#So he asks. Over and over. Let's try. Let's try again. This time it can be right. I know you could love flowers and haiku and company

[firewasabeast]

I wanted to write a little something with Chimney, Hen, and Tommy. Also decided to make it a fix-it fic. Enjoy!

Chimney clapped his hands together. “Look at us,” he said, smiling over to Tommy, then back at Hen. “The original gang, back together.”

“The original gang?” Hen questioned, her voice staticky through the mic.

“Yeah! Me, you, Tommy, all on a mission to save the world… or LA, at least.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow and shrugged, otherwise staying quiet.

“Wouldn’t ‘original’ indicate I was there from the beginning?" Hen asked. "I’m not part of your original gang, Chim.”

“Yeah, and technically neither of you are part of mine,” Tommy added.

“Okay, party poopers,” Chimney huffed. “I’m talking about my original gang that I started hanging out with first.”

“Hm,” Tommy hummed. “Wouldn’t that have been Eli?”

Chimney glared. “You know what, I’m not talking to either of you the rest of the time we’re up here.”

Hen rolled her eyes, but reached up to give him a pat on the shoulder. “We’re just messing with you, Chim. We get it.”

“Yeah,” Tommy agreed. “The 118 was a very different type of gang until you guys came around anyway.”

Chimney perked back up at that. “See! Like I said, the gang is back together.”

“Trying to prevent terrorists from blowing up half the city,” Hen reminded him.

“And trying not to make ourselves targets in the process,” Tommy added.

“Once again, party poo-”

“So,” Hen interrupted, “Tommy. How’s life been lately?”

“Fine,” Tommy replied, immediately suspicious.

Chimney pulled a fresh piece of gum from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. “We heard about your little tryst with our lover boy Buckley."

Tommy sighed. “Oh good. I was hoping my private life would be a topic of discussion for you all.”

“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m married to the guy’s sister.”

“Yeah,” Hen said, “and I can’t help it if I sit in an ambulance with a guy who can’t keep a secret to save his life.”

“Ignoring that.” Chimney looked over at Tommy. “What’s going on there?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay." Chimney cleared his throat. “I’ll ask again, and we’ll try the truth this time,” he said, just like he was talking to Jee. “What’s going on there?”

Oh, how Tommy wished they weren’t still ten minutes out from their location. He could use a nice bomb threat as a distraction right now. “Nothing,” he repeated. “There’s nothing going on. I- I thought… it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing.”

“And you’re good with that?” Hen asked.

“I have to be,” Tommy replied honestly. “Evan… Buck made it clear that he didn’t have feelings for me. It was just a one night thing.”

Chimney and Hen shared a look.

“Wait a minute,” Chimney said. “Buck told you he didn’t have feelings for you? Firefighter Evan Buckley of the 118?”

“Yes, Howie. Can we drop it now, please?”

“Absolutely not. We’ve suffered through months of this man moping over you being gone, and you’re going to tell me that he said he didn’t have feelings for you?”

If only helicopters came with parachutes.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Tommy said, his grip a bit tighter on the pitch stick.

“You don’t-” Chimney let out an exasperated sigh. “Have you tried buying flour lately? Sugar? Sticks of butter?”

“Howie, what the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m pretty sure Buck created a shortage with how much he’s been baking.”

“He’s not wrong,” Hen cut in. “Probably spent half a damn paycheck on eggs alone.”

“I still don’t know what either of you are talking about. Can I fly this bird without distractions, please?”

Chimney waved him off. “You’re doing just fine with the distractions. What we’re talking about is the fact that Buck is, for some reason, lying like an insane person!”

“Yeah, you’ve been the topic of most of his conversations since the breakup,” Hen said. “There was a brief window where he was upset about Eddie leaving, but then it was back to you.”

“Every time he thought about calling or texting you, he’d whip up some new recipe,” Chimney explained. “Most of them weren’t any good. I get triggered by the smell of bananas now.”

“The cinnamon swirl muffins were delicious though,” Hen reminded him.

“Oh, yeah, those were a hit.” He shook his head. “But that’s not the point. The point is, Buck is an idiot, and if he’s telling you he has no feelings for you, then he’s lying.”

“Or you misunderstood,” Hen added.

“Guys, this is…” Tommy sighed. “This is a lot of information to take in right now. Why don’t we focus-”

“It’s not like we were much help though,” Hen continued. “We did all kind of keep telling him not to call.”

“But that’s because we thought Tommy dumped him.”

“Tommy did dump him.”

“Tommy is right here,” Tommy reminded them.

Chimney crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you not have feelings for him?”

“What?!” Tommy exclaimed. “I never said that.”

“Well?”

“Ugh! O- Of course I have feelings for him. I wouldn’t have gone home with him that night if I didn’t still have feelings for him. I wanted to get back together.”

“He said no?” Hen asked.

“So you guys got the whole rundown on us hooking up, but the rest of the stuff gets left out?”

“I don’t get it, Hen,” Chimney said, turning to face her. “They both care about each other, both want to be together, but they’re both too stubborn and stupid to talk it out.”

“Hey!”

“It’s like a bad movie,” Hen muttered.

Somehow, they were still three minutes out from their location, and Tommy felt like he was going to go insane. “Listen,” he said. “Evan is… I’ve never had someone like him in my life. He’s funny, and smart, and hot, and he cares about people, and he’s just a genuinely good person. That- That’s why it wouldn’t work. He’s too good for me. He deserves better.”

Chimney stared at him, mouth hanging open with a confused expression on his face.

“Oh my God,” Hen said, shaking her head. “Chimney’s right. You’re both stupid.”

“Guys,” Bobby’s voice suddenly echoed over the line. “Did you all forget you’re on an open channel right now?”

A beat of silence, the group glanced at one another, then Tommy responded. “So, everyone could…?”

“Could hear this riveting conversation? Yes.”

Chimney sucked in a breath. “And everyone includes?”

“Well, the entire LAFD, LAPD, then you’ve got the FBI, NSA, and DHS.”

Another, unrecognized voice came over the radio. “The U.S. Coast Guard is here as well.”

“Oh yeah, and the Coast Guard.”

“And me.”

Buck’s voice caught Tommy off guard, and the chopper dropped a few feet before Tommy quickly regained control. He ignored the yelps from Howie and Hen.

“E- Evan, I-”

“They’re right, Tommy,” Buck began, getting right to the point. “Listen, I- I was angry that morning, and I said some things that I didn’t mean, but I- I wasn’t talking about you. You left before I could explain and I’m not… I don’t even know if I could have explained it right then, but, it’s not true that I don’t have feelings for you. I feel everything for you. You… Tommy, i- it scares me just how much you mean to me.”

Tommy didn’t know what to say, so he stayed quiet until both Hen and Chim reached over and smacked him on the arm.

“E- Evan," he stuttered, "I- I really wish we weren’t having this conversation with hundreds of government officials listening in. Do you think my fake mouth static could get me out of this?”

Buck laughed. “I told you, Tommy, it’s not that great.”

Tommy grinned. “When I’m done here, and our shifts are over, I’d… Evan, I’d really like to talk to you in person.”

“What are you doing Saturday?” Buck asked in response. “You free?”

Tommy took in a shaky breath. “I’m free.”

“Then be safe, Tommy, and come back to me.”

Tommy nodded, blinking away tears. “Copy that.”

[monstersholygrail]

I like to imagine that whenever you, a cute Puppy Hybrid, make your Wolf Hybrid bf upset he’ll do anything to make it up to you and get back in your good graces.

He loves to see that little pout on your face he just hates when he’s the cause of it. Even worse when you act all stubborn and start ignoring him.

He’ll follow you around the house like he’s the pup in the relationship. A deep scowl on his face as he keeps getting you to try and talk to him. He does anything he can think of.

Offering you treats, suggests going on a walk, asks if his good pup wants some belly rubs. If things get so drastic then he’ll even beg for you to sit on his face. Wanting to suck as many orgasms out of you that it’ll take to fuck you stupid and make you forget why you were ever upset.

But when that still doesn’t work your bf he needs to take drastic measures. He catches you right before you storm past him again on your way out of the living room.

“Hey, wait a minute now, ma.”

His hand hooks around the back of your plush thigh, claws gently digging in to your soft flesh. With an easy tug he pulls you right into his lap. Situating you so that you’re straddling him.

“‘M sorry and you know that, yeah? So what’s with the attitude?”

His voice rumbles deep from his chest, making you tingle all over as he leans in and runs his nose along your jaw and into your warm neck. You can feel his cock twitch beneath you and it’s like your every nerve is on edge.

You wanna give in. You wanna give in so damn badly. The need to jerk his pants down and ride his big cock till he’s whimpering out his apologies claw at you. The thought starts to make your fluffy tail wag before you force it still. With a sniff you turn your head to him, refusing to give in.

Seeing your enduring stubbornness, your bf growls. His eyes narrowing you, knowing you won’t let go of this easy. He’s quick to grip your jaw, turning your eyes back on him sharply.

“Know this, baby. I don’t submit to just anyone. So I don’t wanna hear another word about you questioning how much you mean to me.”

Then without any hesitation your bf’s ears pin back and he slowly bares his throat to you. Your eyes blow open wide, dilating deeply at the sight of him so vulnerable and exposed to you.

The air between you is charged with a raw desperate need. Your body quivering as you lean in and press gentle kisses along the column of his throat. Your bf growls again but this time in pleasure, his head falling back fully, and giving letting you do whatever you want to him.

It’s like the two of you move as one, his hands guiding your hips as you already start to rock against his hardening bulge. The both of you moaning at the much needed friction.

Safe to say he’s forgiven. But he still plans on fucking you dumb and you still plan on making him whimper and beg for the chance to cum inside you. And both of you are perfectly happy with that arrangement.

[eraserbread]

your older boyfriend, nanami, has a sneaking suspicion you like arguing with him.

➽─────────────────────────────❥

it always starts with something stupid, him denying you a new purse you wanted, or him telling you no when you asked to come to his house. he gave you a good reason, he was tired, and you were too rowdy.

this time, he didn't come visit you when you were in the office on your internship.

nanami was innocent - caught in hours of meetings that didn't align with your work schedule. He texted you a quick apology that night, but you were seething.

it's like he's ashamed of you -- too used to you.

and that's what you tell him when you crawl into his jet-black car the following night.

"if you hate me, just say it." you pout, slamming his passenger door and not bothering with your seatbelt as you sink into the cool leather.

"what are you talking about?" though you're mad, he still plants a hand against the top of your thigh, squeezing the flesh in his way of telling you hello. "I don't hate you."

"you never come visit me at work anymore. and you hardly fucking work, I mean there's nothing that important that you completely forget about me, is there?!"

"god, here we go again..." he mutters absolutely devoid of emotion. he'll let you rant all your feelings out to him, he'll yell back a little bit, then he'll fuck you stupid and sorry... it's just the way things play out with you two. "I didn't forget about you."

you're ranting with your hands, staring into the side of his stoic face as he drives calmly. it's like your anger is lost on him, or perhaps you weren't really angry -- why isn't he cracking..?

"you son of a bitch, you never listen to me!" you're squealing, stamping your foot, and crossing your arms when he just... keeps on driving.

then, he's turning back home and you're left in a scowl staring out of the window. literally all he had to say to soften the mood was I'm sorry, but he wasn't sorry. there was nothing to be sorry for, and you knew he preferred to keep the relationship work-appropriate at work. carving out time between meetings to visit you is not work-appropriate, so he's not sorry. oh well.

so if you wanted to spout baseless reasons to hate him all the way to his front door, he'd listen and take it. until, that door locks and he's rolling his shoulders and pulling his tie loose.

"just, shut up about it."

"s-shut..?" you reply, shocked by the choice of words he's never given you before. every other time you poked at his nerves, he'd just roll his eyes and give you what you wanted.

tonight, instead of giving in, he has you on your hands and knees in front of him, gagged between the teeth with his spotted tie.

he's fucking you hard in his bed, keeping you pressed in doggy as he guides you back with each of his thrusts. his big hand is tangled in his tie, loose digits twisted in your hair so he has those nerve-endings hostage as well. it's a sensory overload, from the sound of his grating voice, to the feeling of your inescapable whines against the gag. it was all just so erotic.

"listen to that -- sweet silence," he grunts in unison with his thrusts. he's got you pierced so stupid and pliable on his cock, that you weren't even worried about anything else. all you can focus on is the sensation of his thick length stretching you to the hilt, springing tears to your eyes as you try and take all of it.

nanami hates it when you run from his cock, it just makes him fuck you harder. but, he was unraveling inside of you, hanging on by the grace of god and slivers of self-control

so when you slide your spent knees further up the bed, trying to free your body from the dirty punishment, he has all the more reason to pull out, slapping a strong hand over your puffy cunt and hooking two fingers inside your hole. he's got his fingers crooked at that perfect angle to coax exactly what he wants from you.

you fingers claw at anything they can grab, sick whiny cries dampening the tie between your teeth as you cum for the third time, sobbing in relief when you feel his hot, thick seed drip down your spent cunt as he unravels in succession.

"so mean... t'me..." you manage to breathe out, shuddering in a limp pile of mess on his bed. nanami steps away like an artist admiring his work, brushing some of your taste from his lips to suck back between his lips.

"whatever you say." he mumbles, sliding his tie from your skin, but disregarding your frame further.

he was going to take a shower... you are welcome to join him, but only if you

shut the hell up.

[yueebby]

meet cute — dick grayson

synopsis. dick finally meets his match.

contents. fluff, meet cute, banter!!, dick found someone that matched his freak, matchmaker haley, established relationship

notes. quick drabble. there’s nothing i love more than writing banter for dick

The first thing Dick registers is the smell of coffee, its scent curling through the morning air. The second thing is the warmth pressed against his side, a familiar weight shifting slightly as the bed dips.

"You make the coffee, or am I dreaming?" he mumbles, cracking an eye open.

"Dreaming," you tease, brushing your fingers through his hair. "But I got up first, so I figured I'd be nice."

Dick hums, pulling you back down beside him. "Mm. Marry me."

"Already did, remember?"

"Best decision of my life." He presses a lazy kiss to your temple. Dick softly grips your chin before slotting his mouth against yours. Outside the bedroom, Haley lets out an impatient whine, toenails clicking against the hardwood.

A smile curves against your lips as Dick deepens the kiss, his free hand trailing down your back, holding you close like he never wants to let go. His grip is firm, his warmth intoxicating and you already know exactly where this morning is heading.

But the insistent scratching and pitiful whines from outside the door refuse to be ignored.

You pull away just as Dick leans in, earning yourself a dramatic whine of protest. His lips chase yours, his grip tightening. "Babe," he murmurs, a little breathless, "she can wait."

"She’s been waiting," you counter, amused. "And she’s missed you."

"Well, I missed you," he huffs, leaning in again, only for you to dodge him, fixing him with a knowing look.

He sighs, defeated. "Alright, alright. Duty calls."

Grumbling, he rolls out of bed, and you laugh, tossing a pillow at his back as he trudges to the door.

“Be nice,” you tease as he lets Haley in.

The second the door cracks open, she barrels into him, tail wagging so hard she practically vibrates. Dick catches her effortlessly, laughing as she smothers him in licks, all lingering traces of sleep and reluctance melting away.

“She’s our little matchmaker, after all,” you remind him, watching the way his face softens.

Dick looks up at you, a smile tugging at his lips between Haley’s eager kisses. His laugh fills the room, warm and familiar. Your favorite sound.

"How could I ever forget?"

Dick hadn’t expected anything unusual that day. It had been a normal walk. Until it wasn’t.

Haley was a good dog. A well-trained, even-tempered pitbull who never pulled on the leash, never bolted, never strayed. So when she suddenly yanked forward with enough force to nearly dislocate Dick’s shoulder, he barely had time to react before she took off.

"What the–" He staggered after her, half-jogging, half-stumbling as she dragged him down the street. "Haley, slow down! What has gotten into you?"

She wasn’t listening. Her ears were perked, tail wagging like she’d just spotted the world's biggest stash of treats. Dick barely had a second to brace himself before she barreled straight into a woman standing at the corner, nearly knocking her over.

"I'm so sorry���Haley!" Dick gasped, yanking the leash back.

The woman let out a startled laugh, catching herself just in time. "Wow, okay. Not how I expected to start my morning."

Dick winced. "Yeah, sorry about that. She doesn’t usually– uh– body-check people. Are you okay?"

"I think so. Can’t say the same for my dignity, though."

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, if it helps, she only does this to people she likes. Which is a very exclusive club, by the way."

"Oh? So I should be honored?" you asked, arching a brow.

"Very." He smirked. "You’re in the same category as rotisserie chicken and that one mailman she has a crush on."

You snorted. "High praise. I’ll try to live up to it."

The two of you linger on the sidewalk, grinning at each other like idiots. The moment stretches just long enough for him to realize he had forgotten to introduce himself.

“Oh– uh, I’m Richard. But everyone calls me Dick.”

Your lips twitch as you nod slowly. “Nice to meet you, Dick.”

The way you say it is so smooth, effortless. It shouldn’t make his brain short-circuit, but damn if it doesn’t send a spark straight through him. He swears he can feel it in his fingertips.

Great. He’s a fully grown man, and somehow, you’ve got him feeling like a teenager with a crush.

Haley’s tail was going so fast her entire body wiggled with it, pure joy wrapped in fur. You crouched down, scratching behind her ears. “Well, aren’t you gorgeous?”

Dick cleared his throat, barely audible. “Yeah, you are.”

Your head snapped up. “What was that?”

“Must’ve been the wind.”

“Oh,” you mused, turning back to Haley. “Your dad’s got a pretty face, but I think he might be a little unhinged.” You don’t bother being discreet.

The pitbull tilted her head, eyes flicking between the two of you like she was weighing the evidence.

Dick huffed a laugh. “She’s deciding whether to defend my honor or side with you.”

“Smart girl, taking her time with the verdict.” You grinned, giving Haley an approving pat. “But seriously, I’ve never seen a dog so determined to tackle a stranger. Did you train her to be your wingman, or is she just naturally talented?"

Dick placed a hand over his heart. "I would never exploit my dog for romance."

"Uh-huh. So this is just a coincidence?"

"Purely."

"Right." You smirked. "And I’m supposed to believe this isn’t a well-rehearsed scheme?"

Dick grinned. "If it were, I’d like to think I’d have prepared better material. I’m usually much smoother."

"You’re really not."

"That’s the tragic part."

You laughed, standing up and dusting off your pants. "Well, Dick, I think your dog just got you a date."

He blinked. "Was that a yes? Or did Haley just finesse me into this?"

"Guess you’ll have to keep up and find out."

Dick opened his mouth, then paused, brow furrowing. "Wait, did I even get your name?"

You grinned. "Did I give it?"

"No, but I feel like I should have it before I let you con me into a date."

You tilted her head, considering. "I suppose that’s fair. But where’s the fun in just handing it over?"

Dick huffed a laugh. "So what, I have to earn it?"

"You’re catching on."

Haley barked once, tail thumping against the pavement like she was enjoying this far too much.

"Alright." Dick crouched, giving his dog a scratch behind the ears. "Haley, girl, looks like we’ve got a mystery to solve."

You laughed, shaking your head as you turned to walk away. "Try to keep up, Dick."

In that moment, he knew he was in trouble.

Dick didn’t have to be told twice.

comments n reblogs are appreciated!

[rafesbbdoll]

ticket repay ✩ rafe cameron

୨˚̣̣̣୧ where dumb!reader tries to get out of a ticket with officer!rafe.

warnings ׅ 　female!reader, cursing, cheating, drunk driving, smut, blowjob in public but hidden, reader is actually dumb as hell, mentions of law enforcement, reader is 22 & rafe is 34

word count ׅ 　1.2k

masterlist taglist

it was 1:27 AM on the streets kildare. it was quiet in some areas, some loud and booming with music. you just so happened to find yourself at a party that a few kooks had thrown in celebration of a new edition on the island, expanding figure eight. you were drinking with some other girls, giggling and dancing with a drink in your hand. your head was to floaty to comprehend that time was going by fast. before you knew it, it was 2:03 AM.

your boyfriend had texted you several times, called you, and even tried to contact your friends, but you were having too much fun to notice. it wasn't until you felt sick when you decided to head out for the night. you had grabbed your purse and made sure your phone and keys before heading out. your feet stumbled upon each other as you walked clumsily to your car.

now, you knew this wasn't safe, but how else would you get home?! you didn't want to leave your car at some random house where you wouldn't remember the address, so your best bet was to attempt to drive back home. once you got into your car, you blinked a couple of times, trying to fix up your vision. taking out with phone, you texted your boyfriend back, letting him know you're on your way back.

you knew that he would be mad at you, but at least you were coming home! clumsily, you put the keys into the ignition before starting and driving off. the roads were were mostly empty, occasional cars passing by, side eyeing you from their window. unbeknownst to you, you were swerving in your lane, as well as driving 10 miles under the posted speed limit. singing your heart out to your spotify playlist, you were unaware of the flashing police lights from behind you.

it wasnt until you heard and male voice come from a speaker when you pulled over to the side. you turned your music down, winding down your window with a confused pout on your face. "what? i didn't even do anything," you slurred to yourself. a few min later, a cop walked up to your window. you looked up at the man, noticing his uniform, making your heart drop.

"good evening ma'am. do you know why i stopped you tonight?", he asked, flashing his light into the car to get a look at you and your surroundings. you shook your head, looking up at him with your dazed eyes. "i wasn't doing anything bad. jus' on the way home," you slurred to him. he chuckled at you, noticing your eyes. "have you been drinking tonight?"

you blinked slowly before replying, "only a little bit." he could obviously tell that you were lying, your leg bouncing up and down in your seat. "what's your name again, officer?", you asked. "officer rafe cameron," he replied. "can you step out of your vehicle for me?", he requested, standing back enough for you to open the door. you frowned and sniffled before opening the door and stepping out. "am i under arrest?", you asked, stepping over to him, your blown out eyes brimming with tears.

he sighed before explaining, "not yet. just gonna run some sobriety tests to see how much you've had to drink." you nodded, wiping the falling tears off your cheeks. "what's your name, hun? gotta write it for our records," he explained while taking out a small notebook. "y/n l/n.... you said i wasn't under arrest!", you mumbled to him, crossing your arms and turning away.

"you're not. just have to write it down, okay? the first test we're gonna take is this: say your abc's backwards," he explained to you. you giggled a little bit, "that's easyyy! z... y... x... w... v... t... r... s...." he shook his head, sighing to himself. "you failed, y/n. let's try walking in a straight line, hm?" you huffed in confusion, swearing to yourself that you did it correctly. "but- its right!" officer cameron laughed in response before orchestrating the next test for you.

after you failed the other tests dramatically, officer cameron finally had enough of your antics. "alright miss. you will be receiving a ticket tonight for driving under the influence. do you have someone that can take you home tonight?", he asked, staring down at your face. your bottom lip wobbled, shaking your head. "i can't get a ticket! i didn't do anything wrong", you said to him, moving to tug at his uniform.

he looked down into your eyes, moving his hands on your shoulders to adjust you slightly, "i'm sorry sweetheart, but these are the repercussions." you tugged at his uniform again, looking up at him. he could stop the way his cock stirred in pants as he looked into your eyes, the desperate yet helpless look in your eyes. "i'll do anything, just no ticket please," you sniffled, your hands moving to his belt buckle.

"y/n. this is not appropriate behavior. you know that," he said quietly to you. you blinked up at him, moving your clumsy fingers to unbuckle his belt. "please, i-i don't want to have a ticket. i'll be good i swear," you say, reaching your hand down into his pants. rafe grunted lowly, sighing once your hand removed his cock from his pants

your eyes looked down at his dick, sucking in a breath at his size. rafe looked around, making sure that you two were in a secluded area. he then looked down, finding you on your knees in front of him. letting out a shaky breath, he spoke, "go 'head. get out of a ticket, hm?" you nodded, taking his tip in your mouth a sucking gently. your thighs squeezed together in order to stop the throbbing from your cunt.

having had enough, he took your head into his hands, pushing himself fully down your throat making you gag. he loud out a moan, head tilting back into the night sky, his hips moving back and forth into your mouth. your hands had moved onto his thighs to hold on for support as his pace quickened. he grunted as his tip hit the back of your throat repeatedly, "fuckfuck ㅡ you're so good, y/n. no more ticket, a'ight?", he groaned, his fingers tangling in your hair.

you moaned around him, taking him out of your mouth to jerk him off. "thank you s-so much," you replied, looking up at him with your fucked out eyes. the idea of a police officer always turned you on, but now that you finally have your hands on one, it made you so much more horny. yes, you knew it was wrong to cheat on your loving boyfriend at home, but you couldn't have this on your record!

before you know it, rafe was finishing on your face, groaning as he watched his cum mark you. he sighed, his high subsiding. you stood back up on shaky legs, watching him closely. your fingers collected his cum from your cheeks, putting them in your mouth to get a taste. you hummed to yourself at his taste; it was salty yet sweet in a weird way which made your head even more fuzzy than before.

"good?", you asked. rafe nodded, tucking himself back into his pants. he fixed up your hair and fixed your lips before speaking, "don't let me or one of my guys catch you again." he took out his notepad again, writing down something before giving it to you: his number.

and that's how your relationship began.

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

@13hischiers @rafestoothbrush @ohgodimgoungtodie @massivepenguinfart

[neeeooon]

Hello girlie🩷i hope u are alright. Could u please write the blue lock guys (isagi, bachira,sae, rin,nagi,kaiser) and anyone u want reacting to their children snapping at their mom being rude.

oooooo okay i’ll try!! thank you for the request 💖

when your kid snaps at you in front of them

husband + dad bllk x fem!reader. cursing. reader is called “mom”. kids being stupid! no abuse.

isagi yoichi

-> your household is less traditional, so you nor isagi care much when your children curse or ask you questions that would be “taboo” in other households

-> however, less traditional does not excuse your youngest son when he calls you a bitch after you tell him he can’t go to his friends house at midnight

-> you blink at him. then glance over your shoulder at your husband, who is staring at your son with the same bewildered expression. “what did you just say?” he asks with a surprised scoff

-> your son is pale. “i-i said ‘i understand. we can hang out another time with your permission.’” “that’s what i thought. go to bed.” “yep!”

bachira meguru

-> bachira isn’t one to get upset easily. he’s the fun dad, and you’re the stricter parent making sure things are taken care of and running smoothly behind the scenes

-> until your seven-year-old daughter throws a tantrum when you accidentally gave her your sandwich instead of hers. your sandwich with crust on it. “i hate you! you’re the worst mommy ever! i wish i had another—“

-> bachira scoops her up and props her on his hip, eyes more stern than you’ve seen them in a long time. “apologize. right now.” sniffling, your daughter wipes her eyes with her arms and mumbles out a weak apology. your husband nods once. “promise you won’t say anything like that to her ever again.” “i promise..”

itoshi sae

-> he doesn’t show it, but he’s laughing in disbelief when your son tells you he won’t go to school. you’d been trying to get him ready, and all morning he’s been dragging his feet and throwing himself to the floor. when sae catches your eye and sees that you’re not in the mood, he steps in

-> “come on, get up.” he tells your kid as he hoists him off the floor and kneels in front of him. “you’re going to school.” “but—“ “and you’re going to apologize to mommy first.” “but—“ “and if you say ‘but’ again, i’m taking your toys to work with me and leaving them there.”

-> that’s enough to get your son to stop and reach for his backpack with a deep pout. “i’m sorry mommy. i’ll go to school today.” you let out a long sigh of relief and silently tuck his lunchbox into his bag. “dad can take you. i need some me time.” sae doesn’t argue and gives you a quick kiss goodbye before grabbing his car keys

itoshi rin

-> he doesn’t know how to react, honestly. your daughter has never spoken back to either of you before. she can get dramatic at times and throw a tantrum every now and again, but she’s never been downright hostile

-> “i wish you weren’t my mom! juri’s mom buys her whatever she wants and let’s her stay up late!” “well, i’m not juri’s mom. i’m your mom.” “well, i wish you weren’t!” rin materialized after that, arms crossed over his chest as he caught your daughter’s narrowed eyes

-> his face is perfectly blank as he says, “i must have misheard you.” your daughter mimics his crossed arms in defiance, and rin cocks a brow. “apologize. or i’m calling juri’s mom and telling her to keep her daughter far away from you.” “what?! you can’t..! fine. i’m sorry.” “now give me your phone and go to your room.”

nagi seishiro

-> he’s quiet, but he’s observant when it comes to your children. he’ll sneak sweet treats into the cart when he sees them staring, he’ll let them teach him the slang they use in school, and he’ll carry them all to bed when they fall asleep during movie night. he’ll let them get away with a lot because he loves them, but when your youngest daughter snaps at you for asking her to turn her game off…

-> he easily swipes the controller from your daughter’s hands and places it on the highest shelf before turning the screen off. she opens her mouth to scream at him, but one seemingly disinterested glance back is enough for her to close her mouth in shame

-> “what do you say?” he drawls while gesturing in your direction. your daughter’s bottom lip juts out as she blinks up at you. “i’m sorry…” “now go hug her.” she does as told and let’s you scoop her up. “i won’t yell at you again.” “well, i appreciate that, sweetheart.”

michael kaiser

-> absolutely not. there’s no tolerance for that at all, and he makes it very known

-> your son got one word out in a shouting voice before kaiser squeezes his shoulder. it’s not enough to hurt, but it definitely shuts your son up

-> “not in my house. not to her. you are not going to stand here and belittle someone who’s spent your entire life giving and giving so you are safe and comfortable.” he scoffs and gently pushes your son forward so he’s in front of you. “you don’t know how lucky you have it, kid. now, apologize.”

[leyavo]

Somatic healing

Simon stares at you sat on his lap, your hands lightly touching his face. Your pointer and middle fingers massaging the side of his face and the other two behind his ears. Thumbs brushing his cheekbones, leaving tingles in their wake.

He can’t quite look away from you, his breaths slowing and calming as your soothing touch grounds him. The way your lips part as you see the tension slip away from his shoulders. His chest shudders, breaths catching.

“You okay, big guy?” You whisper as if he’s something delicate and breakable by the soft caress of your voice. All he wants to do is wrap his arms around your waist and nudge his nose into your collarbone. He doesn’t know how you manage to make him feel so vulnerable, but safe at the same time.

Your touch like magic.

He grunts, the weight of his tongue heavy and the burning at the back of his throat keeping him from giving you anything more than that.

“It’s okay to cry, let it all go.” Your voice muffled as your palms cover his ears. A circular motion making him close his eyes.

The first time you’d done this for Simon, he’d shoved you off his lap. The built up tension painful and sensitive, his nervous system causing him to snap. To push anything away that caused pain.

He hated himself for it, wouldn’t touch you for days. His trembling hands cupping your face as he apologised, but the steady weight of your gaze and the tone of your voice made him ask you to try again.

Now he asked you. Cried the second and third time, but never since then. Something you did for him a few days after he returns home.

“You’re safe, nothing can hurt you here. Just you and me.” You say lifting your palms away from his ears.

Simon grabs your wrists as your hands and fingers trail down his jaw. Needs your gentle touch and soft skin to stay on him. The floral scent of moisturiser still on your hands, vanilla perfume lingering on your wrists.

A tear rolls down his cheek, your thumb catching it before it rolls over jawline.

“Better?” You ask, leaning back. Of course it is, everything’s been better since he let you squirrel your way into his life.

He tugs you closer, dropping your wrists and wrapping his arms around your waist. Head dipping to your neck, hot breath fanning against the exposed skin.

“Much better,” he mumbles into your neck, arms tightening around you as you comb your fingers through his blonde hair.

[giuli4nna]

ON CAMERA

— hamzah wants something to watch when he misses you

“but what if you die tomorrow?” he prompts, gazing up at you as you stand over him with your arms crossed over your chest.

“hamzah,” you reply flatly, eyeing him below you as he lounges carelessly in his desk chair. “that’s really the best reason you can come up with?”

he shrugs sheepishly. “i think it’s reasonable. who wouldn’t want a video like that of their pretty girlfriend to cherish after she’s passed away?”

you roll your eyes, shaking your head slightly. “you’re unbelievable.” you huff. despite your weak protests, you slowly sink to your knees before him, slotting yourself between his spread legs.

he chuckles, looking down at you with amusement, reaching out to brush a stray hair away from your forehead. “nah, i think you’re just tryin’ too hard to act like you don’t want this.”

he studies you for a beat, then, without warning, leans back, reaching for his phone. he unlocks it effortlessly, then flips the camera on, holding it downwards to face you.

“you’re seriously gonna record this?” you murmur, glancing up at hamzah as he holds his phone steady.

“duh.” he smiles. “what else am i supposed to watch when i miss you? this’ll be better than any porn on the planet - not that i’d even try watchin’ porn anyway.”

“you’re such a dumbass,” you murmur, tugging his sweats down with another roll of your eyes.

hamzah’s grip on the phone tightens as your fingers tease the waistband of his underwear.

his breathing is suddenly uneven now, his usual cocky smirk slipping, making you grin with satisfaction.

“now you’re quiet, huh?” you murmur, dragging the fabric down just enough to free him.

he huffs out a laugh, but it’s strained. “just—” his head tilts back slightly as you spit into your hand before you wrap your fingers around him, teasing him, testing him. “just.. lookin’ at you. so pretty like this.”

you glance up at the camera lens, knowing exactly what he’s seeing - your full lips hovering just above where he wants them, your fingers stroking him slow and lazy.

you tilt your head, feigning an innocent look. “s’this all you want?” you ask softly.

hamzah swallows harshly. “not even close.”

you hum softly, darting your tongue out to slowly make little kitten licks across his tip before you flatten your tongue, lowering your head to then drag it all the way back up his hardened length.

and, of course - he’s already gotten himself too excited to tolerate your teasing. his free hand finds the back of your head, gentle but firm, guiding you down. nothing harsh, nothing forceful - just silently letting you know how badly he wants you.

the second you part your lips and allow him to slide his cock into your mouth, a sharp exhale breaks past his lips. his grip on his phone wavers for half a second before he steadies it, angling it just right.

“fuck,” he breathes, his fingers threading into your hair. “you’re too fuckin’ good at this.”

you hum around him slowly, your lips wrapped tightly around his length as you dip your head further down. his reaction is instant - his abs flex, his thighs tense beneath you, and a low groan rumbles from deep in his chest.

his hold on your hair tightens, but he doesn’t force, doesn’t rush - just watches, mesmerized, as you take your time ruining him.

“shit, baby,” he moans, his voice breaking slightly. “gonna - fuck - watch this so.. so many times.”

and something about the way he says it, all ragged and desperate, makes you want to give him something worth capturing. he’s watching you in his screen through hooded eyes, his chest rising and falling in uneven breaths.

“you—” he cuts himself off with a groan, his head dropping back against his chair, his eyes fluttering closed for a second before he forces himself to look down at you again. “y’gonna make me cum so fucking fast if - if you keep doin’ it jus’ like that..”

you come up for air, gasping while you press a few lazy kisses across his length before sinking right back down, hollowing out your cheeks just to watch him come undone.

“shit,” he hisses, his voice shaky, wrecked. “you’re makin’ it real hard to keep this steady.” his voice trembles along with the phone in his hand.

you pull back just enough to meet his gaze, your lips slick and swollen as they rest against his leaky tip. “then put it down.” you rasp.

his jaw clenches. “no.”

and then he’s guiding you back down, not rough, but desperate, his head tilting forward so he can watch, really watch, as you take him deeper and make a complete mess out of him.

“fuck, baby,” he groans, his voice breaking around the edges. “gonna lose my mind.”

the camera catches the way you look up at him through your lashes, the way your fingers dig into his thighs, the way you take every stuttered moan and quiet curse like it’s a reward.

he’s reached the point of no return - his hips begin to involuntarily jerk upwards, shoving his length down your throat. you gag, but the struggle only spurs you on.

you inhale sharply through your nose, your fingernails digging at his thighs as you bob your head all the way down - till your nose is pressed up against the base of his cock.

you’re pleased by the shocked, suffocated gasp he lets out, his fingers now uncontrollably tugging at your hair.

“you - fuck, you keep going like that, and m’gonna..”

you hum in response, sending vibrations around his whole cock, and that’s it.

his whole body shudders, his breath catching as his head tilts back, a long, broken moan slipping from his lips.

“ohhh, fuck.. baby - yes, you’re so..” he pants out. his pitiful, breathless, broken flow of mindlessly stuttered thoughts is like music to your ears. “s’good, real - really good..”

the phone tilts wildly in his grip, losing focus for a second, but neither of you care. you just stay there, letting him paint the back of your throat with erratic spurts of his warm release.

by the time he finally exhales, spent and breathless, his free hand is shaking as it cups your cheek, guiding your mouth up off of his dick. his gaze is heavy-lidded, still dazed, still soaking you in like he can’t believe you just did that.

with the little strength he has left, he finally taps the screen, stopping the recording.

“…yeah,” he exhales, brushing his thumb across your swollen, spit-glistening lips. “m’never deleting that.”

a/n: this was gonna be a blurb but im pretty sure it’s too long to call it that !!! so idk what i even just wrote um ok bye

xoxo giulia

[perdidosbucky-yyo]

Holy moly navy!! 😭🥺 This is everything (I'm so sorry in advance, the commentary got away from me😅)

I related to this reader SO MUCH 😂

“Hi!” you exclaimed when Bucky walked into the break room, your echoing voice making you wince. “Sorry. I didn't mean to greet you at that decibel.”

“It’s okay,” he said, your eyes on him as he strode to the coffee machine with ease.

Idk why I think this is extremely cute 😭 but I love them

“Wait! I made you some coffee,” you told him, going to get the mug you had ready for him. “I hope you like it.”

You couldn't get a read on him as you carefully handed it to him. “You made me coffee?” he asked in disbelief, a soft look in his eyes before he blinked it away.

Your smile faltered when he raised an eyebrow and glanced suspiciously at the liquid, like he was trying to assess if something was off with it as you wrung your fingers together. “This is really for me?” he asked.

It's such a small kind gesture and he's absolutely dumbfounded my heart aches, this is how I would flirt lmao(bc otherwise I can't flirt)

He held the mug a bit closer when you tried to take it away, the steam rising from it as his eyes met yours. It was almost as if the heat melted the ice from his stare. “Not gonna let you dump this out after you went to the trouble of making it for me,”

He literally said: no backsies!! 😂❤️

“Your kindness made a difference for me yesterday. And you’re really easy to talk to.” He smiled, genuine affection in his eyes as your heart raced. Was it possible to faint while sitting? “I don't usually talk this much anymore.”

Goals😭❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 he really makes you swoon and wanna hug him at the same time

“Watch it,” the agent sneered, bumping his shoulder again. He still didn't budge. “Think you're special because you got some serum in your veins and Rogers wanted to save your ass? You’re nothing.”

The way I would've slapped his face as hard as I could!!! And got his ass fired.

Bucky stared at you when you faced him, silence hanging in the air. “You okay?” you finally asked. Was twisting the guy’s wrist too much?

she defended him AND MADE SURE HE WAS OK??? 😭♥️♥️♥️

You could only describe the look in his eyes as feral as he got into position. “I'm sure you can,” he said, your only warning before he rushed at you.

*exaggerated gulp*

He sighed when you didn’t speak. “Answer this then: Is there even the slightest chance that it’s me?” he asked, the question hanging in the air between you.

He is being so vulnerable and yet sure of himself and you just know he really wants to be with her 🥺

It wasn't a rushed kiss either. It was thorough, slow, like he had nowhere else in the world to be. Did he have any idea of the spark he ignited within you? It was something hot, needy, out of control. Fire raced through your veins. You'd go up in flames if he kept kissing you like that. Like you meant something to him.

“I’ll always remember the first time you smiled at me. I won't let anyone take that memory away from me,” he groaned against your skin, your eyes tearing up again. “And the way you stuck up for me… I don’t deserve you. I don't know if I ever will.”

NAVY!!! 😭😭😭😭 stop this is so beautiful (and hot) the way he promised he would never forget that moment and the way he said it into her skin 🫦🫦🫦🫦 that was hot

He smiled as his kisses moved down to your neck and you could only whimper when he licked and sucked over your pulse. “You're so caring. So good,” he said, rocking his hips forward. The sweet words combined with the sensual movements of his body fueled your desire. You also bit your lip to keep from bursting into tears from his praise. “And you're so beautiful, you know that? Inside and out.”

THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL (all hail Navy the queen of praise kink, you took it next level)

The beautiful bastard had the nerve to laugh when he took his fingers out. “Kind and steadfast, even when you’re begging to get fucked,” he said, his eyes slipping shut for a second as he licked the first two fingers clean. “I promise you can touch me later if you let me get a proper taste of your sweet cunt.”

Can't even form coherent thots

“You’re not fucking anyone but me. You’re my girl and I’ll mark you up to prove it if I have to,” he said, keeping a firm hand on you as he carried you away. “But for now, let’s shower before we call in.”

😮‍💨 Absofuckinglutely loved this, ate this, devoured. THANK YOU🙏

Chokehold

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader

Summary: You have a crush on Bucky and start to bond with him over coffee in the break room, but there's no way he could possibly feel the same way about you... right?

Word Count: Over 11k (yep!)

Warnings: Explicit sexual content, unprotected v. sex (wrap it before you tap it!), dirty talk, fluff, longing, minor angst, insecurities, feels, sparring, swearing, confessions, getting together, Bucky Barnes (he's a warning, okay?)

A/N: I've been sitting on this one (thanks for listening to my back and forth on this @targaryenvampireslayer), and I hope you all enjoy. ❤️ Beta read by the lovely @mumbles411, but any and all mistakes are my own. Dividers by the talented @enchanthings-a. Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog new fics and notifications. Comments, reblogs, feedback are loved and appreciated!

You fell for Bucky Barnes the moment you met. Something dangerous lurked in his steel blue eyes when you introduced yourself to him, but beneath the surface was pain and loneliness that you wanted to take away. Of course, that could've been you projecting and wanting to justify having a crush on a guy who hadn't spoken a word to you.

“Bucky,” was all he said to you, entrancing you with the deep baritone of his voice.

You wished you could say it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but you could count on one hand the number of times he spoke to you in the months that followed. You tried not to take it personally. Maybe he wasn't interested in making new friends since he seemed to stay close to Steve, Sam, and their small group. Or maybe he just didn't see a reason to trust you. Trust likely wasn't easy for him and what reason did he have to open up to you?

“Hi!” you exclaimed when Bucky walked into the break room, your echoing voice making you wince. “Sorry. I didn't mean to greet you at that decibel.”

“It’s okay,” he said, your eyes on him as he strode to the coffee machine with ease.

Bucky wasn't your friend, but it didn't stop you from greeting him whenever you saw him throughout the building, a warm feeling spreading in your chest every time he acknowledged you with a slight head nod or grunt. That had to mean something since he didn't outright ignore you. Not being his friend also didn't keep you from learning little things about him, like how he took his coffee.

Which you decided to surprise him with today.

“Wait! I made you some coffee,” you told him, going to get the mug you had ready for him. “I hope you like it.”

You had a reputation around S.H.I.E.L.D. for being kind to others ever since you joined. You didn't mind that being your signature since you liked putting a bit of kindness out into the world. Besides the tough work you did, your coworkers and teammates fought other battles every day that you knew nothing about. So why not try to lift others up? It costs you nothing.

Being nice, however, had a downside or two. Some thought that kindness was insincere or a weakness. It also didn't get you a lot of dates. Or maybe you didn't pay attention to other guys since you had eyes for one man.

You couldn't get a read on him as you carefully handed it to him. “You made me coffee?” he asked in disbelief, a soft look in his eyes before he blinked it away.

“Yep! With cream and sugar.”

Your smile faltered when he raised an eyebrow and glanced suspiciously at the liquid, like he was trying to assess if something was off with it as you wrung your fingers together. “This is really for me?” he asked.

You couldn't detect any anger or annoyance in his tone, but you wouldn't say he sounded happy either. Which only made your smile fall more. “Yeah. I just, I thought you liked it that way and maybe it would help you kickstart the morning, but I shouldn't have assumed. I'm sorry. And you don't have to drink it. I can just dump it out,” you rambled.

He held the mug a bit closer when you tried to take it away, the steam rising from it as his eyes met yours. It was almost as if the heat melted the ice from his stare. “Not gonna let you dump this out after you went to the trouble of making it for me,” he said, gently blowing on it before he took a sip. You reminded yourself not to whimper when he licked a drop away from his lip, wondering just what else he could do with that tongue. “Especially since you know how I like it.”

You avoided his gaze, hoping he didn't question why you knew since there was a chance you’d blurt out that you like him and that was the last thing you needed. You owed him some sort of explanation though, right? “Well, we’re both here some mornings and I saw you make it that way,” you said, your brain overanalyzing how that sounded. “Not that I'm watching you or anything like that. I… I’m not a creep.”

Bucky stared with unreadable eyes as you sighed and shook your head. Leave it to you to fumble over your words with your crush. Was that why they called it a crush? Because it crushed your hopes and dreams?

In a small voice, you said, “I was just trying to be nice.”

“It’s a very nice gesture, so thanks,” he said, taking another sip. “I appreciate it.”

Doing your best not to preen like a peacock at the renewed sliver of hope, you released the breath you were holding and nodded. At least he didn't question why you cared enough to remember how he took his coffee. “You’re welcome,” you said, wishing you could hang around and chat more, but you had work to do and didn't want to smother him. “I hope you have a good day.”

“You, too,” he said, his eyes on you as you headed toward the door. “Maybe I’ll see you here at the same time tomorrow?”

You came to a stop, your heart thudding as you faced him. “You… want me to make you coffee tomorrow?”

He chuckled before he took another sip. “I meant maybe we would just bump into each other, but I won’t turn down another coffee if you’re offering.”

Of course that was what he meant. “Oh. Right. Yeah. Maybe,” you said, backing up and hitting your elbow against the doorframe.

His brows furrowed as you gave him a strained smile. “You okay?” he asked, your cheeks hot as you rubbed your elbow.

“I’m fine! Enjoy your coffee,” you said, wishing the ground would swallow you up as you bolted from the room.

You were a competent agent. A strong woman on top of your kindness. Why did you have to act like an idiot in front of him? There was no chance you’d see him in the break room after that. It was a shame, too. It was the most he had ever spoken to you.

A higher being either took pity on you or wanted to play a trick on you since you did see Bucky the next day. Not only that, no one else was in the break room. Granted, most people used the main break room since this room was much smaller and on a floor most didn't go to. But how was it possible that you were so lucky?

“Morning, Bucky.”

“Morning.” He hesitated before he took a seat at the same table as you. If you were dreaming, you didn’t want anyone to wake you up. “Sorry. I should've asked…”

“It’s fine,” you smiled. “You're welcome to sit with me.”

“Thanks.” His cheek twitched and you wondered if it was a nervous tick or something leftover from the hell he endured. “You know, that coffee yesterday was probably the best I’ve ever had from this place.”

You perked up more. “Really? Wow, thanks. It was nothing,” you smiled, your pulse quickening. Not only was Bucky talking to you again, but he complimented you. It was slightly pathetic how much you enjoyed that. “You did say you wouldn’t turn down another coffee if I offered. Would you like one?”

“Sure,” he replied with a smile. He actually smiled at you. It was a good morning. “Thanks.”

“You know, you have a really nice smile,” you complimented him, proud that you said the words without your voice cracking.

“You think so?” He leaned back in his seat and you tried to move around the room like normal as his gaze followed your movements. “I think it scares some more than my glare does.”

You busied yourself with getting his coffee ready, the urge to defend him rising. “There’s nothing scary about your smile and anyone who says otherwise can deal with me.”

“They can deal with you, huh? Awfully kind of you.” His chuckle was so unexpected that you almost dropped the mug. The small talk was unexpected, too, but you weren't about to tell him to stop. “But you’re so sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you glare at anyone.”

“Oh, I can have resting bitch face when I want to,” you teased before your heart skipped a beat. He looked at you enough that he hadn’t seen you glare at anyone? He thought you were sweet? No, it was probably just an offhand comment. “And I wouldn’t just glare at anyone to defend you. I can fight, too. Words or fists.”

“You’d fight for me, too? You really know how to flatter a man.” His gaze warmed before some of the usual strain reappeared, your heart lurching at the sight. “But you shouldn’t have to fight for me.”

You took a seat across from him again once you set the mug down. “Why not?”

“Because you just shouldn’t.” He shrugged. You recognized that he was closing part of himself off and you weren't about to kick open that door. “If I’m being honest, I’m kind of shocked you’re talking to me.”

“And why’s that?”

He tapped a finger against his mug as he considered his words. “I haven’t really said much to you since we met, but you’ve still been nice to me. Always saying hi and smiling. And now this,” he said, gesturing to the coffee. “Some people have ulterior motives when they do nice things for no reason, but I don't get that feeling with you.”

“There are people who have ulterior motives. You’re right about that,” you agreed. The world could be a dark place with terrible people. “And I guess that's one of the reasons I try to lead with kindness. Putting a bit more optimism and joy into the world might not make it change overnight, but it could make a difference to someone.”

“That makes sense,” he said, his brows pinching. “But why continue to be nice to me when I've been standoffish with you? I don't think I deserve it.”

You let the words sink in. You expected Bucky would be apprehensive of people in general when his autonomy was taken away from him for so long. Trust couldn’t be easy. People had to earn it. What you didn't expect was that he didn't think he deserved your kindness.

“Everyone is different. We all have various personalities and comfort zones. Some people hit it off right away and others don't. Some need a bit more time to open up,” you answered, an earnest smile on your face. “I guess I figured you fell into the latter. Even if you didn't, I wouldn't take it personally or hold it against you. I hope you know that.”

Bucky may have had you in a chokehold, but he didn't owe you a thing.

His shoulders sagged as he let out a breath and you wished you could wrap him up in a hug. “Thanks for being so understanding.” He observed you with a thoughtful gaze. “And you are right about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Your kindness made a difference for me yesterday. And you’re really easy to talk to.” He smiled, genuine affection in his eyes as your heart raced. Was it possible to faint while sitting? “I don't usually talk this much anymore.”

“I’m glad it did. You can always talk to me, you know. I’m happy to listen or even give advice if you want it,” you said sincerely. It meant a lot that he took the time to speak to you today, and if it were up to you he’d only have good things in his life going forward. No one deserved that more than him. “And if I’m ever too much for you, don't be afraid to tell me.”

His brows pinched again. “Too much? How?” he asked, his tone not as light as it was a moment ago.

You tensed, gripping your mug as you mulled over past things you heard from others. “Well, I’ve been told before that I’m too perky and too optimistic some days. That my kindness is fake and it can get on people’s nerves,” you explained carefully, swallowing a little. Yeah, you had a reputation for being kind, but some didn’t care for it. “Not that I think you would find me annoying or anything like that. It’s just how it is for some people.”

“So because you choose to be nice instead of acting bitter or rude people don’t like that?” Bucky looked at you with a mix of confusion and anger. “What the fuck is wrong with them?”

You were utterly silent from his reaction. Your heart also fluttered because he seemed upset on your behalf. “So many things, I’m sure,” you teased, hoping to make him smile a little. It was nice when he smiled at you. “But it’s okay. Really. It doesn't change who I am. I'm still going to be me.”

Cheesy, but true. You couldn't control the actions and emotions of others. You knew in your core who you were and you would continue to put that energy out into the world.

His jaw ticked, but he gazed at you with what you guessed was admiration. “Kind and steadfast,” he whispered, making your heart swell all over again. “Listen. If anyone around here does give you a hard time, will you let me know?”

The determination in his eyes took you aback. He went from hardly speaking to you to opening up a bit and now wanting to look out for you. It was nice, to say the least. “That’s okay, Bucky. You said I didn't have to fight for you, so you don't have to for me.”

“I want to.” He reached forward and hovered his hand over yours. Before he touched you though, he pulled away. You longed to know what his touch felt like. “Please?”

You couldn't resist his gaze. “Okay, but only if you let me know if anyone gives you a hard time.”

“Yeah. I got a name for you. Sam Wilson,” he deadpanned.

You burst out laughing, covering your mouth so the sound wouldn’t echo in the room or bother him. “Oh, Sam. I’ll give him a talking to,” you teased, your cheeks aching from how hard you were smiling.

“I made you laugh,” he pointed out softly, almost in disbelief. It was another moment where you wanted to wrap him up in a hug.

“Yeah, you did.”

“Wow,” he whispered, smiling before his face fell. “Fuck. I have to go.” He went to stand, but paused to look at you. “Do you ever go to the main break room?”

“I prefer this one,” you said, lightly tapping the table. “It’s quieter.”

“Me, too.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, maybe I’ll see you here again tomorrow? Same time?

Warmth spread in your heart at the hope in his eyes. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”

You’d always be there if he asked.

For the next several weeks, seeing Bucky in the small break room became part of your normal morning routine. You made coffee for both of you before you sat together and talked. Some chats were casual, while others went a little deeper. Both ends of the spectrum helped you get to know each other.

He spoke fondly about a cat he found in an alley and took into his home. He named her Alpine and even showed you a photo of her on his phone. It tugged at your heartstrings seeing the ball of white fur curled up in his metal arm. How could it not?

Bucky spoke about Steve and Sam and how they tried to meet up once a week for dinner. They took turns picking the place. It was nice that he had them to lean on. Both men were always friendly toward you, but you noticed they seemed to smile at you even more since you and Bucky started talking. You assumed they were happy that their friend had someone else in his corner.

“Steve is a punk and Sam is worse,” he said once with nothing but affection in his eyes.

He explained that he was in therapy, which he wasn't ashamed of. He had no reason to be. It was a work in progress, building trust not just with the therapist but building trust within himself. He didn't get into specifics regarding what they talked about as it wasn't your business to begin with, though he did casually throw in that he had trouble sleeping some nights. You mentioned that you sometimes wrote your thoughts and feelings down if they got too loud. He told you the next day that he got himself a new notebook to try that out and you had a spring in your step the whole morning.

You didn't talk about anything particularly exciting. You told him that you didn't have a lot of family close by, but loved your job because you got to help people in some capacity. And that you enjoyed reading and watching movies when you stayed at home, but also enjoyed going out with a couple of close friends. Bucky didn't need to know that they loved teasing you about your crush. You mentioned little things, too, like how you needed to go shopping soon for a new sofa and how you hoped to see the new science exhibit at the nearby museum.

The bulk of your conversations took place in the break room, minus occasionally bumping into him around the building which didn't leave much time for chatter. It wasn't a bad thing. It was nice just to talk to him.

And while you didn't think any of the topics you brought up were interesting, Bucky listened intently every time, his eyes on you as he hung on your every word. The attention felt nice. Though you hadn't mustered up the courage to ask him to hang out outside of work, it felt like the two of you were friends because of those mornings together.

Maybe he thought you were friends, too, since he asked one day, “Do you know anything about dating apps?”

You almost spilled his coffee, but quickly recovered and avoided his concerned gaze as you sat down. “Um, no, not much. I haven’t really used them. I haven’t dated in a few months either,” you answered honestly, hoping your tone didn’t sound as bitter as the taste in your mouth. You weren’t embarrassed by your romantic status, but your heart sank just the same. “Are you… Why are you asking? Just out of curiosity.” It wasn’t your business, but it was the first time he brought up anything concerning dating or relationships.

“Sam mentioned setting me up and I brushed that off, so he mentioned using a dating app. I don’t know.” He shrugged as you hung your head.

Something settled within your chest, a heavy feeling that made it difficult to take a steady breath. But you couldn't feel sorry for yourself. Bucky was kind, good looking, and trying to adjust to a sense of normalcy. Of course he’d want to try dating again and what kind of person would you be if you didn't support him?

“Well, I can help you research some apps if you’d like. See if any may be a good fit?”

“Really? You’d do that?” he asked softly.

Your eyes drifted up and you did your best to smile. You couldn't let him see that the mere thought of him dating someone else hurt you. It was pathetic. “Yeah, I would,” you answered. You refused to let your crush on him stop you from helping him if he wanted to meet someone.

Bucky stared at you for a few seconds and you almost squirmed in your chair. “But you said you haven't really used them. Why not?”

The unexpected question did make you squirm. You couldn't blurt out that he was one of the reasons. “Well, not to be a downer or anything, but some apps almost seem to set people up for rejection. It just isn’t possible to match every single person up. And there’s also rapid judgment with some based on appearance and it makes it easy to objectify people,” you explained. It was sad, but true. “It does work for some and I’m happy for those people, but I don't know. I’d rather just meet someone and…”

“Connect with them naturally?” he guessed.

“Yeah,” you said, a sad smile touching your lips. “Is it wishful thinking to want something like that?”

“I don’t think it is at all. In fact, that’s a good reason why I probably won’t use an app,” he said. You hoped your sigh of relief wasn’t audible, but the weight lifting from your shoulders felt palpable. “Besides, what would I say if I tried to set up a profile? ‘Hi, I’m a previously brainwashed assassin over 100 years old’?”

“It would be a conversation starter,” you teased, the playful banter bringing a warm smile to his face. “And I know I brought up rapid judgment, but I’m sure one look at your profile picture and people would line out the door just to get your attention,” you smiled and gestured to his face, but his gaze dropped, a flicker of vulnerability crossing his features. “I’m sorry. I…”

He shook his head, and you caught a hint of a smile that made your heart flutter. “No, it’s… It’s kind of nice to hear that,” he admitted, his gaze drifting away like he was lost in thought. “Dating came easy to me years ago and I don’t think I really appreciated it back then. The thought of trying again is a little scary.”

His voice was soft, almost reflective, as if he were speaking more to himself than to you. You felt a swell of empathy for the weight of his past. “Well, whenever your next date happens? I hope they know how lucky they are,” you said, your heart aching to convey how deserving he was of genuine connection.

You just wished that connection was with you.

The warm smile returned to his face as he gazed at you. “Thanks,” he whispered.

Your heart ached in your chest. “Anytime,” you whispered back, quickly standing up before tears pricked your eyes. “I should get to work. Have a good day, okay?”

“Oh. You, too.” He looked like he wanted to stop you, but he hung back. It was all in your head anyway. He didn't want to stop you. Why would he?

You wiped your eyes once you were out of the break room. Rushing away was cowardly and you knew it. It was silly, too.

You wondered if the coffee talks would continue once he found his dream girl. Would he tell you about her? Would bile rise to your throat when he sang their praises or smiled a soft smile not reserved for you? You had to stop thinking about it. You couldn't fall apart just because Bucky wasn't yours, and it was something you’d need to come to terms with when he found someone else.

And maybe tomorrow it wouldn't hurt so much.

Bucky looked a little tired when he joined you the next morning, not saying a word. He still offered you a smile. You didn't speak either, but you gave him a small smile in return.

The night before, you wrestled with the idea of telling him how you felt. All you had to do was get the words out. But the words froze in your throat like ice and you kept quiet, both of you sipping your coffee as the seconds passed by.

You almost wanted to fill the void with more chatter, but it didn’t feel necessary. The silence was oddly comforting. Silence was also safe. He seemed content just to sit there with you, and you were afraid you’d blurt something out that you couldn’t take back.

“Did I do something to upset you yesterday?” he asked suddenly. His gaze was so gentle, yet deep, looking for an answer you couldn't fully give him. “You rushed out without finishing your coffee, and you always finish your coffee, so I had to have done something.”

Your heart breaks from his words. Rushing off made him think it was his fault, and you never wanted to imply that. “No, you didn't upset me,” you replied. That was true. Bucky didn't do anything to upset you. It was your own mind and feelings that did that. “I just had work to do.”

He didn't look convinced, and you couldn't blame him. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” You put a smile on your face, but you felt terrible. “And I don't think you could do anything to upset me.”

“Then you wouldn't mind sparring with me tomorrow morning by any chance, would you?” he asked.

You inhaled, not expecting him to ask you that. “You want to spar with me?” You discreetly pinched yourself, testing to see if you were dreaming or not. He was asking you to hang out with him outside of the break room. Kind of. “Really?” you added, your heart racing when he nodded.

“Yeah. What do you say?” he asked. Oh, it was a bad idea to spar with Bucky Barnes. Not because you couldn't learn from him, but what the hell were you going to do to reign in your sexual frustration? “Unless you're busy.”

“Yes!” you blurted out quickly, clearing your throat as you tried to regain some of your composure. You swore his cheek twitched like he was trying not to smile. “I mean, no, I'm not busy. I’m totally free and I'd love to spar with you,” you said, praying you sounded normal and not like some lovesick woman with an overgrowing crush.

Which was exactly what you were.

But you weren't about to turn down a chance to spar with him. Who in their right mind would? How many times had you imagined him slamming your body against the mats and pinning you down? Both of you breathing heavily, his face shining from the perspiration. You were thankful the super soldier couldn't read minds because now all you could think about was him tearing your clothes away and spearing you open with his cock and-

“Okay then,” he said, finishing his coffee before he took the mug to the sink. “Second floor gym. Room 2. 6 am.”

“6 am. I’ll be there,” you promised, gazing after him as he walked toward the door. “See you then, Sergeant.”

His entire body went rigid before he looked back at you, the metal fingers of his left arm twitching. Your heart sank, worried that you said something wrong. Would he take back his offer?

You stood up from the table. “Bucky, I-”

An agent walked through the door and bumped Bucky out of the way. At least he tried to. The super soldier didn't budge.

“Excuse me,” Bucky said.

“Watch it,” the agent sneered, bumping his shoulder again. He still didn't budge. “Think you're special because you got some serum in your veins and Rogers wanted to save your ass? You’re nothing.”

You gasped. You could handle people saying things about you, but people you cared about? It made you see red. How dare this guy say anything like that to Bucky?

“Nothing but HYDRA’s little bitch.”

Bucky glared and looked about two seconds away from smacking the guy across the room, but he hung his head after a second and didn't breathe a word. Maybe he didn't want to make a big deal out of it or didn't think it was worth it. You, however, wouldn't put up with it. Not for a second.

“Hey! Agent asshole,” you snapped, marching over until you were between Bucky and the agent. “Apologize to him.”

The agent cackled at you and you heard Bucky’s metal fingers curl. “Apologize? He was in my way.” He reached out a hand to pat your head. “But it’s kind of cute to see you defending the Winter Soldier. That's-” You grabbed his wrist and twisted it. “Ow, fuck!”

“And now I’m in your way,” you said sweetly, twisting a bit more until his knees buckled. “Apologize, now.”

“Fuck, fuck, I’m sorry!” he shouted.

Bucky had a look of awe on his face when you looked back at him. “It’s okay,” he said above a whisper.

You released the guy and pointed at the door. “Whatever you need you can get it later,” you said, satisfied when the agent scrambled out the door.

Bucky stared at you when you faced him, silence hanging in the air. “You okay?” you finally asked. Was twisting the guy’s wrist too much?

“I…” Bucky blinked rapidly and cleared his throat. “You defended me.”

“Well, yeah. I told you if anyone gave you a hard time they could deal with me,” you smiled. It didn't matter how small the matter was, you’d stick up for him. People like that guy often mistook your kindness for weakness. “And what he said was completely out of line.”

“Thank you.” His fingers reached out and touched yours, sending a jolt of electricity through your body. “Really. Thank you.”

“Don't need to thank me,” you said, giddy from his small touch. “And, listen, before he rudely interrupted, I was going to ask if it bothered you that I called you Sergeant.”

You thought you saw his fingers twitch again, but he shook his head. “No. I… kind of like hearing that from you.”

“Oh.” You dipped your head to hide your smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow then? 6 am?”

“Yeah, you will,” he said softly, meeting your gaze as you lifted your head again.

“Have a good day then, Sergeant.”

He inhaled sharply. “Don’t be late tomorrow,” he gruffly spoke before he left the room without another word, hearts in your eyes as you stayed rooted to the spot.

You mentally jumped for joy from how excited you were. You couldn't keep the smile off your face the rest of the day. Bucky could've asked anyone in the building to spar with him, but he chose you. And he stuck up for you because some guy bumped into you. Now you just had to make sure you wouldn't make a fool of yourself in the morning.

Easy enough, right?

You spent more time than you cared picking out the perfect exercise outfit. It didn't matter what you wore since he only asked you to practice with him. It wasn't like he asked you out on a date. Still, you were hopeful that the matching black set would make him look at least once.

If anything, it was a confidence booster for yourself since you liked how you looked in it.

“Confidence is sexy,” you smiled before you grabbed your bag to go.

You got to the gym in record time, not wanting to be late or keep him waiting. Nodding to a few people on machines before you made it to the second floor, you had to pause and take a breath before you entered Room 2. The air was a bit cooler in the sparring area, which was good considering you’d likely work up a sweat.

Dropping your bag near the door, you nearly jumped when you spotted Bucky a few feet away staring at you. “Right on time,” he said, your throat dry as he nodded to the mat. “I stretched before you got here.”

“Hey,” you said, removing your jacket, the zipper loud in the quiet room. You gave him what you hoped was a nice smile when you went to the mat. “Shouldn't take me long.”

The Sergeant stood against the wall with his arms crossed as you began to stretch, one foot pressed against it as his eyes slid over to you. Quickly averting your gaze, you tried to concentrate on warming up instead of how good he looked in his workout gear. While his sweatpants hung low on his hips, the dark short sleeved shirt clung to him like a second skin. He had his hair pulled back, too, which only enhanced how bright his eyes looked under the ceiling lights.

You refused to get aroused just from looking at him.

Too. Fucking. Late.

“You good? You don't seem as chipper as usual,” he said.

“Yeah, I…” What were you even going to say? That his mere presence in his current attire made you wet? “I didn't have my coffee before I left, so no caffeine. This might wake me up.”

He didn't seem convinced, but he nodded after a moment. “I know the feeling,” he said with a soft smile. “Thanks for joining me so early. And sorry if it threw off your routine.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. Morning exercises are good for the mind and body,” you said, standing once you finished stretching. He probably had a full schedule ahead of him. “I have to admit though, just like you were surprised I was nice to you a while back, I'm a little surprised you asked me to spar with you.”

“And why is that?” he asked as he approached the mat, all confidence as he took his spot.

Your throat went dry again before you cleared it. “Because someone like Steve is more evenly matched,” you said. Super soldier to super soldier, you could go for hours. “And chances of me beating you are also pretty slim.”

Way to downplay yourself.

“You nearly brought that agent to his knees yesterday and you didn't break a sweat.” His head tilted a fraction, his eyes carefully taking you in from head to toe. “You don't think you can take me?”

Your next breath came out in a rush. If you didn't know any better, you would've said he asked that on purpose. Oh, you had imagined Bucky telling you how well you'd take him, but not like this. You'd take what you can get.

“I can take you,” you stated.

You could only describe the look in his eyes as feral as he got into position. “I'm sure you can,” he said, your only warning before he rushed at you.

Blocking Bucky’s hit, you told yourself not to smile and focused on dodging another hit. He had advantages on his side, like his strength with the serum in his veins, but you were determined to show him that you were a worthy opponent. You also knew he wouldn't try to harm you. Anything he threw your way would be to help you improve.

Bucky grinned when he blocked your kick and you almost let it distract you. “I think you're giving me a run for my money,” he said before he performed a back full twisting layout to dodge another kick. Was that the proper term? Whatever it was, the move was more agile than you could comprehend.

“And I think you’re showing off,” you teased, extending your leg for a sweep instead. You huffed when he flipped away again. “Either that or Steve’s theatrics have rubbed off on you.”

“Don't tell him that. Wouldn't want him to get a big head,” he winked.

The back and forth went on for a few minutes, your breathing heavier and heart racing. Part of you wondered if he was pulling punches for your sake, but he didn't let up. It was exhilarating. You hoped he asked you to spar with him again.

“Tell me something.” Bucky brushed some of the loose hair back with the back of his hand, both of you panting lightly as the motions stopped for a second. “Why are you single?”

Your eyes widened at the question. “W-What?” you breathed, almost losing your footing as you stepped back. Why would he ask you that and why now?

“You told me why you don't use dating apps and you want to make a genuine connection, but you haven't mentioned anyone special,” he shrugged, tilting his head when he stepped forward. “You know you can tell me if there’s someone you like, right?”

“Maybe we can have this conversation when we’re done sparring?” you suggested. It would give you a chance to collect yourself.

He shook his head. “No, I think we should have this conversation now, if that’s okay.”

“I guess. If you insist.” You blocked his swing, barely. “There’s… someone I like, but I don’t know if he feels the same way.”

His cheek twitched, like he wasn't expecting that answer. “Who is he? Do I know him?”

That question threw you off a bit more. Why did he want to know who? “Yeah. Yeah, you do,” you said.

“Is it Steve? Sam?” he pressed, a hint of anger in his eyes. “Some other agent?”

“No, no, and no,” you replied, sighing as you dropped your arms. “Listen, do we really-”

Bucky swept your legs out from under you. The air left your lungs when your back hit the mat and he settled over you before you could get up, pinning your arms at your side. You tried to twist out of his hold and couldn't even use your thighs to roll him off you since he had those pinned, too.

“You let your guard down,” he said.

“Yep,” you said, the word clipped as you tried to look anywhere but at him. It was impossible. He was everywhere.

“Now this guy you like,” he started with a tilt of his head. He wasn't letting this go, was he? “If it’s someone I know and he isn't Steve, Sam, or another agent, who is he?”

You bit your lip, wishing you a chance to hide or bolt.

“Tell me,” he begged, his eyes staring into yours. “Please.”

Oh, God. Did he have any clue how you felt? At the very least, could he sense how he affected you by laying on top of you? How hard your nipples were against your top or the wetness that gathered between your thighs?

Now wasn't the time to focus on being horny.

He sighed when you didn’t speak. “Answer this then: Is there even the slightest chance that it’s me?” he asked, the question hanging in the air between you.

“I…” You swallowed hard as he waited patiently for your answer with an expectant gaze. He was so close and the position was too vulnerable, but you had to bite the bullet and tell him the truth. “It isn't a slight chance. It's one hundred percent you.”

“What?” he whispered.

Super soldier hearing, he should've heard you perfectly clear, right? “I like you, Bucky. I care about you. I pretty much have since I met you,” you finished, the quiet admittance making your chest burn.

It was out in the open now and no longer suppressing your feelings was a good thing.

He stared straight into your eyes, your heart picking up a notch. “You like me?” The weight of him left your thighs, but you couldn't breathe when he settled between them. “At the risk of sounding like an arrogant prick, are you single because you’ve been waiting for me?”

“Yes,” you whispered, swallowing again. “And you aren’t arrogant. Far from it.”

“So, every morning we’ve had coffee together and even before that, you cared about me? And when I brought up the dating app a couple of days ago and you offered to help me, you had feelings for me? And when you defended me?” He tilted his head further when you nodded. “And you didn't say anything until now?” It didn't feel like an accusation, but your eyes welled up anyway.

“Yes, the whole time. I didn't want to tell you and make things weird if you didn't feel the same way and I would've rather have you as a friend than nothing at all. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” you rambled as a tear slid from the corner of your eye. You weren't trying to deceive him by keeping your crush on him a secret. “We are kind of friends, right?”

The two of you hadn’t hung out outside of work, but there was something there. At the very least, there was a comradery. After this, who knew if he’d even want to speak to you again.

“I don't want to be your friend,” he said with conviction, your heart shattering. It was like he punched you right in the gut and maybe you deserved that. He smiled softly, something beautifully tragic when you struggled beneath him. Why wasn't he letting you up? “Wait, no, no. That’s not what I meant.”

You went limp when you couldn't break his hold. “Then what do you mean?!”

“I want to be so much more than that.”

“You…” the rest of the words died on your lips because what did he say?

A metal finger moved down your cheek, the touch cool against your warm skin as he wiped another tear away. The finger then tipped your chin before his mouth descended on yours. You weren't sure why you expected it to be a rough kiss, but it was anything but. His lips teased yours along with his tongue, coaxing you to open your mouth to his. It was demanding in the gentlest of ways.

It wasn't a rushed kiss either. It was thorough, slow, like he had nowhere else in the world to be. Did he have any idea of the spark he ignited within you? It was something hot, needy, out of control. Fire raced through your veins. You'd go up in flames if he kept kissing you like that. Like you meant something to him.

“I care about you, too,” he whispered. You inhaled sharply when he trailed kisses along your face. “I’ve liked you since we met.”

“You have?” you asked.

“Yeah,” he smiled, kissing the corner of your mouth. “I hoped you might feel the same, but I’m a bit rusty when it comes to this and I couldn't get a read on you when I mentioned the dating app. I figured this approach might be better.”

“Well,” you gasped when you felt something hard pressed against you. “It worked,” you said. You were glad he took the leap of faith.

“I’ll always remember the first time you smiled at me. I won't let anyone take that memory away from me,” he groaned against your skin, your eyes tearing up again. “And the way you stuck up for me… I don’t deserve you. I don't know if I ever will.”

“Don't say that,” you begged when he released your other wrist, giving you the chance to wrap your arms around him. “You deserve every bit of happiness.”

He smiled as his kisses moved down to your neck and you could only whimper when he licked and sucked over your pulse. “You're so caring. So good,” he said, rocking his hips forward. The sweet words combined with the sensual movements of his body fueled your desire. You also bit your lip to keep from bursting into tears from his praise. “And you're so beautiful, you know that? Inside and out.”

“You keep talking like that, I’ll keep crying,” you tried to joke.

He lifted his head to wipe another tear away. “Happy tears?”

“Very happy,” you promised, shifting underneath him and brushing his crotch again.

His mouth fell open as his eyes shut. It was one of the sexiest looks you had ever seen. “If you keep doing that, I’ll embarrass myself,” he said in a strained voice.

“Is that a bad thing?” you smiled innocently.

“Maybe not. I have a quick rebound rate if I do,” he teased, frowning when your smile slipped. “Shit, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

“I’m fine. You didn’t say anything wrong,” you promised, touching his cheek. “I just… Am I dreaming?”

His lips touched yours again, You would’ve melted into the mat if you weren’t already underneath him. “You’re not dreaming,” he whispered. The groan he let out when you moved beneath him again reminded you that he really was settled between your legs. And hard. “I wanted to take you out on a nice date before I even touched you, but I don’t know if I can wait. You’re driving me crazy.”

Well, nothing had happened quite yet. Just a confession of feelings. And some kissing. And grinding.

“You’re driving me crazy, too, but if you want to stop, I understand,” you said. It didn't have to go further if he didn't want to, especially since it was fast.

His forehead touched yours. “Do you?”

You nearly shouted that you didn’t want him to stop, would never want him to stop, but this wasn’t just about you. “I don’t, but I get it if you do,” you said. You were kind of in a public place and consent went both ways. If he was the slightest bit uncomfortable, you were fine with stopping.

It seemed to be all he needed to hear since he kissed you again, eagerly licking into your mouth. Your heart was still racing out of control, the high from the exercise running through your veins. You wondered if he felt that adrenaline, too. If the confession of your feelings was the water against the dam, admitting that you wanted him physically, too, was the thing to break it.

“It’s just… I don’t…” He lifted his head to look around before he smiled. “Wait, hold on.”

He pushed himself up, your body cold from the sudden lack of heat. The tent he sported in his pants sent a surge of pride through you as he went as gracefully as he could to the door. Locking it, he went to his bag next and dug out a towel.

“What are you doing?” you asked when he came back quickly.

“Trying to be a gentleman,” he smiled, lifting your hips to place the towel underneath. “Sorry, the mat’s just kind of dirty and I think you deserve a little better than that.”

“You certainly are a gentleman,” you smiled back.

“The things I want to do to you are far from gentlemanly,” he said, reaching for the waistband of your pants and peeling them down with your underwear. You were sweaty and gross, but if he didn’t care, you wouldn’t either. “I wish I could lay you out and kiss every inch of your body.”

“Maybe after I shower,” you teased, both of you chuckling as you helped push his pants and underwear down. Once all was said and done the two of you could talk and figure out a date and him properly taking you to bed, but having him take you then and there was perfect. “Oh…”

Words left your mind when you saw his hard and heavy cock. A bead of precum dripped from the head and you wished you could have a taste. There was a good chance he’d split you in half, but it would be worth feeling him for days on end.

“Bucky, please,” you begged, opening your legs more as an offering. You didn’t care if it made you look desperate for him, which you were. You just hoped it looked enticing.

With blown pupils and a small growl, he shook his head. It was enough to make you want to cry. “I need to stretch you first, sweetheart.”

The term of endearment made you smile even when you argued, “I don’t need you to stretch me. I can take it.”

He narrowed his eyes, but gave you a smile, too, as he brought his hand to your scorching heat. “We’re both desperate for this, but I’m going to stretch your pretty cunt to make room for my cock. Got it?”

Shivering at his tone, you nodded. “Yes, Sergeant,” you answered, biting your lip when you saw his cock twitch. “You really like me saying that, don't you?”

“Yes,” he groaned. You’d have to keep calling him that in and out of bed then.

He rubbed along your folds slowly, like he was memorizing the feel. Deep down, he was a gentleman. Badly wanting you, but making sure he wouldn’t hurt you. What more could you ask for?

“Can I confess something?” he asked gently as the first finger sank into you, gently exploring. Gasping at the welcomed intrusion, you nodded. He could say anything he wanted. “I've imagined you just like this,” he stated, pulling his finger out before pushing it in deeper.

“You have?” you asked before he pushed a second finger in, both of them curling slightly. It sent sparks of pleasure down your spine.

“It almost felt wrong because I hadn’t even asked you to go out with me, but I couldn’t help myself.” His voice was huskier as he pumped his fingers, your hand fisting in his shirt. You throbbed with need, a kind of need you couldn’t ever remember feeling. “I wondered what kind of sounds you’d make and how you’d feel around me if you ever let me have you.”

More heat pooled in your core as you spread your legs wider for him.

“Making such pretty sounds for me already. And your pussy, it feels like heaven. Might even make me see God once I have my cock in you.” He glanced down to watch his fingers slide in and out of your tight passage, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Fuck, you’re so warm. And tight. And wet,” he continued, an almost cocky smile on his face when his thumb swiped over your clit and drew a small whimper from you. "Guess I haven’t completely lost my touch.”

“That is both hot and…” you had to pause when he added a third finger, making you stretch around the digits. He was going to be the death of you. “Is it bad if I’m a little jealous because I don’t want to think about you touching anyone else?”

Something sparked in his pretty blue eyes. “Does my girl have a jealous streak?” He slid a fourth finger in, your back arching with a small cry. “I’m flattered, but you have nothing to worry about. You’re the only one I want.”

Your breaths were shallow from his touch alone, but the sweet words got under your skin. “You don’t have to worry about anyone else either,” you exhaled. He knew you weren’t seeing anyone, but you felt the need to assure him. “And I like that.”

“Like what?”

Your hand twisted in his shirt more. “The idea of being your girl,” you managed to answer, your body writhing as he moved his fingers in a beautifully torturous motion. “Enough, Bucky, please.”

“Enough what?”

“I’m stretched. I’m on the pill. Just… put your cock in me, please!” Panting by the end of your begging rant with mist in your eyes, you added, “Can I at least touch you if you won’t fuck me?”

The beautiful bastard had the nerve to laugh when he took his fingers out. “Kind and steadfast, even when you’re begging to get fucked,” he said, his eyes slipping shut for a second as he licked the first two fingers clean. “I promise you can touch me later if you let me get a proper taste of your sweet cunt.”

Your cheeks got so hot it shocked you that you didn’t catch on fire. “Yes, please,” you whispered, the promise of later making you quiver.

The room felt like it was spinning when he stared down at you and licked his fingers again. He kept his eyes on you when he wrapped them around his cock and guided it to your waiting hole. You tried to calm the beating of your heart when he slipped the blunt head in, but you were powerless to do anything but feel as he kept pushing in. You trembled and gripped his shoulders once his hips were flush against yours, throbbing around his thickness already when hadn't started thrusting.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he gasped, dropping his forehead to yours again as he trembled, too. “I need…” he breathed against your lips. “I just need a second, please.”

“Okay,” you whispered, wondering if he was as overwhelmed as you were. Maybe moreso. You weren’t sure exactly how long it had been for him. And being enhanced, you didn’t know if the sensations felt different or stronger. You just hoped he felt good. And happy.

His metal hand framed your cheek, so gentle in contrast to the damage he could do with it. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you smiled, tilting your head up to kiss him. “I can take it,” you promised. Your body had adjusted to his size and now you wanted him to move, to feel all of him.

He finally began to thrust, moaning against your lips. You lifted your hips, trying to take him in more. The hand on your face slid down your body before it moved to your hip, keeping you in place so you could feel him nice and deep. He pulled his cock out almost completely before he thrust back in, making you cry out as you quivered around him. You wanted to soak his cock, consume him the way he was consuming you.

“You’re taking me so well,” he praised as you bit your lip. “No, lemme hear those pretty sounds. C’mon,” he said, changing his angle slightly so you moaned loudly. He moaned, too, as he kept thrusting. “There you go. So beautiful.”

You wanted to scream for him. You also wondered what it would feel like to have his hand around your throat or over your mouth to smother those very sounds if you ever snuck off during work to fool around. There were so many things you wanted to try with him.

“Bucky,” you whined, digging your nails into his shoulders as he moved faster. Piercing pleasure built from your core and spread slowly throughout your body. You felt like you couldn’t breathe from how good it felt, how he felt.

The intensity in his turbulent eyes was similar to when he listened to you talk in the break room, but with much more heat. Had he looked at you like that all along? “Wanna mark you up one day. Let everyone see that you’re my girl,” he grunted, dragging his mouth from your face to your neck. He lightly bit down, smirking when you whined again. “Would you let me?”

“Yes,” you moaned, tilting your head to give him more access. You’d feel so proud to wear his mark. There wouldn’t be any shame if people saw or asked because you’d get to say you belonged to Bucky.

“You feel so fucking good,” he rasped, surging into you over and over, the sound of skin-on-skin echoing off the walls with your cries. “Sweetheart, I’m not gonna last.”

The term of endearment again. It had your heart clenching along with your pussy. “Neither am I,” you breathed, bringing his head back to yours. You framed his cheeks, ecstasy close to crashing over you. From the strain in his handsome face, he was on the edge, too. “Come with me? Mark me up inside?”

It was a question and not a demand because you wouldn’t demand anything from the man who somehow stole your heart.

Through the pleasure twisting his face, he smiled. “Come with me.”

The heightened pleasure crashing over you was powerful enough that you almost screamed, your walls spasming around him. Shudders wracked your body as your breath ceased, trying to hold his gaze as the heat engulfed you. Your release coated him, just like you wanted it to. And it was only a few more thrusts from him before he tipped over the edge, filling you up in return. You both marked each other in the best possible way.

You laid limp beneath him, both of you panting. Your slick, wet heat still burned around him as released your hips and pushed himself up, a bead of sweat from his skin dripping onto yours. You gazed at each other, something tender passing between you. You wished the moment didn't have to end.

He leaned back down to nuzzle your nose and you couldn’t help but giggle breathlessly at the affectionate move. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” you replied, still dazed. “You?”

“Better than okay,” he said, smiling when you tucked some of his hair back. He looked good like this.

“I don't think I can move,” you teased.

“We have to, sadly,” he sighed, sliding himself from the warmth of your body. You whined at the loss, your hole clenching around nothing as your mixed release seeped onto the towel beneath you. “I know, but in case the next group that uses this room gets here early, I don’t want them to see you with your pants down,” he told you as he sat back and looked over you. You took a moment to look over him as well, getting a glance at his glorious thighs. You longed for the chance for you both to truly explore each other’s bodies. “And we could both use a shower.”

You inhaled when he used the clean part of the towel to gently wipe you both down. “Mmm. Together?”

He chuckled, helping you pull your underwear and pants back up. His hands lingered on your hips and you were two seconds from shoving the fabric back down. “If I get you in the shower, we won’t make it to work on time.”

“I don’t mind being late.” You tried to lift your arms to help him pull up his pants, too, but he beat you to it. It was a shame he had to cover up. “Or we could call in? I still have a lot of days off to use.”

“Yeah? You want to call in?”

“Yeah,” you said eagerly. Too eagerly. “Maybe?”

You almost shrank in on yourself when he raised an eyebrow. He told you he cared about you and he sure as hell just fucked you like he craved you, but you didn’t want to come across as clingy, especially so soon. The two of you still needed to figure things out.

And what if the things said were just from the heat of the moment? You weren't sure if your heart could take it if he walked away without another thought. He wouldn't do that though, right?

His gaze softened, helping you sit up, his face inches from yours as he rubbed your arms. “Hey. What’s the matter?” he asked, your heart in your throat when he smiled again. “Was I that bad?”

“No, not at all. You were amazing, holy shit, and telling you how I feel was long overdue,” you promised, his smile softer. “It’s just…”

His brows pinched. “It’s just what?”

You took a breath. “I've wanted to hear for so long that you had feelings for me, too. And now that it’s really sinking in, I guess I still feel like I’m dreaming a bit. That none of this happened,” you admitted, placing your hand on his chest. His heart was still beating fast, like yours. “That tomorrow I’ll just go back to being the girl who has a crush on you and nothing more.”

“What?” His face slowly fell. Why did you open your mouth? “No, that's not going to happen.”

“We just went from work friends to whatever just transpired, and I don’t want it to be too much or too fast for you or for you to regret this,” you blurted out, biting your lip hard. “I don't want to be too much for you,” you added in a whisper. Your insecurity surfaced more as the post-sex haze faded and you wished it hadn't. “I’m sorry. I don't know why I’m ruining the moment.”

It was stupid. Where had your optimism gone? He told you he cared about you. He gazed at you like you meant something to him. It was everything you wanted, so why were you questioning it?

“You didn't ruin anything.”

“Are you sure?” you asked softly.

Bucky placed his hand over yours, the other going to the back of your head so you couldn't move away. “I’m sure, now listen to me: Whatever is going on between us isn’t too much and you are not too much. You are never too much,” he said with fierceness akin to a growling wolf. “I want you and I want to be with you. I wouldn’t joke about that,” he assured you, your lips tugging in a small smile. “I get feeling like it's a dream, believe me, but it isn't. It's real and what just happened was real.”

Hearing him declare his feelings again made your heart soar. “I know you wouldn’t joke about that,” you said. He wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t toy with your feelings like that. “I just want you to be happy. You know that, right?”

“I do and I am happy,” he said, his eyes full of longing. He experienced so much pain and loss and deserved happiness. “I’ve lost so much of my life, so much time, and I don't want to waste another second. So believe me when I say I want you to be my girl.”

A sob threatened to work its way up. “Oh, Bucky,” you whispered, your head dipping down before he lifted it back up.

“That connection you’ve talked about wanting, I feel that with you. I trust you. That’s why I’ve been able to open up to you. The person who made me coffee and offered me kindness and understanding and just let me be me,” he said, making you smile more. You wished you could wrap each word around your heart. “I want to hold your hand in the break room and kiss you in the halls. I want you today and I’ll want you tomorrow and the day after that. And the only thing I regret from any of this is not asking you to be my girl sooner.”

His words, his stare, his touch, they healed the senseless wound your insecurity put on your heart. “I’m yours.” You surged forward, your lips crashing against his. He sighed before he returned the kiss, likely feeling the same relief you had. You wished you could put into words how much his assurance meant, but you hoped your kiss expressed it. “Thank you for both coaxing my feelings out of me and assuring me that you want this.”

“Anytime.” He brushed another kiss across your lips. “You know how you said you hoped the next person who dated me knew how lucky they were?” he asked. You remembered. “I'm the lucky one because you’re taking a chance on me.”

“You’re a smooth talker.” You had no clue how you kept the tears at bay. It meant everything that he wanted to be with you. “I think we’re both lucky.”

He smiled at that. “Yeah, but I still don’t deserve you,” he whispered, kissing you again before you could argue that he was more than worthy. “So, you want to spend the day with me?”

“Yeah, I do. We can go on a day date or just talk some more at my place or yours,” you answered, not feeling the need to hide anymore. “That’s not too much to ask, is it?”

“Sweetheart, you just let me fuck you on a sparring mat. You can ask me for anything you want,” he smirked, catching your face between his hands. “But this day date doesn’t count as the nice date I want to take you on. My girl deserves something special.”

Your heart tightened in your chest, your emotions starting to run high again before you took a calming breath. “Then how about after that shower we call in, go to a cafe, get a cup of coffee, and figure out that date together? Maybe I’ll even convince you that you do deserve me.”

He huffed, taking your hands and helping you both up. You’d never be able to look at a pair of sweatpants again without thinking of what transpired there. “Okay, but I’m warning you right now that I probably won’t like the coffee.”

“Why not?”

“Because you didn’t make it,” he smiled. “Maybe we can check out that science exhibit you mentioned.”

You giggled. He remembered. “That would be nice,” you said, leaning close when he slipped his arm around you and guided you toward your bag. “You know, I can make more than just coffee. Just say the word and I’ll cook for you,” you said. You’d love to cook him a nice meal.

“Word,” he deadpanned.

You giggled again. “Later,” you promised. You’d make him something special. “Do you think Alpine will like me?”

“She’ll love you,” he promised, giving you a sheepish smile. “I told her all about you. And I think the last few dinners with Steve and Sam all I talked about was you.”

“You told your cat about me? You're adorable,” you smiled. It was really sweet. “And… Will Steve and Sam be happy?” They were his friends and you hoped they approved.

“Steve will be thrilled.” He huffed again. “But Sam’s opinion doesn't matter. Fuck him.”

With a teasing smile, you asked, “Wait, I thought I was supposed to give Sam a talking to. Are you offering for me to fuck him?” You shrieked when he growled and picked you up, placing you over his shoulder. “Bucky!”

“You’re not fucking anyone but me. You’re my girl and I’ll mark you up to prove it if I have to,” he said, keeping a firm hand on you as he carried you away. “But for now, let’s shower before we call in.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Bucky didn’t have to prove anything. He had you in a chokehold from the start and always would. And you were proud to finally be his girl.

Woohoo! You made it! I like to think this reader has bits of Smartie and Mrs. Barnes, and she deserves her man! I know these two will have wonderful times ahead! Love and thanks for reading. ❤️

Masterlist ⚓ Bucky Barnes Masterlist ⚓ Ko-Fi

[enhaflixer]

don't tap out now

childhood bsf! riki x f! reader - playfighting to ......

smut, crack, fluff

-

You say it so casually it shouldn’t mean anything.

“I could definitely kick your ass.”

Riki freezes mid-bite of his cereal, spoon suspended in the air like gravity just forgot what to do. He looks at you like you’ve personally offended his honor.

“I’m sorry—what?”

You lean against the counter, sipping from your water bottle with mock innocence. “You heard me.”

“Say it again.” His voice is already low and dangerous, but you know that tone. You grew up on that tone. That tone is about fifteen seconds away from him tackling you to the ground.

So, obviously, you double down.

“I could kick your ass,” you repeat sweetly. “Anytime, anywhere, Nishimura.”

He stands slowly, chair scraping back. “You literally cried during Karate Kid.”

“And I’ll cry again. Over your broken pride.”

The rest happens fast—always does. He throws the cereal box (you dodge). You launch a couch cushion (he tanks it). And then you’re both lunging at the same time, colliding in the middle of the living room like idiots with no impulse control.

You shriek as he tackles you onto the rug, both of you wheezing through laughter, knees and elbows knocking painfully as you try to wiggle out from under him.

“Get off me, you heavy ass—!”

“You started it—ow! Did you just bite me?!”

“You said no rules!”

He yells, and you scramble free—but not for long. He grabs your ankle and yanks hard, dragging you back across the carpet while you scream bloody murder.

“LET GO—”

“Say you surrender!”

“NEVER—”

He flips you again, pins you with a grin that’s all teeth and smug satisfaction. “You’re not getting out of this one.”

But he lets you. Just for a second. He lets you think you’re winning.

You squirm up, shove his chest, straddle his waist like it’s a power move and not the worst decision of your life.

Because the second you plant your palms on his shoulders—breath heaving, your thighs on either side of him, skin flushed and shining—

everything changes.

His hands go still on your hips. His gaze drops to your lips.

The air thickens like molasses.

And you realize—he’s not grinning anymore.

You’re still smiling, barely. “What?” you whisper.

Riki’s voice is hoarse. “You gonna let me win?”

You blink, throat dry. “You gonna kiss me?”

He doesn’t answer. Just stares at you like you just asked him to give up oxygen.

And then he moves.

He surges up, one arm around your back, the other cupping your jaw, and kisses you so hard it knocks the breath out of your lungs.

It’s not sweet. It’s not soft. It’s everything he’s been holding in for years—the teasing, the tension, the nights he couldn’t sleep thinking about you on the other side of the wall.

You moan into his mouth. He groans into yours.

He flips you without warning—slams you flat to the floor again, his body heavy over yours, grinding down just enough to make your hips jerk.

“Is this what you wanted?” he growls against your lips. “Talking all that shit just to get fucked like this?”

“Riki—” you gasp, nails dragging down his back. “God, you’re such a—”

“Yeah?” His mouth moves to your neck, licking a stripe up your throat before biting down, just enough to leave a mark. “And you’re such a fucking liar. Acting like you haven’t been wet for me since high school.”

You whimper. Actually whimper.

He grabs your thigh, hooks it over his hip, grinds down again. “Fuck,” he mutters. “Can feel how warm you are. Through your shorts. Jesus.”

His hand slips under your shirt. Up your ribs. Around your back.

“Take it off,” you pant. “Take it off—”

He does. Shirt gone. Yours too. Skin to skin now, chest to chest, heart to fucking heart.

And still—not close enough.

“Bed,” you gasp. “Please—bed—”

He scoops you up like you weigh nothing. Carries you to his room like a man possessed. Kicks the door shut. Drops you on the mattress and climbs over you like it’s instinct.

“Tell me,” he rasps, fingers at the waistband of your shorts. “Did you ever think about me?”

You stare up at him, wild-eyed, nodding hard. “All the fucking time.”

He pulls your shorts down, underwear next. Licks his lips when he sees how soaked you are.

“Tell me what you did,” he says, eyes locked on yours. “What you thought about.”

You reach down, palm flat between your legs. “I used to touch myself thinking about your mouth. Your hands. That night you got out of the shower and didn’t realize I was in the hallway.”

He groans, like the wind just got knocked out of him.

“Used to fuck my pillow,” he confesses. “Pretending it was you. Had to sleep with a blanket over my dick for months.”

“Then do it,” you whisper. “Fuck me. Right now.”

He doesn’t need to be told twice.

His boxers come off. Yours are long gone. His cock slides between your folds, hot and heavy, and you both lose your minds when he pushes in.

“Oh my god—” you gasp, clenching around him.

“Shit, baby—” He buries his face in your neck, hips moving already, fast and hard like he can’t help it.

He grabs your leg, pins it high to his shoulder, and just—ruins you.

“You’re mine,” he says, teeth gritted, sweat dripping. “Fucking mine. Always were.”

You choke out his name, claw at his back, arch into every thrust.

“I waited for this,” you sob. “Waited so fucking long—”

“Not waiting anymore.”

And he fucks you like he means it. Like he’s never letting you go again. Like every second wasted not touching you was a sin he’s now making up for with every thrust, every kiss, every filthy word he moans into your ear.

He cums with your name broken on his lips, hard, buried deep.

You follow seconds later, clutching him tight, head thrown back, legs shaking.

And when it’s over—when you’re both breathless and boneless and covered in sweat—he kisses your collarbone and whispers, “Best win I’ve ever had.”

[lesservillain]

viii. like real people do

summary: things are finally said that change the tides of yours and eddie's relationship cw: SMUT, p in v (unprotected), a tiny bit of angst a/n: hopefully this makes up for the stress i put yall through last chapter! enjoy :)

“Well, what a surprise.” A voice as sweet as syrup says to you. It pulls you out of whatever blackness you were in. A shining light floats above you, beckoning for you to swim towards it. “I wasn’t expecting you for a very long time.”

“But I’m here now,” you say in your own mind, unable to speak.

“I see that,” the voice says, cooing you. “But you shouldn’t be. Not yet at least.”

“Why not?” You ask, continuing to swim.

“Because you still have so much to do! Can’t give up now.”

“But…I miss you so much,” you feel yourself tear up.

“I miss you, too,” the voice says softly. “But there are people counting on you to keep going. You don’t want to let them down, do you?” 

The encouraging words give you a new determination. You swim closer and closer, until you can almost feel the warmth on your face again. The surface is just ahead, if you could just keep going a little more…

The light suddenly becomes so bright, so encompassing that you can barely see. You break the surface, taking a deep breath in and begin coughing. It takes you a moment to get your barrings, but you soon realize you’re no longer in the water. The blinding lights start to shift, your vision slowly returning to you the more you try and focus your eyes. 

You look around you, your mind processing what it’s seeing. You’re in a room, all white and sterile looking. Were you in a hospital room? That seems to be the answer as your hearing starts to come back, filling with a low beeping sound from next to you first, then the sound of muffled voices. Your head suddenly shoots with pain, and you bring your hand to your forehead to try and relieve some of the pressure. But the pain is coming from the back of your head, and you notice that there is something on your forehead that normally isn’t there. Bandages? You try and move, but find yourself limited by something around your neck.

“Hello?” You croak out, but it’s barely above a wheeze. Your throat is hoarse, burning with soreness. Then the soreness spreads, reaching your fingertips and toes. It felt like you’d been hit by a bus and ran over again. “Hello!” You call out a louder this time, voice squeaking at the volume you were trying to achieve. The voices suddenly stop and are replaced with a metallic clanging as the curtain to your room is pulled open.

“Oh my god!” Tonya comes running into the room with Charles hot on her heels, throwing herself on to you in a tight embrace. She squeezes you tightly as if you were going to float away if she let go of you. “You’re awake,” she says, and you can hear the tears in her voice next to your ear.

“Yeah, I am,” you say, voice coming in and out with each word. “Am I at the hospital?”

Tonya leans back, sitting on the edge of your bed. “Yes, and they’re taking really good care of you. I told them you were in school to be a nurse to try and scare them a little.”

You let you a soft chuckle, looking up at her. “How did you know I was here?”

“I’m your emergency contact, duh,” she says with a smile.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” you say, thinking about how surprised she must have been to get a call that you were in the hospital when you were supposed to be taking care of Eddie.

“Wait, where’s Eddie?” You say, trying to sit up, but the pain in your body prevented you from moving much.

“Don’t worry about him,” Tonya says, her tone shifting to a serious one. You didn’t like that answer.

“Is he okay?”

“He’s perfectly fine.” Her hands come to your face, thumbs rubbing against your cheeks. “I want you to focus on you right now. You really got banged up in the fall. I was so worried when they told me what happened.”

“What happened?” You ask, unsure of what she’s talking about.

“You don’t remember?” She says, her brows coming together with concern.

“I just remember Eddie said he was going outside to smoke, and then nothing. It’s all black.”

“Honey…” Tonya says, her tone laced with concern. “You…fell. Off of a cliff and into the water. They had to send a rescue team to find you.”

Her words didn’t make sense to you. How would you have fallen when you were inside with Eddie?

“How did I fall off a cliff? I don’t understand.”

“Sweetie, you hit your head really hard. Maybe you should focus on getting some rest.”

“N-no, tell me what happened,” you stutter out, feeling a wave of anxiety start to hit you. You will yourself to remember what happened, but come up blank. “I want to see Eddie. Where is he?” Tonya says your name to try and calm you but her reluctance only makes you feel more uneasy. Even with all the pain in your body, you push yourself up from the bed and try to throw the covers off of you. Tonya pleads for you to stop as the sound of an alarm starts to go off in your room.

“What’s going on?” A nurse says as she enters the room.

“She wont settle down,” Tonya says pushing against you to get you back in the bed.

“Just let me call him!” You shout, trying to look around the room with your limited mobility.

“I’m right here.”

You pause, eyes darting to behind the nurse. You see Eddie there in his chair, a pained expression on his face. You immediately feel relieved, leaning back in the bed with a sigh.

“Eddie--”

“I told you to leave!” Tonya yells at him, catching you off guard.

“I know,” Eddie says solemnly, hanging his head.

“Why would you tell him to leave?!” You ask, anger bubbling up inside of you at her knowing he had been here.

“Because he’s the reason why you’re even in here! He doesn’t deserve to see you!” Tonya shouts, gesturing wildly at Eddie.

“Everyone, I’m going to have to ask you all to please calm down or else you’re all going to have to leave,” the nurse says trying to diffuse the situation.

“I want everybody out. Except for Eddie.” He raises his head to look at you, sadness in his features.

“You can’t be serious,” Tonya says with frustration.

“I need to hear about what happened from him. Please.”

Tonya whines, but eventually relents. She starts to leave, stopping next to Eddie and pointing a finger at him. “You have 10 minutes. And you better tell her the truth.” Eddie nods his head and Tonya straightens up, leaving the room with Charles following behind her.

“You have a call button beside you if you need me,” the nurse says before leaving the room too, only you and Eddie remaining. It’s back to being quiet again, and you take the time to just look at him. He seemed so broken as he hung his head in shame.

“Eddie,” you say, and he flinches. “Please, just tell me what happened.”

His frown contorts even more, his brown eyes going glossy as he stares down at the floor. He shakes his head before bringing a hand to his forehead. “I-I can’t.” He stutters out, breath hitching as he barely contains a sob.

“Yes you can,” you plead, wishing you could just get out of this bed and shake him. “I need to know what happened.”

“I just…My head was all messed up…and I didn’t know what to do, so I thought it would just be better if--if I just wasn’t around and--”

“Eddie what are you saying?”

“Tonya was right.” His voice is wobbly as he speaks. “You’re here because--because I tried to do something stupid and you stopped me.”

You didn’t understand. You tried to will your memory back, to piece together what he was saying to make sense of it. “Eddie, what did you do?” You beg him for an answer. He sways in his chair, getting more upset.

“I-I-I…I tried to…to jump off the cliff.”

“W-what?” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing.

“I just, I couldn’t do it anymore.” His tears fall freely now, he doesn’t even bother to try and wipe them as they roll down his cheeks. “I thought it would just be better if I wasn’t around. You and Wayne wouldn’t have to take care of me anymore. And the voices, the nightmares would end.” He brings his hands to the side of his head and leans forward, rocking in his chair.

“Eddie…that is…that is so not fair.” Your breath hitches as you start to cry yourself. “You are not a burden Eddie. I love you so much, I can’t…I can’t even imagine my life without you in it now. Why would you do that to me? To Wayne?”

“Because I let him get in my head!” He shouts, startling you. “I let that bastard get in my head and make me feel like this! I’ve seen things in my nightmares that scared me and I just couldn’t let it happen! I couldn’t let him get to you!”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have been helping you this whole time, but you’ve just been pushing me away again!”

“I can’t tell you the things I’ve seen…” he says shaking his head. His leg bounces nervously. “I don’t want you to know about the images he’s been putting in my head. But every time I look at you I see what he shows me. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

You’re speechless. Eddie’s been dealing with these nightmares this whole time and you had no idea. Your heart breaks knowing that he’s been dealing with this pain with no one by his side for weeks. It’s not fair.

“Come here,” you say, and he finally looks up at you, eyes wide as saucers. He hesitates, but eventually he rolls himself to the side of your bed.

“Are you going to hit me?”

You shake your head with a small laugh. “Do you think I should?” You ask him, and you see a smile tug at his lips. 

“I think I deserve it.”

“Eddie, you don’t deserve any more hurt. You’ve been through enough as is it. But…I do think there is something that you need.”

“What’s that?” He asks, tilting his head.

“Therapy.” His face drops, eyes leaving you and going back to the floor. “Hear me out,” you say, trying to reign him back in. You lean down the best you can and grab his hand, taking it in yours and holding it tight. “I think you need to be able to talk to someone, professionally, about what you’ve been through. I know you want to be strong, but if anything what you’ve told me is that you’re finally at your limit.”

“I’ve been offered a therapist before…by the government. Can’t exactly talk about what happened to a random one,” Eddie says with a shrug.

“Then go see a government therapist,” you say, giving his hand a light squeeze. “They’re still a therapist. You need it.”

“Will you go with me?” He asks after a beat.

“Of course I will,” you say, elated that he’s considering it. You bring his hand up to your lips and kiss his knuckles, pressing against the scar that lives there.

“I’m so sorry,” Eddie says barely above a whisper. 

“I forgive you,” you say back. Eddie raises his head to look at you. “But…”

“But?” Eddie says, his brows pinching together nervously.

“But, I still need to hear the rest of the story.” Eddie looks at you with confusion and you gesture to yourself in the bed. “I obviously didn’t get here because you almost went over a cliff. So what happened?”

Eddie swallows, his eyes darting around the room anxiously. “Well,” he starts, “When I was about to go over, you sort of pulled me back. But…but you kept going. I watched you go over the edge and hit the water…” Well that explains a lot. “I freaked out. I thought about going in after you but this damn leg.” Eddie runs his hand over his thigh, letting it rest where it ends. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to get you, so I rolled my ass back to the house and called Hopper. He called the station and they got a bunch of people out to look for you. They found you washed up on some rocks by someone’s dock and pulled you out. They said it was a miracle that you were still breathing.”

You thought back to the voice you had heard before you came to, telling you that it wasn’t your time yet. It sounded so familiar, yet your mind couldn’t place whose it was. But you know it’s the reason you’re still alive after what you went through.

“I’m tougher than I look. Venca is going to have a hard time trying to get me,” you say, making Eddie smile. He rubs his thumb against the back of your hand soothingly, making you feel more relaxed at the motion.

“Did you really mean what you said?” He suddenly asks. Now it was your turn to be confused.

“Did I mean what?” You ask.

“That you love me.”

You feel coming to your cheeks at his question. Did you actually say that? It must have been in the heat of the moment, not like you to say that without caution.

“Maybe I do,” you say bashfully. “I’ve taken care of you for a while now, it’s hard not to love you.”

“Oh…” You see the way Eddie curls in on himself, almost embarrassed.

“What’s wrong?” You ask, tugging at his hand.

“I thought you meant you loved me like…” he trails off, but you get what he’s saying.

“Like, more than I should?”

“How much are you supposed to love me?”

“Probably less than I currently do. More on a professional level. Unfortunately, that’s flown out the window because I think I’m closer to head over heels now.”

Eddie straightens up in his chair and you’re almost blinded by how bright he’s beaming. Every bit of doubt you were feeling melted away with the heat of the sun shining through him. 

“Would it be weird to say I love you too?” He asks unsurely.

“Eddie, I just admitted my feelings for you. I’ll be pissed if you don’t say it back,” you joke, making Eddie laugh. 

He lets go of your hand before grabbing onto the side rail of the bed and pressing his other hand into the mattress. In one quick motion, he lifts himself from his chair and pivots until he’s sitting on the side of your bed. You try and move over to make more room for him, but he puts his hands on your shoulders to still you. You turn to look at him, his eyes on you intently as he starts to lean in. You let yours flutter close and wait, a giddy feeling swelling in your chest at the anticipation.

His lips meet yours and there’s an immediate relief that washes over your whole body. You sigh into him, pressing your lips against his in return. It’s nothing more than just a kiss, but you still feel it’s effects pulsing through your body.

“Oh, come on!” 

Eddie practically jumps ten feet in the air when Tonya’s voice erupts in the room. It makes you laugh to see him get so flustered so quickly, moving around unsure of himself like a bad kid being caught.

“What’re they doin?” You hear another voice and immediately recognize it. Wayne steps in the room beside Tonya and you suddenly feel sick. You’d forgotten about Wayne and what he would think about you and Eddie.

“N-nothing!” You stutter out, trying to come up with anything else to say but coming up short.

“They were kissing!” Tonya says, gesturing at the two of you.

This was it, Wayne was going to kill you.

“It was just a hug!” Eddie says, trying to cover for the two of you.

“Bullshit!” Tonya says, and you realize you’re totally fucked.

“Well, ‘bout damn time,” Wayne says with a laugh.

What?

You couldn’t believe your ears. Was Wayne…happy?

“Don’t encourage them! This is not okay!”

“Babe,” Charles says, putting a hand on Tonya’s shoulder. Tonya turns and looks at him, the two of them looking into each other’s eyes. After a minute, Tonya sighs.

“You’re right. If you two can look past everything, I guess I can, too.”

Eddie turns to look at you, confusion written all over his face. “What just happened?”

“Something good, I guess,” you say with a short shrug, wincing at the pain it gives you. Eddie looks at you with concern, his hand coming to rest on your cheek. You give him a small smile, leaning into his touch.

You spent a few days in the hospital, mostly to keep an eye on your concussion. Your injuries consisted of a nasty skull fracture that you likely got from hitting your head on a rock when you landed in the water and a lot of bruising to your body. The doctors said it was amazing you hadn’t broken anything else in the fall, something you were thankful for. As long as you took it easy, you’d start feeling better in no time. 

But taking things easy was harder than you thought it would be.

“You probably shouldn’t even be driving in your condition,” Eddie says, arms crossed as you set your bag down on the couch.

“Eddie, I’m fine,” you argue, hands on your hips. “It’s not like you can’t do a lot on your own now. I’m only here if you need assistance.”

“You sure ya don’t want me to call Rick to come stay with ‘em?” Wayne asks.

“I’m already here, might as well stay,” you say, hoping that will be the end of it.

“Fine, but you’re not lifting a finger while you’re here,” Eddie says with a huff. It makes you smile and frustrated at the same time that he’s so concerned about you.

“What, are you going to take care of me while I’m here?” You tease, but Eddie only nods in response. 

“Yep. It’s my fault you were even hurt to begin with, so it’s only fair I get to take care of you for once.” You bring your hand to your chin and ponder at the thought of Eddie taking care of all the laundry and cooking you dinner. The thought made you laugh, but Eddie wasn’t having it. “What’s so funny?”

“Just thinking about you taking care of me. I can’t wait to see it.” Eddie’s arms relax as he smiles now too, clearly happy to see that you’ve given in to his demands. “So what’s first on the agenda tonight, boss?” You ask him.

“First, you’re going to sit on the couch and prop your feet up,” he says rolling over to you, nudging you towards the couch. “And you’re going to focus on your school work while I…I…”

“Should I order a pizza?” Wayne asks, walking into the kitchen to pick up the phone.

“Pizza sounds awesome,” you say, looking at Eddie. He’s smiles at you sheepishly before mouthing a sorry to you. You pat the cushion next to you on the couch, inviting him to join you. He rolls over, locking his wheels and lifting himself up to move to the couch. You go to grab his waist to help him, but he gives you a “nuh uh” before maneuvering himself over on his own. You look at him impressed, and he gives you a proud look back.

“You’ve been practicing,” you say, nudging him with your elbow.

“Yep,” he says, raising his arms and flexing. “Gotta be strong for ya.”

Eddie’s words make you melt. It was so good to have him back after the way he shut himself out for so long.

“Alright, I’ll be right back,” Wayne says, grabbing his jacket and heading for the door. “You two behave yourselves.” He adds before closing the front door behind him. It made heat rise to your cheeks at the implication. 

You and Eddie hadn’t really discussed things between you since you kissed at the hospital, and you wondered if he still had some lingering guilt about what happened that was keeping him from speaking up.

However, you weren’t going to wait around for him anymore. You were planning on getting answers out of him whether he likes it or not.

“So, Eddie,” you say, turning your whole body to face him. Eddie looks at you with a side eye, not liking the suspicious way you’re looking at him right now.

“Y-yes?”

“Why are you so nervous?” You laugh.

“I’m not nervous,” he says, clearly nervous.

“You think I’m going to bite you or something?” You wiggle your fingers at him teasingly.

“Maybe…maybe I like biting,” he says, coming out more coy than he intended it to. 

“Oh, do you?” You lean into him, stopping just short of an inch from his face. Eddie flinches slightly, eyes screwing shut. You decide to mess with him a bit, not moving from your spot until he opens an eye to peek. That’s when you strike, pecking him on the lips and catching him by surprise. He hums in shock, letting out a giggle when you pull away from him. “I don’t know how I’m every going to get used to that,” he says with a toothy grin.

“Well you better get used to it, because you’re not getting rid of me any time soon.”

Eddie leans in and captures your lips again in a giggly kiss. “I can’t believe I almost gave this up.” He doesn’t sound sad when he says them, but the words are still tainted with a hurt that lingers. It was something you’d been thinking about a lot. That Eddie could not be here with you right now if you hadn’t gotten to him in time. If you hadn’t pulled him back from the edge…

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” he says, interrupting your train of thought. 

“No, it’s okay.” You shake your head and give him a small smile. Raising your hand to his cheek, you caress his scared face tenderly, taking him in. He was still here, and that’s what mattered. “I wish you knew how much you mean to me.”

Eddie leans into your hand and closes his eyes. “One day I will. It’s just…hard to accept right now.”

“But why?” You ask, wishing you could wipe the frown from his face. He pulls away from your touch and leans back into the couch, gesturing widely to himself.

“I’m not the most desirable guy in the world. I got one leg,” he rubs his hand over the nub of his thigh, “I’m covered in scars, I’ve been seen as a freak pretty much my whole life. And you,” he raises a hand to you, “You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t know what I did to deserve even the slightest bit of your attention, let alone your love. It just…doesn’t make sense.”

You place your hand on top of the one on his leg and rub your thumb against his knuckles. It pained you to hear Eddie talk about himself so lowly. You wish there was something you could do to make him realize how worthy of love he was.

Well, there was something you could do. It might not prove much to him, but it could be a start.

Slowly sliding yourself to your knees, you moved yourself until you were on the floor between Eddie’s leg and thigh. He looked down at you with wide eyes. “What are you doing?” He asks, shifting until his back is flush with the couch, almost cowering from you. You place a hand on either thigh and slowly glide them up and down, letting your fingers get dangerously close to Eddie’s crotch with each passing motion.

“I just want you to know how much I care about you,” you say, leaning forward and letting your head rest on his lap. “Is that okay?” You give him an opening to back out, not wanting to push him into anything he doesn’t want to do. This is all still new to you both, and even if you’ve been with each other before, Eddie may want to take things slow. 

Eddie audibly gulps, his eyes locked on yours as you wait for his answer. But he doesn’t give you one. It’s like he’s frozen in place, making you worry. You lift yourself off of him, sitting yourself back on your legs and put your hands up in defense.

“Eddie, I’m sorry I just--”

“No! No, wait--” Eddie leans forward and grabs your hands in his. He shakes his head before giving you a smile that made all the worry melt away. “I’m sorry, I just wasn’t expecting that. My brain sort of short circuited for a second.”

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, Eddie. I just thought…”

Eddie drops your hands and brings his own to your cheeks. He leans in, bringing his lips to yours in a deep kiss. It’s slow, but makes you burn for him, so you try to up the ante a bit by bringing your tongue to his lower lip. That gets him to open up for you and soon your tongues are dancing between you. Eddie’s still not the greatest kisser, still too eager and using too much tongue. But, with time, you’ll teach him how to properly kiss you.

You push against him with your mouth so that he would start to ease back against the couch, letting your hands find his legs again. This time, you let your hands meet at his crotch, one of them resting right over where you can feel him getting hard in his sweats. Eddie lets out a groan against your lips at the feeling of you touching him that pokes at the fire inside of you. You let your hand wrap around his still clothed length and give a slight squeeze, making Eddie jump against you.

“Oh, fuck,” Eddie says, leaning back to look at you with lidded eyes. You bring a hand up to his chest and push him back, his body going lax as he hits the back of the couch. Your hand rubs him through his pants a bit, giving him a bit of a tease before the main attraction. 

Finally, you let your hand wander up to his waistband, fingers dipping into it as you start to pull it down. You discover very quickly that he’s not wearing any boxers beneath them as his cock springs to life from the confines of the cotton pants. It’s hard and red and twitching under your gaze, and you can’t help but water at the mouth for it.

Taking a hand to it, you slowly start to work it, moving up and down against the velvety skin of his shaft. You make sure to pay extra attention to the tip, putting pressure on it when your hand rolls over it. Eddie’s hands grip the cushions of the couch as you work him in your soft hands, letting out little sounds here and there the more you move.

“Mmmph, that feels so good,” He whimpers out, voice strained.

“This isn’t even the best part,” you tease, looking up at him through your lashes.

“I can’t imagine it getting better,” Eddie says, eyes closing as his breath starts to pick up.. And, boy, are you ready to blow his mind. 

You take your hand off of him, making Eddie’s eyes open slightly to look down at you. He watches in awe as you spread his thighs apart and scooch in between them, his heart almost skipping a beat as you lean in until your barely an inch from his cock. Opening your mouth, you keep your eyes on him as you take the tip inside. Eddie lets out a hiss at the feeling of your tongue swirling around his cock, hand shooting to the top of your head and gripping at your crown. 

He doesn’t force you, more so just holding you to keep himself grounded as you begin to move your mouth on him. You go slow for the first few bobs, letting yourself get adjusted to his size so you don’t gag yourself too hard. But once you’ve gotten yourself opened up you start to go to town. His tip hits the back of your throat each time you go down, but you take it like a champ, not backing down with how Eddie starts to make so much noise.

He’s so happy Wayne isn’t home right now. He doesn’t think he’d be able to keep his voice down if he tried. You were trying to suck his soul through his dick and it was working with how light he was starting to feel. His mind flashed back to the night the two of you spent together and how you looked riding on top of him. Even in his depressive state, he still couldn’t help but think back to that night over and over. It was the best night of his life, and he wanted so badly to relive it again, much like you were doing for him now. 

But, even with how well you were moving on his cock, Eddie was being selfish and wanted more. He wanted to feel you again like he had that night, and with the rate that you were going, he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. So he did some quick work, getting a better grip on your head and pushing it back. And boy was that a mistake, because you popped off him with the most fucked out expression on your face Eddie’s ever seen.

“Why’d you stop--” But Eddie doesn’t let you finish, slamming his lips against yours again, shoving his tongue into your mouth. He tastes himself on you and moans into you, eliciting a groan from you in return.

Eddie pulls away quickly, leaving you to chase after him. But he has other things planned as he grabs your arms and pulls you up into his lap.

“Mmm, what’re you doing?” You ask as you straddle his thighs, resting your hands on his shoulders.

“Want you,” he says, looking up at you. “Need you.”

“Oh, is that so?”

 You let your hands fall from his shoulders, slipping them down his chest. Backing up until you stand in front of him, you give him a little smirk as you go for the button of your jeans and undo it. He watches in anticipation as you bend over, pushing your pants down to your ankles and kicking them off of you, leaving you in your panties. You grab the hem of your sweater and pull it off as well, letting it drop to the floor next to you. Eddie’s eyes are as wide as saucers as he takes you in. You weren’t really expecting this, so you didn’t dress in a nice set or anything, but Eddie seemed to be the last one to care.

You decide to tease him more, turning around so your back was facing him as you undid your bra. You let it fall unceremoniously onto the ground before giving a little look over your shoulder. Eddie’s eyes were lazier focused on you, barely blinking so not to miss a single moment of the show you were putting on for him. 

That’s when you decided to up the ante. You let your thumbs slip into the sides of your panties and begin to slide them down off of you. Bending over, you make sure they get all the way to the ground before stopping for a moment. You wiggle your ass a bit for good measure and you know it’s affecting him by the sounds you hear coming from him. 

You snap to straighten up and step out of your panties, leaving them on the floor where you dropped them before turning to face Eddie. You find that he’s lazily stroking himself, eyes still glued to your body as you stand before him. “Holy shit,” Eddie says, mouth slacked open like he’s in a trance, hypnotized by you. 

You step forward and climb back into Eddie’s lap, letting your tits sit at eye level for him. He leans his head back in awe to get a good look at them, eyes darting back and forth like he can’t decide where to let his gaze land. You giggle at his goofiness and let your arms wrap around his shoulders, the proximity of your chest to his face increasing. Eddie feels like he doesn’t know what to do with you so close to him, so he just lets his face fall in between your plush breasts. You can’t keep back the laugh that erupts from you at his antics.

”Enjoying yourself?” You ask, bringing a hand to the back of his head. Eddie nods against your chest, which only makes you laugh more. “Well, while you distract yourself with that…” you say as you lower your bottom half against him until you can feel his length between you. You let your weight push down until your slit is pressing against his cock and begin to rock your hips forward and back on it. Eddie starts to groan into your chest, his hips bucking slightly into you. The pressure of his cock against your clit makes your breath hitch, only making you feel needier for him as you continue to move. 

Suddenly, Eddie is pulling away from your chest, his hands finding purchase on your hips to stop you from moving. You look down at him curiously, unsure as to why he made you stop.

”Can I try something?” He seems bashful with how he’s refusing to look up at you. But his question has your interest piqued. Eddie is still new to all of this, so you can only imagine what he may be wanting to do.

”Please,” you say, giving him the go ahead.

Eddie’s right hand loosens its grip from your hip and slowly starts to move between you. You watch as he slips his hand under you, touching your core with his fingertips. His hand explores you, feeling around at your underparts until a finger catches your entrance.

”Is that it?” He asks, looking up to you with wide eyes. You giggle at his innocence and nod. He swallows thickly before looking back down where his hand was. You feel his hand moving, and then his finger slips inside of you, the coolness of his rings stinging your skin. You let a little moan slip from your lips at the intrusion, and Eddie’s eyes are on you again. He watches you intently as he begins to move his finger in and out of you, keeping an eye on your face to gauge your reaction to his movements.

 It honestly wasn’t doing much for you, but you found it too cute that he wanted to do this with you that you just let him do his own thing at first. But the way his brows pinched together had you thinking that he was catching on so you decided to intervene.

“Eddie.” You say his name gently and he stops his movements all together to focus on you. “Go like this.” You raise your hand up and put your fingers up so that your middle and pointer were together, curling them together to show him what to do.

”O-okay,” he says with a nod. He looks down again, and you can feel another finger making its way into you. It already feels better just from the fullness of two fingers inside you, and you hum when he starts to move them inside you. 

Pushing your hips down, Eddie’s fingers dip into you further and you start to feel him moving against that spot deep inside you. “Shit, yeah, right there,” you say, letting your head fall back as you feel the little shock waves through your body. You let your hands roam up your sides until they reached your breasts, taking them in your hands and fondling yourself in tandem with Eddie’s movements. It all felt so good, but there was still one thing missing that you needed to resolve.

”You’re good with your hands right?” You say, looking down at Eddie with a smirk.

”Uh, yeah, I play guitar,” he says, unsure of what you’re getting at. You reach a hand down between your legs and grab his thumb, positioning the rough pad of it on your aching clit.

”Move it back and forth.”

Eddie follows your command, pausing his fingers to try and get a good rhythm with his thumb. It sent a heat all through you, but you couldn’t help but feel bad watching the way his face contorts as he moves his hands around, unsure if it was hurting him to move his hands like this.

”Eddie, as good as this feels, you don’t have to do this,” you say, tilting his head up with your finger.

”I know, but I want to. Wanna make you cum first,” he says, eyes moving all over your face like he can’t decide where to look.

”You’re so sweet, but this is supposed to be about you, remember? I’m doing this to make you feel good.”

”Can I try a little more. I’ll get the hang of it, I promise.” How could you say no to someone so eager to give you pleasure. Especially when they look so cute doing it. You give him a nod and he smiles at you, his tongue poking out from between his lips as he gets back into the groove.

He wastes no time getting down to business, moving his fingers in tandem with his thumb in a way that takes you by surprise with how good it feels. Your mouth drops open, and you have to grab his shoulders to keep you steady as he fucks his fingers into you. “Oh my god,” you say as he starts to move faster, getting a good pace going. You say his name breathily and he lets out a low chuckle.

”That feel good, baby?” He looks up at you and the cocky expression on his face had you shook. “Like it when I work you up like this?” 

Where was all this confidence coming from you had no idea, but you were loving it. “Y-yes,” you stutter out, followed by a low moan. 

“You gonna cum for me? Gonna cum all over my fingers?” 

“Yes, yes yes!” Eddie’s words get the better of you as you feel that coil in you tightening, threatening to snap at any moment. Eddie’s free hand comes to your face, taking it gently as he guides you to face him. He looks you straight in the eyes and it’s like you’re seeing a whole new side of him that you didn’t know he had in him. 

“Look so pretty like this,” he cooes, and for some reason that does you in. Your vision of him goes blurry as your eyes roll back from how hard you cum. He keeps moving his fingers in you as you go through the motions, and you eventually had to grab his hand and physically pull it away from you from how over sensitive you were getting. 

You sat down in his lap and caught your breath, just looking at the way he was beaming with joy so bright it was almost blinding. Looking over at his hand, you noticed the way his fingers were twitching and grabbed it, not caring about your wetness being all over it. You spread his hand open and began to massage it gently, hoping to take some of the pain away.

”Thanks,” he says, looking at your hand moving his. Then he lets out a little giggle that had you looking at him crazy.

”What’s so funny?” You ask with a raised eyebrow.

”I made you cum,” he says with a cheesy smile.

”That you did,” you say with a chuckle. You let your hands drop between you, and you almost forgot about his hard cock until you felt it hit your hand. 

“Guess it’s your turn now,” you say, looking up at him through your lashes. His smile drops at the tone of your voice, eyes going wide as he watches you lift yourself up in his lap and hover over him. You grab him with your hand and line him up with your entrance, keeping an eye on his reactions as you slowly start to lower yourself down onto him. Eddie takes his bottom lip between his teeth, eyes screwing shut until you’ve gotten yourself fully seated in his lap. It feels so good to have him so deep, but you’re not letting yourself lose control so easy now that you’re back in it.

With a roll of your hips, Eddie lets out a gasp that was music to your ears. It was enough to keep you going, setting a steady rhythm as you moved your body against his. But as good as it felt for you to grind yourself against him, you decided that you needed to give him more. 

You positioned yourself so that you were steady on your knees and began to bounce on him. Eddie let out a few curse words as you started to move, making you laugh to yourself at his reaction. You moved yourself up and down on him, feeling the way he moved in and out of you so deliciously. That combined with his fat tip hitting that sweet spot over and over again had you already winding up for another orgasm. 

You leaned forward, pushing yourself into Eddie to let your bodies get close as you continued your movements on him. Your lips met his in a feverish kiss and you can tell by the way he’s having a hard time keeping up with you that he was definitely affected by everything you’re doing to him. But you don’t stop, wanting to get him as worked up as possible under you. 

He lets out little whimpers against your lips before pulling his head back from yours. “Fuck, feels so good,” he says, breathing labored as you continue to fuck him. “Don’t stop, don’t stop,” he chants, and you wouldn’t dream of it. 

You pull away from him, leaning back with your hands on his thighs as you keep moving on him. Eddie’s eyes are locked between you, watching the way he disappears in and out of your tight cunt. You can feel yourself teetering on the edge again, so close to cumming once again that you have to bring your hand to your clit to give yourself that last little push. But Eddie doesn’t let you do it for long, pushing your hand out of the way so he can replace your fingers with his. He mimics your motions and it has your moaning out into the open air of the living room.

“Fuck, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie!” You can’t hold back your voice as you feel yourself going over the edge, immediately stilling your hips as you reach your peak. You gasp out, throwing yourself forward and wrapping yourself around Eddie’s neck, burying your face in his shoulder as your whole body shakes in pleasure.

”Shit, fuck—“ Eddie grunts out, his hands gripping your hips as he suddenly goes rigid under you. Through your haze you can feel him cum inside of you, cock twitching as he does. You should probably be concerned with what’s happening, but you’re too boneless to care, letting Eddie fill you up until he had nothing left to give.

The two of you were still for a moment, just soaking in each other’s presence in your embrace. Eddie’s breathing was still a bit labored, his chest pressing into yours with each breath he took. You took a little bit of his hair in your finger and twisted it around it, examining the dead ends and thinking about how long it was getting.

”I need to cut your hair soon,” you say, breaking the silence between you. Eddie hums, turning his head to look down at his hair.

”You think so? I was trying to let it grow out some more.”

You nod against his shoulder, letting the hair drop from your hand. “Just the ends. It’ll grow longer faster if you keep the ends healthy.”

”You shoulda been a hair dresser,” Eddie says, smiling at you.

”I only know this stuff because of Tonya. I don’t think I could do what she does,” you say, shaking your head.

”But you can do nursing? Doesn’t that seem like a harder job?”

You push yourself off of Eddie so you can look down at him. You take a moment to admire him and the way he looks up at you with a light in his eyes that makes your tummy do flips. You realize in this moment that you’re…happy. Like, truly happy. It felt like all the pieces were starting to fall into place, and that this was what was supposed to happen for you all along. All the hardships you’ve had in your life lead you to this very moment, and you couldn’t be happier.

”What?” Eddie asks with a soft giggle, grinning at you.

”Nothing,” you say, taking your hands and cupping his face. You lean in and leave a kiss on his lips, eliciting a giggle from him. 

Suddenly, you hear the sound of Wayne’s truck pulling up in the driveway, his tires crunching loud against the gravel. You look down at Eddie, and his wide eyed expression matches yours. Jumping up, you pull yourself from Eddie with a hiss and get back on your feet. Your legs still feel wobbly from all the exertion, but you do your best to steady yourself, grabbing all your clothes from off of the floor and booking it straight to the bathroom. You feel bad for leaving Eddie behind, but trusted he could situate himself without your help.

You hear the front door open just as you close the bathroom door shut. You try and listen through the door, pressing your ear to the wood to try and hear better. Wayne says something to Eddie but his voice is too muffled to make out he’s saying. It doesn’t sound like a yell so you figured you were in the clear, letting out a sigh of relief.

That left you to tend to your current situation. You could feel the mess between your legs starting to drip down your thighs and silently wished that you could take a shower. But you worried about it being too suspicious to take one now, so you’d just have to do your best to clean yourself up. At least you’d have an excuse to take a shower with Eddie later.

Once you were straightened up and fully clothed, you rejoined the Munson men in the kitchen.

”There she is,” Wayne says, lifting the lid to the pizza box open for you to take a slice. You grabbed one and shoved some in your mouth, humming in satisfaction.

”That was fast,” you say, looking at Wayne. 

“They weren’t busy. Plus, they fixed up some’ve the roads in town so it was easier to get to get in and outta there.”

“That’s good,” you nod, “You can sit and enjoy it before work.”

”Yep,” Wayne says, finishing the last of his slice before grabbing another one. “So, what’d y’all do while I was gone?” Eddie chokes on his drink as he sips it, starting a coughing fit that had you patting his back to try and help him. Wayne looks at him with a quirked brow. “You good, boy?” 

“Y-yeah,” he coughs a little more, beating his fist against his chest. “Sorry, went down the wrong pipe.”

”We just, um, we talked while you were gone. Nothing crazy,” you say, hoping that you saved the situation with your lie.

”Well that’s good,” Wayne says, taking a bite of his pizza. You were relieved that he believed you, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. 

The three of you continued to eat your pizza until you were stuffed, putting the left overs in Wayne’s lunch for the night while he was getting ready for work. Eddie got himself situated on the couch, flipping through the channels to find something to watch as you got out some of your schoolwork to work on. He settled on watching Terminator and you cracked open your textbook and got to working on homework. 

“Y’all have a good night,” Wayne says as he grabs his keys, heading out the door for the night. You both give him a goodbye as he goes, the room going quiet once he’s left. It’s not an awkward quiet, though, rather a peaceful one. You didn’t need to be talking to Eddie to enjoy his company, just simply having him there with you was enough.

It stayed like that for a few hours, just the two of you keeping quiet while the other was preoccupied with what they were doing. Eddie got up at one point, returning to the living room with his notebook and a pencil, joining you on the floor as he used the coffee table to write on. You peaked over at the notebook and noticed he was writing something out on one of the pages.

”What are you working on?” You ask curiously.

”Some lyrics to a song,” he says, tapping the pencil on the page.

”Are you guys going to start writing music again?”

”I don’t know about that,” he says, rolling his head to the side. “But, this feels like a good way to get some of my emotions out. I guess it’s more like writing poetry since I don’t have any music to go with it.”

”When was the last time you played your guitar?”

Eddie was still where he sat, gaze set on the papers in front of him. With the shift in mood you felt like maybe you asked the wrong question. You know it’s been a while, the guitar case sitting in his closet collecting dust since you’ve started coming to take care of him. His hands were getting better, though, so you don’t see why he couldn’t try and pick it back up again.

”Do you know…it’s been a year already?” He says lowly, lip quivering as he speaks.

”Since you played?” Eddie only nods, and you can tell there’s something else bothering him. You reach out and put a hand on his arm, rubbing it up and down. “Eddie, what’s wrong?” He glances down at your hand and lets out a sniffle.

”It’s been a whole year since…since everything. Since Chrissy. Since they thought I killed her and I went on the run. Since I went into that damn place and—” Tears are running down his cheeks as he goes on, and you just let him get it out. You knew that it was March last year when everything went down, but you didn’t think it was today. 

You shift where you sit, moving your body so you can wrap Eddie in a tight embrace. He starts sobbing then, the tears soaking your shoulder as he presses his face into you. You give him soft shushes and tell him he’s okay hoping that it would help him calm down a bit.

You’re not sure how long you held him for, but you didn’t let go until he quieted down. Pulling back, you watched as he wipes his tears away with his shirt, still sniffling as he tries to steady his breathing. “Eddie,” you say softly, not wanting to startle him. He glances up at you, eyes still glassy and now rimmed red from all the crying. 

“I know that nothing I say will make it better, but I just want to tell you that I love you and I’m happy you’re here. And I’m always going to be here when it gets bad like this, okay? You don’t have to deal with this alone.”

Eddie sighs, rubbing his hand over his face as he nods. “Yeah,” he croaks out, “I know that now. Thank you.”

You place a hand on either of his cheeks and rub your thumbs soothingly against his skin. He gives you a soft smile and leans into your touch, one of his hands resting on top of yours. 

“Why don’t we go take a shower?” You ask, changing the subject to try and distract him from any lingering thoughts he may be having. 

“Yeah, okay,” he says, sitting up and getting himself situated. He uses the couch to raise himself up onto the cushion, then pulls his chair over and hops in it. Even if you’ve seen him do it before, you were still amazed at how much he was able to do on his own now. You were so proud of him.

You grab your bag and the two of you head back into his room and you get the bathroom ready for the two of you to shower. You grab an extra towel and lay it next to Eddie’s as he works on getting undressed. “Do you want help getting out of your chair?” You ask as you start to undress, putting your clothes in the hamper with his to wash tomorrow.

”Nah, I got it,” he says, using the railing to pull himself up on his leg, body plopping into the plastic shower chair with a creak. He turns to look over at you and his eyes go wide as he takes you in. You laugh at his crazed expression, not sure what all the fuss is about.

”What?”

”You’re showering, too?” He gulps, eyes still locked on your naked body.

”Yeah, I said we were taking a shower. Is that okay?” You didn’t think he would mind, but now you were starting to second guess yourself. Was it too soon to be doing stuff like this together?

”No, it’s fine,” Eddie stutters out, his hands coming to his crotch to cover himself. “I just—“

”Eddie, are you getting hard again?” You ask with a giggle. He looks at you like he’s been caught red handed, a red tint to his cheeks that you can see as you walk over to him.

”Would you be mad if I was? I mean we just did it earlier…”

”Eddie, I’m never going to be mad at you for how your body reacts. I just think it’s cute is all.”

”Okay,” he says, uncovering himself so his hard cock is out in the open. Part of you is telling you to ignore it so he doesn’t get more embarrassed, but the primal part of your brain is telling you to wrap your lips around him and suck his soul out of his body. You decided on the former for now and grabbed the shower head, turning the water on and letting it warm up against your palm.

What you didn’t know was that Eddie was absolutely losing his mind as you stood in front of him. He wanted to reach out and touch you but was afraid of how you might react. He knows you had sex once today, but Eddie felt like he could go again already. Was something wrong with him? He couldn’t help it, he was just so attracted to you that he didn’t know how the hell he was supposed to not get hard again just from looking at you. Not when he had the image of you coming undone on his cock still fresh in his mind.

”Okay, it’s ready,” you say, snapping Eddie out of his thoughts. Eddie’s eyes are fixed on your ass as you reach up to replace the shower head, trying to memorize the way it sways as you move. 

You jump when you feel something touching you from behind. Looking over your shoulder, you see Eddie has his hand on your ass, his gaze fixed on your rear end.

”Like what you see?” You tease, and Eddie immediately retracts his hand and curls it into his body.

”Sorry, I don’t know why I did that.”

”Eddie, I don’t care that you touch me.” You turn around to face him, grabbing his hands and wrapping them around your body until they land on either cheek of your ass. He looks up at you like you’ve shocked him, his body tense below you.

”This is so weird.” It’s not the words Eddie wanted to say, but it’s the words that came out of his mouth. He could kick himself for being so uncool right now.

”You’ll get used to it.” You grab one of the wash clothes that were laid out and ran it under the water before grabbing the soap and lathering it up. You took the cloth and started to rub it on Eddie’s body. He watched as you cleaned him, and somehow this action felt more intimate than the two of you having sex. It wasn’t sexual, but it wasn’t clinical like other times you’ve taken care of him before. It had a feeling of domesticity to it that was new for the both of you. 

Eddie’s hands slid from your ass and landed on your hips, squeezing you gently in his grasp. He closed his eyes as you continued to clean him, making sure to be extra gentle around the scars that adorned his body. You wanted to kiss them, every single one. They were going to be a constant reminder of what he went through for the rest of his life, and you wanted to just take that pain away from him. But you can’t, so you’ll just have to do everything you can to remind him that what he went through doesn’t define him. 

You’ve scrubbed the top half of his body thoroughly by now, so now it was time to move lower. Eddie was still hard, and you didn’t know if you should ignore it or if it was time to acknowledge it. You moved the washcloth down his abdomen until you reached his cock, washing around it first. Eddie let out a small hum when you brought the washcloth to the base of his cock, and you decided that you were just going to go for it. 

You took the washcloth in your hand and wrapped it around his cock. He jerked at the contact, his head tilting back as you moved it up and down his length. “Fuck,” he breathes out, his dead drooping forward to watch you work him. His eyes were heavily lidded, his mouth agape as you moved your hand around him. 

“S’that feel good?” You ask him, not stopping your movements. He nods lazily, his eyes opening and closing the more worked up he gets. Watching him get worked up again was doing something for you, that tingly feeling coming back between your legs. You decided to just give in to the feeling, letting the washrag drop from your hands before jerking him with your bare hands.

”Shit,” he hisses at the feeling of your soft skin on his. You keep pumping him, and he moans when you pick up the pace. His grip on your hips tightens and his hips start to lightly buck into your hand as you continue on. 

All the sudden, his hand leaves your hip and reaches up to grab behind your head. He pulls you closer to him as he leans forward, your lips colliding in immediate passion. All teeth and tongues moving in sync as you devour each other like you were starving for the other’s touch. 

Then you pulled away, leaving him to chase after you. But you weren’t going to wait another second to feel him again. You kicked your leg around his shower chair, hand still on his length to hold him in place as you lowered yourself onto him. Once the tip was in, you did a quick maneuver to bring your other leg around the chair, leaving you to sink down fully on his cock in one swift motion. You gasp out from the feeling of being so full so quickly, and Eddie can’t bite back the groan that is pushed from his lungs.

You give yourself a second to adjust in the seat, doing your best to get leverage so you could move on him. But once you were stable, you grasped his shoulders and started moving in short bounces on his cock. The sounds of wet slapping mixed with yours and Eddie’s moans echoed in the bathroom. 

As you moved on Eddie’s cock, you leaned into him and met his lips once again. Eddie wrapped his arms around you and held you close, your wet chests rubbing together as you rode him with reckless abandon. Even when you felt the water starting to get cold you were almost thankful because of how hot you were feeling as you moved at a steady pace. You only stopped moving up and down to switch to rolling your hips, grinding your clit into his pelvis to get that stimulation you were craving.

”Mmm, fuck, Eddie,” you whine against his lips and he let out a breathy moan of his own.

”Fuck, you feel so good.” His voice is strained as he speaks. You press kisses against the side of his lips, then his cheek, working your way down until you get to his neck. You kiss and bite at his skin there, Eddie seemingly enjoying it by the sounds he’s making. “Holy fuck, fuck!” Eddie yells out when you bite down on the skin under his ear. It was then that Eddie grabbed your hips, stilling your movements as you felt him stiffen under you, hope ropes of cum shooting inside of you as he came. You watched him come undone, his whole face contorting in pleasure as he rode out his high. 

Once he relaxed, his whole body went limp as his hands fell from your hips. You couldn’t help but chuckle at how spent he was, the way his head hung like he’d just exerted all of his energy. You thought he’d enjoyed himself quite a bit until he looked up at you with a concerned look on his face.

“What?” You ask, tilting your head to the side.

“Did you cum?” He asks with genuine concern.

“No, but it’s okay,” you reassure him.

“No it’s not,” he says shaking his head. “You’re supposed to cum, too.”

“I’m not going to cum every time, Eddie. That’s just how it is,” you say with a shrug. But Eddie doesn’t like that answer, his hand making it’s way between you and probing around with his thumb.

“Where is it?” He says, his tongue poking out between his lips.

“Eddie!” You laugh, grabbing his wrist and pulling it away.

“C’mon, let me get you off,” he whines, trying to shake your grip from his hand. “I don’t want to be one of those guys who doesn’t get his girls to cum.”

“It’s really okay, Eddie. You made me cum earlier so it’s not like I went without.”

Eddie scoffs, looking like you wounded him with your words. But you ignore his pouting, moving to get off of him as your legs were starting to cramp from the position you were in. The water in the shower was almost ice, so you turned it as hot as it would go to see if you could get enough warm water to rinse yourselves off. 

After a quick wash off, the two of you got out of the shower and dried off to get ready for bed. You blow dried and brushed through Eddie’s hair, getting out all the tangles from the day until you were satisfied with how it looked. You pulled at the ends and tried to gauge how much you’d need to cut off when you eventually cut it, guessing at around an inch or so. Eddie just watched you, enjoying the way you played with his hair. He’s never been happier to have decided to let it grow out his freshman year after buzzing it all off. He’d never cut it again if it meant you’d keep touching him like this.

Soon the two of you made your way to the bed and crawled inside, both of you worn out from all of the activity you’d done today. Eddie pulled you into him, wrapping his arm around your shoulders so you could lay against his shirtless chest, feeling the rise and fall as he breathed. It was quiet as the two of you laid there, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness of his room.

“I love you,” Eddie says softly, barely above a whisper.

“I love you, too, Eds,” you say back, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. You couldn’t see it, but Eddie was cheesing over the fact that you said it back. He really couldn’t believe he was so lucky to have you, and that you actually loved him, despite everything.

“It still feels weird to say.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

thanks for reading!

[cheralith]

— say all that you have to say.

oliver aiku — he says that the kiss that he gave you one evening "didn't mean anything", asking you to forget about it. but he has trouble believing his own words when you do act like it didn't happen, his heart heavy when you go back to treating him as just another friend. okay, so maybe it didn't mean anything to mean to him, but surely it had to mean something to you... right? (wc: 10.6k)

contains: fem!reader, she/her pronouns, jr manager!reader, misunderstandings, fluff, angst with comfort, aiku doesn't understand feelings, happy ending i prommy, not fully edited as of 03/23 a/n: trying out some new headers! are these ok? are the old ones better? lmk!!

“Coach is going to murder you.”

“I’ll let you give my eulogy then.”

Sendou snorts obnoxiously as Oliver buries his face in rough hands, groaning. The gigantic weight on his chest has yet to go away and unfortunately for U-20’s captain, he doubts it’s going to dissipate into thin air any time soon. Especially with how dense the tension in the room is now, everything in the world just seems to be against him right now.

His lips tingle a bit. Oliver puts a finger on the plushness of it, feeling another warmth rush to his cheeks when his mind flashes back to last night, the little incident involving their junior manager, who was also under the title of being their coach’s niece. If word got out about what happened between the two of you to him, Oliver was sure that he’ll lose his captain position that he’s worked towards in the blink of an eye…

… all because he couldn’t contain himself.

Alcohol is a funny thing. It’ll make you feel the high of a plethora of emotions in just a few hours the longer it stays in your system, restraints against the world’s expectations gradually disappearing and an arrogant confidence growing within oneself. Oliver likes to think of himself as a rather resilient person, one that knows his limits all too well, even when drunk. So what exactly took over him in that singular moment, he doesn’t know. 

All he knows is that he doesn’t want to believe that what he did was from his own accord. That his actions were based on something other than impulse.

And he wasn’t even that drunk! He would’ve totally passed a sobriety test at the time if it was handed to him. 

The more he tries to figure out a reason for his actions, the more Oliver comes to dead ends over and over again, and he thinks his headache is now caused by his overthinking rather than the remnants of his hangover.

Oliver leans back and throws an arm over his eyes, the bright lights making his eyes pulse. “Promise you won’t tell anyone else about this? I don’t want a shitstorm blowing up.”

Sendou slyly smiles, but hums regardless. “Yeah sure. Anything for my best bud.”

And in comes the rest of the U-20 team ready to change for practice, chattering about, seeping into the locker room one by one. Oliver hears them greeting their ace and captain, but he can’t be bothered to try and put in the effort to say a polite hello back given his current dilemma that he doesn’t know is going to get worse in a second,

Sendou, always having a slight knack for a kick of drama, juts his thumb at their disoriented captain. 

“Oliver kissed (Y/N) yesterday night after karaoke, by the way,” he says casually as he examines his fingernails. “When he was dropping her off.”

Oliver sits up and gawks at the striker, Sendou only throwing a casual smirk at him—consider this payback for when Oliver whipped his wet towel at his rear yesterday a little too harshly.

Chaos ensues, clearly. The atmosphere within the locker room levels up by threefold, with his teammates scattering around him, question after question being thrown his way faster than he can blink. Neru shakes him like a saltshaker, desperate to try and get an answer out of him. Kitzunezato scolds him heavily like a mother to a child, demanding what overtook him to do something so reckless. Darai, the most level-headed out of all of them, even goes to pinch his brow and ask why he’d do such a thing towards their junior manager.

And that’s the thing. Even if he wanted to answer, it’ll all just come out in jumbles and clusters that can’t fit properly together no matter how hard he’ll try to fit them together. He didn’t know yesterday, he didn’t know this morning, and he doesn’t know now. Frankly, Oliver thinks that he might not have an answer for a while and he’ll be leaving not only his team, but himself in the dark for sometime. Maybe he deserves it, to wallow in his own worries, especially after doing something like that. It might give him time to properly analyze a headspace he hasn’t visited in sometime.

He stands up abruptly, silencing them at last. Inhale, exhale… inhale exhale… just to properly gain his proper semblance back again. Oliver then says something that’ll help shut them up for good, at least for the time being. 

“I’ll say this once and I’ll say it once only,” he starts sternly as he looks at all of his teammates in the eyes to ensure his message gets across and to end the commotion. “Yes I kissed (Y/N), but we were drinking prior, neither of us were thinking properly. That’s what happens when you’re drunk—you get impulsive. Don’t think about it too hard. It didn’t mean anything. So let’s not dabble on this any longer and get to practice, yeah?”

He finishes his closing statement, shunning them and before they say anything, he claps his hands together to indicate everyone be quiet and prepare themselves for practice. Oliver’s austerity echoes through, seeing as how they all tighten their lips and start shuffling around the locker room. He sighs, shoulders dropping.

It didn’t mean anything…

The bitterness of the words sting his tongue, sourness spreading on his palette. When he swallows them, or at least attempts to, it almost… burns. Like the shots he consumed yesterday, they roughen his throat almost like a punishment, the words unwelcomed. An unease lingers about, clearly indicating that to him, something felt wrong about saying it. 

His head says he’s right—that it was just a casual kiss. He greeted a lot of people like that when he was leaving, a signature almost. So really, there shouldn’t be a difference when it comes to you. He was just simply saying goodbye in his own style.

His heart, however…

The elevator’s gateway to the hallway has a slight hitch to it, one that the tip of your shoe grazes against as you step, or at least attempt to, out of it. 

“Woah, watch your step,” Oliver warns when you yelp and begin falling forward, an arm catching your own to pull you back. “You’re only a couple feet away, don’t go dropping dead on me now.”

You laugh quietly, apologizing for your clumsiness. A warmth pulses through Oliver’s chest when he hears the whisper of a giggle, and it’s not because of all the booze he consumed earlier, either. “I’m sorry… I guess I’m just a little tired.”

Oliver quirks up a grin as he drags your arm over his shoulder to keep you steady. “Only a little? Says the one who kept yawning on the way here.”

“Not my fault,” you roll your eyes, a heavy fatigue in them that sags your eyelids slightly, “you guys were the ones that kept making a mess that I had to clean up constantly.”

“‘You guys’?” he feigns a hurt in his voice, a rawness starting to embed itself within it from the aftermaths of karaoke. “Don’t lump me in with those chumps. I at least helped you.”

You blow a stray piece of hair out of your face in annoyance, and when it does go out of the way like you desire, Oliver goes to tuck it behind your ear when you whine. “Whatever. You only did it ‘cause you’re the captain.”

He gives a boisterous laugh at that, one that may wake your neighbors up to your displeasure. 

“In what way does being captain have to do with me being a decent person?” he guffaws. “What if I just wanted to help you out?”

“If you’re trying to get something out of me by doing so, fat chance,” you huff, pout forming on your lips that glisten a little brightly at him. “I could’ve taken care of it myself.”

He sighs with a grin, understanding that there may not be a way out of this conversation that doesn’t gain a win in his favor. You were quite stubborn and adamant, after all, a trait that made you a rather good manager to a bunch of boys who were just starting to get their acts together, never swaying to their bribes or pleas. 

You start mumbling things to yourself suddenly, something about getting groceries and tomorrow’s breakfast plans, an incoherency running back and forth that Oliver listens somewhat intently to. He always liked it when you talked, since you often had to keep to yourself and just simply jot down notes in the shadow of your uncle—it gave him a sense of closeness to you to be able to have a conversation with you that didn’t involve the team. 

“We’re here,” he chimes, head fuzzing a little when he reads the letters of your apartment. He lets go of your arm, letting you balance yourself on the doorframe as you rummage about your bag and fetch your keys. He has to fight a chuckle when he sees your keychains—he’s never been too familiar with the specific names of Sanrio characters, but he can tell you’re quite the fan of this specific little one by the many decorations that hang from the chain. Cute, he thinks.

Oliver watches as you fumble around trying to fit the key into its designated hole, your drunkenness making you a little more prone to mismeasures. When you begin to grow frustrated, he gently cups your hand that clutches your key in his and slowly leads it into the keyhole in a steady motion. 

“There you go,” he murmurs, twisting your hand so the latch clicks as he notices how nicely your hand fits in his. A softness in his eyes seeps itself within when he stares at them connected. 

You thank him quietly, body moving forward to enter your apartment and away from the shelter that is Oliver Aiku. A chill runs through him when you move from him, your body warmth no longer radiating onto him.

“Well…” you clutch the side of your apartment door, staring up at him, eyes a little wondrous. “This is where I leave you.”

Oliver scratches the back of his neck, trying to ignore the heaviness in his feet that seem to want to stay where they are. “Yeah, haha. Should start heading back soon.”

Your gaze softens and Oliver can feel his breath hitching when he sees a fondness swimming in it. A fondness just for him.

“Thank you for making sure I got home safely. It means… a lot.”

He likes the way you fidget a little bit, shy and meaningful. A side of you revealed to him that he hopes you’ve never shown anyone else. 

“Of course, I’d hate for anything to happen to our precious manager.” he whispers, fingers twitching. “Also your uncle would have my head if something did, really.”

Shared laughter bounces between you both, a quiet understanding between you and him that your uncle was not a force to be reckoned with when it came to his niece.

You begin to close the door, indicating your leave was starting and that you wanted him to head home as soon as possible before the nightlife of the city really began to reach its heights. Oliver stills, something in his chest burning when he watches the door’s gap get smaller and smaller. 

All it takes is that doe-like gaze you give him for him to lose a sense of himself.

“I’ll see you tomorrow th—!”

And Oliver, for whatever reason, dips his head towards you and gives the softest kiss he’s ever given to anyone to you. 

A silk-like movement flows between your lips, synchronization naturally flowing. The warmth from earlier blooms in his chest, vining it through his body. Nothing but affection ebbs and flows within your lips and his, no other hidden intent behind his kiss other than the passion he’s harbored for you for the past few months you’ve been a part of his life. 

You and him break away. Funny how a kiss lasting five seconds or so feels like it’s lasted a lifetime, because the clock has barely ticked. Even the incredulous stare you give each other lasts longer than your kiss. 

You slice through the silence first. 

“I–”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Oliver chokes out abruptly and turns on his heel towards the elevator, praying you don’t see the flush of red that he can feel rising at the tip of his ears.

He swallows thickly once he’s inside it, feeling your burning stare on his back when you gaze at him from the hallway. He doesn’t want to turn around, scared for what expression you may behold. Without looking, he presses the lobby button on the button-pad and seals his fate as the doors close.

… clearly wants to scream at him, wants him to face the music and grasp the reality of the situation.

But he can’t. Not when he has so much at stake.

Oliver gives a sigh audible only to him as he begins to exit the locker room, letting his thoughts from the locker room be left in the locker room and his execution plans for this practice taking over. 

That is until he sees you standing outside, next to the door. 

He jumps slightly, eyes widening when he sees how close your presence was to it. You hold two rolls of athletic tape in one hand, scissors in another. Your face lifts from the ground, flat lips you transform it into a smile that almost looks screwed on to reflect at him.

There was no way you had heard him, right? Not with such a thick wall separating the two of you.

He stutters, but you beat him to his own words.

“(Y/N)–”

“Hey there,” you greet a little too sweetly, “can you give this to Hayate, please? It’s for his shoulder.”

Oliver pauses, looking at the two items you hold out in front of him in your hands. He stares and blinks slowly at them, your words clearly delayed in his ears. He suddenly blinks hard and gains back his consciousness, and his vision focuses on the beige tape and scissors before him.

“Sorry, yeah,” he mutters and takes them from you, trying not to graze your palms in fear of your warmth scorching him. “Um… did you happen to–”

“Coach says you guys need to hurry up, by the way,” you cut him off again, smile still on your lips that when Oliver sneaks a glance at, feels that fizzy feeling on his own again. “He wants everyone to be out on the field in five.”

You give him a nod of acknowledgement, turn on your heel, and stalk off, leaving him alone in the corridor. 

It was barely there… and if he were to blink, Oliver was sure that he would’ve missed it. 

But it was there, the dejection on your face revealing itself when you took your mask off once he wasn’t in view.

Your figure just barely appears in his vision just as he turns his head, a sweat misting on his skin.

Just before you’re able to round the corner, Oliver grabs your shoulder and forces you to look at him.

“Hey,” he breathes, “can we talk?”

You give him that artificial smile again. Your eyes don’t move when you lift your lips almost forcibly and the emptiness within them remains. “Sure,” you reply simply.

Oliver scans his surroundings first, making sure there are no additional ears to hear this conversation; he doesn't want another storm swirling. Scornfully, he takes you to a more secluded corner, one that shadows itself with darkness to fully ensure no attention would be brought to you and him.

He only has five minutes until their break is done, so he supposes that he should just rip the band-aid off and get it over with. For the greater good. 

“About yesterday,” he starts, scratching the back of his heating neck. “Listen, I’m sorry. What I did… it was just something I did accidentally ‘cause I was drunk. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable in any way.”

Oliver looks up and flinches at the blankness spread across your face. As though you’re unconvinced by his words. As though his words sound meaningless like the kiss he insists is.

You say nothing, just blinking honey-slow. Oliver takes the chance to try and say something, to take a jab.

“It’s just—I often say goodbye like that to people, y’know? Well, maybe less on the lips and more on the cheek and forehead,” he mutters, throat constraining a bit at the unnecessary add-ons. “You can ask any of the guys, I’m sure Sendou is sick of my shit, haha…” 

He manages to get a monotone hum from you, a paced nod indicating his words were somewhat getting through to you. 

Oliver purses his lips, trying to search for something in your empty stare. Anything will work, really, just something that he can grasp to get a feel of your emotions so he can plan how to go about this. 

“I think that—”

“Is it true?” you cut him off, capturing his attention. Oliver raises his eyebrows and lets out a confused sound. “What you said in the locker room.”

Guilt seeps into him. So you did hear him, even through the concrete walls and iron door. He supposes such weighty words are bound to break through the barrier to get to you in some aspect or another. 

“W-what did I say? What’d you hear?” he asks. 

You challenge his gaze, something forcing him to look at you pulls him into you. 

“That it didn’t matter,” you state simply. “That it didn’t mean anything.”

Oliver feels a heaviness on your shoulders when you echo his words through your own voice that he can’t detect the emotion of. He opens his mouth, trying to choose his words carefully, but it takes him a few seconds to gather his act.

“I—” he pauses, jaw gritting. Oliver fights the urge to hang his head in shame, forcing himself to look at you. Your gaze is testing; you really are their coach’s niece, given how there’s a similar pressure radiating off of you that mirrors your uncle. It’s waiting patiently, though with a certain standard in mind.

Oliver swallows thickly before spitting out a half-baked answer, one that adds another weight to his shoulders. Whether he believes it or not… that didn’t matter. Because he ultimately says something that will better the trajectories of tomorrow, not something that will entertain his own wants. He can’t afford to do that right now… not with you, at least.

“Yes,” he says, the familiar bitterness from before scattering on his tongue again. “Sorry. I really didn’t mean anything else by it other than goodbye. I hope that I didn’t give off a wrong impression of some kind.”

You go still again, motionless. 

And then your face cracks a smile, the same uncharacteristically wide one that doesn’t seem to fit your face quite right. 

“Okay,” you state simply with an assured nod, sighing in what seems to be relief. “Just wanted to make sure so we don’t run into misunderstandings. Thanks for clearing it up, Captain.”

Oliver thins his lips at your response. You don’t seem to be too phased at his words—unlike the other girls that came before you whose faces would contort into irritation, sadness, or confusion. He was ready to tackle all of those emotions he’s grown familiar with, but the content shown on your face is unlike anything he has ever seen.

And he doesn’t quite know what to make of it.

“So,” he starts slowly, “what should we do now? Or, what do you want to do?”

Your head lilts to the side. “Well, you said to forget about it… so, let’s do just that. If that’s what you think is best.”

Your words feel strange when they register in his mind, but Oliver gives a quick nod. 

“Yeah. Let’s just… forget about the entire thing. For the better of us and the team. And also so your uncle doesn’t kill me.” Oliver attempts to crack a joke to ease the tension in the air, but he doesn’t think this is the time. Not when you look like that. 

A familiar laughter is nowhere to be heard, and your smile feels unsettling the more he looks at it. It doesn’t feel like it’s yours, but rather a stranger’s. But you keep it on your lips regardless, showing amiability of some kind. 

“Alright,” you nod. “Then let’s agree to never talk about this again? Go back to our normal life?”

You put your hand out for him. Oliver takes it, your palm so oddly cold it makes him shiver a bit. You and him shake on the agreement, hand in hand, eye to eye. 

The deal is settled. History has been erased.

There was no kiss between you and him. Nothing has happened. 

All is well…

… he thinks.

A week passes by. 

You and Oliver have gone back to the way things were before instantly, talking and chatting just as friends like you always have been. He still receives the warning glares from your uncle to not get too close to you, but he’s able to bypass them just as he had been doing since you first got here on behalf of your university.

He reflects on that day fondly. How awkward and quiet you were when you first introduced yourself, stating that you would be interning as a junior manager on behalf of your major for their season. How Oliver was the first person to make you feel truly comfortable without having to worry about your uncle’s wrath, how conversations began to flow within you and him more easily rather than just the typical morning greetings and after-practice wrap-ups. 

When he looks at you now, you’re akin to a flower. One that has bloomed in the right environment as time passes comfortingly. You’ve grown to be friends with everyone on the team, his teammates holding you to a high regard that mirrors Oliver’s own status. It took awhile, like everything does, but you’ve blossomed. You show more of your true nature nowadays as a result.

He thinks that the new hairstyle that you adorn today is quite cute, fitting for your face. He especially likes the little clips of your favorite Sanrio character that he can’t ever seem to remember the name of that clip back your hair a bit to fight against the warming weather. 

“—ku.”

He likes that lip color on you that kind of matches with your outfit right now, a little detail he’s noticed you do sometimes.

“Aiku.”

Oh, that bracelet is new. Looks expensive, too. He likes all those charms that hang off it, the metal clinking harmoniously to him—

“Aiku!” 

The snap of your fingers and your voice finally breaks him out of his trance of admiration. He spurs, blinking rapidly. The giggles of his teammates float about from where you all are on the field. 

“You good, man?” you ask. 

“Huh?” he questions for a bit, trying to remember his current predicament. Oh yes, that’s right. The after-practice wrap-up where you summarize all their coach’s analysis to them and discuss plans moving forward. “Right, yeah. Uh huh.”

You roll your eyes, sighing and going back to your tablet. “As I was saying, Captain,” you throw a narrow-eyed glance at him, a doubt in his beholding of his title visible, one that makes him chuckle. “Try to sharpen up your skills as best as possible. I think it’s advised for you guys to showcase the best of your capabilities rather than dwell on your weak points— especially with how close the Blue Lock v. U-20 Match is.”

With that, you dismiss them, his teammates giving a loud thank you to you. Oliver is last to follow, with you tagging along behind him just before he enters the locker room.

“Hold on, Captain,” you call for him, tugging on his sleeve. “We’re still on for Shibuya later, right?”

Oliver nods affirmingly at you. “Yep. Need to get some new cleats before the game.”

“Oh okay,” you throw him a thumbs up, “but uh. Sendou won’t be able to make it. Says he’s got some sort of dinner with his brother. You okay with it just being us two?”

Oliver’s eyes widen, purple and green revealing themselves in full in a state of mild surprise. Originally, you guys were supposed to go as a trio, with Sendou wanting some new earrings for his piercing and you wanting to look at a new brand’s collection. But with the former out of the question… Oliver realizes it’d just be you and him.

Something in him stirs.

“Yeah,” he says a little too simply, trying to fight a grin rising on his lips. “That’s all good by me.”

You pat his arm affirmingly when you nod. “Alright then. I’ll meet you outside the facility’s entrance. Rest up while you still can.” 

With that, you take your leave and throw him a friendly wave over your shoulder. Oliver watches as you exit the field a little too intently, your perfume lingering in the air. 

He had been with you alone on some occasions, since he was the captain and it wasn’t uncommon for him to be called in privately, but it was almost always soccer-related. And the few times it wasn’t, it was often with the team like karaoke or a group dinner. So, he supposes that this would be the first time ever that you and him have actually hung out as… friends?

Friends.

Right. Yes, that’s what you were to him. Just friends. You’re a friend, and this is a friend-oriented shopping hangout. 

Oliver trails back into the locker room, ignoring the tingling on his lips.

“Those are nice,” he says when he peeks over your shoulder, watching as you examine a pair of earrings. “Pretty.”

You give him a glance from the mirror, sighing when you put them down and return them into their little slot. “Nah, I don’t really suit chunky earrings. Would like to, though.”

Strange how you say that, considering Oliver thought they looked quite nice on you—just like how every single clothing item you’ve been trying on has been. 

“I think they look alright,” he remarks, plucking them out of the display stand and holding them to your face again. “Yeah, they look fine to me?”

“You don’t get it ‘cause you’re a guy,” you give a light titter, shaking your head. “Plus they’re a little out of my budget.” 

Oliver goes to glance at the price and doesn’t really think much of it. Maybe his perspective is a little skewed, considering that your salaries as an intern versus a professional soccer player were quite spaced out. 

“Hm,” he mumbles, “want me to buy them for you, then?”

You gawk, a choked sound coming out of your throat. “What?! No. I-I wouldn’t wear them anyways, I don’t think they’d look good. You’d just be wasting your money.”

“Well I think they look good, so I’m sure everyone else thinks they’ll do,” Oliver playfully cajoles to your dismay. “Maybe just step out of your comfort zone.”

“I know when to step out of it,” you groan as you stalk over to another area of jewelry. “I just don’t think those specifically will do me justice.”

Oliver hums quietly, still examining the earrings from his distance. A store assistant suddenly appears from behind, a smile on her face when she shares Oliver’s view of you. 

He jumps a little when she makes her presence known. “I think your boyfriend is right, ma’am. I think those earrings will look lovely on you, really,” she chimes. 

You pivot your attention to her and chuckle mirthlessly, not really convinced by her words that you’re sure she’s adding sugar to help you buy it. “Haha, thank you, but I’m okay… also,” you gesture to you and Oliver. “We’re not dating. We’re just friends.”

Oliver winces at the word. It takes a small jab at his chest. 

“Oh! My apologies,” the assistant excuses. “Sorry, you two just looked so lovely together—my mind just automatically assumed!”

You reassure her that there were no worries with another fleeting laugh, one that’s a little too dismissive of her assumption. “No worries.”

You excuse yourself and stalk off to another branch, Oliver watching you from his peripheral vision as you examine the bracelet section of the department store. He supposes that looking into the mirror at oneself for too long can disfigure a person’s self image—since he doesn’t seem convinced that you think you look bad in the earrings. When he can detect you’re out of view, he murmurs the same assistant over.

“Would you mind wrapping this up for me?” he asks quietly, sliding over the pair of earrings to her. “Preferably somewhere out of her view.” He goes to jut his thumb over his shoulder, indicating your presence from behind him. “I’d just like to get them for her as a gift.”

The store assistant draws her gaze over to you, ignorant to their interaction when you admire the articulation of a specific necklace in the display case. She nods affirmingly, a knowing glint in her eyes.

“You know, we have a special gift box for couples for jewelry, if you’re interested,” she inquires, making Oliver’s eyes widen. “It’s a white velvet box to help properly store the jewelry.”

“Oh, haha,” he laughs, attempting to remind her of your current status with each other. “We’re not—”

 “I know,” she affirms, winking at him, as if she knew something he didn’t. “I’m just saying.”

The assistant smiles ever so politely. Oliver pauses. He throws a look over his shoulder to see if you were still there, far enough away from him and sure enough, you’re bouncing about the display cases, admiring all the jewelry clearly out of your budget. 

He softens when he sees your eyes sparkle at a specific bracelet, wondrous and amazed. 

Oliver turns back to the assistant, who grins at him.

“Sure, why not?”

And just before he drops you off at your apartment when the day is done, he quietly slips the white velvet box into your bag without a word, hoping that you’ll take the chance and wear them on his behalf.

“Nice earrings, where’d you get them?” Oliver asks the following day when practice wraps up again. The same earrings he had seen yesterday were now adorned on your ears, glinting at him curiously when he pokes at them.

You turn away from him and focus on your tablet, a heat rising on your cheeks. “Found them in the garbage.”

He laughs aloud at your evident embarrassment of your acceptance of his gift. But that’s okay; he figures you’re still trying to get used to them, so he’ll let you take your time. Maybe you’ll eventually see what he sees.

“You still coming to karaoke?” he inquiries when he helps you clean up the team’s remnants of play on the field. He feels a little hesitant asking you such a thing, even though it was quite often the team went out for karaoke to ease up after practice. The lingering tension between you and him from the aftermath of last time has long dissipated, but there’s always that chance it may come back to haunt him. 

“Yeah but,” you groan when you throw some sweat-soaked towels in the bin, “I’m not staying long. I’ve got some homework to finish up on, so no drinking for me tonight.”

The words come faster out of his mouth before he can catch them—reflex taking over consciousness. 

“D’you want me to walk you home later then?”

Oliver flinches. You blink at him, eyes wide, like he has the audacity to say such a thing after the incident. 

But the way your eyes soften so gently at him makes him rethink his assumption and he feels a relief that flows in his chest when you give him a grateful smile. One that he’s quite accustomed to, one that you only give him.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Okay Sendou, your turn!” Neru exclaims and thrusts a microphone in the striker’s hands. 

The karaoke has long been forgotten, now replaced with just a casual truth or dare game since everyone’s voice has finally been roughened up a little too much after shouting and yelling during practice. Oliver has had to admit three truths and two dares so far, with his last dare being to prank call their coach from a payphone in a funny voice and ask him if his refrigerator was running and to go catch it. 

He’s sure that if their coach finds out it was him, he’ll get an ass-whooping later. But it’s okay. He got to see you laugh, so it was worth it.

“Alright, truth or dare, bud!” Neru announces from his own microphone, putting Sendou on the spot. 

“Uh,” he stammers, clearly aware of the heights he’ll have to go if he chooses either. “... dare.”

“Yikes! Wrong choice!” Neru chimes gleefully to Sendou’s horror. He attempts to take back and choose truth when he sees the wicked smile spreading across Neru’s face, but it’s too late. “For your dare, you must chew a piece of chewed-up gum stuck underneath the table!”

“That’s so fucking nasty, Neru?!” Sendou shrieks to everyone’s bemusement. “I might die from that!” 

“Ugh, you’re so boring, this is why no girls like you,” Neru retorts to Sendou’s displeasure. “Fine then, I’ll show mercy. Show us the last thing you saved to your phone from your camera roll.”

Sendou sighs in relief and pulls out his phone to his camera roll, only to gape in horror and flush with embarrassment. His reaction pulls excitement from everyone, Niou and Wakatsuki going to tackle him before he can hide it from view, Wakatsuki obtaining it and laughing hysterically as he shows off what’s on Sendou’s screen.

A rather raunchy picture of one of his favorite Hollywood actresses displayed on his phone, making some people whistle at Sendou’s pervertedness. You sigh upon seeing it, remembering that you were in a room filled with boys that were just crawling out of teenagerhood and that the female body to them was still just something taboo to them.

Sendou snatches his phone back, grumbling to himself. Neru then focuses his gaze onto you, eyes shining with anticipation to your apprehension. You squirm in your seat. 

“Manager,” Neru sings and motions to you. “Your turn! Truth or dare!”

All of the team focuses their attention to you, wondering if you’ll finally pick dare after so long of choosing truth, but as always, you go to choose the safety of truth.

“Boringgg,” Neru drags, but goes on to ask his question anyway. “Fine then. Who was your first kiss?”

Oliver can feel a few of his teammates sneak a glance at him, a clear elephant appearing in the room. But he fixes his stare into your figure, curious about your answer and not wanting to cause more drama. 

You laugh hastily, scratching your cheek. 

“Actually…” you begin shyly, “I haven’t actually had my first kiss yet. I haven’t gotten the chance yet.”

Silence fills the space. Most of your other truths have stirred reactions of all kinds so far, but everyone draws a blank at your answer. Neru flickers his gaze at Oliver and sees nothing but dread written across his captain's face.

Despite the fact that everyone knows it’s a lie, seeing as how Oliver had admitted to them a week prior that he did kiss you, everyone (but Oliver) nods and nervously tells you that you’ll have it one day, patting your back in reassurance. Maybe their captain was lying? Maybe he just simply kissed you on the forehead or on the cheek? Regardless of what they hypothesize, clearly it wasn’t any of their business to try and intrude on, and Neru moves onto his next victim.

Oliver, however, fixes where he is, too filled with trepidation to try and move. Yes, you and him agreed to talk about the matter ever again and to pretend it never happened, but Oliver didn’t think you would take it to such a height that you erased what was your first kiss from existence. Ultimately meaning… he gave you your first kiss, and he asked you directly to pretend like it never happened. He asked you to pretend your first kiss never happened, that it was an accident and that it didn’t matter. 

He’s been told that he’s an asshole from all the girls he’s collected over the years, but in the current heat of the moment, he truly feels like the title bestows him.

The clock moves fast in the moment he contemplates his thoughts, and he feels you tapping his shoulder suddenly. He looks up and sees the warmth of your gaze looking down at him, your coat all buttoned up and bag hooked on your arm.

“You ready to go? I gotta get home soon.”

“Oh,” Oliver steadies himself, not noticing the glances his teammates give him when he fixes himself up. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll be there in a second, you can wait by the lobby, if you’d like.”

With a nod of your head, you say goodbye to everyone and whisk yourself out. When they can’t hear your footsteps anymore, everyone scrambles toward their captain. 

“You said you kissed her!” Sendou accuses.

“What, did you just kiss her somewhere else other than her lips or something?” Kitzunezato inquiries with a furrowed brow. “C’mon man, you can’t insinuate something like that so casually.”

“I’ll talk about it later,” Oliver mumbles as he zips up his coat. “Continue without me. I’m gonna walk her home.”

The questions in the air still linger behind him when he exits the room to meet you at the lobby, a casual smile on your face as if nothing happened, as if you weren’t noticing the tension he’s feeling.

Oliver cracks a sheepish grin back. At least, what he can hope for is a grin.

The walk back is quiet. You walk a little bit in front of him while he trails behind. Oliver wants to say something, but he feels as though he shouldn’t. But… something gnaws at him. Something that yearns for an answer, even though he knows he’ll lose sleep over whatever you give him. 

So he asks you, right before you enter your apartment. A ghost of last week’s past in the air, haunting him. 

“(Y/N),” he starts slowly, his eyes filled with self-contempt. “I was your first kiss, wasn’t I?”

Your grip around the doorknob tightens. He can see a slight tick in your jaw when his question comes out. A bitten lip is hidden from view, but you’re quick to replace it with that same uncanny smile he’s not familiar with seeing. 

“I haven’t had my first kiss yet,” you say simply when you turn to him. 

Oliver pauses, confused. “But last week, we—”

“I haven’t had my first kiss yet,” you repeat again, a strength to your words that silences him.

Oh.

He takes a step back. He sees what you’re doing. You and him agreed to pretend like the kiss never happened, and clearly here you were, upholding your side of the agreement. Who was he to try and break the contract you and he made?

A silence draws on his tongue, something otherworldly telling him not to say anything more to not worsen the situation. You allow him a brief moment of quiet to say something, and when he doesn’t, when he’s faltered to nothing, you take advantage of the moment. 

“Thanks for walking me home. I’ll see you tomorrow, Aiku,” you mumble quietly, shutting your door and leaving him dumbly standing in front of your door. 

Oliver stays there for a bit, wanting to knock on your door and ask you to tell him without a filter if he was your first, if he stole your first kiss and shoved it right back into your face. But he knows better.

So he turns and walks away, letting it be if that’s what you wanted. 

Apparently, you have a date today.

You didn’t actually say anything, but the rumor floats about after Hayate overheard you discussing some plans with someone on the phone, a giddy smile on your face.

“She literally said ‘I can’t wait to see you’! That’s totally telling she has a date with some guy,” Hayate exclaims.

Darai is unconvinced. “Or she could just be talking to a friend or family member. Let’s be realistic, with how busy she is as a student and a junior manager, I highly doubt she has the time to go around and date.”

Oliver is quiet in his little corner of the locker room, his ears listening despite not facing his team. He doesn’t want them to see the heaviness in his eyes when Hayate first told them about it. He doesn’t want to hear more, but… he can’t help but indulge, irritably curious to see who this person was if he did exist at all.

Neru agrees with him, his eyes dancing over to Oliver’s figure. “Yeah. Let’s not assume anything. It’s her business anyways.”

“But what if this guy takes her away from us?!” Hayate babbles, worry evident on his face. “We’re gonna lose our precious manager! Oliver, surely you’ve got a say in this!” 

A vexation takes over Oliver when Hayate brings up the possibility of you removing yourself from the team. His normally-balanced emotions suddenly unstable for a fleeting moment, making him shut his locker door a little too harshly than normal, making everyone in the locker room flinch at how the room shakes a bit from his strength.

He draws a shaky breath, regaining his balance again before he turns and faces them with his normally calm demeanor slapped onto his face. Don’t mind the small vein on his neck. 

“Neru is right,” he says simply. “Let’s not meddle our heads into our manager’s outside business unless it revolves around soccer.”

With that, he leaves the locker room first, before they can stir up anything that may irritate him any further. 

You leave an hour earlier than normal, wishing your uncle goodbye during one of their matches. Oliver, from the middle of the field, can just barely see your uncle wagging a finger at you and the words “be safe” being read from his lips. He watches as you quietly exit the field, not noticing how Niou had passed the ball to him.

“Aiku!” he shouts harshly. “The ball!” 

“Oh shit,” Oliver hisses, taking notice of the black and white blur at his feet and how close Darai was to taking it. “Whoops. Sorry!”

Curiosity kills the cat, they say. Then collar up Oliver right there and then if he is one, since his curiosity takes over him when he asks out of impulse why did you leave early to his coach when they wrap up practice.

“She’s got a date with my coworker’s son,” Hoichi grunts, a clear disapproval of the date on his face. He supposes that’s what’s bound to come to him seeing as how Hoichi himself has daughters, and this may be a routine he’s grown used to. “My cute baby niece… she’s too grown up!”

Hoichi goes to sob into a handkerchief to Oliver’s contempt and he leaves his coach to wallow in his sadness… before he gets more second-hand embarrassment. 

Oliver drags a hand down his face at the confirmation of the rumor. He keeps it to himself, however, when he tidies himself up in the locker room as everyone stirs about, knowing that something like this would surely ensue chaos amongst the men. But it’s a secret he’s burdened with keeping all to himself, the blatant fact that you may belong to someone else soon if this date went well. 

He bids everyone goodbye, head hung low when he pictures you all pretty and dolled up for someone he thinks doesn’t deserve it. Maybe you’ll be flaunting one of your signature hair clips, or perhaps the earrings he bought for you. It’s been two weeks since he bought them and you’ve been wearing them more often, after all. 

The walk back to his house begins in a quiet restaurant district of the city. He’s used to the hustle and bustle of lines outside some well-known restaurants, everyone donned in semi-formal wear with friends or partners in line. It’s not a place where a singular guy like him seems to blend in with.

He nearly rounds the corner from one restaurant in particular, but stops himself in his tracks when he registers what he sees. 

You sit alone at the table nearest to the window, a poorly-disguised disappointment spread across your face when the waiter comes over and gestures to a couple that’s waiting for a table amidst all the filled ones in the restaurant. Oliver watches as you apologize to him and gather your stuff, exiting the restaurant shortly after the waiter gives his condolences. 

You carry yourself out of the restaurant and Oliver’s breath hitches when he sees how you’ve gathered yourself up for tonight in full. You wear only a blouse and a skirt to match, heels that make you seem a little taller, to seem more confident, though now it’s nowhere to be found given your solemn features. The wind bites almost harshly, making you shiver from the chilled air. 

Oliver is quick to unzip his jacket and his feet carry him to you before he can process where he’s going… what he’s doing. He drapes the thick fabric over your shoulders, the sudden warmth from seemingly nowhere making you look up.

He sees a framing of tears in your eyes that you’re trying not to let fall, and you manage to catch them just in time when you widen your eyes at his sudden appearance. 

“Captain,” you greet softly with a fake smile, clearly taken aback. 

Your voice cracks along the way when you say it. Oliver’s eyes soften when he registers the grasp of the current situation, understanding why you clutch your stomach and why you look dejectedly defeated. 

“I’ll take you home,” he murmurs tenderly, an arm around you to shield you from the cold. “We can get something for you to eat along the way.”

Oliver hopes the sandwiches and ramen he got at the nearby convenience store will ease your growling stomach. He would have treated you for a better meal, one that isn’t loaded with insane amounts of sodium and preservatives, but it was clear to him that you just wanted to go home after a failed date. 

He watches quietly when you insert your keys into the keyhole of your apartment door, but raises his brows when you refuse to twist it to unlock the latch, going to lay your forehead against the coolness of the door instead. A stillness overtakes your body, seemingly paralyzing you to the spot. 

Oliver stays quiet, not wanting to interfere with… whatever it is you’re doing. He just watches from his position near the wall, not wanting to leave until you enter inside the safety of your apartment.

You close your eyes, letting out a stuttering breath to try and compose yourself. Don’t fall apart now, you tell yourself in your head, you’ve been doing so well so far. Just wait until he’s out of view… then drown yourself in your tears. 

But your lips warble. Your chest hurts—you feel a pang every time you reflect back on your mountain of texts asking your date if he was still coming, the empty seat in front of you collecting dust for nearly an hour. You bite your lip harshly to try and distract yourself from the sadness that flows through your veins, but to no avail does it work, because you can just feel the river of quiet tears streaming down your cheeks. The plastic bag of food falls miserably on the floor.

Oliver lifts his head up when he hears a soft sniff. He thinks it’s just from the cold, but when he can see the glisten of tears from your closed eyes, he stiffens. 

“Hey,” he starts softly, a hand going to rub your back to attempt comfort. “You alr—”

“Three times…” you mumble. “Once is just by chance… the second time is maybe a coincidence… But three times? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

He doesn’t really know what to say. He’s not sure if he should, really, considering he has absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, though context comes shortly after without him having to ask. 

“Being stood up three fucking times in a row… how embarrassing,” you lament, a few tears falling from your chin and onto the carpet. 

Oh. He sees the picture more clearly now. Oliver takes a step back to give you space. So this wasn’t your first date, but your third so far of the season. Or, at least an attempt at one. To be stood up and left in the dark three times is what no one wants, as he’s experienced it before and understands the looks of pity from strangers does no good in such a situation, like the one the waiter gave you before he asked you to leave. 

“Shit, is there something wrong with me that I don’t know about or—?!” you draw a breath, turning your somber visage to Oliver suddenly, as if he had the answer. 

He doesn’t. Or maybe he does; it’s just not the one you expect. Because although he doesn’t know what’s wrong with you specifically, he thinks there’s nothing wrong in general. Not with you. 

You’re nothing less of kind and understanding, always attentive to each of the players’ needs. Oliver thinks of you as headstrong, determined to always push people to the best of their capabilities without degrading their integrity. But at the same time, you’re easy to be with, for everyone could show their authentic self around you without much filter needed. 

He had always thought of you as beautiful as well, ever since the beginning from that day his coach introduced you. If anything, your beauty had bewitched him in the first place, and he’s sure it’s had the same effect on others—he even remembers Sendou’s cheeks being humiliatingly pink when you had talked to him for the first time. 

So he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with you. At least not from his angle.

“Not at all,” he whispers, trying to bring you a sense of peace. 

He expects your eyes to soften, your lips to curl—but they do neither. Instead, your gaze hardens at him unexpectedly, one that makes him swallow thickly. 

“Funny how the guy that told me to forget my first kiss is saying that,” you spit cruelly, reddened eyes boring into him. 

Oliver recoils and takes his hand away from you, giving you space. So he was a part of his too, huh? He supposes that he’s not one to try and say something as comforting as what he said when he was just like the others, if not… worse, considering he had kissed you in the flesh and abandoned you all in the same breath, leaving you in the dust. 

You lift your head off the door and face him, a tired look in your eyes.

“I know we said to never talk about it again,” you mutter, “but I think I deserve to know. Tell me, Aiku, was it something I did? Did I say something that made you kiss me? Did you want something? Shit, did my breath smell?”

The words he wants to say knot in his throat again. He opens his mouth, but closes it when he realizes he can’t conjure anything right now. So he just simply stares at you with a longing he hopes you can see.

Clearly not. You grow frustrated at his silence. “That’s not fair. I need an answer. I don’t care what it is, just tell me something at least,” you plead.

A silence whirs by. And again, Oliver cannot come up with a proper response that feels honest, that feels whole. You’d settle for a lie at best, but even that, he can’t come up with. 

Your eyes water when he just continues to stay quiet, lips sealed and locked from his opinion of you. His silence is more suffocating than whatever you want him to give, the worst of your thoughts embedding themselves even further in your mind. 

You give him your last breath. And if he doesn’t respond to this one, you’ll leave him be and enter into your apartment for the night. 

“Was it because it was me that you kissed?” you ask sternly, heart shattering by each second that goes by without another sound. “Did you regret kissing m—”

“No.”

Oliver says his first word to you, clear and true, finally finding something from the knot of words lumped from his throat. He lifts his shameful head up to look at you with an earnest he’s found in himself.

Regret isn’t what he felt in the aftermath… it was doubt. 

Doubt of his feelings for you. Doubt that he could live up to your standards. Doubt that he could treat you as well as you deserved. 

He told you to forget about the kiss because he doubted himself too heavily that he’d be able to be a person worth deserving of your time, because if he wasn’t, he didn’t want the remnants of his thoughts of a chance to exist in fear of looking like a fool. 

Oliver was doubtful of the meaning of the kiss between you and him, not finding a clear answer of why he did it and what it may have meant to you, so instead of trying to figure out a solution, he had chosen to ignore its existence for the better of himself, for his own protection, while completely ignoring your own thoughts in the process. A selfish act, he thinks bitterly.

You blink at him, confused as a few stray tears fall. 

“I don’t regret kissing you at all,” he mutters. “I just… I just wished it didn’t happen in the way that it did.”

You go still, trying to register the meaning of his words. Oliver’s melancholy is radiating all over him, something that is in similar style to yours.

“I wish I kissed you in a better setting. I wish I kissed somewhere more romantic, where I was sober,” Oliver states slowly, plucking out his feelings in a tender manner. “Where I could control myself. Where I could tell you my feelings straight up instead of throwing them in your face.”

When he looks back on the moment where he kissed you on impulse, his alcohol taking over his body and his restraint to fully show his honest feelings toward you, he may feel regretful that it wasn’t as grandeur as you deserved, but kissing you could never be regretted. Kissing you in the moment was a doubtful decision, sure, but Oliver doesn’t regret it for a bit. Not you. Never you.

Not when your lips felt so plush and so fit with his, not when you kissed him in equal fervor that mirrored his own feelings that he didn’t realize you did so until now, because no one would kiss him like that if they didn’t feel the same way.

“I didn’t hate the fact that it was you I kissed, but… more so I hated the way I kissed you during then,” his voice strains, the air in his lungs lessening. “And I wanted to forget about it because I was embarrassed that I did something so impulsive to you.” 

Him telling you to regret it was his version of drawing a blank slate. For him to rewrite something more meaningful with you, if you allowed it. If he knew earlier that it’d be your first kiss, he would’ve had the measures to at least stop himself and give you the experience of what would’ve been a much greater and beautiful moment. 

But no matter how much you and him try to bypass his kiss, try to say it was nothing, that it was meaningless—the more it becomes repressed, the more significance it picks up. And all Oliver can do now is just accept it and to simply go forward. 

So he takes a daring step forward, a distance closer to your radius. 

He steadies his breathing, fixating his vision on the fullness of your face. He wishes it was him that outfit was for, as he curses at the fact it was wasted on such a shitty day like today. He wishes that your face wasn’t stained with tears as it was right now, but instead, featuring a soft smile you’d often give him during fleeting moments between the two of you alone. 

But if you’ll allow him to, Oliver thinks he could still get that smile on your lips tonight. One that he’d be the sole cause of. 

His hands lift to rest on your cheeks, thumbs caressing over them to wipe some tears away. The soft lilt of your head lets him better see you from his angle above. 

He’s sober—you are too. There’s nothing but pure blood running through each of your veins, nothing to cause anything reckless other than his own self.

Oliver asks you quietly, devotedly, “Can I show you the way I’ve always wanted to kiss you?”

He stares into the glimmering pools of your eyes, searching for something to grasp and hold onto, to nurture and take care of. 

Another shuddered breath draws from your lips. You go still again for a moment… before you give him a nod and let him bring you to him.

He kisses you tenderly, his lips capturing your own in an essence he had been craving to emulate with you since the moment he laid eyes on you for the very first time. The warmth from then blooms itself within his chest, and he presses his lips more firmly against yours when you allow him to deepen the kiss after the first few soft, careful grazes.

The softness of your lips he had felt just a few weeks ago sends sparks on his, that familiar tingling feeling they had been yearning for finally feeling satisfaction. His arms go wrap around your waist and bring your bodies closer to each other as you steady your hands on his broad shoulders, distance unheard of between your heartbeats that mirror each other's rhythm. Your lips feel like cotton against his roughened ones, but you still invite him to savor you, to taste you in full awareness.

You’re first to break away to catch some air. Oliver allows you to, his forehead resting on yours as you try to compose yourself as he admires you from the closeness between you and him. You suddenly take the lead this time, hungry and craving for more from him, kissing him again in a manner so passionate, it lands you against the door. But you and him go unfazed from the impact, heads too filled with the yearning for each other to notice. 

Oliver separates slowly from you, lips swollen and wet from the fervor of the kiss. He breathes slowly, synchronizing with your own breaths as you gaze into each other fully. Your tears have stopped, he’s noticed, and on your lips is an ever-so-soft grin melded from the moment between you and him.

A hand goes to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear, one that reveals one half of the pair of earrings he gifted you all those days ago, before it cradles your face again. 

“Something like that,” he whispers. “If that was okay.”

You give a soft sigh of contentment. “I think that was more than okay…”

He chuckles lowly, a weight being lifted from his shoulders. “Yeah?”

You lick your lips before you giggle soundly, nodding almost shyly as you feel the leftover sparks from the kiss on your lips.

“Yeah.”

Your hands intertwine with his, sharing a warmth between each other. Oliver brings one of your interconnected ones up and gently kisses your knuckles, a flutter in your chest arising when his eyes soften at you, full of love and devotion solely for you to consume. 

“Twelve more to go, Aiku!” Hoichi hollers. 

Guilt builds itself within you, especially as you trail Oliver’s lethargically-running figure from the stands as he continues running laps around the field. The rest of the team has been long gone, and it’s been two hours since practice has ended, but their captain remains on the field, his punishment for his earlier actions being to run fifty laps. 

What exactly did he do to deserve such a fate?

Ask your uncle permission to take you on a date.

You’ve never seen such a fire rage in your uncle’s eyes when Oliver had brought up the topic, one that even made you flinch at his fury. Men he barely knew were one thing… but Oliver? Someone he’s known for years and has brought up a reputation for being a playboy? Dating his precious niece? How dare he even bring up the topic! 

But you had explained to your uncle as best as possible that all you wanted to do was just go on a simple date with him, just to test out the waters. Nothing too crazy at first. He supposes that your reasoning made better sense, as it managed to relax some of his nerves, but the remnants of his wrath remained and your uncle will grant Oliver permission to do as he wishes under one condition. 

“You wanna earn my blessing?” your uncle had declared with folded arms. Oliver had nodded from his bowed position, only for him to freeze when he heard the singular condition that would grant him permission. “Run fifty laps around the field. Straight. No breaks.” 

“You don’t think you’re being too harsh…?” you question quietly to your uncle, whose hard stare remains on Oliver from above. “I think he’s done enough.”

“If he wants to show that he’s devoted to you like he said he did,” your uncle starts, “then let him work for you. Don’t let him or any man half-ass their way to you if they show they're not dedicated enough.”

You sigh miserably, supposing he’s right in some sense or another. But you just wish that his punishment was much less harsh than over-exhausting his captain.

But when you see Aiku throw a grin your way and a warbly thumbs up mid-run, making you laugh softly, you suppose that this is his way of showing he truly was ready for you, that he’ll earn his way towards you in every possible instance if it means he’ll get to have you as his.

a/n: so this was not supposed to actually be this long... i anticipated it to be somewhere along the lines of like... 4k at most? i apologize that this was extraordinarily lengthy 😭

i almost ended up cutting it into halves/thirds, but i figured i'd be too lazy to try and continue it so i just kept writing and writing. mind you i started this literally yesterday, adhd and hyperfocus is a funny thing. hopefully this turned some of u guys into aiku fans bc he got my ass unfortunately

but regardless, thank you for reading! comments and reblogs are the best way to support creators you enjoy, and leaving one will always be noticed and appreciated (´• ◡ •`) ♡ !!!!

[cosmic-dust-poltergeist]

De-aged Danny shenanigans with an adult Damian taking after his father.

Danny, about 6: *drigging through the trash*

Damian, 26: Hello? Are you alright?

Danny, whips around to look at him with glowing green eyes: hissssss

Damian, blinks: Oh, dear....Are you hungry?

Danny, suspicious:... yeth

Damian, nods: If you come with me, we can either go to a batburger down the street or my apartment a block over. I have a washer and dryer I can run your clothes through while you bathe.

Danny: Are you trying to kidnap me?

Damian: If I was, I'd be a fool to say so

Danny: mm twue...why else would you want to help me though?

Damian: one. It would be irresponsible of me to level a toddler alone, in an alley, in Gotham.

Danny, pouting: I'm not a toddler

Damian: Two. I will never hear the end of it from my siblings whether or not I help you, but it'd be more teasing than lecturing if I do help you.

Danny: Why would they do dat?

Damian: If you don't have any place to go, I might just tell you. But only if I can make sure you don't tell the wrong person.

Danny: I'm good wif secrets!

Damian, amused: We shall see. And now third and final reason. Are you aware your eyes are glowing green?

Danny, gasps and slams his eyes shut: You're not supposed to see!

Damian, softly: It's okay. I understand what that means. One of my elder brothers' eyes glow the same way. It must have been very scary for you to die

Danny, sniffling: It was... does his eyes weally glow green?

Damian: They do. His usually glow when he gets angry, is it the same with you?

Danny, now blinking blue glowing eyes at Damian: mmm? No? Green is too much bad emotion

Damian: Bad emotion?

Danny: Mad, um, strezz? No, the bigger one!

Damian: Panic or anxiety?

Danny, points at him with a bounce: Yeah!!

Damian, amused and concerned: I see

Danny: mmm let's see, um, and scared?

Damian: Interesting. Jason's eyes are usually an indicator of angry, but I know he likes to cover his fear and concern with that same anger. I shall look into it. On that note. And what does glowing blue mean?

Danny, blinks: Blue?

Damian: Yes. Did you know your eyes are glowing blue now?

Danny, shocked: No! They didn't do that before!... At least I don't think they did?

Damian: Well, they're a very pretty shade of blue.

Danny: Maybe... Maybe that's how my parents noticed...

Damian, trying not to frown: What did your parents notice?

Danny, turning his big teary eyes on Damian: That I'm not fully human anymore. They didn't notice. They never noticed!

Damian, slowly reaching out to the kid to see if he'd accept a hug: Sounds like your parents didn't deserve you.

Danny, giving into his childish instincts and flinging himself into Damian's arms to sob his little heart out: They didn't even know I died! It's not fair! I'm not weally human and it's their fault! I hate their stupid po-po- THING! It shocked me and it hurt and now I'm dead and it's their fault!

Damian: *gently rocking Danny til he tires himself out*

Danny, sniffling: It's not fair...

Damian: Something I've found is, it never is. Every stray my father has housed has had an unbearably harsh life, and I, being his blood son, was no different. My mother and her father raised me for the first ten years of my life, and I've come to understand that my childhood was not a good one. It took me a long time and a lot of patience from my eldest brother to come to realize what I was missing.

Danny: Like, Jazzy?

Damian: mm? Who's Jazzy?

Danny: My big sister. She's a big know it all, but she tries...

Damian: Well, that's-

Danny, jolts in Damian's hold: Tried! *GASP* Jazzy doesn't know mom and dad didn't kill me!! *pause* um, kill me again?

Damian: Well, we'll have to tell her, won't we? You wouldn't happen to know her full name? I can ask my family to contact her while we get you cleaned up

Danny: Yeah! Her name is Jasmine Fenton! She goes to a big big school here! That's why I came here! I just... I got lost..

Damian: That won't do

Damian, pulls out his phone and calls Barbara while starting to walk to his apartment: Gordon. I have a request.

Barbara: Yeah? Whatcha got, baby bat?

Damian: Can you look up a Jasmine Fenton? I have something she will probably want back.

Barbara: Holy shit! Is that a child??

Damian, sighs: Yes, it's her little brother. He ran away from a bad situation with his parents and got lost trying to find his elder sister.

Barbara: Alright. I'll check out her entire life to make sure she's safe to- wait. Damian, is that kid's name Danny?

Damian, realizing he never asked: One moment.

Damian, looks down at a sleepy, but curious Danny: Is your name Danny?

Danny, beams: Yeah!!

Barbara: Caught that, but, uh, Damian, Danny is supposed to be 20, not...4? 5? Not a tiny child

Damian: umm... Danny did you used to be older?

Danny, shrinks into himself and his eyes turn green: Ye-yeah... I don't know why I'm little... mommy did something and it Huuurt and hurt til suddenly I was free and I ran and hid in a bus

Damian, soothingly petting his back: Okay, it's okay, we'll figure it out.

Barbara: Take care of him for the night, we'll contact his sister tomorrow at a reasonable time. I'm not finding anything too concerning on her yet so she's probably safe

Damian: Copy that. Goodnight, Gordon.

Barbara, teasing: Goodnight, mini-Bruce!

Damian, flushes, but doesn't deny it before hanging up and glancing towards Danny: That was Barbara Gordon. A family friend. She'll help us find your sister, but you'll be staying with me for tonight.

Danny, sleepy: Okay..

Damian, slipping into his apartment lobby and going straight up the stairs, ignoring the gaping attendants: Don't fall asleep just yet. You will be fed and bathed first

Danny, huffs, but straightens up: What food?

Damian: That depends, I only really have vegetarian food so I suppose we'll have to find something you'll eat

Danny: Sam is vegetarian! I eat vegetarian sometimes with her!

Damian: hm? Very good, then it should be easier for me to feed you

Damian and Danny have a wonderful time. Danny is fed, watered, and cleaned up before being set up with a quiet sound machine to sleep. Damian has a crisis over wanting to keep Danny and suddenly understands his father's adoption habit. He sets alarms to check on Danny throughout the night, but it's otherwise uneventful.

[kyri45]

✨ShadowPeach Bio Parents Bio AU Q&A! 25/03✨

Welcome to the Q&A! A space where I can answer related or similar question about the Shadowpeach Bio Parents AU! If you submitted your ask anonimously, then you’ll have to check the whole post if it’s answered here, if it’s not, worry not! Your asks might have been used for a future comic or just in the queue~

@miauintao ha chiesto: Is there a reason Macaque and Wukong seems to keep neglecting to teach Mk about "demon etiquette"? (using Redson phrasing) Especially since he's a prince now and everything, are we going to see them teaching him about all of this stuff he should know now about demons? Sorry if my English is bad

They did tell him the basics with the whole "talk" when he discovered his crush. Red Son was talking about etiquette as a celestial royal, which is something PIF taught him since he was a child.

@roseltelle ha chiesto: Do you think pigsy leaves mk the restaurant? If he does I imagine he would still want to keep it open. Probably hiring new people. I say because if he chooses to still do deliveries occasionally if a customer asks for the owner he finally gets to say I am the owner.

Uhhhh who knows? Shadowpeach are the only one who learned the recipe. I would guess maybe Chang'e would maybe keep Pigsy's recipe as secret

@filiothings ha chiesto: What’s Bai He doing with Macaque and the stars thing?

just practicing with small metal pieces to create simple shapes.

@plushroseart ha chiesto: Hey I love your Au and art I was wondering if i could write about your au with my own twist to it would that be okay as long as I give credit? Just asking :)

With credit and tagging yes

@autism-autobot ha chiesto: If Red Son didn't know MK was trans, he's gonna find out soon, isn't he?👀

I bet he told him already haha.

@roseltelle ha chiesto: I think I'm is so funny that Macaque and wukong are opposites socially from what you would expect you would expect the sun guy to be the extrovert and the moon guy to be the introvert. But no Wukong just wants to hang out with the people he already knows and no one else. While macaque is out here acting, running a dojo, ext.

hehe trueee

@bonbonfoxyton ha chiesto: Do you think that DBK knows what happened between Wukong and macaque's courtnaping to tell red son that Mk probably has the same weakness as Wukong to use against Mk to courtnap him? I feel like DBK would be that petty to win against Wukong for who courtnaps who between their sons

No, only Macaque know Wukong secret weakness

@deadhope34 ha chiesto: Can Mei, Tang, Pigsy and Sandy not just eat a immortality peach? Li Xing said he and the heaven would give help to MK with his now title prince of heaven. And keeping him happy with keeping his family together would be in heavens best interest one eould asume.

of course they can, but that doesn't mean they want to.

@steadylandface ha chiesto: What if Guanyin raised Mk?

My friend told me she would try to disguise him as a pet to the other celestial lol. He would be a little menage who would bite every ankle in heaven and Guanyin just smiles and goes "aww look at him!!"

@angelikis1 ha chiesto: HI! 👋 i just wanted to ask if you have any tip for beginner comic makers (don't know if i said that right 😅) @ellster7 ha chiesto: Hi, I'm a big fan of the shadowpeach Bio parent AU and was wondering if you had any tips or advice on how to start a project like it,as I'm struggling to start one.

have time

have a schedule

know the ending

just do a little bit more than the bare minimun to not burn out/ find ways to make the process faster

@magician-kitty ha chiesto: Hi! Once again, I love your art. And Ive been meaning to say this… I was a bit surprised when I saw that you included Chang’e during Mk’s trial. I always thought she couldn’t leave the moon.

Just for the sake of giving my wife more screen time let's make it they allowed her to be present

@shentheauthor ha chiesto: I think it’s interesting that macaque’s fancy hanfu is folded right over left. That’s only ever done on corpses. Is my guy being emo? Because that’s hilarious

because my dude died and came back to life

@aguadechia14 ha chiesto: Ok before all this I just have one question, what was mk’s reaction to the shadowpeach relationship? Jsjsjsjs

I think the way he discovered was, finally, THIS scenario

@autism-autobot ha chiesto: Who's the announcer in the last chapter?

Technically should be one of the celestials. In my mind he's Chi Fu from Mulan

@healingwordswriter ha chiesto: Hiiii so first congratulations on almost finishing your comic. I feel I can say for many people that this comic has meant a lot to many of us in the fandom and it has been really a journey that I’m happy we did alongside you 💜 Now onto my questions, now that Xiaotian is the Prince of Heaven, that means someday he will become the Emperor? And if he did become the emperor how he would rule over heaven? His loved ones like his parents (the 4 of them) and Red Son now have a title for being a direct link to the prince? Thanks for everything, for your story your creativity everything. I can’t wait to see what else you will bring us in the future ✨

I'm 98% sure that he could even be able to hold the Emperor's power, but he ain't the guy to become an emperor. Being a prince is already a little too much for him.

@alastair-1205 ha chiesto: Posting the final chapter on the Ides of March is perfect because seeing this series end will be as devastating as getting stabbed to death by my supposed political allies :"D /pos

Prepare the knifes everyone the coronation was a group-stabbing event to kill Li Jing

@awwwskib ha chiesto: I am so happy yet so sad this fic is coming to an end :( do you have any plans on what your gonna do next? Are you gonna make another fic, more LMK stuff, or something else? ALSO I LOVE THE GAY MONKEY SUPREMACY @rmzbai ha chiesto: Hey, kyri45, this might be a stupid question, but when u finish the ShadowPeach Bio Parents AU. Will you fully discontinue it, or now and then will u post like just random bits like what they would do now in normal life now and then? (Just asking bc I want to know😅) @sh00tingstarnightss ha chiesto: I have a question (you don't have to answer it if you don't want to, ofc.) When you finish ShadowPeach parents au, do you plan to make other comics? Or even upload other things, whether fanarts or something like that? Whether it's lmk or other fandoms you're in. Btww, I love your work so much!1!1! <3 ♡♡♡

I have like- 4 years worth of fanart to post here on Tumblr. I will most likely finish the ISAT comic. As for LMK we will see. I will also see wheter S6 is confirmed or not and when it comes out.

@roseltelle ha chiesto: Does redson prefer being called mks boyfriend or more gender neutral terms like partner

partner or boyfriend or girlfriend depending on the day

@presumably-human-stillchecking ha chiesto: Hi there kyri! First off wanna say absolutely adore your art as well as your stories, they are truely a work of art and I greatly admire your skill in story telling. But I also had a quick question did you happen to have a concept design of the over robe or coat mk is wearing to his corelation? Or maybe just a rough outline of the back? Oke if not I was just wondering. Can't wait for the finally!! Keep up the amazing work!

hellou. Nope it's just the same as the front, a gradient from orange to red to dark purple.

@roseltelle ha chiesto:

Does mk stick his tongue out, say gross, or whatever when Wukong and Macaque kiss. As an inside joke of course he loves them.

he covers his face and avoid to see the ungodly amount of tooth-rotting fluff his parents need to show off 24/7

@zoesilva-art ha chiesto: Hi i just wanted to tell you that i love your art so much ! i've been following your work for a while, and you're actually the one who made me curious about LMK so now thanks to you i've develloped an hyperfixation over it haha ! I know the shadowpeach bio parent AU is almost over so i just wanted to thank you, i love the story, the artstyle, the designs...everything ! :)

@proud-memer ha chiesto: Ahhh! I can't believe the shadowpeach bio parents au is ending. I've loved seeing all the updates and it's been such a blast to see the story develop. Thank you so much for granting us this! Side note: That end credits video reminded me of just how much I love your designs for Wukong and Macaque when they are trying to pass as humans.

@alizardonfire ha chiesto: I personally want to thank you for giving us this amazing story and that you inspired others to do the same....if i may share my story about finding LMK. Was through my friends. I watched it here and there and I'm glad that I found your little AU. Thank you for making my life a brighter light in the future. See you at the end of the road mate. I cant wait to see what you do next! @astro-nomaly ha chiesto: Kyri I desperately need you to understand what an absolute gift your bio parents au is. It’s just. So so so good everything I’ve ever wanted from anything lmk 🫶 @rin-rin-comics ha chiesto: Thank you so much for the amazing AU! It would always update during lunch at school for me and I was always excited when I realized it was an update day Your comic really helped get me through some rough patches this and last year, so thank you so much for everything @0casey96 ha chiesto: You just killed me with that masterpiece of an ending it was amazing and the last part with the dubbing I was already crying but then you slapped me across the fase with that my heart can't take this I love your comic so much and the art is absolutely amazing I shall never recover frome this heart brake 🥲😭❤ as well as how the comic starts with them under the tree talking and ended with its to much. @scrumptiouscrownmoon ha chiesto: I just finished your shadowpeach bio parents au. I’ve tried to read MANY comics before but I’ve never been able to stick with them. Idk if it’s because I lost interest in them, forgot abt them, or just life, but this was the first comic series I’ve ever actually finished. And I LOVED it!!!!! Thank you for making the first comic I actually read to the very end, it did not disappoint: I waited excitedly for each new part every week, checking your tumblr at least 5 times a week lol. Definitely one of the best fan inspired things I’ve ever seen, 10000000/10 @ninjahaku21art ha chiesto: I just want to come by and say thank you for making this incredible AU! I almost cried tears of joy for the ending, just so wholesome and awesome! 🥹✨ I cannot wait to see what you create moving forward! @o-rainknight-o ha chiesto: I just need to say thank you for making such an amazing story! I know that you had no idea it would blow up as much as it did, and the number of people who came here for it must have been kind of overwhelming, but you stuck with it to the end and it's been one of the best times in recent years for me. I love your art style and how you color. It's always so beautiful. This might be the end of the comic but I don't plan on going anywhere. I don't know what you have planned for the future, if anything, but I plan on being around for it, on my LMK account or otherwise. Thank you Kyri for making such an amazing story about all these dorks ~

ACASKCAJASC THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

[pathologicalreid]

called you again | s.r.

in which you make a late night phone call to your ex-boyfriend because you're convinced he's the only thing that can lull you to sleep

who? spencer reid x fem!reader category: angst (h/c) content warnings: exes but they're still in love so... a lot of yearning, briefly mentions a bau case, inspired by a mattress and a tiktok. word count: 1.84k a/n: shout out to whichever anon from yesterday told me to post this!! you're a real one

Rolling over on your bed again, you tugged the comforter over your shoulder, hoping the fabric would form a cocoon around you. Mimicking the feeling of someone behind you, warm arms wrapped around you. You begged for the comfort that you needed in order to fall asleep, but sleep never came. 

Your exhaustion had come and gone, any hint of sleepiness wiped away when you moved from your couch to your bed. Insomnia had come to find you, a face so familiar that you had begun to greet sleepless nights with open arms. 

On your nightstand, your phone buzzed. Likely a social media notification or a news email telling you the end was near, but you rolled over anyway on the off chance that it was a text. Every night, you remind yourself that you should turn on do not disturb, but you’d spent years waiting for your phone to buzz at all hours, hoping for the opportunity to tell Spencer how your day was. That’s why you had to check your phone, hoping to see the contact with the heart next to it, remaining unchanged since you broke up with him two months ago. 

Cringing at the blue light on your sensitive eyes, you squinted at the notification. It was an email, holding the weekly advertisement for the grocery store. You tried to resist the disappointment that roiled in your brain, but it took over anyways. Disappointment that it wasn’t Spencer and shame that you’d thought he’d reach out to you after everything that happened between you. 

You clicked on your messages, looking at the short exchange from the day he came by to drop off a box of your things. He’d brought you coffee. You’d broken his heart two days before, and he brought you coffee from your favorite kiosk near his apartment. That kind of love was the epitome of Spencer Reid, and that was why it had killed you to let him go. 

As if your thumb had developed a mind of its own, you tapped on his contact and initiated a phone call, quickly sitting up in bed and ending the call, tossing your phone in the depths of your down comforter and glaring at it in horror. 

It must’ve been less than a minute before your phone started to buzz again, you rifled through the bedding to look at your phone, and there it was. The purple heart that you’d placed next to his name the night of your first date. It seemed cruel to take away his heart when you knew very well there was no love lost between the two of you. Swiping at the screen, you lifted the phone to your ear and took a nervous breath, “Hey.” 

“Are you okay?” He asked immediately, not responding to your greeting and instantly trying to get to the root cause of why you had called. 

You tried not to read into it, staring at your lap and fiddling with a loose thread on your pajama shorts. “Spence,” you said meekly, your voice hovering over a whisper as his question echoed in your head.

He was silent for a moment. You imagined he was considering hanging up on you until he spoke again, “Hang on.” 

You heeded his instruction, shifting awkwardly on your mattress and listening to the shuffling on the other end. It was almost two in the morning, and he didn’t sound like you had woken him up, so he must be out on a case. Something akin to deja vu came over you then, imagining him in some city that he’d never be able to explore while you waited in your apartment for the slightest bit of contact. 

“Y/N?” Spencer said your name, and every bit of embarrassment you felt related to this call faded away. You could deal with the humiliation if it meant you got to hear him say your name just one more time. “What’s wrong?”

Because it couldn’t just be that you wanted to hear his voice, the only reason you could possibly be calling him in the middle of the night was because something was wrong. You were stranded when the metro stopped running or someone had stolen your wallet. No, the pounding of your broken heart was keeping you up at night. Even now, it slammed into your ribcage, ricocheting with the reminder that this was all your fault. “Where are you?” You asked, sniffling through the question and wiping you face with your sleeve. 

He sighed on the other end of the call and you told yourself it was in relief that nothing was wrong. “Bismarck,” he responded softly, matching your tone of voice in only the way he could. “We got here this morning for a family annihilator,” he explained in more detail. 

You felt yourself falling into a familiar pattern, settling your body back in bed with your phone pressed to the side of your face. Family annihilators were hard on the whole team, but Spencer was someone who held family dynamics with the highest regard. It always broke him to see that destroyed. “How was the flight?” 

“It was alright,” he answered, entering a similar pattern as you. “We had to fly over tornado alley. It’s storm season, you know?” 

Humming, you nodded despite the fact that he can’t see you. “And I’m sure no one appreciated your facts about turbulence,” you said, a teasing lilt finding its way to your tone. 

He chuckled through the phone and your heart soared, “They never do. No one ever gets them like you, lo—” 

Your body stiffened as he caught himself. It would’ve been so easy for you to move past the initial comment if his instinct was to follow it up with a pet name. Lovey. He liked to call you lovey as a term of endearment. Your previously floating heart came back down to earth, “So it’s a bad case, huh? I should probably let you get back to work.” 

“Between you and me, I’m supposed to be at the hotel right now, so this would count as my break,” he told you, managing to coax you into staying on the phone. 

It was hard to be broken up with someone who hadn’t strictly done anything wrong, and it was hard to deny him conversation when he was wrapped up in such a dark case. “What’s the weather like?” You asked, choosing to talk about things that don’t truly matter. 

He sighed, “Cold, but I’m sure you could’ve guessed that. JJ whines about it every time she steps outside. We’re inside most of the time anyway, so I’m not really bothered.”

Weather was never an issue for Spencer, you used to think he’d be miserable in the winter, seeing as he grew up in Las Vegas, but it would seem that his time in Boston had completely changed him. 

“It’s finally getting warm here,” you mentioned. Though, of course he knew that already. Spencer hadn’t taken up residence in Bismarck, but sometimes it felt like he was 1,500 miles away, even when he was just across the river from you. It reminded you of all the times you’d disagreed on the temperature you should leave the thermostat at, and it brought a pit back to your chest. You used to insist that 68 degrees in the winter wasn’t the same as 68 degrees in the summer, and he’d tell you that it was the same temperature, it just felt different because of changing variables. 

Laying in your bed, you wished he was there to explain how the tilt of the earth’s axis affects the temperature, but instead, you could only talk to him about the weather. The cherry blossoms would bloom soon, and you wished he was here to take you to see them. “What’s wrong?” He asked you again, his voice was so gentle that it nearly crushed you. 

Looking at the other side of your bed, the side he used to sleep on, you sighed helplessly, “I can’t sleep.” It felt infantile to say it out loud, the average person would’ve taken something by now, but you could barely get yourself to stand up, let alone go to the medicine cabinet. 

“Have you taken anything?” He asked, reading your mind just like old times. 

You hummed, keeping your eyes on the other side of your mattress, “No. It’s too late anyway, I wouldn’t wake up for work.” 

“Maybe you should take something and take the day off, you sound exhausted,” he told you, a familiar worry crawling into his voice. 

The reminder of why you had left overwhelmed you. Spencer could give you all of the advice in the world, but he’d never be there to help you. Yours wasn’t the first relationship to fall victim to the BAUs hours, but it hurt nonetheless. You loved him so ardently that you’d forgotten to love yourself, and when you couldn’t take the distance anymore, you’d called the whole thing off. It was hard to love someone who wasn’t there, but it turns out distance does make the heart grow fonder. “Maybe,” you mumbled, looking at the divot on his side of the bed. 

It hurt you to acknowledge that the inanimate object you slept on had its own memory of Spencer. The impression of his body across the cushion reminded you of the space left by people in Pompeii, their suffering had been immortalized for people to gawk at 2,000 years later, but in 2,000 years, your romance with Spencer wouldn’t even qualify as a blip in the universe’s timeline. There would be no lasting impression of two lovers holding hands because he wasn’t yours and you were no longer his. 

“Spence?” You breathed into the receiver, looking at the memory foam imprint with tears in your eyes. 

He waited for a beat to respond, “Yeah?” 

Your chest ached to tell him that you loved him—that you had made a mistake, but that wasn’t fair to him. That wasn’t fair to you. “Stay safe, okay?” You whispered, hoping that one day things might be different, and if that day ever came along, you’d want him to at least consider the possibility of coming back to you. 

“Okay, sleep well,” he murmured back to you before the phone clicked off. 

At a sloth’s pace, you crawled onto the other side of your bed and curled yourself into a ball. When trees had objects left around their roots, they simply grew around the invasion, but your mattress was an inanimate object with no way of moving or growing or adapting to a life without him while you had no choice but to do so. Closing your eyes, silent tears streamed to the pillow that smelled faintly of his shampoo—no matter how many times you washed the pillowcase. Finally, you let your body relax into the memory of him. 

You supposed you could always buy a new mattress, but that would mean fully letting him go.

[cookiecakecookie-cake]

Hi I really like your writing. I have a request. For cookies of your choice, let's say they had someone close to them (romantic or platonic) that pulled an Odysseus were the reader set out to the licorice sea, was presumed deceased, and came back years later all scarred up. Cookies and Epic have invades my brain. Thanks for reading.

No way.... odysseus..... like my blorbo outis limbus company that im soooso normalll abouttt... (i didnt make this video but god i wish i did) anyways, i hope you don't mind the fact that i took this and RAN with it. mwehehehe -cookie cake

No More Going Back

(Pre-corruption!Mystic Flour Cookie/Burning Spice Cookie/Shadow Milk Cookie x Reader)

Inspired in part by I'll Take You by @/brittle-doughie

cws: angst, lots of talk about death & war, shouting/arguments and brief descriptions of dead bodies.

War was on the edge of the horizon. Your gazed out at sea. Far off in the distance, there was a nation that intended to take all you sought dear. Then and there, you decided that there was no other choice. You were going to protect the ones you loved or die trying.

-----

"-And when I'm gone, I want you to take care of yourself, alright? I won't be around to get rid of overtly greedy cookies and I know everyone will be wanting a lot during these trying times. If you ever need help, know you can rely on-"

"My love, I am not a child."

You sigh, "I know but I worry." Wheat Flour Cookie was a cookie who often gave herself to others in surplus, leaving little left for herself. You didn't want anybody to use her because of that and she was more than aware of that fact.

"I'll ask the people of the temple for help if I need anything and I will keep in mind of my limits as to who I can and cannot help." She held your face in her hands as she spoke, making sure you caught every one of her words loud and clear.

"You promise?"

"I promise... That is, if you promise, in return, to come back safely." You smile, gently resting your forehead on hers. "I promise, my grace."

-----

CLANG!

Your spear clashed against the Red Spice Cookie's own parashu, sending sparks across the area. You hold that for a moment, before deflecting his attack, making the great force of his weapon crash uselessly against the ground. He tries to charge you again, but you manage to easily parry, sending his weapon hurtling across the room. You angle your spear at his throat.

"You loose." You state, very matter-of-factly.

"You really don't take any hostages, do you, dear?" He brushes the spear away with the back of his hand. You pull the spear away from him, walking to put it away.

"The only hostage I'd take is you, my ember."

You can't see him, but you can sense the fond eye roll from across the room.

You dock your weapon back in the rack you got it from. "... You were distracted. I can tell."

"You don't miss a single detail, either." He gets up, stretching his back. You can hear a couple bones pop. "... There's been a lot on my mind lately."

"You have a lot on your plate, I could only imagine." You walk back over to him, trying to assess if there were any injuries you should attend to. "Just... come back to me in one piece, alright? I'm going to be incredibly bored without my hearth." He grumbled, heating up at your careful observation.

"Of course. I can't keep you waiting for too long, can I?" You leave a sweet peck on his cheek.

-----

"... So, that's it then? You're just... going off without me?" Blueberry Milk Cookie stared, completely baffled. You tried to avoid his eyes as much as you could.

"You make it sound like I'm ending our relationship."

"Well, you might as well be!!"

The Fount of Knowledge was seen by all as a figure of intellectualism. Rationality. Yet, here he stood, clinging to your uniform with a look that you know you can't meet.

"This is important to me. To us. If I don't do something, we might loose everything."

"Have you considered loosing you may be even worse?!"

"... I have."

"Oh yeah! Sure! Uh-huh! Talk like you have eeeeverything under control, why don't you! Like everything's going to go well! Sure! Go off and play hero and DIE and leave me here with NOTHING!"

"Blueberry, I-"

"Oh no, nonono NO! You don't get to 'Blueberry' me, right now! Have you considered what this is going to be like for me?! I'll have to manage everything by myself and you KNOW those cookies are as blind as bats if they don't like the reality of what they're seeing! If you go off and DIE out there, what am I going to do, then, huh?! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!?" He held onto your shoulders with a desperation that you have never seen on his face before.

"I..."

"'I' WHAT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" You finally looked him in the eyes. They were angry, yes, but they were also full of fear. His worry streamed down his perfect face. "I don't... know. And it's impossible for me to know, just as it's impossible for one cookie to know everything. But what I do know is that the lives of the cookies around us are at stake if this isn't handled with care."

"... And there's nobody else that can take your place? No one?" He tried one last time to stop you, to keep you safe, with him.

"Do you know anyone as smart as me when it comes to the battlefield?"

"I'm not in the mood for jokes." It was time for him to try and dodge your gaze, looking away from you.

"I'm sorry, my love. I don't want this either. I'm left with no choice." You try to reach out to him, gently holding his face to look back at you. "But if I am to die out there, let me have one last request. Let's spend our remaining time together in happiness, so that you don't regret the fading hours."

He tried to stop himself from crying for a second, but it was a futile effort. He crumpled into your arms, chest heaving with his emotion.

"... Please come back soon."

"I will."

-----

You didn't die, no, but you might as well be. Lost at sea and prevented from seeing those you love for years on end, you'd almost gone mad. All you wanted was to see the ones you loved once again, but it seemed every force of nature planned against you and maybe they were.

When you finally return, broken and bettered, it was obvious that something was wrong. You knew that it'd been years since you'd last seen your home, but it didn't look like.... this.

You walked down the roads and alleyways of the once bustling city, without a single hint of any life. The houses and buildings were intact, but the only thing for miles was pure white flour.

A temple of gold and splendor was reduced to nothing but crumbs and rubble on the ground. The cookies weren't just dead, but ground to a fine powder that made the air taste overwhelmingly like spice.

Cookies hung from string that stretched far into the sky, presumably connected to some unseen controller. They talked of nonsense, if they even spoke at all. Some just looked at you with hollow eyes, were they dead or tired of all the lies? You couldn't tell anymore.

And when you found them, in the middle of it all? You wished you had died out there, so you didn't have to see the one who you once loved reduced to... this.

A monster.