#Took me like 4 hours to think of the first 10 songs and then immediately after I finished I Thought of

[anjee0]

A Melody from the Heart

Chapter 4 ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ˏ

Female!reader x Eminem (Feel free to put in your own oc insert as well)

Description - Y/n is struggling artist who decides to perform at an event hosted by MTV where a bunch of celebrities will be watching in person. Marshall is invited and is immediately captured by Y/n's beautiful voice. Now all he wants is for her to be on his next song.

Warnings - no warnings

Y/n watched as droplets of rain raced down the limo window and patted against it with soft thumps. She felt the warm heating of the car embracing her in a warm hug as she stared out at the private jet in front of her. Marshall would come out soon and take her in. The thought brought a wave of anxiousness over her. Her foot shook against the floor in a rhythmic pattern as she waited in anticipation.

A few moments later, the door of the plane opened as a set of stairs came out. Marshall appeared from above the stairs, looking at Y/n through the window. His face was stern and serious, sending a shiver of tension down her spine. Suddenly, a tall man in a suit opened the door and looked down at her.

“Mr Mathers would like you to board now.” The man said.

Y/n nodded nervously and gulped before making her way out of the car. She made her way to the plane and up the stairs as the man followed behind with her suitcases. Her fingers were trembling from the cold and her legs were shaking with agitation. 

“Y/n,” Marshall greeted. “How was the ride here?” he asked as he looked towards the limo.

“It was great.” Y/n responded timidly, her voice laced with jitters.

“Good. Let’s get in.” 

They both sat in seats opposite each other with a small table between them. Light jazz music played through the speakers, giving the plane an atmosphere that felt cozy. Even with the comfortable ambience, Y/n could still feel the nervousness lingering in the air. She fiddled with her fingers, which were sticky with sweat, in hopes it could calm her down.

“How are you feeling?” Marshall asked.

“Nervous. I don’t know what to expect.”

“Don’t be scared. Like I said, I totally understand why you’re feeling that, but you’ve nothing to worry about, okay?”

His words were a small pat on the back, giving some amount of relief to Y/n. It didn’t get rid of her anxiousness fully, but it helped her feel somewhat better. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Marshall nodded and kissed his teeth before looking out of the window. “We’ll take off in a few. Have you eaten yet?”

“Had breakfast.”

“What did you eat?”

“A slice of toast with butter.”

“Is that enough for you?”

“I think so.”

“If you ever get hungry, tell me. We have food.”

“How long’s the flight?”

“About an hour and a half.”

Y/n nodded and looked down at the floor. “I think I’ll be fine then. Thank you though.”

10 minutes passed before the pair were both told to fasten their seatbelts. It was Y/n’s first time on a plane, so she wasn’t sure what to expect. The plane shook as it drove across the runway, making her hands hold tightly onto the seat rests until the tips of her fingers turned pink. She noticed how relaxed Marshall looked as he stared out the window. After a few moments, the plane took off and was flying up. Y/n felt her stomach drop as her heart thumped loudly in her chest. A few seconds later, the plane felt steady again as her body relaxed in her seat.

“First time on a plane?” Marshall asked, averting his gaze to her.

“Yeah.” Y/n responded with a shaky voice.

“And lucky you, your first time gets to be on a private jet.” 

“Yeah. That’s great.”

A minute or two later, a lady in a beige turtleneck top and red blazer and pencil skirt appeared with a bright smile on her face. “Miss Y/l/n, Mr Mathers. Can I get you anything to drink perhaps? Or any snacks?”

“Hey Linda,” Marshall replied. “Can I get that white peach flavoured sparkling water please? You have those sandwiches too right?”

“Yes sir, we do. I’ll get you that right away. And for you ma’am?” Linda turned her head to Y/n and shot her a charming smile. 

Y/n felt her words being lodged up in her throat as she searched through her head for a response. Her eyes darted over to Marshall, a silent call for help.

“Do you want the same as me?” He asked.

Y/n felt a wash of relief from Marshall's save. “Sure, what's in the sandwiches?”

He listed the ingredients included in the sandwich and Y/n nodded, indicating that she would take it. 

A few minutes later, Linda came back with the two cans of sparkling water and sandwiches. She placed them down on the table carefully. “Enjoy.” She said before walking back to the back.

Y/n took a bite of the sandwich and was absolutely thrilled by the taste. It was cold, but had a burst of flavour to it too. It felt delightful on her mouth, something she never thought a sandwich could bring. 

“It's good, right?” Marshall asked.

“Yeah, really good.” Y/n replied.

“Try the sparkling water. Tastes just as great.”

Y/n cracked open the can, listening to the satisfying snap and sizzle. She took a sip and immediately fell in love. It was fizzy but it had a distinct sweet flavour that made it all the better.

“Yeah, this is really good.” Y/n said.

After they finished their food and drinks, Linda came back to take their rubbish. They both basked in the odd silence that hung in the air until Marshall decided to speak up.

“Forgot to tell you but Paul, my manager, found a good record label for you and a great manager. We're gonna meet her when we touch down. If you don't like her, we can always find you a new one.”

“Wow, thank you so much, that's great. What's my manager's name?”

“Cindy. She's a friend of Paul's and she's phenomenal. She'll get you shorted out in a matter of time.”

“That's great. Thanks again.”

“When did you decide you wanted to do music?”

“I think I was 4 or 5. I have a really faint memory of walking past this TV display outside a shop. I remember seeing a singer performing on stage, I just fell in love immediately.”

“That's nice. You know, I really believe that your songs deserve more attention. I've been playing your album ‘Lucid Dreams’ on repeat.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, kinda shocking, not my style of music. But the way you do it is just so unique. I love it.”

“Thank you. That's a lot to process…”

“I'm sure it is. Are there any other artists that inspired you?”

“Well, other than you, there were a few pop artists.”

“Like who?”

“Britney Spears,” Y/n paused for a moment before quietly saying: “Christina Aguilera…”

Marshall chuckled slightly at Y/n's cautious tone. “It's fine. The whole thing happened ages ago.”

“I remember my friends telling me I had to pick either you or her.”

“Oh really?” Marshall's lips curled into a small smirk. “And who did you choose?”

“I chose you.”

“Oh, you did?”

“I knew you for longer. I preferred your stuff anyway.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm, spent ages trying to memorise your songs.”

“Did you ever get around to it?”

“I knew all of your first four albums by heart.”

“Wow, well look at you!”

“Played them on repeat. Every single day, every single second. Even in school during lessons.”

“During lessons? Not even I would do that, and I'm a dropout.”

“So am I.”

Marshall raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in slight surprise. “Huh, you don't seem like the type.”

“So do you.”

Time ticked by and soon enough, they had landed in Detroit. The landing was slightly bumpy and shook the plane, automatically making Y/n grip the armrests again. She smiled awkwardly at Marshall, pretending that she wasn't scared to death from the landing. She quickly received a slow nod from him before he exhaled and got up.

They both left the plane, and were immediately greeted with the cold and chilly air of Detroit. Y/n shivered from the shuddering atmosphere. She followed Marshall into a limo and breathed in the warm ambience of the car as she got in.

“Cindy will be here soon. We're just waiting for her.” Marshall said.

“Okay, yeah, thanks.” Y/n replied.

They waited in silence for a few minutes before a faint knock on the window echoed through the limo. Marshall opened the door, being greeted by Cindy. 

“Hey everyone. Hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long.” She said as she got in.

“You're just on time.” Marshall replied.

“That's lovely.” She said as she fixed up her hair. “So, you're Y/n, yes?” She took out her hand for Y/n to shake.

Y/n gave her a firm handshake, silently wishing that Cindy wouldn't notice how sweaty her hand was. “That's me.”

“Well, I'll be your manager. I've heard a lot about you, and let me just say, you are very talented. I can't wait to work with you.”

“Thank you so much. I can't wait to work with you too.” Y/n replied as she felt the nervousness spill through the cracks of her voice.

“Well, we're gonna drop Cindy off at her place then we'll head to mine.” Marshall said.

The car ride to Cindy's place was vibrant, with her asking questions to Y/n to get to know her better. Her smile was contagious and her energy was buzzing with optimism and enthusiasm. Y/n tried her best to answer each one with a decent answer, but each time she felt like she had just said something stupid. 

“Well, this is me.” Cindy said and the limo stopped in front of a large white mansion. “We'll meet tomorrow to discuss and arrange some important things. Hope you enjoy it here.” She said as she stepped out of the car.

Y/n nodded and smiled at Cindy before awkwardly waving her off. She subtly glanced over to Marshall whose gaze was already fixed on her. 

“You like her?” He asked.

“She's nice. I like her.” Y/n replied.

He gave a brief nod before the both of them reverted back to silence. The only sounds were the faint cars driving past and the soft pitter patter of the rain. 

When they eventually reached Marshall's mansion, Y/n was completely awestruck as she climbed out the limo and examined the exterior of the house. It looked elegant, classy and it was unbelievably large. 

“Wow…” Y/n admired in complete awe. “I mean, I've seen pictures but this is just phenomenal.”

“Thank you. I've had it for quite a while now.” Marshall replied. “Well, come on in.”

The inside was just as extravagant as the outside. It was too minimalistic and it wasn't over the top either. The interior looked cosy and calm, giving a tranquil atmosphere.

“It's just as beautiful inside.” 

“Thank you. Let me show you my studio.”

Marshall brought Y/n upstairs to a small hallway. It was different from the rest of the house, it felt more enclosed and professional. When she entered, she immediately fell in love. She'd never seen such an authentic studio like Marshalls in person before. The walls were made of wood and soundproof blocks. There were also posters of his albums hung up. 

Y/n's eyes fell over the control board, as she examined every button on it. Her gaze moved to the recording booth, she couldn't believe she'd be doing her recording in there for the next few months.

“This looks phenomenal. When do we start?” Y/n asked as she turned to look at Marshall.

“Well, I'll let you get settled in for a few days. Then we can get down to business.”

“Oh yeah. That sounds good.” Y/n replied, fighting the urge to not reply with a lyric from his song Business.

“You alright?”

“I'm great.”

A moment of silence hung in the air before a notification went off from Marshall's phone. He took it out and realised someone was outside his door.

“Oh, I forgot, my assistant Grace was coming over to drop some papers. Come with me, you can meet her.” He said.

Y/n agreed and followed Marshall down back to the front door. The door opened to a professional young lady, not too far for Y/n's age. She had a slicked back bun, sharp eyeliner and bold red lipstick. 

“Your papers, Marshall.” She said, her voice slightly toned with flirtation.

“Thank you, Grace.”

Her eyes moved behind Marshall to Y/n. She narrowed her eyes as he lips curled into a subtle smirk.

“Is this uh, Y/n?” She asked.

“That's me. Nice to meet you.” Y/n replied nervously.

“Hm, Marshall can I talk to you?” 

Before he could even reply, Grace had already dragged him outside and slammed the door in Y/n's face. The loud slam echoed through the house as Y/n stood in front of the door, basking in the now silent house. 

“What was that about?” Marshall asked.

“I have a bad feeling about her.” Grace said.

Y/n swallowed the small lump forming at the back of her throat. She could still hear their muffled voices from the other side. 

“What makes you say that?” Marshall asked.

“She's a random girl from a live TV event. You can't trust her.”

Y/n felt her stomach drop as she heard Grace's cold words. What if Marshall agreed with her and would cut Y/n off? What if he then started to see Y/n as untrustworthy and get rid of her. She waited patiently for his answer as sweat trickled down her forehead.

“Listen, I understand why you think that but I have a great feeling about this. I know this isn't like me, but I want you to trust me, okay? This is a good idea.”

Y/n let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding as she felt a sense of relief wash over her. She felt a growing spread of fond warmth in her heart as she heard those words. Her lips formed a smile, letting a small chuckle escape her lips.

“Do you want to join us for lunch?” Marshall asked.

“I'm alright. Thank you though. I'll see you around?” Grace said before she started away.

As Marshall opened the front door again, Y/n acted like she didn't hear anything as she tried to keep her composer. “Everything okay?” She asked.

“Everything's fine. Want to head down to Mum's Spaghetti? We can get some lunch and talk.” Marshall offered.

“Sounds good.” Y/n said, feeling a flower of happiness blooming in her heart.

[dxncingwithastrxnger]

1. i'm sleeping with a ghoul (Ghost!Lucifer x MC)

A/N: Hello!! This is a few days late, but I said I wanted to do Obey Me month and I'm sticking to it, damn it! So I offer you my very first story for it, as well as the first thing I've published for the om fandom that isn't Barbatos. This was actually really fun to write and I wanna thank @the-ancient-fae for giving me the prompt of 'ghost' to help me figure something out!! That simple prompt has created a whole basket of ideas in my head, so thank you, Roxy 💜 But anyways, enjoy reading!!

Pairing(s): Lucifer x MC

Prompt: Day 1 - Lucifer from @obeymetournaments's list of prompts for this month!!

Summary: The tale of someone who encountered a... different kind of ghost.

Tag(s): 18+, themes of stalking, Spectrophilia/Phasmophilia, dubious consent, non-explicit, mentions of sexual content, first person pov

Word Count: 922

Song Inspiration: Sex With A Ghost By Teddy Hyde

Not beta'd, all mistakes are my own.

~*~

[Author Masterlist]

[Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day 6] [Day 7] [Day 8] [Day 9] [Day 10] [Day 11] [Day 12] [Day 13] [Day 14] [Day 15] [Day 16] [Day 17] [Day 18] [Day 19] [Day 20] [Day 21] [Day 22] [Day 23] [Day 24] [Day 25] [Day 26] [Day 27] [Day 28] [Day 29] [Day 30] [Day 31]

~*~

Anyone who’s ever lived in a haunted house before will be familiar with the usual signs. Creaking floors, footsteps down the hallway, doors opening and closing on their own, whispers in other rooms. I, myself, am familiar with all of those, but those aren’t the things I’m experiencing in my current home. I hear less whispers and more longing sighs. I see shadows creeping around the corner. Sometimes the flap of wings. The click of formal shoes. I’ve recently started finding feathers in random places throughout the house. Long, black feathers. Bigger than any bird in my neighborhood.

I can feel whenever I’m being watched. The time I seem to be watched most is when I’m sleeping. Or at least laying in my bed at night. I can even see the outline of a figure if I look into the darkness for long enough and I swear the figure has horns and wings. Do you think it sees me, too?

~*~

The ghost. It’s a man. I know what he looks like now. He’s gotten bolder, closer. Or maybe I’ve just started paying more attention?

The places I find feathers have gotten more consistent. More specific. They’re only in parts of the houses I often frequent, like the kitchen and my own bedroom. And just the other day… I was in the bathroom, had just finished a shower. It was such a cliche. I wiped off the mirror and immediately I saw him, behind me. But unlike the movies, he didn’t flicker away as soon as I saw him. Instead, he stayed. He met my eyes. It was like he wanted me to see him. And so, I did. Soft, black, feathery hair with just the tiniest piece of his bangs turned gray. Deep, mysterious red and black eyes. Four black-feathered wings that are a glorious sight to behold, almost how one would imagine angel wings. But then my eyes catch on the large, black horns curving upwards from the top of his head. That’s when I’m reminded that he is certainly no angel.

Even so, he took my breath away. And he knew it. A look of pride upon his face before I blink and he’s finally gone. It took me a moment to recover after that. But it was not because I was terrified. Nor was I upset that he was intruding upon my home. All I felt in that moment was an intense curiosity, along with excitement at the thought of finding out more.

~*~

I’m starting to think something’s wrong with me. I can’t truly be thinking like this about a ghost, can I? But I can’t help it. He’s doing it on purpose. Seducing me. There’s no other way to describe it. I see him all the time now. He’s stopped trying to hide from me. He watches me openly now, during all hours of the day. I’ve started speaking to him. He’s there to listen, so I might as well, right? And sometimes he’ll answer. With gestures or the softest of whispers. But what’s more important is what happens at night.

Once I’ve shut off all the lights and settled beneath my blankets, that’s when I’ll feel it. Fingers brushing over my skin. Sometimes gloved, sometimes bare. First, it was just soft affection. Holding my cheek or tracing my hand. Then, he’d trace down my neck and over my calves. And now, he’s trailing down my chest and up my thighs with touches that can no longer be considered simple affection. No, these touches are filled with intent. And I know something’s fucked in my head because in response, I’ve started wearing less and less clothes to bed. He’s taking it as an invitation to continue and we both know that’s exactly what it is. Even before it’s bedtime, I’m already anticipating the feel of his fingers and the pleasure his touch brings.

I think he’s waiting to take a step further because he enjoys seeing me touch myself. He gets this smirk on his face as his low chuckle fills my ear and it only adds to my overloaded senses, driving me over the edge. Sometimes during the day, I’m unable to help myself when I think too much about it. When that happens, I always make sure to be loud enough so that he’ll know exactly what I’m doing.

Even now, questioning my own mind, I can’t find a single ounce of hesitation towards any of it.

~*~

Lucifer. Lucifer. Lucifer. That is my lover’s name. He finally told me when he gave himself to me completely. I got to see him in all his glory, laid bare and without any clothing in the way. Just as he saw me the same way. And not only did he touch me without holding back, but I got to touch him as well. We were finally joined as one and that’s when I knew for certain - this is love. It must be. There’s no other emotion I could use to describe how I feel for him. And I know he loves me, too. He told me so. Told me that even when he was alive he never loved another the way he loves me.

We’ll be together forever, him and I. He’s in my bed every night and right beside me throughout the day. He takes me whenever he feels like it and I would never dream of rejecting him. All of me belongs to him now, mind, body, and soul, and I don’t want it any other way.

~*~

A/N: Please, let me know your thoughts!! Thank you for reading!!! 💜💜💜

[buttercupjosh]

Jump Then Fall (The 4 times everyone else thinks you’re Quinn’s romantic partner and the 1 time you actually are)

(Gif credit to @gabelandeskog)

Word count: 5,045

Genres: strangers to friends to lovers

Warnings: none

A/N: I’ve had this specific idea in my mind for about 2 years but never wrote it out because I decided to write other things first and took certain things from this concept and kinda put it into my other stories but after Quinn was named captain in September 2023, I decided to write it out. (Speaking of my other stories, I did write a Quinn fic in 2022, which you should check out). The title and this story is based off of the song, Jump Then Fall by Taylor Swift. It’s set from this past week (October 7th-14th), with additional fictional elements added. (Yes, I decided to publish it on Quinn's birthday because why not?) It’s written with a female reader in mind because I’m a female of color but the reader doesn’t specifically have to be a POC or a woman and there’s little dialogue. As always, I’m open to any and all feedback, comments or questions; just put them in my inbox or dm me. Thank you so much in advance for reading, I appreciate it😌

(P.S. I have other stories (linked here) that I have written for other players as well if you want to check it out)

“I was enchanted to meet you” -Enchanted by Taylor Swift

Prologue

Losing in a fantasy sports league can come with many different types of punishment, whether it’s being forced to eat a pancake for every wrong player you picked or putting in extra money in the winning jackpot. Your punishment for losing in the fantasy sports league you participated in was wearing a very 2014 Tumblr-esque “lol ur not Quinn Hughes” shirt that your best friend got you as a gag gift for Christmas to a Canucks game. This punishment came at a convenient time when you already planned to be in Vancouver for a work conference. Accepting your fate, you proudly donned the cringey t-shirt at the game, and as expected, people did look at you weirdly. What you didn’t plan at all was that your game seats happened to be located next to where a group of some of the Canucks WAGs were sitting. Lenasia, Ethan Bear’s fiance, noticed your shirt and immediately began talking to you. You explained to her why you were wearing such a thing and that clicked an idea in her brain. Lenasia turned away, began talking again to the other WAGs she was with, and was also frantically texting someone. After a brief period, Lenasia faced back towards you and told you to wait after the game because she had a surprise for you. You had a slight inkling of what that surprise was but silently hoped that it didn’t actually come true. 

After the game was completed, Lenasia led you through the tunnels of Rogers Arena and told security that you were with her. It felt weird to hear her say that, considering that you just met her a few hours ago. You stood together outside of the Canucks locker room and the feeling of embarrassment continued to rise within you as the guys filed out, some of them laughed at your shirt and then, you saw him. Quinn was right there, less than 10 feet away from you. Your suspicions were right; you would have just settled for a signed item from him and have no interaction with him but you were actually going to meet him right now. You felt like you were going to pass out but tried your best to maintain your composure. Lenasia introduced you to Quinn and told him the same story of why you were wearing a shirt with his name on it. Quinn didn’t fully quite understand why the shirt was such a big deal but agreed to take the photo with you. He was nice enough to wrap his arm around you with a side hug and being that close together oddly felt natural and comfortable for two people who had just met for the first time. After the photo was finished being taken, Quinn kindly offered to sign your shirt so he inked his signature on your right shoulder. You thanked Quinn and Lenasia again for everything and left to return to your hotel. It was a lot to process but you were rightfully shocked that you started your night fulfilling some silly punishment and ended it by meeting the person whose name is on your shirt.

The following day, you sent the photo of you and Quinn from the night before to your friends and your friends joked in the groupchat that if you played your cards right, you might be next in line to date him. Yes, you posted about it on Instagram and tagged Quinn so everyone knew you actually met him. Since the day after you met was an off day, Quinn had some time to scroll through Instagram and he saw your post. Seeing your post led him to see all of your posts and eventually, he ended up in your DMs.

Do you always look that cute wearing someone’s name?, an Instagram message from a very familiar verified account read. You couldn’t believe it and thought you were somehow dreaming when you read Quinn’s message but it was very much real. You replied back: I guess I always do but I only wear the names of attractive guys and considering this is my only piece that has an athlete’s name, I guess you should consider yourself lucky ;) It felt odd to shamelessly flirt with a famous athlete (considering that most of them wouldn’t give you the time of day anyway) but it wasn’t like you were actually going to date him or be his friend anyway (or so you had thought).

The flirty interaction eventually led to the exchange of numbers and to a long message chain between the two of you that would extend on for months. You did return home from your trip to Vancouver and maintained a long-distance friendship with Quinn. Your friendship with Quinn was great; you trusted each other, shared some secrets, did virtual movie nights together sometimes, sent memes back and forth, told some of your closest friends and family about the other, and communicated on the phone constantly. Once of your favorite things to do with Quinn was that he would always call you during your morning commute to work and on his commute home after his games to decompress after the game. Since you didn’t live in an area where there was an NHL team, your options for seeing Quinn again in person were limited and you weren’t sure if you were going to ever see him again. It felt weird to ask about seeing each other in real life so everything was just kept online until one day, the timing was right to move things offline.

————————————————————

About a year into your friendship, the right opportunity opened up for you to return to Vancouver to see Quinn again. To the delight of many, Quinn was named Captain of the Canucks and he invited you out to his first game as Captain. You were important enough to him that Quinn wanted you to be there to celebrate that amazing accomplishment; you were surprised by the invitation but excited at the prospect of seeing him again. You used some of your remaining vacation time and paid for your plane ticket to and from Vancouver; Quinn wanted to pay for something so he placed you to stay in the nicest hotel that Vancouver has to offer. You were thrilled to spend a week in Vancouver and hopefully make some fun memories with Quinn while you were there.

Your anticipation for seeing him was slightly halted when Quinn revealed that he couldn’t pick you up from the airport because your flight arrived at the same time that he had captain responsibilities to fulfill in the community so you and Quinn agreed to meet to have dinner later on that evening. Emma, Anthony Beauvillier’s girlfriend, picked you up from the airport to take you to the hotel; you had never met or interacted with Emma before but you appreciated her kind favor. The drive from Vancouver International Airport to the hotel (which Quinn did not tell you beforehand because he wanted it to be a surprise) was normally a 30-minute drive, which turned into an hour drive due to traffic. While you and Emma waited in the rush hour traffic, you talked and learned more about her, her relationship with Anthony, what things are like in Quebec, and what it’s like to be a hockey WAG. Emma had a lot of questions about your relationship with Quinn and was curious as to why you, his romantic partner, weren’t around as much before. You corrected Emma by telling her that you and Quinn were just friends and nothing more and you came to support him as your friend. 

“Are you sure you and Quinn are just friends because he must really like you a lot to pay for you to stay here?”, Emma asked as you pulled up to the Fairmount Waterfront hotel.

You replied yes, you were just his friend and she handed you over your room keys that were passed to her through the chain of command. You thanked Emma for giving you a ride and you both mentioned wanting to hang out with each other again.

Quinn was not kidding when he told you that you would be staying at the best hotel in Vancouver; your room had spectacular views of the Vancouver Harbor and was very fancy. As you got ready for your dinner with Quinn, you began to reflect on your conversation with Emma about him. You could admit that he was endearingly handsome and had qualities that you were looking for in a boyfriend but you and Quinn never really discussed romantic pursuits and outside of that initial flirty exchange when you first started talking to each other and the occasional compliment, there wasn’t much flirting really going on between you. You had always assumed that Quinn had someone, whether it was someone in Vancouver or in Michigan, waiting in the wings for him. Your thoughts were interrupted when you got a text from Quinn that he was coming up to the room. It was happening; for the first time in over a year, you got to see your internet best friend in person and you were ecstatic. Although he had a copy of the hotel room key, Quinn knocked on your hotel room door and a smile beamed across both of your faces as you recognized who was standing at the doorway. Quinn engulfed you in a long-awaited hug and you rocked back and forth. There were many areas in his life that made him feel delighted but hearing you laugh was one of the best sounds to him and holding you in his arms was the greatest feeling.

After separating, you realized that Quinn was dressed for a night in while you were dressed for a night out. The weather app indicated that a storm was rolling in so Quinn dressed to stay in at the hotel, order food, and have a movie night, while you were willing to brave the rain to try some of Vancouver’s cuisine. Quinn thought that you looked nice and wished that he communicated to you that Vancouver storms were no joke and you looking cute in your rain jacket wasn’t going to push him to go out in such weather either. He also really wanted to spend time with you without the distractions that come from him going out in public. You agreed to order in and changed into more comfy clothes while you waited for the food to arrive. Preseason hockey was over so Quinn decided to treat himself (and you) to some authentic Chinese food from his favorite place. As you and Quinn indulged on the delicious Chinese food, you began catching up with each other on what had occurred in your lives recently. As Quinn shared what had been going on his life lately, you heard all of the words he was saying but the only thing you were thinking about was how you just wanted to be together and you would lose focus sometimes as he spoke. You and Quinn kept talking so much on so many different topics that it was almost midnight before you decided to watch a movie. You settled on watching Ferris Buller’s Day Off before drifting off to sleep.

————————————————————

For Quinn, it felt surreal to wake up the following morning next to you. After being in contact with you for over a year, here you were, right there, sleeping peacefully on the other side of the bed. Throughout the night, Quinn was respectful of your boundaries and no lines were crossed, everything was kept PG. You were awoken by the sound of water running coming from the bathroom and waited for Quinn to emerge out. After he came out of the bathroom, you discussed the day’s plan (which there wasn’t really one) and decided to go to breakfast at a very special place. Quinn still had some time off before the first game of the season so you had even more extra time to spend with him.

On the car ride to the restaurant, you began to imagine what it would be like to live in Vancouver. Sure, this wasn’t your first time there but you saw it in a different light as you were gazing outside of the car window with Quinn by your side. You arrived at your destination and Quinn got out and kindly came around to open the door for you; it was a sweet gesture that he didn’t have to do.

The restaurant was the same cafe that Quinn and Petey tended to frequent and the wait staff at the restaurant was so familiar with him, down to the point that they knew his exact order: plain buttermilk waffles topped with whipped cream, strawberries, raspberries, and sides of bacon, potatoes, and guacamole. The waitress, an older woman named Louise, reminded you of an endearing grandmother figure; she even put your meal on the house as a treat. After the meal concluded and you were on the way back to Quinn’s car, a fan was waiting right outside of the restaurant for an opportunity to meet the captain of their favorite team. The fan approached you, Quinn’s romantic partner, to take their photo together. You wanted to correct the fan for being wrong but you also could tell that Quinn wanted to get going so you let it be; besides, Quinn didn’t even hear the fan address you as his lover. Quinn later on apologized for the fan encounter but it wasn’t an issue for you, you understood who he was and the things that came with being a famous athlete and you expected something like that might happen while you were together. You continued on the rest of your spontaneous day, being touristy around Vancouver, visiting Gastown, Stanley Park, and Granville Island with the cutest tour guide.

————————————————————

Your time in Vancouver coincided with Canadian Thanksgiving. Dinner is usually held at the team captain’s house and since Quinn is the captain, dinner would be held at his place but since his apartment couldn’t quite hold the entire team, Tyler Myers offered to host dinner at his home. It was exciting to celebrate a holiday together and learn more about each other’s Thanksgiving traditions but it also made you feel a little nervous because you would be meeting more of Quinn’s teammates and spending time with their families. The Canucks team’s Thanksgiving dinner was potluck style and everyone had to bring something so you and Quinn offered to bring a dessert. You decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and Quinn graciously purchased the ingredients for you and let you use his kitchen. Quinn was a good sous chef; he actually enjoyed baking with you and you both had fun together. You even got into a little squabble over who would wash the dishes before agreeing that you would wash them and Quinn would dry them. After the cookies were done, you both got ready for dinner. 

On the car ride over to the Myers house, your mind began to wander, contemplating about the domestic moment you shared earlier with Quinn and how you would want more moments like that with him. Quinn felt the same way but wasn’t sure how to verbally tell you that. Before you knew it, you had arrived at your destination. You casually mixed and mingled with the other Canucks players and their families; as expected, some of the players had kids and the kids were curious to know who you were and you explained to them that you were Quinn’s friend. Tristan, Tyler’s son, asked if you were Quinn’s lover friend and you were going to tell him no but you were interrupted by the message that dinner was about to be served so you let it go.

Despite your initial nervousness about the event, dinner actually went well and your cookies were a hit. The other Canucks players and their wives and girlfriends accepted you well into their group; they liked you for you and they liked you with Quinn. Due to the fact he’s their captain, some of the guys pushed Quinn into giving a speech and he expressed his thankfulness and gratitude on such a special holiday; he even looked at you when he mentioned how glad he was to have the people in the room as a part of his life.

During the post-dinner relaxation time, you and Quinn settled into watching the CFL game that was on before Tristan came up to ask the both of you to play hide and seek with him and his sister, Skylar. The football game wasn’t that interesting to either of you so you both agreed to play. Since you were the guest, the kids had you count first. 

As you were looking to see where Quinn and the kids were hiding, you observed around the Myers home and began to think about how this was something that you had desired to have one day; a home full of love, laughter, and children. You checked the guest room closet to see if anyone was hiding in there before greeting Quinn by shouting BOO as soon as you opened the door. Instead of stepping out to help you find Skylar and Tristan, Quinn pulled you back into the closet and shut the door for a quiet moment alone. Quinn’s heart was beating super fast, not just because you inflicted fear into him for a brief second, but also because you were close to each other inside the dark closet. You obviously couldn’t see in the darkness but Quinn kept staring at the presumed outline of your mouth because he wanted pull you closer and kiss you so bad. Quinn almost had his chance to ask but was interrupted by the sound of children’s feet pattering on the ground and the door opening. Tristan quickly corrected you that as the counter, you were not allowed to hide until it was your turn to hide. An all-too-familiar chuckle came out of Quinn and you rolled your eyes at him since he was the one who caused you to break the rules before playing another round of hide and seek with the kids.

When it was time to say goodbye, Tristan and Skylar came over to give you a departing hug and Tristan loudly said that he had fun with you, Quinn’s special friend. It warmed your heart to hear his little voice say that to you. Before dropping you off back at the hotel, you had asked Quinn if he was going to stop and get his annual Thanksgiving apple pie slice from the bakery. He had mentioned his Thanksgiving tradition to you only once but it meant a lot to him that you had remembered that. Due to the fact that you made dessert from scratch, Quinn forgot to pick up the pie beforehand to bring to the party and the bakery with the pie that he enjoyed was already closed, but it was okay. Quinn didn’t mind skipping his tradition because he got to make a new memory with you. You and Quinn had such a good time at the Thanksgiving dinner and you had quietly hoped to get the opportunity to spend more holidays together.

————————————————————

The Canucks home opener was finally here. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking for Quinn; he knew that this day was coming but it felt a little more surreal that it was actually here. Quinn’s parents, Ellen and Jim, even flew in to watch their son receive his official captaincy before jetting off to go watch Jack and Luke at the Devils home opener the following day. You felt a bit of deja vu being back at Rogers Arena, since that was the place you and Quinn had met over a year ago, but that deja vu feeling came in a good way. It was fun to watch warmups with the other WAGs and you got to see Emma again. As warmups went on, you held J.T. Miller’s son, Owen, in your arms while Natalie Miller held her daughters, Scarlett and Scottlyn, closer to the glass to give them a better view to see their father on the ice. Since the day was very busy for Quinn, the only time he got to see you was for a brief second during warmups. Quinn’s heart swelled up with joy when he saw you at the glass, holding baby Owen and he also thought you looked so stunning and beautiful in your outfit. He wanted to pass you a puck but instead, he gave you a quick wink and passed a puck to a young fan with a sign and continued to skate around. 

Warmups were over and the game was about to start soon so you went up to your seats. Instead of having you sit with the other WAGs, Quinn got you a ticket next to his parents. Of course, Quinn wanted you to meet his parents for the first time in a much more formal way but due to the limited time that you all had in Vancouver, it was slightly more convenient for you to meet his parents while at the game. It was a little awkward at first to meet Quinn’s parents because you were just Quinn’s long-distance friend and meeting the parents is a big deal but Jim and Ellen already knew who you were because you were important enough to their son that he had told them about you. Ellen mentioned to you that she suspected you were dating Quinn because he spoke so highly about you, indicating a possible crush but always shut it down by mentioning that you were just friends.

When it was time for Quinn to be introduced as captain, you got delightful goosebumps on your body because you were so proud of him. You already knew he was captain but watching some of the old Canucks captains pass the torch over to one of your best friend’s brought a rush of happiness to you; your heart even skipped a beat as he put on the jersey with the “C” on it. The game itself was amazing; the Canucks beat the Oilers 8 to 1 and Quinn had a 3-point night. Throughout little moments during the game, Jim and Ellen would ask you different questions about yourself and share tidbits about Quinn; it was nice that they were actively engaging and getting to know you. You were worried that Jim and Ellen wouldn’t like you as a person and for their son but it turns out that they enjoyed your presence and it also didn’t hurt that it was really fun to cheer for Quinn alongside his parents.

After the game was over, you, Jim, and Ellen walked down the same tunnels to the Canucks dressing room that you had walked to over a year ago when you met Quinn for the first time but this time, you weren’t as nervous to see him. Still experiencing the high from the evening’s successful game, Quinn was so ecstatic to see you, waiting for him with his beloved parents. When Quinn had invited you to come to his game, he had imagined seeing you again in those familiar halls with his parents in his mind and that moment of imagination came true. In his post-game interview, Quinn had mentioned that he would hold onto the night’s memories forever and you would also hold onto those memories in your own way too.

————————————————————

Since the Canucks had to leave for a roadtrip after their home opener and you were leaving soon, you had one last day to both celebrate Quinn’s birthday early and also to do something to say farewell to you. Instead of just a big fancy birthday/goodbye dinner, you and Quinn decided to go out for a day on the golf course and out to a casual dinner afterward; you also had to run a few errands because Quinn needed to grab some things before leaving on his upcoming road trip. Quinn picked you up to go with him to drop off his parents at the airport so that you could see them again and he wanted your opinion on some things when he went to IKEA. The car ride over to the airport was fine and Jim and Ellen didn’t mind getting in some extra time with their potential child-in-law. You and Quinn stepped out of the car to help with their bags and give his parents a goodbye hug. While you were giving the Hughes family some space and waiting in the car, Ellen whispered in her son’s ear that you were a keeper. His mother was right and Quinn had known that from the moments that he spent with you, the conversations you shared together and you were everything he ever wanted. Quinn had the keys to unlock your heart but he just needed to use them. Throughout the entire time you were there, Quinn began mentally preparing himself to confess his feelings for you somehow but those plans always fell flat because the anxiety of not being sure if you liked him romantically lingered throughout the air and he was scared to ruin the friendship you shared. He was falling for you hard but he was afraid to take that leap.

With one final wave goodbye, Jim and Ellen left for their flight to New Jersey and you and Quinn continued on the day’s itinerary. Goodbyes were always going to be a bit difficult, no matter who or what you were saying goodbye to. Quinn tried to not wear his heart on his sleeve and be strong but you could tell that Quinn was sad to see his parents go so you reached over and gently placed your hand on top of his. Quinn told you thank you and you shared a quick glance with him before arriving at IKEA. Instead of immediately telling you how he felt, you and Quinn aimlessly wandered around the large store; you had mentioned to Quinn that his apartment was missing a floor lamp in the living room so that he didn’t have to use the overhead ceiling light as much and he took you to IKEA to help him pick one out. Thursday afternoons at IKEA were quiet so it was almost like you and Quinn had the whole store to yourselves. As you walked through the store, you and Quinn looked at the different room setups and asked each other what you liked and disliked about each room setup; you also both began to imagine what it would be like to share a home together. Quinn even absentmindedly grabbed onto your hand and your fingers interlocked together for a brief second before you found the lamps and slipped your hand away to look at them. You picked out a black floor lamp that matched the aesthetic of Quinn’s apartment and continued to wander around the store until you reached the cash register. Quinn didn’t try to hold your hand again and neither of you brought up that moment for the rest of the day. Your time at the golf course was fun; being the self-proclaimed golf expert he was, Quinn did win the game. 

Quinn decided that he wanted to have his birthday dinner/last meal with you at Moxie’s. While you waited for your food to arrive, you gave Quinn his birthday gift. It was challenging to get a gift for someone who could afford plenty and rarely mentioned what they wanted so you got Quinn a signed copy of Golf Kitchen, a cookbook that included recipes from some of the most famous golf clubs around the world, and a grill set that looked like golf items; it combined two of his interests: cooking and golf. Quinn was a bit taken aback by your gift because you didn’t have to actually get him anything; your presence and time spent with him was a gift within itself. He had mentioned it before but Quinn was so grateful to have you as a part of his life and he was going to miss you tremendously once you returned home. You would miss him so much and were sad that your great time with Quinn was coming to an end; you still had an extra full day in Vancouver before your flight early Saturday but the Canucks were leaving for Edmonton on Friday after morning skate. 

After dinner, Quinn walked you up to your hotel room and you and Quinn continued to soak up all of the time you had left together as much as you could before the inevitable departure came. Before leaving, Quinn passed you a signed warm-up puck from last night’s game, mentioning that he owed it to you. You held the piece of rubber in your hand, smoothing your fingers over his signature.

“So now, you own two things with my name on it”, Quinn cheesily told you. 

You were trying to hold back your tears and masquerade your emotions but you began to sob while embracing Quinn for one last time. Quinn felt a bit emotional too and he blurted out that he was in love with you; he decided to be brave and not let the fear take over. You thought your mind was playing a trick on you when you heard him so you looked up at the green eyes that were staring and waiting for a reply from you.

“Did you just say that you’re in love with me?”, you hesitantly asked.

“Um, maybe I should have kept that to myself. I’m sor-”, Quinn rambled.

You cut Quinn off with a kiss, something that he had been waiting a while to experience with you. You repeated that you had loved Quinn back as well. A long wave of relief rushed over the both of you; the jump was worth the fall and you were there to catch him. You didn’t have to say it out loud but Quinn knew that you would always be there for him. Quinn asked if you were available to come back to visit him for Christmas and New Year’s. Maybe losing in a fantasy league wasn’t so bad after all.

[k-sickies]

If nobody has requested a Hyunjin one, maybe something with him being looked after by Minho? I think they have a really cute relationship where they tease each other but really care and are close. I could imagine Hyunjin trying to work through an illness and Minho having to step in and stop him because he’s obvi too sick

🎀

No wanting this time. Just soft Minho and Hyunjin content.

SKZ 4/8

"Hwang Hyunjin! Stand up!" Changbin yelled as he tried to pull off the covers from Hyunjin. 

The dancer only shook his head. "Five more minutes" 

At that Changbin rolled his eyes. "You said that 20 minutes ago!" 

He did? Hyunjin was confused. He can't remember that. To him this is the first time that Changbin tried to wake him up. 

"Move your ass and get ready!" Changbin clearly had enough. He pulled off the cover from Hyunjin and threw it on the ground. Annoyed, the rapper stomped out of the room. Leaving Hyunjin even more confused. 

Why was his Hyung mad at him if he tried to wake him up for the first time? Truth be told it was the third time Changbin walked in and tried to wake him up but Hyunjin always tried to brush him off. Still he isn't ready to stand up. His limbs aching and without his blanket he can't help but shiver but at the same time his hair and short is sweat soaked. He felt so gross but at the same time he just wants to stay in bed and not move an inch. He knew if he did that Changbin would get really angry and there's no way he would risk that. Slowly he tried to It up but somehow it took him five times to even sit up. His arms always giving up under him and the moment he finally sat up on the edge of his bed he couldn't move. The whole room was spinning. Hyunjin buried his face in his hands and took a few deep breaths. Maybe he tried to wake up too fast and now his body needs a bit more time but that wouldn't explain why he is hot and cold at the same time. Hyunjin sighed and slowly stood up. Holding himself up by the wall as he needed a few minutes to finally be able to walk. He took fresh clothes out of his wardrobe and made his way to the bathroom. He needed way too long for a short way like that but he had to stop a few times and the dizzy spells wouldn't let him move without him feeling like falling down. Finally in the bathroom he washed himself up not realizing how much time he spent in there until there was a knock on the door. 

"Hyung! Come out. I need to use the bathroom too." Jisung whined on the other side of the door. 

"Just give me five more minutes. I'm only here for 10 minutes or so." Hyunjin said.

"Thirty minutes so now move your ass or I pee in my pants and I'll let you clean them up!!" Jisung said teasingly but a bit annoyed.  

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. He fixed his hair one more time and then unlocked the door. Jisung immediately sprinted into the bathroom and locked the door behind himself. 

As Hyunjin walked to the kitchen he wondered if he really took that long in the bathroom.

Hyunjin sighed as he sat down not really feeling hungry so he decided against eating anything and rather drinking some coffee. 

Changbin joined him and arched one eyebrow "Don't you wanna eat?" 

Hyunnin only shook his head. 

"At least eat this protein bar, okay?" Changbin offered.

The dancer took it and munched on it. Not having the energy to argue with his Hyung. "Where's Chan Hyung?" Hyunjin asked.

"Oh he left earlier. Wanted to work on a few songs." 

Hyunjin nodded at that. He smiled a bit. The leader is always working so hard. Hyunjin would worry but at the same time it warms his heart about how passionate Chan is about music.

About one hour later they arrived in the studio. They all had vocal practice at first. Jisung and Jeongin went with Chan and Changbin since they had to record a few parts and the others stayed back with the vocal coach. None of them had struggles. Sure they had to be corrected here and there but it was nothing too serious. Even Hyunjin managed rather well even with how he was feeling. By now he had to admit that he feels bad as its not normal to feel dizzy all the time. He's sure he's running a fever too. In the morning he decided on a shirt since he was feeling so hot but right now he hates himself for that decision as he was now shivering and the whole room felt way too cold. Evidence that his fever must be getting higher. Besides that he is in a cold sweat. 

One of the members kept an eye on him. It was Minho. The second oldest knew there was something off about Hyunjin as the younger usually wasn't that quiet. Sure he knows that Hyunjin loves to spend time by himself and rather gets into his own world but he also knows that Hyunjin wouldn't talk that less. Especially not if Felix was in the same room with and tried to talk to him but Hyunjin only gave half hearted answers. To Minho it was obvious there must be something wrong. He decided against saying anything and just watching for now. If it would get out of hand he sure would be there for the younger. 

At dance practice Hyunjin felt even worse. All the moving made him even more dizzy. He also couldn't help but stumble over his feet a few times which annoyed himself. He knew he could do better but he also knew he was feeling too sick for that. By now he was shivering uncontrollable and he could feel how his hair was sticking on his forehead. He felt so gross and he wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed at sleep as his whole body hurt. They were only one hour into practice but to Hyunjin it felt like eight hours. He was so happy as Minho announced a small break. 

Hyunjin sat down on the floor and almost drowned half of his water bottle. He tried to control his breathing. Normally it would take longer for Hyunjin to get out of breath but today wasn't normal. He was running a fever and just felt sick to the bone. Even while sitting on the ground the whole world was spinning and he felt so cold. As if someone was able to read his mind he had a jacket over his shoulders and then there sat someone down beside him.

"You look like you could use it." Minho said.

Hyunjin only hummed. Now it would be a good time to tell someone how he feels but somehow he couldn't find the words. He opened and closed his mouth not knowing how he should word it. Minho took a closer look at the younger. "How do you feel?" He asked. 

"I…I'm not sure." Hyunjin started.

Minho waited patiently.

"I think I have a fever..I really don't feel good." Hyunjin admitted.

Minho hummed and rested one of his hands on Hyunjins forehead. Then on his neck. He sure was warmer than he expected.

"Okay. That's it." Minho said as he stood up. 

Leaving Hyunjin in confusion. He saw how Minho discussed something with Chan but he wasn't sure what it was about. Honestly he didn't care. All Hyunjin cared about was trying to get the dizziness away so that he was able to continue with practice. However that thought was quickly erased as Minho returned with two bags. 

"You're coming home with me." The older said bluntly. 

"Huh?" was all Hyunjin could manage. Too confused with the situation.

Minho arched an eyebrow "As far as I know, hearing loss isn't a symptom of fevers." 

"What?" By now Hyunjin really was confused.

Minho shook his head and helped the younger one up. Very slowly to not trigger the dizziness even more.

"We're both going home. I know the moves and you know them too. It's okay if we miss today's practice. And before you say anything; Chan Hyung insists on you going home. We don't need more sick members." 

Hyunjin only hummed in response. To be honest he was relieved that he could go home. The young dancer pulled Minho's jacket a bit closer around himself. 

As they arrived in the dorm Hyunjin was a bit confused. "We're at your dorm? Why?" 

"You only notice now?" Minho asked, surprised.

Hyunjin hummed and nodded his head yes. 

"Your fever must be really high.." Minho mumbled to himself. 

"Okay come with me" Minho said as he took Hyunjin by the arms and helped him walk to the olders room. Carefully he helped Hyunjin to sit down on the bed. Minho went to hai wardrobe and pulled a Hoodie and sweatpants out. Handing it to Hyunjin. 

"Change yourself and I'll get some things ready, okay?" Minho asked.

Hyunjin nodded. 

The young dancer slowly stripped out of his clothes and changed into the clothes of his Hyung. They smelled like Minho and Hyunjin would lie if this didn't comfort him. Hyunjin laid down in Minhos bed and pulled the blanket over himself. He was still confused as to why Minho took him with him and not just drop Hyunjin off on his shared dorm with 3racha. He wouldn't complain though. To be honest he was glad to have someone by his side as the fever and dizziness was really messing with him.

It didn't take long for Minho to return. He had a few things in his hand. Soup, a thermometer and some medicine. The older sat down beside Hyunjin. 

"I'll take your temperature, okay?" Minho said before slowly putting the thermometer in Hyunjins ear. 

"39,5°C…that's high." Minho sighed. "Okay first you have to eat some soup and then you can have some medicine." 

Hyunjin shook his head. "I'm not hungry.." he mumbled.

"I don't care." Minho took the bowl in his hands and took the spoon. Holding up a spoonful of soup in front of Hyunjins mouth. "Say ahhh"

Hyunjin blushed but opened his mouth anyways. He swallowed the soup and mumbled. "You're an idiot." 

Minho grinned "You can just say that you love me." 

Hyunnin rolled his eyes and let himself be fed by Minho. He's sure he would be teased by Minho the moment he feels better but he kind of liked the attention. 

After eating and swallowing the medicine the two laid down in Minhos bed. 

"Why am I not in my bed though?" Hyunjin finally questioned.

"It's not so loud here. I know you like peace and quiet if you don't feel so great." Minho mumbled the last part. 

Hyunjin smiled softly and rested his head on Minhos shoulder. "Thanks, Hyung." 

[holly-fixation]

Sharing my first FFVII experiences for fun: (spoilers for a 25 year old game below)

-I have no idea when or how I learned who Sephiroth was. I just knew "oh yeah that's Cloud Strife and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII". "Cloud has a big sword called the buster sword. Sephiroth has a big katana". Literally Cloud got into Smash and I'm like "Oh cool it's Cloud" But I knew NOTHING

-let me be clear, I haven't played a kingdom hearts game either. WHY I knew them both, I do not know.

-my brother introduced me to to One Winged Angel about a year after Cloud got onto smash. And I fell in love immediately. With the song. Yes, the song. He said "hey you should learn how to play this on piano". It took me 2 years to learn but that's besides the point. He showed me the Advent Children fight and I thought it was cool and all but it was really the SONG that got me.

-soon after he showed me Aerith's death. Why? There's this mash up of Spongebob's "stepping on the beach" and OWA and it WORKED?? But in the video they photoshop spongebob's face on Sephiroth when he kills Aerith. Then he kinda had no choice but to show me the actual scene (again, I had no context)

-So my brother bought me VII after he played it under the condition that I do not look anything up. No online walk through or anything, He was my only guide. He didn't want me spoiling myself with anything else that happened in the game, which was fair. Because he purchased VII for me, I listened. He was my only source of help.

-This lead to a few problems. Recruiting Yuffie without a guide is just AWFUL. I got lost and confused so many times. I never learned how to breed chocobos. I never got Knights of the Round. I didn't understand that stronger summons were just summons you got later, not a higher level materia. I didn't know about the single save point you can set in the Northern cave.

-Most inportantly: I never met Vincent.

-I had no idea how good of a healer Aerith was, so losing her abilities hurt. Yes her death still made me sad even though I knew it was coming. Ill argue it hurt the same amount because I watched every piece fall into place up to her death knowing what was at the end of the tunnel. But after it, I was so mad I had no good healers, I made Cloud my healer so I'd never lose them again.

-Two words: Black Materia. God I was not ready.

-Because I played it on a modern console, it had cheats like max health + limit breaks at all times, turning off random encounters, and triple speed. I did use triple speed a lot for farming sessions. And Though I made it through most of the game without the (basically) god mode, I did use them for the two robots in the elevator of Shinra Tower.

-I also used them through the entire Northern Crater because I didn't think the game was over yet. The third disk just started, I went straight down into the crater, and I didn't see a single save point. This couldn't be the end of the game, right?

-I literally did not acknowledge this was truly the end of the game until One Winged Angel began. I turned off cheats immediately and genuinely tried with what might possibly be the worst materia set up possible.

-I used Ramuh against Sephiroth. RAMUH. The man was doing so little damage it was pissing me off because "This materia is maxed out! Why isnt it doing more damage??"

-So after probably 10 Supernovas and at least 45 minutes, I turned cheats back on. I did not care anymore. NONE of my characters/materia were strong enough for this and I'd been playing for probably 4-5 hours straight at this point.

-anyway I had already seen and not understood any thing that happened in Advent children, so once I finished the game, I watched the movie again a few days later.

-Skip a few years and now we're here.

-oh I also never got that scene with Zack in the bottom of Shinra Manor.

-use a spoiler free strategy guide, kids.

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet Eps 9-10 Recap: Over Me

Hello, team BP! As you may know, I already wrote a recap/master post for episode 9, and another one for episode 10. This recap focuses just on the stuff that’s relevant to team Over Me -- their rehearsal period in episode 9 as well as their rehearsal footage and performance in episode 10. But you’ll have to get over the read more first. 

The Trainees

Here’s a list of the trainees in this group along with their rank as of episode 8 and their two previous missions:

Zhang Hao 2 / Kill This Love/ Tomboy Jay 12/ Love Me Right / Home Ricky 14/ Back Door /Rush Hour Chen Kuan Jui 22 / Kill This Love/ Butterfly Lee Jeong Hyeon 24 / Love Me Right / Gang

The First Rehearsal Segment

At 43:13 in Episode 9, we visit with team Over Me for about 4.5 minutes. 

The camera focuses on the Leader sticker on the floor, next to a bit of red fluff that must have come from those red fabric bands the boys are using in their dance. Looks like Yoon Jongwoo just took the sticker off and threw it, or dropped it, on the floor. 

Zhang Hao is saying, “It must’ve been really hard to be a leader of 10 people.” Already, there’s a lot to unpack there. They’re talking about Yoon Jongwoo, clearly. But saying it like that sounds like they’re excusing something about him, something negative about him. Right? Like the way that when the poor Supercharger group fell apart at the self-evaluation performance, the trainees said, “Oh, this choreography must be super hard.” You talk like that when you’re excusing something negative.

Remember how I said, when I talked about T h e  G r e a t  R e s h u f f l i n g  that I think they got rid of Jongwoo in part because they were just sick of him, and wanted Hao as the leader instead? I do think that happened. I think Jongwoo got stuck in a sort of negative headspace and people weren’t enjoying it. I think it was easier for Jongwoo to be the comeback kid than to be an actual contender. My take is that he’s climbed so high that now he’s scared to fall, and it’s making him act less friendly and warm than he used to. I could be wrong about all of this, of course.

That said, I think the PRIMARY reason they kicked out Jongwoo is that he was going to steal the show. As a result, the performance just won't be as good as it could have been. I feel sad about that. 

But as much of a bummer as it is, given the situation, I can’t blame Hao and the others for doing what they had to do to succeed. They didn’t create the situation; they just reacted to it. And I like Hao! I’ve liked him since the start of the show. 

The team nominates Hao to be the leader, and we’ve seen him do well as a leader in the past so it should go ok. After all, as he reminds us, he studied to be a music teacher and is ��passionate about teaching others.” Aww, I get it, Hao. He promises to help everyone shine well on stage. Everyone but Keita and Yoon Jungwoo.

After electing Hao the leader, the team immediately also gives Hao the Killing Part. Lee Jungyeon gets to keep sub-vocal 2 that he wrote his own rap for, and as it turns out, he can also sing decently well (he’s a bit pitchy, but he has a nice tone and can probably work on it). We see almost nothing of Chen Kuan Jui this whole time, and he ends up with sub-vocal 4, so I guess Hao is taking sub-vocal 3 as well as the killing part. 

And Hao feels certain they’ll win first place. Well, I was pretty sure that whatever 5 random trainees ended up in this song, this would be the winning team, so there’s that. 

Again, we see absolutely nothing of them rehearsing. We didn’t see any of them rehearsing in episode 8, either. Is the show purposefully keeping the choreo a surprise until we see them actually doing it? 

Second Rehearsal Segment + Performance

Skip to 1:09:56 in episode 10 for the rest of the performance. 

So, I probably could have gotten this recap out sooner -- I was all up to date and I got most of all of this written -- but then I kind of stalled out because I just didn’t really want to talk about what happens with Over Me. It’s actually made me genuinely sad. My fella was like, you seem down, are you ok? And I had to be like, “I’m sad about what happened on my silly Korean reality show.” To his credit, he just listened and agreed with me a lot. 

What could it be? What could have made BPR-Noona so sad? Let’s back up to the beginning of the rehearsal footage! You’ll find out either soon, or next episode! Let me give you 30 minutes of random filler first! 

Oh no wait, I don’t work for MNET. I’ll get to the point fairly quickly. 

As the boys take the stage, the judges talk about how this is a sexy song, and how it’s difficult to  perform on stage.

We see that some people in the audience are holding up Lee Jong Hyeon signs so that’s good, because right now there are like, 5 or 6 really popular foreign trainees, so we’ll need to pump up any slightly viable Korean candidates to make sure to get them into top 9 to replace them foreigners!.... Sigh. 

They all introduce themselves, and the audience goes crazy. 

Back stage, Yoon Jong Woo graciously wishes them well. Also Park Hanbin is holding a tiny fan. There’s so much to love about this picture.

But soon we skip back in time…. 

We skip to a rehearsal with the judges -- they’re dancing in front of Solji and we see Solji look like this: 

She asks if they’re going to record like this, because their singing seems half hearted, almost like they’re embarrassed of how sexy the song is. Ricky says they haven’t been practicing the vocals, and we’re left wondering -- what is going wrong with their rehearsals? 

Because MNET is incapable of telling a story in order, we now do a flashback inside a flashback, because that’s confusing! 

We skip to the day before. The team is working on the “rotations”, which seems to be formation changes. It doesn’t seem to be going very well, and as they’re trying to fix mistakes, Zhang Hao wants to give every single suggestion a chance. It seems to be confusing and frustrating for everyone. In fact, Chen Kuan Jui ends up sitting out the hall, just needing a few minutes to himself to calm down. (Interestingly, CKJ and Zhang Hao speak Korean when they’re alone together; CKJ is from Taiwan, so his language is actually totally different from Zhang Hao’s, but it’s interesting that the language they choose is Korean.)

We see the team at dance rehearsal with one of the psychopath dance teachers. The choreographer of the piece is there, and she’s the woman who did the killing part in the demo -- I pretty much assumed that she was the choreographer, so good job me! They ask the team how Hao is doing as a leader, and they don’t say anything for a moment, so the psycho says, “Ah, I see,” and he’s kind of right. 

CKJ interviews that Zhang Hao isn't really doing a good job as a leader because they try every suggestion every time and maybe that’s not so great. Lee Jeong Hyeon says it was inefficient and Ricky says they still don’t know what to do. 

Hey maybe you shouldn’t have kicked out Yoon Jongwoo and Keita because things tend to work out better when they’re around 

The group rehearses their dance in front of psycho judge and they actually bump into each other and stuff. It’d be comical if the stakes weren’t so high. The psycho dance teacher is like, what the fuck? And for once I’m with him. They have no excuse. The choreographer doesn’t say a word the whole time (that we see). I think she’s kind of… over this. So to speak. 

Later on Solji meets with Zhang Hao, apparently at his request. (Can I request to meet with Solji? I just want to chat about like, singing and kpop and I don’t know, life? I like Solji.) He tells her that he’s just having trouble figuring out how to lead the team.

 She basically tells him worry less about everyone’s emotions, and to be more firm and more in control. 

Next day, Hao goes in early and rearranges the choreo himself. When the team comes in, he teaches the new rotations and they begin working on it. It seems to be working a lot better now. 

Later, we see them at the recording studio, which is something we haven’t seen with any other group. Ricky gets praised for his pronunciation (but not his  vocals in general, which I think also deserve praise) and Lee Jong Hyeon gets told he sounds really professional in both singing and rap. We don’t see Jay singing, because the show hates him. We barely even see him at all. 

Look at him tucked in a corner. Come on, Jay, push for yourself just a little, man! 

We skip forward and now it’s D-day. 

They come out and the stage is all draped in red fabric. 

To continue with your Korean reading skills, 팀 says "team", as in, the English word spelled in Korean letters. The thing that looks like a capital E is a T, the straight line is an i, and the square is an M.

Part of me wishes they’d just gone full tilt and decorated the stage with like, multiple beds. But I guess the gauze draped over pianos (?) was as close to that as they’d dare. 

There’s a cute moment backstage when Yoon Jongwoo tells Takuto to cover his eyes, and Takuto, possibly not knowing that they’re joking with him, says “I can watch sexy stuff too.” 

The performance begins. 

My take:

I’m sorry to be kind of negative in these reviews. I really think all 28 trainees are exhausted emotionally and physically at this point, just living off of adrenaline for three months, and it’s starting to catch up to them. And yeah, this performance wasn’t quite… quite.

Also, stylist noonas fucked over Jay. 

I have to mentioning the problem with his styling up top, because I think it’s at least PART of what went wrong in terms of the vote. He’s capable of looking so much better than this -- what happened here? They made his eyebrows too dark, I think? And the choker screws with his proportions in a really bad way. Plus his chest is so light -- he needed to have consistent coloring from his neck down to wherever you could see with the shirt open. I don’t know, this just is all wrong. I’m not a stylist so I don’t know how to fix it but I’d start by taking the choker off for sure.

As for the actual performances...

Did you ever watch the video for Love Talk by WayV? I might catch hell from N-Citizens for this but that doesn’t give me any sparkles in my pants. It’s more like I cringe so hard, I almost fold inward and disappear into subspace -- except when Ten is on screen. Ten’s the only one who seems completely at ease with the overtly sexy message of the song. (If you’re not familiar, Ten is the one on screen from 0:00 to 0:20, among other times.) Everyone else is trying to look sexy or “serious” or… IDK, undressed, whatever. But Ten, I buy. There’s a reason that SM gave him Birthday. Whether he specifically makes your pants sparkle, you have to acknowledge that he owns this concept. Most people simply do not.

It’s really, really difficult to sell sexy without seeming sleazy, or inappropriately aggressive, or even worse, sleepy. I think a lot of trainees think that just staring at the camera dead eyed is sexy but it’s really not. I don’t know WHAT it is, to be honest. I just know that Ten can do it, and Kai can do it, and Joohoney and IM from Monsta X can do it. 

On this team, Chen Kuan Jui can do it. CKJ was utterly fearless and completely, 100%, “in” the song. I don’t find CKJ sexually attractive in particular -- who knows why one does or doesn’t find a particular person sexy -- but his fancam is sexy AF. I wish we could see him more, that he wasn’t behind the other trainees. I wish it was basically just a CKJ dance solo. Heck, even my fella picked CKJ out as obviously the best dancer in this group, and when the song was over said, “I kept waiting for that one blonde guy (he meant CKJ) to do a dance solo and he never did.”

Ricky was really good too, of course. I still think he’s occasionally just a tiny bit stiff in his body, but in terms of confidence, comfort level with the song, and facial expressions, he does great. He knows how to smile in a sexy way -- I think that’s super important. And his vocals are also really good. He’s just sort of outclassed by CKJ, for me. Also, if you watch either of their fancams, it really looks like they’re in two different songs, so I wish the group had spent a bit more time figuring out what style of dancing they were going for.

If I was only allowed to vote for one person, though, I would have voted for Jay, because he’s the one who I would least want replaced by some other trainee for this performance. I think Jay’s vocals kind of make the song what it is. His dancing and performance commitment was absolutely up to par for a main vocal -- vocalists are given a bit of leeway in terms of dancing and he doesn’t even really need it, as far as I’m concerned.  

Lee Jeonghyeon did ok, I don’t know, I have nothing really good or bad to say. Sorry. He looked handsome. His rap sounded good for a rap, though I think I would have liked the song better without it. (I’m a big fan of letting kpop songs NOT have a rap break in them, sometimes.) All I can think is, the team kept him, and not Yoon Jungwoo? God, Jungwoo would have killed this. 

For me the biggest disappointment was Zhang Hao. I don’t know what it is, because I’ve liked him since the beginning, but this performance was just sort of… flat. I think he was too busy leading and he’s too tired and maybe a sexy performance just isn’t in his wheelhouse yet. I both believe and hope he can do better under better conditions, because I know he’s extremely talented, it’s just that for me, he didn’t do as well as I would have hoped. 

It’s not as if Lee Jeonghyeon or Zhang Hao did badly; they both did well. They just didn’t shine, to me, or put sparkles in my pants.

Afterwards

The judges are impressed. They have nice things to say about Jay -- kind of? LipJ thinks Jay should have toned it down. They say Lee Jeonghyeon was cool and very handsome and that Zhang Hao pulled off the sexy part well. But we hear nothing about Ricky or CKJ, even though the judges MUST have said something nice about them.  

So the boys go back stage to the folding chairs of doom to find out their numerical value, and then the awful thing happens.  

Jay came in last with 485 votes. 

Everyone is shocked. But Jay just nods. He says he expected it because no one was really cheering for him.

Look how sad and shocked everyone is.

And watching at home, I felt a little sick. What the fuck. What the fuck is wrong here. 

A vote that low is punitive, you guys. That’s what they do when they hate you, or when you are Takuto. Jay isn’t Takuto, so they must hate him. Why? What is going on? 

You know what? I don’t think I want to know. Jay’s vocals were so good. There was no reason for him to get such a low vote except that maybe people think he’s “ugly” (do they? IDK) or because he’s foreign or there’s some dumb social media drama or whatever. Maybe it’s because he’s too passive and it gives people the cringies? I don’t care. His vocals were great so shut up and press A. 

I do think, however, that all this doesn’t necessarily mean Jay is doomed. The audience that goes to see live performances are not necessarily a representative sample of the full Star Creator vote. Plus, I think as the dust settles around this performance, the injustice of Jay receiving such a ridiculously low approval score will become clearer and clearer, and people may switch their vote to Jay. All I know is that I’m going to be voting for Jay from now on, because this is some fucked up bullshit. I’m also going to try to give his fancam some views.  

Zhang Hao comes in first with 852 points, which ties Haruto. I don’t exactly agree; I think Ricky or CKJ should have come in first, but I get it, it’s fine. I don’t like, hate Hao or anything. I don’t think this was his finest moment but I actually think that no one has really had their finest moment in this go-round. 

Zhang Hao interviews, “It was harder than I thought. The killing part had so many parts, so my mind was all over the place. I was worried if I could take first place. But when I saw the results I felt proud.” Aw, that's good. You worked really hard, Hao.

And that’s the end of this recap, and the end of episode 9-10 analysis. Next up is an elimination episode with metric crap-tons of filler. I’m caught up  so I should be able to get a recap to that out pretty fast. 

See you all in the next one, and thanks as always for reading! 

[jasmariswonderland]

Shining Hearts Chapter 17 ~ Hydrangea (FINAL CHAPTER)

Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 |  Chapter 3  |  Chapter 4  |  Chapter 5  |

Chapter 6 |  Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |  Chapter 9  | Chapter 10 |

Chapter 11 |  Chapter 12  |  Chapter 13  | Chapter 14  | Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter Summary:  “It was my flooding weakness that crushed you...shivering from the rain, plucked from the stem, I’ll continue to sing forever. So please continue to laugh for me. And promise you’ll never forgive what I’ve done...”

Word Count: 8525

A/N: If you have continued to this point, thank you everyone for reading this. Please be sure to read my final notes at the end of this fic. The chapter summary are lyrics from the song “Hydrangea” by Kaya. The song can be found here and the lyrics can be found here. I feel the song is very fitting for the mood of this chapter, as well as Vil and Danica’s mutual feelings for each other at this point. 

~~~

Pomefiore Dorm ~ Danica’s Room 

As Danica pulled her body upwards to turn on the lamp, she expected to feel as though she had sandbags strapped to her shoulders. Such was the heaviness in her heart as she finally managed to fall asleep earlier that evening, and she expected to carry over as she finally awoke. But strangely enough, she felt none of that as she stretched out in the bed and picked up her phone again. She stared at it in curious silence before deciding to ignore Iman’s text for the time being. It had been sent two hours ago and considering Iman had made no other attempt to reach out to her, Danica figured it couldn’t be too serious. 

In truth, she wanted to ignore VDC related matters for as long as she could; waking up, Danica felt almost normal for the first time in hours. Though normal might not be the best word to describe what she felt. In truth, Danica felt empty but figured that was still worlds better than slowly dying inside.

Despite Iman’s warning, Danica subconsciously went to magicam, half out of curiosity and half out of a need to distract herself until she fell back to sleep. Immediately she knew she should have known better because as she scrolled the countless posts, the hot topic on the app was, of course, the VDC. Danica scrolled through several videos of the performances, posts of people either approving of or berating the final result of the votes, and quite a few still photos that appeared to be taken by the press. 

One post she noticed right away was from the magicam profile for the major entertainment news station in Shaftlands, it was of three pictures taken during rehearsal, pictures of her and Vil. The first was taken when Vil took her hands and kissed them in the middle of the stage, the second was during their interview and the third was of Danica after she accepted her VDC trophy, with Vil watching her in the background looking incredibly happy. The post headline told her all she needed to know, a sharp feeling seizing her stomach:

Romance On The VDC Stage: Vil Schoenheit’s Absolutely Beautiful New Love Interest? 

Under the headline was a rundown of the VDC. How Vil had once again lost out to Neige Leblanche but might have won something far better in the form of a speculated new love interest. Followed by a brief profile of Danica based on some public knowledge either from school records or about her family.

While Mr Scheonheit declined to comment on the nature of his relationship with Miss Ledelle, it’s evident from all who watched them that sparks were flying! What do you think? Will these two be Pyroxene’s hot new celebrity couple?

“Hmph, she may look sweet but not with the way she was moving on stage!” 

“Of course such a sultry creature caught Vil’s eye!”

“Did you see their performance, how they were dressed? THAT’S how she seduced Vil! Little vamp!” 

“So she was just pretending to act shy and cute? Typical! Good girls don’t attract bad boys like Vil Schoenheit!” 

Danica shook her head as she read a few of the comments, many of them disparaging against her. She knew many of these people probably adored seeing her with Vil prior to the VDC, more attached to the image she presented than herself. And she found it rather ironic, too ironic to be too upset. At her core, Danica was still very much the same person she always was, shy, pensive and introverted when not on stage. She might have gained some confidence through this whole ordeal, but the only thing she felt really changed was her fear of judgment that was slowly fading. 

And because of it, she finally had the courage to perform in the way she always secretly wanted to. And the audience had responded to her confidence in turn, allowing her and her black swans to win. While these comments hurt, Danica was more annoyed than anything. Annoyed by the hypocrisy, annoyed by the presumptions and, more than anything, annoyed by the whole double standards that resented her in the first place. But she could no longer afford to be bothered. Not after she had persevered and dealt with so much to finally be in this place mentally. 

No one is taking my power away again…

She tapped away from the post and continued scrolling,  she saw that Ione had spent some time with Crisanta, Ayse and Isabel after the VDC, smiling at the selfie they took together. She also smiled at a picture of Farron and Andrew, and giggled at some of the incensed comments from NRC mutuals, shocked to see him fraternizing with an RSA student. Unfortunately, the next post she saw was from Neige, of him and Lilianne together on their ice cream date. He certainly wasted no time pressing her to keep her end of their bargain and Danica shook her head again. Lilianne’s expression was extremely subdued though Neige appeared very happy, and likely completely oblivious to the discomfort his date was feeling. Who ate ice cream outside in late winter anyway? The next post Danica scrolled on was another from Neige but she immediately tapped out of it, seeing just enough to see that it was a picture of him and Vil. She scoffed under her breath. 

I really should just block you already. Unlike Vil, there’s no need for me to keep up the pretense of liking you when you’ve nothing but made my and my friends’ lives difficult.

And just as she was about to do that, Danica’s phone chimed, indicating a new email coming in. She tapped on it and saw it was a message from her mother, it was a long message but even from looking at it for only a moment, she could tell it was just another long lecture. Most likely she was expressing disapproval of Danica’s VDC performance, she was never very keen on her daughter’s pursuits outside of ballet. Her eyes scanned it, mentally beginning to form her defense when she replied to it a few hours later when she’d be in a better state of mind. That’s when she inevitably came across one sentence in particular. 

“When I think about where Fiona was at your age, I can’t help but feel disappointed.”

Danica gripped her phone, she should have expected this much, but it still stung. In a fit of rage, she flung her phone across her bed, just as it was lighting up again with a new message. 

You’re just like the rest of them! I’m sorry I’m not like Fiona! I’m sorry I couldn't be a perfect swan like her! 

She curled up into a ball, pressing her face to her legs as she exhaled loudly. Clearly going to Magicam was a mistake. Her phone continued to light up from across the bed and when she finally picked it up again, she saw that it wasn’t her mother this time, but another message from Iman.

“Hey, Missy! Are you awake? Taima and I really would like to talk if you don’t mind.”

Danica sighed, but decided that this time she would respond. 

“Hey, I just woke up. I passed out soon after coming back to Pomefiore. What’s up? Can we video chat?”

At once, Danica’s phone lit up once again with an incoming facetime request from Iman. She tapped on it and Iman immediately added Taima to their call. 

“Heeeeyyyy, Dani!” Taima smiled. “How are you? We were getting a little worried.”

“I…I’m alright, I guess,” replied Danica. “I’m…surprised to see you two talking to each other, let alone with me.”

“What do you mean by that?” Iman asked. 

“It’s just that, the VDC is over. We won, but now that's over, you two don’t have to be around each other as much now. I know you two don’t exactly get along.”

“That’s true, we don’t see eye to eye most of the time. But Taima has impressed me and I don’t mind working with her in the future if she continues becoming more talented and mature.”

“Hmph, well I don’t mind working with Iman either,” Taima smirked. “If she continues working on her attitude!” 

“The future?” Danica perked up. “So…we’re definitely creating a permanent unit? I know we talked about it casually but…”

“I definitely want to!” Taima jumped up and down in place. “It can be a continuation of our idol club at TGA! Mimi might not be with us but we can hold auditions for more members and really try out a wide range of new music!”

“AND we can win at the VDC again next year!” Iman added with a sly grin. “I overheard one of the visiting teachers say next year’s culture fest will be at RSA! Imagine defeating them on their own turf!” 

“Doesn’t that sound like an awesome idea, Dani?”

“Y…yeah, it does…” Danica responded, clearly hearing them but finding it hard to really listen. Iman noticed her dejected expression and asked if she was alright. To which she responded, “Forgive me if I seem out of it, like I said I just woke up and I’m still trying to process all that happened today.”

“I get that, speaking of which, I hope you weren’t looking at Magicam recently. Remember I texted you about that earlier?”

“Yeah, I got that message,” Danica sighed. “I did look because I had a few unread messages and tags to go through. I…saw a few upsetting things, but…”

“Ughhh, Danica!” Iman groaned. “I told you not to look!”

“No, no, I’m not upset! More annoyed than anything.”

“Well that’s good I guess,” Taima spoke up. “You really shouldn’t give them any of your attention either way. They’re just a bunch of nasty fucks anyway!”

“And such crude comments! Accusing us of using sex appeal to win the VDC. It’s ridiculous!” 

“Hmph! As if Neige didn’t do something similar with his whole stupid cutesy bullshit!” Danica scoffed, irritation suddenly waking her up. “At least we worked hard to get our performance perfect! 

“That’s the spirit!” Iman grinned. “We were worried about how you’d feel if you saw people slutshaming us. I had Vidi and Heloise report most of the people making these comments but they just keep coming!”

“Someone even made countdown clocks for you and Iman!”

“Countdown? For what?” Danica asked. 

“Counting down until we’re both eighteen and they can treat us like whores in good faith!” Iman rolled her eyes. “Pitiful street rats, the lot of them!

“Ugh! That’s just…ugh!!!” Danica wrapped her arms around herself, a sudden feeling of sickness mixed with rage coming over her. “AND THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO WOULDN’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY IF WE STAYED A WHITE SWAN QUINTET! It’s so stupid! It’s so…”

“That better not be regret I’m hearing!” said Iman. “Especially when most of the feedback for us has been positive.”

“Regret? Please! I regret nothing!” Danica shook her head. “I’m past that! Now I’m just angry! Maybe some people did vote for us because they thought we were sexy, but so what? People voted for Neige because they thought he was adorable! Different concept but it’s still the same thing!”

“It’s NOT the same thing though, because our performance was still a thousand and one times better than Neige and his seven little clowns!” Taima replied. 

“But I’m glad to see that you are determined to be unbothered by the idiots,” a smile came to Iman’s face. “A week ago, you would be sobbing in your pillow.”

“Well unfortunately, I don’t have any more tears left to cry,” Danica said blankly. “You know my mom emailed me not too long before Iman texted me again. She compared me to Fiona AGAIN and said she was disappointed in me.”

“Oh Dani…” Taima sighed. “I’m…so sorry…”

“And between that and how Rook basically fucked over Vil and ghosted me in favor of Neige, today has been such an overwhelming day.”

“Well, maybe some good news will help you,” said Iman. “Taima and I spoke to Crowley after you left and guess what? He’s giving us the green light to start an idol club!”

“Oh! So it is official after all!” Danica managed a small smile. “That’s good to know!”

“Yeah, and we’ve already decided on when our next performance should be!” Taima added. “We thought a birthday live for Ione would be nice!”

“We know your birthday is technically before hers, but we’ll have more time to prepare for hers since her birthday isn’t until the end of May.”

“No, no that actually makes sense,” Danica’s smile became wider. “And I really would love to do something special for her since she stuck out with us until the end despite how hard it was.” 

“Exactly what we were thinking!” Iman smiled. “So try and think of the positives. We won the VDC, the first real victory against RSA in decades even if it’s only a half victory. And we’ll get the chance to be on stage together again soon.”

“And the festival is still going on so we’ll still have a chance to hang out with Lili and Mimi.”

Danica gazed at her phone and at her two teammates, she was certain that if not for their support, she would likely be in a much darker place now than she was. From the moment they came together weeks prior, Danica wondered why Vil had chosen these girls to perform beside her, now she understood. It was partly because of the support of the other black swans that Danica felt the courage to stand true to what she wanted, even when she experienced pushback from her dorm leaders or judgment from the world. 

Together, they were capable of amazing things and together, they would continue to hone their skills and grow together as performers. And as people. 

“I’d like that,” she finally said. “Thank you, guys.”

“Thank us? For what?” Taima asked curiously.

“Just…for being here for me, I admit I’m still a little sad, but talking to you two has been helpful. Maybe…I think I might be able to sleep peacefully now, I hope.”

“That makes me happy too!” Taima grinned. “I hate seeing you like that. Speaking of which, how has Vil-san taken all of this? He looked upset at the awards ceremony.”

“I’d be too if I just found out my second in command betrayed me!” Iman shook her head. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you guys have a new vice dorm leader soon!”

“I…don’t think that’s going to happen, he…” Danica sighed, recalling how Vil had addressed her earlier that evening, defending Rook while disparaging her in turn. The recollection of his words stung her and she momentarily went silent. “...Vil-san is…he…”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” Taima saw the downcast expression in her friend’s eyes. “We just hope you’re doing alright, Dani. Try to get some rest and we’ll chat later.”

“And if you don’t feel like sleeping, try to focus your mind on other things,” Iman added. “And please, PLEEEEASE! Don’t go doomscrolling on Magicam!” 

They hung up and Danica made a point of setting her phone back on its charger on her nightstand, out of reach so she hopefully wouldn’t feel the need to go back to magicam anytime soon. She stretched out on her bed but her eyes remained open, she glanced over at the nightstand and saw her music box, reaching out to wind it up. The soft, twinkling melody was a little soothing, but did little to lul her to sleep. 

I hate this! I feel so restless! 

Danica couldn’t sleep like this and after a few moments more, she conceded defeat and jumped out of bed. She took the time to finally remove her stage costume, having fallen asleep with it still on, and wipe away the last fragments of makeup off her face. Hopefully Vil wouldn’t find out she had fallen asleep this way. A gray, loose fitting nightdress was pulled over her head and she gave a relieved sigh at finally having something on that wasn’t so constricting. Walking around her empty room, Danica thought more about the events of that day and all that led up to everything. 

“Innocence is the absence of knowledge, and in your case, to remain innocent would be to remain ignorant of the incredible power you have as a performer.”

She understood now Vil’s concerns about her image, and after seeing how people treated him over Neige, she could see firsthand how his image affected him as well. She also thought about Sidonie’s words to her and how it was all finally connecting in her mind. Somehow, Danica felt herself placed in a narrow box, that box being the world's expectations for her. And she could see that Vil was in a similar box as well. 

I wonder…If I remained a white swan, would Vil have had a better chance at winning? Could his overblot could have been avoided if I…no…NO!

The more she thought about it, the more upset she became. At the end of the day, Danica knew what she wanted for herself and she felt it unfair that Vil was never given a chance to prove himself by more legitimate means. She knew she wasn’t responsible for what happened to Vil, but it upset her how blind everyone was to just how talented he was. That Neige’s act could even stand a chance against him in the first place. Why was it so difficult to acknowledge brilliance?

Everything he did, everything he said, he just wanted people to acknowledge him. I…I get that. Even if…

Danica couldn’t forgive how Vil had exposed her through the Magicam leak. After giving her the cursed chocolate, she was unsure how long it would take for her to trust him again. But after living a life always in the shadow of her sister, it was easy for her to sympathize with him. And even with this realization, there was still one thing Danica couldn’t help but wonder. 

This is too much, I need to focus on something until I feel sleepy again…

~~~

The entirety of Pomefiore was silent, most of its inhabitants sound asleep. Ballet shoes in hand, Danica quickly made her way towards the ballroom. This was something Vil would always scold her for, dancing alone in the ballroom after hours and forsaking proper sleep. But after all that had happened, Danica couldn't help but not really care whether Vil found out or not. 

There wouldn’t be classes tomorrow and she could sleep all she wanted later. But right now, this was the only way Danica could think of to make herself tired. She was already wide awake and felt that an hour honing her ballet skills wouldn’t make much difference. And dance was one of her few emotional outlets anyway.

Something was amiss, it was almost too quiet and Danica suddenly found herself paranoid. The sensation lingered on as she reached the door, along with a growing irritation. This feeling was not new to her and in the past, it often could only mean one thing. But rather than the nervous, giddy excitement of knowing someone she liked was watching her, she only felt disgusted. 

Even now, you still think you can play games with me! 

Clenching her teeth, she angrily turned around, only to be met with an empty hallway. There was no indication that she wasn’t alone and taking a few steps back, Danica took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Yes, she was alone, Rook was nowhere to be seen, and he surely wasn’t watching her again. With that in mind, she reached out to the door leading to the ballroom. She half expected it to be locked and quickly recalled the lock-breaking spell Sidonie had taught her. But when she began to pull at the door, it opened with ease.

“Mira, Mira…”

Her heart stopped, she wasn’t imagining it after all. There was someone in the ballroom, but it wasn’t Rook. 

How long had Vil been there? Danica recalled seeing Vil enter the ballroom soon after they returned that evening, she had wanted to talk to him then but Rook had stopped her. Now past midnight, she wondered if he ever left the ballroom to begin with. 

“Who is…most beautiful?” 

She stopped short of entering the ballroom, something sharp and heavy overtaking her chest. His voice was soft, but even in its softness carried so many emotions that spoke to all he had lost that day. He sounded so sad, so hurt, and thoroughly broken. Even whenever she watched Vil act on stage or on screen, she had never seen him display such emotions. It was crushing, the way he wept and whispered to his phone, hoping for even a scrap of proof that he wasn’t as horrific as he feared. 

“Mira, Mira, please…”

Please…don’t look at me…

Her heart dropped, recalling how he screamed and cried before being overtaken by his overblot. How he lamented his guilt at what he could have done, how he lamented his ugliness. All that made him horrific in comparison to Neige, and his sorrow when Rook only confirmed it with his vote. 

DON’T LOOK AT ME WITH THOSE EYES! 

“You won the VDC with your seductive wiles and became the black swan you always wanted to be!”

Why?! All I wanted was to be the fairest one of all. So why…why am I so…

“What? Do you honestly think people voted for you because of your talent and skill? Spare me!”

…ugly? UGLY?! WHY AM I SO UGLY?!

With so much guilt in his heart, Vil couldn’t possibly say all the cruel things he said to her in good conscience. Danica knew this, and hearing his heartbreak from behind the ballroom door was far more painful than anything he could say to her then or even now. It was clear Vil had been holding back these tears for a long time, that he managed not to break down on the VDC stage was a miracle in and of itself. 

All of his hopes, all of his insecurities, trapped in a cruel dichotomy that left Vil cursed before he even had the chance to prove himself. And his one hope that maybe he could finally break out of his villainous mold, dashed by Neige’s foolishness and Rook’s apathy. The longer Danica stood behind the door, listening to his sobs and peas, the worse her heart felt. And the more she began to realize that she and Vil were far more alike than she ever would have guessed. 

But regardless of that realization there was still one final thing Danica couldn’t help but wonder. 

“You don’t think it’s odd that I’m developing feelings for two people at the same time?”

“Not really…at some point, one of them will stand out more in your heart and your feelings for the other will eventually fade. So I wouldn’t worry.”

The softness of his weeping was suddenly cut through by a loud, impassioned scream, followed by the sound of something shattering. Terrified, Danica recalled Vil’s overblot and immediately feared the worst. She didn’t care if Vil was likely to scold her again or even that she might come across something that she wasn’t equipped to handle on her own. 

All that mattered to her at that moment was going to him, and if need be, pulling him back from his sorrow once again, before it was too late. 

~~~

Pomefiore Dorm ~ Ballroom 

Moonlight poured in through the large windows and in the far corner of the room sat a figure curled up and shaking, not yet aware that he was no longer alone. Softly, Danica stepped lightly towards him, her eyes not leaving him for even a second. In the moonlight, she could see his bright blonde hair as his face was buried into his knees and not visible to her. Silently, she thanked the Great Seven that Vil’s sorrow hadn’t overwhelmed him a second time and he was still here. 

But actually seeing Vil in this state was far more heartbreaking than just hearing him from behind the door. Danica was unsure what she wanted to say to him, or even if anything she said could make a difference at this point. But she knew that she would not have any rest that night until she knew for certain that Vil would be alright.

CRACK!

Razor sharp pain shot up the ball of her bare foot and she let out a small cry as she grabbed her foot in reflex. Even with little light, she could see a large piece of glass now stuck in her foot, stained bright red. Another small whimper escaped her as she squeezed her eyes shut and slowly pulled the piece of glass out of her flesh, holding it in her palm and wondering where it came from. Danica received her answer when she finally looked down and saw Vil’s phone laying shattered beneath her.  

She picked it up very carefully and could see that it was still functional and when the screen with alight, she inwardly recoiled at what she saw. It was a Magicam post from Neige, the very same one she had clicked away from earlier when she was scrolling the app. A photo that Neige all but begged Vil to pose for after they had finished singing. They were smiling together and from the looks of it, one would never guess how painful it was for Vil to pose for it in the first place. Only agreeing as a matter of professionalism. Refusing would only confirm the worst for those eager to see him as the villain they already assumed him to be. Regardless of what the truth was, Vil still had to preserve whatever dignity he could. 

neige.leblanche posted: RSA BEAT VI-KUN!!! And he was so cool about it! ❤️

realscheonheit commented: I hate you 🙃

neige.leblanche replied: I love you too! Hope we can see each other again soon! Dani too! ❤️❤️❤️

R commented: BEAUTE! 100!!

This post had been made less than an hour ago and the people who resented Vil were likely eating this all up. Danica clenched her teeth, not just from the pain in her foot but also from the sheer audacity of it all. Neige really was clueless to post this after seeing how much losing affected Vil. And Rook was beyond tactless to comment as well. The shattered glass prickled at her palm but as she wondered what to do with the phone, she heard Vil’s cracked voice, calling out to her. 

To say Vil was surprised to see Danica would be an understatement, certain she wouldn’t emerge from her room until dawn at least. Secretly, a part of him was glad to have her there, but that happiness quickly vanished as the seconds passed and she came closer to him. Seeing her eyes upon him like this, crumbled on the floor, weeping and pathetic, was the height of humiliation for him. Whatever had happened between them, as her dorm leader, Vil was supposed to set an example for her. 

He had to be a model of integrity and poise and yet here he was crying and going on like a child because he had lost a contest that he didn’t even deserve to win. But that wasn’t even the worst part; twenty four hours ago, they were still at Ramshackle. Vil watched Danica sleep peacefully beside her teammates, his mind still full of all the possibilities that VDC victory would open up for both of them. They would gradually reconcile and rekindle their feelings for each other and soon enough, all kinds of opportunities and offers would pour in for him. 

The world would fall in love with his perfect swan and would adore him in turn when they saw just how perfect they were together. Vil even, briefly, entertained the fantasy of he and Danica staring together in a future film where he would undoubtedly play the hero to her romantic heroine. Falling in love both on screen and off in a way not unlike how his own parents fell in love while filming Curse of the Winter Rose. So many wonderful, beautiful things to look forward to, only to now look back on losses and all that could have been if he could only seize being so ugly and cruel. 

But Vil should have known better, his hopes and dreams were the thing of fairy tales and never meant for a villain like him. Instead of showing the world his beauty, he was still second best to Neige Leblanche, reminded once again of his place as a bad guy unworthy of a happy ending. And if that wasn’t bad enough, in his ugliness and rage, Vil had nearly cost Danica her life, destroying the most beautiful thing in his world. 

“Ah Roi du Poison, I understand your ire at Danica, but the way you spoke to her, that was quite harsh. But I suppose I should not be surprised, your harshness towards her was very in character for you. After all, every rose has thorns. Even the fairest ones of all.”

That Danica was still able to look at him kindly was beyond baffling. But surely, after all he said to her earlier, his ugliness would finally drive her away from him. It was just as Rook said, his harsh words were very in character for him. It was all he was capable of and Danica did not deserve that. She deserved someone like Neige, kind and pure who would never hurt her, not someone who flung cruel words at her and went behind her back. Someone who was still deserving of having a happily ever after.

“What are you doing here?!” Vil asked, his voice shaky but quickly trying to regain its usual icy, stately cadence. “Do you have any idea how late it is?! What are you doing up at this hour?!”

“I…I could ask the same to you, Vil-san…” Danica softly replied, still glancing down at her feet to avoid the broken glass. “What are you doing up at this hour yourself?”

“Don’t get cheeky with me! That’s a bad habit you've picked up from your mentor!” 

“I’m NOT trying to be cheeky!” Danica felt her voice breaking but she quickly bit the inside of her lip. “I thought I heard something in here and I…I…” she sighed. “Vil-san…please. Can we just talk? Won’t you let me…”

“Get out!” Vil sharply pointed to the door. “There’s nothing to discuss! Go back to bed now!” 

“I won’t!” Danica took a few steps forward. “I’m not leaving! Not until you talk to me! I don’t believe you want me to leave, so won’t you please stop pushing me away? What have I done?!” 

“I gave you an order and yet you’re still running your mouth!” Vil tried to glare at her. But his mind was tired and his body still aching from the after effects of his overblot. His face did not give off the intimidation that he intended, but he hoped his words would. “Don’t make me ask you again! Get! Out!”

“Vil-san…” 

Glancing up at Vil, she could see anger that would normally make her tremble away from him. He really was an incredible actor, she thought. Even now she wondered if she was being incredibly foolish still trying to reach out to him. She closed her eyes, thinking about what to say next. 

“Fine, Vil-san. I’ll go. But can I ask one thing first?”

“No! Absolutely not! Leave now otherwise…”

“ARE YOU ORDERING ME TO LEAVE AS MY DORM LEADER?! IF YOU AREN’T THEN I HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO OBEY YOU!” 

Vil started, eyes widening at the boldness of her statement. In his mind, he was mercilessly flinging beratements at her for her audacity but he found that he couldn’t bring himself to voice them. He stared silently at her, truthfully too tired to try to argue further. And his silence was precisely the answer Danica needed.

She took another step forward, keeping her eyes on him. When he made no objection, she took another breath, about to speak again before another sharp pain shot up her toe. The glass had scattered further than she thought and she cried out as another shard pierced her foot.This time, the pain was too much and she found herself losing her balance. 

No, Danica…

Momentarily forgetting his sorrow, Vil rushed to her side, scooping her up into his arms and eliciting a surprised gasp from her lips. Her eyes fluttered up at him and in his arms, she couldn’t help but blush. It was so similar to how he lifted her during their new years pas de deux. She glanced down at the ground, seeing the fragments of his phone screen scattered about and hoping Vil wouldn’t decide to drop her. 

But such was the last thing on Vil’s mind. A piece of glass cracked under his heels and seeing his broken phone in her hands made him realize what had happened. He gently sat her on a clean part of the floor before going to turn on the lights and grabbing a first aid kit that was stationed on the wall in the hallway. When Vil returned to the ballroom, he saw Danica softly whimpering as she held her foot, several red prints stained the floor where she had been walking. 

“I truly am terrible,” he murmured as he softly cleaned the blood off her foot. “A dancer as magnificent as you must keep her feet in tip top shape and yet look at the mess I’ve made of them.” 

Vil applied a small amount of healing potion, cringing inside at how she whimpered. As he bandaged her foot up, he noticed acutely how the bones in her leg protruded more than usual. She had lost so much weight, likely due to the stress he had placed upon her. He sighed, hesitantly placing his arm on her ankle, when she didn’t object, he softly ran his hand up and down her leg in a caressing manner. 

“It seems all I am capable of is causing you pain, Little Potato, and yet you still wish to speak to me?” 

“Yes, it’s true, you have hurt me, Vil-san,” Danica replied. “But this is the least of it. And a little broken glass is nothing compared to how awful Rook has made me feel.” She locked eyes with him and sighed as well. “It’s…clear I’m not the only one he has hurt today either.”

“Danica…” Vil’s hand stopped at her knee before reaching out to touch her shoulder. “I…don’t know what is going on between you and Rook. Honestly, I don’t want to know and as your dorm leader, I probably shouldn’t anyway. But even if I can forgive Rook for betraying NRC Tribe, if he’s hurt you, that I cannot forgive.”

Danica hesitated, in truth, she didn’t understand why Vil was so willing to forgive Rook’s actions against him. If not for him, Vil would finally, for once, have risen against Neige and proven his worth to the world. All Rook had done was reconfirm all Vil probably felt about himself, that he was ugly and cruel. Even if Vil had done cruel things, somehow, this punishment didn't seem to equate the actions, especially since Vil was already aware of all he had done wrong. 

How long would it be now before Vil once again had a chance to prove himself? Would he ever have the chance to prove his worth? And would Vil ever see it for himself? As Danica asked herself this, she felt something small and wet tap her leg. She glanced down and saw Vil’s gaze cast downward. From the angle she sat at, she couldn’t fully see his face, but she could feel his hands tremble against her skin. 

“Vil-san…” she whispered, hesitantly placing both of her hands on top of his. His hands quickly pulled away from her grasp but not cruelly, he pressed them to his face and that’s when she understood. “Vil-san…please…”

“You never deserved any of this,” he whispered, more tears sliding down his face, falling onto her leg. “Just because I’m meant to be a villain, it doesn’t mean…”

“Vil!”

“It doesn’t mean I had the right to say all those terrible things to you! It's true, I was just jealous of your victory, I was jealous and I was angry at Rook but I took it all out on you!” His whimpers quickly morphed into full on sobbing once again. “All this time, I’ve stressed to you that a black swan cannot stand beside a prine, but in truth, a villain has no right to…to…”

A villain has no right to stand by the side of an angel. 

Vil bit down hard on his tongue before he could say things better left unsaid. But Danica had heard enough, and understood enough of what he was trying to convey to her. At that moment, she couldn’t bear to remain angry at him, nor could she hold back her emotions any longer. 

It was bold, it was sudden, and for Vil, it was completely unexpected and even more shocking. His body froze as he tried to comprehend what she was doing. Besides his father, no one had ever really shown Vil affection, let alone embrace him like this. He was used to keeping people at a distance, used to people being intimidated by his aura and even Rook remained at arms length of him for the most part.  

But while the lack of affection in his life made this embrace all the more shocking, it also made Vil realize just how much he needed it. How much he was secretly craving this tenderness, and how much he never wanted her to let him go. 

“Vil-kun, what’s wrong?” Erik asked, gently stroking his son’s hair. “You did so well, you should be proud of yourself. Why are you crying?”

“I hated it! The way they looked at me!” Vil sobbed into his father’s chest, his small body swallowed up by his father’s embrace. “Everyone in the cast got flowers but me! Neige got the most but I didn’t get any! And the other kids made fun of me and said bad guys don’t get flowers! I don’t want to play bad guys anymore but those are the only parts I keep getting!” 

Erik hugged his son tighter, letting him cry as he glanced at the framed photo on the table in front of them. If only Valerie could still be here. For as much love as he gave Vil, there were times, like now, that he wondered if it was enough. 

“I’m not a mean boy! I just pretend to be mean when I’m acting!” Vil went on, staring up at his father with tears streaming down his face. “But I’m not mean! I’m not! So why do they always assume I’m mean?!”

“Oh Vil…”

“Why can’t I be the good guy for once?! Why can’t I ever be enough?!” 

“Shh shh, it’s alright,” Erik spoke in a soothing tone, gently wiping the tears away from Vil’s cheeks. “I know you’re upset, Vil. I know, I know. But you’re such a talented boy. And every part you play, you perform so wonderfully.”

“But no one loves villains,” Vil sniffed. “And no one cares when villains are defeated. Everyone cheers for the hero but no one cheers for the villains. No one likes us because we’re mean and hurt people!” 

“Yes, that’s true, but stories need villains, just as much as they need heroes. If there were no villains, there would be no obstacle for the heroes to overcome and the stories would become boring and fall apart.”

“So you mean…heroes need villains?” Vil asked, wiping the rest of his tears away. “But people still don’t like villains.”

“Not always,” Erik smiled. “There are some people who like watching villains more than they do heroes. Because the hero is always destined to succeed in the end, sometimes people take more interest in the villains because they want to see what they will do. Heroes always have to be good and do the right thing. But villains, they can do whatever they like because they don’t play by the rules.” He winked at his son. “That’s personally why I think playing the villain is more fun.”

“Dad…” 

Vil glanced up at his father, recalling a moment the previous halloween when his father returned home from performing in a musical. Erik was still wearing his special makeup that made him appear disfigured and it scared Vil so badly that he ran away from him and began to cry. He hid under the coffee table and It wasn’t until his father soothed him with a song from the musical that Vil recognized his voice and finally approached him. Though his appearance was frightening, beneath the makeup was still his kind and caring father. And in Vil’s young heart, he was everything that a hero should be and more. 

Finally, Vil’s tears began to fade and he smiled up at his father with new found confidence. 

“Well, just you wait, Dad!” he said. “Next time, I’m gonna play a hero! I’ll work extra hard on my next audition and I’ll leave everyone in tears! Just like Neige!” 

“Oh I have no doubt, Vil! After all, you’re my son!” Erik scooped Vil up in his arms, lifting him up in the air as he and Vil laughed together. He hugged him tightly to his chest. “But regardless of what role you get next, you are a good and beautiful boy, inside and out. And regardless of what roles you play in the future, you will always, always be enough.”

“Danica…” Vil murmured, still dumbstruck by this sudden show of affection. “Why…why are you?”

“May I speak plainly, Vil-san?” she asked softly. He did not respond right away but she decided to continue on anyway. 

“A few years ago, I watched you in a movie, it was The Twisted Prince,” at this, she felt Vil tense up slightly. But he didn’t stop her and she went on, “I remember how taken I was with your performance in that role. But it wasn’t just seeing you bring the twisted prince to life, it was also listening to your interviews around that time. I vividly remember one, yes, where you talked about the challenges of getting into the characters mindset because it was so far removed from your own. And how you said that you enjoyed the challenge and considered yourself a better actor because of it. That’s why I admire you, Vil-san. That’s why I still admire you even now.”

Vil remained silent but in his mind, he was considering his words. This wasn’t the first time someone had professed to being taken with one of his villainous roles, he had learned early on that there was a certain subset of people who naturally gravitated towards villains. But something about the way Danica spoke, there was such plain, brilliant honesty in the way she expressed herself and her admiration of him. Something he always found quite intriguing about her. 

“You lost your heart to the villainous prince, did you?” he asked, chuckling softly. 

“No, I lost my heart to someone driven in his goals and always determined to succeed, his efforts rivaling even those of the Fairest Queen of legend. Someone…I wanted to be like.”

Danica closed her eyes as she felt her face becoming hot. She was coming dangerously close to revealing something she was very unsure she wanted him to know. But somehow, she couldn’t stop herself. 

“From the moment I set foot in this dorm, I saw first hand how determined you were in everything you did, and it made me want to become more determined myself. That’s why, whenever you gave me tasks I thought were impossible or daunting, I still tried to do them because I wanted you to see my determination too.”

And every test I gave you, you passed with flying colors, Little Potato. Vil continued listening to her and slowly, the beginnings of a smile began to form on his lips. 

“But I’m so tired,” she went on. “I’m tired of the idea of heroes or villains, or white swans and black swans. In the end we all fucked up in this situation, Vil-san.”

“Ara, your language, Little Potato!” He tried to take on a scolding tone, but he found himself biting back a smirk. 

“Forgive my language but it’s true!” she giggled through the tears she felt forming in her eyes. “You hurt me, but I also broke my promise to you too! Rook betrayed us both and even Neige isn’t fully innocent either! He’s using his victory to guilt Lilianne into go on a date with him instead of accepting her rejection with grace!”

Hmph, he always had a way of getting exactly what he wanted. Vil scoffed under his breath. 

“And anyway, what is a hero really? The only thing being a hero means is to be the antagonist to a villain’s journey. But villains have their own hopes and dreams too.”

This was it, there was no turning back now. It almost didn't matter how Vil responded to what she said next. If Danica didn’t say this now, she never would, and she would regret it for all eternity. 

“There’s no way I can forgive what you’ve done to me, Vil. You did a lot of messed up things all to keep up with a standard that hates us both! I can’t forgive you, but I also can’t forget how much you've changed me for the better. You’ve inspired me to be the best version of myself that I can be. Before, I was always so afraid of people’s eyes on me but under your guidance, I feel myself really becoming confident in myself, I can’t forget that.” 

“Danica…”

Vil had not yet pulled away from her embrace and she tightened her hold on him as she took one final breath before finishing her tangent. 

“I can’t forget any of that, even if I can’t forgive how you’ve hurt me. So if you can’t be my hero, then I’m fine with being damned.” 

From the moment Danica began speaking, Vil could feel his emotions beginning to shift. But with every word she continued with, he felt his heart racing faster. It seemed almost too good to be true and in fact, she made no statement about love or even anything regarding her feelings. She didn’t have to though. After all that had transpired, it would be extremely forward for him to even imagine that they could rekindle their feelings for each other now. At least, not at this moment. 

The truth was, they both had many lessons they needed to learn before they could even begin to entertain such a thing. Vil would have to reconcile with his fate to always be a villain. Danica would have to decide whether or not she could accept that side of him in all that it entailed. And they would both have to learn to see each other past their labels, as full human beings. 

However in that moment, Vil was more than willing to accept this and learn any lessons needed, make any amends required, if he could even have just a chance to have this one thing he wanted. Something that, by some miracle, Neige hadn’t managed to take away from him. Something that, if such a thing like miracles existed, perhaps he could finally earn in time. It would be a miracle achieved through his own efforts of course, but a miracle all the same. And maybe, just maybe, the first sign that all hope wasn’t lost, and that he might one day finally be free of his curse. 

“Ara, ara, for you to see me in such an undignified state,” he sighed, finally returning her embrace. “I’m…afraid I’m going to have to have you sign an NDA, Little Potato.” Very gently, Vil reached out and cupped her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away a tear from the corner of her eye. “Why the tears? Don’t you dare waste them on me.”

“Vil-san…”

“Fear not, Danica. There is one thing I’ve always found admirable about villains. Care to know what that is?” She glanced up at him and nodded. “Villains never give up, they continue fighting on until the bitter end. And so shall I. This might be a minor roadblock but it doesn't mean I’m giving up. I won’t stop fighting until I’ve reached my goal to finally be better than Neige. And I won’t give up until I’ve finally reached my goal and become the fairest one of all.”

More tears fell down his face which made her tears return as well. But they were both smiling through them, smiling and holding onto each other, neither of them willing to let the other go. It was only the ringing of Vil’s shattered phone that finally forced him to pull away from Danica to take it to see who was calling. He glared down at the broken screen, it was the headmage. 

“Yes, what is it headmage?” Vil asked, barely attempting to mask his annoyance. “Why are you contacting me at this late hour?”

As it happened, Grim was missing. Yuulan had gone looking for him back at the VDC stage and he had strangely attacked her. Now he was on the loose and Crowley certainly couldn’t have a dangerous beast running wild around campus. Particularly with so many guests attending the cultural festival which would soon be in its second day. 

“I’m rounding up all of the dorm leaders to assist with the search for Grim,” said Crowley, his voice coming through sorted and static though Vil’s defective phone. “Please meet us as soon as you can, Mr Scheonheit.”

Vil groaned as he agreed and hung up the phone, wrapping it up in some bandage cloth before placing it carefully in his pocket. He finally stood up, and prepared to leave but not before guiding Danica back to the hallway and locking the door to the ballroom. 

“We’ll have to clean up the broken glass later,” he said to her. “But for now, try to get some rest, Little Potato. I’ll be back before dawn, hopefully.”

Danica stood in the hallway as she watched Vil leave. A plethora of emotions ran through her heart, none of which she imagined would be sorted out anytime soon. She hoped Vil would return back to the dorm safely but until then, she would return back to her room and continue to think about what she initially was wondering. What she would say to Vil the next time they saw each other. And she would continue to ponder the cruel price they both had to pay for their perfection. 

~~~

(A/N: I had many ideas for the ending of this story which, if it isn’t obvious, ends right where Book 6 begins. As this story was heavily inspired by Swan Lake, I considered ending this story in a similar way as the ballet but the thing is, there are several endings to the ballet ranging from happy to tragic and everything in between. In the end, I decided on a more open/ambiguous ending since I felt it might be a little awkward for the endgame ship to become official now after all that has occurred. 

But if it isn’t obvious by now, Vil will be Danica’s official endgame ship and in the future, she will be the only oc I will NOT be open to shipping with others weather canon or oc. Also, in my twisted mind, a sequel to this story does exist and may or may not already have several chapters already written. Unfortunately, this sequel will never see the light of day due to some heavy themes that border on dead dove territory. Without going into much detail, this hypothetical sequel involves heavy yandere themes, Danica temporarily transferring to Diasomnia and eventually overblotting. I might post hints to this overblot au in the future but for now, all everyone needs to know is that in time, after some serious mental work on both their parts, Vil and Danica will eventually have their true happily ever after. 

I’m not sure how “good” this fic is, since I decided to write it on a whim, completely trashing out what I originally had in mind for it. And the main reason why I really wanted to write this fic is, as mentioned, I was really affected by Vil's arc and very upset with how certain corners of the twst fandom mischaracterize him so badly. And because I see so much of myself in Vil, this may sound pathetic, but I felt that every time someone misjudged Vil, I was once again being placed on trial for my own traumas from my past and forced to defend myself and some of the not so nice ways I acted out when I was truly hurting and needed help and love. Even if I can't right all the wrongs in my past, I can at least see to it that Vil will have a happier ending than I did, even if it's not canon.

But I did enjoy writing it, even when it was difficult at times. And I truly hope people enjoyed reading it. It’s been such a long time since I’ve been inspired to write seriously and I am so thankful to twst for finally sparking inspiration in me once again and reminding me that I actually can write, and when I’m not overcome by crushing anxiety, I actually have interesting ideas too. 

In the meantime, Heloise’s birthday celebrations will happen this coming Monday (March 27th) and now that this fic is done, the next thing I’m planning is a Vidaria-centric overblot AU. But because the plot is partially dependent on what happens in Book 7, it might be a while before I begin posting it, though I will share excerpts soon. Also, I feel Danica has been thought ALOT in recent months, so come April 12th, we will be having a big celebration for her birthday on this blog and I hope everyone (and your ocs too!) will come and celebrate her with all the love and wagashi she deserves. 

I’d like to once again give a special thank you to @twst-the-night-away and @twstinginthewind​ for giving me permission to use their ocs in this fic. The latter of whom inspired a part of this chapter with her wonderfully angsty art that you can find here. Yes, this is where I got the idea for Vil’s shattered phone, something I decided on for the ending months ago even when I was still thinking about everything else. 

And once final time, thank you everyone for reading this fic, and feedback is very, GREATLY, appreciated! 💙💙💙)

[javelinbk]

Thanks @aquarianshift for tagging me in this and making me realise how much I still need to improve my opening lines... get to the point, Javelin!

ao3 first lines tagline!

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway (spoiler alert: rules are made to be broken…)

Tagging @scurator because I know if you've already done this you can just pick another random 10 fics

Paul in the raw

“Shh… keep it down, will ya?” hissed Paul as he and John stood in his hallway, trying to kick their wet boots off. They’d missed the last bus and had got caught in a downpour on the way home.

2. Fair's fair

Paul had started it.

They were all in a giddy mood that day. The US tour was going well, but they were surrounded by so much craziness that they felt like they might be the only sane people left in America… which of course made them start feeling insane. And John didn’t think they’d actually stopped giggling since that mate of Dylan’s had passed round the pot a couple of nights before.

They were also particularly excited about the promise of an even rarer treat… a day off. They just had to get through one more press conference first.

3. I've just got to get a message to you

Paul blinked his eyes open, instinctively rubbing his fingers against his temples even though he couldn’t feel a headache. He looked around him. He didn’t seem to be in a room, but he wasn’t outside either. He looked down at his hands, which were both there and yet… not there.

4. Take a sad song and make it better

John was bored. He’d done the baking and washing up for the day, Sean was napping, and Yoko was at another business meeting (or so she said). He was slumped on the sofa, flicking aimlessly through the tv channels, when the phone rang. ‘Please be someone interesting’, he thought to himself, as he picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Blahdy hell Terence - are you evah going to pick up the phone and call me yourself?!” the voice on the other end blasted.

5. Double Fantasy

John carried his cup of tea out of the stock room and got himself as comfy as he could on his hard wooden stool, one foot resting on his knee, and an elbow on the counter. He picked up his book - just half an hour of relaxed reading to go, and he reckoned he could call it a day. It hadn’t exactly been the most lucrative of afternoons, but January never was - and after the chaos of Christmas, he was quite glad for the peace and quiet.

But his peace was soon disturbed by the tell-tale jingle of the bell above the shop door, announcing the arrival of a customer. ‘Why does this always happen when I get to a good bit?’ he thought to himself.

6. Khristmas Karaoke

Linda rang the doorbell, her arms full of presents and bottles of wine. For once, it was John who opened the door, but what was even more unusual was what he was wearing. The blue jeans weren’t a surprise, but the accompanying jumper with Santa flying across it in a reindeer-powered sleigh certainly was.

“Oh,” said Linda, putting a hand to her mouth to try to hide her amused smile, but failing. “Oh no.”

John immediately raised a finger in warning. “Not a word – not a a fucking word.”

7. Get a job, cop!

“I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we’ve passed the audition.”

Paul laughed as he took his guitar strap over his head. His cheeks were aching, but whether it was from the cold or because he couldn’t stop smiling, he wasn’t sure. He couldn’t believe how well it had gone today. After all their back and forth about where to do their show… about whether to do a show at all… it had finally worked out perfectly.

8. Très bien ensemble

John sighed and took another swig of his beer. He didn’t know why he came to these wanky art school parties. Well, he knew why; free booze and the possibility of getting off with one of the wanky art school birds. But, god… they took a while to get going. He really wished they could skip all the existentialism and poetry crap and just get straight to the getting drunk and shagging part.

9. Stop all the clocks

Brian was dead: to begin with.

Paul still remembered the first line of ‘A Christmas Carol’ from reading it at school – Marley was dead: to begin with. He always thought it was a great way to start – just get it all out there right from the kick-off; make it clear that everything is not quite as it seems.

This wasn’t the beginning of their story though. This felt more like the end.

Brian was dead: the end.

10. Brother Dearest

Paul always thought he was meant for great things - he refused to accept that this was his lot in life. Admittedly he was only sixteen, with hopefully still a lot of living to do, but either way he could still see the path that currently lay ahead of him – school, college, teacher. That was his dad’s plan anyway, and he supposed it was better than the alternative; wasting his life away in some factory with only a pint at the end of the day to look forward to.

But no, that wasn’t enough for Paul McCartney. There was greatness coming his way one day – he just knew it.

[lordlyhour]

10 songs Ask Game

Tagged By; @fvriva 1. The Moss // Cosmo Sheldrake

2. Ghost // Mystery Skulls

3. Birdhouse in your Soul // They Might Be Giants

4. Marble Machine // Wintergatan

5. Beethoven Virus // BanYa

6. Feelin’ Groovy // Simon and Garfunkel

7. Dance of the Knights // Sergei Prokofiev

8. The Only House that’s Not On Fire (Yet) // Lemon Demon

9. Main Title // Paper Mario

10. Classical Gas // Mason Williams Tagging; @haberdashing @a-vast-horizon @the-goblin-cat

[fairytaleyaya]

mingyu and the wild four

synopsis: taking care of 4 kids is not easy, especially not when you´re alone. But this is exactly what mingyu has to do right now with his wife being away the whole evening, busy with work. Will he be able to not loose all his nerves?

pairing: dad! mingyu x mum! reader

genre: fluff, parent au 

word count: 1.3k

warning: none, just mingyu parenting 

song recs:  asap  - weekly 

a/n: happy 100 days with my love @cuti3chw3 !!! she loves kids and parent aus so it was just right for me to this

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brief introduction of the kids to not get confused:

kim jiae (7) – the oldest and sassiest sister, a dramaqueen

kim minwoo (5) - 1/2 of the min twins, he is the normal one

kim minah (5) – 2/2 of the min twins, obsessed with her hair

kim hanjae (1) – youngest baby, the amount he cries depends on the parent holding him

 4.03pm

“Jiae! Did you do your homework?” mingyu starts yelling from the kitchen after checking his wristwatch only to see that it´s already 4. Normally he´d run to Jiae´s room to tell her to homework but if he did that his stew on the stove wouldn´t be very happy. On his right his youngest baby started crying, waking up from the 10 minutes sleep mingyu put him with efforts of rocking him for hours. “Oh no… han why aren´t you sleeping? Are you hungry?” but the baby who couldn´t say any other words apart from ´dad´ ´mum´ ´noona´ and ´hyung’ obviously couldn´t tell mingyu his problem (spoiler: he just wants to be held) Finally as Mingyu´s stew finally finished, he could get off the stove running towards the baby chair, taking his son out of it to hold him. At least now he wasn´t crying anymore, but han´s discomfort was obvious. He should make him a bottle. But how? And where are the bottles? He looks around confused, but it´s all hopeless no bottles in sight so he has to give you a quick call.

“Ahhh where did I put my phone?” after running another round around the house he realises his phone was in his pocket all along. We do not question his dumbassery, we call it stress. But finally mingyu dials his wife´s number, waiting three rings for you to pick up because your phone was on silent mode “Love? What´s wrong?” you worriedly ask. “Uhh hi babe it´s just that I can´t find han´s bottles, I think he´s hungry” you immediately ask “Is my tiniest baby with you right now? Han give mommy a hi” your son who can hear your voice in his father´s arms doesn´t fail to respond with a high pitched “Hi mommy!” which makes you squeal in excitement but you pull yourself together to help your husband “all bottles are on the second cardboard from the best mingyu how many times do I need to tell you? Now as you´re calling, how are my other babies doing?” Mingyu answers you while going to that cardboard and prepare a bottle “Jiae is in her room, I think she´s doing homework now” Fortunately you had pre made some bottles today morning so all he needed was to heat the milk for 40 seconds “Great make sure she finishes everything please, where are my sweet set of twins?” Mingyu at first just says “Wait let me call them over WOOAH” you face palm yourself hearing the ridiculous name your husband uses to call your twins over because minwoo an minah. But no twins come over running to their dad. “Oh shit-“ Mingyu covers his mouth. “I forgot them at tennis practice!” Your eyes widen at this statement causing you to yell “MINGYU”  

With that mingyu took jiae by her hand and han in his arms to the car to drive over to the tennis court where he forgot his twins for half an hour now. You were certainly going to kill him once you got home. When he arrived at the tennis court, he could see two tiny humans running in his direction namely minwoo and minah. It was crazy how they were dizygotic twins but managed to look like the male and female copy of each other. Mingyu kneeled to the height of his two middle children and embraced them tightly “Oh my god I´m so sorry kids” While minah was quite scared and was bear hugging her father not letting go of his shirt she had gripped, minwoo laughed and said “I can´t believe you forgot us here dad! You should´ve seen Minah she kept clinging on me” the Babyboy couldn´t keep his laughter but mingyu just lifted the little girl and settled her in the car behind them while replying to minwoo “Stop teasing your sister big boy, you can´t even watch scary movie” minwoo just pouted while getting into the car, but of course not without receiving a kiss on his cheek by his dad before he closed the door. Jiae on the other switched to full big sis mode and wrapped her tiny arms around her sister, who gladly cuddle her unnie while minwoo tried to build an early boy-only bond with poor han who didn´t anything but give his hyung a cheeky smile.

“Okay kids now check up time, we´re going by age Jiae is that homework finished?” Jiae just rolled her eyes sayingMi “Of course it is” Mingyu also did a dramatic eyeroll, mocking Jiae “Don´t roll your eyes at me pretty girl, but good job. Next up Minwoo and Minah how was practice, again sorry forgetting you know mommy´s busy tonight” Minah just replied with a wordless thumbs up to her dad, half taking a nap on Jiae´s shoulder. Minwoo started telling his dad about all the cool stuff but while Mingyu was parking the car Jiae interrupted him “Okay okay enough Minwoo we are tired” Minwoo just fought back “Yah9 noona just because no cool stuff happens to you, you don´t have to-“  Mingyu again had to make  peace “No fighting kids, don´t be mean Jiae now we´re home everyone is gathering up on the dinner table after washing their hands, except for you han of course”

Soon enough (almost an hour) han was already put on his night sleep hopefully for 8 hours straight and the rest gathered on the dining table, eating their dad´s homemade food. Once the plates were starting to look empty, Mingyu gave his last instructions “So, now babies it´s getting late sleeping time. You know the ritual everyone has 15min to wash up and settle themselves in the living room for the good night story.” With that the kids sprinted into their rooms to get into their pjs and wash their teeth after all the one who finishes first is allowed to choose the story. The lucky one tonight was Minah, Minwoo hated it as the girls made him listen to princess stories.

Once Mingyu was able to tuck everyone in their bed he tiredly threw himself on the sofa, sighing. Having 4 kids wasn´t easy, normally he is supported by you so today made him realise how grateful he is for having you in his life. While he was thinking of you with his eyes closed you had finally arrived at him, sneaking yourself right behind him, giving him a light shoulder massage to make your presence known. “Hard day?” MIngyu sat up, startled “You startled me. But hell yes, you should make up for it” You nodded, while you were about to take a seat next to him, he pulled on his lap tightly hugging you from behind “Did you miss me that much?” you laughed out “I did, more than you think” With that you stayed there for a little while more, cuddling to relieve the stress of the day.

thank you for reading!

[winter-soldier-vibes]

Burnout (Bucky x reader)

“Burnout”

Bucky x reader

Warnings: burnout, overworked, mental breakdown/panic attack

Word count: 3377

A/N: Take care of yourself, burnout is real and you CAN get sick. Trust me. I’m always here if you wanna talk to someone about anything or want another friend. Stay strong <3

Includes: Lyrics from the song “Weight of the World” by Citizen Soldier

Tags: @buckys2thicc @thatfangirl42 @thundering-barnes @abitgryffindorky @ladyfallonavenger

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These nights were becoming more common. And that wasn’t a good thing.

You sat at your desk surrounded by papers, empty cans of energy drinks, and a bright laptop screen. You held your head in your hands and you tried to keep your eyes awake, turning the screen brightness higher. 

1:46 AM

You sighed and rubbed your eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them. You took your hands away and looked back at the screen briefly before covering your face again. 

You lived with the Avengers and were a huge asset to the team. Not only were you enhanced with powers, but you were incredibly intelligent. That being the case, you worked with Tony and Bruce in the lab either developing new ideas or fixing suits after missions. As well as being on the mission yourself. Therefore you trained early every morning with Steve and Bucky. You also did most of the mission reports, switching off with Steve once and a while.

Most nights you could be found either working through paperwork, down in the lab working into the morning with Tony, or researching for new projects in said lab. You never meant to stay up as late as you did, but no matter how hard you worked, more work kept appearing. Every 10 PM soon turned into 2 AM, and you could never quite catch a break. You had turned to caffeine not long ago, quickly using it as a crutch to supplement sleep. 

You had just gotten back from a long mission with the team, and were incredibly sore. Steve hadn’t gone on this mission, leaving you to finish the report. Add to that, Tony wanted to make a better suit for Peter, and Sam’s wings were busted. Tony was working on Peter’s suit, wanting to make it perfect, leaving you with fixing the wings for Sam. 

You decided to work on Sam’s Falcon suit first, seeing that you lived on Planet Earth and he could be scheduled for another mission at any time. What seemed to be superficial damage turned out to be extensive, and required much more repairing that you had anticipated. What you had planned to be a 2 hour process had turned into just over a day of work in the lab. 

Not wanting to lose your place and needing a distraction from the soreness, you had worked for hours straight, only breaking to relieve yourself every so often. You were exhausted and ready to fall asleep when you laid back in your bed. Only to check your notifications and see an email from Fury requesting the mission report immediately.

Sent hours ago.

Which led you to where you were now. You hadn’t slept in almost 48 hours, sore from the mission, with a tedious mission report to fill out. Taking a deep breath, you removed your hands from your face.

 2:07 AM.

You groaned, but brought your hands back to the keyboard and began typing. The words were blurring together and you shook your head a few times trying to stay awake. Somehow, you finished the report and sent it off and looked at the time again.

3:13 AM

You rubbed your temples before climbing back into your bed, sighing out as your eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t uncommon for you to go to bed this late/early. Lately Tony had been coming up with more ideas and would ask you to help. Since Tony works through most of the night, you had learned to do the same. You don’t remember the last time you had more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep. 

You were off the hook for training for a few days, due to having just gotten back from a mission. And while you had been hesitant at first, you were grateful now that you had a bit more time to sleep. Despite the caffeine you had consumed to stay awake, you were absolutely exhausted. Tears threatened to fall from your eyes but you tried to breathe through it. You just wanted a break but couldn’t seem to catch one. 

You curled into yourself as your stomach began to growl. ‘When was the last time I ate?’ you thought. Not that it mattered, there was nothing that could bring you out of your bed at that moment. You drifted off to sleep.

-----

You woke up to your phone chiming and groaned, picking it up to see what was so important. Your eyes find the top message, informing you that the mission report you had submitted was incomplete. You jolted out of bed and over to your desk to begin working on the report again, biting back tears of embarrassment at such a ridiculous error on your part. How could you have been so tired that you missed an entire section of a report?

You cracked open another energy drink that you kept in your room and began guzzling it. You were still in the same clothes as the day before and you hadn’t taken your hair down from it’s bun in days. Your stomach grumbled but you answered it with more of the energy drink. You would deal with hunger later. This was much more important. 

Your head was pounding and you could barely sit up straight. You had barely gotten a few hours of sleep and somehow felt more tired than you had before it. Your sight became more blurry as it became harder to suppress the tears. You were angry at yourself, why couldn’t you just get this one fucking thing done?

You worked through the section quickly, or at least, you tried to. You kept having to reread sections, not comprehending what the words were saying anymore. You rubbed your eyes aggressively and shook your head, trying to concentrate. You reached to grab the energy drink again, but instead accidentally spilled it all over yourself. Letting out a “Fuck!” as you stood up, something inside you snapped. 

You threw the can across the room, not caring how much was left inside of it. You flipped your chair and crumbled the miscellaneous papers on your desk. You let out a scream of frustration, and threw a picture frame across the room. After which, you bent over and placed your hands on your knees, small sobs beginning to wrack your body. You were just so tired, you had work to do, but you couldn’t do it no matter how simple it was. 

You walked around the mess and into your bathroom, closing the door. You turned on the shower and got in, not even bothering to take off your clothes or wait for it to warm up. You didn’t care. You couldn’t. You sank to the floor, tears streaming down your face as the shower began to warm. You couldn’t bring yourself together, every time you tried to calm down a new wave of frustration and exhaustion would hit you and you would start crying all over again. You held your hand to your chest, trying to catch your breath a little, not having much success. You were gasping for air, it felt like you were breathing fire. Unable to fight it anymore, you started choking out lyrics to one of your go-to sad songs.

Feel the weight of the world over me tonight.

If I break, if I break down this time

You took a shaky breath and choked out the next line

Hope you know I tried…

Meanwhile, Bucky had been thinking about you. The two of you were very close, you had been ever since Steve had introduced you to him. He was in awe of how you could both rival Tony in the lab and himself in the training room. That and how much you did for others. You had helped him a lot when Bucky had first come to the compound. And he was very grateful.

He knew you had gotten back from a mission a few days ago, and were probably exhausted. From what he had heard it had been a brutal mission. However, in the past, you had usually gotten back into the routine of daily life pretty quickly. He hasn’t so much as seen you since you got back. 

He couldn’t help but worry.

He decided to go to your room to check on you, seeing as it was later in the morning and you had had a chance to sleep. Little did he know, you hadn’t. When he got to your door he knocked and waited for a response. He was met with nothing. However, with his enhanced hearing, he heard muffled singing from inside. He couldn’t hear the words, but you sounded in pain. 

My mind’s such a mess, I can’t handle it, I’m at the end of my rope.

Worried, he let himself in and took in the state of the room. It was completely trashed, shattered glass, overturned furniture, crumbled papers. He heard the shower running and could hear your cries through the lyrics

My neck is breaking body shaking

Sometimes it’s so hard to breathe

But no one sees it follows me i always end up underneath

The weight of the world…

You began coughing, still gasping for air and holding your chest. Bucky came over to the bathroom door and opened it, concerned you were in pain. You were sitting on the floor, drenched and shaking. Steam filled the room, fogging up the mirrors. He came over to you, trying to get your attention but you couldn’t hear him. Worried, he stepped into the shower as well, swearing as it burned his skin. He crouched down in front of you and took your face in his hands, trying to guide your face to his.

“Y/n, y/n can you hear me? Can you look at me?” he said. 

Coming back to your senses slightly, you tried to figure out who was in front of you. You grabbed one of his forearms and focused your eyes, still struggling to breathe. You found Bucky’s blue eyes looking back at you.

Bucky, knowing you were now aware of his presence, reached to turn off the water while still maintaining eye contact. You were coughing, choking on each breath, still shaking and crying. Bucky had never seen you like this. You tried looking around again, forgetting briefly where you were and what had happened, breath picking up again in confusion.  “Hey, hey, y/n? I need you to keep your eyes on me okay?”

“It...hurts..” you gasped out, feeling like fire filled your lungs. Your arms had gone numb and in the absence of the warm water your wet body was now shivering from both the cold and anxiety. 

Bucky quickly looked you up and down. “What hurts, y/n?” he said calmly but firmly even though he was freaking out internally.

Fresh tears spilled out of your eyes. You tried to talk but couldn’t speak through your panic. You rubbed your chest, willing your heart to slow down but it wouldn’t. 

Bucky, still keeping his eyes locked on yours, said “Listen, y/n, I need you to try and breathe with me slowly, okay? Like this,” he breathed in deeply and let it out slowly. You tried to copy him and after a few breaths lost your pace. You shook your head. “I can’t…. I...I…”

. “It’s okay, you’re okay, you’re safe y/n. Try again, I’m right here okay? Look at me.” he said, still breathing deeply. Eventually, you were able to find a rhythm and catch your breath, becoming aware of the situation and everything that had happened. Now able to breathe, you felt new tears of shame rush to your eyes. There were a few moments of silence

“What happened?” Bucky asked, concern etched on his face. 

You let out a small sob and covered your face, and Bucky’s heart shattered. He had never seen anyone this upset, nevermind you. You had always been so strong, energetic, joyful. And here you were, soaking wet and shaking on the shower floor. What the hell had happened to you? 

He stood up and got out of the shower, also soaked, but he didn’t care about that right now. He leaned down and put one arm behind your back and the other looped under your knees and he picked you up. He placed you down on the vanity and stood in front of you. He carefully took your wrists and pulled them away from your face, you looking at him through bloodshot eyes. 

“You - you’re soaked,” you said, both out of shock and in an attempt to deflect the attention from you.

“Wh- I mean, yeah, so are you,” Bucky said. “Y/n, can you tell me what happened?”

You looked down at your hands and swallowed thickly, embarrassed. “I, uh…” you cleared your throat. What had happened? You closed your eyes and rubbed your head. 

The shower

The song

Your room

The report

The energy drink

Oh fuck

You sighed out “Shit, I just…” again, shame began to overtake you. “It’s stupid, forget about it,” you said, trying to stand up. 

Bucky stopped you, confused. “Y/n, whatever just happened, that…  That’s not caused by something stupid. I’ve never seen you so upset before. Hell I’ve never seen anyone so upset before. But I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“Really, Buck, I’m fine,” you said.

“Then why are you trying not to cry?”

You sighed. There was no other way out of this. You looked at him and said, “I was just done.” You looked back down at your hands, and continued trying to keep the waiver out of your voice. “I just, um...After the mission I had to fix Sam’s wings, and it took me longer than I expected. And then I still had the mission report which took me all of last night and then I found out that I had missed an entire section. And I got mad that I couldn’t focus or stay awake and I just kind of...broke.”

As you looked back at him, face not as red, he could see how tired you seemed. “Are you sleeping?”

“I mean, a little bit it’s not like I’ve been awake this whole time but -”

“Y/n.”

You looked at him. “A couple of hours a night at most,” you said quietly. 

Bucky nodded sadly. “Anything else?”

You opened and closed your mouth a few times. “I mean it’s not a big deal -”

“What I just saw was a big deal,” Bucky said gently.

“I haven’t really made time to eat either,” you tried to laugh it off a little. “Just kind of chugged energy drinks. But then I spilled it all over myself, so...bad idea I guess.”

Bucky wasn’t laughing. But he wasn’t angry either. He was, but not at you, never at you.

“I’m sorry,” you said. 

“Why didn’t you say anything? The days off after missions are there for rest.”

You shrugged. “I had important shit to do.” 

“Well you’re pretty important shit too,” he said a little more firmly, but still not angrily. He sighed. “But really, if you’re not okay then nothing gets done. You’re going to get sick if you keep doing this to yourself. When was the last time you had more than a few hours of sleep?”

“I don’t know,” you answered honestly. 

He sighed once again. “I’m sorry,” you said, fearful that he was angry with you.

“No, it’s not your fault I just…” he looked away for a second before looking back at you. “I don’t like seeing you like this. I don’t want you pushing yourself so hard and getting hurt.”

You sighed sadly and rubbed your eyes. “Every day I tell myself it’s the last day I’ll stay up so late. I always tell myself I’ll eat after my project is done. But no matter how hard I work there’s just more and more work that needs to get done. And I can’t keep up. I feel like I’m drowning. But no matter how much I hate it I...I always come last,” you said. 

“You shouldn’t have to,” Bucky said.

After a few moments of silence, Bucky pulled you in for a hug, you still sitting on the counter. You closed your eyes against his chest and sighed out, feeling good finally getting all of that off of your chest. 

“You’re taking the next few days off.” he said. 

You pulled back and looked at him. “But the report -”

“Is mostly done and Steve can get the rest of the information from Sam.” Bucky finished for you.

“But -”

“Nope. There is not a single thing you could say right now that is going to prevent me from making sure you take care of yourself for a few days.” he said, and you knew he was right. Nodding, he pulled you back in for a hug. 

“We should get out of these clothes.” you said softly, shivering a little. 

Bucky laughed a little. “Yeah, we really should.” 

You moved to stand up from the counter, still a little weak as you leaned on Bucky a little. You walked slowly out to your room and were met with the mess you created earlier. “Shit,” you said, taking in the broken glass and furniture.

Bucky turned you around and said “Do you want to come to my room? We can deal with this some other time.”

You simply nodded, stepping around the broken shards of glass and to the hallway. Bucky’s room wasn’t far from yours, and luckily no one was in the hallways to comment on how both of you were in wet clothes. Once in his room, he closed the door after you and went to his dresser. He pulled out a pair of sweats and one of his T-shirts and handed them to you. “They might be a little big but -”

“Thank you,” you said, taking the clothes and heading to his bathroom. You closed the door and peeled your current outfit off of you. You found a spare towel and dried off the rest of you, and pulled on Bucky’s clothes. They were huge on you, but you didn’t mind. You took your hair down and redid your bun before splashing some cold water on your face. Deeming you looked more presentable, you came back out and saw that Bucky had also changed. Smiling warmly, he pointed to the bed. 

“So you are going to lie down, and I am going to go make you some food. I’ll be right back.”

You started shaking your head. “No, it’s okay, you don’t have -”

He raised his eyebrows, still pointing to the bed. Swallowing a laugh, you nodded and sat down on the bed. Bucky then left the room and returned a few minutes later with a sandwich. After you had eaten it, you laid back in the bed, melting into the softness of the mattress. You faced away from Bucky, who was sitting next to you on his phone. He was (slowly)  texting Steve to finish your report, which took very little convincing. 

After a few minutes, you asked “Can you lay down with me?”

Bucky smiled a little to himself. “Sure, doll,” he said, and he moved to lie down next to you. Unsure of what exactly you wanted, he gave you space. Not soon after, you turned over and scooted closer to his side. After a moment of shock from Bucky, you asked “Is this okay?” Readjusting a little, he wrapped his arm around you and pulled you closer. “Yeah, is this okay?” he asked in return.  You merely hummed in approval, already feeling safer in his warm embrace. He let out a small laugh. “Try to get some rest, y/n. I’ll be here whenever you wake up.”

It was the most peaceful sleep you had ever had.

[bitchassbucky]

.exe

Word Count: 2.4k

Warning/s: stalkers, bucky being a creepo, reader being a creepo. dark!IT!bucky x dark!reader :-) female & male masturbation, voyeurism (i think), cyber crimes being committed.

A/N: this is my birthday gift to @babyboibucky <3 to my boo, I love you and you have a special place in my heart. this is gonna be a multi-part thing, it's too long to be considered as a one-shot, oops.

please enjoy! :D

follow the CTRL series:

i - .exe

ii - .avi

iii - .raw

iv - .png

v - .zip

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4:49 PM

Just 11 more minutes until he can pack his bags up for the weekend.

One new ticket - URGENT

Goddamn it.

Bucky pulled his earphones out in annoyance, just another office idiot who doesn’t know how to print A4 sheets. If the office were to be held hostage and printing out was the only thing that can save them, half of the floor would be dead.

The new name caught his eye, Y/N Y/L. A new hire, it seems like.

Subject: One new ticket - URGENT

Hi, this is Y/N, employee number 0008675309. I’m new here and was told to send a ticket for the equipment request.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Oh, Bucky’s gonna have a great weekend indeed. Out of pure curiosity, he’s already pulled up your employee file. A cute smile to a cute name. His annoyance dispersing already, just by thinking of ways how he can spend time with you.

Hey, Y/N! Bucky types into the text field, Welcome to the company. I’m Bucky and I got assigned to help you get settled. Do you prefer having a desktop or a laptop? I’ve attached a form in this thread, send it to me once you’re done.

Have an awesome weekend too!

As much as he hates sending out chirpy emails, he can’t help but to smile when you immediately send a reply back.

Thanks, Bucky! So sorry for sending in the request super late. Got caught up with the onboarding. Is it okay if I use my laptop until we can get a unit to my place? PC or laptop is fine with me.

Best,

Y/N

Bucky fights off another smile, rubbing his hand over his stubbled cheek as he carefully types out a reply. Unlike other days, he doesn’t mind staying beyond 5 PM today. It’s not like he has other plans for his Friday night.

No worries, Y/N. He’s already loving your name. Happy to help!

Do you have your laptop with you? I can set it up before you go home for the weekend. I can probably send in the ticket to the guys so you can have your work equipment next week.

His deft fingers are dancing over his mechanical keyboard, clacking away while the clock ticks closer to the weekend.

A ping, another reply from you. You’re new, you’re still excited to make friends in the office. If you only knew how stupid they are, though.

Yeah! I have it on me right now. I actually work on the same floor, I can drop it off there right now.

Bucky glances around his office, looking for any reflective surface he can check himself on. He runs his hand through his hair, taming any stubborn locks that fell out of his low bun. His shirt hangs just right against his huge frame, his pants hugging his figure, accentuating his silhouette even more.

Just as the clock ticks 5:00, a soft knock raps against his door, “come in!”

You are cuter, prettier in person. Your perfume hits his nose and he’s floored—metaphorically.

“Mr. Barnes,” you say, your demeanor somewhat meek and shy. Well, of course, you are. Your frame is nothing against the hunk of the man who just stood up to greet you.

“Bucky.” He prompts, smiling. You reciprocated the smile, but you really weren’t sure what to expect. Maybe a scrawny little dude mousing away on a keyboard?

“Bucky, thank you so much for doing this. I know you’d rather get off of work since it’s Friday and all.”

He hums, taking your laptop in his hands. You notice the rings adorning his fingers—complementing his tanned skin tone and—it’s not appropriate to stare at a stranger’s hand.

Heat creeps up your face as he turns to look at the stickers stuck to your laptop, “you know, I like this band.” Bucky says, pointing to an old sticker, he carefully sets down your laptop on his workstation.

“They’re great,” you muse, taking a seat on a plastic chair by the door.

You take a gander around his small office. There was nothing out of the ordinary but the big black server blinking at the back, so why do you feel trapped?

“Sorry about the temp, we have to keep the room cold for the server in the back,” Bucky explains, noticing how your arms are crossed over your chest. The skirt you’re wearing isn’t doing you any better too.

You stammer out an it’s okay with a small smile.

Bucky worked on your computer quietly, using a USB stick to load all the applications you need to set up a temporary work account on your laptop. After a few minutes, he beckoned you to come here. You scoot over to his desk, rolling the chair forward and beside him. Not too close though.

“So, this note has all your generated passwords. Type those into the app when you first log in, then you can change it if you want to.” Bucky explains, the cursor idles on the screen. He tries not to get too close to you, to give you personal space. It’s a professional workplace after all.

“This app,” he drags a window, pulling up an application, “tracks your hours and your keystrokes. It’s company-mandated because managers want to micro-manage their people, I guess.” Bucky shrugs, his disdain showing through his voice. His tone shifting lower than what you’d expected.

“Sorry, I just hate their new protocol,” his face and voice softening as he looks at you, “it’s a total privacy breach if you ask me.”

You’d normally disagree but something tells you that maybe he’s got a point. Your breath hitched in your throat as he leans closer as if to whisper something, “this note right here? It’s a nifty thing, a little script so your computer doesn’t go to sleep when you’re away. It enables and disables your numlock pad so it counts as a keystroke.”

A smirk finds its place on your face, “well, that’s…something, isn’t it?”

Never in your life would you find yourself flirting with a co-worker but there’s something about Bucky that made you excited. Interested. Intrigued.

Bucky nods, rolling his chair away to fetch a pad of sticky notes. “Another thing from your friendly neighborhood IT guy,” he peels off a leaf and sticks it on your laptop’s built-in camera, “keep your cam covered.”

You give him a chuckle and a playful salute, “yes, sir.”

Bucky’s a modern man. He sees a pretty girl and he gets giddy. He talks to a pretty girl and he gets flustered. But you—you make him feel more than giddy and flustered. There was something familiar about you, and your eyes. Has he seen you before? Met you, even? No, that’s impossible—if he had met you before, he’d surely remember you.

It was 5:34 PM when he gave you your laptop back and sent in an urgent request for your equipment. While taking down the elevator to the lobby, Bucky gave you a few tips on how to ‘survive’ working in the office. According to him, as far as you go in on time and kept your head above the rumors, you’d do fine.

He asked about your first week and he told you about this joint near the building that serves the best burgers and fries.

You’ve got a good feeling that you just made your first friend.

—

The sun was already setting down when you pulled into your apartment’s parking lot. At the very last minute, you turned into a drive-through and got some food on the go. The side trip took out 10 minutes of your time but at least you dodged the awful traffic that was building up by the highway.

Along with your laptop bag and your food, you trudge up to your third-floor apartment. It wasn’t what you wanted—the windows faced the street, the screen door doesn’t lock all the way—but it’s the one you got. As long as it’s got four walls and a roof, right?

You slip out of your work clothes and into some comfy jammies after a rewarding shower; the sooner you can get your food heat up, the sooner you can eat, and drink and then go to sleep.

So while waiting for the microwave to beep, you pry open your laptop. You told Bucky not to shut it down after he worked on it as to not lose your work on another profile, which he understood.

The work account he set up greeted you, along with the bright pink sticky note he stuck to your webcam. That wasn’t real, was it? All those cautionary tales of hackers using webcams to peep on you. Maybe he’s just trying to scare you, like some kind of initiation. Without a second thought, you took off the sticky note. It was kinda annoying anyway.

Clicking the Log Out Work button, your personal account popped into the frame. Your opened apps and documents displaying themselves for you to use. You pulled up Spotify and clicked on the first playlist you saw—which happened to be your intimate playlist.

Sure, the Pavlov reaction is real because halfway through the first song, you already found yourself getting all hot and bothered. This one’s your favorite song too.

You groan in annoyance, your food’s no longer a priority.

Picking up the laptop from the table, you walk to your bedroom, not bothering to shut the door. You live alone, it’s fine. You put the laptop on its loudest setting, setting it on your desk and you plopped down on your bed, the pillows and the comforter pooling on one side.

Your room is illuminated by a streak of light from the street. Your curtains flowing softly with the breeze that just came in.

Glancing at your laptop, you remembered Bucky. How his office smelled when you first walked in. How he stood tall when he greeted you. How he smiled. Those goddamn rings of his.

Before you caught yourself thinking rationally, your fingers are already splayed even over your thighs, caressing the soft flesh of your legs.

Bucky’s smirk and his cologne finding purchase in your fogged brain. Thoughts of him pulling you aside into his office to fool around—voices above hushed whispers as your skin erupts in goosebumps, the chilled air of his office finding its way up to your spine.

Oh, fuck it.

You undress fast, flinging your shirt over your head, dropping it somewhere below the bed. The air in your room making your nipples hard and erect as you pinch them. You breathe out a sigh, the heat of the moment creeping up your torso.

The material of your panties dampening as you imagine yourself bent over his desk, your skirt bunched over your hips as he laps your sopping cunt. Bucky’s tongue exploring your folds up and over until your pussy’s a quivering mess of drool and spit.

Your fingers slip past the band of your underwear. Even you surprised yourself by how wet you are.

God, you met him once and he’s already inching his way into your mind.

But who could blame you? You’ve been all over his Facebook profile when you learned his name via the office’s organizational chart. The first time you saw him, walking around the office with a laptop in his hands, you already knew you wanted to at least formally meet him. A scroll on his page, you found a band that you could tolerate listening to. (They’re okay, just not your taste in music.)

A plan came to mind when your department head told the team that you can work from home from time to time—only if you agreed to use a work laptop, a company-owned one. Your manager advised you to put in the request as soon as you can, for you to secure a unit before the on-hand supplies dwindle.

Deliberately sending in the request late—way, way later—than what your manager told you just so you could pull up the ‘new hire’ card and act dumb.

And it looked like he bought it too.

The image of him fucking you quiet while he grabs you from behind played inside your mind like a memory—a vision. Of how his thick cock would fill you up until your pussy is clenching around him. Would he pinch your throbbing clit, making you squirm and cream around him?

Your fingers are compared nothing to his, that’s for sure. But it does the work for now.

A breathy moan comes out of your mouth as you play with your clit, your cunt dripping down wetness as you continue to fondle your tits.

His hands would make a great addition to your chokers.

Your toes curl and your breath quickens, the coil in the pit of your stomach tightening—white-hot heat creeping up your limbs.

Oh, fuck, Bucky!

—

His ears perked up as he heard you moaning his name.

Bucky was busy watching you enjoy yourself when he got caught in the moment and decided to enjoy himself too.

He was barely keeping himself behaved when you first walked into the floor wearing a button-up and slacks that accentuated your backside. Bucky wished he was the one who gave you the tour and know your name for the first time, but that was impossible—he was in the IT department.

So when he got the news that new hires will be given the chance to work from home, he hoped that he gets to be the one to help you set up.

He was losing hope by the time he got your request, he thought that you opt not to work at home but then there you were, sending him an apologetic email on a late Friday afternoon.

Of course, he happily obliged. He even set up himself a little virtual camp in the background of your computer just so he can continue spending time with you.

Just thinking about you is already making him hard again. Bucky already came in hot spurts of white as he watched you desperately undress earlier. What can he say—he was waiting for you to show your tits already. As such, he correctly guessed that you’d be annoyed with the glaringly bright sticky note he used to ‘cover’ your webcam with.

But seeing you fingerfuck yourself all alone just wasn’t enough for him, he has to have you all by yourself.

[wondernus]

12: We're on a boat!

pairing: professor!seungcheol x baker!reader sm au

chapter genre: fluff

chapter warnings: cursing, mentions of food and TONS of alcohol (it’s new year’s eve)

wc: 2.1k

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“Minghao, that was disgusting,” you grimaced at the aftertaste the alcohol left in your mouth, passing your empty shot glass back to your friend. The ten of you were crowded around Seungkwan’s car in the parking lot by the dock, pregaming before heading onto the yacht for the New Year’s celebration event. Vernon and Chan dropped some of you off earlier and immediately drove away after seeing Minghao’s usually calm aura change into a rather sinister one. The World Literature professor had somehow been able to sneak a bottle of kaoliang liquor and some shot glasses in the inner pocket of his blazer and was currently getting everybody in your group to finish the entire bottle before going in.

All of you were at least three drinks in, and you didn’t know if it was the alcohol talking or the fact that you were surrounded by the people you loved, but you were having a great time. The boys were clumped together on the dancefloor, Seungkwan and DK having an intense dance battle while Wonwoo laughed and clapped from behind. The rest of the boys had their arms around each other and swayed to the beat of the music, singing at the top of their lungs. You and Hoshi were sitting at the bar within eye distance of the boys, both harboring a glass of iced water in your hands. Seungkwan’s motherly instincts immediately went into full effect after his drunk radar went off after seeing you and Hoshi try to leave your group a few times hand-in-hand to dance battle strangers around you. He decided to put you two in “time-out” for the next few minutes. However, when a familiar beat came on, Seungkwan and Seokmin started shouting for Hoshi to join them, the “time-out” rule completely forgotten. The man sitting beside you hesitated for a minute before turning to you with pleading eyes and a pout. You nodded for him to go, and he immediately jumped off of his barstool to run to the group, not before hugging you and shouting, “You know where to find us, right?” to which you shouted back it was pretty hard to lose the group when the three tallest men in the club belonged to your group. Soon the trio was screaming the lyrics to their favorite song while an all familiar “Go Soonyoung. Go Soonyoung. Go Soonyoung” filled the air. You sat and smiled at the rowdy group.

Unfortunately, the water wasn’t working because the longer you sat on the barstool, the drunker you got. You winced at the brightness of your phone screen and immediately regretted not setting your phone to night mode. Vernon was updating you on his pancake adventure with Chan and the baby. Your stomach growled at the sight of the stacks of pancakes, and you suddenly had an urge to buy the overpriced food they were selling above deck. Just then, someone tapped you on your shoulder, and you turned around to see a very familiar face you haven’t seen in a while.

Unfortunately, the water wasn’t working because the longer you sat on the barstool, the drunker you got. You winced at the brightness of your phone screen and immediately regretted not setting your phone to night mode. Vernon was updating you on his pancake adventure with Chan and the baby. Your stomach growled at the sight of the stacks of pancakes, and you suddenly had an urge to buy the overpriced food they were selling above deck. Just then, someone tapped you on your shoulder, and you turned around to see a very familiar face you haven’t seen in a while.

“Dr. Yoon?” you were definitely drunk. There was no way he was here. Have you manifested the image of him for so long that he would literally show up when you least expected?

“Oh yn!” he was grinning while holding two paper trays filled with fries. “You want some fries?”

It turned out Dr. Yoon, who reintroduced himself as Jeonghan, lost his friend a while back while buying fries and spent the last few minutes walking around, trying to convince the random people around him to take his extra tray of fries. It never really occurred to him that people usually wouldn’t accept food from strangers, especially at clubs, until you told him. The two of you managed to drunkenly run to one of the booths at the side and snag it immediately after it cleared up. Even more so, Jeonghan spent the last few minutes catching up with you and feeding you the greasy fries while you desperately tried to sober up - your whole upper half leaned against him like he was your life support. He repeatedly reassured you and said that he found it cute, but you only felt more embarrassed. You were never going to pregame with Minghao ever again. Kaoliang liquor was dangerous.

-----

“Dude, I can’t believe we lost yn,” Seungcheol was going to have a mental breakdown, which, by the way, was definitely not a good feeling to have when drunk. He recalled sitting you and Hoshi down at the bar and keeping an eye on you two before blacking out after Minghao and Jun returned to the group with another round of shots. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on one of the sofas on the deck of the yacht, the other boys sprawled out next to him, the cold ocean breeze cool against his skin.

“Did we miss the countdown?” Jun rubbed his eyes and shoved Hoshi’s sleeping body off of his. Wonwoo shook his head letting him know that they didn’t miss the countdown.

Woozi approached the group with a grin on his face. There was a man walking alongside him who seemed to be his acquaintance. “Guys,” Woozi addressed the group, causing the men to groan and look up at him, “This is my coworker, Joshua.”

His friend waved at the group and his eyes widened in excitement after realizing who was in front of him, “Dude, you never told me you were friends with the Twitter dilfs.”

Accepting Joshua into the group was fairly easy. He also lost his friend who came with him and spent the last half hour wandering around the yacht before he bumped into Woozi who was in line for the restroom. He reassured Seungcheol that his yn friend he was continuously calling for was going to be fine because everybody in their friend group had yn’s location and what was yn going to do? Swim? Luckily, yn texted Mingyu earlier and told him that they were fine, and Seungcheol sighed in relief. The boys quickly accepted Joshua into the group after Woozi told him to buy them all a round of shots to which Joshua replied, “Who do you think I am? The next three rounds are on me,” garnering an eruption of cheers from his new friends.

Just like that, they were back on the dancefloor ten minutes before the countdown, blackouts and hangovers completely forgotten, drunker than ever. They made a last-minute plan to ditch the dancefloor and celebrate the new year on the ship's deck after being pushed by a mob of people in all directions. They were practically a fresh and unbroken set of pool balls waiting for someone to start the match at that point. The fresh air they felt was a great complement to their sweaty skin, and it was nice to not need to shout at others while the bass from the speakers constantly reverberated in their ears. There were still a few minutes left until the countdown. Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Soonyoung were still gone after previously stating that they needed to use the restroom together. In the distance, Mingyu, Jun, and Joshua, who left to take pictures, all let out a collective scream and jumped up and down in excitement.

“I can’t believe it finally happened.”

“You too? We’ve been rooting for them since the first pineapple bun.”

Before Seungcheol could turn around to look at what caused the commotion, Jihoon made a joke about daring Soonyoung to jump overboard and was immediately lectured by Wonwoo who dragged Seungcheol along with him. An announcement blared through the speakers that the countdown would start in a minute and the bakery boys yelled at the rest of the group to join them.

-----

10! Seungkwan, Seokmin, and Soonyoung managed to return to the group just in time, but not without a tray of free tequila shots from the different patrons around them. Apparently, the people around them really enjoyed their company, whether it was when they were tearing it up on the dance floor or whether it was when they were joking with those waiting in the long line for the restroom. Jun looked at the shots with so much fear in his eyes while Minghao patted him on his back.

9! Jeonghan and you also spent the last hour receiving free drinks from those around you left and right.

“People must be very generous tonight,” you thought out loud.

“Yeah, I definitely haven’t been telling them that we’re newly engaged,” Jeonghan winked at you.

The both of you were standing on the deck of the superyacht, leaning against the railing. The captain dropped the yacht's anchor a while back when the yacht reached a place where one could turn back to see the twinkling lights coming from docks and piers from the ocean. The yacht gently rocked with the waves, and you were happily wrapped in Jeonghan’s arms, your drunkness a now numb and tingly sensation. The two of you were staring at the ocean and admiring how pretty the night sky was on that particular day. You didn’t see it, but he was smiling at you like you were the greatest thing in the world – like the feeling of biting into a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, the edges crispy and the center gooey, both the chocolate and dough melting into one.

8! Seokmin handed Seungcheol a shot.

7! Mingyu complained about there being no lime and salt.

6! Seungcheol heard a familiar laugh that made him forget about his surroundings for a split second.

5! Wonwoo put his arm around Seungcheol’s shoulder.

4! Jeonghan spun you around to face him.

3! Seokmin accidentally took his shot early.

2! Seungkwan quickly slipped his shot into the older boy’s hand and took the empty glass before the rest of the group took notice to what happened. It was fine. He was the designated driver after all.

1! The crowd erupted in cheers, and the group clinked their glasses and tilted their heads back to take their shots. Fireworks lit up the sky in a multitude of vibrant colors. Jun was busy yelling, “Chase with a smile. Chase with a smile,” at those who were complaining about the lack of lime and salt. Soonyoung was trying to hug Jihoon, who kept pushing him away until he finally gave in. It was a new year; he would allow it just once. Seungkwan was in the middle of recording a video of the group with his flash on which resulted in him accidentally blinding Seungcheol for a split second. This caused Seungcheol to turn away from the group to try to blink the dizziness away. When he finally recuperated, he couldn’t help but stare at the scene in front of him.

“Oh my god,” Seungcheol groaned, “I’m so glad we made the sexiling rule. They were literally sucking each other’s faces off. It was disgusting.”

Joshua raised his eyebrow at him. He also saw what happened. “Dude are you ok?” he questioned. “All they did was kiss once.”

The rest of the group quickly turned to see what Seungcheol was talking about and immediately burst into excitement when they realized who they were looking at. You broke away from Jeonghan and buried your face in his chest to hide in embarrassment when you recognized the group of voices calling your name. The man beside you jokingly covered you with his blazer to hide you when he realized you were flustered. It was a really cute and sweet sight, and it was custom to kiss someone on New Year’s. So why did seeing you kiss someone else make Seungcheol feel so annoyed?

the kids are going to be alright

synopsis: life as we know it (2010 film) au | when an unexpected accident leaves you and your blind date from five years ago to become caretakers of your mutual goddaughter, you are forced to learn how to navigate parenthood all while trying to balance work and social life.

a/n: join the taglist!

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taglist: @seokcalibur, @skylions-den, @semicolorn, @boowanie, @niikipuff, @serenadesvt, @tfmingyu, @jeonjungkaka, @shiningstar-byulxx, @onigiriyuki, @justasoftstan, @fr0gluver, @fairyjius, @happyvitamin, @noniesgirl, @hanniewife, @amymoonl, @melkwhore

unable to tag: @fairyjius, @hanniewife

[fayemarvels]

Please come pick him up

Spencer Reid x fem!reader

Summary: After a hard case, Spencer and the team go get drunk to forget about it. Spencer gets drunk and this leads to (Y/N) accidentally meeting Derek.

Warnings: mentions of death, murder, unsub, consumption of alcohol – not specified, 1 sexual joke, / please inform me if I missed something

Word count: 2k

! Please don't repost my work anywhere without my permission. Thank you!

My masterlist : *******

---------------------

Spencer and (Y/N) have been dating for 9 months. Everything was going great, they met each other’s parents and Spencer even met (Y/N)’s parents. But she still hasn’t met his. It wasn’t because he was ashamed or embarrassed by her.

He just knew the team would make a huge deal about it, and would probably embarrass him or make a huge deal out of it. He knew he would have to introduce them eventually. But for now, he wanted to keep the relationship a secret from the team.

(Y/N) knew the reasons as to why she didn’t meet the team, and she was okay with it. He wanted to introduce them on his own terms, but he didn’t think she would meet them because of his alcohol intolerance.

It was 1 am and (Y/N) was waiting for Spencer to come home. He and his team went out to get their minds of the latest case in California. It was physically and mentally very draining. It took them 4 weeks to catch the unsub, who killed 9 people before they got to him. And as usual, everyone on the team blamed themselves just a little, for all the lives that were lost, especially Spencer. Scratch that, Spencer fully blamed himself for the killings, and it broke (Y/N)’s heart.

“I should’ve known where he was hiding, it was on the geological profile and I glanced over it! They would still be alive if I saw it sooner.” Spencer was sitting on the ground with his back to the couch sobbing. His hands were tugging at his hair, his eyes full of tears, his cheeks red and blotchy and he tried to catch his breath.

“Bub, please don’t do this to yourself,” (Y/N) begged as she tried to get his hands out of his hair. She took him into her arms and he leaned against her.

“It’s okay, it’s fine,” she tried to calm him down. He put his face into the crook of her neck and breathed in her scent. His breath started to calm down and his eyes started to close.

“Bub, we have to get to the bed, your back will hurt if we sleep here” She slowly walked him into his bedroom and helped him into his pajamas. When they flopped onto the bed, Spencer immediately laid his head on (Y/N)’s chest and wrapped his hands around her waist.

“Goodnight bub, it’s gonna be better tomorrow, I promise.” She whispered and ran her fingers through his hair. He fell asleep quickly that night.

Originally, Spencer didn’t want to go to the bar with his friends, but (Y/N) persuaded him. She said it would be good for his mind, to get his mind off the case.

She dropped him off in front of the bar and kissed his cheek.

“Call me when you want to go home, have fun, get your mind off the case, don’t drink too much please, your head hurts when you are hangover.” He nodded and got out of the car.

“I’ll call you, Love you bye,” he said and walked into the bar.

He came to the bar at around 9 pm. Penelope, Emily, and Derek were already there and they saved him a place in the booth. They talked about work, personal lives, and the rest of the team. Rossi and JJ came at around 10 pm and Hotch came 15 minutes after them. The alcohol started coming their way, and Derek persuaded Spencer to drink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 hours later, Spencer couldn’t stand on his own properly. He was really tired and wanted to go home and cuddle with his love.

“Okay pretty boy, I think that’s enough for you,” Derek said and Spencer shook his head.

“Noooo I want some more, she told me to have fun,” Spencer whined and Derek looked at him confused,

“Sorry pretty boy, but we need to get you home, you said you have someone who will pick you up, give me your phone, I will call.” Spencer pouted and mumbled,

“I want to go home, she will be worried, I told her I won’t drink.” Everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Her? Who is her? You have a girlfriend we don’t know of?” Derek teased and Spencer nodded dreamily.

”Yeah, her name is (Y/N) she is the most beautiful person in the whole world. She is my ride home, call her.” he instructed and Derek rolled his eyes.

He fished out Spencer’s phone from his back pocket and dialed the contact with the name “My (Y/N)”

“Hey love, everything alright?” he heard a cheery voice from the other end and he chuckled.

“Hey, this is Derek Morgan, Spencer is very drunk and he says that you are his ride home, can you come to pick him up please?”

“Um, sure yeah I’ll be there in about 10 minutes, bye.” She said and ended the call.

“So, pretty boy, tell me about this girlfriend of yours.” Derek teased and Spencer grumbled.

“I won’t tell you anything, you will make fun of me”

“I won’t, I promise, I just want to know everything.” Derek tried to get any information out of him, but Spencer didn’t budge.

“No, if I told you anything, I would regret it tomorrow.” Spencer shook his head and Derek shrugged his shoulders.

“Ok, but just now, I will get it out of you.”

Just as he finished his sentence, a car pulled up next to them.

“Hey lover,” The woman in the car called out to Spencer and his eyes widened in happiness.

“My honeybun, you are here,” he slurred and (Y/N) laughed in embarrassment. She got out of the car and walked towards Spencer.

“Well hello,” Derek greeted and she smiled at him.

“Hi, I’m (Y/N), it’s pleasure to finally meet you, ” she shook his hand.

”I would like to say the same but considering I just learned about your existence, I would be lying.” He glared at Spencer and the genius wrapped his arms around his girlfriend’s shoulders from behind.

“I missed you so, so much, honeybun” he mumbled.

“I missed you too Bon Bon,” she teased and he glared at her. He always called the weirdest nicknames when he was drunk, and she loved it.

“Okay lover, let’s get you to bed,” she said to Spencer and he wiggled his eyebrows and she smacked his forehead very lightly.

“Not like that you idiot,” she shook her head and his shoulders sagged.

“Come onnnn,” he whined and she started to push him towards the car. When she finally stuffed his long body into the car, she turned to talk to Derek.

“Thank you so much for calling me, do you need a ride home?” she asked him and he just waved his hand.

“No, I have a ride, thanks for asking though.” She nodded and thanked him once again.

They said their goodbyes and (Y/N) sat in the driver’s seat. She turned towards Spencer and saw him passed out with his head against the window. She covered him with her jacket and started the car engine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She drove through the empty streets and listened to the random song on the radio, which played through the car quietly. The bar wasn’t far away from Spencer’s apartment, only about 10 minutes. She pulled up to the parking lot in front of his apartment and turned off the engine.

“Baby wake up, we are at home,” she softly stroked his cheek and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Already?” he asked groggily and she hummed in agreement.

“Yeah, come on, I’ll help you” she got out of the car and went to his side. She opened the door and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Come on, up.” She struggled to get him to stand up, but they finally made it. His limbs were like jelly and didn’t listen to him at all.

“m’ really tired” he whispered and she rubbed his side.

“I know my love, we are nearly there,” she tried to comfort him.

They slowly walked into the building, and towards the elevator. After they stepped in, and Spencer pushed the floor number, she sighed in relief. Her back was killing her, and her arms hurt from holding Spencer’s body weight.

The elevator came to stop and (Y/N) dragged him down the hall towards his apartment. When they got to his door he slumped and she fished out keys from her pocket.

When she finally opened the door he stumbled in and slid down against the wall, and stretched his long legs in front of him. (Y/N) laughed when she saw him and he made grabby hands towards her.

“What is it bub?” she asked and crouched down beside him. He pulled her towards him and she sat on his lap. She moved some hair from his forehead and he kissed the inside of her palm.

“I love you so much, you know that?” he asked and she hummed.

“You told me quite a few times.” She put her forehead on his and pecked his lips softly.

“I love you so, so much.” They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before (Y/N) pulled away.

“Come to bed” she whispered against his lips and he nodded his head. She could see that Spencer sobered up a bit. When she helped him up, he could stand on his own and move quite easily.

They walked into the bathroom first. (Y/N) put some toothpaste on both of their toothbrushes while Spencer pulled out the things each of them needs for their skincare routine.

“Thanks love,” He thanked her when she handed him his toothbrush. They brushed their teeth quietly and occasionally bumped their hips together. When they spit out the toothpaste and flossed their teeth, they did their skincare routine.

They started by washing their faces, put on some cleanser, toner, eye cream, and moisturizer. They put it away and shuffled into the bedroom hand in hand.

“What do you want to sleep in?” (Y/N) asked Spencer, who was already laying in bed, trying very hard not to fall asleep.

“Pajama pants and your pink sweater, you know which one” Spencer replied and (Y/N) threw the clothes at him. He caught them and changed into them.

“Come cuddle me please.” He requested softly and she complied. In her pajamas, she walked towards the bed and slid under the comforter. She opened her arms and Spencer put his head on her chest.

“The headache tomorrow is going to be huge,” he sighed softly and she ran her fingers up and down his back soothingly.

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna take care of you.” She comforted him and he snuggled deeper into her side.

“You know, you have to introduce me to your teammates now that they know I exist.” She teased and Spencer nodded

“I’ve thought about it quite often lately.” He confessed and (Y/N) looked at him shocked.

“You have?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, I want them to know all about the girl I love.” He said and she kissed his cheek in gratitude.

“I can’t wait” she whispered.

“We should sleep, so we can go to the market tomorrow.”

The market thing was their tradition. It started about a month before they officially started dating, back when they were just friends. She membered it like it was yesterday. They were watching doctor who at Spencer’s apartment and she wanted some apples in caramel.

They went out and wandered around quite a bit before they stumbled on the little farmer’s market. It was October and apples were everywhere. It turned out great, (Y/N) got her apples in caramel, and they got a tradition that would last for a very long time.

(Y/N) came back into reality, when she heard a snore come from Spencer. She smiled at the sight of him, looking so peaceful. He looked so beautiful when he slept. All of his facial muscles relaxed, and with his mind at peace.

“Goodnight my love, sweet dreams” she whispered softly, tucked the comforter up to his chin, and kissed his forehead one more time. Her eyelids closed and she drifted off into sleep.

-------------------------------

I am sorry this took so long, but I have been so busy, we are back in school, homework and everything piled up and I didn’t have time for writing.

Also, thanks for 57 followers, I am so, so happy you are enjoying my work.

I want to write some more one shots around this one ((Y/N) meeting the team, the farmers market tradition origin), would anyone be interested in reading it?

Thanks for reading my work, and if you enjoyed this story, please check out my other work, like, reblog and follow.

If you have any ideas or requests for fanfics, blurbs, or headcanons, you would like me to write, please write me and I will do my best to write it.

Also, would anyone be interested in a permanent taglist? You can let me know

I would really appreciate it if you left some feedback, so if you think I could improve something, please let me know.

-Faye xxx

[mike-wheel]

here’s my byler autumn event one shot i kinda hate it

Drunk on Halloween

inspired by the song “drunk on halloween” by wallows

⚠️TW: drinking/alcohol consumption⚠️

Michael Wheeler was being dragged to a high school party that one of Lucas’s basketball teammates were throwing. It was a halloween party and the rest of the party had begged Mike to dress up as the Mystery Gang with them but he refused. Ever since Will had moved away 3, now almost 4 years ago, it was hard to spend Halloween together, especially because of the distance but they did, every year. Except for this one apparently. And Mike didn’t like celebrating without him, so for the first time ever, he didn’t dress up this year.

This year El had come into town to celebrate Halloween with them. Will had come to, but he wasn’t at the party. He didn’t know where he was and even if he did, Will probably wouldn’t want to see him, not since last Halloween.

“Mike!” Max called to him from the back door, “We’re gonna go out back and play a quick game of basketball, wanna come?”

He just shook his head, resulting in Max rolling her eyes and heading out the back door. Mike stayed in the corner, leaning against the wall, drinking his can of coke. He didn’t like parties. He didn’t like being around all these people, yelling, dancing, just so many people. He couldn’t just go dance and drink without thinking about if people were watching him and if they were, what they were thinking. So he stayed in the corner. Away from everything.

Usually he and Will would be in the corner together. Laughing and talking about people’s costumes and dance moves. Drinking soda because neither liked the feeling of alcohol, and waiting until their friends would say it’s time to go. Usually they’d be together, this time was different.

Well only for about 10 minutes when Will bumped into him in the corner.

“Sorry I hope you don’t mind I’m here with you, it’s just loud and I can’t find my sister, she said we’d only have to be here- Mike?”

“Will. Hey” Mike said awkwardly, tugging at his hair a little “I thought you weren’t coming to the party”

“Yeah well El made me, my mom too. Said it was important to come, see my friends again, you know the same stuff. But I was tired and didn’t want to go, so El promised only for an hour, I don’t know where she is though” He shrugged

“Yeah totally” But Mike knew he didn’t want to come because he didn’t want to see him. “You didn’t come with us though?”

“Robin dropped me off”

“Oh” Even though the party was loud as all hell, the silence between him and Will killed him. “Are you drinking?” He asked, pointing to the cup in Wills hand

“Ha no, you know I don’t like alcohol, it’s just sprite.” He smiled for the first time he’d seen him that night.

And Mike smiled back. And it stayed like that for a little, both smiling with each other in the corner, like old times. And Mike took a risk. He got the confidence to bring it up. He finally got it in that moment.

“Will about that night, last Halloween,” And he fucked it up. Because the smile immediately disappeared from Wills face and his eyes became wide with panic, as he looked around the room for some kind of escape.

“Will I, I’m sorry okay-“

“No Mike, just forget it okay? I want to forget it, we’re fine”

“Will I know we aren’t, I just want to talk about it. Please”

“You had all year to talk about it. I wanted to talk about it, but you chose to forget it, and now i want to too.”

Mike opened his mouth, searching for some kind of response, any reply to make it better, but he couldn’t think, he couldn’t find one.

“I should go Mike.” He sighed “Tell El I went home. We’re staying at Dustins, make sure she gets home safe.”

“Okay” And he got that same feeling he got when he watched Will bike away that summer of ‘85. The guilt, heartbreak, anger at himself all coming back. And then the music felt louder than normal. It hurt his head and he just wanted to leave. And as babyish as it sounded, he wanted to be in his moms arms.

He threw his coke away and went to the front, and took a seat on the porch steps. Putting his head in his hands, trying to block out the sounds, the loud music that gave

him a headache. He just wanted to talk to Will, to be with him, talk to him, make things right. He wanted to try it, he didn’t want to be scared. He knew what he wanted and wanted to go through with it.

“Mike?” Dustin and Max were in front of him now, “Are you okay? What happened?”

———————————————————————

“Are you drunk?” Mike laughed as Will slumped his head on his shoulder. They were sitting on the bathroom floor. Will said it was too loud for him and Mike took him to the bathroom. He had a red solo cup full of something. He didn’t know what, but Wills breath smelled a little like alcohol.

“I’m not drunk! You know I only drink soda” Will said smiling up at Mike

“I think you mistook some alcohol for soda William” He teased, brushing some of Wills hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired”

“Do you want to go home?”

“No I like being here with you. Do you like being here with me?” He asked, eyes closed now

“Of course I do. I’ve missed you a lot Will, I’m really glad you came home for Halloween”

“I’ve missed you too. My friends don’t like Halloween” He pouted a little

“They sound crazy”

“No were crazy remember?”

“Ha yeah we are. Are you feeling a little crazy Will?” He asked looking down at Will who was playing with Mikes jacket zipper

“Yes”

“How come?”

“I like someone”

“Really? I never thought this day would come” Mike chuckled “Who?”

And to Mikes surprise, Will sat up, looked him in the eyes, and placed a soft quick kiss on his lips. And for a couple seconds, Mike kissed back and then he felt a snap of reality and pulled away.

“Will..”

“Mike” He smiled

“You’re drunk, you don’t mean that.”

And his smile fell

“Yes I do, I like you Mike.”

“Will cmon this” he motioned between them “It wouldn’t work”

“You kissed back, don’t you want it to?”

“I- I don’t know. I mean the kiss was nice, but it wouldn’t work. It couldn’t. We’re both boys Will, what would my family think? Our friends?”

“They might not care, our friends love us, and your mom and nancy cares about you so much.”

“That’s a big might Will. And I cant trust my family. Nancy maybe but my mom? My dad, holly even.” He started tugging at the back of his hair. He really needed to stop doing that.

“But Mike-“

“I don’t want to talk about this Will!” Mike softened his voice “I just, I don’t want to talk about this, please” He put a hand on Wills shoulder, but Will pulled away.

“Fine Mike. But maybe you should try facing your feelings, instead of running away from them all the time.”

————————————————————

“Can you take me to see Will, Dustin?”

“Sure”

The car ride was quiet as everyone kept giving side eyes to Mike. They didn’t know what was wrong, but knew if it was about Will, it was important.

Dustin dropped Mike off at his house, saying the rest of them were gonna go get some dinner and bring some back.

“Will?” Mike said knocking on the guest room door, “I’m gonna come in okay?”

“Okay” he called from the other side of the door

“Can I sit?” Mike asked, pointing to the second twin bed, next to Wills.

“Sure”

Mike took a breath of relief, “Okay, I want to talk about last halloween. And before you say anything I know I made the choice to not talk about it. And that’s my fault. But I’m sorry. I really am. I was just scared of what people would think of me. I said stupid shit and I should’ve been worried about you. You were brave and took an insane risk, and if I’m being honest. I loved that kiss. I think about it a lot, well all the time. And that night. I would’ve done that night completely differently if I could. And I’m just really sorry Will.”

And Will laughed. A laugh of relief and Mike laughed with him.

“Thanks Mike, and I’m sorry too. I was kind of a jerk. I know facing your feelings is really hard. Shit it took me like 2 years, and I just put so much pressure on you. And that was super unfair.”

“Yeah we were both kind of stupid that night huh?”

“I guess we do make each other crazy”

“Yeah we do.” Mike smiled at him

“So you loved that kiss?” Will teased, “Want to do it again?”

“I- I uh yes” Mike laughed awkwardly as he moved over to sit next to Will, “Is this okay?” He asked, placing a hand on Wills cheek

“Yes” Will smiled brightly as he put a hand on Mikes waist and leaned in a little

“Are you sure about this Mike? I want to make sure you’re okay with this”

“More than okay” He smiled and closed the gap between them.

“Happy Halloween Mike” Will whispered as he put his forehead against Mikes

“Wow both our ‘first’ kisses with each other on Halloween”

“Yeah, I guess it’s kinda our holiday hm” Will laughed

“I guess so”

[write-orflight]

Settle Down: Chapter 4

**Gif Not Mine**

Prev -  Next

Pairings: SpencerXReader (kinda enemies to lovers)  

Rating: M

Words: 2.5K

Warnings: Smut!! (Oral, male receiving. Sexual conduct. language.)

Request: OPEN/CLOSED

Summary:   Y/N and Spencer don’t get along but turn to each other for the one   thing you need someone else for… A baby. You can plantonically start a   family, right?

AN: Unedited because I was scrambling to finish before work. Comment on this chapter or inbox to be on taglist. thanks! much love, Cia.

                Chapter 4: Frozen, fuck you.

Misfortune came in the form of spots in your underwear the following week. You weren’t pregnant despite your best efforts. You took a personal day because of how bummed you were feeling, assuring Hotch that you could do your job from home. So you spent your morning eating terribly and reviewing the files Garcia sent you. Once you finish all your work for the day, you curl up on the couch with a pint of ice cream, bourbon and National Geographic. You’re hours in when you get a knock at your door. You stumble over and open it to reveal Spencer. He looks at you concerned as you very drunkenly head back to your couch, leaving the door open indicating you were inviting him in. He closes the door behind him looking at you concerned. 

“Have you been drinking?” 

“Wow, is this why they say you’re good at your job?” You say, rolling your eyes. 

“Y/N, should you even be drinking? You might be—“ 

“Did you know elephants are pregnant for almost 2 years?” You say pointing at the TV. “Why am I even asking? You know everything.” 

“Do you wanna tell me what’s got you so upset?” Spencer says, kneeling in front of your perch on the couch. 

“Did you know it’s very difficult for female pandas to become pregnant?” You say, you feel your eyes becoming wet but you blink back the tears. “That makes two of us.” You shrug. 

It clicks for Spencer in that moment. “You’re not…” he asks. You shake your head. 

“Spencer, I’m sorry. Maybe you should ask someone else. Maybe someone without a broken uterus.” 

“Y/N, there’s nothing wrong with you.” He says, cupping your cheek with his hand. You can’t help but nuzzle back into it. “I went to the doctor with you. Just because it didn’t happen this time doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Not everyone gets pregnant their first time trying.” 

“But people not trying at all end up pregnant the first time. What’s wrong with me?” The tear that’s been threatening the whole time finally falls down your cheek. Spencer swipes his thumb across it, looking sympathetically at you. 

“We can just try again next month, Y/N. We’ve got time, ok?” He says, you nod. 

“Thank you, Spencer.” You say. 

“No problem. Now come on, lay down.” He says, sitting down on the end of the couch and pulling you down to lay down onto his lap. “And stop watching National Geographic if it’s making you sad. We can even watch that movie with the talking toys if you want?” 

“All three?” 

“God, there’s three?!” 

———————————————

The following weeks are pretty uneventful. You guys caught murders and went to bars afterwards. You were in one bar after a particularly hard case with the team sans Spencer and Hotch when Derek asked you. 

“Ok, apparently you swore my girl to secrecy but I have to know.” He says to you from across the booth. “What is happening between you and Pretty Boy?” 

You throw a pointed look at Garcia, who just looks at you guiltily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Morgan.” 

Emily chimes in at that. “Please! Before the two of you would either never talk or when you would, it’d end in an argument. Now suddenly he’s calling you on cases, not interrupting you when you’re presenting--” 

“Maybe, he just finally got some sense.” You interrupt. 

“See, I would say that too.” Emily says. “If he hadn’t asked me where to get that korean tea you like so much.” 

You knew what she was talking about. When you found out you weren’t pregnant and came back to work. You were still hopped up on extra hormones so when you went to make your favorite tea that morning and realized you had forgotten to get more so you were out. When you saw that, you started crying softly. You just wanted tea. Spencer walked in at that moment and you wiped your face furiously so he wouldn’t see the evidence of your tears before speeding out of the kitchen. The next day you walked into the kitchen, expecting to have to make shitty coffee instead, but there was a new box of your tea. You didn’t think much of it. You assumed Garcia got you the box. 

“He probably just wanted it for himself. The box has been feeling a little light lately.” You lie. “I’m serious though. Nothing’s going on.” We just have really hot sex in hopes of him impregnating me. You think. Everyone let’s it go at that point, changing the subject. You were thankful for that. 

——————————————-

The day came around again and Spencer wordlessly just got in your car after you guys’ shift and you didn’t question it, you knew the drill this time around. Spencer hums along to your music playing in the car. You look at him confused. 

“You know California Dreamin’?” You ask. 

“I uh-I heard you tell Garcia about how you liked The Mamas and Papas so I listened to some of their songs. I thought it’d help me understand you more.” 

You don’t turn towards him. You keep your eyes focused on the road so he wouldn’t see the marshmallow soft look that crossed your face. “Did you learn anything?” You ask. 

He clears his throat. “You listen to a lot of soft melodic music. I wouldn’t have thought that considering how you are.” 

“And how am I, Spencer Reid?” 

“Opinionated, loud.” You narrow your eyes at that one but say nothing. “Yet you listen to soft love songs, your favorite movie is Wizard of Oz and you watch nothing but Disney movies in your spare time. You’re not as scary as you think you are.” He says, getting out of the parked car. You speed out the car after him immediately. 

“I’m plenty scary!” You say as the two of you enter your house. 

“Uh-huh, and which Disney movie are we watching tonight?” 

“Frozen, fuck you.” You say leaving behind a laughing Spencer to go take your ovulation test. 

After discovering you were in fact ovulating you went to the living room to put on Frozen. You were about halfway into the sister’s adventure when you asked. 

“Spencer?” You asked from your perch laying on his shoulder. He turns his head down towards you, humming inquisitively. “Emily told me it was you who got my tea.” 

“I did.” He says. 

“Why?” 

He shrugs. “It was upsetting you.” he says, like it’s obvious. 

“I mean, I was upset I was out, sure but it’s not your job to make sure I’m not upset.” 

“It’s specifically my job to do that, Y/N.” He says, turning so he can look you in the eyes. “Y/N, you’re literally about to be the mother of my child. That makes your happiness just as important as this child’s happiness. I’m going to take care of both of you so if buying a 10 dollar box of tea is what will make you happy, I have no issues doing so.” 

The look he gives you is so sincere and your heart flutters when he says it. You don’t know why but you’re suddenly bombarded with thoughts of kissing him and before you can stop yourself you do just that. Spencer hums in shock for a second. But quickly deepens the kiss, tongue tracing over yours. You moan slightly as his hands come up to cup your face. Eventually, the two of you separate, gasping for breath in the small space between you. 

“What was that for?” He says. 

You couldn’t say the real reason that you kissed him was because you wanted to, so bad. It would make things awkward and ruin what was an amazing plan. You needed to remember that you were doing this for the end goal, a child.

“I’m ovulating, so I figured we should start now.” You say. It was only half a lie. 

Spencer looks slightly disappointed for a second before he shakes it off. He stands and grabs your hand tugging you towards the bedroom wordlessly. Once inside, his mouth is on yours again. You smirk against his lips, hands going for each other’s respective clothes. Once undressed he deposits you on the bed, settling into the space between your legs. He’s leaving open mouth bruises on your neck and chest as his hands travel down your body. You stopped him, it wasn’t that you didn’t want that, but you had other plans. 

He looks at you confused for a second. A look that’s replaced completely with wanton desire when you start trailing a hand up and down is underwear clad length. You watch his eyes flutter shut for a second, relishing in the feeling. You smirk at that. You lean up to speak in his ear. 

“I want to ride you.” You say, you feel Spencer’s member twitch in your palm as you say it. “Can I?” 

Spencer nods fast, moving off of you to lay flat on his back. He goes to take off his underwear but you stop him, wanting to do it yourself. You tugged them down his body and as you crawled your way back up you found yourself face to face with a certain predicament. An intrusive thought pops in your head and before you can stop yourself you ask. 

“Can I?” You whisper, you didn’t finish the question but your face was right next to his dick so you figured he’d get the gist. 

“You don’t have to.” Spencer says, though his dick betrays his words as it violently twitches when you bring your mouth slightly towards it. 

“I know.” You whisper before taking the head into your mouth. You hear Spencer hiss above you as you let your tongue swerve over the head. You moan, taking him deeper into your mouth, hand covering what you couldn’t reach. You hear a strangled gasp above you and opt to look up. Nothing could’ve prepared you for that sight. Spencer’s head was thrown back, face and neck flushed and he was biting on his fist to keep from making too much noise. Spencer was always so complimentary of you during these times and you realized you never said what you thought,  that the man above you was beautiful. You still held your tongue though. It was preoccupied anyway. After sometime, Spencer’s hand cups the side of your face, moaning softly as he feels his member through your cheek. He gently pulled you off of him. 

“I need to be inside you.” He says. “Now.”  

You nod, crawling back up his body to straddle his lap. Spencer moves your hips so you’re right above him, allowing you to sink down on his length. The two of you groan at first contact, Spencer gives you a second to adjust, massive hands circling your waist as you rocked yourself back and forth in his lap. You already felt close despite the short amount of time. You look down at the man and he’s looking up at you with a glassy expression. 

“Fuck, Y/N.” He moans, hands tightening on your waist. “You look so hot like this, I’m not going to last long.” 

“Me neither.” You say, Spencer takes that moment to drift his hand to your clit, thumb drawing small circles on the bundle of nerves. You moan out loud, moving your hips faster as Spencer thrusts his hips up to meet yours. 

“Spencer, fuck, I’m gonna--” you cut yourself off with a moan. Spencer is thrusting up into you faster now. 

“Cum for me, baby.” He says, and as if you were waiting for permission, you release moaning Spencer’s names and expletives. Spencer rides you through it, moving your hips on top of him. Before you know it, you’re on your back and Spencer is thrusting back into you hard. You practically scream out as he sets a fast pace chasing his own release. 

“Fuck, you feel so good baby, I’m gonna- fuck.” He says as you feel him release inside you. He thrusts shallowly inside you, riding out his orgasm before pulling out. You wince slightly, lifting your hips so he can slide the pillow under you, knowing the drill by now. Spencer runs, his fingers through your hair, you hum pushing your head into him, like a cat. 

“You ok?” He whispers. “Do you need anything?” 

You shake your head. “Will you come sleep with me?” You ask. 

Spencer smiles softly at you. “Of course, Y/N.” 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month passes and cold February winter turns to soft March spring. The weeks that pass are fairly uneventful. You work and come home to an unfortunately empty house. You and Spencer talk about not as much as before and hardly about anything not baby or work related. You could admit that the last time you guys had sex, some lines got blurred and you both needed space from each other to remember that this was still platonic. At least, that’s how you felt and though you never voiced it, Spencer seemed to understand that.

The team was out on a case when you realized. You and Garcia had been on video call with the team when you heard Derek say.    

“Woah, Oz. You look like death warmed over.” 

You roll your eyes. “I’m fine.” 

“She’s not fine.” Garcia butts in. “She’s been throwing up all morning.” 

“L/N, if you’re sick--” Hotch starts. 

“I’m not sick! I feel completely fine, I think I just had some chinese that didn’t sit right. I’ll be fine, can we focus on the case?” You plead, Hotch nods. You see Spencer looking at the screen wide eyed but you don’t understand why. 

“What did you find?” Hotch asks. 

“Ok, Sebastian Henry’s financial records were a little hard to go through. Everything looked pretty normal. So I did a little--” You gag for a second but manage to keep it down. “A little digging and found a s-secret account he’s been m-making large donations to a church that, through more digging, doesn’t exist--” Garcia is already there with the bucket which you snatch and empty your lunch in immediately. 

“We think it’s mafia.” Garcia says, grimacing at the sound of your vomiting. You lift up to see the team giving you empathic looks and Spencer with a deep thinking expression. 

“Great, Garcia, look into that more. And Y/N, go home.” Hotch says. 

“What? Hotch, I’m fine!” 

“And I wasn’t asking.” He says, in that authoritative voice that made you know he meant business. 

“Fine.” you grumble as he ends the call. 

You’re on the way home when you get a call from Spencer. 

“Spencer, what’s up? Does Hotch need me to go back in?” 

“Oh, uh-no.” He says. “Listen, I know you said you’d tell me if something was up but Penelope saying you’d been sick all morning is making me overthink and well, did you take a test?” He asked. 

You look up at that. The two of you had been so busy with cases and work that the one thing you had been waiting for had completely slipped your mind. 

You were late.  

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