" He heard noises coming from the study and peeked cautiously through the open door. In front of Rex's radio was the silhouette of a being with two horns wearing a vest similar to the one Rex wore.

"Mothership, access code is Romeo Echo X-ray. Authority is given to move out of Unikingdom airspace. Do you copy?" The voice of the speaker sounded familiar, but not enough for Hawkodile to place it. It was deep and regal, speaking like they were meant to be there. The being waited for the grumbling to subside. "I am aware of that fact, command. I was sent to avoid an intergalactic incident under code Tango Papa 19-14." After a pause to let the radio grumble, the being shook his head. "Confirmation received, mothership. The captain will appreciate your co-operation and listen to your concerns on this process when you and he reach the appropriate part of the timeline. Over and out." The being rushed out the door, past Hawkodile. He caught a glimpse of blue fur in the light made by the windows, but the being was gone before he could get a better look.

He left the cabin and watched the Rexcelsior move out of the sky out into what he assumed was space at large. Who was that being and how did they command the ship when he was told only the captain himself had authority? It didn't matter right now. The ship wasn't a problem anymore and he could move on to security.

Meanwhile, Unikitty and Puppycorn were in the park, setting up tables for the reception. It was the cat doing most of the work, while the dog played with a toy truck. She looked up to see the fist ship was gone from the sky and just nodded, glad Hawkodile took care of the issue.

The puppy lifted an ear when he heard a noise coming from the pathway. He turned his head lazily and saw it was Rick rushing up to Unikitty.

"I have received word from the base, Princess. She will be here to give us a gift to celebrate the anniversary of the union of the planets. Please decorate accordingly." He informed her, clipboard in his trembling and invisible hand.

"Then we need more glitter and sparkly things. That's gonna be a lot, but I'm sure we've got enough. Hey, Puppycorn! Grab the light pink tablecloths from that box over there!" She pointed to a large box that was labeled "super fancy party stuff". The dog grabbed the cloth and handed it to Unikitty. When Puppycorn returned to his truck, a flash of blue could be seen rushing through the flowers, away from the fountain. A manilla envelope was left next to the truck that was labeled "For Rexcelsior team leader. Report for code TP 19-14." He tilted his head and put the envelope out of his mind to play with the truck. When Puppycorn's attention went back to where the envelope was, it was gone.

The reception was soon ready to go and time was winding down until the guest of honor arrived. Richard placed and adjusted a little crown on Puppycorn's head. "Do I haveta wear this?" The dog shook his head and the crown tilted on his head.

"Yeah, but only until she leaves. We gotta look our best." He rushed off to get something to keep the crown from tilting. The puppy sat down and could feel the crown on his head adjust in place. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge. He thought he could hear a deep voice say "All clear in this time." He looked around and couldn't find the source.

By this point, a girl in a white space suit had arrived with an ice cream cone with a tie. The two seemed to be on high alert here, watching the skies for something unknown to the puppy. The girl stuck with Hawkodile and Puppycorn's ears went up when he heard his name. The conversation turned to something else before he could respond. He walked over to his sister, who was happy to see the crown was staying firm.

"Okay. We have an hour until our guest arrives. Don't run off, please." Richard tied a bowtie around the pup's collar. Puppycorn nodded, though it was clear he really wasn't fully in the moment.

"This is totally working out. No sign of Master Frown and the Doom Lords. Rex is still on Syspocalypstar, probably. All good." Unikitty sighed in relief as she finished last minute decorating.

Until she saw what she thought was Puppycorn in the gathering crowd. She looked where she saw her brother last and saw he was playing with his toy truck. She looked back to where she thought he was and saw no one there. No way. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She took a breath and walked into position. Before she could get to the fountain, she checked the spot once more and saw nothing. She had just gotten into position when the empress of the former Systar System got into the park plaza, a blonde stereotypical looking princess following behind with a chest.

"I'm sorry I can't stay long, my friend. I fell a little behind, but I am so happy to be here." The nebulous queen beamed. "I have a special present for you, Unikitty." The princess handed her queen the chest, which she opened to reveal large gemstones with mirror backs. There were four, each in different colors but all were shaped like hearts. "As my gift to the Unikingdom on the anniversary of its founding, as well as the union of the planets of the Systar System with the people of Apocalypseburg, I am giving you the Gemstones of Ackrilique. No one knows where the gems came from, but it is said they can boost the natural abilities of the person who holds them. I know you know how to rock a sparkly rock, girl. I know you can put them to good use." She handed Unikitty the chest and turned to address the crowd.

"I know that what we'd all been through during Armommageddeon last year was the worst, but we all became stronger together because of it. We didn't let darkness take over. As part of the Syspocalypstar System, we all are united to remain amazing forever. That's a pretty great reason to celebrate, if you ask me!" The crowd cheered and the queen left the area to mingle for a bit. Unikitty tried to do the same, but Hawkodile called her over to help him move the mysterious gems to the castle to keep them safe. Once the two returned, they joined the party, which continued long after the queen and her entourage left.

When the party was winding down, Unikitty saw Rex walk into the park. He was dressed up in a dark blue tuxedo vest and bright green tie, hair neatly combed beyond his untameable cowlick. Unikitty rushed up to him. "Hey, Rex. You missed the queen. You also didn't have to dress up."

"Princess, I'm dressed up for other reasons." He grabbed a cupcake and took a bite into it.

"What reasons?" He handed Unikitty some paperwork. It was a notarized form, signed by some person unknown to the princess and was stamped with the official insignia of the Queen of Syspocalypstar. She scanned the forms and saw that it said his name was now Rex Joseph Brickowski in all things legal according to Systarian law.

"I went down there to change my name. I'm not Emmet Brickowski but I'm not Rex Dangervest anymore, either. I think I'm someone in between those two. So I needed to do something to show that somehow. I dunno. Thought it was important enough to get dressed up."

"It is so important enough a thing to get all dressed up for! It's like a second birthday! Congratulations!" Unikitty pulled a candle from out of nowhere and put it in the cupcake Rex was eating. "Why did you go all the way to Syspocalypstar to do that? I'm pretty sure I could have helped with something like this."

"Emmet wanted to come. He even took me and Lucy out for dinner afterward to celebrate. The guy was weirdly excited that I wanted to take that step." He chuckled when he noticed the candle. He attempted to pull out the candle, but Unikitty put a paw on his hand.

"It's your second first birthday or I say it is, anyway. Birthday wishes here are magical." She lit the candle with a match she grabbed from the same place she got the candle. "Go on, Rex…. Or maybe we can just call you RJ. Make a wish. It'll come true because that's how it works around here. I've seen it myself."

"I really don't think that works like that in this case, but alright." He thought for a moment, then blew out the candle. "And yeah. RJ sounds about right."

"There ya go! Now, what did you wish for?" The cat sat next to her friend.

"Thought you weren't supposed to tell someone what you wished for. Pretty sure it's a universal rule of wishes." He laughed, eyes scanning the thinning crowd of partygoers.

"Oh, you've got me. Hang on. You said you went to dinner with Emmet and Lucy, right? Did it really take that long to get to Syspocalypstar?"

"Nah. I took a detour on the way over. I wanted to see another old friend of mine." He picked at some stray sprinkles on his half eaten cupcake.

"Do I know them too?"

"Princess, why are you… Benny. I went to see Benny." The man stopped playing with the cupcake. "He was able to see right through me and recognize me for who I was before, which I'm kinda okay with. Made it easy to talk to him about what I went through. It's amazing how much things stay the same between timelines sometimes." He turned to Unikitty. "Glad you didn't." The faintest smile dimly lit his face. She amplified the smile Rex gave on her face tenfold.

"I told you I'd try. I don't wanna keep hurting you. Even after what you've done, you don't deserve that. I just hope you keep trying too."

"That's the plan, Princess." He pocketed the now long extinguished candle.

[masked-alien-lesbian]

HLAW Day 4: Tea Party Time

Teas of the Past & the Present

Pairing: Hana Lee x f!MC (Riley)

She was always a little bit scared to ask her mother directly so she always invited her mother to her tea party with a written invitation. She used her best paper, best pens and her best penmanship to write out the perfect invitation, then she used the coloring pencils her grandmother gave her to decorate them. After her master piece was complete, she laid it on her mother's desk, where she was sure she'd see it. Maybe this time Lorelai would show up to her tea party.

*****************************************************

Hana could see her daughter fidgeting impatiently in the corner of her eye as she and Riley finished up the video call with the council. Ever since covid hit, all business calls were done virtually, and tensions between Duchess Olivia and Duchess Madeleine were still as high as ever. They spent a large portion of the meeting diffusing arguments and threats of war between the two.

"Finally!" Lily excitedly cries out as Riley finishes the call.

"Finally indeed," Riley chuckles, "What's up Firefly?"

Lily runs into Hana's arms and tugs at Riley's arm at the same time. "You been on the phone all day! You got to play with me. I want to have a tea party! Please, please please?" Lily unleashes the puppy dog eyes at her mothers. Riley bites her lip at the massive amount of paper work on her desk, then shrugs her shoulders and turn to Hana.

"We could use a break for one tea party, right my love?"

"Of course." Hana smiles and helps her very pregnant wife up. Hand in hand they go to leave the office but Lily stops them.

"Wait! You guys have to dress up all pretty for the tea party!"

"Honey, I don't know if it's even possible for your mama to get any prettier, being as beautiful as she is." Riley says winking at Hana.

"Flatterer." Hana says squeezing Riley's arm playfully before turning to her daughter. "Alright, we'll get dressed and meet you in your bedroom."

"Yes, of course. This is a very posh, fancy, high society, exclusive event. We must dress to impress!" Riley exclaims as they climb the stairs to their bedroom.

*****************************************************

Her and her "guests" waited and waited...15 minutes...20 minutes. Hana's lip wobbled slightly as she realized her mother wasn't coming to her tea party...again. But Hana shook her head to shake herself out of it before forcing a smile and turning back to her guests.

"Yes Princess Snickerdoodle, you may eat a cookie, mother must be running late." Hana smiles through her tears and begins to "pour" a cup of tea for the small group of household items around her.

*****************************************************

She startled when Riley placed a hand over hers. Hana looked up and registered her surroundings. The bright pink cheerful playroom, colorful stuffed animals sitting at a pretty table with the most delicate porcelain tea set imaginable and a lavish display of plastic treats in front of her. She was sitting in a child size chair that she would definitely have to help Riley get up from once the tea party was over.

Lily was, thankfully, chattering away oblivious while Riley looked at Hana with concern in her eyes. Hana smiles and shakes her head subtly, telling Riley to ignore her so not to alarm their daughter. After being married for 5, going on 6 years, the two could almost speak without words at times but it also meant Riley could read her wife like an open book.

"Firefly, these snacks are delicious but mommy's getting some serious cravings, could you go grab the cheetah cakes from the pantry?"

Lily wrinkles her nose. "Okay, but no pickles this time. Pickles aren't tea party food." She says before running out the room.

"But she's serving us these cucumber sandwiches. What's wrong with pickles?" Riley says scandalized as she waves the plastic sandwich around. Hana chuckles at her wife's antics and Riley turns serious and takes one of Hana's hands. "Are you thinking about your own childhood tea parties?"

"I might be." Hana says sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to bring the mood down."

"Don't be," Riley quickly reassures Hana, "The neglect you experienced your entire childhood is bound to leave an impact on you. Of course you're going to feel some sadness. You deserved better." Riley clenches her jaw, a dark look in her eyes only reserved for those who wronged her wife and child ever present when Lorelai and Xinghai were mentioned. Riley would hold a grudge against Hana's parents for the rest of her life, even though she played nice. Not wanting to upset Hana or Lily.

"I'm fine my love, don't worry. I just don't want to upset Lily." Hana says smiling and readjusting her cup and saucer. Riley continues to stare intensely at Hana before taking Hana's hand and kissing the back of it reverently.

"Okay, but afterwards talk to me, if you need or want to. I'm always here for you."

"Riley...." Hana says leaning in to kiss her wife, Riley leans to meet her halfway and ends up nearly overturning the entire table with her baby bump. The two women rush to catch all the dishes, Hana laughs and Riley sighs exasperated.

"Mommy! Don't break the table!" Lily shrieks as she comes flying back into the room.

"Its your sibling's fault, baby girl. I'm innocent!" Riley exclaims wide eyed. And Hana laughs, all previous angst forgotten, surrounded by love and family.

*****************************************************

She sneakily watches her mother as she picked up the invitation she left on her desk. Hana's heart sank as Lorelai barely looks at it before tossing it into the trash. Tears ran down her face as she marched back her room. That was the last time Hana invited her mother to her tea parties.

*****************************************************

All the snacks had been eaten and all the tea had been drank. Lily stood up and wrapped her arms around her mommy's neck and then around her mama's neck.

"Thank you for playing with me." Lily says quietly in Hana's ear causing Hana to hold her tighter for a moment. This was why she always said yes to Lily's requests for tea parties. Lily's laughter, her smiles, her happiness, meant everything to Hana. She was determined that her daughter only knew love and to never feel that crushing disappointment that her own mother dealt her all her life.

Lily squirmed and Hana reluctantly let go, Riley discreetly wiped tears from her own eyes. Dang these pregnancy hormones.

"Uhh...I might need a little bit of help getting out of this chair." Riley sheepishly says breaking the moment causing a new round of laughter to ring through Valtoria.

*****************************************************

@hanaleeappreciationweek @lizzybeth1986 @sazanes

Sorry, this is pretty late, I've been a bit under the weather lately. I may had made myself cry, writing this lol.

[parkers-gal]

Hi. I was wondering if u could do a Tom x reader story where y/n will randomly show up on set of avengers with a bouquet of flowers and give them to Tom and the rest of the crew members are going on about how cute that is. I don’t know if u are still taking requests but if u are I would love to see this. Or where the reader will just randomly show up with cute little gifts for Tom and everyone thinks it’s super cute ?

hiii hope u like this :):

wc: 1.4k <3

something sweet

—

The fresh scent of flowers wafts through your nose and brings a soft smile to your face. You’re outside the building that houses Tom, a small card and a bouquet of flowers in your hands. You’re merely dropping off a small message to Tom whilst he’s on set, just to let him know that you’re thinking of him.

You’ve been going out for about a month and a half, nothing exclusive and nothing labeled, but he’s the only person you’re going on dates with, and you’re the only person he’s going on dates with. It’s pretty exclusive, to be real.

And, it’s the second time this week you’re dropping a gift off at set for him. On Monday it was his favorite chocolate bar and a cute Spider-man pen, and today it’s a card and flowers. You’ve been dropping things off for about three weeks now. Even the security guards recognize you now.

Strolling up to the entrance of the building labeled “SET THREE,” you smile at the security man you’re approaching.

“Hi, Oliver.”

“Hey, Y/N. Here to see Tom?”

“Yep,” you smile and rock back and forth on your toes.

Oliver nods, says something into his walkie-talkie, and hands you a temporary pass to grant you clearance. “Tell the folks I said ‘hello.’”

You smile at the discreet mention of Tom and nod shyly. The electronic lock lights up green and the door unlocks. You swing it open, dress flowing while you walk through the familiar corridors. You pass Rachel on your way, and you give her a quick hug before continuing your journey.

By some chance of luck, you happen to reach set just as the director calls for a five minute break. Tom is pleasantly surprised to find you by his personal table set up in a corner of the room.

“Y/N?”

“Oh, hi,” you smile.

“Hey, darling. What’re you doing?” his hand goes to the small of your back, and he finally gets a glance at what you’re setting up on the table. A smile creeps up onto his face as he sees the fresh flowers resting on the table, and your handmade card standing upright. “Awh,” he looks at you with doe eyes. “Another gift?”

You shrug bashfully, and Tom pulls you closer so he can kiss your temple.

“You’re so sweet.”

You scrunch your nose up. “Maybe.” He giggles and you do too. “Just wanted to say hello before my lunch break ends.” Tom nods.

“‘M glad I got to see you.”

You mirror his smile. Unbeknownst to both of you, the lighting crew is discussing how cute the two of you are, and how ridiculously sweet you are. They’ve kept mental records of the gifts you’ve given Tom. Even if it’s just his favorite tea order and some banana bread, they all find it romantic. Even the directors find it adorable. It seems as if the entire crew thinks your relationship with Tom is the epitome of romance.

“Okay, well I should be heading out.”

“Okay,” Tom smiles. “Drive safe, okay?”

You hum and nod, and Tom gives your temple one last kiss before he’s waving you out.

And then, you repeat the same thing two days later, on Friday. You’d gotten off work early, thanks to your boss, so you decide to be extra special today and pick up a fresh batch of cookies from your favorite bakery downtown, perhaps maybe the entire crew could use a little snack. You manage to get Tom a coffee order and a small fidgeting toy to distract himself.

You find Oliver outside the entrance as always, and he’s delighted to see you again.

“Back again, Y/N?”

“You know it,” you smile before your eyes light up. “Oh! Can I offer you a cookie?” You open the package and hold out the assortment. Oliver’s face lights up and, with a grateful smile, he takes one and a napkin.

“Thanks, Y/N,” he smiles as if you’ve been longtime friends, and the feeling makes you warm in happiness. “Here’s your pass. Tell the crew I’ve said ‘hello.’’ You nod again and you walk through the door that Oliver has so nicely opened for you. Strolling through those same corridors, you don’t pass many people, which is only peculiar on the days that aren’t busy. So, as you reach the end of the hallway where the set door is, you find the red light above the door blinking rapidly, telling you that they’re in the middle of an important scene. You wait only over a minute before the light dies out and you open the door.

Rachel is the first person you see, and she smiles at you tiredly. You’re guessing it’s been a long, slow day. Arriving at the food table, you notice how bare it is, also assuming that the snacks have run low as the day had gone on.

You smile when you see a new vase set up as if someone was expecting new flowers to come in. You pluck one from a vase on the far end of the table, place it in the vase, and set up the freshly baked cookies. You lay out the napkins with a smile, and Rachel comes over to you just as you’re finishing up.

“Hey, Y/N. Tom’s been pretty busy today.”

“Oh! That’s okay,” you grin. “These are for everyone.”

“Aw,” she glances down at the delicious-looking desserts. “Then count me in. May I?”

You step aside so you’re not blocking the platter. “Be my guest.”

As you step aside, your foot hits a chug of unopened lemonade, and you find the dispenser empty. Connecting the dots, you reach for the lemonade, and with minimal assistance from Rachel, you refill the lemonade dispenser.

You’ve been onset for about ten minutes now, and over fifteen people have already plucked their cookies. Still, no sign of Tom.

“No work today?”

“Got off early,” you tell her. She nods.

“How jealous I am.”

You chuckle and rub your arms. “Seems pretty harsh down here.”

“Eh,” she shrugs. “Just slow.”

Just then, the scene ends and Tom is striding towards the food table.

“Thank god the lemonade is ref- Y/N!” He practically runs over. “What’re you doing here?” Both of his hands grab yours.

It’s occurred to you that you’re standing in front of the platter of cookies, so you once again move to the side so Tom can see them. “Just dropping something off.”

“You’re so sweet,” he pouts. “You didn’t have to get that for everyone.”

“Eh,” you laugh, “looks like you all could use something sweet.”

“I can’t tell if you’re talking about the cookies or yourself,” he nuzzles your nose.

“Yo, are those cookies?” Matthew from soundcheck interrupts.

“Yup,” Tom smiles proudly. “Y/N brought them in.”

“That’s dope. Can I have one?” He looks at you, and you nod with a laugh.

“Of course.”

“That’s so nice,” he waves at the two of you. “Off to work again.”

“Have I mentioned how much I love having you on set?” Tom grips your hands a little tighter. You smile at the boy.

“No, you have not.”

“Well, I think everyone agrees with me when I say you’re a great person to have around.”

“Is that so, Holland?” You tease. He rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. Just sayin’ thank you.”

“I know,” you pull him in so you can hug him.

“Thank you,” he says softly.

“Maybe this means you can finally ask her to be your girlfriend,” Rachel cuts in.

Tom’s mouth drops open in unamusement and you laugh at him. Rachel shrugs sheepishly, knowing she isn’t wrong.

“Now, now,” you usher her, “He’s still flowering. Let him go on his own pace.”

The two of you burst out into laughter and Tom scoffs at the fact that you’re ganging up on him.

“Whatever,” he says, pulling you in so he can kiss your forehead. “I’ll see you tonight, girlfriend?”

Your grin widens. “Okay… boyfriend.”

[bbugyu]

when you were waiting for him, jeonghan couldn't help but drive a little too fast to get to you.

neverending artistry | spin off

8.6k | sugar daddy!jeonghan x uni student!fem reader, smut, kinda fluffy bc i can't help it, light bondage, daddy kink, dom!han and ultrabrat!reader (aka me), i think u cry at one point but i swear it's not that bad, unprotected sex (pls use condoms don't be like y/n and jeonghan), almost butt stuff, there are also fun domestic scenes featuring the besties, vern and chan, and the best pa ever boo seungkwan

i've been thinking a lot about architect jeonghan lately, and i realized that neverending artistry mostly focused on seokmin (how mc and han fell for him, their sex with him, etc.) and wanted to show how fun n sexy this couple is before they became a throuple. so enjoy an obsessive look at the sex life of prolific architect sugar daddy jeonghan and musical theory major sugar baby y/n!

~

when you considered most things in your life, you saw it as pretty standard for a third year university student. you went to classes during the week, got food with friends whenever you had the chance, and holed up in your tiny officetel when you needed to finish procrastinated projects. you were coworking with two of your best friends at their shared apartment when you exhaled heavily.

"she's complaining again," chan said, not even looking up from his ipad, pen in hand as he highlighted his digital textbook. you rolled your eyes just in time for vernon to catch it as he looked up, making him stifle a laugh.

"it's finals next week," you groaned, conducting a controlled fall backwards to lay on the floor, crossed legs still tucked under the table you all sat around. "am i not allowed to complain?"

"no," chan stated plainly, finally giving you a look of fake pity. "vernon has the same finals as you, i have more, and we both work. you have nothing to complain about."

"hey!" you sat up. "i work!"

chan blinked at you. "sorry, i forgot you have to appear at fancy galas with your rich boyfriend on weekends. are you serious?"

you clicked your tongue, annoyed. "he's not my boyfriend."

"right," he corrected. "sorry. sugar daddy."

you looked at vernon, mouth gaping. "you gonna let him talk to me like that?"

he looked at you with an uninterested look in his eyes, a hand going up to adjust his beanie over his forehead. "i let you talk to him like that, so…"

"whatever," you said, checking your phone for the first time in over an hour. the three of you had an agreement: no phones during study hours, otherwise you all end up sharing stupid videos and losing time. you were usually the one to break.

"no phone," chan reminded you, pushing a palm into his cheek after adjusting his glasses on his nose.

"get bent, loser," you said, proving vernon's argument with a perfect example before noticing the notification you had received from the aforementioned rich boyfriend. "speak of the devil."

"oh?" vernon perked up. despite the shit your friends gave you for your less than conventional job, and how that shit had increased sevenfold when you told them jeonghan had asked you to work with him exclusively, they did still found it vastly entertaining. "wait, lemme guess. a grand re-opening of a hotel. i bet it's haunted."

you laughed at him then shrugged, pouting out your lips as you read the text. "he's asking if i'm busy now."

"yeah, we're studying," chan said immediately, looking between the two of you as you both stared at him silently. "seriously? finals start in four days."

you looked at your laptop, pursing your lips. "i mean, i'm basically ready to submit this project, and it's not due til tuesday…"

it was chan's turn to roll his eyes, throwing his pen down in annoyance and leaning back on his palms. "remember last year? when we all cared about our classes?"

"i care!" you insisted. "remember when you ditched our study date on monday?"

chan grabbed a pillow off the couch and whacked it towards you, making you squeal as you defended yourself. "i had a shift at the restaurant, you dick!"

"okay, and?" you grabbed the pillow from his grip, threateningly drawing it back just to make him flinch before planting it in your lap and putting your attention back on your discarded phone. "i might be picking up a shift last minute. we all gotta make money somehow, lee jungchan."

"at-" he paused to look at the corner of his ipad. "11:30pm? sounds innocent."

"hey," vernon interjected. "plenty of innocent things happen at 11:30. maybe he just wants tteokbokki."

you laughed, typing out a response on your phone. "yeah, probably something like that."

han💝: are you busy right now?

25 minutes ago.

you: sorry, i was doing school stuff with the guys. i'm wrapping up now tho, whassup?

han💝: have you eaten?

you: i did~ you?

han💝: yup 😇 when are you free?

you stared at your screen for a moment. jeonghan wasn't the type to beat around the bush when there was something he wanted, and you had definitely been wrong about how innocent his late night weekday text had been. you swallowed, thinking about how you had insisted to your friends that he was definitely not your boyfriend despite the tabloids saying he was. it was an act, you told them. that he just wanted the rumors to stop, and he had fun with you. they had bought it, but you hadn't divulged the tiny detail that you were definitely fucking him on occasion - sometimes for fun, and sometimes purely to fill a need, but always the most fun you'd ever had. you also hadn't admitted the probably more relevant information that you may have already exchanged i love yous with the architect, nearly three months prior to your current study session, despite not taking the time to redefine your relationship with one another. you glanced up at vernon, who was spinning his pen in his fingers as he read from a textbook, then over to chan, who had resumed his digital highlighting in favor of stewing over your questionable decisions.

you: i can be home in 15?

han💝: i can be there in 25.

you: making me wait a whole ten minutes? 🤕

han💝: 🙄 you better be waiting

you exhaled, closing your laptop. "i'm going home."

chan's head fell to one side. "really?"

you scowled at him. "i finished my project, which is more than i had planned for today," you said matter of factly, pulling your bookbag over from where it was leaning against a wall. "how's the organic chemistry study guide?"

"shut up," he groaned, collapsing over the table. "what kind of idiot goes to college on a fine arts scholarship and then minors in environmental sciences?"

"our kind of idiot," vernon said, watching you put your things away. "hanging out with jeonghan?"

"yeah," you said, looking at the time on your phone again. "you were right, we're getting tteokbokki. i'm gonna change out of this white shirt."

"told you," he said, looking at chan as he put his chin on the table, pouting.

"how come we don't get to go get tteokbokki with you and your rich boyfriend?" chan asked, head bobbing as his jaw stayed stationary against the table.

"not my boyfriend," you said again. "also, it's rude to invite yourself."

he groaned, sitting up. "then invite us!"

"maybe next time," you said, standing from the table and grabbing your phone. "i'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"yeah," chan confirmed, then pointed at you as vernon stood. "lunch tomorrow! don't forget. don't flake."

"i won't, jesus," you laughed, looking at vernon. "can you believe this guy?"

he widened his eyes at you in a look of solidarity, making you giggle and push his shoulder lightly. he chuckled and asked if you needed company walking home.

"i'll be okay," you said, pulling on your jacket. "thanks, though."

"'course. hit me up if you need anything." he gave you a peachy smile that spread to your face easily. "have fun. see you tomorrow."

the walk was quick, but colder than you expected, and you were huffing into your hands as you rushed into your apartment building. you were forced to take the stairs due to the broken elevator, hopping up each step and quietly laughing at the way jeonghan would react when he saw the out of order sign when he arrived.

once in your apartment, you changed out of the white shirt, exactly as promised, but not into something that would have better chances at surviving a late night tteokbokki excursion. you chewed your lip, looking down at the two options you had laid out on your bed, knowing you had to wrestle one on before you could start cleaning - jeonghan had knocked on your door when you had one leg in a pair of stockings in the past, and you didn't plan on repeating that stress inducing 53 seconds in which you practically tore a hole in them trying to hurry.

over the last few months, you had learned many miscellaneous things about the architect. he loved ice cream, but hated the way it made his stomach hurt. he, as a rule, changed his hair dramatically every three months, and while he had been a mousy brunette with bangs that just brushed past his eyebrows when you met him, he had since decided that he wanted to try blonde again, and let it drape more dramatically around his features. he loved his crew like they were his family, taking care of them in all the subtle ways they needed. he couldn't help but sing along to songs if he knew the lyrics. he thought anything pink was immediately cute.

you had also learned a few very important facts about jeonghan. one was that he never flaunted his wealth, but never hesitated to use it. he had a habit of letting a smirk betray his intentions when you mentioned something you liked, quickly normalizing his face before asking what you'd do for it. second, he loved winning. he would make bets with you and do just about anything to make sure you lost, whether it was suggesting a bet over a fact he knew he was right about or to decide who would get to eat the last chicken leg, a smug look on his face as you got ready to fight him for being a piss poor winner. third, while you would think he liked being right, too, he actually smiled more when you proved him wrong, and you knew it was because he loved being reminded that, despite everything different about the two of you, you were still equals.

most importantly, at least today, was the fact that he thought you were beautiful in a dress, but he was a real sucker for a t-shirt. and subverting expectations was one of your specialties.

you had done this a million times at this point. too many times, you thought, when the clerk at a lingerie store commented that you were using a different card than usual - jeonghan had decided to get you your own instead of just handing over his - causing you to radiate heat for nearly an hour afterwards. but somehow every time felt more exciting than the last.

red. red was the right choice, even if it was a little more complicated to put on. once you had tied off in all the right places, you put on a shirt that fell halfway to your knees, then hurried to clear your floor.

jeonghan was punctual, as always, texting you a quick "two away" that sent you into a near frenzy, whipping the white duvet over your bed so it laid straight, instead of bunched at the foot like you had left it that morning. kicking a drawer back under your bed on your way, you rushed to the bathroom and cleared the counter into a basket that got shoved under the sink, then quickly sprayed your perfume.

when there was a knock at your door, you were doing a last check of the apartment, making sure there was nothing too out of place as you backed your way to the front door. finally, you spun around, unlocking and pulling it open to reveal your thursday night appointment.

"why didn't you tell me your elevator was broken? i would have made you come to me."

you laughed, your hand going up the door as you leaned against it "hello to you too, jeonghan."

he smiled at you, eyes making a not so subtle glance down your bare legs, hands in the pockets of an unzipped padded coat over what he had clearly worn at the office that day - slacks and a shirt with vague wrinkles around the collar, evidence that he had taken off his tie in the car. you smiled back at him, and he stepped into your threshold, asking how you were.

"well," you said, helping him take off the coat as he toed off his wingtip shoes, hanging the coat on the hook behind your door. "i finished a final project that isn't due til next week, and i feel confident about two of my three exams, so not too bad."

he chuckled at you, brushing his own hair back before pulling you into his arms. "look at you, university student. what, three more terms?"

you giggled into the kiss he gave you as a greeting. "four. but you knew that."

he smiled against you, caught in his own pointless joke of pretending he didn't hold onto every word you said. his hands ran over your hips, your shirt bunching up slightly between his fingers as he enjoyed the way you felt. he had seen you this weekend - a convention for a keynote and a welcome party - but he had taken you home early with an innocent kiss at your door so you could study. he hadn't gotten to rememorize the way your spine curved under his touch, your arms over his shoulders as he kissed you again, deeper. you let out a small noise when he squeezed his palm against the flesh of your ass, unable to help the giggle that fell from your lips when he pulled away slightly, his thumb feeling over the lace of your underwear.

his eyebrow raised slightly. "you said you were studying with the guys?"

you rolled your eyes. "i had time to change."

his head tilted almost imperceptibly. "so you were actually waiting for me?"

"sure was," you attested, emphasizing with a cock of your own head. "i'm always waiting on you."

he started to back you up just then, invading your space until you were forced to step back, but he confidently guided you through your small kitchen to the main living space of your officetel. his face was right up against yours, close enough to be necking, but his eyes darted around the room quickly before his lips curved into a smile against yours. "you had to clean, didn't you?"

you shook your head, pivoting on your heels and backing yourself up against your small counter. he happily readjusted, a hand landing on the counter beside your hip as you caught him in a fleeting liplock. "i'm always waiting on you, hannie."

and that was when he gave up on letting you speak, because he had been craving something for almost two weeks now. because he had been thinking about you all day. because the thought of you spending even innocent time with people that weren't him when all he wanted was to be with you, all day, every day, was enough to make him forget about anything else. so he put a hand on the side of your neck, tugging you into him as he dove deep enough into you to make you moan. your arms pulled back, fingers grasping at the collar of his shirt as he pulled your thigh up his hip. you quickly put the heel of your palm on the counter, other hand staying on his collar as he kissed you desperately, pushing yourself onto the surface so he could pull back and run his hands up your thighs, eyes fixed on anything the shirt would drag over. you put your hands on the counter behind you, arching your back slightly as his hands drifted towards your waist, revealing the red lace over your hips and the satin that tied over your stomach.

his eyes flicked up to yours. "did i buy this for you?"

your lip tugged between your teeth. "technically, you buy everything for me, boss."

he breathed out a laugh, tugging the shirt - and, by proxy, you - close enough for him to kiss you before pulling it over your head. you sat up while jeonghan threw the garment knowingly towards your hamper, undoing more buttons on his shirt. when his eyes landed on you again, you almost felt small. like a lamb caught in the sights of a wolf, and it was a feeling you knew well now. you felt his gaze running up your body, his hands barely drifting over your skin where the satin revealed it as he took in the the way the fabric crossed over your chest, breasts hardly hidden under the lacy cups. a present, almost. the best one he could ever ask for, tied neatly with a satin bow just above your belly button. goosebumps went up your arms when his eyes met yours again, and his fingertips worked their way under a strip of fabric, pulling you by your waist so he could devour you.

red was the right choice. even if it had been a little more complicated to put on.

his hands went to your ass almost immediately, closing the already barely there gap between you as he pulled you off the counter. your feet landed on the floor, and there must have been confusion in your brows with the way jeonghan chuckled into your mouth, hand securely on your jaw.

"you're too good to eat in the kitchen."

"funny," you pondered, the word brushing over his lips in a way that made his jaw drop ever so slightly. "hasn't stopped you before."

if you really had been a lamb, you would have been the easiest prey he had ever encountered - you couldn't help but fight back, and what chance of winning against your natural predator did you, the obvious prey, have? but if jeonghan really had been a wolf, then he would have been the stupidest in the pack, because he went and managed to get seduced by his dinner, and if he got a do over, he would do it the exact same, again and again.

you gripped at the collar of his shirt, pulling him with you as you backed into your small living area, giggling when you left his lips for a moment, skipping once to close the distance to your bed and standing dutifully by it as jeonghan caught up to you, a smile on his face as he watched you. you draped your arms over his shoulders, hands landing at the crown of his head as he slotted himself under your presence. his hands went to your shoulder blade and the small of your back respectively, your skin warm against his fingers that had just been exposed to the late december night. he kissed you for a long moment, seemingly getting lost in the way you engulfed him in the most intoxicating feeling he had ever experienced.

your hands landed on his nape, fingers raking through his hair as you focused your effort into molding your mouth against his. he seemingly woke up, remembering that there could be more to this than just swapping saliva for the indefinite future when he scooped his hand under your ass, the tips of his fingers brushing against you and pulling a moan from your chest. he pulled away a second, giving you a dreamy smile before placing his other hand on your chin, holding your mouth open as he lapped into it once, then watched you gasp as he pushed his fingers over you again.

"so you're needy, too?" jeonghan mused, thumb and forefinger firm against your jaw, and you let out something between a whine and a moan, wishing he would just hurry up and feel how wet you were instead of just teasing you about it.

"it's been a hard couple of weeks," you admitted, swallowing once to coat your dry throat. "i missed you."

his eyes ran over your face at your confession, studying you for just a moment before a small smile broke on his lips. "i missed you, too, angel."

when he kissed you again, you exhaled into it, your arms wrapping around his neck. he smiled again, against you this time, before he pushed at your hips until you were torn from him, spinning you until a firm hand on your spine bent you over your mattress. your heart fluttered, a hand instantly going to curl around where his fingers found grip on your waist. you hurriedly pulled your knees onto the edge of your bed, curving your back as he tightened his grip, tugging your hot core directly against the bulge in his pants.

you moaned out, pushing your cheek into the bed and looking back, gaze running up his mostly open shirt and dishevelled blonde locks. his eyes found yours, hips teasing you with exactly what you wanted and too much clothing to enjoy to its fullest. your mouth gaped, the hand not occupied by his reaching back and gripping lightly at the fabric of his slacks, trying to pull him closer, hinting at the need for better satisfaction. he smiled again, quickly reaching down and grasping your hand, pushing it up your back and making you whine as you clutched at his fingers.

"here's an idea," he pitched, confident in what he had come up with. "what if i use your pretty red ties to keep your hands out of my way?"

you gasped, pushing back against his hips, trying to work out how he could hardly react when you already felt like falling apart. "jeonghan, please-"

"who?" he asked playfully, fingers gliding under the red across your lower back.

"please, han-"

"who?"

you whined. "daddy, please!"

he pushed his hips against yours again, making you cry out and bury your face in your duvet, the smirk not leaving his lips once. "that's my angel."

and while you wanted to give him shit for so quickly undoing the ties you had to work out hardly ten minutes prior, the way his fingers ran over your ribcage to undo the bow on your stomach made any coherent word escape you. he pushed your wrists together against the base of your spine, and you obediently let him tug the satin taut over your stomach, but slipped a finger under it to make sure you still had give before folding them over your wrists and tying a bow there, instead. you squirmed your hips against him as your fists clenched, and jeonghan lost control of his hips for an extended moment, letting them roll against you until you were babbling.

you were making an increasing wet spot on the front of his slacks, and even though he knew he would have to leave here wearing these at some point in the near future, and he had never left your apartment without running into at least one of your nosy neighbors, he couldn't find it in him to care, because with every cant of his clothed member against your hot, soft cunt, he was getting closer and closer to sinking in completely, and that's all he could think about.

you gasped for breath, impatient. "damn it, jeonghan-"

"i thought we agreed-"

"-i'm always fucking waiting for you," you whined, looking back at him again. "don't tell me this is all you've got."

he smiled, crooked and impressed, then backed off. you gasped at the loss, your wet panties catching the vague breeze caused by him pulling away just before he yanked your hips up, bettering his angle to stare directly at the sopping fabric as he ran a thumb over your slit, fingers digging into your ass cheek. he undid his belt with his right hand, yanking it out of the loops of his pants as he distracted you with his touch. your arms strained, wanting to brace yourself, but you were forced to settle for gripping your own forearms as he pulled his needy cock out of his pants.

you gasped, pussy clenching in reaction when he tapped the head of his cock against the wettest spot in your panties, and he couldn't help but push against your reactive hole when he saw the way it just kept getting wetter. you garbled, knuckles white, and the damp fabric caught on the tip of his cock as he guided it through your folds.

"fuck," you moaned out once, then took a couple rabid breaths, chest already pressed into the mattress in desperation. "jeonghan-"

"you keep calling me that," he said, pulling back again, and you would have killed him if he didn't fuck you so well. his hands on your ass, he pulled you apart, staring down at the way your cunt pulsed in need, slowly leaking in anticipation. "if you do it again, i'll go home."

you gulped, brows knit together in need. "yes, daddy."

"oh, angel," he purred, a shiver running up your spine at the name when you realised his breath was against the crease of your thighs. the realization came too late, though, his tongue already running a flat path over your fabric covered lips. "i could get drunk on you."

if there was anything jeonghan was, it was good with his mouth. quick wit and a scathing tongue were the reasons everyone else thought so. you, though. you knew first hand how easily he could leave someone gasping and shaking just because he had his lips wrapped around something he shouldn't.

you exhaled harshly, breath catching in your throat when jeonghan ran his fingers over you again, yanking your panties aside to dig in.

the squeal that turned into a moan as it escaped you made him smile as he ran his tongue through your folds, fingers kneading your ass while he held you open. his languid muscle lapped over the hood of your clit, making you garble slightly before pushing your chest into the bed, hoping to curve your back more and better his angle at your sensitivity.

jeonghan never ate like he was starving, he ate like he wanted to savor it. he carefully appraised you, studying your specific reactions and how they differed from the last time he had you. he ran a flat tongue over you once, making you whimper and bury your face in the duvet, positive you were going to start crying soon. then, carefully placed kisses, sucking your lips between his, alternating with tongue digging just far enough to breach your sensitive hole.

he ran his tongue up your crease, and while you had an expectation of some focus on your now dripping slit, he let his tongue continue, wetting your puckered hole and making you gasp.

"what," he asked, placing his thumb over it to watch you squirm. "haven't you been practicing?'

you whimpered when the pad of his thumb dipped further into you. "it's finals week and you want to put it in my ass?"

"and who pays for your school, sweetheart?"

you whined, prolonged and annoyed. "because you begged me to let you."

he snickered, lips brushing against your pussy. "fine," he muttered, kissing at you again with his thumb still against your hole. "but i expect you to get on it."

your eyes were definitely wet now, stinging as you clamped them shut and backed yourself up against him, fingers clenching into fists on your back. one of jeonghan's hands ran up, over your hip, landing on one fist, and you immediately clutched at his fingers as he laced them with yours, your chest on fire and a gasp escaping you when his tongue found your clit again.

you had bent yourself at such an angle that he didn't even have to hold you apart at this point, just your soaked panties out of the way, and he backed up slightly to watch as he gently traced his fingers in your folds. "you're like dessert."

you whimpered, sniveling as you unburied your face, cheek against the duvet. "am i sweet?"

"so sweet, angel," he told you, proving the thought by lapping against you once. "but you could be sweeter."

you moaned out. "maybe if you let me cum."

jeonghan chuckled, his breath hitting your clenching core. "you think you deserve that?"

"yes," you whined, wiggling your hips under his hold and sighing when he put an open mouthed kiss directly on your core in response. "don't you want a taste?"

you almost thought you convinced him, especially when you moaned again and his fingers squeezed yours slightly before pushing his tongue against your hole, but his head won over his heart. "you talk too much."

you yelped when he tugged your hand, pulling you up by the ties around your waist. you scrambled to find balance on your knees, and jeonghan pulled you against his chest, hand curving over the front of you before he pulled you off the bed. you almost stumbled, but he helped you stand and spun your body, kissing you once then smiling.

"knees, sweetheart."

you huffed. "no please?"

his fingers held your jaw again, forcing you to open your mouth slightly at him. his eyes were trained on your lips, your tongue - he thought about how soft it felt. how much he missed that. the look in his eye was enough to make your knees wobble slightly, and he slotted his mouth over yours again, savoring the taste of your tongue on his. when he pulled away, you knew you were done for. "put that smart mouth to work."

suddenly obedient, you let him help you to your knees, arms still bound behind your back as you looked up at jeonghan. he sighed, a hand brushing your hair out of your eyes as the other held his cock level to your face.

"what did i do to deserve such an angel today?"

you blew a gentle stream of air at the leaking head of his cock, looking up at his stilted reaction. "don't take it for granted."

"you're right," he said, fingers brushing through your hair to your crown, holding you in place as he pushed his hips forward. "i'll reward good behavior."

you almost let a whimper escape as he pushed your lips open, the head of his cock being met by the plush tongue he could never forget about. he sighed at the feeling, and you eagerly took his head entirely into your mouth. his eyes met yours briefly, his shirt hanging open and his eyes shadowed by his blonde curtains. this time, the whimper did escape, and you wiggled your hips slightly in hopes of managing to get some form of friction from your underwear. jeonghan pushed his hips closer to you, his eyes closing slightly as you took more of him against your tongue, and his fingers tightened against your scalp.

"you feel like heaven."

you moaned in response, and he pushed further into you, making your tongue flatten and your jaw open more, feeling his cock against your palate. your pussy throbbed in need, the thought of pleasing him, of servicing him making your arousal wake even more. you flushed at the realization that this was doing it for you, and you wondered if he felt the slight tense in your tongue before you pushed yourself as far onto his cock as you could. your eyes clamped shut, and you heard him grunt as he tried to maintain his composure with your throat constricting around him. you pulled off slowly, looking up at him, then sliding yourself over him again in one fluid motion, his groan long and strained.

"you," he choked out, swallowing as he composed himself, running a hand through his hair. he shook it out of his face, looking down at you before gripping your hair against your scalp. you whined. "is this what you want?"

you moaned against him, lapping your tongue against the underside of his cock. he took it as a yes, using his hold on your head to push into your mouth fully again. he groaned again, his cock pulsing against your throat, but he had the restraint to keep you unsatisfied by the taste of his cum on your tongue, retreating from your mouth completely.

your thighs shook, but only barely, and his eyes raked over your dishevelled form, struggling against your binds. you gulped before you tested your vocal chords.

"can we skip to the part where i'm riding you like my life depends on it?"

jeonghan grinned at you, helping you to your feet before sitting on the edge of your bed. "you read my mind."

"well, daddy," you bit, kneeing yourself onto the bed to straddle his lap, moving with him as he pushed further onto your mattress. "you're starting to get predictable."

"i'll let that slide this time," he chuckled, a hand on your cheek pulling you down to kiss him again, long and deep, and your eyebrows knit as you dipped and rolled your hips, your damp lace panties rubbing up jeonghan's bare cock. he moaned, throwing his head back and letting that lead his body, landing among your pillows that you had haphazardly thrown in an aesthetically pleasing mess only minutes before he had arrived. his hand gripped your waist, helping you grind against his velvety member with your hands behind your back, and he couldn't help but stare at how that fact meant your chest was pushed forward, and your perfectly wrapped breasts were on full display for him. his thumb ran over a particular strip of red satin, one that scooped under your breast, and you bit at your lip, rolling your hips to get some much needed friction.

his eyes shut briefly, but he refocused quickly, wrapping his hand over your breast, knowingly rubbing over where your nipple was barely obstructed. it puckered, reacting fast to his delicate touch and the added layer of lace, and jeonghan looked up at you as he pulled himself forward, capturing your nipple between his lips.

you whined, pussy aching for more as you practically buckled over him. "no fair," you gasped, thinking of how normally, digging your fingers against his scalp and pulling was a surefire way to even the playing field. "i can't use my hands."

he smiled against your breast, lapping over your nipple again and kissing it farewell. "it's not meant to be fair," he said, and you picked yourself up off him. he took the hint easily, reaching down and standing his cock on end, the tip already teasing at your folds. the hand on your waist dipped down over your hip, reaching around your ass and pulling aside your panties. your squirmed against his touch, leaning into him to steal multiple open mouthed kisses as your sopping cunt sank down over the rocket red head of his cock.

his head fell back, eyes rolling back and shutting as you sat down completely, his grip tight against your hip and and thigh. you stared at him, eyes threatening to glaze over, and rotated your hips over him, his cock bumping into every spot in you that made you need him more. you cursed, already feeling yourself unwinding at how much you had already had to endure, but refusing to give him the satisfaction.

he laughed, amused by your face. "already?"

"shut up," you panted, fingers loosening slightly from your clenched fists as you adjusted. "i haven't even made myself cum since the last time we fucked."

"ah," he grinned, breathing out a laugh as he pushed himself up into you. you yelped, wishing you could hold the hands that were gliding over your waist. "a little pent up, then?"

you rolled your hips, making jeonghan's smile drop slightly in reaction. "i can hold out."

"doubt it," he retorted, thumb grazing over your peaked nipple as you continued your rolling, slowly and deeply riding him.

you caught your bottom lip in your teeth, rotating your hips once and smiling at the way jeonghan's grip on you tightened. "bet i can make you cum before me."

"without your hands?" he asked, letting out an amused breath. "you can try."

you huffed, wiggling your hips and scooting further back, altering the angle and making his mouth drop open slightly. your lip quirked upwards. "i bet i can."

his eyes met yours, dark and hot, and you involuntarily clenched around him, his grip on you tightening again. "what do you want for it?"

"for you to stay the night," you said, lifting yourself up by your thighs slightly and leaning back as you sunk back down. "and you have to wake me up before you leave."

his mouth opened at your motion, and it became an open mouthed laugh at your request. "you're wasting a bet on me staying the night?"

"you never stay the night," you whined, continuing your bobbing on him, his hands helping balance you as you did. "i always wake up alone here."

he thought about that as well as he could with his cock throbbing in you, your velvet walls pulling him in deeper, distracting him as he tried to gather his words. "i have an early meeting tomorrow, sweetheart."

you sat still for a moment, breasts moving as you took heavy breaths. you leaned forward, and jeonghan's hands ran over your back, down to your ass, holding you as you kissed him and he pushed himself into you further. your brows knit, lips tugging his slightly. "wake me up when you do. that's all i want."

he stared up at you, realizing you were serious. he thrusted up into you again, making you squeak quietly, and he smiled. "only if you don't cum before me."

you exhaled harshly, grateful that he helped you sit back up with your hands still tied to your spine. if they hadn't been, you would have gotten him out of his shirt. it would have been gone eons ago, along with the slacks he had dropped just below his hips. all the evidence that he had every intention of putting his clothes back on when you were done. "i won't."

so he laid his head back, smiling at you, not intending to make it any easier for you by meeting you halfway despite his steadying hands staying on your hips. his eyes were practically shut, dreamily watching your expression change as you rolled your hips in all the ways you remembered him liking. he enjoyed this greatly, and you could tell by the way his eyes drifted all over you, but you kept as much focus as you could manage on getting him as close as you were. and when you saw his eyebrow pitch slightly, you repeated the motion that caused it, and his eyes shot open, looking up at your face first, gaze running down to where he was buried in you, and they shut again at the feeling as his head fell back.

you moaned, struggling to keep yourself from letting go, and you looked down just in time to watch jeonghan stretch his neck out, letting an elongated moan escape him. you huffed, suddenly confident. "you gonna stay the night?"

he grunted, his fingers digging into your hips. "fuck, you're so warm."

"c'mon, daddy," you teased, ignoring the burning in your thighs as your breath heaved. "we can cuddle all night."

"cum for me, angel," he groaned. "i wanna feel you."

you almost laughed. "i'm not falling for that."

his lip quirked, but he pulled you down against his chest again, making you yelp into a groan as his cock twitched in you. "i need you to cum with me."

you tried to respond, but he had his hands wrapped around you to hold you steady as he fucked up into you, making you squeal at first. "w-wait, but the b-bet-"

"fuck the bet," he muttered, a hand coming to your jaw to kiss you as he slammed himself into you repeatedly, making you whine and gasp against his mouth. "i'll stay. just cum with me."

your jaw dropped, and he took advantage of it, lapping into your open mouth and making you moan into his. you inhaled sharply, eyes shooting open as you looked at him, your pussy already clenching around him in release as he fucked into it harshly, his breath stuttering as you pulled the last thread of self control out of him. how could he help it, when you were always such a brat, but still listened so well when he really needed you to?

you were right. jeonghan never stayed the night. he had given you a million excuses at this point, and you had stayed the night at his plenty of times, but he always found an excuse to leave in the cover of night as you slept through his quiet and careful dressing. maybe he felt bad, knowing that you would never get the definition from him that you would likely want eventually - you had both agreed that whatever happened happened, and you said you were happy with that, but something nagged at the back of jeonghan's mind, telling him you deserved more than what you would get from him. being in your room made it hard to ignore that you had a future without him - a good one, too. a creative one. a happy one. he wondered if he deserved to be distracting you from that for his own selfish need of your attention to distract from his own struggles. that guilt usually kept him up. kept him staring at your ceiling as you quietly snored, and eventually made him leave without saying anything.

but that night, after he had helped you out of your complicated lingerie and made sure your arms felt okay, giggling when you had to blow your nose and flinching when you tried to hit him. after you had both had water and brushed your teeth, and he had undressed just as much as you were and got under your duvet. long after midnight, he laid with you, completely aware that he should be waking up in less than five hours, but not thinking about it, because his smile was murmuring sweet nothings against yours, and you couldn't help but kiss him slowly until neither of you were conscious enough to continue, your breath shared and your limbs tangled as dreams whisked you away.

he loved you in his world. he loved taking you to galas and events, buying you new outfits for each. he loved watching you dazzle crowds with your down to earth humor and winning charm, proud to have been the one you arrived with. he loved the version of you you could become, that you could rise to the occasion of the public girlfriend, one that the press would eat up and his publicist would adore. he loved you in his world, but he had a preference for yours, because no amount of glitz and glamour could ever compare to being awoken that morning by you, pulling his cheeks in opposite directions and giggling despite being nearly just as asleep as him. the late morning sun streamed through your apartment's only window and landed directly on your white duvet, effectively lighting up the entire room.

"what time is it?" he murmured.

you looked up at your bedside, eyes struggling to focus. "eleven."

"didn't you have class today?" he asked, blinking the sleep from his eyes as they adjusted, a smile already breaching his lips at the way your fingers slid back from his cheeks, burying themselves in the hair at his nape. his brow furrowed at a thought. "didn't i have a meeting?"

"well," you started, planting a kiss on his lips before continuing. "i only had study in my engineering class this week, which is great for studio time, but vern works for the school station. so i essentially have access to studio whenever i want." you blinked at him with a smile, and he let out a laugh at your punctuation. "i don't know your excuse."

he looked around. "where's my phone?"

your eyes scanned over your pillows, and you grabbed the one you had slept on to check under it. he spotted it the same time as you, face down, and he picked it up and hit the unlock button.

"ah," he laughed, tossing the phone on top of the pillow you had replaced, pitch black screen up. "that'll do it."

"shit," you muttered, reaching for your charger and grabbing his phone, flopping off him to plug it in. "seungkwan's gonna hate me."

jeonghan had to stretch to hide the way he giggled. "he won't hate you."

"i've been on thin ice ever since he walked in on us in your office, and we weren't even naked," you said, giving him a look. "making you miss a meeting is definitely putting me in the water."

"only for a week," he responded. "he'll mend the bridge at drinks."

your eyebrow raised. "drinks?"

he blinked at you. "yeah, next thursday." he squinted. "to celebrate the end of your finals?"

you laughed, positive this was the first you were hearing of it as you turned jeonghan's phone on. "were you gonna invite me?"

"i swear i told you," he said, accepting your embrace when you crawled over him again, arms securely wrapping around you to let his fingers run over your bare form.

"i guarantee you didn't." you paused, scanning his face. "how long has this been a plan?"

he was staring you dead in the eyes, but seemingly because he was more disappointed in himself than you could ever be. "a week and a half." a laugh spilled from you, forehead tapping against his for a second as he started laughing, too. "you're sure i didn't tell you?"

"i'm absolutely certain, jeonghan," you giggled, leaning into him until your lips were nearly on his. "you should really just give me access to your calendar."

"now, that's an idea," he muttered, anticipating your taste on his tongue.

you smiled before indulging him in a kiss that was too deep to not lead elsewhere, but was interrupted by his phone buzzing to life on the pillow beside him. you both looked to it, watching as it interrupted itself with vibrations, a seemingly never ending stream of notifications. when it finally slowed, he looked at you, and you looked back, and he let out a short laugh. he picked it up, and you decidedly laid down, tucking yourself into his side as he pulled the phone cord over you to check what hell hath unleashed to warrant the amount of messages and calls.

he was swiping away notifications of emails - meeting cancellations, confirmations, cc's of seungkwan apologizing to a client for the need to reschedule their home visit - when his screen lit up, the id reading "uri bbu."

"good morning, seungkwan," jeonghan said, answering on speaker. "did you sleep well?"

"oh, really," his assistant trailed off, clearly pulling the phone away from him as he silently swore, and you put a fist over your mouth to avoid laughing. "good morning, boss. where are you?"

"in bed," jeonghan said. "i forgot to plug my phone in and slept too well. sorry, seungkwannie."

he sighed. "you weren't at home."

"if you knew where i was, why'd you ask?"

"blind hope that you had an actual reason to be uncontactable for twelve hours?" seungkwan clicked his tongue. "hyung, i had to reschedule or cancel your entire day because i had no way of knowing if you w-"

"i saw that," jeonghan interjected, lips forming a pout as he spoke. "that was smart, thank you, seungkwannie. since you did that already, i guess i might as well take the rest of the day off, huh?"

he sighed again, and you gave jeonghan a disappointed look, only to receive a half hearted shrug and a fully shiteating grin in response. seungkwan's voice pulled your eyes back to the phone. "you were easier to work for when you were gay."

your hand slammed over your mouth as you rolled away to rattle with laughter, jeonghan laughing freely and patting your back. "i bet she agrees with you."

you rolled again, flopping over and hitting him with a palm. he snickered at you, putting a finger to his mouth. you threatened him by drawing your fist quickly, and he put his hand up to block just in case as he listened.

"you're lucky i thought you might be dead in a ditch," seungkwan whined. "seriously, if i hadn't been so worried, i would kill you both."

"you can't get rid of me that easy," jeonghan joked, watching as you settled back into his side. "seungkwan, do me another favor?"

you knew seungkwan only cleared his throat to avoid sounding annoyed. "yes, hyung?"

"eat something really good today. use my card, please." you looked at jeonghan, watching his eyebrow crease slightly as he spoke. "take out a friend, too. get drinks. have a nice weekend."

silence for a moment, surely as seungkwan processed. "yes, sir. thank you."

"thank you, seungkwannie."

you stared at him for a while longer after he hung up, and he tossed the phone over you onto the mattress. he pulled your head down into his chest, making you let out a squeak before giggling, fighting against his grip. "what now?"

jeonghan hummed, letting you pop your head up to watch as he chewed his lip. "what do you want for lunch?"

he noticed the way your face faltered, asking what that look was for. "i'm supposed to get lunch with the guys today."

he sighed into a smile. "so you're ditching me after making me miss my entire work day?"

you whined, collapsing over his chest and pouting. "do you regret staying the night?"

he laughed, his hands running across your scalp. "absolutely not, angel. when do you have to go? i can take you."

you pursed your lips. "what if you came with?"

"to get lunch with your friends?" he considered that, clearing his throat. "i don't know."

"they'll like you," you assured, hands on his chest. "i like you so they'll like you."

he watched you pout at him. "chinese?"

"not this time," you giggled, thinking of how many times you had told jeonghan you were eating at chan's family restaurant. "we have a tradition. we get army stew before finals week."

"army stew," he repeated, smiling at you. "that sounds good. where at?"

you dug around for your own phone, grateful it still had 20% remaining when you eyed jeonghan's on your charger. "we usually go to a place on campus because it's cheap, but they'll be excited if i tell them we're going to grandma's."

"grandma's?"

you looked up at him. "yeah, there's this seafood house run by this eccentric old lady who really likes vernon. thinks he's handsome, i guess." you navigated to your group chat to let the guys know. "she always gives us extras, but it's almost 40,000 won for the pot we like."

"ah," he laughed. "because i'm paying?'

you looked at him. "i can pay."

"with my money?" he asked.

you giggled. "i just figured you didn't want shitty college campus snack bar stew."

"and you're right," he said, making you laugh as he pulled you to drape over him again. "tell them it's on me."

"oh?" you grinned. "be careful, they'll take advantage of you."

his eyebrow quirked. "like you do?"

"yeah, except they won't fuck you to make up for it."

he laughed, a hand finding your cheek and drawing you in. he put a slow kiss on your lips, making you let out the tiniest whimper. he smiled against your lips. "we do more than fuck."

you hummed, stealing more kisses from him, hoping to get enough that you'll be able to hold out until the next time you saw him - after finals, apparently, for drinks. "prove it," you teased, and you could only squeal and laugh when jeonghan rolled you off him, your head landing in a pillow and your arms immediately finding his neck, his neverending smirk kneading against yours in a way that meant he planned on doing just that.

[obey-me-rot]

You Shouldn't Be This Cool

A/N: Something purely self indulgent to kickstart this Obey Me writing blog. The idea mostly belongs to @warm-meelk because of how they drew their MC playing bass and then sprinkled in the fact that Levi would be the pianist and I just kinda...went from there q wq. And I also play bass so...all the more reason to write this!

Warnings: Levi trying to justify some of his more weird actions while MC seems to not only know...but enjoy the attention.

Levi wasn’t a creep, he was passionate.

He was passionate about TSL, he was passionate about anime, he was passionate about his idol groups and he was even passionate about learning new skills in order to better evolve himself into an ultimate fan.

So what he did today was not because he was a creep!

It was because he was passionate.

“Can you play that for me again, Levi?”

The third born tucks his feet on his chair, sipping up the noodles of his second cup of ramen as he watches the video feed from this afternoon. He smiles as the camera zooms in on your fingers, each one plucking the string of your bass absentmindedly while you listen to the melody he had composed.

As a TSL fan, he was ‘in the know’ of most TSL fan events whether they were held in the Devildom or in the human world. If they were worth the trouble he would attend and if it seemed like it was just a repeat fan event for one he already attended then he would just get the merch from the safety and comfort of his room.

Yet a completely new fan event had popped up on his radar one day, an online one.

One that challenged each and every TSL fan to create a song dedicated to their favourite lord.

Levi doesn’t remember much after that announcement, all he remembers is knocking on your door at devil knows what hours of the morning and shoving the music sheets in your face while pleading for you to help him out.

Your musical talent wasn’t hidden in the House of Lamentation. While most of the brothers could boast about having pretty decent singing voices or being ‘okay’ at certain instruments, your ‘weapon’ of choice was perhaps the most random but also well fitted instrument for someone like you.

You played the bass.

If he wanted to get specific, you played the TCB1006 Ibanez electric bass. You had mentioned in passing when you and him had met up to start ‘jamming’ out and Levi had retained that fact along with his hundreds of other facts that had to do with your particular interests and likes.

Again, because he was passionate...about your friendship.

The camera zooms out to film both of you, a happy giggle taking him over as he saw just how chill you looked.

How unfair was it that out of all the instruments you could play, you had to play the one that just made you look even cooler?

You were laying in his tub while he sat on the very chair he was sitting on now, plucking strings seemingly at random but humming some bars and trying to fit them with his melody. Your feet were propped up on the edge and the soft brown color of the guitar meshed so well with the glowing blue lights of his room that he is so glad he picked this spot for his hidden camera because you looked ethereal.

“I still can’t believe you composed this. It’s pro-level.”

“H--Ha! Of course! This is nothing but a piece of cake for me! If it's about the Third Lord and Henry then I’m all over it!”

Eyes take in the way you sit up and position your bass higher, fingers having a better reach as you start to ‘slap’ the strings in order to create a more wavy and deeper sound.

“Okay...I think I got it. Can you play the melody from the beginning?”

Oh here it was.

Sitting up, Levi puts his cup noodle down and grabs the nearby music sheets, pen already in hand as his attention on you becomes laser focused.

The beat you play is, well, playful. It is a high contrast to his almost operatic piano melody and he could almost hear himself playing a bit slower as if wondering if you had even heard what he was playing

“Uh MC…?"

“Trust me.”

Levi bites his lip as he feels his heart skip a beat, not even having to look at the screen to see that he was blushing. His past self was so predictable…

Although wasn’t his present self all the more pathetic for reacting to your words a second time?

He’d rather not think about it too much.

Your purpose had come shining through the moment Levi started to really hear the notes you were playing. It was almost as if you were mimicking Henry’s character with the bass. Cool, collected and eager to learn more about the world he had been thrusted into, your bass managed to capture the curiosity of Henry’s while his piano clearly symbolized the shy but deadly Third Lord.

The bass would go high, the piano would go low but as the melody started to harmonize so did the way your playing did with his. It was if he was the Third Lord, shyly peeking at the way Henry interacted with the world around them…

Only to turn around and invite him to join along.

His eyes go up to the screen.

You looked so happy, your fingers plucking away as he continued playing along with you. Your eyes turn to look at him and he almost wants to punch his past self in the face for not looking back. The camera had been perfectly placed to capture the way you tilt your head as you stare at him, chuckling as he clearly gets far too into the music for his own good.

To miss such an exclusive UR moment from you, he should be ashamed of himself.

“Haha. Thank the devil I came up with this camera idea!”

Levi blinks as he looks around, coming face to face with his beloved Henry as the fish stares at him from his bowl.

“...don’t look at me like that, Henry…”

The fish blinks.

“I wasn’t doing it to be a creep! I just wanted to write down the notes MC played before I forgot them.”

Henry’s mouth opens and then closes.

“And see! I even missed such exclusive moments from them! Look!”

He pauses the video and turns the screen so his fish can take a better look.

“5:06. I even timestamped it. Right here, MC is smiling and looking at me so cutely that it would be almost a sin to not record it!”

His fingers tap a couple of keys as he goes back to another point of the video.

“3:58, they smile and do such a cool trick with their fingers that I didn’t even notice that they stick their tongue out whenever they get too into playing! Do you see that Henry?”

A couple more taps as he keeps the video playing, the goldfish swims close to the edge of the bowl.

“I missed so many great moments all because I was so lost in playing! And I just didn’t want to ask them if I could record them because then they might think I’m using the footage for some sort of weird purpose and I would never do something like that to them! My Henry is far too amazing for me to just watch them one time! I just wanted to make sure of the notes they were playing! This is all for passion--!”

“Levi?”

He stops talking as he looks back at the screen, Henry swimming away while Levi tuned into the video once again.

“Was that good? I don’t know why but having the bass go a bit higher as I mute the strings feels almost like--”

“Like a conversation! It’s like the instruments are talking!”

Okay maybe this camera idea wasn’t the greatest after all, that was such a stupid thing to say and if he could go back and just slap the words out of his very mouch, he would.

Yet once again, his MC showed just why they were at the top of their ‘favourites’ list.

“Yeah! Like a convo!”

The conversation dissolves into randomness as Levi sighs and looks down at his sheet music. He only got a few notes down. Devildom, what was the point of having perfect pitch if he didn’t use it all the time? He straightens his screen out as he grabs a pencil instead of a pen, knowing full well that if he wanted to get this done he would have to rely on listening to you play and not looking at the screen.

If he finished this quickly then he would be able to stare at yo--it...he would be able to stare at it the rest of the night.

He goes to rewind the video but stops when he notices the scenery has changed just a tiny bit. You were out of his bathtub and looking at his aquarium, tapping the wall twice as some of his other fishes came up to greet you.

They were already so accustomed to you that he was sure even Lotan would know who you were.

Your attention goes from his aquarium wall to his computer, looking at all of his figurines and other merch he proudly showed off. A few more steps to the right and you were looking at his bookshelf--

Only for your eyes to lock with his.

He rolls his chair back immediately, his heart dropping to his feet as you reach out to the camera and pluck it from its hiding place.

No. No no no nononononononono!

This was it. You were done with him. Levi didn’t have a lot of friends but he knew that this was probably a friendship ender. His pupils contract as he sees you look at the camera with a confused look, already guessing your thoughts before you could vocalize them.

This weirdo was filming me the entire time. And he was hiding the camera? Disgusting. I’ll make sure to never come by his place again. What an absolute creep.

“MC...I didn’t--”

His jaw clicks shut as small tears gather at the corners of his eyes, not yet falling down his cheeks as he sees you smile and wave at the camera.

What--?

“Levi. If you wanted to film you didn’t really have to hide it. I want something to remember this session too. Next time you can just ask~”

You wink and Levi can feel his heart going from the floor all the way to his throat.

“Oh and send me a text when you have the footage ready. We can watch it together.”

He lets out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding as you place the camera back before his voice rings out from the video, exclaiming about all the snacks he had brought. So that’s why he had found you standing up, and here he thought you were leaving…

Send you a text...the footage…?

His hands scramble to his phone as he quickly enters the passcode, blushing as he sees a new message from you.

“Mind if I come over again? I have a new bassline I want to show off.”

Levi puts the phone down slowly before getting up---

Only to immediately fall down, hands over his face as he curled up on the floor.

Of all the characters he thought he would be in a shoujo, the last one he thought he would end up as is the heroine.

Not that he was regretting it, this was perhaps the best outcome that had happened in his now not so miserable life.

[apollowritesstuff]

We share just a wall

dnf one-shot

...where George has become almost invisible while Dream pretends to not tend to orbit his thoughts around him - until one day, George cries

wordcount: 2543

keywords: dnf oneshot, fluff, college au, soft sad thoughts because Dream is a dumbass

read on ao3

continue under cut:

We share just a wall

I feel like he’s become invisible to me. Sure he’s just always kind of there - probably watering the plants in our corridor, because I’m sure I never do, sometimes I hear him playing music quietly, I hear him laughing at tiktoks at 3am when we both can’t sleep. I know about him, but it’s like knowing about a ghost. You might see him closing the door as you’re going out and you might notice the obviously loud silence when he leaves his apartment once a month, but he’s got this untouchable aura around him. 

I’m sure he knows about me. He just doesn’t care - and I, for a fact, don’t care that much either. I’ve got life and I’ve got girls and I’ve got my friends and I’ve got stuff to drink when I’m too lonely. 

I’m sure we used to be friends. 

—

It all started in October, last October. Not that I knew something was starting, it was just a regular fucking October, I was cold as hell and people annoyed me. Seconds from yelling at the first person who’d wanna talk to me. I brought a monster drink and poured it into my steaming hot black coffee. It wasn’t good, but that’s what I did to stay awake and look cool. I was cool. Freshmen feared me and I had the most fun of it. 

I sipped on my drink the whole morning and thought about how easy it would be to just leave this all behind. I didn’t have any serious commitment to anything. 

My lecture finally ended and without letting anything bother me even for a second more, I rushed to get out of the door as soon as possible. I threw my books and pens all over each other in the bag and figured I could care about that later - or not at all. I finished the rest of my survival elixir in one gulp - and a second before entering the direction of freedom, I ran right into him.

Like the clumsiest idiot he always was, George dropped all his books - why do you even have a backpack when you’re just going around carrying it, to show you’re stupidly clever or what - and his glasses slipped a bit down his nose. 

I remember him taking a sharp intake of breath and wanting to apologise, perhaps to scold me (let's be honest, George wasn't much of a scold), but something in me didn't want to hear a word from him. I remember his confused expression as I grabbed his stupid books and shoved them into his arms, my fingers fleetingly touching his chest, and then I just kept walking.

I didn’t seen him for a few days after that, I don’t even know if he attended the lecture. I did my best to not care- but I think that was where it all started again. The image of his stupidly basic grey shirt that he wore that day was carved in my mind, and how his dark hair looked so I-just-woke-up good. Anyways, I really didn’t care.

So that was last October. 

November passed by like it never even existed - honestly, fuck Novembers, I was all alone for my birthday - and then we crashed somewhen in December. I was actually happy that day, excited that everyone’s leaving for Christmas and I’ll have the time to do whatever- which usually meant to find a girl and a few shots and get out of this world for some time. 

I bought another coffee - it was just after all my lessons, so also probably like a third cup - and went to go drink it to my only favourite place at this shithole that this school was. Well, still is, but November always makes everything worse, doesn’t it? 

Fire escape, top floor, where I technically never had a reason to be. On the other hand, who cares. If a building has roof access, you'll find me there most of the time - and if it's your school, which strictly forbids roof access, you'll find me there exclusively. 

Look, I'll give you some helpful advice. If you ever go out with someone, don't spill all your favourite places on them, because then they'll make you cry, and then you'll keep meeting said person there until one of you gives up. And honestly? I thought George would be the one. 

Luckily I spotted him in time and stopped just around the corner, a list of pros and cons and all the possible consequences running through my head. I didn't even have time to make a decision and I was already walking in his direction, registering his freshly shattered face in pain as I passed him without hesitation and ran up the stairs to the roof. What a perfect asshole I was that day, you don't see that very often, do you? I heard the rustle of his jacket as he turned behind me, and the stupid sound almost made me take those few steps back. Almost. But I didn't.

Something in me refuses to forget the moment we ran out here together. It was the day after I almost thought I was going to die standing here alone, and suddenly George dragged me here, without the slightest clue, made me taste his sickeningly sweet coffee, and told me about how his physics professor's hair had almost started burning just moments before I pressed my lips into his. He offered me sliced apples and a handset and then we sat like that, me with my back against the chimney and George against my chest.

Yeah, I guess we used to be friends.

Christmas was painful in the end, because I knew he stayed just as well as I did, and I heard him singing these overly sweet melodies long into the night, even though he was all alone in there. Even through the wall his aura of peaceful, unbreakable and unattainably easy happiness was undeniable and so real. Not for me. I came home - ugh, home - late and only prayed it was really my door I was trying to open with thoughts clouded by God knows what. 

When I looked at my keyes and realised his key was still there, I wondered for a while - but then my senses kicked in and I threw it somewhere into my drawers, for it to never be seen again. Bye bye, memories, now burn in hell. 

I haven’t seen his face for a few days now, and I wanted nothing more than to forget it completely. The past months had stirred up too much of what I had tried so hard to bury. I haven't spoken a word to him in weeks, and I wish nothing more than to hear him answer my every thought, to simply forget how painfully close I am to someone who no longer cares for me. 

He even celebrated New Year's Eve with someone. I have no idea who with. I don't care. Have you forgotten? Then in January we ran into each other more than once, a couple of times at school, once he knocked on my door to shove some material from a professor I supposedly left in class and once I ended up in the elevator with him. The most painful two minutes of my life.

Back in January, I was going crazy in his presence - again -, back in January, I couldn't even greet him with an easy "Hi," like a small child easily could, because behind every greeting I gave him was the unforgettable memory of his door opening and how I pulled him in for a kiss and how he inhaled sharply when I closed the door and pinned him against it.

Anyways.

We were like two planets, orbiting each other, still millions of miles away, perhaps like a deadly meteorite miraculously passing the planet it threatens. I'm the meteor, if you don't get it. Just so we're clear.

To shut up with these pathetic rants, I still had a crowd of girls and plenty of drinks and probably plenty of work, but I was so good at forgetting them that I eventually got fired and contacted my parents for the first time in months. Life was going well, well, at least my old ways were still here.

And then suddenly it was February and I kept running into him, and one day he bumped into me, perhaps as a belated revenge for October, and my fingers closed around his arm so quickly and instinctively so that he didn't fall completely, that my whole skin sparkled with the desire to be touched for several hours afterwards.

I met him in the library and reached for his book while he was looking around for a chair to climb on - saving me the jokes I would have otherwise thrown at him for another week, come on, I deserve plus points for that.

I silently handed him the missing change as he ordered his disgusting coffee parody and left his forgotten textbook by the door. So yeah, I'm too much of a dick to knock and face the consequences, okay? Either he wouldn't even want to see me, or I wouldn't be able to control myself and he'd probably have to throw the book at me. 

It’s the seventh of March and I can’t sleep. Partially because the silence is too loud today. He isn’t watching a movie, he isn’t on a call with anyone, but he barely ever is, he isn’t laughing at cat compilations, or whatever he likes to watch nowadays. I considered listening to something with headphones to block it off, but his silent presence is so real once again. He’s so close and I’m going insane about it, can’t even lie now. 

A few moments fly by and I think I’m falling asleep, when I hear some rumbling behind the wall. I yawn and turn to the other side. I am now sleeping and I do not care about anything else, especially not the brown-haired boy who’s technically just inches away from me, if he hasn't moved his bed since I last visited. I wish he hadn't and I’m not sure why. I don’t wanna think about that.

I can see him turning around in his bed, because he always sleeps on his right side. I can imagine him checking some notification from his family, I can imagine the cold breeze slowly flowing in through the window that he always keeps open at night but never during the day, I can- I can hear him crying.

It’s too clear. It’s too clear for it to be one of my George dreams. 

I sit up straight and keep listening. For a moment he's quiet and I think Maybe it's really my fantasy going insane, maybe I need to find a new apartment to live in, but then it's there again. Sobbing as one does when everything becomes too much. Not that I ever cry - well, okay, I’ll admit it.

I sit up straight, unsure of what to do. I’d like to ignore it, something in me would really really like to ignore it, but something in me is fighting that with a power I didn’t know my thoughts had. 

I sit up straight, wondering who hurt him.

I sit up straight, convincing myself it wasn’t me-

and I get up, because there’s a clear, urgent voice that says it has been me, all this time.

(what an awesome jerk I truly am)

I run my hands through my hair, desperately looking for the pyjama t-shirt I've tossed somewhere in the corner of my overheated apartment, exhaling sharply, yanking out the drawers and rummaging through them desperately, trying to find the one thing I've decided to bury, something inside me is so desperately impatient, in such an awful hurry, so miserably panicking, quick quick quick. 

Where. Is. The. Key.

I found it. 

I feel like a psycho, rushing out of my door as quietly as possible. The corridor is dark and silent as death.

I stop right in front of his door, suddenly uncertain. It can still be heard if I hold my breath. I raise and lower my hand a few times before I actually knock, but I can't go back to myself and pretend nothing is happening. I feel awful for several - all - reasons, I'm screaming at myself and my fingers are  slightly  shaking. Just slightly.

I knock and there is a grave silence. Then I hear a rumble, followed by a moment of silence. Another noise. I raise my hand to knock again when the door actually opens and my heart skips a beat. Or two.

He looks- he looks broken. But also damn sexy. Shattered in pieces. Cute too. Damn, my George - well, he's not my George anymore, but they look so much alike. We lock eyes and what I see in his face is what has been growing inside my soul. 

“I still have your key,” I say like a total dumbass and we both look down to my hand, holding this small key that once had the power to open gates to heaven. He doesn’t say a word.

“Can I- can I come in?” I ask, not knowing what to expect in answer. Probably a “fuck off” and the door slammed right in front of my face? Yeah, sounds about right.

George inhales and I notice his breath is shaky. He wipes his eye as if there was just an annoying eyelash. “Yeah,” he says quietly and I’m almost not even sure he said it - until he steps back and lets me go through. 

A familiar smell I can’t describe hugs me like a blanket - but then it’s suddenly George hugging me, he somehow closes the door and he’s burying his face in my neck, I can feel his hands around my waist now and it takes me a second before I realise George is truly here, hugging me and it almost makes me tear up how fragile he is when I pull him closer and I feel his shaky breath again.

I pick him up without thinking further and take him back to his bed, the bed is all crumpled up and I feel the tension in his body as he’s holding onto me and I’m not thinking other than I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so fucking sorry George I’m so sorry I’m a dumbass who hurt you-

He curls up and he looks so small, but grabs my hand as I awkwardly sit on the edge of the bed and pulls me closer to him.

He’s whispering through the tears, I can see them reflecting the light of the moon behind the window.

“Can you stay tonight?”

I don't care about anything other than him. 

His head is on my chest, sometimes he shakes all over and I hug him as best as I can and it's been a long time since I hugged him with all my soul. His breathing settles and I feel his cold tears fall on my hand and he is my George and he looks so fragile when he leans against me, when he holds me.

“I’m not leaving,” I whisper into his hair. “Not again,” I promise.

---

taglist: @thingsstuffsworld @clayfoam @existingthingiguess @georgouseyelash

[sparkledfirecracker]

Wrong Encounter

Synth’s 5K Follower Challenge / How it started – How’s it going?

@syntheticavenger , Congrats on reaching 5K and thank you for hosting this magnificent celebratory challenge.

Title: Wrong Encounter

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x Female Reader

Challenge: Any character but arguing over being charged for something you didn’t order at a restaurant and the owner comes to assist.

Warning: 18+ only, dark content, explicit language, explicit sexual content, vaginal play/teasing?, sex/human trafficking?, sexwork, forced prostitution, forced sexwork, smut, unprotected sex, NonCon

A/N: I can’t say this enough; Synth thank you for inspiring me to write again!  I could have gone any direction yet this came out and fought me along the way, so I whipped out the old skool pen and paper. Maybe a little too save on the warnings, but at least they’re there. Don’t think it is dark enough, so enjoy this masterpiece of crappiness, because editing is not making it any better with this beer I’m consuming. Also as a non-native tongue here, so ALL mistakes are my own. Only lightly proofread, so don’t come for me.

ENJOY!

Pictures for moodboard inspo found on pinterest, so all the credit goes to the respectful owners. The quote inspired the final part to this.

How it started

The red ambiance of the room mixed well with the black shining floor and hanging chandeliers, it was slick and well set up. Looking around the room had you wondering what the parties must be like at night. A colleague had recommended this new place – an exquisite night – as they had described it. Yours ending miserably having a disagreement with your waiter.

The waiter had a way of pissing you off tonight and irritation was clearly bubbling “I’ve only had the steak with sides and a fucking bottle of rose, not the entire fish tank and three bottles of your most expensive champagne” your white knuckles balling around his collar as you practically screamed in his face.

 “There was another table that said you would pay for them.” It sounded like a plea of trying to settle the rage that was coursing through your body.

 “OUTRAGEOUS -- you don’t fact check with your customers?” You seethed “Listen up you little shit. I want to speak to your manager” throwing him out of your grasp, making him stumble backwards bumping into someone.

 “He’s already here and you have his undivided attention” your waiter stands in front of the large man awkwardly “Get back to work Jensen, I’ll deal with this fiery kitten” he nods and practically runs off.

 Annoyance rising at his degrading comment. “Perfect, an insult to go with the wrongly charges to my bill”

 “Ma’am please calm down, I’m sure there’s a way to resolve this mishap” his stance intimidates you

 Your eyes wandered to his silver nametag “Why should I calm down, mister Drysdale? Or should I say, entitled prick?” there was pride in your comeback, no-one should ever call you a fiery little kitten.

 “Ma’am, Ransom, please and watch your mouth, because we have places for woman like you.” It almost sounds like a threat and you’re willing to fight him on it.

 He’s a dark enigma, you can feel it radiate from his body. You’re too caught in taking in his enchanting features and wonder what kind of sorcery this man is using on you to make you feel so small.

 “Why don’t we settle this in my office” A charming smile thrown your way, but you’re too caught up in observing the blue-eyed man in front of you “Ma’am?”

 “Sorry, yeah, the idiot waiting on me charged more to my bill than I even consumed.” You explained without him asking for any of it.

 “Unfortunate, but it happens, please follow me to my office so we can resolve this. Can I offer you a coffee or something else for the inconvenience?”

 “No – No, your waiter overcharged me. No need to sit down somewhere private for this idiotic mishap” words falling firmly from your tongue “Just fix my bill so I can be on my way and never come back.”

 “Please, let us sort this out, if you just come with me to my office -- we can talk this over” His calming persistence had you hooked and you took a deep breath in.

 “Fine.”

 “Great, thank you – Jensen, we’ll be in my office, don’t fuck up more than you already have” You roll your eyes at the barked order, he felt superior to his employees.

 You had followed him into his office, the golden name plate beaming on the door. The dark aesthetic of his office fitted well with the ambiance he’d created in his restaurant and nightclub, it felt luxurious and exclusive, sprinkled with a bit of mystery.

 Ransom stood by his bar cart filled with expensive liquors while your eyes lingered on the well-stocked bookshelves. Ransom Drysdale didn’t look like much of a reader to you.

 “My grandfathers, well most of it anyway, he’s a writer and owns Blood Like Wine Publishing” Ransom explained looking at your admiring gaze. You look back at him noticing his motioning gesture to the chairs “Please sit, can I offer you a drink?”

 “No thank you” shaking your head at his offer, he poured his poison of choice, even though you had refused he handed you a glass. It would be rude to decline again, you accepted the tumbler letting your fingers trace the outlines of the crystal glass in your hand.

 “I won’t keep you for long. What happened?”

 “Tonight I celebrated my promotion and a colleague recommended this place. To find out that – Jensen, I believe his name is – added the entire fish menu and three bottles of your exclusive champagne to my bill. Only to justify it with -- the other customers told me that you would pay for them – kinda bullshit” anger returning you gulped down the strong spirit.

 “I apologize for the experience. How about we forget this night? I want you to come back somewhere next week. Let us wine and dine you, give you the experience you deserved to have had tonight.” He took a sip from his own glass looking at you with darkened yet hopeful eyes.

 It had been a tempting offer, was it going to be worth your time or would you be left disappointed again? “You know what, fine. I’ll be here next week, same time, same day.”

 How’s it going?

One week later

Everything in you had screamed not to continue the night in Ransom’s office. Yet here you we, having had that hard liquor burning down your throat. He’d explained how you owed him now and that his interest in your aggression -- a week prior -- had sparked his desire. There was no going back, there was no way out.

 Ransom’s looking forward to what is to come. For now, he’s cherishing this moment, he loves the switch being pulled, when the terror fills your eyes and start to physically fight him. They always did and he knows you will too, within the soundproof walls screaming when there is still fight left.

 Your mind still trying to comprehend his plans for you. You weren’t sure what to say, instead you settled on staring back at him. Your optic view taking in his well-build frame. You licked your lips unknowingly when he flexed his pecks under the crisp white button down. Your body betraying you by your crossed legs clenching together.

 “Like what you see, precious?” your wandering gaze shot up to meet his eyes, your cheeks blushed as you got caught in the act “-I am certainly liking what I’m seeing”

 “Don’t flatter yourself, Mister Drysdale” you roll your eyes, leaning forward to set the empty tumbler on his desk. He’d taken a step sideways having his crotch right in your face. “Is this really how you want to settle this?”

 “Ransom, I insist -- and funny you should ask.” He looks amused by your question “This is exactly how we’re going to finish this extravaganza I offered you”

 He was on you before you could even make a comeback. His strong arms had lifted you from the chair, kissing you roughly. A strong – almost painful – hold on your neck, other on your hip pushing you into him feeling his stiff shaft probing against your lower belly.

 You felt the shame rising as you let out a moan. His free hand hiking up your skirt, ripping your panties with his calloused hands. The sound snapped you back to reality of what was happening. You tried to push him off, but struggled in his strong grasp. Grabbing his wrist digging your nails in into his flesh.

 “You evil spawn.” He roared crushing the grip on your neck, making you squirm “I was going to make this a pleasant thing, but now I’ll take what’s mine.”

 “Rail me daddy.” You taunted, you knew you shouldn’t, but there was nothing left to loose.

 “That mouth on you little minx. Not one to deny requests though, so the pleasure will be all mine -- Until.That.Cunt.Is.All.Fucked.Out.” with each word spoken he had rubbed himself on you, the heat in your pussy rising unwillingly.

 “I just didn’t know you were running a brothel.”

 “This is not a brothel, there are no prostitutes at this address. Just woman with disrespecting mouths like yours solicited for exclusive places like mine” Ransom muses “Because you’re staying right here – with me” He forces your neck to bend uncomfortably forcing you to look into his darkened orbs.

 Trying to fight him, but failed under his strength. Your body surrendering to his brutal force pressing you into the mahogany wood. The chime of his belt and zip being undone echoing through the room.

 “Don’t please.” You begged trying to get out of this horrible nightmare. A wrong encounter because of being wrongly charged for items you didn’t consume.

 “Let’s play a little game first; if those panties aren’t drenched - I’ll let you go” Keening at the cool air hitting your clit when Ransom’s hands opened your wet lips. “But – if that sweet little honey pot of yours is soaked for me, I’ll fuck you open with just my cock and you’ll stay right here -- forever.”

 “No.” you protested.

 His whispered confession only proved his twisted game. “I think you and I both know what it will be.” His fingers played with your clit and prodded your entrance. A soft wail escaped at his given attention. “I think you’ll be a nice addition to my selection of ladies.” Ransom couldn’t help but smirk at your powerless expression. His confession only added to the unwavering pain of realization that you were stuck in this newfound imprisonment.

 Thumbs pressing into your ass, his other fingers digging into the flesh of your hips. He slams into your fluttering cunt, the air leaving your body from his unforgiving pace. You scream loudly at the unwanted pleasure.

 You’re fully trapped underneath Ransom’s body, impaling you from behind continuously. “Scream for me!” It’s an order you won’t obey and you squeak when he balls your hair in his fist “Fierce little minxes like yourself are made for places like mine” Ransom growls into your ear. “Let me hear those gorgeous sounds, precious. Scream while you still can before it vanishes. No-one can hear you, scream for ME.”

 Ransom’s arm finds its way around your neck jerking you into his toned chest, your hips being bruised from the impact of the wood. Your hands grip his arm trying to loosen the chokehold, fighting for air into your lungs only to have it escape with every rut inwards. His free hand rubbing circles on your pulsating bead, his pleasured grunts making your stomach churn.

 Pleasure taken from your - desperate, powerless and giving - body in his arms. He ravishes your body, like you’re his personal favourite fucktoy. Your legs start to tremble and your orgasm builds rapidly under the abuse, little whimpers escaping you. Tears streaming down your cheeks at the realisation of being solicited for a brothel.

 Only seconds later your body surrendered to the fire within you, screaming out to Ransom while your body shook heavily in his hold. His arms let you go, your quivering body dropping on the desk, panting from the intense build orgasm. The lost air stings with every inhale, you’re too tired to fight him.

 Ransom sat down in his leather chair and picked up the phone. You tried to look away from him, but he is fast to grab your hair and keep the intense stare. Ransom’s pride beams, he’s a heartless beast. He’s always gotten what he wanted and you’re just a new addition to his elite gentlemen’s club.

 “Barber? Yes! She’s definitely the one. How I know? She’s fucked out on my desk, tight little cunt on her. Perfect for the job, draw up the contract will you” A snarled order followed by a darkened smile and filthy wink thrown your way. “Her mouth looks exquisite; I’ll make sure to reserve it for your cock. So she can suck it as a thank you!”

[reidyoulikeabook]

Invisible String

Ship: Fem! Reader x Spencer Reid

Warnings: None, this is just fluff.

Word count: 3.2k

Summary: You and Spencer Reid don’t know it, but you’ve almost met quite a few times. What happens when you do?

A/N: This is potentially a bit on the wrong side of the cheesy line, but I was listening to invisible string by Taylor Swift and couldn’t get this idea out of my head. Pls bare in mind I’m from the UK and my only understanding of the US college system is from Google searches, so pls be forgiving of any misunderstandings about that.

November 6th, 2007

Dr. Spencer Reid. As you sat, thumbing through the article he’d written about the formation of ionic compounds in a chemical whose name you could not for the life of you spell or pronounce, you couldn’t help but resent the man.

Sure, the paper was very well-written and as cohesive as possible given the complex subject matter. But Dr. Spencer Reid, whoever he was, was the current source of your resentment at selecting chemistry to make up your science credit. Highlighting the name of a substance you’d have to look up later, you sighed. It was getting late but you had to hand in a critical summary of the paper on Friday.

It didn’t help that Dr. Reid was: a) a triple doctorate holder by the age of 22, or b) that your chemistry lecturer was none other than his old chemistry lecturer from Caltech and practically glowed with pride whenever he got to bring him up.

You chew on the end of your pen, having now distracted yourself from the notes. Not that you were particularly focused anyway.

In another life, maybe you’d have been a budding chemist who could describe an ionic lattice off rote. In this one, however, you’d just have to settle for slogging through the list of chemical processes and hoping you understood it well enough to please Dr. Reid’s biggest fan.

***

April 16th, 2008

Spencer hated flaking on commitments. It caused him a great deal of anxiety, the feeling of disappointing someone. He didn’t have much choice in this circumstance though.

Diana had taken ill over the last weekend. Nothing serious, some stomach bug or other. She’d become severely dehydated though, and had been hospitalised as a precautionary measure. Truth be told, he might not have gone if she hadn’t caught him on the phone. He was already feeling guilty for not having visited since Christmas. He wrote her letters everyday, yet still felt like he was neglecting his duties as a son. Rubbing his hands over his face, he lets out a deep sigh. Then takes out his laptop, to send another email.

Dear. Dr Abraham

I sincerely apologise again for my last minute cancellation. Excluding any unforeseen circumstances, myself and SSA Hotchner will be available to present the lecture on May 12th.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Spencer Reid.

***

May 12th, 2008

Considering this was your third year on campus, you sure were bad at finding your way around. In your defence, they were doing maintenance in one of the main buildings, meaning that lectures got shuffled around and relocated. You probably had a higher change of attending the right lecture by accident than on purpose.

It doesn’t help that you’re running a little late this morning. You rush into Room 203. A lot of the seats are taken, you have to meander your way past quite a few people until you end up sat almost directly in the middle. Only moments before the lecture starts.

“I’m SSA Hotchner, and this is SSA Reid. We’re members of the BAU which is based at FBI quarters in Quantico. Today, we’ll be talking to you about profiling.”

This is not your forensic linguistics lecture.

Panic hits you, hot in your gut. Scanning the room anxiously, you suddenly become conscious that you’re drawing attention to yourself when you feel the eyes of the man who is not SSA Hotchner on you. Fuck.

There’s no way for you to escape now, not without disturbing half the lecture hall.

So you sit back in your seat, resigning yourself to sit awkwardly in the lecture you’re not supposed to be in and hoping nobody notices.

But then, it’s really interesting, actually. The work that Dr. Reid does sounds similar to work you’ve done in forensic linguistics, analysing patterns of speech and minor phrase formations that can give things away about the perpetrator. By the end of the seminar, you’re sat leaning forward. Enraptured by almost every word coming out of their mouths.

It seems to be the general mood: everyone is enamoured. People are clammering to speak to them at the end. After a brief inner battle, myou decide that you should talk to them too.

What’s the harm?

You’ve decided that you’ll speak to Dr. Reid, since he seems to share more of a field focus. However, as you’re heading down, you spot him. Dr Adams, your chemistry lecturer from last year. Oh shit, it’s that Dr. Reid.

Speaking to SSA Hotchner will just have to do instead.

----

“I’ve been majoring in forensic linguistics and criminal psychology,” You tell him, “Do you think ... I mean, I know it’s a pretty exclusive team to get on to. But is that the kind of thing that could maybe get me there one day?”

Hotchner nods, “Forensic linguistics is something that comes in very useful in the investigative aspects of cases. The FBI is always looking for new angles and perspectives, those are both good subjects to study if you were thinking of signing up to the academy.”

"Thank you, Agent Hotchner,” You say, suddenly a little bashful as you notice the queue of people lingering behind you, “That was a really interesting lecture. It’s definitely something I’ll think about.”

“You should talk to Dr. Reid if you have a particular interest in the linguistic aspect of profiling. He’s more specialised in that area than I am. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to discuss any research you’re conducting at the moment and suggest materials that might be helpful in furthering your understanding of the area.”

“Thank you,” You smile, and he nods at you again.

Stepping away from Agent Hotchner, you look to your right. Dr. Reid is still engaged deeply in conversation with Dr. Adams. You glance at your watch. There was time before your next class, you supposed, so you could wait. It couldn’t hurt to find out more, could it? It wasn‘t like you were getting your hopes up or anything.

It’s then that you feel a pair of arms around your waist, a familiar scent of cologne.

“Hey!” You whip around to see your boyfriend, grinning widely.

“Hey,” You reply, “How’d you find me?”

“I was walking past when I saw you talking to that FBI agent. Seriously, FBI?” He asks, with a disapproving quirk of his eyebrow, “You want to grab a coffee before Psych?”

You want to say no. But he’s got his hand on the small of your back, leading  you out of the room before you even get a chance to reply. You glance back over your shoulder, making eye contact with Dr. Reid for all of two seconds before you’re swept away.

“Seriously though babe, FBI?”

Unsurpisingly, you don’t mention your potential change in career path to him.

***

March 8th, 2009

“Come in,” Hotch calls. He looks up from the paperwork on his desk to see Spencer entering the room, clutching a report in his hand.

“That last case we were on. I was doing some more research, just for future reference about linguistic patterns. Have you read this?” He asks, sliding a copy of your paper across the desk.

Hotch gives it a cursary look over, nodding, “Yes. It’s interesting. She’s signed up as an NAT. I believe I actually spoke to her at one of our lectures last year.”

"Her work is really impressive for somebody whose only studied this at a master level.”

Hotch almost smiles, “Yes. That’s exactly why I’ve recommended to the bureau that she signs up for profiling classes. Her work shows a lot of promise. They’re sending over a copy of her completed thesis, if you’d like to read it.”

“Yeah, I’d like that, thank you,” Spencer says, struggling to conceal the smile playing on the corner of his lips.

“I’ll email it to you as soon as I receive it.”

Spencer nods, smiling properly to himself as he leaves the room. It wasn’t unusual, exactly, for him to share new research that was relevant to cases. It was important that they all kept themselves fresh and acquainted with new theories about the field. Hotch, however, didn’t miss the excited way Spencer had presented it to him. Talking about how impressive you were, as if to subtly hint. He thinks it’s quite typical, actually, that Spencer could take such an interest in someone he only knew via an essay.

Although Spencer’s response does get Hotch to send a follow-up email, inquiring about whether you’d agreed to the classes. If Spencer was this impressed with your work, it must be good.

***

June 1st, 2009

The Metro that morning is packed. It doesn’t help that you’ve not been living here long, and don’t exactly know the route from your flat to the station off by heart yet.

You'd also had to make a detour to the post office. Your, firmly ex, boyfriend had mailed over the last of your things. Really, it was good riddance. His hounding you about your choice in job had only worsened. The relationship had been hanging on by a thread long before you’d moved away last month. You were more than a little grateful that it was finally over, that you could draw a line under it all and focus on your career.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t stopped you having a little cry to yourself on the way over.

Rushing, you make it onto the Metro just as the doors are about to close, falling against the railing on the left side. You grip onto it for dear life.

On the other side of the carriage, Spencer notices someone hurrying for the train. He had been buried deep in the paper he's reading, but the bustle had pulled his attention. Your back is to him, and there’s a scarf at your feet. He wants to say something, to try and get your attention, but he can’t from where he is.

“Miss, I think you’ve dropped something,” The woman you’re standing in front of says, gesturing to the scarf pooled at your feet.

You meet her eyes, sniffling slightly, “Thank you.”

Spencer watches as you pick it up, back still to him. Crisis averted, he turns his attention back to what he's reading: the published copy of your thesis Hotch had emailed him last week.

***

September 2nd, 2009

"This is SSA ____, the newest member of our team. She’s recently graduated from the academy and has an excellent knowledge of linguistics that the bureau feels will be a great advantage to this team. She’s had her induction and now will be joining the team on a probationary basis. She’ll be spending a little time with each of you in between cases to make sure she forms well-rounded knowledge of all aspects of what we do.”

It’s a little overwhelming, having everybody’s eyes on you.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Emily is the first over, offering her hand for you to shake.

“You too, it’s really nice to meet all of you,” You say, shaking hands in turn with her, Morgan, Rossi, J.J, and Garcia.

“Hi,” Spencer calls from behind you.

You turn around to face him. You remember what Hotch had mentioned to you about him being a bit of a germaphobe, so you keep your hand by your side.

“Hi,” You say, “Dr. Reid, right?”

“You can call me Spencer,” He says, a little bashful, “I read your thesis, the study about you did about the construction of passive clauses as an indicator of guilt in adolescent offenders. It was fascinating.”

You feel yourself getting a little warm under his gaze, “Thank you. I'm surprised you’re even aware it existed.”

Hotch interrupts then, “Reid, do you want to sit with ____ while she goes over the case file? It’d be useful if you could go over how you’d go about constructing a linguistic profile.”

That’s how you end up spending much of your first day: with Spencer, huddled up over case files as he explains his profile-building process to you. Spencer’s an incredible teacher, you think. He explains his thought process without ever being condescending, leaving little gaps for you to answer.

You’re incredible, Spencer thinks. You seem to grasp exactly what he’s saying, filling in the gaps based on the clues that are actually in front of you, not letting yourself be guided too much by bias.

***

October 29th, 2009

Spencer loves everyone at the BAU. They’re all the family he never had, and he has relatively good friendships with all of them. Just, they aren’t quite the same as they are with you.

He struggles to put his finger on it, exactly. It’s a unique relationship. He shares very familial bonds with a lot of them: he and Morgan are brotherly, Rossi is fatherly, Garcia’s somewhat like an overexcited little sister.

The friendship he has with you is special. You always listen to him, even as he rambles on about inane things that anybody else would tell him to shut up about. In fact, sometimes about the exact things that they do tell him to shut up about. Just last week, he was rambling on about Star Trek when Morgan told him, not altogether unkindly, to “give it a rest, kid.”

“What was that you were saying?” You’d asked, sidling up to him, “I’ve never watched Star Trek but I thought the quote was beam me up Scotty.”

He’d looked at you, considering you for a moment, “You don’t have to-”

“I know. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to know Spence. You think I’d ask for a 15 minute lecture on Star Trek if I wasn’t interested in it?”

A warm feeling flooded his chest. The look on your face was so genuine, and you’d perched on the edge of his desk as he gesticulated, getting deep into the lore and how the misconception had come about. He still didn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, until he got to the end of his spiel. And then you asked him a question. You asked him a question to make sure you understood what he was talking about. You were listening the whole time, and you genuinely cared about the point he was making.

It's then that he realises, it was hard to pinpoint because it wasn’t friendship. He likes you. Shit.

***

November 2nd, 2009

You like everybody at the BAU. They’re all quite patient with you, really, happy to walk you through how they do things. Morgan’s taught you quite a bit about the tactical side of things already, and Rossi has been working with you on your interrogation techniques. Emily’s generally just a great mentor, always happy to listen and support however she can. She’s more experienced, but still relatively new to the team too, so you feel like there’s a certain understanding between you.

However, you’d definitely be lying if you said the person you hadn’t learnt the most from, or spent the most time with, was Spencer.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the team, either. You seemed to gravitate towards one another, forever sitting side-by-side on the plane. Sharing a line of thinking that usually led to devolved rambling, and scribbling, until you came up with something coherent.

It isn’t until November 2nd that you realise you have feelings for him.

You’re sitting at your desk, filling out a case report that Emily had promised to go over with you before she left for lunch.

“Hey,” Spencer’s familiar soothing voice comes, as he sidles up to you, “I got you something.”

Looking up, you notice the coffee cup in his right hand, “You are my caffeine lifesaver.”

He hands it to you, smiling a little nervously, “It’s actually not that.”

“Oh?”

His other hand is tucked behind his back, and he pulls it foward towards you, brandishing a red sweatshirt.

“I know you uh, left your red sweater behind at the hotel on the last case. And I know it was your favourite one, and I was shopping yesterday and I saw this and...” He trails off, embarassed, “It’s not the exact same, but it’s the same kind. I just thought you might like it.”

You swallow, hard, “Spencer that’s so sweet. C-Can I hug you?”

He nods. Standing up from your desk, you wrap your arms around his frame.

“That was so thoughtful.”

He squeezes you a little, really leaning into the hug, his face pressing against your shoulder. His tousled hair tickles your nose a little and you smile, clinging onto him, relishing in the feeling of safety and warmth.

It hits you then. When you realise you don’t want to let go. When you realise he makes you feel fuzzy. Loved. Cared for in a way you haven’t felt in a long time. Eventually, you have to let him go, and it’s in a daze that you return to your desk. You’re so concentrated on your overwhelming realisation, you don’t realise how reluctant he is to let you leave his embrace.

***

December 22nd, 2009

Driving Spencer home from the office was really just an excuse to get some time alone with him. You’d said something about the Metro being busy, one of the services being cancelled. He hadn’t factchecked you on that.

The BAU had tentative plans for boxing day, with the caveat being that no emergent cases arrived in the meantime. It was only really four days you wouldn’t see him, but that was longer than you’d ever gone without seeing him in all the time you’d known him. You worked together everyday, and it was unusual for you to go a full weekend without seeing each other. Recently, you’d got into the habit of going out for Sunday brunch together.

Pulling up outside his house, you hear him sigh.

“I know it’s only four days, but I’ll miss you.”

Smiling, you turn to him, “I’ll miss you too.” 

Something in you changes then. He’s looking at you. You may be relatively new to profiling but you can see something behind his eyes, feel the charge of unsaid words electrifying the air.

“Can I hug you?” He asks.

“You can always hug me,” You reply, undoing your seatbelt and opening your arms for him.

He embraces you the way he always has: tightly. Like he doesn’t want to let go, couldn’t imagine ever letting you go. His face nuzzles to the crook of your neck, and then you feel his thumb brush your chin. Tilting your head down.

You exchange a look. His eyes flicker from your eyes, to your lips, and back. You nod your head, just slightly.

He kisses you then. Tender. You melt into one another, lips moving quickly as you drink one another in. Kissing each other breathless, your fingers intertwine in his hair and his hand comes up to cup your cheek. Nothing has ever felt so right.

***

June 10th, 2011

Neither of you have ever really believed in fate. It’s hard to - especially in your line of work - to want to interpret the workings of the universe as deliberate. Maybe you’d think a little differently though, if you knew about all the near-misses. All the times you could have met. But fate knew better. She waited until you were ready.

And as you exchange vows, promising each other your forever, you both know you couldn’t possibly deny that this was meant to be.

------

Taglists: @takeyourleap-of-faith @sassiest-politician

(let me know if you would like to be added to/removed from this list!)

[sequinsmile-x]

Bait

In which Aaron looks like the victims of the case they are on, and Emily does not like Dave's suggestion that they use her boyfriend as bait.

This was originally meant to be a mini fic for here, but in a way that is very on brand I got carried away and now its a full on one shot.

Words: 4k 

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence 

Read on AO3 via this link, or below the cut

Let me know what you think! 

Emily wakes to the sounds of a phone ringing. She groans when the arm that had been wrapped around her waist moves, leaving the chill from the air to hit her skin.

“Hotchner.” His voice was rough with the early morning, and it was clear he’d had very limited sleep. She settles down further into the bed, trying to claim the last few moments of rest before they have to leave. “Ok thanks, Garcia. Call the others and tell them to go straight to the jet.”

He hangs up and lays back down behind her. He closes the gap between them, pressing his naked chest up against her back. He wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her closer, nudging hair away from her neck with his nose so he can kiss her throat.

“Morning.” He says, nuzzling her neck. “We’ve got a case in Colorado. We’re meeting on the jet and Garcia is going to brief us in full once we’re wheels up.” He kisses the side of her head. “She’ll call you soon.”

“It’s way too early.” She grumbles, opening one eye to see it was only just 4am. She bats at him when he laughs into her neck. He grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles, laughing when she grumbles again, curse words whispered at him under her breath.

The longer they had been together, now 6 months since his fumbled attempt at asking her out on their first date, the more she felt uncomfortable that they were keeping this from the team. It was starting to feel like a dirty secret, when it was anything but. They loved each other, they’d had a serious conversation about their future. Discussions of a house, a wedding and children whilst laying in the dark together. But they still hadn’t taken that step, still hadn’t told the people they considered their family that they were a couple. Emily knows it’s because they were in too deep now, too far into this secret to claw their way out without there being some uncomfortable conversations.

She knew they’d be happy for them, but it would open their relationship that had been almost exclusively just for them up to scrutiny. The others would watch them, try to observe their behaviour around each other. Their relationship meant too much to her for it to be profiled like the criminals they chased.

She was surprised they hadn’t caught it at JJ’s wedding. Her and Aaron had danced together, his hand a little too low on her back for it to be considered friendly. How they had both disappeared into Dave’s house at the same time, gone for 30 minutes with poor excuses for their absence upon their return. She still couldn’t go into Dave’s first floor bathroom without blushing, memories of her pushed up against the door with Aaron’s hand over her mouth. His joy at her decision to stay, to turn down Clyde’s offer of a job across an ocean, was too great for them to wait until they got back to his home or hers.

Her phone rings and she sighs as she extracts herself from his embrace just enough to pick up her cell phone from the nightstand. “Hey, Pen.”

Emily tries to listen to Penelope as she gives her the same basic details she had given Aaron only moments before, but she is distracted by his lips against her neck, his hand drifting down her abdomen. She manages to catch it with her spare hand, gripping a little harder than necessary when she links their fingers, throwing him a look over her shoulder.

She hangs up the phone with a goodbye to Penelope, hoping the other woman hadn’t heard Aaron’s laugh he had attempted to press into her skin. “That was mean.”

“It’s not my fault you’re irresistible.”

Emily turns over and kisses him, anchoring her hand to the back of his head. She pulls back enough to smile at him. “Do you have a suit here?”

Aaron nods, kissing her gently. “Yes. And my go-bag is in my car.”

She smiles. “Perfect.” Another kiss. “That means we have time for a shower before you have to go.” _____________

When she steps onto the jet the only seat left is next to Aaron. He looks at her, an eyebrow raised as she sits next to him.

“You’re late, Prentiss.”

She looks at him pointedly, a subtle narrowing of her eyes that she knows he catches.

“Sorry, sir.” She says, biting back the temptation to say it was his fault she was late in the first place, their joint shower lasting twice as long as it should have done. He’d left her at her place less than half an hour ago, a kiss pressed to her lips as she was drying her hair, a promise that he would see her soon. “It won’t happen again.”

Emily fights a smirk at the brief sparkle in his eye. This had become part of their game, pushing the boundaries a little further each time, wondering when the team would catch on to what was going on between them.

They all make small talk as the jet takes off, pointless conversation over cups of coffee. Once they reach altitude Penelope calls and they start to go over the case. Emily freezes when she looks at the pictures of the victims. They are all male. Handsome. White, tall and broad with dark hair.

They all looked like Aaron.

And these men were being viciously beaten to death. She looked up and everyone was still listening to Penelope as she told them the details. It gave her a second to recover, forcing herself to tune back into the conversation around her. ____________

They were struggling to build a profile. The men who were being killed had little in common apart from how they looked and where they were being killed. The only bar in town, a dingy place that reminded Emily too much of her misspent youth.

On the second day they were in town another man was found dead in the alley behind the bar, his face beaten almost beyond recognition. Emily went and delivered the news to his widow, and desperately tried to ignore how much the man in the pictures displayed on the walls looked like Aaron.

She barely sleeps that night. They were good on cases, rarely sneaking into each other's rooms. She knew he had to have seen it too, that she wasn’t imagining how similar the victims looked to him, so she didn’t want to burden him with it. She didn’t want to make this about how it was making her feel. So she stayed in her room, and eventually drifted off to sleep in a bed she wished he was in too.

Emily wakes up gasping, images of Aaron’s dead body in that alley burned into her eyelids.

She doesn’t sleep again that night, and is grateful when he presses a coffee into her hands in the morning, his thumb discreetly skating over her knuckles. ____________

“What shall we do now?” JJ asks. There were concerns that the unsubs, because they had figured there must be more than one person given the size of the men being killed, would strike again that night. The devolution of their actions indicated that there would be an attack a night until they were caught.

“We just so happen to have someone on the team that matches the victim profile.” Dave says, acknowledging what none of them had said out loud in the three days they had been in Colorado. Everyone looks at Aaron expectantly, and Emily thinks she has never been closer to killing David Rossi. “We could plant you at the bar where the victims have gone missing from, see if we can draw the unsub in.”

“And what?” Emily says, somehow keeping her voice even. “Use Hotch as bait?”

“It’s our only option.” Aaron says, a flash of apology across his face as he briefly looks at her. “I can’t exactly wear this to a club.” He says gesturing to his suit. “I very clearly look like an FBI agent.”

Derek and Dave laugh at his attempt at humour, Emily does not.

“Hotch.” She says evenly, her voice not betraying the emotions that were tumbling around in her chest. He turns to look at her, his face neutral. “Can I have a quick word?” She tilts her head towards an empty office and he nods and follows. If the others think it's odd that she wants to speak to him alone they don’t say anything.

“I don’t like this, Aaron.” She says as soon as the door closes behind them, her voice a rushed whisper, not wanting anyone to potentially overhear if they walked past the tiny office. He opens his mouth to speak, but she talks again, cutting him off before he can even start. “We don’t know enough how the unsubs are doing this. Or why they are doing it. It’s too risky.”

“Emily.” Aaron says, his voice soft in a way he only usually used with her when they were alone, tangled up in his sheets or hers, or snuggled together on one of their couches. It makes her sigh, and she closes her eyes to briefly break eye contact with him, knowing he is about to convince her exactly why he had to do this despite her reservations. “We have no other choice. I fit the victimology and we can’t risk them killing someone else.”

“What if this was the other way around?” She asks, crossing her arms across her chest as she tries to reason with him. “Are you seriously telling me that you’d be fine with me going in there? That you’d be ok with me being used as bait after you’d spent the last few days looking at pictures of bodies of people who looked exactly like me?”

Aaron opens his mouth to disagree with her, but a simple raise of her eyebrows stops him. “No, I wouldn’t be ok. But we have no other choice.”

“I don’t like it.” She repeats, defeat making her voice shake slightly.

Aaron turns to look out of the window of the office they are in, and when the coast is still clear he grabs her hand, running his thumb back and forth over her wrist. “It will be fine, sweetheart.”

Emily nods, the protest that he doesn’t know everything would be fine dying in her throat. All she could do was sit back and watch as he put himself at risk. Her love for him stuffed into a box in her head where no one else could see it, the privilege JJ had of breaking down publicly when Will was in the bank not afforded to her. She squeezes his hand back, and wishes more than anything that she could kiss him.

“If anything happens to you, even just a scratch, I’m teaching Spencer just enough Italian to piss Dave off.”

That makes him laugh, a brief flash of his dimples settling her nerves in her stomach. “I would expect nothing less.”

“We should get back.” Emily says, extracting her hand from his. She grasps the lapels of his jacket. “And you’re right, you need to change. You look like a fed.” ____________

Emily keeps staring at the monitor, the CCTV from the bar displayed for the team to watch in the back room they were in. She keeps her eyes on Aaron, her thumbnail in between her teeth, as they waited for any sign that the unsubs were around. That someone besides them was watching him.

“You ok there, princess?” Derek asks, drawing her attention towards him. He is eyeing her curiously. “Worried about the boss?”

She can feel Dave and JJ’s eyes on her too, she pulls her thumb out of her mouth and clears her throat. “I’m just not comfortable with this idea.”

“And why is that? Hotch can hold his own.” He replies, an edge to his voice she doesn’t like.

“It’s because Emily and Hotch are sleeping together.” Spencer says without looking away from the monitors, his eyes still on Aaron.

“What?” Derek asks, snapping his head in Spencer’s direction.

“How the hell did you know, Reid?” Emily says, turning to Spencer. She always figured that it would be Dave who would have figured it out. His meddling tendencies well known.

Spencer turns to look at her, taking his attention off of the CCTV footage. “You’re both happier but trying to hide it. Jack said your name 9 times the last time we were all together, indicating that he is spending more time with you in a personal capacity, and you and Hotch both came to work this morning smelling of the same soap.” He explains, Emily’s blush deepening as he spoke. “Not to mention I saw you kissing in the parking garage last month.”

“You’ve known for a month?” JJ says, smacking his shoulder lightly. “Why didn’t you say anything?

Spencer shrugs, looking back at Emily. “I figured they weren’t telling us for a reason.”

“You are a terrible gossip.” Dave says before looking back at Emily. “So how long has this been going on?”

Emily sighs and rolls her eyes, wishing that this wasn’t happening now of all times, that she could at least have Aaron with her for back up.

“6 months.”

“6 months.”

She says at the same time as Spencer. She looks at him again, unable to cover her surprise at the fact he had apparently known all along.

“6 months?” Derek exclaims, genuine surprise on his face. “Why did you keep it from us that long?”

“Guys.” Spencer says, trying to interrupt the conversation but failing.

“We just did, ok?” She says, crossing her arms across her chest. “We were going to tell you.”

“Guys.” Spencer says again, firmer this time interrupting whatever Derek was about to say. They all look at him, varying degrees of annoyance on their faces. “Where is Hotch?”

Emily felt like ice water had been poured over her, fear flooding her veins as her head snapped back towards the screens. Her eyes flicked across each image displayed and she couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Derek.” She chokes out, her voice not quite sounding like her own.

“Shit.” Derek exclaimed, already striding out of the room, Emily and the rest of the team on his heels. ____________

They find him in the alley behind the bar, two men holding him down as they punch him, one of them managing to kick his ribs. There’s no time to figure it out, no time to wonder how the hell they got Aaron out of the bar in the two minutes they had been distracted.

“FBI.” Derek yells, his gun drawn and pointing at them, local cops right behind him with their guns raised too. The unsubs try to make a break for it, but don’t manage it. Derek being a little too hard with the takedown of one of them.

Emily doesn’t even think about what she does as soon as they are apprehended. She’s naturally drawn to Aaron’s side, helping him sit up.

“What the hell happened?” She asks, wincing as she takes in the blood on his face. His nose was bleeding, and his left eye was already bruising. She cups his face in her hands, thumbs gently moving over tender flesh.

He tries to shy away from her touch, his eyes on JJ and Spencer standing behind her. She turns to look at them and raises an eyebrow, both of them averting their gazes. She turns back to look at Aaron, a shy smile on her face.

“Everyone knows.”

He furrows his brow at her. “How?”

“That’s not important right now.” She says, cupping his face, wiping some of the blood that had gathered at the bottom of his nose away with her sleeve. “What happened? We had our eyes off of you for two minutes and you were gone.”

“I spotted them, they fit the partial profile we had.” He explains, as if it was obvious. “So I followed them.”

“What were you thinking?” She exclaims, smacking him in the shoulder, hard, before grabbing his face again and kissing him. “That was so stupid, Aaron.” She kisses him again.

Emily wraps her arms around him tightly, pulling him into a hug that makes him wince. She lets go instantly, her hands on his shoulders as she looks him over for any other obvious injuries.

“Shit, sorry. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m ok.” He gets out, his face screwed up in pain despite his attempt at assuring her. “They just got a few good kicks to my ribs.”

She looks around, sees a paramedic standing back waiting for the scene to be cleared. “We need to get you looked at.”

“Em, I’m fine.” He protests, his breathlessness at the act of standing up giving him away as he pushes himself up off the ground.

She glares at him. “You are not fine, Aaron. You just had the shit kicked out of you by two men who wanted to kill you.” She holds his hand, links her fingers through his and gently tugs him towards where the ambulance is parked. “Let the nice paramedic look at you before I kill you myself.” ____________

He needed to get x-rays done. The paramedic was concerned that his ribs could be broken, and therefore insisted he went to the hospital to get checked out. Aaron tried to talk him out of it. He’d had broken ribs before, and claimed he knew how to handle them, but then he had looked at Emily’s face, how concerned she was, and he stopped resisting.

Emily was sitting nervously next to the gurney he was on whilst they waited for the results of the scans he had on arrival.

“Em.” Aaron says, making her look up at him from the spot she was staring at on the floor. “I’m ok.”

“You’re ok because we found you when we did.” She scoffs, shaking her head. “If we’d been only a couple minutes later…”

“But you weren’t.” He reaches out for her hand and she accepts it, fiercely holding his one hand between both of hers. “I’m ok.” He repeats, pulling their joint hands to his lips so he could kiss her knuckles.

“I love you.” She says, a sad smile on her face as she has to stop herself from looking at the dried blood on his shirt, or at how his eye was now swollen shut. She interrupts him before he can reciprocate, repeat the words back to her that they had only said out loud for the first time a few weeks ago, even though their actions had shown it long before. “You put yourself in unnecessary danger today.”

“Sweetheart-”

“Don’t ‘sweetheart’ me, Aaron.” She says, moving so she was sat on the edge of the gurney. She leans down and presses her forehead to his, not caring how ridiculous she would look to anyone who walked in. Her FBI bullet proof vest is still on over her sweater, her gun on her hip. “You can’t do that.” She pulls back to look at him. “You can’t, ok?”

“Em, our jobs are dangerous.”

“I know that.” She replies through slightly gritted teeth. “We both have scars to prove it. But today didn’t need to happen.”

“It was a measured risk.”

“A measured risk that could have cost me you.” She says, her voice finally wavering. “I can’t lose you.” He opens his mouth to talk but she presses a finger to his lips. “And you can’t say that I won’t, love. We both know you can’t promise that. But you don’t have to offer yourself up to unsubs like a lamb to slaughter, ok?”

He clearly disagrees with her, she can see it written all over his face, and on some level she knows she isn’t being reasonable. That the emotion of the day is clouding her judgement, in a way she usually wouldn’t let it. He nods though, presses a kiss to the finger still against his lips and it makes her laugh.

“Ok.” ____________

He has three fractured ribs and several bruised ones. He initially refuses painkillers but Emily convinces him to take them, memories of how painful take off on the jet had been after her beating at the hands of Cyrus all those years ago.

Aaron falls asleep against her. He is sitting slightly slumped in his seat, his head leaning on her shoulder. His breath makes her hair tickle against her neck and it calms her, reminds her that he was still there, that he was still alive.

Emily looks up from her paperwork to the sound of a throat clearing, and she sees Derek sliding into the chair opposite her, a curious look on his face. The team had met them back at the jet. Dave explained that the unsubs were brothers, finding men who reminded them of their father who had all but drank himself to death in that very bar when they were young. It seemed so banal, so stereotypical to Emily it infuriated her.

The team clearly had questions about what they had discovered about her and Aaron, but they were silent about it. Emily wondered how long that would last, if they would at least wait until Aaron could see out of his left eye again before they started asking about their relationship.

“Can the Spanish inquisition wait at least until tomorrow, Derek? I’m tired.” She asks, a quirk to her smile.

He holds his hands up, mock surrender on his face. “I’ll leave it for now, Princess. But if you think for one second that our beloved technical analyst will do the same, you are kidding yourself.”

Emily laughs at that, before groaning. “She’s going to be delighted.” She says, looking briefly at Aaron before looking back at Derek. “She’s been trying to tell me to give this a chance for years.”

“Really?” Derek asks, his eyebrow raised.

“Oh yeah.” She replies, a smile on her face. “It’s a common topic on ladies night.”

Derek smiles and looks at her curiously. “You love him?”

Emily bites her lip “Yeah.” She nods. “I love him.”

“I’m happy for you, Emily. For both of you.” He stands, heads back to where he had been trying to nap before he had walked over, but he turns back to her. “You owe us all dinner. Somewhere fancy.”

Emily barks out a laugh, briefly disturbing Aaron from his slumber on her shoulder. “Whatever you say, Morgan.” _______________

She takes him back to her place. It was too late to get Jack from Jessica’s, and she figured he’d want some time to prepare his son for his injuries anyway.

He’s pretty out of it from the pain and the medication, but she gets him into her bed, managing to get him down to just his briefs and under her covers. She quickly gets ready for bed herself, forgoing her usual skincare routine with just a swipe of a makeup wipe over her face.

She climbs into bed next to him, careful to put more distance between the two of them than she usually would. She turns the lamp off and settles into her pillows, ready to try and get some sleep.

“What are you doing all the way over there?” He asks, his words thick with sleep.

Emily rolls onto her side and reaches out for him, stroking her fingers over his shoulder. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You never could.”

Emily suppresses a smile in the darkness. His inhibitions were always lowered at night in one of their bedrooms, his affection for her blowing over her like a warm breeze. “Baby, you have broken ribs.”

“Come here.” He reaches out for her and she moves towards him, not wanting him to hurt himself any further by dragging her across the bed. He shifts, grimacing as he does, and rests his head on her shoulder. “That’s better.”

She laughs. “We can’t sleep like this. It won’t do either of our backs any good.”

“Just 5 minutes.”

“Ok, honey.” She says, kissing the top of his head. “5 minutes.”

“Love you, Emily.”

“I love you, too.”