#also the pinks yellow and black all come together for a really nice color scheme

[quibbs126]

I needed references for Earthspark Elita, and honestly in doing so, I’m realizing how much I like her design in this show

Like genuinely, I just think it’s a banger, and I like how blocky it is. Also, she gets to be a car here, unlike Transformers One

[eightfish]

Hello! I’m very curious of your use of colors and how you go about choosing them for a piece? They all have such a nice vibe and are a treat to the eyes!! I’m also surprised you’re a med student!! How do you juggle making art with your studies?? (from the few things (very very few) I know about medical studies it just seems like a LOT of studying goes on, so I’m very curious!)

Sometimes artists make things look so easy! I want to talk about my artistic process honestly, so I’m going to show you some pieces I struggled on, with my reasoning and references, and also my mistakes and where I asked for help. I’m glad you like my colors, they’re sometimes what I end up spending the most time on.

So hello and welcome to a somewhat long write up.

First I want to show this piece, “A friendship between an escort and an eel man,” that I love the finished colors of but was a pain while I was making it:

I start off with two ideas I wanted to combine for the color scheme: 

The two halves, the human half and the eel tank half, should be distinct. I thought human side red, eel tank blue. 

2. For additional contrast, I wanted human half dark and eel tank bright.

Wasn't entirely clicking, but I decided to just start slapping down colors and adjust later.

A note on shadows and lighting- shift not just the values (light/dark of the color) but the hue as well (the.. color of the color) to give a piece a richer tone. Here I’m making the shadows more red and the lighting more yellow (though in the end the lighting is blue instead). 

(Of course, changing value only is a choice used in many color schemes as well. Maybe if you want a piece to look dingy, or monochromatic. You can do anything if you do it intentionally.)

Here I liked the warm human half, but I didn’t like the blue tank so much.

Tried some warm colors. Still wasn’t working. Though bringing the yellow into the tank made the piece more cohesive, having the whole thing be similar colors was not my initial goal. It looked boring, and the eel tank was not separate enough. The yellows and browns on the aquarium side did not look like water, even when I tried suggesting the top of the tank.

I asked a friend (@veritasgloriamart) for help and she sent me this reference: 

I adjusted the tank colors to the reference, and added a blue glow instead of yellow to help connect the two sides. It was still not looking cohesive enough to me.

A blue overlay layer added to the human side to make the colors even more aligned with the tank side worked! Overlay layers are magic. They can really help make colors come together. Here the purple on the human side still works to separate it from the tank, but the blue shadows bring them together. It was looking really good now! 

Contrast is important, so eel man became darker. Him and the escort are the subjects, so they get to be dark against a light background. Contrast and focal points are important.

After some cleaning up, here is the final piece again! I put some pink in the tank to bring some of human side into the tank side too.

Here is a second piece I struggled with:

Again I start off with some ideas: the scene should  look warm and comfortable. I thought I should use a lot of colors, to make the meal look like a colorful feast. But I wasn’t paying enough attention to lighting and contrast, so it was looking flat and disorganized.

I decided I wanted the colors to look more intentional. Let's do purple and yellow, warm and complementary colors. Green and red because food needs those colors. But the contrast was still not good enough. The piece still lacked clarity and focus. 

One thing to do when struggling with contrast and clarity: switch to thinking with values. Working in black and white, I made the figure of the fairy on the left darker against a lighter background to make her stand out, and I made the unimportant edges of the piece darker, but it didn’t feel like enough.

My friend (thanks @deoidesign) gave me critique to make the lighting bolder on the hair and table, making the silhouette of the fairy much more clear. After following the advice, it was really working for me now!

I used the gradient map tool to rough out a similar yellow and purple color scheme as my initial idea:

After adding the gradient map it’s pretty much done. Gradient maps are magic.

I lost the idea I started with, making the food colorful, but the food worked better being all yellow instead. Making the food all one color made the lighting more clear, deemphasized it, and let the characters stand out. Things don't always have to be colored the color they actually are.

Minor details added, final piece.

"Eating faerie food gives them power over you, but if fae eat human food, it works the other way around too. These three don’t mind either way."

Final example, a piece that wasn’t a struggle: A necromancer and kitty’s latest conquest. 

Sometimes, coloring is just vibes. 

The starting idea for this one: muted blue and purple/red.

I took some inspiration from this piece by an artist whos work I love love love (the green one under 2021): 

That piece inspired me to add the beige, green, and pink from the color scheme. I also nudged the reds more into purple to make them softer.

The plants got to be green, as did the walls. Blue and purple, the cooler colors, for the shadows and darker plants. Pink as a bright color, used sparingly to add warmth. Beige used wherever it fits, to calm everything down. The colors for this piece came naturally so I don’t have a lot of progress shots. 

Some things I was considering here: I was blending the colors into each other and reusing them throughout the piece. Nearby colors bleed into each other, unifying them. Things are not held to the colors they would be in the real world, but rather what looks good. 

Only very minor changes were made after the color sketch. Final piece:

When I’m not feeling like experimenting so much, sometimes I just fall back on color schemes I’m used to. I know red, green, and yellow look cozy and warm together so a lot of my pieces use that.

On learning colors: 

For me, learning means paying attention to the colors in the world around me and to the colors in other people’s art. I note the general idea of color palettes (example: yellow highlights, blue shadows is one I see a lot) and the impressions they give off. I’m slowly building up a library in my head of palettes. 

Tips summary:

Having some idea of the mood of the piece or a general palette can be a good starting point

Ask for help

Take inspiration and use references 

Value is more important for clarity than colors are. If the colors are not working, it could be because the values are not working

You don’t need to color things the color they actually are. Color them how they look or what looks best for the piece. White things are not necessarily white, skin is not necessarily a shade of brown. The lighting of an environment changes the colors you see.

Iterate on ideas. Critique yourself. 

Thinking of a piece as a whole helps the colors look cohesive. Think of palates while considering the whole piece. Intentionally reuse colors throughout.

Consider bleeding nearby colors into each other. In real life, bounce light can give this effect. In art, it’s not necessarily always realistic but can add texture and cohesiveness.

Practice practice practice

The end. I hope it’s useful! 

[adobe-outdesign]

Could you review Loudred? Did you ever play MD:E?

(I have not, but these reviews mostly cover design so it wouldn't affect my opinion much anyway.)

Whismur is probably the least interesting out of this line, but it's still a a pretty neat creature. This line is themed around sound, so naturally Whismur is timid and based off of quiet sounds, getting upset by the loudness of its own crying.

It also breathes through its ear canals, which is an interesting detail.

Visually, I love its eyes. They capture its timid and freaked-out personality perfectly, and are just such an interesting and distinct design. Otherwise, it's fairly standard fair, though the ears covering its ear holes is a nice touch. The base color is pleasant, and the yellow accents help to break up the body a bit.

I do wish that it retained the purple color of its evos, however; it's a bit strange that it and only it is a different color from the rest of the line, and we have a lot of pink-ish round Pokemon already. I also kind of wish there was something more sound-related in the design beyond just the ears, which are an easy detail to miss.

I feel like they were going for something with the volume marking and hole on its back, but it also just looks pretty awkward. I would've given it a longer "tail" and maybe bent it to a degree, or just left it off (though I do like the continuity it creates with the rest of the line).

Loudred is where the line really gets interesting. While I personally like Exploud a bit more, Loudred here does a great job at both making sense as a middle evo and having a unique design that's not just a transition between point A and B.

Visually, the most obvious addition here is the loudspeaker ears. They're weird, they're fun, they tie into the theme, and they're distinct to it. I do think I would've gone for yellow instead of black, but I can also see the argument that the black helps draw attention to them, as they are the most important part of the design.

Beyond the ears, Loudred also has a gaping mouth with four teeth and yellow lips that kind of reminds me of a hippo, which also helps convey the idea that this thing is Really Loud. The yellow around the mouth is accented by yellow pads under the feet, while the rectangular teeth are matched by the shape of its hind claws. It's a great design all around—reads easily, showcases its theme, and looks unique.

My only nitpick would be that I do wish Whismur's eyes were portrayed in some fashion, given that they were so distinct. I can see dropping them to an extent due to them looking very timid, but even just having Loudred's eyes still be closed at this stage might've helped retain a bit of that element. That's obviously not a big deal though, given how strong the rest of the design is.

It also has the same "tail" issue that Whismur does, though the volume symbol going up is a nice touch.

One thing I really like about this line is that they're not really based off a singular animal, possessing hippo-like mouths on bipedal bodies with claws and all sorts of interesting other anatomical quirks. While there's nothing wrong with Pokemon based on a specific pre-existing thing, I do love a good monster, and Exploud here in particular is really good at that.

Instead of retaining the boombox look of Loudred, it exchanges the loudspeakers for a lot of organ-like pipes—which both allow Loudred to have a unique element and make Exploud feel like a suitable enhancement to it. It does, however, retain a few elements of Loudred's, such as the color scheme, gaping mouth, and teeth/claws, which ensure that the two look like they belong together.

I really like the overall shape of this thing—how the formally awkward hole in the back has been extended out into these really cool exhaust port-esq twin tails, how the pipes around the head form a crest that somewhat reminds me of a dinosaur, the angular jaw shape and arm, etc. It all comes together perfectly and gives it an incredibly distinct shape and design that I love.

The closest thing I have to an issue is that it's a shame the volume marking was lost on the back, and it's a bit odd that the eye suddenly turns red for no reason. Those are super minor, however, and this is still a great design overall.

Side note: I like that it only raises its voice in battle and instead makes whistling noises for communication reasons, presumably to avoid deafening others of their kind. That's a nice bit of attention to detail.

So as a whole: this is a very strong line. Each stage ties back to their main theme but has some element in their designs that's different in each evo, maintaining continuity while also making each stage enjoyable in their own right. The actual creature designs are top-notch and memorable. 10/10, would yell again.

[vennilavee]

doubles

pairing: levi x reader, ft baby kaiya (moon/stars universe) summary: it’s kaiya and levi’s birthday. and you have a proposition for levi. warnings: some suggestive themes (kissing, nudity, the use of the word daddy) but it’s very brief a/n: i struggle with writing holiday themed things so this is the closest i could come up with. enjoy and happy holidays :))

Kaiya’s birthday being two days before Levi’s birthday was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she loved sharing her special day with Levi, and a curse because it hardly gave you time to think about what to get Levi for his own birthday. And not to mention that their birthdays were both right in the middle of the holidays.

Every year since Kaiya was born, you and Levi at least put some multicolored lights around the house, spent a weekend decorating stockings to put over the mantle of the fireplace, and spent another weekend stringing lights up outside. You had even bought a five foot tall light up snowman for the front yard, which Kaiya had loved. She had nearly fallen over when she had seen it for the first time, and then immediately tried to hug it.

And Levi glared at it whenever he pulled out of the driveway. 

Even when it was just you and Levi, you’d both put some lights up around your previous apartment. That didn’t mean that Levi didn’t grumble about it the whole time.

For Kaiya’s third birthday this year, you had decided to combine her birthday party with a dinner for Levi over the weekend. And it worked out- Kaiya adores her father, and she had squealed when you asked if she would be okay with it. Levi had protested, not wanting to do anything for his birthday and wanted to give his baby the spotlight. It’s her third birthday, after all. His baby girl’s third birthday. But he had relented when Kaiya looked at him with tear filled eyes and her hands clasped together in pleading-

“Pwease, daddy! I wanna hab birfday wif daddy!”

And really, how could he ever say no to that? So you put Levi to work, asking him to pick up some gold and green glittery streamers the week before and some helium balloons the day of. Kaiya is with Erwin while you run around to pick up a cake and other last minute things. 

Kaiya had wanted a tea party with some of her toddler friends from the neighborhood park for her third birthday and if that doesn’t solidify that she’s Levi’s daughter, you don’t know what does. Her favorite colors right now were greens and yellows, and so that’s how the color scheme of the party goes. But you subtly include bits and pieces of Levi’s personality in there as well- with a silver birthday hat that you had bought specially for him and with his matte black teacup with his name engraved in gold lettering. 

She’s wearing a cute green glittery headband in her dark hair, black pants and a yellow long sleeve shirt with a big, glittery sunflower on it. 

She’s sunshine personified, Levi thinks. He matches her, with a dark green shirt and Kaiya gasps when you whisper to her that her daddy matched her-

“We gween!” Kaiya exclaims happily.

“We have the same birthdays, princess. Of course daddy will match you,” Levi murmurs, taking her in his arms and kissing her cheek.

It’s funny- Levi hardly ever graced you with public displays of affection and vice versa. But when Kaiya came along, he’s become a little more fond of little pecks and soft displays of affection. Kaiya eats it up, with big eyes.

His eyes. Her eyes are so inexplicably a reflection of his. 

“Gween nice, daddy,” Kaiya says, squeezing her Totoro stuffed toy close to her chest.

“It is nice,” Levi agrees, “What else is green the color of?”

“Umm… sky!” Kaiya shouts confidently.

“Good job, princess,” Levi murmurs, gracing her with another kiss to the cheek.

It makes you soft. Watching him carry her to her tea party with her party of three. Her two friends are seated in plastic blue chairs around the play table, while their parents linger with snacks in their hands.

You could combust, watching Levi take a seat on the small plastic chair and tipping his head so Kaiya can place a tiara on his hair. He only gives the kids a soft look, letting them fawn over him. Kaiya’s friends each pour Levi some imaginary tea from the teapot and with soft, toothy grins, “Happy birfday Uncle Levi.”

You take a video and pictures of him to save for later.

Some snow still remains on the grass from a previous snowfall, covering your front and backyard in a pretty coat of paper white magic. Of course, by the time Kaiya’s friends leave and your friends arrive for dinner, Kaiya is asking to build a snowman and make snow angels.

Levi bribes her with cookies to get her to stay inside with him. She had only just gotten over a terrible cold last week and the last thing anyone needed was for her to get sick. Kaiya sits on Erwin’s lap, listening intently to a story he’s telling her about a space princess. Erwin feeds her half of a cookie and she wordlessly chews on it with wide, curious eyes.

You had cut a small cake for Kaiya with her friends and had gotten a bigger cake for both Levi and Kaiya to cut together. It’s a lemon cheesecake and you know both father and daughter will love it. Neither of them have a terribly fond sweet tooth, but this cake is just the right amount of sweet.

After all, you had baked it.

When dinner is over and you’ve refilled glasses of spiced wine for everyone, you bring out the cake with a hearty start of singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Everyone chimes in, Hange with her arms around your shoulders and Kaiya beaming happily. She reaches for Levi and pats his cheek, as if to say ‘pay attention’.

“Hap birfday, daddy,” Kaiya whispers shyly.

“Happy birthday, Kai,” Levi murmurs and pats her forehead fondly. Levi moves to stand next to you and lets Kaiya blow out the candles for him. Levi holds his hand above yours as you cut a slice of cake into sections to feed to both him and Kaiya.

“When did you make this?” Levi asks.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, birthday boy,” You tease and feed Kaiya the first piece of cake. She gasps and claps her hands enthusiastically.

“Mommy, it yum,” Kaiya giggles. You kiss her cheek and wipe away some stray cream. 

“Wanna feed daddy, Kiki?” 

Kaiya nods and you help guide the fork to Levi’s mouth. “Thanks, Kai,” Levi says, “Can I feed you?” With another nod, Levi gives Kaiya a small bite. Not wanting to have a sugar rush later in the evening. And finally, you feed Levi a piece of cake, smiling at Erwin when he tells you all to look at him for a photo.

You’re tempted to smear some cake on Levi’s cheek, just to irritate him but you ultimately decide against it. After all, you have something you want to say to him later.

“Hey,” You murmur with a grin, “Happy birthday, my love.”

The tips of his ears tint pink and you pat his cheek before cutting more slices for everyone to have. Mike helps you pass out slices to everyone and you smile at him in thanks.

After everyone has had their fill of wine and cake, everyone begins to yawn and Kaiya even falls asleep in Erwin’s arms. It starts to flurry as well, light specks of white dotting the still air.

Your guests begin to leave after helping you clean up and after you give them leftovers to take home. After the hugs, happy birthdays, and promises that they’ll text you when they get home, Levi swiftly pulls you into his arms for a deep kiss, your knees buckling immediately.

“Is it my birthday?” You ask slyly, “You only kiss me like that when it’s my birthday.”

“That’s a fuckin’ lie,” Levi rolls his eyes.

“Yeah,” You say dreamily, “It is. You wanna go to bed or have another glass of wine?”

Levi wordlessly pulls you into the bedroom after making sure Kaiya is asleep, dropping kisses up and down your neck. His lips muffle your soft sounds, his hands gripping the curve of your hips and sliding down to your ass. He undresses you easily, peeling you out of your blouse and unbuttons your jeans. 

You’re in no rush. You only press against him, hands traveling the expanse of his broad chest and squeezing lightly.

“I wanna tell you something,” You mumble weakly, lips deliciously close to his ear.

He hums in response, pulling away to look you in the eyes. A hand comes to rest against your cheek, thumb caressing your cheekbone.

“I love you,” You say earnestly, “But also. I want another kid. I wanna give Kai a sibling. I wanna make you a daddy again. Wanna give me a baby, daddy?”

Levi rolls his eyes at your use of the word, swatting your ass lightly. “Kaiya would be a good big sister. And… I’ve been thinking about it, too.”

“Why didn’t either of us say anything then?”

“The idea was marinating-”

“Marinating? Don’t say that the idea of a second baby was marinating like meat in the fridge,” You joke, swatting his chest, “I was trying to be cute, by telling you on your birthday celebration. And you just compared our second baby to marinade-”

“I wanna make us parents again,” Levi whispers, cutting you off, “Want some of my marinade?”

“Do I ever,” You grin, licking a stripe up his neck, “So a second kid? You ready for it?”

“Are you ready for it? Are we ready for it?”

“I’m ready if it’s with you, my love,” You say softly, with a smile, “I’m ready for anything if it’s with you.”

tags: @simpingmaize​ @captainchrisstan​ @alrightberries​

[canary3d-obsessed]

Lost Tomb Lewks, Part 7

The Warehouse 11 Special

(Masterpost)

Warning: Spoilers for Season 1 of The Lost Tomb Reboot

Rather than intersperse an endless series of slightly-different Warehouse 11 outfits throughout the series, I’m going to cover them all in one long post. Wu Xie spends a LOT of time in various Warehouse 11 uniforms. but at least he doesn’t spend three episodes chained to a pillar; I’m looking at you, Shen Wei. 

Out of curiosity, I made a swatch of all of the colors used in these looks. It’s actually a pretty good range. They’re not very exciting colors, but the baseline blue-green color of most of the uniforms is flattering. 

Look 31 is the Transport Driver uniform.  This starts off being worn by future friend Li Jiale, who becomes a temporary enemy when Wu Xie tasers him into unconsciousness and steals his clothes and truck. Some people can’t take a joke. 

This uniform is a rich blue with maroon detailing on the chest pockets and a striped ribbon across the chest. It features a closely-fitted hat and a blue and white arm patch. 

The arm patch features a swirly design similar to traditional cloud, bat, and butterfly embroideries; perhaps it’s meant to represent one of the various bugs that will try to kill Wu Xie during his time in the caverns of Warehouse 11.

Look 32 belongs to Bai Haotian, aka Xiao Bai, who is such a delightful character she almost makes up for the other two major female characters in this thing.  Not only does she not suffer in order for a man to have feelings about her suffering, but when she is rescued from danger by the man she loves, it does not lead to making out or other intimate moments. So refreshing!

Her uniform is not particularly refreshing, but it is different from Wu Xie���s, and she looks cute in it. This look features fitted dark trousers (it’s hard to tell from the lighting if they are black, green, or blue), a jacket in Pantone 5473C with a collar and pocket flaps in 5477C. Sorry for busting out the Pantone refs but I can only type “green” so many times. 

Xiao Bai’s jacket has pleated box pockets over the boobs, which look fine on a person with small boobs. As long as they don’t try to actually put anything in the pockets.  The jacket is fitted through the shoulders with a reverse pleat in the center back. She wears it with a white shirt, suitable for writing on.

(More behind the cut!)

Xiao Bai accessorizes this look with pink underclothes that she hides as quickly as possible, while Wu Xie politely avoids looking quickly checks them out.  

Look 33 is Wu Xie’s Level 1 Uniform. It’s Pantone 5473C with pointed pocket flaps in 5477C and a white-and-5473C striped band across the chest and back. 

It features a close-fitted cap that matches the shirt, and dark cargo pants.

It’s got an inverted pleat in the back and military-style straps on the shoulders. Everything fastens with snaps with shiny black dome covers.

Like all Warehouse 11 indoor uniforms, this has a badge on the chest that’s somewhere between a yellow brass and a green bronze color, depending on how it catches the light. The drivers don’t seem to have these badges. 

I actually kind of like Wu Xie in a hat. 

Wu Xie wears this uniform with black lace-up work/hiking boots. I don’t know if these are part of everyone’s uniform or if it’s a BYOS kind of place. It’s mostly too dark to get a good look at anyone’s feet. 

Look 34 is Wu Xie’s Level 1 uniform with a black tee shirt and socks. 

This is a good look for kissing your own biceps and saying “welcome to the gun show, ladies!” lying down under the stars with a girl and talking about constellations, in a nice twist on a classic romance trope.  

I normally don’t project ideas about friendship onto strangers who work on or star in TV shows, but I really feel like this camera operator understands me. 

Wu Xie accessorizes this look with a water bottle with a picture of his boyfriend on it. 

Wu Xie: If you have one Wu baby and one Zhang baby that will provide a new generation for all three of our families. I promise you’ll like Xiao Ge. He’s...very talented.

This look goes well with having a beautiful face and a loving camera operator & director of photography. 

I could wish the lighting designer was less fond of green, but the plot demands it, alas.

Xiao Bai’s outfit also goes well with having a beautiful face. Her haircut does, too--it’s super cute and flattering. 

Look 35 is Wu Xie’s testing outfit for the first test. It’s his level one uniform, untucked, with dark glasses and fingerless gloves. 

And his tongue. 

OP did not speed up that gif on purpose; she captures everything at that speed, honest.

Look 36 is Wu Xie’s Level 8 Uniform. When they gave him this, did he think “oh, different uniforms for different levels, I wonder which level Xiao Bai’s uniform signifies? He did not. Neither did OP.  

This uniform features a jacket in the green/green color scheme, with two pleated boxy pockets at the waist and one on the right side of the chest. The collar is an open triangle lapel instead of the two-part suit collar featured on Xiao Bai’s jacket - his jacket is tailored more like a work shirt. It’s worn untucked and doesn’t have a waistband. The white-and-green striped ribbon that was over the chest on the level 1 uniform makes an appearance here as tiny tabs on the pocket flaps.  He wears a brown button-up shirt underneath.

I gotta say, the costume department really did a great job designing a whole range of uniforms that have repeating motifs, coloring, and detailing, while changing up how everything is put together.  

All the uniform variations take me back--WAY back--to when I was a girl scout in the 1970s. My troop mostly wore badge vests or sashes over normal clothes but we all liked to look at the glamorous uniforms in the catalogs.

Actually the girl on the floor looks really sharp. Which is probably why she’s keeping away from the nerds on the left. 

Look 37 is Wu Xie’s second test outfit. Yeah, we’re going out of order, to break up the sea of green with some smooth, glowing skin.

Zhu Yilong has nice arms, and whoever designed this sequence thinks so to. Particularly when considering the clothing item Wu Xie puts on over his undershirt.

This lil’ vest would be right at home at International Mister Leather Twill. What on earth is the purpose of a vest with pockets that you wear under an outer shirt with pockets? Other than to give you more time to show off your arms while dressing?

It features black panels on the upper chest and back; one flap pocket closure and one strap pocket closure, a...zipper? down the front? With black fabric on either side.

He wears it under his untucked level one shirt. There is no way anybody wears these vests under their shirts for normal wear - the pockets would keep anything over it from laying flat.

Look 38 is the Supervisor outfit worn by Jia Kezi.

It’s all one color--Pantone 5473C--and has rounded puffy pockets on the chest with rounded flaps, rather than the square ones featured on Xiao Bai’s uniform of the flat chest pockets of the level 1 uniform.

It has a covered placket and a high band collar, with the same close-fitted cap featured in the other uniforms.

He looks really good in this cap, which shows off his beautiful eyes and eyebrows better than his floppy hair, I think. He accessorizes this look with warm-toned skin, a cleft chin and sculpted cheekbones.

Look 39 is Wu Xie’s level 14 uniform, which shows that he’s a director now. 

 It looks exactly like Director Ding’s uniform. 

and, oh hey! It also looks exactly like Bai Haotian’s uniform. 

Her entire disguise was to change badges and remove her tie. 

Look 40 is the last Warehouse 11 uniform. It belongs to book author/screenwriter/producer Nan Pai San Shu, who gets to wear a brown vest and shirt instead of green & green, and whose badge says he’s Level 18. As befits the creator of this endlessly entertaining world and these delightful characters. 

More Lewks coming soon! Including several that are not green!

[angelisverba]

i’ll hold you so you don’t fall again

in which y/n is just really creative and harry writes erotica under a pseudonym.

pairing: interiordesing!y/n and eroticawriter!harry

word count: 21k+

note: i’m so freaking sorry this took so long. thank you for being patient with me, and i hope its what you expected :) also the formatting is all wonky i have no idea why.

Y/n wasn’t one to brag.

She knew what it felt like to sit and nod while someone else talked about their accomplishment. The itchy pull of heart strings; the yearning of wanting success, too. 

But, she also knew how awkward it was to go back and forth declining compliments. 

Which is why she never bragged about her newfound success. Or did the whole ‘oh you’re too sweet’ ordeal. She said thank you, and moved on. 

Because it definitely was one.

 A sudden change of no recognition to suddenly everyone wants her.

She had her friend, Lucy, to thank. Lucy had just opened up a coffee shop. One of those cute artsy ones on a street in West Hollywood somewhere, with money she had saved up over the years. It just so happened that her best friend was a talented painter, designer, and dabbled in all kinds of crafts. Y/n was known for always maintaining a tiny business of whatever it was she could come up with, and when her friend asked for help to decorate and set up shop, she jumped at the opportunity to go big. 

The store was a loft-y type space. A blank, grey walls and metal; an industrial room. The first time Y/n looked at it, her mind  flooded with ideas. Mirrors, art, frames, flowers, and anything that could be put up. Different themes and approaches to light up the room. But, before doing anything, she had a nice long talk with Lucy, about what she wanted to see. Had her set up a pinterest board with items for the shop. Color schemes, movies, plants, etc. From that, y/n took hold of the project, asking for Lucy’s opinion here and there, but taking most choices to her own judgement. 

The end result… well, it was the reason why Lucy was full all the damn time. Y/n had turned the lofty space into an Instagram hippie galore. Lucy’s mood board consisted of a weird mix of Madonna, pearls, and David Bowie. So, all over there were some of the most famous pop-culture posters. Streams of pearls. Mason jars lined with pearls. Velvet curtains with golden tassels; the stringy ones that tickled when you rub them all over your palm. There were light bulbs and fairy lights hanging in the wooden beams from the ceiling, that were turned on everyday 30 minutes after sunset, like the headlights on cars. Additional records were set to look through and buy in a corner, and opposite that a jukebox with records that both y/n, Lucy, and Lucy’s boyfriend, Mike, had picked. The labels were written in y/n’s writing, a mix between curly-cue and messy doctors cursive; clean enough to read, messy enough to enjoy. 

No plants. Or succulents, at least, but y/n had bought 5 dozens of roses from downtown. She’d hung them up to dry, left some where they were, and others she put in empty glass cola bottles that were in the center of each of the 10 booths. On the single, middle tables, y/n had placed leather table cloths. No flowers. 

And the menus? Oh gosh, the menus. They were y/n’s pride and joy. 

She’d closed herself in an entire day, to create the finishing look. With a copy of drinks (labeled like ‘Madonna’ and then the actual coffee order that star would’ve wanted)  and the small variety of sandwiches (& other finger foods) y/n drew portraits on blackboards, used different fonts, painting mediums, and at a certain point even incorporated glitter, to create these magnificent hand drawn chalk menus. 

Then the outside of the shop. This is what got her word out. 

A journalist of some sort had happened to stumble upon Coffee for Rockstars the day that y/n was painting the windows. 

You know, like with a brush and paint can. 

She’d blocked off her workspace with chairs and caution tape, jammed her newly bought airpods in, and pressed play to her music. 

The mural- Lucy labeled it, but to y/n it really wasn’t all that much, consisted of a the planet Saturn, with David Bowie, Elton John, Prince, Stevie Nicks, Freddie Mercury, and The Beatles prancing along the rings (all picked by Lucy). The window was a 5-or-so feet taller than her, so she had to use one of the chairs to reach the top half of the planet. 

While she painted Elton’s fluffy feather suit on, the journalist had approached her, his waist pushing through the tape y/n had put up. 

“Excuse me?” he called out to her, hands positioned on one of those Canon Rebel whatever they were called everyone seemed to be carrying around these days. 

And Wild Night by Van Morrison may have been playing a little too loud because y/n didn’t hear him the first time, and he had to call out again, leaning forward slightly to catch her attention.  

“Excuse me?” The guy says a little louder. This time, she sees him, and turns while removing her headphones, getting paint on her forehead and hair. 

“Oh!” she said, startled. “How can I help you?” Her cheeks flame a bit when he gives her a boyish smile, lips twirling up to the corner of his eyes. He’s cute, she thinks, floppy hair that’s sunbleached at the tips from the sun, and freckles in the bridge of his roman nose. 

“Yes, actually. My names’ James. I was wondering if I could take your picture for an article I’m doing. I work with the LA times, in the local business section, and there's a piece on West Hollywood’s hottest places. This one’s trending.” He lifts his camera in a ‘here it is!’ gesture. 

“Me?” she asked in disbelief. Her eyebrows raised high above their usually places, and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Shouldn’t you be photographing inside? You know, like the people?” 

“You worked on this place didn’t you? That’s what Lucy told me. You’re a big part of what makes this place hot ‘n trendy. Plus, this live painting action will look wonderful…” he trailed off, his glance drifting to the window and to the picture she was painting. “It’s really good. Deserves some recognition.” 

“Uhm…” Y/n looks around. There’s people on the opposite street staring at her, some that linger as they walk by. She catches a window roll down as the car goes by. 

She’s always been small. In size, in popularity. She’s never been in demand. If she said yes, there's a possibility that that would change. A small part of her wanted that… she could finally start her business, like she’s always wanted to...

    “Okay, how do you want me?”

    He laughed, and told her to just continue with what she was doing. So, she did. She added more paint to her glass palette, and unprofessionally used her bare thigh to rid the brush of the excess paint. Momentarily, the brush found its way to the bite of her teeth, so the girl could put her earphones back in and get back into the right headspace to work. 

The journalist, chuckled as he watched her, amused by her tactics, how she leaned back to look at the bigger picture. He was done in a matter of minutes, taking pictures of everything she’d set up in her closed off area. The tarp she’s laid on the floor.  The cans of paint; red, blue, yellow, green, white, and black. An uneaten sandwich and a glass bottle filled with pink liquid (lemonade and a bit of vodka, y/n’s choice of drink when she was painting, claiming it got her ‘creative juices flowing’). 

He has to get her attention again the same way, because she’d managed to lose herself in what she was doing. 

“You’re all done?” she asked him, once again plucking the earphone out with a yank. 

“Yep, got more than enough.” James said, placing  a black cap on the lens of his camera. “Can I ask you a few questions?”     Y/n smirked a bit, thinking back to her school days when smartass teachers would respond with ‘i don’t know, can you?’ and she nearly did as well. 

She didn’t though. She just said, “Go right ahead.” 

“Well, first thing’s first,” he reached into his front pocket, and pulled out his phone. Who keeps their phone in their front pocket, she thought. “Name, age, and what you did for Rockstar’s cafe?” 

“My name is y/n, I’m 21, and I was interior and, as you can see, exterior, designer as well for Rockstar Cafe.” She’s shifting awkwardly side to side, tugging at the ends of her large,  orange Garfield shirt nervously. Flashes of her jean cut-offs peeked where her shirt lifted. 

“Tell me a little bit about the process of creating the entire ‘astro-70’s’ vibe you got going on here are the shop.” James doesn’t look up at her, because he’s furiously typing away at his phone, noting down what y/n says. 

    “Well, that was really Lucy’s doing. She provided me with pictures of things she wanted, kinda like… uhm.. that aura? I guess you could say that she wanted the place to have. I worked side by side with her, to make this happen. This was her vision, I just helped it....” she struggled for a moment, to put her thoughts into words, “come to life.” 

He looked up at her then, a small smile on  his lips. “What’s your favorite thing about it so far?” 

“I’d say, the way the menu is set up. An artist’s name, and the drink they’d get. Lucy did her reasearch, and found out like, I guess you could say, their ‘regulars’. So, what’s on the menus are what the artist actually would like.” Subconsciously, she points to the inside of the shop, referring to the menus. 

“Last question, have you ever done anything like this before?” 

Y/n stammered for a moment, then said, “No. I haven't.” She taps the tips of her shoes together, all paint splattered and scuffed. “Nothing at this level of big. I’ve always kinda, worked on crafts. In highschool I had a small business, where’d I’d sell personalized things.  I think that’s why Lucy trusted me so much. Because I have a history of reaching to the stars when it comes to paper and pencil.” 

“That was great. Thank you so much, y/n. It was interesting to hear about you, and the cafe.” James places his phone back in his front pocket, and hooks his thumbs onto the straps of his camera as if they were suspenders. “Is there a website or business card you’d like me to reference in the article, after your name and all that?”  

“I don’t have anything like that actually. Just that I worked with Lucy, I guess you could say.” She puckers her lips at the end, shaking her head slightly. 

“Okay, well then. I’ll leave you to it. It’s coming along amazing.” James nods politely. “Have a great rest of your day, y/n.” Then walks away. 

“Bye, James.” She twiddles her fingers at him her way of saying goodbye. It doesn’t take her long to get sucked back into her work. In fact, as soon as she puts the earphones back in, she’s gone off the face of the earth, and doesn't notice when a green-eyed stranger stops to stare at her, right by the tree that she’d wrapped the caution tape around. The man pinched his lip as he watched, eyebrows furrowed with the same concentration y/n had for her work.

Except that he was watching her. The way her wrist flicked, how she tilted her face to look at what she was doing. How she stood like a flamingo, with her ankle pressed against her calf. The way she blew the wisps of hair off her mouth. 

He watched her intently, wondering who she was and how did she get there and what her name was.

And then, 

Brushing those thoughts out of his mind, he walked into the shop and didn’t look back. 

.

.

“Y/N!!” Lucy yelled from the counter. 

Y/n, covered head to toe in sparkly purple fabric, rushed out with a bit of hummus on toast in her mouth still. 

It was Halloween, and Lucy had demanded they both dress up as part of the uniform at Rockstar that day. Y/n, had decided she would go as Selena Quintanilla, and had crafted herself a halter top-style romper with purple cloth she had bought at the fashion district earlier that week. She’s woken up early too, and gone to her mom’s house so she could do her hair, and make up (given she’d lived at the same time Selena had). 

Lucy, ever the creative one, teased her blonde hair, spray painted it with a cheap can of green hair dye from the dollar store, and bought a pinstripe tux. TA-da! Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice. 

“Y/n!” Lucy was hissing now, impatient and demanding. It was a busy day at Rockstar. Social media influencers had come out for photo-ops and the like. Also, Lucy had a deal going of buy one get another iced coffee half off, and a free cassette with the $20+ purchase. 

“I’m coming, Luce! I’m coming, Jesus Christ,” y/n finished off chewing, tugged on the halter top to make sure nothing would pop out of place and washed her hands in the sink to help Lucy at the register. 

After she finished, she took place along side the three baristas, Kelsey, Tilly, and Kim. Kelsey was a broke college student, Tilly an Asian girl who doubled as a pole dancer on certain nights (she wore a mask to make sure her identity stayed secret), and Kim was a 30- year old who lives in his parents house. Bit of a creep if you asked y/n. 

“Y/n, you wanna take order 48 or 50?” Asked Tilly while rinsing a measuring cup. 

“I’ll take 50 and start on 52.” Y/n responded, tying the apron straps behind her neck. She didn’t tell Tilly that she picked order 50 because she hated making espressos, and order 48 consisted of three espressos. Order 50 was only four iced coffees. 

After she finished decorating Lucy’s coffee shop a month ago, Lucy didn’t offere y/n a job, but she was always around to help, and Lucy paid her for it. After class, y/n would stop by the shop, and that would lead to her working as a barista. Which she didn’t mind, the money helped and it gave her something to go. Otherwise, she’d be at home with her nose stuck in a regency novel and a buzzing feeling of want in her crotch at the cue of poetically beautiful yet smutty words. 

“Order number 50!” She called out. She set the plastic cup on the pick-up counter and plucked a stray from the jars to place alongside the drink. Seconds later, the drink was picked up by a tall and tanned man with green eyes; nails painted black; rings adorning each finger; soft, pink lips and a scruffy jaw. Curly strands of brown hair peeked out of a green beanie. 

He smiled at y/n. The way you smile at the cashier in the market. Polite. A bit disconnected in the eyes. He said, “Good morning, Selena. May I have a cup holder please?” 

In a British accent made heavier by the morning gruffness in his voice. Scratchy, deep, manly. And incredibly sexy. 

Of course, y/n took a moment to take in and drink the image presented before her, but after she felt her cheeks heat up like the fire underneath a witches feet, she cleared her throat and responded with, “You recognized who I was! Kudos to you, sir!” with a grin on her red lips. The man chuckled, and took the carton cup holder y/n gave him. 

“Have a great rest of your day,” was the last thing he said before he walked away. Y/n stared after him, watching the way his thighs filled in the fitting yellow pants he where, and how his biceps looked deliciously muscular; bulging in a white tee. 

“Y/N!”

“Sorry, Lucy!” Y/n skipped back to her post in front of the screen,and began reading off orders for Tilly, and Kim to make, and picked one for herself. Two iced coffees, one heated croissant. She was in the middle of measuring the milk when Lucy called her name again. 

“Lucy, I’m doing it, okay?” Y/n responded, frazzled. 

Lucy sucked on her teeth. “Y/n, come over here.” When y/n looked up, she saw that not only was Lucy looking at her, but a tall skinny blond with a sharp cut bob and a long white silk dress. 

Confused, y/n dumped the milk into the mixing cup and handed the order over to Kelsy for her to finish. “Yes?”

“This is Karime, and she wants you to help her decorate her store.” Lucy held a palm out towards the woman. “Karime, this is y/n.” 

“It’s so nice to finally meet you!” Karime said, and y/n had to restrain from cringing at her nasally, high-pitched voice. “I love what you’ve done with this place! My store could use some re-camping, and when I saw the article I just had to come and see if I could hire you.” Karime makes gestures with her manicured hands, and titles her head in ways that makes her hair shake like sheets in the wind.

“Oh! Um…” 

“Why don’t you go ahead and talk with Karime, we’re all covered back here.” said Lucy, an extra-pleased tone in her voice; the voice she used with customers to keep them happy, y/n had recognized. Oh so now you don’t want me to work? y/n thought to herself, but gave the same smile the green-eyed stranger had given her, and walked out through the waist high swinging door to meet with Karime.  

“So, I wanted to know if it was possible to hire you on a month to month basis. Ou could come in the first week of every month, decorate, redecorate, while I suggest and give you a picture of what I want, like you did for Lucy.” Karime had a bamboo handle purse, and they clacked together every time she moved her hands in ‘here’ or ‘there’ gestures.  

They’re both standing at the start of the record shelves, and Y/n is awkwardly shifting her weight from foot to foot and fiddling with her hands. She’s sweating, too. This was huge. Big. Is this what networking was? Getting the word out? Expanding? If she said yes, it’s possible that it’d create a cycle. Someone else would come in, asking for help, to hire, to contract. It was a rush. She was giddy, excited. But most of all, nervous. One, because she’s a bit clumsy in the social aspect, and Two, because she had a standard to meet. 

Despite all this, she said, “Of course, when do I start?” 

Then, Karime had given y/n the address of her shop (a weird mix of aromatherapy, kale smoothies with books), and they decided on a day to meet up (the second day of every month starting November, two days from that day). 

Karime left after that. She hadn’t bought anything. Lucy congratulated y/n, squealed over it even, and Lucy never squeals. Kim looked over at them when he heard Lucy, and tried to ask what all the fuss was about. Lucy demanded he go back to work, and y/n ignored him. 

When closing time came, the girls did the bare minimum, and rushed out to pregame at Mike’s apartment. Like crazy teenagers, Lucy and y/n shared three bottles of a Stella Rosa bottle that had been on sale at the grocery store at the corner of Mike’s apartment complex. Inside, Mike was 2 beers in, and claimed he wouldn’t drink anymore since he was the DD. 

“You guys go on and drink yourselves black.” he said, sitting on the couch with a water in his hand and Lucy in his lap.  Mike, a slender punk rock kid who proved his mom wrong in the fact that his like for the color black is ‘not a phase’ is the sweetest guy y/n had ever met. He wasn’t afraid to show his love for Lucy, always doting on her, and if she asked, would rip out his heart and give it to her. 

Y/n was jealous. She yearned for a relationship like theirs, and no matter how long she waited, how hard she tried, Prince Charming never showed. Instead, she was stuck with watching Mike and Lucy rub into her face what she wanted so badly. 

Affection. Love. Companionship. 

Cheers to that, y/n thought. Her bottle of Mango and whatever the heck the flavor was called, was nearly done and she could still walk in a straight line. The wine was juice in her hands. Child’s play. Water. It had no effect on her. Not until she was three bottles in. It took an entire bottle of Smirnoff vodka shots to get her going once. Only then could she completely let go. 

“A lonely soul drowns in Stella Rosa, Mike.” Lucy, her hair sticking up like Einstein from the re-teasing she’d done in the bathroom. “There it stands, taking the shape of Selena. Poor, poor, Selena.” Lucy giggled. A teasing jab that made y/n pout, and y/n heart to clench because she knew Lucy was right. A lonely soul she was. 

“That’s not very nice of you, Lucy.” Y/n pointed at her friend, bottle in her hand. “First you yell at me at work, now you make fun of my love life?” Shes joking, too, but there's a bit of truth to her words. Meaning, Intention. 

“Drink up, lonely soul, and prepare for the battle that lies ahead: the making intercourse with an attendee of the club.”

“Blah,blah, and screw you.” grumbled y/n, finally, finishing the bottle with a final drink. 

.

.

Not that y/n had anything against it, but fuck the club. She hated it. She only ever went because Lucy or Mike or whoever else begged her to go with them and promised something in return. (Lucy promised she wouldn’t ask her for help the following day). She hated the lights, how load it was, and how much she was being touched. Sweaty men and women alike, rubbing up on her in places where she didn’t want to be, it was too hot, and her toes always got stepped on. 

“The usual for you, y/n?” Mike was yelling. His mouth was at her ear, but even then, only some of what he was saying made it into her ears. She simply nodded, and lifted up to fingers. Two gin and tonics. One part water, three parts gin. 

Lucy and y/n had managed to snatch a tiny booth when they walked in, and this was the place y/n was planning to spend most of her night. Not out on the blue-lit dance floor, not standing at the bar. Sitting at the dark booth, glumly sipping at her two gin-n-tonics. 

“You are not gonna sit here sippin’ glumly at your drinks, got that?” Luccy pulled at the lapels of her suit, popping her collar so the tips touched her jaw. 

“Lucy, please.” Y/n’s bangs were deflated and her lipstick was smudged, at her friends comment, she sunk into her seat and pulled her head around.  

“Let’s go.” 

Lucy tugged her onto the dancefloor just as some song by Cardi B or Nicki Minaj (y/n couldn't tell anymore) blared through the speakers, and the bass beat thrummed in her chest. They stayed for a few minutes, and in those few minutes, y/n’s toes grew numb with how much they’d been stepped on, and her hair was beginning to stick at the back of her neck. Lucy’s black and white makeup was gleaming with her sweat, and her hair dropped with condensation. 

It looked a bit funny really. Selene and Beetlejuice together on the dance floor. An odd pairing, but a parenting nonetheless. Lucy led her back to where Mike was when she got tired of dancing, and like an obedient puppy, y/n trailed behind her. When Lucy ordered y/n to chug her drink, she did it.

She couldn’t say not. Not to Lucy. Not to Karime. Not to James.

She couldn’t say no. 

And because she couldn’t say no, y/n woke up the next morning and couldn't remember a thing. She had a Katy Perry Last Friday Night moment. Sadly, there was no really hot guy next to her on her bed, and thankfully, she hasn’t wearing headgear. 

What woke her, was the pain behind her eyelids that started when the light hit her. With a groan, she hid in the crease of her elbow while she scraped her thoughts together. Y/n was still in her Selena get up. She itched, smelled, and had a headache that hurt like...well, it hurts so much that she didn’t even know what to compare it to. She felt on her nightstand, and there it was. Bless his heart. 

Mike had left her a glass of something cold, and two pills. She didn’t know for sure because she didn’t have the energy to peek and see, but the class was probably pedialyte. The hangover cure. The pills were Tylenol. They had to be, because he knew ibuprofen doesn’t do shit for her. 

“Fuck, fuck,fuck,” y/n mumbled. Her tongue felt like sandpaper against the dry roof of her mouth, and when she swallowed, there was a dangerous taste of gin to her spit. Pressing her fingertips to her aching temples, she curses Lucy for making her go out last night, and Mike for letting y/n chug alcohol. 

    Unfortunately, she makes the stupid mistake of rising quickly from her potition on the bed to ‘get it over with’ and not even a full second goes by when she feels her stomach contents worming up her throat. She had to clamp her lips together and rush to the bathroom with her blanket wrapped around her ankles so she doesn’t barf all over her floor. 

    She doesn’t make it in time, and she spilled her gut on the toilet seat, before she’s made it so that her head is positioned right over the toilet bowl. She heaves and heaves until her chest hurts from the muscle contractions and her throat burns from the amount of acidity her bile holds. Tears drop from the corner of her eyes to where her thumbs grasp the seat because it fucking hurts and she’s gotten throw up in her hair. 

    The pain in her chest seems to have gone deeper, and wrapped its sharp talons into her heart. Her tears become purposeful; there’s a reason behind them not. She wishes there was someone there to hold her hair. To rub her back and tell her it was all going to be okay. To bring her the glass of pedialyte of her bedside table and coax her to drink it because she’d forgotten it. 

 Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, y/n gets up and flushes the toilet, wiping down the toilet seat with paper from the roll. The blanket, still curled around her ankles, she picks up and hoists it over her shoulders. She gurgles water from the sink before heading out, avoiding making eye-contact with the horrendous image in her mirror. 

Pedialyte goes down like the gin did last night, and she throws in the pills when she drinks, simultaneously pulling the strings so her blings flip downwards and cut off the light coming in from the outside. Quickly, she strips from the itchy Selena ensemble, and slips on a red t-shirt with the Kool-Aid man’s face on it over her head. Y/n has learned that its worse to go to bed and not eat, so she doesn't get back into bed, even though she really wants to and instead throws the blanket on top of her scattered pillows, and turns to make breakfast in her impossibly tiny kitchen. 

She lives in a little lofty space in the downtown area. The cheapest of all her options, and the best kept compared to the rest. The windows were blackened around the edges, and her air conditioner didn’t work, but hey, at least she had a roof over her head that she didn’t have to share with her parents. And she liked the window wall, too, and how the windows propped open on hinges. The way her brick walls looked during golden hour. It was very pretty. Relaxing. 

Slowly but surely, she’s built herself a little home that she feels comfortable in. In her tiny little space, her favorite thing was her radio. An absolute steal at the thrift store: a really old radio with big knobs and the red line that moved left and right when you tried to pick a station. She went to it now, and turned it on at a soft volume. The song that always feels like it's about a one winged dove by Fleetwood Mac came on, and she hums it softly while she turns on the stove. It click, click, clicks on when the gas catches flames, and she pours oil into a pan to crack an egg over it. The white edges sizzle, and bits of oil jump up and splash onto her skin. It happens so much it doesnt hurt her; she doesn't even flinch.  When the egg begins to turn golden, she turns down the knob, and goes back to her fridge in search of an avocado. Call her a trend follower, but she’d be damned if egg and avocado didn’t hit the spot. Plus, she makes an ace toast. 

Surprisingly, the smell of egg (her dad likes to say eggs smell like ass) doesn’t upset her stomach, no. Actually, her stomach grumbled when she smelled it, and the ache that had begun to spread across the lower region of her abdomen made her hurry to cut open the avocado, and pop in a slice of sourdough bread into the toaster. She fore-went mayo that time, instead just wanted to get something into her burning stomach because she was so hungry. Her eyes blearily while she does all this. 

By the time she’d spread her avocado and egg of the long slices of bread, the radio was playing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun By Cindy Lauper and y/n is doing a little happy dance on her way to her wicker table by the window, next to the bookshelf resting against her wall. Before she sat down, she reached for a novel on the shelf, and set it alongside her plate on the table. 

Biting into her toast, she opened the book. 

    Dani’s cheeks blushed a wine-pink color. She looked away.

“You confuse me so,” she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear. 

“How?” He grazed her jaw with gentle fingers, enough to turn her so she’s looking at him.

“You say that what we have, this spectacle we put on, is simple only to convince the people you will be a good king, but them you look at me… like that.”

“Like what? Like I want to kiss you?” he whispered, smiling faintly. “Because I do.” 

She seemed not to know what to say, and resolutely, she turned so she sat facing forward between his spread thighs, back to him. 

He realized then, that her shyness had caught up with her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and set his chin on her shoulder. 

“I’m no expert in etiquette, Your Highness, but I’m sure this is high;y improper.” She sait, stiffly and primly while he cuddled her.

“Proper? They call me Rafe the Rake. I’d say, my little peach, that we passed proper a long time ago.” 

“Don’t call me that,” she mumbled. 

“What do you wish I call you then?”

“Dani.” 

He chuckled at her response. “It’s a hellions name. It suits you well, all right. You can call me Rafe, if you like.”

“I do not wish to call you Rafe.” “No?”

“It’s a scoundrel’s name. I wish to call you Rafael. Like the angel.” 

“An optimist, aren’t you?” Rafael began combing his fingers through her hair, sifting through the silking

strands then massaging down her neck and shoulders.

She sank back into his chest with a sigh. “That feels wonderful.” 

“I should probably warn you,” he leans forward so that his lips are pressed against the shell of her ear. “I’m rather gifted with my hands.” She tensed again when he leaned down and nibbled on the skin of her neck, but Rafael left her melt in his arms when he continued his sensual massage on her shoulders. “Are you uneasy with this?” He paused to take her hands into his own, feeling as if he were young again with the first girl he had taken a liking towards.

“No,” she said quietly.

“Good.” With fingers still threaded through hers, he drew her hands back, and pinned her arms ever so gently behind her for a moment, gazing down her neckline at her creamy chest. Her breasts her small, but awfully perky and firm. He wondered if he could fit the entirety of one in his mouth. He bet that she’d like it if he did. 

Y/n paused for a moment, and clenched her thighs together. A buzzing feeling was starting to form on her clit, and she felt the space where her thighs touch grow warm. The Kool-aid man’s eye popped with hoe erect her nipples were. She was aroused. And she knew that the feeling would only grow more intense the longer she read, which she planned on doing. So, she picked up her plate, placed it in the sink, and took her and her book into her dark room. 

    Her novel, Our Sign of the Times by Lemus Knox was tatted and bent this way and that from all the times she’s cracked the pages open for a steamy read. A painting of a bodacious woman and handsome prince posing in front of a castle adorned the front cover (one of the main reasons why she bought it). The was was strong, with raven hair and a strong jaw that portured strongly as he kissed the brunette woman in a lilly gown that he held in his arms. The castle was cottage like, with ivy covered walls and stone hedges; complete with a moat and bridge wrapping around the area. The author, Lemus Knox, painted the image himself, as he say so in the acknowledgements. No one knows who he is, how old he is, where he lives, or anything else about him really. A pseudonym, he says. A way to keep his life private life and still do what he loves to do: write.Y/n stumbled upon his book two years ago, in the best sellers section at Barnes and Nobles, and has been slowly falling in love with him and his characters ever since.

    When she settled back into her blankets, y/n opened her book, and placed a single hand on her tummy, over the Kool-aid man’s mouth.

    “It’s getting dark,” she said rather breathlessly, “don’t you think it’s time we head back?”

    “I like being on the water at night. You can’t see. You can only hear the wares and you have to feel,” he teasingly brushed his fingers over the tops of her breasts, “your way back to shore. Feel your way through the dark.” He whispered into her ear,one of his hands splaying on her stomach and pushing back up, up, up to her breasts. “A man has to know exactly what he’s doing.” 

    She arched against him with a soft catch in her breath as he finally cupped her small breast in his large hands; her generous nipples turned hard underneath his circling thumbs. 

    “Rafael,” she moaned breathlessly, arms wrapped against his neck as she pushed her swollen mounds against his roaming hands. “We can’t. We’re not married yet.”

    “Oh, my sweet love.” Rafael’s hands slid back down against her belly and began stroking her thighs. “I don’t plan on deflowering you yet. I simply wish to learn what it is you like.”

    “But… I do not know what I like.” Her words were gasps of dreamy pleasure. 

    “Then I guess we’ll have to find out, won’t we?” 

    Knowingly, y/n’s hand began to follow the same path that Rafael’s had. Thumbs circling against swollen nipples, fingertips teasing the insides of her thighs.

    Her head was cushioned against his chest, and she turned her fact to him, seeking his mouth in innocent yearning. He lowered his head, and parted her lips with long strokes of his tongue into her sweet mouth, savoring the way she tasted. She reached up, and caressed his cheek as they kissed in slow, soulful agony. 

While she ran her fingers through his unbound hair, Rafael deftly inched her skirts upward over her exquisite legs. His heart pounded as she let his hands roam under the gathered layers of silk gown and muslin petticoat. He groaned into her lips when his fingers came to the edge of her white stockings, and found tenderly warm skin. His groin flooded with heat and his body turned rock hard in an instant. Unwilling to push her beyond what she was currently willing to give him, Rafael fought to keep his needs in check. 

Having been with many of the calculating damsels of the court, he knew that Dani was unlike them. She was soft, fragile, small, so precious in his arms. And while she may think herself independent, Rafael wanted nothing more than to hold her close and protect her, as much as he wanted to give her glimpses of what was in store for the night of their wedding. 

Under her dress, he took his time exploring, kneading, caressing her belly, her hips, all the while devouring her mouth. Behind closed eyelids, he smiled to himself when she began to writhe and twist in his hold, virginal madness getting the best of her. 

“Rafael, Rafael,” her voice grew drunk with urgent need. 

When he stroked her at her ore, he was more than pleased to find she was soaked with silky wetness, throbbing under his fingertips with pure female invitation. 

“Dani,” he mumbled against her earlobe, as her took her skirts with his empty hands and raised them higher and higher. “Would you like to watch?”

“NO! I couldn’t.” Her chest heaved. “Don’t make me.”

“Watch me touch you.” he murmured as his fingertips began to circle. “There’s nothing to be ashamed  of, my darling. I only want to fulfill your desires. Watch me pleasure you. Look at how beautiful you are , your sweet body. My wild, virgin love.” 

“Oh , Rafael!” she turned and kissed him ardently. A burning moisture inexplicably rose behind his eyelids, and quickly fled as their kiss ended. 

    He kissed the curve of her neck, moved by his shy uncertainty as she lowered her heat to watch as he touched her, panting slightly. She was so ready, he thought in pure agony as his hardness chafed against her back through their clothes. It would have been easy to take her then and there, on the warm glossy planks of the deck, but her repeatedly shoved that temptation aside, vowing to prove his respect for her by making their wedding night her first time.

        Y/n, too, was panting as she continued to read, her vision growing blurry with pleasure and need. 

    His thumb deftly teased her jeweled center, while his middle finger gently stroked inside her tight, fluid heat ,and as he kissed her ear and the back of her neck.

    Y/n threw the book aside, letting her own hands take the pace it needed to to bring her to her high. HEr slender fingers deftly pumped in and out of her slick hole, the hand that was holding her book now rubbing fast circles against her swollen button.  Wet mewls left her swollen lips, and her chest arched to meet hands that weren't there. The feeling of clenching in her abdomen and a squirming need something increased. 

    She left herself clenching on nothing, pinching her pert nipples with damp fingers as she rubbed faster and harder circles onto her mound. 

    “Fuck, fuck fuck,” she gasped under her breath, a long groan escaping her as she felt it instenifsy; anticipation of water nearly spilling. It hit her like a splash of cold water, her head thrown back against her pillows with her mouth open; a scream and no sound. Her body felt electrifies, her veins fueled by fire. 

    And when it died out,

    She fell back like a ragdoll, limp and tired onto her sheets. Y/n was all droopy eyelids and noodle limbs after her orgasm. 

    She fell back asleep with sticking fingers on top of her red Kool-Aid man t-shirt.

.

.

“... you know what I mean?”

“So… you don’t want a beach theme?” y/n asked. Karime, dressed in another silk dress, but this time in floral red pattern, was having a very hard time identifying the theme she wanted for her Aromatherapy cafe/library. 

“No, but I just want like, beach-y vibes. Airy? Ooopen. Yes, open.” 

“So plants,” Y/n jotted bulleted notes into her planner, in a blank section under ‘Karime’. “White and green color scheme. Open, clear room.” 

The two are standing at Karime’s shop, three streets away from Rockstar; an alarmingly vast space with plain walls and counters. Y/n has a lot of blank canvas to work with, and much to improvise because Karime wasn’t being exact with her vision. She hadn’t even set up a moodboard like she said she was because ‘an LA girl has a wild life you know, hun?’ 

Y/n truly wished she didn’t know. 

“Okay now, what’s your budget?”  she asked, her tone businesslike but full of warmth and interest. 

“Um, how much do you think you’ll need?” Karime wasn’t looking at her, no, she was picking at her cuticles, and pushing them back with her thumbs; her nails had grown and blank space separated the polish from her skin. Karime was across y/n, behind the quick-serve counter where smokey machines and masks where all lined up; one for each stool. 

“Plants are expensive. If you want big and already grown plants, they’re expensive- ranging from $20 to, I don't know… maybe $80?” Y/n taps her pen on her chin. “Furniture, and other wall decor I can craft and thrift, so that right there is maybe $200? $400 tops.” 

“Okay.” Karime said, shrugging her shoulders with a crescent moon smile on her pink lips, “I’ll write you a check for $3,000 to start. I don’t want anything from second-hand like Goodwill or anything like that. I’ll give you addresses to pre-selected antique stores and the likes. Now, you mentioned something about measurements?”

“Yes! Thanks for reminding me,” she’d forgotten all about that, and it truly is a key process in the decor department. “Do you happen to have a measuring tape?”

“Actually, yes. There’s one in the back, I’ll go get it.” Karime pushed herself off the granite table top, and turned on her heel to walk through a golden confetti curtain, leaving y/n seated at the counter.  

For a moment. She fiddled with the tubes coming from the humidifying machine in front of her, an opaque purple bowl with two tubes sticking out from opposite sides that connect to facemasks that cover your mouth. They’re cool to the touch, but warm when her fingers linger. A humming sound emits from the machine when she accidentally presses the start button, and she pushes it again in a panicked state to make it stop. She decides it’s best if she stops messing around with expensive machinery, and instead turns to looking at the small amount of people that are in the shop.  

There’s no one really up and about at 10 in the morning on a Sunday. The few that were, came with laptops to do work in the library section of the shop, with coffees on their tables, or some kind of breakfast, which had to be from somewhere else because Karime didn’t have a menu for food. Just drinks.

One of these really risers, a man who hunched over a sticker covered Mac, looked strangely familiar. Y/n was staring at his choice of clothing (a worn down Brittney Spears shirt with jeans and rolled at the ankles and pristine white vans) when he turned to look at her. It was then, looking onto his dazzling green eyes and watching his taffy pink lips curl into a smile and a hand coming up in a small wave, did y/n recognize that it was the stranger that recognized her Halloween costume a few days ago.  

Cheeks heating with clear embarrassment, y/n raised her own hand and timidly twiddles her fingers. She mouthed hello and tried to keep from cringing when he raised a finger to rub under his nose to hide the way his lips twitch upwards. His nose scrunches and wiggles, and his eyes wrinkle at the corner, a cheeky gleam in his look.

“Y/n!” Karime, reappearing, held a ruler in her hand. A ruler. “This is the best we’ve got, babe.” 

Her head snaps from the familiar stranger to Karime, who smiled as if she’d just solved all their problems when she’d really just created more because measuring with a ruler? Seriously. Y/n curses at herself for forgetting to bring her own measuring tape. 

She has no other option than to nod, smile, and take the ruler, and start taking measurements.  

Like the hand-over-hand motions of steering a car, y/n has to place the ruler, mark where it ends with her nail, and repeat the process again and again. 

The walls, the patio, window space, countertops, tables, and the one she’s dreading to do: the dimensions of the room the stranger is sitting in. Karime’s place was split in two and a half. A small outdoor patio, the man space with tables and machines, and the library lounging space. The library lounge space, a doorway cut into a small cozy room to the left when you walk in. 

    She’d yet to go in there and measure the walls and bookshelves, putting in on to last in hopes that he’d leave because measuring with a ruler is really embarrassing and it’s possible that she’d be shuffling around him. 

God.

    Getting a grip, she pulled her shoulders back and walked into the room, counting how many steps it took to walk through the door frame. She felt like fingers trapped in a Chinese finger trap, constricted. 

Walking into the room, the stranger didn’t look up, instead he looked even more immersed in his work than ever. Eyebrows furrowed and fingers tapping away on his keyboard. He was even leaning into his computer screen, like he couldn’t get whatever it was he needed to type onto the screen fast enough. 

Sure enough, staring at him, lost in whatever it was he was typing, y/n stumbled on her own two feet, and an absurd noise escapes her lips when she tried to catch herself. 

She doesn’t turn to see if he’s looked at her (he did, with a grin that showed off his bunny-like teeth) and instead hangs her head and makes her way to the opposite wall. Great way to be inconspicuous, she thought to herself. 

The wall opposite the stranger, was tall, like the others were. And even though she was sure that it was most likely the same dimensions, she wasn’t going to take any chances. Pulling up a chair so she could stand on it once her arm couldn't reach anymore; huffing because Karime had those really heavy metal chairs that screeched if you didn’t pick them off the floor. Seven feet later, y/n had to step up on the chair, wobbling on her legs while she hiked up, pressing harder on the wooden ruler to make sure it’s place didn’t move.  

Her nail pins into the wall, at the end of the ruler, before using her other hand to move up the start of the ruler where her nail left off. When the ruler reached her hip, y/n stumbled leaned forward and effectively knocked out her balance so she was left flailing, falling, fa- 

Not falling. 

No, not falling, because two hands grip her hips, and pull her back on the chair to make sure she doesn't fall flat on her face. Her eyes are pinched un closed anticipation, waiting for the smashing of knees against the cold, hard floors but it never comes. 

“Gotcha!” says a deep british voice. A warm gust of minty wind flutters in y/n’s nose, and when she opens her eyes. Glittering green eyes, wispy strands of hair, and petal pink lips.

Right. In front. Of her face. 

“Selena, you’ve really got to be more careful,” he says, chuckling as his speaks so his words are broken with sounds of laughter. He’s even lifting her up from her leaned position off of the chair, and settling her down on the floor, biceps tightening and a humming noise coming from his throat as he does so. 

She’s flabbergasted. Doesn’t know what to say because she doesn’t think she’d ever been picked up before. Its ridiculous really, seconds away from eating shit on hard ass surface and all she can think about is how she was picked up. But jeez, who could blame her, the man was hot. 

    All sharp jawline, clavicles peeking out of his shirt, and the column of his throat such a nice pretty color. Quite handsome, really. 

    “Shit,” y/n finally manages to get out, her eyes wide, shoulders tense, and instinctively, her fingers are digging into his shoulders (though she’s not aware of it yet).  

    “You alright?” The man says, when he notices the way she’s gone rigid. He doesn’t say anything about the way her fingers are gripping at him.

    “Uhm, yes. I am now. Thank you…” Y/n’s voice comes out in breathy spurts, and her forehead glistens like she’s just run to catch the bus. That’s when she noticed where her fingers were placed; the way the white cloth dipped in from the amount of pressure she was exerting onto his skin. Cheeks turning a darker pink, she cleared her throat and avoided looking at him when she removed her hands. 

    “Harry” He mumbled. “My name’s Harry. Yours? Not quite sure if it’s Selena or not…”  

    “HA!” A loud exclamation, a bit too loud that it was awkward. “No. Not Selena. Y/n.” She looked into his eyes them, raising her chin the last inch to move from Brittney Spears face to his eyes. Eyes the color of light streaming through a tree leaves in a forest on a spring forest. Y/n sucks in a breath.

    “Well, wonderful to meet you, y/n.” He leans towards her, a ringed finger pointing jeeringly at the stick still in her hands. “I gotta say, measuring with a ruler?” 

    “Very efficient. As you can see,” She shakes the hand the ruler is in, and then uses the ruler to point at the seemingly innocent metal chair “You should try it sometime.”

    “Only if you catch me.” Harry grabs his own wrists behind his back, his shoulders hunching forwards and head shaking side to side a bit as his speaks. 

    It takes a moment for her to drink in what he’s said, to fully react with a scoff and a smile. “Catch you? I’ll hold you up on my shoulder’s myself.” 

“Then we’ll both end up sprawled on the floor, all roughed up and bruised.”

They both laugh at their jokes, and Harry even goes as far as to clap his jean clad knee. When it gets quiet, their laughs dying down, Harry speaks again.

“Saw you in the paper. Helped decorate Rockstar didn’t you?” 

Y/n’s jaw drops. Her lips opening and closing like a fish eating crumbs at the water’s surface. “The paper? What paper?” This was news to her. She was aware that the article James would write would be like, online or something. But a physical paper. That’s a little bigger. And him having remembered. Having identified her. 

“The local paper. WeHoVille.” He quirked an eyebrow at her, one side of his lips pulling up in a confused manner. “Was picking up a sleepy time tea and honey at the Wholefoods, and you painting was a feature next to the counter. Didn’t show your face, but I walked past that day and remembered.” 

    “The paper… wow. I didn’t know. But yes,”Y/n twirls the ruler on in circles with her fingers, putting all her weight on one hip so on of her feet could tap loosely on the floor. “I decorated Rockstar.” After a beat, “What’d you think about it?”

    “The place is amazin’!” A strand of Harry’s hair flops down to the space between his eyebrows and eyelashes, tickling his skin. He had to brush his fingers through his hair to comb it back.  “Love the feel of it. Gotta stop myself from going in everyday or might blow all my money on Stevie’s usual.”

    “That’s my favorite too! Next time you’re there, give me a wave down and I’ll have you covered.” Y/n’s offers had Harry’s eyebrows raised in seconds. “Least I could do, given you saved me from a concussion and all that.” She tried to explain, words coming out in a flurry from her mouth. 

He chuckles at her flustered stare, the same repressed smirk that he’d given her when he caught her staring. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind.” Silence and then, “What do you plan on doing with the place?” 

“Turn it into a greenhouse,” y/n said bluntly. The two were still standing next to the wall y/n was measuring, and Harry leaned one of his shoulders against it, moving his hands from behind his back to his front, wrapping one around the other one’s wrist.

    “That’ll be nice. Even more uh, how do you say, therapeutic? I guess more relaxing than the place already is. Karime said plants?” He asked. It didn’t quite settle with y/n that he knew Karime on a first name basis, that he was interested in knowing she picked plants, and she wanted so badly to say: Karime doesn’t know what she wants, but instead pushes that feeling away and goes with,

    “Well, she gave me a scope to work with. A color scheme. A gist. Certain decorations she wanted to see. So on and so on. Plants is just what I took from it. And it goes with her place because it has to deal with aromatherapy and all that. What do you think?”

    “I think you’ve hit it right on. Can’t wait to see what it’ll look like.” He raps a knuckle on the wall. “Did you still need wall measurements? I’ll hold you so you don’t fall again.” 

    Timidly, she responds, “Okay.”

    “Up you get, then.” Harry pointed to the chair, and y/n raises her leg to hike up, this time with Harry’s hands placed on her hips, steadying her. 

    A tiny dash on the wall where her nail slid off marks where she was at when she nearly fell off the metal chair, and this is where she places the ruler. She left off at 7 feet, the ruler at her hip. Resuming the same positions, she starts to wobble again, and Harry's hands tight, holding her straight. 

    She guesses he hears her gasp when she feels herself wobble because he says “I’ve gotcha.” 

    Y/n moved the ruler up one, two, and three more times, and then her arm can’t stretch anymore and pinches one eye closed to cry and guess how many more feet are left. She guessed four… ish. On a whim, she tries to push the ruler up once more, and her shirt rides up on the left side of her hips. Warm sequential breaths hit her skin, and a shiver drops down her spine when she realizes what’s happened. 

    Harry, ever the gentleman, doesn’t waste a second, and slides his pointer and middle finger over her skin, his warm fingers splaying over goosebumps to pinch her shirt and pull it down for her. 

    “All done,” she squeaks. “Coming back down.” 

    Harry released her, but offers her a hand and she takes it, holding on to his as she comes down, his palms warm and rings cool; a nice contrast. 

    “Thank you so much for h-”

    “Y/n?” 

    Booth Harry and y/n tun to the doorway that leads to the main room, where Karime stands with a checkbook in her hands. Y/n turns back to look at Harry. The curls behind his ears, the blonde hairs on his top lip. He turns to look at her, and gives her a closed lip smile. She smiles back and twiddles her fingers, mouthing a bye bye.

    Karime walks away when she sees that y/n is following her, and takes them both back to their position on the counter. 

   “Here’s the check. Two thousand dollars. Deposit it into your account, and use it for gas, furniture, anything that has to do with Aromareads you can pull from this.” She opens the book and tears out the slip of paper. “I will need receipts. And your name?” 

   Karime glances up at y/n, only to see that she’s busy looking back through the door frame at Harry. The manager is slightly irked at the fact that the person she’s hiring to reshape her business isn’t paying attention, but following her line of gaze, Karimer can’t blame her. Harry, a usual in her store, is a very very handsome man. Towering, with broad back and a neck Karime would love to bite into if she wasn’t gay. He sat at his laptop, thighs spread and eyes hard and stern, pondering with a pout. Karime is sure that what caught my/n’s attention is the way Harry’s thighs and crotch looked at that very moment, enticing, strong, sensual. 

    Clearing her throat, “Y/n. I need a full name to address the check.”

    Y/n’s neck snaps towards Karime, her hair getting caught on her lips at her velocity. “Uh- yes, sorry it’ll be Y/n Y/l/n.” 

    Karime repeated her name, and asked for her to spell it, which she did while stuttering mildy. 

    “Here you go.” Clicking her pen against the marble countertop, Karime handed the check to y/n. “Listen, by no means do I wanna pressure you, but if you could get this down before the holidays are in full force, I would love that.” 

    “Oh, don’t worry. It won’t take me that long.” 

    .

    .

    And it definitely didn’t. 

    On Monday, y/n spent the entire day (and part of her night) driving to most of the places Karime had sent her through a text. She spent a few minutes googling the places and looking through the pictures that came up and cursing every time it would redirect her to yelp- because really who has yelp? The antique stores were all spread out in the Los Angeles area.

    There was one in Long Beach. The pictures showed a really big warehouse with chair lying on top of each other and tables littered with little statues and the likes. Here she bought baskets. Tons of them. Gus (the owner) has dedicated an entire isle to them. When he saw y/n’s cart, the laughed then asked her “Why dolly, whadda ya need all them baskets for?” And when she told him it was for business, he offered her coupons and package deals. 

    “Tell ya what,” he scratched the scruff on his chin, the only hair he had because he was bald, “You buy all these baskets,” he pointed to her cart, “I’ll give you a twenty pa’cent discount on ya purchase, and if ya want, you can pick anathin’ ya want from over there because no one wants tuh buy them.” Then he pointed to a pile of books that lay haphazardly next to a stove and a turquoise refrigerator. She paid one hundred and fifty.

    She walked out with wicker baskets, one being a picnic basket she snatched for herself, lined nicely with red patterned cloth and a lid for it to close, and that same picnic basket full of regency novels from the 90’s.

    There was another in Laguna. A beachside thrift shop, where she paid for (very overpriced) frames of painted lighthouses and beach landscapes for that ‘beach’ factor Karime wanted. By this time, she drove back towards Hollywood to drop the items back at Aromareads because her car was getting full. She didn’t go inside, just unloaded the tings in the back and Karime took them inside. If she had, she would’ve seen Harry.

    Y/n then took to the shops in the downtown area. One being, a swapmeet type place where you walked through and looked at all the furniture. They set up different sections for different themes. Victorian, regal, animal skin themed, and a hall full of mirrors. Y/n bought a large 8x8 mirror for five hundred dollars. It would be delivered the following day.

    One of the sections was retro-themed, and she snapped a picture of a hip-height lava lamp and sent it to Lucy. Lucy then proceded to beg y/n through to text to please buy that I fucking need it. Will pay u back. So she bought it; $100 that she knew would be no big deal for Lucy given all the business she had. 

    Her final stop, were the flowers and plants district. There, she placed a large order for 30 succulents, and an assortment of nearly 100 leafy plants to fill the baskets with. She blew $1,000 there. 

    By the end of the day, she’d wasted nearly all of Karime’s check; a measly two hundred remaining after she refilled her car with gas (give or take some). Y/n met with Karime at around 6, in the back parking lot again, and left everything she’d bought. 

    “Oh! And the mirror should be delivered tomorrow before closing time.” 

    Karime was wearing a caramel turtle neck and black slacks tucked into latex ankle boots, her hair pinned back and tied into a spiky ponytail. Her ears were adorned with pearl earrings, and her fingers were jammed into golden rings. Y/n felt embarrassed in her measly purple jumper and paint splattered mom jeans.  Her accessories consisted of a fanny pack full of nails and a hammer at her waist.

    “Good, good. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow-” Karime was already turning back and returning into the shop when Y/n said:

    “Actually I was hoping I could start now.” Her words lifted into a question at the end, half suggesting half stating. 

    Karime’s face morphed into one of confusion and surprise, but in the end she agreed, and told y/n to do as she pleased.

Upon first entering, y/n is disoriented. 

    She walks into a frenzy of… nothing. It’s like an industrial kitchen, but completely empty. Occupied only by the things she had brought in. She remembers that she walked into the back and not the front, and it made sense because Karime doesn’t offer anything that would require use of the kitchen. Everything she has is done at the bar by the barista outside. 

    Karime leaves y/n in the back, where she asses her items. The baskets. The frames. And well, that’s really all there is. It would be more with all the plants coming in. She realizes that she doesn’t really have much to work with and there really isn’t much to do than hang picture frames, and there’s only five of them. 

    Nonetheless, she goes outside with the first frame in hand. A soft blue painting of a lighthouse on an island with light from a hole in a cloudy sky shining on the building. When she picked this one up, she knew exactly where it would go. By the wall next to the sliding door that lead to the patio. She sauntered over to the spot then, dodging a woman on her boyfriend on her way there. It was packed, and rightfully (it was a tuesday).

    She reached the spot, and lifted the picture on the wall, lifting and tilting so it would fit naturally. Eventually, she found the sweet spot, and reached for the hammer she had stuck into her belt loop and the box of nails she’d placed into the fanny pack on her waist. 

    Without hesitation, she put the first nail on the wall, and started banging. Three taps in, and she hung the wire on the nail, balancing it so it looked the way she envisioned it. After she was done, y/n stepped back to admire her handiwork, and tilted her head to the side the way one does when their looking at a picture that’s upside down. 

    Perfect. 

    She walked around the shop then, with the purpose of noticing empty spots on the walls, anything that could be filled up with artistry. The simple tables? No they had to stay that way. Placing something on the tables would clutter them and tarnish the ‘relax’ mode people came in for. The window that faced the street? Yes. Y/n planned on lining them with hanging droopy plants on the edges, not obscuring but not leaving a clear view either. She’d have to buy shelves to place baskets on the walls. Hooks to hang them. This she would do with what was left from the check.

     Yet… something was missing. The alternative-ness she knew should be there. Something ‘hippie’ and ‘aesthetic’, off the minimalist side of things. 

    Looking into a corner where the walls met, a light bulb went off. She knew exactly what was missing. Letters. Y/n had seen an image on Pinterest not even less than a month ago. A picture of a string of letters. Or rather, a message. It said something along the lines of  ‘You are my light’ or something edgy like that. Each word had been hand cut and strung onto a piece of- she didn’t know, string? Tweed? A wire?- and hung in a corner of a room where walls met. It knocked off every box on the checklist. Minimalist. Crafty. Aesthetic. And cheap, considering how low the money was.

She knew she’d have to brainstorm phrases and pass them by Karime, but she’d worry about that later.

    .

    .

    It was Friday. One day after the plants had been delivered, and y/n was set to work full force. Sure, she’d have to work amongst customers, but no matter. It would get done. 

    She started in the back. With the plants. 

    Y/n had bought a plastic-type lining at the Home Depot to place soil in the baskets. She lined then all first, securing the material with tape around the edges. After, came the transfer and placement. She decided this would be a better method, and if there were extras she could have Karime sell them. This way, she wouldn’t overcrowd the place and stop when she saw an adequate fill of green. 

    The first, a circular basket with no handle the color of a waffle cone. Because it was one that would go on a shelf, she placed one of the droopiest plants in it, a green stream of vines and shrubby leaves.

    Last night, y/n had given Karime the benefit of the doubt, and allowed her to place shelves where she’d liked them So, before she opened at 7, Karime had decorated her store with wooden slabs for y/n to decorate. Taking the first plant, she walked out. 

   As expected, Aromareads was bustling with energy.     Women with mojitos in their hands, burnt out college kids hooked up to masks, older men and women laughing like tinkling bells. 

   She’s walking towards the first row of shelves she sees on the wall across from her, besides the sliding doors, basket held gingerly with both hands, when she hears:

   “Y/n!” 

   Looking to her left, she sees a sleepy, just-rolled-out-of-bed looking Harry. He’s wearing a black hoodie with the words ‘Treat people with kindness’ in a gradient rainbow color, and… and grey sweatpants. Grey. Sweatpants. 

   Grey sweatpants. 

   Y/n tries not to visibly swallow him whole as he walks towards her with an innocent smile on his face because god if she isn’t all hot and bothered right now. Her eyes seem to be magnetically attracted to his crotch, trying but failing to grasp and image of what may be lying underneath. 

“H-hey, Harry,” she smiles at him meekly, her voice cracking when she speaks. She cleared her throat and said again, “hey, Harry. S’nice to see you.” 

   “Nice to see you too.” He bows his head towards her, and endearing mannerism that has y/n’s heart pooling down to her ribcage. “I see you’ve brought out the green guns today.” A teasing grin on his extra red and shiny lips. Perhaps it was chapstick. It was rather windy outside.

   “You see correctly.” She giggles at his joke, at the same time, rolling her eyes at how cheesy he was being. “Today’s the day it all comes together.” 

“I’m excited to see how it all turns out. Don’t go falling on any chairs today alright?” He wags his finger at her, mocking a mother shunning her child.

“I’ll try not to. But if I do-” she said, coquettishly. 

“I’ll catch you.” 

“You better.” Laughing at him, she repeats his actions and lifts her finger up to point at him. 

   With a final laugh and a shake of his head, Harry walks away and into the working room. 

   Y/n watches him walk off, and walks off her own way as well, resting the basket against her hip as she went. When she reached the wall with shelves arranged in a checkered pattern, she placed the basket on top of the wooden plank, and tufted leaves so they look naturally messily placed. Unintentionally intentional; they way one teases their hair so it looks nice. 

   She went back to her work station: the now full kitchen, and repeated the process. Picked a basket, filled it with a plant, and took it outside. She left the hooks for last, wanting to leave of being in the way of people until she had too. Almost effortlessly, y/n filled Karime’s space with greenery. Cacti on shelves, large leaves and vines on walls, frames of beach paintings on nails. Once, she pricked her finger because her it had accidentally slipped inside the glass globe in which the succulent was in. 

    When the time finally came to walk into the room Harry was in, the outside was looking rather… forest-y. She liked the way it looked; a calm type of chaos. One that showed relaxation and no care for anything. Which was the point of the entire place. Come in. Relax. Breathe in from diffusers to get that extra push to decompress.

   Harry sat in his usual spot, directly in spot of the doorway, in one of the middle tables. Hunched over his computer with fingers flying over his keyboard. He had earphones in this time, white buds tucked right into his ears, stray strands of hair looping and covering them. His lips were placed in a puckered pout, the scrunched pink skin twitching from left to right.

    Humming to herself, y/n forces herself to walk past him, forces herself to not turn back and glance at Harry even if she can feel his gaze burning into her back. She makes it seem like the hook and plant in her hand are the most interesting things in the world. Turning it over in her fingers, and even going as far as to lift the basket (this on with a handle and curved bowl bottom) to her nose and smell it. 

    “Need a hand with that?” Harry says from behind her. She feels his presence from behind her, standing close enough that she can feel when he reaches to her front and takes the basket from her hands.  Y/n’s heart starts beating as fast as a hummingbird's wings. Closing her eyes to get a hold of herself, all she sees is green. Green, the color of his eyes.

   “Yes, please.” Her voice is small, shy.

    Harry, feeling bold, nudged the tip of his nose on the hair behind her ear. Enough to make her notice, but not enough to make her completely sure that it was there. “Where do you want it?” He says, breath hot on the shell of her ears. Her eyes widen, and her body goes on full alert. She’s suddenly aware of the closeness of his hips on hers, the brushing of the fabric on her the back of her hand.

    “Up…” Y/n steps forward, towards the wall. She places her finger on the smooth surface, and traces it over to where she wants it, doing loopty-loops to her desired spot. “...here.”

  He places the nail on the wall, hits it with the hammer that y/n gives him and hooks the basket as well. He turns to her when he’s done.

  “Got any more?” He asks, placing a hand on his hip.

  “Yeah, in the back. Wanna come help me?” Y/n points with a thumb to the doorway, half of her body turning as well.   

    “Lead the way.” 

    So they leave together to the backroom, y/n holding open the golden curtain for Harry to walk through. He looks around endearingly, his neck stretching and eyes darting from place to place as he takes in his surroundings. Y/n is stuck at the expression on her face, her heart strings pulling when her ears listen to the soft giggle that escapes his lips.

So they leave together to the backroom, y/n holding open the golden curtain for Harry to walk through. He looks around endearingly, his neck stretching and eyes darting from place to place as he takes in his surroundings. Y/n is stuck at the expression on her face, her heart strings pulling when her ears listen to the soft giggle that escapes his lips.

    “S’very nice back here.” 

    “Wanna grab a few baskets? Place ‘em in the lounge?” 

    “Sure thing.” Harry wraps his hand around the handle of three baskets at the same time, and with the other, he grabs the still-packaged hooks and wait for y/n by the doorway. She hurried to grab two succulents, and met Harry at the doorway. They had an awkward moment of deciding who’s going first. A huffle of backwards and forwards until eventually, Harry held his palm out to allow her to go through while biting his lip. Y/n ducked her head and felt the tips of her ears go warm. 

    “So, I tried Elton John yesterday.” He said, trailing behind y/n into the lounge like a little puppy. If he had a tail, it’d be wagging. 

    “Oh? How was it?” She replied, juggling the two glass casings in her hand, and then pricking herself again. She flinches, but doesn’t make any noises. 

    “Think I might have a new favorite,” he said, bashfully ducking his own head and peeking at her through his hair. Her heart fluttered, and if it could, she was sure it would bust out with the dreamy sighs she suppressed.

    “It’s that serious?” She asked. 

    “It’s that serious.” They reach the lounge, and y/n sets the succulents she carries in her hands down on a table.  “Have you had it yet?” Her stretches her hands out to Harry, signaling for him to give her his items. 

    “No, not yet. Should probably give it a try if its changed your mind. Can you pass me a hook?”  Harry gives her all four packages he holds in his one hand. When she wraps her hand around them, her finger brushes against the chubby part of his hand. 

    “Here you go- I only drank it ‘coz like, I’m on this diet thing and needed a drink with oat milk in it. Elton’s was the first one I saw. Woke me right up, too.” 

    “Diet you say?” y/n took the hammer and walked over to her desired stop, a few feet away from the one Harry had put in. 

    “Some altered version of keto. Had a really bad bug, had me feeling icky and ‘just decided it was the best.” He takes place next to her, watching as she positioned the nail and hit it a few times with the hammer. He held out a basket on his finger when she was done. She was a whirlwind, he thought. Busy little bee, never stopping. Harry nearly feels bad because she’s so full of energy, bouncing back from the table to the wall and arranging plants before he could even blink. “S’not fair. Not letting me do any work.” A pout appears on his lips, eyes teasing.

    “You just stand there and look pretty. I’ve-” she points to herself, finger at her chin. “Got this.” 

    Harry grumbles something that she doesn’t catch with his chin tucked into his neck. 

“What was that?’ she hums. 

    “‘Said, can’t exactly be pretty ‘coz you took that job too.” 

    Y/n’s hands still. Immediately, she feels her chest grow red roses blooming on her cheeks. She’s not exactly… embarrassed, per say. No. The familiar feeling of ants running wildly in her lower stomach began to burn, her ribcage tickling as butterflies try to creep out with beating wings. Pretty. He had called her pretty. 

    “Uhm, thank you?” 

    “You’re very welcome, darling.” His tone of voice is smug. And when she looks over at him with eyebrows raised, he’s biting his lip and his looking at her through his eyelashes like he had before, but there was no childish play in it this time. 

    “Say,” she picks up a succulent. “What’s it with you?” 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He shrugs.

“Lovin’ all up on me.”  She puts the succulent back down.

“S’nothing wrong with lovin’ all up on a pretty girl.”

There it is again. Pretty girl. Y/n is on fire her entire face pink, color concentrated on her cheeks and nose as if she had taken a walk in the brisk wind. 

“Stop it,” she said. 

Harry’s face turns concerned, brows kissing and lines appearing on his forehead. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” All work is forgotten, and instead they stand facing each other. 

“No! No, no,” Y/n’s eyes widen and her hands waving back and forth to eradicate the thought of her being disturbed by him. “S’just,” she sighs. “Not used to it, is all.”

Upon hearing this, Harry’s face breaks into a smile. “Well then,” he starts. “Better get used to it.” 

“Oh, you.” She playfully slaps his shoulder and picks up the succulent again, this time actually going to put it on a shelf adjacent to the window; a little alcove Karime has placed in a weird spot.

“When do you get a break?” 

“I think I get to take it whenever I want, why?”     “Wanna head down to Rockstar? Craving a Madonna right about now.”

“Never pegged you as a Madonna guy,” (the Madonna was a sweet caramel iced coffee with whipped cream and chocolate chips; not actually what Madonna would drink, and the beverage itself being one of the few inaccurate ones). “Let me finish with this, and I’ll let Karime know.”

So she did, much faster with Harry’s help. He handed her nails, hooks, and the plants she asked for. He asked if he could leave his stuff in the back, and he followed her back there once again, ticking his bag into an empty cupboard next to y/n’s things. On her way out, she said a quick goodbye to Karime who she was sure didn’t even hear what she said. 

Harry and her walked the short block side by side, with him playfully knocking his shoulder into hers and smiling like a mushy schoolboy when she pushed him back. They made small talk about drinks and the weather, shoulders hunched up and chins tucked in because it was a little cold.   Y/n’s frayed highschool sweater wasn’t doing much to keep her warm, and she had half the wind to pull her hood up the way Harry had his. 

Looking over at his, his nose was going a bit raw. Pink and the skin around it a little pale. By the time he noticed she was looking at him, they’d reached Rockstar, and he was opening the door for her. Murmuring a small thank you she walked through, and stepped to the side to wait for him to step inn as well, given he’d held the door open for the few people that had been walking behind him as well. From inside, she could see him nodding and smiling at everyone who stepped in. 

“You wanna grab a table and I’ll get the drinks?” she says to him when he appears next to her with hands in his hoodie pocket; she’s craning her neck to meet his eyes.

    “Sure. I’ll be in the records?” He takes one hand out to point over to where the records are.

    “Okay.” Y/n nods and head to the counter, where Lucy is busy taking someone’s order. She only see y/n when she walks behind the person and makes a silly face at her. Lucy laughs, but continues taking the order, and y/n pushes through the doors to put on an apron and make her and Harry’s drink. 

“Well if it isn’t y/n!” Says Kim.

“Y/n! Girly its been forever,” Kelsey bumps her hip when y/n get to work alongside her at the steaming machine.  

“Yes, yes, I know. Missed my favorite baristas.” she giggles, bumping her hip a little harder and making Kelsey gasp in faint shock. “Where’s Tilly?”

“Called in sick. Poor think could barely speak.” replied Kelsey. Y/n hummed a response, and made her drink first, a hot chocolate, and set it to the side to allow it to cool down meanwhile she made Harry’s. When Kelsey noticed her reaching for another measuring cup after just making her own she says,

“Two drinks?”

“Got a friend waiting for me in the records.” Y/n explained, pumping an extra pump of caramel into the cup. She puts in less ice too, and extra chocolate chips and whipped cream. 

    “The records…” Kelsey craned her neck out of where customers pick of their drinks to peek tp the records section. “Wait, wait, the one in the hood?”     “Yep,” said y/n, unbothered as she capped Harry’s drink.

    “Y/n!” Kelsey hissed, “He’s hot!” 

    “Yes, Kelsey, I am aware.” Y/n rolls her eyes and picked up both drinks, turning on her heels to walk out but nearly bumps into Kim, who stood not even an inch away from her. She backs up instantly.

    “So are you and he a thing?” He asked, leaning in closer to y/n’s face,his breath smelling on the ramen he always ate during his lunch break. 

    Y/n, uncomfortable by his closeness, tried walking around him but he stepped to the side. “It’s none of your business Kim.”

    “You never accept my dates, but you’ll accept his?” Kim’s tone is angry, and when he takes a step towards her, Kelsey steps in front of her.

    “Kim, leave her alone.” Kelsey says, turning back to y/n and nodding her head in the direction y/n was heading. When she pushes past the swinging doors, she catches a bits of what Kelsey says to him in a harsh whisper, “just wait until Lucy hears about this.” 

    “Haarryy,” Y/n says in a sing-song voice, dodging people as she makes her way to the records. Harry’s standing with  a record in his hand, legs spread apart and leaning back a bit with  his other hand tucked into his opposite armpit. “Here’s your John.” 

    Harry takes the plastic cup from her, giggling as he looks at her. 

    “What’s so funny?” she asks, genuinely confused.

    “Still wearing your apron,” Harry wraps his lips around the straw, tongue poking out to lap at it and take it into his mouth as y/n tries really hard not to stare.

    Looking down at herself, y/n shrugs, and leaves it on, taking a seat on the nearest loveseat and wrapping her now empty hand around the warm cup. 

    “What did you get?” He asked her. 

    “Willy wonka.” She brings the cup to her lips, tilting it up slowly and her mouth waters when she catches the scent of the foaming chocolate. Harry takes a seat next to her, his thigh touching her jean-clad one. He sits with them spread, leaning back in an eased position, and y/n eyes jump down to the bunched grey fabric at his crotch. And… well, there’s a larger than normal bulge through the fabric, drawstrings bending over the imprint, and y/n chokes on her drink. Some of it sputters out onto her apron. 

    “Still hot?” She nods. “ Gotta be careful, love. Who picked the names?”

    Y/n looks over at him, head tilting to the side with eyes squinting. “Picked what?”

    The cloudy skylight streamed in softly, casting a soft grey glow on Harry’s side profile. “The names for the drinks. Who picked them?” He holds his drink in one hand, straw near his face so all he had to do was maneuver his wrist to the plastic tube was in his mouth. 

    “Lucy did. Well, for most of them. I picked Andre 3000, Madonna, Willy Wonka and made the drinks myself. They’re not accurate though.” She sipped from her drink. “The rest of them are.” 

    “How much of this decor did you do? Like, concepts and stuff.” Harry takes out the tucked hand to wave around, and then tucks it back in. 

    “Concepts? Hmm…” she trails off for a moment. “All of them. I don’t want to say that I made this place myself, because I wouldn’t have done it without Lucy’s guidelines, but I went out, bought the furniture. Everything you see me doing at Karime's, I did here… ‘cept Karime’s is just plants and this,” she waves around her in a gesture and leaves it at that.

    “Do you decorate apartments?” He asked.

    “W-what?” Y/n, in the middle of a sip, and very surprised at his question, stuttered at his 

    “‘Coz mine’s looking kinda bland right now, was thinking maybe you could help me put some life into it.” 

    “Harry, I-”

    “Kinda like the Rockstar vibes, but like, a little less on the trendy side? I dunn-” Harry isn’t looking at her, his eyes wandering and landing on everything but her. 

    “Harry.” she said a little more sternly, putting a stop to his little rant. He looked at her then, his expression  unreadable. “I’m not sure you want me to help you decorate your home.”

    “Why not? You’d be helping me is all, and I love the way you’ve made Aromatherapy and Rockstar look.” He licks his lips, moving his head to the side and bringing the straw into his mouth with his tongue (that y/n stare at for longer than necessary).

    “But it’s your home.”

    “I am aware. Help me make it more me.” He shifts his body towards her then, his knee bending so he chest is to her. “Please?” He makes the face Puss in Boots made in that one movie, y/n couldn’t remember then because Harry looked much cuter than that dumb cat did.

    Y/n tosses this idea around in her head. Helping Harry decorate his home. She was scared, not only because Harry was cute, but because home was a personal and private space to be calm and safe. What if she screwed it all up and then Harry was uncomfortable in his own home? What is she did such a shit job that, that- well such a bad job that a horrible result came out of it again. This thing with Harry, a budding friendship? She barely knew the guy, just that he had an affinity for showering her with compliments and he made her turn more red than that really bad sunburn she got in the 10th grade after she refused to put on sunblock on a trip to a pool resort. What her point was, is that decorating someone’s home- a place where the heart is pure- is a really big job. 

    “Of course, this would be after you’re done with Karime’s place. Don’t wanna stress you out or anything like that.” A nike shoe, white and crisp looking like it had come straight out of the box, pressed into his thigh when he wrapped a hand around his ankle and pulled his bent leg in tighter.  “Whadda ya say?”

After hemming and hawing a few times, y/n finally says, “Okay. But you’re gonna have to be one million times more specific okay?” She elbows him, his position causing her elbow to poke at his pec instead of his bicep, and y/n elbows into hard muscle. 

    “Heyyy, can’t go hurting the girls now,” He rubs over where he poked her, and pouts childishly, even going as far as sticking his tongue out at her. “Do you need to head back? I don’t wanna get you into any trouble, y/n.”     The use of her name makes her heart skip a beat. “Yes, we should probably get going.” She moves to get up, and accidentally places her hand on Harry’s thigh. Before she would say sorry for touching him, he says,

    “Alway using me to hold yourself, huh? Sneaky thing, I see what you’re doin.” 

    “You offered! Said it yourself, I’ll hold you so you don’t fall again,” she deepened her voice, and faked a british lilt as best she could. 

    “I do not sound like that,” He whined. 

    He got up right after her, grabbing her hand to ‘pull’ himself back up, but he was really just holding it. His hand was cooler than hers (because he’d used the hand that had been holding his iced coffee) and enormous around hers. If he tried, he could close his finger tips and they’d be overlapping. When he was fully stood up, he reached around her neck, and lifted the black strap over her head, transfering the cloth over to the hand that held his cup, and then reaching again, this time around her waist to undo the knot. His front, not even a full step away from hers, and y/n got a whiff of detergent and something else she could only describe as ‘clean man’. If she were a shark, this would’ve been the moment her eyes turned black and rolled to the back of her head. 

    “There you go, no longer look like a little barista.” He hung the apron over he shoulder, and walked alongside her to the exit. Y/n split from him for a short second to return the apron, but then resumed her place next to him and they walked out together. She was hyper alert the entire way, taking notice of when their hands brushed, or when he pressed his bicep against hers. They walked a little stumbly, walking against each other almost. Had it been Lucy, she would’ve already yelled at y/n, and y/n would’ve walked near the sidewalk to avoid bumping into her again. But Harry?

Harry takes it like a champ. Giggling and pressing back against her, and he even placed her on the inside of the sidewalk when she walked to the side closest to the passing cars. 

    “So, tell me.” He starts, tossing his empty cup at a recycling bin as they waited for the light. “What kind of premeditated preparations should I take to be- as you said- extra specific?”

    Y/n still nurtures her cup in her hands, the coffee lid resting on her bottom lip. “Moodboards. Magazine scraps. Room inspiration on pinterest. Make a list of things you like. Anything really.  Anything that you like and would like to see in your apartment. Also, you need a budget.” 

    “Don’t worry ‘bout a budget. I’ll work on everything else. You want it done by a certain day?” He asked, gallantly placing a hand on the small of her back as they crossed the street.

    “Preferably within the next week or two. I’m pretty much done with Karime.” She straightens up when she feels Harry’s hand on her, a warm feeling spreading from where he pressed, unlike the nastiness Kim made her feel. 

    They’re three shops down when he said, “Gotta give me your number so I can send you everything then. You can keep me updated and I’ll keep you updated.” They pass by a tree whose branch is just low enough to graze Harry’s head, and it hooks onto the hood on his head, effectively pulling it back as he walks through. His hair looks incredibly soft. Wispy strands the color of the drink in her hands, billowing up and around his face, a ringlet falling in front of his right eye. 

    He licks his lips, using his fingers to push his hair back and raise the hoodie over his hair again. HE looks over at her as he does, waiting for her response. 

    “Oh, oh, yes. Sure thing. Got your phone on you?” Harry jams his hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone, the latest model, sleek and looking incredibly small in his hands. He placed it into her outstretched palm, unlocked but not on the contact app. Y/n has to swipe through shamefully, scared he’s gonna think that she’s snooping. She puts her number under ‘y/n :)’. 

    “Thanks, love.” He took the phone from her, his fingers sliding against the back of her hand. He hisses when he does so, saying, “Y/n your hands are so cold,” and then proceeds to take her hand and squeeze it between his own two. 

    She giggles sweetly, “Aye! Trynna hold my hand now?” she teased. 

    “No, trying to hold your hand would be this,” He grabs her hand with one, and lets it wall between them. They walk into AromaReads like that, with him holding her hand and the both of them laughing like they’d heard the funniest thing in the world. 

    Karime, standing at the counter and welcoming everyone as they come in, catches y/n’s eye and she smiles at herself knowingly. Y/n shakes her head while still laughing with Harry, and they both head to the back. Harry to get his stuff, and y/n to continue her job. Just when he’s walking between the isle and cabinets, his phone dings and he takes it out, his jaw dropping and palm slapping his forehead. 

    “SHIT! I completely forgot. I have a lunch meeting with my friend today. Fuck,” Y/n, this being the first time she hears swear words coming out of his mouth, rases her eybrow at him and chuckles. “I’m so sorry. I wanted to keep helping you, but-”

    She raises her hand, silencing him. “You do what you have to do. This is my job anyway. Just don’t forget to text me.” Basket handles fill her hands, wicker patterns pressing into her pals, and she tucks one of the last two frames under her hand too. 

    “I won’t. In fact, I’ll do that right now.” He types into the phone that’s still in his hand, and a few seconds later Y/n’s back pocket buzzes and chimes. She doesn’t pull it out to check. “Now you can text me if I forget.” He says finally, swinging his satchel over his shoulder.

“Bye, sweetheart!” He called out, turning back over to smile at her. Y/n’s  lips pulled up at the corners, gazing at him with a certain look in her eye as he walked out. 

    “Sweetheart, huh?” Karime stepped into her direct line of vision, snapping y/n out of the daydream in her head where she’s the housewife and Harry her husband leaving to work, calling out bye, sweetheart! as he walked out the door. 

    Karime’s looking at her with a smirk and a single pointy eyebrow raise. 

    God, what had she gotten herself into?

    .

    .

    Y/n had saved Harry under “H.”

   And received a text from him that same night.

    She’d been in her bathtub with cucumbers on her eyes when she heard her phone chime. Chin pointed upwards and wrists perched on the edges of her porcelain basin, she lay unbothered and unmotivated to even move. Arms aching and the soles of her feet tired from walking from place to place and lifting she did at Karime’s earlier that day. Tealight candles were the only source of light in the tiny bathroom, a soft yellow glow cascading on the skin of her neck.  The valley of her breast peaked out everytime she took a breath, her mind drifting off into thoughts of green eyes and warm hands, all she’d been able to think about that day.

    She planned on staying there 30 more minutes, but her phone dinged again. After she thought it was the two minute thing the phone does after receiving a message, but when it dinged again, she huffed from her nose and removed the soggy cucumber sliced off of her eyes. Should’ve turned off my phone, she thought to herself, grabbing the towel she left on the toilet seat across from the tub, and wrapping it around her torso. The phone screen a blaring white light in contrast to the dimness of the candles. 

    Y/n, eyes cloudy with sleep and limbs saggy with fatigue, is very much surprised to see that next to the app icon on the display screen, is ‘H.’ Hey eyes pop out of her head at the realization, and her heart shakes up the fatigue to beat up a storm for the boy she’d been thinking about all day since he’d left her. 

Standing in her bathroom, on bare tiles with water still dripping on her, it hit her full force. She liked Harry. Liked the way his cheek squished against his shoulder when he shrugged. They way he looked at her through his eyelashes, and they way he made sure that she was walking on the inside of the street. Liked how he smiled at her and said her name. She was obsessed with him. 

So i think i know what i wanna go for

Was thinking maybe italy in the 70’s 

What do you think :D ??

    And attached were varying pictures of vast rooms with big windows during golden hour and white flowy curtains with art pieces on the wall. It was minimal Even more minimal that what Karime asked for. This is what he wanted help with? Not to mention, the pictures he sent were of rooms far bigger than she’d ever seen for an LA apartment. Hell, those rooms might as well have been in Italy, one of the windows had a view of a pretty pink sunset and orange tree branches littering the way. 

    However, she couldn’t argue that they were very pretty rooms. Sweet and plain, easy for the eye to absorb and just the place you’d be able to melt on the floor with a book. 

    Or the kind in which you have slow, hazy afternoon sex, but who was she to say what harry would use his rooms for right?

    Disclaimer: if this is the look you’re going for

    Like

    This exact look? You’re gonna have 2 have a really big apartment   

        Not even a full minute goes by until the grey delivered letters turns into ‘Read at 10:15pm’ and the grey typing bubble appears at the bottom of her screen. Her palms begin to sweat and her breath hitches. She doesn’t realize she’s been holding in her breath until she releases it after his message comes through. 

        are you doing anything this weekend? 

        Y/n is confused, brows furrowed as she reads his message. Why does he want to know?

    No. why? she responded.

    so you can come and take measurements of my apartments. that way i know how to tweak what i want

  and I have a measuring tape don’t worry

Y/n rolled her eyes and giggled at her phone screen, turning and resting her bum on the edge of her sink. 

    Saturday? 

        Seconds later,

see you Saturday

sweet dreams. H.x

The idiot. Of course he’d sign off a text message. Scoffing, y/n let the towel drop to the floor, and reached into the tub to unclog the drain. As soon as she felt the pop of water flowing down the pipes, she took out her arm and walked out. 

.

.

On Wednesday, y/n laid in bed until 12. When she got up, it was only to brush her teeth, pee, and eat ramen with rice and egg like the asian lady in the liquor store had taught her to make. When she finished, she went back to bed. Maybe she masturbated to get herself to fall asleep again.

Maybe.

.

.

On Thursday, she went took Our Sign Of The Times and took it out to read in her car on signal hill. She finished it. 

She cried. 

When she went home, she started another one. Rogue Lover. This one with a really pretty purple flower on the front, and the first page when you open it is a raven haired man with shoulder length hair who’s propped up next to a busty redhead. Her nipple is in his mouth, and her head is thrown back in pleasure. Y/n fell a little more in love with 

Lemus Knox upon finding the dedication was a note rather than a name. 

It said:

Whoever reads this, I’ll be waiting for you where the stars and clouds meet. My heart is yours. Lemus.

.

.

Friday. 

She helped Lucy at Rockstar. A bald man with a blue beard came in asking for her. He has a boutique in Long Beach. Doesn’t want to come off overbearing. Will he help her? 

She said yes.They were set to meet next week. 

Also, Harry texted her asking if they were still on for tomorrow and come ready to eat because I made Italian food for a few friends I had over and there’s leftovers. 

.

.

Saturday. 

Y/n woke up with an appetite for Italian food. She didn’t have to be at Harry’s house until 12-ish. They hadn’t really clarified. And with it being 8 am and all that, y/n decided to take some time to shower and prep herself all nice and delicate. She spent 15 minutes lathering herself in her tub, letting her skin absorb berry scented bubbles that made her mouth water, and if she didn’t know any better she’d scoop up the bubbles and eat them.When her skin shriveled, she stood and drained the water, letting the stream from the overhead wash her off, and stepped out onto her heart shaped mat, the kind with little stubs that felt really nice against the bottom of her feet.

A little while back, she’d bought a lemon face scrub from a really expensive skincare place that had a sale, and meanwhile she put on her clothes, she put some on her cheekbones and forehead to sit for 15 minutes.  It required extra care when slipping her floral dress over her head. Once she managed to poke her head through, and the material rested all bunched up on her neck, the rest was a breeze. With a careful yank, the light material cascaded down her body, dropping just below her bum. Checking herself in her mirror, she smiled at the way she looked when she swayed her hips side to side. Cheeky flashes of her bum glint at her teasingly. Humming contently, she took off to wash off her face in the restroom. She was eager to find out how Harry liked the way she looked; her dress a low neckline, and she wasn’t wearing a bra because it was one of those dress in which the fabric bunched at the breasts to create a makeshift cup. The patter was a nice pink that looked nice against her skin, dainty little bows at the sleeves and in between her breasts accentuating her features.

Y/n opted for nothing other than a dark shade of lipstick, and let her hair flow down her back. As she was putting on her shoes, a pair of those recycled shoes that sent some of the proceeds to charity, she noticed that much of what she was doing felt like what she would have done if she were getting ready for a date. 

And… and Harry had food waiting for her at his place (apartment? Loft? She didn’t know specifically). Was this a date? She definitely wouldn't mind if it was.

She finished, and grabbed nothing other than her keys and shoulder bag, hesitating at her door whether she should grab the measuring tape, but deciding against it after remembering that Harry, quite teasingly, had said he had one at his house. 

In her car, she scrolled up her and Harry’s text to find the one which contained his address, tapped on it when she found it, and set in on the small mount on the headboard of her cart. Huffing, she set off to Harry’s house.

It didn’t take her long to get there, about ten minutes, and she parked in front of a much nicer version of her own apartment complex, but in Beverly hills.  A beige building that have the similar structure of a hotel, with turquoise patios and green roofing. Palm trees making a walkway to the entrance, which guarded by a security guard who asked who she was there to see.  

“I’m here to see Harry…” she falters, realizing she doesn’t know his name. 

The security, an old man with a limp and scrutinizing eyes, looked her up and down and said, “Ya one of dem girls das always botherin’ him ain’tcha? I suggest you turn back and go home. Mr. Styles won’t see you.” 

Y/n, with her jaw dropped, stood stunned in the middle of the pathway, not sure what to respond. Surely, he was confused. And whichever “girls that came around bothering Mr. Styles” she wasn’t one of them. 

“Go on and git,” he said, crossing his arms and standing possessively in front of a keypad. 

She hurried to reach into her bag for her phone, walking back to her car while she punched Harry’s “call” because she didn’t want to stand while an agitated security man watched her. 

He picks up the phone, and doesn’t even give her a chance to talk before he says, “is Felix giving you a hard time?” His voice gravelly and knowing. 

“The security guard? He said that you won’t see me.” She whines into the receiver. 

“Ah yes, the strict old man. Gimme a second.” He hangs up on her, leaving y/n clutching the strap of her bag so hard her knuckles turn white. 

“Ms. Y/n?!” Felix calls from behind her. She turns around, surprised to see that his face was completely transformed with a smile. His front tooth is gold and he’s missing a molar. “You can go on ahead, dolly. Mr. Styles just called and said you was a nice ‘un.”  He said, punching a thumb into the keypad behind him. “Sorry, bout that Miss. Enjoy the rest ‘ur dey!” He touches the tips of his fore and middle finger to his gleaming forehead and salutes her as she passes him, giggling and blushing. 

“Thank you, Felix. You too.” 

She walks through, and is greeted with a fine lobby. It really does look like a hotel lobby. Carpeted floors, a receptionist, and a door leading to a pool just outside the elevator. Before she can even wonder where to go, she hears her name being called by a familiar voice, 

“Y/n, over here!” Harry calls out, standing in front of open doors to the elevator to her right. He’s wearing a burgundy turtleneck and black slacks that are cuffed at the ankles. Yellow tortoise shell glasses and his hair is parted down the middle making him look like MiloThatch. A lavender towelette is in the grasp of his right hand, and he’s waving it at her like soldier girlfriends saying goodbye on the platforms. 

Stunned at his etherealness, y/n felt the roof of her mouth go dry. Staring at the way he filled out his clothing, she walked to him hypnotized, transfixed by his appearance. His chiseled features, boyish grin. She gravitated towards him. Enchanted.

“H-hi, Harry.” she said dreamily. Harry’s eyes raked her up and down when she came to a stop in front of him. 

“Why, hello. You look exceptionally lovely right now, darling.” He rasped, looking down at her sternly, all traces of a sweet smile gone and replaced by something a little more serious. A little more sinister.  His light green eyes turning a darker shade, y/n’s lips parting and knees weakening. 

She musters the words to say, “so do you,” and Harry’s lips turn up at the corners. 

“Shall we head up. Pasta and salad is waiting for you.” He turns away from her and presses the circular button that goes red when he pushes it. 

“How was-”

“So, you-” 

They both say at the same time, laughing and stopping to let the other speak and Harry says, “You go first.” 

“I see you’ve a few fans that bother you, and Mr. Felix has taken to guarding them off,” y/n commented. Her eyebrow quirked at him. 

Harry laughs, a single loud ha! “Felix just takes his job very seriously. That’s all.” 

“Doesn’t change the fact that you have women-” the elevator rings and the doors open, “lined up on your doorstep.” Harry steps in first, and uses his hand to stop the elevator doors from closing in on y/n. 

She steps through, and they both stand side by side in the metal encasing. Glancing up, she sees the ceiling is covered in mirror panels. 

“Well,” Harry shifts his body so his front is facing her, and takes a step, shoulders taking turns on tilting forward with every slow, torturous step he takes. “Does it,” Y/n takes a step back, breath hitching in her chest, “ bother,” her back collides with the cool wall, the floors on the meter above the doors keep going, 5, 6, “ you?” 

He’s a needle away from her nose, his mouth ghosting over her own and his chest rising up and down slowly while hers is an erratic mess. She’s breathing out of her mouth, her eyes shifting between his own two that are fixed and straight on hers. 7, 8,  Harry’s hand comes to rest on the right side of her face, caging her between the elevator wall and his bicep, his palm cupped her jaw and running a thumb tenderly over her cheekbone. 

“I-I,” she stutters. 

“Cat got your tongue, petal?” His breath smells like mint and coffee. The tips of the curls that hang in front of his eyes tickle y/n’s forehead and down the side of her temple and eventually her cheek when he leans in to put his lips at her ear. “Look so pretty right now, y'know?” HIs british drawl is heavy because his tone of voice is low. 

8, 9, “Harry,” she gasped, involuntarily tilting her head to the side when he noses at the back of her ear. “What are you doing?” 

The elevator comes to a stop at 10, and Harry retracts, leaving her a red, heated mess  and slightly panting. He takes the few steps to stand in front of the elevator doors, and clasps his hands behind his back. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Don’t know what you’re talking about.” He smiled at her sweetly, his demeanor innocent as if we weren't just going to ravish her in an elevator like Robet Patterson for that one Dior commercial.

The doors open to a long hallway that turns sharply at the end to the right, a door where it would’ve turned on the left side. The right wall is a window that looks out onto the middle of the building, where y/n could see the pool that had been behind door. The flooring is a green colored tile, the same as the roofing, and the walls are a flattering soft yellow bordering on white.

Harry’s shoes, expensive looking-black heeled boots that have a rainbow pattern on the, making clacking noises against the floor with every step he takes. Y/n can’t help but feel awkward while walking alongside him, but  Harry, humming along to the tune of Maneater, by Hall and Oates, doesn’t seem to share her opinions. At the end of the hall, he makes a sharp turn to left, and she bumps into him. Mumbling a sorry she steps back to allow him to open the door. 

It’s not locked, and with a quick turn of the brass knob, the door opens and the smell of tomato and basil hits them both in the face. 

Y/n’s stomach grumbles, and she places her hand over her bell and looks over at Harry with wide eyes, embarrassed. 

“I take it you’re hungry?” He steps through, holding the door open for her.

“...yes…” she mumbled, stepping through. 

“Just in time then because I…” Whatever Harry says is drowned out. Y/n is amazed. Harry doesn’t have an apartment. He has a goddamn penthouse suite. His living room wall is a window, his kitchen open and blending in with the rest of the space. There are no walls, just turns where the building walls connect. Tall and wide walls painted with angles of shadows and lights that stream in. No furniture other than a long, wooden dinner table and three white chairs, and his bed. A mattress and a white comforter messily strewn over pillows. Before the walls turn to the streetside view, Y/n catches glimpses of cedar wood bookshelves arranged in the middle of the room; just like in a library. 

“Y/n?”  Harry appears in her line of peripheral vision, a knowing look on his face.

“Sorry, sorry. What was it?” 

“Said, do you want spaghetti and meatballs or fettuccine?”

“Mmm,” She scrunches her face like she’s thinking real hard, “fettuccine.” Then she adds, “please.” 

“You got it.” He said, walking away while playing with the collar of his turtleneck. Y/n follows after him, to the kitchen isle and utilities placed in a little alcove underneath the stairs that lead upstairs. To what, y/n didn’t know. 

Then she sees the pots and pans that are still steaming, the cutting boards with chopped lettuce and other vegetables and realizes that-

“Hey! You said you had takeout,”

“I did.” He picks up the knife next to the tomato, and continues chopping the lettuce.  “But I left it out, and it went bad. I promised you Italian so I made it myself instead. Much better than Olive Garden, anyways.” He shrugs, looking up at her and pointing with the knife to a chair across from him. “Sit.”

“NO!” She said, exasperated. “Let me chop something, too.”

“Darling, this is finished. I’ve got it. Sit, the fettuccine is almost finished. Just,” he twists his neck to look behind him, at the clock above the stove, a cat with a swinging tail. “Five more minutes.” 

Y/n slides the bag she carried off her shoulder and hooks it in the back of the chair he had told her to sit on, which she still wasn’t.

“Harry, that’s not fair.” she stomped her foot, a flat slapping noise of her sole against his wooden floors.

“Oh sit, or I won’t give you any food.” He tuts his tongue at her, shaking his knife and turning to turn down one of the knobs on the stove.

Pouting like a child, y/n sits down with a plop and a screech of the chair sliding against the floor.

She sat and watched Harry as he took plates out of his cupboards and placed food on them. The only noises being the quiet bubbling of pasta sauce, the tapping of his heels, clinks of plates against each other, and y/n’s grumbling stomach. Her face was still puckered in a pout because Harry hadn’t let her help him, but it slowly eased off as she focused more and more on the way he looked in his fitting black pants. The way the fabric was tighter on his ass, how his thighs flexed with each stride. Suddenly, y/n got the urge to bite into them, and she felt herself blush at her own thoughts, especially when Harry turned to her with a sweet smile of his lips.

He placed a plate in front of her, complete with salad and garlic knots. 

“Would you like some wine? Got this really nice one the other day and I haven’t opened it yet. Figured since we’re having Italian, it fits.” Harry was holding a dark wine bottle in his hand, that he had just pulled out of his silver fridge. 

“Harry, I would love some, but-” Y/n tried to explain that she felt bad because she came here for take out and had cooked her a meal.

“NO buts. Have some.” And instantly, there was a cup of red wine next to her plate.

Even though he had a table for eating, he placed his own plate next to her, and sat down to eat. Y/n looked at him, deflated and with a pained look on her face, while he forked spaghetti into his mouth and raised his glass for a drink. 

He froze when he saw she was looking at him. Looking her up and down, he said, “Moppet, eat your food. We have work to do.” 

Y/n rubbed her palm down her face, her lips pulled down. With a groan, she picked up her fork, sulking, and twirled it in her pasta.

She didn’t know what she was expecting, but definitely not the mini piece of heaven that was in her mouth. Harry had managed to create the perfect blend of cheese and cream that glazed her tongue like silk. It was so good, she moaned, her fingers pressing against her mouth and head tilted back. 

“S’good,? Harry questioned, wiping his mouth with a napkin to hide his laugh.

“Very,” she said, shoving more of the pasta into her mouth.

“Good.”

They eat quietly, Harry snickering at her whenever inhumane noises of pleasure left her mouth.Y/n practically cleaned her plate with the garlic knots. She only remembered about the glass of wine when Harry set his down empty, lips stained, and eyes droopy if she looked at him hard enough. After she’d cleaned her plate, she reached for the thin stem of the g;ass and drank it like it was grape juice, only slightly wincing after it had gone down, the tart acidity washing down the sweeter tones of cream. 

“Slow down, Moppet. Don’t want you to get a tummy ache.” Harry said, patting her hand tenderly and pushing himself off the seat to place her plate in the sink. At this, y/n jumped from her chair and took the plates from Harry. 

“You cooked, not I wash the dishes.” She stuck her tongue out at him, the tip red from the wine.

“But-” Harry protested.

“No buts. Go,” she bumped her hip against his, and walked the last few steps to the sink, picking up the sponge and turning on the water. She washed the dishes, and like always, got the front of her dress wet, water splattering onto her chest. Sucking on her teeth, y/n used the towel hanging on the handle of the oven to pat off the water. Harry watched this from where he leaned against the isle across from the stove; a new glass of wine half empty.

Returning to the table, she grabbed her now full- no thanks to Harry- glass of wine and sipped from it. It settled nicely in her stomach, warming down the path it took to settle.

Clasping her hands, she said, “Okay, Harry. Let’s talk decor.”

Harry untucked his hand from underneath his armpit, and smacked his lips together, “Follow me.”

He started walking out to the living room area, and into the bookshelves y/n had seen. Up close, they were actually taller than her, just about Harry’s height. He walked past them, and stopped again at a corner where one building face meets the other. Here, he had pictures upon pictures laid out on the floor. He even had scraps of fabric.

Y/n stared, and nodded approvingly. “You did your research. Good job.” Looking closer, she saw what the images were. Albums (David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, The Beatles, Prince). Pop culture pieces (Andy Narwhal, Pulp Fiction, Sixteen Candles). Fabric patterns, colors, and a lot of velvet. About half of the pictures were shots of other room like the pictures he’d shown her. 

To her left, Harry tapped onto his phone, and seconds later, that song he’d been humming in the hallway, Maneater, played with clarity on speakers hidden from the eye. When he was satisfied with his queue choices, he knee and sat next to his big circle of inspiration, legs splayed out in front of him looking infinitely long.  Y/n noticed he had taken off his boots, and his feet, knobby and lanky, had toes painted blue and pink. He had black markings on his big toe, but she couldn’t see what it was.

“Look, sit sit, I was thinking…” Harry began, patting the area next to him and grabbing a few of the papers he had spewed on the floor. Y/n, inexplicably endeared, sat with her legs crossed to the side next to him, feeling her butt press onto the cold floor, and listened to him go on and on about his vision. 

Hours passed with them just talking about images, why Fleetwood Mac would go better than Prince (because Fleetwood Mac is more of an afternoon in the meadows, and Prince is a night going down the highway in Malibu) and fabric choices for the windows (i’m sorry Harry, y/n had argued, but unless you can find a near translucent velvet its not gonna work. If you want the summer in italy during the 70’s look, you need transparent curtains).

They sat long enough that the way the light filtered in at an angle according to the sun, changed completely (it was at a harsh slant with the morning light, now its at a soft bend with golden light). When the light made Harry’s face look a golden pink, he fell back onto the wooden floors with a groan and said,

“How do you do this, y/n?” He blew hair out of his lips to move the few strands that had fallen in front of his eyes.

“Dunno, its just second natur- heeyy,”

A midst the mess, she guesses they missed it. Underneath a picture of a fruit bowl and flowers, was a picture of a naked woman, with birds eye view from the bot of her head, so you could see the tips of her breasts with they way she arched her back, and the head of hair in between her thighs. Her mouth was open in a silent scream of pleasure, eyes closed and a hand fisting her own hair like she was doing to the man in between her thighs.

Her cheeks burn upon her discovery, and she feels a familiar buzz in the place where the woman in the picture had a tongue pressed against her. 

When he heard her little gasp, Harry shot straight up and when he saw the image in her hands he said, “Ah, I see you’ve finally found it. Was wonderin’ when it would come out.” Reaching across her, his chest smushed againt her shoulder, he plucks it from her hands and look at it, smirking.

“You didn’t tell me we’d be doing x-rated work.” 

She says it teasingly.

But maybe it was the way she was looking at him then. She couldn’t help it. The roots of his hair looked blonde in the light, and his eyes were clear, almost see through as light passed them. His lips looked particularly tasty, having been tinted red from the wine, glinting from his own spit, and swollen from how he’d plucked at them while he was thinking about her suggestions. The juncture of his throat was partly hidden, but she could still see every time he swallowed, hos his adam’s apple bobbed up and down. And… and it wasn’t her fault that black pants looked good on him either. The material stretching taught over his muscles, flexing with every, single movement he made, no matter how small.  

So, maybe she had been looking at his provocatively, and her comment had… fueled Harry. Tuned him in on what had been on her mind.

He lifts himself with one arm from his indian-style position on the floor, up to his knees, and crawls to her. Eyes looking with hers, y/n’s chest starts to heave, her breaths growing bated; shorter; faster. 

“Do you want to do x-rated work?” He said, his voice dangerously low. His rings clink against the wooden planks, and brush against her thighs when he comes close, hands bracketing her hips, his nose nudging hers.

She’s gupping, like a little guppy fish, her lips opening and close, but nothing comes out of them.

Harry’s nose moves to her cheek, pushing back her hair. “It’s okay, pet. I can ask you again. Do you want,” his lips are at her ear for the second time that day, except that she thinks maybe they’ll actually gets somewhere this time. All she has to do is say,

“Yes.” Her voice is small, an airy squeak when Harry presses a kiss to the back of her ear. Her hands, sitting dumbly on her lap, move tentatively to his chest, searching from something to hold onto. She clenches the soft fabric in her hands just as Harry starts to lean back, his palm falling into her naval, and pushing her back, back, back, until she has to stretch her legs out to lay comfortable on her back, staring up at him with bleary eyes, glossed over.

“Yes? Course you do, pet.” He moves his knees to straddle her hips, leaning down close so he’s almost talking into her mouth, and one of his hands smooths down the shape of her waist. Y/n feels herself grow wet when Harry dips his thumb into her belly button, and she’s whining because she hasn’t done anything with anybody in so long and she wants him to do something.

But, if he’s not gonna do anything, that she might as well. She stretched her neck the last of the way, flattening her lips against Harry’s. The relief is instant, she quells her desire of being closer to him, and Harry responds almost immediately, swiping his tongue on her bottom lip and licking into her when she lets him. Harry groans, because she still tastes like wine and a sweetness he can only credit to her. His kiss becomes urgent, smashing his against her soft, malleable mouth.

Y/n whimpers, hips jutting upwards when Harry takes her lower lip between his teeth, and bites down on it,hard enough to where the pain was pleasure. Although her mind is swimming, she knows that the bulge she feels through the flimsy cloth of her dress is Harry’s cock. Elated and driven mad by her need, she arches up into him, needing any friction she could.

Harry pulls away from her, their lips separating with a wet noise, and tuts his tongue at her. “Ah, ah, ah. You’re not getting my cock tonight, y/n. Not yet.”

She mewls, her eyebrows dipping and red, puffy lips pouting, “Harry, don’t be a tease. S’not fair.” She doesn’t care is she sounds pathetic, the space between her thighs aches, and she’d like him to very much sate it “Do something, please.”

He coos at her, pressing wet kisses along her neck, his hand sneaking past her waist, to the start of her dress, and slipping underneath it. “Whining like a little puppy, aren’t you?” His hand glides of her thigh, the shill of his rings sending a violent shiver up her spine. His nail scratches a path near the place where she’s most warm. Most needy, and she moans when he feels how close he is to touching her, the splotch on her panties expanding every time he spoke. “You’re alright puppy, I’ll take care of you.”

Y/n’s breath hitches when his finger hooks onto the strap of her underwear, snapping the material twice with a chuckle at the cries he elicited from her. 

“Harry, harry, harry,” she’s half mad with need, her eyes squeezed shut with anticipation, and when Harry sees the desperation in her slack mouth, his own features go soft, and he takes out his hand from underneath her dress to cup her cheek. 

“Puppy,” he said, and when she didn’t open her eyes, he said again, “Puppy, look at me.” his thumb rubs over her cheek, ignoring the imploring whines that leave her lips, and instead leaning down and kissing her to shut her up. “It’s okay, its okay. Do you want me to keep going?”

“Yes!” She shouted, eyes going wide, amazed that he’d even ask that. “Do something.” She ruts up again, the head of Harry’s cock nudging against her hood. Harry groans, noticing how fucking hard he is. He’s leaked through his pants, a darker splotch where his head it.

“Fuck, baby,” he said, more to himself than to her.

His hand makes the same trail it had before, flipping up her dress this time to see her clothed center. Her panties make him want to cum on the spot. Baby pink cotton with a bow on the center of the band. Biting his lip, he uses a knee to spread her thighs, and then he sees just how much she needs him. 

“Oh puppy. We’ve made a mess of your panties haven’t we?” He looks at her with amusement, “Guess they have to go, don’t they?” 

Y/n hums desperately, her hips writhing up to meet his fingers. Pressing a last kiss to her lips, Harry scoots back so his knees are by her feet, and he and slip off the material all the way off. Suddenly aware of how bare she is, he clasps her thighs sht, obscuring Harry’s view of her pussy. 

“C’mon now, honey. Don’t be shy,” with a strong hand, he pries her knees apart and lays himself down in front of her, his breath hot on her swollen clit. From that angle, he can see how much she glistens, and how her juices spill out of her every time she clenched her hole around nothing. “Look at you, just begging to be stuffed.”

With a single finger, he slides up and down her slit, collecting her wetness, and then slipping into her. 

Y/n bleats, his intrusion stirring her heat up more; she wanted more. Wanted to be filled than more with just his finger, but was scared to say. Instead she said, “another,”

Harry slid his middle finger inside her, scissoring his fingers and leaning down to lick a stripe on her clit. Y/n arched her back, and moaned loudly, her eyes squeezing shut and hands touching at the area around her, looking for something to hold on to and settling to clenching at her own dress.

He hears the sound of her hands colliding with the floor, and looks up to see her knuckles going white with hoe hands she was fondling her dress.

“Y’can pull my hair, puppy.” he said against her slit, the vibrations of his words sending prickled of pleasure to the building orgasm she feels in the pit of her stomach. The second her muddled brain comprehends what Harry said, her fingers jam themselves into her his hair, just as he suckles on her. Y/n’s eyes roll to the back of her head, and her gasps come out in staccatos.

Harry’s fingers are still pumping in an out of her, twisting every time he pushed them back into her. He’s looking for the spongy spot inside of her, when he hears her say something incoherently.

“What was that?” he asked her,his fingers stilling inside her.

“Said, what about you?”

Her voice is faint and weak, her voice and comment sending pin-pricks of satisfaction to his throbbing member. His heart clenches at her considerations, so touched by the fact that she’s so lost in her own heat but she’s still worried about him.

“This isn’t about me. It’s about you. Y’gonna cum for me, puppy?” He feels the pad of his middle finger slide against something that has a different texture that the rest of her, and when her breathing hitches and she lets out a long moan, he knows hes found what he’s looking for. Y/n’s pussy clenches around, her fingers tighten in his hair, so hard it makes Harry yelp. “Clenching m’fingers, puppy, I know you’re there.” 

Y/n feels the familiar slow burn of her orgasm twisting in the pit of her stomach, her entire body hyper aware of Harry and what he was doing to her. How he pressed a hand on her navel to keep her from lifting her hips, the harsh sucking of her clit, and then finally the flick of his pointer finger curling inside her.  The build-up unravels, and her mouth opens up in a silent scream like the women in the picture, her body going taught, and then falling limp when the wave calms.

“That’s it, love. All better now isn’t it?” Harry slowly takes his fingers out of her, reveling in the way she’s still squeezing around him. She’s sensitive and jerking from her orgasm when He lick his fingers clean, kissing his path up her body. Her thighs, her exposed navel, her clothed valley of her breasts, her collarbones, and up her throat, behind her ear where he’s taken a liking to kissing.

“Jesus, Harry. Where’d you learn to talk like that?” She titters sleepily.

“S’my job, puppy.” He nibbles at her earlobe and down her jawline.

Alarmed, y/n’s eyes pop open, and she sits up, pushing Harry’s chest and holding him at arms length. “What do you mean, it’s your job?” She’s scared she’s just been used or something along those lines.

“I mean it’s my job. Learned a few skills from writing erotica, pet.” He responses calmly, diving back in to continue his assault on the skin of her jaw. His voice warped against her, he adds, “write under a pseudonym. Lemus Knox.” 

Lemus Knox. 

Harry was Lemus Knox. Harry was Lemus fucking Knox.

“You’re…” she’s still. Almost like that fight or flight instinct. 

Harry stills when he realizes she has. He knows, simply by the tone of her voice that she knows who he is. Who Lemus Knox is.He withdraws to look at her, grinning fro  ear to ear.

“You know who I am?” he said slowly.

“Harry, I’d even go as far as saying I’m in love with Lemus,” she blurts, reddening as soon as the words leave her mouth, but Harry just smiles fondly at her.

“That’s okay, puppy. Lemus and I aren’t the same person. You have a right to love him,” he nuzzles into her neck, kissing down her shoulder, “Just as long as you save some love for me.”

And lying there, completely stunned ant with Harry’s hard cock pressing into her hip, y/n bursts out laughing. She laughs because she’s happy. Because she likes Harry. Because she loves Lemus Knox.

She laughs because for the first time in a long time, someone is laughing along with her, kissing her, holding her.

She laughs because she can’t wait to see where Harry will lead her.

[maybeimamuppet]

the first date

Damian wakes up to two wildly different texts, one from Cady and one from Janis.

Cady’s is about what he can expect from her; if not a touch more nervous.

Little Slice: Good morning Damian!! I’m sure Janis has already told you but she’s taking me on a date tonight and she won’t tell me where we’re going do you have time to come over and maybe help me put together something to wear???? love you!!

And then there’s Janis.

Janjan: dame can u come over today i’m taking caddy out tonight and i’m losing my shit

Oh boy. He’d been absolutely thrilled when they’d finally announced they were dating, but he should’ve known they would never make it easy on him. He decides to go to Cady’s first, Janis will need his support right up until she leaves to go get her.

He texts both of them while he has breakfast and feeds his little french bulldog, Pippa. He learns that Janis is picking Cady up at four to take her to the zoo, so he has a couple hours to kill before he needs to be with either of them. He sends a text to Cady letting her know he’ll be over around one, getting a thumbs up and several heart emojis in response.

True to his word, he knocks on the Heron’s front door at exactly one, greeting Cady’s mom politely before she shoos him up to Cady’s room. She’s sitting at her desk, still in her Lion King pajamas, working on what Damian can only assume is calculus. He taps lightly on the doorframe, wincing a little as she jumps practically out of her chair before snapping her head to look at him. Once she sees it’s him, though, she smiles brightly and rushes up to hug him, as if she had no idea he was coming.

“Damian! You’re here! I totally lost track of time, I was doing math to relax because Janis won’t tell me anything about where we’re going so I don’t know what to wear or how many people are going to be there and I don’t know what to expect so I’m nervous but it’s also my first date with Janis and I’m so excited and-“ She bursts out rapidly. He envies her breath control, sometimes.

“Whoa, little slice. Deep breaths. I’m here to help, she told me what she has planned and it sounds really cute. I think you’ll like it,” Damian says lowly, massaging her arms to help calm her. “There will probably be a fair number of people around, but I don’t think you’ll notice them and they will definitely not notice you. And I’m here to help you pick something to wear that’ll make Janis combust when she sees you. Okay?”

“Okay. Thanks Damian,” she says, resting her chin on his chest and grinning up at him. He gives her another tight squeeze before making his way to her closet.

“Oh, my god. Okay,” He whispers to himself once he opens it. It’s a violent clashing of various flannels and bright pinks, but he spies a few pieces he can probably work with. “I’ve never seen a lot of this stuff before! Most of this is really cute,” He exclaims, pulling out a yellow sundress that it’s definitely still too cold out to wear.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to go through and give stuff to Gretchen and Karen that I know I won’t wear. Some of it just isn’t me, and some of the fabrics bug me,” Cady mutters shyly, as if he’d ever judge her for that.

He would never judge her, but he had not taken it into consideration. “Okay, so what kinds of fabrics or textures irritate you?” He asks, flicking through what she has hanging.

“Um, wool or anything scratchy, certain kinds of denim, and most things made of polyester, off the top of my head.” That limits the Plastic side of the closet rather severely.

“What about corduroy?” He asks, spying a green overall dress she bought at the tail end of her time as a Plastic. The color is almost exactly the same as Janis’ favorite jacket, maybe he can coordinate a color scheme. She reaches out to feel it before nodding. “Groovy, now we just need something to go under it.” They’re in the midst of what’s known as “Fool’s Spring”, so it’s just about warm enough outside for her to leave her legs bare. He starts digging through her stuff again, looking for some kind of top to go underneath the dress.

“Did you just say ‘groovy’ in earnest?”

“Yes, I did, thank you.”

“I have some more stuff in my dresser if you want to look at those,” Cady says, decidedly moving on. He puts the discarded garments back on their hangers and closes her closet carefully before moving to root through the drawer she’s pulled open.

“Don’t you judge me, Miss Grool. Let’s see what we have in here,” He says, grinning to himself a little as he pulls out several of Janis’ hoodies. “You guys have only been officially dating for, like, two weeks! How did you already get all these?”

Cady flushes, nearly matching her hair. “She gave me one a long time ago, and it was so comfy I just... never gave it back. And now I borrow them whenever she’s not looking. But only the ones she doesn’t really wear! And I’ll give them back. Eventually.”

Damian laughs at that, knowing full well she won’t give them back until Janis notices they’re gone. “I say go for it, little slice. Payback for her stealing mine since we were little.”

“Aww, you guys must’ve been so cute,” Cady coos, stretching up and pinching one of his cheeks like a grandmother would. “I wanna see pictures soon.”

“You’ll have to fight Jan on that one,” he says, pulling out a black sweater made of the softest fabric he’s ever felt. “Holy shit, this is so nice. Is this one you can handle?”

“Oh yeah, that’s my favorite sweater, I forgot about that. Thanks Dame,” she says, taking it from him gently.

“Okay now go put this on so I can be sure it actually works together,” he demands, clapping his hands and shoving her delicately towards the bathroom. He knows it will, he just wants to see Cady in it.

She shuffles back in a few minutes later and gives a little twirl, holding her hands out to her sides. Damian pretends to take pictures of her like she’s on a runway, and they both start laughing as she goes along with it and starts doing various exaggerated poses.

After a few minutes of shenanigans, he checks the time and realizes he’s been at her place for nearly an hour and a half. Cady is very easy to get lost in conversation with.

“Are you gonna be good if I go now? I have to take Pippa on a walk before dark and run some errands for my mom,” He says, coming up with a little white lie in case Janis doesn’t want Cady to know what he’ll actually be doing.

She nods and comes to hug him goodbye, reaching up to squish his cheeks. He’s exactly a foot taller than her, so she has to reach just a little to get to him, making them both giggle. She gives him one last squeeze, muttering, “Give Pip a snuggle for me?” into his chest before pulling away. He says he absolutely will before wishing her luck and leaving her alone. First job done.

——

Janis’ ten-year-old sister, Juliana, opens the door for him as he steps onto the porch. Their mom must be running errands or something, she doesn’t work Saturdays.

Julie pulls him down to mutter “She’s a mess,” into his ear before running back to the living room with a squeak as Janis calls “I heard that!” from the top of the stairs.

“I’m not a mess,” she murmurs as she reaches him at the bottom, but Damian can tell her anxiety is getting to her.

“Have you taken your meds today?” He whispers into her hair, groaning as she shakes her head. “Janis Olivia, I swear. You gotta take those regularly or they don’t work. Go take them and get something to eat. I’m gonna go pick your outfit.” He pushes her lightly towards the kitchen and thanks the heavens she goes willingly.

Letting himself into her room, he sees the telltale signs of a stressed Janis. Sketchbook open to a random page on her bed, filled with rough sketches of a familiar little redhead. She left her phone blaring music on her nightstand, and he can see faint footprints in the plush carpet from where she’s been pacing.

Damian knows Janis’ closet very well, as she makes him pick her clothes for any important event. He has an outfit in mind already, but he’s a little worried about how Janis will react to part of it. He pulls out the pieces he wants, laying them on her bed gently as she waltzes in. She shuts off the music before turning to look.

“Pants?” She grimaces as soon as she sees what he’s picked. He called it.

“I know, I know, but hear me out. You can still wear your fishnets underneath, they’ll look cool with the rips. And, Cady’s never seen you wear pants before! All you’ve ever worn are your shorts and dresses,” he begs. He knows Cady will love her in this, and it’s in Janis’ comfort zone enough that she’ll still feel confident in it.

“Fine. Turn around, loser.” She grumbles, faking annoyance. He obliges, turning around and covering his eyes until she says he can look. He turns back to face her as she’s pulling her less-decorated green jacket over her black and white checkered crop top, and adjusting where the rips fall on her black mom jeans. “How do I look?” She asks, spinning around like Cady did.

“Bitchin’.” He says, pushing her to her mirror so Janis can see herself. She checks herself out, and Damian can see the grin growing on her face. She really does look great, if he does say so himself.

“Okay, yes, you did a great job, as always. Thank you,” she says as she turns around to hug him. “Now can you help with my hair and makeup?”

———-

Damian pretty much does her typical makeup, just with slightly less around her eyes. After he finishes swiping on her signature dark purple lipstick (and making extra sure to set it enough), they both start talking at the same time.

“Do you think the zoo is too cliché?”

“Can I try something different with your hair?”

“Do whatever you think will look best, Dame. I trust you. But really, is it dumb?”

He grabs her mom’s curling wand and gets to work after putting on a heat protectant. “I don’t think it’s dumb, I think it’s cute. You want to do something she’d like, and she loves animals. Caddy chased that duck around the park for, like, half an hour last week, she’ll love it.”

Janis bursts out laughing at the memory, trying not to move her head to avoid getting a serious burn. “I didn’t think I’d be this nervous. We went out all the time when we were just friends, but like, what if she hates it? What if I’m so awkward she changes her mind and decides she doesn’t want to date me after all? What if I do something dumb and she gets uncomfortable?”

“And what if it’s perfect? Janjan, Caddy’s been pining for you for the better part of a year, and she’s been your best friend for even longer. If she hasn’t run off screaming by now, she’s not going to.” He says comfortingly, shutting off the iron and starting to run a brush through her two-toned hair. “Now hold still, you’re gonna mess it up.”

Janis goes stiff, holding as still as she can. He can tell she’s still very nervous, but she seems to be doing better than earlier, since she didn’t immediately try to contradict everything he just said.

He starts brushing her hair up into a high ponytail, asking “So are you only taking her to the zoo? Or do you have some other scandalous plan for later that you’re not telling me about?” to distract from what he’s doing. It was a valiant attempt that failed miserably, and she shoots him a look in the mirror.

“Um, if she’s not too tired I was gonna take her to that clearing by the pond we found a while ago to watch the stars. She knows all about that stuff,” She murmurs, fiddling with a scrunchie. Regretfully, it is the one Damian needs, so he plucks it delicately from her fingers and gives her the brush to play with instead.

He snaps the scrunchie into place around the ponytail, spraying it lightly with hairspray so the curl holds. He wipes some pretend tears from under his eyes, saying, “My baby girl, all grown up, going on her first date,” with highly exaggerated emotion. Janis laughs, shaking her head and watching her hair bounce around in the mirror.

——-

Julie manages to corral them into playing Mario Kart for a bit, Janis only being able to do one race before she has to go. She grabs her backpack and the large pile of blankets from by the door and puts her boots on, going to kiss both of them on the forehead and remind her sister to feed their cat, Pancakes.

“Get out of the way, Janny, I’m about to win,” Julie whines, kicking her lightly in the shins.

Damian cackles at that, saying “Yeah right, squirt. Have fun, Janjan. Make good choices and send me pictures,” Before also shooing her out of the way. Janis rolls her eyes at them as she locks the front door behind her and texts her mom that she’s going but left Julie with Damian.

——

Janis hears her phone ping as she’s pulling up to Cady’s house. She dries her slightly sweaty hands on her pants before digging for her phone in her bag, grinning as she sees the message.

Cady Girl: Do I need to bring money or anything??? I can’t wait to see you btw, I’m so excited!!!!! 

Janis texts her back, telling her all she might need to bring is a blanket and reminding her to wear good shoes since they’ll be walking a lot.

She grabs the flowers and cup she acquired on her drive over and heads up to the door, knocking politely. Cady opens it with a squealed “Janis!” before she’s in her arms, nearly knocking the stuff out of her hands.

Cady clocks them after a few seconds, asking, “Are those for me?” and pointing to the flowers.

Janis pecks her on the cheek in greeting, answering, “No, these are for your mom. Damian said it’d be a good idea. This is for you,” and handing her the venti chai she got from the Starbucks a few blocks out of their neighborhood.

“Aww, Jan, that’s so sweet. Thank you,” Cady coos at her, taking the cup and calling for her parents. “Mom, Daddy, Janis is here! She got you flowers!” Janis flushes bright pink as Mrs. Heron emerges from the kitchen.

“Oh, hello Janis. Thank you, these are lovely,” she says, taking them from her before turning to Cady. “Binti, you know the rules. Home by ten and make good choices.”

“Yes, mom, I will,” Cady says as she hugs her mom goodbye, turning to grab her bag and the blanket she picked out. “Tell dad I said bye. Love you,” she calls as she drags Janis out by the hand and shuts the door loudly behind her. “Sorry about that, she can be so embarrassing sometimes.”

“Nah, don’t be sorry. It’s cute,” Janis says, opening the door to her truck for Cady to be chivalrous. She gets in on the other side and chuckles as Cady sips her tea, cradling the cup as if it’s the most precious thing she’s ever been given.

“You’re wearing pants! And your hair is up!” Cady nearly chokes on her drink as she finally notices, reaching out to tug gently on a curl and watch it spring back into place. “You look so beautiful.”

Janis flushes scarlet again. “Thanks. So do you,” she mutters, grabbing Cady’s hand and kissing her knuckles, feeling the last of her nerves fading into the background.

“So do I get to know where you’re taking me yet?”

“Nope. I want it to be a surprise. Just enjoy the ride, Peanut.” Janis says, reaching for Cady’s hand again as she drives. She takes it and starts playing with her fingers, fiddling with her rings.

“Fine,” Cady pouts. They continue chatting quietly, Janis rubbing her thumb over the back of Cady’s hand. After a while, she goes quiet. Janis looks over to see her asleep, curled up adorably in her seat. Maybe it’ll be a surprise after all. Now she can’t see all the signs saying “ZOO” they keep driving by.

————

Cady still hasn’t woken up by the time Janis has paid for and found a parking space. She goes around to open her door for her, shaking her awake gently.

“Caddy. We’re here, it’s time to wake up.”

“Noooooo,” Cady whines, pawing indignantly at her hand and curling into herself.

“Yeeeees,” Janis laughs. “Come on, this’ll be fun!” She reaches over to click Cady’s seatbelt off, grabbing her hands and hauling her to her feet.

Cady rubs at her eyes blearily, looking around to see where she is. It takes her a second, but once she sees the big lion on the sign nearby it clicks and she jumps into Janis’ arms.

“Jay! We’re at the zoo?!” She squeals into her ear.

Janis laughs as she scoops her up, spinning her around a few times before setting her down again. “Yeah, do you like it?”

“Yes! Come on, let’s go, let’s go let’s go! I wanna go in!” Cady exclaims, bouncing excitedly as she grabs Janis’ hand and goes into a full-tilt run towards the gates.

“Caddy, Jesus, please slow down a little. It’s not even five yet, we have time,” Janis calls.

Cady stops suddenly, turning to look at her. “Oh, sorry. I got carried away,” she says sheepishly. Janis tips her chin up and boops her nose lightly.

“Don’t be sorry, I’m glad you’re excited. Just do it at a speed I can handle,” Janis tells her, breathing a little heavier. Cady grabs her hand again, gentler this time, and starts walking them at a much more reasonable speed towards the gates.

——-

“Where do you wanna go first, Kitkat?” Janis asks, flicking through the map she grabbed once she’d bought their tickets.

“Uhm...” Cady hums pensively. “The aquarium?”

“Sounds great, that’s this way,” Janis answers, pointing down a pathway to their left.

Once they enter the dark building, Cady makes a beeline for the small touch tank, rolling up her sleeves and quickly skimming the rules before sticking a hand in, giggling as a little stingray comes up and brushes against her. Janis comes up behind her, putting her arms around her waist and bending down to rest her chin on her shoulder.

“Do you wanna feel, Jayjay?” Cady asks, holding Janis’ hands with her free one. Janis shakes her head, kissing her jawline gently.

“Nah, I don’t like touching wet things that move. Creeps me out,” she says, prompting a laugh from Cady, who reaches up to pat her cheek with her dry hand.

“We’ll have to go to the petting zoo then, I saw it on the map. Those are just dry things that move,” She teases, turning her head around and kissing Janis’ nose before moving to get some hand sanitizer.

Janis takes her now clean hand and leads them deeper into the building, towards a much, much larger tank that reaches the high ceiling, filled with various tropical fish. Cady goes up to press her face against it, pointing excitedly as a massive shark swims right past her.

Janis stays back for a second, sneaking a quick picture of her, illuminated by the lights in the tank. It gives her auburn hair an almost ethereal glow, making her look like some sort of siren. She puts her phone back into her pocket, deciding to paint the photo later.

Cady turns around to grin at her, gesturing for Janis to come look at the fish. Janis comes up, taking a place next to Cady and admiring the brightly colored fish swimming by. They really are beautiful, but she’s more interested in sneaking glances at her girlfriend’s excited smile.

Cady suddenly throws her arms around her, burrowing into her chest. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she mutters, resting her chin on her chest and smiling up at her. “I love it.”

Janis wraps an arm around her shoulders, brushing Cady’s hair from her forehead with her other hand before leaning down and peppering kisses on all the freckles she can see. She wants to kiss her on the lips, it certainly wouldn’t be their first, but she’s still anxious about doing so in public. Cady squeals at the sensation, smushing her face into her chest again.

“Janis?” she murmurs after a moment.

“Hmm?”

“Can we get food?”

Janis laughs, kissing her hair again. “Yes, we can. Let’s go find something.”

——

Once Cady is satisfied with her belly full of pizza, they make their way over to the section of the park with the African animals, which they’re both the most excited about. Janis has to grip her hand firmly to stop her from running off again.

Cady rushes through the gorillas and hyenas, prattling off every fact she knows so quickly Janis can’t really understand what she’s saying, but she nods and enjoys them nonetheless.

Eventually, they find themselves on a tall platform overlooking the giraffe enclosure, and Cady practically starts vibrating with excitement when she sees the sign listing all the feeding times. Janis looks over and sees the next one is in three minutes, wordlessly going to get in line to buy a bucket of lettuce.

Cady barely notices her absence, pressed up against the fence and admiring the tall creatures as they come up to get fed. Janis hands her a bit, laughing as one comes up directly in front of them and promptly begins to lick the railing separating them.

Cady proffers her leaf, laughing as Janis yelps “What the fuck?!” when its long, alien tongue pokes out to grab it.

A zookeeper comes up, informing them that their giraffe’s name is Georgie and politely asking them not to pet him before wandering off to the next group. They take turns feeding him and taking pictures of each other doing so, until Cady sticks her hand in the bucket to get another bit of lettuce and notices they’ve run out. She pouts sadly as they both wave goodbye to Georgie before returning the empty bucket and washing their hands at the small sink on the other side of the platform.

——

They go see the lions next, Janis’ heart giving a painful squeeze as she watches Cady stare longingly through the fence, pressed against it as close as she can be. She loves her life here now, but every once in a while her heart longs for her old friends. She stands there, watching as the gentle breeze ruffles the mane of the one closest to her, and as the new cubs chase each other around. She’ll see her own lions again, someday. She knows it.

Janis snaps another sneaky picture of her, sending it to Damian with a sad face emoji; he responds in kind with several more crying emojis. Cady doesn’t linger for too long, coming up to Janis for a quick hug before they move on.

Janis keeps an arm around Cady’s shoulders, squeezing her gently as they walk toward the elephant and rhino building. She winces at the smell as soon as they enter, but Cady doesn’t seem fussed by it. They walk down the hall to where the large windows are, looking for an opening in the wall of people blocking them.

Janis thinks she’s found an area behind a few people. She can certainly see fine. “Aww, there’s a little baby one. Look, Cads,” she says, pointing.

“Jay, I can’t see anything. There’s people in the way.” It is at this point that Janis suddenly remembers that Cady is 5’3 on a good day, and that she’s a whole seven inches taller than her girlfriend.

“Oh, sorry Peanut,” Janis says sheepishly. “Hold on a second.” She hunches over, gesturing for Cady to climb onto her back. She obliges with a giggle, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and resting her chin on top of Janis’ ponytail as she grabs her thighs to hold her steady. Once she’s sure Cady’s secure, Janis straightens back up.

Now that her eye level is a good foot higher than it used to be, Cady can indeed see the baby elephant Janis was referring to, cooing over it as memories of Kenya come flooding back once again. They walk around a little, listening to the recording of a voice listing facts about the creatures and the area they normally live in, Janis laughing as Cady confirms or debunks everything the robotic voice says.

Cady is still clinging to Janis like a baby monkey as they leave the building, burying her nose in Janis’ apple-scented hair and pressing a few kisses to the top of her head. Janis doesn’t seem to mind, though, adjusting her grip and trying desperately not to think about the amount of bare thigh Cady’s dress is making available for her to hold onto.

“Where next, baby?” She asks, freezing as the pet name slips out of her mouth before she can stop it.

Cady pretends not to notice it for the moment, murmuring, “Erm... penguins?” into her ear softly.

“Did you just pick those because they’re all the way across the park and you want me to carry you more?”

“Maybe,” Cady hums, squishing her cheek against Janis’ warm, flushed one. As Janis starts walking she decides now is probably an okay time to ask about the name. “I’m baby?”

Janis bursts out laughing at that, much to her confusion. “Sorry, that’s an old meme I haven’t shown you yet. I’ll do that later. If you don’t like it I can call you something else. I just thought it fit,” she mutters the end quietly.

“No I love it! Aaron never nicknamed me,” Cady says before remembering mentioning her ex on her first official date with her new girlfriend was potentially not the best move. Stupid with love. “But now I have to come up with more cute things to call you!” She tightens her grip on Janis’ shoulders slightly.

———-

She’s spent the entire walk over to the Antarctica exhibit thinking of something to call Janis. “What about Jellybean? That’s fun,” she asks as Janis gently sets her on her feet again.

“Absolutely not,” Janis squeaks, turning away and pretending to be very interested in an informative plaque to hide how much she’s blushing.

“Aww, you’re all blushy. You’re just as sappy as I am,” Cady teases, poking her arm lightly.

“No I’m not!” Janis insists, gesturing to herself. “Look at me. Look at my boots, look at my hair. I’m tough. I’m a badass. Now let’s go see some fucking adorable penguins.”

Cady bursts into giggles. “Fine, mpenzi, you’re tough as nails. But you’re also going the wrong way,” She calls as Janis is briskly walking away. She freezes for a second before turning around and confidently going the correct way as if that’s what she meant to do all along.

“We are never speaking of this again.”

———-

They find a little bench just across from the exhibit, deciding just to sit and watch them quietly for a while. Janis nearly falls off the bench at one point, laughing hysterically as two of the penguins start fighting over some fish. She laughs even harder as an exhausted keeper comes out to break them up, looking as if it’s not the first time those two have gotten into it today. Cady’s not really paying attention to what’s happening, just grinning as she watches her girlfriend laugh so freely.

Once Janis has recovered, gently wiping tears of laughter from under her eyes, she takes Cady’s hand and pulls them up again. “Okay, you ready for best first date ever part two?”

“There’s more?” Cady asks. “But this was already so fun.” She pouts, wrapping herself in Janis once again.

“Hell yeah there’s more. I have a legal obligation to spoil you now,” Janis grins, leaning down to kiss her forehead gently. “Now come on, we can stop by the gift shop on the way out.”

———

As soon as they walk in, Cady spies a pile of stuffed animals, her eye going specifically to a lion one on top. She runs over to check the price, wincing as she sees that it’s nearly thirty dollars. Janis bought her entrance ticket, and dinner, and let her feed the giraffes, and she didn’t bring any of her own money. She puts it back delicately and makes her way over to where Janis is looking at various keychains.

“Hey, Peanut. Did you find anything?” Janis had definitely noticed her rush over to the stuffed animals, and her dejected frown as she walked over to her.

Cady shakes her head, popping up on her tiptoes to lean her head on Janis’ shoulder. “No, I was just looking. I’ve never been able to find my name on one of these things,” she says, reaching out to flick at one that says Allison. They have her middle name, at least.

“I haven’t either,” Janis says, leaning her head against Cady’s. “At least never spelled correctly. Anyway, do you want to keep looking and see if you find anything? I saw something over there I wanted to grab for Damian,” she lies. The pizza was much cheaper than she had anticipated and her student ID got them

both a discount on their entry fee, so she has a fair bit of money left over. She’s been saving her art prize money, and her mom gave her some to have fun with as well. Time to buy a lion.

She grabs a little bouncy ball for her sister and a pair of sloth socks for Damian. He collects socks, so that’ll make a good enough cover story for now. She snatches the stuffed animal from the pile, rushing up to the counter to buy everything before Cady can see.

She finds her again with both hands in the bin of colorful rocks, sighing at the texture before she removes them again. She jumps lightly as Janis comes up behind her, saying, “Having fun, Kitkat?”

“The texture is satisfying,” she mutters. “Didn’t think you’d find me so fast.”

Janis chuckles, coming up to take her hand. “Are you ready to go?” Cady nods, leading them out the gates and towards Janis’ truck. Janis checks the time once they’ve settled in, finding it to be just before seven thirty. Perfect.

She decides to stop by the Wal-Mart on the way to the clearing to pick up some snacks, Cady still chattering excitedly about how much fun she’s had so far. It must’ve been the tea that put her to sleep last time, now she’s got the most energy Janis has ever seen.

Cady seems a bit confused as they pull into the parking lot, but takes Janis’ hand trustingly regardless. Janis tells her to go pick out a snack she wants, and she nods quickly and darts off. Janis makes a beeline for the chip aisle, immediately grabbing all her favorite kinds before moving on to candy.

In typical Cady form, she comes back carrying only a case of strawberries and two bottles of her favorite sweet tea. “Oh my god, Jan,” she laughs when she sees how many bags Janis is trying to carry. She rushes off once again to grab a cart, returning to Janis and putting her things in it before climbing into the basket herself. Janis raises an eyebrow at her, but ultimately can’t resist the crystal blue puppy eyes blinking pleadingly at her and starts pushing it towards the checkout area with a sarcastic grumble about ‘certain people being too cute for their own damn good’.

———

Janis pulls into the clearing in the woods, telling Cady to close her eyes so she can get everything ready as she cuts the engine.

“Are you gonna murder me now?” Cady jokes as Janis grabs the massive pile of blankets from the backseat and begins making a little nest in the truck bed.

“Yeah,” Janis grunts as she hops up. “Took you out to give you a fun final memory.” It takes her a while, and she swears vigorously as she misses her footing on the way to grab the snacks and nearly falls on her face. She sets all their food up in the middle, and as a finishing touch, puts up Cady’s new stuffie holding up her phone, which is now playing music softly. Not too shabby, but she just hopes her girl likes it.

She goes around to help Cady down, making sure her eyes are still covered as she leads her around to the back before she takes her hands away. “Tah-dah,” she says shyly, but smiles as Cady gasps excitedly.

“Janis! This is incredible! And you bought me that lion,” she squeals, pointing to it. “Thank you!” is all the warning Janis gets before her girlfriend is in her arms, kissing her firmly.

She scrambles to grab her as she suddenly pulls back, saying, “Oh, sorry I didn’t mean- I should’ve asked first,” hastily. Janis sets her down gently before leaning in and pressing their lips together again.

“I appreciate that, but you don’t have to ask anymore, baby. It might take me some time to be comfortable with it in public, but I love your kisses,” She says comfortingly. “Now hop up here and snuggle me.” Cady uses her offered hand as a boost, wriggling up and picking up the stuffed animal to hold it close. Janis follows, getting comfortable in a corner she made extra cushy before gesturing for Cady to come to her.

She obliges, leaning her back against Janis’ chest and resting her head on her shoulder so they can both see the sky. “You don’t have to ask, either,” She murmurs quietly after a few peaceful seconds. “In case you were wondering.”

“Good to know,” Janis says, pulling her tighter against her and wrapping them

both up in another blanket. They watch the sun set in silence, observing the stars getting brighter the lower it gets.

“Which one do you like better?” Janis asks after a long moment.

“Hmm?”

“The sky. Is it better here or in Kenya?”

Cady thinks for a minute. “Uhm, both,” she says softly. “There’s less smog in Africa, obviously, so you can see more. The stars themselves are more distinct and you can see more of them. But everything just stretches on for miles, I could see everything around me, and it always reminded me how alone I was. Here I have you, and Damian, and so many people that I know actually care about me. There’s less sky, but more people to share it with.”

“That’s confusing,” Janis cracks in a ditch attempt to lighten the mood. “What constellations do you know?”

Cady takes her hand gently and uses it to point out what she can see, telling her the scientific names of all the stars she knows and the stories behind all the shapes.

“How do you know all this?” Janis asks after she’s pointed out everything they can see, turning Cady around in her lap to face her.

“My brother taught me when I was little, and then I just kept studying it after that.” Cady surmises, nuzzling into her shoulder and starting to stim with the ends of her hair.

“Your brother?”

“Yeah, he-um. He passed away when I was ten. He was in the military,” Cady says.

“Oh.” Janis says. “I’m sorry. My biological father died when I was four but I still don’t... really know what to say in this kind of situation.” She mumbles, embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it, darling. It’s awkward for everyone,” Cady comforts.

“Tell me about him,” Janis asks. “If you want to, no pressure.” She adds hastily, relieved as her girlfriend chuckles lightly.

“Okay, um- his name is Rhys. He was the best, he taught me all about science and stuff, and he always made up games with me when our parents were busy with their research. I used to get nightmares a lot when I was little, and he would sneak into my tent to cuddle me back to sleep before I woke anyone else up,” Cady recalls fondly. “I think he was a genius, too. He knew everything. He wanted to be a doctor, actually. We couldn’t afford to pay for all of his schooling, so he joined the army to get help with that when he was eighteen. He was almost at the end of his service when he died, he was twenty. My parents never told me what happened, all they ever told me was that there was an accident and he was never in any pain.”

Janis presses Cady impossibly closer to her, kissing her soft cherry-scented curls. “He sounds wonderful, baby. Sounds a lot like you, actually.” She says, nuzzling their noses together.

“You think? My parents say that a lot, but I never believed them,” Cady mutters softly.

——-

They continue to chat quietly as the sky gets ever darker, talking about everything and nothing all at once. Eventually, they go quiet, and Cady leans up to press their lips together gently. Janis sinks into her, tangling her fingers into curly auburn hair and nipping her bottom lip softly.

In her head, Janis knows that the universe is above them, stretching infinitely into nothing. But in her heart, she knows that there are just as many stars in Cady’s eyes, just as much beauty in her heart. Her whole universe is right here, in her arms.

--------

lol remember when I said this one would be shorter ?? oh well.

hope you enjoyed, thank you for reading!

-ezzy

[rena-rain]

Miraculous Holders’ Costumes - RANKED

#1 - Dragon Bug

Dragon Bug’s design is the freaking epitome of asymetrical balance. Everything about this suit is both smooth and sharp. The curving stripes and spots give the impression of fire licking up her body, same with the flame-shaped horns in her hair. You can hardly go wrong with black, red, and gold. The upward-pointing hair accessories reflect her downward-pointing pigtails, adding more subtle balance, and I love the details on her mask.

#2 - Rena Rouge

This design really suits Alya. The shape of the white front is both slimming and compliments her curves, and the black accents at her extremities are an excellent counterbalance to the white and orange. Also something about the coattails just completes Rena Rouge’s look! It’s the right shape too, because fox tails are on the bushier side, unlike cats and mice.

#3 - Chat Noir

Chat Noir’s costume can be described as “black cat meets knight in shining armor but modern.” Let’s go from the head down. The change in hairstyle balances out his cat ears. His blond hair, green eyes, and gold bell are beautiful contrasts to the black suit, which has a subtle texture to the fabric. There are visible seams over his shoulders, arms, and torso that add visual interest to the design and makes his suit resemble armor - even more so with his boots and gauntlets. Those details are fantastic because black is extremely slimming and they give some emphasis to his shape. Between the ears, eyes, bell, claws, and tail, you could never mistake his aesthetic as anything but catlike.

#4 - Hawk Moth

Do not tell me Hawk Moth’s costume isn’t sleek as hell. The monochrome works for him, the suit pairs well with his weapon being a staff, the overhead silver helmet-mask gives him a great villainous feel, and every pointy detail gives a sense of evil butterflies. I love that his miraculous is the focal point of his outfit, the light color contrast really draws the eye.

#5 - Snake Noir

They definitely combined the best elements of the Chat costume and Aspik costume for Snake Noir. In a word, you can describe his design as “lithe.” The cyan pairs well with the green, especially because there’s a Chat Noir-green diamond on his chest. The snake elements are a bit subtler, with his head smooth, the design tapering down his body, the fangs on his mask, the scale texture on his suit and the lines running down his arms. It’s cohesive, elegant, and stark.

#6 - Bunnix

I think Bunnix is meant to resemble a snowshoe hare. They didn’t give her a tail, but I think that’s what the little rounded ball accents are supposed to represent. The markings are bold and evenly distributed, making her look balanced and symmetrical. She actually has a vague vintage feel to her design: the white torso is reminiscent of a corset, which goes with the gloves, boots, and umbrella/parasol. Like Chat Noir, Alix’s hair makes a great contrast with the light blue and white. Also POCKETS.

#7 - Carapace

I love how much Carapce emulates a turtle. His hood and cowl are shaped like a turtle beak and also hide his face, serving both to protect his identity and give the impression he can physically retreat into his costume. His shield looks like a shell, the designs on his hood look like common markings on turtles’ heads, and he has a tortoiseshell pattern on his chest and shield. Like Chat Noir, the lines of his suit give his arms and legs visual interest.

#8 - Queen Bee

As much as I personally dislike the color yellow, Queen Bee’s costume has a straightforward elegance about it. Obviously the black and yellow stripes resemble a bumble bee but they’re also good for Chloe’s slender body type.. The black “neckline” and “gloves” are regal in flavor, suiting her moniker. You get a distinct bee impression from the sharpness of her stripes (a reminder of her stinging power), the black swirl around her hair, and the antennae-like hair ribbon.

#9 - Multimouse

Multimouse is another example of a well-balanced and symmetrical design. It uses the reliable faux gloves and boots design with colors that go well together. Her buns and jump rope look like mouse ears and a tail. I have a suspicion the animators came up with it to easily combine with other miraculous powers, mainly by changing the color of the pink stripes post-unification. Overall, this costume is very cute. I won’t go over every permutation of the multimice combos since very little changes other than color.

#10 - Lady Noire

Overall, Lady Noire’s suit is minimalist and elegant in a sharp, modern kind of way. Black is naturally slimming, and Marinette is already very slim, so the horizontal green accents help emphasize her curves. I don’t love the green lining of her ears, but I suppose that keeps the design consistent. I’m absolutely in love with Lady Noire’s braid (and I’d be remiss not to take the chance to point out this is the only time we see her hair properly black instead of blue). Her suit has a completely smooth texture, unlike both her Ladybug suit and Chat Noir’s, which I found odd and does’t do her petite frame any favors.

#11 - Mr. Bug

I’m glad they gave Mr. Bug black panels on his sides. The full-cover spots of Ladybug is fine for Marinette, but Adrien has a bigger frame and it would just look ostentatious on him. This design emphasizes his shoulders and slims him down a bit. He actually looks like a football player (American football, don’t @ me about this). He ranks just below Lady Noire because of the hair.

#12 - Aspik

OMG what a cutie pie. I can’t not say it - he looks like he’s wearing a corset in the left pic. Not a good or bad thing, I’m just saying. Look at this cutie pie! Aspik actually looks more snake-like than Viperion, imo: the design is sleeker and he’s got the diamonds over his head, that’s a nice touch. The snake scale pattern is a great detail. I had to step outside my own bias with this one because snakes really freak me out and so does Adrien without hair.

#13 - Jade Turtle

He’s less turtle-y than Carapace, but I was pretty happy with the Jade Turtle costume. The Asian style obviously suits him, and it makes sense because he was originally from China, while many of the others would be more used to Western clothing at a young age. Fu has a tortoise-shell pattern on his hat and shoulder guards and his shoes look like turtle feet. However, His chest plate deviates from the turtle theme

#14 - Viperion

My favorite parts of Viperion’s costume are his mask with the little snake fangs and the scale texture of the suit.As I mentioned above, it’s less snakey than Aspik’s. The lines suit his shape pretty well, but don’t taper down his body in the way a snake slims from chest to tail. I just feel like something’s missing from the outfit as a whole.

#15 - Ladybug

There’s just...nothing all that special about Ladybug’s costume. The red and black do suit Marinette’s pink coloring and dark hair, and contrast with her blue eyes. The bright color and pattern emphasize Marinette’s curves pretty well and make her look a little bigger than her slim stature. All that said, the suit is both busy and plain somehow.

16 - Pegasus

While I do love the hair, something about Pegasus’ costume is both too subtle and too over-the-top somehow at the same time. He has a lot of bells and whistles, though I suppose it’s supposed to look similar to horse tack. The winged shoes seem completely out of place. It’s not that I think he looks bad, but he doesn’t look particularly cool either.

#17 - Mayura

The one sin of Mayura’s outfit is the giant slit up the skirt, but kwamis is it a sin. The colors all go together and the headpiece matches the hem, and it has a distinct cold-weather theme going on with the boots, fur collar and cuffs, and full coverage design. That gets negated by the slit, which exposes nearly all of her legs, something that works far better for a summer evening dress.

#18 - King Monkey/Roi Singe

I’ve tried to figure out what it is about King Monkey’s costume that looks less than optimal, and I’m pretty sure it’s that it isn’t balanced well. He has large gloves, and elaborate crown and hairstyle, a thick collar, and a thick belt high up his waist. It makes him look kind of top-heavy. Similar to Pegasus, but to a greater extent, he’s washed out by the excess of neutral colors that the red doesn’t counteract very much.

#19 - Ryuko

I expected the dragon outfit to be more exciting. Other than the tail design (and the horns???), there’s just nothing dragon-esque about this. Come on, Chat Noir got ears, claws, and a tail; Viperion and Snake Noir got little scale motifs all over and fangs on their masks; Multimouse got bun ears and a tail; Carapace got a shell and a beak; Rena Rouge also got ears and a tail on top of a design reminiscent of a fox’s fur markings. Imagine the awesome tail and claws and fire motifs we were deprived of with the dragon. The best parts of Ryuko’s design is the embellished mask, her reptile eyes, and the red/black/gold color scheme, which are pretty cool.

[simp-for-spencer-reid]

Sugar with a Side of Coffee Ch. 10- Trivia Night

Chapter 10: Trivia Night

Series Masterlist

The team could deduce that Spencer and Cate had made up; he began to show up with his hot coffee and a fresh baked good in the morning again. JJ tried to talk with him about his and Cate’s relationship, but he insisted they were just friends. Emily suggested having another night out, but Spencer wasn’t keen on that idea. 

Especially after seeing how easily someone could get to her through him, like the photographs made clear, he wanted to keep her at an arm’s distance. He would rather have her safe than to be the reason she got hurt. 

Derek and Penelope had grown impatient waiting for Spencer to introduce them to her officially. Sure, Derek had met her briefly at the bar, but the team as a whole wanted to get to know her, maybe give their stamp of approval. They all knew how much Spencer deserved a ray of sunshine in his life. They also wanted to see what had Spencer so captivated by her. 

Luckily, they had schemed up a little plan to not force, but encourage an introduction. Penelope had seen a flyer on her way into work about a Trivia Night being held at the bar on 18th that they frequented. The team as a whole was due for a night out anyhow, so they could play it off as a coincidence. Derek was one step ahead of Penelope, he had stopped into The Empty Mug to talk to Marta about their plan. He had assumed that since Cate typically worked the cart, that Marta would be inside the shop. And like the profiler he was, he was right. 

Marta recognized him right away. She quickly got through the line to take care of his order.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Marta smirked at him. Derek laughed her off.

“I have a plan to get our Pretty Boy and your friend together.”

It took little convincing to get Marta on board of he and Penelope’s plan. Even Marta was tired of the pining and wanted to help them finally get together. Spencer and Cate were painfully obvious to anyone else about their feelings, but to each other, they kept them hidden.

Marta could see how Cate’s spirits were lifted when she came in from a shift after seeing Spencer. And on the nights when he walked her home, Marta could see Cate’s face light up. Marta was also a witness to the mutual blushing between them. She could see the stolen glances and the way the two teetered on the edge of friends or more. 

When Cate came in after her shift on the cart, she was smiling and had a bit of a bounce to her step. Marta could only assume she and Spencer had seen each other this morning. As soon as Cate reappeared from the back, Marta was hot on her trail.

“So,” Marta started, already putting on her begging face. “I was thinking that it’s been a while since we last went to the bar on 18th and we both could use a night out! I’ll even drive!” Marta had her hands placed on Cate’s shoulders, slightly shaking her as she pleaded.

“Uh, yeah I don’t have any plans, I just have to run home and feed Shrimp and I’ll meet you back here?” Cate had told Spencer she was free tonight when she saw him this morning, but she’d have to update him later. Marta was doing a small celebratory series of jumps. Just as soon as she had ran up to Cate, she was shooing her out the door to move her along to go get ready. 

“Perfect, I’ll expect you back here by five thirty, I want to be there by six.” Marta watched as Cate walked to her apartment, the two of them laughing to themselves.

Cate’s apartment felt different since the leak. She no longer kept her books out on shelves or anywhere they could be damaged. She traded them out for little figurines and pictures in frames. It made Cate’s place feel less like her, but she never wanted to risk her books until she found a more reliable place. 

Shrimp batted a little golden pom pom with wings around Cate’s living room floor. She was busy in her room, pulling clothes out for a cute outfit. Her bedroom door was open, allowing for Shrimp to walk in and jump on her bed to watch what she was doing. She turned when she heard his bell and held up a hanger with an olive green shirt on it. 

“Which do you prefer?” Cate asked the orange cat as she swapped between the green shirt and a mustard yellow one. Shrimp just closed his eyes and curled up to sleep. “Thanks for the help.” Cate smiled and decided on the yellow shirt. She paired it with dark blue jeans and some tan heels. 

After putting the other clothes back where they belonged and taking a quick shower and changing, Cate walked to her kitchen, enjoying the sound of her heels clicking on the floor. She filled Shrimp’s bowl and gave him fresh water. Taking her phone out of her back pocket, she lifted it to her mouth to record a voice message for Spencer.

“Hey Spence, I know I said I was free tonight, but Marta wanted to go out, so I can’t hangout- if that’s what you wanted to do!” She had rushed the last part, mentally scolding herself for making assumptions.

Spencer would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little disappointed that Cate had managed to come up with plans that didn’t involve him. As he sat at his desk, He was tempted to ask where she was going, but he didn’t want to pry. As he set his phone down, Penelope approached his desk. She wore her smile as well as she sported her colorful clothing and accessories.

“Good evening, Boy Wonder! I come bearing some fun times. Tonight, we- as in Morgan, Prentiss, JJ and I are going to a trivia night! Would you like to come?” Penelope held a pink papered flyer in her hand. 

“Wouldn���t it be cheating considering my eidetic memory?” Spencer furrowed his brows at her. 

“Well, yes we would have an advantage, but it will be fun winning and we can celebrate with drinks or something. Consider it team bonding time!” Spencer wondered how much bonding the team could really have. Since he and Cate were not going to see each other, he might as well fill his night with fun with his team. 

He didn’t bother going home after work, he rode with Emily, and JJ to the bar on 18th. They parked around back, Derek and Penelope pulling in front of them. The air was cooling down as they exited their cars. Derek finished up a quick phone call as they were parking. The group made their way to the entrance, walking to the right side of the trivia section, picking a table that would fit their team of five. 

Cate had made it back to The Empty Mug shortly before Marta had wanted her to arrive. Of course, Marta was running a little late, and hadn’t even gotten dressed yet. Cate went up the stairs and greeted Marta’s parents having dinner. Marta was in her room, still in a towel as she dried her curly hair. 

By the time they got to the bar on 18th, it was a little after six. Marta and Cate took a tall table on the left side of the trivia table. On the table there was a menu of appetizers that were half price for the duration of the trivia night and a list of rules for trivia night. 

“Wow that looks fun, should we try our hand at a giftcard for this place?” Marta referred to the grand prize: a thirty dollar gift card to the bar. Cate scoffed.

“You know we might as well. It beats paying full price for some food.” Cate glanced over the menu, deciding what sort of greasy food would hit the spot. 

The host for trivia spoke into the mic, checking it to see if it was on. They welcomed everybody and went over the rules for the game. Some general rules: teams must consist of 2-6 players. One player must present their answer to the host per team. The game will consist of ten questions. If needed, a tie breaker will be introduced to the game at the end of the night.

“Alright, everyone, I am going to spin the wheel to decide our first category and question.” The host announced. They gave a large wheel with different colored pie slices and pictures representing categories a spin. “Our first category is Math, get your pencils ready.” 

What is the top number of a fraction called?

Marta flew out of her seat and made a run for the host’s table. One the way, she saw that Derek had beat her to the table. She groaned, dramatically throwing her head back. 

“Nice to see you, too.” Derek sauntered over to Marta after giving his team’s answer to the host. “Cate is with you?” Marta nodded and confirmed their table’s whereabouts. “Perfect. We can’t see you from our table. We’ll send Reid to the host for the tenth question.” After keeping it short and brief, Derek walked back to their table. Marta walked back to her and Cate’s table. Marta had to tell Cate that she wasn’t fast enough. 

The host called everyone’s attention to confirm the correct answer was given. They spun the wheel again, the next category was Music. 

How many black keys on a piano?

“Out of 88 keys on a piano, 52 are white and 36 are black.” Spencer recited from memory. Penelope scribbled the number down and made a break for the host. She spotted a brunette low ponytail with her back to her. Penelope recognized Cate. Penelope turned on her heel, and walked back to the table of agents.

It would seem that Cate and Marta held their own against other teams who consisted of more than two people, especially the team of agents across the section. They had been neck and neck for first place. Right now, the agents were in the lead. 

The trivia host spun the wheel to decide the category. The wheel seemed to spin forever as it slowed. Finally landing on Science, the host plucked an index card that held the question and answer from a rotating filing system for index cards.

Which scientist is credited for the modern study of genetics?

Cate launched from her seat. Her and Marta were one point from tying with the team in first place. Cate had gotten quite invested in this silly game of trivia. Her competitive side was coming out, and her need for the win was strong. As she was reaching the host’s table she caught sight of a familiar face. She shook her head to keep focused, and gave the host her slip with the answer. Instead of walking back towards her table, she continued to the right of the host, towards Spencer.

“What are you doing here?” Cate stopped in front of him. Spencer held his team’s slip in his long fingers, folding it over nervously. 

“Some of my team from the BAU wanted some ‘team bonding’” Spencer told her. It was clicking in his head; Garcia’s persistence, Cate’s last minute change of plans, Derek’s phone call. They had been set up. Cate nodded at him.

“Sounds fun! I’ll catch you later then.” She turned to go back to her table. The host called that there were only two questions left. Cate’s answer was announced as correct, putting her team and Spencer’s team in a tie. The next two points were taken by other teams, but Spencer and Cate’s teams were tied for first. It was the final, tie breaking question for the two teams in first. The wheel spun and landed on pop culture. 

Give the five digit code used to access the Ministry of Magic from the red phone booth in Harry Potter.

Cate was ecstatic that her extensive knowledge of the Wizarding World was coming in handy. Marta shoved her in excitement and Cate bounded through tables to get to the host’s booth. Spencer had taken longer than he liked to rifle through his first readthrough of the series. He was glad his long legs allowed him to take long strides. He looked for Cate in the aisle in front of the host’s table. She was on the floor, gripping her ankle. Because there were no other teams to worry about, he moved to go see if she was alright. 

Her hair was in her face, and he couldn’t see her face well enough to read her expression. He hadn’t noticed the heels she was wearing. He hadn’t known her to wear heels in all the times they’d hung out. He bent down, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, I think I mis-stepped and rolled my ankle on something.” Cate looked around the floor around her, for what she could’ve stepped on. Spencer held a hand out, ready to help her up. Cate had other plans, though and pulled herself up, pushing him behind her to throw her paper at the host, who was shaking his head laughing.

“That’s cheating!” Spencer looked at her, mouth agape. 

“And having a certifiable genius on your team isn’t?” Cate smiled back. With the announcement of Cate and Marta’s win, both teams walked to their partners.

“Well played, Cate.” Derek said as he approached. JJ and Emily introduced themselves to the girls. Cate looked to Penelope. With a smile she extended her hand.

“Nice glasses.” Penelope was wearing the red frames again, Cate remembered Penelope from the coffee cart. Her first taste of the coffee order of Spencer Reid.

“Spencer has definitely met his match with you.” Emily spoke to Cate, the two glancing at Spencer after she said it. A blush was creeping up the back of his neck.

“He definitely didn’t mention how pretty you are!” JJ said. Spencer’s blush made its way to his ears. “No wonder he stops for coffee every morning.” Everyone turned to Marta. “And the coffee is amazing, thank your parents for delivering to the Bureau.” The whole team was loving the change in coffee. It was a definite upgrade from the cheap stuff they used to buy. The team and Marta and Cate pulled chairs over at the agents’ table to converse a little while longer without being in the way of any servers.

Spencer and Cate walked together out the door of the bar, his team had not to subtly been shooting him looks of approval. If Cate had said anything to prove she was remotely compatible with Spencer, they would look at him- wide eyed and raised brows. Spencer had tried not to make eye contact with any other agent at the table. 

“6-2-4-4-2.” Spencer spoke first. Cate smiled. “I did know the answer, for the record.”

“Magic.” she replied. “You never cease to amaze me, Spence.” Cate looked up at him, smiling. He just shoved his hands into his cardigan.

Spencer walked her to Marta’s car, Marta already inside waiting for her. He opened the door for her to get in. She smiled a thanks at him. If she smiled like that again at him, Spencer swore he might combust. 

In Emily’s car, JJ and Emily were waiting for Spencer to come back. As soon as he shut the door, they were squealing with excitement. The entire ride back to the bureau, they spoke highly of Cate, and pinpointed exactly what qualities they thought balanced Spencer out and how she was his perfect match. Spencer didn’t deny any of their words; he just smiled and thought about Cate. He wasn’t so sure he could keep up being just friends anymore.

[orange-waterfalls]

Favorite Things

Captain Magnum x gender neutral!reader

@rattyships ty for the request!

A/N: YES the title is a quote, YES it's from That One Song™, YES I based this fic off of that idea, leave me alone. Uh... Christmas. Yeah. Captain Magnum seems way too calm in this fic for my own liking, but y'know. Reader can paint even though I am physically unable to, so. There's that. Fluffy. Rated PG because there's one two "hell"s and one "damn" and that's it. It's cheesy and that's why it's great.

Word Count: 2.0k

--

You paced around your cabin, very anxious. Christmas was in three days! What were you supposed to get everyone? You didn't know what anyone liked! Or that they even celebrated…

Well, who says no to a gift, right?

You went over to your secret chest (nobody on that damn ship knew how to share) and opened it up to see how much treasure you had. Not much, but it was there. You could buy a lot in normal markets with these. Maybe you could convince the Captain to take you back home for the holidays?

Well, you never know until you try, right?

But what would you buy? They have quite enough gold and jewels, none of them seem to have any interest in anything, you doubted they'd like something homemade…

This was gonna be difficult.

You sighed and closed your chest, walking over to your door. You opened it to find said Captain standing there, the rest of the crew behind him.

"Hi, Captain," you blinked in surprise. You probably should have been more confused than you were, but this boat was already super weird. He was smiling at you.

"Mornin', first mate!" He greeted. "We found a treasure map on a ship we were lootin'. We're about t' start searchin' fer treasure!"

"Oh. Alright. Gimme a minute," you smiled and closed the door. You sighed and rested your back on the door. Maybe you could find something on the island to give them…?

"Yeah, they'll love a nice flower crown…" You snorted at your own idea. You sighed and grabbed up your stuff, opening your door and walking over to the crew. They were all talking about how they couldn't wait to find more treasure. You rolled your eyes. Don't they have enough of it? You took a head count of how many of them there were. Five… five crewmates, five presents. Captain Magnum noticed you and smiled.

"Thar ye be! I thought ye would lock yourself in yer cabin th' whole day!" He, along with the rest of the crew, laughed. You smiled saltily. "Wha' were ye doin' in thar?" You looked around, trying to come up with something.

"Um… I was… I was…" you looked out onto the horizon for a moment, your eyes softening. The crew looked at you.

"Y/N?" One of them called to you. "Are ye-"

"Painting," you interrupted.

"What?" Magnum asked.

"I was… painting…" you looked back to them. They all stared at you for a minute.

"You… you paint?" One woman asked. You smiled and nodded at her. All of the crewmates looked at each other for a minute.

"Uh… wha' d' ye paint?" The other woman asked. You shrugged.

"Whatever, really. Animals, landscapes, whatever's in my room…" you looked over at Captain Magnum to make sure this was okay. He sighed and plopped himself down on a stair. You smiled and turned back to the group.

--

You explained painting to the crew for 15 minutes. You had no idea they'd be so interested in your hobby. They asked so many questions, some of which you'd somehow never heard. How long had these people been at sea?

Eventually, you looked over to see Captain Magnum looking impatiently at the island the ship landed at 10 minutes ago. You chuckled at him and stood up.

"Captain's getting a bit annoyed, guys. Let's go," the crew complained, but got off of the ship as you walked over to the Captain. He raised an eyebrow at you and you mimicked the action.

"They find ye mighty interestin'," he commented. You smiled.

"Yeah. Not more than you though. I doubt anything could be more interesting than those logs you have for legs." You both looked at each other for a moment before laughing. He stood and you both followed the crew off of the ship.

He lead the way to where the treasure was, the rest of you trailing close behind. One of the crewmates, a boy who looked no older than twenty-one, took your arm. You raised both eyebrows and looked at him.

"So… wha' were ye sayin' about watercolors?" He asked softly. You smiled as the other crew members gathered around you again. You looked up at Captain Magnum, who was smiling at you all. He chuckled and turned back around, continuing to lead the way. You sighed.

"Alright… so watercolor is probably one of the most well-known types of paint…"

--

You had found treasure on the island, and most of the crewmates became interested in that, but the boy who has asked you about watercolors stayed as you explained how people originally made paints from flowers. You saw the curious look in his eyes, and decided what you were gonna get everyone for Christmas.

You were gonna paint for them.

What, you weren't sure. But you sure as hell were gonna paint. Maybe… their favorite animals? Or maybe an object they really liked…

You decided to ask them what they liked.

The woman with the bandana really liked sea creatures. Specifically, narwhals. They were very pretty and could also impale people. She liked that about them. You didn't think she noticed you scribbling everything she said into a small notebook.

The woman with the eyepatch really liked swords. She knew a lot about them; names, origins, uses… it was slightly unnerving, but you couldn't judge.

The boy liked plants. He liked the fact that they were living beings, just like people and animals. Only, they were smaller and couldn't talk. They could, however, feel. And he liked that. You couldn't get over how soft he was…

The man who was first mate before you liked… hats. He liked that they all basically had the same function, but looked so different. You could respect that. Hats were very cool.

The next day, you decided to paint them pictures of their favorite things in their respective color schemes, and added a different color for each background. A blue and white narwhal with a green background, a red and black sword with a navy blue background, a black and orange flower with a dark green background, and a brown and maroon hat with a pastel red background (no, not pink. There's a difference). You spent an entire day painting the pictures. They turned out very well, in your opinion. You just hoped the crew felt the same.

After you were finished with those, you asked Captain Magnum what his favorite thing was. He thought for a moment, stroking his beard.

"Well… I suppose it'd be treasure!" He answered. You knitted your eyebrows together.

"Really? Treasure?" You asked, hoping for something more.

"O' course, treasure! I be a pirate aft all! Wha' would I like if it nah be treasure?" You sighed in slight disappointment. You thought that you would find something new about him but, nope. He loves treasure the most. You nodded and turned around.

"Well, that or ye." You stopped dead in your tracks. Did you hear that right? You slowly turned back towards him. He looked away from you, towards the horizon. The setting sun illuminated his face, tinting it orange, pink, and yellow. He looked like he was ripped right from a movie...

"What was that?" You asked, slightly distracted by how beautiful he looked.

"Treasure be a pirate's fav'rit thin' o' course. But, since ye showed up... I reckon me fav'rit "thin'" be me first mate. Ye." He said nonchalantly. A small smile creeped onto your face. Magnum looked at you, since you hadn't said anything in a while.

"So, you're saying… you love me?" You asked, fishing for compliments. Magnum flushed a bit. It was mostly hidden due to the sun, but you could still see.

"Well… er…" He scratched the back on his head, thinking of how to respond.

"Cause that's what I'm hearing here…"

"Um…"

"Exactly how much do you love me, Captain?" You smirked, leaning on the side of the ship, your cheek in your palm. Magnum finally took a deep breath and looked in your eyes.

"More than all th' treasure in all th' seven seas…" he stated. Your eyes widened as your smirk fell. You felt your face heat up and you turned away from him.

"Well, uh…" you coughed, "I should… get to bed… wanna be up early tomorrow, so…" you shuffled away.

"First Mate Y/N!" He called. You turned back towards him.

"Merry Christmas." He said. You smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Captain."

--

You walked into the deck, the crew already gathered. You figured Magnum must've gotten them. You took a deep breath and walked over, the paintings in your arms. The crew all waved and greeted you. You smiled and stood in front of them.

"So, uh… it's Christmas as you may or may not know…" you explained nervously. "So, um… I decided that, as gifts, I was going to paint for you all… and these were the results." You move forward and pass out all the works you painted. All of the crew seemed happy with their pictures. They showed them to each other and gawked over the detail and bragged about how good they looked. You finally walked up to Magnum, who was steering. You held out a painting to him.

"Wha', fer me?" He raised his eyebrows and took the picture. It was of a red, blue, yellow, and black ship with a sunset in the background and sparkling green and blue waves. The words "a pirate's life for me" were written on the back. He laughed heartily and pulled you into a hug.

"Oh, ye really outdid yourself, mate! 'tis wonderful!" He complimented. You managed to pull yourself out of the hug after a minute or two and handed him an envelope. He looked over at the rest of the crew and, upon seeing that no one else had one, tilted his head a bit.

"It's from her," You explained, pointing. Magnum nodded and looked over at the woman who was showing off her narwhal. She glanced at the Captain and winked as the boy with the flower painting giggled. Magnum plopped down onto a step, but you stayed standing. He opened the envelope to reveal a card. On the inside, it said "This thing you two have is special, more special than anything I could try to get. I can, however, make you realize exactly what you have". You frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" You asked. Magnum shrugged and gave you the envelope. You looked inside, seeing something green. You took it out and your eyes widened.

Mistletoe.

Mistletoe?

Where the hell did they find mistletoe?!

You looked at Captain Magnum, who was staring at you. He raised both eyebrows at the plant in your hand. You were holding it between you two accidentally (on purpose).

"We don't 'ave t' if ye don't wants t'..." He told you. You took a deep breath, telling yourself to stop being so weird about it because you knew he loved you back. Besides, the crew had all left to put their gifts in their rooms. You leaned down, since he was sitting, and softly connected your lips. He sat there for a moment, eyes wide, before closing them. You both stayed like that for a few seconds before you pulled away all too soon. His eyes looked hazy as you smiled.

"Merry Christmas." You whispered and walked to your room, leaving Magnum to process what happened.

You entered your room and leaned your back on the door, smiling widely.

"Well, that was the best Christmas present ever…" you mumbled to yourself. You started to giggle as you continued to think about it. You put your hands on your face in embarrassment. It was only a couple seconds, why were you being so weird? You jumped a bit when you heard a gentle knock at your door. You turned around and tilted your head. Who could that be? It was getting late and the crew had already shown their appreciation…

Unless…

You opened the door to reveal, you guessed it, Captain Magnum. He was holding the mistletoe you had left on the deck. You looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He smiled.

"Do ye... Uh... Wanna do that again?" He asked sheepishly. You laughed a bit before smiling up at him.

"Absolutely."

[bubmyg]

of equine considerations - ksj

pairing: seokjin x reader

genre: ceo!au, fluff, is there really a plot here? kind of

word count: 2,180

summary: what the hell do you get the best thing to ever happen to you who’ve you’ve already given everything you can think of or where seokjin runs into you in a boutique down the block from his office looking at the exact same teddy bear figurine he’d been coming after

a/n: part 5 of aicaib!!! we are nearing the end ladies :’-) again, tumblr’s link situation sucks, if you need the series masterlist lmk!!!

There was a piece of paper pasted to the corner of stained red oak, the signature line prominent and starred in bleeding red ink. It was just another multi million dollar investment that Kim Enterprise would endorse in the new year, just like the stack in a manilla folder on the opposite corner of the expansive desk, if only for the scrawl of Seokjin’s signature on the blank line. It was the third time he’d pushed it out of the way in favor of his home Macbook, backspace key and touch pad worn from his incessant clicking through the same three tabs.

The thick snowflakes ricocheting off the glass panel windows of his corner office mocked him, your shining eyes reflected in the crystal shapes as you ranted against his lips how there was to be a white Christmas this year. He’d smiled and kissed you back, letting you wrap his tie up in your fist and make him five minutes late to his morning appointment, one he could barely comprehend because his thoughts were flooded with your towering tree in the foyer that had not one present underneath it that was addressed from him to you.

Seokjin’s office chair groaned as he stretched backward in it, arms tucking behind his head, fingers thrust in the short hairs at the nape of his neck. The first tab of three glared at him first, a local floral shop that sold towering arrangements. He had the most expensive one open, bursting and overflowing in all the bright flowers you’d fawn over in your garden when spring finally melted the snow that was falling outside.

He barely blinked, index finger tracking the touchpad to close the tab. Flowers were a Valentine’s Day gift. A I was just thinking of you on the way home gift. A gift not for the middle of winter.

“Can you wrap flowers?” Seokjin mumbled to himself, replacing the tab with that question. The answer was a clear yes.

The second tab was a travel website, three different trips to somewhere tropical dropped into his listings. He had the power to control his own schedule but not yours, knowing your work wouldn’t let you off until at least the summer, knowing that he couldn’t really afford to leave the company to Yoongi in the midst of their busiest quarter, anyway.

And even then, when you were that excited about snow, who was he to retch you out of it? He closed that tab too.

Sometime, offhandedly, you’d mentioned picking up a new hobby. “Maybe horseback riding,” You’d informed Namjoon’s wife, white wine delicate in your ringed fingers as Seokjin had watched you swallow down a languid sip.

Whether you’d mentioned that a year into your marriage or just last week at the company Christmas gala, Seokjin couldn’t remember.

The last tab was an advert for lessons at a nearby stable with the history including the price of hiring contractors to build your own barn just outside your gardens and an endless number of listings for the best Warmbloods money could buy. It was stupid and pretentious and not anything Seokjin could see you being excited about for more that ten seconds just to spare his ego.

He closed that tab too, now left staring at your grinning face beyond his clutter of work files that had somehow crept into his personal device. The laptop shut with a resounding thud, his elbows knocking into the lid as he hunched over his desk, head in his hands. One arm slipped off the laptop when he groaned and suddenly a concerned voice was hushing to him.

“Mr. Kim? Are you alright? Mr. Kim? Seokjin, I’ll come in there, what is—”

He was out the door, cutting off his secretary’s voice abruptly in the process as he came to loom over her desk, fingers gripping at the wood, feet crossing at the ankles as he sighed.

“Mr. Kim, what can I—”

“Minseo,” Seokjin began slowly, voice deliberate, calculated, “I need your help.”

She blinked, brushing away the pile of paperwork in front of her, fingers fiddling together, “Go on.”

“I haven’t got my wife anything,” He winced when Minseo’s mouth rounded in some sort of shocked horror, “and I’m not making any progress on what to get her.”

“Would you like me to order her something and have it sent to the estate?”

“No,” Seokjin searched behind him, dragging one of the two generic chairs closer to plop backward into it. He fiddled at the cuffs of his white dress shirt, dragging them over his elbows as he loosened his tie, running his fingers through his hair for good measure. “I want you to talk to me like a friend,” He cocked an eyebrow, “What do I get her?”

Her expression softened, bracelets clattering to her desktop as she dropped her arms against the surface. “Jin, I know Y/N, but not like you do,” She tilted her head, “What does she like?”

“Lots of things,” He dragged incessant fingers across his face, scratching underneath his chin, “She likes to take the sugar gliders out of their cages and let them roam around inside one of my giant hoodies. She says it’s like their own playground. She also likes to garden, but only specific flowers, and the color scheme has to match. I witnessed her pull out an entire marigold plant with her bare hands because the yellow contrasted with her ‘aesthetic’. She likes to watch fireworks and has endless polaroids of them hanging on a corkboard in her office.”

His voice dropped a bit, “She likes it when I take three day weekends because it gives her an excuse to use her ridiculous amount of vacation time. And she likes it when we’re both home without responsibility. Just being together, you know?”

Minseo hummed, considering Seokjin with a fond glint in the tiny smile that curved on her lips. “Well, I assume another sugar glider is out of the question. Flowers aren’t really a Christmas gift. I don’t trust you to light off fireworks and…” She studied him with cross eyebrows, “...you have taken off Christmas Eve and day, correct?”

“Yeah,” He spoke through fingers now splayed across his cheeks, thumbs sandwiching his lips, “What do I do?”

“I’ll tell you what—” She rolled around to her computer, shaking the mouse to bring the blank screen back to life. She clicked around for a second before speaking to him, “—have you ever been to the boutique down the block?”

Seokjin squinted, “The what?”

Minseo laughed, snatching a royal blue post it note from a stack in the corner of her desk. After scrawling for a second, she thrust it at him. “Take the rest of the day off and go to this address,” She watched him as he stood, still staring at the address pasted to his thumb like it was in a foreign language, “Just buy her something small and cute that she can keep around the house. Maybe an ornament for the tree.”

He nodded, dumbly albeit, nearly tripping over himself to collect his coat and keys, address still fluttering from his fingers as he navigated through the office for the elevator.

“It’s the little things, Mr. Kim!” Minseo called, shooting him a beaming thumbs up as the elevator doors slid to a close.

His towering SUV felt out of place parked next to the miniature smart car and off white sedan both dirtied in snow and salt residue. The engine rolled over, heat in the cabin immediately escaping as he stared absently through the blankets of falling snow. Giant adverts were pasted to the clear windows of the quaint shop, advertising a new collection of scarves, the newest snowglobes adorned in Disney characters, and a whole display of stone like figurines.

It was a tiny face in the corner of the aqua blue advert that caught his attention, a tiny teddy bear figurine clutching onto a group of neon colored balloons. Seokjin’s first thought was that would like nice on the bedside table, a place you reserved for decorations that didn’t quite match the rest of the house. It was filled with you, a trophy you’d received for your club, co-ed water polo team in college, a framed employee of the month certificate, a lanyard from your honeymoon adorned in pretty pink flowers.

Something about the bear’s face screamed you and suddenly he had to have it.

Seokjin was first distracted by the overwhelming sweet scent that smacked against his cheeks. It was somewhere between pine needles, vanilla, and warmth, swirling around and clinging to the fabric of his suit jacket he tucked a little tighter to his torso. It was an entire wall of ornaments next, all covered in some layer of glitter and shining in vibrant paints over delicate glass.

He eyed a bell out of curiosity, black with a striped bow wired at the top near the hook. His index finger poked at the curved outer shell, an audible gasp of surprise tumbling off his tongue when the bell actually made a tinkling ding.

He fled that wall quickly.

There was too much, too many knit beanies and knit scarves and knit potholders, too many snow globes with intricate characters he didn’t recognize, too many glass vases he would use as wine glasses if he didn’t know better, too much. He’d shrugged off the workers milling about the nearly deserted store one too many times, his clueless expression and noises of discontent giving him away even without a verbal confirmation.

Seokjin was nearly caught by the one at the register, one who’d been glaring at him for the five minutes he’d been turning a paperweight over in his palms, one that contained glitter that floated around every time you moved the heavy glass. He avoided her, though, dropping the glass back to its shelf with a resounding clatter before side stepping around one of the aisles.

And directly into someone.

He noticed the display before him first, coated in the very figurines on the advert outside. There were rabbits and bears and sock monkeys and elephants, all tiny and cute and holding various items. His eyes roamed down the shelf, zeroing in on what appeared to be the only bear, his bear, it’s tiny balloons held proudly over it’s head like the triumphant smile that stretched to his lips as he leaned in and snatched it into his grasp.

And then he remembered he’d smacked into someone.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Jin?”

A familiar hand squeezed at the apex of his elbow and suddenly he was staring into your half confused, half enraged, half endeared eyes. You cocked your head, hair falling into your eyelashes, smile growing wider as the horrified round of his lips did.

“What are you doing here?” Seokjin babbled nearly incoherent.

“What are you doing here, mister?” The hand on his arm shoved lightly at his torso, “And with my bear too.”

“Your bear?” He childishly held the figurine closer to his chest before he realized, “I mean, yeah, I was going to buy it for you.”

“I was going to buy it for you.”

His eyebrows went through various emotions, mostly confusion and amusement, “You were what?”

“I thought you’d think it was cute,” Your bottom lip worried between your teeth as you shrugged, suddenly bashful, “Maybe keep it on your desk or something. I don’t know.”

Seokjin sighed, reaching to wrap an arm around your shoulders and bring you against his chest, lips against your forehead. “Darling, I was going to buy it for you,” He pecked your temple, “I thought it’d look nice on the bedside table.”

You hummed in acknowledgement, pressing your face against the lapel of his jacket. “Nothing underneath the tree is for you,” You mumbled finally.

His shoulders shook, laugh wheezing quietly, “Want to know a secret? I haven’t got you anything yet either.”

“I was going to buy you a new tie with donuts on it.”

“I was going to build a stable and buy you horseback riding lessons.”

“Jesus, Seokjin.”

“What?” He pinched your chin, bringing your gaze up to his so he could peck your cheek. “You mentioned it like once. Four years ago but. You mentioned it.”

“You know what I really want for Christmas?” He blinked for you to continue, “I want to bake shitty Christmas cookies in the oven and watch a bad romance movie and wear those ridiculously itchy sweaters Yoongi bought us all while our cute new bear friend watches us from the coffee table.”

Seokjin’s nose wrinkled, holding you a little bit tighter, “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I think we can make that happen,” He fished for your hand, moving to pull you towards the register, “but you have to act surprised when you open the bear.”

“Who said you’re buying it?”

“Me.”

“You have no authority over me, Mr. Kim.”

“No,” Seokjin clutched onto your hand, ducking to peck your nose, “but I do have longer legs.”

“Wait, Jin, watch out for the—”

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: DokiDoki May 19

I was kind of disappointed in how my review for the TokyoTreat went yesterday, I mean, even though it annoyed me through various means I wouldn’t not recommend the box still.

Meanwhile, I was very excited for this one. I’ve realized that after doing two really big box reviews, I come to really appreciate the much smaller ones, DokiDoki and YumeTwins. In turn I feel like that makes me do a little better... maybe.

This months theme: Sweet Dreams

“Drift off into dreamland with May’s crate. This month’s theme, Sweet Dreams is all about getting you ready to settle down and get cozy for a good night’s rest. Oyasuminisai is the common saying in Japan to wish someone a good night, so this month Doki Doki Crate is wishing you sweet dreams and a good night!“

This month, the booklet features a fun illustration featuring Tomomi with the girl mascots of Japan Crate and KiraKira Crate having a slumber party. I love how they have cute crossovers between their brands like this x3 it’s a fun touch- did you know Tomomi’s boyfriend is the mascot from Umai Crate?

I also like how even though they quit making the comics, they’re still making original art now and then.

Suteki Crate

This month the Suteki Crate (special crate all subscribers have a chance to win, in case you’re new here) focused on the theme and stuck to the characters featured in this box. It makes me want to nap just looking at everything~

(and I just woke up like an hour ago...)

But I will point out that they have offered a Kirby Otamatone before. Probably a year back or so, I remember seeing it. Also, the adorable Sleepy My Melody plush goes great with the photo contest prize, a sleepy Kuromi plush~

My Melody Mesh Case

Our first item would come in handy when staying out of the house for the day, it’s a mesh pack/bag/case, which can hold many toiletries; hair brushes and accessories, toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. It features an adorable pale pink zipper to match the adorable patterned band around the bottom, which is covered in My Melody with some small forest friends doing various activities (and lots of adorable English phrases).

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

You know, I wasn’t ever into mesh containers like this, I always thought they looked kind of gaudy and they just didn’t appeal to me; but now that I’m older and I’m actually looking at one, it isn’t that bad. This would have come in handy when I was younger, I used to visit my grandma and spend the night/weekend a lot and my suitcase was always a pain dealing with. This could have lightened the load a little, or at least organized it better.

Also, it’s pretty big, I was able to fit in a lot of items and it didn’t feel too heavy or bad carrying. I did notice something though, the inside of the bottom section is sort of... thin cloth-ish, that kind of has me concerned that it might not be a good idea to get it wet, compared to the outside, which feels like it could handle that. Oh, I also noticed two holes in the mesh from the tag being cut, but I feel like it doesn’t really hinder anything.

San-X Towel

Also for bathroom/washing preparedness prior to bed or in the morning, we have a cute mini-towel featuring Sumikko Gurashi or Rilakkuma. As you can see, the Sumikko Gurashi group are out enjoying what looks like an autumn excursion :3 perfect timing considering it’s going on that season now. 

And yes, it’s on one of my cats. He wouldn’t leave me alone while I was trying to get pictures, so I tried making him comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Well, besides being cute, I’m always impressed when we get towels like this because I don’t usually seen any around here. We have slightly bigger hand towels/rags, but nothing like this. It feels soft and nice, so I feel like this would be ideal for washing your face, drying off the hair, wrapping around the shoulders, using as a hand towel; it’s also the perfect size for wrapping up adorable pets~

(also, I noticed that when held up to the light you can see noticeable tag holes again. Not a huge deal though.)

Pajya Shark Plushie

Of course when you go to bed, you need a cuddly companion by your side to ensure sweet dreams or to help chase away the bad nightmares~

This month, we have an adorably colorful, pastel shark. The name Pajya is inspired by the fact that this was made with common Japanese Sleepwear in mind, which is usually in various soft tones and made from fluffy, soft material. 

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I love fluffy-soft things~ and I also happen to have a fondness for sharks; it’s a weird combination when you think about it, but I love it! He is very soft and sweet looking, and he isn’t threatening or have any teeth, so he’s a good buddy for all types and ages x3 I admit, the sewing could be a little better, but it’s not bad.

(This box has made me super-sleepy~  As of now I’ve only been up an hour and a half >3< But it’s probably because I stayed up until 4am, and I’ve been hungry and didn’t eat yet...)

Kirby Eye Mask

As we prepare for bed, our next item is an adorable eye mask :D featuring Kirby or Waddle Dee. I have a few eye masks and I enjoy using them sometimes (they especially come in handy if you have a headache or just need to relax, unless they squeeze your head too much...) but I don’t use them too frequently.

The mask has a sleek feel and is thin and made from shiny material. It has a really stretchy light pink strap, and the inner-side is cloth, featuring a dark blue star pattern. It also has a small black nose flap...? I’m not entirely sure how that works or what its for, none of my others have one, but I assume it’s just for a little additional comfort or to help support the mask.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

It’s very cute, and I love the concept of bringing in Kirby for this sort of theme. In preparation for the review I was very excited to use this, and it feels very comfortable. Sometimes when I use eye masks I end up pulling them off after a while because they’re kind of uncomfortable or start squeezing, and I admit that this one felt like that after a while- but at the same time it wasn’t nearly to the same extent and didn’t bother me as much. The thin material makes it feel sort of breathable as well, which is nice when my poor nose is stuffed up and I can hardly breath as it is.

I can’t help but relax when I wear an eye mask, so I can’t imagine a more suitable item for this theme~

Kirby Night Light

Our last item is an adorable partner to the Kirby eye mask; a light! Again, this is another great and perfect bed item, especially if you’re someone you might feel a anxious in the dark or need a back-up light. It would also just be cute for a little desk light or something.

This requires 3 AA batteries (not included) and it is available in 2 styles; this parasol blue one I got, and a pink one covered in black and white old style manga or pop art Kirby. We all know how much I love pink, but I also really like the rain, and have a lot of fun playing with the parasol ability/item in Kirby games, so I think I’m actually really happy I got this one.

And of course I wouldn’t leave you guys hanging. I did get it working:

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

The light is warm yellow (you know, the lights that seem kind of dim when you compare them to white lights? and yes I know it looks white in the pic, I had to brighten the image to make it see-able clearly) but still very bright; it ended up surprising me. I found it to be really soothing~

I also like the practicality behind this, if you didn’t want to use it as a night light you could use it as a backup flashlight (cause if you’re like us you have a bunch and they either die and you don’t replace batteries, or you lose them), or just to help create a mood- like telling spooky stories during a slumber party. 

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 5 out of 5. I have no complaints, I love these items :3 They’re very sweet and cute, and seeing them (and doing this review) makes me want to lay down to snuggle up with some of them~

Theme: 5 out of 5. I’m really happy to finally have a theme like this, I wish we’d get more bedtime items or themes. I feel like this is also suitable for all times of the year, and everything definitely went together to create a near-seamless box. I say near because some could argue well the bathroom items don’t count: but many people have a routine prior to bed, and some enjoy taking bathes before bed, so in a way yeah, they do count. Suteki Crate and the prize were also spot-on.  

Total Rank: 10 out of 10 Cuties. I know to some people they might argue that a bedtime theme isn’t very exciting but everyone could use a little unwinding, especially at bed. I wasn’t feeling tired when I began writing this but I’m probably going to go back to bed when I finish. I didn’t have anything going on today and I fully plan to take advantage of that. As much as I liked our prior box, I love this one even more! Keep it up Doki Doki~

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Kirby Nightlight - I love how it resembles an actual lamp x3 and I adore the pattern/print on both of the options. The glow made me feel relaxed- the only way it could be better would be if it had an actual rain effect or color change feature like my oil mister~

2. Pajya Shark - It’s colorful and sweet, it’s perfect for bed or just in a sugary sweet pastel setting. Very soft and cuddly. 

3. Kirby Eye Mask - I kind of find face-themed eye masks to be kind of corny, but when it comes to Kirby it’s very cute! It felt really nice against the skin and I can’t wait to use it again (probably after this review).

4. Towel - It’s very cute, I can’t say the color scheme does all that much for me but I love how it’s fall/autumn themed and goes with the upcoming season. The cats really like it too.

5. My Melody Mesh Case - I think it’s sweet and soft on the eyes, but I know I won’t get much use out of it. I could use it now to do some organization of my items in the bathroom (or some others, which I’ll probably do) though, so it’s really practical.

[queen-scribbles]

Certain as the Sun

@pillarspromptsweekly fill #78, the long-awaited Ederity wedding fic that killed me with cute. (Roll For It elements: Dengler for my NPC the Watcher gets along well with, candlelight/kiss, and flirting/affection)

Charity had always been an early riser. This was not because of her faith or her livelihood, though it certainly came in handy for both, but just the schedule she kept naturally. Today she was up early even for her.

If it counted as ‘being up early’ when you were so excited you didn’t truly fall asleep. She was going to spend the day running on joy, adrenaline, and murkberry juice, that was certain as the sunrise. And she didn’t even care.

Charity ran through her mental list as she waited for Tavi to arrive. She’d  picked the flowers last night, as late as possible so they would at least be sort of fresh. The chapel was all set up, though Tavi would have to light the candles. She’d pulled out her dress and made sure it was in good condition... The only thing left to do was curl up on the couch with Sparrow and doze until Tavi got there to help her get ready.

It was both too long and not long enough when there was a brisk knock on the door, followed by Tavi letting herself in before Charity had even made it to her feet.

“Thanks for helpin’ with this, Tav,” she said, carefully moving Sparrow from her lap to the couch as she stood. The calico let out a half-hearted mrrr of protest before curling up and going back to sleep.

“You kiddin’? I wouldn’t miss this for the fuckin’ world,” Tavi grinned, running one hand through her hair. “It’s absolutely worth bein’ up at the asscrack of dawn.”

Charity laughed. “Still, thanks. This whole thing’s so last minute, it’s nice havin’ a friend who can be here. Now....” She pulled out her ponytail and shook her head so her hair fell loose around her shoulders. “You said you aren’t great with hair. What can you do?” It was best to get right to business; they only had about an hour until sunrise.

Tavi grinned apologetically. “Ponytails and braids, and even the braids are kinda shitty.”

“Well, luckily, I know some styles that fit those limitations,” Charity said with a smile. She ran through a few of them, explained the reasons a bride might choose them, but left it up to Tavi. If she was willing to help out at the last minute, the least Charity could do was make it easy for her.

“Eh, fuck it, I’ve always liked a challenge,” Tavi smirked at the end of the list. “Let’s do the first one you mentioned, with the braids back to a ponytail. That’ll look real pretty on you, an’ I think I can manage it.”

“If you’re sure,” Charity shrugged.

“Yep. Sit down and tell me where to find what I’ll need.” Tavi cracked her knuckles.

“String for hair ties is on my dresser, the flowers to weave in are in the spare room,” Charity said as she settled into the lower-backed chair in her living room.

“About those, anything special with how they go in?”

“Kinda?” Charity played with a lock of hair. “There’s red, yellow, and white flowers, you do one at the start of each braid, three of each color, but there’s no set order for the colors. You can alternate, group ‘em together, do it randomly. It’s your choice.”

“Got it,” Tavi nodded. She ducked in the two rooms in turn, emerging with everything she needed. “Pray for me,” she said teasingly, “or you’re gonna be real lucky Edér loves ya no matter what.”

Charity snorted. “You’re just fillin’ me with confidence, Tav.”

“Hey, you’re the one who asked me,” Tavi reminded with a laugh. “An’ I do have a rough idea of what I’m doin’, it just won’t be perfect and fancy.”

“Doesn’t need to be,” Charity assured her, then fell silent in order to not be a distraction while Tavi worked.

<>O<>O<>

It was good her hair didn’t need to be perfect; Tavi’s assessment of her skill proved accurate. She got the braids in, relatively straight and only a little lumpy, the flowers miraculously unbruised, and tied the loose part up in one of the messy buns Charity used for gardening before sticking more flowers in the ribbon securing it.

“There we go,” she said triumphantly as she stepped back. “Pretty as a picture.”

“I’m so relieved,” Charity deadpanned, grinning as Tavi rolled her eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Anything else you need me to help with?”

“Actually, since you’re gonna be waitin’ in the chapel anyway, t’ be our witness, could you light the candles? There’s a lot, an’ if I have to light ‘em and get dressed it’ll take too long,” Charity explained as she glanced out the window. There was the faintest hint of pink showing. They really did need to hurry.

“Sure thing,” Tavi said. “Again, anything special?”

“There’s two skinny ones an’ a wider one a little apart from the rest at the front, don’t light those. But all the rest.”

“Alright, sure.” Tavi gave Sparrow one final pet before heading out toward the chapel.

The first flutter of nerves hit as Charity stood in the doorway of her room, looking at the dress laid out on the bed. I’m getting married. Exciting as the thought was, it was also a little intimidating. She traced her fingers over the flowers embroidered down the sleeves and along the hem; red and yellow stitches twined together against white linen, painstakingly and lovingly done by her mother. I wish you could be here, Charity sighed as she carefully slipped her shirt off so as not to wreck Tavi’s work on her hair. I wish it was safe to tell you... But it wasn’t, no matter how sure she was her parents would love Edér, so she would have to content herself with having her mother there in spirit via the needlework on the dress and equally beautiful woven sash, also in the traditional red and yellow.

Charity smiled to herself as she pulled the dress on--just as careful around her hair--and tied the sash. She knew as well as any Eothasian the red was for life and the yellow for prosperity and happiness, but it was funny in this case how the colors also matched her and Edér’s hair.

Speaking of her hair.. She peeked in the mirror to check and was relieved it still looked good. No slipping or drooping or frizz.

The sky out her window was decidedly more pink. She really should hurry; Edér would be waiting for her, and they needed time to complete the ceremony so she could get back out of the dress, maybe remove some of the flowers from her hair, before Hendyna showed up to help her get ready for the ‘real’ Berathian wedding. She’d gotten away with the half-truth that her dress’ design was from her Ixamitl heritage, but being completely ready hours before the wedding might make her friend suspicious.

It took all of ten seconds for personal preference and the warm weather to justify going barefoot, which meant she  was ready, and just in time. With a smile at her reflection and a deep, shaky breath, Charity picked up her bouquet(iris, white heather and camellias), squeezed her necklace pendent to steady her nerves(overwhelmingly giddy rather than scared, but still jangling), and made her way back to the chapel.

She could see the candlelight through the windows, but was quickly distracted from both that and the still-cool earth under her feet because she’d been right. Edér was waiting for her.

Charity watched his smile bloom like the coming sunrise, lighting his whole face as his eyes crinkled at the corners from the breadth of it. She was pretty sure her face was the match of his.

Edér whistled softly as he reached for her hand. “Char, you... you look....”

She laughed when words failed him, because she knew the feeling, and replied,  “So do you,” through her achingly wide smile, heart beating faster as she linked her fingers with his and his outfit registered. His green shirt was an exact match for the one she’d lent him months ago, after their (brief) snow battle. The one she’d ‘borrowed’ from her father and never given back. “Where’d that come from?”

“Oh.” He smiled sheepishly and squeezed her hand. “You, uh, never asked for it back, and I kept forgettin’.... Found it yesterday an’ figured wearin’ it today was as good a way as any to give it back.”

Charity raised an impish eyebrow at his insinuation and somehow grinned wider. “Temptin’ as that is, dontcha think you might draw a tad too much attention if ya meander back to town from my place shirtless? Keep it for now.“ She pushed up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “I’ll reclaim it later.”

“If you two stand out there flirtin’ much longer, you’re gonna miss the fuckin’ sunrise!” Tavi hollered from inside the chapel. Edér and Charity both laughed bashfully and squeezed their joined hands tighter.

“She’s got a point,” he said, still smiling wide enough to crinkle his eyes at the corners.

“She does,” Charity nodded. “Nervous?”

“I was, a little,” Edér admitted. “That’s good, right? Knowin’ this is important an’ all. But...” He met her gaze steadily. “I’m not anymore.”

She giggled like a love struck teenager because it was her wedding day and she was allowed. “Same. Shall we?”

“Absolutely,” he grinned back and opened the door.

It looked like something out of a storybook; rows of candles lit down either side and across the front, rays of the sunrise spilling in through the windows to highlight the motes dancing through the air. Tavi was waiting at the front, grinning ear to ear. Her outfit was different, Charity noticed--still grey trousers and knee-high black boots, but she’d pulled on a surcoat over her sleeveless tunic that was the fanciest thing Charity had ever seen her wear. The ruffled hem almost brushed the tops of her boots, and the mid-bicep length sleeves were ever so slightly puffed, unless Charity’s eyes were playing tricks on her. The teal and grey color scheme was both typical Tavi and a very good choice.  It didn’t take long for them to traverse the length of the chapel and reach her. Charity raised an eyebrow and cocked her head toward Tavi’s outfit, and the elf just shrugged and mouthed ‘Later’ with a wink as she stepped around them to stand in the center aisle.

A traditional Eothasian wedding would have a witness each for bride and groom, but Tavi was the only one Charity and Edér trusted enough to know how fully they were still practicing Eothasians. And since she was good friends with both of them, they’d agreed that would be enough. The Berathian ceremony was the one that would count in most kith’s eyes, anyway. They could tweak traditions for this one.

Which they had done--been forced to do--in a couple places. Charity set her small bouquet down in front of the unlit trio of candles. She and Edér each took one of the narrower candles, lit it from the line of candles along the front wall, and returned them to their places before facing each other and joining hands.

Charity took a deep breath. This was another change; normally the priest officiating would not be one of the kith getting married, but--as with the witnesses--they didn’t have much choice. “Edér....” The swell of emotion in her chest choked her, and he squeezed her hands encouragingly. This, this is why priests don’t do their own... But she had Edér for support, steady and certain as the sun. She squeezed his hands back with a grateful smile and started again. “Edér, do you freely pledge your heart to me, swearing to stand by me and me alone, holding fast together through any dark times that come until the Light of joy shines once more in our lives?”

Edér smiled wide at her rush to get the words out, thumbs rubbing the backs of her hands, and nodded. “I surely do.”

Another shaky laugh and wide, giddy smile--Wael’s eyes, was she tearing up?--and it was her turn. “And I freely pledge my heart to you, swearing to stand by you in all things, binding myself to you and you alone, holding fast together through any dark times that come until the Light of joy shines once more in our lives.”

They loosened their grip and turned to face the candles. Their inner hands came together again, Edér’s palm pressed to Charity’s knuckles. On cue, Tavi stepped forward and wrapped the palm-wide yellow scarf(the most delicate thing Charity had ever knit, she was actually rather proud how well it turned out) around their joined hands.

Almost through, Char, you can do this. “Do we both pledge to respect and cherish each other, honoring our commitment in times both easy and hard, until the Wheel parts us?”

“I do,” Edér said, slipping his fingers between hers.

Charity grinned wide as she replied, “I do, too.” She took what she hoped was the last steadying breath and proceeded. “Upon... Upon our solemn, freely given oaths, I now proclaim us bonded in marriage from this day on.”

She and Edér each took one of the narrow candles with their free hands and brought them together over the wider one in between until the wick kindled. Then they set down their candles, and together unbound their hands, though neither let the scarf drop as they stared at each other, the world seeming frozen in breathless anticipation.

“And now, Mayor Teylecg,” Charity broke the spell, grinning wide, voice catching, “you can kiss your wife.”

Grinning so wide she thought his face might split, Edér tugged on the scarf to bring her closer, then let go to instead wrap his arms around her waist. “Nothin’ I wanna do more, Missus Teylecg,” he said, and obliged.

Charity was vaguely aware of Tavi whooping loud enough to wake the blazing dead, but that played distant second fiddle to her husband--husband!--holding her close for a kiss so passionately, purely joyful it took her breath away. She wrapped her arms around his neck, almost dropping the scarf as her hands curved the back of his head and she went on tiptoe to deepen the kiss. They both held it as long as they could before pulling away.

Charity settled back flatfooted, her hands slipping around to cradle Edér’s jaw. “You’re a real good kisser, husband,” she whispered.

Edér grinned boyishly and rested his forehead against hers. “You ain’t too bad yourself, wife.”

She giggled and tipped her chin forward to steal another kiss. “I love you.”

He grinned even wider and kissed the tip of her nose. “I love you, too.”

“Much as I’ve been lookin’ forward to this and loathe as I am to fuckin’ interrupt,” Tavi began as she did just that, “Hendyna’ll prob’ly be here before long t’ help you ‘get ready’, Char.”

“No, you’re right,” Charity sighed. She pushed up on her toes for one more kiss from her husband. See you in a couple hours, love.”

“Can’t wait, darlin’,” Edér said, giving her another sun-bright smile as he (reluctantly) let her go.

Neither can I, Charity agreed silently as she headed back to the house.

<>O<>O<>

The Berathian ceremony paled in comparison. It was lovely, of course, and she was touched by how much the people of Dyrford seemed genuinely happy for them, and Harbinger Boedmar did a fine job. But to Charity, that one was window dressing, a show to satisfy local customs. The first one... that was the one that counted, in her mind. She really would need to find some way of thanking Tavi for the suggestion.

But that could be handled later, because she was enjoying the party. Dengler and Peycg had outdone themselves with the food, and their staff insisted on handling the serving so the two of them could join the reception, knowing how close they were to Edér and Charity. There was music and dancing and everyone she considered a friend in her chosen home was here....

But the best part--well, aside from the fact Tavi had actually dressed up for them, and stayed that way for both ceremonies--was that Edér hardly left her side through the whole joyous, wonderful party. There were moments, of course, when they were pulled in opposite directions, but they always found their way back together.

“So happy for you,” Dengler said, shaking Edér’s hand while Peycg eschewed any trace of formality and just pulled them both into a hug. Both were common sentiments among the many friends and well-wishers, and it made Charity almost feel bad about her slowly rising urge to leave. She treasured her friends, but wanted to be alone with her husband, and finally the latter won out.

“Whaddya think the odds are we can sneak away?” she whispered to Edér, head resting on his shoulder.

“Well,” he surveyed the crowd. “They all look pretty happy and occupied. But we are the reason they’re here, so... ‘bout the same as sneakin’ away from that stelgaer.” 

She snorted a laugh and rubbed her hand along the scars that still marked his arm. “’Least they won’t try to maul us...”

“True,” Edér laughed.

“Whatcha talkin’ about?” Tavi asked as she plopped down in a nearby chair.

“How to get outta here without folk makin’ a fuss,” Edér said. “We’re both ready to call it a night.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you are,” Tavi smirked.

“Not like that!” Charity automatically protested, but blushed and conceded, “Well, alright, yes like that, but I’m also just... tired of bein’ social.”

“I understand,” Tavi said with a wink. “You two just leave, I’ll handle any questions or whatever.”

Edér raised an eyebrow, one arm settling around Charity’s shoulders. “You sure, Tav?”

“Hel, Teylecg, I’m already wearin’ the closest fuckin’ thing to a dress I’ll likely ever wear in my life for you,” she laughed, tugging on the ruffle-hemmed surcoat.  “I think I can play diplomat for ya, too.”

“‘Preciate it, Tavi,” Edér said with a smile and Charity seconded that.

They waited for the right moment--when almost everyone was caught up in another fast tempo song--and snuck off, hurrying through the twilit streets hand in hand. They didn’t slow until they were almost halfway back to Charity’s--theirs now, and gods that made her giddy--house.

“Evenin’ stroll’s a good way to end things, huh?” Edér said, slipping his hand from hers to wrap his arm around her shoulders again.

“Nice an’ peaceful,” Charity agreed softly, before letting mischief color her voice as she amended, “though it ain’t over ‘til I’ve gotten this shirt back....” and wrapped one arm around his waist to tease her fingers under the green fabric meaningfully.

Edér chuckled, flinching as she brushed a ticklish spot. “I like the sound of that, but hang on til we get home, huh?”

“S’ppose I can manage that,” she said playfully. “Long as we don’t dilly dally too much. Husband.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Wife.”

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

OH MY GOD I DID IT THEY’RE MARRIED NOW WOO.

I’m gonna type up something separate with all the details about the Eothasian wedding headcanons, but I will say Charity’s dress is loosely inspired by this one(yes, Ranna, I was in your Ixamitl tag :D), just with less poofy sleeves, and Tavi’s outfit is from the Vailian clothing concept art, the one on the far right

[leakinghate]

The Depths to which We Sink

Disclaimer: This theory and analysis contradicts some points made in my previous metas, but what’s the fun of speculation if we limit ourselves to having it all gel together?

Nothing in animation is wasted: every action and expression seen on screen is something someone had to draw and something someone had to pay for. Everything is deliberate, from changes in expression to major plot events, and things which do not contribute to the overarching vision of the show will rarely, if ever, be included. Voltron Legendary Defender in particular moves so fast that they don’t have the space to include anything extraneous even when they want to. The showrunners have said in interviews that they’ve had to cut several of their comedy ideas for lack of space.

The exception to this that has always stood out to me as not fitting into the meta narrative is s2e2 'The Depths'. It's mostly plot irrelevant on the whole, with it being notable only for introducing the Blue Lion’s sonic canon. Sure it has some nice character moments for Lance, and the animation is beautiful, but it’s basically filler. It’s almost completely forgotten by the story, only brought up again once, when Lance references the mermaids in s3e2, ‘Red Paladin’.

In preparation for the fast approaching season 7 on August 10th I was attempting to re-watch the entire show up to the end of s6. Most re-watches I do I skip less plot relevant episodes like ‘The Depths’, but I wanted to go through the whole show this time.

But as I was watching this particular episode, post season six. I was struck by an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. So what do you do when you think you’ve stumbled upon some heretofore unnoticed foreshadowing? Why, bring it to the Lotura Discord of course! We put our heads together and came up with some fascinating observations, as well as some intriguing possibilities for where the plot might be headed in the future.

On re-watching it again, post season six, 'The Depths’ contains an uncanny amount of foreshadowing to the entire colony plot.

Two of our protagonists unexpectedly stumble upon a completely isolated and hidden settlement after traveling through a strange space anomaly. They are initially greeted by a single member of a race they previously believed did not exist (anymore).

The mermaid civilization is beneath a thick layer of ice, and the Altean colony is inside a dome.

Information received from an erstwhile ally reveals an apparently sinister truth about the actions and motivations of someone in power who had previously acted as a friend. To wit: the authority figure has deceived their loyal subjects for the purpose of killing them.

The ally that provides this information readily admits that they do not know all the facts and that their conclusion is only a theory based on the facts that they do have.

Dialogue from The Depths:

Lance: But what’s the point? Why mind-control the mermaids? Blumfump: To kill them! Lance: Really? Blumfump: Well, we don’t know that for sure, but hundreds of mermaids have disappeared and never come back.

Dialogue from The Colony:

Romelle: My brother was dead. I knew the truth, or at least part of it, but I also knew that no one would believe me without proof. When Keith and Krolia arrived they were my last chance at finding it. I told them what had happened to my brother, and as it turned out, so many Alteans that had been taken before him. As they explained their mission to me, we knew there must have been a connection between the missing Alteans and the pure strain of quintessence.

One of our protagonists is compromised by an antagonist’s mind control and is used to attack and subdue his fellows. The shadows on Hunk’s face when he is under mind control even look like Shiro’s scar.

The physical appearances of several characters are also intriguing. The one character we see fall victim to the Baku, Florona, is the only red-headed mermaid in the episode. A shade of red very similar to Bandor’s hair color.

Plaxum, the most prominent of the ‘cave dwellers’ and the one who eventually directly confronts the queen, has two ponytail-like projections on her head very reminiscent of Romelle’s hairstyle. They also share very similar body language. And Plaxum’s eyes while wearing her jellyfish are the same color as Romelle’s.

In fact, both of these pairs of characters share very similar color schemes; Plaxum and Romelle are teal, pink, and yellow, while Florona and Bandor are red, golden-yellow, and green.

These are all things which have already happened; there is no speculation here, only observation.

Hilariously, this means Bandor has been metaphorically represented by a red fish.

In other words, a Red Herring.

From Wikipedia:

"A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion."

This is exactly what we've been saying since season 6 aired. Specifically referring to Bandor’s line after his ship crashed through the dome. The one thing he manages to tell Romelle is: “Lotor... the other colony... It’s all a lie.” Which tells us exactly nothing, but is the evidence that convinces Romelle she is correct to distrust Lotor, and what sets off the chain of events that ultimately led to the s6 finale. It’s also the strongest evidence we as the audience have that Lotor has done something truly monstrous. The scene with Bandor irrefutably connects Lotor to the emaciated Alteans, even if we don’t know precisely what that connection is. It’s easy to assume the worst both in and out of universe.

In cinema characters with red hair are often made to be the red herrings. A red herring may be intentionally used by the writer to plant a false clue that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. Bandor led Romelle to a false conclusion.

Both in and out of the show. Romelle concluded wrong. The paladins concluded wrong. The AUDIENCE concluded wrong.

What’s next? Well, the plot of ‘The Depths’ isn’t a 1-to-1 relation to the Altean Colony storyline, so it’s difficult to say exactly what aspects of the episode’s climactic fight and conclusion will turn out to be relevant. But, we can be fairly certain that the overall narrative is the same.

The apparent villain was actually being manipulated into taking the actions they took by a greater, silent threat. The few rebels our protagonists met were wrong about who was the real enemy. They were right about the issue, but wrong about the ‘why.’ The leader was not at fault because the leader had fallen prey to the creature first and was subsequently rendered powerless to stop it.

Perhaps even, and here we get into more speculation...

The real threat was something that loomed large in the background the whole time, assumed to be providing safety. Fallen from space.

The Baku is referred to as ‘the giver of life’.

That phrase is disconcertingly ominous, considering the only other time we've heard a similar phrase was in reference to Oriande. The Sages, or ‘Life Givers’, specifically.

And what is quintessence, but ‘life itself’.

JDS has previously compared Lotor to Magus from Chrono Trigger, a game I have no personal experience with, but @blackmoonbabe​ provides the relevant info​ here.

What if there's some kind of cosmic horror that Lotor's been fending off with Altean quintessence? Possibly, the only kind strong enough - apart from the rift sourced variety. Extracting it and storing the people in the hopes of eventually restoring them. Only, now that he's gone. There's nothing stopping whatever this thing is. Who knows. It might even be related to the rift creatures.

We still don't know what the Baku was or where it came from, just that it 'fell from space.' The new trailer for season 7 features a similar looking and very toothy one-eyed beastie.

When Lotor is pleading with Allura he says:

"Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depth of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande."

It might be that he found something bad while trying to unlock those mysteries.

All of this really makes you wonder why exactly Alfor kept Oriande's existence a secret.

Post season 1, there was an interview where the showrunners said that they had to kill off Alfor's AI because he knew spoilers. Which, okay, that’s fair.

Except... what exactly have we come to know now that only Alfor’s AI could have told us ahead of time?

Everything we eventually learn about Zarkon we find out through Allura and Coran. And everything surrounding Lotor and Haggar  are things that Alfor’s AI wouldn’t have known about because they happened after Alfor’s death. The only outstanding piece of information that Alfor could have know was the location of and the information about Oriande. But, Allura doesn't even think to look for Oriande until mere moments before she and Lotor unlock the map to it. Certainly, the AI could have provided information of the proper way to get past the trials, but that was resolved easily enough in-episode and it was never truly portrayed as a risk that Allura and Lotor wouldn’t return before the castle ran out of oxygen.

If it was true that Alfor knew spoilers... there is something BIG concerning Altean Alchemy that we don't yet know. Not something little. Something potentially game changing.

Even knowing there was a good chance he was going to his death, and Coran and Allura would be on their own, Alfor never told Coran about Oriande. Coran and Alfor have been shown to have a particularly close, lifelong friendship - strong enough that Coran keeps at least two portraits of Alfor in his room above his bed. Alfor trusted Coran to the extent that he entrusted his beloved daughter, the Black Lion, and the future of the universe into Coran’s hands.

And yet.

Alfor didn’t tell Coran about Oriande. The one place Allura might go to strengthen her alchemic abilities and reach her potential. Alfor was faced with the possibility of letting the knowledge of Oriande and Altean Alchemy die, and he chose to risk it.

There had to be a damn good reason he didn't tell Coran about it. He might have known about something bad. It seems like he wanted Oriande forgotten; for Allura to never go there. Or at least, not until she was ready to make some tough decisions. Decisions he would rather spare her.

I’ve been feeling since around season 3 that VLD’s ultimate conclusion will be to show us that there is no true good and evil, that neither violence or pacifism is always the answer, that the world - the universe - is all shades of grey. Allura is our vehicle for that. It’s through her assumed prejudices that the show is shifting our viewpoints. She began the series believing that the Galra were all evil, the Alteans good. As time has gone on she’s improved impressively on her initial bias against the Galra, but has steadfastly refused to acknowledge her own people as capable of similar actions - her response to the alternate reality Alteans was to declare them not true Alteans instead of accepting that they’d become akin to the Galra Empire from her own reality.

It’s clear that Allura will have to face Honerva eventually, and will be forced to confront what the former greatest Altean Alchemist has become. But it’s too easy to dismiss Honerva’s corruption into Haggar as a side effect of the rift - not the willing actions of someone more concerned with knowledge than morality.

For six seasons we’ve seen Alfor as a paragon of good. His one fatal flaw being perhaps too good, too trusting, that he believed his friend’s words over his own judgement. Ultimately damning the universe to ten thousand years of being ground under the heel of a brutal dictator.

Alfor paid for that mistake with his life, with the destruction of his planet and the near extinction of his people. And so, he remains what all good in VLD is measured against, both in our - the audience’s - minds, and in Allura’s.

But just as our ultimate evil, Zarkon, was revealed to be more than just a monster, so too will our ultimate good be made more complex. In season 3 we were introduced to the younger Zarkon. A loyal friend and comrade. Awkward around an attractive woman, afraid of cats, and a dedicated and concerned ruler of his people. He was humanized, for lack of a better word, but we still see in him the man who he’d eventually become.

What better way to finally break through Allura’s idealized view of Alteans than by tainting Alfor’s image in some way? To finally see our Big Good do something morally grey? We’ve already seen it foreshadowed by the corruption of the AI, and the Alteans in the alternate reality.

The first time we’ve heard someone level legitimate criticisms against Alfor was at the end of season 6. Just after Lotor begins his breakdown he says:

"What about your father? He may have been a master engineer, but Alfor was too weak to defend his home world. I’m the one who had to step up and save our entire race. Who are you to question my tactics in bringing peace and prosperity to the universe?"

No one else criticizes Alfor for his choices. Even when they acknowledge he failed, he's always portrayed as having taken the best choice. But, what if Lotor's right? It certainly looks like he is.

If Lotor hadn’t stepped in and saved those few survivors of Altea’s destruction they would eventually have been discovered by the empire and executed. Zarkon had made it his personal mission to drive the Alteans to extinction. Alfor was weak. He surrendered to his fear of what would happen if Voltron fell into Zarkon’s hands and failed to utilize all his resources to defend Altea, his people, and his allies.

This won’t be the only fault we find out he had, mark my words.

There is something dark and unsavory lurking in the truth of Altean Alchemy.

Considering Lotor readily admits that Alteans perished in the process of his quintessence experiments, it may very well be that whatever required such vast amounts of concentrated quintessence is also something Alfor had to contend with in the past. Canonically, as stated in s3e7 ‘The Legend Begins’, quintessence was only first discovered in the course of studying the rift on Daibazaal. Alfor could not have been utilizing quintessence directly, because he didn't know it existed.

So if, whatever Lotor has been having to do with the colony, Alfor may have been having to do something similar...

He was simply sacrificing people.

It’s a lot easier to hide a handful of people going missing when you have an entire planet’s population to work with.

What if this is a thing that had always been happening, and that's why Alfor never told Coran about Oriande?

The thing is, Lotor can't know that now. Or he would have told Allura. To justify his actions, if it was something that Alfor would have dealt with as well.

Lotor didn't have Voltron. If there is some kind of Cosmic Horror beastie out there he might not have been able to fight it, let alone kill it. So he was building Sincline. Hence the urgency to get it completed even after Zarkon was gone. We know he was out of concentrated quintessence as of s4e5 ‘Begin the Blitz’. He was either going to have to access the rift imminently or harvest more people.

The powers that be keep talking about things not being black and white in this show.

Alteans can do bad things. Honerva became Haggar. Allura herself has made some morally questionable choices. Like what she did to Lotor for example.

Allura will need to realize that. The truth will rise from the depths and confront her in a way she can no longer ignore.

Alfor failed. It was up to Lotor to save the Altean people. He did what he felt he had to do, and in many respects, it will turn out he was right.

Lotura Discord™ Meta! The only brand of Voltron Meta you can trust to cover all the bases. No reach is too far! We’ll make it. *

Proudly serving your local fandom, since May 2018.

*satisfaction NOT guaranteed. No refunds or exchanges. Theories only applicable until explicitly disproved by canon. Available everywhere Lotura Discord™ members post.

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2019 Megaman Valentine’s Day (Humor) Contest Results!

Apologize for the delay on this once again. Didn’t expect to be posting these results nearly a month after Valentine’s Day, but the extended deadline did help make sure we got a healthy competition this year. Thank you to all for your patience!

I’m going to start out this year’s results thread with a totally appropriate callout 4-Koma that is not technically an official humor entry from SubzeroIceSkater, even though it fit the rules. But it’s worth posting, to publicly humiliate myself anyways:

I'll take my token Akane-in-an-entry bribery any way I can get it, since nobody felt inclined to draw Mrs. Stelar’s fresh, piping hot, iced cinnabuns for their talent entry this year...Did I just type that? I mean, um...

Play me off, Johnny!

I kid, I kid! After all, these contests aren’t about me, it’s about the characters you love and want to draw. And that’s what makes everyone’s entries unique and helps motivate you to create time after time. And I am grateful for it, whether you are a long-time participant, or the yearly new contestant.

I’ll be doing things a little different this year, because the post would be way too long if I kept everything in one. So this first post will just contain the Humor category, and I will have a second, separate post for the Talent category. Raffle prize winners will be contained in both posts, so keep an eye out after my commentary on your art, for some possible winners here. The rest will follow soon. I’ll be contacting all winners soon enough, so sit tight!

Here are your humor winners and full gallery of entries, after the break!

Category 2 (Humor) -  Princess Sigmia Returns

A much smaller group of entries for this category, but the zany mergers were great, all the same. I thank you all for getting as creative as you could with this concept, as it was a little more than just a mere gender swap you had to consider, when designing your combined character. Whether you won or not, know I truly enjoyed seeing all of these pics. 

I know imgbox gallery gave people some issues before, so as always, let me know if images or links appear broken. Crossing my fingers this works smoothly this year! XD

After each entrant’s name, there will be a link in the character description to the entry, too, just in case the inserted external images don’t load for you. 

[Full humor gallery]

1.) SubzeroIceSkater - Arc Weldy Falls In Love (featuring Tundroll.EXE the Arc Weldy, plus ‘Master Albert’)

[Page 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Comics with length and substance always seem to steal the show, and this year was no different. Joining the ranks of fenril-huayra, wintesm and so many others in recent years, I believe SubzeroIceSkater’s wonderful tale will stick with many of you, as much as it did me. As a humor piece, sure there are great sight gags and comedic lines all around, but it also has a lot of heart. You feel really bad for Arc Weldy to start out, but also feel so many emotions of compassion, friendship and love throughout. Wonderful work, and thank you for all the effort you put into this massive entry!

Also, are 21 pages not enough for you all? Well, SubzeroIceSkater also had ANOTHER 15 pages worth of ideas, alternates, and outtakes to go with this comic. And, while I won’t upload each link or image here, because this one entry is long enough, you can see them in THIS GALLERY LINK. They are also really great.

*For coming in 1st, SubzeroIceSkater has won $100 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

2.) @drewblossom​ - Geminette 

Nearly equally deserving in length, Drew’s comic more closely followed the Bowsette-style transformation gimmick to give Snake Man his comeuppance. The classic bait-and-switch kiss, turned on it’s head with a ‘lil Search Snake rather than a gross Toad Man, was a funny end. 

Design-wise, I really liked what you did to create Geminette’s look. Splitting his helmet crystals to the side as like dual hair broaches, and keeping the motif with the choker, armband, garter straps and chestplate, worked out nice. I can see why Snake was so easily charmed. 

*For coming in 2nd, Drew has won $50 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

3.) @wimzik​ - Rollbble.EXE

If dominatrix Devil Roll wasn’t enough of a pain in Rockman’s side, I shudder to think how bad a Bubble Roll would be, puku! Or, would her devotion to him be as great (or clingy) as Bubs was with Shademan-sama? 

Taking Bubbleman’s yellow flipper feet motif, and turning it into a fish fin design, both on her feet, legs, and hair ribbon, turned out pretty neat. If anything, I’m sure this transformation gives her very kissable lips, though! XD I have to wonder what her plan is with that Roll Navi Data chip, now that the chocolate is all gone, and what it will do to Rockman?

*For coming in 3rd, wimzik has won $25 via Paypal, or a prize of their choice up to that value.*

And the remaining wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

@3-oclock-blues​ - Dr. Willis 

What you talkin’ ‘bout, Wil-lis? Or Dr. WHY?!-ris, if you prefer. With that absolutely awesome wide-eyed grin, she’s hellbent on living together with Zero in a world where only Reploids exist. Being that they both have spent time piloting flying machine bodies, and have sorta possessed some form of an evil energy, it’s a rather fitting combo. Unless you are Zero, and it’s your dad and girlfriend merged into one being. Awk~waaaarrrd. 

The skull motif and spikes are subtle on Iris’ design, but fit in really well. Her bangs are just wild enough on both sides now, that it gives that Wily hair vibe, without having to give her a horrible, bushy mustache. XD

*3-OClock-Blues is the winner of Raffle Prize #2 - The X OCW artbook and Zero keychain*

@bracedshark​ - Mettayer

This might be a terrible concept, but I’m going to type it. When a Met pops out from under it’s helmet, especially in sprite form, usually all you can see is the whites of it’s dark, beady eyes under that helmet, on it’s dark grey/black blobby round body form. With Layer, you don’t get to see her eyes under her bangs, hardly ever. So staring at Mettayer’s underboob for too long, due to her chest armor mimicking a Met helmet, all I see is a Met’s pair of closed bottom eyelids, and I’m seriously waiting for those eyes to open up and start staring back at me. Would that not be the most wrong way for Mettayer’s eyes to work?! But I can’t unsee it! Her belly button even feels like a snoring, sleeping Met’s mouth. I’ll spare everyone of me editing this art to make my point. But it’s in your head now, isn’t it?

OK, despite that awful paragraph, this is one hot Metall Mommy. Sorry, I’m starting this paragraph off pretty badly, too, I guess. ^^; Despite my interpretation of the combination, the design elements do stand out in a unique way. The fiery reddish-pink hair seems like a different choice considering the characters merged, but it plays off the red of a Met’s mouth and earpiece, and, well, fitting for Valentine’s, too! And instead, you get the Layer color scheme in the pickaxe, so it still connects visually.

@drewblossom​’s 2nd entry - Roll n’ Rock

This bonus entry from Drew flips the genders of both DLN-001 and 002. I liked Roll’s hair bow converting into more of a bow tie, and Rock getting her version of Roll’s hoodie, in a Blue Bomber color scheme. The V-Day card concept, complete with crayon-ish name writing, made for a cute entry. Hearts all around!

@supernovabee​ - Bayer

No, there won’t be any paragraph about underboob eyes for this version of a Layer transformation, as supernovabee has merged her with Bass. Bayer loves belting out her hard and heavy siren song to woo prospective love interests during karaoke night. 

Keeping Layer’s purple hair here actually kinda still keeps a Treble Boost feel, that the color scheme fits seamlessly, to go along with the more obvious Layer armor design pieces.

[ask-svt-hearteu]

florist! Wonwoo

Anon requested: “A florist Wonwoo scenario please? The reader or Wonwoo could be the florist...whichever you think fits best! :)”

Genre: fluff

Word Count: 2061

A/N: I’m kinda a mess with this one I hope it’s ok haha I had to rewrite it a few times lol hope you enjoy!

ok but florist! wonu is literally everything

imagine him getting up early every morning to head to his shop

and he’ll unlock the glass door and pull open all the blinds 

and sunlight is just streaming into his colorful and beautiful floral shop

as the sunflowers start to wake up and face the morning light

and he ties the cutest beige apron with a simple lily embroidery around his waist as he starts retrieving the new flowers for the day 

and he loves organizing them

sometimes he’ll organize by colors

so when he gets fresh flowers

he’ll sort them from reds to oranges to yellows

to greens to blues to violets

roses to daisies to carnations to forget-me-nots to lavender

so that his shop window is a rainbow that attracts any passerby's attention

and he’ll be humming to himself while he’s arranging bouquets for the day

and if you listen really closely sometimes when he has the windows to his shop open

you can hear his voice

deep and steady

like the water in a pond

slowly singing a song

because co2 is necessary for plants 

and damn even the flowers would fall for his voice

as his hands gently brush across the petals 

and he very carefully and concisely snips at the stems so that each flower is proudly on display

and the arrangement he was working on is perfect

not a single leaf or petal out of place

a beautiful 

and almost unreal 

collection of flowers

which has made his little shop the most popular in the neighborhood

even if he works there alone

 just like his arrangements 

he’s never missed a beat

never failed to make a customer 117% happy with what he’s made for them

and never been late for an event ever

he has a very tidy schedule

like how every thursday

he’ll put out the orchids he recently ordered out on display on the outside flower holders

because he knows

that when you pass by his shop on thursdays as you do on your way to work

you can’t help but stop and admire them

and then he gets to steal a few snatches of conversation 

“Good morning y/n!”

“Oh, good morning Wonwoo!”

and he’ll have to cough or clear his throat 

in hopes you don’t notice the slight brush of pink on his cheeks

that could put even the peonies to shame 

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been well, thank you! And you...?”

“It’s been going well for me too.”

and he’ll give you a small little smile 

that’s got your heart fluttering 

“Ah one second y/n”

you wait curiously as he enters the back of his shop

standing a bit awkwardly and nervously while you wait for him to come back

and when he does

your heart does a bit more than flutter

it skips whole beats when you see what he’s holding

it’s a small pot

with the most beautiful orchids you’ve ever seen

they’re dark blue on the edges

that blue that the sky gets right after the sun sets

and as the blue travels into the centers of the flower

it gets brighter until it’s almost an aqua blue

they’re small and the pot fits into your hand

as he gently hands over the pot

fingers lingering maybe a tad bit when they brush yours

“You said you were looking for orchids to brighten up your working space.” he said smiling as he looks up from the pot to you

“...and these reminded me of you so I thought they were perfect.”

you’re kinda stunned

not even just about the flowers

or how beautiful of a blue they were

or how they reminded him of you

but also because of how lightly his hands had brushed yours

“You’re giving them to me?” you ask

still a bit out of it hey y/n get yourself together thanks

“Yea well I know how much you like orchids and these ones aren’t too difficult to care for, just add fertilizer every week and make sure you water them amply but let them dry out between waterings and they should be fine”

he shyly goes through the care tips for the plant and sends you on your way 

quietly patting himself on the back for having the guts to finally do something after just short conversations every thursday morning

and when you set the little pot down on your desk

you can’t help but let your thoughts wander off to the florist shop where Wonwoo works

and think about him

when you entered that shop for the first time a few months ago

you had been surprised at how airy the shop felt despite being fairly small in size

as you waited by the counter

you hadn’t really expected someone as beautiful as the flowers like Wonwoo to be the shop owner

but when he had stepped out of the back room with a vase of orange calla lilies 

you had to use every ounce of willpower you had not to stop and stare

“Hi there, how may I help you?”

“Um yes hello... it’s my first day working here, I mean not here at the shop but- um as- I’m actually new to the neighborhood and I was wondering-” stumbling over your words as he broke into a bright smile

“Ah do you need some flowers?” 

“Yes please!” you laughed lightly at your nervousness

“What’s the occasion?”

“I’m throwing a house warming party actually! I just moved in.” you did your best to smile comfortably

he let out a low chuckle and set the vase down on the counter

“Alright can I get your name?”

“Oh um right it’s Y/n l/n.”

“Do you have any ideas for what colors or flowers you want for your party?”

“Actually I was hoping you’d be able to help me with that, I don’t know where to start and it’s mainly just a gathering of a few coworkers I’m friends with and some neighbors...”

“Ah how about we start with a color scheme then?”

you nodded enthused by how friendly he seemed as he led you to the rows of flowers and pointed out warmer and more pastely tones compared to the bright flowers and asked you which you perferred

time passed a bit too quickly as you watched him work after you had chosen the flowers you wanted

how deftly he placed each flower as if they had always belonged in this arrangement

and when he handed the carefully wrapped vase with the final masterpiece

the flowers seemed to glow as you thanked him

“They’re absolutely beautiful thank you!” you said as you held them

“So how much do I owe you?” you laughed setting the flowers down carefully to reach for your purse

“Ahhh no it’s fine! Consider it a welcome to the neighborhood gift.” he smiled 

and that had been your first encounter with Wonwoo

you had to admit he more than captivated your interest 

and with every passing week you felt that interest grow a bit more with your small conversations

sometimes about what recent books you had read 

or books he had read

or sometimes just about how nice the weather had been lately

or about the latest project you were working on for work

or his latest event he had to prepare floral arrangements for

it kind of naturally began to be a habit

to stand by the flowers every thursday and just discuss whatever small little topics passed by your mind 

“Oh I’ve been meaning to ask, Wonwoo...”

“Yea..?”

“How did you decide to open your floral shop?”

i’m sorry but wonu is a garden fairy 

“I’ve always liked gardening and plants haha and I guess I always wanted to explore the more artsy side of my personality. So while at school for business I kind of just thought what’s a good way to incorporate all the things I want to do and this sort of came to mind.” he looked fondly around at the flower shop

“It must be nice.” you reply with a smile

“It is.” he chuckles 

you look down at your watch and realize its time to go or you’ll be late to work

“I’ll see you next time then Wonwoo.” you grin and wave as he waves goodbye as well

and you’re almost at the street corner when you hear your name

“Y/n!” 

with Wonwoo calmly jogging up to catch up with you

“Hey so...” he begins

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to catch a movie with me tonight? I’ve been meaning to see it and haven’t had time but I do today but only if you also have time...” he quietly stumbled about the sentence as you felt your cheeks burn up

“I’d love to.”

“So that’s settled then?”

“Yea I’ll see you tonight!” 

the urge to scream is strong while writing this sorry

you basically made a big fuss asking your boss if you could leave just a tad bit early from work

as you raced home to prepare for your

what was this

was it a date?

did you want it to be a date?

your head raced a million miles per hour as you turned your closet upside down looking for an outfit

did Wonwoo even consider it a date?

or was he asking you as a friend?

you shook your head out of excitement

panicking slightly at the thought of seeing him

your stomach churning a bit in it’s anxiety

you decided to choose a simple outfit, casual and comfortable but nice 

as you walked along the street to the movie theater

it was a bit chilly but the street was decorated with string lights 

twinkling like fireflies on a summer night as you walked up to the theater to see Wonwoo standing there 

wearing jeans and a black jacket

holding calla lilies in his hands

the same lilies he held when he first met you

“Y/n!” he said waving walking up to you

“Did you bring these for me?” you asked looking at the flowers brightly

“Ah yea haha, they’re pretty just like you.” he laughed not letting his cheesy line deter him 

you felt your cheeks burn up again and accepted them 

“Thank you wonwoo they’re beautiful.” 

“Shall we go in?”

“Yes let’s.”

honestly you had no idea at all what kind of movie it was you watched

all you can remember is the way his arm gently rested on the armrest between the two of you

elbows brushing 

as he slowly reached out a pinky to entwine yours

before he ended up just holding your hand through it

and when the movie was over you walked out of the theater

hands still held as he pointed to a frozen yogurt shop across the way

“My treat?” he laughed quirking an eyebrow and giving you a sideways glance

you both ordered your frozen yogurts and sat discussing the fuzzy plot points of the movie you could still remember and laughing at the story line

“I’m sorry but the main male lead is a dumb ass.” you say spoon scooping up some melted yogurt to finish the night

“I agree he seems to lack common sense... If the writers were going to make him out to be this stupid I would have reconsidered watching it.” wonwoo laughed before helping you toss out the empty cup and cleaning up the table 

and too bitter sweet an end 

“I’ll walk you back home” he chuckled taking your hand in his again as you both set off down the street

the street lamps glowing 

when you reached your street 

you didn’t really want to let go of his hand

“So just so we’re clear...” Wonwoo said pulling you to a stop and looking you in the eyes... a teasing little glint in his dark brown irises

“This means we’re officially dating now, in case this didn’t make it clear” he smirked pointing out your interlaced fingers

“...and just so we’re extra clear...” 

he reached for your cheek with his free hand

before pulling your lips to his 

softly his lips on yours

smiling you could feel 

before he cheekily pulled away and gave you a wink

“I hope I’ll be seeing you more than just on thursdays at the shop.”

god i’m crying

MASTERLIST