#and then there was another part where i got an email and it like basically gave me hints of like. whats gonna happen

[starz-collide]

ok i havent listened to the new episode so no spoilers obvi but i just woke up from a dream where i did and it ended with alice just straight up quitting the oiar and leaving the podcast and she had a whole outro with like capcut sparkle effects and everything

[susiephone]

wtf is dracula daily?

i’ve seen a couple people ask this question on my posts about it, so i thought i’d go ahead and clear it up here!

ok so, the classic horror novel “dracula” is an epistolary novel - that means it’s told via letters, diary entries, ship logs, and news articles. (technically the term “epistolary novel” refers to works told solely through letters or emails, but many have expanded it to mean any work that is told via in-universe documents, hence why diaries and logs often get included as well. “frankenstein” is another classic example; the whole framing device is robert walton is recounting the story he heard from victor to his sister via letter. a modern example would be “several people are typing,” which is told via slack messages, or “the perks of being a wallflower,” which is told via letters from charlie to his anonymous pen pal, which is functionally more like you’re reading his diary.)

because of the nature of the narrative, we actually know the exact day nearly everything in dracula happens - the letters, news articles, diary entries, etc. are all dated.

“dracula daily” is a substack project where the novel is broken up into parts, with people who are subscribed to the project getting emails every day something in dracula happens - for example, the novel opens with jonathan harker’s journal entry on may 3, so on may 3, subscribers are emailed that entry. the action of dracula takes place from may 3 - november 6, plus an epilogue set some years later. the project started in 2021 (i think), but fucking BLEW UP in 2022, and they’re doing it again this year! lots of us are very excited - especially people like me who fell behind last time.

why not just read the book?

valid! due to some parts of dracula being told out of chronological order, dracula daily does reorder some things. for example, the first section of dracula is told entirely from jonathan harker’s pov, then the second section switches the pov to mina murray. their sections have some overlap in the timeline, so dracula daily jumps back and forth between their perspectives.

if you want to read the book as bram stoker intended, dracula daily may not be for you. but for a lot of people (myself included!), it breaks up a very long text into easily digestible chunks (....mostly. there is one entry that is 10k words), and the fact that it’s a big project means there are a lot of people reading along with you.

i think there’s also something valuable about experience the slow revelation of wtf is going on along with the characters. the book which you might otherwise get through in a few days is stretched out into months of suspense and agony as you wait for the other shoe to drop, and it’s great.

plus, the whiplash between “jonathan harker’s neverending horror” vs “lucy is basically on the bachelorette” that you get in dracula daily is very very funny.

how do i sign up?

right here! and if you sign up and fall behind in the emails, no worries - the dracula daily website posts past entries so you can catch up.

what if i prefer audiobooks?

have i got great news for you!

like i mentioned before, i couldn’t keep up with the emails last year. part of it is that it is much easier for me to focus on an audiobook or keep up with a podcast than it is for me to sit down and read, especially with longer entries.

this year, there is going to be a podcast titled “re: dracula” that was inspired by dracula daily. every episode will be a dracula daily entry, with a full voice cast! (seriously, if you listen to british podcasts, you will recognize some of these names. the magnus archives and wooden overcoats girlies are WINNING.) you can find that here.

there is also a podcast called “cryptic canticles” that has an already-completed audiodrama of dracula that i’m told is also extremely good, and was also broken up by date. you can find that here.

why do i keep hearing about paprika/the boyfriend squad/lizard fashion/cowboys?

you’ll see.

oh god am i gonna hear about this nerd shit for the rest of the year

yes. sorry.

[writingwithfolklore]

How to Ask for Stuff

Being able and knowing how to ask for things that you want is an incredibly important skill for… y’know, getting what you want. Whether it’s mentorship, feedback, an explanation or quick advice, networking, a job, etc. etc. etc. it's important you ask the right way to have the best chance of success.

There’s three things that should be in your request:

1. Who are you—how are you related?

This should be short and sweet. “I am a university student studying major, and was in professor’s class where you presented last week.” Or “I am a recent graduate looking to get a foothold in blah blah industry, and saw you had a lot of experience on your linkedIn profile.”

You really don’t need more than that to make yourself relevant and create a connection with this person, and it immediately sets you apart as an individual/real person. People are more likely to help people that they feel like they know in some way, rather than a complete stranger. If you are a complete stranger, explain why you decided to reach out to them specifically.

2. What exactly are you looking for

Be as specific as possible. It is far better to say, “I am looking for feedback on the first five pages of my novel, specifically around if the opening grabs the audience.” Than, “I am looking for feedback.”

This part can be a little bit scary because it is the actual asking for what you want part, but if people know exactly what you want, they will find it a lot easier to help you. Other things you can ask for: “I am looking to sit down with you for coffee and discuss your experience in the industry.” Or “I was hoping you may have some leads for where to start with my job search” etc. etc.

3. What will the project/request look like?

This will help the person decide if they have the time or availability to do what you are asking for. If you’re looking to meet with them, include your availability and where or how you are able to meet. If it’s more of a feedback situation, include when you would need notes back by and how you would like to receive said notes. So,

“I am available Monday through Friday after 5pm to meet. Please let me know if you are interested and available within that schedule!”

“If you are interested, I would love the opportunity to get on a Zoom call with you to discuss feedback. I am available any time on weekends, and would prefer if you were able to get back to me by March 1st as I will need time to adjust the piece for the due date.”

Etc. etc.

              It’s important that you maintain a professional and friendly tone, even with people who have already agreed to help you. Some ways of asking for things that I have received that I find very discouraging are:

Disinterested

I got a request that was basically, “help me if you want, I don’t care it doesn’t matter to me either way.” If you don’t care, then why would I care? Only reach out to people you genuinely want to collaborate in some way with, and make clear that you are interested in working with them. We’re not trying to look cool and disinterested here.

Impatient

Everyone is busy all the time. If your person doesn’t reply right away, do not send a message back around the lines of, “um hello??” or “are you going to reply or not?” this comes across as pretty rude and a bit entitled to that person’s time and immediate attention. If your person doesn’t reply, you can send a follow up after a week, and maintain the same tone as in your initial email/message:

“Hi (name), this is a friendly follow-up on my request. If you have any additional questions for me, please let me know. I am also able to accommodate another time slot if needed. Thank you!”

As the asker, it is your job to be flexible. Of course, if your person can’t make your hard deadline or you really can’t make your schedules work, thank them anyway and move on, but if you are able to accommodate them, do so!

Here is an example email to start you off:

Hello (person’s name), My name is (blank) and I am a (major) student/graduate from (blank) University. We met at the (place) job fair last week, and I was really intrigued by your experience in (blah) industry. I was wondering if you would be available to meet with me sometime in the next week to discuss how you got started in the industry and your experience at (company). I am available between (time) and (time) (days of the week), but may be able to accommodate a different time if it would work better for you. Please let me know if you are interested! Thank you, (Full name)

[trippinsorrows]

with me + part eighteen

authors notes: two updates back to back! i felt a lil bad for leaving ya'll on a cliffhanger of sorts. granted, this one kinda does too but....not in a bad way. more of a plot twist, than anything.

status: in progress // masterlist

warnings: angst, fluff, language, suggestive themes

song inspo: with me by destiny’s child

faceclaims

words: 7k

taglist: @pixiedust4000 @yolobloggers @msbigredmachine @southerngirl41 @wanderingreigns @romanreignsbae

24 hours.

It’s been 24 hours of absolute chaos and madness.

24 hours of a rush of conflicting and yet corresponding emotions. Anger. Confusion. Sadness.

In the past 24hrs, your love and basically life story have gone from being known to a select few to now being trending topics on every social media platform. Your Instagram, which was already private, had literally hundreds of follow requests the last time you checked it. There are emails in your inbox from several news platforms requesting interviews and offering exclusives. 

Hell, a couple of people even reached out to you on your LinkedIn.

It’s all so extremely overwhelming and chaotic, so much so that you had to force Alexis to leave and find some way to calm herself down. Her furious energy, while valid as hell, wasn’t helping. And it's not that you don't get it.

You do. God, you do.

You’d like nothing more than to take a steel chair to Mariah’s head, for you and Alexis to do a beatdown part two since the first one seemingly didn’t send a strong enough message.

But, you can’t. And she can’t either.

The whole world now has eyes on you, now is waiting to see what else comes out of this story that isn’t a story for you.

It’s your fucking life.

“We’re definitely looking into our options here, and there are some routes we can take, but without anything from her specifically saying she was going to do anything—”

“Wait.” It’s the first thing you’ve said in this emergency meeting with Joe and his legal team, a couple of intrigued eyes falling on you. “That’s—that’s not exactly true.”

Joe, as you expected, is the first to speak. “What are you talking about?”

This….this is the last conversation you expected to be having right now. The last thing you thought you’d be doing right now. You should be continuing to prepare for the move, decorating the house, planning how you’re going to tell Joe about your pregnancy.

Instead, you’re sitting in your new kitchen surrounded by lawyers, men in suits, and the man you love who you now have to admit to lying over something, at the time, you thought was nothing.

But that nothing has turned into a nightmare that has not only your personal life being used as media fodder but pictures of your sweet, beautiful, four-year-old daughter circulating the internet, just waiting to fall into the hands of the depraved.

That…..that’s what kills you the most.

It’s not even the “tell all” interview you only managed to watch for 10 minutes before having to turn it off. Even staring at her caked face, most likely to hide the lingering bruises from Alexis beating, makes you mad. Almost as mad at the absolute way she’s taken your and Joe’s story and dramatized it to the point of delusions.

Saying you plotted on Joe from the beginning. That you intentionally got pregnant by him. That you were sleeping with multiple men, meaning there’s a chance he could not be the father. That Joe’s ex-wife called and cussed you out, threatening to beat your ass. That you make Joe give you an allowance.

Just lies. Pure, unadulterated lies that make you sick to your stomach.

This whole thing feels like a never ending cycle of nightmares.

“Y/N?” One of the suits saying your name brings you back to this space, this place of here and now where another lie, one of your own making, is about to be revealed.

Licking your lips, you try to explain it as best you can, though there is no good way to come out and admit you weren’t honest with him. “She—she’d been sending me messages.”

“Messages?” Joe’s interruption is fair and expected, but one of his lawyers jumps in before he can continue. 

“Do you still have them?”

Nodding, you pull out your phone, opening Mariah’s thread. You’d blocked and deleted her contact from your phone so it’s just her number as the title for the thread. Reaching the phone to the lawyer, it’s quickly intercepted by Joe.

Just watching his eyes read over the messages, you can almost see his anger growing. He hands the phone over to his lawyer, and you watch as one exchanges the phone with the other.

“This is perfect,” one of the suits shares to the group. “We can definitely slap her with a couple different lawsuits with this evidence. I’m thinking extortion. Most definitely a cease and desist.”

“Defamation too,” someone else chimes. 

Joe isn’t interested in any of that at this moment. He just wants to speak with you alone, that much is painfully obvious. “Can you give us a minute?” He doesn’t wait for a response, just stands up from his seat, motioning for you to follow him.

Nervous about what’s about to ensue, you do so regardless, following him up the stairs and into the first room on the right. 

You start to plead your case as soon as the door is closed. “Joe—”

“You lied to me.”

His tone kills you. You haven’t been on the receiving end of this side of him in months, not since he first found out about Callie. “I—”

“I fucking asked you did she say anything, and you lied to me, Y/N!”

“I didn’t think anything of it, Joe.” You can’t and won’t necessarily defend the lying part, but you will attempt to help him understand your logic that was at play. “Mariah—she’d never done anything remotely close to any of this to make me think she would ever do something like this. I thought—I thought she was just saying shit to get a reaction out of me.”

He stops his pacing, looking at you with a sense of incredulity. “I didn’t ask you what kind of shit she was saying, I asked you if she said anything at all, and you stood there and you lied to me with a straight face!”

“I’m sorry, okay!” There’s a solid attempt to keep your volume down, well aware Callie is only a few rooms down playing, oblivious to all of this chaos unfolding. “But I was in a really bad place during that time, Joe, okay? I—I didn’t care about….lawyers and lawsuits, I just wanted custody of my child back.” Eyes starting to water, you shake your head, asking, “do you have any idea how hard that was for me?”

“Of course, I know, Y/N.” His tone is a little more calm, still angry though. “I was going through the same damn thing.”

“No, you weren’t!” As much as you want to control your emotions in this moment, control your temper, it’s hard when he’s clearly not trying to hear where you were coming from. “You got to see her! You got to speak to her! I didn’t! Mariah didn’t accuse you of awful shit, it was just me!”

“So you don’t think that shit impacted me at all?” His voice still carries anger, but there’s specks of hurt there. You feel bad, you didn’t mean to invalidate him, just wanted to help him see there was a difference. “Seeing you like that? Seeing Callie like that?”

Pressing your hands against your temple, you shut your eyes, explaining, “that’s not what I’m saying, Joe. You’re not listening to me.” 

“You’re right.” His agreement takes you by surprise. You didn’t expect him to be so self-aware. “I’m not listening cuz’ I’m fucking pissed off with you that this all could have been avoided if you had just been honest with me. Our daughter’s photos wouldn’t be all over the fucking internet if you had just told me the truth.”

It’s not hard for you to read between the lines of what he’s saying. But, it is hard for you to stomach what he’s saying. “You blame me for this, don’t you?” And it’s when he looks away, nostrils flared and jaw clenched. “You do….”

“I didn’t for the DCFS situation, because that was absolutely beyond your control. But this…..” He looks up at the ceiling, eyes closed, most likely trying to maintain composure. “I’m gonna go over to Jey and Kaylah’s place for a little bit. I just need to clear my head.”

Your throat constricts. Joe has never been the one to leave in the middle of an argument. He’s that one to always say we’re gonna stay here and figure this out together, so you don’t know what to make of him wanting to leave. 

“Joe, please….” Walking over to him, you place your hands on his chest, forcing him to look at you. “Don’t go, okay? We just—we need to work this out right now.”

“I love you, Y/N. I love you too much to stay here and have this out with you right now, because there’s not many nice things I have to say.” 

There’s a shred of hope that fills you in the way he cups your cheek, staring at you for a minute before he turns to walk out of the door. But the hope is easily dashed at the fact that he still chooses to walk out the door. 

Sniffling, feeling the tears oncoming, you walk out after him only to see he’s already completely descended down the stairs, already out the house most likely. Standing there, you try to keep the tears at bay, try to keep your shit together.

“Mommy….”

“What, Callie!” The second it leaves your voice, the harshness, the volume, the cruelness, you want to melt into the ground. Callie, understandably, looks devastated at you snapping at her. And you feel it too. “Baby, I’m—I’m so sorry—”

She doesn’t give you a chance to grovel because she turns on the heel of her shoes and darts back into her room, slamming the door behind her. 

Your chest tightening, the tears starting to fall. It hits you so hard.

You really fucked up. 

—-------

“You ready to talk yet?”

Joe knew the second he walked into his cousin’s house, grabbed a beer out the fridge and plopped himself on the steps of their back porch that he didn’t come over here to vent. He just needed to get away, to clear and sort through his head so he didn’t end up saying anything worse than what he’s already said to Y/N.

And Kaylah recognized as such. Recognized something must have happened, which is why she allowed him his privacy for the time being.

“Not really,” he answers, finishing off his beer and tossing it to his side.

“Too bad,” Kaylah dismisses. It’s not a major surprise. “Cause I am.” Joe says nothing as she slides down on the step, sitting beside him. When he still says nothing, “what happened, Joe?”

Joe chuckles bitterly. “Check the news. Any of them.”

Kaylah frowns. “You know that’s not what I mean.” She’s very well aware of that part of this shitshow. “What happened with you and Y/N?”

“She lied to me, Kay.” Joe really doesn’t want to talk about this, but he knows he needs to. Knows he eventually has to go back home and face the music. “I had asked her if Mariah had said anything, not even anything bad, just anything in general. She told me no, but that wasn’t the truth, Mariah was sending all kinds of messages alluding to doing something if Y/N didn’t answer her…..now look at what’s happened.” 

Kaylah takes a second to digest what he’s saying. “When did you ask her?”

“When the whole DCFS situation happened. My lawyers were trying to see if we could build some type of case against Mariah.”

Kaylah is smart, always has been, so it’s not difficult for her to put the pieces together. “And you think if she had provided these messages, you could have done something to avoid this latest shitshow?” Joe doesn’t have to answer her question. She already knows his answer. “That’s a big if, Joe, and you know it.”

“Of course, I know it. It’s just…….fuck.” He shuts his eyes, head titled back. “It’s like shit just keeps happening.”

“It’s rough, I can imagine that, but it’s not just rough for you. Y/N is going through the same thing, and instead of sitting here in your misery, blaming her, you two should be handling it together.” Kaylah lifts her finger to silence him when he goes to either agree or protest. “I’m not saying she wasn’t wrong for not telling you the truth, but Joe, we both know that if she had even an inkling that Mariah would do something like this, she would have told you in a heartbeat.” Her voice softens. “She made a mistake.”

“And I know Mariah has put your business out there too now, and I don’t mean to make it seem like this doesn’t impact you as well, but Y/N is the one being dragged to filth on the internet right now. I sincerely hope she hasn’t read some of the stuff being said about her. It’s awful. Mariah lied about so many things and has made Y/N out to be this horrible person when she’s not.”

Joe thinks that’s the part that pisses him off the most, that made him so angry he unintentionally took that anger out on the person being affected the most in this situation. He watched the entire interview Mariah did, heard the way she took parts of the truth and piled a shit ton of lies on top. 

Heard how actually had the fucking audacity to drag Jadah into it, claiming she had texts and recorded phone calls between the two of them talking about how Y/N was a whore and broke up her marriage. All kind of just lies.

And he knows it’s not true, because he knows Jadah. Hell, he spoke to Jadah just this morning. 

It infuriated him even more to read some of the comments, people speaking so cruelly about the woman he loves. Even going as far to drag Callie into the cesspool of bullying. 

A man who doesn’t like not having control, it tears him up to not be able to do anything to dead the shit immediately. 

But…..there are some things he can do, and he can’t do them if he’s sitting here in his feelings.

Joe looks over at Kaylah, gently shoving into her side. “Thank you, Kay.”

“Anytime.” And she means it. Joe is like a brother to her. Always has been. “Now you’ve got twenty minutes to get your sorry ass off my porch and back to your house to take care of business. Cause I know you, Joe. You don’t play about your family. Let that bitch know she’s fucked with the wrong one.”

—-------

“Mama, I really messed up.”

Crying over the phone to your mom at your big age definitely wasn’t in your bingo card for 2024, yet here you are.

Granted, most of what’s happened this year wasn’t in your bingo card anyway, so it lines up.

“Oh, honey. You made a mistake, You’re human. It happens.” Your mom’s voice is soothing on the other side of the phone. “And don’t worry about Joseph. He’s just upset right now. He’ll calm down.”

“He’s right to be upset. I shouldn’t have lied to him.” Sniffling and wiping at your eyes, you bring your legs to your chest. “And look at what my mistake has caused mama. My baby’s face is all over the internet. Personal photos just material for people to make posts and tweets and TikTok’s about.”

It makes you sick to your stomach to think of how low Mariah has gotten in this whole situation. All of those snaps you shared with her of your daughter, precious moments you thought you were sharing with your best friend, she’d sold to whoever would buy them for 15 minutes of fame and a slice of short-lived relevancy.

“None of us knew that girl is as unhinged as she is. You’re not psychic, baby. You had no way of knowing this would happen, and Joseph knows that. He just let his pride get the best of him and took out his frustrations on you, which, make no mistake, is not right. And you definitely need to check him on that.” Your mom briefly switching gears brings a smile and small laugh to your face. “You know I didn’t raise you to take shit from no man, and that includes him.”

“I know….” And you will address it with him, even if deep down something tells you he already feels bad for how he spoke to you, knowing it was wrong. “I just—-I feel like we can’t catch a break. It sometimes makes me wonder if…..if I’m doing the right thing.” The past 24 hours have caused you to experience such a whirlwind of emotions, emotions you’re sure are exacerbated by a pregnancy no one knows about yet. “I would never stop Joe from being in Callie’s life, but if me being with him causes all this mess for him and her then….”

“Don’t do that. Don’t you dare do that.” Your mom’s interjection is fierce and sharp. “That boy loves you. He’d do anything for you and baby girl. Don’t let Mariah trick you into thinking that somehow you being happy with the man you love and father of your child is somehow wrong. Don’t let her win.”

Blowing out a breath, you try to heed to your mom’s guidance. She’s right. You know she’s right. Mariah being psychotic doesn’t change shit about your love for Joe, his love for you, the way he’d do anything for ya’ll and vice versa.

Mariah is just jealous. Dissolving what is otherwise a happy family would bring her nothing but great satisfaction. And over your dead body will you let that bitch get what she wants.

“You’re right.” Shaking your head, you try to counter all of your negative and anxious thoughts with more optimism and logic. “It’s just….it’s hard right now.”

“And it will be for a little while, but that’s when you lean on the people you love, and baby, you got no shortage of that.”

Sniffling, tears drying, you thank her, “thank you, mama.”

“Just let me know if you need me to fly down there.” And you know she will. Know Joe won’t hesitate to pay for a plane ticket for her to come stay with you.

And after you tell him about your pregnancy, you might do just that.

“I will,” you promise, telling her you’ll call or text her later to let her know how everything pans out before ending the call.

Stepping back into the kitchen and sliding the door closed, locking it, the last thing you expect to see is Joe standing in the kitchen.

Gasping, hand over your chest, your shoulders slump as you murmur, “you scared me.”

“I’m sorry.” It’s a layered statement, multiple meanings and several different applications. A knowledge that comes from being with and knowing this man for all these years. 

Walking over to him, you cross your arms over one another. “I shouldn’t have lied to you.”

He shakes his head. “Didn’t give me an excuse to talk to you the way I did or to say the things I did.” And as strange a thought it may be to have in this moment, this is one of the many reasons you love the man before you. Joe is mature and man enough to both admit when he’s fucked up and is always intentional about making it right.

Swallowing, you advise, “this is just a really fucked up situation that neither of us really knows how to process.” Ain’t that the fucking truth. “But, we can handle it…together.”

He gently pulls you into his chest and your eyes shut as he holds you, apologizing into the top of your head.

“I’m sorry too.” you apologize, hand on his chest. “I know that situation was difficult for you too, and I shouldn’t have invalidated your feelings.”

“Neither of us was 100% right.” And he’s correct. He was wrong for lashing out the way he did, and you were wrong for not being honest and invalidating his experience. 

Neither of you could pull the ‘right’ card.

“Agreed.” You murmur, eyes softening as you switch topics a bit. “Callie….I accidentally snapped at her after you left.” The guilt still eats at you for that, for taking out your emotions on your sweet little girl. “I spoke with her and apologized, but….I think she heard us fighting.”

That really kills you. You don’t think it’s entirely unhealthy for kids to hear their parents go at it from time to time, but not at 4. And not for a sensitive child like Callie.

Joe looks equally upset at this, offering, “let me talk to her. If she heard us, she needs to know that me yelling at you wasn’t okay.”

There’s no disagreement nor protest as he heads up the stairs to find Callie.

Joe stands outside Callie’s door with a knock that’s followed by her head snapping up and smile brightening. “Daddy!” She rushes over to him, Joe leaning to pick her up, holding her. “You came back!”

Her words crush him, the idea that she could even think he could ever leave her, leave either of them.

“Of course, baby girl.” Joe moves to the only adult sized chair in her room, holding her on his lap, caressing her cheek. “Callie, I know you heard me and your mom arguing, but I need you to know that I will never leave you or mommy. Daddy was just….very upset, and I took it out on your mom which was wrong.”

In a soft voice, she asks, “did mommy do something bad?”

“No, she just….made a mistake, and that’s okay, because we all make mistakes, but it wasn’t okay for me to yell at her like that.” Joe decides to take this unfortunate occurrence and make it a learning lesson for his daughter. “You never let any lil’ boy yell at you or talk mean to you, you hear me?” Callie nods her head, as he adds. “And if he does, let me know, and I’ll take care of it.”

Callie turns up her nose. “Boys are gross.” She then adds, “cept' you, daddy.”

Joe laughs but quickly agrees. Let her think that as long as she wants. Forever, preferably. He tugs her a bit closer, holding her snug to him. “That’s right. All of em’. Every single one.” 

—-------

Given only a few rooms in the house are fully furnished, the three of you sleep and stay at Joe’s place at night given he doesn’t plan to sell it until you’re all completely moved in. Not feeling like cooking, or rather not feeling like helping Joe cook, you decide on takeout.

Subsequently, ya'll share dinner while watching Finding Nemo 2, the chosen movie of the night by Callie.

There’s extra measures on your end to make sure she’s really forgiven you, needing her to know that you’re truly apologetic, and of course, your inherently kind child shows absolutely no sign that she holds any type of grudge against you.

You couldn’t be any more grateful for her wonderfully big heart.

You handle getting her to bed, seeing that Joe is tired. It’s something you noticed the minute he arrived at the new house from the airport. He looks exhausted. How can he not be? Preparing for WrestleMania, training nonstop, finishing up his documentary, and now this?

A person can only take so much.

You’re actually happy he’ll have a week off post WrestleMania. He needs that. He needs time to just rest.

It doesn’t surprise you that he falls asleep in a matter of minutes, big body laid out over yours as you gently caress his naked back. His heavy shoulders lifting in alignment with his breathing is a soothing source you zone in on while scrolling aimlessly on your phone. Pinterest only. You can’t allow yourself to check out anything else.

That is until you receive a text from Alexis telling you to check Joe’s Instagram. 

For a second, you consider ignoring it, but curiosity gets the best of you.

Logging back into the app, you go straight to his profile, gasping when you see the latest post on the grid. 

It’s a photo of the three of you. One of the ones taken when you’d surprised him at his show back in February. He’s holding Callie who has her arms wrapped around his neck, smiling big at the camera with his other arm hooked around you, your body angled into him, hand on his chest.

It’s one of your favorite photos.

Your eyes drop to his lengthy caption.

@/RomanReigns: I’ve never been one to openly discuss my personal life because, quite frankly, it’s no one’s business. Unfortunately, I’m now forced to do so due to a clearly unwell and pathetic individual who has taken parts of the truth and padded it with lies. My girlfriend and I share one child together. This is my biological child. There’s never been a question of paternity. Her mother never coerced or blackmailed me into shit. Y/N has been villainized as a vindictive gold-digger and liar when that is absolutely bullshit. She is an amazing mother, friend, and partner whom I love fiercely and protectively. The same goes for my daughter. They are my world, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect them. Having our daughter’s photos and personal videos posted all over the internet has been equally heartbreaking as it is infuriating for the both of us. Legal action is currently being pursued for all involved in the doxing and sharing of personal media of my family as well as other atrocities that have taken place behind the scenes you all don’t even know about. All of this is entirely unacceptable and will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. And to everyone who has so much to say about a situation you know nothing about outside of the lies circulating, remember these are real people with real feelings.

But most importantly, keep my girlfriend and daughter’s name out of your fucking mouths.

~Joe

Tears are starting to burn your eyes as you stare down at the man sleeping on top of you. The man who never ceases to amaze you with how far he’ll go to show you just how much he loves and cares about you.

He didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to go against his preference to keep his personal life off the internet. But, he did. He did it to send a message to everyone.

To send a message to Mariah.

You press a gentle kiss against the top of his head, knowing doing so won’t disturb his sleep.

And though against your better judgment, decide to read a few comments, knowing it’s bound to be a batch of mixed reactions. 

@/User1: Damn, Roman said keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth! Watch Will Smith join the match at WrestleMania.

@/User2: Used to be a big fan, but I could never support a cheater. Unfollowing.

@/User3: How many of you actually watched the interview with the “friend”? It’s obvious she’s lying about a lot of things she said, because most of it wasn’t adding up.

@/User4: My thing is why did you hide this kid and girlfriend you supposedly “love” so much? Feels like you got exposed and now you’re trying to save face.

@/User5: This is all so messy and shameful. He definitely needs to lose his title at WM. What a joke and embarrassment to the WWE.

@/User6: It’s funny how so many of you are ignoring the fact that he signed this with his real name. “Roman” is a real person clearly going through heavy shit right now. Who cares about a fucking title?

@/User7: How about you learn to “acknowledge” the truth, Mr. “tribal chief”?

@/UceyJucey: Man, this family right here. We go you, Y/N and Big Dog. For life!

@/BigLexPurr: Ya’ll gon see JOE don’t play about HIS!

@/JonathanFatu: FOE 

@/RomanReigns has turned off comments for this post. 

The comments are to be expected, though it warms you to see familiar names coming to your defense, seeing that while there may be a lot of hatred being spewed your way, there’s still an abundance of love and support that encompasses you.

But, it’s when you come across a reference to the Bloodline that an idea hits you, smashes into you so strongly that you have to wake Joe to get the ball rolling.

“Baby.” He’s knocked out, so it takes a couple of shakes and slaps to finally get him to stir. “Joe!”

Finally, he stirs, sighing loudly as he groans, “fine, you getting on top though.”

Rolling your eyes, you shove his shoulder. “Not that. Can I use one of your cars tomorrow morning? And I need you to stay and watch Callie for a bit.”

At this, he opens his eyes, looking you over with confusion. “Where you going?”

“It’s a surprise. Just….trust me, okay?” Leaning to kiss his cheek, you throw out a quick ‘thank you’ and turn back on your side. Only to squeal quietly when his big hands move you onto your back. One look at him, and you know what he wants. “Joe, it’s like 3 o’clock in the morning.”

“Should have thought about that before you woke me up….” His mouth is on your neck, right hand moving under his shirt that hides your nude body, gripping your breast. “Let me just taste you….”

There’s a strong desire and almost responsibility you feel to press your legs together and direct him to go back to sleep, but raging, most likely pregnancy fueled hormones, along with the fact that you want to enjoy this for as long as you can before pregnancy body stops all sexual acts, are just too damn strong.

So you simply chew on your bottom lip, watching his dark silky head disappear under the covers and enjoy the toe curling ride of fantasy that is his skilled tongue on you.

—-------

You’re out of the house by 7am sharp, the sun still making its way to introduce the new day, but that doesn't matter. 

You’re a woman on a mission, a mission that has a ticking deadline. Joe has to fly back out tomorrow, so you can’t waste one precious moment.

Target has almost everything you need, sans a couple of items that you pick up at Walmart. 

And Alexis, who finally calmed down enough after getting drunk as hell and hooking up with some random she met on the boardwalk, agreed to keep Callie for you for a little bit. It’s a double win, because Callie always has a good time with Alexis, and Alexis can’t catch a murder charge if she’s on babysitting duty.

Of course, Joe being Joe, has a million and one questions. Understandably so.

“Can you at least tell me why you had Alexis come get Callie?” And before you can give him the vaguest answer, he adds on, “or what the hell is in those boxes?”

His question comes from behind as you carry said cake boxes up the steps, reaching the top and offering him a teasing glare. “And you always say I suck at surprises.”

“I’m too old for surprises, baby.”

Baby…..

God, you can’t wait to see his reaction.

“Patience, lover. Patience.” You then gesture with your chin to the first door with a sticky note on it. “Open that one.”

Joe looks taken back, reading the post-it. “Option 1? Option 1 for what?”

This man….. “I see where Callie gets her questioning nature from. Boy, just open the damn door.” 

He rolls his eyes, walking in and looking around. “There’s literally nothing in this room.”

“Yet,” you correct, encouraging him. “Just….be mindful of the layout and what it could be.”

“It can’t be anything considering it’s empty as hell.”

“Joe, I swear to—” You close your eyes, taking a deep breath. “Come on. Let’s look at the other ones.”

And you have him do just that, viewing two more rooms that he doesn’t realize you’ve shortlisted as potential nurseries. He makes his smartass comments, of course, but you also know it’s in jest and he really just wants to know what’s going on. 

So, it’s when you finish and bring him back to the kitchen, directing him to sit on the barstool as you lay out the two boxes in front of him. “You gon tell me why you had me look at empty rooms while you carried boxes?”

“Stop being difficult.” Slapping him on the shoulder, your nerves begin to set in as you motion to the counter. “Pick one to open. Only one.”

Joe’s curious gaze is on you, humor dropping a bit as he asks, in all seriousness. “Y/N, what’s going on?”

“Just…..trust me.” It’s a simple but powerful thing to say given the past couple days. You know he does and know he will. “Pick one.”

Waiting for him to carefully pull the tape off to open the box, you time it perfectly so at the same time he’s lifting the lid, you murmur, “I think it’s a boy too…..”

Joe’s gaze snaps to yours at your statement but also refers back to the now open box. “Y/N….what is this?”

Eyes starting to water, you manage to tease him, “don’t tell me the Tribal Chief suddenly doesn’t know how to read.”

There’s a close and careful watch you have on Joe as his eyes go from left to right, clearly reading the words you have beautifully decorated on the inside of the cake box that’s filled with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies dyed blue with food coloring.

The other box is filled with chocolate chip cookies dyed pink.

Same message located on the lid of the box.

BREAKING NEWS: 

New Bloodline Member Coming Soon. Ready to acknowledge daddy in September, 2024.

He does that one, two, three times before slowly looking back up at you, a level of emotion in his gaze and eyes you’re not sure you’ve ever seen. 

His voice is so low, so imbued with vulnerability that you almost have to ask him to repeat himself. “You serious?”

Shaking your head, you reach out, pushing back some of his hair. “I wouldn't lie to you about this, Leati…….” Taking his hand and placing it on your stomach, you layer your own on top of his. “I’m pregnant…..we’re having another baby.” Sniffling, tears finally starting to spill, you add, “and no one knows but you and me. Not my mom. Not Alexis. Not Callie. Just you and me.” Licking your lips, you acknowledge. “I didn’t do it right the first time, but I’m gonna do everything right this time.”

Joe not saying anything initially makes you second guess yourself. Were you wrong to assume that he would be happy? Given everything that’s happened, has it changed his views on things? You thought that he would be thrilled at the idea of expanding your family, but what if you were wrong?

It’s only seconds later though that he shoots up from the chair, wrapping his strong arms around you, holding you maybe tighter than what’s necessary.

All concern is washed away, a happy giggle leaving your mouth as he spins you around. 

Back on the ground, his hands on your face. “I love you.” His thumbs brush over the apples of your cheek. You swear his eyes are glazed over with unshed tears. “I love you with everything in me.”

“I love you too,” you murmur, choked up and moved by his reaction. He's thrilled. “And I know things are a mess right now, but I couldn’t miss this opportunity to tell you while you’re in town.”

Everything is certainly not the way it should be, but for him to be here, to be with you, and for you to not tell him felt so wrong. You didn't want to make him wait any longer than he needed to.

“September…..” You can see he’s doing the math in his head, hand dropping to your stomach. “You’re three months?”

“Just about. End of March will mark officially three months, but I just found out at the OB-GYN appointment I had. I wanted to tell you right away, but I also wanted to do it in person, because you deserve as much.” You find yourself rambling, probably over-explaining, but the last thing you want is for him to think you’ve been keeping this from him. “It’s up to you, but I do think we should tell Callie first.”

You've thought about it, and to some extent, you have some concern about how she’ll respond. She’s been an only child her whole life, obviously. And she already doesn’t like ‘sharing’ Joe with you sometimes, how will she respond to a brother or sister?

Joe must be reading your mind as he kisses your forehead. “We’ll figure it out.” Another realization also crosses his mind as he connects more dots. “The rooms…..you think one of them could be the nursery.”

Playfully rolling your eyes, you tease him. “Well, it took you long enough to put two and two together.” Yelping, you laugh when Joe squeezes your hip and picks you up, bridal style. “Joe!”

“Let’s go look again,” he implores, and you know it’s because he wants to go again because now he knows this will be the room where your baby will stay in, the room where you’ll nurse him or her, where he’ll finally be able to enjoy being a father from conception to birth. 

It makes this moment even better.

But, you need something else.

You call for him to wait, pointing to the box of cookies. “What?” You ask after he moves close enough for you to grab them. Rubbing your belly, you remind him with all the pride in the world, “mama’s eating for two now.”

—-------

The day is perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

It’s a day where you can temporarily forget all of the bullshit in your life that doesn’t matter in these moments where it’s just the three of you.

Well, four, technically. 

The day is spent shopping, of all things, Joe refusing to leave without you finally getting a bedroom set. The one, ironically, that Alexis pointed out the other day. It really does look like the both of you.

He also might have made a sly comment regarding making good use of the mirror.....

On top of that, you start to casually peruse nursery furniture, nothing too obvious to where Callie can tell. You and Joe haven’t settled on when or how to tell her, but you’re leaning more toward after WrestleMania. He’ll be off that week, so it gives you both time to tackle any big emotions that might come up.

And Joe….

It deeply endears you to notice the little things. He’s always been touchy feely, but his hand seemed to find a space on or near your stomach all day. Gentle kisses pressed against your temple and more “I love you’s” than usual. You know it’s all because he’s wholly and fully happy. This pregnancy means more to him than you could probably ever comprehend.

And being able to make him so happy when he’s made you happier means everything to you.

Even laying in bed together, enjoying your time with each other before he has to leave early in the morning, his big hand is splayed protectively across your stomach. You appreciate all of these moments, know that the next almost six months of your pregnancy will be filled with them.

Even with some dread at trying to navigate this pregnancy with Joe’s crazy work schedule, you’re more happy than anything. Ecstatic that you get to experience this pregnancy with him this time around.

Together. 

Sleep is finally about to overcome you when your phone dings on your nightstand. Tempted to leave it, it’s hard to do so when it vibrates several different times.

Not knowing if it could be something serious or requiring immediate attention, you reach over, unlocking to see you have five texts from an unknown number.

But, the sender is no longer unknown the moment you open the thread.

Unknown: Hi, Y/N. This is Jadah. 

This…..this has to be a joke, has to be some kind of cruel prank that’s all a part of Mariah’s apparent master plan to ruin your life.

Because there’s no way in hell Joe’s ex-wife is texting you. No way in hell. 

But before you can block the number, chalking it up as a cruel prank, you see she’s sent a screenshot of a conversation between her and Joe. Zooming in, you see it’s from around October with them discussing the details of the divorce.

Holy…..shit.

It is her.

Jadah: Just so you know it’s really me…..

And if you weren’t already about to drop your damn phone onto Joe’s head at the fact that thee fucking Jadah is actually texting you right now, her next set of messages nearly send you into cardiac arrest.

Jadah: Super strange/inconvenient way for me to reach out, but given everything that’s going on, I think it’s time we met and talked face to face.

Jadah: Even more, since this hoe got so much to say about OUR lives, I also think it’s time we take back the narrative and pull an Uno reverse card.

Jadah: How do you feel about going on IG Live together?

[seospicybin]

PROFESSIONAL COURTESY.

PART I

Felix x reader. (s,a)

Chapters: Prologue / Part II

Synopsis: Discovering that his new boss is someone he had one night stand with, Felix struggles to separate work life and personal business. And at times, finding himself mixing those two as he works under your dominance. (18,4k words)

Author's note: I had so much fun crafting the smut for this fic so please enjoy responsibly!

On that particular day, Felix wakes up feeling like a fucking champion, even the gloom of Monday morning doesn't faze him, not for a little bit.

He rides his bike to work, getting his usual cup of coffee first at the coffee shop downstairs before waiting for the elevator with the other employees in the building.

Remembering that he still has no one to report his duty to, Felix takes it easy, enjoying his coffee while waiting for the next elevator to arrive since the previous one is packed with people.

He knows he'll be late clocking in to work but the office is empty when he gets there. He looks around, looking for any clues as to where everyone is going and on the way to the meeting too, he bumps into one of the guys from the PR.

"Where is everyone?" He asks, scratching his head in confusion.

"The auditorium," he shortly answers while half jogging his way to the elevator.

Unconsciously, Felix follows him while tightly holding his coffee from spilling, "Why?"

He turns his head at him and gives him a judging gaze, "You didn't get the email?"

Almost a month working without a boss and Felix is already forgot how to do his job, even something as basic as checking his emails. He wouldn't be surprised if they decide to fire him.

"Uh... I think so," Felix stammers.

"The new Editor in Chief comes today," he informs, rushing go get into the elevator.

It hits him that it means he's getting a new boss and there's no more slacking around the office, he soon needs to check his work emails every damn second.

"Are you coming or...?" His colleague asks, holding the elevator door open for him.

Felix swallows air and nods, "Yes."

Even though there's a chance that he'd get fired today, Felix surprisingly doesn't feel worry at all.

-

Is it time to be worried? He knows he should come into your office and introduce himself but all Felix does is looking at you through the glass wall from his desk.

It's going to be awkward coming in there and tells you that the guy you had sex with a couple days ago is your assistant. But he can't keep avoiding it, it's either now or he can pack his stuff and finds another jobs.

Funny thing is he's not worried for himself, he worries about how you'd react to him and finding out that he's working for you.

What if you decided you don't want to work with someone you slept with? Worst thing is what if he got fired because of that sole reason?

Felix grits his teeth and just go for it, fixing his appearance on the reflection while hoping that you're not that petty of a person, firing him just because he has seen you naked, and more.

He checks through the glass window, seeing you standing behind your desk with one hand propped against it and the other hand is holding a file you're reading.

He draws a long, deep breath before walking up to the door of your office and knock on it. It's a scene he is once familiar with but it offers him a different kind of rush.

"Come in," you say without taking your eyes off the file you're reading.

He draws another long breath before turning the door handle and pushes the door inward, he has a courteous sets on his face when he walks in.

With the lacks of preparation, Felix ends up just standing in the middle of your office, blanking out. He has not yet decided how to act around you but certainly, he has to keep things professional.

For the first time, you lower the file you're holding just enough for your eyes to be able to look at him, "Yes?

Hearing your voice makes him nervous but there's this exhilarating feeling as well, like recognizing an old song that he hasn't listened in a long time.

"I'd like to personally welcome you and congratulate you as our new Editor in Chief," he starts, surprised himself with his own eloquence.

He notices that one of your eyebrows raised and you stop reading the file to put all of your attention on him.

"Thank you," you elegantly mutter.

"I'd also like to introduce myself. I'm Felix Lee and I am your... assistant," he says, couldn't believe himself for saying that.

You put down your file this time and look at him without anything blocking your sight.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," you say, pausing for a moment before ending the sentence by addressing his name, "Felix."

When he thought it only happens in movie, Felix is experiencing a coincidental thing like this in his life and it feels even more real after you called his name.

"You're working here," he blurts out, coming from deep within his consciousness.

You give him a perplexed look, "Yes."

"And you are my boss," he innocently remarks, not realizing that he's addressing the situation personally.

"Yes," you firmly answer.

"In other words, I work... under you," he makes another personal remark, along with a sly smile that forms on his small, angular face.

You slightly tilt yout head to the side and calmly answer, "Yes."

Instead of feeling nervous or scared, Felix feels excited that his smile grows wider on his face.

"I love my job," he mutters to himself. He doesn't mean for you to hear it but you seem to catch him talking.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," you say with an intense gaze aimed toward him.

Felix quickly gets a hold of himself and tells himself to wrap it up before he keeps making a fool out of himself. He quickly thinks of something to say to you.

"I said if you need anything, just call me," he manages to say without stammering.

"Will do," you shortly reply.

Before it gets too awkward than it already is, Felix takes a step back and awkwardly heads for the door. As he walks back to his head, he's rethinking of all the things he said to you inside.

"I work under you?" He quotes himself, couldn't believe that those words are coming out of his own mouth.

He crashes himself onto his seat and reclines, he runs his hands through his hair, feeling embarrassed for himself. Suddenly, the thought of getting fired seems like a lot better option for him.

"What a way to make a great first impression!" He scolds himself as he starts busying himself with work.

But is it called first impression when it's the second time he met you?

-

Two weeks later, Felix has a second thought. He doesn't love his job like he thought he would.

It's Friday night and he's still stuck in the office with you after countless hours of meeting. Now, he's on the way to the lobby to get both of your late dinner he ordered an hour ago.

His phone rings the second he exits the elevator, he picks it up while waving his hand to the food courier who has been waiting for him by the reception desk.

"Where are you, man? We've been waiting for you!" His friend says through the phone, skipping on greeting him first.

It's ironic that he used to wait for any chance to go out with his friends, and now, he completely forgot that he has a life outside of work. He's been busy working that having a time for himself is a luxury these days.

"I can't. I'm still at work," he answers while taking the bag of food from the courier.

"Dude, it's—" his friend pauses for a second, "It's past ten. Why are you still at work?"

"Tell me about it!" He groans into the phone, pushing the button to get the elevator with his elbow since his arms are busy holding things.

"Unless you're working at a strip club, I don't see why you need to be there that late," his friend delivers a valid point.

The first rule on assistant 101 is that the assistant can't leave before the boss so unless you tell him to go home, he's chained to his desk. But it's too much to explain to his friend, he wouldn't understand anyway.

"I have to skip tonight," he sighs into the phone, resting his back against the wall while waiting for the elevator to arrive.

"Let's meet sometime this weekend though," he quickly comes up with a solution.

He can hear his friend's sigh of disappointment but no one is more disappointed than him, he wants to go out tonight and have fun, but he simply can't.

"Yeah, okay, see you," his friend says with another sigh.

"Okay," Felix says back, standing on his feet as the elevator dings open.

"Take care, man," his friend hangs up first.

Felix shoves his phone into the pocket of his jeans and then lets out a long sigh in the empty elevator that takes him back to the 8th floor while holding the bag of food close to his chest.

The office is dark because everyone else is already left and living their lives, unlike him. In his defense, he has a reason why he's still here but you, he wonders if you have a life outside of work.

These past two weeks, he's been watching you working non-stop. The first one to arrive but the last one to leave, and he doesn't know anything else about your life in those long work hours, except that you dedicate yourself to your work.

With the way you landed this job through connection, he understands that maybe you're trying to prove that you're not just filling the empty seat in the company.

It's actually kind of sad that people don't see how you've been handling everything after the company gotten hit with so many scandals and slowly helping the company back on its feet again.

He admires you for that but everyone knows that the Rome isn't built in a day and only God knows how long it takes to change people's perception about you.

Felix heads straight to the pantry to prepare the dinner for you, taking out the food, making them look presentable before taking it on a tray for you.

As he's about to enter your office, you come out carrying your bag in one hand and your blazer on the other. You stop on your track once you notice him lingering on the side of the doorway.

"Don't forget to book flights for tomorrow," you tell him, slipping your hand into your blazer as you speak.

He doesn't remember you're telling him to

"Excuse me, what?" He asks, not remembering that you told him to book flights earlier.

You turn to look at him, "It's in the email."

"What email?" He asks in confusion.

"The email I just sent you," you innocently answer like you did not just hear what you just said.

How did he knows about the email you just sent him a while ago? How can he check his emails when he's busy preparing dinner for you? But he realizes that your subordinate, all he does is obey your words.

He looks down at the food he set for you on a tray, "Then what about dinner?"

You give him a confounded look and swing your bag to the other hand, "What dinner?" You innocently ask like you didn't demand it an hour ago.

And you as his superior, you're always right, it's him who's doing his job wrong.

"Just get it done," you say to him, then turn to leave while Felix is standing there still holding a tray of food you didn't remember telling him to order.

He decides to bring it with him to his desk, checking his emails while filling his mouth with your forgotten dinner. He clicks on the email from you, skimming through most of the content and goes to the important part of it.

You mentioned about booking flights for you but not the part where he is also has to book flights for himself because he's coming with you.

It seems like he can't have fun this weekend too.

-

14 hours later, Felix lands in a different city, sleep-deprived and mentally exhausted. The invitation come with compliments to a 5-star hotel and it's such a shame that he'll probably don't have time to enjoy the over-the-top hotel facilities.

He generously tips the luggage porter because you brought a lot for a two days stay and makes sure everything is carefully placed in your room.

"Thank you," he mutters to the porter before closing the door.

He walks further into the suite, seeing you standing by the window while looking out at the view of the city.

"Do you want me to move the luggage to your bedroom?" He asks.

You slowly turn on your feet to look at him, "No, it's fine," you answer while unbuttoning your blazer.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

You fold your blazer and place it on the headrest of the sofa, then takes a seat in the middle, "I want to have dinner before the match. Make a reservation in one of the restaurants in the hotel," you order.

Felix types it fast on his phone instead of using notebook, he never knows how many things you want him to do.

"There's French one. I prefer that," you quickly add, your hand reaches for your foot to take off your shoes one by one.

"French food. Got it," he types faster on his phone, then looks up at you, "Anything else?"

You lean on your seat and sitting there looking at him, "I'm going to rest the whole afternoon and you can come back here at 7 pm sharp."

"7 pm sharp," he repeats to himself.

"I don't like to be disturbed so don't come knocking unless it's urgent," you warn him.

He swallows air and types those words in big, red fonts, "Yes, ma'am."

You give him another look and draw a breathe, "You are dismissed."

Felix collects his duffel bag and not forgetting the 'Do no disturb' sign on the door handle before leaving your suite. He can't believe that he has five hours for himself, four precious hours. He goes to his room, makes a reservation at the French restaurant you wanted and sets alarm for 6.40 pm, not risking coming late to pick you up.

-

It only takes five minutes to get to your suite and he knows he's early but it's better than to be late.

You open the door after his third knock, already dressed in a black dress with a square neck with your hair styled in pretty waves, making him feel undressed in his dark slacks and white fitted shirt.

You keep the door open then walk back inside, you don't say anything but he knows you want him to follow you.

"Do you know who's covering the match?" You ask as you rummage through your bag for some.

Felix fumbles to check his phone, aggressively scrolling through the mails to find the one he's looking for.

"It's Drew and Alma," he answers, feeling satisfied in finding the names fast.

You take a necklace out of a box, walking over to the round mirror hangs on the wall to put it on, "Help me, will you?"

He shoves his phone into his slacks pocket and walks over to you, taking the necklace from your hand to do what you asked him to. You turn around to face the mirror as he carefully places the necklace around your neck, securely clasps it together and when he turns his head, your eyes meet through the mirror for a second.

You look away first and walk back to your bag again to take something else, "Dinner reservation?"

Felix hurriedly takes a step back to where he initially stands, "I already did a reservation for 7.30."

You stand in front of the mirror to apply a fresh coat of lipstick, oddly enough, it makes him uncomfortable, in a way that it feels like he's not allowed to look but he does it anyway.

"Coat," you say to him, gesturing him to take the coat off the hanger.

He immediately goes for it, holding the coat for you so you can easily put it on without a hassle. He almost helps you with your hair as well but you get to it first.

It's the boxing match of the year, most of the hotel guests are also coming to witness it, but you came because of a personal invitation. He doesn't know from who but he's grateful that he get to witness it from the best seats in the house.

You arrive as the opening match has just ended and as the show continues with commentary on the opening match, you walk around to greet the other guests.

Felix recognizes some of the faces, whether they're famous because he has seen them on TV or they're important people in the industry he works in.

"This is my assistant, Felix Lee," you never forget to include hin whenever you introduce yourself to someone and he feels so acknowledged for that. It's also a great chance to make connections within the industry.

You also make time to meet the journalists covering the match for the company, talking a few things in between and takes some pictures after.

Nothing much happened for the rest of the event, but Felix makes sure to snap a few pictures, sending them to his friends just to make them jealous. Busy replying to their salty messages, Felix doesn't notice that you're already getting up after the match result is announced.

"Come on. Time to leave," you tell him, rushing him to get up from his seat.

He guesses you want to leave before everyone is flooding the exit, he keeps following you as you make your way out of the hall and back to the lobby.

You start running toward something... or someone who seems to have been waiting for you by the hotel's fountain park.

"I didn't see you in there," you say, coming up to a girl with blond hair and fancy dressing.

"Not in a million years you'll find me watching a boxing match," she replies with a groan of disgust.

"But shouldn't you in there? I mean..."

"I let them have a boxing match in my hotel just to please my dad," she coyly says as if she didn't just say she owns the hotel.

That explains a lot of things, the invitation and the hotel, she must be the one who invited you, his curiosity is finally answered.

After a while, your friend finally acknowledges him, "Who's that?"

You look over your shoulder at him, oblivious to his presence until she asks about him, "It's my assistant."

"Oh?" She gasps in a rather curious way, she looks at him and offers her hand at him, "I'm Suze."

It's one of the things that astounded him, he always thought that rich people are too good for themselves but that's not the case with you, you can be very demanding at time but respectful? Always and so to other people. Or maybe he hasn't find decent rich people until today to know that.

Felix hurriedly takes Suze's hand and shakes it, "Felix."

"You know it's the only way I could see you," you tell her.

He doesn't know what you mean by that but he sees that Suze understands it right away, she comes to your side and links her arm with you.

"Come on. I'll show you where the real party is!" She says, taking you with her and Felix can only trail behind you like a lost puppy.

-

The club must be super exclusive and strictly private because he sees not many people in there but everyone is having real good time, enjoying their expensive liquors in their booths and generously tipping the strippers working the poles.

Everyone knows who is Suze as they know where to sit her, preparing the best spot in the club for her and not asking everything but to bring bottles of her favorite.

She starts with glasses of prosecco and hands Felix the first drink, once everyone get their drinks, she initiates a toast. He suddenly feels like intruding the girl's night for joining you and your friend so he plans on staying on the other end of the curved sofa to at least, give you some privacy to talk.

"Come here, darling," you call the stripper who happens to walk past the booth.

She comes up to you and stretches her hand at you, "Do you want a dance?"

You take her hand and hold it, "What's your name, gorgeous?"

"Ivy," she replies with a seductive smile.

"Gorgeous Ivy, I want you to give my man there a good time," your head makes a gesture at Felix.

Ivy turns her head at him, already getting in on her action by waving her hand and making eyes at him.

You turn to grab your purse and takes some cash from it, folding it in half, before slipping it in the strap of his white underwear.

"Go easy on him, okay, doll?" You tell her with your hand rests on the side of the thigh.

"Consider it done, honey," she says to you with a quick caress on your cheek.

This exchange between you and the stripper feels like a dream to him, something that is hard for him to perceive as reality. Until Ivy comes to do what you asked her to do, giving him a good time.

However, Felix finds his focus split between enjoying the dance Ivy is giving him or the talk you're having with Suze. He couldn't hear much through the music blasting in the room but he catches glimpses of it.

"...what your family did this time, making you handle the mess..." Suze sighs with smoke billowing out of her mouth.

"They made me. I have to, I have no options or else, they'll take everything from me," you tell her with eyes looking down at your glass of drink.

Suze lights up another cigarette right away and takes a quick drag, "Maybe they're just bluffing. Remember when my family made me stay at that mental retreat thing? They did that just to give me a lesson," she coyly says.

You shake your head and run your hand through your hair, making it disheveled, "I don't think so. I really struck their nerves this time. Big time," you emphasize those words with a heavy sigh.

"Why did you do it in the first place? Why upset them?"

"Because..." you pause to take a sip of your drink and after swallow it down, you continue speaking, "because I want to be free."

"You know we don't really have that much say on who we're going to marry, it's all set in stone," Suze shrugs despite how depressing she sounded, "All we can do is... accept it."

"It's not just about who I want to marry. Heck! I don't even know if I want to get married, I just want to live my life however I want," you say with a distressed sigh, taking a big gulp of your drink after.

"Just marry him and I'm sure they'll leave you alone," Suze simply resolves.

"I don't want to marry him. I don't love him," you argue, sounding desperate as you said it.

"People like us don't do that," Suze remarks, parting her mouth open to let out the curls of white smoke.

"What?" You ask.

"Love."

You suddenly get quiet and stare down at your drink, then a while later, finishing it in one long sip, you don't even wince at the bitter aftertaste.

"Fuck, it's getting bleak, let's have more drink!" She says, putting her cigarette away to break open a new bottle of liquor.

She then calls for another dancer to dance on the pole in the middle of the booth and throwing money at her at ease like those papers that gathered on the table doesn't worth months of rents but all that money is not enough to make you happy.

All that money and you can't afford something as simple as love.

-

Felix manages to not get drunk but what surprised him is how you manage to stay sober after drinking that much. You walk steadily and in straight line in your high heels, the only problem is you can't find the keycard in your purse.

"Let me help you," Felix offers, waiting for you to hand him his purse so he can search it for you.

You have it tucked between your wallet and he hurriedly open the door to your suite, keeping the door open for you. Without waiting for you, he pours a glass of water for you and next to the pitcher of water, he sees that someone has sent a bottle of champagne into your room.

He also notices there's a card that comes with it but before he can read it, you snatch it and throw it straight into the bin.

"Can you check what we wrote on the match result?" You tell him, pulling the bottle of champagne out of the bucket of ice.

"Yes, sure, give me a second," he pulls his phone out of his slacks and opens the webpage to Sports One, it's not hard to look for the article it's the top of the page.

"Read it to me," you order.

But he sees that you're struggling to open the wine, "I can help you with—"

"Read it to me," you repeat your words to him.

Felix better not make you repeat for the third time, so he starts reading the article out loud while you pour yourself some wine, drinking it the first one in one go and refill it again.

"Do you want some?" You suddenly interrupt him in the middle of him reading the article.

"No, thank you," he politely refuses.

"Just one drink," you coax with the glass is already in your hand.

"Okay," he caves in, putting away his phone to receive the glass of wine from you.

But instead of that, you sit on his lap and drink all the wine yourself. Using your thumb, you pull open his mouth and slowly, pouring the wine straight from your mouth.

After so many things that happened tonight, he doesn't expect another thing to happen again but here he is, opening his mouth for you and swallowing the wine you feed him.

Felix finds himself in a situation he once was in and he gets a sense of deja vu.

You wipe the drop of wine escaping the corner of his mouth with your thumb and hold his jaw as you look at him.

"I wonder if you can make it better again," you mutter with those eyes filled with sorrow.

Whatever it is you're going through, he wants to take it away from you or at least, makes you forget about it, even for a fleeting moment. He doesn't know if he can make it better but he can try, and he's willing to try.

Felix decides to take his chance and says, "Yes."

-

Felix meets a different you tonight, not the one who's been bossing him around for the past two weeks but also not the one he met on that eventful night.

The one he's meeting right now is simply a girl who seeks a solace in him and he gives everything in him to give you that.

He kisses you with his hands tenderly holding the side of your face while you're tearing open his shirt so you can roam your hands on his body.

He tilts your head to the side and cupping your face in one hand while the other is groping the your back, looking for the zipper of your dress. You eventually guide his hand to the side of your body where the zipper actually is.

The ripping sound of your zipper being part open is echoing in the room and he slowly pulls the sleeve of your dress, not wasting any second to place a soft kiss on your shoulder. He then drags his lips across your collarbone before pulling the dress down, revealing your body and the matching underwear you're wearing underneath.

He makes a trail of kisses down the front of your body even though he has to drop to his knees, he looks up at you as he kneels in front of you with his hands on each side of your hips.

He presses his lips against your abdomen and softly mutters, "You're so beautiful."

You slip your hand into his hair and tenderly gaze into his brown eyes as he places another long peck on your lower abdomen.

Felix continues his trail of his kisses to the side, placing little kisses down your thigh. To give him more access, he lifts your leg and put it on his shoulder so he can easily plant his mouth on your clothed sex.

"Oh," you loudly moan the second his hot breathe penetrate through the flimsy fabric of your underwear.

That only encourages him to open his mouth wider to take more of you, using his tongue to trace your folds and then gently suck on your bundle of nerves.

You grip his shoulder for support as he continues his delicious assault on you, until your underwear is soaked wet with a mix of your essence and his saliva.

Seeing that you getting a little imbalance from standing on one foot, he hurriedly gets up and wrapped you in his arms again. He kisses you deeply and passionately, in one swift move, he lifts you off your feet and carries you to bed. He then carefully lay you down and hovers above you.

You take the chance to remove his shirt and toss it away, then pull him for a kiss, a kiss that seems to you is more essential than breathing.

As kisses being exchanged between your lips and his, pieces of clothing are taken off until there's nothing left on both of your bodies. It's his skin rubbing against your skin, creating heat that sends the temperature rising and keep on rising.

Felix takes his wallet out of the back pocket before letting the slacks drops onto the floor, taking the foil packet from one of the compartments.

He takes a moment to concentrate on putting on protection, sitting on the end of the bed and slowly rolls the rubber down his stiff cock. Once he makes sure he puts it on properly, he joins you as you sit with your legs open on the bed.

Felix crashes his lips against yours again while his hand dives into your wetness. He slowly pulls away to take a breath in between kisses and about to kiss you again when you suddenly back away, the first thought that crosses his mind is he does something wrong.

"What is... what's wrong?" He stammers, licking his lips in confusion.

"I have one condition," you tell him.

That's a relief to know that it's not about him at all but he gets curious to find out what's that one condition and why you choose now to tell him.

"Okay," he says with a faltering eyes.

You grab his chin and bring his face close enough that your warm breath fanning his lips, "You can't stop until I tell you to."

You lay your hand flat on his chest, tilting your head to the side and gently nibble on his lower lip, "Get it?"

Felix can't back out now, not when he's all aroused and his cock is swollen and throbs to be inside you, and his focus is easily swayed by your hand that is lightly caressing his abs.

You tilt his head and force him to look at you, "I can't hear you, baby."

He hasn't said anything but it's obvious that you demand a verbal answer from him, whether he agrees to the one condition or not.

"Yes," he hastily replies before you take his silence as refusal.

"Yes," he says again with a repeated nod.

You reward his obedience with a deep kiss on his lips and pull away with a smile on your face, then you roll over to lay on your stomach and part your legs open for him, exposing your gushing entrance to him.

Felix swallows hard at the visual that makes his cock twitches between his legs.

You slowly look over your shoulder at him and catch him just looking at you with wide and lustful eyes. You take his hand and put it on your waist.

"Lie on top of me," you instruct.

He does what you ask, positioning himself between your legs then slowly, laying himself on top of you. His elbow propped against the mattress to keep himself from crushing you.

"Mmh... oh," you moan into his mouth as your lips collides in a rapturous kiss once more. You're guiding his hand to your breast so he can fondle at it while he keeps kissing you.

After a moment, you grip his forearm and mutters, "I don't think I can wait anymore."

He kisses your open mouth, "Yeah?"

"Put that beautiful cock inside me now," you say in a very casual manner like you didn't just make him wait a long time to do that.

Felix takes a moment just to prepare himself, making a trail of kisses down your spine and stopping as his lips land on your ass cheek. He's kneading on it, feeling your ample flesh that mold into his hand and finally, slides his fingers down to your wetness.

You're so hot and wet, and you're jutting your ass up for him, ready to take him. Oh, he can't find anything sexier than this.

Felix can't wait for another second, he wants you, his body is aching for you so he aims the tip of his cock into your entrance and slowly, sinking himself into you.

He can't hear himself moaning but he can hear yours, low and hoarse with your hands crumpling the sheet under you.

"Oh, my... so good," you hum into your pillow.

Felix lies onto your back again, giving you the closeness that you seek. He kisses you along your shoulders, your neck and up to your neck, and ultimately, your lips that endlessly offering him the sweet taste of your kiss, all while rocking his hips himself into you at a steady pace.

"Harder, harder," you demand while grabbing his hand that rests next to your hand.

It's taking everything in him not to come, he doesn't want to disappoint you by not following the one condition you set for him. He can't stop because you and you're nowhere close to tell him to stop.

The sounds of his hips slapping against your ass is making him losing his mind, along with the faith he has for himself that he can adhere to your one condition.

As if you sense it that his conviction is waning, you intertwine your hand with his and whine, "Don't stop! Don't stop!"

Felix takes a deep breathe while keeping the motion of his hips going, relentless thrusting himself into you while actively telling his brain not to shoot his load yet.

"You're so deep, oh... I can feel you everywhere," you whine, pulling him close by the neck to kiss him.

The kiss breaks as you loudly moan and your eyes are screwed shut, overwhelmed by the pleasure of his cock hitting you right on the spot repeatedly.

"Keep going, oh..." the rest of your sentence is incoherent ot his brain is clouded with lust to be able to process it.

Felix puts all of him into it, his strength and the last shred of sanity that still clung to him, he doesn't care that he's growling like a hungry animal.

It's when you start pushing back against him, he knows that you're both close. A few thrusts later, you both collapse onto the bed as waves of pleasure washing over you.

As for Felix, he feels exceptionally relieved, he got his release and the satisfaction that he successfully kept his promise to you.

The first thing you both do after gained your senses back is to search for each other's lips and locked it together in a breathless kiss.

"I hope you have another condom in your wallet," you mutter to him.

He stiffens against your kiss, bamboozled by what you said. He looks at you and you look back into his eyes.

Softly, you grab his chin and swipe your thumb across his lips, "You can't stop until I tell you, remember?"

-

It's almost like Felix is repeating that day he first met you. He is in a hotel room, the bed is empty when he woke up and he's naked under the cover. He looks around to confirm that he really spent another night with you again.

However, this time is different. The previous time, you were a mere stranger to him but now, you are his boss and that changes things between you and him.

You're his boss but also someone he's casually having sex with? It does sounds sexy when he puts it that way but this complicates things.

There's a knock on the door and Felix takes that as his cue to leave before you can catch him. He's scrambles to find all of his clothes that scattered on the floor, starting by putting his underwear and his slacks next.

As he works to zip his fly, you appear on the doorway of the bathroom with your hair and skin glistening wet.

"That must be breakfast. Can you get it?" You casually say to him while tying the belt on your bathrobe.

"Yes, sure," he reflexively answers because it seems like its his default now to say yes to everything you said.

Without putting his shirt on first, Felix heads to the door to open it and it's indeed the breakfast you ordered. He lets the hotel staff serves the food on the small dining table and waits until the staff leaves to makes his leave as well.

However, you catch him before he can make his moves, "Coffee?" you offer while lifting the coffee pot to fill a cup.

"Uh... yes," he stammers.

You fill the other cup for him and then turns your head at him, "Aren't you going to sit or...?"

Aware that he's half-naked, he keeps hugging himself and covering his bare chest with his hands as he takes a seat on the opposite of the dining table from you.

"I don't know what you want so I ordered most of everything," you say, carefully taking a sip of your steaming hot coffeee.

That explains the various selections of breakfast laid out in front of him. Not waiting for you to tell him what to do, Felix reaches for the plate of toast and takes a piece, lathering it with butter to finally taking a bite of it while you opt for a bowl of fruits.

Suddenly, this feels normal, you and him having breakfast together on a peaceful Sunday morning.

"The blueberries are nice," you casually say while shoving a blueberry into your mouth.

He's not sure if you're just making a remark or suggesting it to him, but it feels wrong to not responding, "Yeah?"

"Mmh," you reply with a nod.

"Maybe I should try some," he says, getting comfortable talking in a casual manner to you.

Another cup of coffee later, you switch to orange juice, sipping it while reading something on your phone.

"What time is our flight again?"

Felix has to rake his brain to get an answer for you, "I'm sure it's at 3.15," he tells you.

You check the time and nod, "Then we can check out after lunch," you say.

"Do you want to reserve a table for lunch? At one of the hotel restaurants?"

"No, it's fine."

His brain is trained to record everything you said as he knows you don't like having to repeat your orders to him.

"Alright," he responds with a nod while listing everything in his head.

You look up from your phone and look him in the eyes, "You're free for the rest of the morning. You can come pick me up at 1 pm."

Now, he takes that as his cue to leave and time to get back to reality. He finishes his cup of coffee and gets up from his chair.

"I'll get everything prepared," he says.

He goes to the bedroom to pick up the rest of his clothes and putting them on, not forgetting his wallet that somehow ended up lying under the bed.

He knows he has say something to you before leaving the room, "I'll excuse myself."

You put down your glass and prop a hand under your chin, "Felix?"

He makes a 180 turns and looks at you, "Yes?"

"Keep in mind that you're working for me so when you come back here, we're going to act professional," you tell him with a rather assertive tone.

Felix knows well that it's not a request or a command, it's how things should be and he agrees that he should be able to keep these two things separated.

"Are we clear?" You ask for confirmation.

"Crystal," he shortly replies.

-

A week later, Felix finds it easy to keep those two things separate when his personal life is almost nonexistent and you keep things strictly business.

It's almost like that night never happened and that version of you seems like a distant memory to him now along with the one he first met that night, the girl who walked into the hotel barefooted.

The version of you he's having now is the workaholic and it's fitting since it's the busiest time at Sports One office, everyone is busy preparing the annual issue.

The main focus is the exclusive interview with the golf legend, David Kent and you carry the most important task of all that is to write it.

Felix has been struggling to keep up with everything, his eyes never stray away from the computer screen, scanning through emails and responding to them as fast as he could.

Before something else pops up on the computer screen, he rushes to the pantry to make himself another cup of coffee to keep functioning.

"I've never seen you worked this hard," Yoon appears from behind him as usual.

"Not today, Yoon!" He stops her before she continues dragging him down the gloomy path.

"Okay. Fair enough," she says, taking a paper cup from the pile and fills it with coffee.

He only left for a few minutes to peacefully enjoy his coffee but when he comes back, he finds you standing behind his desk, going through his computer.

Hearing his footsteps, you glance up and glare at him, "Why aren't you on your desk?"

He's never heard you this upset and tense, he knows he should answer you properly, "I was getting coffee but I—"

"My office!" You cut him off and trudge your way into your office.

You never cut him off, ever so this only means that you're not upset, you're furious about something and he doesn't know what is it. He's just standing there flummoxed, wondering what got him into this situation.

You appear from the doorway of your office and glare at him, "My office. Now!"

Oh, no, Felix just made you repeat your words again so he wastes not another second to get into your office and closes the door before standing in front of you, ready to face the music.

"Is there something—"

"On the schedule, it says that the second interview with Mr. Kent is today at 4pm," you say with your jaws clenched.

He knows your schedule by heart so he nods to confirm, "Yes."

"Then why did I get a call from his assistant telling me that he has left for Japan?" You lean forward on the desk and intensely staring into his eyes.

Flabbergasted, Felix lets out an awkward chuckle and says, "But that doesn't make sense. They can't just reschedule without informing us first."

"They actually sent an email about the reschedule to you."

His palms start to sweat so he rubs them down the side of his jeans, "The last time we corresponded was about the questions for the interview."

"I checked your emails and it's there. I even saw that you read it but didn't forward it to me," you're not only refuting his words but also catching his errors.

"I would have known if they sent me the email, I would have—"

"It was sent last night at 8.23pm to be exact," you come with a definite answer.

Fuck! Yesterday, he was busy running around the office and preparing meetings while at the same time, busy calling the clients for you. He may have skipped through the email without he intended to which makes him responsible to this.

You shift to one side of your chair and give him a judging look, "You know what Felix, you could have prevented it from happening."

He starts to sweat all over knowing that his job is on the line but it's strange that what he hates the most is making you disappointed in him, and probably, the whole office too since it's the exclusive interview.

"You could have doublechecked everything and confirm it with his assistant..." you pause to let out a sigh, then you snidely smile at him and continue, "But you didn't."

He makes this mess therefore he has to clean it up, he quickly thinks of something to solve this, and he'll give everything in him to take responsibility.

"I'll do anything to make up for it. I'm sure we can make a new appointment or..." he's stuttering, conveying a few solutions to the issue.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" You say with a calm yet piercing tone, "He left for Japan an hour ago."

He has to wait until he lands so he can try and arrange a new meeting. Even if he did manage to secure an appointment, he has to fly to Japan for the interview and that takes more time, and it's only days away from the release of the annual issue.

In other words, there's nothing he can do to fix it.

"I'm going to be honest with you, Felix," you say as you press your fingers to your temple.

"I've been working with you for more than a month now and I was right about my first impression on you, you don't have what it takes for the job."

There's a lump forming in his throat but the more he swallows, the more it's clogging his windpipe, making it hard for him to breath.

"But I told myself to give you the benefit of the doubt and well, you did the job in which we paid you for, an adequate assistant."

His hands are trembling so he clasps them together to not let you see them while continously listening to you even though every word you said are rather sharp and hurt him in places.

"And now, I'm not sure that you're still an adequate assistant," you finish your sentence with a heavy sigh.

His jaws are clenched and unclenched, he's mad but not at you. He's mad at himself and he deserves to hear every word you said.

But he'd rather have you screamed and called him stupid than have you just quietly sitting there and looking at him in profound disappointment.

After a moment passes in agonizing silence, you pick up your phone and start scrolling to find something,

"You're dismissed," you bitterly say to him.

Felix doesn't want to back down without, at least, offering his help to fix the mess he made.

"I'm sure I can help you with something," his voice deepens, heavy with resentments.

You look up from your phone and look at him again, "What you can do now is reconsider whether you want to keep doing this job or not."

That feels like a hard slap on his face and he knows he's not welcomed here anymore. He gives you a nod to excuse himself out of your office since he can't seem to mutter any words without getting emotional.

With heavy steps, he walks back to his desk and collapses onto his chair. It seems like no one knows what just happened in your office and that's good, he wants to wallow about everything by himself.

He roughly runs his hands through his hair and leans back on his chair, the deep breathe he took are not helping to lessen the tightness in his chest.

He's thinking about what you said to him, replaying everything in the back of his head and he hates himself more for that. Moreover, he did what you asked him to do, reconsider whether he wants to keep his job or not.

One thing becomes clear to him, he's truly unfit for the job.

He rolls his chair toward his desk, opens his computer and starts working on his resignation letter.

-

The next day, you're not coming to the office.

Usually, you would have notified him about it so in case a client asks for you, he knows what to say. It seems like you're no longer consider him as your assistant.

Felix should be glad because that means you're expecting him to quit his job so handing you the resignation letter wouldn't be a surprise to you.

Since he's still employed, he continues his job, answering emails and taking calls for you, explaining your absence as much as he could to whoever asked to speak to you.

"Heard you messed up yesterday," Yoon appears from behind his computer this time.

Of course, Yoon knows about it and won't pass the chance to celebrate his downfall with a fake, emphatic smile.

"No need to say it, I know," she says, stopping him from answering it.

Felix doesn't have the energy to deal with her so he lets her dancing on his misery while he mindlessly reading something on his computer.

"Do you know why she's not coming to the office today?" Yoon curiously asks.

He wants to make up something but she'd know that he's lying so he decides not to even try, "I don't know."

"Well, I know," she says with a bragging smile.

"And I don't want to know," he hastily responds, but he's not really mean it. He actually wants to know why you're not coming to the office and if it has anything to do with him.

Yoon comes into his desk and sits on the edge while hugging a bunch of files close to her chest, "I'm going to let you know anyway," she says.

He pretends not to care about it and keeps his focus on the article that he's not reading at all.

Yoon leans to his side and whispers, "That's because she's in Japan."

He stays unbothered even though he's been trying to read the same paragraph over and over again.

"Not only that someone got her another appointment with Mr. David Kent but also lent her his private jet to take her straight to Japan," Yoon adds, sounding excited to tell him that.

Without looking, Felix knows Yoon is seeking any reactions from him but he's not going to give her the satisfaction.

"I did my own research and I kind of figured who that generous person is..." she says while nodding her head, then she lets out a chuckle, "But I'm not going to tell you that because you don't care."

Felix almost turns his head and glares at her for not telling him about the mysterious guy doing all the extra efforts for you.

Yoon hops off his desk and goes around his desk, "You know what? I'll tell you about it later," she teasingly says just to annoy him.

She starts walking then stops after a few steps, she turns around to look at him, "That if you didn't get fired by the end of the day," she makes a snide remarks with a laugh that echoing behind her as she walks away.

Felix is not getting fired, he chooses to resign from his position. Knowing that you won't be back soon and he doesn't want to wait the whole weekend to prolong the pain, he decides to put his resignation letter on your desk before he leaves today.

When he gets back to his desk and grabs his backpack full of his things, his heart gets heavy. He believes it's not coming from knowing that he's losing the job but knowing that the last impression he made on you is not a pleasant one.

The worst thing is that would be the last time Felix saw you.

-

Felix shouldn't think much about it but he keeps guessing what your reaction would be when you found his resignation letter on your desk.

Surprised? Not likely.

Angry? If it's the way he delivers his resignation letter then yes, you'd be likely angry.

Sad? Definitely not. He won't even dare to think that you feel the slightest bit of sad about him leaving.

It's Saturday night and instead of going out to fully enjoy his freedom, he stays in and mope around, making himself miserable in each passing hour.

The knocks on the door are so faint that he thinks he's imagining it. He doesn't order food but maybe he did and forgot about it.

"Coming!" He shouts toward the door as the knocks come again.

He opens the door with zero expectations and finds you standing there, he has to take a double take to make sure that it's really you.

"Hi," you greet with a smile.

Felix got used to seeing you in your formal attire of shirts and tight skirts, but now you're dressed casually in a simple blouse and blue jeans.

"Hey," he innocently greets back and it feels strange saying that to you.

"Am I welcomed or should I leave?" You ask as he just stands there looking at you in bewilderment.

"You may come in," he says, awkwardly stepping to the side to let you in.

You step in, clasping your purse on one side while looking around his place as you step further, "It's a nice house."

That's kind of you to say so when you can see how untidy the place is, Felix rushes to collect the dirty laundry scattering out of the laundry basket and puts all the dirty dishes into the sink.

"Thank you," he sheepishly says then notices the mess on the table.

You end up putting down your expensive looking bag on the sofa and stand there looking at him, "May I sit down?"

"Yes, of course, please, sit down, please," he realizes he's acting stupid when he's the owner of the house therefore it's his duty to treat his guest well.

"Can I offer you a drink?" He asks, finding it easy to ask that to you, "Coffee, juice, beer...?"

Why would he offers you beer? You're not one of his male friends, you're a classy lady who drinks wine and can tell the difference between cabernet and burgundy.

"Water is fine," you answer.

"Water, okay," he foolishly repeated out loud. He can hear you lowly chuckling at that and he hurriedly turns around to get you a glass of water.

"Thank you," you mutter your gratitude as he hands you your glass of water and not hesitate to take a small sip.

Felix sits on the smaller sofa across from you and the question finally gets to him: Why did you come here? But he can't just directly ask you that, that's rude.

"Are you living with a housemate?" You curiously ask.

It seems like you notice the other room in the house, "Yes, but he's studying abroad so now it's just me."

"Oh," you respond with a small nod.

Then again, he's the owner of the house, he has the right to ask your intention of why you came here. He carefully picks his words before saying them to you and—

"Do you mind if we order dinner? The last meal I had was on the flight back home," you ask, taking out your phone from your purse, "I'm a little hungry right now."

He refrains from asking and getting up from the sofa, "Not at all. I have a few restaurants numbers here if you..." his words trailing off as he realizes he's babbling again and waddling to the restaurant flyers stuck to the door of his fridge.

"What would you like to eat for dinner?"

Felix once again gets the feeling that this is normal, you and him having dinner together on his small dining table. He's not eating with the girl he works for but a girl who wholeheartedly eating her food and enjoying every bite of it.

After dinner, you offered to wash the dishes but he strongly refused, so now you wander around the house with a can of cold beer in hand and he can't comprehend it. How is it real?

With the silence that settles into the space, he takes this as an opportunity to ask you the reason why you came here. He stands in the middle of the room and slightly leans against the back of the sofa.

"Can I ask you something?" He boldly asks.

You turn around from scanning his shelf full of figurines, "I'm not coming here as your boss if that's what you're asking," you say, playing with one of the figurines.

Maybe that's what his question should be: who are you coming here as? As his boss or...?

"And what you're coming here as?" He asks, genuinely curious with your answer.

You calmly put back the figurine to where it belongs and look at him, "As someone you're casually having sex with," you answer.

So you did acknowledge those two instances and not forgetting them as they were, somehow, he feels a little flustered by the way you put it bluntly like that.

You're slowly making your way to him and each footsteps echoing in the room, making his heart pounding faster and faster.

You stop just one step away from him, "Which brings me to a question," you say.

"Yeah?" His deep voice drops lower without he intending to.

"Can I stay the night over?"

What is it about you that makes him wants to do anything you ask, it's like his default settings to always submit to your wishes. The next thing he knows, you're borrowing his clothes to sleep in.

He's making the bed for you when you come out of the bathroom in his t-shirt that is too big on you and his eyes wander down only to see that you ditch the pants he's lending you.

"The pants is too big," you inform him as you fold your clothes and put the neat pile on top of his dresser.

"You can sleep here and I'll take the couch," he says as he finishes changing the bedsheets.

"Why?" You ask in a rather sad tone.

"I don't think you'd be comfortable sharing the bed with me," he simply answers.

"We had sex twice. I'm sure we're more than comfortable sharing the bed together," you say, climbing onto the bed and getting under the cover.

You're so straightforward and a little too honest, people may mistaken that for rudeness but no to him, he finds it endearing instead.

"Come on! I hate sleeping alone," you entice him by patting the space next to you.

Felix hates how obedient he is to you like he has no power to say no to you, he gets onto the bed and awkwardly lays down next to you.

You take his arm out so you can rest your head on it and you mold yourself to the side of his body, then rest your hand on his chest.

"This is so much better," you hum as you close your eyes.

His heart beats faster inside his chest and he believes you can hear it too but as the moment passes in comfortable silence, he finds himself getting cozy cuddling you, he allows his hand to play with your hair and rests it on your shoulder.

"That day at the office..." you murmur close to his neck.

His eyes snap open at the mention of that day but he remains calm, "Mmh?"

You tilt your head and look at him, "Want to talk about it?"

"I don't know," he honestly says, he hates to ruin this bubble of comfort by talking about it.

You gently hold his chin and turn his head to make him look at you, "I want you to know that what I said... I was being objective toward your job. It has nothing to do with this."

What you're doing is making sure he's not mixing everything up, thinking that you're being personal about his job when in fact, you don't and he's well aware of that.

"I know," he says.

"Then why you seem so mad at me?" You ask with sad eyes.

"I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself for disappointing you," he admits, and it feels easy to tell you about it in this setting.

"Oh, baby," You coo, caressing his cheek as you softly gaze into his eyes, "So what are you going to do now?"

"I need to try harder and prove to you that I can be more than adequate at my job," he confidently tells you with a smile.

You place a sweet kiss on his cheek and smile, "And you will."

He doesn't even know where he gets the confidence from but he feels it and it's overflowing, he suddenly feels invincible and nothing is impossible to him.

With the confidence surging all over his body, he leans in and kisses you. From the way you kiss him back and opening your mouth for him, he can tell you want it as much as him. Your hand slips under his t-shirt, running it up his chest and down to his abdomen, trailing the outline of his abs.

"Let me make you feel better, mmh?" You say against his lips and slide your hand down to the waistband of his sweatpants.

Felix already feels hot all over even though your hand hasn't made any contact with his hardening member yet. You tease him by running your hand around his inner thighs, cupping his clothed member and stroke it.

"Oh, mmh..." he moans against your mouth, almost growling when you pull his sweatpants down just enough to let his erection sprung free.

"You're so hard," you mutter to him with a sly smile. You break the kiss to look down and see your hand wrapped around his swollen cock.

Felix can't help but look down as well, watching you feeling every inch of his length with your fingers and using your thumb to tease the tip of his cock.

"So hot," you sigh with your hot breath brushing his ear.

He turns his head to meet your lustful gaze and pulls you into a kiss, a kiss that takes things further as your hand moves at a steady pace, stroking his length and giving just the right pressure to please him.

"Faster?"

He repeatedly nods with a needy whimper that escapes his parted mouth.

You pick up the pace, pumping his cock faster than before while continously placing slobbering kisses on his lips and neck.

"You like that?" You ask with your heavy breathing fanning his neck.

"Yeah," he breathlessly answers.

Sensing that he's getting there, you keep a steady pace and the intensity of your grip around his cock. To help him getting closer to his release, you also keep murmuring words into his ear.

"You're getting bigger in my hand."

"You're going to cum for me, right?"

"Make a mess in my hand, mmh?"

Felix's eyes are fluttering shut as he gets closer to his high, his legs are shaking and his cock is twitching in your hand. You're just too good at this, tirelessly pumping his cock just to get him to his—

"Oh, oh, oh..." a series of moans slipping out of his mouth as he cums.

You don't stop but rather slowing down your pumping as pearly white of his cum spurting out of the tip of his cock and dripping down his length and your hand.

"Oh, fu..." he can't even finish his word, he's overwhelmed with pleasure that washes over him in ebbs and flows.

You press a kiss on his neck and a longer one on his jaw, he turns his head slightly to the side, offering his lips for you to kiss next.

The kiss tastes much sweeter, making him crave for it that he crashes his lips on you again. You let go first yet hold his face close.

"Feel better now?"

Felix smiles at you and answers, "A lot better."

-

Everyone likes eggs, right? But he doesn't know how do you like your eggs is the problem. Scrambled? Sunnyside up? Boiled? Poached? Or you know, one of those fancy egg dishes.

What is it called? Egg Benedict? He searches how to cook it on the internet and gives up completely after finding out how.

He decides to settle with the simplest and one that he can cook it best, scrambled eggs with toast and a steaming mug of coffee, two creams and no sugar just how you like it.

He puts the breakfast on the tray and cautiously carrying it to the bedroom. He pushes the door with his foot, doing it quietly not to startle you.

Felix finds you still sleeping basked with the sunlight that comes through the window, creating a hazy glow around you and he couldn't find it in him to wake you up.

However, he can't let the breakfast get cold considering that he puts a lot of effort into it. He starts by sitting on the edge of the bed and hesitantly places his hand on your shoulder.

He rubs your arm and then gently squeezes your shoulder, "Hey," he sweetly murmurs.

Not enough to wake you up, he tries again by cupping your jaw in his hand, "Hey, wake up."

Slowly and beautifully, your eyes are fluttering open and warmly looking at him. You take your time to gather your senses and rub the sleep off your eyes.

"Good morning," he mutters with an affectionate pat on your head.

"Morning," you reply with a hoarse voice, and slowly getting up to sit with your back against the headboard of the bed, "I smell coffee."

With a proud smile, he presents you a tray full of breakfast he made for you, he carefully sets it on the space between him and you on the bed.

"You made these?" You ask as you tuck your hair behind your ears.

"What's with the tone of surprise?" He playfully responds.

You softly laugh and decide to start with a small sip of coffee, letting the caffeine helps you waking up from the inside.

"I hope you like it," he says, putting the cutlery close to your hand.

You waste no time to dig into the breakfast, taking a bite of the toast and then followed with a forkful of scrambled egg.

"This is delicious," you compliment him.

You take a piece of toast and feed it to him, "I think we should eat it together."

Starting the day by having breakfast together on bed with you feels exceptionally special and he wants to keep this beautiful feeling for as long as he could. An idea crosses his head but he's not sure you'd go along with it.

"The weather is nice," he says as he tears into another piece of toast.

You look toward the window and nod, "Yeah, it's sunny and nice."

"What do you think about going on a ride with me?" He sheepishly asks.

"On your bike?" You ask.

He doubts that you'd say yes because the last time you got onto his bike, you were holding on for dear life, but he nods to answer your question.

You take a sip of your coffee before coming with an answer, "I'd love that, yeah."

-

With the jacket and helmet he lends you, you look ready for the bike ride. Since it's your second time riding the bike, he finds you more relaxed than before. He can't see much of your face with the helmet getting in the way of seeing it.

When the bike stops at a traffic light, he finds your hands resting on his thighs instead of around him. He takes them and puts them around his waist yet you slide them down to his thighs again.

"Why? You don't like it?" You simply ask.

He laughs and pulls up the visor of his helmet, "I like it but we have to keep it safe, mmh?"

Instead of around his waist, your hands climb higher to his chest and cupping his breasts, "Like this then?"

He laughs again and taking your hand to kiss it, then putting them tightly around him. He can see you smiling through the small rear view mirror.

"Hold on tight!" He says as the lights turn green.

The summer air feels warm as the bike launches forward through the scenic roads where you can see the whole city from the top of the hill. After getting off the bike, he guides you to walk a short trail that leads to his favorite spot, hidden behind the wall of trees and rocks.

"Wow!" You gasp as you stare at the view, "This is beautiful."

The view would be more beautiful at night but the day doesn't make it less beautiful either, the sun gives a warm glow on the city, making it looks like a dreamscape.

"It is beautiful," he sighs but he's not talking about the view.

He can see that you're in awe of the view, completely mesmerized by it and the whole thing that creates this moment. The bright sun, the summer air, the blue sky, the birds that faintly singing, the rustles of the tree branches whenever the wind blows, but the most important thing here is you.

He shyly takes your hand and holds it close to his side, ignoring that his heart is beating out of his chest as he does it.

"I think you know by now how I got this job," you suddenly start speaking something that is out of what he sets the mood for.

"No, I don't really talked about it with..." he says, then in the middle of the sentence, he remembers that he did talk about it with Yoon, "...anyone ever."

"I don't care with what people say about it because first, this is not a job," you turn your head to look at him, "It's a punishment."

"How is that so?" He asks, suddenly gets curious about it.

"I did something that angered my family so they did that, it's their way to punish me," you answer, sighing as you look at the view as far as you could, "They thought that I wouldn't be able to save the company. They're basically waiting for my downfall as we speak so they can laugh at my face and say 'we told you so!'."

Felix is grateful that he was born into a loving, supportive family that when he heard about yours, he can't relate himself to it at all. How come your own family wishes for your downfall? How come your own blood and flesh treat you this cruelly?

"You see, I have a lot to prove but I don't really have anyone helping me," you sadly admit.

His heart hurts hearing you say that that he tightly holds your hand to let you know that you're not alone, he's right there with you.

"You have me," he says in all conviction.

You softly smile as you look at him, "You don't have to do that."

"But I do. I want to help you," he confidently declares out loud, "I'm not that reliable, I know, but I'll try my best to help you."

You start chuckling and he realizes that he didn't seem as noble as he pictured it in his head, he feels like rolling himself down the hill.

"Oh, God! I'm stupid," he mutters to himself.

You turn to face him, "No. I think that's endearing," you say, then you lean in for a chaste kiss on his lips.

One kiss is enough to leave him dazed for a good minute until he reels himself back to reality. He takes that kiss as a sign that you allowed him to be more affectionate toward you and he's not going to waste this precious moment.

Felix looks out at the view and lets out the loudest scream that's echoing in the sky.

You gasp then break into laughter in reaction to it, "What is that for?"

"Try it! You'll feel good after," he suggests with a devilish smirk that decorates his angular face.

You consider it for a moment then turn your head toward the sky, your eyes are closed to face the blinding sun then let out a jarring scream that seems to help you draining out the pent-up angers inside you.

"That's a good one!" Felix sincerely says with an impressed smile.

You cover your eyes and shyly smile, and Felix thinks he's lucky that he gets to discover you this vulnerable side of you which doesn't make you less amazing, it makes you human.

With this warm feeling flooding his chest, Felix just can't stand there and sharing it through actions. He gets behind you and puts his arms around you, holding you from the back to enjoy the view together.

Your body slowly molds into him and you drop your head to his shoulder, then let out a delightful sigh.

"Thank you for taking me here," you say with your hand delicately rubbing his forearm.

"You're very welcome," he says back with a smile.

Even a beautiful day has come to an end.

Felix makes the most of it by enjoying the ride as the bike gliding through the city streets and taking you back home. He's sad that it's over but the best thing about it is he gets to see you again tomorrow and perhaps, it's going to be a more beautiful day than today.

His bike enters the parking basement and stops by the entrance of your apartment building where he usually drops you off from work.

You get off the bike and unclasp your helmet to take it off, you run your hand through your hair to tidy it as best as you could.

"Thank you for today," you say again as you hand him his helmet back.

"Don't mention it," he says, taking his helmet off too so he can comfortably talk to you.

"The jacket..." you say, realizing that you're borrowing it from him.

He tugs the hem and uses it to pull you closer, "You can keep it. It looks good on you," he says with a seductive smile.

You probably know what he's trying to do here, you put your hands on his shoulders and look at him, "I had fun today."

"Me too," he mindlessly says them back as he gets lost in your eyes.

"I have to go," you say.

"Okay," he says them back, and now that he glances at your lips, he feels tempted to to kiss you.

The attraction is there because why the next thing he knows your face is only inches away from him that he can feel your warm breath against his lips.

"Goodnight, Felix," you mutters to him, then lick your lips as if they're not enticing him already.

"Goodnight," he says back but you know well enough he's not ready to let you go.

He places his hands on each side of your waist and closes the gap between your bodies, he chooses not to kiss you right away. His lips lingering close to yours, rubbing them against yours before finally planting a passionate kiss on you.

If it wasn't for the car that interrupt this intimate moment, you wouldn't have pulled away from the kiss. You smile and place a last kiss on his cheek.

"Goodnight," you say again then take a step back.

"Night," he says, still reeling from the kiss.

"Be careful on the ride home," you say for one last time before walking toward the entrance and

He watches until you get in and dissappear from his sight to get ready to get home. As he rides his bike and feels the wind brushing his skin, he thinks things couldn't get any better than this.

-

Everyone leaves the office early to attend the release party but you insisted on staying a little longer to make sure everything is ready for tonight and Felix helps you by checking it right on site.

He reports back everything to you through a phone call as you're finishing things up in the office.

"Double check with the caterer again about the extra selection of foods," you order through the phone.

"Noted!" He sats as he jots it down on his note, "Anything else?"

"Pick up my dress and deliver it to my apartment."

"Yes."

"Don't forget to remind the driver to pick me up at 7pm sharp," you conclude.

"Uh..." Felix was thinking of doing that himself and it's the perfect time to tell you, "What do you think if I..."

"Call me if something comes up," you hang up the call before he can finish his words.

There's no time to waste here, with or without picking him up, he'll see you at the party. He does everything on his to do list and the last thing is to pick up your dress at the shop. He got your dress but he also got something else.

"What is this one?" He asks the lady who hands him the dress.

"You are her assistant, right?"

He innocently nods in response.

"This one for you. She made a note that this is for you to wear to the party," the lady says, helping him carrying the dress as to not ruin it.

He refuses the urge to peer inside to see what you ordered for him, he remains firm and safely delivered the dress to your apartment before heading home to get ready for the party.

Felix doesn't call the driver on purpose, he takes the car with him and leaves a little after six to pick you up. He keeps checking himself on the mirror if his tie is askew or his hair stays in place despite the amount of hairspray he used.

The car is parked right outside the main entrance of your apartment building, he pulls out his phone to let you know about his arrival.

"The car is ready outside," he informs you, sparing the detail of who drove it here.

"I'll be there in five," you shortly reply and hang up the call.

The truth is five minutes is not enough to mentally prepared himself, because all of a sudden, Felix gets nervous but also excited at the same time. But knowing that you'll be coming through the doors any minute now, he keeps his cool and fixes his tie countless of times.

When the doorman reaches for the doors, he knows that it must be you. He takes a deep breath and stands up straighter, ready to greet you. However, the second he sees you, he completely loses his cool.

"Wow!" He lowly gasps, gobsmacked by how you look tonight.

You look so perfect in that silk black dress with the high slit on the side, exposing your leg as you slowly descending the steps.

Gosh, where is his manner? He hurriedly snaps himself out of his daze and walks up to the base of steps, offering you his hand to walk down the last couple of steps.

"So, you're my driver for the night?" You ask with a half smirk that quite provoke him in a way.

"Yes, ma'am," he says with a foolish grin.

"Excuse my impertinence but you look divinely beautiful tonight," he genuinely says, just in case you didn't see it by how mesmerized he is by you.

You look at him, taking a moment to see him from head to toe and bring your eyes to his face again, one of your eyebrows raised as you notice the silk tie he's wearing.

"You look not bad yourself," you compliment him back.

Aware that the host can't be late to her party, he hurriedly goes to the car and opens the door for you, not forgetting to offer his hand to help you get inside.

Arrived at the venue, Felix actively assisting you from the moment you get out of the car, helping you make an entrance to the party you host, holding your purse for you, fixing your dress so the photographers can take only the best pictures of you and he's okay being seen like a little puppy trailing behind you.

When you're finally inside, Felix can relax a little, he brings you a glass of champagne for a starter.

"Your drink," he hands your drink to you.

"Thank you," you mutter your gratitude with a smile which makes everything he did for you so rewarding to him.

"You know it's everyone's party and that's including you."

He has to refrain from sipping his own drink as he doesn't fully grasp what you meant by that, "Pardon me?"

"What I mean is you're not supposed to be working tonight. I can always call a driver to get me home," you answer, taking a sip of your wine and leaving a lipstick mark on the rim.

"No, that's okay. I can definitely drive you home," he convinces you.

"But that's what I'm trying to say, you shouldn't be driving me home. You should be drinking and having fun," you tell him, keeping the conversation low as the place starts to fill with more people.

"I'm having fun," he assures you with an easy smile.

You take the glass of juice from his hand along with your purse he's been holding, "Just go and have fun," you tell him again.

Uh-oh! He knows better to not make you tell him for the third time so he reluctantly goes to the bar and orders himself a mocktail because he's adamant to be your driver tonight.

It's not like he doesn't have anyone to talk to, in fact, he knows almost everyone who works on the same floor with him but while he's mingling with other people, his eyes lingers on you.

He gets alarmed when a new guy comes into the scene and you welcome him with a smile, not that courteous smile you always do when you're meeting a client or doing business. It's a friendly smile that he once saw when you met Suze a month ago.

Fortunately, Felix knows where to go when he needs informations and it's not hard to find Yoon, she's somewhere close to where the food is. He skips the small talk and asks right away.

"Do you know who that guy is?" He asks.

Yoon can find you right away since you're the only one looking exceptionally stunning among the sea of boring people in suits.

"You mean the guy who's intimately talking to your boss?" Yoon asks back with her mouth full of food.

Felix's eyes darts to see it and she's right, you're leaning into each other as you speak and you even laugh in between.

"Yes," he answers with clenched jaws.

Yoon washes the food down with a glass of wine, "You don't know him?"

Felix can't tell what pisses him off more, the fact that he doesn't know who's that guy or Yoon for making it obvious to him or both of them combined.

"He's the Kim Seungmin," Yoon says, taking another glass of wine from the server as he walks past her.

"Who?" He asks in confusion.

"Kim Seungmin from the son of the KS Corp, CEO of KS airline, owner of the Huskies Luxe stadium along with its basketball club. What do you mean you don't know?" Yoon says with a judging glare aimed at him.

"You're working at a sports media outlet for goodness sake," she adds, shaking her head as she takes for another piece of canapés.

Well, Felix gets what he came here for even though he has to sacrifice his dignity for that. He's about to turn to leave when Yoon tugs at the sleeve of his suits.

"That's him," she says, struggling to speak and chew at the same time.

"What?"

Yoon takes her time to chew her food thoroughly, making him wait for the answer in anticipation. After a good minute, she swallows it down and finally speaks again, "He was the one with the private jet and secured the meeting with David Kent."

Oh, so not only that he has the look and the money, he's been playing knight in shining armor for you? He scoffs in disbelief and about to storm away when Yoon says something that stops him on his track again.

"And by the way, they're engaged," she adds as she shoves another finger food into her mouth.

He thinks he misheard it so he asks again, "Come again?"

He shots her an intense glare and Yoon swallows her food fast, "They're engaged," she says while wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"Who?"

"Those two excellent humans," Yoon says, pointing at you and the guy you're getting too friendly with.

Engaged? If that's true, then why this is the first time Felix heard it? Engaged? He cracks a laugh because it sounds like an absolute bollock to him because that means he's been having sex with someone's fiancée.

Deep down, Felix knows what pisses him the most is that he feels a sense of betrayal from you. Yoon swiftly grabs another glass of wine from the server but he snatches it from her hand and gulps it down in one go.

"Excuse me," Yoon call the server who just came from the bar carrying a tray full of drinks.

"Yes?" The server asks.

"Can we have the drinks?"

"Sure," the server takes two drinks for Yoon and Felix.

But Yoon hands them back to her and takes the tray from her hand, "We need the whole tray. Thank you!"

The server leaves with a befuddled expression on her face while Yoon puts a drink in his hand, "You look like you need it."

Felix knows better that he shouldn't drink tonight and one drink is all he needed. Also, he has something to do tonight that requires him to stay sober.

"You can have them all, Yoon," he says, handing the drink back to her hand.

-

The party is slowly coming to its end with people starting to leave as the night getting late. Felix decides that it's time to ask you if you're also planning to leave soon. He sees that you're still chatting with a few people on the second floor and he's had enough of seeing that guy latched to your side all night.

He gently holds your elbow to get your attention and it works to make you turn your head to him, "Yes?"

Keeping his tone calm, he asks, "People are starting to leave so I wonder—"

"Who is this?" The guy who makes it to the top of his hate list curiously asks.

Your attention is shifted back to him and you smile as you introduce him, "This is my assistant, Lee Felix."

Huh? You even introduce him by his full name like what he has with you is strictly business and nothing else.

Seungmin smiles and offers his hand at him, again, he's not used with rich people acting like decent human compared to normal people.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Felix," he says to him.

"Me too," he shortly replies, not forgetting to put on a courteous smile as he secretly observes him, trying to get any clues about his personality through his looks.

"So, what were you trying to tell me?" You ask him, turning your body his way and blocking him from his view.

"Just wanting to ask if you're ready to leave," he replies, keeping the conversation private even though Seungmin could hear it with how close he stands next to you.

You look around and see that most of everyone has left, only a few people are still staying for the drinks and the chats, "Maybe in a minute?"

"You know I can give you a lift home and your assistant can go home early," Seungmin offers, putting his drink down in the nearest table.

"No!" Felix surprised himself by hastily answering the question that's not even aimed at him, "I can wait. I don't need to go home."

"You don't to go home?" Seungmin lets out a low chuckle tinted with sarcasm, "You got yourself a loyal assistant."

Felix finds it unacceptable that you join in on the laughter, he feels the need to defend himself that he's not just a mere assistant, he's more than that.

"I'm her assistant and that means she's going home with me," he remarks and regrets it right away for how wrong he worded it.

The radiance on your face dims in a second. You reach for his forearm, holding it and looking him in the eyes as you say, "You can wait for me in the car."

"I can pick you up at the entrance," he blubbers, suddenly feeling like he just shrank into a microscopic size under your stare.

"I said wait for me in the car," you intensely enunciate every word, and he realizes that you just repeated your words which is not a good sign.

"Yes," he hastily responds, then turns away to leave.

Waiting in the car only allowed his thoughts to be louder, Felix finds himself still in denial that you're engaged and he didn't know about it until tonight. Then it all comes back to him, the talk you had with Suze that night and how she told you to 'just marry him' but you said you aren't sure if you want to get married in the first place. If you don't want to marry him, why you smile to him with your eyes crinkled like that?

The pieces of puzzle are slowly coming into place but not enough to show him the whole picture.

Felix is deep in thoughts that he doesn't realize you're getting the door to the car, he's too late to help you getting in and turns his head to check if you're settled in.

"Drive!" You keep your order concise and short, he figures you must be tired and can't wait to get home.

The ride home is quiet and it's not the comfortable kind, it's rather suffocating, he wants to say something but he's afraid of intruding your private space.

You remain quiet even after you arrived home, it makes him hesitate to ask or even speak. Fortunately, he knows where to put your things, he hangs your coat before putting it inside the cloakroom and carefully places your purse on top of the glass table next to the bowl of keys.

Then he realizes that he has to eventually ask you whether you still need him or not, he licks his lips and sets his tone right to ask, "Can I help you with anything else?"

You look at him while carrying your shoes in one hand, "Yes. I need you to come with me."

You don't wait for his answer, you're going to your bedroom and he follows you inside, seeing the bed is neatly made and the room smells of citrus and baby powder, a mix of scents he's greatly familiar with.

"You can sit on the bed while I put my shoes away," you order.

Felix awkwardly walks to your bed and sits on the end of it, waiting for you to come out of your spacious closet. A while later, you finally come out, lifting the hem of your dress as you walk on the carpeted floor.

"What do you think of the party?" You saunter to your vanity with your hands busy unclasping the bracelets on your wrists.

"I think he party went great. Everyone was having fun and happy," he answers, feeling like he's being interrogated despite the simple question.

"And how about you?" You look through the mirror as you remove your earrings.

"Sorry?"

"Did you have fun?"

"I had fun," he shortly answers and hopefully, it sounds convincing enough to you.

"Mmh. Glad to know you had fun," you calmly say, turning away from the table and walk up to him.

A moment passes in silence as you stand therr right in front of him and he's just sitting there, waiting on his fate. Without taking your eyes off him, you reach for the zipper of your dress and pull it down, the ripping sound echoing in the room and building tension in the room.

With overflowing confidence, you take the dress off right in front of him and his breath hitched as you reveal your naked body to him, except for the thin, lacey underwear you're wearing.

"Want to know something?" You place your hands on his shoulders, running them down his shoulder blades to take the suit jacket off of him

He chokes on air as he rushes to answer you, "Y-yeah?"

Slowly, you sit yourself on his lap, naked while he's still fully clothed. You reach for his tie and feel the silky fabric in your hand.

"All night I was thinking of how I'm going to take this tie off of you," you speak so so low it's almost like a whisper.

Felix swallows hard as your lips inches closer to his and your hand is tugging at his tie, "And have you decided how?"

You seductively smile and put your other hand on the nape of his neck, "Oh, I just have so many ideas."

You place a hot kiss on his neck, sending his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat, "But I'll tell you one."

"Uh huh?" He hopes his nod conveys his genuine curiosity to your answer.

Your glide your hand down his front until you find his clothed member, stroking it with your hand just enough to feel him out.

You lean in close to his ear and whisper, "The idea is giving you head and let you cum all over my face."

"I think that's a very nice idea," he says, his voice drops lower than usual.

You nod and lowly giggle, you take his hand to place it on your face, making him touch your lips with his fingers, "Just imagine your cum all over it."

"Yeah..." he breathlessly says.

Your part your mouth open, offering him to insert his thumb inside which he wastes no time doing it. He can feel your tongue twirled around his thumb before sucking at it hard, giving him just enough idea how it would feel like to have his cock in your mouth.

"God, you're so alluring," he gasps, feeling overwhelmed with amazement and desire.

You bring his hand down to your breast, cupping it together as you start grinding on him. It's not hard to make him erect with the way you rub your crotch against his growing bulge.

"I want to feel your cock gets hard in my mouth," you murmur with your hot breathe tickling his ear

His other hand joins in, placing it on the other breast and syncing their movements to knead on them, feeling the ample flesh molds into his hands.

As his hands busy playing with your soft mounds, you work on his tie, patiently untying it and seamlessly pulling it off from the collar of his shirt.

You triumphantly smile and joining him to knead on your breasts, before taking his hands away and put them around his back.

"But the way you acted tonight..." you put his hands together and use the necktie to tie them together, "made me change my mind."

Felix feels tricked but weirdly, he remains still as you bind his hands together behind him and make sure it's strong enough he won't break away from it. However, in a moment like this he finds the bravery to ask, "Is it true that you're enganged?"

Displeased with his defiance, you grab his chin to make him look at you, "I think you're getting way too comfortable with me, don't you think?"

He holds your gaze and fiercely looks deep into your eyes, "So I've been fucking someone's fiancée, huh?" He boldly says with a snarl.

You put more pressure around his chin, your fingers are pressing in on his cheeks and then say, "Shut your fucking mouth!"

This is the first time he ever heard you cursing and somehow, he finds it attractive, arousing even. Surprisingly, he finds himself obeying you, he stops talking and closes his mouth as you ordered him to do.

In return, you slowly let go of his chin and get off his lap, "Now, for your punishment."

You pull your underwear down, going fully naked in front of me and he gets frustrated for not being able to touch you. You hold him by the shoulder and look down at him as you crumple your underwear into a ball and carefully shoves it into his mouth.

"You're going to sit still and take your punishment like a good boy, understand?"

Not being able to speak with a ball of fabric in his mouth, he nods in response.

"You should be thankful that I'm letting you watch," you say with a gentle caress on his cheek and a tender gaze into his eyes.

He nods again as he widens his eyes, eager to see what you're going to do to him. You might have said it punishment but to him, it's a proof that you care for him, because if you didn't, then why would bother punishing him anyway?

"Sit still. Be good," you warn him again as you slowly lowering yourself until you kneel on the floor and sit between his legs.

Felix constantly reminds himself of your warning and lets it be the only thing that fills his head, endlessly echoing in the back of his head. Even though he's not sure how long he can do it as you start working open his belt and unzip his fly.

"Ah..." you let out a delightful sigh the moment you successfully take his member out of its confine.

Felix can't find what's more arousing, the way you wrapped your hand around his cock or how you're slyly smiling at him while you're doing it, or... how he can't do anything but watch you doing all that.

"Have I told you that you have such a pretty cock?" you murmur, using your thumb to play with the tip.

Without looking, he knows that he's blushing from your compliment. You think his cock is attractive and he really needs to unbox that at some point.

"It has the perfect length," you say, lightly trailing the length of his cock with just the tip of your index finger.

"The perfect girth," you continue by putting both of your hands around his cock, rubbing it at two opposite directions.

"A little curved but that's how I like it," you come closer to his crotch, allowing you to rub his cock on your nipples, "With cute pink tip."

It's obvious that he wants you so much yet you keep playing with his cock, teasing it, touching it as you please and rub them in between your breasts. He gets it why it's a punishment, he's being punished for real.

"I've been taking you well, right?"

With the underwear stuffed to his mouth, he answers with a muffled yes and repeated nods.

You softly smile and tip your head to the side, "Do you think I can take you well with my mouth too?"

He hastily responds by repeatedly nodding his head, the need to feel your mouth around him overpowering him, controlling him.

You're batting your eyelashes at him as you say, "Watch closely as I take you in my mouth."

Felix widen his eyes and holds his breath, not wanting to miss any second of it. You firmly hold the base of his cock and you slightly stuck your tongue, then slowly, you put him into your mouth.

His groans turn into muffled whimpers with your underwear that is soaked with his saliva in his mouth. You feel hot and slick and soft around him, it's close to what it feels like being inside you but it offers him a new, different sensation.

He doesn't know how you make your eyes wide and innocent like that as you twirl your tongue around the head of his cock, pressing your tongue onto his slit before taking all of him at once.

No matter how much he wants to keep watching, Felix tilts his head upward and screws his eyes shut, overwhelmed with pleasure.

You may not be able to take all of him in your mouth and compensate the rest with your hand, but oh, that doesn't make it less pleasurable to him. He so badly wants to put his hands in your hair and keep your hair away so he can see the way his cock slips in and out of your mouth.

He can't stop muttering words even though he's aware with your underwear in his mouth.

"Keep going."

"Just like that."

"Please don't stop."

But he tries so hard to make his silent cries are heard, he knows you're using the noises he makes as your guide to please him.

The full length mirror showcases your beautiful figure as you kneel, bending down and continously bobbing your head between his legs, a view that feels like it comes straight out of his wild dreams.

All of a sudden, you abruptly stop when he gets closer to his release but he can safely assume you did it intentionally, it's called a unishment for a reason.

"Not yet," you murmur, slowing your pumping around his cock and use the other hand to tenderly cradle his balls.

His legs are trembling and his whimpers turn breathless, he's on the brink of it but you keep holding him back from plunging into his release.

"You should have thought about it before you acted like a jerk earlier, mmh?" You say with an insinuating tone and one eyebrow raised higher than the other.

He cries his regret while bobbing his head, agreeing to whatever you said because they're all right, you're right and he's wrong, therefore he deserves this punishment.

You get up from the floor and take a seat on his lap again, putting your arms around his shoulders as you look him through your half shut eyes.

"You think you're so hot with your pretty face and your pretty smile," you say in a mocking tone, tugging on the hair on the back of his head.

Then again, he finds it arousing instead of humiliating so he stares back into your eyes, daring you to say more mean things to him.

"You think you're so hot with your smile and your deep voice, mmh?" You press little kisses on the sensitive skin behind his ear.

To provoke you, he nods, agreeing to what you've just said about him. In reaction, you let out a series of chuckles with your hand fisting the collar of his shirt.

"And you think you're going to get what you want with this attitude?"

This is where he's feeling conflicted. A part of him wants to keep rebelling just to see how far he can push you or vice versa but another part of him wants to keep obeying you like a good boy like you asked and he's very well aware how pathetic he is for that.

"Maybe your other head can help you think," you say, holding his cock in your hand again and aims it toward your entrance.

While maintaining eye contact with him, you lower yourself down on him and watch him slowly crumbling under you. The feeling of being buried in your warm, velvety walls change his mind almost immediately.

What Felix wants is simple. He wants you, he wants you so much.

You begin rocking your hips back and forth, slowly yet intensely. Your part his shirt open just enough so you can place kisses all over his neck and chest with your hand feeling the muscles on his abdomen.

He can hear you hold you breath whenever you intentionally clench around him and let out a sigh when you let go, it's all fun and games to you as you enjoy watching him struggles to contain himself.

For him, it's one hell of a torture.

Your mouth inches closer to his ear and he tips his head to the side to give you access to it. You're nibbling on his ear and then lowly whisper, "I must say that I love your voice though."

He looks at you, giving you pleading eyes and hopefully, you'll give him what he wants.

You press your mouth to his ear and continue your sentence, "But only when you're moaning, whining and begging in my ears."

You finally take your underwear that's been gagging his mouth and he can see that it's soaked with his saliva before you drop it to the floor and you don't wait to kiss his open mouth like you've been wanting to do it.

Felix kisses you back as hard as deep, can't believe that he's making it this far without your kisses, it makes him even more thirsty for you, craving for the taste of your lips.

"Are you going to be good now?"

Even though he's able to talk, he nods his head to you instead but it's enough to make you triumphantly smile.

You put your arms around his shoulders as you plant another kiss on his lips while keeping the motion of your hips going, fucking him so good that moans are spilling out of his parted mouth non-stop.

"Are you going to cum for me?" You murmur.

He nods again.

You caress his cheek with your knuckle, "I can't hear you, baby."

That means you demand a verbal answer from him, he gulps air to clear his throat and speaks for the first time in a while, "I want to cum."

You place a long kiss and talk against his lips after, "You forget to say something," you remind him.

Felix knows exactly what you want to hear from him and he wastes not another second to say it.

"Please..." he pleads.

"I want to cum, please," he desperately says again.

As a reward for his obedience, you hold up your breast and put it in his mouth which he enthusiastically takes, he starts sucking on it and not waiting for you to give it to him to switch to the other breast.

You're tightening your hold around him as you pick up the pace, bouncing on his cock faster and faster while he moans with his mouth full of your ample flesh.

"You want me to keep going, yeah?"

"Yes, please, yes," he manages to form a coherent answer despite his brain is barely functioning.

You can sense his high is nearing as his moans turn into low growls but that doesn't stop you from keep going. He takes more of your breast and latches his mouth to it, sucking it at it harder the closer he gets to his release.

For him, it's no longer a punishment when pain and pleasure blur into one.

He lets go of you breast with a loud pop with a string of saliva connecting his lips and your nipple, "I'm so close, so close," he says.

"I know, baby, I know," you coo, putting a little more intensity into your thrusts.

On the first sign of his cock twitching inside you, you hurriedly pull him out and replace it with your hands, continue the stimulations with your hands restlessly pumping his cock.

"Now, cum for me," you encourage him, "Be good and cum a lot for me."

It doesn't take long for him to cum after that, his eyes are tightly shut and low grunts escaping through his gritted teeth as pleasure filling him to the brim and overflowing out of him.

You indulge him with kisses on his neck and lips even though he's still reeling from his high, then reach to the back to let go of the tie around his hands.

Felix sighs in relief as his hands are finally free but you notice his wrists are red and rub hem to soothe it, "Does it hurt?"

He shakes his head and puts his arms around you, pulling you closer to him, "It's okay. I'm okay," he reassures you with a sweet smile.

You smile back as you put your hands around him, leaning in close to sweetly kiss his lips, "We're not engaged. Not anymore."

"Huh?" He is too focused on this blissful moment to even remember the conversation he had with you earlier.

"I broke the engagement," you say again, you hold his face with both hands and briefly kiss his lips, "And I don't want you to question me again."

That's all he needs to know and you don't need to ask whether he believes you or not, because the only person he believes is you and if you say you're not engaged with anyone then that's the only truth there is.

"Thank you for telling me that," he sincerely says as he softly gazes into your eyes.

And just like that, Felix has unlocked a new part of you, a part of you that you don't share with just anyone and that makes him feel special. You make him feel special and things couldn't be better than this.

-

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[classicrubberduck]

need an alonso scandal primer BAD

Oh Lord, I am tired after work so I will just give a very quick summary:

The Really Big Ones are Spygate 2007, when McLaren were found to have possession of stolen technical information from Ferrari. Fernando had his own mini-scandal within this scandal, when he deliberately held up Lewis during qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix (for which the FIA penalised McLaren and basically told them to get their drivers in line). The next day Fernando attempted to threaten Ron Dennis by sending evidence confirming McLaren knew about the stolen Ferrari information. Which led to Ron Dennis running to the FIA President, Max Mosley, to tell him that he knew nothing about the emails, which led to the FIA re-investigating the whole saga, which led to McLaren getting a $100,000,000 fine, the biggest in sporting history.

Oh, 2007 F1 Season you will always be famous.

Also in the 2007 season, Marc Priestley wrote in his book that Fernando was going around giving his mechanics brown envelopes of cash, which is, how you say, a wee bit scandalous.

Then there was the 2008 Crashgate scandal, when Nelson Piquet Jr deliberatly crashed in order to ensure that Fernando won the race. Who knows if Fernando knew about it at the time, but it's yet another weird scandal he got caught up in.

Then in 2010, there was the Fernando Is Faster Than You incident (yes that video involves Christian Horner being an enormous hypocrite but that aside) in which Ferrari gave a team order for Felipe Massa to move aside for Fernando, even though team orders were illegal at the time. And it was in particularly bad taste given that this was at the Hungarian GP, the race where one year earlier, Felipe had suffered a serious head injury.

In 2012, at the American GP, Ferrari deliberately broke the seal on Felipe Massa's engine in order to give Fernando an advantage on the by moving him to the clean side of the track.

In 2013, Fernando was asked at the Hungarian Grand Prix (what is it with Fernando and Hungary) what he would like for his birthday, and he replied "someone else's car" (valid tbh) and the boss of Ferrari called him on his birthday to yell at him.

Jenson has said that when they were at McLaren, Fernando used to pretend there were problems with the car and retire if Jenson was ahead of him in a race.

And then, when it was announced that Fernando was going to Aston Martin, Otmar said he hadn't spoken to Fernando because he was on a boat with no signal. Literally later that day, Fernando posted a selfie of himself in Barcelona, making it extremely obvious that he was just ignoring Otmar's calls because he wanted to.

I'm absolutely certain there's other things I'm forgetting, but those are the ones that came immediately to mind. As you can tell, not all of it is directly Fernando's fault, but the man's just a magnet for scandal and drama. It says a lot that I said this was going to be a quick primer, and I spent the best part of an hour writing and researching eight paragraphs worth of stuff.

[thankskenpenders]

As I'm sure many of you are already aware, Did You Know Gaming (who have been doing some really great investigative work lately) recently put out a video on canceled Sonic games. The whole thing's worth a watch, but I have to bring it up here specifically because they talk about the plans for Sonic Chronicles 2 with a LOT of new info directly from the lead designer.

The section on how the story of Sonic Chronicles 2 would have went starts at 9:45. It's very interesting! He outlines the whole plot, including the fact that they were going to end with ANOTHER obvious plot hook for a sequel in the hopes that they or some other studio could keep the Sonic Chronicles series going indefinitely. Sonic Team even claimed they were interested in using Chronicles characters like Shade in other games. It's crazy to imagine a timeline where this might have become a pillar of the franchise.

I refuse to mourn the loss of the sequel, though, because y'all saw me stream the original. It was miserable. And with the original game selling and reviewing decently well, they would have had little reason to go back to the drawing board and overhaul that game's bizarrely hateful design.

Of course, DYKG also had to talk about the reason why the game was canceled. I was dreading this because of how often people tend to get the basic facts of the Penders cases wrong or downplay the obvious Archie Knuckles inspiration in Chronicles. But no, they did their homework! And they got the details right in part because, well... they asked Penders for comment directly. And he sent them back a MASSIVE wall of text about the whole ordeal, including some fascinating details that I don't believe I've heard before!

You can go to 15:19 in the video and scrub through to read the many, MANY screencaps of their emails from Ken, but here are the most interesting and/or hilarious tidbits to me:

#1: Perjury!

As we already knew, Ken claimed that the incomplete, photocopied contract Archie presented in court was a forgery, and that he had never signed a work for hire contract.

The judge obviously knew that one side had to be lying here, and thus was more than willing to present the case to a jury to let them decide the truth... and send whoever was deemed the liar to jail for perjury. (The judge apparently looked Ken directly in the eye when he said this, which... well, make of that what you will.)

Archie's lawyers knew that they didn't have a completely airtight case and obviously did not want to go to jail. So they decided to settle instead of going to trial in front of a jury.

(I will reiterate that Archie's arguments not working out is overall a GOOD thing, because we really do not want to set a legal precedent where corporations can "lose" a contract for a creator, make up a story about what was on the contract, and then have that hold up in court. They gotta get that shit in writing. And they didn't. They fucked up!)

#2: Sega was threatening to revoke the Sonic license!

As we knew, Sega wanted nothing to do with the comic copyright lawsuit. To them, it was Archie's job as licensee to deal with their freelancers. (Y'all watch Succession? You know how Logan loves lackeys who will eat shit for him without him having to even hear about the problem? Yeah.) And, in fact, according to Ken, Sega gave Archie an ultimatum: if they wanted their license to make Sonic comics renewed, they were gonna have to deal with Ken on their own, and cover all the costs.

Yeah, uh, this kinda makes me think that Sega being pissed about the ongoing Scott Fulop copyright case in 2016 may have been a bigger factor in Archie Sonic's cancellation than I previously thought. There was a lot going on at the time that could have contributed, but, y'know.

Anyway, Archie sued Ken for "damaging their business" largely because Sega was threatening to take away the Sonic IP. But because Archie couldn't ask Sega for help and they couldn't produce an original contract, they had to settle.

There's another detail I find funny here, though. Ken WANTED Sega to get involved in the comic copyright case, thinking that Sega would strongarm Archie into paying him the millions of dollars he wanted for "using his work without permission" so that they could be done with it. I mean, sure. I guess Sega wouldn't have cared about Archie's finances, but still. I'm not so sure that would've worked out for him.

#3: Shade!

Yes, Penders still claims he legally owns Shade, and under advice from his lawyer still intends to put out an NFT of her to put his claim to the test. Yes, it's incredible that he still hasn't put out the damn NFT. It only needs to be one image, which he already drew! The market has collapsed!

Anyway, building an argument off the legal concept of estoppel, he says that if Sega continues to not do anything about his claims that he owns Shade then, in the eyes of the court, they'll be forfeiting their claims to Shade altogether. But they aren't going to do anything because they never wanted any part in the copyright battles in the first place, and to them Chronicles is a long dead asset not worth fighting over. Why bother trying to use Shade again and giving Ken a reason to take them back to court when they can just move on? It's not like this franchise is short on characters. And so Ken can say that Shade and Julie-Su are literally the same character, and if he owns Julie-Su then therefore he also owns Shade.

Our copyright system is, indeed, a nightmare. Chronicles should have been halfway to the public domain by now.

#4: Sega's oversight on the Archie comics!

Ken says that in his first year on the series Sega only requested some dialogue changes here and there through the editor. They never requested huge script changes, and also never spoke to Ken directly. After that first year, they stopped asking for dialogue changes altogether, and Ken "had a free hand to do pretty much whatever he wanted." Yeah, no surprise there.

He does, however, say that Archie's original deal with Sega stated that they weren't allowed to create ANY new Sonic characters without informing Sega. They would've needed to make a contract every single time to get Sega's approval and make it absolutely crystal clear that Sega owned the whole cast. And then Archie just... didn't do that! And didn't tell any of the freelance creatives not to come up with new characters! Had Archie followed this rule, the trajectory of the comics would have been completely different, but there also never would've been a copyright battle in the first place.

What a shitshow. Truly.

[explosionkatsu]

"Age doesn't matter" 15

Dad!Bakugo x F!Babysitter!Teacher!Reader

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

It’s been days since Y/n started babysitting Kazui. After the administration suspended the class due to the villain attack, Y/n had to email every parent about what would happen and how can the children still catch up with their lessons, as well as mail them the day-to-day school activities. But for Kazui, instead of mailing Katsuki the manuscripts, she has Kazui’s daily school activity printed out and hands it to him personally.

No, she won't teach him at all. It may be part of her babysitting job but being his school instructor, she treats her pupils equally. That implies no special treatment for Kazui.

Although almost every day she can hear Katsuki lecturing Kazui whenever he sees him writing down the wrong answer. Sometimes she’ll catch him smacking his head which will earn him a lecture from her.

She remembered when she first did it in front of Eijiro. The guy was taken aback of course, but surprisingly, Katsuki behaved which made Eijiro taken back more.

“Did you just...- What?” The poor guy was confused.

Today, Katsuki’s on his daily pratol and you were working in the Dining area where you can keep an eye on Kazui who completed his homework and was just watching tv now.

All of a sudden you received an email from the school principal. Clicking it open, Y/n read the content. It was apparently an email about the new employee since some of the kindergarten teachers resigned after the incident. The principal is basically relying on her since she’s one of those who stayed.

“Another work, then.” Y/n mumbled but started responding to the email anyway. It’s not like she has a choice not to. But deep down, she wanted to leave her job as well, not because she was hired as a babysitter, it’s because of the workload which has been keeping her up till midnight.

And yes, Katsuki noticed this. He has very observant eyes, we all know that. He can see her strained smile whenever Kazui comes up to her to show anything he drew.

“Ah. I guess that’s it for now.” Y/n yawned as she stretched her limbs. Once done stretching, she checked the time to see it was almost dinner. Which means, he’ll be here anytime now.

“Time to make dinner, Kazui-chan.”

Kazui beamed once he heard Y/n. He always wanted to be a great good like his dad, so Y/n agreed that Kazui can help her or watch beside her.

“What will we be cooking today, Miss Y/n?” Kazui asked while rocking on his heels. A mannerism Y/n found out whenever he’s excited.

“Well, I always wanted to try something new. I just need to see if we have all the ingredients.” Y/n smiled as soon as she finished packing her things before proceeding to the kitchen.

Once she checked the fridge, “Huh. It seems like we’re missing one ingredient.” Y/n pouted. “I guess another dish, then.”

…

“Tadaima.”

Very uneventful, is what in his mind. Katsuki groaned as he stepped in and set his boots aside.

“Papa!”

Well, at least he got home unharmed.

“Hey, brat.” Katsuki grinned and picked up Kazui who dashed towards him.

“How was your day, papa? Miss Y/n is cooking dinner!” Kazui beamed while being carried by his father.

“What the hell? Again? I swear to God.” Katsuki tsked after knowing this. Careful, he put Kazui down and marched toward the kitchen where he saw you cooking.

“What did I tell you, hah?” He was pissed, alright.

By accident, you dropped the spatula you were using startled by his voice. You didn’t expect him to come home this early, way too early actually.

“W-what are you doing here?” You said while trying to use your body to cover the dish you were cooking from his view.

“What the hell do you mean? This is my house.” Katsuki pointed out, arms crossed over his chest with Kazui beside him, holding him by his pants. “Didn’t I tell you to not cook? That ain’t part of your job.” He groaned.

“If I didn’t cook us our meal, we won’t be able to eat supper and you’ll come home with an empty stomach.” You pouted while slowly picking up the spatula.

“I said you can order out. Didn’t I leave you enough money for that?”

“Well, I’m sorry but inside of ordering unhealthy food, I used the money to buy something healthy since Kazui is still a growing boy.” You said after successfully picking the spatula. “Besides, you should know this. You’re a hero. You need to maintain a proper diet and have a healthy meal.” You said before turning your back at him to focus on finishing your cooking.

Katsuki’s lips twitched at your response.

“Hey brat.”

Kazui looked up at him curiously. “Yes papa?”

“Take my bag to my room. Bring me a clean pair of comfortable clothes. I just need to talk to Miss Y/n.” Katsuki handed Kazui his bag without looking at him which he took, obviously struggling.

“E-eh?” Your attention was now focused on the struggling Kazui who was hauling his father’s obviously heavy bag.

“It’s alright. This is how I train him.” Katsuki said to you, but eyes still engaged on you.

“O-okay.” You responded still concerned.

“I can’t pay you more if you keep doing this.” Katsuki said out of nowhere when he heard Kazui reach the stairs. He doesn’t want his child to overhear this.

“I don’t care.” You responded to him as turned your attention back to the sizzling food in front of you.

“What do you-

“Look.” You started before slightly reducing the heat to prevent the food from burning and set your attention completely on him. “At this point, I don’t care about the extra stuff I don’t have to do. You are a hero and Kazui’s a kid. Both of you need something nutritious since, like I said, Kazui’s a growing kid, and you, for your diet.” You instructed. “You are a parent, and you should know this.”

Katsuki was outraged at your last statement.

“What the hell do you know about being a parent, huh.” He spat, taking Y/n aback. “You are not a mother, so stop nagging me.”

But you’re not backing down.

“I may not be a parent, but I know things about being a good one.” You responded calmly.

“What? You’re saying I’m not a good parent? Hah?” Katsuki dropped his crossed arms and took a step closer to Y/n who didn’t even flinch. “You know nothing, woman.”

Y/n even challenged him by stepping closer to him, almost nose to nose. “I know everything, Katsuki. I also know that you needed help.”

“I don’t.”

“You do. You’re just too prideful to accept one.” You said quietly, almost a whisper.

The space between both of you was enough for Katsuki to study your features. Your (e/c) eyes, your lashes, your nose, and your glossy lips that he’s tempted to touch with his own.

Screw it.

Following his thoughts, Katsuki wrapped his arm around you, taking you by surprise and pulled by your waist as he placed a finger under your chin, tilting your head upwards and as gently as possible, placed his lips onto yours.

He was right about your lips being soft and tender.

You on the other hand were still in shock. You didn’t expect this to happen. Never in your life did you expect Dynamight to kiss you.

When you felt him pull away, you were speechless. Your eyes were looking straight on his, as his to yours. As if everything around you was blurry.

Katsuki was the same as you are though. He was shocked by what he did. Hell, he didn’t even know why he did it. All he knew was your lips looked so glossy.

“Fuck.” He muttered.

“Papa. I hope this is okay.”

Kazui’s voice jolted both of you making you push him away, and him releasing you.

“I- That’s fine.” Katsuki said out loud as he glanced behind him. When he turns to look back at you, you were touching your lips, face flushed while your eyes stare into nothing. “I-“ he was trying, okay? He doesn’t know where to start.

“I-I’ll go back to cooking.” You stuttered and turned back to the stove.

“Y-yeah.” Katsuki agreed as he scratched the back of his head, slightly blushing. “I guess.”

…

It was finally time for Y/n to go back to her apartment and She was a glad about this.

After what happened earlier, the dinner was awkward. Both adults didn’t even glance at each other. Thankfully, Kazui was telling them stuff making the tension in the air light.

When Y/n finally got her things, a knock on the door caught her attention. “Who is it?” She called out. But before she could reach the door, it swung open, revealing Eijiro and Denki.

“Oh. Hey Miss Y/n!”

“Yo!”

“Oh? Good evening.” You bowed and let them in the house.

“Were you about to leave?” Denki asked while eyeing your things lying on the ground.

“Oh. Yes. I was about to.” You smiled at them as you closed the door behind.

“What’re you two idiots doing here, hah.” Katsuki’s emerged from the kitchen while wiping his hands dry. He did the dishes, okay? “And keep it down, Kazui’s asleep.”

“We’re just stopping by. Kaminari here wanted to visit Kazui and have a little drink with you, so I joined him.” Eijiro grinned at Katsuki and sat on the couch.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit late to drink? We have an early patrol tomorrow, morons.” Katsuki said while hanging the wet towel on its rack and joining them in the living room.

“Come on, man. We drove all the here to see you.” Denki pouted. “I wanted to see the kid as well.”

“Tsk. Fine.” Katsuki agreed. “After I drop Y/n to her place, and don’t wake Kazui, got it.”

“I’m sorry?” You were obviously not listening.

“I said, I’ll drop you to your place.” Katsuki repeated as he grabbed his jacket from the bracket near the entrance and wore it. “As if I’d let you leave this house at this hour, idiot.”

“I can just ride a bus.” You said as you watched Katsuki pick your things and left. “Bakugo.” You called, only to get ignored.

“You can’t change his mind, Miss Y/n.” Eijiro chuckled as he watched you try. “He’s one stubborn man.”

“Its not bad to try, right?” You slightly pouted.

“And you’ll only go unnoticed.” Denki smiled at you.

“Sigh. Alright. H-have a great evening to you both.” Once again, you bowed and left the house. “Bakugo!”

Eijiro and Denki were smiling like idiots as they watched your figure disappear from their sight.

“What do you think about her?” Eijiro suddenly asked as he stood up and grab himself a drink.

“Miss Y/N?” Denki asked not making an effort to look at Eijiro. “She seems really nice to me, way too soft for Kacchan.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, bro. She seems like a gentle woman to me. Completely opposite to, you know.” Denki said, this time looking at Eijiro.

“I think they look good together.” Eijiro said as he handed Denki his drink.

…

“Bakugo-san-

“What did I say about formalities?” Katsuki tsked as he placed your things inside the car.

“You don’t have to-

“Sigh.” He was obviously tired of your attempts.

You watched him groan and put both his palm over his face.

“God you’re more stubborn than Kazui.” Katsuki groaned.

“I-I’m sorry.” You murmured to yourself as you play with your fingers.

“Do you want me to kiss you again?”

“W-what?!” “Relax, it’s a joke,” Katsuki smirked at you. “Get in the car.”

-

Hello, my lovelies! I am glad to be back. I am once again apologizing for disappearing like that. But here's part 15. I do hope you like this and stay tuned for 16. Thank you for all your patience.

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[mulderscully]

feeling yappy tonight sorry but one argument that i get tired is firstprince not kissing with tongue in the movie. i find this annoying because it doesn't really matter to me. i think tongue kisses look kinda gross on screen sometimes tbh, but that's me. maybe nick and taylor didn't want to kiss with tongue, but i honestly do not think that is the case (and i say this is in the least rpf way because i'm being serious) because there actually is some tongue in the paris scene, it's just quick and not really prominent. i think they probably didn't use much tongue because they were attempting to avoid an r rating. matthew said he wanted teenagers to be able to watch this etc to me it really feels like they expected/wanted pg-13 and knew that queer movies unfairly get r-rating easier. romcoms honestly rarely have as much kissing and sex as the rwrb movie does even though it isn't explicit but does it deserve an r? i don't think so. but it still got it. so me the lack of tongue is due to that and i wonder why others don't even consider it.

another thing is i feel like tongue is the last thing i really care about when i think about henry and alex kissing. yes, i assume they use tongue but tongue isn't like narratively important per se. and despite the hayescodification of society lately, kissing and sex can and does have a place in a story.

one perfect example of an in character kiss is this:

if you watch the body language here, and you know the characters, you understand and recognize what is going on. look at how nick is making henry move here: running his fingers through alex's hair, pulling him closer, basically arching his back and the look of yearning on his face. he loves alex and he knows he loves alex, and someone who read the book will see that. a casual viewer might miss it, but it's still part of the character and the performance.

you can read alex's body language too, how he surges up and doesn't know where to touch henry because he wants to touch him everywhere. for henry it's years of quiet burning, for alex it's years of repressed desire. now alex has accepted it and can't get enough. he isn't thinking much about the depth of those feelings because he just likes henry so much and feels free in that understanding.

i think the biggest scene people complain abt no tongue is in the paris scene, but look at this kiss

they're shaking. they're nervous. they're falling in love.

there isn't tongue because this scene isn't meant to be pcrnographic, it's meant to be emotional. alex has never had sex with a man, and how he's having sex with henry.

henry, who months ago, he was convinced he hated, who he thought hated him, who he was always compared to, who he had an open rivalry, who has become his best friend somehow?? of course he's shaking. and henry is having sex with someone who he loves for the first time, someone he has loved for years and who he never thought he could have and who he thinks will move on and this will have all been his only taste of love before returning to a life of boredom and sadness??? you can see that in this kiss.

it adds to the story.

and there are other examples like taylor using teeth which is a reference to one of the emails, like alex kissing that corner of henry's mouth which is also a reference to an email.

there is insight to the characters in those kisses which is why we always say we can feel the love between them. because we are seeing what is written into the script actually reflected on the screen.

so yeah idc abt tongue 🫶🏼

[reborrowing]

a strange appearance, part seven

i was going to get farther with this chapter but fuck it I want to put something on the dash today that isn't. that.

Stranger Swap Masterpost | ao3 First | Prev | Next

word count: ~2100 cws: fear, angst, hunger

Phoebe

Magic was real and Phoebe hated it.

It shouldn’t be real. By its own definition, it couldn’t be real. If something existed in the natural world, then it was a part of the natural world, so it couldn’t supernatural. It might not be something she understood, but that was no reason to brush it off as some vague, inexplicable magic. It didn’t mean that there weren’t rules. It didn’t mean it couldn’t be studied.

And yet.

In the last week and a half, she couldn't come up with any explanation better than magic.

There was, of course, the first and extremely unlikely morning when she and Val had met. But she could nearly dismiss that away as some kind of hallucination or dream, like she’d initially thought. It was almost definitely what anyone else would suggest if she brought it up—if she could bring it up.

The only lasting evidence of her strange morning with Val was a tiny, delicately sewn bag filled with crumbs and lavender petals. There was a shirt too, but it looked like it could have been hand sewn for a doll. Too easy to explain away. Her bruises were fading. The articles she’d accumulated mentioned diminutive peoples, but never any shrinking. She couldn’t find Val themself or whatever other tools or modifications they had made to be able to get around her apartment. There was no sign of them coming back so she couldn’t figure out where they went to hide. They were gone.

What really killed her was that she couldn’t talk about it. That was what made her so certain that there was something exceptional and actually magical going on here. She’d agreed to keep Val’s secret, yes, but no one trusted Phoebe to keep a secret, at least not more than once. Her mouth had such a bad habit of running ahead without her thoughts and unfortunately, her mouth never remembered what was and wasn’t supposed to be private. But this time, she couldn’t say a single word to anyone about what had happened.

She tried. Not out of malice or any desire to hurt Val (…or any one else, assuming there were others. She wondered how many there were.) Every time she tried to bring up the topic with someone, she’d start choking or her conversation partner would get an urgent phone call or someone would just start speaking over her no matter how loud she got. Any text she tried to send about Val or the articles she’d found would fail to send. She tried to email the authors of the most recent articles she had found on sprites and got back error messages about invalid addresses. She even could email them about their other work without any problems. Begrudgingly, she had to admit that it was either the strangest string of unlikely coincidences she’d ever seen or actual magic.

So she kept their secret, against her will, along with a journal detailing what had happened as precisely as she could. She had her actual measurements and estimates of her temporary ones, rough guesses to Val’s sizes, an approximate duration, and the repeatedly annotated conclusion that none of it should have happened at all. She did her best to sketch them. She still wanted answers.

She tried more research, this time working with borrower as a keyword. She didn’t find much more than she had the first time, aside from another genre of irrelevant junk and fantasy worldbuilding discussions. She did find a server set up as if it were a whole network of borrowers that she thought might be real but it seemed just as likely it was just a bunch of really dedicated role-players. None of them broke character and when Phoebe had asked about basically anything, they banned her. No answers from them either. No answers anywhere. She hated it.

And it scared her.

If it had happened once, it could happen again, and she still had no idea why or how. What if it happened when she wasn’t home? When she had something important she needed to do? What would she do then? She was almost as afraid that it might not happen again, so she might never see Val again, and never get any answers. It would drive her insane, not being able to talk about it or learn anything more, but knowing beyond a doubt that it had been real. That she’d experienced something so rare and extraordinary and had hardly anything to preserve the memory, never mind share it.

She realized that the novel she’d loaded onto her phone had mysteriously changed into one of the half dozen articles she’d downloaded. Phoebe had them practically memorized at this point. She tossed her phone aside with a sigh. She didn’t remember what the story was even supposed to be about. She may as well grab her notes and get back to obsessing.

-

Val

Val waited by their kitchen exit until they were sure Phoebe was elsewhere. It was a torturous exercise in self-control, listening to her clean up the kitchen and seal away a warm, fresh meal while their stomach moaned and rolled. There was that one voice in the back of their head, the one they’d had nurtured for so long, begging them to just ask for mercy and play pet in exchange for good food. It had long since drowned out their natural instincts.

They thought about the pitying looks they’d been given during their brief stay with the colony. The disgust. Val hadn’t been wanted there but they could be better. They tightened their grip on their string ladder and waited. Phoebe kept her cupboards stocked well enough, they could find what they needed there without venturing back out into the greater apartment. They just had to be sure that she wouldn’t open a cupboard and find them sifting through her dry goods. Val had borrowed safely from her apartment for months. They could do this.

The sink drained loudly and within a few moments, the front of the apartment went silent as Phoebe left the kitchen. They descended the last few inches down their ladder and squeezed themself into a gap in the drywall that would drop them right onto the top shelf in the rightmost cupboard.

Their skin crawled as they surveyed the bounty below. Everything had been moved since they had last been here, including the tall storage bin they usually dropped onto. They considered the very real possibility that she had found this access point while she’d been looking for them. She could have had it sealed off. She could have left out traps. Would she go that far? Was that something Val needed to look out for? They hoped not.

They slipped off the ladder and started weaving their way through the walls of food packaging looking for something already open and easy to get into. They should’ve made a list of what they needed, but at this point they were out of just about everything, so they’d take what they could find.

Sealed, too unwieldy to open, sealed, too awkward to close…spices, cans… How cruel it was to starve in a world filled with excess food because the rest of the world was determined to keep it from creatures like you. Val wasn’t sure if they blamed humans for the packaging or the rodents for the disease—they didn’t like mouse shit in their own pantry either.

Eventually they reached a box of Ritz with one sleeve already open. They broke apart a cracker, stuffing most of the pieces into their bag and eating the rest. When that settled, they’d see about prying their way into the rice, since it was easy enough to carry more than a meal’s worth of grain back home.

Or, they could take a bigger risk and look for something fresh left out on the counter.

They were starting to feel better about everything now that they had something in their stomach. Bread or fruit or unnoticed scraps or maybe a rogue dish left uncleaned with gummy sauce or cooked something-or-other. They were pretty sure that she was in the bedroom, which meant they should have time to hide if even if she did get up and decide to come this way. They could go unnoticed even if she was awake.

They shoved the cupboard door open and peered down, relieved to see that her counter held as much clutter as usual (though it had all been wiped down and there were no spilled leftovers to be found) so they could hide if it turned out they needed to. Val anchored their earring hook around the cabinet's door-stopper and dropped a line of floss to slide down. They left it hanging in case they wanted to make a quick escape later.

They barely managed to search at all before they got distracted. In the distance, sitting on the desk in the dining cove nearby, Val’s own belongings caught their eye. The shirt they’d been wearing on that morning along with their best borrowing bag were sitting out in plain sight beside a stack of her schoolwork. They bit their lip. That might be a more worthwhile prize than stale food.

By the time they reached the desk, they were sure they’d had enough and needed to get back home to rest. They’d been out long enough that the open air was enough to fray their nerves and make them sick, even if they had had a full meal at some point in the last few days. They would quickly grab their things and slink back home again but of course, nothing could ever be easy.

Their heart sank when they grabbed their shirt; the stitches had been stretched out and deformed. They held the garment out in front of them to examine, to decide if it could be repaired, and that was enough time for their eyes to catch the words they were standing on. They stiffened and froze as if they’d felt a pair of eyes behind them. They were being watched. Observed anyway, even if indirectly.

The handwritten page they were standing on was about them.

They stepped down and carefully flipped through several more pages. The handwriting was hard to read and some of the lines were obscured by math formulas or more fancy academic words Val didn’t know, but they got the gist of it. The scratch pad was a record of their encounter with Phoebe along with notes from those awful articles. Drawings. Literal walls of text announcing Val’s existence and speculating on whatever details she didn’t know.

Fear and anger clenched their jaw. Had they really been stupid enough to think she wouldn’t give them up? That she wouldn’t try to hunt them down? They wanted to tear apart each word and haul it back into the between-spaces where humans couldn’t fit. They wanted to scream.

They started to tear apart the pages, but even that noise set their teeth on edge. She was just in the other room. They bit their lip and changed tactics, carefully pulling a pen from the holder nearby. It was longer than them, awkward and unwieldy, but so was everything. They dragged the ink cartridge to the notepad and tore it apart. It was messy, they probably stained themself as much as the paper, but it was effective enough. The paper curled as splatters of ink soaked through the damning words.

They couldn’t erase everything, not with just the one pen at least, but it felt so good to do something, to make their fate their own. The wrenching in their chest could breathe. They sighed and in an instant, the terror returned. The bedroom door creaked open. The hall light flicked on and flooded the area with electric light, silhouetting Phoebe at the other end. She took a step and froze as she caught them in their indulgent act of vandalism.

“Wh—Val?” she whispered, still processing what she was looking at. Her eyes widened and her voice raised in pitch and volume. “Oh my god, no!”

Val shook a rogue blob of ink off their hand and ran. They barely had a chance to make it to the edge of the desk in the time it took for Phoebe to cross the hall and reach them. Her shadow swallowed them whole as they squeezed themself through the crack between the wall and the desktop. Papers shuffled. She kept shouting.

They pressed themself as flat as they could and wormed their way down into a drawer to hide. Both of their bags fell to the floor behind them. Val landed in what felt like a bin of paperclips and sounded like something loud enough to drawer the host’s attention. They cringed and slid deeper into the drawer, knocking away another clinking cascade of office supplies. The cheap desk shuddered around them as her steps came faster and closer and Val backed themself into a corner.

-

taglist: @da3dm @whumpsday @gt-daboss @whumpinthepot (To be added/removed from the taglist please comment, ask, or message, I’ll forget if it’s just in the tags of a reblog!)

[kittykat-25]

One Of The Guys - Part 10

Parings: ??? x F! Reader

Genre: idol au, Friends x Lovers, angst

Warnings: Feminine pet names(pretty girl, Bubs,, cupcake, baby)

Summary: You tried really hard not to be a cliché, falling love with your best friend. How unoriginal. But when your best friend is Kim Hongjoong what are you supposed to do?

Now Playing: One Of The Guys- Jessia

Two Weeks Later

You had just locked the door to your apartment when your phone started ringing. Looking down you saw Wooyoung’s name. “Wooyoungieeee how are you?” You sang into the phone. “Bubs I miss you!” Woo said as soon as you answered. You both laughed, “I miss you too Woo. Yall come home soon right?” “Yeah a week left. We’re doing a variety show then coming back.” You continued the conversation as you walked down to the lobby, waiting for the all too familiar black car of Chans to pull up.

Wooyoung was quiet for a second before asking “how’s it going with Chan? Still strong? the pictures you sent of you guys were cute.” You smiled thinking over the past few weeks. He really only left your side to work or when his schedule got hectic. “You might’ve been right about some things…” you said quietly. Wooyoung perked up, drawing the attention of a certain captain who had been listening to every word Woo said to you. “About what?!?” He asked voice raising an octave.

Mingi looked over and Woo checked before putting the phone on speaker but turning down the volume. Thinking everyone else was sleeping. “I’m falling for him so hard guys.” You said, your voice full of hope. You sat down in the chairs of the lobby. Wooyoung smiled at Mingi while Hongjoong felt like his heart was being shredded. Being away from you but hearing about you from his members had only made his quest for you more important. He needed you to be his.

Mingi cut his eyes to Joong, seeing his eyes closed they continued the conversation. “Does this mean you’re over the other one.” He asked quietly. You sighed, “what I feel for Chan has made me see that nothing I felt for Hongjoong was real. It was all a school girl fantasy. Not the solid stable love I have.” Hongjoong did everything he could to not say something. These two knew you had liked him and said nothing to help their brother. Pushing you towards Chan instead. He heard you say your goodbyes to the boys and them rustling back into comfortable positions in the van.

Hongjoong had about five minutes before Wooyoung came back to get what he needed. His plan forming on the car ride back to the hotel. Unlocking Wooyoung’s phone he went to your contact and screenshotted all the text about Chan from you, sending them and the pictures of the two of you to himself. He quickly deleted everything and put Wooyoung’s phone back. Not caring about the damage this would cause. Only that you ended up back in his arms. Where you belonged.

He gathered everything he had sent himself and composed an email, inserting all the text and pictures into it. He reread the email and his send. Knowing this would surely be the end of your so called relationship with Bang Chan. Wooyoung walked into the dressing room as Hongjoong stretched out his legs, feeling much lighter than he had in days. “Why are you so smiley?” Wooyoung asked. “I just have a good feeling about this show Wooyoungie? Don’t you?” The captain responded as he stood up and walked out of the dressing room. Wooyoung shook his head before throwing all of his things into a bag, checking he had what he needed and followed their leader to the stage.

As Chan walked into the dorms the smell of baked goods filling his nose, he sighed, another long day and he hadn’t gotten a chance to see you at all this week. He closed the door and heard footsteps. Looked up he was greeted by Han, covered in flour. Laughter flowing out of the kitchen. One he recognized quite well, Han’s eyes widened, “Channie Hyung!” He basically yelled. All voice from the kitchen ceased. He shook his head, walking past Han who tried his best to keep him from the entry way. “Everything’s fine Hyung you don’t need to go in there!” Han kept saying tithing to pull Chan back.

He could see why as he came face to face with you, Felix and Seungmin covered in flour, egg dripping out of Felix’s hair. You were on the floor crouched down, laughing so hard your face was red. “Chan it’s not that bad!” Felix started to say but Chan only had his eyes on you! You looked up and the pure happiness radiating from you almost brought Chan to his knees. “Hey pretty girl.” He said, his voice almost a whisper. “You’re home early! We were baking you a cake!” You said standing up, flour falling from your clothes. Chan looked at the two younger boys, a smile on his face.

You looked at them a well adoration mixed in with the joy. “I didn’t let them set anything on fire. Don’t worry.” You said brushing the flour out of Seungmin’s hair. Chan melted at the act and the fact that Seungmin just smiled and let you. His kids welcoming you with open arms. “You chose to bake with these two? You’ve seen how that goes!” He said glancing around the wrecked kitchen. “Minho is going to kill you.” Felix laughed, “he saw it but y/n gave him a sliced of cake she brought and he just took it without saying a word.” Chan shook his head, “I’m going to shower, don’t let them set the dorm on fire please.” He said glancing at you. You raised up and kissed his cheek, effectively getting flour all over him as well. Seungmin groaned covering his eyes while Han make gagging noises.

Chan rolled his eyes and kissed you once before walking out, obviously to the smiles the guys all had on their faces. Once Chan left you returned to your baking, silence followed. “Say whatever you want to say.” You said to no one specifically. Felix stopped whisking and turned towards you, “thank you y/n. You make Chan happier than we’ve seen in a long time.” You blushed and nodded. “He deserves it, to be happy. He’s an amazing person.” Chan standing outside the door still smiled, a blush coating his face as he made his way into the bathroom. Planning a special date night for you soon.

A few days after the baking disaster you were sitting in the cafe outside of JYP waiting for Chan for a date night. He had gotten called into a meeting unexpectedly. Assuming it was about a comeback or helping the new trainees you patiently waited and called Wooyoung. “Y/n?!” He called into the phone, “hi Woo! How’s the break going?” You asked knowing he was at home relaxing after their comeback schedule. “Great, I’ve been unbothered all week. What about you?” You smiled, “been good, spending a lot of time with the kids and Chan. We’re about to go on a date actually. I just wanted to check on you.” Wooyoung laughed, “I’m good! Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He called before hanging up.

You hung up and realized you had a text from Chan asking to you to come to the conference room. Nervous you made your way into the building, Changbin waiting in the lobby for you. “Bonnie what’s going on?” You asked as he lead you to the elevators. “I don’t know. I was just told to get you.” He opened the door to the conference room and Chan stood coming to get you. Grabbing your hand and leading you to a seat beside him. The CEO and JY Park along with the SKZ staff all staring at you. “Chan?” You asked. “Ms. Y/LN. do you know anything about this?!” The CEO asked as he pulled up an online article.

Across the screen was a picture of you and Chan that you had taken on one of your dates. Your text scattered the background. A whole Dispatch article about your “hidden affair.” Your mind went blank, Chan gripped your hand tighter when you started shaking. “Clearly she didn’t know anything about it. Just as I told you. Y/N would never do this.” Chan said staring down his boss. “Well Chan someone got these from somewhere and sent them in. And now we have to clean it up.” He said back, annoyed. “We’ll release an article saying it all fake. Just clean it up quickly.” JYPark said. “No, I’m not going to deny that I’m in this relationship.” Chan said standing up. Pulling you with him. “Chan please be logical.” He started, “with all due respect sir. I love her and I refuse to deny being with her. Stay will learn to accept it and I don’t care what anyone else has to say. But I will not say that it’s fake when this relationship is anything but that.” He bowed and walked out of the room. You quickly bowed and followed along.

He stopped once he got past a wall pulling you into him. You hadn’t realized you were still shaking until you stopped moving. “I’m so sorry Chan I don’t know how they got out.” You said crying. “Baby no, it’s not your fault. We will find out who did this.” He said pulling you into a hug. “Your career, Stay, all of it is at risk Chan.” He cupped your face wiping your tears, “y/n I love you and I am not going to let anyone bully me into denying that.” You met his eyes, all the anger from before replaced with pure love. “I love you too Channie.” You said smiling up at him. “This is not how I wanted to tell you.” He said dropping his head to yours. “That’s okay. It doesn’t change how we feel.” You said cupping his cheek.

He kissed you lightly as the other members came around the corner. “Dear god my eyes please stop!” Hans said, Minho slapped his arm. “Leave them alone.” “Hyung what’s going on?” IN asked. Chan wrapped his arms around your waist, “someone leaked our pictures and y/n’s text about us.” Changbins fist clenched, all of the boys visibly angry. “Some of the more toxic fans are already calling for her head. They’ve tagged her social medias in the comments.” Minho said quietly as he scrolled through twitter.

Chan pulled you closer to his side. “I don’t want her going anywhere alone. It won’t be safe until they calm down.” The boys all nodded in agreement. Knowing how extreme some fake toxic fans could get. You checked your phone, social medias already blowing up with threats. You silently muted all comments and made your account private. “Do we know who?” Hyunjin asked. Chan shook his head but you spoke up, “I have an idea, but I have no proof.” All the boys head swiveled towards you. You looked up at Chan, anger coursing through you, “Hongjoong.”

As Hongjoong sat in the studio reading through the dispatch article, smiling to himself. There was no way your relationship would survive this. And when Chan picked his career over you, like any idol would, you’ll come crying back to him for comfort. And he’d be happy to give it to you. Finishing the article he looked at his phone, waiting for the text. Ignoring the ones from his members, focused solely on you.

He smiled when your name popped up, you were so predictable. “Hey Doll, you okay?” He said, throwing on the extra charm. “Why? Why would you do this?” You said, voice full of hurt and anger. “I don’t know what you mean Doll. Why don’t you come to the studio and we can talk about it.” He said, leaning back in his chair. “No. You crossed a line Hongjoong. You are risking Chans career and my safety. Over what? Having to share me?! You don’t own me.” You said, voice rising. “Come on Doll. Do you really think he’s going to risk his career for you? Just come back here where you belong y/n.” He said, voice full of cockiness. You laughed, it wasn’t your usual laugh he heard. It was dry and full of bitterness, “No. you are dead to me Kim Hongjoong. I will never forgive you for this.” The phone clicked as you hung up. Hongjoong’s heart dropping as he processed your words. What had he done?

A/N: HIIIII I hope you guys are enjoying the chaos🫣 Part 11 is going to have a time jump so beware!!!

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[aching-tummies]

Circumnavigating on an Empty Stomach

Had an interesting experience that I think people here will appreciate.

Transit in my city took a major blow a day or two ago. My city is large enough to have train lines running through it as well as bus routes. Likening it to anatomy, the train lines are basically like major veins or arteries while the bus routes are little capillary vessels or whatever, often intersecting with the train lines to ferry people all over the city.

A couple of days back I had to be on-campus for a few of the classes I am taking. I usually have to take 2 buses to get from my place to the right train line to get to my campus (there are multiple train lines running through my city and getting on the wrong one could take you to a random quadrant of the city). I ate breakfast around 8AM, found out through checking my emails that a couple of my classes were cancelled, resulting in me getting undressed and tidying up my house for about three hours until I decided to get ready to attend the remaining classes for the day. I headed out for the buses at noon, expecting to get to my campus by around 1:30PM or so and giving me roughly 90 minutes to heat up a packed lunch and eat it before attending a 3PM class.

Buses got me to the station--no problems there. I live diagonally across the city from campus, so it's usually 15 minutes on each bus and just shy of an hour on the train. About two stops since I got on the train, our train came to a screeching halt. Standing passengers got air as they clung to the hand-rails and poles along the train. Backpacks not secured literally soared 6 or more feet over. Loose thermos containers and water bottles went rolling. It took 25 minutes to get an explanation, and part of the explanation was that we would be stalled where we were for at least another 15 minutes. So…45 minutes of my 90 minute buffer disappeared only 2 minutes into a 55 minute train ride.

By the time I got to campus, there was no time to heat up my packed lunch. I just booked it across campus to my class and committed to paying attention as best I could and trying not to think about how it had been seven hours since I'd eaten anything. Breakfast was a distant memory.

Classes ended a little early for me that day and I got word that the train line issues had been resolved, so I headed to the train platform around 5:30PM. I managed to avoid the temptation of buying food on or around campus because I didn't want to justify buying a meal for a day where I went all the way to campus just to attend a class and a half. I was miserable, hungry, and feeling like I had been cheated out of my entire day because classes canceled or ended early without much notice. I spent more time trying to get to campus than I did actually on campus. In my mind, campus had taken my time and my rage--I refused to give it my money too for what I felt had been a day not-so-well-wasted.

Thirty minutes on the train platform with no trains before we got an answer. The incident that had stalled my train earlier had been resolved, but a new one had just occurred on the other side of the line, essentially grinding all train service to a halt. The platform was packed with 5 train cycles full of passengers. Even if a train had showed up, less than a fifth of the people on the platform would have been able to squeeze on. With trains expected to arrive once every half an hour, if at all, we'd be looking at three hours standing on the platform before any hope of catching a train.

I took a detour. I was miserable, frustrated, angry, and hungry. I had zero interest in standing on a crowded platform for three hours.

I wound up walking to a bus zone about twenty minutes (on foot) away from the train platform to board a bus. Unfortunately, from that part of the city my route home would require 5 different buses to get back to my quadrant of the city. Imagine that Campus is about as far to the West as you can possibly plot it on this quadrants thing. My home is just a bit north of the farthest Eastern point of the city. In order to get back home without relying on the failed trains, my trip home was twenty minutes on foot to the farthest Western point (campus is around it, but not directly on it). Bus 1 would take me deep into the SW quadrant of the city. From the heart of the SW, Bus 2 would get me to the city centre. From the city Centre, bus 3 would get me into the SE quadrant. From there, Bus 4 would take me to the eastern point and from there I'd have a choice of Bus 5 or a 20 minute walk up a steep hill to get back home. My alternate route essentially took me on a round-trip through my entire city. (I have altered the quadrants in this telling--what order they appear in to avoid potentially doxing myself, but circumnavigating my entire city on multiple buses on a 3.5 hour, untested route home was 100% real).

I stumbled into my home just after 9PM. Unfortunately, I was so anxious over the experimental alternate route home and making sure that I did not miss any stops that I was pretty tense throughout my journey home. No growls or grumbles 'cuz I guess I was too tightly wound for anything of the sort to happen. There was just this annoying hollow sensation sitting like a ball of led in my gut starting around 3:30 and not budging until I got home and basically face-planted into the patch of floor just within my front door.

[bbmgirl]

story time on how he became your bf pleasee 😭🙏

I write like shit so hopefully this is readable🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

gosh where do i start. so i might have lied a bit about the boyfriend part (we’re a thing, just i guess not bf and gf but who cares MY MAN MY MAN MY MAN) But anyway, i graduated high school a long time ago. we were super close and naturally we kept in touch.

We started emailing, i would flirt here and there but THIS MAN istg it’s like talking to fucking chat gpt, so i figured it was because we were talking via email, so i asked him for his number and then we started texting.

since it was more frequent i decided to call him once, he picked up, we caught up with everything going on in our lives. then every saturday we would call and just talk.

fast forward to two months we started full on flirting with each other and we agreed to meet up. he came to my campus and he took me to a really cute waterfront restaurant. he paid for everything. he’s so dreamy 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

the second time we met up i was like…a bit sick of just knowing that we had something but he’d never do anything about it - i get that he’s a gentleman but GOD PLEASE

so i asked him why was he doing that. like why did we pretend that there was nothing going on. i wanted a kiss but he refused. he went on to say he felt horrible for doing this and that we should not (keep in mind that i’ve known him for so long so it was frustrating to me)

I felt sick to my stomach like ???? do you like me or do you not. he dropped me off to my campus and that was it. we didn’t talk after that.

anyway, two weeks after going no contact i got a text from him asking if we could go get something to eat you know old men texts. So obviously i said yes because im a whore. and i love this man you guys have no idea it’s embarrassing.

anyhow,

He basically let it all out. he told me he felt like he was ruining my life and that he could not bring himself to go on with this knowing the situation between us.

so i said fuck it and i gave him a lil peck. it wasn’t a ‘kiss’ so to speak but the fact that it was OUR kiss just…it was immaculate. it was so GOOD. (our lips barely touched)

after that it was a bit awkward and we didn’t really mention it but you know how you feel when you know you got something going on.

after that we kept hanging out and a few days ago he took me to his house and we had a “sleepover” lmao.

now don’t get 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 ideas nothing happened. don’t get crazy. i am smart enough to know he’d never let it happen despite how much we want to.

but i laid down on his bed its so comfy he’s got such an old man’s house. (all cool tones and grey comforters)

so yeah that’s that. i waited for so long and it finally happened. it’s crazy to think about but it is possible…also forgive me for my writing I am NOT an english major.

(Just to clarify I am of age if you’re not DO NOT pursue your teacher!!! don’t be stupid.

another thing worth mentioning is that i got lucky because he reciprocated, it doesn’t mean I am an example or anything like that…if your tc doesn’t like you in that way don’t be weird…)

[aurumacadicus]

Tony gets personal mail a week after he sends off his Dear John letter. He stares at it like it's a venomous snake, hands shaking whenever he reaches to open it. Finally, he takes it to Pepper, too ashamed of the disgust he might see on Rhodey's face when he tells him why he's scared to open it. (Rhodey had received a Dear John letter on his first deployment and it left him gun-shy of starting relationships anymore. Tony had promised he'd never be like the girl who broke his heart, wait to break up in person, but the idea of faking it in letters for eighteen months just to drop Steve on his ass as soon as he saw him feels no better.)

"...Tony," Pepper whispers, shoving the letter back at him frantically. "He hasn't gotten your letter yet."

"HUH?!" Tony bellows, snatching the letter open, and crumples to the ground when he sees it laden with 'sweetheart's and 'baby's and 'honey's. There's also some really raunchy stuff that he is mortified that Pepper saw. He looks back up at her, clutching the letter to his chest. "What. What do I do."

"Well, I don't think you can write back at this point," Pepper says after a brief pause.

So Tony doesn't, even though he keeps reading and rereading Steve's letter. Steve just didn't know he'd been broken up with when he'd written it. When Tony's letter catches up to him, he'll learn why Tony never wrote back to the one he sent. It's embarrassing, but, what can he do.

But Steve's letter's keep coming, week after week, and it dawns on Tony, as he reads about the things Steve's been doing, and he finally gets the PS of "I know mail is dodgy where I am but when are you going to write back :(", that his Dear John letter... must have gotten lost in the mail. Steve doesn't know Tony broke up with him two months ago.

Tony sits down to write another one, but in the end, he can't quite bear to write 'I think it's better if we part ways' twice. Especially not when he's found himself enjoying Steve's letters. Part of the reason he'd wanted to break up was because he knew he was clingy, and he'd never managed a long-distance relationship before (although, he realizes as he stares at the blank paper, he'd never broken up with anyone because of it; he'd been the one broken up with). Plus, all of Steve's comrades had such involved family and friends when it came to their service. Tony doesn't have the leisure of going hard for the army when his company is trying to change its image. Steve had said he'd understood, but he'd also looked a little sad about it. He hadn't really wanted to break up, anyway, he figures, rubbing a hand over his face. He'd just been trying to get ahead of Steve dumping him.

So he sends Steve a letter. He tells him his other letter must have gotten lost, but there was nothing important in it. He'll try to write more often. He just didn't know how often Steve would get his letters. He pauses writing again after sending it off, but then he gets a letter back from Steve telling him he was sorry he missed the other letter, and yes, mail calls might be sparse, but he'd happily take a stack of letters with the same joy as the letters trickling in one by one.

Tony falls more in love with Steve through their letters. This is a different side of him than he's ever seen before, somehow impossibly sweeter and yet even more sincere. He understands why Steve insisted on letters instead of emails beyond the basic 'there's not always internet where we are.' He adores going back, reading over things, tracing his fingers over the ink as if he can read how Steve felt when he wrote. He can't wait for Steve to come back from his deployment so he can see him face-to-face, tell him all about his stupid first letter and how glad he was that it got lost. Steve will almost certainly laugh. Tony's confident in that now.

And then, all at once, the letters stop. Tony doesn't notice at first--sometimes mail is sporadic. Steve can't give him his exact location, but he knows enough that sometimes, bags of letters aren't important compared to bags of supplies. He keeps writing, hesitantly deciding that maybe they're just... moving locations? Or. It's too dangerous for mail. Which is scary. But Steve being deployed is scary in general anyway. So. And Steve said he'd like a stack of letters. He'll be delighted by the size of the stack he gets.

Then one day his letter comes back. He didn't even know the army did 'return to sender.' He stares at the envelope for a long time. Maybe he'd gotten the address wrong. Maybe they moved? He doesn't know how addresses work in deployment. He turns the letter over, to see if it's still sealed.

DEAR JOHN is scrawled on the back, in big, block letters.

Tony drops it as if it burned him, and he claps his hands over his mouth to muffle the wounded keen tearing at his throat.

[jetskisonyourmoat]

My favourite written Alex interview is the one from the Telegraph where he had to answer questions via email because he was basically incoherent when he was interviewed after a TLSP show. This last part is so so good

IRL Alex would never be able to say any of these things as coherently as he does here so I’m really glad he took the time to write back to the interviewer.

There’s a video interview on YouTube i think it’s with Stijn from Studio Brussels in 2018 where he comments that often people ask him about the lyrics and writing but don’t really want ‘to get into it’ they just want to know the ‘names and addresses’ of whoever they think he’s writing about. I always found that funny because when Martin was interviewing him and Miles in 2016 for FaceCulture Alex gets snarky and jokes that Martin wants to know the names and addresses of the people in the songs. But it’s also a little sad because I get the impression that he really does want to go into it, especially if he can sense the interviewer will actually care to listen and also be patient with him. BASICALLY what I’m trying to say is that Alex actually really likes talking about writing but it’s either that the interviewers aren’t that interested (don’t ask the right questions) or that he literally can’t verbally communicate his thoughts in the way he wants (very relatable). In this interview though he actually really gets into it and the metaphors he uses are so vivid and visual it makes me want to go off on a tangent about the way he translates the images in his head into lyrics (but that’s probably for another day). Honestly wonder how long he’d been developing this metaphor for the relationship between lyrics and melody, but ultimately I’m really grateful that he shared this when he did.

Also this part at the start is so

I always got the impression from his interviews that Alex ‘rehearses’ or at least meticulously plans what he’s going to say, because he’s an expert at not always answering questions directly but still pushing the conversation forward towards what he actually wants to say. So the whole ‘internal cue cards’ thing makes a lot of sense to me. Sometimes I wish he’d be more spontaneous or he’d do more ‘fun’ interviews, but then I remember that when Jo Whiley did a quick fire round with Alex and Matt, Alex could barely answer any of the questions. So I guess the internal cue cards are a good idea!