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theotheroccassionalfanficwriter · 4 years

Text

Most Beloved Demon

Summary: It all started with a simple chat. A mere idle thought you had about one of the human customs in matchmaking that you shared in with the rest of the brothers because you were once again scheming to have another date with Mammon. And then you had to make another group chat without him because God, Jesus, and Mary showed you the way and it was a birthday party extravaganza for Mammon.

Tags: Galaxy Brained Reader, Oblivious Mammon, Idiots in Love, Happy Birthday Mammon, Sweets, Reader is Horny for Mammon, Kissing as a distraction

Rating: Rated E for explicit cock sucking and fucking at a dark alleyway

A/N: A late birthday fic for Mammon because I’ve just finished prelims for law school and boy am I worried

It had started, like with all things that shook the House of Lamentation, at a fine peaceful day. You were lounging in your room, feeling slightly neglected that Mammon wasn’t cuddling with you which meant that you couldn’t accidentally brush against his cock while cuddling or send him a signal that you were totally down to be fucked by him anytime anywhere. You’ve exhausted all means of entertainment, you were done doing your Diavolo-sanctioned prank on Lucifer, exhausted Asmo’s patience on your Mammon-less day, taunted Belphie on his apparent failure to keep you dead, entertained yourself by treating Beel as a food disposal unit and conducting “science experiments”, teaching Satan about human curses, and of course harassed Levi’s in-game character and made him drop 20 levels because he talked shit about your in-game wifey who was Mammon. Not that he knew.

Which meant that you were so bored, and there was no Mammon who could distract you, or you could seduce to a very fun and sexy game of strip billiards. Which ultimately meant you’d either have to trek to the Castle and bother Diavolo to play with you or go over at the Purgatory Hall and rope Solomon into revealing if Merlin is real. In the middle of your contemplation, your phone vibrated and a quick glance at it showed Barbatos’ message which read:

It would be more fruitful if you remained where you are.

You blinked and obediently shelved your plan of bothering Solomon and instead sent a message to the group chat:

🐑 : You know, in the human world in one culture birth dates are a great way of measuring compatibility between two people

You sat back and waited for everyone’s reply. Then the messages came flooding in and you smirked in satisfaction as you saw Mammon take the bait you’ve dangled, you idly watched them bicker, pouring gasoline whenever or dousing it water. Your laptop was ready to calculate and the moment Asmo shared his birthday you brought out the results and gleefully watched the mayhem about to ensue.

🐑 : Amazing! Asmo we have an 88% Compatibility~!

Sure enough, Asmo would never miss out a chance to mess with everyone else and so the two of you were able to successfully get everyone to do the compatibility test with you. The moment Mammon gave you his birthday you had foolishly remained oblivious to the date. Mind still focusing on the compatibility rate.

🐑 : Mammon~ We’ve got the highest compatibility rate~! 91%!

🐑 : By the way the method I used is the one for calculating marriage compatibility.

And then you glanced back to the calculator and registered the date he had given.

“September 10?” You mumbled as you glanced at the calendar and then back to Mammon’s apparent birthday.

Your eyes widened in realization just as the door to your room slammed open and your very cute and most beloved demon came in with a wild blush on his face. You blinked at his winter outfit and then decided that Devildom was much to cold for your delicate human body. Mammon, who was attuned to the ebb and flow of your libido made quick work of his and your clothes and the two of you wrestled under the sheets.

After 10 rounds of you alternating between begging Mammon to cum inside you and asking to suck his dick, you were giving him sweet and lazy kisses on his neck, giving him hickeys all the while engaging in your shared favorite hobby cock warming. Mammon had been flustered, at the start, with how into his kinks you were up until he realized that you were really just into him and made him melt.

Now he was used and utterly spoiled with your clingy disposition after sex. He would give you sweet kisses or alternate with teasing you a little bit and letting you decide if you wanted to go for another round. Right now though, his mind was preoccupied with the words that you had said. Mammon might have just been dating you for less than a year but even so he already knew you like the back of his hand.

So he definitely knew that you had some sort of ulterior motive for bringing that part with the marriage. And Mammon wasn’t sure if he wanted you to be like that to him. He knew himself and he knew that if you were really willing to enter into marriage with him...that there was no way he’d let you get away and neither would you let him. Mammon had already seen the depths of your love for him, had come to accept that you would always hold him above all.

And the best and worst of it was that he was the same.

“What are you thinking about?” You asked him voice soft and hoarse.

Mammon smirked as he remembered how you looked utterly bliss out after having your mouth fucked. He shifts and you moan as you end up beneath him. You feel his cum drip from your pussy and looked at him in anticipation.

“Ya really are a slut for me” Mammon teased you, thrusting into you a little bit.

“It’s because I love you...” You encircled your arms on his neck and tug him down for a sweet kiss. You smile as Mammon begins another round of sex, he fucks you languidly, enjoying this moment where the two of you simple enjoyed existing. Whispering sweet words of love and the knowledge that both of you had found each other.

When all is said and done, you spooned him, holding him tight and close to your chest and he holds you equally tight and tells you,

“...I want to spend my birthday with you...”

“As you wish” You kissed him good night.

In extreme contrast with your passionate and gentle night of slumber with Mammon was the birthday plan meeting you were currently holding secretly. You had, in very character of you, used one of the favors Barbatos owed you to have him send Mammon on an errand that would last long enough for all of you to plan his birthday.

Lucifer had shot down all your suggestions of gifting Mammon a Casino, a Mansion and Villa in the human realm, buying him a gold mine, and gifting him a civil registry that listed him as your husband in devildom and the human realm.

Satan had, in a rare moment of cooperation with Lucifer, also shot down all your party suggestions of champagne towers, booking the entire Ristorante Six, Booking the entire Fall, and giving Mammon a surprise wedding.

All of you had eventually decided to just give Mammon a sentimental and heartfelt gift of experience. With a strict order from Lucifer to not let you pick a stationary set that was used for weddings.

Which meant that you had made plans with them to buy it two days later, when you knew that Mammon had a photo shoot and thus you had no date with him scheduled that day. And because your Father-in-Law was still holding a grudge over that time you beat him up at the Mcdonald’s back parking lot, Mammon’s shoot got rescheduled and you ended up bumping to him just when you, Asmo, and Satan had bought the supplies.

“...Why?” He asked looking hurt and dejected that you had turned him down to spend time with Asmo and Satan.

“It’s now what you think!” You hurriedly replied.

“Hey, don’t sound like a husband that just got caught” Satan frowned as he stealthily hid the paper bag that held the stationary set and golden wax seal the three of you had bought.

“Satan’s right you know?” Asmo chimed, “The three of us were just window shopping.”

Asmo signaled you to distract Mammon and you nodded. So in a moment of sheer brilliance you led Mammon to a darkened and secluded alleyway. Pushed him in the wall and kissed him deeply before he could protest. All of his anger and hurt melted away as you fervently kissed him, one of your hand palming on his cock as you twined your tongue with his.

You stop and let Mammon see the sloppy evidence of the make out session you had just initiated. Far more filthy and intense than your accidentally on purpose mistake of fumbling the seduction spell during the exam.

“I’m not going to forgive you so easily!”

You said nothing to that and instead dropped to your knees as your finger traced the seam of his zipper. Mammon cursed and muttered an invisibility and warding spell. You unzipped his pants with your teeth, kissing his hardened cock through the fabric of his brief. You glanced at him and smiled at him devilishly before you took his cock into your mouth and began giving him the best blow job of his entire demonic and angelic life combined.

You, who was always horny on main for your demon boyfriend, was giving it your all in sucking his dick putting into good use all the techniques your succubi and incubi friends had given you. Your alternated between deep throating yourself with his thick and long cock and giving him a hand job as your tongue licked his balls and then his cock. You enjoyed the thick veins on Mammon’s dick along with the undeniable blunt ridges that you had grown familiar with.

“Fuck!” Mammon cursed as he decided he had enough of your teasing and fucked your mouth, dirty talk falling easily out of his mouth as he praised you, “You’re always such a slut for my dick aren’t ya? look at you turning your mouth into a pussy for me to use any time I want.”

You tried to convey your pleasure with your eyes, agreeing with everything Mammon said and that had only served to increase his pleasure. He took great joy at seeing you on your knees and begging him with your eyes as you lost your self to heat and lust. Hands gripping on Mammon’s clothes, your mouth and his cock making lewd noises as your saliva dripped on the corners of your mouth.

Mammon took out his cock from your mouth and you whined at the lost, his hand still gripping your hair and you were looking at him with a betrayed look while his free hand was pumping his dick.

“Mammon~”

“You really want me to make you swallow or do you want me to fuck you here in this alley for as long as I want?”

You blinked and looked at him with a dazed look, Mammon’s smirk growing wide as he let your hair go and watched you unzip your mini shorts, letting it drop to the ground and presenting your enticing hole to Mammon.

“What a good slut” Mammon praised you as he used his wet dick and spit as lube before teasing your opening.

“Ma-nnn..darling! I want your dick in me already!” You cried softly as Mammon teased you while you could only look longingly at his erect dick and let your mouth water.

“Then say the magic words” He teased you as he bit you on your neck.

“Please breed this good and obedient slut with your thick and lovely seed!” You begged him in between moans and shudders of pleasure that went through your body. Mammon stuttered for a moment before he regained his wits and did as you asked.

His cock entered you easily, “Your hole really was meant to take my cock” he let you get used to the feeling before he began moving slowly, watching the soft jiggling of your chest with each thrust he made. His hands were holding both of your wrists you could only moan as Mammon ruthlessly grazed your spot with his hard dick.

“If anyone could see you right now they’d think you were getting paid for this,” Mammon grinned darkly, “But then again, you were only ever a slut for me aren’t you? Opening your legs for me anytime I ask, easily taking my cock into your mouth.”

“I-it’s becau-! I love you!” You panted as you felt Mammon hit your spot.

Mammon knew you loved him but it really was different hearing how you were only like this because you loved him. He smiled at you and sweetly kissed you on your mouth as he carried you in his arms.

“Ma--” You cut off by his dick thrusting in you deeper. You were vaguely aware that your shorts had already slipped off your leg and your underwear was already ruined.

“I love you too” Mammon said as he vigorously fucked your hole and you could only hold on tightly on his shoulders as you stopped bothering to lower your voice.

The sounds of wet flesh slapping, along with your lustful moans filled the darkened alley. You weren’t aware of the passage of time, nor did you care about the fact that there were often footsteps that would stop at the mouth of the alley. All you cared about was the feeling of Mammon fucking you and the undeniable smell of his come covering your body.

All your clothes had ended up on the ground, you were naked while Mammon still had his clothes on, not that you mind since there was something erotic about the picture it presented to any voyeur that was brave enough to risk Mammon’s ire. Your legs had grown weak after the 15th round and you were only dazedly looking at air as Mammon fucked you from behind, his previous comes dripping down your hole and between your legs. Some had formed a puddle directly on the ground beneath your hole.

Your neck and shoulders were filled with love bites, and most of your skin was sticky with dried cum. You felt Mammon slow down on his thrust and then the familiar wet heat of his cum filled your inside.

You looked at him in question, watching him observe his masterful lewd work that was you.

“Already?” You asked him slightly frowning.

Mammon only looked at you helplessly fond and doting before he began to dress you up, fingers teasing your overstimulated nerves but keeping it at that, “We still need to go home in time for the curfew.”

You pouted but nonetheless let him do as he pleased, though you did squirm a little bit as he zip up your shorts and teasing you once more by rubbing his hand on your crotch through the fabric.

Soaking the crotch are with the mixture of his and your cum. You whined at him, “Can’t we continue at a love hotel?”

Mammon said nothing beyond a teasing smile as he lad you out of the alley, you were limping slightly as you leaned completely on his side and steadfastly ignored the looks the demons were giving you nor did you pay any mind on the undeniable dribble of cum that was between your legs.

What mattered was that Mammon had forgotten about the events earlier and you were getting railed again once both of you got home.

The next morning you woke up on Mammon’s arms and experienced the feeling of being a pampered wife who got railed so good. Mammon had sat you on his lap and fed you as you weakly laid on his chest and ignored the judgmental looks Lucifer was giving you. Chances were, he had already found out about the semi-public sex you and Mammon did.

But you were well-fed and satiated so you put it on the back of your mind as you planned to get things done for Mammon’s surprise. So the time you spent away from Mammon, physically since you were sending him sexy pics and basically having sext with him, was allotted for writing the letters for him. Special ones that would last for years even when you would no longer be alive.

You carefully wrote each letter and made sure that in each and everyone of it had all your overflowing love for him. You wrote him a letter for every conceivable event that you could thought of, until it went from emotions he would feel into situations he would get in until it became for his everyday life.

With each letter you wrote, you couldn’t help but be envious of the people he’d get to meet after you were gone. The selfish part of you that wanted to remain inside his heart for as long as he lived. You could only sigh at your helplessness, there was no guarantee that you would live forever and that you could be with him till he died.

You didn’t know if he would remember you clearly or slowly fade away from his memories. So you decided to give him this indelible words that carried your most fervent wish of being able to stay by his side for eternity.

You wrote and wrote, pouring all of the words that you could never say and to cowardly to speak aloud and instead let it hang on the air. In between the moments when Mammon would catch your eye and you’d look at him and see his love that overflows, in the brief moments of silence where you would hold onto him tightly afraid of him leaving you, in those dark days that you almost lost him and still foolishly unaware that you had come to love him.

The words you kept inside you flowed from your heart and mind and into the tips of your fingers, as you wrote page after page of love letters for Mammon. You let the papers dry and lovingly folded it into the golden envelopes and sealed it with a red wax seal that held your initials.

You placed it inside your jewelry box and hid it.

The door to your room opened and you turned around, seeing Mammon you couldn’t help but smile widely as you called for his name.

You rushed to hug him and Mammon peppered your face with kisses. You let yourself soak up the warmth of his love and decided to no longer think of the distant future that you feared the most.

Mammon had always known that you loved him the most in the entire world. It was hard not to, when you were always out rightly favoring him, always treating him so much better than the others and you would always tell it to him. There was no room for doubt when it came to your love.

And Mammon loved you as well, your flaws and everything because it was what made you human. You weren’t a saint or a holy mother, he didn’t care about your cruel streak that only ever existed in defense of him and his brothers nor did he mind the days you would stick to him relentlessly as if you were afraid he would be gone. He didn’t mind your moments of jealousy, the instances when you’d cut someone with your words.

You had left a mark on his heart that would never fade away, you had made him yours in the way no one would be able to do so. He smiled at the pieces of memory you had left him, proof of your existence in a world that changed much too fast and much too slow for someone like him.

Your bones had withered and turned into dust, you were no longer by his side, all three realms was co-existing peacefully, you lasted long enough to see Diavolo’s dreams to bear fruit, you stayed long enough to hold your great grand children in your arms but even so it still wasn’t enough for him. His greedy heart that was only ever content with you in his arms. But even so Mammon could still remember your voice, the inflections on the words you spoke, the way your eyes glittered with happiness upon seeing his face.

He looked at the wrinkled and yellowed letter you had left him. The last among the letters you wrote for him since the first birthday you had celebrated with him. -

Dear Mammon,

If you’re reading this letter then that would mean I’m no longer by your side. Somehow even with the centuries I’ve spent with you, the thought that I am no longer by your side still makes me cry. You’ve influenced me too much that I became greedy of you.

Have you eaten yet? Are you sleeping well? Are you taking care of yourself?

Don’t mope around anymore, by time you reached this letter centuries would have passed since I died. I know I said I can’t accept you having someone else after me and I was happy that you went along with my selfish wish but even so...I don’t want you to miss out on another great love. I’m already happy with all the years you’ve given me even if it was just a fraction of what you lived and you will live.

I’m really scared that you’d forget me easily and I still want to live longer and be by your side I love you so much that I’m afraid what would happen to you once I’m gone. Mammon, my most beloved demon, I’m sorry I had to leave you first. But even so I’m selfishly happy that I would never know what a world without you would be. I’m weak and cowardly even so you loved this part of me that desperately held onto you, you loved me even if you knew that between the two of us I’ve forgotten how to live without you.

I knew you like the back of my hand, so familiar and foreign at the same time. In all the years I’ve spent writing you letters filled with words that I could never say aloud, I’ve come to accept that I only knew of love because of you. It’s a scary thought, knowing that if I hadn’t meet you...I wouldn’t have given love a chance. I would have live my years not knowing the warmth of your embrace or peace that your presence brought to me.

Thank you for giving me a family that I love and loves me in return, I was so happy when I bore you our third child. Do you remember? I cried that time because he looked so much liked you, he had your eyes and your nose, and then he had your laugh and smile. Our eldest daughter was so happy then, finally having a human passing brother. Number 2 was so pouty that day but even so I was happy with our little family.

There’s a lot of things I want to write to you in this final letter but my hands are already shaking. Our Little Ds of Greed are scampering around right now while I’m writing this. I can’t help but laugh a little bit, my heart feels a bit sour. You’re sleeping soundly right now by my side and I love you so much, that even if my lungs hurt and my body aches so much I want to spend the last moments of my life telling you how much I love you.

I love your smile. I love your laugh. I love the way you’d get into trouble and come to me for help. I love the days you’d let me chase away your nightmares. I love how you patiently waited for me to return to your side. I love how you always tell me you love in the little ways. I love how you never let me wake up in a cold empty bed. I love you. I love you from the moment you ran towards me. I love you until now.

I love you in this life, and if there is a next life for me, I’ll love you there as well. I love you in every world there is that I exist with you. I love you in all infinite possibilities of this universe and the next.

I love you, my Mammon. And I will begone but even if I am no longer by your side I would still love you. I would love you even if my mind and heart forgets because whatever it was that our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same.

So live well and fall in love with the world again, my cherished and inevitable downfall.

Yours in Eden.

#mammon x reader #obey me mammon x reader #mammon x mc #obey me mammon x mc #mammon #obey me

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chaos-and-recover · 3 years

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I am married to someone with an intense, if only midsized, fanbase. Parasocial relationships have been a part of our lives since long before it was a buzzword. It is weirdly fascinating to us, but sometimes a bit frightening. Now that it is the buzzword of the hour, seeing it misattributed is one of our pet peeves. I have seen people claim any amount of interaction on the fan's end is "pick me" (although fan interaction is necessary for his job) or claim that him utilizing social media makes him more culpable for forcing parasocial relationships on the fans because of power imbalances. If he is obvious about promoting something, though, it doesn't go over well because audiences don't want to feel like their being advertised to. Parasocial relationships are sometimes hurtful and scary on our end. 1) There was a woman who had been following his career since the 90s, when he wasn't as well known. She would often send him letters, gifts. Within the past 5 years something changed. I don't know why, but she suddenly began to consider him a boyfriend of sorts. He had never responded to these letters. I discovered she had been catfishing me under my private, locked social media accounts under a fake name, pretending to be someone I knew from high school. He blocked her on all social media. She harassed his coworkers until they blocked her too. A friend of mine said she went on TikTok to brag about how overly sensitive celebrities will block if you call them out for not being better than regular people. Meanwhile, we got a letter from her last year begging for him to forgive whatever she did that offended him. 2) 15ish years ago, in a magazine interview, my husband states his fave color. 2 years ago, I was having lunch with a friend, without my husband. A younger woman approached the table. She asksnif my husband was around and I said that he wasn't. Immediately her tone and expression changed to something nasty. She asked if I would at least give him a painting she had done of him. It was all done in various shades of the same color. I commented on this and she sneered at me with; "It's his fave color." I am still trying to be polite at this point and casually go; "Oh is it?" and she ery rudely snaps that I am his wife and I don't know his fave color like SHE does, so I have had it and say, assertively that I've had enough and she needs to leave. I gave it to my husband and told him the encounter. He laughed about it and said that it wasn't his fave color anymore. I had never thought to ask about his fave color because it just didn't seem important to either of us. He had never asked mine. Her twitter handle was on the painting so I looked it up. Her and a few friends were discussing the incident, using my first and last initials and my husband's first. They were discussing how clearly they know him deeper than I do, that he must secretly hate me if his own wife doesn't understand him like she does, and she altered the story so that she had seen him there earlier so I was clearly lying and that she had timidly approached the table and I had screamed at her that the color was ugly. I don't watch his interviews unless he specifically asks me to, because this is like listening in on someone's work meeting. This has been misconstrued by "fans" that I don't support him. I absolutely do, 200%, probably more than they support their husband's jobs, but watching his interviews isnt how i support him. I support him in our home, in our phone calls, in other ways he appreciates in our personal lives. Parasocial relationships are absolutely fine, until people start to believe they aren't in one, or that it is somehow more substantial than personal relationships the celebrities have with their loved ones. They truly think that they can Sherlock Holmes someone enough to truly know them better than the ones who actually know them in real life. (Sorry if you got this multiple times. Tumblr said it didnt send my ask.)

(Same anon from before) What fans need to understand is that parasocial relationships are good. It is fine to be a fan of someone, support their career, analyze them and write fanfiction and draw fanart of them or their characters. This is how my husband keeps his job, this is completely normal fan behavior. It isnt bad for the sake of existing. But they need to be aware that it is parasocial. I think the problem doesn't lie with parasocial relationships so much as when those in the relationship aren't aware that it is parasocial. Those who are aware of it being parasocial aren't the ones claiming that I do not know my husband but that they do or sending him love letters thinking their in a relationship with him. Those who know it is parasocial know that there is a difference between him answering questions in an interview (after being coached by a professional on how to appear and how to speak, and going into it knowing 90% of the questions) and having a conversation when there aren't cameras around, behind closed door. There is a difference between remembering a list of favorite things and watching someone enjoy those things in the moment every day in person. You just HAVE to be aware that they ARE parasocial.

First of all I gotta say I'm SUPER curious who you are (obviously you don't have to tell me!)! I've heard and seen things like what you described happen in several different fandoms of varying popularity, and I'm sorry you have to deal with that. But you're 100% right, engaging in regular fandom behaviour is perfectly normal, even interacting with creators/actors/musicians/whoever on social media (or in person if you meet them). It's HOW you interact with them. You need to both have your own and respect their boundaries.

I'm a fan of a couple 80s/90s boybands, as you just... ARE as an elder millennial lmao, and I can understand how easy it is as a young teen to go too far and cross boundaries because you just don't have the life experience or really, emotional regulation to interact with your idols in a normal way. But I've seen that now carry on well into adulthood, the things grown-ass women TO THIS DAY say about the wives of some of these band members is shocking (maybe not to you though since you've lived it!). I've had several conversations where I've had to remind people that literally every interaction they've had with these people at official meet & greets and stuff, even to an extent their interactions on social media, it's like the famous-person equivalent of Customer Service Voice. They're working! Of course they're nice to you when you paid like $500 to talk to them for thirty seconds! It doesn't mean you're friends!

(Not shaming paid M&Gs, I've done them, I'd do them again, it's an opportunity my 13 year old self never thought she'd had but like... I'm not secretly dating a Backstreet Boy because I met them for five seconds, y'know?)

Anyway yeah... all this to say, you're right. Parasocial relationships are a natural part of fandom and they're FINE and GOOD you just gotta respect boundaries.

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karliesbuzzcut · 4 years

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(100) Million Dollar Lawsuit

Intro | part1 | part2 | part3 | part4

We are on the last chapter (for now) and this the most chaotic one. Mainly because it doesn’t follow any kind of chronological order (or logical sense), it’s just Russ going in circles for literal years.

But I’ll try my best to condense it for you, so all you need to do is to keep your seat belt fastened until the aircraft stops completely.

Right after the failed Ari lawsuit, Russ goes back to his one and only love: Taylor Swift 💫 And he has learned a lesson — not a good lesson, mind you, but a lesson: small claims courts won’t take him anywhere. If he really wants to punish women for not complimenting his suit, he will have to file a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit.

But, since denying sex from The Russell isn’t illegal (yet), he had to come at it from a different angle. I’m going to give Russ a chance to explain himself first.

Before you ask: yes, the following was Russell’s response to a woman thanking Taylor for visiting an 8 year-old girl who was very badly burned in an accident.

As I’ve always said, it’s okay if you aren’t fluent in Bullshit. That’s what I’m here for.

You see, Russell views human interactions as a series of transactions: I make a tweet worth liking, you go on a date with me; I take you to Olive Garden, you give me a handie for free; I put on a suit, you hug me and smile; I write you a song and sue you, you produce said song. Whenever women don’t fulfil their side of the deal, he becomes enraged.

But the reason he has such a strong hate-boner for Tay, is because she seemed to also follow his same ‘moral code’. A kid makes a cute video, she visits them at the hospital. A fan writes her a letter inviting her to their wedding, she goes to the wedding. A couple of kids fold 1989 paper cranes for Andrea, Taylor invites them to one of her concerts.

Russ thought “this is a done deal”. He didn’t write that song for Taylor because he particular liked her; he just thought she’d be the most likely artist to produce it — or at least acknowledge his existence.

I mentioned before that Russ wrote a whole-ass book about this. And I think it’s as good a time as any to talk about it. For a short amount of time, Russell chilled out about the ✨100 million dollar lawsuit ✨ but my guess is that he thought his book would get him the same results as a lawsuit? To be fair, the book is fantastic. 5/5, would recommend.

He details the harassment he went through after suing Taylor Swift (the first time). Apparently old ladies at coffee shops would scream at him because he dared to sue Our Queen. A Mexican even pointed a gun at him (it wasn’t me, guys! Just a fellow countryman ❤️) and ordered Russ to drop the lawsuit. Computers at his job caught on literal fire because he was sent very powerful viruses. His friend Ken — who definitely exists! — was hit with a Molotov cocktail. Yep. 2016 was definitely the year people were willing to murder for Taylor Swift.

There’s also this brilliant dream sequence that involves an owl with the voice of Morgan Freeman, and Taylor’s agents guarding a tower in which she’s being held captive.

ALSO ALSO: an entire chapter is called “SHE CHOSE HIM OVER ME”. Taylor Swift chose Joe Alwyn — a man she actually knows — over a man she’s not even aware exists. Women, amiright?

I think Russell would enjoy the Kaylor community to a certain extent. Not the lesbian part, obviously: he doesn’t trust women who don’t want to touch his peen. I just mean the baseless hatred of Joe. Look, I made a little collage of his rants ❤️ tell me if any of this sounds familiar!

You know — I’ve been joking around a lot about Russell just wanting to do the nasty with Taylor. But you know me, I like joking around. In reality Russ only wants what is fair. He wants to put a stop to all these senseless acts of kindness perpetrated by Taylor ‘The Generous’ Swift.

This isn’t about him at all, actually. Shame on you for thinking there’s an ounce of greed in that selfless little body of his. HE’S DOING THIS TO PROTECT THE KIDS WITH CANCER!

There are no ulterior motives here! This isn’t about a date!

THIS IS NOT ABOUT A DATE AT ALL GUYS STOP SAYING THAT.

I think this is my favourite post of his, because– grammatically speaking –he doesn’t specify which of them is wearing the red dress. And that sends me every goddamn time.

Anyway. The book, as magnificent as it was, got him absolutely nowhere. I know, I can’t believe it either. So he went back to focus on his lawsuit. But apparently not enough, because he didn’t serve her properly..? Now, don’t expect me to understand this, because I am very stupid (so it’s quite a good thing that I haven’t sued anybody for millions of dollars) but something about him sending the lawsuit to her old legal team..? And then trying to force UPS to serve her? I think he even said he was going to serve her in the middle of one of her concerts... but I’m guessing that didn’t go as planned 🤷‍♀️ oops.

Of course, Russie wouldn’t allow such an anticlimactic ending. Can you guess what he did? Please tell me that you can guess what he did. HE MADE ANOTHER SONG 😭❤️

This one is called ‘I Don’t Get You, Taylor Swift’. Another masterpiece that we definitely didn’t deserve 🙌

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This was around April, 2019. By then I was being lured away by Kaylors, so I broke it off with Russ. I know that he filed a 3rd lawsuit against Taylor last year, which is just like the second one but hopefully this time he’ll be able to serve. And listen— I know that sounds like an awful thing to wish on Taylor, but I’d rather have Russell occupied suing a rich woman (who isn’t even going to deal with him), than a poor sex worker in Nevada. I bet TayTay would prefer that too.

Well guys, I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but I really had to be selective with the amount of information I was going to throw at you. I’ve avoided some of the shittier stuff he said or did, because I wanted to keep these posts as lighthearted as possible. I also didn’t touch on many things because they would just derail us. Like for example: one of the few lawsuits he has filed against someone who isn’t a woman, was against the state of Utah. I know, right? He’s trying to singlehandedly legalise prostitution in Utah, and even wrote a book (more like a pamphlet) brilliantly titled ‘Why I'm Making It Legal for Your 18 Year Old Daughter to Get In Bed with a Complete Stranger for Only 500 Bucks: A Short Essay from a Pro Se Litigant who is Challenging the Utah Brothel Bans’.

I copy-pasted that title guys, I swear to god.

The book is very graphic. This one I certainly do not recommend as I still suffer nightmares because of it.

Soren is a character who also had to be cut out — which is a shame because he really tried to be a good christian and help Russell. Not as in “I support you, Russell” but as in “why don’t you take a nap, Russell”. Turns out, even cinnamon rolls have a limit. Russ, of course, blames Taylor Swift for the fact that he’s losing his friends. I’m not joking — it’s an article in his lawsuit:

Greer has lost family relationships, friend connections and business connections because of the trauma of Taylor Swift. His family tells him to "get over it," resulting in shouting matches and strained relationships. Greer's friends get annoyed by his focusing on the trauma of it, when nobody knows the pain of getting rejected by a public figure — twice — and the fallout that has resulted from it.

Russell embodies that comic/meme of the little guy who puts a stick in his bicycle’s wheels and then blames Taylor Swift when he inevitably falls.

Sooooo...

Maybe someday I’ll write a post about Russ’ latest antics. I know he still posts stupid stuff on Facebook, which he later deletes. He shined especially bright at the peak of the BLM movement. He also plead guilty to electronic communications harassment— did you see that conviction coming? Yes, yes you did 😌

Regarding Taylor, I read that Russ knew someone who knew Todrick Hall — and Russ sent him a song and video for Taylor. All he got back was a Cease and Desist letter. But I’d have to do a bit of digging to get the details. I was already so overwhelmed with organising the information I was previously aware of, that I decided to leave the newer stuff for another time. You know, once I’ve had some time to inform myself... as well as a really long shower.

Since I left so much shit out, I’ll be taking questions if you have any. And if you can muster the courage to ask them. I’m weirdly proud of being some kind of Russell encyclopaedia. I might not have much going for me...

There’s no ‘but’ — that was the complete statement.

Before I go, I wanted to add this screenshot. I absolutely love it because it summarises ✨The Russell Experience✨. Russ wants Taylor to know pain, poverty and punishment. But when asked “why?” his answer is just “oh, I was ignored lol”

*none of the screenshots are mine

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jiejie-eonni-onee-sama · 4 years

Text

The art of seduction...

For the lovely @fandoms-are-my-friends-1321

Hope you’ll enjoy!

"OMG, what have I done?"

(Y/N) wanted to disappear six feet under after her fiasco. How could she manage to embarrass herself in front of her boss?

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed: she worked for the most powerful man in Gotham City, she should not fail like this!

A small smile came across her lips when she thought about her employer. Oswald Cobblepot, the elected mayor of Gotham, was also one of the rising crime lords.

She worked for him for 5 years, and she witnessed his rise to power with amazement.

And she fell in love with him. Madly, truly, deeply.

But now, she just managed to look like a fool, and she wanted to erase this inglorious moment from her memory.

"Are you alright, (Y/N)?"

The familiar voice woke the woman from her daydreaming, and she noticed the presence of Victor Zsasz.

The henchman and (Y/N) get along since they started working together under Cobblepot's orders. And he was the only one who knew about her feelings for their boss...

"Apart from humiliating myself in front of the boss? Yes, I feel like a million bucks!"

The bald man chuckled.

"I have noticed... Don't worry about Oswald: he did not even pick up on your failed attempt of flirting!"

"Are you here to put the boot in again?"

"Hey, it's not my fault if you say I would say God bless you, but it looks like he already did. Seriously girl, do you know how to flirt or what?"

(Y/N) sighed.

"Not really. Most of the time, I am the one men flirted with. Oh wait, harassed would be a suitable description!"

"I'm sorry for you..." mumbled Victor as he massaged the back of his neck.

"Don't be. Now, if you don't mind, I want to be alone and dig my own grave in peace!"

"Come on, don't be over-dramatic! He did not fire you!"

"You got the point..."

Victor cogitated a few moments before declaring:

"Okay, I have a proposition for you!"

"What?" asked the young woman.

"Well, if you want, I can teach you how to flirt!"

(Y/N) raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"You? You know how to hit on someone?"

"My dear (Y/N), I am a man full of surprises! Now, chin up, lady: we have some lessons ahead!

A few moments later, they were alone in a room.

"Okay, first of all: let's check all the qualities you find in Oswald?"

"Physical appearance or character?"

"I don't care... Both, if you want!"

"Alright... So, he is charismatic, smart, powerful, elegant... So charming..."

"Oh my god, put yourself together! It's not the moment to daydream about your twisted prince charming!"

"It's not my fault!"

"Alright, nevermind!" Victor sighed as he raised his hands in a sign of defeat.

"What next?"

"Well... The next step is subtly complimenting him. Let me demonstrate with you..."

He cleared his throat and said:

"Dear, you have the brightest eyes I've ever seen!"

"Uh... Thanks ?"

"You're welcome. Now, your turn: imagine me as Oswald, and say something flirty!"

"Right now?"

"No, in the next century! Of course, right now!"

"Okay, okay! Let me think about something..."

She turned things over in her head before she finally said:

"Sir, you are the most brilliant genius in all Gotham!"

"Not bad, but I am sure you can do better! Go ahead!"

"Right, so... Mister Cobblepot, I wonder how Gothamites did not notice before how amazing you are!"

"Mmmh... Nah! A bit toady for him. Try again!"

"Mmmh... Oh, I know! Sir, no matter what others would say, you are the best man for Gotham!"

"We're getting close... One more time!"

"Oswald, thanks to you, my life has another goal... and it's you!"

Victor slowly clapped.

"Well done, girl! You learn fast!"

"Really?"

"Yes, it's good! Now, next time you want to seduce the boss, you know what to do!"

"Thanks for your help, Victor!"

"Anytime, (Y/N). Anytime."

A week later.

"Okay, (Y/N), time to put into practice what I've taught you!"

"Yes, I know... It's just that I have a knot in my stomach!"

"No need to worry: act naturally! Now, make me proud!"

"Okay, here I go!"

She pulled herself, smiled, and entered Oswald's office. As for Victor, he hid behind the door.

"Good morning, Mister Cobblepot!"

"Ah, good morning, Miss (Y/N). Please, take a seat: we have a lot of work to do!"

During half an hour, they discussed the different projects The Penguin had for his city.

"For the last project, I thought about funding a scholarship for children from single-parent families!"

"Excellent idea, sir! They deserve the same chances as the others!"

"Indeed... Besides, it's a cause close to my heart as I was raised by my mother!"

"I understand, Mister Cobblepot... May I know the name of the scholarship?"

"Of course, where is my mind? I decided to name it "The Gertrude Cobblepot Scholarship for Children in Need"; I named it after my mother!"

A sad smile appeared on his face.

"I owe her so much..."

Seeing him so vulnerable moved (Y/N) who sighed:

"Aw, it's so cute!"

"I beg your pardon?" exclaimed Oswald.

"WTF is she doing?" muttered Victor, surprised.

Panicked, (Y/N) lost her mind and started blattering:

"Sorry, I mean... You are very cute!"

"Cute? Really?" asked Oswald, unconvinced.

"Oh no!" grumbled Victor as he facepalmed.

And it was not the end of the show...

"Nevermind, let's go back to work! So, I was saying..."

He stopped as he noticed (Y/N) staring at him.

"(Y/N)? Are you sure everything is okay?"

"Yes, sorry... It's just that I get lost in your eyes!"

"What ?!"

"I must be dreaming!" groaned Victor as he clasped both his hands on his face.

"It's true: you have such beautiful eyes!"

"Miss... Are you sure you do not have any fever?"

"No... But I am sure being in your arms is the warmest place on Earth!"

"What's this nonsense?"

"It worsens every second! Stop it, (Y/N)!" discreetly whined Victor as he seemed desperate.

But the young woman was not ready to stop...

"Either you're drunk, (Y/N), or you're making a fool of me, and I don't like it!"

"But I'm not making a fool of you, Mr. Cobblepot! Speaking of that, you're not far from the truth: I'm drunk in love with you!"

Oswald was wide-eyed: in his entire life, he has never seen such a scene!

Crossing his arms against his chest, he sighed:

"Tell me the truth, (Y/N): are you just trying to flirt with me?"

Blinking like she woke up from a dream, the woman realized what happened and sputtered:

"OMG, NO! Tell me it's a nightmare!"

"No, welcome to the real world! But I'm waiting for an answer!"

Ashamed by the situation, (Y/N) confessed:

"Yes, indeed! You've finally noticed..."

"Oh, come on! This is a disaster!" whispered Zsasz.

"So, you're flirting with me... Okay, may I know why?"

"Where can I start? You're the most amazing person I ever met, and I am so happy to be among your trusted people! And... As I said before, I fell in love with you on the first day. I tried to subtly flirt with you but, as you can see, it's an epic fail!"

She lowered her head, waiting for a fit of anger. Instead, she saw Oswald chuckling.

"Well, I must say that I admire your bravery (Y/N). You're right: your flirting attempts are not a success... Moreover, they are not really necessary!"

"I guess so..."

"Don't you want to know why?"

"Because I am a silly girl who thinks she can have a romance with her boss?" (Y/N) answered with a sad tone.

"No, you're wrong... Your flirting was not necessary because I already like you!"

"Wait, what?" she exclaimed.

"Oh my, what a twist!" thought Victor.

"That's the truth, (Y/N): you are an astounding woman. I admire your strong will, your loyalty, your smiling character... Everything in you is perfect for me!"

"Mr. Cobblepot..."

"Please, call me Oswald!"

"Oswald... Thank you... For not shut me away!"

A sly smile appeared on Oswald's face.

"Pleasure is all mine, (Y/N). Now that everything is settled and the misunderstanding has disappeared, would give me the greatest honor to join me for a date?"

A wide grin appeared on (Y/N)'s face.

"Of course!"

"Wonderful! Friday evening, 8 p.m.? I know a nice restaurant in the neighborhood: you're going to love it!"

"I am sure..."

"By the way, (Y/N)"

"Yes?"

"I can't give you the world... But I can promise to give you my world!"

"I cannot ask for more!"

While the two lovebirds talked about their future dates, Victor smiled, relieved to see it ended well:

"At least, she reached her goal... But Lord, that girl was close to giving me a heart attack!"

Sometimes, a bad pick up line can bring you the right way to your crush's heart...

#requests #gotham tv show #oswald cobblepot #victor zsasz #robin lord taylor #sandra bullock #anthony carrigan

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ijustwant2write · 4 years

Text

Sweet Boy-Bonnie Gold x Reader x Finn Shelby (Part 2/?)

(GIF credit to @valentine-in-my-quinjet)

Part 1

Taglist: @stressedandbandobessed7771 @bethany-taylo @lovelynerdytraveler @savvy7392 @kingarthurscat @smallheathgangsters @soleil-dor @alyse45 @bloodorangemoonlight @amirahiddleston @captivatedbycillianmurphy @jenepleurepasbaby

Summary: (Y/N) agrees to go for some drinks with Bonnie, despite her reservations about him. She doesn't want to cause tension between the boys, but a part of her is enjoying the attention.

Characters: Bonnie Gold x Reader, Finn Shelby x Reader, Isaiah Jesus x Reader (platonic)

Meanings: (Y/N)=Your name

Warnings: Swearing, angst, arguing, threats, jealousy, fluff

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bonnie's P. O. V

"Bonnie, I'm really not sure." (Y/N) said, looking apologetic.

My eyes cast down to the ground."Yeah, it's alright. If you don't want to come-"

"No, it's not the fact that I don't want to come. I think Finn is pissed off at me."

I looked back up at her, confidence returned."And you care about that?"

She smiled."No, I don't. Alright then, let's go."

I held out my arm for her, grinning when she looped her arm through mine. As we began walking, there was a small voice in my head warning me not to do this. Finn would be pissed, and Isaiah probably wouldn't be too happy either, it could cause tension within the group. I could potentially cause plans to fall under if we couldn't work well with each other. But as I said, that voice was small, very small.

I just couldn't understand how Finn could let (Y/N) get away. Understandably he had changed, the only male influence he had around him were his brothers, and they weren't the best role models; but (Y/N) would have stuck by his side if he let her in a little, she wasn't asking for much. However, I was glad that he called it off, gave me a final chance.

(Y/N) was so sweet, so nurturing but she had picked up the fierceness from the Shelby women. It didn't show for a while, she bit her tongue in order to not upset the family or risk losing her job, but the day she snapped at Finn was a showstopper; even Arthur was praising her afterwards.

"Never been in here before." (Y/N) stated as we approached the pub.

"Me neither."

"Oh, will we be alright in here?"

"I've got a peaky cap on haven't I?"

She was still hesitant, but walked in as I held the door open for her. Surprisngly, the place was full of various ages, both young and old, people just getting off their shifts at work. Some eyes turned our way, there were those bold enough to keep looking as I ordered for us at the bar. As soon as the drinks were handed over, I took (Y/N)'s hand and lead her to a table, moving it further into a corner so no one could hear us.

"Don't worry about them staring. It's their only form of entertainment." I reassured her.

"I know. Like earlier with the guns, just forgot about everyone watching after Finn..."

Finn's P. O. V

"Finn, calm down." Isaiah groaned as he tried to keep up with me.

"No, I won't. Who the fuck does he think he is?" I snapped back.

"That's just how Bonnie is, you know that."

"It doesn't give him any right."

"No, I know-"

I abruptly stopped walking, spinning around to face him."So you agree?"

"I mean, yes, I guess so-"

"Good." I went back to my walking.

"Finn."

"Look, we'll just forget about it for now, and speak to him tomorrow. I'm Finn fucking Shelby, he should listen to me. But tonight, we'll get smashed at the Garrison and-"

"If we're headed to the Garrison, why are we going towards (Y/N) 's flat?"

My footsteps slowed down, realising that he was right. I looked in the direction of her home, trying to brush off the fact that she would be there now, resting after today's work. I sniffed, fixing my suit.

"Come on mate, let's get a drink." Isaiah patted my shoulder, about to steer me away from the flats when we heard laughter.

My instincts forced me to see where it was from. I felt my blood boil and face scrunch up as I saw (Y/N) and Bonnie together, walking arm in arm away from her home. He had pushed it, I thought he was my friend, I was beginning to welcome him into the group, but he had turned around and fucked it all up.

"Finn, leave it. You don't care about anymore, remember?" Isaiah attempted to block my view.

"Is he fucking taking the piss?!" I seethed."He takes my girl after all that happened? Thought we were mates!"

"You've said you don't love her."

"I don't."

He scoffed."I think you do mate."

"Oh fuck off."

"Don't shoot the messenger! Look, if you don't want them to be together so much, then you need to sort it."

"How do you mean?"

"Let's go after them. Crash their little date."

"They'll just argue with us."

"Exactly. We get Bonnie riled up, he throws a few punches for no reason, he upsets (Y/N) and she never wants to see him again."

"You really think he'll start fighting us?"

"If we say the right words."

I pondered the idea for a moment. It was tempting to follow Isaiah's plan. The only way I knew how resolve most things was doing something like this. But (Y/N) was likely to take his side, and I couldn't be sure if we would be able to show a bad side of Bonnie.

"Right, we are going after them. But we'll not be fighting." I decided.

"What? Why?"

"Cause I said so."

Isaiah only replied with a huff, gesturing for me to lead. I straightened my back, peaking around the corner to check where they were. They were at the end of the street, a good distant away from us. I nodded to my friend before we headed after them, staying hidden as they mocked me by being...happy with each other.

(Y/N)'s P. O. V

As Bonnie told me one of his embarrassing stories of being relentlessly chased by one of his horses as a child, I found myself constantly smiling, staring into his eyes. They were wild, like his upbringing, but had a sense of control over me. I was entranced, captivated. And with his peaky cap laid out on the table, his curls were revealed, making me forget that he was even part of the gang for a moment. That small moment was bliss, though ruined when the doors opened again, the customers conversations dying down again. Bonnie stopped speaking too, both of our happy expressions slowly disappearing.

Finn and Isaiah waltzed in, leaning against the bar and ordering a drink. There was no point in trying to hide or leave. They were here because they knew we were. Rubbing my eyes, I didn't look at them again until I noticed their shoes beside me. With a scowl on my face, I tilted my head up, glaring at both of them.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked bitterly.

"Just having a drink, same as you two." Finn said.

"And you couldn't go to the Garrison?"

"Tom has a deal with this pub, as well as many others. And we're allowed to drink where we want."

"Well I wouldn't know any of that, seeing as you never spoke to me, even in the relationship."

Isaiah sat down."We wanted a change of scenery. Nothing exciting happens at the Garrison anymore."

I was hurt that Isaiah was joining in on this. Finn was his friend first and foremost, I understood that, but we were all adults. There was no need for this childish behaviour that led to no where.

"You could have thrown a punch, that's how you normally have fun." I spat.

Bonnie sniggered, covering it up by drinking his beer.

"What the fuck you laughing at?" Finn frowned.

"I mean, she's telling the truth." Bonnie mumbled.

"Always have something to say don't you?"

"Finn, don't start." I warned.

"He started it!"

I shook my head laughing."Oh my god. You've literally just come here to torment us. It's not against the law for us to have a few drinks."

"No, but I could ban you both from here."

"Why? I would just tell Tommy and he would probably lift it."

"You can't undermine me."

"And you can't speak to her like that!" Bonnie raised his voice, attracting even more attention.

"Bonnie-" I tried to stop him, but he and Finn were already staring at each other, tensing up.

"You've done enough gypsy boy."

"You're fucking family are descended from gypsies."

"Guy, stop it. We're going to get kicked out." I tried to get in between them, but nothing broke their glares.

"They can't kick me out, I'm a Shelby."

I rolled my eyes at Finn, standing up as I grabbed me things.

"(Y/N), where are you going?" Bonnie also stood.

"It's been a long day, and I don't want to be embarrassed any further."

I practically stomped out of the pub, ignoring everyone watching me. Clumsily, I shoved on my coat, trying to cool down from my blushing cheeks. I heard the doors burst open even though I was halfway down the street, before Bonnie called my name.

"(Y/N)! Please, wait, I'm sorry!" he called after me.

"Just leave me alone Bonnie, please. There's been enough trouble today." I shouted over my shoulder.

"At least let me walk you home."

I sighed as Bonnie managed to get in front of me, blocking my way."No, please don't."

His face dropped, head slowly nodding."Yeah, sorry. Shouldn't be harassing you like this."

"You're not harassing me Bonnie. It's just...Finn and I haven't been separated for that long, and I don't want this to be the reason that you two despise each other, and then one day you two might turn your back on each other, then one of you winds up hurt or dead; then it's all my fault and the family hates me, and...and I'm haunted by it for the rest of my life."

"Shit, when did you have time to think about all this?"

"It's all I thought about everyday when I was with Finn. It's what you think about when the people you love are in danger." I hid my chuckle as Bonnie smirked."That wasn't me professing my love to you."

He shrugged."I didn't say that."

"Thank you for the drikk Bonnie. I was having a good time until he showed up."

"Speak of the devil."

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Finn leaning against the pub wall, smoking. Turning back to Bonnie, I tried my best to smile, even if I was upset.

"I'll see you tomorrow Bonnie."

Bonnie P. O. V

Watching (Y/N) walk away, I withheld the anger bubbling inside me. She waved to me one last time before disappearing into her building. My steps had force in them as I walked away, unfortunately having to pass Finn on the way.

"Haven't got anything to say to me?" Finn sneered.

"No." I simply replied, continuing to walk.

"Thought not. Know your place."

My head tilted back as I chuckled, stopping in my tracks. I went to snap back at him, tempted to say so many things that he would end up crying. But my dad had always taught my to hold back, save the big finish so that the audience would be happy. That tactic worked out for me a lot, and I knew it wouldn't fail me, not with Finn. My strategy was all planned out, I just hoped it would be a fair fight.

#bonnie gold #bonnie gold one shot #bonnie gold ship #bonnie gold x reader #bonnie gold imagine #bonnie gold imagines #finn shelby imagines #finn shelby one shot #finn shelby imagine #finn shelby x reader #finn shelby #peaky blinders imagines #peaky blinders imagine #peaky boys #bbc peaky blinders #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinders

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kerikaaria · 4 years

Text

Breaking Down Walls

(Seokjin x Reader) Oneshot, College!AU, Bi!Reader

Genre: (PG15) f2l, generous helping of angst, with a healthy dose of fluff

Warnings: Homophobia (side characters), toxic jealousy, false claims of sexual harassment (non-detailed), mentions of an unhealthy/toxic friendship, semi-mature jokes/references, swearing

WC: 17.8k

Description: Being suddenly outcasted and judged by everyone really forces one to build up walls. Having gotten used to not having friends and dealing with the snide comments, you plan on just keeping your head down until you graduate next year. That is, until someone decides they’re going to tear your walls down.

A/N – Thank you to the lovely @moccahobi and @ditttiii for beta-reading for me! I love you guys!

The first few days back at school were always peculiar. Some people were overly excited to start a new year or semester, working hard on their ‘first day back’ outfits and super pumped to do all their work on time (give it a week or two and they’d remember that they loved to procrastinate). There were those who dreaded it, mourning the loss of their vacation and reluctant to pick up their books once again. Others didn’t particularly care either way–just went through the motions, wanting to get through their education in order to reap the supposed rewards at the end of the tunnel.

And then there was me, who didn’t hate the fact that I was coming back to school, but rather hated the fact that I had to deal with my peers in order to do it.

I walked through the hallways, ones familiar to me after spending two full years here, keeping my head down and focusing on nothing but making my way to the next class of the day. So far things had gone as per usual in each of my classes, so when I double-checked my schedule to make sure that I had the right room for the abnormal psychology course before walking through the doorway, I expected the same here as well.

I scanned the room, looking for an ideal seat. Despite many still being open, all of the seats left required sitting next to one of my classmates. Holding back a sigh, I decided to go with the easiest path and picked an empty seat at the end of a row. Barely two seconds after I had sat down the person sitting next to me, along with his friend who was oblivious to the hearts in his eyes, packed up their belongings and looked for different seats to occupy in the class.

Yup, just as expected.

Unfazed, I started emptying my bookbag of the items I needed for the class. After gathering my notebook, pen, and textbook–even though I probably wasn’t going to need it today anyway but hey, I liked to be prepared–I was about to place my bag on the seat next to me, knowing no one was going to want to sit there.

But before I could even turn to look at the chair, it was occupied. By a person. A living, breathing person.

I glanced around the room, figuring that in the short time it took me to get ready for class, the room must have filled up. But no, there were just as many open seats still left in the room. Looking past the person to the next seat over, I could see that even that one was still empty.

This wasn’t a class freshman could take so unless this person lived under a rock, I couldn’t figure out why they would voluntarily sit next to me. As curious as I was to see who was willing to jeopardize their entire social life over this seat, I avoided making eye contact and placed my bag on the floor.

The mystery student made no effort to get my attention or address me, so I relaxed as we waited for the professor to arrive and class to start.

Other than that, the class went by just as boring and ordinary as possible. The professor took ten hours to go over the syllabus that was almost the same for every class, talked about the attendance policy that was the same for every class, and told us our expectations that was - again - pretty much the same for every class. Basically, I didn’t know why the teachers bothered going over every little detail when they had to know we’d already heard it fifty times. Just tell me my final grade depended on this one big project and if I didn’t do it I was screwed, and that was all I needed to know.

The professor finished going over the monotonous formalities and dismissed our class just on time. I slowly gathered my things, preferring to wait until the majority of the others had already fought their way out of the door first before leaving. It was easier to avoid comments I didn’t want to hear that way.

As I finished getting my stuff together and went to stand up I looked to my left, seeing the rebellious classmate just sitting there, looking like he was waiting for something. A beat later, he turned to me and smiled. He smiled?

“Hello,” he greeted, holding out a hand, presumably for me to shake. “I’m Namjoon.”

I cautiously took his hand in mine. “(Y/n),” I responded while I finally got a good look at him. He had bleached blonde hair slicked to the side to expose his forehead. His features looked somehow simultaneously intimidating and friendly.

“It’s nice to meet you, (Y/n).”

If I didn’t dislike being around my peers so much, I wouldn’t really hate eating in the school cafeteria. Unfortunately, the food was paid for as part of the tuition and if I spent my days eating takeout and fast food, I’d be twice as broke as I already was. So I didn’t have much choice other than to eat most of my meals in a room filled with aforementioned peers. Sometimes it felt like I was a sitting duck in here.

I picked my poison for today’s lunch and scanned the room for an empty table. Luckily, there was one over in a corner where, hopefully, I wouldn’t be bothered. I placed my tray on the table before sitting down and taking my phone out to send a text message to the person I was supposed to meet, letting him know where I was and asking if he was on his way.

While I was preoccupied with my phone, I felt the presence of someone standing next to the table. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see it was definitely not who I was waiting for. I mentally rolled my eyes, waiting to find out if this one was going to be typical or original.

“Is this seat taken?” a sickly-sweet voice asked.

“Yes, it is,” I replied apathetically.

She sat down anyway. I spared a quick glance over my phone at her before resuming to stare at my screen as though glaring at the text was going to force him to reply.

“I hear I’m your type,” the girl announced after a moment of silence. It appeared she was taking the typical approach.

I ignored her presence entirely, pretending that I had something interesting to look at on my phone.

“What? Am I not pretty enough for you to pay attention to?” she asked, pretending to be offended.

I actually rolled my eyes. It has nothing to do with looks, I thought. But instead I said, “Why? Would you be willing to roll around in the hay with me if you were?”

Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting me to put her on the spot like that. While she spluttered away, someone else approached the table.

“Excuse me, that’s my seat,” the newcomer said.

She looked up to see who was interrupting her embarrassment. After registering who it was she smirked and let her eyes wander over his figure, checking him out rather blatantly.

I had to stop myself from gagging at the scene.

“Oh honey, there’s no point in trying with her,” she said, attempting a sultry, flirty voice. “You’re not her type.” She stood up and brushed her fingertips along his arm. “You could come sit with me though, I’d love to get to know you.”

He smiled while she batted her eyelashes up at him. “I don’t need her to be interested in me,” he said sweetly before swatting her hand away as his expression turned serious. “She’s my sister; I’d appreciate it if you left her alone. And don’t even try, sweetheart. You’re never getting into these pants.”

Her face instantly paled and she hurried away without another word lest she embarrass herself any more.

My brother sat down with a huff while I tried my best to suppress my laugh. “Sorry I’m late, noona,” he said. “My literature professor apparently doesn’t know how to time manage his classes.”

“It’s alright,” I said. He looked at me concerned, silently asking if I was okay. “I’m fine, Chim. Don’t worry about it, you know I’m used to it by now.” I assured him, finally digging into my meal.

“The only reason people have gotten away with it up until now is because your brother wasn’t here to put them in their place.” He pointed his chopsticks at me. “I’m going to make sure no one treats you like that anymore.”

“Jimin,” I sighed, “you really don’t need to do anything. I appreciate you and your help when you’re with me, but don’t try to be my bodyguard. Try to enjoy your time at school, hmm? Go make some friends!”

“Who said I haven’t made any friends?” he responded defensively. “There’s this interesting kid I got paired up with as my lab partner in biology and we get along pretty well.” His eyes widened and he gasped, excitedly tapping on my hand. “Oh my gosh. Noona, I gotta introduce him to you. He is fine. I don’t swing that way, but holy crap does he make me question if I would for him.”

“Mm, sounds like a great start to a friendship,” I laughed. “So, you’re enjoying school so far?”

Jimin shrugged. “I mean, as much as I can enjoy school I guess. You know me, I don’t even know what I want to do yet.”

While Jimin continued to dig into his food, I more or less just pushed mine around. I did know that, just as well as I knew that our parents wouldn’t have been mad if he wanted to wait to go to school so he could try to figure it out first. And he certainly didn’t need to come to this school of all places.

While I didn’t get bad grades, I wasn’t exactly a star student. I had to work really hard to keep my grades up and even then I was barely above average. But Jimin, he was brilliant. Always class president, always effortlessly intelligent, always amazing in anything he did. Before last year, he was talking about going to schools more prestigious than this one. He didn’t need to be here, and I worried that the only reason he was, was because he felt obligated to me.

“Hey, noona,” Jimin called, waving his hand in front of my face and bringing my mind back to reality. “Instead of looking at your rice like it offended you, why don’t you tell me how your classes are going so far?”

I chuckled at his observation. “Well, they’re going about the same as I expected,” I said, shrugging. “No one bothers me and all the teachers gave us the same exact lecture about the syllabus.” I paused while I finally brought a spoonful of rice to my mouth. “Oh, there was one weird thing though.”

“Weird?” Jimin asked, worried. “What do you mean weird? Did something happen?”

“Oh, no, nothing bad,” I clarified, making him relax. “It’s just, in one of my psych classes yesterday, someone actually voluntarily sat next to me. And not just that, he introduced himself to me after class too. Like he’s trying to be friendly with me?”

“That’s wonderful!” Jimin cheered, smiling so wide his eyes disappeared. “Maybe he’s being friendly because he wants to be your friend.”

“I don’t know, Chim,” I replied, thoughtfully chewing my chicken. “I mean he seemed really nice, but no one has approached me with good intentions ever since… before her.”

“Well, maybe he has some sense and doesn’t give a crap about rumors,” Jimin said around a mouthful of food. “Why don’t you give him a chance, hm? I’ll be your backup in case anything goes wrong.”

I slowly nodded. “I’ll think about it.” We were silent for a few moments until I said, “So, tell me more about this hot friend of yours.”

When I entered the classroom for abnormal psychology the next day, I was a little surprised to see Namjoon sitting in the same seat from two days prior. Despite the fact that he had chosen to sit next to me, and that he was also the one to initiate a conversation (even if it was only introductions), I felt nervous. What if I sat down next to him and he decided he didn’t want anything to do with me?

But then again, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have sat in the same seat… Right? Steeling my nerves, I slowly walked toward the chair. I did my best to try not paying him any attention as I sat down and gathered my items for the class. After setting my bag on the floor, I chanced a glance at him and was relieved to see he was still there.

He turned to me and smiled, but before he could initiate any conversation (not that I thought he would want to) the professor entered the room and started his first actual lecture of the year.

“I’d recommend that you all start chatting and getting to know each other because there will be a few partner assignments in this class, and I will let you pick your own partners,” the professor said as the class was coming to an end. “The first one will be assigned next week.” Then he dismissed the class.

“Do you want to work on the assignments together?” Namjoon asked as soon as the professor was done talking.

Shocked, I turned to him with widened eyes. Did he seriously just ask me that? I was too baffled to say or do anything while he began to pack up his belongings.

“Do you have a class after this one?” he asked instead when I didn’t answer.

I blinked, refocusing on the present. “N-no,” I managed to reply.

“Well, if you’re hungry let’s get some lunch together,” he suggested, picking up my bag to start putting away my things for me.

Realizing that I had been standing there like an idiot, and that there were multiple eyes on us, I hastily grabbed the remainder of my things to put away, Namjoon holding the bag open for me. When I was done, I zipped it up and took it from him, slipping it onto my shoulders.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, following up his offer from a moment ago that I realized I hadn’t replied to.

I tentatively nodded and he smiled, leading me out of the classroom with him. I heard students whispering around us but Namjoon seemed to completely ignore them.

As we walked to the cafeteria, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was being nice to me. Jimin told me to give him a chance, but that was far easier said than done. Ever since that post on the school forum last year, I had been more or less alone. To protect myself I had to quickly learn how to build up walls that I never had before. Anyone who talked to me now did it with an ill intent, wanting to tear me down and make me out to be a bad person.

So why was this boy that I had never met before being so nice to me? I couldn’t believe there was no way he didn’t know about what had happened because I had yet to encounter another student who hadn’t heard about how I was such a terrible person. As much as I wanted to listen to Jimin and deep down hoped for the best, I had to keep my walls up. I couldn’t let my guard down because he was probably going to end up being just the same as everyone else.

We made it to the cafeteria, silently collected the food we wanted, and then he led me to a table he seemed comfortable sitting at. I remained quiet while I started to eat my meal, feeling Namjoon’s eyes on me as he did the same.

“So, you never answered my question,” he said after a few minutes had passed.

I looked up from my tray of food and met his eyes. With furrowed brows, I tried to remember what question he was talking about.

Seeing the confusion on my face, Namjoon chuckled. “About if you wanted to be my partner for the assignments?”

“Oh,” I said quietly. I thought about it for a moment, but really there wasn’t much to think about. Regardless of his possible intentions, chances were no one else would ask me.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I answered, my voice staying quiet out of shyness. The only people I’ve had real conversations with in over half a year were my brother and parents, so my social skills were rather out of practice.

“Awesome.” He smiled widely, dimples I hadn’t noticed before on full display. “We should exchange phone numbers then,” he added as he pulled out his phone and presented it to me.

I entered my number into his phone with shaking hands before handing it back to him. He pressed the call button and I felt my own vibrate in my pocket before he ended the call.

“There, now we can keep in touch,” he said, still smiling. His attention, however, was diverted when he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

“Oh, hyung! Over here!” He waved to get the person’s attention. “I hope you don’t mind, my hyung and I agreed to meet for lunch during this time. I thought you two might get along.” I was curious how he came to any conclusion like that when we had just recently met, not having had any substantial conversations to actually get to know each other yet.

I turned to look at who it was Namjoon was calling to and saw a tall and rather handsome man approaching. His hair was a little longer, bangs parted on either side of his face and he had soft-looking thick lips. He was smiling at Namjoon as he walked up to the table, about to greet him back until he noticed me.

Once Namjoon’s friend’s eyes fell on me, his smile faltered and he looked surprised. His gaze hesitantly flitted back and forth between me and Namjoon and he looked unsure of what to do. Realizing that he must have recognized me and probably felt uncomfortable with the idea of sitting with me, I turned back to Namjoon and spoke up.

“Thanks, Namjoon.” I tried to smile but could feel how forced it was. I quickly started to collect my things. “I’ll see you in class.” I picked up my tray, quickly getting up to look for an empty table to sit at before he had time to respond.

Namjoon quietly called for me once and then I heard some rushed whispering as I walked away but I ignored it, not wanting to think too hard about it. This was why I reminded myself to be careful and not become too hopeful. I just needed to stick to my plan of keeping to myself until I graduated next year. It was only for two years. I could do it.

I found an empty table, thankfully a fair distance from where Namjoon was with his friend and sat down to finish my meal alone, in silence. Just like I was used to.

However, the silence only lasted a couple of minutes until someone suddenly sat in front of me. Shocked, my head snapped up to see Namjoon across the table from me, and his friend standing behind him, looking at the ground.

“Sorry about that, (Y/n),” Namjoon apologized, a soft smile on his face. “I could tell that Seokjin hyung made you feel awkward. We didn’t mean to make you feel unwelcome.”

Namjoon’s friend, Seokjin brought his gaze up to meet mine. “I’m sorry if I made you think that,” he said. “I was just surprised to see you there. I wouldn’t mind sitting with you at all , if you are okay with that.”

It took me a moment to process the words. I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious of how much it seemed Namjoon was determined to be around me, but I decided it was best not to voice my concerns right now. I slowly nodded, Seokjin seeming to relax at the motion and he took a seat next to Namjoon.

“I’m Seokjin,” he said. “I know Joon said my name but I figured it’d be polite to still properly introduce myself.”

“It appears as though you know who I am,” I responded, “but I’ll introduce myself as well. I’m (Y/n). Nice to meet you.” I offered my hand for him to take if he wanted, and he didn’t hesitate to do so. His hand held onto mine gently as he smiled warmly.

“Likewise,” Seokjin said, giving my hand a soft squeeze before letting go.

It was obvious to me that the two were close and seemed to have known each other for a long time. As we sat together, it was mostly Namjoon and Seokjin chatting and every now and then, one of them would address me to bring me into the conversation but I would keep my responses to a minimum. I didn’t want to be rude, but I still remained hesitant to be too open with them.

It didn’t take me long to notice others would look at our table every now and then, and many times my eyes had wandered around to gauge how much attention we were drawing. No doubt they were trying to figure out who was stupid enough to sit with me, and wondering why.

“Hey, (Y/n),” Seokjin said, pulling my attention away from a few tables over where girls were pointing and whispering. “Don’t pay them any attention.”

I suddenly felt self-conscious. Did they notice the attention too? I looked down at my food when I asked, “Does it not bother you that people are watching and whispering?”

“They are stupid,” Namjoon said, scoffing. “It’s none of their business what you or anyone else is doing and they need to learn to keep their noses out of it.” He paused, and I looked up to see him staring right back at me. “And no, it doesn’t bother me. I don’t care for rumors or gossip, so they can say whatever they want about me. It holds no value.”

Seokjin didn’t say much, but he did nod in agreement and gave me a smile. “No one has any right to judge anyway. I like to form my opinions of others based on my own experiences with them, not from what others say.”

Their words made me feel just a little more hopeful that for once, someone didn’t have a hidden motive. That maybe, just maybe, Namjoon and perhaps even his friend Seokjin didn’t want to harm me. I wouldn’t hold onto that quite yet, but I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this light.

Over the past two weeks, Jimin had been telling me a lot about this new friend of his, Taehyung. Basically every time we met up he would start gushing about him. Apparently Taehyung had the best sense of humor and was always making Jimin laugh (to which I reminded him was not difficult to do), was deceivably smart, and a really good listener. Each point that Jimin gave him was another reason for him to tell me how much he thought we would get along.

Which was why I wasn’t opposed to meeting him, especially considering that he was a freshman just like Jimin and may not have heard about what happened last year. From what Jimin told me he did genuinely seem like a nice guy. However, meeting two others as well? That was scary. But Jimin was so sure that it’d be fine and if there was anyone in this world that I trusted, it was my baby brother.

So I made my way to Daydream Café, feeling entirely nervous on the way. It was a place that students here frequented, but it also wasn’t quite yet lunchtime so hopefully most students weren’t out just yet.

A bell rang as I walked through the red-painted door, and immediately I was surrounded by delicious smells from the home-baked treats the little shop sold. I used to come here a lot with my friend up until winter last year, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed the atmosphere. It was genuinely a great place.

“Noona!” I heard Jimin’s voice call out a moment later, and I smiled when I saw where he sat, waving his arm high in the air to get my attention. Sitting next to him was who I assumed to be Taehyung, seeing how comfortable the two of them looked with each other. The other two with them where on the opposite side of the table where I couldn’t quite see them yet.

I approached the table, slightly waving at my brother’s friend when he smiled at me. Jimin got up to come meet me partway, practically dragging me the rest of the way to the table.

“I ordered your favorite for you,” Jimin said, pointing the cup sitting at the seat next to where he was sitting. “And this is Taehyung!” Jimin gestured toward his friend once he stopped pulling on my arm. I had to admit that my brother’s claims about how attractive the boy was were very accurate. I actually had to pause while I took in his seemingly perfect features, highlighted by a big rectangular smile. His bright blue hair reminded me of cotton candy, and it fit him surprisingly well.

Taehyung waved in greeting while Jimin pulled out my chair for me and sat in his own seat. After sitting down myself, I saw the two sitting across from us and my eyes widened in shock, recognizing them instantly.

“These are Tae’s hyungs, Namjoon and Seokjin,” Jimin said. “Well, Seokjin is his actual older brother, Namjoon is their cousin.” The three of them being related certainly made sense with how they each seemed to get the absolute best from the gene pool.

Namjoon and Seokjin also seemed pretty surprised to see me, but their faces both quickly dissolved into smiles. “Actually, we’ve already met,” Namjoon said from his seat next to the wall. “What a coincidence. Nice to see you, (Y/n).”

I smiled in return, having grown a bit more comfortable with them since we first met two weeks ago.

“Oh, really?” Taehyung asked. “How do you know each other?”

“I met Namjoon in my abnormal psych class,” I explained. “We’re doing an assignment together. And I met Seokjin when the three of us ate lunch together during the first week of classes.” I had seen Seokjin a few times after that too, since the two of them shared a dorm and that’s where I would usually meet Namjoon to work on the assignment.

While I was still hesitant to trust anyone other than my brother, I felt more relaxed with the both of them every time I saw them. I couldn’t help but still be scared that it was wishful thinking, but they really did seem like they wanted to be friends.

Jimin beamed. “I told you they were nice! Namjoon hyung must be the one who sat next to you, then.” He looked at Joon, who nodded in confirmation. “See, didn’t I tell you to give him a chance?”

“It’s awesome that your noona is already friends with my hyungs, Jiminie,” Taehyung said. “This make things so much easier. We should all meet up every day!”

“Every day?” Seokjin asked, raising his eyebrows at his brother. “No way. We all have classes, and to be honest I’m not thrilled with the idea of having to see you every day.”

Taehyung frowned. “But Jinnie hyung, didn’t you miss me? We hardly saw each other the last three years, but now I can see you every day!”

“Seems like you’re the one who missed me,” Seokjin retorted before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Don’t let him fool you, Tae,” Namjoon chimed him. “He definitely missed you.”

Seokjin smacked Namjoon’s arm. “I did not!”

While the cousins were laughing and teasing each other, one of the workers at the café approached our table, untying his apron. “Hey guys!” he said as he plopped down on the seat next to Seokjin, across from me.

“Oh hey, Hoseok,” Seokjin said. “You on break?”

“Yeah, I got fifteen minutes before I need to go back.” He turned to look at me and Jimin, a bright smile on his face. “Do I get to be introduced to your new friends here?” he asked.

“This is my friend, Jimin!” Taehyung said, grabbing onto my brother’s arm. “And that’s his sister, (Y/n). She shares a class with Namjoon hyung too.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Hoseok said as he held out his hand for us to shake. Jimin didn’t hesitate to take it, while I was a little slower to follow. “My name is Hoseok. These two-” he gestured to Namjoon and Seokjin “-are practically glued to my side, so if you plan on sticking around them you’ll probably be seeing a lot of me.”

“Yeah because it’s definitely not the other way around,” Namjoon chuckled.

Jimin easily slid into comfortable conversation with everyone, while I mostly sat back and observed. It was a bit overwhelming, somehow feeling welcome and accepted – or at least not unwelcome – with so many people at once after so long. Taehyung was understandable, probably not knowing about the events from last year yet. But I was still trying to figure out Namjoon and Seokjin, and I knew for a fact Hoseok has been attending the school for a few years, having seen him around.

Feeling like I was almost finding somewhere I might belong, it seemed too good to be true.

Today was really beautiful despite fall starting to settle into the air, the heat barely there and breeze calm enough to keep it from feeling too chilled. Being unable to resist the pull of fresh air while the weather lasted, I found myself sitting against a tree in the school’s park, textbook in my lap.

I had become accustomed to spending most of my time in my dorm when I didn’t have class or need to eat, but it got stuffy always being indoors all the time. Days like today were worth spending outside, and usually I could be absorbed enough in my work that I didn’t pay attention to any looks and no one really bothered me.

It seemed that today was one of my lucky days. I successfully spent two hours here so far and had yet to have any intrusions into the bubble I created for myself.

But while I was in the middle of doing my calculus work, I felt someone sit next to me. Realizing my relaxing afternoon of being left alone was apparently over, I began packing up my stuff without acknowledging whoever wanted to interrupt my peace.

“You’re just going to leave when I stopped by to keep you company?” The very familiar voice said.

I halted my actions, turning to see a smiling Seokjin sitting next to me. I relaxed, placing my things back down. “Sorry, Seokjin. I didn’t think it was you.”

His smile faltered. “You figured I was someone else here to bully you.” It wasn’t a question but rather an observation.

“Yeah,” I responded. “That’s pretty much what I have gotten used to. I’m honestly still not used to the idea of there being people who want to talk to me and not do that.”

“I would never,” Seokjin replied. “But I understand what you mean.”

Having already closed my textbook, I decided I could finish later and put it away in my bag. “So, what brings you over here today, Seokjin?”

“You know, you can just call me Jin if you want.” He cleared his throat and looked at the ground when he mumbled, “Or oppa would work, too.”

“Are you?” I asked. “My oppa I mean.”

“Well, you’re a junior like Namjoon right?” Jin replied. “I’m a senior so yeah, I’m pretty sure I am.”

“Oh, okay.” I said. In the three weeks we had known each other, this was actually mostly new information. “Then I’ll try asking again. What brings you out to the park today, Jin oppa?”

A small smile flashed on his face for a split second before he answered. “I was just out enjoying the weather. I figured when I saw you sitting here, I might as well join you. But you can keep doing your work if you want.”

“Eh, I’ve been at it for about-” I checked my phone to see what time it was “-two and a half hours now. So I’m pretty due for a break I think.”

“Oh, good. Glad I could be of help then,” he smiled.

I nodded before resting my head back against the tree behind me. Namjoon and Seokjin had continued to be friendly with me, even outside of class and the assignment Namjoon and I were working on together. After three weeks it became really hard to still be suspicious that they had some kind of hidden agenda and I found myself growing more and more comfortable with them. But I was still determined to keep my walls up, just in case.

We sat in silence together for a few moments, just enjoying the nice weather of the sunny afternoon. Soon, Jin’s phone vibrated and he took it out from his jean pocket. After reading whatever was on the screen, he started looking around.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Not wrong,” he said. “But Tae sent me a picture of the two of us sitting here. So I’m trying to figure out where he is.”

Then, my phone started vibrating. I looked to see my brother was calling me. Sliding the green button on the screen, I answered. “Hey, Jimin. What’s up?”

I could hear laughing on the other end. “Seokjin hyung looks almost paranoid, looking all around like that.”

I rolled my eyes, turning to Jin. “It seems both our brothers are teaming up on us.” Going back to the phone call, I said, “Where are you two? It’s rude to spy on your older siblings.”

I could hear the notification sound of the call ending. But then, “Oh, you mean it’s rude to spy on your little date?” Jimin’s voice said from nearby.

Jin and I turned to our right to see both of our brothers standing there. Jin spluttered, seeming flustered at the fact that Jimin called whatever this was right now – which was most definitely not a date – a date.

“We’re not having a date,” I said plainly. “We’re just sitting here.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Taehyung said. “Looks like a date to me.”

“Yah!” Jin got up to encase Tae in a headlock. “Then what would you call you and Jimin hanging out all the time huh? If I’m on a date, then so are you.”

Taehyung laughed. “No offense to Jimin because he’s totally attractive, but you know I don’t swing that way, hyung!”

While they were arguing, I gathered all my things and stood up as well. “What were you guys up to, though?” I asked Jimin.

“We were just headed over to Daydream Café,” he answered. “Hobi hyung told Tae he saved a slice of his mom’s strawberry cheesecake for him.”

Oh yeah, that was something we had learned after meeting Hoseok last week, too. His parents actually owned Daydream Café, and his mom was responsible for many of the delicious home-baked treats there.

“Do you guys want to come with us?” Taehyung asked, finally out of his brother’s hold.

“Yeah sure, why not,” Seokjin said. “But I’m not third-wheeling you two. So I’ll go if (Y/n) wants to.”

I looked at Jin, shrugging. “Alright. It’s not like I have anything better to do, right?”

We all started on our way to the café, but before we could get very far I heard my name being called. I tensed up, easily recognizing the voice.

“(Y/n)!” she called again. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath before turning around to face her. “I thought that was you. Long time no see,” she said, a smile that I once thought was genuine on her face.

“Hi, Yunhee,” I greeted back, trying to not seem too tense.

Recognizing her as well, Jimin gripped my hand tight and I could almost feel anger radiating off of him despite him now being behind me. “What do you want?” Jimin asked, absolutely no hint of the usual light, playful tone in his voice.

Yunhee took his reaction in stride, ignoring him and instead addressing me again. “I see you’ve managed to make some new friends,” she said, looking at Seokjin and Taehyung.

I remained silent, knowing that whatever I said would only fuel her and once she started going there was no stopping her. I looked next to me, seeing that Seokjin looked deep in thought about something and Taehyung was looking both concerned and confused at what was going on.

“It’s none of your business” Jimin said, still defensive. “We don’t want to talk to you, so please leave us alone while I’m asking nicely.”

I heard a light gasp from Seokjin, his expression lighting up and mouth opening and eyes widening. As quickly as it happened the expression was gone, replaced with a look of absolute disdain aimed right at Yunhee.

“You heard him,” he said, his tone sounding darker than I had ever heard it. There was a spine-chilling authoritativeness to it. “Leave. You’re not welcome here.”

Yunhee merely looked amused, a smirk on her lips and eyebrows raised, but made no move to leave. “You got yourself some pretty defensive friends here, (Y/n).”

Jimin walked around me to stand in front of her, face to face, while he kept a firm hold on my hand. “We told you to leave. You have no right to be talking to my sister.”

She made a sound of realization. “That’s right, you’re little Jimin. I almost didn't recognize you without your chubby little cheeks.” She turned back to me. “I just wanted to have a chat with my old friend. Can’t I do that?”

“You made it very clear last year that you aren’t her friend anymore, you backstabbing bitch,” Seokjin said, moving forward as well. “What don’t you understand about leaving her alone?”

At this point I became aware of just how much of a scene we were causing, many students nearby having stopped to watch the commotion. I tugged on Jimin’s sleeve to get his attention. I gave him a look that I hope told him that I wanted to get out of here, and he luckily seemed to understand.

“I guess we’ll need to leave if you won’t then,” Jimin said. “Come on, noona.” He placed his hand on my elbow, starting to lead me away from her. Seokjin and a still very confused Taehyung followed as well.

Luckily, she didn’t follow or try to say anything more as we walked away. We walked in silence for a little bit while I assumed we were still heading to Daydream Café. Then I remembered something that I heard Seokjin say.

“Jin oppa,” I said to get his attention. He turned to look at me, waiting for me to continue. “You called Yunhee a backstabbing bitch,” I said. “Why did you say that?”

He looked nervous, eyes flitting around and pressing his lips together, so I pushed a little more. “Do you know something?”

His gaze settled on me and he sighed lightly. “If we’re going to talk about that, maybe we should go somewhere more private,” he gently offered.

Now curious of what it was he had to say, I nodded.

“Let’s go back to my dorm?” Seokjin suggested.

“Namjoon will probably be there too, won’t he?” I asked.

“Probably,” Jin replied. “But I think that would honestly be better if he is, if you’re okay with that.”

I thought for a moment before carefully nodding. I assumed that if Seokjin knew something, Namjoon probably did too anyway. “Okay. I guess it won’t make much difference anyway.”

On the way there Taehyung kept looking at me curiously, but he kept any questions to himself for the time being.

Walking through the familiar door to Namjoon and Seokjin’s dorm, I quickly sat on their couch while my nerves started getting the best of me. I had no idea what to expect, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was about to get some answers about why these two didn’t seem to have an aversion to me like everyone else – and whether that was real or not. I looked expectantly at Jin, who had propped himself against his desk, when Namjoon came trudging out of the bathroom, hair damp from a shower.

“Hey guys, what are you all doing here?” he asked, glancing around at the relatively full room.

“We had an encounter with (Y/n)’s ‘friend’ from last year at the park,” Seokjin said. “And I have something I need to talk to her about.” He gave a pointed look to Namjoon, who seemed to understand what he meant and relaxed into the other seat in the room.

“Okay I know you have something to tell her, Jin hyung,” Tae chimed in first, “but I am really confused about what all is going on. I know it’s not technically any of my business, but I just feel like I’m the only one who is in the dark right now.”

I sighed. “Well, I guess basically you are.” I paused, thinking of how to put it. “You know about the school forum right?” I asked, getting a nod from him in return. “Just search for my name on there and you’ll no doubt find it.”

“That’s not right though,” Jin said. “The post on the forum isn’t the truth.”

“How would you know that?” I asked. “Everyone else seems to believe it’s true.” Jimin sat down next to me, wrapping his arms around my stomach.

Seokjin was silent for a few moments, seeming to collect his thoughts. “I knew her. Eunjung.”

The use of the name surprised me. “The post didn’t say her name. How do you…?”

“She was my friend at the time,” Jin continued. “I saw her after that post was made, and she was bragging about what happened. What she and Yunhee had done to you.” The look on his face couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than disgust. “She was proud of herself, thinking she did something good. That you… That there was something wrong with you and she was putting you in your place.”

Jimin’s arms tightened around me. “That’s terrible,” he said. “She was really that smug about slandering someone like that?”

Seokjin nodded. “I never knew she was like that. That was the last time I talked to her. I couldn’t stand even just looking at her after that.”

“And Namjoon?” I asked, turning to him. He seemed surprised that I was addressing him. “Did you know about that?”

“Yeah,” Joon responded. “Yeah, I did. Hyung was so appalled by it that he told me right after he found out.”

Learning that the two of them really did know the post from last year was only based on false events made me feel much more at ease. It was as if I were able to take a breath of fresh air for the first time in a long time, and I realized that while it may not be easy to just yet, I could honestly trust them.

“So is that why you sat next to noona then?” Jimin asked.

Namjoon hesitated for a moment. “I mean, it's one reason why I didn't automatically dislike her. In all honesty, I had entered the classroom right after her and saw that when she sat down the students sitting next to her left. It made me angry, so I just decided on the spot I wanted to sit next to her. But also – I said this before and I'll say it again – I don't care about rumors and gossip in the first place.”

“Okay,” Taehyung interrupted. “So, what I’m gathering is that this Eunjung and Yunhee are royal bitches and made a post on the school forum making you look bad?”

I hummed. “More or less, yeah.”

“So, if what they posted is untrue why don’t you just tell everyone?” Taehyung added, treating it like that was the easiest thing ever.

“You don’t think I tried?” I responded. “I tried, I really did. No one would believe me. I mean, why would they? They didn’t just make fun of me. They made me out to be this really bad person. Someone who, if what they were claiming was true, wouldn’t be entirely undeserving of how I started to be treated.”

“But you’re not,” Jimin said. “You’re nothing like what they said.”

“Can I ask?” Taehyung asked hesitantly. “What did happen?”

“(Y/n),” Yunhee singsonged as she sat next to me.

I hummed in response, barely paying attention to what was going on. Suddenly, she poked me in my side, making me jump and yelp. “Hey! What was that for?”

“You’re not paying attention to me,” my closest friend pouted. “But now that I do have your attention, tell me who it is.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Who what is?”

“Oh, come on! I know that look!” She scooted closer to me, grabbing my arm. “You got a crush on someone, don’t you?”

I pursed my lips together as I felt heat rise to my cheeks before answering with a small nod.

Yunhee squealed. “I knew it! Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

“I-It’s no one,” I said, hesitant to admit my secret to her. Despite being friends for five years, I couldn’t help but still be afraid of what she would say.

She whined in disappointment. “Oh! I know, why don’t I try guessing who it is?” She hummed as she thought of her first guess. “Is it that guy who sits next to us in math?”

“Nope.”

“How about the guy-”

“Nope.”

“Is it that boy-”

“No!” I laughed. “It’s not any of them.”

“How do you know?” she pouted again. “You didn’t even hear who I was guessing.”

“Don’t need to, they’re wrong,” I shrugged.

She playfully glared at me. “Well if you won’t let me guess then you can at least just tell me who it is. The suspense is killing me!”

I contemplated it for a moment, wondering if it would really be okay to tell her. Well, five years of friendship couldn’t mean nothing, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt. “It’s um… Someone from my literature class.”

“Ooohhhhh, what’s his name?” she bounced up and down a few times in excitement.

“Um…. H-her name is Eunjung,” I said, feeling nervous now that it was out there and I couldn’t go back.

“Huh?” Yunhee said, suddenly no longer as excited as she was before.

Maybe this was a mistake. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” I started standing up, ready to walk away and just pretend like that never happened, but her grip on my arm kept me from leaving.

She laughed nervously. “No, no, don’t leave!” she said. “I’m sorry, I just… I wasn’t expecting that. I never knew that about you.”

“Well, it’s not exactly something I can just go around telling everyone,” I said, nervously rubbing the back of my neck. “Not that you’re just anyone! It’s just… I wanted to wait to tell you and then it just kind of never came up or was relevant and I somewhat forgot about mentioning it.” I paused, waiting to see if she would say something. When she didn’t, I asked, “Are you weirded out, or-“

“Oh, no! No I’m not,” she smiled at me. “Don’t worry! But anyway, have you talked to her? This Eunjung?”

“Not really,” I replied, relaxing. “I haven’t really had the guts to yet.”

“Well, you should! You can’t exactly ask her on a date if you don’t talk to her first, right?” Yunhee said.

“You think I should talk to her? I don’t know, how am I even supposed to know if I’m her type?”

“Can’t know until you try!” Yunhee singsonged.

With her encouragement, I eventually worked up the courage to strike a conversation with Eunjung, and we ended up getting along really well. Casual conversations about class turned into getting to know each other. Short text conversations turned into staying up late talking for hours. The more I talked to her, the more I found my distant crush turning into real feelings for her.

And the more time we spent together, the more I paid attention to the little things she did. When she would let her hand linger on my arm just a little longer, when I’d look over to her to see her already staring at me, when she’d naturally and casually wrap an arm around my waist while we walked. I was worried the signals I was seeing were all my imagination or that I was exaggerating them, but they started becoming so frequent I figured there was no way they could be. So one day, I worked up the courage to ask.

“Do you want to go to dinner with me?” I rushed out as Eunjung was walking toward my door to leave.

She turned around, tilting her head while she processed my words. “Dinner?”

“Y-yeah,” I replied, suddenly embarrassed.

“You mean… like a date?” Eunjung asked as she slowly walked back in my direction.

I tried to not show my surprise at her clarification. “If- If you want it to be,” I said so quietly I would have been surprised if she heard it.

But she did, and she smiled at me. “Yes. I’d love to go to dinner with you.”

We scheduled a date, and I found a decent enough restaurant that wouldn’t completely break my bank account to take her out to. Despite being super nervous at first, I quickly relaxed when she acted just the same as she always did with me. We had a really nice dinner, followed by a stroll around a park where she took the initiative to hold my hand as we walked side by side. At the end of the date we went back to the dorm building, and I dropped her off at her room first.

“Thank you for tonight,” I said, a big smile on my face. “I had a really nice time.”

“I should be thanking you for planning such a nice date,” Eunjung said, taking my hand in hers.

I felt a blush paint my cheeks. “It was nothing.” I lifted our joined hands, smiling dumbly at the sight and rubbed small circles into the back of her hand.

When I looked back up at her, I barely had time to even see what was happening before she leaned in and placed her lips on mine. It was a short, gentle kiss. But I loved it, nonetheless.

“So, could I take you out again sometime?” I asked as she opened the door to her room

Passing through the doorway, she turned around and hummed before saying, “How about I let you know tomorrow?”

I was so elated that night. I had been on a few dates before, but I had never felt like any of them had gone as well as that. It was crazy and dangerous, how quickly I found myself falling for this girl. The last thing she said played in my mind as a promise that we would continue seeing each other, and I went to sleep so happy and looking forward to what was to come.

But the next day, my elation quickly dissipated when things seemed really off on campus. All over school, people were whispering and I was pretty sure many kept staring at me. I wasn’t one to feel paranoid, but something was weird and I just couldn’t shake off a bad feeling.

It was when I walked into my first classroom and it went deathly silent so quickly that I really knew something was wrong. Having noticed that many people were also glued to their phones, I thought the most likely place for whatever it was that was making everyone act like that would have been the school forum.

Sitting in my seat and logging in, I found the most popular post at the top where my name was prominently placed in the title along with words that I could hardly even believe. I suddenly felt sick, and I hadn’t even read the actual post yet. Without caring what other people would think about it, I picked up my bag and hurried out of the class, heading toward the closest bathroom and locking myself in a stall.

LESBIAN STUDENT PARK (Y/N) SEXUALLY HARASSES PEER

Needing to find out what could have possibly led to that title, I began to read through the words and what I found was unbelievable. The post claimed that after befriending another girl – whose identity wasn’t revealed – I started putting unwanted advances on her, until eventually pressuring her into going on a date.

It continued to claim that I kept being touchy throughout dinner and on our walk, making her continuously feel uncomfortable. And best of all, the post claimed that when I took her back to her room I forced her to kiss me, and tried to force even more on her – things that I would never do and couldn’t even imagine. It said that she managed to get me off of her before she rushed into her room and cried herself to sleep.

The further into the post I got, the more my hands shook and the blurrier my vision became as tears clouded my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The whole time I was nothing but respectful and kept my distance until I was sure that it seemed like she was looking for the same thing I was.

She had been sending me hints. She was the one who clarified that when I asked her to dinner it was a date and said she’d ‘love to go’ with me. She held my hand. She kissed me. I let her control the pace, handed the reins to her so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. So what was all of this?

After spending who knows how long getting over my initial shock and I was starting to be able to think a little more clearly, I noticed something a bit odd about the post.

There were pictures.

A picture of us eating dinner, of us holding hands in the park, of our kiss outside her room. Her face was blurred in every one, but of course mine was fully visible for anyone to see. How were there pictures? If there were pictures… Someone had to have followed us. I went over anything else I could remember from last night to see if something stood out. Then I remembered our last exchange.

‘So, could I take you out again sometime?’

‘How about I let you know tomorrow?’

It clicked. She planned this. She planned this from the start. She said that because she knew this post would be on the forum and it would be her answer – a blatantly obvious ‘no way in hell.’ But, why? How?

I scrolled all the way back up the page to look at the username of the person posting. Our usernames were assigned by the school and contained our real names, a measure to prevent us from abusing the forums.

I felt sick all over again when I saw the username NYunhee427.

The room was silent after I finished explaining what had happened last year.

Taehyung was the first to break it. “That is… absolutely disgusting.” He said. “Why would anyone do that?”

I shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not sure why. I mean, I guess I just found out why Eunjung did. Leave it to me to get a crush on a girl who’s homophobic,” I laughed humorlessly. “But as for Yunhee? I still don’t know. When I talked to her, she didn’t give me a reason. She just confessed that after I started talking to Eunjung, she told her about my crush and they decided to start this plan. So from the start, Eunjung purposely pretended like she was interested in order to bait me.”

“It still baffles me,” Jin chimed in. “I don’t agree with her point of view, but I disagree even more with the way she did things. If she wasn’t interested, she should have just told you no and walked away. But to purposely fool you, and then tell everyone that you harassed her when that didn’t happen at all?”

“It’s sick,” Jimin said, his voice muffled from where his head was buried in my hair.

“Oh and another star to go into the inaccuracies column,” I added, “is that I’m not a lesbian, I’m bisexual. Yunhee should have known that, but I don’t know. Maybe she thought me talking about boys before was all fake? Or maybe she figured calling me a lesbian would make a bigger impact.”

“She’s such a royal bitch,” Jimin said, pulling himself away from me for the first time since he sat down. “I still can’t stand that she did that to you.”

“Didn’t anyone question why there were pictures?” Taehyung asked out of nowhere. He must have been thinking about it for a bit.

“Oh yeah, some people noticed that was weird,” I said. “But Yunhee just said that Eunjung told her about what I was ‘doing’ to her and asked her to follow us just in case she needed help.”

“Oh yeah because that makes sense,” Taehyung said. “Her going to your supposed friend for help.”

I shrugged. “People didn’t think that far.”

“And people wouldn’t listen,” Seokjin said. “They believed Yunhee and the post because there was ‘photo proof.’ They didn’t care what we said to tell them it wasn’t true.”

I looked over at Seokjin. “We?”

“Well,” Namjoon said, “I’m sure it’s not really a surprise that it was something the students wouldn’t shut up about for a while. People would say stuff to us or around us and we would voice our oppositions, but they didn’t care. They’d say we were blind and stupid. When in reality, that’s exactly what they were.”

“Thank you,” I found myself saying. “For trying.”

Seokjin offered me a small smile. “I’m sorry I never talked to you before. I saw how others would treat you when they did, and I figured you wouldn’t believe that a stranger was on your side so easily.”

I smiled back. “You’re right, I wouldn’t have believed you. To be honest, I still had trouble believing you guys up until today. I wanted to, but I just had too many bad experiences since that day to fully trust anyone other than Chim. I’ve built up walls, and I don’t know if I can just suddenly take them down, but knowing all this now I can at least say that I’m glad I didn’t push you guys away.”

“Well,” Seokjin said, “if you want those walls broken down, we’d be more than happy to help.”

Seokjin really wasn’t joking. Within the last month, the three of them fully absorbed both me and Jimin into their friend group. Rarely did I eat at the cafeteria without at least two others now, and Jin especially seemed really adamant about bringing me out of my shell.

While all of them were very welcoming and nice, there had really been a huge shift with Seokjin in particular. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been friendly with me before, but ever since everything was laid out on the table there hadn’t been a day where he didn’t at least contact me, if not spent some time with me in person.

Today was no different–yet again, I found myself at Daydream Café. The biggest thing that had kept me away from this place within the last year was the fact that Yunhee and I loved to hang out here together. I had found myself here only one time after everything had happened and I felt lonelier than ever, suddenly having no one to share my time with.

But now things were a bit different. I could still feel the weird looks from other students here and there, but I wasn’t alone. I was with my new friends–a term that I was still getting used to thinking. Taking a sip of my drink, I looked across the table at Seokjin who gave me a smile. Next to him were Hoseok and another friend we had been introduced to, Yoongi. And next to me sat Jimin.

“What was up with that girl sitting with you in the cafeteria earlier today?” Hoseok asked, taking a bite of the pumpkin-flavored desert we were all sharing.

I shrugged. “Who knows. Apparently she’s a freshman and somehow heard that I’m into girls but not about what everyone thinks of me. She was pretending to flirt and be interested.”

“Maybe she actually was interested,” Seokjin said, only half serious.

I laughed. “Yeah, right. After how many girls have come up to me saying, ‘I hear I’m your type. Let’s go on a date,’ in the past year, I can tell when they’re full of shit. And trust me, she was.”

“Good thing she didn’t stick around when we got there, then,” Jimin said.

“She was so unbelievably awkward as soon as you sat down, Jimin,” Hoseok laughed.

I observed as Yoongi smiled softly at Hoseok while he laughed. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but I felt like there was something there that I was missing.

After Hoseok stopped laughing Yoongi looked at me, raising his eyebrows. “Why do you keep staring like that?”

I felt my cheeks heat up, embarrassed at being caught. “S-Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude.”

“Just go ahead and ask,” Yoongi said.

It was my turn to be curious. “What do you mean? Ask what?”

“I see you trying to figure out what’s going on with me and Hoseok,” he answered.

“Oh!” Hoseok said. “I guess we haven’t mentioned it, huh? Sorry, we’re just kinda used to everyone around us knowing.” Hobi lifted his hand from where it was under the table, showing that it was entwined with Yoongi’s. “Yoongi hyung is my boyfriend,” he said.

“Ah, that makes a lot of sense,” Jimin said. “How long have you two been together?”

“Three and a half years,” Yoongi said casually as he pulled their hands back underneath the table. “We’re not usually very obvious about it.”

“Yeah,” Hoseok said, mouth turning downward a little. “Can’t always be sure how people will react.”

“Don’t I know that all too well,” I said, staring at my drink sitting on the table, and Jimin placed a comforting hand on my back. I felt something brush against my free hand on the table and looked up a little to see Jin gently placing his warm hand on top of mine.

“Well, you don’t need to ever worry about that with us,” Seokjin said, giving a soft smile.

“And for the record,” Hoseok said nervously, “Yoongi and I don’t believe what everyone else says about you, either. Just in case we haven’t made that clear already.”

I felt a smile slowly grow on my lips. “Thank you.”

“Well, I should be getting to class,” Yoongi said, finishing his iced americano and pushing his chair back.

“I’ll walk you, hyung,” Hoseok said, standing up with Yoongi. “We’ll see you guys later!”

As they waked away, Hoseok waving goodbye, I could feel Jimin shifting around next to me.

“And I promised Jungkook I’d give him a call,” Jimin said. For some reason, he kept moving his gaze between me and Seokjin as he talked. “So, I’m going to get going now. Bye!”

Before I could blink, he got up and rushed to the door, leaving just me and Seokjin left at the table.

Jin seemed to be as flustered as me by his sudden exit, taking a moment to register what happened. “Alrighty then,” he finally broke the silence before removing his hand from mine and taking a sip of his tea. “Who’s Jungkook?”

“Oh, he’s Jimin’s best friend from back home,” I said. “He’s younger than Jimin, so he’s still in high school.”

“Ah, okay,” Jin replied before we fell into a bit of silence.

With it now just being the two of us and the comfortable quiet that hung in the air, I started to feel more conscious of the other people around us. Particularly of the next table over where a girl was whispering quite loudly with some choice words to describe me with.

I could tell Jin heard it as well, seeing him instantly tense up. “Why don’t we get going?” he offered, acting nonchalant. I just nodded in response before gathering my things and walking outside into the chilly autumn air.

As soon as we were out the door, Jin started striking up a random conversation with me. He was always doing this. Whenever we’d hear people talking about me or someone would say something to me, he made it a habit to start talking about something else as soon as possible.

I knew he did it to keep my mind off of what was said. By this point, there wasn’t really any more emotions for me to get out or work through with the situation–it had been going on for so long. So instead of going the ‘let’s talk about this’ route, Jin would do what he could to keep my mind off of it as much as possible.

But this time, I just found myself thinking about something else, instead. While Jin was rambling on about something–I think I heard him complaining about something to do with his business management course–I was examining his face, trying to will his inner thoughts and feelings to write themselves on his skin so I could understand him and why he did this.

At some point, he had stopped rambling and turned to me, apparently waiting for me to answer a question I hadn’t heard.

I blinked, refocusing my attention to reality. “Sorry, what was that?” I asked.

Jin gently shook his head. “I know you weren’t listening,” he said, but he didn’t sound accusatory, just understanding. “What’s on your mind, (Y/n)?”

Put on the spot, I wasn’t sure how to voice my thoughts. Seokjin waited patiently while I tried to put them together, and then contemplated if I really should say them out loud.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Jin assured, noticing my hesitance. “But I want you to know that you can trust me. I hope I’ve done enough to prove that to you.”

“You definitely have,” I said, barely audible. “I just… Sorry, I’m having trouble putting my thoughts together.” Jin nodded in understanding, remaining silent while he waited for me to continue. I took a few moments, looking around at the trees colored in reds and yellows while I figured out how to voice my thoughts. “I guess I’m just trying to figure out why you try so hard.”

Jin stopped in his tracks suddenly, eyeing me curiously. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

“You’re just always putting such an effort into trying to make me feel comfortable and welcome,” I elaborated. “Even just now, I know you were only talking about random things to keep my mind off of what other people were saying.”

“Well, that’s what friends do, don’t they?” Jin asked, still clearly confused about why I had to point it out. “We are friends, right?”

“Yes. At least, I hope we are,” I answered bashfully. I looked forward as I continued walking. “But I wonder if you do it because you feel some kind of… obligation to be nice to me. Maybe to try to make up for what I’ve been experiencing.”

“(Y/n),” Seokjin said, placing a hand on my shoulder and turning me toward him, making us stop once again. “Is that what it seems like to you?” His voice was gentle and his expression full of concern.

I shrugged, staring at my feet. “I just worry. I told you it would be hard for me to accept all this for a while.”

“Well, let me put your mind at ease,” Jin said, lifting my chin with his forefinger. “As much as I wish you never had to experience everything you’ve gone through the past year, I don’t feel any obligation toward you. Everything I do for you, I do because I consider you my friend and I care about you. If you need me to back off a bit, I will do that for you. But I can’t tell you how much I’ve been enjoying spending time with you this year so far.”

Jin moved the hand on my shoulder to the middle of my back to gently usher me forward and continue on our way, dropping it away once we were walking again. “Every time I spend time with you, I see that wall of yours slowly come down. A little more of your personality, the part of you that you’ve kept hidden from everyone comes out and it makes me so happy to see, and I realize that I really like who you are a little more each time. I know you haven’t shown us the entire real you yet, but I can’t wait for the day that you do.”

Looking at him, I could see him smiling softly and his eyes full of… something. Care? Adoration? Whatever it was, it made his eyes look like they were sparkling and I found myself both wanting to never look away and too embarrassed to keep looking. I managed to give him a smile before ultimately tearing my gaze away with a blush on my cheeks and feeling my heart race. How seeing him like that made me feel was definitely something I wasn’t going to be examining anytime soon.

“Thank you, Jin oppa,” I said, barely above a whisper. “I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say something that sounded that sincere to me in a long time.

We walked the rest of the way back to the dorms in comfortable silence, while I hoped Jin couldn’t tell the battle going on inside my head to keep thoughts that shouldn’t be there out. If I were honest with myself, it wasn’t the first time those kinds of thoughts surfaced in my mind. But I couldn’t let them take hold at all. I’d found new friends, and I wasn’t going to ruin it by letting my heart run off with fantasies at one of the first people to show me kindness like Jin has.

If only that was as easy to control as I wanted it to be.

Seokjin walked me back to my door first and before I could even think about the words, I asked, “Do you want to come in for a little bit?” I internally grimaced at myself for not being able to control my tongue.

Jin however, seemed pleased with my offer when he smiled and said, “Of course.”

This was the first time I had openly invited any of my new friends into my dorm. Luckily, I was a relatively clean person so there weren’t any big messes around for me to fix and he wasn’t going to get an accidental look at my underwear selection.

After taking a quick look around, Jin made himself comfortable on the lone couch in the corner. “You keep your room nice and clean,” he commented, seeming to approve. “I wish you could rub that off on Joon. I’m the only reason our room isn’t a disaster.”

I chuckled as I poured us both some water from the kitchenette. “If you couldn’t get him to be more organized after being with each other for your whole lives, I don’t think I can do much.” I handed him his glass as I sat next to him.

Jin threw his head back when he laughed heartily. “That’s very true.”

I was surprised at how easily the two of us settled into conversation, chatting literally about anything. The nervousness I initially felt when I invited him in without thinking was soon long gone and replaced by a comforting warmth, wrapping around me like a blanket that I never wanted to let go of.

“You’re kidding!” I laughed when Jin recounted the story of when Namjoon found out about Hoseok and Yoongi’s relationship.

“I’m serious!” he said. “He walked into the room and saw them kissing, screamed like a little girl and ran down the hallway, tripping and knocking over this jade statue my mom had. He fell flat on his face and started crying.”

I doubled over sideways onto the couch as I couldn’t stop laughing, holding onto my stomach. “Oh my gosh, he must have been mortified.”

“Oh, he was,” Jin said, having a hard time talking between his own fits of laughter. “So were Hobi and Yoongi. They thought he was uncomfortable about them, but it turned out he was just shocked and utterly embarrassed about catching them. And then even more embarrassed by his fall.”

“That is definitely one way for your friends to find out about your relationship,” I mused as I righted myself and calmed down. I turned to look at Jin, whose gaze was already on me with a bright smile.

“There she is,” he said quietly.

I tilted my head, confused. “What do you mean?”

“The you behind that wall.” Jin reached his hand out to brush back some of my hair that had fallen in my face during my laughing fit and rested it on my cheek. “I’m really happy to see the real you come out like that.”

I felt my face flush while I tried to not smile too much. There was that look in his eyes again–the one that made them sparkle. Something about it was so captivating that I couldn’t look away, and Seokjin didn’t seem to want to break the eye contact anytime soon.

“I don’t want to overstep,” Jin started, seeming to think carefully about each word that left his mouth, “but I also want to be honest with you.” He took in a deep breath before continuing. “(Y/n), I-”

My ringtone rang out into the room, interrupting whatever it was Seokjin was about to say and bursting the bubble that was created around us. With a quiet sigh, Jin dropped his hand away from where it still rested against my cheek.

After shaking off the fuzzy feeling that had invaded my mind, I recognized the song playing as the one I set for Jimin. “Hey Chim, what’s up?” I asked when I answered the call.

“Noona, where are you right now?” he responded, sounding out of breath.

There was an urgency in his voice that made me concerned. “I’m in my room. Why? Is something wrong, Chim?”

“Okay, good,” he said. “Just- just stay there, okay? Don’t go anywhere. I’m on my way.”

“Jimin, what is going on?” I asked again, entirely confused.

“I’ll explain when I get there. Just trust me when I ask you to not leave your room, okay? And don’t go on the school forum or Twitter or anything. I’ll be there in five minutes, tops.”

He hung up the call before I had the chance to ask anything else, leaving me an utterly bewildered mess.

I looked at Jin who, being close enough to have heard the call as well, looked just as confused as me.

“What was that about?” he asked, but it wasn’t really directed towards me.

“I have no idea,” I said, trying to revisit the conversation in my head. “He said he’s on his way here and to… not look at the school forum.”

As soon as the words left my mouth Seokjin was on his phone, most likely doing exactly what Jimin asked me not to. It only took a few moments for his fingers to stop in their tracks, his face looking shocked before quickly changing into anger.

“Yeah, don’t check the school forum, alright,” he mumbled. “What the fuck is this girl’s problem?”

With his reaction, I quickly went to take a look myself. When I made it to the forum, I had no trouble finding the post that Jimin obviously didn’t want me to see. It would have almost felt like déjà vu, if my initial reaction this time hadn’t been to laugh incredulously.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, scoffing.

Sitting prominently on the first page of the forum was a post titled ‘PARK (Y/N) FINDS ANOTHER VICTIM TO PREY ON,’ posted by Yunhee. Skimming through the post, I saw a picture of me and another girl sitting in the cafeteria. I didn’t really care about the contents because I knew it was full of nothing but lies. But looking closely at the picture, I was able to recognize the other girl even though her face was blurred.

“That’s the girl we were talking about earlier,” I told Jin. “The one who sat with me before Jimin and Hoseok got there.”

“Well, that’s just great,” he said, running a hand through his hair and clearly frustrated.

It wasn’t long before there was a knock at my door and I heard Jimin’s voice calling through to let me know it was him.

I got up to open the door and he hurried in, swiftly closing and locking the door behind him. “Noona, you haven’t looked at the forum, have you?” he rushed out.

I showed him my phone which was still in my hand, and he sighed.

“I told you not to look,” he said, concern lacing his features.

“Well,” Seokjin said, making Jimin jump in surprise since he hadn’t noticed him yet, “if you explicitly say, ‘don’t look on the forum,' it kind of makes us curious about what was on the forum.”

“Hyung! I didn’t know you were here.” My brother relaxed a little. “Well at least you weren’t by yourself when you saw it,” he said, looking at me closely. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Chim,” I answered. “I’m more in disbelief than anything. I don’t get why she’s doing this again.”

“Show me your class schedule,” Jimin said suddenly.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Why?”

“Because you’re not going anywhere alone,” he said. “I need to know your schedule, and I’m going to talk to our friends and see how we can arrange that.”

I sighed. “Jimin, I told you not to try to be my bodyguard-”

“Yeah, that was before this-” he pointed at his phone, where he had the forum open as well “-happened. Things are a bit different now.”

“How?” I asked. “It’s not like people ever stopped bothering me, and they will keep doing it now.”

“You told me just a few days ago that it’s calmed down a lot since last semester,” Jimin said. “But this post is going to make it worse again, just like when the post last year went up. And I am not letting you go through that alone again.”

Not knowing what to say, I turned to Jin in hopes of some assistance.

“Sorry, (Y/n),” Jin said. “I actually agree with Jimin. That’s probably why she did this. She wants people to start bothering you again. For what reason, I don’t know. But if you think I won’t go out of my way to make sure you have one of us with you as much as possible, then you clearly don’t know how much I care about you.”

I could have sworn I saw a smirk appear on Jimin’s face for a moment, but it was gone so fast I couldn’t tell if I imagined it or not. “Well, that’s settled then. Let’s see if we can get everyone here and come up with a plan.”

I sat down, giving into their insistence. While I had gotten more or less used to everything by now, imagining things going back to being just as bad as they were those first few weeks after the original post made my stomach drop—even more so when I imagined having to go through it on my own again. I knew there wasn’t much I could do, so I figured I should be happy with the fact that I had people to help me this time.

But there was one thing I knew I wanted to do. I needed answers, and I was going to get them one way or another. I needed to talk to Yunhee.

“Noona, I’m not letting you do this alone,” Jimin insisted once again as I walked down the hallway.

“Jimin, I have to,” I responded. “This is something I need to talk to her about on my own. If I bring you in there with me, it’s only going to make it look like I can’t handle it myself.”

It had been four days since Yunhee posted to the forum again and what Jimin expected was exactly what happened. People were so much more vocal about their thoughts about me, not even bothering to whisper their accusations and choice words. Whenever I was alone—which was mostly during classes—it was the worst. But between Jimin, Seokjin, and the others, we were able to work out a way for one of them to walk me between each class and be with me almost all of the time.

Hoseok had also talked his parents into letting me eat at the café for lunch and dinner. They had a private room in the back where they would rest and eat, and his dad was kind enough to make some extra portions for me. They didn’t even need us to explain the situation, having heard gossip from the students who frequented the café. And luckily, they already knew from their son how untrue it all was so they were more than willing to help me out.

I had already known which room in the dorm was Yunhee’s, having visited it many times before, so all I had to do was wait for a time when she was in her room so I could confront her. I knew for sure she was there right now, and I was more than eager to find out what her issue was and try to put a stop to all of this.

I paused in front of her door about to knock, when Jimin grabbed ahold of my arms to stop me again. “Are you sure I can’t come in with you?”

“Please, Chim,” I said. “I want to do this on my own. I need to.”

He sighed and slowly let go of his grip on me. “Alright, fine. But I’m staying right here. You call for me if you need me, understand?”

“I will,” I said, figuring I wouldn’t need him but knew agreeing would put him at ease. “Thank you.” I offered him a smile in gratitude before I took in a breath and finally knocked on her door.

“I know it’s you, (Y/n),” I heard Yunhee call from inside. “I heard you talking.”

“Well, then you know why I’m here,” I said firmly. “And we need to talk. You might want to let me in before I make a scene out here in the hallway.”

There was silence for a few moments before the door clicked as she unlocked it, slowly opening it to allow me in.

After I walked in and she shut the door behind us, Yunhee leaned against it and crossed her arms. “Well?” she asked. “What is it you feel like you need to say.”

I felt anger boiling in my stomach. “You know exactly what I’m here to talk about,” I said, clenching my fists. “You know just as well as I do that everything you posted, the other day and last year, is bullshit.”

Yunhee shrugged. “Well, they’re already out there, so I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“Why would you even post them in the first place?” I asked. “You and Eunjung did enough damage last year, and I know it must have been you who asked that freshman to approach me the other day. Why would you do all of this?!”

Yunhee didn’t answer; she just looked at me with an unreadable expression.

“I haven’t done any of the things that either of those posts claimed, and you damn well know it.” I took in a deep breath to try to calm down a little and gather my thoughts. “I still don’t understand why you started this, Yunhee. I considered you my best friend. When I opened up to you about my orientation, I didn’t think you’d just throw five years-worth of friendship out the window and stab me in the back.”

“Stab you in the back?” Yunhee pushed herself away from the door. “Well, I felt like you stabbed me in the gut. For five whole years you couldn’t tell me that you were into girls?”

“I told you why I didn’t say anything before then. And apparently it was for good reason, seeing how you plotted against me with a homophobe and just tossed me aside when I did!” I rubbed my face with my hands in frustration. “Did I really disgust you that much that you felt all of that was necessary?”

“Disgust?” she asked, walking toward me. “No, (Y/n). You are completely missing the mark here. What happened was that the moment you decided it was appropriate to come out to me, it just had to be when you had found some other random girl—who you hadn’t even talked to at that point, might I add—to fawn over. In all the years I knew you, I never thought that you would have even looked at a girl like that. But you did, and instead of being someone that you knew and who cherished you, it had to be some random chick?!”

“W-What?” I had to run the last sentence she said through my head again to really understand the meaning behind her words. “No way. Were you- were you jealous?”

“Yes, I was jealous!” Yunhee admitted. “Here I was, thinking there was no way you could care about me the way I cared about you, that I was absolutely not your type. But then I found out I was wrong in the same breath that you confessed your crush on some other girl. Of course I'd be jealous!”

Taken aback, I needed a moment to absorb the new information before I could respond. “Well first of all, it's not like you ever told me that you were into girls either-"

“How could I when you were the only girl I had eyes for and I thought it was hopeless?” Yunhee said.

“Okay, I can see your point there,” I said. “But you could have told me after I was open about it! It didn't have to be the same day or even soon after but, Yunhee, there were so many things you could have done instead of letting your jealousy drive me away and make up lies about me!”

“I didn't know what else to do!” She shouted, flailing her arms in the air. “You clearly weren't interested in me like that and I was just so angry.”

“You said you cared about me as more than a friend, but that didn’t stop you from kicking me to the curb and starting all these rumors that not only alienated me but made me look like I was some terrible person when I hadn’t done anything wrong! That doesn’t exactly look like the actions of someone who cares. Did you even feel bad at all?”

“Of course I did,” she almost mumbled. “When I started it, I just wanted you to feel rejected, like how I did. The date and the post were all Eunjung’s idea. I had let Eunjung use my account to post it, and I didn’t know she was going to go that far with it. Once I read through it after it was posted, I felt really bad for what she said about you.”

“Why didn’t you just talk to me, Yunhee?” I asked, finally taking a seat on her couch. “I can understand you feeing jealous, but you didn’t need to let your jealousy govern your actions. I was going to be rejected by Eunjung either way. And I get you wouldn’t have known that, but if you honestly cared about me and considered me your friend, you could have waited. Maybe even opened up about your own preference in the meantime.

“And when I inevitably got hurt by Eunjung, you could have been there for me. Who knows, you might even have been able to get the courage to own up about your own feelings about me too. There are just so many things you could have done better, instead of all of this!”

I took a moment to breathe and collect myself, while Yunhee remained silent. She was still standing in the middle of the room staring at the ground, at least having the decency to look a little ashamed.

“And what about this new post?” I asked. “If what you said is all true it doesn’t make sense why you would do that again.” When she still remained silent, I took the time to think about it. The only encounter I had with her recently was the day in the park, before Seokjin and Namjoon told me what they knew and I told the story to Taehyung. Maybe… “Don’t tell me you got jealous again.” I guessed. “That I had found new friends.”

Yunhee turned away from me, seeming to refuse to answer. But that was all the answer I needed.

“You did!” I said. “What the hell, Yunhee?!”

“What?” she finally responded, whipping back around and anger lighting her expression. “I was supposed to be happy that you found some new people to be friends with? That I didn’t seem to matter to you anymore?”

I scoffed. “Oh, and I was just supposed to forget about everything you had done to me and come crawling back to you saying, ‘Oh Yunhee, I miss you. I forgive you, please be my friend again’? Why the hell would I do that?! You completely betrayed any trust I had in you. I didn’t know that the worst part was all Eunjung’s idea, so I’ll give you that. But what’s even worse is that you let her go along with it, and afterwards you didn’t say anything!

“You didn’t tell me that that part was all her and you didn’t know she’d say that. You never came to me to apologize or try to make amends. I wasn’t the one who needed to reach out here, Yunhee. It was you. I don’t know if you still feel like your reasons justified their actions, but let me tell you as the one who get the shit end of the stick, they didn’t.”

We were both silent for a few moments while she took in my words and I calmed down a bit. When I spoke again, my voice was much more relaxed. “If you were hoping for us to be friends again, you should have apologized. You should have told me everything you did just now, not because I dragged it out of you but in an effort to be honest and ask for a second chance. But if you were looking for one, that chance is now completely blown.”

She lifted her gaze from the floor, all the fire in her eyes gone. “I’m sorry,” she said so quietly I almost didn’t hear her.

“It’s too late to apologize to me now,” I said. “But I hope you will do better in the future. I don’t wish bad things on you, Yunhee. I just can’t forgive you for what you’ve done.” I sighed as I stood up to leave. “Thank you for finally being honest with me at least.”

Yunhee made no move to say anything else or stop me as I opened her door and left. As soon as the door to her room was closed again, Jimin wrapped me in a tight hug. I had no doubt he was able to hear almost everything that was said with how thin the walls here were.

“You did well, noona,” he said, giving me a kiss on the crown of my head. “I’m proud of you.”

The next day was luckily the weekend, and I wasn’t surprised at all to receive a text from Jin asking if he could stop by. Jimin had been the one to let the others know about my conversation with Yunhee, which I really appreciated. I needed some time to recover yesterday after what I had learned.

As for how people were treating me, I was clueless on what to do. As wrong as what she and Eunjung had done was, I wasn’t about to go telling the whole student body Yunhee’s secrets. Her sexual orientation, her personal thoughts and feelings, those were all her own business to tell. That luxury was taken away from me, and I knew that I didn’t want to do the same to anyone else.

Not to mention, I doubted anyone would even believe me anyway.

A light knock on my door sounded while I was eating my cereal. I opened it to let Seokjin in, and he followed me back to the kitchenette.

“How are you doing?” He gently asked.

I shrugged. “I’m fine. To be honest, I’m glad I have answers now. I’m no less upset with her but at least I know why she did it, even if it wasn’t right.”

Seokjin’s gaze when our eyes connected was so soft, it almost made me feel like I could melt. “I can’t imagine how hard all of this has been for you,” he said.

“I just wish she would have thought to react differently,” I said. “None of this would have happened if she just didn’t act on jealousy.” I sighed, briefly imagining how things could have been different. “But then again, I may not have become friends with you guys if none of this happened.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Jin said, taking a seat across from me. “Our brothers still would have met and would have inevitably gotten us to mingle.”

“We probably would have just been acquaintances,” I pointed out.

Seokjin chuckled. “Would going through everything the past year really have been worth it, though? Only to become friends with us?”

I honestly thought about the answer to that while I finished my breakfast. I spent a lot of time building up walls, being alienated and ridiculed. It hadn’t been easy at all to get through, and it still wasn’t. But if all of that was a dark tunnel, then the light at the end would’ve had to be the new friendships I made, especially with the man sitting across from me right now.

“Yes,” I decided. My eyes met Seokjin’s, and I could see the bit of surprise in them from my answer. “Even if the only way for me to have become friends with you was to go through that shitshow, I would do it all over again.”

There it was again, that sparkly look in his eyes. A wide smile slowly grew on his face. “You amaze me, (Y/n). Do you know that?”

“There’s nothing ‘amazing’ about me, oppa,” I said.

“You are amazing,” he countered. “Not everyone would have the strength to do what you did yesterday. Or to get through the last year as well as you have. You’re so much more than you give yourself credit for.”

Finding myself blushing at his words, I decided it was a good time to rinse out my bowl so he hopefully wouldn’t notice.

Once I was done I made my way to the couch, Seokjin following behind me. I sat down, but he remained standing close by for a moment, seeming deep in thought.

“Do you remember how I was about to tell you something the other day?” he suddenly asked. “Before Jimin called you.”

I racked my brain, pulling out the memory—mostly about how intensely he had been staring at me and how fast it made my heart beat. I cleared my throat before saying, “Yeah, I remember.”

“I think now it’s even more important for me to be honest with you,” Jin said. “And I think I know you well enough to tell, but I just want to make sure first. You’re not feeling emotionally vulnerable right now, right? I know that yesterday was a lot for you to take in, but you seem to be doing well today.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, wondering what this was about. “I mean, yeah. I’m not like in shock or dazed or feeling particularly vulnerable or anything. Why?”

“Because what I have to tell you is important but I want to be sure that whatever you have to say in response is honest and comes from your heart,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, becoming worried. “Did I-”

“No, absolutely not,” Jin assured me, gently smiling. “Nothing is wrong.”

I nodded in understanding, but didn’t say anything as I waited for him to continue.

Jin took in a deep breath before sitting next to me and gently taking my hand in his. “I told you the other day about how the more I get to see who you are beyond your wall, the more I realize how much I like you. I wasn’t exaggerating at all, (Y/n). I didn’t realize it at first, but my feelings toward you started to become less and less platonic the more I got to know you. And before I knew it, I started to really like you. Not just as a friend, but as something more.”

I felt my heart pounding in my chest. So that’s what that sparkle in his eyes was—the same one that prominently shined in his earnest gaze now. Butterflies had completely swarmed my stomach, making me almost feel dizzy from his confession. I could hardly believe it. After I had worked so hard to try to keep those same thoughts and feelings from taking root in my own heart, he had felt that way all along?

“I don’t expect you to feel anything more than friendship toward me,” he continued, “but I just feel like I need to be completely honest with you. I can continue to just be your friend, but I don’t want any secre-”

I couldn’t stop myself from closing the distance between us and placing my lips on his. I felt him hesitate, probably shocked at my actions, but he quickly relaxed into it and returned the kiss. Despite not letting go, neither of us made any move to deepen the kiss, keeping it soft and light.

Eventually, I pulled away just slightly and slowly opened my eyes. “You have no idea how I’ve been internally battling myself to not fall for you, oppa.” I spoke barely above a whisper, knowing he’d be able to hear me with how close our faces still were. “I was scared that I was looking too deeply into things and didn’t want to ruin the best thing that had happened to me in so long.”

“Oh, thank god,” Seokjin said, looking relieved. “I was worrying about it so much, especially after learning how Yunhee had kept her feelings a secret and I was scared that if I didn’t tell you and you eventually found out about it later then it’d cause problems between us. But then I was so scared about telling you because we haven’t known each other very long and what if you didn’t feel the same and-”

I cut off his rambling with a peck to his lips before chuckling. “Well now you know you don’t need to worry about any of that.” I pulled away to look at him, feeling practically giddy now that I let myself feel everything I had been holding back before.

He smiled, leaning forward a bit to let our foreheads touch. “I guess I don’t, huh?” he mused.

“Thank you for telling me,” I said. “I mean I’m glad that we were actually on the same page, but even if I somehow managed to not develop feelings for you, I would have really appreciated the honesty.”

“Of course,” he replied as he brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. He leaned in to connect our lips once again and I let myself get lost in the feeling of our mouths moving together, exploring each other for the first time.

Time had fallen away. It felt like only seconds had passed, but at the same time it felt like it could have been years that we spent connected at the lips. Tentative and careful touches started to grow more confident and certain until I was practically sitting in Jin’s lap, feeling lightheaded and out of breath.

And then my phone started ringing. Jin groaned in frustration as he broke our kiss, catching his breath. “That’s Jimin’s ringtone isn’t it?” he asked.

I was still too out of it to use my voice so I just nodded, planning on ignoring it as I trailed my lips from his jaw down his neck, not wanting to separate from him yet.

Seokjin didn’t seem fully opposed to that idea either as I let the phone ring until it went to voicemail. But it was only a few seconds later when it rang once more.

Sighing, Seokjin gently pushed me away from him. “I think you’d better answer that, babe. He probably isn’t going to stop calling.”

Despite what we were just doing, I blushed at how casually he used the pet name with me. Realizing he was probably right, I got up to retrieve my phone from the nightstand, answering just before it would have gone to voicemail.

“Yes, Jimin?” I asked, trying my best to not sound out of breath.

“Noona!” he yelled. “What took you so long to answer?”

I walked back to the couch and Jin wrapped his arms around my waist as I sat down, resting his head on my shoulder. “I was… busy.” I heard Jin snicker next to my ear. “Do you need something?”

“Check the school forum!” Jimin replied.

“The school- but why?” I asked.

“Just trust me,” he said. “There’s something there you need to see. I’ll be at your room in like ten minutes, so please make sure both of you are decent before I get there.”

I spluttered, wondering if he had some secret cameras set up in my room or something. “Wha-what are you talking about?” I managed to get out.

Jimin laughed on the other end of the phone. “I knew Jin hyung was coming to see you, and you were just vaguely and suspiciously saying you took so long to answer the phone because you were busy? Come on, noona, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“We were not doing anything inappropriate!” I said.

“Yeah, we were just making out,” Jin added cheekily, earning a smack on the arm from me.

My brother laughed even harder. “I knew it!” He took a moment to calm down before saying, “Anyway, I really am going to head over. Check the forum, trust me. I’ll see you soon!” Jimin hung up swiftly.

“Alright, I guess we should check the forum this time,” I said as I navigated my way there on my phone.

The top post today yet again had my name in the title and was posted by Yunhee, but seemed vastly different from the previous ones. I clicked on the post titled ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT PARK (Y/N),’ finding myself completely shocked at what was inside.

Yunhee confessed every lie she told. Everything that was fabricated, even to the point of exposing that it was Eunjung who went on the date with me last year and lied about our interactions. She even admitted her reasoning on why she did it, saying that it wasn’t right for them to expose my sexuality to the whole school like that and that it was only fair that she exposed herself for what they had done.

My jaw dropped to the floor at the text displayed on my phone screen. “I can’t believe this,” I said, voice barely audible. “Did she seriously do this?”

“Unless we’re both hallucinating, she most definitely did,” Seokjin said, tightening his hold on me. When he placed a light kiss on my temple, I could feel the slight smile on his lips. “She may know she can’t take back what she had done and that you won’t forgive her, but she’s trying to make things right for you.”

“Yeah, I guess she is.” I surveyed the comments underneath where students expressed their outrage at Yunhee and how sorry they felt for criminalizing me over false rumors. “But now she’s going to be the one with fingers pointed at her and whispers behind her back.”

“She must have known that,” Jin said. “She knew it would be a price she had to pay for what she had done.”

I locked my screen and settled back into Seokjin’s embrace, feeling like an immense weight had just lifted off of my shoulders. I wouldn’t have to worry about facing my peers anymore. I could go outside, unconcerned of what people would say about me.

And best of all, I had people I cared about and who cared bout me to spend my suddenly new free time with. I had Seokjin.

After a few moments of relishing in the calm silence, Seokjin spoke. “So now that we’ve more than established how we feel about each other, and know that we can hang out without people bothering us, can I take you on a date?”

I smiled up at him before placing a quick peck on his lips. “I would love that.”

A/N - My first one-shot! I originally thought this would be about 10k but I ended up almost doubling that.. oops lol. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you guys like it as much as I do! Let me know what you think!

#BTS fanfic #Seokjin x reader #Jin x reader #thebtswritersclub #btswriterscollective #Breaking Down Walls #BDW #college!au #bi!reader #fluff #angst #f2l

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seblaine-rph · 4 years

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I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about Joie University, claiming they’re guilty of all kinds of terrible things-- including but not limited to blatant racism, bullying, stalking, and harassment. So here are links to what’s been sent anonymously and posted previously, what’s still in my inbox, and the addition of someone’s longer, submitted experience all written up in one location.

These are all from different people.

Joie Academy treated me like crap as well and practically told me that 'I seem like the kinda person no one would get along with in the real world'... I am surprised people are still there cause the admins are the worst and put me through so much.

Hey! I just want to warn people about Joie. I honestly thought it would have died by now with the toxic admins. I joined that group near the beginning and was kicked without a single word from the admins AFTER they internet stalked me and found out my exact location. They held, and probably still hold, a grudge against me for no reason, or at least none that has ever been explained to me. It's super creepy and I'd be wary.

If you are not a gay or bisexual white Male then stay away from Joie they pretend to be accepting but are not. As a minority female I was bullied constantly and the admins did nothing. But the moment the same person bullied a white male they kicked that person out. Joie is toxic.

Joie is the sole reason I ended up on Anti depressants....

Joie is 100% the most toxic RP I have ever been in. One of the admins is great, she is shy and let's the other admin walk all over her. Basically you are treated like a pariah if you weren't close or have a ship with that one admin. It took me ages to leave and when I did I actually began to feel happier. So I am glad you made that post and I hope that it will stop people from joining.

Honestly relieved to see Joie being exposed for the toxic roleplay that it is, you have given those who have stayed quiet a voice and now they're being exposed. And seeing everything they are saying is just re-affirmation that they are toxic. I was in Joie for a short period and time and I saw what the admins were saying to a friend of mine privately and it was disgusting. Good riddance.

I am done being silent about what Joie University did to me So I was in Joie for about 6 months, to be honest if I didn’t have my ship partner and one other friend there I would have left within a month. I played Mercedes and you know Mercedes gets enough hate on her own. But I joined and at first I was accepted by everyone so I thought, I finally found a group that I could join and enjoy. Boy was I wrong. It became very clear within a matter of a few weeks that they didn’t really like minority characters. I was among one of two minority charcters among mostly white males who were gay. But I ignored it because I thought it was a good environment. That is until a Sam player joined. That is when the hate started for me. Both an admin and another character wanted their character with Sam but Sam was interested in Mercedes. They were really great together but every day I found hate in my inbox and it was a really uncomfortable feeling. The person who played Jeff was one who wanted Sam for himself and it was clear by the way he spoke to Mercedes. It all came to a head when Jeff and Mercedes got into a fight because Jeff’s new boyfriend had hurt Sam’s feelings and Mercedes took up for her boyfriend. Jeff started being really disrespectful to her and then wrote a text to his boyfriend saying if Mercedes showed up to the sorority house he would kick her ass and kick her out by her nappy ass weave. That pissed me off. I felt like that was extremely disrespectful and racist. You don’t say things like that. It hurt me OOC as a black woman and IC as a Mercedes player But the admins did nothing. Then the player and their friend started harassing me. I told the admins over and over and they said there was nothing they could do. The player even lied on me with no proof ( I showed the admins proof of the hate) and the admins basically pressured me saying I was welcome to leave if it bothered me so much. I was really upset and hurt. The hate just continued and I finally had enough and left. Once I left the group the Sam player and I worked on a couple FanFics together. I hadn’t even thought about Joie after I left. But they hate continued. One of the admins ( I recently found out) joined a group pretending to be me with my name and was extremely rude playing Mercedes as a stereotype, thank goodness a few people who knew me told me about it and the admin left the group. Turns out she was just there to spy on their group so they could steal ideas. Then they started sending hate to the Sam player pretending it was me mad at a new ship. I tried explaining that I didn’t even follow Joie anymore but the damage was done and I lost a friend and writing partner. The group the admins they are all toxic and I am still paying the price for making the mistake of joining that group.

#glee rph #glee rp #glee rpg #joieuniversityrp #blacklist

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nami-writes · 3 years

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Bittersweet Reunion - Watch Dogs: Legion [WIP]

(can you tell i had no clue what to name this)

so i wrote this after i played wdl and finished the finding bagley mission bc i loved that there was a canon mlm pairing and i thought the whole meeting bradley thing was Incredibly unsatisfying so i did this and originally i was gonna have bagley and arthur get back together but then it started writing itself and bagley wouldnt date arthur bc that’d go against his morals and i was like shit thats not what i planned but also i realized it was in character so this is that disaster lmao

“I’m ready for the rest of my life, Arthur. And I want you to be a part of it.”

The sixth audio file ended with what sounded like a kiss, and Lindsey had to pause to take it in. Bagley had really had a life— a lover. A lover he had to leave behind.

“Arthur… I should remember more about him. But I don’t.”

It sounded so rushed, so nonchalant, that Lindsey knew better than to believe his tone and even Bagley himself knew it. Because, truth was, he was processing the same things Lindsey was and more. He really was damned to eternity, being a human turned AI and all, because now he was experiencing quite a lot of thoughts and certainly not enjoying it. Where was Arthur now? Did he still remember him? Did he miss him? Why was Bagley even wondering if his not-boyfriend still missed him?

Some part of his human half wondered if it’s possible to find Arthur again, meet the person his past self was so deeply in love with that now he found himself longing for him too.

“Sir—”

“Don’t touch me!”

Bagley was pulled out of the thoughts growing less and less artificial by the second as the next audio file began, already far more emotionally charged than the ones prior.

“These people are here to help you, Bags—”

“Don’t call me that!”

He’s snappish and frustrated and angry and current Bagley could almost feel it too. There’s more struggling as Bagley— past Bagley— seemed to be fighting someone off.

“She did this! Someone stop her!”

‘She’ must’ve been Skye Larsen, who else could it have been? He wanted to hope Natalie would listen— just listen, goddammit, this was all Skye’s fault, don’t you know what she’s done?— but he knew it was no use. They didn’t know. Natalie didn’t know. Not a fucking soul knew what she did to him.

“Don’t hurt him! He’s not usually like this!”

“Get out of my head! Get o—”

His voice died out as more noise played, then an unfamiliar voice called for an ambulance.

“Bags. Bagley. Bra—”

And it ended there.

“I’m assuming that ‘she’ was Skye Larsen,” he said to Lindsey. “Seems like the usual suspect where brain fuckery is concerned.” As controlled as he usually was, not even he could keep the slightest bit of anger out of his voice by the end of his sentence.

The next audio file began with a man explaining that Bagley had early on-set dementia, which intrigued him because it didn’t explain when exactly Skye got her hands on him. Then the sister from prior audio files spoke with that same strangely familiar voice, just as demanding as before. “You listen to me. I don’t care what it takes. No brother of mine is going to waste away in some hospital.”

Something was wrong. There was a piece missing somewhere between those memories and he had an idea of where it could be found.

Skygarden.

“Why do I have a feeling we’re not up here to reminisce?” The audio began as Lindsey snapped the last photo.

“Right. I’ve been thinking a lot about your epilepsy.” The sister. Of course. He still couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but she sounded awfully familiar, but not in a good way. In a this-person-has-the-same-name-as-my-primary-school-bully way.

“That’s nice. My doctors stopped thinking about it years ago. I had to give up so much because of it. Rowing, my mates, my…” A sigh followed after he trailed off and he had a feeling that that sigh replaced the word ‘boyfriend.’

“I’m sorry, Bradley.” Bradley. That name sounded familiar. Come to think of it, that must’ve been what Natalie called him in the seventh audio file just before it cut off. He supposed it sounded familiar because, well, it is— was— his name, but there was something more to it. He just couldn’t figure out what. He ran a quick search for Bradleys in London, but of course that left him with thousands of Bradleys and not a single clue as to how to filter out the useless ones.

“Wow. Look at you using my real name for once. I must be truly fucked.” Fucked was an understatement. How did he go from a human to nothing more than an AI? It wasn’t that he was unhappy as an AI, especially considering he worked for DedSec and they were wonderful, they really were, but to think he was once human…

“What if I told you I had something that could work?”

Something deep inside of him that vaguely resembled a computerized heart dropped at those words. He had a bad, bad feeling about this.

“Ha. Never knew you were funny.”

But Skye Larsen created him, didn’t she?

“I’m not. It’s a tech we’re developing. It’s early stages, but… have you ever heard of neural mapping?”

“No.” No, it couldn’t be.

“Here. Let’s go to my lab. I’ll show you.”

Who was this sister?

“Lead the way, Skye.”

And the audio ended.

“I was Skye Larsen’s brother.” It was strange to say out loud. “I’m Bradley. Bradley Larsen.” That was why she sounded so familiar. That was why Skye Larsen was his creator. Fuck. “Bradley Larsen…” He returned to his search for Bradleys and narrowed it down to one Bradley Larsen, brother of Skye Larsen, son of Sinead and Kevin Larsen. “I’ve found a room pre-paid through to April 4, 2040 under the name of Bradley Larsen— paid for by S. Larsen.” Skye.

“So you might still be alive,” Lindsey said. “Where’s the room?”

He checked his databases. “St. Pancras Hotel.”

And when she arrived, it was no less than what he expected, if less than what he wanted.

He left not quite satisfied.

But what else could he do? His father was gone and his mother and sister were dead. He checked his deep profiler and found Natalie through Bradley, but it seemed she was dead as well. And then— Arthur Jenkins, former spouse.

“I think I’ve found Arthur from the sixth audio file,” he said. “Mind getting him for me?”

“Say the word, Bags,” Lindsey said.

He found his schedule and looked for his soonest outing. “He’ll be at Crosier & Cherry Tree at 8 PM.” There was a tinge of sadness in his voice at the location that they both decided to ignore.

He checked the rest of Arthur’s profile, too curious to resist. His photo was attached. To his surprise, Arthur was a curly-haired ginger. Apparently Bradley had known more people with no souls than just Skye Larsen. Age 29, worked as a bartender at Crosier & Cherry— that was why he’d be there. Associated with Melissa Phillips, friend; Natalie Walker, deceased friend; and Bradley Larsen, former spouse. Metadata… looking through it could’ve broken his heart if he had one.

He had countless searches involving dementia up until he was 28 and had hundreds of recorded visits to St. Pancras Hotel, Bradley’s room. Hundreds of visits that, when he accessed the records, seemed to just… stop. Daily-to-weekly visits simply vanished into none. Numerous phone calls to Skye Larsen that Bagley could only assume were angry and accusational because he was charged for harassment due to a complaint from Skye on the same day he stopped visiting.

He tried. He really tried, and then Skye fucked it all up like she always does.

“Bagley, I’ve found him.” He turned his attention to Lindsey’s Optik and, sure enough, he could see the ginger in the photo through the glass window. “Want me to bring him back to the Hackerspace?”

He considered it, but bringing him back would’ve meant involving the others. This was just a one-time thing. “No, just— could you get him somewhere I could talk privately with him?”

“Sure thing.” He watched as she entered the pub and approached Arthur at the counter.

“‘Ello, mate, what can I get for you?” he asked, uncannily cheery with a smile on his face. Something told Bagley this should’ve made him feel… something, but he felt not even a twinge of recognition from anywhere other than the photo on his digital profile.

“I’m here to talk to you, actually,” Lindsey said.

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow and took a second to look her over a second time, his customer service smile fading into skepticism. “Do I know you?”

“No, but I know someone you do. Mind if we talk somewhere else?”

He shrugged. “S’pose not. Better get it on with, then, I’ve got to get back to work.”

Shit. Time was running out and they were already heading to a back room and Bagley hadn’t a fucking clue what to say so when he was cast onto the nearest unwatched telly before Lindsey left, all he could think to say was “Hello, Arthur.”

And then there was a silence where Bagley was internally cursing himself for being such a bloody idiot and Arthur looked like either he was about to drop to his knees in awe or he had shit himself. And then he broke the silence.

“Bradley?” His eyes were lit up with hope, hope Bagley knew he’d have to destroy because he wasn’t Bradley, not really. But he’d worry about that later.

“Oh, Gods, that’s going to be my version of Bradley’s stupid nickname, isn’t it? Though, if you ask me, Bagley is a perfectly good name,” he remarked. He had no idea how to properly handle a situation in which he was meeting the lover he had in a past life, so, naturally, he reverted to his usual self. Arthur was in love with him before, he can put up with him again.

Arthur chuckled, cracking a smile. “Now I know you aren’t Bradley. He hated that nickname.” He took another moment to comprehend what just happened. “But, really, how? How are you— what are you? What is” —he gestured vaguely at the TV screen— “this?”

“That’s a funny story, actually, see—”

“Bradley,” Arthur interrupted him, his smile turning solemn. “I’m serious. Last time I saw you, you were in a bloody wheelchair! What happened to you?”

There was another silence where Bagley tried to think of something ‘serious’ to say, but his actual response felt much more natural to him.

“Don’t call me that,” he said, a feigned grumble but unseen smile in his voice, “that’s not my name.”

And at that, not even Arthur could keep a straight face, but his smile didn’t last long. “Bags. Please. I need answers. I was so sure it was that bitch Skye— sorry, I know she’s your sister and all, but— I spent so long searching for ways to help you and trying to get her to fucking stop— you only ended up in the bloody hospital after she got involved and then she wouldn’t let me keep seeing you and I couldn’t—” His voice broke then and he had to pause, clear his throat and collect himself. “I’m sorry, I tried, I didn’t want to stop visiting. I really didn’t. I’m sorry.”

Bagley didn’t know how to tell him it was all in vain; Skye won in the end, she always did, and he didn’t even remember being Bradley or knowing Arthur at all. As far as he remembered, he’d only known Arthur for five minutes.

“Bagley?”

“It doesn’t matter.” There was no use in prolonging it.

“...What?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he repeated. “I’m not Bradley.”

“Are you mad? Of course you’re Bradley.’

“No, I’m not. Bradley is still in St. Pancras. I’m Bagley.”

Arthur gave a confused chuckle and crossed his arms. “What are you talking about?”

“It was Skye,” he finally said. “It’s a long story, really, but in simpler terms, she tried to fix Bradley’s epilepsy through a process called neural mapping. It essentially separated his consciousness from his body, which gave him dementia and took my human body. I’m his consciousness, but I’m not him.”

Arthur didn’t respond. He seemed to still be processing what he’d just heard.

“And I’m sorry to say, but my memory was wiped not long after my creation. I don’t… remember anything about being Bradley.” He paused. Arthur knew what that meant, and he knew that his next sentence was going to confirm it. “I don’t remember anything about you.”

Arthur took far longer to respond than Bagley would’ve liked. “So you’re—” He stopped. “So Bradley’s really gone.”

“Unfortunately so.”

More silence. “Then why are you here?”

That was a good question, actually. Why was he here?

“I suppose I came to say goodbye,” Bagley said. “Give you some closure on Bradley, so you know what happened. I know you two were quite close.”

He scoffed. “Close is an understatement.” His voice softened. “We were going to get married,” he said. “At least, I think we were. If Skye hadn’t gotten involved— if I’d only had the time— I was going to propose. Had a ring in mind and everything. I’m fairly sure Bradley knew, too. I just wanted us to have that one thing before… before it was too late.”

Bagley had to take a second to let it sink in. In a past life, he’d almost gotten married. How much had he missed out on as a human because of Skye? His voice was solemn as he spoke, a first for him. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be.” Arthur offered no elaboration before something else seemed to cloud his mind. Silence seemed to be something both of them were good at. Bagley considered directly asking what was on his mind, but Arthur spoke before he could decide. “Can I ask something of you?”

“Ask away. I’ve only got the rest of my non-life.”

“...Could we try it again?” he asked, hesitation in his words. At Bagley’s confused silence, he uncrossed his arms, a willing show of vulnerability. “I mean, could we try… us, again? I know you don’t remember anything about me or Bradley and you’re not Bradley, I know that, but— maybe something good could come out of it. Maybe— maybe we could still have something.”

“You want us to…” He trailed off, thinking it over. By ‘something,’ he meant a relationship, but— could he be in a relationship? He was still an AI. He wasn’t Bradley. He wasn’t even attracted to Arthur. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he could feel attraction, if that was built into his operating system. Everything in him wanted to say no, it would never work out. An AI taking part in human affairs was a recipe for disaster.

“We could start from the beginning,” Arthur added, as if he knew what Bagley was thinking before he even said it. “I know you don’t really know me so we can start out just friends, nothing more. We can take it as slow as you want and if you decide there’ll never be anything more, we can just stay as friends if that’s what you’re comfortable with. But if you think there can be more, we can try that.”

It was tempting, but… Arthur was still human. And Bagley was not. “Arthur, I’m not sure I was made for this.”

“Then let’s find out,” he said. “I’m okay with anything you are.”

“No, I mean I’m not sure I was made to feel attraction. I believe that’s a fairly important part of relationships,” Bagley said with a hint of humor in the last sentence, though it disappeared by the next. “I’ve never felt that way toward anyone and I’m not sure you’ll be an exception.”

He sighed. “Bags. It doesn’t matter to me whether you like me as a friend or as a boyfriend. What matters is whether or not you’re comfortable with me. I didn’t fall in love with your attraction. I fell in love with you.”

“You fell in love with Bradley,” he corrected. “Not me.”

Regardless of how tempting the offer was and how curious he was to see the extent of his human capabilities, it’d only be an experiment. A trial run of a relationship with someone who was only willing because he was still attached to the person Bagley no longer was. It would be cruel to take advantage of Arthur’s hope for his own curiosity— no different from what Skye did to Bradley. He might’ve had his human body stripped from him, but he still had his humanity.

“Arthur, I’m not Bradley,” he said. “And I know it’s hard to accept, but I can’t be the person you want me to be.”

#wdl #wdl fanfic #unfinished writing #writing #fanfic #wdl bagley

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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The Casagrandes Reviews: Operation Dad

In my first look at The Casagrandes, We meet Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s dad Arturo as Ronnie tries to get him to start working in the city to be closer to them.. and when a genuine honest appeal dosen’t work, shenanigans will have to do. Dad stuff under the cut.

This is one i’ve had in the works since my labor day catchup binge of shows, but kept getting pushed back either due to regular coverage or specifically timed things like the bi visalblity day review of “What Was Missing. And with Halloween next month, my time to cover this is running out a bit and I feel it’s a great place to start covering this show so, pitter patter. The Casagrandes didn’t really hook me in at first: It did have two things going for it: An intresting premise A blended family coming together, with our heroine and her big bro being fish out of water in a new family situation. Wheras with the Loud House Lincoln, and by extension most of his sisters, is used to how his house runs, knows the score and knows how to manuvre around it, Ronnie Anne was being dropped into a new situation, with people she KNEW, but only likely from seeing them breifly. It’s one thing to see your cousin once or twice a year, as I did with mine at that age, it’s another to live with them. It had a lot of potential. The other thing was Bobby Santiago, Ronnie Anne’s brother, and one of my faviorite characters across both shows, an endlessly nice guy who while suffering from a terminal case of dumbass, is utterly likeable, helped by his VA Carlos PenaVega, with the spinoff and i’ts build up only fleshing him out more by giving him his job at the Mercado, and showing he has serious buisness acumen in addition to his many other talents.

But what made me wary was the lead: Ronnie Anne didn’t get the best intro on the loud house. You know this, I know this. We all know this. No sense beating around the bush: She was a bully, who had a crush on lincoln and masked it by pummeling him. And this was seen as okay by the show which isn’t as suprising in hindsight as Chris Savino clearly has messed up views about women and harassment, and is thankfully no longer part of this. She did get slightly better once she actually showed up, getting genuine chemstiry with Lincoln and being shown underneath the bully exteriror was a pretty nice kid who shared his intress. Granted it wasn’t perfect as the show madei t clear he was terrified of her, but it did at least also make it clear he no longer had a reason to be, and while she’d prank her boyfriend, or assits his sister during her dark time once a year in doing it, and if your wondering if i’m ever going to watch or cover the april fools episodes .. yeah i’m just waiting you know.. for april fools.

My point is it was kinda mixed and their solution was to soften her up a bit but also act like she and LIncoln weren’t intrested in each other all of a sudden instead of you know, dealing with her past actions and having her make up for them. It was sloppy is what i’m saying and the character while not bad wasn’t in the best positoin to tkae the reigns of her own show. They did add some intresting depth with the move though, showing that Ronnie Anne and Bobby were often on their own, and that Maria moved them to the casagrande household simply because she felt her daughter would be happier NOT having to be the strong one or take care of herself all the time and actually have someone look out for her instead. It was a good emotional reason for hte move and both casagrandes showed up ocasoinally, mostly Bobbi whose still with Lori to this day as seen in the season 5 premiere. It was an okay foundatoin but it would depend on what they did with her character.. and i’m glad to say.. they made it work. The show still has rough edges, mostly having the same problem ducktales and the loud house itself had during season 1 of juggling such a large cast: Most of them outside of Ronnie Anen and Bobby have only gotten 1 episode, and even then CJ feels underutlized despite being amazing, while the adults outside the grandparents feel underutlized. Buuut the show is funny, intresting, has good pacing and unlike the loud house, having already learned that lesson, while Ronnie Anne does get more episodes than the rest of the family, it does feel more like an ensemble show and the focus on her feels less like the show not knowing what it has and more like easing the viewers into the rest of the cast by using her as a viewpoint. Ronnie herself is better, the bully aspects gone. She can still take care of herself, and is still fairly indpentent and clever, but she’s got a sharp sense of humor and a clear love of her family and the fish out of water aspect I hoped for, while not used a ton, still comes up in intresting ways. Overall i’d say the show is off to a good start.. and it has Melissa Joan Heart and Ken Jeong as a married couple and let’s Ken play a diffrent role for once: A dorky, kind dad instaed of any degree of lunatic. That being said given his character her’s last name is Chang, I can’t help but think this and community are in the same universe and that the Changs have just had to put up with whatever insane phase Senor Chang was going througha t the time every time he visted. I mean i’d love to hear Sid tell ronnie anne the time her uncle came over in a napoleon outfit and revaled he’d taken over his community college with the help of a bunch of children. But i’m getting off topic, I gots an episdoe to cover and out of the ones I watched this felt both like a great re-introduction into the cast and was easily one fo the best with a great emotional core and great jokes and LOTS to dig into. So i’ve jawjacked enough, pitter pater. Again!

It’s with this episode we properly meet Arturo Santiago, Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s father, Maria’s ex, and owner of one hell of a beard. Ronnie mentioned him back in friended aka the pilot because fuck that airing structure but not the time or place for that moving on.

We see he video chats his daughter once a day, though today she made hte mistake of doing so on a crowded subway while with her best friend and future wife Sid. NOW we can talk about Sid. Sid was introduced in Friended! over on the loud houd house as part of that mini arc I keep yelling about and will again and again. Sid is Ronnie Anne’s clyde: A best friend whose there as her sidekick, emotoinal support and resident goofus, being a bit of a weirdo and given i’m a giant ass weirdo, you can see why I like her/want to keep her safe from the nightmare that is at last half this fandom. Plus she and ronnie anne are adorable together and have more chemstiry than she and lincoln did.. thoguh the two do have OT3 energy together in his one episode, but that’s for another time.

Anyways as Sid helps her rangle wifi by them by doing the mecha shiva we soon find out Arturo is coming home! Home lord he’s been off in Peru for too longggg. Point is Ronnie Anne is excited, Bobby is excited, everyone’s excited except for Hector who hates him.. and honestly I can see why the contrast. For everyone else, Arturo is a charming, friendly guy who genuinely loves his kids and only is away from them because he has a lot of important work to do and even with that is still an active part of their lives. Buuuut Hector likely sees it diffrently and is likely homing in more on the fact Arturo is barely there in person for his kids and left Maria to do all the raising them by herself, with her own demanding job. It’s not a black and white situation is what i’m saying and.. I genuinely love that. It’s a complex thing to deal with: A parent who isn’t there for his kids but it’s hard to say if he’s being selfish or not. He’s not david from roseanne doing this so he can feel good about not wanting to deal with being a father or the death of his brother, Arturo genuinely just wants to help those who need him, even if he has to sacrifice a lot to do it. Ronnie Anne naturally wants him to move here though and convince him during his visit, and her plan nicely shows off the duality of her charcter: She’s clever and can easily think things through, as his originzation has it’s home office in Great Lakes City so he could still help those in need, just more from the organizational end, as well as i’m assuming GLC’s own homeless and needy. But she also has an 11 year olds understading of complex issues and thus thinks the easiest way to convince him is to take him on a fun daddy daughter day that will make him love the city. Bobby is less optimistic about the plan though.. and that’s because he’s been through this with Arturo already. Granted his job for him was at weenier on a stick because it’s bobby, the boy is a peach of a human being but has the plkanning skills and common sense of a basset hound on qualudes. He just sugest she enjoy the time. And this says a lot about BOBBY too: He’s used to his dad being out of his life, he’s probably been gone for most of it and while he loves him, he’s had ot get used to the fact he’s probably never going to be regularly in his life and while he understands why his sister’s trying this he wants to spare her the pain he went through. It’s interactions like this that to me show the series at it’s best and what it could be: deeper character interactions that really let the characters and voice cast shine, that still mix well with the usual nonsense. Arturo arrives and everyone loves him.. and again it’s easy to see why: he’s kind, friendly and to the kids, he’s their cool uncle who lives in another country and as someone with one of those, It does feel neat. Hell he was my cool uncle when he just lived in chicago or seattle, but somehow he had to top those by moving to fricking ireland. So I get where they come from and really relate to it.. I mean I met mine in high school, my family tree is complicated, but still. So while everyone but Hector is happily remeetinmg their uncle Maria shows up. And it’s awkward, the two not knowing how to greet each other, but it’s very obvious Maria and Arturo are on good terms, it’s just hard when theres so much history there. Speaking of Maria let’s talk about her since this is one of her only scene’s this episode. Maria is one of my faviorites. She isn’t used a ton, but this is more excusable than it is with the Casagrande parents, as the whole point of Maria uprooting her kids to Great Lakes City was to give them company and someone to take care of them while Maria worked the long and varied hours of being a nurse. She’s a good parent, who just picked a rough career, and made the hard decision to uproot her kids, not for her sake, as it can’t be easy living with both your elderly parents, your sister and her husband not to mention 5 kids, a giant adorable pupper and an obnoxious parrot, but so they’d be happy.. which given Ronnie Anne went from having no friends and largely having to be the rock in the house, to having a sizeable friend group plus her cousins, as well as generally being happy while Bobby went from bouncing from job to job to running the family buisness and planning to expand it when he gets older. She’s a good gentle person who still makes time for her kids, and I wish we saw more of her with her spotlight episode, which was about Ronnie Anne trying to spend more time with her, being one of my faviorites so far. I also like the fact that for once in a cartoon a parent with a time sink of a career isn’t demonized for trying to put food on the table and rather than just quit or have a mean boss or the usual cliches, Maria just found a way her kids wouldn’t be alone. She’s awesome. Ronnie Anne first tries showing him how great the city is with home cooking and a warm bed, but the first while nice is something he still gets, and the latter in a nice touch is just.. too soft for him. Ronnie meant well, but understadably he’s just not used to it and makes a cot under the stars instead.. he’s not trying to be ungreatful, he’s just sued to it.

Anyways Ronnie indeed takes him on a montage, with some cab headbonks beacause why use an uber that’s cheeper and safer huh? Anyways our father and daughter do have a montage, and hector gets beaten up by a luchadore because this promotion apparently dosen’t get not to attack the crowd. They really need to stop booking that guy.

Ending on our article image, which is really sweet and a real beautiful shot, Ronnie Anne finally gets to her Ronnie Plan. First Arturo cycles through two diffrent assumptions about what she’s asking him about. He first thinks she’s about to tell him about a special boy or girl in his life, his exact words. He backspaces to include that. She says no which.. I guess okay you have other things in mind but you can’t put off him meeting Sid forever. That aside I do think it’s a good indication Ronnie Anne might be bi, and both her parents just easily accepted it which is great. I could be reading too much into this, and I probably am, but I’ve thought I was before on nickeodeon and look how legend of korra ended.

The next is just hilarious as Arturo tries to let her down gently that he’s not getting back with maria which Ronnie Anne agrees with and was not remotely her point, but I do like as it shows their well and truly done, and it’s nice to see that sort of dynamic with a divorced couple in fiction where it’s not because of lingering sexual tension or anything, just that their apart but have kids to think about and presumibly the split was amicable if again still awkward. Finally Ronnie asks him.. but he gently refuses, since the people he helped need him as much as he wants to stay.. but part of what makes Arturo likeable, especially since he’s in the REALLY throny situation of not being in his kid’s lives in person despite having the opprountiy now, is that he genuinely tries to compromoise, saying he’ll try to up the calls to two a day, and he’ll visit more often. Ronnie Anne sadly and half heartdly says it’s fine and walks off. So Ronnie Anne vents to that girlfriend she apparently dosen’t have that he cares more about her patients than him and Sid sidgests that part of that is simple: He dosen’t feel she and bobby need him since, as I pointed out earlier, their doing better than ever. So Ronnie Anne intitates a second Ronnie Plan: to convince him she’s a troubled youth and get him to stay and reasssmbles her cousins to help. Before we move onto this plan that’s totally a good idea and not a borderline Zach Morris evil scheme, let’s talk about those cousins real quick. Quick fire: CJ is really great, a sweet kid and I wish they’d use him more and generally do nto get why they don’t, Carlota is fine but not all that defined at this point but Alexa PenaVega tries.. and why yes it is kinda weird Carlos PenaVega’s wife and the former star of spy kids is playing his sister. And Carl.. I don’t likes him. I just don’t. He did give me a really good episode, which we’ll be covering next month, but he’s just a little asshole with out the charm of fellow little asshole Louie Duck, who alsos cams people but actually gets consqeunces more often.

That quickfire done Carl does a forgery which depsite me being eh on him, clearly, is a funny bit, to make Ronnie Anne look like she’s failing, but that fails as you’d expect when he can help her with that from Peru. So it’s on to the actual plan: Which really boils down to this.

I mean.. that’s essentially the plan convince him she’s running with a dangerous crowd and is breaking bad, dressing up in punk clothes and making a scene at breakfast. She also gets a really neat new haircut, similar to luna’s but spiky which.. why isn’t this her normal hair? and why dosen’t she at least keep the cool leather jacket? I always get annoyed when a character’s temporary costume change is even better than their default design and htey fail to realize it but whatever. IT starts to work a little but clearly a breakfast tauntrum won’t be enough so Ronnie Anne enlists Sid.. who is frightend,d osen’t recognize her and dosen’t want to get shoved into a locker. .. who hurt you.. tell me.. I have a box to deliver. Just let me pop a quick H on there real quick.

Anyways, once Sid realizes “Oh that’s not a bully come to shove me in a locker that’s just my girlfriend in the middle of a zack morris grade elabroate manipulative scheme”, which happens once a week their fine, she comes up with one last plan: Have her friends, who are neat but need more filling out, dress up like punks bullying her friend sameer. This plan.. makes no sense. For one she was already a bully back home.. granted it was because she liked the kid, which no just no, but it’s heavily implied she did the same to the rest of the lincrew too. .which aside from Rusty isn’t a good look. I mean his face is punchable and he mocked hte idea of them being together despite next season hitting on Lincoln’s sisters, there’s a 1:1 chance he hit on her and she shoved him in a locker as is the natural response to anyone getting asked out by that goober. No matter how hard the show tries to pretend that didn’t happen it did. If her bullying kids didn’t get him to move home back in royal woods it won’t work now.

So they had behind the fish market for their plan, Arturo is directed there.. and sees through it. I mean she’s probably sent him pictures of her friends, he knows who they are and no amount of costumes is going to fix that. I mean you really only changed Nikki’s hair. Why not just have a dance fight. i’m legitly asking dance fights are rad and this reminds me of the venture bros episode where hank, to impress his date, has billy and white pretend to be a street gang to impress his date. Just do that for sid instead of trying to gaslight your dad into staying. But no while he pulls her into the car, Arturo knows this was a stunt and asks why. When Ronnie Anne tearfully reveals she just wanted him to stay.. he hugs his child.. and agrees. He realizes that if she’s willing to go to these lengths to get him to stay, she must REALLY miss her papa. So he plans to call the office to transfer. But then while helping her dad unpack, Ronnie Anne finds something and we get another emotional scene: Ronnie Anne finds the letters he got from the various kids he’s helped, and is moved to tears. Props to Izabella Alvarez for her performance here as she reads the letter and realizes just what her dad’s work does ,and why it means so much to him. He truly helps those who need it and she decides she can’t take that awy from it: Sure her dad won’t be around.. but other kids need her dad more. She has a big family, she misses her dad.. but she can live without her dad. They need a doctor.

So Arutro heads out with a tearful goodbye and Ronnie Anne leaves him a scrapbook of their time together. We then cut to the Santiago sibs playing cards, and being sad about their dad and all that.. when Arturo calls.. and then shows up in person. He took the Headquarters job after all, though a close friend of his we met earlier in the episode but I ddin’t mention will be taking over in Peru, and from earlier clearly wanted to get back out in the field, so it all works out. And it’s a nice character moment; Arturo realizes while his work is important, and as mentioned he does make sure a compient replacment will continue it.. his family can be too and it’s okay to think of himself and them for once. As I said he’ll still be able to help just in a diffrent way and there are probably needy kids who need him here too, if not in the same ways obviously as a doctors without borders type project. So eveyrone shares a group hug and even Hector bursts into tears. And Maria comes in wondering what she missed whiel Sergio asks who wants to tell her. oh sergio.. why didn’t you stay away when you ran away in a future episode. Final Thoughts: Not much more to say. It’s a well done episode with high emotinal stakes, great acting and some great jokes I didn’t get to, and while the plot of “Make absent parent stay by pretending things are bad’ isn’t new, it’s done well enough here. Overall just a really good episode that shows what this show can do and why it’s unique family setup makes for intresting stories a lot of shows can’t tell, and validates this spinoffs existnace. The episode also really fleshes out Ronnie Anne’s character, and givne Arutro’s been gone since the divorce if not longer, it’s resonable to supsect her earlier bullying might have been lashing out at her parents divorce. It’s just good stuff. Keep an eye peeeld to this blog for my regular loud house and ducktales coverage , and some more casagrandes this october. ANd until then, Go Team Venture!

#the casagrandes #ronnie anne santiago #arturo santiago #bobby santiago #maria santiago #sid chang #cj casagrande #carl casagrande #carlota casagrande #the loud house #reviews #animation

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hookedonseavey · 6 years

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Haunted House - Daniel Seavey

summary: main character is friends with the band and their girlfriends, they all decide to go to a haunted house. main character hates haunted houses. daniel helps her out, feelings are caught. nothin but fluff and banter, honestly.

word count: 2.7k

warnings: none. maybe one swear word?

a/n: Hey y’all! Here’s the first of a few requests I got last week from a list of prompts. I figured in honor of spooky season I’d make them go through a haunted house lol. Full disclosure, I’ve never actually gone through a real haunted house, so my apologies if this is super unrealistic. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out though, hope you guys enjoy it!

prompts: "I like the way your hand fits in mine" and "Could you hold my hand?"

We waded through the throngs of people to the line leading up to the haunted house, our group's laughter lost in the sea of chatter. I looked up at the imposing building and tried to swallow my fear. The boys were joking around with each other ahead of us girls: Christina, Tate, and Gabbie were commiserating about their boyfriends. They were all seemingly unbothered by the looming threat of being harassed by zombies swinging chainsaws. I knew they were just actors, but still. I hated haunted houses. And like an idiot, I let myself be talked into coming along.

"I love haunted houses. They scare the shit out of me but Corbyn gets to act like the big, protective boyfriend. It's hilarious," Christina explained.

"They don't scare me at all, I think they're corny as hell. But Jack likes them, so, you know…" Gabbie chimed in.

Zach's voice traveled back to us. "C'mon guys, why're we doing this?" he asked, trying to cover his own nerves with his typical air of confidence.

"Because it's fun," Daniel said matter-of-factly, tossing his arm around Zach's shoulders. "Unless you're too scared," he teased.

"Daniel, be nice…" I chided.

He turned around to face me and started walking backwards. "Or what?" he challenged, smirking mischievously.

"Or I'll have to punish you…" I said with a grin, a chorus of 'ooh's and catcalls coming from the other boys.

"Tread lightly, my friend…" Corbyn said, slapping Daniel's back.

"She would never hurt me, she loves me too much," he said, shooting me a wink over his shoulder that caused butterflies to erupt in my stomach. Trying to ignore them, I stuck out my tongue as Daniel turned back around to walk forward again. Daniel and I were definitely the closest friends within the group. We'd gotten along the best ever since Christina introduced me to the boys earlier in the year; we understood each other in a way that was almost intuitive. And yeah, maybe I had a little bit of a crush on him. How could I not? He was the sweetest guy I'd probably ever met, he was an amazing musician, and he was gorgeous. The complete package. But I had no idea if the feelings were mutual. Dani and I were flirty with each other, but always in jest. I didn't think Daniel meant any of it, and I certainly never meant any of it at first… But then it started to mean something. I couldn't bring myself to stop or say anything, though: our friendship was too good to risk messing up.

"You'll be fine, Zach, just stick with me. I'll protect you," Jack said, bringing my attention back to the imminent danger and drawing laughter from the others. Zach rolled his eyes and adjusted his jacket.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I get attacked by a zombie, I'm taking you down with me," Zach said to Jack, meriting himself a slug in the arm. By that point, we'd almost reached the entrance gate, and I felt my stomach bottom out as I looked ahead and saw flashing strobe lights that briefly illuminated a man missing half his jaw. Subconsciously I stepped away from the group, fiddling anxiously with the hem of my sweater. As the rest of the group moved up in the line, Daniel looked around and noticed I was hanging back. He weaved around the others and came to stand in front of me.

"Hey, you okay? You look a little pale," he asked quietly, instinctively reaching out to hold me by the elbow.

"Yeah, I just… Forgot how much I hated these things," I said with a half-hearted laugh.

"Oh," he said, at first a little unsure of what to say. "Well, do you want one of us to wait out here with you? Zach would probably be willing to sit this one out. Or I'd be happy to stay with you," he suggested, those big blue eyes looking down at me, round and imploring.

I shook my head. "No no, I don't want any of you to have to wait for me, this is supposed to be fun. And you were so excited for this, I'm not gonna make you do that."

He shrugged, the ends of his lips turning up into an impish smile. "You aren't making me do anything, I'd be staying out here of my own free will," he said. "Someone's gotta protect you from those zombies, right?" His thumb had started moving gently back and forth on the inside of my elbow. I tried to suppress the shiver that arose from his touch and shook my head again. I really didn't want to make Daniel sit this out despite his insistence to the contrary. Something about what he'd just said seemed to stick in my mind. Someone's gotta protect you from those zombies… I had an idea, a way for me to go through the house that might make it survivable. I gulped.

"Could… Could you hold my hand? Like, while we go through?"

He blinked down at me, seemingly surprised by my request. "Yeah, of course," he said, sliding his hand from my elbow to my hand, intertwining his fingers with mine. He looked down where our hands were joined and adjusted his fingers a little, extending and flexing them a few times before they closed a final time to envelop my hand in a reassuring warmth. He cleared his throat. "You ready?" he asked. I nodded, mentally scolding myself for having such sweaty palms, but Daniel didn't seem to mind as we rejoined the others and walked through the gate towards the door of the building. As we entered, my grip on Daniel's hand tightened and my heart started beating way too hard to be healthy.

Daniel leaned down so his lips were right next to my ear. "If it gets to be too much, just tell me and we'll get you out of here," he murmured, squeezing my hand gently as the vibration of his voice brought goosebumps to the surface of my skin. I nodded as we all huddled into the center of the first pitch black room, nervous laughter filling the air for a few seconds only to fade into a terse silence. A single light flicked on, shining into the corner to expose a zombie slouched against the wall in the corner. Christina and Tate squealed as he slowly looked up at all of us, lurching forward with a groan. Zach and I both jumped while Daniel, Jonah, Tate, Jack, and Gabbie were all smiling and laughing, and Christina and Corbyn had their arms around in each other, looking like they couldn't decide if they were scared or having fun. I was marveling at how most of them didn't seem as scared as I felt when, without warning, another zombie jumped from the dark in the opposite corner, grabbing my and Daniel's shoulders with his decaying hands. I shrieked, recoiling into Daniel as everyone jumped and stumbled haphazardly into the hallway in a panic. Another zombie jumped out from behind a corner, screaming with his arms reached out towards us like giant claws. Yells and screams filled the hall as we skirted by him.

"I hate this I hate this I hate this," I repeated over and over, and Daniel tucked my arm through his as he pulled us to the front of the group as we all entered another dark room that appeared to be a dead end with no door.

"It's okay, they're just actors."

"I know that, but - " Before I could finish my thought, a metal door in the corner was kicked open, slamming into the wall with a bang like a gunshot. Standing behind it was the guy I'd seen from the line who was missing half of his jaw. I screamed again, reaching the hand that wasn't already in Daniel's grasp to grip at his shirt front. Zach pushed past Daniel and I and made a beeline for the door.

"I'm done, let's get out of here!" he yelled back at the group, eliciting a round of laughter from the ones who were still somehow enjoying themselves. Despite the laughs, a consensus seemed to have been reached by all of us that we needed to get out as quickly as possible. We moved from room to room, each new scare sending me retreating further into Daniel's side until I was practically hugging him with my face buried in his shoulder, my nose filling with the scent of his cologne and focusing on the comforting feeling of his hand in mine as I tried to block out my surroundings. As unpleasant as this was, I was beyond thankful that Daniel was willing to be my human shield. My feelings about him certainly didn't help my situation, though. By the time we got to the last room, I wasn't sure if my heart was pounding because of the scares or because of Daniel's proximity.

When we finally made it out and walked into the open courtyard behind the house, I felt like my heart was trying to escape from behind my sternum. The operators of the house were serving hot cider and cookies under tents in the brisk autumn air. Zach was already waiting for us, sitting on a haybale next to a scarecrow with his head hanging between his knees. He looked up when he heard the boys' voices.

"Took you losers long enough," he scolded, standing up slowly and walking towards us.

"Hey man, all you had to do was stick with me, but you didn't listen. It's your own fault," Jack teased.

"No way bro, you're insane. There's something wrong with you if you think that's fun."

"I, personally, had a great time," Tate said, slipping her arm around Jonah's waist as he laughed, shaking his head at her.

"Wow, yeah, that was… A blast, for sure," Christina said sarcastically. "But I'm ready for cider," she said, looping her arm through Corbyn's and pulling him towards the tents. The others followed suit, with Daniel and I bringing up the rear.

"Hey, you made it out alive," Daniel said lowly, squeezing my hand.

I took a shaky breath. "That's debatable."

Daniel chuckled. "I think Zach was more scared than you were, honestly."

I rolled my eyes. "He's a drama queen." It was at that point I realized Daniel had made no attempt to remove his hand from mine, and I became entirely too concerned with whether or not I should try to take my hand away or if I should just leave it and see what he did. I decided on the latter as we reached the front of the line for cider, taking a paper cup in my free hand and silently sending up a 'thank you' that I now had something else to focus on.

"Where'd the others go?" Daniel asked as he pulled me along behind him back out into the courtyard. I looked around and saw Christina under a different tent where they were selling t-shirts with the phrase 'I SURVIVED' emblazoned across the front. My eyes quickly found the rest of the group under the same tent, laughing as they looked through all the haunted house merch.

"They're over there," I said, nodding towards the tent. Daniel followed my gaze and nodded, the two of us falling in stride together as we made our way over to the others. He chuckled when he noticed the t-shirts, using our joined hands to point towards a rack of them.

"You need one of those," he teased, gently elbowing me in the ribs.

"Shut up," I retorted, smirking in spite of myself. When we reached the tent, Christina looked over at the two of us from the other side of a t-shirt rack with a cocked eyebrow and a knowing smirk. Confused by her expression, I made my way around to her side of the rack with Daniel trailing behind me as he joked around with Jonah and Corbyn.

"It's about damn time you two figured it out," Christina intoned once I was within earshot.

I blinked. "What, me and Daniel?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"No, George Clooney," she snarked. "Yes, Daniel. That boy hasn't been able to shut up about you for months."

"What?" I asked dumbly, looking over my shoulder to watch him laughing with the others with his nose all crinkled up. My stomach did a backflip at seeing him so happy. "No way."

"You think all that flirting was just for fun?"

"Honestly… Yeah."

Christina groaned. "You're clueless. He's obsessed with you, girl. Talk to him and see for yourself, doesn't look like he'll be leaving your side anytime soon," she prodded, playfully shoving me in Daniel's direction. I bumped into his shoulder and the two of us went stumbling, our hands finally breaking apart as Daniel reached out to keep me from falling.

"You okay? What happened?" he asked, still laughing a little from something one of the boys had said.

"Yeah I'm good, it's too crowded in here," I said pointedly, glaring at Christina.

"Can we go sit for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, replacing his hand in mine without preamble and walking out from under the tent to sit on an unoccupied haybale. "You sure you okay? You seem nervous…" Daniel said, making my heart jump into my throat.

"Yeah, I'm good. Adrenaline rush, I guess," I tried to make the excuse sound more convincing than it felt.

Daniel cleared his throat and started to pick at a hole in the knee of his black jeans. "I, uh… I'm glad you went through with us. I felt better with you there."

I looked over at him, cocking an eyebrow. "You didn't seem scared at all."

"Well, yeah, I wasn't scared, but I just… I liked having you there, I guess." His gaze shifted from his ripped jeans to where our hands rested between us, and he slowly started brushing his thumb across my knuckles, sending a tingle up my arm. Oh my God.

I blinked a few times, any words I wanted to say feeling caught in my throat. Finally, I found my voice. "Thanks for holding my hand. It helped."

He looked over at me, his eyes wide and a cute little smile resting on his lips. "Yeah?"

I laughed breathlessly. "Yeah, it was nice. Someone had to protect me from those zombies," I kidded, squeezing his hand in a return of the gesture he'd made so many times already that night. Then there was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch into a little piece of forever, the two of us, watching as his thumb moved over my knuckles.

"I like the way your hand fits in mine," he said, just loud enough for me to hear.

It felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs. After double and triple checking with myself that I'd heard him right, I spoke up quietly. "Me too." Is this really happening?

"I mean, look at this," he said, bringing our joined hands up between our faces as his demeanor changed to be more playful again. "Our fingers fit together perfectly. And our palms line up…" he trailed off, spreading out his fingers. I did the same, holding my hand against his much larger one. "Crazy. We need to hold hands more often," he said sweetly, as if were discussing something as simple as going out to eat at a certain restaurant or visiting our parents. I giggled at his candor.

"I agree," I said, slipping my fingers between his again, warmth radiating out through my hand and down my arm, infiltrating my chest where my heart had finally calmed down. Feels good. Our eyes met and something felt different. A good kind of different; exciting. "Hopefully not at any more haunted houses, though," I said jokingly.

Daniel laughed. "We can hold hands wherever you want, honey, just say the word," he said, bringing the back of my hand to his lips and causing heat to rise in my cheeks. And at that moment I couldn't think of another time where I had felt so happy.

The ending feels lame but it’s what I got for you. Hope this is close to what you wanted, nonny! Thanks for the request!

#my writing #mine #daniel seavey #daniel seavey one shot #daniel seavey fanfiction #daniel seavey preference #daniel seavey imagine #why don't we #wdw band #why don't we fanfiction #why don't we one shot #why don't we imagine #daniel james seavey #ds #haunted house

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dragabloodvist · 5 years

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The Darkcup Chronicles 1

What if Hiccup wasn't the kind and forgiving person we know? What if he was... dark? After their betrothal, Hiccup sees Astrid as rightfully his and directly starts training the prize he's coveted for so many years. The drugs Gobber and Stoick gave him for exactly this purpose will come in handy - because they didn't just pay for her to become his wife and queen. They also paid for her to be his sex slave.

Disclaimer: I don’t claim that this is how the characters, especially Hiccup, would behave. I’ll say this once and from now on only laugh about whoever comments that he would never act like this. I know that and I don’t think he canonically ever would. But that’s not what this story is about anyway. Instead, this is a What if story. What if Hiccup wasn’t the kind and forgiving person we get to know in the franchise but is instead marred and changed because of the years of abuse and harassment in his childhood? What if he became twisted and hard and lost his sense of justice? What if he became… evil? This is a Darkcup story, and I plan to write more in this verse, this story with a couple of chapters but also other stories and OS placed in the same verse.

Also, this story developed after a couple of prompts I got. I hope someone will like it. 2nd also: I spend some time analyzing the writing style of some authors I like and tried to adapt to that. Let's see how that turned out.

_____

On the way back to the Edge, Hiccup was filled with excitement. He could hardly believe it but finally he and Astrid we officially betrothed; the celebrations with their parents and friends had been only yesterday. He glanced over to where she flew in her usual spot at his right, grinning when she returned his look. She was his now.

“Okay, everyone’s off for the day,” he declared as they landed at the stables on Dragon’s Edge. The response was a general cry of excitement and judging by the mischievous grin the twins shared, Hiccup wasn’t sure whether he wouldn’t regret this tomorrow. But honestly? He didn’t care. Not with what he’d planned for tonight. Not even the twins blowing up half the island would stop him now.

When everyone left, Astrid lingered a little longer, just as Hiccup had hoped. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, almost kissing her. Her eyes were gleaming just like always and she had that beautiful smile on her face that he loved so much ever since he could remember.

“Will you come over later?” he asked in a husky voice. She didn’t really have a choice on this matter, but he wanted her to feel like it nonetheless. For now at least.

A smirk played around her lips. “You know, if it wouldn’t be you but Snot who asked that, I’d break your arm now.” Hiccup’s eyes went wide in mock fear and she chuckled. “But since I know you won’t try to get me drunk and into bed, I'd say you’re safe.”

Now it was on Hiccup to smirk. “Are you sure about that?” he asked teasingly. It made her laugh for real. “I wanted to invite you to have dinner with me, to talk, and maybe…” he trailed off and let his lips brush against hers. “But who knows, maybe I’m going to put drugs in your food to make you compliant. Maybe I’m going to take you by force now that you’re mine.”

“As if you’d dare to do something like that,” she giggled and gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “Luckily, I know you well enough, Hiccup Haddock. And we both know that you wouldn’t stand a chance against me anyway.”

She gave him a soft kiss goodbye and then left him standing to enjoy some leisure time. Hiccup followed her with his eyes, the smirk still not leaving his face. Oh, she was so wrong but that didn’t change how much he loved her.

Once she was out of sight, he flew to his own hut and took the gifts Stoick had given him off of Toothless back before the dragon retreated to his corner. There were two boxes, one bigger and one smaller one. The bigger one contained various tools, gadgets, and other stuff he’d already inspected back on Berk. It would go up into his sleeping alcove. The smaller box, however… Hiccup opened the top, careful not to spill any of the content. There were nearly two dozen pots and jars in it, containing dried herbs, powders, salves, tinctures, and many more. To the side was a letter, listing all content with explanations of the effects and how to use them. He scanned the list and his lips stretched into a wide grin.

This was perfect.

––––––––––––––––

There was a knock on the door to his hut that made Hiccup perk up his head in anticipation. "Come in," he called, still busy with the frying pan and the two pots on his little stove.

"Mmh, that smells fantastic," Astrid hummed as she walked in. Hiccup was a little disappointed that she hadn't dressed up in anything special for their date, but he hadn't expected her to do that anyway. Not really. That was a topic he would address at a later time.

"I hope you'll enjoy it, too," Hiccup replied as he extinguished the fire and loaded two plates with their dinner. Then he went to greet her with a kiss, more heated than their usual ones but he couldn't help it. She was gorgeous and the past hours of anticipation had done the rest. He wanted her, more than ever.

"Well, hello there," Astrid gasped a little breathlessly as they parted. She looked at him with an expression that was clearly meant to be playfully seductive, peeking up through her lashes and with her lower lip pulled between her teeth. Freia, he wanted to take her right here and now!

It took Hiccup some effort, but eventually, he managed to step back and lead her to the table he'd set for two. He handed her one of the drinks he'd already prepared for them, rose his, and said ceremoniously, "To our future. May it be long and fulfilling."

"To our future," she repeated with a smile that showed exactly what she was thinking. That he was an overly romantic dork and that she loved him for it.

The dinner went as expected. Astrid ate easily twice as much as Hiccup did and washed down the slightly spicy but incredibly tasty food with the light wine her parents had given them. They joked, talked, and bantered for what felt like hours until Astrid started to feel tired.

“I better go back to my hut,” she mumbled in a slurred voice, obviously already affected by alcohol and everything else.

“You could always spend the night here, you know?”

She threw Hiccup something that was supposed to be a glare but held no venom. “Hiccup Haddock. Are you by any chance trying to seduce me? Because that’s not working, no. We’re betrothed and I know nobody would blink an eye at us having sex now but you won’t get me into your bed that easily. No, no, no.”

Hiccup watched her with slight concern. She was stumbling as she headed in the direction of the exit. She was clearly intoxicated. He got up and just as he’d expected her next step would have sent her sprawling on the floor had he not caught her.

“Are you sure you’re fit to make the way on your own?” he asked, amused. He couldn’t really help it, seeing her uncoordinated like this was cute. “I don’t want you to fall off the bridges.”

He’d expected her to protest further, but instead, she went all mellow and soft in his arms. “Mmh, dunno? Maybe I need a little help after all. You’re so warm, do you know that?” Giggling she cuddled her face against his chest and a hand was sliding around his neck. Then she grunted and from one moment to the other went completely slack in his arms.

“Astrid?” he addressed her cautiously. “Astrid, are you awake?” There was no reaction, not even when he called her again, lauder, and even slapped her face. She wouldn’t wake up. Hiccup waited a few seconds longer, standing in the middle of his hut with Astrid’s unconscious body in his arms - and then a mischievous smirk spread across his face.

That had gone far better than he’d expected! The drops he’d put into her wine had worked far sooner than what the instructions had said, maybe because of how much she drank or because of the alcohol and the aphrodisiacs he’d mixed into their food. Either way, she was now exactly how he wanted her.

Vulnerable.

Helpless.

His.

It took him little effort to carry her up his stairs; the training she’d put him through lately obviously paid off. Toothless didn’t so much as blink when he dropped her limp body on his bed. The dragon knew all too well about his master’s fantasies. He’d talked about them for years now, after all.

But before Hiccup put his dreams into practice he took a moment to enjoy his victory, the sight in front of him. Astrid Hofferson, Berk’s strongest warrior and the most beautiful woman on Midgard laid in his bed. After years of suffering and humiliation, the prize he’d coveted for so long was finally his. And after tonight, nobody would be able to take her from him again.

He took off his stiff leather tunic and the boot and crawled onto the bed until he knelt across her waist. Reverently, he let his hands roam over her body. He enjoyed the slide of skin along her arms and neck but palming her breasts left him a little frustrated. Of course, she’d bound them beneath her shirt, just like she always did. Well, he would break her of that habit soon enough. He wanted to feel her whenever he felt like it.

But for tonight, he’d have to be content with getting rid of her bindings himself, just like the rest of her clothes. He stripped her slowly, one piece after the other, taking off the cuffs for a moment when needed. First her boots, then her spiked skirt and her shoulder pads, then her shirt and leggings. Every bit of revealed skin he covered in kisses, sometimes soft and sometimes hungry. He loved her, adored her, worshiped her. Every spot that made her react, be it a gasp, a moan, or a shiver, he memorized as a sensitive one, one that deserved further explorations on another day. He couldn’t wait.

His actions certainly didn’t leave her unaffected though. Her mind might have been knocked out entirely by the drugs he’d given her, but that didn’t mean that her body wouldn’t react to his ministrations, especially not with the aphrodisiacs racing through it. He could feel it too, the heat and the longing in his groin, but he’d hardly eaten as much as she had. The effect had to be so much stronger on her, and really, when his hand glided up her inner thigh it made her moan in an oh-so-lustful way.

But as much as he enjoyed listening to such noises they also made him pause. He trusted in the effect of the drugs Gobber and his father had given him… but he didn’t want to risk Astrid waking up at any point and fighting him. So he shuffled off the bed and opened the bigger box he’d bought from Berk. It was filled with many interesting things: gags, and whips, and dildos, and so much more, but for now, all he needed was the leather cuffs right at the top. He secured Astrid’s hands to the bed frame above her head and her feet loosely to the posts on either side. That way, he could move her but she wouldn’t be able to get away or even fight him.

When he was done, he looked down at her, almost completely naked and bound to his bed. The sight made his breath come faster and his cock swell. Gods, he’d waited so long for this.

He took off his pants and boxers as they grew uncomfortably tight and also shed his shirt and then laid down on top of her. He wanted to feel her. Her skin was hot against his and even unmoving as she was now, she was so alluring to him that he completely forgot himself for a minute. With a groan, he put more weight onto her and ground into her perfect body. His cock slipped between her thighs and even without entering her just yet, it felt fantastic. The heat, the slide, it being her. Hiccup felt everything inside him grow tight and hot as he rutted against her. His eyes fell on her face beneath him. It was soft and relaxed with her lips parted and her breath coming in panting. She was pure perfection. And she was his.

When he came not even a minute later, it was intense. Hiccup pressed his lips to hers to muffle his howl, using her in every way he wanted, and his hand grabbed so hard onto her arm that it was certainly leaving marks. He was looking forward to seeing them on her in the morning. This was so much better than his hand or fucking a whore every now and then, and he knew that it was because it was Astrid beneath him. His Astrid.

Afterward, he took a second to catch his breath again and even giggled a little as he slumped down on top of her. “I’m sorry, my love,” he mumbled. “I promise, usually I last longer. But you’re so hot and then there are the herbs I mixed into our dinner. They’re quite potent, don’t you agree? I didn’t expect that. You can feel them too, don’t you?”

She didn’t answer him of course, but she didn’t need to either. There were other ways to see whether and how strongly his touch affected her. He was no monster, after all. During all the years his father had taken him to the brothels on other islands, Hiccup had eagerly learned how to please a woman, all to one day put what he’d learned to use on Astrid. She was his end goal, everything he’d ever wanted.

He rolled off her, reluctantly but it had to be, and reached for the knife he kept on his bedside table. With exquisite care, he cut through the layers of her breast bindings and unwrapped her as if she was a gift. Which she was, in a way. She was his gift for having done so well in the past, and now she was his to do with as he pleased. And, oh, the things he wanted…

His breath caught in his throat when the last layer of cloth fell off her and her breasts were free for him to admire. Oh, she was perfect. Pearly white skin stretched over soft mounds, the rosy buds at the top just begging him to pinch and bite them. He’d seen bigger tits than hers, but… he let his hand hover over one perky hill and, yes, hers were just the right size for him to palm them. Perfect, just like everything else about her.

Hiccup took some time to play with her exposed breasts. He was sure that he was the first man to ever see this perfection, let alone touch them. Astrid was chaste and untouched, he’d believed her when she told him so, even though she’d admitted to touching herself every now and then. One day, he would make her do that while he watched her.

But now was not the time to fantasize about that. Now, he dedicated all his attention to her nipples. First, he just brushed over them with his thumb, light as a feather, and even that already made shivers run through her lithe body. She might be unconscious, but that didn’t mean that her body couldn’t feel. Next, he pinched her and avidly listened to her low gasps before he leaned down to give them some love with his mouth. Feeling those lovely buds harden against his tongue made him get hard again, too.

“It’s time, my love,” he murmured against her skin. He reached between her legs and beneath her panties and growled when he found her dripping wet for him. Eagerly, he removed that last bit of clothes covering her, taking off the cuffs for a moment when needed, then rolled back on top of her and pushed her legs apart to settle between them. “Time to make you mine!”

He took only a moment to guide himself into place and then pushed into her with one smooth thrust. There was more resistance than he was used to from the whores he’d fucked before; Astrid was so much tighter even with her body entirely relaxed and he even felt when his cock met her maidenhead and tore right through it. There was a whimpering and even something like a low cry from her and Hiccup couldn’t resist but to smile down at her and kiss her again. “You can thank me later,” he mumbled against her lips. “I’ve heard the first time is quite painful for a woman. Don’t you agree that it’s pure kindness that I let you sleep through that pain? You’re welcome.” Slowly, he pulled out of her again, his eyes lingering on her blood on his throbbing cock, before thrusting right back in. She was his, her body and also her virginity now. He would have to work to make her mind his, too, but the wait would be worth it.

He kept his lips on hers as he fucked her, slow and sensual. This was his moment of victory and he wanted to enjoy it as best he could. And oh did he enjoy it! Coming before hadn’t been part of his plan, but now he was glad that it had happened. It meant that he could concentrate on this without the need to rush now. Her heat and the wet slide of her arousal, in and out, watching her tits bounce with every thrust and watching her face twist in pleasure and listening to her soft moans. It was even better than he’d imagined.

When he felt the need in his groin grow and his climax close in he pushed one hand to their joining and searched for her swollen clit. Touching that little bundle of nerves had the desired effect in her already so aroused state. It only took a little rubbing and pinching to make her body shake and spasm with an orgasm and her walls clenching around him was more than he could take.

“Fuck, yes! Aaah-Astrid!” This time, he didn’t muffle his shout of ecstasy as he came, buried as deeply inside her as he could and pumping her full of his seeds. It was excellent, all he’d ever dreamed of. Perfect!

When he was spent and done, Hiccup slumped down next to her unconscious body. Chucking, he pulled her into his arms and nuzzled against her neck. "Mmh, that was incredible, my love. Oh, we'll have so much fun together. And we have forever to do so. Because you're mine now. Nobody can take you away from me again."

He bent over her to kiss her again, loving and sweet, before he got up to loosen the chains holding her arms and legs in place - though not releasing her, that was too risky yet. He rolled her around until she lay on her side, then settled behind her, her back snuggly against his chest. "You're mine, Astrid. Finally. And I love you so much.”

For a while, he stayed like that, lazily fondled her breasts and enjoyed her soft skin against his own. It didn't take long until his desire stirred again though, the aphrodisiacs still worked through his system, and he adjusted her legs and hips until he could enter her from behind. He couldn't help the low moan when her tight heat welcomed him again. He took her harder this time, his hips snapping forward in search of his pleasure, and enjoyed her low gasps and moans until he released another load into her.

"I wish I could knock you up just yet," he murmured sleepily against her shoulder once he was done, his hand splaying over her lower belly. “But that will have to wait.” Because that was the one annoying side effect of the drugs his father had given him. They would prevent her from getting pregnant. But they had all the time in the world now and once she was properly broken in and trained and had accepted his dominance over her, he could stop using them. He was looking very forward to that.

Hiccup fell asleep like that, his soft cock still buried inside Astrid and his arms holding her tight. Every now and then throughout the night, he would wake with his cock burning with renewed desire. Then he would fuck her, quick and satisfying, before he would go back to sleep, idly wondering how she would react in the morning.

#Hiccstrid #fanfiction #tw: rape #Astrid!rape #Rape/Non-Con #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #Astrid Hofferson #hiccup and astrid #Darkcup #Dark!cup

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eternaldarkness55 · 5 years

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The Little Mermaid of King’s Landing

(StoryInfo)(After Ariel became human Gabriela wanted that too plus her voice and hearing. Tritan gives her what she wants. After he does she ends up in King's Landing where she is adopted by Bronn. Joffrey finds out what she is and becomes obsessed with her both hatefully and lustfully. Gabriela/The Hound)(If you think this story is disrespectful just because I made a deaf character not deaf anymore then you need to look in the mirror at yourself before you start insulting and screaming at me and my story. This is not disrespectful get over yourselves if you think it is.)

Note 1: This story is inspired by Hunchback of Notre Dame and there will be some singing. But only a tiny bite.

Note 2: The Hound is no longer afraid of fire

Note 3: Women are allowed to join the Night's Watch

Start of story

It happened so quickly Gabriella was begging Tritan in sign language for him to turn her human and give her hearing and voice. Then suddenly she was standing on the beach of King's Landing wearing a long pink sparkly sleeveless dress. She could hear the beautiful sounds of the waves and the birds. Her heart filled with happiness. With this new life she could finally sing, play instruments, and dance like she always dreamed. She started singing " Daring to Dance. The same song she sang with Ariel once. Someone must have heard her beautiful voice because soon a man walked over to her.

Bronn: Hello miss, do you need any help? I will be more then happy to help you.

Gabriella: Well I have no home, my parents died when I was nine. I been on my own since then. I ran away from the place I once called home.

Bronn: Well I always wanted a daughter. Come live with me in the castle. I will keep you safe and protect you. Be my daughter and you will have a home and family.(Held out his hand)

Gabriella smiled, took his hand, and followed him. Two years went by Gabriella was now Bronn's daughter and Tyrion was her best friend. She was very close to Podrick too She loved her bastard name because it matched who she was and where she came from. Gabriella still loved swimming. Joffrey was her enemy he was always sneering at her. But what she didn't know is that Joffrey both wanted to kill her and sleep with her and make her his wife. Something else she had no clue about was Joffrey's bodyguard Sander Clegane was madly in love with her. But she had no idea who that was. She was about to leave the castle to go sing and play the harp for the orphans like she did every Saturday when she ran into someone.

Gabriella: I'm so sorry sir

The Hound: It's no problem miss, I'm Sander

Gabriella: Gabriella

The Hound: Beautiful, so much better then Sander

Gabriella blushed

Joffrey: Come dog, leave the freak to her freak work(Walked over)

Gabriella walked away with some soldiers. When she was done she went down to her favorite spot like she always did when she was done. As she enjoyed the sandy beach and the breeze she practiced her water skills. But she was unaware that Joffrey was stalking and watching her. When she returned to the castle and her room Bronn, Tyrion, and Podrick were there with worried expressions on their faces.

Gabriella: What's going on?(Shut the door)

Tyrion: The Hound told us he over heard Joffrey telling his soldiers that he saw you using your water magic. Joffrey knows you're a mermaid and he wants to kill you. I arranged you to join the Night's Watch with Podrick. He'll keep you safe and so will the Night's Watch. Your father and I will miss you so much but this is the way it has to be. This is the only way to keep you safe. And I'm sorry but there's no time for goodbye's. Come, I'll show you and Podrick the secret passage out of the castle. I already have horses and supplies ready for you.

Tyrion quickly grabbed her hand and ran with Podrick and Bronn hot on their trail. Tyrion opened the secret passage and they all ran in. Once they were out of the castle Gabriella saw the horses and her and Podrick got on.

Bronn: Remember, you're a sellswords daughter. Show them what I taught you. Show those boys what a real fighter can do. And remember I love you and I'm always with you. And please show Podrick how to fight, I never seen someone so terrible.

Bronn made the horses take off when Gabriella and Podrick arrived and walked into the yard they saw three boys training.

Grenn: My word(Gasped as he saw Gabriella first)

The three men turned around and saw Allister Throne walking up with a breath-taking woman and a boy.

Throne: Tell them who you two are

Gabriella: I'm Gabriella Waters daughter of a sellsword man in King's Landing.

Podrick: I'm Podrick Payne, I was a squire for Tyrion Lannister

Throne: If you're a sellswords daughter you must be an amazing fighter. So let's see what the boy can do first. Rast, see what the boy can do.

Podrick and Rast fought but it didn't take long for Rast to knock him down every time.

Throne: Well sellswords daughter let's see if you can defend your friend. All four of you get in there.

Jon, Grenn, and Pyp joined Rast and went at Gabriella but she beat them every time even Jon.

Throne: Okay that's enough, so it seems we have another very skilled bastard at Castle Black. I have a feeling you'll be a ranger.

He walked away

Gabriella: Well fought all of you(Smiled)

Rast: Piss off bitch!

He walked away as Sam walked over to her and Podrick.

Sam: Did he hurt you?(Asked Podrick)

Podrick: I'm okay

Sam: You were amazing, I'm Sam Tarly(Said to Gabriella)

Gabriella: Thank you Sam, I'm Gabriella Waters and this is my friend Podrick Payne.

Gabriella and Podrick became friends with Sam, Jon, Grenn, and Pyp right away. They also became friends with Edd Tollett when he arrived that day. Gabriella was made a ranger and Podrick was made a steward. Meanwhile in King's Landing in Joffrey's room.

Joffrey: Why do I still desire her? She's a filthy mermaid!(Said to himself)

Joffrey: Tell me why I see her dancing there? Why her brown eyes still scorch my soul? I feel her, I see her. The sun caught in her black hair Is blazing me out of all control. Like fire hellfire, this fire in my skin. Why do I feel this burning desire? It's not my fault I'm not to blame. It is the mermaid the sea witch who sent this flame. It's not my fault. Protect me, don't let this siren cast her spell. Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone. Destroy Gabriella and let her taste the fires of hell. Or else let her be mine and mine alone. Hellfire dark fire now mermaid it's your turn. Choose me or your pyre. Be mine or you will burn. Have mercy on her, have mercy on me. But she will be mine or she will burn.(Sang)

The Mountain: Your grace, the mermaid has escaped!(Ran in)

Joffrey: What?!

The Mountain: She's no where in the castle or King's Landing. She's gone!

Joffrey: How?! Never mind get out! I'll find her, I'll find her even if I have to burn down all of Westros!

The Mountain ran out of the room. After dark at Castle Black Gabriella took off on a horse while everyone was sleeping. She didn't care about being safe if her dad and Tyrion were not. She left Podrick a note explaining that she's going to get somewhere safe with her father and Tyrion or die trying. She arrived in the city of King's Landing the next night to the sight of Joffrey harassing a man and his wife by their house. She spotted soldiers by him including Sander who was holding a lite torch.

Joffrey: I found this book on mermaids in your house. So you two like mermaids huh? Have you been harboring the King's Landing mermaid?

The man: We are innocent, we know nothing about this King's Landing mermaid.(Said truthfully as he pushed his wife behind him)

Joffrey: Were going to burn down your house unless you tell us where she can be found.

The women: We don't know-

Joffrey: Burn it dog! Did you hear me dog? I gave you an order

The Hound held the torch that glowed like Gabriella's beautiful smile staring at the fire.

The Hound: I don't know how burning down this house will help us find her

Joffrey: Are you disobeying an order dog?

The Hound knew this was the moment he must make a choice.

Joffrey: It's that girl isn't it? She's gotten to you hasn't she?

The Hound: What girl?

Joffrey: You know very well who I mean. I saw the way you two looked at each other. You would throw away a promising position for that? Life with me or death with her?!

The Hound heard Gabriella's voice in his head. But had no idea she was watching him. He blew out the fire and threw the torch on the ground. He had no armor on that day so when Joffrey stabbed him in chest he cried in pain and fell to his knees.

Joffrey: Kill him!

Gabriella: No!(Yelled as she ran over and helped Sander up)

She and The Hound took off running

Joffrey: Don't just stand there shoot them! I don't care if you have to burn down the whole city!

Some of the soldiers took off after them

Joffrey: Hunt down the mermaid Gabriella don't let her flee and vanish in the night. These are the flames of Gabriella. While she's free our torches will burn bright.(Sang)

Bronn: Fire fire smoke and flame, Gabriella are you safe? In the dark I call your name. Is that all I can do? She's out there and I don't know where. I got to find her!(Sang from inside his cell)

Joffrey: Why do I long for Gabriella? Why do I hear her voice inside my head? I'm here to expose that pretty head. Where is the mermaid Gabriella?(Sang)

Gabriella and The Hound lost the soldiers by the time they arrived at a room in an inn in Mole's Town. She gently laid The Hound on the bed who was unconscious.

Gabriella: Sander, Sander(Gently shook him)

The Hound: Gabriella?(Slowly woke up)

Gabriella: Shh, try not to speak. I need to go get some stuff for your wound(Said gently)

The Hound: Gabriella come back!(Yelled as she ran out of the room)

The Hound's mind was on the pain but also on Gabriella and the danger she's in. As Gabriella grabbed some supplies from one of the maids she made her way back to their room. But on her way back she ran into someone.

Gabriella: Oh my god Podrick!

Podrick: Thank goodness I found you! Don't worry I'm not taking you back to the wall. I'm going to help you!(Gripping her shoulders)

Gabriella: How did you find me?!

Podrick: I left the wall tonight, the minute I arrived in Mole's Town I saw you arrive.

Gabriella: Thank you, yes I do need your help

She took her supplies and Podrick to her room

Podrick: The Hound!

Gabriella: He's helping, he disobeyed Joffrey's orders to burn an innocent couples house. He's injured and needs to recover.

Podrick: Okay, I'll help you heal him

Gabriella: Thank you, but you'll be healing him yourself at the moment.(Squeezed Podrick's hands)

Podrick: What?! No! Where are you going?!

Gabriella: To get a ship with the money my father gave me. As soon as his wound is good enough cleaned and bandaged were sailing to Meereen.

Podrick: Meereen?!

Gabriella: Yes, you heard of Daenerys Targaryen?

Podrick: Yes

Gabriella: She was born and raised in a place surrounded by the sea. She's one of the people in the world that loves the sea and feels one with it. I'm positive she loves mer people she'll understand me. Plus she has armies and dragons. She helps us, and in return we'll give King's Landing to It's rightful ruler, a Targaryen. We are giving Daenerys Targaryen King's Landing like she wants and deserves. We are ending all the Lannister's except for Tyrion of course.

Podrick: What about Tyrion? Doesn't he deserve King's Landing?

Gabriella: He doesn't want it, he rather be Hand of the King again. Or in this case queen. He told me himself. Not harming Tyrion and making him her hand will be one of my terms when I talk with her.

She took off Podrick cleaned The Hound's wound and put gaze on it. When Gabriella returned they left immediately. When they arrived on the Meereen beach they were surrounded by Unsullied men.

Missandei: Welcome to Meereen, I assume you three are here to have words with our queen?

Gabriella: Mainly me but yes, I have favors and offers for your queen. Ones that will help her get the Iron Throne.

Missandei: She will be delighted to hear that. But first would you mind handing over your weapons?

Gabriella: Of course

The Unsullied took her, The Hound's, and Podrick's swords. The Unsullied took them to the castle and into the throne room where Daenerys was waiting.

Daenerys: Thank you for meeting with me, please state your business.

Gabriella: I'm here to help you get the Iron Throne. But I have conditions and favors first.

Daenerys: That's fair, who are you and what are your favors and conditions?

Gabriella: My name is Gabriella Waters, I am a daughter of a sellsword man in King's Landing. My father is named Bronn and he is Tyrion Lannister's sellsword. Because of that we live in the castle. Or I should say use to live in the castle. That little shit Joffrey has hated me ever since he met me. But the minute he found out what I am he wanted me dead. My father sent me away to keep me safe. I don't know if my father is alive but if he is he is Joffrey's prisoner. Help me defeat and kill the Lannister's, free my father, and let me and my father move back into the castle and It's yours.

Daenerys: Who are you that would make that boy hate you?

Gabriella: A mermaid

Daenerys: A mermaid really? Prove it

Gabriella turned into her mermaid form then turned back into human.

Daenerys: Very cool, any other favors and conditions?

Gabriella: You must let my two friends here move back into the castle as well.

Daenerys: And who are you two?

The Hound: My names Sander Clegane. I was the personal bodyguard to that little cunt. I finally got away when Gabriella saved me. Joffrey wanted me to burn down an innocent couple's house. I refused and he stabbed me. The minute I met Gabriella I vowed in my heart that I would be her personal bodyguard instead.

Daenerys: You swear you're loyal to her and not the Lannister's?

The Hound: I swear with all my heart that I'm loyal to Gabriella and that I always hated the Lannister's.

Daenerys: Okay I believe you, and what about you boy?

Podrick: I'm Podrick Payne, I was Tyrion Lannister's steward.

Gabriella: That brings me to another favor and condition. Tyrion Lannister is the one Lannister you must leave alone. And you must accept him as your hand. He is a good man and nothing like his family. He is my best friend. When this is all over Pod wishes to be Tyrion's steward once again.

Daenerys: Okay I believe you three about everything. I accept your conditions and will give you everything you three ask for. If your father is still alive we will free him. We will leave tomorrow night. For now I'll have Grey Worm show you to your rooms and we'll have supper sent to your rooms.

Once Gabriella, The Hound, and Podrick were brought to their rooms and they ate Gabriella went to The Hound's room and knocked on the door. The Hound opened the door.

Gabriella: Will you please take a walk on the beach with me?

The Hound: Of course

Once they got to the beach she grabbed his right hand.

Gabriella: You took a terrible risk disobeying Joffrey and trying to help me. I haven't said it yet, but I'm grateful.

The Hound: There was one thing I lied to Daenerys about. I don't want to be your bodyguard. I want to be your husband. I'll be Tyrion's personal bodyguard instead. I love you Gabriella Waters.

She jumped on him smashing her lips against his and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Joffrey: Very touching, I been on your trail since you left Mole's Town. I was just waiting for you to come outside. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the beach or taking your dog out for a moonlight walk. It seems Mr Payne took a moonlight walk before you came out here.(standing there with ten King's Landing soldiers)

Two soldiers walked out with Podrick who was struggling to get free from their grips but failing.

Gabriella: Let him go you little shit!(Cried angrily)

Joffrey: There will be a bonfire in the castle courtyard tomorrow night and you and the dog are the guests of honor.(Gabriella and The Hound were seized)

Joffrey: Take them away!(Yelled angrily)

Podrick: Please no

Joffrey: Lock them up like her father when we get back

A soldier: Walk(The three of them were dragged away)

Before any Unsullied men could stop them Joffrey and his soldiers were long gone and out of Meereen with their captives. The minute they were back in King's Landing Gabriella, The Hound, and Podrick were thrown into separate cells. Joffrey entered Gabriella's cell shutting the door behind him.

Joffrey: Do you feel as uncomfortable as you look?

Gabriella: Just let me go(Said angrily)

Joffrey: The time has come mermaid, you stand upon the brink of the abyss. But even now It's not to late. I can save you from the flames of this world and the next. Choose me or the fire!(Walked over so he was behind her)

Gabriella: You would have a mermaid?! You're truly evil(Fear in her voice)

Joffrey: No Gabriella, my curse is that I'm human unlike you.

Joffrey: Mermaid witch I have a foolish wish to set you free. I'll be your sanctuary. I will save you and we'll share everlasting sanctuary.(Rubbing her arms)

Joffrey: Think of what I offered you. Save yourself.(Rubbed her right cheek)

Gabriella: I rather die then be yours!(Said angrily as she ran out of his grip and away from him)

Joffrey: What about Sander your dog, would you rather him die too?

Gabriella: No(Cried)

Joffrey: His fate lies in your hands

Gabriella: Why?! I don't understand! Why me of all people?!(Cried)

Joffrey: I wish I knew, sometimes we are drawn to the things that destroy us.

Gabriella: You truly are a monster!(Cried)

Gabriella: No! No!(Cried and struggled as he seized her and tried to kiss her)

She pushed him down and ran to the door clutching the window bars.

Gabriella: Sander! Help! Help! Please help!(Cried and screamed)

Joffrey: Guard!(Yelled as Gabriella ran away from the door)

The guard: Yes your grace?

Joffrey: Bring Sander Clegane to this cell(Stood up)

Joffrey: Perhaps my dear this will help you think of my offer.

The Hound was pushed into the cell

Joffrey: Exchange your last words with one another. Unless of course you change your mind.

Joffrey: Don't let them stay together too long(Said to the guard)

The guard: Yes your grace

The guard shut the door after Joffrey walked out.

The Hound: We have to stop him. What did Joffrey do to you?!(Said angrily)

Gabriella: He offered to set me free if I give myself up to him! If I say yes he'll spare you!(Cried)

The Hound: I don't care what happens to me!

Gabriella started crying

Gabriella: Either way it wouldn't save me. So no I won't take his offer.

The Hound: We have so little time left to say goodbye

Gabriella: So let's say it while we have the chance

They rubbed each other's right cheek. Then they fell on their knees sobbing as they held each other close and tight. He grabbed her face and they made out as they stood up. The next night after they were pulled into the courtyard Gabriella and The Hound hugged each other one last time before they were pulled away again. Gabriella was pulled onto the platform of wood and tied to the post.

Joffrey: Think of what I offered you. What is your answer?

She spit in his face

Gabriella: Never!(Yelled)

Bronn: Let my daughter go Joffrey! You know she has done nothing to deserve this!

Joffrey lite the wood as Gabriella cried

Bronn: Gabriella!

Before the fire could get too high Podrick and Tyrion ran out. Podrick freeded The Hound and Tyrion freeded Gabriella and pulled her off of the wood.

Tyrion: Run!

He, Podrick, Gabriella, and The Hound ran inside. Tyrion took her to his room and made her sit on the bed with him.

Gabriella: Your such a good friend Tyrion(Leaned her head against his right shoulder)

Tyrion: Yes I'm your friend(Gabriella passed out)

He saw that her eyes were closed and she was not moving.

Tyrion: Gabriella? Gabriella?! Wake up! Wake up!(Said worriedly)

Tyrion: Oh no(Gently laid her down)

Joffrey: Is she dead?(Walked in)

Tyrion: Because of you(Growled angrily as he stood up)

Joffrey: Good, at last Westros is free of Gabriella. Now that she's gone her poison dies with her. It was her choice uncle, I could have helped her and loved her.

Tyrion: What do you know of love?! Who have you ever loved?! You're weak!(Podrick ran in)

Podrick helped Tyrion throw Joffrey out the window. As soon as Joffrey hit the ground and died Daenerys showed up with the Unsullied and her dragons killing Cersi, Jamie, Tywin, and anyone loyal to them. As Tyrion kneeled on the floor sobbing The Hound ran in.

The Hound: Gabriella!(Ran to the bed grabbing her hand)

Tyrion: She's gone(Crying)

The Hound: No no

The Hound sobbed on her stomach suddenly Gabriella started coughing.

The Hound: Oh my god Gabriella! Your safe now and your home! Daenerys is out there right now with the Unsullied taking care of Cersi, Jamie, Tywin, and anyone loyal to them.(Helped her sit up)

Podrick: And Tyrion and I threw Joffrey out the window. He fell to his death.

Gabriella: Do you really think I'm safe?(Smiled)

Tyrion: Yes

Gabriella: Thank you(Rubbed The Hound's left cheek)

The Hound picked her up into his arms and stood up.

The Hound: Podrick, Tyrion, please bring mine and Gabriella's things to Jamie's old room. That's the room we're going to be taking.

Tyrion: Of course, I agree

The Hound walked out carrying her. He carried her to Jamie's room and gently sat down with her on his lap holding her close. Once Podrick and Tyrion left after bringing everything The Hound spoke.

The Hound: You're so beautiful(Rubbed her left cheek)

He kissed her forehead

The Hound: Everything is okay now It's all over. Let's get some sleep. You must be exasted.

As soon as The Hound got his shirt off and Gabriella had her night gown on they crawled into bed holding each other and went to sleep. Once the battle was done and won Daenerys and the Unsullied moved in. Bronn was sent straight to the medic room to take care of the wipe marks on his back. Daenerys took Cersi's room of course. Tyrion who became her hand like she promised took Joffrey's room. Bronn took Tywin's room. Tommon and Myrcella were unfortunately perished during battle and Podrick took Tommen's room. Podrick became Tyrion's steward once again, Bronn became Tyrion's sellsword once again, The Hound became Tyrion's personal bodyguard, and Gabriella offered to become Missandei's handmaid so she did. Thanks to Daenerys any punishment Gabriella and Podrick would receive for deserting the Night's Watch was canceled. Three weeks later Gabriella and The Hound married. Five months later they gave birth to a baby girl. The baby had Gabriella's hair color and The Hound's eye and skin color. Gabriella named the baby Ariel after her best friend who just like Gabriella got the human life, true love, and daughter she dreamed of. The baby took Myrcella's room. Seeing his true love almost get burned to death broke The Hound. It took ten months for him to get over his fear of fire again.

#addiction #littlemermaid #gameofthrones #got #bronn #thehound #sandarclegene #joffrey baratheon #king's landing #Gabriella #musical #singing #story #storyofmine

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