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imagineaworlds · 4 years

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I Love You (Part Thirteen) -- Aaron Hotchner

Written By: @desperately-bisexual

Request: None.

Warnings: The lightest bit of smut. Dom/sub relationship. Name calling. Teasing. Cursing. Talk about murder. Talk about kidnapping.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Greenaway!Reader

Word Count: 9765

Timeline: Season 2 Episode 22. Two months after part twelve.

It was a relief whenever Hotch and I were scheduled to see Jack, and JJ would tell us on that morning at 10AM that we had no cases. Knowing that we had the whole day to just get through work together, then we could go pick up Jack from school and spend some time with him… That was everything. Getting to see his face light up when he’d see us waiting outside of his school, getting to sit down with him to help him with his homework, and then getting to read him a bedtime story to help him fall asleep were all small things that made only seeing him every few days or so worth it. Since I started dating Hotch and met Jack, I felt like I had a new reason to rush home from work, or to be more careful during cases.

After the case the team had just gotten back from, JJ was trying her best to push off some cases because there was still so much to be done around the office. Hotch had paperwork piling on his desk from at least the past ten cases, and Strauss was beginning to ask questions. He was supposed to write up a report about the last case we worked on in Washington, but that was all because of me and Morgan, and both of us felt bad that he practically had to do our work because ended up shooting one of the Unsubs— and Hotch wasn’t even there…

Paul Mulford and his brother, Johnny Mulford, had been kidnapping people from their incapacitated cars on the side of the highway, then taking them out into the mountains in order to hunt them like animals. Before we managed to catch up to the Mulford brothers, they had killed at least twenty-five victims of either gender, any race, any age, etc. There had been no clear victimology, but the M.O. was clear enough to show that the brothers had been raised to hunt humans, not animals; and that this was a sport for them. When we caught them, Johnny had already been stabbed multiple times and eventually bled out before he could tell us where his brother went. Morgan and I went running through the woods together to see if we could follow Paul’s trail, and sure enough, we found him standing on a hill with his bow aimed at another victim he had been chasing for a few days. When Morgan told Paul to put his weapon down, Paul refused and aimed his weapon again, this time at us. Morgan and I had no other choice but to shoot him before he could shoot us.

Hotch wasn’t there, and he hadn’t even made the call; yet, Strauss was still making him write up the report. Hotch had been stuck at work for hours at night, hardly ever coming home because he just decided to sleep at the office due to how much work he needed to do. After Washington, though, when Morgan and I found out that Hotch was taking on that load of paperwork, too, we decided that we had to step in. I stayed late one night with Hotch since we weren’t supposed to have Jack for another day, and when he accidentally fell asleep on the couch in his office, I snuck in and stole the Mulford case file from the bottom of the pile. I ran out before he could wake up or notice, and I held the file up in victory as I ran over to Morgan in the bullpen. And Hotch never realized once he woke up that I had taken it— that was how much work he had. Besides, I was willing to take the heat from Strauss if it would become a problem, and I was more than fine with Hotch giving me… trouble… for it, if it came down to it.

Morgan and I managed to sneak out of the office and head home for the night before Hotch would notice that we had stuck around to do some work. In the morning, I packed some fresh clothes for Hotch and picked up some breakfast for him. At Quantico, his office blinds were shut and his door was locked. I groaned as I balanced everything in one hand and grabbed my ring of keys where I had a spare to Hotch’s office for… safe keeping… Alright, technically, I wasn’t supposed to have it, but he wasn’t going to tell and neither was I.

Hotch sat up suddenly from the couch and immediately reached out for the papers in front of him to make it look like he had been working this entire time and hadn’t fallen asleep at all. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was just me, and he put the papers back down. I giggled and kissed his cheek as I sat down next to him. As I handed him his coffee and breakfast, he thanked me. He set the coffee down on the table before reaching back to hold my chin between his fingers and pull me in for a kiss. I smiled against his lips, then put the bag of clothes down at our feet before leaning back against the cushions.

“How did you sleep?” I asked.

He leaned back with me, “Okay, I think. I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep. What time did you get home?”

“About ten,” I lied.

It was more like midnight when Morgan and I called it quits. We were slowly starting to realize how much work Hotch actually had to do compared to the rest of us. It was easy for us to just come into work, get the cases, find the Unsubs, come back to Quantico, do some paperwork, then head back home. But Hotch spent a lot of his time doing the paperwork that the rest of the team technically should have already been doing. Just this one case file alone was going to take the entire day for Morgan and I to complete— together. I couldn’t imagine how long it would take Hotch with how much of a neat freak and perfectionist he was. Everything had to be done the right way when it came to Aaron Hotchner— which was probably why he didn’t like it whenever I got bratty with him. Our home life, our relationship, our sex life, and our jobs had to be absolutely perfect for him or it would offset his entire mood, and then everything else would come crashing down like a domino effect. And I hated that he was always under that pressure, and he never shared it with me. Perhaps Hotch and I were all too alike in the way that neither of us liked to be a burden to others, and sometimes the pain we were dealing with was something that just had to be dealt with privately. He probably didn’t tell me about all of the work he had because he didn’t want me to end up taking on some of the load to help him out— which was exactly what happened, anyhow.

“I brought you a change of clothes,” I told him, kicking the bag at our feet. “Fingers crossed that JJ doesn’t pull us into a case today.”

Hotch nodded agreeingly, putting his hand on my knee to help him lean forward again. “One can only hope,” he chuckled while picking up his coffee again to take a sip. His hand stayed on my knee as he got comfortable again. “Thank you for doing this. You didn’t have to.”

I put my hand over his for a moment before he flipped his palm over and intertwined his fingers with mine. “You’re just lucky that I remembered to grab you another tie,” I smirked.

He raised a brow in confusion, so I decided to enlighten him. With my free hand, I dug into the bag of clothes and pulled out the tie I brought for him. The red one he nearly wore to the Super Bowl party. The very same one he used to tie me up. He liked to wear it whenever he was in a mood because he liked to watch me squirm every time he would put it on. It was certainly the last thing he expected of me to bring it for him. But I liked catching him off guard with it when he had always managed to do it to me.

Hotch grabbed the end of the tie after I had wrapped it around my palm to show him what I meant, and he tugged lightly. His lips pressed against mine, but he didn’t pull away immediately like I had anticipated, so I did. He groaned quietly.

“You taste like coffee,” I whispered.

“I could taste like you,” he whispered back.

I bit my bottom lip. “Maybe after work, boss,” I patted his chest and unwrapped the tie from my hand. He was really regretting all of the rules he made for us, I could see it. I turned away like I was going to get up and walk out the door, but Hotch caught the back of my neck before I could get far and made me look at him. I gulped when I recognized the look in his eyes that told me I was on thin ice. “Sir…”

“Don’t ‘Sir’ me.”

“We’re at work…”

His hand slowly made its way from cradling the back of my neck to holding the front. “Oh, I won’t do anything now.” Shit. “Maybe after work,” he leaned in close, “brat.” His lips barely touched mine this time for another light kiss before he let go of my throat and turned back to his work and breakfast. “You have some work to do, don’t you?” he asked me after I hadn't left his office yet.

I cleared my throat and found the courage to stand on my weak legs. I shouldn’t have played with fire, I knew that… but… Wow… And now I was supposed to go work and not think about that? He knew what he was doing, and I figured that I should have seen it all ending up like that— or maybe I did, and that was why I had done it? That was more likely, to be perfectly honest. He knew what he was doing, and I knew what I was doing; but I thought that I’d have the upper hand since the rules were his own. Then again, there was the incident on the jet that one time… Maybe the rules weren’t necessarily “rules” but more of “guidelines” that Hotch liked to bend when it suited him.

The office door opened just before I could put my hand on the doorknob. JJ pushed into the room with a welcoming morning smile, not a “I’m sorry to do this, but we have a case” frown. Our good luck for the week was still going strong. She noticed the coffee, breakfast, and change of clothes for Hotch and realized that I had gone to all that trouble for him. She complimented me for doing it since “Hotch didn’t deserve it”, according to her. I laughed politely despite the fact that I could feel Hotch’s eyes staring at me and my knees were still wobbly. Once she told us that there were no cases yet, so there was no reason to gather in the boardroom, we both thanked her, and then I quickly pushed past to get to my desk.

Morgan was already at his desk, working on some other paperwork he had to do that wasn’t necessarily too important. When I sat down at my desk, he wheeled over while still in his chair with the Mulford files for us to start going through again. I picked up a pen and grabbed half of the stack, but while my eyes were glued to the pages, my mind was wandering. Hotch was sitting up in his office, likely also distracted, and that just made the need worse. No wonder Hotch never got any work done.

“Did you already write the account of finding Johnny Mulford?” Morgan asked, looking up from his work.

I batted my eyes as I shook away my trance. I looked at him in confusion, not having processed what he asked me yet. “Sorry,” I apologized for not paying attention.

“Did you write the report about how we found Johnny Mulford yet?” he asked again.

I shook my head, “No, sorry.”

We had agreed that I would take on the job of writing about how we found the Mulford’s family tow business— which was how they were able to trick their victims into trusting them— and I’d also talk about how we found Johnny Mulford already bleeding out, which was his cause of death. Morgan was going to write about how we found the victims in the woods and how we had no choice but to shoot Paul Mulford. It was us or him, and we didn’t hesitate to protect ourselves and each other. That was part of the job, but Morgan was better at explaining those kinds of things, so he took on the task of writing up that part of the report. It looked like he was already down recounting how we found the victims, and he was moving onto the hard part, which was Paul; and I still hadn’t finished documenting the information about the family business and how they hid the victims’ cars in shipping containers on the property before they could send them to the junkyard.

“Sorry, I’ll get right on that.”

Morgan shook his head and snorted, “Sure you will.” I glared at him and he jabbed my arm with the back of his pen. “I’m only messing around, Greenaway. What’s got your panties in a twist?”

My face fell flat. I picked up a sticky note, wadded it up, and chucked it at his bald head. “Don’t ever talk about my panties again.”

Morgan cringed away from my attack, “Aye, aye, Captain.” He rubbed his head where I hit him, “Did you have to throw it that hard?”

“You literally did it to yourself.”

“It’s been two hours of us just sitting here, writing this entire report out silently, and you have hardly done anything. Should I be worried?” He gasped, “Do I need to give Hotch the ‘don’t hurt my child’ talk? Because I will.”

I chuckled, “Right. Let me know when you’re going to do that so I can remember to hide all of the guns first.”

“So he didn’t upset you?”

“No. Hotch didn’t upset me. Why are you grilling me? What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m hungry and I’m bored. There’s a lot wrong with me.”

“You could say that again,” I laughed.

He grabbed his chest like his heart was aching. “Why do you have to hurt me so?”

“Because you deserve it when you’re being an epic tool.”

“Fair enough.”

“Don’t give him too much of a hard time,” Hotch commented as he walked up to us through the bullpen. Morgan and I both rushed to cover up our work before he could get too close and see that we were working on the Mulford case. When I looked back up, I noticed that Hotch was wearing the new clothes I had brought for him— including the red tie. I shifted in my seat, my thighs rubbing together ever so slightly. Hotch silently noticed, then proceeded to look suspiciously down at the files we used to cover what we were really working on. “Morgan, do you mind if I steal them away for an early lunch?”

Morgan glanced at his watch, “It’s only noon.”

“Like I said, early lunch.”

Honestly, with the work we had, I wasn’t sure how either of us could afford to go to an early lunch. He had all of those cases to review up in his office, and Morgan was right about me not making any headway with my half of the work. I looked around my desk to silently show him just how much work I had sitting around.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do here,” I told him.

“You can spare an hour, right?”

He looked to Morgan for back up, and I looked to Morgan for help getting out of it. I wanted to get this full report done sooner than later because I was supposed to be picking up Jack from school around 3:30. I just didn’t understand why Hotch was being so insistent on this. We hardly ever went out for lunch unless it was something special, and there wasn’t much that was particularly special about that day, besides maybe the tie, of course.

“Go for it,” Morgan gave in. I looked at him with wide eyes that said: “What the fuck?” and he grinned. “They get grumpy when they’re hungry,” he explained.

Hotch thanked Morgan before grabbing my things for me in order to coax me towards the door. I tried to protest, but Hotch was still walking and Morgan was still grinning. I glared at Morgan before throwing my arms up in defeat then chasing after Hotch. He held the door open for me and I walked straight past him and for the elevator. He handed me my purse after somehow beating me to pressing the “down” button.

Hotch picked a nearby restaurant that was considerably nicer than anything I had expected. I figured we would grab sandwiches or maybe even go to a diner like usual, but he picked a place where people normally had important business meetings where they wanted to look sophisticated and rich. It wasn’t the type of place one would go to for just an hour, which was the timeline Hotch gave Morgan before managing to take me away.

We got a table next to the window, the afternoon sun peaking through the trees that were planted on the sidewalk just outside. Hotch pulled out my chair for me before sliding it in under me then taking his seat across from me. I watched him as he silently picked up his menu to start looking for what sounded good to him. I squinted shortly at him, still trying to figure him out before cautiously picking up my own menu to look.

When the waiter came over to take our order, Hotch went first then nodded to me to go. After I gave my order, the waiter left and Hotch turned his phone over on the table to stop thinking about all of the different notifications he was getting from the office still. I put my elbows on the table and propped my chin up on my hand as I continued to stare at him. He was sitting up straight, staring back at me, thinking about something. We challenged each other in silence to see who would break first, but I knew that it wouldn’t be me. He would eventually want to know what I was thinking about, while I had a strong guess as to what it was he was imagining. Even if he had an idea of what I was thinking about, he certainly didn’t know the extent of it. There were so many unspeakable things of what I wanted him to do that had been racing through my mind all morning, and him sitting there with a stern silence wasn’t helping anything.

He reclined to the side, resting his left elbow on the arm of the chair, his thumb gently tracing his bottom lip back and forth. He was purposefully drawing attention to his mouth and fingers. I didn’t move, though. I still wasn’t going to give in.

The waiter returned with our food after a few minutes. He put Hotch’s food down first, and Hotch nodded a “thank you” before I got my food, too. He asked if we needed anything else, but Hotch and I both shook our heads. When Hotch and I were alone again, he picked up his fork and a steak knife before cutting into the filet he ordered. Yeah, it was that kind of a restaurant.

“Well, this is fun,” he said. He finally gave up.

“You’re the one who wanted to come here and haven’t said anything.”

“That’s because I was busy admiring.”

“Is that why you wanted to come here? Privacy?”

He nodded and took a bite. “Also, have you seen the Mulford case sitting around anywhere?” he asked, cutting into his steak again. I raised a faux brow of curiosity in response to his question. I was trying to keep my cool so that he couldn’t profile the truth out of me. “I was just curious because I went to start it today and noticed that it was gone.”

Well, shit. How did he already get through all of those other cases so quickly? What happened after I left his office that suddenly he was caught up enough to notice that the file was gone?

“You’re already starting the Mulford report? What about all those other cases you had sitting on your desk?”

“I pulled them as reference for the Mulford case. I just had to finish up the serial arsonist case file and then I was supposed to start the Mulford one today. The odd thing, though,” he mumbled before taking a bite. He waited to speak as he chewed, his eyes coming back up from his plate to look at me. He continued once his words had spun around in my head for a minute, “The odd thing is that I had it last night before I fell asleep. Now, I asked you what time you left the office, and you lied when you said ten o’clock. How do I know this? Well, I asked Anderson to check in with security, and they said that you and Morgan didn’t leave until about fifteen minutes passed midnight.” He took another bite. “So I had my suspicions, obviously, but it wasn’t until I decided to test you that I realized you and Morgan had taken it.”

“Test me?” I asked carefully, grabbing a french fry from my plate to make it look like I was entirely unfazed.

He nodded and sipped his water. “You never pass up the opportunity to go to lunch with me, but you were adamant about staying to work on whatever it was the two of you covered up on your desk before I could see.” He put his knife and fork down on the edge of his plate. “So, tell me, how’s your progress coming along?”

“Progress?”

I figured that playing dumb was better than flat out admitting anything. If the blame was put on Morgan, Hotch would just tell him to not do it again, but if the blame were put on me, there was a lot more that could happen to me behind closed doors. And while the thought itself was certainly appealing— especially after what Hotch said to me in his office that morning— I wasn’t actively looking to punish myself by continuing to dig myself into the hole I had created.

“You looked a little distracted after leaving my office,” he continued, “so I just want to make sure that you’re getting your work done and aren’t thinking about anything too hard.”

I choked on my food as he said it. “Stop it,” I whispered.

He knew he got me, and so he made the next move. “How much did you two do?”

“We thought you had more work than just those two cases. We were just trying to help out since we didn’t have much else to do.”

Hotch smirked.

“What?” I asked him.

“I wasn’t about to start the Mulford case,” he admitted. “I do have a bunch of other cases to work on, but I just happened to notice that it was gone.” I kicked his shin under the table. “How much did you do?” He just wanted to know now; he didn’t want to prove a point or find a reason to use his tie later— he had already done that.

Lying wasn’t going to get me anywhere now. I had practically admitted that we took the Mulford case and were working on it for him. “Almost half,” I gave in. “Someone’s been a little distracting all morning,” my ankle passed over his timidly.

“I told you after work, didn’t I?”

“But we have Jack,” I whined, knowing that our entire focus would be on spending time with him. I wanted Hotch… I wanted him so badly…

“He has to go to bed eventually.”

“You’re the worst.”

“No. I just enjoy watching you flounder. Besides, it sounds like you have a lot of work to do now.” He reached over the table and took my hand in his, “Seriously, though, thank you. You didn’t have to start that report, and you didn’t have to bring me breakfast and clothes this morning.”

“Of course I did… I love you. I’m here to help you whenever you need it— even if you refuse to ask for it.”

His eyes softened, “I’ll worry about picking up Jack at 3:30 so that you and Morgan can finish the report.”

“No, Hotch,” I shook my head vigorously, “you have so much going—”

“Let me do this since you’ve been doing so much. Please.”

I stared at him and felt his hand squeeze mine in a pleading way. How was I supposed to argue that? I didn’t do nearly as much as Hotch, we both knew it. Bringing him breakfast and clothes and taking on one case report was nowhere near close to what Hotch did for work and for me. Yet, he was insisting on doing more. I knew that even if I tried to argue it, he’d insist that I didn’t have to do what I did and so he wanted to step out of his way to do more. As a profiler, it was easy to look at our relationship and determine that we were a classic dominant and submissive couple, obviously. In our line of work, we would always discuss how the dominants would control their submissives, but they would also do anything to protect their submissives. Hotch and I weren’t any different in that respect. He’d be very commanding with me, which I loved, but he always had to go the extra mile for me because that was his role as the dominant. As the submissive, I was supposed to listen, obey, and just… feel loved. That was all he wanted for me. By going out of my way to help him out over the past couple of days, he felt the urge to return the favors ten fold to “prove” his love in some way. So even if I tried to argue against him going to pick up Jack, he’d ultimately slide back into his dominant personality, forcing me into my submissive state, and I’d have no choice but to let him. Either way, he was going to end up picking up Jack from school, and I was going to finish my work at the office with Morgan. And if I listened and obeyed like I was supposed to, our night would be fairly long, just as he promised.

“Fine,” I nodded. He stretched my hand across the table and kissed my knuckles. “But I’m going to bring him some ice cream home to make up for not picking him up since he was looking forward to it.”

Hotch gently released my hand and allowed me to retreat it back onto my lap. “Please don’t spoil him,” he smiled.

“Listen, I already spoil you enough, but he’s my favorite, so you can imagine the kind of pressure I’m under to spoil him even more,” I chuckled.

“He’s going to think that you’re cooler than me.” He picked up his knife and fork again.

“I’ve always been cooler than you.”

He chortled and nodded before taking another bite. I smiled back before grabbing another fry.

Back at the office, I followed Hotch up to his office, passing by Morgan, who was still working on his half of the report. Hotch closed and locked his office door behind me, the blinds were still still closed, and he turned off the lights. I grabbed his tie and pulled him close and he grabbed my waist to show me the same courtesy. He pushed me up against the wall, trapping me in his arms and against his whole body. I moaned into his mouth and grabbed at his hair. He groaned and slid his knee between my thighs.

“I still have work to do,” he whispered breathlessly, trying to find a reason to not keep going. The rules… We had to remember the rules… But it was so hard. “You’re going to have to wait.”

I moaned into his mouth again, “Please. I need you.”

“We can’t.”

“Sir…”

An animalistic groan left his throat as he forcefully parted himself from me. His chest was rising and falling dramatically as he tried to catch his breath and keep himself away from me. He wanted me, I could see it in his eyes, but he was trying so hard not to fuck me against that wall. I wanted him so bad— no, I needed him. It all started that morning and I couldn’t stop thinking about it since. He had so much more self control than I did, though, and he was going to do anything in his power to not break the one rule he held sacred. While I didn’t want to actively push that boundary with him, he had been practically encouraging my need for him.

“Please,” I whined, pulling at his tie again. I wanted him to pull it off his neck again and wrap it around my wrists before fucking me until I couldn’t stand. “Please, Sir.”

“Just a few more hours,” he pleaded with me. I leaned forward and kissed him again, but he put his hand on my chest and pushed me back against the wall. “I have to go talk to Gideon.” He took steps away from me as quickly as possible, knowing that he would pound me against the wall if he waited even one more second.

I took in a deep breath and collected myself as I stood up right against the wall. “I hate you so much,” I said quietly, fixing my hair.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you later.”

I looked between him and his tie for a moment, and he caught me staring. He smirked and I bit my lip. “Promise?”

He nodded eagerly, “I promise.”

I released my lip from between my teeth and pushed myself off the wall. “Okay.”

I tried my best to walk towards the door without falling over or just jumping right into his arms. I unlocked the door, opened it, and we both walked out. No one in the bullpen looked up at us, which was a sign that we hadn’t been too obvious, at least. We headed for the ramp in front of Gideon’s office so that he could divert into there and I could continue on towards the bullpen, but something caught our attention in Gideon’s office.

Hotch stuck his head in to see what Gideon was doing in a dark room, “You don’t have class today?”

Gideon shook his head, “Only around four this evening.” That was about two hours away.

Hotch stepped into the room, and I looked in to see what was so interesting. “You have Chaplin on film?” Hotch chuckled, impressed.

“Take a seat,” Gideon invited Hotch. “You, too, Y/N,” he smiled at me, catching me before I could run past to let them talk.

“Oh, no,” I insisted, throwing my hands up. “I don’t want to impose, and I should be getting back to work.”

“You can spare a few minutes. Come on.”

Yeah, I could spare a few minutes over an hour and a half ago when Hotch took me out to lunch. Now, Morgan was waiting for me to come back and finish the report with him. While Hotch knew the truth about the report, Gideon didn’t, and he couldn’t know. As far as he was aware, everyone was just sticking around until it was time to go home or they had finished their busy-work. Since neither time had approached for me, Gideon figured I had nothing better to do but to sit down and watch some movies.

I figured that I’d be able to sit down for a few minutes before being able to excuse myself to go work again, so I accepted Gideon’s offer. I walked in and stepped across the view of the projector. Hotch and I grabbed two of the chairs in the room and turned them to face the wall where Gideon was projecting some of Charlie Chaplin’s old movies. He had an old-timey, vintage projector that needed to be watched carefully to make sure that the film wouldn’t burn up or fall apart.

“My great-grandfather worked for one of the first big film companies in Chicago— since they made movies in Illinois at the time, not California. When they closed down, they let me grandpa take a few films home with him.”

Hotch chuckled again, “They let him take them home?”

Gideon laughed, too, “That's the story that’s been passed down, so I think we’ll stick with it.”

“I can’t believe you’ve had these hiding all this time,” I said, gazing in awe upon Charlie Chaplin’s brilliance. “It’s amazing.”

“Have you ever seen Chaplin?” Hotch asked me.

I shook my head. I knew who Chaplin was, but I had never seen anything of his creation. He was a pure genius. Movies like this were never made anymore, and it was such a shame. The creativity that was once so vibrant in these silent films had been slowly erased over time in the industry.

Our attention was pulled away from the screen when Morgan peeked his head into the room to see what we were doing. We looked at each other and he gave a slight nod back towards the bullpen, a silent signal that he was calling me back to work since I had been away for so long. Fair enough, I figured. Morgan probably didn’t expect that Hotch and I would be away for so long, and now I was hiding with him in Gideon’s office just watching old Chaplin movies.

I sighed, throwing my palms onto my knees, “Duty calls, boys.” I pushed myself to my feet.

Hotch and Gideon both gave short waves of goodbye as I walked past the projector and met up with Morgan in the doorway. I led the way down the ramp and into the bullpen. Morgan caught up with me just as I was sitting down at my desk. All of his work seemed to be done and neatly filed away in the case folder. He sat down with me and started talking me through everything he discussed in his half of the report. He described each of the crime scenes and how the victims were found, and how those clues led us to the Mulford family’s tow truck business. Once he wrote all of that out, he moved onto how we chased after Paul Mulford through the woods, found him aiming his weapon at their next target, and when we tried to stop him peacefully, he turned his bow on me, and Morgan and I had no choice to shoot him. The report itself was much more detailed than that, but that was the basic gist of it.

Morgan rolled his chair back over to his desk after showing me everything, “And with that, I am done for the day. It’s been lovely, but I’m ready to go home, put my feet up, crack open a beer, and watch TV for the next five hours.” He grabbed his shoulder bag from under his desk, “I will see you all tomorrow.” Everyone in the bullpen nodded and wished him a great rest of his afternoon and evening since he was so lucky to be going home early.

I hung my head over the work I had to do and tried to focus on just getting it done. Hotch was offering to pick up Jack for me, but Jack had been so excited to have me pick him up and work on his homework with him. He liked the way I taught him math because it didn’t come easily to him, but I somehow made it easy for him. I took the wins where I could get them, and if taking time out of my work to help Jack with his meant that I got a little more time with him and a few new memories to hold onto during cases, I wasn’t going to pass up on those opportunities. I just wanted to get home as soon as possible.

“We’ve got a case!” JJ told us while running into the office. Everyone spun around in their chairs to watch as she walked right by the break room and towards the ramp.

Morgan sighed, having just left Garcia’s office to say goodbye to her, and threw his head back in disappointment. “Come on, J! Let me live a little here!”

“Sorry, bud,” she smiled lightly as she kept storming up the ramp and into Gideon’s office.

Everyone moved onto their feet and slowly started making their way to the boardroom. The Mulford case was still open on my desk like I had hope that I would be able to get back to it in a few minutes, and then I would just go home to be with Hotch and Jack. We all knew that wasn’t going to be the case, though. Whatever case JJ had for us, wherever we were going, whatever we were going to do, we weren’t going to be home in time for dinner; which meant that neither Hotch nor I could pick Jack up now… He was going to be devastated— more so than Hotch and I were. We absolutely hated getting this close to seeing him, only to have the opportunity ripped away from us because of a new case.

“Everyone, this is Detective Cal McGee from the Kansas City Police Department,” JJ introduced us to the man standing in the room with her as we took our seats. I sat between Emily and Morgan, Spencer on Morgan’s other side, Hotch across from me, and Gideon on the couch. “We have sixty-three potential victims missing from his district.”

“Sixty-three?” Hotch inquired. JJ nodded and started handing out the case files. “How have they not been reported missing yet? How did it get this far?”

“Because they’re all homeless,” Detective McGee said, taking a step closer to the table. He set down a stack of mini notebooks and arranged them into neatly placed nine piles of seven.

“So, then, you aren’t actually sure if they are missing,” Hotch corrected. “Homeless people disappear all the time, simply because they don’t have anywhere to go and they don’t know anyone. It’s entirely possible they just moved on from your district.”

McGee shook his head adamantly, “No. I’m sure that they’re all missing. I just can’t seem to convince anyone else of it.”

“What proof do you have?”

McGee started passing out the mini notebooks in front of him to everyone around the table. Gideon was still reclining on the couch with his glasses on and the daily newspaper in his hands. I picked up one of the notebooks and flipped through it. The front page had a nickname for someone, and past that was a journal of who this person was as the detective had seen them and gotten to know them. Their age, their height, their build, the hair color, eye color, weight, posture, any noticeable handicaps, etc. There were pages upon pages about their personality and their history, but then it came to an abrupt end on the seventeenth of this month.

“I’ve tried to talk to people about this, but no one seems to believe me, so they won’t launch an official investigation. I was hoping that you guys could, though.”

“I don’t understand, what are these?” I asked, holding up the notebook in my hand before trading it for another on the table.

“Records,” the detective answered, taking the notebooks that had already been skimmed through and stacking them back in neat piles. “Since most of these people have been neglected by society and the government, there’s no one out there who wants to keep an eye on them, except for me. By keeping records of everyone I see, I can try to hopefully reunite them with someone they know— or, in this case, track that they’ve suddenly gone missing without a trace. I’ve already run all of the different names they have all given me through our computers and everything came up blank. If there happened to be any official records, they had been forgotten and there was nothing about them dying or going missing. For the most part, however, it came up blank. There’s nothing about where these people went.”

“Simply being gone isn’t a federal issue, I’m afraid,” Gideon broke the bad news from the couch. “We need an official invitation into your district by the Chief of Police or Chief of Detectives. Someone higher up has to tell us that they need our help.”

“Um… I— I don’t know… I don’t know if I can do that,” he stuttered nervously, rearranging all of the notebooks in front of him again.

“Unless we’re officially asked, we can’t help you,” Hotch said.

“Hotch,” JJ whispered, “there could be sixty-three victims here…”

She had a point. Sixty-three people just don’t go missing like this. If they weren’t homeless, more people would have been paying attention, too. We were these people’s only hope. There had to be something that he could do, right? He could talk to the district for McGee since he clearly hadn’t made any headway with them. Hotch knew as well as the rest of us what this meant and just how bad this could be. He wasn’t an asshole, he wasn’t just going to let these people continue to stay or go missing. If could help in some way, he was going to try.

“Well, I suppose that you and I could go with the detective and talk to his superiors,” Hotch offered to JJ. “If we get an invitation, we could send for the rest of you,” he addressed the team. We all nodded. It was a good plan. “JJ, be ready in thirty,” he stood up. “Y/N,” he gestured to the door, referencing that he wanted to speak to me privately outside. I pushed myself out of my seat and followed him out of the board room. He kept walking away from me as I tried to stay at his side. “Leave the Mulford report alone for now, I need you to take Jack over to Haley’s house for me.”

I stopped in my tracks for a moment as I processed what he had told me, but he didn’t stop. He wanted me to go to Haley’s house? He wanted me to meet Haley? And under these circumstances? He didn’t want to wait until he could officially introduce us and be the mediator in case claws were to come out? From what I knew, Haley was a wonderful person who loved Hotch very much, but she just couldn’t take him being away for so long anymore, and that was understandable. But she still loved Hotch, as I understood it, and she was still Jack’s mother. It would make sense if she were to feel protective and territorial over her ex-husband and son when it came to me. I was Hotch’s new partner, and things were going really well for us. Like, really well. If she had any hope that they were going to get back together someday, that was squashed when things between her ex and I got serious.

I skipped up a few steps to catch up to Hotch, “You’re not serious—”

“Just pick him up from school and drop him off at her house.”

“Hotch, no— Why can’t Jessica pick him up?”

“She took on another shift at work, apparently. What’s wrong with you?” he raised a brow as he turned into his office.

I stopped in the doorway and watched as Hotch grabbed his go bag. “I just don’t understand why you want me to visit your ex-wife so bad.”

He set his go bag on his desk and stared at me. “This isn’t about Haley,” he shook his head, disappointed that I would think anything otherwise. “If we end up taking this case, you need to be here and ready to get on the jet. You can’t be at home with Jack.” He threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and walked over to me. “You don’t have to do anything but take him up to the door, explain to Haley that we have a new case out of state, and we’ll call her when we’re done to give her a heads up that we’re going to pick him up. That’s all.” He put a hand on my cheek and caressed it with his thumb.

“Doesn’t that break, like, a thousand custody rules?” I asked.

Hotch never talked to me about what happened with his divorce to Haley. It was a painful time for him, and the memories stung even worse. All I knew was that he had made it as painless as possible for everyone in order to protect both Haley and Jack. He didn’t want to hurt his relationship with either of them, so he signed whatever she wanted. But I didn’t know what the custody rules surrounding their divorce entailed except for the fact that Hotch would tell me when it was our turn to see Jack, and we would drop him off at Jessica’s house if we ever needed to go into work suddenly. I didn’t know if Haley wanted me to even be around her son. I didn’t know if Haley was alright with me just leaving him at her door and then coming back to collect him whenever we felt like.

“When Haley and I got divorced, we knew that this would happen, and so we took into account that there could be times when my custody days would be impeded. We decided that if need be, she could just take him during cases and I would pick him up afterwards and he’d spend the amount of time he was supposed to stay with me afterwards.” He kissed my forehead before shrugging playfully to ease my nerves. “She’ll understand.”

I looked at him and made sure that his touch wouldn’t leave my cheek yet. “What if she doesn’t like me?”

“Does it matter?”

Of course it fucking mattered. I loved Hotch and Jack with every fiber of my being. I wanted to spend every second of my future with them, but living that life included having to know and get along with Haley for the sake of both Jack and Hotch. If she didn’t like me, she could end up making my life hell, and she could possibly take it out on Hotch by not letting us see Jack as often or with such a flexible schedule as he insisted they had. I also didn’t want to hate her because she was Jack’s mother, and he, naturally, loved her. I didn’t want to have to put him in an awkward position growing up where he would be put between this feud Haley and I could potentially have. There was so much at stake with this first meeting, and Hotch was acting like it was just another random day.

“You’re going to be fine,” he reassured me. “Just get back here as soon as you can.” He lifted my chin and pulled me in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“Call me when you land.”

“I’ll try. I’ll call the school and let them know that you’re picking him up.”

“I love you.”

He pulled his hand away from my face and grabbed my hand before we started walking towards the door together. The team was still sitting in the boardroom with Detective McGee, covering all of the different missing persons cases as fast as they could. When we reached the bullpen, Hotch released his grip on my hand before anyone could notice, and we parted ways. He went to go talk with JJ over in the break room and I went to my desk to grab my purse. I caught a quick glance of the back of Hotch’s head before I pushed through the glass doors of the BAU and hurried for the elevator before it could close on me.

Jack’s school was already letting kids out when I pulled up to the building behind the line of other cars against the curb. After I parked the car, I hurried into the school and shyly asked someone where Jack’s grade’s classroom would be. They kindly directed me and I thanked them before heading off. I navigated all of the different hallways until I found the doorway that I had been sent to. There was a teacher standing just outside with a clipboard and a pen. I walked over and she asked me who I was picking up.

“Jack Hotchner,” I answered.

“What’s your name?”

“Y/N Greenaway.”

“Greenaway? Where’s Haley or Jessica?” she asked me. Oh, so she knew them by name… Well…

I dodged her question to get to the point. “My boyfriend called to tell the school that I would be picking him up.”

“Y/N!” Jack exclaimed from the back of the classroom. He came running over to me with his backpack in his hand rather than on his back.

I leaned down and caught him in my arms before resting him on my hip. “What’s up, little man?” I asked rhetorically. I turned back to the teacher. “Are we good to go?”

She nodded warily and crossed mine and Jack’s name off the list of pick ups. “See you tomorrow, Jack,” she smiled. He waved goodbye to her as I took his backpack in my other hand and started carrying him out of the school.

“How was school?” I brushed some dirt off of his forehead that had likely collected during recess.

“Good. Are we going to get ice cream?”

He knew that I always liked to spoil him with ice cream whenever he was at our house, and he must have figured that since I promised to pick him up from school, we were going to head straight to Dairy Queen or Cold Stone. I felt bad for having to burst his bubble because he was so excited to hang out with me and see his dad, but it was better to just rip the bandaid off rather than wait until we got to his mother’s house.

“I’m sorry, little man, your dad and I have to go on another case this afternoon. I have to take you to your mom’s house.”

Jack frowned, “But you promised that we were going to get ice cream.”

“I know, but your dad and I have to go save the world again, so we don’t have time for ice cream.” I set him down in front of the car door and opened it up for him. He climbed inside and I set his backpack on the floor in front of him before reaching in to help him with his buckle. “We’ll get ice cream when we come back and pick you up from your mom’s house, though. How does that sound?”

Jack was still pouting, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. He looked exactly like Hotch when he was mad, too. I wanted to chuckle, but I knew that it would only make Jack more upset. I crossed my arms and frowned, too, and leaned against the back of the passenger’s side car seat.

“Why the long face, little man?” I asked. He knew that it was always possible that Hotch and I would need to leave randomly and in a hurry. He was used to it. Usually, he didn’t even mind because he knew that we were off saving the world, which ultimately protected him and his mom, too.

“I wanted to stay at your house tonight,” he whined quietly. “You promised.”

My eyes softened as I gave up the joke of mimicking him in order to wipe off some more dirt I found on his chin. He was such a messy kid… “I know, buddy. And I’m so sorry. But you know that when the police need our help, we have to go. If I could, I’d stay at home with you all the time. That’s how much I love you, you know that?” Jack nodded, still forcing a frown on his face. “Come on, Jack,” I begged quietly.

It was already hard enough having to leave him again when we got so close to having more time with him. His puppy dog pouting wasn’t helping anything. I wanted to stay with him, I wanted to take him for ice cream, and I wanted to read him bedtime stories that night, but I had no choice. When duty called, duty called. And, honestly, the best case scenario was that when Hotch and JJ would land in Kansas City, they’d tell us that we can’t get the case, and we’d all be sent home. Maybe this was all for naught and Jack would be staying at our house tonight, anyways. Until then, though, I just needed him to work with me and not make this any harder.

I reached out and “stole his nose” with my fingers. “I love you,” I told him.

He instinctively wiped his nose and smiled behind his hand. “I love you, too.”

I “put his nose back” before pushing myself up from reclining on the seat. He was smiling, he was trying not to giggle, and we were going to be fine. I closed his door and went around the back of the car to get to the driver’s side car door.

When we pulled up to Haley’s house, Jack unbuckled himself, grabbed his bag, and let himself out of the car. I threw my keys in my palm after closing my car door behind me. Jack waited for me on the sidewalk. I held out my hand as I got closer and he took it. We walked together up the sidewalk and to Haley’s front door. I reached over and rang the doorbell. We waited a moment before the lock clicked and Haley opened the door.

“Mommy!” Jack cheered as he let go of my hand and ran to hug her.

Haley smiled and picked him up, “Hey, kiddo.” She looked up at me, “You must be Y/N. Aaron called to tell me you were dropping him off. Thank you for picking him up and bringing him here.”

“It was no really no problem,” I smiled back, fidgeting with the keys in my hands. Jack wriggled out of Haley’s arms and ran into the house to go play or start doing homework— whatever he fancied before his mother would inevitably force him to start his homework, irregardless. “I’m sorry for springing him on you like this.”

“It’s really no problem,” she shook her head, still smiling. “I get it.” She glanced over her shoulder quickly to make sure that Jack was gone. “He was really excited about seeing you guys. It’s been a few weeks.”

“I know…” I whispered, looking at my hands. “There’s not much I can do about it.”

Haley chuckled shortly, “That sounds familiar.”

I brought my eyes back up to meet hers. She was sizing me up, that much was obvious. She wanted to know if I was good for Hotch and their son. She wanted to know the kind of person I was and if she could trust me around Jack. I didn’t blame her. I was a stranger that was now sleeping in her old bed beside her ex-husband and I was now a large part of her son’s life. She wanted to know if I was responsible, if I showed in any way just how much I loved Hotch and Jack. She wanted to know that I would keep them safe.

My phone started ringing as the awkward silence hung in the air. I answered, “Aaron?”

“We got the case,” he told me.

I sighed quietly so that he couldn’t hear it. We weren’t going to get to see Jack for at least another few days. “Okay. I’ll head back to the office. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He hung up the call.

I stuffed my phone back in my pocket. “I have to go,” I told her. She nodded understandingly. I bowed my head and turned to start walking back to the car, but I stopped myself in my tracks. I spun on my heels to face Haley before she could close the front door, “Will you tell him that I’m sorry for me again? I don’t think he quite believes me.”

She paused, her hand still on the inside doorknob, and then she nodded. “He loves you a lot, you know. He tells me all the time.”

I smiled to myself as I continued on my way towards the car after silently acknowledging her statement.

What she said lifted my spirits more than realized, I think. I didn’t like having to leave Jack at all, but to think that he was mad at me, that made it only more painful. For Haley, his mother, to have the bravery to look me in the eye and admit that her son loved me, that was a relief. She didn’t have to be kind to me like that. Hell, I was scared shitless just before meeting her because there were so many reasons for her to hate me and make my life a living hell. But something about how she sized me up— or profiled me, if you will— made her mind up about me. She was okay with me being in Hotch and Jack’s life, and she was okay with Jack loving me as a parent figure. That meant everything to me.

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagines #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfiction #aaron hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch hotchner #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner imagines

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pagesoftaph · 3 years

Text

Zhong Chenle- I hear you

❝ | hufflepuff!chenle x slytherin!femreader

➷ | setting: reader has extremely low voice. Talks about anxiety and dealing with it.

✎ | words: 2.4k

━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━

“-quick, the next class is transfiguration, can't be late for the life of me, or McGonagall will have my head.”

Passing conversations flows past her ears, as y/n bends down to pick up her fallen books. She, by nature, was a very clumsy person. Cheerful, willfully absent-minded, prone to bumping herself against the weirdest things. She has barely managed to hold herself upright when the staircase she was on decided to change, and she would have fallen if it not had been for the quick reflexes of her longtime friend, fellow sixth year Zhong Chenle.

“Y/n, if I wasn't here you would have fallen down,” Chenle glances down the endless pit of staircases below, ”tumbled below the changing stairs.” Chenle says as he squats to quickly help her up. “Like, for sure.”

y/n grins up at him cheekily, "Yes but I got you, so I'm okay as of now!”

“You won’t be if you don't hurry up. That new herbology professor will have you ass if you're late again.” Chenle presses on, grabbing her forearm and quickly running to the greenhouses down the staircase, past the talking and moving paintings, past the grand foyer with its magnificent statues, the house point pillars, the grand gates of the castle and out in the sunny field.

“Damn, is it a good day today, huh?” Chenle beams. ”Let's get down to the lake after classes, we really could use a change of scenery for the evenings.” A dazzling smile adores his face as his eyes glisten under the bright sky. Y/n laughs, running ahead and playfully looking back at her friend. “Fine, but only after we're done with half of our homework. We'll spend most of the weekend out, promise!”

Chenle stops at greenhouse no 4.

“Okay, now you go on in, you're not late thankfully and I'll meet you in the library after class then, yeah?” Chenle says as y/n joins the rest of the class outside the greenhouse, waiting for the professor to open the door. “Okay, see you in 2 hours, Le.”

Chenle nods, giving y/n one last smile before he turns around and heads down towards his Care for Magical Creatures class.

He can’t wait for the day to end, it i a beautiful day to spend outside.

──── ──⋆⋅☆⋅⋆── ────

“-it is interesting how often humans rely on nature, only to pay the generosity back with greed and systematic destructive consumption.”

Y/n listens attentively, the words and perspectives and the never ending food for thought, the pondering conversations her professors incited within her to be mesmerizing. It isn't even that she was inclined to follow in their footsteps, but it is something about how people who have the knowledge and the ability to successfully pass it to others who were not at the necessary level to understand it without appearing condescending that greatly appeals to her. She can listen to such people talk for hours, and if her interest stayed, even participate, and that is why she doesn't realize when the class ends. The two hours seems to have breezed by.

She thinks about the class as she wals back up to the castle, down the dungeons to the dormitory.

“basilisk.”

Y/n says he password as she reaches the door and the intricately sculpted snakes hiss back, and the doors of the Slytherin house dormitory swing open.

The dorm room is alive with activity, with the week's classes ending and a perfectly sunny day just waiting to be enjoyed, the students are filled with pent up frustrations of the week to let go of and have the time to relax. But just a little more time, and then y/n will be outside too. She changes her clothes, packs up the things she’d require for the study session with Chenle and heads to the library.

Sure enough, there sits her Hufflepuff friend, at their usual table at the back, already at work with his homework.

“Hi, Lele,” Y/n greets as she slides in a chair opposite to him, pulling out her books and parchment. Chenle looks up, his hand still writing away. “Hi, princess. How was herbology?”

Y/n fills Chenle in about her interesting class and Chenle fills her in with his. Chenle loved animals, he knew he wanted to work for magical creatures ever since he touched his first hippogriff by chance on a day at his father’s work at the Ministry of Magic.

“-and then the baby unicorn just walked up to me and laid her head on my lap! Literally they don't trust men, at all. Even professor Hitch was shocked, but the unicorns loved me. I'm just really happy, like really happy.” Chenle shares gleefully.

“That is so cool, Chenle! But also so huge, a baby unicorn on top of it?” y/n replies as they begin packing up things after almost two hours of work, very productive two hours per say. Chenle swings his arm around y/n's shoulders.

“Be jealous. But no, come on, if we can I'll go take you to meet them.”

Y/n's eyes widen. It is tempting, meeting a unicorn was certainly something she wants to do. And she knows Chenle will never risk something that will be harmful to any animal. She nods, “okay, but in the morning, right now let's just go see what the giant squid is up to.”

──── ──⋆⋅☆⋅⋆── ────

“I wanna spread out and float in the cool waters too.” Chenle muses, glancing sideways as the giant squid lazily floats about, students laughing in the distance.

“Me too, I wanna fly up in the sky between the clouds and float above the waters aimlessly, and maybe even go up the mountains at the horizon. Just enjoy the cool breeze.” Y/n mumbles back as she strokes Chenle's hair, his head on her lap.

They are under the shade of a tree, the sun about to set in a while. It is still bright, its reflection casting iridescent glows in the lake. They have been out for a while, having walked around the lake, playing with some sixth years a game of dodgeball before retiring to watch the sunset due in a while.

Talking about their week, catching up on things and just passing time.

“Lele?” Y/n asks, the hesitancy in her voice evident. Like she has thoughts holding her back against whatever she was about to say. Chenle hums back and when he feels y/n's hand pause in his hair with no reply, he peeks one eye open. She isn’t looking at him, but a patch of grass beside his face. She looks unsure, eyes hesitant, her bottom lip between her teeth. Chenle subconsciously reaches out to his hand to free it. “What is it, y/n?”

Y/n closes her eyes. “Can you hear me?” Chenle furrows his eyes in confusion. “Um, yeah? Of course I can hear you. What do you mean?”

Y/n’s fingers begin to fumble in his hair just like her tongue fumble with words. “No, I mean, yeah, but volume per say, can you hear my voice?” Chenle immediately sits up across from her, assessing her face. Y/n feels her face become hot, unable to look at a single place. Embarrassment is quickly catching up to her. Maybe I shouldn't have asked that, she thinks, eyes shut tight into crescent moons.

Chenle sighs, pulling up his knees to his chest and resting his hands on them. “I can hear you perfectly well. And clear. Who said what to you?” His gaze was piercing. Y/n feels even more nervous now, she can never bring herself to look into his eyes during moments like this. Lele just looks at her so deeply she swears he can see her hyperventilating in her own mind.

“Um, just some people. Um, some juniors.”

“What did they say?”

Y/n looks up, into his eyes. For some reason, her head just went up. “That in our relationship, how you must be doing all the talking.” She speaks in a single breathe. The words are tumbling out. “Since I don't have a voice, an audible voice at least. They asked if you can even hear me. Or, how does our relationship work-um, just yeah things like this.”

Embarrassed. That's all y/n can feel. Hot burning embarrassment. There isn't a single day she doesn't think about her voice being the way it is. Because that's all people who hear her for the first time ask, or at least, their eyes seem to ask, “Why is your voice like this?”

Every once in a while she thinks of her throat being cut open on the table, a man in blue and a mask with his knives and scissors working away, gifting her with a brand new voice. Loud, clear, pleasant voice. Audible voice.

“Because you are so lively, so loud, so full of life, you are,” Y/n’s eyes flicker around, her hands flying about as she grasps at words. “a little sun- you know? How could you be with someone like me? Who you can't even hear unless you're an arm's distant away at maximum, who can't shout, can't be heard across the door or class or yard or dorm or- just, like, doesn't even have a voice. Like, is just like a broken record or stereo or just weird, bad, just faint noise on your ears- and,” y/n looks away. “Just, weird you know?”

Chenle keeps looking at y/n, how her eyes flickers, how she can't look into his eyes, how her mouth moves, so many words spilling out suddenly, her hands moving fast, making gestures. The habit of hand gestures, Chenle realizes in that moment, is defensive. It is like a crutch to her voice, to visually imply what she was trying to say if people don't hear her. Chenle reachs out and holds her hands together, essentially stopping the flurry of movement y/n doesn't even know or realize she is making.

“I hear you. Y/n, your voice is a part of you, you can't change it. I can hear you perfectly well, yes sometimes I have to pay more attention or stand closer or lean down in certain occasions but that's okay, that's not a big deal. Tell them yeah Chenle is more than enough for the two of us, even though your voice is unique and so endearing to me. You don't have to listen to them.”

Y/n smiles. It’s so, so easy to say that when you have a perfectly fine voice. It wasn’t even about her quality of voice to y/n, what mattered to her the most was the loudness. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal at all. People were, most of the time, dismissive of her take on her voice and how it affected, and continues to affect her. They waved it off, saying it’s nothing, all in her mind. Nothing too different, just a bit low than others. But that’s not what her experiences said.

Reading aloud in class was always an anxiety inducing affair for her.

‘I can’t hear you’

‘Y/n,’ the professor tusked. ‘be louder.’

‘Child, be loud.’

‘Can you hear her?’

‘No.’

‘But you’re sitting right beside her..’

Her voice affects every single aspect of her life. The cold, green envy y/n feels for anyone with a beautiful, boisterous, loud voice knows no bound. They don’t even realize, she thinks to herself all the time, how helpful their voice is. How much it helps them through out their daily life.

People constantly ask her why she’s quiet. It’s because at a point her voice refused to come out. It just wouldn’t. Her friends had to lean in, put their ear right beside her mouth and still they’d barely be able to hear her. After numerous tries when they failed to get what she said, they’d make a guess at it might be and nod, pretend to agree, as if they understood her and go back to the loud conversation happening around them.

But y/n’s smile would drop. Their guess wasn’t even close to what she had said, no, was attempting to say. Even with their ear right fucking by her mouth, they couldn’t hear her. It broke y/n. To have a voice that refused to come out, that went back on her 99% of the time. To not be able to confidently read aloud, to not be able to even just call across the classroom, shout or singly loudly or cheer aloud when her House won a Quidditch match.

‘Y/n, even if you don’t open your mouth there would be no effect on the cheer.’

It’s funny to y/n how she’s jealous of her peers to be able to holler, whoop, cheer for something they like. Unless your voice is below the normal loudness, it’s easy to not even notice how much your voice helps you.

Shouting when you’re frustrated. Hollering across the yard to call out to a friend. Being audible in a club with music blasting or in a crowd or room with chatter and bustle. To have your voice carry out across the room with no problem. To be able to scream in alarm, indignation, fear when the situation calls.

This is all something y/n can’t do even though she has a voice. She wonders what she’d do if she needs help, ever since her mother one day asked her if she can scream.

It sucks.

But she can’t change it, or do anything about it.

Let people say what they want to. Their voices are perfectly fine and will remain so. It’s only y/n herself who has to deal with it and work on or around it. That is a choice that she does have.

Chenle has a stable, hauntingly beautiful voice. When he sings, y/n feels calm, mesmerized. His voice is angelic, clear, loud but also soft. Just like water. Strong enough to cut mountains, but also gentle enough to caress y/n’s heart at her weakest with its softness.

Your voice alone drives me to tears, she recalls a poetry she read in her fourth year as Chenle speaks.

“Chenle, can you sing for me? I’d like to hear you right now.” Y/n requests and who is Chenle to be able to resist her when she looks at him like those big eyes, the insecurities and doubts at edge, but still visible in them. Chenle pulls her down, resting her head on his lap. Y/n closes her eyes, her hand going down to hold Chenle’s and guide it onto her hair as he begins to sing.

naui cheonsa, Y/n smiles. naui sesang.

━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━━━━━━━━

#nct #chenle #nct chenle #chenle drabbles #nct fluff

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starryviolentine · 4 years

Photo

Color Me Blue (That’s Me Without You): A Pre-Apocalypse Story

Part 1 (here) Part 2 (here) Part 3 (here) Part 4 (here) Part 5 (here) Part 6 (here) Part 7 (here) Part 8 (here) Part 9 (here)

Part 10/10: Special Delivery

Another school week has come and gone, and the students of Ericson Academy have finally reached the weekly checkpoint that everyone looks forward to the most—the weekend. After five straight days of lessons, homework and responsibilities, the one day per week when there’s no schedule, nowhere to be, and nothing but unstructured fun and relaxation is here at last. The sun is shining, the air is crisp, and, according to the weather forecast, later in the day it should be warm enough to play outside without a jacket. What a beautiful Saturday morning indeed.

Sundays are different. There are mandatory chores in the morning and extracurriculars scheduled all throughout the afternoon. Students aren’t allowed to use the gym or the outdoor fields unless they have sports practice, nor can they set foot inside the creative arts building unless they have an art or music lesson.

But that’s a worry for tomorrow.

Today is still Saturday. For Therissa, this means snoozing until noon, then lazing around in bed with only her phone and CD player to keep her company until she feels like getting up. As for Brody and Violet, the two younger girls have been out and about all morning and are now on their way back to their bedroom to drag their teenage roommate out to lunch. After some complaining and a bit of colorful language on Therissa’s end, the three of them head down to the dining hall to grab a bite to eat, and then, when they’re done, return to their room to hang out.

Separately, usually. Therissa likes to do her own thing, and most of the time it’s just Brody and Violet doing stuff together. Once in a blue moon, though—if all the stars and the planets align just right and Therissa is in a good mood—Brody can convince her to join them. And today, much to the twin-tailed tween’s delight, is one of those days.

Tonight, they’re going to have a campout. Or, rather, a camp “in” due to the lack of a tent, a campfire, s’mores, and the whole outdoors element that are all fundamental to a typical night of camping. Nonetheless, Brody and Violet move their mattresses to the middle of the bedroom floor and pitch a little blanket fort above them using their chairs and desks. Therissa plops herself right in the center of the mattresses and stretches out comfortably while her roomies circle the room like busy bees, collecting all of the pillows and blankets to use for extra cushioning.

“Let’s play a game!” Brody suggests as she flops belly-first onto a mountain of blankets. “Truth or dare.” She frowns when Violet and Therissa let out a collective groan. “Come on, it’ll be fun. This is our first campout together, so we should get to know each other better.”

“You do realize we’ve all been sleeping in the same room for, like, a year, right?” Therissa points out.

“Oh, hush, you know what I mean.”

“So, basically, you want to ask me a bunch of questions and make me talk about myself,” Therissa says, catching on to Brody’s ulterior motive right away. Propping her head up with her elbow, she turns to Violet and screws up her face into one of exaggerated distaste, causing the blonde to slap her hands over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud. Violet crouches down and crawls into their fort, taking a seat next to Therissa, who winks at her.

“It’s for all of us,” Brody insists. “You get to ask me and Vi stuff, too.”

“Can’t we just, like, play cards or something?” Violet doesn’t particularly feel like talking about herself today, either. Truth or dare is one of those risky games with the potential to get uncomfortably personal. A feeling deep in her gut is telling her that playing something like that with Therissa around might not make for the most enjoyable of times. The teen seems like the type who would ask weird questions and come up with mortifying dares.

“I second that,” says Therissa, holding up a hand with her index finger extended. “But no baby games like Go Fish or Old Maid. You guys know how to play poker?”

“Isn’t that the one where you have to… you know... take off your clothes?”

The eldest girl snorts, nearly choking, and cackles loudly. “No, V, that’s strip poker.”

A disappointed pout appears on Brody’s face as she allows herself a moment to mourn the loss of the truth or dare game that never was. With Therissa and Violet being so similar, she comes to the realization that she very well might have to get used to being outnumbered again. It was the same way at home with her two older brothers. Now that she and her siblings are all a bit older, wiser, and have learned to compromise every now and then, it’s not so bad, but Brody remembers that when she was really little, Dawson and Hunter hardly ever wanted to do what she wanted to do. It was always two against one, and never in her favor.

Brody doesn’t dwell on it for long, though. The most important thing is that she’s getting to spend time with Violet and Therissa. Together. At the same time! And card games can be fun, too. Brody’s never played poker in her life, but she’d love to learn. Therissa leaves their fort just to grab a slightly worn deck of cards from her desk drawer, but then Brody and Violet scoot in close, listening intently as the teen starts to explain the rules.

Therissa only gets as far as explaining the object of the game when there’s a knock at the door. Brody excitedly hops up to see who it is. “I’ll get it!”

It’s Marlon, this week’s mail boy, wearing khaki shorts, white knee-high socks, and a deep red polo shirt embroidered with the Ericson emblem. The matching red newsie cap atop his head is just as prominent as the scowl on his face. Each week, a different student is selected to help sort student mail and then deliver it to the correct dorm rooms. Unlike Brody, who sports the uniform with pride every time her turn to be mail girl comes along, the blonde boy is clearly one of the many kids at the school who finds the whole thing kind of humiliating.

Reaching into the large, brown satchel hanging from his shoulder, Marlon pulls out a padded envelope and practically shoves it into Brody’s hands. “Special delivery. See ya!”

“Thanks,” says Brody, but her classmate has already taken off running down the hall. Shutting the door, Brody comes back to the center of the room and takes a closer look at the small, lumpy package. “Oh, Therissa, it’s for you!” She glances at the name and address in the upper left corner and grins. “It’s from Mel!”

“Oh, that.” Therissa already knows what’s inside the package without having to look, and she’s already starting to feel embarrassed at the thought of what’s about to go down. Keeping a straight face, she does her best to play it cool. “Wanna open it for me?”

“Sure,” replies Brody, returning to her previous spot in the fort and shaking the envelope ever so slightly. Violet moves closer, just as curious, watching as her friend tears open one end of the package. Before Brody can reach inside, the envelope’s contents start rolling and something colorful falls out onto the mattress below. The girl blinks, speechless, and stares down at the two tiny glass bottles in awe. “It’s… nail polish. But they’re—”

“They’re yours.”

Brody takes in a sharp breath and her hands go to cover her mouth. “What?”

Therissa reaches out and takes the nail polish, holding each color in front of her face to get a look at them before they go to their new owner. There’s a shockingly hot pink and a bright sky blue, and the thought of wearing either of these colors on her own fingernails sort of makes the teenager want to puke, but they’re disgustingly, disturbingly perfect. “Yeah, I mean, if I ever wake up one day wanting to look like a bubblegum fairy princess, I’ll let you know, but until then”—Therissa removes her roommate’s hands from her face and drops the bottles into her palms—“I think you should hold onto them.”

“Oh, these colors are so cute! Are they really for me?” Brody can’t believe what’s happening. She pinches herself to make sure she’s not dreaming. Ouch. She’s not. Breaking into the biggest smile, Brody hugs the bottles to her chest.

“It’s just, I know how much you wanted to be there when me and Violet did ours, so…” Therissa’s face is getting too warm for her to finish her sentence, so she cuts herself off. “Anyway, if I’m gonna do your nails, I had to make sure we had the right colors. You’re way too… you for any of mine. No offense.”

Squealing, Brody launches herself at the teen and hugs her tighter than ever before. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Violet snickers. “Can you imagine Brody with, like, black nails?”

“And black eyeliner and maybe a little mascara?” Therissa pictures their auburn-haired roomie wearing her makeup and shakes her head, starting to laugh as well. “Oh my god, she’d be like an emo Elmo.” With one final pat onto the younger girl’s back, Therissa pulls away gently. She looks at Brody, grinning in amusement. “What do you think? Wanna try it out? I could give you a couple piercings to match.”

Brody gasps, face contorting into one of absolute horror as she imagines Therissa coming at her ears with a needle. She fervently shakes her head and shudders. “No!”

Therissa and Violet turn to look at each other, but as soon as they make eye contact, they both explode into hysterics. It isn’t long before Brody realizes that the teen was just kidding around, and she soon finds herself giggling, too. Whether it’s joy, sadness, excitement or even fear, Brody tends to absorb the emotions of those around her. They penetrate her down to the bone and she feels them as though they’re her own. Brody can tell what sort of mood Therissa’s in before the teenager even opens her mouth. If Violet has a bad dream and wakes up sad or scared, Brody cries right along with her. When her friends are happy, so is she.

Brody’s always been a little bit like that.

Occasionally her mind wanders. Sometimes Brody thinks about what her life would be like if her parents never sent her to Ericson’s. Would she still be as frightened and anxious as she was before meeting Dr. Larson? Would she have found a best friend whom she loves as much as she loves Violet? Like everything else in the world, life at a boarding school has its ups and downs. Some days are tougher than others, and being away from her family is rough sometimes, but Brody is forever grateful that she ended up here.

Here, as in Ericson Academy, of course. But also here, as in right here in her bedroom, sitting in between her best friend, Violet and her newest friend, Therissa, in the cozy comfort of their blanket fort.

And here, on this particular Saturday afternoon, Brody knows one thing for certain—she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

#twdg brody #twdg violet #twdg #the walking dead game #brody twdg #violet twdg #fanfic #color me blue

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needtherapy · 4 years

Text

to be human is a haunting, Part 3

A love story for Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen

In a modern world, in a modern city that still has need for cultivators, Song Lan

(war hero, rogue cultivator, orphan)

goes for a run in the park, kills a dankang, makes a friend, and meets a beautiful man with a dog, all before he has to go to therapy. It's the best day he's had in ten years.

Read more Kristina Writes Tiny Stories

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Read over on AO3 instead

Rated E for Explicit sexy times, mild demon killing, and swearing.

— ⚔ — — ⚔ — — ⚔ —

Part 3

“How are you doing today?” Dr. Wen asks.

Such a simple question, one people answer every day, but Song Lan is stumped. He’s distracted and flustered, and he can’t stop thinking about the man in the park. He should just say he’s fine. That’s what people say.

“Fine.”

Dr. Wen nods thoughtfully. “It took a long time to answer. What were you thinking about?”

Fairy tales, Song Lan thinks. How people in fairy tales fall in love at first sight, and how utterly unrealistic that is. How can you know you’ll want to spend your life with someone just by the color of their hair or the suggestion of a wide, graceful smile, or the shape of their body in the distance? That can’t be all love is.

“Nothing,” he says.

— ⚔ —

They make it to the bed eventually, after Song Lan has the absolute pleasure of peeling off Xingchen’s bespoke jacket and vest, unbuttoning the white shirt that is made of the softest cotton he’s ever felt, unbuckling his belt, removing his pants and being rewarded with the sight of his gorgeous, glorious body.

“Is it what you hoped?” Xingchen asks when Song Lan is quiet and motionless for a little too long, and he sounds almost nervous.

Song Lan touches the array of tiny freckles on Xingchen’s chest

eight

a constellation of stars

and smiles at him, an easy smile, a smile that feels natural and joyful and right.

“It is. You are,” he says honestly.

Even the things that shouldn’t be sexy—Xingchen nudging him to roll, the question “is this okay,” the condom, the sound of lube—are torment, and by the time Xingchen’s fingers are inside him, moving, dragging harsh, guttural moans from him, Song Lan is hard again, so aroused he’s fairly sure he’s going to finish before Xingchen.

He lifts his hips up more to make it easier, to get Xingchen in faster, and Xingchen laughs at how desperately eager he is.

“So greedy, Zichen. I should make you wait a little longer. I’m sure I can hold out,” Xingchen says, but his hands on Song Lan’s back are trembling, and Song Lan laughs at the absolute lie.

He laughs.

He’s never laughed during sex, never imagined a reason his heart could be filled so fully that laughter would overflow.

“Don’t you dare,” he says.

Xingchen pretends to consider it, so Song Lan catches Xingchen with his legs, pinning him in place even as he feels Xingchen pushing inside him.

And it’s perfect. Xingchen’s hands on his thighs and waist and ass feels perfect. Xingchen inside him feels perfect. The way they move together is perfect. Xingchen saying his name is perfect.

“Zichen, where have you been?” Xingchen groans, kissing the space between his shoulder blades. “Why didn’t I find you before?”

Song Lan doesn’t have an answer for that, but for the first time, he doesn’t care to look in the past with regret. Now is enough. Now is a place to start.

Xingchen is rougher than Song Lan would have guessed, although Song Lan senses it’s only the edge of what he’s capable of, and every time he thrusts against Song Lan, it’s hard enough that he feels it in his chest, hard enough that lightning strikes him over and over. Everything Xingchen is—everything he could be—Song Lan wants.

Xingchen comes with one hand clenched tightly in Song Lan’s hair, the other curled around his hip bone, fingernails digging into Song Lan’s skin, tiny half moons he expects to see later. Song Lan only has time to stroke himself twice; the involuntary tightening of Xingchen’s hands, the sound of him moaning Song Lan’s name, is enough for his second orgasm to rocket through him, sharp as a blade.

Song Lan tilts awkwardly, falling away from Xingchen to land on his side, and Xingchen chuckles before he lays down in front of Song Lan, face to face. His mouth seems to be permanently locked in a smile, and Song Lan can’t do anything but gaze at him.

“Where’s your dog?” he finally asks, when he can think and breathe and think and breathe.

“I told her to wait in the living room as soon as I saw it was you on my doorstep,” Xingchen tells him, and Song Lan gapes.

“That was…”

He stops.

He has no idea how long ago it was. Has he been here for hours? Minutes? Days?

“I don’t know how long it’s been,” he says, and Xingchen raises his eyebrows.

Song Lan tries to explain. “I always know. I know how long things take and how far things are. Your door is 3.24 miles from mine. There are sixteen stairs to the second floor and fifteen to the third floor, which is odd. But I don’t know how long I’ve been here.”

Xingchen ponders this for a moment and draws a line down Song Lan’s nose. “Does it matter?”

Song Lan ponders this for a moment and kisses the tip of Xingchen’s nose. “No. I guess it doesn’t.”

— ⚔ —

“Have you ever considered getting a pet?” Dr. Wen asks.

“No,” Song Lan lies. He used to have a cat that curled up on his head at night. He’d chosen an apartment that didn’t allow pets so he wouldn’t be tempted to get another big orange cat with green eyes.

“Why haven’t you? A cat, maybe?” Dr. Wen asks, as though Song Lan had said yes.

He hates it when Dr. Wen sees him.

— ⚔ —

They bathe in the most luxurious shower Song Lan has ever seen, in a bathroom the size of his first apartment, with the dog laying on the bathmat. She licks Song Lan’s foot when he gets out of the shower and looks up at him with a silly smile. He grins back at her, and then feels foolish.

“Dinner in? Or dinner out?” Xingchen asks, handing him a huge, plush towel.

A-Qing barks once and Xingchen says, answering as if she had spoken, “I was going to let Zichen choose, but dinner in sounds good to me too.”

Song Lan smiles. “Is she even a dog?” he jokes, but Xingchen tips his head thoughtfully.

“I don’t know. Sometimes I suspect she’s a demon.” He laughs suddenly. “But if she is, she’s the best demon dog in the world, aren’t you, my little bamboo shoot?” He bends over to scratch her ears, and she flops on the floor, rolling for belly rubs.

While they wait for dinner to arrive—Xingchen says delivery is better for the environment than his cooking—he shows Song Lan the house, which has a name: Jiufang. Xingchen says it was built after The Fire, but it has always been named Jiufang. It is every bit as intimidating as Song Lan thought it would be from his research and cursory glance

but still a home

filled with Xingchen

casually magnificent in a way only achieved through significant amounts of money. There’s a dumbwaiter. A copy of The Poppy War sitting open on a hidden bay window seat overlooking the back garden. And, Xingchen insists, a ghost named Hubert, who haunts a fat leather chair in the attic.

“It’s my mother’s house,” Xingchen explains. “She bought a mountain and moved out west, so I’m barnacling here now.”

Bought a mountain.

That has to be a metaphor.

“No, she actually bought a mountain. It used to be a ski resort, but she doesn’t ski. She just thought the view was nice.” Xingchen shrugs. “That’s how she is. You’ll like her.”

An involuntary smile slips onto Song Lan’s face at the idea that he’ll meet Xingchen’s mother someday, even if she sounds absolutely terrifying.

Xingchen has an old Polaroid camera and makes Song Lan take pictures with him and a-Qing. A-Qing manages to lick Song Lan’s face twice as the shutter snaps, and he growls at her, tugging on her ears and scratching her chin in feigned exasperation. Her long nose and laughing smile find a place to roost inside his heart too.

The doorbell rings with dinner, and Xingchen tells Song Lan to answer it while he sets the mood, which apparently means classical music.

Sitting at a table in the pristine black and white kitchen and listening to what Xingchen says is Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, they eat food from a restaurant Song Lan has heard of but didn’t realize would do takeout, much less delivery at 10 pm. The only thing he’s sure he recognizes is the steak, which is phenomenal, as is everything else he tries. It has been three years since he ate a meal with anyone else. Three years, two months, and six days since his last meal as a soldier, to be precise, which he always is. Since the day he walked away.

Xingchen reaches out his hand and Song Lan takes it. It feels like a clock somewhere inside him has stopped.

— ⚔ —

“Song Lan, I’m going to give you some homework. We’re going to start a scrapbook. So take the weekend, and next week, bring me one thing that represents something you did.”

It’s not a question, so Song Lan asks one. “Why?”

“Why do you think?” Dr. Wen asks.

Song Lan curses himself for answering even once. Answering is endless, like zucchinis you can never get rid of.

He shrugs, and Dr. Wen clicks his tongue against his teeth.

“I think you do know why. Take the weekend to think about that, too,” Dr. Wen says, a little tightly.

— ⚔ —

They curl up on the couch together as the music shifts to a dark and yearning cello solo, the backing orchestra swelling in power like white-capped winter waves on the lake. Xingchen leans back against his chest, a-Qing lays across both of their legs. Song Lan wraps one arm around Xingchen and rests the other on a-Qing’s head. He counts his heartbeats, matching them Xingchen’s, matching them to fit this place and this man and this life he wants nothing more than to be a part of.

“Zichen, I have a confession.”

Xingchen is so quiet, so tremulous, Song Lan’s breathing stutters. There’s always a catch. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was expecting a catch.

“I’ve known about you...who you are...for a while,” Xingchen says, laying his hand over Song Lan’s as though he thinks Song Lan might rabbit away.

He’s not wrong. Song Lan feels his muscles tense, and he coaxes them to relax. It’s not uncommon, he reminds himself. Sometimes people have heard of Song Lan, rogue cultivator. Sometimes they’ve heard of Song Lan, decorated war hero. Less often here and now, but still too frequent for Song Lan’s preference, they’ve heard of Song Lan, last member of the Baixue Farms family that was wiped out by a lone shooter

a tragedy, the papers said

no way to prevent random violence, the news said

intent on vengeance, seeking recompense for the lives the war had taken from the one soldier he knew

orphaned, the sad woman on the television said

not saying we condone his actions, the lawyer said

he wasn’t in his right mind, the jury said

as though it hadn’t taken enough from Song Lan before his family was killed, hours before he got there, clutching his discharge papers in his hand like a first-prize blue ribbon.

“Okay,” he says, expecting more. “How long?”

Xingchen doesn’t answer right away, and when he does, he avoids the question.

“I heard the major factions were recruiting you and you’d refused, but they wouldn’t relent. They were paying your cleaning fees, and I think sometimes putting...putting danger in your path so you would need them,” Xingchen says in a rush, ignoring a-Qing’s grumble of protest when he adjusts to look at Song Lan.

“So...so I took over the payments. That way, they couldn’t leverage you at least. I can afford it,” he adds, waving a hand at the house when Song Lan frowns. “I intended to introduce myself first but…”

He falls back, dropping his hand in his lap and looking contrite. “I saw you in the park one morning, backlit against the sunrise, and I lost my nerve. You were...I don’t know, so beautiful and cold and quiet. I couldn’t just traipse up to you and announce, ‘Hi, I’m Xingchen, and I’m taking over your life.’”

Song Lan’s mouth twitches and he resists the bubbling laughter. He reaches out and pulls Xingchen back to him, and Xingchen squeaks in surprise. Song Lan tucks Xingchen under his chin and breathes in his scent, clean lemon soap and honey. Whatever part of him is offended by the presumption, by the meddling, melts away. Why should he bother with anger? Why should he destroy the first thing he’s wanted in ten years? For pride?

Song Lan kisses the top of his head. He is allowed to lay here and kiss the top of Xingchen’s head. “You’re right, I don’t want my life run by anyone else,” he finally says. “No one else but you.”

“Two and a half years, “Xingchen whispers, stubbornly determined to confess everything. “To answer your question. I’m not usually such a coward.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Song Lan says.

I love you either way, he thinks.

— ⚔ —

Song Lan hands Dr. Wen an envelope and watches him take things out of it.

A menu.

A CD of cello music.

A business card.

An ebony hair stick.

A Polaroid picture of two smiling men and a silly dog.

A key.

He is ready to stop living in the past. It is always going to be there, but so is the present. So is the future.

“I moved,” he says, and it is entirely worth the words to see the look on Dr. Wen’s face.

— ⚔ —

Song Lan moves into the mansion.

He doesn’t really want to live in opulence with Hubert, but Xingchen gently points out that it is easier for him to navigate a familiar space and neighborhood. Song Lan feels like shit for not thinking of it, but Xingchen says getting used to someone else takes time. He has time. They have time.

Xingchen agrees to get a cat.

They pick a sleek grey cat with scars on his face and a bite out of his ear, because he walks up to a-Qing, flicks his tail under her nose, and butts her chin. A-Qing sniffs the ruff of his neck suspiciously but eventually licks his head. They name him Chengmei. He’s already achieved beauty.

Maybe he’d thought that this newfound tide of love would wash away the nightmares, but after three days of bliss, Song Lan wakes up screaming, hand out, reaching for something. Fuxue? His mother? He doesn’t remember, but what he finds is Xingchen, grasping his hand, and a-Qing, leaning against his back, head on his shoulder. Chengmei, that traitor, doesn’t even flinch from his spot on Song Lan’s feet.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he pants, unable to ground himself in this unfamiliar place.

Xingchen touches his cheek lightly, and it’s at least two points of comfort.

“Don’t be. It’s okay.”

He sounds like he means it, but Song Lan still climbs out of the bed and backs toward the door.

“I should go,” he says. He doesn’t know where. Just...away.

Xingchen exhales. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

Song Lan stops, nonplussed. “What? No, I’m...I can’t be around...no, you don’t have to.”

Xingchen is already pulling on clothes. All black. Hunting clothes, Song Lan thinks. “I know. But I want to.” He grins up at Song Lan. “You said I could run your life. Let’s go hunt.”

Xingchen’s vision is worse at night, but he’s no less sure-footed, the tapping of the cane eventually disappearing from Song Lan’s conscious thought. Every once in a while, a-Qing bumps into Xingchen to redirect him, but otherwise, a casual observer would barely realize that the handsome man with the feather-light steps is being guided by sound and dog.

Song Lan hasn’t hunted with a partner since he was a teenager, and never with anyone as good as Xingchen. Even here they fit together, Song Lan’s power and agility blending with Xingchen’s grace and intuition.

Luo Qingyang is delighted when they call her to clean up a nest of jueyang at an abandoned warehouse on the other side of the Loop. She seems entirely unsurprised to find the dawn rogue and the silent rogue together.

“Eight!” she exclaims, surveying the bodies and rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain. “Boys, if I beat Zonghui this quarter, I am taking you out to dinner.”

“And then you’ll invite us to your D&D game?” Xingchen teases.

Qingyang laughs. “Have either of you even played?”

“That is beside the point,” Xingchen says archly. “We agreed to be friends, and friends play D&D together.”

She throws up her hands in mock surrender. “You win! We play at HQ on Wednesdays. Come at 7 pm.”

“I’m good at this already,” Xingchen whispers loudly to Song Lan. “I like winning.”

Song Lan wants to kiss him. It must show on his face because Qingyang laughs, doubling over and slapping her leg.

“Oh, I knew it. I knew it! Nie Daddy is going to die when I claim the pool,” she crows, still chuckling as she climbs back in the van and leaves them.

Xingchen pushes Song Lan against the brick wall and kisses him, biting his earlobe and sliding a hand under his shirt, a conflagration of hunger that turns Song Lan to floating, falling ash.

“Let’s go home,” he says, lips against Song Lan’s throat.

Home.

He didn’t think he wanted a home, but he has one now.

He didn’t think he wanted friends, but apparently he has them now.

He didn’t think he wanted to fall in love, but he is so far in it, he already can’t remember the shape of his loneliness before.

Home.

Us.

Let’s go home.

Notes:

旧房 jiù fáng : old house

#the untamed #cql #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #songxiao #song lan #xiao xingchen #kristina writes tiny stories #luo qingyang #wen ning #a-qing #dog #therapy dog #moral of the story: therapy works

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proherostories · 5 years

Text

Internship Break

Author’s note: LOL semi-nsfw? don’t know her

Pairing: Kirishima x OC || Age: They’re 18! Third years <3

WC - 3881 || AO3

Warnings - overstimulation, multiple orgasms, mention of somnophilia, semi-clothed sex

Extra - Koi means love in Japanese. I didn’t use it but subsequently, Koibito means ‘sweetheart’ as well. I tend to use the two as a pair for couples, but for some reason, it didn’t flow the way I wanted this time.

Ugh, everything hurt.

Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, considering he still had the energy to work with. He was definitely sore, though.

Kirishima grunted as he leaned and contorted his upper body backward, groaning as several places in his back popped. Bouncing forward he rolled his shoulders and crossed one arm over, hooked his other over it and stretched it before doing it to the other side. He’d finally gotten to his room in the third-year dorm and after changing out of his hero costume, he really wanted to relax his muscles in the showers. Thank god for weekends and being able to finally relax after patrolling the streets.

Shower caddy in hand, it was fun looking back on how it felt like yesterday when he’d stormed these halls to hunt down Tamaki Amajiki and beg him to help get him interning at the Fatgum Agency. Now Suneater had been a full-fledged Pro Hero for at least two years now, and Kirishima was still interning there because he loved the work and fully intended on joining permanently after he graduated. He had never really expected to be someone who liked the night shift, but it was like, as soon as the sun went down he had a rush of energy.

Today was one of those days that he was still rip-roarin’ ready to go, so there was a skip in his step as he neared the showers. Since it was still early morning, a lot of his classmates were groggy and waking up so it was going to be quiet and wonderful- “Whoa yikes!” he yipped, twisting on the ball of his foot to spin out of the way of someone coming down the hall. Hell ya, Bakugo would’ve even been impressed by those reflexes! “Hey hey, sorry ‘bout-babe!” his casual apologetic smile morphed into a full-blown grin.

“Kiri!” Nagisa perked up excitedly, her beautiful orchid purple eyes making Kirishima’s heart squeeze. Wow, he missed her. “It’s been ages since we saw each other outside of class!”

Kirishima groaned with his head thrown back a bit, but then he rubbed his neck sheepishly, “Yeah, I know. I’m so, so sorry, I know texting isn’t enough sometimes and-” his shoulders stiffened and his eyes widened when he felt her soft, dainty finger on his lips. All of a sudden it was very difficult to ignore the urge to pop the digit in his mouth.

“Now don’t you start,” she told him firmly, a slight scowl on her pretty face. “You don’t need to go spiraling down a rabbit hole there’s no business taking a trip into. I get it, I’ve been busy at my internship too.”

All at once Kirishima’s breath wooshed out of his lungs. Somehow he found himself smitten all over again. Of course, she knew he'd start tumbling with insecurities. Her personality always did it for him, but...had he really not been paying enough attention to his girlfriend that he forgot how gorgeous she looked close up? No...it couldn’t be. He was pretty sure the round baby-face had slimmed down some since the last time he had really looked at her. “Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled breathlessly. “I was about to take a shower, but I’m still pretty awake. You wanna hang at all? Catch up?”

The way she lit up made Kirishima feel like floating. He loved her smile, but he loved it even more when it was directed at him, “That sounds wonderful, Kirishima! I just finished with my own shower and was going to grab breakfast. Would you like me to grab you something? I’m sure after we chill you’re going to pass out. I don’t want you to not eat!” she put her hands on her hips with a pointed look.

Laughing, her fierce expression causing him to give her a cheeky smirk and he nodded to her, “Sure thing, koi,” he realized now that yeah, her usually pastel-purple hair was quite a few shades darker and more flat in comparison to how voluminous it tended to be. It contrasted against her alabaster skin, making her appear even paler. “My room, eta fifteen? I wanted to let the water relax my muscles a bit, so I’m going to chill in there a bit longer than normal.”

“Good for you, doin’ some self-care!” Nagisa beamed at him, “Awesome, it’s a deal.”

Watching her go he couldn’t help the sly lilt to his lips as he watched her hair, mid-length down her back, sway with each step she took. The bounce in her step made him happy, and there was a fire licking underneath his skin now. It really had been too long…

He might’ve wanted to stay in there longer, but after crossing his girlfriend Kirishima became way too antsy to relax. So a fifteen-minute shower turned into ten, but he used that extra time to get back to his dorm room and throw on some sweatpants. A slow devious smirk crossed his face, but he threw on some casual rock music and took a glance at his homework to do that weekend. He could knock out what was easiest first, then with the harder stuff he could ask Bakugo for help, or Midoriya depending on the subject.

A knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts and he called over his shoulder, “It’s unlocked!” before setting his notebooks on his table. When he turned around he had his usual wide grin on his face, “Hey, babe! Man, whatever that is, it smells great!”

“I could hear your music from the hall you know,” Nagisa drawled, closing the door behind her and then paused, her gaze zeroing in on the fact his sweats hung low on his hips and there was seemingly nothing else he was wearing. All of a sudden her face burned.

“Good. Maybe that was the point,” Kirishima’s toothy grin morphed into something sly, and he went to sit on his bed, patting it for her to come join him, “I am starving, you were right. Let’s eat?” he hummed.

Swallowing thickly, Nagisa nodded and had the presence of mind to lock Kirishima’s door first, then walked over to him. Handing him his plate, she sat beside him and...her heart squeezed. In spite of it being extremely clear to her, her boyfriend was being coy, they had a nice, relaxing breakfast together. Well, breakfast for her and dinner for him. As they talked, taking their time eating and not rushing to get to whatever it was Kirishima had intended, it was like they hadn’t been separated at all by work and school life. Conversation came easily, she laughed and smiled at his antics and his own booming laughs warmed her own soul.

They missed each other, dearly, and were both soaking up this time they managed to snag for themselves. By the time they were done eating, Kirishima put the plates on his nightstand to take back to the kitchen later.

He spread his arms wide and his smile this time was nothing but genuinely sweet, “C’mere, Nagi,” he coaxed, “I’ve been wanting to do this since I saw ya.”

Nagisa threw her arms around him without further ado, causing him to laugh quietly and let them fall back onto the bed as if the petite 5ft 2 woman really had managed to knock this 6ft mountain of a man over. Feeling him chuckle and the way it rumbled in his chest made her blush and nuzzle into his neck, squeaking in surprise when she felt him hook his leg over her thigh and essentially trap her in his koala embrace. Snorting in amusement, she rolled her eyes while she smiled into his collar bone, “You’re a dork.”

“You love this dork.” Kirishima immediately quipped, kissing the top of her head and his fingers found their way into her hair. Peering down over her, since the size difference made it pretty easy, he brought his arm up and let the strands fall in ribbons back down onto his bed. The way the morning light through his window caught them made her hair look prismatic. He loved it and missed it. Missed her. After spending a minute or two doing that repeated action, he started feeling himself drift, but he didn’t want to. “I love you, you know.”

“I love you, too, Eiji,” Nagisa murmured, kissing his chest over his heart. Even wrapped up like this against his hard body he was still surprisingly comfortable, and his body heat was making her sleepy when she really should be going about her day. “Even when you’re being a dork, you’re right.”

Snickering, he pulled back enough so he could see her face, taking his hand from her hair to stroke along her cheek. They were both quiet for a long moment before he released her body and scooted down, only to surge forward and capture her lips with his. There was a soft ‘mmph’ sound between them both and Kirishima pulled her tight to his body in a different way. One large hand pressed at the small of her back and the one on her cheek moved into her hair and cupped her head. A soft groan was pulled from his throat, “Nagisa…”

The whisper of his breath on her face and the way he said her name had her shivering against him and a quiet whimper answered his groan, “Eijiro...Please…”

“Please what, baby?” he cooed with a chuckle, “If I don’t know what you want, I can’t give it to you,” he kissed her nose playfully, making her scrunch her face and with a snicker, he caught her in another heated kiss.

Nagi gasped a little when his pointed teeth caught her bottom lip, giving it a gentle tug and bite. Always careful, and plenty of practice to know what was too much pressure. “I know this...is what you were planning, you big pervert…” she called him out finally, but it didn’t stop her from arching her back into his roaming hand and pressing her chest into his, “You could start by evening the score. I seem to be quite overdressed in comparison to you.”

Kirishima laughed and nodded, rolling both of them over so he was on top, “I always love how sassy you can be.” He smirked down at her as his fingers skimmed under her shirt.

God, every time they did this, Nagi felt like his hands were trailing fire along her skin. Her breath was coming out in hot pants and she whined as he skimmed his thumbs under her breasts before popped her bra above them...and leaving them that way. Blinking, she brought her head forward and stared at him in confusion.

His smirk was all the answer she needed, “You gotta get back to whatever you gotta do today soon, right? Fewer clothes to put on if you don’t take them off to begin with,” he winked and started dragging her skirt and undershorts down.

“Let me guess, you’re going to just push my panties to the side, too?” Nagisa arched a dusty purple brow at him but lifted her hips so it would be easier. He was leaving her socks on, too. “I didn’t know you had a clothed-sex kink, Eijiro. Want me to just wear my uniform jacket next time?”

He shrugged innocently, though he did have a pink blush that appeared on his cheeks and nose, “I’ve thought about just tugging your tits out of your uniform shirt before, yeah…” he admitted with a mumble, finally tossing the bottoms off the side of his bed.

Nagi was entertained that he was embarrassed enough that even his ears were going red. Giggling, she brought her feet up and shoved his sweatpants down in one motion, “Doesn’t bother me.” She assured him, eyes darkening as she saw his cock bounce up instead of being constrained by the fabric. “And you thought you were being sly, not wearing anything underneath.”

He shrugged, still blushing, “What can I say? I like being a tease.”

Rolling her eyes a bit, Nagi grinned and sat up enough to grab Kirishima right around his cock, “Shut up, you big dork, and c’mere,” she giggled and let herself fall back onto his bed. By reflex, he had to follow and his hands planted against the bed which bounced with his weight. If he was blushing before his face went red now. His hair even fell forward enough to tickle her face, but all she could do was stare up into wide and dark ruby eyes. Even his mouth was slightly open, his breathing shallow. “You going to stare at me all day, Red Riot?” she cooed, giving his wonderful girth and nice length a couple of long strokes.

At that his eyes rolled back and his dark lashes fluttered across his cheeks as he groaned and throbbed in her grip, hips jerking a bit, “Fuck, babe, can’t a guy admire his lovely girlfriend?” he asked, voice shaky and strained, but he couldn’t deny that she turned him on like no other.

“Well, you did point out that I have things to do, so why don’t you get to it?” Nagi sassed, letting him go and situating herself better on the bed, her legs planted farther apart and she smirked as her fingers trailed down her bare abdomen to her panties, pushing them to the side for him to view her glistening folds, “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

He’d pulled back to shove off his sweatpants the rest of the way when she did that and he had a full-body shudder, “Hell ya, just like that baby,” he purred, and part of him wanted to dip down to taste her since it had been a while, but he also wanted to be buried deep inside. So he settled for gathering some spit onto his tongue and slathering two of his meaty fingers, leaning forward as he reached for his nightstand and her center at the same time. Her gasp as he hit the bullseye made him swallow thick as he yanked the drawer open and as his other hand snatched out a condom he dipped the tips of both digits into her. “Goddamn, koi, so tight for me…” what did he expect, after being apart for so long? At least this proved, if nothing else, that she’d been perfectly faithful to him, too. He worried about that sometimes, when he got so busy he was barely able to say hi to her in class.

Nagisa whined and arched her hips down onto his fingers, rocking and breathing harshly as she watched him rip the foil with ease, making grabby hands he chuckled and gave her the condom with a fond look. Since his hands were busy, she made full use of hers as he got within her reach. “Just, uh...go easy on me?” she asked softly, whimpering as he curled and stretched his fingers a few times.

“Of course,” Kirishima soothed, rubbing her knee and then stroking her inner thigh, “Spread ‘em wide for me, baby...yeah, just like that,” he smirked a bit and tugged his fingers out, popping them in his mouth and he let out a really long moan around them as her flavor filled his senses, “Mmph...god, y’know I can leave my door unlocked for ya and I wouldn’t mind being woken up with ya on top of me,” he winked at her.

It was so lewd how he did that, and Nagi chewed on her lip, “I’ll think about it…” she told him on a heavy breath, “I’ll add somnophilia to the list.”

He rolled his eyes, positioning his cock at her center and rubbing up and down her folds, catching across her clit and he enjoyed her keening when he did. “Ready for me?”

“Please,” Nagi heaved, her legs quivering and eyes half-lidded, “Don’t leave me hanging…”

“Never,” he promised, slipping just the head in and he had to stop anyway because if she was tight around his fingers, she was practically a vice around his dick. Hearing her whimper through his swimming brain, he soothed her by rubbing his hands up and down her torso, grasping at her breasts and distracting her as he gave small rolls of his hips. A little bit at a time. He wasn’t just...huge as a person. He was also girthy, had decent length, and he didn’t give her nearly enough prep. “I love you, you’re doing so good for me...yeah, just like that, a little at a time...relax yourself, baby, you can do it…”

It took a minute, but Nagisa nodded and gasped as he pressed even further. A deep groan left both of them at the same time, causing her to be really grateful for his music in the background. It covered their noises and she didn't feel like she had to hold herself back as much. So when he finally bottomed out she whimpered and bucked her hips, squeezing around him as her body throbbed. This caused his breath to get caught in his throat and he gripped her hips a bit harder than he meant to. She didn't mind, it only added to the heat, the need. "Eiji, please...please move…" the coil in her abdomen was already feeling tight and the smallest movement of his hips had her keening.

"Fuck...fuck, anything for you, I just don't want...to be a two-pump chump. You're so tight, babe, and it wouldn't...it wouldn't be very manly, not at all…" he could already feel the sweat on his neck and how his muscles shook with the effort to hold back. Still, when he felt like he wasn't going to explode he pulled back a little bit and pushed back inside. That sweet sweet friction was going to end him but he wasn't about to leave his lady unsatisfied, no sirree.

Each push and pull of his hips had her gasping and whining in her throat, and for a few minutes, they simply fed off of each other. Nothing but harsh panting and the sound of skin hitting skin mixed with his music, getting drowned out in the best way. She didn't know if it was on purpose, not like it mattered, but it also felt like his thrusts were in time to the songs seemingly flashing by. "Oh god, Eijiro! Just keep...doing that, yes! Oh…" he'd shifted just right and somehow went deeper than before, the curve of his dick rubbing something intense and she shouted, arms going back to grasp at his pillow.

"Yeah?" Kirishima felt like his shower was pointless by now but Nagisa was so worth it. He locked himself in place so he could continue to drive her insane, also hooking an arm around her back to help lock her in place so she wouldn't squirm in pleasure and shift away from the blinding heat. "I got ya, baby...ya close for me?" As amazing as she felt, he knew he could at least push her over the peek twice, "You were...so responsive when...we started…"

His panting words on ragged breath made Nagisa clamp down reflexively. His voice always got to her and she cried out, "Close...close, so close...Eijiro!"

"Yes, yes...please cum, baby…" he gasped with her, "Let me feel you cum around me, yeah...just like...that's it, Nagi…" he watched her body arch up and he surged down, capturing her scream of release in a searing kiss. His music covered a lot, but it wouldn't hide that. It was all well and good, however, since he also had a full-body shudder as her orgasm washed over his length, making her walls clamp down. Yet he had a ways to go before he followed suit. That was part of the fun in his opinion. Getting her to have another right before or during his own. "I'm...not gunna...hold back now…" his voice strained.

Nagisa nodded numbly and was pliable in his arms as he rearranged her to his liking. What she wasn't expecting was the surge of renewed pleasure spike through her body as soon as he reared back. He dragged along her insides and because of her fresh juices, it was so easy to ram it back with no resistance. “Oh god...ah!” then he did it again, rougher this time, slamming so hard she felt it hit her cervix.

Picking up the pace without further ado, if Kirishima wasn’t growling before he was now. His hands had hooked under her knees and he was pressing her down, pistoning as fast as his body would allow. The muscles of his thighs were burning, any attempts of being ‘relaxed’ was thrown out the window, but oh god was it worth it.

Seeing him gnash his teeth, Nagisa whined had to give up on gripping the sheets with how he was starting to push her up the bed towards the wall. Instead, she reached up and gripped at his back to the best of her ability, her cries lewd and desperate. “I...can’t...Eiji, please…” even the way the sound of their lovemaking as skin slapping against skin filled the room made the coil wind tight again.

“Yes you can,” he hissed, feral with the tightening of his abdomen, the buildup and burn under his skin driving him wild. Grunting, he shuddered as her fingers dug into some sensitive spots, making him throb and gasp, “C’mon, Nagi, I’m so close...fall with me, baby…” he was getting lightheaded and he leaned further down, changing his angle which made her eyes go wide and he wasn’t able to catch her scream this time. Too enamored by how beautiful she looked in the throes of passion, he was slammed with his orgasm as if he had been hit by a ton of bricks and he roared his own release, entire body seizing up and his Quirk activating by accident around his hands, cutting and digging into her thighs.

The pain didn’t even register, and she didn’t mind. Smiling weakly, she used her hands around his back to coax him to fall onto his side when his Quirk let up around his body. His huffing and puffing made her giggle, a bit delirious, and she kissed his nose, “My big bad wolf needs to rest now. Don’t worry, I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”

“Maybe I should be that for Halloween or somethin’,” Kirishima mumbled tiredly, but smiled with the barest hint of a shy blush. Grunting as he removed the condom, he heaved himself over her so he could toss it in his bin by his bed, then let himself fall back onto his bed. He could’ve been silly and thumped on her, but he was dead weight by this point and that’d be rude. “Thank you, baby...for staying a little longer,” he cooed as he tossed at least one arm around her torso and nuzzled into her hair. A comfort, but easy enough for her to wiggle free from. “We can...hang out more later...yeah?” he asked sleepily, already drifting.

“Of course, Eiji. Anything for you.”

#bnha eijiro kirishima #eijiro kirishima #kirishima eijirou #kirishima x oc #nagisa yabuchi #original female character #bnha writing blog #bnha writing #kirishima is a dork #kirishima is a good boy #love him #bnha kirishima

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facetiousfanboy · 7 years

Text

Roommate Romance 4

Catching up with others in this au.

Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3

Peridot smiled as she ran her fingers through Amethyst's hair. Her girlfriend was curled up against her with her head resting on Peridot’s lap. They were on a couch in her dorm, watching a series on Notflix. This was a regular date for them, and Peridot loved to share these little intimate moments with Amethyst.

Amethyst sat up slowly and stretched, letting out a soft noise as she did. She leaned back once done and looked at Peridot. “Hey, did you hear about Garnet and Pearl getting together?”

Peridot nodded. “Yes, Pearl and I spoke on the day she became Garnet’s girlfriend. She was very open with her feelings.” Peridot hesitantly leaned her head against Amethyst’s shoulder, sighing softly. “I think they honestly love each other, or at least Pearl loves Garnet.”

Amethyst chuckled and nodded, wrapping an arm around Peridot and kissing the top of her head. “Yeah. You should've seen the two of them in high school, it was like two gay birds trying to act like they didn’t like each other.”

Peridot snorted. “That sounds funny. I’m sorry I missed it.”

Amethyst nodded. “Yeah. Hey have you heard about Rose and this Greg guy? Apparently he's some kind of a musician.”

Peridot shook her head. “No, I wasn’t aware that Rose was seeing anybody. Have you met him?”

“Nah, Rose just told me about him. She's pretty smitten with him too. And from what I hear he’s really cool.” She reached her hand up and ran her fingers through Peridot’s hair. “I’m gonna meet him on Friday after one of his shows. Do you want to come with me?” She asked, hoping the other would say yes. She loved spending time with her, especially outside of the dorms and the school.

Peridot wanted to say yes but she just didn't know what her next weekend would be like. She could have a mountain of homework or some project that she didn’t know about yet by then. “I can’t promise anything right now… I don’t know what sorts of projects I might be assigned between now and then.”

Amethyst sighed softly and wrapped both arms around Peridot, pulling the other against her. “But P!” She whined.

Peridot flailed her arms. “Ah! Stop that!” She started laughing when Amethyst began to kiss her neck. “Amethyst!”

Amethyst let up but put her head on the other's shoulder and gave her the puppy dog eyes. “Please~!”

Peridot blushed and sighed. “Alright, I’ll try to find time, but I can’t be out too late, and you have to buy me dinner. Okay?”

Amethyst kissed Peridot's cheek. “Awesome! I love you P!” She nuzzled her, smiling happily.

Peridot was blushing darkly as she looked at the other and patted her head. “I love you too.” She yawned softly. “Do you want to go to bed?”

Amethyst smirked. “Oh? You want me to take care of you tonight?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Certainly not!” Peridot squeaked, blushing.

Amethyst laughed. “Just kidding P, no need to be so uptight.” She kissed her cheek again then slowly stood up. She bent down and put her arms under Peridot, lifting the girl from the couch. Peridot had taken off her prosthetics before they had started the movie and so she needed a bit of help getting around since she didn’t have any feet.

Peridot wrapped her arms around Amethyst's neck and curled up against her. Amethyst carried her to the bed and laid her down. She then turned off the tv, put Peridot's prosthetics by the bed, and laid down. “You comfortable?”

Peridot nodded. “Yes. Are you certain you can stay tonight?”

Amethyst pulled the covers over herself and Peridot and moved closer to the other, putting an arm around her. “Yeah, we can do whatever you want.” She smiled at the other.

Peridot smiled back and kissed Amethyst on the lips. “Good night you clod.”

Amethyst kissed her again. “You too nerd.” They curled up and fell asleep after a little bit.

Rose took hold of Greg’s hand as they moved through the dimly lit streets of the campus. She smiled at the smaller man. He looked up at her and smiled back. “I really like your campus Rose. Maybe I’ll stick around here for a while.”

Rose chuckled. “Oh will you Mr. Universe? I don’t want to keep you from your tour.”

Greg blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his head. “I mean, I could pick up some work here, maybe even um…” He looked away.

“What?” Rose asked, wondering what he wanted to tell her. He always tried to act so cool when he was around her, but she loved that about him.

He looked at her. “I could live around here. Then I could see you all the time.” He blushed lightly. “If you would like that.” He stood there, waiting for her answer.

Rose looked at him in surprise, stopping in the middle of the path. She suddenly hugged him, lifting him into the air and spinning him around. “Yes! I would love for you to do that!”

Greg yelped softly when she picked him up but soon began to laugh. He was so happy that she liked his idea.

She blushed after a moment and set him back on his feet. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” She was very strong and sometimes she didn’t realize just how strong she was.

Greg chuckled and shook his head. “It's ok!” He held up his hands in an effort to show he was fine as well as to try and calm her down. “I love how strong you are.” He smiled.

Rose blushed and giggled, then something occurred to her. “Wait, if you stay here…” She frowned at him. “But what about your plan to go to the city and make it big? I thought you were going to try and make it in the music industry?”

Greg smiled and rubbed her arms tenderly. “Rose, I know I had a plan, but plans change, especially after I met you.” He lifted her hand up and kissed the back of it.

Rose smiled and giggled, putting her other hand against her cheek. “Stop it, you’re making me blush!”

Greg smiled. “I love it when you blush.” He kissed her cheek.

She blushed and looked at him with wide eyes. “You love me?”

Greg froze and looked at her. He smiled for a second before a look of fear went across his face. “I…” His voice cracked. “I um…” He wasn’t sure what to say, his brain just kind of stopped working.

Rose ran her fingers through his hair and smiled at him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say it.” She kissed the top of his head. “I know you love me.”

Greg’s face was red. He smiled though and gripped her hands. He then hugged her and kissed her on the lips.

She kissed back and then pulled away and smiled at him. She didn’t realize she was lifting him off the ground for a few moments and once she did she set him down. “So um, it’s a nice night…”

“Yeah, it’s really beautiful…” He kept looking at her.

Rose looked back at him. “So did you hear about my friends Pearl and Garnet getting together?”

“No. What’s going on with them?” Greg asked, walking down the sidewalk with Rose while holding her hand.

“They’re in love, it’s a wonderful thing. I can’t wait for you to meet them, officially. But they’re still in the early stages of their relationship and…”

Greg looked at her. “What is it?”

“Well, this might be a little awkward but I used to date Pearl back when we were in high school.” She looked away expecting some sort of fireworks over this revelation.

Greg rubbed her arm. “Why would it be awkward? We all dated somebody in high school.”

Rose looked at him in surprise. “You mean you don’t have a problem with it?”

Greg shook his head. “No, I like you no matter what.” He hugged her and kissed her cheek.

She giggled again. She really truly loved this man. “Well so the awkward part is that I know a lot about Pearl and so I’m a little worried about what she might do because she’s a little…”

“Crazy?” Greg asked, hoping that was the right adjective.

She nodded. “Yeah, that’s about the right way to describe her. It’s not that she’s insane, it’s more that she’s a little much, at times.”

Greg nodded. “Well if you’ve dealt with her before then that means you can help this new girl this um, Garnet was it?”

Rose nodded. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” She smiled and kept walking with him. “Hey, would you like to get some coffee?”

Greg nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot.” They went to the nearest coffee shop and sat down to talk some more.

Jasper stumbled out of the frat house and began to walk down the street when a guy ran up behind her.

“Jasper! Jasp! Hey!” He grabbed her arm and she turned, frowning at him.

She pulled her arm out of his grip. “What do you want Kevin?”

Kevin smiled. “I was wondering if you wanted to dance with me.” He made finger-guns and winked. “The Kevin likes what he sees.”

Jasper rolled her eyes. “Well The Jasper is going home to sleep. So bye.” She turned and started to move again but Kevin grabbed her arms.

“Babe hold on!” Kevin exclaimed.

Jasper spun and grabbed his arm, pulling his hand off of her and growling at him as she lifted him off the ground by the arm. “You touch me again and I’ll break this arm. Got it?”

Kevin seemed to shrink into his scarf. He nodded and whimpered a little. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

“Good.” She dropped him, causing him to stumble and fall on his behind. She then turned and headed home, stumbling a few times when she started to get tired. She had gone through a few rough days since she had gone with Pearl to the diner. She had developed a small crush on the girl after first seeing her but after the diner she could tell that it was pointless to try and pursue her. So she had been going to parties to try and get over her and maybe find somebody more interesting.

All that had happened as a result of all her drinking and coming home at ungodly hours was that her roommate had finally become fed up with her and had moved out. Now Jasper was expecting a new roommate, one who was transferring from the Blue Dorm. Her new roommate was supposed to be some kind of architect student. Jasper didn’t really care, this new person would probably just move out too after they spent a little time with her.

Jasper finally reached her dorm and went inside. She put a hand on the wall to keep herself steady as she moved down the hall. She stopped outside her room and looked down at the room Pearl was in longingly. She could knock on the door, pretend she was more drunk than she was, maybe spend a second or two talking to her would make things better, maybe um… She hit herself over the head. She was too drunk and wasn’t thinking clearly. She sighed and fumbled with her key, pulling it out and struggling to open the door. She groaned and dropped the key by accident.

She knelt down to retrieve her key and while she was doing so the door opened. Jasper looked forward and saw a pair of long lovely legs. She followed them up and saw a dark skinned woman with a head of died blue hair. She had her arms crossed and a tired look on her face.

“Can I help you?” She asked, obviously grumpy.

Jasper stood up and looked at the number by the door. “Okay this is definitely my room…” She looked at the woman for a moment before something occurred to her. “Are you um…” she snapped her fingers while trying to remember. “You must be my new roommate! What’s your name?”

She tilted her head. “I’m Lapis, Lapis Lazuli. You’re Jasper?” She gestured to her.

Jasper nodded. “Yeah, um, I’ve been out all day, sorry I missed you moving in.” She rubbed the back of her head. “So um, can I come in now?”

Lapis looked at her and nodded. “Yeah, alright.” She stepped aside. “Not to be rude but you are drunk right?”

Jasper chuckled. “Yeah, I am,” she kicked off her shoes and pulled off her coat. “Sorry for waking you up by the way.”

“You didn’t. I was awake.”

Jasper looked at her in surprise then looked at her alarm clock. It was just a little after three in the morning. She looked back at Lapis and frowned. “You got insomnia or something?”

“Yeah, it sucks.” She sighed and sat down on her bed. “So um, you party like this often?”

Jasper shook her head. “No, mostly just on weekends and special occasions.” She laid down and sighed.

“Alright. Do you want to go to sleep?” Lapis asked, uncertain of what to make of the other.

“I don’t necessarily want to but I’m going to.” She smiled. “It was nice to meet you though, can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.”

Lapis nodded. “Yeah, um, okay.” She stepped over and took Jasper’s hand, shaking it. “Thanks.”

Jasper shook her hand in return and nodded. “Alright, good night.” She turned off the lights then curled up and started to fall asleep.

Lapis looked at her for a few seconds before laying down and opening the book she was reading. She glanced at Jasper and felt herself grow a little weak when she saw the size of her biceps. She blushed and went back to her book, trying to focus on it and not on how big and strong her new roommate was, there would be time for that later. Lapis ended up falling asleep at some point, the book over her face as she began to snore softly.

I hope you liked this chapter! Please feel free to tell me what you think and please like and reblog!

Part 5

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dystovian · 7 years

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Ok so, can I has meh a HC of how the boys would react to their female crush having a three legged mutt named Chicken? She just found the dog rummaging through trash in an alley way so she took him in and instantly fell in love. Now Chicken is super protective of her.

I totally went off track but that happens all the time but,,,here u go! Pidges one is rlly short and idk I just couldn’t think of what else to put

[Hunk:]

•have you ever wondered what hunk looks like when he’s crying? happy tears?•ok so basically you guys met at school and he would take u places every once in a while•and after a bit of going to his (I hc him as having 2 mamas) moms café, you said •"hey! you’ve never been to my place! Wanna come over?“•he’s like yeah sure why not•he’s crying because he’s going to his crush’s house•so you’re waiting up or him, jus chilling and he knocks on the door •you open it and your dog is like oh my gosh!!! someone’s here!!!! boof! •let the struggle….ensue•you have to use your knee to hold your dog back so he doesn’t jump all over Hunk•Hunk literally comes in, shuts the door behind him, and just GASPS•and he’s standing there and his excitement is boiling over the top and his lid is about to POP•and you just grin in embarrassment and scratch the back of your head, thinking, wow maybe he’s scared or allergic and I never asked•he goes "hiiiiii!!!” And puts his arms out and your dog runs through your legs and just flops into his arms and he’s literally crying•but,,,Chicken,,, doesn’t know how your relationship is with Hunk•currently Chicken is just excited to see someone new because he’s always been very kind and welcoming to others•so after you explain to Hunk how you found him and such, he immediately fell in love with Chicken and fell in love with you even more•so you guys go on the couch and he goes to put his arm around you while you’re watching a movie•and Hunk just hears growling and he gulps and turns and oh what do u kno•your 3-legged, Pitbull-Rottweiler, 10 month old puppy is baring his huge teeth and growling•ur not close with people like you are with Hunk so yr pretty surprised, and you pat hunks lap and the dog just gleefully goes over and lays across you two•Hunk PISSED himself I kid u not•he excused himself and texted Lance and Pidge•they laughed•when Hunk goes missing, you were at his mothers café, when they broke the news to you and you ended up breaking down into tears and just crying while his mothers comforted you and offered for you to stay with them for a while. Maybe until Hunk came home or when you felt better

[Lance:]

•HA•alright, here’s the thing, your dog is GIGANTIC•despite your puppy being quite young, their growth rate is crazy•you only know one part of your dogs mix unfortunately, but it sure does explain why they’re so large•a giant, 3 pawed Bernese Mountain Dog, mixed with something unknown•the dog at this point is taller than you while on back legs•anyway•you’re taking Chicken for a walk, getting him used to the whole,,, 3 legs thing. •you aren’t dating Lance at the time but you weren’t expecting to see him. a happy surprise.•you let your dog run around the park for a while, doing some homework on a picnic bench•"y/n? is that my favorite person ever!?“ And he runs over and sits beside you•he’s helping you with homework when he feels a light tug at his pant leg•and he’s like,,,haha *wink* you’re so crazy Y/n. In public? hmm I guess•and you’re like ????wat•YOUR DOG TUGS SO HARD LANCE GETS DRAGGED UNDER THE TABLE AND YOURE BOTH SCREAMING•you grab your dogs collar and you’re like omg let go stop it•your dog does and ho boi he is mortified•you also like Lance, so now you think, oh wow. he hates me now •and he says, after some silence and heavy breathing•"man, I love your dog”•he’s a sucker for big dogs and the fact your PUPPY is gigantic and soft and only has 3 paws? just even better•you tell him the story of how you found him, 4 months old, abandoned and eating raw chicken that was no doubt moldy, in a dark and unsanitary alleyway in New York (you were visiting friends)•he fell in love, with the dog and you•ended up asking you on a date while kissing your dogs face and you said YES•when he went missing, you saw it on the news. and immediately grabbed your dog and ran to his house•knocked on the door and one of his siblings answered, very obviously visible that they were just crying. and this is where YOUR, the reader, tears come in•Lance never shut up about you and told his entire family about you and they could easily recognize you because he’s so detailed about your features . Even told them about the dog•they immediately dragged you in and hugged you and you ended up spending a lot of time with them while they also fell in love with u, and Chicken.

[Shiro:]

•totally a dog man•like, he’s had many pets, mostly dogs of course and he loves them•your dog: a labrador-husky mix. bright blue eyes and golden fur. 8 years old•3 legs, a white prosthetic •you found him on the side of the road, he was abandoned at the age of 5•anyway, to begin•Shiro goes up to you in the library after a couple friends finally convince him to•and he’s like, hey, since yr my partner for the project and all, where should we meet?•and you’re like, hm, how about my place?•OKGKKF he nods a bit too excitedly but you exchange numbers and you text him the address •"the doors unlocked so you can just come right in" you text him•he goes aight,,,,, and he walks in and leaves his rained on sneakers at the door•and you’re in the kitchen making some grilled cheese w ham•and your tossin Ham at your dog, who’s jumping up to catch it•he chuckles because your standing there in pajamas and tossing your dog Ham like you’re scoring 3-pointers in basketball•and your dog just stood and books it over to Shiro and when you turn and your dog isn’t there you’re like ???? WHATDH•you look over the island and there’s your dog standing his ground against Shiro and Shiro’s like uh…hehheh•"omg chicken get over here" chicken goes back to normal and prances over to your •"little shit I swear to god"•Shiro’s like, I never thought I’d be scared of a dog before•you smile and go hug him and just hear more growling from over the counter and he’s like ohnyktidjd•you end up going to put the dog in your room because he’s not allowed in the living room and Shiro offers to just watch movies in your room while you guys work on the project•"I don’t wanna have him feel left out cos of me, yknow?“•"yeah you’re right”•you all fell asleep together no lie and if anyone was around they honestly thought it was the cutest thing (shiro drools and has lil light snores and he just looks adorable)•when he went missing, you were heartbroken and didn’t know who his family was because you never got to visit them•you ended up visiting Pidge because you became friends with Matt as well•you hugged Pidge and always took her out to but things and you also helped her sneak into the garrison•when he came back for like,a day, you were in Keith’s shack when they all got there because you wanted to know if he could get in contact with Pidge for you because you were sick from school•Shiro came in and when he woke up you were sitting beside him on the floor, head against his shoulder and your dog was on his thighs

[Keith:]

•American Bulldog puppy mix, that HE actually gave to you•he was setting up posters around the garrison because his neighbors dog was pregnant•you were one of 3 people to approach him, after like a month of it being up•he’s always liked you and he just like, sndjjsjsk, I can give it to you today•and he does, you walk with him to said neighbors and you take home the puppy •this was freshman year so the puppy is 1 year old now•and after you guys became decently close, he asked you to tutor him in Spanish•because compared to him your grades were a bit better and he refused to ask Lance because Lance wouldn’t even say yes?•but he ends up going to your house and knocking because he didn’t get the chance to ask at school, and you just let him in like it’s normal and you don’t even think it’s weird•and he comes in and as soon as he sits down here comes your dog, now 3 legged and slaps into Keith’s face•and he’s like WHAT•one, he forgot you had the dog•two, since when did the dog have 3 legs•turns out, one night the dog escaped and you couldn’t find him for hours•the dog ended up getting hurt and you had no choice but to take him to the vet, where they also had no choice but to remove his log•the dogs name was Wudley, but since the incident you tend to call him Chicken as his nickname•Keith hears about it nd is like, “I’m surprised you kept him, lots of people usually put disabled dogs up for adoption” •"I’d never do that. If it means he has a higher chance of getting put down then that’s just purposely putting him in a slaughter house"•Keith hugs you and his heart swells because you’re so sweet and kind and wow he likes you more than he thought•he hears Wudley growing and nip at his elbow and he just chuckles and plays with him and let’s just say he came over more often to “study Spanish”•by “study Spanish” I mean “play with Wudley for like,,,4 hours straight all the while getting to know you”•when he went missing you knew damn well that this classified info was aliens and ended up living in his shack and doing research while you’re dog stayed with u

[Pidge:]

•this one is a lot different •yr dog is half beagle half terrier•Pidge was walking their dog, and you were walking yours•you shout “omg! Hi Pidge!” •yes this is during the garrison, you were the same age but you went to a different school. you visited the garrison as a sort of field trip with your class and that’s how you two met•"hi Y/n! Is this your dog?“ •your dog stops and just stares and you guys are literally 10 feet apart and you’re like ????•you didn’t notice Pidges dog yet bcos u also have a crush on Pidge and were currently paying more attention to them•Chicken goes full speed at Pidges dog, and they end up fooling around•the two of you end up talking for at least an hour, while sitting on a bench•you play games on your phones and ask each other questions to get to know each other even better than before•next thing you know you both here growling and each dog is growling at one of you. Pidges dog at you, Chicken at Pidge•you panic and apologize and pick up your dog and Pidge says "oh no it’s okay my dog usually doesn’t do this either so I should apologize”•you guys literally apologize to each other for 4 minutes before you just laugh•when Pidge goes missing you end up visiting their mother, sometimes watching their dog as well and doing chores while Mrs.Holt recovers•she lost her whole family, man

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cosmosogler · 7 years

Text

hello. i played with snoopy last night (i think i mentioned) and she actually didn’t wake me up all night for the first time in eighteen hundred years!!

so i got approximately seven and a half hours of sleep. it was great. i was exhausted all day.

i taught both my class sections. got another guy worried about his grade. my mysterious missing student showed up though and we set about trying to fix his grade too.

actually both sections finished ~20 minutes early so i actually got a lunch break!!! i ate most of my food before i even had to run over to the drc.

i talked to danielle for a little while. we reached our goal for the semester, which was to get my accommodations in place and find an individual therapist. then i went to the meeting for dealing with test anxiety. i was the only one who showed up so i just talked extensively about my experiences with tests this semester and we worked out stuff for me to try as i move forward.

“we” being danielle, jess (i think that’s her name?), and me.

the evening before my next test i’m going to spend some time filling out at least one cbt worksheet that i have left over from my undergrad therapist. and i’m going to actually for real do breathing exercises at the beginning of my tests since i have extra time.

then i biked back over to the department, spent an hour watching a review of soma (i liked the game just as much as the reviewer), and then packed up my stuff and biked home. i spent the evening making some dinner, baking muffins, taking care of snoopy, and ACTUALLY DOING SOME HOMEWORK AAAAA!!!!!!! I DID HALF A PROBLEM!!!

i have to tell myself that that’s enough. i did enough. any homework is a victory. and i worked for a whole hour, which is an hour more than i had worked on it, which had been zero hours.

i still gotta play note catch-up and upload a large amount of grades to a place where my students can actually see them. i can’t access my grade database from home though so that’ll have to wait until after lab prep tomorrow. we’re on our last grad lab session. i think all of us are still teaching physics 1 next semester so we won’t have to meet for 2-3 hours every friday. that’s kind of fantastic, considering how little time all of us have.

feels like i’m catching a cold. my throat is really sore and scratchy. not sure where i could have picked that up. i hope it’s just from breathing cold air or something while i was biking and it goes away in the morning. i’m out of clean mugs so i didn’t go for any tea or anything.

oh yeah i also did my dishes. i technically have clean mugs now but it’s after 10 and i don’t want to have to get up and go to the bathroom in an hour after i’m in bed.

i think that’s about everything i have to say about my day right now. after my appointment with the drc i started feeling really staticky. that’s why i went home early. also i was hungry. but i noticed that i was hesitating when i went to start my homework. i’m glad i was able to get some stuff done at the very least. breaking down that mental block is always rough when i go a few days without doing any homework problems. or a few weeks... maybe this will help me build up some momentum toward catching up though.

i saw a photo of myself today from the symposium last thursday. upon seeing myself in the background in one photo i was filled with a sick dread. i don’t look right. i hate the way i sit. the way it looks.

hmm. something positive today is that i actually did some homework, AND while i was at home on top of that! i wrote over two full pages of math. (that’s half a problem.)

i might not be able to run out for dinner at the bar with my friends tomorrow. i’m gonna try to rope keegan and harrison into some rounds of smash and see if that will do it for a friday break since i have a mountain of homework to finish. i didn’t get to cross ANYTHING off my to-do list today even though i didn’t spend that much time screwing around. at least i don’t feel like i did. i just had... a whole lot of other stuff to do for six hours out of my day not to mention travel time.

at least i was able to wake up on time again finally. i’m going to try to get a little more sleep tonight. not sure how i’m going to accomplish that, but watch me try.

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asongstress1422 · 6 years

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Lost in the Motion

Reylo fanfic : Modern Au : So You Think You Can Dance AU

Summary: Rigid Ballet Dancer ‘Kylo Ren’ takes a bet that he’s good enough to win ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’ For Rey, a modern dancer with no formal training, winning would mean her life changing for the better. As partners they can either strengthen each other’s weaknesses or crumble under the pressure.

Part 1 part 2 AO3

Chapter 3: Addicted to Love

When Rey had woken up that morning to head into the studio she had in no way considered that she would have been asked to jump off an office desk into Kylo’s arms.

Yet that was exactly what was being demanded of her.

“Rey you need to relax. This should look fluid and graceful, not like your scared he’s going to drop you at every turn. His job is to keep you up, your job is to make it look good,” Maz stood off to the side with her hands on her hips.

Standing on the ground, head in line with her navel, Kylo rolled his eyes, “I don’t see what the issue is, we’ve done lifts before.”

“Yeah, you lifting me , not me falling on you.” Rey glared down at him from her added height of the table.

“For fucks sake, just fall already,” Kylo growled exasperated.

“If you drop me,” she let her threat peter off as she eyed the ground and re-thought angering whatd in essence would be the only thing that would keep her from taking a long tumble.

“Why would I drop you?” he demanded, arms still raised to catch her. “I’m stuck with you for another four weeks. It’s not like I need to make things harder on myself by having to carry you more than I already do.”

“You’re such a dick weed,” she huffed under her breath.

“Yes. Now fall.”

What was her issue? With Kylo’s height her fall would be a foot, maybe two. She’d done more then that falling into bed some nights. And even if he missed her it wasn’t like the ground was all that far, the desk being two and a half feet tall.

Rey had almost psyched herself up enough to chance it but at the last second her body just refused to tip her over the edge. She might only be two feet higher than normal but that was still almost eight feet for her head to fall before it hit the ground. What if he didn’t catch her? Or what if she slipped and wasn’t able to correct in time. What if--

“Rey!” She blinked breaking out of her tunnel vision on the floor to lock eyes with Kylo. His brown eyes were so calm and sure. “Trust me, I’ve got you. Now, on three.”

Rey nodded, swallowing.

He kept his eyes on her, keeping her grounded in the now instead of worrying over all the possible outcomes. “One...two…”

With a squeal she fell forward, eyes wanting to close but Rey keeping them open just in case she needed to make any last second saves.

Not that there was a need. Kylo caught her neatly cradling her to his chest. She felt herself sag with relief in his hold.

“Very good,” Maz said dryly from her stool. “Now, if we can get you do to that with a bit more grace and a lot less the look of a toppling board, you might just make it through this round. The competition is ramping up, that means we’re going to need to as well. There are going to be a lot more throws and jumps and catches. You better prepare yourself for that.”

“This is just the first time I’ve done a trust fall from five feet in the air. I’ll do better in the future.” She glanced up at Kylo, who still held her in his arms, a slight frown on his face as he looked at her. “You can put me--”

“Have you lost weight?” he interrupted.

She blinked in surprise at the change of gears. Smiling awkwardly, she patted him on the chest, “you flatterer, you.”

“I’m not saying it to be flattering,” he articulated. “You need to remain at a near constant size so I can calculate how much force I need to manipulate you on the dance floor. If you’re too light I could end up throwing you too hard and hurting myself. Or you.” He hefted her in his arms, “you’re at least a pound lighter then you were last week.”

“Okay, I am not having this conversation in your arms,” she squirmed until he set her down.

“What have you been eating?” he questioned curtly.

“I don’t know, whatever they serve here in the cafeteria,” she said as she circled around him to climb back up on the desk.

“You actually eat the food here?” He looked disgusted.

“It’s free and it’s filling. That’s all I care about.” She stuck her hands on her hips standing above him, “I am done with this conversation. So, are we going to dance or what?”

He rolled his eyes but was there to catch her when she fell.

“Here.”

A green notebook was lowered into her line of focus as she crouched over her duffel, shoving things away.

Rey accepted the book, “what’s this?”

“A food journal. For you can keep track of what you eat so you can make sure you’re getting the proper nutrients.”

“Oh,” she said both oddly touched and slightly annoyed that he was still harping on the issue. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He ran a hand through his hair, making minimal eye contact, “I was also wondering if you wanted to get dinner. With me. Tonight.”

She raised a brow as she hooked the strap of her bag over her shoulder and stood. “You wouldn’t be trying to fatten me up, would you?”

“No,” he said quickly. “I just thought it would be … nice.”

They had been in each other’s company nearly constantly over the last two weeks but this was the first time that he had made any overtures at wanting to spend time with her outside the confines of the dance floor. She was instantly suspicious.

“I’m not really up for going out--”

“We can get delivery,” he interjected. “Uh, Piz...za?”

She grinned at his not so subtle workaround. But he was making a sorta effort, and he was almost … charming in his concern for her well being. It was… nice.

“Sure, pizza works.” Her bank account could withstand the expense of a pizza, especially half a pizza, now that her room and board were covered for as long as she was in the competition. “Pineapple?”

He grimaced. “Heathen.”

She smiled beguiling, “half?”

He let out a long put upon sigh, “fine.”

“Great. Six good for you? I have a few things to do after practice.”

He nodded victoriously. “That will be fine.”

“It’s open,” Rey called out, not bothering to look up from her mountain of homework at the knock at her door.

“ Why is it open?”

Rey’s head shot up to see Kylo standing in her doorway. Dark jeans, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket making him look like bad-boy incarnate.

Her eyes immediately swiveling to the digital clock on the nightstand. Where had the time gone? After a long shower and pulling on her most comfortable pair of pajamas she had buried herself into her textbooks and hadn't come up for air since. She had meant to dress up a bit, nothing flashy, but something that didn’t have Eeyore plastered all over it and both pants cuffs still intact.

“Rey,” he demanded, still hovering at the threshold, “why isn’t your door locked.”

“I just leave it unlocked when I’m here,” she answered as she stood, trying not to fidget as she went to usher him in. “You can come in, you know.”

“Do you know how many burglaries happen in LA alone?” he harped as she pulled him in, allowing her to step around him to close the door.

“I think something like sixteen thousand. But there’s a doorman out front, so it’s not like randoms can walk off the street. And I’m pretty sure none of the people here want my 4th edition textbooks.” He glared. She rolled her eyes and flipped the lock. “Happy?”

He huffed, neglecting to answer as he strode into the room.

“I brought beer,” he said holding up a six pack of something foreign along with the pizza. “If I’m doing a cheat day, I’m doing it right. You want one?”

Rey shook her head, following him back into the room, “I’m nineteen.”

“Oh, right,” he recalled as he popped off one of the caps with a fork she had left in the drying rack on small kitchenette counter. “Things are different in the states.”

“You’ve been out of the country?” she questioned as she brought down two plates from the cabinet refusing to feel awkward with him being so close when they had literally already been plastered all over each other for the last two weeks.

“Yeah,” he took a long pull from his bottle. “At six-- uh-- eighteen I moved to Russia for a few years.”

“How was that?” She immediately started to serve the pizza, a slice for herself and two for him, not realizing just how hungry she had gotten studying.

“Cold,” he said as he snagged the plate with the single slice bracing himself against the counter to eat.

She rolled her eyes but nonetheless took the double plate portion, ripping off paper towels for herself and handing one to Kylo.

“After three years you have to have something better then ‘cold’ to say about it,” she said around a mouth full of pizza as she and her plate plonked themselves on the floor so her back could rest against the bed.

He shrugged, picking off the pieces of pineapple. Rey held up her plate to him, hating to waste food, and he wordlessly transferred the undesired fruit onto it.

“I’m assuming you went there to study ballet,” she asked popping a few of the loose pineapple in her mouth and chewing. “How was that?”

“It was,” he got a far away look in his eyes as he absently wiped his fingers on his napkin before grabbing his beer. “It was hard. Only twelve boys-- men-- were allowed in the program at any given time. If you didn’t do well enough, you were cut. If you didn’t do as you were told, you were cut. If weren’t willing to sacrifice everything to be the best, you were cut. And there were always others that were willing to take your place.”

Rey tried to imagine herself in that environment and couldn’t. It sounded so ruthless. But, she guessed that did explain a lot about Kylo. His focused drive, his demand for perfection from her and their routine, his inability to takes breaks. It made him a fantastic dancer but Rey found herself wondering what little boy Kylo was like. If there was something besides dance that he had enjoyed before dance had taken over his life.

“What about you?” he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts of what he would look like if he smiled.

“What about me, what?”

“How does a no name with mediocre technical understanding of dance find herself in a reality dance competition.”

“I’m going to take that as the complement you undoubtedly meant it as,” she said standing. She was thrown by the cutting remark after they had been so civil but strived to keep her hurt hidden. “But to answer your question, she loses her job.”

He blinked. “What?”

“Two jobs, actually,” she said, nudging him out of the way of the sink so she could begin to wash her plate, keeping her eyes down and focused on her task, “and her apartment.

“The first one was at a corner store that I’d been at for almost two years. The owner was an elderly woman and decided to sell to her nephew who almost immediately started using it as a front for drugs. He wasn’t really good at it. The police busted him about three weeks in and the building was shut down. At the second one my ex-roommate, who I helped get the job she got me fired from, bad mouthed me to the boss about what went down at my first job.

“So, within about three days I was unemployed and homeless. I didn’t really have anything else to lose so I decided to spend almost fourteen hours standing in line to audition. And I got through.” She turned to him holding out her hand to take his plate, “you done?”

“I’m ... sorry,” he said.

She shrugged, intent on scrubbing the bit of coagulated cheese from his plate. “It is what it is.”

“No,” he caught her hand and turned her so she could look in his eyes at his sincerity. “Whatever you lack in technique you more then make up for in sheer presence and your tenacity for honing your craft. You have grown much more than I thought was possible in this competition and I am sorry for trying to belittle that. You dance beautifully.”

She was shocked speechless for a moment so the first things that came to her mind was something to ease the sudden emotional tension. “Now there’s a compliment.”

He huffed a chuckle glancing away and Rey breathed a sigh of relief as the air calmed.

“I do actually know what those are,” he said running a hand through his hair, “I’m just not used to giving them.” He looked back at her, his eyes serious once again, “I’m not used to having friends to give them to.”

Her breath caught again. “Is that what we are, friends?”

He hesitated, just like he did at the door, but this time he took that final step all on his own. “I would like to be.”

She smiled, feeling a warm rush in her chest. “Okay.”

The next morning she tossed him a filled zip lock baggie.

He caught it deftly, barely glancing at it as he sipped his coffee. “What’s this?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen cold, day-after, gym bag pizza before?”

He studied the squished slices, with a raised brow, “looks appetizing.”

She smiled and shrugged turning to put her stuff down. “You buy half, you eat half. The rules of communal eating.”

“Half?” he questioned.

“Yeah, half,” Rey said walking over to turn the baggy around to show the twenty taped to the plastic. “Must have been the baggy fairy, come to pay you back. ”

He squinted down at her, “you’re very odd.”

She grinned. “Yep.”

His head came down and his voice lowered as if sharing a secret with her. “You know you don’t have to pay me back, right?”

“I know. But I need to.” her eye’s were insistent as she held out the baggy again.

He sighed, knowing there would be no arguing with her over what she deemed her ‘half’ and tossed the pizza onto his gym bag in the corner.

“Rey, dear, I’m going to need you to be more sexy,” Maz said as they broke apart for a quick break.

“I can be more sexy,” Rey assured, breathing heavily as she sipped from her water bottle.

Kylo snorted from his own corner.

“What’s so funny,” Rey turned to mock glare at him across the room.

He gave her body a once over before locking eyes with her, a slight curl to his lips. “Eeyore.”

She flushed. He had paid her attire such little attention last night she’d thought he hadn't even noticed. “You know what, give me my pizza back.”

The curl turned into a full blown grin and Rey was almost knocked over backwards. “Nu-uh, you took the pineapple off. Its mine.”

“That’s it,” Rey growled once she could form words from her dry mouth. “We’re running this again. Right now.”

He stalked forward, eyes amused “Lets. I wanna see what you consider ‘more sexy.’”

“You’re going to need to point your toes or something or this isn’t going to work,” he growled frustrated as he tried to hold her up, reach behind him, and take off her shoe.

“This wouldn’t be so difficult if you weren't as tall,” she snipped, face flaming as she tried to balance on one foot with the other one tossed over his shoulder. “I feel like a monkey trying to climb a tree.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m use to having woman’s legs wrapped around me all the time.”

Her jaw fell open as he looked up at him. “Is that a joke?”

“Maybe,” he grinned. “Ah-ha, got it.” He presented her with her shoe allowing her leg to drop.

She accepted the shoe, hiking back to sit at the edge of the desk. “There has to be an easier way to do this. Maybe if I don’t wear the heels?”

“The shoes are an important element to the dance,” Maz intoned from her corner. “This is a man’s dream about his partner. Taking the red shoe off is them releasing their desire and then the dance begins. The shoe stays.”

“Fine,” Rey sighed, slipping the red pumps back on, looking at Kylo. “Ready for round seventeen?”

Rey stood in the shadows on stage watching the back of Kylo’s head and all of the sudden Maz’s final instructions clicked. “Turn the sexy up to ten.”

Rey was going to make this dream one nobody was going to forget.

Addicted to Love Dance

“You guys have grown tremendously as a couple this week. Your trust in each other, the effortlessness in which you dance. Kylo when you lifted her there, right after you took off her shoe, was breathtaking. You've always had the raw power but there, that gentleness when your eyes connected, that is what we’re looking for. That tempered strength. Truly beautiful to watch.

“And Rey, your elegance and grace, you were gorgeous up there this evening in that red dress. Together you made those tosses and jumps look elementary even though I know they are not. This is a very memorable dance. Congratulations.”

Rey didn’t think her smile could get any bigger but with Nigel’s next words it all came crashing down.

“Unfortunately, last week, America did not vote for your dance and you are in the bottom three. I look forward to your solo’s.”

#mine #Lost in the Motion #fanfic #reylo #reylo fanfiction #so you think you can dance #song #music #youtube

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ilovemurrieta951-blog · 6 years

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17 Superstars We'd Love to Recruit for Our wine country engagement photography Team

Unlike the work of your other wedding celebration suppliers (music, flower arrangements, cake), photographs aren't points you could listen to, smell, preference and even see at first-- you don't really know what you're obtaining till after the reality. That indicates mindful research and selectiveness pertaining to expert skills, artistic style as well as personal temperament are extra crucial when selecting your photographer.

Action 1: Settle on a Design

Prior to you start researching digital photographers, you'll have to first determine just what sort of photography style you choose, as that will certainly help determine which kind of photographer you'll want shooting your wedding. Do any of the list below appeal to you?

Documentary: Rather than a collection of postured images, these are candid or spontaneous photos of people, décor as well as the action. Typical shots might include the extravagant raw bar prior to visitors start digging in, your crowd of relatives dancing, or you and your bridesmaids laughing, sparkling wine in hand. With a simply photojournalistic photographer, you'll very seldom see individuals looking at the electronic camera-- the photos catch the moments specifically as they occurred, as well as together they tell a story.

Portraiture: If you prefer timeless portraits (think: your moms and dads' wedding album), go with a standard digital photographer that specializes in portraiture. While some professional photographers will position topics in even more conventional places (like at the ceremony altar or out on the yard of the country club) as well as in more official presents (standing as a team together), others take portraiture further right into the imaginative world with a much more remarkable composition (the pair sitting on a lounge chair at their hip resort reception location, or holding hands in the center of a close-by dust roadway with the mountains in the background).

The few wedding celebration digital photographers that shoot just on film tend to fall right into this category, as well as generally they fire in black and white, though some will do a mix of both. That said, a photographer using an electronic camera can still catch this style with the right gear and camera lens. Not all digital photographers who take a fine-art strategy shoot pictures, so if it's truly crucial to your mother to have positioned family members shots, look for a person that does both, or think about employing a 2nd shooter for the picture sessions.

Edgy and Vibrant: This style of photography, a spin-off of fine art, is noted by outside-the-box, tilted angles (called Dutch angles) and unconventional framing. Rather of a straight-on shot of the pair trading vows at the altar, the picture may look slanted, with an object like an altar plan or a candle light in the foreground. Or the photo of the bride having her makeup done could be fired from above, with a focus on the eye shadow brush instead of on her face. Even a single picture of a bridesmaid may be shot so her face takes control of only the bottom right of the picture et cetera of the room is filled with the wall or whatever's behind her.

Many Temecula wedding photographer could do a blend of portrait and documentary-style shots, as well as will certainly do a mix of black-and-white and shade photos, yet if there's an unique design you enjoy, see to it to focus on digital photographers that specialize in it.

Step 2: Do Your Homework

Start your search by checking out reviews from current newlyweds as well as browsing hundreds of local listings. Thoroughly review possible photographers' web sites and blog sites to check out images of other weddings they have actually fired, which will certainly give you an idea of their design. The design of the web site might additionally have clues concerning the professional photographer's https://sites.google.com/view/temecula-wedding-photographer/reviews individuality and also sensibility. Look into their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages too, ideally. Is the feedback from clients favorable? Just how does the photographer respond?

Step 3: Set Up Interviews

If the professional photographer is already booked on your date, you could want to see if they have an affiliate or could recommend an additional shooter with a comparable design. Establish up in-person conferences with three to five possible professional photographers who are offered on your wedding event date to look at even more of their job and analyze whether your individualities fit together.

Step 4: See a Few Complete Wedding Celebration Albums

Don't base your decision entirely on exactly what you see in a professional photographer's highlights gallery or cd. Completely reason, photographers show potential clients a portfolio of their ideal images, all from various weddings, so you're seeing the best of the best. The problem with that is you won't get an all-round idea of their job. Ask to see two or three complete galleries from actual wedding celebrations they have actually shot (not someone else at their firm) so you could get a much better idea of exactly what your full collection of photos might resemble after the wedding celebration. If you see that the complete gallery pictures are just about comparable to the ones picked in the highlight gallery (that is, they're all so excellent it's impossible to pick!), you're on the appropriate track. As well as ask to see at the very least a couple of total cds of weddings that are in similar settings to your own. If you're preparing an indoor affair with dark illumination, do not just look at wedding celebrations shot outdoors in all-natural sunlight. And also if you're planning to state "I do" on a beach at sundown, you'll intend to see instances of that.

Tip 5: Review Albums With a Crucial Eye

When evaluating a photographer's album, seek the key minutes you desire recorded: Did they obtain pictures of both the bride as well as the bridegroom when they locked eyes for the first time? Likewise look for crispness of images, thoughtful compositions (does a shot look excellent the means it was mounted, or exists way too much mess in the frame?) and good lights (beware of washed-out pictures where little information are obscured-- unless that's the design you're after). It's likewise very important that you detect sensitivity in capturing people's feelings; see to it the professional photographer's topics look relaxed, not like deer caught in fronts lights. While you two are, naturally, important, you intend to see grinning shots of your good friends also.

Step 6: Make Certain Your Personalities Mesh

Remember: They'll be tailing your every move, and the extra comfortable both of you are with the professional photographer, the far better the photos will certainly turn out. You do not desire the digital photographer to upset or annoy any type of visitors, but to fire them in their finest light in an unobtrusive means. To obtain the best photos, your digital photographer requires to be assertive adequate to look for out excellent minutes, cajoling enough to coax loosened up smiles and also all-natural positions from guests, and also calm sufficient to be a favorable force.

Action 7: Confirm Your Shooter( s).

Many bigger picture studios have more than one professional photographer on personnel, and unless you specify it in your contract, the lead digital photographer could not be the one capturing your day. Check whether the photographer will certainly bring any kind of assistants to your wedding celebration, as well as if so, just how many. Throughout your formal photo session, one photographer could catch the formal photos, while the 2nd one could obtain behind the curtain, photojournalistic images, like your guests mingling.

Tip 8: Contrast Packages.

You will not have the ability to nail down a precise dollar amount until you're sure of exactly what you want, the amount of cds you require and where your professional photographer is based, and also packages vary from $2,500 all the way approximately $15,000-plus on the higher end of the range. When interviewing prospects, request for a general range based upon the photographer's standard "shooting cost" as well as bundle, plus their basic rates for the type of cd you assume you'll want as well as the amount of coverage you're hoping to book them for (day of, complete weekend). It is necessary to discover what's included in the standard package, plus the standard variety for any kind of bonus you could want, like an interaction shoot, unique effects or added coverage, so you can compare rates. In particular, learn exactly the number of hours of protection are consisted of. Ideally, you desire your photographer to be there for your complete wedding day-- from when you begin preparing yourself up until after you make your grand leave from the reception. While plans vary, the majority of consist of concerning 6 to 12 hours to cover everything from preceremony events (getting ready with your bridesmaids or first-look photos) to the end of the reception. It's typically far better to spend for even more protection if there's an opportunity you'll run over and you certainly desire your professional photographer there up until the end (overtime is typically billed at a greater hourly price). Additionally take into consideration whether you'll want to do an interaction shoot or have your professional photographer shoot other events during your wedding event weekend (the men' golf getaway, the bridesmaid lunch).

Tip 9: Inquire About Your Legal rights.

Many agreements specify that the digital photographer possesses the rights to all images taken at the wedding, even the among you. Simply puts, the photographer can use them promotionally (on their web site or blog site, send them for magazine as well as place them in advertisements). That also implies you cannot just upload the electronic evidence they send you-- most digital photographers have a plan that you can just share watermarked photos or pictures with their credit scores on them. Unless you discuss or else, if you desire to print the photos yourselves or get a cd from another source, you'll have to get the rights to the pictures.

Action 10: Get the Postproduction Information And Facts.

It usually takes at the very least a month to get all those photo proofs back from your digital photographer. Shooting raw files offers your professional photographer higher ability to correct the image, yet it also takes a longer time to publish, procedure and edit all those documents (in order to deal with color degrees as well as so on). It varies, however lots of photographers say they spend an extra 40 hours modifying pictures from a solitary wedding celebration, so it can take up to 6 to eight weeks (or longer, depending on the digital photographer and just how busy they are) to get proofs back.

Source: https://sites.google.com/view/temecula-wedding-photographer/home

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