#Slung an arm over his shoulder and ended with it twisted behind his back oops ♪

[sysig]

Heck yeah, Requestober!! Thanks for doing this again, it's always so much fun! I've got two TPoH ideas to choose from if that's alright, whichever you're more in the mood for. Either Dial annoying RGB, as he does, or Dial and Click being an awful chaos duo? Either would be great!

Day 17 - Boundaries, Dial

[specialbrewbutterbeer]

RECALL | Pt.3 (Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw X Reader)

Word Count: 6166

TW: Alcohol consumption, very slightly suggestive content near the end

A/N: I hope you enjoy the third part! I have at least two more parts in progress which should round it out nicely and I'm excited to post! (Also this is a repost cos I forgot to add tags earlier, oops)

Feedback is always a needed and welcome thing!

REQUESTS

MASTERLIST (PART ONE) (PART TWO)

Sugar awoke to that familiar early morning sound of jets taking off outside and low sun coming through the slats of her blinds.

She groaned, breathed in deeply and stretched out her back as she sat up. She heard it crack and click, symptoms of sleeping at a cheap plyboard desk instead of on the comfy, if over priced, memory foam mattress that she'd let a salesman in the 'Mattress King Emporium' convince her to buy about six months back.

So far it hadn't been worth the money- she'd not slept on it all that much.

She was a workaholic- like most people on the base were really.

Last night she'd not meant to have fallen asleep in her office- she'd planned to go home and sit in front of her TV and drink a couple beers, watching reruns of NCIS, before heading to her nice, soft, warm and definitely cost more than it should have, bed.

She stood and grabbed her car keys, locking her office door behind her. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to massage the stiffness out of it and walked along the corridors; lacking the usual authoritative stride. She was accompanied by the distinct sound of her keys jangling as they hung from her fingers which knotted around the keychains.

It'd been a few days since the whole fight between Bradshaw and Seresin, and she'd been run off of her feet with work.

She'd been writing reports and going over old ones, data sheets and mission documents. She'd been writing emails back and forth to the Admiral, who seemed to never sleep and replied to them with remarkable speed. She just worked and didn't bother to look at the clock.

It was still early, she had clothes in her trunk, she could still salvage the day without going home to shower and change.

She came through a heavy fire door at the bottom of a stairwell that took her straight out and into the fairly bare parking lot.

As she pulled her hand from the bar of the door and let it shut with some force behind her, Bradley looked up as he heard the thud.

He was stood with the drivers door of his old Bronco on the further side from her. The driverside door was open as he rooted around his bag looking for something, so he could spot the door (Y/n) had emerged from through the windows of his vehicle.

He didn't mean to watch as she walked across to her own car, but she seemed so different compared to what she usually put across. She leant on the side of her car, rubbed her temples and frowned as she sorted through her keys in her hand until she reached the right one, and twisted it in the lock on her trunk.

She grabbed a duffle bag and slung it over her shoulder, sighed, holding the trunklid open with one arm, before shutting it, locking it and turning tail.

He didn't think much of it, and yet couldn't wrench his eyes off of the woman for more than a few moments before they drifted back to her as she walked. He felt his gaze was somewhat pervase, so shook his head as she neared the front door and zipped up his own bag, having not found what he wanted. He moved on to searching through the glove box instead.

(Y/n) headed to the locker room. She didn't usually do this, but today she needed to.

She undressed, leaving her clothes on the bench, and stepped into a shower cubicle.

She was pretty confident no one would catch her- it was early enough that the pilots would almost certainly not be here for a little while. Long enough to shower. She hadn't seen any of them in the parking lot either- though it wasn't like she wasn't like she was looking. Her head had been swimming with work related things and ached from having slept on a pillow of paperwork.

The warm water was welcome as it dripped down her nose and fingers and down her legs. It soothed all her aches and she felt, for a second, that she could breathe.

She didn't let on very often how properly stressful it was to do her job. There was a tremendous sense of responsibility, and she was glad she could count on one hand the amount of times she'd had to lock her office door, close the blinds and sob as she filled in end of service and notice of death paperwork for someone much younger than herself- but there was always that looming threat that it was going to happen again- under her watch.

Over the years she'd come to know everything about this programme, the jets, the people. She was a pin to a gear in this machine, and a vital one. She was in charge of so much, and this whole RECALL thing had flipped what she usually delt with on it's head. Where she usually could predict, she was blind- what she knew had changed quicker than anyone could adapt.

The report templates she filed and time frame was foreign to her and to compound the stress, changes that usually she'd be able to work through, and be supported through by Admiral Kazansky were a hundred times harder now that he was ill- there was only so much he could do and (Y/n) was inheriting lots of the workload.

She was good- Simpson was good- but there were things that Kazansky did that were the extra mile, more personal and in-depth with the program that she helped to conduct in tandem with the legendary Iceman- in line with his own workaholic tendencies and the fact that TOP GUN was like his baby, he devoted himself to the details and extras that meant he knew everything and he could constantly improve TOP GUN- that was what she was suddenly doing on her own.

She loved her job- she really did. But sometimes she almost wished she had a husband, a couple kids, a stupid great lollopy mutt of a dog to greet her at the garden gate. Something to tie her down- cos right now she was full of tension and stress and anxiety. Plenty of things she didn't like to show outwardly. Things she was hired to help alleviate in everyone else around her.

She massaged shampoo into her hair and let the suds run down her.

She'd now officially not been home for over 24hrs, which didn't seem so long- but she only lived a 20 minute ride away.

Soon though she was done, and had to wrench herself away from the soothing running water, stepped into the cool and steamed up air of the rest of the locker room and wrapped herself in a towel.

She sat on the bench, towelling her hair so it wasn't so dripping wet, and then moved on to attempting to fix her face.

She held up her blush compact, which had a mirror in the lid, and began to put on some minimal makeup- a little eyeliner, and mascara, concealer, bronzer and blush, blend with her fingers and try and feel put together was the plan.

As she did, she heard the latch of the door. She turned her head to see Lieutenant Bradshaw.

(Y/n) smiled a polite smile, which was returned, before she returned to the task at hand- with a quite 'good morning Rooster' as she did.

"Mornin'" He replied, his smile fading inexplicably slower than hers- though she couldn't see it. She'd never called him that before- not just in passing. Once or twice in reference to him, or in a more professional capacity- but not just because she could. Usually it was 'Lieutenant', 'Bradshaw', and the last time they'd really spoken he'd nearly fallen over when she'd actually spoken his name- one that very few people were left to call him by.

He got called Rooster everyday, but not by her. And maybe just because he'd never heard it from her, it was now special.

He went to his locker, just a few feet from her, as she faced away from the door, and him.

Slowly he sorted through his things, he was here earlier than the others- truthfully- because he couldn't sleep. He'd got enough sleep, but not as much as he'd have liked and when he woke up early this morning he'd decided just to go in to work and get a head start. He planned to look over some notes, study the territory again.

He hadn't expected to find (Y/n) here.

Well, maybe in the building- but not here.

He shoved his bag in his locker and stood there, leafing through his notebook and sorting out some loose pages.

There was something quite domestic about it as they coexisted in the same space alone. For the both of them it was as close as they were going to get to domestic bliss any time soon.

It was a little odd, but slightly comforting- certainly not awkward.

As Rooster took out a last couple of things, before presumably heading to leave, (Y/n) was sure she saw, from the corner of her eye, as he turned to her- and paused as if he was going to say something.

He didn't, he just turned and left.

The day wasn't going to get anymore normal.

(Y/n) returned to her office, feeling a little more of herself, fresh and as ready for the day as she could be.

She sat, wading through paperwork for a couple of hours, often distracted for a few seconds, but no more than that, by the jets as they took off and landed. She did note, from the sound as she worked, that none of them were the F-18's that the RECALL team were using.

She was going to investigate it, but she had so many reports to write up- she'd decided not to.

A knock on the door disturbed her.

"Come in." She spoke, not realising she was half mumbling as she did- focused on making sure she was copying data points correctly.

She didn't look up until the person was stood in the centre of the room, she just quickly scribbled down the last few numbers first.

She was surprised to see it was Capitain Mitchell stood neatly in front of her, hands behind his back.

She didn't know where everyone had recently got the idea to be quite so formal at all times with her, she was certainly respected, but not usually treated with this level of firm seriousness. Maybe it was that all of this team were older than the usual TOP GUN students or the workload, but usually she did manage to engrain herself better than this.

"Captain?" She asked, putting her pen down and standing.

"Sugar-" He seemed to hesitate as he spoke her callsign.

She laughed.

"I know, it's a weird one to get used to. I'll answer to just about anything- like an old dog." She smiled, breathing out, though still tense.

"Right-" Maverick nodded, a smile tipping at his mouth.

"How can I help you?" (Y/n) asked.

"Well- you deal with all our HR? Don't you?" He asked.

"I am your HR department on legs." She chuckled and nodded.

"Right- then team bonding is kinda your thing?" He asked, relaxing a little.

"Oh- I'm all over it." She grinned, then paused a moment. "Don't tell me- you're cooking something up?" She tilted her head.

"Yeah, something like that. Dogfight football, on the beach." Maverick nodded. "And we were hoping you'd join us?" He smiled.

"We?" (Y/n) scrunched her nose a little and cocked an eyebrow. Mav turned and opened the door, then looked to the young woman.

"Do you mind?" He asked, now with a grin, motioning to the door.

She nodded, with her own smile and rolling her eyes- but moving outside of the office anyway.

Mav followed and lead her to the window at the end of corridor.

He opened the latch and slid it open, looking out to the parking lot.

He leant out, and gave a thumbs up- with a tremendous grin on his face.

This was greeted with a cheer.

He stepped back and (Y/n) just looked at him. He nodded his head to the window, so she looked out; to see the entire team stood in the parking lot.

When they saw her, a series of whistles, whoops, shouts and applause- which she returned with a wave and a laugh.

She scanned the group- it was Hangman, Coyote and Payback who lead the whistles, Bob waved back and smiled, Pheonix whistled and shouted the loudest of anyone, Fanboy pumped his fist in the air like he was in some kind of victory dance, and Rooster, he applauded and cheered- but for some reason her eye was drawn to him for just a second. Just a moment, and he seemed to stop.

(Y/n) shook her head with a laugh and looked back to Maverick- who shrugged.

"They're pretty keen on you." He told her.

"I was told you'd be trouble-" (Y/n) couldn't help but laugh. "So- the beach?"

Within five minutes she'd abandoned her paperwork to supervise the exercise- and had her gym stuff out of her trunk.

On the beach, she had changed into something more appropriate for the situation, and tied her hair completely out of her face.

She stood there, her sunglasses on her face, along with a smile. It wasn't wasted time being here- the more she knew about the team the better. Or that's how she was justifying it anyway.

She watched on the sand, quite enjoying looking at something that wasn't a piece of paper covered in words and numbers.

She cheered on the teams, and was happy to remain doing just that, wiggling her fingers into the warm sand and soaking up the sun- the fresh smell of the sea filling her nose.

Or she was until Hangman walked up to her, in a short break between games.

She squinted up at him as he stopped in front of her, a sly smirk on his face, he paused, then moved so that his shadow shaded her face and she could see properly.

"Hey Sugar-" He smiled, hands on his hips. "You gonna play the game?"

"I'm not nearly as fit as all you- I think I'm better suited to spectating, or I'll be trampled." She laughed as she moved her sunglassed to sit on her head.

"Aww- come on now; what if we went easy on you Sugar?" He cocked an eyebrow and held out a hand.

"I'd love to say yes- but-" She smiled but shook her head.

"Hey, you're our HR department, aren't you? You and the Captain want us to bond? Fine, but we all gotta bond, and you're part of the team." He spoke, with utter confidence. She just shot him a look of 'yeah- sure.' "What if I said it would affect my mental health, to see you, sat here, not joinin' us? As HR, you wouldn't like that, would ya?" He smirked. (Y/n) had found, despite his sarcasm and comments, he was the playful one of the group- just not in the traditional sense. He was competitive, reckless, bold and could make anything a game. Reminded her of someone else with a similar reputation.

"Well then I suppose I couldn't say no, could I? Just one game." (Y/n) laughed, and took his hand.

"Alright." He nodded, and pulled her to her feet, but didn't let go of her hand. "You do think you're part of the team, don't ya?"

"If it all goes wrong, then it'd be my fault- so yeah I'd like to think so." She smiled, a little confused.

In a split second, Seresin pulled the young woman in and into a firemans lift, with a good laugh on his lips.

(Y/n) let out a quick squeak but couldn't help but laugh- not having expected it.

"Good think nothing will go wrong." Seresin nodded and turned, walking back to the group with, effectively, one of their bosses slung over his shoulder like it was nothing.

"Is this how you treat all women, Hangman?" She laughed, giving in to it.

"No- of course not." He laughed, like it was obvious. "Just the ones on the team who try and get out of playin'."

"Bagman! Put the woman down!" Phonix called out. "Are you insane!?"

(Y/n) could only laugh.

Jake planted her down in the sand, and the moment she was out of Hangman's hands- Phoenix punched him (not very hard) in the arm.

Quite quickly (y/n) realised she'd ended up put down directly in front of Bradshaw.

She turned and found that they were just inches from eachother.

She managed to fumble an awkward hello, before Hangman called her and she turned on her heels, catching the ball that he'd thrown to her.

It really wasn't long before she was in the competitive spirit, and even Maverick had joined in. She wasn't a tall person, so most of these guys, who were considerably taller than her even when she had heels on, towered over her.

Even so, she was quite sprightly; despite this competitive disadvantage and never really ever having been much of a sportswoman.

She enjoyed herself, had a smile plastered over her face the entire time and one game turned very quickly into many more than that.

It was nice, seeing the team get along, work together- it was like overnight they'd become her absolute dream.

She looked over at Maverick, and wondered how she could have doubted him. Well- she'd not really, but she had been worried- and those are two different things. She knew he could do it- she trusted her boss, Admiral Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky had never, in her experience, been wrong; about anything. And he hadn't been about this. It was just- the ease at which it could be done that she had worried about, what the consequences might be.

But whatever Maverick had done, or said, it'd worked, and she suddenly had much more faith in how the whole thing might run smooth. Or smooth enough.

She stepped off of the pitch for a moment to catch her breath, and just watched, pulling her hair back from her face again.

She couldn't help but be particularly pleased in how her pet project seemed to actually be becoming human. It was something she was thinking as he walked over to her- how he seemed a great guy. How his smile was great, and how attractive he was when he wasn't so miserable and formal. God, that felt so unprofessional to admit to herself, but she was only human.

She was so lost in that thought that she didn't process that he had his eyes fixed on her, and was actually coming toward her.

"Hey-" He spoke, a small smile on his lips.

"Rooster." She nodded a greeting, a matching smile on hers. "Are you gonna be shirtless everytime we talk? Is that a thing now?" She teased and he laughed. "This is what you're actually like then?" She smiled as he stood beside her. This was her chance, to actually just talk to him for a second- not lecture him, not be so professional and formal and disciplinary. She'd be lying if she said she'd not been looking for the chance.

"What? This?" He laughed. "Nothing like me at all." He spoke sarcastically, an eager twitch at the corners of his mouth.

"You think?" She looked up at him, sweat on his brow, low sunlight hitting him perfectly. He was a picture. "Well..." She spoke as she stepped forward and back into the game, turning and walking backward away from him. "Feel free to show me more, Rooster." She grinned, even convinced herself to manage a sly and slightly over cocky wink, before turning and getting stuck right back in.

In that moment, he really didn't know if she meant that- or if it was just another way to make him open up; in other words, was it said because she could or because it was her job? He didn't know if it mattered. Undeniably now, the fuzz in his stomach entirely stemmed from the words she said and how well she said them.

For a moment, it seemed they were both eachother's challenge.

When she spotted Simpson talking to the Captain a while later, she jogged over, the smile on her face she couldn't wipe off.

"Sir-" she tried to retain some kind of professionalism in the eyes of her boss.

"Miss (L/n)" Simpson nodded, a slightly stern scowl on his face. "This is going well, then?" He spoke, unsure of what he was looking at.

"Yeah, you could say that." She nodded, watching the game rage on ahead.

"Is, this- going to help with our mission? Sugar?" He asked, he tensed his jaw with hands on hips. It was clear he wasn't convinced by these methods.

"I think so, Sir." (Y/n) nodded, very confident. "I think we might just about be finding our feet here." She had her doubts, and fears, she was certainly keen to have it all over with- but she had more belief in these men and women every time she spoke to them, sat in on their breifings and listened to them. "I think RECALL might actually work, Sir."

"I trust your judgement, Sugar." Simpson turned to her.

"Thank you, Sir." She smiled and gave a nod as he departed.

As she stood in the sand, glistening with sweat, as everyone else was, she had a thought. Heatstroke was never going to do anyone any good. Thankfully, she had a solution in mind.

She turned and headed up the deck of the bar, a sweet smile on her face and greeted Penny. She'd met her many times before, frequenting the Hard Deck on many occasions before and after the elder woman had purchased it.

Her absence wasn't noted until she walked back up the beach, balanced elegantly on her hand, a drinks tray, filled with ice cold bottles of beer.

Even then, a sharp whistle was required to draw attention, as she watched as the team finished rallying around Bob, who had presumably just scored. Rooster slapped him heartily on the back and he put him down off of his shoulders, as did the others.

"Refreshments folks?" She grinned as their heads turned.

"I didn't think HR would condone drinking on the job?" Coyote raised an eyebrow.

"Well- if one of you would like to tell me the time?" (Y/n) asked with a tilt of her head.

It was Fanboy who took up her request, looking at his watch.

"18.01?" He spoke.

"Exactly, so technically the working day has ended, and I have no moral or professional dilemma in this round being on me." She grinned and nodded.

Happily they all took a bottle, thanked her and were glad to have something cold to drink in the evening heat.

She hugged the tray to her chest, a satisfied smile on her face as she watched the group gather in chatter.

"You know, I don't think it's very fair..." (Y/n) heard and startled, turning quickly to the source.

"Rooster!" She laughed and shook her head, looking up at him. "What is?" She questioned, looking him over.

She was almost blushing as she stood there, a bead of sweat rolled down his temple, his classic aviators perched on his nose, though they'd slipped down enough that he could see over them.

He was unforgivingly good looking and now (Y/n) could really take it in.

"That you know every intimate detail about me and my life- and I don't know barely anything about you?" He spoke, calmly, and (Y/n) suddenly felt the dynamic shift into something more equal.

He glanced up to the bar, where the rest of the team were heading inside.

"Come in? I'll get you a drink?" He spoke, not moving his eyes back to her- fearing she'd simply say no, and hoping that, in that eventuality, averting his gaze would preserve some of his dignity and not pull threads in his self esteem.

"Alright." She smiled and in a snap Bradley couldn't help but look at her. He was almost suprised at the answer.

So they walked into the Hard Deck, Bradley slipping a t-shirt over his head and pulling it down over him, as some of the others had also done. The team were spread around the room, a few at the pool table, Maverick keeping a parental eye on them all, scanning the place from behind the bar, where he was helping Penny.

The pair sat at the bar, nearer one end, far enough away from the others that it was quiet enough for a conversation.

"I really don't know everything-" (Y/n) shook her head as she sat beside the pilot.

"Well I only know what I can- assume." Bradshaw said slowly but quite purposefully.

"And- what can you assume?" (Y/n)'s interest was piqued.

"Well... You've gotta be pretty smart-" He began.

"Thank you-" She muffled a small chuckle and nodded.

"And you know how to talk to people, you, uh, certainly told me-" Bradley nodded, raising his eyebrows and leaning back on his bar stool. "I think you probably said all the right things."

"That's my job- saying the right things." (Y/n) softened, her smile twitching a little. "Go on, what else?"

"Yeah, well- You're not married, or engaged? No rings." His eyes drifted to her hand, where indeed there was nothing aside from a plain and practical watch.

"Nope. Who's got the time these days?" She nodded and confirmed his suspicions and hopes.

"The only other thing I know for sure then-" Bradley paused for a second and leant in, whispering as he spoke next. "is what shade of lipstick you wear." He pulled back and laughed a little, and (Y/n) grinned, giving a confused look. "I noticed it this morning. Growing up with just my Mom I spent lots of time in drugstores waiting for her to pick out mascara and nail polish." He smiled.

"Some would call that a pretty intimate detail." (Y/n) almost teased.

"I think it's pretty inconsequential." He shrugged, his own smile on his lips, looking down at his drink.

"What do you wanna know then?" She asked, leaning an elbow on the bar and her head in her hand.

"Hmm... I'll start with: What you want to drink?" He looked up at her and grinned.

"Just another beer is fine." (Y/n) nodded.

"Alright, a beer it is." He nodded and got Penny's attention. She swiftly delivered another drink to the pair. As she returned to Maverick at the other end of the bar, who had just noticed the pair in isolation, they shared a subtle knowing look. "Now, Sugar-" He turned to her as he pushed her drink to her across the bar.

"Yes, Rooster." She nodded.

"How'd you end up here? Managing Top Gun?" He asked, quite genuinely.

"Well," She paused for a moment to collect the story. "I had a job just out of highschool, that was in a dentist's office- I was a secretary, one day in walks some great big military type, begs me to find an emergency appointment for his kid, I get him a slot for within the hour. He gives me his email and tells me he owes me a favour and to contact me if I ever need anything. A couple years later I find myself without a job and I'm running out of options, about to be thrown out of my apartment, loads of debt, and I get in touch-" She explained herself.

"And he helps you out?" Bradley nodded.

"Yeah- Pretty much." She laughed.

"Who was it? Not Admiral Kazansky?" He asked.

"No, but you're close- Ron Kerner?" She spoke the name, quite sure he'd know it.

"Slider? His wingman?" Bradley was as pleased as anyone would have been the coincidence that had brought her here.

"The very same." (Y/n) grinned. "He said the best he could do for me was a job out in California, an old buddy of his was running a flight school, was needing some administration staff and he could put me in touch with him." She took a sip of her drink. "I didn't know any better, had no other options, and of course it turned out to be Kazansky and Top Gun. Slider had put in a good word for me and I got the job, moved out here and worked my way up. That was... Nearly seven years ago?" (Y/n) sighed and realised how much time she'd spent in California.

"Wow, it's- that's- Do you still keep in contact with Kerner at all or?" Bradley asked.

"Yeah- sure I do! I'm god-mother to his youngest kid, they have me over every thanksgiving, since I'm usually too busy to get home." She grinned, reflecting on the whole thing. She hadn't seen the Kerners for a while, swamped with work, but made a mental note to send a message and ask after her god-child.

"That's neat- A good story too." Bradley nodded.

"Yeah..." She paused and looked to him. "I guess you got into the job cos' of your Dad?"

"Uh- yeah, mainly." Bradley nodded and then did a double take. "Wait- seven years?"

"Yeah 2012 I started as an administrative assistant. 24 and still fresh faced- no idea what I was doing." (Y/n) nodded.

"You were here as I was going through Top Gun." He stated, suddenly his mind swirling with his previous stint at Top Gun, trying to mind a snapshot within a memory that might contain her.

"Uh- Yeah I must have been." She thought on it and nodded. "I'm not surprised we didn't cross paths, I was hidden away in a corner of the office doing paperwork till- well must have been not long after you graduated." She turned the bottle about in her hands, from label to branding to 'don't drink if pregnant, don't drive after consumption' warnings.

"Then this drink is overdue." She looked up at him with a small smile, almost shy and more mellow than her usual fire spitting sarcastic persona. "If I'd have met you back then I certainly would have bought you a drink." He nodded and peeled his eyes from and out into the room to give a faux sense of nonchalance.

"I appreciate it." She spoke with a nod.

(Y/n) let her eyes drift silkily down his profile. The droplets of water and sweat still on his skin and dewily in his eyelashes. The slight coarseness of his skin, the tones of it. The muscles that pulled his lips into the slightest nuance of a romantic smile. Any loose strands of damp hair which pressed to his forehead.

But she thought he was pretty sweet, and if he'd done what Jake had earlier in the day, she would have melted like butter for him.

She almost hated the atmosphere between them, building up into what it was. It was unprofessional, and she knew full well she shouldn't feel the way she did, and yet it wasn't so easy to deny.

"Do you think I should go back to being your boss now? Or stick around for a game of pool?" Bradley looked to the woman. "Cos I reckon I could win back the cost of my round." She smiled a mischievous smirk.

Rooster just gave a smile and shrug. He wanted to tell her he liked it when she wasn't his boss. He'd especially be lying if he didn't like the idea of what he could do if they were both people with less professional integrity.

Her smile grew and she held in place for a second, before she jumped off of her barstool and put her hand on his arm, or went to. Actually she held his wrist and he allowed himself to be lead to the pool table, acutely aware of the placement of her hand and savoured it before she let go and before anyone else seemed to notice their closeness for that one second.

By the end of the night (Y/n) had won fifty dollars total and had finally felt like she'd made some sort of ground in actually getting to know her team.

And for once she enjoyed herself.

And at the end of the night, when they all had to admit they'd drunk just enough to let their inhibitions go and enough to head home...

Standing in the parking lot of the Hard Deck, the sun hadn't fully set. There was a sweet honey glow in the sky.

She stood waiting for her cab, leaning on the wall by the door, a little tipsy smile on her face.

She thought she was alone, Penny and Mav weren't in sight but couldn't have been far away. She was sure she'd seen everyone make their own ways home, and she just closed her eyes and felt the buzz of the alcohol and the slightest tingle on her lips as she chewed them.

For a second she thought she was dreaming as she heard the twinkle of a piano.

It took her a good few seconds to realise that it was coming from inside, shifting between tunes she recognised, from Auld Lang Syne, to Paul Simon, Bad Moon Rising and Queen and then finally it settled into something.

She stepped into the doorway and observed quietly, but with a flutter in her chest and a heat in her cheeks. He had no idea she was there.

"Sugar-" She heard in a familiar, mumbled, singing voice. "Ah- Honey, honey-" She could hear the smile on Bradley's face though she couldn't see it from the angle she was at. "You are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you."

She stepped in, knowing the drink meant she wasn't thinking about her job and what she should or shouldn't do.

The creak of the floor boards as she did make him glance up for just a moment.

"Honey, Ah-sugar, sugar." He continued on, as she got closer and eventually came to stand by him, leaning on the piano with a shine in her eye.

His voice drifted off as his eyes drifted to her and his fingers were slowly distracted from playing.

He pulled them away from the keys as they were wordlessly magnetised to eachother, he reached out and placed his hand ever so gently on her waist, and she just stepped into the touch.

He had turned on the paino stool, now perpendicular to the keyboard and looking up at her.

His large hands, warm but worked and not soft, guided her hips forward, into him.

Soon she had straddled him, and they were entangled in a hot and sweet affair.

He tasted sweet, sweeter than she could have dreamed. Maybe that was just the element of risk and inherent risque nature of their actions as she pressed her fingertips into his jaw, and felt his on her waist, hips and over her own hands as he held them in place.

Rooster could have been manipulated like clay by her. Enough drink was in the two of them that it wasn't shameful, and the fuzz and electricity in their stomachs and throats and fingertips was amplified by a hundred.

That was until (Y/n) felt a lump rise in her throat, she felt her heart beat just that bit harder in her chest, and she just wanted it to be harder to breathe and harder to tear herself away and she wanted everything a young woman might want.

She felt a pang of momentary sobriety which brought all the morals and rules and fears flooding back into her mind.

Then she paused, her hands cupping his cheeks, and just pulled away.

She breathed, and looked the young pilot in the eye.

"I think-" She whispered as he looked up at her with sparkling puppydog eyes, desperate, hungry and achingly, deeply wanting. "Bradley- I think- I'd better go back to being-" She tried to speak the words though they felt quite torturous.

"My superior?" He finished for her.

She nodded.

"Yes." She half whispered, part breathed and nearly simply mouthed.

She let him move to softly place his hands over hers, pull them from his cheeks with a sigh.

He looked down as he held her hands.

He turned them slowly and nodded.

"Right." He turned a slight smile up to her.

She backed off, and headed to the door with a sweet smile shared between them.

"(Y/n)?" Rooster called out.

"Mhm?" She glanced back at him, trying not to let on how she wished she could turn that part of herself off that made her stop and go back to him.

"Sorry." He spoke, not having moved a muscle. She shook her head and mouthed a 'don't be' to him as she did. "No- I know I should have thought about it first, but I don't want this to- to affect anything. Not the mission, or anything else." He was incredibly genuine. "I'm sorry."

TAGLIST ----------------

@n3ssm0nique @gh0strr @sparrows-corner @1lellykins @sarahstar11 @blessupblessup @jonginvlog @littlewhiterose @kimberrrrr @heyitskay-21 @padf00ts-l0ver @nobody7102 @blindedbyyourgrace17 @gmolszewski @piscesvancouverite @sydneejean @20th-centu-fairy-girl @chaoticassidy @yjwnoot @hockeyboysarehot @fantasticcopeaglepasta @inglourious-imagines @callalily2000 @everyonehasanindividuality @paulina1998 @startterfly @roosterschanelslut @thespeeder @red-ace-in-space @idfkwhyimhere4357 @annluca @dempy @vadinaleme @americaarse @cfvgbhndun-new-blog @alana4610 @calsjack @daisycrazy @sopheeg @bradshawsdarlin @foreverchasingtime

[jikookiekosmos]

Stay With Me || jjk

➥Pairing: best friend!jungkook/reader, husband!jungkook/reader

➥Summary: Being married to Jungkook was everything you’d wished for and more. There wasn’t a problem the two of you couldn’t tackle together, and building this life with the person you loved most was all you could ask for. But when a ghost from your past returns and threatens to pull you two apart in whatever way they can, will things still be the same?

➥Genre: established relationship, heavy angst (I’m so sorry), smut, fluff, hurt/comfort

➥Rating: 18+

➥Words: ~14.2k (more of a one shot than a drabble I know, oops)

Before you continue there are darker themes explored in this drabble; please read at your own risk. Appropriate warnings are listed below.

➥Content Warnings: POV switches, feelings of anxiety from being in danger, jungkook is protective (and for good reason), we see a pissed off hoseok, (tw: harassment, violence, implied/attempted kidnapping, reader gets injured), yoongi & jimin to the rescue (bless them), jungkook is pissed off (again for good reason), jungkook cries, reader also cries, jungkook has feelings of insecurity and not being good enough, they have ✨very emotional sex✨ up against a wall, cursing (fuck is said a lot), slight hair pulling, fingering (very brief), jungkook has a big dick, unprotected sex (safe sex is great sex), dirty talk, rough sex, cumming inside, aftercare, jungkook is actually the sweetest, reader and jk are so in love with each other it hurts, also jk saying ‘only for you’ is a thing i started and can’t stop now oops except there’s a twist this time around

A/N: hello! This is part of my Only for You (OFY) Drabble series, but it can be read as a stand-alone! However, I would highly recommend reading OFY beforehand so as to better understand the relationships between these characters since there’s a lot of history behind everything that will make more sense. (I also mentioned this in the post for OFY but for those who haven’t read it, the Kun in the story isn’t referring to any other irl person specifically, it was just a name I chose to make the initial story easier to write.)

The POV switches between the reader and a few of the characters, but this will always be indicated by the name in the switch being bolded (i.e. you or Jungkook will be in bold, etc.).

I always do this but thank you to @dntaewithluv​ for keeping me sane during the writing process and giving me feedback as well as the motivation to continue when I feel discouraged, I love you so much 💜

I’ve written a few other drabbles and will list them below, along with a general timeline:

Use My Best Colors For Your Portrait - ~6 months after OFY

When I Dream Of You - ~1 year after OFY

This fic takes place a few months after the dream drabble. I welcome feedback, so if you ever want to talk to me about my writing, please do! I hope that if you read this, you enjoy it~

➥OFY Spotify Playlist (songs I listened to for inspo)

➥Series Masterlist

➥All Works Masterlist

taglist: @inlovewiththemoonn @diorkookie @swee3tcreature​ @sugaslittlekookies​ @moonchild1​ @bangtanhome​ 

⊱──────── ✬ ✬ ✬ ────────⊰

Visiting Jungkook at the bar during his shifts had become one of your favorite pastimes over the last few years. And not just because you got to see him, but also because it gave you a chance to get closer to some of his - and now your - friends as well.

Take tonight for example: you stopped by on your way home from work, and everything happened like it usually did. Jungkook’s smile was typically the first thing to greet you when you walked through the door before he and Jimin got into a playful bickering match about bar duties.

You parked yourself in your usual stool at the bar and watched the scene before you unfold - Jimin tossing one of the bar towels to Jungkook, who caught it with ease, all the while mumbling ‘less distraction and more action, Kook.’ Jungkook slung the towel over his shoulder before making a big show out of walking over to you.

“Hey pretty lady, what can I get for you tonight?” Jungkook’s voice was dripping with charm and it made you giggle. He leaned across the bar, resting his forearms on the wood. Even when he was just standing here in a plain black t-shirt with his dark hair curling in front of his eyes you still thought he was the most ethereal person you’d ever seen.

You hummed. “Hmm, I think I’ll have just a water, thanks.” Jungkook was already moving to fix your beverage before you even finished. “Do you always greet people like this,” you teased him as he sat the glass down in front of you.

He was wiping his hands on the towel still perched on his shoulder. “Nah, I only save it for the special ones. I am a married man, after all.”

You giggled again and he reached further across the bar to give you a quick kiss before being interrupted by Jimin again.

“You two are adorable, I love that, but I really could use some help over here, Kook!”

Jungkook playfully rolled his eyes before he excused himself to tend to his actual job. You just sat and observed while you drank, looking at him with loving eyes. He was really in his element here and it showed. All his customers were always happy patrons because he treated them all well.

Yeah, everything was playing out as it normally did on nights like these.

What you weren’t expecting, however, was for that to change.

On your way to find Yoongi so you could stop by and chat with him before heading home, you passed by a booth where a few rowdy men were seated. You tried to slip past them and pay them no mind-

-until one of them caught you by the wrist.

You froze. You wondered if maybe this was someone you knew and had possibly offended by not saying hello, but one look at the table let you know you’d never seen these 3 men before in your life.

“Hey, where you off to in a rush, baby?” The pet name made your skin crawl and you wanted nothing more than to just slink away and pretend like this never happened. But it was happening, the man’s tight grip on your wrist a reminder of that.

One of the other booth members spoke up. “Yeah, why not have a seat with us and talk for a bit? You look like you’re in need of some company.”

You shook your head and tried to muster a small smile so you could turn them down easy. You’d read and heard way too often about moments like these that could turn out badly if you acted a certain way.

“No thank you, I was just on my way out,” you hoped that would be the end of it, but the man holding your wrist wasn’t having it. He jerked you down to where you were seated right beside him in the empty space of the booth, making you whimper in pain when you hit the seat hard. His other friends laughed boisterously at your distress.

You situated yourself and looked up to see if you could spot someone, anyone around that you knew. You were unfortunately at the back corner of the bar, since Yoongi’s office was around here.

You tried to get up and make a break for it, but the man pulled you down again. “C’mon sweetheart, we don’t wanna hurt you. We just wanna talk, that’s all.”

Before you could respond, another voice cut through.

“Hands off,” the voice was low and stern, making all heads at the booth turn. When you looked up you saw Hoseok standing above you, arms crossed and looking pissed.

“Hoseok,” you breathed out, grateful that he was working the floor tonight and had stopped by before the situation escalated.

Hoseok didn’t say another word as his eyes drifted down to you quickly before glaring at the man still holding on to you.

“Lighten up, man, we’re just trying to have some fun-”

“I saw the whole thing and she’s clearly not wanting to engage in your idea of ‘fun’ so again: hands off.” Hoseok’s fingers flexed around his forearm, and apparently that was all the warning they needed.

The man let go of you and shoved you away from him, almost making you fall to the ground if Hoseok hadn’t steadied you. He wrapped an arm around you before calling out.

“Joon, Jin, need a hand here!”

Within seconds, the bodyguards of the establishment - also friends of yours - were at the table, looking as intimidating as ever. The 3 men still seated were starting to look a lot less pleased about the ordeal.

“I think these 3 have had it for the night,” Hoseok stated, starting to walk the both of you away so your friends could work their magic. You looked back at them one last time, just barely catching their interaction, which consisted of Seokjin promptly putting one of the men in his place when he tried to throw a punch.

When Hoseok had you seated in an empty booth at the other end of the bar, he knelt down beside you.

“Hey. You ok?” His voice had lost all its frightening timbre, now laced with nothing but concern. You didn’t realize you were still a little shaky until you noticed yourself trembling. You nodded, the best answer you could give right now.

Hoseok patted your knee before he stood up. “Stay here, I’m going to go get Kook-”

You reached out lightning fast to grab onto his sleeve before you pleaded “Don’t.”

Hoseok’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What, why not?”

“I don’t- I don’t want him to worry.” You were telling the truth; Jungkook had been on edge lately, and things were finally starting to get somewhat back to normal. If you didn’t have to add to that worry, you didn’t want to.

Hoseok’s frown deepened. “Y/N-”

“There you are!”

That voice that always managed to make your heart flutter only made you panic more in this instance. Jungkook was walking over to your booth quickly with a huge smile on his face, waving to the two of you. Hoseok moved out of the way so Jungkook could see you more, and you tried your best to smile back.

“Hey, I’ve been looking all over for you,” Jungkook addressed you as he pushed his hair out of his face. “I thought you went to go talk to Yoongi, but he said he hadn’t seen you yet.”

“Yeah, I was just on my way, but I ran into Hoseok-”

“Y/N,” Hoseok warned. Jungkook’s smile turned into one of confusion.

“What’s going on,” Jungkook was quick to ask before you could respond. It was then that he fully noticed how you were seated, somewhat curled into yourself.

“You need to tell him,” Hoseok’s eyes were burning into yours, and Jungkook felt a small pit of unease settle in his stomach. He knelt down beside you, similar to how Hoseok had done moments prior.

“Angel, hey, talk to me. What’s this about?” Jungkook took one of your hands in his and shook it slightly before placing a kiss on the back of it.

“It’s nothing, really-”

“Some guy put his hands on her.” Hoseok clearly was over you beating around the bush.

“What,” Jungkook’s tone was slipping into one you didn’t recognize and for good reason: he sounded furious. His hand tightened around yours.

Hoseok nodded, Jungkook’s attention on him now. “Yeah, I’m glad I noticed. Saw some dude grab her wrist and pull her down into the booth with them.”

Jungkook was up on his feet, hand disappearing from yours.

“What the fuck, where did they go,” he started to walk off but Hoseok held him back.

“Joon and Jin already took care of it, don’t worry. But I still just thought you should know.” Hoseok patted Jungkook on the shoulder and you watched as his body, still visibly tense, relaxed somewhat.

“I gotta get back to work, you can take a little time though, yeah?” Hoseok started walking off after giving you one last look, almost as if he was saying sorry but you knew he did the right thing.

Jungkook took a deep breath before finally looking back at you, his face softening instantly. He slid into the seat across from you, placing his palms on the table as he looked down.

“Koo-”

“Are you ok, at least,” his voice was low, but you could still hear it just over the faint tunes of the jukebox.

“I’m fine-”

“Define fine,” he scoffed. It was clear the two of you wouldn’t get anywhere like this, so you did the only thing you could think to do: you reached out and took both his hands in yours.

Jungkook looked up then through the curtain of tresses still falling into his eyes. He sighed.

“Sorry, baby, I know I shouldn’t be acting like this. It’s just- with everything we’ve been through with him I can’t help but worry about stuff like this.”

You understood completely because you were in the same boat.

Both of you had recently been experiencing less than pleasant encounters with your ex-fiancé, Kun, who for some reason decided he had a vendetta against the two of you. A vendetta that only got worse when you both made it clear you wanted nothing to do with him ever again.

The past week had been pretty quiet, but neither of you could shake the awful feeling that Kun wasn’t gone for good. And tonight’s fiasco did nothing to help that.

“Well it’s over now and I’m ok and I didn’t get hurt so let’s try not to focus on it, yeah?” You squeezed his hands for emphasis and he sighed. The last thing you wanted was for Jungkook to be worried the rest of his shift, and he still had a few hours left.

“Yeah, I’ll try. I’m just so glad Hoseok was around...are you still wanting to talk to Yoongi?”

You nodded, happy to see Jungkook had relaxed some more from when he first sat across from you.

“I’ll take you to his office, then.” Jungkook got up, pulling you with him since his hands were still in yours. When you both were standing, he wrapped his arms around your waist to pull you into a hug.

He looked down at you before placing a soft kiss on your forehead. “Also I hate to ask but do you mind staying until I get done with my shift? I’m not too keen on the idea of you going home alone now with everything-“

You giggled and caressed his cheek. “Of course, Koo. I’ll come sit at the bar when I get done talking to Yoongi.”

Jungkook brushed his nose against yours. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you,” you responded before you reached up to place a gentle kiss on his lips. His hold around you tightened, and he deepened the kiss for only a moment before pulling back.

“Fuck, I forgot I’m at work, I need to be careful when you’re around.” He carded a hand through his hair before shaking his head to let it fall back into place.

You laughed at his flustered nature, feeling a bit flustered yourself at the fact that even now you still had such an effect on each other. “Well we are back here in a dark corner where not many people are around,” you teased.

Jungkook smirked before tickling your sides, making you laugh louder as you squirmed to get away.

“Don’t tempt me. I’d rather not get fired for public indecency if I can help it.”

“Fine, fine, I guess just take me to see Yoongi then,” you pretended to pout and were rewarded with a chuckle. He led you to the back now where Yoongi’s office was at, his hand wrapped around yours while he scanned the bar the whole way there.

When the two of you reached the familiar door, Jungkook gave your hand one last squeeze and kissed your cheek.

“I’ve gotta get back to the bar, just come chill up there when you’re done, yeah?” His eyebrows were slightly furrowed like he was still worried, but your gentle smile helped smooth them out.

“Of course. I’ll see you soon.”

You knocked on the door and after hearing Yoongi’s muffled greeting you opened it to walk through, not sparing another glance at Jungkook.

“Y/N! I was wondering when you might be stopping by.” Yoongi smiled brightly at you, always making you feel welcome no matter the circumstance. You took a seat in your usual spot across from his desk where he was currently reclining in his chair.

“Hey, Yoon. How are things?” It’d been a little while since the two of you had properly caught up since things had been so chaotic lately.

Yoongi shrugged. “Can’t complain. Business is good and we’ve been pulling in more regulars. I’d like to say it’s thanks to Jungkook but don’t tell him I told you that. Kid has a big enough head as it is.”

You couldn’t help the proud grin that stretched across your face. Jungkook had been working hard to help turn the bar into a more welcoming environment and increased his work hours to also assist with some building upgrades Yoongi had been wanting to install for years. Their business had increased exponentially as a result, so you knew Yoongi meant it when he said he had Jungkook to thank.

“I’ll be sure to keep it our little secret,” you brought your hand up to mimic a ‘shh’ expression and Yoongi chuckled.

“Perfect.” He leaned forward then, an elbow resting on his desk and his head supported by his palm. “So tell me: how’s married life?”

“It’s everything I could ever want and more. I can’t say much has changed except the whole ‘legally being bound together’ thing, since we still act the same. It’s just…nice. Really, really nice.” Your gaze drifted down to your wedding ring, and as it was with every other time you saw it, you could feel something akin to butterflies fluttering inside your stomach.

Yoongi gave you his trademark lopsided grin. “Glad to hear it. You know, I was always rooting for you two from the start.”

You feigned annoyance, playfully rolling your eyes. “I know, I know, you only tell me every chance you get.” Yoongi never took a liking to your ex-fiancé and had always favored Jungkook, this much you knew. Even before Kun turned into the person he was now, Yoongi never cared for him. And he made sure it was known.

“Have you thought about when you’re going to pop the question?” You decided to switch gears and put him on the spot, giggling at the way he seemed flustered.

“Well I uh, I’ve thought about it I just- it’s hard to figure out the right time, you know? And is she even ready for that, I can’t tell-”

“Min Yoongi, you stop that right now. She is so in love with you that I bet she’s ready for you to ask any day now, just so she can say yes like she’s been wanting to for so long now.” You had spent enough time around Yoongi and his long-term partner to know that the two were head-over-heels for each other, nearly rivaling you and Jungkook in how easy it was to tell.

Yoongi grinned. “You think so, huh?”

“No doubt in my mind. In fact-” you were cut off by the feeling of your phone vibrating in your pocket. You hastily took it out, not sure who could be calling at this hour.

It dawned on you then that you had been expecting a new client to call, and the number on your screen was one you didn’t recognize so you figured it could be them. Your boss had heavily expressed the importance of this client and their business venture they were offering, so without giving it another thought you hopped out of your chair.

“Sorry Yoon, I need to take this real quick. Do you mind if I step out the back door? It shouldn’t take too long.” You were already heading to leave his office, trying to catch the call before it stopped ringing, barely missing his soft “Go ahead.”

You bolted through the back door of the establishment, out into the dimly lit parking lot. As soon as you heard the door shut, you swiftly answered the call.

“Hello, this is Y/N speaking, may I ask who’s calling?” You gave your usual greeting for work related or other conversations when you didn’t recognize the number. The silence that you were met with on the other end made a chill run down your spine.

You froze altogether when the other voice spoke.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to answer calls from numbers you don’t know?”

You felt your lower lip tremble. “K-Kun?”

A dark chuckle from the other end of the line. “Missed me, sweetheart?”

‘Just hang up,’ your brain was screaming at you, but you were holding your phone in an iron-tight grip, knuckles taut.

“Leave me alone and never contact me again,” you were finally able to respond, moving your arm to bring your phone down to hang up.

Your phone hit the ground before you got the chance.

Someone had come up behind you and pulled both arms behind your back, a hand coming around to muffle the scream you let out.

“Shhh,” someone whispered beside your ear. “You don’t want to make this harder for yourself, hm?”

That voice, why did you recognize that voice?

The person started dragging you off into one of the darker corners of the parking lot, ignoring your futile attempts to kick and writhe out of their grasp. You continued screaming into their palm but to no avail.

When you reached where they wanted you to be, they let you go and pushed you down onto the ground, causing your back to hit the wall and briefly knock the breath out of you. Before you could pick yourself back up, 2 other shadowy figures blocked your path. There was just enough light for you to finally make out the faces of the 3 people standing over you.

They were the same ones from earlier in the bar, the ones who had harassed you and yanked you down into their booth.

“What do you want,” you sobbed out into the night air. You were too terrified to try screaming again, afraid of what they might do. Especially now that you were across the lot, away from your phone and any chance of contacting someone else. Not to mention the fact that it was loud inside the bar, so screaming wouldn’t do you many favors anyway.

And if someone walked by, nothing would look out of the ordinary since it was just dark enough where you were to obscure the vision of anyone looking from the outside.

Before any of them could answer you, there was another sound you heard faintly in the distance: footsteps.

“Hel-,” you started to cry out, but as if they knew what you were planning, one of the men dropped down and covered your mouth again, now letting you see who was approaching behind them. Your eyes widened in terror as you took in the newcomer’s sinister grin.

You watched as Kun nodded to the other 2 men and they moved aside, while the third one still keeping your mouth covered moved slightly out of the way. Kun knelt down and moved his hand, replacing it with his own before you could scream again.

“Well well, fancy seeing you here.” Kun reached out and caressed your check with the back of his other hand, making you let out a strangled whimper as you tried to move back and away from him. He shook his head at your action and grabbed onto one of your arms now instead, pulling you and himself up in a swift motion.

His grip around your arm was painful, making you wince. Kun either didn’t notice or didn’t care. One look into his eyes was enough to see that the man you’d spent many years of your life with was completely gone with no trace left whatsoever. You didn’t know this person standing in front of you now.

And you didn’t ever want to.

“Now, I’m gonna move my hand, and you’re not gonna scream. Got it? Because if you do,” he moved forward to where his face was inches away from yours now. “I promise this will be so much worse for you. And you know I always keep my promises, don’t you?”

Kun was laughing before you could react at all, knowing good and well he’d broken several promises during your time together. He must have taken your silence as compliance because you could feel his hand relaxing around your face.

“Good girl,” the words made you shudder repulsively, wanting nothing more than for this to be just a terrible figment of your imagination and for you to be back inside at the bar waiting on Jungkook.

Jungkook. The thought of him caused a lump to form in your throat. You had no idea what Kun had planned for you, and that caused your heart to constrict as the vision of Jungkook smiling lovingly at you flashed through your mind.

You squeezed your eyes shut and felt a tear roll down your cheek. You opened them again once you felt Kun’s hand disappear.

“Ah, so you can take direction well. I guess Jungkook’s trained you somewhat since you’re his bitch now-”

“What do you want,” you asked through gritted teeth. The last thing you wanted to hear come from this man’s mouth was the name of your beloved. You didn’t want him brought up at all, the less this was focused on Jungkook the better.

But, since it was Kun, that obviously didn’t happen.

Kun laughed again, a loud, ugly sound. “What do I want? The same thing I’ve always wanted. Isn’t it obvious?”

The 3 men were crowded around both of you now, and it dawned on you then that they were blocking any means of escape for you. That didn’t bode well for you and you knew it, but you held your ground. You didn’t want to give Kun any more of the upper hand than he already had.

Kun finally dropped his other hand from your arm in favor of now caging you in against the wall. You were trapped even more now, but you just stared back at him, trying your best to look unfazed. Kun dipped his head down and you held your breath.

“What I want,” you could feel him barely hovering over your lips and the feeling made your skin crawl, “is for Jungkook to pay.”

“Pay for what,” you couldn’t help your annoyed tone. Kun’s obsession with Jungkook and ‘coming out on top’ – whatever that even meant, you weren’t entirely sure – had gotten old and you were beyond sick of it. “He owes you nothing, we owe you nothing.”

Kun hummed and shook his head, his nose almost brushing against yours, but you turned your head and let it graze against your cheek.

”I don’t think you get to decide that, not in the position you’re in, anyway. You see, I’m tired of seeing Jungkook get literally everything handed to him without trying-”

“Jungkook has worked hard for everything he has, something you wouldn’t know about,” you spat back. Kun was right, you were certainly in no position to be talking back right now, but you wouldn’t stand idly by while he slandered Jungkook just because he felt like it. “You’ve always been jealous of him-”

“Shut up, shut up!” Kun snarled, all but yelling in your face before he grabbed you by the jaw. You grimaced from the pain of it, a sound something like a scream starting but dying in your throat.

“You fucking infuriate me sometimes, you know that? I can’t believe I wasted so many years with you.” His grip around your jaw tightened as he finished talking, making it almost too hard for you to respond.

“Likewise,” you managed to get out, not being able to help the sob you let out when he squeezed more.

“Doesn’t matter.” Kun’s face stretched into that evil, Cheshire-like grin and for the first time that night you felt genuinely horrified about what his true intentions might be. “I’m not concerned with you or how you feel.”

Kun finally let go of your jaw and you let out the breath you didn’t realize you had been holding in. He grabbed one of your wrists and tugged you closer, knocking you off balance and unfortunately causing you to brace yourself against his chest.

He hugged you to him and whispered in your ear: “What I do care about is seeing Jungkook’s reaction when his precious wife is suddenly nowhere to be found.”

That kicked you into fight or flight mode, eyes widening and mouth opening to scream as you flailed your hands around. Your flailing did little to help you because Kun was already dragging you alongside him away from the wall, still holding you close.

“Let me go, you psycho!” you screamed, only causing him to turn you around and put a hand over your mouth again while his other arm held you firm against his torso.

“One of you bring the car around,” Kun ordered, and you saw one of the men dashing away. As you were pulled further away from the bar, your vision was clouded with a film of tears and your muffled sobs were hidden behind Kun’s hand. You were no match for his strength, and he proved it because he was literally dragging you across the concrete despite you being so uncooperative. Gentle raindrops had just started falling from the sky, further impairing your vision.

It was then that you heard a pained grunt followed by a thud coming from a little further away, in the direction the other man had ran off to. You tried to focus your eyes to see what was happening when the next sound that graced your ears was fast footsteps as they pounded against the pavement.

“Get your fucking hands off of her!”

A familiar voice made you cry out with joy and fight harder against Kun.

“Yoongi,” you cried out, still muffled but enough to draw his attention to your face now. He was running toward Kun fast, and when he saw the position you were in, he sped up, determined to free you by any means necessary.

You briefly worried about the other men behind him, until you saw that another was already knocked down and someone else – you thought it might be Jimin – was currently fighting with the third man. While your attention was on them, you didn’t register Kun tossing you aside until it was too late.

You slipped on the now wet pavement and fell down, barely able to brace yourself for the impact in time. Your earlier vision of Jungkook smiling was the last thing to flash through your mind before your head hit the ground.

⊱──────── ✬ ✬ ✬ ────────⊰

Yoongi glanced at his watch for the second time. It’d been about 10 minutes since you stepped outside to take your phone call, and he figured it had to have been important if you were still outside.

As he was wondering whether or not to call you himself to see if everything was alright, Jimin stuck his head inside the office, peeking around the door. “Hey boss, is Y/N around?”

Yoongi sat up straight. “Yeah, she stepped outside to take a call but it’s been a few minutes. Why?”

Jimin’s face blanched. “She went alone?”

“Yeah... Jimin’s what’s going on?”

Jimin took a deep breath. “It’s probably nothing, but earlier there were some guys that straight up harassed her. They were thrown out but-“

Yoongi held a hand up. “Wait. Pause. Someone harassed her? Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

Jimin had stepped fully into the room now, rubbing at the back of his neck as he looked at the ground. “Well it wasn’t that long ago, so maybe nobody had the chance yet.”

Yoongi’s brows furrowed. “Does Jungkook know?”

Jimin nodded. “Yeah, he’s the one who asked me to come check on her without being too obvious about it. I think the whole thing has him spooked.”

Yoongi didn’t like the feeling that was slowly creeping up on him. He dialed your number and put the receiver to his ear, hoping to hear a busy signal on the other end.

When he was met with a series of rings, his heart started beating faster. He was up and out of his chair fully by the time he heard your voicemail greeting.

“Fuck,” he mumbled out loud to no one in particular. He was jogging over to the back door, a confused Jimin following close behind.

“Yoongi, what-”

“Not now, Jimin.” He picked up his pace, feeling his chest tighten as he approached the door. He was hoping that when he opened it you would be on the other side, because maybe you just lost track of time and your phone was on silent.

Wishful thinking helps in times of peril, right?

Yoongi pushed the door open quickly, letting it bang against the side of the bar. You were nowhere in sight, his eyes frantically searching through the lot for a trace of you.

What he was met with, though, was instead the sight of 3 - maybe 4? - dark figures across the lot, huddled in a suspicious way. His heart dropped to his stomach.

He started running, not knowing what would meet him when he did, but not caring either. As he approached, one of the figures tried to block him. He took them down easily with a single punch, making them groan in pain as their body connected with the ground. Yoongi never stopped running for even a moment.

His heart wrenched when his vision finally adjusted enough to the darkness outside and he could see you and exactly who was holding you.

“Get your fucking hands off of her!” He shouted as he continued running, getting ready to barrel into Kun at any moment.

Hearing your faint cry of his name only made him go faster when his eyes landed on your horrified face.

It was raining now but Yoongi wouldn’t let that stop him from saving you. What he didn’t anticipate was for Kun to throw you in the opposite direction, making him conflicted about who to go after now. He settled for pursuing Kun still, finally reaching him and grabbing him by the shirt.

“What the actual fuck is your problem,” Yoongi yelled in Kun’s face. Kun brought his hands up to try and tear Yoongi’s away, but they wouldn’t budge.

Kun stopped trying to fight back and smiled at Yoongi, making a fresh wave of disgust cascade over him. When Kun spoke, his voice had a calm edge to it. “I’ll just keep coming back, no matter how many times you and those idiots in there,” he jerked his head in the direction of the bar, “try to keep me away.”

Yoongi quickly spun Kun around and forced him to the ground, keeping his hands behind his back and not giving him a way to escape. “Jimin, call the cops,” he called over his shoulder before leaning closer to Kun’s face. “We may not be able to keep you away, but they certainly can with all the dirt we have on you.”

Kun chuckled slightly before grimacing when Yoongi twisted his arm further. “You know,” he huffed out, “Y/N was pretty off balance when I threw her earlier.”

Yoongi stilled. He realized that Kun was trying to distract him by making him worry about you, and unfortunately for Yoongi it was working. Especially when his eyes fell on your unmoving figure several feet away, lying on your side.

“Shit,” he jumped up and ran over to you, completely abandoning Kun, beyond caring at that point. He knelt down and turned you over. He swallowed when he saw the way your arm landed limply on the ground beside him. He embraced your upper body within his arms, shaking you a little.

“Y/N, hey, wake up,” he begged. He could feel that you were still breathing, but it was very evident your fall had knocked you out. And Yoongi knew there was no telling what happened before he even got to you, so he had no clue how injured you might actually be.

He heard footsteps approaching from behind him, splashing against the puddles that were starting to form in the parking lot. He didn’t have to look up to know it was Jimin, since the other man was calling out his name before he got there.

“Yoongi, I called them, they said – wait where did he go?” Jimin was standing over Yoongi now, looking from one area of the parking lot to the other, but Kun was nowhere in sight. “Did you let him leave?”

Yoongi’s silence prompted Jimin to finally look down and his mouth dropped open as he himself dropped to kneel next to Yoongi.

“Holy shit, what happened,” Jimin reached out to gingerly touch your arm, frown deepening when he got no response from you.

“She probably hit her head when that bastard threw her earlier. She’s just knocked out, I think,” Yoongi’s voice was lined with unbridled anger. “Go see if you can find Jin since he’s the closest thing we have to a medic right now. And get Kook.”

Jimin nodded and without another word took off toward the bar. Yoongi couldn’t fathom how Jungkook would react but he knew it wouldn’t be good. As he waited, he held you closer, trying to shield you from the rain.

⊱──────── ✬ ✬ ✬ ────────⊰

Jungkook’s fingers were drumming against the bar absentmindedly as he listened to one of his regular patrons drone on about their week as they usually did on nights like tonight. He was genuinely trying to focus on what they were saying, truly he was, but his mind had been so muddled ever since the incident earlier that he found it hard to think about anything else.

Which is exactly why he had asked Jimin to casually check in on you and Yoongi.

It’d been a few minutes and Jimin still wasn’t back; Jungkook hoped that they were all 3 chatting and Jimin was just taking his time. He did want him to be inconspicuous about it, after all.

His patron finally excused themselves to go to the restroom, and Jungkook offered them a soft smile. For a second, he allowed himself to take a deep breath and try to push any lingering negative thoughts out of his mind so he could make it through the rest of his shift.

Jungkook should’ve known better than to hope for a moment’s peace.

He heard Jimin before he saw him, colliding with the other end of the bar. Jungkook cautiously started walking over to him, trying to ignore the heavy feeling that settled over his body like a suffocating blanket.

“Kook,” Jimin panted, “we need you. Now.”

The expression on Jimin’s face and the urgency of his voice made Jungkook’s blood run cold. He wasted no time in leaving the bar as he followed Jimin, nearly running him over when Jimin stopped once they were outside. As his sight adjusted to the drizzling rain, he saw something that made him run as fast as he could before eventually falling to his knees, panic seizing his heart.

“No. No no no no no,” Jungkook was chanting over and over as he stared at you, huddled against Yoongi as he held you close. Your eyes were closed and you weren’t moving.

Jungkook’s hands were shaking, and he could feel his lips quivering. Yoongi stared at Jungkook somberly before gentle passing you over to him.

He immediately drew you to him, burying your face in his chest while he cradled the back of your head with his palm.

The rain started pouring down harder now and he knew it was pelting against his back, cold and wet enough to chill him to the bone. But Jungkook felt nothing. There was nothing but numbness as he continued to rock you gently in his arms and placed a kiss on the top of your head.

“Hey angel, I’m here,” his voice was unsteady. “It’s me, baby, I’ve got you. You’re gonna be ok,” his arm that was wrapped around your back tightened its hold on you and he placed his head in the crook of your neck. You still didn’t rouse, no matter what he tried, and his shoulders started to shake.

“Kook-” Yoongi had to talk loud to be heard over the sudden downpour. “We need to get her inside.” He tried reaching out to touch Jungkook’s arm but Jungkook flinched away, embracing you even tighter now as if he was trying to protect you from anything and everything.

He just wanted to protect you. And the fact that he had failed was currently eating him alive with regret.

Yoongi sighed but tried again. “Jungkook,” he said it softer this time but still loud enough, “let’s take her inside. You don’t want her to get sick.”

At the mention of your well-being potentially suffering further damage, Jungkook started to somewhat come back to his senses. He held you tight and stood up with a little help from Yoongi, making sure to keep you as close to his chest as possible so you wouldn’t get soaked and because right now, he needed you near.

When the 3 of you were inside, Yoongi ushered you all into his office since there was a small couch in there were you could lie down. Jungkook placed you as gently as possible on the couch, feeling his heart break piece by piece every second you remained unmoving. The only thing that could offer him solace was the faint rise and fall of your chest as you breathed.

He dropped to sit on the floor beside the couch, holding one of your hands in his while he used his other one to brush some of your wet hair out of your face. He leaned his forehead against the arm of the couch and inhaled shakily.

Yoongi was leaning against his desk with his arms crossed, looking at the two of you. Jungkook appreciated Yoongi for giving him time to try and calm down before talking again.

“What happened,” Jungkook managed to croak after a minute or so had passed.

Yoongi took a deep breath. “Kun was here.”

Jungkook whipped his head around fast, his hair splaying water droplets on the couch. His eyes were glazed over with unshed tears, and Yoongi had never seen him look so angry.

He’d never seen Jungkook look so hurt.

“Kun did this to her,” Jungkook asked, tone low and dark, but it came out more as a statement because he already knew. He could tell by the angered inflection in Yoongi’s voice when he mentioned Kun.

Yoongi nodded. “Unfortunately. When I first made it outside, he was holding onto her, dragging her away-”

“Dragging her where,” his hand that was holding yours involuntarily squeezed harder.

Yoongi shrugged, shaking his head. “I don’t know, it looked like he was trying to take her to a car…”

Jungkook didn’t miss the way he trailed off. He waited for Yoongi to collect his thoughts.

 “Jungkook, I- I think he may have been trying to abduct her.”

Jungkook felt like the room had suddenly tilted. The idea of that – God, the idea of anything remotely close to that – made him feel violently ill.

He looked at your face then, noticing how it wasn’t scrunched up in pain; you actually looked quite peaceful despite the circumstances, almost like you were simply in a deep slumber. He tried hard to swallow around the ever-growing lump that was still forming in his throat when he brushed his fingertips along the length of your arm.

You were here, physically here. He could see you and he could touch you. Yoongi had saved you in time before you had been whisked away to who knows where. The fact that Kun had even dared to try to take you away… the possibility of you being gone and Jungkook not knowing where you had been taken to or if he’d ever see you again-

It made Jungkook see red.

This isn’t the life he wanted for you. He never wanted you to have to look over your shoulder in fear at the idea of someone following you, like you’d been doing the last several weeks. He never ever wanted you to get hurt, especially in such a way as this.

He could feel anger flowing through his veins, seeping into his bones and consuming him, with the only thing able to ground him right now being the feeling of your soft hand enveloped by his own.

Yoongi was saying more but Jungkook couldn’t make it out over his own voice screaming at him inside his head. His mind was waging a war with itself, questioning so many things-

Was he really the best person for you?

Was there someone out there who could protect you, who could keep you safe in ways he couldn’t?

…

Would loving you be enough if he could never fully promise you peace?

What if-

“Jungkook,” Yoongi’s stern voice cut through the thick fog of his mind and Jungkook shook his head to try clear it completely. He focused his attention on his friend that was now staring at him, sporting a frown on his face full of concern.

“Did you hear anything I just said?”

Jungkook gulped. “Honestly? No.”

Yoongi’s frown intensified. “Kook-”

“Don’t, just- please repeat it. Please.”

Yoongi sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before he continued. “I was saying that Kun threw her to the ground and that’s how she hit her head.”

Jungkook’s unoccupied hand balled into a fist and he clenched his jaw. Yoongi could see him tense up but continued speaking.

“I asked Jimin to fetch Jin seeing as he’s had more medical training than any of us and I figured it’d be better than waiting on an ambulance.”

He had barely gotten the last word out before there was hurried knocking on the door. Yoongi walked over to the door quickly to open it, and Jin rushed in without a moment’s hesitation.

“Sorry it took so long, I needed to get supplies.” He made his way to the couch, crouching down in front of it next to Jungkook. He placed the bag he was carrying down onto the ground beside him as he started sifting through it to find other things he needed. Jungkook watched Jin without really seeing him, flinching a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Kook,” Yoongi said softly as Jungkook looked up at him. “We need to let Jin look at her. C’mon,” he patted his shoulder before walking away, and Jungkook knew Yoongi expected him to follow him.

Jungkook also knew Yoongi was right, and he needed to let Jin get to work. He hated the thought of leaving you, but he knew he wasn’t going far. In fact, he wasn’t even going to leave the room, and if he was encouraged to, well-

There wasn’t anything anyone could do to make him leave that room short of physically removing him themselves. And with how wound up Jungkook was about this entire situation, that wouldn’t be an easy feat by any means.

Thankfully, Yoongi didn’t ask him to leave, opting instead to offer him his office chair. Jungkook graciously accepted the offer and sat down, briefly observing how Jin carefully examined you from across the room before he placed his head in his hands.

⊱──────── ✬ ✬ ✬ ────────⊰

Some time passed before Jungkook felt like he could properly breathe again. And he was only feeling like that now because you had finally started to stir.

As soon as the faintest noise was heard from you, Jungkook was out of his seat and in front of the couch again.

You groaned as you rubbed your eyes, trying to adjust to the light by blinking a few times. After doing this, you tilted your head to the side and your eyes landed on Jungkook. He inhaled sharply, feeling like he might break apart when you gave him the sweetest smile.

“Koo,” you breathed out softly as your hand reached up to caress his cheek. He vaguely heard Jin telling Yoongi something about you still having decent control over your motor skills being a good sign, but right now all his focus was on you specifically.

Well, he was also focusing on not having a breakdown, but you were most important.

His hand came up to cover yours that was still on his face and for the first time in what felt like ages, his lips curved upward into a smile.

“Hey, angel,” he responded. “How are you feeling?”

 Your eyebrows furrowed. “Well, my head hurts but otherwise I’m fine? A little sore, though-”

“That’s probably from your fall earlier,” Jin interrupted, pulling your attention back to him. You looked at him, bewildered.

“I fell? When did I fall?”

Yoongi and Jungkook shared a look then, and Jungkook would be lying if he said you not remembering what happened didn’t worry him.

It worried him a lot, actually.

Jin hummed. “We can talk about it later. I need to examine you now though, ok? Make sure you don’t have any signs of a concussion or something else.”

The scared look on your face made Jungkook’s chest tighten.

“O-ok, yeah, sure. Do whatever you need to,” you said as you tried to sit up straight, Jungkook and Jin both helping to steady you as you did.

It didn’t take long for Jin to conduct his examination. While he was checking you over, Yoongi relayed the events from earlier to you and Jungkook observed as the look in your eyes switched from one of confusion to one of horror the more Yoongi went on.

“I-I remember now. Right before you came out there, Kun told me-” you trailed off, speaking to Yoongi but looking over at Jungkook now. His heart started beating painfully when you paused.

“What did he tell you, baby?”

You inhaled unevenly, the sight tearing Jungkook up even more on the inside. “He told me that he wanted to see your reaction when I was nowhere to be found.”

This time, he swore his heart stopped.

So Kun had not only planned to take you away, but he wanted to make sure you couldn’t be found?

Jungkook made a promise to himself then and there that if he ever saw Kun again, he’d-

“Koo?”

Your pleading tone made Jungkook’s eyes snap back up to your face. You were trying to give him a small smile, but he could still see the fear lying behind your eyes.

“It’s going to be ok,” you attempted to reassure him. “Don’t worry.”

Jungkook had no idea how you could sit here an expect him not to worry but he didn’t want to fight you on it. You’d both had enough excitement for one night so all he did was nod and hope that would suffice for now.

His mind was starting to race again with the same kind of thoughts he had earlier, plaguing him with questions he didn’t know the answers to.

Frankly, he didn’t even know if he wanted the answers either.

Jin stood up from where he was seated on the floor, straightening himself up and stretching his long limbs. “She’s going to be fine. Just keep an eye on her for the next few days, but I don’t see anything to be alarmed about. If anything changes, you can call me but also if you’re more comfortable going to a hospital, that’s fine too. I won’t be offended.”

Jungkook smiled at his eldest friend. “Thank you, Jin. Seriously, thank you.”

Jin nodded, offering a warm smile to you before exiting the room.

Yoongi walked over to the couch and ruffled your hair. Jungkook watched the exchange with fondness, seeing two of the people he cared about most in the world also caring for each other.

“I’m so glad you’re ok,” Yoongi said, sounding utterly tired. You thanked him again for what he had done, and Jungkook left the two of you alone momentarily so he could check on Jimin and Hoseok at the bar. They entertained him for all of maybe 5 seconds before shooing him away, assuring him that they could handle things and that he should just take you home and be with you right now.

Jungkook thought nothing sounded better.

When he made it back to Yoongi’s office, he saw that you were now sitting on the armrest of the couch. Yoongi must have helped you get up from the couch, seeing as he was standing beside you, and Jungkook strode over to take his place now with an arm around your waist. Yoongi didn’t say anything about him leaving other than to wish you both a goodnight and that he would talk to Jungkook later.

Jungkook helped you walk to the car, not letting you go for even a fraction of a second, despite your teasing him about being able to walk on your own. Be that as it may, he still wouldn’t let go, because the truth of the matter was he was just too scared to.

It wasn’t until you were both in the car riding home that Jungkook let those negative thoughts devour him once more.

And this time, they were almost impossible to shake away.

⊱──────── ✬ ✬ ✬ ────────⊰

When both of you finally arrived home, Jungkook opened the door and surveyed the room before letting you go inside. You knew his paranoia was at an all-time high right now and frankly you couldn’t blame him; you were still really unsettled, too.

But you were more of the mindset that it’s in the past now and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. You never liked to dwell too long on things and Jungkook was becoming better about that as well.

You weren’t sure if it’d be that easy this time, though.

He’d barely said a word to you the whole ride home, and even now as you were both standing by the front door while he locked it, he was still eerily quiet. Once it was sufficiently locked enough by Jungkook’s standards, he gave you one last look before he started walking down the hallway. You frowned and followed him.

“Koo?”

No response.

“Baby? Talk to me.” It looked like he was trying to go to the kitchen, but it was still dark in the house since he’d barely turned on any of the lights, so you weren’t sure. Still no answer.

“Jungkook.” You called out sternly this time and just barely spotted him as he disappeared into the kitchen. When he heard you walk in, he finally spoke.

“You should eat something, what do you want?”

His voice broke your heart.

“I’m not hungry-”

“You can go lay down, Jin said you didn’t have a concussion so it should be fine. I can bring some food up for you.” He was leaning against the counter in front of the sink, his back turned to you and his head hanging somewhat.

He sounded not at all like himself, and it scared you. Not in the way that you were scared of him, but you were scared because you didn’t know what to do.

Talking was obviously getting you nowhere, so you instead walked up to him and wrapped your arms around him from behind, placing your cheek against his back. He flinched.

“Baby, please,” his voice sounded like it was breaking so you just held him tighter, hoping he could feel your love from the way you embraced him as if you never wanted to let him go.

“Koo, I need you to talk to me. I need to know what’s wrong-”

“What’s wrong is me,” he gritted out, tone louder than before and it made you jump. He then released himself from your arms and tried to walk away.

“Jungkook, wait,” you scrambled to go after him, catching him before he could disappear into another room, this time turning him around to face you. He was leaning against the wall and didn’t try to move past you anymore, but he avoided your gaze.

“Koo, look at me,” you stressed, ducking down to peek up at him. He finally raised his head so you could look into his eyes at a normal level. You noticed the tears in the corner of his eyes, and it nearly made you start crying yourself.

Jungkook never hid his vulnerability from you, he never hid anything from you. But even so, it was still a rare sight to see him cry.

“Why do you want to be around me right now,” he questioned, voice wavering and you recognized the sound. He was trying to hold himself back from crying.

“Koo, what do you mean, why wouldn’t I want to be around you? I love you-”

“I couldn’t protect you,” his voice rose in pitch, not to talk over you but because he was just so upset. “I couldn’t save you, I wasn’t around to help you- God, baby, you got fucking attacked and I wasn’t there.”

He was trembling and you tried to steady him by placing your hands on his shoulders. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks now, and they were bound to start pooling in your own eyes any second.

“None of that is your fault,” you emphasized your words by squeezing his shoulders. “Ok? No one could have predicted what that psycho was gonna do, not you, not me, not Yoongi, nobody.”

“For fuck’s sake, he almost kidnapped you-”

“But he didn’t and I’m here.” You brushed his cheek to wipe some of the tears away and he choked back a sob. “I’m here, with you, and that’s what matters.”

“I could have lost you,” he said it just above a whisper as you moved to brush the tears away from his other cheek.

You blinked back your own tears. “You didn’t lose me.”

“But I could have. We have no idea what the fuck he’s capable of and just- every time I think about what might have happened if no one got to you in time, I start to lose my mind.”

You wrapped your arms around his neck and reached up on your tip-toes to place a gentle kiss on his lips, heart lurching when he actually kissed you back and his hands found purchase on your waist as they usually did.

“You didn’t lose me. You have me. All of me. I’m right here,” you kissed him once more. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Jungkook let out a sob as he pulled you closer, nearly crushing you with his embrace. You ran your hand through his hair to try and soothe him when he leaned his forehead on your shoulder.

“I was so fucking scared,” he said against your skin. “So terrified. I love you so much,” a tender kiss was placed on the side of your neck now, and you could feel his lips still trembling.

“I love you,” your response prompted another small sob from him, “I love you more than anyone or anything else in this world and I’ll show you that everyday for the rest of my life, as long as you let me.”

“Baby-” Jungkook’s voice cracked with so much raw emotion and you couldn’t help yourself anymore. You were determined to show him your conviction behind your statement, so with your hand still buried in his hair, you pulled him down to your level once more as you crashed your lips together.

You’d never felt anything quite like the emotions that coursed through you every single time you kissed Jungkook. It didn’t matter if it was the cute good morning kisses upon waking up, the silly, laughter-filled ones that happened in the midst of playing around, or the intense ones bursting with passion that always led to something more. Each one was different and better than the last, and it was like a language between you both filled with unspoken words that demonstrated exactly what you felt.

This was one of the many ways the two of your expressed your devotion to one another, through an action as simple as kissing yet the feelings it always evoked inside of you were anything but. And even during times like tonight when you’d both endured something extremely emotional, you could still find comfort in each other through these gestures.

When you finally broke apart, you were both panting breathlessly, and Jungkook rested his forehead against yours.

“Sorry, baby,” Jungkook breathed, voice somewhat raspy. His fingers had started gripping your waist harder during the exchange, but you felt them start to loosen.

That was most definitely something you didn’t want, so you placed your hands on the sides of his face and looked him in the eyes.

“Koo,” you spoke softly, cautiously, as if you were testing the waters. “Can I give you all of me?”

His eyes sparkled with the realization of what you were implying, and for a moment you wondered if he would reject you. And if he did, that would be completely fine with you because his comfort mattered most of all to you right now, as it always did. Tonight had been a lot to deal with and you weren’t sure what mindset he would be in about this sort of thing-

That thought remained unfinished in your mind as Jungkook captured your lips again and all other rational thought went out the window. All you could focus on now was how Jungkook’s body felt melded up against yours, how his mouth was exploring yours like he’d done so many times before, how his fingers dug into your skin like he was afraid to let you go.

You jumped up and Jungkook wrapped your legs around his waist, never breaking the kiss while he turned you around so that your back was against the wall. You heard a low groan come from him as you intensified the kiss before he pulled away.

“Angel, are you sure about this?” He was holding you up with help from the wall, hands placed on your thighs just underneath your ass. Your hand was playing with the hair at the nape of his neck since you knew how much he loved that. “The last thing I want to do is hurt you-”

“Koo, I’m fine. I feel fine and I’m not in pain. I promise. I want this. I want you,” you gave him another searing kiss that you felt yourself melting into. “But only if you want it too.”

Jungkook’s next kiss knocked the breath out of you and he swallowed the surprised whimper you let out. “Of course, baby. I always want you.”

His words never failed to make you feel warm all over, with love and adoration as well as arousal. Right now, you were feeling all of these things as he situated your legs around his waist in a more comfortable position.

“Do you want to do this here,” he panted as his eyes met yours again. You could tell he was getting worked up just having you like this here against the wall, so you wasted no time answering him.

“Yes Koo, please,” you urged him to continue. “Wanna feel you close. Don’t wanna wait.”

“Fuck, I mean, I could take us upstairs-” his words ended with a grunt as you drew him closer by wrapping your legs tighter around him, making him grind against you. His head dipped down to rest against your shoulder as he let out shallow breaths, his fingers threatening to make indentations in your skin.

In a somewhat frenzied manner, Jungkook put you back down on your feet so the both of you could remove your clothes, too impatient to take everything off and only getting rid of what was necessary. When both of your lower halves were bare, he secured you around his waist once more, his length rapidly hardening against your now naked thigh.

You reached in between the two of you to wrap your hand around him, and the feeling was enough to have him inhaling sharply before he kissed you with a newfound urgency. You could tell by the way he was moaning against your mouth that your teasing caresses were working and within no time he was ready. You let out a stuttered moan when Jungkook’s long fingers disappeared inside of you so he could make sure you were stretched enough.

When he deemed you prepped enough – and when you started rocking against his fingers with impatient whimpers – he withdrew so he could line himself up with you. Your already soaked folds were threatening to pull him in, and it was almost too much for him to handle in his heightened emotional state.

He pushed in slowly, inch by inch, as he always did. The stretch made you lean your head back against the wall, his soft curses only spurring you on even more. On other nights you might would try to coax him to be a little rougher because you knew you could take it, but tonight you weren’t in a rush for anything, and neither was he. Tonight was about you two being together as one, relishing the way you shared this connection with each other and conveying it through this intimate act.

Both of you sighed in pleasure when Jungkook bottomed out, finally experiencing that complete closeness the two of you craved more than anything else right now. His hands gripped your ass firmly to start moving you up and down his length in slow, steady strokes. He didn’t want to take things fast or go hard tonight – he just wanted to enjoy this feeling, having you so close and yet still wanting to pull you impossibly closer.

The feeling of your warmth around him mixed with the tousling of your hands in his hair was driving him crazy. Every touch from you, no matter how small, always ignited something within him that he couldn’t explain. He was so unapologetically, wholeheartedly in love with you.

And he’d just come so close to losing you.

Pain twisted his heart as he stared at you, watching your face scrunch up in the most beautiful way. Your head was tilted back with your eyes crinkled shut while his name was falling from your lips in hushed whispers. Each thrust was pushing you further up the wall before he would bring you back down again, and your arms wound themselves around his neck to help anchor yourself further.

You looked ethereal, and Jungkook was trying so hard to focus on you and not the negative thoughts that were once again settling uncomfortably in his mind. His body was fighting itself on whether he should succumb to the pleasure he was feeling or if he should submit to the dark cloud blanketing his mind.

His change in demeanor didn’t go unnoticed by you.

Jungkook continued to move inside of you, keeping a consistent pace, but something wasn’t right. He was looking at you, but he wasn’t looking at you. He had a pained expression on his face, and that’s what kicked your own worry into gear.

“Koo, baby, hey what’s wrong?” You held his face in both of your hands and watched as he crumbled underneath your touch. He had slid his hands up to rest against your back now in an attempt to embrace you further, hands trapped in between you and the wall.

You almost started panicking when you saw the tears start to brim in his eyes again.

“I just-” he choked on a cry and your heart wrenched at the sound, “I can’t stop thinking about it.” He was still moving but his pace had slowed down to a near stop.

“Thinking about what?” You weren’t sure you wanted to know but you needed him to talk to you.

“Thinking about losing you, I can’t-”

His hands reached up higher to grasp onto your shirt you were still wearing, clenching the fabric in his fists as he dragged it down. You could feel the collar of the front of your shirt tightening around you while he hid his head in the crook of your neck and started to shake. You wrapped your arms around him as tightly as you could and ran a hand through his hair, trying to soothe him.

“Please stay,” he whispered, almost too quiet for you to hear. “Please stay with me.”

“Koo-”

“I love you so much, I don’t want to lose you,” more sobs wracked through his body. He had otherwise stilled inside of you but made no effort to move away. “I can’t lose you, I-”

“Baby, look at me.”

Jungkook slowly brought his head up to face you, the sight making you want to break down yourself. He looked so defeated, so broken, and his eyes were shining with tears he didn’t bother hiding anymore.

You cradled his face in your hands, rubbing your thumbs across his cheekbones before they travelled to trace along the curves of his jawline.

You placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, listening as he tried to control his erratic breathing. “I won’t leave you.”

A soft kiss on his lips. “I’ll never leave you.”

You brushed his hair back from his face, and his eyes captivated you as they swirled with so much intense emotion.

“I promised you forever, and I intend to keep it. Nothing, and no one, is going to keep me from you. I love you too much to let that happen,” you granted him a sweet smile and brushed your thumb across his lower lip that had started to quiver. He sniffled as you continued.

“Do you remember our wedding vows?”

Jungkook swallowed as he nodded, seeming a little calmer now.

Your smile widened, and your own set of fresh tears had gathered in the corners of your eyes, ready to spill. “Remember how I told I would give you all of me? That I would give you the best of me?”

He nodded again, and your heart soared at the tiny smile he presented you with.

“I promised you those things. So, no matter what happens, I’ll never leave you. And with everything life throws as us from here on out, we’ll make it through together.”

His smile was widening into the familiar, bunny-like grin you knew and loved dearly. Your Jungkook was coming back to you, and it was almost like you could see the dark fog that had surrounded him evaporating before your very eyes.

“I love you, Jeon Jungkook.” You leaned up to tenderly press your lips to his once more, smiling into the kiss as he let out a content sigh. “You’re my person. My forever. Please always remember that.”

You had swept a long lock of hair back from his face as you finished your words, and while you were distracted with that, Jungkook stared at you like you hung the moon and all the stars.

Your declarations of love stirred something inside of him and it dawned on him then that he was still inside of you. This was made more evident when you shifted in his embrace, probably to make yourself more comfortable since you were still against the wall, but it caused your walls to clench around him.

He closed his eyes and groaned, the sound causing arousal to radiate throughout your body. The two of you clearly must have forgotten the position you were in but that was no longer the case when you felt him twitch inside of you.

“Fuck,” he moaned at the sight of you when he opened his eyes again, his hands letting go of your shirt in favor of settling on your waist. Your cheeks were still flushed, with drying tear stains running down them. You were panting softly and Jungkook’s heart felt like it might burst with all the love he had for you.

“I love you,” he declared while he brushed his nose with yours. “And I honestly cannot believe I forgot I was fucking you, like how does that even happen.”

You giggled, kissing the tip of his nose before you drew back to rest contentedly against the wall. “I’m not sure, but do you perhaps want to finish what we started?”

You moved your hips as best you could at your current angle, and it pushed his cock further inside you, making you both moan at the action. He captured one of your hands in his and brought it up to place a kiss on your knuckles.

“Will you still let me give you all of me,” you reiterated your phrase from earlier in the night before all of this started. Jungkook’s eyes had darkened now with lust and he gave you a sly smile.

“Always, baby,” was his response. “Question now though,” he leaned down to let his lips ghost along your neck, making you shiver, “is can you take all of me?”

You tugged on his hair for him to look up at you, making him hiss in the process. You gave him your best challenging stare, and hoped it was convincing.

“Always,” you copied him, “I can easily take anything you give me.”

Jungkook arched an eyebrow and you felt his length twitch at your words. “Is that so?

You barely had time to nod before he was pinning your hand that he was holding on the wall beside your head, his other one gripping your waist hard enough now you knew it would leave a mark.

He pulled out almost all the way before he thrusted back into you hard, making you whine embarrassingly loud. He chuckled dark and low then, squeezing your hand as he intertwined your fingers.

“Too much for you, angel?” Jungkook knew he couldn’t keep this up forever and that he’d eventually crack himself, but he never missed an opportunity to tease you like this. “Thought you said you could take everything I give you.”

You nodded vigorously, not an easy feat with your head leaning against the wall. “I can, I can take it,” you breathed out, clenching around him to try and persuade him to move again. He stuttered out a low moan, determined to not lose his composure just yet.

“Yeah? You sure? Does that mean you want more?” He was shallowly moving inside of you at a torturously slow pace, the drag of his cock against your walls pulling a loud noise of desperation from your throat.

“Please,” you begged, not even caring how desperate you sounded. You just wanted to feel him, all of him, and your core throbbed at the thought of him finally relenting and fucking you how you wanted. “Please give it to me. Please give me more.”

“Fuck, baby, I love hearing you beg for me,” Jungkook moaned, readjusting his grip on your hip. “Gonna give you exactly what you want.”

He hungrily kissed you for a few moments, sinking further into you before he pulled back, panting as he placed his forehead against yours, eyes closed.

“Angel?” His voice was low and just the tone alone made you clench.

“Y-yes?”

He opened his eyes and smiled. “You might wanna hold on tight.”

You just had enough time to wrap your unoccupied arm around his back before he started pounding into you like his life depended on it. He slammed into you repeatedly, making you scream out his name over and over again whenever he’d hit that bundle of nerves inside of you. You gripped his shirt to have something to ground yourself with, and your eyes rolled back as he increased his pace.

Jungkook was grunting into your skin, teeth grazing against your neck. “You feel so fucking good, always so tight and perfect for me, my perfect angel.” He squeezed your hand hard enough that his knuckles were taut, but it didn’t hurt you. If anything, it turned you on more because he was finally letting go, caring more about just being in the moment with you than potentially hurting you.

And you knew he still did care about that, he always would; he was Jungkook, after all. But time and time again you had pleaded with him to stop handling you like you would break under the slightest amount of pressure. This was the first time he did without hesitation or working himself up to it.

And you fucking loved it.

In fact, it was overwhelming enough to the point where you knew you weren’t going to last long at all with the way he was drilling into you. All the emotions the two of you had endured tonight mixed with the passionate entanglement you found yourself wrapped up in now, it was no surprise that you were hurtling toward your undoing at a very fast pace.

“Koo, baby, oh my God-” you finally found your voice again, running your nails down his back, hard enough that if he hadn’t been still wearing his shirt, you’re sure it would have left scratch marks.

“Fuck, angel, can feel you around me, always so good for me,” his tongue darted out past his lips before he captured your bottom one between his teeth and tugged on it gently. “Always my good girl.”

His words made you spasm around him, and he moaned loudly at the feeling, eyes fluttering shut. His damp hair was falling into his face so you brushed it back, gasping at the sight of him.

You’d seen Jungkook like this many times before, but this time? This time was different.

A few curls were still framing his face but he had his head tilted back and his lips parted as the most amazing sounds escaped from them. His brows were furrowed and he looked almost pained, but in a completely different way than he had earlier that night.

Your heart ached at the memory, but you didn’t have long to think about it before he pulled you more flush against his chest, now opting to grab your ass with both hands so he could move you up and down his cock with his strength alone.

“Holy shit,” he breathed out, “I love you so much, angel, just wanna stay with you like this forever.” He was speeding up again and with the new angle, your body felt like it was on fire. You couldn’t even make a noise as the stimulation kept hitting you in wave after wave.

“You said earlier,” Jungkook continued, a little breathless now but never letting up on his powerful thrusts, “that I was ­– fuck – that I was your person.”

You nodded, still not really able to say anything or make any sound because your orgasm was approaching fast and you didn’t want it to happen so soon. Not until you knew he was there with you.

“Did you mean it,” he asked, hooded eyes trying to search yours. You kissed him with all the strength you could muster, swallowing down his moans as your walls clenched around him.

“Of course I did. I meant everything I said earlier.” A high-pitched moan tore itself from your throat when his hips snapped into you harder at your words.

“Fuck, it always does something to me when you say things like that,” he was losing his composure now, you could tell it by the way he sounded.

His admission made you chuckle fondly. “You know, you said something similar the first time we were together.”

Jungkook opened his eyes to stare at you and grinned at the memory. “Yeah, I did. Meant it then and I mean it now too.”

“I’m glad I still have that kind of effect on you,” you responded, breaking off to moan loudly at a harsher thrust. Jungkook’s grip on you tightened, and he increased his pace, finally pulling you over the edge.

“You do, holy shit, you really do. I hope I can say the same- fuck,” Jungkook knew you were close with the way your walls kept spasming around him every few seconds. “Gonna cum for me, baby?”

You nodded and whined, holding onto his shirt for dear life while he rocked you through the first stages of your euphoric bliss. He was panting right by your ear now, the sounds making your eyes roll back.

“Go on, cum for me then. Fucking love when you cum all over my cock,” Jungkook’s filthy words had you moaning out his name. “My beautiful angel,” he continued, pulling down the collar of your shirt slightly so he could place a kiss on your collarbone. “Always so pretty for me.”

“Fuck, I’m close, Koo, want you there with me,” you opened your eyes in time to see him pulling his lip between his teeth.

“I’m right there, baby, let go for me,” he reached in between the two of you and barely brushed your clit before your sudden orgasm made you clench so hard around him that he had to throw his head back and let out a guttural moan.

“Angel, fuuuuck, I’m right there, I’m-” you crashed your lips against his and swallowed down every loud noise he made, feeling his lips tremble against yours as his hips stuttered when he filled you up with his release.

He broke apart from you with a gasp, leaning his head back and letting out a strained “holy fuck” before he looked at you again. He slowed down now, thrusting a few more times before he stilled completely, breathing hard.

He moved you away from the wall, and you thought he might put you down but instead he tightened your legs more securely around him and walked the two of you over to the nearest bathroom to shower, his lips never leaving yours the whole way there.

Thank fuck Jungkook had such great muscle memory and knew where he was going because you definitely couldn’t have pulled that off.

He stayed inside you until he was able to put you in the shower, helping you discard the rest of your clothes before he did the same and joined you. It was your usual ritual and preferred form of aftercare since the water from the shower soothed any sore muscles and it helped you get clean in the process. Not to mention it was another way for you to be close to Jungkook, him only reiterating that truth now and he pulled your back against his chest so he could massage shampoo into your hair.

“Love you,” he whispered softly, placing a kiss on your temple since you leaned your head back at the feeling of his touch. He treated you so delicately now, the complete opposite of how he was just fucking you up against the wall. You loved moments like this just as much, always receptive to everything Jungkook did, every touch that flittered across your skin.

“I love you,” was your response as you turned around to wrap your arms around his neck and pulled him into a chaste kiss. He smiled into it, his fingertips brushing against the skin right above your waist.

After your shower, Jungkook carried you upstairs, ignoring your attempts at getting him to put you down because as you told him repeatedly your legs worked just fine and you could walk by yourself. His response?

“Don’t care, still wanna carry you.”

All you could do then was huff, pulling a laugh from the man you loved so much, the sound always beautiful and able to make your heart skip a beat.

When you were both snuggled into bed, you found it hard to sleep. There were still things you two needed to discuss, but you didn’t have the energy – and not really the want – right now to bring them up.

However, Jungkook did.

“Hey,” he was running his hand through your hair as you were laying your head on his shoulder. You hummed in response.

“I’m sorry,” he started, and before you could interrupt he quickly went on. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you, but I’m also sorry about how I acted earlier.”

“Koo, it’s fine-”

“Please don’t,” his eyes were pleading and you let him continue.

“It’s not fine, it’s- I get in my head sometimes and it can be hard to come back from that. You’re always able to bring me back, but tonight…fuck, it was bad.” There was a frown on his face now and you tried to make it disappear by placing a kiss on his cheek.

“I kept thinking about how maybe I’m not the best for you-”

You couldn’t help interrupting this time. “Jungkook, you are the best for me.”

“We don’t know that though-”

“I don’t have to, because I know in my heart that you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure we have the best life together, the same as I’ll do for you.” You brushed a curl out of his face before you continued, “Only for you.”

He cracked a smile. “That’s my line.”

You shrugged, giggling when Jungkook began trying to poke your sides. “Regardless though, I don’t want you feeling that way. You’re enough, Jungkook, you’re more than enough.”

His smile widened. “Really?”

“Really.” You thought about it for a second. “What can I do to convince you?”

He raised an eyebrow, eyes full of mischief. “Well, I can think of a way…” he said in a suggestive tone, making you roll your eyes before you turned away from him. His laughter fell on your ears and you couldn’t help the smile that broke out on your face.

“Hey, c’mon, you know I’m just kidding,” he turned you to face him again, running his hand up and down your side now.

“No you’re not,” you snorted.

He pretended to think about it for a moment. “Ok, you’re right- but­ I know you’re too tired so I’m half kidding? Sorta?”

It was your turn to laugh then, huddling closer to him as you wrapped your arms around his neck and placed a kiss on his throat.

His hands found their way into your hair again, and he continued to run them through the strands long enough that you almost fell asleep until he spoke up again.

“We need to do something about him, though.”

The way he said ‘him’ let you know exactly who he was talking about.

You nodded, sliding your head up to lay in the crook of his neck. “We will. But that’s a problem for another day. Right now,” you yawned, “we need sleep.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of your head. “Get some sleep, angel. I’ll stay up a little bit to make sure you’re ok. Jin said it was a good idea for tonight, anyway.”

You were already nuzzling deeper into his embrace, barely registering his words. “Mm-hmm,” came your sluggish response. “Goodnight, Koo.”

“Night, baby,” was his last response you heard before slumber took over, the feeling of his strong arms around you more comforting than anything else you’d ever known.

Jungkook stayed awake for a few hours, listening to your soft snoring and observing you as you slept peacefully. There was a gentle ache tugging at his heart as he remembered everything that you’d been through that night, but when you unconsciously snuggled closer, he felt the ache dissipate.

He made a promise to himself that whatever happened in the future, he would be there for you. He would keep you as safe as he could, and love you with everything he had.

After all, you were his person, just as he was yours, and he hoped that’s how it would stay.

[spxllcxstxr]

Cold to Cozy • R.L

(Gif not mine)

Request: oshdskdhkshs what about Remus being really patient, loving and gentle with the reader who’s insecure and anxious to open up to sb and be with someone after she had just got out of the toxic relationship? Sorry for my English. Love you so much. — anon

Summary: After a rough break up, you wind up at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night. Remus joins you.

Warnings: toxic relationship mention (not with Remus), more along the lines of emotional abuse, not physical, crying, but it’s mentioned and Remus comes to comfort you, but please stay safe

Word Count: 1.1k

A.N: Relationships are hard to write when you’ve never been in one. I hope I did this request justice! Could be read as platonic since it’s more focused on like comfort and not really a relationship, but who knows? Read how you’d like to! I think gn!reader. I also still don’t know how to end these things oops. Hope you enjoy, and I love you all ❤️

****

You don’t remember why you even started dating William Mulciber in the first place.

It was a well known fact that he was a bigoted asshole, and anyone with a brain wouldn’t even touch him with a ten foot pole. The only friends he had were Avery, Rosier, and Snape, and even those three needed a break from him sometimes.

But he made you feel wanted in some twisted way—at least at first.

He would flirt with you in class and stare at you across the room instead of getting assignments done. Mulciber would comment on your figure, mostly lewd remarks that had your eyes widen in shock. But he assured you that these were compliments, and who were you to say otherwise, especially in public when all eyes were focused on you?

You’d get embarrassed and duck your head towards the ground as he and his little group laughed at whatever crude joke your little admirer thought of this time.

But he was the only boy to ever outwardly express any sort of interest in you so you felt obligated to accompany him to Hogsmede. And after your little date, even though you realized that the two of you didn’t really have anything in common and he did enough talking for the both of you, you felt obligated to kiss him in front of the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

And your relationship with him was fine for about a whole two seconds before it became damaging to your entire being.

So that’s why after only a few months of being berated and judged by someone who persuaded you that it was all out of love, your relationship, if that’s what you would call it, ended after hours of shouting and flinging insults at each other.

It’s also the reason you’re crying into your house scarf at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the cold night.

The wind bites harshly at your exposed flesh, your fingers frozen and the tips of your ears completely numb.

Your legs dangle over the side, arms looped securely around the brass banister as your tears drip into your scarf.

The striped fabric is useful in muffling any rogue sobs that manage to escape.

“Rough night?”

The soft questioning voice coming from behind you has you furiously wiping your face in an attempt to look somewhat composed.

“You could say that.” Your voice cracks as the person sits next to you.

Glancing over you can tell it’s Remus, the sleeves of his thick blue jumper bunched up around his hands. He’s shivering very slightly, but is otherwise unbothered by the weather.

He nods silently, and you can hear your teeth chatter. Shyly, you bite your lip in an attempt to stop.

“I heard about you and Mulciber.” Remus speaks up, glancing at you before quickly looking back up at the cloudy sky.

“Oh yeah?” You snort, staring at his scarred face. “And what exactly did you hear?”

Remus looks back at you, the whites of his eyes illuminated in the blue glow coming from the tip of his wand.

“That you’re, and I quote, ‘a cheating bitch.’” He rolls his eyes.

“Oh yeah, because talking to Davey Gudgeon about our upcoming Herbology project is categorized as cheating, and him snogging that sixth year behind the Quidditch shed isn’t.” You scoff, balling your fists around your scarf in anger.

Of course he was spreading lies about you to make himself look like the victim. He was never in the wrong and you always were.

“That’s terrible.” You hear him shift closer to you.

“Yeah, well, that isn’t even the worst of it.” You mumble under your breath, a frown tugging at your lips.

“You don’t deserve that, (Y/n).” He tells you softly.

“But—“

“No, no one deserves the utter shit he put you through, alright?” Remus insists fiercely.

Your throat tightens as you turn your gaze down to your fingers. Nervously, you rub them together, trying to defrost them in order to find feeling again.

“You do know that, don’t you? That what he made you deal with wasn’t love?” Remus continues to press.

Noncommittally, you offer him a shrug, still avoiding those warm honey brown eyes of his.

“I’m sorry, I’m being a little too forward, aren’t I?” Remus sputters at your lack of response. “I just get so frustrated thinking about how he treated you, but if I’m overstepping—“

“No, no, it’s fine, Remus, really.” Finally, you look up, waving away his unnecessary panic. “Just...he was my first...everything, y’know? I think he’s ruined love for me.”

Remus’ face falls at your meek response. His sandy curls wave in the wind and you watch as he tries and fails to tame them behind his ears.

“Love isn’t whatever rubbish he gave you, (Y/n). Love is this warm and cozy feeling that makes you want to wake up in the morning. And makes you want to run around laughing in the pouring rain.” He rambles, marred hands waving around as he talks. “It’s a breath of fresh air and a million little kisses in the middle of the night. Honestly, I wish I could be a little more poetic, but it’s almost midnight and my brain is fried after that Potions exam.”

He chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck.

“No Remus, that was—that was beautiful. It certainly wasn’t what we had.” You smile at him, something you haven’t done in ages at this point.

Truthfully, his little rant had a warmth blossoming in your chest, something you can’t exactly explain. You felt comfortable with him, nothing like you’d ever felt with Mulciber.

With him, it was nothing but ice, sure the occasional dull spark was ignited when his arm was slung securely over your shoulders, but that was rare.

All Remus had to do was look you in the eye and you were a melting mess.

You liked this new feeling.

“You know, you should’ve brought gloves.” He gestures to your numb fingers, shivering in the wind.

“Well I wasn’t exactly planning on going through a break up tonight, Remus.” You sarcastically retort, trying once again to bundle up your hands.

“Here, let me help.” Remus’s large hands lay atop your own, warm palms pressing against your chilled fingers.

You study your joined hands before slowly lifting your gaze back to his eyes. Your hands start to thaw.

“This is nice.” You tell him, just above a whisper.

His face is a bit closer to your own, and you can see the pink blush rising on his cheeks and tinting the tips of his ears. His nose adopts a redder hue from the brutal wind.

“Yeah.” Remus agrees at a similar volume. “It really is.”

•

All Character Taglist: @aspiringsloth20 @amourtentiaa @cherie-draco @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @catching-the-train-to-hogwarts

Remus Lupin Taglist: @lunalovecroft

[winterscaptain]

5. “Not that kind of hungry.” with Hotch please?

Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader

request from anon: Hotch being a soft dom and praising you throughout. Saying you’re such a good girl and it’s only for him and rewarding you for it

a/n: please please please let me know if you don't belong on my 18+ tag list - i don't have notes for some of you new folks yet, so please send me a message or dm if you would like to be added or if you need to be taken off! this is two requests combined. it’s been a quick minute since i’ve written ~real~ smut, so hope y’all like it :)

words: 2739 (oops) warnings: smut. god it’s just smut and absolutely no plot to be found here at all not even a little bit. 

masterlist | requests closed

You were asleep when he arrived home. Aaron slipped into bed beside you and gathered you into his arms, tracing his fingers along your bare skin. More thankful than ever that you crashed before properly putting on pajamas, you stirred, shuffling closer to him.  

He tipped your chin up and kissed you until you were sighing into his mouth. 

“Hi,” you whispered. 

“Hey.”

“When’d you get in?”

He kissed the corner of your mouth, his lips staying attached to you as he spoke. “Five minutes ago.” His lips meandered down your neck, his breath warm against you. “I’m starving.”

You laughed quietly and slung a leg over his hip. “Then go get food, dummy. We have leftovers in the fridge.” 

He hummed deep in his chest, and his hand smoothed down your waist and further, gripping tight to the crease between your ass and thigh. His thigh pressed between your legs, and you ground down on him without thinking. “Not that kind of hungry, love.” 

He pulled you roughly against him, and you gasped as a spike of pleasure shot straight through to your core. His hand traced down to your calf, wrapping your leg further around him. You could feel how hard he was already. Even then, you couldn’t tease him about it because you were already soaked through your thin underwear and searching for friction against him. 

“Aaron, please,” your whine was almost embarrassing, and the grip on his hair must have hurt, but he only rolled over, keeping his grip behind your knee as his weight settled on top of you. “I want you. I missed you. Please.” Your hands fell to his shoulders as you endeavored to pull him closer. 

He shook his head. “If you’re not going to be good…” he trailed off and raised his head with a sly grin, “then I’ll just stop,” he kissed your collarbone, “right,” the top of your left breast, “here.” His mouth wrapped around your nipple and you moaned. 

“Please, don’t.” You pressed him closer to you, and he smiled against you. He gave into your tugging, his hand giving equal attention to whichever bud wasn’t in his mouth while he lavished kisses and licks and a great number of spine-tingling twists between his teeth. “Fuck, Aaron.” 

He released you with final tweak, and your hips jumped against him. You realized, with a certain degree of indignance, that he was wearing way more clothes than you were. You reached for his shirt, only to find your hands intercepted and held tight to the pillows on either side of your head. 

Aaron hovered over you, and you wrapped your other leg around his waist. You looked up at him, breathing shakily. Your hands were trapped under his, and you knew better than to tug. 

“Tell me what you want,” he whispered. He pressed an open-mouth kiss to your neck. You could feel his smile. “Where do you want me, love?”

“I want -” you cut off as he dipped down your body, his kisses soft (but not at all chaste) as they spanned the length of your abdomen. “I want your mouth.”

“Where?” 

Instead of answering him, you laced your fingers with his, and he released you, allowing you to bury your fingers in his hair and shove his head between your legs with shameless impatience. His soft laugher cooled your heated skin and you shivered. 

He leaned back on his knees, still wearing way too many clothes. You did notice, however, with a certain amount of pride, that there was a considerable tent in his sweatpants. Maybe he’d just give up before he made you beg…

His hand slid from your hip to your thigh, and he planted a kiss on the inside of your knee. “Here?”

You shook your head. 

His lips traveled to your inner thigh, and you squirmed. His hand brought your leg over his shoulder before pressing into your lower belly, holding you still. “Here?”

You shook your head, tugging on his hair. 

“Be good, sweetheart. Be patient.” 

It took all you had not to whine and struggle against his strong hand. He brought your other leg over his shoulder. “Here?” His lips hovered over your clit, and you felt a gush of wetness accompany his soft breath. 

“Please.” 

Aaron’s hum of understanding rumbled into your other thigh as he leisurely kissed and sucked his way to your knee. “What about here?” 

You continued to squirm, squeezing your eyes shut. “Aaron, please. I want your mouth on me. I want your - oh, fuck,” Your begging devolved into a moan as he licked a line up your center, focusing immediately on your clit. 

His tongue expertly dragged up your pussy, thick and flat until he reached your clit again, where he traced light patterns back and forth until you bucked your hips up into his mouth. He increased pressure, breaking up his languid licks with attention that almost felt like some of his hottest kisses - warm and strong and smooth. Your back arched and your thighs closed around his head as you got closer and closer. 

You were incoherent, but you suspected you were comparing him to some deity or the other, infusing expletives and moans whenever his mouth did something that sent flames of pleasure licking through your lower belly and spine. 

He looked up at you, and you were nearly a lost cause. He unwrapped his hand from your hip and pulled two of his fingers into his mouth. 

“Aaron, please. Please.” 

His wetted fingers played with your clit, circling and rubbing, as he watched you. You whimpered, and he grinned. “Please?” You could see your own wetness on his chin and it was just too much. “Please...what?”

You broke, begging him. “Use your hands and your mouth. God, please.” 

“Are you gonna be good for me?”

You nodded. “Only for you.” Your hands fluttered over his face, brushing the hair on his forehead and smoothing over his cheekbones. 

He kissed your palm. “Good.” Your hand stayed still as he kissed your wrist. “Good girls get what they want.” 

He returned with renewed vigor to your clit as his fingers curled up into you, pumping in rhythm with his mouth. 

“You feel so good. Oh, Aaron. Fuck.” Your fingers yanked on his hair, and he groaned into you, the vibration throwing  rolling waves of pleasure over you. Your whole body thrummed under his touch, and his hands held you down to keep you from writhing too violently against him. 

You’re damn near delirious at this point, praises and whines leaving your mouth without direction or purpose. With a few well-timed strokes and his groan as you tightened your grip in his thick dark hair, you fell over the edge. 

He brought his other hand to yours and laced your fingers with his as he guided you through your release. It was overwhelming, but then it always was with him. His name, repeated over and over, fell from your mouth like a prayer. Your hand in his hair was sweaty and hot and tightly wound, while Aaron held your other hand, smoothing circles into your skin with his thumb. 

Another orgasm crested over you before the last one finished, and you nearly startled. He pressed his shoulders into your thighs to keep you steady while you writhed, moving with you and keeping contact even as your hips jumped erratically under his touch. 

You clenched impossibly hard around his fingers, and he didn’t stop, riding the wave with you and prolonging it as long as he could. 

You loved his brutally efficient method - it had his signature all over it. His firm practicality went with him everywhere he went, but you loved it most when he brought it to bed. 

When you started to wind down, he gentled, pressing gentle kisses to your swollen, hot skin. Your chest heaved as you chased your breath. 

He pressed a final kiss to your clit, and you jumped. “Good girl.”

You laughed breathlessly, and shot up to meet him as he sat back on his heels. You fell forward into his arms and kissed him, your tongues tangling sloppily as you both fought to get his shirt off without releasing each other. You could taste yourself on his tongue, and it sent a new wave of want through you. 

“I need you. I need you inside of me. Please.” 

“I love you. Fuck, I love you.” He couldn't help but plant another sloppy kiss on you, but you shoved him off in favor of removing his shirt.

His shirt made it up and over his head, and you attacked the tie at the waistband of his pants, tearing at them until they came loose. He jumped off the end of the bed and finished kicking them off. He returned to you and to his position, sitting back on his heels. Your mouth dropped to his cock, licking a long line up the underside. You stroked him a few times, the warm weight familiar in your hand. 

He groaned and brought his hand to the back of your head. His cock twitched against your mouth, and you smiled against him, pressing soft kisses to the head. 

You sucked gently, running your tongue over his weeping tip. You never got tired of the taste of him - a little bitter, a little salty, and a lot of something you only knew as Aaron. 

“I can’t -” He pulled you up gently by your hair and brought you to his mouth. “Come here.” 

You nodded and kissed him back, looping your arms around his shoulders and straddling his thighs. Your legs shook a little, your body still humming from your orgasm, but you were so desperate to feel him inside you it didn’t matter.

Aaron’s hips rutted up to you as his cock slid between your folds. You were so wet, and the sound of your bodies moving together sent another bolt of pleasure and gush between your legs. 

He guided himself into you and you sank down, taking him inch by inch as you reveled in the delicious stretch. Your kisses turned simply into heaving breaths into each other’s mouths as you rolled your hips over him. 

Fully seated inside you, he tipped his head back and you mouthed filthy kisses over the underside of his jaw. 

“You feel so good. You’re such a good girl, so right and wet and ready for me.” His voice was low, but you could tell he lost his breath some time ago, his chest heaving deep and slow. 

“Always for you.” You kissed his neck, sucking and licking and biting. “Only for you.”

He groaned and arms wound around your waist to hold you close, fucking up into you with long, languid strokes. He dropped his head and kissed you again, messy and hot. You whimpered into his mouth, bringing your hands to his face. His eyes were closed, and you pressed your forehead to his and fell into rhythm. 

Aaron’s head fell to the crook of your neck, and you tangled your fingers in his hair, pressing your cheek to the side of his head. 

“Good girl,” he said into your skin. “I love you. You feel so good. I love being inside you.”

You moaned as he hit a place inside you that felt impossibly deep, and he switched gears. Keeping you close with an arm along your spine and the other low around your hips, he tipped you back until your back was flush against the pillows. 

“Fuck me, Aaron. Please.” 

He almost laughed. “Is that what you want?” 

The slapping of skin punctuated a hard and fast thrust up into you, one that brought the whole of your lower body off the bed. You barely had the breath to ask him again. “Please.”

“Are you going to be a good girl and come for me again?” His question ended with another firm thrust, and you moaned. 

You nodded vigorously, and he braced himself with his elbows on either side of your head. His athleticism served him well in many aspects of his life, but you reaped the greatest benefit. 

He drove into you, your hips moving hard and fast against each other. The noise was hot on its own, but paired with his quiet grunts and your moans it was obscene. 

“Fuck, Aaron I’m going to come again.”

He rolled his hips in just that way you liked as he bottomed out again. Your nails scored the skin of his back. “You want me to come inside you?”

You kissed the smug grin off his face when he felt how his words riled you up even further. “Yes. Please. Fill me up, baby. I want to feel you. Please.” You were nearly crying at that point, completely overwhelmed by not only physical pleasure, but the affection and love and trust pounding through you in time with your heartbeat. 

He buried his face in your neck and shifted his weight without breaking pace. He lifted two of his fingers to your lips and you brought them into your mouth, swirling your tongue around them like they were just as sensitive and important as his cock. 

At that moment, they were. 

He pulled them from your mouth and traced them down your lips. “You want me to make you come, sweetheart?”

You nodded, your eyes squeezing shut. His fingers circled your clit for a moment before he stopped. You whined at the absence of his touch. 

“Look at me. I want you to look at me while you come.”

Your eyes shot open and your face contorted as he resumed his ministrations. Tears slipped from your eyes and you fell over the edge, his warm brown eyes on yours the whole time. You were sure you’d never come that hard before, but then again you had that thought every time. 

His rhythm fell off, out of beat and only a little out of control. He was close, and you knew exactly what to say to push him over the edge. 

“Come inside me, Aaron. Please. Keep looking at me. Fill me up. Aaron, fuck.” Words tumbled from your mouth with and without permission and he drove into you one final time before spilling inside your heat. I’m his arms, you felt like a piece of art: painted and loved and new. 

You whimpered as he kept his eyes on you, watching him ride out his orgasm. Your legs tightened around his waist, pulling him even deeper. His head fell to your chest as he got in a few more long, deep strokes before falling still. 

All of his weight was on you then, but you couldn’t care. You traced patterns on his back with the pads of your fingers, soothing the deep scratches you left in your ecstasy. His quick breath cooled your damp skin, his ribs rising and falling under your hands. 

Your fingers traveled up to his hair, massaging his scalp and soothing him back to life. He eventually rolled over and slipped out of you. A little whine left the back of your throat, and he huffed too - mourning the absence of your connection. 

To make up for it, you snuggled up to his side and pressed a kiss to his sweaty chest. “I love you. You’re fucking incredible, you know that?”

He laughed, still dazed. “Yeah, I do, actually.”

You shook your head with a smile and tried to sit up with shaky legs. He watched as you wobbled down the hallway like a newborn doe. His cock twitched again as he saw a ribbon of his cum on your inner thigh, fallen from you. He launched himself out of bed and met you in the hallway, scooping you into his arms. You squeaked and looped your arms around his neck. 

Mission accomplished. 

“You know I only ever get up for the view it affords you.” 

He kissed you, and replied against your mouth as he turned into the bathroom. “You’re very thoughtful.”

He cleaned you up, his kisses following his hands as he made sure not a single part of you was left unattended. You looked down at him as he knelt between your thighs. 

“So...are you still hungry? I wasn’t joking about the leftovers.”

He grinned and pressed a kiss to the inside of your knee before looking up at you. “Not anymore, my love. Not anymore.” 

+++

tagging: @arganfics @quillvine @stxrryspencer @agenthotchner @wandaswitxh @fics-ilike @ange-must-die @ughitsbaby @rousethemouse @criminalsmarts @dr-reid-ismyspiritanimal @shrimpyblog @genevievedarcygranger @ssaic-jareau @saintd0lce @good-heavens-chris-evans @angelsbabey @gublergirls @writefasttalkevenfaster @venusbarnes @vintagecaptainspidey @micaiahmoonheart @marvels-agents100 @newtslatte @risenfox @mrs-dr-reid @captain-christopher-pike @joemazzello-imagines @pinkdiamond1016 

again, please let me know if you would like to be added or need to be taken off the nsfw list

[violetnotez]

hello!! how are u today? i hope youre well💖 may i request a baku crushing on a girl who is native eng speaker, but has never heard her speak. however one day the whole class is watching some eng movie n y/n starts dissing the movie in eng bc its so bad n the whole class is sHOCKED BC HER VOICE IS SO FLUENT N SM DEEPER IN ENG. bakubabe is just there like damn thats hot.

Hey babes! I’m doing well thank you, just doing some stuffs for my art blog! I hope youre doing well 💕💕also thank you to @gallickingun for the mangacap, it saved me so much time and I was actually able to color it! 😍

Also: IM ALIVE!!!! I LITERALLY WROTE THIS TODAY AND OMG I MISS WIRITNG! I’ll start on that Dabi x reader fic I mentioned in a little bit, just wanted to post this! Hopefully it’s good lmao

⤷ Genre: Fluff

⤷ Word Count: 2020

⤷ Warnings: cursing its bakubabe

⤷ Synopsis: Bakugo won’t admit it to himself, but he’s conflicted: he knows he has a crush on you, but his dumbass won’t admit it-well, until he hears your sexy American voice.

Song Recs: ⤷If I Cant Have You-Shawn Mendes⤷Thinking About You-Calvin Harris ⤷Rather Be-Clean Bandit

This was so stupid. Completely dumb and a waste of his time.

Bakugo slumped in his seat a little more, a grumble escaping his lips as he tried to focus on the screen in front of him, his broad shoulders crossed in front of him.

He should be sleeping right now, not sitting and watching this dumbass romantic American movie, especially when you were by his side.

There was no reason why his cheeks should feel hotter when you laughed at the movie, or his hands feel clammy with his sweat everytime you shifted your body closer to him.

It was pissing him off, because no matter how much he tried to ignore the pent up emotions in his chest, he had to admit it to himself-he had a goddamn crush.

On you, the goddamn exchange student.

Fucking great.

His lips pouted as he sulked in his seat on the couch, trying his best to glue his eyes to the screen instead of sneaking a glance at your profile.

The TV showed one of the most sickly sweet and horrific scenes he had ever witnessed: the main couple on screen were finally declaring their love to each other, their voices getting louder and more desperate as they tried to one up each other, almost as if battling to see who could last the longest.

“I love you to the moon!”

“I love you to the moon and back!”

“I love you to the moon and all the stars in the sky!”

“And I love you to-“

A laugh erupted next to him, Bakugo swiveling his head over to see you giggling in your seat, your pretty lips parted as those sweet sounds came from your mouth.

“God, this is terrible!” You chuckled, shaking your head as you said it.

Bakugo’s face reddened, his eyes widening from the sounds coming from your mouth.

Your sentence wasn’t in Japanese: it was foreign and new, American sounding.

Bakugo was used to your voice sounding light and airy when you talked in Japanese, like a leaf on a autumn breeze as it floated into his ears and danced in his mind whenever you spoke his native language. Sometimes you would fumble over the words, trying to piece the meanings together as a blush formed on your cheeks and your eyes turned up from embarrassment. He always made fun of you from it, usually telling you to “Spit it out Baka, I don’t got all day”, but really-he absolutely loved it. You sounded so sweet, so innocent and endearing: he just wanted to wrap you in a hug and envelope himself in your sugar sweet voice.

But right now, your voice was somehow the opposite-it was deeper and richer, like warm,auburn honey on a summer evening. It coated his mind in its thick numbness, the only thing he could think of was how deep and sultry, and well, sexy, it sounded coming from your lips.

He squirmed in his seat, hating how much that little change in your tone affected him so much as you continued to giggle at the wreck of a movie in front of you.

Your class turned to look at you, their faces clearly as shocked as Bakugo’s-they had never actually heard your voice when you spoke English, and they weren’t quite used to it.

You looked at your classmates, your face twisted in innocent confusion.

“What? What did I say?” You asked again in that sultry American voice, making Bakugo shift in his seat, his face looking away from you as he covered his mouth with his hand.

Damn you needed to get that voice under control-he felt like you were controlling his emotions when you spoke like that.

“Whoa y/n you know English!” Kamianri propped himself up, his face clearly in awe as he yelled it out the words.

Sero, who was sitting beside him, chuckled at his air headed friend, giving him a judging look.

“Uh, you do realize she’s from America, right?” Sero snickered, Kamianri looking sheepish as he realized his forgetfulness.

“Oops, Sorry!” He yelled out again, earning a laugh from you and the rest of your classmates.

Jealousy bubbled inside Bakugo like a volcanic eruption, the dangerous emotion barely being contained inside him as his fists clenched.

He hated when others made you laugh, especially his freinds, who unfortunately figured out the crush he had on you a few weeks back. Hearing you giggle at his idiot friends made him want to yell out in possession, declaring that they should know that you were his-well would be his- and they should lay off. But you didn’t suspect a thing about his feelings, and he really didn’t feel like looking like a possessive freak in front of you.

He felt your body shift next to his, his heart beating faster as your finger tapped his shoulder.

“Hey, Uh, Bakugo?” You whispered, the sweet tone of your Japanese voice making him shudder pleasantly, as well as long for your deeper American voice.

He grunted in response, his arms still slung across his broad chest.

“Did I talk in my American voice?”

He scoffed, his eyes rolling in his sockets at how adorably oblivious you could be sometimes. He sent you a shit eating smirk, his vermillion eyes dark like wine.

“What do you think?” He stated, but he didn’t say it in his language, no-he said it English.

He watched your face instantly light up, your eyes bright with excitement and awe as you gasped.

“Wait-you know English?!” You yelled out in awe, a smile erupting on your face. That smile seemed to shake his world, his mind eternally thanking that the room was so dark as his cheeks flushed.

“Of course I know English,” he scoffed, “what idiot doesnt.”

You giggled at his comment, your body shifting closer to his.

Damn it, his cheeks were getting hotter-he could feel your shoulder a mere centimeters away from his, your skin radiating a coolness that felt so soothing being near his permanently hot flesh.

You leaned in closer, your eyes watching his face with sweetness. “How long have you been speaking it?” you asked, but in that hot ass American voice-he was about to combust right then and there.

Shit-he would never admit it, but he hadn’t been exactly practicing his second language. He had learned it back in middle school, when it was a required class, and he had passed it with flying colors of course. Over the years though, he began to forget it, and he was pretty rusty now, now only remembering a few phrases (‘What do you think?’ being one of them)

“Ahh-“ he grumbled out, feeling stupid for not even understanding what you had said. He felt those pretty eyes of yours continue to stare at him, making him feel almost guilty for leading you on as you face fell slightly.

“You didn’t understand what I said, did you?” You asked sadly, back to using your airy Japanese voice. He hated seeing you look so disappointed, as if he let you down in some way.

“Of course I do, dumbass, I just-“

“It’s been awhile since you spoken it?”

He grunted in reply, your mind already translating that to a “Yes.”

Your face somehow light up again, your body even closer to his as you shimmied yourself near him.

“Then I’ll reteach you it!”

“Huh?” He looked at you, his eyes slanted as you peered at you with an almost judging look. What the hell were you playing at?

You nodded again, your lips letting out a slight hum.

“Yeah, I’ll teach you a phrase in English! To be honest, I miss having someone to talk to in my language…” you chuckled at your revelation, your eyes coated in embarrassment.

Well shit-if you needed someone to talk to in English, he was going to be the one to do it. With his damn luck Icy Hot and damn Deku would jump in and be your little English buddy. His skin crawled at the idea of you getting all cozy with one of those two bastards, his insides light up like a fire.

“Fine,” he huffed out, pretending like he was giving in, “but I’m not sitting through a whole damn lesson.”

You chuckled slightly, brushing a piece of hair behind your ears.

“Don’t worry, I’ll start off easy,” you smiled up at him, looking up slightly as if in thought.

“We’ll start with a something easy,” you instructed.

“I’ll teach you-“your sweet Japanese voice suddenly turned rich like syrup as it switched to American. ‘Hi my name is Bakugo”,

“Easy enough?” You asked, switching back to Japanese.

“Fucking elementary,” he scoffed, “yeah I can do it.”

“Cool!” You exclaimed quietly, still mindful of your classmates watching the crappy movie. You shimmied again, your face squarely staring at his as you waited for him to start speaking, your eyes expecting and wide with anticipation.

Shit he was supposed to be paying attention?

Bakugo cursed himself in his mind, as he was too preoccupied listening to your hot as hell American accent.

Damn, he was going to have a hard time talking to you in English, especially if you said his name like that. He hadn't realized how mezmorized he was by the way you spoke his name, your voice low and sultry as if you were telling him a secret, something he was only able to hear. His spine tingled and his hands clammed up again, making his mouth feel dry.

Shit, you’d be the end of him.

He opened his mouth, feeling uncharacteristically nervous as he tried to speak the words you had spoken. He could barely remember how you had said them though, the syllables coming out his mouth feeling cracked and awkward.

“H-hi my n-ame is...shit!” He cursed at himself, hating the way the words felt in his mouth. He couldn't say them right, knowing full well he looked like an idiot as his cheeks began to redden.

He heard you giggle next to him, the voice sounding sweet and kind against his ear.

“It okay,” you reassured him, “your just opening your mouth a little too wide...here-“

Before he could register what was even going on, your hand had wrapped delicately around his jaw, the floral scent of your perfume swarming his mind and making him unable to think straight. Your digits were pressing against his hot cheeks, forcing his lips to pout out slightly.

Damn, if he thought he was blushing, it was nothing compared to this-it felt like his cheeks were on fire.

You laughed at his clearly shocked face, his vermillion eyes wide and filled with confusion.

“Don’t worry, Bakugo, I’m just helping you,” you reassured him, your voice feathery as you whispered close to his ear.

Why the hell did that sound so hot?

You sent him another smile, speaking again in Japanese and then back to English, “Just say- ‘Hi my name is Bakugo’,”

he continued to star at you, actually beginning to like the feel your digits pressed against his mouth.

He swallowed, trying to coat his dry mouth with saliva.

“Hi-my name-is-Bakugo,” he stuttered out.

He wouldn’t ever say it out loud, but he had to admit it-his English voice did sound much better with your fingers pressed against his cheeks like that.

You clearly noticed it as well, your face triumphant and proud. “There ya go, that sounded so much better!” You congratulated him, your fingers retracting from his skin.

He already missed the feeling of your cold skin against his hot flesh, his cheeks feeling empty without your digits pressing against them.

He sucked the flesh of his cheeks into his mouth, moving his jaw.

“Shitty woman-need to give me a warning-“ he scolded you, his hands feeling clammy with the sudden change in events.

You rolled your eyes, lying yourself against the couch cushions and returning your gaze to the TV.

“Well, your going to have to get used to it if I’m going to teach you more-“

“Teach me more?!?” He practically yelled out, gaining a few confusing looks from his classmates.

“Of course!” you smiled as if it was obvious, “need to make sure your fluent enough for a conversation dumbie!”

“It’s also fun seeing you blush like that Bakugo,” you playfully nudged his ribcage, sending him a wink as you turned your gaze to the movie, unaware of how flustered you just made him.

Well shit-he thought numbly, a small grin playing against his mouth-you were something else.

Taggings:

@weebartistinc​ @orokayagi​ @leeeah-loooser​ @bakarinnie​

[cloud9in]

Human Sacrifice

Summary: The sudden events of the Zeta House Bacchanalia leaves Zoey a victim of humiliation, and Bea has her own input on the event.

 Tags: I’m going to tag the Zoey stans I know: @samanthadalton @jaxsmutsuo @this-person-is-busy @penda-bear @steal-your-moment @tyrils-star @satrinadia (If you want to be removed or added on this list in future writings let me know)

Word Count: 3.6k (Yeah it’s a lot oops)

Warnings: ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST, Mild Language, Depressing thoughts, also some blood.

Pairing: Badgirl! Mc x Zoey

 Author’s Note: I wanted to write a more realistic version of Badgirl! Mc for the events of the Bacchanalia. I hope you hate her by the end of this.

~

Zoey’s POV

 “I will never let you forget that this is who you are.” 

Poppy’s words struck me like I had just been the victim of a tragic car crash.  Completely surrounded by the noise and utter chaos, but isolated in the clutter. 

My legs began to weaken from the embarrassment, there was nothing to hold on to steady myself. There was no one to catch me before I could collapse and sob my worries into the cold, hard concrete floor of the place I would ironically call hell. 

Bea? Where is Bea?  A faint remembrance of her crossed my mind before I could only focus on my rapidly soaring heartbeat. Any second now it would pop right out of my chest and onto the ground, allowing another part of me to be exposed to the selfish monsters, who took no shame in degrading every part of my being. I wanted to shut my eyes. I wanted to go to sleep and wake up, realizing it was all some nightmare. But all I could do was stand there and hold back the dam of tears that threatened to surge out through my eyes. I’ll be damned if I let Poppy see through my act, see through the poorly concealed cracks in my perfect persona and take advantage of it. She has already ripped me apart publicly, and if there is something that I will cling on to as I walk out of this den of vultures: it will be my pride.

The anger rushed through my veins just as quickly as the shame left. I couldn’t feel it, but I knew my nails had dug so deep into the skin of my hand as I tightened my fists. That would definitely leave a few scars, but not as deep as the mental scars that have rose from the dark depths of my mind. There is nothing more that I want in the world than to forget everything. If all of my flaws had to be exposed in this moment, I can only hope the tears that spill any second will submerge me as well.

~

Bea’s POV

 “Zoey doesn’t need me looking after her. Plus, I already told her this is the only reason I came. She’s gonna love this credit card thing.” 

 I snapped a pic of Poppy’s credit card and uploaded it to the T, courtesy of a sweet message to follow along. It was only after a few seconds of allowing myself to wallow in self satisfaction that I felt the need to go save Zoey. With a final smirk of appreciation I dashed out of the room, knowing in the back of my head that the queen of all bitches was going to fall, hard. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, a blinding spotlight revealed the silhouette of Zoey surrounded by the cretins of Belvoire University. A sensation of guilt invaded the pit of my stomach as I looked over at the mugshot of my best friend, displayed for all to see. The confusion overtook me for a split second before I sprinted towards the wires, tearing its hold from the sockets. 

 “Hey, stop!”

 Whose voice was that? Who could stand there and enjoy what was happening to Zoey? 

I felt my cheeks furiously heating up, like I could explode any moment, and all that would be left is a pool of lava. I couldn’t refrain from scowling as I twisted my head in his direction

 “Eat my ass, Liam!”

 Yes that’s right Bea, a big verbal FUCK YOU to him will solve all of your problems, you idiot.

 I growled as the last of the cords are unplugged from the walls and the room goes silent. My eyes immediately fall on Zoey who shares a heartbreaking look with me, like she’s reaching out for me. She needs me. But even as I acknowledged that, I stood in place and watched as tomatoes were slung in the direction of my best friend. There wasn’t a spot on her body that hadn’t become a canvas to the rotting food, in fact the picture painted before me was quite the opposite of her usual appealing image.

  I wanted to get a closer look, I wanted to scan every part of her. I wanted to see the pain in her eyes...maybe I wanted to be the one who took it away. But all of those bottled up feelings meant nothing when Zoey raced through the front doors, her legs dragging the rest of her body, using every last bit of her strength to not break down right then and there. I wanted to run after her. I wanted to comfort her and hold her, and tell her that I’d fix this. But what could I possibly fix? What does she expect me to do? Maybe this will all blow over, I mean this is Poppy, who doesn’t she embarrass? I surely have been a victim, and it’s not like I wanted this to happen. I mentally patted myself on the back for uploading the credit card pictures to the T, this is going to be the sweetest revenge. That bitch will never see it coming. 

And she didn’t.

 I smirked confidently as I watched Poppy’s hastily retreating form, madly whispering into her phone to the great Piers Sinclair. Her father is gonna have a fucking field day with her, I thought. Rolling my eyes, I let out a chuckle. Who knew playing Poppy’s game could be so….fun? Exhilarating? This was only just the beginning of a feud that will end with my reign. A standing that I could not obtain without Zoey.

I knew that I’d have to go after her, and it’s not like I didn’t want to. But what would I say to her? 

 C’mon Bea, you’re going to talk to her. You’re going to ask her what that was all about. You aren’t going to push any boundaries. You’re going to show her that you care...deeply.

 I knew that Zoey had stolen my heart from the minute she grabbed my hands and pulled me into her world. I knew there was no escape, not with her. She was my world and I wanted so badly for her to trust me, to trust that whatever we’re trying to accomplish here at Belvoire, would bring us closer together. I had to go get my girl.

 After all, who else would comfort her if not me? I was the only one who cared enough.

~

Zoey’s POV

 I felt the remains of rotten tomatoes in every crevice of my body. The residue was not enough to distract me from the chills that invaded my spine, and it wasn’t because I was trudging with chunky tomato bits in my underwear on a freezing evening. My whole body felt numb, where was I going? Who do I go to now? I kept walking though, as if I’d encounter a solution to my complete annihilation. Maybe if I didn’t stop, I’d burn out eventually. Maybe I wouldn’t realize it when I hit the ground. Maybe I’ll wake up and be back home, safe and sound.

Sudden footsteps caused the thoughts in my head to jumble. As I turned to face the figure behind me, a rush of heat filled my lungs as I gasped, reaching for her. 

Bea. My Bea.

I wanted to cry out, to tell her how I felt. But in that moment, her arms offered me safety, the kind of warmth that resembles a thick blanket shielding a fragile body on an icy winter morning. I never wanted to let go. 

 “That was…so horrible Bea. No one...was-”, I shook violently against her chest, and she held on tighter. “No one was supposed to know about the...shoplifting thing!”

 Bea held me close as I struggled to breathe. I pulled my head back, careful not to ruin her outfit any more than I had, and looked into her eyes. They were concentrated on every inch of my face, her eyebrows creased with worry as she studied the remains of tomatoes that were dripping slowly from my head. I had the urge to pull away with shame, I….I didn’t want her to see me like this. 

I was Zoey Wade. But I don’t know who I am now. I don’t know what Bea thinks of me now. Everything I worked so hard for meant nothing in the end because of my past. I can’t help but feel like my past defines me, no matter how hard I struggled to lock it all away. 

 “Poppy is so vile for putting you on blast like that. What was that all about anyway?”

 Bea’s gaze was intense as she turned toward the house with a glare. I could feel her arms start to loosen its hold on me, and much to my dismay, I let her do it. She glanced quickly at me before facing the ground, taking a subtle breath and looking back up. 

 “I know it’s no consolation, but at least my plan worked. I got her credit cards! Her credit cards are going to be totally shot after this..”

 Bea’s eyes were creased with delight but I could see the pity radiating off of her dark features. I wanted to ask her what she was talking about. What credit cards? What does that have to do with me standing in fucking tomato waste? 

Bea reached out to caress my shoulders again.

 “That whole ‘Human Sacrifice’ thing is disgusting. I had no idea this is what she would do to you-”

 ...Suddenly the red liquid dripping down my chin didn’t resemble tomato remains to me anymore. It looked a lot more like blood, I felt as if her words psychically hooked onto my skin and tugged at it harshly. My vision began to blur, I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing this time, and I pushed her back roughly. 

My legs started to shake violently as I tried to suppress the anger boiling within me. But that was impossible. 

 “Wait, to me? Bea, did you know she was going to do this to me?”

 This betrayal hurt more than anything that Poppy had said to me. I felt my throat start to close, was I even breathing anymore? Is this real? I stood there trembling in my own sorrow as I waited for Bea to respond. I prayed that this was all a misunderstanding, that she would use that charming voice of hers to melt my pain away. To reassure me that she cared for me and wouldn’t have allowed Poppy to have done what she did. But…I was terribly wrong. 

~

 Bea’s POV

 “Zoey I swear I literally just found out while in Poppy’s room. I came to warn you but I….I didn’t have enough time.”

 I’m not sure why Zoey pushed me out of her arms so suddenly, but all I knew was that this was not my fault. I wanted to lash out at her for even thinking of blaming me for whatever happened tonight. Does she not know how much I care about her? I’m standing here aren’t I? 

I let the feeling bubble down slowly before speaking again, this time looking straight into her big brown orbs, red and swollen with tears. 

 “Zoey...I had gone up there to go through with our plan….I  saw the cards and figured I’d have time to do both. But...that’s just not exactly how things turned out.” 

 I expected her to understand. How could I have possibly known that they’d throw tomatoes at her? I came here to find dirt on Poppy, we both knew that. I completed our objective, we were one step closer to taking down Poppy. 

Why couldn’t she acknowledge that? 

I tried to speak again but I was cut off by the menacing step Zoey took in my direction.

 “Not exactly how things turned out? What the hell Bea?”

 I didn’t think I’d find myself outside in freezing temperatures, being pulled by the jewel of my choker by my best friend. At least not in the way I had hoped for.

I felt Zoey’s hot breath dissolve across my face as she pulled me towards her, eyes seething with fury that you’d probably only see in hell. My lips quivered with surprise for a second before I was sent sprawling back onto my ass, the concrete scraping vigorously against the back of my bare legs. Leave it to me to get in a fight with my fucking underwear on.

I quickly sprang back up, brushing specs of dirt off my already bruised up legs, before scowling at her. 

 “What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t know why you’re so pissed at me. It’s not like I’m the one who put you on blast back there!”

 “But you knew about it, and instead of telling me, you went ahead and did what you thought was more important, didn’t you Bea?”

 “...Zoey we had a plan. Which I managed to do by the way! I thought you’d be happy but it looks like you’re fucking ungrateful!”

 Zoey’s eyes practically jumped out of her sockets as her jaw dropped open. 

I didn’t mean to say it...I didn’t. But a part of me felt that I was absolutely correct, it’s clear that she didn’t feel the same way though.

 “I’M UNGRATEFUL? Bea are you out of your goddamn mind?! Why the fuck would I ever be happy about this situation. It seems like you can’t understand why I feel the way I feel with that thick head of yours.”

 My body jolted forward as I proceeded to grab onto her once more, I wanted to hold her and make her listen to me. She could not leave until I explained. But all Zoey did was back up even farther, holding her arms out to stop me. Tears burst out from her crinkled eyes and she just stands there and lets it flow. There was no more holding back, as mascara started to mix with her tears. My heart broke at what was unfolding before me. 

I couldn’t even embrace her. I felt a hot spark of blood run through the veins in my arms, and my fingers started to tingle. It wasn’t long until they were practically numb. I felt numb. Was it from the cold? Or something else? I couldn’t tell you.....

 “Zoey...you know that I’d never do this on purpose, you know this isn’t me. This… this is all a big misunderstanding. Please listen to me-”

 When I tried to catch her gaze, every last bit of hurt that covered her face had completely disappeared. She looked empty and cold, something I never wanted to see again. Had I caused this?

 “That’s the thing Bea...I don’t know who you are anymore. You’re not the same Bea who I watched walk onto campus and win the hearts of so many people...including mine.”

 I whipped my head up to stare at her like a deer caught in headlights. 

...I won her heart?

 A few beats of silence passed before I spoke again, my voice hoarse from all of the emotions I refused to display. I am stubborn, yes. I wanted to hear it from Zoey, I wanted her to tell me that she adored me. I wanted to know it was real, that it was never one sided. But it seems like the universe was always meant to be against me.

 “Zoey...I-”

 “No Bea. Just stop...I can’t do this right now.” Her shoulders freeze up as she exhales, a puff of breath glistening in the air as she wraps her arms around herself to shield the cold. “You aren’t my Bea...I don’t even think you realize how much you’ve hurt me, and that lets me know where you stand with...us.”

 She was wrong. Dead wrong. I did everything in my power to help her. To help us. It wasn’t fair that we would have this conversation in the middle of a fight, but I wasn’t going to let her end this. She will not walk away from me like this. I couldn’t hold my tongue anymore, any longer and I’d bite it clean off.

 “Zoey are you serious? That is not true! How are you going to admit your feelings and then walk off like it means nothing to me? Do I not deserve to have a say?”

 Zoey stood up straighter, the words that came out of her mouth were bitter. If I stood any closer to her, my skin would burn from the venom she spit.

 “The only thing you deserve to feel is the fact that you ruined every last bit of hope that we would be together. You don’t deserve me Bea...I can’t believe I didn’t realize that from the beginning..” She scoffs and shakes her head at me sadly, wiping the tears off of her face with her painted arms. 

 “What the hell does that mean? Zoey you-”

 “NO BEA! Can’t you see it? It always has to be about YOU. You’re the center of attention right? Ever since you started hanging out with Poppy’s lackeys...you’ve changed. I think you forget about the reason you have such expensive clothes on your back. How people only hang around you because of your status. But I’m not them Bea...I think you need to realize that I was the only person in all of Belvoire who wanted to know the real you.”

 “What are you saying Zoey?”

 “...You’d be nothing without me. Not here at least. This school never took your kind well, hell not even my kind.”

 A sharp laugh left my throat as I processed her words. I’d be nothing without her? This must be some kind of joke! How dare she even admit that?

She’s not wrong Bea. I stepped closer, ignoring the voice in my head and scoffed bitterly as my body trembled with adrenaline.

 “Is that right?”

  I raised my voice higher,  whipping my arms out towards the sky. “You hear that everyone? Me, Bea Hughes, would be nothing without Zoey Wade..” I lowered my hands and jabbed my finger in her direction. “You got a lot of nerve sayin’ that, am I correct? You know...Poppy was right about you being a social climber. That’s why you hung around me right? To use me?”

 “I don’t have to prove my feelings to you-”

 “But isn’t that what you said? I mean you’re right, I am popular. Is that what the problem is here? Is it jealousy that you feel? Keep in mind, before I waltzed on this campus you were a nobody. So the truth is Zoey Wade...you’d be nothing

 I jabbed my finger accusingly at her chest once more

 “without“

 Twice more

 “me..“

 A streak of blazing fire sent me stumbling backwards as her hand connected with my cheek. I clutched the tender area and reeled back to see blood staining my palms from the small cut her ring gave me. I totally deserve that don’t I? 

I turned to see Zoey inching towards me and I braced myself for another hit, but it never came. 

 “...Don’t ever speak to me like that again.“ Zoey shakes her quietly as she stares at her feet. Her voice vibrated loudly yet broke as she spoke, “I thought you were different...but Poppy has changed you. This game has changed you.”

 “Oh please-”

 Zoey snaps her head up to look at me. “Look in the mirror Bea, do you even recognize yourself anymore? I doubt it...you’re so blinded by this hunger for power that you ruin everything in your path. You’re becoming just like...” Her next words felt like a thousand needles were embedded in my palms. 

 “No...you are Poppy”. 

My breath caught in my throat as I stood there in shock.

If you had told me that my ex best friend would be telling me those exact words, I’d laugh in your face and throw a party celebrating my Poppy-free persona. But was she right? Had I tarnished everything I once cherished because of this obsession I have with my enemy? A thousand thoughts were running through my mind and I didn’t shake out of that trance until I realized that Zoey had already started walking away, shedding tomato off of her on the way.

Before I could stop myself, I shouted forcefully

 “Hey! Who do you think you’re walking away from? Zoey we’re not done!”

 Maybe that was the ignorance she was trying to tell me about..

 Zoey turned around one final time, her eyes full of grief for only a second until hardening, “Bea...do yourself a favor and humble yourself. Don’t forget where you came from...because trust me, they will never  let you forget.” 

~

 I let out a shaky breath as I watched Zoey walk away. 

I find it ironic how this tragedy has allowed me to realize how corrupted I’ve become. The picture of her walking away will forever be embedded in my mind, but one thing I can attest to is that Zoey never deserved to be dragged into the mess I made. 

 So I watched her walk out of my life, because maybe that’s exactly what I deserved. Maybe it’s what she deserved too. Only a fool would allow her to leave that night, and I was the biggest fool that ever set foot at Belvoire.

[todo-ho-ki]

If It’s Convenient for You, pt. 4

HOLY FUCK tumblr deleted the original. I shouldn’t have tried to add a tag on mobile huh?

Well anyway, here is part 4 AGAIN. 

Word Count: 2.4k

Pairing: BakugoXReader

Warnings: swearing, blood/mild violence

@chims-kookies I had to re-edit so I’m not sure if you’re still tagged OOPS

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3        Part 5   Part 6

When you awoke Saturday morning, the sky was clear and bright, rays of sunlight pouring into your room at the perfect angle. Finally a day off! Now you could relax and work on your audition piece. You felt light as a feather hopping out of bed, immediately grabbing headphones and twirling around. You expertly compiled a list of viable options before turning to look out the window.

"Holy shit." The clock on your desk read 7pm."Guess I should feed myself."

You dug around in your pile of neglected clothes, looking for anything that would constitute acceptable clothing.

The only things left in your pile were a turtleneck and...a short ass skirt.

Reluctanly, you donned the garb.

"Wow!" You exclaimed sarcastically.  "I've always wanted to look like I'm on Scooby-Doo!"

You were quite expertly paying homage to Velma. Except her sweater probably left a little more to the imagination than your thin fabric.

--

You drove aimlessly for a while. Now that there was no focus on anything in particular, the only thought consuming you was Bakguo standing at your register, domineering but calm.

A breath hitched in your throat for a moment and your tongue felt swollen, a clear memory of a sweet smell rolling off of him.  A little ironic, honestly, considering he was the saltiest bitch you'd ever met.

Calm down asshole. He's just a dude. A really, really, REALLY gorgeous dude. That you happen to keep seeing everywhere so you can't get his pretty face out of your stupid thoughts even though he's done literally nothing to earn your trust or respect because being a hero doesn't inherently mean he's worth his weight in gold-

Your internal monologue came to an abrupt end as you hit shuffle and let the music take over again. It was the only silence you were getting from that blonde-haired asshat.

It was really something you hated about yourself: your ability to not even know someone but suddenly be drowning in them. Every time you got an idea in your head, every time someone did something even remotely good in any way, you were jumping at the chance to fantasize.

What did they laugh at?  Could they be sweet? Funny? Loving? How soft is their hair? Their lips..? Any question you had you could daydream the answer to with no problem. And daydream you did.

The setting sun was kissing the horizon as you prattled down the highway. You were a good ways out in the countryside, so a commute gave you time to clear your head. But it wasn't clearing anything.

All you could imagine was him standing just a little closer, a smile aimed at you instead of a sneer, a hand sneaking around your waist.

Your car was parked.

You didn't really remember turning into a parking lot, glassy eyes looking up at the restaurant sign in front of you.

The glimmer of the "TAKOYAKI SUPREME" sign pulled you out of your daze, if only a little.

"I have gotta stop doing that before I crash and die. Well, maybe if I die I won't have to deal with this, you mused, a finger pressed to your chin. You continued to mutter to yourself, slinking into the restaurant and staring spacily at the menu.

"I literally don't even like takoyaki." Your arms crossed as you struggled to search for a menu item that didn't make you want to throw up.

You were also great at going with the flow, and just dealing with whatever unpleasant situation you found yourself in. Hope was running out as you reached the end of the menu, shrinking down a little.

But suddenly there was a tingle up your spine. And not in a good way. You didn't dare move now. All of the haze was gone and much like a few nights ago, adrenaline coursed. But this time, you really would've preferred to have Kirishima and Bakugo hiding somewhere behind you.

The door opened and a breeze blew in, carrying the sound of a slow, calculated voice.

"That's the one." It sounded like they were standing right next to you; goosebumps accompanied the chill over the atmosphere. It wasn't clear whether or not they were alluding to you, but your gut feeling said to be anywhere else.

They were both dressed in all black, tall and looming.

Did they follow you here? It's not like you would've noticed. You were too busy imagining a face that definitely wasn't going to walk you to your car now.

As long as I can get to my keys-fuck!

You felt around aimlessly in your pockets, the horror of realizing you locked them in the car taking hold.

Just walk out calmly. There's nothing saying they're here for you.

You tried to tell yourself that, but every hair on your body was standing up and your heart was racing. These guys were bad news.

The wind picked up as you stepped outside. No one followed. But your keys were locked in your car and there was no quick getaway now.

Shakily, you pulled on the door handle, hoping that maybe for once you left the door open.

Goddammit. My phone's in there too! How the fuck am I gonna get out of this one?

You looked longingly at the seat, never wishing you were a set of keys more than at this moment.

It's either pick the lock or break the window. And probably my hand.

Movement from the inside. One of the guys dressed in black was standing now. It could've just been a coincidence, but the sinking feeling wasn't going away. He walked towards the door.

Just fucking break it! Don't worry about the pain!

But you couldn't make your body move. You were frozen stiff as the door opened. Even if you wanted to turn around, you wouldn't have.

"Hey doll face. You need some help?" It almost sounded sincere and if you hadn't had a knack for sniffing out predators, it would've been convincing.

"No."

"Really? Cuz it looks like you're locked out of your car."

"I am." The only hope was that he couldn't see you shaking violently.

"A lady shouldn't be out here in this cold. You should go back inside." There was something in his tone that was unsettling. You could feel him leering at you greedily.

The fuck does he want? Not money. He would've just robbed me. There aren't a lot of other options besides kill me and kidnap me. But why me? Just keep your cool for now, Shouna. Breathe.

"I will be fine."

"You're shaking." You could feel him slowly walking closer. Closer. Way too close. He was way too close.

"I said I don't need any fucking help from you," you growled, finally finding the will to turn around. He jerked back a bit at the ferocity in your tone.

His hands are in his pockets. I don't like where this is going.

"Get. Away," you warned. The wind swirled up again, howling now.

His face went from feigned concern to intense confession. There was a malicious grin plastered across his face, almost inhuman.

"Fine. If you don't wanna play along, then I got no choice." He giggled as he pulled a knife out of his pocket.

You eyed the small knife carefully.

He can't kill me with that. He's trying to scare me with that thing. Calm down! You literally went to school for this exact kind of thing!

You knew, though, that there was a big difference between technical and practical application, and your hands didn't stop shaking. The cold was becoming unbearable, slashing at your face and legs. Your heart didn't stop beating a million miles a minute.

Your wide eyes met his nefarious ones as he spoke his next words, "come with me or die."

Your heart was beating faster than it ever had before, hands and knees shaking, eyes clouding with fear. There was nowhere for you to go, no place to run to. How had nobody noticed? Everyone inside was going about their lives like some girl wasn't about to get assaulted in a parking lot.

Keep it cool. If he was here to kill you he would've done it already.

You wished so badly to hear some whispering in the wind right about now. There wasn't a single hero in sight. There wasn't a single person in sight. Those guys were popping up everywhere you were for days and all of a sudden they were nowhere to be found?

"You won't kill me," you dared.

"Quit stalling!" His hand wrapped around your wrist tightly as he tried to pull you towards the knife. "I won't kill you, but I will hurt you."

You were twisting and kicking and doing anything to avoid feeling the knife driving into you, landing a well-placed kick below the belt.  It bought you enough time to get out of his grip and in your adrenaline-filled rush, you smashed your window out, ignoring the bright red streams down your arm and glass in your fingers.

You grabbed the key and tried to open the car door. But he pulled you by the shoulders instead.

"I don't think so!"

He braced his legs against yours and pulled your arms behind you, leaving one hand free to press the cold metal to your neck.

"Now listen to me, you have one chance to just go back inside and do what we say. Or you're gonna have to figure out how to look pretty covered in blood!" His whisper was intense in your ear, pushed through clenched teeth.

"Fuck you."

A small cut on your neck. A small pain but a lot of blood. You grunted in reaction to the metal, so cold it was hot. You were starting to get lightheaded.

"Don't make me ask again."

"You didn't ask the first time."

This time there was a deep, blinding pain as he plunged the knife into the side of your thigh. It seemed like your screams fell on deaf ears. The lightheaded feeling got worse as your vision became clouded around the edges.  

"I told you not to fuck around."

He pushed you into your car and you didn't even know bodies could bounce off of things like that. He left you stunned on the ground, mouth hung open in shock. You couldn't yell anymore, the adrenaline was taking over and you could hardly feel anything but a dull ache in your leg.

He picked you up and slung you over his shoulder.

"You stupid girl! Now you'll have to wait out here. You're covered in blood." There was nothing you could do as he walked into the alleyway with you.

"Wait here."

As if I have a choice, asshole.

He tossed you roughly to the ground. The cool air was the only thing keeping your stomach from turning as you leaned your head back against the cold metal gate.

I have my keys. If I can just get to my car before they come back, I can get out of here. But I can't get up. I'll pass out, at least.

You took a few gulps of air. "I have to get up," You groaned. "I have to get to my car."

You started crawling. You weren't really in any condition to drive, but there wasn't much choice. Crawling was proving to be too slow.

"Right," you muttered. "Right leg first." You pushed yourself up and put your right leg up, prepared to bear the weight. As you pushed up, the dark swirls began to make themselves known again. You reached hastily for the fence, nearly falling backward.

The knots in the fence grazed across your stab wound and it took everything you had to stifle the scream.

I have to get the adrenaline pumping again. I have to do something to numb the pain.

"Fuck," your breath was raggedy and erratic. "Shit. I have to go. Don't think. Don't think about it. Just do it. Just go!" You pushed off your right leg and upon landing on your left, the pain from the stab rang out against every muscle in your leg. But you weren't going to let it buckle. You were going to get out of here and let the adrenaline do the work.

It was almost a good plan. A sigh of relief burst from you as your car came into view again. But you turned your head to the door. Which was a mistake.

Your ankle twisted with the uneven surface of the asphalt, knocking you to the ground. You slid a good distance and rolled to a halt, literally just a few steps from the car.

Goddammit! Get up! Get UP!

You spent a moment yelling at yourself to move. The blood from your stab wound was pouring down your leg and your neck was pulsing.

I have to get out of here. I can't wait to see what they have planned for me. You kept having to push the thought of Bakugo showing up in the nick of time out of your head.

The door opened and the man from earlier walked up to you slowly, smirking. "You thought you were gonna run away huh? That's precious. Though I must commend how far you made it. Running on a bad leg is no fun." He kneeled down over you. "You're going to regret this,"he hissed.

All you could hear was your ragged breath hitching in your throat as he pulled out the knife again.

Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do now?

Suddenly you heard a huge blast go off in close proximity. Your heart raced. You could only think of one reason you'd hear an explosion. The man looked in the direction of the blast and you looked up, having noticed a shadow looming on the roof.

Holy shit I've never hoped that an asshole was here more than I do now. Please for the love of god be Bakugo.

The moonlight was bright and it was easy for you to make out blonde hair and a smile filled with bloodlust cross the shadowy face above.

"Hmm,"you hummed gently, closing your eyes. "He's here." The relief washed over you.  There was no way this dude was a match for Bakugo.

"Oi, asshat."

The man turned suddenly. It was clear he recognized Bakugo too.

"I think it'd be best if you leave the girl alone."

[zweiginator]

Brian buying you sex toys for you to use while he's on tour. This is all I've thought about today.

wait oh my god…. and he shows you how to use them before he leaves..

_

you know he’s leaving for tour in a few days and life is a lot more hectic than you want it to be; you just want to spend as much alone time with your boyfriend as possible before he leaves for months on end

but there’s a lot of preparation for the tour; the boys have to get measurements for tailoring and there are last-minute photoshoots that keep brian away from you and you’re extremely frustrated

because you miss him, and you were looking forward to days of desperate fucking to hopefully get it out of your systems 

(for at least a little while)

and brian comes home one afternoon a few days before he’s set to leave, exhausted from a difficult photoshoot and some awful meetings

but his cock is half-hard because of what he bought on the way home

“what’s that, bri?” you point to the opaque, blue plastic bag clutched in his hand and he holds a finger up

“close your eyes sweetheart.” he quirks an eyebrow and bites his lip 

and you roll your own eyes, doing as he says

he sits down on the couch, facing you and you hear the rustling of the plastic bag as brian unwraps his little gift for you

“open” he squeezes your ankle and you blink your eyes open

“a body massager?” you ask, looking at the box, still wrapped in plastic

“let me give you a massage with it.” he snakes his hand up your thighs, kneading the soft skin there, his fingers climbing further and further up

he pulls you between his legs, your back flush against his chest, pulling the t-shirt of his you are wearing over your head

kissing over your shoulders, his hands reach up to knead the skin, his thumbs pressing into the muscles of your upper back

his breath is warm over your body, ghosting down your torso and your nipples are hardening at the feeling of his calloused hands rubbing over your sensitive skin

“that feel okay?” he whispers, barely audible 

you just whimper in response, nodding, your hands reaching behind you to tangle into brian’s hair

“hold on a minute, baby.” he looks at you innocently, lifting his lips from a tender kiss on your neck

getting up from his spot nestled behind you, he quickly unboxes the massager, ripping the cellophane from the box before he takes it out and plugs it in before rushing back to sit behind you again

he’s back to kissing your neck; they’re hot, wet kisses, trailing down your shoulder and your upper back, sweet but laced with sex and lust

his hands trail over your collarbones, his thumbs finding your nipples and rubbing around the sensitive buds

you moan and arch into him, feeling his cock twitch against your ass

“haven’t even gotten to the fun yet, angel.” he smiled against your shoulder blade, one of his hands still rubbing over your nipple as the other one found the toy, laid by your foot

he turns it on, and just the sound of the intense vibrations makes you whimper

he unties your shorts with one hand and shimmies them down your legs, softly biting your sweet spot as he trails the toy over your leg

he runs it over your thigh and twists his wrist so it’s vibrating at the apex of your thighs; now you’re grabbing onto his neck, your nails digging into the tan flesh

“brian--” you breathed, bucking your hips forward as he ran the vibrator over your clothed clit

the vibrations were so strong, seemingly stimulating every nerve ending in your body as he pushed it up your body so it flicked against your nipples

“does that feel good love?” he whispers into your neck, his breath sending a jolt down your spine as he traces the toy down your arms just to tease you more

“yes--brian..god please--” you beg as brian nibbles your earlobe

“please what?” 

“please--i want it” you nod as he begins to drag the vibrations down your stomach, pulling it over your hips

“want it on your pretty little clit? you’re throbbing aren’t you?” he wrapped his arms around your waist forcefully, pulling you harshly against his chest, his arm slung over so his hand cupped your pussy

“so wet” he comments, shoving his hand into your panties as he rubs the vibrator over your knee and to your upper thighs again, his fingers rubbing around your clit, spreading your wetness

“i’m so wet for you brian.” you lean your head back on his shoulder and gasp as he delves his middle finger into your hole, wiggling it expertly before pumping it in and out

“hugging my finger so tight--feels good doesn’t it baby?” he kneads your breasts in his other hand and groans against your shoulder

“more--please..” your lips part as brian inches the vibrator up, so it sits just at your inner thigh, vibrating against your outer lips   

“greedy--” he comments. “can’t have my fingers fucking you while i’m away now can we? gotta make you cum with your new toy...want you to think about me when you’re all spread out, vibrations running over your gorgeous little pussy.” 

he presses the vibrations to your pussy and you let out a drawn out whine, your hand clasping down on brian’s velvet clad thigh

you can’t keep quiet; the vibrations are like the most perfect electrical shock, coursing through your most sensitive areas and feathering throughout your extremities

“fuck--brian..feels so good..” your voice cracks as your legs begin to tremble

he moans from behind you, rocking his throbbing cock against your ass as his fingers pull your folds apart, pressing the toy to your clit

“brian!” you rock your hips against the toy, your hands grasping his collar tightly. “fuck--i’m so close you’re making me feel so good..” 

“cum for me, princess.” he whispers into your mouth, between heated kisses

his cock is straining against his trousers, harder than it’s ever been in his life--but he just wants to make you cum

and you’re about to; the vibrations are keeping you right on the edge and you roll your head back into brian’s shoulder, nuzzling into it as he kisses your extended neck

your eyes flutter shut as your breathing becomes erratic, your toes curling as brian begins to circle the toy slowly against your clit

you feel your wetness pooling on the couch but neither of you care

“come on, baby... cum for me...my good girl.” he repeats, more insistent; he presses the toy harder to your clit

and that’s all it takes; you’re gasping and moaning brian’s name loudly, your hips rocking against the vibrations as your thighs tremble

but this orgasm is different, and brian cums in his pants, whining, his forehead pressed against your temple as you gush all over the toy

“oh fuuck that’s so--fucking hot--” brian whimpers as he shoots his load over the front of his pants. “did you--”

you hide your head in brian’s shoulder, embarrassed. “shit--it just felt so good i’m--” 

“that was so hot--don’t be embarrassed.” he tilts your chin towards his face, looking completely genuine

“seriously, y/n.” he scoots back and you look down at his crotch, soaked with his cum. “i came in my pants so i should be the embarrassed one.”

you laugh, pecking his cheek

“will you think of me when you use this next?” he asks, looking sincerely worried

“of course i will..what kind of question was that?” you pull him into a kiss and he melts into it, pulling you into his lap

“god brian, you’re a mess. there’s so much!” you tease and he pouts, his cheeks burning up 

__

oOps!!!

[damienthepious]

wait... what the heck... it’s not tuesday yet.... wh

No More Changes (I’ll Still Love You The Same) [Chapter 3]

[chapter 1] [chapter 2] [ao3] [chapter 4] [chapter 5]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla, The Keep

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, (tho not THIS chapter certainly), Curses, human!arum, (but not… because he WANTS to be), (it ain’t good y'all), Panic Attacks, Overstimulation, Rilla Is Queen Of Comfort, Damien Does Not Consider The Consequences Of His Words, The Keep Is Best Mom

Summary: Lord Arum and his Keep have fought off curses before, but they have never dealt with one quite like this. They have never dealt with a curse while having a couple of humans around to help them, either… though it remains to be seen exactly how helpful Arum’s lovers will be, in the effort of restoring him.

Chapter Summary:  Damien and Rilla have a conversation.

Chapter Notes:  It didn't feel right to put out this chapter on LKT for this week, considering that Arum himself does not feature this go around. Hope you're still sticking with us! Next chapter will be... softer. Also, oops! This whole thing got another chapter longer... again.  Chapter title from the song Get Out, by CHVRCHES.

Chapter 3 - Good Intentions, Never Good Enough

~

The Keep does not push him hard, but Damien still loses his footing as he careens backward through the portal, landing hard on his backside with his breath escaping in a whoosh. He scrambles back up, but the portal is already inactive again, vines sinking back into the wide flowerpot beside the fireplace.

“No, please,” Damien pleads, “please, Keep, he mustn’t be alone like this, he must understand-”

He cannot tell if it is listening at all. The vines disappear into the dark displaced swamp soil, and no echo of the Keep’s soft magic melody remains.

“Keep I cannot stand that he has been- been wounded so- you must let me back! I must find the words to-”

“Damien?”

Rilla is in the doorway to the kitchen, her medical bag and two more besides slung at her side, and she frowns as she sets them down.

“Rilla-”

“Why are you back?” she asks, her tone blank and clipped.

“I-” Damien breaks off, glancing at the flowerpot again. “We-”

Rilla waits, folding her arms over her chest.

“Arum was- upset,” Damien says weakly, but then his lip twists miserably down and his shoulders hunch. “I spoke carelessly,” he admits, halfway to a groan. “I spoke rashly and carelessly and Arum- Arum and I- we disagreed.” He pauses. “Argued.” He pauses again. “We… fought.”

There is some calculation in Rilla’s eyes, and she pulls her medical bag off her shoulder too and steps towards him. “Tell me what happened,” she says, and then she touches his elbow gently and maneuvers the both of them to sit in the little nook beside her front window.

“He- Rilla I was only-” Damien gasps, then realizes belatedly that he’s wringing his hands like a misbehaving child. “I- I don’t- I merely wanted- oh Rilla, oh my flower- oh Saint Damien above, I-”

“Stop,” Rilla says firmly, taking his hands in her own and squeezing them. “Breathe. Just tell me what happened.”

Damien inhales sharply, but Rilla squeezes his hands again and gives an exaggerated slow breath of her own, leading him until he matches her.

“You said you spoke rashly and carelessly, and then you fought about it,” Rilla leads, once he’s more calm. “Damien. Tell me what you said to him.”

“Oh Saint Damien,” he whispers. “Oh, oh tranquility, please-”

Rilla is patient, but the expectant look on her face does not waver. Damien closes his eyes. He forces himself to tranquility, feeling Rilla’s touch like an anchor, and then he explains. He does not decorate, he does not comment, not upon his own words or those of Arum, and he does his level best to convey the scene accurately. Objectively. When his voice cracks, when he wavers, Rilla’s thumbs press into his palms, pulling him back to the moment, to the story. Somewhere near halfway through, Rilla's expression doesn't change, really, but it… freezes, goes stiff in a concerning way. She doesn’t let him stop telling the story, though. She only shakes her head, and urges him to continue until he makes it to the end, until he runs out of words.

“And then the Keep- the Keep- it ejected me,” he finishes lamely. “As- as you know, of course.”

Rilla presses her lips together, inhaling deeply, and Damien, perhaps, panics.

“I had no intention to make him feel- I did not mean for him to take my words so- with so much pain. I am- words are- I am a poet, I should have a better grasp upon the way that words can wound. I am ashamed that he was so hurt-”

“Damien, I don’t think-”

"Rilla, my flower, surely you understand! But I simply need to find the right words to make him see- this transition is certainly trying for all of us, but even if we fail to overcome this attack, we will still love him! And if such is the case, will we not, in certain ways, be better off? Would this not remove the most dire obstacle to our safety and freedom and happiness?"

"Damien." Rilla sighs, and then she turns more fully towards him, letting go of one of his hands so she can cup his cheek when she meets his eye. "Damien, I need to know that you are listening to me right now, and not going off in your own head. Are you listening?"

"Of course." Damien nods feverishly. If anyone knows how to make their beloved understand- "Please. You know how to cut through to the heart of things, my flower. Please, please tell me what I need to do."

"What you need to do, Damien, is actually stop and think for two seconds." Damien blinks, and Rilla’s expression tilts into a stern frown. "This isn't just a trying transition. This was an attack. This is something that was done to Arum without his permission, something done for the sole purpose of hurting him. Of making him suffer. He can't talk to the Keep the same anymore. Evidence suggests that it can't hear him the same. Even something as simple as walking is strange to him now. He can't express himself the same, or see or smell or hear all the things he's been able to for his entire life. He's never had skin like this before, and it's so much more sensitive than his scales that clearly it almost hurts." She takes a deep breath. "And what you just told him, right now? You just told him that every part of this that is inconvenient and unpleasant and invasive and painful doesn't matter to you, because you, Damien, like him better this way."

"But-" Damien stumbles, stutters. "But-"

"You said this removed an obstacle to our happiness. Are you saying you aren’t happy with Arum?"

"Don't- Rilla, of course that's not what I-"

"You said freedom, too. Do you consider being in love with a monster to be a burden?"

"Stop, you're twisting what I-"

"You said these things, Damien. I'm just showing you what they mean."

Damien feels his heart like a stone, heavy and rolling behind the cage of his ribs. "Oh, oh Rilla..."

"I know that you love him, Damien," she says, her voice softer now. "I mean, I've heard your poetry, of course I know how you really feel. You love every sharp, cool, mismatched, scaly bit of him just like I do. And I understand how you could assume that a change like this would make your life easier. But it's selfish to weigh that ease against all the ways this is terrible for him. It's selfish just to weigh it against the fact that this is obviously not what he wants."

“Selfish,” Damien says breathlessly, and he wants to protest further, but he can hear the echo of Arum in his head, accusing him of the same, and Rilla is wearing a look of such disappointment that he manages to bite his tongue.

"He wants to just be himself again, Damien. If you woke up one day and your body was foreign and strange and bent in the wrong places, if your senses were weaker and your skin was so sensitive that it hurt and you didn't know how to even move right without possibly injuring yourself, if you couldn’t even speak to the being most close to you, wouldn't you be terrified and desperate to fix it? And then how would it feel if I came along and said that this new version of you, the one that makes you feel weak and helpless, this is the version of you I like more, because it's less difficult for me to deal with?"

"Rilla, oh Rilla I only meant..."

Arum’s voice in his head again, wounded and thick.

I am glad for you, then, that this curse has made it so I am no longer such an inconvenience to you.

Damien curls towards Rilla, folding himself against her and dropping his forehead to her shoulder. "Oh I have been an utter fiend," he whispers. "Of course I miss him as he was, but- but I- I only thought I was the one rushing off ahead, this time. I did not stop to think how that would seem as if I were trying to leave him behind."

“You’re still not quite getting it, Damien. You’re not rushing off ahead,” Rilla says, exasperated but gentle as she lifts his chin so he’ll meet her eye again. “You’re not, because this, this curse? This isn’t what’s ahead of us. This is only in the way of whatever comes next. It’s easy for you to think in worst case scenarios, Damien, and I understand that, but you have to realize that even if, somehow, we fail to fix this, Arum is never, ever going to be okay with it. Never.”

“I-” Damien swallows, glancing away. “Is it- is being human really so very terrible?”

“For him?” Rilla pats his cheek. “Yeah. It is, actually.”

“But-”

“This isn’t real, Damien. It’s not who he is. He’s not a human, and he never will be, and he’ll only be more miserable the longer he’s stuck like this. And I know that you love him, Damien, and I have to believe that you don’t want him stuck any way that makes him miserable.”

“No,” Damien half-shouts. “No, never, of course I- I only want him to be happy, happy and safe-”

“Then you need to understand that you’ve basically implied the exact opposite. He isn’t happy like this. He isn’t safe in a body he doesn’t know how to even use, let alone defend himself in. And he can’t be happy or safe while he’s disconnected from his Keep. On some level, Damien, you have to know that.”

Damien-

Damien feels it like a fishhook in his heel, the truth he has been willfully ignoring, the reality he has been trying to outpace while it left bloody prints behind him, a jagged metal tether that has pierced his beloved ten times deeper than himself. Every wince, every ounce of heartbreak in those wilted-violet eyes- every pain Damien acted as if he could soothe by pretending that time, if nothing else, would heal, if he could only wait long enough.

As if Arum’s misery now is a price that Damien could pay, for an easier life with him, somewhere down the road.

Damien stares at nothing, his breaths coming sharp and shallow, and he remembers the look on Arum’s face, in the moment before Damien was thrust out of the Keep.

How many mistakes must I make, Saint Damien? How many times must I hurt him? Oh, my lily, what have I done to you, when such evils already beset upon you? Oh Saint Damien above-

“I think you should go stay in the barracks tonight,” Rilla says, voice firm.

Damien’s heart drops so fast, so hard, that he’s surprised it doesn’t make a sound. “Rilla-”

“You need to step back for a bit,” she says, “and really, really think. And I need you to understand that I’m not telling you to leave so that you’ll feel bad. Honestly, Damien, I love you, but I don't have time to be particularly worried about your feelings right now." She exhales. “You need to think, and I need to be over there helping Arum. That’s just how it has to be, right now.”

“Rilla,” Damien says, pleading even as she stands, and steps away from him.

“In fact-” she picks up her bags, “I should get back to the Keep, like, now. Arum really shouldn’t be alone like this.” Damien winces at that, but her eyes are narrowed, focused somewhere past him for a moment before she sighs. “Just… think about things, okay? Really think, and try to consider how he feels right now, because that’s what’s important. I’ll be back tomorrow and we can talk about where to go from here.”

“But, I-” he stands to follow her, gasping in a panicked breath. “I know I hurt him, Rilla, I don’t want to simply leave that wound to fester-”

“Injury metaphors aren’t your friend in conversations with me, Damien, you know that,” she says mildly. “The thing is, you can’t start to fix any of this until you really understand why the things you said hurt him, and I’m not convinced that you do, yet. Go back to the barracks. Think. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Rilla calls out to the Keep for a portal, but there’s no immediate response. She hesitates, a shadow of worry crossing her face.

“Keep? Can you… can you hear me?” She pauses again. “Oh saints, I didn’t think it was this bad, I shouldn’t have left. What if it can’t hear us? It would take two days to get to the swamp on foot and Arum-”

She cuts off as a cluster of vines raise from the dirt, and the Keep sings, but it isn’t quite a portal. The song isn’t the usual soft, wavering greeting, either. Damien realizes with a pang that the Keep sounds suspicious, not quite angry, but certainly uncertain and unwilling and hurt.

“Keep?” Rilla says gently, and it sings again, a little more firmly.

Damien has a suspicion of his own, as to why the Keep is hesitating. He closes his eyes for a moment, swallowing his shame, and then he takes a few definitive steps away from the flowerpot, from the Keep. “I- I am not going to try to come through,” he says, his voice low so that it won’t tremble. “I understand that I am- that I am unwelcome, at the moment.”

Rilla looks at him, frowning, and he averts his gaze to the floor, but after a moment the Keeps sings in a way that sounds at least mildly relieved and a portal slowly begins to curl out of the flowerpot.

“Good,” Rilla says, her voice relieved though her expression is wry. “Saints. Thank you, Keep.” She steps back towards Damien to squeeze his hand one more time. “I’ll be back. Just- try to think about what I said, okay? We can get through this. I know we can.”

She smiles, and he tries to summon a weak smile of his own for her sake, but when she drops his hand again and steps away he cannot maintain the expression.

And then she’s gone, the portal closing behind her, and Damien is alone.

[nny11writes]

Passing- Chapter 4

<-Previous The Study Date

Barriss snickered as Ahsoka’s head jerked up, head swiveling in an almost unnaturally smooth way to follow whatever small animal had distracted her. “Lunch?”

“Nah, not big enough.” Ahsoka declared much louder than necessary, with a grin saying she was hoping someone would hear it.

Rolling her eyes Barriss highlighted her last set of notations.

For all the little distractions they’d had, Ahsoka’s suggestion to study in the Kelto Public Gardens had been a good one. They’d found a little spot tucked away from the noise of various crowds and out of hitting range from a rather rambunctious group of mandos playing some variation of bolo ball. The various birds calling to one another, soft laughter, and warm sun was transporting. Closing her eyes Barriss could picture them far away from Coruscant, perhaps somewhere like the Aldera Mountains. Not a bad choice, a little cold but that would be a great excuse to get comfortable in front of a fire. Not that they would be cuddling, because they weren’t dating and this wasn’t a date.

Her eyes snapped back open to glare at her pad. It just figured that her own mind would be the thing stopping her from enjoying a pleasant afternoon with her Actually Just a Friend.

They had been fake dating for all of three rotations and Barriss was pretty sure she was going to hate her entire existence after the holidays. Afterall, the charade had to end at some point and no matter when it happened her mother would be worried and it was very likely that their relationship would be strained as Barriss wouldn’t want to talk about it, and hopefully Ahsoka wouldn’t treat her differently because frankly Barriss relied on their quiet camaraderie to survive when campus was a seething swarm of sights and sounds. What if she had to find another roommate because she ruined her friendship by playing at romance when clearly Ahsoka had so many better options and furthermore-

Ahsoka’s orange hand plucked Barriss’s datapad right out of her lap.

“Listen pal,” Ahsoka said sternly while baring her teeth at the small electronic device, “don’t be mean to my friend. She’s a nice lady and if you wanna mess with her you’re messing with me!”

Barriss, to her eternal embarrassment, snorted.

Ahsoka laughed, but clearly was doing her best to stay in character no matter how terrible a job she was doing at it, “That’s right, you better fart in fear!”

“You’re disgusting.” Barriss covered her face even as she laughed. “We are adults, not toddlers!”

“Speak for yourself!” Ahsoka happily chripped, while tucking Barriss’s datapad into her oversized cargo pocket. As always, she did absolutely nothing when Barriss glared at her.

“I need that back.”

Ahsoka’s head tilted to the side before she declared, “Nah. You were glaring silently at it for, like, five minutes. Breaktime.”

Just like that, Ahsoka leaned backwards onto her hands with one arm going slightly behind Barriss. Like an almost half hug. A very much in her personal bubble half hug. Barriss quickly reciprocated with a slight frown. See how much she likes it!

Ahsoka flashed the most amazing little contented half smiled down at her, and Barriss was pretty sure she was sweating. Oops. She’d committed herself to this though and she couldn’t really just back out now right?

Right.

We’re basically cuddling. It was a nice thought. Even if it was short lived. While she was half staring at Ahsoka’s arm, because honestly where did all these muscles even come from, which is not staring by the way, Barriss would refuse the meer notion that perhaps she was ogling- a bolo ball bounced, spun, and in near slow motion flew within centimeters of her head. Of course it had flow close enough that Barriss had lurched aside to dodge it and found herself half sprawled over Ahsoka’s lap. A distinct benefit was the way Ahsoka reflexively wrapped an arm over her, and hunched over to ask, “Are you alright?”

“Oh yes. Thanks.” Barriss was pretty sure she squeaked. Wow Ahsoka had some very pretty eyes.

“Sorry! We were-ALL THE GODS I’M RICH!”

Barriss half jumped again, twisting to stare up at a group of laughing young men. All staring at them. It was like a bucket of ice water. It was like being punted directly into space.

“Kriff off Hardcase!” Ahsoka growled. Barriss crumpled in on herself and focused on the vibrations in Ahsoka’s chest. Her gaze narrowing down to the blue stripes on her lekku, they’d started splitting apart over the last half year. She was just going to focus on Ahsoka. It didn’t block out the sounds of the men slapping and shoving one another.

“Like hell I, wait, you alright?”

“We’re leaving now, sorry, enjoy your afternoon.”

“I’d like the details later?”

“Shut up Jesse!”

“I said we’re leaving.”

There was a round of affirmatives and the sound of feet running off. Barriss still got the sense that one of them was there. When he crouched down she hunched in further.

“Thanks Rex.” Ahsoka spoke in a near whisper before looking down at her.

Barriss flushed realizing that she’d just frozen up like a child and stiffly sat up. Rex was a shirtless man with close cropped blond hair and a dusting of facial hair that she hoped wasn’t meant to be a beard. Rex leaned back, squatting on his heels with a depth of worry in his face she hadn’t expected. Even if she was still shaken, Barriss appreciated the distance he left between them.

“Rex, this is Barriss, Barriss this is Rex. He’s one of my best friends from high school.”

“Ma’am.” Rex nodded seriously, a small smile finally twitching at the corner of his mouth. “It’s nice to finally meet you, just sorry it had to happen this way. Say the word and I’ll thump Hardcase if you’d like.”

It took more effort than she’d expected to pull the words out to respond. “No. Thank you.”

“Alright. Hopefully we can meet up some other, far more pleasant time in the future.” Rex stood up fluidly while his smile bloomed warm and sincere. “And seriously, congratulations you two.”

“Rex,” Ahsoka hissed with apparently no noticeable effect before whipping around to look at Barriss. “Ignore the lot of them. They are always trying to-anyways, older siblings you know? Assholes. Not Rex. Usually. Uhm, I mean- are you alright?”

Barriss gave a small shrug before realizing she’d been picking at a loose thread in her skirt. How long had that been going on? Her mother gave her this skirt for her eighteenth birthday. She was supposed to take care of it. Her heart, somehow, sunk further.

“Ok. Hey, let’s head home this has been a bit too much for me to keep studying; yeah? Easily...distracted!” Ahsoka quickly gathered up her scattered possession and slung her bag over one shoulder.

“Alright.” Barriss stood up, one hand trying to smooth out the thread. She’d need to cut that and check for damage. She liked this skirt. Glancing half up she saw Ahsoka’s arm held out in invitation and took it, before realizing Ahsoka had just been adjusting her bag.

Before she could pull her hand back, Ahsoka had smiled and moved a little closer so they could walk arm in arm. They walked slowly, taking a different path out than in and only stopping every single time Ahsoka saw someone’s pet. She cooed over every anooba, massif, tooka, and even one anura that was sitting very obediently on it’s owner’s head. At each little pause Ahsoka gave a happy little trill and would excitedly point out her favorite thing about them.

“Look at his spots. Great spots!”

“New antlers are the fuzziest best ones.”

“Barriss, it’s so tiny. I love tiny things? Look at it’s little nose!”

“A good smart girl.”

“He’s so big, I love him.”

“Can we steal her? Seriously, look at that tail. Fluffy tail Barriss!”

“Twelve out of ten would watch him biff it again.”

It was ridiculous, not only because Barriss was forced to shoot down ever single request to get a pet for the dorm (it said right in the housing contract they couldn’t have pets, honestly!) but because she was walking with a nearly six foot tall, muscle bound hunting god whose voice had gone up a clear octave in joy. Barriss chuckled as some sort of avian with a long tail swooped over head and Ahsoka gasped in delight.

“Barriss. Forget the rest of them. That’s the one. I need one. Barriss. She’s a perfect bird, a raptor with so much fluff. We should get one of those.” Ahsoka whispered as if someone else was going to try and steal the clearly wild bird away. “A good round girl.”

“We can’t have a pet!” Barriss huffed out a small laugh. “Besides I already have one large, squawking predator two is just excessive.”

“Hey!” Ahsoka squawked even through her giant grin.

It took hours before Barriss realized she’d never heard Ahsoka talk about pets or animals at all before. She spent the evening distracted by the heartening thought that it had been done for her benefit.

It took exactly seventeen minutes for Barriss to find out what kind of bird it had been and purchase a small toy version on the holonet. Ahsoka’s birthday was coming up after all.

[glowstickia]

Doctor’s Notes

Part of the Gasoline Believer series because I have lost control of my life. Takes after Little Talks. Written for Zarei week which...isn’t for a bit OOPS @mayviewmaidens.

[AO3]

Summary: Another kid doing something incredibly dumb to end up in her office. Dr. Zarei needed an aspirin. Two kids from the Activity Club walk into her office...shaken.

Dr. Zarei needed two aspirins.

Dr. Zarei PHD (?pending) pressed her fingertips together as she pushed her falling glasses closer to her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. She opened them upon exhaling--hearing the distant echoes of Patchworm reminding her. "They are kids Mina." "So, from the top," she started, already rubbing away the beginnings of a headache, "how did you get that up your nose again?" The kid in question winced as they once again tried to breathe through their nose. Lodged in their left nostril was a bottle cap. "I called dibs." Their voice sounded plugged, and if Zarei wasn’t staring at them, would’ve assumed the kid had a cold. They avoided her gaze and gave a quick shrug. She nodded slowly and immediately turned on the sink. Hands sterilized. Gloves - the yellow latex snapped at her wrist - on. She rolled out a cloth from her bag and grazed her finger along the tools until she found what she was looking for...tweezers. She turned back to the child and squeezed the tweezers a couple times. Clip Clip "Hold still." She said taking a seat in her rolling stool and tilted the kid's chin back, "This will probably hurt." The kid shook a little. Tiny movements as she clipped onto the bottle cap and- SLAM YANK "ZAREI WE'VE-oh." The sudden noise behind her startled her. She turned quickly around and heard metal drop to the floor. The kid immediately jumped to the ground, one hand on their nose while their other arm was outstretched as they chased after the metal rolling on the ground. "MY BOTTLE CAP!"

Zarei clicked off her little flashlight, closed her eyes and breathed. The day was almost over. The day was almost over . When she opened them the kid was squatting on the ground with their hands close to their chest. She stared at the two children standing awkwardly in the doorway. Black and red smoke billowing off of their shoulders. She held up her index finger while her other hand was removing her gloves.

She needed an aspirin.

While the kid was still huddled on the ground, looking read to throw down with the two new arrivals, Zarei walked over to the kid, squatted next to them, and placed a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “If I have to pull anything else out of your nose it’d best be tissues from a bloodied nose. Got it? ”

The fight response was immediately replaced with flight. The kid nodded. “Yes, ma'am.”

She gave a curt nod and smacked the kid’s back lightly. “Good, now go back to class.”

The kid rose and glared at the two in the doorway as they passed. Soon as they were in the hallway, the kid made a run for it.

Zarei rolled her eyes as she stood, grunting a little, and walked over to the sink. She pitched the gloves and placed her tools down on the counter to be sterilized later. “Close the door behind you,” she said as she suds up her hands. When the door clicked she sighed. Well, she did want answers. “So,” she said while pulling paper towels from the dispenser, “What brings Richard’s students to my office this time?”

Isabel shared a knowing look with Maxwell. Zarei's eyebrow raised as Maxwell swung the backpack he was carrying onto the floor and started rummaging through it. Isabel rocked on her feet and twitched a grin. "I like your hijab." she said as her fingers twisted in each other, "I didn't know you like polka dots." Zarei felt heat rise to her cheeks as she lightly touched her headscarf. "It was a gift." she said, her tone forcing to stay even as she brushed one of the light blue hearts surrounded by cotton candy pink. "Now," she cleared her throat and returned to her desk as she pulled files from drawers, "What brings you here to bust down my door like bulls hm?"

Maxwell pulled out a wooden box from his backpack. It was rectangular and made of a light wood. Maple perhaps? On top was a sliding lid. Was this some kind of trap?

“We were wondering,” Isabel said as he placed the box on Zarei’s desk, “if you could….get rid of this for us.”

She felt a tug of curiosity pull her heart strings and lay waste to any potential warning bells in her head. Her hands hovered over the box before she placed them back in her lap. She squinted at the two children before her. “Is this--a prank?” She asked, “Did Richard send you?”

The duo immediately shook their heads. “No, no that’d be awful.” “Spender doesn’t know.” “We’re like twelve. We’re mature.”

Zarei hummed as the two continued fumbling over themselves. She tapped her finger tips together. “So,” she started, “he does not know of whatever is in this box?”

“No.” They said in almost unison.

She nodded. “And,” her hands steepled, “you do not wish for him to know you have, whatever is inside this?”

“No!” This time they were in unison. Their energy flared up again.

Zarei raised an eyebrow. “Well,” she shrugged and leaned back in her chair. It creaked, “he does not tell me his secrets, so I won’t tell him-” The two side in relief. Her lips twitched, “However,” They groaned. She tapped the box, “you must tell me what is in here, and how you retrieved it.”

Isabel bristled. Maxwell lowered his hat. They exchanged looks and silent words before she spoke up. “We’ll tell you, but it doesn’t leave this office...deal?” She held out her hand. Without breaking eye contact, Zarei grabbed her hand.

“Now,” she said, releasing Isabel’s hand and adjusted her glasses, “what have you brought me to my office and how did you acquire it?”

Isabel cleared her throat. “Well-”

“So this guy almost killed us,” Maxwell blurted out and shrugged as if it was no big deal.

Isabel’s energy roared to life. “Max!”

“What? It’s true,” he stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked at dust, “we were both there.”

Isabel rubbed her hands down her cheeks. “Do you wanna tell it then?” She asked, giving him the side-eye. Black flared and rolled off his shoulders. She nodded and took a deep breath. “Did Mr. Spender ever tell you about the spirits in the park?”

Zarei shook her head. She heard some whispers about it from the Dojo students, but not much else. Spirits were everywhere in Mayview, all compact and compressed into one small city, if she could even call it that. “You will have to be specific.” She said, nails tapped her desk, “We don’t exactly talk .”

They shared a glance, before Isabel continued. “There were rumors about a dangerous spirit that was causing some havoc in the park and most of the activity seemed to happen at night.” She explained as Maxwell beside her nodded along. “We split into two teams and lost track of Spender.”

Maxwell shrugged. “I mean, he was at the car when we came back. We never saw him or the other two.”

“Nope,” Isabel’s gaze shifted to the ceiling as though she was recounting that night, “the first time we ran into it...it was fast.”

“The spirit?” Zarei asked, noticing the distance in Isabel’s eyes for a brief moment.

Maxwell squeezed her shoulder. She nodded. “Yes.” She tugged at the hem of her jacket, “We didn’t know what kind of powers it had, it was just…”

“Super creepy,” Maxwell said.

“Yes.”

“Like it had that one glowing eye-”

Isabel gave him a very tired look. He closed his mouth and shrugged. “As I was saying,” she turned back to Zarei, “we..well ran and headed for the playground.”

“Better than the lake.” Maxwell muttered. Isabel elbowed him.

Zarei tilted her glasses. “And what is this spirit’s power?” she asked, in attempts to keep them on track.

“Oh, well…” Isabel sighed and rolled her wrist, signalling Maxwell that it was now in fact his turn.

“We think it might be to-” he glanced briefly at Isabel and was suddenly at a lost for words. Isabel’s brows furrowed and whispered something quickly in his ear. He nodded and adjusted his cap. “It manipulates emotions.”

Zarei sat up in her chair. “What?”

“Yeah, it like…” his lips thinned for a moment, “whatever you’re feeling in that current moment the spirit can uh...turn it up a lot of notches.”

Zarei steepled her hands and sat forward. Her eyes narrowing. “Does it have last effects?”

They both looked at each other and shrugged. “No?”

“None that we’re aware of?”

Her eyebrow twitched. “Alright,” she sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. She needed two aspirins. “What else can you tell me about this spirit.”

Maxwell rubbed the back of his neck. “Well…”

Isabel twisted her fingers. “Mmmmm…”

“It...did try to murder us.” Maxwell scratched his neck, “Like...two times? Five?”

Isabel shuddered. Red bloomed off her shoulders. “It had long arms with sharp fingers…” She shuddered again, “Don’t know what would happen if someone were to get hit with those…”

Zarei sighed. “That’s all.” She wanted to know more. She needed to know more. But... “Thank you,” she said, opening one of her drawers and placed the box inside. She closed the drawer and waved them off. In a sudden roll their energy flared to life and disappeared into the ether, then faded, almost as though she had (both figurative and literal) lifted weight of their shoulders. They stood in stunned silence, both prepared to further their case, but judging from the color slowly draining from their faces as they had continued talking… Zarei didn't want to push these two any further. Patchworm's words from earlier rang in her head " They are kids, Mina ."

Maxwell picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. His lips thinned as he pulled his down a little. Isabel in turn rubbed her shoulder, if Zarei remembered correctly, it was the same one she sewed... Maxwell patted her back, gave a nod to Zarei, and left the room. Isabel sighed deeply as faint red smoke rose off her shoulders. "Dr. Zarei?" She arched an eyebrow. "Hm?" "Please don't...mention any of this to my grandfather either." Her lips twitched. "You're secret is safe here." She pulled a pen off of the re-purposed school mug on the desk and tapped it against the yellow form she had on her desk. "I assume you both will be needing passes too?" Isabel's eyes fluttered. "Uh, yes...actually yes." Zarei hummed and quickly wrote the date and signature on two sheets. "Do not make this a regular thing." She said, holding the notes out for Isabel to take. She grabbed them. "Thank you," she said, gave a respectable bow and jogged out into the hallway. Zarei heard two muffled voices talking grow quiet. She rubbed her forehead. Perhaps...she needed three aspirin.

Bonus: Ed pressed his face against his textbook and groaned. Who in their right minds ever actually studied in study hall? Nerds, that's who. He did his homework, completed, finished. It was all he could do to keep the boredness at bay. His usual entertainment ditched him before the period even started. He was all set to follow, but the VP caught him slithering out- "Without a hall pass."

He perked up almost immediately when his sister slid into her seat next to him. She didn't say anything about ditching or the silent convo she and Max shared. He twitched in his seat. Friend...Stealer...