#as tiffany has to help her with everything since again no arms or legs

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Me and my friend watching Chucky S2 so far really has us like this with the show's treatment of Nica:

[luveline]

Hey jade!!!! I love your work ❤️❤️. I was wondering if you would do more of the kisses before dinner au? Maybe just some fluff of Steve and r taking care of the new baby?? Or anything you want with them—I just love that au so much. Thanks!!!

dad!steve and mom!reader finding a balance with the new baby<3 thank you for your request!

Steve Harrington was meant to be a dad. He’s wanted to have kids since he was young, twenty and broken-hearted thinking up futures he worried he might never have. And then he met you, and all too soon (somehow not soon enough) you were having his baby, and now he’s here. 

He can’t believe it. 

The baby sleeps in his arms. She’s three weeks old, so so small, and she looks a lot like you, in his opinion. You’d laughed fondly and exhausted into his shoulder when he told you his theory a couple of minutes ago, saying, Babies look like babies, Steve. 

Still, Steve looks at her and he can’t help hoping she’ll have your eyes, your nose, your big pretty smile. 

You’re dozing with your head propped against his shoulder, drooling down his arm. Avery’s in your lap, and she doesn’t seem disappointed that you’ve fallen asleep. Steve worried she might be, because with the new baby finally here and home, Avery’s not getting nearly as much attention as she should. Steve feels guilty but he knows everything will be back to normal soon. You can only do what you can. 

“What do you think, Ave?” he asks quietly. “She look like your mom?”

“I hope she looks like you so she looks like me,” Avery says. 

“But what about Bethie?” Steve asks. Avery is the oldest, Bethie her junior. 

“What about Beth?”

“If you look like me, and Dove looks like me,” —Dove, the former youngest, your two year old— “and then the baby looks like me, only Beth looks like your mom.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” he says genuinely. 

Steve never thought he was ugly, but seeing his face on someone else’s, seeing the brown of his eyes staring back at him through Avery’s gaze, it gave him an appreciation for his features that he never had before. But… you’re beautiful. The love of his life, before and after his children. He thinks it’s only fair that these sweethearts you made near enough by yourself would carry you with them in more than their actions. It’s the reason he finds himself so sweet on Bethie. (All his girls are gorgeous and loved, of course, but he looks at Beth and he sees you every now and then. He catches you in her unassuming smiles and hears you in her laugh and he can’t help it, he leans over to give her hair a good stroke.) 

But again, if the baby looks like Steve, it won’t matter. In the same way it didn’t matter that she was another girl. She’ll be just as loved as the rest of them, no matter what. She already is. 

Like she knows she’s being talked about, the baby coughs in his arms. Steve’s a pro at babies now, truly, he knows all the steps. He’s a great dad. And still his heart stops when he’s reminded of how new she is, how fragile.

How strong, too. Her little leg twitches against his chest. Steve beams down at her, relieved when she stays sleeping.

“Did you and mom pick a name yet?” Avery whispers. 

“Why? Do you have any ideas?” Steve asks back. 

“I don’t know.”

Steve tries to pour as much of his love and pride for her into his expression as he can. “Come on, Avery, tell me. I can’t promise we’ll choose one, but I wanna hear your ideas. What names do you like?”

“I liked Heather,” she says. That was one Steve suggested. You’d been unsure. 

“Yeah?”

“And Tiffany, too. We’d be Ave, Beth, Dove and Tiff.”

“You’d sound like a TV show,” Steve laughs. 

Avery giggles. “Okay, what about Sarah? Or Jessica?”

“I know too many Jessica’s,” Steve says, “but Sarah’s really nice.” 

Steve doesn’t know what you’ll choose. Three weeks is the longest one of his girls has gone without a name, because this time you just can’t pick. Avery had a name before she was born, and you got one look at Dove and knew, but Bethie hadn’t been so easy, and now this new baby is following suit. 

“Dad?”

“What?”

“She’s awake.”

Steve looks down, perplexed, and finds Avery’s right. The baby is awake in his arms, unmoving beside her slow sticky blinks. 

“Some babies don’t open their eyes for weeks,” Steve tells Avery. 

“Did I open mine?”

He nods. “You did.”

You rouse against Steve’s shoulder like you can tell the baby is alert. Maybe you can. You sit up with a little moan that makes his heartbreak in half for you, and your hand shoots to your hips. You’ve had a lot of pelvis pain, and some additional soreness where expected. 

“You okay?” he asks. 

You barely hear him, love and tenderness in every line and pore of your face. “My baby,” you say, with more emotions in your voice than there are words to describe. “Look, she’s looking at you.”

You pull Avery into your chest and she melts at the affection. She must be missing you more than she’ll say. You notice as Steve notices, tearing your gaze from the newborn against his chest to dot kisses in a bow over her forehead. “My first baby,” you say, delighted. “Sorry for falling asleep. Tell me about your day, honey, I promise I won’t fall asleep again.”

The baby starts crying eventually, and Avery’s face falls. You’re torn, Steve can tell, but you look at him with a smile that says, You have it, right?

Of course he does. Parenting is a balance you struck with one another a long time ago. He takes the baby into the kitchen to heat up a bottle of milk, and listens to you and Avery talking in the living room, hand pat pat patting the baby’s back. 

“Hi, daddy.”

Steve pauses. He holds the baby tight to his chest, before bending down to look under the kitchen table. 

“Oh, there my girls are. I thought you were upstairs watching Princess Polly.”

Dove and Bethie are under the table with a pack of crayons and a huge pad of paper. There’s paper scraps everywhere, and they couldn’t look happier in their mismatched pyjamas. Bethie’s the one who’d spoken, and she’s looking at him like he hung the moon.

Dove holds up her drawing. “Look!” she says. 

“I’m looking!” he promises. “Woah! So pretty!”

Bethie won’t show hers. “Mine’s for mommy.”

“I see. Sure I can’t have a little sneak peek?”

She shakes her head. Steve kneels down on the floor so he can watch them drawing, the baby against his chest, bottle held to her mouth. He stays there as the baby falls asleep and is overjoyed by the sound of wax on paper, Dove’s happy babbling, and your laughter echoing in from the living room. 

“Aw, baby,” you’re saying, like Avery’s told you something silly, “I love you.” 

Steve doesn’t know who he’s trying to say it to, but he mouths it after you anyhow. I love you. All his girls. 

The baby hiccups. 

Steve thinks it might be her first love you too. 

—

more of this universe <3 please consider reblogging if you enjoyed<3

[airisu7425]

How do you survive the loss of your beloved furry companion who was with you from the minute he was born until you had to make the toughest decision of your life - letting him go at almost being 20...? I still have 2 adorable feline girls but Frodo, he was THE cat for me. Actually, he chose me to pick him from the litter of two brothers, both black, climbing on me first everytime I went to play with them. He moved in with me (until then he was at my parents’ house) alongside Fiona, the ragdoll kitten to a rented place. Being the same age - they quickly became best friends for life. We moved together twice until I bought my current apartment - turning it into our forever home. He always loved guests, being elegant but approachable. He thaught me how fetch a ball (or rather that he can fetch a ball in case I was kind enough to actually throw it), was my natural bug killer (no flies or spiders survived meeting him), loved to drink from the tap and he always, always had to be close to me, touching me: be it in bed, at my PC, on the sofa, in the kitchen. So tonight my fingers can move free and fast on my keyboard without him lying across my forearms - but I wish my hands and arms were numb and not my heart.

I hope he was happy with me - he did not get to hunt outside but he always had food, warmth and a two-legged servant who did everything she could to make his life as comfortable as possible. He survived a severe bowel blockage operation, had a tooth or two removed but other than that, he was a healthy boy, being able to jump up to the upper edge of the door (FrodOOR).

I can’t stop crying and at the moment I think I never be able to. He took a piece of my heart with him and left a Frodo shaped hole in it.

Fiona is doing her best to comfort me in her own ways - demanding attention, wanting to climb to my lap, she even took the place between my forearms, HIS place.

The past week was rough, he suddenly became weak, eating less and less and getting unable to jump up next to me or to surfaces he could before. And I just realized, hearing Fiona purring, that he has not purred for a while...

I took Tiffany in in October because I wanted to have a continuation when the inevitable happens, but for now, it does not help.

I just miss the special connection Frodo and I shared that cannot be replicated with anyone else. I think that is what hits hardest, that it’s over - for good. I try to think that he is at a safe place now where nothing hurts anymore, probably my dad is spoiling him rotten, plays with Tádé again and he will be there when it will be my turn to go to the other side. Or he is still with me - but in a different dimension where he can see me but I can’t see him.

All I left is almost 20-years of photos I don’t have the heart to go through now. But that will be my next project: getting all his photos in a folder, picking my favorites and print them out. My lovely friends who are my catsitters whenever I travel came to say good-bye to him yesterday and took a little album with them, starting to fill it up with photos they had with him... I just need to fill the rest up.

A friend just said that we are elves to our pets - we just have a longer lifespan, giving us the joy and wonder of being able to be there with them their whole life and the price of this wonder is that we outlive them, leaving us with the loss and mourn. This elf comparison hits harder since his name was Frodo...

For now I just put 2 photos here - last night vs tonight.

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Unfaithful | Final Chapter

Series Summary: After dreaming of your perfect wedding since you were a little girl the big day is almost here. But after meeting the priest you start to question your relationship.

Pairing: Hot Priest x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2718

Warnings: all the angst with a side order of fluff, FINAL CHAPTER

A/N: this is it, the series finale. I really hope you guys enjoyed the series and that this ending does it justice. Thank you for the lovely comments on previous chapters, I love you guys! Also, spelling and grammar is not my strongest skill so please be kind :)

Part Five | Masterlist

- - - - -

“We need to talk”

“I think you said enough yesterday” I say dismissively as I stand up.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said any of that.”

“But you did!” 

“I know this is no excuse but I was really drunk”

“You're right, that isn’t an excuse. What you said to me really hurt”

“I know and I am so so sorry. I think I thought that if I could make you hate me then it would be easier for me to not love you.”

I pause, trying to make sense of what he’s just said. 

“That’s stupid”

“I realise that now, but at the time my alcohol infused brain thought it was genius.” He says and I can't help but be slightly amused “Look Y/N, I need you to know I didn’t mean any of what I said yesterday. And I really hope you don't hate me, though I don't blame you if you do”

“I don’t hate you” I take his hands in mine and look deep in his eyes “I could never hate you, you mean too much to me now. I couldn’t have got through the past few weeks without you, so you're not getting rid of me that easy”

I give him a gentle but sincere smile and he lets out a sigh of relief. 

“It didn’t work anyway” he says and I respond with a confused look “My genius plan failed… I still love you” 

Before I can say anything else Eva appears at the door.

“There you are!” She calls and I quickly release the priest’s hands as I turn to look at her. She looks from me, to the priest and back to me “everything okay?”

“Yeah, fine. This is the priest who’s doing the wedding.” 

“Oh uh, actually… I’m not anymore” he says, suddenly awkward again. 

“Can you give us a minute?” I say to Eva and she nods before disappearing back inside the house. I turn my attention back to the worried looking priest “What do you mean?” 

“I can’t be there today” 

“Are you serious? We need you!” 

“I know it’s unprofessional to pull out this late but so is kissing the bride behind the groom’s back, so…” he lets out a small nervous chuckle “I’ve arranged cover already. Father Crilly. He’s a good priest, he’ll make sure it all runs smooth”

“You're a good priest! You can make sure it runs smooth!”

“I can’t” he says, looking down at his feet

“Of course you can”

“No I can’t!” He snaps, looking back up at me. I notice tears starting to form in his eyes. “I can’t because I want it to go wrong. I want there to be a reason for this wedding not to happen, for you not to marry him… instead of me” 

My breath catches in my throat as I look at him, not knowing how to respond.

“Father…” I almost whisper “I- I don't know what to say”

“You don't have to say anything”

“You know how much mean to me-”

“Please don’t” he interrupts but I carry on 

“-but I can’t leave Daniel. I’m sorry”

“I can’t pretend to understand why you would marry a man who treats you the way he has, but if you love him even half as much as I love you… then I respect your decision. I’m not going to get in your way.” 

He turns to leave but I grab his arm gently stopping him. 

“Are you gonna be alright?” I ask and he gives me a small nod

“It’ll pass” 

I watch as he walks out my driveway and disappears down the road, taking deep steadying breaths before putting a smile on my face and heading inside to get ready. 

After all, today is to be the happiest day of my life. Right? 

— — — — 

So far the rest of the day has run smooth. I explained to Eva and the rest of the bridesmaids that the priest had to pull out last minute, making up some excuse about a family emergency, but that he’d arranged cover so there was nothing to stress about. Eva, as my substitute maid of honour, took on the job of alerting Daniel to the last minute change so there would be no confusion when he turned up at the church and found Father Crilly waiting for him. 

A few hours later I descended the stairs in my beautiful white dress to the sound of the girls showering me with compliments and my aunt Lynda sniffling into a hankie. 

“You look like a princess” she says, pulling me into a slightly too tight hug. 

It wasn’t long till the cars arrived and we were on our way. The bridesmaids pilled into one while me and Aunt Lynda got into the other. Lynda rambled on about something but I couldn't really hear her. Too busy staring silently out of the window. The closer we get to the church, the more I can feel the panic rising in my chest. 

“Y/N? Are you okay?” She asks as she squeezes my hand gently, pulling my mind back into the car.

“Yeah, of course! Why wouldn’t I be?” I reply as convincingly as possible. 

“It’s okay to be nervous. Hell, I was more nervous the second time than I was for my first”

“I didn’t know you were married before uncle Steve?” 

“Yeah! It was long before you were born. We were school sweethearts. Like you and Daniel, only less in love. We thought we were in love but looking back now I realise we were too young to really know what that meant. Your dad tried to warn me. Said Troy and I were better off as friends, but we didn’t listen. He was great for relationship advice was your dad, bit of a self proclaimed love expert.” She pauses, going watery eyed again “I’m sorry he’s not here”

“Me too” 

“I’m sure wherever he is, he’ll be watching over you today. Your mother too. They’d both be so proud” she squeezes my hand again and smiles tearfully. 

“Don't make me cry. If I ruin my makeup Eva will kill me” I laugh, wiping under my eyes.

“I know, I’m sorry.” She says, handing me a tissue “no more crying, this is a happy day!”

— — — — 

By the time we arrived at the church the bridesmaids were waiting outside with the photographer and the new priest. The photographer camera flashed at me as Lynda helped me out of the car and lead me to the church. Looking up at those wooden doors, I was glad I had Lynda to cling onto. My legs felt like jelly. 

Father Crilly introduced himself to me before heading inside the church. The bridesmaids, Lynda and I waited outside until we heard the music start, signalling the beginning of the ceremony. The bridesmaids began their walk up the aisle and before long the music changed again to the bridal chorus.

“Here we go” 

We walk into the church, stopping just inside the doors. I glance up to the front of the church to see Daniel looking back at me, a smile spread across his face. A smile I can’t make myself return. Instead I keep my eyes down, focusing on the floor as we walk up aisle. I can feel every set of eyes on me, but I keep mine fixed on my feet that carry me closer and closer to my future. 

We reach the top and Lynda gives me a kiss on the cheek before going to join the bridesmaids on the front row. Daniel takes my hand in his, whispering “you look amazing” into my ear as Father Crilly begins the ceremony. 

His opening speech goes by in a blur. I try to listen to every word he’s saying, to keep myself planted in the real world but my mind is spinning and my heart is pounding. I can’t stop thinking about what Lynda said in the car. What if Daniel and I aren’t in love? We just think we are because we’ve been together so long. We’re just used to being with each other. 

I also can’t get the priest out of my head. Worrying about him. Wondering what he’s doing now, whether he’s thinking about me. I replay our last conversation in my head. 

‘I still love you’ 

‘I want there to be a reason for this wedding not to happen, for you not to marry him… instead of me’ 

I try to push his words from my mind, focusing instead on his final ones. 

‘It’ll pass’

But what if it doesn’t. 

“If any person present knows of any lawful reason why this marriage can’t take place they should speak now or forever hold their peace” Father Crilly pauses. 

A tense silence fills the room. 

I look out across the crowd of friends and family sitting silently in their seats, a small part of me hoping the priest will burst through the doors dramatically declaring his love for me as he sweeps me away to live happily ever after. 

I shake the fantasy from my mind and turn my attention back to the man I’m actually about to marry. Daniel is also looking out at the church crowd. He looks nervous. I give his hand a gentle squeeze and he looks at me.

“Are you okay?” I whisper and he nods, but I can tell he’s not. As he looks away from me again my mind starts to spiral, panic rising in my chest. I can’t do this. 

‘It’ll pass’

 I think I’m making a mistake. 

‘It’ll pass’

These feelings are too intense to ignore.

‘It’ll pass’

These feelings of love. Not for Daniel. For the priest. I don't want them to pass. 

“I object” I say quietly, staring down at my hand enclosed within Daniel’s. I can feel his gaze on my face as a wave of gasps and shocked murmuring works its way through the church. 

“What?” He says, a nervous laugh escapes his lips but the smile fades as my sad eyes lock onto his.

“I object” 

“To- to your own wedding…?” Father Crilly asks, voice full of confusion.

“I can’t do it. I can’t start a marriage with a lie.”

“Y/N? What are you talking about?” Daniel asks, gripping my hands tightly in his own, afraid to let go. 

“When you marry someone, there shouldn’t be any secrets. You have to be able to confess anything, trust them with everything… I need to be honest with you.” I pause, building up the courage to say what I need to say next. “Daniel I-”

“I cheated on you” he blurts out, earning another gasp from the crowd

“…what?” 

“I’ve been having an affair…” Daniel repeats “Tiff and I… we, uh-”

“Tiffany? My best friend Tiffany?” I ask and he nods “How long?”

“Maybe we should continue this somewhere else” Father Crilly tries to move us but I ignore him.

“How long Daniel? How long have you been sleeping with my best friend behind my back?”

“A few months I think”

“You think? What, you don't even remember?” I bring my hands up to my head, rubbing circles on my temples as I turn my back on Daniel and take deep breaths. 

“Y/N, please listen to me. I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you-” he puts his hands on my shoulders but I shrug him off.

“You say that a lot for someone who has repeatedly hurt me. Emotionally…” I turn back to face him “physically. And every time I make excuses for you, brush off the insults, hide the bruises because I thought I was in love with you. But I’m not. I don't love you. I haven’t loved you for a long time. I was just too scared to leave you. But I'm not scared anymore”

“I really think we should talk this through somewhere private” Father Crilly tries again but I shake my head. 

“I’m done.” I take Daniel’s hand and look him straight in the eye “Thank you for finally setting me free” 

I remove my engagement ring and place it in his hand before turning and walking back down the aisle to exit the church. Daniel runs after me, stopping me once we’re outside. 

“Y/N! Please just let me explain-”

“Did you ever stop to think how I would feel?” I spin around, taking him by surprise “When you were with her, did you consider me at all?” I pause, giving him the chance to respond but he doesn’t “See that’s the difference between you and me. All I ever do, all I’ve ever done, is think about you and how you’d react. A few days ago I kissed someone-”

“What?! Who?!” He yells, anger creeping onto his face

“Don't you dare get angry with me after what you’ve done!” I respond and he takes a deep breath “I could’ve done more. I had the opportunity to sleep with him. But I didn’t. Because I kept thinking about you, about how you would feel. And what you would do to me if you ever found out”

“I love you”

“No you don’t. If you did you wouldn’t have slept with my best friend. You don't love me, and that’s fine. I don't love you either, cause if I truly did then I wouldn’t have kissed the priest. I think we both just convinced ourselves we were in love because everyone else thought we were this fairytale love story. But maybe we were better off as friends.”

“Maybe” he says quietly, deep in thought “I’m really sorry, about everything. I treated you…terribly” 

Hearing a sincere, genuine apology from him, I finally feel at peace with it all. 

“It doesn’t matter now” I say, giving him a small smile “do you love Tiffany?”

He thinks for a moment before gently nodding his head. 

“I think so, yeah”

“You should tell her” I say, gesturing behind him as Tiffany comes running towards us. 

“Eva texted me.” She says breathlessly “Y/N, I am so sorry I should have-” 

I cut her off by pulling her into a hug.

“It’s okay” I say, releasing her and she looks at me in shock as I hand her my bridal bouquet “I hope you two are happy together. Really I mean that” 

I turn and walk away. 

“Where are you going?” Tiff calls after me.

“To get my happy ending” 

— — — — 

“Y/N?!” 

The priest looks at me confused as he answers his front door. 

“What are you doing here?” He asks.

“You lied to me” I say deadpan “you said Father Crilly would make sure it all ran smooth. But it didn’t. Something went very very wrong during the ceremony.”

“What happened?” He looks genuinely concerned

“Well a few things. The bride objected, and then the groom confessed to cheating with the former maid of honour. Then the bride confessed to kissing the former priest and they both confessed to not loving each other.”

He stands looking at me for a few moments, taking it all in. 

“Wow” he finally says “so not smooth then?”

“No” I burst out laughing and the priest joins in before turning serious again. 

“Are you okay?” He asks, searching my face.

“Yeah” I say after a moment, “more than okay, I’m great. I feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders”

“That’s good”

There’s a comfortable silence before I speak again. 

“You know, during the ceremony I kept hearing you in my head. Saying ‘It’ll pass’. And I realised something”

“What?”

“I don't ever want this feeling to pass. This feeling I get when I think of you, when I’m with you.” I pause to take a breath “I love you” 

“I love you too Y/N”

I smile. 

“So what happens now?”

He takes a step toward me, closing the gap as he brings his hands up to my face and crashes his lips to mine.

— — — — 

I started this story by saying every girl dreams of her perfect wedding day. 

Well mine ended up being far from perfect. 

But as I lay here wrapped in the priest’s arms, for the first time in a long time I’m happy. I’m free. 

And I’m in love. 

[badgirlcovenrep]

The Goddess' Blessing (of a daughter)

Chapter One

(NOTES: the raylla adopts Tiffany fic everyone's been asking for

this is going on AO3 once I get home from my sister's but I wanted to post here first. If you'd rather read it there follow me and I'll post once it's officially in there.

Obs: Tiffany is six in this. Mostly because I wanted to write our witch moms carrying their baby and canonically she's like ten so..... and she's also like severely traumatized. We'll get to the healing soon enough though.

+ Edwin is the best papa. And Scylla has p much already adopted this kid, she just doesn't know it yet.

It's half past six p.m when their train screeches to a halt at the Chippewa station. In all the chaos of the last couple of weeks, Scylla hadn't realized Yule was well on it's way. It is still mid November, but the station has been prematurely decked in civilian Christmas decorations, and almost every wall and corner twinkles in golden speckles and fake pine.

Tiffany had been dozing in and out of sleep on the bench next to her, holding tight to her stuffed parrot as well as Scylla's coat sleeve with her restless small hands that spasmed in pure energy even as she slept. Since coming back from Nicte's mission, Scylla had been in a frenzy to get everything ready for their trip, and Tiffany had followed her around the (no longer safe) safe house, clinging on to her attention with wide blue eyes. She'd always liked kids. Before everything happened Scylla even used to babysit for dodger families.

It was never a lot of money, but she appreciated the levity and humor kids carried. They had hope Scylla prayed she could one day get back. Hope that could only come from the fleeting innocence of childhood. But even then, Tiffany was special, she still had all those wonderful, bright things, and she carried them in bulk, spilling out of her tiny little hands for anyone to see.

Yet she was also touched by things so horrible Scylla sometimes shuddered awake in the dead of night, when her mind conjured up terrible nightmares of being in her place. Of being squeezed into a tiny cage, fed dog food, strung up on a stage as masked psychopaths snickered and passed around stones bigger than fists. It showed, sometimes, in how every once in a while her expression became somber and reserved. How she stopped mid-sentence, and Scylla could see the glint of tears in the corners of her eyes.

It reminded her of Raelle - Raelle, who'd sat in her bed just yesterday and snacked on the stupid expensive popcorn her mother had bought - Raelle, who also carried so much darkness behind her strong, steady demeanor - those were the parts of her Scylla couldn't help but want to protect, and as a result, those feelings also extended to Tiffany. Scylla lost a lot of people in her life, and she'd decided the day she found the child's parents that she would do whatever it took to keep her safe. Just like she wished someone might have done for her. Because that sort of hidden, desolate pain could just as well transform itself into something entirely awful if exploited the right way.

People around her start getting up from their seats, reaching to the compartments for their luggage, there aren't many of them making their way up North this time of year but they still fill the cart in humming conversations, deciding on what to do next or where to get dinner. Scylla takes this as her cue to skim her fingers through Tiffany's hair, gently nudging her awake, "Hey, T, wake up, we're here."

The little girl sits up, bleary eyed, and yawns, looking around at the commotion, "it's already Christmas?" She asks, catching a glimpse of the boisterous decorations set up outside.

"Not yet, no." Scylla chuckles, getting up from her seat to retrieve their own bags - they had everything the two could think to bring, and yet were still not much. A duffel bag for Scylla and purple backpack for Tiffany, with unicorn stickers and colorful buttons sewn to the front. Scylla had retrieved it, along with some toys and clothes, from the girl's home, "People just love decorating early."

"Oh." Tiffany quips, as Scylla helps her fit her arms into the straps of her backpack, then takes her hand in a steady grip once they are done, pulling the young girl towards the door to leave the train, "The lights are pretty!" She exclaims happily, blinking in wide eyed wonder.

Outside, November has definitely made itself known, and Scylla is glad they are both warm in their coats as the wind bites her cheeks until they turn a dark blush. She looks around for Edwin, not sure she'll recognize him from the pictures she'd seen Willa scatter around the house, but still willing to try.

For a second, in that moment, she thinks this might not have been a good idea. When Scylla agreed to it, she'd admittedly not been in her full faculties, brain too preoccupied with seeing Raelle again after so long to completely comprehend what she'd been offered.

After everything that happened, she can't help but be a little nervous to meet the father of her ex (?), the same girl she still very much loved. The girl who had run back to her in that dark forest a day before and clung onto her face until all they could breathe was each other.

If she thought too much about it, Scylla could still feel the soft, almost painful impact of her lips as Raelle knocked her off her balance and breathed fire into her chest like molten lava. It'd been so long, she almost forgot the kind of power Raelle had when she kissed. Like she was always on the verge of tasting your very soul. Their whole day back together before was so very delicate and tentative, air fizzling with electricity like the tension of a bow, pulled tight with an arrow ready to shoot.

The time they've been separated her heart was squeezed tight under an elastic band. Whenever she stopped to think, even for a minute, she could feel it taught, so very strained, reaching from the very inside of her ribs. It was there from the very start. The tightness was what propelled her diaphragm into breathing Raelle in that very first night they spent together, even if she knew she shouldn't, and then, it was what kept them orbiting around each other like their very own solar system. Never too far apart. Always wishing to be closer.

When they kissed in the clearing, hairs messy with the wild strumming of the bat just a few feet away, for the first time, she felt like the band released. The invisible string, so very tight, loosening from under her heart to extend around the both of them and wrap them in what Scylla could only describe as exhilarating, shaking relief. The touch of Raelle's cotton gloves, that she never thought she'd feel again - the taste of her lips, like blood and rain droplets and a mouthful of just her.

It left Scylla running on a high since she walked away from Raelle just the day before, in the early hours of the morning.

It's not how she hoped she'd meet Raelle's dad. Deep down, no matter how much she tried not to, Scylla had imagined herself, more than once, coming to the Cession hand in hand with the blonde fixer. In love and together, going home to meet the parents. It's bittersweet to be here with Tiffany instead, and she has to squeeze the young witch's hand slightly to ground herself from the urge to run.

To just take the child's small body in her arms and run- leave the station in lieu of a cheap motel, one with vending machines, where they could hide from the world a little longer.

When the witch looks down, however, Tiffany smiles reassuringly back at her, squeezing her hand slightly in return, and Scylla can't help the wave of affection that washes over her.

"Excuse me? Are you Scylla and Tiffany?" A voice coming from behind wakes them back from the moment, and when they turn, both come face to face with Edwin Collar.

Scylla's sure it's him. If not because he does still look quite a lot like the pictures she's seen, then because the necromancer can definitely see the telltale signs of Raelle written all over his face. It's mostly there in the kind drop of his eyelids, and the way his mouth creates tiny wrinkles of soft skin when he smiles, but it's there, nonetheless.

"Yes, we are, nice to meet you, Mr. Collar." Scylla greets, settling down her bag to shake his hand.

"Of course, it's amazing to finally meet you. Raelle talked you up a storm," he declares, chuckling proudly, "only good things, I assure."

"Oh, I'm sure I don't deserve that." She let's out, hoping it sounded more playful than it feels for her.

"Nonsense. You seem like a kind girl." The man decides, with a solemn nod, before turning to Tiffany, "and you- Tiffany, I'm very happy to have you with me this week as well, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun together."

"Thank you, Mr. Collar." The small blonde replies, half-hiding herself behind Scylla's pant leg.

"Let's go then. It's getting cold." Edwin finally declares, taking Scylla's bag from the floor without a question. The girl goes to complain, but he cuts her off before she can - "and don't fight me on this. Raelle also never let's me carry her bags, for once I'd love to help."

Scylla still wants to protest. Mostly because she feels that they have already asked so much - and she doesn't quite deserve the kindness - but he seems sincere, so she nods instead, and with the affirmative, all three begin their way to the parking lot.

"Is Raelle your friend?" Tiffany asks innocently, skipping happily over her boots.

"Uh- she- yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Well, you said we were going to a friend's dad's house." Tiffany notes. "Where is Raelle then?"

"About that-" Edwin stops in his step, "did you see her? How is she?" He asks, an uneasy tension settling over his demeanor as he studies Scylla for answers, "they told me she was alive but that was it-"

"She's okay. I saw her yesterday, she was well." The brunette assures, and that seems to send a wave of relief over the man, who breathes deeply before continuing their walk along the various cars.

"Oh, thank goodness." He sighs, "when those people took her I thought- I'm so glad she's okay."

"Yeah. We were all worried." Scylla declares. And this, she can relate to. The way he cares so much for Raelle, it spills into the very movement of his expressions. It's familiar, and it warms her heart. She decides right then that she likes Edwin.

"Did the bad people take Raelle too?" Tiffany questions, frowning in scared surprise as they reach Edwin's old truck.

Scylla sighs, not having revealed much of the mission she'd gone on the day before. She knew it'd be scary for her. Tiffany was still very much traumatized, and rightfully so, after everything she'd been through. But Tiffany was also very smart- and observant. She'd catch up eventually and Scylla feels stupid for not dealing with this before coming.

"Yeah. They tried to hurt her, but me and her other friends didn't let them." The necromancer assures, as she helps the girl into the backseat and clicks in her seatbelt, "she's okay now. We're all safe here."

"Oh- Okay." Tiffany nods, but Scylla can see the doubt shining under her eyes.

Scylla wishes she knew what to say, but words fail her, so she squeezes the girl's hand reassuringly once more, winking in what she hopes is humorous solidarity, before closing the door.

***

Raelle's house is just like she imagines- small, rustic - surrounded by a thick canopy of trees and bushes. It reminds her of the places she used to stay with her parents, scattered over random cities all over the U.S. Scylla likes it.

"It isn't much, but we always have warm dinner and pancakes in the morning." Edwin quips, humbly, as he leads the pair of witches to Raelle's room, "you can stay here. Hope it is comfortable."

"This is more than enough, Edwin." Scylla smiles gratefully, "it's too much, really. Thank you for letting us stay."

"Nonsense." He waves his hand with a half embarrassed chuckle, "It's good to have people here again. After Rae and Tally left everything feels a lot quieter." Scylla nods in agreement, as the man turns to leave the room, the two witches inside watching him carefully, "You guys should change and rest a bit- I'll call you for dinner.

Scylla thanks him, and waits until the door clicks behind his back to turn her attention to the luggage that had been settled over a random chair. The room is filled with so much Raelle, she can't help but notice the letters, pictures, memories and song lyrics, glued to every single wall, from a time before Fort Salem, before them.

The blonde used to leave notes on her dorm walls back at Fort Salem. Lots of silly things like "I'll be back after training" or "You fight people in your sleep. It's cute.". Scylla wonders if they are still there or if they've been taken by the army when she was captured. It doesn't matter anymore, the necro realizes, and she shakes her head in an effort to bring her attention back to the room.

"You should put on some pajamas." Scylla says toward Tiffany, who sat, grievously quiet, at Raelle's bed.

She looked thoughtful, in a way regular six year olds don't quite show unless they have to go through way too much. Her small, bright eyes hide barely concealed darkness as she shifts her looks everywhere but at the older witch.

Scylla sighs, finding this place - this relationship - so very painfully familiar. She'd been the scared little girl last time, feeling so very small and alone. And now, as the adult, she was definitely going to try her best not to fuck it. As difficult as it might be. The world didn't need another suffering witch.

After a few minutes of silence, Scylla realizes she was not going to get an answer, so she opens the girl's backpack and fishes out a pair of mermaid themed leggings and t-shirt, along with the small bag that carried her tooth and hair brushes along with some other toiletries. Scylla places the items by Tiffany on the mattress, kneeling in front of the young witch and studying her clear, soft little face.

"Hey. Are you feeling alright?"

"Are the bad men coming here to hurt us?" Tiffany asks, instead of a response, and Scylla frowns in worry.

"No, of course no-"

"They came and took Raelle too." Tiffany notices, tears escaping from her eyelids that Scylla dries up with her thumb, "and they hurt Miss Willa, the other kids' at the office and my mommy and daddy. What if they come here again? What if they really hurt us this time?" As the questions stumble out of her mouth, sobs begin to wreck across her throat until she's shaking, ever so slightly, with the force of her tears and heavy, panicked breathing.

Scylla sighs and rises from the ground to cuddle the girl close to her chest, squeezing tight until she can feel Tiffany's little arms squeeze her back. Scylla's afraid too - most of the time, if she allowed herself to be honest - Ever since watching Raelle leave her in that cell the year before, the girl could feel even more perfectly the path of death and destruction that marked their (the witches') way through the world.

One of the bad things about being a necro - Death didn't like not being known, and it showed itself insistently, to anyone able to notice.

"We don't know whether or not they'll come again." Scylla ends up responding, sincerely, as she squeezes her arms even tighter around the little girl, "but I won't let them hurt you, you hear me? I dealt with them before, I can deal with them again."

"No" Tiffany shakes her head, frowning up at her in teary-eyed fear, "You too. You're safe too. I don't want you to get hurt either."

"Hey." Scylla forces out a chuckle, trying to lighten up the situation for the young witch's sake, "don't be silly, ok? I'm pretty much invincible."

Tiffany doesn't laugh, her breathing having somewhat returned to normal. The girl just stares back at Scylla with a seriousness that's all too unfair, coming from a six year old, and she reaches out, her pinky finger lifted in expectation, "Pinky promise you'll be safe too? Please?"

Scylla knows she shouldn't. The truth is, she doesn't know what will happen. After their plan to capture Nicte was said and done, Scylla barely had any idea what she would be doing now. But Tiffany obviously needs the reassurance, from the way she stares ever so desperately at the necro's face.

"Okay, I pinky promise." Scylla smiles, trying to convey some calm toward the other girl as she let her pinky link with the smaller one. It seems to work, as Tiffany's expression softens and her tense posture falls, "now let's get you under a shower and into some pajamas, ok? You're a very smelly little witch right now."

"Am not!" Tiffany replies, and Scylla can't help but full on laugh this time, pulling the small girl to Raelle's bathroom as she mockingly protests.

Second chapter is almost done, just needs to be read over for mistakes. For C2, Raelle calls home, Scylla meets old dodger friends and she also has an important conversation with Edwin.

Hope you guys enjoyed!

[lorirwritesfanfic]

Heartfelt Apologies

Author's note: Late submission to @choicesnovchallenge2021​. This fic was supposed to written to Silly Love Stories event, got incredibly delayed because I had a hard time to writing it and another week delayed because I was too lazy to edit 😅 [Original characters are creations of this author. The others are owned by Pixelberry Studios] Book: Platinum Pairing: M!Raleigh Carrera x MC (Tiffani) Rating: E Word count: 3442 Reading time: ~14min Summary: After making a dumb comment and causing an internet drama, Raleigh tries to find his way back into Tiffani’s heart. Based on the prompts: Choices November Challenge - day twenty two: music / Baby Come Back

Heels clicked on the marble floor while Tiffani paced in the living room of her penthouse. The wall clock ticked loudly, making her glance at it more often than she would even dare to admit. Weeks passed since she publicly broke up with Raleigh and, deep down, she knew it was for the best. She was growing tired of playing pretend for the cameras and so was he. Yet, she didn't think this necessary distance between them, even if it was just a fake relationship, would be so hard.

To keep up appearances, Raleigh has been seen with the newest Hollywood starlet and he did everything to deflect questions about Tiffani. It was the right move for both of their careers, but certainly not the one they followed.

Tiffani glanced at the clock on the wall again and scowled.

Two minutes?! What the heck?!?

What was it about the time that life seemed to stand still and, at the same, move so fast when he was around, but without him, seconds felt like long tortuous hours? He said he would be there at 12am sharp. Raleigh Carrera isn't exactly known for his punctuality, but he never made her wait. Besides, he wasn't late. She simply was impatient. And the yearning to be with him didn't make it any easier.

Just then, the elevator doors opened. Calmly removing his jacket, he strolled in with a smirk. "Hey, beautiful."

"Finally..." She growled as she rushed to him, locking her limbs around him as she jumped into his arms.

Grabbing her backside firmly, he whispered in her ear making his way to the master bedroom in haste. "If I knew you were still awake, I would've come sooner."

"I couldn't wait until tomorrow morning. We have so little time together…"

Her fingers dug in his hair as he sat on the bed, taking her with him. Her legs disentangled from him and she knelt on the mattress, each leg on either side of him.

His hands moved up to her waist and he smiled, marveling at the view of Tiffani discarding her green sweater on the floor. "Show how much you miss me."

"Gladly."

With a sly grin, she slowly took off each piece of her clothing and rolled her hips back and forth against him. His hands ran up and down her curves, marveling at the view of her grinding on his lap. Fingers dug into her flesh as a bulge gradually became evident in his pants. She then helped him out of his clothes and shared heated kisses with him, proceeding with her slow and sweet torture without layers of fabric.

Pulling her flush against his body, he peppered kissed down her neck, collarbone and breasts. One of his hands trailed down and reached to caress the soft flesh between her legs.

"You're so ready for me, Tiff..." He murmured, stroking her center in small circles.

Moans escaped her lips as the enticing touch of his hand drove her to the edge. Eager to find release, her hips moved faster. Legs began to tremble and her movements became erratic as she reached her high. Before she could recover, he flipped her down on the bed, pulled her legs over shoulders and sunk into her.

The heat within her body increased in tandem with every thrust of his hips. She couldn't fathom how she felt so satisfied a moment ago, but still wanted more. All she knew was her need to feel every little bit of his manhood inside her as his lips whispered the sweetest and dirtiest words along with her name.

When waves of pleasure could no longer be held back, Tiffani cried out, finding release once again. He followed suit, easing out of her and spilling his hot seed on her stomach. She looked at her belly then at him with a curious look.

"You didn't have to do that. I'm still on the pill, you know."

"I figured you would be. But that wasn't the reason why I pulled out." A mischievous smile played on his lips as he gazed at the cum streaks on her belly.

"You perv," she scoffed, throwing the pillow that supported her head at him.

Laughing, he dodged the pillow attack and playfully bit her calf before he got up to clean himself up.

Tiffani watched him walk to the en suite with a content sigh. With all the ups and downs in her career and personal life, moments of bliss became rarer. Which is why whenever she felt at peace, she always made sure she'd savor it to the fullest. She then reached for her phone, tapped the screen a few times and a seventies rock ballad began to play in the background.

"Tiff?"

She giggled. Raleigh was so picky about music and she could only imagine what he had to say about the song. When he poked his head out of the en suite, she got out of the bed to grab a hairbrush from her dresser and winked at him .

"Babe, don't tell me you—" He trailed off as she walked/danced across the room lip syncing the song.

"Spending all my nights, all my money going out on the town..."

"You can't be serious..."

"Doing anything just to get you off of my mind..."

Raleigh pressed his lips together in annoyance, but soon he couldn't contain his amusement. Her exaggerated dramatic performance captured his attention and a smile tugged on his lips. Once she reached the chorus, he pulled her into his arms and swayed to the beat of the song with her.

"You're unbelievable, Tiff," he whispered. "Only you can be this goofy and sexy at the same time lip syncing a tacky ballad from the seventies."

"Hey! 'Baby Come Back' is a classic!"

"If by 'classic' you mean old and tacky..." He teased.

"It's a timeless song! The rhythm is captivating, the arrangements are anything but outdated, anyone can relate to the lyrics at some point in their lives. It's a great soft rock ballad!" She insisted.

"There are better songs, hermosa."

"I beg to differ," she purrs.

"Alright. How about you come back to bed with me, baby?" He waggled his eyebrows.

She chuckled. "So cheesy."

"Says the person who just lip synced 'Baby Come Back'. But hey, anything to make you smile is worth it," he says, tickling her and kissing her neck, coaxing her until they fall back in the bed.

The next day

Tiffani brushed her teeth calmly when a notification pinged on her phone. She glanced at the screen quickly and ignored it. After weeks having her name involved into stupid rumors, rivalry with Jaylen and her fake breakup with Raleigh, the last thing she needed was to check on Twitter and find more gossip about herself.

But as her phone pinged unceasingly with messages, she picked it up. It was probably her manager or producer checking in to see if she has any new material for the next album.

"What the..." She glared at her phone screen, rage coursing through her veins as she read the content of the messages and tweets. "Carrera, you jerk…" She fumed, stomping out of her room.

The moment she stepped into the lounge, Raleigh grinned at her. "Morning, hermosa. How about we—"

"You asshole! How could you?!" She snarled.

His eyebrows rose. "What?! Babe, what's going on?"

"Oh, you don't know?" She sneered. "You're trending on Twitter!"

Tiffani shoved a tablet next to him on the couch. On the trending topics, a hashtag involving Tiffani's name, several tweets of people mocking both them and a retweet posted by Raleigh with the sentence 'bitches be crazy' had hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets.

"Tiff, I didn't mention anyone specifically. It could be about any of my exes."

"Oh, really?" She smiled, but the look in her eyes was ice cold. "Then why is everyone associating it to me?"

"I don't know! I was bored and retweeted something dumb as a joke."

"A joke?! Seriously, Raleigh?!" She snapped. "You don't understand the impact of the words you just said about me, do you? Or how it affects any of your ex girlfriends?"

"Babe, come on... It isn't that bad..."

He moved closer to her, but she stepped back, staring at him in a mist of sadness and frustration.

"You really don't get it, do you?" She shook her head and sighed. "We're done. Get out of my apartment."

"Tiffani—"

"GET OUT!!!"

"Fine! Whatever!" He yelled back, grabbing his jacket and a few personal things before heading to the elevator. "I hope you realize how stupid this fight is before it's too late."

She let out a humorless laugh. "Don't hold your breath, Carrera!"

With that, Raleigh entered the elevator and they glared at each other until the doors closed.

A week later

In the set of One In A Million, shooting any scenes involving Raleigh were a complete disaster. He arrived late every single day, either constantly hungover or still drunk. He barely exchanged words with the crew, ignored many of the producers suggestions and even made a few candidates cry during the mentoring scenes. Though it made his mean jury persona more believable, a few people realized it was more than just another moment of Raleigh's usual rebellious acts.

As he poured himself another shot of whisky, the assistant assigned to him in the reality show knocked on the door and opened it.

"Mr. Carrera, you're on in ten minutes."

"Whatever..." he grumbled, waving his hand dismissively.

The assistant disappeared for a few seconds leaving the door opened while talking to someone in the hallway.

"Close the fucking door, Spencer!" He yelled.

"Sorry, sir..." The assistant replied and looked back at the person outside the door. "Um... Mr. Carrera?"

"What?!"

"Ms. Wilshere is here to speak to you."

"Tell her I'm not available."

"I can hear you!" Avery's melodious voice echoed through the walls.

Raleigh pinched the bridge of his nose, chastising himself. "Ah, what the hell... Let her in..."

Seconds later, Avery walked in and studied him from the reflection of the mirror. "I think the biggest sponsor of the show would be disappointed that you're not having their drink."

"Hm..." He glanced at the mini freezer sent by the sponsor and smirked. "You're right. I should switch to Cuba libres." He then stood up and opened the mini freezer to grab a Coke and a bottle of rum.

Avery shook her head and approached him. "Raleigh, we're not exactly best friends, but I know this isn't you. Do you realize what you've been doing all week?"

"I've been doing exactly what I'm paid to do," he mumbled, pouring the entire content of the mini bottle of rum into a tumbler.

"No, you're not. Your stage persona may be a jerk sometimes, but you're not a jerk!"

"That's not what I've told lately..." He answered as his Cuba libre was done, lifting the glass to his lips.

"Raleigh, I know there's something else entirely and don't try to deny it."

He rolled his eyes. Of course she did. Avery was like a mentor to Tiffani and they became friends surprisingly fast. "What? Are you going to take her side and lecture me about how sexist I was?"

"No. I think the thousands of tweets and articles about you lately made that pretty clear," she retorted.

Raleigh's shoulders slumped in defeat. After days replaying the whole fight in his head and reading the many articles written about it, he understood what Tiffany meant and why she felt so hurt. He was a complete jerk to her and his exes, even he didn't mean to.

"I'm not a misogynist, okay? That was just a..." He squinted his eyes, trying to remember the right words.

"A temporary lapse of judgement?"

"Exactly."

"You have to tell her that, Raleigh."

"Easier said than done, Wilshere. By the way, that's exactly what she said..." He paused as he recalled Tiffani's reaction. Her voice filled with anger and disappointment replayed in his mind once more as he repeated her words to him. "'We're done.'"

"Please..." Avery placed a hand on her hips and stared at him. "You know better than I do that how she feels about you and it won't go away just because you said something stupid. Tiff is a romantic and it won't be hard for you to find a way back to her heart. You just have to admit you were wrong and that—"

"I just can't live without her?" He uttered as the lyrics of a song came to him as a striking realization. The lyrics of that awfully old and tacky song.

"Well, if that's how you feel about her, sure. Why not?"

"Alright." He put down his drink. "I'll do it. But I need your help."

"I will. And now that we're at it, maybe you have to apologize to a few people as well?" Avery suggested as she gave him a sweet and disarming smile.

"Fine..." He sighed.

"Brilliant!" Avery clapped her hands and beamed at him. "Let's go."

"Now?!" He grimaced.

"Yeah now! Come on!" She grabbed his arm, pulling him out of his backstage dressing room.

Three days later

Tiffani closed the door to the recording booth heaving a frustrated sigh. It had been days since she tried to finish recording a song unsuccessfully. Micah was a great producer, tried to be supportive and help her out, but despite his efforts, the song didn't make out as she or anyone at record label hoped. And the pressure to deliver an outstanding second album was rising each new day.

Unluckily, she knew the reason for her creative block. And she had no one else to blame for it if she couldn't sing a song about falling in love when she was hurt. As she passed by the hallway with platinum albums, anger built inside her again. There was another person she could blame for her terrible week. But he wasn't going to just swoop in and save the day. Not this time.

She waved to the receptionist of the studio, walked outside and looked around. But to her surprise, there was no sign of Hank waiting for her. She then picked her phone and called her driver.

"Hank, where are you?"

"Hey, Tiffani. I'm stuck in traffic on Fifth Avenue, sorry... Can you wait inside the studio?"

"No..."

"You had another bad day at the studio, didn't you?"

"Yeah..." She breathed.

She couldn’t hide her feelings from Hank so easily, even if he wasn't looking right at her. Luckily, he was a good friend and there was no reason for her to pretend to be fine inside the car.

"Hey, I'm just a few blocks away. You could take a walk, give yourself time to think... Before you know, you'll be in here and I'll get you home," Hank suggested.

"Okay. I'll see you soon." Tiffani hung up and shoved her hands on her coat pockets to fight the cold.

She was just one block away from Fifth Avenue when someone in a sports car slowed down and got out to reach her.

"Tiffani!" Raleigh called.

"Go away!" She replied without looking back.

"Tiff, please!"

"No!"

"At least, let me explain!"

She turned around, throwing him an icy glare. "Is there really anything to explain?"

"Yeah!"

"I'm not in the mood. I'm going home."

"No, you're not. You'll be in your car, stuck in traffic, eating candy bars and thinking about how much of a jerk I am."

"Don't flatter yourself, Carrera." She scowled.

"I know you will, hermosa." He then stood in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. "And you know what? You're right. I am a jerk and what I did was stupid. But I'm sorry. And I'm ready to do anything for you to forgive me."

Tiffani sighed as mixed feelings built up inside her. "Raleigh, I'm tired. I can't deal with this right now..."

"Okay, okay... But I'm going to prove to you that I can change."

As they approached Fifth Avenue, Raleigh ran towards the middle of the traffic jam.

"What the..." She observed him running between the cars and jumping a few to get to the middle of an intersection. "What the hell are you doing, Raleigh?!"

He turned around and grinned at her. "Enjoy the show, babe!"

Just then, a familiar drum beat and a bass rhythm blasted through the loudspeakers spread on the sidewalks. Tiffani looked around in astonishment as she realized what was happening. "You've got to be kidding me..."

On a small improvised stage in the middle of the intersection surrounded by a large crowd, Raleigh stepped on it to join his band, picked up his guitar and put on a headset microphone as the other musicians continued to play.

"Hey y'all! How is everyone doing this evening?" He greeted the crowd with a smile, who cheered in response.

"I know I screwed up your chances to get home early. Sorry not sorry…" He smirked at the crowd. “By the way, thanks to Avery Wilshere and Hank Hatora for figuring out a way to help me legally jam the traffic.”

“What?!” Tiffani blurted as the crowd cheered at Raleigh, who continued to address them.

"Y'all must have seen a stupid shit I did last week. That cost me so much I can't even put it into words. But I'm going to sing about it and prove to the most beautiful woman I've ever met that I love her and y'all are going help me, alright?"

While the crowd shouted yes and applauded, Raleigh locked eyes with Tiffani, who slowly got closer to the stage.

"Tiffani Liang!" He pointed to her in the middle of the crowd. "This one is for you, babe."

Tiffani stared in shock as Raleigh began to play the guitar and the song started at last. As he sang, goosebumps spread over her skin.

"Spending all my nights, all my money going out on the town,/doing anything just to get you off of my mind..."

That same soft, romantic melody with unique guitar arrangements she had heard and sang along on the radio all her life, the one she lip synced as a joke and he mocked suddenly gained a new meaning.

"But when the morning comes, I'm right back where I started again,/ trying to forget you was just a waste of time..."

In Raleigh's voice, the lyrics were filled with passion and regret. Somehow more romantic and soulful than the original version, the song captivated the audience, who sang along with him the entire time.

"Baby, come back! You can blame it all on me. I was wrong and I just can't live without you!"

During the entire chorus, Raleigh's eyes never left Tiffani's. She was well aware of his tricks to make it look like he was gazing into someone's eyes in the middle of a crowd. But this time, she could feel it.

The song was about to reach its end, he stopped singing and spoke again as he climbed down the stage to meet her. "Tiff, you were about everything. About how sexist I was, how unreasonable I was and about this song. It is timeless and I couldn't stop listening to it since I left your apartment that day."

Her heart raced in her chest and mouth went dry. She could barely believe he revealed their secret.

"You said you're tired. Well, I am too. I'm tired of hiding my feelings from the world, of pretending I don't care about us when you're all I think about." He moved closer, reached for her hand and pulled her close. "Tiffani Liang, will you forgive me and be my girlfriend for real?"

The crowd went wild as Tiffani stared at him mesmerized. This was an insane and completely over the top way to apologize, especially when they weren't supposed to be seen together. Then again, dating Raleigh Carrera meant expect the unexpected.

"You're crazy..."

"That ain't news to you, babe," he joked.

"Raleigh, I..."

"Say yes." He pushed the microphone away from his face to whisper in her ear. "Let me be yours for real, Tiffani."

The crowd surrounding them began to chant 'forgive him'.

"You don't know how to play fair, don't you?"

"All is fair in love, babe."

Tiffani shook her head, but smiled. "I forgive you."

Cradling her face, he leaned in and kissed her as the crowd applauded them. As they pulled apart, she pressed her forehead on his.

"So you enjoy the old and tacky song now..." She teased.

"Hey, don’t mock the classics."

The two of them chuckled.

Avery then swooped in to take the stage. “Hello everybody! Let’s cheer for the happy couple singing our hearts out!”

As one of Avery’s ballads began to play, Tiffani looked back at Raleigh. “It looks like you have everything all figured out.”

“I do. Including a strategic exit just in case…” He nodded towards Hank, who leaned on the car at the corner of the street not far from where they were.

“Are you ready to get out of here, babe?”

“So ready.”

Tiffani then intertwined their fingers as they held hands and disappeared into the streets.

[hargrove-mayfields]

Harringrove April Day 16- Nostalgia

On just about every flat surface in their mansion, Steve’s mother had put out some fancy Tiffany light fixture.

Steve’s room was the only place in the whole house he got to have any day in the interior design, and his lamp, well it didn’t quite have a stained glass shade, or ornate detailing to fancy up the mansion, his happens to be an old nursery lamp from when he was six and still had a themed bedroom.

At the peak of his too cool for school teenager bullshit, he’d attempted to throw it out, sent it away to the curb with a bag of stuffed animals he claimed he didn’t need anymore, but the very same night he started having nightmares again, so he scrambled to get it back before the raccoons found it first.

That dusty old lamp had saved him from countless nights spent awake and terrified, and he wasn’t one to say he was ashamed of that.

Except, now Billy Hargrove, the pinnacle of badass, is in his room, and there it is, still plugged in on the nightstand.

Of all things too, it couldn’t have just been a generic race car lamp or something he could play off as not really being for kids, it had to be stupid Bambi.

There’s a story behind it, that when he was a toddler, his first venture out of Indiana was to go see his gramma over in Maryland, and, after one look at his big brown eyes and his fluffy brown hair, she immediately nicknamed him Bambi.

After that the name just sort of stuck with him, his parents using it when they wanted on his good side, to make up for forgetting his birthday, or as an apology for leaving him alone so long the babysitter left, so of course his mom thought it would be adorable if his bedroom was themed around it.

Somewhere in a dusty corner of the attic, he still had the curtains and the quilt and the wall hangings, and under his bed was a pillow embroidered with his name and a picture of the clumsy cartoon deer made by his gramma. And of course, there was the brightly shining lamp.

He would never admit that he kept them there for when he was at his most frightened, clutching the pillow to his chest during a nightmare, or wrapping the soft material of the tiny old quilt around his shoulders when he felt an imaginary pair of eyes watching him.

Because Steve had seen some shit, he felt that after witnessing a ten-foot tall faceless monster come through the ceiling and try to kill him, and having a herd of baby versions of that same monster charge at him with nothing but a baseball bat to protect himself and a group of defenseless children, he had earned the right to use a damn nursery lamp in his bedroom.

But, that ass-backwards swell of pride at still using his childhood comfort items at 19 years old is definitely crushed by the fact that, after being in his room for a grand total of five minutes, that’s immediately what Billy drifts to.

A drunken apology at a New Year’s party might have made up for the concussion and proved he was probably not going to beat his face in again, but it didn’t change the fact that he was in Steve’s bedroom with the edge of the printed lampshade pinched between his fingers, and a contemplative look on his face.

It was a little while after their truce was reached, that Billy just started showing up at the Harringtons’ door unannounced. Sometimes it was to borrow Steve’s first aid kit. Sometimes he’d steal some of his weed. Once he’d come over just to watch something on Steve’s TV. Whatever his reason, Steve had let him in every time.

In this particular instance, it had been Steve who had called Billy, because he had a math project and an essay due first thing tomorrow morning, and Nancy was too busy to help him.

At first he’d considered just not getting the work done, but he decided Billy would do. He was smart enough that the co-ed teacher in the math class they shared had begged him to switch to the advanced classes, so Steve figured his help wouldn’t be so bad.

But his desk where all of his school stuff is is upstairs in his bedroom, where he’s left out the dumb baby lamp, and of course that would be exactly what Billy goes straight for. Steve feels himself start to panic a little, unsure if he could trust Billy’s reaction, and convincing himself that Billy might beat his ass for being a fragile little fairy or something.

It never comes, Billy just sits down all casual on the bed next to Steve, pulling one of his legs up so he could cross it over his knee, and nods over at the lamp again. “Wish I still had something from when I was little.”

The weight of the entire universe is lifted from Steve’s chest, knowing that Billy isn’t going to tear his head off. He lets out a sharp breath he didn’t know he was holding in. “Yeah?”

Billy nods and looks down, fidgeting with the pendant he always wore around his neck. “My dad threw everything out. All I have is one little picture of my mom.”

Steve knew he lived with his step-mom, but had never even thought about what happened to Billy’s real mother. He realizes the pendant was probably a locket, the very one that holds the aforementioned picture, and asks “Can I see it?”

It looks like Billy has to think about it, as he keeps twisting the locket between his fingers, before he nods and opens it. Steve leans towards him, putting his hand up under it and holding it in his palm, straining to see the tiny, aged picture.

Even though he’s never seen this woman, it makes Steve incredibly sad, seeing her little face all worn out in that locket around her son's neck. He wonders if she was dead, or if maybe she’d lost custody for some reason, or if maybe she had just left, but whatever happened, when his eyes flicker back up to Billy’s face, the tears shining in his eyes and the way he avoids his gaze, he knows better than to ask.

Steve lets the locket fall and watches Billy snap it shut quickly, and he realizes he has no idea what the right thing to say is.

What he wants to say is that he’s sorry, for him losing his mother and having nothing but one yellowed and tear stained picture to remember her by, but that seems too much like prying, somehow not really appropriate.

Instead, he remembers what Billy said about his dad throwing his stuff out and says, “Your dad must be a real asshole, huh?”

Billy scoffs and blinks away the last of the tears in his eyes. “You’ve got no idea, Harrington.” There’s a long awkward pause, until Billy asks, “You know how I’m always coming over here with like, all kinds of shit wrong with me?”

Steve thinks he knows where this was going. “Sure.”

Chewing on the corner of his nail, Billy takes a moment to get his thoughts together, his eyes flitting nervously across the room, focusing on pretty much anything but Steve, mostly the picture frame behind him. “I lied. It’s not, like, fights or whatever I say. At least not with other kids.”

Steve himself was no stranger to conversations like these, he himself had to confess something of a similar calibre to Nancy, when they were still dating, because his father had come home from a business trip pissed off about something, and slapped him across the face just a little too hard. The sturdy silver ring that he wore on his middle finger had split the skin on Steve’s cheek, and he couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to cover his tracks.

Admitting to it out loud was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do, so he decides he won’t make Billy say it. Maybe they weren’t on the best of terms, only here to do homework or whatever, but if he was going to open up about this, he definitely wasn’t going to make him experience that same humiliation he had.

“Is it your dad? That does that to you?” Nancy hadn’t been kind enough to spare him, forcing him to tell her once that the scar he so proudly sported wasn’t actually from a fist fight with Tommy like he said, and he wouldn’t do the same to Billy.

In lieu of a response though, Billy sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth, his hands starting to shake ever so subtly, and Steve knows he’s got to keep pressing. “Do you need help? I can call the chief-“

“No.” Billy shakes his head and makes eye contact with Steve for the first time since he started talking. “Cops only make it worse.”

Steve could understand that, had tried once when he was about eight or so, with the assistance of one of the housekeepers, to call the police when his father twisted his arm so far behind his back his shoulder popped out of place, but they wouldn’t dare arrest a public figure like his father, especially not for a little corporal punishment. The first thing they’d asked was what Steve had done wrong, not why his father had felt it fitting to beat on his eight year old for a tiny mistake. He never asked for help again.

“Well is there anything I can do?” Despite their differences and the fact that he only called him here to cheat on his homework, he truly did want to help Billy. Something about repeatedly surviving horrific monster attacks made him a lot more protective of those around him, and now that they were over their dumb pissing contest, Billy was included in that too.

“Think you’ve done enough letting me into your mansion, unless that’s not good enough for your hero complex.” It was a pathetic jab, there was no bite behind his broken tone, and Steve would almost rather have him at his worst than see him so vulnerable and sad.

Steve tries to reason with him softly, “You know it’s not like that, Billy.”

“Do I?” Walls had been put up as Billy made his last ditch efforts to protect himself from being weak in front of Steve. “Cause where I’m sitting, it seems like you get off on charity cases like mine. You tryin to swoop in and save me, King Steve? Feed your ego so you can feel like the savior you were always meant to be?”

He was baiting him, trying to pick a fight so he’d push him away, Steve had seen it all before in himself and wouldn’t fall for it. “Listen. I just want to help you.”

Everything about Billy suddenly seemed to make a whole lot more sense. That whole part animal, tough guy thing was just an act, and Steve knew because he had done essentially the same thing.

Before Nancy Wheeler had taught him to be better, he and Billy really weren’t so different. He’d let high school bullshit bother him, beat up the nerds and fucked all the cheerleaders and mocked anyone lower than him on the social ladder like he was supposed to, but it always made him feel off.

In the end, it had been so easy to get him to the other side, to show him what to do instead, he supposed all he needed was a little push to help him actualize what he already believed.

And then it hits him, in that moment, that this was Billy’s push in the right direction. That he was Billy’s Nancy.

“I don’t expect you to tell me everything and I’m not doing this for me, just,” It became extremely important to him to not set Billy off, to say just the right thing to keep him on the right track. “my door is always open, Billy.”

At first, it seemed to have worked, Billy sat staring at the floor, his lip quivering as he mulled over Steve’s words, but, when he stood abruptly and snatched his leather jacket from where it was draped over the back of Steve’s desk chair, Steve knows he messed up.

“Where are you going?” He stands up fast enough to give himself a head rush while Billy shrugs his jacket back on and yanks the door open.

“Need a smoke.” That’s all he gets before the door slammed in his face, and he hears Billy's heavy boots stomping down the stairs and the sound of him slamming his front door.

He waits with bated breath and tears pricking the corners of his eyes for the sound of Billy’s car starting and tearing out of his driveway, but it never comes.

Still, he feels immensely guilty and selfish and stupid as all hell for not just biting his tongue. He should’ve just fought back, argued with him like was expecting him to instead of trying to be comforting like he was his fucking therapist or something.

Because this was Billy fucking Hargrove, stereotypical meat head bully. Why he even felt the need to help him, other than their similar upbringings and coping mechanisms, or the fact that Billy had obviously been reaching out, hoping for someone to care, was beyond him. Or maybe it really wasn’t, he knew exactly why, he just felt weak and stupid for trying, and especially so for failing.

Apparently he’d been so caught up in his little pity party that he missed the sound of the door opening back up, and didn’t notice Billy had come back until his bedroom door was open.

Steve was so relieved that Billy came back, that he hadn’t pushed him too far or fucked everything up, even if he reeked of too strong cigarettes, and growled at him when he came in, “Don’t we got fucking work to do, Harrington?”

They don’t end up finishing the essay. Steve was hopeless with numbers, and they were too busy goofing off, so the math project didn't get done very quickly. It was okay though, Billy wasn’t much help at all when it came to English anyways.

Steve walks him outside when he has to go, beating a curfew of midnight. He stops on the porch, immediately crossing his arms against the frigid cold of the night air. Billy stops too at his car, his fingers through the handle, and turns around, calling across the yard. “Hey Harrington?”

He hardly waits for Steve’s response, a quick “Yeah?” to tell him, “Thank you.”

There isn’t time for Steve to respond before Billy’s yanking open the door of his Camaro and backing out of the driveway, but he knows he’d still made astronomical progress tonight.

It makes him feel incredibly dumb, laying in his bed that night, illuminated by the warm light of that very same Bambi lamp and trying to put his thoughts of Billy to rest like he was some cheesy teenage girl, but he’s just happy to have found a friend, to have made a difference in somebody’s life, and he knows that on the other side of town, laying in own bed with his locket left open on the pillow beside him, Billy feels the same way.

[seiyasabi]

Feeble

(This is a Yandere Bratty Overhaul x Female Reader story, that takes place after his arms get yeeted off of his disgusting body :)) Anyways, this may not be canon lol, and I’m sorry in advance if this sucks or my bias against this man is completely out there. But, I hope you enjoy! 

TW: !noncon/dubcon!, You have to take on a somewhat dominant roll (by force of his hand (lol)), creampie!, threats!, he ends up becoming v whiny bc you are taking too long, you’re quirkless (ofc), v v bratty attitude, dick riding!, no prep!, his vibes are weird, !Overhaul gives instruction but you’re still considered the dom?, truth serum, !breeding,  maid to wife troupe, etc.. 

If any of these themes are triggering, please don’t continue!) 

“Uhm, I think you have the wrong person, Mr. Overhaul. Should I call Mr. Chronostasis and ask him to bring a sex worker-?” 

“No, you’re the person I want, (Your Name). Please, I want you to touch me!” You feel as though this is a set up. Did that girl from the LOV break in and take your boss’ form? Because, the last time you checked, this man hates human contact. Something about everyone being dirty causing him to shy away from your touch whenever you’re assigned to help him with his daily routines. 

“Mr. Overhaul, I’m sorry, but what? You don’t even like me touching you with gloves on, so I find it quite weird that you suddenly want me to have sex with you. I think I should get a doctor to see if you were drugged-” 

“If you don’t come here right now, I’ll kill everyone you care about!” Shuffling awkwardly, you try to wrack your brain for a plan. You know that his threats are serious, but you also know that his aversion to other people is even more serious than that. But, when you look into his pleading amber eyes, you know that he genuinely wants you close. So, you slowly shuffle to his bedside where he writhes in impatience. Yeah, this man is clearly drugged. 

Now standing beside him, you shift your weight from foot to foot, trying in vain to seem calm, “Uh, so,” You clear your throat, “Why are you like this? I mean-what I meant to say is,what happened?” He doesn’t answer. Instead, he swings his legs over the side of the bed near you, and wraps his thighs around your middle, before dragging you on top of him. Yelping in surprise, you try to move off of him, but he holds strong. Is this what he’s been doing since his arms got ripped off? He’s just been doing leg day everyday? 

“Nothing happened, I just need your tight pussy to crush my cock,” Blanching at his raunchy and out of character words, you look down at him in disbelief. 

“Okay, no. Clearly you’re that girl from the LOV, what was her name again? Tabitha? Tiffany? Toga? Yes, Toga! Toga, the people here will literally kill you-” 

“I’m not Toga! I’m Chisaki Kai, the leader of the Shie Hassaikai, and your future husband. Now, hurry up and take off my mask and clothes before I become angry enough that I decide to kill an entire orphanage,” Who the hell is this guy? You’ve never heard him say crazy stuff like this, and it is really creeping you out. So, you nod yes that you’ll follow his orders, and when he releases you, you run for the exit. You can hear his yelling from behind you as you bang on the locked door. 

“Mr. Chronostasis, please let me out! Mr. Overhaul has been replaced by a clone! He’s not acting like himself-” 

“Just do as he says,” The bored voice of your Boss’ right hand man makes you jump in surprise, “Earlier today, he was hit with a truth serum, causing him to say virtually anything that comes to mind. Currently, you’re the only one he wishes to see, and if you defy his orders, I’ll be forced to punish you by hurting your loved ones,” That explains everything, but it still freaks you out. 

“Bu-but he says he wants to-” 

“I don’t need to know about your personal life. Go back to pleasing him, and we’ll all make it out alive.” 

It’s clear that no one is willing to help you. Tears fill your eyes. You’re so fucked, literally and figuratively. You turn back to your seething boss, and quietly go back to his bedside, head bowed in both shame and surrender. 

“It’s nice of you to return, (Your Name). Are you done acting like a child?” That’s rich coming from a bratty, snobbish man. Yet, you nod your head yes, causing a grin to cover his face. You can tell that he’s smiling by the way his eyes crinkle and how his mask shifts, but instead of being amazed that he showed a facial expression, you’re somewhat disturbed,”Good. Now, undress me, or I’ll be forced to hurt you.” 

Nodding once more, you reach out, and remove his mask, exposing his somewhat handsome face. He’d be cute to you if he didn’t abuse children. Numbly, you start to unbutton his dress shirt, allowing his tattooed chest to be out in front of you. Then you remove his dress shoes, socks, and trousers. His briefs are the only thing shielding your eyes from receiving an eyeful of cock, and by the way he’s leering up at you, you know that he wants them off too. So, you suck in a deep breath, before sliding them off his muscular legs. 

His cock, unfortunately, is quite large, making you gulp anxiously. His tip is a dark red, whilst there are multiple veins running down its sides. There’s also a large bead of precum at his tip that’s drooling down his length, showing just how painfully hard he is. 

“So, uh, what do you want me to do?” It’s a dumb question, and you want to bang your head into the floor for speaking before thinking, but Chisaki just smiles. This is one reason why he likes you so much, you never have any underlying motives, because you always speak your mind. 

“Please suck my cock, I need you to choke on it,” You awkwardly bring your face to his crotch, eyes looking anywhere but his own. Once close enough, you tentatively lick his slit, making him buck his hips in response. A loud whine escapes his throat, as his cock bumps your slightly parted lips, “Deep throat me! Take me in all the way, (Your name)!” 

This guy sure is bossy for someone who has no arms. 

“How do you ask nicely?” 

“Please deep throat me! Please!” Glancing up, you see tears bead his eyes, letting you know that he’s desperate. 

“I’ll try my best,” Opening your mouth all the way, you slowly but surely take in his entire length, lightly choking on his thick cock. But, you hum in the hopes of not throwing up, especially when he starts to furiously buck into your throat. Drool and precum drip down your chin in thick rivulets, as the man above you keens and whines in pleasure. 

“Thank you! Thank you! Your throat feels like a pussy!” How this guy knows that a pussy feels like is beyond you, especially when he’s so anal about who is allowed to touch him, but whatever. You just allow him to fuck your throat until he’s done. Suddenly, he pulls out, cumming all over your face. Thick globe of seed coat your skin, and you’re so glad that you closed your eyes when he busted, because you can feel your eyelashes clump together, “You look so good covered in my cum, (Your Name). But, why don’t you undress so I can see all of you?” 

“Of course,” There’s no way that you’ll get out of this, so you might as well just go along with it. Standing up, you unbutton your blouse, all whilst pulling off you pencil skirt and kicking off your (heels/dress shoes). Once in your undergarments, you slowly remove your bra and panties, not really wanting him to see you nude. But, the loud gasps and keening from the man only tells you that he’s seeing everything. 

“You’re so perfect for me, (Your Name). You have child bearing hips, which is a good sign. Why don’t you use my cum to prepare yourself?” His words unnerve you, but you nod yes anyways. Scooping the thick cum from your face, you slowly bring the white tinted liquid to your unprepared cunt, and push it inside. It’s slightly cold from the air in the room, but you don’t let that stop you. From what you can tell, he doesn’t care about your pleasure, “There, now you’re ready for me. Come here, I wish for you to ride my cock.” 

The fact that you were right about him not caring annoys you slightly, but you go along with it once more. Hand reaching out for the side of the bed, you feel for where he’s sitting, before pulling yourself onto the mattress and crawling towards him. Once seated on his lap, you lightly grind on his erect cock, before sitting up on your knees, and lowering yourself on his tip. This is going to hurt, especially because you’re hardly prepared at all- Your thoughts are cut off by your loud scream. Chisaki has taken it upon himself to force his cock inside of you, not allowing you to go at your own pace. 

“You feel so good! You’re so tight it hurts,” Tears and crusted cum drip from your closed eyes, as you’re forced to ride his cock at a breakneck pace. You wrap your arms around his shoulders in the hopes of gathering your bearings, and lean your head on his chest, “You feel that good, (Your Name)? You feel so good that you’re practically falling apart?” The answer is no, but you’re forced to humour him. 

“Yes, Mr. Overhaul! It feels so good!” It’s forced, but he doesn’t seem to notice, only picking up the pace, which you didn’t think was possible. A loud sob escapes your throat at the pain that you’re currently feeling, but it slowly turns numb. You know that if you run your clit that you’ll cum, but you’re unsure if you truly want that. Then he’ll think he’s hot shit, which isn’t true. 

“You’re milking me for everything I’ve got, aren’t you? You want me to cum so deep inside of you, that you’ll be pregnant with the first burst? Don’t worry, I’ll happily do that for you! I need heirs, and since you’re quirkiness, there’s a high chance they’ll gain my quirk. Isn’t that exciting?” After processing his words, you try to get off of him. There’s no way in hell that you’re risking him actually cumming inside of you. What you did earlier was already risky enough. 

“You can’t do that! We aren’t even married-“ He silences you with a forceful kiss, his spit swapping with your own. When your hips move away from his, he follows you, cock still jackhammering into your now slick cunt. You move so far away, that you fall onto your back into the missionary style. Chisaki wraps his legs around your own, not allowing you to move any farther. 

“That’s alright, we’ll get married if you’d like. You’re clean and quirkless, making you the perfect candidate for my wife. Hopefully you’re fertile too, because I’m about to fill you to the brim with my cum,” You shake your head no rapidly, but you feel him still inside of you. His balls twitch repeatedly, before you feel his hot cum shoot inside of you. He grunts in your ear, before he bucks into you a few more times, trying to pack in as much baby batter as possible. You feel him fill your womb enough that you swell slightly, feeling bloated and sick to your stomach. Leaning down, Chisaki kisses your bloated tummy, happiness filling him up entirely. 

“Well, I better to shower and take a Plan B. I’ll leave now-“ You try to sit up only for the taller man to lean onto you, trapping you with his own weight. 

“You’re not going anywhere. I told you my true feelings, (Your Name), remember? You’re going to stay with me for the rest of your days.” 

Gulping only fear, you take in a shuddering breath, “Why? Why me? I just clean the place-“ 

“You’re more than that. I know when there’s a clean person in my presence, and that was only proven the day you helped me bathe for the first time. Usually, I break out into hives when someone touches me, but with you, I didn’t so much as itch. Clearly, that means you’re the only one for me. There’s no reason to fight it, (Your Name). You know that I’m rich and influential, which will allow you to want for nothing and fear nothing. Our children will be considered Mafia Princes and Princesses, so there’s also no reason to worry. Give in, and this will be as easy as breathing. Fight it, and I may have my men do unspeakable acts. What is your decision?” All you want to do is take a nap to think it over, but you know that you won’t have such a luxury. So, you respond with the easy answer. 

“Okay. I’ll marry you.” 

[whereisten]

Creature Feature - Part 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Preview | Taeil blurb

Summary: You work at your family’s 9-5 nighttime theater for the supernatural. Your fling with vampire!Taeyong is just that: a fling.

Pairing: Vampire!Taeyong x female reader

Word Count: 4.9k words

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Smut

Warnings: cursing, attempted suicide mention, death mention, oral sex (male receiving), fingering, penetration, cock warming

Part 3

[8:30 PM]

It was Saturday night. Your parents rewarded you with the weekend off and you caught up on some sleep and did some online shopping. You sat in your apartment in one of the many high rises in Downtown Mystic. You laid on the couch and scrolled through a webtoon on your tablet, kicking your legs like a lovesick schoolgirl. The latest chapter of the webcomic had you gushing. 

Your phone sounded off a text. You didn’t even have to check who it was.

Your parents were back for two weeks now and Yuta’s gifts did not cease. He was sneaky, you had to hand it to him. He somehow always knew when your parents weren’t around to drop things off at your office. It was a good thing he never figured out where you lived.

Day 1 (when your parents came back): The Tiffany necklace

Day 2: a $250 gift card to the Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa

Day 3: a Versace safety pin evening dress (he knew your measurements a little too well as it fit you like a glove)

Day 4: Godiva chocolate covered strawberries delivered to you every night before you left for work

…..It made your head spin to even go to Day 14. 

You didn’t use any of Yuta’s gift’s (except for the strawberries because those couldn’t go to waste and you planned to start up a payment plan with him when you kindly rejected him...AGAIN). 

Every time you tried to approach Yuta, though, you were always pulled in another direction by an employee at work. You were everyone’s go-to woman. Their emotional support only daughter. You couldn’t catch a break.

To hell with it, when you got back to work on Monday night, you would ignore everyone for 10 minutes and they would just have to accept it. You would find Yuta when he “stopped by to meet a friend” like he has for the past two weeks. 

Taeyong wasn’t around much either. You met up only a couple of times to French kiss like it was a contact sport but conveniently neither of you had time to be disappointed when you had to part. You both had lives to live. Separately. 

So, there you were, on Saturday night, feeling antsy with nothing to do now that you had to wait for the next chapter of True Beauty to update next week. You weren’t used to being free on a Saturday. It was a weird feeling. To no avail, you called up a couple of friends to see if they were down to go clubbing. You were always the designated driver so you thought they would jump at the chance to avoid paying for a Lyft. 

Alcohol only had a temporary effect on your body: hence, the dream designated driver. 99% human. You wished there was a name for the type of creature you were. Your parents were adamant that you were a human but you knew you stood out from the rest of that population. Your parents were never particularly fond of talking about your family history either so that did wonders for your anxiety.

Age 16

“But mom, how is that I can sense things? The other day at CVS I got change back from the cashier and I knew he wasn’t human. How does that make sense?” I asked.

“You were kissed by an angel, sweetheart. You were blessed with all sorts of quirky gifts. But you are a human: the purest of all of the creatures. Well, below angels. But we’re pretty close.” She replied, winking. I inherited humility from her, apparently.

Now that you were getting older...you were starting to have doubts about this whole “kissed by an angel” business. Why didn’t your mom have any of your abilities? It just didn’t add up. 

You could only hold on to the things you knew: you could understand any creature, you could identify any creature in disguise, your cuts from falls healed very quickly, you could manipulate your dreams, your alcohol tolerance was most impressive, and you had a powerful urge to be with a vampire. 

You missed the feel of Taeyong’s elegant fingers tracing against your thighs and moving dangerously close to your heat. His teasing was torturous but you enjoyed every second of it. You found yourself mimicking his movements to yourself and imagining he was there with you. 

You got off on fantasizing Taeyong on top of you on the couch but the euphoria didn’t last long.

You sighed. You felt really stupid for not sharing your phone number with him. 

 🎥

You thought about going to Target for the hell of it since you never had a chance to go. Your unusual schedule would usually lead you to groggily shop for groceries at 8 in the morning once in a while. You were elated to go at nighttime and kill a couple of hours browsing.

You chose to go makeup free and in an old university tee and yoga pants. It felt good not give a fuck about how you looked for a night. 

You headed over to Target and made a beeline for the Starbucks to get a frappuccino. You haven’t had one of them in months and you were close to the point of tears when you tasted the whipped cream again .

You moaned in happiness. “Yes.”

“I’ve heard that before,” a voice came from behind you. 

You jumped at hearing Taeyong’s voice. “AH!’

Taeyong chuckled when you turned around. “Stop! I could’ve dropped my frap.”

He was in a loose-fitting white tee and black jeans. They looked affordable but you knew that was not the case. He took the straw and drank some of your drink. “I would’ve bought you another one.”

You rolled your eyes. “Very charming. What are you doing here?” 

“It’s nice to see you, too, y/n,” he said, pecking your cheek and caressing it. 

You sighed. “Do you live around here?” This Target was down the street from your place. 

He shook his head. “I’ve been on the lookout for a video game for Doyoung. I’ve been to two Targets already.” Doyoung was one of Taeyong’s vampire pals. 

You frowned. “You should’ve called ahead and asked if they had it in stock.”

Taeyong’s eyes grew. “I did not realize that was an option.”

You laughed. “It’s cool. If you want, we can go to all of the Targets across town until we find Doyoung’s game.”

He smiled. “I’d like that.”

The third time was the charm as Taeyong found Doyoung’s game: Princess Peach & Pals 2. You high fived each other when you checked it out.

Taeyong asked, “I didn’t see you at Sinema yesterday. Are you okay?” 

You took his hand and squeezed it. “Got the weekend off.”

Taeyong looked happier than you did when your parents told you. “I’m glad. You really needed it.” 

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s kind of weird not having any plans or someone knocking at my door asking for help with the claw machine.”

He chuckled because he helped you fix the claw machine a couple of times. “So you’re free, then?”

“Yup. Why? What were you thinking?”

He stepped back and wrapped his arms around you from behind. “Spend the night with me.”

You restrained yourself from yelling yes a hundred times. “Okay.”

Taeyong led you to the parking lot. He approached his motorcycle, a 2018 Suzuki. You stopped. How could you forget that he rode a motorcycle.

“y/n?” Taeyong asked as he pulled out two helmets. 

“You know what, how about I just take a Lyft over to your place? Gives you time to hide your snacks and your blood bags.” You avoided his stare.

He frowned. “Why?”

“I’m...I don’t do motorcycles.” You hugged yourself. 

You were scared, Taeyong realized. He never wanted you to be afraid. He tried his best to see to it that you would feel safe without him. He never wanted to cross a line that you drew. He thought the only way he could scare you was if he bit you. 

He thought wrong. 

“I’ll go slow, I promise,” he said as he hugged you again. 

You mumbled against his chest. “I don’t know…”

“You can trust me. I don’t live that far from here. It’ll be ten minutes, tops.”

You knew your fear was over-the-top but you couldn’t help it. So many maniacs were on the road. You could barely keep it together in your Corolla. But you were curious. You wanted to push the fear aside and be a little reckless. Taeyong wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Regardless of what your parents told you, vampires were strong and they protected their own. Taeyong regarded you as an equal. He’s said it multiple times. You were his friend and he would take care of you.

So what the hell?

“Okay,” you said, steadying your voice. 

He helped you secure your helmet. He did the same for himself. He got onto the bike. He nodded for you to get on. You wrapped your arms tightly around his abdomen. It was rock solid and you could feel his heartbeat accelerate. 

“Hey. Don’t let me distract you,” you teased.

He chuckled. “Even when you’re not around, love.”

You smacked his arm. “You’re so annoying.”

He laughed. “You ready?”

“Let’s go,” you said as you squeezed him tighter.

Taeyong enjoyed this more than you will ever know. He started up the bike and you moved at a decent speed out of the parking lot. Your heart rate was deceiving you and you knew Taeyong could feel it, too. 

You just let yourself feel what you felt and hoped that excitement would take over. And it did. 

When you got onto the main road, you cheered and laughed. You let yourself be free. For all of your life, you liked to think you had some freedom. At the root of it all, you were stuck in a lot of ways: family obligations, your career, and who you could marry, to name a few. But in this moment with Taeyong, you’ve never felt freer. 

🎥

Taeyong purchased one of the properties at a luxurious oceanfront hotel, Hotel La Mar. He lived on the top floor. 

“Make yourself at home,” he said. “I’m going to wash up.”

You marveled at the spacious apartment. The furniture was leather and the floor was a plush carpet. You could envision yourself curling on the floor. That’s how cozy the space felt.

The living room had a plasma screen TV with shelves and shelves of movies: everything you could think of.

Huh, a movie theater employee human hybrid (?) with a cinephile vampire lord. An interesting concept, you thought. You kept exploring and noticed that there weren’t many photographs around the space. There was one of Taeyong posing in front of the Eiffel Tower at night. Bold of him to break the rules overseas, you giggled to yourself. Another frame contained a visibly older photo. It was a picture of Taeyong and who you assumed were his family: his parents and his sister. You wondered when this was taken.

“1985,” Taeyong answered into your ear, causing the hairs on the back of your neck to rise.

You yelped.

He took the photo frame into his hands so you both could admire it. “This is my family. My mom, my dad, and my older sister Chaewon.”

1985? Taeyong looked exactly the same as he did in that picture. That must have been around the time he became a vampire, you thought.

“I turned a year after that,” he said. You noted the hesitance in his voice.

“Oh,” you said.

“When I was a human, I fell in love with a vampire.”

“Oh, so we’re going there...”

Taeyong took you out to the balcony so you could watch the night sky over the ocean.

“We don’t have to talk about it-“ He started.

“Are you kidding me?” You’ve been dying for more intel on this man.

He smiled amusingly at you. You were so curious and open with him. You were precious to him.

“I met Cleo when I was 22...She was older than me. I didn’t realize at the time just how much older. I worked at my father’s dojo over the summer after I graduated from college. I was going to get my master’s in architecture. I had everything going for me. I dated a few girls in college but I didn’t find someone I wanted to settle down with. I was...a bit of a hopeless romantic.”

Still are, you thought to yourself.

“I was closing the dojo one night when a couple of thugs broke in to rob the place. They were in the process of beating me to a pulp when Cleo and her friends came in and...took care of them.”

You understood that to mean they were sucked dry.

“She told me she’d been watching me for a while and didn’t know how to introduce herself. So that night was as good a time as any. I was shocked to see vampires for the first time. Once upon a time, the world you see every day at Sinema was a fairy tale for me.”

You figured as much. Not all vampires were born as vampires.

“But I couldn’t get Cleo out of my mind so soon I fell into that world. Never looking back.”

And that’s when you heard the regret in his voice.

“Cleo paraded me all over the supernatural parts of the country. She would take me to clubs. Introduce me to her friends. I moved in with her not even a month after we met. The first time she drank my blood...I didn’t expect the emotions to be so strong.”

The alarm bells rang off in your head.

“I was all hers after that, y/n. She bewitched me. I was at her beck and call. Nothing else mattered but how I could please her.”

You could see the pain in his eyes and how he avoided looking at you.

“That’s why...” You started.

Taeyong continued, “I can’t do that to you. It’s not worth the risk. My escorts? Those human women visited witches to give them the resistance from falling under a vampire’s spell. An attraction can grow, sure, but the intense devotion a human feels to a vampire is taboo now. Vampires don’t want to deal with what they would call collateral damage after having one night of unadulterated pleasure.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Your heart hurt for the man before you. It wasn’t his fault that he was under Cleo’s spell. She manipulated him.

“But every now and then, a vampire just won’t care,” he said.

Which means this kind of abuse still went on to this day, you realized.

“After the first bite, I begged Cleo for more. She offered to do me one better and asked for me to join her on her travels around the world: as her vampire prince. Her words. Not mine.”

Taeyong sighed and rolled his eyes. “Looking back on it, it was bullshit. But the human me was...singing from the rooftops. I idolized that woman. She was the key to my happiness. I would follow her to the ends of the earth. And that I did.”

You thought about his family and his life.

“I was a vampire. I couldn’t live my human life anymore. I was devoted to Cleo and that was all that mattered. I gave up on my master’s. I told my parents I was getting married, traveling the world, and didn’t plan on coming back. I was mad at them, y/n. They told me I was a fool for throwing away my future for a woman who sucked me in and would spit me back out. I hated that they doubted me but even more that they doubted Cleo.”

“So you left...”

“I did and it didn’t take long for me to realize that my parents were right. I loved her unconditionally, knowing full well that she was preying on other humans like me, building an empire...well, a harem would be a more accurate term. Soon, I realized I was no longer her favorite and it was eating me up from the inside. I...couldn’t take it so I-“

You felt a sense of dread at what he was about to say next.

”I never even considered the possibility that I could end my addiction to her. I just thought of the quickest way to put me out of my misery. I planned to stab myself in the chest.”

You put your hand to your mouth. “Taeyong...I-“

He squeezed your hand. “It’s okay.”

“It’s a lot...Remembering your darkest days...I don’t want you to feel pressured to tell me everything,” you added as you traced your fingers against his knuckles.

He shook his head. “I want to share this with you.” His brown eyes shifted into bright a shade of blue, suddenly.

“Taeyong, your eyes...”

“They’re blue, aren’t they?”

“Yes but why?”

“I’ll explain. Someone saved me the day I wanted to end it all. Jaejoong. Jaejoong...is like a father to me. He talked me down and helped extract Cleo’s latches off of me. And with that, my memories of her were gone. The witch who helped us with this process was able to conserve pieces of my memories and I only had the nerve to access them recently...After I met you.”

“Taeyong...”

“I wanted to know why I couldn’t let myself bite you. Something inside me was holding me back. I wanted to drink from you so badly but you weren’t an escort. I knew the rules. About the damage that could be caused. But I wanted to understand the nagging feeling at the back of my mind. And accessing those memories again...my eyes turn blue as I reflect on the darkest time in my life.”

“Oh, Taeyong...” You sat curled up against him and held him tightly. “I’m so sorry.”

Taeyong tucked some of your hair back so he can cup your face. “Thank you for listening to me. I thought you would be running for the hills by now.”

“Everyone has their dark past. Granted, mine consists of a crappy ex-boyfriend but my point is that I really appreciate you telling me about yourself. I didn’t expect that.”

Taeyong sighed. “You know, the arrangement we have...”

“Yeah?”

“I like it. But...” He stared out at the sea.

“Go on,” you said as you kissed his neck.

“I don’t want to be just friends with you,” he almost whispered. You were close enough to his lips to hear every syllable clearly.

“I know...”

“You do?” He looked down at you as you played around with the fabric of his tee.

“You told me everything...Basically. I don’t think you did it without an agenda,” you said as you removed yourself off of him and looked into his eyes.

He rubbed his hands against your legs, wishing you’d worn shorts so he can feel your soft skin heat up at his touch. “What do you think?”

You were about to respond when his hands ran up to your butt and he squeezed it. “I...I think we’re ready to move up another level.”

He smiled. “Really?”

Before he went for your butt again, you got yourself up and straddled him. “Really.”

You kissed him deeply, begging his tongue to meet yours. Taeyong quickly reciprocated.

He cupped your face again. “You are so beautiful.”

“I know you mean that,” you said, realizing you looked like a struggling college student in your getup. He really liked you. He wouldn’t avoid your stare. He was happy.

The blue in his eyes vanished and it was back to his warm dreamy brown.

“You okay?” You asked.

“Never better,” he said as you pulled you closer to him. He always embraced you like it was his last time.

He was indeed a hopeless romantic.

“So...” You couldn’t get Cleo out of your mind, though. You wondered what she looked like and how she seduced Taeyong. At one point, Taeyong was in love with her without the enchantment of a vampire. You couldn’t help but wonder if he ever compared you to her. And just how much he remembered after the memory wipe. “Where is Cleo now?”

He cleared his throat. “She’s dead.”

There was a sense of dread again at the pit of your stomach. “How did she die?” You sat beside him again.

“Jaejoong...finished her,” he continued.

“...How?”

“When Cleo found out I had defected to another clan, she was furious,” he said.

“She came after you?” You asked, shocked she would care so much.

“It’s not that she cared,” he answered your thoughts again without realizing it. “It was a matter of pride for her. I was her property. And Jaejoong took it away from her.” That infuriated you.

Taeyong continued, “Jaejoong hid me away from her for a year. So I wouldn’t be tempted to go back to her. Even if her influence escaped me, she could easily lure me in again. I was weak, starved for love. For anything I could get from her after I left everything behind.”

“Taeyong...”

“In 1987, Jaejoong and Cleo faced off. She perished from a wooden bullet shot to the heart.”

You still had so much you wanted to ask. “How do you know she’s gone?” You blurted. You didn’t have a lot of remorse for the death of this woman, you understood.

He met your gaze. “Jaejoong brought me to her body.”

You waited for him to continue.

He said, “And we burned it, making sure no trace of her remained.”

He worried that you would see him differently upon hearing this.

But you understood. She was a monster that preyed upon innocent people and played with them like dispensable toys. You hated that someone could be so vile and tinker with the heart of the man you...

Liked.

“Wow,” you said, meekly.

“I know,” he said, “Jaejoong took in the lost boys of her clan and helped them become independent. Like he did with me. Now we pledge our loyalty to him.”

You wondered if Jaejoong was really as heroic of a man as Taeyong made him out to be.

🎥

You sat with Taeyong in the kitchen. You took some cake mix out from your shopping tote and asked him if you could bake it. “Mind if I use your kitchen?”

“Depends. What flavor is the cake?”

“Red velvet,” you answered.

“Only if I can lick the spoon,” he said as he helped pull out all of the supplies and ingredients.

As you mixed the cake mix with the other ingredients, Taeyong watched you.

You were something else. After telling you some of his darkest memories, you didn’t run off. You didn’t doubt him. You stayed. And for that, he would be eternally thankful.

“You can lick the spoon now,” you sang.

Taeyong creeped up from behind you, dipped his finger into the bowl, scooped some of the batter and ran it across your neck. You stood still.

He moved his finger dangerously slow across your neck and his tongue followed even more slowly behind. You moaned at his delicate touch.

“It tastes pretty good,” he whispered. You could feel his cock grow against your leg.

Taeyong held you from behind as you finished putting the mix into a pan. You laughed at how he clung to you like a koala.

The cake would take about half an hour to bake, which meant...

“Lead the way, Taeyong,” you said.

He scooped you up and he bolted to his bedroom. You laughed.

He tossed you on the plush California king bed and nearly pounced on top of you. You yelled and giggled like you were playing tag.

He kissed you hard as he laid against the bed frame. You pulled his shirt off. He did the same. You surprised him then.

“Where’s your bra?” He asked.

“I took it off when I went to the bathroom. I thought you noticed and that’s why we’re here now.”

“I mean, your nipples looked...”

You pulled him closer. “How do they look?” You lowered your voice.

“Pretty,” he said as he kissed you again. You pulled down his pants and cock greeted you.

Taeyong stood up on the bed as you kneeled down to greet his gorgeous length.

You grasped it hard and Taeyong grunted. “Does it feel good, baby?” You asked.

“Yes, love,” he said as he ran his fingers against your hair.

You took his length into your mouth and moved slowly back and forth, enjoying the taste of precum in your mouth and the sound of Taeyong’s moans. His length tickled the back of your throat. The discomfort was mild but you liked giving him blow jobs. So with practice, the pain became pleasure. You were getting wet at the thought of pleasuring him now.

“Feel me,” you said as you moved your eyes down to your panties. Taeyong put his hands down there and gently placed two fingers inside of you. He moaned again as you sucked faster.

You wanted Taeyong to know that you weren’t there to play with his heart. That was never what you wanted. You wanted to get to know him. And you didn’t want to keep lying to yourself. You were all in. And somehow, you would find a way to make it work.

Taeyong tugged tightly at your hair as he was on the verge of his climax. The thought of his climax aroused you ever further and felt the vibrations deep down in your belly. When he came, you found yourself soaked from him and yourself. You lathered up his cum. You fingered yourself and gave him a taste of your essence. You took all of his cum in and dragged your tongue up to his abdomen and met his lips. You kissed him.

He hugged you and wiped the sweat off of your forehead. “I love you.”

You exhaled like you held your breath for a long time. “I love you, too.”

He laid you down so he could pleasure you. He kissed you again and ran his hands up your thighs and forced them open. You gasped.

He greedily lathered up your cum. “You are exquisite.” He began running his index finger in and out of your clit. You started rocking back and forth.

He tsked. “Stay still, angel. Or I’m going to stop.”

You whined. “Meanie.”

He laughed his deep laugh and just the sound of that made you moan.

His unoccupied hand gripped your thigh tightly, squeezed your ass, and caressed you face. He liked watching you come undone under him. It kept awake sometimes when he was home alone.

He continued to finger you and you mewled when he inserted two fingers. You felt yourself building up again. You couldn’t help but rock back and forth. You wanted to climax.

“Taeyong, please,” you begged.

He smiled as he removed his fingers.

You whined even more. “Evil overlord, please.”

He pecked your lips. “Your wish is my command.”

He quickly inserted his cock and it hit you hard that you cried out. The pain quickly became pleasure as you both moved back and forth.

“Fuck,” he exclaimed. “I fucking love you.”

“I...love...you...” You managed to get out until you both released.

You both went for two more rounds before passing out on the bed. He held you as he covered you under the sheets. The timer went off for the cake.

You were about to get up but Taeyong pulled you back.

“It’ll cool. It’s okay. Just stay with me,” he said as he snuggled up against you.

“You’re so clingy,” you said as you laid your back against his front. He spooned you. His cock was in your ass. You’d wanted to do this with him for a while.

Taeyong was beaming. You were beside him now and neither of you was in a rush to leave. You could take your time and enjoy each other.

He moaned against your neck. “Are you hungry, though?”

You laughed. “I’m good.”

So you laid beside each other as the sun rose and slept for hours.

🎥

You stayed asleep but Taeyong’s phone rang. He slowly got up from bed and covered you with the sheets. You frowned in your sleep like you unconsciously knew he left your side. He laughed quietly as he took his phone off the nightstand.

He walked out of the room so as not to disturb you.

“Hey Jaejoong, how was South Africa?” He asked.

His leader chuckled over the phone. “Beautiful. The great white sharks were incredible. You have to come with me next time.”

“Are you back in the country?” Taeyong asked excitedly. Jaejoong was gone for a while on his travels.

“Yes. I landed today in Mystic.”

Taeyong replied, “That’s great. You have to come over for dinner. I’ll make your favorite chicken parm and you can drop off all of the souvenirs you bought for me.”

Jaejoong laughed. “I hope a keychain won’t disappoint you. How about I come over tonight? There’s something I wanted to talk about with you.” You noticed the shift in his tone.

“Is everything okay?” Taeyong asked.

“Yeah...They’ll be even better soon enough,” Jaejoong said.

To Be Continued in Part 4

[honeyyu]

Sold | Nct - 002

Summary: Cho Miso lives a difficult life, she works full time jobs to take care of her sick mom. One of those jobs being an secretary to the most rich man of seoul. As she tries to take care of everyhing, she goes looking for her dad who had left them for almost 5 years now. Coming into the life of her dad she was caught up by formal parties and events, her dad finally identifying her as his daughter. And before she could even realize, she was bought by a group powerful rich men who called themselves NCT to be their new secretary.

Masterlist

Genre: Smut (+slight angst?) and a little bit fluff

Warnings: None (only one swear word)

Word count: 2.4K

Notes: This chapter doesn’t contain any smut. I try to make this kinda like a real story that why I don’t go straight into the smut. Im sorry!! I think maybe in 2/3 chapters there will be some. Im just trying to introduce the nct members slowly. I hope this isn’t disappointing :/ Last thing, I think its Kims not Kim’s but Kim’s looks cooler idk why lol

The rest of the work day went by faster then I thought. None of the 3 Kim’s found out about the accident luckily. I did tell Tiffany, one of the personal assistants. She is also the one i’m close friends with, the one who gave the flowers I totally ruined. She could only laugh when I told her,” I already made copies of the most of them. So don’t worry about them finding out. I will email you the copies and you can retype the ones who aren’t there!” I couldn’t tell her how grateful I was. The most I could do for now was give her a big hug.

It was already passed workhours for me but at home I didn’t have access to a laptop or computer so I had to finish everything here. In the email Tiffany send me most of the papers were there, I mean the copies. I went through the now dried papers and got rid of the ones Tifanny copied. Now there were around twenty papers left for me to retype, and copy immediately before something would happen again.

All of the papers were about interviews or letters who needed to be send to other important companies. Before starting I looked at the clock on the wall behind Tiffany’s desk, who was out to get coffee for our bosses. The other two were busy moving from meeting to meeting together with the two other Kim’s.

The time on the clock was 4 pm. My mind wandered off for a second, thinking about what kind of food I should buy for dinner tonight. This job made me earn a fair amount of money. But most of it went to the debts we had to pay. And the hospital bills for my mom. This week she would stay with me until I had enough money to buy the hospital bills again.

“Ah I should really work on those papers.” I snapped myself back to reality upon seeing the papers I had to write before 6 because I would always have dinner at 6 with my mom but I didn’t know if I would make it this time. I was hoping on finishing a little before 6 so I could do some grocery shopping on my way home. As those thoughts ran through my mind I started working.

—

My eyes stayed focused on the screen as I was busy writing the last words of the letter. A loud sigh left my mouth when I grabbed the paper off the desk. Again, it was a letter. “From Mr. Kim To Mr Ch-“ I immediately stopped my sentence seeing the name on the paper. Mr Cho. It could be another man but I couldn’t let this go so easily. Was there an adress on it?

“Yes!” I jumped out of my chair with the paper in my hand. It would be unprofessional to ran out of the building and go to the adress. Not to forget I could lose my job if I did that. Only two papers to finish. With that mindset I typed the last papers in not more than 20 minutes.

My hands moved faster than normal. Computer off, papers in bag, chair under my desk, jacket on and card out. I didn’t have to tell anyone I was going. The 3 Kim’s couldn’t care more and Tifanny plus the other two girls were not at the office anymore.

The elevator was slower than usual. Or it was slower because I was excited to maybe find my dad again after five years. I didn’t really know the reason behind my excitement. He was the one who left us and he’s the source of our problems. Maybe I thought that if I would tell him how everything is with mom and me he would feel quilty and help us. Or maybe I just wanted answers to questions I had since the day he left us. And I knew that a small part of me wanted his money. I was embarrassed that I had these kind of thoughts but the money I wanted wouldn’t be for me, but for my mom. Every day she woke up she would look closer to death. Not that money was gonna fix the fact that she was ill or not but he could at least pay the hospital bills.

While making my way outside I looked up the adress on my phone. I was hoping badly that it wasn’t going to be a long route. My feet already gave up by seeing how long the walk was. At least one hour it said. Well if i walk my own speed it will be around forty minutes but still way too long for me to walk in heels. Only two decisions I could make. One, go home to change shoes, forget about dinner and just walk there or get a taxi. Option two it is then because I really didn’t have the time to walk.

Lucky for me a taxi just pulled to the side to let someone out of the car. Taking my chance I speed walked towards it. I was about to grab the doors handle but another hand reached for it faster. It was a young man. “Excuse me,” He muttered to me.

“Sorry sir, I was about to get into the taxi actually.” I politely said, trying not to make a scene. He blankly looked me in the eyes,” I never take a taxi so it’s really important. Now if you will excuse me, I have more urgent things to do then chit chat.” A breath came out of my mouth, sounding like a scoff. I didn’t mean to do that but he was being selfish. Like I had nothing better to do then talk to him,” Well I have something urgent to do too.” I replied but he already stepped into the vehicle.

“We can share!” He looked at me unamused. It didn’t look like he would consider sharing so I looked around for another orange car. To my suprise he left the door open and shuffled to the left to make space for me. I made a ninety degrees bow to thank him before stepping in. “Thank you. My name is Cho Miso.” I thanked him once again. The reason why I introduced myself was also a question to me. Maybe I was trying to be social. He looked at me once I introduced myself. His lips parted like he wanted to say something but he closed them again and looked outside.

Feeling a little hit awkward I gave the taxi driver the adress by showing letter.” You work there?” He asked me while typing the adress into the device,” Not really. I have to talk to the CEO of the building.” His eyebrows furrowed. That must’ve sounded really weird. “Ah, I mean I have a meeting. I work in that building,” I explained him while pointing to the building right outside the window. He nodded and asked the man next to me where he was heading. “The NCT building.” Both heads of me and the driver turned to stare at him in shock. Did he work there?

“Now you say it. I saw you on the news today! You are Kim Dongyoung!” Kim Dongyoung? Is he one of the CEO’s? Now that the driver said that, he was wearing a very expensive suit I recognized from the other CEO’s I often see in the building. I could never really understand people who paid so much for a pair of cothing but if you have the money I guess.

I missed the reaction of the man next to me but the driver started driving. He probably just nodded or ignored like how he did with me. My eyes somehow stayed glued to him. He had black hair, by what I could see long legs, beautiful brown eyes, nice lips. By the last thought I shook my head and whipped my head away from him. God what has gotten into me.

All I did for the rest of the ride was look outside the window, too embarrassed to even look at him. He also, was staring outside. Slowly the car came to halt. That wasn’t a long ride at all. Expected since its a car of course. I laughed a little by my own thoughts but quickly stopped when I saw Kim Dongyoung looking at me.

“Here is your stop miss.” I opened the door saying thank you at the same time. About to walk away I stopped myself, I have to pay. The device showed the amount of won I had to pay so I gave the man half of the bills I had in my wallet, hoping it was enough because I had to get a ride home too. “Have a nice meeting!” He flashed me a smile. I happily smiled back and pushed the door closed. Fortunately I saved myself some drama for later.

A loud sigh left my mouth as I looked at the big building infront of me. How do I even get in without getting stopped by the security. Taking a big risk I walked in. I was wearing office clothing so that was a good thing but I didn’t have an card to access. How was I gonna do this?

As aspected a muscular man stopped me,” You can’t go in miss” Quick think of something Miso! Thats right, I had the letter that had to be delivered here,” I have a meeting with Mr Cho? The letter with all of the information didn’t arrive in time so I came here personally to explain it.” I explained trying not to stutter too much and stretched out my arm with the paper in it so he could see. His eyes went over the paper. He nodded, believing my lie. Then he stepped backwards for me to enter, at the same time bowing.

I bowed back automatically and made my way to the elevator. It looked similar to the ones we had in our building. Made from glass and the floor of gold making it look chic and luxury. If this was my dads company he was very rich. While waiting for the elevator to arrive I thought about how he would look. What do I say. Should I introduce myself or hug him? Nah, he definitely know its me when he sees me so no need to introduce.

Ding! The elevator behind me made a sound, signaling it was open. I nearly ran into it, eager to meet my dad if this was his building. The glass elevator was filled with people in suit, golden watches and expensive bags. I felt a little out of place but that wasn’t important right now. Not sure what floor I had to stop at I waited till I reached the top of the building. Most of the time the important people like the CEO were on the top floor.

And I was right. When I reached top floor it looked alsmost exactly like the floor I worked at in the 3 Kim’s building. A receptionist, waiting room, conference rooms and the CEO’s office I could see way back behind everything with the name Mr Cho on a again golden name plate attached in the door. After examining I walked up to the girl behind the reception.

“Good evening, I have something to discuss with Mr Cho?” I couldn’t tell her I had a meeting because she could search it up on her computer and I would get send away. “Im sorry miss but Mr Cho is in a meeting at the moment. Would you like to wait?” Oh a meeting? Meeting always take a long time but if I had the luck that it was indeed my dad I was gonna meet then it wouldn’t hurt for me to wait a little while. “Yes I will wait, thank you.” With that I walked up to the seats where you were supposed to wait.

—

I’ve been here, waiting, for almost thirty minutes now and I was losing my patient. I was even so close to losing it that I wanted to walk into that conference room and yell at him for being so slow. Of course I couldn’t do that so my only option was waiting.

Tired of sitting in a chair for the whole time, I got up to get something to drink. When I arrived here I saw a water tap almost next to the CEO’s office.

Filling my cup, I looked around once again. The office walls of Mr Cho were from glass making it easy for me to take a glance of it. There wasn’t much interesting though. His desk was placed by the wall on the left. Infront of the desk a couple couches with a coffee table in the middle. Just like regular CEO offices that I’ve seen in my life.

But something catched my eye. There were three framed pictures on his desk, facing the couches. I couldn’t see them clearly so I walked a couple steps closer to the office.

The cup almost fell out of my hand. It was my dad on the pictures but not only him. Next to him there was a woman, around my moms age maybe younger and two kids, one boy and one girl who looked atleast five years younger than me. This was his new family. Otherwise he wouldn’t have three pictures with them on his desk.

I couldn’t accept the fact that he moved on from his first family. Harshly I threw the cup of water into the garbage can nearby me and I left the building with my hands clenced into a fist. Tears threatened to fall but he wasn’t worth it. He was living a perfect life with a perfect new family and money enough to take care of thousands people like my mom and me. He was so fucking selfish!

I took a taxi back to my house. The whole ride I looked outside the window with a furious expression. Probably making the driver uncomfortable because he turned up the radio so it wouldn’t be all silence. Arriving at the house I gave him the rest of the money I had in my wallet and he drove off after.

Grabbing my keys to enter the house my phone rang. The number on the screen didn’t ring any bell but I still anwered thinking that it maybe was someone from work who needed me.“Hello?” I asked into the phone, waiting for an answer on the other side.

“I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

<- Previous | Next ->

[aliypop]

Beauty Has Her Ways ( Prt 2)

Word count : 1, 286

Warning: Language

A/N : I made a part 2 For Angelica I hope you guys like it

"Nothing, you're half of us ... half of..." 

"Who's this kid..." Tiffany looked at her, as her eyes then went wide from her scent. Another part of her that she knew nothing about, 

"Are you my..."

"Sister..." Angelica backed into Marko, who looked down at her and smirked. Her face nearly looked paler than even Tiffany's as fear washed over her. "That's just great..." Sam mumbled under his breath as David glared at him. "Sorry..." Tiffany began to circle the shorter young woman lifting her face examining her features, "Same eyes... Same curls." Tiffany laughed harder, 

"Holy shit, I have a sister...What's your name, kiddo..." 

"An... An..., Angelica."

"It's okay: I won't hurt you..." Tiffany said, her hand on top of her sisters, "But I wanna know everything about you. Est-ce que tu es d'accord?"

 Angelica only nodded as she was a bit frightened, still everything: was so odd to her. From the cave itself to the boys surrounding her.  "By any chance, did they scare you..." Tiffany asked, watching as the boys all straightened up, Marko looking away watching as she nodded. "Forgive their manors, for they pretend as if they don't have any!" Tiffany glared, 

"Michael..." 

"What's wrong, Tiff..." 

"Your break ended three hours ago..." She winked. 

As both sisters moved further into the cave, there in front of them was Tiffany's nest. 1920's headboard along with the remaining curtains from the hotel with pictures from her past surrounding her. It was almost as if her bedroom belonged somewhere that wasn't here.  "Welcome to my humble room, little pest." Tiffany flopped on her bed, tossing her jacket across her desk. Angelica, who later sat on the floor, looked up as she saw a necklace hanging off a broken branch of her chandelier. 

"So Mon Cherie, tell me about yourself...Where are you from?" 

"I lived here all my life... I don't know much else but Santa Carla..." Angelica began to fidget a bit, playing with her hair. "Mom was cool... Dad, I only saw at night..." she laughed, "He talked in this funny southern accent, but he's cool. ``She laughed, "He speaks french just like you, and you kinda look like him pretty crazy, huh..." Angelica looked up at Tiffany, who only nodded, 

"So where do you live ..."  she asked Angelica. 

"We live in a house in the Suburbs mom likes gardening... You'd like it a lot, Tiff-"

"Do they talk about me?" the vampire jolted up from her bed, "Do they talk about why they sent me to New Orleans... Or had me turned into ..." 

"Into a what..." 

"You're too young to understand..."Tiffany sighed, "Hey, it's getting late, and I should take you home." she smiled, grabbing the keys to her motorcycle as she put her leather jacket on. David sat in his wheelchair throne as Marko pushed him around the main cave. Dwayne, who was next to Paul, watched Tiffany like a hawk. "I'll be back, don't worry about me, baby..." Tiffany kissed Dwayne's forehead while Angelica watched in awe.

"Is that your boyfriend..." 

"Just get on the bike." Tiffany let out a laugh. 

"Well, is he..." She swung her leg over and sat down. "He's one of my boyfriends," she smirked as they rode off into the suburbs. As the sounds of waves crashing against the water, Tiffany couldn't help but wonder what her parents would think, would they want to see her again or perhaps even talk, or maybe they would have aged. Her dark eyeliner under her eyes no longer there as she tried to present herself in a less threatening way,  

It was the sweet, simplistic American country club suburbia. 

"Welp, Kiddo, you have a safe ni-,"

"Angelica DuBois, where have you been!" a woman who had dark hair in a style that she swore Whitney Huston once wore ran out the front door. "And you're staying with Strangers... " 

"Mom, Sam isn't a stranger, if anything, he's a guy I li-" 

"Like!" Both Tiffany and Isabella said at the same time. Looking up at each other, Tiffany felt her skin grow colder as the eyes that were peering at her were those of her "Mother... " she held her hand on her necklace, 

"I haven't seen you since... "

"Since 1776..." Tiffany looked down, "And 1791... When you died..." she laughed.

"I'm sorry, but what's going on..." Angelica questioned. 

"Go inside... your fathers gonna have a talking to with you, young lady..."

"You never let me know anything!"

"ANGELICA G-"

"We're Vampires... and one day you will be too... " Tiffany shrugged. her mother pinched both girls by the ears, 

"Nice going ..." 

"What did I do..."  Tiffany asked, "You got us grounded by dad..."  As they were both dropped in front of a taller man Tiffany only groaned,

 Ashton, who resembled the face of a Duke in an area called Bridgerton,

" Angelica, go to your..." His brown eyes looking back at ones that resembled his, Angelica scurried upstairs, leaving the two downstairs. 

"Tiffany DuBois ma douce fille..." he kissed her forehead as she pushed him away.  "Je ne suis plus une fille you missed those years..." she laughed, pushing past him as she plopped on the couch. "Who the hell is DuBois..." she then asked, 

"It's your last name..." 

"Countess Liru named me Monroe..." She mumbled under her breath, "It's always been, Monroe..." 

"Now it's back to DuBois." he took her head in his hand, reading her thoughts, "A cave... My daughter lives in a..." 

"It was the Santa Carla resort until the big Earthquake of 1906, and now it belongs to..." 

"The one that Vlad owned..." 

"Yes, that one..." she sighed, "Now if you excuse me, I gotta get ba-" Tiffany looked around as she was in a bedroom already dressed in a 50's negligé that she assumed was her mother's. The room was like any standard 80's teen room, posters, a usual bed, a window seat, and a desk. "You know, Tiffany, it's not so bad here..."  Angelica said from the door frame in her Ghostbusters pajamas.  Tiffany giggled as she looked over,

 "You've known them all your life. I wasn't lucky..." she ran her fingers through her curls, already missing the touch of David and Dwayne, 

"So, they're our blood." 

"Blood doesn't mean shit, besides. It only makes for a tasty late-night snack." Tiffany snapped, "Look, those boys you met, Dwayne, Paul, David, Marko, that's my family." she smiled, "We've had each other's backs since 1906..." she whistled, 

"Must've been hard..." 

"What..."

"Becoming a Vampire..." She mumbled, " I didn't think they were real until..."  Angelica began to shake, "Until what..." 

"One tried to eat me..." 

"Damn it, Marko..."  she mumbled under her breath, "Well, Listen, kiddo, if you ever wanna talk about the vamp stuff. You can meet me at the record shop."

"Promise..." 

"Promise now go to sleep or something..." Angelica rolled her eyes as she walked to her room. Sitting in the window made Tiffany feel like a cat in a cage. As she opened the window, she could almost feel her undead life start to change. 

"You ready to go..."

"How'd you find me?" Tiffany asked, watching Dwayne float, " Your scent..." he smirked, watching Tiffany shivered, putting his jacket on her shoulders, scooping her in his arms. Dwayne had a smile on his face,  

" You know I can fly." 

"I wanna make David a little jealous." 

"So then I found out she was a vampire Sam, a Vampire! and I might be one too..."  Angelica gasped as she sat in her work uniform with Sam, 

"My brothers a half-vampire, so that's not too crazy." he laughed, holding her hand. 

"Hey, Emerson, hands off my sister!"

[eternalstann]

Celebrity (pt. 2)

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Warnings: mild drug use, swearing & tingz

Summary: You and Tom just so happen to be each other’s celebrity crushes :)

part 1 here!

“Thank god you said yes, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you said no” his comment makes you laugh. “Of course I said yes Tom” you tell him. There was no hiding the grin on your face.

“Y/N!” You hear a voice call to you, and you spin around to see who it is. “Michael!” You shout, reaching to hug him. “Where have you been hiding, I haven’t seen you all day!?” You ask and he smiles, “I had to go pick up something for you” he tells you before handing you a box. “Awww, Mike you really shouldn’t have” you coo before opening it. The wrapping paper reveals a Tiffany box and inside, a diamond necklace. “Oh my god. It’s gorgeous, thank you so much” you hug him again. “You’re welcome love, I’ll let you get back to your party - we still on for Tuesday?” He asks and you nod. “Wait though, meet Tom! Tom Holland, this is Michael B Jordan and vice versa” you giggle with a grand hand gesture.

Michael rolls his eyes, “Y/N we know each other, we’re Marvel Brothers remember? What’s up man!” Michael daps up Tom and they share a quick exchange before Mike goes off to get a drink. When you turn towards Tom he has a funny look on his face. “Is everything okay?” He says yes, but on the inside he can’t believe how incredibly jealous he was at what had just happened, you just said yes to a date with him; but were you and Michael a thing? This couldn’t be healthy for him to feel like this. He and Michael had always been cool but he felt like punching him right now.

“Come upstairs with me” you grab his hand before dragging him up the spiral staircase. His mood shifted instantly, upstairs? His heart was racing. It’s the second door on the left he notes, watching you twist the knob to a white wooden door that opens up to a beautiful and spacious bedroom. It fit you, he thought. White carpet throughout, a giant bed that looked super comfortable, with more than enough pillows. He noticed your closet was open. It was messy, but not too bad. A dresser covered with lotions and perfumes - he wondered which scent was your favorite. Your mirror had pictures tucked in the corners.

“You can sit down!” Your voice called out to him and you’re pointing towards your bed when he glances up. He does as you say and sits. Even more comfy then he imagined. He’s still scanning your room. He wants to learn you, to know everything he can about you. His eyes go to your bathroom. The door is shut, but there’s a silky pink robe hanging on it and suddenly he can’t help but wonder what you’d look like in it with nothing underneath.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to put this away” you speak softly, placing the box on your dresser. “And...I wanted to talk to you, alone” you walk towards Tom and sit down besides him. “You can go back to party if you want though, I don’t want to hold you hostage!” You exclaim and he shakes his head. “No, no; I want to stay here with you” he places his hand on your exposed thigh. “Okay good” you whisper. “Oh and Michael and I are just friends, I tell him all the time to stop buying me things but he never listens” you explain, and Tom exhales a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“So Spiderman, how’s shooting for your new movie? You just don’t stop!” You giggle scooching back in your bed and crossing your legs. “It’s dope, I mean I’m working with The Russos again...except this time I’m on heroin” he shrugs and you laugh. That’s how you spend the next hour with him. Laughing and talking. You were so attracted to this man it wasn’t funny. His leg pressed against yours, shoulders brushing together. It was different now that you were alone. You wanted to tell him to lay back so you could ride him into the sunset...but you didn’t know if he was there yet.

“Y/N!!!” You hear a voice call from outside your door before it’s pushed open. “Where are you, it’s lit downstairs bitch!” Bella slurs, and Zendaya pops up behind her. “She’s fucked up - oh shit hey Tom! I didn’t even know you were here” she laughs. “I thought they were having sex up here, guess not...you guys are boring” she speaks again. “Now come downstairs and party!” She yells. You roll your eyes, before turning to Tom. “Let’s go I guess”

You walk downstairs and the party is in full swing. “Ayyyyeee!” You hear people cheer when they see you coming down the stairs and you dance to get them more hyped with a smile on your face. When you get to the bottom Jacob and Harry are waiting for you. “Yo look what fucking Travis Scott just gave us” holding up a bag of weed. “Y’all smoke?” You ask with a questioning smirk on your face. “We do, Tom doesn’t” chuckles Harry. “I do today” Tom shrugs and your eye brows go up. “I can’t believe I’m taking Tom Holland’s weed virginity” you squeal, taking his hand and leading everyone to your patio. “Oh I have to see this” Zendaya chimes in and coming along too.

The six of you sit out under the gazebo in your backyard. “I have a lighter” says Bella tossing it to you. “I guess this means I have a have to roll” you sigh open up a pack of backwoods. “Backwoods are kind of hard to roll, I’ll teach you sometime but with something easier” you smile at Tom. “I hate rolling with nails” you groan but do it anyways. You roll up three packed blunts - that should be enough for the five of you, since Zendaya doesn’t smoke. “I call first hit” Jacobs yells reaching for the blunt. “Fuck no, I rolled it so I spark it” you exclaim before using the lighter. “Okay Tom, you want to inhale the smoke - but don’t go crazy it’s your first time” you say before taking your first puff. You nod your head, “Travis always has good shit”

You take another pull before passing to Tom. He stared at it for a few seconds before Harry loses patience - “just hit it mate!” And you all laugh. “Okay, okay!” He exclaims before going for it. He begins coughing immediately and earns another round of laughing. “How the fuck...” Tom chokes out before handing the blunt to Jacob. Jacob takes a pull with ease. “Fucking stoner” Zendaya shakes her head.

After about ten minutes, you were about to light up the second blunt when you stop. “Wait guys I have to say something-“ you put your hand up. “Oh my god, here we go” Zendaya giggles. “I just wanna say- B and Daya, youre my best friends and I love you guys so much. I just wanted to make sure you know how I appreciate you”

“Awww sis I love you more!” Bella yells wrapping her around you. “And you three!” You motion towards Tom, Harry and Jacob “-you better not be fake and not hit me up after this cause I think y’all are cool as hell” you say and they nod with lazy grins. “And lastly...I’m high as fuck” “Me too” everyone choruses. “I like being high” Tom says thoughtfully. “Let me get you high again sometime” you whisper and he shudders.

You glance inside and see all the people in your house. You always loved throwing parties but now? You wished it could just be you and Tom. “Y/N you’re being a horrible hostess to all your other guests” Zendaya quips. “Ughh you’re right” you moan before standing. “I’ll see you guys in a little bit” you wave before walking away. “Z you just had to say something!” He complains slapping her arm lightly. “You like herrrr” she sing-songs.

“Yeah I do”

——————————————-

so I decided to make it series!! here’s part two ❤️ I hope you like it, lmk if there’s anything you wanna see.

Love you all!

[no-name-mutt]

And (Working Title)

Mostly unedited here. Probably many mistakes.

Ji-Woo Suzuki was six generations removed from her ancestor Shimazu Nariakira, a galvanizing feudal lord of Japan during the Meiji Restoration. Shimazu Nariakira’s most famous quote was words that Ji-Woo worked to install firmly into her life.

"if we take the initiative, we can dominate; if we do not, we will be dominated."

  After years of war, scheming and destructive cajoling, Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910. Korea was considered a part of Japan until the end of WWII and subsequently,  the fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945.

 During this time, Ji-Woo’s great grandmother, Jeong-Ja was forcibly betrothed. Jeong-Ja (ji-young ja) was eleven years old. Jeong-Ja was arranged to marry Sora Nariakira. Sora abhorred the thought of marrying a Korean woman. Sora, as with most other Japanese people during this time, saw Koreans as second class citizens to the Japanese. In their marriage, Sora took every opportunity to order Jeong-Ja like a slave. One late night, Sora forced himself upon her and Jeong-Ja became pregnant.

 A daughter was born, Hina Nariakira. While Korea was under Japanese control, it was initially illegal to change your name. As it were, Koreans that refused to change their names, were unable to enroll in school, receive mail or even receive meal rations. Eventually the colonial bureaucracy allowed the changing of names, and as much as 84% of Koreans changed their names. Speaking the Korean language was banned and Korean newspapers and printing houses were forced to close. Nearly 200,000 ancient and historical documents were burned. Korean youths were volunteered and conscripted into the Japanese army. Shinto shrines were built, and became places of forced worship. Japanese colonial policy became a clear policy of unlimited cultural erasure. 

Hina attended school and became a voracious reader and journal keeper. Hina, as a product of her environment, became fluent in both Japanese and Korean. From an early age, it was evident that Hina was highly intelligent. Her vocabulary in both Korean and Japanese quickly surpassed Jeong-Ja’s and Sora’s respectively. Though Sora was quick to forbid speaking Korean in the household, Jeong-Ja taught her in private.  

Sora frequently had Hina recite aloud his military orders. If there was ever a word that he didn’t understand, he would strike her. This was a sign to make the order as comprehensive as possible, though his reasoning was always, “Do not waste my time with pointless words!” 

Life for Jeong-Ja and Hina was of unceasing malaise. Their only solace was in each other. 

From reading Sora’s military orders, Hina became familiar with impending military movements, encampments and strategies. Hina learned of an upcoming landing of US Ships to discuss treaty possibilities. Hina devised a plan in which Jeong-Ja and her would flee their home to seek refuge with the US Navy. Somehow, discovering their plan, Sora attempted to stop the two from fleeing.

In a frenetic haste, Hina jumped on to Sora’s back, holding on to him with an arm around his neck. He drew his Manchukuo manufactured pistol, the Sugiura, and started firing wildly. Hina kept a dull pen-knife for protection and stabbed him three times in the chest, and twice in the neck. In a matter of seconds, Sora had fired every bullet in his pistol, one of which struck Jeong-ja in the head. She died instantly. Hina fled to the US Navy ship, covered in blood and alone.

The Korean peninsula has been in an imperial theater of war since the late 1800s. It remains a strong strategic naval position and is between three of the strongest and most hostile countries; Russia, China and Japan. 

Hina found herself as a refugee, aboard a US battle cruiser. From Hina’s journal, we know that while aboard the ship, she was raped multiple times by a Japanese-American Navy captain. Hina became pregnant. Clinton James Suzuki was a rising star among the ranks and arranged his marriage with Hina. He thought that having a baby out of wedlock would be detrimental to his military career. Hesitant, and silently unwilling, Hina agreed to the marriage. Through this, Hina became a US citizen.The wedding was expedited and facilitated onboard the cruiser. As her belly grew, so did her hatred for Clinton Suzuki.

Hina silently imagined his death in whatever setting they found themselves in. If he choked while eating, she wouldn’t save him. If he had fallen overboard, she wouldn’t call for help. If he slipped and fell down the stairs, she would elect to simply walk away. When the two arrived back in the US, there was to be a Navy welcoming parade in port. All of the seamen were to be standing with their wives (if they were married) on the dock as the Navy cruisers came back to port. Though Hina’s husband would have preferred to not be seen with his very young and very pregnant immigrant wife, he thought it would be a great opportunity to rub shoulders with those higher in command. 

As the ship was coming into port, the anchor was dropped, and four inch thick mooring lines were lashed from the anchor to the ship to the dock. Hina’s husband was the first one out on the dock behind the commanding officers, hoping that it would impress a lieutenant, admiral or anyone with any sort of authority. She happily let him stand as far away as possible from her. 

As the last mooring line was being lashed, a massive and potent rogue wave rocked the ship, and snapped the thick cable. The cable whipped downward and cut him cleanly in half from the right collar bone, down through the groin. His body fell apart like a sliced melon. Hina was silently imagining him drowning in the bay, but she never could have envisioned that. For a second she was stunned, and then started to laugh hysterically. She was finally free.

Hina easily found translator work. Although Hina adhered to strict ideals of frugality, she made enough as a single mother to comfortably support her newborn son Kaito Suzuki. Kaito Suzuki stood an average five foot nine inches. His hair was short, poofy, and straw like. His arms and legs were thin and underdeveloped, though his torso was somehow, rather round. Kaito had a round face, unremitting acne and eyebrows in need of a good trimming. He attended public school. He was unremarkably below average. He found little interest in extracurricular sports and clubs; instead, he spent most of his time skipping class, smoking pot and hanging out with his like-minded friends. After barely graduating high school, Kaito was given an ultimatum, either find work or attend college. In the end, Kaito decided to move out of his mother’s house and found work as a second shift janitor at night and weekend garbage collector. 

Kaito Suzuki and Ji-Woo I(the first) first met when she decided to stay late at the commercial real estate office where she worked. Kaito was just starting his shift, starting by collecting the garbage around the office.  Ji-Woo I was a quiet, mild mannered individual. She came from a good home and an affluent community. Ji-Woo I was going through a “rebellious” phase and began making a flurry of short-sighted decisions all revolving around Kaito. The two developed addictions to different drugs and made small time scams in order to fund these new habits. Ji-Woo I unexpectedly became pregnant. The night they found out, Kaito grabbed her car keys and said he was going out for cigarettes and never returned. Hina was the only person in the delivery room when the daughter was born. Ji-Woo I was emotionless. She stared emptily at the crying newborn girl. Ji-Woo I looked to Hina in silent disdain. Hina nodded in affirmation. When Ji-Woo I was released from the hospital, Hina drove her to the airport and handed her some money. Neither Hina nor the newborn baby girl ever saw her again.

Hina decided to name the baby Ji-Woo II, after her mother. (Whom despite the situation, actually quite liked.)

As a baby, she cried constantly. Even in sleep, she murmured and wept in unsilence. Ji-Woo would stop crying only momentarily if she were fed pureed sweet potatoes or ripe apricots. 

When Ji-Woo was six months old, she stopped breathing for nearly two minutes. Hina panicked, rushed to the emergency room. But by the time Hina arrived at the the hospital and Ji-Woo was breathing again and after that point, Ji-Woo never cried again. It’s as if she were an entirely different baby. Ji-Woo excelled in school and surpassed all of those around her. She had few friends throughout her youth. It wasn’t until her mid twenties when she learned how to simply “get along” with those around her. 

Ji-Woo took a master’s degree in Japanese History. Then continued on to get a doctorate  in Korean History. After a few bored years of teaching, Ji-Woo left to attend law school.

Everything about Ji-Woo was professional. Her skin was fine, with a healthy touch of melanin. She had high cheekbones and slightly sunken cheeks. A slightly upturned, pointed nose, symmetrical eyebrows. A single asymmetrically placed mole populated her face. She was beautiful. Equally strong and delicate, like the skeletal system of a great predatory bird. Her hair was long, to her lower back, though it was always pulled taut into a perfect braid. She wore simple, gold Tiffany earrings. She purchased them for herself. Ji-Woo’s wardrobe consisted mostly of well-fitting dress suits that obeyed her movements like a harshly conditioned army. There was never a loose thread out of place. Not even so much as a single piece of lint dared to adhere itself to her. She had an athletic, hidden, muscular build that I couldn’t help but to admire.

As a lawyer, Ji-Woo was ruthless. She constructed such pithy arguments, the opposition was often left speechless. And on a few occasions they were left literally stammering. Ever professional, Ji-Woo never showed any form of celebration or elation in victory. She spoke clearly, with seriousness and a dose of harnessed emphasis. Ji-Woo’s days were neither ‘good days’ nor ‘bad days’. She took on the day’s obstacles as if she had rehearsed them wholly the day before (though probably didn’t need it.).

The first time that I saw Ji-Woo Suzuki I was somehow dragged into a meeting of which I had no reason for being in attendance. I was struck by her. Though I prayed I could stay hidden, as a fly on the wall. Ji-Woo Suzuki led a team of class-action specific lawyers. Without ever speaking with her, one would simply assume she was the unquestionable leader. Only after an introduction, Ji-Woo Suzuki would offer to call her “Ji”, as a favor to you. It was not uncommon for people to reply to this offer by thanking her. Though, they were often left deciding whether to continue calling her Ji-Woo out of respect or interpreting her offer as an order. Most people continued to call her Ji-Woo or Ms. Suzuki.

I was staring at her. She was unpacking her case notes. People in the room started conversing. She uncapped a Montblanc rollerball and began to write. Just then, she stopped writing, wrinkled her brow in confusion and looked up directly at me as if to ask, “Who are you, and why are you here?” Her look was sharp, piercing but gentle. A needle and thread. 

She looked right through me. And that was the first time I knew, 

I was going to marry Ji-Woo Suzuki.

The meeting must have ended. I assumed so because the room had started to clear out. I hadn’t really been paying attention, not that I should have been. I wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place! 

I pretended to collect my things slowly trying to match Ji-Woo’s pace so we could incidentally leave the conference room at the same time. This was quite difficult because I had no belongings to pack up, nor a briefcase to put them in. So I took out my phone from my pocket and pretended to reply to an email. I looked up again and she was already pushing her chair in (when did that happen?!). She moved with intent. I hurriedly shoved my phone into my pocket and jumped up to meet her in the doorway. 

“Hi”, I said, giving my best impression of someone far more casual than myself.

Ji looked at me quizzically, replied dryly with “Hello” and continued past me. Just like a fighter-jet breaking the sound barrier, she was gone, leaving only a potent echo. I must’ve blacked out, because the next thing I knew, she was already halfway down the hall. A paper came loose from her briefcase and she didn’t seem to notice.

This

 was

 my

 chance. 

I fast-walked down the hall as coolly as possible, “hey wait!” I called out. But she was already rounding the corner down the hall. I picked up the piece of paper, in perfect cursive writing it read,

I see you, do you see me?

5:00pm

My temple wrinkled in confusion. I looked up again and she was gone. The heart in my chest reminded me of its presence with a mighty thump. I felt myself sweat. Was this meant for me to find? I returned to the copy room and returned to my work. 

But all I could think of was one Miss Ji-Woo Suzuki. One moment she was there, and then she was not. 

In the periphery, 

of where I wanted to be. 

I felt invigorated. Anxious and curious. 

Piqued.

I got back to the copy room and looked at my digital casio watch, 2:04pm.

My inbox of “to be copied” was now spilling out. I assumed position in front of the plastic, off-white monstrosity. 

First, I’ll take the source material in my left hand! Then! I read the copy instructions and made the proper adjustments and number of copies. After the copies were completed I placed a single paper clip on the ream and set it in the pick up box. Organized alphabetically. To most people, the job would seem boring, though I would argue that there are quite a lot of nuances to it. For example: Eighteen copies of pages one through three, six copies of pages four through ten, and that’s an easy one. 

A page goes in, the scanning light travels from right to left, and left to right, pages come out. I know the machine inside and out. I know because I have had to take it apart and reassemble it, not without hiccups, of course. I went home that day with a black ink stain on my chest. Like I was blasted by a shotgun, and bled black. The skin on my belly was still stained where the ink and bled through the shirt. 

Occasionally pieces of dust or folded paper would cast a shadow on the rest of the page. It caused a ghastly, black, pixelated shadow to print on the copies. Sometimes the shadowed copies were fine to pass along, sometimes, they were better discarded. 

At five pm, I stood outside of Ji-Woo’s office. I was nervous to enter. She sat behind a sleek mid-century desk with her legs folded. Her slate gray dress suit and Mac Pro reminded me of a brutalist era sculpture I saw once as a teenager. I didn’t understand the sculpture then, though maybe I do now. 

She had nice legs, I absolutely understood that. I caught glimpses of her toned calf muscles through the gap of her desk as I paced as casually as possible in front of the open doorway. 

After a few paces back and forth, I heard her call out to me, “You can come in, you know.” I froze. Then somehow came to find myself sitting in the chair across from hers. The desk remained between us. I didn’t know what to say, at that moment, I couldn’t be sure if I knew how to speak. 

“I noticed you today in the Carter vs. Amadeo-Hastings meeting.” She said. 

“No… I mean, yes, I was there. Just trying to learn what it’s all about.” Do you think she bought it?

“Are you interested in practicing law?”

“Uhm, yeah, interested? Definitely.” 

I actually had only worked at the office for about a month. I was still fairly unclear on what business the office conducted, let alone the ‘partners’. Before, I worked at the busiest copy center in Seattle. I got let go after I yelled at a customer, “Stop breaking my shit!” and in my defense, they were going to break the

Konica Minolta c754e! Those things aren’t cheap, and the replacement parts take three weeks to get to the states. 

 “Would you like to go to dinner with me?” She asked. 

    I felt a draft in the back of my agape mouth. Ji-Woo liked a breeze in the office. I found that out later that night when she told me at dinner. 

We continued to see each other after work every Tuesday and during the day on Saturday. This was when Ji-Woo allowed herself recreational time. I learned a lot about Ji-Woo’s schedule during this initial period of dating. I found her structure and stoicism quite sexy. She made all of the reservations at restaurants. And not just nice restaurants, she even made reservations for tacky hole-in-the-wall places that she knew I would like. A few times she would order for me. Like a mind reader, she would always order exactly what I wanted yet never in a demeaning way. She seemed to know exactly when I wanted to speak for myself and when I was comfortable with her ordering for me. 

After about a month, midday on a Friday, she sent me an email. The subject line simply read, 

“Tomorrow Night 4/16/2019”

Hi Kentaro, 

Please meet me at my house tomorrow night at 6:00pm. We’ll go to dinner. I’ve made reservations at 7:30. Casual attire.

Ji

This was more or less the usual date query. Though, interestingly, she signed it at just Ji. Futhermore, she would usually ask to meet at six with reservations about the time it took to get to the restaurant. Surely we weren’t going somewhere that was an hour and a half away. 

That night, I was talking to an old friend of mine, Leo, on the phone. I was telling him about Ji-Woo and I. About how I eagerly awaited those Tuesdays and Saturdays. And about the one time I asked her out on a whim on a Friday night. She declined. I was upset for a while. But respected her need for personal space, and strict schedule. “It’s just how she is”. 

 I told Leo that we hadn’t had sex. “That’s good dude, she’s probably a Sazae Oni” he replied sarcastically. I didn’t understand his reference, but as his tone implied, it was a snide comment I’d best ignore... but didn’t. 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked sharply. 

“Sa-zae Oh-ni!” He said louder and slower in syllables, as if it were common knowledge. He continued, “They’re these folk tale snail mermaids that preyed on Japanese pirates. They would pretend to be in distress, but when the pirates brought them onboard, the sazae oni would chop off their balls and hold them ransom for gold. They’re like, obsessed with gold or something.” A weird silence filled the phone line as I looked around the room, waiting for him to finish. 

He started again, “ok, it doesn’t matter. You’re the Japanese one, should you know what a sazae oni is?”

I held my lips taught, annoyedly. 

“Well, is she someone you’d bring home to meet your mother?” He asked me. I thought about this for a while. I imagined a cartoon caricature version of my mother asking me, “Why would you want to be with someone that is so serious all the time?”

Up until this point I had never even seen the inside of her apartment. Whenever I was to meet her there, she would already be outside the gate waiting for me. 

That Saturday night I took a cab to her apartment building as I usually did. It started to rain on the way over and fog grew in density the closer I got to the apartment. I didn’t check the forecast beforehand, and I didn’t have an umbrella. I arrived at the gate and Ji-Woo wasn’t around. I checked my phone for any missed messages from her, but there were none. 

    I buzzed her intercom. “Hi, I’m here. Are you there?”

    “Still getting ready, come up.” 

She buzzed me in. This was it, I was finally going to see where(and how!) she lived. 6th Floor, apartment 6F. Embarrassingly, I panted a bit when I got to her floor. I stood on her doormat, it said ‘Welcome’. I was slightly damp, everywhere. I wore an old grey knit sweater. I had washed it so many times the collar was getting tiny holes. Faded blue jeans and shabby sneakers. I checked my casio, 6:00pm exactly. “Yes! Perfect timing” I exclaimed silently as I clenched my fist in victory, then knocked on the door insouciantly. “Come in!”, I could hear Ji-Woo shout from behind the door. I opened the door, slowly. I floated in like an astronaut, opening the hatch to an alien planet. I opened it to a small foyer. There was a modern-looking coat rack which I hung my soggy jacket on. To the right was an inviting, lamp-lit living room. There was one of those long arched floor lamps spilling its light on an Eames Lounge chair. I imagined Ji-woo perched on it, with a warm beverage, reading a dense book. Floor to ceiling bookshelves and floor to ceiling windows lined the rest of the room, I realized it was a top floor corner apartment. Black and white photographs and pen drawings hung on the wall. There were blankets draped on the modern couches. It felt uncharacteristically cozy. The furniture all flowed perfectly, like it was a team of designers’ life’s work. 

    On the left there was another closet. Then further down, it opened up to the dining room. “In here” She shouted, from that direction. 

    I kicked off my tattered sneakers and the uppers deflated like popped balloons. I took one step toward the kitchen and I was struck with the most extraordinary smell. It was rich, minerally and spicy. I let my nose lead the way. 

She stood at the stove. She was wearing a loose knit navy sweater that was well loved and jeans. Her sleeves were pushed up. She was wearing a nice apron. Her hair was pulled back, not in a braid, but in a perfectly round bun. 

    The dining table was set for two. Plates, silverware, a wine glass for her and a beer glass for me. There were two candles and a decorative bowl. The bowl was filled with some unknown liquid that looked like molten gold. I wanted to stick my finger in it but didn’t. 

    She turned and saw me, and I saw her. “I didn’t mean that casual.” she said jokingly. Lately she has been making more and more jokes, but only during our dates. It was comfortable, and usually pretty funny. 

“It smells so good, what is it?” I said. I walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter by the stove. She leaned over and planted a kiss on my lips. I was so surprised that it was over before I could react. There was a battle in my head between the heavenly smelling food and the thought of the kiss. 

“It’s almost ready. Get us drinks from the fridge.” She instructed me. The fridge was filled with different sized glass containers. They all stacked neatly, each with a label of what it was and a date. There was a bottle of white wine and a fancy looking beer with today’s date. I took them from the fridge and opened them. She looked as though she were a professional chef. She moved with tempered urgency and precision. “Budae-Jjigae. Budae is ‘army’ or ‘army base’, jjigae is ‘stew’. It’s a recipe my grandmother taught me... a long time ago.” She stopped what she was doing and looked off into space. 

A few seconds later, she regained consciousness from her memory and started to plate the food. It was finished. 

It was delicious. It was perfect. It was obvious that Ji-Woo had made this dish many times and was able to recreate it perfectly. “How many other romantic interests had she made this for?” I wondered, but quickly spurned the thought. I wasn’t shy, and got a hearty second helping. 

I wiped my mouth and leaned back in my chair, and polished off the last of my beer. I wanted badly to unbutton my pants and relieve the pressure on my waistband. Instead, we got up and cleaned the kitchen together. 

Later on, we found each other on the sofa near the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I was elated. Warm, with a full belly. Calm, sleepy, but present, I closed my eyes and relished. 

“Do not fall asleep.”

Ji-Woo instructed me. “I will be right back.” She said. 

Insubordinately, I was falling asleep when from down the hall, I heard her call me, “Come here, I need to show you something.” I sleepily approached the room at the end of the hall. A bedroom. As I got closer to the doorway, I could see a mirror’s reflection in the bedroom. It truly was a bed-room. A queen size mattress and two small side tables with lamps were the only furniture. Warm, golden light spilled out of the bedside lamps that reflected off the polished hardwood floors and floor-to-ceiling mirrors. A single, brand new candle was lit on the nightstand. But there was no lighter or matches anywhere. How was it lit?

    Ji-Woo lay on the bed, one leg crossed over the other. Her right arm supported her posture. Her hair was down. It was now I could fully realize the length and volume of her hair. It flowed down her back and fanned out perfectly behind her like a ginkgo leaf. The low lighting in the room accented her dark makeup. Her eyeshadow shimmered subtly.

She was wearing a lacy bodysuit of lingerie so scant, it could hardly be described as clothing. A lacy and delicate fabric choker connected to thin straps perfectly obfuscated her nipples. Ethereal panties suspend a pair of elegant garters. The fabric adhered to her slender, toned body as if it were made custom. 

She eyed me fervently,

And I was very awake then.

After it was over I felt euphoric and peaceful,

Unburdened. 

I turned over, towards her in bed.

I put my head on her chest.

 And I heard nothing.

[doof-doofblog]

"You're The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made!"

Tuesday 12th January 2021

Hello again everyone! Hope you're all keeping well! I apologise for this one being late, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next, following yesterday's episode! I'm not going to waste any of your time and jump straight into it!

Firstly, I want to mention Frankie and Ben. With recent events spiralling out of control, poor Frankie has no idea how to cope with it all, knowing that Mick is her Dad and that her Mother is a paedophile! Ben and Callum find her at the Prince Albert and decide to stay with her to keep an eye on her as it becomes clear that she's been drinking all day! Ben seems concerned for his friend, he manages to sit down and inform her about the fight he had just witnessed outside on the Square, informing Frankie that Shirley had beaten a woman up on the Square, but refused to say who it was. Frankie seems to look suspicious, after Ben tells her this information, she takes a quick look at her phone and sees that she has many missed calls from her Mum, but chooses to completely ignore them! During her time in the Prince Albert, Frankie has been assumed as gay, first with Tina and now with this new lady working at the bar, calling her "Gorgeous!" - I mean, that does not necessarily mean that the girl was chatting her up, could be just a nice polite compliment, but Frankie seems to take it as another girl is once again chatting her up, she questions Ben why people assume that she's gay - but as soon as Ben makes a light joke, she snaps back at him, leaving Ben very surprised. He can see that his friend is struggling with something, will he manage to find out what?!

The next thing I want to talk about is Dotty's party, now there's quite a lot to cover here involving a number of characters. Firstly, that Sharon offers Dotty an olive branch and gifts her a crate of alcohol for her party. She informs the teenager that she and Dotty's Grandmother "Dot" have been close for years and she hate for them to fall out because of Dotty, she tries to inform her that she and Ian are just starting out and she should accept it and move on. However, during the party, Dotty can't seem to come to terms with Sharon's offer, it's only after some wise words from Jean that she decides to give the alcohol back to Sharon and informs her that she can't just forget what Ian did to Dennis. It would be wrong for her accept it, unfortunately, Dotty doesn't know about Sharon's knowledge of Ian's involvement in her son's death. But Dotty makes a statement, that she needs to think about who she's really married to, there is no misunderstanding and she knows exactly what Ian did! She made the very important point that maybe Ian can buy Sharon, but she can't buy her!

During Dotty's party, poor Iqra is stood on her own, but when Keegan and Tiffany ask where Ash is, she informs them that she's probably still working, the states that the girl is a workaholic! Only just a few seconds later, Ash appears from around the doorframe - it looks like she's already had a few drinks already, much to Iqra's shock! I do feel for Iqra during these scenes, as it looks as if Ash is slowly losing interest in her girlfriend. Even when Ash proposes taking the party somewhere else, Iqra questions whether it's a good idea, to which her girlfriend responds with "Well, you can just stay here!" - leaving Iqra visibly upset. Later, when Iqra and Jean find each other, Jean gives Iqra some wise words also. When Iqra informs her that Ash has changed since Jag's has been in prison, its as if she doesn't know what her girlfriend wants anymore. Once again, Jean plays the role of being everyone's agony aunt and gives Iqra some home truths to think about, also mentioning that she needs to live in the moment, she has her whole life to figure out what she wants, but while she's young, she needs to live in the now and enjoy it! But while Iqra and Jean are having this conversation, Ash, Peter, Tiffany and Keegan have gone to the Panesar's office, where they thought the party would kick off. However, it's only when Suki walks in and informs everyone to leave that it looks like the party's over. It's been blatantly obvious in recent weeks that Peter has been flirting with Ash, even before Suki comes in to ruin the party, he questions Ash on what his chances are of being with her, she looks tempted but gives him the blow that he stands no chance with her at all. But when Suki tells them to leave, as Peter grabs his coat, his wallet falls out, which of course, Suki takes pleasure in snooping at. But she seems either disgusted or stunned to find a condom in Peter's wallet. When he comes back to find it, realising that Suki has found the content of his wallet, he informs her that it's best to be safe. Suki seems interested to know that Peter is interested in her daughter, however Peter informs her that her feelings towards him are not mutual. But what happens next REALLY shocks me - Suki starts flirting with Peter! Informing him that she's just been on a date and that the obvious end result of that date has ended with her talking to him and not in bed with her date. Peter seems kind of shocked and embarrassed at the thought, but Suki informs him that passion doesn't stop at the age of 40 and drops the biggest flirtatious bomb of all and questions whether he'd like to find out!!! To say I was shocked is a total understatement!! I have no idea why Suki would even be interested in Peter, would it be simply to get her own back on Ian? Or to even cause a rift between him and Ash? Who knows?!

Also, can I just mention what an absolute inspiration Jean was during this episode! Regardless of having to deal with the possibility that her cancer is back, she puts on a brave face, with some gorgeous make-up, gets dressed into a stunning sparkly dress and attends Dotty's party with Mo! During her time there, she helps not to just one - but two people - Dotty and Iqra! Informing them to take a hold of their life, live in the moment and enjoy it while they can. Jean seemed to be really enjoying herself at the party and also seemed to be taking her own advice. When Iqra asks her what she wants, she simply gets up and says "I want to dance!" - Jean gets up onto the dancefloor and shows the young ones how to live in the moment. She's swaying her arms and legs and singing along to the music, eyes closed - actually living in that very moment! Jean was just beautiful tonight, an inspiration. I love her so so much! I want to applaud Gillian Wright for her performance as Jean, she's just a fantastic actress and plays the role of Jean so perfectly, I can't fault her at all!! Of course we don't know for sure whether Jean's cancer has returned, I pray to God it hasn't, but even so - she has given us a brilliant life lesson. Don't dwell on things, face life head on, enjoy it - because we simply don't know how long we all have on this Earth!

The final thing I want to talk about, of course is Mick and Shirley! After the events of what happened in the previous episode, Mick is panicking that his Mum is going to the police everything, about why she attacked Katy and that soon Mick's secret will come flooding out onto the Square. Linda tries to console her husband, but he states that he simply isn't ready for things to be revealed yet. I do also feel for Shirley during this episode, during her confrontation with Linda, she states that after learning the truth, she can't just stand back and do nothing! Linda pleads to Shirley not to call the police, she understands that she wants to help Mick, but doing this isn't the right way. She makes a very valid point that they are both on the same side here, they both want to be there for Mick, even though they both want to rip Katy's throat out for what she's done to him, but they have to do what's best for Mick and do things at his pace - otherwise it'll make the whole situation 10 times worse for him. Linda suggests that she goes round to their apartment and speaks to her son. It's this scene in particular which got me really emotional. Poor Shirley is in absolute bits, tears flooding down her face as she talks to her son about not being there for him and how she blames herself. She informs Mick that she didn't tell the police why she hit Katy, for his sake! She goes on to talk about not being able to be there for him whilst he was in care, she blames herself - not for putting him into care but also of what Katy has done to him. As a mother, she feels she should've known, she should've protected him. She is deeply apologetic towards her son. Mick doesn't say a word and listens very carefully to his Mother's words - it seems as this has been the words he's been needing to her, slowly and gently he leans forward to his Mum, informing her that all of this is not her fault, the only person to blame is Katy. He says those 3 small words that Shirley has been longing to hear for a very long time "I love you!" - Shirley's sobs seem to ease as finally the relationship between her and her son is rekindled. This scene almost made me cry - I also have to applaud Linda Henry for her performance as Shirley, another fantastic actress which EastEnders are extremely lucky to have! I have to be honest, Shirley is one of my favourite characters, I've loved her since she first appeared on the soap, she has so much fire about her and I love her so much!! EastEnders wouldn't be the same without her! Taking her own advice, that she wants to be there for her family, she wants to look out for her family more than ever now, she goes back to the Atkins household where Gray is waiting for her. She informs him that she's going to start looking for Tina, something isn't right and she needs to find her baby sister - the look on Gray's face is an absolute picture! Panic! Something tells me it's not going to be too long until his secrets slowly start to reveal themselves. What is he going to do now? How on Earth is he going to be able to stop Shirley from searching for her sister? What other low lengths will he go to?!

The final thing I want to mention is Max! After leaving Mick and Shirley alone to have their talk, Linda finds herself in the Vic. Max finds her sitting alone and approaches her, questioning the local gossip about Shirley beating up a lady, someone who's known to Mick. Linda attempts to ignore his questioning, informing him that it's none of his business and has nothing to do with him. Max seems really put off by this, he can't seem to understand why all of sudden, after their fling, Linda is back to being the doting wife. He asks her to please tell him, just to give him some kind of understanding as to why she's suddenly dropped him like a tone of bricks! He informs her that she doesn't have to stay with Mick out of duty, but Linda stops him before he can say anymore and informs him that it's not duty that she's staying with Mick, it's because of love. She still loves her husband very dearly. Bu Max refuses to give up and states that he can't understand that "One minute you're mine, the next -!" This really doesn't sit well with Linda and abruptly stops him once again, stating that she was NEVER his and that he was the biggest mistake she ever made, leaving the Vic and Max alone with the hurtful truth that she regrets their fling, even more so now.

Overall a very brilliant episode, powerful, emotional, inspirational! Everything you wanted really! I can't wait to see what happens next. Will Frankie be okay? Will she eventually be able to have a conversation with Mick? Who knows? I hope in time that Mick will be able to approach his daughter and they'll be able to come to terms with everything - together. What the heck is going on between Suki and Peter? Do you guys find that weird and disturbing as much as I do?! Plus, how is Shirley going to find Tina and will Gray attempt to stop her?! Oooo so many questions which I can't find out the answers to! I hope you've all enjoyed reading, I really enjoyed writing this post! Please feel free to leave me a comment, I'll always respond! Enjoy the rest of your day folks! Love you all xXx

[sunshinejs]

The Last One

This one takes place during the Toronto show and supposedly is Connor’s last show (LISTEENNNNN my boy is coming to asia as well and i’m highkey mad bcs i’ll be back in uk for my studies by the time he comes to my country :( ) hope you enjoyed this one x

Word count: 3.2k -ish

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The day you were dreading for weeks was finally here.

 The morning of the big show in Toronto, and also the last concert of the North America tour, you quietly worked your way around the kitchen to get something to have for breakfast.

 Honestly when your best friend since childhood, Shawn, approached you last year asking if you wanted to join him and Brian on tour as his personal assistant, you didn’t think much was going to happen. Sure, you were blessed to be given the opportunity to travel around the world with your two best friends but you didn’t think you would get too attached to anyone on tour.

 Until you met Connor, of course.

 You met Connor late last year at a house party Shawn threw for his new tour family, in hoping to familiarize everyone with each other. So, yeah you met Connor briefly but you two didn’t talk much and you noticed he was the quite-shy type of person. That night after the party, you followed him on Instagram after seeing all the people Brian had tagged in his photos and he reciprocated it.

 You never saw Connor again until a few days before the tour started. He shyly approached you and introduced himself (like the gentleman he is) properly to you, and that was when you two started getting to know each other.

 It wasn’t even 3 weeks into the tour that everyone realized you two were very attached at hips. When there was Connor, there was you (for most of the time) and vice versa. You two did most of your work in pairs; he accompanied you on coffee runs and help you organize the tour schedules; you stayed up with him till the late morning while he edited footages and gave him your inputs on his montage ideas.

 And of course, it’s no surprise that the first one who catches on the little heart eyes you and Connor sneakily send to each other when the other one wasn’t looking, was Brian, who immediately told Shawn about it. The both of them could not stop teasing you and Connor separately about it until it completely annoyed you. Alessia and Liv caught on it not too long after the boys and the four of them basically made it their life mission to get you two together before the European leg of the tour ended. You didn’t know at what point their mischievous plans worked, but true enough you and Connor became a couple just like they knew you would

 The past few months have been absolutely crazy but you wouldn’t want to have it any other way. The late-night shenanigans with your friends, sneaking off with Connor for private date nights, crazy parties (4th of July and Shawn’s birthday to name a few) and the adrenaline rush from constantly waking up in different cities.

 As day passes by, you were getting more fearful for that one specific day where everything would end. The day where everything changes for the entire tour family because it was the last day where Connor, Alessia and Liv would still be around.

 “Morning baby” Connor snapped you out of your thoughts. You smiled softly to yourself as you lean back in his touch and let him press soft kisses to your neck “Whatcha thinking about, pretty lady?”

 “The past few months” You admitted; putting your hands over his and intertwining your fingers together “Thinking about how hectic it was”

 He chuckled lowly and you felt him nod against your neck “Yeah, it’s been the craziest times of my life”

 “Crazy in a good way?”

 “Crazy in the best way” Connor confirmed and slowly spun you around so you were facing him. He smiled softly and rest his hand on your cheek “Because I met you”

 You sighed and leaned forward so your cheek was pressed against his bare chest as you listen to the beating of his heart “I don’t know how I’m going to go on with the tour without you” You muttered softly, trying your best not to cry.

 “Hey,” He called and wrapped his arms around your body “We can worry about that when the time comes, baby. Tonight, we’re going to have the best night of our lives, you hear me? One last one for the road”

 Connor felt you nod against him and he pressed a kiss to your head “We’re going to be fine, babe”

 “There’s my favourite couple!” Another voice spoke up and totally ruining the moment you and Connor were having. Connor groaned at Brian’s voice as you let out a laugh and pushed yourself from Connor’s chest “Morning to you too, Bri”

 “What’re we having for breakfast?” Brian asked nonchalantly as he walked past you and Connor to drop his dirty mug in the sink.

 “Cereal” You answered, moving away from Connor and grabbed two extra bowls from the cabinet “There’s hot coffee waiting for you in the pot”

 “This is why we’re best friends, y/n” Brian sighs happily and went over to the coffee pot “Brashier, you’re lucky to have her ya know?”

 Your cheeks flushed when you noticed that adoring look Connor was sending your way “Yeah,” He agreed without hesitation “The luckiest”

xxx

“Your usual” You announced to Shawn as you handed him his coffee cup.

 Shawn looked at you gratefully as he sets his phone aside “Thanks, honey” He smiled, looking over your shoulder; expecting to find Connor not too far behind “Did you go alone?”

 “Yeah,” You shrugged and plopped down on the couch beside him “It was just a couple of blocks away”

“Connor didn’t go with you?” Shawn frowned after taking a sip of his drink “You two always go on coffee runs, no?”

 “Ah, that’s what you’re wondering” You chuckled, slipping your phone out of your pocket “But no, Andrew needed to talk to him about something. It’s fine, you know? Soon enough I’m going to be doing it on my own anyways”

 Shawn sensed that tone in your voice and he just knew you weren’t completely okay. He leaned forward and placed the cup on the table before turning his body to the side so he was facing you “Are you okay?”

 “Hm?” You looked up from your phone. When you saw the serious look he had on his face, your eyebrows furrowed “Yeah, I am. Why’re you asking?”

 “y/n” He warned “I know when you’re lying to me”

 You knew whatever poker face you had one was not working because Shawn could read you like a book; has been that way for as long as you could remember. You took a deep breath and exhale through your mouth, “It just hit me this morning that it’s the last day and it’s been bugging me”

 Shawn nodded understandingly, “Did you two talk about it?”

 You shook your head no “He said we’d worry about that when the time comes”

 Shawn knew you were going to continue so he kept quiet. “I don’t know how I’m going to do the tour without him” You told him shakily “We’ve been doing everything together, you know? How am I supposed to let go of that and fall back into a routine where it’s just me?”

 “Honey, you’re not alone” He confirmed, sliding an arm around your shoulder and let you rest against him. You started sniffling and he could tell you were silently crying “Hey,” Shawn called softly as he rubbed your arm “I know it sucks but Brian and I are still around, okay? You come to us anytime. I could go with you for coffee runs, Brian could help you out with the schedules, we’ll make it work”

 “And we’ll fly him out” Shawn promise, “Whenever you feel like you can’t handle it, we’ll get him to come out; doesn’t matter where we are. Everything’s going to be fine”

 “I can’t ask him to do that for me” You shook your head “He’s going back to UCLA, Shawn. I can’t be the selfish one to ruin his future just because I’m feeling clingy”

 “You are his future” He corrected, firmly “I’m telling you, y/n, Connor is so madly in love with you; that kid would walk to Antarctica if you asked him to”

 You let out a giggle as you wiped away your tears. Shawn pulled away from you so you two were facing each other “I bet you all think we’re one of those super cringey couples who can’t be away from each other for more than 5 seconds”

  “We definitely say that all the time,” Shawn shrugged “But we know how much you two complete each other. You two are good for each other” He added with a smile “Think about how shy he was to even hold your hand in the beginning, now he goes around yelling how everyone should be jealous he gets to kiss the most amazing girl in the world”

 You groaned, burying your face in your hands to hide the redness of your cheeks “He really didn’t have to embarrass me like that”

 “Come on, y/n, you know you love hearing it” He teased.

 “Shawn!” Tiffany pops her head into the green room “I need you next door to try on an outfit!” She ordered then smiled to you “Hi honey!”

 You smiled, waving to her “Hi Tiff”

 “Duty calls” Shawn said enthusiastically as he stood up and grabbed his cup “You’re going to be okay?” He asked you with concern.

 You nodded, standing up as well so you could give him a hug “Thank you,” You muttered against his shirt “Thank you for being my best friend, Shawn. I love you”

 He smiled softly and pressed a kiss to your head “We’re stuck for life, bug” He teased, knowing you hated the nickname he gave you when you two were seven “Love you too, dork”

 xxx

 It was a tour ritual to have everyone from Shawn and Alessia’s team form a big circle before Alessia’s set and they both would give words of encouragements. Tonight’s one was a little more emotionally then you thought it would be. With Connor’s arm wrapped around your waist and your hand gripping onto Liv’s hand, you were trying to keep that fake smile on your face.

 “… It’s been the best few months” Shawn smiled warmly to all the people present “I couldn’t ask for a better team and to have Alessia with us for the European and NA tour has been truly amazing”

 “It really has been great” Alessia agreed with a smile and tears in her eyes “Thank you for keeping everything so fun and exciting every day. For all the laughter and smiles. It has been a blessing to be with everyone one of you”

 “Hell yes!” Brian exclaimed “Ten years from now, we’re going to think back about this tour and we’re going to get all emotional about it, because we knew we had a pretty sick time as one family!”

 Everyone laughs, most of them with teary eyes having to be separated from the people they’ve called family.

 “On three,” Shawn put his hand in and everyone follow suit. They huddled for once last time and cheered loudly together.

  “You are not going to make me cry right now” Alessia shook her head when Shawn requested that they (him, her, Brian, Connor, Liv and you) moved to the corner of the hall for a group talk “No way in hell, Mendes”

 Shawn laughs in return and slipped his arms around her and you while the six of you gathered in a circle “It’s been a fucking crazy ride, hasn’t it?”

 “That’s thanks to you, man” Connor spoke up from your other side. When you looked over at him, you noticed the tears in his eyes as he continued to speak “I’m so grateful that you took me along with you on this tour. It’s been so great having to work with you and being around all of you 24/7. I’m really going to miss it”

 “Shut up!” Brian cried, trying not to tear up “Shut up! Stop trying to make me cry!”

 The rest of you let out a laugh and Liv teased him “Craigen’s gone soft, huh?”

 “The rest of the tour is going to be great” Alessia stated with confidence “You’re going to kill it, Shawn. And knowing that Brian and y/n are still going to be around with you tells me that it’s not going to be boring for either of you”

 “Nothing’s going to be the same without you three” You shook your head with a sad smile on your face, “Exploring the cities aren’t going to be as fun as it was when it was the six of us. Everything is going to be so different”

 “We’re one video call away,” Liv promised “Wherever you are, whatever time it is, we’re there”

 “And you’ll be back before you know it” Connor confirmed as his grip around your waist tightened “Then we’ll meet up and go back to being complete idiots doing stupid shits together just like we were on tour” He grinned.

 Shawn chuckled, “That’s the plan, man” He nodded.

 “I love you guys, for real” Brian stated. “Group hug?”

 “Group hug!” Alessia exclaims as the six of you squeezed yourself in for a big tight hug for one last time.

 “Do you guys want a picture together?” Josiah spoke up from behind after you all pulled away. He was smiling, proud that he caught the moment of the group hug he knew was very special for the six of you.

 The six of you posed for him a few times as he took many photos and then Alessia was off to perform her set.

 You, Connor, Brian and Liv were standing by the tech booth near the front barricade for Alessia’s set. For every show, you tried your best to come out in the crowd with the other three during her performances, and now that you were watching her for the last time; you just knew you were going to miss seeing her go crazy on stage.

 “Tonight’s a bit special and also emotional for all of us,” Alessia spoke into the mic after the song ended “Tonight is my last show as the opening act for the Shawn Mendes tour. I wouldn’t have been able to perform in so many different cities so to Shawn and the crew, thank you so much for letting me be a part of this amazing experience. And to the fans, thank you for all your support. I love you all from the bottom of my heart”

 “As you know, I just released an EP today…”

 “And one of the songs talks about my entire experience of being a part of this tour,” She continued to explain while grabbing her guitar from the side. The crowd cheered loudly for her “About the people I’ve been blessed to meet and work with for the past few months”

 “So, this one is dedicated to my tour family” She concluded as the drum starts playing while the big screen behind her starts a countdown from 3 to 1.

 It started with that old video of the six of you from Germany that Connor filmed; exploring the city late at night after a couple of drinks in the bar. The video continues to more random moments throughout the tour that were filmed by different people.

 Tears were forming in your eyes as all the memories came rushing in while looking at the short clips projected on the big screens. The ones of you, Alessia and Liv lip syncing to a song you couldn’t remember; Shawn and Brian pulling the whipped cream prank on Connor; dance sessions; playing tag around the arenas together; silly rehearsal sessions with the bands; water gun fights by the lake.

 You turned around from her, feeling all these emotions rushing into your body. When you met Connor’s gaze, you saw the tears in his eyes as well. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into his chest. The crowd was singing along with her as you let the tears roll down your cheeks, burying your head in the crook of his neck.

 “Baby,” He muttered in your ear “I love you”

 He pushed you away just enough to look at your face. Connor wiped your tears away and you smiled at him softly, mouthing “I love you too” before tip-toeing and pressing your lips against his.

 The arena was so loud but at that moment, it felt like it was just you and Connor in the room. And to you, that was the only thing that mattered.

 xxx

 “’M tired” Connor muttered as he slips into bed behind you around 1am. He wraps his arms around your body and pulled you closer “Can we sleep through the morning tomorrow?”

 You laughed softly and turn your body to face him. The room was dark except for the table lamp illuminating low light from Connor’s side of the bed. You nodded, “Whatever you want, bub”

 Connor sleepily smiled at you and laced your fingers together “Shawn told me what happened” He admitted a minute later.

 You huffed in annoyance that your best friend ratted you out when you thought he would’ve kept quiet about it “Of course he did”

 “You know I’d go anywhere with you, right?” He asked “I’d walk to you if you asked me to”

 You snorted, thinking back to the exact thing Shawn said earlier in the day “Yeah, Shawn said the same thing”

 “I would love to continue the tour” Connor stated as he brought his hand up to your head and ran his fingers through your hair “I want nothing more to be with you, babe”

 “But UCLA” You answered for him when you noticed the pause in his sentence. He smiled sadly and nodded “I get it, bub, I do” You told him.

 “I promised my parents” He said softly “I promised them I’d put university on hold for 6 months max and it took me a lot of convincing to make them agree”

 “I’m not asking you to go against your parents, Con” You shook your head “But I can’t deny that tour is going to be hard without you”

 “I know, sweetheart” Connor said with sympathy “But it’s just 3 months, okay? I promise it’s gonna be quick and then we’ll see each other in December”

 You nodded “Yeah, I guess. And hey, what’d you think if I enrolled there next year?”

 “UCLA?” He asked surprisingly “Really? Wasn’t University of Toronto the plan?”

 You shrugged, “It was the plan because I wasn’t open to any other options but now… Maybe I can start looking around outside of Canada too. Shawn’s taking a break from performing next year so he doesn’t need his personal assistant”

 “You coming to UCLA would be the dream come true for me, love” Connor sighed happily “But what about your parents?”

 “My parents would say yes if I told them I wanted to study in the UK” You said in a teasing voice “So, I think they’d be fine with me studying in LA, babe”

 “Come to LA after Christmas and I’ll show you around the campus” He said before letting out a yawn “Make sure it’s really what you want, you know?”

 “Mhmm, sounds like a plan” You agreed “Now let’s sleep, pretty boy. Shawn has that party tomorrow night and that idiot is going to get all of us so wasted till we can’t walk”

 Connor chuckles lowly, before leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to your lips “I love you, babe”

 “Love you too, bubs”

[singeramg]

Midnight: Chapter 8

A/n: I am really kicking these out aren’t I? LOL Hope you enjoy reading

Pairing: Clark Kent/ Metahuman! Black! OFC

Rating: M

Warnings for chapter: ANGST, maybe even some tears idk? 

Catch Up Here!

Midnight: Chapter 8

In the walk to the ship I had fallen asleep fairly quickly, as I was exhausted and against his chest I felt safe, but when I woke up in a bed. I was totally confused as to where I was. Had those men succeeded in getting me back?Had the team, Clark included all been a dream.  I did my best to let energy build on my hands, preparing for a fight. 

     “Whoa there cowgirl. You are safe here.”

I heard Arthur say as I realized I was not alone in the room. I sat up ignoring the pain in my lower abdomen as the recent events came rushing back. I groaned and looked at Arthur and Diana who were in the room with me.

    “Where are we? Where is Kalen? Is he safe?”

    “You are in Bruce’s mansion. You are safe Kalen is safe. Bruce thought it might be better if he and his caretaker were not here.” Diana tells me with a look of concern on her face. 

I looked confused and my senses told me Clark was no longer in my immediate vicinity. 

   “ Wait where did he take my son?”

    “He just had Alfred take them to another part of the property. Gia does he know?”

Diana asks softly, I pretend not to know what she was asking me.

   “Does who know what?”

Diana sits on the edge of my bed as Arthur leans on the wall with his arms crossed against his chest. The frustration is back but it is intertwined with concern and the compassion the rumors said he lacked. 

   “So you are going to sit there and act like you don’t know what we are talking about?” Arthur says.

I huffed in frustration. Ignoring the burning feeling of the raw skin where Clark had used his heat vision on me. I realized I had on some flimsy hospital gown. If I had enough energy I would shift into proper clothes, but I didn’t. 

  “I need some clothes.”

  “I think you are going to have much bigger problems than clothes if you don’t figure out how to tell Supes.” Says Arthur 

   “I’ll send him a thank you card.” The answer was flippant I knew. 

  “Gia!”

Arthur says angrily and I had the forethought not to jump at his voice, but I knew nervousness showed in my face. I lashed back out at him. It was a defense mechanism I was unfortunately good at.

  “Arthur! Now that we are done yelling each other’s names, can someone go get Ms. A and My son.”

 “You think whoever tried to basically kidnap you will stop?”

  “If we get away...”

  “They shot you. Almost killed you. If I hadn’t shown up when I did you would be dead.”

I looked at my hands, unwilling to make eye contact.

  “And I thank you but I can’t stay and put my son at risk.”

  “He will never be more safe than he is right now. Arthur can you please retrieve her son?”

He grunts in confirmation and leaves me alone with Diana. She turns to me with a sincere look on her face.  I took note of her hair pulled back into a bun and she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a yellow top. I was jealous. I wanted clothes really badly. Being this naked left me feeling vulnerable.

    “Gia, I know this must be hard for you. I can hear how your heart is racing. I know we do not know each other well and maybe I am the last person you want to tell your secrets to, but I like you Gia. I want to help you. We all do, we cannot help you if you won’t admit the truth.”

 “Diana I appreciate your offer but I can’t stay here. Everyone has their life and we have ours. I cannot let my past catch up with us.”

  “You know as well as I do that Clark will not let anyone hurt you. Neither will we, you are on the team now. Now I’m going to ask you a very direct question, and while the answer is obvious I need a yes or no.”

I shook my head to let her know I understood the instructions.

 “Is Kalen, Kal- El’s son?”

Before I knew it I was crying again and I hated that I looked and felt so weak. 

  “Diana, he can’t know. He was happy with Lois. He will think I can’t protect him. He is going to take him away. I...I just...”

I broke down sobbing into My hands, Diana moved closer, pulling me into her arms. 

  “I promise you that I won’t let that happen. You protected your son to almost your dying breath. Everyone including Kal saw that, I think you will be able to come to a solution about this. No matter what happens everything will be okay. I know there may be some shame in being with Clark while he was in a relationship, and while it is something I didn’t think he would do, that’s okay too. The past...”

    “Wait stop Diana. Clark is still the same guy you thought of him. He and Lois were not together at the time, I am many things. A home wrecker is not one of them, furthermore the  reason why we need to leave. I can’t impress a child on their relationship. At some point in my life, I considered Lois a friend, I can’t come in and ask her to play Step-mother. This is why I need to go...”

    “I apologize for my assumption.” She says and means it.

   “It’s okay it was a logical assumption but please help me get out of here.”

   “Kal-El will only look for you if you go. He will be back soon I imagine. He and Bruce went to figure out who sent those men to attack you. He was not very happy when he left. He made sure you were safe on the plane and he went home to change. I however will bring you some clothes. Gia he deserves to know.”

She quickly goes out of the room, the clothing must not have been far because she came in with some jeans and a deep purple cap sleeved shirt. I knew my hair had to be a mess of dark curls. The elastic holder had long since disappeared. A quick and hot second shower freed me of any lingering debris and dirt and I dressed in the clothes that Diana provided me. 

I was rubbing a towel on my hair that I was forced to wash when my door opened and a ball of energy came flying into my legs. Followed by Ms. Alphonse. Tears in her eyes she hugs me as well, then pops my arm like my mom used to do when I was a child. While the memories were fond, the pain was not. I rubbed the sore spot and looked at her afraid she would just hit me again.

   “Tiffany or should I say Gia. You have a lot of explaining to do.”

   “I know Ms. A. I promise you at least that much. I will tell you what I can about me and Kalen as soon as we get out of here.”

   “And go where Child? I’ve got a feeling if Kyle’s...sorry I mean Kalen’s father is who I think it is you won’t get very far.”

“Mommy!!!!!” Kalen pulls at the bottom of my shirt until I bend down to pick him up. 

“Should you be doing that?”

I looked at Ms. A and hugged my baby tight to me. I ignored that maybe she was right, I needed to hold him. 

“Mama’ you feel better?”

“Yes mama is okay. Are you hungry? Are you okay?”

“You said we can eat Ice cream!”

I looked at him and he didn’t seem to answer my question, but his mood was fine.

“I am sure my friend has some ice cream here somewhere. Let’s go find Alfred.”

I kissed him on the cheek and sat him down on the ground and he grabbed my hand. I noticed Arthur in the doorway.

“Kalen did my friend introduce himself to you?”

“He looks mean” he says quietly, Arthur hides a smirk.

“He’s a friend of mommy’s. He’s not going to mean to you if you are nice to him.”

I led him forward stopping in front of Arthur.

“Baby, this is Mr. Arthur.”

Arthur’s face softens, and he comes down to my sons level, a smile on his face.

“ I’m usually only mean to the bad guys. Can I get a high five little buddy?”

He holds his hand up and Kalen reluctantly smacks it . Arthur pretends to be hurt, grabbing his hand as if in pain.

“Whoa little man, you are strong! Gia, you are you sure he is only 3!”

He says with dramatics but he also looks at me. The unspoken words being that his obviously abnormal strength was furthermore proof of his paternal parentage. 

“Mommy he doesn’t look like the Arthur on TV.”

I laughed and Arthur looked at me confused.

“Kalen he is not the same Arthur from your TV show.”

I looked at Arthur who had now stood back up and looked confused.

“He thinks you are supposed to be Arthur the Aardvark.”

“Oh, well I think I’m cooler than an aardvark. More like a fish. We will go to the beach one day and I’ll show you a buncha cool stuff that I can only show my friends. You are my friend right?”

My son nods happily.

“Alright my man! Let’s go raid the kitchen. I’m sure Barry is down there somewhere with the good stuff.”

We followed him down the hallway to the large  sitting room where Victor and Diana were chatting with Alfred. Barry was lounging with a large sandwich and his feet up. 

“Hi everyone. I have some very important people I’d like for you to meet if you haven’t already. This is Sarah Alphonse, she has been instrumental in helping me with little man here.”

Ms. A. Smiles at everyone in the room and walks over to have a seat on one of the large couches in the room. 

  “And speaking of the little man, everyone this is my son, Kalen.”

Barry’s eyes got big and I was under the assumption that he hadn’t actually seen my son up close. Diana simply waved at the little boy.

He waved back clearly having remembered her from the plane ride. He took one look at Victor and to his credit he didn’t scream, he only moved behind my legs, peaking from behind them. 

  “Kalen this is Mr. Victor. He helps mommy when she needs to get the bad guys. He’s kinda like a transformer and a computer all in one.”

  “So he a robot?”

 “He’s A PERSON that just can do really awesome stuff with computers and looks really cool too. Mr. Victor is pretty darn awesome himself, Can you say to him for me?”

He comes behind my legs slightly and Victor leans forward but otherwise lets Kalen come to him. He reaches out slowly once Kalen is close enough and Kalen reaches up touches the metal of his hand. Victor makes a fist and they bump in a cool way and Kalen smiles at Victor. 

I could feel Victors relief to be able to interact with a small child and not have him run screaming. 

 “BooYah!” Victor says and my son picks up in that instantly

  “Boo ya! Boo ya!!”

We all laugh at his innocent excitement. I take note his eyes are no longer brown like mine but have reverted back to their natural blue.

 “So guys little bro was promised some ice cream, Alfred my man do you think we could find some for him?”

  “Of course Mr. Curry. Would young Mr. Smith and Ms. Alphonse like to accompany me to pick some out? Mr. Wayne likes to keep a few flavors in the house for his ‘cheat day’”

We all laughed at Alfred’s little reveal about the stoic man that he basically raised. 

 “Come on young man they might have some candy too!”

He cheers and takes off in a run behind her and Alfred.

  “Please Don't let him have too much sugar!”

I yell behind them, but I know it’s a moot point. 

That leaves the team to look at me.

 “So am I crazy or does that kid look like A mini, tan...”

I cut Barry off before he could finish his sentence with a raised hand.

 “He looks like the father that does not know about him Barry. It’s complicated and I’m scared as shit. Diana here has convinced me to come clean. I think this a terrible idea, but I will pull him aside whenever he and Bruce come back. If he doesn’t come back here, I’ll drive out to Smallville. I just want to ease this on him. It’s delicate...”

I am interrupted by a door opening to my left. 

  “Recon proved unsuccessful. I’ll start gathering surveillance.”

Bruce says as he comes into the room, removing his cowl and still frowning. He looks at me standing there and maybe he is even surprised I am up. He doesn’t let in linger however. 

 “Gia. It’s good to find you awake.”

 “Thank you for coming to save me Bruce.”

 “Glad I could be of service. Have they told you where your son is?”

“Yes he is raiding your cheat day ice cream as we speak.”

“Good. I assumed that it was best to keep him away while you healed and had a chance to explain.”

 “Everyone else has had a very brief explanation, one that they can explain to you. I am not fond of repeating myself. Where is Clark?”

I said really hoping Bruce wasn’t about to try and check me about not telling any of them about my dalliance with Clark. It really wasn’t any of their business. He seemed to have enough sense to back off of the subject anyway. 

  “He went to the room you were in to check on  you. I guess since you are here, he will be in, in about...”

At that moment Clark comes back in the room, still in full Superman Regalia. His eyes softened the moment they saw me.

  “Gia I was worried when I couldn’t find you in your room. Why are you up and moving already?”  He furrows his brows (a habit he had developed for his confusion) 

  “I am fine Clark.” 

He comes closer, his arms pulling me into a hug which I resisted. I could feel his disappointment at my lack of interaction. 

  “I don’t know about that. I literally just cauterized an internal bleed less than a few hours ago. I think you ought to come lay back down.”

He keeps one arm wrapped around me, a sort of one armed hug as he tried to usher me out the door. I pulled away.

  “I said I am fine Clark. I don’t want to sit down or lay down. We, however, should talk.”

I motioned between the two of us. 

  “I agree Gia. I need to change out of this but we should talk...without the eyes.”

He motions to the other members on the team, and smirks at me. Innocent enough that I almost tear up. This could be the last time I see this directed toward me, a sort of warm fondness envelops me. 

 “Let’s go back to my room.”

Clark laughs at how I begin to push him toward the door, he moves because he wants to, not because I can move him under any power of my own. 

 “Forever the pushy one now this is the Gia I remember.”

 “Omg just move it Kent.”

We were almost to the door leading to the hallway, when the doors on the opposite side of the room opened and Kalen came running at my legs, full speed, I picked him up despite the burn to my side. I forced a smile on my face while my heartbeat I knew Clark could hear went wild.

 “Momma! Momma! They had the bestest ice cream here! They have the Star Wars kind! I ate’d it and Mr. Alfred let me have some gummy bears too!”

I swung him around noting that the Sugar High he had was just getting started, and kissed his cheek, looking at only his face, because I knew shit was about to hit the fan as soon as I looked up. 

 “That is Good Baby. I told you that you would get your ice cream for being a good boy.”

It was then that Kalen finally looked beyond me and to the two new additions to the room. The excitement mixed with trepidation as they landed on the man closest to me. I finally looked up at Clark, and when I did. It was the first time he made eye contact with his son. The emotions felt like a punch in the gut.

Confusion and fear are the most prominent. The fear from Clark was new to me. He was never scared, I didn’t even feel fear from him when he flew that spear into the Zod-monster.

“Momma is that the man from the tv? Supa’man?”

He points to Clark who I have yet to see breathe. Clark is only staring at him, taking a few steps back from where the two of us stood.

The rest of the room follows the same suit as him, holding their breath as they await something to happen.

I push his hand down.

  “Baby, What did momma say about pointing at people?”

  “It not nice. I rude if I points. But momma that’s Supa’man!”

He starts bouncing in my arms excitedly. 

  “Sorry everyone. You guys know When Superman passed they did and still do a lot of specials about the people he has saved, plus on the kids shows they animated him, talked about him. They even did a whole special about his death and what it means. He became a big fan.”

I looked at my son whose eyes were lit up still their natural blue. He had the biggest smile on his face as he worked around trying to get down. Little did he know I was using him a life jacket. He was the only thing keeping me grounded. 

  “Ummm yeah baby that’s Superman, but you still can’t point at him.”

  “Can’ts I say hi? You put me down momma?”

I kiss his cheek, he wipes it off, not wanting to be seen getting a kiss from his mother in front of Superman.

 “Ummm I can but please be the polite young man I know you can be?”

I let him slide down and I watch as he takes the steps over to Clark, which were a lot calmer than I thought they would be. Clark wastes no time dropping to his knee in front of the little boy.

“Momma says you are Su’paman.”

Clark opens his mouth to speak and at first his voice is only a whisper, as clearly his is clogged. He was choked up and I couldn’t blame him.

“Your mother would be right. I am Superman. What is your name?”

 “My name is Kalen Jo-seph Smith! You have a cool cape Mr. Supa’man! It’s my favorite color!”

 “What color is that Kalen?” I offer trying to smooth the interaction.

 “Red!” I smile at his child's excitement.

 “Wow! I like that color too. How old are you Kalen?” Clark says

  “I’m 3 and a half years old!”

Clark doesn’t look at me, but I know he was confirming the timeline in his mind by Kalen’s age. I had my hand near my mouth already, the other arm wrapped around my torso, trying to disappear. I knew I couldn’t go invisible, not with my son in the room.

 “Wow you are such a big boy! Strong little man too I bet.” Clark says with a wide smile, though his emotions were still a mix of shock, fear, and worry.

 “Yeah man you should feel little dudes high five. Lil man is going to be catching trains just like you someday.”

Arthur says with a joke to soften the tension in the room and my Kalen feels even better. Something I was grateful for. It was short-lived because it triggered my son to inadvertently change his hairstyle to match the short- straight cut and black that Clark currently had. 

Clark jumped slightly along with everyone else in the room, with the exception of Ms. A.I ran over to my son, picking him up again to which he was okay with because he was startled by Clark’s sudden movement. I smiled at the room hoping to show that my child wasn’t dangerous to anyone as everyone’s anxiety and nervousness shot up ten fold.

  “I guess I owe a small explanation to you all. My little Kalen here is special. He can change small things about his appearance. His eye color, his hair. The hair can be kind of funny, one time I came in the room it was long and blue. I imagine it will be bigger things as he grows into his powers. It’s the reason I only have trusted him with Ms. Alphonse. He doesn’t do it knowingly yet, which means he can’t control it.”

  “He has been able to do this since birth?” Bruce asks

  “Not immediately after. They had enough time to note his hair was dark brown and his eyes blue. It honestly didn’t start until he was about 6 months and it was only his eyes. Funny thing was I thought I was going crazy from lack of sleep. I finally broke down one day while trying to get him to stop crying because he had colic and Ms. A came to my door. She helped me so much with him since then. After a good night's rest, I took note that my child’s eyes were no longer like...( I was about to say Clark’s but stopped myself) they weren’t blue but brown. I was staring him in the eyes when they changed back as he lit up upon seeing me. Kalen just has gifts.”

 “Well I guess we should expect nothing less from your child.” Victor offers with a smirk. 

We all watched his hair go back to normal and I looked to Ms. Alphonse who stepped forward then I looked at my baby.

 “Alright little man. It’s getting kind of late, I think someone should start getting ready for bed.”

 “But mommy I don’t wanna. Superman is here! What if I go to sleeps and he goes away?”

      “Umm...”

I start to say, still not sure if Clark will have anything to do with us, but Clark steps forward and holds out his arms to take Kalen, who excitedly reaches for him. My eyes prick as Clark truly holds his son for the first time and I feel the full feeling of completeness and love I felt pouring out of him. My son hugs him back, just happy be hugging Superman. Clark finally pulls back to swing him to his side, Kalen basically sitting on his forearm, with a huge smile on his face.

   “Momma I’m taller than you now!”

“Yep you are! Someday will be that tall without a Superhero holding you, but for now, you are a little mini that needs to get ready for bed.”

   “Can Mr. Superman come with me?”

He asks and Clark who hadn’t stopped looking at his son since he appeared finally looked me in my face, eager as to what I would say.

  “Ummm... how about you get ready for bed with Ms. Alphonse and if he doesn’t get called away to save the world Mr. Superman will come up and read you a story.”

   “Don’t worry Kalen the world will wait when it comes to you. I’ll come read you any story you want.”

Kalen almost squeals he’s so excited and Clark sits him down on the ground excitedly.

Alfred comes over to Ms. A.

  “Let me show you to some guest rooms on this side of the wing.” 

Clark stands back up after sitting Kalen back in his own two feet, we both watch him leave with Ms. A. Once the door closes, he just looks at me. 

 “Ummm...I think I left a tea kettle somewhere in Hong Kong. I better go.” Barry takes off and I feel like I am about to fall apart at the intensity at which Clark stares at me. 

 “ I have to go do...something. Gia remember what I told you.”

Diana offers before leaving the room, Bruce and Victor begins after her.

“Yeah it’s getting pretty damn intense in here. I need a drink.”

Arthur says and follows the rest of the team out.

As soon as the door closes I get the strength to look Clark in his eyes again...

A/n: CLARK KNOWS! Now I can get into the meat of the story!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Tag list for this is open so just let me know if you want in!

TAGLIST

@bloodyinspiredfuck​ @romyr4​