#and they all look and act exactly the same too it's mad creepy

[genkishoujo]

people with tons of money who want to become vtubers messaging artists like yes make me into shylily but turn her into a stingray instead so i can't get sued

[thedensworld]

Post Magazine | K.Mg

Pairing: Photograper!Mingyu x Actress!Reader

Genre: fluff

Words Count: ±700

Summary: It was an honor for Mingyu to collaborate with a well-known magazine. But this job made him realize that love at first sight is real.

Mingyu's got a face that screams "bad boy," and he's given up trying to argue otherwise. He's got that classic playboy look, and an occupation of playboy, a photographer, no less! So, when he tries to convince people he's got an old soul and a sentimental side, they just give him the side-eye. Mingyu's decided to let his looks do the talking, after all, it's all about that first impression, right?

He's snapped shots of so many celebrities, and they all ooze glamour and charisma. Last time, he was working with Cha Eunwoo, an idol-actor who's now a buddy thanks to being the same age. But there's been zero post-work chit-chat with any of his models, except for Eunwoo. So, it raised an eyebrow when he waltzed up to the editor asking for your digits.

"I'll pass along her management's info," the editor said, conveniently hiding the fact that he's got a bit of a soft spot for you after that last shoot. Okay, maybe it's not just a "bit" anymore, it's a full-blown crush.

It started when Mingyu gets the call that he's in charge of the photo shoot for a rising starlet, Jang Y/n. It's your first time gracing a big-time magazine, so Mingyu tries to do some sleuthing about you. Mostly cast as a villain or a bit unhinged, your online pics aren't exactly flattering. Mingyu's scratching his head trying to figure out what style you'd vibe with.

When the big day approached, Mingyu's armed with a couple of style ideas for your shoot, hoping they'll match your vibe and brand. He's deep in discussion with the editor when your manager shows up.

"Y/n has those magnetic and charismatic aura that makes people think she's a tough . But she's really a soft and timid person," your manager spills the beans, enlightening Mingyu and the editor.

"It'll be good to show the side that people hasn't known about. Let's roll with these," the editor picks out two mood boards, going for dark academia and chic stylings.

And your manager wasn't kidding. You're like a total 180 from the roles you usually play. You're not some evil assassin, psycho girlfriend, or creepy stalker. If Mingyu could describe it, you're just radiant. You step into the studio with a grin plastered on your face, and your hair's practically glowing. Mingyu swears, your eyes are like a novel waiting to be read, and he's itching to turn the pages.

Just the night before, Mingyu decided to check out one of your films - the one where you played the mad stalker. He was blown away by your acting skills, even if you looked more like a scruffy vagabond. And now here you are, dressed to the nines, portraying a powerhouse career woman in front of him. As soon as Mingyu looks through the viewfinder, he sees his future. Love at first sight might be pushing it, but let's just say he's smitten.

"Could you lean in a bit, Y/n?" Mingyu asks, second-guessing if that was the smartest move ever. You lean towards the camera with this sly grin, and Mingyu's heart does somersaults.

Mingyu lets out a dramatic sigh, "Let's call it a wrap." He mumbles and dashes over to the monitor, trying to cool off his racing heart. And this is just the first outfit; there are four more to go.

"Is everything alright?" You ask the crew as you step onto the set with your last outfit. "I've never worn something like this before," you admit. Mingyu shoots you a reassuring smile, "You look stunning, absolutely stunning," he assures you.

The rest of the crew is in awe, and you playfully cover your face as if you're blushing. But Mingyu, with his photographer's eye, spots a genuine flush of pink on your cheeks and ears. Maybe he's got a touch of it too, but he's too busy being in awe of your beauty to care.

"It would be amazing if you could strike a pose like Ma Jooahn," the assistant director suggests, referring to one of your past roles as a ruthless assassin. You slip right into character. Your eyes shoot daggers, your smile vanishes, and you look ready to take on the world.

"I'll just pretend there's a pesky fly to squash right here," you mutter while turning to your right, earning a laugh from the crew.

"I wanna be that fly," one of the crew members chimes in, making you burst into laughter and breaking character. Mingyu shakes his head, looking at the monitor beside him; his weakness is a woman with wit and grace. You seem to have both in spades.

*

"You're absolutely smitten, buddy." Eunwoo clinked his can against Mingyu's, chuckling at his friend's infatuation with you. For almost an hour, Mingyu's gaze hadn't strayed from your portrait.

"Come on, focus on your work," Eunwoo urged, playfully nudging Mingyu, who seemed a bit unsteady.

"I am!" Mingyu retorted, gesturing to his laptop, where he was diligently editing photos from your previous shoot. "Staring is also part of my job," he added with a smirk.

Eunwoo let out a dramatic sigh. "There's something you should know about her," he began, catching Mingyu's attention.

Mingyu's brow raised, then quickly furrowed. "What?" he inquired.

"Does she have a boyfriend?" Mingyu interjected, curiosity evident in his voice.

Eunwoo shrugged. "I'm not certain," he admitted. "But there's some gossip that floating around the actors."

Mingyu fixed Eunwoo with a steady gaze, silently urging him to continue.

"She's a mom," Eunwoo dropped the bombshell.

Mingyu's head drooped, disappointment evident on his face. "So what if she's a mom? Is she a widow? That just makes her even hotter, honestly! Ack—" Mingyu began to enthuse before Eunwoo playfully smacked his head.

"Come on! Seriously! I personally haven't worked with her, but some actors say she has a kid, or that she's often busy taking care of them, which might be why she hasn't taken on lead roles. But, i'm not sure either," Eunwoo explained, offering the tidbits he'd gathered.

Mingyu scoffed, "If you're not sure, don't spread it around."

Eunwoo rolled his eyes, a little surprised by Mingyu's strong reaction.

"You've got it bad, my friend," he teased, shaking his head.

*

After a few weeks, what was once a rumor turned into a nightmare for Kim Mingyu. Dispatch, a popular Korean media outlet, released photos of you with your daughter. Some of the pictures were taken in front of a daycare, park, and even a hospital. Mingyu isn't happy seeing your privacy violated by the media, especially as you're gaining more fame. But what Mingyu despises the most is that the pictures are real, with zero editing.

There are two possibilities:

1. You have a secret husband.

2. You're a widow with a child.

Mingyu is perfectly fine with the second possibility. He believes he's good with kids and loves the idea of being around them. But the first possibility? Dang, It hits Mingyu like a punch in the gut. After nearly a month of being your biggest fan, he can't believe he has to remain just a fan. He hasn't even mustered the courage to call you. His heart shattered before he could offer it to you.

Didn't Mingyu mention he's a very sentimental person? Oh yes, he certainly did.

"I'm sorry. Did I hear you correctly?" Mingyu asked during a phone call to the other person.

"We noticed you worked with Y/n on her last photoshoot sessions, so she might be comfortable with you," the other person, a representative from your management, explained to him.

Mingyu shook his head, "No, I mean... Did I hear... So, Y/n wants me to be the photographer for her release?"

"Yes, Mingyu. She believes in you for this release, and we want the best for her and her daughter."

Mingyu was left speechless after receiving the phone call. He immediately cleared his schedule for you after the call ended. He still remembered the tone of your management team as they stated, "We want to release a statement regarding the spreading rumors about our artist, Jang Y/n. She personally recommended you as the photographer. You know, the rumor is pretty sensitive for her, and the last thing we want is to make her uncomfortable during the photoshoot."

Mingyu couldn't stop smiling once he saw you arrive at the studio with your daughter in your arms. Mingyu guessed she might be 3 to 4 years old. Putting the rumor aside, your daughter is the cutest little human in the world.

"Thank you so much for accepting the request. It means a lot to me, Mr. Kim," you approached Mingyu after putting Jihan, your daughter's name, down.

Mingyu bowed, "No, it's an honor. Thank you so much for trusting me. And you can call me Mingyu, please be casual with me. No formality needed," he said to you and gave you a reassuring smile. Deep inside, he was the one who needed reassurance here, as his heart pounded like crazy.

"We're here today to shoot a beautiful portrait and video for our release. Be careful not to hurt yourself, let's work together for us," the director gave a brief direction before the photoshoot started.

Mingyu took beautiful pictures of you and Jihan. He stood behind the camera as they shot a video of you talking about Jihan, clearing up the misunderstandings.

"Jihan was almost three years old when I adopted her. I used to volunteer at the foster home when I met her, and she was so little. I found out that she's suffering from a physical disability due to harmful substances during her pregnancy."

"There's a long process in adopting her. I had to run a few tests to make sure I was an appropriate adopter, and I was so grateful that it didn't take longer time for me to finally have her."

"I actually didn't want to break this news, but the news broke itself, right? I just want to say that there's nothing wrong with having a kid, whether you're married or not. Everyone has a reason. Doing this interview is also hard for me, but I want to encourage all parents, single parents out there, that having a kid is not a sin but a blessing. And I'm very blessed to have Jihan."

Mingyu smiled as he saw Jihan, who was sitting behind you, playing with Legos. She now approached you to show you her Lego creation. "That's amazing, baby." His heart melted once he heard you compliment your daughter, completely distracted from the shoot and focusing on Jihan, which spoke volumes about your personality.

Maybe Mingyu's weaknesses boil down to three things: witty women, graceful women, and you.

He'll start by making a move toward Jihan. She mentioned his height earlier, expressing a desire to be held by him. He's all in! If Jihan wants to call him "dad" immediately, he's a goner.

He's definitely going to ask you out after this.

[hollowedfae]

I love alice in wonderland and alice: madness returns themes so much. the victorian era, red, black & white, rabbits, clocks, stripes, dark cabaret vibes, teeth, the creepy & macabre, dolls, knives, tea cups, bugs, strange creatures, surgical instruments, the portrayal of what its really like to experience hallucinations, psychosis, delusions, or just mental illness in general.

not only do i adore all of these aesthetics, but as someone who has personally experienced auditory and visual hallucinations/psychosis, depersonalization, and delusions myself, it really makes me happy seeing ppl turn something that i've struggled with into something beautiful, artistic and poetic.

i've escaped to my head more times than i can count in an attempt to escape trauma. sometimes purposely and other times involuntarily when experiencing traumatic situations. i've struggled to know what is real and what isn't. i've had to grow up with a mother who still to this day tries to convince me that certain events didn't happen when i know for fact they did because my sister went through them too. my mind has never been quite right or "normal." i've lost my mind many times. i've struggled to make friends my whole life because i don't think or act like most ppl despite desperately wanting to fit in. and then throw autism on top of all that, and you have a scared, lonely, shy & anxious wreck of a girl.

you see, i love to play around with aesthetics, and share my interests, but the stuff i post online goes so much deeper than just looking visually pleasing to people. these things i care about so much are my very heart and soul. my interests are basically who i am. people may find it strange that i care so deeply about bugs and rabbits, but to me it resonates with me so deeply that i can't even put it into words.

i've always loved alice in wonderland, but when i discovered alice: madness returns i REALLY knew then that i found exactly what i've been feeling my entire life. that game, those characters, that realm describes my mind and my personality and my trauma so well that its actually crazy to know someone out there had those same ideas living in their head.

oh what i wouldn't give to have a conversation with american mcgee🥺😭

maybe i'm just ranting again but i just wanted to share a bit about myself and why i love the things i post about. it really means the world to me when i find likeminded people on here. its so precious to me when i talk to people who have a connection to the same things i do.

so yeah i'm not kidding when i say my tumblr is just the inside of my brain😹

[klaprisun]

One Sunny Day

(Stardew Valley) (Haley x Female Farmer)

Chapter 26

For some reason, I wasn’t brave enough to venture over to Haley’s house and confront her just yet. Part of me was still mad at her actions and doing a 180 with her feelings. She is hardcore playing with my feelings but I have been dying to hear her say those words. I wanted her to admit that she wants to be with me and that she is attracted to me.

The whole rest of the day was just me daydreaming about the morning. It wasn’t until just after dinner that I decided I’m going to go to the saloon for the night and see if they are all hanging out there. They’ll freak out when they hear the news.

“Howdy!” I say, announcing my arrival to the arcade. Just as I thought, everyone has decided to meet up. We were just missing Haley and Abigail unfortunately.

“Hi!” A chorus of their voices call out.

Trying too hard to keep the excitement in, I keep trying to stifle my grin. As good as I think I’m doing, everyone clocks me immediately.

“What’s up with you Danny? Why are you smiling funny?” Maru questions me.

“Ahhh you know. This and that,” I slyly say, trying to act cool.

“Something is up. What are you hiding from us?” Leah gasps, “Oh my god are you pregnant?!”

This causes the whole room to erupt with laughter. I just shake my head and laugh along with them.

“No seriously. What is it you are hiding?” Elliot cuts the laughter off with a serious tone.

“Well if you MUST know…a certain someone may have finally dipped their toes in the water with me…” I say nonchalantly.

A million questions start being asked that I can’t keep up with. I try listening to each person but everyone talks over each other.

“It might’ve been more of a dip. More like a splash. But not in the physical sense of us doing things…it was just a confession. A really big one. She let it all out to me today that I’m still processing what she said exactly,” I say, hoping to answer everyone’s questions.

Everyone had finally quieted down to hear my explanation. Sebastian lets out a hoot of excitement and the rest join in. They really are a loud bunch.

For some reason, my eyes drift towards Alex alone in the corner. I see him smiling brightly and joining in with everyone else on the hollering. He seems genuinely happy for me, and I hate that I was ever mad at him. I understand he was in a tough position with his feelings and was in the same boat with Haley. The two of them have come so far and I hope they both feel more like themselves.

He sees me looking at him and shoots me a wink and a thumbs up. I send a thumbs up his way in return. I mouth the words thank you to him, hoping he can read lips. I see his face contort into a look of confusion but he shrugs it off and keeps smiling.

“You know what you need to do now? Bring her a bouquet of flowers from Pierre’s!” Penny chimes in. “Bringing someone a bouquet indicates romantic interest in Pelican Town. It’s a tradition!”

“Why have I never gotten a bouquet?” Sam’s face falls as he looks to Sebastian. He starts giving Sebastian the sweetest puppy dog eyes, trying to make him feel bad for not getting him a bouquet.

“Fine I’ll get you a bouquet,” Sebastian gives in, rolling his eyes playfully. Sam pumps his fist in the air.

“It’s just like if you were to get her a Mermaid Pendant. Pelican Town folks give our partners a Mermaid Pendant from a creepy Old Mariner that shows up on rainy days,” Elliot smiles menacingly.

“As a sign of romantic interest?” I question him.

“Oh don’t listen to Elliot. That’s how you PROPOSE to someone in Pelican Town,” Leah informs me while giving Elliot a scolding nudge.

“I’m still creeped out by the story of the Old Mariner. None of us have ever had to go see him but we’ve heard stories,” Maru adds.

“Well I think I’m going to start with the bouquet,” I say sarcastically to Elliot.

“If you think that’s best,” Elliot shrugs as he lets out a laugh.

“You can get one from Pierre first thing tomorrow,” Penny tells me.

“So have you guys done anything freaky yet?” Sam all of a sudden asks. My face goes beat red.

“That’s never going to happen any time soon. She only just accepted her sexuality. She isn’t going to want to do anything let that. We will probably take it slow,” I nervously reply.

“Well you guys already made out to some extent whether you remember it or not. That counts for something,” Leah adds.

“I give it a week,” Shane grumbles from his usual place beside the fireplace. He has been eavesdropping the whole time. I feel my face heat up even more.

“Guys chill! It’s not going to be anything like that. You guys see how Haley is with me,” I try to explain. Everyone raises an eyebrow and awkwardly scratches their head. I hear a few faint coughs as well.

“Yeah, that doesn’t really help your case. We do see how she is around you that’s why we are giving it a week…” Elliot whispers to me.

“I don’t know what you guys are seeing but you gotta get your heads out of the gutter,” I disappointedly shake my head but let out a chuckle to let them know I’m only joking.

“Alright, you better get home before you burst with embarrassment. I know you are dying to sleep so you can run over to Pierre’s first thing in the morning,” Leah takes me by the shoulders and turns me to the door.

“Damn right. Bye guys!” I yell back as I speed walk to the door.

I’m hoping that when I get home and my head hits the pillow I can fall right asleep. I don’t want her waiting another day for me to show my interest in her. She may start thinking I don’t like her back!

What if I'm too late and she has changed her mind? I begin overthinking.

Will she still like me tomorrow? Maybe she was just in a state of delusion and she didn’t know she confessed?

I try to shake the thoughts from my brain but I can’t help overthinking. I really want this to work out. This is the first time I have ever put effort into trying to be with a girl. Haley is different from everyone I have ever met and I don’t want to mess this up.

[feastingonfanfiction]

Watching the witcher ep 5 for the first time while putting here my unfiltered thoughts

(Watching for tissaia/myanna buring)

Bro has bodyparts in jars and looks at self nekked

Now there's a dude who shows up and he doesn't cover self up

What is he?

Which time line is this?

...gonna wear this one for a while ok so he takes people's skins and wears it...hate that

Also again the body parts in jars are real creepy

Oh magic guy...Oof he throw up

The white flame????

Is this the guy who's gonna get killed....oh no oh no he's gonna...

Lmao do we have to, bruh you agreed to it...guy so unappealing he don't want to.

Magic guy of lil princess is gonna...maybe die...

OK so he's not dead, they didn't...oh no they are gonna kill him...no!!!!!!

OK we got a creepy shapeshifter who has bodyparts in jars

....yennefer wants a kid now? ....ah so she's doing this now????

Oof to keep the lil princess? To not? Oh they killed the spies that are after her

LMAO They just chatting about her right in front of her and she's just there like.

Oh she definitely didn't like this decision...if magic man is dead and replaced with a shapeshifter and he gets in I worry for this group

Geralt goes...fishing?

Oh there's jaskier

He's not fishing he can't sleep

He's gone mad

Oh He's looking for the wish granters...

How does he know its in the lake???

How's his singing? Oof that's not something you'll want to hear jaskier

He needs a nap? No shit Sherlock, you trying to conversate with him will not make him happier in his sleep deprived annoyed state

Oh he caught something

Never open strange pots or make sus deals

Damn he really was butt hurt over geralts comment

Opens the bottle and starts stealing geralts wishes almost using all 3 I don't want to assume badly but bro just let the man be able to sleep you were gonna just use all 3 and let geralt be unable to sleep

Like greed is not a good look

Nah jask don't start begging for geralt you did this to yourself bro

Oof oh no

I dont jask to die even tho he was kinda acting as a pompous prick

That's a LARGE welt on his neck

Watcha not saying Mr medical healer?

Imprisoned the mage in his house?

Powerful and malicious? Off to see the mage

Tissaia "you like pain" to yennefer

TISSAIA :D

Haven't seen her for years? Damn really yen?

!!!!:D when tissaia talks!!!!

Is being an irrelevant mage so bad? Sometimes a person wants to live a simple life

You knew the cost of enchantment!

(Ye exactly that!)

But i didn't know what it would mean to me(???)

Her body her choice but she knew the terms and conditions before doing the thing to escape her fate of being sent somewhere else and be pretty to get her elsewhere and now she regrets it?

Perhaps it's like the message doing stupid things when you were younger that you regret kinda now thought but just idk

I wonder if she had a chance to go back and do it again would she?

She escaped being sent to nilfgaard, but if she had the chance would she change that decision and go to nilfgaard but by doing so she keeps her ability to have children? Or was it all mages go through that transformation? Idk

What does it mean to you?

Why?

I would like to know too

If yen didn't have the whole ordeal of protecting the lady and baby would she still be doing all of this? Would she still regret?

Just cause she doesn't know a cure there isn't one

I'd assume there's dark dealing for that kind of thing ma'am

The way tissaia talks is so lovely just 😍

Return to aretuza

And she says no! The audacity

Aretuzas not just everything to her

People value it!

Could have gone to aretuza to teach next gen

She sees it as her being used

But it could be seen as a sense of fulfillment for what she can't have, though the girls aren't a baby or child she's still teaching someone who will need guidance and thought it's not the same it's as close to I guess?

...idk how to feel bout yen right now?

She's given all she could give but yen wants everything...

Oof she just brushes her off

Two guys on a horse very lil space a part cause they're on a mission to heal one of them(said in voice of two bros chilling in a hot tub 5 feet apart cause they're not gay)

He just holding him like sack of flowers as he wheeze

Oh Jeez mayor is nakey

...she? Is the mayor OK?

Oh...fantasy spice

They just walking through it

YEN???

Are we merging timelines now?

YEN THE FECK?

What is this I got you apple juice, idk it felt like funny offer like gift of adult to child

What'd he fail to mention

Jaskier probs would love it if only he weren't struggling with his giant lump on throat

Yen:just a friend?

Me....they are fruity kinda

But also what? Is this interest?

...yen flirting with geralt not sure how to feel

Oh no telling her about a wish granter when she so badly wants her uterus back bad idea

What's the chance she tries to take your wish?

Damn They were under a spell for the whole....spicy stuff

Bath in house of place where spice was happening

Bro really is desperate for sleep

Like a lil magic but then servitude?

....is this a Canon ship?

Are they trying to give...vibes here between them? Idk

Not sure how to feel about it

Again he chooses to take a bath

...they bathing together

Interesting conversation

Yen:a friend?

Really stuck on that huh

Geralt said some mean things cause he was sleep grumpy but nice that he doesn't want it to be the last thing he remembers

Oh he caught her doing sus thing

Oh and now she's using jask

Yo wtf

She kiss him???

Oh a trap

Oh healer man from before

...dungeon?

He looks haggard

Did she control him?oh she did

...elf man loves yen???

Oh the bard awakens

Will yen get her wish?

Damn jask really worried he did the spice and is trying to run

Starts to sing song

Oh valley oh PENIS

lmao

I wonder if geralt was asleep in some sense when he was under yens control?

Oh magic creature???

How??? How'd he get it???

OK geralt escaped

The duos reunited

And then he's gonna turn around and try to stop her in true geralt fashion

Lmao geralt:ur making me uncomfortable

To elf man

He's really going to help her

Like I can see it but also like...

Yen stop it!

Gosh if she just said I want my uterus back

He would've given it like bruh, but she wants more

Is he gonna wish for the creature to just go away?

Oh the house is breaking down and the creatures gone

...elf man still in love with yen? How'd that happen?

Yen you good? Probs not

She's gonna be pissed

Their faces are very close I could see how people would ship it with like tension there

I dont ship

But then again I'm not sure what I ship?

And they kiss

How the feck did it get to this

Oh they getting spicy

They were JUST ARGUING

....oh no elf man sees the lady he likes getting it on with Mr witcher

Mr steal your girl

Jask just stands there and stares

They're really alive lmao

Yup

Bro stop watching

Yes elf man drag him away....

Damn geralt sleeps after that spicy

Oh now we go to lil princess

NOOOO KILL THE DOPPLEGANGER

NOOOO GET AWAY FROM HIM

THEYRE GONNA GET IN AND HURT THE TRIBE NOOOOO

.....DONT TRUST HIM

MAKE HIM DRINK THE WATER

Nooooooooooooo! No!No!

Dara save her! Be sus of magic doppleganger shapeshifter

Please if you just gave him the freaking water it'd probs save this whole situation

No don't let her leave!

Gosh I hope they're OK after this if nilfgaard hurts the tribe ill be so pissed

[theeangeltimes]

Vampire Academy Books 1-3 Re-read Thought Dump

For the past several months, I’ve been working my way through a re-read of one of my favorite book series, Vampire Academy.

I first read it four years ago when I was 14/15, so it’s been a loooong time and I’ve forgotten quite a bit of it. Plus, now that I’m older and more intelligent/perceptive/critical, my opinions have changed quite a bit and I’ve picked up on more subtle things in the story this time around. In this blog (for my own sake, lol), I’ll be sharing some of the new stances I’ve developed on aspects/characters in the first three books of the series, Vampire Academy, Frost Bite, and Shadow Kiss (as those are the only ones I’ve re-read thus far). AND THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, so beware!

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

• Lissa + roselissa’s friendship kinda fvcking suck.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of lissa and she honestly kind of always rubbed me the wrong way, but during my first read I never really thought too much about it and could never put my finger on what exactly it was that bothered me about her. But now I know!

Their friendship just feels so disproportionate in the sense that it feels like Rose would and has done literally EVERYTHING for Lissa, but Lissa wouldn’t do the same. Like Rose is literally training to spend her future dedicated to Lissa and risking her life to protect her. She also took Lissa away from the academy, putting her herself in jeopardy to keep Lissa safe AND even let Lissa feed off of her while they were out in the human world by themselves despite that being seen as utterly degrading by their society. And let’s not forget how she knew that Lissa’s use of spirit was wreaking havoc on her mental well-being and would probably drive her to insanity or even suicide, yet she let Lissa keep on using it just because it made her happy…

But when Dimitri was left behind in the cave after the mission in Shadow Kiss, Lissa wouldn’t even tell Rose that she would at least ATTEMPT to heal Dimitri or bring him back to life even though Rose was distraught and begging. And then she had the nerve to get mad at Rose when she found out that she and Dimitri had a relationship and Rose didn’t tell her about it. Like, what???

And there’s other ways she’s rubbed me the wrong way but I won’t mention them because I feel like I don’t have enough proof to truly support my argument, but I’m still right! ☝️

Lissa is also just sort of a bland character. And I normally like quiet kind smart girls, but there’s just something that falls flat about her for me.

And speaking of the bond…

• The use of the bond was a very clever storytelling device. So while I do find it mostly annoying, I also appreciate it.

• Adrian is a fvcking CREEP!!!

I truly, TRULY, do not understand how I liked or even felt bad for Adrian at all when I first read this series. He’s a creep, and the way that Lissa (see? another reason why Lissa sucks) and Richelle Mead try to gaslight both us the reader and Rose into thinking that deep down he’s some great guy pissed me off so much. And it makes me feel insane when I look at how the fandom as a whole tends to love him and defend him and act like Rose is this major evil bitch, because HOWWWWWW???

It’s bad enough that he is constantly flirting with Rose since she’s underage, but even if she was a grown ass woman, it would still be gross; Rose tells him over and over again to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, and yet he persists. And also makes sexual comments to/about her. And always tries to ~playfully~ coerce her into giving him physical contact like hugs. And also bugs her in her dreams even though, once again, she tell him not to. Like there’s no way she can escape his creepy ass and nobody steps in for her to tell him to fuck off and leave her alone. It’s blood-boiling to me.

And, spolier: from what I can recall, more layers of shittiness are added to his character as the series progresses and even more are added in Bloodlines (unpopular opinion, but oh well). The only good thing that mf has done is fund rose’s trip to kill strigoi Dimitri.

And speaking of her getting money from Adrian…

• I genuinely do not feel bad for Rose asking Adrian for money.

Like why in the world would I care that a woman does something kind of bad to her harasser? Especially when she’s a teenager who’s in a terrible space mentally?

The whole exchange reinforces how Adrian is a total creep. As I previously mentioned, Rose was not only in mental/emotional turmoil due to Lissa’s use of spirit, but she was also reeling from Mason’s passing, the strigoi attacks and their casualties, and Dimitri turning strigoi. And yet he was still bugging her about dating him.

• The dhampirs (especially the women and girls) are greatly oppressed and thus far no one has even really acknowledged that except Ambrose, and he doesn’t even truly relay just how bad their oppression is.

The Moroi (as a class) exploit the physical abilities of dhampirs and more importantly the fact that the dhampir race cannot go on without Moroi and coerce them into dedicating their entire lives to being their guard dogs. The only other choices that dhampirs really have when they’re adults other than becoming guardians is to become “blood whores,” single mothers who live on communes (which is pretty much always conflated with being a blood whore by most people in their society), or being alone and vulnerable in the human world.

And it’s completely normalized (the primary way that dhampir a are reproduced, in fact) in their society for Moroi men to have casual relationships with dhampir women, impregnate them, and then leave them to raise their children on their own while they go and settle down with a Moroi woman instead. PLUS, guardians having serious romantic relationships is looked down upon, so those are pretty much out of the question.

And what makes it worse is that they can’t even liberate themselves from Moroi completely unless they’re willing to have the dhampir race die out completely since interaction with humans is not a real option.

To make matters even worse, Moroi could have been fighting alongside dhampirs to protect themselves from strigoi, and the fire users can very easily kill strigoi without even coming into physical contact with them, but no. The moroi were too damn lazy and thought of themselves too highly to do so. Which is why I’m glad that Moroi have started advocating for Moroi to begin fighting as well and that becomes a big theme throughout the novels.

• Moroi (as a class) are evil oppressors, continued

The whole feeder system is very flawed and exploitative, in my opinion. The fact that we briefly see in the books a few times that the feedings cause a mental deterioration for the feeders after a while is the main reason why. In Shadow Kiss, the way that rose and Christian were sitting there calling Alice (the elderly feeder who seemed to be experiencing some sort of psychosis) ~craaaazzzyyyyyy~ yet Christian still proceeded to feed on her definitely made me side eye him.

Surely there could be a more humane system put into place, like age/service limits for feeders or something.

*side note: I don’t think we ever figure out how Alice knew about how the strigoi were coming? I could very well be wrong though, I’ll have to see if Richelle provides answers in the following books.*

• Despite how outspoken and confident and strong and brave Rose may be, she has ZERO self-preservation or self-worth when it comes to herself and the dhampir race as a whole.

To see her repeatedly talk about how it was both her and every other dhampir’s duty to protect and prioritize Moroi and become guardians and repeat that stupid “they come first” mantra and dedicate her entire life to training just to protect her friend has honestly been painful. Like, girl, STAND UP!!! None of you were put on this planet just to give up your life and be 24/7 bodyguards to some people that likely see you as inferior to them!

However, I do think this aspect of her makes her character more real and complex. Rose may seem like a rebel to the people around her because she often gets into trouble and is sassy and ran away, but in reality, she isn’t one at all. Her worldview is actually quite traditional. She has internalized all the norms in her society without a second thought and doesn’t begin to see things differently until she starts interacting more with the world outside of St. Vladimir’s and is upon the brink of adulthood. She even says herself “Why was everyone suddenly challenging something that I’d held as absolute truth my entire life?” in Shadow Kiss.

I’m very excited to see how both Rose and her world continue to evolve and grow with the next three books. I don’t remember the society and characterization of these books being so rich and complex, Richelle Mead did an amazing job creating a compelling and thought-provoking world. So while I may not think that these books are literary masterpieces like I once did, I appreciate them in a new, deeper way.

[gurokichi]

I think this is my second or third ask today, I'm very proud of myself xd.

Well, to answer your question, I think we are similar because of some posts that you have, because when I read them, it remind me of myself.

Because (can you count how many times I write the word "because"?,i think you can do it Bon xd) even if you not believe it, I'm so much like you, but unlike you, I'm afraid of show that side of me, the side that is obsessive, possessive, the side of me that wants to be hurt but loved at the same time, the side that is soo jealous over anyone that stay so close of someone that I loved (platonic and romantic), in that sense, I kind of envy you Bon, you are more brave than me to show all of you, even the most "creepy" and "weird" sides of you (however I don't think you are creepy or weird, you are very cute to me Bon, so kind and nice, it's almost unbelievable).

Leaving this aside, I knew that you would say that, I don't know how, but I knew you wouldn't watch KNY for that long until you wanted to do something else instead, and don't worry, it doesn't bother me that you haven't watch everything yet

Because (why I say "because" so much? ;-;) it happens to me soo often that is not funny anymore -,w,- .

Can I be honest with you Bon?, I was expecting you to know my blog even before I started to like yours posts, because, I know you have that "bad" habit to want to know everything you can about your anons (it's now a "bad" habit to me though, I find it very cute.... I called you that so many times didn't I? (- w - ")) , and btw, did you like my blog?, I don't post anything yet but, at least you could tell if you like how my blog looks (even if I think it looks a little bad or "cringe" to me).

And I really want to believe that what you said is true bon, that she would talk to me again like we used to, but I think she is mad at me, because she didn't answer my messages and she didn't talk to me for the past two days, and It makes feel so bad because, she one of the few friends I have (because the rest left me alone), and the mere thing that she would hate makes me want to cry and to want to tell her that I don't want her to leave (you could say that i'm a bit dependent on her).

And I know that this has nothing to do with what I was saying before but, in my room there were a lot of ants, and not exactly the little ones, but the big ones that if they bite you they hurt a shit.

Luckily, my father killed them all by setting them on fire and then he took them out of my room, to say that I was scared was not enough, I almost died of fear.

And now I'm going to explain you the meme that I said (I mean the "esa frase casi me da un oscar" one), well, basically, the meme is used when a famous person or character says something that became representative of that famous character or person, i could give an example of Kokichi with his iconic “it's a lie!”, but the meme can also be used if a character or person says something specific and repeats it constantly, and I would set an example of myself with my “and that's all for now!” , and basically that's why I referred to that meme (I can't believe I had to explain a damn meme to someone, but you don't speak my language so it's understandable, and I'm sorry if you don't understand what I said, my way of explain things is always so shitty and stupid) .

And I think that's all I want to say, I will waiting for your answer bon, bye love you! :D

- Unnamed Anon :p

So many asks!! I love reading and answering them, though!

Ah, I see. I think being able to act as you want just depends on the people you’re around. I’m lucky enough to (mostly) be surrounded by people who don’t judge me for the way I am! Being so open here doesn’t mean I’m not afraid to show this side of me, though. I worry that I’ll be too much or that those around me actually don’t like it often. I’ve hidden and still do hide just how odd I am from others, even people who know about this behavior of mine. There’s one person who I’m not afraid about being completely open to, and that’s my God. Everyone else just gets the watered-down in some way version of me. Just find people that you're sure you can trust with that side of you, and you'll be able to be as open about it as you'd like! It's scary at first, but once you realize others can absolutely be just as "weird" as you, then it's not as bad. You'll find someone you can unapologetically be yourself around one day! Thank you for the compliments, ehehe.

I actually was watching some more of KNY when you sent this in… which is why it took me a lil bit to respond. I just started episode 5 before checking Tumblr and seeing your ask!

You knew about that already? I was under the impression you wouldn't have seen any posts where I admitted to that before you went through my blog, hahah. I'm happy you find it cute, though. I know who every single one of my anons are! I just find it more fun to play dumb most of the time. Besides, I wouldn't wanna scare anyone off. As for liking your blog, I did! I recognized your profile picture from a show that one of my friends likes… I still need to watch it.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation with your friend. It's unfair to you that she's ignoring you like that, even if she's mad at you. You don't deserve that at all. I truly hope that you're able to sort things out with her. Things will get better, and I'm sure you'll be able to make more friends in the future too <3

Oh dear, that sounds awful. I would also die of fear if there were ants in my room!! I hate hate hate bugs. They're the worst! "Oh, but Bon, they're important to the environment-" I do not care! The environment is not my house!! They can do whatever they want outside where they belong. Very reasonable reaction to set them on fire

Ooh, now I understand why you referenced that meme! Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. By the way, I think you said "because" 10 times? I may have miscounted, though.

[jojo-hut-jrs]

👀 In that case... Could you please write something for Telence T D'Arby with the prompt "You look cold, come here."? I love that creepy gentleman sociopath

I don't mind waiting at all by the way, I was just worried you'd get tired of always writing for the same characters 😭🙏 Please take care of yourself

you got it 👌

Terence x reader

Devotion was a word you had known the taste of for so long that it had long since soured.  

To love and to be loved was a long-lasting act of dedication and patience, though even the most tolerant could eventually find their spirits broken by sheer, unwavering force under the right conditions, much like the wind could eventually erode a mountainside.  

Devotion was sweet once, like he treats he used to bring you all the time. Though anyone with the first tastes of freedom will tell you that overindulgence can get sickening all too quick, and suddenly the sugar sits heavy and sick in your stomach.  

Dedication was sweet once, and there was once a time when you loved the way he doted on you. You couldn’t tell if it was something particular about his nature or if it was just the way his love translated itself towards you, but there was hardly ever a moment in his presence when he wasn’t practically waiting on you like a personal servant. More than once you would try and playfully slap his hands away, telling him you were more than capable of pouring your own drinks or fetching your own shoes, but he always insisted that he would be more than overjoyed to do it himself on your behalf. And truly he looked nothing less than pleased at even the most minor chores he performed for you, as if it truly was his purpose in life to wait on you.  

You had indulged him then, just as much as you had indulged yourself with the pleasures of his company and his willingness to obey.  

He once said that his devotion unto you would never end, and you can only wish for the day that he finally changes his mind about that.  

Although you can’t hear his footsteps, you know he’s just out of view, beyond your doors. He’s always a little grumpy when he returns from his work, and thus he denies you his company further until he decides that he is ready to see you himself. You never know exactly what it is that he does or where he goes to do it, just as you do not entirely know where you are and why, but every time he returns it seems he needs a few moments alone to collect himself, and you almost have to laugh at the irony at that.  

You don’t hear his approach, just the two little knocks he politely graces you with, because he would never be so rude as to enter a space unannounced, even though he would come in whether you chose to answer him or not.  

You stopped being mad so long ago, now you don’t even know how to describe this sort of hurtful, negative emotion you feel when you see him again, but all the same it is overwhelmed by the relief that he is back and you are finally not alone anymore.  

His face appears all at once with the light from outside, and it makes him out to be like some sort of deity appearing from the heavens, and you know his power to be much the same.  

“Hello, darling.” He greets you warmly. “It’s nice to see you again. Did you miss me? How was your day? You look cold, come here, little thing.” 

And you have no choice but to let him pick up your tiny, wooden body and hold it close to him, listening to the heartbeat he still gets to have inside of the body he still gets to possess. But at least you have your words, or your lack thereof at this moment, and you let his greeting go unanswered as he takes you off to do whatever he has planned for you tonight.  

Much like in the days before, he looks only contempt and peaceful at the opportunity to care for you in every way possible. Your evening begins, like many of your nights spent with him, with a light bath and a check-in on your physical condition. The process is so routine at this point that he could honestly afford to forgo it, though he wouldn’t dare to even consider passing this sort of treatment for his absolute favorite. Though you’ve never met the others, you know that he would never spend as much time or effort on them as he does with you. He dresses you lavishly in the clothes he often makes for you himself, in the styles he thinks you would enjoy, and he brushes your hair delicately with the special little comb that comes in its own precious little box. He sees you often everyday, and he makes it a point to talk with you as much as he can.  

You had hoped that maybe your quietness would bother him, but he allows the silence to be filled with gentle music and the scent of candles he picked out with you in mind, clearly enjoying himself, and you can’t take it anymore.  

“How much longer is this going to go on, Terence?” 

“As long as it needs to,” he replies instantly, already familiar with your insistent question on the topic.  

“You can’t keep taking care of me forever.” 

Your voice is a hushed whisper that sounds so far off and distant from what it once was, in a manner that makes you sound hollow and empty inside. 

“Of course I can,” he boasts to you, “It’s what I do best. I’ve been taking care of you for almost as long as I've known you.” 

You go to respond and then quickly stop yourself, because you know he’s completely right and it hurts you deeper than you wish it did. For such old scars they still burned like fresh memories, all the way from the beginning when he only opened doors and pulled out chairs for you, to after the first diagnosis when he insisted that he could handle everything so that you didn’t have to get out of bed.  

“I know you have,” you try and tell him gently. “And you know I’ve been very grateful for everything you’ve done for me. But don’t you think it’s time to put this to an end, Terence?” 

You feel the hand behind you go still, and although you are incapable of tensing up, you still feel a dreadful anticipation in his actions. 

 Last time you had this argument, it was straight to the private box he has for you, and then it was a week of nothing but darkness and quiet until he brought you back out. It’s nothing like the isolation he must think it is, otherwise, he wouldn’t dare to subject you to it the way he does the others. You’ve tried to make him understand in the few times you’ve defended yourself, not just so that you could escape from this fate, but in the hopes that he would wake up and realize the full extent of what his actions truly mean. The inability to move was nothing new, and he had more than sympathized with it back then, but at least you still had the escape that sleep can grant you. Now, everything can only blur together while you slowly wait for the time to pass, left alone with only your thoughts and memories.  

He straightens a non-existent ruffle on your dress, the motion pointless and only done for sake of doing it, and you wonder if his own isolation is wearing him thin just as much as it does you.  

“It was either this, or death. You know that.” He finally speaks again, though it is flat and dull.  

“Are they not the same thing?” You dare to raise back at him.  

For a second, you see him animated with emotion you hadn't seen in so long, not since the day you thought would be your last. It’s about the only thing you can remember from that day in particular.  

Without a further word he scoops you back up, and without even saying it you know you’re going back into the box. You’re both upset; he wants to be alone, and you want anything but the terrible isolation.  

He sets you down in the plush velvet lining with delicately and with great precision, because he still loves you after all, that entirely why he did this. He would never just throw you away, no matter how much you begged him, no matter how broken you were. He would always find a way to keep you with him forever, no matter what he had to do or who he had to answer to.  

He takes his time getting you adjusted, making sure each limb is poised correctly and comfortable, even though physical sensation is not as prevalent as it once was, and you stare mournfully up at his face. He was always a little too dramatic with his emotions, even though he tried to quell them down. His brother once said he had a terrible poker face, and indeed his reddened eyes and quivering lip made it more than apparent that you were both suffering through this together. 

“You have to let me go at some point, Terence.” You tell him, and for a moment he reaches his hand out as if to gently caress your check, but he jolts back suddenly and the visage of him is replaced by only darkness.  

[hey-sherry]

Act III The demo area + more!

I am not sure why I was a little surprised that Act III is exactly the same as in the demo, but oh well. I played this pretty late just to beeline it through the areas that I already know.

My mouth fell open when Gerda and Heidi straight-up disappeared. What in the world!

I took no screenshots of the 'demo' bits because, well... I have more than enough. XD

The little side-quest with the "boiling frogs" was very chilling, and I think those names are some of the Kickstarter backers? At least they sounded very... real. I feel like the killer's identity should be a reference to something, but I can't place it.

Posting this because what the fuck is that face angle

This was such a funny cut-scene, they're both a little mad.

Ah yes, the Chapter One smile 'w'

A lil ~INTERLUDE~ here because I forgot to prattle about this earlier, and I had more time to think about random stuff while running around the demo area brainlessly. So, Jon...

I've been thinking about whether Watson knows about Jon, and at this point I don't think he does? He mentions both Vogel and Sherlock's tales of Cordona, but nothing about Jon. Surely he would've said something when he heard Sherlock call out for him. (And it's better storytelling if they let that unravel 'on screen' :D)

& there was a scene when Sherlock realises he misjudged Barnes' behaviour and says "I see things that aren't there" and boy was that an OOF.mp3 moment. I think there's more scattered around, just little things he says that make it clear he's still thinking about Jon. Sigh.

Ooooohhh how I loved that I had a choice to call Sherlock out on his shit! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

Dawww ♥ The look on Watson's face!

At this point, the Mementos that I unlock are a bit ahead of the game story (this happened with the ornate dagger that you find at the end of Act II as well). I have no clue what this is, but I sure can look at it! I guess I'll find out soon.

Let's pick the boring answer.

Watson is growing on me!

Snowpiercer reference?

Yes, I did try to run into the pumpkins and kick them around.

Is this what Sherlock sounded like to people :)

There's the Otto letter but can't pick it up :(

CUTE

also WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY. WHO WROTE THIS So maybe he's aware of Jon after all, loool

Honestly, same.

I picked all the bottom options for the letter, by the way, I figured Watson would still want to sound classy. Not sure if there's a difference if you choose differently, or just flavour.

This is very cool! Reminds me of the time I went to one of those human body exhibitions.

Birds are my favourite animals and I'm not ok with this :/ Can I free them please? That's too many birds per cage...

I'll take a moment to appreciate the achievements being mostly optional/rewarding exploration. Yes, I gazed into the abyss... yuck. :(

Psychonauts 2 moment PROPERLY CREEPY I LOVE IT

My poor dude needs a hug :c

hot ngl

The beard is back, boooo

Okay, thank you

I love assertive Watson!

I DID NOT EXPECT THIS HOLY SHIT! Revenge for what she did to Heidi, I guess...

Well... to New Orleans!

[spadeselfshipcorner]

SPADE x HUNTER Chronicles

The Hunter Exam Pt. 2

In case you don't come from the main post, hi. This is my attempt to fully insert my HxH S/I in the main story! Gotta thank my friends whose feedback has kept me motivated to continue writing and finally posting this work, because my original plan was to keep it to myself lol

January 7th OST: Hunter ☆ March 06:00 AM The following morning I woke up at 6 AM. Ponzu was still watching over me, which was super sweet, however, when I sat up she just got back up and walked away, which did make me feel a little sad. I thought alliances would be easier to form, but apparently most examinees liked things better when it was everyone for themselves. It does make sense, the exam is a competition, but nothing is stopping people from teaming up. After spending a whole month on that ship without making a single friend I was craving for some company.

06:40 AM

A new group of people came out of the elevator. There were three; one boy and two guys, they seemed very friendly with each other, maybe they’d be cool with me too! Unfortunately they were instantly approached by Tonpa, who tried to pull the same trick he tried on me. Luckily, the kid noticed there was something off with the juice and spit it out, the other two did the same. Tonpa apologized profusely and left them alone. Time to make my move! I went up to them, probably looking awkward. Chatlog:

– [Spade]: "Uhm, sorry to approach you like this, I noticed that Tonpa guy was talking to you three."

[Leorio]: "Hm? Oh, yeah, he was talking to us. Do you know him?"

[Spade]: "Well, not exactly, he approached me earlier too, he's been going around approaching a lot of people actually... I've heard he's known as a rookie crusher, just thought I'd... warn you guys."

[Leorio]: "Wait, what? Rookie crusher? Wait, no... No way in hell- do you mean he’s intentionally trying to have people fail the Hunter Exam?"

[Spade]: "Yes, that's exactly what he does, I overheard someone talking about him yesterday."

[Gon]: "Whaaaat?! That's terrible!"

[Kurapika]: "I knew he looked suspicious, but I could've never imagined something like this… did you really hear someone say that?"

[Spade]: “Yes, I heard #187 calling him out, you can ask him as well, he probably knows about other returning examinees too.”

[Kurapika]: “I see…”

[Leorio]: "Well, that definitely explains why he was acting so desperate with that whole juice shtick. Thanks for telling us. Say, what's your name?"

[Spade]: "Oh uh, it's alright... I'm Spade, and you guys are?"

[Leorio]: "Ah, I'm Leorio. My friends here are Kurapika and Gon, it’s nice to meet you." –

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air and we all turned around to see a man whose arms had been cut clean off by a magician-looking dude. Creepy. I definitely didn’t want to get on his bad side. Some people recognized him from last year’s Hunter exam, his name was Hisoka.

07:00 AM The first examiner introduced himself as Satotz, he was an odd guy, but seemed pretty alright. He told us to follow him, which slowly evolved into us running after him; I decided to stick close to the trio, and specifically to Leorio. We were all doing pretty well, even though we didn’t know how long we’d be running for.

At one point, we saw a kid with a skateboard pass us by, and Leorio got mad, but Gon pointed out that all Satotz said was to follow him, he didn’t specify how.

Upon finding out that Gon was his same age, the white haired boy, whose name was Killua, hopped off his skateboard and started running as well. After running for a couple hours, I started getting a bit tired, but still not enough to stop me. Leorio on the other hand looked about ready to drop out. I slowed down along with Gon to wait for him. I didn’t say anything, just looked at him, and after a while he actually got mad at himself for almost dropping out and started running even harder than before! That’s the spirit! I followed after him and caught up with Kurapika as well; that was when I overheard the two guys talking about the true reasons why they want to be hunters. I was shocked to learn about Kurapika’s past, it definitely felt like I wasn’t supposed to hear that. Leorio also explained his reason, and  the fact that he was there risking his life just to reach his goal of becoming a doctor and saving people’s lives nearly brought me to tears. He’s a good guy. I pulled up my hair and ran past them, up the stairs and out of the tunnel, finally.

10:00 AM Satotz gave us a couple minutes to rest up before the test would continue, so I decided I’d sit down on the grass next to Leorio to chat a bit with him. Chatlog:

– [Spade]: "Whew... I thought we'd never get out of that tunnel for a moment haha..."

[Leorio]: "Yeah, I was starting to think that we'd never get out of there either."

[Spade]: "Heh... yeah... by the way I uh... overheard your talk with Kurapika about why you want to pass the hunter exam, and- I just wanted to say I think you have a very noble reason to do so!"

[Leorio]: "Oh, you...you heard that? Heh, that's a bit embarrassing."

[Spade]: "Not at all! I think... wanting to save people's lives free of charge is a really beautiful thing!"

[Leorio]: "H-Heh, I just think that if there's any suffering that I can stop, if there's any pain I can help ease, I think that'd be...a good way to spend my time."

[Spade]: "That's such a respectable mindset, Mr. Leorio, I mean it!"

[Leorio]: “Oh, thank you… hehe… by the way you can uh… drop the ‘Mr.’, really”

[Spade]: "Oh heh alright then, Leorio!" –

Soon enough, our break was over, and Satotz explained to us we were currently in Swindler Swamp, a wetland inhabited by dangerous creatures which used deceit as their main way to capture their prey. If anyone got lost, they’d surely die. Immediately after that explanation, a man-faced ape tried to trick us, but Hisoka made himself known again and attacked both the fake examiner and Satotz, to know for sure who was the real deal and who wasn't.

OST: Strange People 10:10 AM The second part of phase one quickly began after that. We had to make our way through some misty, extremely dangerous wetlands. I tried my best to stick with Leorio and Kurapika, but once the fog became thicker, I ended up losing track of them. I somehow managed not to die! Although I did have some very close calls with a couple of Ruse Ravens. Other than that I managed.

At some point, I ended up running into Hisoka in a clearing, right when he was facing Gon and Leorio. I attempted to help Gon, karate-chopping Hisoka’s arm as he was strangling the boy, which seemed to be enough to break his grip. Gon heaved for a couple of seconds and then went to check on Leorio. It was then that Hisoka wondered if I was worth fighting, but before he could attack me, he was interrupted by a call on his walkie-talkie, warning him not to lose time. We decided to put that aside for now, and get to the next site quickly. I was about to go with Gon, but saw Hisoka picking up Leorio and decided to stick with him, because I didn’t trust the man at ALL, and I didn’t want him to do something to Leorio. Hisoka seemed to be fine with that, and we calmly continued on our way to the meeting point, which is rather absurd, the swamp didn’t look nearly as scary while walking through it with a murderous clown. Chatlog:

– [Hisoka]: “Could I ask you a question?"

[Spade]: "Huh? What is it?"

[Hisoka]: "Well, I was just curious- that was quite a good chop you gave me… do you consider yourself a strong fighter?"

[Spade]: "Honestly... I don't know."

[Hisoka]: “Hm, you don’t know?”

[Spade]: “Well… I’m aware I’m stronger than the average person, but… I’ve also seen what actual strength is like, and I feel like I’m nowhere near that yet.”

[Hisoka]: "Oh? That is quite an interesting answer... How long have you been practicing Nen?"

[Spade]: "Huh? H-how did you... *sigh* Only for a couple years, my cousin introduced me to it."

[Hisoka]: "Well, you certainly show a lot of promise. I would love to see what you could do in an actual fight... perhaps one where we are a bit more serious."

[Spade]: "Uh... I guess we could, not a death match if possible haha, I'd like to live."

[Hisoka]: "Of course, don't worry, I'm not interested in killing you... yet… But that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you either..."

[Spade]: "Aha awesooome… then, perhaps once we're not on a time limit we could have a good fight..."

[Hisoka]: "Now we're talking... It should be fun when that time comes... I'll be looking forward to it."

[Spade]: "You really like fighting, huh?"

[Hisoka]: "Oh, yes, heh you could say I do…"

[Spade]: "But you don't seem to fight just anyone."

[Hisoka]: "That's true... I'm not going to waste my time with those weak of spirit... If I'm going to fight someone, they need to be a real challenge... someone who'll make my blood run hot with excitement. Otherwise, it would be a bore."

[Spade]: "Ah... is that why you wanna fight me?"

[Hisoka]: "Precisely. You're strong and you've shown that you have potential, especially for a beginner... that makes you interesting to me."

[Spade]: "How lucky, I'm getting the full Hisoka experience."

[Hisoka]: "Oh, you should know... the full Hisoka experience is anything but ordinary."

[Spade]: "As expected of a great magician!”

[Hisoka]: "You're quite an interesting one, aren't you? I must admit, I find your sense of humor... unique."

[Spade]: "Aha… ha…" –

We got to the forest, and finally the fog lifted. Hisoka left Leorio against a tree, and I saw him go to the needle guy. It makes sense, weird guys stick together. I waited until Leorio woke up again, and he looked at me hazily. Chatlog:

– [Leorio]: "Whuh...hey...I'm...Where are we?"

[Spade]: "You're awake! Oh thank goodness- we're waiting for the second phase to start... got through the swamp!"

[Leorio]: "What? Wait what? We're already through the swamp?"

[Spade]: "Yeah! You... don't remember anything?"

[Leorio]: "Yeah... No, I don't. Did something happen?"

[Spade]: "Uuuuh... nope, you just... got knocked out by a beast and I carried you here"

[Leorio]: "T-Thank you... for helping me. I'm in your debt."

[Spade]: "Ah i-it's nothing, really..."

[Leorio]: "You're adorable, you know that?"

[Spade]: "H-huh?! Me? Adorable?? Y-you must've hit your head pretty hard..."

[Leorio]: "Haha, look, you’re all red! What? Can’t handle a compliment?"

[Spade]: "Ah... s-shut up..." –

And then I flicked his forehead. At that point, Gon and Kurapika caught up to us just in time before the timer ran out, and Gon took me to the side to thank me for helping him out with Hisoka earlier. I didn’t feel like there was any need to thank me, but I appreciated his words.

Part 1 | Part 3

Master post

Proship/Comship & Kink blogs DNI

[zepskies]

Aw yay!! Thank you so much, friend. Starting off with a bang, so to speak. 😂❤️‍🔥

I broke! 🤣 I love innuendos like this!

LMfao SAME! It was very fun to try and capture that here. 😂

I snorted hard at that one 🤣 Oh sweet Lord and baby Jesus, he'd for sure say somethin' like that. Bless his heart 🤣🤣

Bless his heart, for the rest of him has already been blessed. 😏

Whoop! We have a hurdle 👀 Now, I shall wait who says the magic words first... 😈

Don't we always have some kind of hurdle with me. 😅 Ooh, I love a guessing game!

My crime-loving heart burns with passion every time I read classics like this 😍❤️ That's when you know shit's about to get good 😏 (We definitely watch too much Law & Order lol. Loved the SVU warning btw 😆)

Oh my God, WAY too much L&O! But I knew you in particular would appreciate my attempts at getting somewhat SVU with this.

Didn't want to get too graphic on it, so I held back some, but I'm so glad you appreciated those aspects. Especially since you have so much experience writing crime dramas! ("Murder cluser" -- I'm a nerd about those things too!! Trying to bring some authenticity over here. 🤏🏽 😂)

Yup, typical law enforcement (at least when you're passionate and care). I thought he'd be the exactly the same way – just drown in a case and forget your whole world around you in the process

Ugh yep, unfortunately, and we know this is already a pattern of behavior with Beau. Even more so on this case because it's literally striking too close to home.

Whoa, definitely don't mess with Y/N. Girl knows how to "silently treat" someone lmao 🤣

And I discovered this about her while trying to explore more of her character weaknesses. 😂😂 Experience has taught her the fine art of pettiness. 😌 (Lmfao Aubrey is the perfect example!)

Umpf... don't underestimate Beau either. He's playing dirty 😆

And not even realizing it! That bastard. 🤣

Yup, that's the one 😂 You've outdone yourself with the passive-agressiveness of this 👏😆

LOL I just love the phrase "deceptively calm." 🤣🤣

Ugh, the man is sweet but frustrates me sometimes. I can see him this innocently spinning around, too 🙄

HONESTLY. The way he even had to ask why she was mad. Like why are men seriously like this? I was legit having a conversation with my best friend about her boyfriend acting very similarly to this. 🙄🙄

Yup, there we go. I expected something like this. His "it's okay to be an asshat as long as you're saving someone/doing good" reminds me of someone... 👀

The way I chortled. Legit the perfect Dean gif for that moment. 🤣 (And 100% accurate AF.)

Ugh, typical creep behavior 😒 Show me you're a low-life criminal and perv without telling me you are... (btw: why do they always do this in shows and movies? Like, "Ooooh, look at me! If I hadn't been caught, you would've been my next victim" 😂)

Ugh ikr? That's exactly the feeling! Part of me kind of cringes making it so obvious, but at the same time, this could've become a whole new mini series if I wasn't careful and drew this out the way I could have. 😂😂

1983? I love you for this 😂 Please tell me more people got that reference 🙌

OMG Literally just you and one other person got that little reference, but I know I can always count on you!! 😂 🫶🏽

I mean, a little... But we all are sometimes, so we get it 😆🫶 I honestly hope that super creep doesn't come after her, now that he's out on bail. Poor woman has been through enough creepy serial killer trauma 🙈

Ha! I know, her pettiness is kind of understandable. But if she'd just answered his call, maybe what happens next could've been avoided...

(And I know, I'm fucking terrible aren't I? 🥲)

Welp, there we go! I spoke too soon lol. ZEP! You're gonna make this girl need life-long therapy! 😂 And poor Beau, he already blamed himself last time. He's gonna freak for sure now. This is all gonna get worse 🙈

And she was already in therapy! She'll definitely be giving that person more billable hours. 😬 Poor girl. AND poor Beau, for sure. It's going to take them both a while to work through this one. Like you said, as if they didn't have enough PTSD.

But I'm so glad that whole scene was able to keep you on the edge of your seat!! 🤩

“I’ll take you home, okay?” he said.

N'awwwww a callback 🥹🥹🥹

I love me a callback! 🥹💗 (And a title shoutout.)

Zep, omg! 🥹🥹🥹😭😭😭 Why are you hitting me with all these feels? This is me and hubs ❤️

Oh yeah that's right!!! I told you, I would love to have a love like that. 🥹

Awww, she said it first and overcame her fear 🥹🫶 I already knew he felt the same 😏 He honestly should've manned up and said it already. We know he was feeling it and close to saying it in the series lol

Honestly I'm kinda wishing I had had him say it first for that reason! But I also thought he'd be one to let certain things be implicit through his actions (not like some other Jackles characters we know 🙄), until he finds the courage to be vulnerable in that way. 💗

Zep, I loved this one shot! It was amazing! Such a beautiful addition to this wonderful series 🥹❤️ Can't wait to see what else you come up with in this universe 🫶

Thank you so very much!! 🥹 I always feel blessed by your comments, and this time was no different! I was smiling ear to ear. 💕 There one more little one-shot (for now), and I see you already got to it!! Diving into your comments there next!

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Pairing: Beau Arlen x F. Reader 

Summary: When Beau starts pulling away from you and Emily during a very difficult case, will the pressure make or break your relationship?

AN: This is a sequel story to the Take Me Home storyverse, set just a few months after Part 9!

Word Count: 5.5K

Tags/Warnings: 18+ only! Smut, a Law & Order: SVU-esque case, angst, perilous situations and violence, hurt/comfort and fluff.

Catch up on TMH: ⤵️

❤️ Take Me Home Masterlist

You took pleasure in the sounds you were pulling out of this man.

You continued to kiss down his neck. Each of your movements was slow and purposeful.

Your hips rolled against his, brushing your clothed, aching core against his risen length. His hands were like steel bands on your hips, not letting you leave even if you wanted to. He groaned.

“I needa get ready for work,” Beau chuckled. And he pointed out, “So do you.”

You smiled against his skin, and you gently dragged his flesh between your teeth.

“It’s still early,” you argued in his ear. You teased the shell of it with your tongue, making him shudder and rock his clothed hard-on between your legs. The wet tip of his cock dampened your panties further.

His hands moved down your thighs, caressing, squeezing, getting a handful of your ass in the process. Just as his fingers dipped under the satin hem of your panties, his phone buzzed on one of the nightstands. Beau let out a sigh of disappointment and reached over blindly for it.

He saw the caller ID and took in a breath to get himself together first. Even though he didn’t quite succeed, he answered the call.

“Mornin’, Jenny,” he greeted. You grinned.

“Tell her I said hi,” you whispered.

Beau shot you a “stern” look, though his lips curved at a smile. He mouthed at you to behave. 

You gave him a look that was cheeky at best.

“We caught a new case. If you want, you can meet us at the scene instead of the precinct,” said Jenny.

“Okay, where to?” Beau asked.

While Jenny gave him the directions, you used his distraction to your advantage. You shimmied out of your underwear and the overly large shirt you’d stolen from him last night. Then you drew down the waistband of his underwear and freed his cock into your hands.

“Okay, sounds g—” Beau was forced to pause on a sharp inhale.

“You okay?” Jenny asked.

“Y-Yeah. Just fine. Had a tickle in my throat,” Beau said.

"Okay, well just so you know," Jenny said, continuing to give him tidbits of information that he really should've been paying attention to.

He cleared his throat, shooting you an incredulous look. You didn’t pay him much mind as you began to touch him with care, from the weeping tip and along the shaft down to the base, even caressing his balls.

Beau’s furrowed gaze held yours as his breath faltered again. Your deft hands lined up his cock to your entrance. You teased yourself on the sensitive head of it, brushing it through your wet folds and against your clit. You had to bite your lip against a moan, but you didn’t quite manage to stifle the sound.

“Okay, Jenny. Thanks, I’ll see you there in a bit,” he said in a rush.

He hung up as soon as he could, but all the while, you were unrelenting. You finally sunk fully down on his cock, taking him all the way inside your wet heat.

Beau let out a strained groan and grabbed your arms. He sat up and pressed his forehead to yours. His lips formed a chiding smile.

“That wasn’t very nice,” he said. His voice was a bit rough, sending a shiver down your spine.  

“You want me to be nice?” you teased, beginning to let the full length of him slide out of you. You welcomed him back inside with a rock of your hips. “I just need a moment of your time, Sheriff.”

He nodded breathlessly. “Think I can manage that.”

You smirked and held onto the back of his neck as you rode him. You had a feeling you would find fingerprint bruises on your hips and thighs tomorrow, but this was worth it.

It took a lot to see Beau lose control, even in the bedroom. Now, he had a hand tangled in your hair and his lips fastened to your throat. He helped you move on him with a guiding hand on your hip. You slipped a hand from his shoulder and further parted your folds to find your clit.

But as Beau so often did, he moved your hand away so he could usher in your pleasure himself. He massaged your clit until your inner walls became almost too tight for him to drive up into you. Your thighs shook around his hips, and he managed to hold off on his own release until you came, hard on his cock.

You cried out near his ear and held onto his shoulders. He supported your collapse against his chest, but he still grabbed your hip tighter and rutted into you a few more times, until he was able to spill into you and fill you up to the brim with his warmth. You clenched on him on purpose, milking him for all he was worth.

Fuuuckin’ hell, he thought with a grunt, and he panted against your shoulder. He laid a belated kiss there.

“What a way to greet the sun,” he remarked.

You laughed breathily, caressing his cheek.

Beau was, inevitably, running late for work. He found that he was okay with that as he kissed you goodbye.

You were still in your robe and holding a mug of coffee. You didn’t need to be at work for another couple of hours. Your Tuesday classes didn’t start until 10:00 a.m.

“Have a good day, baby. I…” you trailed.

Certain words were poised on your tongue. Words that neither of you had said to one another just yet. Your heart started tripping up a bit as you realized it. 

Even though you’d known the truth of what you felt for him for a while now, you’d been very careful to let him say it first. You told yourself you didn’t want to pressure him, in light of his contentious divorce and how new this all still was between you and Beau…

But more often, you wondered if you were maybe projecting, considering your own rocky past. Maybe it was just self-preservation.

“Yeah?” Beau questioned. You waved him off with a nervous chuckle. 

“Nothing. I don’t know,” you said. “My coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.”

He just smiled and gave you one last kiss to the side of your head before he left your apartment.

Beau arrived at the scene of the crime: the parking lot of a movie theater. Jenny and Poppernak were already there inside the perimeter of yellow caution tape while the Forensics team did their thing. Jenny checked her watch when she saw the sheriff.

“What took you so long?” she asked. 

“Traffic,” Beau lied, his face warming. “What’ve we got?”

He quickly shifted his attention to the pool of blood staining the ground between his deputies. The path of his gaze led to the victim: a young woman wearing a blouse, skirt, and heels. The skirt was torn up to the hip. Her neck was cut, deep but clean.  

There were other signs of struggle; road burns on her right thigh, like she had been dragged. Jenny even found a can of pepper spray rolled under the victim’s car. 

“Maybe he was trying to get her to his car. She fought back hard enough that he cut his losses,” she theorized. 

Beau blew out a sigh and nodded grimly.

“Okay. Let’s get started.”

Two months gave the Lewis and Clark Sheriff’s Department two more murders. Both were women, presumably alone and late at night, and in the dimly lit, poorly secured parking lot of an establishment. 

Stressed didn’t begin to cover how Beau Arlen walked back into the precinct two hours before he truly had to. What little forensics they’d been able to uncover from each scene (and on the victims) let them to conclude that the suspect was male, and likely between 5’10” and over 6 feet tall.

As they now had a murder cluster, Beau and his team determined that the victims were found within a 5-mile radius. Both Emily’s school and the college where you taught were within that range.   

It had led Beau to long nights spent at the precinct and in town, researching, canvasing, working with his team to lock down possible leads. 

But those two months had also led him to cancel dates with you and plans with his daughter. He hadn’t stayed over your apartment in weeks. You’d spoken to Emily, and she told you he was often late in picking her up from school on his custody days with her. When she was with him, he always seemed distant, distracted.

It was all too familiar, Emily told you, and she hated it. 

You were worried and becoming increasingly frustrated. Any calls you made to him to check in were a few minutes at most, before he left you hanging to go back to work.

Beau had told you this was a difficult string of homicide cases, and very little else. You knew that he shouldn’t and couldn’t tell you too many details about the case, but you also couldn’t help but feel that he was pulling away from you…and leaving you in the dark. 

You’d just gotten home after a longer day than usual at work. Frankly, you were exhausted. All you wanted to do was shower and find whatever you could in your fridge to have for dinner. You didn’t care what it was at this point.

Before you could go rummaging, however, your phone started to ring. You sighed and went back to the purse you dumped on the kitchen table, and you saw that the call was from Carla. Your brows knitted in confusion. She’d been on a business trip in California for one of her higher-profile trial cases.

Carla was polite on the phone, but sounded a bit stressed.

“Emily just called to tell me that Beau hasn’t come by to pick her up from school. She’s been there for two hours,” Carla said.

Your eyes widened in surprise. “What? That’s not like him.” 

“I know, but he’s not picking up his phone. Is he with you?” she asked. 

“No, I just got home. He has to be still at work,” you said. You restrained a sigh as you grabbed your purse back up. “I can pick Emily up.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, in a relieved tone that suggested that was what she’d wanted all along, but she still wanted to be polite about it. 

“Yes, I’ll get her. Don’t worry,” you said. “And I’ll talk to Beau about this.”

“Good,” Carla said. “I appreciate that.”

After getting off the phone with Carla, you texted Emily and let her know you were coming to pick her up. She texted back:

Are you sure? I can just take an Uber to your place or something.

You replied:

No, honey. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be there in 15 - 20 minutes.

You didn’t manage to get ahold of Beau until you’d already picked Emily up from school. You braved through thirty minutes of traffic to get home again, and you stopped to grab dinner on the way.

Beau didn’t get to your apartment until later that night. You and Emily had a nice dinner of Tex-Mex takeout (though she’d said it was definitely better in Houston). He looked tired and apologetic as he went to hug his daughter first. 

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he said. “I just got held up at work.”

Emily nodded and tried to smile at him, but it didn’t reach her eyes. 

“It’s fine, I get it,” she said. 

Beau knew his daughter well enough to see the truth. He sighed, but he went over to you in the kitchen next. You were putting away the leftovers. He laid a hand on your back and tried to kiss you in greeting, but you only gave him your cheek. 

You didn’t meet his eyes when you slid over the plate you’d set aside for him: a massive carne asada burrito with all the sauces, just like he liked it. 

Beau felt like an ass. 

You left him to heat up his food and went to Emily, who was helping to clear the kitchen table. 

“Do you need help with your homework?” you asked her. “I know you said you did some at school while you were waiting.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty much done. I’ve got it.”

You smiled at her. “Okay, good job.”

The next item on your mental list was grabbing the bedsheets out of the dryer, to set up the pull-out bed from the couch later for Emily to sleep.

Beau watched you putter around the apartment while Emily settled in front of the TV with the remainder of her homework. He felt like an outsider with his own girlfriend and daughter…and there was an eerily familiar feeling churning in his gut. 

Later that night, you were reading in bed. Beau stepped out of the bathroom after a shower, with the towel wrapped around his hips, his chest and arms all dewy. You had to force yourself not to take notice.

You’d been missing him—practically aching for him for weeks, for two months. You were also upset with him though, and for more than one reason.

After he got dressed for bed in a long-sleeved shirt and some sweatpants, Beau once again noticed that deceptively calm look on your face. He knew that face, just as he sensed the tension in the air.

He sighed and came to sit on the edge of his side of the bed. Or at least, the side he’d claimed ever since he started sleeping over regularly here. Somehow, his own trailer had become a bit stale and lonesome, unless Emily was staying over. 

Beau watched your profile and saw the way you were trying your best to ignore him. 

“I get the feeling you’re mad,” Beau said, breaking the silence. “Sorry about today. I know Carla called you…I just got caught up with something at work.”

“Carla was right to call me,” you replied, though your eyes didn’t leave the page that you weren’t reading. Beau’s lips pursed. 

“Darlin’, would you look at me, please?” he asked.

You dropped your book into your lap, and you met his gaze. 

“All right, tell me. Why’re you mad?” he asked. 

You raised your brows with a tense frown.

“I’m upset with you. Because this is the first night you’ve spent here in over a month. And it’s not because you wanted to.” 

You shoved the blankets off your body and slipped out of the bed. Beau’s shoulders sunk a bit. 

“Come on, honey. You know that’s not—” he tried, but you weren’t done. 

No, you were very far from done.

“I’m upset with you, because every time I try to extend an olive branch and make plans with you, you reschedule at the last minute,” you snapped. “I’m upset with you because what few and far between conversations we do have? They consist of me trying to figure out what’s happening with you, trying to share with you about what’s going on with me—and you’re either half-listening, or you’re running off before the five-minute mark.”

Again, Beau opened his mouth to argue as his brows furrowed, but you beat him to it.

“And not to mention, you forgot your daughter,” you said. “You’ve been forgetting her, and you’ve been shutting me out.”

Beau stood along with you, his whole body tense with frustration. 

“Look, it’s not like I’m out there cheating on you! I’m doing my damn job!” he said. 

His words hit you like a physical blow. Your mouth fell open in soft shock. Tears even stung in your eyes.

“Reminding me of Michael,” you nodded in understanding. “Okay. Wouldn’t be the first time this month.”

Beau bristled; he didn’t think it was right for you to compare him to your bastard ex-boyfriend.

“Hey, that’s not fair,” he said.

"This isn't fair," you retorted, gesturing between you both with a pointed finger.

Beau's lips pursed. His jaw clenched as he averted his gaze, so he could better hold his tongue before he said something he might regret.

Too late...

Eventually, you stopped waiting for him to answer you.

Beau saw how you withdrew, both from the argument, and from him with a sigh. You crossed your arms and held yourself when you headed into the bathroom.

He internally deflated. Shit. 

Something told him that if Emily wasn’t occupying the only other sleeping place in this apartment, he’d have been booted out of your room.

Things were tense the next morning. 

Beau agreed to take Emily to school, since you picked her up yesterday. You gave Emily a hug before they left, and you had even packed her a good lunch for school. You knew she had to do that herself whenever she stayed at her dad’s place. 

And yes, while the teen was old enough and responsible enough to pack her own lunch, you just wanted to make sure she knew you were still in her corner, no matter what friction might be happening between you and her dad.

You and Beau parted ways that morning with tension still lying between you, just like it had been last night in your bed. After they headed out, you found yourself at a loss, feeling unbalanced.

You didn’t have a class today until noon, so you took the morning to truly think about what was happening here. Whatever Beau’s case was about, you knew it was serious and complex, and he didn’t want to talk about it, likely for your safety. 

All you could hope was that Beau, Jenny, Poppernak and the rest of the team were able to solve it quickly. You even began to wonder if it was fair of you to add stress on Beau’s shoulders when he was dealing with something that was clearly taking all of his energy, and making him distant with both you and Emily.

Blowing out a big sigh, you supposed you could try to be gracious one more time. You braved the annoyance of putting real clothes on—a blouse and work casual pants, as you later would have to go in to work. 

You first headed over to the precinct with your purse on one shoulder and a plastic bag hanging from your other hand. 

You entered the double doors and walked in past the reception desk, then through the bullpen. You noticed right away that there was a commotion going on, as you saw Jenny leading in a man handcuffed behind his back. You almost bumped into him as they crossed you in the hall. 

The man was tall and lean, with pieces of his coiffed dark hair falling over his sharp blue eyes. They found you, and his lips curved into a smile after he gave you a once-over. 

His smile made a shiver of unease prickle down your spine as you froze. 

“Keep moving, Casey,” Jenny ordered.

Beau was right behind her, though the moment he took in the exchange between you and Casey, Beau stalked forward and stepped in between, urging the other man forward with a firm hand on his shoulder and a stern look of warning.

Jenny and Popernak led the suspect into a room for questioning, while Beau’s hand found the small of your back and guided you into his office. 

He closed the door behind him and carded a hand through his hair. He let out a subtle breath and turned to face you. He didn’t look all that happy to see you, just tense. 

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Sorry, we’re a bit busy today.”

Before you could speak, he added, “Matter of fact, it’d be better if you called first next time.”

Your mouth snapped shut. Your brows knitted together in a glare, and you handed him the bag you carried in. It contained a nice hot sandwich and fries from Tonya’s diner, made by Donno himself.

“Here,” was all you said, before you walked out the door of the sheriff’s office. 

Beau watched you go in surprise, with the word “wait” halting on his tongue. His gaze traveled down to the open bag between his hands, and sure enough, the smell of a good meal hit him, making his mouth water and his stomach twist with guilt all at once.

Damn it, he sighed. But lunch (and a phone call to you) would have to wait. He set it down on his desk and hastened down the hall to where their suspect, in what had been dubbed the “Fall Murders,” had finally been arrested and held for questioning.

Casey Sanderson; ex-military, dishonorably discharged, an abusive mother in his childhood and an unstable mind following two tours in the Middle East had left him unbalanced, according to his friends from his unit.

His DNA was also discovered under the fingernails of the most recent victim, Christina Mendez. Two weeks ago, her body was found behind a gas station late at night, her neck carved by a knife, and bruises littering her arms and body. 

Beau entered the room where Poppernak and Jenny had already gotten started on the suspect. 

“Casey here has lawyered up,” Jenny informed him, though her gaze never left the suspect. They were forced to wait on further questioning until the lawyer arrived.  

“Ah, the Sheriff of Nottingham,” Casey remarked. His cool blue eyes watch with a measure of nonchalance as Beau stood behind his deputies, arms crossed. 

Casey nodded up at him. “Was that your girl out there in the hall?”

Beau’s formerly calm face turned to stone. 

Casey’s lips curved slightly. 

“Good taste,” was all he said.

His tone was mild, yet it still made Beau’s skin crawl. And his rage built, igniting his blood. He did everything he could to temper that wildfire into a simmer that rolled just underneath his skin. 

Jenny and Poppernak knew him well enough to see what he was thinking. Both of them watched him with hidden wariness and concern, especially when Beau stepped forward, placing one hand on the table between him and Casey Sanderson. Darkened green eyes met cool blue. 

“Where were you on November 2 between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.?” Beau asked.

Beau was irate when, a few days later, the ADA prosecutor called him at his office first thing in the morning to inform him of the latest news on Casey Sanderson. 

“What the hell do you mean he got out on bail yesterday?” Beau snapped. “We have DNA evidence.”

“He claims that he and Miss Mendez had consensual sex earlier that evening, in the women’s bathroom, of all excuses, but they parted ways after leaving the movie theater,” said the ADA. “As you know, we couldn’t put him directly at the gas station near the theater, where she was found. The defense lawyer convinced the judge that the remaining evidence is too circumstantial to warrant holding him without bail.”

Fuckin’ hell, Beau let out an angry breath, carding his fingers through his hair. He hung up with the ADA moments later. His cell phone lighting up with a notification drew his attention, even perking him up a little, but he deflated when he saw it wasn’t from you. 

Just Carla letting him know that she’d take Emily for the weekend this time, just like he’d asked. He felt bad for it, but he needed more time to concentrate on his cases. Sanderson was just one of many now, and Poppernak and Jenny couldn’t handle it all.

Beau tried to rub his tired face back to life, but once again, he thought of you. He still felt guilty, and he still missed you. Missed you like hell. 

He hesitantly picked up his phone and he called you, hoping you wouldn’t let it go to voicemail again.

Admittedly, you were being a bit petty. You were screening your boyfriend’s calls. 

However, if Beau Arlen wanted to see you, then he could get his ass up off that office chair and come to you this time. 

You were tired of giving out olive branches left and right. You didn’t deserve to be the one left waiting and wringing your hands, wondering if this man even cared about you…as much as you’d come to care about him. 

So you ignored his call—the second one today, and you prepared for your afternoon classes. 

Even after your classes were done for the day, you graded a batch of papers to get them out of the way. As much as you couldn’t wait to go home, you didn’t feel like doing more work when you got there.

Another hour and a half ticked by before you finished grading and inputting the percentages into the online gradebook. Then, with a weary sigh, you grabbed your purse and your workbag and headed down to the garage where your car was parked. 

You always tried to park in the same spot for faculty, in a space closest to the elevators. You found your car and put down your workbag in the backseat first. When you closed the door, you saw a figure in the window’s reflection. 

You gasped and turned around. A man covered your mouth as a scream tore from your throat and echoed loudly in the garage.

He shoved you hard against the car door, but thanks to a few self-defense lessons from both Jenny and Beau, the heel of your hand came up on reflex. 

It hit the man up the bridge of his nose with a crack. He shouted and reared back. When he pulled his hand back, it came away bloody. And you finally recognized him as the man you saw at the precinct: tall, thin, dark brown hair, angry blue eyes now staring back at you.

“Fucking bitch,” he chuckled. “Got some fight in you.”

Fear was a living thing inside you, but you somehow managed to force your body to move.

You scrambled for the driver’s door of your car and tried to open it, but the man shoved it closed, then grabbed at you once again. His forearm pressed across your chest and pinned you there.

The edge of a knife poised at your throat, making you freeze in panic. The blade teased your skin, hot breath against your cheek.

“Freeze, Casey!” came an angry shout. Both you and your attacker recognized that voice. Your breath was stifled in hope. Casey frowned in frustration. 

Just over his right shoulder, you saw Beau holding his gun aimed at the man who held you. His brows were drawn together, his entire body poised to react to whatever Casey did next. 

“Turn around, hands up high, and drop that knife,” Beau ordered. 

Casey’s mouth edged into a humorless smile. “Evening, Sheriff. Up for a date night?” 

He slid the blade just slightly against your skin, enough to draw a line of blood, and make you inhale sharply. 

“I’m not gonna say it again! Turn around and drop the goddamn knife,” Beau snapped. “Try anything else, and I’ll make a third hole in your spine.”

Letting out a breath through his nose, Casey’s façade of nonchalance fell. He released you, stepping back slowly with his hands held in the air. The knife slipped out of his hand.

Beau stalked towards him before it even clattered to the floor. You were frozen where you stood pressed against your car.

You watched Beau stow away his gun and wrangle Casey’s hands behind his back, slapping on some tight handcuffs, and getting the man onto his stomach on the dusty ground, his cheek pressed hard to the asphalt. Beau held him down with one hand while he fished for his cell in his pocket to call for backup on the arrest. 

Beau’s head lifted to catch your eyes. He gave you a reassuring look. 

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ve got this,” he said.

His voice was warm for you, steady. When you nodded, it was a jerky motion as you held a hand to your racing heart. You then raised it shakily up to your neck and swiped at the trail of blood there. The wound itself was minor, just a sting, but it was a cold reminder of what could’ve been.

The wait for Jenny and the rest of the team was agonizing. 

Beau kept Casey on the ground, facing away from you. Eventually you were able to peel yourself off the side of your car and climb into the driver’s seat, just so you wouldn’t have to keep looking at the man who attacked you.

Jenny and Poppernak arrived within half an hour to haul Casey up and drag him into Jenny's SUV. That allowed Beau to return to your car and tap on the window of the driver’s side. You jolted and looked over to find Beau’s reassuring face. 

“They took him. It’s okay,” he said, only a little muffled through the door. You nodded and gestured for him to step back, so you could open the door. 

The moment you were on your feet and out of the car, you went into Beau’s waiting embrace. Hot tears welled up in your eyes. You hiccupped and struggled to breathe steady, but Beau held you tight and soothed a hand over your hair, down your back.

“It’s over, honey, I promise. I promise I’ve gotcha,” he said quietly in your ear. You nodded and let his warmth seep into you. 

“I’ll take you home, okay?” he said. “We’ll get your car tomorrow.”

You sucked in a trembling breath. 

“Please,” you agreed. “Take me home.”

“Am I going to have to testify in court?” you asked. 

Beau held you close in your bed later that night. You two had dinner together and had been rewatching old episodes of Friends to take both of your minds off what happened today.

Beau reluctantly nodded in answer to your question. 

“The ADA will probably ask you to, but…you can say no,” he said. “I’ll back you, whatever you decide.”

“No, I want to,” you said, even though the thought made you tremble inside. “That animal belongs in a cage.”

Beau silently agreed with you. He admired you for your vehemence, and your courage to even say that you wanted to testify against Casey. 

Beau laid a gentle kiss above your brow and continued to rub your back. You both had the blankets up to your hips with a bowl of popcorn balanced between his thigh and yours. He moved it over onto his nightstand so he could curl you more securely against him. You raised your head to consider him thoughtfully.  

“Why were you on campus?” you asked, as it finally occurred to you. “How did you know I was still there?”

“I thought I could catch you after your last class, so I went up to your office to see you,” he said. “But you weren’t there. A receptionist was on her way out though. She saw you head out a little while before, so I booked it back down to the garage to see if you were there.”

He was never more glad to heed his gut instinct. That was when he’d heard you scream.

The memory made his insides clench. Beau shook his head against the rest of it. He let out a heavy sigh.

“I’m so damn sorry for what happened. You gotta know, all this time, this is what I was trying to prevent,” he said, with pain written on his face. “But I’m also sorry that I shut you out. You and Em. I just didn’t know how else to keep you out of this. After what happened this summer…I wasn’t gonna let that happen again.”

With tears stinging in your eyes, you nodded. You knew now that he hadn’t meant to hurt you.

Beau Arlen truly was a good man, and that was hard to come by.

You shifted so that you were propped up on your elbow, resting on his pillow. You stroked his cheek. 

“I understand. And I’m sorry too. I know that your job can be difficult, and stressful, and sometimes dangerous,” you said. “But I need you to talk to me. If we’re going to do this for the long haul, we need to communicate. I can’t be left in the dark like that again, Beau. I just can’t…"

It was your turn to sigh. "It feels too close to what I went through with Michael. Being lied to. Being told what I wanted to hear, never actually knowing what was going on, until it was too late.”

You admitted that last part with a hitch of emotion in your voice, meeting Beau’s eyes. His were full of remorse.

“I know. Again, I’m sorry. I promise, I’m gonna work on it,” he said, nodding. He planned to make it up to his daughter too. He would talk to her tomorrow.

You drew his attention back with the hand caressing his cheek.

“I just don’t want anything like that to happen to us. I love you too much,” you said. A tear worked its way down your cheek. “Beau, I love you.”

Beau grasped your hand, holding it to his cheek. His furrowed expression eased, and his lips slowly turned up into a smile. A true one, hinting at all the charm that was unique to this man. You’d missed that smile. 

He dried your cheek with a gentle hand. 

“Well that’s good,” he said. “Because I don’t think I’ve loved you more than I do right now.”

You laughed through more of your tears, and let him guide you into a tender kiss. One sparked another, and more, each one more searing than the next.

Beau’s fingers disappeared into your hair, just as your legs tangled themselves between his when he rolled you over, and underneath him, where he continued putting actions behind his words. 

He gave you a promise that night, one that you’d both try to hold yourselves to in the morning.

AN: Ahh, I'm soft. This feels like the more "official" end to Take Me Home, though I'd be open to come back to these two if new ideas hit me. But until then, let me know what you thought of this one! 😘

Keep Reading:

Here's a drabble set directly after this one-shot. It's called A Crime of Passion:

Summary: When Beau Arlen decides to “make it up to you,” he’s damn thorough.

▶️ Next Story: A Crime of Passion

Ko-Fi Me ☕

Take Me Home Masterlist

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Main Masterlist

Series Tag List (Part 1):

For those of you with tag lists, Tumblr is doing a weird thing again with tags. I had to separate them 5 at a time for the hyperlinks to work on each blog! So annoying lol.

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[angelamajiki]

Damn that Bully Dabi and Hawks fic was an amazing read! I love it when you write them full on bastard mode!

Pro Hero Bakugou sexually harassing his weak quirkless secretary who does her very best at her job. She's good at it but Bakugou always looks mad (read: sexually frustrated). High on success after a good rescue, he wants to celebrate....

OR

Cop Bakugou sees a pretty little thing outside a club. She looks sus so he decides she needs a pat down. Maybe he'll plant something to blackmail her into doing certain favors. Very bully, very bastard Bakugou.

PARINGS: Pro Hero! Bakugou x Secretary! Quirkless! AFAB! Reader

CW: yandere, dubcon/noncon, dirty talk, choking, cunnilingus, overstimulation, scumbage bakugou, use of the word rape, quirkless reader, size difference, age gap, death threats, sexual harrassment, bullying, mindbreak, masturbation, office sex

AN: I’ll probably write the cop Bakugo at some point too! For now, mind the tags and enjoy :)

They say to never meet your idols and in retrospect, you wished you would have listened.

Try as you might, it seemed like Mr. Dynamight was never satisfied with your work. Admittedly, you joined his agency as his office secretary based on having a crush on the pro, but you assumed his brash nature would calm down in an office setting. You did everything he asked, obediently followed his every word, which was all met with harsh glares and what you thought were dissatisfied grunts.

Surely you thought it wouldn't be about your being quirkless, but rumors were high strung in the office about the blonde’s feeling towards those without quirks. It would explain the harsh glares and judgment he passed on you despite your work effort.

The man even went as far as to ask for your personal phone number, only to leave scathing voicemails whenever you couldn't show up to work or miss out on work gatherings he put together. You couldn't help but flush at the thought of him missing your presence. Maybe you were just bad at reading his signals? Or maybe he was just hell-bent on bullying you more than the rest of the staff.

The job paid very well, so you couldn't exactly up and leave based on his behavior. However, you did notice how...handsy Mr. Dynamight has become with you. It was subtle at first, brushing shoulders in the hallways, letting his fingers ghost against yours when he handed you paperwork.

It soon escalated to always having a hand on your shoulder, holding your hips when he had to brush behind you, towering over you from behind your chair when you showed him something. You couldn't say that you weren't flattered, but his rough demeanor remained.

It started becoming uncomfortable when he made passes at you, making sure you were cornered and alone when he did.

“C’mon, am I really that fuckin’ intolerable that you can't get lunch with me, pipsqueak?”

You assumed that he was just messing with you, so you always turned him down with a flushed face and ran back to your desk, leaving him blue balled and more desperate by the day. There's no way a pro hero like him would actually be interested in someone quirkless and weak like yourself.

But that's the reason why he liked you anyway. So small, so weak, so obedient, so perfect for him to fuck up. God, if he didn't want just to rip your tiny pencil skirt to threads and spear you on his cock like no tomorrow. A pretty thing like yourself shouldn't be working. No, no, no. You should be at home, in his home in his bed with his ring on your finger. You belong to him, don't you see that?

Katsuki only ever gives you the time of day, not those other stupid bitches who crawl up his ass every morning trying to get a crumb of attention. And what do you do with his precious time? Waste it. Always whining about how you really shouldn't, that he shouldn't be seen with someone like you. As if he gives a fuck about what the media has to say.

He even checks up on you when you're not at work! Isn't he such a gentleman? Sure, he's a bit vulgar, but he's trying to show he cares. But if you want to act like a stuck-up bitch, then he’ll gladly treat you like one.

After a particularly tough fight with a villain, the blonde wanted nothing more than to use and abuse you to get some steam off his chest. It was late, but he prayed to whatever gods were out there that you were still in the office. He left you a voicemail for good measure, hoping that you would do what you always did best and stayed obedient for him.

It was locked up for the night, but he could see your office light on from the street. Perfect. Such a good girl for him. Little did he know that you stayed late quiet often.

You hadn't even seen his previous call come through; you were too busy listening to an old one with plenty of derogatory terms being spat your way. A hand shoved in your skirt, you couldn't help but finger yourself the sound of his voice calling you moronic for skipping out of work. Mr. Dynamight was your childhood crush after all, you had jerked off to plenty of interviews of him in the past. Sure, it was creepy but no one had to know. The older man was so big, so strong and handsome. You couldn't help but feel fuzzy from the voicemail, even if it was degrading you, it was for you alone.

Speak of the devil and he will appear.

“Well, shit. Whadda we have here, pipsqueak?”

A rough chuckle came from behind you as he pulled your desk chair out and swiveled towards him.

“Caught ya red-handed, huh? Who knew you were such a little slut for me.”

Taking the phone from your hand, he hung it up on the receiver and took your hand out of your panties. He snatched your fingers greedily in his mouth and sucked your wetness off of him.

“You know what, I’m feeling a bit hungry. And you taste like something in the vein of what I’m tryin’ to have for dinner.”

Katsuki devoured you in a hungry kiss, lifting you out of the chair and onto your desk. He tossed aside the papers messily and spread your legs to see your slick moistening your sheer tights and panties.

“Bend over and spread that fuckin’ pretty pussy for me, pipsqueak.”

You shook your head, already feeling humiliated enough by being caught with your pants down, literally.

“That wasn't a question, that was a command, you bratty bitch. What happened to your manners?”

God did his words stir something deep inside you. Waiting was no longer a priority; catching you like this was proof enough in his mind that you were just playing hard to get.

“You should consider yourself lucky that I want you to sit on my face, you know that? I have bitches trying to get on my dick every day, but it only gets hard for you, pipsqueak.”

“I-I thought you didn't like quirkless people!”

“It's all the more reason I want to be balls deep in your cunt right now. So weak and pathetic, it's fucking cute.”

You could feel yourself tighten around nothing just at his words. He was right, you were just a pathetic plaything for him. Not hesitating any longer, he ripped off your skirt and threw it behind the both of you. Your tights also got ripped to shreds, leaving you in your blouse and panties.

“Fuckin’ gorgeous.” He muttered, mostly to himself as he took your panties off and pocketed them. For later, he thought.

Katsuki didn't hesitate to spit on your already wet cunt before diving into his meal. Each stroke of his tongue sent fire straight to your core, each suckle of his lips drew a whimper from your mouth. Hips bucked into his mouth before he held them down, using just one hand to cover your torso. So small and petite for him, how cute would you be up against his massive form.

“M-Mr. Dynamight!”

“Heh, so fuckin’ cute. Call me Katsuki, sweet thing. Or daddy, if you're nasty like that.”

Your hips were held taught against his face, not allowing you to squirm or inch away from his searing tongue fucking your hole. He continued to ravage you with his mouth, pulling away only a few times to give your pussy a nice spank. Groaning into your cunt, he stroked himself at the same time.

Humiliation had dissolved into pleasure as he serviced you, tears springing in your eyes as he gripped his head tightly with your hands and thighs. Having already masturbated before getting caught, it didn't take long for him to make you see stars and roll your eyes into the back of your head.

“K-Katsuki, I’m cumming!” You shouted, squirting onto his tongue as your body shook around his head. Your fingers threaded deeply into his hair and tugged as he continued to work his tongue into your hole, riding out your orgasm.

He didn't stop, though.

“Too much, it's too much!”

“I’ll stop when I’m finished, little girl.”

You tried to push his head away, but he gripped your wrists from under your legs and had you pinned against his mouth, shaking and screaming from overstimulation. Once he brought you another good nut, he pulled away and gave your clit a kiss, chuckling when you jumped.

Standing up, he pushed his mask up to pull his back and took his rock-hard cock from his pants. He spat on your dripping hole once again before lining up his fat head with it.

Katsuki hissed as he sank himself into your cunt, holding your hips in place as you whined and squirmed under him, still overly sensitive. God, were you gripping him in all the right ways. Your legs around his waist, your hands on his forearms, and your cunt around his cock.

“Relax, pipsqueak, or I’ll end up breaking you.” He chuckled. “But you might like that, huh?”

Seeing your teary, fucked out face while teasing you? He nearly jizzed himself on the spot. But he had to hold out for you. A choked gasp was all you could respond with as he got right in your face, breath tickling your cheeks as he looked in your eyes.

“Such a dirty slut, getting off to the sound of my voice. It's better in person, isn't it?”

“D-Daddy!”

Was all you could whine as his thumb made his way to your clit, drawing slow, gently circles with his roughed-up finger.

“Oi, oi, oi, did I break ya already, pipsqueak? Y’know, you coulda just asked for my cock like a good girl if you were gonna get this drunk off it.”

His hips slowly drew back, almost pulling out all the way before slamming back in, earning a squeal from you.

“Or maybe you wanted me to take you by force? Show ya what the fuck happens to quirkless little girls who tease their fuckin’ man so much that he just has to come and take their little cunt to show ‘em who’s boss, eh?”

You couldn't help but tighten around him from his words, squirming under his hot breath as he started to grind his hips up into yours slowly.

“Good girl, letting daddy rape your cunt so willingly.”

Katsuki chuckled, sealing a hot kiss on your mouth while he gripped your throat. His hips began to piston in and out of your pussy, thick veins grinding against your spongy walls.

His brutal kisses swallowed your moans and tears while he squeezed your throat. His other thumb continued to swipe against your clit in fast motions, causing your to clamp down and flutter against his thick cock.

“Shoulda known you were a whore from the start, wearing those skirts that hugged ya in all the right places. Bending over and letting me touch you how I pleased, it's like you wanted this to happen.”

The pace of his thrust increased as he started to chase his orgasm, holding your throat and hips down to use you like the hole he knew you were. He growled and snarled into your mouth as he choked you, even more, watching the blood flood to your face.

“Yeah, baby, I've got your life in my hands now. If you won't be mine, I’ll fuckin’ kill you. Then nobody can have you.”

“Y-Yours! I’m yours!” You managed to gasp out, gripping his forearm and digging your nails into it, hoping he’ll let you up for air

“Damn straight, now cum for me, you quirkless little bitch.”

The haziness from the lack of air and the pleasure pooling in your gut sent you over the edge a third time, making you cry out his name as you came. Katsuki was right behind you, eyes screwed shut and practically foaming at the mouth as he came deep inside you, finally letting you breathe once he finished himself off.

You sputtered and coughed, desperate to fill your lungs with air as he pushed some stray hairs out of your face.

“Ya did good, pipsqueak.”

He praised, giving your ass a spank before pulling out and tossing you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“You’re coming home with me, so don't worry about the mess.”

“By the way, you're fired.”

TAG LIST: @tomurasprincess @suzuki-violin-school @sightoru @alrunemara

[cinnamonest]

Since people actually liked it here's the continuation of the modern Xiao camgirl!darling post I cut from the original, as promised, most if it's under a cut. Here’s the original post. I didn’t think people would actually like the camgirl concept so I thought I was rambling too much and cut this part out lol but here it is now!

Tws: derogatory language/female slurs, mentions of reader being a cheater, reader is promiscuous, murder, incel-y mentality (our modern boy would be a 4chan user, look me in the eye and tell me I'm wrong) and mentions of upsetting realistic things, this one's darker than the first part. If you're bothered by other modern stuff for being too realistic best avoid this too probably, involuntary pornography ---------- Coming up on one year since you gained your most loyal subscriber, you get a rather... Unsettling request. He has something he would like this month, in fact, he adds a few hundred to the regular amount (he's been saving up just for this) and asks for just the answer to one simple question. What's your name?

Your real name, he clarifies. He doesn't need a last name, nothing like that. It would just... Make him feel closer to you. He avoids using the term "anniversary," even though that's what comes to mind. He also doesn't tell you that he already knows, that this is just a test of your honesty. For someone who's so cautious, you would think you would think to give a fake name whenever you go to coffee shops for them to yell out, or change it on the packages you get. You hesitate. And it would be easy to give him a fake one, yet, you don't really think about it too much, you kinda think about that as an afterthought, what you should have done, but your very real name is typed out and sent before you really process it, and you feel a sort of unease, but it's already sent. No big deal. He can't do much with just your first name, right? If your name is common, you feel pretty safe, but even if it's a rarer one, surely there are other people with it, right? He's happy though. Kinda surprised, really, that you didn't lie to him. Maybe you trust him?

You're not stupid, you know something is wrong, you're becoming paranoid. And you connect the weird feeling to him, bc he goes radio silence for several days leading up to finally taking you. This dude who used to respond to any messages you sent within 10 seconds suddenly... It's like he disappeared? He hasn't responded to anything you send him ever since you said your name. You send him messages saying you haven't heard from him in a while and you're worried... The way you word it makes it sound like you're worried about him, but you both know that's not what you really mean. You're hesitant and suspicious of every guy you meet. You buy pepper spray and start carrying some around, you nearly spray a poor guy who you thought was trailing you, turns out he just lives in your building. He makes note of it. He watched you buy it, and is quick to realize you always hold it in the same hand. That must be your dominant hand, that's an important mental note for the future, since you're more likely to try to attack him with that hand. He'll remember. He has a note in his phone with information like that. Height, weight, birthday, social security number, parents' names, school she graduated from. All in little bullet points. He adds dominant hand to the list. He's not worried at all really. Already watched you struggle to carry packages he could lift with one hand, your strength doesn't cross his mind as a threat. At first he just doesn't know what to say, and that's why he stops responding, he feels too awkward but... He starts to enjoy the weird feeling of power the whole situation is giving him. You're worried, you're constantly paranoid, and it's because of him. Now you finally understand the same feeling you inflict on him, how you consume his thoughts every waking moment of every day. It used to irritate him that you held so much power over him, while he meant nothing to you. Now, the tables have turned. You're forced to have him constantly in your mind, whether you like it or not, just like you are in his. It's giving you what you deserve. It gives him a feeling of significance. He matters, even if it's not in a good way. And he keeps telling himself that once he's all you have, he'll matter even more. He's smart enough to realize that if you're paranoid, you might have mentioned him by username to someone else, so to ensure he knows what to do from this point, he has to sneak into your apartment at night as you sleep. It's so unbearably tempting, you have no idea -- you're right there and so vulnerable. He has to hold himself back because he knows that if he so much as touched you, he couldn't hold back. But it's torture, standing there so close, watching your chest rise and fall as he fiddles with the phone. Even when he unlocks it with your thumb, he tries to hold the phone from an angle to do so, even if the skin of his hand grazes yours, it would be too much. You have a lot of contacts across your messages and a bunch of different apps. You have one guy in your online chat you've exchanged far more messages with than anyone else! Hundreds upon hundreds of messages, and huge paypal cash drops, who the hell is -- oh, wait, that's him. Nevermind. But, to his pleasant surprise, he's the only one of your... customers that you regularly talk to, the rest just have a few paypal notifications or clarifications on your policies, but no actual conversations like you have with him. Of course, that's literally part of your deal, he's literally paying for it, but it makes him happy nonetheless. But as he goes through your personal messages, he finds that you are... in no shortage of options. Like, holy shit. It was kind of expected. You *are* really pretty, that's how you have so many followers after all, but this is a lot. So many contacts named some variation of "DO NOT ANSWER!!!" or "creepy guy that forced me to give him my number at the club", etc etc. Plenty of unsaved numbers texting you to never get a response. You've ghosted enough dudes to make your place haunted. It's... kinda awful, really. It also kinda hurts his heart a bit more than he expected. You have so, so, so many options, even without the cam thing, he's more insignificant than he even realized. ...Well, for now, at least. He'll be significant to you soon enough. And then you seem to have a sort of "boyfriend of the month" deal going on, aside from that. Plenty of male-name contacts whose last exchange is a "don't talk to me again!" message from you, plenty of messages corresponding to the same time as those to your girl friends about how you can't find a good guy and every relationship ends badly. How unfortunate. See, it's because you choose bad guys. You probably go for dicks and not.... well, he can't exactly pull the "nice guys like me" mentality, he doesn't delude himself into thinking he is one. He's lucid enough to realize that most nice guys would not be sneaking into your house and standing over your sleeping body to stalk your phone as they make plans to kidnap you. He knows he would probably fall under the classification of a creepy guy. He's just too far gone to care. Still, he would be so much better to you, he tells himself, not a cheater or a player like you complain about. To say he resents those kinds of guys -- ones that can do the unthinkable and actually talk to girls, let alone successfully, only to be assholes, and yet girls like you still go for them -- is an understatement. You're basically just a slut, you probably ignore all the guys that would be nice to you, just like all those internet forums he reads talk about. Typical.

Well, those forums also make fun of guys like him who pay for girls like you, but he can't blame them. It *is* kinda pathetic. There is one dude you talk to, though, now. Current boyfriend of the month, from the looks of it. You have a little heart emoji next to the name. He knows it's kinda pathetic that something so simple and insignificant sets him off, but it does, makes him pout and grind his teeth and curl his other hand into a fist. It's so unfair. Some dude you barely know gets to fuck you, and you haven't even known him nearly as long as you've known him! He doubts this dude -- hell, any of your boyfriends -- has put in the same amount of money that he has into you. They fuck you practically for free. And that, unfortunately for you, only solidifies his decision. If you're fucking some dude for a month because they buy you dinner every now and then, if we're going by that scale, then you owe him quite a good deal of pussy. Any hesitancy or guilt he had about the whole thing is gone. And he's a little mad. Keeps grumbling to himself that you're just a loose whore, fucking so many people and putting yourself out there on the internet. He wonders if they even know about what you do. Probably not, you probably don't tell them. Yeah, that sounds like what you'd do. Really, you're kinda lucky that someone like him is so willing to commit to you, since you are a slut. You don't deserve it, but he loves you anyway. And you'll probably have the nerve to be ungrateful for it too. Sigh. On the bright side, by some miracle, it would appear that you have not told any real-life people about him, you haven't sent out any hey if I disappear you should probably look into this creep type of messages. But he can't afford to have you doing so in between now and when you move in with him, so, he decides he has to act within the next 24 hours. While he's here, though, he decides to do a quick sweep of your place. Makes note of what snacks and drinks you like, what brand of toothpaste and shampoo and the like you use, so he can buy some for you. Maybe you'll adjust better if you have some of your favorite things. And then, after days of silence, he sends you a message, says it's fine, his internet went out for a few days. He means it to reassure you, but somehow it makes you feel more uneasy. He has everything planned out, or so he thinks. But you deviate from your usual schedule. When you leave work or class, you don't go home, you go somewhere else, first. How strange. Maybe picking up groceries? He follows from a distance. No, looks like you're going out to eat...? Maybe you're meeting friends or family or -- no that's a guy. Fuck. You must have planned this just earlier today, since there were no messages on your phone. It makes a bitter feeling rise in his gut. He hates that he can't get close enough to listen to your conversation. Well, he hates the whole thing, sits there and seethes the whole time. Watches you through the windows in the parking lot, thankfully you chose to sit outside. Feels his eye twitch and his hand clench every time you smile and laugh. It takes way too long. The fact that you split the bill feels like a punch to the stomach too. Shouldn't you be used to taking guys' money? Oh, and what's this...? This guy isn't the picture on boyfriend-of-the-month's contact. Well, well, well. You really are a whore. See, it's a very good thing he's taking you off the market. You're probably a reckless heartbreaker too. He's doing all the other men of the world a favor by taking on such a burden as you. And it makes him feel far more justified in keeping you locked away, since he has every reason to believe, now, that you'd run off and fuck someone else if given the chance. Halfway through, the guy briefly gets up and runs to the bathroom or something. While he's gone, he sees your face fall a bit. And then he sees you look around. You turn your head from one side to the other. Your eyes scan the area. You shuffle uncomfortably and you bite your lip and your eyebrows furrow. You're scared. You feel like -- no, you know you're being watched and it scares you. That makes him a little happy, for some reason. He wouldn't be sure what to do if you went home with the guy, but thankfully you don't. No big deal, this was just a bump in the road, he still beats you back to your building and he still goes through with the original plan. Even better, now that it's even darker outside. If anything, now he's got extra aggression and testosterone in his blood, running over the events in his head and going through some... very forceful and violent fantasies. The message he sent had you uneasy, and it's also how you immediately know what's going on when it does finally happen. You keep telling yourself you're being unnecessarily paranoid, that it's nothing, maybe that guy actually got his life together or got a girlfriend or something. Things like... What you fear, don't happen in real life, that's stuff that only happens in movies and stuff. You keep calling it that or it in your head. That won't happen to you. It's not going to happen. The series of events that play out in your head, scenarios you try to push out of your mind. Sure, in the movies it always takes place in the stairwell, but that's fiction, so you go up the apartment stairwell as always. You're not gonna let a bunch of B-grade old films scare you. And it's always some dude standing and waiting, but that nice young boy that you've never seen before is just leaning against the wall, scrolling on his phone, he only glances up for a second as you pass by, he's not a threat, you're being paranoid. You flash a smile and a little wave as you walk by, he doesn't return either, just looks back down at his phone. See? This guy doesn't even care, you're being paranoid for nothing, you tell yourself. But as you make the turn to go up the next set of stairs you hear the click of a phone being put on the lockscreen, a few metallic footsteps ringing out in the open hall and echoing, coming up right behind you, but for that split second you expect a tap on the shoulder, maybe he has a question, it's not like movies, it's not like movies, you're not gonna get a cloth shoved over your face and--- Well, it's not exactly like the movies. You were prepared, but it all happens in one motion - one hand grabs the hand with the spray and twists it, making you drop it, the other wraps some material over your mouth. You were prepared enough that you don't gasp in surprise, you hold your breath and thrash, but it doesn't make any difference, you wiggle and writhe for a few moments but can't even begin to break free, eventually succumb to the lack of oxygen and take a deep breath. It takes a few seconds to settle in, it's not so immediate. You instinctively panic and thrash again, but he has a complete iron grip. The dizziness takes a second to set in. He huffs a bit in frustration and says stop moving, it's fine. It's definitely not, but it occurs to you that that's not something a kidnapper looking for any potential vulnerable girl says. It's a poor attempt at comfort. It's someone specifically looking for you. And if that wasn't enough, he says your name. Your very real name. Maybe it was a mistake to tell him after all. But the worst part of it all is that there's not a single doubt in your mind, even in your panic you have the realization, it's definitely him and this is literally exactly what you were afraid of. And it's the last thing that goes through your head. And once he's got you out cold he just takes a sigh of relief. He may have been very neutral faced to you, but in reality he was incredibly nervous. He hasn't exactly made or used chloroform before, our boy is operating on YouTube tutorials here. He's got adrenaline pumping through his veins and carries you with his arms trembling. He's on autopilot carrying you out, but his mind is also consumed by holy fuck I'm touching her she smells so nice she's so warm her face is so close I'm actually touching her-- you get the idea. He feels bad about taping your hands and feet together and putting you in the trunk of his car, kinda. It feels too much like what a really bad person would do to a girl they didn't care about, like he's a trafficker or a murderer or a criminal or something, but that's not true at all. Sure, he's still mad at you for being a whore and all that, but it feels improper, he just has no choice. It's late at night, but he can't risk getting pulled or being at a stoplight and someone seeing an unconscious girl in his backseat, so, trunk it is. But once he's home, to his tiny little downtown apartment (he'll probably be able to move into a better place soon, since he's not paying you tons of money anymore), he takes a quick check to make sure the coast is clear, and drags you out, up the stairs, all the way into his apartment, sets you down on the bed, where you'll be staying. He even washed the sheets and cleaned the place up a bit for your arrival. You probably would not like to see what this place looked like before the five trash bags worth of cleaning was done. He'll probably be more motivated in the future, though, since now he won't be so depressed all the time. And then the adrenaline of the fear of being seen is over, and that's when it sets in that this is real. It's very, very hard to hold back. You're real, in the flesh, he can reach out and touch you with his hands! It feels like a dream. And he realizes he can take this opportunity to do things he would be far, far too embarrassed to do when you're awake. He takes a few minutes to do just that, cautiously reaches out to poke your face, and then run a hand down your neck, your skin is so soft! Your hair smells so nice, he lays down beside you and runs his fingers over it. Puts hands on your body and just lays there in awe of the fact that you're real. He's pretty certain he's never actually touched a human female before now. Everything about you feels soft. Weirdly feminine, which is something very foreign and confusing to him. And he kinda uh... Loses it. Goes buckwild with just taking in every aspect of you. Again, since you're unconscious he can be gross and entirely shameless about it. Peels your clothes off and runs his hands and mouth over every inch of flesh, takes the tape off your lips and presses his tongue into your limp mouth until he's forced to let go to breathe, fingers you and tonguefucks you and sucks on your nipples and your neck. Lays pressed against you and just breathes in your scent. It takes every ounce of self control he has not to fuck you already. But he does jerk off a few times. That way he'll last longer, so it's a win-win. And then... you twitch. Tape goes back over your mouth. And then, you twitch again. And this time, you make a little "mm!" under the tape, you start trembling and he sees you try to pull your hands apart. You whimper. It sounds scared and distressed. He feels kinda bad, but it also makes him hard, and that outweighs any guilt by far. Besides, it's what you deserve after what you did earlier. You tortured him mentally, it's only fair. On the good side of things, you suppose, you don't have to worry about the usual fears one would have over such a situation - you're fairly certain he's not going to kill you, nor sell you. In fact, the bed you wake up on is pretty soft. You're naked and the tape is uncomfortable, but... At least he was considerate enough to give you a blanket. He does care about you, after all. First thing he says is asking if you're awake. Can you hear me? You hesitate a moment, and then you nod. He's a bit new to this whole abduction thing. He wants to make sure he didn't pull a muscle or something with the tape. So... Do you hurt anywhere? Does your head hurt? Oh, right, the tape. He's not stupid either. You have to promise you're not going to scream. In fact, he's angry enough about earlier that he gets a bit meaner than he originally told himself he'd be. If you scream, I'll make you regret it. Understand? You nod, so he takes it off, holding it close in preparation in case you were lying, but you don't actually answer him, you're silent again for a minute, then just ask a question of your own. You're that guy, right? He's silent for a few seconds, there's no need for any clarification. Finally just says yeah. You just breathe again. Silently. Finally you summon the courage to ask him what he wants with you. And why are you doing this to me? And his answer is fairly simple. What do you think? You don't say anything for a minute, and neither does he. He's not good with words, and you don't really have ones for this situation. It occurs to you that offering to pay him to let you go is probably not the solution. After all, this is the guy that's dumped unimaginable amounts of money onto you, you couldn't even come close to paying him back. You figure maybe, after he gets what he wants... well, you get the courage to ask.  Is there anything... that I can do o-or... anything that will make you... are you gonna let me go, after you....? And the answer is, again, simple, but the one you did not want to hear. No. He's a blunt boy, so he doesn't beat around the bush, but he doesn't torment you by keeping anything from you. In fact, he's already rehearsed this speech a few hundred times in his head. He just wanted to make sure he's very clear so there's no misunderstanding, and while he likes some discomfort in a vengeful sort of way, he doesn't want you to be too freaked out to where you have a panic attack. He says he's just going to... keep you here. He has the things you'll need. He got your purse with your keys, so he'll even run to your apartment after this to go get some of your stuff. You don't need to tell him which number, he adds, he already knows which apartment you're in. He needs you here, he says. And he makes sure to add that it's your fault. If you were never out there selling yourself in the first place, this never would have happened. If you're good, he can make things a bit better for you. But you need to go ahead and accept that you're going to be staying and that no amount of begging or offers is going to convince him to let you go. He can be nice to you, he promises. A better boyfriend than the others. You just have to be a good girlfriend -- you know, obedient and sweet and do what he says. Just like you always were when you talked to him. Just keep being sweet like that and doing the things he tells you to do. You would argue that the terms boyfriend and girlfriend are not appropriate descriptors of the sort of relationship he's creating, but you keep that thought to yourself. Instead, you ask, How long are you going to keep me here? Which is a dumb question, since he's pretty sure he already made that clear. Forever. -----

There's a double homicide in the area. Takes place on the same night, and the same diameter of knife is used, so police believe maybe the two incidents are connected. Especially because they do have something in common, one girl. She was romantically involved with both of them. The girl in question's apartment has been vacated, very suddenly, and the girl has disappeared without a trace, taking things with her from the looks of it, so police believe she may be responsible, but other than that, they have no leads. A few weeks later, a video circulates all over the internet. Some famous camgirl finally started making porn, apparently. Just one video, but the description (which was totally written by her, it has to be since it's written in first person right?) says something about how she decided to quit camming, so this video marks the end of her career. She got into a relationship, so she says in the description, so she has to quit. It's roleplay porn, apparently, she's doing a good job at the acting. All tied up and gagged and getting fucked by some big-dicked guy holding the camera. He's silent, but she's making a ton of noise, cums several times. Really good acting, the fear and desperation in her eyes looks so real. Talk about going out with a bang. It gets a lot of likes. Tons of comments about how sad people are she's quitting. And of course, a lot of comments say, what a lucky guy.

[parchmentedpetrichor]

➳the search party ❦

in which there is much one-sided pining after a mystery girl saves fred weasley in the battle of hogwarts. the reader helps him search for her but what fred doesn't know is the girl is y/n l/n, his flatmate.

fred weasley x fem!reader

word count: ±1.6k

tw: mentions of the war

ft. the reader's very good acting skills

and all the pieces fall

right into place

the search party

the last thing fred remembered of the girl who held the wall up was her gaze. under the dimness of the world around them, he could tell she was on a mission. her eyes were cold and determined. her ponytail had swerved violently and that was the last time he ever saw her. or so he thought.

he didn't know that the very girl sat opposite to him, munching happily on icecream with a satisfied smile on her face, curiously drinking in the very familiar view of hogsmeade.

y/n l/n kept two secrets from him. the first was the massive crush she had had on him ever since he had left to open the joke shop, and the second, well, it was that she was the girl he had claimed that had saved him.

she had listened to his tales of pining after the girl with a bittersweet mood. he'd probably lose all romantic feelings when he discovered that the girl was her. if she was anyone else but her, she'd find herself very unpleasant.

he had suggested that they go on a trip to hogsmeade one sunday to possibly find the girl. with a little hesitation, she'd agreed.

for the most part, playing clueless was easy, especially when you knew everything he didn't.

there was just one problem. he only knew her by her gaze. y/n scoffed quietly to herself. fred was probably the most dreamy out of the both of them, surprisingly, considering y/n's terribly romantic thoughts that she had conjured from her lifetime of watching her friends absolutely fall in love with people.

☆

they watch the people that pass with a sort of hidden interest.

y/n doesn't even bother trying to find the girl, instead observing every passerbyer with interest, analysing them quickly.

"d'ya think she's here or maybe in london?"

y/n shrugs, "anything's possible in a world of people. if it's fate, it'll happen."

"none of these people have the look in their eyes!"

"well that look did happen in the war, so it must've been a special type of condition that caused her to have the gaze," y/n offers.

"yeah, i think so."

they fall back into a comfortable silence.

fred now has a sneaking suspicion that y/n knows who it might be. right now, she's wearing sunglasses though. he can't tell anything.

"she's got the same sort of hair," fred nods his head in the way of a girl with her hair up.

y/n nods, "wanna approach her?"

"nah, she's looking over here."

"quick, avert your gaze subtly."

"okay, okay. i don't see why though. is my gaze not smouldering enough?"

y/n laughs, "it's creepy for sure."

"you wound me."

"truth hurts, freddie."

they watch as the girl watches them with narrowed eyes.

"that's definitely not her. she had pretty eyes," fred ponders.

"maybe you could post a note of some sort on the joke shop?" y/n jokes, "girl wanted, strong gaze, ponytail, saved me in the war?"

she laughs at his disgruntled expression as he folds his arms.

"maybe i should."

y/n bursts out laughing again, "i was joking!"

"i wasn't!"

she shakes her head, "suit yourself."

"why, i do have a suit!"

"it's an expression, dummy."

"how am i supposed to know?"

"you just do!"

"extremely helpful."

"that i am, mister."

this type of playful banter continues into the night, as they occasionally walk up to strangers to check their 'gaze'.

the search is unsuccessful, and soon y/n needs to get to her job at flourish and botts, where she works as the manager on the nights of weekdays, whilst she works as head of magical wellbeing at the ministry from monday to saturday.

"hi mister boris!" she says as she fiddles with an apron, open up the cash register and sorting the new stock.

"bonjour y/n," he says distractedly, frantically searching for something, "have you by la chance seen the book of french for wizards?"

y/n nods, immediately climbing a different shelf and hands him the leather bound cover.

"this is why i hired you. excellent."

"you hired me because i could find books...?"

"you were in here too much tes jours d'école."

"it's a nice place," she gives him a small smile.

"ahh, the weasley boy from just down the road, he came up to me and asked me if i knew of a girl with a ponytail, and when angry, has the prettiest eyes. say, it does sound like you, oui?"

"non," she answers in an easy manner, "not at all."

"and how come, mademoiselle?"

"it is not."

"well i do hear angeliqua johnson saying something, oui, what was it? sauveuse, perhaps that is like tu?"

she laughs, "you got me. angie's right. i dunno how she knows though."

"so it is you! comme c'est excitant! how exciting!"

"not really, boris."

"how so?"

"he's looking for her! imagine how disappointed he'll be when he finds out she's me!"

"eh?"

"it's half true, i guess. it's not exciting, but the story's very well real."

"i n’y a pas de verités moyennes. there are no half truths, mademoiselle."

"very sophisticated, boris." y/n rolls her eyes and continues to dust the shelves.

at the end of her shift, it's almost 10p.m.

she closes up and is surprised to find it's raining.

smiling to herself, she walks in the rain happily, enjoying the beautiful ambience of hogsmeade in night rain.

a tap on her shoulder brings her out of her thoughts. she stands face to face with cormac mclaggen.

unbeknownst to her, fred stands watching the exchange.

"hello, mclaggen."

"nice night, isn't it, darling?"

y/n sighs, "what do you want?"

"i want your company."

"no, goodbye. come to chase another girl who won't give you what you want?"

he scoffs, "i get all that i want. every single girl."

"get out of my face mclaggen," her tone is dangerous and hard. fred can tell she isn't angry just yet.

"as soon as you accept my date request."

"the first words you spoke to me, mclaggen, was 'you are a miserable beauty'. what makes you think i'll ever accept?"

"well just look at you, all pretty and vanilla-"

"get out of my way," she snaps, "all pretty and vanilla is out of your league."

fred watches as her eyes turn cold and furious, before she turns away with a swish of her ponytail, sparing one last cold glance at cormac and walks quickly away.

he's struck with realisation. he's seen that expression before. he's seen the hair before. those pretty eyes that gleam ominously. it's the girl. she's the girl. suddenly everything comes into place.

he doesn't know how or why or when exactly.

all he knows is that he loves y/n. and she's the one he's been looking for after all.

he runs after her. "y/n!"

"mclaggen just get out!" she turns to face him with those eyes, and that hair.

her eyes soften at the sight of him. they turn a bit lighter.

"oh, hi freddie."

"why didn't you tell me?"

"what?" y/n fiddles with her jumper hem. he can't know, can he?

"that all this time, we've been searching for you!"

she looks dismayed, "uh huh. yeap."

"why did you keep it secret?"

"i did think of telling you, but y'know, i played it out all in my head, and you seemed very excited and all, i didn't want to ruin it by just telling you this magnificent love story," she put quotation marks, "was with me. if i were you, i'd be disappointed, so i just let you go on with the nice fantasy. and whilst i'm spilling all my secrets i might as well get it all out. i like you maybe more than i should. and so it would hurt twice as much if you reacted badly to it and, and-"

she's cut off by a kiss on her lips.

her eyes widen. when they both pull out of the kiss, he chuckles at how surprised she is.

"what?"

"i like you too."

"so you're not mad?"

"no, just never keep a secret from me again."

"okay."

"and you need to promise me something."

"what is it?"

"that you'll be my girlfriend."

she smiles, "okay."

"that's it?"

"yup. okay."

she's grinning as she places a kiss on his nose, having to balance on her tiptoes to reach him. he blushes.

"and thank you."

"for?"

"saving me, loving me."

"always, freddie."

[neonacity]

LUCID | NCT DREAM ‘00 LINE X READER | CH.4

LUCID DREAMS - A TYPE OF DREAM WHEREIN THE PERSON IS AWARE THAT THEY ARE CAUGHT IN A DREAM WORLD.

Summary: It was supposed to be a harmless, professional transaction. You were to tutor a group of boys, get your pay at the end of the day, and go home to your loving fiance. Kids aren’t supposed to be dangerous, right? So why, then, are you caught up in a web of madness that slowly makes you feel like you’re in a living nightmare?

NOTE:This is a yandere plot featuring NCT Dream ‘00 line which means there will be mature themes in the story as well as obsessive, toxic behavior. If you’re a minor, please refrain from interacting. If this isn’t your thing, then just scroll and skip. In no way am I condoning anything written here— this is not love, this is obsession—nor do I think that any of the people mentioned here will act any way like in this story. This is purely a work of fiction.

Genre: yandere, horror, suspense

TW: abuse, obsessive behavior, toxic relationships, suggestive scenes, stalking, possible kidnapping, mental health. Age gap–though nothing dramatic. Everyone is of legal age. Creepy, creepy, creepy! This will be updated as the story goes along.

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

“Deep into that darkness, peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared dream before”

— Edgar Allan Poe

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes. I checked the results of her scans and there seems to be no broken bones. But she did hit her head hard so I would suggest she take a rest for a couple of days."

The voices dipped in and out of your swimming consciousness like broken records. There were words that you caught and tried to grasp, but you couldn't quite make out what they mean while you struggled to emerge from your half asleep state. A searing pain ran down the left side of your head and you winced, before a particularly harsh throbbing there finally sent your eyes flying open.

The first thing you saw were the red velvet drapes hanging from the middle of what looked like the ceiling of a four poster. You frowned at it, not quite understanding what exactly it is you were looking at, when another painful throb on your temple had your hand flying towards it.

You were too focused on trying to grit back the pain that you missed the hurried rustling from beside your bed. When your vision finally focused again, you saw five heads peer at you wearing identical worried expressions.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Taeyong asked softly, concern written all over his face. He raised his hand slowly to reach out to you, but then something snapped deep down in your consciousness that sent you bolting up into a sitting position, your feet scrambling against the mattress until your back hit the headboard. Your eyes jumped from one face to the next, heart thudding harshly against your chest.

Taeyong's expression shifted from that of shock into pain at your reaction. He didn't make any other move, his gaze briefly moving instead to the person standing beside the head of your bed.

"Taeil-hyung…"

You felt a gentle hand rest on your shoulders then. For the first time, you noticed the man in a white jacket leaning towards you. He looked unfamiliar, but there was something about him that calmed you down. He peered closer into you now, brown eyes quickly scanning your features.

"Shh… everything's okay. How are you feeling?"

His soft voice slowed your heartbeat down a little. You tried to give him an answer, wincing at the scratchiness of your throat.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a doctor. Do you know where you are right now?"

Your gaze moved from him, then back to the others who are still standing on the fringes of your bed. Now that you are much calmer, you could finally properly recognize the rest of the group in the room. Taeyong sat closest to you while Haechan and Renjun hovered by the foot of the bed wearing identical frowns. Jaemin stood by the other side, his hand wrapped around Jisung's shoulders loosely. The youngest boy looked on to you, eyes rimmed with red.

You slowly nodded after swallowing the dryness in your mouth.

"The… manor…"

You visibly saw the rest of the group give a collective sigh of relief. Taeil moved to sit beside you and gently moved your face to him to quickly check your eyes with his pen light.

"She's still a little bit confused from the fall. She does look okay though," he said and you figured he was talking to the others instead of you. You frowned as you felt him take your wrist to check your pulse.

"I… fell?"

His brown eyes glanced at you briefly.

"You did. You don't remember anything?"

Before you could even respond, you heard Taeyong gently speak from your side.

"You fell on a ravine. We heard Jisung crying when we came back and came looking for you guys as fast as we could. You were unconscious when we found you…"

You let his words sink in slowly. Little by little, your memories came slipping back like little puzzle pieces that arranged themselves slowly in the back of your mind.

You remember Chenle's screams, you running into the forest, and then the feeling of falling into nothingness. Your hands balled over the blanket covering you as your head throbbed again.

"I'm so sorry, noona," your attention moved to Jisung who leaned just a little bit closer to you. He looked like he had been crying. "Chenle and I took our playing too far. We didn't think that this would happen…" he trailed off and you saw Jaemin try to soothe him by rubbing his arm.

"Where's Chenle…? Is he alright?" You asked, remembering that the boy was calling for help before your own accident.

"Yes. He's still unconscious from the anesthesia. He broke his leg from his fall but we were able to rush him to the clinic with you," Taeyong answered again.

"Is your head hurting? We had to make a couple of stitches on you, but your scans turned out fine," the doctor, who you figured out is named Taeil, asked again. Your hand raised once more to the side of your head and noticed the bandages there for the first time. One side of your skull alternated from throbbing dully to stinging sharply.

"Um...it hurts a little bit."

Taeil simply nodded and grabbed his pen to write something on the file he was holding. "That's normal. I thought you would have some short-term memory loss so it's good that you're only dealing with pain. I'll prescribe you painkillers for it."

You listened silently to what he was saying, only half understanding the context of his words. You still felt confused… like there was something you are missing.

As if he read your mind, Taeil glanced up at you again.

"Feeling confused is normal since you hit your head. You should also expect some intense headaches for a couple of weeks, maybe even some mild hallucinations. We'll try to control that with the medicine I'll give you but we're not sure how your body will react to them so just prepare yourself for the possibility, okay?"

You numbly nodded as you watched him finish scribbling something on a smaller piece of paper.

"Other than that, you don't need to be admitted to the hospital. But feel free to come back when you don't feel better after two weeks. You do have someone at home to watch over you, right?"

That made you stop, remembering that you would be alone for a couple of days. Taeil patiently waited for your answer, hand still hovering over his files.

"I… uh… I'm alone for three days but my boyfriend will be back after that…'' you finally managed to say. He frowned slightly at your answer.

"You don't have any relatives who can watch over you?"

You shook your head.

"You can stay here with us," you heard someone say and you looked over to Renjun who was still watching you with a worried expression on his face. "At least until you have someone with you at home."

The rest of the group seemed to have been taken by surprise by his suggestion as much as you were. The boy simply looked at his brothers in answer, however, a frown settling between his brows.

"It's the least we could do, right? Technically, it is our fault. And she got in an accident while at work. We can't just leave her on her own."

Taeil looked from the group, then at you. "That's not a bad idea… you do need to be under observation at least for a couple of days."

You honestly didn't know what to answer. Something told you to say no to the offer, but another part of you simply didn't have the energy to argue with the proposition. Before you could even give a reply, Jisung untangled himself from Jaemin to hold your hand. When you looked at him, he seemed on the verge of tears again.

"Please, noona? Can I make it up to you?"

You watched him, torn by the expression on his face. Finally, you gave a sigh.

"Okay… but I do need to tell my boyfriend that I'll stay over. And I don't really have anything with me…"

"You can borrow our mom's wardrobe. I think you are about the same size," Haechan offered. "Then we can just buy your other things."

You didn't know what to feel about that but nodded at the suggestion, at least for now. With the decision finalized, Taeil finally turned to Taeyong and handed him the paper he had been writing on.

"Here’s her prescription then. I have bottles of the painkillers with me but you might need to drive back to town for the sleeping pills," he said as he turned towards the older boy. "She might need it in case she gets trouble sleeping."

Taeyong nodded as his eyes quickly scanned the paper handed over to him. "About Chenle, do I also need to get him something?"

"We can talk about that separately. How about we go check him now? He must be up around this time, too."

The older boy threw you a glance and a parting apologetic smile before following Taeil who had already picked up his bag and started heading towards the door. Beside you, Jisung quickly let go of your hand to follow the doctor.

"Taeyong-hyung, I'll go with you. Noona, I'll be back later."

You watched silently as the group left and closed the door softly behind them. You still felt a little out of it that you didn't really give notice to the three boys left inside your room until you felt your mattress dip a little. A finger to your chin broke you from your reverie, and when you turned to your side, you saw Jaemin peering at you closely.

"Does it still hurt, noona?"

You blinked at his closeness, but you still felt too weak to even panic or move away. So instead, you simply nodded, goosebumps rising on your flesh as he moved to tuck a stray lock of hair behind your ear.

"I'm sorry… now your pretty face is all scratched up, too. I don't think they'll leave marks though… so we don't have to worry about that, hmm…?" His eyes roamed your features slowly and deliberately. You swallowed and finally moved away for a bit.

"Do you remember what happened? Did you slip?"

Renjun's question was the distraction you were looking for. Turning to him, you gave yourself some time to process an answer,  slowly shifting through the memories that were still painful and hazy for you to fully grasp. Still, you tried to recall what you could manage, your confusion only growing as you shifted through the bits and pieces of what you could remember.

There were a few things that didn't make sense to you and a few that you were also sure to be true, the most glaring one being the impossibility of you slipping down that cliff. No, you didn’t lose your footing. 

You were pushed. 

"No… I didn't. Something… something hit me," you finally managed to mumble. The three boys looked at each other, mild confusion in their expressions.

"Hit you? Like an animal?" Haechan asked with a concerned tone. You slightly shook your head as you thought over that possibility as well.

The thing is… you were sure there were no other people in the woods because everyone was accounted for when the accident happened. Taeyong and the kids weren't back yet from their trip and you were sure Jisung and Chenle were in another part of the forest since you heard them call out to you. Jeno is the only one left… but the chances of him being in the woods with you were also slim because of his injury. So that only leaves two possibilities—one, being a wild animal as the culprit behind your fall, or two, that someone else who isn't part of Rosewood manor was there with you in the woods.

Personally, you desperately wanted the first one to be true, but a gnawing feeling inside of you told you no. Your head might still feel a little hazy, but there's one thing you can be sure of.

The force that sent you hurtling down the cliff? That was no animal.

They were human hands.

"Might be… an animal," you whispered more to yourself than to address the boys in the room after a while. You didn't know what pushed you to lie through your teeth, but your gut feeling told you it is the right thing to do at the moment.

Haechan, Jaemin, and Renjun exchanged worried glances amongst themselves, obviously not buying what you just said. Fortunately, they didn't seem to push it for now.

"Well...we'll leave you alone tonight so you can rest. Haechan and I will try to look for clothes that could fit you so you can get changed. If you need anything, you can just press 0 on that intercom. It connects you to Taeyong-hyung," Renjun explained gently and pointed towards a small machine on the wall beside your bed. You nodded and gathered the blankets closer to you.

"We'll go now. Rest well, noona," Haechan said as he turned towards the door. Renjun followed after giving you another apologetic smile.

You waited for Jaemin to finally pick himself up from your bed as well before allowing yourself to relax. Silently, you moved your gaze towards him, only to be met by his smile. It was strange… how even though he looked so kind and gentle, the way he stared at you still sent chills running down your spine.

"Don't worry. We'll make it up to you. We'll take care of you really well…"

----- "I can drive back tonight and pick you up early tomorrow," Jaehyun said over the phone, his voice barely concealing his worry and agitation. You gnawed on your lower lip as you stared at the view outside of your room, the night sky looking foreboding without any presence of stars. You have managed to prop yourself up against the seat in front of your window out of your sheer desperation to temporarily escape the bed. It is quite ironic, maybe even strange, how you feel claustrophobic inside despite the expansive space of your quarters.

"It's fine, Jae. I'm doing much better now," you finally managed to say as you forced yourself to look away from the view of the forest beyond. Just looking at it gave you chills even though you know you should feel safe in the confines of the manor now.

"Baby, you have stitches on your head," Jaehyun tried to say that evenly, though you know just how much he is panicking right now. For a stranger, your fiance can easily pass off as unbothered and calm most of the time, but you know him enough to read him like an open book. To be honest though... you can't really blame him for how he is reacting right now.

"Yes, but I'm feeling fine now. I don't really want you to drive back this late…and besides, your workshop just started. It's only for three days anyway,” you tried to reason out, though another part of you desperately wants him by your side at the moment. You tried your best to fight it off, however, knowing how important this business trip is for him. “I think it’s okay if I stay here temporarily while I wait for you,” you added, trying your best to sound convincing. 

Jaehyun was silent at the other end of the line and you patiently waited for him to speak again, knowing full well that he is just looking for another possible compromise to the situation. Finally, he sighed. 

"Are you sure you are safe there though?" He asked quietly after a while. His question made you stop for a little bit, your eyes moving towards the view of the woods from your window again.

"...yes. I have a very private room right now so I can rest well," you answered as you tore your eyes away from it and forced yourself to look at the interiors of your quarters instead. Studying it now, it looks a lot like the layout of Jeno's room so you figured you must be in the same hallway.

"That's not what I mean," Jaehyun said, and you already know what he is going to say next. "What I mean is, are you sure you can trust the people there?"

It took you a few seconds to answer that. You would be lying to yourself if you say you don't feel strange and jumpy right now, but at the same time, you also feel a little guilty for harboring such emotions when the family was nice enough to offer you temporary space and care. Sure, your accident still remains a mystery, but it’s not like you can assume that anyone wanted it to happen, especially since Chenle also ended up injured. It’s because of that reason that you simply swallowed back your nerves, chalking up your odd feelings as after effects for your fall.  

"Yes, of course. They haven't really bothered me that much. I don't think we should worry about it…"

Jaehyun's silence said that he wasn't entirely convinced. It took a moment for him to finally give a resigned gust of breath.

"Fine. Keep yourself safe, okay? I will call you back again tomorrow morning. Make sure you rest tonight."

"Okay...Don't worry about me too much," you said, smiling even though you know he couldn’t see you right now.

"I will still try and see if I can cut my trip shorter, alright?"

You chuckled. There it is, the compromise.

"Okay…"

"I love you. Stay safe."

"I will… Love you too."

"Oh, and honey?" You were about to cut the call when his voice stopped you again. You pressed the phone closer to your ear once more, waiting for his last words.

"Lock the door."

Your eyes flew towards the dark oak door at the other end of the room at his words.

"Okay, I will. Goodnight, baby."

You let out a tired sigh when you finally finished the call. Maybe Jaehyun was right… Maybe it wouldn't hurt if he could cut his trip and go home earlier than planned. For now though, you don't have any other choice but at least spend the first night here to recover a little more. Your wound has honestly started stinging again, maybe because the effect of the first painkillers are finally starting to wear off.

You gave one long look around your quarters before throwing your phone on the wide four poster bed. When your gaze landed on the door once more, you heard Jaehyun's reminder echoing in your mind again.

Slowly, you walked towards it, feet padding over the lush rug that covered the whole floor of the room. You noticed that there was a double lock system installed on it at least—a knob one, and a bolt-type that can be maneuvered from the inside. You gave an internal sigh of relief when you took notice of the latter, knowing that you have at least a level of protection even from those who have keys to the house. You have started to reach out to fix both locks when the door swung open all of a sudden, causing you to stumble back a little in shock.

Haechan looked back at you with the same look of surprise on his face at the threshold. For a while the two of you just stood there, staring at each other.

"Ah, I'm sorry, noona. I forgot to knock. I'm not really used to having guests here," he smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. His apologetic chuckles finally made you unfreeze from your spot.

"Tha-that's fine. I was just surprised. Why… are you here?"

"Oh, I just have to give you this," he extended his hands over to you, and for the first time, you noticed the folded garment that he was holding. You gingerly took it, feeling the softness of silk brushing your fingers.

"Renjun and I tried to look for an old night gown of our mom's that would fit you. It is a little bit old fashioned but it's clean and still holds up together so I think that would work, at least for now."

At his words, you took a closer look at the dress on your hands before unfurling it to its full length. He was right, it does look a little dated with its long sleeves, laced collar, and embroidered hem that would probably fall mid-leg on you, but the size looks just enough for your frame. You looked up at Haechan again with a smile.

"Thank you. I think this will work… But, are you sure it is okay for me to borrow it?" You asked hesitantly, eyes falling briefly again on the dress. After all, you do know the story behind their parents, and there are some people who can get a little sensitive about the possessions of their passed on loved ones. The least you could do is to bring up the question. 

Haechan, however, looked the least bit bothered. You didn't catch it because you were studying the lacework on one of the cuffs under the light, but one end of his lips curled up into a smirk as his hooded gaze moved to study the dress on your hands before grazing your form from head to toe.

"No. We don't mind. It's the only female clothing that we can offer for now, unless you want to borrow one of our clothes~?"

That immediately made your eyes snap back to him. His words were innocent, but the way his voice curled made your cheeks feel hot all of a sudden.

"No, that's not what I meant—"

The embarrassment on your face must have looked too obvious because the boy suddenly burst out laughing, his giggles sounding like a lilting tune as it floated down the hallway. You've always noticed how beautiful his voice is, but it is only now that you realized how calming it is to the ears, despite your current flustered state.

"Yah, I'm kidding, noona. I was just trying to make you feel better," he said after his laughter calmed down. You tried to give him an apologetic smile and looked down on the dress in your hands, your fingers unconsciously finding comfort from the smoothness of the silk. Haechan drank your expression silently with his eyes in the brief moment that you were distracted. You have always had this independent and confident air around you normally, but you have a more subdued nature now, probably because you are hurt.

He studied you silently as a thought formed in his mind. He may like the way you carry yourself on an everyday basis, but the way you are now? 

He loves it. 

"Besides… I think you'll look pretty on it," he said softly, voice sounding like whispers on skin. You looked up to see him smiling at you fondly, as if he is remembering a distant memory.

You cleared your throat before nodding. "Thank you. I'll change to this tonight. Please say thanks to Renjun as well."

Haechan gave you his signature smile and clasped his hands behind his back.

"No problem. We'll check on you tomorrow again. Goodnight, noona."

You were about to close the door when you suddenly stopped halfway as you remembered something.

"Oh, sorry. Another thing."

The boy turned back to you to give you a questioning look. You smiled at him apologetically.

"Can I ask to have some of my medications? I don't know who has it but I think Taeyong was handed my prescription. It's just that, my head is hurting again so I’d like to take some before going to sleep…"

Haechan's brows raised slightly at the realization.

"Oh, Taeyong-hyung hasn't visited you yet then? Ah… I think it's because he is still busy with Chenle. I can get them for you, noona."

"Will that be okay? Really sorry for asking this."

"Stop apologizing, it's fine," he winked and you managed to return it with a grateful smile. "I'll look for Taeyong-hyung and bring you your meds. Maybe you can get changed for now."

"Thank you, Haechan."

"I'll be back," he nodded before turning on his heels again, a spring on his step. 

------- "Shhh… sweetie, don't cry. You know I don't like it when you do that, right?"

A woman bent over a boy not older than seven who was currently cowering against the shadowed corner of the room. The space didn't have any lights on, but the sliver of moonlight that passed between the small crack of curtains shone on the tear-streaked face of the child. The female in front of him gently reached out for his face, cradling his cheeks lovingly between long, slender fingers.

"Look at you, you look like a mess now… stop crying, okay?" Her voice was soft and angelic when she spoke, enough to calm down the sobs wrecking the thin frame of the child before her. The boy gave a small nod which made her smile, her dainty features glowing with happiness.

"Very good. Now… you do know we have to go through this, right? You've been a bad boy so you leave me with no other choice."

The child froze in fear but softened his stance after a few heartbeats. He mumbled softly, trying his best to keep his voice from breaking.

"Yes… mother."

The woman's expression remained somber, as if she was in pain. She gently moved her hand to run her thumb over the boy's cheek, wetting her sharp fingernail with his tears.

"You do know that even if it will hurt, mother still loves you a lot, right? Mama is doing this because she cares for you a lot and she wants you to be good... my sunshine... my precious, precious boy…"

Her soothing voice mixed with her words made the boy stop crying entirely. Instead, his eyes shone with pure adoration for her.

"Yes, mama… I know that."

The lady smiled. Her eyes scanned the features of the child momentarily before finally letting her hand holding his face drop to her side. Slowly, she straightened up again to her full height, but not before grabbing for something from the floor beside her. The moonlight caught it before it got swallowed by the darkness of the room again—a leather belt so thin it almost looks like a whip.

The woman raised her hand gracefully above her head before giving one last loving smile at the boy on the floor.

"Now, try not to scream too much… we don't want to hurt your voice."

---- Haechan softly hummed a happy tune as he walked through the wing of the house where their private quarters are. It was late at night and the rest of his brothers had retreated back into their own rooms despite all the excitement that  happened in the past few hours. His gaze touched each door as he passed them, a smile curling the tips of his lips as he did.

There are a few things that Haechan believes sets him apart from the rest of his family. He isn't as physically strong as Jeno, as charismatic as Jaemin, or as patient and quiet as Renjun. He isn't as friendly and likable as Mark, nor is he also as innocent and magnetic as Jisung and Chenle.

What Haechan is, however...is smart and cunning…

He is smart enough to always be two steps ahead of everyone and cunning enough to move the pieces that he set without having to lift a finger if he wanted to. There is a subtleness in him that doesn't make red flags flash in someone’s head unlike Jaemin does whenever he can't control his neediness, but he has enough pull to get under someone's skin if he wanted to unlike Renjun who prefers the quiet and watchful approach. Oh and Jeno? He knows how to use Jeno's strength well.

He knows it enough to suggest to his brother to give a little friendly push to the right direction—or rather, to the right cliff—so the wheel can finally move. Sure, it might hurt someone, maybe even break a bone or two, but that's normal. After all, when you love, you should be willing to hurt a little.

His hums died when he finally stopped at the last room down the hallway, mind trying to picture what's on the other side. His gaze quickly glanced at the small tray in his hands carrying a small glass of water and a variety of pills that gleamed under the dim lighting. He smiled. Finally, he raised his hand to gently tap on the oak door in front of him.

"Noona, can I come in? I have your medicine with me."

He heard a soft rustling from the other side before the door finally opened. Silently, Haechan took a calming breath and tried his best to look casual at the vision that welcomed him. Of course he was right. The dress looked perfect on her, almost as if she was the original owner of it. She looked like she stepped out from a dream… his dreams.

Oh and what he would do to keep her there.

He gave her a friendly smile now as he pushed the tray to her hands. She returned it with a grateful look before studying the oddly matched colors of pills there silently. They shone dully under the dim lighting of the hallway, as if officially warning the start of something.

Yes, Haechan believes that there are a few things that starkly sets him apart from the rest of his brothers. But if he were to choose one, he would say he is ruthless. Ruthless enough to drag someone down a little, all the while wearing that sunny smile on his face.

After all, a little nightmare won't hurt anyone.

"Don't forget to take them so you can feel better, okay noona?"

---

CHAPTER 5

A/N: Okaaay so the core four have finally been covered. Guess it’s time to ask now who is the scariest? JK. Taglist below! 

@negincho,  @jhornytrash, @jaeminhyuckiii, @jungwoosswhore, @jsturkey, @aj–7, @pukupukupawpau, @tomiesgirlfren, @vsszn, @those-winternights​, ---

[realcube]

trying to be nice to their crush hcs

navi | masterlist | taglist

thank you to 🍦anon for this cute request!

characters: tsukishima, kyōtani, sakusa & suna

content warning: swearing & sexual references 

kei tsukishima 

♡ this is all yamaguchi’s fault （︶^︶）

♡ he found out tsukki had a crush on you bc he mentioned you a lot in conversation so yamaguchi interrogated him for answers then lo and behold, the beanpole had a lil thing for you 

♡ you sit in front of tsukishima in homeroom while yamaguchi sits beside him so when you leaned back and asked him if you could borrow a pencil and he spat back a snarky remark about you being too irresponsible to care for your own pencils, yamaguchi hastily offered you one of his own before scolding tsukishima 

♡ he explained to his clueless friend that being nasty to people isn’t a good way to get them to like you 

♡ so perhaps he should be nicer :)

♡ honestly, tsukishima would’ve just looked yamaguchi straight in the eyes and went ‘no’, if it wasn’t for the fact you shot tadashi the sweetest smile anD PLAYFULLY BLEW HIM A KISS AFTER HE JUST GAVE YOU A DAMN PENCIL LIKE WTF 

♡ after that, he decided to give up his current personality and pick up a new one 

♡ jk jk 

♡ but he had to binge a whole bunch of those youtube psychology videos that are like ‘psychological tricks to make people like you’ and ‘THESE 5 MIND TRICKS WILL MAKE YOU THE MOST POPULAR PERSON *EVER*’!!

♡ spoiler alert: he wasn’t the most popular person but perhaps that was bc he only went to the effort of using those tricks on you 

♡ god bless him; he tries hard, he really does. (not his best, just hard)

♡ but you don’t have to be extremely observant to realise that he’s began acting different around you and of course, it confused you seeing tsukishima being nice

♡ what irritated you was how dismissive he was being of your questions though, as he was clearly trying to lead you to believe that you were crazy and he’s just always been a nice guy 

♡ but as soon as he figures out that he angered you, he’ll instantly switch back to him normal self - draining his mind of the hours of phycology studying he did last night to just pretend like it never happened 

♡ and if he’s feeling flirty, he might be extra mean to you （￣︶￣）

♡ also he makes a mental note to never take yamaguchi’s romance advice ever again 🙄

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you sighed, removing your hand from your bag after desperately rummaging through it in search of a pencil once again - deja vu. once you accepted that a pencil wasn’t going to materialise out of thin air, you peered over your shoulder and tapped the corner of yamaguchi’s desk, who wore a suspicious grin which you decided against questioning. 

“yamaguchi, do you think i could borrow a pencil again? sorry, this is the last time, i swear. i’ll be sure to get some on my way home after school tod--” 

yamaguchi dropped the line him and tsukishima had rehearsed many times beforehand, while clutching his pencilcase dear to his chest, “woah, (y/n). you’re so irresponsible. sorry, i can’t lend one of my pristine pencils to someone who is too forgetful to remember to buy some; what if you forget to return it to me?” 

tsukishima cringed at how forced it sounded but he couldn’t help but admire yamaguchi's dedication to his role. this allowed tsukishima to swoop in, pencil in hand, “here.” that wasn’t in the script but he panicked! okay, now, eye contact. 

you just sat there and stared at both of them with the most dumbfounded look plastered on your face. what just happened?  why were they both acting like they were in drama class?  and why are they both so bad at acting? they’re both passing performing arts for fucks’ sake!

kentarō kyōtani 

♡ sorry but i firmly believe kyōtani is the sorta guy to be extra mean to ppl he fancies smh

♡ the rest of them just act (somewhat) like themselves around their crush but kyōtani is himself2 (himself^2)

♡ like one time yahaba found you trembling in your locker bc you had gotten mud on mad dog’s white shoes so he chased you through the hallways of the school, threatening to trek mud on your forehead 

♡ yahaba took it upon himself to investigate as to why kyōtani was so rude to you and he got his answer as soon as he mentioned your name to mad dog and the boy’s face immediately flushed red 

♡ so after practise, yahaba schools mad dog on how to get chicks (⌐■_■)

♡ in short, his advice was ‘good guys get laid’ and for kyōtani’s understanding, ‘good’ and ‘kind’ were interchangeable 

♡ mad dog wasn’t completely oblivious to how he treated you and he was aware that he was far from ‘kind’

♡ although he usually doesn’t listen to people in general, yahaba seemed to know what he was talking about so he figured there was no harm in trying to be nice 

♡ but ngl, he just spent the rest of the day wondering...what is kind?

♡ after a few messages back and forth with yahaba, he figured that the best place to start was by apologising for - y’know - chasing you around the whole school 

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

“oi!” kyōtani bellowed through hallway, paying no mind to the students that cast him dirty looks as his sights were locked on you. standing unsuspecting by your locker, stuffing your textbooks into your bag until you heard his deep voice echo through the hall, to which you visibly perked up and began frantically looking around.

he marched towards you, hands in pockets and when you noticed him out of the corner of your eye, you were more than ready to drop all your shit and bolt away. but he didn’t let you as before you were able to take off on your heels, he grabbed your shoulder and spun you around to face him - then he noticed your hands raised in defence by your face and your head hung low.

his heart sank and his grip on your shoulder immediately softened, “i’m not gonna punch you, idiot.” he spat, rolling his eyes and gritting his teeth, trying to appear angry in hopes you’d mistake his light blush for pure rage. 

“i just wanted to say that i felt bad for chasing you through the halls yesterday - you didn’t stand a chance so i guess it was a bit unfair.” he said, frowning as you replied with silence so the duty fell on him to fill it, “and i got the stain out, anyway so.” 

more silence. lovely.

suddenly, he puffed his cheeks out as his eyes snapped to meet yours and he roared, “ARE YOU GONNA FUCKING SAY SOMETHING OR ARE YOU TOO BRAINDE-”

“are you wearing eyeliner?” 

and that was the true story behind why you missed last period, because you and kyōtani had a 30 minute conversation about eyeliner and make-up, then he convinced you to skip the rest of class with him so he could buy you ramen as an apology gift.

so yeah, he figured that perhaps he should try being nice more often.

kiyoomi sakusa

♡ he didn’t need someone to tell him to be nicer, he’s just predisposed to attempt to show kindness to someone he is fond of

♡ in his mind, showing kindness, respect and stripping himself of all his personality = the only way to be desirable 

♡ (ofc this takes place before he meets atsumu tho lol)

♡ so it’s not the realisation that’s the problem for him, it’s the execution 

♡ like how is he supposed to be nice without either sounding creepy or condescending? 

♡ *cut to sakusa practising in the bathroom mirror* ‘your hand looks- no-’ he scoffs, flicking cold water onto his face, ‘your hair looks cool- pretty- nice?’

♡ *camera pans to sakusa laying in bed, staring intently at the ceiling while imagining vivid and scarily detailed scenarios about ways he could mess up while talking to you* 

♡ *camera zooms in on sakusa’s face as he manifests a nicer version of himself*

♡ he might - depending on how insecure he is - watch one of those psychology videos or read a wikihow for help

♡ but other than that, he independently tries to alter his personality in order to gain your favour bc..true love ?

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you smiled as a basketball rolled up to your feet during gym class, followed by the sound of someone approaching you and upon raising your gaze, your eyes met sakusa’s unmistakable black ones. his face hovered only a few inches away from yours due to the fact you had both reached down to pick up the ball at the same time.

he quickly pulled himself away, tucking the basketball under his elbow as he adjusted his mask so it properly covered his face to ensure that you didn’t see the light blush slowly spreading across his cheeks. he then proceeded to blurt out what he had been rehearsing for the past few nights, “oh, thank you, (y/n). your hair looks lovely today, by the way.”

you giggled, holding your hands firmly by your side to avoid fidgeting and making it obvious that his sudden comment flustered you, “thanks, sakusa. and, if we’re handing out compliments today, i didn’t know you were good at any sport other than volleyball but you’re doing surprisingly well at basketball.” you joked, your lips slowly curling into a cocky smirk, “though, i don’t think you’d stand a chance against my team.” 

god, you’re such a tease. you make it so hard for him to be nice to you. so, of course, your comment returned his ability to utter almost every sarcastic comment that comes to mind - screw being likeable. “you think so?” he quirked a brow, tossing the ball onto your lap then pacing backwards, “go on, then.”

rintarō suna

♡ it was probably those tips on social media that told him he has to be nicer 

♡ and plus he saw terushima get all the chicks and he was just sitting there like ‘where are my bitches at? 🥺’

♡ anyway, all the guys on social media that had girls lining up outside their door always had one thing in common: misogyny  obnoxious personalities !!

♡ and his whole personality was a sacrifice suna was willing and ready to make for just a crumb of cooch  🤲

♡ though you weren’t exactly his crush yet, suna thought you were the best person to carry out this experiment with bc he heard through the grapevine that you had a crush on him so perhaps this would make you happy

♡ he didn’t prepare much beforehand though which he immediately regretted as soon as he approached you bc admittedly, his game plan of ‘be self-assured but friendly’ was a bit vague 

♡ so he basically just had to bullshit through a whole, awkward conversation with you while wearing a forced ‘bold’ smirk which, in reality, looked as though he had just seen tiddies for the first time 

♡ hardly self-assured or friendly 

♡ also, the fact you thought he was playing a prank on you must’ve drastically altered the results of his experiment 

♡ at one point he says something extremely stupid you’d just quit playing along and just blurt out ‘wtf is wrong with you today’

♡ to which he’d be like ‘ahaha, nuthin much bbg, how bout you?’

♡ THE EXPERIEMNT ISN’T OVER UNTIL HE SAYS IT’S OVER OKAy?!

♥　♡　♥　♡　♥　♡　♥

you rubbed your temples in order to soothe the throbbing headache suna gave you simply by existing. like yes, you had a crush on him 10 minutes ago - but that was before he came up to you and started acting like terushima on dodgy medication. “oh and your skin is glowing bab--”

“jesus christ, rintarō, shut up!” you cried, gripping the edge of your skirt to prevent your self from delivering a swift punch right to his stupid face. he’s seriously gotten on all your nerves at this point; firstly, by spamming your phone in the middle of the night asking for homework answers (accompanied by cursed memes) as he actually managed to wake you up. secondly, by acting so oblivious to the fact you clearly had a crush on him and now, this!

heat rose to his cheeks in embarrassment as his creepy smile instantly fell right back into his resting bitch face, “this isn’t working, is it?” 

“what’s not working?”

suna scoffed, rolling his eyes - his façade having evidently disappeared. “this.” he sighed, looking around as if someone was going to save him before his eyes finally settled on you and he was reminded of what he wanted in the first place, his sparkle was rekindled for just a moment which caused him to blurt out, “just fuck me already, i’m not asking for much.”