#and that bus only runs every 40 minutes and I did Not want to stand outside in the 100 degree heat for an extra 40 mins lmao | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

twinklelilstarkey · 3 years ago

Text

Cuddles - Mathew Barzal

Words: 2.7k+

Type: Fluff

Summary: Every time Mat comes back from a roadie, he becomes the clingiest person known to Earth, which means that he will do absolutely anything to get your attention and his god damn cuddles.

Warnings: PDA - just Mat being really touchy and stuff. There isn’t a mention on reader’s gender.

Mathew is not really the type of person that constantly seeks affection. He just likes his own space from time to time. Especially outside of the house, he’ll hold your hand but he’s not one to hug you out of nowhere, unlike some couples in your friend group.

But, that is only when he hasn’t been away from you for some time. If, for example, you two go spend the holidays with your families (separated), Mathew is not leaving your side when you’re back together. He absolutely will not let you go to do anything.

So you better take the week off work, every time, you got a man to cuddle.

And now that you two have been dating for a longer time, officially living under the same roof and doing everything like a whole married couple, Mathew’s seeking for affection after being away is through the roof. Like, he’s out for 2 weeks for a roadie, expect that men to hug you by the bus and never let go of you until you need to pee.

You believe that it might be because he now gets so used to seeing you everywhere in the house that when he leaves, he has that silence and that person missing.

Yet, still, you never, in a million years, expected him to take his hugs so seriously.

And that is exactly what’s happening right now. He went out for a long roadie, which he can’t complain much because the Islanders won a lot and he had a great time with his friends, but, god damn it, he hated that he had to spend such a long time away from you and just staring at you through a screen.

He came back home late at night, around 4 in the morning, and even though you two felt exhausted - and you were half asleep - he still hugged you and stayed with his arms around you for a good 5 minutes. That is even without closing the front door when he came in.

And when you did reach the bed, you two fell asleep in just a few seconds.

You were able to wake up, naturally, early and Mathew looked so peaceful when you woke up that you tried your best not to move too much and wake him on accident. That man needs rest, and you seriously can’t take that away from him.

So, you used your silent Sunday morning to the best of your ability, did a lengthy morning routine, just to have that moment with yourself in calm days: take a long relaxing shower, and even do a mask and test new products on your face.

You’re honestly living your best life.

And even after those good 40-50 minutes in the bathroom, Mathew is still asleep when you walk out.

So, you decide to go have breakfast and probably, just if you’re feeling like it, clean the apartment - an activity you’ve been hesitating to do for days, but, sooner or later, you do have to do it.

And you, like the brave soul that you are, started working on it as soon as you can. Literally downed your coffee like a shot, ate a granola bar, and cleaning you went.

The living room and bathrooms were fairly easy and quick, but as soon as you started with the kitchen, a wild sleepy Mathew makes an appearance.

“Morning.” You say with a smile.

With his eyes still half-closed yet a grin on his face, Mathew walks over to you, slowly starting to open his arms. You put down the rag onto the counter and meet him halfway to wrap your arms around his torso. His arms wrap around your shoulders and squeeze you close.

He leans his cheek onto your head and you close your eyes, feeling and enjoying Mathew’s warmth through the thin shirt you’re wearing.

“How did you sleep?” You ask him.

“Good. I was so tired.” He says while letting out a sigh.

You squeeze him one time and move your head back to stare up at him. He looks down to meet your gaze and gives you a quick kiss, almost as if he’s stealing one.

“What do you want to do today?” He asks you, and you can’t help but hold in a cringe.

“I don’t know if we can do anything exciting today.” You tell him slowly.

“Why?” He asks with a confused frown.

“I have a lot to do today.” You start, “I have to finish cleaning the house, probably go grocery shopping and do my meals for the week.”

A loud and long groan leaves Matthew’s mouth as he throws his head back dramatically and you unwrap your arms from around him to hold his sides.

“I’m sorry.” You try to make it better with a soft tone. “Were you planning on doing anything?”

He brings his head back up and shakes his head.

“Just wanted to spend time with you.” He says before pulling you into a hug again, “And cuddle.” He says against your neck.

You wrap your arms around him again and run your hand up and down his back comfortingly.

“I’m still going to be at home. I just won’t be able to cuddle until I’m done with everything.” You tell him and he sighs dramatically. “You can always help me? So I’m done with all of this quicker.”

Mathew stays silent, still snuggled into your neck, and doesn’t even move a muscle.

Accepting his silence as an answer of ‘no, thank you’ or even ‘let me wake up first and I’ll answer you’, you try to move away from him, laying your hands by his sides again and pushing him away ever so slightly. But, right as Mathew feels the pressure of you pulling him away, he stops you by squeezing you a bit closer.

“Nooo.” He whines, making you laugh, “Just a few more seconds.”

(...)

Mathew, surprisingly, after his long morning shower and eating his breakfast (over the table you just cleaned), actually offered to help. He ignored your surprised look, looked at you, and just asked “what do you need me to do?”.

And off Mat went to clean your room and make the bed. You just finished off with the kitchen and swept some floors, and, honestly, you don’t think you’ve ever got everything done so quickly.

With Mathew still in the bedroom, you decide to start working on the list of groceries. Opening every cabinet and the fridge multiple times, you typed into your phone’s notes what is missing and what you’ll eventually need in a space of a few hours after cooking.

While deep into your task, you don’t notice Mat coming back from the bedroom with the full dirty laundry basket - mostly because he just emptied his travel bag and just changed the sheets. He walks through the kitchen to the laundry room and yet you don’t blink an eye in his direction.

You are so focused that Mat is starting to think that someone could rob the apartment, right now, and you wouldn’t even notice them.

When the laundry is separated and some of it is already on the machine, which is already on, Mat walks back out to the kitchen and notices you typing on your phone.

“Do you want to go to get the food before lunch?” He asks you, in hopes you would answer him.

You just nod, while scrolling through the list to see if you didn’t repeat anything.

Mat stares at you for a bit, taking a second or two to admire you - something he was unable to do for a good few days. He takes a few steps closer, almost as if testing the waters, and stands right beside you.

He acts as if he’s checking the list you’re writing, and leans in close to you. You, still in your own world, pay him no mind and continue to type and check at least 3 times in the row if anything is missing on the list.

His arms sneakily wrap around your hips and he pulls you closer to him to the point of completely having you against him. He lays a kiss on the side of your head and looks down at your phone again, not wanting to disrupt you too much.

Your vacant hand lays over his arm, caressing it unconsciously as you delete a few words and type some new ones.

“Want to go to the store with me?” You ask him.

You look up at him as Mat doesn’t say anything and when your eyes meet, he gives you a quick nod. You smile at him and he kisses your cheek.

(...)

“You know...” You start while looking at the shelves down the aisle, “You’re making it really hard to walk, babe.”

“I don’t know what you mean by that.”

You laugh at Mat and he smiles against your shoulder. He has been doing this every time the aisle you’re walking down is empty - which is almost every aisle. He has his arms around your waist and is holding you from behind close to him while you try to walk with the shopping cart right in front of you.

You don’t even know how many times you’ve tripped over each other’s feet, but Mat doesn’t seem to mind it at all.

You look down at your list and delete the name of another item as you throw it inside the cart.

“You look really beautiful today.” Mat says against your ear before pressing a kiss over the side of your head.

You look over at him and he leans his head back to look at you better, as well. A small grin lifts off the corners of your lips and he smiles before giving you a kiss.

As you two pull away, you turn your attention back to the aisle in front of you.

“Good to know I just look like that today.” You say to him in the most serious tone ever.

Mat giggles at your words beside your ear and soon your serious act lifts off. In your defense, it’s hard to do so when he’s that close to your ear, giggling his sanity away.

“You know what I mean.” He says while poking your side.

“You’re lucky I do.”

He smiles brightly and goes back to leaning his head over your shoulder. Good thing for him, the store is almost empty, so he can do that for most of the time you’re here.

You stop the cart once more and start, with the best of your ability, putting the things you need from the shelves into the center of the cart.

Soft humming is heard a few meters behind you, yet both you and Mat seem to ignore it. An old lady, with a little basket on her hand, walks down the aisle innocently, looking through the products on the shelves, and as she studies all the varieties, her eyes land on you.

Her view is quite interesting. You’re looking down at your phone, lifting your gaze to squint at what’s in front of you - what she assumes is the signs about each aisle - and a man, Mat, is with his dark hair mostly covered by his hoodie, even though some strands are falling to his forehead, hugging you close to him while peeking down at your phone.

If she wasn’t such a romantic person, she would’ve thought about and probably criticized - in her mind - how clingy you both looked. Yet she’s not one to turn her nose in disgust at such things, quite the opposite. She’s the one that smiles upon seeing them.

“Mat, can you pass me that bag?” She hears you ask the boy while giving him a pat on the head to get his attention.

He doesn’t verbally answer, but, right away, he stands upright and reaches up for the bag your pointing at the top of the shelves.

“Wait- Not that one.” You told him.

“Why not?” He frowns in confusion.

“It doesn’t look good.”

He gives you a look as if you’re going crazy and grabs your wished bag of sugar while listening to you giggle at his annoyance. When the bag reaches the center of the cart, he goes back to behind you and goes back to his warm, kind of, hiding place.

And that’s when the lady decides to not stare for much longer, in hopes she wouldn’t spook anyone, and walks away to continue her shopping.

You, without even blinking at Mat’s actions, start moving forward out of the aisle and onto the next one. And that’s when your eyes land on the lady, who is walking by you now, at a way faster pace - you got to blame Mat for that one; you swear that a sloth moves faster than you two.

(...)

“Are you done, now?” Mat asks for probably the 100th time in the past hour.

You put down the rinsed pan on the washing machine and finally look back at Mat while closing it.

“Yes.”

“Really?” He asks with widened eyes, “Or are you joking?”

“I’m 100% serious.”

Mathew stands from the high chair of the island and walks over to you right away. He grabs onto your hand and starts pulling you towards the living room and couch, finally going after what he has been wishing all day long. His god damn cuddles.

You have been cooking for the past hour and some more minutes for your meals to eat during the week for work - a habit you’ve started having for a few months and can’t seem to not do it when there’s a big week incoming.

In other words, the restaurants around your work aren’t that great, you’re tired of sandwiches and you’ve been finding yourself too tired during the week to do lunch in the morning or on the night before. So, meal prepping, it is.

You and Mathew walk into the living room and he’s quick to snatch the largest blanket you had just folded this morning. He lets go of your hand before giving a look, almost as if to tell you, ‘don’t you dare move’.

You smile at him as he lays over the couch and motions you to come closer. He grabs onto the tv remote first, probably to get a movie going, just for background noise, and you lay with him.

Your face lays over Mat’s chest comfortably and you feel him shake the blanket around before draping it over the two of you. A little grin is planted over your face as he practically starts tucking you in, close to him.

As soon as the movie is chosen, Mat’s arms wrap around you and he pulls you even closer.

The both of you stare at the TV in silence. You’re just curious to see what movie he chose, while Mat just wants to see if the movie is any good.

But then, suddenly, an uneasy feeling hits the end of your tummy.

Oh no, he’s going to absolutely hate you.

How are you even supposed to tell him this?

You try to focus on the screen and forget about all your needs. You just got to focus, Y/N, come on.

Not even five minutes later, you feel like you can’t hold it in anymore. Ugh, just do it.

“Hey, Mat?” You ask, tone a little hesitant.

“Yeah?” He asks, moving his hand up and down your back.

“I need to tell you something and, please, don’t be mad.”

Mathew frowns and looks away from the screen at you. He’s confused, you can tell. You can’t really blame him, you were just fine a few minutes ago, and now you sounded like you were about to unleash a bomb.

“Okay...?” He says almost as if to encourage you to talk, since you stayed very quiet.

“I might need to go pee.” You tell him.

His hand abruptly stops moving on your back and his expression of confusion falls into an expression of disbelief.

“Are you serious?” He asks.

“Yeah.” You say, biting your lips as if to keep in your giggles.

“How dare you?”

A giggle finally escapes your mouth and you notice his lips twitching slightly as he tries not to smile and continue his serious act.

“I’ll be right back, yeah?” You tell him as you start sitting up on your knees.

“Screw you.” He tells you and you laugh again.

You’re quick on standing back on your feet and make your way to the bathroom, very fast-paced.

“I love you too, Barzal!” You tell him as you walk out of the room.

Hope this is good!

#mathew barzal #mathew barzal imagine #mathew barzal imagines #mathew barzal x reader #hockey imagines #hockey imagine #nhl imagines

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quokkacore · 4 years ago

Text

with great power I [lee jeno]

summary: there are two things jeno loves most about his life. one being spiderman, the other being you, his best friend. there’s just one issue: after your father’s death, you decide you hate both spiderman and yourself.

pairing: lee jeno x reader

genre: superhero au, high school au, coming of age, best friends to strangers(ish) to lovers, fluff, ANGST, minor crack

warnings (for this chapter): language, violence, gun violence, the mafia, parental death, police presence, sexual references, bullying (ily san im sorry), the dreamies being dicks to each other, police corruption, towards the end jeno experiences something similar to sensory overload, americanized names, pop culture references, VERY jeno centric

song rec: we go up - nct dream // any song - zico // 21 questions - waterparks // talk (remix feat. megan thee stallion & yo gotti) - khalid // sunrise - ateez // i really like you - carly rae jepsen // dare - gorillaz // stray kids - the tortoise and the hare

word count: 10.5k

a/n: this is so late...... i blame attack on titan. but hey!! better late than never :] a huge thanks to @doderyscoffee for beta reading <3

main masterlist // story masterlist

chapter one: jeno and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

Jeno despised Tuesdays. He was pretty sure that Tuesdays despised Jeno as well because all of his worst days just so happen to be Tuesdays. He was 96% sure that, if there was a god, his day off was on Tuesdays, or that the planets aligned in such a manner on Tuesdays that it caused universal despair and misery. If he was to take Donghyuck's word for it, his chakra attracted negative energy the most on Tuesdays.

When Jeno was 5, his goldfish Pippin had died on a Tuesday. When he had his ass handed to him on the playground by San Choi in the third grade, it was a Tuesday. And in the seventh grade, he'd failed his Spanish test, missed his bus and walked home in the rain only to find out that his Aunt Sunny was at work, he'd left his keys in his locker and that had to wait an hour before she got home to unlock it for him, all on a Tuesday.

And wouldn't you know it, here he was, late for the first day of senior year, which was, of all days, a godforsaken Tuesday.

In his eternal wisdom, he'd stayed up gaming with Renjun until two in the morning, and because of it, slept through his three alarms, one set at six-thirty, the other at 6:45, the last one at 7:00.

He'd woken up at 7:17, to the sound of his elderly neighbor's pet chihuahua barking at a pigeon, checked the time, immediately panicked, sped into the shower, gotten dressed in a haste, grabbed a few granola bars from the pantry, and ran out the door while trying to jam his backpack closed, and managed to catch the train at 7:40, which took about twenty minutes to get to his stop, plus a ten-minute walk to school, and class started at 8:10. Not to mention he’d have to stop by the office and pick up his schedule. At best, he’d be five minutes late to his first class. But tardies were tardies, regardless, and the last thing he needed was to lose his perfect attendance streak.

He fished out his phone while standing on the train, waiting for his stop, scrolling through Instagram, and liking random pictures. A ping! from his phone caught his attention, then two, then a third. He smiled softly when your name popped up on his screen.

[7:48 AM]

y/n: pssst

y/n: shithead

y/n: where r u ????

[7:49 AM]

y/n: i can sEE u online on ig u know

jeno: …… i'm on the train

jeno: woke up late

y/n: YOURE GONNA BE LATR

y/n: LATE*

y/n: ON THE FIRST DAY OF SENIOR YEAR

[7:50]

jeno: probably, yeah

jeno: it's the school district's fault, why would they make the first day of school on a fkn TUESDAY

y/n: ohhh yeahh its terrible tuesday

y/n: [sent an attachment!]

[7:51 AM]

jeno: SHUT UP

jeno: you're not funny >:(

jeno: how dare you laugh at my misfortune

y/n: au contraire im hilarious

jeno: meanie :(

jeno: im gonna be late i hate it here

jeno: it'll end up on my permanent record and i'm not gonna get into college and then i'm gonna die,,,

[7:52 AM]

y/n: sometimes ur worse than hyuck i swear

y/n: FIRST OF ALL permanent records dont even exist !!!!!! its propaganda duh

y/n: also ur literally never late

y/n: im sure o n e tardy wont do anything chill

y/n: dont be stupid youll be fine

Don’t be stupid. Too little, too late, he thought, already having got off the train at a previous stop. Now, he was looking for an unoccupied street or alleyway, which, for once, was easy, taking a deep breath before he did the exact opposite of what you’d told him not to do. Don’t be stupid.

The buildings are low, he thought to himself, it’ll be easier to see me.

Don’t be stupid.

Too late!

Thwip!

Jeno didn’t hesitate to use the web fluid to pull himself up onto the wall, climbing in a haste, before running and jumping onto the next building. He quickly built up a quick pace, using the web fluid occasionally to swing onto a building slightly out of jumping range.

Signs in English, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish flew past him as he seemingly flew over the Queens traffic, leaving Flushing behind and crossing quickly into College Point quicker than he would if he took the train. He glanced to his left and caught a view of the bay, and far across it, the LaGuardia airport watchtower.

Jeno had lived in New York City his entire life. He knew Queens like the back of his hand, knew every dingy alleyway, every sketchy street, which restaurants to avoid if you didn’t want to get food poisoning, which convenience store aunties were the nicest and didn’t pinch his cheeks too hard. It was his home, and most likely would be for the rest of his life.

But seeing it like this, flying past him below as he glided with ease from building to building would never cease to be a sight to him. It was like watching from the perspective of an outsider, seeing people in their cars, walking along the street gave him a brand new perspective. A Jeno’s eye view, he called it, since he was pretty sure he was the only one in New York City.

Another noise from his phone brought him back to reality. He shook his head, stopping briefly to catch his breath and fish out his phone briefly.

[7:57 AM]

y/n: let me know when u get here !!!

No time to respond, he put away the phone and continued his trek to school. He had less than ten minutes to get there. But he knew he was already at least five minutes away, much quicker than he would be if he had decided to stick to the train. He smiled a bit to himself, feeling ever so slightly smug.

The hustle and bustle of the city definitely proved challenging to find a place to land without many eyes, but he figured it out eventually, landing behind a dumpster in an alleyway behind a restaurant that he knew was about three or four blocks from the school. He figured it would be a lot better to take it on foot from here. The notebooks he was carrying in his backpack bounced up and down with every step he took.

After what seemed like forever, the gates to the school appeared in his view, and Jeno felt a joy in his heaving chest, something he would have never thought would happen upon seeing the absolute hellhole that was Samuel Morse High School.

[8:06 AM]

jeno: just did >:D

Picking up his schedule was both quick and insanely long. He couldn’t stop himself from tapping his left foot while the secretary found his schedule and handed it to him. “Kibum, please hurry,” He muttered, and Kibum raised an eyebrow at him, but his gaze was teasing. “That’s Mr. Kim to you, in school at least.”

He handed Jeno his schedule a few seconds later. “Tell your Aunt to come pick up her casserole dish, by the way. She left it at my house after my last viewing party.”

“The Bachelor?”

“Please. We’re too classy for that. Drag Race.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Jeno,” Kibum said, staring up at him from his desk, his gaze now much more serious, “Get to class. Happy first day of senior year.”

“Thanks, Mr. Kim.”

He managed to make it to chemistry class at 8:09 with seconds to spare. His eyes quickly scanned the room upon entering, hoping his friends were in the class with him. He caught a few familiar faces, most of which, like San Choi's, he wished to avoid. No one paid him any mind. Everyone was still speaking to the people next to them, no doubt exchanging stories of summer vacation.

A hand shot up towards the back, waving at him. A smile stretched across his face as he registered your face, feet not hesitating to carry him towards the empty seat next to you. His heart skipped a beat at seeing your smile, and he tried his best to ignore it.

“Hey,” You greeted, “That was fast. I thought you said you were gonna be late.”

Jeno shrugged, eyes landing on the dark shade of the lab table. “The train was a lot faster than I expected, apparently.”

You wrinkled your nose. “Why do you smell so bad?”

“I, uh… ran a little.”

You grimaced, and Jeno tried to casually sniff at his slightly sweaty clothes. It’s not that bad. “I still don’t understand why you won’t let me drive you to school. You’re literally next door.”

“I don’t know,” He answered, rolling his eyes, “Maybe it’s because when it comes to that truck, you are absolutely insane. You won’t even let me drink water in that thing.”

The truck in question, a faded red 1998 Chevrolet S-10, had been your gift to yourself for your 17th birthday. You’d spent two summers saving up to buy yourself a truck, and that was what you were able to get for what you had. To say it was a huge piece of junk on wheels was an understatement.

The thing smelled like mothballs no matter how many air fresheners you bought it, the engine sounded like an old man having a coughing fit, and there was a very suspicious stain in the backseat that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times you scrubbed it. But for some reason, you treated it like it was your own baby. The amount of times you’d yelled at Jaemin for trying to put his feet on the dashboard was too high to count.

You mirrored his movement, eyes rolling as you sighed. “At least let me drive you home after school today. Maybe you can stay and we can finally watch Blade Runner.”

You’d been trying to get him to watch the film for almost a month now, begging and pleading because you insisted that he’d love it. He offered an awkward stare, before opening his backpack and pulling out a notebook. “Can’t,” He mumbled, “I’m headed into Manhattan. I have my internship afterwards.”

“Oh, yeah,” You said nonchalantly, eyebrows shooting up as you remembered, “Park Industries.”

He was about to reply when Mrs. Baker, the chemistry teacher, finally entered. She’d been working at SMHS for 30 years and had never, apparently, been nice, if his Aunt Sunny’s stories were anything to go by. However, she had apparently always spoken as if she smoked two packs a day. She was rambling about the importance of making the most of senior year academically, adult responsibilities, college, and whatnot. You and Jeno exchanged glances often throughout the monologue, hoping it would end soon.

“Enough of that,” She said after what seemed like an eternity, “Everyone quiet down, I’m going to call roll.”

Names were quickly called, and Jeno was ready to pull out a pencil and start working with you until Mrs Baker demanded a switch in seats, beginning to call on random names in an effort to deter everyone from speaking.

"Please not with Choi, please not with Choi," Jeno muttered under his breath, glancing warily at San, who was staring ahead, looking bored.

San had had it out for Jeno ever since day one, in first grade. For some reason, everything Jeno did seemed to annoy the other boy. He wasn't funny enough, or too nerdy, or too quiet. Jeno was always too much or too little for him.

You touched his forearm, and he looked towards you.

“You’ll be fine,” You said softly, trying not to alert the teacher, “You’re not gonna get paired up with him, and you can take it to the office if you need to.” “Yeah, because I’m sure Coach Peralta would be thrilled if someone tried to get his precious midfielder in trouble.”

“Choi, San,” Mrs Baker’s voice rang throughout the room, and Jeno braced himself for the worst, eyebrows furrowing with worry.

“You’ll be sitting with… L/N, Y/N.”

Jeno’s shoulders slumped, but your face remained impassive. You picked up your stuff, and pouted silently at Jeno in apology, before making your way to the front.

“Lee, Jeno,” Mrs Baker called a few minutes later, “You’ll be sitting with Jang, Yeeun.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief. Yeeun is nice, Jeno thought to himself, I could sit with Yeeun. She wasn’t part of his main friend group, but he had tutored her in math during sophomore year in exchange for her helping him with Spanish, and they’d been pretty friendly ever since.

“Hey,” Yeeun greeted as Jeno sat down, and Jeno smiled at her.

“Remember, these will be your assigned lab partners for the rest of the semester. No changes, no exceptions.” Mrs. Baker sat down at her desk, before beginning to talk about something Jeno didn’t really pay attention to.

You exchanged glances with Jeno, and he gave you a look of sympathy as you gestured at San with your eyes. San was talking to you about something—probably bragging about some soccer achievement—but you weren’t paying him much attention. Jeno swallowed something growing in his throat as he looked at how your hair looked today.

It was nothing relatively new, the same hairstyle you used on most days. But still, there was a bit of a shine to it. He wondered vaguely if you had changed your shampoo, the other day you’d been complaining about how itchy your normal shampoo made your scalp—

“You still haven’t told her about how you feel?” Yeeun asked quietly, and Jeno’s head snapped back to look at her, eyes wide.

“W-what? Me. Like Y/N…” He laughed nervously, trying to keep his voice down. He scratched the back of his head, avoiding Yeeun’s accusatory stare. “You’re hilarious, Yeeun. Tell another one.”

Yeeun shook her head. “You’d better hurry before someone else snatches her up, Jen. She’s not gonna wait around for you forever.”

“I don’t like her, Yeeun.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Hey! Jeno Lee!”

“Hey! Jaemin Na! What do you want!” Jeno answered as he sat down, mimicking Jaemin’s tone next to him.

“Well, for starters, a million dollars, and second, a date with Yiren Wang, but I doubt you can help me with either of those, so...”

Jeno glanced at the rest of the table. Along with Jaemin, Mark, Renjun, Donghyuck, and you were watching the interaction between the pair. “Where are the munchkins?” Jeno asked, noticing Chenle and Jisung’s absence. No one could really call them munchkins anymore. That nickname dated back to middle school, before the two underclassmen had gone through growth spurts.

“Eh, they should be here soon,” Renjun said, chewing on a french fry, “How’s your day been?”

“Pretty good so far, I guess. I got AP Calc with Mr. Washington later, though. That man wants me dead.”

You rolled your eyes. “He doesn’t want you dead. I’m telling you, you and Hyuck have been spending way too much time together. You’re being more dramatic than usual and Hyuck’s being more… weird than usual.”

“And just what is so weird about being enthusiastic about senior year, Y/N?” Donghyuck asked, shaking his head, “It’s our last year in this hellhole, I’m excited that we’re finally getting out of here. And besides—”

“Please don’t bring up the fact that you’re abandoning us next year.” Chenle seemingly appeared out of nowhere, sitting next to Renjun, Jisung following quickly behind him.

“Hi, Sungie,” You said with a smile, and Jisung smiled back. “Hi, Y/N.”

“What were you saying, Hyuck?” Jaemin looked at Donghyuck, who had taken the quick interaction as an opportunity to take a bite of his sandwich. His wide eyes darted to the slim boy, cheeks stuffed with chicken.

“Oh,” He replied after swallowing, “This is gonna be my year. I’m getting male lead for the winter musical and no one is gonna stop me.”

“Do you even know what musical you guys are doing yet?” Mark asked, “What if it’s like… Shrek?”

Jisung made a face. “There’s a Shrek musical?”

Mark nodded, and Renjun laughed.

“I don’t know about male lead, if it’s Shrek. You should try out for Donkey,” The Chinese boy joked, “With those front teeth, you’re a shoo-in.”

The entire table was silent for a moment, before snorts and chortles started pouring out from everyone except Donghyuck.

“Fuck you, Huang.”

Renjun flashed the friendliest smile he could muster. “Not if you paid me a million dollars.”

The subject remained on extracurriculars, everyone in your group except for Chenle and Jisung now wary of college applications. Donghyuck had been in theater ever since middle school, Renjun was in the robotics club and the debate team with Jaemin, who was also in the student council. Mark was on the math team with Jeno, and you had founded the film club.

"You're not gonna believe who asked to sign up for film," You huffed, looking kind of confused. The rest of the table looked at you expectantly, and you pursed your lips, almost as if you were trying not to laugh.

"San Choi."

Renjun scoffed. Jaemin raised his eyebrows before letting out a single, humorless laugh. Jeno made a face, poking his plastic fork at you.

"What is San Choi doing asking to sign up for film?"

"Fuck if I know. He said he needed one more extracurricular if he wanted to get into some college in Florida and he liked going to the movies, so he wanted to try out film."

Mark rolled his eyes. "I swear there's nothing in that guy's head but hot gas. It blows my mind."

"He's a dick," Chenle grumbled, "I'm still not over how he and Wooyoung taped Jisung to the flagpole last year."

Jisung scowled. "I thought we agreed to never bring that up again."

“Do you think they’ll finally calm the fuck down this year?” Jaemin wondered, looking wistful.

You took a sip of your coke and shook your head. “Doubt it. They’re not the hateful eight for a reason.”

The mood at the table turned tense, until Jaemin frowned at his french fries, before sighing and clapping his hands together dramatically. “I would like to hear,” He mused, “About the nuance that theatre gives the cinematic masterpiece that is Shrek when converted into musical form.”

Donghyuck beamed. “Oh, it’s amazing. You see…”

If it was difficult to get Donghyuck to stop talking in general, it was impossible when it was about theater.

The conversation continued on until the bell rang, and the eight of you had to go your separate ways. Jaemin and Jeno had the same class, so they both walked together down a relatively calm hallway. Jaemin looked both ways, before finally lowering his voice.

“So, you’re going to see Mr. Park today?”

Jeno nodded, looking down at his shoes. “He said he wanted to give me an assignment. Says there’s something big going on.”

Jaemin’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “Did he say what kind of something?”

Jeno shook his head, pouting slightly. “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

Once school was out, Jeno was getting ready to get onto the subway once again, this time heading towards Midtown. It was only day one and, as Jeno had predicted, Mr. Washington probably was out to get him, because he’d swamped the class with homework.

As he left the school, he spotted you in the parking lot, leaning against your car door, texting someone. He glanced at his phone. He still had plenty of time, he figured. He walked over to you, and when you looked up, you smiled.

“Hey!” Your voice had that signature tone of enthusiasm to it, and Jeno smiled back immediately.

“Hello,” He sing-songed. “So, I was thinking… are you free on Friday night?”

You looked somewhere above his head, furrowing your eyebrows before you perked up again and nodded. “Yep! Why?”

“I’m free after nine. Maybe then I could come over to your house? So I can finally get you to stop harassing me about Blade Runner.”

You grinned, pumping your fists enthusiastically. “Hell yes,” You answered, “Do you want me to get like, some frozen pizzas or something?”

“Pizza sounds good,” He said. “Who are you even waiting for?”

You made a face that made it seem as if you’d just gotten a whiff of rotten milk. “Well—”

Your response was interrupted when the school doors slammed open, and eight figures poured out, carrying themselves with confidence Jeno both envied and despised. He frowned, trying not to react at their loud whooping and laughing. The Hateful Eight.

“Oh.” Jeno averted his gaze, meeting your eyes again.

“Yeah. If you don’t hear from me later it’s because I jumped out of my truck because I don’t wanna work with—”

“Well, hello, gorgeous!” San’s voice filled the parking lot, and Jeno took a deep breath. Your mouth stretched into a tight-lipped smile at the unwanted ‘compliment’.

“Hey, San.” Your friendly passive aggressive tone almost made Jeno smile. “I’ve been waiting here for like, fifteen minutes. You could have just given me your number and asked me to send you pictures of my notes, you know.”

He shrugged, turning his body so that his back was turned to Jeno. “Sorry, babe. Coach wanted to talk to us about the upcoming season. When he gets going, it’s hard to get him to stop. And besides, where’s the fun in just asking for pictures when I could come here, talk to you, and take the pictures myself?”

You didn’t respond, but rather pulled out your backpack and began digging through it. When you pulled out your notebook, you handed it to San, who flashed a wink at you. You barely held back a gag.

“Thanks, Y/N. I’ll just be a minute.”

He walked over to the hood of your truck, and just as you were about to continue your conversation, two figures slung their arms around both of Jeno’s shoulders, causing him to flinch.

Out of the fifteen soccer players on the team, San and his best friends—seven of them, to be precise—were the worst. The others were pretty nice. But right now, seeing two of those seven surround your best friend made you uneasy.

Wooyoung was loud. He was also a temperamental brat. His dad owned three used car dealerships over in Brooklyn, so naturally, he thought he owned the entire world. He wasn’t someone who would get too physical in fights, like San, or Jongho, or Yeosang. But when he was angry, he could easily get you to jump into the stratosphere by yelling at you once. Over the years, he’d made several teaching assistants and substitute teachers cry, only getting let off with a slap on the wrist every time.

Yunho was terrifying for completely different reasons. He was friendly, but a little too friendly to the people he wanted to control. He could read people like books and could easily manipulate whoever he wanted. But he wasn’t afraid of getting physical either, especially not when he was built like a goddamn Power Rangers Megazord.

All in all, they definitely weren't anyone you wanted near you, near your friends. Especially considering how much they had it out for your friends.

"Hey, buddy," Yunho said, looking down at Jeno with a wide smile. "How was summer vacation?"

Jeno gnawed on the side of his cheek as he considered his answer. "Um, it was okay." He looked at you to catch your eyes darting between San, Yunho and Wooyoung, like you were analyzing the situation. "I kinda stayed in and played video games most of the t—"

"Cool, cool," Yunho answered, carding his free hand through his bleach blond hair. "What about you, Woo?"

"Oh, dude, it was so cool," He bragged, "I went to Brazil for like, a month. I went clubbing with Instagram models and shit, it was wild."

You stared at him as he patted Jeno on the back rather aggressively. "Where did you go? Have you ever even left New York?"

You knew the answer. Only a few times when the debate team went to compete in different states. Jeno spoke up again. "Well, yeah a few t—"

"Doubt it," Yunho scoffed. He craned his head back. "San, you done yet?"

"Almost!" San answered. Yunho turned to face you, and for some reason his smile seemed genuinely kind. “What about you, Y/N?”

You never understood why it was that the soccer team hated your entire friend group, but seemed to tolerate you. It made no sense.

So you shrugged. “Not a lot, I guess. Did my summer reading. Hung out with my friends.” You flashed a reassuring smile at Jeno. “Right, Jen?”

Immediately, he relaxed a little bit. “Yeah.”

San appeared from behind Yunho, Jeno and Wooyoung. “Thanks, Y/N. I owe you one.”

You waved your hand, wanting them to get rid of them quickly. “Don’t mention it. But next time, just text me for my notes. I have to get to work, so…”

“Oh! My bad,” He answered with fake remorse, before unlocking his phone and handing it over to you. “Here. For next time.”

You stifled a deep sigh, punching in the numbers hesitantly. “Just for homework, got it?”

San took his phone back, holding a hand over his heart and raised his head. “On a gentleman's honor,” He declared, and you bit back a laugh. Jeno looked like he was going to hurl.

“San!” The team captain—Hongjoong—called from a few feet away, “Are you guys done yet or what?”

“Coming!” San yelled back.

“Alright, we’ll let you go,” Wooyoung said, patting Jeno on the back again, a bit too harsh for comfort. “Bye, Y/N! See you around.”

The three of them stalked off, leaving you and a very frazzled Jeno. “Dicks,” You muttered once they were out of earshot. “You good?”

Jeno shook his head, waving his hand dismissively. “I’ll be fine.”

You tilted your head, frowning. “Jeno—”

“I gotta go,” He said quickly. “I’ll see you later?”

You nodded, offering a lopsided smile. “Yeah. Be careful!”

Jeno offered a deep bow, fluttering his eyelashes. “On a gentleman’s honor,” He sighed, adding a very bad British accent to it. You burst out laughing, eyes squeezing shut.

You didn’t catch the way Jeno’s shoulders relaxed at the sound.

I want you to know now

Baby, it could go down

I don’t wanna talk about it

Baby, let’s just go now

The train ride into Midtown didn’t take too long. He spent it digging through his backpack for his Park Industries lanyard, listening to music and thinking about you.

When you talk right to me

You gon’ have to do me

Every time you think you’re leaving

You running back to me

You’d met Jeno when you were six. Truth be told, he didn’t really remember. For him it was like you weren’t there at one point and by the time you were, you were thicker than thieves. It was a difficult time for him. He had just lost both of his parents, and was moving in with his Aunt Sunny and his Uncle Jinki, who were barely out of college at the time. He’d had to move to a new school and basically restart his entire life. You were the first sense of stability in his life for months.

Your mom lived next to his aunt and uncle. So naturally, you went to the same school and went on the same bus. And somewhere along the way, you two clicked. You’d introduced him to Renjun, Jaemin and Donghyuck. You were there to comfort him whenever he got pushed off the slide by San or Wooyoung.

He was there for you when your stepdad and stepbrother moved in when you were nine and you weren’t sure how to deal with it. He was there when your mom died when you were thirteen. He’d introduced you and your friends to Mark, Chenle and Jisung.

And you were there when his Uncle Jinki got killed when he was fifteen. And because fate had an especially cruel sense of irony, it had happened on a Tuesday. You didn’t know, but at the time, he had just gotten his powers. Your comfort and words unknowingly had a secondary effect: he made the decision to use them for good, and… well. The rest was history.

Can we just talk? Can we just talk?

Talk about where we're goin'

Before we get lost, lend me your thoughts

Can't get what we want without knowin'

Just like when he met you, he didn’t recall an exact moment where he realized he’d fallen in love with you. He knew there was a world where he loved you, but wasn’t in love with you. And he knew that there was a world here he’d fallen in love with you—he was living in that world now. He realized he was living in that world maybe when he was sixteen, and had been stuck in it ever since.

You were it for him. He’d had crushes before. But never something like this, where he was so aware of your presence around him. It wasn’t the way he was hyper aware of someone like San, or like Yunho or Jongho. It wasn’t out of anxiety or fear, where a shift in mood activated his fight or flight. He was aware of you in a way that only people who truly know each other do, where he could pick up on subtle changes in your behavior, but not out of fear. Rather, out of a desire to take care of you and to not have you worry about anything.

I've never felt like this before

I apologize if I'm movin' too far

Can we just talk? Can we just talk?

Figure out where we're goin'...

As the train rolled into the station that was a fifteen minute walk from Park Tower, Jeno put away his headphones and took a deep breath.

The “Jeno Tingle” as his Aunt Sunny called it—Jeno hated the term—had taken him a few years to gain control of. And while he could never truly turn it off, he could at least tune it out enough to be more at ease. The only time he did so was at school or when he was studying, just because he wanted to feel normal, and because being aware of everything going on around him really messed with his concentration.

Jaemin didn’t understand. “If I was able to tell whenever Seonghwa was behind me because he wanted to scare me into doing his chemistry homework, I’d never turn that shit off,” He’d said once. But truthfully, Jeno didn’t really care. Because while yes, he was still slightly scared of the “hateful eight”, he knew damn well that if things got to be too much, he could kick their asses if he wanted to.

It was his friends he worried about. He couldn’t be around them 24/7. You, not so much. He knew you knew how to fight. Even worse, he knew that San had the hots for you so you were off limits to the rest of them, be it bullying or flirting. But for everyone else… Well. He couldn’t hover over them like some guardian angel.

Now that the “Jeno Tingle” was on, it allowed him to sense everyone within a certain range around him. He could zero in on certain sounds with ease, and his reflexes became heightened. Halfway on his walk up Park Avenue, he jumped away from a chihuahua on its leash a second before it started barking at him.

When he entered the first floor lobby of the Park Building, he scoured the crowd of employees and visitors until he landed on one familiar face.

He'd met Doyoung about a year after his dad started dating your mom. Things between your parents were starting to get serious, and Doyoung was four years older than you were. When they moved into your house, Doyoung as your new stepbrother became the de facto chaperone and babysitter. If you wanted to go to the mall with Jeno, he had to take you. Every time you dragged Jeno to the movies, Doyoung had to go also.

To an extent, it wasn't that bad. Doyoung was cool, and he was smart—he was the one who got Jeno interested in computers and chemistry. He graduated high school at 16, and finished his bachelor's degree at 19. He'd also interned at Park Industries, and secured a job there almost immediately after college.

To an extent, he was the whole reason Mr. Park knew who he was, because of one incident. It was relatively soon after he started the whole vigilante thing. Jeno, still figuring out how to maneuver on the webs that shot out of his wrists, had accidentally crashed into your backyard late at night, when only Doyoung was awake. He was standing in the back door while he was waiting for his dog to finish peeing.

Initially, the older boy had freaked out, thinking that it was a burglar or something. When he yelled out that his dad was a cop and was asleep in the house, Jeno panicked, and pulled off his mask, holding up his hands.

“Woah, woahwoahwoah! Doyoung! It’s me, it’s me!”

Doyoung’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers, paying no mind to the dog as it sauntered up to Jeno, before turning onto its back in a request for belly rubs.

"You're the spider guy everyone's been talking about!?"

"Spider man," Jeno had answered, voice cracking as he dusted himself off. He cringed at the sound of his voice. "...and yes."

Of course, his cover was blown, and he'd begged Doyoung not to tell anyone, especially not you. And while Doyoung had promised not to tell you, it didn't stop him from telling his boss.

That had been almost three years ago now. The rest was history, and after that Jeno didn’t have to run around in bright red sweatpants and dollar store swimming goggles. Now, he had a nanotech suit that allowed him to activate protocols of the suit through voice commands using something top-secret Mr. Park called D.R.E.A.M technology. Direct Response Engaged As Machine—yeah, Jeno didn’t get it either.

Doyoung offered Jeno a smile as he escorted Jeno past security, showing them his employee clearance pass. "Hey. How have you been?"

Jeno shrugged, recounting his day in minor detail as he was led into an elevator labeled authorized personnel only.

This elevator only went up to the 35th floor, seeing as everything past that was only cleared for a certain list of people approved by Mr. Park and his security team, and everything past the 90th floor were Mr. Park's private living quarters.

Now, as Doyoung led him to another elevator to head up to the 85th floor, which was always where Jeno got to meet with Mr. Park—which wasn't often, maybe once or twice a year—he wondered where he would be if he hadn’t surprised Doyoung that night. He would probably still be using those ugly red sweatpants as part of his disguise.

"How's Y/N?" Doyoung asked.

"Oh, she seems okay. That guy who hates me keeps coming onto her though. He's a huge douchebag."

Doyoung frowned. "He's not harassing her, is he? Because if he is—"

"He just won't stop flirting, even though she clearly isn't interested," Jeno said bitterly, "He isn't physical or anything. Trust me, it wouldn't end well for him if he was."

Doyoung wasn't quite sure how to respond to the younger boy's dark tone. He looked down, clearing his throat awkwardly.

“So… how’s the apartment?” Jeno asked. Doyoung perked up instantly.

“Oh, now that Taeyong’s moved in and did his interior design thing, it looks great. He’s really done a great job at it.”

“When am I gonna meet this guy? He sounds cool.”

“He’s really cool,” Doyoung hummed, cheeks heating up. “Things are getting really serious.”

Jeno smiled at how flustered Doyoung, who was normally so level headed and calm, became at the mention of his boyfriend.

“You guys sound like a really good couple,” He said. Doyoung chuckled, waving his hand. “Oh, well—”

The elevator dinged, and Doyoung sighed. “I’ll tell you later. C’mon.”

The hallway it opened up to was lined with pictures of the company's history, starting from pictures of black and white of people in vintage clothing, to pictures in sepia tones to finally pictures of the current CEO at locations around the world: Chanyeol Park.

Jeno walked behind Doyoung as he led him down the hallway, before stopping in front of a door, and a friendly looking man in a suit.

Junmyeon was a part of Chanyeol’s Security and Intelligence team, and often sat in on these meetings with Jeno. The chain of contact also included him. If Jeno couldn’t contact Doyoung (which rarely happened), he’d contact Junmyeon. And if he couldn’t contact either of them, or it was an emergency, only then could he contact Chanyeol. So far, that had only happened once.

"Hey, Junmyeon," Doyoung said, "Mr. Park's 4:30 is here."

Junmyeon nodded, before smiling at Jeno and giving him a wave. "Hey, kid."

Jeno offered an awkward grin. "Hi, Mr. Kim."

Junmyeon rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Kid, you're making me feel ancient. I've told you a million times, just call me Junmyeon."

Jeno shuffled awkwardly, before nodding at the older man, watching as he pressed a button on his earpiece. "Hey, Yeol. Jeno's here."

The muffled response was barely heard, but Jeno automatically understood what Mr. Park said. Junmyeon turned to open the door, and let the pair inside. The “office”—if it could even be called that—opened up to more of a lounge, than anything. A wall of glass overlooked the Manhattan skyline, but Jeno knew that from the outside it looked only like a wall, due to camouflage technology developed by Mr. Park himself. As Doyoung and Junmyeon stayed back, closer to the door, Jeno took a few steps toward the man in question.

Chanyeol was standing a few feet in front of the glass window, working on a holographic model of a new piece of tech. His face was turned downward in a concentrated frown. He barely spared the teenager a glance as he said fondly, “Hey, kid.”

Jeno was used to this. Chanyeol wasn’t cold per se, but he wasn’t warm at all. He knew that Chanyeol cared about him, even if he didn’t really show it in a conventional way. Chanyeol was a very… eccentric man, so he had his own way of saying and doing things.

“Hi, Mr. Park. Um… you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yep! Needed some help from the friendly neighborhood Spiderman… A little birdie told me about something going on in Queens.”

“Queens?” Jeno asked, gripping the straps of his backpack. “You mean, other than the usual stuff?”

“Other than the usual stuff,” Chanyeol repeated, nodding. With a wave of his hand, the hologram disappeared, and another one appeared in its place. This time, instead of a 3D model, a few pictures and another, smaller 3D model appeared. Chanyeol turned to face him, frown deepening. He pointed at the model—a long, shiny oval-shaped purple stone. It reminded Jeno of an amethyst, but instead of turning white at the base, it turned to an iridescent jade tone. “You know what this is, right?”

Jeno nodded, remembering seeing the rocks all over the news when he was a kid. “That’s… that’s a Chitauri stone. From the invasion a few years back.”

Chanyeol nodded, standing up straight. “These stones have the potential to power weapons with no need to recharge, or change them out. They’re an infinite, extremely strong power source, Jeno, and in the wrong hands can be very dangerous.”

Jeno took a deep breath, feeling his stomach sink slowly. Chanyeol sighed. “Cleanup of the city after the invasion was long, and difficult, and obviously the government and the company weren’t able to get everything. It caused a black market to pop up. Now, the NYPD has been investigating it for years, but they have their limits… that’s where you come in.”

“M-me, Mr. Park?”

Chanyeol gave him a crooked, reassuring smile. He pointed at one of the pictures, which was of a man who most likely didn’t know he was photographed. He was walking somewhere, face looking angry and stern.

“You don’t know who this is, right?”

Jeno shook his head, and Chanyeol turned his head to nod at Junmyeon. “You’re up, tough guy.”

Junmyeon huffed, before walking up to Jeno. He put his hand on Jeno’s shoulder as if he could tell that he was growing anxious.

“Jeno, that’s Henry Duke. From what we understand on the intel team, he’s one of the cornerstones of the alien tech black market. He’s one of the top dogs. From what we understand, he likes to be present for all major negotiations that his group makes. A source of ours told us that there’s going to be a negotiation on Friday night not too far away from LaGuardia. We want you to go out there and just get a feel of what’s going on.”

“Just watch them, right?” Jeno looked at Junmyeon, who patted his back reassuringly. “Just watch. Don’t engage unless you absolutely have to.”

“You can do that, right?” Chanyeol said quietly, crossing his arms. “Because if not, then it’s totally—”

“Yeah, of course I can! Friday—shit, Friday. At what time are they supposed to be meeting up?”

Junmyeon furrowed his eyebrows, before answering, “Around eight or nine.”

Jeno bit his lip, thinking about the promise he’d made to you. It would just have to wait, he supposed. Chanyeol rarely asked anything this big of him.

“Alright,” Jeno agreed, “I’ll do it.”

Chanyeol grinned, clapping his hands together.

“Perfect.”

They discussed logistics briefly after. Doyoung would be on call with Jeno, his custom made suit allowing them to communicate, letting Doyoung see everything Jeno was seeing via a video feed coming from the ultra thin lenses placed in the white eye sockets of the mask. Doyoung would then report to Junmyeon, who would report to Chanyeol, who would probably report to the FBI. Jeno was only to engage if absolutely necessary.

After that, he set out on patrol. He usually found some discreet place to hide his backpack, and then went all over Queens looking for trouble, quite literally. Around five thirty, he stopped a robbery in Murray Hill. Then, around seven, he stopped a man from stealing a woman’s purse in Elmhurst. Nothing too much.

Around eight, he finally headed home, this time dressed normally, using the train and not web fluid. He walked home, tired, knowing that he’d immediately have to do that cursed AP calc homework. When he got home, he opened his backpack pocket to look for his keys, rummaging between his notebooks and other things.

Shuffling through his stuff, he furrowed his eyebrows as he couldn’t find them. Thinking back, he remembered this morning, when he’d left in a rush… and had very obviously left his keys on his desk.

“Shit,” He muttered to himself. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, remembering that Aunt Sunny had said she’d be working overtime tonight. He could very easily sneak in through his window, but he was pretty sure he’d locked it the night before, and it was too early. People’s lights were still on—anyone could see him if they just looked up, and then he would be screwed.

Huffing and zipping his backpack up, he marched up to your house, before ringing the doorbell. He shifted his weight back and forth, from his heels to the balls of his feet, until the door opened up. A familiar man with a face just like Doyoung's, but older, with graying hair and arms scarred and muscled from years of working on the police force stood in the doorway.

“Jeno?” Your dad offered him a warm smile. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”

“Hi, Mr. Kim,” Jeno said, smiling back. He shifted nervously. “I, um… I left my keys in my room this morning, and my aunt’s working late, so… could I… maybe wait here? Y/N’s home, right?”

The man nodded. “Of course, of course. Come in!”

Your dad had always been super friendly, even from the day Jeno had first met him. You'd told Jeno once that he was the only real father figure you'd ever had. Once everything settled after him and your mom got married, you started calling him dad altogether. And since you and Jeno were practically glued at the hip, he got along with your dad almost as well as you did.

“Okay.” Jeno stepped in and set down his backpack at the base of the coat rack next to the door, as he’d done a million times before. Jeno stepped into the living room, and sat down on the couch. He folded his hands in his lap and looked up at your dad.

"I think Y/N's in the shower, but she should be done soon. You can just wait here if you want… have you eaten anything yet?”

“Uh, I had a granola bar on the train, but that’s it.”

“We have some leftover pasta here, if you want—”

“Thanks, Mr. Kim, really! I’m fine.”

Your dad nodded, sitting down on his recliner. “So, have you started your college list, yet? Y/N said you wanted to stay here in New York.”

Jeno nodded, pushing some hair out of his face. “Well, yeah. It would make things a lot easier, I think. I might want to apply to NYU, but I think I’ll just go to community college, or something.”

Your dad shook his head. “You’re a pretty smart kid, Jeno. I think you could get into Columbia if you set out to. Plus, Chanyeol Park doesn’t give out internships to anybody. That’s your secret weapon.”

Jeno smiled. “Well, you’ve got a point.”

Your dad gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Come on, trying won’t hurt!” Your dad made a face, and then rubbed his knuckles. “Have you been working out? Those muscles weren’t there the last time I did that.”

Jeno laughed, trying to think of an excuse. “Oh, a little bit? The house needed some fixing up over the summer, and I wanted to help Aunt Sunny, so…”

“Jeno?”

He turned immediately, eyes landing on you at the base of the staircase. You’d changed into an old t-shirt and pajama pants. Your hair was slightly damp. “What are you doing here?” You asked, with a curious smile.

His shoulders slumped, and he grinned sheepishly. “Terrible Tuesday strikes again. I forgot my keys.”

You grimaced. “Brutal, dude. You wanna come up?” Your eyes moved to your dad. “Or am I interrupting guy time?”

“Oh, definitely,” Jeno answered, playing along. He took a cocky tone as he rested his hands on the back of his neck. “Your dad was just telling me about how much the NYPD needs me.”

You stifled a laugh. You dad seemed to be holding back a laugh too. "Hey, you're joking, but if you keep working out like that, and if by some impossible chance, the college thing doesn't work out… We might just be able to catch Spiderman if we finally got some brain cells on the force."

"Ugh, dad," You groaned, unaware of Jeno's gut twisting, "Not again."

"Yeah, Mr. Kim," Jeno said, scratching the back of his head, "He's not that bad."

Your dad shook his head. "Look, I don't hate the guy. In all honesty, crime rates have dropped since he started doing his thing. But he thinks he's above the law, and his methods can be a bit… unorthodox sometimes. He’s been undermining us for years and his tech is state of the art. Makes me wonder about what we should do to modernize the force."

Jeno looked downward, wondering what would happen if your dad knew the truth.

"Well, I guess we may just never find out. Jeno'd make a horrible cop. He couldn't hurt a fly if you paid him a million dollars."

But you came to the rescue as you grabbed his backpack, and soon enough he was up the stairs with you, heading into your bedroom, laughing to yourselves when you heard your dad jokingly call out, "Fifteen inch distance, you two! Door stays open!"

He sat on your desk chair while you lay on your bed, limbs splaying out.

"So you left your keys."

Jeno groaned. "Don't remind me. I was in such a rush to leave, that I… I forgot. I'm so stupid."

You rolled your eyes, rolling over onto your stomach to look at him. "You're not stupid, Jen. You made an honest mistake because you were in a hurry."

Standing up, you walked over to him and leaned against the desk. "Seriously, Jeno. What's gotten into you, lately? You freak out about every little thing. It's starting to worry me."

Jeno shook his head. "I don't know," He admitted. "I think I'm just scared about how after this year, everything changes. Renjun’s headed upstate. Jaemin’s going to Boston. You want to go to LA. I think Hyuck and I are the only ones who want to stay here. I just… I don't want things to change."

Your expression turned sad as he continued. "Everyone is expecting great things from me. You're smart, Jeno. You can get into an Ivy. Or, you have a Park internship, you'll be fine. What if I don't want things to be fine? What if I want them to just stay the same?"

You stayed silent for a few moments, trying to think of what to say. Jeno was relatively level headed for someone your age, but even he had moments of doubt and panic. It made moments like these difficult. You sighed before grabbing him by the hand. Wordlessly, you tugged him over to the bed, sitting him down and leaning your head on his shoulder. He could feel the dampness in your hair seeping slowly into his shirt.

"I guess I understand what you mean," You mumbled, trying to reason with him, "But come on. You wouldn't really want everything to stay the same. You can't tell me you want to keep getting AP calc homework. And I definitely doubt that you'd want to have your ass kicked by San for the rest of your life."

Jeno looked at the floor. "You're right. But you know that's not what I mean—"

"I know," You huffed, "I'm just saying. Change… it's inevitable. The longer you fight it, the harder it is."

Jeno nodded. "This sucks."

"It does," You agreed, taking his hand in yours. "But at least we have each other's backs, y'know?"

Something of a smile appeared on his face. You were so close to him, leaning on him, stroking his knuckles with your thumb. He hoped you couldn't hear his heart pounding in his chest.

"We really do, huh?" His voice turned quiet, with a bit of a sleepy lull to it. He allowed his head to rest on yours. "You're so comfortable. Can I like, use you as a pillow for the rest of my life?"

You giggled. "I'll consider it on two conditions."

"Oh, you'll consider. How generous of you."

"Yes, I'll consider. Now, do you wanna hear my terms or not?"

Jeno raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead," He said, before putting on his best Marlon Brando voice, "Make me an offer I can't refuse."

Snorting, you lifted your head off of his. "Okay. One, you finish your calculus homework here before Sunny gets home."

He pursed his lips. "Okay, I could probably do that. What's the other one?"

"Let me drive you to school for the rest of the year."

Jeno stared at you, and you nodded, eyes wide. "Trust me, Jen. You wouldn't need to wake up so early! And plus, you can't text the guy manning the subway asking him to give you five minutes because you need to find your keys."

Jeno gnawed on the inside of his cheek. You did have a point, and to be honest, he could probably refrain from putting his feet up on your dashboard.

"Deal."

You grinned. "Awesome," You answered, before nodding towards his backpack. "Now get to work, Einstein."

The rest of the week wasn't that bad. Yes, you were absolutely batshit insane about your truck in the morning, but he soon realized he didn't really mind. Not when it allowed you both to spend some twenty extra minutes together in the mornings, and they were spent joking around and listening to your extremely varied playlist.

On the other hand, he was saddled with more and more homework, greater and greater expectations. The looming threat of Friday's mission rolled around, and it made Jeno feel like time was passing much too slowly but also way too quickly. There was so much on his mind. He had chemistry with you on Thursdays in the afternoon, which also meant that San was there. Which also meant that sometimes, his heightened senses would pick up on San dropping a tacky pick up line which made Jeno want to punch him in the jaw.

Finally, finally, Friday afternoon rolled around. As he bid you goodbye and promised to see you later, he tried to ignore the feeling in his stomach. The feeling that something was about to go very, very wrong. He went out on patrol, ready for Doyoung to set up the call and tell him where he needed to go. It didn’t help that there wasn’t a lot for him to do that day. Crime had seemed to slow down altogether.

When the time finally came, and the sun was beginning to set, Doyoung rang in at about 7, telling him the location. An old warehouse near LaGuardia airport, hidden from prying eyes. Jeno made his way to the place, avoiding security cameras Doyoung warned him about, and found a place to hide. There was a hole in the warehouse roof, which allowed him to peer right into the building without being seen. It was about thirty feet from the ground.

“Why is it always old, abandoned warehouses?” Jeno grumbled. He heard Doyoung laugh quietly.

“Beats me,” Doyoung sighed.

And so they waited. Jeno wondered vaguely if you were still working. He wasn’t sure. They made time talking quietly, until a black SUV rolled into the warehouse. “Woah, Doyoung,” He murmured, “Hold up.”

Jeno leaned forward, but quickly realized he probably wouldn’t be able to hear what was being said. “D.R.E.A.M, activate Heightened Intelligence Protocol.”

Activating Heightened Intelligence Protocol.

The protocol allowed Jeno to use the lenses over his eyes to zoom in on specific targets, as well as use a microphone embedded in the suit to pick up audio from far away and feed it directly into his ears.

He watched as three figures got out of the car, a fourth remaining in the driver’s seat. The trio stood in front of the car, and Jeno recognized the man in the middle as the man Junmyeon had been talking about.

“Alright, there’s Henry Duke,” He said, “The one in the middle.”

“Got it,” Doyoung replied, sounding satisfied. “Now all we have to do is wait for the other party.”

“Did Junmyeon’s sources say anything about who it would be?”

“No. They weren’t able to find that out. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Jeno’s eyes never left the man. “Do you think it’s something international?”

Doyoung sighed. “I’m not sure. If it is international, then you need to be even more careful.”

“Got it. I think—Wait, here they come.”

A second vehicle, this one another black SUV, rolled up not too far away from the first car. The lights turned off and the engine sputtered to a stop, and four men stepped out of the vehicle.

Jeno’s stomach dropped, and of its own accord, his mouth let loose a quiet, “What the fuck,” as he registered the person leading them.

“What?” Doyoung asked, before realizing what—who—he was looking at. “...Is that my dad?”

“I think it is,” Jeno whispered, fingertips suddenly numb. Who was he kidding? They both knew who it was.

“So,” One of the men next to your dad said, “You show us yours, we’ll show you ours?”

Henry Duke clapped his hands together with an impish grin. “I suppose. Reagan, get the case.”

One of the two men standing beside him started off toward the trunk of the car. “It caught me off guard when I heard that the force wanted to purchase these. Almost made me wonder if this was your attempt at a sting operation.”

“What made you change your mind?” Your dad asked. Jeno swallowed at how cold he sounded. This wasn’t your dad, and it didn’t seem like Officer Kim either. This was someone Jeno had never met before.

“Honestly, Kim?” Duke raised an eyebrow, shrugging. “It was you. Your cooperativeness and willing to feed us information, as well as your… insurance agreement. And besides, you made a very interesting point when you said that the Avengers Initiative and Park’s alum Spiderman is ruining the way the law operates around here. That type of bitterness… hard to fake.”

Your dad huffed. “We’re fucking tired of it.”

The man leaning against the car your dad had stepped out of scoffed. “If this helps us catch the little asshole, then so be it.”

Jeno frowned. “I’m not little—”

“Jeno, shut up!” Doyoung snapped.

“—Alright, then.” The man holding the briefcase—Reagan—clicked it open, as if it were a prize reveal on The Price is Right. Five guns, all modified to hold glowing Chitauri stones were placed carefully together side by side.

“You know the basics. No radiation. Keep it away from security scanners and x-rays. They will blow up. And second of all, these are at half the price, along with the promise from the chief of police that my business won’t be touched, and will only be distributed to officers in on the operation and have agreed to turn off their body cameras when they decide to use these weapons. Should this not be a sting operation, we’ll be back here to negotiate.”

Jeno leaned forward, watching anxiously.

“Yes, sir,” Your dad answered, nodding. “We have the money here.”

“Hand it over, then.”

That was when Jeno made his mistake. He leaned forward too much, and proceeded to fall right through the hole, bringing down some scraps of the roof with him. As he tumbled through the air, the zoom on his lenses caused him to grow dizzy as he had no idea what he was looking at. He caught himself before he could fall, clumsily commanding D.R.E.A.M to go back to turn off the current protocol. His vision returned to normal, and he swung up onto a rafter holding the warehouse up.

“So, we have company.” Duke didn’t sound as amused as he had before. His face turned into a sneer. “Get him.”

In less than a second, before Jeno could say anything, five guns were pointed directly at him. He managed to swing away before any bullets could hit him.

“Jeno, get out of there now,” Doyoung ordered.

“What about the guns?” Jeno asked, swinging to another rafter. “They know I’m here, I might as well get them before I go—”

“No! Jeno, listen to what I’m telling you. You’ve done more than enough, and you need to let it g—”

Your dad aimed, and a bullet fired right at Jeno’s chest. For a second, he forgot that the chest area of the suit was lined with bulletproof material. While it didn’t shoot into his chest, it ricocheted right off him, and since he was in motion, it somehow caused the bullet to bounce back in the direction in which it came.

The wind was knocked out of Jeno, but it was nothing compared to watching the bullet land in the middle of your father’s chest. On the other line, he heard Doyoung yell, followed by the sound of something falling. And then, as he made his way back towards the hole he’d fallen out of, he couldn’t rip his eyes away from the body as it crumpled to the ground.

The others around him scrambled to get back into their respective cars. Jeno was back on the roof now, trying not to hyperventilate. “I’m sorry,” He gasped, “Do—Doyoung, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t want to—”

“Jeno, you need to get out of there, now,” Doyoung said, voice raspy. “GO!”

So he did, and Doyoung cut off the call once he was out of the vicinity. Jeno didn’t blame him. He swung across buildings, feeling numb as he looked for the apartment complex roof where he’d decided to hide his backpack.

When he finally did, he changed in a hurry, before slumping against the wall and forcing himself to take deep breaths.

Doyoung’s dad—your dad—was dead. And it was all his fault.

He cried on the way down the staircase. He cried on his way to the subway. The entire time, he ignored people’s stares. Suddenly everything was too loud, and if he met someone in the eyes he’d just about break down in the middle of the station.

As he got onto the train, Jeno thought about all of the things your dad had done for you, and for Jeno. All the times he'd taken you both to Coney Island in the summer when you were younger. The year Pokemon Go came out he took the both of you driving around in his car so you and Jeno could catch as many Pokemon as you could.

He’d formally adopted you when you were thirteen. You were his daughter in nearly every sense of the word, regardless of blood. And now he was dead, because of a stupid mistake that Jeno had made.

What would you say if you knew? He didn’t want to know. Checking the time on his phone, he saw he’d gotten a message from you just three minutes ago.

[8:36 PM]

y/n: lemme know when ur outside!! :)

“Fuck,” He murmured, wiping his eyes. He knew he needed to stop crying before he got to your house, and he had about ten minutes before he got to his stop, and then another five minute walk to the neighborhood. He focused on taking deep breaths and taking long swigs from his water bottle in the meantime, trying to tune out the sound of other people talking and the sound of the train on the rails.

The walk was the longest five minute walk he’d ever taken. The flashing lights of convenience stores did nothing to calm him down. As the stores in his peripheral vision began transitioning into suburban homes, he felt his heart speed up again. The constant movement as he walked meant he missed his phone vibrating in his backpack as you rang his number.

After what seemed like an eternity, two familiar houses came into his line of vision, and his shoulders slumped as he spotted you on your porch, looking small and teary, curled up into a little ball. In one hand, you were clutching your phone.

His stomach twisted as he put on a confused tone, even though he knew damn well that you knew. “...Y/N?”

You stood up, running to him and burying yourself into his chest, crumpling into his arms. You would have fell over if Jeno hadn’t held both of you up.

“Jeno,” You sobbed, “You’re n-not go-onna believe it.”

He brought a hand up to caress your hair, holding back tears of his own as he asked a question he already knew the answer to.

“Y/N, what happened?”

taglist: @decembermoonskz @itsapapisongo @lenaluvs @crescentjen

#kwritersworldnet #nct angst #nct x reader #jeno x reader #jeno angst #jeno fluff #nct au #jeno au #kpop scenarios #kpop angst #kpop imagines #nct dream x reader #lee jeno x reader #my writing

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junglxqueen · 3 years ago

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Just Friends (L.H.)

Word Count: 3579 Chapter 2 ¨Babylon We burned too bright, now the fire's gone, watch it all fall down¨ ¨Thank you Brazil!¨ Luke yells, above the excited screams of the fans. ¨You were fantastic!¨I say, receiving another wave of screams, at the same time that Babylon's melody ends and the lights go out. I smile and stare at the audience for a few more seconds. The lights of the telephones, illuminating in the middle of the darkness, and the screams that little by little are extinguished. I let the adrenaline and dopamine run through my body for a few more seconds until Michael's hand passing me brings me back to reality. ¨Let´s go.¨ He murmurs to what I nod, I leave my instrument in its place and I follow them. As soon as we leave the stage, we are received with applauses and some congratulations from the crew, a tradition that we have had for quite some time now. I smile, thank them and take the towel they give me to dry my sweat. Michael, Calum, and Luke are full of energy, (concerts usually have that effect on us, although it doesn't last long, in 15 minutes they will be dead). Ashton flops to the ground dramatically, apparently, his reserve tank is empty, and to be honest, I'm not surprised. I decide to drop in with Ashton, and before laying my head on his stomach, I wipe a bit of his sweat with the towel. He raises his head and looks at me amused. ¨Seriously? You're as covered in sweat as I am, maybe even more so, you smell.¨ I throw him the towel reproachfully. ¨Hush, I don't smell, that´s probably you.¨ ¨Yes of course.¨He says and puts his head back on the floor. Damn you, Ashton, do I really smell? I sneak my head down to my armpits, nothing, I smell like flowers. Ashton laughs because he knows what I just did so I hit his stomach. ¨You would like to smell like me, I smell divine.¨ He doesn't answer. Soon we hear Kevin's voice urging us to get up and take a shower so we can go to the hotel to spend the night. A group groan is his response. ¨Nono, no complaints, this is their last concert here in Brazil, at the latest we have to be tomorrow night in Argentina. You have to give two concerts there. On the road, Luke and Michael have a call with the radio that I told them about yesterday, and Ashton, Annie, and Calum have a Zoom with one of the Argentine TV channels, which Luke and Michael will later join. After that, we arrive, rehearsals, then you have about three or four hours free before we start with the concert, understood? I sent the schedules to their phones and Ann, stop ignoring my messages. I know you see them.¨ ¨Sorry, I forget to answer.¨ Kevin lets out an "Mmmhm" and leaves, but not before reminding us to shower before leaving. We didn´t use to do that, we used to jump directly from the Concert to the bus, but it ended up smelling like a municipal garbage dump after a few months, so it was established as a rule to shower before getting on the bus. After the shower, I take my things, say goodbye to the team, and go to the bus, on the way I find Kevin and rush to meet him. ¨Kev, Kev, how long is it from here to the hotel?¨ He looks at me, without stopping walking. ¨Not too long, about twenty minutes away, why are you tired? Your bug didn´t come back, right?¨ Bug is a reference to the migraines that I get. I shake my head. ¨No, the medicine that Luke gave me caught it just in time, and yes, I'm dead tired, I wanted to know if I could sleep on the way, before arriving at the hotel, but it´s very little time.�� "Aha," he answers, nodding. When we get to the bus, before he walks away, he tells me which one is my room and tells me to ask for the keys at the hotel reception, to which I nod and he says goodbye. I get on the bus and see most of the guys there. I greet them and immediately look for a half-abandoned place on the bus, I find it almost at the end, a long seat between the windows. It's not that I don't want to be with them, it's just that after all the fuss, I'd really like a little hush. Calum joins me not long after. ¨Tired?¨ I ask as soon as I see him, he makes a gesture of

more or less with his head and hands me a banana. I take it with pleasure and I start to eat it. ¨Do you know when we have a break?¨ He asks and takes a bite of his pear. I shake my head. ¨When was the last break?¨ I ask. ¨I think like three or four months ago.¨ I drop an "Mmmhm" and check my phone in search of my itinerary. ¨The next one should be in Paraguay, right? They said we were going to have a break there, like a week or so.¨ Calum lets out a frustrated sigh. ¨What happens? You miss someone?¨ I elbow him, with an amused smile. He looks at me and denies it, blushing a little. ¨Not really ... I mean yes, but no, well yes but not so much, it's like ...¨ I look at him raising my eyebrows. ¨Well yeah, I miss her.¨ He murmurs realizing that he had caught himself. ¨Maybe you can take a fly, go and come back at that time?¨ He denies with the head. ¨I already checked, from Argentina it takes like two or three days to arrive in Australia, and from Paraguay? Won´t even tell you. It's not going to give me the time to get back and forth before the next stop.¨ ¨Aw.¨ I look at him sadly. ¨Sorry Cal, I guess you're going to have to hang on until the next break.¨ He nods and thinks for a second, then reaches into his pocket and removes the paper the interviewer had given Luke. I raise my eyebrows and look at him. ¨Why did you keep it?¨ I ask and try to take it from his hands, he dodges me. ¨I saw your reaction Ann back at the break room.¨ ¨What ?! I was curious.¨ I defend myself, to which he says ¨Aha¨, incredulous. ¨You and I know it's not just curiosity, when are you going to admit it¨ He asks, trying to meet my eyes while I avoid him. ¨There is nothing to admit, we are best friends and that's it. I already told you.¨ He denies with the head. ¨Bullshit. You and I are best friends, Michael and I are best friends, the five of us are best friends. But only the two of you treat each other lovey-dovey.¨ He raises his eyebrows, looking at me. As if we haven´t spoken about this a thousand times already. ¨We already talked about this, he sees me as if I were his little sister, that's why he protects me so much. And I do the same with him, he's like my bro-¨ ¨My balls¨ He interrupts. ¨If it was really like that, it would be incest.¨ I try to slap him on the head, a bit embarrassed. Which he dodges. ¨I'm serious Ann, react, I don´t think there is a more beautiful couple or two made just for each other like you two. I wouldn't want to see you lose each other for not acting on time.¨ He looks at me seriously and when he finishes he smiles at me slightly, that kind of smile that tells you that he is telling you that because he loves you. I am speechless, so he leaves a kiss on my hair and gets up when the bus stops, leaving the crumpled paper on the table in front of me before he leaves. I stare at the paper for a few seconds, thinking about what he told me. The thing is, as we are now, I think our relationship is perfect. No drama, no jealousy, no danger of my heart is shattered. We are friends, friends that give each other the necessary amount of affection and tenderness for the day. We support each other in everything and we are always there for each other. But for me to give him the power to hold my heart in his hands? No, I'm really sorry. You have to excuse me, but I'm scared, I don't want to take the risk. We are fine the way we are, best friends with a platonic relationship, perfect. ¨Knock Knock.¨ Says the King of Rome, from the corridor. I rush to grab the paper before he sees it. He looks at me with raised eyebrows but doesn't ask questions. ¨The bus stopped about five minutes ago and the driver already wants to go, are you staying here to sleep?¨ I shake my head and stand up, putting the paper in my pocket. ¨I´ve lost track of time, I'm sorry.¨ I say as I walk up to him. Together we got off the bus. I greet some fans who are there waiting in front of the hotel and I recommend them to go home. It's late and it's cold, I wouldn't want them to stay out in the open for so long. After a few minutes, we go into

the hotel and look for the keys to my room. Luke, who had stayed with me outside, walks me to the door and says goodbye when we arrive, wishing me a good night. He always does that, he doesn't like to leave me alone in unknown places, he has done it practically ever since we met. After settling into my room and changing into pajamas, I order a pizza and start looking for something to watch on TV, even though I won´t paying attention. What Calum has told me is running through my head. Aside from everything I´ve told you before, I´m also not very good with my feelings. In fact, it takes a lot for me to recognize them, and even more, to maintain them. And with Luke, it's all very confusing. Yes, I like him, but at the same time, I'm not sure I really like him. I mean, I like to receive his attention, and his pampering and all his affection, but do I really like him? Of course, I won´t like to see him with someone else, but that could be my ego, being affected. And if I really like him, I see him every day. What if I get bored? What if I mess up our friendship? Worse yet, what if I'm really in love, and decide to risk it all. What if he ruins it? What if ruin it? Apart, I've known these guys for years now, I know how capable they are of ruining something beautiful, I've seen them do it. What if he ruins our thing? And how will the atmosphere in the band be if it doesn't work? No no-no. You'll have to excuse me, but I'm not risking everything for something full of ¨whar ifs¨. So I pack up all those thoughts and put them back in the closet of my mind, the less I think about it, the less it affects me. I hear a knock coming from the door and I look at the time, 40 minutes have passed. Forty minutes already ?! So much time thinking! I shake my head and surround myself with the blanket, maybe it´s the pizza I ordered. But when I get to the door and see through the fisheye who it is, my thoughts that I had locked them in the closet, burst out. I open the door and smile at him, somewhat surprised. ¨Luke.¨ ¨Room service?¨ He smiles, lifting the pizza in one hand and looking at me innocently. I open the door a little more, letting him in. He walks by and I stare for a second at his back covered in a furry and warm robe while he settles into my room. I sigh and close the door. How am I supposed to lock all these thoughts now?

#luke #hemmings #fanfic #luke hemmings fanfic #luke fanfic #5sos fanfic #5sos fic #calum #hood #calum hood #ashton #irwin #ashton irwin #michael clifford #michael #clifford #5sos #5 seconds of summer

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marauder-exe · 5 years ago

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AU list!

hi! These are a bunch of Au’s that i could write,and you could request! (reposting because it didnt work the first time)

General

Fake dating (My personal favourite)

Soulmates

Coffee shop

Modern Royalty

Rockstar

Running From The Police

Rebel Against The Goverment

High School

University

Law school

Delayed-Flights-And-Were-Stuck-In-The-Airport-And-Its-Like-2Am

Roommates

Road Trip

Arranged Marriage

Im-Arranged-To-Marry-Your-Brother-But-Were-In-Love

Amnesia

Tattoo-Artist-And-Coffee-Shop-Worker

Loved-Since-Childhood

Professor-Student (of age)

Met-On-Holiday

More detailed

21.You were singing/playing guitar/etc. in the park to protest the war and a policeman tried to dismiss you for 'disturbing the peace' but you argued that you were promoting peace and things got heated and next thing you know you're being arrested for assaulting an officer. You intrigue me, so I'm here to bail you out and maybe take you on a date?

22.the nice one who everybody loves with the grumpy and strict one that the students hate and the students wonder?????????how what the fuck

23.we just had a one-night stand but a massive storm hit so now we’re snowed in, hello awkward

24. i sit at the rental booth at our local ice rink and watch you teach children how to skate

25. alternatively, i watch kids teach you how to skate because you’re a terrible skater

26. i’m running late to an important interview/meeting and you accidentally spill your hot cocoa all over my outfit

27. you’re my hot ski instructor and i’m failing the bunny hill

28. i slip on some ice and you’re the stranger who catches me

29. i gave my winter coat to a homeless person and come into your store to warm up

30. our friends rent a cabin to go skiing and we’re the only ones who stay inside

31. you’re the asshole of our group and we don’t get along, but then i find out you make soup for the local shelter

32.we’re waiting in line for the club when you complain that your roommate stole your gloves so let me warm your hands up with mine

33.my family invites you to join our holiday meal as an obvious setup and i’m so sorry

34.the power goes out in our apartment building, but i’m not prepared for this, and you come to check on me

35.i’m having a snowball fight with my friend in the park and i hit you instead

36.a storm is delaying our flight home and i’m afraid of thunder, please talk to me while we wait

37. we’re both in small claims court and i got into a huge fight with the person suing me but you stepped in to hold me back before security got there

38. i drove two hours to the closest video rental store that’s still operating and you were checking out the only copy of the movie i was after

39. i hit you with my car but luckily you’re okay, but we should still exchange information i guess

40. i was worried about buying something off of someone creepy from craigslist but oh no you’re hot

41. my friend talked me into playing a drunken game of spin the bottle even though we’re all adults and now we have to make out

42. we both decided to take a [yoga/fencing/cooking etc] class and we’re the only two assholes not taking it seriously and everyone else is giving us dirty looks but we keep grinning over at each other

43. my date just made a scene in public and got arrested and now i’m stranded in a city without a ride home

44. sharing a cab together

45. you’re trying to get me to sign a petition and i have no idea what you’re talking about

46. you’re drunk at this festival and dancing on the table and when you eventually fell i caught you

47. we both play this stupid game online and you keep beating me every single goddamn time so i called you out and you are pretty cute but can you not

48. im a bartender and you just came in here without shoes sat down and ordered a chocolate volcano and idk what the fuck that is and im scared to ask

49. we are neighbours and every night at 3:14 am you start yodeling for no fucking reason??? why???? is that you yodeling??? its been 2 months???

50.im a pizza delivery person and i just delivered a pizza to someone in the middle of a satanic ritual and they gave me their number???

51. i woke up this morning to find you sitting in my living room with a goat in a poncho??? who are you??? why is the goat wearing a poncho??? how did you get the goat in here i live on the 12th floor???

52. we work out at the same gym and you always look super legit but i know you sing hannah montana in the shower and you know i know

53. im a cashier and i saw you stuffing you pants full of potatoes and i would stop you but you already have 27 and i want to see how many you can fit

54. its 4 am and im drunk as fuck in a mcdonalds and you have been watching my trying to eat this burger for 30 minutes

55. i was playing beer pong with a coin and i accidentally threw it right into your eye at a party

56. i’m at the beach and some kids thought it was funny to bury me in the sand when i dozed off can you please dig me out

57. it’s unbearably hot and we’re both fighting over the last handheld electrical fan at the shop at the amusement park

58. hey i just met you, and this is crazy, but i get sunburned really easily so can you please help me put sunscreen on my back?

59. thunderstorm after a menacing heatwave and we’re both getting weird looks for dancing in the rain

60.i have no idea who you are but you just fainted right in front of me holy shit dude you need to drink more in this heat

61. we both chased after the leaving ice cream van like ten-year-olds and now we’re both out of breath and a bit embarrassed

62.i clearly reserved this deck chair by putting a towel on it why on earth are you lying on it who the fuck do you think you are

63. My friends bet I wouldn’t buy these three weird and questionable items and you’re my cashier.

64.Once a week I go visit the pet store just to stare at the cute kittens and puppies and you’re the nice employee who always lets me hold them and wait I think I’m going to cry hold on.

65.You’re the DJ of the University’s radio station and every time you give an opinion on a current event I have to call and argue with you because could you seriously be anymore wrong?

66.We both wait tables at the same restaurant and you’re always mad at me by the end of the night because I make more in tips

67.We have the same class and once a week you wear this graphic shirt I don’t understand and I really want to ask you about it.

68.We both work at the same craft store that literally has no customers so we have nothing to do and I’m always reading at the register but you always have to criticize my book choice what the hell?

69.I’m working the concession stand for this week’s home game and this is the fifth time you’ve come back for snacks wait are you flirting with me?

70. we’re at a bookstore and you and I seem to have similar taste in books have you read this one? How about this one?

71. you look like you need help and I’m a professional roller/ice skater but I don’t want you to feel bad about how much you suck but wow you suck

72. You ordered your food before me and they gave you a drink you didn’t want so you gave it to me

73. We’re sitting at adjacent computers in the library and I’m taking extra care not to look at your screen out of respect but what the fuck do you keep laughing at

74. as a joke I yelled out “happy birthday to someone!” in this store and you called back “thank you!” who are you

75. You heard me talking about a TV show in class the other day and now you’re passionately yelling at me about how good it is we’ve never actually spoken before

76. It’s 10:30 at night and I left my glasses at home so I can’t read any of these labels and you’re one of the only people in the grocery store and GODDAMMIT DO YOU HAVE ANY TOMATO SAUCE WITHOUT CHUNKS

77. We go to the same support group; I have social anxiety and you’re a kleptomaniac who sorta stole my heart

78. You thought you were alone at the bus stop so early in the morning so you started passionately singing Fall Out Boy but your Patrick Stump impression could use some work and I’m not really afraid to point that out

79. I’m an artist and you have a really nice face so would you mind if I drew you?

80. We’re rival up-and-coming singers and every time one of us releases a new single the other does a cover to try to make it better; we’re always trying to top each other and out-cute each other, but half our fans aggressively ship us; our agents use this to their advantage and decide we should do a duet because it’ll be popular; unfortunately now that we’re in the same studio and I’ve seen what you’re like I really wanna know what your lips feel like

81.PLEASE I REALLY CANNOT FIND MY CAT AND I KNOW IT’S THREE A.M. BUT NEIL CATRICK HARRIS AND I WOULD BOTH APPRECIATE THE HELP

82. We were both stood up for dates at the same nice restaurant so we decide to eat together and split the check but I dunno you’re pretty interesting aside from your distractingly enormous eyebrows

83. We met at a mutual friend’s cheesy masquerade party and we agree that the only good thing about this party is the masks so you can’t judge a book by its cover only now that we’ve been talking I want to see your face but I don’t know how to ask

84. You used to date my friend who absolutely hates your guts after a messy breakup and now you’re flirting with me and I really shouldn’t be so interested in you but I am

85.We pass each other every day while we’re biking on the same path so we’ve started smiling at each other and one day you’re stopped because you’re having an asthma attack so I offer you my extra water bottle and now we’re talking and now I’M the one who’s breathless

86.I lost my little sibling in IKEA and I need your help finding them

87.I'm a private detective hired to follow you, but you're endearingly boring and mostly I just like watching you and oops, I sort of find you adorable.

88. You've been sketching me for half an hour now, and just shuffled up to hand me the finished product and it's TERRIBLE but you just wanted an excuse to talk to me.

89. I'm at an art exhibit and I just badmouthed the art, because I don't get it, okay? And it turns out you're the artist. I'm so sorry, maybe I could get you coffee and you could explain what it was supposed to be?

90. We're the only two people who turned up to an underground gig and it should be awkward, but the band is amazing and you asked me to dance and hey, there's nobody watching but us.

91. You live in the apartment next to me. We're not supposed to have pets, but I KNOW you have a cat. I'll make you a deal, I won't tell, if you let me pet it.

92. I punched you because I thought you were insulting my friend, but it turns out you know each other and it was an inside joke and I'm so sorry, let me drive you to the hospital?

93. We both wanted to rent a bike for an hour but the only one they have is a tandem bike

94. I’m on a terrible date and you’re my waitor please help me

95.Our dick landlord just evicted us both

96.I’m your neighbor and I can hear you fucking someone who shares my name

97. You’re sort of famous and we vaguely know each other through bumping into each other all the time but the media thinks we’re dating

98. Your roommate cheated on me and I just threw your laptop out the window thinking it was his

99. It’s 2am on the night of my 21st birthday and we gotta fix this fucking mess by morning or else we’re fucked

100.Fuck you and your bee farm I’ve had enough

Feel free to use any of these as your own! If you wanna request you could drop an inbox saying ‘ could you do ____ AU with this character’!

#remus lupin x reader #sirius black x reader #james potter x reader #lily evans x reader #cedric diggory x reader #regulus black x reader #fred weasley x reader #george weasley x reader #hermione granger x reader

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viahoshi · 4 years ago

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only those who are forgotten die // k.sy

pairing — kwon soonyoung x female protagonist genre — heavy angst, enemies to lovers (?) warnings — swearing, death, blood, murder, major character death and any kinds of criminal stuff words — 2.8k summary — the one where kwon soonyoung needs a new partner in crime note — this is highly inspired from the series, vis a vis as I can’t seem to move on from the character death, I created another one myself. The italic writings are flashbacks, the dialogue ones are the current time. Enjoy♡

“How did you meet him?”

“Do you know that one quote from Dostoyevsky that says: We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who interest us at first sight. Somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”

“Do you like Dostoyevsky?”

“No.” She firmly answered, “He did, though.”

“So, you two were strangers at first who suddenly grew closer?”

“You can say that. Even though he worked with my brother, I had never greeted him before. Their latest heist went wrong, so wrong. My brother died, and he got into jail. I wanted to greet him personally after he was out to get revenge, you know? Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”

“You were planning to murder him.”

“Mmm- yes.”

“When did the latest bus pass?” Soonyoung asks while wearing his black leather jacked in the middle of the heat of July, rubs his hands together, takes slow steps to the bus stop before turning back again.

“5 minutes ago.”

“And the next one will come in-?”

“40 minutes.”

Soonyoung signs before placing his sunglasses on his nose bridge, and takes another step towards the bus stop before turning around again just to stare at the place he spent most of his youth into. The world seems too large for the young man as he keeps groaning.

Soonyoung was a restless man. He almost appreciates the person who stopped their car for him. Almost. He sharply groans when he recognizes the woman stepping out of the car. The familiar appearance of the girl looks nothing like the one he saw years ago. The way her expression has no marks of distress and uneasiness makes him feel nauseous.

“What are you doing here?”

Soonyoung knows that he was miserably dishonoring his uncaring aura as he shifts from left to right at where he was standing. His hands became sweaty and unsteady in his pockets, failing himself. His features told a different story, and his hands showed another.

“Every single night when I close my eyes, I see nothing but the two police officers arriving at our house to state that my brother was dead. I acknowledged that everything would go downhill, but I wasn’t foreseeing it to happen this fast. Their son was dead, and their daughter was conceivably a psychopath. All the people I loved and trusted turned their backs to me after that, just like it was my responsibility. You do not understand how it makes your head to be free, but not having anybody.”

He pouted in surprise while nodding, almost as if he was waiting for her to finish and leave, “Nope, I have no fucking idea.”

“I heard you’ve been a very good boy.” Her voice expresses nothing but sarcasm, lips form a smirk, hand raises to remove the hood of her sweatshirt which was closed the whole time, then moves before her eyes to block the steady sunbeams coming to her eyes.

“Yeah, I helped the police in two cases.”

“We’re all falling in line in the end, aren’t we?”

Soonyoung looks at her, tries to read her expression, studies the way her lips curl up on the ends when she smiles, and how her face creases when she fails to block the sunbeams.

“Really, what are you doing here?” Soonyoung asks again, wonder takes over as he glares behind the faint print of his sunglasses.

The girl takes her time glancing at the left and right side of the road, “The bus isn’t coming,” she glimpses back at him, “do you want a ride?”

Soonyoung takes his sunglasses off, and the girl studies the unique frame of his eyes, “To the cemetery.”

“He wanted to visit my brother’s grave. He tried to look undisturbed, but I knew he was. I left him there and returned to work.”

“Then what happened?”

“It didn’t take him a long time for him to locate the place I worked. When he came in, I thought I was seeing things, I used to daydream about him a lot at work, and I’m not talking about pleasing daydreams.”

“So you want us to become a duo? Like Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise?”

“No, that wouldn’t work out. You and me, as a limited liability company. [y/n] & Soonyoung LLC.”

His words make the girl throw her head back and giggle in doubt, “You’re trying to sacrifice me to protect your own ass as you did to my brother?”

“You’re talking as if you weren’t plotting to kill me for years.”

“You see, I hate you and you hate me. Why are you so sure that I won’t stab you in your sleep?”

“Hate is the greatest motivator.” The girl could picture his half smirk even though she has her back turned against him. He continues while standing up and making her way towards her, “We have another option, we don’t see each other again until we meet on a tour bus for seniors, heading to the beach.”

Edges of the girl’s mouth lifts, it’s crystal clear that his words satisfied her, the thought of replacing her brother giving her stomach slight tingles as she imagines the bad things she always wanted to do in her life but never could, “Okay, let’s do it.”

“And this is how our shared life began as a mismatched twosome who everyone thinks: They’re going to kill each other. With the money we made, we bought our first house, a baby blue caravan. We instantly learned the secret to a good marriage, trusting each other. We weren’t friends, we shared nothing. But as much as we didn’t like it, together we were the best. The perfect couple, precisely because we didn’t love each other. We found the perfect amount of space to not kill each other, neither too close nor too far.”

“You lived like a domestic couple, how come you could undoubtedly trust each other in such a little time.”

“Not a domestic couple, but more like a husband and wife in their eighties who have over 20 grandchildren, but no one visits if that makes sense.”

“Tell me about the things you did respectively, how did you spend your time?”

“We had nothing noteworthy to do, so he bought two chairs and we just sat on the roof of the caravan, on the opposing sides. That was the agreement.”

“And the robberies? How did you follow through with that?”

“We started with big targets, casinos. We would quarrel during the heist and people would just look at us like we’re lunatics.”

“No one move!” Soonyoung raises his voice, puts his hand behind his head, and holds onto his gun smoothly, “Put your hands behind your head like how I’m doing it. I won’t say it again, okay?”

The young boy doesn’t hesitate to wander towards the money source and doesn’t even consider it necessary to turn towards the girl before commanding pointedly, “The cash. I’ll deal with the cashier, you take care of the hags.”

“Excuse me?” The girl’s attitude catches him off guard as he stares at her in uncertainty. He chuckles softly before running his hand through his pitch black hair. “We’re not having this discussion here. Not now.”

“Why? Why do you need to be in charge of the money?” She cocks her head to the side, not bothered by the weirded looks of the people surrounding her. Soonyoung takes a step towards her, eyes and mouth wide open, “Any problems?”

“The problem is you fucking always put yourself above me,” Soonyoung takes another step towards her to hear her better, “shit, are we really going to start our first job together like this?”

Soonyoung gets much closer to her than he was moments ago, uneasy as he keeps peeking towards the woman who’s filling the bag with money, “We’re already splitting it 50/50.”

“It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of attitude.” Her look changes as her voice rises, “Either stop looking down on me or this is over.”

Soonyoung tries to change his expression, softens his voice, whisper screaming, “Is this the right place to talk about this?”

The girl walks over to him completely, face inches away from each other, feeling each other’s breaths on their faces. She whispers, “Are we equals? Yes or no.”

“We have to go.”

“I don’t care. Not before we clarify this. Equals or nothing, you decide.”

Soonyoung lowers his gun, steps away from her, spits while gritting his teeth, “Very well, equals. In sickness and in health, till death do us apart, amen.”

She nods, visibly satisfied. Giggles when she catches Soonyoung grumbling about how more effortless it is to work with a man rather than a woman.

“And that’s how we carried out together. It wasn’t the Bonnie and Clyde story you would predict, but days like this made me neglect the murder plots going on in my head. And that baby blue caravan was the closest thing I had that resembled ‘home’ to me, if that makes sense.”

“How would you define ‘home’?”

“Home? I don’t know.”

She gets a decent amount of shampoo in her hands before pressing them to Soonyoung’s airy locks, sudden contact of her hands sends shivers down his spine as he tries to get comfortable in his chair, relaxes his muscles while the girl runs her hands through his dark hair. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Did you knew that hair doesn’t stop growing after you’re dead?”

“And you want your hair to look sleek in the morgue?”

“No, I just want to talk without looking at your face.”

She eases her hand movements as if she waits for him to continue, he goes on, speaking softer than he did before, “I was 12 years old when my mother married to that pig. He brought nothing but misery and discomfort to the only place I knew as ‘home’. My mother neglected me, trying to be a suitable partner for that bastard,” he chuckles hysterically before continuing, “I was 15 years old when they send me to an orphanage, too old for adoption, too rebel for that environment. I fled from there at 18, and that’s when I met your brother, been doing this shit ever since.”

Soonyoung would pity himself sometimes, only life could be a little kinder to him, only if the world would have a little mercy for him, everything could’ve gone differently.

“Soonyoung”

“Mmm.”

“What is it?”

“There’s no need to run if you have a home, and the time we spent in the caravan, in the camper is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a home. I wanted you to know that.”

She lets the teardrop she keeps in her flow on her cheek, her lips curl up, forms a faint smile, “It was special for me too.”

She sniffs, grabs the water from the small bowl and rinses his hair. “Even though, to tell the truth, you’re a shitty roommate.” She grabs the towel and throws it to him, making him giggle like a little kid.

“And you droll in your sleep.” He turns towards her.

“So you watch me while I sleep?”

“No, I don’t watch you, you’re just making weird noises and it draws my attention.”

“Fuck you.” Her face lights up before grabbing the pot full of water and wetting his whole torso, his light colored jeans making the situation already more apparent than it already is. He laughs aloud before grabbing the fountain and pointing it towards her, their laughs brighter than the sun, for the first time after a long time.

"No.”

“No what?”

“I already know what you’re going to ask. Everyone wonders whether Thelma and Louise fucked or not. We did not. We did not fuck.”

“Okay.”

“And also, just clearing it for the record, we weren’t in a relationship either. We didn’t talk about any shit except the heists, that’s it.”

“Okay, good to know.”

The fairy lights inside of the caravan are shining in the colors of the rainbow as the girl sways to the beat of the song playing in the background. The drink in her hand matches the color of her colored sunglasses, giving her a vintage vibe. Soonyoung lies on his back, watching the way her body moves. She notices how his expression seems so cloddish, approaches him so that their noses touch, “Is this your first time?”

“What?” He tries to brush her off, not breaking the eye contact.

“Yes it is,” she laughs breathily, “this is your first time doing ecstasy.”

Soonyoung pushes her away and stands up to sit comfortably, “This isn’t getting me high at all.”

His tone of voice makes the girl giggle, “Right, you’re not high at all.” Her voice carries no expression but lust and sarcasm at the same time.

“At all.” Soonyoung keeps arguing while giggling and shaking his head.

“You don’t feel… Euphoria, empathy? This- sort of- uh- love? For anyone? I thought those were your favorite emotions.” She smiles sheepishly.

“When does this shit end?” He asks, not betraying his uncaring aura even when high.

Her sarcasm slowly drops and she feels alone with nothing but lust in her heart. She looks at him with an innocent expression, reminding him of those kids who want to buy candy in a convenience store, “Do you know what I want to do right now?”

“What?”

She gets closer to his face again, looks directly at his eyes, looks directly at his soul, “I want to touch your face.”

“Jesus, fuck no.” He stands up to go to the table which is decorated with various of liquor and grabs the entire bottle of the alcohol, drinks an enormous amount of it until the girl makes her way towards him again.

She moves her hand towards his face; he flinches when her hand contacts his skin. Her fingertips travel on his nose bridge, his cheekbones, his lips, his jawline. She leaves her fingerprints all over his face gently. Soonyoung chuckles but doesn’t move away, he doesn’t look away either. He enjoys the feeling that comes up to his spine as he keeps touching his face.

The air inside the caravan is thick, but it feels lighted than air for Soonyoung as he feels the butterflies in his stomach gently waking as she travels her fingertips along his sharp features. He pants, he doesn’t know if it’s because of the drug, or her.

“We’re not going to fuck, that’s what we agreed for.” He whispers while looking at her with a blank expression.

“You think I want to fuck with you?” She smiles again, and he nods.

“That makes little sense, does it?” She argues again, still looking at him with the same smile on her face and the same tone of her voice, seductive, “Oh well, let’s go to bed then.” And the first thing Soonyoung does when she turns her back at him to walk towards the bed is to grab her by her hair and pull her back towards his body. She laughs in surprise, her heartbeat rises as he pushes her front towards the wall.

And the rest is just a blur.

The next morning, she wakes up to Soonyoung practicing gunshots. She makes him and herself a cup of tea before making her way towards him. “About last night, that was stupid.”

“Yeah. By the way, I made the plan for the next heist.” He grabs the handle of the cup and responds in a sassy way.

“Well, you can tell me later.”

Soonyoung chuckles.

“Do you have any regrets?”

“Only if I looked back before leaving.”

“No.”

Soonyoung stretches out the beautifully packed gift, catching the attention of the girl who was sitting outside despite the cold air. She looks at him in doubt, “Kwon Soonyoung gives presents? Is that a bomb? Or an internal organ of one of your relatives? Perhaps it’s a scorpion-”

“Fuck, just take it.”

She hesitantly takes the gift and opens it just to find a polaroid camera inside, laughs while opening the box, taking the camera out. “Do you want to take a picture?”

“Yes. So you can remember we were young, we were hot, and we were free, and we felt a little, just a little less lonely together.”

She looks at the camera, and back at him before standing up, “Cool, let’s do it.”

The bright flash of the camera makes Soonyoung’s eyes hurt a little. He turns to her as the film gets released from the machine. He bounces slowly, reminding the girl of a little kid while smiling softly, waiting for the polaroid to darken. She gives the polaroid film to him after looking at it.

“Merry Christmas, asshole.”

“You too, princess.”

“Do you think things have worked out differently?”

“Things should have gone differently. I must have been in Italy or France, not here talking to you.”

“What about him?”

“What about him? Death didn’t intimidate me, nor him. There will still be winters and summers. It’s not like people will stop celebrating Christmas, or a child won’t get a birthday present. The gone is gone, and the world goes on, it’s nothing I can ease. However, he’s not dead.”

“How come?”

“Only those who are forgotten die, I’d like to consider he’ll be living for a long time.”

#kwon sooyoung #hoshi #seventeen #hoshi scenarios #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #hoshi imagines #seventeen angst

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littledrummeraussie · 5 years ago

Text

my sweet escape.

Word count: 3400+ Author’s Note: I fell in a hole and I couldn’t get out. Haven’t written anything in a long while. Then Ashton happened. So now I’m just enjoying the ride.

masterlist.

Mornings like this didn’t happen often. They were few and far between, and usually lasted only 3 days – if we were lucky. There was always scheduling, messages back and forth, phone calls, notes left on bedside tables, if one of us had to leave sooner than we intended.

And yet – we ended up in the same place every single time he arrived in New York City.

My eyes were still closed when I’ve felt Ashton start stirring behind me, pushing his chest against my back, sneaking a long arm around me to pull me closer. He mumbled something as he pushed his face into my neck, then taking a deep breath as he nuzzled my hair. Moments like this made me wish these were our regular mornings.

”You were saying?” I whispered, not wanting to break the silence that engulfed us in the perfect little bubble that was our hotel room.

”Feels nice,” he hummed with a content little sigh. ”Smells nice, too.”

I slowly opened my eyes, blinking against the light that filtered through the gap between the still drawn curtains. Time didn’t exist when we were like this, tangled up and close to each other; at least, that’s what we’ve pretended.

My eyes found the hand that was resting on my waist, the knuckles slightly bruised from drumming every night. The moon tattoos were half-hidden by the sheets, the red inking a nice contrast against the white bedding. I’ve followed the shape of his arm, the curve of his shoulder as I’ve slowly turned around, eyes landing on the hollow of his neck for a moment, then shifting to the brown curls falling over his forehead.

The last time we were here Ashton still had red hair, the color slowly fading to pink. We’ve spent the better part of the night cooped up in the bathroom, the red dye slowly working its magic as we’ve sat on the tiled floor crossed-leg, knees bumping together, fingers tracing patterns on arms and palms. It was the longest 45 minutes of our lives, and Ash gave up on drying his hair afterwards, the water running down his neck painting the pillows different shades of red and pink. He paid a few extra dollars for the ruined pillows when he have left.

I’ve wrapped a stray curl around my finger, brushing it behind his ear. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, eyelashes fluttering as he once again nuzzled closer, making it clear that he intends to stay like this for as long as he can. My fingers slid into his hair at the nape of his neck, stroking the tangled curls, and wondered if he will really go through with his plan, and next time it will be the black locks I will be tugging at when we spend the night together.

”You’re staring,” he said, opening one hazel eye.

”You’re beautiful,” I smiled back, tracing my finger down his jaw. He scrunched up his face, dimples appearing as he huffed at me.

”You always say that.”

”It’s always true.”

Ashton shook his head, but couldn’t help the smile on his face. He sneaked his arms around me, moving both us and the sheets around until we were pressed up close in our blanket cocoon. His forehead and nose were pressed against mine, lips hovering an inch above my lips, barely brushing them together.

The moment was broken by a faint buzzing coming from the small livingroom, soon to be followed by a quiet tune. Ashton sighed deeply, burying his face in my neck. The alarms set on our phones meant that we had only one hour left.

”I really don’t wanna go,” he said, pushing himself up, and rolling off of me.

”I guess you can’t make the others stay a little bit longer,” I half-asked, half-said as I wrapped the sheet around myself.

”We have already delayed the departure,” Ashton shrugged next to me.”They would understand, but we’re on a tight schedule. We really have to leave if we want to make it to Boston.”

”Tell me about schedules,” I sighed, sitting up next to him and reaching for his discarded shirt on the floor.

Ash watched me shaking the black shirt out, pulling it over my head, tugging at the sleeves and the hem until the fabric and his scent wrapped around me like a hug. Goodbyes and see-you-soons were the worst parts of it all – reality came back crashing down on us, dissolving the illusion we have built around us from dusk till dawn.

Long distance lovers? Friends with benefits? Simply fuck buddies? Even we didn’t know what we were. It started a few years ago, we’ve got to know each other because of a friend of a friend, and ended up in a hotel room for two days straight. We didn’t give much thought to it, we just liked each other enough to want to spend some time together. But it turned out to be much more than that. In those few hours, when we’ve shut the world out and switched off our phones, we felt like we could be really us.

The first time was followed by a second and a third, and after that it wasn’t even a question anymore to meet up whenever he came to New York. We’ve worked around our schedules, his shows, performances and interviews, booked into a hotel room, and spent as much time together as we could. Sometimes it was just a few hours. Other times he could manage a few days without one of the guys banging on the door to remind him of a flight they have to catch. Sometimes it was only passion – skin on skin, lips and teeth and nails, breathless laughs and sweaty bodies. Sometimes it was junk food and cuddles on the couch, sharing stories, being honest, letting go and crying, or just simply catching up on some much needed sleep.

Time passed, but no matter what we did, or where we were in our lives, we always ended up in a hotel room, sharing concerns, fears and kisses. It was our getaway, an escape from life, people and the constant buzzing of Ashton’s phone. The guys learned not to bother him in those hours – they let their drummer take some time off, as long as he arrived at the time and place they’ve agreed upon. He was never late; which also meant he could never stay long enough.

Ashton still watched me as I’ve got out of bed, stepped to the window, and pulled the curtains back to look outside. I could see the tour bus not far away, with a few fans lingering around the hotel’s front, hoping they could catch their favourites for a few minutes. The band usually stayed on their bus during the tour, but they made an exception when they came to the City – nobody knew the real reason. Ashton and I always made sure to come and go at different times – long before the other arrived, or hours after they’ve left. We didn’t need the fans to connect us to each other. Wasn’t that the reason why Ash liked our little meetings? No strings attached, no questions asked by the fans, and the more time he could focus on his music with the guys.

I’ve turned around just in time to watch him get out of bed, rummaging through his bag for clean clothes, collecting the ones lying on the floor and packing them away. He eyed the shirt I was wearing, and I knew he was calculating his options – take it back or leave it? My stomach flipped: how many more shirts will he leave in hotel rooms? How many other girls were out there, waiting for his name to pop up on their phone screen, waiting to be his getaways for the night?

”Hey, are you okay?” he asked, taking a few steps towards me, and closing the distance between us. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt.

”Do I need to give this back?” I asked him in return, playing with the hem of the shirt, wrinkling it between my fingers.

”Of course not. Why?” he tried to stop my hand, but I pulled away.

”I don’t know… so you have enough to leave around with all your other girlfriends,” I’ve shrugged, casting a gaze over my shoulder to look at the fans still waiting outside the hotel.

”What the fuck are you talking about?” he frowned, grabbing my elbow to bring my attention back to him. ”Hey, Y/N!”

”It’s okay,” I gave him a forced smile, casting my eyes away once again. ”I– I would understand. I know I can’t expect you to have only me around. I mean, your life is crazy enough, and I– it’s okay if there are other girls. We’ve never talked about being exclusive, and you have every right to fool around with other girlfriends wherever you go.”

”You’re not making any sense,” Ashton shook his head while letting go of me. ”Why are you like this? Did something happen?”

When I’ve failed to answer, he huffed out some curse words, ran his fingers through his hair, and turned around. He was getting desperate and anxious, I could see it in the way his shoulders tensed up, how he was walking the length of the carpet back and forth. He finally turned back when he reached the other side of the room, fingers laced together behind his neck, eyes searching the ceiling. He let out a deep breath, held his arms out, then dropped them at his side.

”I can’t do this,” he looked at me. ”I’m leaving in 40, and I– whatever.”

Ashton looked defeated, when I didn’t try to speak up. He furiously grabbed the first shirt from his bag, and left to the bathroom to get ready. I hated seeing him like this; I hated that I made him feel like this. Was I even right? Or did I just make it all up in my head? I’ve never seen him hurt like this before, like I’ve questioned the most basic trait that made him him. That made him Ashton.

I slowly stepped towards the bathroom, listening to the running water. The door was ajar, so I pushed it open inch by inch. He was just finising up washing his face, and reaching for the comb resting on the shelf when our eyes met in the mirror. His hazel eyes were full of hurt and questions, and it took everything in me not to look away once again. He deserved an explanation – and if I couldn’t do it eye-to-eye, the least he deserved was this way; maybe the mirror made it easier to come clean about what was going on. He didn’t ask any questions, even though I knew he wanted to. He just looked away again, when I continued to stand there silently.

”Did you know…” I’ve started quietly, then cleared my throat, and continued a little louder. ”Did you know that I’m always counting the days in between our meetings? How many days have gone by, how much do I have to sleep before I see you again…”

He was leaning against the sink, still not looking at me, but clearly listening to what I wanted to say. My eyes were searching him, his posture, the way his muscles flexed, the dark inks paiting his skin. Did he know how special he was? How much he deserved? How much I loved him, and how that was breaking my heart?

”Every time you leave… every time you walk out of that door,” I leaned against the doorframe, casting my gaze down at the tiles. ”Every time you walk out of that door, I fear it’s the last time I’ll see you. That by the next time you come back to New York, you will have someone waiting for you back at home. Not just a… not just a friend, or whatever I am to you. But a real girlfriend. That between the now and the then you will meet someone who will be able to give you everything, and much, much more than I ever could. That you will find someone else to share your throughts and secrets with. That I will never be able to spend a few hours just with you to have a good cry, or to talk about the things that are bothering us…”

”Would that be so terrible?” Ashton asked finally, lifting his head to look back at me from the mirror. ”Finding someone? Both of us moving on, and finding people in our lives we care about?”

”I don’t want to lose what I have with you,” I met his gaze in the mirror. ”I don’t want to lose you. But every time we say goodbye, I fear it’s the last time. And I’m not sure I’m ready for that. Not just now.”

”You know, you could have been more honest with me,” he sighed, tapping the side of the sink with his fingers. ”I’ve thought that’s what we did with each other. Could have told me sooner.”

”I’m being honest now,” I shrugged one shoulder, trying to pretend that I didn’t know how much I’ve screwed this up.

Ashton sighed again, dipping his head for a moment, then turned around, and leaned back against the sink. We were silently watching each other, both barefoot, the few steps between us like miles. Then Ashton pushed himself away from the sink, coming closer until his toes brushed against mine. He towered over me, so I had to look up, up, up, till I could look into his eyes.

”Did you know that I’m also counting the days whenever I know we are coming here?” he finally asked, leaning a little bit closer, only stopping when our hips touched. ”That I’m willing to do all kinds of stupid things for the guys just so I get to spend a few more hours with you?”

He slowly moved a hand to my elbow, running his fingers down my arm until he touched my fingers, then interlocked them. I lightly squeezed his hand in return, waiting for him to continue.

”You’re afraid of losing me – but I’m just as afraid of losing you. How could I expect you to wait for me? I’m gone for months, there is no fixed date when I can say that I’ll be here. You have every right to leave my sorry ass behind, and find yourself a guy who is actually around.”

”Ash–”

”Please, just… just let me finish,” he sighed again. ”You’ve told me that you’re scared I will find someone else, but did you ever wonder why I’ve never really had a real girlfriend in the last few years? It’s because I didn’t need one – it’s because I had you. I knew you like me enough, but I wasn’t sure you would want to be a part of the crazy life I have. That you would be up to dealing with all the fans and people following you as well, asking questions about you. I’ve kept you a secret, because I’ve thought that’s what you wanted. I wanted to ask you so many times to be officially mine, but… it just never felt right. There was always something going on that kept me from doing it.”

His eyes were searching me as he once again leaned closer, resting his forehead against mine. My hands sneaked around him, resting on his hips, as Ashton’s moved up my arms, cupping my face in his large hands. We were so, so close. It was intimate. It was terrifying.

”There are three things in this life that I can’t live without, that I love more than anything else in this world,” he whispered, never taking his eyes off of me. ”My family. My band. And you. You kept me going so many times. You kept me sane when things were starting to get crazy. You might think you didn’t do anything, but you being here with me – it’s everything to me. Listening to me, keeping my secrets, letting me be who I really am. Giving me the option to get away, to have a place where I can escape and just breath. You are that to me.”

”Am I late with making this up to you?” I asked him, bringing my hands up to his face to mirror him.

”You could never be,” he shook his head, a barely there smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

I’ve pushed myself up a little on my tiptoes, and brushed my lips against his. It only took a second for Ashton to press his lips fully against mine and kiss me with all the passion, all the love and hurt he felt in that moment. He nudged his tongue against my lips, running it along mine, making it harder to breath. I felt dizzy, lost in his touch, his hands on my face, his body pressed against mine, his kiss deep and passionate. When he finally pulled away from me, we were both gasping for air.

”Move in with me,” whispered Ashton breathlessly. ”Come to LA and move in with me. I can’t leave you like this – not again, not anymore. Let’s stop pretending that we are okay with spending only a few days together, and start being honest. I know you want us to be together. And this way I can make sure you will never think about other girls wearing my shirts,” he added with cheeky smile, while tugging at the hem of the shirt I was wearing.

”I’m so stupid,” I said, burying my face in his neck.

”Yes, you are,” he agreed.

”Fuck you,” I muttered against his chest, for which he grabbed my hips and pulled me closer.

”I much prefer doing that to you,” he kissed my temple, his lips and teeth lingering against my ear, giving me little nibbles and kisses.

We were running out of time, yet we stood in the bathroom door, tangled up in a hug and hundreds of kisses. Then the moment came, and we needed to pull away from each other. Ashton finished up getting ready, packing away everything from the hotel room he left around in the previous days. He set down next to me on the bed as he tied the laces on his shoes, giving a squeez to my knee when he was done. Then he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a shiny silver key.

”Are you sure about this?” I asked him, as he put the key in my open palm, and closed both of our hands around it.

”I’m sure about you,” he kissed my lips, and then my hands. ”If you feel like this is too much, or too soon, you can take all the time you need to think it through. But if you feel like you want this as much as I do, then you can just pack your life up in here, and move in. I wouldn’t mind coming back from tour to my favourite girlfriend.”

”You know it’s not that easy,” I smiled at him, reaching for his hand, holding onto it. ”But I want to give us this chance.”

”I would really love that,” Ashton smiled back at me, barely fighting off his toothy grin.

There was a loud bang on the door the same time as Ashton’s alarm went off. It was followed by two more bangs, the guys taking turns in reminding him that it was time to leave for the next stop of their tour. Ashton grabbed my hips and pushed me down on the bed, giving me one last kiss as he hovered above me.

”You know I’m just a phone call away. Or a message. Or a Snapchat,” he chuckled, rubbing his nose against mine.

”So am I,” I smiled back at him, tugging on his leather jacket. ”Go, get them, drummer boy! I already miss you.”

”I might just buy you a plane ticket to come after me,” he kissed my forehead, my nose, my lips. ”We could go grab some coffee or some lunch. You know, do boring coupley things. Act like normal people.”

”Sounds weird. I don’t know how to do that,” I pushed myself up on the bed as he grabbed his bag and hoisted it up on his shoulder.

”Yeah, neither do I,” he added with a smile, and squeezed my hand one last time. ”But we could work it out together.”

#ashton irwin x reader #ashton irwin fanfiction #fiction time #ashton irwin #afic: my sweet escape

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pandjseetheworld · 3 years ago

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What’s all this hype about Bend Oregon?!

What to say about Bend!?! Well, what isn’t there to say!

I’ll start with this! A lot of people hype Bend Oregon because it’s on the rise. Lots of outdoor activities, breweries, and it’s the place to be. Well I, for some reason, envisioned a small mountain town with kayaking, biking, hiking similar to a large scale Mammoth. It’s nothing like that, kind of. The hype is there but Bend is more of a really well designed homebase for a lot of fun shit. Don’t get me wrong, there is a ton to do in town but that’s because it was built that way. The town is centered around the Deschutes River so there are plenty of water activities and there are a plethora of parks, bike paths, hiking trails, breweries, and dog parks everywhere but it is not an actual mountain town. Bend is a pretty large town and is set 30-40 minutes away from caves, ski resorts, lakes, and awesome mountains for climbing, hiking and camping. The town itself is open and HOT. At least it was really hot when we were there, nearing 100 every day.

We checked the forecast before arriving and with the heat wave we chose not to camp (GREAT DECISION). We ended up getting a small AirBnB with WiFi and air conditioning. This served as our home, doggy daycare, and Pearce’s office. Even though it may have cost us a little extra on accommodation being able to leave the heat was a blessing. And knowing there were so many fun things to do, that Loki could not, it made sense to leave him in a safe cool place. So this is where I type!

Anyways, back to the good stuff. When we first arrived we got the lay of the land and tried to schedule our activities and what we had time to do. We got a lot of recommendations from friends and other blogs on the best of Bend so we weren’t shy on ideas!! After settling in, snagging some dinner, Pearce brought us to a lake because he was very keen on catching a fish. Loki and I didn’t mind because the lake was at a recreational park so we just walked over to the fenced in dog section. I am very impressed with dog parks in Oregon!! They are fenced in with lots of hiking areas so people can trail walk their pups off leash and they often have a big open area where the dogs can run free AND they supply water. It’s a dog mom’s heaven!! So we were all happy (minus Pearce, he didn’t catch any fish)!

The next morning we woke up early because I wanted to head out to the Lava River Cave part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The Cave was one of the first lava tubes to be discovered in Oregon and is the longest one in the state. It is a self-guided tour that is roughly 2.2 miles round trip. When you arrive you have to sit through a brief orientation about the cave and how to prevent the spread of White-nose syndrome for the bats that reside in the cave. If you are interested in more of the formation of the cave here is the brochure link, I couldn’t remember everything but it’s pretty cool!

The Lava River Cave was very cool and unlike anything I have ever seen before. It’s a huge tube made from dried lava, it feels like a tunnel that the monsters from Tremors would have created. It’s a cave but not nearly as interesting as a “real cave” because there aren’t any stalagmites or stalactites. Of course, we’ve been camping for 3 weeks now and my headlight decides to die now as we’re in this tube BUT I wasn’t too upset about it because everything looked the same. The trek was long enough to keep you interested any longer and I think I would have been over it. But the 45 degree weather was refreshing after being in the heat for so long!!

Our next adventure was to float the Deschutes River through the main part of town. Now, this is a MUST if you go to Bend in the summer and is super easy to navigate. When you drive over the river you will see a bunch of people littered on the river in orange donut floats and it’s very unique. They have a system in place and it works perfectly. There is a parking lot where you buy your bus ticket and tube. They then shuttle you to the river and drop you off. You float. End at a park and then they shuttle you and your tube back. It’s easy and fairly cheap! If you’re local and have your own float it’s even easier, what a fun activity! We chose to do this in the middle of the day and boy oh boy did the river feel good!!

After doing two adventures without Loki, I was feeling kinda bad. So we grabbed our best buddy, hopped in the car, and headed towards Mt. Bachelor. This was about a 40 minute drive but the views were beautiful, at least the views we could see through the smoke in the distance. It cleared up for the most part but I could only imagine the beauty on a clear day. We went to Devil’s Lake so Pearce could try fishing again and Loki and I could walk the perimeter. This was a really cool spot with campsites all around and plenty of people stand up paddle boarding or kayaking. The lake was sooooo clear and so aqua blue it was stunning! This was a small lake for the area so I could only imagine some of the other lakes. There were so many cool spots of camp and hike in the area you could really spend a lot of time in this area playing!

Our last adventure in Bend was the next morning. Again, we woke up super early to drive out 40 minutes to Smith Rock State Park to hike Misery Ridge. With the weather being so hot during the day, we wanted to catch the cool morning so we (Loki) don’t overheat and it was worth it. The hike it self was pretty difficult at first. The first mile or so was straight up switch backs but at the top was a fantastic view. After reaching the peak, we were in the mountain shadow and it was a slow decline to a river walk. As you come down the mountain you can see countless climbers on the rocks. They were fun to watch for a bit, I wouldn’t mind climbing if we ever come back! The hike was really nice but by the time we finished OhhhhBuddy it was getting hot so we heading home to cool down.

Our time not adventuring was filled with brewery visits, work, dog walks, and staying cool in the air conditioning. Overall, Bend was a fantastic time and I would love to visit again in the winter for a new perspective! I highly recommend stopping here if you’re in the area!

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nightspeckle · 5 years ago

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High School Au {Part 3}

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4

this one is like sorta long-ish? (for me lol, in actuality its like super short) and it’s trash so my b

******

Here’s the thing. Working with Cardan was actually pretty good. I never thought I would ever think that and yet here I am. I’m pretty sure my delusions are growing but that's not really the point.

The point is that the kid knows his shit. I mean really knows his shit.

Noggle gave us Scipio Africanus’ Tactics which was an adventure in itself. Cardan had just looked at me with a toned-down version of his death stare and asked me if we wanted to break up the work.

It was that simple. We made a combined slideshow that took about 20 minutes in total with each of us splitting the research. I was looking over the slides and when I got to his I think my brain imploded.

They were extremely detailed, more so even than mine and he had been on his phone half of the time. I mean even the sentences sounded smart. He used the word consternation. I mean what does that even mean? Not that I was about to ask.

Noggle basically pushed us out early when he saw how good our slides were considering this was just a club and so he shoved us out with a big smile.

So in all working with Cardan wasn’t terrible. I barely even noticed how clear his skin looked from close up! So progress for me.

But now as we currently exit out the east side doors to the parking lot I can’t help but notice how he seems to glow in the sunlight. Or the fact that something about him just feels ethereal at this moment.

So I book it. Walking as fast as I possibly can to the back of the parking lot.

I’m so focused and hightailing it away from the beauty that is Cardan that I don’t realize anything is amiss until I’m standing in an empty parking spot.

I do a little 360 standing in the place where the car is supposed to be.

Fuck.

I should be surprised, or even concerned that my car is missing. But I’m not.

Three sisters and two cars is not a perfect equation. I check my phone to see if I missed anything in the group chat.

Viv: I’m taking Carol to work

Taryn: I thought we agreed on Joan?

Vivi Yeah but saying I’m taking Joan makes me feel like a 40 year old mom who drives a minivan

Taryn: And Carol doesn't give you the same vibes?

Viv: Nah, Crackhead Carol is wildddddd

Taryn: I hate you.

Taryn: I’m taking Olie to the mall, Jude can you catch the bus?

Viv: I can not believe that you give me shit for Carol and then named our beautiful baby after Oliver Wood.

Taryn: Excuse me? Oliver Wood is the god of the century

Viv: Bitch can't beat Luna

Taryn: You would

Taryn: Do we think Jude will even see this or am I gonna have to go back to pick her up

Viv: She’s probably to busy dreaming nasty thoughts about her ghosty boy and his little ghost

Taryn: Let's not start on this again pls

Viv: I’ll be home at 9 don’t die in the meantime xx

First of all, Shit.

Second, I’m going to strangle Vivi with my bare hands. Garrett and I are friends and it's actually starting to piss me off.

Third, how the fuck do they expect me to get Oak with no car? Fucking idiots.

Jude: Which one of you dumbos is gonna get Oak?

Viv: Workingggggggg

Taryn: I’m 45 minutes away... so like u

Jude: I am wishing death upon your souls :)

I look at my watch to see It’s already three. Shit.

What am I going to do? Walk? I can’t call Orianna or Dad. I am not in the mood to face Oriannas snarky comments or Dad’s lectures about responsibility.

So that leaves walking. Or more like running. I am so going to be late.

But as I’m dashing across the parking lot I almost get run over by a black Porsche Cayenne.

Which p.s. is one sexy ass car.

Usually, I might stop to give the driver an earful about how running over pedestrians is not the vibe. But I have 15 minutes to get to Oak’s school which is like 20 minutes on foot.

I start walking again when I hear the car's window roll down and a voice from the driver's seat.

It’s Cardan.

Of course.

I’m waiting for a comment about idiotically walking behind moving cars but it doesn’t come. Or for him to unleash the snide comments he has been holding back all afternoon. However, what does come out is even worse.

“Do you need a ride?”

....

I’m staring at him through his open window. I’m about two feet from the driver's door and Cardan is tapping his fingers methodically on the door.

He doesn’t look very menacing. His eyes are flickering over my face and he raises an eyebrow up at me.

“Well?” He asks probingly. I’m all too aware of what this means. The dude who terrorized my childhood is reaching out an olive branch.

There’s a part of me that wants to turn and walk away from his cruel glares and the comments he used to spit at me and Taryn. But I really could use a ride.

Plus, he looks extremely hot with one of his hands on the wheel which is like an added bonus.

“Yeah, I do.” He seems a little surprised that I said yes. I watch as a small smirk graces his face. Damn.

He nods his head to the passenger side and I walk around the car and slide into the seat. Just FYI these seats are comfortable as shit.

I look over at Cardan as he starts to back up. Which is a terrible idea. He looks so laid back and comfortable. He looks like he fits here and his face is blank of that awful sneer he seems to have on every day at school.

It makes me despise him a little less. I should have walked.

“Can you drop me off at Elfame Elementary?”

He looks over at me quizically. “Yeah.” A pause. “Why do you need to go there?”

“I need to pick up my little brother,”.

“Is that why you were running around the parking lot like a headless chicken?”. He looks amused as he says this.

“I was not running around like a headless chicken.” My voice is a little cold as I speak. His face goes a little more stonelike at my tone.

Jude! Wtf, this guy is giving you a ride. Pull it together!

“My sisters took the cars and left me stranded,” I attempt a little more warmly. “So thank you.”

His face twists a little surprised at the thank you. Mind kind of does too. Me saying thank you to the kid who poured milk all over me on picture day for years throughout elementary school.

Cardan doesn’t say anything else as we drive to Oak’s school. He just turns on some music and drives. It’s actually kind of nice being able to watch the vibrant green trees go zooming by.

Before I know it Cardan is pulling into the parking lot of the elementary school.

A little bit of me is disappointed it's over so soon. I actually feel a little peaceful.

I look down at my watch to see it’s 3:10. Perfect!

“Thanks, Cardan, truly this was life-saving,” I reach over to the handle about to push the door open when I look back to see an expression on Cardan's face that matches my own.

“How are you going to get home after?” Cardan’s voice is soft as he asks.

“I was going to walk to Ralph’s, Viv has one of the cars with her,”.

“That's like a mile away,” Cardan says laughing a little as he does.

“Don’t really have any other options here buddy,”

“Buddy?” He looks offended. As if the word is a personal assault to his well being. I can’t help but roll my eyes. To which he notices and roll’s his eyes back at me.

“I can drive you and your brother home. If you want?”.

Yes. I do want. But I’m not really in the mood to owe Cardan anything and this feels like a favor a little too out of his way. Why is he helping me out?

So no?

But I’m also not in the mood for the complaining Oak will give me for walking in this sweltering heat.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks.” Then I shut the door and head into the school.

....

Oak is looking up at me with a puzzled look on his face.

“I thought Viv was going to get me today?”

“Sorry, bud. She had to work.” He just shrugs. “Does that mean shell bring me back a milkshake!” He’s popping up on his toes almost jumping in joy. I just stifle a laugh and shake his hair up.

“Where did you park Olie?” Oak is looking around quizically trying to spot the black jeep named after the quidditch legend himself. When he cant spot Ollie Oak turns to look at me with a full face of disappointment. “Did you drive Crackhead Carol?”

The dad who walks by as he gives me a wide eyed look before shuffling his kids along in the opposite direction. I can’t help roll my eyes even though Vivi isn’t even here.

Oak is still looking at me in despair. He hates Crackhead Carol. Says that it’s scary driving in it. Which is not true. The only reason he hates Carol is that every time he’s in Carol is when Vivi is driving. Which is an experience to drive any person to full body fear.

“I did not drive Carol.” Oak’s shoulders un-tense and he goes back to bouncing as we make our way past the busses and smiling bus monitors to the parking lot.

“So how did you get here?”

“Oak, chill out we’re not walking to Ralph's,” I say still heading to where Cardan parked his car.

Oak just stops halfway through the parking lot with his hands on his hips demanding an explanation. As much as he is trying to be serious he just looks adorable.

“I’ll give you a piggyback if you stop being an annoying little butt.” He just smiles and catapults onto my back. I don’t often offer to give Oak piggybacks any more. He’s gotten heavier as he's grown. Plus sometimes he thinks he's too old and cool for them. I guess today is not one of those days.

When I get back to Cardan’s car I can see he has an amused smile as he watches my cart around my lanky 7 year old brother.

Oak looks at me with wide eyes as I buckle him up in the back and plop down in the passenger seat. Cardan has turned off the rap he was playing early and switched it to that teeny bob that I despise but Taryn loves.

I look over to see that not only is the amused look on his lips but also in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything and instead just pulls out of the parking lot.

Oak who has been unusually quiet finally opens his mouth.

“Are you Jude’s boyfriend?” Oh my god.

“Oak!” My face has most certainly paled to the color of ice. Cardan looks at first like he might throw up with the thought but then he starts laughing.

And damn is that a nice sight. His sharp features are relaxed and full of laughter.

“Jude’s never had a boyfriend before.” Oak pauses for a second before continuing. “Actually she had one boyfriend but now he’s Taryn’s boyfriend so that doesn’t really count.”

I think I might strangle Oak. I look over at Cardan who seems to have gone a little rigid with this turn of the conversation. Having Cardan sit here with my brother telling him about my relationship disasters is embarrassing.

I mean, of course, he already knows this. He’s friends with Locke. But still, something about this is bugging me.

“Oak,” My voice is diminished when I speak. I’m looking out the window forcing the feelings I've been fighting for months to go away. Taryn and I worked things out. We always do. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting sometimes.

That's when I feel a strong nimble hand grab mine. I look over to Cardan as he drives. His eyes are focused on the road as he squeezes my hand.

I think my heart is going to melt.

But then I think I’m going to attack him. I remember seeing Nicasia laugh along with Valerian and Locke. Who’s to say he didn’t poke fun of the fool I was. I bet he’s only doing this now to go laugh at what an idiot I am later with all of his cronies.

But then he catches my eyes and he seems genuinely sad for me so I don’t attack him. But I do pull my hand from his and look back out the window. I don’t care if he’s been nice today. That does not exclude the years of name-calling. Of making me and Taryn feel small. Of how he glared at me at the party. What the fuck changed so quickly?

Oak is apparently not done talking. As usual. “Only Heather and Locke drive me places too. They're both my sister's boyfriend and girlfriend.” That makes me turn around.

“Cardan is not my boyfriend.” My voice is firm as I speak.

I look over to see a little bit of anger on his face. He has both hands on the wheel. No aimless tapping or anything. He looks over with that cold glare he gave me at the party.

Great! He’s mad because I pulled my hand from his. What an arrogant bastard.

....

When we finally get home Oak jumps out of the car running to the door. Something about Fixer Upper being on. What an odd kid.

Oak’s gone before I can even open the door leaving me and Cardan alone.

He’s staring dead out the window not even bothering to look at me. Which is fucking annoying. This dude needs to get a grip on his mood swings. I’m irritated enough to the point where I have to say something.

“Why the fuck were you being so tolerable early? You're usually pretty shitty to me. So whats up? What's with the bits of decency all of the sudden. You hate me. What's going on here?”

He turns his head to meet me eye to eye. His lips are sent in such a hard line I don’t think I’m going to get an answer.

“I do not hate you.”

“No? What about that time you called me and Taryn lowlife orphans who were less important than the dirt on your shoe? Or when you would steal my lunch money every day? Or that time you tripped me at elementary school graduation? I broke my ankle.” I’m seething. My whole body hot with anger.

He just sits there. Stone cold as ice.

“I was a child.” It's icy. Dismissive. As if the pent up anger, the feelings I had that I didn’t belong where nothing.

“Fine. What about Friday night? That lovely moment when you basically kicked me out of that party? Omg, what about when I started dating Locke and you called me a filthy slut! That was a fun one.”

He’s staring at me with a hard unrelenting stare.

I can not believe I started to think he wasn’t such an asshole. Just listening to myself speak I realize how dumb I am. I’m too pissed at the feelings that have been in that dark space next to my heart to even wait for his answer.

I’m curious sure. But I’m done. I’ve put up with this shit for too long.

I’m storming out of the car. Slamming the door to his precious car as hard as I can.

“Jude.” His voice is hard. Commanding. I feel like smacking him into next week.

I turn to see him standing out of his door arms crossed defensively. I can't help but match his stance. He’s only 3 ft away and I feel the urge to run as far as I can.

“I don’t hate you.” He’s spitting the words out now full of force.

“You looked hot as fuck Friday night,”. What? “And that pissed me the fuck off because I like you.”

What the fuck.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” Oh my god. “And I hate that.”

He takes a pause, “I despise you for it.”

I’m frozen in place. Just staring at this asshole who had the nerve to tell me he likes me? After the torment, he inflicted on me as a kid. After the name-calling and the glares and the...

My entire brain freezes as he tugs me into his chest. Hard.

Because now he's kissing me. And damn is he a good kisser.

He has a hand tangled in my hair and the other one is keeping me pinned to him. I’m a stone statue for a whole 3 seconds before I acknowledge what is happening. But then I can’t stop myself as my arms wrap around his body and I'm pushing into him as much as I can.

He’s turning us around backing me up to his car door. The kisses becoming hungrier, needier. His hands have moved down to my ass. Holding me as close to him as possible. I can’t stop the roving my hands are doing. Finding their way to that sweet soft black hair.

I can’t let go. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of this. What it feels like to not have a single space between us. What it feels like for Cardan's hand to be intertwined with my hair, pulling me into him.

“See I told you Jude had a boyfriend!”.

I hate my life.

~~~

My one tag hehe:

@fireheartbuzzard

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shyvioletcat · 5 years ago

Note

Okay jk one more prompt: “That was kind of hot.” 😂 I can see this being a pun intended situation with Rowan being a firefighter hehe

Hi, hello everyone! This took me longer than expected because its hella long. But no way was I cutting it down. Enjoy.

Masterlist

~~~~~

Aelin was ready to shake off the awkwardness from the night before, if only just for her own peace of mind. Her kids had their excursion to the fire station and she wasn’t going to let her errant blouse ruin that for them.

When she’d realised she was standing there half naked in front of Rowan Aelin was glad she had been blessed with whatever amount of foresight that morning to put on a good bra. If Rowan was going to see her in such a state she was glad it was at her best.

It was also becoming blatantly obvious Rowan was into her, and more than just a little, and she wasn’t about to deny that she wasn’t very attracted to him. But the thing was she wasn’t sure if she wanted to make the first move. It would be far more interesting to see how long it would take for her to break down Rowan’s unwavering resolve. She had a sneaking suspicion it was rapidly reaching its end.

What threw her plans out was that Rowan was already gone by the time she got up. So with a sigh Aelin threw back her covers and got ready for the day.

~~~~~

“You’re in early.”

Rowan tried to ignore the mischief dancing in Fenrys’s voice.

“Want to make sure everything is perfect for when your friend gets here?” Fenrys asked, make sure to accentuate friend when he said it.

Rowan continued to ignore him.

“Come on Whitethorn, not just a little bite?”

The slamming of Rowan’s locker was his answer. Fenrys laughed.

“Feeling a little frustrated there, bud?”

If Fenrys had a talent it was to know exactly what would piss people off.

“If you haven’t been able to charm her maybe I’ll give it a go,” Fenrys mused to himself in a way that was begging, almost pleading, for a reaction.

“One day, Fenrys, someone is going to punch your teeth out and I hope I’m there to see it,” Rowan said as he made his way to the door.

Fenrys’s laughter chased him out the door and Rowan got as far away from it as he could before he was the one to punch Fenrys’s teeth out himself.

~~~~~

“Alright children you know the rules,” Aelin said as the minibus pulled to a stop. “You listen to all instructions and you don’t touch anything unless you’re told to. This isn’t a playground, this is a workplace and the things in there are used to help people. Understood?”

There was a lot of nodding and choruses ‘yes Miss G’. The kids were excited and ready to practically bounce off the bus.

“First instruction, when you get off line up beside the bus,” Aelin said as she stepped off the bus. There was a rush for the door as twenty 8 year olds made for the door. Elide would bring up the rear making sure everyone got off.

“Miss G?” Aelin heard beside her as she watched the last few kids get off the bus.

“Yes Benjamin,” Aelin said as Elide stepped down and the bus door closed.

“Do you think Fireman Whitethorn will answer my question? He didn’t get to last time,” Benjamin asked.

“Do not ask him that again,” Aelin said, her cheek involuntarily flushing.

Elide, of course didn’t miss a thing.

“What was the question?” She asked innocently.

“It was —��

“If you promise me that you will never repeat that question to anyone you can have a prize from the prize box.” Aelin wasn’t above bribery when it came to this.

“Without having to get 10 stickers?” Benjamin asked with wide eyes.

“Yep. Now line up please,” Aelin said.

“What was the question?” Elide asked again. Aelin ignored it. “Oh come on. If you’re trying to hide it that bad it’s something embarrassing. My imagination is running wild.”

“Nothing, lets get these kids off the street before we lose one,” Aelin said dismissively.

“I’ll find out, you know I will,” Elide taunted. Aelin didn’t doubt she would.

Aelin led her students towards the fire station, excited murmurs a constant behind her. She’d walked towards the big red doors that looked as if they led to the reception area. Aelin held the door back as they all filed in, she was sure at least half of them were about to explode.

“Hi everyone!”

Aelin turned to see Rowan standing by the door behind the large built in desk. Just about twenty voices chimed ‘hi’ back.

“Should we get started?” He asked with a charming smile.

Aelin let to door shut behind Elide as the door behind Rowan opened and another firefighter stepped through. Aelin recognised him as the friend she had met very briefly when Rowan had first installed the padlock on her door. She’d been so angry the first time she saw him Aelin hadn’t noticed how devastatingly beautiful he was.

“Alright guys, my name is Fenrys. If you’d like to follow me,” he said and walked back through the door.

The kids eagerly followed, leaving Aelin and Elide to follow up behind. Rowan joined them.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself,” Aelin said then indicated to Elide. “You remember Elide right?”

Rowan nodded. “How’s it going?”

“So far so good,” she replied.

“Well I’m going to go help Fenrys out,” Rowan said a little awkwardly then went back to the front of the group.

“What happened?” Elide whispered.

“What do you mean what happened?” Aelin whispered back.

“That was super awkward.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aelin said crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yeah okay,” Elide retorted sarcastically.

They followed where Fenrys and Rowan led, which was into the locker room.

“This is where we put our stuff while we work. This is my locker,” Rowan explained and opened it. There was a duffel bag and some toiletries in there Rowan leaving it open for a few moments before he closed it again. “We wouldn’t want your bags interfering with your day today, so find a safe place for your bags and then we’ll go see the the fire engines.”

There was a rush of movement and Rowan had to move out of the way as the majority of the kids piled their bags right in front of his locker. He didn’t seem to mind. He just smiled.

“That’s a little bit cute,” Elide muttered.

Aelin was inclined to agree.

Fenrys and Rowan took them out of the locker room and walked them to the fire engines in the garage. The kids were in awe of the big trucks.

There were a few other men moving around the trucks, two dark-haired one blonde. They were all impressively built.

“What is this place?” Elide muttered beside her as the men stopped what they were doing and started to line up. Aelin’s mouth fell open a little.

“Do they have to pass some kind of test?” Aelin mused.

Because as the five of them lined up… it was like they’d walked into a dream. A dream full of very handsome firefighters.

There was a man who looked identical to Fenrys, except where Fenrys hair was golden his was black. The man beside him had rich brown hair and eyes, he shot Aelin and Elide a dashing smile making the two women share a look. The last of the newcomers was older than the others looking to be maybe mid 40s instead of mid to late 20s like the rest of them. He had a kind face and something about it had Aelin looking a little more closely at him. When he looked at Aelin he did a double-take, an odd look on his face.

Rowan spoke drawing the attention of everyone in the room, distracting Aelin from musing further about the third man.

“This is Connall, Vaughan and Gavriel. We’re all going to show you different parts of the fire truck. We just need you in groups of four.”

To Aelin’s surprise the kids happily split themselves into groups in a few minutes. She thought she would have to divvy them up but they were all so excited that they didn’t really care who they were with. Gavriel took his group to the cab of the engine, Vaughan around the other side to show them what was hidden under the roller door, Connall showed them the hose, Fenrys working with him was going to explain the water tank, and Rowan showed them the suits that lined the wall. Aelin and Elide wandered around from group to group, making sure every one was behaving and to help move them along when it was time to. Aelin couldn’t keep the smile from her face, her students were loving it.

Every once and a while the siren would go off for half a second, making everyone jump and laugh a it blared in the small space. One of these times she was with Fenrys and Connall, holding up the hose. She had been intently listening to what Connall was saying that when the siren went off she stumbled back and let out a small yelp, her hand going to her chest. Fenrys was there with a steadying hand and her students laughed at her.

“Just so you know we’re all extensively trained in first aid,” Fenrys said quietly as Connall continues his part of the presentation. “If you happen to pass out I hear my CPR technique is the best.”

Aelin looked at him, one eyebrow raised. “That’s your line?”

Fenrys shrugged and gave her a dashing smile. Aelin just laughed. Connall cleared his throat giving his brother a pointed look.

“Oh, my turn? Alrighty. You see the water tank...”

Aelin zoned out as Fenrys started his presentation handing off the hose to Connall. A glance to her left showed her Rowan looking at her as the kids in his group tried on various equipment. He looked away quickly but Aelin didn’t miss the look on his face. The look she was pretty sure was jealousy. Maybe it was time to pay Rowan a visit.

She sauntered over, arms crossed over her chest. Rowan didn’t acknowledge her when she stepped up beside him, but he obviously knew she was there.

“These pants help protect us from the heat of the fire,” Rowan explained holding up the yellow pants.

“How about you dress me up Fireman Whitethorn. Let the kids see the full get up,” Aelin suggested casually. The look he gave her was anything but, his mind no doubt flashing back to her undressing last night. Aelin gave him a knowing smile.

Rowan just shook his head a little before he said, “That sounds like a great idea.”

~~~~~

Rowan tried, he really had tried, not to get annoyed when Fenrys flirted with Aelin. When she had laughed at whatever stupid pick-up line he’d come up with it had broken his resolve. He knew it had been stupid line from the look on Aelin’s face, obviously finding it more amusing than anything. What got to him was knowing that Fenrys was doing it mostly to get a rise out of him. At least that’s what Rowan was telling himself. It was stupid to be jealous, they weren’t anything to each other, not roommates, barely even friends.

That was a lie, on his part he definitely considered Aelin a friend now. A friend who was determined to torment him.

“Here start with the pants,” Rowan said as he went to pass them to Aelin.

“If you would be so kind,” Aelin’s eyes darted to the group and back up.

Rowan sighed and knelt, laying down the pants so Aelin could step into them. As she did, she gripped his shoulder lightly making him shiver at the light contact. Then Rowan pulled them up by the suspenders which Aelin slipped her arms through. Next he put a hood on over her head, Rowan explaining that this kept things from falling into the suit like ash. Then there was the jacket and the helmet. Aelin shrugged on the jacket after Rowan had guided it onto her arms and placed the helmet gently onto her head. She grinned up at him from under the visor, completely dwarfed in his uniform. It was actually adorable.

“How do I look guys?” Aelin said twisting from one foot to the other.

“I think Fireman Whitethorn would look better in it,” a girl chimed in.

Aelin looked at Rowan, that grin still on her face. “I think you’re absolutely right.”

~~~~~

After all the groups had seen all of the engine Rowan led them back into the main building.

“We’re now heading out the back so we can show you some training drills,” He explained. “We’re about to go past the office of our Captain. He’s a bit grumpy so we need to keep quiet.” Rowan pressed a finger to his lips for emphasis. A few of the kids giggled.

They walked past said office and Aelin couldn’t help but look in. She stopped in the other side of the hall in the guise of supervising the children as they walked past, Elide beside her. A man with dark hair sat hunched over his desk, his face was harsh but he Aelin wouldn’t deny there was a handsomeness to it. Just another confirmation there was some kind of hotness test these firefighters needed to pass to work here. Aelin kept moving but Elide lingered for a moment more until Aelin said, “See something of interest, Elide?”

Startled out of her trance by Aelin’s words she started walking again, a faint blush on her cheeks. It was then the Captain looked up, his eyes darted from Aelin to Elide, where they lingered a little long for Aelin’s liking. Then his face turned into a scowl as the rest of the children passed. Aelin decided right then she didn’t like him very much.

Outside there was a large open space. There was a small building in one no doubt used for drills. Rowan stopped walking and like a row of little ducks so did the children. Fenrys and Connall appeared, holding a length of what looked like old hose.

“Me and my team are going to set a fire and show you how we respond and put the fire out. This is completely controlled so you are all safe. But just to make sure Fenrys and Connall will be here, make sure you don’t go beyond the hose they are holding up.”

After his explanation Rowan went of to wear Gavriel and Vaughan were suiting up and did so as well. The twins held up the hose one at either end of line of students. Aelin stood behind them, watching intently for any runners.

“Jake, don’t even think about it,” Aelin said sternly as a little brown haired boy looked ready to cause mischief. He immediately settled and even went as far as to take a small step back from the hose. Good.

Vaughan went out to what looked like to me a pile of scrap wood, with a flick of his wrist and a lighter it was ablaze. He jogged back to the other and they went into action, pulling down the visors of their helmets and picking up the hose. Although it was over quickly, the drill was quite impressive to see. They worked efficiently as a team, positioning themselves and aiming the hose. Once the fire was out the class cheered. Aelin smiled at their enthusiasm. Then they demonstrated using a ladder and the hose against the building in the corner, without fire though, and then the how to do the classic stop drop and roll technique. Once again without actual flames which Aelin thought a little boring.

“Who wants to have a go of the hose?” Rowan asked as he came over, pulling off his jacket and helmet. Hands shot up and ‘me me me’ was said over and over again. Rowan just smiled. “Alright, we’re going to set up over there. While we do get into two lines.”

There was some bustling but eventually the kids sorted themselves out. Although when they saw that Rowan would be manning one of the hoses some of the kids jumped ship to his line. Connall manned the other but it seemed Rowan was a crowd favourite.

“Benjamin, over to the other line,” Aelin said as she spied him looking a little to eager.

“But --”

“No buts, over you go. Help even up them up,” Aelin told him.

He sighed a little but did as instructed.

“I still want to know what the question is that he’s so desperate to ask,” Elide muttered. Aelin chose not to answer.

What Rowan and Connall had them do was hose down two giant, bright orange road cones, their turn ending when they knocked them over. The whole class loved it and whined and complained once Rowan announced it was time to go back inside for lunch.

They went back to the locker room to collect their bags and then to the dining room, which also looked like it served meeting room as well. The kids scattered themselves around, pulling out their lunch boxes. Aelin went over to where Rowan stood supervising them.

“So, good job out there with the flames and everything. Very impressive,” she said. “That was kind of hot.”

Rowan choked on his bite of apple.

“I was talking about the fire,” Aelin said with a smirk.

Rowan just coughed some more.

“What on earth did you think I was talking about?” Aelin said, voice oozing with sarcasm.

Rowan was saved from answering as the Captain walked in, his arms full of paper bags. There was a definite look of surprise of Rowan’s face as he walked towards them. He deposited the bags onto the large table before he came all the way over.

Rowan cleared his throat one last time. “This is Captain Salvaterre.”

The dark broody man just gave her a small nod, Aelin focused on keeping her face neutral, remembering the disdain on his face when saw her students.

“I guess I have you to thank for letting me bring the kids here, they’ve really enjoyed it,” Aelin said.

“Good, I’m glad.” He certainly didn’t sound it.

Elide wandered over about then.

“Elide Lochan, my class aide,” Aelin said.

“Nice to meet you,” Captian Salvaterre said, and sounded sincere about it. He even went so far as to extend his hand for Elide to shake.

Aelin sent Rowan a questioning look but he seemed even more confused than she was.

Elide shook his hand, it dwarfed hers, but it was Aelin she addressed. “We should start packing up soon to meet the bus. I think someone else had it booked for this afternoon. A sport thing.”

Aelin glanced down at her watch. “You’re right. Get them to start packing up their bags.”

Elide nodded and started to move around the room.

“Bags are for the kids,” the captain said then left without another word.

“He’s charming, absolute prize that one,” Aelin said once he was out of earshot.

Rowan shrugged. “He’s not that bad once you get to know him.”

“I don’t think I want to,” Aelin replied, a look of something close to disgust on her face. “So I was thinking I’d get dinner for us tonight. As a thank you for today. I know a good Italian place that delivers.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Rowan said, a small smile on his lips.

“Great. I’ll see you at home then?”

Rowan nodded. “I’ll see you at home.”

Aelin moved away to get her students ready before Rowan could see the smile on her own face. He liked the sound of him saying he was coming home to her. It also helped that she’d received a notification about an hour ago that her package had been delivered. Her plan was all coming together.

~~~~~

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turqrambles · 4 years ago

Text

I watched all 26 episodes of an obscure Australian cartoon in one week and I’m not okay - My journey with Wicked! (2001) PART 1

Here it is, the reason I started this blog in the first place. I need to talk about this cartoon I ran into completely by chance.

It all started, like you would, with Tubitv.

Good ol’ Tubi, the free streaming service that makes you either an expert at being able to find diamonds in piles of garbage or a connoisseur of said garbage. It’s thanks to Tubi that I put down that I watched Alpha and Omega: Family Vacation on Letterboxd for all to see and judge, but it’s also thanks to Tubi that I finally ended up watching Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Anyhoo, one day I was browsing their family film selection when I ran into this selection. And that was the day my life changed forever.

What you see before you, posted to a streaming service accessible in the United States, is the movie adaptation of an Australian TV show that never made it to the United States, which is based off a series of Australian children’s books from the 90′s that also never made it to the United States. It made it to other territories like Germany and the United Kingdom (and it apparently did super well in France but don’t quote me on this) but the TV show ran for one year and then disappeared without a trace after one 26 episode season.

How obscure is this franchise? Well, for starters, at the time I’m writing this in 2020, the books, the TV show, and the movie all don’t have a single Wikipedia page to call their own, and the easiest way to get info about this thing is to find the (rather tiny) TvTropes page.

Let’s just get right into this shall we.

What is Wicked!?

Before you try to be all cute and make any references to the hit musical, there’s a reason I’m putting that exclamation mark there.

Wicked! started out as a series of six children’s books written by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman. I actually grabbed a kindle copy of all six books (because I’m in this thing too deep and I wanted to see how the cartoon compared with the source material) and I gotta say, they’re very charming.

The best way I can describe them is that they’re in the kid horror genre, but they’re less Goosebumps and more The Weenies book series by David Lubar in terms of gore and child endangerment. Wicked! has some artful depictions of blood and gore, but in a way that can be digested by the grade school crowd.

Being a former child, I can proudly proclaim that I would’ve adored this series when I was younger. Just look at these covers!

The plot of the books is that there’s a widower with a daughter and a divorced wife with a son who get married, and the two new step-siblings Rory and Dawn absolutely hate each other. They can’t stand the fact that their parents are getting married! Gross!

But then, on the day of their wedding, creepy things begin to happen after Rory receives an appleman doll in the mail, and then, over the course of six books, a deadly single-minded virus that feeds on hate and is targeting Rory’s bloodline begins to spread across wildlife, creating crazed mutant animals that try to kill everyone in the household. It’s up to Rory, Dawn, and Dawn’s grandfather Gramps to stop this virus before it kills Rory and his mother, and to do so, they have to seek out Rory’s father, who seems to be the mysterious cause and/or the solution to the virus.

I’m not sure how well these books did, on account of the whole “not Australian” affliction I seem to suffer from, but they seemed to do well enough to get a TV show adaptation.

And surprisingly, the TV show is a very close adaptation of the books, only they changed the plot in two big ways so that it fits an animated series with a “monster of the week” setup.

The first big change was that, of course, they toned down the blood and gore and removed the deadliness of the virus, choosing to go with a more cartoony mutagenic approach. Rory gets infected by the virus several times in the show, just like how he does in the books, but unlike the books, he never thinks that he’s going to die from it and it’s definitely treated as a more temporary thing. There’s no race against time either. Everyone is trying to live their lives except every so often, the virus shows up. A wacky cartoon virus with cartoony stakes.

That brings me to the other main change that they make in the show. Unlike the books, where the main villain is a mindless virus that feeds off of hate, an invisible foe that can only be defeated at the end of the last book with the help of Rory’s father, the TV show decides that that’s no fun and instead makes a main villain out of one of the main plot points in the books. Say hello to The Appleman. (Apple-Man? Apple Man? Fuck it, I’m going with the first one from now on)

Instead of having the virus mutate mysteriously and having the main characters constantly hypothesize what’s going to happen next, the TV show made a main villain who constantly reinvents new strains of virus in a laboratory that he set up in an abandoned refinery.

What then happens is a basic plot set-up that the show follows pretty consistently in every episode. The family is trying to do something, we get the theme for the episode, and The Appleman, who is a spiteful bastard who is trying to ruin this one family in particular (and I’ll get to that), decides to make a virus that will infect the theme of that episode.

Pretty standard cartoon stuff, right? Ah, but then you don’t realize the beauty of this show. But first, I gotta introduce the main stars of this show.

The Characters

(quick note: this bus is incredibly important to the plot, but only in the books)

First we have Rory (the boy holding up the tin) and Dawn (the mad red head).

Dawn is the step-sister who lost her mom, a bus driver, in a gruesome bus accident, Rory is the step-brother whose parents got a divorce and then his dad went missing, believed to have run away from his whole family. Both of them are meant to be the dual protagonists, but I feel that there’s just a tiny bit more focus on Rory. There’s a reason for this that I will mention later.

What is interesting to note is that they make Rory the smart, non-athletic little nerd that gets picked on a lot at school for being a dork while Dawn loves sports, is failing science, gets made fun of for not being as girly as the other girls in her class, and likes violent computer games. I wouldn’t exactly call them “fleshed out” but they did enough to make these kids feel like actual kids.

Also, they fight. Constantly. This is the main complaint of anyone who actually looks into this show judging by my brief skimming of Internet comments because these two constantly bicker and insult each other and that makes up like 40% of the dialogue in any given episode. While this is one of the main story conflicts and they’re like this in the books too, it just feels super exhausting to see these two constantly at each other’s throats in every single episode.

They get mean too. Which, surprisingly, makes them both more realistic (I babysat multiple times and kids can be pretty verbally awful to each other) while also making them just a tiny bit unbearable at times. Here’s some actual dialogue.

"My dad sent it to me!" "Gee, he must think a lot of you to send you a doll full of worms." "Your mum thought so much of you she drove this bus over a cliff and into the river to get away from you."

GEEZ, guys...

Eileen, Rory’s mom.

It feels out of the three adults in the family, she gets the least amount of character development, but she does get a fair amount of screentime, so you can’t really say they’re intentionally ignoring her. She divorced her previous husband and works as a mail courier. Instead of owning a car, she drives a motorcycle, and, in the first episode, even drives it to her own wedding while dressed in a bridal gown. Rory’s mom rules.

She tries to bond with Dawn because she always wanted to raise a daughter, but Dawn clearly doesn’t like her new stepmom very much. Dawn is also afraid of the motorcycle and it comes up a couple times in the show.

Eileen is the adult that gets targeted the least by The Appleman’s schemes. There’s a very pointed reason for this, and I swear, I’m getting to it soon.

(quick note: yes, the show uses real photos to put in picture frames in the backgrounds and it’s real weird and never addressed)

Jack, Dawn’s dad.

Jack is a sheep shearer, just like in the books, and he’s a big easy-going dope that is hard not to love. Look at him hammer in this carpet. A true champ.

Out of the three adults in the family, he seems to be the one that nearly dies the most, with The Appleman going out of his way to specifically target Jack in some episodes. If you know Appleman’s backstory, this reads as absolutely petty spite and I love every minute of it.

Gramps, Dawn’s grandfather and Jack’s dad.

He’s an aging WWII veteran (one that has killed people in combat no less) who radiates constant Boomer vibes and, unlike Eileen and Jack, he actually sees some of the crazy shit that happens and will sometimes sense when something is infected with virus when the other two adults can’t.

In the books, he’s suffering pretty badly from dementia, but thankfully the cartoons drop that completely. I’m glad too, because I don’t have the confidence that they would’ve written it with enough sophistication to make it not seem ableist. Instead, he’s just your typical kooky cartoon grandfather.

He’s probably the adult that gets the most screentime because he will actually help Dawn and Rory out. Again, this ties into the books, where he was the main adult ally for the kids.

He says a lot of army-themed catchphrases. It’s a tad overplayed but it never really gets to a point where I would call it “annoying”. Also, instead of living in the house, he lives in a tiny granny flat on the property. Sometimes Rory spends the night there.

Last but not least, we have the star of the show, and the reason why the easiest way to find information of this show is to google “Wicked The Appleman”.

The Appleman, as explained, is the main villain of the story. Dressed in a very fancy suit complete with dress shoes and a nice blue tie, he lives in an old refinery full of rats, bats, and giant worms (called Slobberers), and he’s rocking a voice that can be best described as “Australian Mark Hamil” with an absolutely heavenly evil laugh. He has gross clawed hands, a rotten apple for a head, and likes making people miserable, because he’s basically the living puppet for a virus that feeds off of negative emotions. The main goal of each episode is to either defeat him or to stop the mess he’s made. Usually both.

Since all of his minions are non-sentient animals, a lot of his dialogue is him lurking behind something while he monologues to himself, sometimes turning it into a creepy little rhyme. He’s a pretty lonely guy, so him hanging out with this family can be seen as a very non-subtle cry for help.

The best episodes are the ones where he tries to lurk about in public with a very poor attempt at disguising his hideous features. Somehow it always works, you know, despite the fact that he has yellow eyes, the skin like a moldy apple, and no ears.

What Makes Wicked! Unique

(no, The Appleman doesn’t actually use that axe)

The first thing this show does that most of the formulaic shows don’t do is that it does, in fact, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s why this show was packaged into a full-length movie - you can glue scenes together and actually make a pretty decent narrative, even if the resulting movie definitely had a “glued together TV show episodes” feel ala some of the bad Disney sequels like Cinderella II and Atlantis II.

This show even has some plot-heavy episodes that dive into just why this whole Appleman situation is going on and why he seems to have it out for this one family in order to flesh out the characters more.

Because that’s a thing that this show does. The Appleman is a cartoon-y villain who cackles in his lab and constantly invents new strains of viruses that can mutate things like animals and household appliances, but he doesn’t do it to take over the city or to “destroy the world”. He does it purely to inconvenience this one Australian family, who he stalks pretty regularly. This is a thing that comes from the books and honestly, it’s a thing that elevates Appleman from “ugly-looking cartoon villain” to “pretty damn creepy, if also still cartoony in execution”.

Sure, a lot of cartoon villains target the main protagonist in their evil schemes, but this one is definitely more personal.

He regularly follows Rory and Dawn to school and, when the family goes on a camping trip, he comes too. If Rory decides he’s going to hang out in the wrecker’s yard, The Appleman will be cackling and hiding behind totaled vehicles. If Gramps takes the kids out to the bay to go fishing, The Appleman will pull an ice cream truck out of his garage and follow them there. That’s how the main conflict is really set up.

I think if a scarier cartoon tried, they’d make him out to be this grotesque stalker, but instead, since this show is kinda goofy in execution, he’s like the shittiest cryptid in the world, constantly crouching behind trash cans and on top of rooftops while constantly cackling about how clever he is and how, miraculously, no one notices anything’s amiss.

This alone would make this villain interesting, but then they set up something about this show at the beginning if you watch the intro and the first episode and put two and two together.

Right from the start, the opening shows that The Appleman was once human by depicting his transformation by the virus. They don’t even try and pretend that he’s some demon or some sort of supernatural monster - he’s specifically a blue collar worker who had a nasty run-in with fate and mutated into this hideous apple-headed creature that now has to hide out in an abandoned refinery. You see why he’s dressed like that - he’s still wearing his work uniform.

Right after you watch that intro, the first episode of the show has Rory receiving a mysterious package from his father on the day of his mother’s wedding. It’s the first time that Rory and his mom Eileen have heard from their dad after he mysteriously vanished years ago.

What’s inside? An apple-headed doll, which contains the first virus-infected monsters, The Slobberers.

When The Appleman makes his first dramatic appearance, he never says Dawn’s name, but he does know Rory’s name.

And, in case you didn’t pick up the hints from the first episode, the fourth episode really drives it home without spelling it out. Then the last episode of the series decides to say it out loud.

That’s right. Rory’s father, the man who mysteriously vanished from Eileen and Rory’s lives, is still an important part of the cartoon’s storyline, but instead of being the man who appears in the last book that knows how to cure the virus while also being the first victim of the virus, he’s the main antagonist.

The Appleman is Rory’s father.

And honestly, because of this little plot point, this show becomes a much richer experience once you look at the unhinged appleman who keeps unleashing horror on these kids and realize that he’s a divorced dad who constantly keeps tabs on his ex-wife's unstable dysfunctional family in order to make them more pissed at each other because that feeds the virus that mutated him.

This is a very cool concept. This is where Wicked! shines when, for all intents and purposes, it is otherwise a pretty average turn-of-the-century Australian cartoon that can be best described as “it’s okay, I guess” in terms of quality.

Because that’s really the rating I can give this show. It’s Okay.

It’s a very solid Okay, but I think any adjective more powerful than “Okay” is really pushing it. It’s not Great, it’s not Amazing. It’s Okay. Alright. Kinda Good.

But man, is it a wild ride.

Next time, I’m going to start discussing the actual episodes as well as this show’s pros and cons. Dividing this up into multiple parts partly because I feel like these things are more easily digested in smaller chunks and partly because I’m pretty sure tumblr now has a size limit on posts soooo...yeah.

Follow this handy link for Part 2 - The Actual Review!

#Turq watches a cartoon #Wicked! (2001)#Wicked!#The Appleman #Turq Reviews

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letsnotdoanything · 5 years ago

Text

The smiles you gave me

Heyah~

I’m sorry for posting only short timestamps for some time but I didn't have much time to write due to school and the concert. I didn’t want to publish something without even checking it before. :v

I actually wrote this without anyone in mind, but as I finished I just couldn’t imagine putting in anyone else than Sungjin...

Hope you enjoy!

he kept doing weird faces during the whole concert dbhkjhsdehi i love this dork

Pairing: Sungjin x reader

Genre: Fluff

Words: 1,7K

To: Y/N Y/S/N

From: Sungjin

The smiles you gave me

The first one was an awkward smile,

It was the first one I saw and the one that made me fall in love with you. It’s been four years since then, yet it feels as if it was yesterday. I remember everything exactly - your embarrassed expression, untied shoelaces and hair tangled from the wind. Yet, you still were the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.

You were running down the street holding your books for your dear life. It was the last day when you could give applications for your dream university and you overslept, so now you had 40 minutes to get there. The bus you had to take to be on time was already closing its doors and the next one would be there in 20 minutes, so you had no other choice. Thankfully, the bus driver was nice enough to wait for a girl that clearly wasn’t friends with physical activities. Well, at least you tried, right? You got in on the full speed not caring if you would hit something, which was a mistake because that’s exactly what you did. Actually, not something but someone. A very attractive someone to be exact. “Woah, you good?” He said holding your arm to help you stand straight. “Your face is all red.” You run a hand through your hair trying to fix it as you looked at the stranger. Well, if you were red earlier then now you must look like a splendid beetroot. “Yes, I-I mean no… I mean you-” you couldn’t figure out what words you should choose to not make yourself look like a fool more than you already did, but you gave up when he chuckled. You knew you were already humiliated anyways. “Yeah, I just didn’t want to miss the bus. I’m sorry for hitting you.” You gave him an apologetic smile, still embarrassed from the situation, which he returned. “What about going to a café after you’re done with whatever you’re late for? You know, to compensate for bumping into me.”

The second one was a loving smile,

It was after our second date as a couple, when I kissed you for the first time. Your eyes were shining brighter than the stars above us all together and at this moment, I knew that I have found the one.

“Thank you for today, the pasta was amazing.” You said turning your face to him when you got to your apartment. You didn’t want it to end, you had a very good time with him. You played with your fingers, looking down and sighted. “I’m sad it’s over, I don’t want you to leave…” He smiled slightly at your pouty face.He grabbed your chin with two fingers, looking into your eyes deeply. You glared into his dark eyes in awe, they were so beautiful you could stare at them for hours without getting tired. “I’ll call you as soon as I’m back home, okay?” You felt warm when he let go of your chin to place his hand on your cheek, stroking it with his thumb. “Actually, I have something for you.” You looked at him, curious about what might it be. You didn’t know what to expect, but for sure not that he would bend to your height and press his warm lips to yours. He stayed like that for a few seconds before pulling away. Your shocked expression was quickly replaced by a soft grin that stayed there for the rest of the evening. “Well, that definitely doesn’t make letting you go easier.”

The third one was a laughing smile,

The one you showed every time I said something you found funny, even if no one else did. That’s one of the things I love you for, I’ve always felt so lucky to have someone who has the same humor as me.

You shot your head back with a loud laugh, covering your mouth with your hand. You loved your boyfriend’s sense of humor, his jokes always were hilariously funny. You fell back on the couch, trying to stop laughing but it seemed funnier every time you repeated it in your head. Your chest was jumping up and down quickly making your stomach muscles sore. You finally calmed down after some time and took a few deep breaths, wiping the tears that gathered in your eyes. You sat straight and looked around to see all your friends, and even Sungjin himself looking at you as if you were crazy. “What? It was funny!”

The fourth one was teasing smile,

This one was the most different, there was something in it that made it impossible to contain myself. You showed it when your mischievous side came out, and honestly, I loved it every time it did.

It was definitely your good day, you felt confident and playful and you didn’t hesitate to use it against your boyfriend. You started your provoking marathon by walking around the house in nothing but an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts that were barely covering your assets. You enjoyed seeing him avoiding your eyes sheepishly so you went on to “accidentally” dropping things and bending over to grab them, making sure to wiggle your butt while doing it. He remained calm when you did it for the first time. He started getting suspicious after the second attempt. He tolerated the third one. But the fourth one, it was the final straw. “Ah, Y/N, stop it already!” Sungjin raised his voice unintentionally, a little annoyed by the effect you have on him. He didn’t know that you were that playful and he didn’t like how you made him blush and stutter so effortlessly. You smirked and crossed your arms on your chest, knowing you achieved your goal. Normally you would do what he asked you to but today you let yourself go a little overboard. “Make me.”

The fifth one was a fake smile,

The one that you gave me during our worst fight, after I said something I regret to this day. I think I won’t ever be able to tell you how sorry I was, and still am.

You two rarely argued, barely ever, but the past few weeks were very stressful for both of you. Your boss was giving you much more work since a few of your co-workers left and Sungjin’s head was occupied by his upcoming promotions. That’s why you talked much less and if you did, it was a short exchange of “how are you" and "fine, thanks”. But this time was different, your conversation didn’t end after two sentences but it turned into a heated argument instead. Neither of you actually remembered the original reason why the fight started, new topics were just appearing one after the other and didn’t seem to end. “So it’s my fault now, huh?!” You threw your arms in the air out of frustration. You weren’t yourself at that moment, all the emotions that gathered inside of you had taken control. “Well, it’s you who’s been acting like a fucking moody teenager!” His words echoed in your head for a few seconds when you tried to understand what just happened. You’d never expect that something as little would hurt so much if said by someone you loved. Your heart ached and you felt as if your stomach did a full flip, causing sudden nausea. “You’re right, I should leave now.” You fake-smiled and turned your back to him immediately, going towards the door of your apartment. You didn’t bother looking at him before going out, which might have been a mistake. If you would have turned around you would have seen the tears and guilt all over his face.

The sixth one is

________________________________________

You turned the paper around to see if there was anything else written on the other side, but it was clear. You were a little confused since all of the previous ones were written as the past, yet this sentence ended with “is”. What could that mean? And why didn’t he finish it?

“The sixth one is the one I hope to see in a moment…” you heard a voice behind you, which made you jump and turn around almost immediately after. You saw Sungjin standing there in your favorite white shirt, holding a small velvet box. His hair was styled elegantly and you could smell his cologne and hair spray. Your throat clenched and you were struggling to get out any sound, so you just stood there with your mouth open. It made him laugh a little. “You know, I’ve wanted to do it for some time now…” he crouched down on one knee in front of you, took your hand in his holding the box in the other one, and looked you in the eyes. “Y/N, I’ve never thought that someone bumping into me would change not only my life, but also me. I know I’m a better person when you’re by my side, I need you more than anything else. Your smiles are the most wonderful thing I’ve seen in my life, I wish I could see them every time I close my eyes in the night and when I open them in the morning. I want to learn more about you. I want to know more of your smiles and more of your little habits that no one else knows about. You’re like a book I never want to close. Y/N Y/S/N, would you do the honor and let me read it for the rest of my life?’’

You could hear your heartbeat increase, it felt like your heart was going to burst your chest. You covered your mouth with your hand to muffle the sobs you weren’t able to control. Seconds passed, yet to Sungjin it felt like hours. His lips were pressed tight and his eyebrows furrowed in anticipation as he waited for you to do something, give him any sign. You realized that you still didn’t give him an answer and you felt bad for making him so nervous, so you crouched down next to him and looked straight into his eyes. It felt the as if it was your first kiss he wrote about - his dark eyes were shining brightly and seemed to be so full of love they could explode. You murmured a quiet, yet meaningful “yes’’ and wrapped your arms around his neck, hugging him as if it was your last goodbye. However, it was only the beginning of something completely new and beautiful.

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cherishtaengs · 5 years ago

Text

New Year

Pairing: Taeyang x Reader (Y/N)

Warnings: None

—

[10:40 pm]

You take another glance at your phone, greeted with your lock screen and the time in bright, white numbers. No text, no call, blank notification screen. Just like all the other times you'd checked.

For the past half hour, you'd been sitting in the park, shivering through your jacket and wool sweater. Snow fell lightly around you, dusting the ground and melting to tiny droplets on your cheeks. You didn't know how much longer you could wait; the crisp wind was driving the cold deep into your bones through any opening it could find in your layers of clothing. Even though it was late, the city was bustling with nightlife. People laughed and strolled through the park, enjoying each other's company on a white New Year's Eve.

You sighed.

Taeyang was supposed to meet you at the park at 10:30, and you'd even gotten there early. Both of you had wanted to spend the last night of the year together, and the date had been planned a week in advance. But he hadn't shown up, hadn't even called or texted to let you know he'd be late.

A minute later, you pulled your phone out again, knowing there was no point in doing so and being met with the same empty notification screen. Leaning back, you watched the small flecks of snow drift down from grey clouds. They seemed to be in no hurry to fall to the ground, they just fluttered ever so gently in the brisk air.

Maybe you'd wait a little longer.

[11:05]

Your phone buzzed its two, quick notes, drawing your attention to a new text. Heart jumping in your chest, you unlock your phone- but quickly sank back against your seat.

TY: Hey

TY: Something really last minute came up, sorry I didn't text earlier

TY: I'm really really sorry I can't come tonight :(

Your pulse started racing, anger and irritation bubbling up right under your skin. You couldn't believe it- the absolute nerve of him to make you wait for nearly an hour, just to cancel on you last minute! And with the worst explanation, too. You were used to Taeyang being forgetful and sometimes being late to dates, but he was never the type to stand you up when it came to more important things. Hell, you'd passed on spending the night with your closest friends just to be with Taeyang. And now he was telling you he couldn't make it? You silently seethed, blood rushing hot to your face.

You: Ok. I'm going home.

You: See you later.

You hoped that he'd catch on to how upset you were- he'd have to be a rock to not realize that you'd be angry. But right then, you just wanted to get out of the cold and back into the warm comfort of your apartment. Maybe you could make some hot chocolate and watch a movie or something and get a good night's sleep. You'd figure out your thoughts in the morning.

Stuffing your phone into your coat pocket, you pushed yourself off the bench and made your way through the park, out into the street. If you hurried, you could probably catch the next bus that would take you right to your street. It was usually a short ride home, you lived about 10 minutes away by bus, but you knew the traffic would slow you down. Making sure you didn't slip, you half-run, half-walk to the bus station, reaching it right as the bus pulled up, sides decorated with lights to celebrate the new year. You pulled yourself into the bus, relieved that it was relatively empty. Only a handful of other passengers were riding tonight, scattered in different window seats.

Dropping yourself into the seat closest to the door, you cross your arms across your chest and ignore the two short vibrations coming from your pocket.

[11:35]

Yours was the fourth stop and since everyone else had gotten off before you, you'd been left on the bus alone. You were starting to sense a pattern tonight.

There was even a stark difference between your apartment and your neighbors'; nearly everyone else had their lights on, shadows moving behind their curtains. But your windows were dark, no sign of life for the night. You'd been trying to hold it back, but the disappointment and sadness came creeping back up on you.

On any other day, you'd be understanding if Taeyang had cancelled last minute- you were sure he'd find a way to make it up to you, because he was sweet like that. If he thought he'd made you even the slightest bit upset, he would make sure to talk to you face-to-face and clear things up. So this kind of flakey behavior was unexpected, but if it was any other day you knew you would have forgiven him. But tonight? New Year's Eve? When you had this planned for days?

He'd have some serious explaining to do whenever you felt like texting him next.

Brushing the powdery snow off your coat, you turn your key in the lock and push open the door, greeted by more silence and darkness. Sighing, you kick off your shoes and throw your coat onto the back of your couch. You didn't even bother to turn on the lights, just dropped yourself on the couch to clear your mind. You sat there for some time, restless and agitated. Sulking on the couch wasn't helping, so you went to the fridge to get milk for hot chocolate. When you opened the fridge, something small fluttered to the floor.

Startled, you stepped back, bending to get a better view of what fell. In the golden light of the fridge, you saw that it was a piece of paper folded in a square. You didn't remember leaving a note for yourself before leaving.

Unfolding the paper, you read what was on it: Hot chocolate?

Sucking in a breath, you realized what was going on. You crumple up the paper and march out of the kitchen, slamming the fridge door shut.

"Yoo Taeyang," you shout, crossing your arms and planting yourself in the hallway. "Get out here right now!"

No one came out of anywhere, but you did hear the tell-tale sound of socked feet shuffling in your room. Taeyang was never very good at hiding or staying quiet when he had to.

"Taeyang, I'm serious," You roll your eyes and walk to the door of your room, waiting outside it. "I'm not in the mood."

Whatever he was planning, you wanted none of it. You weren't the least bit happy with him tonight, and you mentally prepared yourself for that goofy smile you knew he would give you.

Turning the doorknob, you throw open the door and sigh in exasperation, seemingly for the hundredth time tonight. "Taeyang, please."

You didn't know what you expected to see when you opened the door to your room, but what you actually did see was not it.

There was nothing. Well, everything in your room was still there, but there wasn't anything else. That was it. And for some reason, something in your heart dropped into the pit of your stomach. You supposed a part of you was hoping that he had tried to make it up to you, and had prepared something extra special. But of course not. Tonight was just a big disappointment.

"Taeyang, where are you," You called into the dark room, looking around, hiding the disappointment you felt. "We need to talk."

You heard the hushed sliding of the door to your balcony and his voice followed, soft and slightly nervous. "Yeah, I guess we do."

You turned to face him and saw his apologetic expression, exactly what you braced yourself for. It wouldn't work this time, not unless he gave you a serious explanation. He tipped his head, gesturing for you to join him. The clock on your table read 11:50, and you met him on the small balcony. The wind was biting, and you were glad you left your sweater on.

"Hot chocolate?" Taeyang asked, holding out a mug of still hot drink. He had set up a small table outside, with two chairs. But that was it. You take the mug and sit down before he offered a seat.

"Why'd you stand me up today," you wanted to get straight to the point.

Taeyang, however, leaned back in his chair across from you and took a sip of his hot chocolate, taking his time to gaze over the rooftops in front of him. "The view is great from up here, right. Especially when it snows, don't you think?"

You stare at him, not believing what you were hearing. He was ignoring your question, and he only did that when there was something he didn't want to tell you. "Taeyang, stop it. Or I'm going back inside."

Taeyang glanced at you from the top of his cup, brown eyes glittering with the reflection of scattered lights. When he set it down and the soft smile returned to his lips, you had to remind yourself you were mad.

"Ok," he leaned his chin on his hand, looking at you intently. There was a suspicious look in his eyes, a funny lift to his eyebrows that you couldn't quite place. "I'm sorry I didn't show up today."

A crisp gust of wind blew, chilling you through your thick sweater, sending a shiver down your body. You wrapped your hands around the warm cup, welcome heat spreading to your palms. "What was the emergency?"

Taeyang cast his gaze down to his hands, resting on the table top. You noticed he was fidgeting with a loose string on the sleeve of his sweater. He took another moment to answer, talking anxiously. "Well, there was something I had to do. It wouldn't have been right if I didn't do it tonight. I knew you'd understand."

He... knew you'd understand? He just assumed that you would be okay with waiting alone in the park, in the freezing cold, for almost an hour? This just had to be the icing on today's horrible cake.

"Well, you know what," you shake your head, fighting to keep your voice calm. "I don't. I don't understand."

Taeyang only stared back at you, biting his lower lip. The gleam faded from his widened eyes and his brows were furrowed in worry. He genuinely looked innocent right then, but you weren't going to be swayed by a few cute expressions.

You continued, anger and frustration seeping into every word you said. "We planned this two weeks ahead! If you knew you wouldn't have been able to make it tonight, you could have told me earlier! I would've been fine if you'd even told me this morning, or this afternoon. But, I told my friends I'd be spending the night with you instead of them, and I was actually looking forward to being with you, but I guess you had other plans? Why didn't you just tell-"

In one swift motion, Taeyang had stood up and leaned over the table to press his soft lips to yours. When he pulled back, the apologetic smile was back on his face and you wished it would either stay there or go away. In the moment's pause where you caught your breath, you saw the faint sparkle of snowflakes resting on strands of his dark hair and eyelashes, light puffs of breath disappearing between you two. You forgot the cold, warmth spreading from your lips across your face.

"I knew you'd be mad at me," Taeyang sighed, finally sitting back down. "And I really didn't want to do that to you. But, ironically, I did it for you. The emergency was for you. Or, you were the emergency- Well, I'm not sure how to phrase that, but I'm serious. I really am sorry, but I had to."

You recovered from the shock of the kiss, twice as angry as before. Abruptly, you stood up, pushing the chair back with a screech. "I don't know what you're talking about, and clearly you don't either. So come talk to me when you've worked out an excuse that makes sense."

You turned to go, but of course before you could make it through the door you felt Taeyang's hand wrap around yours. "It's 11:56. I have an excuse, and I think it's a good one."

He dropped his hand and waited for you to turn around. You did, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, mouth twisted in a frown. "Well?"

That nervous look fell across his face again, and he picked at the string on his sleeve, fingers clamped down on the cuff. "Do you remember when we first met? It was tonight. No, I mean, it was New Years Eve, but two years ago. You were walking out of that bar with your friends-"

Of course you remembered that. You remembered the way the two of you had ran right into each other, and Taeyang had spilled his coffee on your jacket. He'd gotten so red, so flustered, and his friends were between laughing at him and apologizing to you when he just stood there, sputtering like a goldfish. You both knew of each other, you were in a few of the same classes in college, but you'd never spoken before then. You'd felt bad after seeing how embarrassed he'd been and told him it was okay, you could wash the jacket at home. But he insisted you'd take his coat instead and he'd wash yours for you, it was the least he could do.

You weren't exactly sure why he offered to do that- after all, the two of you weren't close in any way. But he insisted, and that was how you went home in his too large, but warm, coat, and he went home shivering with your jacket and no coffee. It gave you both an excuse to see each other again. And again, and again.

You'd never forget that night, and that was exactly why you'd really wanted to be with him this New Year's Eve. But he'd ruined it.

Taeyang continued, eyes focused on yours. "And at some point after we became friends, I promised you I'd learn a magic trick for you because you said you thought that one magician we saw on the street was cool. Do you remember that?"

No, actually, you didn't remember that at all.

"I've made a whole lot of other promises to you since we starting dating, and I'd like to think I've kept them all. Well, except tonight, but in my defense we are together right now and I swear it was for a good cause."

You honestly had no idea what he was trying to say to you, but you decided to let him keep talking. The way his cheeks flushed pink and the tips of his ears got red was cute.

He stopped pulling at the loose string and reached for your hand.

"I learned that magic trick I promised you I'd learn," he lifted his other hand, with the fingers tight around the cuff, to your ears. "Not sure if it's going to work out right but, here it is."

You assumed he was going to pull something out from behind your ear, and that made you impatient. All of this for a dumb trick? Did he think this was all a joke?

Before your thoughts could rant any more, Taeyang pushed back your hair and brushed his fingers behind your ear. But instead of producing something, you heard something fall to the ground and Taeyang whispered a curse.

"Seriously, Taeyang," you rolled your eyes as he dropped to the floor to pick up whatever it was that fell. "I'm going to bed."

"No no no," He grabbed for you again, this time holding tight. "It's almost time. And I want you to have this."

Biting his lip, Taeyang held up what he dropped. It was a small box, velveteen and black. You flicked your eyes up to him, wide and confused. "What is it?"

Taeyang exhaled sharply, a cloud escaping from his lips and vanishing just as quickly. "I'm sorry for breaking tonight's promise. I really am. But I've had this moment planned for two weeks, too. After all of those promises I've made to you over the years, I want to make another. One I'll make a priority to keep."

He pushed the top of the box open, and what was inside stole your breath in the best way.

It was a silver ring, thin and polished, with a single twist lined with small, sparkling diamonds. A promise ring.

"What-" you didn't have the words to finish your question, so you just let it hang in the cold air.

"You mean the world to me," Taeyang whispered. "And I'm sorry for all the times I've hurt you, in any way. This is my way of promising that I'll never leave you alone again. You can be mad at me if you want, but just let me have this little victory tonight?"

You stare at the ring, unsure if you should laugh or cry. If this was what he was planning for all of today... you knew it was unfair of him to have not warned you he'd be late ahead of time, but now you knew there was a reason behind it. He meant well, he always did.

You heard the neighbor's music die down, a quick moment of silence falling across the entire complex. It didn't last for long; the countdown was starting.

"10, 9, 8-"

You grinned up at Taeyang, and he took the ring out of its cushion, an expectant glimmer in his eyes.

"7, 6, 5-"

"Well, put it on me!" You held up your left hand, smile widening as a fluttering filled your chest and stomach. Laughing, Taeyang slipped the ring onto your finger.

"3, 2, 1-"

Throwing your arms around his neck, you pull Taeyang down for a kiss, embracing his warmth all around you. Taeyang wrapped one arm around your waist, holding you close. With the other, he held the back of your neck, brushing your cheek softly. He smiled into the kiss, pulling back slightly.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked, the hint of a mischievous pout clear in his voice.

"Hmm," you pretended to give it some thought. "Yes. But not as much as before."

At that, he laughed and despite yourself, so did you.

Maybe tonight wasn't such a disappointment after all.

#fantasylibrary #sf9 #kpop #sf9 au #sf9 taeyang #sf9 youngbin #sf9 inseong #sf9 jaeyoon #sf9 dawon #sf9 rowoon #sf9 juho #sf9 zuho #sf9 hwiyoung #sf9 chani

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