#and of course everything's more expensive than it was three years ago and still the quality's gone to SHIT
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
the last couple of years i've thrifted just about all my non-underwear clothes, but i needed a pair of black formal-looking trousers on short notice, so for "speed and efficiency's sake" (hah...), i decided to go to the mall just this once
JESUS the quality of fast fashion has PLUMMETED these last few years! of course it was always low-quality, but i was genuinely shocked that in five chain stores i couldn't find ONE pair of women's black trousers that a) were in a non-synthetic fabric, b) had enough fabric to not be see-through and have pockets, or c) weren't already fraying or had loosening stitches or buttons
the men's section at least had a couple of items in natural fibers (and thus i can hope they will hold up through at least one cycle of washing), but i still had to pick the one with the fewest loose threads sticking out
thrifting clothes is a bit of an ordeal (there are no secondhand stores nearby so i must plan a trip there; the assortment is random; browsing the racks requires more attention; often the clothes don't have sizing tags anymore) but GOD was trying to find something halfway wearable in a chain store a lot more work and WAY more depressing
#and then i'm just pissed off that women's clothing is MARKEDLY lower quality than men's in the same store#i say men's and women's clothing because that's how the stores categorize them. obviously i don't fucking care which one i end up wearing#it's just VERY OBVIOUS that if i need to find anything in cotton or non-seethrough linen i have to go to men's section#and of course everything's more expensive than it was three years ago and still the quality's gone to SHIT
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
I would like to address something that has come up several times since I relaunched my computer recommendation blog two weeks ago. Part of the reason that I started @okay-computer and that I continue to host my computer-buying-guide is that it is part of my job to buy computers every day.
I am extremely conversant with pricing trends and specification norms for computers, because literally I quoted seven different laptops with different specs at different price-points *today* and I will do more of the same on Monday.
Now, I am holding your face in my hands. I am breathing in sync with you. We are communicating. We are on the same page. Listen.
Computer manufacturers don't expect users to store things locally so it is no longer standard to get a terabyte of storage in a regular desktop or laptop. You're lucky if you can find one with a 512gb ssd that doesn't have an obnoxious markup because of it.
If you think that the norm is for computers to come with 1tb of storage as a matter of course, you are seeing things from a narrow perspective that is out of step with most of the hardware out there.
I went from a standard expectation of a 1tb hdd five years ago to expecting to get a computer with a 1tb hdd that we would pull and replace with a 1tb ssd to expecting to get a computer that came with a 256gb ssd that we would pull and replace with a 1tb ssd, to just having the 256gb ssd come standard and and only seeking out more storage if the customer specifically requested it because otherwise they don't want to pay for more storage.
Computer manufacturers consider any storage above 256gb to be a premium feature these days.
Look, here's a search for Lenovo Laptops with 16GB RAM (what I would consider the minimum in today's market) and a Win11 home license (not because I prefer that, but to exclude chromebooks and business machines). Here are the storage options that come up for those specs:
You will see that the majority of the options come with less than a terabyte of storage. You CAN get plenty of options with 1tb, but the point of Okay-Computer is to get computers with reasonable specs in an affordable price range. These days, that mostly means half a terabyte of storage (because I can't bring myself to *recommend* less than that but since most people carry stuff in their personal cloud these days, it's overkill for a lot of people)
All things being equal, 500gb more increases the price of this laptop by $150:
It brings this one up by $130:
This one costs $80 more to go from 256 to 512 and there isn't an option for 1TB.
For the last three decades storage has been getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper, to the point that storage was basically a negligible cost when HDDs were still the standard. With the change to SSDs that cost increased significantly and, while it has come down, we have not reached the cheap, large storage as-a-standard on laptops stage; this is partially because storage is now SO cheap that people want to entice you into paying a few dollars a month to use huge amounts of THEIR storage instead of carrying everything you own in your laptop.
You will note that 1tb ssds cost you a lot less than the markup to pay for a 1tb ssd instead of a 500gb ssd
In fact it can be LESS EXPENSIVE to get a 1tb ssd than a 500gb ssd.
This is because computer manufacturers are, generally speaking, kind of shitty and do not care about you.
I stridently recommend getting as much storage as you can on your computer. If you can't get the storage you want up front, I recommend upgrading your storage.
But also: in the current market (December 2024), you should not expect to find desktops or laptops in the low-mid range pricing tier with more than 512gb of storage. Sometimes you'll get lucky, but you shouldn't be expecting it - if you need more storage and you need an inexpensive computer, you need to expect to upgrade that component yourself.
So, if you're looking at a computer I linked and saying "32GB of RAM and an i7 processor but only 500GB of storage? What kind of nonsense is that?" Then I would like to present you with one of the computers I had to quote today:
A three thousand dollar macbook with the most recent apple silicon (the m4 released like three weeks ago) and 48 FUCKING GIGABYTES OF RAM with a 512gb ssd.
You can't even upgrade that SSD! That's an apple that drive isn't going fucking anywhere! (don't buy apple, apple is shit)
The norms have shifted! It sucks, but you have to be aware of these kinds of things if you want to pay a decent price for a computer and know what you're getting into.
5K notes
·
View notes
Text

Radio Silence | Chapter Fourteen
Lando Norris x Amelia Brown (OFC)
Series Masterlist
Summary — Order is everything. Her habits aren’t quirks, they’re survival techniques. And only three people in the world have permission to touch her: Mom, Dad, Fernando.
Then Lando Norris happens.
One moment. One line crossed. No going back.
Warnings — Autistic!OFC, jealous lando, protective grid, sexual content
Notes — Welcome to the 2021 Formula One season! (Testing, but still... it counts). Also... hehehehehehehe double update <3
Want to be added to the taglist? Let me know! — Peach x
2021
WhatsApp Groupchat — 2021 F1 Grid
Lewis H. A warm welcome to our 2021 rookies! Mick, and Yuki :)
Lando N. Yeah, welcome or whatever More importantly, does anyone know if I can call up the Apple store in Woking and get them to deliver to me? Even though it’s closed rn
Lewis H. What happened? Did her iPad break?
Lando N. Yeah mate, completely toast.
Max V. Shit. I can have one express delivered to your flat, Lando. It is, of course, a work expense.
Yuki T. Uh hey I guess! I thought this was a work only chat? Did I get the wrong briefing?
George R. It usually is, but as admin I allow Amelia-based chat @Yuki
Mick S. Hey! Great to be here. Um, just curious though. Who is Amelia?
Max V. My lead technical engineer.
Lando N. My girlfriend.
Lewis H. Zak Brown’s daughter.
Fernando A. Her iPad is broken? I will bring her one now. Lando, send me your home address.
Mick S. Ohhh, I actually know Amelia Brown!
Lando N. ?????????? @Mick
Fernando A. Lando you have not sent me your address.
Max V. @Fernando I have already purchased the iPad.
Mick S. @Lando we met years ago, mate. She used to ski with her family where mine did in the winter.
Lando N. You heard the part where she’s my girlfriend, yeah @Mick?
Mick S. Yes…
Lando N. Good.
Fernando A. @Max She will need it delivered to her soon.
Charles L. It finally broke? Wow. Lasted far longer than I believed it would.
Lando N. @Charles Not a good time for jokes, mate. She’s devastated
Daniel R. Should I start carrying a spare iPad to races with me just in case? LOL.
Lando N. Wait that’s a good idea Somebody write that down Max write that down
Max V. I purchased three. I will carry the spares
Fernando A. Vamos, Max!
Pierre G. I bet the rookies are so confused lmao. Welcome to the grid group chat. We discuss penalties, race conditions, plane shares, and Amelia Brown.
Carlos S. @Lando How is she? Did she freak out?
Lando N. She’s good now. All chill.
Lewis H. Tell her that I just bought her a new bunny sticker book. I’ll give it to her at testing.
Lance S. If I buy her the entire Apple company, do you think she will come and fix the Aston Martin car?
Max V. NO.
Yuki T. This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in any grid group chat, and the f2 chat used to get weird lol
George R. Welcome to the grid, Yuki. Keep your head on straight, and if you ever find a lost iPad with a bunny sticker on it anywhere in the paddock, make sure it gets back to Amelia asap
Lando N. Thats important for all of the rookies to know @Mick @Yuki
Mick S. Sure I’ll keep an eye out!
Lando N. Actually I change my mind Mick if you see an iPad just leave it yeah :)
Mick S. ????
Pierre G. This is going to be a great year.
Checo P. All of the other drivers have this chat muted, yes?
Kimi R. Yes.
—
Amelia was crouched down by Max's car, her hand resting on the tire as she scanned through the data on her iPad. The numbers on the screen felt too slow, almost static, compared to the racing thoughts racing through her head.
Beside her, Jos loomed over her, a red-ink pen poised above her little black notebook. He was taking notes for her. Her mind was moving faster than her hands could keep up, and sometimes, just sometimes, she needed someone like him, methodical, steady, and patient, to help her process it all.
Her fingers flicked over the screen, swiping through the data from Max's morning run, when she paused, eyes flicking to Jos. “You see what I see?” she asked, her voice low, as if speaking any louder might break the delicate focus she’d managed to carve out for herself.
Jos nodded, his eyes scanning the information on the screen before looking back down at the scribbles he’d started in her notebook. “More rear stability in the high-speed corners. We’ll need to adjust the dampers again,” he said, his voice calm and matter-of-fact.
Amelia’s eyes tightened slightly as she thought. “We might need to soften the rear more. The front’s too reactive. Max is going to be fighting it in corners three and four, especially.” She tapped the screen lightly, zooming in on the section of the track map. “The car’s settling into a snap too fast, can’t keep up with the rear load in the high-speed sections.”
Jos made a mark in her notebook. “Front end’s still too eager, then?” He sighed.
“Yeah, exactly,” Amelia made a face. “We soften that just a little bit more. Max needs more confidence in the corners. Less initial bite, more consistency. Maybe tweak the ride height slightly too.” Her words were coming faster now as the solution to their issues fell into place in her brain.
As the day wore on, Max’s car was fine-tuned with the adjustments, and Amelia watched on with satisfaction as everything came together in perfect harmony.
They had a plan. The tweaks would work. Max would be happy with the handling.
She turned to Jos when the mechanics started to wheel Max’s car back into the garage for the final time, day one of testing officially over, giving him a small but appreciative smile.
He pulled her notebook out of the pocket of his jeans and handed it over. “I hope you can understand my handwriting.”
—
Amelia sat opposite Max at one of the small team tables in the Red Bull hospitality unit. Most of the staff had already filtered out for the night, their voices fading down the hallway as engineers, PR reps, and mechanics headed for shuttles and taxis. But the two of them lingered — Amelia, still editing Jos’ scribbled notes from earlier in the day, and Max, who had quietly gotten into the habit of not leaving until she did.
It was almost sweet. He dropped her off to Lando at her hotel room at the end of every day like she was a preschooler getting passed between divorced parents. She hadn’t said anything about it, partly because it was practical, and partly because she didn’t mind it. It was nice not to have to worry about being alone.
Across from her, Max was hunched low in his chair, arms folded tight across his chest, mouth set in a hard line. His gaze flicked from the tabletop to her notebook and back again, a rhythm she’d seen a hundred times before. It meant he was thinking. Hard. Or more likely, overthinking.
She didn’t bother looking up. “Just say it.”
He blinked. “What?”
“You’ve been fidgeting with your straw for six minutes. It’s starting to irritate me.”
Max exhaled through his nose, leaning back into the bench with a groan. “You are very annoying.”
“Mhmm,” she hummed, finally meeting his eyes. “Max, tell me.”
He hesitated, then shifted forward, resting his elbows on the table. There was a pause, a rare, tentative kind, and then, quieter than usual, he said, “I’m nervous.”
That made her put the pen down.
“For the season?” she asked, although she already suspected the answer.
Max nodded. “Everyone keeps saying 2021 is my year. Like it’s inevitable. Like this is it. And I want it — Fuck, I want it so bad. I’ve worked for it my whole life. But now that it’s here, I don’t know…” He rubbed a hand down his face. “What if it doesn’t happen?”
“It might not,” Amelia said plainly.
Max looked like he wanted to argue, but stopped short, blinking at her. “Comforting.”
“You’re not asking for comfort,” she said. “You’re asking if you’re good enough. And yes, you are. But this sport doesn’t always care about that.”
He let that sit for a moment. Nodded.
Then, quieter still, “There’s something else.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow.
“I met someone. Over the break.”
She made a face. “Someone?”
He groaned. “Don’t do the eyebrow thing.”
She relaxed her face. “Who did you meet?”
Max scratched at the edge of the table. “I met her in Monaco. She’s nice. A lawyer . She thinks I’m just… Max. I didn’t tell her about the racing. About… everything. She doesn’t follow F1.”
Amelia leaned forward slightly. “So she doesn’t know who you are.”
He shrugged helplessly. “She knows who I am. Just not… what I do.”
Amelia tilted her head. “And you like that?”
“I think so,” he said. “It’s peaceful. She talks to me like a normal person. No hero-worship, no pressure. Just… calm.”
“You’re lying to her, essentially,” she said bluntly. “Not a good foundation for a relationship.”
He shot her a withering look. “Jesus. You’re worse than my dad.”
“I take that as a compliment. We have the same goal.”
“I know.”
She looked down at her notebook, flipping a page and skimming it for a second. “You think you can manage both? A relationship and a championship battle?”
He hesitated. “Is that selfish?”
“No,” she said, then looked back at him. “But it might be a bit stupid.”
Max chuckled dryly. “Thanks.”
“I’m not saying you can’t have both,” Amelia added. “I’m just saying that it probably won’t work.”
He frowned, nodded slowly, then said, “But you’re managing your relationship and my championship.”
“I’m not the one driving the car, Max.” She argued.
“Still,” he muttered. “You’re making it work. I could make it work.”
She shrugged. “Okay. Is she nice?”
Max nodded, “I almost ran her over.”
She blinked at him. “Oh. That’s… romantic?” She tried.
He laughed shortly. “She was in a rush, didn’t look properly. I apologised and gave her a ride to work. She— she, uh, thinks that I’m just some wealthy businessman’s son, or something.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, anxiety curling in the pit of her stomach. “You should stop lying to her. I would… I would not like it if I was in that situation and I found out that I was being lied to.”
Max sighed. Nodded.
Then he stood, grabbed both their jackets, and slung hers over the back of her chair. “Come on. Let’s get you to your boyfriend before he starts texting me again asking where you are.”
She gave him a flat look. “He has a GPS tracker on my phone.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Of course he does. Typical Norris.”
She shrugged. “It’s sweet. Sometimes I get lost and he has to come and find me.”
Max laughed, and for the first time all day, some of the tightness left his posture. “Yeah,” he said, holding the door open for her. “Probably good that he has it, then.”
—
The lights of Manama twinkled in the distance, warm and hazy against the desert night. From the balcony of their hotel suite, the city looked like it belonged to another world; quiet and golden and slow in a way the paddock never was. The hum of the air conditioning inside was replaced by the occasional distant honk of a car, or the hush of wind weaving through the palm trees below.
Amelia was seated cross-legged on one of the outdoor chairs, wrapped in a white robe, her hair still damp from her shower. Lando, in a t-shirt and joggers, was fiddling with a tiny bottle opener, attempting to open a bottle of some obscure sparkling drink he’d insisted was “romantic, okay baby? Trust me.”
Their room service tray sat between them on the small table. Grilled flatbreads, mezze, roasted lamb. Lando had ordered for them and he’d gotten everything right.
“I don’t know how you always remember this stuff,” she said, dipping a piece of bread into a tangy yogurt sauce.
Lando grinned, finally getting the bottle open with a victorious pop. “Because I listen when you talk. I know the face you make when you think something tastes bad or has a yucky texture. I have eyes. Shocking, I know.”
Amelia gave him a pointed look. “Last week, you kissed my eyeball because you were being lazy and tried to kiss me with your eyes closed.”
“Shut up.” He huffed.
She laughed quietly, curling into him, giving him a bit of the blanket. “I think Max might be in love,” she said suddenly.
Lando blinked. “Max? Verstappen?”
“Mm,” she nodded, chewing. “He told me today that he met someone over the winter. She doesn’t know who he is. Like, really doesn’t know. Thinks he’s just some rich guy named Max.”
Lando made a face. “That… feels impossible.”
“She’s apparently very disconnected. Doesn’t follow the sport. Max likes it.”
Lando nodded slowly. “Weird. But kind of sweet, I guess.”
She frowned at him. “I told him he shouldn’t be dating during a title fight.”
“Very romantic of you.” Lando teased.
She shrugged. “I never said I was romantic.”
“No,” he said. “But you are.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t disagree. Instead, she reached for his hand where it rested on the table, her fingers brushing over his lightly. “I hope you do very well this year, Lan.” She told him, earnest and hopeful. “You deserve it.”
Lando turned his hand over to lace their fingers together. “So do you. Deserve to do well, I mean. You’ve worked so hard this past year. You deserve to see it pay off.”
Amelia didn’t say anything right away. She just leaned over and kissed him; soft, sweet, clinging. It wasn’t meant to lead anywhere at first, just a thank you. But she didn’t pull away. And he didn’t let her go.
She ended up in his lap, her legs curled against his chest, her robe brushing his knees. His hands slid instinctively around her back, fingers splaying wide against the thin fabric, grounding her. Grounding himself.
They stayed like that for a long time. The balcony lights dimmed behind them. The city hummed faintly in the distance, the last remnants of dinner cooling on the table, the silence between them easy.
Then, gently, she climbed off of him and stood. Her bare feet whispered against the tile as she stepped forward, and she stopped just in front of where he sat, between his knees. Her eyes searched his face for a beat, then she reached for the hem of his t-shirt.
“Come inside with me?”
Lando’s breath caught slightly. He looked up at her, her expression steady, soft, open, and nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
Inside, the hotel room was cast in warm light, golden from a low bedside lamp. The curtains were drawn against the city, muffling the world outside. The bed was turned down, sheets crisp, pillows fluffed. A quiet kind of invitation.
She tugged him by the hand toward the bed, and he followed without a word, heart thudding in his chest.
It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t awkward.
There was a kind of reverence to the way they undressed, slow, curious. Amelia’s robe slipped from her shoulders, caught briefly on her elbows before pooling at her feet. Lando’s hands hovered just for a second before brushing up her arms, like he was making sure she wouldn’t vanish if he touched her too quickly.
Their kisses deepened, still hesitant but filled with intent, with the weight of everything they’d been building toward for over a year. Every laugh, every shared moment of delicate intimacy, every time they’d caught each other’s eyes across a garage or a hotel lobby, it all settled into the space between them.
Lando’s mouth trailed across her skin with an almost startled sort of wonder, like he was learning a language he’d been waiting to speak. Her fingers threaded through his curls, tugging gently when his lips brushed the hollow of her throat. They moved together with quiet urgency, limbs tangled, breath catching against skin.
At one point, Lando paused, hovering just above her, his eyes sweeping across her face, flushed, focused, real.
“You’re so... fuck,” he whispered, barely audible.
Amelia blinked, lips curling faintly. “Not sure that’s a compliment.”
He kissed the curve of her shoulder, then her collarbone. “It is,” he murmured. “It really is.”
And when they finally settled under the covers, tangled together with her head tucked beneath his chin, Lando let out a shaky breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding.
She didn’t say much, but her fingers curled into his shirt like she wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon, and that was enough.
—
The sunlight was already creeping through the sliver of the curtains when Lando stirred, warmth pooling low in his stomach before he was even fully awake. For a moment, he didn’t move, just blinked up at the ceiling, trying to remember if he’d dreamt the night before, or if it had really happened.
Then she shifted against him.
Amelia was tucked beneath his arm, hair a little wild against his chest, one bare leg tangled over his. Her cheek was pressed just below his collarbone, lips slightly parted, her breath steady and warm against his skin.
Definitely not a dream.
He smiled, slow, stupid, unbelievably content.
She felt it too, maybe, his laugh or the way his fingers brushed along her back, because she mumbled something that sounded vaguely like a complaint and burrowed closer, clearly not ready to be awake yet.
Lando tilted his head, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Morning, baby.”
She made a noise that was more sigh than word. “Mm. No.”
“No what?”
“No talking,” she murmured, her voice thick with sleep. “Too early.”
He laughed quietly, the sound muffled by her hair. “It’s almost seven.”
“Too early for you to be this cheerful.” She grumbled.
Lando shifted just enough to look down at her, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. “I’m not cheerful.”
“You’re smiling.”
He smiled wider. “Can you blame me?”
She cracked an eye open, blinking up at him. Her face was still soft from sleep, a little puffy and makeup-free, but to him, she looked... ridiculously beautiful.
“What?” she asked, because he was staring.
“Nothing,” he said, brushing his thumb along her jaw. “I just really like waking up next to you.”
Her expression shifted slightly. And then, a second later, she exhaled and said quietly, “I like it, too.”
Lando kissed her, just a little one, lazy and warm.
They lay tangled in the sheets, the morning light spilling gently across the room. For a while, neither of them moved, perfectly content to exist in the quiet, wrapped up in warmth and each other.
Eventually, Amelia stirred, shifting just enough to reach over to the nightstand. She blinked blearily at her phone and then sighed and glanced across the room.
“Shit,” she muttered. “I forgot to charge my iPad.”
Lando, still half-asleep, pressed a slow kiss to her bare shoulder. “I plugged it in when I got up in the middle of the night to go for a piss.”
She turned to look at him, her expression soft, a little surprised. Her voice came quiet. “You did?”
He nodded, eyes still heavy with sleep. “Didn’t want you waking up to it dead.”
A pause. Then she gave him the smallest pout, sleepy and affectionate and so purely her. “I love you.”
He broke into a grin, one of those quiet, full-body smiles that lived in his eyes. “Yeah,” he murmured, brushing her hair back. “I love you too.”
—
The McLaren motorhome was buzzing with early morning energy, the consistent hum of coffee machines working overtime. Amelia slipped through the front doors with her badge swinging around her neck, hair still damp from a rushed shower, and Lando trailing behind her, half-yawning into a croissant.
Zak spotted them first, already seated at one of the corner tables with Daniel, who was halfway through a heaping plate of scrambled eggs and talking animatedly about something.
“There’s my girl,” Zak called, waving them over.
Amelia dropped into the seat beside her dad with a tired sigh. “Morning, dad.” She kissed his cheek.
“You sound tired,” he frowned at her, sipping his coffee.
Lando slid into the chair beside her, nudging her with his knee under the table. She handed him a napkin in response, gesturing for him to wipe the crumbs away from his face, and he smiled.
Daniel looked between them, eyebrows raised. “You must be Amelia. I’m Daniel. Can’t actually believe we’ve not met properly before now.”
“I know.” Amelia agreed, already reaching across the table for a muffin.
Daniel leaned in a little, grinning. “Lando talks about you all the damn time. In debriefs, pre-race meetings, on his radio—”
“Please stop talking,” Lando glared at his new teammate, clearly embarrassed.
“She’s worth talking about,” Zak laughed, patting Amelia on the shoulder with a fond smile.
Daniel smirked at Lando, thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. Lando just narrowed his eyes at him, his cheeks flushing slightly.
Amelia took another bite of her muffin, savouring her food. But before she could finish, her phone buzzed violently against the table. It was from Max.
iMessage — 7:33am
Max Verstappen Are you here, sister? I want to talk about my steering set-up
Amelia On my way to you now.
She shoved the rest of her muffin into her mouth and stood up in one swift motion. “Okay. I gotta go.”
Lando looked up, surprised. “Already?”
Amelia kissed him quickly on the cheek, her lips lingering for just a second longer than expected. She gave her dad a quick shoulder squeeze before smiling at Daniel, her usual bluntness softened by a bit of shyness she wasn’t used to showing in front of him. “Max wants my advice.”
Zak called after her with a grin. “Tell Jos I want my daughter back for lunch.”
“No promises,” she replied with a glance over her shoulder, already speed-walking toward the exit. Her hair bounced with each step, and her phone was pressed to her ear before she even made it out of the motorhome.
Daniel leaned toward Lando as she disappeared down the hallway. “You’re screwed, brother.”
Lando shot him a look, kicking him under the table. “Shut up.”
—
WhatsApp Groupchat — 2021 F1 Grid
Yuki T. I have Amelia’s iPad in AlphaTauri garage
Lewis H. Yeah, this has to be a new record.
Lando N. Lol she’s just been rly busy. Probably hasn’t noticed she hasn’t got it yet
Max V. She just noticed and started freaking out. @Yuki I’m on my way to get it.
Lando N. She okay @Max?
Max V. Yes mate, no need to worry.
Mick S. @Max Can I pop by your garage and say hi to her? It’s been years!
Lando N. @Max Say no. Max, say no. Max, say no.
Max V. @Mick No, she is too busy for friends.
Lando N. LMAO, REKT @Mick.
Mick S. Bro????? I really don’t want to steal your girlfriend 😭
Fernando A. You do not believe my Amelia is good enough for you, Schumacher?
Max V. What the fuck Mick
Charles L. Uh oh 😬😬
Pierre G. Bro that was NOT the right thing to say 😭
Max V. @Mick She wouldn’t even look your way.
Lando N. Wild angle, mate @Mick
George R. We are witnessing a man dig his own grave live in chat
Daniel R. *shovels faster* Keep going, Mick. Say you think she’s boring next.
Sebastian V. This feels like bullying.
Yuki T. I think it is
Carlos S. @Mick Just lie down. Accept it. The storm will pass.
Mick S. I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT 😭😭😭 I literally just meant she’s your girlfriend and I respect that! @Lando
Lando N. Sure you did.
Fernando A. In my country we have a saying — "Schumacher has placed his own foot in his own mouth."
Lewis H. Pick your words better next time yeah? @Mick
Lance S. This is why rookies don’t get access to Amelia.
Esteban O. Wait does that mean I have access to Amelia?
Max V. No.
Fernando A. Absolutely not.
Lando N. You do not.
Valtteri B. I do not speak much in this chat but I just want to say: Mick, this is very funny.
Antonio G. +1
Nicholas L. same 😭
Sebastian V. Let it be a lesson to all of us. Never try to be polite in here. It will be weaponised.
Charles L. I miss when this chat was about tyre pressures and strategy.
George R. That’s adorable. It’s never been that.
NEXT CHAPTER
#radio silence#f1 fic#f1 x reader#f1 fanfic#f1 imagine#f1 x ofc#formula one x reader#f1 x female reader#lando fanfic#lando imagine#lando x you#lando norris#lando x reader#lando norris x y/n#lando norris fluff#lando norris fanfic#lando norris x reader#ln4 mcl#ln4 imagine#ln4 x reader#ln4 fic#ln4#ln4 x y/n#ln4 x you#lando norris x you#lando norris x oc#lando norris x ofc#f1 smut#f1 rpf#f1
821 notes
·
View notes
Text
The moon and his sun (Part IV)
Aemond Targaryen x female reader
Summary: People would remember their story. Even decades after they were gone, Septa’s would tell young children about the one-eyed dragon prince and his sweet wife as if they were a part of a fairytale, too good to be true for the harshness real life possessed.
Aemond meets a young girl who quickly becomes his most cherished friend and changes the course of history.
Word count: 11.5 K
Warnings: Angst begins, still lots of fluff, smut (of course), Aegon still being an ass
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5
~~
The court was in a frenzy.
The news of their betrothal spread through King’s Landing like wildfire. It was all anyone could talk about for days on end. Some felt vindicated, that the rumors they had been spreading for months had finally come to fruition, while others were skeptical, unsure of what such a sweet young girl saw in the surly one-eyed Prince.
The gossip was never ending, with many speculating the couple had been consorting inappropriately in private. While many knew of Ixtal’s customs, that they weren’t as strict about their Ladies maidenhood as they were in the rest of Westeros, it didn’t stop the looks of indignation she received from certain members of the court who turned their noses up at the mere possibility she had sullied herself before her marriage.
While Aemond hated the speculation and had to be held back more than once from storming over to a group of tittering Ladies and threatening to take their tongues for daring to speak ill of his betrothed, she found it laughable. She had to remind her betrothed they weren’t exactly wrong.
Their nights of pleasure together were only all the more exciting and mind blowing knowing they would have each other forever, that they no longer needed to fear what the future held.
They could finally relax, they would soon be each other’s in the eyes of the Gods and no one could take that away from them.
Their wedding was spared no expense. Lords and Ladies of great houses from across the realm traveled to the Capitol to witness the union of a Targaryen Prince and the daughter of the most prosperous house in the realm.
Aemond paid no mind to the fanfare. All he cared about was her.
He barely got to see her in the weeks leading up to their wedding, with her swept up with the Ladies of the court in dress fittings and as her family arrived at King’s Landing, she was rarely seen without her dear younger sister or mother at her side.
The King demanded a three day tourney be held to celebrate, with lavish hunts and feasts raving practically each night. Aemond had never seen his father so excited and he knew it had little to do with him and all to do with his dear friend, the Lord of Ixtal, that their families would officially be uniting.
He rolled his eyes at the whole affair. He just wanted to marry his love. He didn’t want all this attention and unnecessary flourish.
She would laugh softly everytime he slunk into her chambers at night, her bright eyes alight with mischief, a delighted smile on her face at the annoyance on his.
“Couldn’t stay away?”
“You know I couldn’t.” He crooned, inhaling her scent as he hugged her tightly from behind. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
“I am.” She answered with a blissful smile. “Are you?”
“I was ready to marry you years ago.”
She practically swooned, leaning her head back onto his shoulder, her gaze filled with nothing but devotion. She never would have pictured this for herself. She never could have imagined she would be able to marry her best friend, that she would find a love so pure and so beautiful for herself. She didn’t think that kind of love even existed.
“Everything seems so perfect.” She spoke softly, reveling in his embrace.
He hummed in agreement, wishing they could go find a Maester now to perform a ceremony and bind themselves together. He didn’t want to wait another minute. He just wanted to be her husband.
The next morning, the entire Keep was a flurry of activity. Maids scurried in and out of her chambers to prepare her, most desperate to catch a glimpse of the Island girl that would soon become a Targaryen princess.
She sat nervously at her vanity, her hands fidgeting in her lap.
Today was the day she would finally marry her best friend. It all seemed too good to be true, as though they had gotten away with some elaborate plan.
“You look beautiful, my love.” Her mother spoke, her eyes already brimming my tears.
“I’m not even in my dress yet.” She laughed as her mother waved her off, wiping under her eyes as she had been doing all morning.
To her left, Alicent stood, her demeanor much more reserved than that of her own mother and sister, who could barely contain their excitement. The Queen had yet to crack a smile since she had entered her chambers and had been silently picking out jewelry for her to wear, barely sparing a glance to her soon to be good daughter.
A nervous lump grew in her throat. She didn’t have the best relationship with Aemond’s mother, even as children, the woman seemed disinterested in speaking more than a few words to her. She at least thought the day she wedded her son she’d try to bridge the gap between them, but it seemed she still had little interest.
She didn’t seem all that thrilled her son was even getting married.
The maids around her all gestured for her to stand and move towards the floor length mirror, their excited giggles growing in volume as her dress was brought forward.
Her breath hitched. It was real. This was happening.
Her heart was racing as the maids helped her dress, her eyes beginning to sting with the pressure to cry the happiest of tears.
“I assume you know what is expected of you tonight.” Alicent’s voice broke through the throng of excited chattering, abruptly shattering the positive energy in the room.
The way Alicent looked at her, so intently, almost judgmentally, made her want to shrink. She swallowed and nodded.
She felt a hand at her shoulder, her mother’s presence steadily at her side.
“We have already discussed what her duty is tonight.” Her mother answered for her, her voice sounder stiffer than before.
Her mother had been in King’s Landing barely a day before she figured out what her daughter and her betrothed had been up to for months. Aemond had been horrified when his future good mother blurted out their long held secret.
She was sure he would be blushing for the rest of his life. Even after her mother laughed heartily and assured them she would never tell a soul, that she held no judgment for them, he still had trouble meeting her eye out of sheer embarrassment.
With one look at Alicent, the Lady of Ixtal knew she would do whatever she needed to do, say whatever she needed to say, to not let the frigid woman before her try to sink her claws into her daughter.
She would not ruin her daughter’s big day.
Alicent hummed, the sound neither that of satisfaction or disdain, and she remained quiet, though her critical eye never lessened. She had no compliments for the young girl who donned her beautiful, extravagant dress, she had no well wishes for the girl as her eyes brimmed with happy tears.
All Alicent could fixate on was how angry her father was at the turn of events. They had lost a monumental opportunity to gain allies due to the girl in front of her. She had bewitched her son, her uncivilized ways weakening Aemond’s sense of duty and proprietary. She never forgot how her son had stormed into her room, practically demanding a betrothal. It was so unlike him, not at all how he had been raised to act and she knew the Ixtal girl was to blame.
All she could do was plaster on a fake smile and hope everything her father had worked on for years wasn’t all for naught.
~~
She was a vision as she stepped out of the carriage, her pulse thrumming in her ears, her hands trembling in anticipation.
In a matter of minutes, she was going to be married to the love of her life.
“Are you ready?” Her father asked, a soft smile on his face as he stared at his first daughter with barely contained emotion. She nodded eagerly, latching onto his arm, taking in a final deep breath before they stepped inside.
The crowd of guests were in awe as she passed, though she could not spare a glance to any of the onlookers that seemed to swoon at the sight of her. Her gaze was locked onto the man at the front of the room, meeting his eye effortlessly.
Aemond had been watching the door and nothing else for the past few minutes, anxiously awaiting her arrival. The second she stepped inside, his breath had been stolen from him.
He felt nervous flutters within him, as if he was once again that little boy who was in love with his best friend before he even knew what it meant to love someone.
His vision blurred slightly as tears gathered in his eye at the sight of her, so beautiful, so perfect, his wife.
They couldn’t take their eyes off each other as her father removed the cloak from her shoulders. Aemond felt his breath hitch at the sight of her in her dress, the shape of her body, the delicate silk outlining every curve he had spent many nights memorizing and worshiping.
As he stood before her, placing the heavy Targaryen cloak over her shoulders, he breathed in her familiar scent, calming every one of his nerves.
He took her hand, guiding her up the steps of the dais. No one said a word as he kept his hand in hers, the crowd was absolutely enraptured by the sight of them, the Ladies dramatically sharing looks of longing at the couple as neither one of them spared a glance to the Septon that began the service.
They only had eyes for each other.
No one could deny the love they shared. As they spoke the words that bound them together, their smiles dazzling, no one could deny this was a marriage of pure love.
“I am hers and she is mine, from this day until the end of my days.”
The words left him with ease. He used to dread this moment as a child, hating the idea of being bound to a woman he didn’t know and didn’t care for for the rest of his life, purely out of duty.
Now, he couldn’t imagine saying the words to any other person but the woman in front of him. The thought of spending the rest of his days with her, his love, brought him nothing but relief and endless happiness, a feeling he never pictured for himself.
Since he lost his eye, since a piece of him had literally been taken from him, he had always felt slighted, but now, as the Septon announced their union, as he kissed her for the first time as his wife, he felt whole again.
He was no longer that overlooked second son, he was no longer that scarred and feared man who longed for revenge.
He was a husband, he was her protector, her friend, her love. He felt he finally had a meaningful purpose, one that meant so much more than the duty his family expected from him.
The crowd cheered voraciously. It wasn’t often they got to witness a union so blessed by affection.
Aemond kept his awed gaze on her as they made their way down the aisle, his hand clasped tightly in hers, paying no mind to anyone else around him.
They could scarcely keep their hands from each other.
During the feast, Aemond kept his hand on her thigh, his touch thankfully hidden by the long train covering the table. As both of their fathers gave speeches, spouting lovely rhetorics of family and peace, he couldn’t bring himself to listen to a word of it.
His attention was focused solely on the woman beside him. His wife.
He felt himself smiling just at the thought of it, that he could finally say the word.
When the music started and they made their way to the floor to share their first dance, a moment Aemond had been dreading for weeks, he found he couldn’t care less that everyone’s eyes were on him.
He realized nothing else mattered. Everything he thought would make him feel insecure wasn’t even a thought in his mind. He held her closely, his heart racing as if they were dancing for the first time, as if he was touching her for the first time.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so much.” She spoke with a laugh.
“I have a good reason to smile.” He responded with a smirk as he twirled her.
The guests couldn’t take their eyes off the couple as they danced. Most felt they were intruding on an intimate moment with how intently they gazed at each other, their love radiating from each of them effortlessly.
They noticed how the couple sparsely ceased their touch from each other. The Lords present couldn’t help but feel slighted there would be no bedding ceremony. They were sure it would be a spectacle with how the Prince eyed his new wife with a hunger most men couldn’t conceive for their own wives.
Aemond’s pout as his new wife accepted Helaena’s offer to dance, leaving him to sit by himself, would be fodder for most of the gossip the next morning.
He watched her with a small smile, looking more at ease than the court had ever seen him, content at the mere sight of her delight as she twirled around with Helaena, their shared laughter ringing out louder than the music playing.
He took a small sip from his wine, content to not drink much more, knowing he’d rather have a clear head for what the rest of the night held. He would finally take her as his wife, he would lay with her, spill his seed inside her without consequence.
After tonight, her stomach could swell with his child and no one could say a thing.
The thought made him desperate to drag her to their new shared chambers. He would be eager to see the end of the feast and lay with her for the rest of the night, but with how happy she was, he wouldn’t do a thing to take her away from it.
As she twirled with Helaena, her head back, eyes closed, a picture of pure happiness, she suddenly lost her footing. She stumbled slightly, her eyes widening, but sturdy hands on her waist stopped her from falling to the floor.
“Mind if I cut in?”
She stiffened at the voice in her ear, turning to see Aegon’s smarmy smile. She wanted nothing more than to wrench his hands off her, but she couldn’t make a scene at her own wedding. If she displayed any ounce of discomfort by his hands, she was sure Aemond would forever be tainted as the man who killed his own brother on his wedding night.
“Aegon��” Helaena called out wearily, not wanting her dear friend to be subjected to her brother’s cruel games, though she didn’t have power in her own corner to derail him.
“It’s alright Helaena.” She assured her, giving her a weak smile to the Princess who eyed her worriedly for a moment before retreating back to the head table.
She cleared her throat and stood stiffly, holding back a grimace as Aegon’s hand slipped around her waist, his other taking hers, his grip tight and domineering, as if he wanted to prove to her how much stronger he was than her.
“You were lucky my grandsire allowed this to happen so quickly.” He spoke blatantly as they began to dance. “I was hoping to expose your big secret to the court.”
She felt her insides twist. Knowing Aegon was aware of her and Aemond’s secret, of their sneaking around, had her wanting to retreat where no one would find her. Even now they were married, Aegon still had the power to destroy her reputation.
She just hoped he ruined his own before he had the chance to tear her down.
“You think they would listen to the words of a drunken idiot?”
His smile turned wicked, his disdain for her clear, though there was no denying the lust in his gaze as he looked at her. He didn’t have to like her to fuck her.
“More than they would listen to a whore who spreads her legs for anyone.”
“You mean my husband?” She retaliated, her patience for him wearing thin.
Aegon chuckled, though his bitterness was clear. He leaned in close, his nose almost brushing against hers. She jerked back, sending him a vicious scowl, all she could allow herself under the prying eyes that surrounded her.
“You could have been mine.” He crooned, the wine on his breath making her feel nauseous. “Gods only know why you decided to settle for my twat of a brother. As if he could please you better than I could, as if he could fuck you the way I could. I bet you were the first woman he ever bedded.”
His words made her feel sick to her stomach as she staunchly looked past his shoulder, refusing to look him in the eye. She didn’t want him to know how much he could get under her skin. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“I would rather let the entire brothel of whores you sully yourself with flay every layer of my skin off slowly until I beg for death than ever crawl into bed with you.”
Aegon only smirked joyously.
“The mouth on you.” He admired with a shake of his head. “Such a shame it’s wasted on my brother.”
“Aegon.”
The stern voice of his brother made his eyes widen for a fraction of a second and he quickly schooled his expression, quickly removing his hands from his new good sister, plastering on a smirk so his brother wouldn’t see how successfully he could intimidate him.
She turned, meeting the questioning gaze of her husband. She nodded subtly, silently assuring him she was ok.
He’d been chatting with her brother but the moment he spotted her in Aegon’s arms, he had abruptly given his well wishes to his new family and was quickly making his way to rescue her from his lecherous brother’s grip.
“Are you ready?”
She nodded eagerly, linking her arm through his, more than eager to say goodbye to the feast and make her way to bed with her new husband.
“What, no bedding ceremony?” Aegon called out, forcing Aemond to send him a wicked glare.
“Not if you wish to live, brother.” He spat and turned on his heel, desperate to get his wife far away from his depravity.
He was more than thankful his good father had appealed to his father about doing away with the bedding ceremony. The Lord of Ixtal cared about his daughter too much to put her through that embarrassment.
“Did he do anything?” He asked under his breath as they walked away, ignoring the cheers of congratulations from the guests he cared little for.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Aemond’s jaw clenched in anger, his instincts telling him to turn back and threaten his brother within an inch of his life for daring to speak to his wife in ways that were anything but cordial.
The moment they stepped out of the grand hall, allowing them a brief moment of privacy in the empty hallway, she pulled her arm from his and took his hands in her own, turning to face him, a soft smile on her face.
“Don’t let him ruin our night. This isn’t about him or anyone else. It’s about us.”
He let out a long breath and nodded, though it wasn’t an easy feat to let go of the anger that burned hotly at the mere mention of his debauched brother’s attention on his love.
“Besides, I’m quite eager to get to bed and if my husband chooses to delay any longer, I might begin to rethink this union.” She teased, smiling victoriously as his eye darkened with desire.
Her laughter echoed in the halls as Aemond practically dragged her to their chambers, his quick pace signaling he was equally as eager as she was to lose themselves in bliss.
~~
She lay draped across his bare chest, the sheets pooled at their hips. She hummed in contentment, her limbs aching, her eyes heavy with exhaustion as Aemond gently ran his fingers up and down the length of her arm.
Any other night, his touch would lull her into much needed sleep, but the excitement that continued to course through her veins stubbornly kept her eyes open.
She turned her head, looking up at her husband.
Gods, she would never get over saying that.
He looked down, their shared smiles growing as their gazes met.
Her hand that was placed on his strong chest cheekily began to move lower, making him laugh.
“You can’t possibly be needing more.” He spoke tiredly. They had already gone multiple rounds, he had already pulled a countless number of orgasms from her.
“I thought I married a dragon.” She teased. “Are you saying you no longer have the stamina to please your wife?”
Aemond’s gaze darkened, his exhaustion worn out by his desire she could so effortlessly spark.
“You dare to doubt me, wife?” He crooned, knowing how deeply the word affected her, watching with satisfaction as she practically preened against him, a wickedly delightful thrill coursing through her at the mention of their newly married status.
She laughed and pushed at his chest, forcing him to lay back onto the pillows below him. He eagerly expected her to crawl atop him and ride him in the deliriously, mind bending way she could, but he was left in a pleasured surprise as she began to press heated kisses across his abdomen, moving lower torturously slowly.
He let out a heavy breath, his body thrumming with anticipation. He hissed as she took him in her mouth, his head falling back, already feeling weak under her touch, sensitive from his previous leg-shaking peaks.
Her wicked tongue knew exactly what to do to render him a useless fool who couldn’t remember his own name. His hand tangled in her hair that was already a mess from their previous passionate rounds.
His breath left him in heavy pants as she worked him with her mouth at a quick pace. He knew her well, he knew the determined glint in her eye signaled trouble for him. She went further and further and took him deep in her mouth until the tip of him hit the back of her throat.
He whined, writhing against the bed, his hand that wasn’t pulling at her hair pathetically fisting the sheets below him in an effort to keep himself tethered to some semblance of control that she was steadily shattering.
“You are wicked.” He moaned, the delight in his voice causing her lips to curl around him in the guise of a victorious smile.
His lips were parted with a litany of moans and whines as he watched her, eagerly taking in the sight of her, his cock in her mouth, her eyes alight with desire, greedily taking his pleasure. She sped up the pace of her mouth, delighted at the sound of his loud groan echoing throughout the room.
His toes began to curl, his weak body, already spent from hours of ecstasy, leaving him powerless under her.
He called out her name frantically, sounding more debauched than he ever would have imagined he could have.
“Oh fuck, just like that, darling, don’t stop.”
She doubled her efforts, eager to see him fall apart. She loved to hear his noises of pleasure, to see him so unrestrained as he let himself fall to the haze of bliss. His back arched, both of his hands grabbing fistfuls of her hair, as if to ensure she wouldn’t leave him wanting, that she stayed worshiping him as she was, as only she could.
“Love,” He warned, feeling his end nearing, feeling the familiar fire beginning to stir within him, one that came before a powerful release. With only a few more flicks of her tongue, he felt himself shatter.
He cried out, a loud, desperate sound most wouldn’t believe to have come from the surly Prince, as he came. His vision was stolen from him as he had squeezed his eye shut in the moment of climax, though he wouldn’t have denied that she had just extricated his soul from his body, leaving him to lose what was left of his sight. He didn’t doubt she had the ability.
His chest heaved, his jaw slack, small whines leaving him as she was slow to part from him, her mouth lazily working his spent cock that twitched in overstimulation at her touch.
He reached for her blindly, his limbs weak as though he had just fought a grueling battle. She grabbed his hand, laughing softly at the sight of him thoroughly exhausted.
She allowed him to pull her over him, his hands desperate to touch her, to feel her close to him, to prolong the pleasure running through him.
He kissed her hand, his lips moving up the length of her arm until he reached her neck, smiling at the sound of the contented noise that left her lips as he found the spot that always made her giggle with ticklish delight.
“One of these days you are going to stop my heart.” He told her, still working to catch breath.
“I would never do such a thing.”
He smiled and kissed her firmly, his mind a haze of delirium. He briefly wondered if he was dreaming, for this seemed too perfect to be his life. He kissed her again, as if to confirm that this was real, that the woman that just brought him pleasure like no other was truly before him, that he was lucky enough to now call her his wife.
“Give me five minutes and I will return the favor.”
~~
Their marriage was nothing short of blissful. Now there was no longer a need to hide, the public was shocked by how affectionate the dragon Prince acted towards his wife. One was seldom seen without the other.
Maids constantly gossiped about the salacious noises heard from their shared chambers practically all hours of the day. With the noises the new Princess made nightly they couldn’t help but begin to lust over the elusive Prince, or at least wish he could give some tips to their own lovers. They almost fought over who got to service the Prince and his new wife to catch a glimpse of the lovesick expression on the feared one-eyed dragon’s face.
It had to be seen to be believed.
They knew it wouldn’t be long until the announcement of a new Targaryen babe was made.
Aemond hated the attention. He wished he could take his wife across the sea and indulge in their newly wedded bliss in private.
He had just sneered at yet another passing Lady who practically fawned at the sight of the two of them, when she laughed, tucking her arm tighter in his.
They had simply been walking in the gardens together and still couldn’t escape the gossiping Ladies of the court who could talk of nothing else but their marriage and ponder about the feared one-eyed Prince’s new found prowess among the Ladies.
“Do they have nothing better to do?” Aemond muttered in annoyance.
“Our novelty will wear off soon.” She assured him. “They are just not quite used to seeing you so… soft.”
“I am not soft.”
She laughed, the sound causing him to look over at his wife incredulously. The disbelieving look on his face only had her suppressing more laughter,
“Tell me, dear husband, if I told you my legs were hurting and I couldn’t possibly make it to that bench over there, would you not carry me?”
Aemond regarded her for a moment, an almost imperceptible pout growing on his lips as he contemplated the situation. He knew there was no way he wouldn’t indulge her in anything she asked for.
“That does not make me soft.” He answered defensively, though he knew he was a lost cause.
She giggled at the obvious answer as they continued to walk. Aemond looked over at her, eyeing her carefully for a few moments, his brows furrowing.
“Your legs are not hurting are they?”
Her laughter rang out in the gardens as she leaned in closer to his side. Aemond felt his own smile tugging at his lips and he placed a kiss to the top of her head.
He knew he would endure all of the petty gossip that came his way. He would endure a lot worse just to hear that laugh again.
He almost couldn’t believe the bliss he was living in. He loved her more than he thought it was possible to love someone. Now that they no longer had to hide their true feelings for each other, now that they were married and could freely show affection without any repercussions, he found himself living in a dreamlike state.
It felt too good to be true.
Every day was spent showing the rest of the court just how much she meant to him, how he was hers and she was his and no one else mattered, while late nights were spent tangled in bed, their limbs weak with pleasure, a time just for them and no one else.
As she got up to pour them another cup of wine they had been drinking before he had dragged her to their bed, she looked over her shoulder at her husband who was looking up at the ceiling tiredly, a content smile on his face.
“Have I finally worn you out?” She teased as she handed him his cup.
He chuckled softly and took the cup, drinking down much needed swallows of the sweet wine. She crawled back into bed beside him, settling herself in his open arms once again. She pressed teasing kisses across his chest, feeling the hum of soft moans that escaped him.
He cupped her face and kissed her firmly, the gesture lacking much heat as they were both thoroughly spent from the haze of pleasure they’d been tangled in for hours.
He pulled away, letting his forehead rest against hers as he took her in, simply admiring his wife with an awe that was certainly not unfamiliar to either of them.
She noticed a flicker of something she didn’t recognize flash across his face, his eye softening almost imperceptibly.
“What’s on your mind, Love?” She asked, nuzzling in closer to him as she sensed his sudden anxious energy.
He stayed quiet for a moment longer, carefully contemplating his next words and if he should divulge the sudden thought in his head to her.
“What if…” He started softly, his teeth worrying his lip as he feared her reaction. “What if you didn’t drink any moon tea tomorrow?”
Her expression smoothed out in surprise at his request. She couldn’t deny that it was something she had thought of since their wedding, but she had never spoken of her fantasies of silver haired children with her husband. She knew he had complicated feelings for his own family, especially his father, and she never wanted to bring it up in fear of pushing him to something he feared.
“Is that something you want?”
“I want everything with you.” He told her sincerely.
The beaming smile that grew on her lips soothed every ounce of anxiety he had and he breathed out deeply, leaning forward to kiss her once more.
“You’re going to be a wonderful father.”
Her whispered words made his insides twist and flutter in ways that left him holding back the flood of emotions he hadn’t expected, her words soothing the deep rooted anxiety he felt at the prospect of starting a family, no matter how badly he wanted it. He had no way to tell her how grateful he was for her, there were no words conceivable to tell her the depth of his love for her.
So he settled for kissing her, silently thanking the Gods above for bringing him to the woman in his arms.
~~
Aemond stepped into their shared chambers the same time he always did, his perfect hair slightly disheveled from his time spent training. He stopped in his tracks, the warmth in his expression gone in an instant as he eyed the Maester sitting before her with growing apprehension.
“What’s wrong?”
She laughed at his blatant worry as he approached her quickly, reaching for her hand.
“Everything’s fine, Darling.”
“What happened?” He turned to ask the Maester, all care gone from his voice, leaving nothing but strict power as he demanded an answer.
“The Princess wasn’t feeling well this morn-”
“Are you alright? Why didn’t you tell me?” He interrupted, turning his attention back to her, his concerned tone back in full force, all traces of the demanding Prince gone as he kneeled before her, his expression wracked with worry.
She smiled again in amusement and looked to the Maester.
“Would you mind giving us a moment?”
The old man nodded respectfully, giving her a warm smile and hastily leaving the room, most likely relieved to gain some distance from the dragon Prince with the feared temper.
She intertwined her fingers with Aemond’s, taking in a deep breath as she prepared herself to bring him the life changing news.
“I have been feeling a little off the last few days and I called the Maester to confirm my suspicion.” She explained vaguely, her mischievous smirk remaining as she watched Aemond’s brow furrow deeper in concern.
“And?”
Deciding to finally let her husband off the hook and spare him his heart that was no doubt racing in anticipation, his dramatic mind probably conjuring horrible conclusions, she guided his hand forward, letting his palm rest flatly on her stomach.
She watched him carefully, noting the exact moment he realized what she was telling him. His lips parted and his gaze moved from his hand to her face abruptly, his eye shrouded in disbelief, looking at her pleadingly, as if needing confirmation that this was real.
She let out a laugh and nodded, tears brimming in her eyes at the pure love she saw in Aemond’s. He let out a breathless laugh, the sound of delight one she had never remembered ever hearing from him before. He grabbed her hands, swiftly bringing her to her feet and barely a second later, he was hugging her tightly, his hands gripping onto her desperately.
Her delighted laughter filled the room as he twirled her around, the moment filled with nothing but elation.
“Thank you.” He whispered from where his head rested in the crook of her neck.
She smiled, her own emotions rising at the sound of him so touched, so loved.
He pulled out of the embrace, his gaze immediately falling to her stomach that had yet to show any evidence of the life that grew there. He pictured it swelling, the bump that would grow with their child, the life they had created together and he was sure his heart was moment away from bursting out of sheer love.
“I can’t believe it.” He breathed out in awe. It had only been about a month since they had made the decision to forgo moontea, he had no idea it would happen for them this quickly.
“With how often you take me to bed, surely this isn’t a surprise.”
He looked almost proud at her jest and she shook her head, pulling him in for another embrace that he gladly returned, his arms holding her as if she were the most precious thing in the world and if anyone were to ask, Aemond would certainly agree.
He kissed the top of her head and pulled back, taking her face in his hands as he looked down at her reverently.
“You have given me more than I ever could have imagined I would have.” He told her honestly. “You’ve made me the happiest man to ever live.”
He kissed her with all the love he could, hoping it would be enough to convey every ounce of adoration he held for her.
However, their peace didn’t last long.
Rhaenyra and her sons would soon be arriving at King’s Landing to counter Vaemond Velaryon’s petition for the Driftmark throne.
The moment Aemond heard the news, he became reserved, building that familiar brooding wall around him, portraying that of the feared one-eyed prince the court loved to gossip about.
The night before they were due to arrive, he had resided in their chambers, wishing to avoid the prying eyes of the court and their whispers about his bastard nephews and the likelihood of there being another duel between them that would result in bloodshed.
He heard the door of their shared chambers open and close, but his gaze remained on the flickering flames in the hearth in front of him.
“There you are.” Her sweet voice called out, his wife taking her place at his side. “I’ve barely seen you all day.”
“I’ve been here.” He responded softly, his voice lacking its usual warmth that was always present with her.
She watched him carefully, knowing exactly what was eating away at him, but hesitant to mention it, unsure of how he would react. The mere mention of his nephews was enough to incite his rage.
“Do you wish to talk about it?” She asked softly.
“No.”
His voice was curt, betraying just how tormented he felt. A flare of pain lashed his scar, the sapphire in place of his eye seemingly burning, as if the thought of that Strong bastard’s imminent arrival alone could cut him like the dagger he wielded that night.
A tense silence lingered between them, one they both hated.
With a pained hiss, he tore his eye path off, tossing it to the side carelessly, his sharp features contorted in pain. He leaned his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands as the sapphire in his eye bloomed with pain.
It wasn’t often the wound still caused him aggravation, but in the moments it did, he always felt like he was that young, helpless boy again. His hands shook slightly as the pain flared so deeply it was all he could do to breathe through it.
Within seconds he felt gentle hands on his, carefully prying them from his face. He looked up to his wife sitting before him, the concern on her face stirring his emotions he tried desperately to hold back.
He noticed the vial of ointment in her hands, the one the Maesters gave to him to use whenever his wound became unbearable. He was tense as she cradled his cheek, her thumb caressing the edge of his scar, her eyes taking in the angry looking wound. She had seen him do this for himself a few times but he had never let her do it before.
She looked at him thoughtfully, posing a silent question to which he nodded slightly, still hesitant to let her touch what was his greatest shame, but the pain was becoming unbearable, he was left out of options.
She dipped her finger into the ointment and carefully applied it to his eye, her own heart racing as she felt her husband was baring a piece of himself he had been adamant on hiding for so long.
As her fingers brushed as gently as possible across his wounded eye, the cooling ointment bringing him relief immediately, he finally started to let himself relax, releasing a long breath.
She reached out with her other hand, laying it over his own that was still clenched into a fist, beginning to trace meaningless shapes over his knuckles. Her touch soothed something in him he didn’t even know could be soothed, the simple gesture enough for him to feel comforted in a way only she could give him. He sighed loudly as he sank into his seat, the rigidity leaving him limb by limb.
Smiling softly at the sight of him so much calmer than before, she moved to sit next to him once she was finished. Aemond was quick to close the distance between them, moving in closer to her side, taking her hand in his, eager for her touch.
“Thank you.” He whispered, the look of reverence he sent her stirring her own emotions and she suddenly found herself on the verge of tears. She would never understand what he went through as a child, she would never understand what he felt for his nephews, but she was adamant she would be there for him in the moments he struggled.
“You never need to thank me for this.” She assured him.
Another heavy breath escaped him, as if his ire was leaving him with each exhale. His resentment was no match for the love his wife gave him. It would succumb to her each and every time.
His hand roamed gently over her body, eventually finding its place on her stomach, where it stayed, pulling a small laugh from her.
“You do realize there’s no bump yet.”
Aemond just shrugged, the look of contentment on his face a far cry from the derision that had steadily remained all day.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s still in there.”
“He?”
He seemed bashful as he looked up at his wife, a slight blush on his cheeks, as if embarrassed to admit the many nights he spent thinking about their child, imagining their son as the perfect mix of them both, of how much he already loved their child.
“It’s just a feeling.”
She began to picture it, Aemond cradling their son, his eyes the same vibrant blue of his father’s, his smile wide, his cheeks chubby, every bit of him absolutely perfect.
Her own smile grew, her vision growing blurry as tears gathered in her eyes at the thought, her hormones that were now on a hair trigger since her pregnancy, coming to a head.
“Hey,” Aemond called out in concern, reaching up to caress her cheek and she shook her head, letting out a small laugh.
“They’re happy tears.”
He smiled and leaned in to kiss her softly. It was easy to forget the turmoil he felt, that he was soon to face the object of his anger, when he was next to his wife, their child growing within her.
That night, he was ravenous. He had taken her with a fervor he hadn’t felt in weeks. He had been insatiable when he knew of her pregnancy, but he seemed to treat her like glass, as if she were now delicate because of the precious life that grew within her.
His touches had always been gentle, but urgent, hungry yet loving.
Tonight, he was starved. He fucked her as if they were newlyweds again, every touch portraying just how desperate he felt for her.
“Aemond!” She cried out, her hands tangled in his hair, pulling hard as he brought her to yet another blissful orgasm.
He growled, burying his face in the crook of her neck, the enticing nip at her neck making her moan. His steady pace never faltered, his powerful hips crashing against hers as he chased his own end.
Her cries turned to laughs, delirious with pleasure.
“I love you.” She breathed out and screamed as his pace became quicker, his thrusts becoming harsher, more frantic as he quickly approached his high.
“Say it again.” He growled, now hovering over her as he gazed down at the beauty beneath him, his eye and the striking sapphire a sight that left her shivering under his tight grip.
“I love you.” She repeated, hoping he believed every word, hoping he knew just how much she cherished him, how much he meant to her. “You are the only man I’ve ever loved, the only man I’ll ever love for the rest of my life.”
His jaw clenched, his eye squeezing shut as the sight of her below him, writhing in pleasure, was just too much to handle. He was powerless against her.
His thrusts became relentless, the bed shaking beneath them with every one of his brutal strokes.
He breathed harshly, feeling as though flames were alight in his veins.
“Again.” He commanded roughly.
She shivered at the commanding edge of his voice, her toes curling as she felt sparks ignite within her.
“I love you, more than anything.”
Her breathless words were his undoing. He shouted a curse and groaned loudly, his arms feeling weak as he practically fell over her, never stopping his movements, his cock thrusting into her almost violently as he came, his body shaking against hers.
She gasped at the feeling of him spilling inside her, her arms wrapping tighter around him, her head thrown back as she cried out, his name falling from her lips in a chant, as if he were a deity she prayed to for salvation.
“I love you.” She whispered breathlessly and began to laugh tiredly as he planted kisses over the expanse of her neck, making his way upwards until he met her lips, kissing her soundly, as if she were the very air he breathed.
“I love you.” He panted in a blissful daze.
By the next morning, every good feeling Aemond had coveted the night before had dissipated like smoke in the wind.
He woke early and spared his sleeping wife a kiss to the forehead before heading to the training yard where he spent the rest of the morning, endlessly sparring with Ser Criston and any other worthy opponent available when the knight needed a break from his endless plights.
Those that dared to step up were left bloody and bruised in a matter of minutes.
Aemond was wound tightly, his entire being ready to snap as he laid his eye on his nephews for the first time in years. The fury that had been buried deeply within him for years bubbled to the surface with one look at the brown haired bastards.
The sapphire in place of his eye burned as his glare remained steady on them.
He preened inwardly as they cowered under his eye. To know they couldn’t meet his gaze brought him more satisfaction than he had expected. He grabbed his sword and gestured to Ser Criston to get into position.
He fought with determination as if he were in actual battle, as if his life was truly threatened and every movement dictated his survival. With every powerful strike of his sword against Criston’s shield, he felt vindicated, as though the years of shame that had come from the bullying he endured from his own brother and nephews stripped off layer by layer with each powerful swing of his weapon.
His eye drifted to his nephews, a sickly satisfied smirk growing at the sight of their intimidation.
They held no power over him now. He had made sure of it.
“Husband.”
Her voice cut through the haze of victory he had been lavishing in. He turned on his heel, confusion overtaking him as he saw his wife standing in the training yard. He dropped his sword and rushed over to her side.
“What are you doing down here? Is everything alright?”
She didn’t often make her way down into the training yards and with her current state, he couldn’t help but fret over her every minute of the day he was with her.
“I wanted to make sure you weren’t killing yourself before the petition.”
He sighed heavily. He didn’t know if he loved or hated how easily his wife could read him. She took his hand and he let her guide him out of the yard.
“You’ve been here for hours, I think you’ve earned yourself a break.”
He opened his mouth to retort, but she stopped him with a knowing look.
“Based on the looks on your nephews face’s I think you’ve proven everything you needed to prove.”
The smirk that grew on his lips should have worried her, but she couldn’t find it in herself to feel any concern for the ire he felt for his nephews. It was more than justified, she just hoped it would be enough, that their visit to the Keep wouldn’t result in any more bloodshed.
Aemond looked back into the training yard, as if hesitant to leave the glory he’d managed to carve out for himself, for the retribution he felt he had finally earned, no matter how slight it was, but her hand in his forced him back to her in an instant.
“Don’t let them get to you. They hold no power over you.” She told him softly and he let out a long breath, allowing the hatred that had been clouding him all day roll over him like dark thunder clouds making way for the shining sun to warm up the earth after a vicious storm.
His hand remained steadily in hers, as if needing her like a lifeline in tumultuous waves. She was the only thing that kept him tethered to himself, that kept him from spiraling into his anger.
She could see how tense he was and if it were any other day, if they didn’t have royal duties to attend to, she would’ve been content to keep him in their chambers and let him use her to both of their delights until he was spent, too exhausted to feel any anger at all.
She didn’t like to see him in this state. It was so unlike the sweet boy that had been by her side for years. She didn’t like what her nephews had created in him the night he claimed Vhagar.
~~
The petition unfolded as she expected. While King Viserys’ presence had been a surprise, Vaemond’s demise certainly wasn’t, especially after the accusations he had spouted to Princess Rhaenyra and her sons.
Aemond had tugged on her arm, instinctively pulling her behind him as Daemon brought his sword down upon the man.
He had shielded her from the violent display, something she had been grateful for. With the pregnancy hormones swirling within her, she most often felt nauseous around anything that wasn’t plain bread. The sight of Vaemond’s severed head would’ve been enough to put her off eating for the rest of her life.
As the court reacted in a frenzy to the brutal display, Aemond had placed his hand on her stomach, his eye looking her over carefully, ready to rush her out of the room at the slightest hint of nausea.
She gripped his hand and nodded to his silent question, assuring him she was ok, that she wasn’t about to spill her guts in front of everyone, though the darkened look in his eye remained. Who it was targeted at, she wasn’t quite sure.
Neither one of them had been looking forward to the family dinner Viserys was adamant on hosting. It was as if he was completely oblivious to the tension in the family as he forced them in proximity to each other.
Aemond had barely spoken a word as they readied themselves for dinner. He was tense, his face drawn tightly, as if he expected the worst to unfold, as if he were facing enemies on a battlefield and not a simple dinner with his family.
“We don’t have to attend.” She told him, wishing she could protect him from the torment he felt in the face of his nephews.
He didn’t spare a look to her, every inch of him was shrouded in anger, barely contained fury that he couldn’t shake. He didn’t seem like the man she married at that moment.
“Why wouldn’t I attend?” He asked, as if his torment wasn’t visible, as if she wasn’t aware of the burning anger he couldn’t shake, the vitriol he experienced as a child coming back to the forefront of his mind, reminding him of the slights that he had been faced with.
“Aemond,” She started softly. “No one expects you to forgive them.”
He scoffed, shaking his head, his expression filled with bitter irritation.
“No one expects me to hold any anger at all.”
She frowned deeply and approached him slowly, eyeing him carefully. She had never felt so out of depth when it came to her husband but she would be damned if she left him to suffer alone.
“We don’t have to go.”
He clenched his jaw, his eye holding a faraway look, signaling he was deep in thought.
She reached out, cupping his face in his hands, startling him out of his reverie that was filled with nothing but hatred.
“You just tell me and we’ll leave. I’ll make an excuse and we can go without any question.”
Her words, her ability to show him she was staunchly in his corner, a feeling no one else had ever assured him of, disarmed him completely. There was one thing his nephews would never take from him, the love he felt from his wife stood the test of time, standing strongly against any other force that dared to weaken him. His eye softened, his hand reaching out to grasp her arm, his fingers gently caressing her skin.
“What have I done to deserve you?” He whispered, his voice cloaked with reverence, as if surprised by the love she held for him.
She frowned, hating when he spoke as if he didn’t deserve the love she showed him, as if it was some kind of gift he wasn’t worthy of coveting.
“You read to me my second day here.” She answered simply, reminding him of the beginning of it all, when they were nothing more than two wonderstruck children.
He exhaled deeply, desperately wanting to hold onto that feeling that always surrounded him when he thought of their childhood together, like warmth embracing him soundly.
It was a feeling he kept close to him as they walked to the dining hall, though he knew it was futile. The feeling would be gone, shielded in the depths of him in the face of his family.
As they stepped into the hall, Aemond left her side to grab her a drink from the servers, allowing her to step towards Rhaena and Baela, greeting them politely. Rhaena was quick to give her a smile, while Baela only had distrustful eyes to throw in her direction.
Her name was called and she turned to see Rhaenyra approaching her with a warm smile.
She smiled and embraced the Princess slightly awkwardly. She had fond memories of the woman growing up, especially in times when she was desperately missing her own mother, but it had been years since she had seen her and knowing her actions on the night Aemond’s eye had been taken had irrevocably changed her view of the woman since.
“It’s good to see you again, Dear.” Rhaenyra smiled warmly at her. “Where is your father, I was hoping to say hello.”
“He’s at Ixtal. He was missing my mother and decided to take a short visit.”
“You didn’t join him?”
She felt her cheeks heat at the question and she couldn’t help but smile.
“I would, but I wasn’t exactly in a good state to travel.” She explained and placed her hand on her stomach exaggeratedly.
Rhaenyra’s eyes widened and she beamed a smile, laughing happily.
“That is wonderful news.” The Princess congratulated. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother.”
A hand on the small of her back made her look up to see her husband now at her side, his steely eye locked onto his half-sister whose smile faltered at his sudden presence. She cleared her throat, her demeanor now tense as she nodded politely in greeting.
Rhaenyra left their side quickly, leaving her to wonder just how deeply one family could fracture. She couldn’t imagine ever greeting her brothers in that manner. She couldn’t imagine hating the ones she shared blood with.
Letting out a long breath, knowing she was in for an eventful night, she turned to Aemond, placing her hand on his arm that was stiff, as if he wouldn't allow himself to relax or even take a breath in their presence.
They all took their seats, the tension in the room strangling as King Viserys was carried in.
She held back a grimace at the sight of the decrepit King. He was a far cry from the man she had met all those years ago, far from the man who was a dear friend to her father.
The awkward aura in the room remained steadfast, with most avoiding eye contact with each other. Even Viserys’ heartened speech about family and the uniting of the house of the dragon did little to mend the obvious rift in the family.
Until Rhaenyra stood. She was shocked to hear her speak such lovely words about the Queen and for the Queen to return the sentiment.
Their apparent truce for the time being broke the tension, though her husband at her side remained tense, his lone eye unflinchingly cold as he regarded his distant family.
Her eyes kept circling back to him, as if waiting for the moment he would strike. She wondered when the wood of the chair under his white-knuckled grip would splinter. She wondered when the night would take an irredeemable turn.
She didn’t even get to enjoy Helaena’s thinly veiled jab towards Aegon in her toast, she was too worried about her husband to pay attention to the others around her.
When the music began, signaling the end of the toasts, she leaned back in her seat, giving her husband a small encouraging smile, anticipating that they had made it through the worst the night had to offer.
Aemond remained stiff as stone, his posture straight and rigid. She noticed his eye darken further, his gaze locked past her and she turned, her brows furrowing slightly as Jacaerys stepped towards her, a hopeful smile on his face.
“Would you care to dance, Princess?” He asked, offering her his hand.
She stared at his hand for a long second, contemplating her choices. With the entirety of the table watching the exchange, she knew she had little choice but to accept his offer.
She spared a brief glance to her husband beside her and the fury that blazed in his lone eye would have melted the wall in the great north. With a heavy breath, she gingerly took Jace’s hand and stood from her seat, allowing him to guide her away from the table.
Her husband’s gaze practically burned at her back.
Aemond watched with barely contained rage as the bastard danced with his wife. His teeth grinded together so harshly it was a wonder they didn’t crack. He briefly contemplated what the repercussions would be if he murdered the Strong bastard where he stood.
The fire within him was simmering, ready to unleash as he watched another man touch his wife. The smile on the bastard’s face left Aemond wondering whether he should slit his throat, dismember him, or let Vhagar turn him to ash.
None of the choices seemed punishment enough.
As Jace twirled her, her eyes briefly met Aemond’s and her stomach twisted at his expression. She knew tonight wouldn’t end peacefully.
She flinched slightly as Jace quickly spun her back into his arms, causing her to almost crash into his chest, forcing her much closer to him than she felt was necessary. She leaned back to gain some distance, hoping it wasn’t noticeable, hoping her husband hadn’t been able to tell she had been uncomfortable for a mere second.
Jace would be dead and buried before the sun rose if that were the case.
“I have to admit, I was quite shocked when I heard the news of your wedding.” Jace suddenly spoke, keeping his voice low so only she would hear.
“What was so shocking?”
“I didn’t expect you to end up with someone like him.”
“Someone like him? You mean my oldest friend?” She questioned, disdain creeping through her tone, her defenses raised, which didn’t allow her the wherewithal to speak in a friendly manner.
Jace sighed, as if wanting to dispute the simple fact that she and Aemond had been close for years before marriage was even a thought in either of their heads.
“You two are very different.” He said with a slight shrug. “I pictured you with someone more… warm, romantic even.”
“I assure you, my prince, my husband is plenty romantic. You do not need to worry yourself about my marriage.” She smiled stiffly.
Jace, seeming to sense her attitude, remained silent for the remainder of the dance. As the song ended, she politely curtsied and was walking back to the table before he could rise from his bow.
The tension didn’t dissipate as she took her seat at her husband’s side once more. If anything, the fury radiating from the man beside her only set her more on edge. Aemond leaned into her, making her shoulders tense both in apprehension and desire.
“If he touches you again, I will break every bone in his body.” Aemond hissed in her ear, smirking delightedly at the shiver she repressed.
She looked up at him, his fury now morphed into an insatiable hunger only she could tame. She knew she would be in for a long night.
She was just thankful he seemed to be feeling anything other than murderous rage.
But it did not last long.
She had been speaking quietly to Helaena, Aemond’s hand in hers, his thumb caressing over her knuckles a steady comfort when he suddenly pulled away.
She barely had time to look over at her husband before he was bolting out of his chair. His fist that slammed on the table made her flinch in surprise, her wide eyes looking up at him in confusion.
“Final tribute.”
Her heart raced wildly in her chest, her gaze wandering around the table, wondering what could have possibly stoked his fury. It wasn’t until she saw the sheepish guilt that permeated with fear on Lucerys’ expression that she began to understand.
“To the health of my nephews. Jace, Luke, and Joffrey. Each of them handsome, wise… strong.”
She felt her breath hitch in her throat, her wide eyed gaze meeting Alicent’s for a brief moment, his mother looking equally as petrified for what was to unfold.
“Let us drain our cups to these three Strong boys.”
She sent her husband a pleading look, but it was lost on him, his gaze, full of hatred, cemented on his nephews.
“I dare you to say that again.”
“Why? Twas only a compliment. Do you not think yourself strong?”
She gasped, her hand covering her mouth as Jace landed a punch to Aemond’s cheek. The room erupted in chaos. She could watch with disappointment as her husband pushed his nephew to the ground, as Aegon joined in and shoved Lucerys against the table.
Helaena stood from her seat and rushed towards her, her face shrouded in fear. She sighed and stood from her seat, wrapping her arm around her friend who seemed disturbed by the rift tearing in her family before her.
“It’s alright.” She assured her.
Across the room, Rhaenyra’s eyes bored into hers, pleading, as if she had any control over her husband’s ire. She sent her an apologetic look and bowed her head, wishing Aemond had taken up her offer to avoid the dinner altogether.
The room came to a standstill, the fighting men separated, a room divided by two factions.
Aemond glared at his uncle who looked at him as if disappointed, as if he were out of line to enact revenge for the slight against him.
He grit his teeth and in a quick motion, swallowed the wine left in his cup before turning back to the table. He avoided looking at his wife as he grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him as he stormed out of the room.
Her feet moved quickly to keep up with his quick pace, her heart in her throat as he led them through the halls.
Once they were back in their chambers, her eyes seldom left him, watching every one of his movements carefully, noticing how highly strung he still was, how stiffly he moved as paced for a moment before he finally took a seat on the edge of the bed.
His anger wouldn’t be leaving him easily.
“Are you alright?”
He stayed quiet for a long moment, gazing ahead blankly, the burning fury that simmered in his veins leaving him practically trembling, the desire to wreak havoc not yet dissipating.
Every part of him was wrought with tension, his mind a mess of thoughts, though his anger was the easiest to make sense of.
“Don’t try to convince me that what I did was wrong.” He spoke bitterly.
“I won’t.”
His jaw clenched, the events of the last few minutes running through his head on a loop, keeping him in the state of rage that made him shake, that made his hands twitch, wishing he had done more, wishing he could hurt that bastard the way he had been hurt all those years ago.
The thought briefly startled him. It was a thought he used to have frequently, when the rage in his heart was so new he didn’t know what to do with it. It was a thought he hadn’t focused on since being with her.
The revelation had an unfamiliar upset stirring within him.
“I should sleep in my old chambers tonight.” He muttered tersely.
The bitter anger burned within him, he felt on the edge of cracking and he would hate himself if he ever took it out on her, his sweet wife. He felt he needed to be far away from her to avoid darkening her with his presence.
“What?”
The sadness in her voice almost broke him. He closed his eye and bowed his head, he couldn’t bear to see the look on her face.
“I don’t want you to see me like this.”
It was quiet for a long moment, his words lingering in the room like an ominous death rattle that signaled the bitter end after a long, torturous fight.
But she refused to let him sink into his despair.
He flinched as she stepped before him, catching his gaze. Her hands smoothed out the doublet he wore, roaming upwards to brush the hair off his shoulders and gently caressing his neck as she reached up to hold his jaw affectionately.
He let out a deep breath, the tension slowly but surely easing from him in waves under her touch.
“I am not letting you feel this alone.” She told him, her voice soft yet stern, letting him know there was no way he would change her mind about this, that nothing could force her to accept his absence from her side.
“I don’t seem to recognize myself around them.”
His whispered confession hit her harder than she had expected and she felt her breath hitch in her throat, her own emotions rising to the surface at the sight of him so tormented.
“You can never undo what they took from you.” She began slowly, her voice wavering slightly. “I’ll never understand what you’ve been through. I wish I could and I’m so sorry I don’t, but you cannot let this consume you.”
His face remained a mask of torment, his derision and anger battling against the exhaustion that permeated his bitterness, that left him feeling weak in the aftermath of his rage.
She gently guided him to tilt his head upward so she could look at him, so he could see her and the resolution on her face and understand her honesty.
“You are more than your eye. You are more than the rage you feel when you look at them. You are more than them.”
He almost shuddered under her hands, the words striking him with force as though they were dealt with a physical hit.
“I see you, the real you. The one I fell in love with, my sweet husband, the father of my child.”
With that, she grabbed his hand to place it over her stomach and his expression changed in an instant, the anger gone as he caressed where his child grew.
He leaned forward, his forehead falling to rest against her chest, his arms circling her waist. He spread his legs, allowing her to step closer to him, her own arms wrapping around his shoulders, holding him tightly.
She ran her fingers through his hair, the soft motions pulling a soft sound from deep within him, his rigid body falling lax against her.
As she hugged him tightly she felt her eyes begin to sting with tears. She wished she could pull the agony from him, untangle the strings of rage that wound him so tightly.
She wished she could’ve gone back in time and held tighter to the wounded boy who hid his despair from her for so long.
~~
The girls are fightinggg
And the angst is coming xx
~~
Tag List:
@jacaeryslover @allsouls-emma @lianna75 @emoxio @noneedtosearch @watashiwasun @guacam011y @darlingisntit @trickycarrot89-blog @stcrrjoon @knyam @bettysexile @marysucks-blog @lovelyteenagebeard @anehkael @darktrashsoulbear @violetiss3lfish @hueanhdang @mamawiggers1980 @azaleapotterblack @littlestarfighter03 @discofairysworld @ner-dee
#aemond targaryen x reader#aemond targaryen#house of the dragon#aemond targaryen fanfic#aemond targaryen fic#house of the dragon fic
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
absence (1)
series summary. the holy grail of the seven men who ruled the country's entertainment used to be your friends at school. now, ten years later and between successes and failures, what reason would they have to want to come back into your life? pairing. eventually ot7 x f!reader... or not? content. first of all, english is not my first language so sorry for any mistakes! curse words, fangirling a lot and some self-deprecation. no proofread. this is just silly writing, we're on the safe zone for now. a/n. hi guys! i was gonna wait a little bit but i'm really excited about this one so you're gonna have earlier! thank u all for the support and i really hope you enjoy this 🫶🏻
series masterlist | bts masterlist | next
You met them all at school. Each with their own ambitions, their different dreams, but so similar in the nature of their core. It was almost funny how everyone with their dissimilar personalities fit so strangely well into one school group. There were times when you could still remember how you used to tell them that all together they could rule the world.
Maybe that's why you didn't see them years ago.
Jeon Jungkook was an idol. There wasn't an hour in the day or a screen in the city where you weren't watching him. He was so popular around the world that you suspected that not even one person didn't know him. His voice was on every radio station, on every cell phone of the people you passed on the street and on the buses, his face on the TV sets with the last interview he had done, as if it were a national achievement. You even saw him in restaurants, chefs naming dishes after him, production companies releasing collaborations with his company. There wasn't an object in that city that didn't have Jungkook's face on its forehead. It was impossible to escape him.
He was closely followed by Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin, two of the most promising models of the last decade, a national pride hand in hand with Jungkook. You didn't see them as often as Jungkook, but they still swept the international public and there was hardly anyone who didn't talk about them. Invited to catwalks in Paris, choosing their contracts and collaborations, wearing the most expensive clothes that you wouldn't even think of buying, wearing beautiful matching jewelry, expensive enough that a single outfit from each of them could buy you five houses in the small town they all came from. Taehyung and Jimin were known as the Siamese twins of modeling. Wherever one went, the other always had to be. Their exclusivity was incomparable.
In levels of recognition, Min Yoongi followed them in line. A great rapper who was well received by the general populace. Yoongi had managed to captivate a large audience thanks to his incredible command of the production of his music and his ease and gift for writing his own lyrics. His growth was gradual, but when he touched the sky he never went down again. His popularity was not low even though his presentation to the public was not that high compared to the other three. Still, Yoongi had enough charisma and talent to stand out, especially when his fans were obsessed with highlighting the duality he had when he was on stage and when he did those seventy question interviews with Vogue or whatever… that had made him one of the best rappers of his generation and probably of the last century.
Kim Namjoon was the owner of the company that made Jungkook's debut and welcomed Yoongi with total creative freedom. If he were not solely focused on music, he would surely also be Taehyung and Jimin's agent. Namjoon had inherited a company from his parents, but the success he had turned it into over the past few years, into one of the most profitable businesses in the country, was entirely to his credit and effort. His popularity was also high, because everyone said he was too handsome to be a mere businessman; not knowing, of course, that everything involved in maintaining such a business required much more than a pretty face. Of Namjoon the public didn't know too much, not probably like the other guys and you, if he was still half the person he was before.
Hand in hand with Namjoon were Jung Hoseok and Kim Seokjin. Hoseok was and still is to this day a national pride as he passionately played tennis since school and turned professional, reaching to participate in major international tournaments representing his country and winning one of them. However, two years after that great feat, an accident involving one of his hands prevented him from continuing to play. No one knows exactly what happened during the more than a year and a half that he almost completely disappeared from the public eye, but when he returned with his huge smile he announced that he would dedicate himself to dance, opening his own academy throughout the center of the city. Although he was not a recurrent teacher, his academy was one of the best in the country, and of course, it was financed by Namjoon's company. At one time Hoseok became Namjoon's associate.
Seokjin, on the other hand, was the one who kept the lowest profile. He was a great doctor, cardiovascular if you were not mistaken. In addition to being an amazing surgeon, his research projects were the ones everyone looked forward to the most at the end of each year. You didn't know much about the subject, but he was almost like the guru of medicine in his field specifically. The only reason he was so much in the public eye being a doctor was because he was regularly seen in the company of Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi. The four of them made up the holy grail of dilfs.
They had all had incredibly successful careers and you were glad that they had been able to accomplish everything they once talked about on the rooftop of Namjoon's house, with sneaky steps so their parents wouldn't scold them when they sneaked out in the wee hours of the morning.
You didn't know exactly what it was - or you didn't want to acknowledge it - that succumbed inside you every time you saw or heard about any of them on the news or on social media. Because yeah, no matter how low media exposure any of them had, always the faces of all seven appeared on your TikTok every week.
It was amazing how they had all moved on and you… well, you-
“Weren't you supossed to leave?”
You lifted your head from your phone, trying to hide it with trembling hands as you let Taehyung's face next to Jungkook's plunge into the darkness of your apron pocket.
“Huh?”
You tried to look distracted, returning your gaze between your boss and the notes next to the cash register. She had a soft gaze, between amused and sisterly. Her brown eyes shifted from your eyes and hot cheeks to the notes you held upside down in your hands, pretending to work as if she herself hadn't seen you completely frozen and gawking at the pair of the country's great casanovas.
“I thought you were leaving earlier today,” your boss shifted, settling her trench coat and long brown strap bag over her shoulder. At that moment she was leaving to walk around to each of the locations she had in town, just to do follow-ups. “Don't tell me you forgot.”
You followed her index finger until it landed on the red circle you had drawn on the calendar placed in your little cubicle a couple of weeks ago, with hearts surrounding it and exclamation points. Yes you remembered, of course you remembered, but at the point where you were at the time no one was going to miss you if you didn't attend.
“I didn't forget…” your voice trailed off as you looked down, your fingers finding the tips of the pages more entertaining than your boss's worried expression.
“y/n, you asked me to leave earlier this day from four months ago,” her high-pitched voice echoed in your head, reminding you how excited you had been a while ago for this day to come. “You can't just give up like that. Come on. You still have time.”
You began to shake your head, releasing your grip on the woman who was looking at you with the same worried eyes of a mother. Your boss had been one of the most encouraging people you'd ever had in your life, besides the handful of friends you had stored in your phone's contacts.
“It was a bust last time. I don't plan on going through that again.”
“But hadn't you told me afterwards that you weren't going to let that stop you? You said… what was it? I can't drown in this glass of water.”
You grudgingly resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Really you of four months ago was a deluded fool.
“I had no idea about life at the time.”
Your boss clicked her tongue, dropping her hands on your shoulders, giving little squeezes whose familiarity stole your breath.
“I'll leave Patrick waiting for you in case you change your mind.”
You shook your head, evading the memories. The man outside the store shook his head in greeting as the two of you turned to look at him, as if he knew you were talking about him.
“Don't miss this opportunity because you're afraid. It may change your life.”
You watched her leave, the clacking of her low heels drawing the attention of everyone in the store, earning every possible stare as she did every time she entered any room. Her chauffeur, Patrick, greeted her with a similar nod of his head as before and stood leaning against the black car parked right where he could get a perfect view of your nervous face.
You, unlike the great and successful lives of your high school friends whose company you still used to miss like a fool, had not had such a great and successful life.
You were a writer. Well, an attempted writer and, worse, part-time. The other part-time was this job behind the cash register at the largest pastry chain in the country. Or sometimes as a waitress, it depended on the day. There was good pay, mind you, at least it allowed you to make up for the losses you took every time you tried to sell a book and then had to market it on your own, only to have five purchases once every seven months and three of them were from your parents and brother. The other two were from your friends.
Four months ago you had been invited to a sort of convention for readers, how they had found you and why? You had no idea, but the idea of being considered in that way drove you crazy at the time. You were so excited that you had more copies of your failed books printed and prepared your booth several days in advance to present them to the horde of people who, you were sure at the time, would come to meet you.
Only one person came by to ask you about the bathroom.
You never recovered from that.
Even with all that failure, that same day you were invited to another convention and, for a while, you were excited to attend. Everyone goes through those kinds of bumps at some point in their life, right? You have to work hard to earn that kind of fame, you kept telling yourself. But as time went on and your networks didn't grow and your videos didn't get more than ten views, or fifty views at most in a week, you began to lose that spark of excitement you held for your dream. Your parents had never turned your back on what you wanted to do, but it was too demotivating and discouraging to have spent so many years at it, so many headaches and tears invested for you to just keep losing and losing money.
That was why you were sure you wouldn't go to that convention if you had to go through that mockery again. You hadn't even bothered to go and fix your booth so surely they already knew you weren't going.
“Have you seen them yet??????”
The female voice coming from the wine cellar made you jump up on your chair.
“Jesus, Yuna, you almost killed me here.”
“I don't care! We could die right now for all we care!”
“Wow, speak for yourself.”
“Haven't you seen theeeem?”
Yuna held up her phone, the screen at full brightness blinding you for a moment. The blurry dots you saw from the proximity of the device told you nothing, as your friend jumped excitedly beside you.
“God, hold still.”
Grabbing her wrist, you leveled the phone to see her TikTok and a picture of three men.
Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook coming out of a building. From Namjoon's building.
“They look amazing, don't they? They just came out! That means their car will pass in front of us any minute!”
Yes, Namjoon's building was just a few blocks away from your boss's place. In fact, your boss knew him and many times they would prepare large orders for parties at his company. You had never seen him set foot in this place or any other in the country, but every time he went to celebrate something he had to dial your boss's personal number and you would work until your backs burned because everything had to be perfect for the big businessman.
“Are you going out to greet them or what?” you frowned, letting go of her wrist and returning your gaze to the notebook next to the cash register.
Yuna let out an excited exclamation.
“Ohhhh~, should I? Should I?”
You grabbed her by the collar of her uniform as she tried to pass behind you.
“We're still on business hours.”
“I'm sure Sol wouldn't mind,” her almost heart pupil eyes stared down the street, her hands moving in front of her like she was a zombie. She almost seemed possessed by her fanaticism. Though of course you didn't blame her, if you didn't know any of the seven knights of the underworld you would surely be as excited as she was.
“Don't put words in her mouth. You'd better tell me if the lady's batch of cakes is out yet-”
Commotion erupted throughout the room. You almost saw in slow motion how all the people in the premises got up and running in the direction of the glass doors when you heard the screams coming from far away.
“They're comiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!”
Sometimes you wondered how they dealt with this level of fanaticism.
The ground almost shook with the amount of people running after a black car, where the three men who were causing such a furor so early that day were most likely to be, and the commotion was not tiny inside the venue where the screams erupted.
Having to deal with that on a daily basis would easily turn someone into a hater. Not that you were one... strictly...
“God, for a moment we breathed the same air,” Yuna plopped down on the table, her body doubled over with her eyes lost. You resisted the urge to smack her forehead.
“Their car windows were up.”
“So you saw them, right?????”
“Argh.”
You had to drag her back to work as the excitement in the store dissipated. You attended to another batch of consumers while Yuna fixed the display case and, in a moment of lapse you could almost tell, her back suddenly straightened and she turned to look at you with her eyes a little too wide. You passed the change to the man in front of you, who barely sent you a confused glance before continuing to claim his order at the other corner of the store.
“What's wrong with you?”
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Don't say that with that face. You look creepy,” you pulled out the bill to tuck it under the cash register as Yuna approached, leaving the frightened face behind.
“Wasn't that convention today?”
You sighed. “Yes.”
“Then why aren't you there?”
“Do I look like I want to be there?”
“Y/n! It's a great opportunity. You should-”
“A great opportunity for what, to be a laughingstock again?”
Yuna pursed her lips, looking almost pained that you would remember in that way the experience that was supposed to change your life. She had been one of the ones who had accompanied you to set up the booth and she was sure she had never seen you smile so much during all the time the two of you had known each other. Yuna was aware of how over time you seemed to have lost interest in this new convention, but she didn't think you would finally decide not to go.
On the sly, she had prepared your booth with the help of your mother and Sol, your boss.
“You were never a laughingstock! Don't say that,” Yuna patted your forearm harder than necessary. “Besides, I recently logged some purchases on the site! How do you-?”
“I know it was you and mom,” you raised your voice to interrupt her, stepping archly away from her body.
“What the… Of course not, ha, ha!”
“You're the only fools who would write down celebrity names to register purchases. Besides, the addresses don't even exist.”
“Fuck, I told her that wouldn't work.”
Under your heavy gaze, Yuna had the decency to look embarrassed.
“Okay, I'm sorry! We wanted to motivate you to go to the convention.”
“Can't you just let me do my own thing? If I don't want to go, I won't go.”
“Even if you leave Patrick waiting there?”
You followed his gaze, watching the man pull an umbrella out of the trunk of the car as the slightest breeze brushed against his body and the water droplets were smaller than a dew that the two of you had to squint to see them on the glass of the entrance.
“Whatever it is, I'm not going.”
“y/n…” Yuna pleaded, coming closer with her puppy dog eyes.
“No.”
“y/n, please…”
“No and stop doing that. You look weird.”
“I don't,” Yuna pulled away to frown at you. “I once heard you agreed with Seoyeon about my puppy face being cute.”
“I never agreed with that!”
“Seojun told me so!”
“Your first mistake is believing Seojun.”
“Do you blame me if the reason is your demonstration of love for me?”
“That was your second mistake.”
“Y/n!”
_____________________
That day you arrived home a little later than usual. Since Patrick had been waiting for you all day in the sun and mini rain and refused to let you take a cab on direct instructions from Sol, you asked him to take a ride downtown so you could buy the teokkboki your mom loved and incidentally bought some for him, even though he didn't want to accept it at first.
“y/n, dear, how did it go?”
Your parents were in the living room when you arrived playing Go. Your father left the table when he saw you carrying the bag of food and came over to take it from you.
“What does our little writer bring here, a contract by any chance?”
You watched out of the corner of your eye as your mother tried to get your father's attention by wildly waving her fan, while the man rummaged through the bag to find something warm and delicious smelling.
“Oh, it's teokkboki.”
Your mother stopped waving her arm to stare at the bag with sparkling eyes.
“The ones from the center? From Mrs. Wang?”
You nodded in her direction, taking a seat in their midst on the floor. Your parents started a pitched battle to see who would break the bag first to try the first batch of teokkboki and you could only watch them with a smile on your face. The day may have been difficult, but being home at the end of the day always made you feel so much better.
Amidst laughter and anecdotes, trying to avoid the elephant in the room because you knew your mother's furtive glances weren't for nothing, the three of you ate teokkboki until you were bursting at the seams. You organized the kitchen with your father while your mother grumbled from the living room whatever he said about her. You watched the three of you favorite soap opera on the fixed schedule and finally got ready for bed.
With your body more relaxed and lighter, you let yourself sink into the softness of the sheets, completely ignoring the messages Yuna had sent earlier and the stupid questions your brother asked at the most inopportune moments.
How do I unclog a bath?
Do I add salt to the rice???
Where do I get the kimchi mom makes?????
His independence was probably one of the worst things that could happen. You being the older sister thought you would leave home first. Even according to your twelve year old diary, you should have been married by then or at least planning your amazing, mega giant wedding, complete with helicopters and puppy dogs carrying drinks through the reception. You didn't know what kind of crazy dreams you had when you were younger, but up to that point you hadn't been able to fulfill any of your inner child's desires except to study for a career you were passionate about.
Still, what good had that done in the end? Maybe you should've listened to your grandparents to study medicine. Maybe your parents should've been a little more conservative instead of libertarian, which your grandparents always complained about when they had the chance. If you were a disgrace to anyone in the family, it was to them.
Ah, what a long day.
You didn't know at what point you fell asleep, but the incessant sound of your phone vibrating next to your pillow woke you up. With a grunt, you moved your hands to put the device in front of one of your half-open eyes to find Yuna on caller ID. Your eyes moved upward.
It was one in the morning!
“What the fuck are you doing calling at this hour? It better be an emergency because-”
“WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING THAT YOU DON'T CHECK YOUR MESSAGES?”
“WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? IT'S ONE IN THE MORNING! WHY WOULD I BE DOING ANYTHING ELSE BUT SLEEPING?”
“I'VE BEEN TEXTING YOU FOR A WHILE NOW, Y/N!”
“YUNA HOW CAN I NOT FUCKING SLEEP-?”
“Well, whatever!”
You let out an exasperated snort, giving her time to say what she had to say.
“You're going to fall on your ass.”
“I'm lying down.”
“Your books have sold a thousand copies in the last hour!”
Silence. Absorbing silence…
“Yuna, if you really woke me up to play a fucking prank on me I'm going all the way to your house to pull out every single one of your hairs with a fucking tweezer.”
“First of all, gross. Second of all, I'm not kidding! Get on your fucking Instagram! What's worse is that's not the most shocking news. Well… depends on how you look at it.”
“Yuna, I don't think I'm following you.”
“Fucking Kim Taehyung was at the reader convention and he took a picture of your books and UPLOADED IT TO HIS INSTAGRAM STORIES!!!!! AN HOUR AGO! The damn shopping notifications woke me up and I think I took too much time trying to process what was going on because they already tripled!”
“What the fuck are you talking about, did you start smoking weed?”
“Ugh, why are you so insufferable? Just look at fucking Instagram!”
You didn't want to believe Yuna, but a part of you was vibrating in anticipation. You'd already seen her text messages, her exclamations and voice notes, you'd barely processed the images she'd sent you. You logged on to Instagram. The first thing you noticed was the exorbitant amount of notifications and direct messages.
You had to search for Taehyung's account because you weren't following him.
There was the colorful arc around his profile picture. The story.
You clicked on his picture on the screen.
Your books were all over his story, with his hand holding one of them.
It jumped out at you that there was a stand of your books that you had no idea where it had come from.
A description loomed between the image.
One of the best fantasy books I've read in recent years. And by one of the best writers I've ever met in my life.
Your user was next to the description. You had no idea how fucking Kim Taehyung had gotten your user when it wasn't even something related to your name. You hadn't even uploaded pictures of yourself once in all the time that account had been open.
“Did you see it?? Can you see I wasn't lying?”
With Yuna's malevolent laughter in the background, you felt your mind escape into an unknown mental space.
“You're going to be rich!!! And I'm going to meet Kim Taehyung!”
Your mind was racing a thousand miles an hour trying to make sense of what your eyes couldn't credit. His story was replaying on your screen. So many things you could say and just…
“What the fuck?”
--
tag: @rinkud @futuristicenemychaos @pastelpeachess @parapiop7
#bts x reader#bts angst#bts fluff#bts fanfic#bts imagines#bts scenarios#kim taehyung x reader#jungkook x reader#taehyung x reader#jimin x reader#seokjin x reader#namjoon x reader#hobi x reader#yoongi x reader#bts x you#bts x fem!reader#series: i can fix them
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 || 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

summary_ Harry avoided commitment with you and after THE breakup, he suddenly entered into a perfect relationship with lucy; your boss. Or so you thought because you ended up having an affair with him.
warnings_ pure nonsense, age gap (undefined 20s/45), smoker!reader cheating, secret relationship, kinda asshole harry, implied sex and use of recreational drugs + mushrooms, angst, very carrie and big coded, Lucy is Natasha but not really. NO PROOFREAD
Notes_ man, i once was 19, watched sex and the city and never let go of it. well baby… WHAT WAS THAT, also listen to man of the year and summer forever, all in my Pedro playlist.
♫ ♪ the worst playlist 4 Pedro
✰ Index (+ fics here)
୨ৎ───୨ৎ───୨ৎ───୨ৎ───୨ৎ
His arms protectively held your waist, preventing you from standing up from the massive bed. The expensive sheets cover your naked lower body and your feet hang from the bed.
“Five more minutes…” Harry said, digging his face in your back.
“You said that half an hour ago” you answered him with a chuckle.
“Do I really need to meet your sister and parents?”
“Uhh yeah. I’m pretty sure that comes with the relationship package” you try to joke, which he falls for.
You turn to look at him and beyond his wrinkles, you can see a literal baby. Harry was your perfect boyfriend, hardly finding any flaw in his life.
“I don’t need you to meet my mother” he said, feeling your fingers caress his hair.
“Harry, you got a limb lengthening surgery and she approved!” you say through cackles. “I don’t need to know her!”
“Oh, shut up” he starts tickling you until you’re back hits the mattress again.
Harry ends up on top of you and it nearly got you blushing to feel his big hands caging yours on top of your head.
“Of course I’m meeting your sister and parents, y/n” he accepts. “I made reservations at this wonderful place and got a special dinner round of meals from the chef himself”
Your smile grows because you don’t need or want any of that. Just him…
“I love you” you say from the bottom of your heart.
He doesn’t say anything.
…
You broke up with him; but you missed him so much.
Walking through the busy city, you nearly tripped in your sequin green heels when a big hand caught your arm and prevented you from making a mess of yourself.
Just by looking at you, he smirked, hung off from his phone call, and introduced himself.
He was older, but he turned out to be some years younger than your father. They were classmates in graduate school.
Harry was cheeky, confident about himself, and a flirt. That was nice, but two breakups and three years together revealed he had some issues.
Commitment issues.
You just wanted one thing from him; to say he loved you. And he couldn’t. He never did. It resulted to be so confusing to understand him and what he wanted. Because he seemed to crave a lady by his side but when it came to long-term relationships, he was all doubt, no clue.
He was never going to be enough. But you desperately wanted him to be all you needed.
Despite the age gap, the difference in social classes, and different interests; you two had a curious relationship. One that was filled with a deep connection.
It was like Harry was meant to be with you. And like you were meant to be with him.
Was it impulsive? How do you tell him with glossy eyes that you can’t do it anymore? Perhaps...
But your heart and mind were tired.
And maybe he had lured you so well because seven months later, you still missed him.
And all the things you two used to do, the places you used to visit together, the songs both of you would sing, the food you two would make. You missed everything.
There were days where he treated you exactly like what he was: your rich boyfriend. Always taking you to fancy dinners, having drinks in ostentatious bars and going to the casino.
And there were nights where you took him to sketchy clubs, smoked in alleys, and got high around parks, sharing hazy kisses and having street food past midnights. Always ending in mind-blowing sex, with the longest and greatest orgasms of your life.
Oh to be loved like that once again. Or perhaps you should say, to pretend like you were loved like that once again…
Your heels click as you walk through the crowded streets. It was only at night when you felt miserable for missing Harry. But as long as you had a busy day, your head remained clueless about the ex that was piercing your broken heart further than intended.
The fluffy coat you decided to wear that night was getting a lot of attention from strangers. It worked beautifully along a grey vintage Y2K silk dress with a boat neck that hugged you by the waist and your hair was in curls, with crimson lips and berry sparkling eyes.
You were going to work and you had to look great. Your heels made you arrive at the luxurious building that is The Plaza. At the entrance you hand the card your boss gave you to enter quickly and soon you step into an empty elevator.
Your phone vibrates and you fish it out of the pocket of your dress.
“Hello?…” you say right after answering.
“Are you working already?” It was your sister, Madeline. You sigh with a little smile looking at the number of the elevator.
“About to…” you answer. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, just wanted to check on you…” Madeline says and you can only look at the eight, nine, ten, eleven, and then twelve on the elevator. “You seemed a little sad the other at the family gathering”
You sighed once again, worried that your family would notice how miserable you were feeling for missing your ex.
“Oh, Madeline. Do not worry, I’m fine” She was older than you, a successful lawyer, who always had defended you while growing up. “I swear I’m fine”
The elevator doors open and you start hearing a lot of people talking, mainly women.
You step out and as you walk down the long hallway full of rooms, you greet many women. Until your eyes focus on the people at the end of the hallway.
“Alright then, because even Dad noticed it and we both know how-“
“Shit, motherfucker fuck shit!” you whisper, audible enough to make your sister chuckle.
“There’s a shit motherfucker fuck shit situation?” Madeline asks making fun of you.
You hear someone calling your name and you press your phone tightly against your cheek.
“I’ll call as soon as I’m back home” You hang up quickly and mentally prepare for what’s about to happen.
Your boss kissing your ex Harry Castilllo. As soon as both heard your name, they quickly turned to look at you.
Never in your wildest dreams, you thought that a woman like Lucy would be dating Harry. But being honest, it was you who never seemed like the type of rich man. Lucy was older, elegant, decent, and had a career at least. You hadn’t finished building yours yet.
“You made it!” Lucy greets you, kissing you each on cheek and patting your back as she directs you towards Harry.
Your heart started beating violently and for some seconds you seriously thought you would have to run to throw up.
“So… Harry, this is my newest addition to the team; y/n” you offer your hand for him to shake, which takes him by surprise. “And y/n, this is my boyfriend Harry”
His eyes scan you up and down, searching for anything different. But the truth was that only your hair was shorter and your makeup darker. And to you, Harry looked the same, a few wrinkles added, but still gorgeous.
It had only been eight months.
“Hi! Nice to meet you, Harry” you say with a convincing nice tone. He shakes your hand and the mere feeling of his warm touch almost makes your eyes water from sadness.
“Hi, I’ve heard so much about you” he answers and you thank he followed along because you didn’t want to explain to Lucy how you dated Harry for years and blah blah blah.
“Oh, I bet about how slow I am while editing and printing for Lucy” Your boss chuckles and you suddenly feel a little more confident, trying to ignore the fact that Harry is still holding your hand.
“Liar! You are always on time” Lucy adds, you then spot the bride-to-be arriving and you greet her in the distance. “Oh, here is Paulina”
“Yeah, I should get going…” you say before Paulina comes to hug you and drag you inside one of the rooms on the floor.
As soon as you enter the room with the bridesmaids and bride, you excused yourself to use the restroom.
You sigh, leaning on the skin while trying to calm yourself.
So Harry was the man Lucy told you she met at the previous wedding she attended. He was the man who made her love red peonies.
He always gave you pink lilies and yellow poppies.
Harry was dating your boss and you had to swallow it for the sake of everything. Sure you could pretend but… you weren’t prepared to get used to it.
And the worst part was that you didn’t have many options, you had to organize each bridesmaid while Lucy focused on the bride. It was an engagement dinner that cost millions of dollars, setting the expectations too high for the wedding.
You smiled at yourself in the mirror reflection, knowing it was cringe and pathetic.
Just pretend for the night…
…
The dinner was boring, everyone talked about taxes, elite restaurants, and how to make more money. Maybe it was that you were younger, but you felt like a little child asking for cake and balloons at an adult party.
Two times you bumped into Harry, successfully avoiding him in both occasions. When you grabbed a little plate to grab different cheeses and pieces of perfectly cut salamis. And when you signed the guest book, he was behind you.
The glass of champagne you had carried for the whole night was long forgotten in the table where you had your place reserved. Now waiting for a mojito, you look so depressed. The table was empty, everyone dancing to some Donna Summer song. You had to change your seat to stop looking at the dance floor when Lucy and Harry appeared in your eyesight dancing to a slow song.
Just when you decided it was time to leave. You felt someone taking a seat beside you.
To your shock, it was Harry.
“You look beautiful tonight, gorgeous” It shouldn’t have touched you his sweet tone. But it did…
“Thank you” you limit yourself to answer.
He offered you a cocky smile before leaning forward, resting his head on the palm of his hand. The music suddenly lowered, the people scattered away and all you could focus on was Harry.
“What was that earlier on?” He asked with his usual cheeky voice.
“Nothing, I was working” You hear him chuckle but you don’t dare to look at him yet.
“I think you were avoiding me” Harry says, eyeing you with curiosity.
You remain quiet, not knowing what to say or how to act.
“How you’ve been, kid?” You have to swallow a big sigh when he asks you that.
“I’m okay, thanks” you lie, not wanting to ask about him, but you know it’ll unconsciously happen.
“So you and Lucy?…” you decide to ask once and for all.
He offers an indescribable look, mixed between half a smile and half a doubtful grimace.
“It happened out of nowhere…” is all he says.
“Sounds great…” you reply while nodding, looking away from him again.
“Are you seeing anyone?” Harry asks and you realize he’s drunk.
“I’m not sure. But I think I am…” you reveal to your own surprise, because it was true.
“And where is the guy?”
“In California. Working…” Harry nods and it’s obvious he’s mocking you.
You wanted to slap him and kiss him at the same time.
You see your drink coming closer and there's a little relief on you. You could only handle the situation with alcohol.
A waitress leans to place your mojito at the table and accidentally brushes her elbow with your ear, your earring getting stuck only to fall to the floor.
“I’m truly sorry!” The girl apologizes and you smile at her.
“It’s nothing, you’re fine” She smiles back with her face red from embarrassment and goes back to work.
Before you can look for your earrings, Harry does it first. Making you gasp in shock when his right hand lands on your inner thigh.
“It’s not working…” he says, whispering in your ear with a raspy voice.
Not working? He meant his relationship. And it was sending shivers through your spine.
“Harry…” you whisper back, feeling the heat of his lips almost brushing yours.
“If you know anyone interested…”
“No. It’s not correct” Your eyes defy him, quickly shutting him off. But in his drunken state it was only setting a big fire within him. “I won’t do this again…”
You don’t wait a second to stand up and leave him made a mess sitting at that elegant table. Harry eyes your back and notices you are shaking as you say goodbye to Lucy.
Some guilt started to wash away the lust he felt for you. Harry missed you ever since the moment you walked out of his penthouse.
He grew obsessed with finding someone to replace you. To fill the hole you left inside him.
But it wasn’t working.
And you, you almost fell on your knees as soon as the elevator doors closed. You sighed but the panic continued.
The cold air of the streets hit you and it only made it worse.
A tiny part of you considered giving in.
The talks, his touch, kisses, caresses. It was dramatic, but maybe no one would equal Harry.
Who could love you like that?
Your ‘addicted to the pain’ heart and mind decided to punish you with no cab ride back home. Instead, you walked at least eight blocks in heels, hugging yourself in your fluffy coat until you made it to your place. Where you sobbed as you showered and then as you listened to music while doing your skincare routine.
A part of you never wanted for Harry to forget you. You were toxic and you wanted to have a special place in his heart forever. But the moment he actually showed you he still wanted you, you couldn’t face it.
Even when… you wanted him so badly.
…
You didn’t hear about him for some days. Lucy had been so busy installing her new little office that likewise, she hadn’t mentioned Harry at all.
You were already late, it wasn’t your intention to sleep past nine in the morning. Paying the consequences of your acts, you barely had time to do your makeup. Not even the bumpy road in the subway could do much, but at least you looked fine in general.
As you exit the subway station, your phone vibrates and without the ID caller, you answered.
“Yes?” You are so late and you know it.
“How are you?” But your heart and steps stopped as soon as you recognized Harry on the other side of the line.
“Oh… uhm, I’m great. And you?” You finally answer.
“Good. Look… about the other day…” Slowly, you start walking through the city.
“Harry, I don’t think we should talk about it…” his sigh was picked up by you through the call, you were nervous. If he ended up saying that an affair was still up for consideration, you’d faint in the middle of the street. But-
“I thought about it and it’s not what I really want,” Harry says with deception, you only frown in disgust.
“What?”
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us two to start… something” Your frown only got bigger as your steps hurried to get to Lucy’s office.
“Oh really?” Your sarcastic tone was enough to let him know how offended you were. As you hung up, you huffed.
Out of jealousy, sadness, anger, and deception; you felt awful.
Why was that toxic side of you gaining so much power in trying to have his attention?
As you step into the office, you shake your head, trying to erase the incorrect thoughts.
But as you greet Lucy, you can’t help but already feel like the other woman.
…
Answering calls and commanding a printer was your primary task under Lucy’s matchmaking business. You loved having a little space of your own, it seemed like the only place where you could forget about Harry despite working for his girlfriend.
Only that when he decided to visit her, it was an assured migraine.
You could hear them giggling and for a couple of seconds, when it became a little quiet, you knew they were kissing.
Lucy was such a good boss that she never minded when you were filling Excel files while listening to music. So you could decide whether to listen to your ex and boss kissing or listen to some good music.
As you type and hum some songs, you don’t know how much has passed until you see Harry and Lucy coming out of her office while laughing about something.
At the same time, a delivery guy appeared with a big bouquet of orchids.
Your fingers take off your earphones as you start listening to the conversation, oblivious to the way Harry is looking at you.
“Oh, y/n this is for you!” You turn to look at Lucy, who’s smiling widely at you.
Your cheeks start burning at the unwanted and sudden attention. Your boss places the bouquet at your desk and you can smell how expensive and fresh the flowers are. As your hands shake, you grab the card attached to it.
[ I just passed by a flower shop and these were on sale - Gavin ]
A genuine smile appeared on your face, knowing so well he was kidding.
Gavin was your age, gym-obsessed, sweet, and an already successful architect. You met him three months ago at a healthy almond restaurant. You liked him, but you wanted to like him more. And so far, you weren’t anywhere close to falling in love.
“I’m sorry, Lucy” she shakes her head while chuckling.
“It’s fine. I love that things are going great with this guy uh…”
“Gavin…”
“Right!” Lucy sweetly leaned to smell the flowers. “Now I’m jealous. Harry loves giving me red peonies, but these are so beautiful”
“I’ll get you one of these…” Harry said while kissing Lucy’s cheek.
You ignore it so well that you almost forget about his presence while picking up your stuff.
‘I let everything archived and ready for your next appointments, Lucy” She thanks you a hundred times as you say goodbye to her, barely knowing Harry.
Deep down you know it, he’s jealous.
…
After the flower incident, Harry starts calling very frequently. You try to shoo him away as best as you can. But how far away could you run when inevitably, you operated very close to his inner circle of loved ones.
Thankfully, Lucy rarely talked about Harry with you, she was more interested in any details you had for her about Gavin.
And since he was in and out of the city, flying east to west, you hadn’t gotten much development along him as you wanted.
From a hotel in Coney Island, you had just finished a not-so-good phone sex with Gavin. He might have had the time of his life for those twenty-two minutes on call, but for you, it was nothing.
You knew it wasn’t healthy to be thinking so much about Harry.
But it wasn’t fair how much he was trying to get you. He never gave you what you wanted while dating.
Although, you had to admit he seemed renewed. He seemed, honest, raw, and vulnerable while being still straight to the point. Like his romantic goals changed but it really didn’t matter. He had a girlfriend, you were sorta seeing someone and it should continue like that.
Your night at Coney Island was thanks to your sister. Madeline was dating a writer, whose sister was the publicist for the hotel events. And since Madeline’s boyfriend was a best-selling author, she invited you to the event and afterparty.
You debated whether to walk at least two blocks to get a cigarette in your hands. Since you broke up with Harry, you have avoided smoking. But now, you were falling, slowly giving in to the idea of filling your lungs with unhealthy smoke.
Right in the middle of the afterparty, a man in a suit who worked in the hotel politely told you someone was waiting on you at the bar. Frowning, you thanked him, not being able to let Madeline and his boyfriends know you were leaving.
Someone opens the door of the bar and your eyes almost pop out as soon as you spot Harry drinking inside of the place.
“What are you doing here?” You ask as your knee ends up brushing his tight.
Harry looks head down. Wearing a black sweater, jeans, and casual shoes gives the ostentatious hotel.
“I don’t know…” he admits. “I miss you, y/n”
You sigh with tiredness, your hands covering and wiping your face from desperation.
“Look- This has to stop. I cannot stand you jerking me around”
“I’m not jerking you around” Harry objects, almost sounding offended by your accusation.
“You are! Accept that the only reason why you’re after me now is because you can’t have me” you spit out, trying to lower down your voice. Harry rolls his eyes before finishing his glass of whiskey before turning to give a deep look in the eye. “Harry, I can’t do this again. You’re with Lucy, who’s my boss by the way. And- I’m seeing someone…”
He looks down at your hand grasping the wood of the table. The dim lights of the bar barely illuminate your face and Harry has to lean closer to see your lips in a thin line.
And yet, he dares to put his hand on top of yours.
“I’m breaking up with her” he says and you sigh in disbelief. Your hand moves away from his, and you step backwards, shaking your head as you look at him. “I don’t think she loves me”
“No, Harry. Go away, for real this time…” With anything else to say, you walked towards the exit, hearing Harry coming behind. Your feet try to drag you away faster than ever. And you think you’re safe inside the elevator until Harry makes it inside as well.
“I mean it, Harry!” With the closed doors and the reigning silence, you can only hug yourself in comfort.
You feel trapped, naked even. His gaze is heavy, fixated on you.
“We both feel the same…” he says. “We both miss each other”
Your back hits the wall, the curve of your ass being the only part of your body that wasn’t pressed against the cold mirror of the elevator.
“Then break up with Lucy first” you whisper in his lips. “That’s what you have to do first…”
“I know…” Harry answers getting closer.
The heat, the accelerated heartbeats, it was making you weak. His hot breath makes you get embarrassingly wet under your fine silk red dress.
It was bad enough that you were drowning in hopes of getting a kiss from him. Despite how bad that would be.
Until you stopped functioning when his lips touched yours.
Harry was kissing you. First slowly, lips melting against each other until there was only lust dispersed all over the elevator.
Each part of your body betrayed you, letting Harry ping his hands around your hips and yours sneaking around his neck.
And as a matter of karma, his knees started diving between your legs, making you open them for him, just as the elevator doors opened on your floor.
“What’s your room number?” Harry asks while moving his kisses away from your lips, starting a trail from your earlobe through the valley of your breasts.
“Twenty-one…” you whisper before letting out the first moan of the night.
Accepting how fucked up you two were. Opting to ignore whatever happened the following morning.
And all you could think about while fucked you in any possible position; was that you missed Harry so much.
…
The guilt would eat you alive.
But not much as you thought since you were letting Harry dig his head under your dress in an empty restroom at another luxurious hotel. It was risky since Lucy and your boyfriend Gavin were there too. Well, Gavin would arrive later. It was one of Lucy’s friends birthday.
The affair had been going on for weeks. Making up excuses, hiding cum stained thongs and clothes that smelled like him. You had fallen into a pit hole, being too self-aware of yourself and feeling like risking your integrity for Harry was worth it.
But as soon as you reach your orgasm, every serious thought is long forgotten.
“That was nice,” you say while trying to catch your breath.
Harry offers you a smirk that makes you chuckle.
“My knees are killing me” he reveals as he washes his face.
“That means you did a great job” you reply and now he chuckles.
“This Sunday. Your place, I bring a bottle of wine and some old records. What do you say?” You can only nod with a little smile plastered on your face.
“I’d love that” you confirm. At brief moments like that one, it felt like you and Harry were not in a difficult position.
Like there was a sense of normality. A relief from all the chaotic weeks both of you were living.
Just like when both of you were done fucking and the conversations would last four hours, until the sun was close to coming up. When he ended up cooking at your place with music playing in the background. If only…
You place your underwear in place and after a quick glance in the mirror, Harry opens the door for you.
Both of you exchange looks and when he opens the door, your world stops.
Gavin is there, looking around, probably for you, until his eyes meet yours and soon he understands.
His girlfriend came out of a private restroom, that looked empty and exchanged smiles with another man. He wasn’t stupid. He quickly walks away, visibly hurt.
“Gavin, wait!” You call for him, knowing that there would only be shame on you.
Gavin keeps walking, avoiding people drinking and talking at the party until you can grab his forearm and make him stop.
Not knowing exactly what to say, you gather some decency to at least apologize, but he surprises you before you can say anything. His blonde hair seems disheveled, green eyes filled with anger and his chin tight. Only at that moment his tall height intimidates you.
“When I got interested in you, I never thought you would end up being a big whore” he spits out with disgust and it takes you so aback that you can’t prevent yourself from slapping him across the face.
“I’m not a whore!” Harry appears beside you and pushes Gavin in defense of you. The younger man looks at you and then at Harry.
“Yeah, you both deserve each other, pieces of shit,” he says before disappearing.
Your eyes burn and you can already feel heavy, even dizzy thanks to all the looks you were receiving. Much worse when look spotted Lucy standing where Gavin was, the look on her face already screaming that she knew as well.
“I’m sorry” you say directly to her with a broken voice before sprinting out of the place.
You feel beyond embarrassed, and out of breath. You push open the doors of the hotel, your coat hanging and mopping the streets of the city.
It was what you deserved after all. What were you thinking anyway? An affair is always a mistake. Not healing the wounds from an ex too. Combining both aspects, it was bound to be collateral damage.
And not only towards Lucy and Gavin but to you and Harry as well.
You can’t take it anymore, so as soon as you lock the door of your apartment, you run to look for your secret stash. Only the feeling of smoking could soothe your anxiety over the events of the night.
You sigh, looking at the screen of your phone with the name of Harry in the screen, so you turn off your phone after reading his last messages.
[I’m sorry. I broke up with her, we need to talk]
[I was afraid once but I need to tell you those three words now]
[Call me, please]
With the lights off, dress and heels scattered on the floor, windows open, and the skyline of the city, you can only reserve yourself to smoke in the darkness.
Loving Harry had always been difficult and when he seemed more approachable and changed, you only sacrificed yourself one more time to understand it would likely never change. No matter how rich, attentive, and handsome he was, it would always be like a walk through a rose bush with thorns. One that you always seemed to opt to walk through.
______________________________
I’m seeing materialists tomorrow, part two will have everyone fitting canon better. I just love season 3 of sex and the city and watching the whole show reminded of Harry for some reason <3
Don’t be like Carrie and maybe I’ll feel worthy of making a part two of this <3
#harry castillo x reader#pedro pascal x reader#pedro pascal#the materialists#pedro pascal characters#pedro pascal smut#harry castillo
375 notes
·
View notes
Text
Feels Like I’ll Die Without You | Kwon Ji-yong (G-Dragon)
Summary: You run into your ex at a party. Neither of you are over each other, despite you being in a relationship with someone else. Will temptation get the best of you? Warnings: language, mentions of cheating, make out scene. Word Count: 1.3k Author's Note: this is kind of a part two to I Used to Believe In You. You don’t really need to read it to understand this installment but if you want the background on why they broke up, you can read it here. Considering turning this into a series, let me know if you want a third part of this!
It has been years since you’d been back in Korea. You didn’t even want to think about how long it had been or the way your last trip had ended. Something you’d thought would last a lifetime had come crumbling down in seconds. Looking back over the last twelve years you were glad it had ended. As much as you’d love Jiyong as a young twenty something in the industry it wasn’t meant to be.
You hated how your brain instantly went to him the second your feet touched solid ground after your flight. You had a boyfriend and it has been twelve years since you’d seen Jiyong in person. Sure, he’d pop up on tv from time to time or social media but you hadn’t thought of him, talked to him, seen him since he’d flown to your house after you’d broken up all those years ago.
For whatever reason, you were being forced to go to an event that you knew he’d be at, because of course he would be. Luxury, fashion, expensive things were his thing now. Long gone was the blonde edgy boy you’d met when you were first starting out. Now he was softer, more into fashion than you’d ever remembered him being. But your relationship had never really been that deep and for all you knew this was who he’d been from the start.
“No shit.” You heard a familiar voice and turned, coming face to face with Youngbae and grinned.
“Hi YB.” You pulled him into a hug, instant relief washing over you.
An unfortunate circumstance of your fall out with Jiyong was the no contact you’d had with his three best friends post breakup. They’d been your friends too but as his closest friends and bandmates it was just easier for you to fade out of their lives.
“You look great. How have you been?”
“Good. Stable. I heard you got married and have a kid. That’s so exciting, I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks! I gotta admit I always thought you and Jiyong would be first to get married.”
“Yeah, well…that didn’t happen.” The all too familiar voice of Jiyong rang out and you swallowed, your smile faltering. “Hello.”
You turned from the safety of Youngbae, coming face to face with Jiyong. He was still just as handsome as ever and damn it if your heart didn’t speed up at the site of him. He looked handsome, his suiting fitting his body like a glove. The hat was a little goofy but damn it if he didn’t rock it.
“Hi.” You squeaked out. Cursing yourself in your head. Jiyong smirked before raising a brow at Youngbae.
“Excuse us for a minute?” Youngbae waved goodbye to you before walking away. “You look….amazing.”
That was not what he wanted to say. You looked hot, but he wasn’t going to come straight out and say how down bad he still was for you. How no woman he’d been with since you could ever compare to you. You’d have all the power and he couldn’t have that.
“Thanks. So do you.” You could feel the awkward tension rising in the room.
“You wanna grab a drink and talk?” The way he said talk made your weak. That used to be code for doing anything but talking.
“I have a boyfriend.” You blurted out and Jiyong closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath.
Of course you had a boyfriend. He should’ve known you wouldn’t stay single. You were one of the most talented and amazing people he’d ever met, you wouldn’t have just stayed single the last twelve years.
“Ok? So a drink and we actually just talk.” You knew you shouldn’t, everything in your body telling you not to go with him.
Deciding to ignore the warnings, you nodded your head and followed him. His hand reached out to grab yours and you knew you should pull away. Instead you linked your fingers with his and allowed him to lead you away from the crowd. He grabbed two drinks off a tray, handing you one so he wouldn’t have to let you go and led you outside.
There was nobody out here, thanks to the chilly Korean night. You took a sip of your drink, your hand staying firmly in Jiyong’s hand. He looked down at your entwined fingers and smirked again before giving your hand a squeeze. He wasn’t going to let go first. Neither were you. Why was it so easy to fall into these old habits with him?
Jiyong let go of your hand, moving to stand directly in front of you, his drink abandoned. Your heart sped up and you could feel the butterflies in your stomach at the closeness. You looked up, locking eyes with him and he moved his free hand to cup your cheek. You should back out of his touch, run inside, find security with the other attendees. He wouldn’t touch you like this in front of people. Instead, you leaned into his touch and there was that damn smirk again.
“What?”
“You’re so fucking gorgeous.” His eyes trailed from your eyes to your lips as he spoke.
You didn’t even question it, your body reacting to him whether you liked it or not and his lips were on yours. It was too much, too much passion, too wrong but you couldn’t help yourself when it came to Jiyong. You would probably always want him and that was why you’d stayed away for as long as you had. He wasn’t good for you, this wasn’t good for you.
“Jiyong.” You panted, pulling away from him. “I can’t. I have a boyfriend.” Jiyong shrugged at your words, leaning in closer to you.
“He doesn’t have to know.” His lips covering yours again.
It was almost too easy, getting lost in this moment with him. Hands roaming each other's bodies as the kiss took a desperate turn. His jacket was off, tie untied as he lifted you up on the table, your legs opening slightly so he could stand between them, your legs wrapping around him. His hands roaming up your legs as he broke the kiss. His lips latched onto your neck as he trailed kisses down your throat, your chest. Your eyes popped open as if coming to your senses as his lips brushed your breast.
“Jiyong, I can’t.” You pushed him away slightly, jumping down off the table and smoothing out your dress. “I’m not this person anymore.”
Jiyong took a respectable step back and straightened his tie before sliding his jacket back on. As much as he still wanted you, he wasn’t going to do anything you didn’t want to do. If that meant he had to wait another twelve years for a stolen moment with you, fine.
“I’m sorry. I got carried away.”
“It’s fine. I did too.” You let out a sigh. You could’ve walked away at any moment, this wasn’t all on Jiyong. “I think I should go though.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I have to go present this watch anyway.” He took his hat off running his hand through his messy green hair and offered you a weak smile. “It was really good to see you.”
“You too.” You nodded before walking away.
Jiyong stood there, watching you walk away and swallowed the lump on his throat. He’d watched you walk away from him too many times in his life and somehow this one hurt the most. He wasn’t the same cocky asshole you’d met all those years ago but of course he hadn’t shown you any proof of that. The second he’d seen you all logical thoughts had gone right out the window.
It hurt all the same though, having you reject him all over again. At this rate he figured he’d never be over you. It had been twelve years and he folded the second he’d seen you. Maybe one day he’d convince you that you were meant to be. But for now he’d just have to find a way to be ok with this moment. He smoothed his suit out one last time before heading inside, making sure to avoid you the rest of the evening.
tag list: @wcnderlnds @alosss-blog @sooyasya @dprvivi @infinetlyforgotten @mirahyun @loveesiren @tulentiy
#g dragon x reader#kwon jiyong x reader#gdragon x reader#kwon ji yong x reader#bigbang x reader#g dragon#gdragon#kwon jiyong#kwon ji yong#my fics#flidwy
276 notes
·
View notes
Note
the Cullens with a reader who can't show emotions and finally smiles after 10 years because of something cute the cullens did?
The Cullens when their SO finally smiles
I’m so terrible at making titles I’m sorry guys. Also for all of these scenarios I was envisioning that the reader is a vampire as well so do with that what you will
Thank you for requesting and I hope you enjoy!
Edward:
He turned you years ago now
And he’s known you for even longer than that
And for all those years, you have never outwardly shown your emotions
The most he gets from you is a furrow of the brows or a slight frown
It frustrated him a LOT at first
He just felt like he could never get through to you
But over the years of reading your mind and picking up on your other cues as to what you’re feeling, he’s learned to be okay
The two of you are sitting in one of your classes in school
Your Spanish teacher is currently talking about basic vocab for the upcoming unit
You two weren’t paying attention, choosing instead to just look at each other, when the teacher calls Edward’s name
“Mr. Cullen, mind telling me what this is called?” She points to the whiteboard that was currently displaying a picture of a shirt
“Camisa.”
“Wrong.”
“What?”
The look on Edward’s face was priceless, a mix between betrayal, mortification, and confusion
“This is a t-shirt, the word is camiseta. I suggest paying more attention next time.”
You wished you had gotten a picture of the snarl on his face
You couldn’t help the smile that formed on your lips as you giggled silently at Edward’s frustration
Instantly, all of his negative emotions were gone
You, the love of his life, the light of his world, the stone statue in his room, was smiling
He was in awe
He knew that he could never forget anything, his memory too perfect for that, but he still tried his best to commit your face to memory as best as he could
You noticed him staring and straightened your face out
He let it go until class was over, but as soon as the bell rang he grabbed you and pulled you into the hallway
“I always knew your face was capable of emotion”
“Nuh uh. My face is actually always permanently stuck like this”
“Liar”
Even if you never smile again, he can finally rest easy knowing what your gorgeous smile looks like
Even if it was at his expense
Alice:
She’s sort of used to not being able to pick up on emotions
Jasper’s always been more focused on not killing people, it’s not often that he’s comfortable enough to laugh
But then again, he shows discomfort on his face
You show nothing
Sure she was a little frustrated by it, but she got over it
Despite that, she loves you, and she loves everything about you
It’s not like this is a dealbreaker or anything
So life moves on
You were turned a couple of years ago by Carlisle, but you and Alice are only now getting married
You wanted to make sure that you could invite your human family without wanting to hurt them
And ten years was plenty time for that
You were currently standing back to back with Alice, the ends of her flowy dress were tickling your ankles
It was time for the first look, and you both were so excited
Carlisle and Esme stood nearby, Rosalie right in front of you two
“Okay, on the count of three, turn to look at each other. One, two, three”
You both whipped around
And before you stood the ethereal Alice
Dressed in a flowy dress with light purple accents, flowery clips in her short hair, and a huge smile on her face
She looked amazing
There were no words in your mind to describe her
So you just smiled
A big, toothy grin as you took in your future wife
You didn’t even get a chance to say anything before you were almost tackled to the ground by Alice
“This is the best wedding gift I could have asked for!!! I saw in a vision that you gave me an amazing gift but I didn’t get to see what it was! Thank you thank you thank you!”
“Alice I didn’t get you a gift?”
You were so confused
“Of course you did, silly. This right here.”
And with that she kissed you right on your smiling mouth
Jasper:
He’s sort of similar to you
Whenever he’s out in public, he’s too focused on not letting his urges take over
He doesn’t usually smile at jokes, frown at problems, or just generally emote
But when he’s home and away from temptation, he becomes more himself
Only, you don’t change
You’re the same stonefaced self you always are
It’s not too hard for him to deal with, he can feel your emotions
He knows when you’re happy, sad, angry, scared, everything
But of course, he has always wondered what your smile might look like
If he could sleep, he would dream about it
But he never pushes you
It’s a nice, October day
The trees are orange, yellow, and red. The air smells like honey and hot cocoa, and Jasper’s taking you to a horseback riding farm
He wanted to connect to his roots, and prove to you that he was capable of riding a horse at one point
You were both set up with your own horse
Yours was named Princess because she always carried herself with a certain pride
Jasper’s was called Toothache cause he likes to hit people in the jaw
He insisted on taking the difficult one, he claimed over and over that he would be okay
You and Princess were quick buddies, galloping around the pen with ease
Jasper was still trying to get within five feet of Toothache
He decided to try approaching from behind, seeing if the element of surprise would work
But all that got him was a hoof straight to the jaw
You couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of your throat, a quick, dry guffaw as you looked on in disbelief
Jasper was almost too preoccupied with his anger at the horse to notice, but he did
In an instant he was next to you, staring deeply into your face which was now lit up with laughter
“Horse be damned, we’re goin home, sugar”
He cuddled you the rest of the night
Rosalie:
She was and is very frustrated at your lack of emotion
She’s not asking you to smile 24/7
But once would be nice
The two of you were out and about
Carlisle needed some more supplies for his home clinic, but his schedule for the week wouldn’t allow him to go get them himself
So he wrote a list for whichever one of his kids wanted to go get them for him
You wanted to do it, and since Rosalie loves you, she decided to go to
That’s how you ended up standing under the awning of a RiteAid as the rain beat harshly against the ground
Originally, you guys were going to wait until the rain stopped to run out to Rosalie’s car
But it’s been 7 minutes (not that you were counting) and it only kept pouring
“Do you want to make a run for it?” You asked
“And get my hair wet? No thanks. We can wait, unless you’re in a rush?”
“No I’m good”
And so you kept waiting
As you were standing there, a car veered into the wet parking lot, tires squealing as it turned the sharp corners
It whipped past the front of the store… and splashed a huge puddle onto you and Rosalie
You stood there shocked for a moment, vaguely registering your newly wet socks, when you heard Rose shriek next to you
“I’m gonna kill that fucking asshole!”
Cue a complete meltdown
She’s yelling about the manner in which she will stalk him, slowly make him paranoid, skin him, and then leave his body for his family to find
All while looking like a wet rat
You can’t help but have a goofy smile on your face, your beautiful wife ranting angrily about some stupid teenager
“Are you laughing at me? I swear to god I’ll skin you too. This is unbelievable!”
Once she’s calmed down later she can’t believe that she missed a once in a lifetime opportunity because she was so angry
A couple kisses should calm her down though
Emmett:
He prides himself on being a pretty funny guy
He cracks jokes all the time
I mean, his speech at Bella and Edward’s wedding was full of jokes and innuendos
His ego gets a little bruised every time you don’t laugh at one of his jokes
He knows that you don’t laugh at anything, but still
He would LOVE to be the exception
But 10+ years and he’s started to lose hope about that
That doesn’t stop him from trying though
You two were walking in the mall, hopping from store to store as you bought everything and Emmett carried it all
Across the aisle, you see two people, a guy and a girl
The guy was wearing one of those alpha wolf t-shirts, the words “mess with the alpha, you get the roar” printed boldly on the back
The girl was wearing galaxy leggings, a shirt with a potato on it, and a cat ear headband
The guy took his fedora off of his head, holding it up so that it covered both his and his girlfriend’s faces while they kissed- for far too long, you might add
As you were standing in complete awe at the sight in front of you, you felt Emmett lean close to your ear
“Don’t wowwy kitten, daddy wiww pwotect you”
You lost it
You let out a loud laugh followed by giggles, doubling over as you clutched your middle
Now it was Emmett’s turn to stand there in shock
“Out of all of the carefully planned out, methodical jokes, pranks, and everything else, you laugh at a Daddy’s Kitten joke?????”
He doesn’t know whether to be happy or angry
Esme:
Again, she’s a little upset that you don’t show how you feel
Mostly she’s just worried that you’re gonna end up being emotionally constipated like Pre-Bella Edward
She does not want to deal with that again
Over the years, she’s gotten both more relaxed and more concerned
More relaxed because she’s come to realize that that’s just how you are
More concerned because you would really think that your SO would show some kind of emotion over the span of so many years
But whatever
She tries not to worry too much
Esme had recently joined a local book club with some of the other moms in their newest town
She loved her little group of friends, it gave her an excuse to leave the house
One of the girls had a birthday coming up, and Esme decided to bake her a cake
You’re sitting at the kitchen island, soft music playing from the radio as Esme floats around the room
All of the ingredients litter the counters, looking out of place in the normally empty kitchen
She’s humming as she’s whisking the eggs and milk together
You’re content just to watch her, making occasional small-talk in between phases of her concentrating
Hours later, it’s finally done
Nothing too extravagant, a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and delicate lettering of the woman’s name on top
Esme’s standing behind her creation with a huge smile on her face, pride obvious in her expression
Only she’s got something else on her face too
A little smear of the chocolate frosting right above her chin
You walk over to her, grabbing her face in your hands
She’s beaming at you, and you can’t help the small smile that makes its way onto your face as you wipe off the frosting
She stares at you for a moment with her mouth open, before she shoots you a loving gaze
“This suits you, darling, you should do it more”
And she kisses that smile right off
Carlisle:
He’s probably the least concerned
He’s met many people over his many years of life
No two people are exactly the same, and some people are really different
You don’t show emotion, that just makes you unique, it makes you you
So he’s not too worried
He questioned you briefly while you were still alive if you had depression or something like that
But after you said no, he let it up
Carlisle is sitting at his home desk, writing some papers for the clinic
He’s stressed, very visibly so
And you know exactly why
A new patient came in not too long ago, a young girl who he told you reminds him a lot of this girl he used to babysit when he was still alive
She’s incredibly ill and no one can figure out why
All of the tests show mixed results, the only concrete knowledge they have is that she’s dying
The dark circles under his eyes are prominent
He hasn’t gone hunting since the girl arrived by ambulance one night over two weeks ago
And before that he hadn’t hunted in a while
His skin is greying, his motions are visibly slower, his reactions more delayed
Even at this state, he’s in better condition than most humans, but this is not the man you know
Which is why you’re here with him
You’ve been trying to convince him to go hunting for a while, to just take a break and rest, but he won’t listen
So you’ve resorted to just hanging out with him
It’s better than nothing after all
But as you look over his shoulder to see what he’s writing, you find that you can’t make anything out
Various letters of English words are mixed in with Greek and Chinese characters, accent marks hover over letters, and the punctuation is all messed up
“Carlisle… is that a new language you made up?”
He stops for a second, sets his pen down, and really looks at what he’s been writing for the last 10 minutes
And then he just starts laughing
And you can’t help but smile too
“Are you finally gonna admit defeat and come relax for a little bit?”
He spins around to face you, fully taking in the smile on your face, before rising to place a kiss on your forehead
“Fine, let’s go cuddle”
Vampire! Bella:
She thinks you’re freaky
She’s always been a bad liar, so she can’t hold back reactions even if she wanted to
You can’t seem to react even if you wanted to
She thinks it’s so weird
She’s tried her hardest over the years to get something-anything out of you, but nada
She’s sort of given up by now
You two are out hunting
She insisted on running all the way to New Mexico to find a cougar, so off you went
You’re running through the trees, dodging branches and leaping over roots as you both follow on the tail of your prey
“Go that way, I’ll go this way, and we’ll trap it”
“Got it” you said, and veered off to the right
You managed to come up on the side of the cougar, pouncing on it and taking it down after a bit of a struggle
Only, you noticed Bella was nowhere to be seen
You left your now dead food behind to go searching for her
All it took was one call of her name for you to hear a response… very very far away
“Where the hell are you?”
“Down here!”
You looked down over the cliff’s edge to see Bella at the bottom
Dirt on her face, twigs in her hair, and her high heeled boots broken
You couldn’t help but laugh
“Really? That’s what it takes you fucking asshole? Me falling off a cliff? Oh, you’re so dead when I get up there!”
So naturally you make a run for it
#alice cullen#bella swan#carlisle cullen#edward cullen#esme cullen#emmett cullen#jasper cullen#jasper hale#rosalie hale#rosalie cullen#alice cullen x reader#bella swan x reader#carlisle cullen x reader#esme cullen x reader#emmett cullen x reader#edward cullen x reader#jasper cullen x reader#jasper hale x reader#rosalie hale x reader#rosalie cullen x reader
825 notes
·
View notes
Text






Once Upon a Time (three years ago)…
I did a physical print run of this little fairytale au Good Omens fanfic that I wrote. It was intended as a just-for fun art project, but ended up selling so many books that we got a bulk discount, and raised some money for the Trevor Project. Huzzah!
Over the years I’ve had a lot of people ask if I’d ever do another run, and I’m happy to say that I finally have the time! So without further ado, the final pre-order will be opening TODAY, in my BigCartel shop, to run for two weeks. Ending June 18!
This new edition will also include the current two continuation ficlets on AO3, as well as a bit of new art from the amazing cover artist Martina 💜 I’m also going to be doing the same “Raven Post” packaging as before (see story hilight for example), with an added themed bookmark or some similar merch item.
The down side is, the books are more expensive than last time. Between tariffs and the general state of the world, production costs of everything have skyrocketed. I hate that, but there’s no getting around it. To do a reprint as nice as before with the same spot-UV cover detail and 13+ color illustrations inside (and since the book is over 500 pages long) it now costs $36 USD per book, so that is how much I will be selling them for plus shipping.
To be clear, this is still a zero profit venture! I’m doing this just for the fun of it, because I love bookish things and I think we could all use a bit of whimsy right now. In the unlikely event that we sell so many again that I get another bulk discount, the profits will go to a LGBTQ+ charity like last time. And of course the original fics are still available to read for free on AO3.
✨📖 BOOK DETAILS 📖✨:
▪️Paperback
▪️Matte cover with spot gloss detailing
▪️6”x9”
▪️595 pages
▪️More than a dozen color illustrations* from different artists inside (including a couple brand new pics in this edition)
▪️2 continuation ficlets included at the end (‘Touching Fire’ and ‘Finer Things’)
▪️I will be including the “Raven Post” packaging from last time, as well as some kind of Villainous themed small item(s) such as a bookmark or similar, TBD
91 notes
·
View notes
Text
Protector, Warren Worthington iii
Word Count: 4.5k~
I had been best friends with Warren ever since I met him.
Throughout our years in school, Warren and I had always stuck by each other's side. We hung out together, ate lunch with each other, and nearly forgot about all those people around us who would point out his wings to hurt him. It was like we were in our own little world, and in a way, we were.
We met in the second grade while our class was in the library. While looking for a book, I found Warren, huddled up behind a bookshelf in the elementary school library. He was red in the face and crying as he held his knees close to him. Instantly, I noticed his wings, of course - how could I not?
However, this didn't stop me from going up and asking him what was wrong. I can still remember the way his curls bounced against his scalp as he turned his attention away from his lap and up to me, quickly wiping away his tears to cover up his emotions. Despite being so young, he knew how to expertly do this as he pretended that nothing was wrong and he wasn't crying merely thirty seconds ago.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting beside him. I saw him tense up, his back straightening up as he laid his legs out in front of him instead of hugging them to his chest.
"Nothing," He instantly answered me, once again, pretending as if everything wasn't as it seemed.
Instead of saying anything more, I let the boldness I had as an eight-year-old takeover and pulled him into my arms, his figure becoming even tenser. Although, he didn't pull away, and instead, just stayed in that position until I spoke up.
"The kids are mean to me too," I told him, his breath catching in his throat. "And they shouldn't be because you seem pretty cool," I explained with a smile as he turned his eyes up to look at me again. "No one else here has wings, and they're really pretty."
From then on, we were practically inseparable. We weren't seen without each other, and despite bullies picking on us, we didn't let their words bother us. Even as we got older, nothing changed, and in spite of living in an expensive house with nearly triple the amount of space that my house was, Warren chose to stay at my place most nights. His parents didn't care about what he did, and my parents were more than happy to have him over.
When we reached high school, our friendship turned into an actual relationship between two lovebirds (no pun intended). Now we really were inseparable.
However, this changed one night when he went out to grab something from the store. I was sick, and needed medicine; so, being the thoughtful boyfriend he was, he decided he would go out and get some. I guess we underestimated how much mutants were hated in the area as Warren never came back.
Now it's been three months since he disappeared.
Every night since, I went searching for him, only to return to some hotel or hostel without him. I don't know what came over me tonight though. For all my life, I've always been told to avoid putting myself in dangerous settings, and yet, all of those lessons were cast away as I heard people screaming and hollering down an empty and dark alleyway while in Munich. My searching had taken me far away from home, but I wasn't going to stop until I found Warren.
Following the sounds of excitement and fury, I found a hidden door that led to what seemed to be a fighting ring. People surround the caged area, but I push through them, ignoring their waving arms with money held high. I stop at the metal fence separating the people from the ring, only to gasp in horror as my eyes fall over the white, fluffy wings I've loved for many years.
"Warren..." I hear his name being whispered through my lips, tears forming in my eyes as I look at his hurt and pained figure. Fighting for his life against another mutant, he spits blood from his mouth as he wipes away the blood forming on the cut across his cheek. The tattered t-shirt he wears, the same thing he wore the night he disappeared, barely hangs onto his shoulders by a few strips of fabric, the band emblem on the front no longer being recognizable. His arms have fresh bruises forming all along the skin while fading bruises covers the visible parts of torso. How the hell did he get here?
Too shocked to move, I watch as Warren throws a punch at the other mutant, only to hit the fence in front of him, the silver eliciting sparks as soon as Warren touches it. "Shit!" He yells while the blue mutant seemingly teleports to different parts of the cage, only to receive the same treatment as Warren did. Hearing his voice after so long makes me nearly choke on the air in my throat, the tears now falling freely. Seeing Warren makes me want to rip through the fence and save him, but seeing that the metal fence is electric, I can't simply do that.
Blinking the oncoming tears away, I glance in every corner of the underground hideaway and try to find something that might resemble a control panel. It isn't until I see a switch box on what seems to be a surveying floor that I begin running to it, successfully climbing up the steps to the higher level and stopping in front of it. Gazing back to the fighting ring, I see Warren shouting at the dodging mutant while people standing around the cage yell out vile words of hate and absolute greed.
"Warren!" I shout his name as loud as I can, placing my hand on the handle to the electrical switch. Instantly, his head darts toward the voice calling his name, every inch of his being relaxing once he sees me. I smile at him before nodding, his eyes following my hand as it begins pushing the handle downward. Just before the electricity goes out, I see Warren's dirty wings perk up just as the entire underground arena goes pitch black.
In the darkness, the people's screams die down while the clinging sound of the fence being ripped apart follows it. Mere seconds pass before I familiar arms wrap around me and tug me close to their body, Warren's wings flapping rapidly as he lifts us into the air and to the hidden door I entered through. Once we're outside, we quickly run as far as we can before stopping in another alley, far away from the other one.
As soon as we stop, Warren wraps his arms around me and pulls me close to him, his lips immediately attaching to mine in a fervent and much-needed kiss. His hand on my waist never falters in its hold on me, and instead, it squeezes the flesh there as if he were testing if I was real or not.
"I'm here," I tell him, sliding my hands down his face as endless tears fall from his cheeks and onto my hands. Staring into his tear-filled eyes, I can't help but cry tears of happiness as well. "I'm right here."
Nodding, Warren folds his wings behind him, slightly wincing at the pain of them conforming against his back. "Fucking hell," He mutters, placing his forehead against mine, his eyes closed. A few seconds pass of him just holding me before he kisses me once more. "I've missed you so fucking much."
Our sweet reunion is cut short by a black vehicle slamming on their brakes at the end of the alleyway. "Warren," I say his name, concerned at the sight in front of us. Warren turns around, only for his wings to burst out again, shielding me from seeing anything. Peeking under one of the long feathers, I see two men leave the vehicle before one of them points at Warren.
"That's him!" The man yells, "Get him!"
In an instant, Warren swings around and wraps his arms and wings around me, protecting me from the flurry of oncoming bullets. What appears to be eight shots sounds throughout the alley before the same car speeds off again as Warren begins to topple over. Was he shot?
Trying to catch him before he falls on his face, I wrap my arms around Warren and hold him up for a few seconds, only for his size to take over mine and fall to the side. Landing on his back with me on top of him, Warren waves his hand at me while shaking his head, his eyes shut. "I'm fine," He mutters, his voice now suddenly tired and drained.
Eyes wide and concerned, I turn him onto his side and look over him to see blood pouring from his wings. Between the layers of feathers, I find what seems to be four bullet wounds, causing me to practically lose it as the crimson liquid touches my hands. "No, no, no, no, no," I mutter uncontrollably as I place him onto his back. "Warren, Warren," I repeat his name, running my hand against the side of his face, his own blood smearing across his flawless cheek. "Warren, don't go to sleep!"
At my heartbroken plea, Warren opens his eyes, frowning at the sight of tears pouring from my eyes. "Don't cry, my love," He begs, his voice even weaker than before. He lifts a hand to my face, doing the same to me just as I had done to him. I quickly place my hand over his, holding it there as I feel the warmth in his skin begin slowly leaving it. "I... I love you..." He whispers, his eyes closing once again.
Just like a few seconds ago, I feel every ounce of sanity leave me as I watch the love of life wither away in front of me. "Warren, don't do this to me!" I shout, the tears now falling like a waterfall. I could barely manage not seeing him for the three hellish months when he was missing - I can't live the rest of my life without him.
"Warren!" I scream his name again, utter desperation being the only recognizable thing in my voice. Releasing a sob, I push my head against his chest and hear his still-beating heart. However, I know that if I don't get him to a hospital within the next few seconds, his heart won't continue beating like that. But what hospital will even help us?
"Ma'am?" I hear a woman's soft voice coming from the end of the alley, causing me to jerk my head up and see a blonde woman standing twenty feet away. Concerned, she walks closer to me before kneeling beside Warren and me, the knees of her pants becoming stained with his spilled blood on the alley ground. His wings are the first things that catch her focus, making me want to hold him closer.
"Please, don't hurt him," I beg her, my hand holding his hand a bit tighter. "He-he's a-" The woman cuts me off.
"He's a mutant," She points out, looking over at me. Still crying, I nod once, watching as a small smile appears on her face. Within a short second, the fair skin she once had transforms into blue flesh with darker blue scales, her eyes turning yellow and green while her hair changes into a much brighter orange/red.
"It's okay," She assures me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I am too, and I can help."
Her words, not to mention her sudden change of looks, shock me, but I nod at her, ready to do anything this woman says if it means saving Warren.
"Where's his family?" She asks me, her hand remaining on my shoulder as she kneels on the ground beside me.
"Me," I quickly answer her, tears still falling from my eyes. "I am his family."
"You're not a mutant," She points out, shaking her head with squinted eyes as she looks at me a bit confused. "And you care for him?"
"He's my best friend, the love of my life..." I answer her, my heart clenching as the words leave my lips. "Please, you have to help us!"
The woman nods, giving me a small, encouraging smile. "Kurt!" She abruptly yells, a teenage boy with blue skin and carvings appearing behind her with a blue puff of smoke following. I instantly recognize him as the other mutant in the pin with Warren earlier, and in spite of this, he doesn't try to get back at Warren while he's down.
Pulling his hand to get closer, she makes him get on our level before wrapping his arm around her and me. The stranger, Kurt, then wraps his other arm around Warren's almost lifeless body and tugs him a bit closer as well. "Get us all to the mansion nurse's ward - now!"
With the woman's last words, Kurt somehow does so, causing us to suddenly be in a nurse's station only a second later. This all confuses the living hell out of me, but with Kurt having a tail and red eyes, and not to mention blue skin like the lady, I don't know if I should be questioning the normalcy of anything at the moment.
Immediately, three scrubbed nurses rush up to where we are and pick Warren up from the ground. "He was shot, multiple times," The blue woman quickly explains, standing up from the ground. "He'll need blood, and you need to act quick."
Listening to her, the three nurses nod before taking an unconscious Warren back to what I could guess is surgery. Numb, I sit on the cold tile floor as I reach my blood-covered hands up to cross my arms and hold myself, my eyes stuck on the swinging doors that Warren was just carried through. Beside me is Kurt as he places a consoling hand on my shoulder, giving me a small smile.
"He vill be alright," Kurt assures me, his words helping me out a little. Giving him a small nod of my head, I take his held-out hand and stand up with him. "That is Raven, by the way," He adds as the woman from before moves to stand in front of me, taking my hand in hers despite it stained crimson.
"This is the Xavier mansion," She explains to me, "You're safe; we won't hurt you."
At her words, I nod. "I know," I tell her, giving her a small smile. "I trust you."
Smiling back at me, Mystique's eyes flicker behind me before her mouth slightly parts, her hand holding mine slightly faltering. "Who is this, Raven?" I hear a soft British voice speak up, causing me to slowly turn around and see a man in a wheelchair now in front of me. His eyes quickly catch my blood-covered hands and arms, shock taking over him. "Dear heavens, what happened to you, dear?"
I go to answer him, but my voice defeats me in doing so. Instead, Mystique speaks for me. "Charles, her and a fellow mutant were shot at in an alleyway when Kurt and I were passing by. He has wings, that's where most of the bullets hit him," She explains to him, "She has no ill will toward any of us - she just wants her boyfriend to survive."
A few seconds pass before the man, Charles, nods, staring at me with a frown. "I'm sorry to hear that, love," He tells me, giving me a single nod. "Raven, help her get cleaned up and fetch some fresh clothes for her as well," With that, Charles wheels himself out of the room and into the hallway where he enters the room at the end.
In a puff of blue smoke, Kurt leaves Mystique and me, letting us head to what I presume is her room where she wets a washcloth and begins rubbing the drying blood from my arms. "He will be alright," She tells me, saying Kurt's exact words from moments ago. "Trust me."
I nod at her words, but I can't believe them myself. What if Warren isn't okay? What if one of the bullets when through his spine and he's now paralyzed? I couldn't see all of his wounds so I don't know where they all hit him, minus the few I could see in his wings. What if the nurses and doctors can't do anything and he dies on the table? I can't bear to lose him - not again.
With my arms their original (s/c) color, I change into a pair of pajama pants and matching top with a school emblem given to me by Raven before walking with her to Charles' office. Stopping in front of his desk, Mystique and I watch as the man from earlier sits at his desk with his attention stuck on the novel stuck in his hands. However, it doesn't take long for him to notice our presence and put the book down with his glasses following.
"(Y/n), is it?" Charles asks me, turning his attention up to me. Surprised, I hesitantly nod as he speaks up once more. "No need to worry, dear," He assures me with a smile despite my caution. "I'm able to read minds and communicate through them as well," Charles further explains. "Raven and I were talking while she helped you with your arms and hands,"
"I understand you've been through a lot in the past hour, so I won't force you to talk about it," Charles tells me, making me let out a small sigh of relief. "But I am a bit concerned over the fact that you were in such a predicament that your partner was shot," Holding his hand out, Charles waits for me to place my hand in his. "I won't scour through your brain and look at everything you've ever seen or done - I just want to see what all transpired tonight."
Hesitating, I bite my lip in thought before shakily putting my hand in Charles, his touch being warm and welcoming. I feel as Charles does what he told me he would do, the images of the past month flashing before my eyes. Warren's disappearance, me finding him, and helping him get out are all shown before me like a home movie shot from my perspective. Because of this, I gasp a little, shocked at Charles' ability to do such a thing.
Slowly slipping his hand from mine, Charles' eyebrows furrow in thought before flashing his eyes up to mine, confusion written all over them. "You're a human with no powers or anything," He points out, slightly pausing in his words. "And yet, you've always loved a mutant?"
His words come out as a question, but to me, they're a true statement. I love Warren - I always have - and nothing about him will ever change that. "He's human just as I am," I tell Charles, giving him a small smile. "but, with wings," I further add, my smile growing sad as I lightly shrug. "How could I not love my angel?"
My words washing over him, Charles smiles back. "I like you," He tells me, Raven putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Your friend, I think he'll pull through. After all, he has a great incentive."
Because of Charles' words, I smile and give him a nod of thanks just as a question rises to my mind. "What... what is this place?" I ask, gesturing to the overall building. I know it has to be an establishment of some sort going by the built-in medical wing and wide hallways.
"This," Charles states, pointing his finger to the ceiling while his eyes remain on mine. "Is Xavier's a school for gifted youngsters," He informs me before nodding his head once. "This is a school specialized for children with mutations such as Warren, or Kurt, whom you met earlier."
Furrowing my eyebrows together, another question comes to mind. "Why have I never heard of this place before?" I ask, receiving a small smile.
"We're a relatively small school," Charles simply explains, "Ultimately, if your boyfriend would want to join, he could - now, you're not a mutant, but the unique and understanding attitude you give off, I'm sure we could work something out for you too."
His words make my cheeks turn pink in response to the compliment as I thank him, turning my eyes toward the ground as I try to fight the ever-growing smile on my lips. Just as I do this, I see Charles put a hand to his forehead as his eyebrows furrow before looking over at Mystique with a smile. "Raven, take her back to the medical ward," he tells the fiery-haired woman. "It seems that her friend was easily operable and now they're just waiting for him to wake up."
Almost immediately, I turn and follow Mystique out of the room with my pace just a little faster than hers. Soon enough, we walk through the doors and directly to the beds where only one of them is occupied, and the sleeping body in it is Warren's. The window behind him shines down on him with the bright and early morning sun highlighting his now washed and pure white wings that lie behind him. The sight is a complete contrast to what I saw only an hour ago with the almost black sky darkening everything around us and only emphasizing the dirt and grime that covered Warren's perfect wings.
"We told you he'd be okay," I hear Mystique's gentle voice beside me say, causing me to nod with an onrush of tears rising in my eyes. They were right, and my Warren is okay.
Moving closer to him, I sit beside Warren on the bed and take his hand in mine, his unconscious body unresponsive toward my touch and his perfect face never changing. "I'll let you two be alone," Mystique speaks up before doing as she says and walking back toward the door. Once I hear the swinging door shut, the tears residing in my eyes quickly fall over the barrier and down my face as I try to hold in my sobs.
When you love someone, you never want to see them in pain or hurting, and when they're laid up in a hospital bed with consciousness being a waiting game, it hurts you. It physically hurts you to the point where your chest feels heavy with dread, and your stomach feels sick with worry. It's terrible, and I wish there was something I could've done to protect Warren from getting shot.
"I'm so sorry," I sob, turning my eyes away from him and toward the floor. Raising my free hand to cover my mouth as the sobs tumble out, I don't notice Warren's hand gently squeezing mine until I feel the bed beneath me slightly moves.
Immediately looking back over to him, I see his eyes flutter open and quickly dart to me, confusion taking over his tired face as soon as he sees my crying form. "Why..." Warren slowly starts speaking, his voice raspy and scratchy with sleep. "Why are you crying, love?" He finishes his question, now trying to sit up.
"No, no, baby," I usher him to continue lying flat, moving to stand on my knee on the side of his bed before pushing his shoulders back down onto the mattress. Despite this, he still doesn't listen and moves to wrap his arms around me before pulling me fully onto the bed and holding me to his chest. Finally, Warren does lie back down, but in a matter of seconds, his wings are fluttering around me like any other time I'd be on top of him. My eyes quickly catch sight of the now bandaged wounds, and now that I get a better look, I see that there was one more bullet-wound than I initially thought. "Warren, your stitches!"
"It's okay, love," He sleepily responds, leaning his head back to look up at me with a happy face. "I'm so damn happy to see you," Warren confesses, his eyes gazing over me as if I were a precious gem.
If it weren't for the nurses cleaning the dirt from his face and body, I wouldn't have been able to assess the full damage the fighting ring did to him. Above his left eye is a healing bruise that covers a majority of the side of his forehead, and his bottom lip is split, making it swollen. On top of all of that, his green eyes are sunken in and practically taken over by dark circles.
Still, he continues staring at me, acting as if nothing is bothering him until a look of confusion fall over his face. "Now, are you going to tell me why you were crying?" Warren repeats his question from earlier, making me shake my head as more tears rise to my eyes.
"You almost died, Warren," I inform him, his face still unchanging. "I've been without you for three damn months, and the night I get you back, I almost lost you again - for good!" I add on, raising a hand to wipe away my fast-falling tears.
However, Warren beats me to it and places his hands against my cheeks where he gently holds me, his face now soft. I guess he hasn't assessed the severity of the situation. That, or he hasn't taken the time to fully realize that he has stitched-up bullet wounds adorning his wings.
"I'm sorry," Warren apologizes after a few seconds of silence. Despite expecting those two words, it still doesn't hit me any easier as I'm sobbing once again, this time, into Warren's chest.
Holding me close, Warren waits a few moments before moving his hands back to my face and turning me to look at him directly. As soon as he gets the chance, Warren places his rough lips on top of mine, the skin chapped from the harsh things he's been put through. Despite crying moments ago, my tears ultimately stop as I come to the realization of how much I've missed the feeling of Warren's lips on mine. Chapped or not, his lips are the pure definition of Heaven, and when they're on top of mine, it's like pure ecstasy.
Pulling away for air, I pant above Warren as he does the same, his hands now sliding down to grip my waist once again. "I love you," He tells me, "And I've missed you- God, how I've missed you," Warren adds, shaking his head as a small, almost unnoticeable tear falls down his cheek. "Each day was hell without you, and I can't be without you, not again."
Smiling at him, I lean down once more and peck his soft cheek before nuzzling my head next to his on the pillow, his hold on me never changing in the slightest. "You won't have to, Angel," I tell him, watching his lips quirk up in a smile at my nickname for him. Deciding on leaving the explanation of where we're at for later, I close my eyes alongside Warren and fall asleep, finally able to relax knowing he and I can be together with no one to stop or hurt us.
#ben hardy#ben hardy imagine#ben hardy imagines#ben hardy x reader#ben hardy fanfic#ben jones#ben hardy x fem reader#ben hardy fluff#roger taylor imagines#roger taylor imagine#roger taylor fanfiction#roger taylor fanfic#roger taylor#warren worthington x reader#warren worthington iii imagines#warren worthington imagine#warren worthington imagines#warren worthington iii imagine#warren worthington iii
272 notes
·
View notes
Text
The kitchen really isn’t big enough for three people, and usually Shinjiro won’t tolerate having someone underfoot at all unless he’s playing teacher.
He doesn’t mind being crowded so much right now, though. Maybe it’s even kind of nice.
Nice in an incredibly weird and surreal way. He’s still not sure how to wrap his head around it.
Aki’d been right though, when he’d given his little speech upstairs. After everything the three of them have been put through together, turning his nose up at this chance wouldn’t just be stupid, it’d be downright ungrateful.
And to be honest, he’s tired of pushing them away. It’s not like it ever worked out the way he’d meant it to anyway, no matter how many times he’d tried it. Despite all his efforts to convince them to give up, they’re still reaching out to him– this time he’ll try reaching back.
Aki sticks his nose over Shinjiro’s shoulder like he’s never seen a pan of hot oil before. Shinjiro hip-checks him out of the way and tells him off for being a pest, but there’s no bite to it. Aki’s all smiles and zero signs of remorse.
There is no good goddamn reason why hearing that should make him feel like he’s just knocked back something high-proof and fiery, but here he is.
…Of course that was why she’d jumped straight back to ‘Aragaki’.
He’s spent so much time and energy overthinking the switch, and with just three half-finished sentences she’s dissolved all of that stress into something fluttering and soft.
Because of course she’d been playing some weird mental chess game with herself about manners. She practically makes a hobby of that– he can’t believe he didn’t pick up on it.
It’s unfairly cute for something that he’s been giving himself an ulcer about for nearly a week.
Goddammit, there really isn’t another way to put it. She’s adorable.
And he’s absolutely hopeless.
Mitsuru pouts for a half-second, although only someone with even less good sense than Shinjiro would dare to call it that. Before he can blink she’s back in full heiress mode, regal and serene.
…Okay. Alright. He really should have seen that coming, and it really shouldn’t have been enough to knock him flat on his ass.
But he didn’t, and it was.So yeah, he is absolutely fucking hopeless.
Aki doesn’t bother to pretend that he’s coughing into his fist instead of laughing, but it’s the sheer fondness in the sound that gets to Shinjiro more than the fact that it’s at his expense.
Shinjiro beats the eggs for the breading with maybe a bit more force than he really needs to. The tips of his ears feel like he’s dunked them into the frying pan.
They don’t, technically speaking, stop distracting him, because just being around them has gotten him at least a little bit distracted for years now. It’s not so bad though, having the two of them talking and laughing close by, or occasionally brushing elbows. And it’s not terrible for his ego, either– how Aki repeatedly hypes up the katsudon and the way Mitsuru (Mitsuru) keeps making these small, impressed sounds like he’s putting on some kind of celebrity-chef performance.
It would be scarily easy to get used to this. The cynical part of him says that he really shouldn’t, because it’d be just as scarily easy to lose it– and it’s not as if that’s actually wrong. It’s not as if he’s forgotten.
But that’s exactly why he ought to really bask in every moment he does get, isn’t it? He should have figured that out ages ago, so there’s a lot of lost time to make up for.
#shinjiro aragaki#akihiko sanada#mitsuru kirijo#akishinjimitsu#shinjimitsu#akishinji#akimitsu#persona 3#p3#persona 3 reload#still breathing au#sbau canon#sbau main plot#sbau november#sbau november 21#talksprites and fic#shinjiro pov#(you are welcome for the faces in this one :3 )#(it is a crime and a travesty that we never get to hear [spoiler redacted] in voiced lines ;w; )
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
Unspoken agreement
Pairing: Patrick Walker x OC
AN: Hi, this is my first fanfic, and I decided to start with Detective Walker! I just love the character and he inspired me so much! In advance, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes, since English is not my first language. Comment if you like!
Word count: 3100k Summary: Detective Patrick Walker never liked working with a partner. But ever since Sam Harris took that place, his life had become much more complicated, both on and off the job. Especially when she decided to provoke him in the worst possible way.
Warnings: Smut, oral sex (male receiving), dirty talk
The party hall of the 12th District police union had been specially decorated for the occasion. All the department colleagues and even some he didn’t know were gathered there, in a fake formality that Detective Patrick Walker despised with every fiber of his being.
Leaning against the bar counter, he held a heavy glass, the ice already melting at the bottom. His tie was loose, and the sleeve of his black dress shirt was rolled up, revealing part of a tattoo on his forearm. On his wrist, an expensive watch adorned his look, along with the silver ring he always wore on his index finger.
It was Captain Dawson’s birthday. The entire squad was there. Even the retired ones. Even the ones he couldn’t stand to look at anymore. Walker hated parties. Hated fake smiles. And hated even more having been forced to come.
Then she walked in.
Sam Harris. Twenty-eight years old. Stubbornness well distributed over 5’4” and sarcasm per square inch. Her dress was black, plain, discreet — and still somehow seemed to challenge everything around her. She walked like she didn’t owe anyone anything. Her brown hair was styled differently, with perfect, defined waves that made the frame of her face even more beautiful.
Walker didn’t look away. Didn’t even pretend to. He never did.
Sam was his partner, but not by his choice: Walker worked well alone, and definitely didn’t need anyone to share the space in his car on any investigation.
But a few months ago, he had been forced to take the girl with him, teaching her a bit of what he had learned in his years on the force. He hated it. Hated her. And it was mutual.
They didn’t get along and everyone at the station knew it. It was obvious and they didn’t care to hide it. They barely spoke, except to work or argue about anything.
And of course, when they had sex.
A few months back, they had fallen into a dangerous and unhealthy dynamic. They were sleeping together, even though that was the one thing they should never have done. However, it had become impossible to prevent those out-of-line encounters from continuing to happen between them.
And slowly, more and more, this unusual attraction between them was making the relationship increasingly complicated.
Sam greeted Evans and his wife with two kisses. Laughed at something Ramirez said. Shook Lieutenant Frank’s hand as if they were old friends. She exchanged quick hugs and short conversations with colleagues scattered around the room. But when her eyes met Walker’s, she simply looked away. Walked past. As if he were just another part of the scenery.
It was on purpose. He knew.
She took a glass of champagne from a waiter’s tray and stood near a group of three forensic colleagues. She didn’t sit. Didn’t relax. Sam never relaxed in public, but she exuded that disconcerting aura of self-sufficiency, of someone who prefers to be alone because she’s used to not needing anyone.
Walker twirled the whiskey glass between his fingers, watching from the corner of his eye. It had been weeks since the two had exchanged more than dry phrases between one report and another. But their silence was loud. Like an internal siren only they could hear.
At first, Walker didn’t notice the movement. He was too busy staring at the bottom of the empty glass, feeling his throat burn slightly as the ice melted into the remaining whiskey. But when he looked again, he was there.
Reynolds.
The rookie at the station stood next to her, leaning slightly, with too wide a smile. Sam listened attentively, or pretended to. And that was enough.
Walker watched from a distance, chin resting on his hand, eyes narrowed. There was no sound there, he couldn’t hear the conversation. But he knew the type well. New guy at the station, wanting to make an impression, show charm.
And Sam was letting him.
She let Reynolds talk, let him smile, let him get closer with that overly cordial demeanor. And worse, she responded. Not in tone. But in gesture. In the slight lean of her body, the way she crossed her arms under her chest as if to emphasize the curve of her shoulders, how she tilted her head and smiled half-lipped. Sam Harris knew the effect she had. She knew when she was being desired. She knew how to use that. And there, in that stuffy hall, surrounded by colleagues, she was using all of it against one man.
Against him.
Walker didn’t move a muscle. He couldn’t. He was surrounded by people who knew them. People who knew they were partners. Who assumed, in fact, that they hated each other, and that, at least, was true. He and Harris couldn’t stand each other. Never had.
From the first day, she infuriated him. With her overly independent ways, sharp comebacks, the habit of disobeying orders just to prove a point. And he, with his closed-off demeanor, loaded silence, and that brooding pride of someone who’d seen too much shit to want company. Sam came to the force pushed in by the department, a new woman, too young for his taste, too bold to sit in the backseat. Her promotion came fast. Smart, sharp, a precise nose for detecting lies.
But the two of them together? It was like throwing gasoline on a fire.
They worked well, where it mattered. In the field. In investigations. They could read crime scenes like reading a map. But outside of that… they were a disaster. A disaster that was becoming more and more dangerous and extremely explosive.
And then it happened. Sam slightly turned her head, as if adjusting her hair behind her ear, and her eyes, for a brief second, locked onto his.
Walker didn’t look away.
Neither did she.
It was as if the entire hall had stopped. The music, the laughter, the conversations around... all gone. There was only that stare.
And there was something there. A silent mockery. It was like she wanted the satisfaction of knowing he was watching, that he was noticing how much she was being desired by another guy.
Sam held the glass as an extension of her body. Long fingers, a carefree posture, absolute control of the situation. Reynolds was still talking. She was still smiling. But her gaze was fixed on Walker.
And then, subtly, she looked at Reynolds. Briefly touched his arm. Then laughed and took another sip of her drink.
Walker felt his jaw clench. That was a message. She was provoking him. She knew he was watching. She knew he was swallowing every gesture, every silent word, every fake flirt. And she liked it.
Damn her.
He gripped the glass until the ice cracked. A muscle pulsed on the side of his neck.
No one there knew anything. Didn’t even suspect. They didn’t know she had been in his bed, hot breath on his neck, moaning his name softly as if she hated to say it. They didn’t know that two weeks ago she had pushed him against the wall of the men’s restroom at the homicide division and kissed him like she wanted to hit him. They didn’t know he had left purple marks on her waist more than once, and that she wore long coats for days afterward. No one there knew how many times she had been on her knees for him in the confinement of their office, giving him so much pleasure that it was hard to hide the noises he made.
That was a secret.
A dirty little secret. Like everything between them.
Walker knew that if he stood up now, crossed the hall and pulled her out of there, no one would understand. But she would. She was provoking him because she wanted that. The tension. The fury. The reaction.
But he wouldn’t give it.
Not there.
So he did what he’d learned to do ever since Sam came into his life: swallowed it. Swallowed the anger, the desire, the almost primal urge to drag her out by the hair and remind her who she was provoking.
Reynolds said something that made Sam laugh louder — a laugh she usually reserved for genuinely good jokes, but that now had a forced, almost theatrical taste. And then she did it.
Touched her hair, tossing it to the side in too smooth a motion. Her neck was exposed, her chest too. She slightly tilted her body, as if pretending to find balance, and rested her hand on Reynolds’ shoulder. The touch lasted more than three seconds. Long. Intentional.
Walker looked away for a moment, just to avoid making a scene. He placed the empty glass on the counter, not taking his eyes off her for long. It was as if every gesture of that woman was a direct attack on his sanity. She knew. She was calculating every detail.
When he looked at her again, she had already stepped away. She was heading toward the side exit of the hall, the glass still in hand, her hips moving with that lazy, sensual rhythm she used whenever she wanted attention, or to punish someone with it.
Walker knew what that meant.
Sam wanted to be followed.
He didn’t make a scene. Waited a few seconds, just enough not to arouse suspicion. Then adjusted his shirt sleeve, left the glass behind and walked through the hall discreetly, like someone going for a smoke or taking a call. Passed through the side door without saying a word.
The hallway was narrow, dimly lit, with the muffled sound of the party in the background. Walker had no trouble finding her. Sam was standing by the door of a unisex bathroom, her eyes fixed on the doorknob. As if she was thinking about going in or not. As if she was waiting for him. She heard footsteps approaching but didn’t turn around. She just went inside.
Walker followed her in and locked the door.
The sound of the latch echoed louder than it should have, and the silence that followed was as heavy as the hot air between them.
“I knew you’d come” she said, without looking at him, staring at her own reflection in the small bathroom’s stained mirror. The cold light accentuated the shadows on her face. “You always do.”
“What the hell was that, Harris?” his voice came low, hoarse. Full of tension. “Are you messing with me?”
She turned slowly, leaning on the cracked marble sink.
“Messing? I was just talking. Reynolds is nice. Different from you, at least he tries to be friendly.”
Walker took a step forward.
“Friendly? You think I have patience for your games right now? You did that just to piss me off.”
“And it worked, didn’t it, Walker?” she shot back quickly, her eyes shining with challenge. “You are here.”
Walker got closer. Now, there was less than a meter between them.
“I came because you pissed me off. Because you want to play with fire and think you won’t get burned.”
Sam took a step too.
“And if I want to get burned? Will you put me out?”
There were sparks between them. Neither of them smiled. Neither blinked. It was a declared war, and they both knew it.
“You love pissing me off.” he growled. “Always testing my fucking limits.”
“And you love losing control.” she fired back, her face so close he could smell her sweet perfume mixed with alcohol. “You look so cute when you’re jealous.”
Walker grabbed her chin, firmly, without any gentleness.
“Don’t flatter yourself, darling. You’re just a good fuck... nothing more.”
She didn’t back down, nor was she intimidated by the way he cut her off.
“That’s what you keep saying, Detective Walker. So let me go back inside and continue talking with Reynolds...”
Walker grabbed her waist tightly, pushing her against the sink. She let out a muffled laugh, her light brown eyes meeting his blue ones with confidence and challenge. He moistened his lips and brought his face close to hers, his eyes dangerously tracing her lips.
“Stop provoking me, Harris.”
“Or what, Detective Walker?” she smiled dismissively, her eyes now locked on his lips. “What do you intend to do with me here, in this bathroom?”
“I’m going to teach you some respect for me, Harris.”
The kiss came like a collision. Nothing delicate. Nothing gentle. It was fury, anger, and lust mixed together. Their bodies crashed in the tight space, hands pulling at clothes, mouths fighting for dominance. She moaned as he lifted her, seating her on the sink with controlled brutality.
Walker ran his hand under her dress, feeling the warm, firm skin trembling with desire.
“You love this, don’t you?” he murmured against her neck. “Love provoking me, just to end up like this.”
“And you love pretending you hate me” she gasped, clutching the back of his neck. “But you chase me every time.”
He pulled back slightly, a dangerous gleam on his handsome face. Walker lowered her from the sink and pulled her close, gripping her hair tightly with his right hand. Sam tried to break free, but he smiled.
“Oh, no, baby. You’re going to learn not to push my buttons in public, huh?”
“Let go, asshole...” She protested, but not entirely seriously. Their game was always like this, a complete fight for dominance, which he often won.
“Get on your knees, love.” He whispered, still holding her hair and pulling her down.
Sam didn’t resist, though she looked slightly annoyed. She knelt in front of him, resigned, her eyes rising to meet his right there. Walker gave a small smile as he loosened his belt with his left hand, without taking his eyes off hers. The girl moistened her lips in anticipation, the irritation she felt slowly giving way to the adrenaline and excitement of that encounter in public, in such an inappropriate place.
Without much hesitation, he put his cock out of his pants, and she let out a faint gasp as he pulled her closer by the hair with a certain firmness. The young woman met his gaze again, a spark of defiance flickering in her eyes. Walker smiled once more, holding himself at the base and brushing his cock lightly against her lips, while his other hand kept a tight grip on her hair to keep her close.
“Open your mouth, darling.”
She obeyed without hesitation. Her lips enveloped his fat cock in a single, fluid motion, her tongue gently tracing the tip and the opening, tasting the faint essence that lingered there.
Walker tilted his head back, a low groan escaping his lips in response.
Sam looked up at him as she slowly took him deeper, inch by inch, until her nose pressed against his abdomen.
He held her there for a moment, and she gave a soft gag.
“Good girl...”
He gently pulled her back by the hair, guiding her off of him. A thin strand of saliva connected the tip of his length to her lips, and Sam let out a soft cough.
“Come on, baby... you can take it... suck me just right.”
He released her hair and placed both hands on his own waist. Sam offered a wicked smile before taking him into her mouth again, this time with deliberate eagerness. She moved up and down, letting the slickness guide her rhythm, aroused by every muffled moan that escaped from Walker’s lips.
She took him in deeply, then withdrew with precision, swirling her tongue around the tip before descending once more, sucking with the practiced pressure she knew he craved.
As she skillfully worked her mouth along his length, her right hand reached down to gently massage his balls, drawing a shudder from his legs.
She smiled and let his cock slip from her lips, stroking him with quick, steady movements while she worked his balls, sensual, submissive, and entirely devoted to giving him pleasure.
“That’s it... you look even more beautiful like this, with my cock full in your mouth, you know that?”
She looked up at him again, then took him back in, her pace now more intense, clearly enjoying the way he moaned helplessly every time her tongue teased the tip.
Walker grabbed her hair again, pulling her away from his length, and she laughed. He held the base of his shaft once more, now pressing his thick, hard dick against her face.
“ Open your mouth, Sam.”
She obeyed without hesitation, and he then began to slowly fuck her mouth at first, going deep with every thrust, making her cough lightly as he hit her throat. But she endured. She always endured. In fact, she loved the way he subdued her when he wanted relief, the way he dominated her in bed and always left her wanting more.
It was a dangerous, dirty dynamic... but deliciously pleasurable for both of them.
Sam let him take her mouth without resistance, savoring every second of it, every muffled moan he released, every time the head of his cock hit her throat.
She loved it, even if she wouldn’t admit it to him, but Patrick Walker was definitely the embodiment of everything that turned her on the most in the world. Who cared about the nearly twenty-year age difference between them? That man was everything she desired.
And he probably knew it.
She felt his pleasure beginning to rise, noticed how his thrusts became more erratic and his cock harder in her mouth, moving in and out in a sensual, raw dance, the way only Walker could.
“I’m going to cum...” he whispered. “right into your mouth, princess…”
Sam felt the strong taste of his release flood her senses in hot bursts. She closed her eyes, taking every drop of his seed, wasting none. Walker used his left hand to pump himself a few more times while still in her mouth, and she extended her tongue to catch the last drops.
As soon as he withdrew from her mouth, still hard, she gave a few more gentle sucks, even knowing he was probably sensitive. Walker didn’t stop her; he only tried to steady his breathing while watching her there, with her lipstick smudged, still taking him as he slowly began to soften. It was as if she didn’t want that moment to end.
When she finally stood up, he zipped up his pants and straightened his clothes while the woman looked at him with some expectation. He unlocked the door with a small smile, and she placed her hands on her hips, annoyed.
“You’re going to leave without returning the favor, Patrick?”
He was walking toward the door when he stopped and looked at her, his blue eyes shimmering slightly with unspoken victory.
“If you keep being a good girl until this damn party is over, maybe I’ll return the favor later...”
#tom hardy fanfiction#tom hardy fanfic#tom hardy fic#tom hardy x oc#havoc film#havoc#havoc fanfic#walker x oc#detective walker x oc#facepuller#tom hardy
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
ꪆ THE KNOTS IN YOUR SHOULDERS ( 이재윤 )



genre fluff , established relationship , pop artist!au , masseuse!au , private but not secret relationship , husband!jaeyoon x wife!reader cw jaeyoon has busy schedules and is exhausted , he's also shirtless , they're very in love (the slytherinshua classic) , not proofread wc 1542 request @yudaies for jaeyoon + knots worked out of one's shoulder for the 3k event note teehee husband jaeyoon i'm so down bad. also he has a big heart and i just think that's neat. not my fault that his tiddies are in front of his heart okay net @kstrucknet @daydreamnet
As much as Jaeyoon loved the glamour and sophistication of parties; the elegant outfits, expensive food and endless alcohol, he also got sick of them after a while. Such events always took away hours of the day, and you were rarely able to come with him. He was able to enjoy the first few hours, but by the halfway point, he just missed you. Call him clingy, but was it a crime for a husband to miss his wife?
He swore tonight he had never missed you more, especially as he felt his body ache from exhaustion on the way back from a brand event. His suit felt uncomfortable and itchy on his body and his tie practically strangled him. He couldn’t wait to get home to you and relax for a bit. He would’ve dozed off in the car if his body wasn’t so sore. He shouldn’t have pushed himself on his workout yesterday after his show.
But he knew you would know exactly where to massage to relax his muscles and work out all the knots. You didn’t let your masseuse license go to waste with a husband who was constantly overworking his body. Jaeyoon sometimes felt like he had won the lottery each time you magically cured whatever ailment was bothering him, easily saving him thousands of dollars on physiotherapists and regular massage appointments.
You, meanwhile, could brag about your most famous client. Your husband, who just so happened to also be a multi-platinum performer, one of the hottest acts for the last few years. His popularity had exploded after one of his singles from years ago had gone unexpectedly viral. Headlines, articles, interviews, stadium tours, performances at prestigious events; Jaeyoon’s life had been hectic for the last three years. He could barely catch a break.
You tried to not let it bother you how much he was away. It wasn’t like you lost contact with him. He was practically always FaceTiming you or texting you when he couldn’t call. Your gallery was full of selfies he had sent while on tour and he always brought you back gifts from each new country he toured in. It was never a lifestyle he could’ve imagined himself living, and you still struggled to believe it was real. But it was what life had thrown his way, and you would always be his biggest supporter.
Jaeyoon always closed the front door quietly, in case you were already in bed. Although it was unlikely you would even hear it if you were— his house was quite big and the upstairs bedroom was furthest away from the front door. He smiled at the sight of your shoes you had haphazardly kicked off whenever you came home from work. He picked them up to straighten them, along with a pair of your high heels you had worn to the last fancy event Jaeyoon had insisted you attended.
You stayed away from the press most of the year. Jaeyoon was quite private with your relationship despite the media never getting tired of asking him questions about it. He joked that he got more questions inquiring after you than his own upcoming album. You insisted he was exaggerating. Jaeyoon completely understood the media. You were unbelievably beautiful; of course his fans wanted to know everything about his gorgeous wife. He wasn’t inclined to tell, though, and always answered the questions vaguely with his signature dimpled grin. The fans were crazy for it.
Once his coat was hung up on the wreck and his tie finally loosened from his neck, he made his way upstairs quietly, expecting to find you either still working (for which he would scold you), or already tucked into bed. When he entered your shared bedroom, he found it to be neither, though. You stood in front of your mirror, carefully putting in a pair of silver earrings that Jaeyoon remembers buying for you on a trip weeks ago. Adorning your figure is a dark red satin dress, and as his eyes drift up to your face, he has to remind himself to breathe. Dark red lipstick that matched your dress and a slightly shimmering gold eyeshadow decorated your face. The blush on your cheeks was slight, but noticeable enough, and he could make out the highlights on the tip of your nose and cheekbones.
What in the world were you dressed up for at nearly 1AM?
“Darling…” Jaeyoon had meant to follow the nickname up with a question or sentence of some sort, but he found the words disappearing in his throat as you turned around at the sound of his voice.
“Hi love! How was the event?” You asked immediately, attention fully turning to him as you took steps towards him. Jaeyoon could barely remember where he had been the last few hours, his brain entirely fuzzy at the sight of you looking so breathtaking.
“Where did you get this dress?” His words were quiet, barely above a whisper. It was all he could manage to get out. You stifled a laugh at his question.
“I ordered it a while ago. It finally came this evening and I couldn’t wait to try it on. Do you like it?”
“You drive me insane,” he muttered, running a hand through his brown hair. That remark only earned him another laugh from you. You flung your arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss his lips. It was short and only temporarily enough to satiate the racing of Jaeyoon’s heart. But he would be patient.
“Seriously, how was the party? You’ve been looking forward to this for months,” you tracked back to your previous question posed when your husband was unable to focus on finding the words to answer it. He sighed.
“Tiring. Really tiring. My neck and shoulders have been sore all day,” he complained, his lips pulling down in a soft pout— one that silently pleaded for you to work your magic on his aching muscles. You frowned in sympathy at how genuinely exhausted he looked.
“We can’t have that now, can we? Wash up first. You’ve been in that suit all day,” you instructed, removing his tie for him. He nodded, pecking your lips one more time before stumbling towards the bathroom. You heard the shower turn on minutes later and you smiled. He needed the reset. You’d said goodbye to him in the morning at 8 when he walked out the door. While he looked absolutely breathtaking in that dark red suit that fit him like a glove, you knew he must’ve gotten tired of wearing it after the first 5 hours.
Although he was often exhausted, the evenings when Jaeyoon came back from work were always your favourite time of day. You liked massaging the knots out of his tired body. You liked the quiet atmosphere you two created. You liked having him all to yourself with nothing work related to distract him like so often happened earlier in the day. With his busy schedule, time alone was rare to come by. You took everything you were able to get.
It wasn’t long before Jaeyoon laid stomach down on the bed, cheek squished against the pillow and a pout on his lips that was almost too cute for you to handle. You could easily feel exactly where his muscles were the tightest, and you worked on them gently at first.
In your many years of dating, you had seen Jaeyoon shirtless too many times to count. And while plenty of those times had made you blush and almost eat him whole with your gaze alone, it was a very different atmosphere than the one that hung over the room now. He was exhausted after giving all his energy to performances the entire week, and you were focused on relieving the pain that had worked up in his body. It definitely wasn’t a typical romantic moment, but there was some comfort in your smooth hands massaging his shoulders.
Jaeyoon was struggling to stay awake as you started to tell him about some anecdote of last week to distract from the light wincing that escaped his mouth whenever you dug into a particularly tight muscle. He knew you wouldn’t mind if he dozed off, and definitely wouldn’t stop massaging him until you had worked out every last kink— but he wanted to stay awake for a bit longer; if only to steal a few cuddles from you in your warm pyjamas that you had changed into.
The picture of you in your new red dress still played in his mind every few moments. He was already thinking about the next free day in his schedule. He would be a failure of a husband if he didn’t take you out on a date to appreciate the dress in its full glory. You had many glamorous gowns, but not many had taken his breath away quite like that one. He would certainly never take your beauty for granted, however many interview questions he dodged about you. His appreciation wasn’t to be displayed for the whole world to see. It was always in the quiet, most private moments that you felt the most loved by him. And that was how it would stay.
sf9 taglist (bolded could not be tagged): @eternalgyu,, @weird-bookworm,, @kangtaehyunzzz,, @blossominghunnie,, @seunghancore,, @chenleszone,, @hursheys,, @loserlvrss,, @lexeees
#fics ❀˖°#kstrucknet#daydreamnet#jaeyoon#lee jaeyoon#jaeyoon x reader#jaeyoon imagines#jaeyoon scenarios#jaeyoon fluff#sf9#sf9 x reader#sf9 imagines#sf9 scenarios#sf9 fluff#sf9 jaeyoon#sf9 lee jaeyoon#lee jaeyoon x reader#lee jaeyoon imagines#lee jaeyoon scenarios#lee jaeyoon fluff#kpop x reader#kpop imagines#kpop scenarios#kpop fluff
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
"We did it, but others told us to."
We thought it would be fun. Wars were always a civilized business after all. It was supposed to be grand, sweeping, and romantic. Two armies would clash, there would be lots of daring do, and once this grand conflict was over that was that. You didn't hold a grudge. It was a relief from the boredom of jobs at home. You got done, shook hands, picked up the dead, and that was that. We didn't have a quarrel with the other male, this was between our bosses, see? It's the way of things. We challenge a dominant power to see who is better.
We were just following orders.
We took their Jupiter bases and wondered what all the hubbub was about further inward. Something about the targets we hit. I didn't understand. Sure the bases didn't have any weapons, but this was war. We were doing our jobs.
They opened up on us at the asteroid belt, with hundred megawatt transportation lasers and mass drivers. We didn't expect that. This was supposed to be civilized! They made us fight our way through the belt, forcing us to lose ten fighters for every kilometer of space. They were using civilian equipment against us! Those lasers were for high speed transportation, those mass drivers for cargo delivery! Why did they not use proper warships? We were just doing our jobs.
The Martian colony, here we thought would be the great decisive battle. They threw dozens of ships against us. They used their megawatt lasers and mass drivers. Their reaction drives burned out anything that got close. They screamed their hate at us and we didn't understand. We were just doing our jobs.
We dropped bombs on their colonies, we seized their stations. We took them fair and square. But they were savage. Our troops landed and they were gunned down by heavy machine guns. Machine guns designed hundreds of years ago! And their designs had stayed the same. Their rifles and tanks were certainly different, but that machine gun, that Browning, had stayed the same. And they screamed at us. They called in close air support, they planted mines, they did everything they could to bleed us dry. We destroyed what the officers said to. We blew up domes. We destroyed train lines. Even those that had nothing to do with the war effort. So what? What's that got to do with us? We did it, but others ordered us to. And isn't it our right as conquerers? We were just doing our jobs.
Their anger only grew worse. As we moved, they continued to throw everything they had at us. Soldiers sacrificed themselves so their fellows could retreat in good order. They did those kamikaze runs they are so proud of. And the prisoners were angry. We gave them supplies, and still they cursed us. We tried to be nice, to compliment them on their skills, and they were silent. They called it "interrogation". We called it friendly chats.
"Why do you force us to destroy so much expensive material? Damage to private property is very uncouth, you know! It's very expensive!"
"You bombed civilian targets!" The fighter pilot snapped at us, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Your people use private machinery rather than weapons to fight us! Well you do both, but that's beside the point!"
"We didn't hide troops in civilian domes!" The pilot shouted.
"That was what we were ordered to do. It was not my doing. The commanders simply felt a show of force was necessary."
"Necessary?! You son of a--!" We had to restrain her then.
"What inspires this loyalty?" I demanded, "You fight as though more depends on you than your life! What demands such high sacrifices?"
"If it means beating baby killers!" She snarled, her head pinned by one of my soldiers. She managed to move it, "We'll throw everything we've got at you! Someday we'll defeat you! And then you'll see who's laughing!"
I was flummoxed. "Why do you do this? Why do you fight so hard? You're only doing your job!"
She seemed confused by that. "Of course I am!"
I knelt down to where three of my soldiers held her, "Yes! So why fight so hard? Why do you defy us like this? Why do you make us kill and destroy private property?"
She seemed baffled. "What do you mean? I fight because I'm part of the UN Defense Force! Why else?"
"But you don't need to fight this hard. We fight, one of us loses, we shake hands! That's war!"
She looked befuddled, "The fuck is wrong with you, *bug*? What kinda war is that? Sounds like a slapfight!"
I tried to dumb it down for her. "You plant mines. You set traps. You crash your ships into ours. What kind of war is that? What inspires this loyalty, this desire to sacrifice so much? You are but an employee of your masters. They demand no less than you doing your job, and no more. You do not need to go beyond!"
She confusedly said, "Because that's war, idiot."
By the time we reached the lunar perimeter, our force was battered beyond belief. Forces were still fighting over Mars, and the Mercury and Venus attacks had been blunted. We finally encountered their war fleet. Many of the ships were barely finished. They had been pulled out of the dock yards still with workers aboard. Why was that? Our leader hailed their fleet admiral. He congratulated them for their clever tactics and admonished them for their unsavory techniques. He gave them a list of booty to recover, requested a refuel, and gave them a time frame for when we would be on our way. The war was over, we'd made it to their homeworld. This is how the great competitive wars are always done. Something about this confused the Admiral. "This isn't a game!" They spat. "War isn't defending dots on a map! It's death! Vast organized death! Are you telling me you came all this way for FUN?!"
"No, we came here to see who is better."
"That's the same thing."
"No it isn't." Our leader said dismissively. He paused, "Tell me, what inspires this loyalty in you? Aren't you just doing your jobs?"
"What?"
"You're just following orders. So are we. What inspires this unthinking, undying loyalty? You're just following orders, as all civilized beings should. We are just following orders." The comm line went dead. The humans unleashed a terrible display of firepower. They learned a long time ago that loyalty is not simple deference. And that war is more than just orders, it is not romantic.
War is not a game to them.
207 notes
·
View notes
Note
do u think u would have won another medal at the next okympics if u hadn’t quit?
Woah, big question.
I mean, everyone wants to think they’d have qualified for the next national team and gone to the next games and absolutely smashed it out the park and come home with a medal or ten.
Truth is, nothing is guaranteed.
You don’t know who’s coming up behind you, faster and fitter, and ready to take your place. You need to prove yourself year after year to be selected, and you need to keep yourself at the very top of your game.
I guess if what you’re asking is if I would’ve wanted to have gone to the next games and competed - yeah, absolutely. I’d never planned to stop at just one go, I’d still have been swimming now. I was just a teen when I won, in theory most top flight swimmers don’t peak until mid-late twenties, so another couple of Games to have a go at, right? As well as all the other comps, of course, World Aquatics and stuff.
And if I’d have been in that pool, you can damned well bet I’d have been aiming for the gold again.
I went along for the day to see the guys at the last Games and it was amazing to be back in amongst it all…
But that’s not the way it works, right? We don’t get to choose. It’d have been nice for it to be a choice, to have got to step down when I was ready, but it wasn’t. It was gone in the split second I crashed a very expensive bit of government kit at a speed far greater than I’d advise trying.
So I didn’t quit.
I think I probably went through the five stages of grief weekly for the first three months in hospital at least. I thought I was getting good at the ‘grief’ thing too after, y’know, Mom and Dad and Grandpa and all, thought I knew how to handle it and what to say and the way to nod at the nice psych people but… turns out going from winning a gold medal and being active service to being told you aren’t gonna walk again does a number on ya’, who’d’ve thunk it. It wasn’t pretty. I mean, my entire life revolved around the pool and the ocean. Every nickname, every hobby, everything. You try getting called ‘Fish’ and ‘Squid’ in the same conversation a man in a white coat is telling you you’ve been out for two weeks and to say bon voyage to ever diving to see one in person again. Can’t swim if you can’t walk, eh?
And maybe because I’m not really a ‘it’s just not meant to be’ kinda guy, from a not very ‘that’s just the way it goes’ kind of family, but… it was rough. It’s not so much letting go of a dream and more having it ripped out your hands and torched in front of you. I was seething.
See, selfishly, it felt really unfair. After Dad, the pool was where I ran to. It was the one constant in my life that never changed at all, the one place I didn’t have to think about anything other than the stretch of water between two tiled walls and how fast I could go, and it was mine - until it wasn’t. Being shipped home still pretty broken, to a home that was pretty broken, was… every bit as bad as it sounds.
We blamed the head trauma from “the accident” a lot, but really, I think I was just bitter, and resentful. They still had the sky, the stars, the music, after all, and I had… well, nothing.
Teaches you a lot, about yourself. Not all of it good or easy to look at in the mirror but… lessons all the same. About patience, and impatience. Strength, weakness. Grief and anger and acceptance and courage…
Humility. Humbles you a bit. Spending hours a week in physio, in agony and pushing your body, just to make the smallest improvement and still be an entire ocean of disappointment away from where you want to be. Having to pretend it isn’t patronising to have someone congratulate you for managing to walk up a flight of stairs when eighteen months ago you were running drills at basic without breaking a sweat. Having everyone else running your life round about you, from what you eat to when you sleep, from the confines of a hospital bed, when really all you want is to be out in the middle of the waves on your board, on your own, doing the things you love. To be back on board a sub, in the pool, on a beach. To be Gordon, not ‘the patient’ or ‘Mr Tracy’ or ‘my brother’ or ‘my grandson’.
Never really spoken about all of that like this. Huh. Amazing how one topic diverges…
Anyway. I soon got sick of that. Got sick of people looking at me pitifully and being told to lower my expectations and decided that was absolutely not how I was spending my time left (what’s the point of being told you’re stubborn if you can’t be stubborn?). If I could win a gold medal, then I could ruin some doctor’s statistics. So I did.
One thing something like that does make you though - it makes you hungrier for the dreams you still do have in your sights. Makes you more focused on them, and I think it makes you a little more ruthless about going for them. Fuck it, you might die tomorrow so do the things that matter, say the things that need said, give it your all and grab opportunities. What’s the point in wasting time? Life’s for the living.
To circle back around to your question Anon, I think it would have been a very different Gordon Tracy that went on to compete for another gold medal, and sometimes I wonder who he would be. Not covered in scars and on three monthly follow ups with the hospital, for sure. Probably a bit more cocky but a lot less sure of himself.
… he wouldn’t have been Thunderbird Four, though, and that, I think, makes it all worth the while in a way. To now get to be the sort of guy that tells scared, injured, despondent people it’s going to be okay in their darkest hour and have them believe you, and to give people that miracle they’re hoping for… it’s magic kinda stuff.
Wouldn’t trade it for a whole swimming pool of gold medals 😏
#another one for EOS to yeet at a later date#sometimes the ask takes you in interesting directions#otherwise known as a ramble#but here we are#thunderbirds rp#thundersocials#gordons squid thoughts#swimming things
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Just sitting a train to Hamburg, train is packed and people are standing in the corridors, seats all packed, EXCEPT OF COURSE THE GIANT 1ST CLASS CAR - COMPLETELY EMPTY - suddenly an old woman behind me goes "can't we jist sit in first class when the train is that full?" and her husband reponds "don't bother, they'll throw us off the train before they'll let us sit there" - and no cap, like the minutes later guy comes on over the intercom and says the train's supposedly to full to continue and they ask everybody 'who does not need to catch a follow-up train' to get off somewhere at bumfuck nowhere where supposedly another train will come in 15 minutes'. After like 10 minutes of barely anybody leaving (and the fucking first class car still FUCKING EMPTY) guy comes on again and threatens to get the cops to 'teilweise zwangsräum' (partiqlly forcefully evacuate) the train because 'passenger-savety can no longer be guaranteed'. And the most fucked up thing is the guy actually sounded morally offended that people didn't get off the train, like motherfucker if this is actually an issue that shakes your faith in humanity maybe open up your huge ass car that NOBODY EVER BOOKS SEATS IN ANYWAYS BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO COULD AFFORD TO DO SO LIKELY USE THEIR PRIVATE JET AND THEN THEIR PRIVATE HELICOPTER TO AIRLIFT THEIR GIANT SUV AFTER THEM!
I ride the train at least twice a week - especially when it comes to everything that goes to Hamburg, it's the norm rather than the exception that at least one train is cancled or at least delayed 30 minutes or more. I had 3 separate train-rides this year which just fucking stopped at some province station with 2 benches and maybe a snack machine FOR NO APPARENT REASON - they ALWAYS said there would be another train shortly, in 2 of three instances that follow-up train was then 45 minutes late - the one time it was the LAST TRAIN and I had already spent 2 hours hanging out at Hamburg main station because the last trains were both randomly cancled & I was honestly afraid I'd have to sleep on one of the two benches at the station Kläcken... and let's not get started on the spontaneous, unannounved platform changes - the train the guy askes us to get out of earlier was supposed to arrive at THE OPPOSITE END OF THE STATION FROM WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO - I checked the info-screen and it still said 'Platform 1' while I could see the physocal fucking train arrive at platform 4 - thank whatever eldritch deity conceived of the German train system that I am pysically able enough to SPRINT UP AND DOWN SEVERAL STAIRCASES CARRYING ALL MY CAMPING GEAR AND HALF A PALLET OF LEFTOVER BEERS but if I was an old lady with bad knees or something just fuck me I guess... ALSO THE BATHROOMS DON'T WORK HALF OF THE TIME LIKE TRAINS USUALLY HAVE 3-4 OF THOSE BUT ON THE FUCKING BREMEN TO HAMBURG TRAIN THEY WERE ALL BROKEN WHEN I WENT TO LÜBECK TWO WEEKS AGO! I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF THAT WASN'T A HUMAM RIGHTS VIOLATION!
Mainly posting this to vent and pass the time on the train, but there's also a story about neglect and capitalism here - another reason why the toilet thing pisses me off so much is because at german train-stations there usually are either no public restrooms or they cost like 1.50 euro to use and fucking close around 8 pm or so... Germany being alergic to the concept of public restrooms could be its own rant, but they start building thos in some larger cities now, so I won't open that can of worms now, (also getting close to Hamburg) but as a take-away lesson for any DB management or passenger-train conductors in my audience:
1. Maybe fon't throw a hissy-fit when people don't trust you or your service when you have such a documented history of not sticking to your own schedules that it spawend an entire sub-genre of German humor / torpes.
2. When you're part of a multi-billion euro company that offers a service that's both famously unreliable and prohibitively expensive, maybe don't cast moral judgements AT ALL
3. When you mess up this often and this badly, maybe just keepnyour head down, maybe give an appology and try to do better next time instead of trying to gaslight your customers into thinking its somehow their fault for having the audacity to use your product
and most importantly...
4. 👏ABOLISH👏FIRST👏CLASS👏CARS!
(you'll literally make more money, move more people without having to buy any new equipment and you won't look like greedy capitalsit ghouls)
#abolish first class cars#fuck Deutsche Bahn#also fuck hamburg because I still feel its Hamburgs fault#except st.pauli I guess bcs they're pretty cool!
7 notes
·
View notes