#and they would get specially permission to go off campus for lunch and room together during band trips

[champagnemoon]

There was nothing like going to a religious school and watching 17 year olds get married with permission slips because they were so desperate to have sex lmaooo

[scandeniall]

falling in love

Pairing: sakusa x reader

Warnings: none for once ??? Usual college/aged up

A/n: Yeah it’s almost 3am and I just soewed this out. Idk if it even makes sense but I wanna be in luv with him lol. Also; the references to no limit to you (bc even months later it’s still top 3 one of my fav things I’ve ever written)

Falling in love with sakusa is slow and steady. Its weeks of being an acquaintance and friend of a friend. You were friendly enough, considerate of his space and that he wasn’t the most outgoing guy in the world. Paying attention when he made his way into the conversation as you all sat at a group dinner. It’s the not shoving your social media in his face unlike other people trying to get a highly sought after athlete to follow them.

It’s months of getting to know one another as friends ignoring the tiniest spark whenever you two would meet up for lunch. So tiny, it could’ve been a hallucination. Getting his number one night as the two of you found yourselves outside of a party (one he’d been forced to go to and wanted nothing more than to leave), the rest of your friends having the time of their lives on the dance floor. At that point he’d watched you and got aquatinted enough to know that you were relatively genuine. He’d detected no ulterior motive. Late night texts were his thing. After a busy day of classes and practice, where he’d remembered you’d texted a joke the day before. He’d shoot a quick apology for his poor conversation and offer his own meme as consolidation.

It was just over a year of knowing one another that it’s the first time as friends he felt nervous to hang out with you and couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. It wasn’t a date by any means, just a mutual friend’s birthday dinner. He’d offered to pick you up as an apology for his horrible texting one week in particular citing that it was on the way. It was the first time you’d ridden in a car just the two of you and the way you offered a breathless greeting and apology for taking so long to come out (thus putting you two behind schedule, something that had garnered the tiniest bit of annoyance) had his own breath caught in his throat. He’s not even sure he uttered any real words when you’d complimented him.

It was at the end of the night, seeing you delirious with exhaustion yet as happy as ever, finally having a break from the reality of classes that his crush might’ve started. Your insistence that he texted you when he made it back home safe and the fact that you even stayed up to make sure he did stirred something inside of him.

It was something he’d pushed down. ‘It was only because of the atmosphere’ is what he tried telling himself. Yet he couldn’t shake the way he actually enjoyed hanging out with you in a way that was different from hanging out with Komori or his teammates out of obligation. At some point the two of you began studying together and that unveiled a new layer of yourselves to one another.

You learned that he needed nearly complete silence to study and he had to force himself to not focus on the tiniest muffle coming from your earbuds. He learned that when you began to stress to got extremely fidgety and would have to shoot you a look whenever you clicked your pen one too many times. Sometimes you’d have to break from the libraries harsh fluorescent lighting because he worked best there on the quiet floor. The compromises you made as friends in even school were because there was something oddly comforting about the presence of one another when studying. For you, it was how studying with him actually forced you to be productive and not get distracted like you’d do with your own friends. For him, it was the sheer comfort of having someone there, someone who didn’t try and talk with him and ultimately let him be.

It was early into your third year of college when he finally asked you out. At this point you’d been friends for nearly two years and sitting on feelings for at least a year. It was a simple date, takeout from a place the two of you mutually agreed on and a movie at his place. A clean spot for his first date with you. The date had been nothing special but you’d gotten to truly witness first hand just how meticulous his cleaning habits were in his own personal space.

Of course in the time you’d known him, you’d seen his cleanly nature in action. It’d manifested itself in the the mask he frequently wore and the hand sanitizer he carried often. You’d always noticed the way he glanced at public tables and admired the fact that he was never too shy to ask for a different one at a restaurant when it was obvious that it had hardly been cleaned in between guests.

His desire to immediately wash his dishes, and wipe down the table post dinner caused him to offer you an apology yet you didn’t care. The way you just wordlessly helped him confirmed that his crush was indeed real. When it got chilly, you didn’t feel obligated to cuddle up for warmth and even gratefully accepted the blanket he offered you, separate from his own.

In the nearly two years you’d known Sakusa, neither of you had ever initiated any sort of physical contact. Yes there was the occasional glance of one another’s shoulders to show the other something, but it’d always been platonic. That first date ended with the first of many hugs and a cautious look asking for permission to kiss his cheek.

That first date quickly turned into a second and third and fourth and fifth, the two of you sharing your first kiss sometime between the third and fourth. Itd been after one of his games, one your school had won. You’d waited up for him, the promise of boba on you if he won. Not that he really wanted it, but more so felt drawn to hang out with you. “We’re gonna win”

The kiss was quick and what others would have attributed to being “a moment.” It wasn’t unusual for silence to envelop the two of you. You’d been privy to many comfortable ones after learning to gauge when sakusa needed a moment to cool off from conversation. As the two of you just walked from the shop, drinks in hand and back toward campus he’d paused and asked to try something. Neither of you knew it, but inside both of your nerves were going crazy. The slightest shaking lasted the remainder of your time together unsure if the kiss really happened or if you’d just imagined it.

It’d been two months of dating exclusively before you two became an official couple. The kisses from there became more frequent but for some reason there was the hesitation to jump into anything official. So instead, the two of you spent that time getting to know one another in purely a romantic context.

At some point you’d joked asking when he was going to officially become your boyfriend.

“Do you really want me to?” Itd been a thought that had been at the front of his mind lately. He’d been trying to find the right time to ask as well, getting annoyed at the questions his teammates would ask about you in the locker room. He watched you intently analyzing your reaction to his words as your amused look turned serious than softened before you indicated that you really did. And so he asked and it became official.

It was the way that even after the honeymoon stage had ended that he still felt drawn to you. Even when you bickered about your room not being clean [enough] when he came over or about your annoying own clicking habit, neither of you wanted to bicker with anyone else. Even during your first serious argument that resulted in you admitting that you loved him his heart both dropped and swelled. He’d been the one to fuck up that time, the argument being quite heavy. That night he left with a kiss on your temple and a promise of seeing you soon.

It was the way that the days the two of you didn’t speak felt like hell to him. He was more irritable towards others and found himself stress cleaning whenever he could (something his teammates witnessed as he wiped down his locker for the 50th time in a span of 5 minutes). The usually cautious player may not have performed differently to outsiders, but when he didn’t see you in the crowd during the home game he was off.

Making up felt like a weight had lifted off his heart. He’d swallowed his pride and reached out first. Returning those 3 words for the first time had him feeling like he was on cloud nine.

From then the love between you and Kiyoomi continued to grow. It was never perfect, with the two of you always having something something to work on. But, it was you.

The day he’d revealed to you that he’d signed to MSBY post college was one of his favorite moments. The two of you had been at his hanging out when he’d given you the unmarked envelope. He’d watched your face go from confused to realization to excitement as you read aloud “we welcome your commitment to MSBY Black Jackals-.” It was one of those times he didn’t mind the camera you’d shoved in his face insisting that you were filming a once in a lifetime moment. He’d found himself smiling at the kisses your scattered over his face, ignoring what usually would’ve made him grimace in disgust for the love that overpowered it.

He’d considered the next step in your relationship for a while the question of asking you to move in with him ultimately flowing out of him at graduation. It was the start of a new journey and he wanted you by his side.

Moving in was no easy feat. Learning to live with another person and their habits got to the two of you at times but you were determined to stick it out. Once the initial struggles faded, and you’d gotten into the swing of things he was met with a different kind of love. The love of a domestic life with you. Love was never easy, and potentially being harder when you were young. Yet you’d waited it through. Slowly built a friendship and the foundation of something great. Sakusa has no intentions in proposing anytime soon, yet knew for a fact that he wanted you and you want him.

a/n: i honestly coulve kept going but uh i gotta go to bed and this shit is long nough

[shorkbrian]

“Oh, don’t worry. This won’t hurt at all. Well, it won’t hurt me. You? No, it’ll hurt really really bad.”

Prompt^

Warnings: slight NSFW.

I feel like Bakuboi has some real issues if you didn’t acknowledge him or if you ignored him. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You didn’t even know what you had done to cause Bakugou to set his sights on you. Maybe it was because you refused to interact with him; simply locking your jaw and giving him a bored expression whenever he taunted you,  Easily letting him win any training exercise where you were paired together…. Then immediately going on to demolish every other opponent. You could tell that your lack of response to his brutish personality was driving him insane.

He had started trying to get your attention in a relatively harmful way, by picking on your friends while you were around. You avoided that by snatching your friend’s wrist and leaving the room, taking your friend with you and Bakugou fuming.

He had tried physical pranks, “accidentally” spilling his lunch all over you in the cafeteria, sneering as you cleaned it up with so much as a glance his way. He would push your books out of your hands any opportunity he got,  almost growling when you picked them up without taking a break from the conversation you were having with Mina. Despite his best efforts in being an A+ jerk, there was nothing he could do to get you to acknowledge him.

For a short, very brief moment, Bakugou had even attempted being nice to you. He stopped pushing you around, left your friends alone, and returned all the pencils and other school supplies he had stolen from you. It’s not like he needed them, he just wanted to see you come to him, begging for him to give them back. Obviously that hadn’t happened.  One day he had even moved over on the common room couch so you could sit down, which was unheard of; Bakugou moved for nobody. You had passed over the seat, and instead chose to sit on the floor next to Todoroki so you could ask him what he was doing. Bakugou had caused a ruckus as he left, not destroying anything but being extremely close.

He started inserting himself everywhere in your life. You didn’t know how he had figured you out, or if someone told him your schedule, but he always seemed to be in the same places at the same time you were. He never pulled anything, just glared at you from afar,  his presence threatening.  Of course you ignored him; he was just a spoiled little brat used to everyone bowing down at his feet. He wouldn’t intimidate you into doing the same.

You wished you hadn’t done that.

Spring break had come quickly, and the school was virtually empty. You had gotten special permission from Principal Nezu to be allowed to stay on campus during the break; You didn’t have anywhere else to go. Thats why waking up in a dark room, bound tightly with a gag shoved in your mouth, had you screaming and thrashing in fear. Had the LOV somehow captured you? Oh god, if they had, there would be no help coming, only Principal Nezu knew you had stayed and you promised you could take care of yourself.  What would they even want with a lowly UA student such as yourself?

Your racing thoughts were halted as the door slammed open and the lights flicked on, revealing the standard layout of a UA Dorm room. You twisted to glare at your captor, and immediately  knew that this would be so much worse than being captured by the LOV. Bakugou leaned against the wall, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he sneered down at your tied form.

“You’re gonna fucking wish you had paid attention to me, you little slut.”

He pushed himself off the wall, stalking over to sit down beside you on the bed. You yelled and tried to squirm away, but he grabbed one of the ropes encircling your chest and dragged you close to him so he could look you in the eyes. “You little bitch, acting like you’re better than me. No one’s better than I am. I’m gonna make sure that gets through your pretty little head.” 

Unceremoniously, he dropped your upper half back onto the bed, causing you to slightly bounce as he got up. He began rummaging around in a black bag he pulled out from his closet, and your fear spiked. You had just wanted Bakugou to leave you alone. You had seen how intently he had bullied Izuku, and you thought that ignoring him would make the blonde boy loose interest in teasing and scaring you. It had done the exact opposite. 

Bakugou’s hands were full of unfamiliar objects, things you couldn’t even begin to try putting together what they were used for or where they went. One object that you did recognize was the large, new bottle of lube. You knew what teenage boys were like, and Mina had no shame in telling you about her romps.  

You started crying.

Bakugou set the items down gently on the ground beside the bed, almost looking kind as he wiped away a couple of tears.

“Awww, is the little bitch scared? Are you scared of me?” His expression dropped into something much more predatory. “You fuckin’ should be. When I’m done with you, you won’t be able to walk. Now stop with the tears and shit, they aren’t gonna make me let you go.”  He scoffed, before leaning down to snatch up a pair of scissors from the pile of dropped items.

“Y’know, I’m really gonna enjoy this shit.  Your eyes will finally be on me. You’ll be begging and pleading and crying for me to stop, but I won’t.” He began snipping off your clothes, despite your muffled protests and angry wiggling. It’s not like that deterred him, in all honesty, he just thought it was cute.

“I wanted your attention so bad in the first place cause you’re so fucking perfect for me. Goddamn, you’re so sweet and gentle with everyone.  Although, I like how when we train you’d get ruthless and bloodthirsty and shit just for victory. Remember that time you landed Todoroki on his ass?” He gave a low chuckle, taking one final snip with the scissors as your ruined clothes fell away. You had been thrashing and moving about so desperately to get an edge, to maybe get in a position where you could kick him, or free your arms from the rope, that you had wiggled the gag down. You took in heaving breaths, drawing Bakugou’s attention to your face and away from your body. Instead of anger that you had gotten the gag loose, he smiled dangerously, his hand coming up to slap your cheek with only the slightest force behind it, just enough to make it sting.

“B-B-Bakugou….. please, I don’t-“ 

“Shh, I don’t care what you want. I want your eyes, on me, your attention on me. You’re mine now, and you won’t ever ignore me again, got that?”

“Bakugou Please!” You begged, “Please don’t hurt me, I’m sorry! This isn’t right you can’t-“

His laughter cut you off. It made you uneasy. He glanced over your body again, before locking eyes with you.

“oh, don’t worry. This won’t hurt at all. Well, it won’t hurt me. You? No, it’ll hurt really really bad.”

He leaned down close to you, pressing his clothed chest against your naked one as he bit your earlobe.

“But it’s okay……… you’ll love it.”

[hiatus-for-forever]

Izuku Midoriya x Reader

Summary: You and Midoriya going on a date in which you fly together and Midoriya being considerate and super cute for your second date

Quirk: You have 3 pairs of wings. each are almost as big as Hawks’. More info in the fic. 

Genre/Warnings: Fluff, cursing

WC: 1,446

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the moment you walked in the door, he knew he was entranced by you. The door opened, revealing no one as the class continued to stare at the empty doorstep. Then you came, you flew in with the middle pair of wings unraveled in it’s breathtaking glory. You were laughing the whole time, not caring for the stares of the class, “The door’s so cool!” you exclaimed. 

You heard how the door should be welcoming to any and all students with any quirk from your sister, who also dreamed of going to a school like this, and applying but not being able to make the cut. She did fully support you when you got in and rejoiced since you knew how much you wanted to be a hero even with the guilt that your sister wouldn’t be. She did find her true passion after all so it all worked out in the end.

But enough about her, this is about you. Your cheerful presence had interested everyone, bombarding you with questions after the quirk evaluation. You explained how your quirk worked and answered all their questions. They mostly included compliments on your speed and the size of your wings

Yet, though you’ve interacted with most of your class, you were surprised to have unintentionally avoided one, or rather, he avoided you. Normally he would never hesitate to ask someone about their quirk but something about you was... intimidating. He thought it was how powerful your quirk was but then again he was childhood friends with Bakugou. Then he realized, it was because he liked you. 

That can’t be right, he thought but it was your all around feel that was welcoming and you basically radiated comfort. You would answer back to anyone, weather you liked them or not, kindly. You even politely asked Mineta to stop touching you instead of just shoving him off like everyone else. You were really pretty too. You looked literally angelic, with your wings and all.

 That’s why when he finally talked to you, he was blown away with how you answered each of his questions without hesitation. A smile was present on your face the entire time and you were practically glowing, the warmth he felt from you calmed him of any nerves he had in the first place. 

After that it was like clockwork, he approached you everyday and ate lunch with you, studied with you and always made sure you were in perfect condition. You appreciated all he did to make sure you were well and in turn you accidentally caught feelings. 

You learned to care for him as well and were the one to stop him from overworking. You two were literally a perfect couple and everyone saw both your crushes on each other. But alas, you two were dense as fuck.

You never second-guessed Midoriya’s flustered reactions due to his fidgety nature and he never second-guessed your kindness as anything but that. You two were content as friends, you made that pretty clear to your friends. Still, that didn’t stop them from mentioning his crush on you, to you and your crush on Midoriya, to him. 

That brought you two to eventually talking it out and agreeing to go on a date. “Like normal people” you joked. And there was no better time than this week. It had been plenty stressful and you both needed to de-stress. You hadn’t really planned where to go but you both just agreed to stop by anywhere you felt like, just needing to get out of the dorms.

It was afternoon when you decided to go and once you were out of the campus, with permission from Aizawa, you began to realize that you should’ve indeed planned where to go. Instead, you both stood outside the gate, shuffling awkwardly, waiting for the other to talk. 

“Uh-” “So-”

You both flinched at one another, Deku turning bright red as you giggled. You calmed down first, “You were saying?” you gestured for him to continue

“U-Um yeah. Where did you wanna go?”

“Well, we already ate lunch so how ‘bout we go to a cafe for dessert” you suggested

“No thanks I’m still pretty full” said, rubbing his stomach. His eyes soon widened at the fact he rejected your suggestion, “B-But we can still go! I can pay!” he said desperately, he didn’t want you to change your mind and not go out with him anymore

You laughed out loud, “No worries! We can just go somewhere else” You smiled and he blushed again. You were so pretty when you did that. “How about you, you have any suggestions?” you asked him

He really didn’t. He’s the type to prepare for something before it happens, so this impromptu date was not up his alley. He looks at the sidewalk behind you, trying to think up where to go, even contemplating pulling out his phone to search up where to go for a date. You sensed his uneasiness and spoke up, “I do have this special spot I go to if you can’t think of anywhere”

“Special spot?” He said curiously.

You nodded, “Yup! It’s not too far so we can walk there”

He nodded, “Sure let’s go”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Here we are” you said. The walk had been quiet mostly, aside from some small talk. He did ask about where you were going but you told him it was a surprise. You talked about other things of course, about tests and other academic topics mostly. 

Eventually you reached your old apartment complex, your parents still lived here and you visited during holidays. He eyed it, blushing at the realization he now knew where you lived, before the dorms of course, and maybe you would take him to your room or something. Only the thought of it made him combust into flames

“Let’s go” you pulled him into the building, greeting the receptionist and her telling you your parents were out for work. You told her it was fine since you weren’t going to your home anyway. This piqued his interest because where else would you be going?

You then gestured for him to follow as you went to the elevator. He stood there awkwardly as you pressed the button for the top most floor. The time it took going up wasn’t much, the elevator stopping from time to time revealing no one who was gonna step in.

When you finally reached the top your excitement had also increased. You excitedly grabbed him by the wrist, running thought the corridor, past some doors, taking a turn and finding the staircase. You dragged him up, tripping once but refusing his help and running up the stairs, “Here it is” you said, opening the door to the roof.

You both stepped out and you immediately inhaled the familiar scent of dusty cement, taking you back to your childhood where your parents told you not to go off the edge. You did anyway, it was fun. Midoriya watched as you ran to the railing, looking down at the houses and restaurants below you. “I used to go here all the time after hard days. Its relaxing to just soar through the air since no one bothered me. Even if I got in trouble sometimes” You said.

He loved how serene you looked up here, the way you took in and released the clean air, how you enjoyed the fact it smelled different up there. There was no one around, just you two and the city breeze. 

The wind picked up and blew against your feathers. Your eyes lit up and you looked the Modoriya, “You wanna fly with me?” you offered

He stopped and stuttered, “E-Eh? How does that work? I can’t really stay on your back as that can constrict your flying but I don’t think you can fly with me on your stomach either, maybe holding onto my wrists would work? But I don’t want to trouble you with my weight, not like you can’t take it or anything but-”

“Izuku! Relax!” You halted his muttering, “Here” You wrapped your arms around his torso, “We’ll fly like this”

“HUH!?” He had never been this close to a girl before, you had your freaking arms around him. It was bliss, sure, but still so embarrassing. You two aren’t even going out officially yet and sure you guys are on a first name basis but was this still allowed? Maybe you were like this with others, you are really close with the rest of the class.

“You ready?” You asked.

He gulped and nodded. He heard the flapping of your wings, one, two pairs working to get you both off the ground, third pair occasionally flapping to pull some weight. He felt his feet lift off the ground and he shut his eyes. 

Once you both were on air you yelled at him to open his eyes. He already felt the wind whipping past him, much like when he runs at Full Cowl, and he decided to listen to you. His eyes slowly opened, and he got a glimpse of what he missed. 

You both flew over buildings, you laughing at the need to release air from the thrilling feeling of nostalgia. He too joined in and found himself yelling about how fun and cool this was! You then put your third pair to use and flapped it faster, going quicker through the wind. 

“W-What are you doi-WAAAH” he let out a scream when you did a loop in the air. You were giggling and he was still shaking, “You okay?” You asked through sweet laughter and he shakily nodded

He was too silent compared to just a little bit ago so you decided to head back. Finishing the circle you went in, you placed him back on his feet as he ran to grab the railing. You were profusely apologizing to him for taking him on a flying session, He didn’t take it though, explaining how he loved most of it, never scared to be dropped as he fully trusted in you.

This of course left you blushing even after the date. He trusted you that much? I mean, you did too but you didn’t think he’d feel the same way as quick. He suggested going on another date similar to this one. Soon, he said, and you couldn’t wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a week later when he asked you out again. You were surprised when he said you were going to the same place you went last week. You agreed despite not knowing why he would want to go back and followed him there.

On the walk there you almost asked why but decided to find out later, on the count of his adorable face gleaming in excitement. You smiled and followed behind, trying to catch up with his quick steps there.

Once you arrived at the top of the building again, you noticed him relax as much as you, before lighting up in excitement. “Let’s fly!” he suggested, grabbing a hold of you hands and nearing you to the edge

“Woah woah, slow down! I don’t know what’s gotten into you but you seem more excited today, may I ask why?” You said, holding him back with a light tug

He chuckled as pink tinted his cheeks. Scratching the back of his neck he said, “I had a surprise for you that I was gonna show once we were in the air. I asked Uraraka to use her quirk on me so I weigh as much as my clothes now! S-So it’s easier for you to fly with me around!” 

You swear your heart melted like a stick of butter, “Aww Izuku you are so adorable” You said and pinched his cheeks, before going to kiss one. He was a mumbling mess before you held hid hands once again, flapping your middle pair of wings, you lifted yourself off the ground, taking Midoriya up with you soon after. 

You wrapped your arms around his torso to balance him, making sure the wind doesn’t push him back. You pressed him to your chest, pecking his neck before going off the edge and flying over the streets and buildings. You began to soar the the sky, going at a more relaxed speed than last week’s. 

He felt more relaxed too, now being able to breathe the calming air you talked about. He wondered what you looked like right now. Before he could think, the words left his mouth, “Can you turn me around, I wanna look at you” 

And also before he could say anything to take it back, you turned him around with ease, his chest pressing against yours. “I didn’t think you would actually do it” he mumbled

“Why not, I wanted to look at you too” You said the him, your eyes flashed down to his lips and looked back to where you were flying. That did not go unnoticed by him with how close he was and his eyes went to your lips. They looked soft, he wanted to feel them against this. Did you want that too? He saw somewhere that looking at someones lips meant you wanted to kiss them. 

Slowly, he brought his head up and his lips gently met yours. His eyes were closed but he could feel the slight falter of your flying. He then felt you go upright instead of the tilt you had when you moved around. You kissed back with more fervor, causing him to press harder. His arms went around your neck and your arms held him tighter around his torso.

Soon enough you both pulled away and with a giggle, the only thing you could say to his red face was, “That’s a pretty cool way to have a first kiss”

[knjnvrland]

Prank Wars - ch. 2

> pairing | jungkook x reader

> word count | 2.5k

> genre | college!au, fluff, smut

> warnings | swearing, alcohol consumption

> synopsis | College can be a stressful time in anyone’s life as it is, why don’t we throw a little prank war in the mix to make it harder?

> fic masterlist

> A/N | English is not my first language, I’m sorry for the eventual spelling mistake, please let me know if you find any! 

CHAPTER 2 - Dying it Red

Getting past the embarrassment of your first day of classes, when everyone would stare at your stained clothes, the next couple of the weeks flew by fairly smooth. You made a few acquaintances in classes, which was enough for group projects and study dates, and found your way around campus with the help of your brothers and your brother’s friends. Your friends now, too. You had lunch with at least one of them every day and stopped by Jin’s cafe almost every morning for a free snack that your brother basically forced into you, using you as a guinea pig for the recipes he was trying. It was alarmingly easy to get into the new routine. 

“Then you press this button and wait for the light to turn green.” Alice was helping you out with your laundry, teaching you how to work the machines at the basement of the student's dorms. “Just be careful to be here when the timer is done, otherwise someone might take your clothes out and who would want another person’s hands in their underwear?” She played around when the harsh sound of the washing machine began, letting you know it was doing it’s job.

“Babe?” A male voice called, descending the last steps of the stairs, and you both turned around to face Yoongi with another boy trailing behind.

“Hey Yoongs, we were just finishing here.” Alice smiled warmly at her boyfriend. “Long time no see, Jungkook.” She then turned to the messy haired boy all dressed in black, walking to him and wrapping her hands around his waist. She probably couldn’t reach all the way around his neck, as her hugs usually went, because of how tall the boy was. “This is y/n, the Kim’s baby sister.” She stepped away and signaled to you, and that’s when you realized that this handsome guy in front of you was also the asshole that ruined your otherwise perfect first day.

“We actually met before.” You smiled with your lips tight together, trying to hide your annoyance. “He bumped into me on my first day here.” At that Alice let her mouth hung open, joining the dots in her head but not adding to the conversation.

“Really? I don’t remember you.” The boy looked confused, clearly being genuine on his lack of memory of the accident. Well, how could he remember you when he didn’t even had the decency to turn around and apologize that day. “Nice to meet you, anyway.” He smiled at you but you turned around, pretending to be entertained by the rotation of the washing machine.

Yoongi, sensing the tense atmosphere, wrapped his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder. “If we don’t leave now we might miss the beginning of the film.”

“Are you coming y/n?” Alice asked.

“Nah, I have to wait for this to be finished and then I might drop by Joonie’s place, but thanks anyway.” Jungkook was already at the stairs again when you finished answering, not bothering to say goodbye at all. Alice noticed it and gave you a sympathetic smile, leaving with Yoongi behind the youngest boy.

“What an idiot.” You let out a sigh and pulled out your phone to text your sibling’s group chat about meeting up later, you might as well enjoy your Friday night with them somehow.

“That's cheating!” Taehyung yelled. “You can’t all team up against me!”

“Sorry Tae, y/n never played before, we’re just helping her out.” Namjoon explained, just as Jin killed Taehyung for the third time in a row.

Jin picked you up and you ended up at the boys' place. Jimin had a date and Hoseok was practicing late, so you and your brothers had the apartment all to yourselves. You ordered pizza and revived the old playstation 2 that was the center of so many fights between the three boys growing up. You were never a tomboy, in a house with so much testosterone, your mother made sure to keep you by her side, dressing you up in girly dresses and gifting you all the dolls you would ask. Don’t get it wrong, you could still beat Taehyung in a play fight any day, and had your fair share of scraped knees and quick trips to the hospital because you were playing a little bit too harsh trying to keep up with your older siblings, but videogames were never really your thing.

“She's fine! You don’t need to help her every time we play something new.” He whined, letting go of the controller to grab another slice of greasy muzzarela pizza. It was true, you were a fast learner and definitely didn’t need your brothers teaming up to help you out.

“But it’s funnier this way.” You stated, taking advantage and killing Taehyung once again when his guard was down because he was shoving the entire pizza into his mouth.

“Hey!” He complained with his mouth full. “That's it, I give up, you guys suck.”

“Don't be such a baby.” Jin shoved Taehyung’s shoulder with his own. “We'll play nice next round.”

“I’m not asking you to play nice, I’m asking you to play fair.” he pouted.

Namjoon patted Tae in the head. “It’s alright, we won’t count this one on the final score.”

“But I still won.” you gloated, finishing off Jin’s character on the game when they were all distracted and standing up to grab another soda from the kitchen.

“I trusted you!” The eldest shouted dramatically and you laughed to yourself, proud of your definitely-not-fair victory.

You brought back drinks for everyone as a way to say sorry, and you all settled, trying to choose another game to play next. Namjoon was distracted by his phone, texting someone non stop. Jin snatched the phone out of the other boy’s hand to read without permission, and both of them started wrestling on the ground for the device.

“Give it back!” Namjoon was on his side with his legs wrapped around Jin’s waist while Jin was laying on the ground, chest down with one of his arms pushing Namjoon’s face away and the other trying to keep the phone as far away as possible. You already knew what would happen next before Taehyung even made the first move to stand up, so you were prepared when the phone flew to your hands, being snatched by Tae from the pile of limbs tangled on the floor and thrown at you before he was pulled into the mess.

You scrolled through the texts in the open conversation and handed the phone back to Namjoon, who had given up and was on the floor, red faced and short of breath. 

“It's just a party.” You informed the other two.

“Who’s? Where? When?” Taehyung eagerly wanted to know.

“Some guy named Jackson? I don’t know, it sounds like it’s at a fraternity.” You answered, not really interested and just wanting to go back to the game.

“It’s at Delta Sigma.” Namjoon clarified. “It’s next weekend and it sounds like it’s going to be big, it’s their beginning of the school year party and they’re introducing their new boys to the world, I guess?”

“Oh, we’re definitely going.” Jin stated. “I went to a lot of their parties when Mark was still living there and it’s always legendary. Also, they have the best booze."

Namjoon went through the details while Jin sent a text to the group chat with the rest of your friend group to let them know and soon after everyone -even Yoongi- was in. You chose the next game and the four of you went back to playing and bickering as if you were still teenagers in your home’s living room.

“Can I borrow this earring?” Alice asked you, popping her head into the bathroom where you were doing your make up. You nodded and she disappeared again.

The party began an hour ago, but Yoongi was finishing his shift at the radio and he was your lift there, so the two of you could take your sweet time getting ready to go. The week went by fast and, apart from having to see Jungkook more now that he was settled into his new apartment and finally began hanging out with the rest of the group, you couldn’t complain. He still had no idea why you were always so cold with him, but made no effort to find out either, assuming you were just a little bit closed off. He was also driving there with you, taking advantage of Yoongi’s promise of sobriety and the fact that they lived in the same building, and you had made up your mind that, by the end of the night, you would make him apologize to you for ruining your favorite shirt and the perfect planned first impressions you intended on making on your classmates.

Just as you were finishing applying your lipstick, Alice’s phone rang and she letted you know that Yoongi was waiting downstairs, so you grabbed your phone, handed your keys to your roomate, letting her responsible for it, and walked out the door.

The ride there was quiet, Jungkook ended up going earlier with the rest of the boys and only needed Yoongi as a ride back home later, so you didn’t have to sit through the uncomfortable silence that would've settled if he was on the back sit with you. When you got there you could tell people were already wasted. You spotted Hobi right away, he was chugging down god knows how much beer at once and being cheered on by a group of people around him. Yoongi left to find Namjoon and tell him about some new project and Alice made her way to where the alcohol was with you trailing behind her. 

Jimin was there with a group of people, mostly girls and, of course, Jungkook. Alice said hi to them and you waved, not really wanting to introduce yourself to the strangers in the group and specially not very keen on getting another step closer to the boy who spilled his coffee on you and never apologized. Did I mention he never apologized? Because he never did. What an asshole. Jimin handed you a shot and you poured it down your throat without even asking what it was. You were not really a big party person, and the only way to get through it was getting shit faced drunk, and that’s what you were planning on doing.

You spent most of your time dancing with Jimin and Alice, or by the kitchen filling your cup. You bumped into your brothers but honestly, you were not really into the idea of seeing them make out with random people or embarrass you with their drunk dancing, so you kept your distance. You would bump into Jungkook every now and then as well, and Alice had to keep you from going up to him and making a scene. You just wanted him to apologize, really, but you were not sure you could let him know that without calling him a few names you thought suited him much better then ‘Jungkook’ before.

It was just a second that Alice turned around to look for her boyfriend and you were already gone from her sigh. You were a little bit tipsy, sure, but you could get a drink by yourself without your friend constantly by your side. On the way to the kitchen you even had a small conversation with a handsome stranger with light eyes and dreamy lips that you were sure would not have happened if you had Alice with you. You were looking for another beer, just to drown your nerves a little bit and go find that godlike creature again, when you spotted Jungkook. There was a girl standing by your side with a tall red cup filled with god knows what and you didn’t think twice before gabbing it and throwing it. Your aim must have been a little off though, because instead of hitting your target, the splash of alcohol landed on the person beside him, who just happened to be your brother.

“Y/n what the fuck?!” Taehyung turned around to find you frozen in place looking as guilty as ever. The group of people around them took a step back from the mess and Jungkook started laughing hysterically.

“Sorry Tae that wasn’t for you.” The words barely audible over the loud noise of people talking around you. You had no idea what had gotten into you and could feel your face getting warm. “I was aiming at Jungkook.” 

At that the other boy stopped his laughter and looked offended at you. “What? Why?”

“Because you should learn some manners, asshole!” You couldn’t hold back you annoyance even though you knew you were overreacting, but the alcohol in your blood took control of your ability to filter your words and you would rather have people think you were red because of anger then because of shame. Taehyung started to laugh then, not really understanding what was happening, but amused seeing you argue with someone that wasn’t him for once.

“What have I ever done to you?” Jungkook was just as confused as your brother.

Before you could answer and give him a little bit of your mind, Alice and Namjoon walked in and found the absolute mess you had made. See, the drink you threw was a dark shade of red, and the kitchen had white tiles and white cabinets all around that were now all tainted a lovely shade of pink, as was your brother’s bleached hair and light clothes.

“Dude what happened?” Namjoon was the first to speak, but Tae just waved him off, finding the situation more funny then anything else. He could get back at you later anyway, and growing up with you gave him the ability to read you better then anyone else, so the act you were putting to sound tough didn’t mean a thing to him and he was enjoying seeing how far you would go to hide you embarrassment.

“Maybe I should take y/n home.” Alice stated, grabbing the empty cup from your hand and leaving it on the counter, as if disarming you of a powerful weapon. She then passed her arm through your waist and led you to the door. You could only follow along, unable to react when you fully realized what just happened.

Finding Yoongi was easy, he was on his way to the kitchen and met you halfway, not needing any explanation before following the both of you to his car. The drive home was silent, apart from some underground rap song playing from Yoongi’s sound system and Alice calling a friend of hers who was at the party to see if they could give Jungkook a ride home later. You laughed to yourself, remembering the boy's face when he realized the target was him, and that alone made it worth it. The fact that you stole his ride back was just a plus to the situation. He was a handsome boy, you couldn’t deny it, so wiping that bunny smile from his face gave you more pleasure than you were able to put into words. You would have stopped there, honestly, but deep down you knew that what took place at the party was just the beginning.

> A/N | It /really/ starts here, I guess. Have a nice day, wherever and whoever you are :)

TAGLIST IS OPEN

[boymeetsweevil]

For Science 5/7

Grouping: Reader x Nerd!JK 

Word Count: 17.5k haha wtf (NSFW)

Warnings/Themes: omg okay swearing, Boobies, graphic-ish Cunnilingus, endangement of Hoseok’s chin, Spit :/, Masturbation, mentions of porn haha, Making out, (Hoseok’s) male gaze??? Idiot!Kook, Jealous!Kook, Violence? (lmao it was very mild violence and mention of blood but not graphic), gratuitous use of soap-opera level drama

Summary: Jungkook asks you to let him watch you get off. For science.

A/N: I’m tagging  @m-icdrop , @jiminslye , @ephemeral-mindset, @sugarandpoppy, @monstar95, @sweetestkth, @limitlesxxsxx, @simplyfinessin, @park-geemin to let you know that this is here! If any of you would like to stop being tagged with each FS update, let me know. And if anyone would like to be added to the tag list, also let me know :)

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6, part 7

Being a good friend, as you’re realizing now, is so terribly hard and you wish someone had told you earlier in life so you could make the informed choice of becoming a nun. Or maybe just a plain old hermit.

Either way, waking up in the middle of Yoori’s bedroom finds you feeling less rested than you would have liked. Probably because you dreamt that you had been transfigured into a dog by Hoseok wearing a witch’s costume and forced to be the family pet to Yoori and Jungkook’s 16 children. You end up waking with a jolt, still in Yoori’s bed and covered in cold sweat, wanting nothing more than to go home and leave everything at school behind. 

Still, you soldier through the rest of the night, staring at your laptop instead of doing work, only eating half of the pizza she ordered for you and numbly carrying a large Tupperware container that held the leftovers back to your apartment.

You end up eating the pizza for breakfast the following morning in some meagre effort to comfort yourself. Nothing helps, though. Not using the special body wash that you usually reserved for special occasions. Not putting on the velvet joggers you wore when you needed a pick-me-up. So, you try going in the opposite direction. Instead of putting in extra effort, you put in zero. You don’t bother stressing about putting your hair into an intricate style so you’ll look more put together. You don’t bother trying to buff your skin to a shining, baby glow. Instead you slather your face in moisturizer and throw your hair into a bun, which seems to do the trick. Giving up on some of the tinier details that would often gnaw at the edges of your collectedness improves your mood slightly. So does taking the rest of the pizza in with you for lunch.

The universe takes pity on you and the day goes by quickly. On Friday, It feels almost as though you only blinked but now the sun was setting around 4:30, as had become habit.

You wipe the drool that was pooling at the corner of your mouth while you tried some old number theory problem sets from a class you took freshman year. It had been difficult because you’d forgotten how shitty proofs can be, but it had also been just the time sink you needed.

Coming to the usual study spot you and Yoori established a few hours prior was bittersweet. Normally she would be there, perhaps with a steaming mug of something calming waiting for you, ready to work in companionable silence with gossip breaks sprinkled in between. Today, she wasn’t there, so you had the whole table to yourself. You sit in her chair to throw some novelty into the mix. And because you miss her. But now that your momentum is broken, you decide to turn to the window instead of people watching. Even though there’s none of the softly falling snow Yoori always raves about, the view is still nice.

The last few rays of the winter sun are stretching out, leaving the campus bathed in blood orange light and catching the reflective parts of the packed snow on the ground. There’s something picturesque about the way the campus pond, now frozen, sits in the center of the landscape and frames the sheet of mountains running in the distance. But it feels very lonely as well.  

You check your phone and find no text messages from Jungkook and only one from Yoori asking if you have plans for Saturday night. You tell her no and begin packing up.

Normally, you’re not a big going out person, but you find your lack of plans for this weekend a little bothersome. You know Jungkook and Yoori will obviously be busy that evening, and perhaps even the whole weekend. But that leaves you with Taehyung and Hoseok to have a good time and the prospects for that seem weak. You try sending a text to the two of them asking if a bar sounded like a fun idea but Hoseok messages back that he already bought drinks for tonight. You suppose you’ll have to try again next weekend.

Taehyung’s words of assurance about how Jungkook suddenly getting a girlfriend wouldn’t change the group dynamic float into you’re head. But you’re not so sure you believe them in this moment. Things don’t seem as fun and you’re not sure if it’s just because you’ve spent the whole day moping or if it’s because Jungkook has been carrying the group dynamic on his back the whole time and you never even noticed until now.

It’s a frightening thought and it’s also a little unfair to Hoseok and Taehyung. Although you’re not as close to them as you are to Jungkook, it’s not like they’re strangers. You’ve spent a great deal of time on your own with both of them, and even though you fight with Hoseok from time to time, you have made some nice memories with the both of them.

As you walk to Taehyung’s apartment for game night, you’re reminded of the times you’ve spent with the both of them. Like when you needed to fulfill your PE requirement for the year, so you and Hoseok took a snowboarding class together. You can admit, albeit reluctantly, that you bonded over many nights of numb toes and icing each other’s injuries. There’s also the time that you and Taehyung thought learning Russian would be a fun idea. You ended up leaving the Russian club after the first weekly meeting, but Taehyung still goes and is now the club Treasurer. It had been a fun hour of your life, though.

“Hey,” Taehyung chirps when you finally arrive at his apartment.

“Hey!” You fling yourself at him, full of emotion from the walk down memory lane you just took. He’s stiff in your arms for a moment, but settles into the hug after a beat.

“What’s this all about?” He chuckles, patting your back affectionately.

You extricate yourself from him and drop your things at the doorway before turning to Hoseok with a determined look. He snorts at you but doesn’t try to hide from your grabby hands, much to your surprise.

“I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m really glad we’re all friends. You mean a lot to me,” you mumble into the collar of Hoseok’s shirt as you press wrap him in a sincere hug.

“Are you not wearing a bra?”

“Except you,” you push him off you roughly. “Not you. I don’t like you.”

“Aw, come on!” He grins wryly at you from the floor. “You know you like me.”

You make a show of brushing the residue of your hug off the thin and oversized sweater you’re wearing. “No, sorry. I was a different person 20 seconds ago. I’ve changed. I’m better now.”

Hoseok hops up and chases you around Taehyung’s tiny dining room table until he manages to trap you in a corner by the kitchen entrance and wrangle you into a bear hug. You play dead to deter him, but instead he just laughs at the limp way your feet drag on the floor and waddles with you still in his grasp to the living room. Taehyung looks for the right game to play.

He chooses Wii Resort, which is not even remotely close to being your favorite, so you sit out and let the third controller lay unused on the ground. Instead you find yourself seated with your back against Hoseok’s chest in the La-Z boy, feet stretched out to rest in Taehyung’s lap as he sits on the matching ottoman.

“It’s fucking freezing in here,” you whine.

“I told you to wear layers. I’m trying to lower my utility bill,” is all Taehyung says as he moves his mii into yet another jungle setting for a mini game.

You pout. “This sucks.”

“It really doesn’t,” Hoseok interjects, “This is one of the better game nights we’ve had in a while.”

“You’re just saying that because this is the only time you’ve been able to win at a game.”

“Be nice to Hobi.” One of Taehyung’s hands drop down to dig into the arch of your foot as a warning. You squeal, knee kicking out wildly and without your permission, forcing your head to crack back against Hoseok’s chin.

“Ow! Fuck! What the hell is wrong with you, Tae?” Hoseok reaches up to clutch at his face, controller falling into your lap.

“Dude, I was defending you! How is this my fault?”

“You know it’s against the rules to tickle her when another person’s nearby unless it’s a tag-team.” He whines and taps you on the shoulder. You turn to face him sheepishly, knowing it’s partially your fault too. “Am I bleeding?”

“Thankfully, no,” you coo after a careful inspection. “But if that were any higher up on my leg, I don’t think you’d still have a face.”

“I know.” 

You pat his hair soothingly, but turn back around soon after Hoseok stops cradling his face. “Maybe we should call it a night.”

“We can’t! I’m not even buzzed yet. And we haven’t gone all the way around the board.”

“Tae, this game is trash. I don’t want to just sit and watch.”

He waves a hand dismissively, unpausing the game without even looking at you. “It’s not my fault you’re a fake Nintendo fan.”

“Ooh, are you gonna take that,” Hoseok’s eyes widen at Taehyung’s comment.

“I’m not even gonna dignify that with a response,” you sniff. Reaching out, you grab at the closest, non-empty beer bottle you can reach and take a swig. “But I am gonna get going so you can enjoy your shitty game by yourselves.”

“Come on!” Hoseok whines again from above you and from your vantage point it looks like his face is starting to swell. You silently hope that it doesn’t get bad until after you leave. “You can’t leave. Then it’ll just be two guys playing Wii resort.”

“Arriving in 13 minutes.” You burrow further into his chest to steal some warmth for a minute. You vow that the first thing you’re doing once you get home is taking a hot shower.

“Let her go, Hob. She’s not cool like us.”

Taehyung’s Mii reaches the top of the mountain at that moment. The victory cry he releases is entirely too loud and definitely not appropriate for someone only playing Wii Resort. He gets up from his chair and starts gyrating at the TV where Hoseok’s mii is crying large blue tears.

“Congrats on your victory. I’m out.”

The ride home turns out to be less relieving and more depressing as you get closer and closer to your apartment. Jungkook and Yoori are probably somewhere having an amazing date and will probably then go have amazing virginal sex in the backseat of Hoseok’s frat brothers’ car that Jungkook borrowed for the occasion. Taehyung and Hoseok actually like Wii Resort and will probably spend the rest of the night getting drunk off their asses playing that and having more fun than is objectively reasonable. Meanwhile you will probably stand naked and shivering in your bathroom for, like, 8 whole minutes waiting for hot water to make it through your plumbing.

Nothing like depressing thoughts to start your weekend off well.

Perhaps the universe decided to take pity on you once again because when you get home and disrobe, you only have to wait 6 minutes for the hot water. And it doesn’t run out after another 5. You also let yourself sing loudly to your Spotify ballad playlist titled ‘lady heartbreak’. Normally, you only cry to that playlist, so you think of it as personal growth.

Once you’re out the shower and your voice is hoarse from the ‘singing’, you change into light pajamas. Despite the fact that your heater is fixed, you still keep it firing at almost full blast because you prefer the heat to the cold.

Before you can flip back the covers on your bed when you hear a loud knock on your door. You figure its either Taehyung or Hoseok, or both of them, looking for something to do now that the game has lost its charm after a million rounds. But a quick glance at your phone shows no text messages from them saying that they’d be stopping by, which they usually do. The door thumps like someone’s body is slamming against it and you pray that its one of your stupid friends just being inconsiderate and disorderly.

You’re about to leave your room to see who’s at your door when another loud sound startles you. Its as if someone is carefully trying to rattle the window leading to your fire escape. All the while the loud knocking at your front door continues to ring through the apartment. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re certain you saw a news special about something like this. Pairs of burglars come to innocent women’s houses after they’ve stalked them long enough to learn their schedule and see if they live alone. Then they both show up to the house at different spots to distract the victim and break in more efficiently.

In this scenario, you’re certain they’re expecting you to go to the front door. But you’re smart, dammit. You decide to give them a surprise and approach the window first instead, phone clutched in your hand with the police a button-press away. You yank back the curtains and quickly activate your flashlight mode to see who is trying to break into your house. The pair of wide eyes that greet you back almost make your drop your phone.

“Jungkook,” you hiss incredulously.

Carefully, you unlock your window and slide it up so he can climb off the fire escape and collapse face first into your room. Clearly, he is slightly inebriated.

“What are you doing here?”

“Shh,” he sticks a finger into your face, “She’ll hear you.”

“Who’ll hear me?”

The apartment is eerily quiet when you realize that the loud knocking is replaced by jingling of keys and the sound of the front door being pushed open.

“Jeon Jungkook, who the hell is that in my house?”

“It’s Yoori,” he whispers with genuine fear in his eyes. “Crap!”

You can’t do much besides react on auto-pilot and pull back the many blankets and comforters lining your bed for him to dive under. The sound of Yoori’s slow, stumbling footsteps as they make their way into the heart of the apartment are better than any horror movie soundtrack. You find yourself diving into bed too, knees bent, hoping that you look casual and can hide Jungkook’s shape. He pokes his head out and grins at you from the shadows between your bare knees.

“Is anyone home,” Yoori calls from somewhere in the living room.

“I’m in my bedroom,” you respond. “It’s the last door on the right in the hallway.

A few moments later, Yoori is peering curiously from behind your door. You realize she still hasn’t seen your room despite the fact that she’s been to your apartment in passing a couple of times now.

“Hey, Yoori.”

“Hey. Wow,” she hiccups, “This is very you. I like the tapestries.” She turns in a circle to take in all of your room’s décor.

“Yep. So, uh, what brings you here?”

“I asked Jungkookie to drop me off here.”

“Oh, you did? Where is Jungkookie now,” you ask neutrally before casting a brief but discrete annoyed look down at Jungkook’s semi-visible face under the covers.

“I think he’s probably filling up the car’s tank. He has to return it to the fraternity before it gets too late.”

“He didn’t want to come in with you?”

“No. I told him I wanted to have some girl time with you to talk about the date. But then I got to your door and remembered that you don’t like to talk about romantic stuff like that.”

You shove your hands down into your lap and over his face so he can’t see the way yours heats up in embarrassment.

“W-well that’s just because he’s my good friend, you know. I didn’t mean much by that.”

“It’s okay, I understand.” She smiles down at you sleepily before walking over and moving like she’s going to sit with you in bed.

“Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” you shoot your hands out to keep her sitting.

“Why not?”

She pouts softly down at you. You wince knowing that her feet probably hurt from a night in heels and all she wants to do is sit to rest. But your loyalty lies elsewhere at the moment.

“Because…I have no pants on.”

“Really?” She grins and peeks down like she hopes to see through the blanket covering your lap. “That’s okay with me. You probably don’t have anything I haven’t seen before. And if you did, who cares?”

You decide that you won’t probe her about that and instead redirect the conversation.

“Yeah, but I’m kind of shy when it comes to that stuff.”

“That’s right. I forgot.” Yoori sighs sadly. “Maybe one day we’ll get there. That should be our next friendship goal. Getting you to feel less shy around me.”

“Y-yeah, okay.”

You watch as she swings her heels tiredly in her hand and searches for a nearby cab. She finds one relatively quickly and gives you a one-armed hug around your shoulders before scooping heading out. You wait a few more minutes, just in case she magically returns for something she left behind despite the fact that she left the spare key on your bedside desk and the front door locks from the inside automatically. Once you’re certain you won’t be found out, you rip the sheets back angrily.

“Explain yourself quickly, Jeon.”

Jungkook squints up at you now that the dark cover of your blankets isn’t shielding his eyes anymore. He’s lying on his stomach between your bent legs, propped up on his elbows. It’s a compromising position that you’re glad Yoori didn’t catch you in.

“I told her I needed to fill the tank, but I told her I was doing it at the gas station on 5th street instead of the one across the street from here.” He grins up at your cheekily like he’s done something extra clever.

“Yeah, I figured as much. But why did you do that? And then why did you risk falling 20 feet to climb up the fire escape and come in through the window.”

“I wanted to hang out. I feel like we haven’t seen each other in a while.” His hand reaches out to stroke at the expanse of your bare thigh.

“Jungkook, you’re dating Yoori,” you sigh and move your leg away. “The weekend stays are over now.”

“We’re taking it slow, though.”

“Not slow enough for this to still be a thing.”

“It is slow enough.” At your raised eyebrows, he stammers. “We-we haven’t even held hands yet.”

“Really,” you can’t help but ask. The pang of satisfaction you feel knowing that Jungkook still hasn’t taken things further with Yoori makes you feel a bit guilty. But you can’t help it.

“Really. So we can still do this, right?”

“I don’t know, Kook.” Your lip ends up tucked between your teeth in indecisiveness.

“Please? I missed you,” he whispers quietly. It’s all you’ve ever wanted to hear from him and you give a quick nod lest you start shrieking from joy if you open your mouth.

He shuffles until he can pull you closer by the hips. When you’re on a slight incline, your multiple pillows holding you up, Jungkook removes his glasses. You watch silently as he places them next to the spare keys before leaning into your space, eyes dropping closed.

You let your jaw relax in anticipation of his mouth. But you’re surprised when the first thing you feel is the dry press of his lips to your cheek. It’s sweeter than you were expecting, but you’re not complaining. Eventually he makes his way over to your mouth and begins kissing you in earnest. Small pecks transform into languid caresses of his lips over yours. Your tongue comes out to swipe at the seam of his lips and he immediately opens up to let you in, groaning at the feeling of you in his mouth.

He lets a sharp breath leave his nose and surges forward, pressing himself to you as close as he can after having shuffled you even closer so he could lean over you. When you suck on his bottom lip, he lets out a low snarling sound. His hands come down to clamp onto your waist like a warm vice. Carefully, you entangle the fingers of one hand in his hair, while the other smooths down the curve of his broad shoulders. The feeling of the muscles in his back flexing under your hand is a feeling you didn’t realize you could take for granted. But somehow you have because its amazing to have it back.

The two of you make out for a while. Jungkook tastes of dessert wine and cheesecake. Its not necessarily a combination that you find unpleasant, but it reminds you that he just came back from a date. And while he left that date and came straight to you, you still don’t like it. You kiss him harder with the hopes that it’ll take away the remnants of his time out with another girl. A girl who is your friend. He whines and lets you ravage his mouth. Little do you know that each swipe of your tongue against his own has his growing harder in his slacks.

“Wait a minute,” he gasps against your mouth before slowing down a bit by planting small kisses on the hinge of your jaw and the soft skin of your throat.

“Too fast?”

“Yeah.” He chuckles bashfully.

You’re content to let him come back down from his fast-approaching high by sucking lightly on the skin near the collar of your white tshirt. There will probably be some light bruising that you’ll have to cover up if you’re still going out with Yoori tomorrow, but you don’t care about that right now. Instead you’d rather revel in the sensation of Jungkook’s traveling kisses. Though they started at the hollow of your throat, they’ve collected on your clavicle and he’s now trailing them over the fabric of your shirt by your sternum. It’s sweet.

And then its suddenly not so sweet as you feel his heated breaths puff over your nipple.

Obviously, you’re turned on and you’re not wearing a bra because you thought you were going straight to sleep. So its completely understandable why your nipples would be hard, then. What you’re not certain of is what Jungkook is planning. He’s no longer continuously pressing kisses into the shirt and is now sporadically planting them around the stiff peak that is raising your shirt material slightly, just breathing heavily over it. The heat you feel doesn’t do anything to calm you down and instead it has you squirming in his hold.

One of his hands comes up to rest some of his weight on your shoulder, effectively keeping you flat to the bed. A quick glance at him has your breath hitching loudly in your throat. He’s staring intently down at your breast, like he’s trying to make a tough choice. The moment is so thick that you don’t dare move. Not to encourage him nor to inquire what he plans. Instead you lay with bated breath, watching him slowly descend the last few inches. You squeeze your eyes shut milliseconds before his mouth envelopes your covered nipple.

“Oh shit,” you curse quietly.

Despite the thin cotton barrier, you can feel very clearly the hot, wet pressure of his tongue swirling around your nipple. All of the movements so far are experimental, hesitant in their rhythm. He hollows his cheeks softly and sucks and all of the sudden a long, drawn out moan leaves you. It gives him the confidence he needs to take his free hand and pinch at the other side, fingers mimicking the rhythm his mouth is setting over you.

Quickly, though, the shirt becomes unbearable and you get annoyed at the thought that such a stupid barrier exists between you and Jungkook’s mouth. You wriggle resolutely under him until he huffs in annoyance and pulls away to see why you’re interrupting him. When he sees that you’re merely hiking the shirt’s hem up to your armpits and exposing your breasts to him, he hums contentedly. He swoops back in, this time to the other side, and begins laving at the tightened bud. Your hands scrabble for purchase and eventually make their way back to his neck again.

“Jungkook,” you breathe raggedly into the crown of his head.

“Hmm?”

“What’s the—mmh fuck—the occasion for all this?”

He comes up with a slick popping sound, looking up at you with dark and hooded eyes. The sight sends a bolt of arousal to your core.

“Just been wanting to.” With that, he returns to making a mess of your chest.

Somehow, in the series of achingly long minutes that follow, you manage to get his button down and undershirt off. The sight of the smooth planes of his skin make your hands itch to feel him. You try to pull him up so you can have better access, but he won’t budge as he begins to kiss lower once both of your breasts have been thoroughly marked. You give up and try to predict what he’ll do next as he digs his fingers into your waist appreciatively and kisses a ring around your belly button.

He proceeds lower, his destination becoming increasingly obvious as he playfully flicks at the tiny ribbon decorating the front of your panties before halting. Tentatively, he pushes an index finger underneath the elastic lining where your thigh meets groin. You can feel what you suppose is the puff of his breath across the crotch of your panties.

“Can I—”

“No,” you blurt, legs snapping closed. Jungkook scoots back just at the right time to save his head from being crushed. “S-sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.” He runs a hand through his hair nervously. “Do you just…not like it?”

“I’ve actually, uh, never…” you trail off until the words are lost in the mounds of pillows surrounding your head.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that I’ve never really had anyone go down on me before.”

“Really?” His eyebrows shoot up behind his slightly damp bangs. “Not even with Yugyeom?”

You wince at the mention of your ex. Yugyeom had been your first and only boyfriend and you had a good run and even what most would call an amicable breakup. But one of the more bitter moments was the one time you’d attempted to get him to go down on you only for him to wrinkle his nose and tell you ‘he wasn’t into that sort of thing’.

“He just wasn’t interested.”

Jungkook nods understandingly for a minute before his gaze is drawn to the space at the apex of your clenched thighs again.

“Are you? Interested?” His tone is heavy with implication and the way he casually hovers over you while sitting back on his heels just makes you feel tiny.

“I-I mean, I guess I am,” you stutter.

“Okay.” He gets back onto his stomach, hands gently prying your knees apart until there’s enough room to accommodate his broad shoulders. “So can I?”

“Go for it.” Your words come out in a squeak.

“Thanks,” he smiles softly.

You can’t see anything because you’ve thrown an arm over your eyes self-consciously. Normally, these moments between the two of you have your stomach in knots for a different reason, but now you’re just plain nervous. You’re diligent about hygiene and you remind yourself that you just took a shower. But it had just been a normal shower and not a booty-call shower. What if he thought you smelled weird? Or that you tasted weird? For some reason, this felt more intimate than all the times before this where he was merely watching and you were the one doing the work down there.

Jungkook hooks his fingers into the waist band of your underwear, pulling it down with your help when you lift your butt. You bite your lip nervously and lift your arm slightly so you can watch his reaction.

He doesn’t have any sort of adverse reaction once you’re completely bare in front of him, though you suppose he’s familiar enough not to act surprised by anything. But you’re not expecting him to dive in suddenly until he’s less than an inch away from your sticky folds. You shouldn’t be embarrassed that you got turned on from making out, but it’s like everything has flipped and suddenly you know how he felt during those first few times together.

You can’t take the silence anymore. “What is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re so quiet.”

“I’m just trying to decide what to do first.”

“Oh. Sorry I can’t be of service.”

He smiles at how awkward you’re being before moving a tiny bit closer and taking a large inhale. Your eyes widen and you move to clamp your legs closed to shut him out, but he’s ready this time. One hand presses down on your pelvis while the other one presses on your hip, effectively pinning you to the bed.

“Calm down. It’s just me,” he whispers before inhaling deeply once. Twice. Three times more. All the while you can’t help but squirm. But he only increases the pressure of his hands with each antsy wiggle of your hips.

As soon as you decide to be still again, he releases your hip to spread you open with two fingers and presses a gentle kiss to your clit. You nearly jump off the bed at the foreign sensation.

“Jungkook, wait, I—” but you don’t manage to get the words out before he kisses you again.

This time his tongue flicks out to collect some of arousal that’s been steadily collecting despite your nerves. As soon as the flavor spreads on his tongue, he freezes. You wonder for a moment if he’s going to pull back and say he’s made a mistake. But then he surges forward again and begins licking broad stripes across you, catching your clit every so often.

He watches you carefully to gauge your reactions to what he’s doing. Taking in your heated face and dewy skin, he deduces he’s going in the right direction. And when he drags the flat of his tongue over your entrance as if to drink from you, your lip automatically gets stuck between your teeth and your eyes flutter shut. It’s a good series of reactions, but he wants more from you. He wants to get you to do that thing where your back curves up off the mattress or get your hands to scrabble at his arms to ground you while you shake under him.

“Oh god. Right there,” you gasp when he wraps his lips around your clit randomly and sucks.

Jungkook nods resolutely before re-wetting his lips and repeating the action. You moan loudly when his tongue brushes against you in the midst of the suction. Your hand finds its way to the back of his head and presses until the lower half of his face is almost entirely flush with you. You remove your hand almost immediately once you realize what you’re doing.

“Sorry,” you mumble, “I got carried away.”

He pulls back with a wide grin and shining cheeks. “It’s okay. It’s good to know its going well.”

Your hand falls back down to rest tentatively near his head. You watch the shining brown mop of his hair return to bobbing between your legs and feel another rush of arousal gush forth. Even if you couldn’t feel it, Jungkook’s following groan of pleasant surprise and the wet sounds that follow have your eyes rolling to the ceiling partly out of acute pleasure and partly out of disbelief. Why couldn’t your life always be this nice and worry-free?

Jungkook’s gently circling fingers around your entrance have you snapping back to the present. You wonder if tonight is going to continue being a night of firsts when you remember that Jungkook probably hasn’t done much ‘internal’ work.

“Would it be too much?” Even though he doesn’t specify, you know what he’s asking.

“Just go slow.”

You’re already quickly approaching an orgasm, but hopefully this will get you there quicker. You feel almost sluggish with the fiery heat that’s seemingly been spreading from your core to the rest of your body in time with each pulse of his tongue. But when he inserts the first finger, you feel impossibly warmer.

His jaw drops open as your warm heat envelopes his digit immediately in a wet, vice-like grip. He can only imagine what it would feel like if he could be inside you the way he wanted to be, but even that pale phantom grip in the back of his mind is enough to have him bucking into the mattress. He leans in to press lingering kisses to your lower lips while twisting his wrist in matching time. Soon you’re clutching at his shoulders, gripping his hair, kicking your feet anxiously as your high approaches. You can almost taste it and stars are collecting in the corners of your vision as Jungkook continues to lap at your center messily. As if he can read your mind, he withdraws only to enter again with two fingers this time. It’s just enough thickness to stretch you the way you want, but the angle is off.

“Jungkook.”

“Hmm?”

“Bend your fingers back and press up.”

“Like this,” he asks while making some motion, concentration creasing his brows.

You quickly reach down and re-orient his wrist. With great care, he reproduces the motions at the new angle and delights in the fact that you’re now quaking above him. Broken variations of his name tumble from your lips as the waves of your orgasm take over. Your legs kicks out as they characteristically do and so he positions them to hang more safely over his shoulders, despite the fact that your ankles tickle at his sides. He presses a chaste kiss against the skin of your inner thigh and hopes you don’t notice the way he nuzzles into the skin to wipe his face off a bit.

When you’re limp and your breathing has returned back to normal, he crawls over your legs to lay beside you.

“Was that good?”

You turn to face him and take in his sweaty face and pleased expression. You roll your eyes and shove at his chest, but he just grabs your hand and squeezes it before releasing it.

“It was good. But don’t get a big head, you still have to climb back out the window later.”

“Am I banned from the door?”

“I’m still mad you decided it would be a good idea to climb the fire escape when you’d clearly been drinking.”

“Not a lot, though. I was still able to drive.”

“That’s not something you should advertise,” you laugh.

He shifts a little awkwardly next to you and you realize he might not have gotten the same thing you did from eating you out. He notices where your gaze travels and grins shyly, shoving a spare throw pillow over the tent in his slacks.

“Ah, sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. I just wish I wasn’t so tired. Otherwise, I could—”

“Don’t feel like you have to. I was just gonna take care of it myself.”

“Oh. Like, right now?”

“Yeah? If that’s okay.”

“Okay.”

You sit back and watch as he slowly shirks off his dress pants and briefs in one go. His erection springs forward and from the almost angry red flush across the shaft, you figure he must have been pretty uncomfortable. He strokes it absent-mindedly and realizes that he doesn’t have any lube before turning to you.

“You wanna do the honors,” he asks with his palm out. It takes you a while to understand what he’s asking.

“Like, you want me to…?”

“Yeah.”

With all your remaining energy, you attempt to spit into his palm in an attractive manner. You’re not sure if you succeed, because as soon as you’re done he gets to business. The way he moves his hand over his length is rough and fast. Almost as if he’s trying to play catch up; not necessarily with you, but maybe with himself. With whatever thoughts had been plaguing him earlier while you came on his fingers and tongue. His breath leaves him in little punched gasps and the sounds are so pleasing that you lean forward and capture his lips with your own.

You wouldn’t quite call what you’re doing kissing. It’s more like a series of brushes of lips as his erratic hand movements cause him to move in and out of your space. Though he occasionally stops to steal a few kisses, they only seem to egg him on further until he can only touch his forehead to yours while he brings himself over the edge, spilling into his hand.

“Better?” You pull away to grab some wet wipes out of the side table drawer.

“Definitely,” he sighs. “I can put these sheets in the wash before I go, if you want.”

“Oh,” you blink up at him. “You’re leaving?”

“Yeah, I have to get some sleep. I promised Yoori I’d take her to breakfast at Dreamies.”

“Wow. You’re taking her to Dreamies? Are you sure you’re not more serious than you’ve been letting on?”

“It’s not like that,” he laughs stiffly as he tugs on his clothes. “We’re getting food to-go and then going to a butterfly garden.”

“Well, that sounds fun too.”

You can’t help but let out a sigh of relief. Dreamies is the diner you and the rest of the group frequent when you’ve all done too much drinking the night before and need good hangover food. It’s also open 24 hours, so sometimes it’s where you all go when you have nothing better to do or when you just want to have a wholesome time. A lot of good memories have been made in Dreamies, but its always been with the whole group. The idea of Jungkook bringing Yoori there for a private date doesn’t exactly sit well with you. Though it’s not like you can say anything because no one ever did establish that Dreamies was a group space exclusively. And even if someone had, who are you to make demands about where Jungkook and Yoori go out on dates?

Jungkook makes good on his promise and puts your sheets in the wash and even makes your bed while you wait for the washer to stop. He leaves when the dryer cycle finishes, pulling you in by the waist and kissing you deeply before strutting out the door with a flourish.

“I come bearing clothes,” you say as soon as Yoori opens the door.

She’d told you over the phone to bring some things to go out in after bugging you about firming up weekend plans. It still isn’t clear where you’re going, so you have brought a variety of outfits to cover the spectrum of possible events. You figured that you would get ready at her place as soon as you found out where you were going. But when she opens the door with makeup already done and her hair already curled, you’re a bit confused.

“Hello! How are you, my lovely?” She envelopes you tightly in a hug before taking the clothes out of your hands.

“I’m great. I got all excited on the way over because I thought we were gonna glam up together here, but it looks like you already did that.”

“I know,” she grimaces. “It’s just that Jungkook asked me if I wanted to go to the arcade out of the blue after we got brunch and I didn’t know what type of atmosphere that might be, so I just got as ready as possible. And then we went on a drive. We didn’t actually interact with any other humans. I could have worn my PJs.”

“That’s Jungkook for you,” you snort dryly. “So, uh, how was that drive?”

“You don’t have to ask me how our date went. I know it’s awkward to talk about dating your best friend. I’ll spare you.”

“Thank you.”

Yoori hands you a glass of your favorite wine, something she’s been keeping regularly stocked in her wine fridge since you became friends. You toe off your shoes before heading into the living room with her.

“Do you want tonight to be a surprise or do you want me to tell you where we’re going?” She reaches out to play with a loose string on the throw blanket adorning the couch, watching you with wide eyes as you drain your glass.

“Tell me. So I can pick out my outfit accordingly.”

“Okay. Just…promise me you won’t knock it before you try it.”

“I wouldn’t do that unless you said we were going somewhere ridiculous.” You tilt your head with a no nonsense stare. “And we wouldn’t do that, right? We’re not doing anything ridiculous?”

All she does is beam at you before pulling her phone out and scrolling through her photo album until she comes to the right image. She hands you the phone silently, lip bitten in anticipation.

“Hell no,” you say as soon as you see the flyer she’s taken a screenshot of. It’s advertising a Lady’s Night at a club with an open dance floor and drinks at a discounted rate. Immediately you hand the phone back and wish for more wine to magically appear in your glass.

“Please? I feel like it would be so fun, and it’s supposed to be a really great place. Pretty please?”

“Why can’t we just stay in and order Thai? I like your place, you don’t have to take me anywhere.”

“You make us sound like an old married couple. Besides, you never spend your weekends anywhere other than with those boys.” When you give her an unamused stare, she backpedals. “Charming as they are. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all. But don’t you think it would be fun to switch things up? Neither of us go out enough. We’re wasting our youth and beauty.”

“Excuse me. You’re dating my best friend, remember?”

“And by ‘we’, I meant not me.”

You roll your eyes and opt into searching for the wine bottle she used to pour your first drink. It catches your eye across the room where it sits at the long cherry dining table. You move to get up, but Yoori clamps down on your wrist with a pleading expression.

“Please?”

“I don’t want to spend the money.”

“I’ll pay for both our cover charges. Please?”

“The drinks will be shitty and I’ll need to be drunk to enjoy it.”

“We can drink here first and call a cab. Please?”

“I didn’t bring any makeup.”

“You left some over here from last time. Pleeease?”

“But the guys there will—“

“I’ll protect you,” you frown, unconvinced. “Please? I’ll even stay sober the whole night so nothing gets by me.”

“Fine. But only for an hour.”

“What? That’s too short, nothing good can happen in an hour. That’s too unrealistic. Two hours.”

“I’ll give you an hour and a half. After that, we’re coming back here and I’m sleeping over. Deal?”

She considers your conditions for a brief second before finally letting you get up. “You have to let me do your makeup and let me put pictures on my Instagram story.”

“Sure, but that will cost you another 15 minutes.”

Your back is turned to her as you fill up your glass, but you can practically see her writhing with indecision. Schooling your features into neutrality, you turn back to face her, and she straightens up.

“Deal.”

It takes much longer than it should have to get ready, but in the end, that’s a good thing because Yoori had originally wanted to show up to the event on time. Though you don’t get out much, even you know that arriving fashionably late means a better chance at getting there when everything is in full swing. Much better than getting there when there are 10 people in the whole club and no one is having any fun yet.

You let her apply your makeup, but you don’t let her pick your outfit much to Yoori’s chagrin. It doesn’t matter though because you’re no less miserable as she drags you into the bathroom to take a series of selfies.

That’s not to say that you hate selfies or that you never take them. You take them when you’re bored, when you’re texting the group chat, when you’re talking to your mom, when you’re home alone and feeling yourself. Next to Yoori, though, you can’t help but feel a little intimidated. Yoori doesn’t know your angles, Yoori doesn’t know your favorite filters and it’s not something you can just ask someone to change. Specific filters and angles are the bread and butter of anyone’s best selfies, and they’re not easily interchanged for someone else’s. As an engineering student, you can appreciate the complex science that is selfie-taking. And as much as you love Yoori, you don’t want to be the eyesore on her Instagram and cost her followers. Part of you hopes she gets drunk so you can take her phone and delete them later.

But she stays true to her word and doesn’t drink any more after leaving the apartment to go to the club. You stay true to your word as well and toss back another drink as soon as you get there, hoping that it will calm your nerves. In all honesty, you know there’s nothing to be nervous about, but you still order a second drink at the bar immediately after so you have something to do with your hands. You look good and you most likely won’t see any of the people at the club ever again, but you still feel out of place.

“You look terrified,” Yoori whispers in your ear. She’s been watching your expression carefully the whole time and has started to regret bugging you about coming.

“I am.”

“If you want, we can just go home now. I didn’t realize you hated going out this much.”

“It’s not that I hate going out,” you shout over the music. “It’s just that I can never let go off what other people might be thinking about me. And if I can’t do that, I can’t have fun.”

Yoori nods in sympathy. Although, she also doesn’t like the feeling of being scrutinized, she knows you’re coming from a different place. You’ve spoken candidly to her a few times about you feel like the two of you make an odd pairing. She remembers the way you spoke about her, all laudatory words, and then how you spoke about yourself. Yoori wants to compliment you the way you do her, but she knows that certain kind words only act as cold comfort for you.

“What can I do?”

You ponder the question for a bit. You figure, if you can manage to fake having the time of your life for 10 minutes, you can trick yourself into actually having fun for the rest of the night. With that thought, you finish your drink in a few large swallows before grabbing Yoori’s hand.

“Do you wanna dance with me?”

Yoori blinks down at you with wide eyes but nods somewhat shyly. You let her guide you into the throng of dancing bodies. As the song washes over you, you do a simple two-step while you decide what type of vibe to go for. Quickly the song grows on you, and you begin to put more energy into your dancing. At the sight of you enthusiastically swiveling your hips to the beat of the song with a smile on your face, Yoori beams.

The night unfolds like that. You manage to throw away your inhibitions in favor of dancing for hours. Yoori takes a couple videos of you when the right song comes on and puts you into a sexy musical trance. You take turns shooing random guys away who thinking they can casually fist pump their way into your sacred space. A few girls much drunker than you wander over to you and you welcome them with open arms and dance with them for a few songs, but they always float away after a while. Not without Yoori inquiring where their friends are and waiting until said friends come to collect them first, though. All in all, it’s more fun than almost all of your game nights combined. The thought makes you guilty for all of .3 seconds before you remember that none of the guys would ever go out dancing unless it was a means to an end of getting laid.

When the clock strikes 1:30—much later than you had originally promised to stay out—you collect your things and let Yoori guide you once more. This time she leads you outside to get a ride back to her place. She lays her pristine white leather jacket on your sweaty shoulders when she sees you shivering from the drastic temperature change that comes with leaving the balmy dance-floor.

“Tonight was so fun,” you drawl on the way over. Your head lolls onto her shoulder and she smooths the stray strands of hair off your forehead.

“It was. I was worried for a minute that you wouldn’t like it.”

“Mmm, me too. Yoori, this was great.”

“You never say my name.” She gets out of the car first before paying the driver and then goes back in to get you, slinging your arm over her slender shoulders.

“I know. Feels weird if I do.”

“I like it.”

“M’kay.”

As soon as the door opens, you race for the bathroom. One of the prices to pay for a good night out is dealing with a wine bladder and a hangover. The peeing, you could handle. The hangover, though, dwells in the back of your mind ominously as you brush your teeth and hastily remove your makeup. You’re pretty sure you haven’t taken all of it off when your face hits the cushion of the couch, but the couch is leather so you don’t care. Yoori, however, does care.

“Oh, no you don’t. Come here,” she grabs at you until she gets a hold and can walk you the remainder of the way to her room.

“I don’t wanna walk.”

“You don’t want to sleep on the couch either.”

“Where we goin’?”

“To bed, silly.”

You nod and let her escort you there. Immediately, you slide your skirt down and scramble to take off your crop top. As you fumble with your sleep shirt, Yoori respectfully turns away to change into her own pajamas, cheeks burning.

The covers feel pleasantly cool under your hands as you wait for her to finish changing. “Which side d’you want?”

“I usually sleep in the middle, actually. But I can sleep on whichever side you don’t pick tonight.”

“I sleep on this side.”

“Okay,” she nods agreeably.

“Tomorrow, do you wanna get Dream—oh wait. You went already. You probably don’t want it a second time. I’ll just go to Starbucks or something on my way back.”

“N-no! I’d love to go tomorrow. I was hoping to try their waffles at some point, anyway.”

“Okay, great. Goodnight, Yoori.”

“Goodnight,” she says quietly after the lights have been turned off.

Emotionally, the following week is fine, but it’s hard on your body. 

Your hangover takes over your whole Sunday, leaving you to slightly behind on work Monday. It creates a spiral of catching up on work that has you staying up further and further past your bedtime and unable to be as social as you’d like. Yoori lets you know via Snapchat that she misses you but that Jungkook has taken your spot at your usual study table. The two of them look adorable in the little puppy ear filter Yoori’s put over the short video. You watch with mixed feelings as Yoori blows a kiss and then remembers that Jungkook is there and ushers him into blowing a kiss as well. It’s not nearly as enthusiastic and stiffer than the one Yoori sent you but it still sends your heart into a fluttering tizzy.

Friday couldn’t come soon enough. But as soon as you wake up that morning, you feel jittery and off. All your warm clothes are in the hamper, none of them salvageable for one last wear. And all your motivation has been zapped after the week of constant working you just had. Classes prove to be no better despite the fact that they give you time to get out of your head. 

The rest of the day is syrupy, leaving you struggling through it even as you try to go with the flow of the sluggishly passing hours. Normally you aim for productivity, but as soon as your final lecture for the day ends, you find yourself unable to pass time with work. You take a walk through campus and even venture all the way over to the theatre department, on the other side of the common grounds. You try to sit on the frosted benches looking out over the man-made pond students often frequent, but your joggers aren’t prepared for the extreme cold and you realize maybe familiarity, instead of novelty, is what will make the time pass by quicker.

You decide to text Taehyung. His schedule is something that you’ve come to passively memorize after weeks of the information casually floating through past conversations.

You: Im bored

BigBoi: Where r u I’ll pick u up

You: @ Seemond’s pond…

BigBoi: ???

Taehyung arrives not ten minutes later, cheeks flushed with exertion from hustling over. He’s also not at all dressed for the weather, but doesn’t look bothered by it either in his university hoodie and thick knitted scarf. His beaten sneakers crunch loudly on the thin layer of white that’s collected since the last snowfall a few days ago.

“Oh my god, Tae, aren’t you freezing?”

Immediately you approach him and pull the hood laying limply along his shoulder blades over his colored hair. The roots have since started growing in and the color has faded enough to give him more of a coppery rose gold look. It’s a color so many Instagram influencers would have shit themselves over last summer trying to perfect at a professional salon, and here Taehyung stands with it after a bleach-happy accident in his dorm’s communal bathroom sink.

“Not really. I was actually nearby looking for a printer in BPD hall.”

“What for?”

“Financial aid forms,” he sighs. You grimace in sympathy before shirking your oversized black mittens.

“At least put these on if you’re not even going to pretend you checked the weather this morning.”

“What about you?” He gestures to the parts of your bare hands that he can see poking out from the sleeves of your own large puffy jacket.

“I’ll be fine. This has fleece-lined pockets. Meanwhile,” bending over, you peer into the front tummy pocket of his hoodie. “You only have a tootsie roll lining.” You dig your fist into the pocket and pull out the scraps of trash he’d been hiding in there with only mild disgust marring your features. “How do you live like that?”

“Dunno, just do. Maybe it’s because people like you can’t help but throw it out before I get the chance to get sick of it and do it myself.”

“Fair enough.”

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know. I’m cold and I don’t wanna do work.”

“How about a movie marathon?”

“Sure.”

* * *

“This isn’t what I thought you meant when you said movie,” you huff as the black opening credit scene dissolves and a French couple in a black and white colorscape whisper to one another in a moonlit alley.

“You said you didn’t care what we watched.”

“That was under the assumption that I would be able to understand it. There’s not even subtitles.”

“You don’t need them.”

“Yes, I do, because I don’t speak French. And neither do you.”

“That doesn’t really matter. You can read their body language and get all you need to from that.”

You try to fix your stare on the couple who is now running from the police with a pair of bloodied knives in their hands and smiles on their faces.

“This isn’t a horror movie, is it?”

“No,” he trails off suspiciously. When you whip your head to the side to glare at him, he cracks. “What? It’s not! It’s a thriller.”

“Anything that could give me nightmares is a horror movie, Taehyung.”

“It’s not even that scary,” he says right at the moment when the couple is seen carving into a police man’s face with the previously shown knives.

The cinematic effects are gross but clearly dated and if you were a reasonable person, you would find it laughable. But instead the dyed corn syrup dripping off the actor’s face just makes your stomach clench and you grab onto Taehyung’s arm out of disgust and anger.

“Why would you put me through this?”

“To get your mind off of Jungkook,” he says matter-of-factly.

Your mouth drops open when you realize partly that he’s right and partly you haven’t had a single moping thought about Jungkook and Yoori in the near hour it took to pick up snacks from the convenience store and walk over to Taehyung’s place from the pond while avoiding ice patches. It’s honestly a brilliant plan, but you hate him for it at the same time.

“You’re a dick.” You punctuate the statement with a sharp punch to the meat of his shoulder and revel in the bashful look he gives you while rubbing at the spot. “But thank you. If you wanted to get my mind off it, you didn’t have to use horror to do it.”

“True, but my options were limited since, one, I don’t have cable, and two, I don’t want to watch reality tv.”

“We could make fun of shitty rom-coms. That’s a good compromise.”

And that is how you end up watching a slightly watered down knock off of Fifty Shades with the TV remote in hand, rewinding, so you can point out where you can see the camera person’s reflection in the female lead’s pendant necklace.

“That’s a huge oversight. I can’t believe these people walk around like they’ve dedicated their lives to a certain level of craft only to do this”

“I mean, the fact that they used Papyrus font in their online movie poster should have clued you in,” you snort.

Both of you watch as the male lead swims up to his co-star where she stands at the foot of the pool he’s in. The grin he flashes her is blindingly white and his teeth resemble pearls in an unattractively artificial way.

“Why do people think veneers like that look good,” you sigh and shift so you can reach over and play with the faded pink strands of Taehyung’s hair. He leans in unconsciously and shrugs.

“I don’t know. Maybe they think people won’t be able to tell the difference.”

“I suppose that’s fair. But with everything being filmed in high definition these days, there’s less wiggle room for that sort of thing.”

Male lead reaches for the slender ankle of his co-star and tugs her into the pool, soaking her dainty white eyelet dress. When she comes up for air, she pouts for a second before swiping at him and missing. She nearly falls face first back into the water but he reaches out with a condescending laugh and catches her with ease despite what physics would predict to be possible. The moment turns serious quickly as the pair stare into each other’s eyes. You don’t understand how she’s supposed to be the homely girl next door when she’s got what you know are the most expensive mink lash extensions on the market and the most symmetrical, albeit oddly familiar, face you’ve ever seen.

“Wow,” Taehyung scoffs as the actor pulls her in for a heated kiss. “They really think that’s what buildup looks like. It’s fifteen minutes in and we still don’t know his name. And didn’t they just meet for the first time the day before this?”

“Keep up, Tae. Don’t you know all women want in life is to get rawed in the pool of the mystery guy who cut them off in the supermarket 24 hours prior?”

“Ah. That must be why my sex life is so grim.”

“Look at that,” you gesture to the couple that is now stumbling out of the pool and into the man’s perfectly lit mansion in a race to get to the bedroom. “That could be you if you had decided to take your dad’s car this year and cut some random girl off in the parking lot of the Price Chopper.”

“Damn. Would I have his mansion too?” You nod gravely.

“Probably.” You finish plaiting the hair of his sideburns and leave him with a little inflexible pink braid poking out from his temple.

“How’s it look?” He gestures to the side of his head with your handiwork on it.

“You look really great. You might not even need to break the rules of parking etiquette to snag a hot date.”

You both return your attention to the TV only to find the movie couple in a fairly compromising position. The lead actress is bent over the arm of a sofa as the camera ‘artistically’ captures the rapid way the actor drills into her from behind. It catches both of you off guard and a nervous laugh bubbles its way out of you.

“This is ridiculous.” Taehyung rolls his eyes and turns to laugh at the display with you.

“Yeah,” you say half-heartedly.

Even though the movie is horribly done and nothing in its execution per se turns you on, it is Friday. And your body has gotten pretty used to your weekend schedule. Which, up until recently, would have meant that at this hour Taehyung and Hoseok would be out somewhere looking for a place to vape while you helped Jungkook out of his pants at his apartment.

But that’s not what’s happening right now because Jungkook is probably on his way in a rental car to pick Yoori up for their third official date. To the movies. Still, that doesn’t stop your body from revving up more than it should after watching such a stupid romance movie. If you close your eyes, you’re sure you could remember with scary accuracy the feel of Jungkook’s hands on you.

“Hey.” At your awkward silence, Taehyung’s voice lowers and he leans in to tease you, “You’re not actually enjoying this, are you?”

“N-no, of course not.”

He lets out an incredulous laugh. “Holy crap, you are. You’re into this.”

“No, I’m not! Stop!”

“This is hilarious. I can’t believe you like this.” He stares at the screen with a baffled smile on his face, trying to see what could be so appealing about the affected look of arousal on the male lead’s face as he bites his lip with zero finesse. “Is it him?”

“It’s not him,” you scrabble for an answer, “I-it’s the actress.” At that his eyes widen and he looks at you like he’s seeing you for the first time. “I mean, I recognize her from a porno, that’s all.”

“No way,” he says before studying the woman’s face. When the actor pulls tightly on her ponytail and forces a whining moan out of her, his eyes light up with recognition. “Wait, yeah, you’re right.”

“Told you.”

“Hold on. You watch porn?” You roll your eyes.

“Yeah, I watch porn. Sometimes I need some visual stimuli too. And she’s been in a few of them.”

“Hmm,” he says finally, “Never would have thought you’d like her stuff.”

“You say that like you’ve thought about what I’d watch.”

“Well, you’re just so—“

A sharp sound comes from near the front door as Hoseok barges in hurriedly, nearly falling and spilling the grocery bags in his hands. He places them on the small table outside the entrance to the tiny kitchenette.

“Tae, I tried calling you like 5 different times about getting the door. Why didn’t you pick up your...phone,” Hoseok trails off as he takes in the fact that you’re in Taehyung’s apartment, very early to the Friday game night, seated very close to Taehyung with a flaming cheeks on the couch while what looks like soft-core porn plays in the background.

“My phone must have died from the cold. Bro, I’m really sor—“

“What the hell are you two doing,” he sneers.

“We were just watching a movie,” you pipe in when you sense a weird shift in the mood.

Obviously, you’re closer to Jungkook than you are to Taehyung or Hoseok, but you really don’t understand the strange energy in the room. Hoseok looks angrier than he should about Taehyung not helping him with carrying some snacks and Taehyung looks overly imploring. Perhaps this is just how they are when they’re annoyed, but it still strikes you as odd even from a slightly distant perspective. When no one says anything you get up slowly, like you would around wild animals in a territory death match, and move towards Hoseok to help him with the food.

“Here, I’ll help you put these away,” you say quietly with a soft hand on his back to get him to break his cold glare. “Don’t be mad at Tae, he didn’t do anything.”

The glare is only slightly softened as he turns to you, jaw clenched. “Well, what about you?”

“What are you talking about?”

The genuine confusion on your face seems to dissolve whatever’s left of the sudden rage that filled him, and he breaks down and lets you take the bags he’s still holding from him. While your back is turned, Hoseok looks suspiciously over at Taehyung, who is still staring back with large, nervous eyes.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly when you finish unpacking the first bag of chips and come over to him to take the next one.

“Whatever,” you huff good-naturedly. “As long as you leave me out of your little lovers’ quarrel, I’m fine. Go make up, I’ll finish with these.”

You watch Hoseok amble over to Taehyung and begin whispering frantically before they finally come to some sort of agreement and hug it out.

When you come back to the couch, Hoseok has taken your spot next to Taehyung and has man-spread all over the rest of the free space. Even the back of the couch is claimed by his outstretched arms. Both of them stop their whispered conversation and turn to see why you’re hovering.

“What’s up,” Hoseok inquires suspiciously.

“Are we gonna do anything tonight? I could be in bed right now, but instead I’m here.”

“We have to pick the game first. My vote is for poker.”

“No poker. You still owe me like 80 bucks from last time you thought you could bluff,” Taehyung crosses his arms in a huff.

“That’s in the past, I’m a new man now. This Hoseok doesn’t owe you anything.”

“You’re an ass.” Taehyung springs to the side and quickly locks Hoseok in a sloppy headlock.

You watch them struggle on the couch in mild interest until Taehyung loses his footing and Hoseok’s wiggling underneath him pitches them both onto the floor. Someone’s head hits the coffee table on the way down, and you wince in sympathy, but they carry on like nothing happened.

The idea of letting them tire themselves out seems appealing at first but when Hoseok sinks his teeth into Taehyung’s hoodie-clad bicep and draws out a yelp, you intervene as neutrally as possible.

“Why don’t we just start with Gin Rummy?”

“Okay.” Hoseok drops Taehyung’s arm from his mouth, suddenly content.

You give him a wide berth and wait until after he goes into the kitchen to hunt for a deck of cards to offer Taehyung a helping hand up off the ground. He doesn’t make eye contact with you as you make your way over to the table, so you can’t silently grill him.

“How many is it? 5 per person,” Hoseok asks while shuffling the cards.

Small Styrofoam bowls are neatly laid out across the center of the table, each one filled with the chips from earlier. You perch in the chair next to Hoseok so you’re close to the Cheetos.

“It’s 7, I think.”

“Cool,” is all he says before handing you your cards.

You go around the table for a few rounds, placing cards down that you don’t need, picking up cards that you do and the occasional chip. Halfway through the first round, Taehyung gets up to turn off the fluorescents and turn on the fairy lights Hoseok won’t stop teasing him for having. You sync your phone up to his speaker and play music in the background and revel in the fact that you’re getting back into the swing of having fun with them. Without Jungkook.

“You still got beer, right?” Hoseok doesn’t look up from his cards since he’s very close to winning the round and he needs only 1 more card.

“Yeah,” you say, slapping down another card. “We picked some up at the convenience store. I’ll go get a pack for the table.”

“Thanks. I think I’m gonna call out for food too. What do you guys want?”

“I want pancakes,” Taehyung smiles brightly at the prospect of something other than the sad deli meats in his fridge.

Opening the door to his fridge leaves you confused. “You have stuff for pancakes.”

“Yeah, but I have to cook it,” he pouts at you through the window in the kitchen wall.

“It’s your turn,” Hosoek informs you.

You load up with supplies for making pancakes and head over to the table to distribute the ingredients amongst yourselves. Taehyung cracks eggs when it’s not his turn, Hoseok levels out the dry ingredients. You’re pouring milk into a bowl when one of your favorite songs from high school starts blaring through the speakers.

“Oh shit! Do you guys remember when this came out?”

“They played it at my homecoming dance,” Hoseok grimaces at the memory while you gyrate and mix the ingredients in a large bowl. “And then they played it on the radio for, like, 3 months straight afterwards. It was fucking annoying.”

“Yeah, but it’s been so long now. It’s good again. Come on, get up.” You pass Taehyung the bowl and creep towards Hoseok.

“What are you doing?” He smiles up at you like you’re crazy. You lace your fingers together and pull him out of his chair.

“What does it look like? I’m making you dance with me.”

“But you can’t dance, though.”

“Don’t ruin the fun,” you whine.

At first he doesn’t dance with you. He just continues to stand and lets you mouth the words at him and occasionally wave your hands in his face or pinch his cheeks when the lyrics get good. He even lets you bump hips with him and pretend to grind on him from behind.

Despite himself, your good mood is infectious and when you scamper back in front of him for the chorus, he surprises you by taking you into waltz position. It doesn’t fit the song, but it’s funny because you end up doing a bouncy-looking two step that resembles a sped-up prom dance. Taehyung hoots supportively from where he stands in the kitchen, melting butter on the stove.

Hoseok bends you over into a theatrical dip, causing you to let out a shrieking laugh and clutch at him so he doesn’t drop you. The song ends, but he jokingly holds the pose until your thighs are burning and you’re yelling for him to pull you back up. The front door clicks open while you bicker lightly.

“Look who decided to show up,” Hoseok drawls and finally brings you back up slowly, so you don’t get a head rush.

You blink away the stars that were starting to form in the corners of your eyes and realize Jungkook is, in fact, back from his date. At 9:43, no less. With Yoori in tow.

In your opinion, it’s much too early for someone to be back from date night with the long-time love of their life, but you can’t bring yourself to say anything. Instead you fiddle with the hem of your sweater nervously. Something about Yoori and Jungkook being present in the same room makes you a bit anxious. Perhaps its because it makes your policy about stopping your weekly rendezvous until things get physically serious between the two of them seem very flimsy.

Yoori and Jungkook are both clearly tipsy. You can tell from the way Jungkook hangs himself off her petite frame like he’s looking for support. You roll your eyes and go over to wrestle him from her and waddle him over to the dining room table where he can sit.

“How was your date,” you turn to Yoori who is hovering behind you with sleepy eyes.

“It was alright. The movie was a little boring,” she stage-whispers into your ear. “Don’t tell Kook.”

“You didn’t like the movie?” His head lolls back so he can look up at Yoori with doe eyes. Disappointment makes them look extra round and shiny.

She raises her brows guiltily. “I thought the new superhero movie would have been more your speed. I didn’t mind the idea of seeing it. I like action films.”

“Oh.”

You scamper out of the dining area as fast as you can to join Hoseok and Taehyung in the kitchen. The awkward couple moment they’re having isn’t something you think you should be privy to anyway.

Taehyung chuckles at the mortified expression on your face while Hoseok’s considers you stoically.

“Are they being too mushy in there?”

“No, not really.” You sigh. “It’s just weird realizing that I’ve never really been around them when they’re together. I don’t like the idea that I can’t get a read on the situation when they’re both good friends, you know?”

Hoseok snorts dryly. “Well, you know what they say. Dating changes people.”

“Yeah, but this is Kook we’re talking about,” Taehyung murmurs while stirring the hidden flour patches at the bottom of the bowl back into the batter. “Do you really think he’s changed that much?”

You shrug. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe you’ve changed,” Hoseok suggests.

And maybe you have. Not in the normal way, where you outgrow people. But maybe something about you has changed since you started being intimate with Jungkook in such a way where you can’t be just his gaming buddy or his companionable silence partner. Gone are the days where you could push down your infatuation long enough to sit pressed close to each other on the couch when the Iron Man movie series is marathoning on TV. You’re not sure if that’s made things easier or harder on you. Perhaps its been a little bit of both.

“What are you guys up to?”

Jungkook has managed to amble over to the kitchen while staying upright thanks to Yoori’s guiding hands. Now he’s peering into the entrance of the kitchen after the way you, Taehyung, and Hoseok whispering to one another piqued his interest. Yoori lays on the sofa, recovering from too many glasses of complimentary movie chardonnay.

You keep your head down and pretend watching Taehyung ladle batter onto the griddle is fascinating enough not to reply. Thoughts of whether or not something crucial has shifted occupy your mind too much for you to speak.

“Just playing cards and making pancakes,” Taehyung shouts over the crackling sound of the first pancake hitting the hot skillet.

“The usual,” Hoseok jokes before pitching his voice into a slyer register. “How was the date?”

“It was fine,” Jungkook answers shyly, eyes glued to your silent form. The button down he’s wearing suddenly feels too tight and he undoes the top button to give himself some air. “How was your night?”

“Here, I’ll take over,” you mumble.

You take the spatula from Taehyung’s hand and motion for the guys to leave  the kitchen while you flip the pancakes. It’ll give you something to do, and Taehyung’s thoughtful enough to go without asking questions. They don’t move far and instead Hosoek and Taehyung crowd Jungkook just outside the kitchen doorframe. Hopefully none of them notice how you turn the heat down so you can listen better. A masochistic part of you is curious to know how the date went even if you’re not sure if you can face him without combusting.

“Come on, tell us what happened. It’s just us guys,” Hoseok hisses before remembering that you’re you and you’re probably listening. Suddenly he feels like a douche. “We’re all friends,” he corrects himself. Jungkook, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be aware of your eavesdropping and complies.

“I…what do you wanna know?”

“Where’d you go?”

“To the movies. To see Cloud Break.”

Taehyung whistles lowly. “That’s supposed to be the number one date movie of the year.”

“It was very romantic,” Jungkook cracks a small, shy smile. “But I don’t think she really liked it.”

“Stil. Sounds like our boy is a real Casanova, huh?” Hoseok pats him roughly on the back with a wide grin. “The movies, though. Did you make it to third base?”

“Jeez, don’t sound so excited when you ask that,” Taehyung says with a cringe.

“What? I just wanna know if he’s any closer to swiping that V card. So,” Hoseok turns to stare, “Did you?”

“We’re taking it slow,” is all Jungkook says, eyes shifting behind the guys, towards you.

“Pancakes are ready,” you call from the kitchen. You figure it’s safe for you go back out, so you load a plate up with a tall stack and turn the stove off. Yoori’s head pops up at the sound of fresh food and hops up to come join you.

After you put the plate down, you wait until everyone is seated. Oddly enough, Jungkook and Yoori both sit on either side of the head of the table, leaving you to sit in between them.

“Thanks for cooking,” Jungkook mutters as soon as you sit down.

“No need to thank me. I’m just doing my part to have a fun Friday,” you answer awkwardly.

“These look better than the ones at Dreamies,” Yoori beams over at you. She cuts her pancakes happily before shoving a large, syrup-laden bite in her mouth. She gives you a cute thumbs up that breaks your serious mood for a moment.

You give her a warm squeeze on the shoulder. “Thanks for the high praise.”

“So, uh, what else have you guys been doing,” Jungkook inquires politely.

“Well,” Hoseok mentions nonchalantly through a full mouth, gesturing towards you. “I caught these two watching porn earlier when I came in with groceries. And this one couldn’t keep her hands off me after that.”

“Oh.” Jungkook’s cheeks start to heat as he looks between you and Hoseok and then you and Taehyung.

You almost choke on your own food as Hoseok’s words register. “That is so inaccurate. How are you so comfortable lying like that?”

“Is it not the truth? Kook, you even saw her when you came in. Seems like she’s a real minx when she gets going. Who knew all it took was Fifty Shades.”

Taehyung tries to come to your rescue. “We weren’t even watching Fifty Shades—”

“So, it was actual porn,” Hoseok’s eyes narrow at him suspiciously.

“Oh my god,” you raise your hands in surrender and then push your plate back. “I can’t do this. I’m freezing and you’re annoying. Tae, I’m stealing some clothes. Yoori, you look cold. I’ll bring you something too.” You storm out of the dining room and make a beeline for Taehyung’s room. 

While you were used to Hoseok’s ribbing, today you were extra sensitive to it and you needed some air. But you are actually cold, so you do spend a few minutes rummaging through Taehyung’s immaculate wardrobe until you find a sweater that has you smiling widely at the memories it evokes.

“I can’t believe you still have this,” you remark with arms out to showcase the sweater when you come back. The four of them all turn to see the sweater you’re wearing.

It’s a run-of-the-mill sweater until you look at the picture that’s been screen-printed onto the front. It’s a picture of you and Taehyung in your freshman year that was taken minutes after the annual Mud Run. It had been a split-second decision the two of you made after a terrible set of midterms, but the smiles on both of your slightly rounder and muddied faces don’t indicate any inkling of regret. You give Yoori the only cashmere you could find that wasn’t on the floor.

“Of course he still has it,” Hoseok smiles proudly, “I put my blood, sweat, and tears into making it. And I was there to take the fricking picture at the end of the race at 9 am on a Saturday. Do you not still have yours?”

“Sadly no. I lost mine when I moved into the sophomore dorms.”

“I wish I had been there to watch the race. I should have stayed on campus,” Jungkook chimes in, cheeks full of pancake.

“Yeah,” Hoseok counters, “But if you had stayed, you wouldn’t have ever gotten Yoori’s number in the first place. So, it all worked out in the end, right?”

Suddenly, you’re not hungry and the lively mood that the night started with has disappeared. Taehyung must sense the subtle downward shift in your shoulders and runs to get the bottle of wine Hoseok bought for you that’s been chilling in the fridge.

“Why don’t we play another game,” he suggests once he’s back at the table and filling your glass.

Yoori perks up. “That’s a great idea! Let’s play something old-school. Do you have any board games?”

“I don’t think either of us has played a board game since before 2010. Much less owned one,” Jungkook winces.

“Really? Well, it doesn’t have to be a board game. Why don’t we do another old-fashioned one. Like Charades.”

Hoseok places his head in his hands elegantly, face the picture of innocence. But you know better.

“Yoori, how do you feel about Truth or Dare?” You squeeze your eyes shut and hope she says she’s never heard of it. Or that she hates it.

“I love Truth or Dare! Let’s play once everyone’s done eating.”

You curse under your breath, but return her excited smile when she turns to you and fills your cup once more. As a safety precaution, you finish the single pancake you’d served yourself earlier before taking another sip. Its not that you’re hungry, but you’d rather not be drinking on a completely empty stomach.

When everyone has had their fill of food, new bottles of booze get taken with you to the living room. There, you all rearrange the couch and the various upholstered chairs that Taehyung has collected until everyone is seated comfortably. Taehyung sits down last because he was in his room searching for his trusted 20 sided die.

“Okay, who’s who?”

“I call 3’s,” Hoseok calls with a hand raised straight in the air.

“No way,” you huff, “You’ll have way too many chances to be It. Pick multiples of at least four or I’m banning you from playing.”

“You can’t ban me from playing. Tae, can she ban me from playing?”

“I’m gonna go ahead and say yeah,” Taehyung says casually. You smile at Hosoek smugly.

“Fine. I pick 5’s.”

“I’ll take 3’s,” Yoori says once she understands the rules you all are operating under. No one goes to argue against her.

“I call even primes,” you say. You’re really not interested in playing this game.

Hoseok rolls his eyes at you. “Why even play if you’re gonna be like that?”

“You’re both wrong,” Taehyun grins. “Odd primes is where it’s at.”

“I guess I’ll take leftovers,” Jungkook sighs. He’s equally unenthused to be playing, but mainly because every previous time he’s played the game, Taehyung has dared him to smack Hoseok’s ass as hard as possible. It never ends well. “What is that? 3, 4, 5, 8 and what else?”

“14 through 16,” you supply automatically.

“Wow,” Yoori coos and latches onto your arm. “You’re so smart.”

“Alright! If everyone has a number, let’s play,” Hoseok shouts.

In the first few rolls, Taehyung and Yoori get the majority of the turns. Yoori is kind and sticks with truths for the most part, forcing Taehyung to bring up the strawberry shaped birthmark on his ass and Jungkook to talk about how he still doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Things pick up a bit when Hoseok manages a roll and Taehyung makes the mistake of choosing Dare. In response, Hoseok tells Taehyung to pull down his pants and show everyone the birthmark. You and Yoori exchange wide glances and giggle quietly as Taehyung downs the rest of his drink for some liquid courage.

“Taehyung,” Yoori giggles behind your hand as you attempt to cover her eyes. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t feel comfortable.”

“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” he grumbles before turning to face away from the group. He tugs his pants and boxers down a few inches before the pert curve of his butt. There, just south of the equator on the globe of his ass lies a very strawberry-shaped birthmark.

Immediately, Yoori chokes on her drink trying, and failing, to stifle her laughter at the pure ridiculousness of the mark. Meanwhile, you aren’t doing much better.

You pull your lip between your teeth as you hold back the cackle you desperately wish to let out. Instead, you opt for reaching out and pinching at the nearest cheek. The way he jumps slightly out of your reach while cupping his junk and glaring weakly at you sends you over the edge.

“Not bad,” Yoori snorts out between giggles.

“Yeah, wait a minute.” You gasp. “You have a cute little ass, Tae. I thought you said you didn’t have time for the gym.”

Taehyung’s face flushes, but he still smiles a self-depricating smile as he pulls up his pants finally. “I don’t. This baby is 100% homegrown.”

“I see. Must be all the tater tots,” you say with tears nearly rolling down your cheeks.

“And all the La-Z boy sitting.”

“Nice.”

Jungkook huffs audibly. He crosses his arms as he watches the game unfold, suddenly infinitely less interested in playing than he was a few minutes ago. “This is stupid.”

“Are you not having fun?”

He turns to Yoori quickly while remembering that he’s seated next to her. His own cheeks color with a bit of shame that he’d been caught being petulant.

“It’s not that. I mean…I just thought this would be a bit more mature.”

Yoori cocks her head to the side to appraise him and takes a sip of wine. “Is Truth or Dare known for its sophisticated gameplay?” A reserved and unreadable smile tugs at the corner of her lips.

“Not really,” he stammers. “I just figured you wouldn’t be interested in immature stuff like this.”

“Hmm. I’m actually having quite a lot of fun. Don’t worry about me and loosen up.”

Jungkook swallows roughly and mentally chides himself for being weird. Even he’s not sure where the pouting spell came from. Regardless, he smothers down the party pooper vibes and tries to enjoy the game as best he can.

Taehyung rolls a 10 and pouts at not be able to get back at Yoori. After all the laughter and the handful of swipes she’d made at his birthmark, he’s eager to pay her back somehow. But all he can do is turn to Hoseok with a bored expression.

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare. Do you worst!” Hoseok sits excitedly at the edge of his seat while waiting for Taehyung to come up with a juicy truth or dare.

“Uh, I don’t know, bro. I dare you to do, like, 30 pushups or something.”

“That’s such a shitty dare.”

“I couldn’t think of anything. I was hoping Yoori would roll so I could give her a taste of her own medicine,” he says while locking eyes with Yoori. The two engage in a semi-serious staring competition for a while before they break into laughter.

“This is bullshit,” Hoseok mumbles as he rises from his chair and gets into position to do the pushups.

The room is quiet while everyone waits for him to finish. Sound of his exertion floats over from his section of the circle and you swipe through your twitter feed in the meantime. But you become so engrossed in a recipe for spinach dip that you don’t realize Hoseok has rolled a 2 and is calling out to you.

“What,” you say, distracted by the amount of leafy greens going into the dip.

“Put your phone away,” Hoseok whines, “It’s game night rules.”

You don’t look up from your screen. “Doesn’t count when we’re not playing video games.”

“You suck.”

“So do you.”

“Truth or dare.”

“Dare,” you say on autopilot before realizing the mistake you’ve made.

You let your phone clatter to the ground and prepare to take back what you said, but you can see that its too late from the smirk Hoseok is wearing. It’s the worst kind, too. The smarmy one that lets you know he’s thinking about doing something greasy. You’re willing to bet all the money left in your student account balance that he’s going to dare you to show him your boobs.

“Dare you to kiss Yoori,” he says smugly, like he’s got you cornered.

You’re only slightly surprised and let out a breath of relief. The idea that he might dare you to shed your layers to sit in Taehyung’s freezing living room in just your bra and bottoms was really worrying you.

“Really, Hoseok? What are we, 13?”

Taehyung chimes in with concern. “Yeah. They might not be comfortable with that.”

“I’m fine with it,” Yoori perks up slightly in her seat.

“Okay,” Taehyung hesitates, “But Jungkook—”

“Might not approve of it? Why don’t we ask him,” she supplies before turning to Jungkook. “Kook, what do you think?”

“Well, I—”

“Why the hell would he care,” Hoseok cuts him off. “Dude, you don’t care, right? It’s harmless and its 2018.”

“Y-yeah, I guess.” He pushes his glasses up with his ring finger, a nervous tick you’re familiar with. Your first instinct is to go over and see what’s wrong, but you quell the urge. 

“Holy shit,” Hoseok mumbles to himself when he realizes this is really happening. You get up to join Yoori in the love seat she’s occupying. Before you can change your minds he speaks up. “No pecks. It has to be real.”

“Figured as much,” you roll your eyes and gesture for Yoori to scooch closer to you. She sends you a smile that’s hidden from the others by the shiny curtain of her hair. You mirror it back automatically.

“For 60 seconds,” Hoseok shouts. Yoori’s eyes widen at the time condition but she doesn’t say anything.

“That’s too much.”

“30 seconds, but you have to use tongue.”

“Hoseok!” You and Taehyung yell simultaneously.

“Fine,” he says before thinking for a beat. “45 seconds but no lame stuff. Final offer.”

You check in with Yoori to see if she objects, but she merely rests her cheek on your shoulder and gives you a thumbs up.

“Deal, you damn pervert.”

Hoseok scrambles to get his phone timer launched while you and Yoori arrange yourselves accordingly once and then a second time when Hoseok says he can’t see. You whisper an apology on his behalf, but Yoori waves it off and pulls you in with a gentle hand resting at the base of your neck. You can’t help but notice that even from a few inches away, her skin is flawless. Its almost unfair.

“Alright. Start.”

Yoori swoops in and immediately parts your lips with her own. They’re soft and taste like the moscato she’s been drinking, and it’s honestly a very tantalizing sensory experience. You let her take over, let her press you closer until her nose brushes your cheek and she sucks your lip into her mouth. It takes you by surprise and when you gasp softly, she teases the border of your lips with her tongue ever so lightly. You let out an appreciative hum, surprising yourself. She smiles, nearly breaking the kiss, before nipping at you once. Tentatively, you brush your tongue against hers. She surges forward and works over your mouth until the soft chiming of Hoseok’s alarm alerts you that the dare has been completed.

You pull away first with hot cheeks and a slightly swollen mouth. Yoori looks pleased with herself as she looks over your flustered state. Neither of you see any of the guys’ shocked, wistful expressions. Yoori moves to smooth down the flyaways she created when she pressed you into the seat’s upholstery.

“You kiss just like Jungkook,” she laughs before pulling away slightly. The others murmur in the background as they strain to listen in.

“Wait, what?” Her words are slow to register at first. “You guys have kissed?”

“Yeah. Loads of times,” she snickers, “On the way to the restaurant, in the parking lot of Dreamies, in the back of his car. My apartment. We’ve even—” She takes in the mortified look on your face and grimaces. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I know you don’t like to hear about this stuff. I’ll stop.”

You make mental note of all the occasions she’s mentioned. One of which was their first date. But just yesterday Jungkook had told you that they hadn’t even started holding hands as a couple. And while he hadn’t made a comment about anything else, the implication behind the statement was that they definitely hadn’t done anything more than that. Something about his more daring behavior struck you as unusual. But if he’d been getting other practice elsewhere, it wouldn’t be odd at all.

He had lied to you. And you wonder what else he’d been lying about.

When you turn around to face Jungkook, he looks pale and scared. You’ve only ever seen him look like that a handful of times and it was when he was in deep shit and it was his own fault. During those times, you’d somehow managed to show him why he was wrong while also making him feel supported. This time, though, there was no way you could do that. Not without throwing away what little dignity you have left from getting into this heinous arrangement in the first place.

Taehyung, Yoori, and Hoseok look on silently as you and Jungkook exchange the long look. Jungkook’s chest rises and falls rapidly as adrenaline runs through his system. When you stand up, he stands up at the same time, a hand instinctively reaching out.

You ignore him in favor of grabbing your things without a word and pulling up the bus schedule app on your phone. You’re not going to force yourself to wait around for an uber to pick you up, but you’re also not going to subject yourself to further torture by walking home in the middle of winter. Once you see that the next bus is coming in 20 minutes, you put on your jacket.

“I’m heading out. I’ll see you guys around.” You wince as your voice cracks a little bit, but don’t bother lingering to see if people noticed. You hurry out with the hopes that you can find a place to hide and wait for the bus before Jungkook can follow you out. He calls your name, softly at first, but you don’t acknowledge him.

But you don’t get any further than a few meters away down Taehyung’s hallway before Jungkook’s catching up after having sprinted out after you.

“Jungkook, stop,” is all you can trust yourself to say as you stare at your shoes.

“I can explain.”

“Fine.” You look up at him, gaze sharp. “Explain.”

He seems taken aback like he didn’t think you’d let him speak. His demeanor turns sheepish. “I didn’t mean to lie to you. It just...happened.”

“Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that? You made a choice, Jungkook. It didn’t just happen. I want to know why you chose to lie.”

“I just…wasn’t ready for the weekends to stop.”

“Look, I get it. You got used to getting your rocks off. But we had a deal. It shouldn’t have mattered that you didn’t want it to end. As soon as you and Yoori got physical, we were supposed to go back to normal.”

“That’s not why I decided to lie,” he hisses.

“Then why did you?”

“Because!”

“Because?” You scoff. “That’s not an answer.”

“Because I,” he stammers, not sure of what to  to say. “I didn’t feel comfortable detailing mine and Yoori’s intimacy to you.”

“You didn’t feel comfortable?” Your voice is carefully low, but raises as you continue. “You didn’t feel comfortable telling me, the girl who has been your best friend since we were kids, about you and your new girlfriend? The girl who you had spit into your palm yesterday so you could jerk off in her bed yesterday? You didn’t feel fucking uncomfortable then, Jungkook!”

“Well, you’re always talking about my comfort. Shouldn’t it matter when I’m uncomfortable? Even if its at a weird time?”

“Fine. Let’s say you were uncomfortable. You still should have told me.”

“Why is it your business?”

Your jaw drops open. “Maybe because yours and Yoori’s relationship is the reason this whole thing started? And maybe because if you’re going to be running between the two of us and swapping bodily fluids, I should know? For my own fucking health?”

He stammers when he realizes that reason never came to mind once. Its a losing argument, he knows. As a last ditch effort, he turns things around.

“Is that the only reason why you’re mad? Because you think I would have given you an STD?”

“Are you serious,” your voice cracks again as tears take hold of you. “You think that’s all I care about?”

“You haven’t made any other points,” Jungkook sniffs like he’s indifferent to your shimmering eyes. “What else am I supposed to think? Is there something else?”

“I can’t believe someone so smart can be so stupid. You really don’t get it? I can’t keep sneaking around with you like this because you’re dating a girl who’s my friend now. But even if she weren’t, I can’t keep doing this because I have feelings—”

The front door opens and Hoseok slides through and closes it softly. He takes in your bowed shoulders, watery eyes, and shaking hands before pinning Jungkook with a glare that’s so potent he steps back a bit.

“You okay,” he nods his chin at you subtly.

“Y-yeah, Hobi. I’m fine. Me and Kook were just talking.”

“Just talking, huh?”

“Hoseok,” Jungkook grits through clenched teeth, anxious for you to continue what you were about to say. “Go back inside. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Oh, I think it does. I mean, she’s my friend and you’ve been screwing her over figuratively and literally for the past month now, haven’t you?”

Your eyes widen and tears of embarrassment slip over your waterline. “You knew?”

“Of fucking course, I knew. You were walking around like you were suddenly getting laid and Kook was showing up to TA sessions with hickies on his neck the week after we made a joke about you taking his V card off his hands. All at the same time that you magically have to start staying over after game night at his place for tutoring,” he spits the word out. “You’re the smartest girl I know. There’s no way you actually have that much to learn from Kook of all people.”

“Oh, come on,” Jungkook drawls and steps in between you and Hosoek. “Don’t pretend to care about her now.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re always picking fights with her. You don’t care what’s going here, you’re just trying to feed the flames.”

“Kook, stop,” you rasp from behind him, but he ignores you and shoves a hand into the center of Hoseok’s chest.

“Say more,” Hoseok smiles darkly, egging him on. The two of them stand inches apart, each one poised to attack the other at a moment’s notice.

“You’ve been itching to see things fall apart for me because you can’t handle being the oldest and the least accomplished in the group.” You try not to gasp but it’s hard because you’ve never heard him say something so nasty to anyone, let alone to someone you would both call a friend. “You’re just mad that your…your indifferent stoner, beta cool guy act hasn’t paid off and you’re still alone with your hand on the weekends. I can tell when someone wants what I have. You’re like every other stupid bully from high school, but with none of the popularity.”

Your mouth drops open, but you can’t find any words to stop the situation from escalating any further. Jungkook smirks at his silence. But Hoseok merely raises a casual eyebrow before turning to look down at you from over Jungkook’s shoulder.

“If you wanted sex that badly, you could have just come to me, you know. Offer still stands now, too.”

Before you can counter anything either of them has said, Jungkook’s fist collides with Hoseok’s jaw. The sound resonates in the empty hallway with a loud crunching sound followed by Hoseok tumbling to the floor and Jungkook yowling in pain at his damaged knuckles. Jungkook automatically turns to you, grimacing and cradling his hand, but you swerve past him to check on Hoseok.

He’s still very much conscious, but the blow took him by surprise and he lost his balance. There’s a little bit of blood when Jungkook’s fist split the skin on the side of Hoseok’s jawline and you can tell already that there will be swelling and bruising. But he should be fine and he doesn’t show any of the signs of concussion that you remember reading about a while ago.

You pull him up by the hand and sling his arm over your shoulder when he stumbles once upright. Together you hobble back into the apartment. Taehyung and Yoori are sitting stiffly at the dining room table when you come in and both rush forward to help you. Jungkook shuffles in after, at a loss for what’s going on.

Wrapping a bag of frozen vegetables from Taehyung’s freezer in a dish towel, you tend to Hoseok’s minor wounds. Taehyung looks tired and frantic as he looks at his friend in pain.

“I don’t get it. What happened out there?”

You hang your head in shame and to avoid both Taehyung and Hoseok’s watchful gazes. Thankfully Hoseok doesn’t say anything, but you’re so embarrassed and disoriented that nothing satisfying comes out.

“They were fighting. And Jungkook punched him.”

“But why would he do that? Hoseok, did you say something?”

“Don’t blame Hobi, he was trying to help me,” you whisper so Yoori can’t hear. You’re not sure you can handle breaking the news to everyone just yet. “Tae, I haven’t been honest with you a while now. Things have been going on between me and Kook and it hasn’t been right. All I can say is that I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t fix anything, but its been eating me up.” 

Jungkook watches as Yoori stands off to the side, looking lost and a little out of place as she tries to parse out where the boundaries for her are. She looks between you and him with uncertainty in her eyes before she finally comes over to check in with him first. He waves her off and watches her naturally gravitate towards you.

When Yoori comes asking you what’s happened with worry in her eyes, you look back at Jungkook for a moment before bawling your eyes out in the middle of the kitchen. Yoori envelopes you in a hug immediately, and you let her comfort you despite the fact that you’ve been secretly highjacking her relationship. Sobs wrack your body for a moment before your phone chimes to let you know your bus is coming soon.

You whisper in her ear that you’re sorry and you’ll explain when it’s the right time. You squeeze her soft hands to your cheek and stutter out that you don’t deserve a friend like her, but that you hope you can remedy that sooner rather than later. With that, you whisper a goodbye and head out, giving Jungkook a wide berth.

He turns around just in time for him to catch one last glimpse of you before the door swings shut behind you.

[thewritewolf]

Eating Habits Chapter 9: Warmth

The incoming chill of late fall might be making Paris cold, but the love of friends and family keeps Adrien and Marinette warm. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (Final)

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3. 

The letters in front of Marinette swam as she tried to focus on them, her laptop screen getting blurry intermittently as she blinked away the gnawing tiredness at the edges of her mind. Between her exhaustion and the lingering after effects of her cold from last week, she was having an awful time studying. Maybe she should have tried getting back onto a regular sleep schedule, but there was too much to do after being bed ridden for a few days.

Thankfully, there was the power of energy drinks to save her. The caffeine was probably the only reason she was even still awake right now. Not that being conscious was a huge help if she couldn’t process what she was reading. After a few more minutes of unsuccessfully staring at her screen, she sighed and leaned forward, rubbing her forehead.

Once she wasn’t hyper focused on her work, her attention drifted to a conversation from a couple boys at another table. They weren’t very loud since they were all in the campus library, but she could still hear them pretty clearly. Without meaning to, she listened in.

“...Crazy, right?”

“Man, you’re super lucky. That would’ve been just the thing to make calculus less dull.”

“What? Haven’t you had a class where that Agreste kid just waltz in with a boxed lunch?”

Marinette froze. They couldn’t be talking about…?

“He’s been in so many frickin’ classes but of course he doesn’t show up to any of mine.”

“Bummer, dude. It’s pretty hilarious, and kinda cute.”

“Well, he was a model. Or is he still one? That was pretty ambiguous-”

“No! I mean he brings the lunches for his girlfriend.”

“Aw, that’s sweet. Feel bad for his girlfriend though. Must be a little embarrassing, ya know?”

Meanwhile, Marinette buried her scarlet face in her laptop, being careful to keep it between her and the two boys while they kept talking. Maybe it would be worth eating proper meals just to keep Adrien from these over the top antics.

Despite her embarrassment, Marinette’s stomach growled treacherously at the thought of his boxed lunches. She wondered where he was right now...

------------------

“Geez, dude, can’t even go easy on me for a minute, huh?” Nino threw his control down in faux anger. “Have I even one a single match yet?”

“Hm…” Adrien tapped his chin as he pretended to give it some thought. “Well, you did beat up my character when I went to the bathroom. Does that count?” Adrien ducked out of the way of a playful punch aimed at his arm. “Ooo, too slow, turtle boy.”

“God, you’re such a smug dick,” Nino said with a grin. “Can’t believe I ever thought you were an innocent homeschooled boy.” He leaned back, settling his controller on his lap. “How’d you even get so rockin’ at this game?’ His eyes narrowed and he pointed a figure into Adrien’s face. “And you’d better not say ‘natural talent’ or I’ll send M that clip of you drunkenly crying to that one Inuyasha scene.”

“We’re all friends here, shelly, no need to pull out the big guns.” Smirking, Adrien held his hands up in surrender and shrugged. “Well, you know how Marinette is into the Mecha Strike series. Ever since we started dating, every time a new title would come out, I’d get it for her. Then we’d play it a ton. Early on, it was after dates, but after I moved in, we’d stay up late and fight into the early morning.”

“Sounds like you were having a ton of fun,” Nino said with a small smile. “You ever actually win any of those matches?”

“Hell no. Why do you think I like playing against you so much? I got years of pent-up frustration to take out.” They shared a laugh. Adrien stared wistfully into space. “But yeah. It was like a sleepover every night with the person I cared the most about.”

“Harsh, dude.”

“Hey, you’re a close second! And that’s saying something since she’s literally the love of my life and light of my heart.”

“...Yeah, I can see how you two and your over-the-top ideas of love mesh together.” Nino snapped his fingers. “Speaking of crazy acts of love! Weren’t you making tons of trips to M’s university? What happened with that?”

To his surprise, Adrien blushed and he rubbed the back of his neck. “About that… Turns out, doing it once is cute. Two or three times is adorable, but getting annoying. But apparently two meals a day for three weeks - minus her sick break - is crossing a line.”

“Bummer. So she chewed you out?”

“If by ‘she’ you mean ‘all of Marinette’s professors’ then yes.” Adrien sighed dramatically. “Now I’ve been banned from interrupting all her classes, at least for the semester.”

Nino laughed at a pouting Adrien. “Uncool of them, but I get it. Can’t have some stray cat runnin’ around, getting everyone all riled up.”

“Anyway… at least she got a few weeks worth of regular meals out of it. I just wish it could have gone on for a little longer.”

“It is what it is, big cat. You did what you could and that’s what’s important.” He pulled out his cellphone and started composing a text.

“Who are you talking to?” Adrien craned his neck over, shamelessly reading over Nino’s shoulder.

Nino leaned away from his prying eyes. “It ain’t for nosy cats, that’s for sure. If you gotta know, its for my babe. She’ll think you getting banned is hilarious, and I gotta be the one that tells her.”

“Oh sure, laugh at my pain.”

“That’s the plan, dude.”

Adrien shook his head, but there was a glimmer of mirth in his eyes. He stood up and walked to the kitchen, leaving Nino to send his message in peace.

-------------------

A few days later, the apartment was quiet once again. Nobody had come over to visit, which was more the norm for his life. On some level, the stillness bothered him, like there was something missing. Or maybe it was just because it was harder to distract himself if there wasn’t any noise or energy in the house.

Either way, today Adrien didn’t mind as much since the solitude would make this a little easier. He didn’t want word of his plan to leak out before he was ready or else Marinette might catch wind of it and clam up. Which wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Marinette herself.

Adrien hung up the phone and took a seat at his kitchen table. Normally at this hour it would be covered in fresh ingredients for whatever he was planning on making that day. But where chopped vegetables usually sat was instead advertisements and a few bank statements. The latter was probably unnecessary - he knew without looking that’d he’d have enough for what he was planning. But it was reassuring to see, at least.

Knowing Marinette, it was good to have as many loose ends tied up as possible, and leave nothing to chance. He loved her to pieces, but she could work herself into an anxious lather if he let her.

“Are you sure this will work out?” Adrien worried at his lip as he sightlessly looked over the papers.

“Listen, kid,” Plagg said as he gnawed at a wedge of cheese. “You want to help her, right? And she isn’t budging despite everything you’ve done so far, yeah?”

“Yes…”

“Then trust me. I’ve known more than a few Ladybugs in my day and most of them are way too stubborn for their own good. And we both know Pigtails hasn’t bucked that tradition in the slightest.”

“I know, but… it’s a big step. Shouldn’t we talk it out as a couple?”

“Maybe. And I’ll grant that Pigtails is a great planner.” Plagg gulped down the last hunk of his cheese, letting out a satisfied sigh once it hit his stomach. He shook his head and looked back at Adrien. “But she’s also her own worst enemy. If it isn’t urgent, she’ll just plan and plan and plan forever without actually doing anything.”

Adrien smirked, remembering the times Marinette had shared - after some help from a bottle of wine - some of her more… creative plans to confess her love to him. At least, until he beat her to it. Maybe Plagg had a point.

“We can always plan together later,” Adrien said with a nod. “I just need to make sure she doesn’t reject it out of hand.”

“That’s the spirit, kid. Now, onto the important matters - where’s my second dinner?”

-----------------

Tonight was their anniversary, a chilly December day, and Adrien wanted to make sure everything was perfect. He’d gotten permission to leave the bakery early. Probably way earlier than he’d needed to, but Tom and Sabine had insisted that he take the whole afternoon off. Especially Tom, Adrien remembered with a smile, who could barely hold back the tears as he waved Adrien off.

A quick stop at the market for fresh ingredients and Adrien was home.

As much as he had wanted to go out to a fancy restaurant or do something special with her, he knew that the best way to spoil her now - after the semester she’d been having - would be a nice relaxing night at his apartment, eating a home cooked meal and cuddling in front of the television.

And by all the kwami was she going to get the best meal and the most snuggly cuddles he could possibly make. She deserved nothing less.

He became a man possessed, putting all those cooking classes to good use as he crafted the greatest lasagna he could make. While that was cooking in the oven, he began gathering all the softest blankets and pillows he could find and stacking them on his couch. Half the fun of a pillow fort was making it with someone else, but he knew she’d rather be able to collapse into it as soon as she got there.

It was just as he placed the finishing touches on the fort that he heard a knock at the door before it swung open.

When his eyes met hers, a big grin spread across his face as his heart raced. She wasn’t even a step inside before he’d rushed across the room and swept her up in a hug, holding her off the ground with his arms just below her waist.

She laughed as she pressed her hands against his shoulders for support. “At least let me put my stuff down first, you ridiculous man!”

He simply grinned up at her, eyes sparkling with happiness as he slowly let her down just enough to put them face level. He kissed the corner of her mouth and whispered:

“Happy anniversary, bugaboo.”

[missmage52]

Excerpt from “Dreaming of a Liar: Kokichi Ouma x Reader” (slight NSFW)

I’ve been writing a fanfiction on wattpad, and this is an excerpt from chapter four that I’m proud of. It’s a Kokichi Ouma x Reader (female). 

Basically Monokuma has gone to the good side and brings all the Danganronpa Characters (from the main three games plus Komaru, excluding Twogami and seperating Hajime Hinata and Izuru Kamakura into seperate entities) and puts them all in one class, but doesn’t hold a killing game for once! 

But in order to have a perfect 50 student total, he needs one more student. So he takes a person from the real world and brings them into the class to learn alongside the students! But it’s while your sleeping, so when you meet an interesting supreme leader, is it really reality, or just a dream?

There’s a specific scene that gets a little NSFW, I’ll give you a heads up when it comes.

I also tried my best to make Kokichi canon as possible, so let me know if I did a good job or if I didn’t.

So, enjoy!

*^*^*^*^*

I followed this Alter Ego hologram along with the rest of the students, as we were instructed to by Monokuma. Of course the one who didn't leave my side was Kokichi.

"Sooooo," Kokichi put his hands behind his head as he walked, which I imagined couldn't be too comfortable. "You mentioned back there that you've never been in a killing game. Like, ever. Is that true?"

"Well, most kids my age aren't put in a killing game," I shrugged. "Can't help but feel bad for the others, though."

"Actually, it's not that bad," Kokichi said matter-of-factly. "Well, for me at least. Nishishi~!"

I rolled my (E/C) eyes. "Oh come on," I scoffed. "There had to be some point where you were scared shitless."

"Scared shitless about what, exactly?"

I stared at Kokichi, dumbfounded. How could he act like being in a killing game wasn't a big deal?! A person would have to be a complete sociopath to act so nonchalant about something so serious and terrifying! I paused, clearing my throat to regain my composure. "W-Well, I don't know, dying?"

Kokichi snickered. "Pfft! Come on, really? Dying? Gee, you are a hoot!" He

"I'm serious!" I remarked, bewildered. "Almost every human being is afraid of what lies beyond death! It's the greatest mystery known to man-!"

He put a finger to my lips. "Notice how you said almost every human being. I am not like most humans, heck, I might not even be human, you never know," He smirked, the glint in his amethyst eyes filled with mischief. "Besides, I was a victim. I said so in my introduction earlier. Squished to death. I already know what lies beyond the grave, Ms. (Y/N), believe me." He hissed into my ear, making me shiver.

"R-Really?" I stuttered, now a bit uneasy. "Is that s-so..."

"Yep!" His attitude perked right back up. "After all, I was revived. Heck, I could even tell you all about it if you wanted, though it's gonna cost you an arm and a leg!"

"But you didn't know what death was like before you died, Kokichi," I glanced up at him, staring into his eyes. "You don't seem like the type of person who is always fearless. In fact, it seems you hide many fears, including death itself," This time, it was my turn to smirk. "Though I'm not one to assume."

Kokichi's face turned pink, sweat starting to roll down his face. He glanced down at the floor, not meeting my gaze. "Well, I never expected something like that to come out of you..." His voice trailed off. "You're certainly something, aren't you?"

"Same goes for you," I responded. He blinkd at me. "You have some good acting skills, but then again, I can't expect anything less from a liar."

"Wooow, you caught on that quickly?" He started to pout, his expression changing like a remote changing the TV channel. "Bummer, I thought I could mess with you for a bit. You aren't so bad yourself, with acting. Kinda caught me a little off-guard there. You suurree you're just a transfer student?"

"I'm sure," I insisted. "I'm not really good at anything specific, skill or anything like that."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire~!" He singed. "You're good at acting, so just take the damn compliment!"

"If you say so..." I whistled shifting my attention to Alter Ego, who stopped at a doorway.

"Right now, we are in the main building on campus. This is where you gather for meals, classes, and special events that take place in the school. Most of the classrooms are unoccupied, so that gives many students a chance to start clubs and hold small get-togethers," The hologram started to elaborate. "Where we just gathered is the gymnasium, which is where most school-wide events and gym classes take place. Right down the hall is the stairwell up to the third floor, which is where most of you came from in pairs of two or three. We have around thirty empty classrooms here."

"Across from the gymnasium is the cafeteria, which will open it's doors along with the gym at seven am. It will close at ten pm. On weekends, it will be closed, and students can only ask permission to use it from the principal and or faculty. From the cafeteria, you can access the kitchen, pantry, and walk-in fridge, but only after three pm to ten pm. Breakfast and lunch will be prepared by the MonoLadies, but dinner must be prepared by the students. The kitchen staff also has access to the greenhouse using a second stairwell located in the kitchen."

As we entered the cafeteria, I couldn't help but marvel at the amount of tables were set up. And just a simple glance at the lunch line made my mouth start to salivate at the thought of so much food.

"Now, right outside the cafeteria are you lockers, which you will store your belongs temporarily. You are allowed to decorate the inside of your lockers however you please, but all personal items must be removed from them before the end of the day. Your monopad serves as your combination and lock. Your monopad will unlock your corresponding locker. Other students can leave you messages, and you can even post reminders and other messages."

I took out my monopad and hit the tab that was labeled Locker. It showed me a map of where it was located, which was the farthest away from the cafeteria door. Easy to remember, but the worst access to food. It had an inbox, which read zero messages, and a calender with bullitins to add on. As other students went to find and test out their new lockers, I went up to mine. As soon as I approached it and held the monopad up to where the lock should be, there was a click and I was able to swing the door right open.

There was shelves to put books and other supplies, hooks to hang up bags and coats, and on the back of the door a digital calender. "Sweet." I remarked.

"I wonder if you can play games on this thing..." The girl who introduced herself as Chiaki said earlier. I glanced over at the locker besides me, and it seems she was my locker neighbor. "Probably not..."

"That would be pretty cool, though." I admitted, grabbing her attention. She gave me a small smile, and I returned the kind gesture.

"If you'll follow me, please," Alter Ego gathered up the students once more. "To the right of the lockers is where you'll find the Fitness Center, where there is multiple work out machines. It's doors open at six am, but you can only access it before seven with a pass from the principal or faculty. It closes at nine pm. Right across from there is where the bathrooms and locker rooms are, as well as the second entrance to the gymnasium. The lockerooms and bathrooms can only be accessed using your monopad, to make sure you aren't going into the wrong one. To the other gender, it is locked. They open at six am and close at ten pm. Like the fitness center, you can only access the lockerooms if you have a pass administered by the principal or faculty."

"Do we have lockers in there like the ones we have at the entrance?" A boy by the name of Kazuichi asked.

"Yes, indeed," Alter Ego responded. "Now, follow me up to the second floor."

We followed Alter Ego back around near the gym entrance and up the set of stairs at the end of the hallway. And the strangest design was that to our right was the greenhouse. The entire wall was glass looking in. The greenhouse was filled with all sorts of plants, flowers, harvestables, you name it. There was even a picnic table in there. "To our right is the greenhouse, which is where we grow our food and many other flora. Students are also allowed to eat and spend time in there, but only with permission from the faculty. Unless students are part of our gardening club, which will open up soon."

I pondered the thought of spending time with Kokichi in the greenhouse. It would be a nice place, but there would be too much stimulation for our noses in there. I didn't know if Kokichi had a flower allergy or not. So the greenhouse was off the list.

Alter Ego lead us down the hallway to a more open space with couches and nice places to sit, with a big entrance labeled Library straight ahead. "This is an area where students can study and interact with each other with a more greater volume," The hologramed A.I. explained. "And down the hall to your right is the multimedia center, where there is printers and computers and other technology. I will give you a few minutes to explore these two areas before we re-group."

I instantly went inside the library. That was my go-to. Growing up with my brother, since we never really had much form of entertainment, would go to the library and read all sorts of books together. Some of my favorite authors were J. K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket, and Stephen King. There were dozens upon dozens of shelves towering above me. There were long tables with reading lamps, a cozy fireplace with large plush-looking armchairs and loveseats. To top it off, one of the walls were completely glass, letting natural light into the room, casting a heavenly glow onto the books. I couldn't stop myself from gawking.

"Wow, you a bookworm or something?" Kokichi came up from behind me. "You seem a little out of it..."

"I read plenty of books when growing up, so I'm practically in heaven," I breathed. I turned to Kokichi, which by the look of his expression was amused by me nerding-out. "This would be the perfect place to hang out!"

"I dunno, libraries kinda make me uneasy..." His voice trailed off. "Ever since Rantaro died in one, they kinda just are sorta creepy to me nowadays..."

I frowned, realizing I was making him uncomfortable. "Oh, I'm sorry Kokichi, I didn't mean-"

"Juuuust kidding~!" He winked. "Libraries just aren't my style, y'know?"

"Liar..." I mumbled.

"That's what I am!" Kokichi beamed with pride. He then grabbed my wrist. "C'mon, let's go check out the multimedia center!" He then started running, dragging me along with him, out of the library and down the hall, where a handful of other students were.

When we entered, the first thing I made note of was the amount of computers there were. Plenty of them, all lined up in five rows of eight. Along the windows were tables with 3D printers and regular printers set up. At the front of the room was a big screen, which I assumed was gonna be used for displaying videos and power points.

"Not gonna lie, I thought it would be more exciting," Kokichi heaved a sigh of disapointment. "All the nerds here must be over the moon, though."

"I think it's a bit over-the-top for a high school computer room," I whistled. "I'm kinda impressed that they have so many resources here. But then again, it's a school for gifted teenagers..."

"When are we gonna go to the next area?" Kokichi examined his hand in what I assumed out of boredom.

"I don't know," I shrugged, longing to explore the library more. "I'm gonna go back to the library." I told Kokichi as I started to make my way back to the room filled with books.

"Well wait for me, idiot." Kokichi sped up so he could besides me.

"I thought libraries weren't your style," I raised an eyebrow at him. "Or was that another lie?"

"Well, you never know if there's a secret room in the library," Kokichi flashed me a mischeivious smile. "Or better yet something even cooler!"

"You make a good point there, Kokichi." I nodded in his direction as I continued my way through the library doors.

(At this point it becomes a bit NSFW)

As I scanned the shelves in the different sections, Kokichi dawdled behind. It was kinda weird, though. He was just staring behind me, as if he was scanning me up and down. Not really observing, but something else...

"What'cha doing back there, Kokichi?" I looked back at him. He was leaning against a shelf, just staring at me."

"Nothing much," He shrugged, smirking. "Just enjoying the view, that's all~..."

I blinked, furrowing my brow. "Of what, exactly?"

"Whaaaaattttt~? You seriously don't know...?" Kokichi came up to me and backed me up into another shelf. He propped his hand against it, leaning into me. "...I'm looking at a snack~..." His voice became low and husky.

I stared at him. "I don't have food on me, Kokichi," I told him. I then paused in consideration. "I would like to have some, though. If I did I would share it with you, if that's what your essentially asking me."

"Nishishi~!" He chuckled. "Oh no, you are sorely mistaken! It's all over you..."

(Becomes SFW once again)

"Do I got a mustard stain on my shirt or something?"

"Kokichi, stop it!!" A voice then came from down the aisle. I turned my head to see the blonde girl that was next to me during everyone's introductions and a guy with cyan-colored hair and thick lower eyelashes. The command came from the male, who was pointing right at Kokichi.

"Shuichi!!" Kokichi seemed to bounce right back at the sight of the cyan-haired male and charged right at him, arms outstretched to give him a hug. The guy then froze up, and was tackled to the ground by Kokichi. "I missed you sooooooo much!!"

"K-Kokichi, get off of me!!" The guy stuttered, struggling to get the smaller male off of him.

The blonde girl came up to me, her eyes filled with concern. "Are you okay? It looked like Kokichi had you pinned against the shelf, there." She asked, pointing to the shelf.

"I'm good- Ah, Katie, was it?" I scrunched up my face trying to remember the girl's name."

"Kaede," The girl corrected me with a bright smile. "Kaede Akamatsu."

"Right, sorry," I quickly apologized. "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine, thanks for asking," I turned my attention towards Kokichi, who was straddling the poor guy at this point. "Uh, Kokichi, I think you should get off him now."

"Awwwww..." He whined, pouting. "Okay, then!" He then jumped right back on his feet, letting the man stand up. Kokichi then skipped back besides me

"Kokichi, what the hell were you doing to this poor girl?!" The guy scolded as he brushed off his black and grey stripped blazer. "I mean, pinning her down, what were you thinking?!"

"Who are you, again?" I pointed at the guy. "Sorry, there was so many introductions I can hardly remember the all."

"Shuichi Saihara," The guy reintroduced himself, giving me a small smile. "Ultimate Detective."

"Nice to meet you, Shuichi," I smiled back. "Same for you, Kaede," I nodded to Kaede. "But uh- no, it's totally fine. He just thought I had food on me and asked for some, it's all good."

"Pffffttthahahahahaha!!" Kokichi doubled over and went out into complete hysteria, clutching his sides and slapping his knees. "Ohmygod you're so stupid!! Hahahahaaaaaa!!" He wheezed.

"How?" I stared down at him in confusion. "You we're looking at me, I asked why, you said you were looking at a snack, I said I didn't have food on me, then you said it was all over me, and then you tackled Shuichi. I don't see why I'm the stupid one here, because you're the one that insisted that I had food on me which I clearly don't." I gestured to my clothes to show the lack of crumbs and stains.

"U-Um, that's- ah..." Shuichi's voice started to crack, him covering his mouth while he looked down at the floor, clearing avoiding my gaze.

"I think what Kokichi was trying to call you was- um..." Kaede's voice trailed off, uneasiness in her voice. "...s-sexually appealing."

"Oh," I blinked, turning my attention back to Kokichi. "Um, thanks for the compliment?"

"I was just messing with 'ya," Kokichi waved it off with a hand, him catching his breath. "I would never think of you like that, let alone perv on 'ya," He reassured me, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Oh my god, that was priceless!" He sighed.

"For you, that is. It's just confusing for me," I shrugged. "I've never really been the type of gal to think about that kind of stuff, so I don't know sex terms or the meaning of when someone calls another person a snack."

"Then toying with you is gonna be more difficult then I thought," Kokichi started to bite his thumbnail, muttering. Then he quickly put his hands resting on the back his head. "Ah well, I'll figure out something. For now, I gotta make sure that filthy cum dumpster doesn't taint your innocent mind~!"

"I'm not that innocent, I'm aware about sex. I just know little to nothing about it..." My voice trailed off at the end. "Also, what's a cum dumpster?"

"Don't ask." Shuichi shook his head.

"Why that loud filthy pig during the introductions, of course!" Kokichi exclaimed, his tone matter-of-factly. "You must stay away from her at all costs, 'ya hear me? She's an absolute slut that will tell you all the terms about sex, and you're too innocent to be taught those awful things!"

"Your treating me like child," I pointed out. And at this point I felt like one, though Kokichi was only a smidge taller than me. "I'm sixteen years old, I can make my own decisions. And I can remember her name no prob, her introduction was the one that was the most out there. Miu Iruma, Ultimate Inventor."

"It's not very nice to call Miu such vulgar names, Kokichi," Kaede informed the violet-eyed boy. "She probably doesn't enjoy the names you give her, either."

"She probably likes it when she's hooking up with someone," Kokichi shrugged. "So I don't see why I can't call her names."

"I think a more polite way to describe Miu is that she's sexually active," I suggested. "Besides, she seems to be brimming with self confidence."

"Well yeah, same thing..." Kokichi muttered, suddenly gaining some attitude. "And that's not self-confidence, it's narcissism." He quickly added on.

"You can't exactly be one to talk, Kokichi," Shuichi pipped up. "You can be a bit full of yourself sometimes."

"Yeah but not as often as Miu, and I'm leaving it at that." Kokichi folded his arms across his chest, leaving us all in an awkward silence.

*^*^*^*^*

Like what you see and wanna read the whole thing? Link is right here!:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/215117714-dreaming-of-a-liar-kokichi-ouma-x-reader

[sarahinzhuhai-blog]

Week 3--gettin sick as heck in zhongguo

Before I get started, one thing about the competition on Sunday from last weeks post: one thing that really bothered me was that people were just talking/generally being loud as people played during the competition. While mostly this felt wrong to me, it was very funny when someone played Old MacDonald and a group of kids started singing along. ///////// Okay, now for week 3. Oh boy, week 3 was a LOT, so buckle up. // Last Sunday night as I was blogging, I felt the beginnings of a cough and decided to ignore it and stay up late. MISTAKE. I woke up Monday morning feeling very ~~toasty~~ and generally like garbage, pushed myself to go to school (my mom drove me), and got there very early. Since my host family didn't have a thermometer at home, Queen Isabel said we could check at school... After falling asleep in one of the chairs on the second floor, Isabel and later Sihong came. To my surprise, Sihong whipped out a mercury thermometer (!) that you put in your armpit (!!) for five minutes...that was definitely a new experience. I muddled through class, slept through every break, had some dumplings for lunch and quickly slept again until afternoon class. Afternoon class was 谁是卧底 (Who is the spy?) again (yay!!), then I went home and went directly to sleep. // Tuesday morning was worse. Now don't worry, I'm not just gonna keep talking about being sick...Tuesday morning is where the story gets spicy. My moms conclusion from feeling my forehead was that I definitely had a fever, but I went to school to check with the thermometer. After another hour long nap upstairs (which got very awkward when a random group of guys assembled for no apparent reason, we looked at each other, said no words, and then they left), the thermometer confirmed that I definitely did have a fever and we decided to go to the clinic on campus! Yay! // The clinic was nothing like any doctor I've been to in America. It was in a small house-looking building on campus, and definitely nothing like the sterile environments I'm used to seeing in the states--open windows, mosquitoes, etc. Also, while the doctor was asking me questions (and by asking questions, I mean asking questions at me as I blankly stared back until Sihong or Isabel helped me), she was also seeing another patient--a police officer with high blood pressure who she was telling to stop smoking/drinking but who kept insisting that he could just take medicine. After consulting with the doctor (nurse? I have no idea), she said they wanted to do some blood tests. Oh boy, blood tests! This was actually really cool because they have a machine that tests almost immediately (I got the results within 5 minutes) for a certain set of bacterial infections. Some fun and notable differences: Instead of drawing from the arm, they drew from the hand. Also they used iodine to disinfect, and I got to use a ~fun qtip thing~ to stop the bleeding afterwards. The final verdict: I didn't have any scary disease, just a nasty cold. They prescribed me an antiviral and some traditional medicine (a powder to mix with hot water and drink) and sent me on my way. Isabel accompanied me home (I would describe that trip as her being very productive and me being very sweaty and completely out of it) and I spent the rest of the day sleeping. // On Wednesday, Isabel gave me permission to sleep as late as I could, so I woke up around 7, got ready slowly and was late to school. I made it through morning classes and lunch, but by lunch I was feeling pretty exhausted again and I decided to go home to rest instead of pushing through afternoon classes and culture class, the reason being that on Thursday we had a trip to Shenzhen! I went home, got some much needed rest, and almost forgot to pack for Shenzhen. At one point (around 10pm), my parents were talking pretty loudly and I had to ask them if they could be more quiet. I felt really rude for asking that, but I also really needed to sleep, so I apologized in the morning. Also, the TCM tea was not as bad as everyone said it would be. // Thursday morning, I headed to school to meet up for the Shenzhen trip. I was hittin the squat pot every thirty minutes and still coughing a ton, but that wasn't going to stop me. We met at the bus stop, and after a trip to the canteen bathroom that I will never forget, we headed to the train station. We took some sort of fast rail (sorry, I only know the Chinese name), first to Guangzhou, and then to Shenzhen after a ~30 minute layover. The Guangzhou station was very impressive, both terms of size and number of people. Fun train station activities: 1) almost falling in the gap at the Tangjia station; 2) watching Anthony order one drink at the Guangzhou Starbucks and receive a very different one. Both trains were very, very nice; the first train had me seated next to some random guy, so I mostly napped when the baby in our car wasn't crying, but I was next to Isabel on train 2, so I talked a bit with her and ate some of Garrett's snacks (thanks Garrett). Before I knew it, we had arrived in Shenzhen. // The first thing we did was eat lunch at the station inside this huge food court. Maya and I had some really good soup dumplings (my first time trying soup dumplings and my fifth time eating dumplings in four days) and fruit. When we sat down to eat, we repelled whoever was sitting at the table too. After lunch, we took the metro to another area of town and headed to the hotel. The first thing we saw after getting above ground were these huge pink buildings and lots of skyscrapers. Definitely a different vibe from Zhuhai or my own town. After getting to the hotel, we spent a while waiting downstairs for rooms to finish getting cleaned. Our group is always very lively, and that day was no exception, so the wait definitely wasn't boring. Eventually, the rooms were ready and they sent us off to rest for thirty minutes. Lexi and I headed upstairs to check it out. // The hotel was definitely an experience. Like many hotels here that say the room is non-smoking, our room was very smoky, but the weirdest thing was that the bathroom wasn't its own room, it was in this outcropping of glass (apparently other rooms weren't like this?). After figuring out what was going on and checking out some of the more questionable items that were on sale in the room, Lexi and I bopped to some kpop before heading downstairs. // After our group reconvened, we headed off to this building called "Book City" and were split into groups. My group was Tully, Abigale, Josh, David and I, with Sihong as our leader. Our group was very divided [@ yk/Hannah the congruency levels were a bit small] as to what we wanted to do: some wanted to go shopping, some said they really didn't like art museums while I would have liked to see one, some wanted to make the trek to the PingAn Financial Center while others didn't think it was worth the effort. We decided to first check out the Shenzhen museum. On the way over, we got a chance to see a lot of really cool buildings, as we were passing through what appeared to be Shenzhen's cultural center; the concert hall was very neat, and I was very impressed by city hall. City hall was a gigantic metal building with a swooping yellow and red roof and a gap in the middle that framed some of the city behind it and the Chinese flag. I'll post pictures when I get the chance to upload them from my camera. Abigale also slipped in a mystery puddle, which is never good. // After arriving at the museum, I learned that Shenzhen has a very interesting history: it is the fourth largest city in China by population, but almost all of its development took place in the last 35 years, as it was turned into a special economic zone where a lot of government regulations over trade/economic ~affairs~ were lifted. Between the museums signs and Sihong answering my questions, I was able to learn quite a bit, but I would have liked to spend more time there; we only checked out one exhibit in the three floor museum. However, it seemed like my group members were ready to go, so after some discussion, we headed back to Book City. // We decided to spend an hour in Book City, and I have to say, shopping is usually boring but that was definitely not the case at 书城。Besides a gigantic bookstore and music store, they sold everything from milk tea to wooden toys to instruments. Josh and I spent the majority of our time perusing the books, the music offerings, and playing some of the instruments at the music store (as well as tuning others）. We also found a dinosaur egg to take pictures in that was 100% intended for little kids, but that didn't stop us. After meeting up with the group again, we decided to go walking around and check out some more of the neat places in Shenzhen. // At first, we stayed close to Book City. We checked out some of the nearby buildings and went back to city hall. In the space in the middle of city hall, there were lots of people; some were practicing some sort of performance, others just hanging out. [Side note: The use of public spaces here is so different from America; here, I see people on the street and meeting with friends at all hours, and ladies dancing in the squares....in America, at least in my hometown, I don't think I've ever seen something like that. Anyways, back to Shenzhen.] While we passed through city hall, a group of kids came up and talked to us. After realizing I could speak enough Chinese to talk to them, they immediately began asking lots of questions, wanting to know where I was from, how old I was, why I came here, how I got here, etc. They were all very nice and excited to talk, and we took some pictures together before my group headed off. // While some of us were okay with staying relatively close by, a couple kids really wanted to go check out PingAn, since it is one of the tallest buildings in the world and has an observation deck that is almost as high as the one in the Burj Khalifa. First, we agreed to head in that direction, but eventually we just ended up going all the way over. On the way, we saw the Shenzhen stock exchange, which was a very imposing black building. There were several really cool statues around it, designed by a famous artist who designed the Beijing 2008 Olympics logo. Then we continued on our way to the financial tower. // The tower was, as expected, gigantic. I had to look at an almost 90 degree angle to see the top, and when the wind moved the clouds around it, it felt like the tower was moving. We couldn't stand too close to the building (the security officer kept having to tell us not to do things), and the observation deck wasn't open, but it was still a sight to see. // Then it was time for the trek back to Book City to meet the other groups. Long story short, we went the wrong way, started to correct our mistake, then got lazy because we had walked 7+ miles that day and ran across 8 lanes of traffic instead of finding an underpass or crosswalk...when in China. // After dinner, we went outside and did a little bit of 广场舞，which translates to "square dancing" and refers to the groups of people (typically older ladies) who dance in parks and squares in the morning and night. This particular group, however, was going hard and doing all sorts of aerobic stuff, so I was lowkey exhausted. After a few minutes of that, we went back into Book City and watched a bunch of kids singing. I have to say, our group was probably the most supportive of the performers, but we also got a lot of attention ourselves...throughout all of our time at book city, I caught several people taking pictures of us (at this point, instead of ignoring it I do a peace sign so they know I saw). // After watching a couple acts, it was time to go on a "hike" to the top of this hill/mountain. My group joked that while the mountain had looked like a hill this morning, after our walking adventure it looked like Mt Everest. As we walked up the stone steps, Maya and I were the caboose of the group, also known as the feeling-sick-and-trying-not-to-drop-crew. But we made it up, and it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see all the city lights, and it was overwhelming to think that all of that development happened in just a few decades. There was also a pretty big statue of Deng XiaoPing (the guy who took over after Mao and is responsible for the Shenzhen development). There were also bats, which I've never seen. We took a picture and some of the other people on the mountain also took out their cameras to take a picture of us as we posed... // We also had a mini birthday party for Zack and Maggie on the top of the mountain. We got yelled at the police officers because we were definitely not supposed to have flames up there, and someone commented that it's not really a complete trip to China unless you get in an encounter with the police (hmm). Anyways, no real trouble was had and we continued with our festivities under the watchful eyes of the officers. Now, for this next bit, you need some context. Here, a lot of guys (particularly older guys who have a bit of a belly) will pull up their shirts over their stomach because it helps to keep cool. Queen Isabel told us that her study abroad group one year had taken to calling this the 北京肚子(běijīngdùzi，aka the Beijing Stomach or Beijing Belly if you like alliteration)...well, our group found this hilarious so we adopted the name. There's also a phrase, 小鲜肉，which literally means small/young fresh meat, and means exactly what it sounds like (specifically used to refer to younger men). So you can imagine the hilarity that ensued when, under the watchful eye of the officers, we convinced Garrett (and maybe David, I can't remember) to whip out the Beijingduzi while saying "小鲜肉”. // After a little bit, we headed down the mountain and Maya and I once again took the back. While we were heading down the mountain,Zack went into the woods and then hopped out to scare Princess Isabel, which was very effective and very funny. On our trips up and down the mountain, we saw people doing everything from Taiji to singing Karaoke, despite the fact that the sun had set long ago. I love how active and alive public spaces feel here, and that's something I'm definitely going to miss. // Before I knew it, we were at the hotel. After some more kpop and a quick shower, I was asleep and ready for the next day. // The next day (Friday) was incredibly different and probably one of the most perspective-altering experiences I have had here. After a breakfast of 包子 (at a restaurant whose publicly posted health rating had the "😑" emoji on it), we first headed to this street called 华强北 (Hua Qiang Bei, these are probably the wrong characters..oops) which is the number 1 electronic products street in China. 130,000 people work there and it's a place for a lot of young people to start businesses. Between the weather (a bit of wind and not so hot because we were shaded by tall buildings), I had a great time. Anthony and I explored, taking in everything from the dozens of fake Apple stores to this internet café/bar we found that had a full competition and competition viewing setup. My only complaint: the McDonalds ice cream machine was broken (was it 10am when we asked? Yes. Am I ashamed? No). // After meeting up again, we took the bus to an area called 百石州，where we met with an American anthropologist who was going to guide us through the area. As we started the walk, she asked us to not speak and to quietly document what we saw, whether that be with writing, drawings, pictures or video. What we saw then was like nothing I've ever seen before, which says less about the area and more about how much privilege I have had. 百石州 was a poor and very, very densely populated area. The buildings were what were known as handshake buildings, which means that they are so close together that you can shake hands through the window with someone in a neighboring building. Wires upon wires were strung across the alleyways, and rubble and trash were ubiquitous. During the time we were walking, I'll be honest: I wanted nothing more than to get out; it smelled awful, I was uncomfortable on many different levels, and I wanted to go back to the comfort of the day and weeks before. One of the most striking sites, for me, was when we were on the roof of a building and could see the contrast between the building we were on (and the ones surrounding it) and, probably less than two miles away, the ever growing set of brand new buildings that are the trademark of Shenzhen's rapid economic development. Other things that I saw on the trip: lots and lots of people going about their lives, whether that be storekeepers, the people at the meat market we passed through, or the little girl in a pink dress who I saw heading off to school; empty flat houses that, according to Mary Anne (the anthropologist), were inhabited several decades ago after a history that I'm not super clear about (it involved supplying water to Hong Kong, different local and immigrant groups, and the communist/capitalist conflict); and poop just chilling on the road. I have many pictures of what I saw that definitely do a better job illustrating than I am doing here, but I have a problem with the pictures as well: Garrett pointed out that taking pictures of people and their way of life there, treating it as a sight to be seen or a microenvironment to be examined, feels bad and wrong, and I agree...yet I took those pictures anyways, which has left me with a lot of bad feelings and is part of the reason this blog is so late. // At the end of the trip, we met up at a coffee shop, and Mary Anne had us write about our thoughts and feelings. Mine were all negative, and continued to be so until Mary Anne told us that the whole place would be destroyed in 5 years as Shenzhen continues to develop. She then explained to us the rich history of the area, and how hundreds of thousands of years people live within this tiny area. She mentioned the many different sites that we had passed, and I realized that in my discomfort and general not-wanting-to-be-there, I had missed out on so many great things. She also talked about some of the logistics of having an area like this, which I would have never thought about, i.e. getting food in and getting trash out. One of the most interesting things to me was the Christian church that we passed (couldn't go in that day)...apparently, churches have to register with the government and follow certain rules, but from what I understood, enforcement of those sorts of rules isn't really a thing in 百石州, so the church continued to exist. // After she spoke with us about the area, Mary Anne showed us a video on a project they did where they tried to get the 白石州 community involved in an art project, and then got that art project into the Shenzhen Art Museum, which is a big deal because apparently the art museum is pretty boujee. I also got to meet a dancer who is visiting from Uganda and choreographing a dance that combines different cultures' styles, and a PhD student who was very nice (I can't remember what he was studying because as I'm this part of the blog 2 weeks after that day). Anthony, Maya, and I stayed back a few minutes to talk more with MA, the dancer, the PhD student and another lady who was living in 百石州，but then we had to go...after waiting with Emily as others bought some snacks, we headed on the bus and started the 3 hour drive (traffic) back to Zhuhai. As quickly as it had changed to the atmosphere of 百石州，Shenzhen first became the highly developed area I had first seen it as, and then morphed to ports and mountains as we exited via bridge. On the ride back, we talked about what we miss most about America and the time we've had here. I accidentally went into a guys bathroom, got some weird looks, and before we knew it, we were back in Zhuhai. I headed home, exhausted from the last 48 hours. // On Saturday, my family told me they had to go to Guangzhou to see a contact lens specialist, so I was on my own to either stay in or go out. After falling asleep while trying to do homework, I made plans with Lexi to go to Gongbei again. On the bus there, I noticed this girl was wearing a BIGBANG bracelet, and then I ended up spending a few minutes talking with her and her friend about which kpop groups they like. After arriving, I met up with Lexi and her little brother (and later her sister and sisters friend) and we explored and shopped. This time at Gongbei was very different from the last...everything was much less overwhelming and confusing, nor did it seem as unusual as it did when I had only been in China for three days. My bargaining skills, however, were just as bad as before because I have had 0 practice....oh well. I got a Luhan (a Chinese pop star who I am a fan of and whose face is literally everywhere here, including all the line 69 buses) hat that has a 0% chance of being real, and Lexi got some glasses that her sister helped us bargain down. Her little brother was bored out of his mind. We also got this really cool ice cream that had this a cooling liquid underneath it that was letting off gas (like dry ice but not), and generally had a great time. After we finished, we walked all the the way over to this hotel because it has literally the best public bathroom I've seen in China, and then headed home. That night, I watched my sisters favorite TV show with her, and they played "Who's the Spy?"! This was very exciting because I was able to understand almost the whole thing, which was a first for TV watching (usually I just stare at the screen and pretend I have any remote idea of what's happening). // Sunday, we went to the second round of my sisters competition, and she blew the other kids out of the water. One of the judges even took a video of her as she played. For context, she's playing a famous Mozart sonata (and not one of the simpler ones) at age 9 while other kids are playing The Happy Farmer. Later, we found out that she scored a 9.5/10 which was the second highest score across the entire competition. Tl;dr, my host sister is awesome. After her performance, we picked up one of her piano teachers (apparently she has two? Language barrier stopped me from understanding more), and met her friend and friends mom for lunch, which was a bunch of delicious small dishes (from roasted goose and chicken feet to sweet walnut buns). I spent most of the lunch not understanding, like I do during most meals...I feel like I tend to just tune out if I'm not being spoken to, which is not great for my language skills or socializing. Eventually, I did talk to the piano teacher a bit, and she used a lot of words that I had definitely never heard before. // After lunch, we saw Macao across the river as we drove the piano teacher home. Then, I met up with Lily (Katie's language partner), Anthony, and Nina (Anthony's language partner) to go do pottery. Lily also brought two Egyptian guys who are here doing volunteer work involving 3D printing and the disabled. They were very funny and friendly, and we later met several other people that were part of their program. It's a good thing everyone had a good sense of humor, because our pottery was a mess. After the teacher helped me (aka basically made it himself) create a nice looking pot, I wanted to try myself...by the end of my tries, my clay was so wet I couldn't form it and I came full circle: I had to ask the teacher to help me make something that wasn't just a blob. Anthony actually ended up creating something pretty cool (after the teacher rescued his piece), while Ahmad...well, Ahmad tried his best and made a smooth solid blob 😂😂 Anyways, we had a great time. I decided to write my language partners name on the pot, but the clay was so wet that the writing was a mess...it's the thought that counts. // After we were done and my legs were sufficiently splattered in clay, Nina, Anthony, Lily and I headed to dinner inside a close-by mall. We had buckwheat tea (I think), dumplings, this vermicelli noodle dish, and a not-a-pancake-but-called-a-pancake that actually reminded me of Mexican food. Everything was very very good, and we talked about our high school lives in America and how they differ from China (aka we talked about Anthony's love life). After dinner, we went around the mall because Anthony needed to buy hairspray, I had another bathroom experience I'd like to forget, and Nina and I both got ice cream. Then we headed over to Maan coffee, which almost everybody in the program but me has gone to, and now I understand the hype--it was gorgeous, filled with lots of different lamps and chandeliers. I was full after my somewhat disappointing ice cream, so I just had some water, but had a nice time relaxing there. // As it was time to go home, I crossed the street with Lily and Nina to go to the bus stop. Now, when you have an 8 lane road like this one, there's often two crosswalk signs, one in the middle and one on the end. I didn't realize the middle one was red as I saw the green on the far side, so that's how we ended up walking into 4 lanes of moving traffic. I felt grateful that I was in a group, because I think traffic might not have stopped if it were just me...I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but in China cars don't really stop to let pedestrians cross, pedestrians find a way around cars. Luckily, besides a few honking cars and a deer-in-the-headlights moment, we made it across unscathed and I headed home!!/ Okay, that's it! Only two weeks late, woohoo!

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

A Mildly Depressed Teen

"Eren!" Eren jumped at the sound his name, and rose his head slowly to find Erwin making his way towards him. He wiped his eyes, knowing he must look really pathetic to the man right now. He was somewhat surprised when Erwin sat down next to him "You alright? You took off pretty fast" The omega sniffled "Sorry... I must look like a total idiot" "Nah, trust me, I've made lots of students cry, just not usually so fast" Eren tried to give Erwin a small smile "So, you're Levi's omega. I never thought he'd find someone" "It's... complicated" "I can tell that much already. Can I ask what upset you?" Eren sniffled "It's stupid..." "If it was stupid you wouldn't be this upset and Levi wouldn't be sitting in my classroom looking just as bad as you" Erwin's words felt like a stab to the heart "He's worried?" "Of course he is. You took off and he didn't know why. He wanted to come look for you, but I made him wait" Eren nodded "It's just... I... some shit happened and hearing that he's talked about me..." Erwin let out a long "ah", before continuing "Yeah, that was my bad. Do you want to know what he's said?" Eren nodded quickly, it was like a bandaid right? Better to rip it off fast... "First he asked me what to do when you think your mate is a student. That moved to "how do I talk to him without him thinking in crazy". Then he told me what you looked at, he said you had the most incredible green eyes he'd ever seen. We were at the Underground that night with friends, he didn't tell me what happened though. I put two and two together on my own and I haven't told anyone about it. So you don't need to worry about that" Eren nodded slowly and tried to stop the tears running down his face "Thank you" "It's not my business to be prying into" The fact the alpha respected his privacy helped to finally end the tears, he looked back towards where Levi would be waiting "How am I supposed to go back now?" "Well, we can walk really slowly and you can tell me about the books you've read that are on the list" Eren nodded and Erwin helped him stand "I'm sorry... it just felt like this was all out of pity" "Normally I wouldn't let someone sit in, but I owe Levi a favour or two" Eren nodded and fell into step with Erwin "He said you used to work together" "Yep! But that was a few years ago now. He's a good man, despite his love of obscure authors" "He does seem anti mainstream, but I don't really know anything about him" Erwin stopped "I'm not surprised. He's always been the kind to keep to himself. It got pretty bad after his best friends died, I didn't think he'd ever find anyone he'd care about... things might not be perfect or ideal between you and I don't know your past, but you might just find he's a much nicer person than he seems" Eren nodded, making a mental note that Levi's friends had died. The rest of the walk was talking about Inferno, given that the verses Erwin had read were stuck in his head. He'd asked to borrow books from the school rather than Levi and Erwin had joked it was probably safer that way. The man was a little weird, and he was still wary about him, but he wasn't completely unpleasant. Walking back into the classroom, Eren was confused to find Levi organising Erwin's desk and Erwin just shrugged "Well, he passed the test and he'll be sitting in as of next week, I can email you the schedule for him right?" Levi nodded, but Eren sensed the hesitation in the movement "Eren, I'll see you Monday and Levi, you better treat this kid right. He's a special one" That seemed to be the queue to leave and Levi moved to Eren's side "Are you alright?" Eren nodded "Yeah. Sorry. I just freaked out a little. We should go now" Levi's fingers brushed against his and the alpha loosely took his hand. Eren didn't pull away and they left Erwin to his work. They didn't talk until they were both in Levi's car and Eren let out a shaky breath "Are you sure you're alright? Erwin didn't say anything did he?" "No... he's a good guy, eyebrows and all. Thank you for arranging this" "It's fine and I'm sorry. I upset you before right?" "It doesn't matter now" "Please, it matters to me" "It's just... you know some of my past and when you admitted talking about me..." Levi let out a groan "Eren, I would never ever repeat the things you've told me without your permission" The omega nodded quickly "I know... Erwin told me about what you said and asked him" Levi looked a little awkward and it was kind of refreshing. Most of the time the alpha looked so composed "So what books do you need to borrow?" The alpha started his car and Eren shook his head "I don't know yet" "Well, when you do you can borrow whatever you like" He didn't want to annoy or upset Levi so nodded. He was grateful when his phone started to ring and fished it out to find it was Jean "It's fine, you can go ahead and answer" Eren slid his thumb across and Jean's concerned voice filled his ear. Quickly he explained he was looking into a course and had just been at the campus. Jean calmed immediately and made him promise he'd call if he needed a lift. He hung up after barely a minute "Everything alright?" "Yeah. Jean was just worried" "He's a good friend?" "Yeah... I thought he was a total arse, but he's actually pretty alright" "That's good... I'm happy you aren't alone anymore" "It's only for a a little longer, his omega, Marco, has been away so I've been using his room" Levi hummed "You know, you could just move in with me" Eren winced at the man's words "Eren, its fine. I know this isn't easy for you, but the offer is alway, always opened and I hope one day you'll take me up on it" Eren swallowed hard at the sincerity in Levi's words "Are you hungry?" It took the teen a few seconds to realise the alpha had jumped conversation again "I'm sorry, I don't really eat much" Levi hummed again "How about we go out for lunch, I'm starving, and I know it's not exactly lunch time, but think of it as a celebration for getting into Erwin's class" "You do realise I'm not actually a student there" "Minor details" The restaurant Levi took him to was ridiculously perfect. Eren literally couldn't find any fault at all. The alpha seemed to be a regular and it felt like every staff member had swung by the table at least once to give him the once over. Not sure what to order, he let Levi order for him. The wait wasn't too long and they were served some kind of chunk stew with thick slices of "rustic" bread. He wasn't sure how it'd go, but it was really good and he managed most of it and half a slice of bread. They didn't talk much during the meal, and Eren wasn't sure if Levi was mad that he didn't know what to say. He tried to pay for his share, but Levi refused and then promptly told him not to feel so guilty. Levi dropped him home, the alpha stole a quick kiss and Eren felt warmth flood through him. Despite his mental protests, he couldn't deny he was hopeless hooked on Levi's warmth "Thank you for today" His tone was almost shy and Levi cupped his face in his hands "If you need me, no matter how trivial it seems to you, call me or message me. If it's from you I'll always answer" "I don't want to be a burden" "And I don't want you to think you are, when you never will be" The alpha leant in and kissed his again, Eren felt like he was melting from it and had to push Levi away "Sorry" The omega shook his head quickly "It's fine... but I should go" Climbing from the car, Eren's fingertips came to his lips, they were still warm and he forced himself to turn back and close the car door. Part of him wanted to climb back in, but he didn't want to take any more of Levi's time up. He gave the alpha a small wave and turned back to make his way back to where Jean would he waiting to question him. * Jean wasn't as mad as he'd thought he'd be. Probably because he'd kept his clothes on this time and was happy that Eren had managed to get a free preview of the course ahead of time. Still, Eren could tell Jean was slightly bitter about him being with Levi for the afternoon and Eren couldn't handle it. Today had been a roller coaster of emotions, and having to leave the house left him dead tired. He slipped from the sofa and into his room, toeing off his shoes and climbing onto the bed. His phone pinged and he pulled it from his pocket Levi: Hope Jean wasn't too mad, and I hope you're getting some rest, you looked pretty exhausted. I'll let you know when Erwin emails me. Rest well brat xx He wasn't sure about the brat bit, but it didn't hurt. It was kind of very Levi in its own way and the two kisses are completely unexpected. He didn't know what to say so locked his phone and put it on charge before stripping off and climbing under the covers. * Apparently Levi couldn't just forward him the class schedule. The alpha had printed it out, including the course outline and some of his own notes and pointers he'd added to the pages. The two were pouring over them when Jean arrived home and Eren cursed himself. He knew Jean didn't want Levi in the place, but there the alpha was "Hi Jean, Levi was just going through the course outline with me. How was work?" "Shit like usual. I was going to head straight to bed, unless you need anything?" Eren shook his head "It's fine. You look dead on your feet" Jean gave a wave as he disappeared and Levi watched the alphas door close "He doesn't like me does he?" "He just worries, especially after you gave me your mark so suddenly" Levi nodded "Yeah... that was pretty shitty of me... I just couldn't help myself... a bit like not being able to help myself in the bathroom stall... I don't know what it is, but when I'm with you, I swear I turn into a babbling idiot" Eren blushed at the mention of the bathroom and his penis gave a half twitch. Without the alcohol he stared to panic slightly "Are you alright?" "Yeah... sorry... where were we?" Levi took the hint and began to explain what each item meant again.

[noblegambit]

Pocket Sized, Chapter 1

So I decided to cross-post my new klance fic on tumblr and Ao3, because I guess I’ll get more reach that way.

Ao3, Chapter 1

Also, I already have fanart because I’ve gushed about this au to @nalciel already and I love it <3 <3

Summary:

“Keith! I’m down here!” “Lance? Lance, where are you!?” “Over here!!” Keith did his best to follow the sound of the tiny voice, so jarringly opposite from Lance’s usual loud and obnoxious tone. He scans the tiny outcropping of rock, looking for his (ex) childhood friend’s ugly mug. “Down here!” Down? Keith glances down, and just about trips on a rock. A tiny Lance, no taller than an inch and wearing nothing but a leaf around his hips, was jumping up and down and waving his arm frantically to get Keith’s attention. Keith blinks once, and blinks again. “Wha…? Lance!?”

or,

In which Lance shrinks, and his ex-best friend Keith has to figure out how to get Lance back to normal.

Chapter 1

Lance winces, leaning back in his seat and letting out a screech of a yawn as he stretches. He blinks tired eyes and stares at the drool stain on the homework he was supposed have finished last night. “Musta fallen asleep,” he mutters. A glance out the window of his bedroom exposes the bright morning sunlight to his retinas, and Lance hisses through his teeth.

Lance’s attention is drawn to the sound of a door opening and closing outside his window. He scoots his chair backward and peers outside just in time to see his neighbor, Keith, exit his house, kendo stick in hand. It was about that time of the morning, Lance figures, when Keith would go outside for a morning workout and kendo form practice.

Lance’s expression twists into a sad grimace. He and Keith don’t talk much. Not as much as they used to, anyway. Once upon a time, the two boys were glued to the hip, and wherever you saw one, the other would not be far behind. But something had happened when they entered high school; Keith became suddenly distant, and no matter what Lance tried to do, Keith never responded, and their friendship flickered out of existence.

“Lance, come down for breakfast!”

Lance pushes back from the window and slams the laptop shut. He needs to stop thinking about Keith, and what happened to their friendship. It’s Keith’s fault anyway, for just abandoning him like that. Keith doesn’t deserve Lance’s friendship.

At least, that’s what Lance tells himself.

“Good morning!” Lance says, bounding into the kitchen. His mother looks up from the stove, and Lance can smell his mama’s special omelets. His sister is sitting at the table, legs swinging as she gnaws on buttered toast. Lance’s father sits across from her, reading the paper and nursing his morning coffee.

“Lance you’re going to be late again!”

“No I won’t, mama, you should know this by now.”

“It’s already seven thirty, and your ‘morning routine’ takes almost twenty minutes!”

“And it’s only a ten minute walk to school, I’m fine!”

“Lance was up late again watching YouTube videos,” his sister Chloe tattles.

“It was soccer, thank you very much,” Lance chastises, and steals Chloe’s bacon. “I’ll smack you with a soccer ball if you sneak into my room again.”

“No slapping your sister,” mutters Lance’s father from behind his paper.

The rest of the morning passes in a blur, as it usually does. Lance is through his morning routine and out the door with his mother clucking at his heels. Lance waves his sister to the bus stop and steps onto the pavement just in time to see the back of Keith’s head disappear around the corner. Lance tries not to stare.

“Keith, wait!”

Lance turns as Keith’s older brother, Shiro, bolts out the door, coat half off his shoulder and a swinging lunch box in hand. Shiro is a retired army medic, even at the young age of twenty-six, honorably discharged but missing an arm. Now he works as a professor at a local community college. Lance doesn’t know what he teaches.

Shiro sighs when he see’s Keith is already gone, but grins widely when he notices Lance. “Hey, Lance! Mind giving this to Keith for me? He forgot his lunch again.”

Lance eyes him. Shiro has been trying to mend his and Keith’s friendship since they began drifting apart, and Lance could guess that Shiro had purposefully neglected to give Keith his lunch in the hope of running into Lance.

Lance raises an eyebrow but takes the lunch anyway. “Anything for you, dude!”

“Thanks so much Lance!” Shiro smiles, and rushes back into the house.

Well, that was convenient, Lance thinks, but breaks into a jog to catch up with Keith.

Only, it seems that Keith had realized he didn’t have his lunch. As Lance turns the corner, Keith suddenly appears from the other side of it, and Lance can see the look of surprise on his face before they collide sharply. Lance’s face explodes in pain as his chin connects with Keith’s forehead, and both boys stumble back, clutching respective body parts and glaring at each other.

“Ow, watch where you’re going!”

“You ran into me, watch where you’re going!”

“Uh, no, this is definitely your fault.”

“My fault!?”

And here they go. They had always bickered as kids, but it had gotten worse as of late. Lance attributed it to jealousy, though he would never admit it out loud. Keith was a smart kid, easily one of the top students in school, and co-captain of the kendo club, even if he rarely went to meetings. He was even better in martial arts than Lance was. Lance had always been two steps behind Keith in everything they did together, and tended to release frustration in the form of bickering.

Lance knows that this fight is pointless. They’re going to be late for school at this rate so Lance decides to take the higher ground.

He shoves Keith’s lunch against the other boy’s chest. “Here. Shiro wanted me to give this to you.” And with that, Lance leaves. He can sense Keith watching him as he strides away, hands stuffed deep into his pockets, but he doesn’t turn around.

“Lance…! Earth to Lance!”

Lance lets out a shriek and almost falls out of his chair. Pidge looks unamused as she leans against his desk, hand still raised in a waving motion. Hunk stands behind her, trying not to laugh at Lance’s almost – and likely painful – tumble from his chair. Lance glares at his friends with as much fake annoyance as he can.

“What do you want?”

“You were spacing out,” Pidge says.

“Was not.”

“Were too.”

“Hunk, back me up.”

“You totally were.”

“Some friends you are.”

They laugh. Keith walks in thirty seconds before the start of class, as usual, and takes his seat in the back corner, as usual. Lance tries not to pay attention to him as he passes his desk, but Pidge is a perceptive little shit, and notices Lance’s apparently not-so-subtle eye flick.

“You and Keith still not talking?”

“We haven’t talked in two years, Pidge.”

“I can tell you want to, though.”

“Conversation is a two-way street, kiddo.”

Hunk looks between Lance and Keith. “I don’t know how you guys became friends in the first place. You both are so… different. I mean he’s probably gonna be the first emo valedictorian and then you…”

“Excuse you, I’m in line to be salutatorian, thank you very much.”

“I was gonna say flamboyant captain of the soccer team but yeah, that works…?”

“What Hunk is trying to say is that you two are like oil and water and we can’t believe you actually managed to stay friends for as long as you did,” Pidge clarifies.

Lance finally gives in to the pressure and twists in his seat to stare at Keith. The other boy has his earbuds in and is nodding his head gently to whatever song is playing as he stares out the window into the schoolyard. “Yeah,” Lance sighs. “Me too.”

At that moment, the teacher walks in, shoos Pidge out of her classroom, and the day begins. Ms. Allura starts by introducing a new girl to the class, Nyma. Lance’s attention is immediately drawn to her nice body, platinum blonde hair pulled back into a high ponytail with ringlets loose to frame her pretty face. He lets out a wolf whistle for giggles, and Hunk kicks him from under the table. Nyma giggles though, even as Ms. Allura rolls her eyes, used to Lance’s antics.

Nyma takes a seat near Keith, which for some reason makes Lance’s blood boil before he remembers that he and Keith don’t have anything to do with each other anymore, and lets it slide, opting to pay attention to the start of Ms. Allura’s lectures. Lance and Keith only have two classes together, which makes Lance’s day a little easier, but it’s not until after all the classes are over and he can go to soccer practice that he is finally free of Keith’s everlasting presence on campus.

He changes into his uniform and lets all the pent up emotion loose on the field until his legs are shaking under him and he can barely stand. As captain he has to set examples, especially for the new kids, and therefore cannot let himself slack off. Doesn’t help that the running gives him amazing calves he can use to impress the ladies. Hunk, who is on the team with him, only rolls his eyes.

Coach Coran blows the whistle and calls for a break, and Lance stumbles to the benches to pop open his water bottle and dump it over his head. The other players do the same, and soon twenty boys are soaking wet.

“Alright boys,” says Coach Coran. He twirls his mustache as he speaks, and some of the younger players snicker. “I have an announcement! The Voltron Lions soccer team is having open tryouts this Friday. All you need are your cleats and a positive attitude. Those interested can take a flyer…” He hands a stack of leaflets to the person sitting closest to him, and the flyers begin to be passed around “… and let me know you plan to go so I can give your teachers an excused absence slip! You also need a signed permission form from your parents. The tryouts will last for several days so be prepared to handle your schoolwork on top of everything else!”

Lance takes a flyer and feels his mouth drop. The Voltron Lions is his favorite team; he’d been following them ever since they won the World Cup when he was six. It was his dream to one day join their ranks, and now he was finally getting the chance to do it. He could practically feel his entire body shake with the anticipation.

“Lance will totally make it in,” says Hunk, and slaps Lance’s shoulder for emphasis. “You’re the best player out of all of us. I’d go but it’s all the way in the city, there’s no way my parents would let me…”

“It’ll take some convincing,” Lance murmurs. “But the ‘rents are chill, I bet they’ll let me go…!”

The team cheers.

Lance changes back into his day clothes after practice, stuffing his sweaty uniform into his sports bag. Hunk has already gone home with Shay as he does on every Friday, leave Lance to walk home by himself. He hums Shakira to himself as he walks, letting his body sway with the rise and fall of the beat as he goes. He rounds a corner, and his groove is thrown off (hah) by the sight of Nyma cornering Keith against the wall of the gym, playing with her hair which in Girl Language is a bright neon sign saying I’m flirting with you.

Lance has to walk past them to get home. He tries to make himself inconspicuous, but that is kind of difficult when there is no one else in sight, and Keith himself seems to be looking everywhere but Nyma. Which includes Lance walking by.

Lance and Keith make eye contact, the first time since they had quite literally run into each other that morning. Nyma follows Keith’s gaze and looks Lance up and down with an almost mischievous grin. Lance isn’t sure what about this picture is giving him such a feeling of anger in his gut. He tells himself it’s because the new hot transfer student is flirting with his rival.

“You can do better, Nyma,” Lance calls to her, glaring at Keith. “Dude’s dumber than a doornail and wouldn’t know if you were flirting with him if you took your shirt off.”

Keith glares back. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Mullet!?”

“Boys,” Nyma says, looking thrilled that boys appear to be fighting over her.

“Believe me, Nyma,” Lance says, always to have the final word. “You think you’ll be together forever and just like that –” he snaps his fingers. “—he leaves you hanging.”

Lance leaves before Keith can respond.

Lance has somehow relaxed by the time he gets home, and waits until his parents get home before breaking out the flyer.

“You’re not going.”

Lance can’t believe what he’s hearing. He stares at his parents sitting opposite him, stern looks on their faces. The flyer for the Voltron Lions lays flat on the table, slightly crinkled from its adventure in Lance’s backpack. He hadn’t hesitated to bring up the tryouts, his excitement barely containable, only to have his father tell him, quite bluntly, no.

“But dad,” Lance began. “Are you not even going to listen to me!? These are the Lions! My favorite team! If I don’t go to this tryout then who knows how long it’ll take before they hold more!?”

“You’re a high school senior, Lance,” says his mother. “You have to start thinking about college.”

“Besides, you’re too young to go into the city on your own!” Lance’s father shouts over Lance’s whined protests. “You need to start thinking about academics and stop dreaming about going pro.”

Lance feels his fists curling in his lap. “What if I don’t want to go to college?”

His parents exchange looks.

“What are you saying, Lance?”

“I don’t want to go to college.” Lance repeats himself. “I know what I want, and college is just a waste of time and money. I want to play soccer.”

“You’re going to regret saying that, Lance,” says his father. “You’re in a good program in Altea Academy, you’d be throwing all of that away!”

“That’s right,” his mother agrees.

Lance looks back and forth between his parents, completely floored. He’d had confidence that his parents would jump at the opportunity for their son to have shot at professional soccer, but now he is lost for words. Did they not have enough faith in his ability? He was the captain for god’s sake!

“I can’t believe you’re ganging up on me!” Lance throws his hands on the table with a smack, the chair screeching across the floor as he stands sharply. “Have you never had dreams that you wanted to come true? Did your parents every disagree with you on something that you really wanted!?”

“Lance!”

Lance has had enough. He wordlessly turns on his heel and runs from the room, unable to look his parents in the eye. He can hear his mother yelling after him as he takes long strides toward the front door. He passes Chloe on the way, looking up at her older brother with big brown eyes and an empathetic expression. Lance rubs the top of her head before leaving, and makes a point to slam the door shut as he goes.

It’s raining outside, but Lance is too stubborn to go back inside and get an umbrella. He pulls the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and tucks his hands into his armpits to keep them warm as he walks with no destination in mind but to just get away. The rain stings his face, but Lance lets it disguise the tears that he finally lets slide down his cheeks.

Lance walks, soaks through to the skin, for who knows how long, scuffing his shoes across the sidewalk as he dribbles a rock between his feet. He finally looks up to get a guage on his location, and spots a bus stop. He can see the hunched form of some other sap who got caught in the downpour. He ducks under the awning and takes his hood down to wring it out.

That's when he notices the other person under the awning is none other than Keith, staring wordlessly up at Lance like he couldn't believe Lance would intrude on his personal bus stop.

"Enjoying the view?" Lance asks, a small bite to his tone.

Keith's eyes flicker. "What's there to see?"

"Nothing, apparently."

Keith breathes out through his nose and stands. "At least you know that much." He makes as if too leave, but words are leaving Lance's mouth before his brain can catch up.

“Keith.”

Keith stops at the sound of his name. He takes a deep breath and turns his body to face Lance halfway, a wordless sign that he’s only half paying attention. “What do you want.”

Lance's brain is still lagging behind. “Why do you always ignore me? When we fight it’s always me who has to goad you on.”

“I don’t ignore you.”

“Yes, you do!” Lance says, angrily this time. “You ignore everybody, Keith. The first time I’ve seen you talk to anyone was Nyma today! Have you been with her this whole time? Are you going out? A little quick for her first day don’t you think?”

“That has nothing to do with you,” Keith growls.

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” Lance says. “But I want it to! I miss being friends with you, Keith. I miss looking for Bigfoot in my parents’ garden even though I knew he didn’t exist. And then you just drifted away and no matter what I did you never talked to me anymore! I mean nothing to you now, like all of that never happened.” His voice is almost pleading. "We used to be best friends."

Keith doesn’t move nor change the expression on his face. He crosses his arms. “Just stop following me everywhere,” Keith says, his tone sharp.

“When have I followed you!?”

“Let me think,” Keith says sarcastically, and counts on his fingers. “This morning with my lunch, and then earlier with Nyma. And now…”

“I didn’t plan any of this,” Lance defends.

“I don’t care,” Keith snaps.

“I’m only out here because I got in a fight with my parents,” Lance says. “They’re mad at me for not wanting to go to college. “

“And why’s that?”

“Like you care.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Keith admits, his eyebrows drawn tight together in frustration. “You’re such a spoiled brat for even having the opportunity to go to college.”

Lance reels at that. Keith knows that Lance knows that Keith’s family was poor enough as it was, even when their parents were still around. Now, Shiro’s meager teacher’s income is barely enough to send Keith to college without a full scholarship. Lance doesn’t seem to have anything to say, so Keith keeps going.

“Why don’t you get it?” Keith snaps. “Yeah, fine, I avoid you. But it’s because I can’t stand you anymore.”

Lance steps away, swallows down the lump in his throat. He opens his mouth to say something, but decides against it. Lance turns on his heel without another word and takes off into the night, vanishing instantly in the pouring rain.

Lance doesn't know where he's going, only that he needs to get away from his parents and Keith, maybe even from the whole world. He remembers a small outcropping of rock in the park right on the edge of town, where he and Keith had played as kids. He knows for a fact Keith doesn't go there anymore, and it's decently large enough to shelter him from the rain, at least for a few hours.

He takes off for the park, not bothering to shield himself from the storm. His shoes squish uncomfortably in the mud as he passes over the park's lawn, and the outcropping finally comes into view. It's smaller than he remembered, but still large enough for him to crawl under comfortably without too much fuss. He ducks inside and makes himself as small as possible, knees pulled up tight against his chest as he shivers in his wet clothing. He listens to the sound of the storm outside, resting his cheek on the hill of his knees.

What happened to us? Lance asked the universe. Why did Keith and I drift apart? I wish we could go back to how it used to be. To when we were little...

Lance isn't sure how long he sleeps, but when he opens his eyes again, the world is still dark. He can't hear the sound of the storm anymore, but there's an enormous cloth weighing down on his face. Oh... he must have slipped all the way under the covers. He keeps his eyes closed to shield himself from the light that his mother would surely shine in his face to properly wake him and paws at the comforter to find the edge. He does, and pulls himself free, squinting his eyes open one at a time.

The first thing he notices is that he's not in his room. The events of the previous evening come back, and Lance remembers that he had taken shelter from the storm in the small park. The second thing that he notices is that he's butt-ass naked.

That catches Lance by surprise. He squeaks and scrambles to his feet, trips over the collar of his sweatshirt and... why is his sweatshirt bigger than him?

Lance glances up, around, and down at himself. Lance opens his mouth to freak out, but can only manage guttural wails. And why is he one inch tall!? What the hell is going on!?

[cursed-saphire-hart]

St Sea Angel

Title: On the Job Pairing: None Chapter: N/A Category: Seaspear Au: St. Sea Angel Word Count: 5,279 Rating: M for Blood Summary: After school jobs can be tough, especially when a monster is trying to kill you when you’re just doing what you were assigned to do.

It was another day at the cram school for the special dorm group plus a few others who attended the cram school by choice, and they had a lot of work ahead of them. While the normal kids only had 5 classes and worked from 6am to 2pm, the ones attending the special cram school had to work until 5, it hardly seemed fair, but nothing they could do about it, dropping out was hardly an option for some of them. Luckily it was the last class of the day.

That particular afternoon the strange groups of kids were reviewing lessons about the different kinds of creatures that were able to exist within the material plane, a.k.a the world of man.

With everyone seated at their tables as they listened to the instructor, who use to be a young Priest, the room was quiet, other then word being spoken by said instructor. Otis was writing notes, making a mental one to remind him to make a copy for Zero, who wasn’t paying attention.

No the hound boy was too busy sneaking glances at Ser, an albino teen who was sitting next to Dre, who seemed to be the white haired teens polar-opposite. In his mind, Otis thought it was a bit of an odd pairing, a teen with the blood of a hell hound, a creature who guards the hell gates, having a crush on a teen who was from a religious family, and probably same for the green eyed teen too, but he also thought it was cute too, so he never anything about it out loud.

In the row in front of them, Rosa was keeping track as best she could, while Desi on the other hand just drew in her sketch book, with an open bag of strawberry fruit gummies next to her, occasionally popping one of the little red snacks into her mouth. Eating in class was ok, so long as they didn’t make a mess or disturb the lesson, which was good, because the smaller girl was always eating. Thankfully Kumo was too busy sleeping to cause any kind of trouble today, thanks to them fining out oak ash makes him sleepy.

A few of the other students were either taking notes, not paying attention, or were asleep as the lesson went on. With the five already mentioned, there were fifteen students in all that were in that room alone, though the ages varied, the fox teen honestly wondered if it was a wise decisions to lump all the grades together for the cram school, but again, nothing he could do about it.

Otis let out a sigh and kept writing, and before he knew it, the bell rang.

“Alright class,” the instructor said as everyone gathered they’re stuff, “This weekend we’ll be sending a few of you out into the field for small jobs, dispersing lower level demons like gremlins and hobgoblins, and to inspecting grave sights and abandon buildings for spirit activity.” He told them before putting a stack of papers on the front desk.

“These are jobs for high school students and college students only, if you want to sign up, the forms are right here, other wise you are dismissed.”

A few of the students grabbed the forms to fill out, Otis included, “Zero, you gonna sign up too?” he asked getting out a pencil. “Course I am, sound like fun.” The hound teen grinned, his tail wagging behind him, “You realize this doesn’t give you permission to burn down a building again, right?” the fox asked recalling the first job they had been on together. “I know, I know, kill joy,” Zero snickered. “At least we got the job done right?” Otis just rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t that long ago per say and luckily the building was a ways out of the city. It was abandoned too, but since Zero hadn’t had a lot of practice with his hell fire back than, he had lost control and the place went up like a Christmas tree. If it hadn’t been for both of them being mostly fire proof, they probably would of gotten roasted, than Otis would have had to killed him out of anger. Otis was docile, but even he had his limits, and Zero more than once almost pushed him to them.

In the end they both got in a lot of trouble for the building being destroyed and were later sent to clean it up the ash and burnt rubble, if it weren’t for Kumo being able to eat stuff like burnt things and ash they would have been there all night.

(Fun Fact: Ash created by large amount of a Hell Hound’s Hell Fire can have the same toxic affect as volcanic ash, this isn’t always the case, but better safe than sorry)

Rosa and Desi waited for the two older students to finish filling out the forms, seeing as they felt better when they could walk back to the dorms with the older kids. But after what seemed like hours in her young mind, she spoke up. “What’s for dinner?” the green haired girl asked trotting over to them, as her tummy growled, “I’m hungry,” peeking over Otis shoulder to see what he was writing. She was a curious kitty and when wasn’t she hungry?

Otis chuckled, “How about hamburgers and french-fries tonight?” he said as he kept writing, filling out the questions, from what Desi could see it was something about blood type and who to call encase of injury and a few other things she could understand.

“Not Japanese?” Rosa asked playing with a lock of her teal tipped hair, “Nope, thought I’d try American, it’s been awhile. And don’t worry Zero, I’ll throw on some veggie burgers, can’t have you starving.”

Zero let out a chuckle, “Now I feel spoiled.” He couldn’t keep his tail from wagging though, Otis was always good at cooking, not matter what it was, that much was obvious, even if some people complained.

After filling out the forms and turning the sheets in, the two walked down the old tiled hallways of the old building and than down the stone paved road that lead them back to the dorms after pulling on some warm clothes. “The sun was setting low on the far off horizon, turning the skies all shades of violet, crimson, champagne, and marigold,” as Desi would often describe it as though she was the narrator of a story she had once read.

Students chatted with each other before a few of them went on they’re separate ways at the fork in the road, seeing as some of them lived in the new dorms, with was still quiet a ways from the old ones.

Most of the trees and bushes they passed while walking home were still bare of leaves and frosted over, being as it was still very cold out. The campus the school was built on was practically put in a world of its own, with small stores and cafes built here and there for the students to enjoy. That being said, the old dorms were one of the few places that hadn’t been remodeled and renewed, leaving it to be relatively old fashioned and a long walk from the main building.

Luckily the cram school building was also an older building and not that long of a walk. As they walked over the bridge which lead to the entrance of the dorms walled court yard, the fox set down the youngest sister, who had been sitting on his shoulders, letting the two girls and they’re yokia to run off towards the steps of the old red bricked building they were currently living in.

“Girl’s after you’ve put your bags away, ” Otis said raising his voice as he walked into the building a few feet behind them, hearing the echoing of they feet on the wood floor as they raced to get to their room, “Make sure to change out of your uniforms and wash your hands. After dinner I’ll help you with your homework.”

“Ok!” They shouted as the two turned the corner and to their dorm, and upon entering the old building, everyone was on their way back to their rooms, a lot of them tired from the long day. Luckily they only needed to attend cram school every other day.

After reaching their room, the two teens put their bags away, either hanging them up, or just throwing them on the bed, then changed out of their uniforms and into their street clothes. The standard uniform was a simple white button up shirt, black pants, and they’re choice of either a blazer, or sweater, which held the school’s crest, though obliviously that’s not what they were limited to. After he finished, Otis dug through his bag for a sec before pulling out a few papers, “Here are today’s notes,” the fox said handing a copy to the hound, “Thank you.” Zero replied smiling. “You really should pay attention, or you’re not going to pass the test next week.”

“I think I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not letting you copy off me…”

…

When the weekend rolled by everyone who had been accepted for the small jobs got a note in their mailboxes the day before, as well as instructions of what they were suppose to do and where to go. Otis and Zero were once again paired up to do a job seeing as they were better suited to work together due to they type of powers they had.

The two got read for the day ahead, brushing their teeth and pulling they’re hair back, like they did every morning when they happened to wake up at the same time. The night before they had packed their bags for the day trip and were ready to leave when it was time for the bus to pick them up. In the meantime Otis made sure everything was prepared for when they left. There wasn’t any telling when they’d be back, so the fox made it a point to make sure everyone in the dorm would be fed, having prepared lunches to be warmed up as well as instructions, and of course Zero teased him for being such a group mother. Otis just smacked him in the face with his fluffy tail.

By the time he finished making sure everything was in place, people started to wake up and enter the dining room for breakfast. Regrettably, Otis hadn’t the time to make a warm meal, so instead he set out a stack of bowls and boxes of cereal, Frosted Flakes, Captain Crunch and a few others, as well as fruit and pitchers of milk and juice. Any other day simple things like cereal were just for those who refused to eat what was made or for those who were too late for breakfast, either way, Otis worried if someone wouldn’t get enough to eat.

Zero gave him a soft slap on the back, starting the fox to the point his tail fluffed up, “Your worrying too much, they can last a day without home cooked meals.” The hound said taking a bite of his apple. “Yea I know, I still worry though,” Otis sighed petting his tail to make the white fur flatten.

The fox was the type to worry about people, especially when he was the one looking after them, mainly the girls, and especially at this campus. The dorms and the campus had demon warding charms to keep mid level demons out, though every once in awhile one would manage to slid through the cracks, and that’s what had his fur frizzed.

“Mornin…” Rosa yawned as she walked in holding her sister’s hand. “What for breakfast…?” Desi yawned rubbing her eye, “’m hungry…”

“Just cereal today, sorry girls, "Otis apologized and poured them both a bowl of cereal, Cocoa Puffs for Rosa, and Strawberry Crunch for Desi. "It’s ok,” they both said sitting down at the table. “Imma be gone today, remember your lunches are in the fridge and all they need to be is heated up,” the fox told them as he filled Kumo’s bowl with ash from the fire place in the reck-room. “And don’t go wondering around on your own and bring back a new pet.”

“Ok,” they both agreed as they ate.

“That my girls,” the Fox smiled patting they’re messy bed heads.

The door bell hanging over the front door entrance rang and Otis heard Queen say he was here. “Thank’s again for coming Queen,” The fox blushed as the other student walked in only to have the younger sister run up to him happily. “Sorry again for making you come so early, I can’t really leave these two alone.”

“It’s alright,” Queen chuckled picking Desi up. “You can make it up to me later.” He smiled with a wink making the other teen blush as red as a cherry.

“Let’s go romeo, now isn’t the time to flirt,” Zero teased pulling on the other’s tail snapping him out of it. “Zip it Zero!” Otis snipped flustered.

…

The time to go down the bus stop rolled around after a while, and after saying goodbye, those who were going on jobs left and than boarded the special bus to take them to they’re destination. Everyone would be spread out pretty far since it was all small neighborhoods and such surrounding the city by the sea. The place Otis and Zero were assigned to was a old house that was also a morgue, it had been unoccupied for awhile, but lately people had been seeing shadows in the windows and noises at night, and when trying to investigate, not only would someone feel the sense of danger shoot up they’re spine, but after leaving would get really sick a few days after, as well as having terrible nightmares.

“If I had to guess it’s a spirit who was woken up after a period of dormancy.” Otis said as he and Zero were dropped off a block away from the building, “Ok, but this place has been unoccupied for what? 5yrs? Why is it only waking up now?” the hound asked as his tail swayed back and forth, his hands shoved in the pockets of his ripped jeans. “That’s what we’re here to investigate, and then we have to exorcise it if we can.” The fox explained putting the work file in his bag.

They had learned in class that there just as many different kinds of ghosts as there are people, but one thing they had in common was that they fed on the energy and emotions of the living. But what Otis found odd was the fact that they were sending students, after all, a ghost with the capability of affecting a living person even after leaving their territory wasn’t something a low level spirit could do. Maybe he was overthinking it. The house itself seemed void of any and all life, even the grass around it was dead which crunch under they’re feet as the two walked up to the building.

By the time they walked up the steps of the old house they found that it had been boarded up with yellow tape netted up and down the doors and windows claiming hazard. The hound reached towards the door to grab the yellow tape only to pull back his hand, feeling it burn, “Well this is annoying,” Zero hissed rubbing his hand, the tape had shocked him like it was an electric fence. “Looks like the tape was charmed to make sure whatever is in there stays there.” Things like charms tended to sting even mutts like those two.

“You wanna bust it down, or should I?” Otis asked as his tail flicked behind him.

“I can do it.” The hound growled and the fox stood back. Zeros hands started to change, growing bigger and becoming more animal like as they turned brown from the fur that covered them. He pressed both palms to the sealed door despite the burning feeling and before long the charms were set on fire with bright green flames that turned the yellow tape to ash. But now with the charms gone, both demon teens could feel a surge of unsettling tension shoot through their bodies, causing the hound to quickly jump back out of instinct, as he bared his fangs.

“Well that was a rush,” Zero grinned feeling his body shudder as the adrenaline started to rush through him. Being of demon decent, both were affected a lot differently than humans, which could end badly at times. “Don’t do anything stupid,” Otis warned as he walked past the green and red eyed hound, smacking the back of his head to bring him down a bit as he went up to the door.

With one foot planted firmly on the ground, he used the other to kick in the door, using enough force to send the door and the boards that had been keeping it shut flying into the empty house letting the miasma flow out of the building, like he had busted down the floodgates. With how much was coming out, neither students were surprised ordinary people were being affected.

“Ugh, I got a bad feeling about this…” the fox muttered another chill running through him as he lit a soft blue flame in his hand for light, miasma was proof that something that didn’t belong in this world was in there. “I think we should call it in…” But the hound walked past him and inside of the creaky building. “It’ll be fine, it one ghost and there are two of us, we can take it.” Zero scoffed lighting a green flame in his hand, and Otis followed after him. “Don’t just go inside alone…” he growled making the other flinch slightly. Otis could be a very scary person sometimes.

The two went from room to room, sticking together from there on out, and part demon or not, there was a reason for the buddy system. Go at it together and you can watch each other’s backs, go at it alone and you might not come back.

From what they could see, who ever lived there 5 years prior had left in a hurry, most of they’re stuff was still there. That wasn’t a good sign, though both of them already knew that something was wrong before even entering the damn house.

Following the lay out of the house the two started to make their way to the basement, were the bodies of the dead were taken care of, all the while they could even feel eyes on them, as well as the feeling of being unwanted. Probably because whatever was here couldn’t feed off them the way it could feed off humans.

The deeper they went into the house the stronger the feeling of unsettlement grew, and the thicker the miasma. All the windows had also been boarded shut, leaving no light to enter the building over then the flames the two students controlled, which also burned away the miasma in the air so they wouldn’t suffocate. They saw the usual signs of haunting, like things moving or disappearing when you looked at them a second time, hearing footsteps, and so on.

“Any normal person would have dropped dead at this point…” Zero spoke up as he walked closely to Otis, other than the creaking they’re footsteps occasionally made, all the quietness was starting to bud him.

“Yea, but I can’t tell where it’s being emitted from-” Otis was cut off by the sound of doors slamming shut, first they were far away, but then suddenly it was the one right next to them.

“Looks like it’s trying to scare us away now…” the hound teen huffed, ghosts and demons loved using parlor tricks to frighten people and make them submit to them, but that wasn’t going to work, “Nice Try! We Aren’t Going To Scare Away That Easy!” he shouted, which he soon regretted after being thrown against a wall like a rag doll, having all the air knocked out of his lungs, making his fire go out as he dropped to the ground coughing. “Why do you feel the need to make it mad…?” Otis asked sighing. “Oh shut up…” Zero growled getting back up, more than a little angry now.

“Hey! Why Don’t You Just Show Yourself! Or Are you Scared!?” And that did it, if it wasn’t pissed off before, it certainly was now, because a moment after those words left his mouth, the wooden floor beneath the pair gave out, causing them to fall through with aloud crack.

…

He couldn’t remember what happened after that, other than a head splitting pain, and small lights flashing in his eyes as he woke up, his head dripping with blood from an injury sustained from the fall, “Ah… damn…” the hound hissed sitting up, his eyes quickly adapting to the dark, even without his fire he would see fairly well, but without it he could keep from gagging on the miasma he was forced to breath in, it left a very bitter taste in his mouth too. It wasn’t long before he spotted Otis laying a few feet away, rushing over to him as fast as he could despite his head hurting a lot, he let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the fox was breathing, however he was out cold. As he kept looking around to try and find a way out, what he could see was not very pleasant; it was no wonder they were dealing with one pissed off ghost.

They had fallen into a room under the house, and it was not somewhere even a hell hound wanted to be, at least in Zero’s opinion.

The room was filled with satanic objects used for dark rituals, but that wasn’t the worse part, no, the worse part would have to be the ugly as hell ghoul who was now staring at him like a statue. Looks like the ghost wasn’t the only one to get woken up…

“Whoops…” he gulped before quickly getting up, trying to ignore his head pains, though maybe staying still would have been better, because as soon as he moved, so did the ghoul.

Quickly he started calling out to Otis, trying to get a response, if he stayed knocked out; he was a sitting duck for this demon. Before he knew it though, the ghoul hit him in the side of his head, throwing the other demon across the room. That really would help his head injury.

“Otis! Could You Hurry And Wake Up!?” He shouted as loudly as he could, despite the throbbing headache and ringing in his ears, he did everything he could to ignore it as he got to his feet and using all his force and speed, rammed into the monster before it could attack the white fox. The ghoul howled as it was slammed into the ground, before it hissed at the green and red eyed teen.

“Answer me, damn it! My throat’s starting to hurt-!” he had to duck when the ghoul swiped its claws at him, but not without getting a scratch on his cheek as he kicked the demon hard in the chest forcing it back a few feet. “And I Could Use Your Help!” still no response from the other teen as demon went after them again, each time Zero forced it back, but every time it got a little closer to doing some serious damage as it went for his head and legs. His wound was bleeding even more now, messing with his focus as he tried to ignite his hell fire to burn the monster. However he couldn’t keep his focused long enough before the monster attacked again. It also didn’t help that the foul smell of rotting flesh and putrid blood was mixed with the musk of the miasma messed with his hyper sensitive nose.

The demon was like a snake the way it kept attacking, changing its position quickly before coming at them again, and bearing its rotted teeth and dirty claws. “Otis! Wake Up!” the brunet hound shouted gagging on the miasma, the gagging slowed him down for a moment, but a moment was all the monster needed to knock the candlestick out of the teens hand and leave a huge and fairly deep scratch in his side, causing the other to scream out in pain as he was sent to the ground..

There was no way he could take down this monster in his state. That’s why they were taught never to fight alone

Zero held his bleeding side and as the ghoul tried to take a bite out of him, used all his strength to kick the monsters head, sending it flying through the already tattered wall. He looked to Otis who was still unconscious, and let out a groan.

“Ugh, Sorry to do this to ya pal,” the hound teen said as a last minute idea popped into his dazed head, picking up the others tail, Zero quickly bit down on the white furred limb.

With a banshee like howl Otis’ blue eyes shot open, now fully awake, “SON OF A BITCH!” he screamed before pulling his tail back, “That Really Hur-!” as quickly as the anger had came it disappeared just as fast when he saw Zero on the ground in front of him.

Through the thick musk he could smell Zero’s blood as it leaked from his body. But before Otis had the time to to ask what had happened, he instead pulled the other behind him protectively as he shot to his feet, “Look out!” he shouted, his body moving out of instinct as the ghoul came at them again, and before either of them had time to process what was going on, the ghoul bit down into the fox teens forearm which he used to block the demons attack.

Otis wrenched from the pain, but gritted his teeth to bare it, “Son of a-!” he cursed, now he was really mad, “Let Go!” the demon’s jaw was broken open as the teen it had been biting landed a hard blow to the hinge of its jaw, forcing it to left go before receiving another rage filled punch to the side of the head. The demon an extremely angry hiss as it took a strike back from the ground, this time latching it’s jaws onto Otis’ side between his ribs and hipbone before the teen had time to react.

“Aaaah! Let! Me! Go!” the fox howled as his eyes glowed brighter than his flame that ignited of the demons rotted body like a bonfire. The creature howled in pain jumping back as it tried to put the flame out. However, a kitstune’s sacred flames aren’t put out so easily, if fact, only holy whine could put them out.

The teen fell to his knee as the monster burned in front of him, still biting the bullet to keep from passing out from the pain and the amount of energy it took to create a flame that big and hot by accident, and both teen were forced to listen to the monsters dying screams which sounded sickeningly human in it’s final moments.

“Zero… you ok…?” he asked between heavy breaths, “Could be worse…” Zero chuckled smiling weakly. “guess you were ight… we shoulda call… for back up…” the hound demon slirred as his vision started to go dark. Otis quickly started to dig though his pocket, and pulled out the emergency flare, and after aiming it up, he shot it off through the air. While normal flares were bright red and worked like a firework, the flares the students were given deferred greatly, for one they could be shot indoors and would still light up the area above where they had been shot, and could only be seen by people who could see the true nature.

“Well… when lost, just wait for help to find you…” Otis sighed laying down still holding his arm, god it hurt like hell, but luckily him and Zero were part demon, which meant they would regenerate and heal faster than humans, still it wasn’t like they had any kind of natural painkiller, and it was still take longer than they would like, so now he had to sit and wait, and keep his fire going to burn away the musk in the air around the two. Even though it meant draining his energy more in the meantime.

…

It felt like hours before anyone came to get them. Though thanks to Otis’ blue flames the miasma was cleared away, and the evil spirit was weakened and soon eliminated after help had arrived to rush the two teens to Sea Angel General Hospital.

Needless to say both of them got an earful for not for calling help sooner from their teacher, and a lot of angry shouting from Desi and Rosa who then started sobbing like crazy. They were told that from what the other’s had gathered from the house, a small cult had once resided there, using the blood drained from dead bodies to summon the ghoul after they used a living girl as an offering, though in the end the ghoul hadn’t stopped at her, and soon devoured all the other members of the cult, which would explain all the bones Zero recalled seeing while down there. Enraged by what had been done to her, the girl’s spirit turned into a phantom after feeding on the energy and emotions of people who were unlucky enough to try and living in that house, all the while the phantom kept the ghoul locked up to starve to death, until Zero pissed her off.

And so, with the evil gone, the two students were than paid for their work, and Zero and Otis were discharged later that day after they’re wounds had closed up and healed thank to their regeneration abilities.

Though despite all that had happened, for some reason neither felt all that phased by it, maybe it was just the fact that this was a normal thing for demons, and that version of normal was woven in they’re paranormal DNA. Or maybe they were both sure that they had each other’s backs and would learn from today’s screw ups too. Whichever it was didn’t really matter because they were both sore and tired from a long day, and were soon collapsed on their bed.

“Hey Zero…?”

“Yea Otis…?”

“I just realized something…”

“What?”

“We never ate the lunches I packed us…”

The room went quiet for a moment before both of them laughed tiredly.

“We’ll eat them tomorrow… I’m too tired to be hungry…” Zero groaned as he buried his face in his pillow.

“Yea…” Otis agreed, “Me too… Also…”

“What now..?”

“Thank’s for today, you’re a good guy…”

“Ugh, how dare you…”

[darkammarketing]

Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone

One of the biggest branding mistakes that companies can make is to not pay enough attention to their tone of voice. “Voice” sounds high-minded, doesn’t it? More suited for the literary world rather than the business world? But tone of voice just refers to how you sound in your writing.

In marketing, your tone of voice can be a significant differentiator. It’s a strong advantage because a lot of companies aren’t yet thinking about it. Businesses often spend a lot of time on their logo and color palette and other things they think of as “branding”—the look and feel of their website, collateral, signage, fonts, and so on. But very few take the time to consider the branding that a unique voice can give a company.

Brand Tone Exercise

Mask the logo on your site. Do you sound different, unique—like yourself? Or do you sound like everyone else… including your competitors? Said another way: If the label fell off… would people know it was you?

Your tone of voice isn’t about what you say but, rather, how you say it. It’s the impression your brand leaves on your would-be customers or prospects. Done right, your tone of voice is truly the secret sauce in your content BBQ.

Here is how to develop your brand tone of voice:

1. Define What Makes You You

Marketers call this developing a “brand positioning statement” or sometimes a “mission statement.” Whatever you call it, the idea is to define who you are, and what makes you you.

Ask yourself a series of key questions:

What’s unique to your business?

What’s special about your products?

What’s special about the way you do business?

What’s your company culture like? Are you buttoned-up or playful?

How do your employees relax together? Do you play beer pong in the parking lot on Friday afternoons, or do you have morning yoga sessions every Thursday?

How do you want to be regarded by both customers and your community? Are you a trusted source for high-level insight, or a go-to source for hands-on, practical advice?

Come up with, say, three words that best define who you are. Write them down. Avoid buzzwords and clichés (like “cutting-edge” or “proactive” or “revolutionary”). I call those words blech. Instead, identify more interesting, specific descriptors that reflect who you really are, and how you want to be perceived.

2. Translate Those Words into a Style

Abstract attributes in isolation don’t mean that much. So develop some detail around them. Make them real and practical. For example, if one of your brand values is “creative”—what exactly do you mean? When and how are you creative? What are you creative about? How does your creativity help clients?

Flesh out those words with a few sentences or anecdotes.

3. Write it Down

I almost wrote “create a style guide,” but I worried I’d lose you there. The idea of a “style guide” might feel both pedantic and impenetrable to a lot of businesses—especially growing, scrappy ones who think a style guide is about as appealing as a History of  Trigonometric Functions (volumes 1-34). (Side note: Keep reading. Volume 35 is a page-turner!)

Style guide hack: Adopt a well-known style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide or (my personal favorite) the Yahoo Style Guide. Then add your own addendum to it. The benefit of doing it this way is that you’ll have the style basics covered (“email” vs. “e-mail” ) while being able to address more important things like tone. Check them out to steal ideas for inspiration.

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

Don’t think about your voice applied in only the most obvious places—like your website copy and perhaps your Facebook page. Tone of voice doesn’t apply only to those things you typically think of as “marketing.” (Everything the light touches is content, remember?)

Instead, think about how you can use your voice as a differentiator in surprising places—on your 404 page, on your email confirmation page, and on your Thank You page, About Us page, FAQ page, product descriptions, and so on.

5. Include Necessary Jargon

I used to take a hard line against jargon and insider language—I used to say, don’t use it. But lately, I’ve rethought that idea because jargon can signal a shared mindset or can convey a depth of knowledge.

Spell out what jargon and phrases your company embraces and which it does not. And, as with any writing, be sure that its use clarifies rather than gets in the way.

An Example of What Not to Do

A brief story to start: My daughter and I were at a college’s Accepted Students Day, which is basically where school administrators wine and dine prospective incoming freshmen in the hopes they’ll choose that institution out of all those a student might’ve been accepted to.

The “wine and dine” bit would be metaphorical—because there is no actual wine involved. But we did get a nice chicken sandwich and quinoa salad at lunch. The heads of various departments spoke, including Campus Security, Student Activities, and Housing. They were trying hard to make student life there sound awesome: Community! Traditions! Camaraderie! Emotional support!

The panel was in full sales mode. Campus life sounded amazing; the picture they painted was rosier than an actual rose. They were essentially highlighting the school’s best qualities to people they hoped would enroll, and the people they hoped would pay the tuition of those who enrolled.

Then came the Q&A session at the end.

One parent raised his hand and asked a specific question about the dorms.

“You said you guarantee housing for freshmen,” he said. “But what about if too many students elect to go here? I’ve heard about students crowded into small dorm rooms—where rooms intended for two suddenly have three. They call that a forced triple?”

The housing director smiled and didn’t miss a beat.

“Ah, yes,” she acknowledged. “But we call that expanded occupancy units.”

Jargon Misses the Mark

You know that record-scratch sound effect? You hear it in a movie when suddenly the momentum stops dead. That’s what happened in the room when she reframed a concept everyone understood (“forced triple”) with a buzzword phrase intended to make it sound more palatable (“expanded occupancy units”).

Maybe that jargon is the language of her academic or administrative office. But it wasn’t the language of parents or students sitting in that auditorium. In effect, it made me not trust that rosy picture they were painting overall. If she reframed the parent’s question in less vivid language to make it seem less egregious, what else was the school spinning to make it seem less terrible?

Speak, Don’t Spin

By including guidelines for what jargon is and is not permissible, you are able to set out ground rules for content creators. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear,” political strategist and pollster Frank Luntz wrote. Frank was the guy who reframed global warming as “climate change” and the estate tax as a “death tax.”

Don’t do Frank; do you. Speak the real language of your customers, using their words, not yours. Avoid obese words.

Context Is Everything

If the administrator had been speaking to a room full of other administrators, expanded occupancy units would’ve made sense. But to parents? Not so much.

Jargon is like cholesterol, my friend Doug Kessler says: There’s a good kind and a bad kind. The good kind signals to others than you are an insider and you understand their world. The bad kind is often used when the speaker isn’t creative or smart enough to find better words. Or (worse) it’s used falsely: To elevate the speaker by making everyone else feel dumb or to obscure meaning on purpose.

Don’t Correct your Customer

Don’t use your own language or buzzwords to reframe, because it makes your customers not trust you. In other words, metaphorically speaking: if it’s a forced triple, call it a forced triple.

The point is this, more broadly: What’s your own brand voice? Does it clearly reflect what makes you you? What picture are you painting for your customers?

  The post Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from http://bit.ly/2OCk8Gp via IFTTT via Blogger http://bit.ly/2NXZBiI

[sualkmedeiors]

Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone

One of the biggest branding mistakes that companies can make is to not pay enough attention to their tone of voice. “Voice” sounds high-minded, doesn’t it? More suited for the literary world rather than the business world? But tone of voice just refers to how you sound in your writing.

In marketing, your tone of voice can be a significant differentiator. It’s a strong advantage because a lot of companies aren’t yet thinking about it. Businesses often spend a lot of time on their logo and color palette and other things they think of as “branding”—the look and feel of their website, collateral, signage, fonts, and so on. But very few take the time to consider the branding that a unique voice can give a company.

Brand Tone Exercise

Mask the logo on your site. Do you sound different, unique—like yourself? Or do you sound like everyone else… including your competitors? Said another way: If the label fell off… would people know it was you?

Your tone of voice isn’t about what you say but, rather, how you say it. It’s the impression your brand leaves on your would-be customers or prospects. Done right, your tone of voice is truly the secret sauce in your content BBQ.

Here is how to develop your brand tone of voice:

1. Define What Makes You You

Marketers call this developing a “brand positioning statement” or sometimes a “mission statement.” Whatever you call it, the idea is to define who you are, and what makes you you.

Ask yourself a series of key questions:

What’s unique to your business?

What’s special about your products?

What’s special about the way you do business?

What’s your company culture like? Are you buttoned-up or playful?

How do your employees relax together? Do you play beer pong in the parking lot on Friday afternoons, or do you have morning yoga sessions every Thursday?

How do you want to be regarded by both customers and your community? Are you a trusted source for high-level insight, or a go-to source for hands-on, practical advice?

Come up with, say, three words that best define who you are. Write them down. Avoid buzzwords and clichés (like “cutting-edge” or “proactive” or “revolutionary”). I call those words blech. Instead, identify more interesting, specific descriptors that reflect who you really are, and how you want to be perceived.

2. Translate Those Words into a Style

Abstract attributes in isolation don’t mean that much. So develop some detail around them. Make them real and practical. For example, if one of your brand values is “creative”—what exactly do you mean? When and how are you creative? What are you creative about? How does your creativity help clients?

Flesh out those words with a few sentences or anecdotes.

3. Write it Down

I almost wrote “create a style guide,” but I worried I’d lose you there. The idea of a “style guide” might feel both pedantic and impenetrable to a lot of businesses—especially growing, scrappy ones who think a style guide is about as appealing as a History of  Trigonometric Functions (volumes 1-34). (Side note: Keep reading. Volume 35 is a page-turner!)

Style guide hack: Adopt a well-known style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide or (my personal favorite) the Yahoo Style Guide. Then add your own addendum to it. The benefit of doing it this way is that you’ll have the style basics covered (“email” vs. “e-mail” ) while being able to address more important things like tone. Check them out to steal ideas for inspiration.

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

Don’t think about your voice applied in only the most obvious places—like your website copy and perhaps your Facebook page. Tone of voice doesn’t apply only to those things you typically think of as “marketing.” (Everything the light touches is content, remember?)

Instead, think about how you can use your voice as a differentiator in surprising places—on your 404 page, on your email confirmation page, and on your Thank You page, About Us page, FAQ page, product descriptions, and so on.

5. Include Necessary Jargon

I used to take a hard line against jargon and insider language—I used to say, don’t use it. But lately, I’ve rethought that idea because jargon can signal a shared mindset or can convey a depth of knowledge.

Spell out what jargon and phrases your company embraces and which it does not. And, as with any writing, be sure that its use clarifies rather than gets in the way.

An Example of What Not to Do

A brief story to start: My daughter and I were at a college’s Accepted Students Day, which is basically where school administrators wine and dine prospective incoming freshmen in the hopes they’ll choose that institution out of all those a student might’ve been accepted to.

The “wine and dine” bit would be metaphorical—because there is no actual wine involved. But we did get a nice chicken sandwich and quinoa salad at lunch. The heads of various departments spoke, including Campus Security, Student Activities, and Housing. They were trying hard to make student life there sound awesome: Community! Traditions! Camaraderie! Emotional support!

The panel was in full sales mode. Campus life sounded amazing; the picture they painted was rosier than an actual rose. They were essentially highlighting the school’s best qualities to people they hoped would enroll, and the people they hoped would pay the tuition of those who enrolled.

Then came the Q&A session at the end.

One parent raised his hand and asked a specific question about the dorms.

“You said you guarantee housing for freshmen,” he said. “But what about if too many students elect to go here? I’ve heard about students crowded into small dorm rooms—where rooms intended for two suddenly have three. They call that a forced triple?”

The housing director smiled and didn’t miss a beat.

“Ah, yes,” she acknowledged. “But we call that expanded occupancy units.”

Jargon Misses the Mark

You know that record-scratch sound effect? You hear it in a movie when suddenly the momentum stops dead. That’s what happened in the room when she reframed a concept everyone understood (“forced triple”) with a buzzword phrase intended to make it sound more palatable (“expanded occupancy units”).

Maybe that jargon is the language of her academic or administrative office. But it wasn’t the language of parents or students sitting in that auditorium. In effect, it made me not trust that rosy picture they were painting overall. If she reframed the parent’s question in less vivid language to make it seem less egregious, what else was the school spinning to make it seem less terrible?

Speak, Don’t Spin

By including guidelines for what jargon is and is not permissible, you are able to set out ground rules for content creators. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear,” political strategist and pollster Frank Luntz wrote. Frank was the guy who reframed global warming as “climate change” and the estate tax as a “death tax.”

Don’t do Frank; do you. Speak the real language of your customers, using their words, not yours. Avoid obese words.

Context Is Everything

If the administrator had been speaking to a room full of other administrators, expanded occupancy units would’ve made sense. But to parents? Not so much.

Jargon is like cholesterol, my friend Doug Kessler says: There’s a good kind and a bad kind. The good kind signals to others than you are an insider and you understand their world. The bad kind is often used when the speaker isn’t creative or smart enough to find better words. Or (worse) it’s used falsely: To elevate the speaker by making everyone else feel dumb or to obscure meaning on purpose.

Don’t Correct your Customer

Don’t use your own language or buzzwords to reframe, because it makes your customers not trust you. In other words, metaphorically speaking: if it’s a forced triple, call it a forced triple.

The point is this, more broadly: What’s your own brand voice? Does it clearly reflect what makes you you? What picture are you painting for your customers?

  The post Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from https://blog.marketo.com/2018/09/ann-handley-on-why-jargon-can-be-detrimental-to-your-brand-voice-tone.html

[racheltgibsau]

Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone

One of the biggest branding mistakes that companies can make is to not pay enough attention to their tone of voice. “Voice” sounds high-minded, doesn’t it? More suited for the literary world rather than the business world? But tone of voice just refers to how you sound in your writing.

In marketing, your tone of voice can be a significant differentiator. It’s a strong advantage because a lot of companies aren’t yet thinking about it. Businesses often spend a lot of time on their logo and color palette and other things they think of as “branding”—the look and feel of their website, collateral, signage, fonts, and so on. But very few take the time to consider the branding that a unique voice can give a company.

Brand Tone Exercise

Mask the logo on your site. Do you sound different, unique—like yourself? Or do you sound like everyone else… including your competitors? Said another way: If the label fell off… would people know it was you?

Your tone of voice isn’t about what you say but, rather, how you say it. It’s the impression your brand leaves on your would-be customers or prospects. Done right, your tone of voice is truly the secret sauce in your content BBQ.

Here is how to develop your brand tone of voice:

1. Define What Makes You You

Marketers call this developing a “brand positioning statement” or sometimes a “mission statement.” Whatever you call it, the idea is to define who you are, and what makes you you.

Ask yourself a series of key questions:

What’s unique to your business?

What’s special about your products?

What’s special about the way you do business?

What’s your company culture like? Are you buttoned-up or playful?

How do your employees relax together? Do you play beer pong in the parking lot on Friday afternoons, or do you have morning yoga sessions every Thursday?

How do you want to be regarded by both customers and your community? Are you a trusted source for high-level insight, or a go-to source for hands-on, practical advice?

Come up with, say, three words that best define who you are. Write them down. Avoid buzzwords and clichés (like “cutting-edge” or “proactive” or “revolutionary”). I call those words blech. Instead, identify more interesting, specific descriptors that reflect who you really are, and how you want to be perceived.

2. Translate Those Words into a Style

Abstract attributes in isolation don’t mean that much. So develop some detail around them. Make them real and practical. For example, if one of your brand values is “creative”—what exactly do you mean? When and how are you creative? What are you creative about? How does your creativity help clients?

Flesh out those words with a few sentences or anecdotes.

3. Write it Down

I almost wrote “create a style guide,” but I worried I’d lose you there. The idea of a “style guide” might feel both pedantic and impenetrable to a lot of businesses—especially growing, scrappy ones who think a style guide is about as appealing as a History of  Trigonometric Functions (volumes 1-34). (Side note: Keep reading. Volume 35 is a page-turner!)

Style guide hack: Adopt a well-known style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide or (my personal favorite) the Yahoo Style Guide. Then add your own addendum to it. The benefit of doing it this way is that you’ll have the style basics covered (“email” vs. “e-mail” ) while being able to address more important things like tone. Check them out to steal ideas for inspiration.

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

Don’t think about your voice applied in only the most obvious places—like your website copy and perhaps your Facebook page. Tone of voice doesn’t apply only to those things you typically think of as “marketing.” (Everything the light touches is content, remember?)

Instead, think about how you can use your voice as a differentiator in surprising places—on your 404 page, on your email confirmation page, and on your Thank You page, About Us page, FAQ page, product descriptions, and so on.

5. Include Necessary Jargon

I used to take a hard line against jargon and insider language—I used to say, don’t use it. But lately, I’ve rethought that idea because jargon can signal a shared mindset or can convey a depth of knowledge.

Spell out what jargon and phrases your company embraces and which it does not. And, as with any writing, be sure that its use clarifies rather than gets in the way.

An Example of What Not to Do

A brief story to start: My daughter and I were at a college’s Accepted Students Day, which is basically where school administrators wine and dine prospective incoming freshmen in the hopes they’ll choose that institution out of all those a student might’ve been accepted to.

The “wine and dine” bit would be metaphorical—because there is no actual wine involved. But we did get a nice chicken sandwich and quinoa salad at lunch. The heads of various departments spoke, including Campus Security, Student Activities, and Housing. They were trying hard to make student life there sound awesome: Community! Traditions! Camaraderie! Emotional support!

The panel was in full sales mode. Campus life sounded amazing; the picture they painted was rosier than an actual rose. They were essentially highlighting the school’s best qualities to people they hoped would enroll, and the people they hoped would pay the tuition of those who enrolled.

Then came the Q&A session at the end.

One parent raised his hand and asked a specific question about the dorms.

“You said you guarantee housing for freshmen,” he said. “But what about if too many students elect to go here? I’ve heard about students crowded into small dorm rooms—where rooms intended for two suddenly have three. They call that a forced triple?”

The housing director smiled and didn’t miss a beat.

“Ah, yes,” she acknowledged. “But we call that expanded occupancy units.”

Jargon Misses the Mark

You know that record-scratch sound effect? You hear it in a movie when suddenly the momentum stops dead. That’s what happened in the room when she reframed a concept everyone understood (“forced triple”) with a buzzword phrase intended to make it sound more palatable (“expanded occupancy units”).

Maybe that jargon is the language of her academic or administrative office. But it wasn’t the language of parents or students sitting in that auditorium. In effect, it made me not trust that rosy picture they were painting overall. If she reframed the parent’s question in less vivid language to make it seem less egregious, what else was the school spinning to make it seem less terrible?

Speak, Don’t Spin

By including guidelines for what jargon is and is not permissible, you are able to set out ground rules for content creators. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear,” political strategist and pollster Frank Luntz wrote. Frank was the guy who reframed global warming as “climate change” and the estate tax as a “death tax.”

Don’t do Frank; do you. Speak the real language of your customers, using their words, not yours. Avoid obese words.

Context Is Everything

If the administrator had been speaking to a room full of other administrators, expanded occupancy units would’ve made sense. But to parents? Not so much.

Jargon is like cholesterol, my friend Doug Kessler says: There’s a good kind and a bad kind. The good kind signals to others than you are an insider and you understand their world. The bad kind is often used when the speaker isn’t creative or smart enough to find better words. Or (worse) it’s used falsely: To elevate the speaker by making everyone else feel dumb or to obscure meaning on purpose.

Don’t Correct your Customer

Don’t use your own language or buzzwords to reframe, because it makes your customers not trust you. In other words, metaphorically speaking: if it’s a forced triple, call it a forced triple.

The point is this, more broadly: What’s your own brand voice? Does it clearly reflect what makes you you? What picture are you painting for your customers?

  The post Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/09/ann-handley-on-why-jargon-can-be-detrimental-to-your-brand-voice-tone.html

[archiebwoollard]

Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone

One of the biggest branding mistakes that companies can make is to not pay enough attention to their tone of voice. “Voice” sounds high-minded, doesn’t it? More suited for the literary world rather than the business world? But tone of voice just refers to how you sound in your writing.

In marketing, your tone of voice can be a significant differentiator. It’s a strong advantage because a lot of companies aren’t yet thinking about it. Businesses often spend a lot of time on their logo and color palette and other things they think of as “branding”—the look and feel of their website, collateral, signage, fonts, and so on. But very few take the time to consider the branding that a unique voice can give a company.

Brand Tone Exercise

Mask the logo on your site. Do you sound different, unique—like yourself? Or do you sound like everyone else… including your competitors? Said another way: If the label fell off… would people know it was you?

Your tone of voice isn’t about what you say but, rather, how you say it. It’s the impression your brand leaves on your would-be customers or prospects. Done right, your tone of voice is truly the secret sauce in your content BBQ.

Here is how to develop your brand tone of voice:

1. Define What Makes You You

Marketers call this developing a “brand positioning statement” or sometimes a “mission statement.” Whatever you call it, the idea is to define who you are, and what makes you you.

Ask yourself a series of key questions:

What’s unique to your business?

What’s special about your products?

What’s special about the way you do business?

What’s your company culture like? Are you buttoned-up or playful?

How do your employees relax together? Do you play beer pong in the parking lot on Friday afternoons, or do you have morning yoga sessions every Thursday?

How do you want to be regarded by both customers and your community? Are you a trusted source for high-level insight, or a go-to source for hands-on, practical advice?

Come up with, say, three words that best define who you are. Write them down. Avoid buzzwords and clichés (like “cutting-edge” or “proactive” or “revolutionary”). I call those words blech. Instead, identify more interesting, specific descriptors that reflect who you really are, and how you want to be perceived.

2. Translate Those Words into a Style

Abstract attributes in isolation don’t mean that much. So develop some detail around them. Make them real and practical. For example, if one of your brand values is “creative”—what exactly do you mean? When and how are you creative? What are you creative about? How does your creativity help clients?

Flesh out those words with a few sentences or anecdotes.

3. Write it Down

I almost wrote “create a style guide,” but I worried I’d lose you there. The idea of a “style guide” might feel both pedantic and impenetrable to a lot of businesses—especially growing, scrappy ones who think a style guide is about as appealing as a History of  Trigonometric Functions (volumes 1-34). (Side note: Keep reading. Volume 35 is a page-turner!)

Style guide hack: Adopt a well-known style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the AP Style Guide or (my personal favorite) the Yahoo Style Guide. Then add your own addendum to it. The benefit of doing it this way is that you’ll have the style basics covered (“email” vs. “e-mail” ) while being able to address more important things like tone. Check them out to steal ideas for inspiration.

4. Sweat the Small Stuff

Don’t think about your voice applied in only the most obvious places—like your website copy and perhaps your Facebook page. Tone of voice doesn’t apply only to those things you typically think of as “marketing.” (Everything the light touches is content, remember?)

Instead, think about how you can use your voice as a differentiator in surprising places—on your 404 page, on your email confirmation page, and on your Thank You page, About Us page, FAQ page, product descriptions, and so on.

5. Include Necessary Jargon

I used to take a hard line against jargon and insider language—I used to say, don’t use it. But lately, I’ve rethought that idea because jargon can signal a shared mindset or can convey a depth of knowledge.

Spell out what jargon and phrases your company embraces and which it does not. And, as with any writing, be sure that its use clarifies rather than gets in the way.

An Example of What Not to Do

A brief story to start: My daughter and I were at a college’s Accepted Students Day, which is basically where school administrators wine and dine prospective incoming freshmen in the hopes they’ll choose that institution out of all those a student might’ve been accepted to.

The “wine and dine” bit would be metaphorical—because there is no actual wine involved. But we did get a nice chicken sandwich and quinoa salad at lunch. The heads of various departments spoke, including Campus Security, Student Activities, and Housing. They were trying hard to make student life there sound awesome: Community! Traditions! Camaraderie! Emotional support!

The panel was in full sales mode. Campus life sounded amazing; the picture they painted was rosier than an actual rose. They were essentially highlighting the school’s best qualities to people they hoped would enroll, and the people they hoped would pay the tuition of those who enrolled.

Then came the Q&A session at the end.

One parent raised his hand and asked a specific question about the dorms.

“You said you guarantee housing for freshmen,” he said. “But what about if too many students elect to go here? I’ve heard about students crowded into small dorm rooms—where rooms intended for two suddenly have three. They call that a forced triple?”

The housing director smiled and didn’t miss a beat.

“Ah, yes,” she acknowledged. “But we call that expanded occupancy units.”

Jargon Misses the Mark

You know that record-scratch sound effect? You hear it in a movie when suddenly the momentum stops dead. That’s what happened in the room when she reframed a concept everyone understood (“forced triple”) with a buzzword phrase intended to make it sound more palatable (“expanded occupancy units”).

Maybe that jargon is the language of her academic or administrative office. But it wasn’t the language of parents or students sitting in that auditorium. In effect, it made me not trust that rosy picture they were painting overall. If she reframed the parent’s question in less vivid language to make it seem less egregious, what else was the school spinning to make it seem less terrible?

Speak, Don’t Spin

By including guidelines for what jargon is and is not permissible, you are able to set out ground rules for content creators. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear,” political strategist and pollster Frank Luntz wrote. Frank was the guy who reframed global warming as “climate change” and the estate tax as a “death tax.”

Don’t do Frank; do you. Speak the real language of your customers, using their words, not yours. Avoid obese words.

Context Is Everything

If the administrator had been speaking to a room full of other administrators, expanded occupancy units would’ve made sense. But to parents? Not so much.

Jargon is like cholesterol, my friend Doug Kessler says: There’s a good kind and a bad kind. The good kind signals to others than you are an insider and you understand their world. The bad kind is often used when the speaker isn’t creative or smart enough to find better words. Or (worse) it’s used falsely: To elevate the speaker by making everyone else feel dumb or to obscure meaning on purpose.

Don’t Correct your Customer

Don’t use your own language or buzzwords to reframe, because it makes your customers not trust you. In other words, metaphorically speaking: if it’s a forced triple, call it a forced triple.

The point is this, more broadly: What’s your own brand voice? Does it clearly reflect what makes you you? What picture are you painting for your customers?

  The post Ann Handley on Why Jargon Can Be Detrimental to Your Brand Voice & Tone appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/09/ann-handley-on-why-jargon-can-be-detrimental-to-your-brand-voice-tone.html