#The only guys who have never caused me any discomfort (except a bit of a gender discomfort but it's okay he had no way of knowing)

[dragoninahumancostume]

I love it when I go to the doctor for constant joint pain and then they tell me that I need to exercise more and it should be solved. And then I feel like it's my fault my body hurts every day except that I literally can hardly exist because I'm depressed and getting out of bed most days is enough of a struggle and I have no motivation most of the time. And I have too much anxiety to even consider the gym (also I WILL fry if I go to the gym. I don't know the actual reason I just know it's going to happen.)

[parttimepuff]

No gremlin he knows her knows her, like knows her name and knows kind of who she is! He knows!

Having just come in through the front door, at a more manageable height, Gremlin hesitated before nodding. "I was… kinda getting that impression. Deeds, is it cool if I ask you how much you knew about Beep before you got here?" He requested, the king a thrown off at being the one questioned now. "Mm, might as well at this point." Dedede shrugged. "I didn’t say anything about me or you guys-" Beep insisted, her father patting her with a wing. "I know you didn't, sweetheart." Reverie reassured her.

"Those grey folk told me a few things. So did a friend of mine." The penguin explained. "Who?" Kirby asked. If they were a friend of his, they were almost certainly a friend of the hero's as well. "Yeah, who? I get the anons blabbing, but I don't like the idea of somebody else knowing." Gremlin prompted. The mention made it click for the Matter. "Blue." Beep stated to which Dedede nodded in affirmation. "Yeah. He vouched for you. Brought me a whole book's worth a Matter research to convince me, actually." He detailed.

"Blue..? Gooey?" Kirby thought aloud. "Nah, the old man. Metaknight." Dedede clarified. The four adults all reacted with varying degrees of disbelief, shock, or even fear. That the knight, of anyone, had both known about Beep and had gone to bat for her was a lot to take in. But, for her part, having only known him as Blue, the Matter began to realize for the first time since seeing him that the old veteran was trying to help her, not get rid of her. "He was talking to you that day…" She muttered. "We talked for hours, heh." The king chuckled.

Something else bugged her still. "Wait, who the hell is Gooey, why do people keep talking about Gooey??" Beep questioned, Dedede looking at her with some surprise. "Ah… yer telling me you lot never mentioned Gooey to her?" He addressed her family. "Who?" Reverie asked, looking at his brother. "I, didn't?" Gremlin hesitantly questioned no one in particular. "…ah. I guess I, assumed you'd told her, Grem?" Luna thought, getting a frown from him. "Hey, you knew, too-" He began to argue before the king raised a hand to cut him off.

"He's a Matter with two eyes. Blue, long tongue. The only Matter anyone knew 'bout til now who was friendly." Dedede explained. "He's one of my best friends!" Kirby chimed in. "Two, eyes?" Beep repeated, before catching the last bit of what he'd said, eye widening. "…friends…" She murmured. Seeing her uncle's discomfort, she added, "To be fair, they only started telling me things recently, so-". The king looked at the three with some judgement, but also understanding and they couldn't help but feel guilty for it. "But they’re telling me stuff now!!" Beep added in their defense. Carrying on, he faced Beep. "Yeah, forget why he has two." Dedede replied. "He said it was supposed to make him a good spy. But he ended up a good friend instead." Kirby piped up, not able to pass up complimenting his friend. "Ah'll have to introduce ya." The penguin thought. "I wanna meet Gooey…" The Matter expressed, looking back to him. "A spy for what?" She asked. Helpfully, the hero answered. "A spy for Z-" Then Gremlin held a hand over his mouth. "Don't, say that name, ok?" He pleaded.

The puff's eyes widened as the Dream Demon lowered his hand. It didn't always occur to him how terrifying a figure the fallen villain was. "O-oh, sorry…" Kirby mumbled, staring at the ground. "…for that, yeah. Til he broke away cause he liked it here." Dedede continued. "Ah think he'd like ta meet you, too. Nova knows he hasn't got any other Matters to talk to." "…oh." Beep voiced. "I thought Dark Matters aren’t allowed to stay, you’re here for Rev." She expressed.

Dedede shifted uncomfortably. He figured he'd have to touch on this, but it wasn't easy. "…ah… have a bad history with 'em, truthfully. Ain't exactly a secret. Gooey was the exception, Kirb made a good case for him." He started. "Of course!! You couldn't kick him out after he helped so much!!" Kirby exclaimed. "Was still, real damn scared of them. Still kinda am… Til ah found out about you, ah wouldn't've wanted any other Matters here." The king told her.

Silence fell as Beep blinked, not entirely sure she'd understood that right. "You, aren’t gonna tell me to leave even if Rev stays?" She asked. All this time, it was her father's acceptance she'd been hoping for. She'd not dared to consider her own. The king's eyes widened. "Did you think..? …Beep, if ah'm gonna be 100% honest, ah was hoping to find you today and… just, let you know that you have a place here." He gently replied.

After a moment, she began shaking. "…Beep? Are you ok..?" Reverie questioned, placing a wing at her side for comfort. "I can stay…?" Beep asked, voice barely above a whisper. The penguin didn't need to think about his answer. "Yes, ah sincerely hope you do, too." Dedede said. She stared straight ahead at nothing. "…kid?" He tried, to no response. He sounded so far away now. To say she was reeling was an understatement.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Title: By Nightfall

Author: Deborah Eisenstein

Rating: 3/5 stars

Clouds are good writing prompts

Clouds are good writing prompts! Who would have thought? (Well, I guess plenty of people.) In By Nightfall, clouds are used to good effect as a sort of minor deus ex machina. Which is fun, and also happens to work in thematic/structural terms because, well, clouds are one of those things about which you can't know everything -- they look very different depending on the angle from which you're viewing them, and when one is so close to the sky, it's (literally) difficult to know where one ends and the rest of the atmosphere begins. This is not especially consequential for the book except in its use of the "foreshadowing at night" device, but it's cute.

More importantly, the clouds function thematically as an archetypical breakdown of the kind of view that the narrator -- and the narrator's grandmother -- relies on (for different reasons), especially given that the disruptive forces are not actually of cloud origin. The disruption itself is the very cause of the friction between the two main characters, which is fine, but at this point, the clouds are no longer really relevant -- it could just as easily be any other disruptive force, or many of them -- and it's a little weird to find them reappearing at the end in a manner that feels almost gratuitous. I mean, there's nothing wrong with gratuitous, and here it's tied to the construction of this very strange, almost solipsistic view of the world that the narrator chooses to impose over everything else. So it's good in that it fits the thematic and character stuff, bad because it's yet another friction between things.

Oh, and let's talk about these characters, shall we?

I think there's something about the type of character the narrator is that I didn't quite buy -- how self-consciously "postmodern" he is, but how insecure and immature at the same time. The postmodernism is endlessly cute and jokey and clever, but often so cute and clever that it runs away from any real emotional weight or point, which is very much not the purpose of fiction -- at least, not as I understand it -- and so you get a sense of this guy who's sort of a show-off, but also a guy with little going for him except for the ever-shifting, ever-tenuous layers of "meta" upon "meta" upon "meta" that can be this grandiose, grandiloquent special snowflake all the time.

I guess it's hard for me to believe that, were I in this guy's position, I would use these same resources. Instead, I'd probably be focused entirely on the inescapable emotional dimension of the situation, that this was, for real, my grandmother, that I was suddenly in her fucking world, that I knew nothing about her or her world because I'd never given a shit before. It would be full of disgusting psychological moments like:

I keep telling myself to enjoy this. This is perfect! I've told myself so many times that this is perfect, this is what I wanted! It is perfect! But I still feel the deep, inexorable horror of my new self, even though I keep telling myself that it is perfect.

Which, I don't know, maybe does not mean a whole lot on its own, but sounds like something a person really in this situation might think, maybe? The guy's internal monologue is endlessly self-deprecating, and always a bit pompous and tinged with self-conscious irony, but also seems entirely focused on these highbrow, intellectual, "witty" ("meta") reframings of everything he sees and hears, and it's just not that interesting to me. The character is fun to read about, and his behavior is interesting, but his thinking is endlessly ironic and self-conscious, and so you never really get under the surface. It's a version of solipsism-as-egoism that I've never been able to buy -- this intense discomfort with one's self, but this unshakeable sense that all of one's horrible self is unique, special, and therefore necessary. Kind of unsatisfying.

The only real bright spot in this guy's pretty dull characterization is the way he grapples with his brother and his father -- the characters who do not interact with the weird world of his grandmother and her stories, and whose responses to that world seem (as far as they're shown to us) to be pretty reserved, matter-of-fact. Of course, their response is also simply "I hate that my father's a bastard," and I find that response less interesting than I should. (What does it mean? I don't know.) But there is a sense of real, grounded emotion attached to this, insofar as it's just that the guy is horribly upset that his father's a bastard, and doesn't care much about his "ability" to express it, or how well he does so.

This is a fascinating moment, because at the heart of it -- like all "cultural critique" I've ever seen -- is an almost complete lack of interest in engagement, in helping people, in acting on personal responsibility, in anything but the special snowflake's declaration of their specialness. The characters in this book can't stand one another, of course, because of the endless frictions of class and status and outlook between the cultured intellectual and the philistine (because "cultured" and "philistine" are more or less terms that mean almost nothing), and they can't stand one another because the characters feel the tug of the surface of life, the truism-haunted surface of class and status and outlook that characterizes these people -- and yet at the same time they want to know what this weird old woman's stories have to say.

She's rich and mean, but somehow still a "cultural elite," and the most significant thing about that is that she knows the truths of that status, and then tells those truths with a kind of red-hot integrity that fries the skin right off of everything these characters feel like "life is." She is, in other words, something of a truth-teller, and what's more -- and this is key -- she is not a cultural truth-teller; her "truths" are not the pillars of the culture she is part of. They're too weird, too strange, too much like "fairy tales" (which, as we all know, are not a part of the "great books" and "classics" beloved of the "cultured" characters here).

(Did you know: the Western literary canon is actually . . . ? The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. A complete coincidence that the boy who took the SATs and went to a good school would have read it.)

One of the (many) things this narrator is particularly uninterested in is doing the work of bridging the gap between himself and his relatives. It's like he thinks "I will notice these idiots won't like me because I'm all about how much smarter I am than them," and then that's it, he's done with the thing! There's no actual connection made, no working together to make the thing work, and no attempt to even create the thing. Maybe he doesn't have enough time to do this kind of work, but for some reason it feels like this is always the case -- that when it comes to his relatives, he simply refuses to make the effort.

"I try to focus on the knotwork, and how this family will never understand, and how it is my only salvation to sit here, at this moment, and compose a poem." Fine. That's a character choice, I guess.

"This family doesn't care about what I do. I just do my thing, then. I'm aloof. I'm disaffected. In any case, I don't have time for that kind of thing. I do my thing, then, with the utmost care and control." Fine. That's a character choice too.

But this is not a realistic character choice, is it? At no point in the book is there a realistic character choice. The guy's grandmother is someone who has a whole life outside of the impoverished and miserable suburban scene in which these guys live, and she's also a storyteller. If he's going to learn anything from her, well, one would imagine she's going to have something to say about how she tells her stories. But she does not. She doesn't have time. She will make the minimum effort. She will be a bit "abrasive," but she will not tell him anything he

[spookyrobbins]

i think the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is how upset people get when arizona expresses any discomfort over mark. she just wanted to be the most important person in callie’s life (except sofia ofc) but she never truly got that. callie was everything to her. she loved her so much and was willing to take being second best because of that. i strongly believe arizona never wanted callie to stop being friends with mark and i think that’s what some people assumed she wanted. (1/2)

(2/3) arizona just wanted boundaries and that’s understandable. callie and mark still shared intimacy in ways they shouldn’t have even after arizona was her girlfriend/wife. no one should have to share their bed with their girlfriend’s ex fwb. like can you imagine if callie just showed up at slexie’s apartment and mark allowed her to sleep in bed with them. i also don’t think it’s wrong to want mark to not be able to just walk into their bedroom or apartment whenever the hell he wants.

(3/3) they had no privacy because he acted like he lived there. so honestly had callie established clear boundaries with mark, arizona would’ve been happy. it would’ve been nice had callie told him to stop talking about their past sexual relationship too. you just don’t do that. but he did and part of me thinks it’s cause he didn’t respect arizona’s place in callie’s life.

honestly, i think you hit the nail on the head with that last line. mark didn't respect arizona's place in callie's life. and who knows, maybe he would've felt differently if callie was dating a guy, idk, but regardless there's a pretty clear lack of respect.

what's interesting also is that when lexie told callie she felt uncomfortable, callie at least made an effort to be more respectful of their relationship. meanwhile, you have mark who propositions callie when he and lexie break up and basically says callie should leave arizona or something (i'm paraphrasing). if callie did that to slexie, it'd be a extreme meltdown.

i think arizona only ever wanted mark to have like a boundary, and somehow it always got twisted into arizona despises mark and wants him out of callie's life. which, somedays, was probably true. callie treated it both as a joke and as an attack on callie herself anytime arizona tried to explain that. i've said it before and i'm sure i'll say it again, but i think arizona was markphobic, not biphobic (which is a larger discussion as well). arizona was deeply insecure about mark because callie allowed him to be a central aspect of their relationship. callie went to mark most of the time, not arizona. the most egregious moment of callie dismissing arizona ofc is the "good boobs" bit, which is gross on so many levels, and still arizona tried to make it work with mark.

i mean, c'mon, arizona stayed for sofia, what more did she need to do to prove that she was willing to put up with mark? and even then, still, mark dominated their lives. he's like a little kid still where he can't not be the center of everything, and that almost always resulted in pushing arizona out.

[countryclubstarkey]

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER - Sirius Black Smut

Pairings: Sirius Black x Virgin Reader

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, first time, fingering, making out and more

Word Count: 2k+

*Not my Gif

The marauders were quite famous at Hogwarts, known for their pranking and good looks; the group of boys had everyone looking at them at all times. Some people looked at them with hatred, such as Severus Snape and others worshipped the ground they walked on.

You had neutral feelings about them as long as they didn’t mess with you, you were fine with whatever chaos they were causing, plus their good looks and charm were always a nice thing to be around.

Today, the group of boys decided to turn all the Slytherin uniforms Gryffindor red, causing most of them to be in a foul mood. You found it particularly funny, especially when you saw Lucius Malfoy with his platinum hair in the uniform.

Late afternoon on Friday, you were all sitting in potions listening to Slughorn ramble about random topics that he found interesting when suddenly a student knocked on the door.

“Professor Slughorn, Professor McGonagall needs you for something important,” a random second-year student told him. “I’ll be back soon everyone, please read page 300 in the meantime.”

Nobody truly listened to him; instead, everyone turned to their friends.

Feeling a sudden warmth around your ear and you turned to see Sirius Black closing in and leaning towards you. You and Sirius had a strange relationship; he would flirt with you at any chance he could just to see you blush, and to be honest, you didn’t mind the attention.

“So you coming to my party tonight?” he whispered gently in your ear. Your body covered with chills because of how close he was.

“I don’t think so; I have a lot to study.”

A pouty expression made its way on his face, “cmon it’s my birthday; it would mean a lot to the birthday boy.”

Before you could reply, Professor Slughorn made his way back into the room and began his lesson again with just a few minutes left of class. As you were heading back to your dorm room after, a loud booming sound echoed throughout the hall calling your name, “Y/N, wait up.”

Sirius was rushing across the hall trying to reach you, “you never said yes, you know,” the fit boy told you and wrapped his arm around your shoulders to guide you to your dorm.

“Fine, I’ll come for a little bit, and that’s only because I want to talk to Remus about this new book that came out last month,” you mentioned.

Little chuckles escaped his lips as he found your slight obsession with books adorable, but he would never mention that to you at least not right now. “We both know you’re coming for me, darling, save me dance,” Sirius said while walking away, causing you to let out a deep sigh because of how he was making you feel.

Meanwhile, when you got back to your dorm, you decided to pick what to wear to the party and got ready since you only had a little bit of time before it became dark. Whenever any of the marauders threw a party, they tended to get a little wild and out of control so you had to prepare yourself for that.

When nighttime finally hit, you met up with Lily, Alice, Marlene and Mary to head to the party together. Glowing lights brightly lit the Gryffindor common room, the smell of alcohol and weed flowing through the air and the music was loudly played throughout the room. No doubt the music choice were all Sirius’s favourite muggle songs.

You saw the birthday boy and James singing along to whatever song they could their hands on while dancing on the tables already out of their minds. Remus and Peter were trying to get them down before they injured themselves but they were having trouble standing up themselves.

“Guess we have to catch up,” Marlene grinned and dragged all of you to the table that offered the fire whiskey. After several shots, you were finally relaxed and in a similar mindset as the boys. As time went on, you danced and took even more shots with everyone at the party, including Remus, who decided to let loose tonight. Everyone was having the time of their lives, nobody thought about what was going on outside of Hogwarts, but only the party in the Gryffindor common room.

Around 3 a.m, people started heading back to their rooms, and only you, Lily, Marlene, Mary, Alice, Frank and the marauders were left sitting on the couches.

“Let’s play spin the bottle,” Mary suddenly brought up and pulled everyone in a circle. Mary decided to spin the bottle first, and it landed on Marlene; the two girls didn’t hesitate and shared a sweet but intimate kiss.

“That was too easy for you guys,” Remus blurted out, suddenly feeling the effects of the alcohol. The girls shrugged while giggling as Marlene spun the bottle and it landed on James. James gave her a quick peck out of respect for Lily.

Next, James spun the bottle, and it landed on Sirius Black.

“No, Padfoot, cmon not again,” James groaned out, not interested in kissing his best mate. Curiously, Alice said, “what do you mean not again?”

Sirius winked, “That’s a story for another time; let’s go prongs, pucker up.” James and Sirius leaned in and gave each other a quick kiss before wiping it off as soon as they finished. The whole group erupted into laughter over the discomfort they saw in the two.

As the laugher started to die down, you began to grow nervous as you noticed it was Sirius’s turn to spin the bottle, and just because of your luck, the bottle landed on you.

Sirius moved towards you, “May I?” You nodded your head at him as you both gradually leaned in and connected your lips. Sirius could feel how nervous you were, so he allowed you to make the next move without pushing you any further.

You deepened the kiss when you felt at ease and could taste cigarettes, fire whiskey and a hint of honey lingering on his lips.

Sirius raised his hand to caress the soft skin of your jaw as he slipped his tongue slowly past your lips, trying to savour this moment as much as he could. Both of you didn’t realize the others were still there until you heard someone clear their throat. Sirius sighed against your lips before giving you one last peck and pulling away to look at your friends again.

The awkward moment passed as time went on, and one by one, everyone went to bed until it was only you and Sirius.

“You know this wasn’t a one-time thing; I really wanted to kiss you, love. I’ve actually liked you for a while now,” Sirius broke the silence and grabbed your hand.

You smiled at him, returning his actions, “I wanted to kiss you too Sirius.” A big grin made its way across his face as he grabbed your waist and pulled you into his lap.

This time you closed the distance between the two of you as your hands grasped his precious locks. The kiss got deeper and more intense with time. You pulled away to steady your breathing as Sirius attached his lips to your jaw, nipping at the skin. Sirius loved the way your skin felt on his lips as he left kisses all across your neck and jaw.

“We should stop before we do something you might regret,” Sirius tried pulling away, but you captured his face and brought him back into the kiss.

In a soothing tone, “I’m not going to regret doing anything with you because I have feelings for you too, I’m sure Sirius,” you told him. Suddenly, Sirius stood up with you wrapped around his body as he headed towards the door of the common room.

“Where are we going,” you whispered, trying to keep your voice as quiet as possible. “Somewhere that’s going to give us a little more privacy.”

A door appeared out of nowhere on one of the walls allowing Sirius to step in. It was a replica of the Gryffindor common room except a king-sized bed in the middle. He settled you on the bed as he began kissing down your body, not leaving an inch uncovered.

You helped him unbutton your shirt as he started to kiss your exposed breasts, leaving love bites that you’ll cherish in the morning. “Siri-us,” your moans filled the room as you pulled his hair from the pleasure.

“Fuck, I love your tits,” his words made you blush as you tried to hide your face in your arms, but he didn’t give you the chance to do so. He took off your shirt and bra as he began palming and teasing your nipples, causing chills to gather around your body. You tried to take his shirt off, but his actions stopped you midway. One hand continued to caress your tits, but his other hand started to rub you through your panties, trying to gather your arousal.

“Darling, are you trying to kill me,” he groaned out. Sirius took your panties off but kept your skirt on as he began rubbing your bare cunt.

“We can stop anytime, you know, are you sure you want me to continue,” he asked you one last time. You nodded your head furiously at him trying to get him to continue, “I need words Y/N.”

“Yes, please,” you told him as he entered one finger through your folds and teased your clit with his thumb. Feeling your body clench hard around him as you tried to adjust to the new feeling. Once your body relaxed; he sped up his movements and added another finger.

You felt a foreign feeling on your clit, as something wet started licking at it. Sirius’s head was between your legs as his tongue worked on your clit and his fingers in your pussy. The new action created a different feeling, a good difference. “Plea-se, don’t stop. I’m going to cu-,” you panted as you felt your stomach twist and clench.

“Let go for me,” Sirius groaned out as he felt you release on his tongue and fingers. He helped you calm down after your orgasm by rubbing your thighs whispering praises throughout the entire process. When your eyes opened, Sirius was leaning over and looking at you with lust and love in his eyes. You felt his bulge rubbing against your body as he began peppering kisses on your face.

You both helped him out of his clothes so that he was left bare. His cock stood proudly as the red tip was oozing already with pre-cum and the rest throbbing. He switched your positions so that he was laying underneath you now as you sat in his lap in nothing but your skirt from earlier tonight, quickly; he casted a contraception spell.

His hands rubbed down his cock to get it ready for your next move.

“Ready?” the raven-haired boy asked. His thumbs rubbing circles around your hips, reassuring you if you had any regret you can back out now.

You nodded and braced yourself before slowly lowering yourself on his cock. Your breathing increased as he stretched you out, the pain increased as you went down inch by inch, his face scrunched up in pain and pleasure as he wanted nothing more than to thrust fully into you.

“Love, it’ll feel a lot better if you relaxed,” he told you, trying to make this pleasurable for you both when he saw the tears welling in your eyes.

You controlled your breathing as you felt your muscles loosen and the pain became more bearable. He felt you relax around him as it became more pleasurable rather than painful. Sirius gently thrusted trying to see your reactions at a slow pace; with a nod and brief bounce, his thrusts got quicker.

Pleasurable moans left your lips as his cock hit spots that you weren’t familiar with; you began returning his thrusts and tried to control the movements yourself when you felt more comfortable. Nails started dragging down his chest when Sirius angled his hips differently, causing him to aim at your g-spot.

“Darling, you feel so nice and tight,” he groaned out, trying to last a little longer but your pussy preventing it. He dragged your body towards his own and began rapidly thrusting, causing the room to be filled with your loud moans. His lips connected to your neck, breasts and anything else that he could find. He saw your mouth fall open when his finger made contact with your clit as he rubbed a figure-eight motion helping you reach climax.

“I’-m close,” you groaned in his ear as your body began shaking and the tight feeling made its way back in your stomach. Sirius didn’t stop when he felt you cum all over his cock, he continued working you through your orgasm while trying to reach his at the same time.

“Sh-it” he exclaimed as he released his cum. You felt his cum mix with yours as it dripped out leaking onto your thighs and the bed.

Once both of you came down from your high, you slowly got off Sirius to lay down beside him cuddling into his warm body. The only sounds in the empty room were your heavy breathing and the light rain that was hitting the windows. The air began to feel cooler as you snuggled deeper into Sirius, burying your head in his chest.

“How was that for you,” his beautiful voice genuinely asked you.

In a calm tone, “Something worth remembering” you told him as your eyes started to flutter away.

[thestarrynightslover]

I'll Make It Okay for You - Part 1

Pairing: Harvey Specter x Reader

Word count: 3,666

Warnings: Discussion, yelling, some angst, mentions of drugs, and drug abuse. 

Summary: What happens when (y/n) (y/l/n), Harvey’s secret crush and a junior partner at his firm, openly defies him in front of everyone?

You can find Part 2 here.

Disclaimer: I don’t own the show Suits, or its characters, also not associated with it in any way or know anyone involved with it.

A/N: So, this is my first Harvey Specter fic and I’m obviously quite unsure about it, lol. This might’ve ended up like one big mess, cause I tried to combine a bunch of Harveys I wanted to see. The perfect recipe for disaster, right? Anyways, I hope it doesn’t suck too bad and, please, feel free to give me feedback, cause I’m also here to learn!!

(y/n) = (your name) (y/l/n) = (your last name) (y/n/n) = (your nickname)

| masterlist |

You’d barely stepped out of the elevator when you were met by your secretary that morning. That couldn’t mean anything good.

“Morning, (y/n/n). You’ve got an emergency meeting with Jessica today. Gonna give you the schedule on the way there.” Lucy stated, leading you on the opposite way to Jessica’s office.

“Oh, I got the memo; company’s under attack again. She wants me on the frontlines this time. Louis is probably running around saying ‘We’re at war, people, war!!!’, or something like that. But why aren’t we headed towards the boss’ office?”

“Apparently, uh, she wants y’all to convey at Harvey’s office.” She said hesitantly, as if afraid of your reaction.

“Are you kidding me? It’s the first hour of the morning and she wants me to go see that smug face of his?” You pouted childishly.

“Smug and hot, you mean.” Lucy corrected you, getting an outraged look from you in response, as she usually would by saying anything positive about Specter.

“Shush,” You said, motioning for her to stop talking, “ one shall not praise Harvey Annoying Specter around me.” You stated full of obstination, but the younger woman just laughed you off and said:

“Well, here we are. I guess I’ll just have to send you an e-mail with your schedule, since, once again, we spent our schedule minutes of the day talking about “the enemy”.” She mocked with gestures and everything this time. That Lucy really was a piece of work, she timed the whole thing perfectly, in a way that you couldn’t even repudiate her insinuations because you were already standing in front of Specter’s office door.

Not long after you had entered and Jessica had officially started the strategy-meeting, though, all eyes in the room turned to you, as your phone started ringing in your back pocket. "Shit! I'm- I'm so sorry, guys, I guess I-"

"Can you please take your job seriously for once in your life, (y/l/n)?" You heard Harvey Pain-In-The-Ass Specter rudely remark, as you tried to swallow your embarrassment.

“Well, like I was trying to say, I’m sorry. Gonna turn it off right now, won’t happen again.” You said, directing your apologetic look to Jessica.

“You should just go ahead and answer it, could be something important.” She calmly told you.

“Especially now that you’ve already interrupted our work.” Specter chipped in again, which just gave you more fuel to answer the goddamn phone.

“Hello, yeah this is her.” You confirmed to the man on the phone, while taking a few steps towards the corner of the room. “What??? Are you sure? Oh my God! O- okay, just tell me which one and I’ll be there as soon as possible! Right, thank you.” Everyone’s eyes were on you, trying to understand what made you look so distressed. Except his, of course.

“Wait a second. Are you leaving right now?” He asked with a mix of annoyance and irritation in his voice.

“Yes, I am. I’m sorry, Jessica, but this is a family emergency. I have to go.”

“Well, I just hope you know that this doesn’t look good for you, (y/n).” She said, voice inexpressive.

“I do and, honestly? I couldn’t care less about that right now.” You firmly told her, while hoping your career wasn’t over by the next morning.

“I hope everything goes well for you and your family, (y/n). If you need anything, and I mean anything, just let me know.” Louis told you with that childish smile of his. Jesus, even in a moment like this, he tried to flirt with you.

“Thank you, Louis. That’s very kind.” You faked a tiny smile.

“Unbelievable.” 

“What?” You asked, turning back to face Harvey.

“Your firm is under attack and you’re leaving because of some stupid family crap?” Was he even serious?

“Precisely. And I don’t really care what your thoughts are on it. Our priorities are clearly very different.” Who the hell did he think he was to say anything about your family’s issues?

“Well, that shouldn’t matter because, the minute you walk in here, through those elevators out there, you’re supposed to leave all things personal behind.”

“Oh, right. I’m so sorry that I’m not some heartless lawyer like you, who’s just in it for the petty fights in the name of money-making.” Shit. You needed to get the hell out of there before you said something else to make Specter wanna kick you out himself. So you did. Stormed out like there was no tomorrow, leaving nothing but the very shocked Donna, Jessica, Louis, Mike, and Rachel behind. Oh, yeah, and a very pissed-off Harvey Specter.

Okay, maybe you were a little too harsh, but given the place you needed to go, to do what you needed to do, you didn't care about Harvey, your job, or anything else.

---

It was much later on that same day, around dinner time, that you heard a soft knock on your door. But how could someone be at your door, if the doorman downstairs hadn't announced any visitors? Were you dreaming? Well, the day had been so tiring that that wasn't exactly impossible… Nonetheless, you made your way to the door, whilst holding your very needy three-year-old nephew in your arms. Not that you could blame Henry after the day he’d had.

Since you weren’t expecting anyone, it was reasonable to believe that, whoever it was, was going to be a surprise. But not in a million years would have you ever guessed that Harvey Specter was the one knocking at your door. Especially considering what had happened at the firm earlier. How did he even know your address?

“Hi, (y/l/n). I didn’t know you had a kid.” He stated with a bit of surprise of his own, pointing to the little boy you were carrying.

“No, uh, I don’t have any.” You managed to say, trying to control your shocked expression. “This is my nephew.” You clarified again, a little more at ease this time.

“My name’s Henry. What’s yours?” You heard your nephew ask with his cute child-voice.

“Harvey. It’s, uh, it’s very nice to meet you, Henry.” Harvey told the boy, holding out his hand for him to shake, as a sweet smile came to his lips.

“Is he your friend, auntie (y/n/n)?” Henry asked you hesitantly, before making a move. The Don’t Talk to Strangers Rule must’ve kicked in his mind. 

Before answering him, you hesitated a little bit yourself, though. Was Harvey your friend? Obviously not, but if he came to your apartment in the middle of the night like this, it was probably because of something important. Work-related, of course. Which meant you’d have to let him in, so you settled for what would be the easiest classification for a three-year-old.

“Yeah, bud, he is my friend from work.” Hearing that, something in Specter’s eyes changed, you didn’t really know what, though.

“Well, then, can he come play with us?” He gave you such a cute look, that you almost said yes right on cue. But you obviously couldn’t. 

“You’d have to ask him, but I’m sure he has a lot of other, more important, things to do now.” You tried to explain to the little boy, giving Harvey a look. But you didn’t get too far, as the lawyer quickly said:

“Of course I wanna go play with you! That is if your auntie’s okay with that…” Now he was mocking you, that was the only explanation.

“Can we play with him, then, auntie (y/n/n)? Please, please, please?” God, what horrible thing could’ve you possibly done to deserve this particular punishment?

“Um, I guess... If he really has nothing better to do-” Harvey didn’t even let you finish your sentence.

“I really don’t.” He said, shooting you and Henry a bright smile that you’d never seen before.

“Okay, then, come in. Please disregard the mess, I got this stuff to make dinner, but someone just won’t detach, right, mister?” You asked your nephew with fake annoyance in your voice, as you tickled his sides a little bit. He just laughed at you. Though what really caught your attention was the fact that Harvey, too, was chuckling lightly at the scene, as he started picking up your groceries’ bags from the floor. “What are you doing?”

“Helping you, what else?” You gave him a weird look because, well, it was a weird situation. Maybe he noticed your discomfort because he added: “You look tired, so I’ll help you by making dinner and putting the rest of these away.”

“You’re kidding, right?” There was no way in hell that the All-Mighty Harvey Specter was gonna get domestic for you, of all people. Since he didn’t bother to answer, you went on: “First of all, what was it that you really came here to do, hum? And, second, I don’t need your help with anything.” Normally you tried to be kind to everyone, but, then again, Specter wasn’t exactly your normal kind of guy.

“Well, first of all,” he started in a tone of mockery, “that was rude! Look at the example you’re setting for little Henry!” Oh God, as much as you hated to admit it, he was kinda right, because you had completely forgotten about the little boy still cradled in your arms. “Second, we can talk about the reason why I came here later,” after your nephew’s asleep, was implicit in his speech, “third, it looks like you do need some help. And, for your luck, I happen to be a very good cook when I want to.”

“But-” You could barely begin your sentence, as Harvey sharply cut you off:

“You see, buddy,” he started, motioning to Henry this time, “the quicker we get your auntie on board with the game plan, the quicker we’ll get to eat and go play together!” Son of a bitch! Using a child to get to you…

“Can we please, auntie? Please?” How could you not crack after that pleading?

“Fine, but I swear I’ll make you pay if we wake up with food poisoning tomorrow, Specter.” You told him playfully, trying to lighten the mood after all of your bluntness.

“Oh, trust me, (y/l/n), you won’t. This will be the best meal you and the young man here will ever have in your entire lives.” He said cockily, but without the usual arrogance level, if that even makes sense.

A few hours and a really great dinner later, you and Henry couldn’t help but snicker shamelessly at Harvey’s ridiculous faces, as the three of you played a game on your living room’s floor. Trying to catch your breath from your giggles, you glanced up at the clock and realized that it was way too late for your nephew to be out of bed like that. So you broke up the game, announcing:

“It’s bedtime for you, Mr. Henry.” You watched the faces of the pair turn into ones of pure disappointment, as they prepared to pout.

“Just a little longer, auntie (y/n/n)! please!” The little boy started.

“Yeah, auntie, just a little longer! Please?” This time it was the grown man, one of the toughest Wall Street lawyers.

“As moved as I am by your synchrony, guys, the answer is a big no. C’mon, bud, let’s go brush your teeth. And then straight to bed. So say bye to Harvey, and thank him for being so nice to us tonight.” He looked between you and Specter as if still hoping for a hail Mary of some sort.

“Bye, Harvey.” He sounded so sad, but then he smiled brightly again, as he repeated what you’d told him to say word by word: “And thank you for being so nice to us tonight.” Hearing that, both you and Harvey chuckled lightly at the young boy, who quickly added: “Will you come see us tomorrow too?”

“Uh, we’ll, uh, we’ll see about that, okay, little man?” He tried to let Henry down slowly but, watching the boy’s expression become a sad one instantly, he added: “It’s just because both your auntie and I have a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow, but I’ll do my best, okay?” That was definitely a side of Harvey you’d never seen before, he had even bent down to be on your nephew’s level.

“Okay.” Henry said quietly, seeming to be a little happier, too.

“Okay, then let’s just go upstairs already.” You took the boy’s hand to guide him towards the spare bedroom’s bathroom, all the while shooting Specter a look that told him to wait for you a little longer.

“I’ll wait for you down here.” He said, proving he understood what your eyes tried to transmit.

So you headed upstairs with your nephew and, after a good fifteen minutes of brushing Henry’s teeth, helping him into his PJs, and tucking him in, you finally managed to come back to the living room, where you found Harvey looking through some of your photos displayed on the sideboard. For a minute or two, you just watched him. It wasn’t that you liked what you saw or anything. It wasn’t. It was more like postponing the weird conversation you two were bound to have, because, after all that had happened in those few hours, the atmosphere was, at very least, a strange one. But, almost as if he’d felt your gaze on his back, the lawyer in him was switched on, and he interrupted your thoughts by saying:

“Ah, you’re back. Good, because we need to talk.” You just motioned for him to follow you into your home office. But both you and Harvey looked so informal to be in that kind of environment, that you just indicated the small couch on the wall opposite to your desk for you to take your seats in.

“So, uh, before you even say anything, I wanna thank you for being so kind tonight,” a small smile came to your lips, as you remembered, not only the evening but how your nephew had used almost those exact same words, already imitating you, a little earlier. Specter smiled too, you noticed. “and I also wanna apologize. If you came here to talk to me… I must’ve made you waste a lot of time, huh?” You tried with a half-smile this time, as embarrassment started taking over you.

“What? No, of course not! I'm pretty sure that I told you I didn't have anything better to do, didn't I?" He calmly asked with a smile.

"Yeah, but I'm not buying it. You're Harvey Specter, isn't that what you're always saying? And Harvey Specter always has something better to do, isn't that right?" You shot back in a mockery tone, regaining your confidence.

"Well, maybe. But, not today. So don't apologize, and don't thank me. I'm the one who should be thanking you, I had a really good time tonight." Okay, now you were shocked. He had a good time?

"Uh, okay, um, so... What was so urgent that you had to come here in the middle of the night?" You nervously ranted, while tugging your hair behind your ears. He just stared at you, so much so that you almost repeated your question.

"Um, yeah, about this morning… That's why I came here…" You were already guessing that that would come up eventually, but it was the topic of your conversation? "I know that you and I always had our differences, and maybe even some rivalry-"

"Some rivalry? Dude, I'm just a junior partner, and ever since I started on that firm you've been persecuting me-"

"I wouldn't say persecuting…"

"Oh, you wouldn't?"

"Not since you made junior partner anyways. Now it's just a healthy rivalry between work friends…" He tried to use what you’d told your nephew earlier. 

"Oh, so you do admit you were persecuting me when I was an associate, huh?"

"Shit." He muttered quietly, as you watched him with a victory smile on your lips. "You know what? Hell yeah, I did persecute you when you were an associate." Hearing that blunt admission of guilt, you just couldn't find anything to say. “You wanna know why? I did that because, from the first time I saw you doing your job, I saw this very thing that I see now: you kicking ass, you think I wanted to admit this to you? I’ll answer it myself: no, I didn’t. The only reason why it happened is that you led me to it.” He blurted out, completely knocking you off your socks.

“So, um, you treated, you treat me like shit because, um, because I’m good?” You asked, still unsure of what to think about his confession.

“Well, that was part of it, sure. So, you see, I could understand it when you weren’t particularly thrilled at the perspective of working with me. But, this morning, you said that I’m a heartless guy who only cares about money… Is that really what you think of me?” This time he sounded genuinely sad? When Harvey said that he’d come to your apartment to talk about that morning, you thought he was gonna reprimand the shit out of you for disrespecting him ⎯ your sort of boss, a senior partner ⎯, but, apparently, he was asking about it on a more personal level. A level you’d never really thought played a part in your relationship with him.

“Oh, Harvey…”

“Be honest, please. I don’t want your pity. You don’t even know me all that well, so don’t try to minimize anything. I can take it.”

“That’s not what I was gonna do. And, trust me, you’re probably the last person in the world I’d pity.” You told him with a sly smile. “You’re right. I don’t know you all that well. Or, at least, I didn’t this morning. But I do know that you’re not heartless. Also, I was really out of line then, I’ve seen you fighting tooth and nail for a lot more than just money in that firm. You’re loyal to your firm and friends like no one else and, tonight, I watched you sitting on the floor and playing with a little boy. And, trust me, that meant more to him than you’d ever know, especially after today… Anyways, what I’m really trying to say is that I was so damn wrong and that I’m sorry. I’d gotten some pretty nerve-racking news beforehand, not that that’s an excuse but...” You told him, meaning every word and trying hard to show how much you regretted your previous actions.

“Wait, what news?”

“Ah, it’s nothing for you to worry about, really.” You tried to brush him off.

“Oh, c’mon! You said all those nice things about me, but when it comes to your life and your problems you still don’t trust me, isn’t that right?” His tone was sharply inexpressive, but his eyes showed he was actually hurt.

“What are you talking about? Oh my God, Harvey! I’ve relied on you for a number of cases that I really cared about! I let you in on my apartment! I let you spend an entire night around my nephew! Of course, I trust you!”

“Then what the hell is the problem? You think I’m not gonna give a damn about your family issues? Is that it? Because I am literally begging you to tell me about them!”

“I don’t wanna tell you because I don’t want you, or anyone else on the firm, to think that I’m some pathetic little girl who uses her family issues as an excuse to get out of a tough fight.” You confessed in a lower tone, slightly embarrassed, just hoping he would understand and stop poking. “Things are very different when you’re a woman, you know…”

“I would never think that about you. Family is important. Especially if it’s made of people like Henry…” He said, reassuring you, even though there was a hint of sadness in his voice. “Besides, you said you trust me, so you need to trust me when I say that I wouldn’t betray you by telling people about your problems. I’m not here as your boss, (y/n). I just wanna help you.” He sounded so sincere and, if you were being honest with yourself, you kinda really needed to vent.

“Okay, um, where to start? I have two sisters: Henry’s mother, Kat, and a fifteen-year-old, Lisa. I’m the older one of all three of us. Lisa’s sick, like very sick, so my parents, who are both retired, are with her at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, to try and get her better. In the meantime, Kat was supposed to go to college, as well as care for her son, between my parents and me, she wouldn’t even need to provide for them or anything. But, a while ago, she overdosed for the first time. That’s when we found out about her addiction. We’ve already tried a million different things but nothing works. So, my parents and I threatened to make her lose her parental rights over Henry, hoping that it’d be a wake-up call for her, but it backfired. She just took the boy and disappeared, then today I get that call, from the police department, saying that she was in custody for drug distribution and endangering the well-fare of a minor. They asked me to go pick my nephew and, maybe, get Kat a lawyer.” And, just like that, you’d told Harvey Specter, of all people, everything. Tears rolling down your cheeks and him pulling you into a hug.

If anyone had told you that that was how your night was gonna go, you would have definitely laughed them out of the room. But now, just sitting there, being held and caressed by Harvey, as you let your armor down, it was finally beginning to look like things were gonna be okay. 

[bookishofalder]

Catfish & Sunshine

Frankie Morales x Fem!Reader Mini Series

Summary: Frankie is secretly in love with his best friend. Thanks in part to Benny’s shitty horror movie recommendation and stray ice cream, feelings come out unexpectedly during movie night. 

Warnings: Language, SMUT, little angst, lots of fluff, poor writer understanding of US military benefits/retirement. WC 8,215.

A/N: I dreamed this up after rewatching Triple Frontier about a month ago (for the plot, of course) and let it sit for a while. Became inspired to finish it off this week and share it with you all-so please let me know your thoughts!

For over a decade, Saturday nights were, for Frankie Morales, usually spent with his best friends over drinks at their favourite bar. When deployed, the bar was instead smuggled whiskey that they shared under the stars, an attempt to imagine they were anywhere other than the current hellhole. As Special Ops soldiers, Frankie and his buddies had been through the worst of the worst together, until one by one they retired or were forced to retire, and then they were back to regular appearances at the local bar, for a while the five of them, then four.

Until Frankie met you.

Had someone come up to him during one of those nights years before and told Frankie that one day he’d be bringing you along to the bar to join him and the guys, he’d have laughed in their faces. But for a while, that was exactly what occurred, until you and Frankie grew so close that you usually ended up making different plans, like going mini-golfing, or lounging at his apartment and watching movies. Not that you didn’t love the guys, all whom you’d met except for Santi as he had been off the grid for just over a year when you and Frankie had met.

It was thanks to the elder Miller brother, Will, that he had even met you at all. Working at the VA office, Will had learned of one of the few retirement perks they had for putting their asses on the line for their country-physical therapy. And you came highly recommended, a star PT who had worked magic over his friends' ailments. Knowing Frankie suffered from shoulder and neck pains, Will handed him your card and encouraged him to book an appointment.

He hadn’t called straight away. He’d popped your card onto his fridge and every day he’d pass by it, consider calling, and then talk himself out of it. Until the pain became too much to bear, his latest menial job just a little too physical for him, causing him to consider using again just to dull the ache. But he’d walked by your card moments later and instead of making a terrible decision he had promised himself he’d never make again, he called your office. Made an appointment with your friendly receptionist, who thankfully had his name already because Will had put in a good word for Frankie and asked that they try and get him in straight away, whenever he finally did call.

Two days later Frankie was standing nervously in the treatment room, looking at a wall decorated with your various degrees and certificates. He was anxious not only because he worried he’d get his hopes up that this would help the pain only to be disappointed, but also because he had no idea what to expect. Years of service as a pilot had made Frankie into a man who planned, meticulously, leaving little in the way of surprises. But he’d reasoned that calling the office back and demanding they give him a minute-by-minute account of what the appointment would be like was probably going too far.

And then you had walked in and immediately his worries morphed into concern over the fact that he required a beard trim, that he looked like he’d just rolled out of bed and popped his usual cap on, probably appearing a little gruff. And fuck, he almost couldn’t breathe when you gave him the most dazzling, genuine smile like you were greeting an old friend. You were bright, a rare energy radiating off of you as though you absorbed it straight from the fucking sun, and you were beautiful. No wonder Will had winked at Frankie when he’d handed you the business card.

You were observant, introducing yourself and seemingly sensing his overall discomfort. Instead of launching straight to business, you gestured for him to sit and spent a good twenty minutes casually chatting, pulling information you needed from him while putting him at ease entirely. He learned then that Will had already sung Frankie’s praises, given you the heads up that he was a worrier and even told a few stories that showcased his talents as a pilot.

If Frankie didn’t know any better, he’d think his friend was trying to play matchmaker.

All thoughts of Will Miller, and pretty much every other thing on the planet, vanished the moment you laid your expert hands on to Frankie. You zeroed in on the worst source of pain and slowly worked away, and he could only agree with Will that you had magic hands. He could have died happily right then, as you chatted away and brought him the most relief he’d felt in years. You would pause occasionally to check in with his pain levels and make sure he was doing alright, always asking him to look at you to answer and searching his face as he spoke to ensure he was telling the truth.

The care you gave Frankie in just one appointment was enough to start him falling. And he kept going back, multiple appointments a week that not only had him walking taller, feeling lighter on his feet and reducing his migraines to seldom, but also allowing him to get to know you better. You were the kind of sweet-natured person that cried when you saw a sad commercial, laughed freely to the lamest of jokes, and seemed to wake up on the right side of the bed every day. You were sunshine, literal, tangible sunshine, and Frankie thought you might not even realize it.

Though Frankie had convinced himself early on that a woman as beautiful and kind as you could never be interested in a grouch like him, with his crows' feet and a closet full of demons. The longer he knew you little seeds of hope would sprout whenever he made you laugh so hard you had to stop the treatment just to hold your stomach as you giggled. Or when you’d share something with him innocent enough but, upon reflection, he would think it wasn’t something a normal patient-provider relationship would find exchanged.

But there was the age difference, a decade between you both that, if nothing else worked, would successfully extinguish his hope. He had wondered if perhaps you were just a decent people person, that the friendship he felt was there was entirely one-sided.

Until one day, a few months into coming to you for treatment, Frankie sat waiting for you to come in the room only for you to appear looking entirely unlike yourself. He booked his appointments always for the end of the day, a routine that promised he would get plenty of uninterrupted time with you and the conversation could flow without a time constraint. He had been so surprised that you weren’t grinning as you stepped into the room that he stood abruptly, filling with concern.

When he asked, softly, if you were alright, you didn’t brush him off like he might have expected. You instead looked up at Frankie, your lower lip trembling as your eyes filled with tears, and sobbed unexpectedly. That sound had torn a hole right into his chest and he had pulled you straight into his arms and hugged you close before asking you to tell him what he could do to help.

You ended up explaining that you had come in that morning to the news that a regular patient of yours, an elderly man you’d known the entire time you’d been working for the VA office, had passed away in his sleep. And you’d apologized to Frankie while sniffling and wiping at the tears, telling him you’d held it in all day but couldn’t do that when your friend asked you, and he had been baffled to realize you were referring to him. As your friend.

He had cut off your apology to hug you close again, smoothing your hair gently as he whispered calming words and sentiments to you in Spanish. And though you didn’t speak the language, you had since told Frankie it had done exactly what he’d hoped and made you feel all the better. 

After his treatment that day, Frankie asked if he could take you for a drink to toast your friend's life. He waited for you to close up the office, and then you’d followed him in your car to drive over to his usual bar. And you both drank to the veteran who passed, then ended up ordering dinner and remaining at the bar until late, talking even more freely outside of the office. If Frankie didn’t already have it bad for you, that night sure sealed it for him.

After that, you and Frankie began texting regularly, sometimes even calling one another to share a funny story or talk about something in the news. He had joined you for your former clients funeral, his hand rubbing comforting circles into your back before he took you out for lunch, then you’d ended up at his place to watch a cheesy movie, ordering pizza when you both realized there was a sequel that, if it was as bad as the first, you absolutely needed to watch.

And just like that, Frankie saw his life altered completely when you became his best friend.  

Currently, Frankie was seated comfortably on his couch, where he frowned at the TV playing a horror movie that you had insisted was supposed to be good, because Benny had recommended it. Considering the younger Miller brother could barely sit still half the time, that was supposedly good enough for you. 

You were tucked into Frankie’s side, eyes fixed on the screen until a jump scare had you jerk, then twist your face to press into his chest, because you hated the gory bits.

“Fuck! How does this not scare you even a little, Frankie?” You whined, unknowingly causing Frankie to swell with pride when he heard the note of admiration in your voice. He had started to suspect that the reason movie nights were becoming exclusively scary movies was that you were determined to find one that actually frightened him.

So far, you’d had no luck. But Frankie didn’t mind, because though you were already a touchy person in general, you were especially clingy when you queued up the next horror flick as if you trusted him to keep you safe.

Frankie didn’t reply, his chest rumbling with silent laughter that made you teasingly poke his side. He jumped, because you knew exactly where to aim, then cleared his throat. The scene ended, and he began to extract himself from your grip. “My sweet tooth is calling, cariño. I’m going to get some ice cream.”

You let him go, your head popping up, a big grin on your face, “Can I have some too, please?” And he nodded, smiling at you before walking across the open concept apartment and into his kitchen.

He stretched his back before opening the freezer where he had some bars next to an off-limits pint of Ben and Jerry’s. You had put it there months ago, telling Frankie it was for days when you got together and one of you needed to cry over a bad date. You called it ‘emergency’ ice cream. Frankie considered it to be ‘fuck you’ ice cream, because every time he opened his damn freezer he saw that pint and ended up thinking about how neither of you had been on a date with anyone since becoming friends over a year before, then falling into the same circular argument with himself-that the friendship was too important for him to feel the way he did, that he was jumping to conclusions and maybe you had gone on a few good dates that you just didn’t tell him about, and he was out of his mind if he thought you would ever feel the same way.

“Here you go, Sunshine,” He plopped back down next to you and passed you your bar, watching as you beamed at him widely, the inevitable result of his use of the nickname he’d dubbed you with a long time ago.

He desperately hoped you never realized the amount of affection truly behind that nickname.

Because how could he even begin to explain that you were literally sunshine in his dark life?

“Thank you,” You pulled the wrapper off, glancing at the movie and frowning. “Uhg. Benny promised the one was good! I’m starting to think he only recommends movies if they have at least one pair of tits.” You took the first bite of your ice cream bar while Frankie nearly choked on his own.

Amused as he was whenever you joked about your shared friends, Frankie also loved it when you swore. You were a goofy, happy little thing most of the time and curse words just seemed so out of character for you, pulling laughter from Frankie any time you caught him by surprise. You spent your days around gruff veterans and never seemed to lose any light, no matter how many real horror stories you heard. So whenever you managed to sound so uncharacteristically blunt, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Benny has always been a tits man,” Frankie agreed, and you giggled. He tried to refocus on the movie then, but it hadn’t captured his interest in the least. After a moment, you spoke again and he had to work on not choking.

“What are you, Francisco?”

Your tone was playful, light; Frankie’s head jerked in surprise to gaze down at you and you wiggled your brows, going for laughs. You seemed completely unaware of the roaring in his ears, the visceral reaction your words brought forth within him. You and Frankie had shared intimate tidbits like that before with one another, often during nights at the bar with the Miller brothers. After a few drinks and usually, because his friends knew exactly how he felt about you and tried to steer the conversations into dangerous waters and watch Frankie try to save himself.

Only, Frankie’s friendship with you during the last few months had become...deeper. After the operation Santiago had brought Will, Benny, Tom and him in on, your relationship had evolved. Because that nightmare had reminded Frankie just how dark shit could get in the blink of an eye, and he’d had to do things he thought he was done with when he retired from service. Worse, because they were just civilians using Santi’s connections and intel to rob a drug lord.

And you had no idea what he’d gone through, how hard he’d fought just to get home to you because he couldn’t-wouldn’t-tell you. Yet you still patched him up, physically and emotionally, when he’d come home three weeks later than he’d promised. You held him as he cried and never became angry with him, never questioned him for answers as to why he’d come home with one less friend and a whole lot of mysterious trauma.

After that, Frankie realized he was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with you.

So a simple, flirtatious little question? Yeah, it really managed to fuck Frankie up.

His friends had sensed the change as well, noticed how you held Frankie up when he felt like he couldn’t stand, how you comforted them all when they got home and cried along with them over Tom, over Santi not coming home even though you’d only met him once, briefly. You held strong for him at Tom’s funeral, which prompted the Miller brothers to tell Frankie in no uncertain terms that he simply could not let you slip through his fingers. If that fucking mission had taught them anything, it was that life was too short and you might as well live it to the fullest.

But the thing was, Frankie depended on you. Your friendship was the one real, good, pure thing in his life. And you gave it so willingly and unquestionably even after what he put you through that there was no fucking way he was risking it by telling you how he felt.

Christ, you even had a spot in his bathroom for your own toiletries, a favourite pillow on his bed for the nights you stayed, a fucking hook for your coat that he installed just a little lower than the other because you were so much smaller than Frankie.

And still, he wouldn’t look at what that might mean because he was afraid, and as much as you seemed to think nothing scared him, the truth was that a gory horror movie, or losing his friend, or even fucking live combat could never come close to the fear he felt when he pictured life without you.

You were Frankie’s Sunshine, and he never wanted to be alone in the dark again.

Aware he was still gazing down at you, Frankie found himself entirely at a loss for words. You didn’t seem to mind, simply waiting for him to respond while taking small bites of your treat. His cock twitched at the combination of your words, the innocent way you gazed at him, because Frankie hadn’t touched himself in quite some time and it didn’t take much to drive him up the wall.

His life with you had become remarkably domestic, routine. You often stayed multiple nights in a row at his place, preferring his company over being alone, and the shorter distance to your office. His spacious condo had one large four-piece bathroom, which meant there had been a few times where one of you was in the shower and the other came in, desperate to use the toilet before their bladder could burst. The shower had a thickly frosted glass enclosure, which provided plenty of visual privacy from both sides, the only indication that someone was in the shower was a very faint tint. This was never an issue until it was.

Exactly sixty-two days prior (not that Frankie was necessarily keeping count of passing time since his last orgasm), you had burst into the bathroom one afternoon unexpectedly. Returning early from your jog because you needed to pee, while Frankie stood in the shower. He listened to you tell him about a cute dog you’d seen outside his building. The thing was, Frankie had expected you to be gone longer, and you were in the middle of a three-day visit that had left him needy and horny because he hadn’t had time alone and yet you walked around in his fucking clothes, slept next to him in his bed, and he needed release.

He was grateful the tinted glass prevented you from having any idea what he was doing on the other side. And he had been close already when you came in, one hand fisting over his cock while the other pressed into the tile wall, and guilt sprang up in the back of his mind because he had been thinking of you as he touched himself. And you were just feet away, unaware and fuck if that didn’t lead him to the edge.

But it was when you had sat down to pee and he heard you give a little moan of relief that Frankie lost it, giving in to the most powerful-yet silent-orgasm he had had in fucking years. Rope after rope of cum, his legs violently shaking, and he’d wondered if he would pass out it felt so good. Then you’d flushed and continued speaking, washing your hands before telling him you were going to put on a pot of coffee. And the guilt Frankie felt was so immense that he vowed right there he wasn’t going to touch himself again. He cared for and respected you too much to reduce you to his graphic thoughts without your consent.

Sixty-two days later and you were testing his limits unknowingly.

“I, uh, I’m not sure,” He replied, keeping his eyes locked on yours. You frowned a little, kitten licking the ice cream absentmindedly. Frankie almost groaned, wondering if you were trying to kill him. “I guess, it depends on the person.” He was never, ever going to admit he was a you man, that your ass, your perfect tits, your pretty little mouth were everything he could dream and more.

He tried to shrug casually, as if indifferent.

“I guess it’s a funny question,” You said after a moment, laughing a little, “I mean, no one asks a straight woman if she’s an ass or cock girl!”  

Frankie took a too-large bite of his treat, the cold painful and giving him instant brain freeze but it was just the distraction he needed because seeing your plump lips wrap around the word ‘cock’ might just kill him. He coughed attempting to laugh at your joke despite the brain freeze, and you leaned closer in concern.

“Sorry, are you-ah, shit!” A piece of your ice cream bar, which you’d moved to hold higher as you were checking on Frankie, fell off and landed on your chest, instantly staining the pale pink t-shirt. You hopped up with a noise of discontent, catching the fallen glob and hurrying into the kitchen to toss it in the sink. “Damn it!”

Frankie reached out and paused the movie, standing up and intending to follow you. He took two steps, adjusting his cap as he moved, and then looked up to where you stood at the sink, running your shirt under the faucet. Freezing, he took it the sight of you standing in his kitchen, your shirt removed to run under the water, leaving you wearing yoga pants and a simple white bra. For a moment, he just shut down and stared at you dumbfounded, before internal alarms started sounding and Frankie’s eyes were sweeping over your curves, his eyes zeroing in on the lack of support your bra had, your breasts perky and full and fuck, he had to look away.

He looked up at his ceiling at cleared his throat “You uh, want me to grab you a shirt?” His voice came out much deeper than he was expecting. He hoped you didn’t notice, though with only being able to see your profile even if he did dare to look at you, he’d never be able to tell.

“Can I borrow your big sweater, please?” You asked him, and Frankie nodded as he hurried away, down the hall to grab the sweater he knew you meant from his room. He would have laughed at your suggestion it was his sweater when he barely got to wear it himself anymore, but he was trying to remember how to breathe.

Once out of sight in his bedroom, Frankie took a few steadying breaths before grabbing the sweater off the end of his bed. He was going to subject himself to a cold shower after he handed this to you because you were staying the night again and he could not climb into a bed with you this worked up.

One of the reasons that you and Frankie just worked as friends were your opposite ways of navigating life. Where Frankie was a detailed, meticulous planner, you flitted from idea to idea spontaneously until something landed right, and you seemed to enjoy pulling him along with you as you followed those random whims. And he let you pull him because he trusted you so completely. Even if he would still make a new plan in the back of his mind, it still felt like he was taking chances he never would have without you leading the way.

Planning was Frankie’s way of keeping control. Of keeping himself, his squadmates, his loved ones, safe and secure. After Columbia, where every bit of the plan had gone completely to shit, he’d needed to let you lead more often just so he could feel grounded because he didn’t trust himself any longer. And you had been happy to lead, to test his limits by pushing aside any planning he attempted and pull him from his comfort zone. You had taught him how to grapple with his instincts and his desires, giving him real-world methods to cope, including breathing as he was now.

So focused as he was on his breathing, Frankie hadn’t noticed you had joined him in his room, standing just inside the doorway. If he had heard you, he wouldn’t have spun around abruptly and take two long strides before realizing how close you were, nearly knocking you over as he did. He dropped the sweater when he reached out with both hands to grab your upper arms and steady you, and then he met your gaze.

Frankie couldn’t say whether it was the heat of his hands on you so unexpectedly, or the way you each shivered at the electricity that seemed to pulse from him to you. Maybe it was everything combined, years of friendship, longing and pining and then almost dying in the middle of the jungle only to come home and have you climb into his lap and sob in relief that he was home, and a million other moments in between.

But when Frankie met your eyes there in the doorway of his bedroom, he knew his expression was giving him away completely.

You were looking at him with wide eyes, your mouth slightly open in surprise, whatever words you were going to say long since lost. And then he saw it, was looking right at you when your expression shifted, no longer the innocent, playful woman but instead, one who was suffering just as much as he was, longing and love and this hunger on your face he’d never seen before.

Without hesitating, without thinking or planning his next move, Frankie tugged you against him and leaned down to slot his lips over yours, taken aback when he saw you close your eyes and stretch your neck up to meet him. When your soft lips connected to his, Frankie trembled and groaned, loving the feel of your body pressed against him, the way you smelled like something tropical, how even with your perfect curves you were so small compared to him. Kissing you was everything he’d dreamed and more.

He wanted to deepen the kiss, taste you, but even as he thought it his mind jumped ten steps ahead and imagined you on his bed and he had to stop himself from getting carried away. With great effort he pulled back, first breaking the kiss and then taking several steps away, panting heavily.

“Frankie?” You were out of breath, confused, and deliciously flushed. He could see your nipples tightened against the thin fabric of your bra, goosebumps along your skin. Just the knowledge that he’d had that kind of effect on you was enough to make him want to cum in his pants right there.

“Cariño, I can’t, I’m sorry,” It was physically painful now, his hard length straining against his jeans, but he was more concerned about you, and how afraid he was to lose you. “I-I’ve wanted to do that but you gotta know, I love you. I’m in love with you.” He couldn’t meet your eyes, instead choosing to look at his feet and rubbing his hands over his face.

You approached him again, just as quietly, taking him by surprise when you spoke from just inches away. “Frankie, look at me,” It was an order, a tone you rarely used but that always worked on grounding him, and he realized you understood he was struggling right now not to break down, terrified he’d fucked up the best thing in his life in a moment of weakness. He reluctantly met your gaze, swallowing thickly as he did.

“I need you to hear me right now, okay? Tell me.”

“I’m listening,” He confirmed, heart about ready to beat out of his chest, “I can hear you.”

“Good,” And you closed the gap between your body and his, pressing your hands into his shoulders. Frankie caught his breath. “I want you to do that again, and I don’t want you to stop. Please, kiss me again, Frankie, because I love you too and I’ve never wanted anything more in my whole life than I want you-“

Frankie cut you off, a growl ripping from his chest before he gathered you roughly into his arms and kissed you again, this time quickly swiping his tongue across your lips for permission to enter, and you gladly parted them for him, moaning when his tongue licked into your hot mouth. He slid one hand to the back of your head, his fingers weaving into your hair carefully before he pressed your face to his, needy to taste you more, to get drunk on you. Fuck, you were perfect.

When you whimpered against him, the sound almost lost in his mouth, Frankie moved, walking you back until you hit the wall and crowding you there. He ran his free hand across the bare skin of your side, heat coursing through his veins when you shuddered at his touch, keening for him. He hadn’t realized he was rolling his hips against you, his erection pressed into your stomach until one of your small hands somehow slipped between your bodies and ghosted over the front of his jeans curiously.

“Fuck,” He broke the kiss, this time simply to lower his head and kiss along your jaw, down your neck, “Sunshine, I fucking love you, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, sweet girl.” He licked the column of your throat as he moved to the other side of your face before biting gently. The sound that tore from you was so filthy he groaned again, dropping both hands to grasp your forearms.

“Frankie, fuck, don’t stop,” You were tugging at his shirt, and despite your request, he had to move back slightly to pull it over his head, his bare chest revealed to you and even though you’d seen him shirtless before, the intimacy of this time, of finally being with you after so long, made him self conscious. If you saw anything you didn’t like, you didn’t show it. Instead, you bit your lip as your hands tentatively roamed across his chest, trailing over his stomach lightly enough that he shivered. When you spoke next, you yet again took Frankie completely by surprise, your brows furrowing as your expression became more than just hungry, “Mine.”

You whispered it, but to Frankie, it was like you’d just announced it to the entire world. The possessive edge wasn’t lost on him, no, it shot straight to his core and snapped the final cords of his restraint.

“I should...I need a minute, Sunshine,” Frankie pressed his hands into the wall on either side of you, “I haven’t done anything in a long time, haven’t even cum, I don’t think I can be as sweet to you as I want to be.”

Your lust-blown eyes met his, “Why haven’t you cum?” He could hear trouble in your voice now, the not so careful way you spoke pulling dangerous images in his mind as he stared down at you, his jaw tense. When Frankie made no reply, you pressed your pointer finger to the middle of his chest, your eyes never leaving his as you slowly, lightly, moved it downward, trailing his dark hair. “Is it because you think of me? Are you that amazing that you won’t even let yourself cum because you think it’s wrong to think about me like that?”

A strangled noise was all he could respond with, his hands pressing desperately into the wall. You knew him too well, understood exactly what he’d meant without having to ask. And then you kept talking, and honestly, Frankie was floored at how dirty you suddenly were for him.

“I have to admit, you’re better than me, Frankie,” That finger trailed so slowly, closing in on his belly button now, “I’m not good like you, I think about you all the time. Especially when I touch myself, usually after I’ve spent a ton of time with you and I can’t fucking wait for a second longer. Wanna know what I picture?”

His voice was husky, a warning if ever there was one, “What did you picture, sweet girl?”

You moaned, your finger now closing in on the waist of his jeans, “You, bending me over the couch, that one is a favourite. Or waking you up with a blowjob, swallowing everything you’ve got because I know you taste delicious,” You unbuttoned his jeans now, sliding the zipper down with care, “But I think the winner, the one that always makes me scream your name, is thinking about riding you, Frankie. Climbing in your lap and just-“

Fuck, fuck he couldn’t hold back. He’d told you he couldn’t and yet you wouldn’t shut up and all thoughts of making love to you gently were out the fucking window, Frankie instead growled deeply and grabbed you by the arms, all but throwing you on the bed. You were smirking up at him, your eyes dark with lust and shining with triumph.

“Fuck, sweet girl, you wanna scream my name?” He removed his pants and briefs in one motion, his cock spring up, hard and leaking precum and you licked your lips, giving a little whimper at the sight of him. Frankie grasped himself, pumping his hand a few times as he stood over you, “Like what you see?”

“Jesus, Frankie-you need a new nickname,” You said, eyes glued to his cock, “Catfish makes no sense when you’re walking around with that fucking bat-wait!” He froze in the middle of removing his ball cap, looking at you with concern to see you bite your lip a little shyly, “Keep it on. The hat.”

Warmth spread through him at your request and Frankie replaced the hat on his head, then dropped to his knees next to the bed, his hands running up your thighs as you writhed. At your waist, he grasped the tops of your yoga pants and tugged them down, enjoying the way your body arched when you lifted your hips to help him. The only item of clothing either of you wore now was you in your bra, and fuck were you a sight.

Frankie gazed up at you from the floor in awe, his eyes roving over you hungrily as you watched him, propped up on your elbows. He started kissing up your thighs then, pushing your legs apart and spreading you, his hands kneading your flesh. “Sweet girl, you have such a pretty pussy, better than I imagined.” He moaned, biting into the soft flesh of your inner leg and drawing a whimper from you, “I can fucking smell you already, so wet and ready for me, fuck.”

“Oh god Frankie, please, touch me. I can’t wait anymore, I need you!”

“Told you,” Frankie climbed over top of you, his legs on either side of your body as he reached down and dragged you further onto the bed, his show of strength making you whimper, “It’s been a while. And you walk around here wearing my fucking clothes all the time. You don’t know what you do to me, Sunshine.” He grunted as he repositioned himself between your legs, his hands grasping the backs of them to haul your body against his, his cock pressed painfully against your thigh, “Gonna fuck you, sweet girl.” And with one careful, quick motion he thrust forward and each of you cried out at the pleasure of Frankie filling you.

“Frankie! Oh!” Your legs wrapped around him instantly, urging him as deep as possible as he split you open so deliciously. Once he was fully seated within you, Frankie dropped forward, propping himself on one arm, and cupped your face with his free hand. He looked into your eyes as he started a fast, hard pace, thrusting deep and reeling over how wet you were for him, how perfectly your velvet folds wrapped around him.

“Fuck, cariño, you’re fucking tight,” He grunted, kissing you sloppily as you threw your arms around him, hugging him close, “So tight for me, so perfect making those pretty noises, fuck.” Frankie groaned when you clenched around him as he spoke, “You like it when I tell you how perfect you are?”

“Ye-yeah Frankie, I love it. Oh, fuck!”

You were trembling now, squeezing him each time he whispered in your ear. Frankie kept up a string of praises and filthy words, taking note of the ones that had you gripping him extra hard.

He’d always had a casual enjoyment of dirty talk, nothing over the top, easy enough to shut off if it wasn’t enjoyed by the other person. But something about talking like this to you had his balls tightening that much faster, his thrusts becoming brutal.

Still murmuring in your ear, Frankie lowered his hand to your clit, experimentally rubbing, circling and pinching it to see what you liked. He was going to cum soon, and he’d be damned if you didn’t cum too. Though, as Frankie settled on circling you, both feeling and hearing how this was definitely how you liked it, his worries quickly dissipated when your hips were suddenly bucking up to meet his and you were screaming his name.

“That’s it, let go for me sweet girl,” Frankie’s thrusts were becoming increasingly sloppy as he neared the edge, “Are you-fuck, where should I?” He couldn’t even form a sentence now, he was so close and you were squeezing around him so perfectly as you closed in on your orgasm.

You understood though, your eyes meeting his as you pulled yourself together enough to reply, “Frankie, cum inside me please, please fill me up, pleasepleaseplease-“

“Fuck! H-here you go, perfect little thing!” He roared, dropping his weight over your and growling as he spilled inside you, as you bucked and writhed beneath him and screamed out, toppling over the edge and into oblivion with him. He heard himself cursing in Spanish as he experienced the most intense orgasm of his entire life, his hips slowing to continue to draw it out, still more cum filling you and you were a wreck under him, shivering and moaning.

“Yes, Frankie, yes.” You whimpered, your hands sliding into his hair-knocking his cap off-and tugging at his curls.

It took several minutes to recover, though Frankie had enough awareness to shift his weight so that you could breathe properly. Still hard inside you, he began to kiss you all over, peppering your face and neck before biting a few more marks into your neck, his tongue laving out to soothe. He enjoyed the way you whimpered when overstimulated, twitching when he pinched your nipple over your bra, squeaking his name when he pressed himself as deep inside you as he could one last time before pulling out.

Frankie collapsed on the bed next to you, then quickly tugged you into his arms and kissed the top of your head. His fear began to bubble back up now that the haze of passion was clearing, and he was starting to question every single moment that had occurred since you'd asked him if he was a tits man or an ass man.

What had he done? Was he going to lose you after this? Lose his entire reason for living for one amazing orgasm?

But it was like you could reach his mind, as only a few minutes had passed and then, with a little groan, you pulled yourself up so that you were on your elbow, looking down at Frankie. You took one look at his face and frowned, “That was quicker than I thought.”

Frankie stared at you, “What was?”

“I guessed it would take more than two minutes for you to start regretting this.”

Sighing, he pulled himself up, sitting on the edge of the bed. You followed, but crossed your legs and shuffled next to him. “I meant what I said, I love you,” Frankie explained, rubbing a hand over his face, “I love you so much, so fucking much it hurts. But the idea of messing this up is terrifying me, Sunshine. I don’t think I could lose you, I think it would kill me.”

“Frankie,” You crawled over him, straddling his hips and settling into his lap. You cupped his face firmly, looking into his eyes. Your expression was open, warm and vulnerable and a little incredulous, “You aren’t going to lose me, not ever. I want this-I want you, and everything you come with, okay?”

Though his heart was soaring, Frankie still worried, shaking his head, “I come with a lot of dark baggage, sweet girl. Not to mention the age difference.”

“Jesus, Frankie, do you really think I don’t know what I’m saying when I tell you I’m all in?” You asked him, not waiting for an answer before continuing. “I love you. Can I tell you when I knew?”

Frankie peered at you, his hands coming to hold your waist as he nodded.

“The boys trip.” You stated, using the term each of you agreed upon when referencing his three-week disappearance to Columbia. “When you first left, I knew something was off but I trust you, so I didn’t question it. But then after a few days, with no word from you, I started to really worry,” You paused, momentarily lost in thought, eyes dark now with the painful memory of his absence and the little information you’d come to learn about it since. “Did I ever tell you I booked a ticket to Columbia?”

This caught Frankie off guard because you most certainly had not told him that, “What, are you serious?”

“Yep. Booked it for the day after you ended up calling me. I don’t know what I was planning to do, but I knew you were there and, even if you were dead, I needed to be as well.” You stroked your thumbs over his cheeks, “After you called, and I knew you were alive and coming home, I realized that the way you said it meant you almost didn’t make it home, and I knew you weren’t saying something. I hung up and sat in my room for a minute and it occurred to me that you could have died and I would have never seen you again. That was when I knew it wasn’t just a crush.”

Heavy emotion filled his chest, rendering him unable to immediately respond. Frankie gathered you close and stood, clutching you against him and carrying you into the bathroom. He set you on the toilet before turning to his massive soaker tub and switching it on, fully intending on spending the rest of the night in there with you. When he turned around, you were carefully tidying yourself up. With a grunt, he grabbed a washcloth and ran it under warm water before kneeling in front of you and taking over.

“Why didn’t you say anything? After I came home, I mean.” His tone was light, as he didn’t mean to come across as accusing you of anything-it’s not like he had said anything to you. Good-natured as you were, you simply smiled at him, a little sadly.

“Too afraid, right at first,” You admitted, your eyes fluttering shut as he took care of you with the warm washcloth, “But when you came home you were a fucking wreck, Frankie. You lost your friend, Santi didn’t come back with you either, and Will and Benny had the same expression on their faces whenever I saw them. You saw some shit, did some shit, I don’t know and I’ll be real here, I don’t need you to ever feel like you should tell me what exactly happened. But after the first day you were back, I could see how much it changed you and I thought it would be selfish to tell you how I felt and add more emotional bullshit onto your plate.”

Frankie continued to kneel in front of you after tossing the washcloth into his laundry hamper. For a moment, the only sound in the room that of the tub filling. He stared into your eyes, seeing only how truthful you were being, how incredibly kind. He had never realized how completely he could love someone until he met you.

“I thought about you the entire time I was gone.” He admitted before carefully standing and checking the temperature of the water. He added a bath salt mixture that you’d bought a while ago, claiming it was a gift when really you were the one to use them, locking yourself away for hours to soak because you didn’t have a tub at your place. He shut the water off and held his arms out for you, which you eagerly stepped into and allowed him to guide you both into the water.

Once settled, your back against his chest, you replied. “Your face when you came home, I’ll never forget your expression.” His legs were on either side of you, and you began to lazily trace along his right thigh as both of you fell into your painful memories of his ill-fated trip.

Frankie sighed sadly, “I’m sorry I ever left, Sunshine. I never should have left you,” He tightened his grip around your waist under the water, one hand spread flat across your stomach, “It was just...fuck, everything went bad straight from the start. We had a moment of luck and then it was like nothing could go right. And I don’t know, I’m fucking gutted that Tom is gone, but it’s worse that Santiago won’t come home. He’s like my brother, and he blames himself for everything.”

Frankie knew you had no idea what he meant. You knew he and the guys were former special ops that served together, but when Santi had asked him to go to Columbia Frankie had only told you the basics-the country, who he would be with, that he might not have a lot of chances to call, and that it would be about a week. Santi had picked him up and you had been there to see him off that morning, and his friend had casually referenced a ‘boys trip’ while speaking with you as Frankie loaded his shit in the back.

Of course, you weren’t stupid. You worked with the VA, met a lot of former service members who ended up contracting out their skills after retiring or leaving due to injuries or lifestyle changes. And you knew Frankie, understood him like no one ever had before, which is why as he gave you further details you didn’t flinch or freeze up, you simply listened. When Frankie had gone quiet for a while, you eventually turned to gaze up at him over your shoulder, your cheek on his chest.

“From what I could tell,” You began slowly, your words cautious, “Whatever you did, what happened, you all put it aside to get Tom’s body home to his family. And considering the type of work Santi was doing out there for three years before he came here to ask you guys to join him, I figure you all must have almost died a few times each, probably took out some terrible men along the way.”

Frankie had to bite back his sob, turning his face away from you to stare, ashamed and remorseful at the wall. You reacted quickly, pulling yourself up and turning over, your naked body pressing over his as you grabbed Frankie’s head and gently turned him to look at you. “Baby,” You cooed, your eyes shining with concern, “Don’t do that, don’t hide from me.”

That was all it took. Frankie let the sob out and the relief of it was instantaneous, so much so that he let out another, then another, all while you held him and murmured soft, sweet words and pressing chaste kisses to his cheeks, his forehead, along his jaw. It didn’t last long, he’d cried so many times over everything that had gone down, but this was the first time you had revealed you sort of had an idea of what they had been up to, and you were still supporting him and loving him and it was all very overwhelming.

A short time later, Frankie wiped his eyes and shot you a grateful look, hoping you could sense how much he appreciated you. You settled into the water again, knees pulled to your chest as you faced him and trailed your hands comfortingly up and down his chest. “Sunshine,” He whispered, catching one hand and holding it against his heart, “I love you, thank you for being so fucking incredible.”

He tugged you closer, joining you in laughing when a little water sloshed up over the edge of the tub as you landed against him. You snuggled close and kissed him, your fingers carding into his curls and holding him steady. When Frankie took you to bed that night, there were no pillows between your bodies, not a shred of clothing separating you. He held you close, falling asleep faster than he had in years.

And for the first time in Frankie’s life, he felt whole and complete, like nothing could ever bring him into darkness again, not when he had you, literal sunshine, lighting his existence.

PART TWO

Permanent Taglist:

@mermaidxatxheart @paintballkid711

[sleepdeprivedsloth]

Jackpot

[MHA - Kaminari, Sero, Bakugou]

summary: Bakugou is in a bitch mood and doesn’t want to socialize with anyone, especially not any of his idiotic classmates. Kaminari and Sero don’t exactly get the hint, and they end up finding a way to cheer up their grumpy friend. (platonic KamiSeroBaku fic)

potential warnings: swearing, tickling

words: 1.8 k

a/n: school has been such a bitch BUT i just finished one of my ap exams so i wanted to indulge myself and all yall nice people out there :) it’s another ticklish baku fic, and i wish i could say i’m sorry but i’m really not lmfao hope you enjoy everyone!

--

It was a known fact amongst the students of Class 1-A that when Bakugou woke up in a bad mood, it was best to steer clear out of his way. Nobody was daring enough to bother the blonde when he seemed to be on the verge of blowing up the entire dorm with nothing more than a thunderous BOOM.

Well, nobody except Kaminari and Sero.

Bakugou was in one of these explosive moods, reading some manga on his bed to help pass the time, when he heard a couple of knocks on his door. “Fuck off,” he grumbled sharply, refusing to bring his eyes away from the illustrated pages. He most certainly was not in the mood to socialize with any idiots today, but the universe had other plans.

“C’mon Bakubro, just let us in!” Kaminari’s voice exclaimed through the locked door.

“Yeah! You know we won’t go away until you open up,” Sero’s voice called out, and Bakugou could practically see the obnoxiously knowing smile that his friends the morons were no doubt wearing.

Failing to repress an eye roll, Bakugou dragged himself out of bed, manga still in hand, and walked over to the door. With a heavy sigh, he begrudgingly opened up and leaned his body against the door frame. “What do you fuckers want?”

Kaminari’s eyes gleamed with suspicious excitement. “Nothing at all! Just wanted to hang out with you, dude.”

Bakugou’s eyes narrowed at the two, knowing that even they weren’t stupid enough to just ‘hang out’ with him when he was dangerously annoyed. “No. Go the fuck away.”

“Bro, you haven’t smiled at all this whole week! Just let us help you chill out for a while. You can’t hate us that much, right?” Sero suggested with a hopeful smile on his face. 

“I can, and I do,” Bakugou deadpanned. “You dumbasses can’t force me to hang out with you. Just leave me the fuck alone.”

At that, Kaminari and Sero exchanged a quick glance at one another before turning their attention back to their grumpy friend. Without a word, Kaminari reached out and poked a finger into Bakugou’s stomach. He let out a muffled yelp as he stumbled backwards a bit further into his room, allowing Kaminari and Sero enough space to enter themselves.

If looks could kill, the two would have been lying dead on the floor the moment they stepped foot into the blonde’s dorm. Bakugou sent them a fierce and fiery glare, steam practically blowing out of his ears. “What the fuck do you damn extras think you’re doing?!”

Kaminari smirked. “Forcing you to hang out with us. Sero, get his arms.”

Before Bakugou could fully comprehend what was happening, Sero tackled him down to the floor, knocking the manga out of his hands and pulling his wrists above his head. Bakugou started kicking his legs around, trying to get enough momentum to break free of Sero’s strong hold, until he felt Kaminari sit himself down on his thighs, successfully pinning him against the floor.

Feeling his palms start to spark threateningly with small explosions, Bakugou’s face fell into an annoyed sneer. Could these dipshits not see that he was clearly not in the mood for their little pranks? “Get the hell off me, you- NGH!”

Kaminari chuckled as he slid his hands underneath Bakugou’s shirt with a slight wiggle of his fingers. He felt his friend’s body tense as he started to slowly trace his fingertips along his sides, his touch practically as light as a feather. “Oh Kacchan, don’t be like that! We just wanna hang out with our favorite blasty boy.”

Bakugou growled, struggling to keep the ends of his lips from turning upwards. “G-get your filthy hands o-offa me, Dunce Face! I s-swear to go-OHOD NO!”

A reluctant smile broke out onto Bakugou’s face when Sero taped his wrists to the floor and started to softly drum his fingers into the exposed armpits, forcing the blonde into a bout of giggles. “There’s that adorable little smile that we’ve been looking for!” Sero teased.

“L-lehet me uhup, Tahape Fahace!” Bakugou tried to threaten through his wobbly grin. “I d-dohon’t want to hang out wihith you idiohohots!”

Kaminari moves his hands to lightly scribble at Bakugou’s taut stomach, causing him to break out into an uncontrollable fit of higher pitched giggles. “But we love hanging out with you, Blasty! Think of all the fun we could have together!”

“Yeah, Bakubro!” Sero joined in, wiggling his fingers underneath Bakugou’s arms, occasionally moving his tickly touches down to the blonde’s upper ribs. “We could have a movie night, just the three of us. What do you guys think of Big Hero 6?”

“Ah yeah, I love that movie! What about you, Bakugou?” Kaminari asked in a much too casual manner.

“I hahahate you bohohoth sohoho much!!”

Kaminari grinned, briefly slowing his fingers’ movements. “But you’re still having fun, right?” At this, Bakugou’s breath hitched and his eyes widened, looking over at the electric blonde in a mixture of confusion and shock, his cheeks reddening a bit. “Yeah, sorry to break it to you, bro, but it’s kinda obvious you don’t want us to stop tickling you.”

Seeing a hint of distress and discomfort in his friend’s eyes, Sero quickly cut it. “Honestly, we’d be lying if we said we wanted to stop! Making you all smiley and giggly feels like a privilege!”

With far too much enthusiasm, Kaminari nodded his head in agreement before a teasing smirk made its way onto his face. “If anything, I bet you want us to kick it up a notch, dontcha Blasty?~”

“N-no I don-ohohon’t!” Bakugou shouted out as he felt Kaminari insert a singular finger into his belly button.

“Y’know, I’ve always wanted to try this out. Lemme know how it feels, okay?” he asked before sending a small shock of electricity through his finger, using just enough energy to get the ticklish blonde screaming.

“NAHAHAHA! WHAHAHAHAT THE FUHUHUHUCK?!” Bakugou howled with laughter, immediately overwhelmed by the sensations of the shock tickling him both inside and out. He began twisting and squirming to get Kaminari’s finger out of the sensitive spot, only to find that his desperate thrashing only managed to push Kaminari’s finger further into his belly button and increase the shock’s tickly effects. “GEHEHET IT THE FUHUCK OHOHOHOUT!!”

“Jackpot!” Kaminari shouted out as he slightly wiggled his finger, never stopping the small, steady stream of electricity that passed through it. The explosive blonde’s head was thrown back from the force of his hysterics. “Aww, does it tickle that much?”

“No fair!” Sero exclaimed with playful offense. “You can’t just steal all of Bakubro’s laughter all by yourself. You gotta share, Denks!” Sero brought his own hands up to Bakugou’s pinned wrists and started to gently drag his fingertips down teasingly towards his underarms at an agonizingly slow pace. He didn’t get much of a reaction until he passed the boy’s elbows, when Bakugou began shaking his head and tugging harder on his arms. “Ohoho, what’s this? You keeping another weak spot from us, dude?”

“DOHOHON’T YOU DAHAHARE GO ANY FUHUHURTHER, TAHAPE FAHACE!! I SWEAHAHAR I’LL KIHIHILL YOHOHOU!!” Bakugou’s threats fell on deaf ears as he felt Sero’s fingers traveling closer and closer to his underarms. He really did try to refrain himself when the dark-haired boy’s soft fluttering reached the underside of his triceps, just above his armpits, but he instantly lost control. Bakugou snorted before practically screaming with pure laughter, the most genuine smile his two friends had ever seen inevitably spreading across his typically scowling face.

“Yes, ultimate jackpot!! Take that, Kaminari!” Sero shouted proudly over Bakugou’s loud shrieks. The two boys then increased their efforts, starting to tickle harder and faster, each trying to pull the most hysterical noises from the boy trapped beneath them.

Their playful competition left lucky poor Bakugou in stitches until he finally pleaded out for mercy, tears of mirth prickling the edges of his closed-shut eyes. “ALRIGHT AHAHALRIGHT!! I’LL HAHAHANG OUT WITH YOHOHOHOU IDIOHOHOTS!! JUHUHUST STOP STOHOHOP STAHAHAHAHAHA-!”

The two immediately stopped and pulled their torturous hands away from the giggly blonde’s body. Kaminari climbed off of Bakugou’s thighs while Sero got to work removing the tape at his wrists.

As he worked, Sero looked down at Bakugou with a smug smirk. “Was wondering how long it was gonna take you to tell us to stop, Bakubro!”

“Yeah, seriously dude,” Kaminari joined in, helping the boy sit up once his wrists were free. “You’ve got some hella strong endurance!”

Bakugou wrapped his arms around his torso, rubbing the phantom tickles away as stray titters found their way out of his carefree smile. “Oho shuhut up,” he grumbled in half-hearted annoyance.

“Dude, look at that smile! You should definitely wear it more often, man,” Sero genuinely complimented, earning a deeper blush on Bakugou’s face. “It really is a good look on you!”

“I’m honestly glad that we were able to get you out of your little Bakubitch mood! Who knew that a little bit of tickling is the secret to ending your raging rampage?” Kaminari slung an arm over Bakugou’s shoulders, giving a quick squeeze.

“Whatever, fucking extras,” Bakugou said as he rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of fondness in his smile. If Kaminari noticed how he leaned a bit into the comforting touch, the electric blonde thankfully didn’t mention it.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” Sero called out, catching the intrigued attention of the other two boys. “On this day, I hereby decree that Sir Bakugou Katsuki must give me, Sero Hanta, and my fellow companion, Kaminari Denki, at least one of his genuine smiles everyday for the rest of our lives!”

“I second that! And if you fail to do so, we’ll find a way to make you smile,” Kaminari playfully threatened, sliding his arm hanging off of Bakugou’s shoulder down to the boy’s side. He gave gentle pinches to the sensitive skin, causing Bakugou to lean away and break out in a new round of giggles. “Understood?”

“Understood, understoohohod!! Nohoho more, Duhuhunce Fahace!”

“Good!” Kaminari retracted his arm from its place around Bakugou’s torso. He and Sero stood up from their seats on the floor.

Sero picked up Bakugou’s manga that had been clumsily disregarded, handing the book over to its owner. “Well, we’ll get out of your hair now, bro. See you later?”

Bakugou stared down at the book in his hands for a short moment, contemplating, before he looked back up hopefully towards the morons his friends. “Are you idiots still up for watching Big Hero 6?

Kaminari and Sero’s faces practically beamed with excitement. “Hell yeah, Bakubro! Lemme go get us some snacks real quick!” Sero exclaimed before rushing out of the room.

“We can watch it on my laptop! I’ll be right back, dude!” Kaminari called out as he quickly ran out after Sero.

Bakugou heard a faint, “This is gonna be so much fun!!” shouted from somewhere down the hallway, and he couldn’t help the soft smile that grew across his lips as he internally agreed.

--

a/n: yay!! i hope yall at least somewhat enjoyed reading this! just wanna say good luck to all of my fellow students, you’ve got this <3 school sucks but it’s almost over! i believe in all of youuuu :D

[winter-soldier-vibes]

We Need You

Bucky x reader

Word count: 1901

Summary: Bucky comforts a reader with imposter syndrome (inability to believe that one’s success is deserved)

Warnings: imposter syndrome, low self worth/self esteem, feeling worthless, slight angst, mostly comfort

A/N: I have issues that present similarly to imposter syndrome, but I don’t experience it fully or severely. You belong and wherever you are, you fucking earned that. You worked hard to get where you are. I hope this fic can bring you some comfort, I apologize if I did not serve the topic justice. Sorry it took so long! As always, if anyone needs anything from me or just wants to talk and vent, I am ALWAYS here! <3

Tags: @buckys2thicc @buckfics @thatfangirl42 @mardema @barnesplums @bucks-bunny @stucky-on-spiderman @peggycarter-steverogers @freigeistundanderes

Add yourself to my taglist! Masterlist

------

You were calm, cool and collected. Smart, dedicated, and hard-working. You were an Avenger, one of the more valuable assets to the team with your training in hand to hand combat and knowledge of weaponry. 

At least, that’s how everyone saw you. Everyone except you. 

Every “job well done” translated to “I could’ve done better” for you. Compliments in a way felt like pity to you. Like it was all a lie or something. You could’ve been better, you didn’t think you were anything special. 

Anytime someone gave you praise you would wave it off with a small smile. Everyone saw it as you being modest, but internally you just couldn’t accept it. You couldn’t accept praise knowing you could’ve done better.

Settle for nothing less than perfection. But nobody’s perfect.

You were endlessly grateful for your team, your family, but you couldn’t help but feel like you didn’t deserve it. You had so much good in your life, but you felt like you had to keep proving yourself. 

You had everything you could ever want, but you still felt like you had to earn it. 

You thought you had done a good job at keeping it hidden. Imposter syndrome you had heard someone call it at one point. You had looked into it, realizing more and more of it resonated with you. You didn’t feel that you deserved your spot on the team, even though most of the team could agree that you were one of their best fighters. 

You were also one of the kindest people on the team, and everyone enjoyed being in your company. Again, you wrote it off as them feeling obligated to talk to you rather than them choosing to talk to you. 

Everything you thought about yourself, the degrading names you called yourself, and the way you waved off all of your achievements didn’t match up at all with the way anyone thought about you. 

It went unnoticed to most. You would put up a front, small smiles and thank you’s occasionally. There would be small side comments that you would make occasionally, but it was nothing that would cause red flags to arise. 

It’s nothing, really.

I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have done.

It’s no big deal.

No worries

That’s why I’m here I guess

Compliments were deflected. Whenever you received criticism you would internalize it even though you knew it was nothing against you. Friendly advice to improve job performance. But for you, it reinforces the thought that your performance needed to be improved.

No matter what you did, you would never be good enough. You used to chase achievements, telling yourself that if you did well enough, if you did good things, that you would feel a sense of self worth. That maybe if you achieved things you would be filled with a sense of pride.

Instead you were left feeling as though you didn’t deserve any of the recognition you received. In a way, it made you feel even more insecure.

You thought that if you accepted the praise you would seem self indulgent or boastful that if you said what your achievements were you would seem prideful. So you accepted them with a small smile and thank you. At least until people moved onto the next topic and you drop the smile when it seemed safe. When no one was watching. 

When you thought no one was watching. 

Which is how Bucky had come to notice the discomfort you had.

When he had first joined the team, he was very quiet. He did a lot of listening and observing, not wanting to speak much himself. That was understandable to anyone. So when you had been introduced to him and your skillset had been mentioned and you waved it off saying no big deal, he had noticed how you shifted as if you were uncomfortable and your smile dropped as soon as the attention was on someone else. 

He didn’t think much of it. If anything it had to do with being uncomfortable around him. 

But as time passed he started relaxing around everyone too, especially you. He was still accepting what he had done and who he was now. He was still reserved but he wasn’t silent. The two of you had become good friends, being two of the quieter personalities on the team. 

Now you had someone to keep you company when you stayed at the outskirts of Tony’s parties.  

But as more time went on, he noticed small things that you did. Behaviors you had, things you said. Clutch phrases. The way you would seem embarrassed when people complimented you. The way you would say that there were no worries even if you were the only reason that a mission was successful. 

Sometimes when you thought you were alone or no one would hear, he would catch you mumbling things to yourself. Things like yeah right to compliments before giving a genuine response. The slight shakes of the head in protest. The nervous habits you had when you got a compliment. The little things that others were too distracted to notice, too small to 

Bucky was an observant man. 

Which is how one night, you hadn’t realized him come into your room to talk to you about something that Bucky completely forgot about once he saw you. You were sitting down at your desk, head in your hands and rubbing your eyes. 

Jesus why am I so stupid

What the fuck is wrong with me

They don’t mean what they say

How could they like you?

I’m worthless

Just like everyone else

I don’t belong here

You were so trapped by the marathon of degrading thoughts that you hadn’t heard Bucky come in. He stood beside you, concern etched on his face. 

“Y/n?” you jumped slightly and took your hands away from your face, blinking in surprise. You had been crying. Why was he here?

“Y/n what’s wrong?” he asked, coming over to you. 

You shook your head and shrugged, wiping a few loose tears from your face. “‘M fine Buck,” you whispered, struggling to keep your emotions out of your voice.

“Y/n,” Bucky said, crouching down in front of you. “You wouldn’t be crying if something wasn’t wrong. It’s okay to be upset, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just tell me why you’re upset.”

You shook your head again. “Really Buck, I’m fine.”

“Y/n, I may not be able to read minds like Wanda, but I know something’s bothering you.it’s okay.”

You sighed, taking a breath before looking at him. “Do you guys really mean it?” you suddenly asked meekly.

Bucky drew his eyebrows together in confusion. “Mean...what?” 

“After missions, when you say I did the right thing, that I did a good job, that you guys need me - do you mean it?”

Bucky looked more puzzled now. “Yeah, of course we do. Why else would we say things like that?”

“If you thought you were supposed to.” you said suddenly. “Or if, you know, you wanted to be polite, or you thought I wanted to hear it, or you didn’t really mean it I don’t really know I -”

“Y/n, hold on, slow it down...What?” Bucky said. “Why on Earth would you think that?”

You crossed your arms and shrugged. “I dunno, I just don’t really feel like I’m all that valuable to you guys here. I don’t do anything you guys couldn’t do without me. I make so many mistakes all the time and no matter how hard I try I just don’t feel like I belong here.”

Bucky took a minute to look at you. He had known you doubted yourself but this was beyond what he had thought. To think that you, y/n, weren’t valuable to this team was a crazy idea to him

To you it was the truth.

“Y/n, no, we need you. Why on Earth would you think you don’t belong?”

“Because I haven’t earned it. I’m on the team, I fight with you guys, but I still don’t feel like I should be. The mistakes I make all the time, the wrong calls, the selfish calls, bad judgements...I could go on. I just...no matter how much good I do it doesn’t make the mistakes go away.”

“Y/n, you are one of the best people we have, we -”

“No I’m not,” you said firmly, surprising Bucky. You shook your head. “You guys don’t need me. I don’t deserve to be on this team.”

“And I do?” Bucky asked.

You looked back at him. “What do you mean? Of course you do. Your the best fighter we have, Steve's best friend, we need you.”

“But I’ve made so many mistakes. You know all of the horrible things that I’ve done y/n. I was made into a weapon.” he said.”

“Bucky you know that wasn’t your fault. You didn’t choose that and you would've done anything to stop it. That’s different. You’re a great fighter and a good person, Bucky.”

“So are you.” he stated simply. “Do you believe that?”

You took a deep breath.  “I believe you believe that. But that doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Bucky put his hands on your shoulders. “You are a fighter. A hero. You’ve saved so many people doing things that some of us couldn’t or wouldn’t do. People out there remember how you saved them. How you protected them and gave yourself to them. That was you, no one else. You are a part of this team, you help make it what it is. We would be lost without you. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into this team. You give your heart and soul to this team. You’ve earned every goddamn bit of praise you get and more. You fought your place onto this team and you deserve to be here just as much as everyone else here. So when your head tells you that you don’t belong or that we don’t need you, tell it to fuck off. Because you’re one of the best people we have.”

By now you had tears in your eyes again, but not ones of shame. Ones of appreciation and relief. You had wanted to hear those words directly for so long and to be affirmed in that way was something you needed. “Thank you Bucky,” you said softly, giving him one of your first genuine smiles at a compliment.

He squeezed your shoulder reassuringly. “Anytime. Anytime you want a reminder, you let me know. I’ll tell you as many times as you need to hear it before you can start to believe it for yourself.”

[skywardscroll]

divine intervention | venti

✧ word count: 2.5k

✧ summary: baring witness to world can become wearisome. venti, though you don’t really know him, wants to help.

✧ warnings: really angsty with some fluff thrown in! the reader has depression / there is self-deprecation. reader is also afab!

✧ a/n: this is so sweet >-< . i’m really proud of this one! also, writing klee is literally the funnest thing ever lol. <3 hope you guys enjoy!!

Teyvat, as you’d come to learn through your years, was a dangerous, merciless world. Every day, people lost their fathers, sisters, friends, and lovers. The world was full of greedy bandits and vicious monsters, and it only seemed to be getting worse as the days went by.

This last adventure out to Liyue had really taken the optimism out of you; Growing weary from traveling, you returned to your home in Mondstadt quite exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. Was there any other facet of you that could be exhausted? Because you were sure that it would also be stricken with strife.

You told the Adventurer’s Guild that you were temporarily retiring from your work to take a well-overdue vacation from fighting and the ever-arising political strain you witnessed every time you left the City of Freedom. You just wanted to enjoy your safe corner of the world, at least for the summer.

The (admittedly strange) way you decided to do this was by staying indoors with your books, sometimes going entire days without once stepping into the sunlight. It was a pleasant way to spend the time, but you knew it was unhealthy.

Your books, when the main characters shared similar habits to you, called this behavior ‘depression.’ Though, you willfully ignored this, pretending that this was normal of someone with a heavy heart (just a heavy heart. Not all the other symptoms that you were falsely denying you had, like an aversion to engagements with friends, or a neglect of hydration.)

It was one of the hottest days in July, you remembered, when you heard a knock on your door. You contemplated answering it, thinking that maybe the Adventurer’s Guild would want you back to work prematurely. This was quickly disproven, though, when a small voice called from outside the door:

“Miss Y/N? Oh, Miss Y/N~! Please come out!”

Klee’s sweet voice seemed to somehow wrap itself around your heart and pull you towards the door.

“Miss Y/N?”

You hesitated, knowing that once you saw that endearing child’s round eyes, you would be forced to play outside with her for as long as she wanted you to. You loved Klee dearly, and would do anything for her, even if you didn’t necessarily wish to go along with it. But you really didn’t feel like leaving your house, knowing that the Freedom Festival was currently in full swing.

“Y/N? Are you in there?” You recognize a second voice to belong to Grandmaster Jean.

Inhaling deeply, you opened the door to see Klee’s face light up as she excitedly pulled on Jean’s hand.

“She opened the door! She did! I told you Y/N would open the door!”

“Y/N!” Jean said, obviously surprised by your appearance. “It’s so good to see you’re well.”

“It’s good to see you two, as well.” You said with full honesty. You hadn’t realized it until you saw them before you, but you had certainly missed seeing your friends.

“Y/N! I wanted to ask if you wanted to go to the Freedom festival with us! There’ll be food, and music, and I overheard Rosaria saying something to Kaeya about special drinks!”

“Oh… I don’t know…”

“Come on! It’ll be fun! They have this game, and it has a prize that looks like a biiiig dodoco! I want it but if you come you can have it!” Klee’s excitement makes a smile appear on your face.

“You should come, Y/N. It would be good for you, I think.”

You sighed a little, looking back at your book which sat with the pages down against the cushion of your reading chair, waiting to be returned to. But as if by design, the wind carried the smell of food into your door and your stomach rumbled. Besides, Klee’s eyes were bearing into your heart just as you predicted, and you could see Jean’s hand clasp onto Klee’s a little tighter in hopes that she wouldn’t be disappointed.

“Alright, I’ll come.”

If you were to be frank, you had no idea what the difference between the Windblume Festival and the Freedom Festival was. To you, it just seemed like another concocted excuse to party. Which, in your youth, you never complained about, and you weren’t inclined to complain now, either, as Sara handed you a particularly delicious-looking chicken and mushroom skewer. You hadn’t eaten something like this in a month, and it was very welcome in your stomach.

“Over there! It’s Venti! Venti!” Klee went running ahead of you and Jean, who were idly speaking to one another as you finished off your food and threw the stick away.

“Klee! Don’t run off!” Jean called out, running after the young girl while you walked a bit behind, enjoying the scenery of Mondstadt decorated in flowers and it’s streets lined with vendors.

“Hi Klee!” You looked up and saw a man hug Klee tightly (a boy? He was quite short, but you were pretty sure he was an adult.) It was hard not to notice the golden lyre in his hand and how the strings seemed to be luminescent. You’d never seen anything like it before, and accidentally stared at it in clear awe.

“Do you play?” He asked, a smile that seemed to lift your heart was directed to you after the question left his lips.

“No… Not anymore. I tried to learn when I was a child but…”

“That’s alright. It takes a lot of practice, yeah?”

You let out a breathy laugh and nod, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Jean scooped up Klee into her arms before she could run off again. “You two haven’t met before?”

“Sadly no.” Venti said, placing his hand over his heart. “I would’ve remembered such a beautiful face, surely.”

Bard’s and their sweet words. You thought to yourself. Out of kindness, you only laughed in response to his compliment.

“I’m Y/N.”

“Ahh! I’ve heard of you! The exceptional adventurer!”

Why does this guy say everything so enthusiastically? Is this what you used to sound like? His way of speaking, though you felt guilty for it because you knew he couldn’t help it, grated against your nerves. You weren’t in the right mindset for his optimism. Or, perhaps, it was that you were jealous that he still had a hold on his, and so easily too, while it had been so long since you were excited about anything.

When you didn’t say anything, there was a small look in Venti’s eyes that told you he could see right through you, or that he was at least aware that something was wrong with you.

“Well, I ought to be on my way back home.” You said, causing Klee to whine out.

“Y/N~! You can’t go yet! What about the giant dodoco?”

You frowned, feeling guilty for letting Klee down, but feeling too exhausted for any more socialization.

“At least stay for a song, Y/N?” Venti offered with a quieter tone of voice, pointing to a chair that was left unoccupied by the gathering crowd around him.

“Yeah! Just one song~?” Klee pleaded.

You bit the inside of your cheek before eventually nodding and sitting in the chair. Klee let out a cheer of celebration as Jean sat down beside you, letting Klee sit in her lap. You noticed how Jean had been particularly silent throughout this. Did she feel bad for you? Or did she, too, want you to stay for some reason?

“I’ll sing a very special song for a new friend!” Venti announced to the audience, to which you blushed a little at the attention and rolled your eyes. Though, once Venti’s fingers started gracing the strings of his harp, all feelings of discomfort and irritation floated away.

“Sit here closely, let me tell,

of the young maiden’s heart who one day swelled.

The once frozen walls, the once salty tears,

Now gone with a kiss that she wished had lasted years.

In the times of old, long before the gods were bold,

there was no remedy for a heart gone cold.

The young maiden wandered, hoping for peace

from the heartache and unrest the world did unleash.

Did she find it, you ask? Did she find it? I’ll tell.

She found it in freedom, from freedom it fell.

For Barbatos did bless her, from under the Windrise tree,

She only had to meet him in the morning at three.

The warmth she had searched for, that unlike she had ever known

was hers, finally, to own.”

The crowd clapped for Venti as he finished his short song, one that was unfamiliar to you and unsettled you to no end.

What was his motive?

You weren’t stupid. You’d read enough of your books in the last month and been on enough adventures with a multitude of twists and turns to know that he had just come up with that song for you. As beautiful as it was, you felt uncomfortable with the stranger being able to see through you so well.

Yet, when he flashed you a cheeky smile while he reveled in the applause, you felt that he had good intentions. In fact, you wondered if he could do any wrong. He just didn’t seem like the type to do anything evil… Ever.

“Did you like it, Klee?” Venti asked, bending down to talk to the girl who wriggled excitedly in Jean’s lap.

“Yes! It was sooooo pretty! I’ve never heard it before!” She gushed.

“A very lovely song, indeed, Venti.”

“Thanks Jean!” Venti flashed her a confident grin.

“Well, Y/N! Thanks for staying for the show!” He said, standing back up and turning to you. “I hope I can see you again soon!”

“Yeah. See you soon.” You replied with a half-hearted tone.

You were entirely conflicted. Your mind was telling you no; You shouldn’t go out there tonight. It was dangerous and you were significantly out of shape to be dealing with slimes and hilichurls. Besides, it was just a song… What if you were reading too much into it? And what if… You just wanted him to be singing about you and him?

Your heart wanted that to be true. It’d be like the books you’ve been reading, where the prince comes up with some elaborate way of asking the maiden to meet him in secret. You were, no matter how hardened you became, a hopeless romantic at heart. Something about Venti made your heart soar from the pits of depression you had fallen into. You… Trusted him.

You could do with a late-night walk, you supposed.

It took longer than usual because of the festivities, but the city eventually fell silent as everyone either rested in their beds or in a tavern. You found walking in the empty city strangely comforting. Rather than being shut away from the world out of fear of pestering others, you could now walk freely without a single care, if you so pleased.

You took your time walking out of the city, smiling at every stray cat and even stopping for a moment at the bridge to admire the water. You missed how, when you were a young girl, you used to look at the lake and dream about visiting all the other lakes in the world. You’d seen a lot of them, now, but this one still held a special place in your heart.

Windrise, though it had been years since you visited the Archon Statue, was as beautiful as ever. The tree looked even more alive in the moonlight, if it were possible.

You were raised to believe that you were under the protection of Barbatos, though you never would call yourself devout. That title belonged to the sisters of the church, who were truly faithful to Barbatos. But you would feel comfortable saying you were a believer. You liked that Barbatos was so just, and his famous story of his liberation of old Mondstadt was a tale you frankly would never tire of.

Regardless, as you sat in front of the statue, you saw no signs of the charming bard from before. You wondered if he memorized that tale of Barbatos; A part of you wanted to hear him tell it.

“I’m a fool, aren’t I?” You said, talking to the statue (not talking to yourself.) “A silly, odd, hermit of a fool. One who shuts themselves away and avoids all their problems. How cowardly can I be?”

A peculiar phenomenon began: The words started pouring out like an uncontrollable waterfall. Once the self-deprecation started, it didn’t seem to want to end.

“My family was so proud to hear I was a part of the guild. They said that you – that Barbatos – had blessed me with the life of an adventurer – a life of freedom. Am I selfish to despise it? I don’t feel free. I feel heavy with all the troubles of the world. Outside Mondstadt it’s… Well, you’re a god, you know how it is.”

You hadn’t spoken much to anyone in over a month. You didn’t even know if anyone was listening. Was he listening? Did he see the tears starting to run down your face and did he hear the cracking in your voice?

“I feel like a joke. A witness to trouble without the power to make things right. It’s so… Frustrating. I hate myself because I hate the world. I’m so useless… So useless.”

And you cried, your head leant against the statue of Barbatos. The months of pain finally bubbled over and bared itself for the world and the gods to see. You were ashamed, and angry at yourself, but you let yourself cry. You cried up to the heavens, to Celestia. Was he watching? Listening?

“Y/N?” A voice softly spoke your name, but your sobs turned into wails immediately following and you couldn’t make yourself stop even if you wanted to.  You felt a pair of arms wrap around you and you hugged Venti back, breathing in his scent of Cecilia. He was so warm compared to the cool summer breeze that blew through the leaves above.

“I’m sorry.” You cried against his shirt; the words muffled but still understandable. There were so many apologies you were making with the single phrase: Sorry for crying, sorry for being rude. Sorry for shutting everyone who cares about me out. I’m sorry for being ungrateful. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

“You don’t have to hide your tears from me, okay?” His voice was so soft and gentle as he pulled your head away from his chest and wiped away your ever-flowing tears from your cheeks.

This went on for a while, him running his thumbs over your cheeks every few minutes and catching the tears. You felt so awful that he was witnessing you like this, he barely knew you. But something in you was saying that this was right. Trust him, this is where you’re meant to be.

You calmed down enough about an hour later that he felt he could speak.

“Everything will be alright, Y/N.”

You let out a jagged exhale. At this point, your jaw was numb, and you were developing a headache. Still, being in Venti’s arms brought you comfort unlike anything you’d ever experienced. It was… Divine.

“Do you think he heard me? That he’s watching over me?”

Venti gave you the most assured, comforting smile you think is humanly possible. Brushing your hair from your face, he replied.

“I’ve never been so certain of anything.”

[starshine583]

New Girl on the Block (15)

(Happy Easter everybody!!! I hope you all enjoy the new chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Make sure to check out the mini series called Journal Entries if you prefer :)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 14 / Ch. 16 (Ao3)

Chapter 15: Someone to Lean on

Felix crept through the darkness of the mansion, careful not to make a sound. Allegra’s footsteps echoed behind him in another room, slow and taunting, growing ever-closer as she searched for them. He needed to find a new hiding place soon or he was going to get caught, and being a seeker never ended well for him, especially when the hiders were tucked away in a mansion that they all knew like the back of their hands. The only person he might be able to find was Marinette, and even that was a stretch, as she was apparently a master at this game too. (Or was she just a master at everything?)

“Come out, come out, wherever you are~.” Allegra’s sing-song voice raised the hair on the back of Felix’s neck, and he barely bit back a sharp inhale. That clearly came from the kitchen, and it would only take a few more steps for her to be in the foyer with him. Should he run for the stairs? Dive for the family room couch? Stand in a dark corner and pray to everything holy that she wouldn’t see him? 

Felix’s gaze darted around the room for an out. What should he do, what should he-

He spotted a tall coat cabinet in the foyer, not too far from where he was now. Without hesitation, he began tip-toeing towards it, casting wary glances over his shoulder. The hiding place might be a tad obvious, but it was better than standing out in the open.

Quietly, Felix cracked the cabinet door open and slipped inside, pushing aside the coats and jackets as he did. Allegra’s footsteps sounded fainter now. Hopefully that meant she hadn’t heard him-

Felix stopped short when his hand landed on something solid, something that definitely wasn’t a jacket or a coat. He yanked his hand back with a gasp, but before he could yelp or scream, another hand- one that wasn’t his -clamped over his mouth.

“No, no, it’s just me!” A voice whispered. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Felix took a moment to breath, assessing the person in front of him. His eyes hadn’t quite adjusted to the pitch blackness of the cabinet yet, but he could scarcely make out the silhouette of a small figure with pigtails. 

“..Marinette?” He asked, pulling her hand away. How had he not noticed her before? Their chests were practically pressed together.

She nodded. “I didn’t want us getting caught. Allegra’s somewhere in the kitchen right?”

“Last I heard.” 

The two paused to listen for any signs of movement. Everything appeared to be strangely quiet now, but perhaps that meant Allegra had moved upstairs.

“Sorry for imposing.” He said once he felt the coast was clear. “I’ll go find another hiding pla-”

“Oh!” Marinette let out a soft exclamation as she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him further into the cabinet, preventing him from leaving. Her gaze snapped to the cabinet door, where, right outside, they could hear Allegra roaming around. She hadn’t gone upstairs. She’d simply stopped in the foyer to listen for more sounds herself.

Felix and Marinette stood stock still in the cabinet, both holding their breath as Allegra strolled closer to the cabinet. Had she heard them talking? Was she coming to check the cabinet? What was going to happen if she found both of them at the same time? 

The steps stopped in front of the cabinet, and everything fell silent again. Anticipation twisted through Felix’s stomach as they waited for something to happen. Was Allegra going to pass by or not? Why was she taking so long to decide? Just get it over with!

“I’m going to find you guys eventually~.” The blonde sang, her steps finally receding. “You know it’s only a matter of time.”

Marinette and Felix breathed a sigh of relief when Allegra began hopping up the stairs, and Marinette let her hands fall from Felix’s shoulders.

“That was close.” She muttered. “Maybe you should stay here a bit longer? She might see you if you try to leave now.”

Felix frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

Being crammed into a small space together might not be bad in the first minute or so, but standing in their current position any longer than that will most likely bear a certain level of discomfort. What if Allegra comes back before he has a proper chance to escape? He wouldn’t want Marinette to feel as though she were stuck in this enclosed space with him. 

“Yep!” She replied, carefree as always. “It doesn’t bother me at all. Do you mind, though? I know you usually don’t like touching other people.”

Felix shifted against the coats behind him. That was mostly true, but.. he’s come to realize that his preference of touch doesn’t apply to Marinette. She’d proven it to him time and again- at the aquarium, when they walked and talked together without him even realizing that they were touching. Then at the café, when she held his hand and it actually comforted him. And now, when they were so close that he could feel the brush of her breath and the warmth of her skin, yet he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

He’d never quite found a reason for the strange exception, but it was the first time he’d met someone, aside from his parents, who he felt truly comfortable being around. So, he figured, why question a good thing?

“No.” He answered, his faint smile probably lost in the darkness. “No, I don’t mind at all-”

The cabinet door flung open with a *Bang!*, causing Marinette and Felix to jump back with a slight scream. 

“Found you!” A voice trilled, but it wasn’t Allegra’s. No, this voice was far too sinister to be hers.

A woman stood in front of them with a triumphant grin, wearing clothes of whites and blues, and Felix felt his heart stop in his chest when he recognized the round mask on her face and the sharp pieces of her wind-mill-themed skirt. Only that blasted akuma from the café would wear such a costume. 

“How did you-” His question was cut off as she kicked him right in the stomach. The extra strength from her powers sent him flying through the back of the cabinet and skidding across the floor, and suddenly, everything was bright and shining above him. Felix coughed and gasped for the air that had been knocked out of him, all the while trying to find out why Whirlwind was even there. Had she been stalking them? Why? Wasn’t her priority supposed to be destroying buildings and not people? Why was there so much light in the room now?

Felix dragged his gaze upwards to see if Marinette was alright, but instead was met with the sight of buildings and streets. Was he in the city again? How was that possible?

The sun blazed down on him, filling him with panic as he realized it was now daytime, despite it being nighttime only seconds ago. Did he fall unconscious? Was that why he didn’t remember getting here? But that meant Whirlwind had to have brought him here.. What would be the point of that?

“Oh, finally! I was starting to think you’d never wake up!” 

Felix’s eyes snapped forward, immediately meeting the ferocious gaze of the akuma. Had she been sitting there in her winds the entire time?

“You should really set an alarm next time.” Whirlwind mused as she brought another miniature tornado forward. “It’s rude to keep your friends waiting, after all.”

Felix’s heart officially dropped to the pit of his stomach when he saw Marinette twirling in Whirlwind’s hold. She wasn’t saying anything, but the look on her face was enough for him to know how terrified she was. It was the café incident all over again.

Felix shook his head and took a deep breath. No. No, he could not go through this again. He refused to sit by and watch Marinette get taken away from him a second time.

In a burst of speed, he pushed himself to his feet and rushed forward, colliding with Marinette before the akuma could react. They spun in the air, but in the next second, right when he thought they were safe, she disappeared. And Felix was left holding onto himself.

He gasped and looked around, his mind racing with thoughts of where she possibly could have gone. The city was crumbling beneath his feet now, and he wondered how Whirlwind could have taken them so high in the time it took him to blink his eyes. 

“It really was a nice effort.”

His gaze turned to the akuma in question, who was fixing him with a look of feigned pity.

“But in the end, it was futile.” She smiled. “And now you will meet the same fate as your dear, sweet Marinette.”

Felix sucked in a breath. What did she mean the same fate as..

He looked to the wrecked streets below, praying that he wouldn’t find what he was searching for, but it only took a few seconds for him to see her. Marinette was laying amongst the wreckage, her back facing upwards, and she wasn’t moving. Oh, gosh, she wasn’t moving!

He didn’t have time to process his grief, because Whirlwind took that opportunity to drop him as well. Felix let out a scream and flailed around in the air, trying to grasp for something- anything -as he tumbled to his death. Was this how Marinette felt in her final moments? A numbing sense of terror as she watched her life flash before her eyes? Was this how his own life was going to end?

The wind rushed past his ears in a deafening manner, and his heart pounded against his chest. He was painfully aware of the distance between himself and the ground and the way it was rapidly decreasing, growing smaller and smaller and smaller until-

Felix jolted upwards with a gasp, his eyes darting around the darkness that he’d been thrown into once again. Claude and Allan were lying next to him, huddled up in their own blankets as they slept away soundly. A fan buzzed in the background, breaking the quiet-ness of the night with its white noise. Everything was.. Everything was fine.

A sigh escaped his lips, and he ran a hand through his hair as he tried to calm down. A dream.. That had only been a dream.

Or rather, a nightmare.

Felix pushed aside his covers and slipped out of bed, careful not to wake the other boys, specifically Claude. If they woke up now, they would ask questions, and he didn’t want to deal with that. Right now, he just wanted.. Well, he wasn’t sure what he wanted. Perhaps to find a quiet place and sit for a while. He certainly wasn’t going to try to fall back asleep. That would only lead to more horrors.

The echoes of his footsteps felt much too loud, despite him tiptoeing down the stairs, but Felix supposed anything could be considered loud in an open mansion such as this one, especially when it was the middle of the night. He crept through the foyer to the kitchen, where the moon was casting a soft, silver glow across the marble floors and countertops, and shuffled over to the cabinet for a cup. He wasn’t particularly thirsty, but it would provide a decent excuse should someone walk in on him. 

Felix leaned against the kitchen island, idly twisting his cup in his hands. The coolness of the water inside was soothing as it pressed against his palms and fingertips, and he gladly pushed the fuzzy images of his nightmare to the back of his mind to focus on that feeling. It was ridiculous anyway, that dream. The chances of Whirlwind coming back for revenge were next to none, and even if she did, Felix doubted she would be able to find them. At the very least the heroes would find her first. So why did he worry about it? Why did he continue to have nightmares despite the fact that over a week has passed since the incident? It was over. They were safe. Felix knew this.

And yet..

A chair in the dining room abruptly scraped across the floor, causing Felix to jump, and his gaze flicked to the kitchen doorway. No one else should be up at.. What time was it again?

Felix looked to the oven clock and almost fell over when he saw 4:00 blinking in a bright green color. Was it really that late? (or would that be considered early?)

“Ow..” A light voice muttered, immediately yanking Felix’s attention back to the dining room. Was that..?

The small figure of Marinette Dupain-Cheng stumbled to the kitchen doorway, holding onto the tip of her right foot as she went. She must have stubbed her toe on the chair earlier, which was honestly a very Marinette thing to do.

“Are you alright?” He found himself asking.

Marinette startled, as one would expect, and looked up at him with wide eyes. 

“Oh, Felix! I didn’t think you’d be up this late.”

“I could say the same thing about you. What are you doing down here?”

Marinette dropped her foot and joined him in the kitchen. “I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I would just come down and get some water or a snack.”

Felix offered a small smile. “You couldn’t sleep in a bed like Allegra’s?”

Marinette chuckled. “I know right. Her bed is super comfortable.”

“So why couldn’t you sleep? Is there something troubling you?”

The same way my nightmares are troubling me.

“Oh, no.” Marinette said, idly opening a cabinet to look for a cup. “I just can’t sleep sometimes. My mom-”

“The cups are in the far cabinet on the right.”

“Oh, thanks. My mom thinks I have a mild case of insomnia.”

Felix hummed. A mild case of insomnia, huh? He wasn’t aware that one could have such a thing. Was this a regular occurrence for her? How long had she had it?

“What about you?” Marinette asked, cutting into his thoughts. “What are you doing up this late?”

“Ah..” Felix faltered. He knew she wouldn’t judge or scold him for having nightmares- Marinette wasn’t the type to do that -but telling her about them probably wouldn’t help the situation either. She can’t magically make them disappear, and knowing about them might make her feel guilty or upset. (Plus, telling someone that you dreamt about them was always an awkward conversation topic. She’d no doubt get the wrong idea, and even the right idea was a tad strange. Who dreams about their friend being abducted and murdered before their eyes?)

“Claude’s snoring.” He finally said, casting his eyes to the moonlight that lined the floors. “I swear that man can rival an elephant.”

A laugh tumbled from Marinette, and she leaned against the island next to him. “Wow, I can only imagine. Have you tried waking him up real quick? Maman always wakes Papa up when he snores, and after he repositions himself, the snoring stops.”

“No, I hadn’t thought of that, but I doubt it will help. Claude’s.. condition is quite incurable. He’s acquired a decent handful of detention slips for disrupting class with his snoring.”

Marinette snorted. “Are you serious?”

“Deadly.”

“That’s crazy.. What about Allan? Is he awake because of the snoring too?”

Felix shook his head. “Allan hardly stirs. I assume it’s because he’s had slumber parties with Claude since they were kids. Either that or he has a secret pair of noise canceling headphones that I don’t know about.”

Marinette giggled. “I’m betting on the headphones.”

Felix smiled as well, and the conversation paused for Marinette to take a sip of her water. He took that opportunity to finally drink from his own cup too. 

There were so many things that he wanted to ask her, about the akuma attack and the insomnia and several other things, but he wasn’t sure how, or if he even should. Felix had told himself to stop meddling in her personal affairs, lest he become as nosy as the others, but they were alone again. And right now would be the perfect time to get a question or two off of his chest. He didn’t have to ask anything too personal. Just a query or two about the attack. She could always say no, right?

“..Marinette?”

She glanced at him over her red mug. “Hm?”

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

A hint of curiosity flickered in her eyes, and she set her mug aside. “What kind of question?”

“Well,” Felix said, choosing his words carefully, “it was about the akuma attack we got involved in at the café last week. You don’t have to answer, since I know it can be a delicate topic, but.. How did you manage to stay composed during the ordeal? You were abducted by a terrorist and dropped from the sky, almost dying, yet you acted like nothing happened when you got back.”

Marinette’s eyes widened, clearly surprised by the question, but she didn’t turn away or become uncomfortable like he expected her to. Instead, she simply drew in a breath as she thought the question over.

“Uh.. I don’t know. Back at my old school, we sort of had akumas all the time. It was like a breeding ground for them really. Still is. So I kind of learned how to deal with the attacks on my own. It’s definitely scary sometimes, but if you let yourself panic, you get captured. Or worse, you drag other people into danger with you. And I can’t let that happen, ya know?”

A deep sense of grief twisted in Felix’s stomach, because he didn’t know what that was like, and it pained him to hear that she did. What kind of school runs such a toxic environment that akumas become a common occurrence? How have they not been sued for the mistreat of the students yet? Was this why Marinette never talked about her old school life?

“Was that why you transferred schools?” 

Marinette let out a soft chuckle, and although it was a sad one, Felix still couldn’t believe his ears. How could she possibly find this funny or ironic in any way?

“I supposed it was one of the reasons, yes.” She said, and Felix swore the air was sucked from his lungs when he heard it. She supposed? What did she mean supposed?! What did she endure during her years at Dupont that would make continuous, near-death experiences an afterthought when it came to leaving?

He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be completely disgusted about the gross mistreatment that Marinette had gone through, and a good part of him was. No one should be treated that way, least of all a group of children and teenagers who were supposed to be protected. But he also held an immense amount of respect towards her. After going through so much in only a short period of time, Marinette has continued to smile and be happy and kind towards the people around her. That took a lot of strength that Felix knew he certainly didn’t have. 

She truly was amazing.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” He said sincerely.

Marinette shrugged, though she offered him a grateful smile. “It could have been worse. I’m just grateful Ladybug was able to fix everything after the attacks.”

Felix held back a sigh. It could have been worse, yes, but it also could have been much better.

“..What was the other reason you left?” 

He knew he shouldn’t have asked the question, since it was bound to be too personal, but his curiosity got the better of him. What type of pain or discomfort would rank higher in her mind than terrorist attacks?

Something flashed across her features, but before Felix could place what that something was, Marinette forced at a nervous laugh.

“Uh, you- you know what? Why don’t we talk about you? I feel like you know so much about me, but I barely know anything about you.”

The dodge was more than obvious, but Felix let it slide without complaint. It was only fair, after all. Her life wasn’t any of his business. The fact that she’d answered any of his questions was more than enough.

“What would you like to know?”

Marinette hummed, her posture relaxing significantly now that the subject had changed. “I don’t know.. What about your old school? Allegra said you exchanged schools two or three years ago, right? Where did you go before that?”

Felix’s lips quirked up in a small smile. That was a decent question. “I didn’t. My mother homeschooled me.”

“Herself?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” Marinette replied, strangely surprised by that fact. “Why did you decide to go to Rosemary?”

Felix heaved a sigh. “Again, I didn’t. When I became a teenager, my mother got the ludicrous thought in her head that I needed to go out and make friends. So she sent me off to that private school without letting me have a say in the matter.”

Marinette didn’t laugh outright, but the moonlight shining through the window revealed the glimmer of mirth and amusement in her eyes. “I take it you would have rather stayed home?”

Felix scoffed. “Absolutely. I’ve been suffering ever since I started attending. The students there are not only spoiled, they’re also mostly morons, which makes them incredibly obnoxious.” He tilted his head in her direction. “You excluded, of course.”

A smile graced her lips. “Of course. But what about Claude, Allegra, and Allan?”

“Oh, they’re definitely obnoxious with the rest of the school.”

Marinette laughed. “Come on, they’re not that bad.”

Felix hummed. “No, I suppose they’re not, but you can’t ever tell them I said that.”

“My lips are sealed.” She jokingly promised. “..Tell me more about your home life.”

The next few hours were spent idly chatting together, talking about him, talking about her, but mostly talking about him. Felix told her about his father’s business and his mother’s quirkiness, about the family dinners they would have and the way his mother insisted on cooking everything with his help. He told her about the books he’d read and how he’d become so engrossed in literature, and, once the topics of his home finally ran dry, he told her about his time at Rosemary and how, exactly, the trio ended up roping him into a friendship. Felix was certain he’d never talked to another person so much in his life, but he rather enjoyed it. Having someone patiently listen to your life story with undying interest actually felt nice, and the few stories that Marinette shared with him were ones he knew he would remember fondly. 

The two had fallen so deeply into conversation that they didn’t realize how quickly time was passing until Felix caught a glimpse of sunlight beginning to pour through the windows.

“Uh oh..” He muttered, setting his now-empty cup into the sink. 

Marinette turned to the window as well, and she let out a soft gasp at the sight. “The sun’s coming up already? How did it get so late?”

“You mean ‘how did it get so early’.” Felix corrected.

She gave him a flat look, possibly the first one he’d ever received from her since they met. “Don’t start with me. It’s too ‘late’ for that.”

Felix smirked. “Fine, fine. We should probably get to bed though. Allegra wanted to scout out buildings for the Valentine’s party today.”

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot about that.. Do you think either of us will be able to function on two hours of sleep?”

“I’m honestly wondering whether we’ll be able to fall back asleep at all now.”

Marinette laughed. “That’s a good point. Maybe we can just lie down for a second and pretend to wake up. It’s early enough for that, right?”

“I thought you said it was late.” Felix said light-heartedly.

Marinette scoffed. “Late, early, whatever! Let’s just go upstairs and try to get some sleep.”

Felix chuckled. “After you.”

They made their way back out to the foyer, where the white floors and walls were now painted in golden rays of sunlight, and before Felix could even begin moving towards the stairs, Marinette gasped next to him and sprinted towards the other side of the mansion.

“Felix, look!”

Past the foyer and family room, through the wide, open windows, they could see the sun peeking over the horizon, shining in all its glory over the dewy grass and enormous mansions that lined the street.

Felix walked over to Marinette, who was already pressing her hands against the window with awe. Her eyes, round with amazement, sparkled under the sun’s light, and, as cliché as it sounded, the sight reminded Felix of an ocean on a warm summer’s day.

A smile crept across her lips, one that was far more blinding than the ball of fire in front of them. “It’s beautiful..”

Felix turned to the breathtaking scenery in front of them, but for some reason, all he could think about was the way the sun wrapped itself around the locks of Marinette’s raven hair like ribbons and how the freckles on her cheeks looked like twinkling stars when the morning light hit them just right. He somewhat wondered why that was, but as Marinette pushed herself back with a wistful sigh and muttered something about resuming their walk upstairs, Felix realized that he didn’t quite care. She was simply an enthralling person, one who he found himself wishing to be with more and more everyday.

Tag List:   @artbyknigit @athena452 @nickristus-dreamer @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @arsaem @abrx2002 @neakco @pawsitivelymiraculous @too0bsessedformyowngood @nathleigh @lusicing @officiallydarkgeek @all-mights-asscheeks @tbehartoo @woe-is-me0 @raeuberprinzessin @lazuli-11 @miss-chaos27 @trippingovermyfeet @sadpotatoondrugs @ladybug-182 @jaggedheart11 @marinahrasauce @i-need-blog-ideas @thewheezingbubbledragon @crazylittlemunchkin @unabashedbookworm @moonystars14 @sunflowers-and-mooncakes @2confused-2doanything @magnificentcrapposts @moonnette @nickristus-dreamer @vixen-uchiha @casual-darkness @luxmorningstarr @jjmjjktth @kaithehero @itsme1598 @theymakeupfairies @xjaccyx @miraculous-ninja @miraculouspenta @swiftie-miraculer13 @justafanwarrior @all-mights-asscheeks @ira-sairain @lookatthestars1 @dahjokester @blissful-passing @solangelo252 @canivialemonsquints07  @derbygracie  @pleaseignorejustheretoread 

[dinosaurtsukki]

[ it takes two to tango ]

pairing: chuuya nakahara x f!reader

word count: 2.4k words

contains: enemies but they flirt a lot basically, so much sexual tension and teasing, flirty!y/n, fight scenes and dance scenes basically carry the same amount of sexual tension and i will die on this hill

summary: chuuya runs into you, his arch-nemesis, again at a masquerade ball on a mission and reluctantly allies himself with you to fulfill the same goal

a/n: okay here’s ANOTHER chuuya fic from your resident chuuya fangirl. this is my first time writing an enemies to lovers-ish fic and i had so much fun with the setting and sexual tension here so i hope you guys like it 

▸ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ◂

chuuya was being watched, he could feel it ever since he walked into the large mansion on undercover mission that mori sent him out to do. at first, he didn’t think much of it since he was going to a masquerade ball, after all. of course there would be a few girls or two who’s eyes he managed to catch. 

except, when he went off on his own inside the mansion to search for info on the enemy faction’s leader, who also happened to be hosting the party, he could tell he was now being followed.  chuuya wasn’t particularly alarmed, he could handle anyone by himself. but he was pretty pissed off when he realized who those familiar footsteps, that grew nearer than ever, belonged to.

without hesitation, chuuya pulled out his knife and whirled around to face a pistol directed at his face. even with the black, feathered mask covering half your face, chuuya would recognize his arch-nemesis anywhere. 

he watched your red lips curl up in a smirk. “fancy seeing you here, nakahara,” you purred.

“fuck, you again?” chuuya growled, not lowering his knife. 

“try as you might, i’m afraid you just can’t avoid me,”  you said, lowering your gun. “so, you’re looking into boss tanaka too, huh? i’m afraid i already searched his office before you came in.” 

“that so?” chuuya snorted, mentally cursing himself for not coming earlier. but then, you were always just one step ahead of him.

you and chuuya had been arch-nemeses ever since you crossed paths at a mission a few years ago. he had never heard of you at all and knew very well that you weren’t part of any organization. rather, you worked alone as a paid criminal: assassinating anyone or stealing information all depending on who your boss was. if you were from an enemy organization, chuuya would have thought better of you. 

“unfortunately not,” you sighed, raising the skirt of your scarlet dress and tucking your gun away in the holster strapped to your thigh. chuuya tried not to let his eyes linger too long on this show off skin and realized, with a lot of discomfort, that you looked really good tonight. the dress you wore complimented the color of your lipstick and fit you like a glove, hugging your curves in all the perfect places. your hair was even done up too.

“like what you see?” you smirked at him, causing chuuya to blush and dart his eyes away, only for you to chuckle at his response. “don’t worry, you’re not the only one enjoying the view tonight,” you winked. unlike chuuya, you were a tad bit more, upfront, about your attraction to him. after all, he was an amazing fighter and ability user, a port mafia executive, and very good-looking to top it all off. and tonight, he was especially stunning in his dark gray suit and the white mask that covered his eyes and part of his left cheek.

oh, if only you two weren’t enemies. but then again, sometimes working together had its benefits.

“boss tanaka’s downstairs mingling with the guests. i recognized a few of his co-executives there with him,” chuuya said, walking ahead down the hallway and back to the dance floor.

“oho? are you suggesting we team up for a bit?” you raised an eyebrow at him.

“only until we get what we need, l/n,” chuuya flashed you a look. “after that, it’s free for all, like always.”

“you got it,” you mused as the two of you entered the ballroom of the masquerade ball. you were thankful for the theme giving you an opportunity to look less inconspicuous after you snuck in uninvited. the two of you scanned the sea of masked guests before spotting the unmistakable large figure and bald head of your target in the middle of the dance floor, chatting with a few of his associates.

“alright, follow my lead,” you said, holding your hand out to chuuya. 

“your lead?” he said, looking at your hand with more than a hint of suspicion. you rolled your eyes at him.

“how do you expect us to get close and listen on him without drawing attention?”

chuuya looked from you to the dance floor and understood what you were talking about. still, “no way am i dancing with you.”

“how come? don’t know how?” you mocked, grinning at the infuriated look on chuuya’s face as he grabbed your hand and pulled you with him to the dance floor. 

“you’re following my lead,” he said lowly, placing a hand behind your back and pulling you close. you two were inches apart and up close, you could smell chuuya’s usual cologne and the faintest hint of cigarette smoke. then slowly, the two of you began to move with the music. 

chuuya had only happened to learn dancing, from koyou-san of course, when he realized it was useful for certain missions and mingling with a crowd. he was confident with his skill and maneuvered the two of you effortlessly through the dance floor and getting within earshot of boss tanaka. the whole point of dancing with you was to get in close and overhear his plans. 

except, chuuya was unbelievably distracted by how close you were to him. everything from your the intensity of your gaze as you listened into your target’s conversation, to the warmth of your bare arm against his, to the scent of your perfume, was enough to make him feel more than a little warm. damn it, was he attracted to you now?

“one a.m., tonight,” you suddenly leaned in to whisper in his ear. with a start, chuuya realized you were relaying the info you just heard. “they’ll leave for yokohama tower and conduct the trade there. they’ve got a buyer for the information we’re after. about no less than a billion yen, would you believe?” you chuckled.

“good,” chuuya nodded, leading you away to the middle of the dance floor when he felt your grip tighten.

“you’re not thinking of leaving me here, are you?” you narrowed your eyes at him.

“why? so that you can screw me over sooner?” 

“there’s still a few hours until one a.m, it would be strange for us to leave, don’t you think?” you said innocently, smiling when the live orchestra began to play a livelier music piece. “we’ve got time to kill.”

talking to you constantly felt like making deals with a devil. previous experience told chuuya to drop you here right here and now. but the need to be kept on his toes around you was terribly exciting. it was a different kind of rush that chuuya couldn’t get from fighting even the strongest of opponents.

and you were the only one who could give it to him.

chuuya noticed the shift in the music at the same time you did and without warning, moved his hand down to your lower back and dipped you close to the floor. reading his movements, you smirked and wrapped your leg around his as chuuya lowered you.

“good choice, nakahara,” you said, drawing out the syllables of his name and leaning in to whisper in his ear. “it takes two to tango, after all.”

...

years of running into each other in missions and having to fight only made you and chuuya familiar with each other’s movements. when you danced, you were in complete coordination that you didn’t even have to think about where to move your feet. the fact that your faces were partially hidden by masks did nothing to remove the intensity behind your gazes and by the end of the dance, both of you were breathless.

dancing was almost no different from fighting. of course there was movement involved, a whirlwind of limbs but this time with weapons in hand. and then, there was trust involved. but the trust you placed in your dance partner to lead was very different in the trust you placed with a rival who happened to be fighting for your side momentarily.

���well, well, guess we have no choice but to beat all these guys up,” chuuya smirked, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it carefully against the fire exit ladder. he wasn’t sure if he was going to get a chance to fight some people tonight but the chance presented itself when you two barged into the trade-off on top of yokohama tower. 

“i’m sure you enjoy that immensely,” you sighed, eyeing all the mafioso members surrounding boss tanaka that now had you and chuuya surrounded on all sides.

“why, tired?” he taunted you.

“no,” you snorted, taking out your pistol and loading a new magazine. “i just bought this fucking dress.” 

“do you two really think you could get out of this situation?” boss tanaka sneered. you and chuuya broke in right before the trade-off actually happened and he tucked the USB containing the information you two were after into his pocket. maybe he was right to think that, after all he had one of the largest organizations in yokohama second only to the port mafia itself. he dealt in the illegal weapons trade in the city and you could bet that your new client and the port mafia were hoping to take over that. 

but you were a highly-paid mercenary for a reason  and chuuya nakahara was the port mafia’s best fighter. this was child’s play at most.

chuuya rolled up his sleeves and got into his fighting stance beside you. “try not to drag me down, l/n.” 

“speak for yourself, nakahara.” 

and with that, the two of you sprung into action. chuuya, not letting his ability to give an unfair advantage, dodged bullets left and right before sending kick after kick, knocking opponents down to the ground. he easily dodged a punched aimed at his jaw and gripped a man’s arm before throwing him over his back. once he pulled out his knife to use it, he was even more deadly.

as much as he hated to admit it, you caught up with him with easily. you had both pistols out at ready, firing them at your opponents without missing a single shot. your movements were practically seamless, filling in for each other’s blind spots and hitting targets with just the briefest of signals.

at one point, chuuya whirled around to find one of your pistols pointed at him. without a second thought, he moved his head a fraction to the side as a bullet whizzed past his cheek to hit someone behind him.

“that was a bit too close, don’t you think?” he growled at you.

“you really think i’d be dumb enough to kill you with a bullet?” you snorted, walking past him to where boss tanaka now lay on the ground, bleeding from the gunshot wound. 

“im- impossible. those were my best fighters,” he coughed, staring up at you.

“well, rest assured, they did put up a fight,” you smiled sweetly before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out the USB you were after. “what do you think’s in here?” 

“trade routes, probably,” chuuya said, taking his jacket and slipping into it again before stuffing his hands in his pockets and addressing you. “so, how are we going to do this?” 

“well, i was the one who killed boss tanaka,” you raised your eyebrows at him, tossing the USB up and down in your hand. 

“yeah, but i killed more of his henchmen,” chuuya reasoned.

“those are henchmen. everyone knows it doesn’t end until you take the boss.” 

“any one of those henchmen could have killed you if i hadn’t taken them out first.” 

you sighed. “i really don’t feel like fighting you tonight, nakahara.” 

“let’s just get it over and done with then, l/n,” chuuya cracked his knuckles and before you knew it he had you bent over backwards against the railing of the rooftop with his hand wrapped around your neck. you tried to move but the red glow around chuuya’s body and the heaviness around you suggested that it was futile.

“no... fair... ability,” you choked out. now it was chuuya’s turn to smirk as he had you right where he wanted you.

“l/n, you’re the last person who gets to talk to me about what’s fair,” he said, plucking the USB out of your hand and tucking it into the pocket of his shirt before finally letting you go. you gasped for air, massaging your throat as you glared at chuuya. “that’s what you get for double-crossing me last time.” 

“guess i kinda deserve it after slashing your motorcycle tires,” you laughed. 

“go to hell, l/n.” 

“are you asking me out on a date, nakahara?” 

“you wish.” 

“one last thing,” you sauntered up to chuuya, your bodies as close as they were earlier while dancing. he braced himself for anything else you might pull. you raised a hand and for a moment, chuuya thought you were going to make another grab for the USB, only for you to lean in and plant a kiss on his cheek.

he was beyond surprised and it took all of chuuya’s willpower to appear uninterested when he could feel his cheeks burning from the contact. the amused smile playing on your lips only aggravated him more. 

“the hell was that for?” he scowled.

“just wanted to see how you’d react,” you shrugged nonchalantly, sliding your pistols back into their holsters. “until next time, nakahara,” you waved before stopping by the door that you two came in and looking at him over your shoulder. “maybe sooner than you think.” 

...

chuuya shrugged out of his jacket and took off his mask as soon as he got into his car. it had been a long night, especially after running into you, and he wanted nothing more than to get home, take a long, relaxing shower, and get as much sleep as he could before going to the office later that day. 

but before all of that, chuuya took out the USB that he had spent all night trying to get and opening his laptop to check its contents. however, when he finally opened it to find a single .txt file inside, he knew something was wrong.

“fucking bitch,” he cursed under his breath, realizing that you must have swapped out the actual USB for one that you brought with you when you kissed him earlier. it was even more frustrating when chuuya remembered that he was caught completely off-guard by it. 

after collecting himself, he finally opened the .txt file, even though he knew it would just contain a gloating message from you. but the message was just two words, typed beside what appeared to be your phone number.

chuuya could almost hear your voice as he read it: call me.

▸ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ┈┈┈┈ 🎕 ◂

taglist (check out my post for details on being part of my taglist): @waitforitillwritemywayout @atsumu-brainrot​ @laure-chan @goodfoodxoxoxo ​ @guardianangelswings @ah-kaashi @amberalisa @whootwhoot​ @liz-multifandom-hotel​ @kac-chowsballs​ @violentfarewll​

[ggukkiedae]

❝𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕟’𝕥❞

𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:

⇢ hannah gets two different points of view regarding her dilemma: within the group and out of the group

⇢ set in late march 2018

𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜:

⇢ hints at self-esteem issues

𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜:

⇢ conversations written in italics are spoken in english. feedback is highly appreciated!

Hannah took a deep breath as she entered the dark practice room. It had become a habit to leave only one of the corner lights on so it wouldn’t look like there was anyone in there. This way, no one came in before she left in the morning.

She sighed. Having to decline Donghyuck’s offer of a lunch date despite their schedule was upsetting mostly because she knew it made him sad. She tossed her bag to the side and settled next to the door.

“Rough day?”

The unfamiliar voice caught her attention. She looked up and saw someone near the mirrors. She nodded. “Yeah, a little.”

“Sorry, you might not know me,” he walked towards her and hestured to the floor in front of her asking if he could sit, which she obliged, “but we’ve been talking to each other on katalk because of Jaemin.”

Her eyes lit up with realization. “Yangyang!”

“That’s me.”

“Sorry you had to see me all exhausted for the first time we meet in person.” A guilty smile made its way up to her face.

He shook his head at her statement. “No, it’s fine. I get it. Not to mention you’re being overworked, aren’t you? With being in all the promotions?”

“You have no idea.”

A short silence fell between the two, but it wasn’t awkward. It was quite comforting, actually. The last few days basically had her not talking to people comfortably, so it was nice to just sit and not be cautious about throwing off the other members’ dynamics or making them uncomfortable.

“If I’m not overstepping,” the trainee began while scratching the back of his neck, “have you been okay? I’ve seen the articles about you recently, and the other trainees have been talking about how you spend so much time in practice rooms even if you have a full schedule.”

She smiled at him. “Let’s just say I really need to catch up with the 127 members in terms of skill.”

He gave her a confused look at her statement. “You know, you’re just as skilled as them. The higher ups wouldn’t have added you if you weren’t.”

“They would for publicity.”

“Fine, you have a point.” His slightly disappointed grumble made her laugh. “With you, though, it’s because of your talent. They saw your potential for more mature concepts. Not to mention you’re pretty popular among the trainees for being a powerful vocalist and rapper despite having a main dancer position.”

Admittedly, hearing those words were assuring. She scanned his face for a bit as if looking for any signs of lies, yet she found none. A small smile made its way onto her face before disappearing upon remembering her being the cause of her members’ discomfort.

“It’s a little more than that, but thanks.”

Just then, Yangyang’s phone lit up with a notification. The boy checked it quick before looking at Hannah apologetically.

“Well, I’m going to have to leave you here,” he told her. “The others are looking for me.”

“Go on and get some sleep.”

He nodded and stood up before looking at her again. “Just so you know, the other NCT members love having you around. I hear them talk about you fondly a lot around the company. If something’s wrong, I’m sure they’d be willing to help.”

Hannah watched while Yangyang left the room. His words took up her mind. The other members talked about her? They liked having her around? What happened to them having to change the way they act because she was there?

In all honesty, she’s been pretty sad about not really hanging out with the other members the whole week. She felt bad everytime she turned a member down when they offered for her to join them. As introverted as she was, all the noisy meals she’d be part of, her hanging out in the 127 dorms, just everything, she missed it.

She shook her head with a chuckle before speaking out loud. “NCT, look what you’ve done to me. You’ve made me miss human interaction.”

She stood up and dusted herself off. Maybe a few runs of different choreographies would help her clear her mind. After all, it would be productive. Perfect the choreography while avoiding thoughts, right? It’s not like she hasn’t done it before. She’d do it again.

Except, she couldn’t.

The doors to the practice room burst open once again, except this time it was none other than her twin flame followed by her two best friends. She groaned when she saw the determined look on Donghyuck’s face, already knowing he would not leave her until he gets what he wants. And she her suspicions.

“Lee Haeeun,” Donghyuck started packing her things as he scolded her, “You are coming with me to the 127 dorms where we are going to have a big dinner then sleeping in. It’s a practice day tomorrow, anyway. We’re calling in sick.”

Her suspicions were correct.

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” The look she received from Jaemin while silently asking for help was one she knew all too well. Jeno slipped off to the side to look for her jacket.

“Listen to him, Hannah,” Jaemin approached her, holding her face in his hands. The way she didn’t push him away made him worry. She usually hates when people do stuff like this to her. “We know you’ve been using my mix of coffee to stay awake. We know you haven’t been going back to the dorms at all. From the looks of it, you’re spending all your time practicing. What did I tell you about overworking yourself?”

“Not to,” she mumbled while looking down.

She felt her coat being draped around her shoulders. Jeno helped her slip her arms through the sleeve before throwing an arm around her. He gave Jaemin a quick glance, leaving the latter to nod before approaching Donghyuck. That left the two other 00s just out of ear’s reach if they spoke lowly.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she rolled her eyes while lightly pushing Jeno’s chin to make him face the opposite direction. “I had my reasons.”

He chuckled just the slightest bit. “I know. It would help, though, if you tell us your reasons. Haechan’s been worried sick, and I’m pretty sure Jaemin’s close to having you on house arrest after finding out you haven’t been in your dorm for a while.”

She bit her lip, pondering on what to do. Was it worth it to tell them that she felt out of place in the group after two years of promoting with them? Or would they think it’s stupid? Maybe they’d agree that she wasn’t enough to be grouped with them. What if they judged her for all this and thought she was annoying or dramatic? All these thoughts were eating away at her mind, making her completely unaware of the fact that her nails were digging into the palms of her hands. Her actions went completely unnoticed by her until she felt Jeno lightly pry her hands open and press his handkerchief to one of her hands while he held the other.

“It’s fine,” he reminded her as their two friends approached them. “It’s just me, Hyuck, and Nana.”

“We’d never judge you no matter what, Haeeunie.”

Donghyuck led her over to the couch and sat her down, Jeno crouching right by them and Jaemin sitting behind Hannah to begin braiding her hair. Something he liked to do to make her feel relaxed.

Was she really going to tell these three what was going on? She could just say that she felt like she needed the extra practice. That would get her scolded, though. She could say she’s been sleeping over at Yoonmi’s. Then again, Mark could easily call the younger girl and ask if it’s true. Besides, the internationally popular 01 liner had a lot on her plate already. She could say that she’s been hanging out with Yangyang more. One look at Donghyuck made her think twice. Either he’d immediately tell she was lying because he’d know when she made new friends in real life, or he’d get overprotective and end up leading to another katalk incident type rant.

She took a deep breath. Maybe the truth would be the best?

“I guess I just thought I needed to give you guys a little space.”

Her statement was met with confused looks from the three boys. Why would she need to give the rest of the members space? If anything, the members needed to give her space considering how much coddling she was receiving, especially since she wasn’t used to it and found it uncomfortable.

“Nothing bad, I promise,” she said as she shook her hands at them, “I was just thinking. I have to do a lot to catch up with the 127 members and the U members as well. Not to mention I need to pick up my skill since you guys and the rest of the dreamies are becoming better dancers than I am. I have to be up to par with your level, you know?”

“And who told you this?” Donghyuck’s eyes darkened upon hearing her indirectly put herself down. “Who told you that you weren’t up to par with us?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve read the articles,” Jaemin cooed at her as he finished braiding her hair. He rested his hands on her shoulders and pressed a light kiss to the top of her head.

Jeno, on the other hand, squinted his eyes at her. “You did. You’re overthinking again, Hannah.”

“No, I’m not.” The way her fist clenched tighter around the boy’s handkerchief did not go unnoticed.

“Yes, you are,” Jeno told her. “First things first, you’ve been training for longer than a lot of the hyungs in the company. You even did gymnastics, cheerleading, and some dancing before getting here. Second, you’re a way better dancer than us. You understand your body and the way it moves really well. I don’t know about the hyungs, but we go to you for help with our dance, remember?”

“That’s my Haeeunie,” Donghyuck lightly patted her cheek. “Top notch dancer, can’t be beat. This is why you shouldn’t listen to these airheads if they say you’re not up to par with us.”

A small smile made its way to her face. “Thanks, guys.”

“No,” Jeno inserted, “there’s more. You wouldn’t be avoiding the hyungs in the waiting room and in schedules just because you think you’re not up to par with them. What else is going on?”

She looked at them one by one, Jeno’s knowing look and Jaemin’s worried look burning into her skin. She glanced at Donghyuck and saw the guilt in his eyes.

“You already know, don’t you? I guess I feel out of place. The 127 oppas have been together for so long and have their own dynamics, and suddenly I’m there making them act different. I don’t wanna impose on anything. Not to mention, being in a group with 18 men as a girl can be pretty overwhelming. I’m the odd one out, it’s pretty obvious.”

“No, you aren’t. I was gone for a year. If anything, I’m the odd one out. I missed out on so many things. But I’m not. You’re not, either.”

The hands on her shoulders moved to encircle her waist, pulling her to Jaemin’s chest as he spoke to her. Her hair was getting the slightest bit messed up from him nuzzling it with his cheek. The two boys in front of her, however, exchanged glances.

Jeno looked at her seriously. “Have you talked to Yoonmi about this? She’d be the one to understand that feeling the most, wouldn’t she?”

“She has her own problems right now. I don’t wanna stress the poor kid out even more.”

“You’re not imposing on anything, you know?” Donghyuck asked her. This brought all her attention towards him. “The hyungs love having you around, and they want to hangout with you. They’re just getting used to it since they’re not as used to you as we are. But they really want you to be comfortable with them.”

“Yuta hyung’s upset that you don’t do Japanese lessons with him anymore,” Jaemin added. This made her feel guiltier.

So they didn’t see her as an outcast? They wanted her around? Now, she’s just been selfish by drawing back and avoiding them to protect her own feelings without even considering the fact that she could be upsetting the others.

“Oh.”

That was all that could come out of her mouth.

“Hey,” Jeno began while resting a comforting hand on her knee, “it’s inevitable for some things to change, alright? That doesn’t mean you’re the odd one out. The hyungs just aren’t sure how to treat you, especially after Taeyong hyung set down a few rules. They love you, though, and they want to be close with you.”

“And if the netizens say I’m trying too hard by being close to the others and ruining their dynamics?”

Jeno scoffed at that. “Let them. They don’t know us, and they don’t know you. They don’t know what goes on in the group. Everyone has something bad to say about everything. About Haechan, Jaemin, me, everyone. Even Jisung, and he’s just a kid. What they think doesn’t matter though, as long as we know what really does, right? Our group’s friendship.”

As much as she wanted to disagree with Jeno and say that they needed to take the public’s thoughts into account as idols, she knew he was right. As people, they had to remember to not think too much about what strangers think. It would be hard, but she knew she had to try.

“Right,” she finally agreed after a moment of silence. The smile on Jeno’s face grew, and Jaemin’s hands tightened around her.

“We are having a fun lunch with the hyungs tomorrow,” Donghyuck hopped up out of his seat and pulled her with him, “then having a dreamie dinner for the first time in a while. For now, though, you’re coming home with me to my dorm, not yours.”

“No more avoiding or over-practicing, alright, Hannah?” Jaemin gently brushed some of the stray strands of her hair out of her face then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek after she nodded. She scrunched her face up in disgust, making them laugh. Donghyuck was leading her out the door, Jaemin hot on their tail until she realized she left her stuff. With an abrupt halt, she turned to grab her bag but was met with Jeno’s cheeky smile.

“I already got your stuff, you goldfish,” he laughed at her. “Looks like the lack of sleep has been affecting your memory.”

“Oh, shut up, Jen.”

[barbecuebabybackribs]

Sex with Jasper Hale would include: (Male Reader)

(If the title isn’t warning enough this is nsfw- also yes I know I said this would take a few days but I 1. had my friend bugging me to do it and 2. Needed a break from more complicated requests and life. Also this felt so awkward writing but I hope you guys enjoy) P.S: this is slightly tailored to my friend who requested it- so I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit you

NSFW UNDER CUT!!!!

Human Mate:

Jasper is afraid of hurting you- he is extremely strong and everyone always thinks he’s about to loose control, even though he would never hurt you when everyone around you is on edge and you’re an empath, it puts you on edge.

But when your alone, and he only feels your emotions and his own, he’s able to relax enough to feel comfortable being intimate with you.

It almost always starts with a simple kiss- which he doesn’t end.

He would 100% stop if he ever felt you weren’t into it

He’s a dominant top- he will let you ride him but you both know who’s in control

He loves to pin you to whatever surface is closest- bed, table, wall, it doesn’t matter

He loves how you can’t get out of his grasps, he’d completely in control of just how much pleasure you’ll get

He’s a big tease

He’ll touch you just about anywhere except where you want him to

He’d slowly kiss down your body, paying attention to your emotions and every time he feels a spike of arousal when he touches a specific spot- he pays extra attention there and makes a mental note for next time

Slowly strips you down- almost to slowly but that’s the point- to drive you absolutely insane with lust- which he does help along with his powers

The man use’s his powers a lot but can you blame him?

Calls you pet names the entire time “Darling” “Love” “Sugar”- has called you “Baby boy” a few times when your especially desperate for him

He. Love. Going. Down. On. You.

Almost loves it more then you going down on him- although it’s a close call

He has no gag reflex- which he uses to his advantage

Loves when you moan out his name and pull at his hair

He will stop if you ever suppress your moans/whines- he wants to know just how good he’s making you feel

He’ll overwhelm you with, waves of lust, his mouth, and his hand grasping at your ass/ massaging you.

He loves hearing your moans and your breathless praises

It’ll depend on his mood if he let’s you finish from his mouth, he loves when your moans raise and he can feel you attempting to thrust into him as you reach your high, or he’ll take you right to the edge then stop all contact- relishing in your needy whines and small thrust into the air,

“Jasper, please.”

“Don’t worry, Darling. I’m not even close to being done with you yet.”

Usually tells you to take his clothes off, making it as difficult for you as possible

Arousal is an emotion he can control- and if he so wishes he could overwhelm you with so much lust and arousal he could make you cum without even touching you- he’s tested it before and caught you off guard when you were doing the laundry/cooking

So when you’re trying to strip him he’ll randomly send waves of lust your way- just eating up how you’ll grip his clothes tightly and lean into him- whole body shaking as you do so- but he’ll just bring you to the edge before ceasing his teasing

If he’s in no hurry, he’ll let you go down on him

This man is almost never vocal- except in the bedroom

He doesn’t want to thrust to harshly so he let’s you control most of it

It’s alright if you can’t fit all of him down your throat- you are human and there is a limit for you.

He does however love when you use you hand to rub and pump the rest of his length

He’s pushed you off of him more then once- usually getting so lost in the pleasure he can not trust himself to not loose control

“Jazz? You alright.”

“Come here, Now.”

If you get him to riled up your in for a rough ride- literally

He will bend you over on any surface/ press you against a wall

You’re practically begging when he’s stretching you/ prepping you

He’s prepared 99.9% of the time with lube- if he isn’t it’s purely oral that time, as he wants to make it as painless as possible.

When he’s done prepping you he’ll ask if you’re ready- if you are he’ll thrust into you slowly but forcefully

Wait’s till your fully adjusted before setting a relentless pace

Nuzzles into your back- has lightly bit into you neck once or twice- usually doesn’t though just in case

 Grips the back of your neck and thrusts into you- making sure to hit your spot every. single. time.

When you’re reaching your high he will drape against your back and use one hand to support himself and the other to jerk you off

He’s got a praise kink- loves when you praise him, but especially loves muttering small praises into your ear at he fucks into you

You moans only spur him on to fuck into you harder

He’s a sucker if you beg him to go harder or do something differently- man can’t say no

“Please- please don’t stop!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He’ll time your release with an specially brutal wave of lust

You’ll be shaking after your release- and being overstimulated by him continuing to thrust into you chasing his own release

When he cums he’ll practically growl into your ear- thrust becoming even rougher and erratic.

He has and will overstimulate you- he’s a vampire which means lots of stamina

He never goes to far- understanding you’re still human and he doesn’t want it to get to unbearable

But if you’re up to it- he’ll keep going till you’re practically falling apart

He does like it when you ride him, he’ll make you hold his hands and watch you fuck yourself on him

He adores every part of you, almost get’s lost in trailing his fingers down your sides, your face, everything

If he decides your pace isn’t fast enough for him, he’ll grab your hips and thrust up into them

He also like when your on your back, he loves watching your facial expressions, the pleasure that washes over your face- that he caused- it really spurs him on

He also liked being able to kiss you in the middle of the act, your mouth, your neck, anywhere really- but especially the mouth, he likes when he thrusts particularly hard while kissing you and you have to break the kiss with a broken moan

God this man loves everything about you

He’d also be open to tying you up occasionally- he’d use silky material because he 1) likes the feel, and 2) he likes how it doesn’t hurt you

This man loves being in control and when you let him tie you up and forfeit all control to him- it really get’s to him

He makes sure you have a safe word in place before you do anything.

If he feels you be uncomfortable- hit’s the breaks

He’s stopped in the middle of an extremely intense session because he felt the slightest amount of discomfort

“I am so sorry, Do you want me to stop?”

“No- Jasper that’s not it-”

“Are you okay?”

“Jasp-”

“Are you hurt?”

“Babe please calm down–”

It takes a lot of convincing for you guys to continue

This man is all about the aftercare.

He doesn’t need it as much as you physically- although emotionally he does appreciate when you praise him and tell him you love him.

He’ll clean you up, has forced you to take Advil if it was a particularly rough night, and I hope you like sappy jasper because that’s what you get

Kisses your forehead and tells you how good you did, what a good boy are.

He pulls you close to him, wrapping his arms around you- loving if you cuddle up to him more by wrapping your arms back around him.

He likes to feel your body slowly relax as he talks to you, you sleepily mumbling responses.

Until your heart beat and breathing calms and you drift off to sleep, and he’s able to watch you sleep in his arms- god he’s so happy he found you

He loves when you trust him enough to sleep next to him

In the end he just wants you to feel safe and loved, even in your most intimate moments

(Uhm… so that’s my take on it…. i’ll see myself out- if you want a vampire mate version just lemme know- I honestly don’t know how I feel about this.)

[darkmindsotome]

Icy Interrogation

Title: Icy Interrogation

Fandom: Love365 Masquerade Kiss

Pairing:  Kazuomi Shido x MC

Word count: 2,998

Warning: NSFW Smut

Written by: darkmindsotome

Summary:  A sudden trip with no explanation triggers a game of unmasking that becomes hotter than the weather.

Tagging @voltage-vixen as requested. Prompt #10: Ice Cube Cool Down | Ice Cream Cool Down

---

It was a lazy day and I found myself still temporarily “homeless” and staying at Raven. When everything had happened, Kazuomi stepped up and offered me a job and a roof over my head. I was really grateful to him. Not just with the offer but knowing that I would have lost another part of myself in the line of duty without him.

As ludicrous as it sounded, he was my safe place I could run to and know I would be accepted. The man topping the world's blacklists as the number one bad guy. The man who at any moment could once more be my target. It was his loving arms always reaching out for me, willing to hold me. Me as I am, not who I was for work. Plain old Mc. It was a joy I had never experienced before in any other relationship. He was his own brand of dangerous persuasion and I continue to fall fast and hard for it every time.

Since becoming a couple, he had helped me remember the me who I was before all the lies, aliases and espionage. He comforted me when I didn’t even know I needed it and accepted me no matter how I was acting. The love and kindness of this man was an absolute truth he hid well behind his usual playboy mask. That’s not to say he was an Angel, if anything he was a Devil at times. Still, better the Devil you know right?

Raven in England was different to Raven in New York or Tokyo. It was still a grand luxury hotel but there was something a bit more reserved about it. I giggled imagining how that sat with Mr Dramatic. A man famed the world over for his extravagance and love of all things opulent.

I had been rushed onto a private jet in the early hours of the morning in New York only to wake up in an airfield in England nearly seven hours later. All my repeated requests for my boyfriend to explain why I was here were met with evasive answers. In typical Kazuomi fashion, he would not reveal any secrets, if I wanted to know I would have to uncover the answers myself. Well, game on.

When I was pondering how I would get him to crack the door to the penthouse opened, the man in question strolling inside. The dark green bags in his hand had the words Harrods picked out clearly on them in gold. He vanished into the kitchen and reappeared empty-handed moments later with a big grin on his face.

“Welcome back.” I adjusted myself on the sofa dropping the magazine I had been idly perusing on the coffee table. The ice in my glass clinked against the tumbler where a final mouthful of fruit juice remained waiting to be drunk.

“What no third degree?” Kazuomi practically purred. He was really in a very happy mood which made me even more suspicious. Seriously what was this guy up to?

“What would be the point? You already made it very clear you intend on telling me nothing. I’m not in the habit of wasting my time on a blisteringly hot day.” I shrugged pretending my curiosity was not reaching its limits.

Kazuomi was watching me intently. My little act was no doubt doing nothing to hide anything from him. Damn him and his observational superpowers. It was easy to tell that he was wanting me to bite. Take the bait and play along with his little games. ever since my questioning on the plane he had this playful look in his eyes.

The heat of the summer here was different to that from back home and I was feeling sluggish. It was so hot even the locals had dubbed the weather “unseasonal” and I had found a bit of solace in a light cotton dress.

“Fair point.” He agreed with me smiling that Cheshire cat grin. I was just about to reach for my glass to finish the last of my drink when he took it for himself. I watched as the minted apple juice was drained over his lips and slid down his throat. “Ah, that’s the stuff.”

“Hey!”

“Yes?” He kept hold of the glass in his hand-balancing it on the back of the sofa we were sharing. The look on his face was far from guilty if anything it was yet another taunt to get me to play with him. A silent request I was already planning on fulfilling.

“Oh, you are so going to regret that.”

“Am I? I can’t wait to see what my Goddess has in mind for retribution.”

That cocky grin on his face was as irritating as it was sexy. Well, the game had officially started so I guess now it's time to play. His successful theft of my drink had given me an idea.

I moved over to his side careful to push my breast against his arm and let him see them taking a new form as they pressed into him. He was observant enough to have seen from the second he walked in that I wasn't in a full set of lingerie. Trailing my hand over his leg from his knee to the top of his thigh, I made sure to brush a little too close to his cock. He relaxed back into the sofa. Both arms now stretched out over the seat he looked like the epitome of a lion surveying the savannah.

“Mm don’t tell me my girl has been bored waiting for me?” That same playful happy purr rippled through the room. This time instead of spiking my curiosity it made my heartbeat speed up.

“You left me all alone again without a single word as to when you’d be back and with only glossy magazines to keep me company.” I whined a little as I played the part he wanted. I wasn’t so new at these little games that I would not know my own role.

Reading my target was something that kept me alive on missions. It was what made our games together so much fun. Both of us competing to unmask the other. To get the other to surrender and declare a winner. It was a little amusing that it normally “officially” ended in a draw between us even if Kazuomi was really the winner in all honesty.

“A disastrous oversight on my part. How ever would you like me to make it up to you?” On cue, he made the first play. He was matching my mock whine with fake placation in his voice. Moving his hips so my hand brushed harder where he wanted it to.

“Well, you could tell me why we are here. I thought you had work in New York to attend too.” I pulled my hand away preventing his move and brought it up to his cheek. Brushing my thumb over his lips as I looked into his eyes. He took the pad of my thumb between his lips biting down onto it before answering.

“Somethings are more important and can’t wait.”

“What things?” I tried pressing for a real answer knowing how futile it was. His eyes were locked on me in that stubbornly defiant manner he had where he was not going to give up anything until he was ready.

“All will be revealed in due time.” The grin on his face spread wider. He was certainly enjoying this.

I gave up simply stroking him and decided to straddle him instead. The sight of him trapped under me was always a thrill and not one I always had. Kazuomi was the type to enjoy what he called a perfect view. It only happened for as long as he would allow it before I was usually flipped over and he ended up on top.

Our bedroom activities were always a flurry of motion and give and take. The endless competition between us to come out on top. This kind of contest that carried throughout our relationship and into sex left us both craving more. Right now, I was looking for something he had, the key to the secret emergency trip to England that in his mind couldn’t wait.

My fingers undid his shirt while he remained very calm and collected, his arms still locked over the back of the sofa. The only part of him moving except for the growing bulge under my thighs was his eyes. They were roaming over me taking in every detail and mapping every curve.

After uncovering his broad bare chest, I dipped my hand down and relieved him of his belt. Leaning forward I covered his lips with mine. His tongue lapped at my lower lip before pushing past and ravishing my mouth. The remnants of mint and apple on his tongue dissolved inside me as the heat between us rose.

The arms that had been holding back were wrapping around me tight like a snake. The cold glass in his hand pressed into the dip of my spine causing me to groan into his mouth. If I wasn’t careful, he was going to steal all of my rational thoughts and I would forget about my self-imposed mission.

Reaching behind I took the empty glass from his hand. After breaking out of our lip lock I poured one of the melting ice cubes into my mouth. The devilish smirk on his face was still plastered there. He had never once tried to hide how he loved his kinky little games and I was always willing to play along.

I reached up and pulled a fist full of his reddish-brown hair exposing his neck to me. Dragging the ice in my mouth over that pulsating artery and feeling him moaning under me was like I was charged with an electrical current. His hands settled on my ass rubbing his thumbs over the top of the elastic on my panties through my dress. I pushed his hands away pinning one on either side of him and brought my mouth lower.

The water from the melting ice escaped my lips running across his muscles. That broad chest becoming something of a salacious slip and slide. I tracked the flow to his own waistband and slid my weight from his lap to rest my head over his now rock hard desire.

He hissed as I pulled it free from the confines of his pants exposing enough to do what I planned and no more. The hiss became an almost instant grunt as he bucked his hips against me when I slid the ice along his shaft. Rolling it and my tongue around that throbbing head and back down again. He hated to be in clothes at times like this and I was taking a little satisfaction in his discomfort. Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?

Ice melted now I wrapped my mouth around his cock bobbing my head alternating fast and slow. I was taking full advantage of the chill in my mouth before it had time to fade, seeking peeks at him from between his thighs. Each time I looked up I saw that dark and powerful look waiting for me. The one that didn’t just threaten to eat me up but promised to. I felt my own passions stirring more and was a little thankful when he freed his hands and pulled me off his cock back up into his lap.

“Is that another of your little spy tricks?” He was rushing to free me from my dress. His fingers fumbling with the buttons.

“You know I never sleep with someone when I’m working.” I reminded him of the facts, rolling my hips against him before whispering in his ear. “It’s all me.” He shuddered when I took the lobe of his ear in my mouth and gave it a little tug. Our little game was only just beginning.

“What a bad girl you are.” He chuckled pulling me to him so he could clamp down on my collar bone. A sting of pain later and I had a fresh very visible mark for the world to see. It was childish and as much as I would complain later about it I also loved the idea that he wants me so badly he felt compelled to do it. “I always knew you were my kind of woman.”

His fingers now given up with undoing my dress properly slipped into the gaps between them and tugged hard. The sound of fabric ripping and popped buttons hitting the floor like a rainmaker only served to create the music to our mood. His trousers and my panties were yet more fallen victims to our passions.

Shimming to the edge of the sofa he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted us both off the seat. I didn’t complain about the dress I knew it would only be met with “I’ll get you a new one” later. What did make me confused was we weren’t moving towards the bedroom at all.

“Mhm… where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” Kazuomi walked into the brightly lit space that was the kitchen. Instead of putting me down on the floor, he sat my ass on the cold hard countertop. The polished marble was beautiful and smooth but damn it was freezing.

He bent down and rummaged around in the freezer for a second before pulling out a small tub with a very familiar logo.

“Is that Lady Borden?”

“A completely new and exclusive flavour. It was released today.” He smiled pulling the paper cap from the carton and then dipping his fingers into the frozen treat. He brought it to my mouth and bit his lips as I slid my tongue over his digits chasing that luxurious creamy delight.

I was so absorbed in not letting the ice cream on his fingers go to waste that it took a few seconds for what he had just said to sink in. Lady Borden was known to produce limited flavours in different countries all over the world. They were exclusive to the place so it was not a massive shock that one would be done in England, but it was released today?

“H-hang on. Are you telling me you put work on hold and flew from one side of the Atlantic to the other JUST to get this?” I snatched the carton from his hand and looked at the pale green container. Luxury Early Grey Tea flavour ice cream. I’d been so into what we were doing I didn’t even taste it.

“Naturally. I know you’re a superfan too and the chance to get my hands on the first tubs of this was too much to pass up.” He took the pot back with one hand and used his other to push me lower onto the marble. “And now I also get to have my favourite dessert on the best plate in the house.”

I felt ridiculous laying on a countertop but I knew that feeling wasn’t going to be in my mind very long. I shivered as he took a scoop of the ice cream out once more on his fingers and drew a line on me from my belly button to my clavicle.

“It’s cold.” I squirmed. Kazuomi dipped down and dragged his tongue along the line he had just painted. Instead of going right to the top, he stopped at my chest. Taking a nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it before moving to the other side.

“I’ll warm you up.” His breath over my flushed skin was hotter than anything else in the room.

“It’s all sticky.” I arched against him his trail of kisses and gentle nips with his teeth continued as he lazily painted me with more of the ice cream.  

“I’ll be sure to clean it all up and lick you nice and clean.” He vanished from my peripheral vision. I felt his heat move away leaving me laid out for all to see. His “plate”.

The ice cream was melting fast running in ticklish rivers over me and one that he had placed low down was working its way towards my core. I didn’t have time to look to see where my bad boy boyfriend had gone. With a slap on the counter from his hands, he pounced, his face buried between my thighs as he pinned me in place with his arms and tongue. All strength in my body vanished as it tried to focus on him and his targeted attacks.

“Ah! Kazuomi!” I wasn’t just arching I was sure I had probably contorted into a pretzel at the intensity of the pleasure he was giving me. His mouth was always so talented and the things he did with his fingers? My mind was getting foggy trying to keep up with him.

I was so close and if history told me anything he wasn’t far behind. I was lost in his eyes when he stood back up. The gleam of my own juices lingering on his lips as he licked them clean. With one hand on my hip and the other dragging one of my legs to his shoulder, he positioned me well enough to tell me what was happening next.

Hanging partly off the edge and stretched out in a way that meant he had full control I saw sparks the second he entered me.

“Ngh… Mc.”

The sounds of us joined together echoed in the bright space of the kitchen. The ice cream on my skin adding a new scent between us as our heat soared higher than the weather outside.

I said before Karma was a bitch. The games we had as we had our unmasking sessions added to that knowledge. Right now though as we both lost ourselves in the moment for the first of many times today I really couldn’t bring myself to be angry with them.

---

[reidsmemory]

Spiders

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Genre: Fluff and some angst I guess

Warnings: Bugs...duh and blood (brief and only mentioned once or twice!)

Challenge: Day 1 - Spiders

Quinn Speaks: If you didn’t already know, I am doing a Halloween writing challenge. Anyone is able to participate! I hope y’all have a fun time with this :))

not my gif!

     Bugs. You absolutely hated them. Yes, yes, some of them were okay like lady bugs or butterflies, but some you couldn’t even look at without wanting to gauge your eyes out.

     No one at the BAU knew of your fear of course. How silly would that be? A profiler, someone who catches some of the worst people in the world, is afraid of bugs? They wouldn’t let you hear the end of it.

     On the occasion that there was a creepy crawly in your house, smacking it with a book was always your go to. When you saw one in the work place, speed walking away as you tried not shiver was what it had to come down to.

     It was officially October. Spencer’s favorite month of the year. 

     He’d usually go all out with Garcia and decorate the bullpen in cobwebs and cute little pumpkins every year since you’d been there. Once he had a little bowl of candy corn that he would share with you, as your desks were right next to each other. 

     Walking in to the office, you spotted all the decorations immediately and a smile came to your face. You looked around for Spencer to see that he was already looking at you with a smile that you returned. 

     “Do you like it?” he asked.

     “It’s great, Doc,” you said as you touched some of the mini pumpkins, “These are my favorite.”

     “I know,” he looked at you sheepishly, “you seem to gravitate towards them every year.” You blushed that the man had noticed this and quickly tried to compose yourself. 

     You liked Spencer and Spencer liked you. Everyone knew it, well except you two. You had always danced around each other, Spencer always giving you fun little facts and you giving them right back. The two of you were as compatible as can be and everyone was just waiting till the moment when one of you would grow up and spill your guts. 

     “Did Penny help you?” 

     “Yeah we stayed pretty late,” he said and then took a long sip of his coffee. 

     “Well only 5 more cups of that and you’ll be up and kicking in no time.” He smiled at your words and soon you began to retreat to your desk. 

     You set up your laptop and hooked it up to your monitor as well as getting out some files out of your bag that you had taken home and placing them on the desk. You spotted two tiny pumpkins at the edge of your desk and smiled widely, he was right, you really did like the mini pumpkins.

     Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss watched carefully from behind the break room. Sure Spencer had his fun when it came to decorating, but why couldn’t they cause a little mayhem? 

     “This is gonna be good,” Derek said as Emily snickered. 

     Spencer soon noticed to two giggling like school girls and made his way over. “What are you up to?” he asked as they whipped around a the sound of the younger man. 

      “Don’t sneak up on us like that, Kid,” Morgan said.

     “Come here,” Emily beckoned as he complied and saw that they were looking right at you. 

     “What did you do?” he asked. Spencer could feel himself getting worried and even a bit mad at his co-workers all despite the fact that they hadn’t told him anything about their evil plan. 

     “Just watch, she should open it soon enough.” Spencer furrowed his brows and his heart rate began to race faster and not just because of the coffee. What the hell did they do?

     You scanned you desk for the file Hotch had said he needed by this morning. Sifting though the other beige folders on your desk you pushed your chair back and opened the first drawer on your right. 

     “Damn it, she’s so close,” Emily said with a grin that was also plastered on Derek’s face. The pair looked like Cheshire cats while Spencer was very much like the worrisome rabbit.

     You closed the drawer after not finding what you were looking for and then you turned your left and open the first drawer on that side. You swear to all things holy and sacred that you felt your life flash before your eyes. You sucked in a quick breath and widened you eyes at the sight in front of you. 

     Derek and Emily were already beginning to laugh, but it soon stopped as they saw your body lean forward and drop to the ground. It only took a few seconds for the trio to rush over to you as well as gaining the attention of everyone in the office that morning. 

     Spencer was practically fuming, but soon put away those emotions and started to care for you. Moving your limp body from being face down on the floor and now having your head in his lap as Derek now rushed to get JJ and Emily was leaning down on your chest, trying to see if your heart was beating.

     It was but very fast. 

     “What the hell did you guys do?” JJ practically took the words right out of Spencer’s mouth. 

     “It was just suppose to be a stupid prank, but I guess it freaked her out too much,” Emily said in a panicked tone. 

     “Oh, yeah. I guess,” Spencer snapped as the three older agents widened their eyes a bit at his outburst. 

     JJ pushed back your hair and saw that you were bleeding and then looked at the drawer that was pulled out and sure enough it had blood coating the corner. “We might need to get her to the hospital if this doesn’t stop bleeding.”

     “Oh my god,”  Derek cursed under his breath.

     “It’s okay, just get a towel,” JJ ordered as Derek rushed off.

     Your eyelids fluttered open and were met with the sight of 3 motherly JJs, 3 worried Emilys, and 3 compassionate Spencers.

     “It’s alright, honey,” JJ spoke in a caring tone, “just stay still.” You nodded and leaned back onto Spencer as well as noticing the steal tight grip he had on you hand. 

     JJ closed the drawer before you could see any off the contents inside again and soon enough Morgan had the towel. JJ pressed the wet side to your skin and began wiping the little streams of blood, then switching to the dry side and holding it to your head. 

     The blood stream had stopped and you sat upright on the floor, with support from Spencer as he held onto your hips and your back was still against his chest. 

     “JJ, I’m fine really-”

     “You passed out and hit your head,” she reprimanded, “you’re lucky your not at the hospital right now.” You didn’t dare say anything else to the woman. After a few minutes of checking just about everything so let you go back to work. 

     Clutching Spencer’s hand as you stood up and sat in your chair. Emily had gotten you a cup of water that now sat on your desk and Morgan took your file to Hotch, both extremely sorry, but you waved them off.

     “Seriously, Y/N we-”

     “I know, I’ll just have to find a way to get you back,” you said with a grin as you winked at them and turned back to your work. 

     Derek and Emily retreating as he whispered to the woman, “I don’t like this.”

     “Do you remember when when Spencer programmed her cell phone to go off whenever it was still?” Emily spoke in a hushed tone, “she didn’t talk to him for a week and then months later got him back when he didn’t even expect it!”

     “Shit,” Derek cursed.

     Spencer Reid watched you carefully from his desk, making sure there were not signs that this incident would cause any further panic. He didn’t even know what you saw as he was too concerned about your well being rather than what Emily and Derek had placed in your desk. 

     “Stop looking at me like that,” you said as Spencer snapped out of his trance and blushed a bit. “I know it’s dumb and stupid for me to be scared of those things, but I can’t help it, alright?”

      “Actually,” Spencer started, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. 

     That’s a first, you thought to yourself before speaking, “shouldn’t you know what causes fears or whatever and how they stick through adult age?”

     “Well in that sense, yes. What I meant is, I didn’t get to see what was in the drawer,” he told you as you met eyes, “I didn’t get to see what you were afraid of.”

     “Oh,” you said softly. “Well you don’t have to know, I think it’s better that way.”

     “What? That’s not fair!”

     “Oh, but it is, Doc.”

     “You know that I’m afraid of the dark and have been since I was a kid, now tell me yours!”

     “No!”

     “Why not?” Spencer pouted while you rolled you eyes at the man.

     “Because it’s embarrassing,” you whispered. 

     “Well so is mine,” he whispered back. You said nothing to that and Spencer took the initiative and rolled his chair over to right besides you. You could feel the man looking at you as you tried to focus back on the work in front of you, but he didn’t let up.

     Stomping on his shoe, he let out a pained cry and when to hold his foot and that when you kicked you leg up and tried to pushed his chair away. It didn’t move to far an he rolled back over to you and now was repeating the same words over and over again.

     “Tell me, tell me, tell me,” he chanted quietly as you just rolled your eyes, a slight smile appearing on your face at his antics. 

     This could go on forever if you let it. “Fine!” He smiled widely at your words. “But you repeat this to nobody and we will never speak of this again, yes?”

     “Yes, I understand.”

     “Good,” you said. Spencer looked at you with a slight grin and you huffed as you started talking, “when I was a kid my family went camping this one time and I had wondered off and somehow found my way to a cave dwelling type thing. I started exploring a little bit because at the time I wanted to be an archaeologist.”

     “I didn’t know that,” he said.

     “Yeah well it was kind of sort lived,” you spoke with grimace, “I was digging around and some little rollie pollies started to come out of the ground and I played with them, letting them crawl on my hands.” A shiver went down your spine and Spencer noticed your discomfort, mentally hitting himself for pushing you into telling him about all this. “Something must have bit me and I freaked out and started to run out of their only for the biting to continue and as I was running I wasn’t really looking where I was going, henceforth tripping into a spiders web and it got tangled all over my face.

     “My parents found me about an hour later covered in red bite marks and having spider webs wrapped around my face,” you told him, “we went to the E.R. and the doctors told us that I was very lucky to have come in so quickly because a certain type of spider had bitten me and it could’ve been deadly.”

      “Y/N-”

     “It’s fine, Doc,” you said talking his hand into yours, “it was years ago and I guess it scarred me or some shit. Look in the drawer.”

     You turned you head as Spencer peaked in the drawer and saw handfuls of fake bugs that looked really realistic. He could definitely see why you had freaked out so much. 

     “Not a word, Spencer Reid!”

     He zipped his mouth shut and rolled back over to his desk.

***

Part two will be released so time this month for my Halloween writings!! Stayed tuned :))   

Remember to tag your pieces ‘QHC2020′ or ‘Q’s Halloween Challenge 2020′ if you are participating in this challenge!

Reblogs, notes, and comments are always appreciated!