#and everyone I’m working closely with is nice which is dope | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mymoodwriting · 5 months ago

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21.5k, Maestro AU, dystopia, advanced technology, robots, kidnapping, manipulation, mind control, hypnosis, assault, physical assault, violence, hacking, supernatural elements, restraints, collars, mental abuse, electrocution, hallucinations, reader is a minor character, I don't know who the main character is either

“Do you hear the piano?”

“Huh?”

“The piano. It’s playing in the distance.”

“I don’t hear anything, y/n.”

“It sounds so pretty.”

“And you know music isn’t really a good thing around here.”

“Yeah…”

You could definitely hear a piano, even if it was quite faint, but there was no way you were gonna be able to find the source. Mingyu was right though, music wasn’t much of a thing around here. The world itself was quite depressing, and everyone worked to stay alive, even if the job was shit. You were lucky to work as a delivery person, one of the simpler jobs, but it had its cons too. You’d drive all over the city, even to the more dangerous parts. So far nothing bad had happened to you, but there was no guarantee that would always be the case. Still, you made money, and you could pay your part of the bills.

You lived in an apartment with three other guys, who were all like brothers to you. It was a decent size place, and you all had your own space too. Most of the apartment was littered with electronic parts as Vernon was a technician that worked from home. He was a freelancer, fixing things in what he considered his work space, which was everywhere that wasn’t a bedroom. Wonwoo worked construction, getting up early and coming back late, but he always said he had enough down time to rest and recover. Mingyu worked as a mechanic at an auto shop not so far from the apartment.

Between the four of you there was a car, but on most days Wonwoo would take it. You had your work van, so if Vernon ever needed to get somewhere, or some items needed to be picked up, that job usually fell on you. At least your office was nearby so it wasn’t a hassle to get to and from work without a vehicle. Today though was a rare treat as you were all off and could do somethings together. You had all gone out to get some groceries, as well as other necessities for the apartment. As you were loading up the trunk that’s when you began to hear the piano, instantly entranced by the melody. In this world music was scarce and unfortunately not encouraged. If anything it was frowned upon.

The peacekeepers maintained order, and many times you had seen them beat those for causing a ruckus or playing music. You weren’t entirely sure why such a thing seemed to be a problem, but it made you appreciate whenever you heard a nice tune. Besides the peacekeepers there were robots around the city. Some worked alongside humans in certain labor-intensive fields, others had simpler tasks, and some freely walked around available to help anyone who needed assistance with anything. Then there were the roaming CCTV robots, the robo-dogs as people called them. They were all over the place,watching everything. Of course there were still normal CCTV cameras around too, so safety and peace were maintained well on multiple levels.

“Let’s go.”

Mingyu shut the trunk and you followed him to the front. You got into the passenger seat, Mingyu hopping behind the wheel. You glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing Vernon on his tablet, headphones on, clearly engrossed in work. Whereas Wonwoo had his head back against the headrest, eyes closed, using this time to wind down. You couldn’t help the small smile on your face. They were all great company. When you got to the apartment everyone helped bring things up, allowing it to be done in one trip. You put things away and then collapsed on the couch, turning on the TV and half listening to the news.

“Y’all better not stay up late.” Vernon commented. “You guys have work in the morning.”

“And you?” Wonwoo mumbled. “All you do is stay home.”

“I pay my bills.”

“Uh huh.”

“I’m a technician, or did you forget where you got such a dope phone?”

“Well you better not stay up late making a bunch of noise!”

“I won’t.”

“You say that a lot.” You added. “You should soundproof your room.”

“I don’t wanna work in my room.”

“Obviously.” Mingyu mentioned. “Your shit is everywhere in this apartment.”

“You’re just jealous I get to work from home.”

“Only sometimes.” Wonwoo added. “Or so you say.”

“Whatever.”

Most days were the same, but you each kept each other entertained, making every sundown and sunrise worth seeing. On slow days when you’d get home first you tended to sit out on the balcony, enjoying the cool breeze of the night air. While sitting out there one day you began to hear the sounds of a piano. Just like before, it was a beautiful melody, and you could hear it better this time. You closed your eyes and let the music take over, softly nodding your head along to the beat, tuning out the rest of the world.

As Wonwoo walked in he was careful not to make too much noise. It was pretty late and he was certain everyone else was already sleeping. He was sneaking back to his room when he heard a soft hum, suddenly realizing how cold the living room was. He looked around, realizing the balcony door was slightly open. Wonwoo made his way over, realizing the humming was getting louder. He slowly slid the door open, seeing you hugging your knees to your chest, eyes closed and rocking to the sides as you hummed. You seemed rather content but he was concerned by all of this.

“Y/n?”

“Hm?”

You opened your eyes, smiling when you saw Wonwoo, although he seemed very worried. Which you didn’t understand.

“You’re home.”

“How long have you been out here? It’s really late, you know.”

“Is it? I didn’t realize…”

“What were you doing?”

“Just listening to the piano, can’t you hear it?”

“Y/n, I don’t think anyone is playing a piano at these hours.”

“I heard it. I swear. It was coming from over there.”

You didn’t have an exact location, but you had a good idea which direction the sound had been coming from. You got up, although now that the music was gone the exhaustion was starting to hit you. A yawn escaped your lips and you pointed off into the distance mindlessly, leaning against Wonwoo. He wrapped his arms around you, feeling how cold you were. Before he could comment his gaze followed your gesture, and his concern for you only got worse. You were pointing towards the Metronome Theater.

“Let’s get you inside. You need to get some sleep.”

Wonwoo led a sleepy you down the hall and towards your bedroom, helping you get under the covers and tucking you in. He made sure your alarm was set so you wouldn’t be late for work. He quietly stepped out and shut the door behind him. He stood outside your room for a moment, his thoughts lingering on what had just happened. It wasn’t necessarily something to worry about, but it still bothered him. He barely managed to sleep that night, and next thing he knew it was time to get up again. As he was about to head out he stopped himself, going over to Vernon’s room and knocking on the door before opening it. Unsurprisingly the boy was awake.

“Are you working outside the apartment today?”

“No. Why?”

“Could you do me a favor and look after y/n today.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know but could you just tag along with her today and keep her out of trouble.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Thanks.”

Despite the unspoken outlaw of music, the Metronome Theater still stood. It looked exactly like the name described, a giant metronome amongst the buildings that made up the city. Most of the time the pendulum remained still, glowing an ominous red, but on occasion it would glow blue and move from side to side, creating a low ticking in the air. No one really understood the purpose of that structure, and for fear of getting into trouble many avoided the area. Regardless of what went on everyone understood one thing, the Metronome Theater was a dangerous place. Wonwoo stared at it before getting into the car. He never paid the theater any attention, but he might have to going forward.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

You woke to the beeps of your alarm, groaning and rolling over in bed. You hadn’t slept much last night, but you weren’t all that tired. After a moment you got up and began to get ready for the day. Once you were dressed you got yourself a quick breakfast, ready to head out.

“Morning, y/n.” Vernon greeted you. “How you feeling?”

“Good. Just getting ready for work.”

“Cool. Mind if I come along with you today?”

“Why? Do you need me to drop you off somewhere?”

“No, no, just wanna get out of the apartment, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not. I could use the company.”

“Awesome.”

Vernon walked with you to the office, letting you go off on your own to clock in and then come around for him in the delivery van. He happily hopped into the passenger seat.

“Lunch is on me.”

“Obviously.”

“What?”

“You think you just get to ride around for free?”

“But you enjoy my company.”

“And free food.”

“Fine. Whatever you want.”

“Excellent.”

Of course Vernon was just coming along for fun, not actually helping you with the job cause he didn’t want to do anything wrong and get you in trouble. He tried that once before and it did not go well. So it’s more accurate to say he doesn’t help so you don’t wind up in trouble again because of him. When he went with you nowadays he was more like your guardian angel, and today was no different for him. He stayed in the van, saving you the trouble of rushing and hoping it wasn’t stolen while you did your deliveries.

“Oh, why hello there.”

The robo-dogs could be found anywhere in the city, both high and low, and in very unlikely places. You were used to seeing them in the buildings you delivered to, and it was great their programming had them act very friendly, like real dogs.

“I’m just doing some deliveries, little guy.”

You held up your badge, showing proof you could be there. You didn’t have to, but you liked to do so whenever you ran into these guys. That way if anything ever happened in the building you’d be recognized as a delivery employee who’s just passing through. It was your own insurance, and there was no real reason to hide your purpose here. You gave the little robot a pat, and it seemed to enjoy that. Soon enough you started to hear a soft melody. You thought you were imagining things, but the sound slowly got louder and then you realized it was coming from the robot.

“You got a song for me, little guy?”

You didn’t know the robo-dogs had speakers in them, let alone that they would play music. It was a nice treat, and you couldn’t help but follow the little guy when he started walking off. You could use a break anyway.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

While waiting Vernon would be on his phone, going over his list of things to do and figuring out how to prioritize. Although at a particular stop he felt like you were taking too long, especially since you had walked in with like two boxes. He was about to go check on you when he saw you walk out, immediately feeling relief. Then again he noticed you weren’t walking towards the van, and instead seemed to be following one of the robo-dogs. It was very strange, and he wasn’t just gonna watch. He got out of the van and called out to you, but you didn’t respond. When he caught up to you he grabbed your arm and turned you around, seeing a dazed look on your face before you seemed to come back to your senses.

“Vernon?”

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“What were you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just now.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know. You were like sleep walking or something.”

“Oh, I guess maybe I’m just tired.”

“Did you sleep enough last night?”

“I think so. I’m alright though, I promise.”

“Okay, but you let me know if anything’s wrong.”

“I will. Let’s go now.”

Vernon wasn’t entirely convinced, but he wasn’t going to push it right now. Instead he was starting to get an idea as to why Wonwoo wanted him to go out with you today. Something certainly felt wrong here, but he wasn’t entirely sure what. At one point his eyes landed on the Metronome Theater, staring at it as you drove along. That whole place was just an eyesore, and it always gave him the creeps.

“Okay. This might take a few since I gotta deliver on multiple floors.”

“Alright, just be safe and come back.”

“That’s a given.”

You grabbed what you needed from the back, making your way into the building. You started from the top and made your way down. For the most part you just left packages at doors, but on occasion you’d knock to get a signature. You were a bit tired when you dropped off the last one, but at least you were done here.

“Do you require assistance?”

You jumped when you heard a robot, looking back to see it on the steps leading to the basement floor. In a bigger building like this it was more common for there to be robots to help tenants when needed.

“I’m alright, thank you. I’m just doing deliveries.”

You showed your badge once more, definitely needing to identify yourself as these robots tended to have records of who lived here and would call the authorities on any unauthorized visitors. You waited for the robot to accept your reason for being there, but it was eerily quiet.

“Uh… I’m going to be taking my leave now.”

As you stepped away the robot suddenly grabbed your arm. Then the blank face plate began to glow red, swallowing you up and cutting your world to black.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

Vernon stepped out of the van, stretching his limbs. He stared at the building you had gone into, getting this uneasy feeling. He checked the time, seeing that you had been gone for about twenty minutes now. That wasn’t too long, but something just didn’t feel right. It probably wasn’t best to just dwell on it, so he locked the van and took the keys, heading into the building. The place seemed quiet, so he went around calling your name, getting no response. Every second that went by was making him nervous. As he was about to head out a gleam of light caught his attention. He walked over to the source and picked up your badge off the floor. Now he was very concerned.

“Shit…”

He called out your name again, stepping down towards the basement. It seemed very dark down here, but that was the least of his worries. He called out to you again and again but there was no response. Then he wound up bumping into something and falling to the ground. He looked up to see a robot standing in his way. Before saying something he noticed some light down the hall, realizing there was a door that led out, another exit. Vernon quickly scrambled to his feet, but the robot moved to stand in his way.

“Do you require assistance?”

“No, no, I-”

“Do you require assistance?”

“No! I’m a delivery person.”

Vernon held up your badge, covering your face and name, hoping the robot would accept that and leave him alone. It didn’t work, and the machine still stood in his way. Vernon tried to get past once more, yet he was blocked. He intended to push his way through only to be grabbed and shoved to the floor. He groaned as he hit the ground, partially out of breath. He looked back up to see a red glow emanating from the robot’s faceplate, telling him that something was very wrong here.

“You… you intentionally stopped me… you hurt me… you hurt a human…” Vernon got up, making note of the number on the robot’s chestplate. “Robot model S-009588, you are to answer all my questions going forward, what is your directive?”

“Protect the target.”

“What target?”

“A young female identified as a delivery worker. Last spotted at this location.”

“What? Where is she!?”

“Unknown.”

“What do you mean? How do you not know where she is! You took her in the first place!”

“Incorrect. My objective is to protect the target.”

“From-”

The robot suddenly seemed to glitch and shut down, completely powering off right in front of Vernon. He cautiously took a step back and then it seemed to reboot itself.

“Do you require assistance?”

“Uh… no…”

Vernon took a small step forward and the robot stepped to the side. It was certainly acting how it was supposed to now. He still had many questions, and needed to further look into this, but for now he needed to go. He ran towards the back door, stepping out into the streets once again. Despite the minutes that had passed he still looked around, hoping by some miracle to see you, but of course you were nowhere to be found.

“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Vernon went back inside, intending to find the robot and interrogating it, but just like you, it was gone. He kicked the nearest item and swore again, storming back to the van. He slammed his hands against the wheel, screaming. The whole point of him being out with you today was to prevent something like this, and he had royally fucked it up. Now he had to make things worse with a phone call.

“What’s up?”

“Wonwoo…”

“Hm?”

“She… y/n… she’s gone…”

“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone!? I asked you to look after her!”

“I know but… I’m not sure what happened. I was attacked by a robot and-”

“Have you told Mingyu?”

“What the hell am I supposed to say? That y/n just walked into a building and never came out? You’re the one who was worried about her and didn’t really say anything!”

“Look, just call Mingyu and get back to the apartment, I’ll head over too, got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

Vernon drove over to the auto shop Mingyu worked at. He was familiar with the other mechanics, and just waltzed in, finding Mingyu under a car. He kicked at his leg to coax the boy out. His smiling face changed to concern when he saw Vernon.

“What are you doing here? I thought you went out with y/n?”

“We need to talk. Wonwoo will meet us at the apartment.”

“What happened?”

“It’s complicated.”

“And y/n?”

“…”

“Fuck. Vernon, what did you do?”

“Let’s just go.”

The two walked back to the apartment in silence. Vernon couldn’t imagine what was running through Mingyu’s head, but he had questions of his own. A while after they arrived Wonwoo entered the apartment.

“What the fuck is going on?” Mingyu questioned. “What did you guys do?”

“It’s not something we did.” Wonwoo explained. “But something that happened.”

“Which is?”

“I don’t really know how to explain it.”

“One of you better start talking.”

“Y/n’s been kidnapped.” Vernon stated. “That’s what’s going on.”

“What do you mean!? What did you do!?”

“Why do you think we did something? How do I know this isn’t your fault?”

“You’re the one who messes around with the law, Vernon! And Wonwoo works with all kinds of people. How do I know either of you didn’t piss off the wrong person?”

“We didn’t do anything.” Wonwoo interrupted. “I think something else is going on.”

“Like what?”

“When I got home last night I found y/n out on the balcony. She had been out there for a while, saying she had been listening to some piano.”

“A piano?” Mingyu wondered. “Did you hear it?”

“No. It stopped playing by the time I stepped out. Why?”

“Y/n… she mentioned hearing a piano when we had gone out the other day, but I didn’t hear anything.”

“Why is a piano our concern here?” Vernon questioned. “What does that mean?”

“She said the music was coming from the Metronome Theater.” Wonwoo admitted.

“Oh… wait, so you think someone from the theater kidnapped her? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You know that place is weird.” Mingyu said. “The people who go in don’t tend to come out, and if they do, they’re not quite the same.”

“Okay, but why would they kidnap her? In fact, how do you know it was them? I was attacked by a robot! Someone clearly hacked into that thing.”

“You were attacked by a robot? Like an actual one or the robo-dogs?”

“Now that you mention it… after a certain stop I saw y/n sleep walking behind a robo-dog, like it was leading her somewhere.”

“Oh so you knew something was up and you still left her alone!” Wonwoo accused. “Are you serious!”

“You could have told me what you were actually worried about here! I thought maybe she was sick or something.”

“I shouldn’t have let her go out in the first place.”

“We don’t know who took her.” Mingyu reminded. “Not for sure. So let’s focus on that first.”

“How?”

“Easy enough. Vernon, you can hack into CCTV right?”

“Obviously. Even the robots, so clearly whoever took her knows a thing or two about tech.”

“Right. So let’s go back to where she was taken and see if the CCTV can lead us to her.”

Everyone was pretty tense over the situation, but they were trying not to let panic take hold. This could all just be some big misunderstanding and you’d call them soon enough, asking where they were. For the sake of not sticking out they decided to take your work van, returning to the last place you had been seen. In a matter of minutes Vernon gained access to the CCTV cameras around, sifting through the footage to find you. He showed the others the moment you went inside, and then skipped ahead, switching to the back door cameras. They were all concerned and surprised when they saw you walk out, following a robot as if you were being escorted somewhere. From there they followed your path, Mingyu driving. Although they soon lost track of you.

“What happened? Where did she go?”

“I’m not sure, the CCTV cameras in the next area are down.”

“What?”

“Let me try finding a different angle.”

Vernon kept working to find a camera, although it seemed that one after the other just weren’t operational. Wonwoo was looking over his shoulder, realizing they had lost track of you. He swore under his breath, although he soon realized something.

“Vernon.”

“Hm?”

“Do any of the cameras work around the Metronome Theater?”

“Uh… no… actually… none of the cameras within a quarter mile radius of the theater work.”

“So that whole area is a blind spot, and she walked into it.”

“Yeah.”

“So the theater it is.” Mingyu commented, staring at it from the car window. “Let’s go.”

The area around the theater was mostly abandoned, and now knowing none of the CCTV around worked made the place all the creepier. Mingyu parked the van across the street from the theater, all three staring out at it.

“Are we sure she’s in there?” Vernon asked. “She went into a dark zone, someone could have taken her from here and there would be no record of it.”

“Perhaps.” Wonwoo said. “But something tells me she’s in there.”

“Okay, but how are we getting in? That place is usually closed, and it only opens sporadically. We don’t even know if it opened today.”

Just as Vernon said that the pendulum of the theater started moving, and the shutters over the doors went up.

“Huh, guess they’re open now.”

Wonwoo was the first out of the car, crossing the street, the other two soon following. What was strange were the other people that seemed to appear from nowhere also making their way to the theater. Despite what one might think, the inside of the theater was lavish and luxurious, not something you’d expect to see in this part of the city. None of them knew where to go, but the others that entered did. It was weird to see how everyone else walked in silently and went up the stairs, acting like robots themselves. The trio followed, keeping quiet as well and just going with the flow.

They went up two flights of stairs to the third floor, making it to the entrance of the actual theater. Rows and rows of empty seats surrounded the stage, people just taking a seat wherever. The curtains were down, and the lights were slowly fading and growing bright, signaling the show would begin soon. The boys took a seat towards the back, looking around to see if perhaps you were around, but they had no luck. A while later the doors closed and the lights went out, leaving them in darkness before the stage was illuminated. The curtains were drawn, revealing a whole orchestra on stage, two gentlemen standing front and center.

“Welcome to the Metronome Theater.” The one with a beret spoke. “I’m the director, Seungkwan, and this is Joshua, the conductor for the night. Do enjoy the show.”

Seungkwan made his way off stage, disappearing into the darkness. Joshua on the other hand took his place before the orchestra, and soon the show began. The music was quite nice, not something any of them were used to hearing. There was no piano present, but they didn’t care much for the show itself. They took in their surroundings, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else. All the other guests were engrossed in the performance. For a moment Wonwoo zoned out while watching the conductor lead, something about him just seemed odd. He snapped out of it when Mingyu lightly shoved him, giving him a questioning look. They had other things to focus on right now.

When the show ended everyone got up to applaud, all seeming to move together. Joshua took a bow before the orchestra did the same and then cleared the stage. The doors had opened and a few robots were coming in, greeting some of the guests and then leading them towards the nearest exit. The trio immediately thought to follow, stepping out into the aisle and walking towards the stage. Although they didn’t get far before a spotlight was suddenly aimed at them, stopping them in their tracks.

“You three aren’t meant to be here.”

Once they had adjusted to the light they saw Joshua looking up from his bow, slowly standing, arms crossed over his chest, lightly tapping his wand to his shoulder. A smirk appeared on his face, looking them up and down.

“I advise you to leave before the Maestro gets upset.”

“We have no intention of leaving.” Mingyu stated. “We’re looking for someone, and perhaps your Maestro knows something.”

“Is that so?”

“If we can just talk to them and clear things up, then we’ll be on our way.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“How come?”

“You were advised to leave.”

Joshua lifted up his wand, flicking it in the air as if he was still performing. They were all confused until they realized the other guests were moving in on them. Before they knew it they were surrounded and grabbed. The people around them had blank stares in their eyes, but they were doing well to restrain them.

“Thank you for coming.” Joshua stated. “Don’t return.”

The people began to drag them towards the exit, forcing them to fight back. They didn’t want to hurt anyone, but the situation was getting out of hand. These people didn’t want them here, so it was all the more reason to stay and investigate. Especially as Joshua was walking away. Wonwoo managed to break free from the crowd, running up towards the stage and tackling the conductor to the ground. The two tussled for a moment, and Wonwoo knew he had to get the wand out of Joshua’s hand. It wasn’t just some stick, but as soon as he ripped it away from Joshua he froze. His gaze slowly turned to the item in his hand. He couldn’t describe the feeling well, but there was some sort of power radiating from it, and now that he held it this energy seemed to be coursing into his veins.

“You have potential.” Joshua commented. “Perhaps the Maestro will see you.”

Before Wonwoo could really register what had been said, or what was happening, Mingyu had come to his side. He had escaped the crowd and took the wand from Wonwoo, snapping it in half without hesitation. Once he did so Joshua screamed, grabbing his head and thrashing on the ground. Both boys took a step back, unsure of what was going on. Even the rest of the guests seemed to collapse, leaving Vernon just as confused as his brothers. A moment later the lights went out again, and Joshua’s screams seemed to die down. When the light returned there was someone else present on the stage. A boy with white hair knelt down before Joshua, hands on his head, seeming to sooth the distressed boy. Soon enough the gaze of the stranger looked to them, a fire in his eyes.

“Get out!”

The lights flickered, and next thing the boys knew robots were rushing into the theater. They grabbed each of the boys, two or three per person, effortlessly dragging them out. Their strength was no match for the machines as they were thrown out onto the streets. Mingyu was the first to scramble to his feet, but as he reached the doors of the theater the shutters slammed down, locking him out.

“NO!”

Mingyu slammed his fist against the shutters over and over, as if that would change anything. The other two eventually came to his side.

“This doesn’t mean anything.” Vernon said. “This could just be some territorial shit, and this Maestro guy doesn’t like outsiders. Y/n might not be here.”

“And yet she could be.” Wonwoo remarked. “You saw how some people were taken elsewhere, not to mention the others… it’s like the music put them under a spell and they did whatever the conductor wanted. Y/n kept hearing a piano, and didn’t you say you caught her sleepwalking?”

“I… yes, but we don’t have solid proof.”

“Then find some.” Mingyu hissed. “There’s gotta be a robot around here that saw something.”

“Yeah, yeah I can look for that.”

Vernon made his way back to the van, the other two soon following. Although Wonwoo stopped and stared back at the theater. His mind went back to the moment he had held the conductor’s wand. The way he felt then still lingered, and he wanted to know what that was.

“Wonwoo!”

Upon hearing his name Wonwoo made his way back, the three in the van, Vernon getting his laptop out and getting to work on searching for some video footage.

“How are we gonna find proof?” Wonwoo asked. “The CCTV doesn’t work around here.”

“But there are other cameras.” Vernon remarked. “The robo-dogs are also CCTV. Even though they are everywhere, they each stick to a certain area. If we can find one around the theater I could get into its system and look at the recorded footage.”

“Alright. I’ll drive, you two keep a lookout.” Mingyu said. “Let me know when to stop.”

As planned they drove around the area, looking for a robo-dog. The issue with those was that they were free roam cameras, so it wasn’t entirely common to see them on the streets.

“What about taking down a robot?” Mingyu suggested. “We’ve seen a few of those.”

“It wouldn’t work.” Vernon mentioned. “The robots have their programs and internal systems, but they don’t actually record anything. We have CCTV and the robo-dogs so it would be overkill.”

“I guess.”

“Oh, there’s one, Mingyu, pull over.”

The van came to a stop and Wonwoo stepped out, walking up to the little thing as it stepped out of an alleyway. They were very friendly robots, so the thing walked up to Wonwoo all on its own. Vernon had opened the side door, laptop in hand.

“What do I do?”

“Just grab it and bring it here. I’ll erase the footage of us grabbing it when we’re done.”

Wonwoo picked up the little guy, bringing it over the van and setting it down inside next to Vernon. It tried to get out, but Wonwoo prevented it from doing so. After a moment it sat down, the little red light going out.

“Alright, I’m in.”

“Are you sure it saw something?” Mingyu asked. “Or do we need to look for another one?”

“No. One should give me access to a few more in this area, one of them surely saw some… hold on.”

“What?”

“…”

“Vernon.”

“Hold on!”

“Aish, could you tell me-”

“Got it.”

“What?”

“The robo-dogs here are on two grids. The city and something else, I managed to dig deeper into the system just now, but I’m gonna need another minute to access this other grid.”

“I’m not understanding you.” Wonwoo said. “What do you mean another grid?”

“Another power grid, another system. Someone else besides the city is connected to these robo-dogs and thus has access to their recordings.”

“That’s not concerning at all.”

“I know so just- oh… this isn’t good… the CCTV around the theater isn’t broken, it’s on another grid.”

“Wait so you mean all the cameras around here work?”

“How come the city isn’t aware of this?” Mingyu questioned. “This whole area is thought to be a dark zone.”

“The city doesn’t care about the cameras being down cause the rodo-dogs in this area still work, and they’re more valuable.” Vernon explained. “That’s why they’re still online and connected to both grids. I doubt the city knows that someone else has easy access to the robo-dogs around here.”

“So who’s running this other grid?”

“Who do you think? Who’s at the center of this whole thing?”

“The Metronome Theater.”

“They’re the biggest power source in this area, so logically they’re the only ones who could run all this.”

“What about y/n though?” Wonwoo reminded. “Is she really in the theater?”

“Well, let’s check. Once I get access to the cameras we can see where she really went.”

A few minutes later Vernon did as he said, pulling up camera footage and going to the moment they had originally lost you. They could see you were still following a robot, and a moment later two more appeared. They continued to follow you through the cameras, and just as they suspected you made your way to the Metronome Theater, heading inside.

“Okay. So she’s in there somewhere.” Mingyu confirmed. “How do we get back in?”

“We can’t just walk in again.” Wonwoo added. “I’m sure they’ll be looking out for us.”

“Then we go in from below.” Vernon suggested. “The robo-dogs go underground to recharge and there has to be some sort of maintenance facility in this area. My guess is the theater. Someone in there must be a technician that fixes up all the robots around here. Which means there should be a way in the theater through underground maintenance tunnels that the robo-dogs would use.”

“Okay, but those things are small, do you think we’d fit?”

“The maintenance tunnels are designed to be big enough for a person to crouch through in case a robo-dog loses power down there and needs to be retrieved.”

“So all we gotta do now is find those tunnels and get inside.”

“What do we do once we’re in?” Wonwoo asked. “That place is huge and we have no idea where y/n would be.”

“If we’re going in then we’re not looking for y/n, but the Maestro. Whoever that is, they’ll surely know where she is.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

You felt as if you were waking from a dream, unsure as to when you fell asleep. Wherever you were, it was dark, but the light in front of you drew your attention. As you regained your senses you began to perceive your surroundings. You seemed to be in some sort of theater, watching a show. There was an orchestra on stage, along with the conductor leading the show. You noticed a few other people around you, but that all seemed to become pointless as you began to listen to the music. You hadn’t heard such a melody, becoming entranced by. After a moment you closed your eyes to give all your focus to the music, feeling so calm and relaxed.

“Good girl.”

The voice made you open your eyes, finding a gentleman with white hair standing before you with a big smile on his face. Before you could really process anything he lifted his glowing wand, gently tapping your head and causing your world to fade to black.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“Let’s go over the plan once more.”

With access to the robo-dogs it wasn’t hard for Vernon to map out their travel patterns and find multiple entrances to the maintenance tunnels. From there he could figure out where they needed to go and how to get inside the theater.

“Okay. I’ve found our entrance point into the maintenance tunnels, the closest one to the theater.” Vernon explained. “When we get to the theater itself I can mimic a robo-dogs signal to open the entrance and get us in. Although from there I’m gonna need to find an access port in order to gain access to the systems in the theater. There are no schematics or blueprints for that place, so right now I have no idea how the interior looks besides what we’ve seen, and that wasn’t much.”

“From there the goal is to go up.” Mingyu added. “Surely the Maestro would be at the highest point in the building. We just need to find the fastest route, and avoid as much resistance as possible.”

“The building will most likely be littered with robots, but once I have system access I can make sure they don’t hurt us.”

“What about the conductor?” Wonwoo asked. “Or that other guy? They seemed to have a lot of power in that place.”

“We already broke the conductor’s little stick, so they shouldn’t be a problem. As long as we move fast and don’t attract attention we should be fine.”

“Then what do we do if we find the Maestro?”

“When we find them we’re gonna demand answers. If things have to get rough then so be it. We know y/n’s in there. Let’s gather what we need and be ready to move in ten.”

Honestly the only person who needed things was Vernon, the other two were ready to go whenever. They all needed to travel light as there wasn’t much room in those tunnels to begin with. Since they knew the cameras around the theater worked they needed to avoid them. The best way to do that was to enter the sewers outside that area and travel through there to the maintenance tunnel that would lead them into the theater. It wasn’t pleasant, but it did well to give them the advantage they needed in order for this to work. None of them liked walking through the sewers, and the maintenance tunnels wouldn’t be any better. It would be short but uncomfortable nonetheless.

“Give me a second while I get the hatch open.”

Vernon got out his phone, doing a little something before the hatch opened. He was the first one through, glad to be able to stretch out, the other two soon getting out as well. They seemed to be in the middle of some hallway, and to their benefit it seemed empty.

“I need to look for some electrical currents so I can find an access point.” Vernon stated. “Give me a second.”

“Why do the walls say S3?” Wonwoo questioned.

“Shit.” Vernon mumbled. “I wasn’t entirely sure how low we went, but I think we’re in sub-level three.”

“How big is this building…”

“No idea.”

Vernon followed the device in his hand, leading the others down the hall and towards an elevator. Which was the perfect thing to find. He pulled out some other tools, connecting to the wires behind the call button hacking in, ultimately gaining access to the entire system.

“Got it. Looks like this building has seventeen floors, and three sub-floors. So you definitely know where we are.”

“Great, we’re as far from the top as possible.” Mingyu said. “Just our luck. What’s the fastest way up?”

“Uh… there seems to be some kind of elevator that goes up to the seventeenth floor that we can access from the theater room.”

“So we need to go to the third floor?”

“No, there seems to be another theater on the thirteenth floor.”

“Of course. Is that the only way to access the top floor?”

“It seems to be the only direct connection closest to our current location. There are a few other elevators in this building, but only the one on the thirteenth floor will get us to seventeenth the fastest.”

“How are we supposed to get to the thirteenth floor undetected?”

“I’m looking into that. A place like this surely has blind spots, and if not, it shouldn’t be that hard to access their security system and hide us. I’m trying to map out our fastest route and looking into what type of security they have here. I just need a few minutes.”

“Well hurry up, we can’t push our luck.”

“I know.”

Vernon managed to find schematics of the building, taking a look at where they’d need to go in order to make it to their destination.

“Alright, from what I can tell the security here is pretty lax except for a few floors which we can avoid. There are some robots roaming around the building but they won’t be an issue either. We can take this elevator up to the first floor, and not so far from there we can get on another up to the seventh floor. From there we can reach the thirteenth. I’ve mapped out our path and have the cameras along the way looping. I’ve sent you both a copy of the route just in case, but we should get up to the seventeenth floor in about ten minutes.”

“Cool. Let’s move.”

It was a little strange being back in the lobby, considering they had been thrown out not so long ago. Vernon led the way over to the next elevator they needed to catch. Since the building didn’t see a lot of traffic they didn’t wait long. The highest this elevator went was the seventh floor, which was their next stop. It was strange that no single elevator connected all seventeen floors, but Wonwoo mentioned it was probably a safety thing. They thought things would be easy for them, but the elevator suddenly came to a stop on the fifth floor. For a moment they all got tense, Wonwoo and Mingyu ready to fight while Vernon was trying to cover them. Although when the doors opened there was no one. Mingyu carefully peeked his head out, but the halls were empty. Vernon tried closing the doors, but the elevator wouldn’t budge.

“I think it’s stuck.” Vernon commented. “This thing does seem old.”

“Then we should probably get off.” Wonwoo mentioned. “I guess we should take the stairs.”

“Not necessarily. Another elevator on this floor could take us up to the tenth floor, but that place seems to use a lot of power, which means heavy security.”

“Then why would we go there?”

“We could access the elevator that goes up to fourteen, and from there get up to seventeen. It’s our new fastest route from here.”

“As long as we’re still undetected it should work.” Mingyu said. “Lead the way, Vernon.”

No one else seemed to be on this floor either, the place being eerily quiet. There were a lot of doors with numbers, but no windows to see inside. It gave them all this uneasy feeling, but they kept going nonetheless. That is until they rounded a corner and Vernon stopped, stepping back and shoving the other two back, putting a finger to his lip and explaining himself in a whisper.

“Peacekeeper.”

“What!? Why is there one here?”

“I guess everyone comes to this theater.” Wonwoo commented. “You guys stay back, I got this.”

Wonwoo stood right against the corner, listening for footsteps. Once the peacekeeper was close enough he attacked. Lucky for him the only weapon his opponent had was a baton, and he had taken worse hits. It was easy for him to take down the peacekeeper, and the other two came to his side when he had won.

“I expected robots, not this.” Vernon mentioned. “Luckily the cameras here are looping so none of this was seen.”

“Then we can use this to our advantage.” Mingyu said, taking the mask from the peacekeeper. “I can dress like one of them so if another person sees us, I can act like I’m escorting you both.”

“But what do we do about the body? If another peacekeeper walks by and sees it they’re gonna sound the alarm.”

“It might be too late for that.” Wonwoo said. “Far too late.”

Vernon and Mingyu looked over to see what Wonwoo meant. At the end of the hall a crowd of peacekeepers were gathered. It seemed they no longer had the advantage.

“Go.” Wonwoo stated. “I’ll keep them busy and catch up with you later.”

“Wonwoo-”

“Now!”

Mingyu was already pulling Vernon down a different hall, but the boy was fumbling with his phone. Before Wonwoo was completely out of view Vernon activated the sprinkler system on the floor. It would help Wonwoo out since the peacekeepers wore goggles and the water would mess with their vision. Hopefully they’d meet up later.

Vernon found an alternative route to the elevator they needed to use, although it appeared their luck had really run out. A group of robots was marching down the hall towards them, someone else at the front of the group leading the way.

“I suggest you surrender now.” The other spoke. “But I’d prefer it if you don’t.”

“Run.” Vernon mumbled, looking down at his phone. “Go, now!”

“What? Vernon-”

“I’ll be right behind you, I just needed a second to hack into the robots.”

“I won’t leave you then.”

“Go get on that fucken elevator before they cut us off completely. You’ll be closer to the top on the tenth floor than the fifth!”

“Fuck.”

Mingyu knew Vernon had a point, so he bolted, feeling awful for leaving the other behind, for leaving them both. When he made it to the elevator he frantically hit the button, looking back, hoping Vernon managed to get him enough time. He pulled out his phone, opening up the link Vernon had sent so he could follow the route they had planned. Once the elevator arrived he got in and hit the button for the tenth floor, knowing he couldn’t wait around for the others. He let out a sigh of relief when the doors shut and he was moving. Things went south fast, but as long as he made it to his destination he trusted everything would work out.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“Get fucked!”

The robots were advancing on Vernon, but he tried not to let the panic overwhelm him. When he managed to hack them he laughed, making them stop in their tracks. He looked up at the other with a gleeful grin, having the robots turn around to make his point. The other seemed shocked by the sudden change.

“Thanks for the robots. Now I suggest you surrender and answer a few questions for me.”

“Impressive, but that’s not going to happen.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Do your worst.”

Vernon smirked and ordered the robots to attack, knowing he could get this guy pinned in second. He sent two at him first, walking over himself since he knew this would be over soon. Although he wasn’t prepared for the punch the other guy threw, which actually knocked the robot back.

“Holy shit!”

Vernon stepped back and had all the robots attack, watching from a safe distance. It didn’t do him any good as the robots were beaten down and torn apart right before his eyes. The robots only managed to hit their target a few times, and it did nothing to slow them down. Vernon was frozen in shock as the other stalked up to him, a silver liquid dripping from his lip. He seemed to notice what Vernon was staring at, wiping his lips and laughing when he saw his fingers stained silver.

“I guess I need to go up to maintenance too. Don’t worry, I’ll take you with.”

One punch knocked Vernon out, and his unconscious body slid to the floor. The other stared down at him, finally relaxing after the whole ordeal. He knew back up was on the way, not that he’d need it. He looked around at all the robots, before sliding down a wall and sitting down to wait.

“Seungcheol’s gonna kill me.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

After dealing with the last one Wonwoo continued where he left off. At this point he was certain Vernon and Mingyu were no longer on this floor. It shouldn’t take too long to catch up. He pulled out his phone, following the path Vernon had laid out. Although upon rounding a corner he noticed the torso of a robot leaning against the wall, sparks flying from the damage. He proceeded cautiously, ready for another fight even if he was spent.

“I can hear you, so there’s no point creeping.”

The new voice caused Wonwoo to come to a halt. He knew whoever had spoken was just around the corner, although he wasn’t gonna lower his guard. He took a quick step into the next hall, seeing a bunch of robots torn to pieces, and Vernon passed out at the other end. Although his focus quickly shifted to the gentleman standing up, wincing in the process. Silver tainted his lips and nose, clearly exhausted, but Wonwoo was starting to put two and two together.

“Did you-”

“The robots? Yes, as for your friend, they’re just unconscious.”

“Who are you?”

“You ask as if I’m the trespasser here.” The gentleman chuckled. “The name’s Jun, and you’re Wonwoo, correct?”

“How do you know my name?”

“We’ve taken an interest in you, so it’s only proper we do our research. You’re strong, which explains how you handled the peacekeepers with ease. Very good.”

“What do you want from me?”

“That is something for you to discuss with another.”

“You mean the Maestro?”

“They’ve taken a special interest in you, yes.”

“Well I don’t care for that. I’m here for my friend.”

“You mean the girl? I assure you, she’s in good hands.”

“I doubt that if you went through the trouble of kidnapping her.”

“She came here on her own, just as everyone does.”

“Bullshit. Now tell me where she is.”

“Why don’t you tell me what happened when you held Joshua’s wand? How did you feel?”

“…”

Jun scoffed. “You only got a taste before you were so rudely interrupted. Would you like to experience that again? To know what’s going on here. The answers might just lead you to your friend.”

As Wonwoo contemplated everything a handful of peacekeepers and robots surrounded him. Jun ordered everyone to stay away from Wonwoo, having the robots take Vernon away.

“The boy will be fine.” Jun assured. “What’s your choice then? Shall you come willingly or do you have to be restrained?”

“Who will I be meeting?”

“Escort our new friend Wonwoo here to the fifteenth floor. Oh, and Wonwoo, I recommend you don’t try anything funny.”

Wonwoo allowed the peacekeepers and robots to lead the way, having them before and behind him. Jun watched him go, struggling to keep his own composure. He stumbled when he took a step back, nearly falling to the ground only to be caught by a friend.

“Seokmin.” Jun smiled. “Hi.”

“Funny, just wait until Seungcheol sees you.”

“Don’t get me started. Just take me to his shop.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

By the time the doors opened Mingyu had put on the mask, dressed as a peacekeeper to hopefully help him hide. Yet he was met with emptiness. He stared down a gray hallway, dim lights illuminating his path. From what Vernon had said this place held a lot of power, yet he saw none of it. Perhaps it was some diversion so people avoided the floor. He checked his phone, and it told him to proceed, so he did. At the end of the hall he was met with a door. It seemed to be locked, but Vernon had already accounted for that, so when he held his phone near the door it unlocked. He slowly opened it and stepped through. Now he understood the major power report.

The silence of the empty hall was suddenly filled with the hums of machines. Rows upon rows of servers were at either side, but before him stood the real source. A set up with multiple monitors showed him live camera footage from multiple floors. Moreso a bunch of offline robots stood around the monitor set up, creating a daunting warning. Still, Mingyu ignored it all, taking off the mask and approaching the computer. He should be going off to the next elevator, but if he could find you on the cameras then he’d really know where to go and not need to chase after a ghost. He sifted through the cameras, but there was no sign of you, and none seemed to be the seventeenth floor.

“You were never in control, you know.”

Mingyu turned around to discover he was no longer alone. A familiar face stood before him, the director from the show, Seungkwan.

“You’ve come quite far. I doubt I can convince you to stop here.”

“Where is she?”

“In good hands.”

“I doubt that. Just give her back, and I’ll be on my way.”

“That’s not gonna happen. In fact, I’m still very upset about what you did to Joshua.”

“I’m not.”

“Good. I won’t feel bad watching you suffer.”

Seungkwan snapped his fingers, the robots around starting to come to life. Mingyu knew his only option now was to run, so he did just that. He followed the guide, moving as fast as he could to the elevator. He hurriedly pressed the call button until the doors opened. Once inside he repeatedly pressed the button for fourteen, but the doors didn’t close. Something was probably wrong with this elevator too, so he pressed the button for thirteen and he watched the doors close as the robots charged at him. Once again he let out a breath in relief. At least now he was following the original plan, and knew he was one step closer to the Maestro, and you.

It was quiet and empty again when the doors opened, and Mingyu didn’t hesitate to step out. From what he could see the last elevator was behind the theater itself. So he made his way down the aisle towards the stage, not caring to try and hide his face with a mask. There seemed to be no one else around, yet as he stepped up to the stage he heard the sound of a spotlight turning on, except it wasn’t at him. He stopped, feeling the eerie sense that he was no longer alone. When Mingyu turned around he saw the light pointed at another in the aisle, closer to the door. A moment ago he had been alone, but now he wasn’t. Although what drew his attention the most was the wand in the other’s hand.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

Vernon groaned as he regained consciousness, feeling the ache from that sucker punch. He was quick to realize he was tied up, hands behind his back and legs stuck together. He was propped up against a wall, but nothing around him seemed familiar. At least this wasn’t a place he had been to before, but all the cables and random tech pieces scattered around was certainly unexpected. A robo-dog suddenly came up to him, getting real close and staring at him, sending a chill down his spine.

“You know they’re harmless.”

Vernon’s gaze snapped away from the robot, looking for the source of the voice. His eyes soon landed on this guy walking towards the computer set up and taking a seat.

“You have potential, I’ll admit that. Figured out a way in here. It was fun to watch.”

“Wait, you knew we were here?”

“From the beginning. Don’t be so surprised though, I keep watch over this whole territory with my dogs. Although Seungkwan is internal security.”

“So you’re the one running the grid here? You reprogrammed the dogs to work for you?”

“Bingo. So tell me, you really broke into this place for some girl?”

“Where is she?”

“She’s fine, and well taken care of, I promise.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to, but it’s true. The name’s Dino by the way.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yet I do. Vernon, a freelance technician, making money doing all kinds of legal and illegal things. Would be a shame if someone reported you.”

“Is that a threat?”

“You’d think, but not really. Why do you even do what you do, hm? Just to make some money and pay the bills? You could do so much better with your talents.”

“Why do you care?”

“You hacked into Jun’s little escort pretty fast and bypassed safety parameters so they’d attack a person. Then again those safety parameters were already diminished.”

“Let me guess, your doing?”

“No, no, my dogs and I run surveillance. The big clunky robots are Seungcheol’s department. He’s looking forward to meeting you, but he needs to attend to Jun first.”

“That guy does need a doctor.”

“Seungcheol works with robots, not people.”

“Wait, you mean-”

“Gotcha, didn’t I?” Dino giggled. “Jun’s a cyborg. He’s got a few mechanical parts here and there. You might have realized it if you kept snooping around, but you didn’t. It wouldn’t be easy to hack into his mechanical parts anyway. So just relax, the hyungs want to talk to you.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“An opportunity. You’re good, but you could be better.”

“I don’t want to join your little gang here.”

“You say that now, but you don’t know anything.”

“I know you kidnapped my friend, and are doing who knows what to the people you lure here.”

“Yeah, you don’t know anything. It’s always difficult to make people understand when they can’t hear the music. Maybe that’ll change soon.” Dino sighed. “Let’s go see the hyungs.”

Dino got up and grabbed something from a drawer just out of view. Vernon tried to see what he was doing, but he didn’t need to wait long.

“Behave.”

Dino walked back to Vernon with a metal collar, and leash in hand, a big grin on his face. Vernon tried to move away, but his restraints limited his motion. He wound up falling onto his side, getting a laugh out of Dino. The boy merely knelt down and grabbed a fistful of Vernon’s hair, pulling his head up to expose his neck so the collar could snap into place. He loosened the rope around his legs a bit so he could walk, and then attached the leash to the collar and helped Vernon to his feet.

“This is gonna be fun.”

Vernon followed alongside Dino, the boy holding the leash very close so he basically had to walk while hunched over. They went to a nearby elevator, and once inside Vernon noted they were on the eighth floor, and that this elevator apparently went all the way to the top.

“I know what you’re thinking. You never really hacked into our systems, we just let you see what we wanted. Besides, it was fun watching you all run around. Don’t worry we’re just going up one floor.”

With his hands behind his back any sort of action was limited, and he couldn’t even run in this state. When the doors opened Dino led him out, going down a plain hall. The floor seemed rather empty until they went through some double doors, revealing a whole workshop. Robots were all over the place, some just standing guard and others working on things. A few spare parts were lying around as well, but his focus was soon pulled to a table. The boy from before, who he now knew to be Jun, was sitting on it, a bunch of wires sticking out of his arm. There was another person next to him, looking at some monitors. Jun’s eyes were glowing blue, fading and growing bright, when he saw Vernon he smirked.

“Guess you’re not dead.”

“You weren’t trying to kill him, were you?” Dino questioned.

“Maybe. Although I bet Seungcheol wants to kill him.”

“Do not start, Junhui!”

One of the others in the room snapped at Jun, which he presumed to be Seungcheol. The boy was pointing and yelling about Jun’s careless behavior. Jun seemed to be amused, although Vernon noticed the rest of the robots around were mimicking Seungcheol. It was strange and concerning, but he didn’t know what was happening.

“Do you have any idea how long it’s gonna take to repair those robots?” Seungcheol mentioned. “Days, Jun, days!”

“Don’t forget some were Seokmin’s designs.” Dino added. “So you’re not the only one who got screwed over.”

“You’re not helping!” Jun hissed.

“Just saying. Also, hyung, you might wanna take a moment.”

Seungcheol looked over at Dino with a questioning look and the boy just gestured to their surroundings. That’s when Seungcheol noticed all the robots around moving as he did. He sighed and took a breath, and then the robots returned to their original task. Vernon still had no idea what had just happened.

“Why’d you bring that dog up here anyway?” The other in the room asked. “Do I get to hit him this time?”

“That’s enough, Seokmin.” Seungcheol cut in. “Just focus on Jun.”

“I know, I know.”

“You. Vernon, isn’t it? What are you doing here?”

“Don’t you know?”

“I have an idea, but I don’t know if that’s the truth. Answer me honestly and I’ll get the maknae to give you back your dignity and get that collar off.”

“What have you done with her?”

“That’s not the answer I was looking for.”

Seungcheol came over and grabbed the leash, pulling on it and making Vernon fall to his knees. After a moment Seungcheol knelt down and grabbed the boy’s chin, forcing their eyes to meet. It was quiet for a moment, and Vernon could feel his resolve melting.

“You’re being a waste of talent. I admire you care so much for this girl, but have you stopped to realize that you’re probably not leaving this building ever again.”

“You gonna lock me up?”

“You wouldn’t be the first, but the circumstances would be different. Wanna try again to answer my question?”

“I’m here for my friend, is that good enough for you?”

“I suppose.”

Seungcheol got the collar off, returning it and the leash to Dino. He then helped Vernon get up, but the ropes would remain. He returned to Jun’s side, looking over the readings as Seokmin continued to examine the boy. The silence was awkward, but Vernon wasn’t done with the conversation.

“How… how is it that you run the CCTV here, that you have access to the robo-dogs and some robots as well. Your whole operation should have been shut down ages ago, yet here you are. I guess the better question is why.”

“Do you really wanna know?”

“Are you gonna answer me?”

Seokmin chuckled. “We’re gonna change the world.”

“What?”

“Those in power won’t ever do anything that goes against the status quo. So we must do it ourselves.”

“Are you insane!? What reason-”

“Reason?” Seunghceol questioned. “Look at the world around you, do you think it’s fair as it is now? That it doesn’t require change?”

“So you’re gonna start a revolution by hacking into robots and killing anyone who gets in your way? Is that your great plan?”

“You’re not thinking big enough. Robots aren’t completely reliable, but human connection is. All we have to do is reach those in power, and we’ll make them understand.”

“Ah, you mean the music, don’t you?”

“I see you’re not just savvy with technology. You were present for a show earlier today, so I suppose you do understand what we’re doing here.”

“You mean brainwashing people? Like you said, I was at your show, and I’m not under your control, am I? Your music is shitty.”

“Don’t insult the Maestro. The fact their music can enthrall people is reason enough for you to worry, isn’t it? There are already people out there who understand us, just like the peacekeepers we have here. After all, how do you think your friend came to our theater?”

“Leave her out of your plans!”

“She’s here of her own will, and she’s helping us. Soon enough our music will reach more people, especially the difficult ones such as yourself.”

“I guess you can’t hear how crazy you sound since you’re brainwashed yourself!”

“Unfortunately those of us here can’t truly understand the Maestro’s work. The melody is beautiful but I can’t truly feel its power. Only the Maestro and the conductors can, and our guests at the theater. One day though, we’ll all be on the same page.”

“You’re all crazy.”

“I think you’d be a great addition to our team, truly. Although the choice is ultimately yours. We can always place you in a cell on the fifth floor until the time comes. I’m certain your other friend, Wonwoo, will join us though.”

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“That depends, do you care to know more? Or can Jun knock you out again?”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

The elevator ride was crowded for Wonwoo, completely surrounded on all sides. He wasn’t going to try anything, and even if he did he’d surely get pinned. Vernon said only certain elevators went to certain floors, yet the one he was taken to had access to all floors, even the sub-levels. Something else was definitely going on here. When the doors opened there was an empty hallway before him. Those in front of him stepped out and then he did so. Although once out the others returned to the elevator and left, leaving him alone.

For a moment he thought to press the elevator button again, getting himself up to the seventeenth floor, but his own curiosity was winning out. At the end of the hall there was a door, and he could feel something on the other side calling to him. Without realizing he was walking down the hall, reaching for the doorknob and opening it. A blinding white light overtook his vision, his senses needing a moment to adjust. He stepped through, surrounded by technology and machines he didn’t quite understand. It seemed he was alone, until a familiar voice broke through the silence.

“I’m glad to see you came back.”

“You… I… are you alright…? Before when we-”

“I’m fine.” Joshua assured. “What happened back then wasn’t your fault. Honestly, it was surprising for us too.”

“What… what did happen? You were screaming and-”

“It’s complicated. I’m sure you have many questions, and I will do my best to answer them.”

“… where’s y/n?”

“Ah, the girl. She’s alright.”

“Why… why did you bring her here?”

“She came on her own, as do all the guests at our theater.”

“I know that’s a lie. I saw robots escorting her here. The music you play has a certain effect on people. You turned the other guests against us at the show before. That’s what you did to her to lure her in, isn’t it?”

“You really want to talk about her?”

“She’s the real reason I’m here.”

“Then why didn’t you go up to the seventeenth floor? Not that you could, but you didn’t even try. You can ask anything and you want to ask about her?”

“Why are you so reluctant to tell me? Why not just take me to her and let me ask her if everything you’ve said is true.”

“She’s unavailable at the moment, but if you want to talk about her, then there are other things that need to be discussed first.”

“Which are?”

“You, for starters. Tell me, when you grabbed my wand.” Joshua pulled his wand out of his sleeve. “How did you feel?”

Wonwoo couldn’t help but stare. The feeling from before was starting to creep back up. He had no idea what it was, let alone explain it.

“… energy… whatever it was… it was alive… it was coming to me… and it didn’t hurt… it was… intoxicating… it was power…”

“It was music, the power of music, specifically the Maestro’s music. The conductors perform it and the effects remain. I’m sure you felt it.”

“The music is dangerous. What you did to those people, to y/n-”

“Creating connection and understanding. Those who truly listen to the music find happiness and purpose. You could feel it, couldn’t you? A sense of peace.”

“More like a high. All those people were at your mercy.”

“We have no ill intentions here. We’re just trying to change the world for the better. You’ve seen some of our recruits, I was quite impressed to see you take on that many peacekeepers all alone.”

“So that’s why they were here. How many people have you… recruited?”

“Many, hard to keep track of. The Maestro’s music is unique in its abilities, but it cannot reach everyone, not yet that is.”

“So what do I have to do with this? What of y/n?”

“You could understand the music, feel its power, like myself. It means you’re special. Only the Maestro’s conductors can listen to the music and perform it. The Maestro themself is focusing on creating new compositions to bring more people in, so we conductors lead the show. You have the potential to be one, a conductor that is.”

“Me?”

“Only a conductor feels the power of the music. The wand is a means of commanding that power, and you felt that when you held mine. You could have your own. A few upgrades and some practice and you could do your own show.”

“Why would I join you?”

“The question is why wouldn’t you? Like you said, that power was intoxicating. You’ll never get another taste otherwise. Besides, your friend is with us now. You can speak with her yourself later, but right now I need your answer.” Joshua held out his wand. “Will you be joining us?”

“What if I say no?”

“I doubt that’d be your answer, but if you truly refuse, you’ll be locked up. We can’t have you causing trouble and getting in our way. So, what will it be?”

“What happens after… if I say yes?”

“There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

“… show me.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“The name’s Minghao, shall we play?”

A moment ago Mingyu was staring down at someone who seemed to be a conductor, yet they weren’t on stage nor did they have an audience. It seemed like it would be a quick and easy fight, but as Mingyu took a step down everything seemed to change. The lights went out, covering him in darkness. A moment later red lights began to shine, and a light from below illuminated the conductor. Instead of a wand he had a violin, and the red lights were emanating from it as he played. Although there wasn’t any sound, at least not at first. Minghao smiled and continued his song, then a moment later Mingyu heard an ear-piercing screech.

He yelled and covered his ears, falling to his knees. He took in a deep breath, trying to adjust to the sound, but that wasn’t his only problem. Out of the corner of his eye he could see robots entering the theater, and he knew what the outcome would be if he got caught. He needed to think fast, and figure out a way out of this. His eyes landed on the mask he had dropped, the peacekeeper one. Perhaps that could help him. He reached for it and slipped it on, trying to figure it out while the screeching continued. The system wasn’t too complicated and he managed to adjust the hearing and block out the Minghao’s song. He could only rest for a moment as the robots were closing in.

Mingyu jumped into the nearest row to avoid getting grabbed. He would have bolted straight to Minghao, but a few robots would stop him. He needed to figure something else out, although he stumbled in his steps when Minghao changed his tune and he heard the screeching again. He had to fumbled around with the mask controls again so he wouldn’t be incapacitated. Once he was good he looked over to see Minghao wasn’t even watching him, but more focused on the music, clearly not affected by the melody the same way he was. He continued to move around and avoid the robots, trying to think of a plan. He looked at the settings on the mask to see if anything was helpful.

Besides the night vision there didn’t seem to be anything else the mask could do. Although he soon discovered he could control something else with the mask. All peacekeepers kept a baton with them, something he had taken as well. One would think it was normal, but from what Mingyu was seeing it had a stun option. He put the electricity to the highest voltage it could go and then activated. Surely with a weapon like this he could deal with the robots and get to the conductor. He didn’t approach any of the robots, wanting them to come to him so he could strike the best he could.

He was nervous with the first robot, knowing very well if this failed he was screwed. The first swing made contact with the robot’s head, causing an explosion of sparks, and the robot was knocked down. It seized and certain parts were shooting out sparks, but it seemed to be down for the count. Mingyu was satisfied with his new weapon, not afraid to take on the rest of the robots around him. He didn’t want to get cornered so he continued to move around, trying to get closer to Minghao while taking down robots and making sure the music didn’t throw him off. At one point he came face to face with two of the machines and stung at the closest one. Although his baton went right through it and the robot itself disappeared.

The moment of confusion cause him to let his guard down and the other robot, which was real, managed to grab him. He struggled in their grasp, managing to press the baton against its torso and get free. Now he had a new problem, not all the robots around him were real, and he had no way to tell them apart. His eyes focused on Minghao, starting to realize the music wasn’t just to mess with him and control the robots, but possibly causing these hallucinations as well. The only way to end all this was to take him down. Mingyu took in his surroundings, planning out the best route and executing it.

He dodged as many robots as he could, and took down those in his way, reaching Minghao and tackling him to the ground. The other had realized too late that Mingyu had gotten close, getting pinned to the ground. The moment the music stopped everything changed. The theater was no longer pitch black, and there was no violin. Minghao was holding his wand and glaring up at Mingyu while he tried to free himself. Although Mingyu had a goal in mind, keeping Minghao pinned as he snatched the wand out of the other’s hand, taking off his mask.

“Let’s see if the same trick works twice.”

Mingyu snapped the wand in half, causing Minghao to scream in agony. Mingyu had no idea why that was the reaction, but he didn’t care for it. He threw the pieces to the side and made his way back to the stage. The lights suddenly went out again and he stopped, Minghao’s screams fading away. He looked back to see something glowing in the darkness, but the sound of the stage lights turning on caught his attention. He went up to the stage, seeing it was illuminated, and that someone was present. This new conductor took a bow, and then he found himself yanked up into the air by some unseen force.

“Welcome to the stage.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“… where am I…?”

As you regained your senses once more you realized your environment had changed again. You were no longer in the theater, but a much brighter place. Different types of machines surrounded you, and you were sitting on some sort of examination table. You carefully got off, needing a moment for your legs to adjust. You tried to remember how you got here, but it was all a blur and thinking about it gave you a headache. Regardless of what you remembered, you knew that you needed to leave. You began walking around, looking for an exit. You thought you were alone until a rather familiar voice startled you.

“Welcome.”

You jumped and looked back at the source, seeing a boy with white hair, the one from the theater. They offered you a smile and bow, the same glowing wand in hand. You swear a moment ago there had been no one else present, and yet suddenly he was here.

“… hello…”

“Apologies for skipping parts, but I’ll introduce myself now. My name is Hoshi, welcome to the Metronome Theater.”

“… how did I even get to the theater? I was working and then…”

“We had some of our robots escort you here. The Maestro is eager to meet you.”

“The Maestro? Who’s that? Why… why me…?”

“You’ve heard them play the piano before, haven’t you?”

“… piano… you mean that was coming from here?”

“Yes. Not many can hear the Maestro play the piano, which is why they brought you here.”

“I don’t understand…”

“I assure you there’s nothing to be afraid of. Come, they’re waiting for you.”

Hoshi gestured for you to follow them, and you hesitantly took a step forward. You should have asked to leave, yet those words never came from your mouth. You were more curious about this Maestro and the piano you had heard. Many times when you told the others they had no idea what you were talking about, and this was proof you weren’t hearing things. So you followed Hoshi, wanting to know more. You came over to an elevator, stepping inside and seeing the button for seventeen light up. Hoshi merely smiled at you.

“You… you said not many can hear the piano… who else can hear it?”

“As far as we know, it’s just you and me.”

“You hear the piano too?”

“I’ve been the only one for a long time. It’s why the Maestro was so eager to meet you.”

“But how did you find me?”

“We have eyes and ears everywhere.”

“But down in the theater… what happened?”

“I assure you the Maestro will explain this all to you.”

When the elevator doors opened Hoshi gestured for you to step out, and then led you down another hall. You came to some double doors and then they opened on their own inviting you in. The room was grand, and quite empty, with no real furniture around, but what stood out was the piano. A gentleman was playing, the melody instantly captivating you. Your feet moved on their own, walking closer and closer to the piano, only stopping when the music did too. The gentleman stood up, greeting you with a smile.

“Hello, I’m the Maestro of the theater, but you may call me Woozi.”

“It’s… it’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Likewise. I’ve been looking for someone like you for a long time.”

“Like me?”

“You’re very special my dear, come, would you like me to play for you?”

Woozi came over to you and took your hand, leading you over to the piano. He had you sit, taking a seat next to you. He let you run your fingers along the keys before he started playing. There was something incredible about hearing the music so up close and personal. Your body swayed from side to side a bit, watching his fingers work. Occasionally Woozi would glance your way, able to play without fully seeing the keys. You didn’t know how much time passed as you listened to the beautiful melody, but it was suddenly rudely interrupted.

A screeching, feedback loop, type sound snapped you out of your daze, causing you to place your hands over your ears. You screamed, doubling over and falling to the ground. Despite the pain you became aware of something else, feeling this small metal disc against your head, and ripping it off. The pain immediately began to subside, allowing you to breathe. Although you couldn’t say the same for the other. Woozi was still in pain, stumbling around but ultimately falling to his knees.

“Hoshi! Find Joshua, now!”

A moment later Woozi seemed to calm down, getting back on his feet. You on the other hand remained where you were, unsure of what had just happened. When Woozi noticed you he put on a smile and made his way over, although you crawled back and he stopped.

“You have nothing to be afraid of. Are you alright?”

“What just happened… who are you… what’s going on…?”

“Take it easy. I can explain everything.”

Woozi reached out his hand to help you up, but you were reluctant to take it. He seemed to understand and knelt down, grabbing the little disc off the floor. He examined it before reaching over to put it back on your head but you swatted his hand away.

“What are you doing?”

“Truth is, I need your help, y/n.”

“Me? For what?”

“To change the world, to save it.”

“What?”

“There’s no music out there, no passion, no joy… I want to change that.”

“How?”

“Maestro.”

Hoshi interrupted, seeming to have appeared from nowhere. Woozi gave you a smile and went over to the other.

“What happened?”

“Some intruders in the theater rushed the stage and broke Joshua’s wand. He’s stable now and is being taken to the medical floor. As for the intruders, they’ve been thrown out, and the theater is currently locked down.”

“Good. Keep an eye on the situation.”

Woozi dismissed Hoshi and turned his attention back towards you. Before you could say or do anything you heard the sounds of a piano, a recording that is. You began to feel at ease, the melody washing away your tension and worries. Woozi came to your side, placing the disc back on your head and you felt a little spark of electricity coarse through you. Then he helped you to your feet and brought you back over to the piano.

“As I was saying before, my music is special, able to reach a person in a way nothing else can.” The music stopped, giving you a moment to regain your senses. “But it can’t reach everyone, not yet that is.”

“What did you do to me…”

“It’s rather difficult to explain, but my musical composition is able to lull people into a sort of trance, like putting them under a spell. Although it doesn’t work on everyone.”

“I… I still don’t understand what this has to do with me…”

“The piano is one of my greatest instruments. Yet for the longest of time it seemed that no one could truly hear the melody besides Hoshi, then you came along. I need your help in understanding what it is that draws you in. Specifically your brain waves, and how they react to my music.”

“Then… the device on my head…” You slowly reached up to it. “It’s monitoring my brain waves?”

“Recording them, yes, with your help I’ll be able to share my music with the world.”

“But if you’re… putting people… under your control then-”

“I don’t have any ill intentions. I just want to bring music back to the world, to bring peace.”

“… what if I refuse to help…”

“I’ll be honest, you don’t have a choice. You won’t find a way out of this theater, and as you know my music can start playing at any moment. Many of the robots and robo-dogs have been modified with speakers. You can’t escape.”

“… oh…”

“I want your help willingly, but I won’t let you leave either.”

“I understand…”

“You don’t have to be mentally present if you don’t want to.”

“I’m sure things will be better if I am. I also want to know what’s truly going on.”

“Thank you.” Woozi took your hand and kissed it. “I’ll continue playing now.”

There was still a lot on your mind. You were worried about your friends, but Woozi made it very clear you were stuck here, at least for the time being. Of course all your concerns were washed away when the music started playing. You were helpless to resist, finding yourself on cloud nine while you listened, the time passing by without meaning. When you finally had a chance to regain your senses you found yourself alone at the piano. You could vaguely make out voices around you, but you were focusing on getting your head on straight.

“Dino is monitoring the situation.”

“Thank you, Hoshi.”

Once your head wasn’t spinning you got up, looking over to see Woozi by himself. You swore you heard Hoshi before, but it was just the two of you in the room.

“You back with us?” Woozi questioned. “How about a tour? The others would like to meet you.”

“Others?”

“I don’t do this alone.”

Woozi hooked his arm around yours and led you back the way you came, or at least that’s what you thought, there was no way to tell. You came to an elevator, Woozi hitting the button for the eighth floor. It was a quick trip and once you arrived Woozi led you down a hall. You came to a huge room full of monitors, seeing the outside world, some still images and others in motion. There was a gentleman at a desk, browsing through some of the screens, but upon hearing you two he stood up to greet you.

“Maestro, what brings you down here? I see you have a friend.”

“This is the girl I was telling you all about. Y/n this is Dino, our eyes and ears.”

“Ah, nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

“So you… like, run security here?”

“No, that would be Seungkwan. I keep an eye on things outside the theater. I was the one who found you, fascinated by a piano that no one else could hear. I’m quite jealous, I’ve always wanted to hear the Maestro’s music.”

“It doesn’t affect you?”

“Unfortunately not, but you’ll be able to change that.”

“You really think so?”

“I believe so.”

“Hoshi told me what you were up to earlier.” Woozi mentioned. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, although we might have some guests soon.”

“Prepare for them.”

“Will do.”

“Let’s go meet some of the others.” Woozi said. “Come now.”

You merely went up one more floor, to the ninth, coming to a much different area. There were parts and machinery all around, kinda like some workshop. Many robots were around as well, seeming to be working on different things. You were quite fascinated as this reminded you of home, and the mess of electronics Vernon always left lying around. There were two gentlemen in the room talking, but their conversation ceased when you two entered, both greeting Woozi.

“It’s nice to see you as well. This is y/n, our special guest, y/n, this is Seungcheol and Seungkwan.”

“Hello…”

“Seungcheol works with the robots we have here, and with Seungkwan, who is in charge of security here.”

“I… I think I saw Seungkwan earlier… at the theater.”

“Yes. I’m also the director. I hope you enjoyed the show.”

“I did. May I ask what goes on here? This is a shop, isn’t it?”

“It’s my shop.” Seungcheol explained. “I work on some robots, a bit of cosmetic work but mostly programming. I have an implant that connects me to the robots in our network which makes it easier to do my job.”

“So you build robots here? I thought only the government did that.”

“I don’t make them, just some modifications, but Seokmin does create some pretty unique robots. You’ll like his workshop.”

“Speaking of.” Woozi interrupted. “Why don’t we go see him.”

Another elevator trip, this time going up to the twelfth floor. Just as Seungcheol said, this place was another workshop, although there were far more robot pieces lying around. You thought maybe other robots would be around, but there were only a few. If you didn’t know any better you’d think the floor was abandoned, but Woozi led you through everything with purpose, knowing exactly where to go. It wasn’t long before you came across another person, another two. One was lying on a table, and the other at the side looking at a computer screen. Without saying anything the one at the computer stopped and looked back, smiling at Woozi.

“Maestro, what brings you here?”

Then the person lying on the table sat up, startling you a bit, but they quickly apologized. You assured them you were fine, and apologized yourself as you didn’t mean to intrude on whatever they were doing.

“So this must be the girl you mentioned before.”

“It is. Y/n, meet Seokmin, and Jun.”

“Hello…”

“You’re very pretty.” One commented. “I’m Seokmin, and this is my shop.”

“Yes, Seungcheol mentioned it to me, he said you build robots.”

“I do. The Maestro is kind enough to let my imagination run wild.”

“What do you make robots for?”

“No real reason at all, it’s just fun. Besides, my skill set is very helpful for Jun.”

“Jun? Why?”

“I have a few robotic parts myself.” Jun explained. “So that leaves Seokmin, and Seungcheol, as my doctors.”

“Oh, that’s interesting.”

“Just doing some routine maintenance now.”

“I never would have thought you were a cyborg.”

“My handsome face hides it well, right?”

“I worked on that face so I can take partial credit.” Seokmin joked. “I used myself as inspiration.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Since you two are busy, we’ll leave you then.” Woozi said. “Shall we.”

Everyone you had met so far was interesting, and it made you wonder how they all wound up here. Although now you were very curious about one in particular. So you decided to ask as you made your way to the next floor.

“May I ask something?”

“Hm?”

“What happened to Jun?”

“Peacekeepers. He stole something and they hunted him down, beat him to a pulp and left him for dead. It happened in my area, and I wasn’t just going to watch the boy die. My people brought him here and fixed him up. He had some severe wounds which required different treatment, with his consent of course.”

“So… those that are here… they know what you’re doing, right?”

“Of course.”

“And they’re okay with it? They’re on board?”

“Yes. They understand what I’m trying to do here and believe in my cause. They’re here to help me, and I appreciate them.”

“They’re here because they want to be, yet I can’t leave.”

Woozi chuckled. “You’re a special case.”

The doors opened and you arrived to the fifteenth floor, where you had originally woken up. It made you a bit nervous to be back here, but Woozi seemed calm as usual. Last time you were here it was quiet and felt abandoned, but now you could hear machines operating, and a few muffled voices here and there. It seemed that you were heading towards those voices as they got louder and louder. You came over to a group of people, seeing a gentleman lying in bed, two others at his side and Hoshi looking at the monitor.

“Maestro, you’re here.”

“How is he?”

“Stable and recovering.”

“And the rest of you?”

“Fine. Although we should be asking you. The sudden disruption-”

“I’m alright.”

“And her?”

All eyes suddenly turned to you, making you nervous. Although now that you had their attention you realized the gentleman dressed in black seemed familiar.

“I’m okay… but what… what are you talking about…?”

“I haven’t explained all that yet.” Woozi admitted. “We can do so now while you get examined.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You can have a seat over here.”

You were led over to one of the beds nearby, taking a seat and having Woozi remove that little chip on your head. While that happened the gentleman in black asked a question.

“Did you enjoy the show?”

“Ah, yes, it was lovely… uh… I hate to ask… but have we met before?”

“I would say so. I’m Jeonghan, I was the conductor for your show. This is Minghao, and our friend who is recovering is Joshua. You’ve met Hoshi, right?”

“I have. Then, are you all conductors?”

“We are.”

“So what happened to Joshua?”

“You felt it earlier.” Minghao commented. “That shrieking. Some bastard broke Joshua’s wand.”

“The conductor wand?”

“Yes. They’re much more than they seem.”

“But why would breaking that hurt him?”

“We’re all connected here.” Hoshi mentioned. “Through this neural network and the Maestro’s music. The conductor’s wand serves as a way to keep them connected, while also allowing them to access the true power of the music.”

“It’s more like it flows through us.” Jeonghan explained. “And we can manipulate it from there.”

“You mean control people.”

“One can do much more with lots of practice and patience.”

“Like what?”

“You’ll see.”

From what you could tell Woozi was downloading the contents from the chip, your brainwave readings. Your eyes lingered on Joshua as he laid in bed. You remembered the headache from before, so you couldn’t imagine what he had felt if he wound up unconscious. Although a moment later the boy jumped up from the bed, clearly panicked. The others held him down, hoping to keep him from hurting himself. Hoshi gently placed his hand behind Joshua’s head and the boy seemed to calm down.

“You’re alright.” Jeonghan assured. “The others are fixing your wand and Hoshi is keeping the connection stable.”

“Where are they…”

“Gone. So don’t worry about them.”

“They were looking for-”

“We know. You can say hello.”

“Huh?”

Jeonghan gestured over to you, and Joshua’s eyes followed, seeming to be surprised. He offered you a weak smile, trying to figure out some words.

“Hello… you doing okay?”

“Uh, yeah. Are you?”

“I’m fine. How do you feel though? How was the music?”

“Beautiful. It lingers in the back of my mind.”

“You should let me perform for you sometime.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“I’ll give you a show as well.” Minghao added. “So look forward to that too.”

“Alright. I will.”

“The data looks promising.” Woozi stated. “Shall we move on to the next phase?”

“Next phase? What’s that?”

“It will be much easier to monitor you when you’re directly connected to our network.”

“Wait, you want to put something in my head? Like an-”

“It won’t hurt at all. Honestly you’ll be-”

“No, no I said I’d help you with this but-”

“This is part of it.”

“But… I…”

Minghao came over to your side and held out his wand. You stared at it confused, not sure what he was implying.

“Since you’re the Maestro’s special girl, you’ll be able to feel the power before you’re fully connected. Go on, grab it, tell me how you feel.”

You hesitantly grabbed the wand, not feeling anything at first and then it slowly began to hit. You felt this warmth starting to grow inside you, to spread and open up your senses. The melody in the back of your mind was starting to become clearer and you could remember its beauty. Perhaps this feeling was like getting high, and you couldn’t help but giggle. Although the feeling didn’t last long as Minghao took the wand back, quickly leaving you feeling cold.

“Wait-”

“Sorry, but since you’re not in our network it’s dangerous for you to hold a wand for too long. But I’ll tell you this, that feeling will only be better once you join us.”

“This is all really starting to sound like a cult…”

Minghao chuckled. “If you want to see it that way, but the Maestro is right, we need you.”

“And I can’t refuse…”

“Do you want to? Leave that is. Do you think you could walk away now? You’d probably still hear the Maestro’s music playing out in the streets. Could you resist the urge to come back?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“I do.” Jeonghan admitted. “I tried walking away, but you can see how that turned out.”

“What… what’s gonna happen to me?”

“Right now I need to administer a sedative.” Woozi explained. “You need to be in a relaxed state both physically and mentally before we can begin the procedure. Then you’ll just sleep. When you wake, well, I can’t really describe the sensation since it’s always been with me. Although I’m sure one of my conductors can.”

“It feels like truly waking up.” Joshua recounted. “You realize that you were never actually awake until that moment. Your senses are heightened, and you can feel this energy in the air. The feeling only grows stronger when there’s music and it creates this harmony within you. It might not be easy to understand the Maestro’s music or intentions, but once you reach this deeper level of connection it all makes sense. You feel bits of it now, and that’s what draws people to the theater. It’s what ultimately brought you here.”

“Oh…”

“May we begin?” Woozi asked. “Or do you need a moment?”

“No… you can start.”

Woozi gave you a smile and stepped over to a table near the bed. He grabbed a needle and vial, filling the needle. You watched intently, starting to feel a bit nervous. He asked for your arm, which you gave, watching as he stuck the needle in you and emptied out its contents. Afterwards he had you lay down, telling you that you’d feel the effects soon.

“I’ll go get Seokmin, I’ll return shortly.”

Minghao offered to go with Woozi, needing to talk to him about something. Jeonghan took over from there, attaching some patches and wires to you. Hoshi came to the other side, looking over the monitor. All this was making you more uneasy.

“Wait… wait-”

You reached over to grab Hoshi’s arm, only for your hand to go right through him like he was some sort of ghost. You looked up at him with wide eyes, glancing at your hand as if something would change.

“… you… you’re not real…”

“I am.” Hoshi assured with a smile. “I’m just not physically here.”

“… what… what happened?” You asked. “I… I’ve been curious about you… with everything Woozi said…”

“Hm. Shall I tell you a story while you drift off?”

“Okay…”

Hoshi glanced back at the monitors, making sure everything was alright. Then you noticed a chair roll over to your bedside, Hoshi taking a seat. You knew he wasn’t physically present but he was trying to seem as normal as possible.

“I’ve known the Maestro since we were kids, we grew up together. He always had an affinity for music, and we’d do our best to scavenge for instruments or parts to make our own. Neither of us realized at first, but when he played, he drew me in. This energy surrounded him, making it seem like the world wasn’t such a bad place. Eventually the Maestro became aware of how I’d get when he played, he was worried but I assured him I was fine and wanted to hear more. That’s when he started performing for others. Many who heard his music had a smile on their face, and the world seemed like a better place. I believe he would have been content just playing on the streets for random strangers, but you know the city. One day peacekeepers came, and I couldn’t let the Maestro get hurt. I told him to run and I took the fall.”

“I was hurt badly and left for dead. When the Maestro found me again he feared he would lose me. Everything was hazy, but somehow the Maestro got help, and that’s how he met Seokmin. They stabilized me, but I wasn’t exactly conscious. I wasn’t very responsive, but apparently I still reacted to the Maestro’s music. It gave him hope, and so they tried something else to help me. The Maestro met Seokmin’s friends, Seungcheol and Dino, and they put something in my head, letting me project my consciousness outside my body. The guys did a bit of adjustments and here I am.”

Despite everything you had been told you couldn’t help but reach up, wanting to touch Hoshi’s face, but once again your hand just went through him. Hoshi chuckled, giving you an amused look.

“Sorry.”

“… where… where is your body?”

“Somewhere in this building.”

“… are you okay?”

“Yeah. It’s been a while but I’m making progress. I’ll be up on my feet soon.”

“Woozi really cares about you…”

“He does.”

“Because… your situation… is that why he needs me?”

“Yes. Although I know you would have come here eventually. The music is so beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“You should close your eyes and sleep. I’ll have a surprise for you when you wake up.”

A small smile appeared on your lips, and you gave a little nod. It was already a bit of a struggle to stay awake, so you closed your eyes and let yourself sink into the darkness. You were still nervous, not knowing what would happen, but by now it was far too late to object.

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“If I agree… do I get to see y/n?”

“That could be arranged.”

“Fine. I’ll see what’s going on with your cult.”

“Not a cult but-”

Seungcheol groaned and grabbed his head, falling to his knees. Jun also screamed and fell back on the table, thrashing around a bit. Even the other two seemed to be suffering from some sudden headache. Vernon was left unaffected, and he had seen this scene before, back at the theater. Although he had no idea what was going on. He thought to use this chance to get out of his restraints and try to escape, but Dino wasn’t affected as badly, so he knocked Vernon down to the ground. A moment later it seemed the headaches had passed, and they were all recovering.

“I should probably go check on our guest after this.” Seokmin commented. “Take care of Jun.”

“Yeah. We’ll follow shortly.” Seungcheol assured.

“Wait, guest?” Vernon questioned. “You mean y/n?”

“Maybe.”

Seungcheol checked in on Jun, seeing the boy was just catching his breath. He looked over his vitals again, assuring the boy he was fine. They all were.

“What happened to you all just now?”

“It’s complicated, but we’re fine.”

“Are you? I saw this before with Joshua, the conductor, when his wand broke. Why the hell does that hurt, why does it hurt all of you?”

“We’re connected.” Seungcheol admitted. “And you’ve been interfering with it, but if you’re truly on our side, you won’t be a problem anymore. I can’t say the same for your friend.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’ll see.”

Vernon was still uncertain about everything, but he knew he had to go along with this to see you. By now his own personal curiosity had also taken hold and he wanted to know what was really going on in this theater.

“Our presence is requested at the theater. Let’s go.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

Wonwoo felt the pull of the wand, but despite Joshua holding it out for him, he was not allowed to touch it. There was some disappointment, but he wasn’t going to voice that. He had made his choice, and he wanted to see what came of it. Joshua smiled, glad by his decision and then led the way further into the lab. Wonwoo followed, not sure if he should speak, although he soon rushed past his guide. He came to another room lined with beds and noticed one was occupied, seeing you. He ran over to the bedside, taking your hand and calling your name, but there was no response.

“What did you do to her!”

“She’s fine. She’s merely resting after the procedure.”

“What procedure? What are you talking about?”

“She chose to join us, and thus became part of our connection. It’s a painless procedure. One you’d surely participate in if you’re serious about your choice.”

“When will she wake?”

“Soon. Hoshi should be by momentarily to check on her.”

“Who?”

“You’ve seen him before.”

Wonwoo still didn’t really understand, but you were the bigger concern. He was mostly glad to have found you again, although this wasn’t the state he was hoping to see you in. A moment later he saw someone else approach the bed. He looked up to see another boy at your side, white hair, looking at the screens, and very familiar to Wonwoo.

“It’s you…”

“Hello. You won’t attack Joshua again, will you?”

“No… no… but you… how… how is she?”

“Stable. She took everything well, and should wake soon.”

“Are… are you the Maestro?”

“No, but I’m flattered. My name is Hoshi, and I’m the internal conductor.”

“Internal conductor?”

“The Maestro has a multitude of conductors to spread their music, but I do not leave the theater, and I keep everyone connected. I’m actually very glad to properly meet you. I have a proposal for you.”

“For me?”

“Yes. You have a strong connection to the Maestro’s music. You felt it during the show, moreso when you held Joshua’s wand. You have the potential to be a conductor, and your ideal physical state would make you a great one.”

“You want me to be a conductor?”

“You’ll come to truly understand what we do here, and wield power unlike anything you could imagine.”

“And why would I accept? You kidnapped my friend, and hurt the others.”

“I saw your little trio trespassing into the theater. We could have thrown you out, but we didn’t. In fact you would have come back on your own, the pull of the Maestro’s music is very strong. You came all the way here. Do you really think you can walk away now?”

“You-”

Wonwoo’s words were cut short as he heard a groan, looking over to see you moving and whimpering. He was excited to see you waking up, holding your hand tightly.

“Y/n, it’s me, can you hear me?”

It took a moment for your eyes to adjust to the light, but you thought you were dreaming when you saw Wonwoo. His familiar smile made you feel warm, and then you felt his hand, realizing this wasn’t a dream.

“Wonwoo… how…?”

“Hey, how are you feeling? Are you alright?”

“I… I’m fine… but… when did you… get here?”

“Your friends came looking for you.” Hoshi stated. “And I wanted to speak with Wonwoo.”

“Oh… is everything okay?”

“You tell me. How do you really feel?”

“I…”

Your senses were starting to come back to you, but it was certainly different this time. You could feel this energy in the air, but more importantly you could sense others. Joshua had this glow around him, as did Hoshi, but Wonwoo didn’t. You could sense the presence of the two, and then had a feeling in the back of your head of others close by. As you were lost in thought you saw Hoshi reach over to caress your cheek, and to your surprise you felt the warmth of his touch. You looked at him with wide eyes, reaching over to take his hand in yours. It didn’t feel like Wonwoo’s hand, but different. Almost like a ghost, just on the edge of physicality, like the flow of water or a cool breeze.

“How…?”

“You’re part of our network now, you’re connected to the rest of us so my essence is that much stronger for you to pick up on. Strong enough to be physical, even if just a bit.”

“It’s incredible.”

Wonwoo had been quietly watching the whole time, not really liking the situation. He reached over to move Hoshi’s hand, but he couldn’t touch the boy. His hand passed right through the other, confusing him as you appeared to be able to make contact.

“What is this…”

“Power.” You mumbled. “It’s in the air and everywhere. Only when you’re connected does it manifest into something more. Like the music. When you really listen to it, you open your eyes to a whole other world.”

“Very poetic.” Hoshi chuckled. “You’re very good with words.”

“I guess… but what did you want to talk to Wonwoo about?”

“The Maestro would like for him to be a conductor.”

“Really?”

“He has great potential.”

“That’s incredible Wonwoo.”

“I don’t know what any of this means, y/n.” Wonwoo reminded. “I only came here looking for you.”

“I’m sorry… I really wouldn’t have wanted to worry you, but things were out of my hands.”

“I’m sure they were, but we should get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving Wonwoo, I can’t.”

“What do you mean? What did they say to you?”

“They just told me about the Maestro, and what he’s doing. I want to help him.”

“You don’t know him.”

“Not truly, not yet, but I’ve seen enough to know that I want to help. There’s this energy, this warmth inside of me because of the Maestro and I know the world would be a better place if everyone could experience this. They’re not evil, Wonwoo. You should stay too actually. The things we could do.”

“I’m not so sure I understand what they’re talking about.”

“All the more reason to stay and find out. Together we-”

Your words were cut off as a searing pain overtook you. Wonwoo could only watch as you suddenly began to scream and thrash. He tried holding you down, hearing similar cries of anguish from Joshua. The boy had collapsed to the ground. Hoshi wasn’t as affected, seeming more irritated than anything else.

“What’s happening!?” Wonwoo yelled. “What did you do!?”

“It’s your friend who did this!”

Hoshi seemed to glitch out of existence, leaving Wonwoo alone to worry about you. He didn’t know what to do in order to help you, but the pain didn’t last too long. After a moment you seemed to calm down, although you were whimpering and seemed very out of it. Joshua stumbled to his feet, not in a good condition himself, but he was worried about you. He looked over at the machines, making sure all the readings were well.

“What happened?” Wonwoo asked again. “What was that?”

“Your friend broke another wand.”

“I don’t understand, will y/n be okay?”

“Yes. I’m sure Seokmin and Hoshi will be here any moment now.”

“Why are you on your feet?!”

Another boy suddenly came rushing into the room. He grabbed Joshua and sat him down on the nearest bed, getting him to lie down.

“I’m fine, Seokmin.”

“Sure you are. Not like you’re still recovering from the last incident.”

“I was checking on y/n.”

“I’ll do that, you just relax.”

Seokmin went over to the monitors, completely ignoring the other. A while later another rather familiar face showed up. The director, Seungkwan, came up, and Seokmin told him to look over Joshua. Wonwoo stayed quiet and watched Seokmin like a hawk, remaining silent until a needle was pulled out.

“What’s that for?”

“A minor sedative. She’s gonna need it in order to stabilize.”

“Where’s Hoshi?”

“Dealing with Minghao. I’m sure he’ll be back momentarily.”

“Are you sure she’ll be okay?”

“Have a little faith.”

It was good to see you at ease with the sedative. You weren’t unconscious, but you certainly weren’t all there. Wonwoo was glad to keep you company, listening to you tell him about the theater and the Maestro. He wasn’t sure if any of it was real, or just propaganda you had been fed. Still, he just wanted to make sure you were alright. Although you were asking him to stay, to take on the roll he had been offered, but it wasn’t that simple.

“You know Vernon and Mingyu are here too. We got separated and-”

“Vernon is with the others down on the ninth floor.” Seokmin interrupted. “As for Mingyu, who do you think is causing all this?”

“Oh…”

“He’s made it far enough.” Seungkwan added. “Jeonghan will deal with him.”

“Jeonghan?” You questioned. “What is he gonna do?”

“Nothing bad, I promise.”

“Let me talk to him. I can reason with Mingyu. He’s only here and causing trouble because he’s looking for me. Please.”

“Y/n.”

“I don’t want to be the reason something bad happens to anyone.”

“Let her.” Joshua cut in. “It would benefit all of us.”

“Fine. I’ll have the others gather around as well.”

“Where are you going?” Wonwoo asked. “Because I’m going with you.”

“To the grand theater on the thirteenth floor.”

♩. ♩. ♩. ♩. ♩ ♪ ♩ ♪ 𝅗𝅥.

“Put me down!” Mingyu screamed. “Now!”

“Why would I do that? You’ve been nothing but trouble.”

“You must be the Maestro then.”

“I’m honored, but no. My name is Jeonghan, the lead conductor. You should have stayed out, but you don’t seem all that bright. Since you didn’t learn from your past mistakes, I suppose it’s only fair to teach you properly.”

Jeonghan got into place, as if he was performing, but there was no audience, and no orchestra. He didn’t need that.

“I’ve always wanted to perform this piece. I hope you like it.”

Jeonghan took a breath and closed his eyes, beginning his performance. It seemed rather funny at first, to see him leading the air, but then Mingyu began to hear it. A slow and steady rhythm slowly becoming audible. Mingyu had an idea as to where this was going, but before he could get the mask back on it was ripped from his hands and fell off stage into darkness. In a matter of seconds the music was loud and clear, but it wasn’t this shrieking sound. Instead it felt like this pressure in his head. Mingyu screamed, there was nothing he could do to make this pain go away. The pressure was gradually increasing so it was only a matter of time before he passed out. He had to do something.

With the bits of conscious thought he had left he tried to come up with a plan. Jeonghan was engrossed in his performance, eyes closed and moving with such fluidity. The only thing Mingyu had was the stun baton. He had one shot to use it, and if he failed it’d be all over. He focused on his plan, getting the baton and figuring out how to throw it before electrifying it. The task was complicated, but he didn’t have much time, so he took his shot. He aimed for the chest and electrified the baton, throwing it with all the strength he had. The pain grew worse so he couldn’t see the outcome, but hearing a scream and falling to the floor was answer enough.

Mingyu groaned from the impact, but he forced himself up. He stumbled as his body was aching and he had yet to properly regain his senses. Still he managed to get to Jeonghan, ripping the wand from his hand. Although before he could do anything Jeonghan had gotten the stun baton and hit Mingyu with it. Now the two were down and recovering from being electrocuted. The wand fell from Mingyu’s hand and rolled away, at least it couldn’t be used against him for the moment. Since Jeonghan had been hit first, he recovered before Mingyu, managing to get back on his feet. He held his hand out and Mingyu watched as the wand returned to him.

“Clever. Maybe you’re not all that dumb, but your game ends here.”

Jeonghan walked over to Mingyu, staring down at him before placing a foot on his chest. He put pressure and watched as Mingyu squirmed, attempting to get him off. When he managed to get some movement he used it to get out from under Jeonghan, rolling away and getting onto one knee. Before he did anything else he heard another voice and looked over to see that at the other end of the stage there was a boy with white hair, and a glowing wand in his hand. The same boy he had seen before.

“Enough.”

“I had this under control.” Jeonghan stated. “I didn’t require assistance.”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“You must be the Maestro.” Mingyu breathed out. “What took you so long?”

“I’m not the Maestro, but I was sent here on their behalf. You’re not worth their time, but we’ve all had enough of you hurting us. Jeonghan.”

“I know.”

Before Mingyu realized it he was back in the air again, although not so high off the ground this time. The white haired boy walked over to him, glaring.

“Hoshi, stop!”

Despite your state you rushed onto the stage and grabbed Hoshi. Your hand slipped through him a bit, but he still moved because of your touch. His gaze shifted to you and softened. He wouldn’t act for now, you trusted that. Wonwoo stayed behind with Seungkwan, watching.

“Y/n, are you okay!?” Mingyu asked. “Did they hurt you!?”

“I’m fine. Can you put him down?” You asked Jeonghan. “Please.”

“I don’t believe that’s a good idea.”

“Jeonghan.”

“Do it.” Hoshi said. “We outnumber him anyway.”

Mingyu was gently let down, and as soon as his feet hit the ground he stepped towards you and pulled you into a hug. You were a bit amused by his actions, but didn’t mind. You hugged him back, assuring him you were alright.

“Everything’s okay. I’m sorry I made you worry.”

“I know it’s not your fault. I’m just glad you’re okay. Let’s go now.”

Mingyu took your hand and started pulling you along to step off the stage but Jeonghan got in his way.

“You’re not leaving.”

“Get out of my way.”

“Mingyu, please don’t fight. Look, I don’t want to leave this place, I’m not going to leave.”

“What?”

“I know things didn’t go so well at first, but they’re not bad people.”

“They kidnapped you.”

“Not really. I came here because of the piano, because of the Maestro, and-”

“I know what their music does to people, and it’s clear you’ve been affected.”

“It’s more complicated than that.” Wonwoo cut in. “She’s made it very clear she’s not gonna leave.”

“So then you’re gonna stay with her? We were attacked by peacekeepers and robots, not to mention Vernon is still missing.”

“Not anymore.”

Wonwoo gestured out to the crowd as he saw the doors open. Vernon and a few others entered the theater. As soon as Vernon saw you he ran up to the stage, no longer restrained in any way. He came to you and embraced you in a hug. The trio that escorted him up remained out in the aisles, watching.

“They didn’t hurt you or anything, right?”

“No, not at all.”

“Good. So we can leave now?”

“Apparently not.” Mingyu stated. “She doesn’t want to leave. The music has gotten to her head.”

“Y/n, this place-”

“I’m not brainwashed or anything! Woozi told me what he’s doing here, and what I can do to help. So I’m not leaving. I’ve already explained some things to Wonwoo. You don’t have to leave either, you guys can help too.”

“I’ve already heard the story.” Vernon mentioned. “I’m not sure I’m on board. Being involved with a revolution, we’re practically signing our death certificates.”

“A revolution?” Mingyu questioned. “Is that what these nutjobs think they’re doing?”

“They’re not crazy.” You countered. “I know what they’re doing, and I know it’s gonna work. Woozi just needs my help so his music can reach everyone, including you guys.”

“I’m not gonna leave you here to be a pawn in their game. If they want to start a revolution, they can try, but none of us are taking part in it. Wonwoo, tell her this is crazy.”

“I don’t know…”

“So they got to you too. Vernon?”

“They’re kinda scary with the tech they got here…”

Mingyu scoffed. “I cannot believe you two. Are you seriously considering this?”

“I’m not so sure we have much of a choice anymore…”

“Then I’ll leave on my own.”

It really felt like this whole thing was all for nothing, but Mingyu wasn’t going to stay where he wasn’t wanted. Although Jeonghan stayed where he was.

“Move.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Jeonghan, just let him go.” You said. “I’m not gonna make anyone stay.”

“That’s not your decision to make.”

“What?”

“The Maestro has no intention of letting any of you leave.”

Mingyu was suddenly up in the air again, Vernon as well. You glared at Jeonghan but he merely shook his head at you. This wasn’t his doing, but the Maestro’s.

“This is not what the theater is for.”

You looked back to see Woozi walking towards center stage, Minghao, Joshua, and Seungkwan at his side. Everyone was present now.

“Minghao, are you alright?” You asked. “A moment ago-”

“After the earlier incident we’ve created contingencies.” Minghao explained. “Much faster recovery time. Are you alright though?”

“Better now.”

“You should be resting.” Woozi stated. “Not down here.”

“I wanted to talk to my friends. Make them see reason.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“So it’s you then.” Mingyu cut in. “You’re the Maestro.”

“Yes, I’m the Maestro, and you’ve been trespassing.”

“I’m more than happy to leave now.”

“I’m sure you are, but that is no longer an option. You forfeit that when you set foot in my theater.”

“Look, I want nothing to do with your little revolution thing, so I’ll keep my mouth shut. You don’t have to worry.”

“But I do.”

Woozi brought Mingyu closer to him, bringing the peacekeeper mask to his hands as well. He examined it with an amused grin and then looked up at Mingyu.

“You went through a lot of trouble just to see me and now you want to leave. Kinda disappointing. If you want to play dress up though, how about I make it real. Why don’t you become one of my peacekeepers.”

“What?”

“I’m always in need of more peacekeepers. My music can only reach so many at the moment, but someone like you could lead them. You could actually embody the name they carry.”

Mingyu scoffed. “Are you seriously offering me a position when I already said I want nothing to do with you?”

“Your words are surely disappointing y/n, but I’m not asking. I know you’ll truly come around eventually. Same for Vernon.”

“What the hell are you talking about!?”

“Y/n cares about you. The last thing I want is for her to be upset.”

“Wait, Woozi, I don’t-”

“Hoshi.”

“Yes, Maestro.”

Hoshi came up behind you, placing a hand against your face. Your eyes went wide and your vision went dark. You felt this sudden warmth spread through you, calming your nerves and pulling your consciousness under into tranquility. Your eyes glazed over, starting to glow just as a few glowing veins spread around from where Hoshi’s hand made contact with you. His own eyes were glowing, completely engulfed in white.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

“Silence.”

One moment everything was normal, and then Woozi’s eyes were glowing, and the same had happened to the others. The conductors moved to the edges of the stage, silent and without emotion. Then they began moving in unison, performing a silent melody. Wonwoo felt a change in the air, something moving through the empty space, partially making him dizzy. He stumbled and took a step back, shaking his head to stay awake. Although he soon noticed Mingyu and Vernon were passed out, and dropped on the floor. The others had come to the stage, grabbing the two and removing them.

Wonwoo took a step forward, wanting to stop them, but that seemed difficult at the moment. He couldn’t reach either of his friends, and you were clearly unavailable as well. All he could do was watch, not understanding what was happening, but still being hit with this energy and staying put. Then Woozi glanced over at him, a smirk appearing on his face and walking over to the boy.

“That leaves you.”

Now Wonwoo knew he was stuck in place, those glowing eyes sending a chill down his spine. Everything in this theater had been strange from the beginning, but this was starting to let him know just how dangerous it was to be here.

“You can’t fully hear my lullaby, but you can feel it, can’t you? Only those outside my network will be affected, but you are dancing the line.” Everyone spoke as one, following the Maestro’s lead. “You don’t have to worry about y/n. I don’t want her to remember any of this and I have the means to guarantee that. So it’s just you and me now.”

Just as Woozi said that he snapped his fingers, everyone else disappearing. Now it really was just the two of them but Wonwoo could still feel the energy in the air, feel this melody in the back of his head. The others weren’t really gone, just invisible to him now. He knew that for sure as Woozi’s voice continued to boom with the echo of everyone else speaking with him.

“… what… what do you want…”

“The answer is very simple.”

Woozi held his hand out, a wand manifesting out of nowhere, glowing brightly. It was just like the one Hoshi had. Woozi seemed to examine it for a moment before holding it out to Wonwoo.

“I could use a conductor such as yourself. Someone who will be much better at guiding y/n due to a personal connection. You are free to refuse, but not many can, not an offer like this.”

“Why ask if you seem to know the answer… did I ever really have a choice? Did anyone here?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Woozi chuckled, his laughter echoing in the theater. “Does it?”

“… no…”

Wonwoo reached out to grab the wand. It wasn’t like before, this energy felt stronger, and it hit him like a crashing wave. Everything around him seemed to stabilize, and those that had disappeared were back in view. The glow of the wand traveled down to his arm like veins, and he could feel them digging deep and planting roots within him. This sensation was only growing stronger, and he knew at that moment he’d never let it go.

“What do I do now?”

“Follow the Maestro’s lead.”

56 notes · View notes

gothsalt27 · 11 months ago

Text

Decided to make a complicated diagram of the main people in RB but it’s not gonna fit words so I’m writing everything here. All of the info is going to be the basic info for lack of spoilers and lack of time to write.

Long infodump under the cut:

Obviously, we have the siblings; Hamatos, Umigames, the step siblings. But how are they with each other?

The Umigame twins have a very rocky relationship with each other, but they do need each other and have been each others safety for years.

The step siblings… well. The usual. Kendra manipulates Jase etc. eventually Jase stands up to her though, after mutation.

The Hamatos are mostly the same, but now have new concerns for each other: Leo’s avoidant behaviour, Donnie’s smoking, Raphs meltdowns, Mikey’s tremors. Also, Frida isn’t a Hamato

Then we have the romantic relationships

Aris and Donnie go from strong loathing to severe codependency. They’ll get antsy if they haven’t seen each other for a more than an hour. Jason and Aris go from friends to partners, but Donnie and Jase are very jealous and often are competitive with each other, sometimes even after actually getting together themselves.

Kitsune and Chizu ran away together in their early teens, as Kitsune was homeless already and Chizu was suffering in the Neko Ninja clan. Very in love. They’re wholesome. Judge people together.

Leo and Usagi, the stars of the show, have a very shit relationship. They’re very loving and caring in human form, at first not knowing the other wasn’t truly a human person. Leo struggles with saying I love you, and it hurts Usa a lot, but he tolerates it for his comfort. But in their natural forms things are really… Okay they’re just really complicated and you’ll see

While also dating Sheena, Jennika eventually ends up with Frida and Plato as well. The two end up together as a frenemys to lovers first, and Jenny is an eventual addition. Jenny and Frida work as big mamas assistants together, Frida having worked for her since childhood

Other Relationships

Plato is best friends with Raphael. They wrestle, have feelings jams. She’s also the person she ends up sharing a room with when the Umigames are forced to move in. Aris, however, is intimidated by Raphael, and tries to leave her alone. She scares him.

Plato isn’t too close with Mikey, but they sometimes cook together. Aris also isn’t too close with them but they give him little Dr Feelings sessions, which he used to ignore until meeting Dr Delicate Touch.

Plato is also pretty close with Leo, but they tend to make fun of each other. Since Leo reminds Aris of his twin, he finds him annoying and doesn’t like his company… much. Sometimes he’s tolerable.

Plato doesn’t like Donnie at all. He went from hurting her brother and now he’s in his pants? Hell no! She annoys him a lot. He doesn’t like her either. She’s worse than Leo.

Leo and Donnie don’t trust Frida, and neither does Raph but she… tries to be nice. Mikey LOVES her and considers her family even though she isn’t related to them in the slightest. It’s a lot like the Draxum situation.

Aris doesn’t just not trust Frida, he HATES her. Which sucks, cause if he got past his Big Mama Trauma TM, they’d probably be close friends.

Mikey is very close friends with Jennika and goes to her for intel on Big Mama, Leo thinks she’s dope, Raph sometimes spars with her. Donnie doesn’t like her but they’ll tolerate her presence. She’s useful.

Everyone fucking hates Kendra. Except Kitsune, Kistune thinks she’s cool as fuck.

Donnie has Kitsune steal things for him, and he’s pretty good friends with Chizu because Autism to Autism Communication.

Gen and Raph are also pretty close! They met before the rest of their little teams met each other. Small world.

Mikey likes Usagi, but nobody else in the family trusts him. The boyfriends get NO trust in those families.

Gen took Chizu and Kitsune in when they were younger. His parents were never home anyways. Eventually he decided he was adopting Usagi as a little brother too. They’re family now. You can’t stop him from collecting siblings.

Aris and Chizu made out once when he was 15 and she was 16 and then never talked about it again. They’re casual friends now. Don’t really talk much.

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simthorium · 2 years ago

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“Oh, damn it!” Rumi said, waving away the smoke her burnt pancakes were giving off. “It’s cool, I’ll just tell everyone Ollie made these.”

“Oh nice, just what I wanted for breakfast on finals day, a piece of concrete,” Noah said at his stack of burnt pancakes. “Thanks a lot, Ollie! I swear, those little freshmen are gonna be toast without us.” “Yep, totally,” Rumi said, choking her pancakes down.

It was the end of the school year, which meant the seniors would be taking their finals. Noah and Coriana checked and double checked their term papers while David struggled to complete homework that was due months ago.

After finals were over, it was finally time to unwind! The year was over, summer was fast approaching, and the seniors would be graduating and moving onto adulthood. “So, what’s next for you guys?” Ollie asked his older cousins. “I’m moving downtown,” Noah said proudly. “That’s where the hottest chicks are.” “Can it, dweeb,” Rumi said. “Me, Noah, and Coriana are gonna get an apartment together. Save some money while we work. I’m hoping Uncle Gregory can hook me up with an internship at his lab.” “I’ve got several job offers lined up,” Coriana said proudly. “Nerd,” Noah coughed. “Well, I’m gonna get an apartment by Caleb,” Leigh said with a smile. “I think it’ll be nice for me to be close to him, plus his daughter is so cute!”

The next day was graduation day! Coriana, Noah, Rumi, and Leigh were decked out in their graduation robes for the big day. Like the dozens of graduates before them, they posed in front of the Greek letters for a pic.

“Congratulations, cuz!” Miles Jr. said to Rumi. “I’m really happy for you guys. It’s sick you get to still live together after this. I’m gonna miss you.” “We’ll miss you too!” Rumi exclaimed. “I know Noah liked giving you kids a hard time, but it was really dope being with you guys again. Make us proud!”

“No no no no!” David said, covering his ears. “The Dark Wizard is totally a reformed man, dude! Did you even watch the same movie as me?!” “You’re delusional,” Leigh said as the two argued. “Just because a man makes a half-hearted apology for destroying an entire realm doesn’t mean he’s reformed! You need to get your brain inspected!” “Ugh, whatever! I can’t wait til you guys are outta here and I don’t have to listen to bad movie opinions anymore,” David said. “You’re totally gonna miss me, huh?” Leigh asked. “Yeah, these jabronis don’t know good cinema,” David sighed.

Soon, it was time for the taxi to come and take the graduates back to Pleasantview. They hugged and kissed and said their goodbyes to their younger cousins, then were quickly whisked off to the adult world.

#Zarro legacy #generation 7 #Rumi #Noah #Coriana #Leigh #Zuri #David #Ollie #Miles Jr

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avaliveradio · 2 years ago

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ZUSO Atmospheric single 'Higher' takes listeners on a stellar trip

Everyone loves danceable beats but there is another level to dance music that will take you to the next level escapism. The type of music that makes you forget about your daily grind, the type of music you close your eyes to and let yourself get lost in. It’s easy to dance to, but it’s even easier to lose yourself in.

ZUSO is an atmospheric-house project from Australian producer Gabriel Cuenca that is built as an elaborate soundscape taking the listener on a stellar trip. The music is designed to be an escape from reality, taking the listener on a journey through space and time. It’s got all the elements of a classic house track but with a twist; it’s full of emotion and feeling. You can tell this project was made by someone who really knows how to make music that’s not only easy on the ears but also makes you feel something.

I also love the concept of music as an escape to a euphoric ambient world. It's appealing and paints a picture that things can be different if you choose to listen.

The single is progressive and modern with a wonderful flow and vibrancy. If you close your eyes I believe it can lift the soul and improve the mental health of listeners it resonates with.

Keep up the great work.

Music Review by Jacqueline Jax

Featured on the Curators Picks Playlist

Listen on Spotify

Also featured on the Dance Music Playlist: Here

About the artist

ZUSO is an atmospheric-house project from Australian producer Gabriel Cuenca, who has a sound that can be likened to a mix between Lane 8, Flume and Rufus Du Sol.

Over the last few months Gabriel has been busy working on a collection of new ZUSO singles that he will be sharing with us throughout the year, and he is excited to be kicking things off this week with his latest offering, ‘Higher’.

Gabriel notes that the main concept behind the ZUSO project is to create music that people can get lost in or escape to, so he builds these elaborate soundscapes filled with daydreamy atmospherics and euphoric ambiance, and if this first single is anything to go by, we are in for quite a treat from ZUSO over the coming months.

“The idea for ‘Higher’ came from me stumbling across this sample/template online. It was a fast-paced drum and bass styled beat with these somewhat dreamy pads and chords as the melodies.

It’s the first time for me experimenting with a fast tempo drum & bass styled track, but I felt it fit my vibe really well and thought it was really cool. As a lot of the stuff I work on is focused around progressive house/melodic beats, I thought it would be interesting to change it up and still keep that dreamy atmospheric type of vibe, just with a faster beat.

So that’s what happened. I then applied some of my own sounds and presets, added some dreamy melodies and it all just flowed really nicely. I also thought it was cool with the two breakdown sections where I actually sampled a cabin crew speech, preparing the passengers for take-off which kind of builds up the anticipation to the drop and is also something very unique and different. This was then complemented by a little vocal sample saying ‘Take Me Higher’ which conveniently was in key and worked really well, that’s where the name and concept of ‘Higher’ came from.

Overall, it’s just a really cool and interesting track, it still has a chilled ZUSO vibe to it with a more break beat and danceable feel, but also still has that sense of escapism which is dope. It’s awesome to now be able to showcase my music in different ways and styles that people can still get lost in or escape to and I’m excited for what’s next! ~ ZUSO

‘Higher’ is available everywhere now.

Stream: https://msdistro.lnk.to/Higher

Artist Connect:

https://www.facebook.com/ZUSOMUSIC/

https://soundcloud.com/zuso-music

https://twitter.com/MusicZuso

https://www.instagram.com/zuso_music/

https://www.tiktok.com/@zusomusic

Credits:

Produced by Gabriel Cuenca (aka ZUSO)

Mixing & Mastering by Dan Konopka

Artwork by Eclipse_visuals

Press Photos by Karlo Apostol

#pop music

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casliveblog · 2 years ago

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Custom Toonami Block Week 127 Rundown

Inuyasha: So right where we left off last time and someone fucking left a boiling pot of water overflowing in the school kitchen and that’s a terrible idea even when there’s not dangerous dehydrated fungus demons threatening to pop out from every corner. Still the fungus demons are so laughably not a threat, they don’t even get close to attacking anyone and can basically be punched into dust so most of the episode is this funny little farce of Kagome balancing between the biggest social threat she’s ever faced and the smallest physical threat she’s ever faced. Admittedly she does have some cool moments of storming the convenience store to replace the food and ad-libbing the whole play scene, no wonder Yashahime stole this plot point to do in like a quarter of the time frame. Watching Hojo try and rush a giant mushroom that was nowhere in the script with a toy sword and having Inuyasha Wind Scar the entire gym is pretty entertaining, really gotta wonder how the school justifies all the collateral damage as ‘just part of the play’ like when I was in High School the staff flipped their shit when someone put soap in the water fountain so I can’t imagine how destroying half the auditorium is just like ‘yeah okay, things happen’. Also Kagome’s family is pretty funny with Sota carrying on the running gag from the episode with his crush and thinking he can really use Inuyasha’s attacks and Grandpa trying to use his absolutely worthless sutras on dudes in costumes while Kagome’s Mom tries to rein them both in (I didn’t realize they never gave them names until Yashahime and it’s really weird, like at least the anime made up names for Kagome’s friends when Rumiko didn’t do it for them so idk why they couldn’t pick something for her mom and grandpa). Also the classic ‘oh everyone’s in cosplay so they don’t notice the fantasy main character’ deal is pretty funny since I actually recognize a lot more anime than I did when I first watched this, I guess Japan’s a lot more lax about cameos like that than the West is.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke’s fight with Doctor continues and the guy tells him he works on One Piece rules and the only way to stop his virus is to forcefully knock him out but thanks to his powers he’s on the spirit equivalent of Trucker Anti-Sleep Pills so the only way to stop him is to kill him and they do this whole Dark Knight Joker thing and it’s hard to tell if Doctor wants Yusuke to kill him and stain his hands or if he’s counting on Yusuke just letting everyone die and not killing him in a fit of rage after which judgding by what happened in the Dark Tournament would definitely happen. Like he seems to be betting on Yusuke not doing it and genuinely fearful for his life when Yusuke looks like he’ll kill him but at the same time he keeps egging him on There’s a lot of cutting around in this episode while Yusuke agonizes over killing a human which like I mentioned last time seems kinda racist given all the virtually indistinguishable demons he’s killed but okay. To be fair at least he makes up his mind to do it relatively quickly and goes to just fucking disintegrate him with a Spirit Gun but Clone Ally Stand User guy takes the form of a sick nurse and gets captured to be a hostage before throwing acid in his face which is pretty dope but like Yusuke had the guy dead to rights so idk why he had to get involved at all unless he was just not wanting Yusuke to blow the guy’s head off but even after the acid thing they’re still basically in the same situation so idk what that accomplished really. Doctor tries to bargain with a cure for his life but Mind Reader Stand User Guy comes in to tell them the cure is fake which it’s kinda nice that all the Stand Users get something to do given they can’t really fight on their own. Yusuke decks Doctor through a window which is apparently enough to kill him after all his ‘I’m a doctor so I told my spine to not break’ shenanigans and everyone (including Keiko who is there to be a damsel but Yusuke is legit the only one who doesn’t know she’s there so what’s the point I guess it’s just for our benefit? That’s kinda silly) is cured. Genkai does Spirit CPR on Doctor to bring him back to life and is like ‘this guy doesn’t deserve it but you’d be a mopey little bitch if you killed someone and we got shit to do so don’t worry about it this one’s on me’ and the more I think about it the more I realize Bleach just kinda stole half its plot from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Fate/Apocrypha: It’s the start of the final fight and everyone has their big ‘goodbye and stay alive’ speeches before they set off with a fleet of airplanes to Semiramis’s Hanging Gardens. Everyone on the enemy side wants to punch Shakespeare in the face which is understandable given he presumably become a Heroic Spirit solely based on having the world’s most punchable face and they navelgaze for a while about if it’ll be cooler to see Shirou succeed or fail and it really doesn’t amount to anything. Shirou goes into the Bigger Cup to do Bigger Cup things and meets Iri who is apparently still the projection of the Grail’s form even in this world even though Zero didn’t happen in this AU idk how that works but he wants to summon Sakura’s Route of the original and idk what that means exactly but feel all the heavens you want kid, go nuts I guess. Anyway there’s a lot of airplanes and Atalante has her eyes solely set on Jeanne d’babykiller and won’t listen to orders to take like five seconds and blow up the planes that Achilles misses so if there’s something important there it’s all her fault. Also Chiron shoots down Achilles’s chariot with the arrow equivalent of Hellzone Grenade and has them fighting on one of the planes, though given Atalante demonstrated that Semiramis can just open portals for them and Chiron can’t fly idk what’s stopping him from just destroying the plane and dipping out to let horse boy fall to his death. Anyway yeah just kind of a fight setup episode which is fine, Sieg and Astolfo are off being gay somewhere and Mordred’s presumably got her biplane ready to swoop in at some point so we’ll see how this goes.

Speed Grapher: So this episode has Saiga being chased through the subway tunnels by Mr. Speaker Politician guy and apparently it’s really hard to kill a Euphoric with vibrations because this guy absolutely blasts Saiga to hell and despite killing normal dudes in under a minute Saiga has like three brain hemorrhages and stays standing. He uses his mini-camera to blow holes in the walls to keep running away while the guy monologues on about how Saiga just documents pain and suffering for glory and doesn’t help anyone and how only politicians and powerful people can enforce order for the good of everyone. I mean to be fair a couple of the pictures they show in this episode of like bleeding children reaching out to him do show Saiga as more focused on photography than helping the suffering but that doesn’t mean his photographs did nothing either. Meanwhile, Kagura, Friend Doctor, and Shady Doctor have been abducted by Politician guy’s friends and Shady Doctor was apparently promised Kagura for his research and when he finds out he’s not going to get her he straight up abducts her and drinks the carrier virus for Euphorics. Now all he has to do here is kiss her and get superpowers and since the bodyguards are breaking down the door while he’s doing this he has to be quick right? Except he decides instead of just going for a kiss to see if he gets extra superpowers from full on sexual assault and it’s really pretty hard to watch. It’s kind of funny how confident he is that he can fuck Kagura quickly like he’s that sure he’s a three pump chump but luckily we don’t have to find out because the guards bust down the door before he can even really undress Kagura. Still Kagura’s understandably shaken by the whole affair and it’s kind of really hard to see her go into full PTSD mode and briefly turning against Friend Doctor in a rage given it was hard enough for her to take just being forced to kiss random guys at the beginning of the series, though if it’s any consolation Shady Doctor just gets dragged out of the room with his pants down. Ginza and Saiga’s boss finds the White Eagles all dead and she looks at Joe’s membership list for the Roppongi club and sees the head of the police department is on it and since she can’t find Saiga atm she’s just like ‘well better go kill my boss’ which is kind of an odd swerve given how focused on Saiga she’s been this whole series but maybe she’s become self aware of how she’s always a step behind him. Turns out her boss is the opposite of the guy from the beginning of the series with a hand fetish and he’s the foot fetish guy that cuts off legs and mounts them in his study because we’re not done with the weird fetish shit yet. He captures Ginza and straps her into a full on sex chair so this is not a good episode for our heroines not getting sexual assaulted like geez we really hit the gas on that real quick, luckily Ginza’s probably smart/strong enough to get out of this so hopefully next episode she’ll shoot her boss in the head. Meanwhile meanwhile, Saiga’s pinned to a railroad track by Politician dude’s vibrations while a train’s coming. His eye’s on the fritz which feels weird given he DEFINITELY has not been using his Euphoria Factor as much as much as the rich weirdoes he’s been fighting but maybe it either dies quicker because it’s all focused on his eye or Suitengu has treatments for Club Member Euphorics to extend the longevity of their superpowers like he does for himself but needless to say unless Saiga gets the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan soon he’s gonna go blind. Politician dude knocks his main camera out of his hand but luckily Saiga’s able to make his way over to him and just put his little camera right up to his chest and blow a hole right into him with the line ‘If your picture’s no good, you’re not close enough’ which is fucking badass. So now going into what looks to be the final arc Saiga’s half dead crawling through a subway, Ginza’s in a sex swing and Kagura’s going through sexual assault trauma, so… yeah not looking great.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Fate Apocrypha #Speed Grapher

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doycngs · 3 years ago

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jung jaehyun. | reiteration.

THE SEQUEL TO REPETITION! READ HERE!

summary. this time around, you have to prove a point to jaehyun when jealousy gets the best of him. but one thing he is glad for is that you’re forgivable enough to let him make it up to you.

pairing. y/n x nct’s jaehyun.

genre. established relationship!au, college!au

word count. 6k.

warnings. explicit smut, swearing, unprotected sex (wrap it up bois), dom!jaehyun, sub!afab!reader [she/her pronouns] slight cumplay, bondage again!, spanking, clit play, oral fixation (it’s what i’m calling it now idk), foreplay (receiving), dirty talk, degradation (receiving), slight choking, rough play, breeding 0_0, i think that is all + johnny is sleazy for plot purposes and um jae is a little bit annoying but it’s okay, we shall forgive him,,, he makes up for it bc he is a big dumb softie in the end <3

ah, return of the infamous jung jaehyun everybody has fallen in love with… some may be sad at this new development but i’ve added a small plot to this sequel, whoops! not proofread yet bc i wanted this out for valentine boy’s (late) bday! enjoy and dni if this is not for you, half of it is smut :)

|—————|

THE SECOND JOHNNY opened his mouth to compliment Jaehyun on how much of a catch you were, how lucky he was to have gotten you, you knew it was going to be a long night.

It was an annual end-of-the-year party for Jaehyun’s new firm he was currently working at. There were rare occasions where Jaehyun could bring you to work outings and since this dinner party, set at some fancy golf course, had plus-ones available, Jaehyun obviously invited you.

And oh, how excited you were. After all, you were pretty close to being a college graduate and never had many chances to dress up nicely. You weren’t much of a party-goer but fancy dinners did sound nice to attend once in a while.

So you tried your best with your appearance tonight. There’s nothing wrong with that. Jaehyun also loved it, considering how touchy and needy he was since you had slipped this heather mini dress on. He was tempted to just park the car on the side of the highway road and have his way with you after fantasizing far too much for safety purposes.

The only problem that Jaehyun did have was the comments you were getting from his coworker. He wasn’t all too close with everyone yet but he was shadowing Johnny as a lawyer and knew him much better than everybody else in the expansive room.

Maybe the reason why he was getting so possessive of you was that he knew how much of a lady’s man this dude was. And oh, was Johnny one.

“So how long have you two been together? For the six months I’ve known this guy, he’s bragged about his gorgeous girlfriend maybe once.” Johnny states over a flute of champagne, having politely grabbed two; one for himself and one for you out of courtesy. Jaehyun had to flag down a server for a glass himself.

You hum, smiling easily, “I believe it's close to three years now?”

Looking over to your boyfriend, his jaw tightens as he catches Johnny’s eyes wandering when you look away. He couldn’t punch his superior and cause a fight, right?

A call of his name from your pretty lips to take Jaehyun out of his violent imagination. “Oh, uh… yes. Three years. We met on my birthday.”

“Oh, that’s dope. February…?”

You butt in, your exaggerated interest (at least in Jaehyun’s warped mind) making his blood boil. “14th! He came into the flower shop I was currently working at to buy flowers for his mom. Kept coming in and giving her an abnormal amount of boutiques until I asked him out.”

“Oh, really?” The biggest smirk plants onto Johnny’s face at the new information, eyes flying over to his shadow, “I’ve never heard this story before.”

Giggling as you recall the fond memories, Johnny’s eyes are glued to you permanently, “He’s probably a little embarrassed. After I got Jaehyun’s number, he accidentally texted me his panic attack to his friend, Sicheng, on what to message me first.”

Johnny practically guffaws at the story which Jaehyun didn’t find that amusing, the most passive-aggressive smile on your lover’s face.

You suck your lips into your mouth at the sight, deciding to reign in your usual desire to brag about your boyfriend. And yes, you consider outing your boyfriend’s clumsy messaging habits as a brag. He was endearing.

Jaehyun settles his hand lower on your back, gently pushing you in a certain direction. “We’ll be right back. Gotta go figure out our seats.”

Johnny nods in agreement, saying he should do the same as the three of you part, Jaehyun’s tight hold on your hip signifying his annoyance.

Side-eying his expression, now dropped of pleasant formalities, you brush your hand onto your boyfriend’s.

“Jae, he’s just being nice—”

“You’re joking, right? He was obviously flirting—”

Here we go. The cycle is starting all over again. You thought you two were past this.

You halt on your way to searching the next circle table, bringing Jaehyun to look back and stand before you. “This is what we are not going to do, okay? Even if he’s flirting with me, ignore it.”

Jaehyun rolls his eyes, “No, I can’t ignore it. He’s been eye-fucking you since we’ve arrived!”

You grab onto your boyfriend’s shoulders, his nice hair that parted so neatly tonight already messed up from his anger. Attempting to smooth that crease out between Jae’s flawless skin, you rub up and down on his forearms.

“Then just let him. I don’t care because I’m yours and you shouldn’t either at this point, considering how much work you’ve done to get this far and shadow such a great lawyer at this firm. Don’t throw this all away for me.”

Jaehyun grits his teeth, his ears only attuned to further enrage the burning fire of green jealousy in his chest. You instantly catch onto what your boyfriend is caught up on, huffing.

“It’s two hours and then we’re gone, okay?”

When Jaehyun bites the inside of his lip, you repeat yourself, “... Okay?”

“... Fine.”

Breathing out a sigh of relief, you turn him back around and allow Jaehyun to continue trying to find your name tags at the assigned tables. You pray that Johnny doesn’t make any more out-of-pocket comments or do anything else that was slightly incriminating.

Just for the sake of his physical safety.

|—————|

The night’s luck was not on your side because you and Jaehyun were placed at the table adjacent to Johnny. Johnny kept throwing his head back and whispering what sounded like jokes into your ear, which of course, your boyfriend seethed at.

You tried hard to not seem so amused but the man’s dad jokes were out of this world. Since he gained a good reaction from the first, Johnny’s gigantic storage of them in his head had been spilling out his mouth nonstop.

At a particularly funny one, you’re covering your mouth and bent over in trying to be quiet, Jaehyun silently grasping your elbow. Biting your lip to drown your giggles with pain helps in calming down, especially after you gaze at Jaehyun’s expression again and he looks insanely pissed at his superior. And now you for entertaining the latter.

By the time all the good-natured speeches are over, plates of appetizers and entrees come whisking out. You momentarily forget about the entire dilemma for the sake of enjoying good food, free of charge. At the moment, you don’t realize your natural way of moaning at how good the lamb chops are is distracting to Jaehyun and unfortunately Johnny.

After what sounded too excessive for the situation, Jaehyun scolds you with a heated whisper in your ear.

“Stop making those noises, please. It sounds like I’m fucking you.”

Your brows furrow at the comment, bummed. The corners of your mouth are downturned for being yelled at, bottom lip jutting out.

As the night continues on, the pout stays, especially at how you just being yourself starts to irk Jaehyun. The chastising starts to hurt a little and you want to mention it to Jae, just in the way you two promised you were going to mention anything to one another that bothered you two… but then you’d be hypocritical.

After all, you were the one that pushed Jaehyun’s attempt at speaking his mind with Johnny. You should push yours aside for the end of the night too.

Jae’s last comment about making you cross your legs though makes you see red. You really didn’t need snides about your posture or how to be “lady-like”, anything of that sort. You had expressed to Jaehyun multiple times how uncomfortable you were with those types of remarks and it felt like, under this blinded emotion of jealousy, all the comfortable moments you’ve spoken what’s on your mind had vanished from your caring and attentive boyfriend’s memory.

You don’t mean to start giving Jaehyun the cold shoulder, you just get lost in your head, the both of your bad moods feeding off one another.

From how long you’ve been dating one another, the one thing Jaehyun could not stand for was the silent treatment. You know this very well and yet Jaehyun notes of your silence before you realize it yourself, now fuming at your behavior too.

The two of you end up leaving after dessert is cleaned off, way too early to be professional. Your worry about Jaehyun’s reputation clouds your unintentional muteness for a moment as he leads you two to the foyer, a staff member going to get your coat with the number you hand off to them.

“Are you sure you want to leave now?” The incredibility in your tone doesn’t help the stoic look on Jaehyun’s face.

“Yes.”

It’s a short response that has you sighing past your nostrils. Back to your silent treatment, it was.

“We’re gonna talk in the car.”

You only hum in response, forcing Jaehyun’s palms to curl into a ball. He’s had enough; Jung Jaehyun hates arguing with you.

Just as he turns to fully face your side profile, to address everything and scream his frustration out, the person comes back with your coat.

The staff member is kind in opening up your pea coat for you to step into but Jaehyun takes it from the person’s hands, allowing him to be the one to do so.

Tonguing your cheek in exasperation of Jaehyun’s irrational possessiveness, you tug the jacket on in one smooth motion, not wanting to be physically close with your rude boyfriend currently. You lead in the way to the revolving door and stalk to the car, the pain in your feet from wearing heels fueling your anger even more.

You yank the offending shoes off before Jaehyun can even unlock the vehicle, exhausted from this night now that you two were leaving. Once he does though, seeming to take his sweet time in reaching the car, you step in with a huff. Twisting the knob to blast the heat, Jaehyun climbs to the driver’s seat and buckles himself in.

He isn’t even looking at you.

“Buckle.”

You honestly want to not follow this man’s orders just to irk him, screw your welfare at this point.

“I said buckle.”

The commanding voice most of the time turns you on. But right now, it was just twisting your insides and making you feel stupid. Childish.

Jae finally turns his head to see your chest rising and falling way too fast to be normal. Swearing under his breath, he leans over the console, acting like he was wasting his energy to yank on the cable for you. You deny the urge to tug Jaehyun’s hands away to do it yourself, not wanting to break your own promise of not touching him.

It’s silent all the way to the freeway, where your insistent sighs finally make your boyfriend snap.

“Please stop sighing.”

“No, I’m mad at you.”

“Oh, you’re mad at me? That’s rich with how you were and are currently giving me the silent treatment.”

Your habit of biting would make your lip bleed at this point.

“Of course, I didn’t want to talk to you, when it seemed like if I opened my mouth, you would scold me for it. And why were you so fucking rude to that coat person? They were just helping me!”

It’s the first point of this entire fight that would set off everything else.

“I was not rude.”

You finally turn in your seat, shocked at how Jaehyun was denying his blatant behavior just several minutes ago.

“Are you joking? You’re that fucking possessive of me that you can be the only one to help me put a damn jacket on?”

Jaehyun lets out a shaky exhale, ticked off at your tone. His attempt to try and be calm is slowly deteriorating.

“That was not possessive. I wanted to put it on for you!”

“Really? You know— that is rich— thinking back to how you kept yelling at me for doing the smallest of things earlier.”

“I— I was not yelling at you, Y/N,” Jaehyun glances over at you, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel, “I didn’t mean them that way—”

“What other way could you have meant them?” You’re raising your voice now, mad beyond relief, “You have no right to ever tell me to cross my legs or not to talk, or to stop having the humor to laugh at jokes!”

Jaehyun tries to cut you off but you don’t allow it.

“No matter whether or not you’re jealous, I will never allow you to stop me from being myself. Screw you.”

It’s quiet in the car again and you know you’ve left your boyfriend speechless, grasping at some way to counter back.

“After what I’ve told you about how annoying it is to get those comments, throughout my life, you just throwing out all that I’ve said about it and telling me to close my legs, oh my—” You stop yourself, arms crossed and now facing the window, “I cannot fucking believe you. I don’t give a shit about pleasing your damn ego and saying that I belong to you anymore.”

“Baby—”

“Don’t baby me. I’m done. I really might break if you try to explain yourself to me right now. Please save it.”

You turn on the radio station to drown out the silence in the car, not able to stand it. As much as you stood by what you just said, you don’t like putting down Jaehyun either. You knew he was such a loving, caring boyfriend that would never just toss away your actual limits to things but it didn’t seem that way back at the party.

By the time Jaehyun reaches your apartment’s underground garage, you’re stepping out in bare feet. The look of concern you get from Jaehyun in your peripheral makes your heart twist more and you two step into the elevator in a stifling tension.

The ride to the floor is silent. And getting into the apartment is silent, spare for Jaehyun unlocking the door and letting you walk in first. You have the manners to thank him for doing so, no matter how upset you were within.

Trudging to the bathroom, you begin to wipe at the makeup on your face, sad that you had spent so long getting ready and dolling up to only leave an hour and a half in. You’re biting your bare lips, now gone of red tint, to stop from having your throat tighten up.

Jaehyun steps into your bedroom’s bathroom, sulking like a kicked puppy. He watches your eyes glimmer in the mirror and the way you’re unwilling to make eye contact. You knew that if you did, the tears would finally fall and you would rather not show how affected you were with this argument.

The effort you’re putting in to not cry though makes Jaehyun’s expression even hollow, furious with himself for going so far. For asking you to not do things without good reason, for letting his unhealthy jealousy get to him, for ruining the one night you’ve been getting excited for since he had asked you to attend the dinner party with him.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.”

You’re afraid that if you open your mouth, it’ll betray how bothered you were with Jaehyun.

“Please say something. I don’t want to go to sleep mad at one another.”

You’re stubborn tonight, not giving in to the urge to hug him yet.

“I don’t either. Let me shower first.” You sigh, bare-faced now. With your hand on the knob, you close Jaehyun out and take a hot shower, scrubbing the night away.

Jaehyun sits at the edge of the bed facing the door, hair now all ruffled and out of place with the way he runs his hands through the strands. His tie felt suffocating, his suit jacket felt suffocating. He tugs both off and sets them aside on the accent chair you insisted the bedroom aesthetic needed.

He looks around the room and notes how much of you you’ve managed to create in his space. He had gotten this apartment four years ago, never thinking or even considering having another being set up their life in here too. And now he can’t imagine the trinkets and books and scattered bits of you not being here.

Every time you two fought with pettiness, Jaehyun knew what he was upset about was never worth losing you. Getting jealous because of how insecure he was of keeping you was never worth losing you for.

So when you finally step out of the bathroom, all soft and wet and mellow, Jaehyun dies to tug you into his arms. Keep you by his side. But you side-step him and walk to the closet for a nightgown.

“Shower first please.”

His heart cracks just a little more. You wanted to talk this out just as much as Jaehyun but you needed a bit more time to think more things through.

Jae takes the quickest shower he could manage and comes out to you sitting on the bed, playing with the threads of the mattress. He tugs a sleep shirt on and sweats on and then he’s catching you into his hold finally.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I didn’t mean to ruin the night.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t mean to take it too far either. I let my jealousy get a hold of me.”

You look up to him, big eyes with genuine confusion. “Jae, I would never up and leave you for someone else.”

“I know,” He tugs his chin into his neck, playing with your hands in your lap, “I know that. I didn’t think properly at the moment. And I also just got mad at how my superior was disrespecting you. Did you really not notice how he kept looking at you?”

His large palm lands to curl around the side of your face. “I did but, Jaehyun, you were right there. And I told you I didn’t care. Even if Johnny tried anything, you were right beside me. I’m not mad at you just because of that. If he was going too far, I also would have told him myself. I’m capable of it.”

Jaehyun hides his face inside your wet hair. “You’re right, you are. I wasn’t thinking deeply about those things I said either.”

“Say them to my face again. Right now.”

“Baby, no.”

“Exactly. I’m just proving a point. Just please… don’t do that again. It hurts.”

Jaehyun cradles your face into his chest, teary. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

“Please stop saying sorry. And do better, okay? And I’ll try my best too as well.” Your small voice is muffled in Jaehyun’s shirt and you grasp at the back of his black tee tighter.

“Okay, I’ll do better.”

“I’m sorry for being stubborn. And giving you the silent treatment. I got lost in my head thinking about what you were asking me to do. Just tell me when I’m doing it, okay? I’ll stop.”

Jaehyun wetly chuckles at your maturity, so thankful to have you as the anchor in his life.

“Okay, baby. I will,” He pulls your pouty face away from his body finally, cupping your cheeks and squishing them, “I am so damn lucky to have you.”

You grin, “Me too. Love you.”

His heart soars, the biggest smile overtaking Jaehyun’s face as well. “Say that again.”

Pulling out of his embrace, you shake your head, fondly exasperated. “You big, overgrown child.”

Jaehyun whines, tugging you back into his space. “Just one more time.”

You huff under your breath, “Love you.”

“Last one.” He chirps happily.

Laughing, you push at Jaehyun’s chest. He doesn’t budge an inch and your back hits the mattress as a result as you laugh breathlessly.

Jaehyun climbs over your form, adoration in his coffee-colored irises. “One more time, please.” His voice is low and you sink your hands in the hair at the nape of Jaehyun’s neck.

He brings his lips closer to yours and you whisper the words against his pillowy mouth. “Love you.”

Jaehyun seals his lips to yours with the two words uttered, an overwhelming need to showcase his own love to you through actions. His tongue pasts the seam of your mouth, licking in and breathing hot. You fall easily into his ministrations and let him take control of the night. His stomach sucks in at the submissiveness you ooze, pulling away to place his arms beside your head and lock his elbows.

His gaze locks onto your glazed eyes and puffy lips, heart lurching. “God, I am the one that belongs to you. I cannot believe you’re real.”

You turn away, embarrassed. “You can’t say those things so seriously.”

“It’s true,” Jaehyun whispers to kiss at your jaw, tilting your face up for more area to mark, “I love you so fucking much.”

Giggling, the sound twinkles in Jae’s ears and he savors it, hands tugging at your waist. He urges you to grind up into him and you do so without complaint. Jaehyun controls your movements and lifts your hips to his crotch.

Brushing the hair falling into his eyes, you savor the warmth in them. They crinkle at the intensity in which you stare into Jaehyun’s gaze, rarely seeing you get so quiet and attentive like this.

“You okay, darling?”

“Hm,” You hum, playing at the thin gold chain on his neck, “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Can you…” Your face flushes, the desire of playing out your request making your cheeks heat up.

“What, baby? I’ll do anything you want tonight.” Jaehyun kisses your nose and you scrunch your face at the feeling. His hands roam your sides, now under your short gown and on heated bare skin. He mumbles a low “Warm,” between your breasts, love drunk.

“Anything?” You clarify.

Jaehyun stills at that. “Well… most things. What do you have in mind?”

Biting your lip, you look to the ceiling. “Nevermind.”

He doesn’t waver. “No no, tell me. I won’t be mean.”

“Promise?”

Jaehyun smiles at your cuteness. “Yes, you big baby.”

You pick at your bottom row of teeth. “Can you… um, tie me up again?”

Your stupid boyfriend smirks. “I’ve tied you up many times before, darling. You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

Horrified at the comment, you slap on his chest lightly. “I mean like… you know, near last spring… finals week…”

“Uh-huh…” He tongues at his cheek, “Remind me again.”

He pretends to play oblivious with the silliest little smile pasted on, the natural dimples making his arrogant face look more teasing.

“Jae, please. I seriously cannot say these types of things when I’m not fully turned on, it’s embarrassing.”

Jaehyun falls onto your hair, laughing earnestly. “Why are you always so scared to say it? It’s only me!”

“I just said it’s embarrassing!”

He curls his arms around you again, tight hold on your torso. “You seemed to have no shame that day though. I know what you’re talking about.”

“Exactly my point. So don’t play dumb and pretend you don’t know what I’m saying then.”

Jaehyun presses his mouth to yours again, the grin he has on morphing the kiss into just a peck. “You’re so adorable. I can’t.”

“Please just get on with this then, no more talking.” With your whining, Jaehyun chuckles as you pull him closer to your chest.

Interlocking lips once more, the kisses get more passionate and you tug on his tee roughly. Jaehyun pleases you by allowing you to do the honors for him, his toned skin always a sight for sore eyes. You’re desperate, tugging at his drawstrings (for real this time).

As if he remembers suddenly, Jaehyun grabs onto your wrists and plants them above your head before finally leaving your bottom lip with a soft bite. Sitting down on his heels, he pulls unties the drawstrings out of his sweats and you quite literally salivate at his veins in his hands flexing.

Satisfying yourself, you rake your nails through that trail of his. Jaehyun shivers a little at the feeling, watching the molten desire in your irises grow tenfold.

“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?”

“Please just shut up.”

He squints down at you, watching your pelvis begin to move back and forth on his right thigh.

“You know, I would usually tell you to watch your mouth and call you a brat but it feels wrong tonight.”

You moan at the enticement, hating your contradictory ways. Just a little more than half an hour ago, you screamed at him and now you were directly being hypocritical.

Jaehyun grabs a hold of your neck, kissing you softly once more. “What do you want? Tell me, love.”

You gather your own hold of his large palm snaked around your neck, guiding him to squeeze just a bit more. “I want you.”

“Do you want my usual?” He’s being careful and you grin with an uplifted hum.

“Your wish is my command.”

With that done and said, Jaehyun pulls you to sit up and tuck your knees to your chest before rolling you over. A squeal later, you allow him to gather your arms to your back.

“Stay like that,” Jaehyun steps off the bed and gets something from a drawer, making your nerves spike. The drawstring was just there now, what was he going to go get?

Just as you’re about to remind him, you hear the snap of leather and instantly jump and stiffen. A belt.

Jaehyun runs the material over the skin of your back, watching goosebumps rise along your skin in satisfaction.

“Color?” He takes the tip down closer to your clothed core and you clench at the feeling.

“Green, green.” Your breathless reply is slightly muffled from the way your cheek is smushed into the sheets.

Instead of wrapping the belt around your wrists though, they curl around just below your biceps, above your elbows, and loop behind your back, just tight enough to keep them in a good position. You’re still bound but can easily move your forearms around.

“Too tight?”

“No, it’s good.” You attempt to reach for Jaehyun’s palm splayed out on your lower back and it stretches your muscles. Falling back on the action, you abandon the effort to not get a cramp.

He swipes your hair over your shoulder and repositions you easily, lifting your legs to hike your hips up higher. Jaehyun reaches your clit, already swollen and ready to be stimulated, gently brushing against the nub over your underwear.

His abdomen stiffens at the sounds you make, so shaky and uncontrollable. Jaehyun wishes he could record it and play it back in his head whenever he wanted to.

“I’ll be nice tonight. How does that sound, doll?” Two fingers spread your lips, “Good?”

You grunt in reply, rearing your butt towards Jaehyun’s touch. What you don’t realize is that Jaehyun’s face is there and you bump your clit on his nose.

“Want me to eat you out?”

“Fuck, please Jae. Anything, at this point—” Before you can say more, he suctions his lips around your clit and flicks at it with his tongue through the fabric. Writhing at the pleasure, you die to dig your hands into Jaehyun’s wet mop of hair. Your toes curl and fingernails pinch at the skin of your palms, a cry pushing past your lips before you can help it.

Jaehyun hauls your flimsy excuse of underwear down your legs, not taking the time to hook them off your bottom half all the way before placing the flat on his pink muscle on your lips, thrusting shallowly into your sopping cunt while he massages at the meat of your ass. You can feel your heartbeat in your throat and permitting yourself to drown in how good it feels, your back slackens before your body sinks into the mattress further.

He doesn’t grant you any reprieve, roughly yanking at your hips to bury his tongue further within your clenching walls. He groans like a man starved as a sharp slap lands on one buttcheek, soothing the burn after by skimming over the newly irritated skin. His expert thumb begins rubbing at your clit, adamant on making you cum from his attentive care.

Your begs rise into a high-pitch, breathing heavy. Jaehyun’s long arms inch under the hem of your nightgown to tweak at your stiffened nipples, perk and sensitive at the touch. Your severe problem of always moving too much harshly causes Jaehyun to jerk back from your center. You moan at the loss of contact.

“Baby, behave before I make you, you hear me?”

“I was getting close, Jae!”

“No attitude. I don’t wanna punish you right now.”

You smirk out of breath, knowing Jaehyun will hear the enticement in your words. “If it’ll make you make me cum faster, fuck it.”

A tight grip wraps around your throat again and you shudder, loving the snugness of the action. It felt natural to have his hand there, so in control of the way you suck in air.

“You’re testing me.”

“And?”

You immediately regret your scoff of misconduct, the other cheek he hadn’t harmed earlier, even worse with a sting than the first.

“I honestly believe you like me treating you like this,” Jaehyun whispers, climbing over your vulnerable figure and in contrast to his unrestrained discipline just seconds ago, languidly grasping at your hair, “Don’t you? You like me, making you wet from the way I do?”

The gentle fingers that were combing in your hair tangle into an unyielding fist in a flash, forcefully twisting your face in the opposite direction from before. Jaehyun bends close to your heated face, the amusement at your quietness obvious in his curled lips.

“Gosh… I can’t wait to fuck you into this mattress.” He emphasizes his point by bucking his hips forward and you can feel the hard length through his sweats at your sopping center. You swallow down the moan digging up to your lips.

“Why so silent suddenly? Finally want to be a good girl and listen?”

The last sentence makes you grit your teeth. “No, not anymore really.”

“Fine,” The tone is final. Jaehyun gets out of your space, running his pointer finger down your spine. “All fine by me.”

Your mind turns at that, confused. You can’t predict what Jae will do next and can’t see well from how you’re positioned. From a guess, Jaehyun has pulled off his sweats at last.

You instinctively push at the pressure Jaehyun places on your core, swiping through your wetness only to retract a second later. Reminded of your stubborn hold on misbehaving tonight, you still your bottom from desperately bumping back.

He shifts to kneel right in your eye’s view on the bed, skin a glow from the lamplight on your bed stand. Jaehyun runs a haphazard hand through his damp hair while the other holds his hard member. Your stomach sucks in at the appetizing sight, eyes glued to the way his dick twitches.

His tight hold of your chin places enough strength in it to heave your upper half from the bed. Jae’s thumb pushes past your closed lips forcefully and then fights past your clenched teeth to plunge three fingers into the tight expanse of your mouth.

You whimper in complaint, his blunt nails scratching at your tongue to produce more saliva. Once satisfied, Jaehyun takes his now-soaked fingertips out, easing your jaw and humming. Thumbing at his blushing red tip with your saliva, he pinches your cheeks and pouts mockingly.

“Since you were so impatient, you’re going to have to wait a little longer now. How does that sound?”

Now you genuinely whine, helplessly watching as he lubricates himself with your spit and starts pumping with a firm clutch and loose wrist. Jaehyun throws his head back, eyes lidded and thick neck showcased.

Your fingers physically wiggle in the complaint. You can only hold yourself back for so long. The groan of gratification that escapes Jaehyun has you break in resolve, unable to handle watching this.

“Jae, please!”

He laughs with the hottest smile on. It sounds so damn attractive, you tremble. “No, I don’t give a shit. Just lay there with your needy cunt in the air and watch me.”

“Please, no. No no, you said you’d be nice.” Fighting to inch closer, at last, Jaehyun looks down at you and pushes hair away from your pained face.

“Color?”

“Green, Jae. Fuck.”

“You want me to be nice?”

Nodding resolutely, your mewl does little to deter Jaehyun from still jerking off. He licks at his lower lip, in dire need to compete with your strong will.

“Then beg.”

Huffing, you close your eyes. “Please.”

“Do better.”

The slick sounds of his hand moving on his member have your walls clenching down on nothing.

“Please, Jae. Please.”

“God, I wanna paint that pretty face of yours.” Your eyes are getting wet from how desperate you are.

Ass wriggling in the air, you sob out, “I can’t stand it anymore, Jae, I swear if you don’t fucking do something right now—!”

He chuckles and takes his hand away from his dick. Going down to plant a peck on your raw-bitten lips, Jaehyun gives into your commands without any more delays.

“So needy, my girl.”

Your thighs shake in anticipation, warm hands enveloping your waist and tugging it flush to Jaehyun’s stiff member. He ruts between your legs, bumping into your sensitive clit. You can’t hide your yearning anymore, moaning from the simplicity of being touched anywhere near your core again.

Jaehyun seizes the bottom of your thin gown, wrinkling it in his journey to shove it up to your armpits. You clamp down on the light silk material for Jaehyun to roam your breasts easier. Your shared moans of gratification at his tip catching on your entrance forces your butt to ram back.

“I gotta prepare you first, darling, relax for a second,” Jaehyun mutters breathless, quickly playing with your wetness now.

“No, no, I’m good. Please, Jae, I need you right now. Green, green, green.” You couldn’t care less how whiney you sounded anymore.

He sinks a finger into your hot walls and instantly starts pumping in and out, groaning obscenely at the temperature and feeling his balls tighten.

“I can’t, I’ll hurt you.”

“I couldn't care less right now, baby, please. Green!”

Jaehyun adds another finger, curling and scissoring to make sure. The whimpers flying out your mouth work in combination with the signature hard quivering of your entire body. From being held on the edge for so long, he isn’t surprised you’re on the cusp of an orgasm.

“I’m so close, Jae, I can’t—”

Rocking fast in tandem with Jaehyun’s thrusting hand, you come hard, moaning long into the sheets and drooling. You barely register Jaehyun retracting from your insanely tight pussy, only to replace his long fingers with his round tip.

Shoving past your clenched entrance, you’re worked into oversensitivity, edging on delicious pain and pleasure as Jaehyun knocks his way into you. Meek noises spill past your mouth, fully heard as soon as Jaehyun roughly tugs at the belt locking your biceps back. You’re lifted off the mattress as Jaehyun leans back, using his weight to drive back into your spasming walls with force.

Breathless as he curses, his other free hand that gripped your left hip goes to yank at your hair. Jaehyun prods at a spot he’s never reached before and you jerk at the sensation, vocal cords being ripped to shreds at the noises you’re making.

Unable to handle the position anymore, Jaehyun forces your front to lay flat, practically mounting you as he kneels on the bed. He digs his hand to position under your belly while the other arm’s elbow locks beside your head.

He knocks at your chin to mouth at your shoulder, the guttural growl that sounds out just at your ear has your cunt tightening.

“Fuck, I can feel myself, right here,” Jaehyun pushes up at your soft belly, placing pressure on his cock working in and out of you. He whispers his next sentence but you catch it easily.

“Wanna knock you up so damn bad.”

The words make you cry out and you abandon your laxness, pushing your ass up to meet Jaehyun now.

“Oh, you want that? Hm? You want me to fill you up, stuff you full?”

You curse, nodding your head because no sensible words will come out from how well you’re being pounded. Jaehyun spreads your cheeks, pulling away from your upper half to work into you faster and chase his high.

With a drawn-out groan, he releases into you, slowly easing out as he goes and pumps himself of everything he has. Jaehyun paints your pussy with his final spurt, collapsing with only his upper half on the sheets to watch you ooze out his essence.

“Holy… fucking shit, I love you.”

You’re too tired to even reply, kicking your calves in the air and spreading your thighs at the command of Jaehyun. At his prodding this time, you utter, “Yellow,” pulling Jaehyun’s hand away from your puffy cunt.

“You okay, love?” Jaehyun throws himself while catching his breath on the bed, laying beside you as he undoes the belt with haste. You spread your arms at freedom, tiredly rubbing at the red spots created from the belt.

“Baby?” Jae tilts up in concern.

“Oh, sorry. Yes, I’m okay, sorry.” He runs up to kiss your mouth, while at it, tugging at your waist and laying you down on top of his chest.

He’s rubbing his cheek against yours, placing the softest kisses on every inch of your face in adoration. You giggle at the sensation of one on your nose again, eyes closed but feeling the way Jaehyun grins broadly at the sound.

“Can you say it one more time? One more?”

His voice is deep but oh so light; you smile and open your eyelids to absorb Jaehyun’s plea properly.

“You gonna keep making me reiterate myself so much?”

Jaehyun nods cutely. Landing a long, loving kiss on his plush lips, you tell him again. You’ve told him and will tell him for as long as you will live:

“I love you.”

#happy birthday to valentine boy <3 #jaehyun #nct jaehyun #nct 127 #nct u #nct 2021 #jaehyun fic #jaehyun fanfic #jaehyun smut #jaehyun imagine #repetition #reiteration #jung jaehyun #jaehyun fluff #jaehyun angst #jaehyun reactions #jaehyun fanfiction #nct smut

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thefanficmonster · 3 years ago

Text

Graphic Novel

Corpse Husband x Physical Therapist!Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Mentions of Physical Therapy Methods, Swearing (Maybe)

Genre: Fluff, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Corpse tells his friends about his decision to switch physical therapists while recounting all the times he’s had with the previous one who he was working with - Y/N L/N.

Requested by Anon. Hi darling! Thank you so much for your amazingly creative request, I’ve had a blast writing it! I’m really sorry it’s taken me so long to write and post it but here it finally is and I hope you come across it and enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤

It hasn’t been easy getting back into that streaming chair after the major change in his life that has just occurred. It’s gonna take him a long time to get used to doing the thought of taking a different route to get to a different treatment center to meet up with a whole new physical therapist after a three year journey with a therapist he grew to like and whose company he thoroughly enjoyed during every session. They were close friends by the time he decided to switch to a new one, knowing that was the best course of action under these circumstances.

“That’s confusing...“ Rae is the first one to express her thoughts about the situation after Corpse has come forward and confessed what’s been going on and why he’s been absent. To be fair, she has every right to be puzzled by all this - everyone upon finding something or someone great would do the complete opposite of what Corpse has done, they’d hold on, especially if it’s their health in question. He himself just expressed his doubt that he’ll probably ever find someone quite as skilled, talented and professional as Therapist L/N which has confused the gang even more. “Why’d you leave them? They sound like a dope person. I don’t think there are many professionals in their field with that great of an attitude. It’s important to make a proper connection with the patients a doctor is treating to build trust and paint themselves as a reliable person.“

See, all these points Rae is making are more than valid. From her point of view, Corpse has zero reason to drop Y/N, it’s complete nonsense to her and to every other person listening in on the conversation. It’s a very personal topic which is thankfully not being recorded to avoid any rumors surfacing and people trying to dig into who may be the therapist in question - there are not many physical therapists with that last name in San Francisco after all. He just wants to part ways with them while maintaining both of theirs privacy.

“I don’t think it was going anywhere. Like, they helped me plenty physically, but it felt more like a psychiatric session every time cause they’d just let me vent and offer me solutions and advice for my problems and I really don’t want them wasting their time with me anymore. Their area of expertise doesn’t cover my psychological issues but they were somehow able to help me with those as well yet I eventually started feeling like a burden to them regardless of how many times they had told me they enjoyed my company.“ His voice turns sour and bitter at the mention of the amount of fun the two had in Y/N’s office. I’m talking board games, video games, pictionary, you name it. They are both so childish and formed such a strong connection between them, it was unbelievable and many would call it nonprofessional too. He couldn’t have them risking their job because of their friendship with them. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he knew he was the reason behind them hypothetically getting fired. Better safe than sorry, they say.

“So, have you met up with your new therapist since you signed them?“ Sykkuno asks as to fill the silence.

“Yeah, he’s nice. I mean, he’s no Y/N but I think we’re gonna get along nicely. He has no idea who I am, thankfully.“ Corpse replies, falling a bit in thought for a moment before chuckling, “Y/N didn’t know who I was either...“

“So you’re telling me you’re important or something?“ They ask, one eyebrow suspiciously raised at their patient as they massage and rotate his left arm.

“Mhmm,“ he hums, confirming, “I wouldn’t say important, bur I am kinda famous.“

Their eyebrows furrow together with displeasure, “Oh no, are you a back bench politician?”

He huffs out a laugh looking up to meet their confused and mildly anxious gaze, “No, not a politician. A YouTube streamer, gamer if you will.”

A smile stretches at the corners of their relief as obvious relief fills their eyes, “That’s a lot better than a politician. What ya known for, what game?”

“Well, I first started out as a horror story narrator and then climbed the ladder. I have one game in particular to my name, you might’ve heard of it - Among Us?“

“Oh yeahhh! I know it! However, I must admit I’m a real horror junkie and...“ they look over at the highly heated pads they’d have to put on Corpse’s arms to increase the blood flow, knowing it’ll burn like hell although it won’t cause any actual damage, “You know, that’s a perfect distraction!“

“From what???” He asks, a panicked look shot Y/N’s way as he realizes he’s about to be put under some pressure or pain unlike before. He’s not so much afraid of the experience itself as much as he’s really not looking forward to having to control his reaction in front of them.

They chuckle nervously but cover it up with ease, “Oh nothing, don’t worry about it! You just go on and tell me a scary story.”

He smiles warily, but still somewhat certainly, “Your wish is my command.”

“Aww, you two sound like you’d make the baddest duo! Something straight out of a graphic novel or something!“ Rae gushes, clearly upset said novel won’t have the ending she’s hoping for.

“Are you talking about a graphic novel where the doctor and patient fall for one another?“ Questions the ever so insightful Toast who almost never lets things slip him by.

And that’s how he’s got the whole VC silent.

“Not really the one you’re thinking of...“ Corpse trails off, “There’s not much to risk when I’m no longer their patient, is there?“

“No, there’s not.“ Another voice on his end confirms his claim, supporting the aforementioned theory of the love affair.

“Ok, NOW it makes a ton more sense!“ Rae exclaims, seemingly relieved yet still shocked by the twist of events.

“How I wish I had you guys place bets, I would’ve been eighty dollars richer now!“ Toast laughs, pleased with himself, “And Corpse!“ He catches his friend’s attention with ease, “That’s one hell of a graphic novel, one I’d definitely read.“

Little does he know Corpse and Y/N still can barely wrap their heads around what has happened. The speed at which their lives have turned around and changed so drastically, all for them to be able to call each other theirs without the stakes having to be through to roof. Somewhere between the rounds of monopoly and pictionary, the two got caught up with themselves, eyes locked, proximity increased.

Lips suddenly connected.

There’s been many times they crossed the professional boundary with the nonprofessional kiss here and a touch of the hands there but it’s history now. Now they have no boundary, no tightrope to be walking on. Just flat ground, a clear sky above a calm sea ahead.

He keeps going to therapy, with Y/N’s help at home and they get to keep their job. And yet they both get their ‘happily ever after.’ Toast is right, this is one hell of a story and Corpse and Y/N are hella lucky to be living it.

@maat-the-prescriptive @simonsbluee @save-the-sky @itsminniekat @hacker-ghost @bi-andready-tocry @imtiredaffff @jazzkaurtheglorious @hereforbeebo @fandomgirl17 @chrysanthykios @maehemscorpyus @loraleiix @letsloveimagines @annshit @i-cant-choose-a-username-help @enigmaticmaze @divine-artemis @waterlilypat @idontknowwhatthisisfam @evi-ka @classyandfabulous00 @redperson58 @lilysdaydreams @solowheein @mythicalamphitrite @axen-gers @luckygirl144 @nj01 @buddyemily @the-albino-lioness @stardream14 @gdhdkfnn @nomadicgypsyy @preciousskye @fluffysuicideunicornsworld @o-kaelin @manacharlotte @awkward-youtube-trash @lolalee24 @bonky-beerns @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian @strawbrinkofdeath @teenloves @tams0527 @browneyespinkhair @starstruckllamapuppy @daisychains012 @y0ulooked @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life @jula-pauline @melodykitty @just-that-bi-girl @crazybutconfidentaf @lowellshade @alphakees @bellero @weallneednamjesus @starryhanji @boiled-onionrings @husherstan @fockingwhore @melaningoddessthings @prettypastelpetals @haleypearce @godwhyamiawkward @y-napotat @daisychainyoonmin @little-miss-rebel3 @free-wheelin-bi-sexual @redmoon261 @darkacademic2 @wiseflamingoqueen @into-the-end @namikhai-i @nastiablr @thelittleplantlover @mirktuan @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny @vintagegothlover @easygoingtheatre @itsrandombooklover @miiaivi @emmybaybee @befourgolden @jjk-is-my-shit @eternalteaaars @spacebadgerx @princesslunalight @acequinn14 @samm48 @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa @fo-love @marishimomura-blog @therealglenncoco @cinnamonbun332 @killtherandomness @sanshinexxxsan @fee-btheweeb @press-lay @cathleenpotgieter16 @jazzydoesstuff @moonlxghtbay @forestrain2000 @hyunjinhugs @blood-of-fandoms @lovellylies @ukiyolixx @simpforhpcharacters @chrisdylan17 @parkerjisung @pedernille @theodonyous @wineandionysus @malfoystilinskii05 @morbid-x @coryisagee @jessewa26 @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365 @raeanneinwonderland @indecisive-empanada @gluttonypalace @loriane2503 @btsiguess-kpop @khaoticbunny @lucidlycactus @smiithys @rottenroyalebooks @kpopgirlbtssvt @fangirl-tc27 @fr0z3n-1 @notmesimpingfortechno @shotarosleftpinky @kunoi-chan @idk-whats-wrong-with-me @yikeroonie @goldenstarofthunderclan @poetry-and-tea @ama-do-writing-stuff @wishbonewolf @emeraldxhope @t0xick1tty @kusuinko @speakyourselfloveyourself @sophia902103 @lo-manburg @classsykittykat @dmgama @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee @btsiguess-kpop @akaashi-baby @gun-jong-simp @geschichtenfee @yerapotato-wp @browneyedgirl365 @thysagclub @sparklycloudnight @helloatomicshadow @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal @lucy-bunny17 @aaliyahh0 @katluckybear @boyleanti @straybids @franchesca-791 @cosmicstorm19 @averyisbackinthetrashcan @aomi-nabi @xlanawriter @allensimpsforcorpse @sunnyrae-cessh @ladykxxx08 @meowiemari @renupf @booklover76 @sra-verissimo @beatrhizn @blueberrystigma @beatrhizn @chicken-taco-burrito @scorpio-echo @nyctophiliiiiaaa @squirreljoe

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tintinwrites · 4 years ago

Text

i dream too much | Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales x Reader | Part One

A/N: Just wanted to say that this is going to be a mini series, probably around six parts!!

Rating: 18+

Warning: Fem!Reader. It says Frankie x Reader but it is also Santi x Reader as well (this is a pining fic, my hoes). No smut, but it gets close...a lime if you will goodbye I am Ancient. Naughty words. Frankie gets his heart broken. Everyone is just stupid.

Word count: 2,251, apparently!!

Summary: Frankie decides to tell you he loves you, but he finds you in bed with someone.

GIF credit: ^ Please let me know if you don’t want me using your GIF!!

Tags: Open!!

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

Frankie wondered if he should’ve dressed up a little more, but you’d never been one to insist on fancy dress.

How many times had you laid on his chest in nothing but a T-shirt and shorts when he was just in a shirt and jeans?

Regardless, he pulled off his V-neck and replaced it with a button down shirt, though it was short-sleeved and covered in a niche print.

It was fancier than his normal attire and showed that this was important to him, that this was an occasion that mattered and he wanted to show you that this meant a lot. That he wasn’t just looking for a good time because you were his friend and you had tits.

God, the way he zoned out in front of the mirror for a couple moments just thinking about your breasts wasn’t the point.

The point was that he’d been in love with you since practically the day he met you; your smile, your laugh, the way you touched his arm, all your jokes that nearly had him weeping from laughter...he never stood a chance, did he?

At first, he tried to convince himself that it was just a little crush because you were pretty and you were sweet to him, but it seemed like he just fell for you more and more each day. Even years into your friendship now, he still found little things about you that turned him into a fucking dope.

He was so terrified to ruin your friendship that he just kept it as a horrible, gnawing, yearning secret until he just couldn’t take it anymore. Not only was it eating away at him to pretend he wasn’t completely in love with you, but he didn’t think it was fair to you that he was having thoughts like this when you considered your friendship to be innocent.

When he went on another date with another person in his attempts to find someone as a way to get over his feelings for you, he realized it was definitely time that he told you for both your and his sake.

You would probably turn him down which would be okay even if it hurt like hell. He just didn’t want to keep harboring the secret like this even if you didn’t feel the same way.

That part made him a little nervous, but then he would remember one of the reasons why he was in love with you; you always called him ‘sweet Frankie’, even had it as his name in your phone with a couple heart emojis with it, and that made him think that maybe…

Well, it gave him the courage to admit to you what he felt whether you returned those feelings or not.

He decided to buy a bouquet of your favorite flowers and then panicked that it was a stupid, lame idea to buy you flowers, but he stuck with it so he wouldn’t have wasted the money. They were pretty, they smelled nice, they were a lot like you and he figured it would be good to lead with that.

I bought these for you because they reminded me of you and I love you.

That was stupid and didn’t even sound like something he would say. He hadn’t told someone he loved them since he was in his twenties and they broke up when he was thirty, and he hadn’t exactly had a long term relationship since then.

Every line or speech he planned just didn’t sound right, so he was just going to say whatever came to mind so it could be natural.

He hesitated when he stepped off the elevator and approached the door to your apartment, quickly forcing himself to knock before he could get scared enough to walk away.

You needed to know. He needed to tell you everything.

There was no answer and he thought that he tried to talk to you when you weren’t home, but he tried the doorknob and found that it wasn’t locked. Maybe you were just showering or something.

He stepped inside and shut the door, and he was just about to call out to you so he wouldn’t scare you with his presence when he heard the distinct sound of your laughter.

It was coming from the bedroom so he thought instead that you were just watching television, setting the bouquet down on your coffee table as he made his way down the little hallway that led to your room.

The door was open and he started to say your name, but paused when he stepped on something and looked down with his brow furrowed to find your bra on the floor. And your favorite shirt. There was a pair of lacy panties right outside the door and he had to force his gaze away from it as he moved closer.

He worried that maybe he was encroaching on some...alone time and he stared at the floor until he realized that you weren’t alone.

A man’s moan had him immediately jerking his head up to see that you were underneath someone; lips pressing, legs tangling, his hands wandering over your hips and your thighs and one of your hands moving in an obvious way within the man’s underwear.

Frankie’s heart would’ve dropped even if it was some complete stranger you’d picked up in a bar, but this wasn’t a stranger. Pope, his best fucking friend, was currently reaching between your legs to touch you.

He didn’t tell Santi or any of the other guys about his feelings for you, fearing ridicule or that they would tell you, but that didn’t mean it didn’t kill him to see his own best friend on top of the woman he loved.

It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see how enthusiastically you were enjoying him.

He’d been in love with you for years and Santi still beat him to you.

Not that it was a competition, not that you were a prize to be won, but...seeing the person he loved in the arms of someone he couldn’t even compare to was a bitter pill to take.

All he could do was stare in shock and disappointment, and there was a hollow ache that made it feel like someone was trying to push his chest right through his back.

What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Start telling you he loved you when Santi inevitably started fucking you? He couldn’t do that now, couldn’t tell you what he felt and humiliate and hurt you by awkwardly putting you on the spot when you were about to sleep with somebody else.

Once he was back in his right mind and realized he was impeding on a private moment and that his heart was sinking lower with each passing second, he knew he needed to leave. He would never tell you he’d been here and try to forget it himself.

That might have worked better if he didn’t step on your discarded underwear, slipping slightly since it was on the wood floor and stumbling into the wall. “Fuck!”

He heard a gasp and immediately looked to see that you had pushed Santi aside enough to see him, looking entirely mortified.

“Frankie?!” You hissed something to Santiago as you quickly shoved him off, grabbing the rumpled throw blanket from the foot of your bed to cover yourself.

Between your speed and Frankie’s respectfulness, he didn’t see more than a glimpse of you, but that didn’t stop him from blushing and sinking further against the wall in hopes that it would just swallow him and spit him out on another continent.

No such luck. He was still there, staring at the two of you. You were looking at him like a deer in headlights and Santi, though he covered the bulge in his underwear with a pillow, was grinning at him.

“You miss seeing my ass in the army showers or something, pendejo?” he teased since, yeah, Frankie would’ve gotten an eyeful of his ass if he’d just stood there silently.

“I was just...fuck, I was in the neighborhood and the door was unlocked…” He had a habit of taking off his hat and wringing it when he was anxious, but he only touched his hair when he reached up because he wanted to look good for you and hadn’t worn a hat.

“How much did you see?” Your question was practically squeaked out in embarrassment.

“Nothing.” Frankie was quick to reassure you, holding his hands up. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I should go.” His own embarrassment at his plans to tell you he loved you and at the two of you discovering he was there outweighed his pain for the moment, but he didn’t know how long it would. Both emotions made him want to run far, far away anyway.

“Oh, Frankie…” You started to get up and the way the blanket fell bared your hip to him and he—

“Don’t get up! I...I just stopped by because I was in the neighborhood, it’s not a big deal.” It was supposed to be a big deal. He supposed it still was, just not in the way he wanted.

He was supposed to tell you he loved you and he was supposed to be the one in your bed, but you’d chosen Santi before he could even get a chance.

He couldn’t help the jealousy that welled up in him; Santiago had always been handsome and charming where Frankie was average and too shy to go for half the things he wanted. He’d always looked up to him for that and now…

“Do you want some coffee?” you asked softly, looking guilty for the awkwardness of him witnessing such a moment.

With your offer was Santi’s hand rubbing your hip, trying to keep you in the mood despite the interruption, and you didn’t move away. Meaning you wanted to continue and Frankie was just a nuisance in that moment. “I’m good. I have, uh...a hip...appointment.”

He knew why he had hips on the brain, but his quick excuse just sounded silly to the two of you.

“You gettin’ old on me, ‘Fish?” Santi asked, eyebrows raised.

“Is everything okay?” The genuine concern in your voice made his chest squeeze, not any less in love with you than before even though he kind of hoped he would be.

“I mean...chiropractor appointment. I think I threw something out and I need, like...aligned and shit,” he mumbled, just wanting to leave as much as you two wanted to fuck.

“Oh, okay. Text me, let me know how it goes?” You smiled at him sweetly like you always seemed to do.

How could anyone be expected to not fall in love with you? He couldn’t even blame Santi for wanting you.

This was all probably just a hookup if he knew his friend, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell you now. Or ever. Not knowing that you wanted Santi first, imagining the sympathy in your eyes when you would tell him you didn’t feel the same way.

What was a few more years of pretending he didn’t love you to a man who’d already spent this long doing so?

Maybe this was the push he needed to move on from his feelings for you and give his dates an actual chance before deciding he didn’t like them because they weren’t you.

“Please fucking go, man.” Santi’s tone was desperate and meaningful, nodding towards you subtly as if to tell Frankie he was about to fuck you and needed alone time like he didn’t know.

“See you.” He hated the way the other man was just acting like they were two buddies in a bar and you were just some pair of pants Santi managed to flirt his way into.

He quickly turned and made his way down the hall, kicking off the panties that were still wrapped around the toe of his boot. He didn’t even remember the bouquet of flowers, just walked to the door and left as quickly as he possibly could.

Frankie had been broken up with a couple times in his life; middle school, high school, his one long term relationship that ended when he was thirty. But none of those even compared to this.

Maybe it was because you didn’t know he loved you or maybe he felt a sense of betrayal despite never admitting to Santi how he felt. Maybe he loved you more than he’d ever love anyone in his life and this made his yearning permanent.

All he knew was that this hurt like hell and he couldn’t believe he ever thought a fucking love confession was a good idea.

You could have your pick of anyone and this just proved it. Why the fuck would you even look twice at him when there were guys like Santi around?

Being so close with you was more than enough and he was almost happy that he didn’t ruin it now, trying to convince himself that the whole situation had saved his ass.

It probably was just a crush he’d been harboring since he met you and he was just reading into it too much.

But as he climbed into his truck, and shut the door, and let his head thump back against the seat, he knew that he loved you and that now he would never be able to do a damn thing about it.

#frankie morales x reader #frankie morales imagine #frankie catfish morales x reader #frankie catfish morales imagine

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couldyouspeakmyname · 4 years ago

Note

Hi! 💕 I hope I'm submitting this correctly but I'm assuming you write for the Shishigumi lions? If so, I'd like to request some sfw and nsfw headcanons for them dating a female herbivore and it's totally up to you which members you would like to write for (although Free and Agata are my favourites!)

You know I love the Shishigumi, a lot. So I went overboard. I offer my apologies.

I will say, since I usually put NSFW under cut, but due to length I put it all under cut, I do have a big warning for it as to not surprise y’all

There’s a lot I could write for them, but to keep it reasonable I kept it kinda short! Feel free to request more if you’d like!

I’m also not great at nsfw so I tried my best I hope you like it anyway

SFW

Ibuki (I love him and will never NOT include him in an ask about the Shishigumi)

Ibuki is probably the best one at dating an herbivore. He’s very gentle and conscientious of you as an animal and your limitations

That being said, he’s top tier respectful. He knows you may not be as physically strong as her is, but that doesn’t mean you’re not strong in your own way. He also likes the idea of protecting you.

Always walks side by side with you. He’s nervous about holding your hand, but he’d never say it. Do it for him.

Has eaten meat for YEARS and really struggles with that part of himself.

Doesn’t kiss you for a really long time, he’s inwardly terrified that he’s going to hurt you. You’d have to make the first move.

Keeps you away from his work. He doesn’t want you to get hurt.

He knows his world is dark, gritty, and that you shouldn’t be a part of it. He wants to send you away, but can’t. He thinks he’s selfish. You’ll need to reassure him this is what you want.

Herbivores can’t see in the dark, so he keeps lights on in key areas so you can see better.

Protective. If anyone gives you any trouble he’s quick to correct their behavior, he can be incredibly intimidating when he wants to be

Slouches so you’re around the same height. Give him a back/neck rub at the end of the day. It will make him feel better, and he liked being close to you

The kind of boyfriend that remembers all the major events in your relationships, including small ones.

Once he gets comfortable, he’s a snuggle bug in private. Cheek kisses, arm around your shoulders when you’re sitting, wrapping his arms around your waist when you’re standing.

Lions can’t purr, but if they COULD oh man, he’d never stop

Free

He’s famous for enjoying females, so the fact that he’s dating someone seriously that’s not a feline is really strange

You should have seen the expression on one of the more flirty female lions when he turned them down.

Everyone thinks he’s joking about dating you at first, when they see he’s actually serious the teasing dies down, but doesn’t stop (it’s at his expense don’t worry).

“Has hell frozen over? What’s someone like you doing with a guy like Free?”

He honestly doesn’t expect you guys to stay together for very long. He expects it to be a fling. Only it doesn’t stop. He doesn’t get tired of you or eat you....It’s weird but wonderful.

Has eaten meat for years, and has a hard time letting himself kiss on anywhere but on the cheek. Likes to throw his arm around you and hug you. So he does show affection, but keeps his mouth FAR AWAY from your throat.

Rests his head on top of yours

Calls you “Babe” a lot. He has a lot of other nicknames for you to. Some of the lions don’t even know your name, just that you’re dating Free.

Over. Protective. He knows the market, the animals in it and the animals who come to it. He is very prepared to shoot or maim anyone who tries anything. The fact he’s such a loose canon does help scare people off. Everyone knows who you’re dating and they make sure not to push it.

He likes to show you off. He’s that guy that carries a picture of you in his wallet. Anyone who asks about him dating someone and he’ll show you off.

“Sure she’s hot, but have you see the ass on my girlfriend?”

Likes to show off in front of you. Fights? Yes. Please watch him and root for him.

Tries to get you to get a tattoo, but will NOT get identical ones. He doesn’t want to jinx it. If you wanna have similar tattoos though, that’d be okay.

Dolph

A relationship with Dolph when you’re an herbivore is really low key. A lot of people don’t know you’re dating. He doesn’t want to put you in jeopardy

He’s pretty serious and it’s hard for him just to relax. He does relax when you’re alone and he knows you’re safe.

Likes to lay his head on your chest and listen to your heart beat

When you do go out together, you may have to initiate any hand holding. He plays it off, but he’s secretly happy

He smokes, and you may have to get on him for that if you don’t like it. It’d be very hard for him to quit

Will let you braid his mane, but wont keep it in if you go out

Supports your endeavors and does whatever he can to help. He may get a little to into it. You’ll say you wanna take a trip and he has everything planned out. It’s a blessing and a curse.

Likes how small your hands are in his

When he has a hard day, just hold him. He’s heavy and will lean into you, but he just needs the support

Has to relearn how to be himself, and you really help with that. He smiles more when he’s alone with you.

Has a really deep, gruff, morning voice

Agata

If lions could blush you bet he’d be constantly red. If you actually look close, the insides of his ears usually are

Loves holding your hand and hugs

Respects your boundaries. If Ibuki is the king of respect, Agata is the prince.

He’s still part of a dangerous organization in the black market, so when he’s working he’s all business. Only a few of the members know about you (just the inner circle).

Agata, like most of the others, is petrified to kiss you. He probably has the worst anxiety out of anyone else. He’s a meat eater, he’s eaten your kind of meat before. What if He accidently hurts you?

Texts you all the time.

The one you can be on the phone with for hours and not know it

Likes it when you run your fingers through his mane

He’s stronger than he looks, so he may just pick you up and carry you every now and again. He just likes to hold you, let him have this

Brings you flowers and your favorite snacks whenever you have a bad day

Stammers when he’s flustered.

Likes to bury his face in your neck

He has a hard time being who he is versus how he thinks he should be. The fact he can goof off and just enjoy life without the strain of being a lion is a blessing.

Probably says he loves you before you do. He does it when he’s half asleep on your lap. He falls asleep before he realized he said it, whoops.

You’d have to be the one to be aggressive in public. “Excuse me, he asked for no pickles” meme

Miguel

He’s pretty quiet in his group, so no one knows you’re dating

Miguel is really good at thinking his feelings and thoughts, but isn’t great at voicing them. He does a lot of little things to show affection. He brings you a warm drink on a cold day, has food for you when you wake up, holds you hand

He likes to try and see the best in everything, even if he knows how ugly the world is

His mane is maintained carefully. Once you get really serious, he may ask you to help him with it. It’s pretty intimate, and when you’re done he looks at you like you have stars in your eyes

He’s the force of protection you don’t even know is there. He’s probably saved your life like, eight times, and never let you know that he did

Sabu

If Miguel is quiet, Sabu is dead silent

No one knows anything about his personal life, let alone his dating life

They find out one day when the group is trying to make plans for a fun sort of day, and he turns them down because you two have a date. It becomes a secret mission for the group to find out who you are.

They don’t, Sabu is the oldest member and one of the most clever

A popular headcanon is that his face is really, REALLY messed up. I share that headcanon. The first time you kiss the scars on his face he chokes up

He goes all in. he’s yours as long as you’ll have him. He expects the same respect from you.

He’s eaten meat for a really long time, but he has more semblance of control being a smidge older than most of the other lions.

A bit pessimistic

Kisses you good morning and goodnight.

Cuddles on the couch. He’ll watch whatever you want to, but he has his preferences

Wears his face covering everywhere, you’ll need to remind him he can relax when you’re alone

. If you get out of somewhere like work or school late at night, he’s waiting for you to take you home.

So used to wearing a suit and tie, he doesn’t know how to do casual wear very well. He lets you pick most of his stuff out.

Jinma

He knows a lot about the black market, so he’s over protective from the get go. However, since he does know so much, he knows what connections to make to keep you safe.

Eats meat, and is self conscious that you’ll judge him for it. Please be nice to him

Kiss his eye with the spot, it makes him feel special

(Personal headcanon) His mane has never grown right, so he keeps it short. He’s kind of self conscious about it. A lions mane means a lot to male lions, he tries to keep it nice but...it’s nothing like some of the other Shishigumi’s manes. Pet it, run your fingers through it. Males don’t complimented enough. It’ll make him feel loved.

If you ever wanna go anywhere fancy, because of his connections and knowledge, you can basically go anywhere at any time...as long as it’s in the black market, but he may know a guy that knows a guy. If there’s something more legal you need, he checks in with his other gang members to see who knows who

Has a wicked good memory, remembers pretty much everything you’ve said

Dope

A gentleman. He will hold doors open for you, offer his arm and hand when you walk together, brings you flowers.

He, like all the Shishigumi, eats meat. He is self conscious about it an doesn’t want to scare you away. He will be upfront about it though. He wants honesty. he talks it out with you, and he will try and cut back but being part of the Shishigumi, and a meat addict, means it’s very hard for him to stop. He probably wont, not completely, but he tries not to do it around you.

He doesn’t brag he’s dating you, but if he’s asked he gets this really peaceful look on his face

If you ever take him shopping at any flea market or outdoor stalls, he will get you the best bargain. He’s also amazing at helping you with any work contracts, apartment contracts and anything else.

Likes it when you brush his mane, and lets you put it up for him before he goes out. He doesn’t let you do anything fancy, but says when you do it it somehow turns out better

Hino

Hino is very attractive. His looks are what brings jobs in, so he keeps the fact that you’re dating a secret for business.

Gives you extra affection in private because of it. Kisses, hugs, all that. His favorite is to kiss the back of your hand, he is kind of a romantic.

Don’t get him wrong, he’s still a lion. If he hears that an animal is giving you a hard time, he will take them down and look handsome AF doing it

Eats meat, and like all the other lions worries for your safety. He tends to eat before he sees you, but after a while of you dating he becomes more relaxed. He doesn’t eat in front of you though.

Spends a ton of time getting ready for the day, you may have to fight him for the bathroom

Compliments you a lot. He uses the basic one liners at his job with older, lonely, animals. So, he uses unique ones for you.

“I think the sun is jealous of your smile”

Totally lets your style his mane, and if you’re going out to somewhere not the black market, he’ll keep whatever style you give him. He’s confident and pulls anything off

Calls you Darling

Worst bedhead.

✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧

NSFW Manage yourselves safely!

Ibuki

It was almost impossible to get him in bed with you. He’s so worried and full of anxiety. Any mood you get in, you instantly gets ruined by him being worried he’ll eat you

You’re going to have to plan in advance and spend a lot of time talking about safety and safe words

Honestly? He does try and eat you the first time. Not intentionally and he stops himself, but to be fair to HIM as an herbivore...you almost let him

It kind of ruins the mood and you end up talking it out with him. He’s so ashamed he can’t look at you for a while.

Once time goes by, and you move pretty slow, but it’s worth it. Sex with Ibuki is amazing

Remember how Ibuki is really diligent about your limitations and you as an herbivore? Pays OFF when he’s with you

He’s all about foreplay and making sure you are ready and prepared before he does anything. Ibuki has big dick energy. He doesn’t brag but is blessed. But he knows that with you being smaller than him, he’s not down to hurt you with it

He starts keeping his nails short for you. The other guys may try and tease him for it, but Ibuki gets defensive over you and so it’s short lived.

His voice drops when he’s in the mood, and he borderline growls. You’ve been teasing him all day, you really should make it up to him

Surprisingly good at dirty talk, it kind of comes naturally to him and neither of you know why

Loves your thighs, and his whiskers tickle.

He has big hands, and when you’re alone he may saunter up behind you and run them down your sides slowly, kissing your check and down your neck.

Best at aftercare, no matter how tired he is, he will take care of you

Free

Is more concerned than he lets on. He tries to pretend he’s all confidence, but he has a pretty hard time getting to the point of actually having sex with you. He actually start actively avoiding it. He blue balls himself. Someone help him.

He’s used to doing what comes natural, and what if what comes natural means hurting you? He’d rather not.

When you do finally try and have sex, he doesn’t kill you...but he does bite you. You need stitches, and he has even more of a complex (tell him he just gave you a cool tattoo or something)

He may actively avoid you or being near you. It’s a set back. He’s not like Ibuki who can talk it out, he’s supposed to be a lion, not a scaredy cat.

You have to put your foot down. You’re dating a bad ass mafia lion, not some nervous school boy. Remind him about how much you care about him and how much you want him.

The second time goes better, but he’s a LOT more careful. he does maim a few pillows, claws the mattress. Their sacrifice is appreciated. (you two become famous for ruining and destroying beds. The other guys are both impressed and disgusted. Free has no shame)

Trims his claws so he can use them the next time. He’s learning.

This male is a womanizer, but he’s not great at doing things that females would stay for? It’s more of a hit-it-and go. He knows some tricks but...not a lot.

Tries his best though. Loves to dig his hands in your hips. Leaves bruises. One time he got hammered and asked Ibuki for advice. Ibuki was helpful, but needed therapy afterwards.

Rough sex 90% of the time (that other 10 is passionate sex that lasts hours, it’s pretty impressive)

Once you guys get comfortable, hope you’re okay with bite marks and kiss marks. You’d have to wear winter clothing 24/7 to hide them all. He’s VERY proud of you being his female, he doesn’t want any other male getting ideas

Turns him on if you take control. Most things you do turns him on. He’s near insatiable. You could roll out of bed, eyes still squinty, mascara from last night all over, and he’s like..man, that’s hot. Hope you’re okay with having sex in weird places, he’s going to ask.

Not great at aftercare, but BOY can he snuggle. If you’re able to walk afterwards, you wont be able to. Clingy.

Dolph

Wants it to happen organically, but when it finally does, he catches himself.

He’s looking at you under him, how your eyes sparkle and shine, and how vulnerable you are...And the idea that he could rip out your throat comes to mind and it terrifies him. He practically throws himself off you

You have to reassure him and talk to him.

Dolph is careful with you the first time, and while he doesn’t bite you, he does dig his claws in a little to much. They may or may not scar. He feels bad, but he’s so in the moment he can’t help it

May drool a little. Don’t tease him until later.

He doesn’t stop until you’re satisfied. It’s a promise. You will NOT be able to walk the next day. He’s going to make the claw marks up to you if it kills you and wakes everyone in ear shot.

Out of all of the lions, you’re safest with Dolph. He’s ”the serious one”, which makes him practical and knowing. He actually does research and goes online to inform himself.

Love bites. He doesn’t break skin, so you’re safe there.

Loves it when you try and claw him. You can’t do a lot, as an herbivore, but the fact your instincts try and make you...really gets him going.

Casual at aftercare. Better than average but nothing near Ibuki or Agata.

Not a sex maniac, and with work, it’s not high on his priority list. He’ll make up for it though ;)

Agata

Likes to pretend it’s not something he’s interested in, but he is. He just doesn’t want to pressure you, or scare you. Dating a lion is one thing, being fully exposed is another and he knows it.

He thinks about it a lot, but doesn’t act on it. You probably will have to take the lead. Agata gets way to in his head.

The sweetest kisser ever, but when he’s heated they’re like fire. Biting your lip, you face carefully with his claws just teetering on the edge of digging in. He loves kissing you, doesn’t matter where.

Kissing will lead to other things if you don’t stop him, but do you really want to?

Likes to pull you close, and the more heated he gets the more likely he’s going to grind on you without realizing he’s doing it

Totally whines if you stop kissing him.

Younger than the rest of the Shishigumi, and is more prone to using his instincts. He eats meat and is afraid of hurting you, but his desire to fuck your brains out is far greater than the instinct to eat you

He does end up biting you, and uses his claws. The damage he does isn’t serious, but he still fuses over you when its over.

Takes a while to let himself near you like that again. He beats himself up. You may have to prove to him you’re tougher than you look.

When you try again, he makes up for his shortcomings. You’re not sleeping tonight, call in sick to work tomorrow.

You may have to ask him to slow down. He intends to go all night, you may have to curb his enthusiasm. Don’t forget to take breaks for water so you don’t pass out.

Wont stop until you’re satisfied. Doesn’t matter how tired he is.

Sweet nothings in your ear non stop...between the moaning. He’s surprisingly vocal

Talk to him too. Part of the reason he cares so much about you is because you see him for who he is, not his status as a lion.

Since he doesn’t plan having sex with you, and just lets it happen naturally, he always has things in his room for you. Just in case. Please don’t tease him about it, the other lions do that enough.

Is totally the kind of guy to help you bathe afterwards if you want.

One of the biggest snugglebugs

Miguel

Miguel is worried about having sex with you, but no one knows it but him.

He’s the brawn of the group, and is strong as hell. He may end up trying to show off and you may end up in positions when you have to totally vulnerable (if it makes you uncomfortable, he’ll adjust. Just talk to him)

Muscles for days. The lion is made of stone, but has surprisingly soft touches. He knows his body and knows how to use it

He’s never had sex with an herbivore, he’s thought about it, but having sex with something he may eat later didn’t sit well with him. You are a different story. He’s thought about it a little to much

First time he has sex with you he claws you, and they’re pretty deep. You end up getting stitches. Unlike a lot of the other lions though, he doesn’t avoid you afterwards. He’s there when you get stitches, intimidating the doctor (who has a small heart attack every time Miguel moves)

Apologizes but isn’t afraid to try again. He trims his claws this time, you should really tell him the other things his fingers could be used for outside clawing your back.

Do not mess with his mane or pull it, he’ll get grumpy.

Loves your chest and carefully uses his tongue. Doesn’t matter what size they are, he’s a fan.

Not very vocal, but likes it when you are.

Sabu

Sabu is older and more controlled, so you’re pretty safe with him.

He doesn’t seem like he’s interested in it, and since he doesn’t talk much, him bringing it up comes out of no where.

“Wanna have sex?”

Just out of no where. He doesn’t talk much so he doesn’t beat around the bush. You were just scrolling on your phone, and you nearly drop it.

He doesn’t hurt you when you have sex, not even by accident, but the couch you were on gets shredded. It looks like an animal twice his size attacked it.

Runs his hands over your body, he can’t stop touching you.

Kiss his scars, it sooths him, and he’ll pay you back

Loves your neck, but is careful not to leave any marks (you have no idea how he doesn’t, it’s like magic)

He doesn’t care if you leave kiss marks on him

No great with aftercare, but will make sure you’re okay and kisses your cheeks and on top of your head

Jinma

Disaster. He doesn’t mean to be, he just is

He wants it to be perfect, but while he knows everything about the black market, he doesn’t know much about having sex with an herbivore. He never really though of it, and now that he is...help him. He knows rumors of herbivore and carnivore relationships that have gone wrong so...he kind of freezes up. That, and he hasn’t been in a lot of long term relationships.

While the others do their research, Jinma goes way to into it and becomes a bit overwhelmed, but hides it.

You end up having to take control. For someone who knows the black market like the back of his hand, Jinma is the student and you are the teacher. You’re an herbivore, and you’re going to show him just how much you know (you are the captain now)

He bites you, and he does break the skin, but he just closes his mouth and allows you to decide if you wanna continue or stop

He starts keeping a med kit in his room just in case.

He gets better, the more he learn and the more serious he is with you. Soon he’s compiling a book of knowledge on you.. He knows where to touch to make your toes curl, what to say, and your weak spots

He takes everything he learns and uses it against you one night. He’s a fast learner.

Dope

Part of negotiations is to know what a person wants and what they will go through to get it. So, when you bring it up, the look in your eyes is all it takes for him to know he needs to take you serious.

Usually his kisses are quick and satisfying, but once he actually starts to seriously kiss you its like it’s the last time he’s going to do it.

Likes to have you in his lap. Seeing your face is important to him. Every movement and actions of your body paints a picture of what you want.

Third best at foreplay, what drags him down is he watches you to the point that he forgets what he’s doing

When you first have sex, he ends up clawing your hips and biting your lip to hard. You lip bleeds a little and his nails break the skin. He’s a little worried, but if you don’t tell him to stop he’ll get permission to keep going.

Ends up also biting you, but nothing to terrible or life altering.

He loves watching you, body language tells a person a lot about someone, so no matter where or how, he likes seeing your face.

Afterwards, he makes sure you’re okay, and comfortable, He does the basics, but doesn’t go overboard

May leave a kiss mark or two, but it’s accidental. He doesn’t want to embarrass you (even if seeing you with kiss marks makes the animal in him deeply satisfied)

Hino

Hino knows a females body like no other. He’s not exactly promiscuous, but he likes being satisfied

Since dating you, he hasn’t been with any other females, he’s very needy. He’s not as bad as Free, but he’s getting there.

You have no idea how he seduces you every time, one moment you’re making tea, the next, you’re on the kitchen counter

The first time you try and have sex with him, he claws you way to hard and you end up having to get stitches and fixed up. He feels awful and can’t look you in the eye. He swears he will NEVER do it again

He never does, he keeps to his word

Unlike some of the other lions, the fact he hurt you doesn’t keep him away. He feels bad, but now he’s going to try twice as hard to make sure every time he has sex with you is amazing.

Wont stop until you’re satisfied, and just seems to naturally know your body and what you like.

While he’s composed in public, you get to see a little wild in his eyes when he fucks you. He has this low growl that rumbles through his chest that you feel deep in your body the tighter he holds you

Probably has had sex with you on most surfaces in your home.

Above average at aftercare. He tries, but having more one night stands than not hasn’t equipped him for great aftercare. He learns though.

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khaleesiofalicante · 4 years ago

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JACE WEEK - Jace + Kit Ficlet

“So, the bracelet made him fall out of love with her?”

“No, no,” Jace corrected. “It made him fall in love with her. It was almost like a binding spell. But very dark magic. Dangerous stuff.”

However, dark magic could sometimes be cool. He tried not to grin when he said that though. The last thing he wanted was the kid to get involved with dark magic.

“Wait, was this the guy who was obsessed with an STD?” Kit asked.

“No, that was his dad,” Jace corrected again. “William Herondale.”

It felt good to be the one who knew. It felt good to be the one who wasn’t in the dark. It felt good to be a Herondale.

Jace only hoped that Kit would feel that way soon too.

“Will,” Kit smiled, as if thinking of something private. “Jem and Tessa’s Will.”

“Yes,” Jace beamed.

Will had been Tessa’s husband and Jem’s parabatai. They had been Will’s…well, everything. Theirs was a relationship that often made Jace feel pleasantly surprised. It was nice to know that love like that existed - love that surpassed time.

Jace hoped he could build something like that with Clary. A love story that lasted a lifetime.

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Kit said and tucked his feet underneath his lap. “William was the STD one and James was the bracelet boy. Herondales are…”

“Memorable?” Jace offered.

“Sure, let’s go with that,” Kit grinned.

“Ask Jem about Lucie,” Jace said when he remembered his chats with Tessa. “She was a writer. And she could talk to ghosts too. I think you might like her.”

“She sounds dope,” Kit nodded. “Herondales are a little artsy by the way. All the reading and writing and composing.”

“That they are,” Jace said proudly, which was a feel he was slowly getting used to with regard to his last name.

“Do you like to write, Kit?” Jace asked now, because he often felt like he didn’t know anything about the boy at all. Of course, that was the purpose of the monthly visits to Cirenworth. Yet, Jace knew Kit was holding back. He wondered if it he did that with everyone else too.

“Not really,” Kit shrugged. “I don’t play any instruments either. I don’t think I’m artsy like the rest of them.”

“Rest of us,” Jace corrected, it had become a habit with Kit. “Jem told me you like cookies. Cooking is an art too. Do you like to bake them?”

“Nah, I just like to eat them,” Kit pointed out, staring at his shoes. “S’okay. I know I’m not like the rest of them. But hey, in my defense I didn’t know I was one of them until like a year ago!”

“One of us,” Jace corrected again, because he never wanted Kit to forget. “And yeah. Valid point. I don’t want you give you an identity crisis. Been there. Done that. How about we do something? We can throw daggers or sharpen our swords?”

“Pass,” Kit said and flopped back into the grass. “Doing shit is exhausting.”

They were quiet for a moment then. Kit was on the ground with his arms crossed behind his head, simply staring at the sky - probably wondering how long he had to do these monthly sessions with Jace for. Meanwhile Jace himself was picking out grass and trying not to freak out.

“What about love?” Kit asked after a while, his voice barely above a whisper. “Tessa said Herondales are destined for great love stories.”

Jace closed his eyes and saw a flash of colour - the shade of autumn leaves and tempered fire.

“I’d like to think so,” he tried his best not to sound shy, he didn’t want to leave an impression as a softie.

“Were there…Were there any gay Herondales?” Kit asked, his voice quieter with every question.

Oh.

Jace had so many questions. So many. Why do you want to know? Are you gay? Do you like someone? What’s his name? And his address?

But his parabatai had taught him to always listen before speaking. Alec could really get into one’s head sometimes.

“I’m sure there were some,” Jace answered instead of asking. “I mean, it is statistically unlikely that there weren’t any LGBTIAQ+ Herondales in the past.”

Kit laughed out loud, something Jace wished the boy did more often. “Did you just say LGBTIAQ+?”

“Yep,” Jace grinned.

“Someone did their research,” Kit pointed with a smile and Jace felt oddly pleased.

“I did,” he nodded. “After Alec.”

He had asked for Clary’s help in learning more about it. He never wanted Alec to feel like he couldn’t talk to another shadowhunter about how he felt. So, Jace had spent hours after hours reading pamphlets and guides and watching videos on something called MeTube.

It had been mostly confusing. But all the research had left him more informed than he had been before.

He had begun reading once again after becoming the head of the institute with Clary. Being a leader meant understanding the needs of your team members. All team members.

“Do you think there were any gay Lightwoods?” Kit asked, his tone suggesting that he wanted to move on from the topic.

“Yeah, let’s not talk about the gayness of Lightwoods,” Jace chuckled. “We need a whole other day for that.”

“Hmmm,” Kit hummed.

“Whether it’s a boy or girl or a non binary person,” Jace said and Kit grinned at him again in surprise. “There is one rule of love that applies to all shadowhunters.”

“What?” Kit asked. “Wear black on all first dates?”

“Nephilim love only once,” Jace pointed out and explained what he had learned as all shadowhunters before him.

Kit chewed his lip and looked away. “That sounds a bit intense.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Jace grinned.

Kit was quiet again. He was fidgeting with his shoes. Jace understood the boy was nervous. He wanted to help. Jace knew there was much to say and much to know. He knew Kit needed to understand that love required sacrifice, hard work and resilience.

Jace couldn’t help but feel like he needed to give Kit support and guidance to navigate through all of this.

But he also felt that what Kit needed right now was space. So, he decided to do just that.

They sat there quietly, lying on the fields and talking about street food in New York. After a while, Kit looked at him, looking slightly more comfortable than before. “Let’s go back to the house?”

“And pretend we trained?” Jace asked and held out his hand.

“Yep,” Kit took his hand and raised himself up. “Let’s run back. We need to sweat. Also, make sure to ask for water as soon as you walk in. They think you’ve been training hard.”

“Damn,” Jace said, not knowing whether to be concerned or impressed. “Alright. Race you to the kitchen?”

“Are you ready, Jonathan Christopher?” Kit smirked.

“I’m ready, Christopher Jonathan,” Jace winked.

“Oh my god, your family is so wack,” Kit yelled as he broke into a run.

“Our family is so wack,” Jace yelled as he ran after him.

#I had a bad day so writing this made it 12% better #hope it makes your day 12% better too #jace herondale #kit herondale #jace week #tmi #tsc snippets #dani writes stuff

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angelicmichael · 3 years ago

Text

Imminient Annihilation sounds so dope - Chapter Ten

Michael Langdon X Reader

Summary: Reader and Michael continue to work through their issues and finally start to warm up to each other even further.

Words: 5.9k+ …oops

Warnings: just normal IA warnings (swear words, manipulation, unhealthy relationships, enemies to lovers, slowburn, etc) anddd maybeee a bit of fluff 👁

A/N: hey guys! Sorry I haven’t updated this in a few months but hopefully this is satisfactory hehe. This chapter is kinda a turning point in the fic so I hope u guys like it!! Also I watched Jennifer’s Body as I finished this so.. do what u must w that information 😌 djdjd

Previous Chapter

Rain was never something you were accustomed too. Spending so much time in Los Angeles had made you partially spoiled when it came to the weather - which is why you knew immediately your day was going to be shit when you woke up to rain.

You tried to convince yourself that the emotions you were feeling weren’t complete disdain but rather just a pessimistic version of indifference.. or that’s what you hoped anyway.

You knew realistically that your day wasn’t already doomed before it even started; and that the rain was nothing more than a mere inconvenience.. However; you still felt justified in complaining, considering today was the day you were ripping the band-aide off and moving in to the apartment Michael had oh so graciously chosen to give you.

Your pessimistic mood surrounding the entire situation was inevitable, and that was something you didn’t even bother to resist or fight. It didn’t take long for your thoughts to quickly go south as you quickly packed. Hatred that seemingly came out of nowhere (but that you realistically knew was only temporarily dormant) wasted no time in blinding your judgement - making you feel a nearly nauseating amount of jealousy and anger for people who actually seemed to be fucking happy in their relationships and werent forced into.. whatever shitty living situation you knew you were bound to find yourself in.

An apartment with no strings attached was way too fucking simple, and you knew it was too good to be true. You knew you were basically walking into a trap, and for what reason were you doing that so willingly? Just so that maybe Michael could start to tolerate you? You resented yourself for even agreeing to this but you also understood you really had no other option.

However; personal feelings aside.. you still had a mission to accomplish. You still had to attempt to seduce Michael, and even though you were doing a shit job at that so far - you still had to try. You knew realistically it was only a matter of time before Cordelia would ask about the progress you've made, and you would have to tell her something.

You had to do this.

That's why you were (semi) blindly choosing to move in to a building you knew you absoluetly couldnt afford; and why you were sucking up your pride and choosing to become semi reliant on Michael.

No one from the coven knew, and for the time being you intended to keep it that way. After all, even though Mallory didnt exactly know that Michael gave you a whole ass fucking apartment - your sure she probably suspected that something important happened between you and Michael just from the short conversation you three harbored together. But for the time being, you didnt have to worry about that. You had bigger things that were on your mind.. like the actual apartment door itself that you currently stood in front of.

You held the keys limply in your hand, your bag slumped next to you as you procrastinated something as fucking simple as opening a door. How pathetic.

You continued to stall in the hallway regardless - thankful there was no one passing through to witness how ridiculous you looked. Your gaze fell south down to your keys which were cold in your hand. Dripping slowly with the subtle rainwater that managed to linger on them, along with the rest of your clothes.

Your skin stung from the cold that seemed stubborn to leave, and a nice change of clothes and a hot shower wouldnt be the absolute worst thing in the world..

Fuck.

You bit your lip in order to prevent letting the profanity from rolling off your tongue. Quickly getting a better grip on the keys (which only made you somehow colder) and numbly, hastily unlocking the door.

You pushed it open, letting the door hit the wall and taking a few steps inside before dropping your bag to the floor.. as well as your jaw.

No words could possibly convey how you felt as you noticed how the room was already illuminated with not only natural light from the already huge windows you could see.. but also with a warm, yellow artificial glow.

Was someone already here?

What the fuck?

The hatred and resentment you previously felt toward others earlier rapidly started to return - except this time it was targeted at one very specific person.

It didnt even register in your mind that the light could've been left on by accident or that people besides Michael actually existed that could be present in the room but.. you didnt care. Anger was the only emotion that was solely present in your body as you fully abandoned your bag by the door. Advancing forward; and only feeling more shock and disbelief with every step you took at the thought that he could very possibly be in (what was supposed to be) your space.

"Michael, I swear to God-"

"Y/n?” said a soft, feminine voice.

It was practically automatic how you froze. Just getting close enough to notice that it wasn’t Michael after all that was on your bed in your new studio apartment, but a woman sat on your bed instead.

For about two seconds, you were scared it was Madison but.. that was a stupid assumption within itself. The company you were with was from a far different nature than of which Madison was, even though at first glance the two woman might look or sound similar. There were so many qualities that distinguished Mallory from Madison. Brown, auburn hair.. dark eyeshadow.. and her classic black boots. It didn’t take long for your anger to fade away as you tried to not think about how logically this still didn’t make sense - walking closer to your bed anyway.

"How did you get in here? And since when did you ever break into peoples rooms?" You asked with a laugh.

Mallory echoed your laugh back, seemingly watching you and your behavior. As if she was expecting you to do something or to act a certain way.. like perhaps leave.

"I didnt break into your apartment but.. you should probably sit down." She spoke, before nodding off to her side. Nonverbally suggesting you to sit next to her.

You did as you were told. Noticing briefly before you sat down how nice the apartment actually was.. including the bed.

The walls, and most of everything in the apartment was a solid black. It looked sleek, and even though black paint made most rooms look small - the natural light helped keep things looking open which you appreciated. It was no surprise that the bed matched the dark theme too. The sheets were silky, black satin. You almost laughed at how comfortable the bed was once you sat next to Mallory, the entire situation was so ridiculous it nearly hurt for you to not laugh out loud. The two of you sat in the silence for a moment.. you were each incredibly anxious, that was more than apparent.

You looked up at Mallory, expecting her to speak first and explain herself since after all.. shes the one who broke into your apartment but she still remained quiet.. Stalling, you could only guess.

"So, why are you here? How did you even get in here? Is everything okay?" You asked, your words speedy and rushed.

Panic started to temporarily set in when you realized that something could be serisouly wrong with the coven, even though you knew how completly irrational it was to think that way with no evidence. What if witch hunters found them? What if someone preformed the seven wonders and it went wrong? What if the plan had suddenly changed with Michael?

Mallory seemed to pick on how anxious you suddenly were, putting a hand on your upper arm before making you meet her gaze. Her soft, hazel brown eyes immeadietly making your breathe slow. That was another reason you were so thankful for Mallory - the soothing, calming effect she seemed to have on everyone she met was something you never took for granted.. Espically now.

"Hey, nothing's wrong and nothing happened. I promise. I just wanted to see you and talk to you, and I figured we should catch up after Michael basically made me leave," Mallory explained.

You quickly nodded. Feeling guilt start to creep into your system once you remembered how Michael previously treated her.

"Yeah, youre right. I've been wanting to see you anyway and I'm sorry I didnt just call you last night or something.. and I know I cant control him but I'm still sorry for how Michael treated you. I shouldn't have brought you into that-"

"(Y/n), stop," Mallory said urgently. Shaking her head slightly in disagreement with your words. "Sure, Michael was acting like a dick but.. it's nothing I'm not exactly accustomed too. It was harmless," she ended her words with a smile. One that was meant to comfort you both at the epiphany her words brought.

You sat with her words for a moment. The realization suddenly hitting you like a truck-

"Wait.. what? Do you know Michael?"

Mallory fell completely silent. Looking at you almost in a.. guilty manner. Her gaze fell downwards before she looked up to meet yours once more, licking her lips anxiously before she uttered out a quiet reply.

"I wasnt going to tell you because I knew it would make you upset but.. Michael called me last night-"

"And you answered?" Your voice raised up a few octaves unwillingly. Threatening to break as you tried to process what you were hearing.

As much as you wanted to immeadietly jump to conclusions, you had to remind yourself that this was Mallory you were talking too. Your best friend, Mallory. You knew she would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.

You noticed Mallory was also starting to get tense. Her spine suddenly a bit too straight and her shoulders were rigid. It was nice to know you werent the only person in this situation who was feeling this way, although you would be lying if you were to say that you werent curious for why Mallory felt tense.

"At first, no but he kept calling so I figured it would cause no harm to see what he wanted so, I answered," Mallory said cautiously.

It was obvious she had more to say and as much as you wanted her to keep talking and fully explain herself - you were more than happy that you didnt have to cut her off again. It was too much. This was too much.

You pinched the bridge of your nose before loudly exhaling with a shallow growl. Not really caring that it probably was coming off like you were mad at Mallory when in reality, that wasn’t the case. Mallory wasn’t the problem; you were really just beyond fucking pissed at Michael.

But at this point.. that wasnt new news.

"I told him that we shouldnt be talking, but he insisted," Mallory continued with a shrug.

You tried to sit up straight again; trying to exhale some of the pure fucking anger that was currently coursing through your system. Your vision was spotted black when you opened your eyes - your gaze pointed upwards at the smooth, blank ceiling. Quickly wishing that you were anywhere else, or really anyone else at the moment.

What you wouldnt kill to swap bodies again.. but then again, who knows what the hell Michael was currently doing at the moment.. He couldnt be trusted.

That was more than obvious now.

You should've known that he would contact Mallory, but how he even got her number was beyond you.. Unless-

"How did he even get your number?" You asked. Your tone strikingly calm.

Mallory looked incredibly spooked when your head suddenly snapped over to look at her. As if she was worried you were angry at her still, and as much as you wanted to reassure her otherwise, you really didnt have the energy to do so anymore. Not at the moment anyway.

"You can't be mad when I tell you the answer, okay?" She said softly.

Your features immeadietly softened at her words. The rest of your body relaxed as well; your shoulders dropping and your jaw unclenching.

"Mallory, I could never be mad at you. You could never piss me off, i'm just.. frustrated at Michael. It's not at you, I swear," you said. Trying your best to make your words sound reassuring and genuine.

Mallorys reaction wasnt one that was verbal but immeadite nonetheless. Her arms suddenly shot out and wrapped themselves around you. Her body temporarily pressing into yours as your hands went to her back, before she quickly broke the hug.

"Promise?" Mallory prompted. Brown eyes looking diligently into yours.

"Yeah.. I promise. Just tell me what that idiot did,” you said halfheartedly.

"So.. I've had his number for a while. Not for too long but just since you two switched. But, we never really talked," Her voice stalled as she watched your reaction. Your mouth grew dry as you really tried to let it sink in that they've known eachother since- well for atleast a week. "But I knew immeadietly that it wasnt you.. that day. I'm sorry I lied, but Michael made me promise."

"Why didnt you just tell me?"

Mallory looked at you in a guilty manner. Her lips pursing shut as she looked solemnly at her shoes, avoiding eye contact. You knew exactly why she was being quiet - she didnt want to admit why she had lied but.. the answer was pretty obvious.

Even though Mallory was one of the strongest witches - almost stronger than Cordelia on some days, she still was scared of Michael and that was nothing worth holding a grudge over. After all he was still the antichrist, no matter how (mostly) harmless and idiotic he seemed to you now.

"Okay.. I guess that doesnt really matter," you admitted with a laugh. Figeting with your hands as you heard a shallow laugh omit also from Mallory, which made you smile. The shallow pit that resided in your stomach finally starting to let up. "But.. What did he call you about last night?"

Mallory hesitated again before giving you another subtle smile.

"It was mostly about you.. I know how you feel about him y/n, but its working. I promise you. Hes finally warming up to you. I just wish you could hear how he talks about you,” she spoke. Taking your hands into her soft, warm ones.

"I wish I believed that," You admitted.

"I wouldnt lie to you. Hes finally starting to warm up to you, plus it was obvious yesterday-"

"Yeah; It was obvious how strong he was coming onto you."

Mallory laughed again at your words. Shaking her head slightly in protest.

“Y/n you know that’s not true. The only reason why he was flirting with me was just to get to you.. I thought that was obvious.”

“It was obvious I just.. didn’t know that you knew that. I mean, Michael has Madison.. or he did so you think that would at least satisfy his flirting needs for a bit but.. Michael faking to be interested in you, that would mean he wanted a reaction out of me on purpose? Why would he-“

“You know why. You need to start cutting yourself slack and realize that maybee this rivalry is starting to be one sided.”

You pouted at her words at the realization that they actually held more truth in them than you were willing to admit. If Michael didn’t hate you anymore, if he was truly actually willing to be civil.. then why were you still so upset? Were you the one who was unintentionally causing problems now? Was it now you instead of Michael that was holding the relationship back?

How fucking stupid.

“I can’t trust him, Mallory. How can I when he and Madison literally tried to kill me. I can never forget that they did that to me.”

“I’m not asking you to forget what he did, y/n. I’m just saying that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to start having an open mind around him, and see where it gets you.”

You were struck silent, knowing that Mallory was completely right. If you wanted to have any hope at all of making things right with Michael (even though you really didn’t do anything wrong..) you would have to try a different approach because obviously; what you were doing now wasn’t working. Being snarky, and vaguely threatening him every chance you got was fun of course but- it wasn’t working. Even though Mallory was probably the sweetest person you knew, the fact your own best friend had to (very politely) make a intervention was.. not a good sign. Although, you knew Mallory was doing this for your best interest because if she didn’t say anything, then Cordelia certainly would.

And sadly, Mallory was actually right.

If you wanted things with Michael to advance any further; or to advance at all you needed to step things up but, you could always worry about that after Mallory left.

“So what, are you guys besties now or something?” You sneered.

“Shut up!” Mallory said with a laugh, playfully pushing you over a bit. “He’s barely even my acquaintance. The only reason he’s being nice to me is just to get to you, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I mean that’s the goal-“

“Do you think that’s the only reason?” You interrupted.

Your throat automatically tightened after you spoke, the threat of your words potentially being true coaxing you to silence. Your not sure why the thought of Michael using you made you upset.. it’s not as if you didn’t think he was doing it before but this time it was different. Perhaps it was because you finally thought Michael actually had some type of interest in you.. and to have that suddenly ripped away?

That would leave you beyond broken.. you knew that for certain.

Mallory looked at you solemnly, as if she was already resenting her words before she had to say them outloud.

“Look, I don’t exactly know Michaels intentions and I’m not going to pretend too.. I don’t really think anyone does at this point but I do know that regardless of your feelings, or even his feelings that.. you have to try.”

You let out a loud exhale.

“I mean you said it yourself.. Michaels so unpredictable, there’s no point in guessing how he feels so.. maybe I should just.. ask him?”

Realistically you didn’t know how good of a idea that was- but.. trying to remain realistic was something you gave up on days ago. Pretty much the same day you switched and that definitely wasn’t a coincidence by any means.

As soon as Mallorys mouth opened, you heard three loud knocks. Quick and rapid with no hesitation between them. The apartment nearly shook with the force of whoever happened to be at your door, and you certainly didn’t doubt that your neighbors heard the knocking as well.

Mallory looked at you in utter confusion, but stayed on the bed nonetheless with no sign of getting up. Naturally, you found yourself scooting closer to the end of the bed, knowing it was you who was going to have to get the door.. and that made you scared shitless. Not because you were necessarily scared to open the door but because you had a horribly bad feeling on who was on the other side.. There was only one person that you knew of that was aware of where you lived, and you knew it wasn’t matience or staff.

You knew standing up was the logical thing to do but you still stalled. Hands starting to painfully dig into the soft, expensive sheets that lie underneath you. You mouthed a silent, ‘what the fuck?’ to Mallory but your head snapped back at the door..

Three more knocks which were only louder and more persistent than the last.

“Coming!” You quickly called out.

It was pure anxiety that fueled your next actions. You quickly stood up from the bed, trying to walk hurriedly to the door as fast as you could and trying your damn best not to think.. Hoping Mallory also had a idea of who was at the door and also happened to get the fuck out of view.

You didn’t want a repeat of yesterday happening again today, and you knew you wouldn’t hesitate to slap Michael if he tried to flirt with her again. Even though, you knew you weren’t supposed to act like that anymore.. but why should you have manners if Michael refused them as well?

Opening the door swiftly and without a second thought; you stood breathless as you saw a familiar blonde standing in front of you.

You both stared at each other at first - each not daring to have the balls to say ‘hello’ or anything else for that matter.. You noticed how Michael first eyed you up, fully looking up and down your body (as well as peering behind you, hopefully not making eye contact with Mallory). You made a point to just look into Michaels eyes, refusing to do what he was doing.. whatever the fuck that truly was.

“How did you know I would be here?” You breathed.

“I knew it was just a matter of time before you’d come, but it also never hurt to charm the hotel staff a bit,” Michael responded swiftly without a second beat, almost as if he anticipated your words. His lips upturned slightly at the edges, in a way that nearly made your stomach sick.

“The hotel staff-?!”

“I have connections everywhere y/n, I thought you knew that,” he sneered.

He brushed past you as you continued to stand in shock. Your mouth slightly falling open as Michael took a few steps into your apartment - looking curiously around, almost as if he knew Mallory was here..

“I did.. I think that’s obvious,” you shot back hurriedly. “But thank you for the apartment again, Michael. I still feel weird taking it but it is nice I’ll admit,” you continued. Hoping to make him turn around to look back at you and hopefully not find Mallory.. Which worked. At least for a few seconds at least.

Michael made direct eye contact with you for a moment, almost as if he wanted to speak but was deliberately choosing not too. Instead he turned around, walking in deeper in the apartment.

Your mouth immediately dropped open - your feet carried yourself forward as you started to feel a bit numb with shock- not knowing even in the slightest how you were going to handle the situation if Mallory didn’t fucking move.

Sure enough..

“You always manage to linger.. don’t you?” Michael spoke.

It took only a couple steps for you to fully realize he wasn’t speaking to you. You only saw his backside as you approached them. Quickly meeting Mallorys gaze as you came into view.. Her brown eyes darker than ever as she peered up at you.

This time it is nearly impossible to distinguish whether she looked in agony from Michaels appearance or yours; since you apparently interrupted them. Her gaze quickly returned back to meet Michaels before you could think anything of it.

“I’m not here to see you, Michael.” Mallory announced. Her tone harsher than what you were expecting what apparent friends would use.. Were they even really friends?

Mallory suddenly stood up while Michael was still standing a few feet in front of her. Making eye contact with Michael for a split second before almost ducking around him before she stood in front of you.. leaving Michael speechless behind her. She quickly hugged you, her arms only embracing you for a split second before leaving. It was obvious she was in a hurry to leave now but.. you weren’t sure exactly why.

“I should get going, you and Michael have a lot to talk about,” she subtly smiled before turning to leave.. not letting you reply or have any sort of reaction to her words.

You stood solemnly as you heard Mallory’s footsteps gradually go farther away, before hearing the door open and close. You watched Michaels back as he refused to turn around.

“How was your nice chat with Mallory?”

“Why are you asking? Am I not allowed to see her or something?” You bit back. Your words possibly twice as venomous as his were.

Michael hastily turned around, looking at you with utter disbelief. His blue eyes looking into yours, as if he was suddenly surprised by your tone and how you were acting - as if his behavior didn’t proceeded yours.

“You need to relax,” he snapped. He approached you until he was right in front of you. “I wasn’t asking because I’m trying to control you, I know that’s what your thinking,” His words fell soft until they were nearly inaudible. “I just wanted to ask what she talked to you about.”

“About us?” You prompted.

“Well what else would she be talking to you about,” he snickered. His words spoken as more of a statement than a question. His laughter quickly dwindled off after he saw how rigid your frame suddenly looked. “Kidding. For the most part.. she said she was going to talk to you, and I figured I should actually speak to you this time rather than her.”

“Are you.. actually trying to trust me, Michael Langdon?” You teased. A smile, as well as laughter escaped from your lips at the mere thought.

Even though the thought was amusing on its own, you still didn’t completely trust him. Even now when he had Mallorys trust (for the most part), you still didn’t doubt that he had a ulterior motive.

Michael finally stepped back, hesitantly breaking eye contact before inaudibly beckoning you to follow him.

“I’m trying, just like how I told you I would,” He hauntingly reminded you.

You followed him silently to the long leather couch that sat by the overly expansive windows. Sitting down next to him in a way that felt almost too casual.. but being casual around Michael and not borderline fearing for your life was something you would have to adjust too.

You noticed how he instantly slipped his shoes off; drawing up his feet on the couch.. his arms and as well the rest of him contained. Away from you.

“So if your trying.. now,” you suggested uncertainly. “Then.. tell me why you came here to talk suddenly again? I mean why not just go through Mallory again like you’ve doing previously?”

“(Y/n), please. Take me seriously and just trust me for once,” His words came out quick and stern as he spoke them. “I was being serious yesterday, as well as all the other times when I told you I wanted to start.. putting effort in and trying.”

You stared at Michael utterly dumbfounded.. Feeling a bit hopeless that you actually felt almost.. touched by his words. That’s if he was actually being serious, anyway.

“What does trying mean to you?” You asked carefully. Your mind naturally went back to Madison.. were they even broken up yet? Was that even something that Michael was willing to do for you, and how was that something you could just ask? “What about-“

“Madison’s fine. She’s fine.. with everything,” he replied hesitantly.

You simply ignored the fact that he seemed to pick up what you were talking about almost immeadietly.. focusing on rather the latter part of the sentence.. that she was okay with everything?

“So she knows? That you’re here?”

“Yeah. She knows but that’s besides the point. Madison isn’t a part of the equation anymore, I don’t want to talk about her,” He spoke as if his words were final and not to be argued with, but his tone wasn’t angry. He was just done.. and you were too.

You wish that wasn’t the case though. Cutting Madison off didn’t sit right with you in the slightest, and it would definitely have to be something that would have to be mended later. That was a given.

Madison and Michaels relationship was far too close for them to suddenly split and remain like that forever - it was temporary, but so is everything really. That shouldn’t phase you but - it still managed too.

“Okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t-“ you started.

“It’s fine. I knew you would ask.. She’s the reason why I’m here actually,” His eyes broke contact and averted down to his hands. “I don’t mean that as in I’m not here to see you but, it was something she said that brought me here.” He continued, his voice almost growing soft now at just the mention of his ex girlfriend.. and now, you felt like you actually were starting to understand his point of view. Not fully but, it was clear that Michael was trying to be more open with you, and this time he wasn’t ‘fake’ drunk.

It took nearly everything in you to not immeadietly retort but just like the night where you were at the party; you tried to fully hear him out since this was apparently one of the few times he was being civil.

“So Madison gave you advice and you actually took it?” You said while laughing softly. Trying to lighten the mood since Michael seemed to be brooding.

Michael didn’t laugh back but instead his gaze flickered up to meet yours for a moment. The corners of his mouth upturning in a shallow smile that only lasted for a few seconds.

“I did because it made sense.” He said, his tone still remaining serious. You noticed how careful he was being with his words.. something that was typical for Michael to do but this time it seemed a bit too deliberate. You wanted to ask what exactly Madison even told him to do but.. that felt wrong. “It was also the right thing to do.. Being close to you is something I should’ve done a while ago, probably immeadietly-“

“But what’s in the past; stays in the past. And since your so adamant about being close to me.. we can always try now,” you cut in.

Michael continued to sit a good distance away from you; you thought it was ironic how he could talk about wanting to get close with you but wouldn’t dare to move any closer. That thought made your pride a little bit too happy.

Right before he could open his mouth to say something; his phone rang. The sound suddenly earsplitting and blaring but Michael didn’t bother to flinch. Instead he stood up and answered his phone.. making sure to nearly trek across the apartment before he said anything into the phone.

You stretched and casually examined him as he talked, you had a feeling who it was on the line..

After how tense things were with Mallory - you knew they probably weren’t going to be on friendly terms anytime soon.. especially in front of you. And judging by how.. oddly relaxed he seemed (yet timid when he caught your gaze and realized you were staring), it had to be one person.

You were about to sink back into the couch and try your best to not speculate what they were talking about, but before you could fully turn - you realized Michael was sauntering towards you.. clearly still on the phone.

Oh fuck.

Before you could ask what was wrong, the look he gave you alone ushered you to silence.

He quickly held the phone away from his ear. A quick glance at the screen confirmed that the call was still active.

“You said you forgive Madison.. right?” He spoke lowly. His words barely audible, more so mouthing the words than actually speaking them.

You looked at him with a expression you’re sure looked as if you were furious but you were really just completely confused. You wanted to ask but.. there was no time if she was on the phone, but knowing what you were about to get yourself into would also be nice to know.

His eyes had since lost the sharpness that had nearly cut you earlier, instead swarming with urgency and a bit of panic.. It had to be Madison. The only person that could ever have that effect on Michael was Madison.

You simply nodded in response. Not trusting yourself to speak quietly outloud but you also didn’t exactly trust your response because it wasn’t exactly truthful, but Michael seemed to be level headed.. for now.

Michael immeadietly turned and held the phone back up to his ear, this time staying in closer proximity and within ear shot. Putting on his shoes as he continued to hold the conversation he was having.

“Okay

...

So when are you coming?

...

Great, see you then. . . Bye.”

If you didn’t just hear the words that you thought you had heard.. you knew under normal circumstances your heart would’ve ached when you realized how Michael hesitated before he said goodbye, most likely catching himself before he said ‘I love you’. Instead though, you felt a gruesome wave of nausea suddenly rise through you.. urging you to shakily stand up and speak without thinking.

“She’s coming to see you?”

Michael barely gave you a second glance as he turned around and started to head for the front door of the apartment.

“Yes. You’ll be seeing her too, don’t worry.” He spoke before he quickly let the door shut behind him.

You continued to stand, utterly speechless.

Part of you wanted to run after him and the other part merely wanted to scream in anger that he had already made fucking plans but instead you felt numb. Numb and calm.

You returned to your bag and unpacked, trying your best to not let your emotions consume you like they previously had too many times.. until you finally broke down and called Mallory.

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#michael x reader #Michael Langdon x reader #michael langdon fanfic #michael langdon fanfiction #Michael Langdon #my fic #Imminient Annihilation #hopefully y’all like this and it’s not all over the place djdjd #about to post to ao3 like always #ALSO thank u for the 2k hits on ao3!! 🥺💖#also side note - Jennifer’s body was amazing and now I wanna write something related 😭

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