#and then take another ten minute walk back to the pharmacy

[moodyseal]

The Wise One (my doctor) has deemed it the right time for me to finally receive the Great Prophecy (my prescription) and thus set onto the greatest quest of my life (go to the pharmacy to buy the supplements I need) but alas he wasn't aware of the possibility that the evil fiend who always waits for my untimely demise (me) would once again foil our plans and stand in the way of my journey (forget to bring the prescription)

[fairyhaos]

❖ take care of me anyway // yoon jeonghan

jeonghan x gn!reader, 1.7k+ words

tags: office worker!jeonghan not rlly relevant to the plot tho, sick fic, fluff, established relationship

warnings: brief fever-induced hallucinations ig?? but theyre rlly cute, pet names, reader has a cold

notes: im sick. like, 'i have a cold' sick. and i also have another sick fic planned so uhh yeah im a little Unwell in the head too

There are ten minutes left of Jeonghan’s lunch break when you finally call him.

“Hello, my darling,” he says, his tone both parts dry and amused. “How are you?”

“Sick,” you reply, and even just that word sounds horribly bunged up. “But you knew that already, didn’t you? You called in sick for me.”

Jeonghan just hums, smiling a little as he adjusts the phone against his ear, walking down the street back to his company building. “Maybe I did.”

You don’t say anything for a moment, and he can almost hear you pouting on the other end of the line. There’s a rustling sound as you adjust yourself in bed, and he sighs.

“How sick are you?”

“Very,” you say, miserably, and then give a series of harsh, wet coughs that has him wincing. “Very sick. I only just woke up, but my head is just…” You don’t finish your sentence. Just make a very pained sound like a wounded puppy.

Jeonghan chuckles. “Gee, I wonder how you managed to get so sick. It’s not like walking home in the pouring rain without a coat makes you ill, isn’t it?”

You whine at that, upset. “Han, I told you, I was gonna call you but my phone was dead. I had no choice! Wanted to get home fast to see you,” you add in a mumble, sounding dejected.

He smiles at that. “It wasn’t like I was going anywhere, though,” he points out. “I was all comfortably squished on the couch. I wasn’t gonna disappear any time soon. You could’ve taken your time. Waited for the rain to pass.”

“Yeah, but still,” you huff petulantly, then sniff. “Can you make soup when you get back home?” you ask after a beat, and sniffle again. “And also buy some tissues? And meds? And give me cuddles?”

Jeonghan chuckles at how pitiful you sound, resisting the urge to coo. “No.”

“What?” You’re whining again, and you sound all bunged up but Jeonghan just smiles, amused. “But your darling Y/N is currently suffering the worst cold in the entire world.”

“But alas, I think my darling Y/N is the sole person to blame for this cold,” Jeonghan says, lips twitching upwards. “Don't you think so?”

“Come take care of me anyway.”

“No.”

You make a noise of discontent, sheets rustling as you shift around in bed again. “Hmph. Worst boyfriend ever. I’m breaking up with you.”

That makes him laugh, the stunned sound being pulled out of him by your deadpan tone, and he grins to himself out on the street, rounding the corner until his company building is in sight. “Whatever you say,” he singsongs. “I’ll see later, okay?”

“Whatever. Bye.” A pause. “Have a nice day.”

Jeonghan smiles as you hang up, looking fondly down at your contact name. He’s standing in front of the company entrance, now, and he has three minutes of his break left. Just enough time to get into the elevator and up to his office.

He pockets his phone, turns on his heel and traipses off to find the nearest pharmacy.

───────────── 🧂

You’ve been drifting in and out of sleep the entire day, constantly stuck in that drowsy, so-sick-that-nothing-feels-real state, and you’ve hallucinated Jeonghan coming home a total of thirteen times in the past five hours.

At least, you think it’s been five hours.

Maybe it’s been less than that.

Whatever. Time is weird.

The point is, your mind is all fuzzy and everything feels like it’s floating, so when someone who looks an awful lot like Jeonghan comes into the room, you just groan. Hallucination Jeonghan #14 has come to pay you a visit, it seems, so you just frown and give him the response that you’ve given all his other clones.

“Go away. Stop trying to sell me fish.”

Hallucination Jeonghan #14 makes a confused noise at that, walking closer to your bed, leaning over to adjust your pillows and pull you up into a more upright position.

“I don’t want your fish,” you say, just in case he didn’t hear you the first time. “Stop it.”

That makes the hallucination chuckle, and his hand comes up to your forehead. 

Cold. Huh. None of the other hallucinations touched you before.

His hand drops from your forehead, swiping at the soft skin under your eyes gently, and his fingers are blessedly cool against your skin. You hadn’t realised how much you were burning up before.

“You’re really, really sick,” Hallucination Jeonghan #14 murmurs, and he sounds so concerned, before pulling out a bottle of water from one of the plastic bags he’s holding. Woah, you hadn’t even realised he was holding them. “Here, darling. Drink.”

You obediently take a sip once he uncaps the lid for you, before making small noises of distress when some of it spills down your shirt. Hallucination Jeonghan #14 (wow was it a mouthful to say, even in your head) just hushes you gently, dabbing at it with tissues that he’d procured from the plastic bags. 

“It’s okay,” he says softly, and his hands take yours, clasping them around the bottle. Once you’re holding it, he gets up, and for a horrible moment, you think this hallucination is going to leave again. You kind of like this one.

“Where’re you going?” you ask, but it comes out as more of a slur of vowels. You’re not sure he understood a word.

 “Drink up,” is all he says. He fishes out a packet of pills from the bag (it’s like a magic bag, you think blearily. It seems to have everything inside it). “Have these as well, okay? I’ll go make that soup you wanted.”

You nod, blinking. Dutifully, you sip the water that the hallucination has left you, because really this was one of the most gentle, doting, Jeonghan-like Hallucination Jeonghan and it kind of feels like he really does have your best interests at heart. 

Unlike the other Hallucination Jeonghans, who just wanted to sell you fish. This one really seemed to care about your well-being. 

You blink again, slowly. 

Oh. 

By the time Jeonghan comes back with a gently steaming bowl of chicken soup on a tray with a mug of tea, you're more lucid than before, pouting at him as he comes closer, having remembered his last words before you’d hung up the phone.

“You said you weren’t going to take care of me.”

Jeonghan doesn’t say anything, setting the tray on the bedside table, before sitting down on the edge of your bed, wordlessly picking up the bowl and spoonfeeding you some soup. You open your mouth easily, and he hums in approval with a smile.

“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let my darling be sick all alone, hm?” he says. “I can’t do that. Especially if you’re also seeing hallucinations of me who are trying to sell you fish.”

He continues feeding you soup in tiny sips, and the entire situation feels weirdly vulnerable, with you propped up on pillows and Jeonghan making small noises of approval every time you successfully swallow a spoonful. Like you’re a little baby bird, or something.

But he smiles so lovingly at you the entire time, so it’s kind of hard to feel too embarrassed.

“Well done,” Jeonghan murmurs, once you’ve finished half of the bowl. Your boyfriend is affectionate, almost overbearingly so at times, always poking you in the side or pinching your cheeks or tweaking your nose, but the softness with which he treats you right now is a whole other level of affection entirely.

Jeonghan cares deeply for you. You know that. You’ve never doubted how much he loves you, and he never gives you reason to doubt it. But still, when he smooths down your hair and strokes the back of your hand and gazes at you so gently, it makes you realise yet again that oh God, he loves you.

“We’re going to get you to finish the rest of the soup in a minute,” he says, reaching down towards the plastic bag at his feet, “but first. I wanted you to have this.”

Out of the bag, he pulls out…

A fluffy bunny plushie.

You blink, tilting your head, sniffing in confusion and also to try and unblock your bunged up nose. “What?”

“Say hi to Jjongie,” Jeonghan says. “He came up to me when I was buying your soup, and I couldn’t not bring him home.” The bunny’s pink ears flop adorably into its eyes as he holds out the soft toy to you. It even has a cream coloured ribbon around its neck. “He’s gonna keep you company whenever I can’t be here for you.”

“Oh,” you say softly, taking Jjongie from him with a smile. You rub your thumb over the soft fur of the bunny’s cheek. “He’s adorable.”

Jeonghan beams, proud. “Of course he is. He’s a me-substitute.”

You look up at him, smiling. “Han, I—” You can’t finish your sentence, too choked up. Literally. You suddenly start coughing, hand coming up to cover your mouth, and Jeonghan rushes forward with the mug of tea and an opened box of tissues that he suddenly procured out of nowhere.

“Hey, it’s okay, no need to cry over it,” he says teasingly as you glare at him, eyes tearing up from how hard you’re coughing. You accept the tissues and, when he pushes the tea insistently in you direction, you take the mug too.

“Yeah, yeah.” You blow your nose with one hand and then drink the tea, noting with a smile the subtle notes of honey in it. “Thank you,” you add, softly, looking down at Jjongie in your lap. Jeonghan really has gone out of his way for you.

Jeonghan just shakes his head, picking up the soup bowl again. “Thank me once you get better,” he says. “You can take care of me after. I’ll probably be catching your illness from looking after you.”

You grin, blowing your nose again, and even you can’t miss the way that Jeonghan watches you, eyes devastatingly fond.

“Yeah, but you’re gonna look after me anyways, aren’t you?”

Jeonghan grins, unashamedly bright. He taps the spoon against your lips, smiling wider when you sip the soup, the mug of tea in your hands, Jjongie the bunny in your lap. 

“Duh. I love you too much not to.”

fics tags: @jeonginssa @weird-bookworm @minhui896 @bunnyiix @slytherinshua @haowrld @belladaises @moonlitskiiies @mirxzii @zozojella @kawennote09 @thedensworld @a-wandering-stay @abibliolife @doublasting @wonranghaeee @icyminghao @sweet-like-caramel @your-yxnnie @evasaysstuff @odxrilove @kyeomyun @crackedpumpkin @jeonride @kellesvt @butiluvu @sakufilms @eightlightstar @onlyyjeonghan @aaniag @amxlia-stars @raevyng @isabellah29

[gadriezmannsgirl]

Hello, can u do a one shot where the reader is waking back home but someone is following her so she calls Gavi for help

(I love your works,they’re so good😭)

FIC CELEBRATION! BARÇA'S LALIGA WINNER!🎉🏆

Marathon fics as part of the celebration?

Help - P.G

Summary: When someone is following you, you call your boyfriend for help

It was a sunny day in Barcelona, heat and the wind flowing just the perfect beat to not be sweating like crazy and at the same time not to be so chilly. It was a perfect combination of both, so you decided it would be a good idea to take a little walk by yourself, to enjoy this bit weird but loved kind of weather.

Pablo was busy with a few interviews and you were bored, you let him know you were going out and when you got a little Ten cuidado, preciosa. Call me if anything happens, te quiero😍♥️ you replied his love affection, smiled and went out of the house.

And everything was good, you went to a park that was nearby where you and Pablo lived, ate a bit of ice cream, played with someone's dog who decided to make you happier with its presence and when it was getting a bit dark you decided to go home but not without buying something for Pablo for when he comes home.

You had distanced yourself more than you actually predicted from your home since you went to a coffee shop, to buy your guy his favorite dessert, so you where walking. It wasn't that dark and there was other people walking in the streets too so you didn't worried about anything.

Until you decided to look behind you and found a man walking a few meters behind you, you didn't paid attention to it seeing as there were other people walking your way as well but when you crossed the street and the man crossed it too you thought it was too much of coincidence.

You turned to the left and when you realised the man took the left too you started to get nervous, it was too much to be just a coincidence now, you quickly and discretly took your phone out and started walking faster, dialing Pablo. You hoped and prayed for him to pick up but you wanted to cry when the call when in to voicemail.

"Don't let him be in an interview right now, please" You murmur dialing him once more when this time he picked up

"Amor? I'm about to head to an interview, everything good?"

"Everything's bad" You tried to talk normal, you didn't wanted the man to know you were nervous "Someone is following me" You whispered and saw behind you that the man was now picking his pace too, you tried to not show nervous and looked around pretending, you weren't watching him

"¿A qué te refieres? Joder, Y/N. Where are you?"

"I'm like ten minutes away from home but I don't want to get there, I don't want him to follow me back all the way and know where our house is. But I also don't wanna spend another minute walking with him behind me"

"There's people around?" You hum

"There is" You nod "But it seems they aren't paying attention to anything else but their own stuffs"

"I'm already on my way, mi amor. I'm seeing your ubication. Do you see some store? A pharmacy? Bakery? Music store? Clothes store? Anything you may get in and wait a bit until I get there?"

"There's this music store at the other side of the road"

"Go there and keep talking to me about anything" He asked as you nodded and crossed the street walking towards the music shop.

"What do you want me to tell you?" You asked

"Tell me how beautiful you look" And with that he managed to get a smile out of you

"Pablito" You said shaking your head

"C'mon, tell me mi amor" You sighed

"I think I look good"

"That's not what I asked"

You roll your eyes "Beautiful enough to make you fall deeper in love with me"

"Again?" He asked in disblief "You never get enough of me being at your feet, verdad mi amor? It's not like I don't like being at your feet either way" You laughed "I believe that, in fact, I know it's true. Everytime I look at you I fall deeper in love with you. I like it" He said as you smile

"You're distracting me"

"Is it working?" You hum nodding

"It is a bit" You kept on walking and finally made it "I'm at the music shop"

"Why don't you buy something for my dad, amorcito?" He hummed "We already got a present for my mom and for Rora, he's the only one missing and he talked to us last time about this Spanish Rock Band he liked in his young times, what do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea" You soon saw the man enter the shop and look around for you "He's in the shop, Pablo" You said nerves coming back up

"Wait for me, bonita. In three minutes top I'm there with you" He said as you nodded trying to disappear yourself from this man's view until Pablo came in a few seconds passed when you heard Pablo speak up again "Talk to me, what kind of Spanish band's are in there?" He asked as you saw the man look around all over the place

"Pablo" You whined lightly

"I'm there bonita, I'm there" He said softly trying to reassure you "Hold on a few seconds for me, 'kay?" You hummed eyes going over the line of CD's but your mind didn't went anywhere else besides your need of Pablo being next to you.

When the sound of the door being opened filled your ears, your eyes went over to it and saw Pablo with a black sweater on, some jeans and his white sneakers. His eyes immediately found yours as you let out a sigh of relief watching him there

"Amor?" You managed to say when he came up to you. He hugged you tightly and you felt tears swell up to your eyes finally feeling safe in the arms of your boyfriend.

"¿Estás bien?" You nod

"I am now" You said looking up at his eyes, you could see from the back of his shoulders said man leaving quickly "He's gone" You murmured as Pablo quickly looked behind him

"He doesn't matter anymore, bonita" He kissed your hairline "You're good, that asshole won't come ever again near you, mi princesa" He kissed your hairline again "Want to go home?" You nod getting out of his hold "C'mon" He grabbed your hand and went to pull you towards the exit

"Wait" You said sniffing "I found the Héroes del Silencio" You showed him the album as he smiled

"Let's buy it then, I'm sure the old man will love it" He leaded the two of you towards the cashier "You good, mi amor?" You nodded laying inti his arms

"I am now that you're here" You smiled at him "My hero, always being there for me"

"Always, bonita. Always"

°°° °°° °°° °°°

Taglist: @gaviypedrisbride @stuckinaf4nfiction @elijahslover @azzpenswrld

[lilapplesheadcannons]

Nie MingJue was welcomed by the gust of cold air from the air conditioner as he walked in. The long anticipated rain did very little to dissipate the summer heat. Instead, the outside felt like a sauna. His shirt was sticking to his back, and the skin under his wristwatch was itchy. Baxia meowed in welcome.

Before he could finish taking off his shoes, though, his phone rang. It was Meng Yao.

"Heyyy." Meng Yao sounded perky. Like the way he sounded when Jin GuangShang got busted in a hotel room with two prostitutes. Or after the son of Meng Yao's old boss, the obnoxious greasy git that tried to grope Meng Yao in a lift, drove straight into the railings of a bridge. (A miniscule part of MingJue will resent Xichen until the next life for never telling him about the groping incident, for allowing Wen Chao to die painlessly in a hospital bed instead of begging for his life, choking on his own blood while MingJue tore him into pieces). Anyway...

"Is everything ok?"

"I am going with Mo-shi to A-Yu's school. He has been suspended."

"Damn!"

"Don't worry. I'll talk to the principal. I am sure he can be persuaded to see how that can easily be misconstrued into an attack against a non-binary student by the press. A-Su will meet us there." Meng Yao's voice sounded silky smooth.

Nie MingJue isn't worried. He doesn't know Mo XuanYu's principal well enough to care for the man. But he knows the mottled bunch his in-laws are. Especially after the shovel talk Qin Su and Mo XuanYu, two people not even reaching his sternum, gave him while the oldest ZiXuan stood calmly smiling at him with his back blocking the only door. All lives must go through some trials and tribulations. It was Mo XuanYu's principal's turn.

"Can I help?" He was quite free for the rest of the day.

"Well, not us. But Saozi needs someone to look after A-Ling for an hour."

"Ummm, me?" MingJue was pretty self-confident in his capability to deal with anything. That anything, however, wasn't a baby that couldn't even walk. He had taken care of HuaiSang since their dad passed away, but HuaiSang was a 5 years old child then. Albeit he came with his own set of challenges, but at least he wasn't a fragile 6-month-old.

"Yes, she's got to run to a venue, client is throwing tantrum. But don't worry. My mom and Mrs. Jin will come pick A-Ling as soon as they can. They went to an auction to Caiyi. If not, Xuan-ge will try to sneak out."

"OK."

The bell rang. It must be Jiang Yanli. MingJue opened the door while hanging up the phone.

Yanli smiled apologetically. She was carrying the baby in a carseat. Behind Wen Ning was packed like a mule with miscellaneous bagpacks and diaper bags. He was also carrying a teddy bear under one arm and a bassinet under the other. The baby was fast asleep.

"Sorry. One of my clients is having a major issue at her wedding. A-Yao said he was free, but I guess he got called away by A-Yu."

"It's ok, it's ok. Don't worry about it." Nie MingJue took the carseat. Wen Ning walked in to drop off his load while trying not to trip over a curious Baxia. In the next ten minutes, MingJue was familiarised with the baby food, formula, bottles, clothes, diapers, and enough syrups, drops, and creams to open a pharmacy of his own.

"He was just fed and changed. This is his naptime anyway. Don't worry, popo will come around to pick him up in an hour."

Nie MingJue smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, Baxia and I will keep him safe."

Yanli relaxed. "Again, terribly sorry. I'd ask mom, but she and dad are out of the country. Give me a call if you need anything, ok? Let's go, A-Ning."

The duo rushed out. MingJue smiled at the seeming nonchalance that the Jins had for anything as he closed the door. Jiang Yanli acted as if her divorced parents going away together on a vacation abroad was the most natural phenomenon. A-Yao acted as if Mrs Jin taking her ex-husband's mistress to her latest fad was nothing out of ordinary. Even A-Yao going with another one of his dad's ex-mistresses to his half-sibling's school was just daily bread and butter. They functioned as a pack, a pride that had already devoured it's wayward patriarch, and one MingJue hoped he would never run afoul.

He could guess why it was him and not anybody else who was left holding Jin Ling. There was a silent, cold war of the uncles going on between Jiang Wanyin and Meng Yao to establish invisible territory, aided and abetted by HuaiSang, who very likely had a betting pool running somewhere. Wei Wuxian was a part of it, too, with strong backing from Lan Wangji, who would happily find a match if Wei Wuxian ever wanted to set the world on fire just for funsies, but they recently got their paperwork sorted and took a toddler with extreme separation anxiety home. It was obvious it would be a major loss for A-Yao if he couldn't provide impromptu babysitting on a day he was supposed to be free.

Jin Ling frowned , squirmed in his bassinet, and then opened his eyes. He was very clearly not impressed by what he saw because he broke into the howls of anguish.

Poor baby! MingJue picked him up and patted his back while pacing. Must be jarring going to sleep in your bedroom and waking up in an unfamiliar room with a semi-familiar giant staring at your face. Jin Ling simmered down into occasional whimpers. Baxia closely followed MingJue, obviously concerned for the deformed furless kitten. MingJue's phone rang again.

"Hello," Meng Yao sounded grimly determined, "how are things in your end?"

"Good, good. We are just getting along, " MingJue reassured. Over his shoulder, Jin Ling broke into a babble of babytalk with Baxia.

"That's better than us."

"How bad are things?"

"He fought with another kid, one of his cousins from the other side. That brat has to be hospitalised. School is thinking of getting police involved."

"Shit!" MingJue remembered his youngest half-brother-in-law. He was a twig of a child, surly and shy. He must have been pushed really hard for him to retaliate so badly.

"Yeah, Xuan-ge is on his way to here. If we can combine some legal threats, bad press, and monetary compensation, we can probably make things go away. Love you."

Meng Yao hung up. MingJue slowly whistled. He could understand why A-Yao was trying so hard to get XuanYu off without any blemishes. The Jin siblings were a hyperambitious, over-achieving bunch. Having one of their owns kicked out before completing high school with allegation of assault was not something A-Yao's delicate sensibilities could live with. His thoughts were interrupted by Jin Ling, who turned his head to make direct eye contact with him and said, "Shit!"

Nie MingJue almost dropped him in panic. Even not taking Jiang Yanli into account, a woman whom he had personally seen physically pull Wei Wuxian and Jiang Wanyin apart, what Meng Yao would do to him if he ever learned that Nie MingJue taught his precious nephew to swear boggled minds. It wasn't even the cursing that was the worst part. One of the major bones of contention between A-Yao and Wanyin was whether Jin Ling would say shushu or jiujiu first. Jin Ling, like a good deplomat, had avoided saying any meaningful word so far. But when did things go in MingJue's favour anyway?

"No, no, A-Ling. Bad word. We don't say it."

Jin Ling tilted his head inquisitively. "Shiiiit?"

"Oh no, oh no. I am sorry. I shouldn't have said that. You shouldn't say it either."

"Shit!" Jin Ling spoke in conviction. He had found the first catchphrase of his life, and it was obviously getting all the right traction.

Maybe he'll forget if he gets distracted?

"Look here, this is kitty. Kiii-ttyyy. Say kitty. Meow, meow."

Baxia stared at him at mild contempt. Jin Ling spoke enthusiastically, "Shit!"

MingJue could feel himself breaking into a sweat despite the AC. This was exactly the type of stressful event Dr. Wen advised him to avoid during his checkup this morning. She was overall impressed with his blood pressure and his cholesterol and even smiled at him when he confirmed he got 9 hours of sleep every day. Now, he had gone and undone a year's progress.

"No A-Ling, kitty. Come on, Baxia, help me out here, old girl."

Baxia continued to look as unimpressed as ever. Jin Ling stuffed his left fist in his mouth.

MingJue decided to use threat because it was obvious his rotten old cat had no better nature he could fucking appeal to.

"What do you think will happen to you when Meng Yao kills me? Do you think he won't try to make it look like a burglary gone wrong and murder you too?"

Baxia finally said something, "Mrrrrrrrrrowwww!"

"I am glad you trust him so much. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but he knows you peed in his shoes that time. He's just biding time, you'll see."

Baxia simply turned her tail and walked off. Jin Ling continued to slobber on his fist like it was a lollipop. MingJue took a deep breath. Why was he, a man in his late 30s, arguing with a cat over a baby? His phone went off again.

"Oh, hello, darling," Meng-shi sounded like a bubbly teenager over the phone, "How are my two favourite boys doing?"

Light-weight, light-voiced, a hummingbird of a woman; Meng-shi was the exact opposite of the stoic, statuesque mother figure MingJue was used to having. He informed her that they were, in fact, doing perfectly well.

"Well, you see honey, there was an accident on the highway." Meng-shi's singsong voice was tinged with anxiety. "We are waiting for the road to clear. Won't take long. Will you two be ok?"

MingJue reassured her and then hung up. Great! How hard can looking after a baby be? He just needed to not swear anymore.

Jin Ling looked thoughtful as he took his fist out of his mouth, then with the sound of ripping papers came the stench of the deepest, darkest depth of hell. MingJue felt a hot liquid on his forearm leaking from the baby's diaper.

It took ages and an insane amount of babywipes to clean Jin Ling up. MingJue also made the effort to scrub his forearm raw and sniffed A-Yao's cologne to clear his sinuses. On the brigher side, Jin Ling was so delighted by his gagging that he seemed to forget the swearword.

As he was spraying the house with airfreshner, his phone went off again. Finally! Please let it be Meng-shi. Or better yet, Jiang Yanli herself. But no, all his hopes were dashed at the sight of the caller id.

"Hello, Xichen."

"Oh, hi, hi. How are things?"

Before MingJue could answer, Lan Xichen continued, "So Wanyin called to say that A-Ling needs babysitting. Wanyin isn't in town, but I'd be happy to take him off your hand. I am quite free today."

MingJue stared at the phone in disbelief. Et tu, brute! Xichen had shared ice creams with him in kindergarten when they were expressedly forbidden to buy those without grownups. Xichen cried with him at his dad's funeral. Fuck, the man slept off his first break-up in the sofa MingJue paid for. (Ok, A-Yao helped too because he's so much better at vouchers and sales). But here was the smiling serpent, stabbing MingJue for petty personal gains.

"No, I wouldn't want to presume." MingJue tried not to sound curt.

"Oh, come on," the treacherous snake purred, "Do you really need the aggravation? Why not take the time to plan a special meal for A-Yao? I bet he'd like that."

The backstabbing beast. As if A-Yao won't castrate MingJue for surrendering his precious nephew to the opponent team.

MingJue copied the purr, "Oh no, Jin Ling and I are already planning a special meal for A-Yao when he gets back. Thanks for your offer. Bye."

"But..."

"BYE!"

Things some people would lower themselves to do for gaining brownie points with a dimpled shortie! MingJue shook his head mournfully. Jin Ling restarted his whimpering.

"What is it, A-Ling? Do you miss mommy? She'll be back soon. Don't cry."

Just on the cue, Jin Ling's stomach rumbled. Nie Mingjue put him down on the carpet with a sigh and went to heat up the water. Midway making the bottle, he got suspicious of the sudden silence and came out of the kitchen to see Jin Ling tugging on a fistful of Baxia's fur. A terrified MingJue was about to jump in, but it was obvious the baby had carte blanche. MingJue, who still bore the marks on his forearm from the time he picked up kitten Baxia and brought her home, sighed at the unfairness in the world and went back to the bottle. He was sighing a lot today.

Jin Ling drank his bottle with much gusto but took a serious offence at MingJue's paltry attempt to burp him. He turned his head and babbled in complaints and seemed quite close to saying "Shit" again. So MingJue gave up and started giving him a tour of the flat.

It was when he was showing the baby Baxia's cat tree that Meng-shi rang back.

" Sorry, sweetheart, we need to take a detour. It'll be another hour. I'm really sorry," She sounded breathless.

MingJue wasn't too bothered. He had changed the baby. He had fed the baby. Surely the worst was over? Just to prove him wrong, the baby broke into tears again.

MingJue checked his diapers. It was dry. He checked his clothes too for good measures in case there were any rogue insects. But A-Ling was all clear and still yelling. MingJue carried him to the kitchen this time with him and made another bottle with one hand, but A-Ling spat it out. He was beginning to go red in his face. Desperate for a miracle, MingJue took him to the bedroom. He put the baby on his knees and tried to rock him side to side, just like how he had seen his own mother rock HuaiSang. Baxia meowed, then jumped up on the bed. He asked the cat, "What do I do now, Baxia?"

But the baby stopped whimpering. Baxia had crawled next to him and put a paw on his tummy. The baby yawned, then closed his eyes.

Within half an hour, MingJue felt his leg go numb. It was also lunchtime, and he skipped breakfast this morning for fasting blood glucose levels. But he didn't dare to move the baby.

Another half an hour crawled away. Finally, he heard keys rattling in the door.

"Da-ge?"

He could hear Meng Yao's whisper.

"Over here, in the bedroom." He whispered back.

It wasn't just A-Yao, though. Jiang Yanli and Jin ZiXuan peeked from behind him, three of them showing matching grins. Probably, the baby could sense his mom nearby because he blinked his eyes open.

It was an... impressive reunion, to say the least. If MingJue hadn't witnessed the whole thing, he'd easily believe that the mother and the child hadn't seen each other for aeons. Jin ZiXuan updated him as he put the baby items back into the bag.

"He's going to be fine. After school detention. The other kid is in trouble, though. He's been hitting A-Yu for a long time. Other students spoke up. He's the son of Mo-shi's sister, and well, it seems Mother dear has been talking nonsense to the boy. His dad works in a company affiliated with us, though. He came in to apologise. We'll also bring this up in the next school board meeting. I am sure people would be interested to know how the school was so quick to punish my brother without proper investigation. " His smile reminded MingJue of a documentary he had seen only the night before on great whites.

He felt Meng Yao touch his arm. He was almost blinded by the beatific, grateful smile. Well, he couldn't blame Xichen anymore. A man could go a great length for some dimples.

"Thanks! I owe you one." Meng Yao whispered.

MingJue felt a pleasant tingle in his spine. A-Yao was generous in his paybacks. He was in luck.

The Jins were ready to leave. Yanli waved Jin Ling's chubby fist for him.

"Say goodbye to shushu, A-Ling. Say goodbye to Gufu."

However, Jin Ling opened his mouth and said, "Bai-ya!"

Everyone paused.

"He said bye! His first words!" Jin ZiXuan was in tears. But Jin Ling protested, "Baiii-yaaa!"

As if in response, Baxia walked up to Yanli and meowed. It dawned onto people only then.

"My son's first word. It's a cat's name!"

MingJue struggled to maintain his smile as he waved them goodbye. If only ZiXuan knew the original first word his son had uttered. MingJue kept his fingers crossed that Jin Ling wouldn't say "Shit" until he was at least one.

[impyssadobsessions]

Raising Phantom Chpt 9

Jazz sighed as she sent a text to Danny and Vlad, running her fingers through her hair. She had PLANNED and PROMISED to be home by dinner. Glancing at the clock on the school computer, it was already ten minutes past eight o'clock. She hoped Danny wouldn't be too upset, she really didn't mean to.. to-be like their parents.

Oh god. Jazz leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. She clenched her fist repeatedly, trying to calm herself down. Tears painfully pricking at her eyes. Trying her best to avoid breaking down. There were still a few students in the computer room.

She wasn't like her parents. She reminded herself, trying to ignore the doubt in her inner voice. She really meant to be home and she told them she'd be late. Maddie and Jack sometimes forget to even do that when they were busy. But they worked in the basement. Just a staircase away. Stop!

She shook her head. She sat up focusing on the screen, clicking print on her report. She was turning in her work for her classes for the week as well as chatting with her teachers, when one of her professor's refused to accept the format of her work for him. So she had to go and change every single one.

Jazz rubbed her eyes and got up to grab the report from the printer. Borrowing a stapler and returning to logout of the computer. He also demanded it to be in paper. She never in her life disliked a teacher, but he was the first.

Though she had to admit to herself, it wasn't all because of work and school she was late. Talking to Sam and Tucker was very therapeutic. Of course they didn't like that she left Danny with Vlad, but they understood that she needed her space. Encouraged it, even.

“Tch. Of course, the only time I would have loved to go to one of those stuck up rich parties.” Sam muttered, upset to miss the chaos. “Oof. Luckily I don't think Mr. Wayne would remember you. So at least you still have a future job!” Tucker has said, trying to get her to look on the bright side for her, “Annnnd if he does, then no offense, but I don't know you-OW! Sam! I was just kidding!” Jazz suppressed a chuckle with a smile at the memory. Despite having been Danny's friends, they closely became hers too. More so since... She shook her head, looking straight on, she marched back to her professor's office to hand him her work.. again. Refusing to focus on another thought that wasn't on what was around her.

Then it was time to head home.

The walk back was peaceful, well relatively. It was getting dark, which meant danger, but the streets were crowded enough where it didn't feel terrifying. The shops still were lit, and their displays proudly shown in the windows.

Jazz stared at them as she walked by. She never was much of a window shopper before, but after living in Gotham, it had quite an appeal. She smiled as she passed a jewelry shop that had beautiful necklaces on display, clear that they were only for show as the real products lay protected inside. One of the necklaces reminded her of Dora's amulet.

Danny had explained to her one day, after he took her to various allies across the ghost zone. So she knew who to contact if he needed it. Dora was a sweetheart, but the amulet could cause her to turn into a dragon when upset. Jazz liked having tea with her. They'll have to make a trip to see them, next time she takes Danny to Frostbite for a check up.

Another reason she was working with Vlad. Vlad had a working portal and Danny couldn't rely on conventional medicines. Neither could she. She reminded herself, as she walked past a closed pharmacy.

She did worry about what would happen if she got hurt, if they tried to take her to hospital. Or worse, did get murdered. She felt a sharp pang in her heart. She clenched at the strap of her bag. Jazz glanced back at the windows, trying to avoid that thought.

Death wasn't an easy concept. Accepting it was hard. She wanted to believe it wasn't something that happened as often as it did, despite the evidence around her. Even at times she forgot that Danny had actually-

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!” a blood curdling scream broke Jazz from her window shopping and her thoughts.

Jazz slapped her back against the wall, as a car came tumbling through the street. She peaked around the corner, hearing the growls and terrified screams. People were trying to flee the streets as another car was picked up by a giant reptilian man. Killer-Croc.

Jazz furrowed her brows, having studied a lot of the reoccurring rogues of Gotham. After-all, her chosen future workplace, she needed to be informed about all the potential patients. She kept to the corner, watching the behavior of the man as he tossed the car into a building.

Killer-Croc was an unfortunate soul, cursed with a body that looks far more monstrous than human. Jazz felt empathy for the giant reptilian. The parallels between him and ghosts were so similar. Creatures that deserve to be treated with the same rights as humans yet both denied based on how they look or how powerful they were. People feared them and used their fear to cast judgment.

Jazz yelped as she rolled out the way of a light pole being swung into the corner of the building she was at. It bounced and flipped into the street, smashing down a traffic light with it. But just like ghosts, there were some merits to their fear. It was a sad fate.

Fate was cruel like that.

The red-headed woman jerked as a motorcycle whipped down the street, jumping over the crushed poles that laid on the street. It skidded to a stop. There was no mistaking the red helmet vigilante that perched on the bike.

“Croc! Don't make me do this same song and dance!” Red Hood yelled, immediately cursing as he jumped off his bike, dodging another car tossed his way.

Killer-Croc was still rampaging, without making any attempts to verbally communicate. Growls and roars coming from the man. People kept running by her, screaming. Jazz should leave, but something felt wrong. She couldn't do anything about it though. She SHOULDN'T do anything about it.

She watched as Red Hood disappeared around the corner, assuming he was running towards the man. Her eyes glanced up as she noticed another vigilante land on the building opposite of her. She had to let them do their job, one day she'll get to do hers. So, she steadied herself off the building and decided to cut through the alleyway to her right.

That had to be the hardest thing about living in Gotham. Having to standby and watch instead of trying to help, especially when she just imagines Danny in their place. Danny, or Phantom as he called his hero persona, the ghost boy that took on everything without knowing how bad it would get. Took every punch, every shot, and every weight on his shoulders to protect people around them. Ghosts and Ghost Hunters included.

She felt tears prick her eyes, making it hard to see. She rubbed her face as she continued to run to the other street. It didn't help that the buildings and cars were now on fire. Smoke filtering into the alleyway. She wanted to be home to hug Danny. She should have been home. She needed-

“What's the rush girlie? Don't like the show?” There was a click of a gun.

Jazz froze, putting her hands up. She didn't know how good of an aim they had, but they sounded way too close to miss. She turned her head slowly to look behind her. There stood a man in a trench coat and a fedora covering his face in shadow.

“You haven't even seen the best part, yet~”

She could see a hint of a grin on his face. A cold dread in her bones. He walked up to her and threw an arm around her shoulders, bringing her close to him. His gun pressed to her neck. She could see him more clearly, but refused to do so. The red mouth and the cracking white paint of his neck was more than enough for her.

“Come on, I'll get you front row seats! Generous as I am. It'll be a blast.”

----------------------------@w@ '''

Danny poked at the cold lasagna on his plate as he kicked his feet that dangled. His stomach was in knots. Jazz had called them at five exclaiming she was going to be late, and then texted that she was about to leave around eight. Vlad was pacing around the living room, his plate empty on the coffee table with an empty wine glass. Both of them were growing anxious.

Danny was torn as part of him wanted to go and find her right now, but the other part was clearly reminded of how she was before she left. He didn't want to bother her... she said that she'll be fine. And Jazz was always right... He squinted at his food as if it gave him a questionable look back.

He shook his head and stared at Vlad. He had to admit, Vlad wasn't... so bad.. at least not all the time. Today was actually kind of fun, even if they were both crippled by worry at the moment. Honestly, they didn't even know it was time for dinner by the time Jazz called.

They had flown across the sea all the way to Italy and back. They haunted a grapevine yard and visited old buildings. Something Danny didn't think he would be interested in, but being able to explore endlessly was fun. Danny even found an old toy that was hidden in between the walls. Danny phased it out and gave it to a ghost girl he saw. She was fun to play with too.

Maybe this is how Danielle must have felt traveling? Maybe she'll take him one time.

Though Vlad was upset that Danny had insisted they still get food from the restaurant back in Gotham, but folded as Danny reminded he promised Jazz. And maybe his puppy eyes might have helped. So they had settled on a compromise... which ended up with the fridge being filled with Italian cuisine from both the restaurant and various places in Italy. Vlad even got himself some expensive wine.

His eyes glanced at the bottle on the coffee table. It was already empty.

He glanced back at his food. He hardly had taken a bite. At first they were worried they would get home after Jazz and be scolded for their impromptu trip, even if they brought back souvenirs and food. So once they managed to make it back, they scrambled to get everything put up and set out as if they had been waiting on his sister to return the whole time.

Danny was even ready to get his pajamas on and go to bed, but Vlad insisted they wait. Then they waited. Vlad told him to go ahead and eat, Jasmine would be upset if they didn't, but Danny didn't feel like it now. He poked at his food again. He felt a familiar sting to his eyes as he tried to keep his breathing stable.

It was dumb to be so scared. She was fine. She had to be. Yet, Vlad's conversation with him earlier in the day just reignited the fear into his mind. If she...

He heard a deep sigh, and a pat on his shoulder. “Hurry up and eat Daniel. Please. We'll wait another thirty minutes and then go search for her. Her stubbornness be damned.”

“No pastry swears?” Danny sniffed as he stabbed his fork into the lasagna, ripping a bite size from it.

“I'm too tired and not buzzed enough to care. Though I would appreciate it if we it kept between us, hmm?” Vlad returned to his pacing. He would call her if he wasn't worried the call would get her in more danger.

Danny snorted as he forced himself to take a bite, rubbing his eyes. He wasn't going to promise, but he was also too tired to care. It would be funny to out Vlad for cursing, but only if Jazz hadn't been so upset today. He just wanted his sister home already. He took another bite, mechanically. All he wanted was to hug her right now, embarrassing as it was to admit.

He snorted again to himself, reaching for his glass of milk that was starting to warm up from being left out. He blamed it on being so young again, that he wanted his “mom”. Even if the circumstances were different. She was his sister.

A loud boom thundered across the city. Only sound after was Danny's fork dropping onto the floor.

[soil-just-needs-water-to-be]

OMG IM SO EXCITED TO THIS INSTALMENT ARGHHHH I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS I DO

Word count : 4k

Warnings : mention of food and dieting , Weed

IM SO EXCITED

Mattys POV

(A week or so has gone by since last instalment)

Oh my god things have been wild lately, George is finally visiting today he's going to be here for at least ten days I believe and I can't bloody wait for it. I couldn't sleep last night we were up all night on FaceTime, he fell asleep eventually because he "didn't wanna look like complete shit when we first met", which is stupid because he can't look bad in anyway , to me. His train was due at 4 this afternoon but since I hadn't slept I had started getting ready at 7am , showered, dressed in skinny jeans and a floral shirt that I'm sure I stole from my mum once upon a time and my Docs because what else would I wear, I had spent at least half an hour just trying to make sure my hair didn't look like a damn bird nest or that I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, brushed my teeth and even had some breakfast. It was now 8:30 and I'm pacing, like actually pacing because I hate waiting. He'd texted me this morning but he doesn't want to show me his outfit because he wants it to be a surprise so in turn I said I wouldn't show him mine which is hell because I love this shirt so much and love showing it off. On what feels like my fifth lap of the house my dad had tried to convince me to sit down for a bit but even if I did it would be roughly five minutes before I was up and moving again. So in turn he'd asked if I wanted to go for a drive which I accepted gratefully. I think he was taking me to Tesco to pick up some stuff for dinner later.

We were just walking around the shop my dad pushing the trolley and me just shoving literally anything in it. "So this lad then, George is it?" , I nod with a smile on my face. "What are we to call him, like is he your boyfriend or just a friend who you like, or just a normal friend". My dads just amazing always trying to understand things

"For now he's just a friend that I like but Um we're somewhat both interested in one another but haven't asked the question yet, so please don't call him my boyfriend yet because I haven't asked and don't want to scare him away yet", I throw at least five packets of noodles into the trolley. "He likes noodles , is that enough or should I get more?"

"Son , your gunna work yourself into a headache just breath okay, I'm sure everything is going to be just fine" , I take a few deep breaths and we continue on through the shop. Stopping to drop a few more things in.

"Uh Dad, Would it be okay if we got some alcohol?, I promise I won't over do it" , I know he probably can't trust a word I say because I can't prove that I won't but I really want him to trust me.

"I'll be honest lad , I think we'll have to ask your mum first and we can come back later if she says it's okay" , we just ponder around a few more isles and drop random things into the trolley "you haven't smoked today have you!"

"Not yet no , why?"

"Would you like to drive the car home ?" , we loading stuff onto the check outs , I do have my lisence I got it last year and I do have a car but my mum and dad took my keys after the crash with Janey because they didn't trust me in the car unless I was with one

of them.

"Are you sure dad!"

"If you'd like son , just be careful yeh?"

"Oki thank you dad , honestly thank you", I threw my arms around him and he held me just for a second and we made our way to the checkouts putting all the items through and packing them up, I'm a little meticulous about the packing and how to do it so dad just lets me do it my way "Also da , we need to go to the pharmacy my medication is ready to pick up"

"Which ones is it where picking up today lad ?" , we'd picked up like 2 other ones this week but I think they were for anxiety and anti-sickness but these ones are just supplements for food.

"Just food equivalent to help me get my appetite back like the ones I had years ago" , my dad payed for the food swiping his card across the card reader and waved goodbye too the cashier as we leave and as he's packing up the car I jump in the front seat and get myself accustom with the steering and gears again.

"You all ready then Son", he jumps into the passenger side and buckled up eager to see how well I do

"As I'll ever be ,I guess"

The drive to the pharmacy wasn't to bad to be fair, I'm still a pretty good driver and my dad said I did well so I'm happy about that. I didn't want to go in again for like the 3rd day running so Dad went in for me giving me a second to just breath and reply to George. Last message I got he was still getting ready he doesn't have to leave for the station till around about 1 and it's only 9:30, I think we both just got a little to eager.

MATTY: my dad let me drive !!!!

GEORGE: yeh ?, how did you do?

MATTY: haven't driven in a while so thought I'd mess up a little but it actually went okay, we've been to Tesco to get food for the next few days , we're at the pharmacy now and then where going home and I think I'm going to tidy my room cuz it's an actual pigsty might ask mum to help

GEORGE : don't have to tidy for me love, my rooms a shit tip

MATTY: I will anyway

As my dad came back I slid my phone back into my pocket he handed me my medicine to make sure it was the right thing because he really had no idea what is was called , neither did I to be honest but it looked right so I just flung it on the dashboard and we made our way back home

We unpacked the bags in the kitchen as Loius ran around looking literally as excited as I felt as he'd grown to really like George too they interacted a lot over the past week , and when I told him George was coming to visit he got so darn happy he climbed up onto the middle island in the kitchen and watched us unpack

"How long till Georgie is here Maffu ?"

"He's coming today little dude but it's still a long time yet" , after unpacking the last bag I pick loius up and manoeuvre him so he's on my back, and I carry him back up stairs and flip him onto my bed " you gunna help Maffu clean up ?"

"I don't wanna tidy Maffu but I'll watch", he's always just soooo me and it makes me laugh and ruffle his hair again as he looks up at my with the big smile and those big blue eyes.

"That's okay, can you get Mummy for me then"

"Oki", he jumps back off the bed and runs through the house , leaving me stood in the middle of the room looking around trying to figure out where to start, it really is such a mess in here, mugs and plates everywhere, piles of clothes, shoes just milking around , stacks and stack of books , dvds and cds and my bed isn't even made. I get lost in my thoughts when I here a knock on my door that makes me jump.

"Sorry love didn't mean to startle you, what was it you needed me for?"

"Can you possibly help me tidy up in here , I don't know where to start and it's so bad" , she looks around just as baffled as me, then strides over and pulls me into a hug.

"Love ,what happened in here?"

"I just haven't had the effort or will power to clean up Mum, sorry" , I hug her close and then as we separate herself we both look around and make a mental note on where to start

"Right first of all love , take all the dishes downstairs and ask you dad if he can clean them up , then come back up and we can sort your clothes out okay", I nod and then get to picking up the cups and plates grimacing when I realise how bad it actually is. I run downstairs with the dirty plates and mugs dropping them carefully into the sink, then run back up the stairs two at a time to help mum. "What clothes are clean and what aren't love ?"

"Most of its clean it just needs to be folded and put away really", it takes me a few more seconds to actually sit down and start folding a pile that was next to where I stood, Im so bad at keeping up with cleaning it bores me. I noticed mum stand up and start putting clothes into drawers and stops to look at something already in the drawer

"Matty , love what are these?”

I drop the shirt I was folding onto the floor as I know exactly what she was talking about as I know what I’d been hiding in that drawer, I scratch the back of my neck as I breath in ALL the air that was in the room and try to piece a reply together. My mouth opens and closes a few times but no words leave my mouth.

“Matty love?”

“It’s nothing important Mum, just put it back please” , I take three big stride across to her and place my hands around the books “Mum seriously it’s nothing”

She did let me take them and shove them back the drawer as she takes a tentative seat on my bed and pats the space next to her. “Sit down for a minute please my love” , once I’ve got the books properly back into the drawer and place myself down next to her. “Can you please tell me why you feel the need to have books about dieting love”.

“It’s not important Mumma , it doesn’t mean anything, I just have them”

“First off Matty , I’ve been keeping an eye on everything to do with your eating habits for a while and I know there not very good , your skin and bone love , and you only ever call me Mumma when your anxious , so please you know I’m not going to be mad , can you please explain to me why?”

I know she won’t be mad and I know it’s not something that’s that big of a deal but its still scary to talk about , so as I think of the right words to say I just ponder in my mind what I need and look around my room as I try to explain. “It’s just about the element of control , I was losing control of everything in my life and I was freaking out so bad you know , like I had zero semblance of control, but then I found a book at school about diets like I know people diet duh , but um when I read it, a lot of it was about how people diet to gain control over something, so I tried and I read a lot of them but then I even lost control of that and I’m scared again so I hid them so I wasn’t as embarrassed about losing control of even that and people wouldn’t ask if they saw and I wouldn’t ave to talk about it”

“Matty , I know things are hard right now love , and I’m proud that your talking to me , but why couldn’t you tell me earlier”

“I don’t know Mum really, I guess I just didn’t know how to” , I got back up from my bed and went back over to the drawer taking the books back out and contemplated them for a while. “Can you take them Mum”

“What would you like me to do with them?”

“Just don’t let me have them I guess , I’m going to try to get better , Dr Adrian gave me the medication for it and I’m gunna work harder at everything I promise”. I get back to the cleaning of my room “Mum?”

“Yes love”

“I’m sorry for how I’ve been lately and I’m sorry for worrying everyone, I also appreciate you for letting George come because he really helps me be a better version of myself and I really hope you can see that when he’s here , I know I haven’t known him that long but he really does help me”

“I’m so glad that you’ve found someone that you can talk to Matty , you don’t have to apologise everyone goes through hard times , you’ve just got to pick yourself up and if you need help keep talking , be it to me or George or your dad even Louis , I know he’s just a kid but even if you talk you’ll feel better”

“Thank you”

It takes us a few more hours to tidy up my room it really was a state , and I talked to my Mum the whole time about how I felt about everything and anything. When we had finished the tidying and cleaning up it looked like a completely different room I hadn’t seen it like this in at least a month.

It’s now 12:30 and although I’m more than excited to see George the restlessness was starting to get to me again, George had informed me he was on his way to the train station now his train was at 2 and it took him an hour to get to the station. It was getting harder to not be nervous because I was really just watching the time tick by. I’d rolled a joint after I’d finished cleaning my room but hadn’t got round to smoke it yet because dads trying to keep me busy until we have to go because he knows if I’m just sitting waiting then I’m going to get irritable. With this being the first time I’d had a break today I decided to just let them know I’m going for a smoke. So now I’m just sat outside on the front porch relaxing as I smoke the joint.

Matty: I’m so nervous darling x

George: I’m actually shutting a brick 😂 , would your dad mind if I went for smoke when I got off the train or would he wanna get going straight away ?x

Matty: He won’t mind , I’m sure he’d understand

George : I’ll be grand then , will you be waiting for me on the platform or will I meet you outside.

Matty : I’ll wait on the platform you dick😂

George : thanks love x

I slide my phone back into my pocket and finish my joint before making my way inside, I know it’s lunchtime and I should eat but I’m not the hungry yet but Louis came running through to the kitchen and attached himself to my leg “How long now Maffu” , I picked him up and put him on the counter while messing up his hair, he’s got a lollipop hanging out his mouth so I didn’t really catch what he said, I took the sweat out of his mouth for a second.

“What was that kid ?”

He smiled a lopsided grin at me and rolled his eyes dramatically , so much like me. “How long till Georgie is here silly?”, I gave him back his sweet and he shoved it back into his mouth even though I was just holding it my hand was sticky so I turned the tap on and started washing my hands

“He’s getting on the train really soon , then daddy and I will go get him , do you want to come too?”, he again smiled at me his eyes growing to the size of bowling balls and he take his sweet out of his mouth again.

“Can I ?”

“If you want too kiddo , just finish up with your sweet and wash your hands and then we can talk cuz that’s going to take you ages to eat”

“I don’t want it anymore, you have it” , he went to hand it to me but I told him that’s it’s okay and just to put it in the bin , he runs back over to me, I lift him up and help him wash his hands. “Will George play with me when he comes ??”

“I’m sure he will Kiddo”

I spent the next few hours just playing about with Louis , on the play station, watching tv with him , helped him with some homework that he had left around about 2:30 he fell asleep on my lap while we were watching the TV , George had texted me saying that he was now on the train half an hour ago, and we should be leaving in an hour because it doesn’t all to long from ours to get to the station here, so I took Louis idea into consideration and tried to take a nap myself which in theory maybe wasn’t the best idea but I was starting to get tired so that I did , I set an alarm on my phone for 45 minutes so I could get my head down for a little while. I layed myself down trying not to disturb Louis and sleep consumed me

My alarm woke us both up at 3:15 , Louis was not too happy with it, he was still tired and he was throwing a little hissy fit “hey kiddo , I know your tired and I know you wanted to come to pick Georgie up but you need to calm down for me so we can get ready to go can you find your shoes for me ay ?” , he just clung to me his tiny frame shaking as he cried “hey hey hey it’s okay , you can have another nap you know , come on kiddo no need for tears”

“But I’m still sleepy , I wanna go bed” , as I got myself he was still clinging to me so I decided to take him upstairs to bed his head was resting on my shoulder the whole time. “Maffu , is it okay if I just stay here”

“It’s okay kiddo , just get a big nap for me and when you wake up George will be here and you can play all day yeh” , he nodded against me as I lay him down on his bed and tucked him up and kissed his head

“I’ll see you later okay”

“Okay Maffu”

I got myself completely got my leather jacket from my room , checked to see if my dad was ready, he let me know that he was just going to finish his tea and then we’d get going. So I just waited by the door, annoying I know but I just wanted to get going. Once he was ready I raced out to the car like I was 7 again jumping into the passenger side as my dad made his way to driver seat and we got going. I couldn’t help my leg bouncing up and down anxiously the whole way there, I’d bitten my nails raw Mum would have killed me for it but dad doesn’t mind. I’d chain smoked the whole ride there out the window of course and really it wasn’t that bad the train station was just half an hour away so it was really not to bad. We got to the station with 15 minutes to spare so I checked my hair in the middle mirror of the car and started fussing with my outfit until my dad told me again that I looked absolutely fine and to stop worrying , I sat and waited for literally only two minutes before I decided I just wanted to go in and wait so I just told my Dad that I’d let him know when I’ve got George and we’re going to have a smoke before we come back, he gave me a quick nod and smile before I got out and made my way inside

Inside the station was so busy, people milling about the place, so much sounds and smells, it was so hot in there as well but I tried to gather myself and push through I saw that the train from London was going to be arriving on platform 3, I started making my way there but there was quite a lot of people waiting there aswell and I could feel myself getting anxious and my nerves were getting the best of me so I hung back and just sent George a quick message letting him know that I am inside but I’m not on the platform because it looked busy, he replied not to long free to let me know that it was okay and he’d call me once he departed the train and I could let him know where I was which helped me alot. I decided to wait outside WHSmith a small convenience store that was off to the side of the platforms , True to his word after a small five minutes more of waiting my phone started to buzz in my hand and George’s contact appeared on my screen

“Hey there”

“Hiya love , that’s me just coming off , where is it your at ?, you doing okay it’s not to busy for you is it ?”

“I’m stood outside smiths , I’m okay for now it’s not to busy round here I’ll be okay, I just really can’t wait to see you now”

“I’ll can see it , from where Im at so I should be there in no time at all handsome”

I couldn’t help but smile , my heart was racing , basically jumping out of my chest in anticipation, I could hardly wait, there wasn’t much conversation going on between us we were both just keeping an eyes out for each other, He soon caught my eye “I can see you , you lanky fuck”, despite feeling nervous and anxious about everyone around us the fact that I could see him sent a jolt of pure joy through me and I felt my legs starting to race to him. As I began running to me I could see the moment he clocked me and he just dropped his suitcase open his arms to me and I ran into his arms and burried my face in his chest pushing my phone into my pocket without even hanging up. We stayed there in each other arms for what felt like an age not saying anything just holding each other and it felt so right

“Hiya handsome” , I pulled away first but not all the way just enough so I could look up and his and the smile on his face was everything I needed to feel relaxed. I could feel the blush rising on my cheeks already. “Jesus , you really ARE a lanky twat aren’t ya” his smile grew bigger if that was even possible and we giggled to each other and he pulled me closer to him

Once we’d sorted ourselves out taking at least another five minutes just holding one another we were just stood line idiots smiling at each other and he eventually picked his suitcase back up and I’d sorted my phone in my pocket I took his hand and lead him outside to the smoking area.

“Babe , you looks so cool, by the way” , I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the word babe leave his mouth and it had my blushing even more than I thought humanly possible and I took his hand that was in mine and kissed it as we both giggled again.

“You look so fit”

[autobot2001]

Proven Wrong

Sicktember one-shot 3/6

Fandom: N/A Characters: Caretaker, Whumpee Prompts: Day 6; Preventative Measures (Not Taken), Day 10; "The only place we're going is to the pharmacy", Day 11; Beginner's Guide to Faking Sick, Day 12; Old Wives Tale Day 18; "Wear Your Coat, You'll Catch a Cold" Warning: None

Whumpee loves playing in the snow. They don't care if most adults only play in the snow with kids. Caretaker sometimes would join Whumpee, but they often stay in the house. They like seeing Whumpee excited about the season's first snowstorm like a child.

"They say two feet of snow dumped last night," Caretaker says while cooking breakfast, "you're eating first." Whumpee is more eager to go outside for the day.

"Wear your coat. You'll catch a cold," Caretaker argues, seeing what Whumpee is wearing. "I'm wearing three layers. I'll be fine," Whumpee argues, "besides, that's just an old wives tale." Whumpee leaves the house before Caretaker can say anything else. They'll be back in an hour. Caretaker believes, noting it's ten in the morning. They decide to start making homemade soup.

Ninety minutes pass, Caretaker stands before the stove with a pot of soup. Caretaker thought Whumpee would be in the house by now. They try not to worry until they realize they didn't ensure Whumpee wore gloves and boots. Should I worry they might be in the early stages of frostbite? Caretaker questions. They wait another thirty minutes before going to find Whumpee.

Whumpee sits on a log, shivering and too cold to move. Even though they know they'll end up with hypothermia if they stay here. Caretaker is going to be pissed. Whumpee believes. I think I'll have more than a cold at this point.

Whumpee doesn't know what happened or how Caretaker got them back in the house and on the couch. They wonder if they passed out. Caretaker walks into the room with two bowls of soup. They put a tray on Whumpee's lap and the bowl of soup on the tray. Whumpee is freezing without the blankets but can't figure out how to eat and stay under the blankets. Caretaker wants to scold Whumpee for not listening and scaring them. Instead, they turn in the TV. Within a couple of hours, Whumpee is warm. The rest of the day goes on as if nothing happened.

Whumpee feels a little sick when they wake up, but it's not too bad. They're glad they don't have to tell Caretaker, which would result in the day they had planned being canceled. They get ready for the day and go downstairs.

Caretaker is cooking breakfast when Whumpee gets downstairs. They are also ready for the day. "We'll head out after we eat," Caretaker says. Whumpee nods and sits at the table. They're starting to feel unwell and need to lie down. They remind themselves that they need to act like they're ok no matter how much they want to go back to bed. "You ok?" Caretaker asks. "Just a little tired."

"Are we going to get lunch now?" Whumpee asks. "The only place we're going is to the pharmacy," Caretaker replies, "you look awful, and don't say you're tired," Caretaker takes Whumpee's hand, "you're freezing."

When Caretaker gets to CVS, Whumpee can't take being sick. Caretaker has to leave the car on to have the heat on full blast. Whumpee wants to go back to bed. Caretaker is back in five minutes. "Ok, I got the medication. Let's get you home."

Caretaker has to help Whumpee up to their room and into bed. They take Whumpee's temperature and give them the medication. "It's a cold, but you feel terrible because you weren't resting," Caretaker explains, "I'll check on you in an hour."

Whumpee sleeps for three hours. They feel much better when they wake up. They walk out of their room to go downstairs when Caretaker stops them. "You're going back to bed. I'll get the soup I made yesterday." "Cold soup." "I'll heat it up, smart ass. Then you'll take a shower. That'll help the congestion." Whumpee gets back into bed, waiting for Caretaker.

Whumpee feels better after eating and a shower. They go downstairs to watch TV with Caretaker. "You definitely will not be going to work tomorrow," caretaker comments, "I know you'll be asleep most of the day, but maybe I should call in." "You'd be lying," Whumpee argues, "I'll be fine." The rest of the day is a lazy Sunday.

Whumpee is up before Caretaker has to leave, which relieves Caretaker. Now they can endure Whumpee is eating something good for breakfast. In case they do not feel well enough to heat up the remainder of the soup. "Soup for dinner?" Caretaker asks. "Sure." "Then I'll be home a little later. I need to buy half the ingredients needed." Caretaker leaves while Whumpee eats, wishing they had taken the medicine before coming downstairs. Even if they are going back to bed.

Whumpee slept all morning. They're awake in time to answer the Caretaker's call to check on them. After the ten-minute call, Whumpee heats up what's left of the soup and watches TV. They're not enjoying the day off from work. Laughing at how they'd rather be at work while many would gladly work less as long as pay kept up.

Whumpee ended up sleeping all afternoon. Regretting they didn't take more medication before falling asleep. They walk upstairs to get more medication. Glad they left their water bottle on the nightstand. They take the medication and lie back in bed.

Caretaker is home an hour later than usual. Whumpee lies on the couch, bored. "I'm tired of sleeping all day," they complain. Caretaker laughs at the complaint. "Sorry, but I think you should still stay home tomorrow." .Caretaker laughs at Whumpee groaning and goes to make Dinner.

As Caretaker said, Whumpee could go back to work on Wednesday. They missed working but were surprised at how little they had to catch up on. "Oh come on, you know we look out for each other," a co-worker argues, "we were able to divide the work you would have been doing without adding too much to our loads." "You know Whumpee is a workaholic," Caretaker jokes. "Glad you live with them and can make sure they rest." After a good joke, everyone gets to work. Whumpee hopes it's another year before they get sick again.

[vespersposts]

Reap what you sow

Chapter 4 is where you try to convince a stubborn D to help you out following your way. Too bad you're not compatible at all, too bad you're impatient and he... Well, he's kinda taken aback.

Hope it's a good read!

Love,

Vesper.

"She's fine," you explain, glancing at the street lamps in the park beyond the intersection, "She just wanted to give me some time alone with you”. 

Your walk is running out, and the clock is ticking. In less than ten minutes you will be standing in front of the entrance to your apartment. 

Satsuki had been so good at making her need for a visit to the local pharmacy seem real; that even Tetsuya had had no objections when your foursome had split into two pairs at the previous traffic light. The big boy, however, was probably racking his brains to find out what Momoi needed. It amused you to think that his mind was rolling with a colourful spectacle; in which the serenity of period painkillers was contrasted with the sheer terror of a pregnancy test or, worse chance, the requirements for a couple's sexual activities.

Daiki huffs and scratches the back of his head, but doesn't answer. Then he stays still, making you stop walking at a random point. You see his gym bag swinging to the side, his big hands going into his pocket, and finally he starts to say something.

"Listen, you're pretty, but..." he mumbles, squeezing his shoulders.

"I'm pretty, but what?" you repeat, unable to resist the urge to nudge him. 

"I... I don't want to get involved in a story, a girlfriend... problems, in short.  But if you agree… We could... " and he pauses, because you can't help laughing. He looks at you with the face of someone who is ashamed of what he just put on the table.

"I don't want to sleep with you, dummy !" you exclaim in a hurry, trying to stop yourself from giggling, but the situation is so funny, and his face is so surprised, that it is an almost impossible task.

"So, what do you want?" he replies piqued, looking away from your smiling face.

"A friendly helping hand and a bowl of hot ramen, my treat! " you reply, pointing to the diner across the street, earning another frown.

"Come on, I'm starving!" you add, turning to look at him, watching the flow of cars, looking for the best moment to cross. You know he'll follow you, if only to make sure you don't reveal to his sweet Satsuki what he'd just suggested.

“You get on my nerves!" is the first thing he says to you, after he has spent the entire ten minutes at the table staring at you with contempt.

"Bear with me, at least I know how to choose a restaurant, and I am pretty, am I not?" you reply, enjoying the sight of the waitress placing a steaming bowl of fragrant goodness in front of you.

"Not sure anymore, the lights aren't doing you much good" he affirms, pausing as soon as he notices he has your attention "I wouldn't have accepted that thing anyway " he finishes, taking a bite at the noodles.

"Of course, you were only suggesting, or rather not suggesting!" you say wryly adding, for good measure, an ecstatic sigh as soon as you taste the dish.

"This is because … Honestly I don't give a damn " he retorts boredly. 

"All you give a damn for is Satsuki, everyone knows it" you nod "Everyone except her boyfriend and Kuri, obviously!" you conclude, resting your lips against the cold glass.

Then he really does see you.

You feel them, his blue eyes on your lips, on your face, you feel his stern gaze trying to defeat yours.

You know you're playing the whole game right now, so you try to be as spontaneous as possible, even though you know you're gambling on the reactions of someone you've known for an hour.

"Help me and I will help you " you offer, chopsticks in hand. "Let's make a good play to teach your stalker a lesson, and in the meantime you'll get the attention of the woman of your dreams. That sounds very convenient to me! " you finish and continue your meal, as if nothing had happened.

Daiki continues to stare at you, but there is no longer a hint of arrogance in his expression; it is almost tender to see how much a mere mention of Momoi can reveal his nature as a disappointed lover. His lips tighten in a grimace, and he twirls the noodles in the bowl before lifting them up, as if deep in who knows what unpleasant thoughts.

"Annoying girl got a lot of time and nothing to do, huh? " he replies without further ado and takes a noisy sip of his broth.

Such an idiot.

"At least I don't pine away. That's such a winning strategy, big boy " you retort, ruining all your good intentions.

"I'm not pining for her, I'm just being protective!" he tries to reason, getting angry when he notices you smirking at his words.

"Protective!" you sneer "You're just a phoney coward who doesn't have the guts to take responsibility. Tell me, how long do you think you can go on slobbering over Satsuki and then turn to her boyfriend to apologise? You're lucky that Tetsuya has the soul of a saint, any other boy wouldn't have had his composure. You are indeed one hell of a friend! " you say at the end, sticking your chopsticks into the bowl.

"Bloody psycho! " he snarls as he gets up from the table, almost dropping his chair, and stands in front of you for a few seconds, as if waiting for a reaction. 

That poor, innocent soul! 

He will find no upset or flushed face, no tears in your eyes, no pleas for him to stay. 

Screw him and his overbearing ego.

When the waitress worries, you smile and assure her that the unpleasant scene was due to an emergency, not the boy's nerve-wracking gesture.

As promised, you pay for your meal and, as the cool air touches your cheeks, you turn your back on him, ready to walk away without even saying goodnight, but then you hear his voice calling your name and adding "Sorry".

You let him catch up with you and made your way to the entrance of your building.

"Never mind, you said you found me irritating from the start, but I've only made it worse. I guess we're even " you replied, knowing that you would have to apologise in return. "We made each other's dinner a nightmare. But at least the ramen was good! " you conclude, smiling up at the sky filled with clouds.

"You really know how to choose restaurants” the boy agrees with an amused look.

"And I'm pretty too, you always miss the most important detail! " you point out, making him laugh heartily.

" Do you really need to hear that?" he asks, stopping in front of the crossroads that will separate you.

"No, not at all. I don't mind not being your type. In fact, I find it very nice that no one is your type, since your feelings for Satsuki run so deep. You certainly don't need me to get her attention, but that's exactly why you could have fun with other girls. You chose otherwise. I respect the way you want to protect your feelings and hers too" you confess to him as you pull out your house keys and prepare to say good night. 

"It's not really a choice, it's that I can't help it" he admits. "It would all be easier if I were an unemotional person with the truth in my pocket like you, but Satsuki… “ he huffs, looking away “Every time I try to move on, I end up right back where I was before, even more bitter than I was before. Does that make sense?" he concludes, watching you nod.

"You have to do what you feel, there's not much more to say. As you said, I'm blessed to be more of a vengeful person. Kuri has been giving me a hard time since primary school and she likes you. I just wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine. There is no romance or a loved one like Momoi involved. We came from different paths, so you're probably right, this whole idea is crap!" you explain, shrugging your shoulders and smiling.

"Well, that girl's a real pain" he nods, pulling out his mobile phone to open the contact book and placing it in your hands. "Give me a few days to think about it, ok? " he says, returning your smile, surprised at the name in the address book.

 "Are you serious?" he laughs and shakes his head.

"You can change it, you know my name " you simply point out.

"Nah, 'Pretty' sounds just as good to me. See you later, psycho pretty!" he grins, waves farewell and disappears around the corner.

You stand there for a few minutes, turning the house key in your hands, because you know there's something deeply wrong with flirting with someone you don't care about, just to hurt her. The cutesy scripts to get his attention, the unnecessary flirting, the emphasis on that fancy adjective. All those thoughts running through your head, all because you don't like him very much either, but once again Kuri has made up your mind for you. 

And now you are going along with it, like a good pet.

"What the hell am I doing?" you sigh as you open your door and call it a day.

[nancypullen]

Lovely Day

For the last week I’ve been fighting off a cold.  Nothing serious, just a garden variety cold - sore throat and sniffles. I’m sure that the more time I spend with the grandgirl I’ll build up my old immune system from my days working for the school district.  I was Teflon back then, nothing stuck.  I’ll bet if we could actually see viruses kids would be covered in them. Just a fact of life, and I’ll be happy to toughen up again. That said, after a week of blowing my nose while sitting under blankets on the sofa I needed a day out.  The mister already had one planned.  He asked if I’d like to take a guided walk through the Adkins Arboretum - a little over an hour long and maybe two and a half miles.  Heck,yes!  It’s a gorgeous day, just chilly enough for a jacket (that means no snakes, right?) and the arboretum is a beautiful, natural, and interesting place.  It’s not one of those sculpted gardens, more like a 400 acre nature preserve.  We ended up in a group of about ten with a cheerful docent named Nancy.  I can now identify eight different species of oak trees and can answer any Jeopardy question on Skunk Cabbage.  There was lots of good information and I also learned about the many, many intriguing classes offered at the arboretum.  I’ll definitely sign up for some. As we roamed paths and crossed bridges,  comparing red oak leaves to white oak leaves, I thought about how lovely it would be to wander these paths in every season.  I could get some exercise as well as fill my soul with some of nature’s peace.  That’s been missing from my life since May - no more sunset gazing, no deer in the yard, no communing with the birdies.  I’ve really missed that. Then I started thinking about how deep in the woods we were and asked the docent (using a cheerful voice, as if my question was a positive one, hoping she’d be truthful), “If I were to walk these paths in the summer what are the chances I’d see a snake?” Her response was quick and equally cheerful - “Oh, definitely!” Then she went on and on about how she’d see them sunning up on tree branches. Then another woman chimed in and said that she always sees them right on the path. So in other words, everywhere.  So long arboretum, it was nice knowing you.  When she saw the look on my face she added the whole “they’re just part of the food chain” speech.  Yeah, Nancy, so am I.  Though I’d rather come nose to nose with a hungry bear than to stumble across a snake sleeping in the sun.  They’re all king cobras to me. My brain knows differently but every other cell in my body says FLEE!   In the end, we had a wonderful walk in the woods, met some lovely people, and learned a lot.  That’s a successful morning.  I even picked up a hat in the gift shop. I hope my contribution goes toward snake fences.

We pulled out and took a quick drive around the equestrian center in Tuckahoe State Park, just for kicks.  Always fun to see people out doing horsey stuff. Then my dear husband suggested we grab some lunch.  Any meal I don’t have to create and clean up is a treat, so that was a YES from me.  It just so happened that we were minutes from a little spot that sells the best chicken salad I’ve ever tasted (and I spent decades in the south!).  Ladies and gents, behold the Ridgely Pharmacy.

The bottom floor is a little general store and pharmacy along with a small lunch counter.

The top floor is the cutest gift shop.  We took a loop around the gift shop because all of the Christmas decor was 50% off.  I admired this little sign and the mister bought it.  At this point I was starting to wonder if he’d won MegaMillions last night.

Hold your horses, there’s more. After we finished our tasty lunch and turned the car toward home, he asked if I wanted to stop at the Denton Mercantile since it was on the way.  Um...of course I want to stop and poke around some dusty old stuff. The inside of the Mercantile is filled with pretty and fragile old stuff, mixed with cute new stuff - mostly home decor.  The outside looks like Sanford and Son tidied up a bit.  Piles of everything from old chairs and tables to mirrors and framed art. You never know what you’ll find.  Today I found treasure!  I picked up this fabulous old trunk for $40!

Isn’t she marvelous? Oh, how I wish she could talk!  Now it’s sitting right under the double windows in the master bedroom, I’ll fill her with quilts and let the kitties use her to birdwatch.

I love how old and chippy and worn it is.  Can a trunk be your spirit animal?  Anywho, that was my day and I loved every minute of it. Blue skies, a healthy dose of nature, a delicious lunch, and a little shopping.  How perfect is that? My tank is refilled! I don’t ask for much in life, but more days like today would be greatly appreciated.   On the way home I was still thinking about how great the walk felt and how I should do it more often, but also thinking about sleepy snakes falling on me from tree branches. That’s about the time that we passed the large and lovely local cemetery.  I spotted a handful of people gathered around a gravesite and a hearse unloading a casket.  Did I think, “Oh, how sad - they’ve lost a loved one” or even  “ I hope that’s a very old person who lived a full life”..?  NOPE.  I thought, now there’s a great place to walk.  Loads of paved paths that wind their way under shade trees and cover miles of pretty, manicured ground.  Bet there’s not a snake in sight.  I wonder if there’s a groundskeeper on duty all the time?  Would anyone notice the lady who walks around in the cemetery every day?  Could I say I’m just visiting the graves that no one visits anymore?  Would it be disrespectful?  I mean, I’d never harm so much as a blade of grass and I’d never go in if there was a burial in progress.  It just seems like such a safe, quiet, pretty place to walk.

Maybe if I carry a pad and pen I can say I’m doing research.  They don’t need to know I’m researching how many laps I can walk in the cemetery before someone questions me.

I’ve got some things to think about, obviously.  But the sun has set and that means it’s time for me to switch to flannel jammies and settle in for a night of bad tv.  Is there anything worth watching anymore?  I miss Schitt’s Creek.

Oh well, maybe there’s a new Dateline and I can learn more about how not to commit a murder.  Shows like that are probably why Mickey plans days like today.  What’s that old saying....happy wife, spare your life?  I don’t think that’s quite right.   Anywayyyy, it’s flannel time and I’m ready.  Hope you’re getting cozy wherever you are too. Take off that dang bra, get into some stretchy pants! Ahhh. Have a wonderful Saturday night.

Stay safe, stay well, stay comfy.

Nancy  

[the-duckless-pond]

I could NOT catch a break yesterday. It was supposed to be a day of rest and recovery to make sure I was feeling well enough to go to class tonight and tomorrow, but it did not turn out that way.

First, I found an ant on my ceiling??? And I had to use the swiffer to squish it. How am I supposed to put ant bait on the CEILING?? And what if it had fallen on my head!!

And then I had to go pick up my medicine from the pharmacy across town. I haven’t switched to a closer one because there is a Culver’s right down the road from it, the only one close by, and so every three months when I pick up my medicine I get an order of cheese curds as a treat. I always look forward to it. Anyway, I’m vegetarian. That’s important for this story. So I got my cheese curds and was driving and had two and they were wonderful and then I take a bite of a third and it was MEAT! I think maybe chicken? I didn’t swallow and immediately spat it out but ughhhhh I totally lost my appetite. I’ve been a vegetarian for like 21 years so this was extra gross to me than perhaps if I had only been veg for a year or two. Totally foreign and awful.

After that I had a mini moment and bought a carton of cigarettes which was $93. After not smoking for five days. Yes, a whole carton. Ten packs. Not one or even two. Ten.

Anyway, then I got home and sat on the couch with the cats and I heard a tap tap tap and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I look at the window, and there is a WASP on my window. I got stung by a wasp on my birthday in 2020 and it was awful and ever since I am afraid of it happening again!! Fortunately I have two living room windows and can open the screens on them. So I very slowly went to the other window, less than a foot from the wasp, and opened it and the screen. After maybe five minutes it flew out. Phew. What a relief.

After that, I could finally relax!

JUST KIDDING :(

Maybe twenty minutes later I was getting ready to distract myself from my bad day by watching a marvel movie. And then I saw Calliope slowly approach the window and begin to paw at the… track area thing? I feared the worst, and I was RIGHT. THERE WAS ANOTHER FUCKING WASP JUST CHILLING THERE. I hurriedly opened the window and screen and I guess it got smushed in the track and died? Oops. So I felt kind of bad about that because even though I am afraid of them I can appreciate their part in a healthy ecosystem. So. Double wasp day. And I accidentally killed one.

AND THEN I went out to my car for a smoke and met a young man standing on my stoop smoking weed abd was like hey are people gonna narc on me if I smoke out back, dude? And he was like nah you’re good. So I went for a smoke out back. And one of the units had their windows open so I walked a little bit away. Finished my smoke, came back inside.

Within ten minutes I see maintenance guys (the law enforcement of my community) walking up to my building. I panicked. I hurriedly hid the smokes and lighter in my underwear drawer. My buzzer buzzed. They were coming for me. I considered not answering, but instead decided I would play dumb to the rules and agree to go off site to smoke and be very compliant and apologetic. I buzzed them in. My heart was racing.

They get here and are like DID YOU BUZZ US IN????? And I’m like… uh… yeah??? Panicking. I do not sound innocent in my mind.

Turns out they were here to look at my buzzer because sometimes it doesn’t work and makes a shhhhhhhhh sound when people buzz me. My secret was safe with the young man!!! But the fear of the Lord was put into me and now I was scared of smoking out back. (The buzzer is third party and they will have someone from the company come take a look).

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. I bargained with myself and tossed the carton and smokes and put on a nicotine patch. I did not end up having any more past my last one around 5pm. Because I was afraid of getting caught. I threw them all out before bed.

And then it took me like four fucking hours to fall asleep. And I was so tired but so fidgety! I laid down around 8:30pm like normal and read boring news to lull myself to sleep. I stayed wide awake. I got up at 10pm and took one of my as needed sleeping pills. I text my bff while I waited for it to kick in. I was very fidgety and kept waking up the cats who were in bed. Also I was overheating but I was very afraid of having exposed skin because what if there were more wasps and I stretched out when I woke up and they stung me all over!!!!! It was very scary.

I finally fell asleep sometime around midnight.

At, according to my text log with my bff, roughly 1:40am I woke up to a loud and rhythmic beeping. Beep. Silence. Beep. Silence. Beep. I was so tired I thought it was still part of my dream and was confused because I was having a renaissance dream and why was there mechanical beeping??? (Side note my costume had arrived in the dream and it was soooo pretty and not too warm at all)

When the beeping didn’t stop I groaned and got my phone and googled it. Smoke alarm low battery. I texted my bff in irritation about it. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore it and fall back asleep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

So, I got up and investigated each of my three smoke alarms to find which one was doing it. Finally found the culprit in the office. It was very loud. I grabbed my osha earphones, put on my glasses, and got a chair. I took out the battery and it was 9 volt which I do not have on hand so I just set it aside and unplugged everything in the office until today so that I could go back to sleep.

I, of course, had trouble falling back asleep and felt wide awake after all the beeping. I fell back asleep around 4ish probably. Sigh. Also I was very congested from allergies or something so I couldn’t lay on the side I like to sleep on.

And then my cat woke me up from a deep slumber too early around 7:45am and I had a headache and was kind of annoyed but I love her so I got up.

And now I am sniffly and have a cough from smoking yesterday and I took advil for my headache but I’m still waiting for it to kick in. I hope it is gone by class time tonight. I’m going either way, I am determined.

Anyway. That’s the saga of yesterday. In my BFF’s words, I just could not catch a break. I am planning for a low impact Wednesday to compensate and make sure I can get to class tonight. Doing nothing except reading a few pages of the book to cover what we are learning tonight. I will watch more marvel movies in between to distract me from my woes and keep my mood light and airy. I just finished Thor before laying down last night so I think the next two are the first Captain America and Avengers, respectively. I recall really enjoying those ones, and should be able to watch both before class tonight and still get my studying done.

Sigh. Thank fuck for caffeine.

[dycefic]

Have An Evil Day

No prompt this time, just a sequel to ‘Welcome To Evil-Mart’

Working at Evil-Mart is usually… well, it’s retail. It’s physically exhausting, you have to deal with a lot of idiots without being overtly rude, and your feet hurt. Even though the hours and pay are very good, the benefits are great, and our bosses treat us well compared to most retail employees, it’s still not what I’d call a fun job.

But it’s not what I’d call dull, either. Especially not on days like today.

I was promoted to supervisor after the Food Poisoning Incident, so I have a little more authority and a little less obligation to be pleasant and I got issued a weighted cosh because sometimes Evil-Mart customers get… feisty. I’d never had to use it, though, because those who hadn’t seen what I did to Majority Rules, either in person or on one of the cell-phone videos that circulated afterwards, had at least heard about it.  They didn’t give me any trouble.

I was halfway through my shift, and the worst things that’d happened had been running out of croissants and a machine oil spill in Aisle Seven, when our greeter pressed the alarm button, which sent an alert to my handset. As front-end supervisor, that meant me, so I went over. Sam, who is unusual in the henching community for having actually aged out rather than ‘being retired’ jerked his chin in the direction of a tall, swaggering figure. “He just came in,” he whispered.

I did a full double-take before I took it in. Superdyne. Fucking Superdyne.

We’d all heard about his dramatic heel-turn a couple of months ago. The whole world had heard about it. Superdyne, who’d skated closer and closer to the line for years, had decided to cross it in a blaze of bloodshed. He was a villain now, he said. There’d been a whole speech about how ingratitude had driven him to it blah blah blah.

I work at Evil-Mart. I’m from a hench family. If someone becomes a supervillain because they hate Mondays or want to turn us all into dinosaurs or whatever, I don’t judge. I will sell depth-charges and laser guns to anyone who can prove they’re over eighteen without hesitation. But even we get kind of grossed out by the ‘I am forced to turn evil because I haven’t been given enough love’ thing. People who are actually so fucked up by emotional abuse or neglect or some superhero killing their family, we’re fine with them. But they don’t say that’s why they do it, and most of them need a lot of therapy to even realize it. People who actually say that’s why are entitled dickwads.

And now the dickwad had walked into Evil-Mart like he was entitled. Like he thought he was one of us.

“Lockdown protocols,” I told Sam quietly. “On my authorisation.” That takes a minute or two, though, so I went over to talk to Superdyne. “Sir, I have to ask how you even knew where to find this place.”

He smirked at me. “I have my ways,” he said smugly. He’d either bribed or beaten someone, that was my guess. “So this is where the villains shop? We all thought you went to Wal-Mart.” He laughed, like he thought it was clever.

“Yes, so you all say,” I said dryly. I didn’t feel like pretending he was the first person to make the bad joke. “My next question, sir, is what made you think it was a good idea to come in here.”

He spread his hands. “I’m one of you now!” he said happily. “I’m a bad guy! So now I guess I shop where the bad guys shop!” He looked around, frowning a little. “Although I was expecting more weapons and explosives. A… more villainous atmosphere. I didn’t know Evil-Mart had fresh produce.”

“I don’t advise buying herbs here unless you’re a magical practitioner. Some of them have… unusual effects.” A lot of our produce is normal stuff, but some of it not only isn’t legal, it doesn’t exist anywhere else.

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. But the bright lights and the bakery?”

“We have excellent gluten-free breads. In many ways, Superdyne, this is just another store. We have sales, we mark down the breads in the afternoon, we even have a PA system.” I pulled out my handset, and thumbed the button that tied it to the PA. “Attention, shoppers,” I said in my most soothing Customer Service voice, which made him grin. “Evil-Mart wishes to inform you – “ The countdown on my handset reached zero, and I turned to look at the entrance as a huge blast door thudded down. That was the last part of the sequence – staff outside the area were already in lockdown and security were on their way. I smiled, and continued almost without a pause. “- That we are in lockdown at this time, due to the presence of Superdyne in the store. Please remain calm, and be advised that security are on their way to deal with the problem. If you have a personal grudge that you wish to address with Superdyne at this time, he is standing near Register Six with a stupid expression on his face.”

He was staring at me, stunned. “But… but…” he stammered, and damned if he didn’t look puzzled. “But I’m one of you now!”

“No,” I said flatly. “You were always evil, that’s true, but you’ll never be one of us. And for the record, I’m one of the people with a personal grudge. All those henchmen you’ve killed and maimed had families, asshole… and they all shop here.”

He swung at me, then, but I spent years in hench training. Even someone super-strong can be dodged, and once I slammed my cosh into his groin a few times his punches got a lot more aimless. Around then, Tiger Ty came over the register, claws out and snarling, and I figured I should stand out of the way.

About ten minutes later, I turned on the PA again. “Clean-up to Register Six,” I called, in the same special voice. “Category 7, class three. Shoppers, please be advised that lockdown is now lifted but Register Six will be closed until clean-up is completed.”

Hunter, who’d been working Register Six, came out from underneath it. He looked a little green. Well, he was still in his teens, this was probably his first fatal mobbing. “What’s Category 7?” he asked in a shaky voice. “I haven’t heard that before.”

“Biohazard.”

“Oh. Class three?”

“Send three people. He was a juicy one.” I stepped away from a spreading puddle of blood. “Run and get a couple of caution signs we can put around this mess.” I eyed it measuringly. “And one of those fifteen-gallon plastic tubs with a lid, I’ll damage it out.”

He eyed the mess. “Are you sure that’s big enough?”

“Yeah, the average human is only about seventeen gallons by volume, and I’m not going to put all the blood and mush in there, just the big pieces.”

He gulped. “Ah. Yes, ma’am.”

I called after him when he ran off. “One of the black tubs, not a clear one!” Which honestly should only be common sense, but you can’t count on a flustered teenager to have common sense.

We frown on killing customers at Evil-Mart, up to a point… but when a particularly murderous super-hero walks into our store, well, that’s something else. I’d have to fill out a ton of paperwork, though.

I had to chase off one of Doctor Malign’s minons and two members of the Genetic Reign before the clean-up crew arrived, both of whom urgently wanted samples. In the end I scraped a few pieces of liver and unidentified organ into two of the bags we use for possibly-contaminated money just to make them go away. (They’re good customers, and it was just going to go in the trash anyway.)

By the time the clean-up was done, all the big pieces were boxed up, and I’d finished the paperwork, my shift had been over for twenty minutes, and I’d been asked to come up to the boss’s office.

“Listen, I have no issues with how you handled the situation, I want you to know that.” Mr Trent leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingertips together. “It was quick, it was efficient, and… given your personal history with Superdyne, not to mention mine and that of half of our customer base… richly deserved.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. It came out too meek, and I cleared my throat and straightened up. It’s hard not to be intimidated by Mr Trent, when you’re in the same room with him. It’s not his fault, and he does his best, but even under the strictest control his fear-inducing powers tend to unsettle anyone who gets too close. We all know he’s not doing it on purpose and we try not to show our reactions. “Do you have any orders regarding the remains?”

“Doctor Order wants them.” He rubbed his chin. “Get someone from the pharmacy to prepare samples for him, please, including brain tissue. He’s our primary supplier, and we can’t offend him. As for the rest… as you know, I’m retired, and I don’t usually participate in the Endless War.” One of his hands dropped to his left thigh. His prosthetic leg is some of Doctor Order’s best work, but the injury that led to his retirement had been brutal even by our standards. “But this is different. Superdyne came here. To our place of safety. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

I nodded. “Do you want the remains dumped somewhere public? Some kind of dramatic display?”

“No. Something more direct.” He rubbed his chin again, then tapped the intercom on his desk. “Iris, please send up Miss Fedorova from Marketing and Mr Levy from the warehouse.”

“Yes, sir,” Iris responded, and he clicked off the intercom again.

“The three of you worked together very well, during the food poisoning incident,” he explained. “And I believe they can assist us in a satisfactory conclusion.” He hesitated, then smiled ruefully. “Perhaps you should wait outside until they get here. I can tell I’m unsettling you.”

“Sir, I know you’re not – “

“Not doing it on purpose.” He sighed. “I do appreciate how hard you all work to make me feel… accepted, I really do. But I’m very annoyed right now, which makes control more difficult for me, so I think we’d both be more relaxed if you waited outside while I do my meditation exercises.”

I waited outside. When the three of us went into his office again, the miasma of low-level fear was definitely a bit lighter, and he smiled. “All right. Now, this conversation is going to be very confidential, and I will remind you all of the agreements you signed when you were employed.” We all chorused agreement, and he nodded. “Good. Now, this is very much a secret, even among Evil-Mart staff, but we do have a few online clients who are… ah… on the other side of the fence.”

Ms Fedorova blinked. “What?”

Knuckles sighed. “We ship to a few heroes,” he explained. “The ones who are… less homo than sapiens, if you get my drift.”

I didn’t, and from her expression Ms Fedorova didn’t either. Mr Trent spread his hands, drawing our eyes to his fingers. Which as a rule nobody looks at, because there’s fourteen of them, with four joints in each finger, and we know he’s self-conscious about it. “The less… purely human ones,” he said quietly. “One of the reasons I created Evil-Mart was to give those who can’t pass for human, like me, a place to be… people. To have dignity. So that the obligate carnivores weren’t reduced to living on pet-food or scavenging for scraps, so that those with complex metabolisms could get the supplements they need so that people who are still people, for all their outward differences, could shop in safety. There are a great many more monsters, demigods, abominations of science and other non-standard persons among our set than among the heroes, and I wanted to meet their needs, as well as selling weapons and Lair-away-from-home sets and so on.”

“And there are a few heroes who order from us for that reason,” Knuckles added. “The ones who can’t get medications to suit their metabolism, or need to eat things that you can’t get easily anywhere else.”

I nodded, because that much I understood. We have some very esoteric ‘dietary supplies’ that start with fresh, healthy, well-treated and disease-free prey animals frozen whole (from mouse up to calf and goat kept in stock, larger sizes by pre-order, halal and kosher certified where possible) and end with human blood (rejected blood bank stock mostly, we have an arrangement), and human flesh and organs (sourced from hospitals, morgues and crematoriums, guaranteed no murder, at least not by us). “Well, I suppose that makes sense. I’m surprised we ship to them, though.”

“Oh, they don’t know we know. It’s all assumed names and secret bank accounts.” Knuckles grinned. “But Mr Trent has all our online customers identified before we ship. And for the ones who don’t have any other options, well… we let it slide.”

“I can see why you don’t want that to get out.” Ms Fedorova tapped her chin. “What does this have to do with disposing of the body? I was planning to set up a really ghoulish display in a public place somewhere, I already have some sketches.” Marketing for Evil-Mart is… well, it includes more than designing our sale flyers.

“No. We’re going to deliver them to a hero… one of the ones who owes us… and make it very clear that just because someone decides to admit he’s a villain, that doesn’t make him one of us and it doesn’t entitle him to union services,” Mr Trent said flatly. “I want to make it crystal clear to all of them that a heel turn does not mean their sins are forgiven, or that we will accept them as anything other than a very brief amusement.”

Late that night – we were all on overtime, but it couldn’t be done in daylight – we wheeled a cart down the run-down hallway of a shoddy apartment building. “This is a terrible address for a hero,” Ms Fedorova muttered. “Are we sure he lives here?”

“I deliver here a couple of times a month.” Knuckles was pushing the cart. “I’m sure.”

“Okay.” Ms Fedorova cleared her throat, coughed once or twice, and suddenly her voice was deeper and her very faint Russian accent was as thick as pea soup. “This is intimidation tactic,” she said, grinning toothily. “Do not act surprised.”

I knocked on the door, but let Knuckles do the talking. “Delivery, Mr West,” he called, using the fake name the guy had been giving.

It worked… the door was unlocked and opened almost immediately. “I scheduled the order for next – “ the mark said, and then we were pushing inside, slamming the door behind us.

“Do not be alarmed, Mr… Dinoid, is it?” Ms Fedorova said, folding her arms. “Evil-Mart is knowing all along your real identity. But you are needing to eat, and we are not turning down regular business, so we make no trouble.”

Knuckles rolled his eyes behind her back at how much she was hamming it up, but I waved a hand. Let her have her fun. So Knuckles started unloading the boxes onto the table while she talked. “First, your Budget Bunny Box. Your favourite, da?” The next box, smaller, plunked down. “Two fresh chickens, halal certified, healthy and having lived good life, gift for good customer.” Knuckles dumped the plastic tub on the floor. “And mortal remains of Superdyne, with note.”

Dinoid was staring at us, but that made him shift into a combat stance, his long claws spread. “The… Superdyne’s dead? And in there?”

“Well. Most of him. The big pieces.” Ms Fedorova shrugged an impressively Russian shrug. I hadn’t even known that was a thing, but when she did it, it was obvious. “You must understand, when a mob tears a man apart, it is hard to find every little piece.”

“I’m pretty sure Doctor Malign and the Genetic Reign took off with doggy bags,” I said, as if I hadn’t handed them over myself. “And Doctor Order probably has some of him too, by now. So looking out for clones would be a good idea, I don’t know if that’s in the note.”

Insofar as that reptilian face could show readable expressions, he looked shocked. “Why on earth would… why? He changed sides? And why did you bring him to me?”

“We know your address, we know you don’t want to turn us in because we’re the only ones who can supply your meals, and our boss wanted us to make this very clear.” I indicated the note. Since Ms Fedorova was hamming up her Sexy Russian Supervillain act, and Knuckles was very obvious Muscle, I figured it was on me to be the Reasonable One. “He might have stopped being a hero, but that didn’t make him one of us. That didn’t make him acceptable to us. Our boss wants it made very clear that your failures shouldn’t expect to be accepted by us… or even spared by us.”

He shifted slowly, the tip of his tail twitching. “I… see. I understand why you would reject Superdyne. He was notorious for killing and maiming people on… your side. But I know other defectors have been accepted. Philomel, for example.”

“Philomel was child of villains. She is young, she is rebellious, she sides with heroes for a while.” Ms Fedorova shrugged. “Is understandable, da? The young do foolish things. She comes home, all is forgiven.”

He nodded slowly. “Tenebrous?”

“That story I don’t know.” Ms Fedorova glanced at me.

I nodded. “Tenebrous was just a kid. He was twelve when Varide recruited him. Nineteen when he broke with the guy. Varide put a kid into combat, left him with massive PTSD, then ditched him when he had a breakdown and went too far. Mx Frantique at least made sure he had a safe place to stay and some therapy.”

“It’s happened a few times.” Knuckles rested his elbows on the cart’s handles, his inhumanly big, strong hands dangling. “But there’s a process. A system. If someone’s sponsored by a villain in good standing, like Frantique sponsoring Tenbrous, they can be accepted. Nobody gets to just choose to join. Especially not a smug, entitled prick like Superdyne.”

Ms Fedorova suddenly leaned forward, scowling. “And why are you called Dinoid? You are not dinosaur. You are clearly monitor lizard. Golden monitor, I think.” She reached out and prodded his arm. “And not healthy, either. Look at colouration! You do not keep environment humid enough. Are having trouble with shedding, da?”

Now we were all staring at her. “You’re a lizard expert now?” Knuckles asked.

She shrugged. “What? Is hobby. Mamma’s little Varanus Acanthurus are pride and joy. Sadly, cannot keep larger monitors in city. Is unkind.”

Dinoid ran a hand over his head slowly. “Not many people realize,” he said slowly. “That’s why I order from you guys. I used to get frozen… food… from a pet supplier, but then I got contacted by someone who told me there was another option.”

“Is good thing. Those pet suppliers, they are rogues. They do not keep animals healthy, can get diseases or mites from those things.” Ms Fedorova sniffed. “I would never buy from them. My babies would get sick.”

He actually chuckled, then, seeming to relax a bit. “You’re not wrong. After… this happened… I got really sick a couple of times before I figured out what to eat, and where to get it. And even the reputable suppliers don’t always have the healthiest stock.” He opened his mouth wide, making a gagging noise. “You have no idea how bad that ‘reptile food’ is. Eating whole animals may be a little disgusting, but it’s nothing to some of that stuff.”

“I believe it,” I said emphatically. “There’s a reason Evil-Mart has such an extensive pet-food line. The horror stories we hear from some of our customers… well, you’d believe it, I bet, but most humans just look confused.”

Knuckles nodded, and spread his hands. “People who can’t pass for regular humans… or even for people, the way most normies see it… are a lot more common on our side of the fence than yours. That’s why we delivered to you. We figured you really needed it.”

“Does he order from the pharmacy?” Ms Fedorova was around behind him now, examining his back. “He is having calcium deficiency, am betting. He needs nutritional supplement.”

“I take a nutritional supplement,” he said defensively.

“The one for normal-sized lizards is not enough for man-sized monitor/human hybrid,” she said firmly. “Check pharmacy section next time. We are having excellent selection of supplements for hybrids, and chart to tell you how much to take for body-mass.”

He looked back and forth between the three of us. “You people are… not what I would have expected from an evil supermarket.”

“We may be… morally challenged,” I said, shrugging, “but we’re not heartless.” I looked around his tiny, shabby apartment. “Unlike some of your lot. I thought you were on a team. Why are you living here?”

He ducked his head. “I couldn’t live at the base,” he said, his tail drooping. “My… I made people uncomfortable. And the stipend isn’t much.”

“Isn’t much? With the merchandising deals they have?” Ms Fedorova sounded shocked, and the accent had dropped back a lot. “I know for a fact that if the accountants ever got hold of their books they’d owe more in back taxes than… well, than Evil-Mart would if our illegal product arm ever got discovered. And we pay our taxes on the legitimate stuff scrupulously.”

Dinoid blinked rapidly, though I couldn’t tell whether he was more surprised by her suddenly dropping her act or the idea that Evil-Mart pays taxes. “You do?”

“Of course. Not under that name, of course, there’s a shell company.” She sniffed. “All villains do. Al Capone, you know. We’re not getting caught that way again.”

Knuckles and I both nodded when he looked at us, and he shook his head. “Huh. Makes sense, I guess.”

“It does.” I looked around again. The place really was crappy. “I know it’s a personal question, Mr… West, but under the circumstances I’d like to know… how much is that stipend?”

He looked down at the floor for a while, then cleared his throat. “Uh. $1100 a month.”

We all stared at him. Ms Fedorova’s mouth fell open. Knuckles looked shocked, and I was horrified. “$1100 a month?!” I asked, my voice coming out louder than I’d intended. “For risking your life on a superhero team?! I have teenaged cashiers working part-time who make more than that!”

He looked almost as startled as we did. “For working a cash register?!”

“Evil-Mart pays pretty good.” Knuckles shrugged. “But that stipend is disgusting.”

“You are being exploited,” Ms Fedorova said, sounding really aghast. “That is terrible. Why, baseline henchman pay is twice that, and there are danger bonuses and…” Her voice dropped suddenly. “You don’t have a union, do you?”

“A union? Of course we don’t have a…” He trailed off. “You mean you do?”

“Of course we do. An extremely well-armed one.” Ms Fedorova folded her arms. “Henchmen And Allied Industries has represented us for generations. The last time a supervillain executed a union henchman for failure, he was boiled in oil… literally. On camera. Oh, of course some of the less reputable villains just pick up small-time trash from the streets, untrained rabble from the gangs and so on, so they can treat them as disposable, but we union members are skilled workers, with rights and protections. I bet you don’t even get overtime.”

“Of course not. Crime happens when it happens, and we have to…” He trailed off. “You guys get overtime?”

“We’re getting double time and a half for this conversation. And an extra day off.”

His eyes widened again. “Really? Wow, that’s… even when I was working a regular job, before this, I didn’t get pay like that.” He looked down at his hands and bared his teeth in what looked like an unhappy expression. “And now I can’t work anything but this kind of job. People don’t like having a scary dinosaur in their restaurant.”

There was a long pause.

“You can cook?” Ms Fedorova asked carefully.

“Yeah. I worked in my parents’ restaurant before… this.” He gestured at himself. “They were killed when we were attacked, and I was… changed.”

We all looked at each other. “After you’ve returned Superdyne’s remains to whoever you consider appropriate,” I said, grabbing a notepad and scribbling down my number, “I’d like you to give me a call. Evil-Mart is always hiring in the bakery and deli, and I mean always. Most bad guys aren’t great cooks. We don’t know why, it just seems to be one of those things.”

“You want me to join the bad guys?”

“I want you to work in a bakery. Villains and henchmen need to eat, and so do their families. Nobody’s going to ask you to rip superheroes in half, just maybe make a sandwich that won’t give anyone food poisoning.”

“That’s a regular concern?”

“Six months ago the three of us ran Evil-Mart’s physical store completely unassisted for most of a day because the only people who weren’t down with food poisoning were the ones who’d had the vegetarian and kosher meals.” I shuddered at the recollection. “Trust me. Someone who can cater staff functions without a major disaster would never have to live in an apartment like this working for us.”

“And we get full benefits, including dental.” Knuckles was shaking his head. “I bet you don’t even get hospital.”

“What hospital would take me? I always figured I’d go to the zoo and talk to the vet if – “

Ms Fedorova actually put her arms around him. “You,” she told him firmly, “are going to resign your terrible exploitative job, and then I will personally sponsor you to the union immediately. I have a spare room. You will like it. Humidity and temperature can be set just how you like, and Mamma Yelena will take you to real doctor expert in health of hybrids.”

“Those exist?” he asked, sounding a bit overwhelmed.

“Yeah, the Genetic Reign has like three of them,” I said sympathetically. “Listen, you can take some time to think it over, but you don’t have to put up with this kind of exploitation just because you don’t look human. Nearly a third of Evil-Mart’s staff can’t pass, and they’re treated just like everyone else.”

Superdyne’s dramatic demise got a lot of news coverage. Apparently it came as a real shock to the ‘good guys’ that there were some monsters even the superest villains wouldn’t embrace.

Dinoid no longer exists. Ismail Jameel works at Evil-Mart, and has expanded our fresh food lines a lot already. He’s a nice guy, and after Ms Fedorova told everyone how disgustingly he’d been exploited by those so-called ‘heroes’, he was welcomed with open arms. Literally, in at least one case – he’s dating someone from the warehouse, I’ve heard, though I don’t know who. He says we should rename the store, because we suck at being evil.

But evil is a really relative term. It can mean the blackest depravity, or a moment of viciousness, or even just ‘people on the other side’. Evil-Mart is called that because everyone, at least everyone on our side, is welcome. Plus, we all think it’s funny that the least-evil megacorporation is called ‘Evil-Mart’. What can we say? Bad guys have a sense of humour too.

Have an evil day!

[flashyourgreeneyesatme]

Sick as a dog. <Bradley Bradshaw x reader>

This is my first published piece of writing but my baby, Reese Withoutaspoon aka @greatbigshiningstar is sick with Covid, and I want to make her feel better even if I’m not where near her. Love you doll hope you can imagine Roost with this.

I hope you enjoy and anytime any one of you are sick just remember Bradley would buy you your favourite soup and cut your bread exactly the way you like it!

pairing: Bradley Bradshaw x (f)reader

word count: 1846

warnings: Mentions of feeling and being sick, Bradley’s awful dad jokes, way too many curse words and sexual references (if you really squint hard enough – haha hard)

summary: The reader is home sick from the flu she got from work (can be whatever job you want I’m not going to explicitly describe what job she does) and wants to just curl up and die. Will Rooster let her be alone? No! He protect. He attack. He’s got his baby’s back! Just a cute little drabble of Bradley looking after her.

Pain. Pain is all I could feel, coursing through my body and destroying everything in its path. It's like if you gave the basic flu weapons and said, 'have at it!'. Now all I can think about are cartoon germs with machine guns shooting at my immune system until there is nothing left to destroy. Now, I'm an averagely smart person I obviously know that they don't have weapons and aren't shooting me from the inside but right now if you told me to stand up straight and count to ten, I'd be doing the macarena and wouldn't even notice the difference. I go to cuddle my pillow until I realise, I'm not even in bed I'm in my car and have been since 3 pm. 4 hours in my car just sitting there. No music. No phone. Just sitting. When did I get home? How did I get home? Did I accidentally kill anyone on my way home? I guess we'll never know.

I decide that I need to go inside and curl up and live my life in a quarantine-like staycation where I will not be talking to anyone, my best friend will be my cold bathroom floor and kid's drowsy cough medicine because I only like the strawberry flavour and apparently adult medicine manufacturers thought Let's make it taste worse than their own vomit and make them take it 3-4 times a day. Yeah, no thanks I'm okay with my kiddie medication, maybe that's why I'm always asked for parenting advice by new mums in the pharmacy. By the time I actually am able to get my dead legs out of the car, it's been 27 minutes and I stumble into my shitty home like a newborn deer learning to walk. All because of Jaida from work.

That bitch Jaida can get the flu, have a few sniffles and get on with the day. But puts everyone else at risk. Like okay, Jaida you've got a good immune system we get it! She gets to continue her day whereas I am reenacting the exorcist when I even try to drink water.  How is it fair? I enjoy my job. I want to be at my job. I unscrew the top of the medicine bottle and simply drink it like it's an energy drink, the door to my bedroom opens and I just lay on the bed. 

Suddenly I hear the front door open once again. All this time I've been thinking about myself when I forget I share this shitty home with my amazing boyfriend who has such an important job and if he gets sick, what if he can't go out on a flight and countless people die because of it? Okay nope, he's not allowed near me it is decided I am going to reenact another film, Contagion. 

"Honey I'm home!" I hear the naval officer yell throughout the house. The silence is deafening in response. He starts whistling about as if his version of echolocation will be able to locate me within the house. I stand up to back myself against the door so he cannot enter which feels like the biggest task I've ever completed. I hear him try to push the bedroom door open and fail imminently. "Why are you up against the door? Are you naked? You know I don't mind it's nothing I haven't seen before." He goes to push against the door once again.

"I'm not naked. I'm sick." I weakly croak out just enough for him to hear.

"Okay? So are you going to let me in or?" His voice is laced with confusion, boy take a hint, I love you but not happening. 

"I'm not letting you in because if you get sick you might not be able to work and if you can't work then Mav might personally send firing jets to shoot me." He can tell there's a frown on my face even behind the oak door. By now I'm sitting on the floor leaning against the door because all my energy is drained. I hear Rooster's knees drop to the floor and look to see him looking through the gap at the bottom of the heavy door and hear a little giggle. "Fuck off it's not funny!" I can't help but laugh which causes my chest and throat to hurt more. "I'm dying of influenza in here and you're laughing about me. Some widow you'd make Bradshaw." Again a fucking giggle easily escapes that man's mouth. 

"Right then if you're dying might as well get some things I've been meaning to say for a long time but never had the courage to say." He sighs and sits with his back to the door as I am also doing. A light tension fills the air. "You're a stupid bitch and I hate you. You're ugly too." 

"Right now I want you to get sick you dickhead." I lightly hit the door soon realising that hurt my whole body more than I reckoned. 

"Then open the door all you have to do is open the door and let me get my karma." His voice sounds tempting. He's got that charm that could sell the internet to an elephant. Not sure if that makes sense but I'm feeling like dumbo on wine right now so I don't really mind if my idiom makes sense or not. That man knows exactly what he's doing. Is it reverse psychology or is it gaslighting either way it's super enticing. I push myself off the floor and open the door. "Ah, a hideous monster!" He yells as I open the door. Bradley sees the upset and frustration on my face and knows I'm about to slam this door in his face. "Wait no! I'm sorry!" Allowing him to walk into our shared bedroom felt illegal to me. I keep my distance from him baking away as far as I can go before hitting the bed that stood in the centre of the room. "Am I not allowed to be near you?" I shake my head in response. 

"I'm not getting you sick dude that would fucking suck! And you're a child when you're sick so I'm not willing to play nurse. Love you, not that much." Rooster puts his hands up in a surrender-like fashion and stays where he is. His dark brown eyes scan me up and down. "Stop looking at me like that." 

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a dying puppy." My lips form into a pout. 

"I want to look after you. That's all I want. I won't come near you I promise." His fingers form into a cross behind his back.

"And how do you propose that you can look after me without coming near me." I'm sceptical about his methods.

"Get into bed." A little smile forms on his face.

"I don't see how having sex is going to help bud." Scoffs pass his lips as he has given up with my bullshit. Before I can even process what is happening his long arms have been placed onto my shoulders and pushed my back onto the mattress. A small yelp escapes my lips. "I have no energy for this." I feel the mattress consume my weight as I sink in slowly but surely. 

"Get under the duvet and I'll be back." He's off! The room is suddenly quiet as I give in to his demands and get settled under the heavy duvet which I can't decide if it's too hot or too cold for it. The first noise I hear is the fumbling noise of the cupboards and then the slamming of them. Instead of Bradley coming back to the room the front door once again opens and closes. I want to get up and see where he has gone but this bed has grown more comfortable by the second and not to my recollection my eyes start to close and I doze off. 

I don't know how long it's been while I've been sleeping but I am slowly awoken by the smell of rich chicken wafting its way from the kitchen. My eyes slowly open and I am alerted by Bradley's figure standing in the doorway. My body does a small tense reaction to his terrifying stature. "Hey, sleepysauras. Temp check!" He works his way over to my still comatose body and sticks a thermometer into my mouth. A hmmm noise comes from my chest as I feel the cool plastic on my tongue. "Okay! 101*. You, little lady, have a fever."

"That's mean." My eyes roll around my head. 

"I made cheddar broccoli soup. Just for you. Because I love you!" I stick my middle finger up at him. His laughs fill the house as he goes to fetch the amazing-smelling soup from the kitchen. The soup enters the room before he does as he is holding it out at an arm's length. "So I don't have to come near you!" Weak fake laughs come from my mouth. The tray is set on my lap and the bread is cut my way. "Even though I'm pretty sure it's a felony I cut it horizontally because you're sick and I have to spoil you." I try not to break out into a smile and or cry because it is so stinking cute. "Now eat it up."

"Yes sir, Lieutenant Bradshaw, sir!" I give him a small salute. He goes to leave, "What you're not going to spoon-feed me as well?" He stops in his tracks and does a little 180* spin on the spot. The speed of his run could be considered inhuman, he could put the flash to shame. Instead of simply walking around the bed as a normal person would, Bradley leapfrogs over my side of the bed to his side. The metal spoon is lifted from the white ceramic bowl into his hands.

"I'm going to be honest with you I have already taster tested a lot of this soup. For your protection of course." My head shakes up and down in a mocking gesture.

"My hero!" Rooster's lips move closer to the spoon, which holds the cheddar broccoli soup, and lightly blows on it. Aeroplane-like noises advance from the aviator's lips as he spoon feeds me like a child. "It's nice." Dark brown eyes squint at my choice of words. "It's delicious, Gordon Ramsey would be proud!" Pride fills his expression as he seems very impressed with his amazing cooking. As I demolish the food in front of me my stomach churns only slightly enough to make me gag but not to be physically sick. Rooster goes white as a ghost in front of me, not very well-known fact is that Roost is a huge Emetophobic. Reassurance washes over his pale complexion as he realises I wasn't going to throw up.

My anxieties of not wanting to get him sick are gone as I open up the duvet for him to get underneath with me. He willingly does so and joins our bodies together. The warmth from his body and his arm wrapped around me sends me back to sleep. 

I hope you enjoyed!

[trappedwriter]

Chapter 8

Content Warning, this is intended for people that are 18+ and this chapter includes amputation, ddlg vibes and pure fluff.

Authors Note: Hi everyone, thank you for all the love and support, I really do appreciate it. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please leave me a comment.

Jessica’s POV

Today was the worst day! After having my lovely shower, I struggled to get my leg back on. I then couldn’t get any skinny jeans on. So, I had to settle for overalls and a cute graphic tee. My hair dryer decided to blow a fuse and just stop working altogether. Resulting in me plaiting my hair in pigtail braids. It was not the vibe.

I clambered up onto one of my stool chairs and stretched up as high as I could to reach the my cupboards. After all that effort I yanked them open to find completely bare shelves. I really didn’t want to leave the house today, but things needed to get done. I did a load of laundry (including bun-bun , I must've spilled something on her while I was drunk on the night of the accident cause she stank and there were a couple of crusty marks on her) and left to do my morning errands. I still felt uneasy leaving the house and double checked that I locked my doors. “There’s nothing to worry about, you’re going to be okay” I thought and turned quickly. Inhaling all the good and positive thoughts and exhaling all of the negative ones.

With my cute canvas tote in hand and my backpack slung over my shoulder, I started to make my way into town. Grateful that I didn’t live too far away and was only about a ten minute walk, well it used to be, I guessed it would take me a bit longer now, but I needed to get used to walking again

I popped into the local pharmacy to pick up more of my prescription. I was total blown away by the price, $247 for 2 months’ worth of painkillers and muscle relaxers. Thankfully I had insurance and that covered my medication and brought the price down to $14. After picking up some unnecessary skincare and makeup, I went to supermarket and grabbed some food for a couple of days. I finished up my morning (now afternoon) by grabbing some brunch. There’s this cute little café in town that makes the best French toast. I go in and immediately feel like everyone is watching me. Eyes follow me and whispers start to form. It’s been like this all morning. Sure, I love the attention, but so much of it was starting to make me uncomfortable.

Thankfully the lady at the counter shouted “next” and I placed my order. I sat down at a window seat and scrolled through Instagram whilst I waited. A couple of minutes go by, and I’m pulled away by a plate put in front of me and a strawberry lemonade.

“Here you go sweetie,” said the waitress.

“Thanks”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but it seems you’ve had a bit of an accident?”

The room went silent, and the music was turned down slightly. Not subtle at all.

“Oh yeah, well. I was moving furniture about, and one thing led to another, and my leg got crushed. There was nothing they could do so they had to chop it off. Doctors said I have weak bones due to cancer. I’ll be starting treatment soon” The words all tumbled out in a rush and I could see her flinch back a bit as they crashed into her.

“Oh sweetie, that’s terrible and you’re so young” She said after a moments pause to take it all in. Her eyebrows dropped and her shocked face morphed into one of concern

“Yeah.” I sagged a bit suddenly tired after expressing so much to someone in person, it wasn't the same as telling everyone online. Rather than the excitement and desire to keep going I normally had I mostly just wanted the conversation to end.

“Well, I’ll let you get stuck into your food and you let me know if you need anything ok?" She squeezed my shoulder as she said this and I mumbled back a noncommittally reply while trying to subtly shrink out of her grip”.

I snapped a quick pic and ate quickly not wanting to be under everyone’s stares. Before leaving I ordered another lemonade to go. As soon as I left the café my phone started going off. I had thousands of notifications from Instagram. I tried to ignore them and started to walk home. Unfortunately, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened the app. I continued walking periodically looking up making sure I didn’t bump into anything. But a message from asos saying that they wanted to work with me, it made me lose complete focus and then THUD!

I bumped into a huge figure, my lemonade went everywhere. My clothes and tote bag were completely drenched. Thankfully my phone was spared from the sticky liquid.

“What the fuck?!” I said, pissed as hell

“Oh my gosh, I’m so so sorry. Are you okay?”

I looked up at the figure and completely melted. He was absolutely gorgeous. He had dark brown hair and steel blue eyes. His facial expression was soft and concerned. All my anger vanished in an instant.

“Oh…I’m okay” I say, my cheeks blushing bright red.

He crouched down to my height. Eyes wandering all over me.

“That’s good. I’m sorry, I should have been watching where I was going. But I’m glad you’re okay, wouldn’t want you to be upset. I’m Sebastian”. He said with a soft smile.

“I’m Jessica” I say shyly. I don’t know why I’m so shy. Maybe it his soft looks, his smile, or the fact that he seemed so genuinely concerned.

“That’s a pretty name. Are your parents picking you up? I could wait with you and explain what happened.”

“Thank you. No, they don’t live here. I was just walking home”. My stomach dropped and my face would have gone red with shame if it wasn't red already. I felt so stupid for wearing my pigtails and overalls of course he thought I was a kid.

“Wait what, you’re walking home by yourself? I know the town is small but is it safe for a little girl like you to be walking home.” He said, once again concerned written all over his face.

“Oh yeah. It is, I’ve lived here my whole life, also I know I look small. And well I am but I’m actually 19. I just have bad genetics”.

“Well, you definitely fooled me. But you’re still as cute as a button.” He said and then booped my nose. I flinched back, but couldn't suppress a giggle even though I was sure it made me look even more like a little girl.

“Hey, what would you say if I asked you out for dinner. Seeing as I ruined your clothes and your day?” He smiled at me again and I felt a pool of drool forming at the corner of my mouth. My heart pounded so hard that I was sure he would be able to hear it and my face was so hot I was worried it would burn.

“You didn’t ruin my day, you actually made it better. I would love to.”

His soft smile turned into a big contagious one. His face lit up when I said yes and he slightly blushed.

“How about the cute little 50’s diner, say about 8 o’clock?”

“Sounds like a plan. Oh! Put your number into my phone, just in case I’m a little late.”

I hand over my phone and he proceeded to put in his number and hand it back to me. I sent him a text, I know he just gave me it but I needed some confirmation otherwise I would think this was all a dream by the time I got home.

Hi, it’s Jessica ☺️

His phone pinged and he smiled when he saw the notification.

“Okay, I’ll see you at 8. Are you sure you’re ok walking home by yourself?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you at 8”.

I waved goodbye and rushed home with the biggest smile on my face.

Chapter 9

[parkers-gal]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeHva3Te/

This could be so good with Tom. Imagine you’re shopping with the boys as well 🤍

stop 😭 😭 he’d get so flustered bye

( for those of u who don’t wanna watch the tiktok, it’s captioned “when your boyfriend wears sweats to target so you try to get him hard at every chance u get” )

(that being said, this is a warning for major boners & boner related talks, lol)

wc: 1.3k

—

A quick trip to the supermarket meant neither you nor Tom (or any of the other boys, for that matter) bothered with changing into appropriate clothes. You basically went in your pajamas — for you, that meant Tom’s hoodie and flannel pants. For Tom, however, that meant his favorite jumper, a beanie, and a sexy pair of grey sweatpants.

Tom sits beside you in the driver’s seat, once again debating with Harry if the house needs another set of ridiculous pots for the backyard garden. It’s been an ongoing debate of “we need fairy-themed ones!” to “the ones we have are perfectly fine!” You’re not sure if you should get involved at all.

A buzz in your pocket alerts you that someone must have texted you, so you pull your phone out. In a text, your friend had sent you a TikTok and added her own message.

aisha: this is so something u would do

Intrigued, you tap on the link. It successfully takes you to the app, and after impatiently waiting, you watch as the girl in the video teases her boyfriend in various places in the supermarket. You smirk to yourself, glancing up to make sure nobody else has managed to see what you’re viewing on your phone. Quickly, you save the video and text your friend back.

you: im so doing this. we’re heading to the store now. i’ll update with the vid soon.

Not a second later, she responds.

aisha: you’re evil.

aisha: and i envy you

The next ten minutes go by in a blur. You figure out how to format the video and, after brief bickering between Sam and Harrison about who gets to sit in the cart, the six of you pile into the store.

You head to the produce section first. (You’re not sure why. Every single time, you tell them the delicate vegetables should be piled on top of everything else, meaning you attend to this section of the store last. It seems like nobody else cares about squished tomatoes, though.)

The boys split up; Harry and Tuwaine team up on the broccoli section, managing to get the gross Brussel sprouts Tom loves more than you. Harrison goes off towards the fruits and Sam stays put in the cart.

Tom manages to take control of where the cart is going and he parks in front of the barrel of onions. Sam holds open the bag while Tom picks and chooses the ones he wants. Pondering how to go about this, you finally decide to just go for it.

“Don’t get that one,” you interject, stepping forward. “Get this one, and the one over there.”

Tom nods, not thinking much about the situation. You decide to keep moving forward, but instead of going around the cart, you squeeze yourself in between the shelves and Tom, successfully rubbing up against his crotch. Faintly, you hear his breath hitch, and after walking away, you quickly turn around to see Tom. You’ve ducked from his view, but he’s staring at where you just were, exhaling deeply and trying to maintain his composure.

You know this “look” better than anything. Quickly, you whip out your phone and begin recording the first part of your TikTok. You snicker to yourself, watching as Tom sets the bag of onions in the cart and quickly puts his hands in front of his crotch. You’re knee-deep in your own laughter when Harry and Tuwaine curiously come up to you.

Hastily, you shut your phone off and shove it in your pocket, standing up straight and acting as normal as possible.

“What was-”

“Nothing. Did you guys get the lettuce?”

“Yeah…” Harry trails off suspiciously. They decide to let it slide, and the three of you make your way back over to the cart.

“We done here?” Tuwaine asks. Murmured yes’s float around and the six of you leave the produce section and head off to the pharmacy section of the store.

“Do we need more toothpaste?”

“No, but we need more floss.”

“Ugh. Mouth stuff,” Harry groans.

You step closer to Tom, phone in hand, and you lean close to his ear. “Maybe we could do some mouth stuff later.” You whisper.

Tom’s eyes go wide and he looks at you in shock. You wear a proud smirk and grip your phone tighter, leaning close to him again and getting ready to record his reaction. “Y’know? Maybe I could suck your-”

“Stop it, Y/N,” he says firmly, eyeing you. You shrug in response, still wearing a proud smirk.

“What?” You say innocently.

Tom gets desperate and, after a few seconds, puts his hands on his knees for support — and paints it as if he’s leaning down to look for something on the shelf.

“Tom, mate, you good?” Harrison asks.

Tom looks up, exhales harshly, and nods. “Yep,” he stands, waddling off to another part of the aisle where you record, away from everyone else.

“What are you doing?” he whisper-shouts at you, still somewhat leaning on his knees.

“Nothing, daddy,” you say innocently. His eyes widen and he groans again, this time looking up at the ceiling in despair.

“Whatever game you two are playing, I really don’t want to be a part of it.” Harrison strides over.

“Yeah, you two have been acting weird all day. What’s up with that?” Sam asks.

You turn to Tom, teasingly clicking your tongue as a motivator for him to respond. “Yeah, Tommy. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” he says through clenched teeth and a forced smile.

Harry rolls his eyes and moves the cart to the next aisle, the rest of the boys trailing behind him. You and Tom linger a little longer.

“What’s on your mind, Tommy?”

“Nothing,” he seethes, leaning over again to conceal any bulge that may be visible.

“Oh yeah,” you stroke his cheek with a giggle before running a hand through his curls. “What’s going through that big brain of yours?” He only eyes you, and you bite your lip. “Something dirty?” You whisper.

“Y/N,” he drags on, whining.

“What?”

“Why are you doing this to me?” He squeezes his eyes shut.

“What?” You whisper back. “It’s not my fault you’re thinking of fucking me.”

“Jesus Christ love,” he goes back into his leaning position. You giggle again, being another recording for your tiktok.

“Shouldn’t have worn sweats,” you say quietly. “Why did you wear sweats?”

“Because I’m stupid,” he groans an “ugh,” and wipes the sweat off his forehead. “I’m a div, that’s why.”

You chuckle again, “Yeah, you are.”

“You’re evil,” he looks up. “And you’re recording this! I can’t believe you.”

“What?” You tease. “Not my fault you’re hard.”

“Yes it is!” he gasps, locking eyes with you. “Is that why you’re teasing me? Is this another one of those tickey clock things?”

“What?” You laugh in bewilderment, looking at your boyfriend as if he’s crazy.

“You know what I mean! Those- those prank your boyfriend videos!”

“...Yes…”

“Y/N!”

“Sorry!” You exclaim with a smile. “It’s just fun to see you all flustered for me,” you run a hand through his hair, and he eventually stands straight, successfully calming himself down. “You good?”

“Mhm,” he nods at you, reaching for one of your hands.

“Good,” you smile with a glint he almost recognizes.

“What’re you-”

“Let’s go to the lube section.”

“Y/NNN!”

[1kook]

attachment: 1 image

— jjk x (f) reader

summary; But for Jungkook to initiate some sexting, nevertheless sexting at 1pm on a Saturday, when you were at work and you were almost positive he was supposed to be on stream right now? Unheard of, you had to mark this down somewhere. warnings; sexting, dick pics, dirty talk?, phone sex, vivid depictions of jungkook being just so sexy bc its true, rating; mature (18+) misc; mentions of youtuber kook 🥰, he’s just horny, stupid selfie trends (see here), he’s a little whiny but so hot v.v  wc; 4.6k 

notes; I've had this in my drafts since april 😐 n then i was like maybe we should actually finish this so i started n then last night i hit another follower milestone!!! so then i rlly forced myself to finish this bc i was so 🥺🖤👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 anyway enjoy lmk what u think its not proofread bc uhhhhh yeah 🤩

You’re at work when it happens.

It’s sometime between your usual listless thoughts of what to write for your weekly reflection papers for some course, and your trip to your store’s pharmacy to bother a coworker. Your phone vibrates in the pocket of your work apron. You’re normally pretty good at ignoring the sound, most of the times it’s just a classmate asking for help on homework or Jimin lamenting his love life, so you’ve grown used to ignoring the tiny vibrations, stocking a quarter shelf of different cooking oils before something in your brain tells you to check your phone.

You already know it’s not something grave, but that thought alone means nothing at the sight of the tiny jungkook♡ that appears at the very top of the list of notifications. Your boyfriend’s texts tended to be wildcards, never following a certain routine or alluding to any specifics. He could send you a long paragraph on how much he misses the scent of that one shampoo, the one you’d briefly run through last year because your usual brand was out of stock, with a ten point explanation on why you should switch back to it. Or two word, caveman sentences that drove you crazy because you never understood what exactly he wanted when he’d send those nondescript “munchies dip” texts.

You unlock your phone, clicking to the messenger app instead of directly on the notification. Hopefully the preview will give some warning on whether you should invest in this conversation or not. You hated the read receipts on messages, choosing to ghost conversations as you pleased, but Jungkook had wiggled his way into your phone one afternoon and specifically turned them on for his chat with you, and you’d never turned them off since. So he knows if you choose to ignore Attachment: 1 Image at 1:43pm exactly, and he'll pester you about it until you respond.

You contemplate it all for twenty seconds. It could be a variety of things, you guess, but the only way to find out is to actually see with your own eyes what he’s up to this time. He knows better than to distract you at work, is usually really good at waiting until your shift is over to spam you with messages. For him to send you something now, only a few hours into your shift, is uncharacteristic of him.

But you glance down the aisle anyway, taking note of some elderly woman you’d helped a few minutes prior and another teenager aimlessly walking around, probably looking for the snack aisle. You inhale and press down on your chat with Jungkook.

It takes you a moment to make out exactly what the image is, twisting and turning your phone around as you fight to see it without raising the brightness. It’s only when your eyes finally adjust to the dark screen, the faint beeping of the check-out registers fading into the distance, that you realize it’s a shot of the front of his sweatpants.

“Hm?” you murmur, getting brave enough to pinch the image between two fingers, zooming in until you’re able to decipher a multitude of details. For one, there’s a Flaming Hot Cheeto stain on the hem of his sweatpants, the same one you’d accidentally put on there a few weeks back and haven’t been able to wash out since. Then there’s that huge palm of his, tattoos and all, rested carefully against his thigh. It’s veiny and thick in all the right places, bringing all the attention to his knuckles, which you guess is what he was going for when you consider the centerpiece of the image—his hardened dick straining against the grey material.

There’s no text attached to the message, no snapchat font slapped over the image, so you wonder what exactly he wanted you to do with this information mid-shift. Well, realistically, you know exactly what he wants, but that doesn’t mean you won’t clown him before getting there. After all, Jungkook was seldom the naughty texter; sexting annoyed him, he would whine, because he would do all that and not even get to feel the true pleasure of sex, of being inside you. You’ve dabbled in it here and there, but it never went as perfectly as it did in pornos. He’d drop his phone and forget it, or you would straight up ignore the damn device as you went all in on yourself.

But for Jungkook to initiate some sexting, nevertheless sexting at 1pm on a Saturday, when you were at work and you were almost positive he was supposed to be on stream right now? Unheard of, you had to mark this down somewhere.

you what’s this about?

You decide to play it safe, because as exciting as the image of Jungkook at his computer chair, cock hard and angry at the thought of you, fluffy hair ruffled in that way you adored, jaw twitching and tightening as he touched himself, moaned deep and rough and just how you liked and—

As nice as that image was, for all you knew this vague message was Jungkook sending you a picture from a week ago to purposefully fuck with you at work.

jungkook♡ what time u get off? jungkook♡ miss you bad baby

Your stomach flips, and it takes everything in you to not squeal and bounce between the shelves like a toddler on a sugar rush. Here was your boyfriend, the cutest, sweetest boy, sending you dirty pictures of himself and telling you how much he needed you. Yes, YOU, not some random on the street, or someone else in a club, Jungkook needed pleasure and that pleasure could only come from you.

You glance back down the aisle again, checking your surroundings for the second time that day. You’ve been standing here, stock cart empty for a little over five minutes now, so it’s probably best to change location lest your manager come barking down your neck. You send one quick text before heading off for stock again.

you 4pm :(

Your phone dings again just as you’re leaving the stockroom, but you decide to check it once you get to the hygiene aisle you need to work on next. Still, the prospect of Jungkook having texted you has you walking with a skip in your step, one your coworker teases you about when you pass by her.

jungkook♡ fuck jungkook♡ tell me what panties youre wearing jungkook♡ please ?

You bite your lip, stopping yourself from smiling at the tone you’d picked up from his message. There was no doubt he’d been riled up for a while now, and you wonder if he sat through his usual Saturday morning streams with his cock hard, pushed against the edge of his desk like you knew he did when such things happened. The thought has you nearly fumbling with a bottle of aloe vera.

you seamless black thong you the one you bought me at the last vs sale

Briefly, you wonder if you should have lied and told him you were wearing that red lace set he’d given you last Valentine’s Day, the one he’d bought with his first big YouTube check. But the beauty of being in a relationship with someone like Jungkook is that you could have told him you were wearing grandma undies and he’d still think you were the most beautiful person to grace the planet.

jungkook♡ mm jungkook♡ tiny ones u ruined last time?

You set your phone down, speed stock a row of sunscreen like you’re on some shelf stocking national competition, before daring to text Jungkook again. Your cheeks are still warm, and your hand tightens dangerously around a bottle of shaving cream.

Before you can formulate some response, he’s sending another one in.

jungkook♡ u soaked those jungkook♡ came fast that day jungkook♡ want u so bad

Your cheeks burn, a little embarrassed that he remembers such details. As with all Victoria’s Secret panties, they were, like Jungkook said, extremely thin. You pause, shift your stance just barely, but you’re definitely wet. Not terribly so, but with this fabric, you’d start to notice it sooner than with others.

you mm you makin me wet bunny

It’s not a complete lie, but knowing Jungkook this is exactly what he needs to hear to get that competitive streak going. You shake your head to clear your thoughts, stocking another section of men’s shaving cream. It takes longer for him to message you back, and you wonder if he got off fine on his own. If it’s over now, at least he provided you with some distraction midway into your shift.

When he texts you again, you’ve almost completely convinced yourself he’s finished, so the Attachment: 1 Video that appears on your lock screen throws you for a loop.

It’s a short clip, no longer than ten seconds, but it has you scrambling to lower the volume on your device as some unsuspecting mother of two wanders past. You flash her your practiced smile, the same one you give all the store’s customers. Not like your boyfriend is jacking it off on your phone, shallow pants filtering out from the speakers.

You turn your phone over carefully after she leaves, try to at least pretend you’re still doing your job as you play the video again.

Sweats are gone, but boxers remain. Legs deliciously exposed, thick thighs with muscles that ripple when he moves. Shirt pulled up just slightly to showcase that broad expanse of tummy, cute belly button and defined abs that tighten with each glide of his palm over the outline of his cock. Your mouth fills with drool at the sight. He was so hot.

Your brain hasn’t even processed it yet, all your energy directed towards your clenched pussy, when he shoots another text.

jungkook♡ im so fckin hard jungkook♡ wanna kiss yuo every where baby jungkook♡ come ove r soon ??

Shutting your eyes and counting to ten doesn’t help ward off the sudden wave of horniness that consumes you, but it does remind you of the job you’re supposed to be doing now. You shake your head, as if the image of Jungkook’s dick throbbing beneath his boxers, low voice in your ear, will magically disappear. It doesn’t, and it plagues you even more when you begin stocking a section of sunscreen, numbly instructing yourself on what to do next. Shaving cream, sunscreen, lotion next, you repeat.

It doesn’t help.

Two minutes later and you’re scrambling for the phone you’d hastily tucked into your apron pocket, tapping your passcode in until your messages with Jungkook are pulled up again.

you after work you promise

Your head is absolutely spinning, the coil in your stomach too tight for you to try and be a functioning member of society. Something in you says to sneak off to the bathroom and call him, but your boss is a little bit of a prick when he wants to be, thinks you take too many bathroom breaks as is.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. A curt call of your name has you whirling to face your shelves again, phone tightly pressed against your ribs like maybe it’ll melt into your skin and he won’t see it. At the same time, your sudden fright has you scrambling to turn it off, fingers sloppily pressing against the buttons, hitting the volume like seven times before you eventually feel the familiar click that signals it’s off.

Your boss disappears shortly after, and with his sudden appearance having made every hair on your body stand, you find yourself now slumping against your stock cart. Jesus, that man was a handful to deal with.

The paranoia sticks for a little bit, has you stocking shelf after shelf like a robot until you finish the entire row of hygiene products, back stiff from bending over so much. It’s only when you return to the stockroom ten minutes later that you dare take your phone out again.

A pleasant surprise awaits.

It would appear that during your haste to hide your phone from your boss— Jungkook’s scandalous messages and all —your frantic hands had done something else. A fuzzy picture on your end, a blurry display of lotion bottles you had stacked just before your boss’s impromptu appearance, with no words to accompany them. Normally Jungkook would have ignored that; you frequently sent accidental messages like this, butt texted him, he says.

But there’s something about Jungkook’s horny brain that makes him do stupid things, makes him blow up your phone with a series of question marks, call you four times, whine and fuss in your message thread, and eventually, send you probably the oddest image to date.

jungkook♡ ??? jungkook♡ ????what is that jungkook♡ baby please jungkook♡ I don’t get it ??

jungkook♡ Missed Call (4)

jungkook♡ baby jungkook♡ what does it mean jungkook♡ please ur drivign me insane jungkook♡ jsut wanna hear yuor voice jungkook♡ fuck please just

And then, there’s another one of those cursed Attachment: 1 Image messages.

You shouldn’t be as surprised as you are. You’ve been dating Jungkook for a few months now, know he had that sort of unique personality most college dropouts turned YouTubers do. But every now and then the absurdity of his actions makes you question him still, makes you wonder what exactly goes on in that pretty head of his to warrant such ideas, makes him balance a bottle of body lotion on the thick outline of his cock like this.

Unlike the first few images, this one was taken in front of a mirror. The blinding fluorescent light in his bathroom paints him in a stark color, has every inch of his pretty face on display for you. Rosy cheeks, dewy skin. Perfectly swollen cock straining beneath his grey boxers, curved up against his hip. Shirt pulled up, finally freeing that expanse of muscles on his abdomen, cute little belly button on display once again. The red material is pulled up to his mouth, pearly white teeth biting down on the fabric, and he’s got this flushed expression on his face.

But the real star of the show isn’t his chiseled abdomen or sexy expression, but the sheer hardness of his dick that lets him balance a bottle of body lotion over it, like a fuckin’ shelf or something. He’s so hard, dick so full beneath his boxers. So big too, the little boxers pulled taught around said engorged cock and thick thighs.

Your brain says to laugh, to tease him for being such a clown even when he’s horny as hell. He won’t take it to heart, will probably laugh along with you and you’ll add it to your still growing list of funny memories.

But your caveman libido says call him, so that’s what you do, ducking down behind a new shipment pallet with a squeak as the phone rings. It only lasts four seconds before he picks up, voice breathy and low, but it sounds so loud in the silence of the stockroom.

He doesn’t even let you get a greeting in. “You like my picture, baby?” he husks. It sounds like he’s right there, right beside you, speaking into your ear. Your pussy throbs at the way he sounds. Paired with the picture from before, it has your body tingling all over.

“What the fuck is that?” you hiss, trying to not let the sudden overflow of arousal leak into your words. Jungkook chuckles.

“What?” he huffs. There’s the brief sound of shuffling, the scratchy noise of his phone presumably being pressed against his shoulder. “I’m so hard, baby,” he sighs before you can pretend to reprimand him any further. “Fuck— you, can you just talk to me?” he groans, and the disgusting sound of him spitting into his palm fills your ear.

Your face feels warm, eyes nervously peering across the stockroom like your boss will suddenly appear now of all times to rip you from this important phone call. The anxiety and arousal mix weirdly, have your leg bouncing but every new movement sends a shock up your aching cunt to your chest, and then out to the tips of your fingers.

“You shouldn’t be doing that when I’m at work,” you murmur hurriedly, moving to nervously bite at your finger. Jungkook moans softly.

“Uh huh,” he says.

The air conditioning turns on and you nearly jump out of your own skin. “Kook,” you stress, frazzled by your own burning arousal and the fear of being caught. Like you said. Weird mix. “I— not when I can’t respond.”

He shudders on the line. “You’re responding now,” he points out. You hate when he’s right. Before you can defend yourself, define what a proper response is in this scenario, he’s beating you to the punch. “Baby,” he whimpers, voice so airy yet low, makes your eyes roll into the back of your head, back unconsciously arching. “Couldn’t stop— fuck.”

Your mouth feels dry, all and any form of lecturing fading from your thoughts as you become consumed in Jungkook’s little whines and whimpers. He talks smoothly, a modern day Casanova, and it’s certainly because of that cult-like harem he’s gathered on YouTube. Teenage girls who kiss his ass, tell him he’s cute and dreamy. Make his ego so big.

But then he gets horny and can barely contain that lisp you tease him about, shivers and melts when you put his cock in your mouth. “Couldn't what, bunny?” you mumble, voice drawn tight because now you were really horny, and it was all his fault.

The nickname makes him mewl prettily, your speaker suddenly going scratchy as he fumbles with his phone. “C- Couldn't stop thinking about you— your mouth,” he admits, and now you’re certain he’d sat through that Saturday morning stream like this. “T- Tits,” he adds, lisp slipping through. “Fuck.”

You bite your lip, eyes fluttering shut as you remind yourself now was not the time or place to get yourself off. But, well. That didn’t mean you couldn’t get him off. “Sat through your stream like this?” you murmur, circling your kneecap with a trembling finger as if it’ll ward away the raging lust in your abdomen. Jungkook confirms with a breathy moan. “Had all your little fans wondering why you ended so early.”

He groans. “No,” he chokes, voice hot from how much it wavers. “They— I lied,” he confesses out of nowhere, “s- said I had a doctor’s appointment.”

You muffle a giggle into your palm. “Naughty,” you tease. “Too hard to do your job.”

“Just,” he cuts off, voice feathery. He sounds so close and you haven’t even said anything of substantial value yet. “Tell me,” he says quietly, “what to— mmh, what to do.”

A smirk consumes your features. You try to hide it, but there’s no one here anyway so you’re left grinning at an unpacked box of dental floss like a madwoman. “Why?” you inquire playfully, bask in the sad little whimper he responds with. “Shouldn’t you know how to make yourself cum?”

Another groan of frustration, desperation seeping into his tone when he speaks again. “Baby, please,” he begs, and it feels good. Feels nice to have this big YouTuber begging for you like this, whimpering your name like his doesn’t appear on the top 25 most viewed. “Like when you— ah — when you tell me… what to do.”

Your body feels hot, thighs pressing together with each whimper that falls from his lips. “Okay,” you concede, and he audibly moans in relief. “Tip first,” you instruct softly, eyes defocusing as your brain slowly starts to manifest the image of Jungkook spread out on his bed. Thick thighs, grey boxers pulled taught around them, fat cock between his pretty hands, inked knuckles squeezing around his member. You swallow. You can tell exactly when Jungkook does as you say because another muffled moan fills the speaker. “One finger,” you remind him quickly, head spinning from the mere memory of his dick. “Run it… run it over the slit, bunny.”

“Nngh—“ Jungkook sputters. You can only imagine the face he’s making now, the bottom lip he’s bitten raw by now. He does it a lot; it’s a nervous habit. But as sexy as it looks when you’re in bed, you know he has sensitive lips because of it, bleeds easily if he’s too harsh. You have half the mind to remind him about it now, but then he’s hurriedly gasping out for more. “And, and then? Wha— what then, baby?”

He sounds so sweet, melodic voice dripping with honey. “Touch your balls,” you say a little breathlessly. “Don’t squeeze,” you add, “just roll your palm over them.” Your palm squeezes against your thigh, as if it’s remembering the feel of his body, the soft skin between his thighs when you’re down there. He gets so jittery, thick thighs nearly crushing you if you drag him along too much. “O- Other hand on your cock,” you stumble, thighs squeezed together. “Stroke yourself just like I do, bunny.”

Jungkook complies. “Just like you?” he mumbles, suddenly sounds farther away. As if he’s dropped his phone off to the side. “Fffuck,” he grunts, “m- mouth is so pretty.”

“Hm?” you inquire, so consumed with tampering down your growing arousal for a second that you miss his sentence.

Jungkook’s breath stutters, and for a moment you’re met with the wet squelch of his cock in his hand. And then, “pretty mouth… make me— make me wanna see you cry.”

You bite your lip. “Why,” you say tentatively, finally caving in with a hand fluttering over the front seam of your jeans. Not a question, more of a gentle nudge for him to spill his thoughts.

“Be- Because,” he cries, fucking into his hand. He sounds closer and closer. You have to wonder just how long he had been riled up. It’s been a while since his first message, he was probably desperate by now. “Y- You’re so nice,” he cries, and the sentiment, though oddly out of place, makes your heart squeeze with adoration for the boy on the line. “Wanna be,” he groans, “wanna be so fucking mean to you, baby.”

The sudden change of tone makes you choke on a moan, hand pressing against your mound like it’ll somehow penetrate the thick material of your jeans and give you the sensations you crave. As it stands, it’s a muted feeling you get instead. When your hands fail, his voice compensates. “Fffuck, don’t you— don’t you think about it too?”

Admittedly, no.

Jungkook had always been a gentleman in bed. Always cared for your needs before his own, went out of his way to make you feel pampered and adored during your most vulnerable moments. Contrary to what his online persona might say, he was a good boy. Sweetest boy you knew, touched you like you were made of glass.

So to suddenly learn of this dream— fantasy? kink? —of his that you would certainly enjoy equally as much, well. It made you whimper into your palm, eyes worriedly flickering toward the stockroom’s entrance.

“Why?” you whisper, feeling like a broken doll repeating the same phrase over and over again. You’re suddenly aware of how hot everything was. Your polo felt sticky against your spine, apron too tight, jeans too stuffy. How long had you been hiding in here for? You don’t even know. Hopefully your absence on the floor had gone unnoticed.

Jungkook pants into the line; everything sounds so sticky and wet on his end, hand undoubtedly working away at his cock. “Shit,” he curses, doesn’t really answer your question until you prod a second time. “I- I like it,” he stammers. “When you… fuck, when you look small.” He elaborates before you can even ask, breath heavy and drawn out. He was so close. “When your mouth… when it hurts,” he says, thoughts a scrambled mess. “Like when you— when you cry because my cock is— it’s too big for you.”

A blatant ego boost you’ll ignore for now. Not like you can focus on too many things right now anyway. “Your cock is big, bunny,” you agree softly instead. Your legs feel cramped from crouching so long, so you push yourself to your feet. Except then you’re made aware of how fucking wet you are, panties soaked from the phone call with your boyfriend. You shift and they stick to your folds, make you release a shaky exhale that Jungkook doesn’t miss.

“I— you’re wet,” he says boldly, and this time your meek confirmation isn’t a lie. Jungkook grunts. “Fuck, baby, I—“ cut off by his own whiny cry, probably bucking into his hand like a madman by now. “Wanna, wanna kiss you everywhere,” he says, a call back to his earlier message. Your legs feel like jello. You want him to kiss you everywhere too— lips, tits, cunt that is dripping for him now.

“I- I’ll be over soon,” you stammer, feeling like you’ll pass out if he carries on any further. He sounds so good on the line, soft pants, rough growls. You can’t possibly listen anymore, not when you’re so wet and horny in the middle of your shift. “Just,” you pause, can’t get the image of his pretty cock out of your mind. Every blink makes it more vivid, reminds you of the vein on the underside, the exact shade of the tip.

“What?” Jungkook hisses, voice higher than usual, parts of it lost under the rapid movements of his hand. “Tell me, baby, tell me what to do,” he begs hoarsely, “I’ll do it.” Sounds so desperate and needy, two seconds away from busting all over his hand.

You have to lean against the wall of the stockroom to ground yourself, remind yourself you’re not in the same situation as Jungkook and can’t cum in your pants like a teenager. “J- Just cum,” you choke, eyes fluttering shut.

He must’ve been waiting for that command, because the second the words leave your throat he’s filling the line with breathy groans and cries as he comes all over himself, probably ruins his t-shirt. The sounds have your hips unconsciously bucking forward into nothingness, the frustration of not being able to cum with him manifesting in the form of a tiny little sob. Luckily, he doesn’t catch it.

When it’s all said and done, he’s left panting into the receiver, flooding your speaker with breathy sighs that only make you more and more aroused.

“You’re terrible,” you frown, cheeks flushed, body tingling. You flip your wrist over and check the time; it’s been about sixteen minutes since you disappeared from outside. Sixteen minutes of listening to Jungkook touch himself and moan and whine and whimper. Tease you with new possibilities you had never considered before. And now he’s satisfied and you’re not.

Jungkook chuckles, low and tired. The sound shoots straight to your cunt. “Come over after you shift,” he says, as if you’re not planning to fake a severe case of the flu right now in order to get off early and run to his bed. You only had a little less than two hours of your shift left anyway. Not like they paid you well to begin with. Jungkook shifts, releases one of those saccharine groans as he probably snuggles into his bed, all sweaty and worn out. “Want you to fuck my face, baby.”

You frown, counting to ten to calm yourself down. Another few minutes of listless conversation, and you hang up. Your body feels featherlight, a little woozy as you make your way back out into the floor.

Nothing has changed. Customers pour in and out, your boss scolds you for a display you didn’t do, and life inside the store drags on. No one knows that you’re soaking your panties to hell and back, Jungkook’s soothing moans in your ear. Life goes on.

you shift ends in 20

jungkook♡ sweet jungkook♡ got your seat ready jungkook♡ Attachment: 1 Image

Copyright © 2020, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.

[matwith1t]

A/N: More fluff!! Ahh!! And a request?! 😱  Thank you to the anon who sent it in! Please enjoy some boyfriend Mat content!! Feedback is my favorite thing in the world and I’d love to know every detail of your thoughts!! Thanks a million for all of your kind reblogs/messages/tags about my previous writings 🥺  It means the absolute world to me 🥺  Requests are still open!!! Send ‘em my way if you have any 😎

Request: Mat Barzal taking care of a sick girlfriend !!! Fluffy mat is superior… In which you’re sick and Mat takes care of you.

MASTERLIST | LET’S CHAT 🥂 | Mat Barzal x Reader

Warnings: throwing up // WC: 2.4K // Fluff

Waking up with an excruciating pounding sensation right in the middle of your forehead was less than ideal. And the sun peaking through the slits of the blinds made it even worse. But the one thing that made the headache pain––and the bile churning in your stomach––a little less dull, was the feeling of your boyfriend’s arm around your waist, his face nuzzled into the crook of your neck.

You tried your hardest to concentrate on the soft breaths that came from Mat’s slightly parted lips that fanned your neck. Tried your hardest to concentrate on his hand that slightly squeezed your waist, his telltale sign that he was waking up. And tried your hardest to keep your eyes shut as Mat slid one of his legs between yours.

“Morning,” Mat mumbled as he placed a soft kiss on the base of your neck.

But even that wasn’t enough to stop the discomfort in your stomach as you felt an increase of saliva in the back of your mouth.

Hastily, you threw the sheets off you and stumbled out of bed.

The bathroom door was left wide open and ran as fast as you could to the toilet. And once the lid of the toilet was up, your head faced downward into the bowl, you emptied out the contents of your stomach from the night before. The ugly sound of bile coming up through your esophagus was one you tried your hardest to keep quiet, but it was no use as it echoed off the bathroom walls.

Not even a minute after you bolted into the bathroom alone, you felt a presence behind you. Mat ran his fingers slowly up and down your spine, as his other hand made sure there were no loose strands of hair in front of your face. You clutched the outer rim of the toilet and he was silent as he just offered up his presence.

You felt moisture in the corner of your eyes from squeezing them so tight. But after a few deep breaths, and the wave of nausea floating away, you closed the lid of the seat and flushed the toilet. With your arms on the lid of the toilet, the porcelain felt cool on your skin.

Tilting your head to the side, so that your cheek rested on your arm, you looked up at Mat who had his eyebrows pulled together in worry, “Morning to you too.”

Mat rolled his eyes and let out a soft laugh at your late response to his morning greeting. With his fingers still stroking your spine, he gave you a sympathetic smile, “Feeling better?”

“No.”

At your honest answer, Mat let out another laugh as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of your head, “Let’s get you back to bed.”

With a groan, you told him you wanted to brush your teeth first. So he grabbed you a new toothbrush, and after you brushed your teeth, you sluggishly made your way back to his bed. The lingering pressure of your headache was still present, so you wrapped yourself up in his blankets and buried your head into the pillow he slept on last night.

You felt a dip in the mattress next to where you laid curled up, and then felt a hand slowly rub your shoulder, “Do you want anything to eat? Toast always makes me feel better after I’m sick.”

The thought of putting any food into your stomach at the moment made you even more nauseous than you were a few moments ago. So you shook your head no.

“Tea?” He offered.

Again, you shook your head.

“Water? Or––”

“I just want to sleep,” your voice was muffled as you spoke into the pillow. But you knew Mat heard you when he squeezed your shoulder.

You didn’t want to admit it, but part of you was embarrassed with yourself throwing up in front of Mat. Sure, he was your boyfriend and had most likely seen you in worse situations, but the sudden sickness came out of nowhere. And there was part of you that wanted to be left alone––to sit with your embarrassment until it passed like the nausea––but when you felt his hand retract from your shoulder, you wished his touch didn’t go away.

As Mat stood up, the dip in the mattress was no longer present, and for the third time in the morning, he pressed a gentle kiss on your temple, “Alright.”

You heard his footsteps softly trek out of his room, and you so badly wanted to reach out and ask him to stay. Because you knew that he had the capability to make you feel like the stomach bug would pass instantly, but the logical part of you let him walk away. If he were to get sick, that wouldn’t go over so well with hockey.

Ten minutes later, you heard the door slightly creek open. You barely lifted your head up from the pillow to see Mat walking towards you with a steaming cup of tea and thermometer in his hand. He set the mug of tea down on his nightstand and sat down on the side of the mattress, next to you.

Mat tapped the thermometer on your cheek, “Open up.”

But like before, you just shook your head no, “We already know I’m sick.”

“I just want to know if you have a fever,” he whispered just as soft as the look in his eyes. You didn’t want to have your temperature taken, but when you opened your eyes more and saw his messy hair sticking up in a few directions, affectionate eyes wide in a silent plea, paired with the softest smile you had ever seen, you opened your mouth. Triumphantly, his smile widened as he placed the thermometer under your tongue, “There we go.”

The faint beep of the thermometer working to take your temperature sounded louder in the silence. But when it rang a few times, signaling it was done, you crossed your eyes to see if you could see the final temperature. But Mat had taken the stick out of your mouth and grimaced.

“One-oh-one point eight.”

With a groan, you buried your head back into the pillow, “See, I told you––”

“I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a super high fever,” Mat spoke in a caring voice as he caressed your cheek, “I’m going to pick some stuff up from the store. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Before he could turn away, a whine left your lips as you rolled over and took hold of his wrist, “Don’t go.”

He bent down so he was eye level with you and rested his palm on your forehead, “You’re burning up. I promise it’ll be the fastest trip ever, you won’t even know I’m gone.”

With a hmpf, you let go of his wrist and curled yourself back into a fetal position to stop the chills running through your body. You heard Mat let out a chuckle as he bent down to press another kiss to your temple as he whispered another promise to be back soon.

You tried your best to get some sleep, but with your body chills soon turning into body aches, it was pointless. And with the headache pain still looming about, you didn’t want to scroll through your phone. So you stared up at Mat’s ceiling, and tried to count up to the highest number you could.

You didn’t know what number you were on, but it was long forgotten when you heard his front door open and the rattling of bags together. And soon enough, you saw Mat in the doorway––both hands holding onto plastic pharmacy bags––and couldn’t help but smile.

“I’ll be in soon,” he mirrored your smile, “Promise.”

With a nod, you fell back onto the pillow as a chill ran down your spine. And while you wished he would’ve been back with you sooner, he didn’t break his promise. Because soon enough, Mat pushed the door open with his hip and closed it with the back of his foot. And you would’ve taken a picture of him if the harsh brightness of your phone screen didn’t cause your head to feel like it was splitting in half.

In his right hand, he held a steaming hot bowl of broth. In his left hand, he held a few packages of over the counter medication. Under his chin, pressed in between his chest, he clutched a few magazines, pencils, and word search books. And over his left shoulder hung a heavy blanket.

You felt your shoulders drop at how adorable he looked waddling over to your side of the bed. First, he set the steaming bowl of broth down next to the mug of lukewarm tea. Then, he set the medication down in a pile on the bed. After that, he brought both hands up to successfully take the magazines and word search books out from under his chin without them falling to the ground. And then finally, he shrugged the blanket off his shoulder so that it landed on your face.

“Sorry,” Mat chuckled as you pushed the blanket away. “I called my mom,” he said as he put the puzzle books on his nightstand to sit on the edge of the bed, “She said broth would help you feel better. And told me what medicine to get.”

The explosion of love you felt in your chest was stronger than the sharp pain that shot through your head.

“And I got us a few puzzle books,” he picked up a neon blue book, “I figured it would hurt to look at your phone or any screen, so no Netflix today for us.” He plopped the book down back on the nightstand as he picked up the bowl of broth.

Slowly, you pushed yourself up by your forearms and leaned against the headboard, “For us?”

Mat nodded his head as he stared into the broth, concentrating harder than any person should as they stirred liquid, “Yeah, I don’t want to do anything that would make you feel even worse, so no screens,” he looked up at you and shrugged his shoulders, “I like word searches.”

You let out a small laugh and tilted your head slightly out of admiration for the man sitting in front of you, wondering how on earth you got so lucky.

“And I saw you curl up before I left,” he directed his eyes to the blanket on your lap, “So I figured you needed to be warmer.”

You didn’t think you could love him––or any other person––more than you did in this moment.

“I love you,” you voiced the thought that circled around your mind on repeat.

Like every time Mat heard those three words from your lips, a wide and contiguous smile lit up his face, “I love you, too,” Mat affirmed his love for you as he shoveled up some liquid onto the spoon. You could see a few steam clouds from the spoon, but Mat softly blew on it to cool it down, “Open up.”

He was just as persistent with the broth as he was the thermometer. But like before, you shook your head, “You don’t need to feed me.”

Mat dropped his shoulders, as he jutted out his bottom lip, “Just one spoonful––”

You continued to shake your head, “I’m not hungry.”

Mat rolled his eyes and brought the spoon closer to your face. He let out a deep sigh as you recoiled away, “Please.” But you shook your head no. At your adamance of not wanting Mat to feed you, he let out a deep sigh, “If I give you the bowl, will you eat some?”

While you weren’t hungry in the slightest, the thought of food didn’t make your skin crawl as much as it did before when he offered you toast. Wordlessly, you took the bowl from Mat after he set the spoon in it. And to make him happy, you took three sips of the broth he made for you.

With a satisfied smile, Mat took the blanket and spread it on top of the other blankets you were already swamped under. And with a neon blue word search book, Mat climbed over you to get to the other side of the bed. Once he was next to you under the covers, he leaned his back on the headboard as he grabbed a pencil and opened the book.

Your eyebrows were raised high, an amused expression on your face as you let out a single breathy chuckle through your nose. The sound caused Mat to peer up at you and raise his eyebrows at you, “Yeah?”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting sick?”

Mat let out a pft sound, “It can’t be anything worse than what I could get in the locker room.”

Sinking down into the bed, you brought the multiple blankets you were buried under up under your chin, as you laughed so hard it caused your head to hurt. But the joy you felt course through your body almost made you forget about your body aches. And with Mat’s casual dismissal of whatever virus infected your body, he lifted his arm up for you to come right up next to him.

Happily, you rested your head on his warm chest and looped an arm around the front of his stomach the same time his arm curled around your neck. While it was a little difficult for Mat to complete his word searches, he assured you that he had grabbed the advanced copy so he spent more time than he would’ve liked to find the words.

In record time of shutting your eyes, you fell fast asleep without having to stare up at the ceiling to count up to an obscene number.

While you felt like a brand new person a week later, Mat had started to get the chills and a runny nose. And the day after his first symptoms appeared, he kicked the bedsheets off early in the morning––just like you had––and made a mad dash to the bathroom.

And when Mat called out of practice that morning, he said that he had probably caught something from the locker room.