#a woman and her two sons living in our guest bedroom! great! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tyongxnct · 4 years ago

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𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑒 - 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝐽𝑎𝑒𝘩𝑦𝑢𝑛

pairing: Jaehyun x reader

special guests: Johnny, Doyoung and Jaemin.

Genre: angst, marriage!au, cheating!au

warnings: cheating, fainting, mentions of sex If you don’t feel comfortable reading about cheating, then feel free to skip this story. :)

word count: a little more than 12k

song rec: love me or leave me by little mix

note: I’m not a therapist or a doctor. The scenes in the hospital and at the couple therapy are just how I imagined it to be.

extra note: I love Jaehyun and this is PURE fiction.

A/N: thanks to my dear friend @kueey for proofreading this with me <3 I hope you guys like this story and please don’t get too mad at Jaehyun hihi ENJOY!!

ps: I AM SO EXCITED FOR NCT 2020 I really look forward to everything we’ll get and I’ll forever support OT23.. I hope that each member gets treated well and is happy and healthy. AND I can’t wait any longer for superm hehe

“I can’t believe you! Why? I don’t understand?! Why would you do something like that? Why would you try to destroy our marriage?!”, you were furious and heartbroken. After seven years of being together, you never thought that Jaehyun would cheat on you. You never thought that he’d moan someone else’s name while being with you.

You kissed him. “I missed this so much.”, it was hard for you two, both of you were working and you had a four year old daughter and a five year old son. There was never really time for things like sex. It’s been some time since you slept together, and you couldn’t wait anymore. You missed having Jaehyun close next to you, you missed feeling him inside of you and you missed his touch. “You feel so good, Areum.”, you pushed him away. “W-what?”, you asked, maybe you misheard him. “What do you mean?”, he tried to kiss your neck, but you pushed him again. “W-what did you just say? A-Areum?”, and that was the exact moment Jaehyun knew, that he fucked up. Bad. “N-No I-I didn’t...”, he stuttered. “Get off of me!”, you pushed him again and crawled against the bed rest. “Who is Areum?!” “No one, baby. I’m sorry.”, he tried to get closer again, but you stretched out your hand to stop him. “Don’t come closer! Stop lying to me! Tell me now Jaehyun or I will leave, and you’ll never get the chance to explain!” “Baby- I... It’s... She’s someone from work...” “And?”, you were getting angrier every second. “I-It’s I promise you I’ll never do it again and it’s been weeks since the last time I-”, he couldn’t even look at your face. “Since you what?”,

“Since I-I slept with her.”, his voice got quieter and quieter. You got up and put on your clothes as fast as you could. “Baby just listen to me. I swear I’m so sorry-”, Jaehyun tried to reach for your arms but you stepped back and looked at him with disgust in your eyes. “For how long?” “Baby-”, “No Jaehyun! Answer the question!”, you couldn’t even cry. “Three months I think...”, a tear fell down Jaehyun’s cheek.

Your man was sleeping with another woman for three months, if he was telling the truth of course.

“You had an affair for three months?”, you were heartbroken. You were fully dressed and opened your bedroom door to leave, but he stopped you, this fight needed to end in the bedroom, your little kids were asleep, and they shouldn’t witness what was happening right now. “No. Don’t go, baby. I’m sorry. I stopped seeing her, I love you.”

“You love me? Funny, last time I checked you said Areum. You said her name! I can’t even look at you! You disgust me so much! What kind of a husband are you huh?! What were you even thinking?!”, tears were finally falling down your cheeks, you couldn’t stop them from falling so you just let them.

“I said that I’m sorry! I stopped seeing her. I will never do it again, I love you!”, he screamed back at you.

“I can’t believe you! Why? I don’t understand?! Why would you do something like that? Why would you try to destroy our marriage?!”

You really wanted to know why Jaehyun would throw away a 7 year old relationship.

“Look, we didn’t have any second for us in the past, I don’t know, five months and I missed you so much but you were always working and you never had time for me! I felt... lonely or some shit, I don’t know and... and she was there for me in those three months...”, did he just say it was all your fault?

“So, you are telling me that this is my fault? Because I am working and raising two children. You think I was the one who never had time? When you fucked another woman, I was home alone with your kids! You lied to me and now you are fucking blaming me?!”, he couldn’t be serious. “I am the one suffering from all of this! I am suffering right now because of you and you are still blaming me?! I tried so hard to be a good wife, mother, friend and employee and I am still not enough?”, your voice was quiet. Jaehyun felt like he was never good enough for you, he was just ordinary while you were amazing at everything you did. Jaehyun felt like a piece of shit and he needed someone to tell him that he was also good enough, and instead of talking to his wife, he decided to talk to his co-worker and that led to more.

“What suffering?! I am still with you, I could have left you and stayed with her instead but I chose you!”, words were coming out of his mouth without him processing it, he said things he didn’t mean and he wanted to take them back, but he couldn’t.

You slapped him. You slapped him so hard that his brain started working again. He deserved it.

“You chose me? Nobody asked you for that. You are right, maybe you should have stayed with her.”, he looked at you for the first time now, his hand was on his cheek and his heart clenched.

“I- I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it.”, he cried as he tried to take his words back.

You couldn’t think straight, and you couldn’t stay with him, you needed to leave. Right now.

You opened the bedroom door and put on your shoes as fast as you could. “Don’t leave me, please. Baby don’t go. It’s late... let’s talk about it. Please don’t leave me.”, he was begging you. Without a second glance, you took the keys for your car and left the apartment you shared so many great memories with and now with the worst.

Jaehyun was on his knees crying his heart out. He needed you to come back to him, you needed to know that he was sorry and that he didn’t mean it.

“Dad?”, Jaemin held his little sister’s hand and watched his father. His little daughter looked confused and his son looked sad.

“My babies why are you up?”, he tried to cover his tears as he walked up to his kids. "You were loud, daddy. Are you crying, daddy?”, she asked her dad as she placed her little hand on his cheek. “Why are you awake, dad?”, his son asked.

“Daddy had a nightmare, but I feel better now. Thanks to you.”, he placed a kiss on his daughter’s forehead and on his son’s. “Tell mommy to give you a goodnight kiss, that helps every time.”, he tried so hard not to cry in front of his kids. “Okay, I’ll tell her, but you have to sleep now, it’s late.”

“Daddy can you sing for me? Mommy always sings me to sleep.”, how could he say no to his one and only daughter.

Jaehyun didn’t sleep for the whole night, he waited for you to come back, but you didn’t.

You were driving around Seoul. You didn’t know what to do. Go back home? You couldn’t let your kids notice what was happening between you and Jaehyun and Jaehyun... your heart was broken, and it needed time. You decided to call the only person who could help you right now. Johnny.

“Good morning, what can I do for you at this hour?”, Johnny, one of your oldest friends asked, still half asleep. It was 7 am on a Sunday, of course he was still asleep.

“Hey, Johnny. Sorry for waking you up-”, your voice trembled.

“Did you fucking cry?”, he always knew that something was wrong. “I-…Yes..., Johnny, Jaehyun had an affair.”

“I’m sorry what? What did you just say?”, he didn’t want to believe it. “He slept with his co-worker for three months. I f-found out last night and I didn’t know what to do… so I l-left.”, you started crying.

“I can’t believe this, where are you? I’m coming to you.”, Johnny didn’t want to leave you alone.

“No, I’m fine, well not fine but Jaehyun and the kids need you. I left last night just like that, and I want to go to my babies, but I-I Johnny I just can’t face him. It hurts so much.”, you tried to stop your tears from falling but you couldn’t.

“Okay, you don’t have to worry, I’ll go to them. But please tell me that you are safe and text me whenever you need me. Do you know where you want to stay already?”, you knew you could count on him. “I have a friend from work I could ask.”, Johnny was the brother you never had, and you were his sister he never had. You were friends since kindergarten, and he was actually the one who introduced you to Jaehyun in college.

“Alright, just let me know you’re safe.”

“Thank you, Johnny.”

“Always.”

Jaehyun was playing with Minah and Jaemin on the floor as he tried to distract his kids. “Daddy is mommy coming back today?”, Minah asked him.

He hoped.

“I don’t really know, baby. Don’t you enjoy playing with your daddy?”, he asked her. “Daddy is the best!”, she hugged him, and tears were forming in his eyes.

The doorbell rang and Jaehyun and his kids jumped up and hoped to see you standing there, but it was Johnny.

“Uncle Johnny!”, Minah loved her uncle Johnny. “Hey there princess.”, he hugged Minah and high fived Jaemin “Wow, Jaemin. You are growing up so fast.”, and as he looked at his friend, he saw nothing but pain in his eyes.

“Jaemin and Minah, why don’t you go to your room to play. I’ll be there in 5 minutes to play with you, okay?”, Johnny asked the little kids.

“Why are you here?”, Jaehyun asked. “Is it wrong to look after my friend and his kids?”, Johnny took off his jacket and sat down in the living room.

“She called you, didn’t she? Where is she? Johnny please tell me, I need to know where she is.”, he begged his friend now.

“Listen, Jaehyun, I know that this between you two, but please tell me what in the world did you think you were doing?”

Jaehyun sat down next to him and started crying silently so his kids wouldn’t notice. “Johnny I’m a terrible husband. I fucked up so bad. I-I thought everything was over but-”, he hid his face in his hands. “I fucking said someone else’s name while being with my wife. I am so sorry. I need her I can’t live without her.”

Jaehyun told Johnny everything that has happened last night. Johnny was shocked to hear his friend do such thing. Never did he think that Jaehyun would do that to you. He loved you way too much.

“I am speechless.”

“D-Do you hate me now, too?”, Jaehyun was scared to lose everyone.

“No, I don’t hate you but… you really broke her heart and I don’t know If she’ll stay with you after this.”, he was honest.

“Johnny I can’t lose her, I’d do anything.”

“It won’t be easy, that’s all I can say. But I’m here for you.”

It’s been three days since you left. You were missing your kids so much, it hurt you so much to be far away from them. You were staying with one of your friends from work, Soobin. She was always there for you and she invited you with open arms.

You decided to talk to your babies, they probably missed you, too. You dialed Jaehyun’s number, you were scared, and your hands were shaking.

“(Y/n)? H-hello-”, you interrupted Jaehyun before he could say anything more. His voice sounded different. “I want to talk to my kids.”

“A-Aren’t you going to... come back?”, he whispered.

“I just want to talk to Minah and Jaemin.”

“Okay... Baby? It’s mommy.”

“Mommy!! Mommy I missed you so much!”, Minah said as she talked to her mother after a long time.

“God, baby. Mommy missed you, too. I love you so much, baby. I promise you I’ll come to you as soon as I can.”, you tried to stop your tears.

“Mommy don’t cry. I want to play with you mommy but playing with daddy is also cool. And mommy, Jaemin is not nice! He never wants to play with me.”, she cried into the phone.

“Okay baby, I’ll talk to him. Can you give me your brother now? I love you.”

“I love you too mommy. Jaemin!! It’s mommy!”

Jaemin was angry, even though he’s just five he noticed that you and Jaehyun were fighting.

“Hello? Jaemin baby can you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Baby I missed you so much. How are you?”, you wanted to talk to him, but he was too angry at you.

“I don’t miss you! I hate you! Dad is crying because of you! I hate you!”, your heart stopped beating. Your son just told you that he hated you. Your own son. You cried, it hurt so much. You didn’t know what to do.

“Baby I’m sorry. I-”

“No! -”

“Jaemin why are you behaving like that? That’s not nice. You are talking to your mother-”, Jaehyun tried to calm his son down.

“No! I hate you!”, he suddenly also screamed at Jaehyun. Jaemin threw the phone on the floor and ran in his room.

Minah started crying and you heard it all, but you couldn’t do anything. Your heart broke at the sound of your babies crying and yelling. Your son hates you.

Jaehyun took his phone and heard you crying.

“I’m sorry he didn’t mean it. Don’t take it to heart, he’s... he’s just angry right now. I’ll handle it, okay? Don’t worry.”, Jaehyun wanted you to stop crying but you just couldn’t. You missed your family so much; it tore you apart.

“I’m... I’m sorry.”, you hung up and cried yourself to sleep. Again.

Two days later, you decided to call Johnny.

“Hey Johnny.”

“How are you? You sound miserable.”, he didn’t want to be mean or anything, but you really sounded like you just died three times.

“Thank you. I am miserable. My son hates me, my husband cheated on me and I didn’t see my kids for a week.”

“Jaemin doesn’t hate you. He’s simply scared and sad, he is a little kid, he doesn’t understand what is happening right now, but he gets that you two are fighting. Of course, he’s angry. I’d be angry, too. Please stop thinking that way.”

“I don’t know. I’m trying so hard but I just- it’s so hard. How’s Jaehyun?”, you asked him. Of course, you were still worried, you love him and even though he broke your heart, he’s the father of your children.

“He’s sick. I mean like seriously he has fever and all that stuff, I was there this morning, he ate some soup but he’s like sick. The kids are always in their rooms playing. He told me to leave, that he’d handle it, but I don’t know. I was going to look after them tonight.”

Jaehyun was sick. You didn’t want to, but you were so worried right now that you decided to go to your family. They needed you and you needed them.

“I’ll go. Thank you for everything.”

“Are you sure?”, Johnny asked.

“I need to be with my family.”

After the phone call with Johnny, you dressed up and drove to your home. It was strange to go there after a week, you missed it so much and you wished that it was all a bad nightmare, but as soon as you arrived in front of your home, you felt all the pain in your heart again.

You opened the door and took off your jacket and shoes. Scenes of the night you left played in front of your eyes. How Jaehyun was crying his heart out and how betrayed you felt.

You saw your husband laying on the couch with your son next to him. Father and son were sleeping, and a smile placed on your face. It warmed your heart to see the two like that.

But you couldn’t let your son sleep so close to his sick father. You carried your son to his bed and let him sleep there. On your way back you stopped at your daughters’ room and saw her also sleeping. She’s beautiful and you missed your kids so much. You would never leave them again. No matter what would happen.

You went back to Jaehyun and tried to slowly wake him up. “Jaehyun. Jaehyun wake up, let’s get you to bed.”

Jaehyun slowly opened his eyes and he saw your beautiful face. “Am... Am I still dreaming?”, he put his hand on your cheek.

“Jaehyun, stop it and get up. I can’t carry you to bed.”, you didn’t want him to touch you, so you pushed his hand away.

“I can’t believe you are real. I love you.”, Jaehyun looked and sounded so sick. His nose was red, and he was shivering. “I’m so cold.”

After you put Jaehyun to bed, you placed your hand on his forehead, just to see how hot he was. “You are burning.”

Jaehyun could hardly open his eyes, but he needed to see you. He missed you so much, he didn’t even know if you were real or not.

You went to the bathroom and came back with wet towels. “Jaehyun you need to take off your shirt.”

He slowly tried to take off his shirt, but he was too weak. “I’ll help you.” You helped him taking off his shirt and then you placed the hot towels on his body. “It’s so cold. The bed is always so cold when you are gone. Please don’t leave, I hate it when it’s cold.”, Jaehyun was talking in his half-awake state.

You tried to ignore him, but you also hated to sleep without him next to you, but after what he had done, you were too disgusted.

Jaehyun fell asleep again and you decided to cook a soup and you looked at your home, it was a mess. Well, you could imagine Johnny trying to clean up, but with a sick Jaehyun and two kids, it’s not easy. You cleaned the floor in the living room, putting the toys back to their right places and after that you cleaned up the kitchen a little. The soup was done and then you heard your little daughter crying. She woke up.

“Baby, Mommy is here it’s okay. Stop crying.”, you picked her up and she stopped crying immediately. “Mommy! Mommy I missed you so much!”

“I missed you to honey. I love you so much.”

After playing with your daughter, your son also woke up. “My little man I missed you so much.”, you were about to hug him, but he stepped back. “No! I don’t want you here!”, it hurt you so much to hear that.

“I’m so sorry. I promise I’ll never leave again. It was an emergency I needed to go baby, but I’m back. Didn’t you miss your mom?”

“No, I didn’t I want dad not you!”, your son ran to his dad’s room and jumped on the bad to hug his dad. Jaehyun woke up as his son jumped around. “I don’t want mommy!”, your son cried into his dad’s arms.

“Jaemin I told you to stop saying that.”, Jaehyun sounded so weak. So fragile.

You decided to leave your son with Jaehyun, you didn’t want him to cry anymore.

After seeing Jaehyun so sick you thought of calling your mutual friend, who was a doctor. Kim Doyoung.

Doyoung told you that he’d be here in an hour and you poured the soup into a bowl and placed Jaehyun’s food next to him on the nightstand.

Jaehyun still looked half-asleep. “I need you so much.”, he whispered. You son was back in his room, playing on his own with his car toys.

“I called Doyoung, he’ll be here soon.”, you just said.

You knew that Jaehyun was too weak to eat on his own and you weren’t heartless.

“You need to finish this, okay? Open your mouth.”, you were sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to leave space between you two, so you could just help him eat.

You didn’t look at him, your eyes where everywhere except for his eyes. But Jaehyun, Jaehyun was watching all your moves, and he tried to look at your beautiful face and eyes, but you wouldn’t let him.

After he ate up the doorbell rang. You opened the door and saw Doyoung standing there. “Thank you so much for coming. He’s so sick and you know how he feels in hospitals.”

“No problem, I told you guys whenever you need me, I’d be here.”

Doyoung checked Jaehyun up and it was easy to tell why he was sick. You stood at the door and watched them.

“Were you stressed lately?”, Doyoung asked.

You looked on the floor, and Jaehyun looked at you and then back at Doyoung.

“Yes.”

“Alright, so your body couldn’t handle the stress and that’s how you got sick. You need to avoid stress and you need to stay calm. I’ll give you some pain killers and stay in bed. If anything else happens, just call me. But that’s it for now.”

Jaehyun’s regret and worry ate him up and he was so stressed after you left, that his body reacted like that, your heart clenched, but it wasn’t your fault, you told yourself.

After you thanked Doyoung, he left, and you made dinner for your kids. Jaemin didn’t talk to you but Minah never left your side.

“Mommy is daddy dying?”, she suddenly asked.

“What? Of course not? Why would you think that?”, you were shocked to hear you daughter ask such a question.

“I don’t know, Jaemin said daddy is dying.”, she shrugged her shoulders and played with her doll.

You seriously needed to talk with him, you knew that he was just sad and scared, but it was too much now.

You sat Minah on her chair and then you called Jaemin because dinner’s ready. After you called him two times, he didn’t come so you decided to look after him.

“Jaemin, dinner’s waiting for you.”, he was playing with his dinosaurs and ignored you.

“Jaemin?”

“I don’t want to!”, here we go again. “Jaemin you are making mommy really sad. Why do you hate me? I love you so much.”

“Dad always cries, and you screamed at him! You hurt dad!”, oh boy, seeing him like this hurt you so much.

Jaehyun was standing at the door and listened to his son. It is his fault, not yours. His son should hate him, not you.

“I’m so sorry that you feel that way, don’t be scared, we just talked loud. I don’t want you to think that we were fighting. You know that I love your dad I would never hurt him.”, you tried to hug your son, but he ran out of his room, he didn’t even notice Jaehyun standing there.

Jaehyun looked at you, his heart hurt. Everything was his fault and now you were really suffering the most. How could he tell his son, that he was wrong? That his father is a piece of shit. A cheater. How could he tell his son, that he broke his mother’s heart?

You were still sitting on the floor, with your hands you covered your face and cried. You tried to be quiet but Jaehyun was right there.

He was right behind you now and he placed his hand on your shoulder. “I’m sorry, please stop crying. I’ll talk to him. I’ll tell him that it’s... that I’m the one who hurt you.”

“D-Don’t touch me.”, you ignored his words as you backed away. “Just go back to bed.”

You wiped away your tears and left Jaehyun alone, his eyes followed you. It hurt him that you react like that to his touches, but he understood. It hurt him, but you were way more hurt.

Back in the kitchen you helped Minah eating her food and Jaemin just looked at his. “Why is dad not with us?”, he asked.

“Your dad is sick and needs to sleep. I’ll bring him his soup after you eat.”

“I won’t eat without dad.”, he said now.

“Jaemin, he would love to eat with you-” “I want dad!”, he yelled now. There was no other way. “Okay I’ll get him.”

You went to your bedroom and opened the door slowly. Jaehyun wiped his tears away as fast as he could but you saw it. There was no point in hiding.

“Uhm, Jaemin won’t eat without you. C-Could you sit with us?”, you asked slowly.

“Y-Yes I’ll be there. Just give me a second.”, he said, and you nodded.

You went back to the kitchen and sat down “Dad’s coming.”, you smiled at your son. Your daughter was eating with her fingers and you watched her. You love her so much and you were ready to do anything for your kids’ happiness.

Jaehyun came and sat next to your son. “Dad! Let’s eat together!”, Jaemin finally started eating.

“Do you want your soup now or later?”, you asked Jaehyun.

“Now, please.”, he watched his kids eating and it felt almost like before.

Jaehyun was eating his soup and your kids were also eating. Everyone was eating except you.

“Mommy aren’t you hungry?”, Minah asked.

“No, I’m not hungry.”, you said. “But Mommy you always tell us to eat even if we are not hungry. You need to eat, too!”, after that one night, you lost your appetite. You rarely ate, most of the times you would just eat an apple.

“I’ll eat later, okay? You need to finish first.”

“Okay mommy.”

Minah and Jaemin played around with Jaehyun and you were just sitting there and tried to stop the pain. You tried to forget everything, but you couldn’t.

It was already 10pm and your kids were already sleeping. You didn’t know what exactly to do. Jaehyun was in bed and you were sitting on the couch in the living room.

What was going to happen next? Are you just going to sleep next to him and act like nothing happened? Are you just going to pretend that everything was fine?

You decided to take a hot bath, but first you made Jaehyun a hot tea. You opened the door to the bedroom and saw him sitting there and looking helpless. His nose was still red.

“I made you some tea.”, you put the tea on the nightstand and Jaehyun watched you.

“Thank you.”, suddenly he held your wrist before you could leave. “W-Where is it?”, he asked. “What do you mean?”, first, you didn’t understand. “Where is the ring? Where’s the wedding ring?”, he was so scared of your answer.

“I took it off.”, you just said, avoiding his gaze.

“Y-You took it off. Why?”, his voice trembled. “It didn’t feel right to wear it.”

“B-But you promised. You promised me that you’d never take it off! You promised me that you’d always wear it.”, tears fell down his cheeks. He was so desperate. It was your wedding ring. The ring that showed that you two belonged together.

You were angry. How could he say something like that and cry? How could he act like you were the first one to break a promise? You looked into his eyes for the first time.

“And you promised me to be faithful. You promised me to never break my heart. You promised me to never hurt me and always love me.”, you pulled away your arm from his grip and stepped back.

“I guess promises are meant to be broken.”

You turned on your heel and went to the bathroom. After you closed the door behind you, you started crying. You tried to be as quiet as possible but Jaehyun heard you.

You were right. He broke so many promises he made. Jaehyun broke your heart and he’s scared that you’ll never forgive him. You cried and cried and didn’t leave the bathroom for the next two hours. You were finally home but it didn’t feel like it. You were finally with your kids, but your son hated you. Your words really hit Jaehyun. There was no way that you’d forgive him. He was clueless and he regretted everything so much, he didn’t know what to do.

You couldn’t sleep at all that night. You were sleeping on the couch in the living room, but you were scared that your kids would see you. You were worried about the future. What is going to happen to your marriage? The voice in your head always reminded you that ‘Your husband cheated on you’, you couldn’t stop the voice in your head. But it was the reality you had to face.

Minah was the first to wake up. “Good morning baby.”, you lifted her up and kissed her cheeks. “Mommy I’m hungry.” You heard your son waking up and he opened your bedroom door and jumped on the bed.

“Dad wake up!”, he jumped around.

With Minah in your arms, you went to your bedroom and saw Jaehyun slowly waking up. “Jaemin your dad is still sick. He needs to rest.”.

“It’s alright. I’m feeling better.”, he smiled at his son. “I want to play with daddy, too!”, your daughter said. You placed your daughter on Jaehyun’s lap. “I’ll prepare breakfast.”

You would never destroy the relationship between Jaehyun and your kids. Jaehyun’s a great dad, no, a wonderful dad. When you told him that you were pregnant with Jaemin he was so excited. He was so careful with you and fulfilled every wish you had. Even after you gave birth, he never left your side and helped you as much as he could. Jaehyun told you that he wanted 10 kids with you, when you got married and even after Minah he didn’t want to stop having kids.

You smiled at the memory. You started to blame yourself. After giving birth to two kids, your body didn’t look like before. You felt ugly, of course Jaehyun would cheat on you. Look at you. You look like an ugly piece of shit, you thought.

Your thoughts were interrupted with Jaehyun coming into the kitchen with both of your kids in his arms. “Let’s help mommy”, he said and put his kids down.

Suddenly you got angry. Did he think that you can’t even prepare a simple breakfast? You don’t need help. You are strong.

“I can handle it.”, you said coldly.

“No, it’s alright, I can help you.”, he wanted to take the pan from your hand. “No, Jaehyun. I don’t need your help.”, you raised your voice a little. You totally forgot that the kids were also in the kitchen.

You hated to be like this in front of the kids, but you couldn’t control your anger. Jaehyun looked at you with an open mouth. Before you could say anything, the doorbell rang. Luckily, your kids were busy with playing on the kitchen floor, you hoped that they didn’t hear your voice raising at Jaehyun.

You went to open the door and saw Johnny standing there with Donuts. “Morning. I have donuts!”, he was happy to see you finally home. He knew that it was hard for you and that’s why he visited you guys.

“Thank you John-”, before you could finish your sentence, everything went black and you passed out. The last thing you heard was Johnny telling Jaehyun to call an ambulance.

Jaehyun called the ambulance and ran to you and Johnny. “What... What happened? (Y/n)? Can you hear me? Baby please open your eyes.”, Jaehyun held you in his arms and he totally forgot about his kids who were watching the scene. Johnny saw them standing there and lifted both kids up and brought them to their room. “What is happening to my... my mom?”, Jaemin cried. He was so scared. Your daughter was already crying and screaming. She was also totally scared, and she didn’t understand what was happening.

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry. You dad’s going to the hospital, they’ll look after her. Don’t worry.” Johnny tried to cheer the kids up, but he also didn’t know what was happening.

Jaehyun was holding you and crying. It felt like hours until the ambulance came. He never let go of you.

You woke up in a bright room. You didn’t know where you were or what happened. Your eyes slowly got used to the bright lights and then you saw Jaehyun sitting next to you on a chair, eyes closed.

You tried to take your hand away, but he didn’t let go. You slowly tried to sit up and Jaehyun also woke up.

“You’re awake. How are you feeling? Wait never mind, I’ll just call the doctor.” before you could say anything he ran out of the room and called the doctor.

He came back with the doctor and held your hand again as he sat down next to you.

“How are you feeling, Mrs. Jung?”, he asked you as he looked through your file.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m alright.”, the doctor couldn’t heal the pain in your heart, obviously.

“I need to ask you some question. When was the last time you ate something?”, he looked at you and Jaehyun, too. You felt uncomfortable.

“Uhm, I- can’t answer that.”, you looked down.

“Why?”, he asked. “Because I don’t know.”, you answered quietly. Jaehyun looked at you with worry written all over his face.

The doctor wrote something down and looked back at you. “And sleep? Can you sleep or are you having trouble with that?”

You nodded slowly “It’s hard to fall asleep.”

“How long did you sleep last night?”

“Not at all.”, you didn’t want Jaehyun to know that.

“And the night before?”, the doctor asked. “Maybe two hours?”, you weren’t sure. “Were you stressed lately?”, why is everybody asking you and Jaehyun this. Is it that obvious?

“Y-Yes.”, you finally freed your hand out of Jaehyun’s, who was in his own world right now. This needs to stop, first Jaehyun got sick because of the stress and now you were in the hospital.

“Well, your body needs energy. You must eat to produce energy. And sleep is especially important. Your body and mind need to recover, it seems like your body couldn’t handle it anymore. I don’t know what is going on in your private life, but I recommend you to see a psychologist. Your mental state is connected to your body, and If you don’t do anything about it, your body will also suffer. I’ll give you some vitamins you need to take, and you need to stay for tonight, we need to make sure, you won’t pass out again. Any questions?”, the doctor told you all of this in one go and you knew that it was true. But it was so hard for you. Every time you closed your eyes, you saw the fight in front of you. Every time you ate something, you thought of you husband with someone else and you couldn’t continue eating.

“No. Thank you.”, you said,

“That’s it then. I hope you get well soon.”, you tried to smile at him, but you were too weak.

After the doctor left, you mind wandered to your kids. “The kids- Jaehyun! The kids, where are my kids?”, you totally forgot that Johnny came to visit.

“They are with Johnny. Don’t worry, he came before you... passed out.”, he looked down, to ashamed to be the reason that you were laying in a hospital bed.

“Where’s my phone?”, you asked. “At home. You can use mine.”, he handed you his.

You looked at the phone in is hand. Did he saved her number? Did he text her? Is he still texting her? Do they have pictures together? You had thousand questions. “C-Call Johnny. FaceTime.”, you would never touch that phone. After two rings, Johnny answered.

“Hey, are you guys alright? Where’s (Y/n)?”, he asked. Jaehyun turned the phone to you. “I’m fine, Johnny. Thank you. Can I talk to the kids?”

“Sure. Minah. Jaemin. It’s your mom.”, he handed the phone Jaemin, who was sitting next to Minah. “Mommy! Where are you?”, Minah started crying. “Baby don’t cry. Daddy and I are staying together. Don’t worry okay? We’ll come back home tomorrow.”, you didn’t want to tell her that you were staying at the hospital.

“Jaemin, baby? Can you be a good big brother and look after your sister? I love you two so much.”, your son didn’t say a word. He started crying and you did, too. It broke your heart that he didn’t talk to you. “Daddy.”, Minah cried out. “Yes baby?”, he came closer and he could also be seen now. “Daddy give Mommy a kiss. That will help her. Mommy always kisses us when we are sick.”, she insisted, while crying. Jaehyun and you wanted to stop your daughter from crying and that’s why you nodded after he asked you with his eyes.

He slowly placed a kiss on your forehead. You had your eyes closed and you missed him so much that it hurt to feel his lips on your skin again. Jaehyun’s eyes were also closed and the kiss felt like forever.

After the call ended, you watched the sun go down. Jaehyun was outside, getting your food. You still didn’t want to eat. But after what happened today, you didn’t want to scare your kids like this again.

He brought you tomato soup, salat and rice with some meat. The soup reminded you, that Jaehyun was still sick.

“Jaehyun.”, you said. “Yes? Is it too hot?”, he asked.

“No, just- You’re still sick, you should rest and eat this, you need it more than I do.”, he looked at you like you were crazy.

“What? No. I’m totally fine. You need to finish all of this and then you’ll sleep. I’m feeling way better.”, you were the most important person for him.

“But-”

“No but’s. I’ll just buy myself a sandwich or something.”

“This is too much for me. Let’s share. I know that you love tomato soup.”, his heart flipped as you said this. You know everything about him. He didn’t answer, just watched you. “Jaehyun?”

“Mhm?”

“I said let’s share the soup. Please?”

How could he say no to the most beautiful woman he has ever seen?

After sharing your soup, you slowly finished the rest. It was awkward that Jaehyun was just sitting next to you on the chair. “Jaehyun, go home.”

“What? Why?”

“The chair is uncomfortable, I know that you can’t stand hospitals, and you are sick, and the kids need you-”, he interrupted you “And I need you, and I won’t go anywhere without you. I don’t care If I sleep on this chair or on the floor. I just want to be with you.”

You looked at him for a second and then you hid your face under your blanket. You didn’t know what exactly you felt when he said that, but you felt so many things.

Pain, love, longing.

You were so exhausted that you fell asleep and Jaehyun watched you. He was scared that it could be the last time he saw your face. Jaehyun couldn’t let you go. He wouldn’t. But what if you do leave him one day?

Jaehyun and you were finally home. Your kids were at the kindergarten thanks to Johnny. You called in sick for work and Jaehyun did too. You two barely spoke since last night. Whenever he said something, he got short replies from you.

You were laying on the couch and Jaehyun was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, even though you weren’t hungry, but he insisted.

Jaehyun was worried. He was determined to cook for you and keep you healthy. He heard some voices from the living room and thought that you were watching TV or something. But as he stood behind you, he leaned against the doorframe and watched you watching your wedding videos.

You were so bored, that you decided to watch the happy times. You wanted to see how it was to be happy and in love. You missed that feeling, you missed Jaehyun looking at you like he did on your wedding day.

In the next clip, you were slow dancing with Jaehyun. Your first dance as a married couple. Everything was perfect. Too good to be true.

Jaehyun heard you sniffing and knew that you were crying again. He placed your breakfast on the table and sat down next to you. Not too close, he didn’t want you to back away or something.

“What happened to us?”, you asked him with a trembling voice. “We were so happy.”

The next clip was the day you gave birth to Jaemin. Jaehyun was crying and he held your hand. “Come on baby, you got this. You are incredible. I love you so much.”

“I love you Jaehyun- Oh god!”, you screamed as you were giving birth. Jaehyun supported you as much as he could. He let you squeeze his hand, scream and yell at him because of the pain you were going through.

“I... I don’t know...”, Jaehyun looked at you and then back at the TV. It was Jaemin’s first birthday.

“I am not hungry.”, you said. Because you really weren’t.

“You need to eat something. The Doctor strictly told you to-”, he tried to convince you, but you were to angry.

“I don’t care! I don’t fucking care!”, you yelled at him suddenly. You watched your son smiling happily at you but now, now he hated you. The smile on Jaemin’s face triggered something in you. “This is all your fault! Everything is your fucking fault!”

“I know. I’m sorry. Just eat a little-”, he tried to calm you down.

“I don’t want to eat something I want my son! You did this to me! He hates me because of you! My son hates me. He hates me.”, you were covering your face as you cried. Jaehyun was sitting next to you, helpless.

“My own son hates me for something I didn’t even do. I don’t deserve all of this. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“I’ll talk to him, please stop crying. You didn’t do anything wrong.”, Jaehyun’s heart arched.

“You will talk to him?”, your blood shot eyes looked at him now. “What are you going to tell him? ‘I cheated on your mother Jaemin.’ huh? ‘You mother didn’t do anything wrong; it was me who fucked someone else.’?! What are you going to tell him?!”, your voice got louder every second.

Jaehyun was also crying now. “I-I don’t know. Are you ever going to forgive me? I know I fucked up big time and it was the biggest mistake in my life.”, he was about to hold your hand, but you pulled away.

“A mistake you did for three whole months. Why did you even stop? Got too bored with her? Were you looking for someone else to fuck? Two women weren’t enough for you?”, she was furious, and she wanted to hurt him as much as he hurt her.

“Don’t say that. You are the only one for me, (Y/n). I... You were -are- too good for me. I didn’t know how to express my feelings. I know I made a mistake for months, but I was scared!”, he tried to wipe away his tears, but it didn’t help, tears were falling down his cheeks.

“Obviously, I wasn’t the only one. Would you ever tell me about it? If you hadn’t... If I hadn’t found out that night would you have ever told me?”

Would he? He didn’t know.

“I-I don’t know...”

You didn’t say anything to this.

“Maybe we should just get a div-”, you said but Jaehyun interrupted you. “Don’t you ever dare say that word. I won’t leave you. Ever. I know you don’t trust me, but I’ll do anything to gain your trust again. I’ll do anything you want me to. I love you so much, I can’t live without you. Please don’t leave me.”, he was on his knees now, looking up to your eyes and then his face fell into your lap and he cried.

The scene in front of you was heartbreaking. You looked at the TV and saw the clip of you and Jaehyun with Jaemin, a couple hours after you gave birth to Minah. Jaehyun cried out of happiness on the screen and now he was crying and holding onto you like you would disappear if he let go.

“I’ll be better. I promise you I’ll be the man you deserve. I promise you I’ll never hurt you again. Please don’t leave me. I love you. I love you so much.”, he cried and as you put your hand on his head and stroked his hair, you thought that maybe, just maybe, you could work things out.

“Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Jung. I’m Dr. Hwang. Since it is your first time here, it would be great if you could tell me a little about yourselves and your relationship.”

A week after your last fight with Jaehyun, you decided to go to couple therapy. You thought, maybe a professional could help you go through all of this.

“Let’s start with you, Mrs. Jung.”, she smiled at you.

Jaehyun was sitting on the other edge of the couch and felt uneasy. He feared someone else knowing about what kind of terrible husband he is. He was ashamed and he knew how hard it was for you.

“Well, I’m 28 and I’m working in a publishing company. That’s basically it.”, you didn’t know what other information she needed to know.

“Do you have any hobbies? What are you doing in your free time?”, she asked.

“If playing with my kids and cooking count as a hobby, then yes. And free time. I don’t know, I don’t actually have time for myself.”, you answered honestly.

“Alright. Now you Mr. Jung.”

“Well, I’m 29 and I work as a manager in a company. And I don’t have any hobbies.”

“Okay, thank you. Now please tell me how you two met and about your relationship in general.”

“We met in college.”, Jaehyun began talking with a smile on his face as he remembered how he met you. “It may sound cliché, but we didn’t like each other at first. We teased each other a lot. She looked so cute when she got mad and one day, I couldn’t handle her cuteness, so I just kissed her to shut her up and that’s basically it. I never loved anyone else since that day.”

You smiled, too. You remembered that day so well. You always had a crush on Jaehyun since the first day you met. Who wouldn’t? You were so shy at first but after he started teasing you, you teased him, too. The way you two looked at each other every time while teasing each other, it was like you were waiting for him to kiss you and when he did, you knew that he was the one. The one you’d spend the rest of your life with. The love of your life.

“That’s a cute story.”, Dr. Hwang smiled. “So please tell me now why you are here.”

It was too hard for you to say it out loud. You waited for Jaehyun to talk about it and he did. He knew it wasn’t easy to talk about it.

“We are here because I... because I cheated on my wife for three months.”, he looked down to his lap.

Dr. Hwang was writing down something as she listened to Jaehyun.

“Okay, please tell me more about it. How and why did you decided to come here? How did it start, and why did you stop?”

“Uhm, my wife found out because I- I said the other, person’s name, while we were... together...”, Jaehyun was so embarrassed. “It started in April, I think, with, uhm, with someone from work. I did it because I felt like I wasn’t good enough for her. (Y/n) is perfect in everything and I am just... me. I felt so little and useless and it is pathetic but I... I needed someone to tell me that I was good enough and... I couldn’t think straight and ended up with the... other person. After the first time I didn’t know what to do. I was too scared to tell (Y/n) and too dumb to stop it. It was our daughter’s birthday when I realized, that I was doing a big mistake and that I was destroying the perfect life I had. And then I broke it off , because I knew that I was hurting my wife, even though she didn’t know it back then. I was disgusted in myself and stopped as soon as I could. I know that nothing justifies my behavior but... I just wanted someone to tell me that I was... good...”

You didn’t know how to feel after he said all of that. Were you hurt because he looked for someone who was there for him? Were you hurt because you weren’t that person? Was everything you fault?

“Thank you, Mr. Jung. Mrs. Jung please tell me how you felt when you found out.”

That was hard to answer. “Well, I... I felt numb. I didn’t feel anything at first. After I found out, I left for a week. When I was alone I... I realized everything and I only felt pain... After I came back, I was numb again... but everything boiled up in me and I was furious.”

“Okay, thank you. So, I can tell, that you are going through a rough time. Both of you. What do you except to happen, now that you are here?”, she asked.

“I want my wife to be happy again. I need her to forgive me for everything I’ve ever done because I love her. I want to save our marriage.”

Mrs. Hwang nodded and looked back at you. “I want to save our marriage, too.”

And that was your first session. You looked out of the window as Jaehyun drove home.

“What do you think of her?”, Jaehyun asked after a while.

“She seemed nice. And you?”

“Yeah. She really seemed nice; I hope she’ll help us.”

After you arrived home it was timer for dinner. Luckily, Johnny watched your kids. He really is the best, you thought.

“Thank you for everything, Johnny. I’m so sorry to drag you into this mess.”, you were cooking dinner with Johnny next to you as Jaehyun played with the kids.

“I told you guys; I’ll always be there for you. Whatever happens between you two, I’m here for you two. And you know that I love the kids and of course they love me, I mean, Uncle Johnny is way cooler than Uncle Mark.”, he laughed and after a long time, you laughed, too.

Johnny stayed for dinner; it was less awkward. He was talking to Jaehyun and to the kids the whole time. You were playing with your food, slowly eating, because again, you weren’t hungry. Jaehyun watched you from time to time.

“Mommy??”, you were so deep in thoughts that you didn’t even hear Minah talking to you.

“Yes honey?”

“Mommy can Uncle Johnny sleep here tonight? Please Mommy!”, Minah said excitingly.

“But honey-”

“Mommy please?”, Jaemin asked you now. He was careful when he talked to you since you went to the hospital. The next day he saw you at home he cried again and jumped up, he wanted you to lift him up and you did.

“Mommy!”, he cried into your shoulder. “I thought I hurt you because I screamed at you... did you go to the hospital because of me Mommy?”, he cried.

“Oh my god, baby no! No of course not, I love you baby why would you think that.”, you cried, too.

Minah was in Johnny’s arms and started crying, too. You promised yourself that you’d never scare your kids like this ever again. After that Jaemin was talking to you as if you were fragile and could break any moment, which was the case.

“I’m sorry Mommy.”, Jaemin held you and never wanted to let go.

“(Y/n)?”, Jaehyun called for you now.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Uhm, I don’t know... Johnny?”, you looked at him. “I don’t care actually, It’s up to you guys.”

“It’s fine for me.”, Jaehyun didn’t mind.

“Yes! Thank you! Come on Uncle Johnny let’s watch Toy story!”, Minah jumped in her seat and Jaemin smiled brightly.

You on the other side weren’t that happy. For the past weeks you slept on the couch, you didn’t even think of sleeping in your bed with Jaehyun. But If Johnny stays, he needs a place to sleep.

Your kids were sleeping already and Jaehyun was talking to Johnny in the living room. You placed a blanket and a pillow on the couch and asked him if that was alright for him.

“Yeah don’t worry about me. Thanks.”

“Okay, uhm. I’m going to bed, good night.”

After a long time, you’d sleep in your bedroom again. You were nervous. After changing your clothes and brushing your teeth, you got under the blankets. It felt strange to be in this bed. You were at the edge, one push you’d fall, but this is also Jaehyun’s bed and you were scared to be too close.

It’s been a couple minutes since you were in bed and were laying on your back, eyes open.

Jaehyun came in and slowly closed the door. None of you talked and as he went to the bathroom, it felt like you could breathe again.

Jaehyun changed his clothes, brushed his teeth, and came back.

“(Y/n)?”, he asked.

“Yes?”, you looked at each other now. “C-Can I sleep here? I can also sleep on the floor If you want me to. Or I can sleep with Joh- okay no, just the floor.”

You wanted to laugh when he mentioned sleeping with Johnny, but he looked just like a lost puppy. “Yes, you can sleep here. It’s also your bed after all.”

He nodded and slowly got under the blankets next to you. It felt like years, being with him in the same bed. Jaehyun was also laying on his back, looking up. He tried to give you as much space as you needed but he wanted to touch you, he wanted to hold your hand and kiss you. Jaehyun wanted to breathe in your smell, the scent of vanilla he loved so much. Jaehyun wanted to tell you that he loves you. But he couldn’t.

He turned to the side to look at you. You felt his gaze on you and turned your face to him. The moon shined brightly tonight and was your only source of light.

Slowly, his hand got closer to your cheek, he was about to stroke your cheek but as you closed your eyes, he just couldn’t. He didn’t deserve to touch you with his dirty hands.

You thought he’d place his hand on your cheek but as you opened your eyes, you saw the struggle in his.

“I’m sorry.”, he pulled his hand back.

“Good night, Jaehyun.”, you said as you turned around, your back now facing him.

“Good night.”

Jaehyun was standing in front of you but it seemed like he didn’t see you or hear you. No matter how loud you screamed, Jaehyun never reacted.

“Jaehyun!”, you screamed again. There was a woman standing next to Jaehyun now, you couldn’t see her face. “Jaehyun!”, you screamed again. Jaehyun pulled the unknown woman closer to him and then he hugged her. “What the- Jaehyun? Can’t you see me? Please, Jaehyun?!”

You couldn’t move no matter how hard you tried, nothing worked. “I missed you so much, baby.”, Jaehyun said to the woman. “No Jaehyun! Please don’t! I’m here! I’m right here!”

The woman’s face was blurry, you couldn’t tell who it was. Jaehyun’s hand pulled her by her head and kissed her. He was kissing the woman right in front of your eyes and there was nothing you could do. “Jaehyun! Don’t do this to me please don’t. Please don’t kiss her!”, you were crying so hard that your sight got blurry.

“(Y/n)! Do you hear me?!”, you could hear Jaehyun’s voice, but it was impossible. He was kissing her. How could he talk to you while he was kissing the other woman?

“Wake up (Y/n)! Everything’s fine, baby. Open your eyes.”

Nothing is fine. Stop kissing her.

“It’s just a dream. Please wake up.”, he begged.

A dream? More like a nightmare.

Suddenly you opened your eyes and you were breathing heavily with sweat everywhere. Your heart hurt and you were scared. Was it just a dream? A nightmare?

“Look at me. It was just a dream.”, Jaehyun held you in his arms as he tried to calm you down.

You didn’t even notice how hard you were crying. You gripped his shirt with your hands and pulled him closer. Too scared to lose him if you let go.

“It’s okay baby. You are safe now. Everything is alright.”, he placed kisses on your hair as he held you. You were slowly able to breathe in a normal rhythm, but you didn’t let him go.

“It... It was so real. J-Jaehyun it felt so real...”, you whispered.

Little did you know that you were talking in your sleep. Jaehyun heard you crying out loud and he knew exactly what happened in your dream.

“I know baby, but it was just a nightmare. It wasn’t real, please stop crying.”

You let him go as you thought about your dream. It wasn’t just a dream. It happened. Jaehyun did that to you. He did kiss another woman.

“L-Let me go...”, you whispered.

“Are you feeling better now?”, he asked as he slowly let you go.

You shook your head. “Is there anything I can do for you?”, he asked now.

“N-No. Nothing I... I just need- I don’t know what I need.”

You really didn’t know what you need. Everything was happening so fast but at the same time so slow.

“I’m going to take a shower.”, you got up and left him alone in your bed. Jaehyun let out a sigh as he tried to get back to sleep.

But that night, neither of you got any sleep.

One week past and today was your second couple therapy session.

“Is there anything you want to know, Mrs. Jung? Mr. Jung promised to answer all of your questions.”

He really did. Jaehyun promised to tell you everything you wanted to know.

“Well, there are some questions I have...”

Jaehyun looked at you but you avoided eye contact.

“Go for it, Mrs. Jung. Just ask.”

You played with your fingers as you tried to ask the questions that bothered you for so long now. “My first question is... uhm... You said it was someone from work... do you, still... like... see her?”, your heart was beating hardly against your chest.

“I- uhm, yes. She’s there when I go to work...”, he was also playing with his fingers now, too scared to see your reaction.

“Okay... d-do you talk to her?”

“No. Not like before. I mean... just a little at our meetings, but like we are all talking, I’m not directly talking to her.”, he tried to explain that he really isn’t talking casually to her. Only when it is totally necessary.

“And you stopped... doing it with her, right?”, you asked even though Jaehyun told you many times that it was long over.

“Yes.”

“I have another question.”

Jaehyun’s eyes were on you again.

“Did you... When you said that you... uhm... chose me. Did you mean it? No, I mean... why? No no... god this is so stupid... Just tell me why you said that and If you were really about to... choose her...”, Jaehyun’s words that night really hurt you. Choosing your wife over your affair? Did Jaehyun really think about that back then?

You didn’t even notice the tears falling.

“I didn’t mean it like that- I... It was always you. I chose to love you many years ago and I still do and forever will love only you. I don’t know why I said that... I guess I tried to tell you that I was also hurt all the time and... It’s just that I thought... think... that I’m worthless. You are perfect. Literally perfect. And I thought you deserve better, you still do, but I love you. I always thought that you’d be happier... without me. I thought it would be better If we”, he let out a sigh, “broke everything off and the best way to this was to... hurt you. I know it’s stupid and If I could I’d go back in time and beat the shit -sorry- out of me.”, he tried to explain that it wasn’t choosing between you and her but between your life without him and your life with him.

Jaehyun was deep in thoughts as he talked, he tried to explain his stupid situation to you as good as he could, so that you could understand him, even a little.

You tried to go through everything in your head, but it was too much. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this right now,” you left Jaehyun and Dr Hwang as you tried to calm down. You got inside of your car and tried to breathe. You closed your eyes shut, trying to delete the images in your head. The images of Jaehyun with another woman. It didn’t stop. Whatever you thought of, you ended up with the same image in your mind.

You didn’t even notice that Jaehyun was sitting next to you. Tears also falling down his cheeks. You felt so helpless. You felt like there was nothing you could do to erase the pain.

“(Y/n), please look at me. Please. I’m trying so hard, I’m so sorry.”, Jaehyun cupped your cheeks. He was looking into your eyes and he wiped off your tears. “I’ll do anything for you. As long as you stop crying. I promise you the pain will stop.”

“Do you really think that? Do you really think that it’ll stop? Do you really think that I’ll be able to forgive you and we’ll be happy again?”, you searched for answers in his eyes.

“I know it. I know that we’ll be happy again. That you’ll be happy again. You are the strongest woman I know, and I will do anything in my hand to make you smile again.”

“I hate to be like that but… C-Can you stop working there? I... I don’t want you to be close to her.”, in the deepest of your mind you told yourself that it didn’t matter where he worked. He could do it again. Even if he changed his workplace, how could you be sure that it won’t happen again?

You tried to ignore the voice inside your head.

“If it’s what you want, of course. I told you I’d do anything for you.”

Silence. There was another question in your head, but you feared the answer.

“Jaehyun?”, you asked.

“Yes?”

“Do you still have her number? Or like… anything that involves her on your phone?”, you looked out of the window, you tried to focus so that you wouldn’t cry.

“No, I promise you. There’s nothing that involves her.”

“Okay.”, you sighed. You weren’t sure If you could believe him but at this point it didn’t even matter.

It’s been 8 months since the worst day in your life.

It was a very difficult journey until today. It was hard for you, after the first night you slept in your own bed, you stopped sleeping in the living room. Most of the times you were haunted by nightmares but day after day they became less. You and Jaehyun were close, yet so far from each other. In front of your kids you acted like always, like the happy couple with no failures, but when you were alone, you put a big distance between you two. You never let him touch you and he never tried, knowing how hard it was for you. In those 8 months, you never even kissed. But it was alright, Jaehyun would walk through fire for you.

The furthest of skin ship that happened was a couple months ago when you hugged him. You just hugged him out of nowhere and you didn’t let go for a whole hour. Jaehyun was too scared to put his hands around you but you asked him to.

“Please just hug me back. I need this right now.”

And he slowly hugged you back. Pulling you closer than you already were and softly caressing your hair.

You were still going to couple therapy together. It helped you so much, you wouldn’t know what would’ve happened If you were all alone. Johnny helped you also so much, taking care of the kids and even Jaehyun.

Jaehyun still hates himself. He acted like you were fragile, always trying to make you happy, never crossing any line you set. He came straight home after work and spend all his time with you and your kids. Jaehyun cooks for you to surprise you and he buys a different bouquet of flowers every Sunday for you.

Today, on your son’s sixth birthday, you invited your family and friends to celebrate your baby’s birthday. You never told anyone, except Johnny of course, what happened between you and Jaehyun. You were scared that your dad would rip Jaehyun’s head of and you didn’t want Jaehyun’s parents to know that his son did something as disgusting as that. It was your marriage and it was something between you and Jaehyun, but still, he couldn’t look his and your parents in the eyes. After months, he couldn’t even look you properly in the eyes.

After your son opened his toys, you couldn’t find Jaehyun. You opened your bedroom door and you could hear him crying. He was in the bathroom, sitting on the floor and he covered his face with his hands and just cried.

“Jaehyun?”, you closed the door and kneeled. “Jaehyun why are you crying? Hey, stop crying, Jaemin’s just six… he’s still your little-”

“I-I’m not crying because he’s growing up so fast, well, that’s also a reason but... It’s just…”, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

You took his hands into your hands and looked at him. His eyes were blood shot red and the tears were falling down, and it seemed like they wouldn’t stop anytime.

“Hey, it’s alright. Look at me- “

“I can’t. I can’t look at you or at our family- I can’t even look at my own children. I just can’t. I don’t deserve any of you. I can’t look at your parents, knowing how much I hurt their daughter. I can’t look at my parents, knowing how disappointed they’d be. I can’t look at you, knowing that I am the reason for the pain in your heart, the tears in your eyes and the nightmares when you sleep. What kind of father am I? I always wanted to be a role model for my son, but now I hope that he never becomes like me.”

You were also crying now, you forgot about your family in the living room and you just cried with Jaehyun in the bathroom. “Jaehyun you are a great father, stop thinking like that. We’ll go through this together, don’t you remember? You promised me that.”

“I know but… what If I’m not good enough? What If I can’t make you happy again? What If- “, before Jaehyun could finish his sentence, you placed your lips on his. It was a slow kiss, you could taste the tears while you kissed him and he could, too. Both of your eyes closed, hand in hand.

Jaehyun was scared to go too far, but you sat on his lap and pulled him closer to you. After you kissed him, even though none of you wanted to stop, you placed your head in the crook of his neck and hugged him.

“I love you so much.”, he said as he hugged you back.

You couldn’t say it. He knew that you couldn’t, and it was alright. Jaehyun would give you all the time in the world. You wanted to tell him, that you loved him so much, but it was hard. But both of you knew, that you loved him.

It was your wedding anniversary one month later, and Jaehyun asked you out. This would be your first date after a whole year. You spent the last anniversary at home with your kids, at that time Jaehyun was rarely at home.

But two days ago, he bought so many roses and decorated your bedroom and asked you out. Jaehyun already asked Johnny to watch your kids and he happily agreed to do so, now it was just up to you. Were you ready to go on a date with Jaehyun?

Yes, you were.

Jaehyun told you to be ready at 7, he was still at work and told you to get ready. You stood in front of your closet, not sure what to wear. “He likes red. Maybe I should wear this- “, you were interrupted by the kids and Johnny.

“Mommy!! Can we come in?”, Jaemin asked.

“Yes, what’s wrong?”, you asked them as they entered your bedroom.

“This is for you.”, Jaemin and Minah handed you a package. “What’s this?”, you asked confused. “Just open it.”, Johnny smiled brightly.

And so, you did. There was a beautiful black dress inside the package. “Daddy told us to give you that!”, Minah said happily.

The dress was beautiful, really beautiful and it looked expensive. How could you were something so expensive, what If you drop anything on it while you eat?

“Mommy come on change we want to see it!!”, Jaemin jumped around.

“Okay okay, now get out.”, you smiled.

After you changed, you looked at the mirror and your jaw dropped. It’s been a long time since you wore something like this. It was a long black dress with thin straps, skintight, with a cut on the left side of your leg. You let your hair open and curled the tips a little. You were so excited; you almost forgot the most important thing.

Your wedding ring.

After you took it off, you only wore it when your family was around. But today you decided to wear it and you wouldn’t take it off again.

“How do I look?”, you asked after you left your room.

“Not better than me, that’s for sure.”, Johnny joked.

“Mommy is a princess!!”, Minah’s eyes shined just like you did.

“You are also a princess, my pretty girl.”, you placed a kiss on her head.

“When I grow up, I am going to marry you mommy.”, Jaemin said.

“Oh my god, can you get any cuter?”, you were about to tear up but the doorbell rang. You opened the door and you saw Jaehyun smiling brightly at you with another bouquet of roses in his hands. He was wearing a suit, and lord, Jaehyun in a suit was your weak point.

“Holy shit. “, he started.

“Jaehyun! Language!”, you hoped that your kids didn’t hear that.

“I’m sorry it’s just. Holy shit.”, he said again.

“I think it’s time to go.”, you waved at your kids and Johnny closed the door, Jaehyun was still in trance.

Jaehyun had a reservation at the restaurant you first went to on your first date

“It’s been so long since we came here, but nothing changed.”, you said, and he agreed with a hum. “God you are so beautiful.”, that was the nth time he told you how beautiful you were.

“Jaehyun stop, don’t make me shy.”

“But you are cute.”, he admired you.

The waiter filled your glasses with wine and as you put your hand around it, Jaehyun noticed the ring.

“You are wearing it?”, he smiled at you.

“Yes, and I don’t want to take it off. Ever again.”, you looked at it with a smile on your face.

“I’m sorry but you have to.”, he said seriously.

“W-What? Why?”

He took out a little box of his Jackett and opened it. “I want to give you this.”, there was a ring inside of the box. “We can’t… restart our marriage and I can’t erase our memories, I can’t undo what happened, but I can promise you, that I’ll love you with every breathe I take and that I’ll give you the happiness you deserve. I’ll do anything as long as you are happy, and I’ll never hurt you again. I can’t imagine my life without you. You gave me two beautiful children and your heart. It’s more than I deserve but I promise you, I will show you how much I love you until my last breath. This ring is my promise to you. I don’t want you to look at your old ring and think about… the bad times. I want you to look at this ring and feel happiness and love.”, Jaehyun was holding your hand and looked at you. For so many months, he couldn’t even talk to you, and now he was looking you straight into the eyes as he talked.

“Is that alright for you?”, he asked then.

You felt like crying again, but you didn’t want to, so you didn’t talk. You nodded your head and smiled at him.

He took off your old ring and replaced it with the new one.

You looked at it with the biggest smile on your face.

Of course, your heart didn’t heal fully, but day by day, the pieces of your broken heart got back together.

“I love you.”, he meant it. Jaehyun really meant it every time he told you he loved you. After being so close to losing you, it felt like his love for you grew and is still growing.

“I love you.”, after a whole year, you finally said it and it felt good. You were happy right now, it felt so good to say it back.

Life isn’t easy, everybody knows that. You could cry all day long and suffer in pain or you could do something to be happy again.

People tend to forget that time is the key. The process of healing takes time and that’s good.

Time heals all our wounds. Sometimes it takes longer but, in the end, you’ll be happy again.

2K notes · View notes

2jaehs · 4 years ago

Text

ETHICS l QIAN KUN

genre: smut, daddy!

warning: Dilf!Kun, profressor!Kun, Student!Reader, semi-public, semi-cheating, cursing, alcohol

word count: 5,6k

Your new ethics professor may not be as good as the subject he is teaching.

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It was a chilly evening and your parents were hosting a couple of friends from work for dinner. Your mother, a professor at your university, was always ready to break in a new lecturer especially if it meant it would benefit you in any way.

The professor who was invited was soon to be your new ethics lecturer for the second semester, all you knew of him was that he too had a kid at the university and your mother was hoping you’d get along with them.

“Did you find out who’s Mr Qian’s kid yet?” Your mother sipped her tea as she hovered over your desk, scrunching her nose at your Facebook page.

“No mom, you know people my age don’t use Facebook” you groaned and clicked the university page to find the tagged alumni. After a few clicks you noticed the new lecturer had been added and with another click you were on his Facebook page.

“God he is handsome isn’t he ?” Your mom marveled and you shook your head, “you have a husband you know” Your mom let out a laugh and playfully slapped you on your shoulder, “I’m not like that, plus the man teaches ethics he’d be horrified if I was trying anything.”

You shrugged and scanned the professors page until you noticed a post with a familiar looking boy. The two of them stood next to a brand new car and the caption read ‘congrats on the new wheels son.’

“This is.....Minghao, he’s a year below me” you pressed your lips together and looked up at your mother, “he’s pretty chilled I’m sure it will go fine.”

Your mother let out a sigh of relief and patted your back, “okay good so you’ll be able to keep him company tonight then, Hey maybe Mr Qian will give you special treatment after tonight.”

You wished your mom knew how accurate her guess was in the weeks to come.

————————————————————————

You slipped into a comfortable long floral dress and did a light make up look before creeping out of your bedroom to greet your mother’s guests.

“Ah there’s my princess” your dad bellowed to the guests who looked up at you as you made your way downstairs, already wishing you could hide away from your dad’s embarrassing words.

“Hi I’m y/n” you greeted, shaking everyone’s hands. There was a woman in her late 40s and Minghao the boy you had seen around your department from time to time.

“My dads just getting the wine from our cab” Minghao scratched the back of his head nervously as he took a seat across from his mother at the dinner table.

You slipped into the seat next to him, your mother mouthing a thank you for your bare minimum efforts and placed the last cooked dish on the table in front of you.

“I almost thought you were drinking all of that on your own” your dad chuckled as a man shimmied through the door holding two bottles of wine. You felt your heartbeat race when he came into full view, possibly the most handsome man you had ever laid your eyes on. Mr Qian had a wide friendly smile spread across his face as he sat the wine down on the kitchen counter and removed his coat, revealing his extremely toned arms stretching the fabric of his white buttoned shirt.

“Oh you must be y/n” he ran his fingers through his hair and took a seat at the head of the table, in between you and his wife.

“Eh yeah it’s nice to meet you Mr Qian” you smiled politely, trying to keep your eyes off his pouty lips.

You couldn’t believe you were checking out your lecturer right now, in the presence of his wife and son for fucksakes. But he was so unbelievably gorgeous, the way his ash blonde hair was styled framed his face perfectly, and his soft eyes bore into yours as he spoke.

“Please call me Kun” he chuckled sweetly, “unless I’m teaching you then we can switch back to the formalities.”

You nodded and he shot you another friendly smile before your dad began pouring everyone a glass of wine.

You and Minghao zoned out as your mother began talking about the university and let Kun know the basics, from campus etiquette to where he can buy the best coffee.

“Well I’m looking forward to everything” Kun raised his glass to your mother and downed the last bit of it.

“Y/n darling sort the dishes out will you ? We’re going to head to the patio for more drinks” your mother called. All you wanted to do was return to your room, but after letting out a groan you did as you were told.

You scrubbed the dishes as you noticed Minghao was entertaining himself with a game on his phone in the living room. He wasn’t much of a talker and you were grateful for that, you really weren’t in the mood to be sociable with a stranger.

“Sorry to disturb but where is the wine opener ?”

You jumped at the sudden voice and the next thing you knew the leftover suds from your gloves were on Kun’s shirt.

“Shit- I mean sorry I’m sorry” you tore off your gloves and grabbed a paper towel ready to clean up your mess.

“It’s okay y/n” he chuckled and took hold of your wrist as you looked up at him, “it’s just a little water.”

Kun smiled down at you sweetly but you noticed a hint of curiosity in his eyes as you stood still under his touch, not bothered to move under the sudden contact.

“A-are you sure it’s okay?” You asked in a small voice still looking up at him and unconsciously bit down on your lip as your eyes drifted to his plump ones for the 4th time that night.

Kun cocked his head to the side, slowly let go of your wrist, and wet his bottom lip with his tongue before taking a step back,

“Can I have that wine opener y/n ?” He asked in a low tone.

“Oh right” you pulled open a drawer and retrieved the item, handing it to Kun who grazed his fingers against yours as he received it.

“Thank you.”

————————————————————————

You were in your bedroom reliving that moment over and over again. You were not delusional right ? There definitely was a little tension between you and Mr Qian and you had no idea why.

Did he sense that you were attracted to him ? He probably thought you were awful for even making it known to him since he was married. He taught ethics for heaven's sake, he probably thought you were a horrible person.

Sighing, you turned on your stomach and listened to the voices coming from the patio downstairs. You heard your dad pretty clearly, he was loud but when drunk even louder.

“Y/n is a good student but her mind wanders a lot”

“It’s true, she’s just like her dad”

“Hey!”

You groaned at the sound of your parents yapping and hearing Kun and his wife laugh along only made things worse. How the hell were you going to get through a whole semester of ethics with Mr Qian when he’s already met your insane family ?

A few minutes had passed and you heard a knock on your door. Before you could respond your mother flung open your door and you noticed Mr Qian was lingering right behind her.

Great.

“Sweetheart do you mind giving Kun your notes and essays from last semester” she hiccuped as Kun chuckled softly at her antics.

“Mom I -“

“It’s okay” Kun raised his hands, “you can bring it to me on Monday”

“Nonsense you’re here right now” you mom silenced him, “oh I’ll also fetch the old schedule just so you have an idea of what it all looks like.”

Your mom disappeared down the hall to her study and you expected Mr Qian to follow her but instead he leaned against your doorframe and watched you.

“I didn’t save much...so”

“I thought you were a good student y/n” Kun teased, his dimple showing as he grinned.

You rummaged through your drawers, “I am a good student” you pulled out your old ethics file and got to your feet,

“Not all the time though.”

Kun raised his eyebrow at your words and received the file from you before checking the hallway for your tipsy mother.

“Oh I’ve noticed” he said lowly, his eyes looked around your bedroom then met your stare, “I just hope you will pay attention in my class Miss y/l/n”

“I’ll try my best sir” you responded, chewing on your bottom lip before your mother reappeared and dragged Kun back downstairs.

Kun turned back to get one last look at you. He was taken back that you were still staring at him, those barely innocent eyes enticed him and the way your lips were caught between your teeth made him-

“My daughter is ecstatic for the new semester. Please look after her,” your mother said, handing the last of her notes to Kun.

Kun nodded and thanked her before collecting his family and headed to their cab outside. He pondered on her words and looked over at his wife, “sweet family aren’t they ?”

————————————————————————

It was another chilly winter morning and you were making your way over to your 8am ethics lecture with your best friend Xiaojun. “Dami said the new ethics lecturer is hot as hell” Xiaojun sipped his coffee as you two turned into the corridor, avoiding the lingering students,

“He came to my house over the weekend, he's pretty handsome yeah” you said, feeling butterflies in your stomach just talking about him. Xiaojun was about to speak until the two of you heard a low voice from behind you,

“Good morning you two” Mr Qian greeted with a cheeky smile and slipped into the classroom with his briefcase and coffee.

“Shit do you think he heard me ? shit shit shit” you cursed under your breath as Xiaojun pulled you into the front row of seats. The classroom began filling up and almost every person who walked in did a double take at Kun, it could've been his newness or the fact that he was now the best looking professor in this department.

“Why are we sitting upfront ? this feels weird” you whispered to Xiaojun.

“I want him to think that we pay attention” Xiaojun nudged you as the two of you watched Mr Qian remove his blazer and fold up his dress shirt sleeves. Your breathing hitched as you monitored his veiny arms while he navigated his laptop, thinking back to when he had his hand around your wrist and looked down at you with his almond eyes.

“Hello everyone, I'm Professor Qian, you can refer to me as Mr Qian or...sir” his eyes dropped to you on the last word as if it were reserved just for you.

You couldn't concentrate at all on the lecture and it wasn't due to Xiaojun talking his head off. Every movement Kun made had you adjusting your seating position and every glance had you adjusting your hair or wetting your lips. Every damn second you had to remind yourself that he was married and you were his student, an ethics student. But you couldn't help but wonder if what you were feeling was being reciprocated. You concluded that he was either oblivious and naturally charming or he was toying with you. Either way you looked at it, you knew you were like putty in his hands.

“I hope everyone has a good day and don't forget tomorrow I’ll be doing a short quiz in order to check your process” Mr Qian smiled sweetly and took a seat at his desk, waving off the first student's to leave his room.

You gathered your books and began making your way out when Mr Qian cleared his throat, “y/n can I see you for a bit?” Xiaojun nudged you and winked which only made your face redder than it already was. Spinning on your heels you pressed your lips together and made your way over to his desk.

“Y-yes Mr Qian ?”

“Please take a seat” He smiled and waited until the last person exited the room and shut the door. You returned to your original seat and a nervous feeling overcame you when you realized you were now alone with him.

“I just wanted to return some of the notes you gave me” He began pacing in front of you with his hands stuffed into his pocket, “and I just wanted to check if you were paying attention today”

“I did, I mean I usually go over the slides again later” you bit down on your lip. The chirpy tone of your voice made you cringe, why did you want him to think so highly of you ? that you were a good girl, not slacking off.

Kun nodded and pressed his lips together before retrieving your notes from his desk and handed it to you. You swallowed hard when he leaned over you, his large hands pressing into the desk and a strand of his blonde hair fell out of place and curled over his eyebrow.

“It’s not because you think i'm handsome that you're so distracted now are you?”

A shiver went down your spine at the sound of his silky voice matching his daring eyes as if he was waiting for you to act on it. You looked up at him, he could see his reflection in your doe-like eyes and it made him unconsciously lick his lips.

“I uhm….I'm sorry” you battered your eyelashes at him, hoping he would keep this information to himself and not out your words to your mother.

“Im sorry...who?” his voice was stern. Something dark had overcome him and it excited you.

“Im sorry...sir”

You watched his eyes light up by your words and it was enough indication that you weren't being delusional about him. Kun took a step back and returned to his desk signaling the end of your conversation. You sunk your teeth into your bottom lip and grabbed your notes heading straight for the door.

What the hell were you getting yourself into?

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

Most of the next three weeks Kun was pretty normal. He treated you just like every other student in the room and it made you feel a tad jealous. You waited for his glances or him asking you to stay after class but he completely ignored you. Maybe he came to his senses and felt guilty flirting with a student when he was married. That was until Friday came around and you were sitting in your mom’s office.

“One sign of pleasant weather actually got you wearing a skirt ?” Your mother teased as she bit into her salad.

“I've never worn it before and I think it looks cute” you pouted looking down at your beige and chocolate brown checkered mini skirt.

“You do look cute sweetheart and you'd look even cuter organizing my store room”

You groaned at your mothers request but jumped to your feet knowing you didn't have anything else to do. It sucked that the weather was actually perfect for an outfit to tease Mr Qian in but his lecture had been cancelled for the day. You opened the store room only to be greeted by dust and darkness, not surprised that the state of the shelves were a mess in a few short weeks since you last cleaned them.

Grabbing a flashlight you got started on the lower shelves when you heard a knock on your mom’s door and Kun walked in holding a box of folders.

“You're done already ?” Your mom said, mouth filled with her chicken wrap as Kun placed the box on her desk,

“Yes I scanned them onto my usb, It’s easier catching up that way” he replied politely,

“Okay well I’ll tell y/n to put these away, I'm still trying to finish these reports and my lunch”

Kun tutted at your mother’s words and began unpacking the box, carrying the folders over to the storeroom, “I'm not doing anything right now and we cant let y/n do everything on her own now can we?”

Your eyes widened as he joined you in the dark storeroom, his figure completely hidden from your mother as she continued snacking on her wrap and eyes engrossed in her computer,

“Kun you're too kind, okay you two have fun.”

You held your breath as you felt his arm brush against your back as he worked on the shelf behind you. His perfume was sweet, the scent tickled your nose while he moved around the compact room.

“Where’s section R 20-30 ?” Kun asked you softly, squinting as the flashlight you held caught his eye.

“Oh sorry uhm it's down here you can give it to me-”

“It's okay I got it” Kun mused and crouched down next to your bare legs trying to find the placement of the file in hand. You kept your focus on the shelf in front you, freezing when you felt the tips of his hair brush against your knee. Kun slid the file in its place and allowed his fingers to dance along your legs as he stood up, scanning your face for a reaction. When you gathered yourself you turned back to placing files in their respectful spots earning a scoff from Kun. He cocked his head to the side, amused by your composure. He touched you a few feet away from your mother and you didn't budge, he was impressed.

You thought his teasing was over until Kun stood beside you, shielded in the dark and you felt his warm breath against your neck. You froze when you felt his fingers on your inner thigh, slowly moving up until he pinched and you squealed, bumping into the shelf.

“Darling are you okay ?” Your mom called from her desk.

“Answer her y/n” Kun whispered before placing an open mouth kiss on your neck.

You cleared your throat and prayed your voice wouldn't crack, “Im okay just tripped over something, the usual” You heard your mother chuckle, thanking the heavens that she was so oblivious to what was going on in her store room right now.

You felt Kun smile against your neck and his fingers returned to your inner thigh, moving up until he grazed against your lace panties. Kun hummed when he felt how wet you were for him, you couldn't believe how wet you were for your professor at this moment. Kun skillfully moved your underwear to the side and felt your wetness before bringing his finger up to your mouth.

His lips curled into a smile waiting to see how dirty you were. All of this seemed like a test to you, as if he wanted to see how much you could endure before he had his way with you. The way he looked at you made you want him right then and there. Guys your age couldn't handle a girl like this as much as they tried to convince themselves. Your sex life was boring, all of them were the same but this, this was exhilarating.

Kun’s mouth parted as he watched your pouted lips meet his finger and lick his finger clean. The way he looked at you made you feel proud, he made you feel like you aced your assignment.

“Dammit I have a last minute meeting, sorry sweety I can't drive you home today should I call a cab ?” your mother sighed as you and Kun innocently stepped out of the store room.

“I don't mind giving her a ride home,” Kun offered, his attention fully on your mother despite feeling your glance on him.

“Kun you are a lifesaver seriously, how do I repay you ?” Your mom grabbed her satchel from her desk and made her way to the door.

“How about dinner? Jia and I really enjoyed your hosting” Kun offered, helping your mom lock up. You felt weird when he mentioned his wife’s name, hating that you were jealous of the woman who actually got to call him hers. It also made you feel as if you were just a play thing for him, and that none of this would affect him but rather you.

You were lost in your own thoughts until you realized your mother had already agreed to his offer and you were now standing alone in the corridor with Kun.

“Shall we ?” Kun gestured for you to lead the way and the two of you walked in silence until you got to his car.

The first ten minutes were silent, all that could be heard was the faint voices on the radio and the tyres of the vehicle moving against the gravel road. Kun smiled to himself as he watched you pull out your phone to distract yourself from the uncomfortable silence.

“y/n do you have a boyfriend ?” He asked a little too casually for your liking.

“No I don't”

“Why is that?” His question made you look up at him, confused as to why he would ask you a question like this after he had already explored most of you just a couple minutes ago.

“Not interested in what this campus has to offer” you shrugged and looked out of the window, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Does your wife know you have a professor student kink?”

Kun clenched his jaw at your words and suddenly pulled into a vacant parking lot of a fast food joint. Before you could say another word Kun wrapped his hand around your throat and pulled you in for a rough kiss. It was absolutely tantalizing, the way he tasted, the way his tongue fought with yours but it ended abruptly.

“You're a brat you know that ?” he chuckled dryly, “Jia and I are soon to be divorced, we only do work social activities because It makes a good impression.”

You felt a sense of relief and excitement. Even though it was a pretty fucked up arrangement going on currently, it lifts a burden off your shoulder knowing they will no longer be married.

“Why...me?” you bit down on your lip and looked up at him. Kun softened up and slumped into his seat, running his fingers through his ash blonde hair, “I don't know, the shallow answer is that I find you incredibly attractive”

“What's the other answer ?”

“Look,” Kun turned to face you, “We hardly know each other but I feel an instant connection to you, I tested your morality, which is fucked up, to see if you were like me, someone like me preaching ethics yet borderline fucked up?”

You could tell there was more to it, a personal war with himself especially since he was about to get divorced. Of Course you wished there was more to it but he was probably not ready to get involved with someone especially after years of marriage to then hook up with one of his students at that.

“Mr Qian everyone is fucked up I mean that's why we have to study ethics isn't it ?” you reached out to console him, rubbing his shoulder as he chuckled at your words. Kun leaned in and gave you a soft kiss on your lips,

“How did I come across someone like you y/n..”

“All im saying is I’ll be happy to be your rebound, your play thing whatever you need….Sir”

Kun shifted in his seat as he watched you lift his hand, making him palm your face as you took his thumb into your mouth and sucked on him gently. You heard his muffled curses as he adjusted his pants, trying his best to keep a tent from forming as he felt your tongue swirl around his thumb.

Kun quickly snapped out of the trance you had him in and restarted the car, getting back on the route to your house. You snickered to yourself as you noticed how red his ears were from the ordeal, it was nice being the dominant one for once.

He pulled up to your house and unlocked the car door for you, “I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow, wear a dress for me okay sweetheart ?”

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It was saturday evening and being an obedient student you wore one of your most...accessible dresses. You made it look classy despite the length barely sitting above your knee and topped it off with a glossy makeup finish. Your mom had told you that Minghao wasn't attending tonight and you might get bored from their conversations, little did she know that this might be one thrilling night.

You helped your mom set up the table while your dad organized the drinks and played soft music in the background to set the ambience. Just as you finished the last utensil arrangement you heard the doorbell ring and the butterflies in your stomach had returned.

“Kun good to have you back man” your dad went in for a handshake as Kun and his wife stepped in. Kun was good at playing the innocent professor. The way he greeted you with such poise as if his hand wasn't up your skirt 24 hours ago.

“Let's not get too drunk now shall we, we're driving home this time” Jia tutted as she handed your mom a bottle of wine.

Suddenly the room was filled with a bright light followed by thunder, making you and your mom jump at the loud noise. “Seems like you're not driving home at all buddy” your dad said peering outside as the harsh rain began pouring down, already starting to flood the driveway.

“He’s right, you guys can stay in our spare bedroom for tonight,” your mom added. You and Kun both shared a quick glance before your dad pulled him into another conversation.

“Honey can you make sure the room is set up ?” your mother turned to you and you nodded, smiling politely as Jia thanked you.

By the time you were done with the bedroom you were welcomed by everyone already seated at the dinner table waiting for you. Unsure if it was planned by Kun but your seat was placed right next to him, with Jia at the head of the table conversing with your mom on her opposite end.

Kun poured you a glass of wine and you silently thanked him as your dad continued his intense conversation about whatever he watched on the news network this week. You sighed poking at your potatoes, being bored as your mom predicted you would be until you felt a hand on your thigh.

Keeping your eye focused on your dinner you scooted a little closer to Kun until his hand was able to fully grope your thigh without anyone at the table noticing a thing. You felt the icy cold sensation from his ring as he caressed your skin, not doing anything too drastic since everyone was in close proximity. You inwardly groaned when he eventually pulled his hand away, completely engrossed in the conversation happening between your mom and Jia. As Kun added his piece to the conversation you used the opportunity to do a bit of your own exploring and let your hand slip into his lap.

Kun pressed his lips together as he tried to focus on the chat instead of the hand that was now palming him under the table. You took a sip of your wine as you continued rubbing him through his black trousers, already feeling him get extremely hard under your touch. Until it was getting too much for him to handle, Kun pushed your hand away and excused himself from the table,

“I'm gonna use the bathroom, please excuse me”

“y/n why don't you show Mr Qian where the bathroom is” Your mom said, still chatting along with Jia and your dad.

You sighed and played the good daughter, leading Kun upstairs until the two of you were out of sight. With one swift movement Kun had you against the wall in the hallway, his hand wrapped around your throat and his erection pressed against your abdomen.

“Are you fucking insane ? you want me to fuck you in front of your parents is that it ?” he growled,

“Oh so you can have fun but I can't ?” you rolled your eyes only causing Kun to press into you harder.

“God you're so bratty, I can't wait to teach you a lesson” Kun bit into your neck, sucking until he was satisfied with its purple colour, “I'm going to go downstairs and telling your parents that you went to your bedroom, keep that dress on until I visit your room later tonight understand ?”

“Yes sir.”

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You waited in your room, doing as you were told and even heard your parents, Kun and Jia head upstairs and say their drunken goodnights. The sound of Kun’s voice just outside your door made you squirm in bed, wanting, waiting for him to just show up and have his way with you.

It was around 2am, your eyes were heavy and you sighed as you looked at the time on your desk clock. What were you thinking ? There was no way Kun could pull this off without his wife suspecting him or even your parents hearing someone sneaking around the house. But then again everyone was so damn drunk a criminal could break in and they'd have no idea.

Suddenly your door creaked open and in the darkness you saw a figure creep in, locking the door behind them. You sat up in bed and Kun quickly rushed over, placing a hand over your mouth and brought his lips to your ear,

“You have to be real quiet baby, even with all this rain and thunder, we have to be careful”

You nodded at his words and Kun placed a kiss on your forehead before pulling the covers off your body and switched on your bedside lamp in order to look at your body. He traced his fingers along your legs, over your abdomen and between your breasts until his thumb grazed your lips, parting them slightly.

Taking the hint you sat up and positioned yourself in front of Kun as he began unbuckling his trousers and let them pool around his ankles. You looked up at him as you palmed him through his boxers, watching him throw his head back sighing from the sensation. You pulled down his boxers and licked your lips once getting a full view of his erection, wasting no time in taking him fully into your mouth until he touched the back of your throat.

“Fuck” Kun mumbled softly as you began sucking him off, slowly in order to lessen the noise and to keep him fairly quiet.

Kun tugged on your hair and bit down on his lip watching your saliva drop from your mouth as he pulled out of you. You looked absolutely delicious, all he wanted to do was ruin you.

You stood up facing him until he began kissing you softly, unzipping your dress revealing your white lacy set and giving him his first taste of your naked figure. “You're beautiful” he cooed as he left soft pecks across your neck, especially on the spot where he had marked you earlier on.

Kun removed his shirt and unhooked your bra before pressing your back into your bed and his hips began grinding into yours, slowly, making you feel every part of him as the two of you returned to each other's lips.

“You're such a bad girl you know that” Kun groaned as he slipped his hand into your underwear and rubbed circles with his thumb, making you squirm underneath him.

“Teach me a lesson daddy” you sighed and the nickname made Kun growl into your ear. Kun pulled off your underwear and turned you until you were on all fours. He positioned himself behind you and as he pushed in he clasped down on your mouth and bit down on your shoulder, preventing both of you from moaning too loudly.

Kun’s hips slammed into yours erratically, switching from fast to slow strokes in order to drown out any suspecting sounds.

“I want to ride you daddy” you managed to whisper through his fingers and again Kun caved to the nickname and pulled out, falling onto his back as he awaited your offer. You slowly straddled him and took in his length once more, as Kun sat up, meeting your thrusts and held onto your ass and throat as you rode him as best as you could. Kun felt you tighten around him as you neared your climax and flipped you around until you were underneath him and he was now in control of both of your orgasms.

“Im so close..” you whined as Kun hit your sweet spot repeatedly.

“Me too baby, lets keep it quiet okay I promise I’ll make it up to you soon”

Kun brought you to your climax and he followed quickly after, his sweaty body falling on top of you as he tried to catch his breath. You reached for the covers and Kun turned onto his back and allowed you to cuddle into his chest. You smiled as he placed a soft kiss on your forehead and stroked your head,

“Thank you, God I want more, I can't wait for more” he whispered as you giggled,

“I’ll be here, and besides you're going to help me pass ethics right ? “ you pouted. Kun chuckled softly and massaged his temples, “okay how about you study hard and i’ll reward you with whatever you want sweetheart,”

“Deal” you gleamed, “Thank you sir.”

#kun smut #kun fic #qian kun #wayv smut #wayv imagines #wayv x reader #wayv scenarios #kun scenarios #nct smut #nct scenarios #nct imagines

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sushi0989 · 3 years ago

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Pick Me If You Want To (part 1)

Summary: Set in the early 1950s, you are an aspiring photographer that is currently working at a toy store until you make your big break. During a surge of Christmas shopping, you are first met by Wanda Maximoff, a mother of twin boys and married. She leaves her gloves, which gives you the opportunity to meet her again. She takes fond of you, and you of her, but her messy divorce with her husband, Vision, risks the custody of her twins. Does she continue your blossoming relationship or fight for her kids? Based on the movie Carol

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Warnings: none (i think)

Word Count: 4823

A/N: I actually thought of this idea in the middle of the night while lying in bed and I literally jumped out of bed to write it down haha. I have 2 parts written so far and I plan on having 4 parts in total. I’m also not sure if I want to include smut because in the movie they hook up once, but I’ll think about it. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy :)

Christmas was the most hectic time of the year, for shopkeepers especially. You were struggling to stay afloat during the Christmas present buying palooza. The customers kept flowing in searching for the perfect toy for their child or nephew or grandchild, constantly asking what was the best of the best. Not to mention, the annoying Santa hat perched on your head was a little too big for you, so it kept sliding off and obstructing your view. Your shift ended ten minutes from now, you only had to keep at this for ten more minutes, you assured yourself.

That was when a woman walked in: curled chestnut red hair falling just above her shoulders, red lipstick glistening in the store lights, and wore a tan coat over her light blue dress with matching gloves. She looked at the different products quizzically as you tried not to stare. She began to come to your area at the counter, so you pretended you were writing in the sales slip.

"Hello, sorry to be a bother, but I was wondering if you could help me?" the woman asked you, her voice was warm but also had a richness to it you couldn't quite describe. Perhaps like honey. "Of course, ma'am. How could I be of assistance?" you responded with your customer service voice, perky and obnoxious, two things that you were not.

"I was hoping to get something for my twin boys, but I'm not quite sure what I should get them, you see. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction," she continued, her eyebrows furrowed while addressing you, her green eyes not leaving yours.

Your thoughts about annoying customers disappeared all for this woman. There was just something about her that made you drawn to her, but what was it? "May I suggest a model train? It would be a great gift to share between the two of them," you suggested. The woman felt that she could trust you with anything, you had this energy that she wanted to relish in, but your interaction only lasted for 2 minutes. You gestured to the model train showcase behind the woman and she nodded in agreement. "Yes, I think I would like to order that, thank you, doll," she said to you, your stomach fluttering at the nickname.

"Could I get your name please?" you asked so you could fill out the sale slip, you tried maintaining your professional composure. "Wanda Maximoff," she answered. You asked her to sign the bottom of the page, and she took her gloves off and placed them on the counter beside her to do so, your eyes glanced at her gold wedding band on her ring finger. You stared away to check on other customers as she signed and you noticed an older woman who appeared to be needing help. "If you would excuse me, I need to help another customer. Darcy over here will help you with the purchase," you told Mrs. Maximoff as you made your way to the old woman by the action figures.

She nodded her head and watched you as you turned away. Darcy came over to Mrs. Maximoff and assisted her with the payment, but as Mrs. Maximoff was leaving, she was so focused on you that she had left her gloves sitting on the counter. When you were about to leave for home, you noticed the light blue gloves still lying on the counter, but Wanda was nowhere to be found.

You went to your boss, "Mr. Stark, it looks like one of our customers has left their gloves," you stated with a ring of fear that he might get angry. He crossed his arms and huffed, "well then go look at the sales slip and contact them." You nodded, "yes sir," and pulled out the sales slip for the day. There was written, 'Wanda Maximoff' along with her address and phone number. You wrote the address down on a separate envelope and placed the gloves inside and mailed it off on your walk home.

You got back to your apartment, and much to your disappointment, your boyfriend was there, too. "Hey, baby," he said as you walked into the living room, engulfing you into a hug that you weren't really in the mood for. "Hey, Steve," you said into his chest trying to pull away, the strong scent of cologne invaded your nostrils. He wasn't a terrible person, but you couldn't stand him most of the time by his 'lovey-doveyness'. Your first year with him was great, your love felt pure, but over time it felt bland and repetitive. He, however, was infatuated by you, always wanted to be with you in every waking moment like a puppy.

"Come to France with me," he whines, but you've already told him dozens of times that you didn't want to. You were in the midst of potentially getting signed on as a photographer for The New York Times thanks to your friend, Bruce, who works there. "I already told you no," you groaned, walking away to put your bag down and ready to shower. "Come on, I have so many things planned for us," he pleaded, but you didn't want to hear it and locked yourself in your room. Little did you know, he wanted to propose to you with a candlelit dinner on the Eiffel Tower.

"Open the door," he knocked aggressively, but you didn't want to deal with him right now, or else you would say things that you wouldn't be able to take back. "I'm tired, I'm going to take a shower and crawl into bed," you groaned through the door. "Why don't I join in," he murmured seductively. "Not today, I'm not feeling it," you replied flatly. Steve sighed and walked off, now relieved, you gathered your showering items and went to the bathroom.

Wanda arrived back at her home late at night, her sons running up to her as she walked through the door of her grand estate in New Jersey. Vision, her husband, gave her an irritated expression as she hugged her children. "Go off to bed, kids, I need to talk to Daddy," she cooed and kissed the tops of their heads and they ran off up the spiral staircase.

"Took you long enough to get home."

"Well I was running errands," Wanda huffed and went over to the cupboard that contained alcohol and poured herself a glass of whiskey. She walked over to a chair in the living room and sat with her legs crossed eyeing her irritated husband.

"Errands," Vision chuckled dryly. "It's my turn to sleep in the bedroom, you can stay in the guest room tonight," he seethed while going up the stairs and slamming the bedroom door shut.

Wanda sighed as she chugged her drink and slumped further into the chair. Once the divorce was finalized she could finally be free from his judgment. She could do whatever. Wanda eventually went upstairs and quietly entered the room of her sleeping boys, giving them each other kisses and tucking them in as they were fast asleep.

In the morning, Wanda received a package with her gloves inside, the return address reading 'Stark's Toy Emporium.'

Wanda picked up the phone and called the store.

"Hello, this is Stark's Toy Emporium, Tony Stark speaking," a man answered, seeming to be in a rush. "Hello, I just received my gloves I misplaced at your store in the mail, I was wondering if I could thank whoever found them," Wanda replied.

Soon you were being called over by Tony, his eyes rolled in annoyance, as per usual. You quickly grabbed the phone hoping it wasn't Steve, "Hello?"

"Hi! This is Wanda, I just wanted to thank you for sending my gloves," she chimed through the speaker. "Oh it was nothing ma'am," you replied, trying to shake off the feeling you were getting from this woman's voice. "Well, I was wondering if I could take you out to lunch as thanks," she invited, her voice was a bit softer, deeper than before. "No, ma'am it's okay, it wasn't that big of a deal," you answered back. "Oh come on now, it's my treat. I'll see you at 2 pm at Barnes' Bistro," she hung up the phone before you could object.

It was already noon, only two more hours before you had to awkwardly make small talk with a woman you very well are intimidated by for some odd reason. You hung the phone back on its receiver and returned to work, the rush of people continued through till the end of your shift. There was not even a moment of rest before your lunch. You masked your exhaustion as you entered the restaurant, the aroma of cigarette smoke mixed with delicious food circulated the air, but you would take this scent over Steve's cologne any day.

A waiter noticed you enter and greeted you, "Good afternoon, ma'am, do you have a reservation?" You quickly scanned the restaurant and noticed the top of the chestnut red hair in the back corner. "Um, I believe the name is Maximoff, I see her back there," you pointed in the direction of the redhead. "Ah yes, Mrs. Maximoff, right this way ma'am," he gestured for you to follow him towards the back of the restaurant. It was rather dimly lit, the booths were occupied either by two men in business suits or a man and a woman, all of whom were smoking a cigar or cigarette.

"And here you are," the young waiter said as you stood at the end of the table, Mrs. Maximoff glancing up meeting your eyes. Her fingers also held a smoking cigarette, but you didn't mind since it was the norm, however, you personally didn't smoke. "You made it!" she exclaimed quickly, getting up and kissing both of your cheeks as a greeting. You awkwardly smiled and sat across from her in the booth seating.

"What drink would you like, ma'am?" the waiter asked. "Oh, uh, water should be fine, thank you," you replied quietly, your nervousness could be detected from miles away, but Mrs. Maximoff seemed to be shocked for some odd reason. "Water? No dear, let me treat you to something nice, could you get her a glass of Chianti?" she requested and the waiter nodded enthusiastically and rushed off. Mrs. Maximoff took one last puff of her cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray.

"So, I don't think I ever got your name, dear," she began. "Y/n Y/l/n" you answered quickly. "That's a pretty name for a pretty girl," she smiled and picked up her glass of red wine and took a swig. Your face blushed at the compliment, you looked down at your hands fiddling with the spoon on the table to avoid her eyes. The waiter came back with the glass of red wine meant for you and placed it next to your hand. "Thank you, Peter," Mrs. Maximoff said to him. He nodded his head before dashing off again.

"How long have you been working at the toy store?" she questioned. "It'll be one year next month, it's just a side thing," you answered embarrassed to mention your true dream. "Well, what is it you want to do?" she raised an eyebrow. "I uh- I'm a photographer," you stammered. "That's very intriguing, y/n" she complimented, you were flustered by the use of your name.

"Have you had any success in finding a job relating to photography?"

"I just met with a photo editor at the New York Times last weekend, I have to put together a portfolio and send it off to them to be considered for a position," you explained, finally looking up at her and putting your spoon down. "That sounds exciting! You must show me your work!" Mrs. Maximoff exclaimed with genuine excitement. Steve would complement your photography, but it felt half-hearted, maybe it's because he didn't want you to overshadow him someday.

After lunch as the two of you headed out, Mrs. Maximoff and you exchanged a farewell. "Thank you again for the lunch, Mrs. Maximoff," you thanked her in a quick hug. "Oh, it was my pleasure. And please call me Wanda, you're making me feel quite old. How about I give you my number and we can meet again?" she offered and you couldn't help but nod. As much as you weren't keen on continuing this friendship or relationship or whatever was happening, you felt like this woman understood you in a way no one else did.

You decided to go visit Bruce to thank him for getting the meeting with the photo editor. The thought of Wanda's phone number written on a slip of paper in your handbag added pep to your step as you strolled into the office building. You walked up to the front desk saying you were going to visit a friend, "Mr. Banner is on floor 11," she said. The elevator let you off on the floor and you saw Bruce in his office typing away on his typewriter.

"Y/n! What a pleasant surprise to see you here!" he beamed and got up from his desk to give you a kiss on the cheek. "I figured I should stop by since you're the reason my dreams have a chance of becoming a reality now," you smiled and took a seat across from his desk. "It was no problem, your talent would add so much to the paper. You're also welcome here whenever," Bruce stated leaning back in his armchair.

"Where are my manners? Let me get something to drink! I've got whiskey, gin-" "I just had a drink actually," you countered declining his offer.

"What's one more drink gonna do? Come on, live a little!" he pressured you and got up to go to the corner of his office to pull out two glasses and a bottle of gin. "Fine, only this once," you caved in. He poured two drinks and handed you one. The gin went smooth, but it still burnt your throat, however, you were able to mask it.

"How are things with you and Steve?" Bruce inquired with skepticism, which you found a little out of character, but the alcohol toiled with your mind and proceeded to spill all of your thoughts. "He wants me to go to France with him even though I've told him not so many times. I can't deal with him anymore, but I've been with him for so long now that I feel bad to end things," you confessed, making Bruce intrigued. He leaned on his desk directly in front of you.

"Is there someone else you think is causing you to lose interest in him?" Bruce asked in a low tone and leaned towards you a little bit, but still your slightly tipsy self didn't see the red flag. "I mean, I haven't really thought about that," you answered pondering, thoughts of Wanda flashing in your mind, but you were quickly brought back to reality when Bruce's lips were on yours.

You shrieked, forcing him to pull away. You angrily got up, "what the hell, Bruce?!" you scolded him. "I'm sorry! You weren't reacting when I was leaning closer to you so I just went in!" he defended his actions. "God! All men are the fucking same!" you complained and downed your drink before rushing out of his office. Bruce rubbed his forehead realizing the mistake he made, but it was too late to take it back now.

You arrived back in your apartment to emptiness, Steve was nowhere to be found. Thank god, you thought. You stumbled onto your pea-green sofa and laid there in anguish. Nothing seemed to appease you, nothing went your way. As soon as these thoughts rang in your head, your telephone rang as well. You groaned as you begrudgingly made your way to the kitchen where the phone was hung.

"Hello?" you groaned in a tired and yet apathetic voice which Wanda was a bit surprised to hear.

"Hi, sweetie, it's Wanda!"

You held your breath realizing you rudely answered the woman. You cleared your throat and corrected your shoulders before speaking again. "Hi- uh I'm- hi!" you stuttered, grumbling to yourself for this embarrassing encounter.

"I was calling to invite you over to my house, I would love to have you over," Wanda said, biting her lip hoping that you would say yes. She twirled the cord connecting to the receiver around her finger patiently waiting for your answer.

"Oh, really? I mean, I can. I don't have a car though-"

"I can pick you up!" Wanda interrupted with excitement. "When are you free this week, dear?"

"I'm free tomorrow," you replied with a smile to contain yourself. "I'll come tomorrow at noon then," Wanda concluded, little did you know just how much she was looking forward to seeing you and your adorable self. She couldn't get enough of you, and neither could you get enough of her.

Steve never came home that night, and you didn't care one bit. He was a nuisance to your life, especially right now since he knew how much this photography opportunity meant to you, but his pestering was going to make you snap and break his heart at any second.

You looked your best self, wearing a navy blue blouse with black trousers. It wasn't that common for women at the time to be wearing such things, it was more progressive, however, all you cared about was comfort. You occasionally would wear dresses, but you preferred pants and a shirt. You could say that it was for Wanda, but it was for yourself. People, particularly women, would examine your modern style as appalling, but not Wanda. You figured why not be comfortable and stylish.

You made a small breakfast before Wanda arrived. You had a bit of a headache from all of the alcohol you had the day before, but that was barely on your mind. All you could think about was making sure you looked presentable as did your apartment before Wanda came. You just finished drying the last dish when you heard a knock on your door. You dried your hands with the dish towel before scurrying to quickly let Wanda in.

There she was, standing in a red coat that hugged her figure in all of the right ways. She wore a beige dress underneath, hidden by the boldness of the coat that you couldn't keep your eyes off of. She was also wearing a matching red hat that looked beautiful with her chestnut hair.

"Ready to go?" she asked, seemingly in a hurry. "Yes, let me get my bag," you turned around and grabbed your bag off of the coffee table, inside holding your wallet and your camera just in case there was an opportunity to shoot.

You walked with Wanda side by side in a comfortable silence until you reached her car. You sat on the passenger side, which was connected with the driver's seat.

"Would you like any music?" Wanda inquired as she pulled out of the parking spot on the curb. "I'll listen to whatever you do," you answered. You didn't listen to music all that much, you didn't have the time to nor did you have a radio.

"I like to drive in silence, the sound of the wind soothes me," Wanda replied. You turned your head and saw how the cool wind tousled Wanda's hair around, but never did it ruin her perfect curls.

"There's a Christmas tree farm on the way that I wanted to check out if that's okay with you," Wanda imparted quickly glancing at you but focused on the road. "That's fine, I don't mind," you said. Wanda's cheeks feathered a light pink, delighted that you agreed. She soon pulled into the small but crowded Christmas tree market. There was Christmas music playing, kids laughing and sprinting around completely oblivious to the disgruntled shouts by their parents, and the occasional newlywed couple admiring what tree was to be their first one.

"You can stay in the car if you'd like, I'm just going to pay for one and bring it back some other time," Wanda was saying to you standing right out of the passenger window. You didn't even notice her get out of the car let alone walk around to get your attention away from the beautiful scene you were watching. "That's fine, you go ahead," you answered, glancing up at her face.

Wanda turned around and made her way towards the clerk, the cool winter breeze ruffling her coat and hair. Your attention was now focused on the woman, how her smile stretched from ear to ear, her mannerisms like how she would play with the ring on her finger while speaking to someone, or how she would partially bite her lip while thinking of a response to a question in conversation.

Your hand automatically reached for your bag and pulled out your camera. You stepped out of the car and shot some candid photos of Wanda, capturing her elegance. As Wanda finished up, you took pictures of the rest of the scene you were so enthralled in before Wanda had caught your attention again. Once you were satisfied, you went back into the car and wrote your name onto the foggy window.

"Dirtying my car I see," Wanda teased, making you tense up. "I'm sorry, I'll wipe it-"

"I'm just kidding, you're so uptight! Let loose! I don't bite," Wanda assured you, but you still held your breath around her. You didn't want her to think badly of you, to set her off in any kind of way even though you barely know this woman. You responded to her with a weak smile to exemplify that you understood her suggestion, you reprimanded your subconscious for looking into her enchanting eyes.

She got into the driver's seat once again, only her left hand gripped the steering wheel while her right hand rested on her lap. After another 20 minutes, you arrived at her home. It was evening by the time you got there, the sunset earlier in the winter, but the area around her room was beautifully lit. It was just as you imagined, a large estate with a grand yard filled with all kinds of bushes and flowers surrounding it.

"Wow," you gawked in amazement. You both entered and your head swiveled to take in all of the details perfectly situated around her home. Your eyes lingered at a family portrait of her, her twin children, and what appeared to be her husband, a tall man who had a strained smile, forced, no true happiness lying beneath it. There was no one in the home, was what you thought at first until you heard the giggles of children emanating from upstairs.

"Billy! Tommy! What are you doing?" Wanda shouted, her hands on her hips facing to look up the spiral staircase in the direction of the laughter. "We're just playing, Momma!" one of them shouted back from the bedroom.

Wanda turned back to face you and sighed. "They can be a handful, but I'm just glad they have one another to keep each other entertained." You nodded in understanding, you had younger siblings who were reckless little misfits that you had to take care of, so you knew exactly what it was like.

You noticed a beautiful grand piano located in a room beside the dining area and your legs automatically took you towards it. You hand caressed the top, you had never seen such a luxurious piano, you've only ever played cheap upright ones. "Can you play?" you asked Wanda, your eyes still admiring the ivory keys.

"Sadly, I cannot. My husband can, but he hasn't touched it in years," Wanda confessed, a twinge of disappointment in her tone. "Can you?"

"I can, but I'm not the greatest," you chuckled dryly. "Oh, you shouldn't have said that, y/n because now I'm going to need to hear you play for me," Wanda smirked and walked over to you and the piano. "Oh gosh, I'd rather not. My hands probably have lost their ability and my voice-"

"You sing, too?! Now I must hear you play and sing!" Wanda was elated, she leaned on the piano as your face heated up. You sighed knowing that you were a guest and you brought nothing to give, not even a bottle of wine. "Since I didn't bring you a gift for inviting me to your home, this can be it," you grinned nervously as you slowly sat on the bench and placed your hands on the keys.

Your fingers automatically played a run, completely captivating Wanda at the effortless ability. You cleared your throat and began to sing.

"Everybody loves somebody sometime. Everybody falls in love somehow. Something in your kiss just told me, that sometime is now." You carried on singing, your voice lulling Wanda as she swayed to the song. She crept over and took a seat next to you on the piano bench as you continued playing, trying not to stutter your words when you felt her leg brush yours.

"Everybody loves somebody sometime. And though my dreams were overdue, your love made it all worth waiting for someone like you," you slowed the song and the piano still hummed the last note. Wanda placed her hand on your thigh and whispered, "that was absolutely beautiful." You shuddered by the touch and curled your toes.

"My dad taught me how to play. He would always sing this song to my mother. He loved her so much, I swore that I one day want to love someone the way my dad loved my mom. When he passed, I would play this song for my mother in his place, but then she started to lose her memory and now she stays with my younger sister in New Haven," you explained solemnly. Wanda furrowed her eyebrows, her heart ached for you. She moved her hand from your thigh to your face, cupping your cheek.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I am certain, however, with that talent and song you can win over anyone's heart in under five seconds," she smiled and kissed your forehead. You blushed and looked deeply into her green eyes. You tried to capture this moment into your subconscious. She was no longer in her coat, just her beige dress, a pearl necklace, no gloves, and the same red lipstick. Her mouth was slightly open, she glanced down at your lips and began to close the gap.

The front door of the house abruptly opened and a man wearing a suit hiding underneath a black coat walked inside with a brown briefcase. Wanda quickly dropped her hand from your face and stood up. You turned away from her as well. He took notice of the tension and scowled.

"Wanda. You brought your antics into our home. My home. Under my roof. Already moved on from Monica and now you've brought someone else!" he fumed and aggressively put his briefcase down. "Don't yell in front of her, Vision! We can discuss this privately," Wanda hissed at him.

"I'm taking the kids to Florida with me for Christmas, right now," he announced as he ran upstairs to their room. "You're what?! You didn't discuss this with me!" Wanda yelled at him running after him. He soon was holding each kid in either arm and pushed Wanda out of his way. "You can't do this!" she began to cry, but he ignored her, anger clouded all around him. There was a car outside with a chauffeur, Vision put them in the backseat. You stood there watching this all unfold, unsure of what to do.

You rushed over to the front door to see Wanda sobbing while on her knees on the porch as the car drove off. You crouched down and embraced her, she put her arms around you and burrowed her face into the crook of your neck and shoulder. Her sobs wracked her entire body, her breathing was uneasy, so you rubbed circles on her back. She eventually calmed down and pulled away.

"I'll drive you to the train station," she said with her broken voice. You nodded your head, she needed time to herself and you were right now a reminder of what she just lost. "I'll call a cab, you should go get some rest," you responded and held her hand in yours. "Are you sure?" Wanda replied. You gave her a smile, which she took as her answer.

The cab arrived within ten minutes, Wanda waved goodbye, no hug or kiss on the cheek. You waved back through the window and the view of her became smaller and smaller as the cab drove off into the night.

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff #fanfic #marvel #avengers #wanda x reader

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iemand2 · 2 years ago

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Hypocrisy Can't Do Without Lube

“We just need to have that brand of milk for Hwisheem,” Rasheed says. Muneer, his friend, walks a few long corridors to the refrigeration department. Rasheed and Muneer are used to do their shopping at the supermarket Mardján early every saturday. Rasheed is a civil servant at a municipal company, Muneer's clothing store is usually frequented by the better middle class in the capital, Rabat. "Shall we go to Radya first?" Muneer asks as usual because he has to hurry to open his shop. Rasheed parks on the narrow street, and both friends dig into the trunk and take out plastic bags and sacks destined for Radya. Diapers, milk, flour, sugar, oil, meat, fruit, toilet paper, and everything else on their list. Radya, small, pretty, with big eyes and updo thick hair, is already standing in front of the open door with Hwisheem in her arms. Both friends kiss her on both cheeks and hug the baby. "I hope we haven't forgotten anything" is Muneer's way of greeting. Rasheed and Muneer walk through to the kitchen and put the bags on the counter. "Has the plumber been yet?" Rasheed asks Radya. No, he failed as so often. Rasheed will be working on it today. "The tea is ready," Radya invites them. Rasheed and Muneer take off their shoes and sit comfortably on one of the benches that line the walls of the small sitting room. Radya takes her six-month-old Hwisheem to her cramped bedroom and returns to pour tea. Muneer sees a bundle of clothes in the narrow courtyard: "We'll take those clothes and put them in the washing machine," Rasheed says firmly. Radya objects, but the bundle will be returned to her the next day, clean and folded. The tea and biscuits taste good, and: "We have to go, see you tomorrow then," Muneer says, and starts to put on his shoes, Rasheed does the same.

Rasheed and Muneer, aged 36 and 34, moved into an apartment three years ago in a new block of flats on a wide avenue that opens onto Radya's street. Besides three bedrooms, the apartment consists of a small and a large sitting room, an open kitchen, a spacious bathroom with toilet, a storage room and a wide balcony. Initially, the neighbors just saw two working friends who deemed it easier and more economical to share an apartment before they tied the knot. However, since the friends didn't receive female "guests," the neighbors gradually started to ask themselves questions. Questions that were answered with other questions, and so one got used to the "modern couple," albeit the matter remained curious. Although receiving female "guests" is prohibited by law, hypocrisy --being one of the necessities of life -- transcends the law.

One day, six months earlier, Rasheed was addressed by the upstairs neighbor at the gate of the apartment building. With an affected voice, she informed him about the poor mother who lives down the street whose husband took a French leave a few months ago. He left her and their baby without a livelihood." She neatly cursed men "who know no responsibility and who are only after carnal pleasure. Poor woman, she is not yet 23 and she is already stuck, in a deep pit, her parents are deceased, has no brothers or sisters, knows no other relatives. I and my husband and our neighbor do what we can, but it isn't enough of course. If we weren't here to help her, she probably would have… 'sold her body.' What will become of her and her son? God is great and we humans are cruel. Poor wretch!" Rasheed was affected. With praise for her good deed, he said goodbye to her. That evening, the friends decided to tackle the fate of the poor woman. And they "adopted" Radya.

On Saturdays, Rasheed and Muneer run errands for Radya and themselves, and at the end of the month, embarrassed and grateful, Radya takes some pocket money; the friends also bear the rent and other housing costs. A mobile for the mother was deemed necessary by the friends in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Her child, Hishaam, who became fond of his "uncles," was henceforth to be called Hwisheem --little Hishaam. On Fridays, Rasheed and Muneer bring meat, vegetables and semolina to Radya to savor her delicious couscous. On Sundays, Radya, Rasheed and Muneer stroll on the boulevard on the wide beach, a long way from their residential area. Hwisheem coos as he is moved from Uncle Rasheed's shoulder to Uncle Muneer's and then lands on his Mother's back. Strollers see only two brothers, one of whom is married and has a son. In this way, society is well organized and life has no confusing surprises. When the "family" gets hungry, they sits at a table in the same beach restaurant, where the manager mumbles "Mr. Rasheed" and "Mr. Muneer" and rejoices in the generous tip.

One evening, Rasheed and Muneer's apartment is called. Law enforcement. "You will hear everything at the office" is the short message conveyed by the two agents. The Superintendent is sitting at his large desk and talks on the phone. He gestures the two men to sit down. Superintendent: "We have received a complaint against you." Rasheed: "What's the complaint?" Superintendent ignores the question: "You know a certain Radya bint Habib, don't you?" Rasheed: “Yes.” Superintendent: "Are you related to her?" Rasheed: "No, we're just friends with her." Superintendent: "What is the nature of your friendship with her?" Rasheed: "Just friends. She's fine, I hope?" Superintendent: "Yeah, she's fine; she's here." Rasheed: "What? At the police station?" Superintendent: "Yes." Rasheed: "What did she do?" Superintendent: "I want to hear it from you?" Rasheed: "I don't understand." Superintendent: "You aren't related to her and so you should know that a visit, 'with gifts,' to a married woman is a criminal act?" Muneer: "We're not doing anything wrong!" The Superintendent seems to be formulating a question in his mind: "Do you share the bed with her?" Rasheed: "No, definitely not!" Superintendent: "Then, what do you do in her house every time?" Rasheed sighs and tells: "About six months ago, we heard from the upstairs neighbor that…" The Superintendent half mockingly: "I have never seen such generosity; what then is the return?" Muneer: "She doesn't have to give anything in return, but she insists that she come and clean our apartment, and my clothing store as well. Above all, she is a pleasant and caring woman, and her son is a cute kid; we are a kind of family."

The Superintendent is silent for a moment and forced to declare a ceasefire between law and practice in order to proceed: "So, you're uh… how should I put it, you don't have any girlfriends or flings with women?" Rasheed: "Radya is just our friend, our relative." Superintendent: "I mean, uh, every grown, normal man has to, uh, I'd say burn off his sexual energy with a woman every now and then, isn't it?" Muneer, annoyed: "What if that grown man doesn't feel the need to 'burn off his sexual energy with a woman'?" The Superintendent has arrived where he wants to be; he didn't expect it to be that soon: "So, do I understand it correctly that you two have a… special relationship?" Muneer, loud and clear: "Yes, we have." Superintendent: "Well, in that case you are aware of the sanctions on that, aren't you?" He then lifts the receiver off the hook and dials a number on the telephone sheet. While he waits, he slightly rolls up the left sleeve of his jacket, revealing a large gold wristwatch. The thick gold ring, studded with precious stones, on his finger didn't escape the notice of the two friends as well. Rasheed and Muneer exchange a meaningful glance. Rasheed, therefore: "What are you going to do now? Tomorrow morning the landlord will come by to collect his rent, and before we have to go to the bank, yes, the bank to get money. We can come here after that, with your permission." The gold watch and ring are a signpost par excellence to the "bank" and "money." The Superintendent, feigning displeasure, hangs up the receiver: "Then I'll see you here tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock." Muneer: "Can we take Radya with us?" The Superintendent scratches a few words on a piece of paper: "Here, give it to the officer on duty and tell him that she may leave with you." The trio don't care that they interrupt each other out of control; what matters is that they are relieved.

The next day at 11 o'clock, the Superintendent slips a thick envelope into the inside pocket of his jacket, handed over by the two friends, and muttered: "You should be more careful. Have a good day."

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marvelettesassemble · 4 years ago

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Let’s Pretend (Charlie x Reader)

Summary: Charlie asked you to come with him when he visits his family to pretend to be his girlfriend so his mom would stop setting him up.

Word Count: 2,8k

A/N: I know nothing about Romania and I really tried my best. I tried to find a traditional Romanian dish but they were all with meat and I don’t eat meat for three years now so I couldn’t write that. If I googled it correctly draga mea means my love.

In all those years that you had known Charlie you had never seen him beg. So seeing him standing in front of you, holding your hands in his blistered ones and to hear him beg, you weren’t sure if you could refuse him.

„Why do you even need to bring a date? Why don’t you tell them that you are single and happy?“ You asked.

He sighed and let go of your hands. „Because my mum doesn’t believe me. And then she tells me all about the women she knew were still single. I guess she thinks that I'll move back if I just find the right woman. One time I was supposed to meet up with my mom but she wasn’t the one turning up. It was a blind date and an awkward one none the less.“

You had to admit that this didn’t sound like fun. „And you think that she would believe you when you tell her one month before your visit that you found yourself a girl?“ You took a glass from behind and started filling it with Zaguna.

„Of course not!“ Charlie scoffed. “But I already told her about a girl I met here and she wanted me to bring her along. And that is why I’m asking you to pretend to be my girlfriend. I swear my family is not as bad as I have pictured them. To be honest I think you’ll get along just fine with at least two of my brothers, if not more. You get food and shelter and I swear we only have to act a minimum.” You pushed the full glass in front of him.

“And why me? I know about your co-worker at the reservoir. Why not her? I bet your mother would like that more than someone working at the bar?”

“No, I think you would just work fine with my family. Think about it, please.” You nodded and then he left for the table where the other dragon keepers were enjoying their after-work beer. You saw him sneaking glances at you and before he left, you told him you’d go along with it. He hugged you and you heard some hollering behind him.

“You owe me, Weasley.” You had to laugh when you saw his relieved expression.

Time flew by and before you knew it you were standing at the ministry of magic in London and were questioned about your stay in England. You told them you were there for a vacation and after the inspection of your wand you were free to go. Charlies father Arthur would pick you up as he was working at the ministry. He run a little late, but that was okay with you. It just meant more time to inspect everything.

You recognized Charlies father immediately. He hugged his son and shook your hand and told you that Charlies mother was so excited and that you were already late and should hurry up. You changed a glance with Charlie and followed his father. He walked over to one of the chimneys and you went by floo powder to Charlies childhood home. He had told you stories of him growing up in this house with his many siblings.

The perks of working at a pub was that you get to know your customers. As it wasn’t a big pub and Charlie and his co-workers came in often you talked a lot with them. There wasn’t much to do out there so you saw them at least once a week to spend their wage. The pub wasn’t in the best shape, but the cosy atmosphere as candles stood everywhere (a nightmare when you had to change them) and the many lights filled it with warmth. The mismatched chairs and the old sofas added to that, but what brought the customers back was the cheap beer and your food.

“Oh Charlie, it's been so long,” you heard as soon the flames and the soot disappeared. “And you actually brought a girl over. To be honest I thought you would tell me a flimsy excuse.” The woman who talked let go of Charlie and turned towards you. “Come on in, dear. You have to tell me everything about you.” She tugged your hand and led you to another room. “I hope you’re hungry, I prepared dinner.”

Before you could blink you sat a table in the warm kitchen and food was shoved onto your plate. Charlie put his hand on your arm and squeezed softly and wanted to say something to you until he was interrupted by a tall man who walked into the kitchen. Based on his long hair and the scars on his face you assumed it must be Bill. Charlie stood up immediately and hugged his brother hard, before he turned around and introduced you.

“Oh, I heard so much about you. Did Mom already tell you, that the two of you will stay at our place? We prepared the guest room and I can’t wait to hear what my dear brother is up to.” Bill said with a nice voice when he shook your hand.

“I’m so sorry, but we’re full. It’s not that we don’t want you here, I assure you. But we thought it would be better if the two of you slept at Bills place rather than the younger ones.” She touched your shoulder shortly. “And now sit down, Bill. You need to get some meat on you,” she scolded her oldest son and he shot a wink at you before he sat down next to his brother.

You and Charlie were bombarded with questions and you were grateful when Bill said you should probably leave because you were exhausted from that day and need to rest. You said your goodbye and promised to come back tomorrow and left for the night.

The atmosphere when you entered shell cottage was completely different. Bill was one of the most laid down people you have met and when you met his wife you noticed that she calmed down more the more time she spent with her husband.

You were sitting at the table with drinks in front of you when Bill turned towards you. “I do have a question for you,” he said and you gulped. You hoped you wouldn’t mess up. You and Charlie weren’t constantly touching or anything like that and so far it didn’t raise suspicion from his family. “Charlie told me you make the best sweet bread and he talks about it for years. So, would you maybe make some?”

You let out your breath in relief and laughed a little bit. “Of course. You mean Cozonac. It does take time to make it, but sure. I mean you’re letting me stay here that is the least I can do.”

“Well, you’re Charlies girlfriend. We couldn’t let you sleep under the bridge,” he laughed and when he called you Charlies girlfriend something warm floated through your body. His hand found yours and squeezed it softly. You talked for a little while longer until you decided to call it a night. Bill showed you your bedroom and whished you a good night. You walked into the small room and stared at the bed in the middle of the room.

“Ugh, I’m sorry,” Charlie scratched his neck. “I assumed we would stay at the burrow and mom is very strict, so I hadn’t really thought we would have to share a bed. But I can take the couch in the living room and tell them I snore too loud and I didn’t want to disturb you. Actually, I do think that’s not a lie, though.”

You let out a little lough. It was cute that Charlie was so nervous that he started rambling. “Charlie, calm down. It is a pretty big bed. I think we’ll manage, unless you don’t want to share.”

“No, no!” he said suddenly with force. “If that’s okay for you, it's okay for me. I’ll go change in the bathroom. I’ll knock before I come back.” He left the room and you stared a second at your bag before you dove in and took out your clothes to sleep in. You changed quickly and waited for your turn in the bathroom.

“Do you mind if I read a little bit? I’m not used to sleeping early with me having most of the evening shifts,” you asked when you came back.

“No, of course not. That’s totally fine.” He was already in bed and ‘thankfully’ wore a shirt and you tried not to stare too long at his muscular arms which were covered in freckles and burns. It wasn’t as if you haven’t seen Charlie shirtless before. One evening his friends pestered him to show them his tattoo and after a while he had given in and pulled of his shirt, but you had been on the other side of the room then and hadn’t gotten a closer look.

You tried to stay as far to the side as you could and started reading until you noticed that Charlie had also a book in his hands.

“What are you reading?” you asked him.

“It’s actually a book about dragons. We have that new Peruvian Vipertooth and we have a lot of trouble with her and I’m trying to find some helpful tips here. She’s actually really dangerous but she’s so beautiful,” Charlie rambled.

“I think you have to take me with you some day,” you said and turned around to look at him.

“Excuse me?” he looked actually confused as if he didn’t understand what you just said.

“You’re always talking about dragons and you tell me these great stories and I think it's finally time that you take me to the reservoir to let me see them so I can finally understand why you are so obsessed with them.”

“I’m sorry if I talk to much about them. I know that it scares people away.” He looked almost a little bit sad.

“No, I don’t think you understand,” you put your hand on his warm arm. “I find it endearing that you love your job so much that you even do some research when you’re on vacation. You don’t have to be sorry for anything! I mean it, I finally want to see the creatures that amaze you so much.”

“Oh, okay. Well then I have to take you with me one day,” he said with a light smile on his face. You patted his arm and told him that you’d try to sleep now and that he should just kick you if you started to snore.

The next few days passed by quickly and you got used to be surrounded by Charlie 24/7 and you weren’t complaining. “Good morning,” you heard George say one morning and his twin followed him into the kitchen of shell cottage. “What are you doing?”

Fred took a cup from the cupboard and filled it while George studied you. “I'm making Cozonac. Bill asked me if I could make some. I'm making loads you can also have some when its ready,” you promised. You put away the bowl and washed your hands when you asked them what they were doing here.

“We thought we take you with us to Diagon Alley. Show you the shop and what London has to offer.”

“Oh yeah. I’ve been dying to see the shop and your products. Seriously I can’t wait to see them! And when we come back, I’m making dinner and we’ll eat the sweet bread for dessert,” you said excitingly.

“Well, who would have guessed that I had to ask my brother Charlie for girl advice, because I think he might have hit the jackpot,” George looked you up and down with a smirk on his lips. You told him to shut it and went to go changing.

When you came back you were carrying two bags full of WWW products. George had showed you around and pointed you to Diagon Alley where you spent a lot of your salary. You stopped by the twins to let them know that the offer for dinner still stands and then you made you way back to shell cottage.

“Are you preparing to feed an army?” Charlie asked when he stepped into the kitchen and took a look at all the pots and pans around you.

“Actually I am. George and Fred are coming over.” Just as you finished your sentence a loud noise was heard and said twins stood in the kitchen.

“This smells good, sweetness,” George didn’t miss a beat to stroll over to you, kiss your cheek and lift the lid to look inside one pot.

“Sweetness?” Charlie asked.

“Oh, you need to watch out, brother. I think you might have competition,” Fred laughed as he sat down at the table. Two seconds later Charlie slung one arm around your waist and pushed George out of the way.

“Bugger off,” he told his younger brother and although you were a bit confused about his quick acting you were comfortable in his arms and pressed yourself against his body. After that he didn’t leave your side and helped you preparing the food. Every time George made a comment about you, he threw something at him. You were glad that it was only peppers and not the knives. Bill really had a laugh when he came home and noticed the tension that was clearly building.

That evening you noticed that Charlie was always touching you: a hand on your thigh, your arms or knees touching when you sat next to each other over dinner, him kissing your cheek to thank you for the dinner. While George and Fred left right after dinner Charlie and Bill decided they’d do the dishes so you had a conversation with Fleur. When she asked you questions how you and Charlie got together you squirmed a bit and made an excuse to get to the kitchen.

The conversation between Charlie and Bill ended as soon as you stepped into the kitchen. You walked over to fill your glass with water and when your eyes fell at the bags you brought with you from Diagon Alley you remembered that you brought a book for him. You pulled it out and put it on the counter as Charlies hands were covered with dish water. “I brought this book for you. They had only two books about the Vipertooth and I recognized you had the other.”

You noticed the glance Bill shoot at Charlie before he turned around to put away the plates while Charlie came to you, put his soaking hands on your cheek and kissed the corner of your mouth. You didn’t mind the wetness there as a warmth spread through your body when he whispered the words: “Thank you, draga mea!” He wouldn’t tell you that he owned this book already, because he was so touched that you remembered the dragon he talked about and you went around searching for something that meant so much to him.

“You’re welcome,” you beamed at him and when he stepped back you giggled as you wiped away the water with the sleeve of your shirt. Bill had left the room without you noticing so you stepped in to finish the dishes with Charlie.

“I’m glad you asked me to come with you,” you said while you put away the cutlery. “I have a really good time and I’m a little bit sad that tomorrow is our last day here.”

“You can come with me the next time I’m visiting,” Charlie said while he dried off his hands and leant against the counter. “I like spending time with you and actually I wanted to ask, if you want to go on a date with me.” You noticed that every time Charlie got nervous he started scratching his neck. “Like a real one without pretending.”

“Oh Charlie, we don’t have to pretend anything. I love spending time with you and I would love to spend even more with you in Romania. And if I remember correctly you had already promised me a date. You wanted to show me your dragons, remember?”

Charlie was speechless. You considered him showing you dragons as a date? He didn’t know what to say, but he felt the need to say something back right now or you might go. And he wasn’t sure if he could let you go. He did the next best thing that came to his mind and with two steps he stood in front of you and pressed his lips against yours. You let out a light giggle and then you pressed your lips against his and slung your arms around his waist.

“So, it’s a date then?” you asked with a smirk on your face when you parted.

“Blimey, one or hundred or as many as you want,” he answered and gave you a peck.

#charlie weasley x reader #charlie weasley ff #weasley x reader #charlie weasley fanfiction #amwriting #fake dating #charlie weasley

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buckyownsmylife · 4 years ago

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Holy Ground - Chapter 5

The one where Andy seems to have lost everything, but he’s not ready to give up.

A terrible car accident ruins Andy Barber’s idea of a perfect life. But if the love’s still there, why wouldn’t he retrace the steps that led him to his happy ending? After all, the best love stories were made to be written more than just once.

for general warnings and author’s notes, please go to the fic’s masterlist and if you’d like to be tagged on my following Chris Evans and characters stories, just fill out this form.

Waking up in Andy’s arms was like something out of a dream. Instead of feeling disappointed because I opened my eyes to reality - and therefore had to abandon whatever it was that had been entertaining me while asleep - all I could feel was excitement at being in his bed, surrounded by his scent and warmth.

He really was a dream come true to me .

I managed to turn around in his arms without waking him up, taking advantage of this opportunity to admire him. God, he was attractive. A bit more mature than I remembered from our first date, but I guess going through a coma can change your perspective on a lot of things, this included.

And I couldn’t believe he had stuck out with me during this entire medical situation. I think this would be hard even for people who were already in long term relationships, for someone who had literally just met me…

I just couldn’t believe it was really happening, outside of a movie screen, and to me. With someone as great as Andy. It felt like one of those sappy romantic stories, where a sad circumstance brings a couple even closer together, and I was so happy about it. Perhaps even too happy.

A part of me, the part that had been realistic due to everything I’d been through in life, kept asking me to slow down. Not to trust him too soon, not to fall in love despite his gentleness, his patience, everything he’d done for me ever since I woke up. And even though I’d blatantly disregarded that part - I was in love with him, and I knew it - it still existed inside of me, and it made me cautious of losing him suddenly, just like I’d lost everyone else in my life.

I didn’t want to have to live without Andy, but I knew love stories could only end two ways. There was a 50/50 chance for both paths.

As much as I wanted to lay there and think only of the optimistic happy ending I wish I would get to share with Andy, my body reminded me of my reality. I was starving, and if Andy didn’t wake up soon, the growls in my stomach would certainly be his alarm clock, and that just wouldn’t do. So I decided, albeit reluctantly, to leave him in bed and venture back to the main floor of the house, in search of something I could eat.

It was so hard to leave his room without waking him up - I didn’t know how deep his sleep could be, but I didn’t want to take any chances, considering how peaceful he looked. So when I finally managed to close his bedroom door and realized just how badly I needed to pee, I wanted to slap myself on the face, where it would leave a mark.

“Alright,” I thought to myself. “Big place. He’s gotta have another bathroom here somewhere.” And so began my quest for a toilet I could pee in. The first door I opened was obviously an office - it made sense he’d choose the room nearest to his to work on. The second one looked like a guest room, if the lack of personal decorations was any indication of the absence of any current occupants. The third door I tried seemed to be locked, since I wasn’t able to turn the knob all the way to one side. But the fourth one is a charm, right?

I noticed I was wrong before my brain processed what it was that I was seeing, purely from the scent that the room exhaled. It was unmistakably baby powder and that newborn smell that was so peculiar it seemed to be able to make any woman who sniffed it feel fertile in a second.

But then my eyes got used to the low lighting of the bedroom and I noticed the crib. I noticed the decorations on the wall. And I noticed the child on the lap of a woman sat by the window, seemingly as surprised to see me as I was to see her.

“Oh, I didn’t think anyone would be joining us today,” she said, sitting up straighter as the little boy sucked on a bottle of milk. He couldn’t be older than… what? Three or four months? “Andy said he’d be coming home late and not to expect any visits until way past lunchtime.”

At the mention of the man whose bed I’d just left, I felt as if a bucket of ice had been dropped on me, and I had to hold onto the door so I would keep myself up as my body startled to tremble.

“He… did?” I asked, not in search of any particular confirmation, but just to keep the woman talking so I could have something to focus on instead of the feeling that I was about to faint.

“Yeah, he was excited about it, weren’t you, little one?” She asked the tiny baby, obviously fond of the boy. “Truth be told, he hasn’t been spending much time with his father, and a baby misses that, you know?”

I did know. I did know, but I didn’t have anything to offer in response, so I excused myself from the conversation and closed the door behind me, mind empty but running aimlessly at the same time.

I was still frozen with shock by the time Andy found me in the kitchen, staring emptily at the wall. “I’m so glad you’re here, sweetheart. I’m so hungry, but the only thing in this kitchen that seems to make my mouth water is you.”

His words didn’t even register in my head as I raised my eyes to meet his, my tone cold and devoid of any emotions when I asked, “When were you going to tell me that you have a son?”

#my series #andy barber angst #andy barber #angst #andy barber x reader #andy barber reader #andy barber reader insert #andy barber reader inserts #andy barber fanfiction #andy barber series #andy barber fan fiction #andy barber imagine

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songtoyou · 3 years ago

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Chapter 20: Return to Arrow House - Part Two

Tolerate It

Paring: Modern Tommy Shelby x Original Female Character

Story Rating: R (No minors should read this fic).

Word Count: 2,206

Warnings: Swearing. Talk of a deceased loved one.

Story Description: Tommy Shelby is the owner and CEO of Shelby Company Limited. Starting out as a Bookmaker, Tommy had big ideas to expand his riches. In the past ten years, the company has grown rapidly to expand its business ventures from bars to producing alcohol, manufacturing motor vehicle parts, and exporting. One of the richest men in Great Britain, Tommy Shelby, has it all. Unfortunately, the death of his wife, Grace, left the multi-millionaire mogul alone and depressed. He needed someone to fulfill his needs and deepest darkest desires.

Chapter Snippet: Meanwhile, Louis stayed up in the guest room, playing a game on his phone. It wasn't until Louis heard a knock at the door that he looked up from the phone. Thinking it was his mother, Louis told the person on the other side to come in. Much to his surprise, it was Tommy.

"How are you holding up?" the older man asked the teenager.

"I'm fine," Louis answered. "Is there something you need?"

Tommy shifted on his feet and looked down at the floor. "Do you mind if the two of us go for a walk around the property? I have a feeling you have questions you want to ask me, so let's get it all out in the open."

"I only have questions because I'm protective of my mum."

A/N: I wish I could be faster in updating this fic, but I have been dealing with some anxiety issues. So, please be patient with me. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

I do not permit my work to be posted on any other site without my permission.

Tag list: @owenniasstars @mamacitapascal @lilymurphy03

"Holy shit," Louis muttered under his breath as Tommy pulled the car into the grandiose driveway of Arrow House.

Parking the car in one of the garages, Tommy got with Charlie following along.

Rose unbuckled her seat belt and turned around to face Louis, still in the back seat. "What a beautiful house, huh," She stated and added, "Come on, let's get going."

With a sigh, Louis got out of the car to retrieve his suitcase from the trunk.

"You don't need to worry about those, Louis. I'll someone come out to get the luggage and put them in our rooms. The house has four bedrooms, a large kitchen, a dining room, and two living rooms," said Tommy as he wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulder and guided her and the boys into the large house.

The foursome was met by an older woman coming down the staircase. "Mr. Shelby, so glad to see you. Everything is ready for your stay."

"Thank you, Frances. Frances, this is Rose Turner and her son, Louis. Frances runs the house. If you need anything, she is the one to go to," Tommy instructed and guided Rose up the stairs.

Charlie pulled Louis along as well. "Come on, Louis! I want to show you my room."

The older boy reluctantly followed the younger boy up the stairs. Rose was preoccupied with the paintings on the wall. One picture, in particular, caught her eye. It was of Tommy, baby Charlie, and a woman who must have been Grace.

"Is that Grace?" Rose asked Tommy, pointing to the painting on the wall.

"Yes, that is Charlie's mother. We got that done when he was a year and a half old. Grace picked the theme. She wanted a 1920s vibe, her favorite era for some reason. Come on; I'll show you where you'll be staying."

Looking one last time at the painting, Rose felt a tiny pang in her chest. Grace was a beautiful woman. She could see why Tommy would fall for someone like Grace and why a part of him was still hung up on his late wife. But most of all, Rose felt sorry for Charlie for having to grow up without a mother.

As Rose continued to look around the house, Tommy pulled her into the master bedroom. It was a spacious room with a king-size bed in the middle. Usually, the master bedroom was off-limits to guests. Not even Tommy would spend the night in the room, opting for one of the guest rooms instead. After Grace died, Tommy locked the master bedroom from any intruders. He didn't want anyone rummaging through Grace's belongings or tarnishing where she used to sleep.

Tommy stood back as he watched Rose look around the room. She ran a hand on the silk bedding and made her way to the window. The window had a view of the front yard and its beautiful landscaping designs. Rose could see why people paid to visit the gardens of Arrow House.

"It's nice and quiet here," Rose professed and turned to Tommy. "It's nice to get away from the real world for a while. Thank you for everything."

Walking closer to Rose, Tommy ran his hands along her shoulders and kissed her on the mouth. "You're safe here, with me. And you'll be safe in your home when you return. Trust me."

"I do trust you, Tommy. I know you are being genuine and caring for not only my well-being but Louis's as well. That means a lot to me," Rose professed to Tommy and kissed him back. She nuzzled closer to his neck and breathed in deep. "We should go check on the kids. Make sure they are settling in okay."

Tommy merely nodded and followed Rose out of the bedroom. He guided her to where Charlie was most likely to be. After rounding a corner, Tommy stopped at the door to Charlie's room to knock.

"Charlie, how's it going?" asked Tommy.

"Hey, daddy!" the little boy beamed at his father. "Louis and I are playing with Legos. Look what I made." Charlie held up what looked to be some sort of plane or jet. "It's Luke Skywalker's X-Wing Fighter," added Charlie.

"Star Wars," Louis piped in when he saw his mum's confused face.

"Yeah, I've never been into Star Wars. I'm more of a Star Trek fan," Rose clarified and giggled when Louis rolled his eyes.

"Captain Kirk or Piccard?" Tommy asked Rose.

"Captain Janeway. She's the best," Rose responded. "But, if I had to choose between Kirk or Piccard, then I got to go with Piccard. I love Patrick Stewart."

"Captain Jonathan Archer was another good one. You know the Captain from Enterprise," added Tommy.

"Oh, Scott Bakula. Yeah, I like him as well. Quantum Leap was such a good show."

Charlie looked over at the older boy, "What are they talking about, Louis?"

"Nerd stuff," replied Louis. He was unamused by the "nerd-fest" going on between his mum and Tommy.

When everyone got settled in Arrow House, Rose stopped by the guest room Louis occupied.

"Knock, knock," smiled Rose as she entered the bedroom. "How are you holding up? You doing okay."

Louis shrugged, "About as good as one can when taken away from their home."

Sighing, Rose sat down on the bed. "It is only for a few days. It was a nice gesture of Tommy to take us on a mini getaway. That's all this is, Louis, time away before you have to go back to school. Just enjoy it. Relax and have some fun."

"Fine."

"Fine," Rose echoed and got up from the bed. "I'll leave you alone for now. But please don't stay cooped in this room the entire time. Charlie really likes you. So, please spend some time with him at least. I'm not going to force you to hang out with Tommy."

Rose left Louis alone and walked down the stairs to find Tommy. She still couldn't get over the size of the house. Seeing the painting of Tommy, Charlie, and Grace once again, Rose stopped to look at it more closely. While Charlie had Grace's blonde hair, there was no denying he got Tommy's blue eyes. She loved how Charlie was looking up at his father with adoration. Rose was staring too intently at the painting that she didn't the pitter-patter of little feet approaching.

"Rosie," Charlie giggled and stopped when he saw the painting. "Isn't Mama pretty?"

"Yes, very pretty," Rose replied honestly. "Hey, how about we go pick out some pictures for your school project?"

Charlie grabbed Rose's hand and led her down the stairs towards the kitchen. "Franny, where are the pictures of Mama that Daddy keeps hidden?" Charlie asked the housekeeper.

Francis was a bit taken back by the young boy's question. "Oh, uh, why are you asking?"

"It's for a school project," Rose stepped in to answer. "Charlie just needs a few pictures of his mum."

"I think most of Mrs. Shelby's belongings are still in the basement. Let me show you the way," Francis told them as she led Rose and Charlie from the kitchen down to the basement.

Much to Rose's surprise, the basement was no ordinary basement. Instead, it was carpeted and furnished with decent lighting to it. It looked more like a living room with boxes organized in certain places. Many of the boxes had the name "Grace" nicely written on them. Francis picked up one of the smaller boxes and set it down in front of Charlie.

"This box would have pictures of your mum. I believe it will have some of her jewelry, hair clips, and hairbrush as well," said Francis. "You're father asked me to save everything for you."

Rose helped Charlie open the box and watched as the little boy looked inside. He quietly pulled out different items that belonged to his mother. Charlie handed them to Rose, who would set them aside. When Charlie pulled out a manila envelope, he looked inside and saw an array of images of his mum. He took the envelope and sat down on the couch. It was quiet as Charlie looked through the pictures. Neither Rose nor Francis wanted to disturb the young child.

"I miss her," Charlie softly spoke as he handed the pictures he wanted to Rose. "I don't really remember her, but I know I miss her."

"From the way your mum is looking at you in this picture," Rose began, "You were the love of her life."

"No way!" laughed Charlie with an eye roll.

"Yes, way!" retorted Rose. "Trust me on this, okay. It's a mom thing. You should consider yourself lucky. You got your guardian angel looking after you."

"Sometimes, I hear Daddy crying in his room at night. It doesn't happen a lot. Mostly when it's Mama's birthday or their anniversary, don't tell him I told you that, please," Charlie requested.

"I won't," promised Rose looking around the room to see that Francis was long gone, "Hey, how about we take these pictures upstairs, get something to eat, and work on the project? Sound like a plan?"

"Can we come back down here later?" Charlie asked quietly.

"Sure," smiled Rose and held her hand out for Charlie to take.

The two walked back up the basement stairs and towards the kitchen. Francis had a pot of soup on the stove and had already made sandwiches in the refrigerator. Rose retrieved the scrapbooking supplies she bought at Marks & Spencer and laid them out on the table. Charlie and Rose would switch between eating, talking, laughing, and scrapbooking. Francis stood back and watched with a smile on her face. It was a sweet sight to see. One that she hoped to see more of in the future.

Meanwhile, Louis stayed up in the guest room, playing a game on his phone. It wasn't until Louis heard a knock at the door that he looked up from the phone. Thinking it was his mother, Louis told the person on the other side to come in. Much to his surprise, it was Tommy.

"How are you holding up?" the older man asked the teenager.

"I'm fine," Louis answered. "Is there something you need?"

"I only have questions because I'm protective of my mum."

"Understandable. Come on, let's go," said Tommy.

Grabbing a jacket, Louis followed Tommy out of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door. They walked alongside the south front lawn and towards one of the gardens.

"How long have you had this place?" questioned Louis.

"A couple of years. It would have been my permanent residence, but I opened it up to the public after my wife died. I intend for Charlie to inherit it when he gets older," Tommy shared. "It has been a long while since Charlie and I have been back here."

"Who is May Carleton?" Louis probed. He stopped walking to stand in front of Tommy.

"May Carleton, eh," Tommy smirked, "She is a horse trainer from Bakewell. I've worked with her for years. She has helped train many of my prized horses. Why do you ask?"

"Charlie brought her up. For some reason, he thought you two were dating."

"We weren't exclusive. May wanted to be, but I wasn't ready," replied Tommy. "She is an amazing woman and a great friend. That is all we will ever be."

"But May is wealth. She is a part of high society. Why wouldn't someone like you want to be with a woman like that? Why my mum? Why a woman from Blackpool who had a kid when she was a teenager?"

"Why not your mum?" Tommy retorted. "She is an amazing woman. She's kind, funny, beautiful, and doesn't take any crap from anyone. Your mum has the qualities I look for in a woman. And Rose comes from humble beginnings. I grew up in Birmingham. My parents had no money, and when my dad left, we had to fend for ourselves. I've worked hard to get to where I'm at today. I wanted better for my family. That was my ultimate goal. I'm not someone who merely looks out for myself. I have Charlie, my brothers, and my sister to look out for as well. There may have been choices I regret to achieve these dreams, but I can't take them back. I wouldn't take them back, to be completely honest."

Louis took in what Tommy shared with him. He appreciated the honesty. But there was still something about Tommy he couldn't fully trust. Louis decided not to bring up Tatiana Petrovna to Tommy. He still needed to get more information about the woman.

Before Louis could respond, he felt his phone vibrate. "Hold up; I got a text message. It's from mum. She said Francis made lunch. Should I text her back that we are coming?"

"Yeah, tell her we will be there soon."

#tommy shelby #tommy shelby x oc #thomas shelby #thomas shelby x oc #peaky blinders #peaky blinders fic

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headoverheelsforramsey · 3 years ago

Note

Hello, hello! This week, we are going on a little:

Home Tour!

Notes: Answer the following with pictures (dialogue from your characters is optional!). Collages are highly encouraged if you want to answer a question with multiple pictures because tumblr mobile only allows 10 total pics. Otherwise, tumblr on a desktop lets you add multiple pictures (non-beta)!

For both:

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Living room and home office (if any)?

Kitchen and dining room?

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Other rooms?

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Super super late to this, because of my stupid exam but now we are here so let's go! 💃🏽🏠

A/N : I am placing this two years and seven months after the wedding, because I HC Ethan and Meera staying at Ethan's apartment for two years after the wedding and they only start house hunting when they have the baby talk and start trying for a baby. So technically not newlyweds anymore. Now let's get started! ✨

Meera opens the door and greets Bree.

Meera : Hii Bree, welcome to our humble abode.

Bree (chuckles) : This place is anything but humble. I hope I am not causing much trouble.

Meera : Absolutely not. Who else is going to make me feel like a youtuber?

Both laugh, Ethan joins and greets Bree.

Bree : Congratulations on the good news Dr. Ramsey. How far are y'all?

Ethan : Thank you Bree. It's been 3 months already.

Meera (cradling her small bump) : Yup one trimester down two more to go.

Ethan (kissing her forehead) : And then there will be a mini version of you running around these halls.

Meera : Nope it's gonna be a mini you.

The couple shares a look as if challenging each other.

Meera : Fine, Bree, whose team are you on? Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?

Bree : I am happy with either because at the end I'll be interviewing him or her too.

The three of them share a laugh.

Bree : Let's get started, shall we?

Ethan : Sure.

What does the outside of the home look like? (Front/back yard, garden, pool, etc)

Front :

Meera : We were looking for something modern yet chic, something that is totally us. I fell in love with the design whereas Ethan was in total awe of the open space and glass doors. Needless to say our heart was stuck on this no matter how many more houses we visited.

Backyard :

Ethan : The backyard also doubles up as the garden but it's not quite completed yet.

Meera : Yes it's been two months since we moved, and we haven't been able to work on the garden because of work and the pregnancy. Ethan : But we want to build a garden with a tree house and maybe some swings.

Meera (too excited) : Ohh swings! Yes please add it onto the list. Why didn't I think of it before?

Pool :

Meera : Definitely my favorite part!

Ethan : She is a water baby through and through so that's no surprise.

Meera : Don't act like you don't appreciate me in a swimsuit, Ramsey (winks)

Ethan : There is no denying that.

Living room and home office (if any)?

Living room :

Ethan : Meera was hell bent on having an L-shaped couch.

Meera : Those things are so bougie I had to have one because now I can finally afford one. But yeah the living room is so relaxing with a beautiful view of the outside.

Home office :

Meera : Honestly speaking, I do not understand the utility of a home office, I didn't understand back at his apartment neither do I understand now. If I am supposed to work from home I can do that on the couch or on my bed or even better on the daybeds by the pool.

Ethan (shaking his head) : You'll get it darling. When you start your maternity leave I'll see how you make zoom calls with the pool as your background.

Meera shrugs.

Kitchen and dining room?

Meera : This part was all Ethan so I'll let him do the talking.

Ethan (proudly) : A Poggenpohl kitchen with a granite-topped island adds an ultramodern touch. Glass shelves display colorful glassware convenient to the wet bar. A translucent sliding glass door below the shelves hides the more utilitarian gadgets. And finally playful mod pendant lights seem to levitate over the dining table, which is meant to resemble a river running through the woods.

Meera : You sure you didn't miss your true calling as an interior designer babe?

Ethan (smirks) : Nope, just the fact that I tend to excel at everything I do, Rookie.

Meera : And that makes you 10 times hotter!

Bedrooms? (Master, guest, others)

Master bedroom :

Meera : The bedroom has a different color scheme and tone from the rest of the house because I wanted it to stand out and break the monotone.

Ethan : Again the chandelier was Meera's opinion.

Meera : Finding common ground between his minimalistic taste and mine was difficult but we made it through.

Master Bathroom :

Ethan : Meera I don't think it was necessary to bring Bree in here.

Meera : It was absolutely necessary! Just look at this tub Bree! The bubbles and champagne dates we have here are a total hit.

Guest rooms :

Ethan : We have two guest rooms and both are styled the same way, but unfortunately we haven't had any guests yet.

Meera : Is it unfortunate Dr. Ramsey? Bryce is just a call away from crashing here.

Ethan (pinching the bridge of his nose) : Anyone but Lahela.

Meera : We haven't thought about the baby's room yet. But we have the nursery now.

Ethan : Yes, maybe we'll turn the nursery into a bedroom or one of the guest rooms in a few years. Let's see.

Nursery :

Meera : This was completed just yesterday hence the delay in the interview, Bree.

Ethan : We decided to keep the gender of the baby a surprise so we went with a gender neutral nursery that matches the colour scheme of the house.

Meera : Also because Ethan Ramsey would rather die than paint the walls of his house pink and blue.

Ethan (rolls eyes)

Other rooms?

Home library :

Meera (takes in the smell of books) : Better known as my safe haven.

Ethan : This was absolutely non-negotiable for Meera.

Meera : We both own a lot of books and the collection keeps on increasing now with the baby incoming. And look at this reading space. It's from my dreams.

Ethan : This is tucked away in a far corner of the house and is the most serene place around here. Once, I returned home from the hospital and called out to Meera a hundred times, she didn't answer, I started panicking and then found her silently sitting here in her own world.

Meera : If I ever go missing please check here before running to the police, because once I am in here I forget the existence of the world.

Bree picks up "Peppa pig's super noisy Sound Book" which was kept on a thick medical journal with a smile.

Ethan feels embarrassed but Meera laughs.

Meera : Yes these are the new ones in our collection. Ethan was reading it to the baby before you arrived.

Home Bar :

Ethan : The wine cellar grew into a home mini bar because we had this unused space left.

Meera : He loves showing this and his collection off.

Ethan : Excuse me! If I remember correctly your friends were very impressed as well.

Meera : True that. Bryce went bat shit crazy during the housewarming party. He said he felt he got back his bartending days.

Ethan (proudly) : And Jackie's exact words for that evening's toast was "to hell with Donahue's"

Meera : Yeah yeah, you did a great job honey. Also the more surfaces the better for us.

Ethan : Keep it PG for the love of God.

Meera (shrugs) : Pregnancy hormones.

Bree (points) : And that?

Ethan (facepalms) : The only thing that doesn't match with the vibe here.

Meera : Nonsense! It was a housewarming gift from my friends and I absolutely love it. Ethan just feels it is a cheaper and juvenile version of his favourite game, soccer. But don't worry Bree, I'll get him to play someday.

Ethan (smirk) : I would very much like to see you try Dr. Ramsey-Bose.

Meera : And I'll see how you say no when your son asks.

Ethan : It's gonna be a daughter.

Meera : We'll see.

Do you own your dream home? If not, what does that dream home look like?

Ethan : For the majority of my life home for me was a structure of bricks and cement with a ceiling but Meera was the one who brought all the love and light and showed me what a real home felt like. So for me, my home is where my heart is and for this lifetime it's kept safe with this gorgeous woman whom I fortunately call my wife.

Silence lasts for a couple of minutes then Meera snorts.

Meera (drying her eye) : Damn you pregnancy hormones, I am not even wearing waterproof mascara. It was super cheesy Ethan, a non pregnant me would have definitely called you out on your cheese but this pregnant Meera has to agree with you. Even a stable is my dream home if I have my dream husband with me. (she kisses Ethan) but I wouldn't mind a Jacuzzi, a home theatre, a game room (laughing)

Ethan (an easy smile on his face) : Always knew you were in it because of the money Bose.

What is your favorite room to spend time in with each other?

Meera : The library. Just him reading to our unborn child like he isn't already the most perfect man in the world.

Ethan (a very satisfied smile on his face) : First I am very surprised that you kept it PG. So the obvious answer is the bedroom but other than that, the patio, which is not a room though.

Ethan : Meera has a slight deficiency in vitamin D so to avoid complications, we spend a lot of time here in the sun. We play board games, read and even discuss work here sometimes.

Meera : Ooh yes! This was another great investment and a great way to utilise the humongous outdoor space we have.

Ethan : I hope you had fun Bree. Thank you so much for doing this.

A quick shoutout to @a-crepusculo and @jamespotterthefirst who came to my rescue when I couldn't add more than 10 pics. Also thank you Bree for doing this you are a star and an angel. 💜

Tagging my usual : @starrystarrytrouble @mm2305 @charisworld @choicesfanaf @potionsprefect @genevievemd @shanzay44 @little-flowers-on-heaven @schnitzelbutterfingers @coffeeheartaddict @gryffindordaughterofathena @chemist-ana @adiehardfan @custaroonie @ireneadlerisseggsy @takemyopenheart @natureblooms24 @mainstreetreader @izzyourresidentlawyer @a-crepusculo @quixoticdreamer16 @starryeyedrookie @barbean

+ @openheartfanfics

Please let me know if you want to be added or removed. And if you want to sit out only the answers to the ask games hit me up too. There won't be any hard feelings. I promise. 💜

#asked and answered #newlywed game with our host Bree #queen Bree supremacy!#jamespotterthefirst #ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #ethan x meera #dr. meera bose #cue the queue

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thelastspeecher · 3 years ago

Text

A New Inconvenience

Wrote some more for the Marriage of Convenience AU. Enjoy.

——————————————————————————————

Ford walked through the front door. He smiled at the already familiar sight of Stan playing with Orion and Iris in the living room.

“Hello, my dears,” he cooed, kneeling by his children. Orion and Iris promptly latched onto him, embracing him as tightly as their tiny arms could manage. “Did you have a good day with Uncle Stan?”

“Miss Dada,” Orion mumbled. Ford kissed the top of his son’s head.

“I missed you as well.”

“Uncy Stan took good care of ‘em, don’t worry,” Stan said breezily. Ford scowled at him. “What?”

“How many times must I tell you to stop using improper language?”

“I didn’t swear!”

“No, you just completely butchered a word.”

“You act like me calling myself Uncy Stan is gonna permanently screw up the way they talk or something,” Stan scoffed. Iris tugged on Ford’s shirt. Glad for the distraction, Ford smiled at his daughter.

“Yes, Iris?”

“Mama sad.”

“…Pardon?”

“Oh, yeah,” Stan said, nodding. “Angie came in a bit ago, looking pretty upset.” Ford’s blood ran cold.

“She had a doctor appointment today,” he said quietly. Stan’s eyes widened.

“Shi- shoot. Maybe she just hates the doc?”

“No. She’s very upbeat after doctor’s appointments.” Ford rose to his feet. “I’m going to speak with your mother, continue playing with Uncle Stan.” Orion and Iris looked disappointed, but toddled back to Stan.

Ford strode quickly down the hall, past the twins’ nursery and the guest room Stan had officially moved into, until he arrived at the room he shared with Angie. The door was ajar. Ford slowly opened it. Angie sat on their bed. To his relief, she didn’t seem particularly distressed, the way he’d imagine she would if she got bad news from the doctor. She looked more conflicted, as though she hadn’t decided her feelings.

“Angie?” he said tentatively. Angie looked up. She managed a weak smile.

“Stanford.”

“Stan told me you seemed upset after your doctor’s appointment.” Ford crossed over to the bed and sat next to his wife. “Is everything all right?”

“Depends on how you define it.”

“Angie, please don’t beat around the bush.”

“Remember what we were doin’ ‘fore Stan showed up?” Angie asked, ignoring Ford’s request. “How we were plannin’ to add more to our fam’ly?”

“Yes. But we stopped after Stan arrived.”

“Well. It didn’t make much of a dif’rence.”

“Oh. Oh, no.” Ford’s heart sunk. “No. You’re-”

“I’m pregnant.”

“We were only trying for a week!”

“That’s all it takes, sometimes.” Angie was maddeningly calm, but then again, she wanted a big family. Ford pushed back the reminder that, before Stan showed up, he had also wanted a third child, hoping that having another baby would improve his marriage like the twins had. “All I can say is I hope it ain’t twins again. I love Orion ‘n Iris, but carryin’ two babies at once is rough.”

“How could this have happened?” Ford moaned, putting his head in his hands.

“You know. You were there.”

“Why are you taking this so well?” Ford snapped. Angie crossed her legs, tilting her head thoughtfully.

“Well, I figure, can’t do much ‘bout it now. Stressin’ will only make things more difficult on me and the baby.”

Yes. Stress was the source of some of her complications with the twins. Ford closed his eyes, terror suddenly surging through him. Angie’s first pregnancy had been difficult for them both. It might make me a coward, but I don’t know if I can do that again.

“Stanford?” A hand was gently placed on Ford’s back. “Talk to me.”

“I…” Ford stood up. “I think I need to go for a walk and clear my head.”

“All right.” Angie continued to be infuriatingly level-headed. “But durin’ this walk, please don’t grab one of yer cigarettes that ya think ya keep hidden so well from me. I can barely tolerate that smoke smell when I’m not pregnant.”

“I recall.” Ford frowned at her. “You knew I picked up smoking again?”

“Oh, darlin’, yer not nearly as sneaky as ya think ya are,” Angie said with a smile. Ford managed a small smile of his own. He leaned over to kiss Angie on the cheek.

“I’ll be back shortly. And I won’t smell of cigarette smoke.”

“Thank you, dear.” Ford left the bedroom and headed for the front door. Before he could leave the house, however, Stan, still supervising the children in the living room, spoke up.

“What’s going on, Sixer?”

“Oh. Well…” Ford looked over at his twin. Stan was uncharacteristically nervous.

But then again, he’s quite fond of Angie. Who wouldn’t be?

“Angie’s fine. She just got some unexpected news. I’m going to go on a walk. I’ll be back in about ten minutes.”

“Oh. Okay. Uh, have a good walk, I guess.”

“I’ll do my best.” Ford walked outside, down the front steps, and began to make his way down the street. He hadn’t even gotten a block away, however, when there was a shout behind him.

“Hey, Ford, wait up!” Ford looked over his shoulder. Stan had left the house as well and was jogging to catch up with him. “Figured you could use a walking buddy,” Stan said once he was by Ford’s side.

“The children-”

“Angie said she was gonna watch ‘em.” Stan cocked his head curiously. “You seem pretty high-strung right now. What’s going on?”

“I…” Ford sighed. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and began to walk again. Stan began to walk as well. “Angie’s pregnant.”

“Oh.” Stan blinked. “Okay. Not what I was expecting. But why are you in the same boat as me? I thought you said that the only reason you and Angie knock boots is to have kids.”

“You showed up, resulting in us ceasing our…conception attempts after only a week.”

“Ford, it only takes one time.”

“I know!” Ford burst out.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Stan said soothingly. He put his arm around Ford’s shoulders. “Do you not want another kid?”

“I honestly don’t know, Stanley.”

“You clearly wanted one at some point.”

“I…” Ford’s head drooped. “I didn’t. Not really.”

“Then why the hell were you trying to have one?”

“…I don’t want to tell you.”

“C’mon. I’m not gonna judge you. You have the authority to kick me outta your guest room.”

“I thought it would benefit my marriage,” Ford mumbled. Stan came to a sudden stop, staring at Ford. Ford stopped as well. “What?”

“You- you wanted to have another kid because your marriage was on the rocks?” Stan whispered.

“Well, to be fair, the conclusion was rooted in evidence. Angie and I struggled a lot our first year of marriage, but when Orion and Iris were born, our relationship became much better.” Ford shrugged. “Recently, we started arguing over minor matters, becoming frustrated, even sleeping in separate beds. I merely decided to revisit a potential solution that I knew worked.”

“Stanford, you decided to have a baby just to save your relationship. That’s- that’s fucked up.”

“What happened to not judging me?”

“I said that ‘cause I didn’t think you’d do something so damn stupid! You wanted to make another human being. Because you were fighting with your wife.”

“What’s done is done, Stanley,” Ford snapped. “I can’t reverse it.” He could feel hot shame pulsing through his body. Until Stan had pointed it out, he hadn’t considered how careless the decision to have another child was.

He’s right.

“I mean…” Stan rubbed the back of his neck. He looked away awkwardly. “It’s early enough that if you want, you could reverse the baby.”

“You- you mean Angie terminating the pregnancy.”

“…Yeah.”

“Even if I wanted to do that, which I don’t, Angie never would. She’s not against others doing that, but she personally won’t.” The issue had come up when Angie was pregnant with Orion and Iris. The doctor voiced some concern over Angie’s low weight and nutrient levels, and suggested they reduce the twins to a singleton. Ford had to stop Angie from slapping the doctor.

“Fine. What about adoption?” Stan suggested. “I bet there are a lot of people out there who would love to have a smart, cute kid. I know I would.”

“Give up my child?” Ford thought back to the day that Orion and Iris were born. The surge of love and happiness at seeing their extra fingers and toes. How thrilled he’d been to see the distinctive birthmark on Orion’s back that resulted in his name. Running his fingers through Iris’s bright red hair for the first time.

If I gave up my child, I’d give that up, too. Like a prophetic vision, images came to Ford’s mind. A newborn girl with Angie’s nose and his eyes, wispy brown hair, and a laugh that could melt the stoniest of hearts. Tears sprang to Ford’s eyes. I can’t even stand the idea of missing out on my third child’s life. When the day comes, I’d never be able to place her or him for adoption.

“No,” Ford said finally. He shook his head. “No, I can’t do that.”

“Sounds like you made up your mind, then,” Stan said.

“Heh.” Ford managed a small smile. “I suppose I did.” He looked at Stan. “Thank you, Stanley.”

“Hey, I’m here to help you and Angie out,” Stan said with a shrug. “This is just part of that.” He grinned. “And if I get a new niece or nephew outta this, I’m not gonna complain.”

“Even though, as the live-in nanny, you’ll be responsible for her or his care once Angie and I run out of parental leave.”

“Eh, I can handle it,” Stan said confidently. Ford raised an eyebrow.

“Newborns are very different from toddlers, you know.”

“Angie can show me the ropes before I ever get left alone with the kid.” Ford bristled instinctively.

“Angie and I split responsibilities evenly. Just because she’s a woman, I won’t be saddling her with the majority of childcare.”

“Whoa, I didn’t mean it like that!” Stan said, holding his hands up in defeat. “I just- Angie’s- Angie’s pretty great. And- and maternity leave is longer than paternity leave anyways, right? She’ll probably be spending more time at home than you.”

“Yes, she will have more time off than I,” Ford confirmed. Stan nodded.

“Yeah, that’s what I was getting at.” Stan cleared his throat. “Anyways, uh, we should probably get back. Orion and Iris get fussy around this time.” Ford nodded.

“That sounds like a good idea.” He and Stan turned around and began to walk back home. “Angie and I will have to come up with some names.”

“Easy. Stanley.”

“What if it’s a girl?” Ford asked, genuinely concerned about what Stan would say. The answer was immediate.

“Staniella.”

“And you claim Orion is bad.”

#jafnskldfna the title I went with for this ficlet. I'm a big fan lmao.#Stanford Pines #Stanley Pines #Angie McGucket #Marriage of Convenience AU #ficlet #my writing #speecher speaks

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smol-and-grumpy · 4 years ago

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Golden Cage - Chapter.01

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Summary: She’s a spoiled little princess — at least that’s what people say. Her father is the King of all Kings, the man who everyone fears. Then, along comes Dean Winchester, the one guy who manages to see into her soul, but — — is Dean really who he says he is?

Chapter Warnings: Threats, angst, fluff too

WC: 6372

A/N: If you want to read ahead, please check out my Patreon.

Beta’d by: @deanwanddamons <3

Series Masterlist ~ SPN Masterlist

Become a Patron ~ Buy me a coffee

Y/N takes her time to get ready. The party has already started and she hears cars pulling up to the curb outside, hears the doorbell ringing, and doors open to new guests. They’re families of the people who work for her father. Which also means that they are her family, too.

They’re a whole fucking family when she thinks of it. Once they are accepted into the organization, they are treated like they belong.

A whole fucking weird bunch of the Brady’s, she thinks.

Rummaging through her closet, she fishes out some black skinny jeans. She holds them out, sees the ridiculously large amount of holes in it. She can’t believe that she used to wear them in her late teens. Well, she’s going to figure out if they still fit.

She smiles when she sees that they do. Y/N pulls a big hooded jumper in pastel pink over her bra next, and puts her hair up into a ponytail, before slipping into her sneakers.

In the bathroom, she applies minimal makeup but paints her lips cherry red.

That’ll do, she thinks. Her dad will be furious, but eh, she doesn’t care.

The part of the house she’s in is awfully quiet when she makes her way down from her bedroom. The party is in the back of the house and in their gigantic yard.

As she walks along the hall, the sound of laughter and chatting gets louder and she takes a deep breath, calming herself down. It’s not her first time attending a family party like this one, but she doesn’t really like people, so.

Y/N walks out, nodding at familiar faces, but ignores their look of irritation at her outfit, even smirking to herself because she’s accomplished her mission.

When she arrives outside a waiter walks by and she quickly stops him, leaves her hand on his chest and grabs at a full champagne flute. She downs the liquid in one go before she takes another one and downs that too.

“Great, thanks.” She says and begins to make her way to the front, where she knows her dad is, but before she could reach them, she gets pulled back by her arm.

She turns to the source and lets out a squeal when she sees her friend Bela. She knew that Bela would be here. It’s Bela’s dad’s goodbye party and god, is she glad that there’s at least one familiar face around here who she can whine to about how hideous these parties always are.

“Good job, babe,” Bela says and elbows her in the ribs.

“God, Bela, I’m so sick of it.” She sighs.

The other woman chuckles, “Yeah, I can see by the way you’re dressed. You just love to piss him off, don’t you?” Bela knows how rebellious she can be.

She groans, “Don’t even get me started on telling you what happened this afternoon!”

Her friend opens her mouth, but before Bela could ask more, they are interrupted.

“Hey, ladies,”

“Oh no,” Both of the women roll their eyes as Nick approaches.

Bela whispers to her, “Go on, I’ll hold him back.” Y/N nods at Bela with a knowing look, before she turns on her heels to walk to find her dad.

As she’s walking away, she hears Bela sneer at Nick and hears Nick muttering something that sounded like bitch under his breath. She doesn’t know if it’s directed at her or Bela, but honestly, she doesn’t really care.

Walking closer, she sees her dad standing with Bobby and a couple of the capos, as well as Zachariah, the underboss. Dean’s there too. Her heart picks up pace as she notices him.

“Hey, Uncle Bobby,” She greets the big bear of a man and Bobby’s eyes widen when he sees her outfit.

She looks around and sees her dad rubbing his hand at his temple while Dean presses his lips into a thin line and lowers his face to hide his smirk.

Bobby wraps her up into a hug, and she lets him. She always liked Bobby’s hugs.

When Bobby releases her, she turns to her father, “I hope I look nice enough for you, Dad?”

Her father’s gaze is firm. He doesn’t even bat an eye as he purses his lips into a thin line, but unlike Dean, he’s not smirking behind it.

“K,” She says and looks into the round, “I’ll go and mingle with the others, then.”

“No,” Her dad says, “Might as well go on with the announcement now that you’re here.” He clinked at the glass he’s holding with the ring on his ring finger. It’s loud enough for the closest people to hear and everyone is whispering hushes as they look at him.

Great, now all eyes are on her too. Not that she can go undetected by the way she’s dressed, but she just absolutely hates attention.

He clears his throat before he begins to speak, “Beloved family. As you all know, our family is gathered together here to say goodbye to one goddamn fine man,” He places his hand on Bobby’s shoulder and Bobby looks down, seemingly embarrassed — or touched, she can’t really read his face.

Her father goes on, “Bobby here has been the family’s consigliere for thirty years!”

There’s cheering and she too, claps her hands.

“However, Bobby thinks it’s time to take a step back and we had talked about a successor at lengths, right Bobby?”

“Yes,” Bobby agrees with a nod.

Her father nods back, “It’s top-secret because Bobby and I are the only ones who know it.”

Y/N sees Dean eyeing her, but ignores it because Nick just pushed himself to the front and oh god, she hopes it’s not him.

“Bobby?” Her dad turns to his friend, squeezes at his shoulder, “Do you want to announce it yourself?”

Bobby nods and clears his throat, “Yeah, uh, as you all know, I’m getting way too old for this shit!”

Everyone’s laughing except for her.

“This family is very important to me and as you know, I would never leave if I didn’t have someone in the pipeline that would live up to the family’s expectations. Someone that could adequately fill my shoes.”

Nick’s face is beaming. A smile of a winner, she guesses and she almost has to gag out loud, but is able to hold herself back.

“So, I’ve been searching around and I finally found someone whom I think will bring greatness into the family. I’ve trained him and transferred my knowledge over to him. Ladies and gentlemen,”

Nick is wiggling on his toes, as he straightens his suit jacket while she gnaws on her bottom lip. God, why does Bobby have to stretch it out? Her heart’s in her fucking pants!

“As a symbol, I’d like to give my colt to its next rightful owner,” Bobby takes his colt out of his holster and walks a couple of steps with it until he’s standing right by Dean, he holds out his colt with one hand while his other hand rests on Dean’s shoulder, “Dean Winchester. Make me proud, son!”

Oh thank fucking god, she exhales audibly. She didn’t notice that she had been holding her breath the whole time.

Y/N looks over to Nick and sees his jaw dropping, sees him pushing himself through the people to get away.

“Thank you,” Dean smiles and takes the colt, quickly letting it disappear into his suit jacket.

So, his name is Dean Winchester and he’s going to be her father’s new consigliere. She snorts and shakes her head. Her life has just gotten a little more complicated but that’s just typical, isn’t it? She can’t catch a damn break!

The people are still clapping and cheering and her father is shaking Dean’s hand while he signals for the waiter to bring them more drinks. She guesses that she’s off the hook for now. She doubts that her father wants to introduce her to the family in her attire anyway, so she makes her way to the bar.

Y/N orders herself a shot of tequila and one for Bela as her friend shows up to join her. They down the drinks and both of them squint at the burn.

“So, that guy looks good, huh?” Bela says, and fucking winks.

“What guy?” She tries to rile up her friend. Of course she knows who Bela’s talking about. She’s not fucking blind.

“Duh! You’ll be living under the same roof with him. Maybe you can get to know him better?”

Oh, shit! She hasn’t thought about that.

“Oh, please, Bela. Dad will be on my fucking case or better on his if he tries something with me. You remember what he did to Adam, right?.”

“Yeah,” Bela sighs, “You might be right. Doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, huh? If you like him enough, Azazel might even be happy about it since Dean’s his consigliere?”

She squints her eyes at her friend, “You know that we’re talking about my dad, right? For all I know he will probably try to arrange a marriage for me when he thinks it’s time to produce kins for the family.”

Bela’s phone rings, interrupting their talk, and her friend looks at the screen, “Shit, he’s here.”

Y/N lifts her eyebrows, “Who’s here?”

“My date. He’s taking me out.”

Right, Bela talked about dating a guy who’s a son to an associate. She stays mum about the name though, saying that she'll reveal as soon as she’s sure it leads somewhere. And honestly, Y/N is jealous that Bela’s allowed to date whomever she wants.

“Oh, have fun!” She says and Bela pulls her into a hug, “Have you seen Nick by the way?”

Bela snorts, “Not after he stormed out after he got butthurt by not being the new consigliere.”

Good, she thinks, he can stay fucking gone.

She orders another shot when Bela leaves and thinks about sticking with wine after. If tonight’s going to be boring, she might as well make it more enjoyable for her, right?

After another two glasses of wine that she downed while she watches people mingling, she takes a step away from the bar to go inside because she needs to use the bathroom. On the steps that lead up to the house, she’s concentrating so much on taking one step at a time so as not to land face down in the tipsy state that she’s in, she bumps into Nick.

“Where are you going?” Nick asks and follows after her.

Goddammit, she’s not that quick with alcohol in her system.

“Bathroom.” She says and Nick’s faster, so he steps in front, blocking her fucking way.

Y/N annoyingly rolls her eyes and lets out a groan before she pushes past him to break into a run.

“Come on, Y/N,” He calls after her and hurries to catch up, the clicking of his dress shoes echoing in the hallway.

“Leave me the fuck alone, Nick!” She growls, and runs a little faster.

“I just want to talk,”

She turns around so quickly it makes her head spin and Nick stops abruptly, taking a step back as he does, “About what?”

“Don’t you think something’s fishy that your dad didn’t want me as his consigliere?”

Oh god, why should she fucking care?

“Seriously Nick, I need to fucking pee. Maybe you should go ask my dad!”

He looks at her like he’s fucking offended when she should be the one?

She’s back on her heels and arrives at one of the guest bathrooms when Nick grabs her by her shoulder and makes her turn around. He bends down to her level, his eyes dark and furious.

“You think that the newcomer will be able to do the job, huh? I’ve been here for fucking years, Y/N! I fucking earned it! I know every little detail of this family.” Nick spits in her face, “I’m the better choice and I’ll get there, mark my fucking words.”

“I’m not fucking scared of your words Nick. If you got beef, go fucking talk to my dad.” She says, in her calmest voice possible. Maybe because she knows that Nick has a gun, and well — she doesn’t.

“No,” Nick chuckles, “I’m telling you, because he trusts you and if you talk to him, tell him what a better choice I would have be—”

“—Hey,” A loud rumbling deep voice rings through the hallway as Dean walks closer to where they are standing.

There were some more people inside, but they know to look away when there’s trouble unless it concerns them directly. And she’s wondering how long Dean’s been standing there. How much he saw, because it's marble flooring and steps usually echos off on them. Especially when they are wearing dress shoes. But she didn’t hear Dean and she’s usually always aware of her surroundings.

Dean’s interruption does nothing to scare off Nick, though, who still has a tight grip around her arm.

“You guys okay?” Dean says as he takes the last couple of steps towards them and she shakes off Nick’s grip with all her strengths.

“Just let me fucking pee!” She hisses, before she gets into the bathroom and locks herself inside, leaving the men behind.

Dean saw them while they were on the steps and he watched them going inside. Azazel was still rambling on about something that Dean apparently should keep an eye on, but it’s really just fucking annoying. Dean’s good at what he’s doing, not to toot his own horn or anything. The man just doesn’t know how good Dean really is and he has got to show him. He’s done his fucking homework because Bobby has been a fucking great mentor, and he really doesn’t need to listen to a man talking about doing the dirty work, when he has never done any of it himself in his fucking life.

“Excuse me,” Dean says, and leaves Azazel behind, not looking back as he goes.

He’s risking a lot by doing this, he knows, but he just can’t help it. Nick has rub him the fucking wrong way since Dean met him.

Staying a good distance away, he watches as Y/N storms inside, with Nick trailing behind.

She’s a feisty thing, he has got to give her that. Won’t be intimidated by big scary men, but maybe that’s because she was brought up around them. And he likes that. Likes women who can fight and fend for themselves. It also makes his job easier if he doesn’t always have to look out for her, but also, it just makes his job a lot harder too, because he can’t deny that he thinks she’s fucking cute the way she rebels against her dad by showing up in jeans with too many holes in them, and a big hooded sweater that makes her look like she’s something delicate that wants to hide in a big cocoon. Of course he didn’t miss the red of her lips. It makes him think of things he knows full well he shouldn’t be thinking.

Dean waited until the last minute to jump in, using his loud voice to interrupt them and it was a good distraction because Y/N could tear her arm from Nick’s grip and get into the bathroom, slamming the door shut in their faces.

“What do you fucking want?” Nick sneers at him and Dean thinks it’s cute how the man is fuming just because he’s not Azazel’s favorite.

He chuckles, “I want you to get your dirty hands off her,”

“Yeah?” Nick hisses, “Who told you that she doesn’t want it, huh? She and I know each other man, we’re just playing around.”

“It didn’t look like that to me.” Dean shrugs.

Nick laughs, throwing his head back and all, and Dean really wonders how Azazel can keep that dude around for so long. He’s obviously not right in the head.

“Dude, she likes it fucking rough alright? We tease each other all the time.”

“NO WE DON’T!” Y/N screams from the other side of the bathroom door, and Dean lowers his face, chuckles to himself silently before he pulls himself together again to glare at Nick.

He raises one of his eyebrows, “You done here?”

“Fuck you,” Nick scoffs and Dean watches him reaching out a hand as if he wants to punch him. Dean’s quicker though, grabs it and pushes Nick against the wall, pins the man there with Dean’s forearm on the man’s shoulder blades, while he twists one of Nick’s arms behind his back.

“Yeah?” Dean whispers close to Nick’s ear.

The man is sputtering curses under his breath, “You think you’re tough, huh? One day, you’ll slip, Dean. One day you’ll fucking make a mistake and you know what? It’s me who will be in your shoes, it’s me who’s going to punish you for your fucking mistakes. Mark my words.”

Dean lowers his head to Nick’s ear and chuckles darkly, “I’d like to see you try, Nick, I really would. But you know what? I’ll crush your bones first. And if you don’t fucking get your dirty hands off of Y/N, I’ll cut them loose and let you fucking bleed out. How’s that sound? Huh? Will you leave her alone, huh?”

“Fuck you!”

Dean twists a little harder, making the man cry out, “Will you fucking behave, Nick?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay! Fuck! Let go of me!”

“Good,” Dean chuckles darkly, pulling Nick away from the wall. He makes an attempt to straighten Nick’s suit, pats his shoulders and cheeks, “Now, we do try to behave like civilized people don’t we? We’re one family Nick, no fucking room for petty fights, okay?” Dean’s palm slaps lightly at Nick’s cheek twice more.

“Yeah,” Nick agrees, but Dean knows it’s just for show.

He nods, “Good, now go get lost.”

To Dean’s surprise, Nick doesn’t put up a fight. Instead, he flips Dean both his fingers before turning around and walking away.

He exhales and leans himself back against the wall, closes his eyes, and mutters a fuck. Maybe he was a little too rough on Nick. It’s his fucking first day as the official consigliere and he’s already spewing death threats. This is just going great, doesn’t it? It’s a whole fucking new environment for him. He knows that everyone has a gun around here, but nobody really uses it because it’s an unspoken rule. That’s why he’s not really concerned about threatening Nick. If something would have happened to the family consigliere, Nick would be shot dead before he could even blink. So at least Dean got the family supporting him because he’s higher in ranks than fucking Nick. That, and he got Bobby’s blessing.

When Dean’s about to push himself away from the wall, he hears the lock of the bathroom clicking open.

He watches the door open up a tiny bit. The light of the bathroom spills out into the dimly lit hallway. However, Y/N still stays inside.

He suppresses a grin with his head leaned against the wall as he waits patiently.

“Is he gone?” She whispers from inside. He pushes himself away from the wall, seeing if he can spot a peek of her face looking out.

Dean chuckles when he doesn't see her, “Yeah, he’s gone. You’re safe to come out.”

He stands there and watches as she finally pokes her head out from between the door and its frame, and feels a little offended that she seems like she isn’t quite trusting him. But that’s good too, he thinks, good that she doesn’t trust anyone. It’s an instinct he knows is good for survival in the family she grew up in, an instinct he hopes she’ll never lose.

“‘K,” She says meekly, and is still hesitating at first before she slowly emerges. Y/N looks around again, for good measure, “He’s gone?”

“I heard him stomping out and shut the front door so hard the whole house shook, so yeah, I guess he’s gone.”

“Good,” She breathes out and Dean can hear a sniff. She’s probably been crying in there and it kind of makes him angrier at Nick.

Dean reaches out, places his hand on her shoulder and he feels her tensing beneath his touch, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” He doesn’t elaborate on what his words mean.

He’s here.

That’s because he is? He’s here to help, to protect. He’s here when she needs to chase boys away like that stupid Nick. He’s here, planted in the family and he’s not going anywhere soon, hopefully.

“‘K,” Y/N nods, because she understands. He knows that she does, can feel it in the ease of her body. She exhales again before she starts to walk to the back where the party’s still in full swing, “I need a drink.”

He smirks with a shake of his head as he follows her out.

She aims straight for the bar, pushing herself through the crowd and everyone’s making room for her. Of course they do, because she’s the fucking princess around here. Dean follows and they part for him too. He guesses that he has some privilege now, or maybe it’s just the breadth of his shoulders.

Dean joins her and orders himself a whiskey as he watches her sip on her wine. She tells the tender to leave the bottle here. He guesses that she has great plans for tonight and he’s not really a fan of that plan, but what can he do. He remembers seeing her downing shots before and she had champagne earlier, too. Her head’s gonna hurt like a son of a bitch, he just knows.

“What?” She asks as she notices him staring.

“Nothing,” He grins, “You just seem to be okay after the incident.”

“It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before,” She snorts, “Nick’s harmless. He’s all bark and no bite.”

Dean lifts his eyebrow as he takes a sip from his tumbler, “Is that so?” He asks, a little more than irritated actually. Especially at her statement that it happened before because these things should definitely not happen. And it won’t anymore. Not on his fucking watch.

“Yeah,” Y/N shrugs as if it’s no fucking big deal when he knows it fucking is.

“So, you’re telling me that underneath your sweater you don’t have bruises from the way his hand dug into your arm?” He challenges her, but it’s really just a way for him to make her notice that Nick’s not as harmless as she thinks he is. And Dean hates that he knows the son of a bitch fucking hurt her.

She lowers her face, doesn’t say anything to it because it’s true, and Dean doesn’t actually need a verbal confirmation to know that she was hurt. Her face says enough. He can’t imagine how hard her life must have been to grow up with being exposed to angry and scary men from the age of three.

“Why are you here?” She lifts her face to ask and Dean frowns at the question. His heart thumps. For a second, he thought she knew but then she looked away again, which shows that she was only curious.

“Because I needed a job?”

Y/N chuckles, “No, why are you standing here with me when my father is over there.” She lifts her finger to point at her father and his entourage.

Oh. Well, he doesn’t really have an explanation for that.

“Did he send you, huh? Did he tell you to talk some sense into me? To stop acting like a spoiled brat and join his fucking business?” Her voice is cracking. She sounds fragile and it’s fucking not fair because it wakes his protective instincts inside of him. He can literally feel it pricking underneath his skin.

“You don’t seem spoiled to me,” He says, smiling a little.

He says it because it’s true. She really doesn’t. Someone who’s spoiled wouldn’t look past the things Nick did to her, wouldn’t have a rebellious nature because someone who’s spoiled would get everything they desire and would be content with it. He knows that she would get everything she wants and honestly, he’s surprised that she doesn’t want it.

She snorts, “You’d be the first to think that.” Taking another sip of her drink, she speaks again, “So, did he tell you to come over or not?”

“Nope,” Dean answers truthfully, “I’m still allowed to keep my own mind around here, y’know?” He smirks, “I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Oh,” She breathes out, “That’s new.”

“What’s new?”

“Nobody ever checks if I’m okay.”

There are little pinpricks he feels in his heart. It must have been absolutely horrible to grow up in a men’s world. He wonders what Azazel thinks about having an only daughter. What he thinks about having a daughter instead of a son who could take over. She sure as hell won’t be able to, he knows that, the men wouldn’t accept her. However, he doubts that she wants to.

“I’m not like the others,” He shrugs and pushes himself from the bar, “Right, now that I see that you’re okay, I gotta go talk to the big boys.” Before he goes, he lowers himself, bends down to be on her level. Dean leans closer, his mouth inches from her ear, “You are okay, right?” He whispers before he breathes in, smells a hint of perfume, smells her shampoo.

“I am.” She whispers back and Dean stands up straight, smiles a reassuring smile and nods before he walks off to join Azazel and Bobby.

Y/N stays at the bar and downs the remaining wine in her glass, pours herself another right after, and she can see Dean already halfway turning around to probably tell her to go slow on the alcohol but she sends him a glare. Dean sighs before he walks on. Talk about being spoiled.

When she lifts her arm to take the glass, she feels a pain in her arm, and Dean’s right about that too. She’s hurt. Nick hurt her, but she let him and what does that say about her, really?

With her full glass in her hand, she tries to blend into the crowd, and talks to a couple of people she knows because she has to keep up the facade. There are a couple of soldiers who are working under Crowley. They know not to talk to her but she thinks that maybe, with a little alcohol, they all can get over the fact that she’s forbidden fruit around here.

They are hesitant at first when she steps into their round, but to her surprise, they really talk and they joke around while one of them gets her another glass and then another. She’s way over tipsy now because she’s standing on that outer edge of being drunk and if she’s not careful, she’ll slip over and fall into the realms of being pissed.

Tomorrow morning will be a bitch, she knows that, but that’s a problem for tomorrow.

She’s in the middle of the soldiers, all of them taller than she is, while they chat and generally have a good time away from the big boys and adult conversation. She feels light-headed and giggles when Ed tells a dad joke. And then she feels it, feels an arm sneaking around her waist, feels someone’s broad chest behind her and she leans in. It must be either Max or Aiden because those were the ones standing closest to her.

Y/N leans her head on his chest, his hand spans around her stomach, holding her steady and presses her closer to him, balancing them both. And she’s thankful for that because her legs will give out anytime soon. There’s breathing next to her ear, and then she smells it, smells the cologne that triggers her memory.

Oh, no.

Suddenly, her surroundings come crashing in. She hears laughter and chatter but not from the group of the boys. No, they are all quiet and they all look away.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough to drink, princess?”

Her eyes widened when she realizes that she’s right about who it is.

Fuck.

“Come on, let’s get you inside.” Dean’s arm is tight around her middle as he turns with her, “Boys, I’ll have a word with you later.” He tells the others and she looks back to see them all disperse.

Fucking cowards.

He walks along with her to the steps that lead into the house.

“My dad! You can’t tell h—” She says and she tries to look back at the crowd but her eyes are hazy.

“—Don’t worry, he knows. He sent me to take care of you.”

“He sent you?”

“Said it’s one of my duties now.”

“Me?”

“Your temper, apparently. Said I should get that in check. You like to snarl at him — at everyone actually.”

She snorts out a laugh, “Good luck,”

Once inside, Dean lifts her up over his shoulder, his hands are firm on the back of her thighs as she hears a dark chuckle, “Oh, sweetheart, I don’t need luck. By the time I’m done with you, you’re going to purr.”

Dean carries her up to her bedroom, his hand steady on her thigh. It’s true what he told her. Her dad really sent him. But maybe because Dean wasn’t really discrete in watching her drinking one glass after the other. She doesn’t look like she can take a lot of alcohol and the stupid boys just brought her more. It seems like Azazel doesn’t even care that she could be vulnerable to the boys in his organization. It fucking irks Dean.

The boys and she tried to be sneaky, hiding behind the big tree, but he saw it, he always knows, and that’s a trait really. He wouldn’t have this job if he would pay half of the attention he’s paying to notice things.

When he reaches the door to her bedroom, it feels like she’s sleeping on his shoulders. She feels a little heavier too from the slumber of her body. Dean chuckles as he pushes the door open. As he said, she’d be purring, and he’s not exactly wrong. She’s too drunk and too tired to put up a fight. And that makes him angry too. She of all people should be aware not to fucking let her guard down around fucking vultures of men. They’re not at all nice, and he knows that because he deals with them day in day out.

Dean crouches down and sits her on the bed, her eyes are heavy, lids fluttering open and close. He places a hand on her cheek, knuckles travel over her soft skin, “You okay?”

“Mmmhh.”

He chuckles. Apparently she’s not really okay, but she'll be. He guesses that she will swear not to drink a drop once she wakes up in the morning.

��Wait here, okay, I’ll go get water and Tylenol.”

He doesn’t wait for her answer, pushes himself up on his feet and walks to the bathroom. He knows that there’s a drug cabinet in every bedroom, finds water in her mini-fridge (that’s right, all the rooms come with that too), and walks back to her.

Crouching down, he unscrews the bottle and when he’s about to hold that out for her, her hand’s on his.

“Dean— I—,”

She didn’t have to say more because he knows. He just fucking knows from the way the color drains from her face. He scoops her up and runs to her bathroom, places her on her knees and pushes up the toilet lid fast enough in time for her to throw up into.

If someone would have told him five years ago that he’d be working for one of the biggest mob family in the States, he’d say, yeah, most probably because he fucking worked hard to get here. If they would have told him that his job would involve him keeping the hair out of the mob boss’s daughter’s face while she empties her stomach into the toilet bowl, Dean would have laughed into their faces.

Dean’s here now, isn’t he? So he’s going to do the best he can. He rubs her back with one hand while holding her hair back with the other, whispering soothing words to her ear because she’s crying now, too. Everything’s just fucking peachy, really.

“Shhhh, it’s okay, let it out.” He hushes, and tries not to breathe in too much of the stink. It’s not the worst thing he smelled in his life and it’s actually not that bad compared to all the disgusting smells he experienced in his life. It’s certainly much better than the smell of a corpse that’s been stewing in the water for way too long.

“I’m sorry,”

She’s sobbing and it almost breaks his heart. She’s too pure, not the bitch he first thought she would be. Not some fucking spoiled princess because if she was, she wouldn’t exactly apologize to him over and over.

“It’s okay, I’m here.” He tries to calm her down.

After a while, the retching stops and he was able to pull her into a sitting position, leaning her back against the tub.

Dean gets up when he sees that she’s able to sit on her own, finds a fresh cloth and runs it under the cold tab.

He returns and crouches down, rubs the cloth over her face, brushes at the mascara stains and the remainder of her cherry lips comes off.

“Why are you doing this?” Her speech is slurred and he thinks it’s cute, even if he knows that he shouldn’t think that.

Her lips are swollen from his rubbing, looking really kissable right now and something stirs in him, but he ignores it, at least he’s trying his best to.

“Because it’s my job,” Dean answers before he gets up.

He leaves the cloth on the sink and takes her toothbrush, squirts paste on it, and walks back to her.

“Say aaah,” He says as he chuckles and holds the toothbrush to her mouth.

Y/N presses her lips into a thin line as she frowns.

Definitely fucking cute, he thinks.

With an audible growl, she snatches the brush from his hand, “No, that’s not your job.” She says before she begins to brush her teeth.

“Look, I understand that a consigliere’s job shouldn’t involve these things, but your dad is testing me, see if I am worthy.”

“You really want this position, huh?” She reaches out a hand while her toothbrush is still stuck in her mouth and Dean grabs at her to help her up.

Spitting into the sink, she looks at him through the mirror and his eyes meet hers.

“Not my fave position, but yeah,” He grins, and he knows it’s all cocky and bravado.

Dean’s phone rings when she’s about to say something. He knows that because she was gasping after he dropped that line.

He chuckles before he walks out into her room to take the call, and she closes the bathroom door behind him.

Her dad calls to ask how things are and Dean explains how he found her and that he’ll make sure she’s alright before he’ll be out again.

Just when he hangs up, she comes stumbling out of the bathroom and Dean almost didn’t catch her on time. He steadies her, walks her to her bed, looking away when she gets out of her pants and pulls her hoodie over her head. Dean stares down to his shoes, tries not to even think about how she might look underneath because he’s not fucking allowed to.

“You can look now,” She mumbles before he turns and sees her yawn as she settles into her bed. Dean’s cheek turns colorful, blood rushing to his head when he sees her.

He pulls the cover over her, hands her the Tylenol and water which she couldn’t swallow before, and watches her gulp it down.

“Will you be okay? Need anything else?” He strokes over her head, smoothing her hair back and lets his knuckles travel over her cheeks before he pulls his hand away, balling his hand into fists at the realization.

He should definitely not be doing this.

Her eyelids are heavy and she closes them, “Can you stay until I’m sleeping? Please?”

Wow, his heart wasn’t broken before but damn well is now. She’s asking him to stay and Dean has a feeling that usually, nobody does.

“Yeah,” He says, “Sure.” He sits down on the edge of the bed and she curls up on her side, her forehead touches his thigh.

“Will you go back to the party?” Her voice is a mumble.

“Yeah, I will.”

“Good,” She licks her lips, “Tell Bobby I’m sorry for leaving early.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand and you’ll get to see him more now that he has more time.”

“That’s what they all say. Nobody really has time for me.”

“Is that so?” He asks but when there’s no answer, he turns his head to look at her face that’s now pressed to his thigh, her breathing is even, she has already fallen asleep.

Dean chuckles, shakes his head because he can’t believe that he became a fucking babysitter to the boss’ daughter. But on the other hand, that’s good too, he thinks. Good that it’s him and not fucking Nick who found her because they all know that Nick wouldn’t have gotten her to bed. At least not the way Dean does.

Jesus, he gets worked up just thinking about what could have happened if it was Nick and not him.

He places his hand on her head, strokes her hair some more, and waits until she’s sleeping deeply.

After he makes perfectly sure that she’s sleeping soundly, he bends down to place a kiss on her temple. He couldn’t not do it. Dean leaves and makes his way back to the party. He has a couple of boys he still needs to take care of.

Chapter.02

Please share your thoughts with me, I’d love to hear your feedback.

#golden cage #dean winchester #dean winchester fic #dean winchester x you #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester series #dean winchester fan fiction #dean winchester fan fic #dean x you #dean x reader #nathalie wrties

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cowperviolet · 4 years ago

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A Guide to Medieval Childhood

Our popular imaginings and depictions of medieval childhood tend to be somehow both scarce and bleak. It’s often supposed that childhood as a category didn’t really exist until the twentieth century, and that even the highborn children before that blessed time were regarded as basically inconvenient mini-adults until they were old enough to fight or marry, respectively.

The sources we have tend to favour the royal families and the high aristocracy with some wealthy merchants thrown in the mix, so, unfortunately, the information below would mostly be concerned with these groups - although I’m going to do my best to include some facts about the lives of children from lower social strata, too.

Infantia, or infancy

As Maria von Trapp used to sing in technicolor meadows, let’s start at the very beginning - it is, after all, a very good place to start.

A mother rarely gave birth unattended - and I’m not talking about medical professionals; more often than not, these would be represented by a sole midwife. However, having a close friend or a relative with you as you are waiting for the baby to arrive was a practice well-established by the early fourteenth century even among royal women, whose births, marriages and deaths alike were always ruled by strict ceremony.

In their case, as in the case of all great families of the land, the practice also had a purely pragmatic side - additional companions mean additional witnesses who would be able to swear, should a scandal arise, that the little heir really arrived in the lawful way and had not been, say, smuggled into the bedroom in a pan. (In the case of the British royal family this precaution eventually led to the Home Secretary being obliged to attend all royal births, and was only done away with in 1930, when the late Princess Margaret was born).

Of course, for all the companionable support, the birth was not without its risks - for the child even more so than for the mother. It was for that reason that, uniquely, the Church allowed the midwives to baptize newborn - or unborn - babies in case they don’t survive by the time the sacrament in question could be performed properly by a priest.

If everything went well, it was the time to prepare the child for an ‘official’ baptism in the local church, which was going to not only save his soul for the world to come, but to help his standing in this one - after all, being baptized in a particular church meant being integrated into the larger community of the parish. The mother could rest - she was not required to attend the christening (or, rather, she couldn’t, as she would only be able to enter a place of worship again after being purified via a brief ‘churching’ ceremony on the fortieth day after giving birth). The child’s godparents would have been there to stand in her stead.

In fact, many contemporaries considered that a woman needs at least a month to properly recover after birth. Nor was it supposed to be a time of solitude - receiving female visitors was both allowed and encouraged.

Meanwhile, the child would be transferred into the care of a wet-nurse. Breastfeeding your baby yourself usually signified that you simply cannot afford wet-nurse of good character. The good character part of the job description concerned itself both with the purely physical characteristics - the wet-nurse had to be a little below thirty, to have white teeth, sweet breath, and a child of her own not above eight months of age, otherwise her milk could be considered stale - and the moral ones. It was believed that virtues and vices both could be transmitted through milk, and thus it was imperative to choose a wet-nurse both sensible and respectable.

Once hired, she rarely left the baby’s side - contemporary writers acknowledged that leaving an infant to cry is harmful for the child’s health, both mental and physical, and therefore a nurse should always be at hand with either her breast or a lullaby. In the highest households of the land, such as that of the royal children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, one or two women were also employed as specifically the child’s rockers, tasked with, well, rocking their little charge to sleep - though not too quickly or too harshly, ‘for fear of making the milk float in [her] stomach’.

Every medieval baby, regardless of his family’s income, was swaddled from birth and until he was about eight or nine months of age: not only would he be kept warm, the parents judged, but it’s also going to help his limbs grow straight. A ‘breechcloth’ – essentially, a premodern nappy - was a piece of easily-washable linen, doubled over and then fastened into place with pins. Then a linen shirt would be gently placed over the infant’s body, after which the swaddling bands proper – sometimes three yards long – would come out. They were long, narrow pieces of – you guessed it - linen.

This swaddling part was universal for everyone; however, even here, before the child could partake in any fashion proper, the class divides came out to play. Babies from wealthier families could sport crimson mantles and bands decorated with gold embroidery (sometimes coordinated with that on their mothers’ outfits, like on the famous Cholmondeley Ladies painting at the top of this post).

Another – perhaps, more familiar to us – sphere of baby-related conspicuous consumption was the cradle. When, in 1494, the son of Beatrice d’Este and Ludovico Sforza was born in Milan, the proud father presented his guests a four-poster cradle covered in white satin, where the little heir now lay. When Lucrezia Borgia gave the d’Este family an heir, she splashed out on the cradle for the little Ercole even more. According to contemporary witnesses, the cradle was located under tent-like Moorish-style silk draperies done in the Este colors. It was on a platform encased in a great carved and gilded canopy, six feet long and five feet wide. The cradle proper was curtained in white satin, with the sleeping baby covered with cloth-of-gold.

The weaning tended to come, by our standards, rather late: some contemporary arguments recommended three years for boys and two years for girls (the former, after all, were expected to lead more active lives, and thus needed their mother’s nutritious milk more). Even then, hard food was to be introduced gradually – starting, for instance, with a chicken leg the child could chew on.

Once out of swaddling, the boys were dressed in smocks, and the girls in gowns – not that there was much visual difference between the two, mind. Regardless of their parents’ social standing, they all also wore tight linen caps that bore the charmingly hobbit-y name of biggins.

Naturally, the higher one stood upon the social scale, the more ornamental these gowns and smocks tended to be. The toddler Princess Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Henry VII and thus the aunt of her much more famous namesake, was dressed on separate occasions in a green velvet gown edged with purple tinsel and lined with black buckram, a dress of black velvet edged with crimson, or a kirtle of tawny damask and black satin. Admittedly, these were mostly for ceremonial occasions, and in the privacy of her yellow ochre-coloured chambers even the princess probably tended to wear something more comfortable. In winter, she was kept warm with furred robes fastened with silver buttons and caps trimmed with peacock feathers, and, regardless of the time of the year, indulged with sweets made from sugars flavoured with rose and violet, as well as with fruits from sunnier climes like pomegranates, quinces, and almonds.

Royal families were never noted for modesty of consumption in any era, but even the middling merchants of Florence were often criticized for spoiling their children with fine clothes. Fra Dominici wrote scathingly about parents who dress their children in ‘fancy garments, stamped shoes, short waist-coats, tight and fine-knit hose’. Neither did he approve of toys like “little wooden horses, attractive cymbals, imitation birds, [and] gilded drums,” recommending instead more virtuous playthings like “a little altar or two, … little vestments … little candles … [and] little bells,”, so that the children could pretend they were acolytes or priests. Three guesses no prizes as to which category ended up being the more popular one.

Some types of toys would have been surprisingly familiar to us – for example, doll furniture. In Germany one could find whole doll kitchens with dishes, meat plates, cutlery and furniture since the 1550s at the latest. Wealthier girls were also bought so-called fashion dolls that showcased, you guessed it, the latest fashions in the land.

Of course, poorer children had to make do with dolls stuffed with straw, and play with such props as animal knucklebones or wooden wheels. However, it doesn’t mean that their lives were completely devoid of fun. Contemporary paintings, such as Peter Brueghel’ Children’s Games (1560), show children playing blind man’s bluff, ‘paper, scissors, stone’, roll hoops and rock barrels.

Pueritia, or childhood

A child’s education started with learning his (or, rarer, her) letters. A rather charming contemporary advice recommends the parents to do it by carving each letter on a piece of fruit, and reward the child with the fruit in question if the letter is correctly identified. These kinds of basics could be learned at home (though, if you decided to choose the method above, better do it specifically in the kitchen) – however, once the rudimentary parts were done with, the paths of learning could branch wildly.

The wealthiest families hired tutors for their children, and these posts, prestigious and coveted as they were, could sometimes become subjects of competition. For example, when the future Elizabeth I grew old enough for her first lessons, it was assumed that these are going to be provided by her aunt and godmother, Lady Troy. However, the less highborn, but more ambitious Katherine Champernowne had other ideas; Henry VIII ended up being impressed by reports of her as a woman of good education, and appointed her to be his daughter’s governess in 1536. She held that post until 1544, when her precocious charge overgrew the standard highborn lady’s curriculum that consisted of reading, embroidery, music, riding, falconry, and chess. After that, the scholar William Grindal became the princess’ tutor, introducing her to classical authors such as Plato.

Latin and, to a lesser extent, Greek literature was not exclusively the preserve of the upper-class education. The cathedral school of St. Paul’s, for instance, taught children from middling walks of life - such as one Geoffrey Chaucer, the son of a wine merchant - and placed a great emphasis on the learning of Latin. The recitation of the Latin alphabet started with the sign of the cross and ended with ‘Amen’: quite a sign of respect, coming from a religious institution. The school’s library was full of books on logic, law and medicine, as well as such still-popular classical hits as Aesop’s Fables.

The boys (unlike in the more flexible world of private education, school pupils were invariably male) also owned some books of their own: contrary to a common misconception, even before the invention of printing press books were not necessarily objects of luxury. For example, when in 1337 John Cobbledick left twenty-nine books to Oriel College, each of them was priced at about 6 shillings. Two centuries later, when William Chatsworth sent his beloved wife Bess of Hardwick gifts during his sojourn in London, he included some learning materials for their children: three French grammars, a copy of Cosmografie de Levant, and psalms in French.

Charitable institutions could sometimes take care of the education of poorer children: for instance, in 1542, the Alderman William Dauntsey of London directed in his will that his executors should build a charity school of eight chambers (one of them for the schoolmaster) in West Lavington, Wiltshire.

Boys who could boast some musical talent had an unusual route for both education and promotion: chapel choirs. Many noblemen - and noblewomen such as Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII - engaged in cultural patronage, supporting at times dozens of choristers. Margaret herself had hired a composer, Robert Cooper, who was entrusted with finding gifted boys for her chapel from ‘London, Wynesore and in the west country'. She also made sure that, apart from musical education, the boys in her choir received tuition in Latin: in January 1506 the same Cooper was responsible for purchasing five 'gramer bokes ... for the chyldryn of the chapell', costing 4s 3d. Their education ensured that, after growing out of their roles in the choir, the boys would be able to continue academic studies. One Thomas Freston left Margaret’s chapel at the age of 13 to attend Winchester College, while the 1460 statute of Tattershall College specified provision for ‘four poor boys’ who were 'teachable in song and reading, to help the choristers, each of whom is to have commons and clothing and all else that the choristers do'.

Girls could be educated in convent schools; some, though by no means all, later chose to enter these nunneries as actual novices (they couldn’t legally make such a decision until the age of twelve, however, just as they couldn’t legally consent to marriage). Within the convent walls, as outside them, their comforts depended a lot on their parents’ standing - if their entry fee was generous enough, the girls, whether they came as pupils or little novices, could count on having a bedroom to themselves, a generous provision of wood to burn in their fireplace, and rare foodstuffs for their tables. When Edward I’s daughter Mary entered the convent of Amesbury as a novice in 1285, at unusual (and frankly illegal) age of seven, her lifelong allowance included an annual provision of twenty tuns of wine from the Bordeaux claret merchants and forty oaks as kindling for her fireplace.

Convents were supposed to foster the life of prayer and quiet contemplation, which was even harder to get used to for her teenage novices than it were for the secular boarders, who weren’t, after all, handled as strictly. However, even in a nunnery, there was a certain softening of the rules when it came to young girls. For example, at the Feast of St Nicholas, the patron saint of children, the youngest novice was named the Girl Abbess and allowed to lead the community in dancing and revelry.

Adolescentia, or adolescence

This stage of life was thought to start at about fourteen and end in one’s early twenties. Highborn children of both sexes were usually sent to foster at the homes of friends or relatives of equal standing, both to finish their education and to establish useful connections. When the teenage Jan of Brabant was sent for foster at the English court, he devoted his years there to perfecting the arts of jousting and hunting with falcons, as well as the less official, but nonetheless useful skills of party planning, people-charming, and careful gambling. His future bride Margaret of England, meanwhile, was improving on her feminine arts of weaving and embroidery, often spending substantial sums on gold thread and silks of different colours.

The machinery of altar diplomacy was already in full swing by the time they reached that age, even though marriage proper - with the consummation implied - was usually still a few years in the future. The fate of Margaret Beaufort, who gave birth to her first husband’s son at age thirteen, was considered grotesque and frankly unsafe; after all, it’s no coincidence that she could have no children after. For instance, Thomas Aquinas cautioned in his Mirror for Princes that consummation should be delayed until the woman had reached the age of eighteen, and the man twenty-one.

The complicated diplomatic and legal negotiation process behind such agreements was left to the heads of the families and their respective employees, without the involvement of the betrothed ones themselves. After all, it included such charming tasks as drawing a complete summary of all villages, farms, rents, forests, and windmills belonging to the future groom’s family which would be able to provide the income for the bride’s dower, or widow portion, in case she outlives him - a pretty significant possibility, considering.

Lower down the social scale, marriage arrangements were not so pressing a concern - urban artisans, male or female, often married only in their mid-twenties. When their children reached adolescence, they usually worried about arranging an apprenticeship for them rather than a betrothal.

A child could be apprenticed to a master who practiced one of the trades regulated by the guilds of the town. These included mercers, grocers, fishmongers, drapers, tailors and even artists. The training usually took seven years, during which the master in question was obliged not only to educate the apprentice, but also to feed and clothe them and generally treat them like a member of their family (which usually also meant having them help around the house). This way, the future artisans spent their adolescence in a situation of indenture and completed their training in their early twenties. The ultimate dream after that was becoming a master in their own right and acquiring one’s own workshop; but, like people in their early twenties everywhere, most were too broke for that, and ended up working as journeymen in their master’s workshop for some more years - or sometimes for the rest of their lives.

Although the most prestigious trades, such as those of mercers or goldsmiths, only admitted men, others - the tailors, the bakers, the printers, the bakers, sometimes the painters - were open to apprentices of both sexes. Female artisans often ended up marrying their colleagues from the same guilds, and then keeping workshop together, but sometimes they kept their trade and conducted their business separately.

At this point, gaining the trappings of trade and marriage, they progressed into the adulthood, and thus beyond the scope of this post.

Sources:

Devices and Desires: Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England by Kate Hubbard

Daughters of Chivalry by Katie Wilson-Lee

The Lives of Tudor Women by Elizabeth Norton

Chaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner

Kisby, Fiona. “A Mirror of Monarchy: Music and Musicians in the Household Chapel of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, Mother of Henry VII.” Early Music History, vol. 16, 1997, pp. 203–234

The Early Modern Italian Domestic Interior, 1400–1700: Objects, Spaces, Domesticities by Erin J. Campbell et al.

#writing reference #writing advice #writing ref #writer #writeblr #writer's problems #fantasy guide #writing resources #writers resources #writers reference #middle ages #medieval #history #medieval history #historical guide #writing community #writeblr community

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alicanta77 · 4 years ago

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Chapter 1: Royal Blooded

Pairing: princess!y/n x prince!Chenle

Themes: royalty au, fluff, angst

Warnings: arranged marriage, violence

Words: 7.1k

Inspiration: BTS - Blood, Sweat and Tears - orchestral cover

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Finale

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Royalty doesn't equal happily ever after

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You held your head high as you walked towards the throne room. You had your main servant walking behind you and two guards escorting you on either side. Your shoes made small tapping noises on the stone floor with every step you took and your clothes and hair gently flowed in time to the movement. You approached the grand door, nodding at the two knights guarding the entrance, who bowed back before moving their spears and opening the grand door for you.

The throne room appeared before you in all its glory. The metal chandelier hung from the ceiling, dangling above the engraved stone floors that were currently stood on by the entire court. The court and knights of your kingdom were all in neat rows on the left of the building, framed by the sculpted columns that ran up the walls. On the right side was another court entirely, clearly very rich and clearly not close to your kingdom. Their cloaks and shield bared an emblem which you had never seen before.

You had under a second to take in the sight in front of you before you had to move forwards. As you moved forwards you kept your eyes on your father’s, never breaking contact so that you didn't show weakness. You knew what this meeting was about, and you weren't particularly pleased. You had always known that this day would come, you had just hoped that you would have at least a few more years of freedom.

You reached the front of the room and paused in front of your father and mother’s golden thrones. Your servant and guards moved to join the lines of your court whilst you bowed your head in respect and stood, patiently waiting for your father to speak first.

He stood, your mother following, and spoke, addressing you by name but speaking clearly so that everyone who was present could hear his words.

‘Y/n, our only child and sole heir to the throne, the day has finally come where you will take the first monumental step for your kingdom.’

‘Father, I give you my solemn word I will uphold the oath I took when I was crowned heir and do whatever I can for my kingdom and my people.’ You replied, keeping your voice steady and clear so that it could be heard by the whole court.

‘Today will mark the start of our journey into a new age. Today we will create an unbreakable alliance with a kingdom whose wealth and power rivals our own and, this alliance, will start a new time, a time of peace and prosperity for the both of us.’ Your father continued, straightening up in order to face the court. He gestured for a man and woman from the new court to stand with him. The crowns on their heads and extremely elaborate clothing gave away to you that they must be the king and queen.

‘We have with us, the royal family and court from the Zhong kingdom of Shanghai, China. Over the past few months we have been in negotiations, trying to find a common ground between us to use as the foundation for this new peaceful age. Eventually we settled on the most solid of alliances, one that will bind our nations for all generations to come.’

Your father turned around and raised his arms to the members of both courts in the throne room.

‘A marriage!’

The room erupted into cheers as you were led up the few stone stairs and stood in-between and slightly in front of your parents. You turned your head to your left and saw a young boy, around your age, standing in the same position as you.

This must be who you were marrying. He looked out at his people with a calm look on his face, you couldn't tell if it was just a facade or if he really didn't care that he would be marrying you. You honestly couldn't tell which one you wanted it to be.

You turned your head back towards the two courts, missing the way he turned to you in order to look at, and study, your features.

King Zhong then stood forward to continue informing the court of how the marriage would play out.

‘Since the Zhong kingdom has four sons, of which Prince Chenle is the youngest, it has been agreed that he will stay here, protect and, when the time comes, govern this kingdom with the royal family already ruling. Due to the young ages of both our heirs, we have also decided that there is no rush for this wedding to take place. The agreement of it is enough for us to guarantee peace and, when it does happen, it will be a celebration that will echo through both kingdoms.’

He turned to face you before looking back towards his son.

‘Your wedding will create an age of peace that will allow both our kingdoms to live without fear for generations to come. It will all trace back to the two of you.’

He and your father moved together before your mother moved to your other side. You managed to sneak a very quick look to your left and noticed Chenle’s mother doing the same. You realised that you were standing in a line: your mother, you, your father, King Zhong, Prince Chenle, Queen Zhong. You felt your parents both grab your hand and hold them up in the air as the court burst into another round of applause.

It was a symbol of unity.

---

Soon you were back in your chambers, thankfully, alone. If you had to stay and make conversation with your future husband and his family, you were sure that your brain would explode. You knew you were going to have to converse with them at the celebratory feast that the castle was preparing for tonight, but, until then, you were going to savour your rare moments alone. You had even sent away your servant and asked them to ensure that you weren't distracted for the next few hours.

However, that hopeful plan was short lived when your mother drifted into your room, your servant sending you an apologetic look from where they were standing behind her, powerless to protect your privacy.

‘Mother, what a lovely surprise!’ You politely said, standing up from where you were previously lying on your bed.

‘Y/n! You cannot lock yourself away in your bedroom every time you wish to avoid talking to people. I shouldn't have to remind you that you are a royal and that this is not how we conduct ourselves. You should have stayed and made polite conversation with either the King or Queen, or the Prince, Chenle. You will marry him, you know?’ Your mother scolded you gently.

Your parents had always been incredibly gentle and loving with you, only strict when it came to representing the kingdom and upholding the royal conduct. This made you incredibly grateful for them as they always made an effort to understand how you were feeling as a teenager, not just as a royal.

You sighed and looked down at the stone floor.

‘I know Mother, and I apologise for hiding away, I’m just a bit taken aback at this situation. If I may speak honestly, I have always known that I would marry someone for the sake of the kingdom, and that they would likely be someone I didn't know well. So that is not the part that has unsettled me a bit, I just- I thought I would have more time, Mother. I feel as though I am still young, yet I have the responsibility of a marriage, and not just any marriage but such an important one. The fate of our kingdoms is relying on the success of this union and it is difficult to process the magnitude of that importance. It is not an easy burden to carry.’

Your mother approached you, a sympathetic look on her face. She placed a delicate hand on your shoulder and gently guided you so that you were both sat down on your bed.

‘I know that this kind of marriage, an arranged marriage, is scary. And it is not a sign of any type of cowardice to be nervous about it. I was so terrified the first time I met your father, my knees were shaking underneath my dress and I could barely stand up, let alone walk. We got married very young too. As did the Zhongs. All of us have had arranged marriages, to someone we didn't know, while we were still very young, just like you and Chenle. So we do understand what that is like, and that is why we all refused to have the wedding while you are still so young. We wanted our children to get the chance to know each other before getting married. The chance that we never had. I gather that the pressure of this marriage is heavier than anything I will understand, due to what is riding on it, but you must trust yourself to do what is right. You are a smart child, y/n, and I have every faith that you and Chenle will build a beautiful kingdom.’

You turned your head towards her and smiled, as she continued talking, a small twinkle appearing in her eyes.

‘I have spent the last few moments speaking to Chenle, and I think you'll find that he is more than what you are letting yourself believe. Don’t forget that he is in the same position as you, only he has to go through it all in a strange kingdom, surrounded by people he doesn’t know. His family leaves tomorrow morning, and he will be left here, alone. He is probably more nervous than you are.’

Her words silenced you. You hadn't really thought about the fact that Chenle was leaving everything behind to be here. He really was making a much bigger sacrifice than you had given him credit for. Your mother stood to leave, briefly saying one last thing over her shoulder.

‘The Zhongs have gone back to their chambers now. The King and Queen are in the Royal chambers in the West Wing, and Chenle is accompanying the guest chambers there too. The feast will begin tonight in the great hall, I will see you there.’

And with that, she left, the large wooden doors closing quietly behind her. You stood up from your bed and walked towards the closed door. You thought for a second before you opened it and walked out, fully intent on finding Chenle and starting to get to know him.

You could see your mother walking down the corridor in the direction of her room, and you turned away from her and began your own journey to the West Wing of the castle.

---

After a few quiet minutes of walking, you finally reached the West Wing. You intended to head straight up to Chenle’s room but as you reached the doors, you hesitated, your hand poised to knock.

What if he didn't want to see you?

What if you had offended him by not staying to speak to him and his family earlier?

What if he wanted to spend the day with his family before they left?

With these thoughts and others swirling around your head, you couldn't bring yourself to knock. You would be too embarrassed if you walked in on his final night with his family.

You lowered your hand and turned to leave, instead deciding to talk to him at the feast. You had only walked a few steps away from the door when you heard a piano being played.

You didn't know of anyone in the castle who could play the piano that beautifully or had the time to play at their own leisure, so you followed the sound.

You soon found yourself standing in front of the room you knew to be the hall of the west wing. This was often used as the spare great hall, it wasn't quite the size of the one you would be feasting in tonight, but wasn't, by any means, small.

You pushed open the door slightly, wincing to yourself as it creaked obnoxiously loudly. The playing stopped abruptly and, after a second of silence, a voice called out:

‘Hello?’

You didn't recognise the voice so you opened the door further and moved into the room. There you stood, face to face with Chenle, the boy you would marry.

Although you had hoped to find and speak to him, now that you were stood in front of him, your mouth couldn't seem to form any words. Eventually you forced yourself to just say something, rather than stand there awkwardly while he looked at you politely.

‘I’m sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I didn't even know it was you, I had just wondered who had been playing so beautifully.’ You muttered out, embarrassed at the nervous mess you had become. With all your years of learning how to present yourself in the public eye, it shouldn't be this hard for you to hold a conversation.

Chenle smiled slightly at your compliment.

‘Oh... thank you, your highness. Do you know how to play?’ He asked, looking you directly in the eyes.

‘Ummm, no. I wish I did though.’ You answered, moving slightly closer to the piano he was sitting at.

‘How come you never learnt?’ He asked, turning around in his seat so that he could face you.

You smiled sadly and shrugged slightly. ‘My father thought that learning an instrument would be a waste of my time. He thought my efforts were better focused on other things.’

‘What other kinds of skills?’ Chenle asked, tilting his head slightly, his eyes wide open and fixed on you. The innocent look on his face made a small smile break out across your features.

‘Skills such as languages and public speaking. He wanted to make me the best royal I could be, and I enjoyed those lessons. I love speaking many languages, but I do wish I could play like you could.’ You replied honestly.

Chenle opened his mouth to speak again but the loud creaking of the door opening drew both your eyes to the growing gap in the doorway. Soon your servant’s head popped around, their entire body entering the room once they saw you there.

‘I apologise for interrupting, your highness, but the feast is fast approaching and it is time for you to get ready.’ Your servant said, their eyes flickering between you and Chenle, clearly nervous that they had interrupted something important.

You turned to Chenle and gave an apologetic smile.

‘It seems I must go prepare, but I will see you at the feast?’

Chenle stood up, a gentle smile on his face as he approached you. He took your right hand in his and brought it to his lips.

‘I look forward to it.’ He placed a gentle kiss on the back of your hand before you turned around and exited the room.

Maybe this marriage wouldn't be so bad.

---

You raised your silver goblet to your lips, a laugh escaping you as you conversed with a knight from Chenle’s kingdom. The feast was in full swing and the great hall was filled with laughing royals and knights alike. The festivities continued all throughout the lower town and outlying villages as well, with processions and food being sent there for their own feasts.

The knights and royals were sat in an open circle around the walls of the great hall. Both your family and the Zhong's were sat at the head of the table, your fathers in the middle, then your mothers then, finally, on the end were you and Chenle. He was close enough that you could exchange the odd smile, but not close enough for you to make any kind of conversation with him.

The servants bustled all around you, filling up glasses and offering pieces of food in between courses. The court jesters often appeared in the middle of the tables and dazzled the crowd with their magic tricks and acrobatics. The final acrobat had just finished their performance with a double flip, making you all gasp in amazement. The entire room burst into applause, laughter and exclamations of praise for the talent showcased.

Your father then stood up, raising his left hand up as a way of asking for silence. He held his goblet of wine in his right and began to speak.

‘As all of you are aware, we are here today to celebrate the arrival of our new friends, King and Queen Zhong and their son Prince Chenle, and the hopeful future that they bring with them. We hope that your stay, however short-’ He gestured to Chenle with his raised glass as he continued to say ‘or long, is as pleasant as it can be. To a new era!’

Everyone in the room, including you grabbed and raised their goblets.

‘To a new era!’ You all exclaimed in unison.

As your father sat down, King Zhong rose from his seat.

‘If I may say something as well?’ He asked your father, who simply nodded in response with a large smile on his face.

‘I would like to thank you for hosting us for our short stay and for offering a new home for our son. We understand that it is against the normal customs for the Prince to move to a new land, but your open mindedness about this situation has made this process a lot easier than we anticipated it would be. I have every faith that Chenle and Y/n will one day rule a beautiful kingdom, and I cannot wait to see that happen. To the future!’

‘To the future!’ You all chanted again, raising your glasses to the sky once more.

King Zhong’s words reminded you slightly of the conversation that you had had with your mother only a few hours ago and you found yourself growing to like the Zhong’s and their people with every passing minute. The knights that surrounded you were filled with interesting and hilarious stories and the other nobles that you had chatted with before sitting down were just as likeable.

You supposed that if Chenle was anything like his people, it would be relatively easy to get along with him.

Time and courses passed and, before you knew it, the servants were clearing away for the final time. Your father placed a hand on your shoulder and sent you a reassuring smile, one which you returned, as the servants led you into another hall, one that had been specifically set up for dancing.

The orchestra began a gentle tune and soon men and women began to pair off and dance together. Ladies and Knights dancing together filled the room as you watched with your parents. You smiled as you watched the laughing couples spin around the floor.

‘A beautiful party tonight, I must congratulate you!’ Queen Zhong’s voice pulled your attention away from the dance floor. You looked over as she placed an affectionate kiss on your mother's cheek and your father shook hands with King Zhong.

Your mother thanked her as they all laughed together. You smiled at the sight, watching silently from the sides. It wasn't long before you were approached and asked to dance, however, it was not by who you had expected.

‘Y/n, would you care to join me for a dance?’ King Zhong offered out his hand to you, a friendly smile on his face.

‘I would be honoured.’ You replied, a similar smile stretching across yours.

King Zhong led you into the dance floor and guided you as the music continued to play. You danced through the steps that you had been learning since you could walk, making them almost second nature to you now.

‘I know that this marriage may not be what you wanted.’ King Zhong suddenly said, surprising you with his bluntness. ‘I know my arranged marriage wasn't what I wanted.’ You looked up at him with raised eyebrows. He nodded, reiterating his point. ‘I was only a year older than you and Chenle are now, my wife only a year older than me. We were married within a week of meeting and it took us over a year after the wedding until we could even call ourselves friends. The pressure of an arranged marriage, especially one as important as yours, can place a huge amount of strain on any relationship. I wanted you to know that I understand that and I hoped that I would be able to give you a small piece of advice, y/n.’

‘What is that, your majesty?’ You asked, recognising the song coming to an end.

‘Don’t force this. Don’t rush it. You have all the time in the world to get to know each other, just enjoy meeting someone new and focus on being friends. Remember that this is about the two of you as well, not just our kingdoms, make sure that you are happy.’ He finished, looking down on you with a smile that reminded you so much of your father's.

‘Thank you.’ You replied honestly, feeling as though he had somehow sorted out many of the worries that were clouding your mind.

You both stepped away from each other and walked back to where the other royals were waiting. You watched as he took his wife by the hand and dragged her out to dance, encouraging your father to do the same.

While watching the two couples, who had had the same marriage you would too, you couldn't help but wonder if yours would ever have the same kind of happy ending.

You took a few steps backwards and accidentally bumped into someone causing you to quickly apologise and turn around, only to find yourself face to face with Chenle.

‘Your highness!’ You both said in sync, trying to apologise to the other at the same time.

You both stood there in silence for a few seconds, you were wracking your brain trying to think of something to say, when Chenle suddenly held out his hand.

‘Would you care to dance?’ His face held a hopeful smile that you already found impossible to say no to.

‘I would love to.’ You replied, slipping your hand into his.

You let Chenle take you into the middle of the dance floor before beginning to move together in sync. For a while you just let the music do the talking, filling the silence between the two of you with its instrumental words.

‘I could teach you if you want?’ Chenle suddenly said, making you look up at him in confusion.

‘Teach me what?’ You asked, furrowing your brows.

‘Piano, I meant piano. I- I could teach you how to play the piano if you wanted.’ A small blush dusted his cheeks, one which you couldn't help but think was rather cute.

‘I- I would love that. That would be so kind of you.’ You replied, smiling at his kind-hearted offer.

‘I wouldn't mind, I love playing so I’m happy to do it.’ He smiled back at you before continuing. ‘Although I do have one favour to ask of you, however.’

‘Oh?’ You said looking up at him.

‘Could you possibly show me around the castle? It’s kind of large and I don’t know my way around any of it yet. I nearly got lost on my way here...’ He mumbled the last bit to himself yet you still managed to catch it, making you laugh out loud slightly.

Chenle noticed you laughing and smiled at the sight. ‘Don’t laugh! I seriously was terrified I was going to be late. Imagine how awful that would be, our parents in the middle of a toast for the two of us and I’m not even there! I would not be able to live in this kingdom after that.’ By this point you couldn’t stop yourself from laughing. You leaned your head down slightly to try to stifle your giggles and accidentally placed your forehead on Chenle’s shoulder. You lifted it off quickly and saw Chenle’s face, him still holding the same nervous look as when he was talking previously. This caused you to break out into a second fit of giggles, only this time Chenle couldn't hold himself back from laughing with you.

There you stood, dancing together and laughing over the same joke for ten minutes. If either of you had turned your head to the side, you would have seen your parents watching the both of you with fond smiles on all of their faces.

---

The next morning you found yourself sitting at your desk, flitting through some documents your mother had asked you to look at. None of them were anything to do with you, she had only recommended them so that you would have an idea of the kinds of things you would need to look at once you were crowned.

The documents were actually rather interesting, but since you had no power over anything to do with them, they seemed to be getting more boring with every word.

As soon as you heard the knock on the door, relief rushed through your system. Anything to take you away from this reading.

‘Oh thank god.’ You said to yourself before calling out ‘Come in.’ You lowered the page away from your face so that you could see who had entered your room.

‘Your highness! What can I do for you?’ You asked, moving the paper away from your face entirely and placing it down on your desk.

‘I’m not interrupting anything am I?’ Chenle asked, his eyes scanning over the documents on your desk.

‘No, no, not at all. Just some recommended reading from my mother.’ You explained. Chenle’s eyes widened slightly at that.

‘Your parents do that too! Give you documents to read so that you know what you’ll be dealing with once you’re crowned? Even though there's nothing you can do with them so you're not really learning much.’ He said, stepping closer to you.

‘Exactly that. Oh god, it’s nice to talk to someone who understands what it’s like. I mean, I get why she gives them to me, but, at the moment they kind of do nothing for me.’ You laughed, watching as Chenle laughed too.

‘Don’t they just get more boring the more you read?’

‘Honestly, I’ve never been so happy to hear someone knock on my door. Anyway, what can I do for you?’ You asked, offering Chenle a seat in front of you which he gladly took.

‘I was hoping I may be able to get that tour? It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to find your room and the thought of being late to anything scares the hell out of me.’ Chenle said, looking at you hopefully.

‘Of course, I’d be happy to show you around. Just so you know, once your man servant is assigned, they will be able to escort you everywhere until you get your bearings.’ You stood up, Chenle following you and you began to walk towards the door. ‘Also, anything to get me away from that reading.’

Chenle burst into laughter, a surprisingly infectious high pitched laugh that easily made you laugh too.

---

You showed Chenle most of the palace. You began with the library and headed from there into the great hall, the throne room, the court physician and showed him around countless bedrooms and servant quarters.

You had finished the entire inside of the castle and knights’ training area and were calmly walking through the grounds when Chenle asked you what your favourite spot in the castle was. You sent him a grin.

‘I’ll show you, follow me.’ You led him quickly into the stables.

‘The stables?’ He asked, raising an eyebrow in question.

‘No, not the stables.’ You laughed before continuing to explain why you had stopped here. ‘It’s just easier and faster to get to my favourite place on horseback.’

Chenle nodded in confirmation, before following you fully inside. You greeted the stablehand with a smile before asking about any available horses. You already had yours which you had ridden for the past few years, but were hoping to get Chenle one which he may keep as his.

You brought Chenle to your horse, allowing him to greet the pure black stallion, called Obsidian, which you rode. The stablehand brought him out and began to saddle him up while you showed Chenle a few available horses. He immediately began to walk towards the grey spotted stallion, standing in front of it for a few seconds before stroking it.

‘I’ve always wished for a horse like this.’ He said over his shoulder. ‘Ever since I was young I wanted one this colour which I would call Aspen.’

You stepped forwards with a smile.

‘Then he’s yours.’ You said.

Chenle whirled around and stared at you in disbelief.

‘He’s what now?’ He asked, all formality that was usually present in your conversation disappearing due to his shock.

You laughed and gestured to the stable hand that this was the horse he wanted before speaking again.

‘Well, since you are now living here, I thought you may want your own horse. You can ride him whenever you like, will take him with you if you journey anywhere and, most knights take theirs into battle with them too.’

For the first time since you met him, Chenle seemed genuinely speechless. He just stared at you, eyes wide and mouth open before stuttering out a:

‘Th- thank you.’

You just smiled and nodded before heading out of the stables to where your horses were saddled up and waiting.

You both quickly mounted before calling out to Chenle, to follow you. You dug your heels into Obsidian’s sides and began to move off. You started off at a gentle canter before speeding up into a full gallop.

Chenle kept close behind you, impressing you with his riding skills. You galloped out of the castle and into the woodland before continuing up a path that you knew well. The trees rushed in a blur of green and brown beside you and you looked to your left and saw Chenle riding exactly next to you. You both smiled at each other before you nodded your head to the right and shouted,

‘This way!’

The wind flew through your hair as you took Chenle uphill towards a cliff edge before, finally, beginning to slow down.

Your horses were panting heavily by the time you arrived, having been riding at a fast pace for a short while. You tied them to a tree next to a river nearby and left them to drink and recover whilst you brought Chenle to the cliff edge.

‘This is my favourite spot.’ You said, looking out on the marvellous view in front of you that never failed to take your breath away.

From this cliff edge you could see the entire citadel. The castle stood proud in all its glory and the town travelled all the way down to the walls by the lower gates. The view stretched past the lower town and outside of the city walls, where you could see a few farming fields and the closer outlying villages.

You sat down on the comfortable grass, Chenle sitting beside you.

‘Enlighten me, your highness, why is it that your favourite spot in the castle isn't actually in the castle?’ He asked, tearing his eyes away from the scenery to look at you.

‘Because, there's more to a kingdom than just it’s castle’ You explained. ‘I like to look at it from here because I can see the people. My people. Who I love and will do any I can to protect, with or without an oath. Here I can see everything and, I feel fulfilled, like everything makes sense.’

Chenle watched you, nodding with more sincerity and seriousness than you had seen on him yet. Then the small mischievous grin you had come to recognise spread across his face.

‘So... you can speak multiple languages, dance beautifully, ride better than half of the knights I’ve ever seen... I don’t suppose there are any other talents of yours I should know about?’ He asked, looking at you out of the corner of one eye.

You smiled at the question, keeping your eyes trained on the view in front of you.

‘Stay tuned.’ You stated, enjoying the conversation between the two of you without formalities. It was much easier to talk to Chenle when you weren't so aware of keeping up the royal facade. After sitting there for a few more minutes, admiring the view and making idle conversation, you finally made a move to stand. ‘Let’s go. I’ll show you one of the outer villages then we can head back.’

As soon as he saw you moving to get up, Chenle shot to his feet quickly and offered out a hand for you to take. You smiled and accepted it, allowing him to pull you up from the ground. You headed back towards your horses and mounted once again. You set off at a quick pace, enjoying the wind in your hair and the shouts of conversation from Chenle behind you. You travelled all the way to the outer village laughing and joking, only to be greeted with a sight that was anything but happy.

The village was under attack.

---

You and Chenle rode into the small village, the utter chaos surrounding you distracting anyone from noticing who the two of you were.

You quickly jumped down from your horse and looked over at Chenle who was staring at you with almost unnoticeable fear in his eyes.

‘Get the horses and yourself out of here. Keep them safe and I’ll find you in a bit.’ You instructed. You watched as Chenle’s expression clearly changed to worry.

‘What about you? What are you going to do?’ He asked.

‘I’m going to help my people.’ You stated. And with that you turned around and ran into the battle. You stopped briefly to grab a sword from a fallen bandit before moving to protect your citizens.

You swung the sword upwards to block an attack on a kneeling villager and deftly redirected the blow. You stepped in front of the injured man and faced the bandit head on. He stepped forward to swing at you and you brought your sword up to protect yourself, but he suddenly stopped, grunted slightly and fell to the ground.

Behind him stood Chenle, sword raised and eyes on the fallen bandit.

‘Are you okay?’ He asked, his face filled with concern.

‘What are you doing?’ You replied. You knew you should probably thank him but at this moment you were so shocked that that was all you could get out.

‘Helping the people. If they're your people, that means they're now my people and I’m not planning on waiting on the sidelines while you fight for them.’ He said firmly, grabbing your hand and pulling the fallen villager up and helping him into a house for shelter.

You felt pure admiration filling your chest. The boy had been here for under 48 hours and was already risking his life for a kingdom and people he didn't know. You quickly grabbed hold of his hand, forcing him to look at you.

‘Thank you, your highness.’ You said, looking him straight in the eye. He nodded and you turned back towards the battle.

The next minutes were a blur of whirring swords, shouts of pain and worry and the sound of metal clashing on metal. It didn't take long for the news of your arrival to spread throughout the village, scaring half of the bandits away. The last thing they wanted to do was be known by name to the future rulers and current heirs of the kingdom.

As you watched the last few bandits disappear into the woods, you turned to the village leader and asked for their name.

‘If you are ever troubled by these bandits again, you are to send word to the castle immediately. Knights will be here within the hour.’ You announced to the villagers.

‘How can we ever thank you, your highness?’ The village elder asked, bowing his head in respect. You smiled at him.

‘Work hard and help your children grow up well. I don’t ask for anything more than knowing that my people are living well.’ You replied honestly. You never felt the need to take anything from the villagers, you would much rather know that they were happy and healthy.

You walked towards Chenle, who had reappeared with both of your horses. You had no idea where he had hidden them, but you were just glad that they hadn't been stolen. You mounted before reassuring the village with one final statement.

‘Prince Chenle and I will inform the king and queen of the bandits. I will personally ensure that food and medicine are taken down here to replenish what you have lost. If you know of any other villages with similar problems, please alert us and we will send knights down as reinforcements.’

You heard the villagers whisper Chenle’s name in awe. The outer villages hadn't seen him yet so it wasn't surprising that they had no idea who he was. You turned on your horse, Chenle doing the same and began to canter away, listening to the cheers and thanks echoing up from the relieved village behind you.

---

The ride back to the castle was a quiet one. You hadn't tried to speak yet, knowing that your main priority was to report the recent events to your father. But, just before you reached the walls, you slowed Obsidian to a stop, causing a confused Chenle to halt Aspen too. You dismounted and watched as Chenle did the same.

‘Is everything ok? Why aren't we going in?’ He asked, clearly having no clue what you were about to do.

You walked up to him and wrapped your arms tightly around his neck.

‘Thank you, for helping me and my people.’ You whispered, arms tightening slightly.

To begin with, Chenle didn't seem to know what to do, his arms raised slightly but frozen there. He quickly recovered from the initial shock, however, securing his arms around your waist and pulling you even closer to him. You were taken aback by how easy it was to hug him and how comforting he was. You both stayed in this position, neither of you wanting to be the first to let go.

‘We need to tell my father what happened.’ You eventually said. ‘He’s probably wondering where we are since we did kind of just disappear.’

You felt Chenle nod into your shoulder and you both slowly drew your arms out from around each other. You took a step back, too self conscious to be able to look him in the eyes and quickly remounted Obsidian. You kicked him gently, spurring him into a gentle canter and made your way back through the castle gates.

---

You and Chenle stood in the throne room, in front of your parents explaining the events of that day.

‘- supplies that they have lost over the past few attacks.’ You finished, laying out your hopes for helping the village repair.

You parents nodded, taking the situation very seriously and both agreeing with your plan to help rebuild and protect the targeted villages.

‘We will send a group of knights to them to deliver the supplies and get the names of the other villages that may be struggling as well. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Y/n. Chenle, thank you for stepping in. While I trust my y/n with a sword, I dread to think about what may have happened to the rest of the village, had you not decided to protect them as well. We are indebted to you.’

Your father’s words made Chenle smile slightly, even though he tried to hide it. Chenle bowed his head once before speaking himself.

‘It was an honour, your majesty. As your highness, y/n, pointed out to me today, the kingdom is more than just a castle, its spirit is in its people. And if I am to rule these people one day, I would like to know that I have protected them at any moment I could.’

You parents both smiled at Chenle’s words, their obvious approval making you smile too. Your mother then raised her concerned voice to speak her final thoughts.

‘Thank you, both of you for your duty today. It may be wise to see the court physician to ensure that neither of you have any serious injuries.’

You both nodded before bowing and exiting the room, making your way towards the castle’s doctor.

---

After both being cleared of any serious injuries, you and Chenle both being prescribed an ointment for various bruises and one small cut on Chenle’s arm, you offered to walk Chenle back to his room.

‘I doubt you’ve managed to memorise the entire castle yet.’ You joked.

‘Not quite.’ He replied, a similar smile on his face. ‘I did get rather caught up in other business today though.’

You smiled down at the ground and you walked along the grey stone floors. Chenle cleared his throat.

‘So, you can fight well with a sword too. You continue to surprise me, your highness.’

Your face broke out into another smile.

‘I told you to stay tuned. Besides I can't have you getting bored this early can I?’ You joked, a laugh breaking out of Chenle at that.

‘I guess not...’ Chenle paused his sentence as you reached his door.

‘Also...’ You began, drawing Chenle’s attention as he placed his hand on the door handle. ‘Please, call me Y/n. I’d like for us to drop some of the formalities if you're okay with that?’

Chenle smiled at your question.

‘I’d love that. And, please call me Chenle, all formalities forgotten.’

You breathed a small sigh of relief, feeling as though you were standing next to a new friend rather than a stranger you would soon marry.

‘Goodnight, Chenle.’ You said, unable to take the smile off your face.

‘Goodnight, Y/n.’ He replied, before stepping inside his room and closing his door behind him.

And there you both stood, on either side of the same door, both smiling at the simple thought of the other.

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