#and also i do just forget about him! i finally added him to my party at one point and he had 24 points to spend...

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Me, when Sebastian joins my party for the first time: Okay, this time I'm not going to forget about you, Sebastian. I'm going to make an effort to use you a lot this playthrough so I can better understand you.

Also me, immediately forgetting about Sebastian while finishing Act 2 and making it halfway through Act 3 before I finally notice his Faith quest: ......................Oh. Right. My bad.

[miley1442111]

Heyyyy are you still requests?? If yes..................

Last night i relived a painful memory when a loved person told me to shut up in front of our friend group and it was so humiliating and overwhelming, i went dead silent for the rest of the month but still played cool with everyone and everyone knew i was destroyed, wasnt leaving home that much yet and the person who told me to shut up was going trough some shit (ON THAT DAY) and actually never apologized...

SO SORRY FOR THE VENT BUT IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THE PLOT I SWEAR.

What if the reader is the one being told to shut up by none other than RAFE CAMERON who is a very close friend and he told the reader to shut up out loud in the middle of a party in front of your friend group (Kelce and Topper) and the reader also play it cool but it collapse at themself like a dying star and all their light is sucked by the black hole it became. But unlike real life, Rafe doesnt need people telling him he fucked up and he felt terrible and a few weeks later he sees reader on a party, unusually quiet, being dragged by their friends around trying to cheer reader up and the reader still trying to play it cool but the damage was showing and maybe Rafe take the chance to approach you but he doesnt know what to say or what to do so he acts like nothing happened?? IM SORRY THIS IS SO CONFUNSING I JUST WOKE UP AND I HAD TO WRITE THAT BEFORE THE MEMORY FADED. Sorry if i made you feel uncomfortable, just ignore it if you didn like ittt!! I love your writting btw i'll never forget that one ask i did and you answered about Rafe choosing between reader and a lover!!!!

and ask 2:

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

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talking too much- r.cameron

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a/n: HELLO to the both of you! thank you two so much for requesting, and very sorry that this happened to you :( I'd let you talk my ear off about anything any time :) (ps, great song choice)

pairing: rafe cameron x fem! reader

summary: i suggest you look at the requests

warnings: reader kind of loses her spark, rafe is a confused and stressed asshole, reader becomes very insecure, feelings of not being good enough, rafe gets very stressed at the end (i think that's it?)

not entirely proofread

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

It was finally nearing the end of June and you were planning your 4th of July party with your friends. Topper, Kelce, Rafe, you, Sarah, and a few of your other friends sat around the table, thinking up ideas for what parties to drop into, and what you were going to wear, etc. You were excited, that was no crime. You’d always been the most excitable in the group, it was just part of your bubbly personality, there was no issue with it. No one had ever been more than a little irritated with it before, no big deal. You’d just apologise and remember to tone it down for those people, but your closest friends weren’t those people. Your closest friends liked your personality, your closest friends liked you. It didn’t matter how loud you were. 

“And then I guess we’ll-”

“God, do you ever shut the fuck up?” Rafe cursed.

The room went silent. You stood still, frozen as people’s eyes turned to you. Sarah offered a look of sympathy, she knew how much you valued Rafe’s opinion, especially since you had a slight crush on him. You felt yourself recoil. How could he be so rude? All you were doing was giving ideas to the group, it’s not like anyone else was trying to speak much, and Rafe definitely wasn’t adding to the conversation. At least, he hadn’t been for the past hour, just sitting in the corner with his leg bouncing and that stupid vein protruding from his stupid neck. You slumped back in your chair, embarrassment filling your mind as you thought over every other interaction with him and the group. Were you annoying? Did they all actually hate you? 

“I don’t hear you talking much Rafe,” Sarah shot back. “Something to say?”

Rafe rolled his eyes. “Fuck off Sarah,” he scoffed and waited for you to bounce back and start speaking again. You didn’t. He looked up as the group started speaking again, going off of all the plans you’d started. You were just sitting there, on your phone. 

You just waited until someone actually asked you a question to give your input, and even then all you said was; “Sounds good.”

He’d fucked up. Big time. 

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

It had been a week since ‘the incident’, and Rafe hadn’t seen you. He felt awful, absolutely disgraced after what he’d said. He was stressed, it was a bad moment, and he took it out on you. He was sorry. But how was he supposed to tell you that? How was he supposed to explain how sorry he was, explain that he was just stressed? How would you believe him? You two had never been the closest in the friend group, not to say you two didn’t speak, but you two weren’t exactly attached at the hip like you were with Sarah, or Kelce. All you’d ever been to him was nice, not something he was sure he deserved, but he appreciated it all the same. 

How could he get back to that?

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

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Sarah begged over the phone. 

“I’m tired, I was working all day-”

“Come on, you’ve been dodging all week! 4th of July is coming up, I don’t want to hang out with Kelce and Top without you,” she whined, 

“I’ll be there for the 4th, I’m just busy right now,” you sighed. “I promise I’m ok,” you lied. 

“If you’re staying home because of what Rafe said, I’ll kill him,” she swore. 

“I don’t give a shit about what Rafe said,” lie. “I’m just busy, promise.”

Sarah sighed. “Alright, see you on the 4th!”

And with that, you hung up. The last week had been one long pity-party that made you feel even worse about yourself, deciding that your friends were better off without you, especially when you can’t even bounce back from one tiny insignificant comment from one random guy. That’s what you thought anyway. But now, you had 3 days before the 4th, and you weren’t sure how you were going to get the courage to face any of them. 

Not that they hadn’t reached out. Everyone who was there (aside from Rafe) had called or texted to ask if you were ok, and apologised for not saying anything. Kelce had felt the worst, since he was supposed to be your best friend, and he hadn’t said anything. You brushed them off, promising them it was fine, promising them you were fine. They barely believed you, but you somehow convinced them that you were busy. You told half of them that you were packing for your move, and the other half that you had gotten a job at your mom’s company. I mean, technically you were a few weeks out from moving away and you should be packing, and technically you did just get a job at your moms’ company (managing the online presence and doing admin work), but really both those jobs were easy. You could’ve done them for a few hours, then seen your friends. But you didn't want to. You didn’t want to feel like a burden. 

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

The day of the 4th rolled around and Sarah picked you up with all the girls in the group in her car. You looked gorgeous in your short red dress, at least that’s what Sarah told you. You kept your mouth shut as the girls gossiped and sang along to songs, only interjecting when truly necessary. When you got to the beach, you managed to break away from the girls and get a drink, standing alone as you watched the night go by. You liked people watching, you found it interesting to see the small micro-expressions on peoples faces, the snippets of their conversations, and everything in between. 

“Hi,” Rafe smiled softly. He was in front of you, blocking your view of the people you were looking at. 

“Hi,” you answered meekly. 

He stood there for a moment as you tried to look over his shoulder, but the group were gone. You sighed in defeat and turned around to pour yourself another drink. 

“How are you?” he asked. 

“Fine thanks,” you answered. “You?”

“Good, fine… yeah,” the awkwardness in his voice almost made you physically cringe. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“It’s been like a week?” you questioned. In the past week, Rafe had realised how much he missed you, and how much you added to the group. He missed how you brightened up everyone, how you kept the peace by being close with almost everyone, how you made him laugh. 

“What have you been up to?” He scratched the back of his neck, his nerves almost getting the better of him, almost making him turn around and not do this. Almost.

“Not much. Working, packing, usual stuff,” you shrugged. 

Rafe’s expression faltered. “Packing?”

“I’m moving in a few weeks,” you explained. “So you won't see me for a while.”

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. 

Absolutely not. 

Rafe felt his stomach sink. “Why?”

“‘Why’ what Rafe?” you asked, genuinely confused. Why, out of all people, would he care?

“Where?”

“Just main-land, but a bit further into the city so I’m moving schools,” you shrugged.

“But it’s our senior year?”

“Yeah? And?”

“We all said we’d do it together, remember?”

“It wasn’t my choice to move,” you scoffed. “And also, why are you acting like this is new information? Tonight is my ‘last hurrah’ get-together. We’re doing the stupid sleepover.”

“W-what?”

“We didn’t invite you,” Sarah butted in. “You were a dick, now you reap the consequences.”

You rolled your eyes at the shocked look on Rafe’s face. “Night Rafe, see you around.”

Rafe stood frozen as you walked away, shocked. Had he really not been listening for so long? Had he really missed that? You were moving, you were gone. And there was nothing he could do about it. 

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obx masterlist :)

navigation for my blog :) (criminal minds, obx, the bear, marvel, top gun, the hunger games, challengers :)

[lilacliquors]

happy early birthday! what if it's reader's birthday and hughie and the others are trying to keep her party a surprise but reader thinks they forgot about it and butcher attempts to cheer her up in his own way? if you're not taking fic reqs that's fine too - but i hope you're having an excellent day and birthday to come! <33

a birthday surprise

pairing: (slight) billy butcher x reader, the boys x reader (platonic)

word count: 1116

notes: i loved this so much and also my friends forgot my birthday today so far so

it was strange. no one had been really talking to you much the last few weeks. they were brief conversations, pleasantries were exchanged, and every time to walked by, they would hurriedly stop whispering, though you swore you heard your name come up in conversation. yet, when you asked about it, m.m or hughie were often very quick to reassure you everything was okay. it puzzled you, and maybe even hurt your feelings slightly, but what could you do? you had hoped it would have stopped by your birthday, but that hope was fading, and fast.

the morning of your birthday, you woke up and reached for your phone. you had been hoping to get a few texts overnight from the more late owl-ish ones of the group, like frenchie or or annie, but there was nothing from either of them. of course, you replied to the well wishes from your other friends and family, the ones too far away for you to to be with, but your immediate friends, the family you had forged yourself, there was nothing from them so far. maybe you were just overthinking it, and everything was fine. that thought alone helped you get up out of one of the extra beds butcher had set up in the flatiron building, but when you went down to the main meeting room, no one was even around to greet you. you stood there quietly, just looking around the room, and your shoulders slumped. they hadn’t ever done this to you before, they’d never forgotten your birthday before … but you supposed there was a first time for everything.

sighing, you went to go make yourself a cup of coffee with one of the pods butcher kept near the coffee machine. and as your back was turned, you heard one of the doors open, then shut, and heavy footsteps came up behind you.

“oh good, someone’s finally awake,” billy said, and you merely glanced over your shoulder to look at him.

“oh, uh, yeah. i am,” you replied, then grabbed your ready coffee and added your milk and sugar to it. 

“everything all right?” he asked, and you shrugged your shoulders.

“sure, i guess so.”

“all right, don’t fuck around. tell me what’s bothering you.”

you sighed and sipped at your coffee, avoiding his gaze.

“it’s stupid,” you muttered, and he scoffed.

“could be. but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share it.”

you thought for a moment, then shrugged again and looked up at him. when you did, he watched his expression change ever so slightly, his brows pinching together and his eyes narrowing a bit.

“so far, no one’s remembered my birthday. not even you, from the looks of it,” you said, and he went stiff for a second.

“nonsense, i didn’t forget,” he said, causing you to roll your eyes.

“you didn’t exactly come in wishing me a happy birthday, now did you?”

he couldn’t answer that, it was true. he came in with a few harmless jabs, but that wasn’t exactly what you wanted.

“i didn’t, you’re right. and … i’m sorry. here, let me make it up to you before i call up hughie and yell at him for this.” “no, don’t worry about it. it’s about time i just let go of the whole birthday thing anyways. probably getting too old for it.”

billy shook his head and set a gentle hand on your shoulder, which made you look up at him with a soft sigh.

“nonsense. go get ready, i’m taking you to lunch.”

***

you and butcher were sitting in a diner booth across from each other, eating and talking like two old friends. it was nice, relaxed, and great way to take your mind off of the sadness of earlier. your plates were both nearly cleaned, and you had a milkshake in front of you, something billy encouraged you to get.

“i’m buyin’, so treat yourself,” he had said, and you did so with a bit of hesitation. but overall, it was a nice afternoon out, and you were enjoying yourself. it was the best birthday lunch you’d had in a while, and you almost didn’t want it to end.

“almost time to head back. got lots of work to do,” billy said, and you nodded, using the straw in your glass to stir the last bits of ice cream and whipped cream around.

“i guess so. but thank you for this,” you said, looking up at him with a smile. “i had a really nice time with you.”

“it’s the least i can do. wasn’t exactly a gentleman about it this morning.”

you laughed as he paid the check, and then you left the diner together. you were in much better spirits as you walked down the sidewalk, and you gently nudged billy.

“thanks again. and … don’t yell at the others. i’m sure it was just an accident. we all have a lot going on these days,” you said.

“you sure? you know i don’t mind knocking their heads together every so often,” he said, and you nodded.

“i’m sure.”

you made it back to the flatiron building, and he let you inside first, holding the door open for you. then, you walked the flights of stairs together, and all was quiet. but this time, you weren’t bothered by it. when you made it to the final floor, the one with the group office, billy clapped you on the shoulder gently before pushing the door open.

“happy birthday, luv,” he said, and as you walked inside, everyone jumped out from behind the desks and couches in the room, yelling a synchronous ‘surprise!’.

“what the fuck!” you exclaimed, pressing a hand to your chest as billy came up behind you.

“you didn’t really think they forgot, did you?” he asked, and you turned to look up at him, with wide eyes.

“you knew?” you gasped.

“someone had to distract you long enough for these dickheads to decorate. the one thing they couldn’t manage on their own.”

“sorry we made you think otherwise,” hughie said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, and frenchie nodded, alongside m.m.

“with everything going on, it felt like a surprise party would be a good pick-me-up,” m.m explained, and you smiled a bit.

“well, i appreciate the thought. even if the day didn’t start out great, the second half was a lot better,” you said, glancing at billy, who offered a rare, genuine smile.

“enough sap, let’s get to the drinks,” he said, walking up beside you and setting an arm around your shoulders, leading you into the office, where you had the best party you’d ever had.

[kybercrystals94]

Veiled Threats and Bloody Knuckles

Read here on Ao3!

Whumptober 2024 - Day 16 - Prompts: Wound Cleaning // "No, I can't feel anything."

Rated: G | Words: 545

A/N: **throws fic into the World Wide Web abyss** All I can say is, at least I got something written today 😅

“Does it hurt?” Wrecker asks, watching Tech clean Hunter’s bloodied knuckles. 

Hunter grimaces, but he tries to pull it off as a grin. “No, I can’t even feel anything.”

Crosshair snorts. “You’re such a liar.” 

“If you truly did not feel anything, I would be concerned,” Tech puts in. When he sprays disinfectant over the broken skin, Hunter hisses and tries to pull his hand away, but Tech keeps a firm grip on Hunter’s wrist. “Please hold still.”

“I thought you couldn’t feel anything,” Crosshair mutters with a grin.

“Kriff off,” Hunter growls. 

“Which reg did you punch?” Wrecker asks. 

Hunter shrugs.

“Well, why’d you punch him?” 

“Not worth talking about,” Hunter says.

“Oh, so you just punched some random reg in the teeth for no reason,” Crosshair says, rolling his eyes. “If you’re going to keep lying, Hunter, at least make it convincing.” 

Hunter glares. “I’m not lying.” 

“Then tell us what happened.” 

“And then what?” Hunter asks, “You and Wrecker try to find these regs and pick a fight? No. Not happening.” 

Tech begins wrapping Hunter’s hand. “Perhaps we can come to a compromise. You tell us the circumstances, but not the parties involved.” 

“Why does it matter?” Hunter cries, “It doesn’t matter!” 

“Because whatever the issue was, it was worth being outnumbered and fighting back,” Tech replies simply, voice remaining level. “If it matters to you, it most certainly matters to us.”

Hunter takes a steadying breath. “I didn’t punch anyone. I punched a wall,” he bites out. “It was stupid.”

Shocked silence follows the confession, his brothers exchanging glances. 

Finally, Tech asks dryly, “And what did this wall do to offend you?” 

“It was because of the evaluation this morning,” Crosshair says. He leans forward. “What did those long necks say?” 

“What they always say,” Hunter mutters. “Veiled threats, letting me know without directly telling me that if we fail…there’s no point to us. We are experiments that can be thrown away as soon as we aren’t useful. I know they’re just trying to scare me into making sure I keep our records up, to make sure I push you guys in training and simulations. But I’m so kriffing tired of being objects to them.” 

“We might be objects to them,” Wrecker says, “but we know better.” 

“Wrecker is correct,” Tech says, adjusting his goggles. “Despite the Kaminoans best efforts, we are not exact copies of a desired product. We are individuals. It is a miraculous defect in what they perceived as a flawless design. Even the regs show variance. Whether they acknowledge it or not, it is a fact.” 

Hunter glares at the floor. “Facts don’t keep us from being decommissioned, Tech.” 

“No, but being the best does.” Crosshair stands up. “And we are the best, and we’ll keep being the best.” 

Wrecker laughs. “Yeah, we are! We’re the best squad Kamino has ever seen.” 

A grin tugs at the edge of Hunter’s lips. “Yeah, we are the best, aren’t we?” 

“That is also a fact,” Tech agrees. He takes Hunter’s injured hand, examining the white bandage already tinged pink with fresh blood. “Next time you forget that, may I recommend a punching bag as a viable alternative to a wall?” 

Hunter chuckles. “Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” 

Let me know if you'd like to be added to my tag list!

Tag List: @followthepurrgil @amorfista @mooncommlink @arctrooper69 @proteatook @ezras-left-thumb @maeashryver @baddest-batchers @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog @omegafett99 @heidnspeak @fionas-frenzy @dreamsight73 @royallykt @merkitty49 @blackseafoam @illogicaalbraindump

[breeistired]

Rafe with autistic reader

Warnings: Suggestive content, innocent reader

Tropes: kookxpogue, sunshinexgrumpy

Summary: Reader is autistic.

Bree rants: Hi! So, I am only mildly autistic, so if I get any of this wrong I am deeply sorry. ALSO, if you're reading this, please help me work tumblr, I don't know how to make a taglist or boarders. Thank you- Also my askbox is always opened, so ask me random questions, I am always bored. Before I forget, I AM ADDING THIS TO ALL POSTS, AND IF I FORGET IT @brokenwingsgalore WILL PUT IT IN THE COMMENTS. IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, DONT READ IT!!! AND, if you want this to be a full oneshot, please tell me in the comments. I love you and enjoy reading!

(HOW DO I MAKE BOARDERS.)

Rafe! Who found you at his house in his party crying because everything was too loud.

Rafe! Who was about to yell at you but once he looked down, he felt soft and mushy.

Rafe! Who would continue to stare at you while you cry, not knowing what to do.

Rafe! Who finally speaks up and asks you if you need something. You shake your head no and he does not take that lightly. Instead grabbing you some water and sitting beside you.

Rafe! Who eventually finds out its because of how loud everything was and takes you up to his room. Topper whistles thinking Rafes getting lucky. Rafe tells him to shut up and you sit on his bed.

Rafe! Who would calm you down by dimming the lights and covering your ears. He thought this was childish but you seemed to have been calming down.

Rafe! Who would let go of your ears and ask you if you're okay.

Rafe! Who slowly finds out you suffer autism and your friend had brought you here to, "let loose." He would fight the urge to punch whoever that friend was.

Rafe! Who would yell at anybody who even talked near his room so you wouldn't have to panic anymore.

Rafe! Who would spend all night with you, letting you rant about your current hyperfixation just so you didn't have to pay attention to the loud party beneath you two.

Rafe! Who smiles at your little giggles and hand gestures. He hated when people would talk to him, but with you, everything you said sounded so luring. Even though you were talking about sharks.

Rafe! Who would drive you home and get your number.

Rafe! Who becomes obsessed with you after a week of getting to know you. Doing research on autism just so he could help you out like you helped him that night you met, he would've been fucking some girl he didn't like or smoke weed all night. Instead he found you.

Rafe! Who would ask you to be his girlfriend after two weeks.

Rafe! Who buys you anything you hyperfixate on. Legos? He's buying every set and listening you talk about the lego sets. Sharks? He'd buy you a mountain of plushies. Anything your autism liked for a few months or weeks, he would buy.

Rafe! Who never forced you to come to crowded places with. And if you do, he brings noise cancelling headphones or something for you to fidget with.

Rafe! Who practically almost murders anybody who says your too weird or something about your mental health.

Rafe! Who makes sure you eat all your meals, even if its krafts mac and cheese for the 5th time today.

Rafe! Who lets you sleep with him but gets annoyed when you have to put one of your shark plushies between you two. Though he would never tell you he was annoyed.

Rafe! Who ends up telling Barry random facts about the new movie you're obsessed with because that's all you talk about.

Rafe! Who loves you to death despite everything. He loves you and your hyperfixations. (maybe not the shark plushies though)

[pablitogavii]

Can i request something fluff with gavi?

Hard times together

It was a hard game with many injured players but fighting till the last second. Pablo was a winner and anything other than that was unacceptable for your angry bird.

No matter how many times you had the same conversation exposing to him that they can’t win every single fame, he is still stubborn enough to listen.

“Amor, it was a good match..you’ll win next time” you can back home following after him into the bedroom where he threw himself into the bed dramatically.

“We should have won! That goal shouldn’t have been removed! It’s not fair!!” He shine laying on his stomach and hiding his face into the pillow. Aww poor baby!!!

You sighed getting on top of him and just laying there on his back while nuzzling your nose into his neck trying to find his face. You knew he was a bit ticklish and you tried getting f him to laugh at least a little bit.

“Amorrr!!! Stooop!” He whined still and you sighed kissing his cheek about to move off but his strong arms wouldn’t let you. Seems like he just wanted you to stop the tickles but still keep cuddling him? He’s so adorable! ! !

“What do you need cariño???” You ask and he shrugged his shoulders. Pablo wasn’t a big talker, and he almost never just says what he needs. You got to know him so well that you could guess for yourself at this point.

“Wanna lay on my chest and let me play with your hair for awhile? Maybe take a nap? Huh?” You suggested and he immediately nodded his head and you both moved to the position he severely loved the most. Obviously to his friends, he’s only one holding you and stuff!!! But you didn’t mind loving that he is free to be vulnerable with you.

“I’m even more angry that you traveled to watch me and we lost! It’s annoying!” He said and you smiled at how much he cares leaning down and kissing your head while continuing to play with his messy curly hair.

“I’m still so proud of you amor..so proud!” You say and he smiles finally nodding his head and moving up to kiss all over your neck.

"Hmm but I want to win for you..always princesa" he whined like a baby and you smiled knowing what it means for him to win with Barça but also to prove that he is 'good enough'. You both strive very hard in your careers because you want to feel accomplished, which is why you comeptlely understood him and vice versa.

"I know cariño..pero tú siempre estas mi campeon" you say kissing his forehead and he looks up with that adorable pout on his handsome face. You giggled kissing his pout and he blushed a little. He was so cute when he was needy like this!!!

"Promiso???" he asked and you smiled nodding your head while pecking his lips a few times more.

"Promiso.." you say loving the way his smile looked when he was reassured that you will always be there with him. He knew that he found something really special with you and he was always making sure to take care of it.

"Get your ass up Gavira!" Mario barged in without knocking (which he always does) with Ale following behind giggling when he saw Pablo laying on your chest like an adorable little baby.

"You don't know how to knock cabrón!?" Pablo said but didn't make an effort to move from your chest and hide how much he was enjoying this position right now. He didn't care what anyone thought since everyone already knew what a huge simp he was for his girl.

" We're going to celebrate!!!" Ale added earning a death glare from his friend.

"Celebrate what!? If you haven't watched the match, we lost cabrón!" Pablo was grumpy and that meant angry bird was surfacing which his friends knew very well.

"So what?? You still scored and played really well! Come on, stop being a baby and get off your girlfriend's chest so we can go out and party!!!" Ale said clearly more in the mood for the party than your boy right now. You knew what it meant being in Barça..winning wasn't an option but a necessity.

"Maybe it's not a bad idea to go have some fun out, huh cariño?? Forget about the match for awhile???" you ask and he raised his head a little pouting and shaking his head..he just wanted everyone to leave and let him sleep on your chest in peace.

You smiled kissing his lips and starting to play with his hair while he laid down nuzzling further into your chest not caring that his friends were right there watching. You were blushing hard a little embarrassed at them staring at Pablo practically hiding his nose in between your breasts.

"Lucky cabrón..." Mario said and Pablo pulled you even closer so that he was completely covering your chest with his body not wanting his friends to keep staring and making you uncomfortable.

"Stop staring!" Pablo said and both bots flipped him off saying politely goodbye to you before leaving to have some fun tonight. You giggled once you and your boy were finally alone again.

"You being a little celoso cariño???" you ask noticing that the moment his friends were gone he moved from trying to cover your chest.

"Tu eres mia! Let me sleep amor!!" he of course whined not wanting to be teased so you decided to let it go and him win cuddling him and playing with his hair for hours while he napped on your chest.

"Mi campeon cariñoso..rest up..I'll always be there for you..through both good and hard times..siempre contigo" you whispered knowing that he was asleep but Pablo heard it feeling his heart melt at those words. They meant everything to him..<33

[jjunieworld]

21. half alive ⸝ ˚⋆

↳ mainly written, some texts. word count: 1.9k

the first thing you realized when you woke up was not the fact that you were in a foreign room and weren’t sure how you got there, but the fact that your head was absolutely killing you.

you looked around the empty room and found that you were on a couch. sitting up almost took you back out. your head spun so badly and the bright daylight wasn’t helping at all.

there were two pills, a bottle of water, and a note on the table in front of you. take both as soon as you wake up, you’re gonna need it. i confiscated your bottle, read the note. you did as you were told as you tried to remember how you got here, your fingers pinching the bridge of your nose.

suddenly last night's events came flooding back into your mind like a hurricane. it hit you so hard you sat back on the couch and banged your head off the wall behind it. you were alone in taehyun’s dorm.

you let out a sigh as you went to stand. you were definitely hungover.

it took you a while to get back to your dorm, thankfully the hallways were empty. you really wished you brought a jacket with you. you were still in your birthday dress and heels from yesterday and it was not fun to try and get around in.

before you even got to walk fully through the door to your room you were immediately taken into the arms of your friends. “jesus, y/n. you scared the shit out of us. please don’t ever do that again,” kai said.

you were guided to your bed. “i’m sorry,” you replied. you suddenly felt like you were gonna cry again. as you looked around at your friends, you saw that their eyes were red and it looks like they didn’t sleep a wink all night.

“don’t be sorry. none of this is your fault,” said yeonjun.

“where were you?” yunjin asked. you recalled the events after you ran as best as you could with your clouded brain. after, there was a moment of silence. you apologized again.

“y/n… it’s okay,” jake said. you leaned your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes briefly. you didn’t keep them closed for long. everytime you shut your eyes you saw that video. you saw everyone smiling at you, sakura’s words. and worst of all, you saw him. the look of horror on his face and the way his voice cracked when he finally spoke to you.

you dug the heels of your palms into your eyes, forgetting about the fact that you were still wearing makeup.

you pulled out your phone and turned it on as your friends spoke between each other.

“it turns out everyone on the fourth floor of the party were in on the whole thing,” jake started. “one of my classmates showed me the invitations sakura sent out. the next time i see her im gonna kill her.” you breathed deeply at that.

“i should’ve smacked the shit out of her too while i had the chance,” yunjin added. you turned to her, a puzzled look on your face.

“oh yeah, y/nie! soobin got tore the fuck up!” kai exclaimed, you flinched a little. not just from hearing his name but also because your head was still pounding. “sorry… redacted…” kai trailed off.

jake turned to you. “yeah! after you left, yunjin went up and smacked the shit out of him and then right after yeonjun just went in on him. his face is all fucked up.” you raised your eyebrows a little in shock and amusement.

“he deserved it, i would’ve done more if those fucking security guards didn’t pull me off,” yeonjun said.

before you got to reply, your phone finally finished turning on and a floodgate of notifications poured through. most of them were from your friends. two notifications stood out to you, one of them was a post on twitter sakura tagged you in.

you opened it and froze. yunjin took the phone from your hands and looked at it. a furious expression crossed her features. “that fucking bitch.” she showed it to the others and their faces went sour too.

you took your phone back from her and look through your notifications. you had a slew of texts from soobin that you decided you weren’t gonna look at right now. there was a new post from his twitter, which you had forgotten you had the notifications on for. it was song lyrics, with another tweet added that was for you. you inhaled sharply as you began scrolling through his social media, scouring it to see if there was some type of hint about everything that you’ve missed.

you didn’t get far. jake took your phone from you, claiming that going through his social media is just gonna do more harm than good. he was right, but your mind was still at unease. he scrolled through your phone a little and then sat it down.

“he’s blocked on everything now. you don’t have to worry about it,” jake said. you just nodded in response.

you reached up to touch your face to find that you were crying. your friends pulled you into a group hug and you cried even harder.

“i just… i just want to understand why…” you choked out through sobs. you felt your back being rubbed. “why would he do this to me?”

your friends let you cry your heart out for a while until you were too numb and too tired to shed anymore tears. your makeup was completely ruined now, not that it wasn’t already bad before. you didn’t care as you ran your hands over your face and saw them streaked with black after.

“i should’ve convinced you not to go to that party…” yeonjun suddenly said. his eyes were downcast and his knuckles were white as he held the hem of his shirt. you saw that there was dried blood on them.

“jjunie…” you trailed, shaking your head. he cut you off, “no. you wouldn’t be in the situation if i had. you wouldn’t have disappeared the whole night if i had.”

“if it never happened, we’d all be oblivious to the truth,” you spoke. hueningkai nodded in agreement. you dropped to the floor and leaned over and gave him a hug. “it’s nobody’s fault.”

“nobody’s but redacted’s…” yunjin muttered. you let out a sigh.

“i should've known something like this was gonna happen. i should’ve fucking known.” yeonjun spoke, slamming his hand on the ground. he leaned his head back on the boxspring of the bed. “they literally did something similar to me and i still didn’t see it coming until it was too late.”

you furrowed your brows at him. you still didn’t know the history he has with soobin and his friends.

“back when i was friends with them,” yeonjun started, “we were all really close, or so i thought. we were all planning on going to the same college, not this one, but a different one.” he rubbed his eyes as he sighed.

“the dean was a family friend of mine and so i said i’d put in a good word for them. once i praised them to the high fucking heavens it’s like a switch flipped. they used me. and after… after, they made sure everywhere i went a bad reputation followed me. it was a miracle i even got into this college.”

you held a hand to your mouth as he spoke. yeonjun let out a wry laugh, “and when my applications got declined and the dean stopped speaking to me and my family… it was all for nothing. all for them to end up right here at the same college as me. acting like they run the shit.”

you scooted over to where yeonjun sat and gave him a hug. your friends joined in with you. “i’m really sorry jjunie,” you said softly. he just shook his head a little.

“it’s in the past now. there’s nothing i can do to change it.” you all pulled away as he stood. “so, what’s the plan for today to get your mind off yesterday?” yeonjun asked.

standing to your feet, you held on to the edge of the bed for support. “i need to shower,” you announced. you felt disgusting and heavy with emotion. you needed a nice, long, hot shower to scrub yesterday’s events off of you. “and a nap.” you added.

your friends stood as well. “do you want us to wait here until you get out?” kai asked. you shook your head. “no, that’s okay. i really need a nap. and by the looks of it, you guys need one too.” your friends let out some small laughs.

“are you sure you want to be alone right now? we really don’t mind,” yunjin said. you nodded, “i’ll be okay, at least for the moment. go get some sleep and you can come back over if you want after or something.”

they reluctantly agreed and gave you one last hug before leaving your room. you sighed as you went to take a hot shower. you scrubbed your body raw and washed yourself over and over until you finally felt clean. you felt half alive as you moved around your room.

you froze as you were going to get dressed. one of soobin’s hoodies sat on top of your clothes. he must’ve accidentally left it when the two of you went to yeonjun’s yesterday. you brought it up to your face and inhaled. it still smelled like him.

sighing, you slipped in on and climbed in your bed, which also still smelled like him. you hated the fact that it brought you comfort. you reached for your phone and opened it.

you couldn’t even say he was the last person you wanted to see right now, because that would be a lie. despite everything that has happened, everything he’s done, he was still the person you wanted to see the most right now. and that broke you. all you could do right now was scroll through your camera roll and look at all the pictures and videos of the two of you, silently crying.

you wrapped the hoodie closer around yourself and buried your face down into it. all you could think about is the last time you laid in your bed. your bodies wrapped around each other. soobin telling you he loves you.

was it all a lie? all part of this elaborate plan? you went over all the moments you shared with him until you got to the very beginning.

did he even actually need your help that day? or was he just trying to make some money?

you scoffed to yourself. apparently, all you were worth to him was five hundred dollars and a quick fuck.

tears fell from your eyes. you made yourself open the messages he sent you last night.

i swear to you i’ve meant everything i’ve said to you.

bullshit. it was all just a fucking lie. you should’ve known. you should’ve fucking known. when has anything ever worked out for you?

at some point between your racing thoughts and mind numbing headache, you fell into a dreamless sleep.

masterlist.

summary: choi soobin has always been the popular kid surrounded by his popular friends. y/n… not so much. one night, soobin and his friends make bet that soobin can’t get y/n to date him in a month. unfortunately for y/n, they’re a hopeless romantic.

A/N: now playing: supercut by lorde 😞

taglist: @imagineyour-kpopboy @gothgyuu @carengene @spooksh0wbabe (if your name is bold it wouldn’t let me tag you!)

— kipo <3

[suna-cerely-yours]

he's so perfect ft g. suguru

synopsis: you love your boyfriend, you really do. but you love being on your knees for his brother even more.

warnings: fem! reader, age gap, degradation, humiliation, fingering, squirting, oral sex (m! & f! receiving), pet names (sweetheart, baby)

length: 1.2k

a/n: i cannot get this man out of my head. (also i lowkey hate the ending)

you love your boyfriend so much- he's the best really. never forgets a birthday or an anniversary, always brings flowers to dates, kisses your cheek goodbye- a perfect gentleman. you're going to marry him, you think one afternoon, as you watch from your seat by the pool. he's playing with his niece and nephew- shrieks of childish joy adding to the hubbub of the birthday party. it'll be absolutely perfect- a union bound to make the front page of any newspaper. you know how lucky you are to have found a guy like him- he's every girl's dream man.

so, if he's everyone's dream man, then why are you bent over the sink of his bathroom by his much older brother?

warm hands slide up your thighs, slipping under your sundress to grip the fleshy skin of your hips.

"you wore this dress for him, pretty? it's real nice," suguru murmurs lowly.

you press your lips together, eyes fluttering.

baby you look hot, but c'mon my family's going to be there.

i know it's a pool party but you'd look so much prettier wearing the pink dress i bought you the other day.

you're gorgeous doll, but don't say i didn't warn you- you'll be the only one dressed like that.

like what? you'd wanted to ask.

"so beautiful," suguru's voice brings you back, as his fingers stroke the skin on your waist where your panties end.

"i know i'm beautiful suguru, but we have literally twenty minutes before someone notices we're missing, so would you just get on with it?"

"who said you're beautiful? i was talking about the dress," suguru teases, "besides i doubt my bastard of a brother is capable of taking his head out of his ass long enough to notice anything, let alone put two and two together."

you roll your eyes, reaching to untie the ribbons on your shoulders holding the dress up, slapping his hands away as he tries to retie them.

"don't call him a bastard, you're the bastard- and i wore this dress for myself, because i look beautiful in it."

you feel him laugh against your back, before stepping back slightly. you straighten, letting the dress slide off and pool on the floor, leaving you in nothing but your panties. you meet suguru's gaze in the mirror, finding his eyes locked on yours. his dark eyes hold yours for a moment longer, before lowering, dragging them down your body, lingering on your hardened nipples. tongue darting out to moisten his lips, he grins- teeth glinting. in that one brief moment, you feel the waves shift, and you're caught in his trap.

you feel your heartbeat pick up in anticipation, as he finally reaches for his belt, undoing it and his zipper.

"on your knees baby, if you want me to hurry you should give me a reason to," he says, taking another step back, resting his back against the bathroom wall.

you swallow, tonguing your cheek, before turning and dropping to your knees in front of him. leaning forward you nuzzle into him, smearing your lip gloss over his boxer briefs. gripping his thighs, you press open mouthed kisses, feeling his cock twitch under your ministrations.

"no teasing sweetheart," he hisses, carding one hand through your hair, " we only have twenty minutes."

reaching, you pull his half hard cock out- peering up at him from your position. slowly you press a kiss to its head, tongue darting out to taste him. suguru shudders, hand on the back of your head pushing slightly. you start taking him into your mouth, as he groans.

"fuck baby, you're killing me."

"what? this too much for you, old man?"

tching impatiently, he slides his cock over your pouted lips, before slipping his thumb into your mouth.

"aren't you being a brat today. what- did my brother not fuck you well enough this weekend? that's when you have sex right? saturdays at 10:00 pm sharp- first you blow him, then good ol' missionary. you must be so satiated."

babe, you suck dick like a champ- you're the best.

did you cum? of course you did.

sorry babe, i don't eat pussy- you know that.

glaring at him, you move to get up, but he stops you with hand on your shoulder.

"you are going to get yourself nice and wet for me, then you're going to get yourself off on my shoe. and then- if you're a good girl, i'll fuck you, just like you deserve to be fucked. you understand that pretty? or do i have to say it again?"

you feel yourself burn at his humiliating words, but you also feel yourself get wetter. his thumb still in your mouth you nod, one hand sliding down your body to slip into your underwear. he watches as you gather the moisture that's gathered and rub slow circles over your clit. spreading your labia with two fingers, you moan, quickening your pace.

"you're such a sweetheart, y'know that baby? touching yourself in front of an old man like me, you really are so, so cute," he chuckles, sliding his thumb out and pinching your cheeks together with one hand, tilting your head up.

lips parting, you pant, as you slip a finger inside you, shifting your hips to find a better angle.

"suguru, please just, ah- just fuck me already."

"you look even sweeter begging for my cock darling, but that won't do, will it?," he pouts in faux sympathy, watching you grind your clit against the palm of your hand.

"on my shoe baby, show me what a slut like you really wants. don't be all shy now."

you whimper, embarrassment flooding through your veins- but accompanying it is lust, this heady feeling that makes you eager to please him.

cautiously, you lower yourself on the polished leather of his dress shoes, palms flat against the floor for balance.

"that's a good girl, so obedient," suguru coos, "now get to work sweetheart."

biting your lip, you slowly roll your hips, feeling the cool leather against your core. your panties, now completely soaked, create an extra layer of friction, causing you to moan louder as it catches on your clit. rolling your hips faster, you forget all about your initial shame, as you get closer and closer to your orgasm, panting.

"suguru, i- hic, i'm sosososo-"

you're voice hitches as your orgasm crests without warning, and everything suddenly feels distinctly wet.

"holy fuck," you hear suguru murmur, "did you just squirt?"

still recovering from the intense orgasm, you slump against the floor, eyes closed, panting.

you feel suguru's arms around you, as he lifts you up and places you on the sink, your back meeting the cold mirror. there's a sudden rip of fabric which has your eyes flying open-

"suguru did you just rip my panties? do you know how expensive those are?"

spreading your legs, it's now his turn on his knees, as he sinks to the floor to be at eye-level with your pussy. spreading your pussy he leans forward to wrap his lips around your clit, sucking once, before pulling back.

"i'll buy you as many panties as you want baby, just ditch my brother."

[eleni-cherie]

agents at first sight ✨ || bts • ksj [ONE-SHOT]

"you're Squirtle?"

"you're Charmander?"

about two interpol agents falling at first sight, literally, thanks to a master thief on the run.

© 2024 | eleni_cherie

[one-shot in 'the thieves collection' series - can be read independently!!]

»»»

— word count: 5.1k

— genre: interpol agent au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburning, mutual pining, strangers to lover s2l

— song recommendations/inspirations:

the last shadow puppets - the element of surprise

solar - honey

frank sinatra - strangers in the night

keri hilson - i like

»»»

COPYRIGHT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

IDEA/STORY/CHARACTERS BASED ON MY PREVIOUS STORIES: "A THIEF'S ORIGIN" , "AMONG THIEVES" AND "A THIEF'S END".

this one-shot aims to give the backstory of how seokjin and yongsun met, as mentioned in the other parts of the series.

if you want the full context and also know what happens with with them afterwards, check out the other stories as well!

PROTAGONISTS:

KIM SEOKJIN AS HIMSELF; LEADER OF THE ROBBERY DEPARTMENT / "CHARMANDER"

KIM YONGSUN AS HERSELF; AGENT IN THE ORGANISED CRIME DEPARTMENT / "SQUIRTLE"

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

NOT FREE FROM LINGUISTIC ERRORS - ENGLISH IS NOT MY NATIVE LANGUAGE.

DON’T BE A GHOST READER. LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT :))

DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO’S READING THIS FANFIC!

CHECK OUT MY OTHER BTS STORIES AS WELL: HERE

-Elenixx

»»»

[set after the final chapter of the main story but before its epilogue]

Straits of Singapore, 30km off Singapore

"Sir, are you sure he'll show up tonight? It's been hours and still no sign from Park, Kim or Min."

Seokjin studied the piece of paper between his fingers. It was crinkled from having been stored in his jacket all evening.

A dry laugh left his lips then. "Don't worry, Blake," he said into the radio, "When Park Jimin says he's showing up, he will."

"Roger."

A muffled chuckle was heard beside him as he put the device down and he glanced at Hoseok resting his folded arms on the desk. "But only if you cracked his riddle correctly," his former team mate and friend pointed out with a raised brow, "I mean, you sure about time and place?"

"Pretty sure, yes. He sent that with a postmark from Singapore," the leader of the robbery department nodded and held the paper out for him. Hoseok grabbed it with curiosity, reading over the scribbled note with a hum.

'Meet me at the deck with no cards,

when the sun comes home.

Don't forget to wear a bow tie!

I'll bring the bow, not the arrows though.

See ya!'

"'Deck', 'bow' and the 'see', which is a homophone of 'sea' - it all hints to a ship. And this cruise ship with a bunch of loaded people is the only kind our thieves would be interested in."

"Yeah, I see - no pun intended," the leader of the organised crime department said and slid the note back, "And 'when the sun comes home' means when it's the closest to earth, which was today. Summer solstice."

"Exactly."

"Okay, fine," Hoseok sat back and let his eyes wander around the security room. Eventually adding with a sigh, "But I'm still bummed he had to pick the same time and place my team's got to perform an undercover operation at. Too many cooks spoil the broth, you know. There're so many other places or dates."

"You forget the CEO's wife owns this highly valuable black pearl. I bet everything I have that this is what they're after."

"Probably."

"The better question is, why does that mob boss you're after have to attend the same party."

"What do you think.." Hoseok propped his jaw on the palm of his hand, a sarcastic smirk playing on his lips. "He's acquaintance with Lee, that CEO."

A short laugh left Seokjin's lips and he averted his gaze from the security screens. "Of course, criminals and CEOs are not that different from each other after all."

His younger colleague showed his agreement with an amused chuckle when his radio transmitter beeped.

"Sunflora here, what do you have for me Squirtle?" he answered, causing Seokjin's brows to furrow.

'Squirtle' and 'Sunflora' were the names of Pokémons after all. So he gave Hoseok a wondering look which the latter only dismissed by waving his hand.

"Purugly is heading to the restrooms. S-should I follow?"

'Purugly'. Another Pokémon.

"No, but keep an eye on him nonetheless and wait in a good distance. If he doesn't come out in five, report."

"Understood."

He put the device back down, meeting Seokjin's questioning face. "So?"

"What?"

"You got Pokémon codenames? Never knew you were so into it."

Hoseok shook his head though. "Wasn't my idea," he explained with a laugh under his breath, "Squirtle is her favourite one and she claims she looks like it, that's why she always uses it. So I thought why not using these names for all of us? Makes the whole undercover thing a bit more fun."

"Huh, that's clever. I should do that, too, from now on." The older agent paused but only for dramatic effects as he added with a sigh, "Disappointed I didn't come up with that myself."

"Be my guest. Have you any in mind already?"

"Charmander, of course!" he exclaimed full of enthusiasm and picked his own radio device. "Blake, Jeon? From now on only call me 'Charmander' over the radio. Got it?"

Jungkook's chuckle was heard on the other line. He was rather amused than irritated, but even Skylar wasn't questioning her supervisor's quirks anymore. Both replying with: "Roger that, Charmander." 

"You really do with them whatever you want, huh?" Hoseok wondered with a laugh while scanning over the security screens from the ballroom where the birthday party happened. 

Considering they were on a cruise ship, it was impressive how grand it was. Opulent decorations like crystal chandeliers hanging above the heads of guests, adding to the ambiance of the ballroom. People dressed in their most expensive and fashionable gowns and suits while enjoying conversations and litres of flowing champagne and wine. 

Seokjin only shrugged with a smile. "The kids are alright and they're able to see a joke. But I do sometimes miss you and Namjoonie. Remember when we first started out together?"

Hoseok huffed out a laugh, reminiscing the past when the three of them started out in the robbery department together. "Don't remind me, I'm glad I don't have to deal with the shenanigans of these thieves anymore." He patted Seokjin's shoulder than. "But it was surely fun with you guys, I miss that, too."

He was about to add more when his transmitter beeped once again, interrupting his train of thoughts.

"Squirtle here, he hasn't come out yet."

With a groan, Hoseok's face hardened and he got closer to the screens. His eyes narrowing as he switched through the cameras. It always astonished and in some way also scared Seokjin how he could go from cheery to professional within a second.

"Squirtle, you hear me?"

"Yes, Sunflora."

"There hasn't been any records of him leaving through the other side of the corridor. Are you sure he hasn't returned to the party?"

"Positive. Is there a different way out?"

Seokjin's eyes widened at this and he grabbed the blueprint they'd got from security, eyes searching for any possible vents or openings. He gestured to Hoseok to pass him the radio over.

"Here's Charmander. According to -"

"Sorry, who's there?"

Remembering he'd literally only just come up with his new codename and had never directly spoken with this 'Squirtle' before, he laughed a little embarrassed to himself. "Sorry, agent Kim from the robbery department here," he spoke firmly, "The blueprint doesn't show any other means of escape, unless he decided to swim back to shore. So he must be still in there. Wait another five."

"Okay, got it."

"Is that Squirtle good?" he questioned his friend while sinking back into his seat, observing the monitors.

"She's my best agent actually," Hoseok answered truthfully, "You should've seen her shooting her way through and bending a whole gang boss to his knees. It was beautiful."

The older agent whistled lowly, quite impressed by the thought of that. Or at least how he imagined it. "Sounds like a feisty one."

"Depends. She's surely a lively person, but once you get to know her, she's an easy-going homebody. Similar to you."

A scoff passed Seokjin's lips, pretending being offended by his words. "So you wanna say I'm not unique?"

"Well, I wouldn't subscribe to that," Hoseok said with a teasing grin, "Both of you also get upset in the same hilarious way actually."

"Ouch, that hurts my pride you know."

The two shared a laugh when a sudden commotion on the monitors caught their attention. The guests seemed to be agitated and scattering around the area.

"Jeon, Blake, what's going on there?"

"The black pearl, it fell from Mrs Lee's brooch."

"There's multiple pearls on the floor now! It created a turmoil."

"I can imagine," Seokjin muttered before speaking louder into the radio, "Keep your eyes closely to the guests. Surely that's a distraction by Jimin and the like."

"Of course."

He stood up then, sliding on his black suit jacket. "I'm heading out for support. See, told you he'd show up."

"You need my help? I could tell my agents -"

"Nah, don't worry. I'm sure you guys have your hands full with this commotion, too."

"Sunflora?" Indeed, Hoseok's own agent tried getting in touch with him. And he gave Seokjin a thumbs up, wishing him good luck as he headed out, before grabbing his radio device then.

"Sunflora here."

"I spotted Purugly. He's rushing out with a group of people due to some uproar, I'm following him."

"Roger, Squirtle. Be careful in the chaos, it's a distraction from the thieves. The robbery team will handle it though. You focus on our guy."

"Got it."

»»»

Seokjin squeezed through the noisy and fidgety mass, people hunching and picking up any black pearls they could find - or at least the fake ones Jimin had spread around to cause this uproar.

It was impossible to draw his gun with so many civilians around, so he just continued with careful steps and sharp eyes. Soon spotting something that rose enough suspicion in him to follow it. A rather calm man was galantly making his way among the rambling crowd.

The main reason this man rose his suspicion was rather intuitive though. He recognised him being one of the bodyguards close to the Lee's, he'd stood beside them all evening. Of course his agents had already checked all stuff members for possible disguised criminals before boarding the ship, but they hadn't been observing them nonstop ever since. And this bodyguard now was clearl heading to the exit instead of being on the other side of the ballroom with his boss who was panicked and shouting at his men to find his wife's pearl.

With a confident smirk, he neared the man until he was close enough to grab him by the shoulder. "And I thought you'd never make your appearance, Park Jimin. You had me waiting for quite some time," he sighed in fake-annoyance.

The man visibly flinched at Seokjin's words, glancing over his shoulder then with a lopsided grin.

"Sorry, pops! Got a date with a pearl!"

He abruptly crouched, disappearing from his sight and Seokjin spotted him a few seconds later further away. He'd got rid of his disguise by now and promptly continued his way among the people. But Seokjin wouldn't let Jimin throw him off so easily.

He was close on his heels and Jimin could feel it. His eyes quickly scanning the area for any possible distraction when seeing the interpol agent almost having reached him again. But then he realised that he was literally in the middle of possible distractions and smirked as soon as he spotted a suitable one.

As he continued pushing threw the mass of people, he grabbed someone's wrist and abruptly tucked the person backwards. Right in front of Seokjin, blocking his way. It was a young woman with dyed dirty-blond hair and in the pushing and shoving, stumbled and fell against the agent's chest who caught her out of reflex.

"My apologies, miss, but -" Seokjin was about to politely shove her away when their eyes met. And any further words got stuck in his throat instead. 

He swallowed hard. She was the most mesmerizing woman he'd ever seen in his life. 

Full cheeks, cute nose, pillowy lips and soft brown eyes which were staring back at him intensely, placed so perfectly that it completely disarmed him and took his breath away.

For a moment he wasn't in the middle of the ballroom anymore, he was in the abyss of her wondering orbs.

The woman seemed just as stunned, her expression mirroring his.

However, soon he was washed back to the shore of reality and his memory returned, recalling his initial task of chasing after Jimin.

"S-sorry."

The woman's eyes turned into a dazed scowl, as if she herself had just snapped back into reality and wouldn't recognise the place she found herself in. She stepped back, at least as much as she could in the crowded space, his hands sliding off from the warm skin of her arms. And without a single word, she simply turned and disappeared back into the sea of people. Like a siren who had lured him into her world only to release him again after growing bored.

Someone in his work field and position shouldn't get that easily distracted and usually he didn't. But something in this mysterious woman completely enchanted him and it was more than unfortunate they had to meet under such circumstances.

Perhaps, in a different profession, in a different life, he could've met her differently. Could've spoken to her more.

By the look in her almond eyes, she might've felt the same sugar-rush shooting through her chest. But it didn't matter anyway, he wouldn't see her again. And he had to focus on more important things right now.

He began running through the now less dense becoming crowd, out of the ballroom. The double doors closed behind him with a dull sound, drowning out the jarring voices from inside. The corridor was long and he'd seen Jimin running towards it so it was his best shot right now. 

Eventually reaching outside the deck, he was met with the strong night wind of the open sea tousling his dark waves. It was sparsely lit, only a simple lamp every few metres illuminating the broad area. And there at its end, on the very edge, he found the masterthief standing and laughing as soon as he noticed Seokjin nearing him. As if he'd been waiting for him all along.

"Oh damn, didn't expect you back so soon. Really thought I made a good choice there, could swear she'd be your type."

The agent laughed under his breath, biting down his lip. It wasn't surprising to him anymore, knowing his opponent well enough in all those years to know his little mind games. So he chose to ignore his comment, not giving him the satisfaction of a retort. Although Jimin already knew the truth by the brief look that passed Seokjin's eyes.

"Hands up," the agent said instead with a confident smirk, now able to draw his gun, "Unless you wanna fall into the cold sea."

The thief, however, only met him with an unfazed glance. His arms slowly going up before one of his hands turned, revealing something between his fingers. And under the light of the full moon he could see it sparkling dark. The black pearl.

Seokjin could tell it was the real one.

"Hm, maybe I'll do just that. You know, return the pearl to its natural habitat on the way, too. Thanks for the great idea, pops!" His lips curled further into a beaming grin and before Seokjin could react, Jimin let himself fall backwards.

Perplexed, the agent rushed to the railing. The harsh wind hitting his face as he looked over it, making out the outlines of a motorboat in the darkness. Diverging from the ship and driving towards the coast. 

"Dammit." He sighed and hit the cold metal of the railing, letting it echo get swallowed by the waves. With a dragged sigh, he couldn't help but laugh shortly before pulling out his radio device.

"Jungkook, Skylar?"

Jungkook was faster to answer this time."Yes, sir?"

"Find a radio unit and alert coastguards and agents on the mainland to keep an eye on a motorboat coming from our direction."

"I assume it's about our thieves?"

"Correct, Jeon."

"Roger, I'm on my way."

Returning inside, he caught sight of security guards and staff members who had managed taking back control over the situation and calmed people down.

He came across one of the other agents of Hoseok's team and asked him where his supervisor was. The agent told him in the manager's office with their suspect and Seokjin thanked him before making his way there. As he passed by with hasty steps, walking to the other end where another door led to the offices and security room, he spotted the CEO and his distraught wife being questioned by Skylar in a corner.

Soon he reached a cherrywood door, giving it a few knocks and watching it open at the third knock, revealing his friend behind it. And Hoseok stepped out.

"Heard you got your man, that must be him I assume?" he motioned to the handcuffed guy at the armchair behind Hoseok's shoulders.

Hoseok grinned. "Yup, our 'Purugly' aka Mr San Shinjuk. Isn't that right?"

The criminal kept an desinterested and bored expression, unimpressed by his enthusiasm. "You got nothing on me anyway."

"I wouldn't call a wad of 100,000 won notes and exposing documents, nothing," Hoseok countered with a raised brow, making the man scoff and grow back quiet. Making Hoseok grin widen before joining Seokjin outside in the corridor, closing the door behind him.

"What happened with Park?"

Seokjin only let out a dry laugh. "Well, let's say at least you got your guy.."

Hoseok's eyes widened. "You mean he -"

"Yeah, yeah," Seokjin ran his fingers through his hair, "They got away again."

"Well, next time then."

"Of course next time!"

"I gotta say though. Thanks to the little panic he created, San couldn't complete his restroom deal," Hoseok chuckled.

The irony that his friend was thankful to his nemesis wasn't missed on him. "So that's what took him so long in there.."

"Exactly."

"But I surely won't thank Jimin," Seokjin huffed then, "Would only get into his already big head."

"Sir!"

The yell coming from the end of the corridor, cut their laughing off. The person audibly churned up as they came closer.

"Sir, I'm sorry I lost San. Someone pushed me and there was an idiot blocking my way. Otherwi-"

"Don't worry, Kim," Hoseok interrupted her with a reassuring smile, "You did a good job. We got him."

The woman sighed in relief and her tense shoulders relaxed. A weight seemingly being lifted from her shoulders. "I'm glad, I was worried we wasted our chance."

She was about to leave again when her eyes landed on the person beside her supervisor

Seokjin had turned around to see who Hoseok was talking to behind his back.

And both grew stiff.

There she was, the woman with the full cheeks and dazzling eyes. Her waves pushed to one side, cascading down her shoulder softly as silk. Their bright shade contrasting the black fabric of her tight dress. Now without endless people surrounding them, he had a clearer view on her, seeing it reached only half her thighs, leaving a handwidth of skin between its hem and her overknee boots who added height to her rather petite physique. And he noticed the grip of a 9mm peaking out from one of them.

He watched her burgundy lips part then in shock, unable to avert her eyes from him either.

"The idiot," she eventually breathed, causing the sudden tension to dissolve abrubtly. And Seokjin scoffed amused. "Excuse me?"

She dismissed his question and instead glanced at Hoseok behind him. Only earning a confused glance back. "You two know each other?"

"This is the idiot who blocked my way!"

"Hey, wait a sec, I didn't do it on purpose!" Seokjin quickly defended himself, "Jimin pushed you onto me, so if someone blocked anyone's way it was you blocking mine."

Flustered at the unknown to her details on the incident, she folded her arms and looked away. "That- that wasn't my intention," she mumbled then with a small embarrassed huff.

The taller man sighed and mimicked her in a less serious manner. "Neither mine."

"Well," Hoseok began then in an attempt to change topics, "Agent Kim, how about you let me introduce you to the other agent Kim then?"

She frowned, looking Seokjin up and down. "You're an agent?"

He ignored her judging glare and flashed her a charming smile instead. In a way, he found her even more intriguing now than before. "Nice to meet you. And you are?"

Hoseok nudged his arm as he stepped beside him. "She's the one you talked to earlier. Agent Kim Yongsun."

"You-" His eyes grew, facing her again with a stunned expression. "You're 'Squirtle'?"

Yongsun unintentionally backed off, equally astonished. "You are 'Charmander'?"

This was the guy who also used Pokémon codenames like her? No way.

»»»

"Hey."

Yongsun averted her gaze from the waves beneath her, the wind brushing rather harshly against her bare skin. The ship was heading back to the harbour, all guests having been gathered back inside until arrival and she used the short length of time to enjoy the city lights in the distance sparkling like watercolour on its dark surface.

"H-hey."

She straightened herself when seeing Seokjin approaching her on the deck. He emerged from under the sparsely lit canopy with a timid smile on his lips. His dark brown hair pushed back by now, his forehead peaking behind a few loose strands. His tall figure came to an halt beside her then and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit jacket that was casually left unbuttoned. 

"I didn't think I'd find anyone here. You alright?"

"Yeah."

Oh, he did look like a deity – exuding the perfect balance of authority and charm.

Her breath hitched and she managed to give him a nod along with a hum through her folded lips. Focusing back at the crashing waves underneath. 

Truth was, she was uncertain of how to face him again after the previous hour and perhaps also tried avoiding him by staying out there. After all, she'd called a department leader an idiot. It didn't matter that she'd found out - after asking around her team mates - that he was actually a year, almost two, younger than her. In the agency, he remained a senior agent to her.

Sure, she hadn't been aware of who he was in that moment and he'd also seemed taking the whole story with humour. Yet, she couldn't help feeling awkward and mortified in his vicinity. She couldn't even look him straight in the eyes anymore. Even if it didn't cause her trouble at work, it still remained an embarrassing memory and she felt her face heat up.

"Sorry again for earlier," she mumbled while grabbing onto the metal pole of the railing, in search for the right approach, "For.. for blocking your way and.. and also calling you an idiot."

He hummed and contemplated for a moment by tapping his finger against his chin. "Hm, thinking about it now.. I should probably get compensation for personal suffering. That 'idiot' really hurt, you know," he deadpanned, earning a quiet gasp from Yongsun.

She faced him with wide eyes, ready to argue when instead she met his amused grin. He was only joking. She relaxed and tucked away some streaks of hair the wind had swept in front of her eyes.

"You totally should," she laughed softly then.

"You wouldn't mind paying me compensation?"

"Who says that I'd be the one paying?"

"You were the one making me suffer after all," he countered.

She could only laugh out at his teasing smirk. "But wasn't it all the thief's fault in the end?"

"Hey, he wasn't the one calling me an idiot," he countered with raised brows. The fake upsetness on his face made her laugh even more. It was a loud, squeaky laugh and her eyes disappeared.

He smiled. She was cute and not intimidating at all. Hoseok had been right.

The friendly banter had calmed her previous nervousness. It was easy to get along with him which shouldn't be surprising considering he was friends with Hoseok, one of the nicest persons she knew.

But she remained firm in her stance. Arms folding in front of her chest then. "He was the one pushing me to you, though, so it's his fault really," she said. An almost cartoonish grin on her painted lips.

Much to her surprise, however, Seokjin's demeanor visibly softened at this. Eyes flickering over her round face before settling back to the illuminated skyline of Singapore. "Ah, but I don't mind that part so I can't hold it against him."

Her brows furrowed, feeling like she'd lost the thread. "Why not? I thought it prevented you from catching him."

He simply shrugged his broad shoulders. "I got to meet you this way, didn't I? So it wasn't all too bad."

The night was rather brisk out there on the open sea and yet Yongsun felt like standing at 32°C in the midday sun.

He was most definitely flirting with her, even if it was in a smooth subtle way. And the worst part was that she didn't mind.

Still, she decided not to make a big deal over a hot flush because literally anyone, even furniture, would get butterflies with this guy.

His eyes left the lights in the distance then, a timid smile dancing on his lips. "Sorry, was that inappropriate?" he asked bashfully considering her silence, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

She hadn't noticed how flustered she'd been and swallowed, clearing her throat when finding her composure again. "I'll let it slide," she said with as much nonchalance as she could fake in that moment, glancing briefly at him and noticing his blushing ears, "But only because we're in different departments and I won't have to fear favouritism."

"That's true. Although your teamlead is one of my best friends, so who knows.."

"Well, I'll trust that he won't do any."

He laughed lightly. "True, he wouldn't."

"You should be extra nice to the thief next time," she continued then, "You know, to thank him."

"Not that bad of an idea actually. I could crack less jokes when arresting him."

Propping her jaw on the palm of her hand, she glanced at him amused, the distant lights dancing in her eyes. And when she smiled in a way her teeth peeked a little through her lips, he could swear that he died, just a little bit, when she looked at him like that. Like he was the only man in the world. "You're a funny guy, aren't you?"

He breathed. "I try to at least."

Her gentle eyes wandered down to the sea again. The harbour shining clearer now as they drew closer. "You know," she spoke up, mischieviousness returning to her features, "I'm only apologising for the 'idiot', nothing more."

His brows knitted together. "Didn't you also apologise for blocking my way through?"

"Hm, I take it back since you said you didn't mind that."

Humming, he folded his hands and propped his elbows onto the railing. Neither one was a big deal for him and he'd found it rather funny how flustered she'd been once Hoseok had told her who he was. But he couldn't help it, he enjoyed teasing her over it.

"Mh, fair enough. I still forgive you for both though."

"Maybe I should've called you something worse then. Like douchebag or jerk," she mused with an arched brow only for her laugh to die down as soon as Seokjin leaned in. Narrowing the gap between them.

All of her pretend-confidence fell apart at the sudden proximity of their faces. Heaving a shaky breath, her eyes flickered to his plump lips which he noticed. And it took everything in him not to close the gap completely.

"You can call me whatever you like." His voice was deep and feathery, brushing over her flushed cheeks like a whisper only for her to hear. "But obviously not during work," he added with a laugh as he retreated, "That'd appear highly unprofessional. For both of us."

Taken aback, Yongsun watched him walking away, heading back inside without even giving her time to properly ponder over his words and their meaning.

"Wait!" She turned around abruptly. There was a lovely innocence in her round eyes. "What do you mean?"

Seokjin, however, only shrugged with an ambiguous smile. "Who knows." He opened the door then but before entering, he paused and faced her again. "You should also come inside. As beautiful as this dress is on you, it won't prevent you from catching a cold."

She frowned and looked down on her short dress. Only then she sensed the cool breeze surrounding them again. In all the time he'd been around she'd completely forgotten about the chillness out there.

"Uh, yeah. In a minute," she said, feeling her cheeks blushing over his, once again, subtle way of complimenting her.

He gave her a nod and disappeared through the door. Leaving Yongsun back on the dim-lit deck.

She couldn't quite figure out if the beauty of his lips was more their softness or their association with the words he spoke.

Scrunching her nose, she folded her arms on the railing, letting the wind gently tousle her blond waves. It was a pity that she began shivering now considering the beautiful view. Perhaps she should indeed get back inside before catching a cold, despite the urge to clear her mind even more after that anew intense accounter with him.

And she wondered, was it alright flirting with him like that? He might not even be in her department, but he was still another agent. And a higher-ranked one, too. Then again, he had done most of the work, really. She'd simply played along.

Shaking her head, a dry laugh left her tinted lips. 

Either way, it wasn't like this would lead anywhere. They worked at different departments, on differents floors. Their paths most likely wouldn't cross again unless another joint operation happened.

And for some reason that realisation filled her with disappointment.

She wasn't usually the type of woman to feel easily attracted to men or even cared enough to give a second thought to them. But his kind eyes and enticing face did sparkle something in her. And the fact his male ego didn't seem hurt but rather took her earlier blunder with humour, was definitely a bonus point. Besides, he generally didn't seem to take himself too serious either. Both fatally opposite traits in most other men.

Yongsun was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't pay attention to the sound of the door opening again and someone stepping out. Only when fabric met her skin, wrapping around her shoulders and back, she realised she wasn't alone anymore and was ready to draw her gun when a soft laugh was heard.

"What a scaredy-cat," Seokjin teased and her eyes widened when seeing him standing there in nothing but his black button-up shirt. Her glance fell and she realised his suit jacket was drapped over her, instinctively grabbing its collar. She about to reject his offer, when meeting his warm smile.

"Thought it's better than nothing."

"T-thanks."

He gave her nod and turned around, returning to the door when he glanced at her over the shoulder. "You can return it next time we meet. I'll make sure it's soon, this is my favourite suit after all." And Yongsun's eyes widened when seeing a wink follow his words before he returned inside.

Stunned, her thoughts raced and tripped over each other.

They'd eventually meet again. Soon.

Her fingers unconsciously curled more, tightening their grip on the suit jacket.

She only hoped he was sincere. After all, she could tell he wasn't the kind of man a woman got a simple crush on. He was the kind of man you fell hard for, and the thought of that terrified her. She didn't want to fall hard for anyone at all, especially not a superior agent or someone who might not mean any of his words. 

But she had always been a curious cat. And Seokjin definitely triggered her curiosity.

With a small huff, she slid her arms into the jacket. It was still warm from his body and it made her shudder. Burying her hands deep into its pockets.

Great, she thought. 

Now she had a crush on her supervisor's best friend.

THE END

»»»

- "the thieves collection" is completed (for now)!

- if you wanna know what happens to jin x yong, check out the other stories for more context and info!

Don't forget to like, reblog & leave feedback!♡ It motivates me to keep writing :)

[universallydestinytaco]

The Little Smiling Mermaid (Chapter 1)

‘Twas a misty aftermoon when the sky was crowded with dark grey clouds and the airborne foul soared above the sparkling sapphire waves dancing with the gusty breeze guiding the sails of many a sailing ship, one particularly rowdy vessel was celebrating the successful aftermath of their latest battle with an infamous pirate crew. The leader of this unruly crew was the scrappy, rugged and sharp-witted Prince Charlie of the Dompler family. You’d be forgiven for assuming he was a mere swashbuckler than a Royal. Despite being the heir to the throne of his kingdom he was looked down upon his fellow Nobles for coming off as awkward, bumbling and unattractive. Charlie didn’t give two shits what the overglorified snobs thought about him because he’d rather prefer going on high-spirited adventures beyond the sea with his motley crew of sailors than waste his precious time on some boring luncheon just to get judged for merely being there.

“Damn son, you showed Salty who’s-who THIS time!” Chris cracked up as he raised his stubby hand to initiate a high five from Charlie, who happily accepted the offer. Tomar piped up: “Don’t forget how his little toadie Ketchup immediately ran and cried for his Captain for it once he saw you jump into the crow’s nest with the dagger in your mouth.” Lyle let out a chuckle when adding: “What a wimp.” The gang shared their own retrospective of the event with gleeful laughs. “Oh, I almost forgot-“ Charlie uttered, while revealing a bottle of high quality rum: “I swiped this before I left!” The sailors howled in delight at the treat their friend unveiled. “Charlie you sunovabitch, we love you!” cried Chris who already felt intoxicated by the strong smell reeking from the bottle. Charlie replied with a wink and a cheeky “finger gun” gesture before opening up the bottle and shouting: “Bring out yer flasks, maties!”

On the other corner steering the ship was it’s Captain whom they jokingly called “Mr. Boss”, he was also the closest thing Charlie had to a father since his own parents passed away sometime when the land critter was a merely a homunculi. Mr. Boss’ ears observed the rowdy party singing off-key in unison to a familiar sea shanty, a side effect of hitting the sauce. Mr. Boss chuckled and sang along with the crew as he navigated them back to their kingdom of Gremblonia.

“I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue And it's hey to the starboard, heave hoooooooo!!!! Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you-“

Charlie, who was a top the ship where the sails where draped, belted out with great gusto: “DOWN MYSTERIOUS FATHOMS BELOOOOOOOOW!!!”

~

Meanwhile, another kingdom below the surface, Meeplantica, the royal family was hosting a special concert in the Palace, peformed by the children of King Steven and Queen Bertha. Who was especially excited for this event was Alan Red, a lobster who was the designated royal composer and King Steven’s right hand man, who stayed up many moons writing new symphonies exclusive to the concert. “At last, I finally get to bestow my magnum opus.”

The anticipating crowd where greeted to the stage opening up revealing three large clamshells, with Alan raising his wand and the band began to play as two clamshells revealed the two eldest siblings, Damien and Amy, who harmonized: “Ah, we are the children of Bertha and Steven, great mother and father who raised us well!"

The third clamshell opened to reveal the youngest sibling…or at least it was meant to. The crowd gasped in shock as Alan has to do a double take in disbelief, Amy was holding back her urge to throw one of her classic primadonna tantrums in front of the crowd and Damien rolled his eyes knowing this concert was gonna hit a snag. Queen Bertha flipped out screeching hysterically while agonizing over where her youngest could be and King Pimling raised his fist and his trident to the sky shouting the name of his youngest in rage: “WHY THAT LITTLE-!!!!”

~

Within the outskirts of Meeplantica lay a shipwreck from long ago which would be collecting a lot of dust if it wasn’t literally underwater. Visiting this once bustling vessel was a cloaked sea critter carrying a tote weaved in kelp accompanied by a green guppy with a protruding snout, The critter wiggled his tail in excitement. “There it is, Glep! Isn’t it fantastic!?” As Glep finally caught up to his energetic and spontaneous friend, he got a good gander at the decaying exterior of the destination his friend had been hyping up all day…and he was disappointed to say the least. In a high pitched nasally gibberish he asked: “Eskewafibbyjibbywo! Jazazebayowozoio? (What a dump! Pim, you brought me all the way here for this?) Pim reassured: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts! Think of all the amazing things land critters have made that are just lying around under appreciated and unused…” he monologued whistfully while gazing through the window as some of his dark pink hair curls spilled through his hood. “I hope you’re not getting cold fins…but if you are I can stash you in my satchel for safe keeping.” Glep wasn’t scared as he was unimpressed, but he couldn’t leave Pim behind since he liked the guy. “Jazazewabozoyoboio. (Thanks, but I’ll stay here and watch out for sharks)” “Alright, this will be quick, I promise!” said Pim as he swam through the window and did a graceful twirl and a soft hum as he browsed through room-by-room. After acquiring some odds and ends like a pair of golden cuff links, opera glasses, a high heel and tons of silver wear, Pim finally came across an orient box gilded in gold. The ever curious mercritter popped the box open to reveal strands of stone beads and chains as well as a figurine of a couple holding hands almost as if they where dancing, just then Pim noticed the key on the back and wound it up, out came “twinkly” music and the couple finally started “dancing”. Pim was so mesmerized he fell into a dreamlike state with a tinge of envy over how both dancers had feet, humming to the ethereal tune. Once the tune stopped and Pim was about to wind the key up again, he heard Glep squealing in terror and immediately looked around crying out: “Glep! Where are you little buddy?!” He swam closer to where the sound was coming from and when swimming to the next sector of the shipwreck, he was greeted to Glep frantically swimming away from what wasn’t a shark but what could only be described as a “abyss demon”. Tall and spindly with what appeared to be a head with horns resembling coral branches and piercingly cold ocean-blue eyes staring into one’s soul. Pim grabbed Glep and swam for a way out of the abyss demon’s sight. Pim forgot the crucial advice from his grandfather from when he was just a little tadpole: “Don’t dive too deep into the abyss…you’ll get lost!” Oh if only he didn’t have a hard time remembering little things like that AND an addiction to thrills. He could hear the voice of his stubborn father nagging at him that he just doesn’t learn or listen. Pim slipped out another window and as the demon followed, only for Glep to slam it shut in his face and blow a raspberry at its squished face as he followed Pim away from the scene.

On an island surrounded with a collection of various discarded “human and land critter stuff”, another pink mercritter was casually chilling out while marveling at a crystal sphere slowly whispered in awe: “Nooooo waaaaaay…” He then heard two familiar voices coming closer to his ol’ swimming grounds. Looking into his scratched-up telescope, his smile turned into a grin as he jokingly shouted: “Yoooo mercritter on the looooose!” While waving his hand to signal his youngest cousin and his friend. Pim squealed back and frantically waved: “Hello Graham Nelly!!” Glep followed suit with a cheery: “Skawabezewayo (S’up bruh)?!” While the green guppy never liked how cold, conceited and haughty the rest of Pim’s family was, he did take a liking in his out-there cousin. He opined in his head: “If only the rest of the royal family where as cool as Pim and Graham”. Pim swam towards the sandy shore of the island where his cousin sat, going off: “You wouldn’t believe the adventure me and Glep had today!” as he opened his satchel and took out each item from the haul.

…

Graham laughed at Glep explaining his POV of the morning recap while he closely analyzed the treasures Pim unearthed, he observed a particularly fancy dinner fork engraved with the initials “M.P.” and declared: “Congratulations, my lucky friends, for you have found a dinglehopper! Actually there are a lot in this bag but this particular one is a certified righteous find.” The ever curious Pim of course asked: “What’s a dinglehopper?” “Dinglehoppers are what land folk use to comb their hair, I’ve seen fancy ones like this used by rich folk, but usually they’re more enlongated than this. It’s perfect to carry around and show off at events like parties and concerts!”

The last word had Pim remember something he was supposed to attend to earlier…but completely forgot which day it was. The small mercritter panicked: “Oh no the concert is supposed to be today! I think….Daddy’s gonna kill me!!” as he grabbed all his stuff and added: “I’ll see you later, thank you!!” Pim swam off in a hurry with Glep tagging along. “Catch you by the tide, kiddo!”

~ Back in the Abyss, the skeletal remains of a whale was permanently beached to the ground, inside was the dingy lair of one such infamous sea warlock who was as short-and-stout as he was also, to put it mildly, kind of a stinky little shitbag. He gazed upon his crystal ball watching Pim and Glep on their way back to the palace while grabbing a bowl of tiny crustaceans and crunching them between his teeth as he waited for the fireworks to light up. “Yeeeees…it’s all coming along nicely….one more piece to fall into place until I strike-“ his slow-witted henchman interrupted with a smartassed remark: “Say Grim, what are we gonna do tonight?” Grim gritted his teeth in frustration and replied: “The same thing we do every night, Gnarly: plot to snatch my deadbeat uncle’s trident so we can try and take over the seven seas!!!”

CHAPTER TWO DROPS NEXT WEEK

[mykoreanlove]

from one leader to another

some skz x bts siblings x flirty fluff - @kayleefriedchicken hope u like it :)

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

You roamed the city aimlessly, desperately trying to find the perfect present for your younger brother’s birthday. 

„Fuck, fuck, fuck“, you muttered under your breath as you noticed the time. 

One hour left.

You had exactly one hour to find the right gift or else everybody at his party would judge you as the worst sister of the century. You didn’t forget about his present, in fact you put a lot of thought into it but what do you get someone that already has everything? Why was this so hard for you? 

Your inner pity monologue got interrupted as your phone rang.

„Channie“, you greeted him, hoping he wouldn’t notice your dismay.

„You sound stressed. You good?“

Damn it. His little brother senses always tingled when you were in a crappy mood.

„Promise you won’t hate me?“

His laughter filled the line.

„What’s wrong?“

„I’m going crazy because of your stupid birthday present!“, you whined in annoyance.

„Y/N, my birthday party starts in an hour and you still have no present? Damn, do you hate me?“, he chuckled amused.

„Stop making fun of me and help me instead?“

„Help you how?“

„Oh, I don’t know - maybe actually tell me what you want?“

Chan laughed again.

„I did tell you!“

You sighed in exasperation.

„The fuck you did! Every time I ask you what I can get you, you tell me shit like „I just want you to be healthy and happy. Oh, and find a boyfriend already and get married and have kids, so mom won’t pester me about it“. Not helpful, Chan!“, you mocked him.

He burst out laughing, which pissed you off even more.

„I’m sure you’ll figure it out, y/nnie. I’m going to hang up, the boys are already here. See you in an hour.“

You angrily massaged your temples, not knowing what to do. Minutes after you hung up, Chan sent you a text - a picture of him with various presents from his friends, smiling giddily into the camera.

„That little shit“, you muttered under your breath.

Just you wait - I’ll figure this out!

 You had to be strategic about it - most of the shops were about to close anyway, so which one would you go to?

The ones with clothing? You shook your head as you recalled how much clothes he already had not only at his place but also yours.

The ones with books? Nah, that boy rarely reads, you argued with yourself.

Come on, think y/n. You can do this.

„Oh“, you jumped excitedly, as you had finally figured it out.

You walked straight to the biggest fragrance shop you could find, wandering in front of the men’s aisle.

„Whoa, those are a lot“, you noticed. 

The shelves were filled with various flacons - colorful or bland, minimalistic or eccentric, cheap or ridiculously expensive.

„Fuck, how am I supposed to find the right one before the shop closes?“

As your eyes scanned the shelves you noticed two teenage girls next to you, giggling and whispering about some guy close to you.

„He is so hot, oh my god“, one of them whispered.

„I know and he smells soooo good“, the other one agreed.

You cautiously turned your head, curious about the guy they were talking about. 

„Damn“, you whispered under your breath.

He was good looking! He was tall and built like a greek god, muscular yet lean. His dark long hair suited his handsome face perfectly, adding to his chic yet urban style. You didn’t notice yourself wander closer to him, as you were too engulfed analyzing his features. You chuckled as you noticed his hair fall into his brown eyes, he clumsily pushed the strands away from his face but they fell back every time. He had a sharp gaze, observing the perfumes in front of him with precision. 

„I bet he’s hella smarted“, you mumbled silently.

Finally, you were standing right next to him. You closed your eyes, as you took him all in, his presence was mesmerizing. Shit, those girls were right. He smells amazing, you thought to yourself, lost in your mind altogether. 

The stranger turned around with wide eyes, asking you bluntly: „Did you just smell me?“

You opened your eyes abruptly, embarrassed to the core. 

„I, uh, ha, yeah, so, funny story“, you rambled shyly. 

He crossed his arms in front of his broad chest and faced you, a sly smile on his lips.

„I’m listening.“

You cursed yourself internally but decided to spill the truth.

„You see I am here because I need a gift. Not any gift but THE gift. And I was standing over there overlooking all these perfumes as I heard some teenagers giggle and gush about you.“

He averted his gaze to the right and looked at the two girls behind you who turned around abruptly, hiding their faces.

„Go on“, he mumbled as he looked at you again. „So, yeah, they were saying how good you smelled and since I need that perfect gift I thought I would find out for myself.“

He leaned his head to the side as he was listening to you ramble.

„And you thought smelling me, a mere stranger, was the best way to go about it?“

„In hindsight? No. But I am desperate, so cut me some slack. Please.“

He let out a deep sigh and uncrossed his arms, picking up the perfume he was wearing and handing it over to you.

„That’s the one“, he pointed out.

You observed the package, it looked hella expensive but it did smell divine. 

„Thank you“, you whispered. 

„Do you need it for your boyfriend?“

You laughed out loud, not realizing that he was serious about it.

„No. I don’t have a boyfriend. This one is for my brother.“

„Ah“, he nodded. 

Now, that the shock was gone, you noticed the stranger’s voice - deep and raspy, a melodic sound you would have loved to listen to for longer. Sadness formed in your gut as he turned around, ending this conversation now that you had what you wanted.

„Hey, wait.“

He turned around again, looking at you expectantly. Damn, why did he have to be so handsome? Okay, focus, Y/N, focus.

„I kinda feel like owning you an apology for sniffing you, so uhm, sorry…?“

„Joon“, he replied.

„Joon?“

„Yeah, actually Namjoon but you can call me Joon.“

Gosh, his name is just as pretty as he is.

„And whom does the sniffing nose belong to?“

„Y/N“, you stretched out your hand, waiting for him to shake it.

Namjoon smiled warmly as he shook your delicate hand. 

„Nice to meet you, Y/N.“

Nice to meet you, too, Joon. 

His presence made you feel warm, and comfortable. 

„So, when’s the party?“

You took a glance at your wrist, cursing yourself for arriving late.

„Started 30 minutes ago“, you confessed.

„So what, you forgot about the present?“

„No“, you exclaimed agitated.

„I just.. It’s hard to shop for him, that’s all.“

„So, you were looking for the perfect gift, is that it?“

You nodded, not entirely convinced that a perfume would be it but you were left with no options.

„What about you? Shopping for yourself?“

„Yeah, I was kinda looking for the next perfume that you would sniff on me, actually“, he mused jokingly.

Wait, what was he saying?

„Wouldn’t your girlfriend be mad about that?“

Clearly, someone like him had to be taken already. Namjoon’s eyes widened in surprise - were you that oblivious?

„I don’t have one. So sniff me all you want“, he smiled sneakily.

You looked down, cheeks rosy and shy from this playful banter.

„Excuse me but we are closing the shop right now. Please buy something or leave, thank you“, the store clerk interrupted the two of you.

„Oh sure, sorry!“, you marched to the front, paying for the ridiculously expensive perfume while Namjoon was following you. You stood outside the store for a while, getting to know each other and flirting candidly. 

You learned that he was an artist, who worked with his hands a lot. He loved to read and rhyme on his own, often hanging out at public libraries and hidden bookstores. You bit your lip as you were right about him, he was a smart one.

Smart. Handsome. Funny. And into me. What were the odds?

„Do you think your brother will like the perfume?“

You shrugged your shoulders, not really sure if that was the best gift after all. You recalled his words in your mind „be happy and healthy and get a boyfriend“…

Suddenly, a new idea flooded your consciousness.

„Hey Joon?“, you asked out of the blue.

„Hm?“

„What are you doing tonight?“

„Nothing, actually. I’m free like a bird“, he cheered warmly. 

Jackpot.

„Wanna come with me? Be my date for tonight?“

[compulsivelywet]

Boyfriend to Death x Reader/MC

Chapter 1 - °‧🫧⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Warnings: Puppy play, humiliation, Collars, BDSM, Kidnapping, Butt plugs, Latex, Multiple endings, Heavy BDSM - and others (soz lazy)

Dead Dove: Do not eat ⭐️ also a WIP

This is a Ren Hana X reader

(AMAB)

This is not for minors!! - Minors DNI !!

Future chapters will be added - Fic under cut ->

M/C walked anxiously through the forest, having been separated from their friends. After a party, they had been out drinking and ran into the nearby forest to throw up what they had just drunk. But there was a tiny problem with their plan. M/C stumbled deeper and deeper into the woods and now walked alone.

Before they could even react, something tightened around M/C’s neck and pinned him to the ground. They opened their eyes and saw the fugitive holding a control pole. The noose held tight around M/C’s neck. M/C struggled for a few moments but eventually went limp on the ground, accepting his fate. All he could do now was beg for his life.

“Please don’t kill me! I promise I won’t tell anyone. If you let me go, I promise you’ll never see me again! I’ll never bother you again, just please don’t kill-”

Before he could finish his pleading, the Beastkin smashed a glass bottle over his head, immediately knocking M/C unconscious. Ren then relieved the pressure on the snare and removed it from the other's neck. He gently patted his soft hair, humming happily to himself.

“Don’t worry, my little puppy. I’ll take good care of you.”

— — —

— — —

As soon as M/C awoke, they knew something was wrong. He was in some kind of living room, chained to the wall. He felt a slight tightness around his arms and legs, slightly cold, and a dull pain in his rear. His face flushed a bright red when he realized that he was practically naked. All that he wore were black latex thigh-high heels, latex sleeves, a collar around his neck, and a metal muzzle strapped around his head.

He flinched when he felt a hand pet his hair.

“Awww, is my little puppy finally up from his nappy?” Ren said in a mocking baby voice.

“Let me go, you bastard! T-This isn’t funny!”

The Beastkin giggled at the insult before putting a finger under M/C’s chin and scratching.

“Coochie coochie coo~” He teased.

M/C slapped his hand away before realizing what had been done to his own hand. His fingers were tightly bound in horribly restrictive gloves, rendering them completely useless.

“Aww. My puppy’s being a little feisty today.”

M/C glared at him. If looks could kill, Ren would be six feet under already. The fox’s smile only got wider.

“You’re being awful grumpy today. How about you wag that little tail for me?”

Ren reached behind and pulled something. M/C felt a slight pressure in his rear. He turned around, and his worst fear was confirmed. He had a sizable buttplug in his ass with a fluffy brown tail attached to it.

M/C became even more enraged, he jumped to his feet, about to charge at his captor, but he fell back down almost immediately when he felt a sharp pain on both of his soles.

“AAAHH! W-What the fuck?!”

“You’re such a silly puppy. Puppies don’t stand on two legs. I knew you would forget that, so I embedded nails on the bottom of those heels to prevent you from standing upright.”

M/C gasped in horror and disgust. He became enraged and began to yell at the fugitive.

“YOU SICK BASTARD! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS TO ME! I’M NOT A FUCKING DOG.” Ren merely shook his head.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Normally I would punish you for that, but I’ll be lenient since it’s your first day and you don’t know any better. Besides, we haven’t even begun your training yet.”

A shiver went up M/C spine when Ren mentioned “training.” He didn’t even want to imagine the humiliation that would entail.

He watched as Ren went to the kitchen. He quickly returned to M/C, holding a bottle full of milk.

“Maybe you’ll calm down once you eat.” Ren pushed the bottle through the wire muzzle cage and pressed the amber nipped to M/C’s lips, urging him to suckle.

M/C’s face flushed even redder as he turned his head away, refusing the bottle. Ren tried again, shoving the bottle in front of his face once more, his tail busheling out in frustration.

“M/C, please. You need to eat to grow big and strong.”

Still, M/C stubbornly refused to drink, glaring at the bottle.

“How dare he?! How dare he kidnap and humiliate me, and then expect me to drink from a fucking bottle?!” M/C thought to themself.

Ren sighed, realizing that his puppy wasn’t going to eat, so he went back to the kitchen and put the bottle away.

“You’ll have to eat eventually you know?”

M/C decided right then and there that he wasn’t going to eat anything until their friends came to his rescue. Hopefully, they won't take too long...

Ren walked up to M/C, giving him a quick peck on the forehead, which made M/C growl angrily at him.

“Goodnight pup! I bought you the best doggie bed I could find, so you should get a good night’s sleep. Maybe if you’re extra good, I’ll even let you sleep in my bed!”

Ren turned off the lights and began to walk towards his bedroom. Before he closed the door, however, he excitedly said “Sleep tight my little puppy! Tomorrow, we’re going to spend the WHOLE day together!”

[bylerschmyler]

Mike - Vecna's 4th victim

I know that many people believe that Mike was a tool for Vecna to get Will and El back or that he waited for Mike to be gone to California. I have a pretty different perspective on this and I want to share my thoughts about this. I just gonna warn you that this post will be quite long but I would appreciate it if you take your time to read it.

For the tool-theory and waiting to be gone-theory I have two simple reasons why I don't think that they are correct.

When Vecna kills Chrissy Mike is still in Hawkins. He doesn't wait for Mike to be gone/sitting in the car/plane and traveling to California. Vecna kills her mere hours before Mike had no possibility to interfere with him. It's not only that Vecna kills Chrissy, no he kills her in close proximity to Max who could have been more suspicious about Eddie, Chrissy and the lights and could have called a CODE RED, which would have led to Mike not going to California. So if he wanted Mike to go to California (either for him to be gone or to get El/Will back) why would he jeopardize this mission by being too impatient?

If Vecna wanted Mike out of the way why didn't he just kill him? I mean we can all agree that pre S4 Mike already has a massive amount of trauma. So if he needs Mike out of the way he could have just cursed him too, couldn't he? There was nobody to stop him from doing it. El? Out of the picture. No powers and too far away. Mike? Wouldn't be able to help himself during a trance. The Party? If they don't know what is coming, how would they prevent it?

So I think Mike wasn't a tool for Vecna. He was a perfect fit for a far more important role.

He was the Chosen one, the fourth, the final sacrifice.

But before we are going to discuss Mike's role in Vecna's plan in detail, let's take a step back and take a look in the things that actually happened in S4.

Specifically everything that has to do with Patrick and his curse. Because there are so many things wrong with Patricks curse.

First of all Patrick doesn't fit the other victims. Timing wise as well as in his trauma and our connection to him and his connection to other characters on the show.

Timing

Patrick is the only victim that we see getting cursed. This happens on the March 23rd (sunday) at some point during the day (morning or noon I guess). (here the scene where he gets cursed)

This is in direct contrast to the timeline which is presented by Max. For further explanation this is also March 23rd but late in the evening.

So let me get this straight.

Chrissy's curse started a week ago (approximately week = seven days. I made this post where I found a specific date when Chrissy's symptoms started and they are not adding up. But I think it's because it's meant to be not the curse itself that's coursing these symptoms but something else which I will talk about in another post)

Fred's started six days ago

Max's five days ago

And Patrick just that morning (basically one day ago)?

In no way this is supposed to happen. What was the reason? Did Vecna forget to curse Patrick four days ago? Or couldn't he decide who to curse 4 days prior?

Well the most logical reason (imo) is that his actual target can't be targeted. And we do know one character who was in Hawkins and left during the season. And that's Mike. But this is not the only reason Patricks timing is off.

With Patrick being cursed there is a change in the way the curse works for Max and him in comparison to Fred and Chrissy. I won't go too much in to the details but here are some observations.

Chrissy and Fred both have 3 visions that are heavily paralleling each other.

Their 1. vision is related to the people around them. Chrissy thinks that Max is still in the room when the pounding on the bathroom stall starts. Then she hears her mothers voice and Vecna's feed come into vision. Her mothers voice get distorted soon after and Vecna's voice fades in.

Freds first vision is also directly connected to a conversations he is having with Officer Daniels. Daniels also fades in to Vecna. His face and his voice.

The second vision is the grandfather clock. But a very creepy version.

With Chrissy it's spiders with Fred it's people turning into Vecna calling him murderer.

The third vision is there death and relieving their nightmare.

Both die on the end of their 5th day of being cursed. Their visions start during the day and the day ends with their death.

In contrast to this Max curse is put off this timing. Max visions start on the end of her 5th day of being cursed and she has 3 visions with different themes than Fred and Chrissy.

Max's 1. vision is the grandfather clock. But it's only the creepy grandfather clock. No spiders and no link to Max's trauma.

Her 2nd vision is like Fred’s and Chrissy’s 1st vision a person who fades into Vecna.

her 3rd vision is supposed to be her death which she can escape from.

She has a 4th vision where she actually dies.

Patrick only has one vision we see and one that is implied but we don’t see at all. His first vision is the clock during Chrissy’s funeral.

the other would have been when he dies but we don’t see the vision.

Timing wise this implicates the scenario that Patricks’s cursing throws the timeline off schedule because we see a clear pattern before he was cursed which is thrown off the second Vecna targets him. So likely the original schedule would have targeted Max on the 23rd and the 4th victim on the 24th.

Lack of imagery and missing build up

His trauma, connection to other characters and the connection we build to him is also off. While most of it is due to the lack of imagery regarding him but also to the fact that we have a build up in this topics that Patrick is reversing.

I don’t really want to order the trauma of Vecna’s victims in terms of severity because I firmly believe that any trauma should be addressed and recognised and you shouldn’t compare trauma (unless you’re a therapist) because this kind of invalidates the people with “less severe” trauma. But when we talk about Patrick’s trauma we only have two clues about what it is because we don’t see visions that are related to his trauma. The first one is when he gets cursed (here). A man, likely his father, calls him a disgrace. Lucas also tells us that Patrick came to practice with a black eye once.

This implicates that Patrick is also a victim of domestic abuse (like Chrissy) What I find interesting is that this creates a circle of trauma themes.

(I want to emphasize that between Fred and Max there is a build up because Fred has survivors guilt and Max has survivors guilt but also wanted the person that died to die before he died. This is obviously meant for us to notice because it’s an addition to the same theme)

Ignoring the potential build up in the trauma and going into Patrick’s relationships we see that he doesn’t make sense as 4th victim narratively speaking. We have a clear build up in the victims relationships with other characters:

Chrissy has no known relationship to our main characters 

Fred is Nancy’s colleague and apprentice (Fred asking Nancy how she did this with Jonathan). They are close enough (Nancy trusts him enough) to take him to the Trailer Park. 

Max is a main character of the show. She has many close relationships to other main characters

And then Patrick comes around and he is just Lucas’ team mate who he can’t even trust because they are hunting for his friends. 

The connections to other characters get closer and closer until Max only to go rapidly down with Patrick. Narratively this doesn’t make sense because Patrick is supposed to be the 4th victim. He should have close ties to our favorite characters and they should care deeply about him because of the needed rise in tension. They get around it with Max escaping the death vision and being the actual 4th victim but for the original plan this would have been very weird.

This also ties to the connection we as an audience have to the victims.

Chrissy is a new character. We only see her in one episode and we barely know anything about her. Most of what we know is that she is a cheerleader and she has trauma. Although many people sympathize with her we can’t really get connected to her.

Fred is basically the same. But we get more information about him. We know he is a journalist. We also know that he does know about Jonathan and Nancy and their struggles in their relationship (which he kind of wants to take a chance in because he flirts with Nancy). We have two episodes with him.

We have known Max since season 2. We had a lot of time to get to know her and create a bond with her.

And yet again Patrick doesn’t make sense. Why do we get a new character which we don’t like because he is part of the antagonists, after a (beloved) main character? There was a subtle build up and then we flunk down in the negatives with our perspective on the character.

I wanna add that in an recent reblog of a post i discussed Mike's parallels to the other victims. You can find the post here.

But how does Mike fit in?

Most people on here are well aware of all the hints that connect Mike with Vecna. Therefore many people believe he is a target in S5. I believe so too. I still don’t think that so much has changed during S4 that made him more targetable than he already was. Yes his trauma increased through the shootout, the death of unknown hero agent man, lying to El and losing Eddie and Max, but his trauma was there before. And it was severe enough to make him struggle. It’s pointed out in the canon extending book “Lucas on the line” and it is also shown in his behavior in S4 (getting up too late, used clothes, dirty room/basement, he doesn’t eat on camera, and more). So Mike would be a perfect target for Vecna only considering his trauma. But there is way more stuff that make Mike a perfect last puzzle piece in this situation. First of all he is one of the few characters that are in Hawkins when the curses begin and have more/deeper connections than Max. Yes Max has a lot of deep connections (the Party and El specifically) but Mike has those connections too and he has deeper connections to the teens (Nancy and Jonathan especially), Will, Joyce and Hopper. So in a certain way he is more connected to the rest of the cast and would be perfect to be the final step of the build up we see with character relationships. He has also been part of the show since S1 and was one of THE main characters in S1 and S2. He has a very important role in figuring out important plot points and so for us he is obviously a very important character. And so while I don’t play favorites he is slightly more important for the audience (subjectively speaking). Timing wise (as I said before) he is the only character we know to travel out of Hawkins during the cursing. Him being cursed on March 20th (thursday) wouldn’t compromise the given timeline. It would also explain this scene where Mike clearly looks like he has a awful headache.

And this scene where Max has a nosebleed and the camera’s focus shifts to him

(some people believe that’s the moment he cursed Max. I doubt that. When Max explains the symptoms she said nosebleedS, plural [Insert Eddie’s comment on Nancy’s guns here].I believe that’s thursday morning and Mike was just cursed and had a nosebleed like Patrick and he looked like he looked because he found it suspicious that he had a nosebleed and now Max has a nosebleed.) Clearly two times where he was visibly shown in the context of the curses symptoms. Also his bedroom scene, when he reads Els' letter could connect to the symptoms (this is more of a reach than the other two).

Sleeping in underwear => He woke up an a cold sweat

The binder with Will’s drawings is in his room => having nightmares and needing comfort

(re-)reading the letter => having nightmares and needing reassurance that everything is okay

he is later than he usually is => trouble sleeping

Also I think @aemiron-main pointed that out: Mikes Reaction to Karen telling him that he need to be home by nine because it's an early flight suggests that he barely sleeps because he seems to not care of the early flight.

And last but not least the line Vecna uses for Max (You’ll be the chosen one, the fourth the final sacrifice) fits way better to Mike. Why? Well the main reason I only got on the Mike getting vecnaed’ train was while I was rewatching the show I saw this scene where El screams for Mike while she has a vision:

This scene reminded me of this scene where Will does the same:

And it made me think about how Vecna knows that both of his former targets heavily depend on Mike. He is the first they think about when needing help. He’s the first they find comfort in when upset. So Mike is obviously on Vecna’s radar. There is more…. These two scenes where Max and Mike help El and try to protect her and Billy sees it.

They stand out because it would make so much sense for Mike to be targeted too. Max does become a target because of her trauma but also because of her connection to El. So Mike would be a perfect target too. Him being the final sacrifice would be the peak of devastation for both Will and El and would make perfect sense for Vecna to do so. Also it would contrast Mike’s arc because he is usually the one interfering with Vecna’s plans in overtaking the real world. Mike being the last kill to open the gates to the UD would be very “poetic” from Vecna’s POV. Furthermore the line “You would be the chosen one” would be far more fitting for Mike. Mike is a fan of fantasy stories. The Chosen One Trope is a typical fantasy trope that has been used for ages. Mike can relate far more to this trope than Max (Max is a comic fan where this trope is used too, but Mike is pictured way more with classic fantasy where this trope is used very often).

But why did Vecna wait for Mike to go on vacation?

This is the only thing that really makes me struggle. Because I don’t have a good answer to this. The only possible explanation I see (without doubting the rest of this theory) is that Vecna didn’t look for his plans, his supposedly happy memories/thoughts and only took in the bad ones. Max tells us that she thinks Vecna only looks for the bad memories.

So if Max is right then Vecna didn’t look for the light in Mike’s mind and only for the darkness. (Therefore didn't see his hope of reconnecting to Will in Califronia) I also want to point out that Mike is not the only target Vecna needed. He needed four victims. So this is not solely about him. And you need to know that Vecna feeds off his victims fears, anxiety and guilt. So it makes sense for him to unleash his curse when all his victims are especially tense/anxious

Chrissy’s mother forced a beauty idea on her daughter that resulted in her being connected to bulimic tropes (Throwing up, rotten food). She is also a cheerleader in the 80s and she “needed to be pretty” because the championship games were coming up. So Chrissy would be more anxious than usually

Fred is less obvious than Chrissy. The only clues I got why he would be more anxious than usual are that Officer Daniels (Vecna Vision) tells us that the accident happened last year and he knows about Jonathan and Nancy’s relationship problems. The first could mean that the car crash happened somewhere in 1985 or it could actually mean that the anniversary is coming up which (knowing from S2) would affect Fred through the anniversary effect. The latter could make him anxious because he might see a chance with his crush (we see him multiple times openly flirting with Nancy)

Max would be more anxious because Billy’s birthday is coming up (March 29 - also anniversary effect)

Mike would be more anxious because he is traveling to California and he doesn’t know how Will feels about him and maybe he is a little jealous because of El’s letter and Will painting something for a girl

Additionaly the week before spring break could be full of tests which could make all victims more anxious.

Another good question regards the timing. Vecna did look for a replacement for Mike on March 23rd but Mike left early on March 22nd. So why did he wait an additional day for Mike? This is obviously a question I asked myself a lot. Why did Vecna wait for Mike to be gone for a whole day before looking for a replacement (Patrick)? Well this one is very hard to answer. But there is one scene in particular that makes me believe that Vecna starts his rampage usually early in the morning. You can take a look here in this post. I included the scenes right before and right after the scene on purpose because it gives us a better perspective on the timeline. So right before Vecna gets hooked up to the vines, El went to her bedroom crying. We know that this happened on the night of March 22nd. Then it cuts to the UD where Vecna gets hooked up but nothing happens afterwards. Instead we see how the sun rises/travels in the sky. Then it cuts to Lucas and the beginning of the hunt for Eddie. So what is the purpose of this whole scene? Vecna wanted to start the final stage of his curse (visions) for Max early on the 23rd. This is probably what he was doing with Chrissy and Fred the days before. He recognized that he couldn’t find Mike anywhere and then started to search for a replacement until he found Patrick. Very important for this theory, Vecna finds Patrick way later. There are almost 20 Minutes between this scene and the scene where Patrick gets cursed. Even more important: We see every group on screen before we get back to Vecna. There is literally a cut to every small group. First Lucas and the Jocks, then Max, Dustin, Robin and Steve with Eddie, then Nancy, the Cali Gang, Joyce and Murray, Hopper back to the Hawkins gang at the Trailer Park. I think Vecna didn’t recognize Mike’s absence because he was solely focused on Fred on the 22nd and started with Fred visions early in the morning before Mike got to the airport. So when he wanted to get started with Max the next day he realized that he couldn’t reach Mike anymore and decided to go for a replacement. That’s when the timings of the victims don’t add up anymore.

Besides everything I showed you here there is another theory that is connected to this. #possessiongate from @dinitride-art

This shows how my theory is supported visually in the show. It also explains why Mike isn't shown as cursed after the breakfast on the 23rd because his curse was shifted to Patrick.

[canirove]

Broken Hearts Football Club | Chapter 20

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Masterlist

"Uuuh, the revenge dress is back" John laughed. 

"I totally forgot about the Christmas party and it was the first thing that I found" June said while checking she had everything she may need in her purse.

"Well, you look hot as hell, you should wear it more often. Like... Maybe on your next date with Chilly? When is that happening, by the way?"

"I don't know."

"June, did you fuck things up again?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why haven't you met again?"

"Because we've been busy. But I'm stopping at his place on my way to the party."

"Then you can start forgetting about it" he chuckled.

"What?"

"The moment he sees you with that dress in his front door, he'll drag you to his room and…"

"Shut up, John!" June said again, feeling her cheeks getting warmer.

"Just a warning" he shrugged.

"Whatever. Have you seen my keys?"

"I think that crazy cat of yours was playing with them earlier.”

"What? John! I can't be late!"

"To shag Chilly?" he said with a mischievous smile.

"You are so annoying" she replied. "Help me find the keys."

"Ok, fine. You are too stressed and getting laid will definitely help, so let's get this over with."

"John!" 

"I'm just teasing you, June" he laughed. "You look so cute when your face looks like a tomato."

"And you look really cute with my fist on your nose."

"Ok, ok" John laughed again. "Let's find your keys so you can go give Chilly his Christmas present. Which isn't something sexual" he quickly added when he saw the look June was giving him. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Merry Christmas, Chilwell.”

“Merry Christmas, Maxwell. Please come in.”

“Thank you” June smiled, taking off her coat. “Sorry I am a bit late, but I couldn’t find my keys and… Ben, are you ok? Ben. Chilwell!”

“Uh?”

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just… your dress.”

“Please don’t tell me I ripped it getting out of the car or that it is covered in cat's fur.”

“No, no. It’s perfect.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Because it is perfect.”

“You aren’t making any sense, Chilwell.”

“It is the dress you wore at the Sky party last season, isn’t it?”

“It is. Why?”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since that day.”

“About my dress?” June laughed. “I knew you were into fashion, but I didn’t know you were so into it.”

“I’m into you wearing it” he said, finally looking her in the eyes.

“What?”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you wearing that dress.”

“You… haven’t…” June mumbled.

“That night I realized that June Maxwell was more than an annoying girl who also happened to be an amazing football player. She also was hot. Very hot” Ben said, slowly walking towards her.

“Oh.”

“Oh” he repeated, now standing in front of her. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off you that night. Didn’t you notice?”

“Back then I wasn’t paying you the same attention I do now” she said with a nervous laugh. 

“Yeah…” he replied, biting his lower lip and making June suddenly feel really hot. 

“So, umm… Your Christmas present.”

“Is this my Christmas present? You wearing this dress?” he smirked.

“What? No… no, no no. This is” she said, showing him the little bag she was carrying.

“Shame” he sighed.

“Yes, umm… Your present” June repeated, putting the bag in front of her and hoping that it would somehow stop whatever was going on between her and Ben.

“Wait… You actually made it!” he smiled as he opened the bag. “I thought you had forgotten about my beanie!”

“I had other customers in case you forgot.”

“Did you also embroider the girls' initials on theirs?”

“Just on yours. Is it too much?”

“It’s perfect, June. I love it” Ben said with a smile that made June’s heart skip a beat.

“Put it on. I used John as a model but I think your head is bigger.”

“Rude” he chuckled.

“I’m not being rude, it’s a fact. Does that sound familiar?” she smirked.

“Nope” Ben laughed. “So, how do I look?”

“As I expected. Stupidly handsome” June sighed.

“Sorry” he replied with another smile while grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer to him, the space that she had put between them gone again. “Thank you very much, Maxwell.”

“You’re welcome, Chilwell” she gulped, the heat she had been feeling earlier also coming back. “Do you want to do something before I have to leave?”

“I do. I want to do this” Ben said before kissing her. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“There you are” Vittoria said as June walked into the party. “Where were you?”

“Trying to survive the chaos. First I forgot to pick a dress for tonight and had to go through my whole wardrobe to find something nice. Then I couldn't find my keys because Pepper had been playing with them. Then I got stuck in traffic…”

Which wasn’t a lie. But the real reason behind June arriving late, was the make out session she and Ben had had. Leaving him had been extremely difficult. 

“Have I told you yet that I love that you called your cat Pepper? Chilly... Pepper...” Vittoria smirked, making June roll her eyes. “Anyway, come. Lauren has been asking for you nonstop, I think something happened.”

“Something like what?”

“I don't know. By the way, is this the Versace dress from the Sky party? The revenge one like John calls him?”

“Yep.”

“You know, now that you and Chilly are back to being friends, you should ask him if the dress had the effect John wanted. If seeing you wearing it made him hard.”

“Vittoria!”

“What?”

“We aren’t alone, lower down your voice.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you should ask him. Knowing what happened after, I think I know his answer” she smirked again.

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s go find Lauren” June said, trying to change the topic. Because she already knew that the dress had had the response John had been looking for when he chose it for her. 

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"No" June and Mason said at the same time.

"C'mon, guys. You are the captains, you have to do it!" Lauren begged.

"And it is Christmas. Can't you put aside whatever happened for just one night? Please?" Reece pouted.

"Ok, fine" June sighed. "But just because you two are the most annoying siblings ever and I can't say no to that face."

"Thank you" Reece smiled. "Mount?"

"No" he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Mase, bro… C'mon."

"I don't want to be anywhere near her, Reece. End of the story."

"Seriously, Mason? It's just a stupid speech, nothing else. We do it and then you can go back to ignoring me and being bitter" June said.

"Bitter?" he laughed. "I'm not bitter, Maxwell."

"That's not what people say."

"What people, uh? Chilly? I know he forgave you and that you are back to sucking his dick."

"I'm not…"

"Ok, ok" Lauren said, stopping June mid sentence. "It's Christmas, remember? A time for peace and love. So let's leave the sexual comments for another day and focus on what matters now. The speech."

"Exactly" Reece said. "Will you do it or not?” 

"I will. But Mr. Mount here is too obsessed with what I do in my personal life" June said.

"Maybe because it is with my best friend? The one you said you didn't have feelings for?"

"Mason, I already apologized for lying to you. What else do you want me to do?"

"Oh, so you do have feelings for Chilly" he laughed.

"Yes, I do. Happy now?"

"Do you love him?" he asked.

"Mase, I don't think this is the moment to ask something like that" Lauren intervened. She knew better than anyone how much June struggled with talking about her feelings.

"It's complicated" she replied.

"It isn't, Maxwell. Do you love Chilly, yes or no?"

"I…"

"Guys, it's time for the speech" a Chelsea staff member said, interrupting the conversation. "Are you ready?"

"I am" June quickly said. She could kiss that woman right now.

"Mount?"

"Yeah, I guess" he sighed. "But you still owe me an answer" he whispered in June's ear as they walked back into the party. 

[lillyspeakz]

wait- ghost?! (rewrite.)

a/n: well hello! I decided to rewrite part one (1) because I didn’t quite like it so I added some things to it! And plus my writing has since improved! So I hope you enjoy this rewrite and my silly little character.

warnings: death, murder, ghost, knife (also being thrown), blood mentioned once, brief mention of reader being short (they just can’t reach something), Wilbur being a flirt, Tommy being Tommy, mentions of food and if there’s anything else, please tell me!

wc: 2.0k

edited: not really.

You were new to the neighborhood, so you weren’t surprised when people were peaking out of their curtains when they saw you get out of the moving van. Or maybe it was because someone finally bought the house no one wanted to step foot in because of the horrors that had happened.

In the late 90’s, a man in his early 20’s, along with his 16 year old brother had been brutally murdered in the exact house that you bought. In the house you were now standing in and called a home. Nothing seemed off, but you could sense the anger and sadness that lingered still. You guessed it was from the walls holding all the memories that had been shattered the day the boys were found. All you did know was once the boys were found by the parents, they fled to the other side of the world, wanting to get far away from the place that caused them so much hurt.

You had been there armed by a lot of people, old owners to your family, telling you that somethings happened to people that tried to make that house a home and tried to forget about all the pain the house had gone through. Yet, here you were. In the house, standing in the middle of the empty but soon to be living room. As you turned in a circle, ideas running through your head as a smile over took your expression as you headed to the boxes filled with different trinkets. The furniture was already moved in, thanking yourself for planning ahead.

You had made quick work at unboxing everything for the bathroom, your bedroom and other miscellaneous things you had in the boxes. You saved the kitchen last, knowing that it’d take the longest, thankful that the kitchen was on the bigger side for parties.

As you moved all the boxes labeled ‘kitchen’, you began to open and unbox all the utensils and plates into their respective areas. You had music playing softly in the background, you softly humming and swaying to the melodies. Not paying attention, you went to grab the plates sitting on the island, not seeing the 6’ something man leaning against the counter with a smirk.

As you turned back around and placed the plates in the cupboard, you turned around and shrieked, finally seeing the tall man in front of you.

“Well, hello to you too darling.” The man held a smirk on his face as you quickly grabbed the knife that was once placed in the holder from behind you, holding it out towards him.

He had brown curly hair on top of his head that complimented his brown eyes. He wore a grey crewneck and black jeans on, and he held a good foot on you in height. He was in his early 20’s, maybe a little older than you, and he held a bright smile on his face.

“Who- Who are you?!” You shaking asked, pointed the knife closer to him, trying to defend yourself from whatever he was going to do. But all he did was laugh and shake his head at you.

“You don’t know who I am?! Also sweetheart, you can put that down. That won’t do anything for you.” The man said as he stood up and walked over to you, standing taller than you thought he would, pointing at the knife. Before he could take another steps forward, you threatened him once more.

“I swear- I’m not afraid to use this! Don’t come any further!” You shakingly told the tall man in front of you.

“Darling I promise that won’t do anything-“ as he started to take another step forward, you threw the knife at him. The silver object flew through the air and ended up lodged into his stomach. He froze and looked at you with the most disappointed face you’ve ever seen.

“Ow? Seriously sweetheart, what do you want me to say?!” He questioned as he took the knife out of his stomach. It was clean and the wound he should have isn’t drenching his shirt with the crimson blood. He was clean. No blood on the knife nor soaking up his shirt.

“What the hell-“ you said as you looked at him with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows. You wanted to rub your eyes, tell yourself you’re hallucinating this gorgeous yet intimidating man in front of you. Yet as he walked closer he made it near impossible to deny what was going on.

“Don’t look so scared! It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.” The guy tried to joke but you just shook your head and rubbed your eyes, not believing what you were witnessing.

“This isn’t real, this isn’t real-“ you repeated as you turned towards the sink and splashed water on your face.

“What’s not real? Me?! Because let me tell me you darling-“ you quickly jumped back from the sink, now seeing the stranger sitting on the counter next to it. “Don’t be so jumpy love, I don’t bite- I mean, unless you want me too.”

You rolled your eyes at the quick flirt and quickly shook your head to gather your thoughts. “Ok- you better explain what’s going on and fast.”

The man sighed and hoped down from the counter. “How about introductions first yeah? We got off at the wrong foot. I’m William Watson-Gold. You may call me Wilbur or Wil, either is fine.” Wilbur said as he stepped closer to you. You moved back, bumping into the island and grasping the counter as if it’d protect you from this super attractive man in front of you. “What’s your name sweetness?” He smirked as he leant down to meet your eyes.

“Y/n.” You replied with a monotoned voice, not wanting him to know the effect he had on you so fast.

Wilbur’s smirk turned into one of a genuine smile in ways. His eyes stared into yours as almost to examine who you were and what your backstory was. Like he wanted to get to know you right that second, all the bad, good and who hurt you. But he quickly snapped out of his head and took a few steps back, the smirk being thrown back on his face as he looked in the living room.

“You can come out now Tom.” Wil yelled out as you quickly turned to the entrance of the kitchen, desperately trying to find the other intruder that was in your house.

“Fucking finally- you need to stop flirting with them! It’s very uncomfortable to watch!” The boy, Tom, complained as he hopped onto the island counter. He examined the whole kitchen before finding the fruit bowl beside him. His eyes widened as he gasped and picked up one of the apples you had bought earlier, biting into it with a groan. “Fuck Wil, you have to try this!”

“Ok- what the fuck?!” You yelled as you waved your hands around, trying to figure out what was going on in your home.

“Wait- do they not know we’re-“

“Dead? No, I haven’t gotten there yet. Now continuing my explanation- Me and Tom here are the two unfortunate men that got murdered in this house. We’ve been stuck in this shit hole ever since with very little human interaction besides each other.” Wilbur explained as he opened the refrigerator, examining the very little food you had put in the device.

“Which is why he’s being so flirty with yo- ow!” Tom yelled out as Wilbur showed up beside him and punched his arm while sending him a glare.

“So- you two are, dead?” You asked slowly, your brain trying to grasp this information and store it. The fact that you were talking to two dead people was beyond your comprehension, but the fact they weren’t trying to actively scare you out of the house or make your life a living hell was a slight surprise from what everyone told you.

“As dead as dead gets.” Wilbur said as he picked up one of the apples Tom had suggested he tried, and but into the juicy fruit. “Fuck- I forget how good food taste sometimes!”

“Wait-“ you went up to Wilbur and grabbed his hands, feeling the coldness his body carried with him. You were thinking your hand would go right through him like the shows portray- but your hand stayed perfectly in his.

As your hand met his, it felt like a shock went through your body, a warm shock. One that made you want to feel it all the time after one hit of it. Looking into his eyes, Wil was already looking at you with a sense of hope, maybe even longing. Wilbur would never admit it, but it felt like your hand was meant to be in his. Like it was a puzzle piece that fit perfectly together. “Then how can I touch you? Isn’t my hand supposed to like- go through you or some shit?” You asked hesitantly, Wil’s eyes still burning into you as you looked at Tom.

“Stupid movies. No. That shit isn’t real! But us- we are as real as it gets.” Tom said as he took another bite of the apple he had stolen, groaning in delight yet again as he pointed at you. “Can you get more of these?”

You nodded as you slowly let go of Wilbur’s hand, looking up at him to see his eyes furrowed and almost saddened at the thought of losing that warmth you provided him.

As you both continued to look at each other, not wanting to let the serene moment go, Tom noticed the silence and looks up at the two. Rolling his eyes, his hopped of the counter and stood in between the two, interrupting the confusingly long eye contact, and turned to look at Wilbur.

“I’m going to my room- it finally has a bed again and I need my beauty sleep. And for god sake Wil, STOP FLIRTING!” Tom yelled down the stairs. Wilbur scoffed as he looked down at the floor, hiding his face from you as it turned red.

“Um- so you guys are just going to be here? With me?” You asked as you went back to unloading everything. Wilbur cleared his throat as he looked back up at you, seeing how you struggled to get the cup on the highest shelve. He smiled and went over to you, grabbing the cup and placing it for you. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem. And yeah, unfortunately. But! We can be somewhat fun! At least you won’t be alone.” Wilbur stated as he moved out of the room and turned to look at you. “I’ll let you be for now darling. Just call my name if you need anything.” Wilbur nodded his head as he walked towards the stairs, disappearing once he passed the wall.

You felt a pang of sadness hit you as you were now left alone after all of that, not knowing he was right there in the room with you, he was just invisible at the moment. He felt like he needed to watch over you, make sure you weren’t doing anything stupid to put yourself in harm. He felt like it was his duty to protect you.

As you put the rest of the supplies away, you thought about what he said. He did have a point. At least you won’t be alone. That was the one thing that worried you.

But , how the hell are you supposed to live with two-

Ghost.

[enchxanting]

our love is god [ethan landry] pt. 4

read part 3 here || all parts

pairing: ethan landry x reader

warnings: implied sexual content/loss of virginity. no explicit language but it's clear what's happening (all characters are 18+). also lots of making out

a/n: okayyyy first time writing anything like this so i hope it's good. i debated making it more or less explicit for a really long time and landed somewhere in the middle. also if you want to be added to the taglist please leave me a reply and i'll put you on the list :)

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As cute as he may be, Ethan is a terrible driver.

I can’t figure it out. He’s usually so apprehensive, but as soon as I tell him my address, he’s going 15 over the limit, knuckles tight against the wheel.

“Um, do you need directions?” I ask.

“No.” He notices my puzzled expression, so he clarifies. “We actually used to live here, when I was way younger. I’m pretty sure I know where you are.”

As we start to weave through the backstreets of the suburbs, he looks over at me with a nervous glint in his eye. “So, um, are your parents home? Will they be mad that you’re getting home so late?”

“They’re out of town. A wedding for a college friend or something. Chad wanted us to throw a party, but Sam would have flipped, so it’s just me.”

“Shame, you seem like such a party person,” he teases, and I roll my eyes at him, a slight blush creeping on my face.

He finally turns into my driveway, which is good because I’m starting to get seasick. Stepping out of the car, I fumble for my keys before realizing I left the door open this morning. I’d usually panic about this sort of thing, but I’m distracted by the feeling of Ethan’s presence behind me.

Pushing open the door and flipping on the lights, I lead him into the kitchen. For some reason, I’m really, really fucking nervous to be alone with him. “Uh, do you want any water?”

“Yeah, sure,” he says, sitting down at the table.

I grab two glasses from the shelf and fill them with water, sliding one across the table. “Thanks,” he smiles. “Um, I’m sorry about everything that happened tonight. That guy was a creep and you did the right thing, obviously, but what Tara said was really not cool.

I stare into the glass. “It’s okay. She was really drunk or whatever. I can apologize to her tomorrow morning.”

Ethan frowns. “Well, sure, but it’s not really your fault, right? You were looking out for her.”

“She wasn’t actually mad about the guy, I don’t think. She got into an argument earlier with her sister and I tried to step in, so she was super pissed at me already. I think she was looking for a fight.”

“Does she do that a lot? Look for a fight, I mean?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “She drives me crazy, and sometimes I want to kill her, but she’s my best friend.”

Ethan looks like he wants to say something, but stays quiet. Now’s probably a better time than any to pivot away from Tara and the chaos of the night.

“So,” I say, “any long-distance partner from any of your previous high schools?”

He laughs. “Uh, no. I’ve actually never… had a girlfriend or anything.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re just so–” 

I stop myself before I finish that sentence. He raises an eyebrow at me. “What, Y/N? So what?”

“Cute,” I mumble. “Really, really cute.”

Ethan grins. “Oh, really cute, huh?”

“Shut up,” I say. “Yeah.”

I suddenly notice how little distance there is between us. I look up nervously to meet his gaze. Jesus, he’s tall.

“I think so, too,” he says.

I give him a quizzical look. “You think you’re cute?”

“Wait. Shit. No. Not what I meant– you. I think you’re cute, too. You are.” I giggle softly, and he blushes. “Can I kiss you?” he asks.

My stomach turns. My butterflies are nearly unbearable, but I nod. “Yes. Please.”

Ethan leans in, and I meet him halfway, pressing my lips against his. My heart is pounding, but the kiss feels so perfect that I forget about everything else.

We break apart and his eyes are wide with apprehension. “Was that okay?”

In reply, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him again, deeper this time. He relaxes into it, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me in. We kiss like that, leaning against the kitchen table, until I pull back. “Can we go upstairs? Uh, my mom sometimes keeps a camera down here.”

“Sure, lead the way,” he says, slightly out of breath.

It takes everything in me not to run up the stairs, but I take him by the hand and lead him to my room. There are books and half-finished forgeries strewn across the various surfaces, plus a laundry basket of clothes I have to put away, and I kick myself for not taking the time to clean up this morning. 

Ethan doesn’t seem to mind, though. When I turn to him, he’s only looking at me. He reaches to cup the side of my face, studying it for a moment before kissing me again. I stumble back onto my bed and he follows suit. His hand reaches for my hip and I gasp softly when he touches a little bit of exposed skin on my thigh

“Oh, shit, sorry,” he says.

“No, no please– it’s okay.” I grab his hand, placing it back on my leg. “I liked it.”

He smiles slightly, eyes darkening. As he leans in to kiss me, his hand snakes up my leg, resting at the crook of my thigh. I follow suit, running my hand down his chest. 

The undershirt I have on was great for modesty, but I’m suddenly overheating. “Hey, um, do you mind if I take this shirt off? It’s literally a hundred degrees right now.”

His eyes widen slightly, but he grins. “Well, I don’t have a problem with that…”

I blush and he laughs, but I slip the straps of the dress off my shoulders and pull the shirt over my head, exposing my collarbone and a not-insignificant amount of cleavage. Even though I’m technically covered, I feel naked underneath his gaze.

“You’re beautiful,” he says. “You know that?”

My breath catches, but his compliment fills me with some type of courage. I lean over and kiss him, harder than before. He makes a muffled noise, clearly caught off guard by my sudden boldness, but wraps his hand around the back of my neck. I find the hem of his shirt and pull away just enough to ask, “Can we take this off?”

Ethan nods profusely and pulls his blue polo over his head, and I swear to god: I am the luckiest girl alive. I notice for the first time how defined his arms are, and then I’m distracted by the abs he somehow had time to curate between cross-country moves. “Fuck, Ethan, you’re gorgeous.”

Under normal circumstances, I would be embarrassed to speak this plainly, but I’m too into this to care. He responds by leaning us both back on the bed until he’s basically on top of me, kissing me deeply and firmly. I’m suddenly kissing his neck and it’s like I’m not me anymore because I never do this, but fuck, he is so attractive and he wants me too. I don’t know how long we keep making out this way, but it’s a long time before he pulls back suddenly. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

He looks away, avoiding my gaze. “I, um… I just want you to know that I haven’t… done anything like this before.”

My cheeks go red. “Ethan, I haven’t either. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”

“That’s the thing, though,” he says, running his hand through his hair. “I… I want to. I want you.” He pauses. “If that’s okay?”

A feeling of panic surges in my chest, but I push it down. I think about the box of condoms that Mom bought me when I turned 18, “just in case,” and the time Mindy told me about her first time with Anika, and even the way I felt when Tara left me alone earlier tonight– I know that this is what I want. 

“I want to, too. Are you sure?”

He smiles. “I’m sure.”

We lay back in my bed and he’s pulling the straps of my dress off, kissing over the newly exposed skin. He kisses down my neck and chest, and I take the time to do the same. I want to make this moment last before he asks me one more time if I’m ready.

I am. 

I don’t have a moment to second-guess myself before he’s holding me, and we’re suddenly close, so, so close, and we stay that way until we fall asleep, nestled in each other’s arms.

taglist: @miawastakens