#You had no way of knowing how I’d react and I appreciate your efforts

[gunilslaugh]

Hi!! Could I request something where the boys react to their s/o doing some acts of service for them out of the blue? I don't know how to explain it, but I had the idea of making food for gunil and then being like "I know you've been working hard on your gains. It has 30g protein" or like for jooyeon where they both ordered food and they sacrifice some of their meat or carb for the vegetables bc they know Joo doesn't like veg very much. I hope this made sense 😭😭

Hello, don't worry it made sense :)

All members [ ∆ - ∆ ]

Summary: Xdinary Heroes reaction to you doing acts of service for them.

WC:~1.7k

Warning:grammar

photo not mine credits to owner.

Gunil

Finally, you have gotten the recipe right. The freshly baked protein cookies sat warm on the cooking tray. Gunil mentioned how he was craving sweets, but due to his diet for muscle building he stayed away from them. You decided that you would bake him cookies that he could eat without worrying about his diet. You transferred the cookies from the tray to a container for fresh keeping. 

Gunil and you had just finished dinner and you went to fetch the container of cookies. 

“I have a surprise for you,” you told him, holding the container behind your back. 

“What is it?” he asked excitedly, clasping his hands together. 

“Protein cookies!” you announced, taking the container of cookies out from behind your back and shaking it a bit. “You said you were craving sweets but didn’t want to ruin your diet, so I made cookies that fit your diet,” you informed. Gunil’s heart melted. What did he do to deserve you?

“Here.” You took the lid off of the container holding it out to Gunil. Gunil took a cookie and took a bite. The flavor melted on his tongue. 

“Y/n these are so good,” he raved. “Thank you so much,” he pulls you into a hug. 

“I’m glad because the first two batches weren’t so good,” you laughed looking at the counter where the bad test batches sat. Looking at the bad batches only makes Gunil appreciate you more. Thinking about all the effort you put in just because he one offly mentioned he was craving something sweet. At the moment his heart is filled with nothing but love for you.

Jungsu

“Ugh I can’t find anything with all these files all over the place,” Jungsu complained. 

“How come you don’t organize the files?” you questioned. Jungsu came over and rested his head on your shoulder tiredly. 

“I’ve been meaning to, but I’ve been really busy lately and when I actually have time to do it I’d rather spend that time resting. Looking at the mess of files is overwhelming too, it makes me not want to do it,” Jungsu explained. It was understandable, organizing things can be quite tolling. You brought your hand up to his head and stroked your fingers through his hair to help him relax. Jungsu’s eyes fall closed and you feel him relax against you. 

“How about you take a nap?” you suggest.

“I want to spend time with you,” he said, but the tiredness in voice couldn’t be ignored. 

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” you assured him. 

“Ok, wake me up in thirty minutes,” he tells you.

“Ok, I will,” you answered. You tucked Jungsu into bed and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Once he had fallen asleep you set a timer on your phone for thirty minutes. Then make your way over to his computer and put in the password. You got to work sorting through and organizing all of his files. You had just finished organizing the files when the timer went off. The timer woke up Jungsu. He sat up and saw you sitting at his computer. 

“What are you doing?” he rasped out.

“Come look,” you told him, getting up from the chair. Jungsu came over and saw all the files now neatly organized on his computer.

“You organized it all?” He looked at you in disbelief. 

“I wanted to make it easier for you,” you told him, feeling slightly bashful.

“Thank you so much. Seriously, you're a lifesaver.” A part of him feels like he could cry. He was so touched by your actions. 

Gaon/Jiseok

Xdinary Heroes were working hard preparing for their upcoming comeback. Which meant that Jiseok was often skipping meals, much to your discontent. It obviously isn’t healthy for him to skip meals, so you packed a lunch and headed over to the JYPE building. After arriving you went to the studio you knew Jiseok was working at. You knock on the door and you hear a “Come in.” from the other side. You twisted the knob and entered the room.

“Y/n you didn’t tell me you were coming,” Jiseok said surprised. He was still excited to see you though. 

“It’s not a surprise if I tell you,” you told him playfully. “ I brought you lunch, cause I know you’ve been skipping it,” you halfway scolded him. Jiseok looks down sheepishly, feeling like he had been caught. You placed the bag of food down on the desk and began to pull out the food. Lastly you handed him a pair of utensils. “Eat,” you ordered him. Jiseok took the utensils from your outreached hands and began to eat the food. 

“Thank you,” he says with his mouth still half-full. 

“You’re welcome,” you tell him, placing a hand on the back of his head to ruffle his hair affectionately. Jiseok feels taken care of and he loves it. He loves you and how you look out for him. The fact that you take time out of your day just to make sure that he eats warms his heart. It makes him feel special and lucky. Lucky that he has a person who cares for him so much and special that he gets to be a person that you care about. O.de/Seungmin

It was a relaxing, staying-in evening with Seungmin. You two were in his room watching a show together on his laptop. The two of you took a break from watching the show so Seungmin could go pick you both up some dinner. You were in the bathroom when you noticed how dirty the mirror had gotten. Now you know why there was a recent lack of mirror selfies from Seungmin. It made you chuckle a little bit, but you decided that you would clean the mirror for him as a favor, so that he could get back to taking his mirror selfies that he loves so much. You got to work cleaning the mirror, scrubbing it clean from all of the dirty spots. 

“Y/n where are you?” Seungmin called out for you. You were so caught up in cleaning you didn’t even hear him get back. 

“In here!” you hollered from the bathroom as you finished wiping down the mirror. It was now spotless. Free from any spots are fingerprints. Upon entering the bathroom Seungmin was quick to take note of the rag in your hand. Then he looked at the mirror, noticing that it was clean. 

“You cleaned the mirror?” He approached the mirror to get a better look at its clean state. 

“Yep, now you can get back to taking your mirror selfies. Villains can thank me later,” you played. 

“Well I’ll thank you now.” Seungmin presses a kiss to the side of your temple. Seungmin insisted on taking some mirror selfies with you to show his appreciation. He feels blessed to have someone like you.

Junhan/Hyeongjun

Hyeongjun was feeling a little nervous about an upcoming fanmeet that Xdinary Heroes were having soon. You wanted to help him feel less nervous about it. 

On the morning of the fanmeet you brewed Hyeongjun a cup of chamomile tea. You brought it to him in bed. 

“Here, chamomile tea, it’s good for easing nerves,” you carefully handed him the steaming cup. Hyeongjun already felt touched by you being kind enough early just to make him tea. Little did he know you had other things planned to help him fight off the nerves about today. Unfortunately you were unable to attend today’s fanmeet due to having to work, but you weren’t gonna let that stop you from helping Hyeongjun. The night before you stayed up writing encouraging sticky notes and placing them throughout Hyeongjun’s things for him to find. After Hyeongjun got ready and left it didn’t take long for him to find the first sticky note. You placed it on his water bottle. He found it as he took it out to take a sip on the car ride to the fanmeet. “You got this!”, it read. It instantly brought a smile to his face. He found the second note after they arrived. It was in the bag he keeps his guitar picks in. It read, “Villains already adore you, so don’t be nervous :).” It made Hyeonjun chuckle and he did feel his nerves subside. The final note was stuck to his guitar. “I’m proud of you every single day. You’re so talented and amazing. I know you’ll do great today. I love you <3,” the note read. It was just what Hyeongjun needed to hear before going out. He doesn’t know what he did to deserve you, but knows that he’s never letting you go.

Jooyeon

Jooyeon and vegetables were not friends. Anytime he sees them he gets this disgusted, disapproving look on his face. You often had to reach accommodations with him about it  when it came to cooking meals. You understand his dislikement towards vegetables, but it does worry you that sometimes he eats less, not enough, just to avoid eating vegetables. 

Tonight you and Jooyeon were out on a date at a restaurant. Jooyeon hand picked the vegetables out of his food like he always did. Looking at the amount of food left on his dish made you frown. First you tried to reason with him about at least having a few bites of the vegetables. He whined and complained like a little kid about it, but you were still able to get him to put a few back on his plate. You were still worried about him eating enough though, so you gathered some of the meat from your own plate and put it onto his dish. Jooyeon looked up at you curiously.

“Just because you don’t like vegetables doesn’t mean you should undereat,” you told him. Jooyeon’s heart fluttered. You truly do care about him so much. You even sacrifice some of your own food to make sure that he’s healthy. 

“Thank you,” he says with eyes lit up. You could tell how sincerely he meant the two simple words. He ate the meat you gave him happily. He told you that it tasted better because you gave it to him. He tries to think about things he can do for you to return the favor. He knows that you’re constantly looking out for him and he couldn’t be more lucky than to have you.

[irondad-defensesquad]

“Hey, Mr. Stark.”

Tony has actually been waiting at the door this whole time. He smiles and approaches Peter.

… And Tony hugs him.

“Hey, kiddo.”

Not that it’s that much of a surprise, honestly. Tony has hugged Peter before, albeit quickly. It’s never taken more than ten seconds.

Peter sighs. “Please don’t tell me Happy told you about me bombing my quiz.”

Tony rubs his back in response instead.

Peter rejects it and releases himself from the hug. He throws his backpack to the floor and sits on the couch in defeat.

“I don’t even know how I bombed it,” the boy vents. “I actually studied hard and- and read the book, which wasn’t that hard to read, and somehow I got the worst grade in my class.”

“English quiz?”

“Yeah. I didn’t freeze at the time and my mind didn’t go blank. I didn’t think I’d ace it, but I thought I would go well. I have no idea how I screwed up this badly.”

“Did you talk to your teacher?”

“No, ‘cause he only handed our quizzes at the end of class. I also didn’t want anyone to find out about my grade. I know Flash would mock me in front of everyone.”

Tony frowns at the mention of the bully. He sits on the couch next to Peter.

“Try talking to your teacher in his next class,” the former suggests.

“I will, it’s just… I’m so mad. A-And I’m not even mad at him. Why else would I get such a bad grade?”

“Peter…”

The teen sniffs, hiding his teary eyes. “I don’t understand, I’m trying hard to manage my school time and Spider-Man, how did I mess up like this?”

Tony sighs, opening an arm. “Come here.”

Peter then lies against him and sobs, letting his mentor hug him.

“W-Why aren’t you… mad at me, too?” Peter wonders.

It hurts Tony to hear how much he expected him to be angry.

“Why would I be?” Tony questions.

“‘Cause you care about school?”

“I care about you more. Not your grades.”

Peter looks so surprised…

“I know how it’s like to try your hardest and then you get negative feedback,” Tony tells him. “You feel like a huge screw-up. You can’t understand why or how you failed. But that doesn’t mean you’re a failure.”

The boy gazes at him, as though he’s surprised to hear that Tony Stark must have felt like a failure. Or probably still feels that way. Even if Peter and Tony have gotten closer, and Peter knows a lot more about his hero, he definitely idolizes Tony and that knowledge might fly past his head sometimes.

“It definitely sucks, kid. You have the right to be sad about it. Just try not to beat yourself too much, okay?” Tony reminds him. “I know you’re doing great. That bad grade won’t erase your efforts.”

Peter, as if coming to understand it, snuggles against Tony. He still cries but he is breathing in and out slowly, calming down.

Tony just holds him for as long as he needs.

It sort of reminds the man of when his bad grades tormented him as a kid.

Howard never cared about his good grades. But when he had bad ones, it convinced Howard that Tony was a fraud.

Several times back then, Tony considered giving up entirely.

Jarvis, however, took all the crumbled pieces of paper and thrown away projects and encouraged Tony to keep trying.

Then Rhodey was his partner in MIT, also pushing Tony to keep working, because he’s the most determined person Rhodey has known.

Of course, Tony knows he’s not made of iron. Sometimes he’ll be defeated. Sometimes his best might not be enough. He takes some time to get back up.

So he respects his time until he strikes back again.

Peter just needs this.

Like Tony once needed and might still need.

When he sees how calm Peter is now, even if he must be feeling pain, Tony pulls away a little to smile at him.

“I’m proud of you, Peter.”

The teen doesn’t know how to react at first. Then he smiles back and looks away in nervousness.

“You want some ice cream?” Tony suggests. “Just bought more today.”

Peter smirks. “Okay.”

As he eats the ice cream, the sadness prevails in Peter’s eyes. He appreciates and enjoys the gesture, though.

In the lab, Peter is staring at a piece of paper.

He puts it back in his backpack and tries to do the other homework he needs to finish.

“Hey, if you need any help, just let me know,” Tony says.

“Okay.”

“Just do what you can right now, alright? If you can’t do all of it, that’s perfectly fine.”

“Oh, this is easy, actually. But thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter grins at him and returns to his homework.

Tony watches him for a while, and his smile widens.

He really is proud of Peter. So proud.

[cat3ch1sm]

⛪️~ okay i just KNOW gojo is the type of mf to fake moan out of fuckin nowhere while you’re on a call with someone else. like this bitch is just that annoying.

regular college au?? gojo is an upperclassman but everyone else is the same age👍🏾

sfw-ish? just crack basically 😭

“I have no fucking clue what’s going on.”

You, Nobara, Itadori, and Megumi were on a video call with one another via computers, working on a very long geometry packet that your professor had assigned the day before. You and Megumi were the only ones getting anywhere, but admittedly, it was mildly difficult for you to understand as well- so Nobara and Itadori were beyond lost.

“Me neither,” Itadori whined hopelessly, and you saw his head fall out of the camera frame as he dropped it on his desk forlornly. “I’m just gonna have to fail. I’m totally finished.”

You sighed exaggeratedly, rolling your eyes to the ceiling before looking back at the grainy images of the pitiful Itadori, the exasperated Nobara and the perpetually disinterested Megumi. “Oh, my god. Guys. Seriously, try and stay with me here?” You gestured to your notes spread out in front of the camera for your friends to reference. “An attempt at anything on this assignment would be nice.”

“Yeah, no, we’re past that point,” Nobara deadpanned. “Do these teachers get a kick out of torturing us or what?”

“No, they don’t,” Megumi answered swiftly, his voice somehow more apathetic-sounding over his microphone. “Now if you’d just listen to my or Y/N’s explanation instead of whining about how hard this is, I’d appreciate it. You both know the formula for the midpoint, right?”

Only feedback from either student’s mics. You resisted the urge to slap yourself in the forehead. Megumi, however, seemed unfazed.

“Right. It’s xm, ym equals x1 plus x2-“

“Are you trying to kill me?” Itadori finally sat up, pink hair tangled all over his head.

“I… didn’t even finish telling you what the formula is.”

“Um… nah.” Nobara waved a hand dismissively at the camera, and Megumi rolled his dark eyes. “Anyways, gonna go play in traffic. Anyone down to join me?”

You blinked and made a face at Nobara. “Wha- you’re not even giving it a chance?”

“Nope. My brain clocked out hours ago.”

You blew out some air and were about to say something else before you heard the door open behind you, and you noticed Gojo Satoru, your roommate, walk into the frame of your video. “Oh, hey, Gojo,” you greeted him, a little absently.

“Hey, Y/N! On a call?” He leaned way down over your shoulder, prompting you to grimace and move to the side some while he shoved his entire face into the camera. “Hi, guys! What’re you doing?”

Itadori lifted his head from his arms to reply in an agonized tone, “Dying,” before dropping back down with an alarmingly loud thud on his desk.

Megumi pursed his lips in annoyance before acknowledging Gojo. “We’re trying to finish some math homework. Unfortunately, Y/N and I are the only ones putting in an ounce of effort.”

“I refuse to waste my effort on this bullshit,” Nobara added nonchalantly, and you saw her fly in and out of the frame on her swivel chair.

“Yeah, okay, Nobara. I suppose this is pretty self-explanatory,” you sighed, limply gesturing to your computer screen. “We’re getting nowhere and it’s been like, two hours.”

Gojo smirked in amusement before backing up from your screen. “Sucks to suck. See ya!” And with that, he disappeared to the back of the dorm.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” you muttered, propping your forehead up on your fingers. “Maybe we should just-“

And then you heard it.

A muffled but not muffled enough sound from the bathroom- and a very explicit one at that. It was a long, continuous sound at first, and then it was a breathless series of the same noise. Your eyes flew wide open the second you heard it- mostly because it sounded so forced and fake that you knew exactly what the cause of it was. Unfortunately, you reacted too late, and you only realized it when the video call went dead silent.

Nobara had reappeared in front of the camera, her eyes the size of frying pans and a manicured hand cupped over her mouth. Itadori had his head lifted from his arms only so you could see his wide eyes, and Megumi looked way more annoyed than usual.

Meanwhile, your jaw was dropped and a furious blush spread across your cheeks, and as if expecting to see something horrible, you slowly turned your head to stare at the direction from which the sound had come from.

It was silent for a second before explosive laughter erupted from your dorm bathroom, undoubtedly from Gojo, who thought his little joke had been absolutely hilarious. You abruptly snapped out of your trance, yelling furiously at him, but his laughter only grew louder with every word you said.

“I am logging off right this second.” Megumi’s image vanished from the screen with a low notification sound, and Itadori started laughing as well while Nobara was still in the exact same stance as she had been before.

“Tell me he’s faking.” Nobara’s voice was muted behind her hand.

“Fuck. He is. I swear he is,” you replied hurriedly, eyes darting from the door to the bathroom in hopes that nobody else had just heard that obnoxiously loud fake moan. “Gojo! Are you fucking kidding? What the hell- okay, no way we can save this video call, guys.” You dropped your head into your palms, shaking it slowly in disgust. All you’d wanted to do was work on the damn math homework. “Really. Just hang up or something- while I kill Gojo.”

[hoedamn-eron]

baby, please - part 6

You meet up with Santi, again, about your news, and it goes much better than last time. Also, your friends are the best people you know.

Warnings: Mentions of being sick, so emetophobia warning. Abortion mentions (I am personally pro-choice). An awful lot of dialogue. Reader refers to her friends as 'guys' and Courtney refers to her as 'dude' at one point, and 'girl'. Swearing. I'm from the UK so I'm not 100% sure what happens in America regarding doctor/midwife appointments, but from what I've researched, it looks a little similar, so I'm going to try and be as accurate as I can moving forward. This hasn't been my favourite chapter so far, it's mostly been just a filler. Slightly proofread. Word count: 2,833 F!Reader, no use of Y/N.

Part 5 ● Series Masterlist ● Part 7

These are your texts. These are your friend's texts. Initials will be at the start of each text in the GC.

You both agreed to meet back at the coffee shop after work. You made the effort to finish at a regular time, that your clients could wait until after the weekend. Nothing huge was coming up for a while, so you had the time to relax, just a bit.

Which reminded you, you needed to organise something with your friends. You haven’t contributed to the group chat for nearly a week, and they’d been texting you separately to see if you were okay, and you’d been overly short with them.

You walked through the door of the coffee shop, looking around before your eyes land on Santi sat in a corner, looking at something on his phone. You take a moment to just check him out.

You’ve said it once, and you’ll say it again (probably forever), he was still so good-looking. Even with the nervous energy he had, he still made your heart skip a beat. He looked like he hadn’t shaved for a few days, his beard matching his mixture of black and salt and pepper curls. He was dressed in a simple t-shirt, and jeans. You didn’t understand how someone who could dress so simply could still look so well put together.

Taking a deep breath, you make your way over to him. He looks up from his phone, his eyes widened as you approached the table. You gave him as small smile as you approached.

“Hey, thanks for meeting me,” Santi greeted you, standing from his seat and motioning to the empty seat opposite him.

“Thanks for reaching out,” you said, sitting down and placing your bag by your feet. He nervously sat back down, wiping his palms on his well-fitted jeans, a cappuccino and an iced latte already in front of him. You melted at the fact that, despite how badly your last meeting ended, he still remembered what drink you had in front of you.

“How are you doing today, are you doing all right?”

You huff out a small laugh. “Well, I threw up about ten times today, I think it might be a new record for me. I’m bloated and constantly hungry…” you bite your lip as you saw him avert his gaze awkwardly, his hands still rubbing against his jeans. You sighed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to rant. I’m fine.”

Santi nodded. “I’m sorry again about how I reacted on Sunday.”

You shake your head at him. “Really, you don’t have to say you’re sorry – “

“I said some not very nice things and it’s been playing over and over in my head, and it wasn’t right.”

You hesitated for a moment before you nodded. “What you said was kind of uncalled for. But I get it. I just threw this bombshell on you.”

“It doesn’t excuse it. I’d take it back if I could. Or never say it at all, because that’s not what I think of you.”

You nod at him before picking up the iced latte. “You’re forgiven. Let’s just forget it ever happened.”

Santi nodded, his hands finally stilling on his thighs. “Okay. Yeah.”

You take a sip of your coffee. It was a little stronger for what you would order usually, but you appreciated the effort. You take a deep breath and swallow nervously. “I know it's a lot to take in, but I think we need to figure out how we're going to handle this.”

Santi’s shoulders relaxed, and he gave a subtle sigh of relief at you bringing up the elephant in the room. “Yeah, I agree. Have you made any decisions yet?”

You shake your head. “No. Well…I've been doing some research, and I’m leaning towards keeping it. I did look into terminating. But I’m not sure yet.”

Santi gave a single nod. “Okay.” he rubbed the back of his head. “Uh, what role do I play in this? Do you want me to be involved, or what?”

“That's entirely up to you. I don't want to force you into anything you're not comfortable with.”

Santiago went quiet, reaching over for his coffee and taking a sip. You both sat there in silence for a few moments, just drinking your coffees as you take in your situation.

You didn’t want to push him. You really appreciated that he reached out to you to talk to you about this, to get his input. If he wanted to be child free, then you could come up with some sort of agreement, where he wasn’t involved and wouldn’t have to pay child support. He could sign away his parental rights before the baby even arrived.

Or you could terminate, like you had looked into.

You shake the thought from your head. You have your first appointment with your doctor next week, you could explore your options then.

“Have you told anyone you’re pregnant yet?”

You were surprised by the question, merely because you weren’t expecting that to be his next one. You shake your head. “No. Have you?”

“No.” Santi placed his now empty coffee mug on the table. “You’re one hundred percent sure you are?”

You nod. “I took four tests, and they were all positive. I have a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday to confirm, but it’s more of a formality thing. And to get me on the books.”

“Yeah. Okay. Right.” Santi frowns at you. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Your breath hitches at the question as you suddenly felt exposed…stunned, and honestly, you felt a slight lump in your throat. You swallow nervously as you avert your gaze for a moment before you look back up at him. You didn’t think to ask. You assumed he wouldn’t want to go. But, really…you didn’t want to go alone. “If you wanted. You don’t have to decide now. But I would appreciate it if you could be there for emotional support.”

Santiago nodded. “I can do that, I’ll be there.”

“I appreciate that. And we can talk about a DNA test to confirm the paternity, if that’s something you want to do.”

Santi was already shaking his head. “No, I believe you. I don’t…we don’t have to do the paternity test.”

Your breath hitches slightly, tears finally filling your eyes. “Okay. Thank you.” You place your half-drunk coffee on the table before you lean forward. “I know this isn't what either of us planned, but I'm glad we're able to have an open and honest conversation about it.”

“I never thought I would be in the position,” Santi said. “Someone telling me that I’m gonna be a dad.”

“Never pictured yourself settling down?” you asked, sniffing as you wiped at your eyes. You pick up your drink again, finding you needed something to do with your hands, and take a large gulp.

“No. Not with work, or my lifestyle,” Santi replied. “Was never in the cards for me.”

You nod, understanding. “I get it. With my dating life, I didn’t think it would happen with me either.” You both settle into an awkward silence. You finish your drink and place it down on the table before clearing your throat. “So, the doctor’s appointment is after work, at five-thirty, do you want me to text you the address?”

“I can come and get you after work, if you want,” Santi replied.

You weren’t expecting that. “Oh, really, it’s okay. It’s a little out of your way – “

“I don’t mind.”

“I’ll be taking my car to work anyway, so…”

After a few moments, Santiago nodded. “Okay then. I’ll just meet you there.”

You gave him a small smile before grabbing your bag and standing, digging through it for your purse as Santiago quickly after you. “How much do I owe for coffee?”

Santi waved his hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

“But I – “

“I’m sure you paid for mine on Sunday when I stormed out.”

You gave him a look before continuing to dig through your bag. “I insist, Santi.”

“Really, don’t worry about it. I got you pregnant, so the least I can do is get your coffee.”

You look at him, seeing him raise his eyebrow at you and give you a pointed, unamused look. You sigh before closing your bag, giving him a small smirk. “Fine.”

He walks you out and down the block to your car, making small talk about work and how well the launch went, since you mentioned it on your date.

“It went great. I threw up during the big speech. Emily followed me to the bathroom.”

Santi groaned. “She doesn’t know, does she?”

You shake your head. “She hasn’t said anything to me, but I think she knows something is going on.”

“I wouldn’t hear the end of it,” muttered Santi, causing you to giggle as you reach your car.

You turned to Santi, giving him a smile. “Thanks again for…this. I really didn’t know what I was going to do.” You unlock your car before opening the door. You turn to look at him. “See you on Wednesday?”

“See you on Wednesday.”

You don’t hug. You don’t kiss. You don’t even shake hands. You just stare at each other for a moment before you climb into your car, giving him a small wave as you start it and back out of the space, driving away. You watch him for a moment in your rearview mirror, seeing him standing, watching you drive for a few seconds before he turns and walks away.

You let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding. Why was that so awkward? The guy had seen you naked, had sex with you, and got you pregnant. Surely you were past the awkward stage in your not-relationship? You shake your head, clearing your thoughts. It was probably awkward because you were pregnant with his child. You barely knew each other.

Maybe he just needed a few more days for it to sink in. He hadn’t been around you much, after all, since you announced you were carrying his child.

You arrive back to your apartment, biting your lip as you stare at your phone screen, contemplating telling him you got home okay. Was that a bit forward? He might need just a bit of space after your meeting. You decide against texting him.

You get yourself out of your work clothes and into your comfiest pyjamas, slipping your feet into the fluffiest socks you own. You made your way into your kitchen, intending to heat up some leftovers, not really feeling like cooking much tonight. You turn on your oven, waiting for it to heat up.

You meander out of the kitchen, grabbing your phone from its place still in your bag, seeing that your group chat has been a little active since you left work to meet up with Santi. It wasn’t anything important, just your friends talking about their days. Gabrielle was dealing with two kids with chicken pox, and Beth’s newest client was being a nightmare and difficult. Courtney had offered her usual down to Earth responses, both in support of her friends.

You smiled. You wondered what they would say when they found out you were pregnant.

You. The perpetually single friend.

You type out a quick text, telling them exactly what was happening before you delete it all, and rewrite it. You stood there for a full ten minutes, contemplating letting them know what’s been going on over text. You should tell them in person. These were your girls, your family. They deserved better.

Sorry I have been MIA ladies. Been going through some stuff.

You sigh as you send the message in the group chat. It was simple and kept to the point.

It wasn’t long until you got a response.

B: Jesus, finally. Thought you’d died. You okay?

G: Do you need anything? I can come by tomorrow and drop some stuff off for you.

C: Glad you’re okay.

I’m okay, thanks guys. Is everyone free next weekend? We could have lunch somewhere.

G: I’ll see if I can get a sitter. Matthew is away with his brother for their cousin’s bachelor party.

B: I am free. I have something to ask you guys about the wedding.

G: Bridesmaids!?

B: You’ll just have to wait and see.

C: I’m free after 1pm. Got a work thing.

B: On a Saturday?

C: Rude, not all of us are our own boss.

B: Shut up.

Great, I can book a late lunch on Saturday. 2pm good for everyone? I’ll take a look at what’s available if not.

G: I’ve heard Bella Cucina is good, not sure if they’re open for lunches though.

They’re not, just the evenings. That’s where I went for my date with Santiago.

C: Lol.

You sent a not-very-ladylike emoji to Courtney before telling them you’ll send them lunch details when you can. You snort at Courtney’s not-so-ladylike reply back with a similar emoji before she sent you a message privately.

So, what’s going on? Did you take a pregnancy test?

You bit your lip. You appreciated that she asked you separately from the group chat, but you also wanted everyone to know what you were going through in person. It wasn’t like you didn’t trust her, Courtney wouldn’t breathe a word of it, but you just weren’t sure what was going to happen in the next few weeks. But you know that if you don’t say something now, Courtney will be suspicious. You could lie, but it would seem silly to.

You just had to bite the bullet. With Courtney anyway.

I did.

You immediately put your phone down, the panic rising in your throat. You did it. You were ‘publicly’ acknowledging your pregnancy to someone to wasn’t Santiago. You busied yourself with your almost forgotten leftovers, putting them in the oven and setting a timer. You went to your bathroom, took off the day’s make up, and placed on a face mask. You set up your couch, where you planned to plant yourself and watch Netflix all night, ignoring your phones constant chimes of Courtney’s messages.

You pottered around a bit more, closing your curtains, putting away your clothes, and cleaning up a few dishes you had left out that morning. You removed the face mask and moisturised your skin before finally going back to your phone.

And? Are you pregnant?

Come on, you can’t just throw that on me and disappear.

Seriously. Are you pregnant or not!?

I know you’re doing this on purpose, you haven’t just put your phone down and got distracted by something else!

You’re not subtle.

Girl, if you don’t answer your phone!!!!!

When she sent you your full name in capital letters, you thought it best to reply.

I’m pregnant.

Holy shit. How are you feeling?

Life has been a little upside down. I’ve been dealing with it.

Does Santiago know?

Yeah, it’s why I’ve been MIA. It’s been a challenge.

Fuck, dude, are you okay?

It’s fine. Well, it will be fine. I have an appointment on Wednesday with my OB, Santi will be there. So he says. I won’t blame him if he changes his mind, it’s not exactly an ideal situation.

Are you keeping it?

You hesitated, because you didn’t know how to answer that. You obviously took too long to answer because Courtney rang your phone. You took a few seconds to answer it. “I don’t know if I’m going to keep it.”

“Is it because of Santiago?”

“Well, partly. It’s his foetus too.” You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose. “And other factors. Obviously. Money. My living situation. Work. It’s all just…overwhelming.”

“You know we won’t judge you for what you choose to do, right?” Courtney said. “Is that what lunch is about next week? You don’t have to say anything to the others if you decide not to keep it, don’t feel pressured to let the others know.”

You try to hold back tears, sucking in your lips and biting down on them before you take a shaky breath. “I know.”

“We’ll be here for you, whatever you need. Do you need me there on Wednesday?”

“No, really, I’ll be okay.”

“Okay…you know Andy is a cop, right, he knows how to hide a body where no-one will find it if Santiago fucks you over.”

You let out a watery laugh, wiping at your eyes. “I know. But Santi’s a good guy.”

“The offer is there.”

Your timer goes off in your ear, causing you to flinch. You turn it off, before finally telling Courtney that you had to go, you were about to have dinner. You told her you would tell her all about the week you’d had another time, and that you would keep her updated on anything regarding the baby, and/or Santiago. She told you that she would always be available for you. You both hang up.

In that moment, you knew you’d be okay. You’d be fine. No matter what happens with the baby and Santi, at least you had your friends. And that was all you needed.

Tagged - @khonsulockley

[deantfwinchester]

Fresh Start 2/?

Pairing: Pre-Outbreak!Joel x Neighbor!Reader

Summary: When you move to Austin after finishing grad school, all on your own, you find a small house for rent next door to a handsome contractor and his teenage daughter. He gives you a hand moving in, but it turns out he could use more help than he knows.

Word Count: 4k

A/N: Lol more Looking After Joel content (like anyone’s surprised)

Pre-outbreak or no outbreak (take ur pick). It's f!reader, 2nd person, w/ no use of Y/N.

Welcome once again to the Joel Miller fluff crusade.

Part 1

You saw Joel and Sarah a few more times in passing over the next few days, each time smiling warmly and waving across the way, but always on the way out. Most days you saw a younger man on the way out with the two of them, who bore some resemblance to Joel, and you figured that must be his brother Tommy. Sarah had mentioned her Uncle Tommy while recounting her day over loose pieces of bookcase as the three of you built a few nights prior. 

Since that night, you’d been trying to find the time to gather what you needed to make dinner for your neighbors, in an effort to adequately thank them for all their help getting your new home put together. After spending the weekend unpacking the last of your things, you resolved to hit the grocery store for the ingredients you’d need on Monday after work, and try to get dinner ready for delivery next door around the time Joel got home.  Monday morning, you noticed it was just Joel and Sarah hopping in the truck as you got ready to leave for the day from your own driveway. Joel looked over at you, squinting in the bright morning sun, and smiled wide, waving. 

“Just the two of you this morning?” you called, waving back at him.

“Yep. My brother’s outta town. Took a long weekend,” he said, walking over to you. You began walking as well, meeting him halfway. “I’ll have to introduce you two sometime soon.”

“Definitely, I’d like to meet him,” you said, smiling back at him. 

He nods back and continues, lifting one arm up to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly. “Oh, I uh, got an idea of how my week’s gonna look. Would you wanna come over for dinner on Wednesday? I think Sarah would really like it, and you could meet Tommy too, since he’s around all the time. Damn near lives here himself.” 

You tried hard to keep your eyes on Joel’s while he spoke, but you couldn’t help but be distracted by the way his shirt lifted barely two inches above the waist of his jeans, exposing a bit of his stomach. Your neck burned a little thinking of him, silently scolding yourself, pleading to Get A Grip. “Wednesday? Um, yeah, I don’t think I’m busy at all. I’d love to,” you replied almost too quickly. Joel didn’t seem to notice, however, mostly seeming relieved, and he smiled in response. God he had a gorgeous smile. Starting to seem like the Texas heat wouldn’t be the only thing making you melt. 

“Great! We’ll be looking forward to it,” he said, satisfied with your answer.

“I will be too! Thank you, Joel,” you replied, hoping he saw only your earnest appreciation and not your cheeks warming under his gaze. 

“Anytime. Well, I gotta get her to school,” he said, pausing and turning a bit to walk back toward the truck. Once again slightly bashful, he added one last thing.

“I hope you have a, uh, wonderful day, darlin’.” No doubt he could see the red in your face now, almost stuttering at his genuine tone. 

“I-I hope you do too, Joel. I’ll see y’all later,” you replied, smiling back and turning to your own car. He watched as you got into the car, and didn’t return to his own until he heard your engine start. Taking a moment to gather yourself in the driver’s seat, you realized this crush on Joel was only going to grow each time you talked to him. You tried to tell yourself this was a bad idea. Joel’s your neighbor, and you wanted to keep it friendly and welcoming, and you had no idea how Sarah would react if something ever did happen between the two of you. No, you’d make sure to get a hold of it before bringing dinner over for the two of them tonight, which you’d conveniently left out of the conversation with Joel. You’re wanting it to be a surprise thank-you, and thinking it might be nice to not have to worry about what to do about dinner after working in the heat all day. For your neighbor. Your friend. Just that. 

_____________________________________________________________

You arrived back home around five, shopping done and ready to start cooking. You set to preparing the different parts of the meal you were making. The lasagna you took a bit of time and assembly, and you were definitely making quite the mess. Around the time the bolognese finished, you looked out the window and noticed Joel’s truck still wasn’t outside the house next door. Not too concerning, you knew he worked late quite a bit. If nothing else, you could bring dinner to Sarah, and he’d have less to worry about when he did get home.

You’d been cooking for over an hour when you noticed the sun beginning to set outside. You got the hefty casserole dish into the oven, and cleaned up the mess you’d created in your kitchen, tying up the very full garbage bag to take outside. As you headed toward the cans in your driveway, a taxi pulled up in front of the house next door. Now this was strange, you had yet to see a single cab in your very residential neighborhood. You noticed as well that Joel’s truck still wasn’t in their driveway. This made more sense as you watched Sarah emerge from the back of the car on the street side and quickly walk around to the lawn, opening the door for the other passenger. You certainly were not expecting Joel to emerge from the car, grip tight on the top of the door, with Sarah leaning in to help him out. As he got out and shut the door, draping an arm over Sarah, with a pained expression on his face. While he leant heavily on the cab’s door, Sarah reached in and pulled out a pair of crutches, helping him to get a grip on the first one. After settling on the first crutch, Joel pushed the door to the cab shut behind him, and began to hobble forward. Before Joel can grab the other crutch from Sarah, you see him begin to lose his balance, enough to instinctively go down on his newly wrapped ankle, and you rush forward to help. 

“Woah! Hang on a second!” you call as you approach them. Joel is huffing with effort when he notices you, and lifts his arm, allowing you to slip right underneath and support his side. Joel straightens up, leaning heavily on you, and lets out a breathy “Thank you.”

“‘course.  Looked like you needed a hand,” you smile up at him. He smiles back down at you, and despite your grin, he could see your eyes wide, and brows knitting together in concern. Joel felt a growing warmth in his chest at the sight, reminding him of the wave he felt during your conversation this morning. 

You motion for Sarah on Joel’s other side to hand you the remaining crutch, and help him get a comfortable hold, as you slip out from beneath his shoulder. You keep hold of him as he adjusts, letting your hand linger lightly on his back.

“Good? Okay, let’s get you inside, then I want the story,” you said, rubbing his back a bit before letting go. Joel trudged forward, shifting his focus toward keeping his balance rather than missing the feeling of your hand, warm against his back. You kept close to his side, making sure he was stable, as Sarah led the way inside. 

The two of you got Joel seated on the couch, and Sarah ran to her room to change out of her school clothes. You take Joel’s crutches and place them on the wall by the couch, and sit down on the ottoman in front of him, motioning for him to place his injured leg up next to you. 

“Comfy?” you asked, and Joel nodded. 

“As I’m gonna get for right now, I think.”

“Okay, story time. What the hell happened today?” 

That look was back on your face, Joel realized, the one you gave him outside from beneath his shoulder, that warmed him from the inside. He just wanted to look at you for a while, feeling like he could melt under the care in your eyes. 

“I, uh, fell. On site today,” he responds, a bit flustered after catching his too-long pause. 

You wait a beat for him to elaborate, and when he doesn’t, you speak. 

“Wow. You’re a riveting storyteller, Joel. Way to paint a picture for me. Feel like I was there,” you say with more sarcasm than he can bear at the moment. Joel groans and rolls his eyes at your tone, and you grin at him, placing your hand on his injured leg, rubbing lightly, attempting to coax more of an explanation from him. “Okay, so injury acquired at work, that much we know. I assume also, based on the wrapped ankle and accompanying crutches, you saw a doctor somewhere? What did they say?”

Joel sighed, conceding to your press for information. “Yep, at work. Fall involved some scaffolding and I, uh, got unlucky, I guess. One of the guys drove me to get it checked out, and Sarah met us there. ‘S just a sprain, not a big deal,” he shrugged. Before you could respond, you heard Sarah yell from the hall. 

“He’s lying!” she said. Joel sighs at this, shaking his head, opening his mouth to protest as she walks back in the room. “Nope. Don’t even try it. We came from the ER, where he waited two hours, got an x-ray, and the doctor told him he’s very lucky it’s not a fracture.” She placed her hands on her hips and looked at you, exasperated. 

“It’s fine,” Joel says, “just gotta wait a couple days, then I can get back to work.”

“A week. The doctor said a week before you can go back to work. Then he said you need to spend another week supervising, no heavy lifting.” Sarah’s spiel made Joel sigh once again, this time in defeat. Your eyes were wide, impressed by her ability to both keep track and wear him down. 

“Good memory.” you say incredulously, smiling at her. 

“He remembers too, he’s just lying. That’s why I took the bus to the hospital instead of home like he told me. To hear the instructions myself,” she says to you, though pointed elsewhere. “ And Uncle Tommy’s still out of town, so…”

“So you took a cab home from the ER??” you say, turning your head back to face Joel, who looks at you confused. It’s Sarah’s turn to sigh now, and she turns toward the kitchen. 

“I’m getting something to drink,” she breathes, and turns to Joel, “keep that elevated!”

You turn back to Joel now. You’re touched by Sarah’s concern, and give him a look letting him know as much, and wait for him to continue.

“Easier than the bus like this,” he shrugged.

“Well, what about the guy who drove you there? Where’d he go?” you ask. 

“He had to get back to work, couldn’t wait around. ‘Specially with me gone for the rest of the day,” he says, like it made perfect sense. You look at him, face once again marked with worry but without the accompanying smile, he notices. You reach around Joel’s side and grab the throw pillow sitting next to him on the couch, then tap his leg lightly, signaling to lift it from the ottoman. You slide the pillow into the space he occupied, then move his leg back down to settle on top, laying your hand above his ankle once again. 

“I get it,” you tell him, “but I don’t want it to happen again. Gimme your phone.” You take his phone and add your number to his contacts, and hand it back to him after sending yourself a text. “So next time-“

“Next time? You plottin’ my next fumble?” Joel asks, grinning at you. You shake your head at him. 

“Let me finish! Next time you need a ride, or anything else you think I could help with, call me,” you say, gesturing to the phone now back in his hand. “I put my number in there and sent myself a text so I have yours now too.”

“Well, thank you, darlin’, but you don’t have to-“ Joel starts, but you cut him off. 

“Nope. Promise me you’ll use it. If you need to, if you want to, for anything either of you need. I know your brother’s usually here, but just, put me above the cab company on the list, at least. Promise?” you plead with Joel. The worried face is back, and he’ll do just about anything to make it go away. 

“I promise. Thank you,” he says, nodding, looking at you with a sincerity that reaches your bones. You look anywhere but at him, feeling your neck heat up into your ears like this morning. You pat his leg a couple of times, then stand, clearing your throat a bit. 

“Well. Safe to say you guys haven’t eaten yet, yeah?” you ask, loud enough that Sarah can hear in the kitchen. 

“Definitely not. And im stARVING,” says Sarah, walking back in and passing a glass of water and bottle of Advil to Joel, before placing an ice pack on his ankle. 

“Okay good, give me a couple minutes, and I’ll be right back.” Sarah’s eyes grow wide with curiosity, and you turn to head out the door just as Joel begins to protest. 

“What did you-“

“Just trust me,” you called to him, walking out, then peeked back in the door and pointed at Joel, “don’t go anywhere.” You said, raising your eyebrows at him. 

Sarah started laughing as he deadpanned back at you, eyes narrowed “Hilarious.”

“Too soon?” you ask him through laughter. He rolls his eyes and smiles at you, shaking his head. “Alright, I’ll be right back.”

______________________________________________________________

With all the excitement of the last hour, you’d run out the clock on dinner, with only a few minutes remaining on your timer when you walked back into your kitchen. You pulled the lasagna out of the oven, covered it in foil, then stacked some potholders and returned to Joel and Sarah’s. 

When you walk through the door, they turn to you, eyes wide. You can practically see their mouths watering like cartoon characters. Mission accomplished. 

“Okay, so I’d actually planned to bring dinner over here for y’all tonight. As a thank you for your help last week. Couldn’t have picked a better day, huh?” you say to the two of them. Joel just stares at you, speechless. He definitely hadn’t seen that coming, but he wasn’t really surprised. Just, didn’t know what to say. Sarah speaks for both of them. 

“You didn’t have to do that, we were happy to help. We had fun that night!” she says, excitedly, “but I am hungry, so come on.” Sarah leads you into the kitchen, then ushers you out, grabbing plates from the cabinet, insisting on handling it herself. You walk back into the living room, where Joel’s gathered his words, though they’re certainly nothing new. 

“This is real sweet, but you really didn’t have to do that, darlin’. Seriously,” Joel says to you, gravely. 

“I wanted to, Joel. Seriously.” you say, mirroring his intensity. 

“I’m sure you did. I don’t doubt that,” he says, smiling knowingly at you through the words. 

“Well, if you guys are good, I’m gonna get going. I’m sure you’re tired, so eat, enjoy, then get some rest,” you say to him, moving to leave. He’s exhausted, that’s for sure, but he’s also sure he doesn’t want you to leave. He’s got no idea how to make you stay, when Sarah walks back in from the kitchen, holding three plates filled with huge slices of the lasagna. 

“Nope, you’re staying. You made it, it’s huge, eat with us,” she pushes one plate into your hands and another into her father’s. 

“Oh, that’s sweet Sarah, but you guys have been through a lot today, I don’t want to intr-“

“Stay. Please. We’d really like you to.” This time it was Joel, insisting as well that you stay for dinner with them. With both of them staring up at you expectantly, you have no choice but to relent, taking your plate and sitting on the couch next to Joel.

______________________________________________________________

The three of you sat and ate together, first listening to Sarah tell stories of her day, then banding together to bully Joel into more details about what happened on site today. Sarah had a very strong feeling that, while unfortunate, the fall probably looked hilarious. The three of you giggled about the events of the day long after the empty plates were abandoned on the end tables. Sarah was curled up in a chair across from you two, when she got up, stretching, and announced she was heading to bed. She reached for the empty plates, but you stopped her before she could get to them. You told her not to worry about them, saying you would handle it, and she let you. After saying goodnight, she left for her room, leaving you and Joel alone. 

“You’ve gotta be pretty tired yourself, huh?” you ask Joel, reaching out and patting his arm, before getting up to grab the empty plates. 

“I’m alright. I’m glad you’re still here,” he says, that same sincerity in his eyes as he looks up at you, and you falter under his gaze, eager to busy yourself. Stacking the plates in one hand, you reach down and touch the ice pack on Joel’s ankle, finding it squishy and melted. 

“This, uh, this isn’t doing you any favors anymore. Hang on,” you grab the limp pack and carry it and the plates into the kitchen. After cleaning the dishes and covering the lasagna, you place it in the fridge, then open the freezer beneath it to replace the melted ice pack. Luckily, you find a second just like it, which you grab and return to the living room. 

You place the new ice pack on Joel’s elevated ankle, fiddling with it until you’re satisfied it’ll sit comfortably still. You’re at least partially trying to occupy yourself beneath his gaze, still unsure how to react to this feeling. He’s smirking at you when you meet his eyes, amused by your fussing over his injury. 

“You really don’t have to do that, sweetheart. I’ll be alright, I can handle it,” he says while you attempt to fluff the pillow beneath his leg before sitting down next to it on the large ottoman. You place your hand on his leg once again, this time not hesitating to rub comforting and light along his shin.

“I know you can. But so can I. You’ve had a long enough day, just let me help,” you tell more than ask him. 

“You already helped out plenty, bringing dinner over. She would’ve probably eaten something microwaved for dinner. Or worse, had to cook something for us herself. She does that enough already,” he glances down at his hands in his lap then, and you notice the guilt creeping into his voice. You lean forward then, and put one hand on his forearm, and he looks up, meeting your eyes.

“Hey,” you say gently, “she’s okay. More than okay, she’s wonderful. She was so sweet today, remembering every detail from the doctor, getting you in here and settled. It was adorable actually, watching you listen while she bossed you around a bit.”

“Sweet as can be, but ‘s not her job. I’m s’posed to be taking care of her, not asking her to take the bus home, or having her lug me out of a cab from the ER on a school night,” he says, running a hand over his face. You give his arm a reassuring squeeze before responding. 

“This whole situation was a one-time thing, and you know that. Getting hurt on the job the one day your brother’s not with you? Bad luck. All it can be. Don’t beat yourself up about this, and definitely not when you’re this exhausted,” you say to him, hoping to provide what little comfort you can. He nods a little, head turning back to his lap, looking at your hand still resting on his forearm.  “And don’t forget, find yourself in a run of luck like this again, you can call me instead.” You move your hand down, resting on top of his, and patting once again. As you move to lift it, he grabs your fingers, just wanting to keep your hand in his for a bit. You don’t move a muscle. 

“You really mean that, don’t ya?” he lifts his head again and smiles at you, still holding your fingers tight. 

You smile back, nodding at him, “anything you need, I told you,” squeezing his hand in return. He’s holding your hand in both of his now, and you rub little circles against the back of one with your free thumb. You wonder, for a moment, if you’re doing something you shouldn’t. He’s hurt, tired, and clearly carrying too much to think straight. Would a more awake, or less upset Joel be so open to this physical affection? Before you can spiral any further, Joel speaks again. 

“Well, in that case, I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you this week,” he says. 

“Anything. Shoot.”

“It’s a lot, and I hate to ask, if you can’t do it, I’ll understand,” he begins rambling. 

“Joel. Just tell me what you need,” you cut him off, squeezing his hand in yours. 

“Well, since I can’t drive for the time being, I was wondering if you could pick Sarah up from school for the rest of the week? Tommy’s on his way back already, he’ll get her there in the mornings, but without me there, he can’t leave the site in the middle of the day to get her home. She can take the bus if she needs to, it’s not a big deal, I just-“

“Joel. I’ll be happy to pick her up this week. My schedule is flexible, so it won’t be a problem. I’ll be there, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t wait on me either,” you assure him. 

“That’s- I can’t thank you enough, darlin’, really. I-“ Joel cuts himself off with a yawn, and you rise before he can even finish. 

“Alright, that’s my cue. And yours,” you keep his hand in yours, giving it one final squeeze before he lets his fall, reluctantly. “Time to put yourself and this day to bed. Do you need help getting up?”

He smiles at his lap once more. “No, I’ll be okay. I think I got the hang of those things anyway,” gesturing to the crutches against the wall behind him. “I’m gonna sit here a while longer. Thank you again for your help tonight. I’d walk you out, but..”

“Don’t you dare get up Joel, not until you’re heading straight to bed. Promise?” you smile back, making him swear once again. 

“I promise. Night, darlin’” he says, smiling slightly, eyelids at half mast. You doubted he was making it off the couch tonight, but you didn’t want to push. 

“Night, Joel. Get some sleep, I’ll see you tomorrow,” you lock the door from the inside on your way out, fairly confident Joel wouldn’t be getting up or remembering to do it himself. You walked out into the warm night air, head spinning with the countless moments you shared with Joel tonight. You didn’t realize how late it was until you walked back in your own home, feeling exhaustion take hold. You’ve got plenty to do tomorrow now, too, so sleep was of the essence. You head to bed yourself, silently thanking the universe you’d already cleaned up the kitchen.

[bakughosts]

hellooooo! I hope I’m not bothering you but your writing inspires me! I really love your Bakugou fics because you characterize him well. I find myself rereading it over and over, finding details that went through my head the first time lol. It’s so difficult to find genuine Bakugou fics because every time I look through tumblr I sometimes find some… interesting fics who take Bakugous character and change him dramatically to the point where I don’t even recognize him, you know? Idk maybe I think too deeply about these things but it’s just something I noticed! But I have deep appreciation for your effort and care to place him in any story and keeping him himself as much as possible!

With that being said, I was wondering how you approach writing? How do you develop your characters?

I’m excited for your fics! Writing reallyyyy takes time and there’s so much thought that goes into it. I’m not a writer but I’m an artist! One day I’d love to draw you something when I’m more confident in my drawing skills. You’re doing great 🥺

Omg i have so much to say in response to this… i feel like this is gonna be a long ass response and i have just started writing it so omg sorry in advance (edit: IM SO SORRY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ ALL OF THIS)

Also i was going to put this at the end to respond to things in your ask chronologically but i had no idea I’d write so fucking much on the topic!! But omg i would LOVE to see your art!!!!! It’s so sweet of you to want to draw me something that’s genuinely the sweetest thing in the world it makes me SO emotional omgggggggg please…….. no pressure at all but any time you want to share please stop by and do so i would love to see what you’re working on

Gonna put a read more because this got ridiculous dlkfkjdsfjdlkjsflkjdfslksdjlfksdj

But omg NO it is absolutely no bother it is very kind of you to say that!!!! I am very glad you think his characterization is solid it’s genuinely one of the things i worry about most when writing (not just him, but any character)!!! I think he is such a difficult person to characterize. You’re right there are many many interpretations of him and i think that there is validity to all of them to certain extents because they all draw on aspects of his character that he expresses outwardly. But there is so much inside him that it like…. Idk i think it’s really difficult to get his nuances right. (Not that I’m saying i do all the time—and def not saying that my characterization is like Better Than Others at all it’s just the way i interpret him!!!!!)

He is a harder character to develop than others because i feel like you have to be on three levels when you write anything he says or does:

1. What is his gut instinct? His knee-jerk reaction? This is always influenced by things that are harder to control for him, so like anger, frustration, pridefulness, proclivity for violence. From there,

2. You move on to consider where he is in his life/what he’s been through and apply that lens to those knee-jerk emotions. So the way i usually write him, he’s older, he’s been to therapy to some extent lmao, he knows techniques to bite back anger or tamp down frustration, this is going to affect the way he knows he /should/ feel (just found out my Ctrl key isn’t working LMAOOOOOOOO so please pretend those are italics) despite the way he /instinctually/ feels. So he’s going to apply this the best he can to how he reacts to things. The deeper the gut instinct is, though, the harder it is to cover up, so you measure how much control over his actions he is able to apply depending on how distressed/angry he is.

Okay brief pause before three because this is where the internality ends, and you have to figure this out before you apply it externally. You want to have an idea of what he’s feeling /exactly/ before you run it through his thought process and decide how he would express it externally.

3. So then the last part is the external level: what’s actually shown on the page in his dialogue, actions, and body language. So we have a man here who so desperately doesn’t want to show his vulnerable emotions to other people. He has an ‘image’ that he wants to portray because it’s how he wants people to perceive him (strong, unbothered, powerful, he doesn’t /need/ anyone because he’s /so/ strong and powerful, he’s embarrassed when his friends show him love because it’s in essence weak to accept/show love so freely—remember the lack of vulnerability here—and he’s the best at everything he does, ever, no question). With steps one and two, you have the gut emotion and how he knows the gut emotion should be handled. Now you have to ask: how can he express this and make himself look like the image he so wants to project?

This is fun to play with because, as we know, he often fails at portraying that image. He’s an awkward person. He was never socialized well. When he’s not feeling entirely confident and self-assured (think post-fight victory, when he’s doing his hero thing that he /knows/ he’s good at), he’s bad at hiding his more vulnerable emotions. You just have to decide from here how badly he fails at projecting the image/how well the character he’s speaking to knows him and can see underneath it.

So example: 1. kirishima and him are walking, kirishima puts an arm around bkg’s shoulders, he’s embarrassed but does feel the warmth of having his best friend care about him. Gut instinct here is to shove kirishima off because he’s embarrassed, but doesn’t want to show that he’s embarrassed because that’s ‘weak’ behavior > 2. Knows he shouldn’t shove kirishima off of him because he’s just innocently expressing affection for bkg because he cares about him, and rejecting that affection so vehemently could potentially hurt kirishima’s feelings > 3. The image dictates he doesn’t look ‘weak’, but his reason dictates that he doesn’t hurt kirishima’s feelings. So he rolls his eyes maybe, plays at shoving him off—to show that he’s not weak, that he doesn’t care about people caring about him—but lets kirishima keep his arm there because he really does appreciate his best friend caring about him and he never wants to make Kirishima think that bkg is actually angry because of the affection shown to him.

This is a really hasty example lmao i knew if i did anything more specific it would make the ask like six times longer lsdfkjdlskdfjdslkjf but you apply that and then to degrees, peel back how much the image means to him. So in in the dark of morning (hate being like oh look at this part of my fic! But that’s the best way i can use an example i know well) at the beginning when he’s driving her to his apartment, he’s hurting bc of all might’s health decline, hurting bc of denki’s death. But he can’t yet show that vulnerability, so he upholds the image of being a gruff n tough guy who doesn’t care about anything at all. But when they’re talking during the gala in front of the picture of all might and he’s worried that he could never mean as much to reader as denki meant to her, he’s able to claw past his need to project that image and is able to offer a form of vulnerability and openness, but it’s tentative and hesitant because he’s not used to showing himself as anything other than the image he’s created for himself.

God i know that was just how i approach writing bakugou. I am SO sorry it got that long Jesus Christ. I just have a lot to say about it dlksfdlskfjs but essentially that’s how i approach writing all characters to an extent. 1. What do i know about how they would gut react to things 2. What experiences/training/factors of upbringing in their life affect how they know they /should/ act 3. How do they want people to see them and how does this affect the way they finally act/speak/etc. Some characters the steps matter more or less for, but they’re always there somewhat. Like step 3 i think outward perception always shapes actions to an extent, but like. When i write Mina, if she’s just with her friends, step three has absolutely no bearing on what she does and says. She’s very open and is unapologetic about it. When i wrote wolfwood for this fic i just published step 2 was also barely a factor because even if he knows how he /should/ act, it means very little to him because he doesn’t care much about how anyone perceives him (except for reader). Bakugou is harder lmaooooooo he takes all three steps to the MAX and that’s why i think interpretations of him vary so much because there’s so many areas where you can decide that he would react/feel a different way to various external stimuli.

Anyway GOD sorry this is long as HELL but i really wanted to put all my words into thoughts. Thank you SO SO SO much for that ask….. like getting to talk about writing ever is so special to me and the fact that you wanted to know about my process is like…. Im like omg. So honored to be asked about it and so happy to talk about it. I cropped in my note about sharing your art with me earlier in the post bc this is ridiculously long but SERIOUSLY please share any time!!!!!

If u have read to the end thank u so much for bearing with me as i go absolutely insane sdflkjdslkfjsldkjflkdsjfdkljdslkfjds

[creativia10]

First Halloween with the Ghost Boyfriend

Virgil is excited for Halloween. He is hoping to spend a good one in his new relationship that includes ghost roommate Logan.

Relationships: romantic Analogical, romantic LAMP, background Dukeceit

Wordcount: 1517

Warnings: I'm not sure if this is mcd for a ghost fic, Logan is dead (this is pretty much fluff though)

Notes: Tuliptober Prompt 30-Oneshots continued

Recursive of Halloween Ghost au. Where the relationships are reversed with who is dating a ghost. Yes I know for the series this is a recursive of, this is a sequel. I plan to write recursive of the first ghost fic, that one is just longer than this one. I think the Halloween fluff can still be appreciated though. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Based on @tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors Ghost au

Virgil loved Halloween. Anyone who knew him knew this. It was the holiday he expressed the most enthusiasm for. Remus was a fan of Halloween as well. Although his interest seemed to lie more with the gruesome elements.

Virgil wasn’t sure how Logan would react to Halloween though.

“Hey, Virgil,” said Remus, “We’re short on candy again.”

Virgil restrained a laugh. “Logan!”

Logan popped into existence next to Virgil. Logan cleared his throat and straightened himself as though to maintain some dignity. As though they couldn’t see the evidence of his candy consumption on his face. Not to mention his pockets bulging with squirreled-away wrappers.

“I bought you your own bag, you know,” Virgil said. Okay, he was definitely failing to hide his amusement.

Logan huffed. “I ran out.” He crossed his arms. “And, I haven’t eaten sweets in centuries. Surely it makes sense I’d be curious about the consumption again. I’ve gone so long without anything like it. I think I’m allowed.”

“Are you pulling the ‘I’m dead’ card, to get away with away with stuff, now?” Virgil asked.

Logan scoffed. “Get away with? I am not a child. I don’t need to ‘get away’ with anything. It’s perfectly fine.”

And with that, he stepped forward and looped his arms around Virgil’s neck.

Virgil sighed. “You can’t always get your way just by being my super sexy boyfriend, either.”

Logan smirked at that and hmmed. “We’ll see.”

Remus snickered and shook his head. “Alright. Can I get some help assembling this skele spook?”

It was a small animatronic skeleton. Virgil went over to Remus and helped him untangle the wire guts from Remus’s fingers. Then they made an effort to carry it onto the porch. Before they could though, Logan sighed and flicked his fingers to set the Skele floating.

Janus came out to join them as he did. Janus huffed and gave Logan a look.

“You can’t just levitate the skeleton decoration, Logan.”

“Why not?”

Janus put his hands on his hips. “Why do you think?” He gestured to the way the skeleton appeared to be floating.

“It’s Halloween,” said Logan. He flicked his hands again to drop the thing into Remus’s arms. “People will assume it’s part of a performance.”

Janus just looked at Logan for a moment.

“Logan, it’s a floating skeleton. In broad daylight, with no visible possibilities for rigging, and no audience. Does that sound believable as a mere magic trick?”

Logan hmphed and grumbled something.

Janus claimed he tagged along with Remus for Halloween to reign his boyfriend in from anything too chaotic. But Virgil was pretty sure Janus was just as into the spooky holiday. Janus had a flair for the dramatic, of course he would love a holiday where he could dress up extravagantly.

They all got into their costumes as it got closer to evening time. Remus was a zombie, of course. Very fitting for his style. Virgil and Janus had fought before over who would get to dress as a vampire, as they didn’t want to both be vampires. Virgil had ended up relenting, letting Janus be the vampire this year. Virgil dressed as a purple color schemed demon. He thought this was just as cool anyways. Logan flickered and shifted into his most dated outfit. He let himself have a faint silver sheen that was passable as pearlescent makeup.

Remus shook his head. “That’s almost cheating, you know, to go as a ghost.”

Logan merely shrugged. “I don’t feel inclined to put in any more effort for a frivolous holiday. I’m not sure I could do much else anyways.”

Not that they had really tried.

Logan had been a bit unclear on how he felt about the spooky holiday. He seemed to maintain some level of enjoyment in Virgil’s excitement at least. Yet he didn’t say whether he liked the holiday himself.

Janus rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We should head downstairs. There’ll be trick-or-treaters coming to the door soon.”

Remus snickered, “Don’t get too distracted by sucking face!”

Logan and Virgil both sputtered as the other couple headed down and left them. Virgil flipped the bird at the other couple, a bit delayed. Logan covered his mouth to laugh a little. Then he cleared his throat and shuffled a bit.

“Your, uh, costume looks very nice dear.”

Virgil smiled at him. “Thanks.” He put his hands on Logan’s shoulders.

“In a sexy way?”

Logan’s eyes widened and he stuttered. “Uh, well, is that what you were going for? Uh, I mean,”

Virgil laughed a little and shook his head. “It’s fine, L. I want to look good for my boyfriend.”

Logan smiled at him, and they both leaned forward for a kiss.

They heard a dramatic gasp behind them. Virgil turned to give Roman an amused smile.

“You are starting kissing without me!” Roman dramatically proclaimed, wearing his Phantom of the Opera getup. Virgil rolled his eyes.

“It wasn’t intentional. Didn’t know how long your highness would take to get ready anyways.”

Roman scoffed. “I’m not a prince this year!”

“For once,” Virgil mumbled with a smirk. Roman flicked Virgil in retaliation. “Just for that, Logan gets my kisses first.”

“Wha-hey, I’m not saying anything untrue.”

Logan was laughing when Roman went in for a kiss. Roman sighed but he was smiling.

“I suppose that will do for now.”

Patton joined them, in his great pumpkin costume, giggling.

“Alright,” Logan said, “Let’s get down already. Kids could be waiting, and I want to be ready to impress them for Virgil’s sake.”

Never mind nobody had actually asked Logan to do that. Although Virgil had his own suspicions about Logan’s motives. He was looking forward to seeing Logan in action though. As soon as Virgil finished getting his costume together, Logan vanished.

“Come on now!”

Virgil heard Logan’s voice halfway down the stairs to the living room.

“I’m coming, I’m coming Lo! Relax!” Virgil laughed as he hurried to keep up with him. He was ready to get the satisfaction of winning the bet against Roman. On how much Logan was actually into  Halloween. Roman had doubted it.

The first sign, to Virgil, had been after they had watched Monster house together. Logan hadn’t expressed a clear opinion on it. But Virgil had caught Logan trying to imitate the tricks he saw the house doing for two weeks. Logan claimed it was more of a scientific curiosity. If you could even call using ghost powers as scientific in any way. When the doorbell rang for the first time of the night, Logan flickered and appeared across the room. He lifted the bowl and answered the door. Virgil saw that grin though.

“Trick-or-treat!” A bunch of kids chimed. Virgil and Remus settled in behind Logan. (There was only so much space in front of the doorway after all.) Now they would get to see Logan’s show.

Logan held out the bowl. As the children reached for the bowl, a chill filled the air around them. Virgil shivered. Cloudy breaths puffed out from the children in front of them. The house groaned ominously. The lighting grew darker suddenly. All this added to a more menacing atmosphere.

The children gasped and chattered excitedly amongst themselves.

“Nice surround sound!” One of the older ones said, who was in some sort of elf costume. Virgil bit his lips, but a small hum of a laugh still seeped out. No one seemed to pay it any mind though.

“What are you, Mister?” said a little mermaid.

“I’m a ghost,” Logan said. His lips twitched into a smile as his eyes twinkled. “I died in this very house.”

“Cool!” said a Frankenstein’s monster. Janus barely managed to pull Remus away, into the kitchen, before Remus howled with laughter. The children grabbed big handfuls of candy. Logan snuck another one into his mouth before he shut the door.

“Wow,” Virgil drawled. But he was smiling. Logan shrugged with a smirk.

“I mean, it’s true. It’s nice to be able to say so without people thinking I’m insane.”

Remus returned, still with tears in his eyes from the laughter. Janus followed him with an exasperated look.

They took turns with who stood by the door and who got to spook the kids. Although notably, Logan always added something to the general spooky effect. They also alternated between refilling the candy and stealing from said candy bowl. As it got darker trick-or-treaters trickled in less. So they switched to scarier Halloween movies. The quaple took up the couch. Janus and Remus squeezed into a nearby armchair. Many of them were nodding off later in the night.

“Good Halloween?” Virgil asked Logan softly with a peck to the cheek. Logan hmmed and leaned into Virgil.

“Rather so. Excellent even. I enjoyed myself.”

Virgil grinned.

“We can go more all out next year though,” Logan said.

“…Is that for my sake?” Virgil asked.

Logan shrugged.

“This house is actually haunted. We should totally own this neighborhood on the spookiness.”

Virgil giggled and turned the volume down. He wondered whether he should wake Roman to get his bet winnings.

[tales-from-the-badge-shiner]

Patrol Sergeant Part 3

...we got to a spare bedroom set up as a kink playroom, & he pointed to a spot roughly center of a clear area. i moved where directed, & started to kneel but was stopped. ‘No. Stand’- i silently did as instructed, & he began to inspect me as impersonally as a piece of equipment. Maybe that’s all i was to him, a tool to be used. Besides feeling my body, he grabbed my nuts to give a slight squeeze. He seemed mildly disappointed that i didn’t react. He skinned back my nub & snickered under his breath ‘no surprise there’. He moved behind me, quickly sliding 2fingers up my ass, which elicited something between a grunt and a moan. i had pre-lubed in anticipation, & now glad i did, otherwise he’d have gone in dry & would have gotten a very different response.

He then moved me to a workout bench, & had me lay on my stomach before securing me. He then knelt so he was closer to my ear. ‘It would normally be about now I’d beat your ass until you were sobbing, but because of what you’ve told me of your past, I’m not going to do that-*unless* you make me. If that happens, you’ll be redder than Santa’s coat.’i dreaded it, but complied with a “Yes Sir.” He then put on a pair of leather gloves, then reached under me from behind & exposed my junk from underneath me body to between my splayed legs ‘Now,’he started with a tone of anticipation,’ let’s try out those brass balls.’ He began working over my balls & nub with his gloved hands, building gradually to see how much i could take. While he did get the occasional grunt or yelp, i was determined to do my best to take what he dished out, as my mind went to a calm centered space that i knew so well. After the gloved leather hands he switched to using a small cat on them, building up to a pretty good speed. i know he got a few hissed breaths and yelps, but while i wasn’t deliberately trying to hold back, the pain never reached a level that made me cry out. Oddly, the level was enough to clear my head, almost cleansing in it’s own way. After a period of time, he stopped & gently stroked my now reddened balls for a moment. While i appreciated the moment of almost tenderness, he only gave a grunt & moved off behind me. Next i felt something cool that i realized to be additional lube being applied widely to my hole. He then pushed in with 2 fingers and i realized that he had changed to hospital gloves. The third finger went in with little difficulty as his hand sawed slowly in and out of my opening hole. ‘Now to open you up a bit’ as his pinky was added to the rest. After a bit he curled his fingers in to fist me, but found that while my ass stretched thus far, he could only make it about 2/3 of the way in before reaching about as far as my ring would stretch. He tried turning his fist back and forth trying to get it to loosen just a little more, but without seeming success. One turn elicited a low groan from me. ‘That hurt?’ He asked, but wasn’t expecting my answer”your knuckles are scraping over my prostate,” i groaned at another turn “it feels great.” He clearly wasn’t expecting me to be finding pleasure from his actions. He worked my hole a bit longer but despite his efforts his hand went no deeper. He stopped and i heard him say ‘let’s see how loose that cunt is now’ as i felt his thick cock start to enter me. He began using the bench and my hips to pull me onto his cock. ‘Gawd, but I love a sloppy cunt’. i loved how he was using me and made it clear i was loving it too. Some part of my mind registered that, while he was hard, he wasn’t rock hard as he’d been when i knelt before him. ‘I’m about to fill you up, faggot.’ He warned. “Do it!” i assented, and a few strokes later he began blasting. After a moment of recovery, he withdrew & began to release me from the bench. He helped me up & handed a roll of paper towels telling me to clean up, then pointing out the small garbage can nearby. Despite having just blasted, i felt a level of discontent from him, despite complying with him completely. He took me out to the kitchen, pulled out another beer for himself and a can of soda for me. He said he’d been impressed how well i’d done so far and how compliant i was. He’d originally thought my statements of experience to have been exaggerated, but if anything they’d been understated. i told him about the first man that had used me sexually, how we had wrestled to see who’d top and the bruises that inevitably happened from it. i said even when i’d won a pin i’d still give up my ass, which only made our sex rougher as he wanted to assert every bit of dominance he could over me. Somehow that only made the Sergeant a bit more withdrawn.

[neon-draws-sometimes]

I DID IT I FISNHED THE ONE SHOT!!! NOW I JUST NEED TO EDIT AND IM DONE

if anyone wants to read it and tell me about any spelling or grammar mistakes, I’d really appreciate it :D

He was doing it again. He walked up to the door, to your door, and knocked on it.

“Knock knock,” It said, in a voice so close to your own, but still slightly off. 

“Who’s there?” The voice on the other side responded with delight.

It made you sick to hear him pretend to be you like this. What was the goal? He already was possessing your body, wasn’t that enough?

You tune out the rest of the joke and you try to concentrate. You need to find a way to break his hold somehow. Thinking on his traits, something slowly dawns on you, feeling like cold water poured down your back. He seems to know more about than he really should. It’s almost like they’ve known you before, like they’ve done this to you before. No one else has even seemed to notice anything wrong with you. Unable to breathe, you start to feel like you’ll be trapped in your own mind forever, like your friends will never care. You can’t even breathe, he’s taking that from you too. Besides, it was already a better “you” than you ever were, it put in more effort than you, why did it even matter? Almost nothing had changed to the eyes of everyone else. If anyone did find out, surely they wouldn’t care. 

You snap out of your thoughts as your body gets up and brushes itself off. 

“Well that was fun, but I must ketchup later,” He says, taking a swig of the condiment.

The lady behind the door laughs.

“Thanks for mustard-ing up enough courage to tell that one. I will relish these puns.”

With that, he somehow manages to skate a bit down the trail despite wearing your slippers, sliding along the snow. He then, like usual, opens an odd swirling colored patch in the air, and slides into it. 

These patches seem to be the main way he uses your “shortcuts”.

On the other side, he lays you both down until you fall asleep??

The next day, Fresh gets up. Today is the day, it settles. He had always had this in  mind and figured when the day would come, he’d feel it.

Fresh thinks that in order to spice things up a bit, he would also change into his more usual outfit. Seconds after he made this choice, he was already wearing it, having used his magic to transform Sans’ ordinary clothes into something more his style. He was now wearing an unbuttoned bright cyan and purple jacket, which had a white stripe with a cyan squiggle in the middle, a pink collared shirt, and some ridiculously bright cyan and green shorts, which had some zippers across them that were completely functionless unless you wanted to remove the bottom half of the shorts for some reason. Fresh sensed his host’s mind cloud with confusion as he attempted to make sense of the absurd change.

Fresh strolls outside and looks around with satisfaction at another day with no one suspecting a thing. He waved to a couple  of Snowdin’s residents as he makes his way over to where he had noticed a camera before. It wants everyone to see want it has planned, so checking for the camera is important. Happy that the camera seems to be in working order, he creates a portal to the ruins, where Toriel should be.

“Oh! Hello there! I wasn’t expecting a visitor. How did you get in here?” Toriel said kindly.

“Hey Toriel.” Fresh rasped, a threatening edge to his friendly act.

Before Toriel had time to react, Fresh leaped out and grabbed her, quickly dragging her through the portal.

What was he doing? He had gotten himself behind the door and taken the lady. It knew her name. It disturbs you how much he knows. 

“Hey Tori! C’mere for a sec!” It said, with a menacing edge to its voice.

“Where do you take me? Where am I?”

It yanked her towards its level, so that they were eye to eye. 

“Don’t worry about it,”

Suddenly, your body convulsed with a coughing fit. You hacked and coughed until your eyes watered, and you started you wonder if you were dying. Maybe that would be the best for everyone. Whatever it was planning would be stopped and you wouldn’t be in pain any more. But then, Toriel would never know that you were the talking to her through the door. She’d think you abandoned her. And broke your promise. Maybe she’d start to hate you. Not that what was happening right not wouldn’t make her hate you. 

With a final cough, distracting you from your panic, your body stills. And then you notice something lying in the snow. A bright, searing green thing.

Fresh almost laughs aloud, hearing his host’s thoughts spiral out of control, but manages to keep it down. He doesn’t want to ruin the tension he’s created in the air. Of course, he couldn’t help but push some of those thoughts into his host’s head after he heard the direction they were going. It was just too amusing to pass up. 

But now Fresh needed to focus. Picking up the lime parasite lying on the ground, he brought the squirming mass closer to Toriel.  Still holding firmly onto her shoulder, he placed it gently on her shoulder, giving it a small pat of encouragement.

You really wished you didn’t have to watch. Not that you even had a sliver of a choice. 

He made her like you. The thing that was standing there wasn’t your friend anymore.

It made your guts turn to see. You felt hollowed out.

“Hah, sweet! The parasite took to her.”

…if you had your thoughts interrupted by this annoying voice one more time!… you were briefly enraged, until you remembered it didn’t matter. You weren’t getting out of this one. You weren’t going to bother fighting back anymore. It’s just a waste of your time.

Fresh silently celebrated. They’d done it! Of course there was a little pushing on their part but Sans concluded it all by himself! Finally, he had gotten a host to completely give up despite still physically having enough energy to keep going. This was a fun challenge to attempt. Fresh was quite glad they’d came up with it, and patted themselves on the back. Literally. Finally it could feel the sweet feeling of victory. It was a great feeling, warm in their chest, though brief. It always faded in the end, leaving him empty. 

(note I have no idea why the whole things in a different font it won’t let me fix it. if you read this far, let me know if you see any grammar mistakes ! Ty)

[strangerindunya403]

The guy I wanted to marry gave up after his father disapproved of me due to cultural reasons. It’s been two months and he hasn’t reached out after his father ended things between our families while we were on the verge of finalising things between families and getting engaged. To say that I’m heartbroken is an understatement. We were in a haram relationship previously (only chatting and online, nothing else) and I did realise my mistake, repented, cut off contact with him, asked him to repent too and then genuinely strived to make things halal, made a lot of duas, istikhara, etc. I stuck by him through thick and thin for three years, did everything in my power and beyond, fought my family and everyone else for him but he let me go just like that. I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff on social media and try to justify his behaviour in an attempt to ease my pain, I have my doubts about him having an avoidant attachment style and sometimes think his heavily cultured upbringing and his deep sense of blind obedience and respect towards his parents was the reason why he did what he did but my family disagrees.

They tell me that he was never all in from the beginning and he constantly talked about things not working out between us even to them because he was okay with either outcome. I was always the one making all the compromises and sacrifices in order to marry him and he always made me do most of the work (in the relationship, between our families) too. Despite all of this, I guess I still want to hear it from a man’s perspective, could you please tell me that if a man truly, genuinely and sincerely claims to love a woman, is it true that even if he struggles or doesn’t know how, he would do everything in his power but never give up on her and never let her go? If he truly loves her but believes he is not worthy of her or deserve her, would he still find a way to become better or he’d be okay with seeing her marry another man?

He was so good with his words and made so many promises to me and my family and he never followed through but it has really, really messed up with my head and I really don’t know what to believe. I know I’m the reason I am in this mess and I deserve this pain because I disobeyed Allah and got involved in something haram and I take full responsibility for it. But I just really need to hear it from a man’s perspective. Sorry about this long paragraph, I would really appreciate your response though. Thank you so much. Jazak Allahu khayran.

With all sincerity, some things are just not meant to be . Sometimes it takes longer for our heart to accept the reality of what our mind already knows , as we try to justify it. His words may be beautiful but it’s the action that counts. As you yourself said you did most of the work to make this all happen, one thing I know about men is we don’t give up that easy especially if we want to marry the one we love. It could be possible he had a lot of pressure from his own family however for them to disapprove for cultural reasons, that is very absurd and Islamicly not justifiable to reject based off of cultural preferences. A man who loves a woman wouldn’t bare to see the women he loves with another man, it’s painful. And if he claims he’s unworthy of that woman love than rather he strives to be the man for her rather to look for excuses. One can’t claim to love someone and not make any effort or sacrifices, and it goes both ways for it to work. Think about it, you’d rather deserve a man who also make sacrifices and puts in the same work as you rather than you making all of the sacrifices. If he’s really cut you off without any further explanation, I’m sorry to say but that’s not how a man should react and he’s made a conscious decision to not message you. If such is the case that he’s listened to his parent’s decision and cut you off, I’d suggest for you too as-well to forget him. I know it’s easier said than done especially for what you’ve been through but genuinely that’s the only solution I can give . Sorry if I may seem blunt or straightforward but that’s what I think about this situation. You know best but all I can say is if he’s made a conscious decision to stop talking to you for good , that’s your answer to just let it be the way the situation has ended. He should’ve definitely explained the situation to you atleast said a proper goodbye but khair May Allah forgive us all for our sins and May Allah swt heal our hearts , Ameen

[chocolate-guy-compilations]

hello can you help me get reblogs for my cat? thanks a bunch! ♡

Hey, I’m sorry, but I tend to avoid asks asking for donations/reblogs because often times bots will do the same thing, plus these people followed me for silly videos and not posts asking for donations.

I’ll reblog your post on my main account and any of my followers here are open to reblogging it as well, but do know I’ll probably delete any other asks like this (this isn’t for you specifically, but for everyone) simply because I don’t want this blog to turn into just donation posts. Best of luck my friend, I do hope your cat gets well :)

[cult-of-husbandos]

Can I ask you to make a scenario about how your tsundere boyfriend reacts when you spend less time with him, and spend more time with his friend. You know when the tsundere thinking that you are breaking up with him, creating a big misunderstanding, and try to prevent it by changing his looks and personalities for you

arata ryuu [tsundere] - You're Mine, Not His!!

genre: angst, fluff, typical tsundere vibes

word count: 10.3k

warnings: none.

Your boyfriend, Arata Ryuu, was not the most… eloquent person on the planet. Nor was he the most thoughtful boyfriend in the world. For instance, if you both were on a date and you suggested a place he’d outright tell you that you didn’t have an inkling of fun in your entire body. Now, you know in your heart and mind that he doesn't mean to say ruthless and mean things, but sometimes it gets harder and harder to ignore that your boyfriend once told you that you made the Kardashians look like Einstein while on a study date. Or when he tells you that your hair looks stupid and inconvenient when you’re trying out a new style. OR when he told you in the middle of the date that you ‘must crave attention’ because your outfit made one man’s head turn. However, despite all this you’ve come to love your spiteful and brutally honest boyfriend. He has his sweet and gentle side that rears its head every once in a while. Mostly, when you’re upset and depressed. He’s never failed to put a smile on your face or cheer you up. He’s even better at giving self-care than you are to yourself. You honestly wouldn’t trade in your boyfriend for anything in the world, but sometimes you wish he could be a little more sensitive to your feelings and open to ideas that you had.

Like, today. You just scored two tickets to a concert of your favorite band. Die hard fans would kill to get these tickets. But…

“What do you mean you don’t wanna go?!”

“I don’t know what language you want me to repeat that simple sentence in so I’ll say it again slowly for you. I. Do not. Want. To. Go. To. A. Stupid. Stray Kids. Concert.”

You’ve never wanted to throttle a person more than you want to throttle your boyfriend right now. Moving aside that he just called Stray Kids ‘stupid’, he loves Kpop. Sure he’s more of a SHINee and MAMAMOO fanboy but when you first started dating he said he actually liked a few of their songs you used to play in the car. Ugh! Why on this day of all days was he choosing to be stubborn?

“I heard you the first time! What I mean is why don’t you wanna go? We haven’t been on a date in a while! I thought you liked their songs. Plus, you’re always saying that I never want to do anything fun. Well, here’s two of the most unobtainable tickets on the market and it's the first row.”

“Okay. First, going to a hot, sweaty, crowded concert where I only know their songs from older albums surrounded by feral fangirls doesn’t sound like fun. It sounds like a speedrun to needing hearing aids and never wanting children. Second, I do like their songs and they're pretty decent but I think I’d rather stay at home where it’s nice and quiet than go to a concert to watch you drool over some pretty boys.”

“Ugh! You are so unbelievable! Just forget it! Have fun at home watching the East of Eden over and over again, you ungrateful jerk!”

You stormed off with a red face and stinging eyes not bothering to listen to the distant calls of your boyfriend. And he has the nerve to call you boring! Can’t he just appreciate the effort that you went through to get these tickets and at least tell you in a normal, gentle way that he didn’t want to go?

‘‘Oh, thank you so much (Y/N) for thinking about me but I don’t really listen to Stray Kids all that much. I wouldn’t have as much fun as you because I don’t know any of their new songs. I’m sorry.’’ Why couldn’t he just say that instead of making me feel like an idiot for thinking about him in the first place!’

You kept a sour face all the way home and had a disgruntled face when you went to sleep. Needless to say, you didn’t get much sleep that night and it was rightfully your stupid boyfriend’s fault. As you were getting ready to go to your classes you looked at your Stray Kids tickets on your desk. You let out a sigh.

‘What am I going to do with these now?’ You picked up the tickets and frowned. You had imagined going to the concert with your boyfriend and having fun watching the boys in the front row and bonding over your shared love of Kpop. Now that was just a distant fantasy as you remember Ryuu’s words. You sighed pitifully and put them back down on the desk. ‘Maybe I can find someone who’ll want to go with me.’ With that in mind, you finished getting ready and headed towards your classes.

—

“Ugh… that was the longest 3 hours of my life…” you complained, walking out of the lecture hall. Maybe you should switch majors after all. That stuff you just learned was more complex and disorientating than anything else in your other classes. You wanted nothing more than to go back home and sleep in your nice, warm bed.

‘Should I just skip my last class? I’m soo tired… and I’m pretty sure that professor uploads class logs onto the canvas. Bleh… I wonder if this is what my parents envisioned my college life to be. Wondering if their child should skip a 2 hour class because they’re so exhausted from stewing over their boyfriend.’

A deep grumble interrupted your thoughts. You rubbed your stomach and sighed pitifully again. You weren’t in the mood to eat anything for breakfast this morning. So now you’re tired and hungry. Mulling over your choices you decided to skip your last class of the day and head to the cafeteria for an early lunch. It won’t hurt to miss one class. You walked into the cafeteria and looked at the menu. Nothing that you wanted was being served today, but you couldn’t spend your money ordering out this time. You ordered some ramen and sat down at an empty table. As you filled your belly with ramen, you sighed deeply. Thinking about your money troubles made you think again about the concert tickets burning a hole in your bank account.

‘Everyone that I asked to go to the concert either with me has classes on that day or have plans. I’ve asked all my friends and even some group project members. If I go alone then I’ll just be that loser who goes to a concert all by themselves and looks like an idiot singing by myself. But if I don’t go then I’ll just have worthless and expired tickets sitting in my drawer and I’ll start crying every time I look at my bank account…’ You sigh again and hold your cheek, ‘Maybe I’ll just sell the tickets. That way I’ll most likely get even more money than I spent to get them because they're so rare and I’ll just find something else to do with that money…’

You were so deep in thought that you jumped when you felt someone tap you on the shoulder. Whipping your head back, you saw a familiar face smiling at you. It was your boyfriend’s childhood best friend. His name is Tachibana Eiji, or Ei-chan as you like to call him. Ryuu introduced him to you when you both started getting serious about each other. Ei-chan is the polar opposite of your boyfriend. He’s sweet, gentle, caring, out-going, very personal, and extremely extroverted. He can make friends with just about anyone. You’d often wonder how he and your boyfriend became friends in the first place. Ryuu and Ei-chan didn’t even like the same things. The only thing they shared a common interest in is video games. Specifically, Genshin Impact. You’ve often lost many date nights with Ryuu because of that game. Ei-chan is also extremely attractive and super popular with both women and men. Not to say that your boyfriend isn’t attractive, but if you put the two together Ei-chan stands out the most. He always has his hair dyed a super bright color and also wears colored contacts. He’s super fashionable like he just stepped off a photoshoot and he’s always so modest and chivalrous. Hmm… maybe you chose the wrong best friend to date.

Ei-chan chuckled. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you like that. I’ve been calling your name for a while, but you looked so out of it. You must’ve been thinking about something super hard to drown out the world like that.” he said, taking a seat right next to you.

You let out a nervous laugh. “Heh, yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t even realize I was thinking that hard. It was over something super stupid anyway.”

“Hehe. You shouldn’t drown out the world like that. Someone will take advantage of you.”

“What? Please Ei-chan. I’m not a little kid. I can handle myself.” you say with a pout.

Ei-chan laughed. “Yeah, yeah. You can’t blame a guy for worrying. You’re my best friend’s partner. I have to be vigilant and protective when he’s not here. You’re so cute that people always look like they want to steal you away. So when your boyfriend’s not here I have to protect you from those perverts and thieves.”

You felt your turn flush and you jabbed Ei-chan's arm. “S-Shut up. Don’t joke about something like that.” you stuttered, turning your attention back to your food. You forgot that Ei-chan always did that. Just saying things without thinking about it. He always blurts out whatever’s on his mind. Most people take it the wrong way and immediately think he’s being flirty. That’s why he has so many admirers. Your friends often told you that you should be dating Ei-chan instead of Ryuu. Even though Ei-chan is really popular he’s not dating anyone. He says that he’s keeping an eye out for someone special. Someone that’s perfect to him in every way. Even though that sounds super vague and like an impossible measure you kind of understand his preference. Even though he’s stubborn, mean, and a bit of a brute, Ryuu fits your ideal of a special someone. He’s perfect in every way to you.

“So, what was it?” Ei-chan asked, startling you out your thoughts once again.

“Hm? What was what?”

“What were you thinking about so hard that smoke was coming out of your ears?” Ei-chan laughed and gently caressed your ears causing your face to flush again. This guy… Always so touchy-touchy.

“Nothing.” you muttered quickly. “It was… just… something stupid…” You looked down at your steaming ramen. It was just a silly fight over concert tickets. Why did it get so heated? Ei-chan stared at you for a while before speaking again.

“Did you have a fight with Ry-chan?” he asked.

‘W-What?! How did he know that?! Did he read my mind or something? Wait… no… don’t be stupid, (Y/N). He’s Ryuu’s best friend… obviously he told him…’

“Um, yeah! Kind of. Did Ryuu tell you that?”

“Nope! Your face told me.”

“M-My face? What? Am I really that easy to read?”

“Hehe! Yeah, a little.”

You felt a little vulnerable. You didn’t know that your facial expressions were so easily read. Your parents and your friends told you that it looked like your face was made of stone when you were thinking. You’ve been told that it looks like you're angry when you think too hard, like when you’re studying. Ei-chan is super amazing if he can read you like a book without a cover.

“Hey, don’t look so down. He may be my best friend, but if I know Ry-chan it’s that he’s never hurt your feelings intentionally. Sometimes he has a hard time showcasing his emotions and his true thoughts and feelings. I’ve gotten pretty used to his attitude and I can read him super easily now. So, whatever happened, just know that Ry-chan likes you so much that he’ll most likely apologize by the next day.”

You smiled at Ei-chan defending ways. He’s right. He grew up with Ryuu so he probably knows what Ryuu’s thinking better than you. “You’re right. I know deep down that what he says isn’t what he really means, but sometimes I forget that I don’t know him like you and I let it hurt my feelings. Plus, I said some pretty mean things too. So, if anything it’s both our faults for being so childish. I’ll text him later.”

“So mature!” Ei-chan commented in a playful tone. “So, back to my question. What were you thinking so hard about? It can’t be just about the fight.”

‘Maybe he is a mind reader…’

“Oh. Well, I have two tickets for the Strays Kids concert. Ryuu said he didn’t want to go and-” you explained, but were immediately cut off.

“You have two tickets for the Strays Kids concert?!” Ei-chan shouted, nearly knocking over his chair in excitement as he stood up. “I’ve been trying to get those tickets for weeks, but they’re sold out everywhere! Even scalpers don’t have them! How’d you get them?! Oooh, can I go with you?! Please please please please pleeeeeease! I’ll do anything!”

You sat there shocked at the display. You’ve never seen Ei-chan act like this. He was the cool, calm, and level-headed guy. Now, he was on his knees begging and pleading in the middle of the cafeteria. You had no idea that Ei-chan could be this loud either.

“U-Umm… Ei-chan. People are staring…” you whispered, looking around and noticing all the eyes in your direction.

Ei-chan looked around and his face immediately flushed bright red. He sat back in his chair and cleared his throat.

“Um… I mean… if that’s okay with you… I’d really like to go…” he muttered quietly, fidgeting in his seat. His eyes were pleading. He looked like a puppy begging for a treat. You’ve never seen him so embarrassed before. Even someone as calm and cool as Ei-chan can get extremely loud and hyper. It’s honestly kinda cute…

You laughed at his flushed face. “Sure! Ryuu doesn’t want to go and I was planning on selling them so it’ll be fun to go with someone who likes them too.”

Ei-chan smiled brightly and hugged you, fully knocking over his chair. “Yes yes yes! Thank you so much (Y/N/N)! We’re gonna have so much fun! I totally owe you!”

It was now your turn to blush. You gently hugged him back. “I-It’s no problem, Ei-chan.” you stuttered, feeling envious eyes bore holes into you. “You can let no go now…”

Ei-chan pulled back with a laugh. “Sorry. When it comes to these things I’m a total fanboy. I couldn’t help my excitement.”

You smiled back. “It’s fine. Let’s finish eating. I’ll text you later about the time and place.”

“Sounds like a plan! Thanks again (Y/N)! You’re seriously awesome!”

You giggled and continued eating lunch with Ei-chan, making small talk and discussing what to wear to the concert and plans on how to get there. You’ve almost forgotten about your argument with Ryuu.

—

You finally arrived home, kicking your shoes off and tossing your bag on your couch. You were definitely feeling better than you were this morning. You plopped down on the couch and pulled out your phone to text Ryuu that you were sorry about saying mean things to him. However, you were surprised to see multiple messages from him.

You smiled at the messages. Ei-chan was right again. Even though he didn’t apologize directly it was obvious that he was upset about how things ended and texted you his true feelings that he wasn’t able to do directly. You quickly typed back.

Maybe you were wrong to judge your boyfriend so quickly. You weren’t used to his actions and behaviors like Ei-chan. It takes so getting used to. It wasn’t long before you heard your phone go off.

You laughed. You quickly texted back.

Before you could put your phone down you got another text.

His response seems kind of curt but maybe that’s you overthinking it. You stretched and stood up, looking at the clock. It was nearly three. You let out a yawn.

‘Hm, maybe I should get some work done from the missed class. Then, I think I earned myself a nap.’

You stumbled out of the car giggling uncontrollably at the feeling of your jelly legs. One might think you were drunk and coming back from an exciting night out. That wouldn;t be too far from the truth, minus the drunk part. The concert blew all expectations you had out of the water. You made the right choice bringing Ei-chan with you. He sang every song with you and danced just as goofily as you did. But, that’s not even the best thing to ever happen tonight.

You actually touched Felix.

THE LEE FELIX.

It was only a graze of hands, but it was enough to send you into a wild, feral frenzy. You nearly passed out on the spot. Luckily, E-chan was there to catch you and freak out with you. Ryuu never would’ve stood for another guy touching you, even if they were a celebrity. Speaking of which, you hadn’t seen or heard from him since you told him you were going to the concert with Ei-chan. You would be worried, but your boyfriend had a tendency of ghosting you for days and then talking to you again. It was just his personality you suppose. Some people are like that.

You're brought out of your thoughts when you hear a familiar laugh and a hand reaches out towards you. You looked up and saw Ei-chan’s bright smile as he helped you up.

“Hehe! That was so much fun!” you exclaimed, leaning up against Ei-chan as he helped you walk towards your apartment building. “You don’t have to walk me to my door y’know. It’s enough that you drove us halfway across town to get to the concert.”

“Aah don’t worry about it!” Ei-chan replied with another gentle smile. “It would've been a hassle to get a ride to and from the concert and I insisted. Plus, it’s super dark out. I’d be an inconsiderate moron if I didn’t make sure you made it inside your apartment safely.”

“Woow! Such a gentleman!” You feigned a swoon and Ei-chan laughed. As you walked up the stairs you saw a familiar figure standing at your door.

“Ryuu?” you called out, squinting to see the figure better.

The figure turned towards you and the figure’s face became clearer as you and Ei-chan walked closer. It was Ryuu! What was he doing here so late at night?

“Ryuu? What’re you doing standing by my door?” you asked.

Ryuu’s face remained stoic, but something about how his eyes looked at the two of you was a bit unnerving. You couldn;t quite place the emotion, but the look in his eyes made your stomach jump.

“Ry-chan! Were you waiting for (Y/N/N)? How romantic!” Ei-chan gushed, causing you to blush when Ryuu put his head down confirming Ei-chan’s statement.

‘H-He waited up for me? That’s really sweet…’

“Whatever. Let go of her already.” Ryuu finally spoke up, assertively tugging at your arm and pulling you into him. Your face grew brighter and redder as you were enveloped into your boyfriend’s warm chest. The smell of his cologne seemed foreign to you though. He always wore the same kind of cologne every day. When you asked him about it, he told you that other scents make his head hurt and his sinuses go crazy. It threw you off a little. You couldn’t quite place it, but he smelled like someone else.

Ei-chan giggled. “Oooh! So protective! I was just walking them to their door to make sure they got home safe.”

“Well, they are.” your boyfriend snipped. The look on your boyfriend’s face changed from stoic to disgruntled. Was he… mad at Ei-chan? No, they can’t be. They’re best friends. “So you can leave now, Eiji.”

“Okay, okay! I know when I’m a third wheel. Looks like we’re gonna have to take a raincheck on that sleepover, (Y/N/N).”

“Aww. Okay. Well,… we’re still on for Monday brunch right?”

“Of course! I’ll text you later.” Ei-chan slid in to give you a hug, but that was nearly impossible due to the protective grip your boyfriend had on you. You’ve never seen him act this way. Normally, when it came to Ei-chan, he didn’t care if he hugged you. But, now he was holding on to you like you were going to blow away in the wind at any minute. Ei-chan waved goodbye and walked away. You looked back up at your boyfriend whose face had gone back to stoic.

“So… um-” Before you could say anything, Ryuu interrupted.

“Can you open the door now? My legs hurt from standing here all damn night.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. S-Sorry…” You had no idea why you were apologizing. You fumbled around in your bag, fishing out your keys. Once you got your door unlocked Ryuu brushed inside. Maybe he was tired. After locking your door and putting down your bag and keys you continued your sentence.

“Um… I didn’t get a text from you tonight. I… I didn’t know you were coming over.”

“Do I need a reason to come visit you? We are dating.”

“Oh, um, I guess not… but if you had texted me I wouldn’t have stayed out too late. It probably looked really suspicious to my neighbors to see you standing outside my door all night.”

“Fuck them. I don’t care what they think.”

You were shocked. His answers were quick and curt. He was facing you, but his eyes weren’t looking at you. The air around you felt tense and awkward. What was going on with him?

“What was Eiji talking about when he said ‘sleepover’?”

“Um, well, since it was so late I suggested he sleep here. Then he suggested that we watch the concert footage together and have some sort of afterparty. Y’know, talking about the concert and singing our favorite songs.”

“Uh-huh.”

Okay. Something was definitely up. Was Ryuu actually being protective over you? From Ei-chan? His only best friend?

“Did you have fun?” Ryuu asked, bringing you out your thoughts.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. We had a lot of fun.” you smiled. “Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

“Hmph! I see…” The room was quiet. Did he not want you to have fun? Isn’t he the one that’s always saying that you’re no fun?

“Eiji. He’s a handful.” Ryuu stated. “He can get loud and annoying and overbearing when he’s excited. So, I guess if you had fun…” he trailed off.

“Um, yeah. I witnessed that first hand. Heh, if being up close to the music wasn’t going to make me deaf then it would’ve definitely been his screaming. I had no idea he was capable of producing such a volume. But, he’s honestly such an energizing guy. When he gets excited, it kind of makes me want to get excited. Maybe that’s just me feeling off his vibes, but I swear the concert felt like a different experience with him there.”

“Different? How?”

“I don’t know. Normally, when I go to a concert, it’s hot and muggy and I get so irritated when people push and shove me. I take pictures and video and then I sit in a parking lot for hours trying to get out before the real crowding happens. Then, I go home and probably not even think about it after a couple of weeks. But, with Ei-chan… I dunno. The concert seemed… amazing.”

You suddenly jumped at a loud thud next to you. Ryuu had a clenched fist against your wall. His eyes were dark and his jaw was clenched.

“R-Ryuuu-”

“I’m going home.”

“W-What?! But… you just got here.”

“Yeah well now I’m just leaving.”

You could barely get a word out as Ryuu stormed out, slamming the door behind him. You stared at the door for a while before you turned to look at your wall. As you walked up to it, you grazed your fingers around the small dent Ryuu had made. You gulped nervously. You had never seen your boyfriend behave this way. Sure he could be a big pig-headed, stubborn, even downright ornery; that was part of his charm. But, you had never seen this much aggression come from him. Especially not towards you. What could he possibly be mad at? Could he be mad that he waited outside your apartment door all night? Or was he upset that you went to the concert?

No… Could it be that…

He was upset that you went to the concert…

With Ei-chan?

No… no no. That couldn’t be it. Your boyfriend might be a jerk but there’s no way he even felt that way. He didn’t say anything when you told him you were going with Ei-chan even though he had days to do so.

And he was the one that said boldly that he didn’t want to go. He could’ve told you in the texts but he didn’t say that. You felt the sides of your head sting and tighten. All this roundabout thinking was giving you a headache. You were just thinking yourself into circles and getting nowhere.

“Ugh… all this thinking… it’s giving me a migraine…” you muttered, massaging the sides of your temple. “I need to stop overthinking too much.” You gave yourself a quick whiff and reeled back at the smell of your sweat. “Oof! Oh my god… What I need is a hot shower and to get my ass into bed… Whatever’s going on with Ryuu… he’ll tell me… or I’ll get it out of him… for now I’m too tired to even think about what I want for breakfast tomorrow.”

You trudged to your bedroom to sort out your pajamas and turned on your shower to the highest heat. You were too exhausted to think. Maybe this all will work itself out.

—

Yeah, maybe that was too much hopeful thinking on your part. Ryuu was getting weirder and weirder around you. He smelled weird. He was wearing very dazzling and fashionable clothes and accessories. For example, on a date you noticed that his ears were red and you could notice shiny silver jewelry sticking out when his hair moved. You had to interrogate him for a while but then he finally broke down and told you that he got earrings and wanted to wait until they were fully healed to show you. When you asked why he would get earrings even though he hates wearing jewelry he just huffed and said, “Because I just wanted to! Okay?”

Hell, he was even talking weird! He didn’t sound like himself. You don’t know if the word is trendy or whatever, but your boyfriend’s vocabulary has completely turned 180 from how he usually sounds. You sent him a pic of an outfit that you were thinking of wearing out on a date and he called you ‘babez’. Yeah, ‘babes’ but with a z. You don’t know why, but the twisted turn that your stomach did made you never want to hear him say that word ever again.

On top of that, he was even acting weird with Ei-chan. You and Ei-chan were spending a lot of time with each other. After the concert and having brunch with one another, you���ve discovered that you two share similar likes in music, hobbies, shows, etc.. You felt a certain connection with Ei-chan, like you’ve known him since childhood. However, whenever you told Ryuu that you wanted to do something and he said no, you’d invite Ei-chan. Then, Ryuu would hog all your attention and keep you away from messaging Ei-chan. Ryuu would take you to dinner, dates, and do things with you that you’d normally have to beg to get him to do. Now, it seemed like he was doing it for his own volition. Or maybe you were confusing it with spite. You weren’t completely blind. Anytime you so much as mentioned doing something with Ei-chan, Ryuu would either shut down or take you out and bombard you with the most romantic spiel you’ve ever seen.

This wasn’t the Ryuu you knew. But, this was the Ryuu that you’ve kind of wished he was. Kind, loving, caring, sweet. These were all the things you wished your boyfriend to be before. But, now… you don’t know why, but this new attitude he had. It was starting to freak you out a little. After the past week, it looked like your boyfriend’s personality was changing. Your boyfriend had gone from cold, stoic, emotionally-stunted to a sweet, romantic, darling. You didn’t know why you couldn’t be happy. Maybe your boyfriend had changed after your fight and was trying to better himself. It just didn’t settle right with you. This was all you could think about; in the morning, during classes, even at night. You couldn’t shake this unnerving feeling you got around him nowadays.

“(Y/N/N)!”

Normally, that nickname is reserved for Ei-chan. It’s what he usually calls you nowadays instead of your name. However, as soon as you turn your head you’re more likely to see your boyfriend calling you that nickname instead.

‘Speak of the devil…’

“Hey, Ryuu.” you answered back, stopping to stare at him. You couldn’t put your finger on it but something was off with him today again. “You just finished classes too?”

He nodded. “Yep! I’m totes tired. I want it to be the weekend again.”

You cringed at his quirky awkward slang. “Totes”? Your boyfriend has never in the time that you’ve known him used that kind of word in his life. It seems like your boyfriend is always picking up a word and using it to the full extent these days. It doesn’t sound like him. He sounds like a robot. Or a clone. Or a cloned robot. Either way, you didn’t like it.

“Anyways, I was thinking we should get drinks at that new boba place downtown.” You weren’t really focusing on his words. You just kept staring at his face. The more his lips moved the more you noticed something.

“Do you have something on your lips?” you asked randomly.

Ryuu stopped in his tracks. His eyes looked everywhere except at you.

“N-No! I don’t know what you’re talking about-” His nervous attempt to cover up his mouth and mutter an excuse was cut short as you roughly grabbed his collar and kissed him. When you finally pulled away, Ryuu's eyes widened and his cheeks were flushed red.

“What the fuck-”

“Cherry.” you stated, licking your lips. “Why the hell are you wearing cherry lip balm? You hate vaseline coated cosmetics.”

Ryuu's eyes were darting everywhere. “What? Is that a crime or something? My lips were chapped and I found some lip balm in my backpack. Probably put there by you… so I just put on a little…”

“Why would I put lip balm in your backpack when I know you hate it?”

“Why do you force me to watch Love Island with you when you know I hate that too?”

You huffed and crossed your arms. “Touché, but you still didn’t answer my question.”

Your boyfriend sputtered. You’ve never seen this side of him before either; flabbergasted. Ryuu was always quick and snippy, often telling you to mind your own business and to let things go, but now he looked like a guilty child caught doing something bad. It’s not that you don’t like your boyfriend with smoother lips, although a weird side of you missed the roughness of his lips, you just wanted some answers.

“(Y/N/N)! Ry-chan!” a familiar voice called out.

You looked over to see a pink-haired smiling bunny boy running towards you and Ryuu. Your eyes widened and you couldn’t help but smile.

“Ei-chan?!” you gasped. His hair was dyed a cotton candy pink and the top of his head adorn white fluffy bunny ears. He looked soooo adorable!!!

“Omigosh! You look soooooo cute!!” you exclaimed, reaching out to touch his hair. “It’s so pink and fluffy and soft! Like a cloud! And your bunny ears! Aaahhh! I think I’m going to have a heart attack!!” You were catching some weird glances with all your squealing, but you could care less. Ei-chan lightly giggled.

“Thank you, (Y/N/N). I just got this itch to dye my hair a cute color and decided on pink. And the bunny ears are from the theatre department. We were sorting through old props and costumes and a few of the girls put this on me. They also said I looked adorable so I decided to wear it. What do you think? Did I pull it off?” he asked, posing playfully.

You laughed. “I think you could start a trend. I can see it now. Men and women all over the world dying their hair bright colors and wearing bunny ears to charity balls and dates. Like an ode to Easter or something. You’ll be the poster child. You’d probably have international designers following your every move to catch the latest trend set by you.”

Ei-chan shuddered and took off the bunny ears with a nervous smile. “On second thought, I think I’ll stop while I’m ahead. Just the thought of having a thousand eyes on me, waiting for me to do something, gives me anxiety. Isn’t that what made Van Gogh cut off his ear?”

“Pfft-! Haha, what’re you talking about?” you laughed. “First off, Van Gogh was reportedly bipolar and schizophrenic and cut off his ear because of an argument he had with another painter, not because he was the trendiest guy in the world. Second off, think of all the money you’d make by setting the latest trends. Telling people what to wear seems a lot easier than mathematical physics.” you sighed, looked down at your heavy math book. Damn your pursuit for higher knowledge.

“Nah, that’s not for me. Plus, I’d rather be here with you guys than some snooty charity fashion ball. You guys are way more fun.”

“Aww, you’d turn down millions of dollars to be with us? Isn’t that sweet, Ryuu?” You looked over at your boyfriend to get his response, but found a despondent Ryuu. “Hey, Ryuu?” You touched his arm lightly. He jerked at your touch and looked at you and Ei-chan with a lost look.

“Huh? W-What?”

“Ryuu? Are you okay?” you asked, reaching out to touch him again only to be brushed off.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine! Why?”

“You just looked… out of it, that’s all, Ry-chan. You looked like you were zoning out. Weren’t you listening to the conversation?”

“Conversation about what? About how you look like a 2012 softcore aesthetic tumblr blog made by an edgy 14 year old girl who thinks she’s quirky and different because she drinks Monster for breakfast? Aren’t you a man? You’re not supposed to look cute. It’s gross.”

“Ryuu!” You smacked your boyfriend’s arm. Where was this attitude coming from? Ryuu smacked his lips and left swiftly. You called out to him multiple times to come back and apologize, but he didn’t even look back at you. Ei-chan put his arm on your shoulder to calm you down.

“Hey, it’s okay. That’s just how he is.”

“He shouldn’t have said that to you. You’re his best friend. He should watch what he says.”

“Hehe. Don’t worry about it. It’s not the first time he’s said something like that. Plus, I don’t think he liked that you praised my pink hair so much. I know I would be jealous if the person I was in a relationship with was ranting and raving over another guy.”

You pouted and crossed your arms. Ei-chan could read Ryuu so much better than you. “Then, why didn’t he just say that? I was just saying that I liked how you can be so trendy without even realizing it. I would’ve dialed it back if he had just told me that I was being overbearing towards you.” You were starting to realize every day how little you knew about your boyfriend. You can barely guess what mood he’s in by his texts but Ei-chan can decipher your boyfriend’s precise mood and face just by his punctuation. You want so much to know what your boyfriend’s thinking. To be like Ei-chan and to get into his headspace and know just his lips what he’s going to say.

You let out a long sigh. “I guess I still don’t quite understand his methods like you do. I just wish he would communicate with me a little better…”

Ei-chan wrapped his arm around you. “Believe me. You will. Trust me. It took some time to understand the complexity that is Arata Ryuu, but with patience comes acceptance.”

You shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

Ei-chan shook you gently. “Hey now, don’t be too upset. If you’re too upset then the surprise will be ruined.”

You raised your eyebrow and looked at him. “Surprise?”

“SURPRISE!!” Ei-chan exclaimed, pulling out two white strips from his pocket and shoving them in your face, flashing you a toothy grin. You jumped back at the sudden burst of excitement and squinted at the two pieces of paper, squinting and wondering what the hell you were looking at.

“I got us two tickets to see Mya Solovyova perform ballet at the Royal 99 Opera House tonight!”

Your eyes widened and you began to feel the same excitement as Ei-chan. This must be exactly how he felt when you told him you had two tickets to the Stray Kids concert.

“Mya Solovyova?! Royal 99 Opera House?!! Tonight?!?” You felt like you were close to hyperventilating. Everything was spinning and moving so fast. You grabbed a hold of Ei-chan's arm who was more than willing to hold you up.

“Ei-chan! Those tickets cost a fortune and are nearly impossible to get! How did you-” you were cut off by Ei-chan putting a finger to your lips.

“You have your sources and I have mine.” he answered with a spirited wink. Now, you definitely felt like you were going to pass out. Even if Ei-chan did have his sources hook him up with two tickets, that's still two tickets to the most expensive, exclusive opera house in the country. Even one ticket would cost you a kidney. You knew that Ei-chan had a little money from his family’s company, but not this much.

“E-Ei-chan… I-I… I don’t know what to say…” you stuttered, trying to find the words to express your gratitude that he would go so far for you. “How could I ever-” Once again, you’re cut off by his finger touching your lips.

“Just wear your most gorgeous outfit and bring your beautiful smile. That’ll be all the thanks I need.”

—

Your floor was littered with glittering and dazzling clothes that you’ve put on and pulled off yourself in a desperate attempt to look halfway decent for tonight. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Not every college student is lucky or rich enough to score tickets to the exclusive Royal 99 Opera House on opening night. You’d have to either know someone within the building to get you in or you’d have to be the bestest of friends with the elite and mega rich to even set foot in their bathroom. You didn’t want the staff and other viewers to look at you and see some random bummy college student whose only luxury experience is eating sushi at a restaurant and not from a convenience store. You wanted them to see a sophisticated young adult that doesn’t experience culture shock when paying for a $50 meal. It sounds vain you know that, but however Ei-chan went through to get these tickets you did not want to embarrass him.

As you were checking yourself in the 16th outfit that didn’t make you feel unworthy, you heard your phone go off with a ding. It was a text. From Ryuu. He was asking if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight.

‘What?? Oh no… Why tonight of all nights he could’ve asked me?! Ugh… I’ll just have to tell him that I can’t go… Hopefully he won’t be too upset. This is last minute.’

You texted him that you couldn’t make it for dinner and told him where Ei-chan was taking you tonight. You were going to send him a picture of your outfit to get his opinion, but another ding went off.

You stared at your phone for a while, but before you could even begin to wonder what your boyfriend meant you heard your doorbell ring. Thinking that it must be Ei-chan coming to pick you up, you hurriedly grabbed your bag, wallet, keys, and phone, and shuffled to the door putting your shoes on as fast as possible. You opened the door, but Ei-chan wasn’t at your door. It was an older man dressed in a suit with a cap and white gloves. He pulled out a card from his breast pocket and looked you up and down.

“(Y/N) (L/N)?” he asked, his voice deep and gentle.

“Um, yes?” you answered, cocking your head to the side and raising your eyebrow at the strange man standing at your door late at night. “Can I help you?”

He smiled and tipped his hat at you. “Hello, my name is Chie Jun. I’m your driver for this evening.”

“D-Driver?” you gaped.

“Yes. I’ve been instructed by Mr. Tachibana to escort you to the Opera House this evening. However, judging by that look on your face, I’m guessing he didn’t tell you that.”

You dazedly shook your head no. Just how rich was Ei-chan that he could afford two tickets on opening night at the elite opera house AND hire a driver to come pick you up.

“Well then, shall we be off. Don’t want to be late now, do we?” He tipped his hat again and shifted his body to face down the hallway. You nodded and fumbled to close your door and lock it. You nearly tripped over yourself as the driver escorted you down the stairs. Your mouth hung agape and your eyes widened at the beautiful, black, shiny stretch limo sitting in the dingy parking lot. Mr. Chie held the door open for you and you remained slack jawed at the luxury leather interior and plush plum carpet. Dim lights and a glass sitting delicately next to a bottle of champagne nestled lovingly in a bucket of ice. If it weren’t for the feeling that you could pass out at any moment now, you’d scream in astonishment. This must be what the elite get to experience every day. You don’t know how even one begins to get used to this. As you looked around you noticed you were a member short.

“Is Ei-chan- I mean! Is Eiji not riding with us?”

The driver who had just started up the car, looked into the backseat mirror and shook his head.

“Mr. Tachibana is already at the opera house waiting for you.”

You sat back into the comfy leather seats and stared at the window in amazement.

‘Ei-chan really is amazing…’

—

As the limo pulled up to the opera house you had to stop your jaw from dropping to the ground. You never thought in a million years you’d be standing outside the most expensive opera house in a limo with a driver. You almost didn’t want to pinch yourself. What if this was a dream? What if you knocked yourself out and were laying on the floor of your cramped apartment in a sea of clothes? As Mr. Chie opened the door for you and helped you out of the limo, you felt your breath hitch at the sight. The bright, buzzing bulbs that made the entire building light up the sky was a mesmerizing sight. You hadn’t even stepped inside and you were happy with all you’ve seen from the outside. Your driver guided you inside the building where waves of people with luxurious dresses and suits with blinding jewelry walked through three sets of double doors to find their seats.

You heard turned and swayed as if it was on a swivel to capture each and every inch of the opera house. Like you said before, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance being here. You wanted to take in each and every detail no matter how stupid you must’ve looked to the others. You followed the driver up the red plush stairs and the dignified rumble of those entering the building grew quieter and almost silent. You reached the top of the stairs and down the hall is where you saw Ei-chan. Sitting in a balcony seat so perfect that you could see the entire audience and stage without so much as a squint. Ei-chan looked at you both with a smile.

“Great!” he whispered, excitedly. “You’re right on time.”

“E-Ei-chan… y-you…” You couldn’t find any words to say. No words could even begin to explain how fast your thoughts were racing or how hard your heart was thumping.

Ei-chan turned to the driver. “That’ll be all. Thank you, Jun.”

Mr. Chie tipped his hat once more. “Of course, Mr. Tachibana. Enjoy the ballet.” and with that, he quickly turned on his heel and left. Ei-chan took your hand and guided you to your seat. The moment you sat down, you released a breath you didn’t know you’d been holding. The view before you was simply breathtaking.

“Heh. You excited for the show to start?” he asked.

Feeling the words jumble in your throat, you swiftly nodded your head. Bouncing on the tips of your feet, you sat in unbridled excitement waiting for the lush velvety curtain to rise.

—

You were in complete heaven. The lights, the dancing, the stage, the beautiful orchestral accompanied music. It was all too much to bear. And yet, you didn’t want this night to end. However, as you sat still in your chair with your eyes glued to the stage, you were blissfully unaware of the constant buzzing that came from your bag nor the rapid charging footsteps headed towards your direction.

“(Y/N)!!”

A fierce voice startled you out of your seat. You whipped your head towards the aggressive voice to see your boyfriend, Ryuu, panting and clenching his teeth. “R-Ryuu… what’re you-” You are immediately cut off by Ryuu, his voice vibrating a thousand times louder throughout the echoey theatre.

“What am I doing?! The better question is what the fuck are doing here with HIM!!!”

You stared at this person you thought was your boyfriend. Only one question was on your mind.

“What’s wrong with your hair?”

It was a deep purplish color with mixes of blue and light spots of yellow only visible from the overhead lights next to the balcony window.

“That’s not fucking important so answer the damn question!” Your boyfriend brushed aside your question, but you could see a small tint of pink on his cheeks.

“Hey, Ryuu, man, listen… Whatever you’re thinking-” Even Ei-chan was cut off by Ryuu’s icy voice.

“I didn’t ask you shit now did I?” your boyfriend growled as he yanked his best friend from his seat by his collar. What is wrong with him? You never thought you’d see the day where Ryuu would get so aggressive towards his only friend. Even Ei-chan looked surprised, though you couldn’t blame him when you saw Ryuu’s eyes. They were primal. Almost feral. You’d seen this look before in animals.

Territorial.

The tension was broken when an usher entered the balcony window. “Excuse me sir. You’re going to have to leave.” the usher said sternly. “You’re causing a disturbance amongst the other guests and ruining the performance with your shouting.” A group of security stood behind the usher, ready to take action if things go awry.

“Get the fuck-”

“We’ll leave.” you said hastily. All eyes were on you and you’d never felt so embarrassed in your life. You grabbed onto Ryuu’s arm and harshly tugged him off of Ei-chan. “It’s partially my fault that he stormed up here and caused a disturbance. I’m so sorry.” You bowed a full 90 degrees. You then turned to Ei-chan who looked at you with sorrow. “Thank you for the tickets, Ei-chan. This has been the most fun I ever had, even if it was for a little bit. I’m sorry I ruined the night like this.”

Before Ei-chan could say anything, you bowed to him as well before dragging your boyfriend out of the building with accompanying security following the way. Once you two were outside, you bowed and apologized again for the disturbance. They waved you off, saying it wasn’t your fault and that Ryuu had charged into the building while security was distracted with something else. Your boyfriend remained silent.

You walked up to Ryuu who was facing the street and staring up at the sky. You looked at the cars passing by and loudly sighed.

“You wanna tell me what that was all about?”

Ryuu didn’t say anything. You glanced at him.

“I won’t be mad. I promise. So… could you please tell me why you’ve been acting so weird lately?”

You turned your attention back to the street as Ryuu still refused to say anything. You were starting to think questioning him was hopeless until… “Is he more fun than me?” His voice was quiet and timid, the complete opposite of the bass and tone that he usually has.

“W-What?”

“D-Do you… *sniff* do you like him more than me?”

You turned to Ryuu and saw a stream of tears fall and stain his cheeks. You’ve never seen your boyfriend cry before. Not at movies, not when cutting onions. To be honest, you didn’t think he could cry. He always seems so strong and arrogant. That was a selfish move on your part.

“What? No.” you denied gently. You grabbed his arms and moved him to face you. He whipped his head towards the street in an effort to cover up his tears, but it was too late. If it wasn’t for the sniffling and hard breathing, the opera house lights shined brightly down on you and Ryuu. So much so that you could see how red his eyes really were. Like he had been crying long before he stormed into the theatre. You didn’t notice inside though, but maybe that was because the lights were too dim to notice. Whatever the case, that didn’t matter now. Ryuu was crying his eyes out and it was your job to find out why. It was obvious from that spectacle inside that Ei-chan didn’t even know.

“Of course I don’t like Ei-chan more than you. What would make you think that?” you asked softly. Ryuu didn’t answer, his sobs only getting rougher. You softly grabbed his cheek and turned it so he could face you. “Ryuu, sweetheart. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong and you’re not helping yourself by keeping all your feelings bottled up like this. Please. Tell me why.”

If any outsider were to see this scene they’d think it was a parent talking to their child. That’s how soft and guiding you were being.

“B-Because… Because…!” Ryuu sputtered out, his face contorting in pain. “Because it’s so fucking obvious that’s how it is!” His face turned completely red and his voice turned harsher the harder he sobbed. “I’m not fucking blind!” he screamed, thrashing his hands, but you held onto with a strong grip as you listened to Ryuu pour out everything he had been feeling these past weeks.

“You’re always together! You’re always texting each other! You’re always going out with him and forgetting all about me! You don’t text. You don’t call. I rarely hear you say so much as two words to me before you start rambling off about some shit Eiji did or where that bastard took you! And he knew what he was doing too!! Going behind my back. Taking you places. Being near you all the time! That piece of shit…! He takes you to a romantic place… A place you’ve been dying to go to ever since you were a kid! He stabbed me in the back!”

You wanted to say something, but you waited until Ryuu was done. If there’s one thing you’ve learned from your friends in their psych classes is that when people become so emotionally broken down it’s best to not be the person who’s solution-oriented. Some people want to vent and not hear solutions or ‘i told you so’s. Ryuu spoke up again, this time softer than before.

“You were always smiling when you were with him. You had so many jokes and were teasing each other so much that I felt left out of the conversation. I felt left out… of my own relationship. So I thought… sniff I thought if I…” Another broken sob choked your boyfriend from continuing. That’s when it all started to make sense.

His change in cologne. His showy difference in clothes. His hypocritical ways he feels about piercings and accessories. His animated way of speaking. The stark contrast that he forced over his original personality. His hair…

How could you be so stupid to not see it before?

“So, you changed yourself to look, sound, and even become Ei-chan. Because you thought I liked that side of him more than you.”

Ryuu gasped and his lip quivered as his knees buckled. You tightly enveloped your sobbing boyfriend as you both crumbled to the ground. You felt your own eyes start to wet at the body wracking sobs Ryuu gave out and you felt as though a marble was in your throat. This was your fault. Well, technically everyone played a role in the events that led up to tonight. It was your fault for not spending time with your own boyfriend and making him feel as though he was being cheated on. It was Ei-chan’s fault for not telling his best friend that we’d be hanging out, making him think it was okay to do so because Ryuu never said anything. It was Ryuu’s fault for not saying how he was feeling and thinking that the only way to get your attention back was to change his personality. You delicately stroked Ryuu’s back and shushed him softly.

“Ryuu, what I’m about to say might sound overwhelming, but I think you need to hear this.” You took a deep breath. It was now your turn to be truthful. “I love you.” You felt Ryuu’s breathing go still, but you continued. “I love you so much that I don’t know what to do sometimes. I fell in love with you when we first met. I know you don’t believe in love at first sight and honestly, neither did I until I met you. At first I thought I fell in love with an emotionally-stunted asshole who only cared for himself, but when we started to talk more that’s when I found out you're quite the opposite. While on the outside you’re stubborn, brash, rude, and even sometimes mean, but on the inside you care about me. You listen to what I have to say even when I think you aren’t. I only told you once that I’ve always wanted to come here and you remembered. You remember crucial details about me even when I forget them myself. Even when we fight, you always apologize to me first and you’ve never given up on me no matter how many times I’ve walked away from you. You call and text me to see if I’m alright when a big event is coming up and you always know the fastest way to cheer me up. I think if given the choice between you and Ei-chan, I’d choose you every time.”

Ryuu’s cries had gone soft, only the occasional sniffling being the only sound to come from him.

“So, never EVER think you have to change for me because the Ryuu that I love is the same Ryuu I fell in love with when I first met you. Nothing, not even when you say things you don’t mean, will ever diminish my love for you.” You pulled away and wiped Ryuu’s stained cheeks and smiled. “Got it?”

Ryuu sniffled and chuckled weakly, sadly smiling. “You’re so fucking weird…” he chuckled, his voice rough from the crying. “But, yeah… I got it… I-I love you… too… You know that right?”

You smiled and patted his head. “Yeah, I know.” You kissed his nose and laughed at the red blush on his cheeks. He let out a long sigh.

“I can’t believe I did all this shit. The clothes and jewelry I don’t mind because I actually liked some of it, but I dyed my hair this stupid color. I embarrassed you and ruined your first-time experience at the opera house you’ve always wanted to go to. I’m such an idiot…”

You smiled. “There will be other experiences. There’s a whole lot of things I’ve always wanted to do and technically, I never got to see the end of the ballet so we’ll call it a semi-first-time experience. Also,” You stroked his hair, finally seeing all the bright yellow spots and light blues mixed in with the purple, “I kinda dig the purple hair.”

“R-Really?” Ryuu blushed, stroking the back of his neck. “Come on, you don’t gotta lie to me. It looks like shit. I was actually in the middle of doing it myself when I texted you saying we should go out for dinner. But when you told me you were coming here and freaking out about what to wear, I panicked and rushed to finish and it turned out this shitty. It’s not even pink…” he complained with a pout. You giggled at how cute and vulnerable your boyfriend was being. He’d normally never even tell you that he made a mistake or that he panicked. Ahh, how fast they grow up…

“I’m not lying. Have I ever told you what my favorite scent is?”

Ryuu shook his head no.

“It’s lavender. And your hair is the most perfect shade of lavender I’ve ever seen. It also reminds me of Ube mochi or Ube ice cream. Two of my favorite sweets! Maybe that’ll be your nickname. Ube-chan! That’s adorable!”

Ryuu blushed and widened his eyes, quickly standing up and crossing his arms. “N-No way! That’s a stupid nickname and it’s even stupider why I have it. And why are you talking like I’m keeping my hair like this?!” You laughed and rose to your feet too. “It was just a suggestion, sweetheart. I was only teasing~.” you giggled as you booped his nose. “Oh…” Ryuu whispered, blushing even more causing you to laugh harder.

“But I really mean it, Ryuu. If you really wanted I could fix the areas that have bleach spots and blue mixed in or I could help strip off as much color as possible before dyeing it back.”

Ryuu quirked his eyebrow at you. “You know how to dye hair?”

You nodded. “Yup. This one time in high school I once tried to dye my hair this awesome aquamarine color I saw on Pinterest, but I totally screwed it up and it ended up this burnt orangey color.”

Ryuu laughed. “How the hell did you manage that?”

Before you could tell him you noticed something in your peripheral vision and glanced to the side. It was Ei-chan. Standing at the doorway with a sorrowful expression. You don’t know how he’s been there but judging how he was shifting from side-to-side with a guilty look on his face you’d guess he saw and heard Ryuu’s confession. You looked up at Ryuu with a smile.

“I’ll tell you…, but first, I think you two should talk.” you said pointing towards the door. Ryuu looked in the direction and a nervous and guilty look formed on his face as Ei-chan walked towards the both of you.

Before your boyfriend could explain himself, Ei-chan threw himself onto Ryuu in a giant hug. Muffled cries could be heard from Ryuu’s shoulder where Ei-chan buried his head. And again, before Ryuu could say anything, Ei-chan began to spill.

“I’m sorwy Ry-chan! I’m sho sorwy!! I didn’t mean to take (Y/N) from you! Honest! I’ll never talk to them again just please!! Don’t stop being my friend!”

Ryuu immediately hugged Ei-chan back and the tears began to spill again, including from you. All this time… Because of Eyuu’s screaming the only thing Ei-chan heard was Ryuu saying that he had stabbed him in the back and that he was taking you from him. Ryuu hushed and whispered to Ei-chan for nearly an hour that he’d never stop being friends with him over this and apologized for cursing him out and getting aggressive with him.

Needless to say that no friendships were broken that night and that night became a fond and funny memory as the years flew by. Ryuu got to experience a lot of new firsts with you and Ei-chan still remains a reliable friend to both of you to this day. Unbeknownst to you, that for your upcoming anniversary Ryuu has been saving up money to take you back to Royal 99 Opera House and continue your first-time experience. This time with your boyfriend.

a/n: damn, this was a long one. thank you so much for the request! please look forward to more scenarios being uploaded. my socials are linked below if want to check out my other stuff.

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[final-fantasy-imagines]

Hi i was wondering if i could request some cloud x reader and vincent x reader headcanons on how they would react if the reader is protective of them in the same way they would be protective over the reader. Like the reader is tired of cloud/vincent always putting themselves first to protect everyone else so they start protecting them? I hope that makes sense ❤️ i love what you write btw 💗💗, ive been wanting to request something but i havent had a decent idea in a long time lol i hope you like this one 😂

Hi dear! Thank you so much for your kind words, I really appreciate your support. <3 Your request was great btw, thank you for sharing it with me. I hope you like what I came up with. :)

Characters: Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine

Reacting to their s/o being protective of them (gn!reader)

Cloud Strife

Cloud is definitely confused when he notices the change in your behavior. There’s no reason for you to protect him; he can take care of himself just fine and you know very well that he’s capable of defending himself in every situation. Besides, he still sees it as his duty to protect those he loves, so why do you try to make that even harder by rushing into battles you shouldn’t fight in the first place?

At first, he tries to ignore it because he assumes that you just want to prove your strength to him but that doesn’t mean that he’s okay with the whole situation. He’s constantly worried about you, even though he probably wouldn’t admit it, and it drives him crazy that you always tell him to stay back and try to deal with all the enemies completely on your own.

It takes him quite a while that you’re not trying to prove anything but that you want to protect him the way he protected you all this time. He’s surprised, to say the least, especially since you’ve seen him fight so many times that you should know that he doesn’t need someone else to protect him. A part of him also feels really grateful though because it’s been quite a while since someone cared about him so much. He appreciates that you want to keep him safe but all of that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t want you to get hurt because of him.

If you actually end up injured, Cloud definitely doesn’t stop blaming himself, no matter how often you reassure him that it’s not his fault and that you’re going to be fine. If you hadn’t tried protecting him you wouldn’t have been getting hurt, it’s that simple, at least for him. He feels awful for letting something happen to you and knowing that you’d risk your life again just to protect him makes it even worse. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate your efforts but he’d sleep a lot better at night if he knew that you wouldn’t do something like that again.

Vincent Valentine

With Vincent, the situation is quite similar. He’s someone who tries everything in his power to keep the ones he loves safe and sound, even if it puts his own life at risk. He knows that you’re probably worrying about him quite a lot but he still considers it his responsibility to protect you from any harm, no matter how often you tell him that he doesn’t have to do that.

When you start to act a lot more defensive around him and actively try to protect him during a battle, for example, he doesn’t know what to do at first. His initial reaction is worry because he doesn’t want you to get injured, let alone because of him, but on the other hand, he’s also really proud to have someone like you by his side. He never had anyone who wanted to protect him, so it definitely means a lot to him that you don’t hesitate to guard him against his enemies.

However, the whole situation still frightens him. He couldn’t bear to lose you; you’re the most important person in his life and he never wants to live without you, so he often asks you to be a bit more careful during battles and stuff. He understands where you’re coming from when you tell him that you don’t want him to protect you all the time and that you want to return the favor but overall, he’d prefer if you’d just stay out of trouble completely. He knows that he can’t forbid you to fight (and he would never dare to do that) though, so he just has to accept it.

Vincent would never forgive himself if something happened to you. No matter how much you insist that you can take care of yourself just fine, there’s no way he’d let you fight alone, not even when he’s already injured and could need some rest. He’s always by your side during battles, making sure that you’re okay, just like you’re making sure that he doesn’t end up hurt. It’s a situation of give-and-take and probably the only way to convince him of the arrangement in general.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it please consider reblogging. I'd really appreciate the support. <3

Taglist: @cosmicdarlingx @thevoidwriting @fandomatakeover18 @sixdaysofsilverashes @theimaginaryheir @inkybloom-luv @scaraa@randomfandomimagine

[yuzukult]

bittersweet. (m) || kmg & reader

title: bittersweet. pairing: kim mingyu x reader genre: angst, fluff, smut, established relationship!au word count: 3.1k warnings: dirty deed is done (aka explicit sex if you didn't catch that). profanity. prompt: you're always fighting. he doesn't get you. so why are you even still together? a/n: before any of my friends make fun of me, shaddup. anyways, this is for @/ficscafe dialogue prompt event! i'll be using #14: you make me weak.

He’s so adamant.

The crinkle in between his brows, the scrunch of his nose, and his incessant blinking from all the nerves, despite it all, he still stands firm on his beliefs.

But you’re fighting. Always fighting.

He doesn’t get you—he spends most of the time he's with you arguing about how insensitive you are as a person, how nonchalant you can be when you should be reacting with some type of emotion, and how he wished you’d been more affectionate with him.

But he doesn’t understand you. He thinks you’re selfish (sure, he didn’t outright state this, but you can sense him feeling this way.)

Albeit you’re unsure how you got yourself in this position—back flat against the wall, his hands on your wrists with his crotch pinning yours as your legs wrap around him securely to meet his gaze from the height difference.

“I need you to talk to me,” he rasps, anger filled in his voice. “I’m so tired of making this into some guessing game. Why can’t you just tell me how you feel?”

Although he’s got you cornered, rutting his hips into you once again, it's not persuasive enough. “Talk to me.”

“If you can’t figure me out, maybe we should just break up. I didn’t want to date in the first place.”

Jaw clenched, his eyes continue to melt into yours. He’s looking for anything—a sign, a glimpse, a crack in your exterior to see whatever it is you’re truly feeling inside. “Why do you always use that as a solution? Instead of just communicating?”

“Because—“ you halt, breath hitching when he shifts, the head of his cock rubbing against your bud through your thin material shorts. “—Because it’s an easier solution. What do you expect from me?”

“To tell me and show me if you like me or not. You’re like a fucking boulder. I can’t move you.”

You quirk a brow. “Your fucking holding me down right now. You’ve evidently proved you can move me elsewhere.”

“Emotionally,” he says, exasperated. “The most I can get you to feel something is when we’re fucking. I’m surprised we’re even fucking in the first place. You barely let me hold your hand!”

Rolling your eyes, you pull your arms from his hold and he lets go easily. It’s the type of person Mingyu is—he’s gentle, the complete opposite of you, with a heart of gold that everyone loves and appreciates. He’s lovable, known to many, and desired by them all, and somehow, you got him in your grasp and truthfully… you’re not sure what to do.

He’s fragile, but you have rough hands with toughened skin from years of experience and encounters. There’s this fear that you’ll drop him, shatter him into pieces as brittle as chinaware. So you hold the front, keep yourself strong with a facade tougher than concrete, because you’re afraid if you hold on too tight, he might break. And at the same time, he might break you too.

“You wanna know why?” You finally blurt, words firm and sharp. “Because you make me weak. And I don’t like being weak. I don’t like being known as weak. And you—you do that to me. I hate it.”

He furrows his brows. “I make you weak? The one girl I know to be the most resilient?” Mingyu has to scoff in disbelief because it’s the first time he’s hearing this. “You realize how insane you sound? It’s okay to have feelings for me. It’s why we’re together.”

Nose twitching, you suck in your cheeks. “I hate it. I hate this. I hate that when you turn to look at me in the morning, you give me that fucking… smile. Like I’m your whole world. Like you’re head over heels for me and I’m all that you see.”

“And why do you hate that?”

“Because, some part of me, deep down into the abyss, wants to look at you like that too.”

His jaw loosens, just like the restraints he had over his heart in the past hour of arguing, hands now finding purchase on your thighs to pull you back up closer. “Baby…” he calls out for you softly, the term of endearment nearly bursting your heart, but you keep yourself calm and collected as you normally do. “Then do it. Why are you so scared?”

“I told you.”

“That’s not a good enough reason.”

“Well, it’s good enough for me.”

He heaves a heavy breath. “Baby, I can’t keep doing this. I feel like I’m chasing you but I’m getting nothing out of it.”

Then, you reiterate the same words you’ve said multiple times, but there’s never any genuinity in it because you never actually… meant it. “Then let’s break up.”

“We’re not breaking up.”

“Then what do you want to do? Tell me. If breaking up isn’t the option, then tell me instead of having me up the wall if we’re not gonna fuck.”

“Fucking only happens when you’re pissed or when you’re making up.”

“So, what now?”

It’s Mingyu’s turn to roll his eyes. “We make up. I need you to talk to me. I can barely read you—the only thing I know for sure is that you don’t want this to end because you just admitted to me that you wanna look at me the same way I look at you.”

Frustrated, you let your head drop onto the wall behind you. “This is annoying. I don’t like expressing stuff. You just take what you get or leave. If you can’t figure out what’s going through my mind, what’s the point? Why put in the effort?” Eyes fluttering shut, you feel yourself wanting to crawl into a ball and just… hide. Despite being fully clothed, you feel naked when Mingyu asks for more. And what he’s asking for isn’t even unreasonable—you’re just horrible at telling people what you’re feeling. “I just… why can’t I just let you lay your head on my lap when you get home from work? Or… cook dinner with you. Even have it ready when you have long nights at work. Maybe even fold your laundry—I don’t know. I don’t like PDA but if you asked me, I’d hold your hand under the table. Or… hold it in your pocket on cold days.”

Then, Mingyu stays silent (for the first time).

It finally hits.

You’re not outspoken when it comes to soft things. You’re loving but not in the same way he is. You’re also honest and straightforward about everything except when it comes to admitting feelings for him.

And for once, when you say those words, he… he feels loved by you.

He remembers those days—after spending hours at the gym despite having a long work day, he’d come home and you’re there waiting for him on the couch so you could shower together. You’d help scrub his limp body, even though he moans and groans about how sore he is, but you do it nonetheless because you like him. Or when you stopped by at his apartment, one he shares with all his friends, because he was stuck with helping one of them build their beds and you brought them all, including himself, lunch. And that wasn’t to mention you were already working twelve hour days.

“Can you answer one question for me, then? I won’t force you to tell me again. I just need to hear it once.”

Your eyes open, and it feels like a mistake because your heart drops into your stomach. His gaze is hypnotizing, like he’s got you in a trance, and you respond with a ‘yes’ without much thought because of him.

Mingyu swallows all his anxiety before asking that million dollar question.

“Do you love me?”

Although you feel small being put on the spot like that, the one thing you’ll admit is that you’ve already predetermined the answer to this. And just as much courage as Mingyu puts into asking, you’ll reciprocate and do the same in answering because he’s admirable for even trying.

“Yes.”

Without much thought, he presses his lips against yours. You love him, although you rarely if not never say it, but you finally said those words and all he needs is to hear it just once for assurance. To know that there’s something he’s chasing for, that he’s not running in place like on a treadmill.

Arms snaking around his neck, you keep your hold there as his hands reach to your jaw, leveraging the kiss in an angle he’d prefer. When you kiss, he feels complete. He’s never felt like this with another girl before, this feeling of home, the feeling of comfort. You’re colder than brisk winters, but something about having you in his arms makes him warm.

Your fingers comb through his locks, and although it’s doused in gel and spent hours on doing this morning, he doesn’t mind because he knows he’s yours. When you kiss him back, he’s as anxious as he was when he had to go on stage and perform in front of people for the first time.

Gently pulling away, both your lips are pink and swollen with a string of saliva connecting between. Pants brushing against each other’s face, a soft smile tugs on the edges of your lips as you feel heat creeping up your neck.

“I love you too,” he says, as low as a whisper. “And… I’m okay if you don’t say it again. You know how I show you that I love you… and I should’ve been better at learning what you’re comfortable with in showing how you love. But I still need you to help, too, to make this… better. I need you to talk to me, when you need me. When I need you. I need you to be here for me too.”

“Okay,” you respond, volume matching his. “If that’s the case, I love you. Just… as another reminder since I only said yes the first time.”

He lets out a chuckle, vibrating from his chest and everything about him makes your heart race. “Good. Can I show you how much I love you?”

“No,” you retort quickly and bashfully. But he knows you’re playing because you nod afterwards, allowing him to carry you to the couch. “Maybe.”

“I need a yes, love,” Mingyu says cheekily, face nuzzled into the crook of your neck. “You know I’m not going to go any further until I hear it.”

“Yes,” you reply embitterly, but Mingyu knows better now. He knows what you want, because all he needed was assurance. “Please show me how much you love me.”

And fuck, because he never knew how much he needed to hear those words all his life.

You’re so pretty when he has you stripped down to nothing, laid out on the leather couch of your living room; hair messy, mouth gaped open from all his teasing, and with an arm covering your face because it’s all too much for you. Mingyu is a passionate lover, you’ve come to recognize, and although it’s all an unfamiliar territory, you love him and you’re willing to step into the unknown.

“How am I doing?” He asks, as if he doesn’t have his head in between your legs and a grip on the meat of your thighs. He loves the taste of you, he reminds you plenty of times, but dirty talk coming from such an innocent face makes you slightly embarrassed. “Feels good?”

“Shut up,” you hiss, avoiding his infatuated stare. “Just… just fucking do it, you asshole.”

“What? Show you how much I love you?”

There’s a tornado in the pit of your stomach. He keeps saying things that make you awkward because you’ve never been loved like how Mingyu loves.

You don’t react, and this displeases him. Laying his tongue flat out against your cunt, he gives you another lick that lets a whimper escape from your lips. “Tell me, baby. Am I doing a good job?”

“Yes,” you croak, only because you feel like he’s got you in this position for so long. You’re so exposed, and he at least has his boxers to protect him like a shield, but you’re all out in the open. (Not to mention his fucking built body. He makes you feel so insecure about yours—how is this puppy looking boy so… wide? What the fuck?) “Can you… can you take that off?”

He leans up, tilting his head in confusion and now you can see how hard he is in his undergarments. “My… my boxers?”

“Yeah. I feel like… I’m the only one exposed here.”

He laughs. “Baby, we’ll get to that.”

“Now.”

Mingyu snorts. “Anything my baby wants.” He bumps foreheads with you gingerly, something he's always done playfully, and tugs off his boxers swiftly as requested. “Let me make you cum first and—“

“No,” you interject, eyes closed and biting down on your bottom lip. It's the only way to remain bold—to not look him in the eye because he’ll melt you like a stick of butter left on the kitchen counter. “Show me how you love me.”

Mingyu doesn’t hesitate to shuffle quickly through the little stash hidden on the first shelf underneath your coffee table (he likes to be prepared in every situation even though this is your apartment) and finally spots the condom he hid a week ago. Tearing it open rapidly, he gives himself a couple pumps that have beads of precum building at the top and slips the rubber on with ease. “Ready?”

“For you?” Mingyu gulps, because before today, you’ve rarely said anything that made his heart stutter. “Anything.”

With a push of the head of his cock into your heat, a quiet wince escapes from your lips and his chocolate orbs are saturated in apologies. He doesn’t want you to feel pain, especially not you, but even his efforts to loosen you up beforehand, you still manage to be so tight around him every time. It feels good to have you around him snugly, yet he knows the consequence of the beginning is the ache in between your legs from the first intrusion.

“I’m sorry, bub,” Mingyu presses a tender kiss on your forehead. “Bear with me, yeah?”

“Mm,” you hum dismissively, warming up when he finally slides himself all the way in. He stills, in fear that you’re hurt, but instead, you’re surprisely impatient as you cross your legs behind him and pull him close. Bringing your lips close to his ears, you breathe, “fuck me, baby.”

Mingyu laughs brightly, and your jaw clenches. “What?”

“After today, I’m not going to fuck you.” You quirk a brow. “I’m gonna make love to you.”

“Don’t make me throw up. You’re ruining the moment.”

He grins mischievously before pulling out and shoving himself back in swiftly that earns a groan from you. “Oh? Am I?”

“Stop playing, Mingyu,” you state sternly, but Mingyu is enjoying himself too much. “Or else you're not getting any for the month.”

Well, that does the trick.

He has his hands on your hips, pushed down against the seat cushions of your loveseat couch, hips once flushed against yours now thrusting into your throbbing pussy. God, you’re fucking done for, honestly, because he’s a pro with his hips when he angles it just right that he’s brushing against your swollen clit, hitting so deep into you.

“Fuck—“

“You curse too much, baby,” Mingyu puffs, pecking the side of your lips sloppily. “Everyone thinks I’m such a nice guy and when they meet my—fuck—g-girlfriend and find out how much of a dirty mouth she has, they’re always struck.”

“Too fucking bad,” you spit, fingers digging into the skin of his shoulders. He’s so big, stretching you with each shove, but you’d never tell him that or his ego would inflate. “Stop talking and fuck me harder.”

Mingyu loves. He loves and loves, and although you won’t pretend that he comes to your home often with crumpled pieces of papers with girls’ names and numbers on them that fall into the catch-all bowl by the door with his keys, you don’t forget that besotted daze he falls into the moment he sees you. So when you ask for something, he delivers without fail.

Abiding by your urge, his hips move briskly, pistoning into you as fast as he can. Biceps tense, you can’t help but let your hands slip there, gripping onto the muscle and has you wondering fuck, how did you get so lucky? He’s hot, cute, sweet, loving and geez, he could fuck. He’s so clumsy, so dumb sometimes, but he’s so freaking lovable it makes you sick. Lovesick.

His pretty eyes shut close, you notice, because those two cups of hot chocolate are gone and he’s chewing on his bottom lip as he groans, ends of his hair that brush over his eyes now drenched in sweat. His skin glistens underneath the dim lights, and he reminds you of the stars in the night sky—so gorgeous, so special. Always a sight to see.

“Fuck,” the not-so-innocent boy curses (even though he just said you curse too much) “Baby, you just got so tight. Are you about to cum?”

“Possibly,” you manage to say, still attempting to play games even though Mingyu could very so threaten to steal your orgasm away from the tip of your fingers. But when he slightly shifts in the midst of his pounding, you let out a raspy, “Almost,” because he’s rubbing against your nub incessantly that you’re losing all your focus.

When you finally see those stars, you let go.

Mingyu feels this, grunting when you convulse around his dick, head dropping to watch you tug and tug around him, begging for him to cum. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long because after a couple thrusts, he stills, spilling ropes of cum into the condom and dropping the entirety of his weight onto you, face snug into the crook of your neck once again.

“I—“

“You’re heavy.”

“Fuck, baby, we just had sex and that’s the first thing you say?”

He can’t see you, but there’s a smile on your face. “Yeah. And you got my couch all sticky from your sweat. Not to mention the cum. Are you gonna clean it after?”

Mingyu doesn’t care. He’s blissful. He’s happy. He knows you’re going to toss a damp rag at him later, despite his dick out and still drenched in your arousal, and tell him to ‘wipe down the fucking couch because that’s gross.’

All because he knows that you love him.

[beann-e]

haikyu characters reacting to you screaming back at them

sorry , I changed the characters I went with originally for this but , this is to thank everyone for 500 followers !

tsukishima

- he would only scream at you if his comments of telling you to shut up weren’t working

- then he’d just get pissed off because hey ? how else can he tell you to shut up in a nice way except

“ y/n “ you perked up as you looked at the blonde to the left of you on the bench “ look at me “

you smiled softly eyes never meeting his as he stared ahead not turning to look at you “ tsukki how can you tell me to look at you — then you don’t look at me“ your laugh rang out in the gym loud enough for him to hear and for his body to tighten reminding him why he was pissed off right now

His head turning to you smile spread across his face tightly, eyes roaming your face until he spoke voice holding a tone that rivaled the sweet look on his face “ I swear on hinata and the kings freaky quick y/n —if I hear your laugh one more time i’m going to suffocate you and pound you in the head with a volleyball “

your eyes widened as you turned away from the male “ no no no turn back around baby i’m not done yet “

you followed his words hanging on every word as he continued “ you’ve been chewing my ear off all fucking practice and i’m —look it’s pissing me off you talk talk talk and I really doubt “

he shook his head turning away from you “ if you even know what your saying at this point “ he scoffed “ cause I don’t “

The gym went quiet as everyone started to listen to the argument happening next to them him never stopping the vile words that spilled out from his mouth “ I doubt anytime you speak really if your even talking about something important or if you simply just wanna “ he shrugged his shoulders “ talk“

His mouth quirked up in smirk “ honestly would rather hear pipsquek over there talk about the little giant ten times a day than hear you speak at all “

you dropped your eyes to look at the floor him not trying to stop you only thanking god for the peace and quiet head leaning back to look up to the ceiling in thanks

tanakas voice coming out loud as his anger bounced off the wall of the gym “ you have a beautiful s/o like that and you bully them “ he scoffed mumbling under his breath in pure annoyance “ i’ll show you a bully beanstalk “

daichis hand slapped across tanakas chest like a seatbelt “ you do not need to partake in this trust me your not needed “

“ oi tanaka-san i’ve got your back bro “ nishinoyas small body stomped through the gym as he smiled wickedly at tsukishima only to be grabbed and pulled into daichis hold his small body tucked under daichis arm as he flailed around screaming out small profanities

“ there’s no need becau—- “

“ y’know if you want to hear hinata talk about how he was going to reward you tonight because, of your amazing test score then “ you smiled looking forward “ really go ahead —I don’t mind less work for me “

You giggled softly “ honestly , i’d have thought you’d rather receive your surprise from me but, I always knew you had a thing for him since you make fun of him constantly—he’s always on your mind seriously even when we were watching a movie you’ll bring up something stupid he did at practice “ tsukishimas mouth let out short breaths of air trying to find words to stop you

“hinata—I swear he’s got a boy crush on you “ you could feel the male next to you now eyeing you in disgust and holding even more anger than he had earlier

hinatas body rippled as he waved his body around excitedly thinking of your words really just happy to be included “ YOU DO” his face dropping quickly when he started thinking finally registering your words “ tsukki — TSUKII YOUR A GUY YOU HAVE A —“ he coughed regaining himself chest puffed out as he spoke clear with meaning

“well while I do appreciate the admiration i’d like to say — you have a partner and I don’t really feel very comfo— “

“ YOU DUMBASS THEIR JUST JOKING “ kageyamas voice raced through the room as he slapped hinatas head hard enough that sent him straight to the gym floor eyes rolling back in his head tears leaking out slowly

“ you may continue y/n-senpai we—we all give you“ kageyamas eyes twinkled in love before they went cold tsukishimas own eyes rolling with a small scoff “ and shittyshima our attention”

you turned to look at your boyfriend mock confusion on your face “ god tsukki you should have just told me you liked hinata better I would have let you go then “ you shook your head as he scoffed at your next words your face falling to sadness eyes searching his pure disappointment laced throughout your voice

“ and here I thought you were a big boy capable of dating someone older but I guess “ he was starting to get pissed off of course he could handle you how dare you say he couldn’t “ I guess your not capable of it “

“ I am capable “ he said softly turning to you who did exactly what he did moments ago and ignored the heartbroken look held in the eyes that drilled into your side “ i’m fully capable of listening to you y/n I swear “

you smirked never meeting his gaze “ y’know what here let’s do this “ your smile went wide as you zipped up your jacket and turned while reaching into your backpack

“ what—what are you doing “ his voice was low watching your hands gracefully open the bag and pull out a piece of strawberry cake “ wait— you—you got that for me because of my—”

“ no” you laughed “ no— of course I didn’t get this for you what would make you think of that tsukishima “

his heart dropping “ tsukishima—wha—y/n wheres tsu—“

“I got this for my boyfriend who loves to hear me talk and knows how to say things nicely “

“ but—-but that’s me so you did—you got it for me ?“

you laughed “ no this “ you pointed to the cake “ this is what that person deserved—that nice guy— but this“ your hand moved to open the container as you threw it in his face smooshing his head into it and pulling your hand back as he moved to scoop the icing from his eyes

“ this is for assholes “ you giggled “ like yourself“ you closed the container and moved your hands to set it next to him taking your finger and dipping it into the icing that covered his nose to lick it off your finger as you kissed the now ‘un-iced’ part of his nose

Head moving to whisper in his ear “ you pull some shit like that again and i’m leaving your ass you dont talk to me like that — i’m not yams do you understand me “

“ yes “ his answer was short and low but you knew he understood you as he moved to take his glasses off watching through blurry eyes as you left the gym

Daichi dropping a wide eyed nishinoya to the ground and letting go of his grip on a mouth foaming tanaka “ the reason I said you guys didn’t need to help is because — I trust that y/n knows how to handle a situation like that on their own “ he laughed “ how else would they be dating our wonderfully polite first year if they couldn’t take him “

Your head popped back in the gym as you winked over at the boy knowing he couldn’t see it. Body stopping in a halt while cleaning his glasses you were right he couldn’t see you but he could feel you were there —he could feel something evil lurking changing the air in the once breathable room silently cursing himself out in his head for talking to you the way he did earlier “ oh yeah and guys “

everyone turned to you as he muttered out a low fuck “ tsukishima — your star shit talker yeah—he wears dino undies “ you smiled brightly “ with matching socks “

You turned to hinata already knowing what he was going to ask when you left “no you can’t —he and yams already have matching pairs “ you turned to yams his face red and slowly moving away from everyone else in embarrassment “ sorry babes’—one goes down you all go down together “

the door slamming echoed throughout the gym as everyone went quiet kageyamas voice the first to come out as he tried to stifle his laughs, Coach ukai laughing softly before catching himself and screaming at tsukishima to clean himself and his bench up, the team turning away as nishinoya and tanaka defeated the rest of the boys ego in comments asking how many pairs he had while hinata asked if he ever wanted to match he and yams could go shopping for the taller male.

Yamaguchi to the boys rescue as he watched him clean off his glasses and throw them back on. Tsukishimas hand only reaching out to his side with a low sigh to eat the remaining bit of cake youd just smashed in his face “ god — so perfect “

Suna

-he would get so upset if you keep annoying him about trying. it goes with or for anything

-you would be telling him could he at least put a bit more effort into the relationship and he’d spazz

-or even you telling him the reason you had to drag him out tonight was because, there was no food at home and he would get mad assuming you just wanted to take him from the comfort of his own home

The quiet was loud and spoke for itself as you and the male before you sat across from each other in the restaurants booth. The air swirling in and out of your ear as you waited for him to say something.

Your eyebrows furrowed before you opened your mouth to speak “ bab- “

“ I didn’t want to come out tonight “

your face fell as you waited for him to continue speaking only for him to go deadly silent, uninterested gaze stuck on yours, his body relaxed and leaned down into the booth head thrown back to show off his half lidded eyes. His legs outstretched under the table god he looked so lazy.

Your mind raced thinking how was it even possible to look lazy In public

Your mouth tucked into itself before you let it go a small sigh leaving it “ suna there was no foo— “

“ I wanted to eat at home “ even though he looked relaxed you could tell his voice was tense.

You could feel your body losing itself at his behavior he was such a child when he didn’t get what he wanted and when he was forced outside. Throwing tantrums and whining any time you brung him shopping or stayed out too long and he would start to miss his houses comfort

Your weight getting pulled into the ground to a pit of anxiety. you just wanted to disappear you knew he was leading you down the trail of his attitude.

One more time that’s all it would take one more question , statement, anything spoken and he would snap.

It wasn’t often that it happened but when it did it wasn’t pretty

you heard the scoff that left his mouth as his eyes widened a bit before going back to their half lidded state causing you to shift in your chair uncomfortably

“ so you figured it out — “ he laughed softly “ so now instead of speaking your mind like usual your gonna try to stop the argument before it starts “

he smiled “ neat game “

His arms came down on the table in a huff his face showing a small smirk before it dropped “ gotcha baby —i’ll play —look who’s coming over here “

“ HI, what can I get you guys today “ the lady smiled at you as you dropped your head shaking it carefully already knowing what was going to take place

“ would you two like to start off wit-“

“ how about we start with nothin—“

“ suna “ your voice was warning

“ what “ you heard the challenge laced in his own as he spoke again“ is there something you wanted to do ? or maybe had your mind set on doing ? somewhat like myself ? “

“ maybe — maybe I should come back “ the woman moved to leave your boyfriend voice deep “ don’t move “

you snapped your face to look at him warning him to stop he was enjoying this he knew you couldn’t touch him or even come close. You wouldn’t dare not in public.

“ y’know what I do want to order “ he smirked turning to face the lady who was a bit taken back at the male her body heating up when she saw his smile you knew she had a crush

“ I just wanted to know “ here it comes “ what do you like ? is there anything you recommend “

he laughed moving to lean back against the seat “ on the menu that is— I mean I don’t think your eatable—or at least while working you aren’t so , i’ll suffice for right now “

you scoffed he’s always so cheesy “ well I uh “

“ please leave “ your voice was small “ just go please“

“ I am sorry “ she shook her head noticing your eyes holding a bit of annoyance before running off to a new table

“ who the hell gave you permission to take my fun from me”

“ suna your doing all of this because you didn’t want to leave the house “ you deadpanned “ seriously babe? “

“ don’t limit my problems like that “ he whispered looking around “ your making me look stupid “

“ because it is “

“ no it’s not “ he got louder “ the fuck if it is — your always dragging me somewhere that I don’t want to go I was fine on the couch we had food at home what more did we need ? we didn’t have to come out tonight y/n you just wanted to be extra and fancy“ his voice was raised higher than you’d ever heard it making you remember you two weren’t in the confinement of your own house

“ you just want to annoy the shit out of me yet again like you don’t do that enough. Everyday it’s constant nagging ‘ suna you’ve been in the house for 2 days , suna you never go out unless it’s volley , suna , suna , suna—god you never seem to shut the fuck up unless i’m throwing money at you like a stripper “

you laughter to yourself quietly before he huffed “ we had food at home “

your eyes darted out as you looked around you peoples bodies turning to stare at your table a bit shaken by the males screams “ look at you — wont even admit it — you just like putting on this fake face acting like staying at home is so bad “

he moved to grab his phone harshly off the table scooting out the booth “ fuck this — brought me out the house to eat this crap when I could’ve made a sandwich unnecessary money — unnecessary trip “

his body froze a shudder moving over his body as his gaze went soft at the ground. Legs jumpy but unmoving as his mind raced eyes peering down at the grip you held on his wrist

“ sit the fuck “ your eyes crisp and sharp on his own “ down“ him not even waiting for you to finish before he slid back into the booth body going slack to show the others watching the drama unfold that he didn’t care that his s/o just ripped his image to shreds with three words

“ why are you doing all this huh ? “

his voice was steady “ because I wanted to eat—eat at home I said this “ he shook his head trying to laugh away the obviously tense air that was roaming throughout the restaurant due to your cold demeanor

“ tell me suna “ his name sounded foreign on your tounge when you spit it back out at him mocking the way he said it earlier “ what were you going to eat “

“ a— a sandwich “

“ baby—with what bread ? “

his mind stalled before the gears started again except steering him backwards to think back to earlier “ I—I didn’t see any bre— no “ he spoke softly trying not to show you his obvious mistake

“ aw what was that baby speak up we can’t hear you“ you directed his gaze to everyone around as he shifted to sit up so he didn’t look like he was getting his ass handed to him like a 7 year old

“ I said um — there was “ he shook his head wanting to deny that you were right so badly “ fuck there was no bread”

“ ok and what happens to your so called planned dinner if there’s no bread “

he coughed “ no sandwich y/n “

“ awww no sandwich? “ the fake sadness on your face evident as you mocked him

“ fuck you y/n “

“ not tonight “ his body sinking when he saw the ghosts of smiles on the people’s faces that were listening in on you two

his head dropping to whisper “ I — I wasn’t even gonna try tonight maybe— maybe tomorrow so jokes on you “

you shook your head calling the waitress over as she stumbled a bit scared of your table and the negative energies it held “ ye— “

“ get me my check “

“ you — you only bought water “

you smirked thought about teasing your boyfriend yet again “ no I bought a sandwich remember “

“ wh— “

“ but no really jokes aside —can you actually bring me a “ your mouth moved fast as you asked for your favorite food and for it to be brought out and packaged in a to go box the shared table quiet between you two him never looking up until the waitress came back about 10 minutes later

Her hands stuffed full with 2 boxes and a small one containing the dessert you ordered “ thank you “ you smiled widely

Legs moving to stand as suna followed deciding to make yet again another sly comment“ so you did all this just to buy us dinner to go? real fucking classy y/—“

“ who said us ? “ you let out a small laugh as you took a glance at his face your eyebrows furrowing before they relaxed

“ suna this is for me “

“ wh—“

“ your right we are going home “

“ home but ? we— I didn’t get anything to eat “

you laughed walking off opening the door to the restaurant watching as he stayed still his body never moving from the booth you two sat at moments ago “ baby there’s nothing at home remember “

“ oh but I thought there was “ you smiled softly before your face came up in mock confusion “ your sandwich no ? “

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello Ms. Raven 😁 May I requests headcanons of Ace and Deuce on how would they react when their s/o has a habit of giving them food that they don’t like or can’t finish?

Curiouser and Curiouser...

Ace has a habit of bragging about your food and rubbing it in others’ faces. It comes off as proud, but in a bratty sense. “What, you made me some food again? Sweet! Heh, I’ll bet all the guys in Basketball Club are jealous that I get home cooked meals every practice. Sucks to be them!”

Ace has no concept of delayed gratification. He’s going to eat everything right away, beginning with his favorite foods first--and he’ll leave whatever he doesn’t like as leftovers.

If you try to make him eat those raw oysters, he’s not going down without a fight. Ace will whine and make a big fuss about it about it, just like a little kid refusing to eat their peas and carrots. “You can’t expect me to eat something so nasty! It literally feels like eating slime. Are you seriously going to make your cute boyfriend eat SLIME?!”

He doesn’t have the maturity to gracefully turn down your food. You can try all you like to spoon feed him those oysters, but all you’ll get is a stubborn pout as he wrenches his face away.

At some point, Ace realizes you won’t let up anytime soon and, wising up, he changes his strategy. Ace takes the oysters from you and swears that he’ll save them for later (“I’m not hungry right now, since I just ate a ton! You made way too much for one person.”).

... Then as soon as you’re out of sight, he palms the oysters off into the feed for the hedgehogs and flamingos kept at Heartslabyul. Ace doesn’t even know if those animals can digest oysters, but he’d still rather someone else take the fall for his stomach.

Ace justifies his actions by telling himself ‘what they don’t know won’t hurt’m’. This way, everyone’s happy—he doesn’t have to eat food that he hates, and you walk away still thinking that Ace happily ate his least favorite food for you. (... Now he just has to repeat his strategy every time you cook for him.)

Deuce is always appreciative when you bring him food, but he worries that it’s an inconvenience. He makes sure to earnestly show his gratitude upon accepting the gift. “This is for me? Wow, you really shouldn’t have...! I know it takes a lot of time, skill, and money to wake up early and make me meals so... Thank you very much! I’ll be sure to enjoy every last bite!”

If you made too much, that’s okay! Deuce won’t wolf everything down in one sitting. He can have the leftovers for a second meal later, or as a post-track meet snack. After all, he wouldn’t want to waste any food, or your efforts!

Deuce is sometimes so excited to chow down that he totally forgets about your habit of sprinkling in bell peppers into your dishes until he bites down on some. Bell peppers in fried rice, bell peppers in salad, bell peppers in omelettes (blasphemous, according to Deuce)...

He picks through his food as best as he can, trying to remove the bell peppers from the rest of his meal. It’s then that he remembers his words from before: “I’ll be sure to enjoy every last bite!”

“Grrrgh...! I said I’d eat everything, and I’m a man of my word! I won’t break my promise!! Just watch me...!! I’ll overcome this challenge even if it kills me!!” Deuce immediately dumps the bell peppers he had picked out back into his meal and, taking a deep breath, starts slamming down the food.

In between bites, he chugs entire cartons of chocolate milk (to drown out the taste of bell pepper). Deuce also does his absolute best to chew and swallow as fast as he can, just to be rid of that bad taste quickly. (He eats his leftovers like this too, which gets him weird stares from his classmates and club members).

In the end, Deuce manages to steel his nerves and consume your meals, bell peppers and all, at the cost of some stomachache and nausea. He’s still proud of himself for manning up and proving his courage to you, though! “Did you see that?! I did it...! Just like I said I would! You can always count on me to stick to my word!”