#because some of these have been waiting for replies waaaay too long so sorry about that
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002yb · 1 year ago
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A lightning round of ask replies below the cut:
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The moment Dick straddles Jason’s lap, Jason is (⁄ ⁄•⁄Д⁄•⁄ ⁄), hands slapping over his own face even as he turns to look away – so flustered he flushes everywhere and he just.  Slips right out of the chair, between Dick’s legs, and onto the floor before scrambling up and looking scandalized and Dick barks out the most beautiful laugh because Jason’s so damn cute.
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Bonus points if it’s Superman.
Bonus points if Superman and Dick have the same Superman lunchbox, so it happens on occasion that they get mixed up (the lunchbox was a gift from Lois – she uses it whenever she makes lunch for him to tease him; Dick is just Dick).
But anyway, Superman forgets he didn’t bring a lunch, so he ends up taking Jason’s on accident.  So when Jason goes to grab it, it’s missing and he’s ʰᵘʰ (ꐦ○_○)✧
Then he storms around and finds Superman eating the lunch Dick made for him and it’s so devastating.  Of course this is how heroes truly are.  Jason shouldn’t have expected different.  This is Batman’s bullying all over again. ;A;
Meanwhile Superman realizes what’s gone wrong and is panicked and so guilty.  And he apologizes profusely and offers to take Jason anywhere/bring Jason anything to make up for it but Jason is forever petulant.
And when Dick finds out Superman is just devastated because this boy who has loved and revered him since childhood ices him out; it’s a travesty.
Bruce patting Clark’s back because he’s been there.  And Clark just groans because their crimes are completely different, don’t even.
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Okay but Jason being like those cats that hunt things and bring back kills to their loved ones in a show of affection ahahaha.  Dick having that similar reaction of ‘please don’t–’ but also ‘you love me so much🥹?’
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Jason being the sole omega of the pack is one of my favorite omegaverse story details.  So is him being estranged and the toll that takes on him.  And where the family doesn’t realize until something drastic happens and they all freak out and step up and ahhhhh.
The visual of Jason starting out with a bleak safe house and having a nest that’s all scraps.  Everything ripped and torn because it’s not right no matter how he tries to fit anything together and he shreds everything in his frustration.  Jason sleeping just outside of his nest’s broken borders.
The family sneaking things with their scent onto him, or leaving them at his window.  Until Jason has a warm nest that feels begrudgingly safe.  Only now it’s wrong because it’s empty.
Just lots of nest things.  Where Jason runs away with a wounded Robin and sequesters them in his nest.  And when an alpha comes calling – Jason snaps his teeth at them for trying to take his pup and said alpha is surprised, but not upset in the least.  They’re downright smitten, in fact.  Because omega?  So strong and protective and nurturing and ferocious?  Hot.
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It’s so over-the-top smitten, but you’re not wrong anon hahaha.  Something about Jason seeing Dick as this persistent beacon in any darkness (be that in a reverent or begrudging way) is something that appeals so much.
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Yes.  Do I know what to write for this?  No.  Would I read it in a heartbeat?  Yep.
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Jason’s crew absolutely wingman for him once they figure out that their boss has the hots for the wingding bastard.  They’re weird about it, too.  Simultaneously helpful and threatening in the same exchange – the same sentence, even!
And they keep it on the down low because their boss has got a maiden heart and would get embarrassed (and kick their asses), so they’re always luring Nightwing to sketchy af locations to like they’re conducting a sketchy af deal/exchange.
At first Dick is confused, but for as subtle as Jason’s men keep these interactions, they’re pretty straightforward in what their expectation of Dick is.  It makes Dick feel a little fond despite the theatrics of these exchanges because Jason has a lot of people supporting him and want him happy and that’s nice to know.
Dick taking these people up on their advice and Jason getting seemingly irritated about it each time, bristling but relenting without putting up too much of a fight.  At which point Dick realizes that oh, maybe these people that work with Jason are for real?  Little wing has a crush on him?  What?  The realization hitting him right as he’s taking Jason out and Jason grimacing because wth is with that creepy smile?  And Dick is surprised at himself because he’s smiling?  Oh, he is.  Huh.
Just Dick being happy about Jason’s crush and developing a bit of a crush himself over the course of being set up with him by Jason’s crew.
The crew being real smug about how they’ve successfully hooked their boss up.  Only to revolt once they realize this means their boss’s ass is gonna get tapped.
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The crisis is that it makes Red Hood all the more appealing.  👀  Which of course Dick feels alarmed by, so he pulls away.  Which causes a misunderstanding of cataclysmic proportions because Jason isn’t aware of Dick’s moral struggles – just that Dick finds out Red Hood is Jason and all at once Jason’s been iced out and it hurts.  There’s no way Jason doesn’t take that personally.
While Red Hood had been unwittingly settling down, soothed by Dick’s affections – having Dick pull back on him reignites the wrathful fury and vengeance.
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Jason taking Dick and Slade at the same time and while Jason is a breathless, dazed mess, scrambling for purchase - anything to hold onto (I like to think Dick’s shoulders, though Slade is pressed up right along Jason’s back; he’s not going anywhere), Slade and Dick are just taunting and bitching at one another like Jason isn’t there at all. 👀
A kinky take on a round robin tournament where Jason seduces everyone with his contradictory vixen and maiden-like ways (bonus points if it’s not even intentional) and ascertains his position as ultimate bottom.
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Awwww, thank you so much!  It always makes me so happy to hear that someone enjoys my writing (though I know it's been more rambles than writing lately; so sorry - persisting struggles).  Thank you for that. <3
Personal headcanon for this is that they never actually say it with words.  Because there’s something about plausible deniability that these two cling to when it comes to each other.  Too tentative to push too far, too scared to take too much.
The love is there though.  It’s in the way they relentlessly taunt and tease and challenge one another.  It’s the lingering looks, the quiet considerations.  It’s the trust and hope and faith that they chose to have in one another, even if they’re left disappointed or frustrated or scared.  It comes about when surges of protectiveness overcome them and in quiet moments of vulnerability they never talk about later.
Basically shameless self-rec because it’s this series I wrote; this is my take on it, hahaha.
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smallheathgangsters · 5 years ago
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Gunshot | T.S.
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A/N: I FINALLY finished up my first request and it turned out waaaay too long lol. I hope this won’t be happening with every request I work on. Again, please consider the fact that English is NOT my first language, but I appreciate any feedback you guys give me! <3
Request: “Would you do 18. “How could I not worry about you” and 22. “We are not just friends and you know it too.” With Tommy Shelby and a reader who’s Ada’s best friend?” by Anon
Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Reader
Word Count: 2760
Type: Fluff, some hurt/comfort
Summary: Tommy and Y/N spend a night together, but never speak about it again. That changes, when Tommy’s business plans have a dangerous impact on the lives of people he loves.
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Ada and you had been best friends since she found you hiding under a bridge, crying about a boy at the age of fourteen. She was the one to cheer you up, bring you back to her home and make you a cup of tea. She tried her best to make you laugh and gave you countless hugs to make you feel loved and cared about. That was also the moment you realised you would never want to let her go.
Years passed and Ada had her son, Karl and lost her husband, Freddie. And you stayed by her side though all of it. The bond you two had was stronger than any relationship either of you ever had. Even when Ada started getting more and more involved in the Peaky business, you supported her every step of the way. That was also the reason why her family liked you very much.
You started working as a teacher in Small Heath, so whenever you had finished up your work at school after the kids had left, you strolled over to the Shelby company to pick up Ada and walk home with her, while you talked about your day. She usually wasn’t quite ready to leave when you arrived, but you didn’t mind. There was always somebody around to hang out with and have a laugh. While you got along with all the boys, you especially enjoyed Tommy’s company. He would often invite you into his office for a drink, asking you about your day and if you still hadn’t considered working with them for the Shelby Company Limited. But you loved your job as a teacher too much to give it up. You adored the kids you taught, and they liked you back just as much, even the boys.
“In what world does being a secretary sound more fun than being a teacher?” You laughed, shaking your head.
“I’m sure you’d be paid more than double of what you earn now.” Tommy replied while shoving a cigarette between his lips and lighting a match. It made a hissing sound when it caught fire.
You leaned against the armrest of the chair opposite Tommy’s desk. “You know I don’t care about money. I care about happiness.”
Tommy leaned back into his chair, exhaling the smoke of his cigarette slowly and letting his arm hang loosely from the side of his chair. “Maybe I should start caring about that a little bit more myself.” He sighed.
“You should’ve been doing that since after coming back from the war, Tommy. You and your brothers deserve it. You all deserve all the happiness on earth.”
Tommy locked his eyes with yours. His intense gaze made your heart skip a beat.
“I agree.” Tommy said with a little smile dancing at the corners of his mouth. “You really wouldn’t fit into this working environment.”
You pushed yourself off the armrest and folded your arms. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Tommy flicked the ashes off his smoke. “That was a compliment, Y/N. I think the kids you teach are very lucky to have you.”
Your body relaxed when he finished his sentence. “Thank you.”
Suddenly you heard a knock at Tommy’s office’s door. That had to be Ada. Only a second after, the door was being opened and Ada popped her head into the room. “Ready?”
You twirled around, facing your best friend and nodded happily. Then you turned back to Tommy, raised your glass and finished the whiskey you had been holding in your hand for the last ten minutes. “Thank you for the drink, Tommy. See you tomorrow.”
You put down the glass and skipped over to your best friend, putting your arm around her. “Let’s get out of here!”
 ***
 The next day you pushed through the entrance of the Shelby Company Limited, planning on picking up Ada, like every other day. “Hey boys!”
John looked up from his books and grinned at you. “Hey Y/N.”
You walked over to him, peeking over his shoulders. “Is Ada still here?” You asked.
“No.” John answered, shaking his head. “She finished early today and went home to catch up some sleep. She hoped you didn’t mind.”
You chuckled. Of course, you didn’t. You knew how hard she worked and with having more responsibility came longer hours at the shop and less hours of sleep. “Not at all.”
“I’m sure she’ll be waiting for you again tomorrow evening.”
“No worries, John.” You told him. “I guess I’ll better get going before it gets too late.”
John waved you goodbye and just as you turned towards the exit, you heard a deep voice clear its throat. “How about a drink in my office?”
You glanced over your shoulder just to spot Tommy leaning against the door frame of his office, cigarette between his fingers.
You hesitated a moment. You had planned on getting home early to get started with the housekeeping for the week because the task was already way overdue. But you just couldn’t say no the handsome Shelby man.
Therefore, you shrugged and smiled at him, letting your coat glide off your shoulders. “Sure, why not.”
You followed Tommy into his office and took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of his table. He usually chose to sit in his seat behind the desk but today, he surprisingly sat down into the one next to you. Then he grabbed two glasses, placed them in front of you and filled them both with the perfect amount of whiskey.
“Thank you.” You said and took one of the glasses into your hands, staring down at the dark liquid.
You could hear him lighting up a cigarette, taking a long drag and letting out a relaxed sigh. “Has anyone ever told you that your presence is pleasantly soothing?”
You let out a weak laugh. “Soothing? Ada usually calls me loud and overexcited, but I could really get used to your compliments instead of hers.”
Your comment made Tommy chuckle. “Maybe with her you are. But–“
“Hold up!” You interrupted him, sitting up in your chair and giving him a playful slap on the arm. “Are you agreeing with Ada and also calling me loud and annoying?”
He let out another chuckle. “I never said you were annoying. But I do say that you are very different around me than you are around her.”
“I am?”
He nodded. “In a good way. I really enjoy your company.”
You felt yourself blush. Tommy had always been exceptionally nice to you. Ada frequently made comments about how Tommy got weak around you, but you’d changed the subject every time she brought it up.
“I really enjoy your company too.” You replied, giving him a shy smile.
At that point you could already feel this evening taking a turn you never expected. After about three glasses of the dark liquor one thing led to the another and you ended up climbing on top of Tommy, straddling him in the chair he had been sitting in and connecting your lips with his. They were soft and warm and tasted of his cigarettes. Even though you knew this was a mistake, nothing was stopping you in that moment and you could tell that nothing was holding Tommy back either. All you wanted at that point was to savour this moment with him, knowing that this would probably be the first and last time your bodies would be this close to each other.
 ***
 After that night, Tommy and you never spoke about what had happened that night. You weren’t sure if it was because he wanted to forget about it or if he just wasn’t that big of a deal for him. Either way, the next few evenings he didn’t invite you into his office and you waited for Ada while chatting to either John or Arthur.
One Sunday afternoon you met up with Ada to go to town and shop for a new dress. You had saved up some money and wanted to treat yourself to something nice. Of course, Ada wouldn’t want to miss out on a shopping trip.
“Karl’s been driving me up the walls lately!” She whined while you two were strolling from one store to another. “Has he been any different in class?”
Ada had been lucky, and Karl ended up having you as his teacher. “Not that I noticed.”
She sighed. “I hope it’s a phase that he gets over quickly. I can’t handle him not doing anything I tell him and constantly having to look out for him.”
“If you ever need a break, you can always bring him over to my house.” You offered with a kind smile. She returned your smile with an even bigger one. “Thank you, Y/N. You really are the best!”
You came to a stop in front of a shop that displayed plain but elegant dresses in its window. Your eyes fell on a dark purple one. You imagined yourself wearing it but immediately felt uneasy. All you’ve ever wished for the last couple of months was Tommy to take you on a date and wearing a beautiful dress to impress him. But with him keeping his distance since that one night, you knew your wish would never come true and suddenly shopping for dresses felt like a waste of time.
“Ada?”
“Hm?”
You took a deep breath and said. “I never really told you about something that happened between me and Tommy …”
You told her about that night you wanted to pick her up, but she wasn’t at work, how Tommy invited you to keep him company and what happened after that. Ada was very excited for you but understood, that you felt uncomfortable about the situation you were in now. She was also not very happy about her brother avoiding you ever since.
“Typical Tommy!” She hissed. “I’m sorry you have to feel that way.”
“It’s not your fault.” You said. “And maybe I should have realised that kissing him wasn’t a good idea. I’ve known Tommy for quite some time now.”
Ada shook her head. “That’s exactly the reason he should treat you differently. He’s known you for so long, you’ve been friends for years and–“
Ada was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang. A gunshot. Two gunshots. At first, you didn’t know where they came from and where they were aimed at but when all of a sudden you heard Ada scream at the top of her lungs and a sharp pain spread in the area of your shoulder, you knew you’d been the target.
Your knees got weak and your body collapsed to the ground. The last thing you saw was Ada leaning over you and holding your hand before your eyelids got too heavy to stay open.
 ***
 The smell of cigarettes was lingering in the air when you woke up. You opened your eyes quickly, trying to push yourself up from the bed you were lying on but you instantly got shoved back into your previous position.
“Careful, Y/N.”
Ada’s voice was soft. She was looking down at you soothingly. “But I’m glad you’re awake.”
“Me too.” You mumbled, still a little bit confused about what had happened and where you were.
Ada seemed to have read your mind. “Don’t worry. We’re at Tommy’s.”
You relaxed, nodding. “Is my shoulder okay?”
“According to the circumstances.” She said with a chuckle. “I mean, you were shot. But you’ll be fine.”
“Thank you for bringing me here and taking care of me.” You told her.
“Oh, don’t thank me.” Ada said. “Tommy was the one who carried you all the way here and took care of your wound.”
You raised your eyebrows. “He did?”
Ada nodded. “He really cares about you, you know. He may have seemed cold the last few days, but I don’t think his feelings have changed.”
She grabbed your hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’d better go and tell him that you’re up.”
Then she turned around and left the room. You sighed and tilted your head downward slightly, trying to get a better look at the wound but only spotted the white bandage that had been wrapped around your entire shoulder and upper part of your chest.
“There’s nothing to see there.” You heard Tommy’s voice. You looked up and saw him standing in the doorframe.
“May I come in?” He asked carefully. You nodded. “Of course.”
He approached the bed you were lying in, pulled a chair next to it and sat down. “Y/N, I–“
He sighed and ran his hand over his face. He looked tired. “Y/N, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay–“ You tried to say but he interrupted you.
“No, it’s not. And it’s my fault.” He said, pulling up his chair even closer to the edge of the bed. “I should have known they were up to something and I should have known that they were going to it the ugly way.”
You hated how Tommy was blaming himself. Yes, maybe he could have known. Maybe he could have prevented it. But in the end, you knew he would never do something to harm you on purpose. And by bringing you home to his house and patching you up, he had shown he cared and that was all that mattered to you.
“Tommy, I’m fine.” You said, giving him an encouraging smile. “We’re all still alive and I don’t want you beating yourself up because of this. Knowing that you worried about me is all I care about.”
Tommy gave you a shocked look. “How could I not worry about you?”
You shrugged, blushing a little bit.
“You’re not just Ada’s friend but also mine and I care about you just as much as she does.” He stated.
That sentence made you gulp. It was sweet but had a bitter aftertaste. The pictures in your head from that specific evening were making it hard to think straight.
Right away, Tommy noticed that there was something bothering you. “What is it, Y/N?”
“I know you’ve been avoiding me the last few days after our … incident, if you want to call it that, but we are not just friends and you know it too.” You blurted out, not being able to hold back your words.
“Y/N–“ He started but you wouldn’t let him speak. “I’ve known you for quite some time now and I know you have a hard time admitting your feelings, especially to yourself. But I want you to know that you’ve made me feel very uncomfortable by going out of my way and not talking to me about what happened.”
You could feel tears forming at the corners of your eyes and that made you feel even more stupid than you felt admitting your feelings to Tommy. You closed your eyes, trying to ignore the chaos of emotions that overcame you.
Suddenly you felt Tommy’s hand on your cheek. “Hey … Hey, Y/N. Don’t cry.”
You sniffled. “I– I’m not. I–“ You let out a desperate sigh. “I feel silly, Tommy.”
“Don’t feel silly, please.” Tommy whispered, leaning forward to you, locking his icy blue eyes with yours. “I should be the one feeling silly. I could have everything I ever wanted, but I’m just too proud to make a move.”
He caressed your cheek with his thumb and gave you a weak smile. “And you are right, Y/N. We aren’t just friends. I was scared we were moving too fast that evening. I wanted to buy you something nice to wear, go on a date and dance and drink all night.”
You brought your hand up to his on your cheek. “Tommy, we can still do all of that.”
“I know.” Tommy said. “And I can’t wait.”
Then he leaned in further, connecting his lips with yours. You melted in his touch, lifting your arm up to run through his hair. But before you could reach it, a horrible pain in your shoulder made you break the kiss, cursing silently.
Tommy chuckled. “I think we’ll save this for another time. You should be resting.”
You pouted, wanting him to stay. Tommy eventually gave in and got up from the chair and laid himself next to you on the bed so you could cuddle up to him.
“Thank you for staying.” You murmured into his chest.
“I’m staying as long as you want me to.” He said, pulling you just a little closer.
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barnesbabee · 4 years ago
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Peekaboo || P.S
Summary: Someone’s always looking...
Pairing: Park Seonghwa x Reader
Words: Waaaay too many
Genre: Smut, Angst
⚠ drugs, alcohol, violence, fighting, yandere!Seonghwa, degradation kink ⚠
A/N: I do not condone violence neither do I romanticize it, I just wanted to do a yandere concept like shown in anime, that being said, Enjoy 💖
P.S: I deleted this one before because tumblr was messing up with the tags and few people were able to read this one apparently... 
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ᴄʀᴇᴅɪᴛ
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ᴘᴇᴇᴋᴀʙᴏᴏ! ᴏᴘᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴇʏᴇꜱ, ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ'ꜱ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ...
[18th February, 2019]
 You couldn't tell, of course, but you constantly had a pair of eyes glued to the back of your head. A pair of hungry, lusting, shimmering eyes. You didn't know him, but he knew every detail and every inch of your body and personality.
 He knew your favourite songs, your favourite ice cream flavour, the type of clothes you preferred, and what kind of places you'd go to when you weren't having classes at your university.
  He'd first seen you when you arrived late to a class. The male remembered it like it had been just recently, and not almost months past. It was the very first day, and you were late. You came in the classroom, huffing and puffing from all the running, cheeks red from the embarrassment and messy hair.
  He remembered how he had his head buried in his arms, his grey hoodie and his black, long bangs covering his sleepy eyes, and how he immediately woke up and rose his head up to look at the owner of the beautiful voice that had just apologized for being late.
 Seonghwa thought you looked fucking adorable, and he swore to himself that he would be the one to make your face flush like that, to make you breathe heavily and to grip your hair so hard that it'd get tangled and messy just like that.
  But of course you didn't know him. He was proficient in watching, watching close enough to be able to watch you, to be able to understand everything you said, sometimes even close enough to smell your perfume, but still adequately far so you wouldn't notice his presence. The man was afraid that if caught him he wouldn’t be able to observe you anymore!
  He couldn't bring himself to talk to you... What would he say? He wasn't worthy of you... He liked to just watch you. But he had to admit, the way other men went up to you, the way they held your waist and tried to make you theirs, it made Seonghwa's jaw clench. It made his jaw clench and his blood boil. How dare they touch you like that!? You belonged to him, you just weren't aware of it.
  [24th March, 2019]
"Mr. Park, would you face the board instead of facing Miss Y/N during the whole class for once?"
 All heads turned to look at him, including yours. You looked at him with a small, curious smile, and your eyes met. His head detached from the hand supporting it, and his eyes widened. You thought the deep blush on his fair skin was adorable, and you giggled at his little nervous stutter.
 "I-I'm sorry, I'll f-focus now Sir..."
  Seonghwa lowered his head a little, so his bangs covered his face as much as possible.
  Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! That shouldn't happen! That couldn't happen! What now!? You had noticed him, certainly, you'd see him staring at your unbelievable beauty, since you now knew of his existence.
  As class went on, Seonghwa struggled not to stare at you, afraid you'd be looking at him and you'd make eye contact once more. His leg bounced nervously, and for the first time, he counted the seconds until he was out of the classroom he shared with you.
  As soon as the teacher declared class was over, Seonghwa jumped from his seat as if he were a spring and swung his backpack over his shoulder. He pulled down his hood, trying to cover as much of his face as possible, in hopes that you wouldn't want to discuss what had happened.
 "Hey!" Seonghwa heard your voice call.
 He knew it was your voice, because it was his favourite voice to hear.
 Seonghwa pretended he didn't know you were calling him and kept on walking, but as he knew, you didn't quit easily. You jogged up to him and grabbed his wrist.
  He turned around violently to look down at you. He couldn't believe you had just touched him, he couldn't believe how insanely small you felt and looked compared to him.
  "You're Seonghwa, right?"
 The way his name fell from your lips was unbelievably ethereal. Seonghwa loved the way you spoke his name, and he now knew he didn't want to stop hearing it.
  "Yes, and you're Y/N." Seonghwa replied, wide-eyed and awkward.
  He was shocked you knew of him, he was shocked you knew his name, and he honestly didn't expect this scenario to happen (not any time soon at least).
  He'd imagined many things, how you looked underneath him, how you looked only in your underwear, how your pretty face twisted in pleasure as he fucked you... But never the first hello.
  You giggled at his panicked expression and reddening cheeks.
 "I am... I wanted to ask, do you usually stare at girls during class or do you have something you want to tell me?" You asked, curious if he had some sort of crush or interest in you.
 "No, I usually don’t, but you're the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen."
  [6th June, 2019]
 You didn't know if it was the beer, or the tequila, or the joint in your hand, but you felt particularly brave as you laid on the grass with your friend, looking up at the starry sky. The weather was perfect. Not a cloud was visible and the only thing you could hear were the crickets in the distance.
  You placed the joint between your lips and took a hit, before passing it to the male beside you.
 "You know Hwa, I think I like you..."
 Seonghwa had changed. He had molded himself into the perfect man for you, in hopes you'd become his.
 His hoodies became leather jackets, his cartoon t-shirts became white v-necks, his joggers became tight jeans and his long fringe turned into a middle-parted undercut.
  All of these changes seemed to have worked in the end.
 You had never asked anything of him, but he knew what you wanted, so he changed, willingly. The only part of himself he hadn't changed was his dominant personality, the sense of ownership he felt over you, not only because he couldn't change that, but because he knew based on the past experiences you had told him that you liked a rough man.
  Seonghwa turned his head to look at you and smirked.
  He took one last hit of the joint before getting on top of you.
  One of his hands stood beside your head, holding him up while the other held your chin. You looked each other into your bloodshot eyes. His head moved down, until your noses were brushing against each other.
  "Finally."
[30th of June, 2019]
It didn't take long for you and Seonghwa to have your first time. You had a very sexual nature, and so did he. Seonghwa loved to tease you, he loved to squeeze your ass in public and whisper dirty nothings in your ear while you were with your friends.
 You couldn't wait for the day he fulfilled his filthy promises and fucked the life out of you.
  It happened randomly, when you stopped by his place one night, to drop some documents you were asked to deliver to him.
  He opened the door, not knowing who it was, and was caught off guard by seeing your pretty figure waiting for him.
  Seonghwa was wearing nothing but a pair of grey joggers that settled low on his hips, exposing his perfectly defined v-line.
  He had a small tattoo on his lower hip, a quote written in thick black letters, that read 'all or nothing'. You had always adored that piece of work, and you thought it matched him perfectly.
  As soon as you saw his figure, your words got caught in your throat, and you couldn't peel your eyes off of the male's exposed skin, and the way his muscles flexed every time he moved.
  Seonghwa leaned against the doorframe and hooked the hem of his sweater pants on his thumb. You followed his finger's movements religiously, as he teasingly pulled them down a little, to expose his naked hip, and almost giving you a glance of his cock. He had no underwear on. You didn't know what to do with that information, but you loved it.
  "Baby girl if you keep looking at me like that I might cum..." He whispered in your ear.
  You bit your lip and looked him in the eye. You placed your hands on his chest and pushed him inside your apartment lightly.
  "Might as well do it inside me, right?”
  Seonghwa hissed at your words and his hands cupped your ass, giving it a harsh squeeze.
  "You'll be the death of me, beautiful..." Seonghwa told you, before closing the door and pushing you against it.
  You didn't care about the papers anymore. You dropped them and laced your arms around your boyfriend's neck, waiting for him to close the faint gap between your lips.
  He teased you for a second, ghosting his lips over yours instead of kissing you, but when you rolled your hips against his, causing your crotch to come in contact with his semi-hard dick, he gave in. Deep down, you knew that it didn't matter how dominant he was, you had him around your finger.
  His rough yet passionate kisses were no stranger to you, and you loved the way his tongue felt against yours as he explored every corner of your mouth.
  Seonghwa gripped your ass tighter and pulled you closer. You kept your hips' movement, feeling your boyfriend's cock get harder by the second.
  He pulled away from the kiss and pushed you harder against the wall. You could feel all of his body's curves press against your own. One of Seonghwa's hand left your ass and his fingers gripped your throat.
   "I've been waiting for this for too long, I'm not holding back tonight, I'll destroy you." He said, through gritted teeth.
  You pushed him back slightly. He allowed you to do so, curious as to what you'd do next.
 Seonghwa watched as you began to strip. First, your t-shirt, and then your jeans, that you unbuttoned and pulled down painfully slow. Your clothes pooled around your feet and you looked at Seonghwa's lusty eyes.
 "I'm all yours." You told him.
 There was a second of silence, as Seonghwa didn't quite know what to do. He didn't know if he should take it easy, if he should just rip your garments off and take your right there or if he should punish you as hard as possible. It was your first time, however, and he decided he shouldn't be too harsh.
  Seonghwa slung you over his shoulder and slapped your ass.
  "You drive me crazy doll."
  You giggled as he threw you on the bed facing up.
  "I know."
  Your boyfriend chuckled at your cuteness and attached your lips once more. He played with your lower lip as he undid your bra and threw it somewhere in the room. Seonghwa cupped one of your breasts and played with your hard bud.
  "Is there any part of your body that isn't absolutely perfect?" He asked, before taking your other nipple in his mouth, sucking harshly and biting lightly from time to time.
  When you felt his other hand separate your folds, you whimpered. Your legs spread wider and you immediately gripped his dark hair. He played with your wet cunt like it was his personal sex toy.
  Seonghwa's fingers teased at your entrance for a second, before entering you. His pace was slow, purposely trying to tease you and make you beg. Your loud moans made him smirk.
  "So fucking needy for me... Tell me what you want?"
  You arched your back and bucked your hips, trying to get some more friction.
  "Fuck I want you to take those fingers out and fill me with your cock!" You moaned.
  You were desperate, you needed to feel him. You had been teased so many times, you'd imagined him fucking you so many times already, and now that he was there, half-naked fingering you, you couldn't take it anymore. You had to feel him.
 Seonghwa stripped from his pants and placed himself between your legs, spreading them a little wider in the process. He took no time to enter you. As soon as he found your entrance he thrust into you and started moving at a reasonable pace, so you could get used to the feeling.
  He fit inside you like he belonged there, like you two had been made for each other. You loved the way he filled you and he loved how tight you were around his cock.
  "Oh my God, you feel so good Hwa..."
  The praise falling from your pretty lips was Seonghwa's kryptonite, and like his little tattoo said, he had no mid-term. His slow thrusts became violent, fast, and shamelessly pleasurable from one second to the other.
  Your brain went to putty, and at that precise moment all there was in the world for you was your boyfriend's cock ramming into you.
  He slapped your ass harshly thrice, making sure his hand would be marked.
  "Who owns you, pretty baby? Tell me who owns this pussy." Seonghwa growled as he gripped your thighs.
   "Y-you..."
   He slapped the side of your thigh.
  "S-speak up doll."
  You moaned his name loudly at how good he was making you feel.
  "You own me Seonghwa! I'm yours!"
  His pace quickened, as if it was possible, and he took one of your nipples between his fingers.
   "That's right, you're my little cumslut."
   You looked at him through hooded eyes. His fringe was stuck to his forehead and he had such a lustful and ruthless expression on his face... You swore you could cum with that alone.
   "Hwa... I'm gonna cum..." You managed to squeal, between your exasperated breaths.
   "Do it, I wanna feel you around me, baby."
   His hand closed around your throat one last time, knowing how much you loved it. Immediately you reached your climax. You gripped onto his biceps and arched your back, as your vision went blank for a second, absolutely blinded by pleasure.
   Upon seeing how fucked out you looked, how absolutely beautiful you were when you came, how pretty your agape mouth was as it spewed dirty praises, he was thrown over the edge and came buried deep in you, filling you with his thick, warm cum.
   Seonghwa removed himself from you and plopped on the beg beside you. He threw his arm over your stomach and nibbled on your neck.
  You giggled at his neediness.
  "Are you not tired?" You asked, amused at his actions.
  Seonghwa caressed the spot that would later become a pretty shade of purple.
  "I am..."
  "Then what was that for?".
  Seonghwa looked at you for a second before replying.
  "So that everyone knows you have an owner."
[15th July, 2019]
  Seonghwa's tight grip on your wrist was not released until you entered his apartment. He slammed the door shut and turned to face you, his face as stern as ever.
    "Who the fuck was that guy!?" He asked, like a madman, staring at you like his eyeballs would pop out of his sockets at any time.
   The sight before you was incredulous, what had gotten into him!?
   "Seonghwa, he's my friend."
  "Oh yeah!? And do all of your friends want to fuck you!?"
   You furrowed your eyebrows, confused and quite clearly not understanding where all that commotion was coming from.
    "Seonghwa, we hugged. Wooyoung does not want to fuck me, we hugged and he said I looked good because we haven't seen each other in almost two years, stop overreacting! You sound insane!"
   Your boyfriend gripped your upper arm and pulled you closer. His stare burned on you, his eyes had lost their glisten and were now pitch dark, fuming with rage and jealousy.
   For the first, dreadful time, you were scared of him.
  "You think I'm insane!? Hm!? You think I'm insane 'cause I don't want my baby fucking around with other guys!?"
   "Hwa, I love you, and only you, okay? I'm not fucking Wooyoung I'm yours, alright?"
   Your voice became quieter as you spoke, hoping he would calm down, but his grip never loosened.
   "How do I know that!? How do I know you're not being a whore behind my back!? I had never heard of this Wooyoung guy and suddenly he's your 'friend'!? How many other 'friends' do you have!?"
   You couldn't belive the words that fell from his lips... Those lips that you loved so much, how could they insult you and accuse you in such a heartless way.
   You were visibly taken aback, and tears brimmed in the corners of your eyes.
   You pushed him away harshly, not caring about anything at that point.
  "What the fuck is wrong with you? How can you even say that! I'm friends with whoever I want to be friends with Seonghwa, you don't get to decide it!"
   You waved your arms around like crazy, trying to make sense of the situation, and the tears you tried to suppress fell down your cheeks.
  Seonghwa pressed you against the wall and grabbed your jaw.
 "You don't fucking get to do whatever you want cause you're mine! No one else can have you, you belong to me!" He yelled in your face.
 You were sure every neighbour of his had heard you two already.
  "I belonged to you! Past, Seonghwa! I've had enough of this bullshit, I don't want a controlling piece of shit boyfriend!"
  You shoved him away from you and made your way towards the door.
  "You can't leave me!" He yelled.
 Without looking at him you grabbed the door's gilded handle and turned it.
 "Watch me." You told him, voice as steady and as strong as ever.
 "Please, you can’t leave me."
  His shaky, insecure voice made you freeze in place. Your hand stopped turning, your eyes widened and you stopped being able to think for a second.
 His behaviour shift was like night and day...
 You turned around, to find Seonghwa standing limply, with a lifeless expression and tears in his eyes as he watched the love of his life leave.
 He was sobbing.
 Your brain was a mix of emotions, this man was completely different from the rough asshole that had confronted you not ten seconds ago. That day he showed you two sides of him you had no idea existed. Two parallels, that seemed almost impossible to be within the same person.
 Once San saw you standing there, giving him a small chance of redemption, he stood up, slowly as if he was afraid to chase you away, and stepped towards you.
 He cupped your face and examined the unreadable mix of sentiment running through you.
 "Baby I'm sorry, I love you so much I just don't want another guy to steal you away..." He told you softly, with his deep, angelic voice.
 You sniffed and wiped away a cheeky tear.
 "But Seonghwa, I've told you you're the only one for me..."
 Seonghwa hugged you softly, and you hugged back as he exhaled in relief.
"I know, but I want you for myself only... But its okay, it won't happen again, right?"
 You were a little unsure, but when his grip grew tighter out of his stress, desperation and fear of you leaving, you immediately replied.
 "It won't ever happen baby."
 Seonghwa hummed happily.
 Maybe it wasn't the best choice, but at least you knew, that as long as you were with him, you'd be safe. Safe from him.
 "You're all mine..."
589 notes · View notes
ziracona · 4 years ago
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[The Kid -- (FGO AU) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ?]
Not surprisingly, Ritsuka doesn’t have a lot of information on the building, but she’s got more than I expect, and some pretty solid-sounding educated guesses. Mostly, I’m just worried about my end. That we might not have enough firepower to push through a bunch of mages, especially if I can’t start getting more mana from her. If I fail, and go down in there, I’m getting resummoned to living hell, and she’s probably dead. That’s about the last thing I want, so I need a good plan before going in. Lucky for me, reckless but effective underdog plans are kind of my thing.
Snacking on her rice porridge, I try and work through that while absorbing information. …Figure the first thing I should do is see if there are other servants already summoned in there. I should be able to sense that, once I’m a little less dead. If there are, freeing them would add a lot to our fighting forces—wait, no, they’ll probably be about dead, and she can’t heal them because she doesn’t know how. And she can’t anchor more than one probably, since she’s doing it totally solo. So, they’d just die and vanish... Though, she did say…
“Hey,” I say, interrupting a breakdown of personnel she knows of in R&D. She’s actually really good at this planning stuff too—drawn me a little chart and everything. Her profiles might not be the most photo-realistic, but damn if they aren’t still effective in their own way at conveying what people look like—I’ve seen some of these mages, and I can pick them out from her little doodles on sight. “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a few things I want to ask—one I meant to ask a while ago; they know you did this?”
Ritsuka looks surprised, then nods, chagrined. “Yeah. I mean, probably. I was able to cause a really good distraction, but there was no way to block the cameras, and I had to use my own card and get recognized to make it in the front at all, so, they do or they will really soon. That’s why I came here, instead of my apartment,” she adds, gesturing to the motel, “I tried to pick a list of hotels and motels I wouldn’t pick from usually, and then I chose one randomly from that list, and paid in cash. I hope that’s enough to make me harder to find.”
I don’t know if it will be myself, but I’m impressed she thought that far ahead. Maybe she has a knack for life on the lamb herself. Not a bad little escape plan.
“I’m kind of worried about Mom and Dad,” she adds quietly, glancing at her hands, “I haven’t talked to them at all, because I thought it would put them in danger, but what if it does anyway?”
Oh. I watch her, and the pain and fear there she’s trying to be brave about. She…isn’t just nice, and good, and a bleeding heart; she’s sacrificed a lot personally to help me.
“Won’t happen,” I promise firmly, “We’ll take care of things before that.”
“You sure?” she asks worriedly, trying to stop her eyes from getting misty.
I nod. “Promise. They won’t go there first. They’ll be lookin’ for me, and worried about me comin back right now. Then they’ll try to locate you. Family is more useful if they can just tap the phones and see if you contact—probably won’t even risk spooking them for a while. We got some time.”
That reassures her, and she looks a lot better. Returns my nod.
“…Wait, when you said ‘distraction’ a minute ago,” I say, that little detail clicking late.
“Oh,” she says, “Yeah. Well. I needed the power to go out in the building, and people to not be guarding you so I could get in. I couldn’t bypass doors or alarms, because I don’t know magic or tech stuff, so I had to make sure the whole building was on emergency protocol to make it easy for staff to evacuate to get in there at all. I couldn’t do that any fancy trick way, so, I looked up how to make a bomb and blew up a storage wing on the second floor I knew was empty.”
Holy shit.
“I-I checked the building schematics and asked several people you had to pay online to make sure it wasn’t a big part of the structural integrity!” she defends anxiously, misreading my response, “I made sure I wasn’t gonna knock down the building or kill somebody!”
“No—I’m impressed!” I say, lighting up, “That’s genius!”
“Really?” she asks.
“Hell yeah!!” I say, “Smart to not pick ground floor either. Means they know the threat came from inside the building—it’ll throw ‘em into a panic. And taking out the power? –You taught yourself how to make a bomb?”
“It actually wasn’t that hard,” she says, flushing, “…kind of scary how easy, actually. I had to get components from all different places, and pay in cash so my bank wouldn’t get suspicious, but. It was easier than I thought.”
Damn, she does have a knack. A strong one.
“You’d’ve made a damn fine outlaw,” I say.
For a second she seems to be unsure if that’s meant as a compliment or an insult, and then she hesitantly grins back. “Yeah? Huh. I’m not used to people thinking I’m good at stuff.”
From the far-away look on her face I don’t think she really meant to say that out loud, so I grin and answer before she has a chance to realize it. “Guess you never found something that interested you before.”
She glances at me and nods. “So, what else did you want to ask about?”
“Oh—your circuits. You said you possess a lot of mana?” I ask, “You find out any more about that while doing research there?”
“I did,” she says, passing me my eighth chocolate and unwrapping one for herself and munching on it, “Basically, they told me I’m super weird, and it’s like my body is tapped into a family lineage crest with more magic than it knows what to do with. But I don’t even have a mage crest!”
Not totally sure what that means, but I nod like I do because I get most of it from context.
“So, they say it’s like if I had a connection to a big like, whole lake full of mana. Waaaay more than even mages from good bloodlines have. But my circuits aren’t designed to access it all.”
“So you can’t get at it?” I ask.
“Well, this is gonna sound stupid, but it was the version that made the most sense to me,” she replies, “One of the assistants told me it was like if you had a whole lake of mana, but you could only get any of it out with a garden hose. It’s all there, but it’s just…not designed to be used all at once. They don’t think I could probably ever throw it all into one big spell attack, even with years of training. But, I’d have the most amazing mage stamina they ever saw. They said in a Holy Grail war I might be ridiculously weak at offering any combat support, but I could support all seven servants at the same time on my own if I tried, and then some!” She flashes me a big grin, very proud of that.
Interesting. “So. It’s not tirin you out?” I ask, “Our contract?”
She shakes her head. “I can barely tell. I can’t tell at all energy-wise. I just can feel there’s a connection there, kind of like an invisible thread.”
“Wow. You know most mages can barely support a servant outside a situation with extra support like the grail offers during a war, right?” I ask her.
She blinks at me. “For real?”
I nod. “I hear it’s exhausting.”
She stares at the far wall, then extends her arms and looks at them in wonder.
“You think you could support another?”
Ritsuka glances back from her hands. “Another servant—spirit?” she corrects. It’s cute—girl keeps refusing to call us that even though I do it so automatically. I nod. She nods back. “Yeah, easy.”
“How many you think you could do at once?” I ask.
“Uhm. …I don’t know. Twelve?” she guesses. Holy shit that’s a lot. “Probably more. But definitely at least that many if they all feel like this does. Why?”
I glance down at the little hand-drawn map sitting on the bed. “Because if they already got more servants in there, and we pick ‘em up as we go, a lot of our problems with this plan go away.”
“But, I can’t really support any of them,” she says worriedly, “I’m barely giving you enough to heal you slowly. None of you will be able to use much magic to fight.”
“True,” I reply, “But one of us can do a hell of a lot even without access to a noble phantasm. And more importantly, they won’t know how limited we are. That’s an edge.”
She thinks that over. “…Yeah. I. I guess it is…It’d throw them off, and make them feel overwhelmed and probably get them to panic.”
I nod. “Only problem is healing one of us enough we can get going.”
“Oh yeah,” she says, hopeful expression falling.
“I know you don’t know that kind of spell, but if there’s somewhere we could get stuff to do it for us—some mages use Mystic Codes or enchanted objects, right? I don’t guess you know of any—”
She’s shaking her head. “I’m sorry,” she says miserably, “I don’t even know where in Ur-shanabi something like that might be stored.”
Damn. I was really hoping. …
“I’m sorry I’m useless,” she says quietly, looking down at her hands and the seals there.
“You aren’t,” I reassure her, “I’m just as useless at magecraft as you—more. You’d have been better off with a caster. They’d actually know how to help. But we’ll figure somethin’ out.”
She’s still looking at her hand. Straightens up a little and turns it to inspect, then looks over at me. “Could I heal one of you with a command spell?”
“Yeah, I think,” I say, “But only twice, before being out of ‘em for good.” Mages all consider the last one one you don’t use, anyway. It’s the safeguard—the threat you keep so if your spirit turns on you, you can put us down. The loaded gun. I don’t bring that up though, because she probably knows, and as long as I’m up, she ain’t gonna need it, even if one of the others decides to cause her trouble.
“Right, and there might be more than two in there,” she says unhappily, lowering her hand.
I’m thinking back hard as I watch her, running over everything I’ve ever heard from a mage or a caster about how any of this works. I want to help. I want this to work, but I also want to repay what little I can. I wish Geronimo was here…
“…I know there’s supposed to be ways to fix the problem you’re havin’,” I offer after a second, wishing I knew more and had more to offer, “Someone who knows magic should be able to teach you to use it better, and that’d fix the problem, but I can’t do that. …What you need is someone who can. … You got any idea how to summon one of us? I could help you find a leyline, and-”
She’s shaking her head again. “I don’t know how at all. And it’s not something I can just look up. …I could try, but. I don’t have any artifacts, or practice, or knowledge, and it would probably just be dangerous and I’d draw attention to myself.”
I think hard. “We could try.”
“How? We don’t even have a source of power? You need a lot of mana at once to try and summon a heroic spirit without something like a grail present. I saw a little part of the summon circle at Ur-shanabi once and it was HUGE. I’ve never even felt so much magic in one place—”
“Wait, all you need is a big burst of mana?” I ask, suddenly excited.
“What? Uh—yeah, but I mean big. Way big! Big like I couldn’t do—”
“—But I could!” I insist.
She stares at me. “But…how? You can’t use a noble phantasm without disappearing, because I’m bad at supplying mana.”
“No, no other spirit could use their phantasm like this. Me? I can,” I say proudly, a slow smile starting.
“What?” says Ritsuka, “How? That’s impossible—what do you mean?”
“You know, I’m starting to think this whole thing bein’ you and me was for a reason,” I say instead of answering outright, snagging another little chocolate from the tray and giving her a smile as I do, “See, I don’t really have a noble phantasm, actually.”
“Wait, what??”
“Well, I do, but only kinda,” I explain, “It’s not an object or a chant, it’s the act of me firin’ my colt a specific way, so, it’s a noble phantasm technically, but it’s technically also just a skill, and it’s more technically a skill than a phantasm.” I am so god damn proud of myself right now—the look on her face is amazing. This feels great! “Not having a traditional one ain’t always the best thing, because it means mine is a real split-second kinda deal, but it’s damn powerful for that split second. And since my phantasm is more just a part of me than a specific act or item, it costs way less mana than any other noble phantasm I ever seen—or know of.”
“Wait for real?” she asks, gaping at me as her eyes light up.
I nod. “Sure is. I think with a little more rest, I could pull it off once without exhausting my core. If you can set up a circle, you can use the quick burst of mana from it to try and summon someone else. We’ll have to practice, because it’s a split second and you’ll have to call to the throne exactly when I use it, but I think we could do it.”
“Whoa.” She says. Her eyes are shining and I see the faint trace of a smile starting to form as she looks over and meets my gaze. “That…could work. I mean—I don’t know how to summon a spirit properly, but I know in theory how it works. Do you think that’s enough? You really think we could do it?”
“Well, I don’t see a reason not to try,” I say.
“But—how will I be sure I’ll get someone who can help?” she asks.
“Well, any numbers help, and any spirit’s gonna be pretty interested in this not happening to them, so I think anybody you summon would help us. It’s more complicated than that, though. Being summoned….it works multiple ways. Most of the time, you got no choice, except if you go willingly or unwillingly—you go either way. But occasionally they’re set up so the mage and the spirit both have to agree. I’ve never been on the mage end of a summons, but on our side you can usually sense the intent of a call. Occasionally we even get to choose if we want to answer. Since you and I ain’t gonna have anything close to the power to drag a spirit from the throne, it’ll be one of those, which is great, because it means if anybody shows up, they’ll have come because they heard you and wanted to come help. Just be honest and specific in what you need, and who you are. I think you’ll get lucky. I’m pretty sure if I heard someone like you asking for help plain and simple and I could do it, I’d take the pact.”
“Really?” she asks like it means something big to her.
“Yeah,” I say, and I mean it.
She smiles at me. “Okay. Great! I guess we have nothing to lose. I’ll try to set something up, and you just focus on feeling better and getting that energy back.”
“Will do,” I agree with a smile, watching her hop up and snag all her notes and diagrams and start trying to organize them. “You’ve done a lot too, though,” I add, “Make sure to get yourself some rest as well.”
The gal glances over and returns my smile. “I will. Thanks. But I’m okay—I took an accidental power nap on the floor, so I’ve got like eight more hours in me.” She proudly makes a muscle. “You want some tea before going back to sleep?”
“Sure,” I say, bemused as she vanishes back down the little hall.
This has all gone some kind of way, but, I’m surprisingly…Hopeful.
I remember the coin then, and that feeling bottoms out. Please don’t have been summoned yet, I pray, feeling a little sick.
I want so bad to think he’s not here yet, but I got a bad feeling. Did I sense him, when I was in Ur-shanabi, and I just can’t remember because I was so weak, or am I just paranoid and afraid? I don’t know. God, I hope at least he hasn’t been there anything close to as long as me. I hope he hasn’t been summoned at all. I should be trying to guess at the others, but there’s just way too many of us could be most of them. Clay pot means older ages spirit, letter means…well, recent enough for paper to survive, and shuriken means one from the east, but the earring could be anybody, and I can’t focus on it anyway. Why did it have to be somebody I know? And like? I’m trying to remember for sure how he died.
…I’m…I’m pretty sure he was bled to death slowly by a nun that was supposed to help him.
Why did we all have to die so terribly? I don’t like to think of him like that, but in my head it’s all I can see now. That terrible workshop, with its cold metal and saturated mana in the air that makes you sick with the taste of every breath, people walking by all the time to look at you like an animal in a cage. …Bolted down to the floor and cut up everywhere, half-awake in a massive puddle of his own blood. I don’t want to see that; I don’t want it to happen; I don’t want it to happen to him. He’s been through enough shit—he’s my friend.
But I got a bad feeling.
Please don’t be here, Robin. Please, God, don’t let them have picked him to summon yet.
A really bad feeling…
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smilebouquet · 4 years ago
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somewhere to go, someone to love
my secret santa gift (@ducktalessecretsanta2020) for @kvanderquack!! i’m sorry for tagging again after i already sent my gift via dm-
also on ao3!!
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For as long as Lena lived (all fifteen years), she’d always been alone. She was born alone on the heights of Mount Vesuvius, from the remnants of her Aunt Magica’s shadow. She travelled to Duckburg alone, with no one to keep her company other than the voices in her head and the harsh whispering of her shadow. She bore the brunt of Magica’s lashings and whining alone, hurt and angry and bitter.
A happy family felt like such a foreign concept to her. Magica was always her one and only kin, the only person who had a connection to her. And she hated every second of it. If having just one aunt was so exhausting, imagine having two aunts. Imagine three. Criticizing your every move. Yelling at you for screwing up. Demanding nothing but obedience and respect and returning none of it. 
Lena didn’t think she would be able to take it. Family just didn’t sound like something she’d like.
That’s what she thought, anyway, until the Sabrewings took her in.
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1.
Lena can’t sleep.
Or to be exact, she can’t sleep peacefully. Ever since she came back to the land of the living, she’s been having dreams. Dreams where she found herself running from her. Into the woods, where the screeching of bats rang in the air, and the ground was muddy and made each consecutive step heavy. Or within a mansion suspiciously similar to Scrooge’s, her voice bouncing off the walls and getting closer and closer until they were literally screaming into her ears. She could do nothing but run.
She never dared to look back, but Lena always managed to glimpse her in the corner of her eye. The swish of a velvety black cape. A gloved hand, reaching out to snatch her. A flash of purple magic. 
Lena always manages to wake up before Magica could grab her and do god-knows-what. She would always be grateful for the fact that she awoke easily. But every dream ended in To Be Continued — never The End — and Lena didn’t want to know what The End would look like, because she has the sinking feeling that it won’t be a Happily Ever After.
Tonight is no different. She’s staring up at the ceiling of Violet’s room, letting the muffled snores of her roommate fill the still air. It’s getting increasingly hard to stay awake, and she isn’t sure how much longer she can take it.
Sighing, she rolls out of bed and leaves the room, making sure the door creaked as quietly as possible and that it clicked shut. She heads down the stairs and into the living room. A bookshelf stands in the corner, filled with all sorts of books from encyclopedias to photography books.
Lena instinctively grabs a cookbook (and accidentally knocks off a few more, but she’ll deal with them later) from the second topmost shelf. Yellow sticky notes jut out of the pages, all written on with dark purple ink. Walking into the kitchen adjacent, she flicks on the light, then flips the book open. Vanilla Cake, reads the title in big bold letters, followed by the exact quantity of ingredients needed and the instructions on how to bake one.
This should keep her up until tomorrow.
"...Lena? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
She freezes. Ty is standing at the door, a wooden baseball bat loosely held in his grip. He chucks it aside and steps into the kitchen.
"Hey." She waves half-heartedly with a sheepish smile. "I, uh, couldn't sleep."
"And you're in the kitchen with a cookbook, why?"
Because Aunt Magica haunts my dreams every night and I don’t wanna deal with it anymore?
“...I wanted to do something nice for my friends for once, so I thought baking a cake for our sleepover would be neat?”
Ty’s gaze flickers between Lena and the clock currently showing 12:59. He pinches the area between his eyes. “Lena, it’s late. I think you should go to bed—”
“No!” He flinches. Lena’s eyes widen. “I mean— no, I can’t go to bed until I finish this cake!” she backtracks, her voice cracking. Her heart is pounding. She can't go to sleep, she can't...! “If you help me, I’ll go to bed sooner! Maybe!”
Ty scratches the back of his head. “Well, Indy’s the dad who bakes, not me... but I suppose I can try.”
Relief washes over her. She flashes him a tired smile, handing him a bowl and some measuring cups. “Thanks.”
––––––––––
2.
“We’re back!” 
Indy looks up from the couch. “Welcome back. How was your sleepover?”
“Pleasant,” Violet replies, already halfway up the stairs. “Ate some cake. Played a video game. Saved Lena from getting dragged into a mirror and possibly losing her within a lucid dream to the witch responsible for the shadow war several months ago. The usual.”
“Sounds nice,” Indy remarks. Then did a double take. “Wait, what?”
Ty laughs, following after Violet. “It’s a long story. Took the whole car ride for them to finish telling it.” Indy glares after him, but shrugs and returns to his book.
Lena drops her own bag on the floor and flops onto the couch with a heavy sigh. She could shower or whatever later. Right now she just wanted to rest.
“Long day?” Indy asks, barely moving from his position on the right side of the couch.
“Kinda. I’ve been through worse, though.”
There's a beat of silence.
The unspoken Like what? hangs over her head uncomfortably. Is this the part where she spills her entire life story? Should she play it off as a joke? Would it be wise to pretend she hadn’t said anything? She can feel Indy’s stare on her shoulder, burning like a pair of red-hot lasers—
He either noticed her discomfort, or is really good at reading minds, because he hums quietly and says, “You don’t have to elaborate.”
“...Ah. Right. Okay.” She sits upright, then lets out a short laugh. Her eyes wander over to Indy, who’s still reading his book with a content look on his face. “What is that?”
Indy shows her the book. There’s a bunch of pictures of Violet, Ty and Indy together. “It’s one of the family photo albums,” he explains. “Photography is one of my hobbies.”
Lena grunts in response, then peers at the photos more closely. “Is that Violet in the library?”
“Oh, that’s from the first time we visited the public library together. We had just moved into Duckburg, and wanted to do a little sightseeing. Violet insisted that we check out the library. That girl always did love reading. She gets it from Ty…”
They spend the rest of the hour looking through the photo album together. There’s a surprising amount of photos in this one tiny album, each preserving a special memory that Indy knows by heart and tells Lena about with nothing but fondness. She now knows that Violet used to take ballet classes (and hated it), has won at least two national spelling bees by the age of six, and is part of the Junior Woodchucks.
Photos from before Violet was born are also in it, located near the end of the album. Indy tells Lena that he first met Ty at a college entrance exam. They had entered the building at the same time, and Ty thought it would be neat to strike a conversation with him. They hit it off pretty much immediately, but forgot to ask for each other’s phone numbers before they went their separate ways.
“But you’re married now?!” Lena blurts out, jumping from the cough to point a shaky finger at him. “How?!”
He chuckles. “We met again at a supermarket several months later, I believe, reaching for the same can of beans. Ty’s first words to me ever since were ‘Holy shit, you like beans, too?!’ This time we remembered to exchange contact information, and here we are ten years later.”
“I— Wow.” Lena sits back down. “Some luck you have.”
“I wouldn’t call it luck,” he admits. His fingers gently caressing the old photo of them. “I like to think of it as fate. If we’re meant to be together, life will find a way to get us together.”
(Lena thinks about Webby.
She thinks about their “chance” meeting at the amphitheater.
She thinks about how she almost lost Webby by sacrificing herself to protect her.
She thinks about how lucky she had been that Violet was there in the library that day, reading a nerdy old book.
She inwardly decides that Indy is probably right.)
Once they reach the end of the album, Indy moves to close it. The corners of several photographs stick out from the side. Lena blinks.
“And those are?”
He looks down. “Oh.” Tucking them back in, he replies, “Those are some of the newer photographs. Haven’t gotten a new album for them yet, so I keep them here for the time being.” His fingers drum on the hard cover. “Come to think of it, I don't have any pictures with you yet. We’ll need to remedy that.”
“Hm, why?”
“You’re family, after all. I think you deserve a spot in the photo album.”
Family. She’s family. The thought of it makes her heart flutter.
It takes her a minute to realize Indy stopped talking, and is looking at her with the slightest hint of hesitation in his expression.
She beams at him. “That would be nice. You should get a new album first, though.” As if on cue, a photograph falls out. She picks up. “Hey, what about this one?” Indy lights up, and starts going into a tangent about the one time they lost Violet at Duckburg’s largest department store. As he does, she zones out for a bit, testing the name.
‘Lena Sabrewing’, huh…  She can feel her smile widening.  Sounds way cooler than Lena de Spell.
––––––––––
3.
This is terrible, Lena concludes.
They’re on the way to the Junior Woodchuck Campgrounds for Violet’s upcoming graduation. She’s a little hazy on the details, but she does know that each year only one senior junior woodchuck can become a senior woodchuck (“That’s dumb! Why can’t you all just become senior woodchucks?!” “Don’t question it, Lena.”), they decide who graduates with some sort of obstacle course, and Violet’s opponent this year is likely going to be Huey.
Lena also knows that the campgrounds are located waaaay out on some island in the middle of nowhere, and if she sees another “NOW LEAVING DUCKBURG” sign she’s going to lose it. She lets out a groan as she slides farther down her seat, watching the pine trees blur into a strip of green on the landscape. “Hey, Vi, how much longer ‘til we’re there?”
No answer.
“Vi?”
Again, no answer. Lena knows that Violet has a tendency to be quiet during car rides, preferring to admire the scenery as they drive, but Violet should’ve at least spared her a grunt at this point.
She decides to turn and look at her. Violet is staring at her lap, perfectly still. Her fists are clenched so tightly she can see the white knuckles beneath her purple feathers, and they’re trembling.
“Vi, what’s wrong...?” Lena begins to ask, and then immediately Indy’s voice from before echoes in her head.
“Third time’s the charm, right Vi?”
The gears click into place. Oh.
She inches closer to Violet’s side — as much as she can with her seatbelt on, anyway — and reaches out to place a comforting hand over Violet’s. The hummingbird looks up.
“Hey,” Lena says, “you’ll be okay. You’re the best nerd I’ve ever know. What’s Huey got, his stupid guidebook? You’ve got this.”
“Actually, the Junior Woodchuck Wilderness Challenge prohibits use of the guidebook,” Violet corrects, then sighs. “Sorry. I know you’re trying to comfort me, but I…” She trails off. “I know failing is natural, but it still terrifies me every single time.���
Silence.
Indy, from the passenger seat, pipes up, “Violet, you know that just being willing to go back and try again is… really brave, right? Yeah, failure is inevitable, and very terrifying, but not a lot of people are able to bounce back from it like you do.”
“What Indy said.” Ty peers at them from the rearview mirror and gives them a thumbs up. “We love you no matter what, and I bet you’re gonna crush the competition this year.”
“Yeah! What they said! You’re Violet Sabrewing. You brought me back from the Shadow Realm. If you can do that, you can do anything!”
Violet stares at her for a moment, then Indy, then Ty. Her eyes are glassy. She opens her fist to hold Lena’s hand and squeezes it weakly.
“Thanks,” she whispers, with a smile that doesn’t exactly reach her eyes.
...At least she’s smiling a little. Lena frowns, but gets an idea. She leans forward to ask Ty, “By the way, how long until we get there?”
“Five hours, I think,” Indy answers.
“FIVE HOURS?!” She can feel a vein pop in her head. Five hours. Five. Hours. It feels like she’s been in this stinkin’ car for decades already. Well, no matter.
She turns to Violet. “Alright, since we’re basically stuck here, why don’t I teach you how to smacktalk?”
Violet raises an eyebrow, clearly unamused. “Is that really necessary? Also, I doubt Hubert would appreciate—”
“Of course it is! And of course he won’t. You can’t have a healthy rivalry without a little back and forth! Where’s the fun in that?! Now, the key to good smacktalk is...”
She spends the rest of the ride lecturing Violet on the essentials of smacktalk (read: making most of it up as she went). As they drove, Violet’s shoulders began to relax and she allowed herself to laugh more, and Lena felt more at ease than she had in a while.
––––––––––
4.
Lena wakes up with a gasp. Frantically, she feels around. Her arms are intact. Her legs are still here. Nothing hurts. Phantom Blot isn’t here. Okay. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.
“Lena?”
“Vi?” Lena calls, but it sounds more like a choked sob. She’s suddenly acutely aware of the tears messing up her feathers and her pounding heart.
Violet sits up. “Another nightmare?” she asks, her voice quiet. Lena nods. She gets up from bed and leaves the room. Lena sits in the darkness, her hands gripping her knees tightly. Breathe in, breathe out.
Violet returns with a tall glass of water and hands it to her. Lena takes it and brings the glass to her beak. The water is cool and soothing.
“They’ve become increasingly frequent. Shouldn’t we talk to our fathers about this?”
“No,” Lena says immediately, finishing her glass and setting it on the night table with shaky hands. “I don’t want them to get worried.” 
Violet gives her a glare that pierces even in the dark, then sighs.
“Very well.”
✿ — ✿ — ✿
On Christmas Day, Lena wakes up to Violet dumping a bucket of cold water over her.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Ack—! Violet, what the hell?!”
“Apologies,” Violet says, her tone betraying her words. She’s already dressed in a plain cream turtleneck. “You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I did.” She tugs at her sleeve. “Now, come. Fathers are already in the living room. You were literally the last to awaken.” Without waiting for a response, she drags her out of the room and down the stairs.
The living room feels… warmer than usual. There are string lights, giving out a gentle multicoloured glow, both around the Christmas Tree and hung up along the walls. Someone took the time to hang a wreath on every door in the house, each covered in mini ornaments and topped with a red bow. The bright orange fire in the fireplace is crackling.
Ty and Indy are already waiting, wearing matching Christmas sweaters. “Merry Christmas!” they greet, pulling the two girls into a hug. 
“Merry Christmas,” Lena says back before pulling away. The cheeriness of the season was beginning to catch up to her. “So! What do we do first?”
“Well, the presents are under the tree but maybe eat breakfast first—”
Lena was gone the moment Ty said ‘presents’. She rushes to the tree and begins checking the tags for her name. Not that there are that many presents to check. Violet follows soon after with a much calmer demeanor.
She ends up with a limited edition of The FeatherWeights’ newest album from Ty and Indy (“How did you know they’re my favourite band?!” “Your shirt is all we needed to clue us in.”) and an exact replica of the Caw-nverse shoes she loves wearing. Violet receives two books — an encyclopedia the thickness of one and a half dictionaries about magic and a thinner book called Tales of the Peculiar.
She’s ready to head off to the dining table to eat when Violet stops her. 
“Wait.” She pulls out a neatly wrapped present from her pocket and holds it out to Lena. “Here.”
“Wh— But I didn’t get you anything!”
“It’s okay.” Violet shoves the present into her hands. “Just take it.” Lena peers at her suspiciously before tearing the wrapping paper clean off and opening the box.
A dreamcatcher. The hoop used is a nice beige, and a flower-like design had been woven within it with colourful threads. White feathers suspended from twine, with beads adorning the strands at intervals, are attached to the hoop. Lena dangles the dreamcatcher above the box and looks at Violet questioningly.
“It may not be as beneficial as actual therapy since I couldn’t infuse it with any magic, but it should help keep the bad dreams at bay,” Violet explains. “Probably. I made it myself so it might not work.”
Lena stares at the dreamcatcher again. Upon closer inspection, the feathers and beads appear to be glued to the twine, and the twine was wound imperfectly around the base of the hoop. The flower design is also uneven, having slightly larger ‘petals’ on one side. She feels herself tear up. “Violet. This is the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for me.”
“I can’t believe saving you from roaming in the shadow realm for all of eternity isn’t the sweetest thing I've ever done for you,” Violet replies, completely deadpan. But the corners of her beak are twitching upwards.
“You wanted to summon evil spirits! I was a byproduct. It doesn’t count,” Lena jokes, putting the dreamcatcher away. She envelopes her in a crushing hug. “Thank you.” Her voice is wobbling. “This is just— It must’ve taken ages. Now I feel even worse for not getting you anything.”
Violet hugs her back just as tightly. “You’re welcome. Just make sure you get me my own personal library next year.”
As if your room isn’t filled with enough books as is, Lena thinks, but she can’t help but laugh.
Ty clears his throat. “This is great, but it’s already nine and you girls haven’t even had breakfast yet, so chop chop! We’ve got a whole day ahead of us.”
(They end up at the ice rink, where Lena learns that she’s actually terrible at ice skating. Violet offers to teach her like the Samaritan she is, but doesn’t hesitate to throw jabs at her incompetence. Fortunately, she’s not the only one who’s suffering, if Indy’s screaming and Ty’s guffawing are any indications.)
––––––––––
In the first fifteen years of her life, Lena had been alone with no one to turn to. Being part of a happy family felt like something out of a movie or fairy tale. Happiness seemed like an unreachable dream.
But within two years, she found a best friend in Webby, a sister in Violet, and two dads in Ty and Indy. She found a family to call her own, one that loved her and made her feel good about herself. She was finally content.
The dreamcatcher and family photo hanging above her bed would need to be pried from her cold, dead hands.
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College Friends
A/N: Hi everybody! And SURPRISE  @rhapsodyrecs  ! I’m your secret author for @yourlocalmusicalprostitute Possessed By Love Event! I hope you (and everybody else) enjoys it!
 Pairing: Joe Mazzello x fem!reader
Warnings: Implied smut (nothing explicit, but just in case), references to drinking, cursing? (I honestly don’t remember if I put any in there or not,but better safe than sorry), bed-sharing 
You threw a bag of chips into the cart and then looked around for more snacks.
“I think we’re good on snacks,” Kodi chuckled.
“Not if Marcus is coming,” you replied, another bag of chips making its way into the cart.
“Alright, good point, but we can make a trip to the store once we get there.”
You and a group of friends from college were going on an extended weekend trip to the beach, staying at an AirBnB. You were leaving in the morning and you were so excited. You needed time away from work.
“Alright, when we get back to my place, we’ll pack it the van,” Kodi told you after you got everything in your car from the store. You’d rented a van so you could all fit in one car.
“Sounds good to me. What time are we going to leave in the morning?”
“I think around 8, but I told Sahara 9 so that she might actually be on time.”
You laughed.  
The two of you talked about how much fun the five you would be having at the beach.
“I’m ready to just goooo,” Kodi whined as you puled into the parking lot of her building. “Work has been so shitty lately.”
“I know,” you told her as you parked next to the van. “You deserved that promotion.”
“Tell me about it. Whatever. I just want to go to the beach and get drunk.”
“Two things I can help with, don’t you worry.”
“And maybe get laid.”
“Well, let’s see how drunk we get.”
You and Kodi laughed as you got out of the car. The two of you transferred your groceries from your car to the van when somebody came up and grabbed your hips.
You jumped and spun around with a scream, ready to attack the person.
“Hey! Hey, calm down!” The voice was laughing as you swung your arms, making minimal contact.
You met eyes with your ‘attacker’ and gasped for a moment at that familiar hazel. “Joe?”
He held his arms out for a hug, but you didn’t go into them. Kodi did though, hugging him tight.
“Joe! What are you doing back in town?!”
“I just wrapped on a movie and thought I’d come see you guys!” Joe pulled away from Kodi and looked at you with a big grin.
“So Mister Hollywood is gracing us with his presence once again, huh?” You replied with an eye roll.
“Ah, Y/N, great to see you, too.”
Joe Mazzello. The unaccounted for sixth member of your college friend group.
The six of you had met and made a study group for your Psych 101 class freshmen year. After that, you were inseparable. The six of you had stayed friends since you all had left school, which was actually a surprise to all of you, but somehow it had worked.
“How long are you in town?” Kodi asked.
“Just this week, so I wanted to see if you guys were doing anything this weekend and…”
“Aw shucks, Joey, we’re actually going to be out of town this weekend,” you clicked your tongue. Joe’s face fell and Kodi elbowed you in the side.
“Oh, well, that’s okay, maybe I can hang out with Marcus and…” Joe stopped talking at the look on Kodi’s face.
“We’re actually going with them too, we sort of threw this together last minute long weekend to the beach,” Kodi gave Joe a half smile. “We didn’t know you’d be home otherwise we would’ve asked you!” Kodi started spewing out excuses but Joe held his hand up.
“Kodi, it’s alright I can…”
“Well,” Kodi looked at you and then back to Joe. “Give us one sec,” she grabbed your arm and then pulled you out of ear shot of Joe.
“No,”you told her, already knowing where the conversation was going.
“Come ON, Y/N. Joe’s one of our friends too.”
You scoffed, not looking at her.
“There’s room for Joe at the Air BnB and he’ll make it fun! You guys used to be so close. What happened?”
You sighed.
Yes, you and Joe had been close. Until he slept with your roommate at the end of freshman year even though the two of you had spent the entire semester flirting and you had thought you’d made it clear that you liked him. You hadn’t wanted to mess up the group dynamic so you’d never said anything, but you had stopped hanging with Joe just the two of you.
“I just want to have fun, alright? And if Joe comes people will probably stop us and want pictures and…”
“Stop. When was the last time any of that happened?”
You paused to honestly try and think of a time, but couldn’t think of one.
"Come on, we haven’t seen him in like a year. Please?”
You thought about it and looked back at Joe, who had started grabbing bags of groceries out the car. For the most part, yes, he was a good guy. Maybe you’d been too hard on him.
“Fine, let’s invite him.”
“Yes!” Kodi hugged you and gave you a kiss on the cheek. She turned back to Joe and almost ran to him. You followed slowly behind her.
“So, Joe, if you’re not doing anything this weekend, would you want to come with us?”
Joe’s face lit up. “Really?” He looked to you.
You nodded reluctantly.
“Yeah! I’d uh…I would love to come. Only if everybody’s okay with it,” he replied, still looking at you.
“Yeah, I’m fine. We should probably get this stuff inside.” You grabbed the 24 pack of water and headed inside.
You went home and ran over your packing list one more time. You were pretty sure you had everything. You opened your suitcase and saw your old swim suit that you had grabbed. You took it out and grabbed your favorite two piece instead. If Joe was coming, you were going to let him know what he was missing out on.
“I’m here!” Sahara came running into the kitchen the next morning. “I’m sorry I’m late but I have a good reason!” She practically skidded to a stop. She was the last to arrive, so everybody was sitting at the kitchen table or leaning against the counter.
“You’re not actually,” Kodi smiled at you, knowing she’d done the right thing by telling Sahara an hour earlier than you should have.
“What do you…?” Sahara looked around when she noticed Joe leaning against the counter drinking coffee. Sahara squealed and threw herself in Joe’s arms.
“Oof!” Joe laughed as he hugged her back. “Well hi.”
“When did you get here?! How was filming? Are you coming with us? Is…?”
“Sa, sh…it’s waaaay too early for that,” Marcus grumbled.
“I don’t even care! I’m so excited that you’re here!”
Everybody (except you) laughed and Joe let her go.
“We should get everybody’s bags in the car,” Dylan clapped his hands together. Everybody grabbed their bags and headed out to the van. Except you and Joe because your bags were already in the car.
You could feel the tension in the kitchen grow once you realized that the two of you were alone.
Joe cleared his throat. “Y/N, I um…thanks for inviting me.”
“Well, it was Kodi’s idea,” you told him as you set your coffee cup in the sink.
“Yeah, but you also agreed to it. I know we’ve had…” Joe gestured as if he were going to catch what he was trying to say. “A falling out. And I’m not sure what exactly happened but, I’m hoping that maybe we can…mend things?”
You stared at him, trying to come up with a response. What the hell did he mean he didn’t know what he did?
“How can you…?”
“Hey! Are you two ready?!” Kodi yelled in to the two of you.
“Let’s get going,” you blew past Joe to join your friends. This was going to be a long weekend.
The trip to the Air BnB was about a four hour drive. Kodi drove the whole way and you were in the passenger seat. Everybody else was piled into the back of the van.
The ride wasn’t horrible. Actually, it was pretty fun. Joe always had a way of making everybody laugh, even when you tried not to.
Once you got there, you all split up and took rooms. The only problem was there were only 5 beds.
“Where’s Joe going to sleep?” Kodi asked as she and Sahara sat on your bed, watching you unpack some things after.
“Not here,” you told her.
“I know that, but Dylan and Marcus’ room only have single beds.”
“Then he can sleep on the floor.”
“Oh stop it. We’ll figure it out. So, Y/N,” Sahara exchanged a look with Kodi before looking at you. “Are you ever going to tell us what happened to you and Joe?”
You grabbed your swimsuit out of your suitcase. “Nothing, we just don’t click anymore. Now, can we go the beach and get drunk?”
The three men had already gone out and they were in the water when you and the other women came out with your beach towels and your tumblers full of drinks.
As you started laying your towel down, you noticed Joe was staring at you.
“Can I help you, Mazzello?” You called out to him.
The rest of the day was relaxing, but that night, you were all going to go out to dinner. You put on the dress that you had packed. It was tight and hugged your curves the way that you loved. You smiled to yourself as you finished your makeup in the mirror.
“Y/N,” there was a knock at the door and then it opened to reveal Joe, in a button down and khaki shorts. “Whoa.”
“What?” You looked down at yourself to make sure that your dress hadn’t bunched up or anything.
“Nothing, you just,” Joe cleared his throat. “You just look nice is all.”
You narrowed your eyes, thinking that maybe he was messing with you. “As opposed to how I normally look?”
Joe’s eyes widened comically before he back tracked. “No! No that’s not what I meant. You always…I…” Joe breathed deeply through his nose.
“Whatever, let’s just go, alright?” You pushed past him and into the living room where the rest of your friends were waiting.
Dinner was fine, nothing extreme happened, but you kept catching Joe’s eye. He would give you shy little smile and then you’d look away. But that damn little smile gave you little butterflies in your stomach. You were a little annoyed with yourself. Yes, your crush on him never actually went away. And sure he was cute. And when you forgot about him messing with you all of freshman year, you could admire how funny and nice and sweet he was. He…
“Y/N?” Kodi waved a hand in front of your face.
“Hm?” You blinked at her.
“I asked if you were ready to go.”
“Oh! Yeah, sure.”
The six of you walked back to house.
“So, where is Joe going to sleep?” Dylan asked after another hour or so of everybody drinking in the living room.
“I mean, Y/N is kinda the only one that has room,” Sahara said sheepishly.
You frowned. “I am?”
“Yeah, Marcus and Dylan only have 2 single beds, me and Sahara are sharing the other double.”
“It’s fine, you guys, I can sleep on the couch,” Joe offered.
Everybody looked at you, silently asking if you were actually going to make him sleep on the couch. You hated yourself for what you were about to offer.
“No, Joe, you…shouldn’t have to sleep on the couch,” you grumbled. “We can share the bed.”
“Y/N, you don’t have have to do that. Seriously, I’m fine with…”
“No, it’s fine just…give me a minute to get ready for bed,” you stood up and walked up the stairs to get ready to sleep. That’s all that was going to happen. Sleep.
You were in bed, scrolling through your phone fifteen minutes later when Joe walked in with his bag. He was wearing a plain blue t-shirt and a pair of boxers. You swallowed. It all seemed so…domestic. And you hated that you still wanted that with him.
“Hey, I uh…just wanted to thank you, again.”
“Not a big deal.”
Joe yawned. He then got into bed on the other side of the bed than you. “We can make a wall of pillows or something.”
“It’s fine, let’s just get some sleep,” you told him as you watched him plug his phone in. Then you turned the light off, ready to pretend that you weren’t (still) attracted to the guy you were in bed with.
“Good night, Y/N.”
“Night, Joe.”
You listened as Joe’s breathing evened out and it didn’t take long for you to fall asleep after that.
The next morning, your alarm went off. You turned it off and you woke up warm and happy. You hummed and moved closer to the source of warmth. You felt the arms around your waist tighten.
“Good morning to to you too, sweetheart,” you heard in you ear. His voice was husky with sleep.
You giggled. And then you realized who that was. You rolled over and looked at Joe. His eyes were still closed and the sun was peeking through a small gap in the window curtains, hitting his hair so it was a copper color. It was beautiful. God, why did have to sleep with Shari? You could’ve been waking up to this for years. Who knows if you’d still be together or not, but damn your time together probably would’ve been great.
“Are you staring at me?”
“I usually don’t wake up with movie stars in my bed, so I’m enjoying it while I can.”
Joe laughed and opened his eyes. You watched him blink a couple time before his eyes adjusted. Once they did, he lifted on corner of his mouth. “Morning.”
“Morning. Want to tell me why you’ve got your arms around me?”
“Want to tell me why you haven’t moved from out of my arms since you’ve been awake for like ten minutes?”
You tired to come up with a response, but nothing came. “Touche,” you said, but still made no effort to move.
“So, are you going to tell me why you stopped liking me the summer after freshman year or am I supposed to guess?”
“I didn’t stop liking you. You just…hurt me.” You decided to be honest since Joe was asking you point blank. You figured it was time for the two of you to talk about it since it was just the two of you.
“I did?” The look on Joe’s face was hurt, like he really didn’t know what you meant. “What did I do?”
“You slept with Shari.”
Joe’s brow furrowed. “Who?”
You rolled your eyes. He didn’t even remember sleeping with her? “Shari? My roommate freshman year?”
Joe frowned and shook his head, still not understanding what you were saying.
“Come on, Joe. Shari? She looked like she got choked out the morning after you slept with her.”
“Whoa! I never slept with your roommate.”
“Yes you did. We were all at Peter’s party and you left to get us refills and…”
“I came back and you were gone.”
“I went to the bathroom! I tried to find you for like twenty minutes. Then I saw Kodi, and she was drunk, so I took her back to her room.”
“I went back to my room after I couldn’t find you, I swear.”
You shook your head with a bitter chuckle. Why was he lying about it?
“Joe, it’s fine, I mean, I thought that we’d kinda had something over the semester but shit happens and…”
“Y/N,” Joe squeezed your hip. “I thought that we had something, too. And then, by the time I got the courage to ask you out, you…started acting weird. Like you didn’t want to be around me anymore. I thought that I had done something.”
“You did! You slept with Shari!”
“But I didn’t!”
“Yes you did! I spent the night with Kodi and when I went back to my room the next morning, Shari had hickies ALL over her neck and when I asked her she said it was ‘Joe from her film class’,” you used air quotes. “You guys had ‘American History in Film’ together.”
Joe stared at you for a long moment, his face screwed up in confusion. “I honestly don’t…” then you could see the realization hit Joe like a truck.
But it wasn’t the realization that you thought.
“There were two Joes in that film class.”
You blinked at him a couple times. “What?”
“There were two Joes! There was me and there was another guy named Joe that eyed Shari all the time!”
“I…you…what?” You repeated.
Joe watched you and then started laughing. Full on laughing. “So this whole time you’ve been mad at me because another guy got laid?”
Now you felt like an idiot. You’d been holding onto this stupid grudge for years and it was for nothing?!
“Well, I…I thought that…” you mumbled, trailing off because you couldn’t really think of what to say. You felt Joe was still laughing at you, but you rested your forehead on his chest so that you didn’t have to look at him.
“I’m so sorry,” you told him. “I can’t believe I was so bitter about something that didn’t even happen. And I didn’t even ask you! God, I’m sorry!”
Joe was still chuckling to himself and he slid one hand up and rubbed your back.
“So, if I’d asked you back then on a date, would you have said yes?”
You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from beaming. Then you looked up at him.
“Yeah, I would have.”
Joe’s face lit up and you decided that you really like that look on him. “What if I asked you for a kiss?”
“Now or then?”
Joe glanced down to your lips and then back up to your eyes. “Now.”
“I’d say yes,” you breathed out. You responded without even thinking about it.
Joe put his hand on your cheek and rubbed under your eye for a moment before he leaned in and your lips met.
You closed your eyes as a heat spread through you that you hadn’t felt for a while. Joe’s lips slid against yours and you wrapped your fingers in his hair, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.
Joe groaned and then licked his way into your mouth. The two of you moving against each other made the bed squeak a couple times.  
You pulled a way for a moment to catch your breath. You kept your eyes closed, but still smiled.
“We should’ve done that a long time ago.”
“I think we’ve got some lost time to make up for,” Joe lifted your chin and you opened your eyes to look at him. “But only if you’re up for it.”
“THESE WALLS ARE REALLY THIN YOU GUYS!” Sahara’s voice came through the wall.
You looked at each other with wide eyes before Joe snorted and the two of you started giggling to each other.
“Maybe once we get home, before Mr. Hollywood needs to get back to work.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Joe pecked your lips one more time. “But until then, can I see you that two piece again?” He waggled his eyes brows.
You scoffed and pushed his chest. “Don’t press your luck, Mazzello.”
Joe grabbed your hand and brought it up to his lips. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Now that I’ve got you, I won’t be letting go anytime soon.”
You liked the sound of that.
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fearfulkittenwrites · 4 years ago
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“You know what? Fuck you.” and “Fuck you batman”
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Word count: 2070
Warnings: Physical Abuse, pretty much child abuse (but lightly, i promise), vomiting
Notes: Okay, so this work needs some rather long notes, I think. If you don't want to read this, you can totaly skip it though. This is... pretty much the only angst thing I ever wrote that turned out actually good. And if the ending seems kind of... unfinished, in a sense, it's because it kind of is. Most of it was written when I was really down, and I can't give it a good ending. If anyone has any clue on how to make it better than this, by all means, go ahead. I'd love for this to have a happy ending instead of this. Also, I wrote this as some sort of catharsis for me? Most of my writing has some very personal element, but this is one of those pieces that if I handed my therapist, she'd laught at how obviously I'm projecting, so if anyone seems a little bit poorly characterized, that's probably why. Aaaaand this was written waaaay before I recieved my bingo card. But one of the two slots was filled by it, and the other fit so very nicely, that it pushed me to post it. Lastly, thank you for clicking this! And final warning to my emetophobic friends to walk away from this one. Good reading, and stay safe out there, it's a crazy world.
It was a stupid argument. They were yelling their faces off in the batcave, angry, nearly foaming at the mouth, over some serial killer. (It might seem like that’s a big deal, but c’mon, this is Gotham we’re talking about) It’s not like it had never happened before; both men were strong-willed, stubborn and hot-headed, they were bound to argue all the time.
“I’ve had enough!” Batman shouted “You’re staying out of this!”
“Are you insane?!” Nightwing shot back “You’re so deep into your own empty hopes you’re gonna get everyone killed!”
“I know what I’m doing Nightwing! And you’re staying on the ground tonight!” He pointed at the other’s face.
“You seriously think that I’ll just stay put, like a good little dog?!” He seemed incredibly offended. The volume of the conversation kept getting louder.
“You are gonna do as I say.” Now the man’s voice was lower. Dangerously so.
“No! I don’t give a damn about your skewed view of this city, and if you want to walk straight into a compromising position because of it, fine, go ahead. But if I let you go out there with them, following this stupid mindset, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“You think they can’t protect themselves?” He said, before shouting “You think I haven’t taught them well enough?!”
“I think you can’t protect them from what you refuse to see!” Nightwing shouted back. And then it happened.
The arguments were regular, sure. But this? This was unexpected, to say the least.
Batman slapped Nightwing across the face.
Except... That isn’t what happened. Or at least, it wasn’t all that happened.
It’s not as simple as that.
No, those weren’t simply two masked heroes getting caught in an argument that had gone physical. It wasn’t just Batman hitting Nightwing.
That was Bruce hitting Dick.
The silence that fell over everyone’s ears was deafening. No one in that cave even dared to breath, everyone waiting for the other’s retaliation. A retaliation that never came. Dick stared at the floor in the direction his face had been forced towards, breathing heavily. No, not heavily. He let out shaky breaths, although Damian was certain he was the only one able to tell the difference.
Nightwing then shook his head slightly, still looking at the ground, smiled sadly and let out a little huff that resembled a laugh. He left, walking past all of the other masked heroes, his brothers, with his eyes fixated on the ground. Damian never though he’d see Dick Grayson, the personification of confidence, staring at the ground. Now Bruce had a room of vigilantes staring at him in a way none of them ever did before. Even Red Hood seemed horrified. Robin scowled at him, before leaving to chase his brother.
“You know what? Fuck you.” Red Hood let out, before leaving the cave too, headed for the city “Don’t...” He stopped, gun in hand, pointing it up at the sky as he spoke “Don’t contact me. Just... Fuck you, Batman. And fuck you, Bruce.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m with him.” Red Robin said “I’ll check on the Titans. Good luck with the case.” He jumped out into the night as well.
Bruce turned to Steph, slightly.
“No.” She said turning to Cass “Look, you wanna stay, that’s your decision, but I can’t.”
“I’m not staying.” Cass stated, pulling her own cowl on.
His comm was static. Oracle had left too.
Bruce breathed in. He pulled out the cowl. Alfred stared at him from the door for a minute, and left before being noticed, heading for the kitchen.
...
Jason was sitting on a rooftop, looking down, when Red Robin landed next to him.
“You should go check on him.”
“Don’t you think he’d rather be alone?” He asked, looking up “Also, Gotham needs our patrols.”
“To the second point, sure, but me, Spoiler and Batgirl can cover the city for tonight, and we don’t know for sure that Batman’s not coming. To the first, maybe.” He sighed “But Damian went after him. He’s probably talking to Dick as we speak, and that’s not exactly a bad thing, but Dick won’t be able to drive him away, and we both know that tonight it’s gonna get ugly. Real ugly.” Red Hood turned to look at him, wondering what was his point “Damian looks up to him. He’s a parental figure, whether they like it or not. He shouldn’t have to see Dick like that, he won’t have the proper tools to handle it. You on the other hand...” Jason sighed too.
“Yeah, I see what you mean.” He nodded “I can handle it.” The Red Hood slowly stood up “By the way, you see him tonight, put that bo staff to good use and shove it up his ass. Then tell him I send my regards.”
...
Dick stormed into his room, slamming his door shut and hurling his mask against the wall. He pulled off the top of his costume, but that was all he managed to do before he broke down sobbing, sitting on his bed, hugging himself. He had taken many hits in his life. He handled all of them. This one... He didn’t know how to handle it, didn’t know where to start. His cheek still burned. It was probably red, maybe there would be a perfect mark of his palm and fingers on it.
He screamed, rubbing his face harshly in a fit of rage. He woud have scratched the skin off his arms if he didn’t keep his nails so short, but he had to settle for rubbing instead, fingertips digging into the flesh without breaking it. It went on for a minute, before he managed to calm down.
“I know you’re there.” He said trying to keep some composure “Leave.”
“It’s not him.” Damian answered from behind the door.
“I know. Leave.” Dick heard a ‘-tt-.’, followed by the sound of his door opening. He had his back turned to it.
“No.” He answered, closing it behind him.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Dick turned to face the wall, keeping his back to Damian.
“Then don’t.” He replied, sitting on the floor, infront of him “I’m here to make sure you won’t do anything stupid.” Dick knew that was his way of saying ‘I care about you’. He did a piss poor job at showing affection, but no one could blame him.
Damian slowly lifted a hesitant hand, setting it on the other’s shin, stroking his leg. Dick offered a weak smile, looking down; once again, this was a code. It was Damian saying ‘I know I don’t like hugs, but if you need them right now, it’s okay’. The boy looked down at his boots and helped him out of them, watching as Dick instantly curled in on himself once he was barefoot, pulling his legs to his chest, hiding his face between his knees. Damian sat down next to him, placing a hand on his back as he cried once more.
“It’s just...” He tried “I never thought...”
“I know. None of us did.”
Dick felt sick. He wanted to thow up. Maybe he would throw up, if he kept sobbing like that. Damian rubbed circles on his bare skin, trying to calm him down, to no avail. There was a knock on the door.
“Hey, Bird Brain.” Jason’s voice came from it, soft and wary “Can you open the door for me?”
Damian looked at his brother, who nodded. The boy got up and slowly cracked open the door, already scowling at Jason, who raised an eyebrow but kept quiet.
“Hey,” He kneeled in front of Dick “Calm down okay? I’m sure Alfred is knocking some sense into him as we speak.” Dick nodded weakly, and Jason pushed some strands of hair away from his forehead.
There was another knock on the door. This time Bruce’s voice was heard.
“Dick, I...”
“Leave.” He replied, voice cracking.
“I’m sorry, I...”
“Leave!” He yelled. They heard footsteps, walking away from the room. He turned to Damian “Dames, you should go too.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms.
“Seriously, thank you. But... I just... Jason’s here and... I need to cry. Really cry and I don’t think I should put you through that.” Damian stared at him, unsure on what to do.
“It’s okay Damian. I got him.” Jason reassured. It wasn’t worth much for the kid, but he thought it best to give his brothers some space, so he walked out of the room.
Dick broke down again, and Jason held him through it. He held his brother for almost fifteen minutes. He knew there was nothing he could say that would make any of this better, so he kept his mouth shut, listening when he eventually gathered the strenght to speak.
“I can’t... Why did he do this? I’m- I was worried. I just wanted to protect you.” He cried against the other’s shoulder.
“I know Dickie.” Jason stroked his hair.
“He was just so – so blind. He’d walk you straight into the crossed fire, and-and... Oh God.” He pulled himself away from Jason and tried to run into the bathroom, covering his mouth, but there was no time. He threw up on the floor, and the only reason he didn’t fall face first into it was Jason’s fast thinking, wrapping his arms around the older man’s waist “Fuck.” He murmured, spitting on the ground “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay Dick. It happens. I’ll get Alfred.” He said, setting him on the bed.
“No, it’s fine, I can clean it...”
“Don’t be stupid Dickie,” He handed him some tissues “Look at your state. It’s okay, he can handle it just fine.” He shot out of the door, dashing through the stairs, finding the butler in the kitchen, making some kind of chicken soup “Dick puked.” He stated, going for a glass and filling it with water.
“Oh dear.” Alfred exclaimed, lowering the heat on the stove. He turned around throwing his apron on the marble balcony and grabbing cleaning supplies. Both of them ran to his room; and after all these years, Jason still wasn’t used to the idea that Alfred could run through the manor just as fast as him. He slowly opened the door “Master Dick?”
“I’m sorry Alfred.” He murmured from the bed.
“It’s quite alright, my boy.” He said, kneeling down to clean up “It’s not your fault.” Jason handed the man a water glass.
“Thanks.” Dick whispered “I feel awful for putting you two through this.”
“Nonsense, master Dick.” Alfred said from the floor “My job is taking care of this family.”
“Besides,” Jason sat down on the bed “You’d do the same. You have done the same.” He grabbed his bare foot, squeezing it before letting go. Alfred soon left, as quickly and discreetly as he came “C’mon,” Jason said, standing up “Let’s brush those teeth.”
“Yeah.” Dick let himself be led out of bed, going into his bathroom. His brother stood next to the sink, leaning against the wall.
Jason followed him back into the room, where he put on his pajamas but didn’t slip into bed.
“I don’t really want to sleep yet,” Dick said “Maybe I should go patrolling with you.”
“Dick, no offense, but you are the king of bad ideas.” Jason responded “And I’m not going on patrol, Replacement said they’d cover the city for tonight.”
“Okay then.”
“Are you hungry?” Jason asked “Alfred was cooking, maybe we can have some.”
“Yeah, let’s go pester him.” Dick answer, smile lacking the usual life.
The next morning, Dick didn’t go down for breakfast. Bruce tried finding him in the manor, but none of it’s inhabitants and usual visitors were anywhere to be seen. Even Duke, who wasn’t even in the cave when it happened, seemed to be avoiding him, not answering his calls. He decided to leave a letter for his son, but when he sat down in front of the paper, he didn’t know what to write. He was overwhelmed with guilt, and knew that he had crossed a line he couldn’t come back from, not entirely.
He had been so worried about deaths and killings as Batman, that he neglected the lines he shouldn’t cross as Bruce Wayne. And now that he crossed one of those, he had no clue on what to do about it.
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queenmuzz · 5 years ago
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Deep Blue Sea: Chapter X
The Pieces (of Pizza) Fit
Read the full story on Ao3 Here! Where the Hell is my brother?
The voice, full of rage, nearly gave you a migraine as you struggled to get out of the unyielding grip.  Slow to anger, my ass, you brain unhelpfully supplied to you as you frantically tried to get out of his grasp.  At the same time, the clock was ticking as your oxygen levels depleted and your lungs protested.  Great job, your brain continued, trying to get your crush (NOT MY CRUSH you corrected) to safety, only to get killed by the one man you thought could save him.  If it weren’t for the fact that you kinda needed your  brain to remain alive, you’d attempt to shut the damn thing off.
WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?
His grip tightened, and you could have heard an angry growl in the water, instead of in your head.  And just when you felt like you couldn't take any more, you were pulled out of the water.  You tried to take a breath of precious air, terrified that he’d dunk you back in, but he slammed you into the hull, knocking any remaining air out of you.  Your head whacked painfully on the fiberglass frame, and your vision turned black for a moment.  Your jackknife slipped out of your wet hands, and into the depths, leaving you nigh defenseless.
“I swear to the Tidemother, if you have touched a hair on his head, I’ll drag you to the deepest fucking depths of the ocean, and let the scavengers eat your corpse.”
You tried to respond, tried to tell him that you meant him no harm, but his face was full of fury, and now he gripped your neck in his webbed hands.  Your hands latched on to his wrist, in a futile attempt to break free, but all you managed to do was to jostle the amulet free from under your shirt. 
The glint of gold must have attracted his attention because he loosened his grip slightly allowing you to gasp out for air.  Perhaps he recognized it as a sign that Vergil trusted you.
That idea went out the window as he snarled, and suddenly you were lifted up and thrown back onto the deck, sliding a metre and a half across the wood. 
You barely had time to reorient yourself before you heard a massive splash, a crushing weight on your torso, and most worryingly of all, the cold, sharp tip of metal at your throat.  Your vision rapidly cleared, you saw him on top of you, teeth bared, reared back, with an honest to God sword pointed at your throat.  (Where the hell did that come from? your brain asked unhelpfully)
“I don’t go after humans,” his icy voice chilled you to the bone, “But for you…” the sword tip moved slightly to lift the amulet up, “I’ll gladly make an exception.  Where. Is. He.”
“Help…”  you managed to croak.
“Bit too late to be begging for help, babe” he sardonically replied.
You shook your head, and slowly grabbed the amulet, intending somehow to take it off, before, surprisingly it easily unlatched itself.  Sparing a quick glance at it as you cautiously slid it to the side, you were perplexed that there was no clasp, no broken chain...magic?
No time to ruminate about it, you took another breath of air, praying that it wouldn’t be your last.
“Help….him”
Confusion flooded Dante’s face, as to your relief, he withdrew his weapon away from the hollow of your throat as he snatched the chain and scooted away from you.  You took this precious moment to catch your breath, heaving in and out and when you had recovered some of your strength, you rolled over to see Dante clutching the amulet to his chest, a matching one in silver and red around his neck, his eyes shut tight.   The sword was gone, and you were beginning to think your lack of oxygen had caused you to hallucinate it.
A good minute passed as you watched him, neither one of you moving an inch.  What he was doing with it, you had no idea.  You slowly backed up, you didn’t want to hurt him if he attacked again, you just wanted to convince him that you truly wanted his help.  
And then, out of nowhere, the merman laughed.  It wasn’t a soft chuckle like his brother’s, but it didn’t seem dangerous.  
“Oh bro…   you’re such an idiot…” he bent his head over the necklace, his wet hair obscuring most of his face, leaving only a toothy smile, “You know, once I get your tail fins out of there, I’m never gonna let you forget this, right?”  You weren’t sure if he was talking to the gem, his brother, or himself.
He brushed his hair to the side, allowing you to see his face.  It was much kinder than before, if a bit embarrassed.  “I…. eh, sorry ‘bout that, kinda swam out before checking the current, you know what I mean?  Mom always told me I was a bit impulsive.  You okay?”
“Yeah…” your voice was raspy, but felt much better “Wait, did you just know what happened just by holding that?” you pointed at the chain, dangling in his hand.
“Well, I got the gist of it, it’s not like we can send messages like you humans do in your little things you carry around constantly, but it can give me a bubbleful of information.” He chuckled, “So, my brother’s been captured and being kept as a pet, but you’re a friend of his.” 
Your heart warmed up at the fact that Vergil, despite everything, considered you worthy of friendship.  You hoped that you could be on friendly terms with his brother.  So you did the thing that worked with Vergil.  Grabbing the cardboard box that had fallen to the deck in the kerfuffle, and opened it up.
“Want a piece?”
The way his nostrils flared and his eyes widened at the sight, you realized you had made the correct decision.
*****
“So, Verg says to me.  ‘Brother, I wager you ten cordina to get on that boat and grab something from it’...” Dante regaled you as he worked on his fifth slice of pizza, savouring every mouthful.  His imitation of his brother was quite on the nose. He lounged on the sunny side of the deck, still shielded from prying eyes by the way you tilted the sail, as you anchored the boat.
“And I says ‘you’re on!’ and I scope out this boat full of guys playing loud music.  I’m looking for a way to sneak on the damn boat, but there’s waaaay too many people dancing or something.  But I’ll do anything to prove my bro wrong, so I wait.  And Wait. And Wait.  But when the Dawnfather was just about to rise, everyone finally fell asleep.  So I flop on board, and I’m terrified that I’ll wake up someone, but everyone is really sleeping, like if it wasn’t for those funny noises you guys make when you sleep, I’d think they were dead.   I grab the first thing I see, one of these,” he held up the half eaten slice, “and I bring it to Verg, and he grumbly pays off the bet. But,” he finished off the slice, “what’s weird, this stuff was the real prize.  Vergil could have offered me a hundred cordina for that one piece, and I’d have said no…. It was so fucking delicious.  And now you come along with a whole box of this…” “Pizza” 
“Mmmm… Pizza…” he picked up another slice and stretched out the cheese.  “I gotta say, this is why I like you humans, you come out with some pretty delicious food.  It’s hard to make this stuff when you are surrounded by water.”
You smiled.  Vergil had said they were twins, and while they looked very similar, (aside from scale colour) their personalities couldn’t possibly be any more different.  While Vergil was calm, composed, and contemplative   Dante was brash, bombastic, and brazen.  Vergil was disdainful of humanity, (although you couldn’t really blame him), while Dante seemed to enjoy the quirks humans had.  But strangely, despite his totally different personality, you liked him, though not in the same way as his brother.
“So, you want to get my brother back to the open waters, eh?”  He had emptied the box of its contents, and was now licking his fingers for any remnants of melted cheese.  
“Yes, and I need your help to make sure he gets as far away as possible, and doesn’t try to do something that’s liable to get him captured again.”
“That I can do… although I can hardly believe that he actually regrets not listening to me. You sure he said that?”
“Pretty much…”
Dante went a bit serious… “Okay, it should be simple.   You get him to the ocean...let’s say,” he scanned the horizon, before pointing at the beach that lay next to the suspension bridge that linked both sides of the bay. “Right there.  Should be when the next time the Tidemother shows her full face, that’ll give you enough light to see, to slip him out, and also the tide will be up, making the trek to the water’s edge as simple as possible.  I’ll be waiting, and I’ll drag him by the tail fins out of here, if I have to…. and knowing Vergil, that’s probably literally, not figuratively speaking.”
“That simple?”  you were perplexed.  Surely there had to be more, or else Vergil would have been dropped off a long time ago, before you had time to develop feelings for him. 
“Should be, I mean, you come across any trouble, he can probably use Yamato to get rid of any problems.”  He now was scraping the melted cheese off the bottom of the box, and you were worried that if you didn’t stop him, he’d just eat the entire thing, cardboard and all.
“Yamato?”  you’d never heard that term before.  
Dante dropped the box, looking alarmed, “Wait, he hasn’t shown you Yamato?” his eyebrows shot up, “okay, that makes sense on why he’s been stuck… he doesn’t have his, …. um….” he cocked his head in thought, “I guess a rough translation would be ‘soul-weapon.’”  You shook your head.  Vergil had never mentioned anything about a weapon.
Dante continued, “I don’t really know how you humans see your souls, but the gist is, everyone of us has a weapon that’s intrinsically connected with our soul, our very being.”  He rubbed his head, “some of us have harpoons, others daggers, even have a few with a trident. Me on the other hand…” his hand waved out, and instantly, in a red flash, appeared a sword.  You hadn’t imagined it!  “This is Rebellion, ain’t she a beaut?” 
You had to agree.  It was a long solid sword, with what seemed to be a stylized human skull at the crossguard, but with shark teeth poking out from where the eyes were, as well as embedded into the ricasso of the blade.  It definitely was intimidating.  “So, a brief summary of how we look at our lives.  Us Merfolk see life like the way water moves.  Water flows throughout the ocean, until the Dawnfather decides it is time for it to ascend, and so the water becomes the clouds above, before raining back down and eventually rejoining the ocean.  It’s a cycle.”
“Ah,” you nodded, “like reincarnation”
“I guess?” Dante shrugged, “the philosophy of it all was all mom’s and Verg’s thing.  Anyways,”  he looked at Rebellion, “like I said, the weapon is linked to our soul, and if anything happens to it, it’s like someone took a bucketful of  that water and just locked it away, never able to return to the ocean, or repeat the cycle.  And it’s irreversible, a fate worse than death.”
Instantly, your mind went back to something similar Vergil had said all those months ago, and you remembered the ‘leash’ the good Doctor had in a long slender briefcase.  The pieces were beginning to fit.
“I mean, it’s hard to damage one of these, but it can be done, and most likely there’s the connection that's the issue.”
“The connection?”
“You can’t stray too far from your weapon, that’s why if you get too far, SNAP,” Rebellion dissipated in a shower of sparks.  “It’s the same as if the weapon got destroyed.  Somebody probably got a hold of Yamato, and you got lucky that they haven’t gone too far with it, or they know that they can use it over him.” his brow furrowed.  “On the bright side, it means it can’t be too far from where he is right now, so you won’t have to search too far.  But on the other hand… I’m still trying to figure out why he never told you  about this…”  he seemed honestly puzzled , “I mean, he trusted you enough with the amulet.” It worried you too.  Was Vergil too proud to ask a mere human, even one he was on good terms with for aid?  If he had just asked, you would have dropped everything to find and get this Yamato back for him.  It would have saved you a lot of heartache.  
“I think..” you said, “I know where his sword would be.”  The warehouse.  It was the only building Doctor Griffon could possibly keep the ‘leash’.  It wouldn’t be hard to get to, you had keys and codes for all the buildings on the property.
“Good!” his face brightened, “you get that sword to him, and you bring him here, and I can get him out.  Easy as swimming!”
“Yeah… easy as swimming” You attempted to match his enthusiasm.
“You know, you’re a good person.  Vergil has never been too close with humans, especially after mom and dad… well,” his features fell, “I thought I lost him too… was halfway about to follow him on a suicidal attack. When I felt the amulet,” he clutched it tightly in his hand, “I thought that he’d escaped, and when I found out it was a human, I just… I just snapped.”  
“You don’t have to apologise, Dante.  He’s your brother, after all.”
“Well, he’s a lucky son-of-a-barnacle to have an Odar like you, Dawnfather knows what would have happened to him if he didn’t meet you.”
You were slightly confused, “Odar?  Never heard that term.”
“Ah, keep forgetting you’re not familiar with Old Mer.  Basically a term for a human, but in a good way” he clarified. “Oh,” you murmured, mostly to yourself. “That’s not what Vergil calls me.”
“Ah?  What does he call you? It better not be ‘Chiktik’, or I’ll be punching him in the face when he gets back.”
“He calls me… Sifa.”
There were a few moments of silence, with only the gentle lapping of water against the hull, and the flap of the sail in the breeze.  Dante just stared at you, jaw dangling, looking exactly like a moray eel.  And then, to your astonishment… he just started laughing.
“Verg… of all the mer… well, I guess the polyp doesn’t drift too far from the coral.   Mom would be proud of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“He seriously hasn’t told you what it meant?”
“Vergil said it meant, ‘human,’” you answered and the red scaled merman cackled before looking up to you with a big grin. 
“You really want to know what it means?”
You bit your lower lip, afraid to know, but yet still intrigued, and after some hesitation, you nodded.
“There’s not a perfect translation, but basically, it means ‘Beloved’.  It’s a term you only use… well, for someone you really care about.  Someone…” he paused, as if for emphasis.  “You love.”
It was a good thing you were already sitting, because your legs began to feel like jelly, numbness spreading to your chest.
“He can’t…” you managed to wheeze out.
“Why not?” Dante asked.
“I’m basically his jailor!  There’s no possible way he could be truly in love with me!” You tried to protest.  But to your dawning horror, you realized a whole plethora of signs that he had been developing feelings for you.  The songs, the glances, the gentle touches.  Your head sank into your hands as you stared at the wood.  How could you have been so stupid?  How could you have been so blind?  
Or...maybe you had known, you just didn’t want to accept the truth.
“Well,” Dante added unhelpfully, “you don’t just call anyone Sifa, it's a fairly dedicated term, and Vergil wouldn’t just call you that if he didn’t mean it.”  He slipped back into the water gracefully, apparently oblivious to the turmoil that he had inadvertently caused.
“But there’s no way it would work between us!  I mean,” you pointed at your legs “we’re not even the same species!”
His response was to laugh.   If it wasn’t for the fact that he was Vergil’s  brother, you’d have clobbered him for his continued ignorance about how much this affected you.  “I don’t really think that’s much of an issue, but that’s not for me to say,” he responded cryptically.  “I’m sure Verg can fill you in.”  
And with that, he slipped back into the water, leaving you staring at the trail of bubbles.
No, you were not going to speak to Vergil about any of this.   You were going to keep this whole revelation to yourself, and focus on locating that sword and then getting him home.   It would be painful, but it was for the best for both of you.  That’s what you kept telling yourself.
Without warning, the water opened up again to reveal the smiling visage of Dante, his hand outstretched, holding your jackknife, and his own amulet, keeping the golden one around his neck. “Meetcha when the Tidemother is at her highest point when she shows her full face!  Good luck!” and after handing the blade and the silver amulet  to you, he swam off, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, leaving you alone with your turbulent thoughts.
*****
You returned back home, to see an expectant Vergil poised at the edge of the platform.  His eyes widened as you nodded and handed him the silver amulet, proof that you’d finally met his elusive brother.  He clutched it tightly, and for a moment you panicked, wondering if he was somehow able to look into the latest conversation you and Dante had.  But when he opened his eyes, they were full of relief and happiness.
“Ah, so he is well.”  He leaned back  in the water as he placed the chain around his neck, “That is good, that is good.”
You attempted to add some sort of joviality, “He thinks you’re an idiot for getting yourself captured.”
Vergil chuckled, “That does sound like him.  But at least he’s alright…” he turned to you, smiling gratefully.  “Thank You, Sifa.”
You successfully managed to hide the pain that word caused you as you gave him your best grin.
“Anything for you, Vergil”
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artificialqueens · 4 years ago
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You Know You Love Me, Chapter 5 (Branjie) - Kiki
A/N: Online classes are destroying my soul so super sorry for taking so long to upload! This chapter took me waaaay too long to write considering it’s only 3k words but I decided to just post it so I could get onto writing the more exciting chapters lol. Hope you are all good & I hope you enjoy! 
Summary: Brooke Lynn Hytes returns to New York City after being shipped off to boarding school and her ex best friend, Vanessa Mateo, isn’t too happy about it…which would be bad enough but add in the fact that they’re lowkey in love with each other. (Gossip Girl AU)
It was a cold October morning in New York City. The air was crisp and clean and the sun was shining low in the sky, not really giving out heat but still letting its presence be known. The leaves on the trees were slowly getting ready to turn brown and gently fall off and land on the sidewalk. At the moment, they were a vibrant red colour – the same colour as Kameron’s hair.
She had walked up the street and into the hotel that Brooke and her mom lived in, ready to surprise her old friend from boarding school. She stepped into the elevator with purpose. She was ready to become a part of Brooke’s life again. She had missed her and was simply not satisfied with the way things had ended between them.
She was wearing dark grey skinny jeans and a black leather jacket with black boots to match. Her auburn hair was curled to perfection in a half-up, half-down hairstyle and she had sunglasses resting on top of her head too.
The elevator doors opened and Kameron stepped into the hallway of the Hytes’ penthouse. It was looking a bit like a bombsite at the moment. There were paint swatches on the wall, a big folder of fabric swatches on the coffee table and the carpet had been taken up, leaving a cold grey floor in its place.
Kameron spotted a blonde middle-aged woman in the kitchen area typing away busily on her laptop. Her hair was the same shade of blonde as Brooke’s was and she was quite tall – Kameron reckoned she would still be almost six feet without her six-inch stilettos on – and came to the conclusion that she was in fact Brooke’s mother. Kameron smoothed her hair out and confidently walked over to the kitchen.
“Mrs Hytes?” she asked quietly, trying her best to sound as polite as possible. Mrs Hytes was visibly startled by Kameron and didn’t try to hide it.
“Jesus Christ! Who the hell are you?” Mrs Hytes asked, sounding annoyed at being scared in her own home.
“I’m so sorry to bother you, Mrs Hytes. My name is Kameron Michaels. I was in boarding school with Brooke Lynn last year and we became really good friends. I decided to come and surprise her.” Kameron explained sweetly with a sickening smile on her face. She was desperate to impress Brooke’s mom.
“Kameron…I don’t remember her mentioning a Kameron. I must’ve forgotten, I’ll go and fetch her for you, dear. Just wait here.” Mrs Hytes said as she closed her laptop and walked up the stairs to get her daughter.
Brooke Lynn was on cloud nine. Vanessa had left her apartment late last night and she was getting to spend the entire day with her again. They had planned to have a picnic in Central Park and Brooke was positive they would end up going back to one of their houses and hanging out all night again. She couldn’t wait.
Since it was slightly cold outside, she decided to wear her denim skinny jeans and a pale blue top since Vanessa had told her how good that colour looked on her. She threw her leather jacket in her bag in case it got too cold and was ready to go. She had ordered macaroons and some other French pastries that she knew Vanessa would love and they were gonna pick them up on their way to the park. Their perfect day was all planned out.
So when Brooke’s mom walked into her bedroom and informed her that Kameron Michaels was waiting downstairs for her, needless to say, Brooke was extremely pissed. She stormed out of her bedroom and walked down the stairs filled with rage. All of her memories from boarding school came flooding back to her and she was not happy with any of them.
After they had drunkenly hooked up right after Brooke had finished crying and professing her love for Vanessa, Kameron had been acting really weird. Brooke wanted to just put it in the past and keep being friends but it seemed like Kameron was head over heels in love with Brooke.
Everywhere Brooke went, Kameron wasn’t far behind. She followed her constantly and when they weren’t together, she was repetitively texting her. Brooke felt like she couldn’t get a moment of peace as Kameron had managed to make herself a part of every minute of Brooke’s day.
Of course, Brooke was too uncomfortable to say anything to her. She had only been at the school for a couple of months and was finally starting to form good friendships and get used to her new life there and she didn’t wanna start drama by telling Kameron to back off.
But when she came back from her sociology class one day and found Kameron in her dorm room lying in her bed, she had lost it. She told Kameron that she was a psycho and to leave her alone and predictably, Kameron was outraged. She said she had presumed they were dating after what had happened which prompted Brooke to kick her out of her room and locked the door behind her.
They never spoke again after that day. Anytime Kameron saw Brooke, she walked in the opposite direction and when they had some of the same classes together, Brooke could feel Kameron’s angry eyes piercing into her body.
A couple of weeks later, Kameron had left the boarding school and Brooke was relieved at the thought of never having to see the girl again. So why the hell was she currently standing in Brooke’s kitchen like nothing had ever happened?
“What the hell are you doing here?” Brooke shouted as she walked down the stairs. Kameron turned around to face her and was unaffected by Brooke’s rage.
“Brooke! I missed you so much!” Kameron said excitedly as she stepped forward with her arms wide open for a hug, which made Brooke immediately step back away from her.
“What are you doing here, Kameron? Why are you in my house? You know I want nothing to do with you.” Brooke said while squeezing her fists together. This situation was making her unbelievably stressed. She was starting to feel very overwhelmed and anxious at the thought of Vanessa walking in and seeing Kameron. She wanted to get Kameron out as soon as possible so she could avoid that from happening.
“I’m visiting New York for a while so I thought I’d surprise you…I thought you’d be happy to see me.” Kameron said disappointedly as if Brooke had invited her there.
“Why would I be excited to see you? You literally stalked me for months, Kameron, it was creepy.”
“I’ve changed! I promise you I’ve changed, I’m not crazy anymore. I take my meds now and I have no desire to follow you around.” Kameron explained proudly but Brooke simply didn’t care.
“Listen, I don’t care what you’ve done but you have to leave. I’m busy, I have other plans that don’t involve you and I want you to leave. Now.” Brooke said forcefully, gesturing to the elevator to show Kameron the way out. But in a cruel twist of fate, as soon as Brooke pointed towards the elevator, the doors opened and Vanessa walked out into Brooke’s apartment.
Vanessa looked perfect for the picnic date she was about to have with Brooke. She was wearing a red sundress because she knew that red always looked good on her. She was carrying a blanket and a picnic basket and she had surprisingly made most of the food herself with only minimal help from her private chef. She had a big smile on her face as soon as she saw Brooke but that smile faltered a little bit and her eyes narrowed as soon as she noticed Kameron.
“Hey, B…who’s this?” Vanessa asked as calmly as she could. Kameron immediately stepped forward and held out her hand so that Vanessa could shake it.
“Hi, I’m Kameron. A friend from boarding school.” Kameron replied with a small smile on her face, trying her best to get Brooke’s friends to like her.
“I’m Vanessa.” she replied and shook Kameron’s hand softly as she looked at Brooke in confusion. She noticed that Brooke seemed pissed off and she was hoping that it was because Kameron showed up at the same time of their date and not that Vanessa had interrupted something.
“Oh…so you’re the Vanessa I’ve heard so much about. Did she finally decide you were good enough for her, Brooke?” Kameron asked, a hand on her hip and a bitchy look on her face. Vanessa was stunned. She didn’t expect Kameron’s personality to flip so suddenly.
“What is she talking about, Brooke? Good enough for you?” Vanessa asked in confusion, trying to get Brooke to say something since she had been silent for the entire conversation so far.
“Kameron I’ve said this a million times now, please get the hell out of my apartment.” Brooke said with a firm tone in her voice. She walked over to Vanessa and took her hand, whispering that she was sorry and went to press the elevator button for Kameron to leave. Kameron starts to slowly walk over to the elevator but doesn’t step inside.
“What’s going on, Brooke?” Vanessa asked quietly, trying her best to get some answers.
“Yeah, Brooke, tell her everything that happened with us.” Kameron says in a mocking tone, leaning against the wall and still not getting in the elevator.
“I swear to God, Kameron! Whatever you think is going on between us is so far in the past that I can’t even remember it anymore! We’re not friends, we haven’t spoken in almost a year so just get out before I call security on your ass!” Brooke yelled and Vanessa was a bit taken aback, she had never seen Brooke shout so loudly and be so overcome with anger like that. Kameron rolled her eyes and laughed slightly as she slowly walked into the elevator and put her hand on her hip.
“Oh, Brooke! Before I go, just remember that when you’re inevitably heartbroken over her again, I’ll be here for you…like I was last time.” Kameron said with a wink in Vanessa’s direction and the elevator doors closed on her.
Brooke and Vanessa were silent for an abnormally long time after Kameron left. Brooke was in a state of panic thinking of how Vanessa was going to react and Vanessa was angry. Also jealous…but mostly angry.
How dare someone make a comment like that about Brooke to her? She was the most popular girl on the Upper East Side and it was a shock to her that anyone would even dream of speaking like that to her. She wanted to focus on her anger but deep down, she was mostly feeling insecure and jealous. Her and Brooke hadn’t had sex yet and clearly Brooke had been intimate with Kameron. That brought up a ton of feelings within Vanessa that she didn’t understand how to process.
On the other hand, Brooke didn’t know what to do. Should she pretend like what happened with Kameron just now wasn’t a big deal and get back to their day? Or should she address it with Vanessa and be completely honest about the whole situation and tell her everything? She looked at Vanessa and noticed how she had gone from seeming very angry to something that Brooke couldn’t put her finger on in just a few moments.
“Do you wanna get out of here? Go on a walk or something?” Brooke asked weakly, clearly unsure as to what she should say or do right now. Vanessa nodded slowly and put the picnic basket down on the floor and pressed the button for the elevator while slowly wiping a tear away from her cheek that had fallen. Brooke’s heart sank as she watched Vanessa be so visibly upset and couldn’t figure out what to do about it.
They walked in silence for a while before they ended up in Ruppert Park, a small outdoor area on the Upper East Side. They sat down on an empty bench and once again, Brooke was unsure about how to start the conversation that they desperately needed to have.
“How does she know who I am?” Vanessa asked softly. Her eyes were looking down at the ground instead of at Brooke who was sitting beside her. Brooke took a shaky deep breath before explaining.
“I talked about you a lot in boarding school…especially when I was drunk. Mainly about how I felt about you.”
“You told her I broke your heart?” Vanessa looked up directly into Brooke’s eyes and could see how panicked Brooke was.
“No…I was just really upset that I didn’t get to see you anymore. I was in a really bad mental state then so as soon as I had even a tiny bit of alcohol, I ended up crying about you not being there,” Brooke explained while keeping eye contact with Vanessa. “V, I’m really sorry she just showed up out of nowhere. I haven’t spoken to her in almost a year and—” Vanessa interrupted her rambling.
“Did you two date or what?” she asked, straight to the point. Brooke looked upset as she remembered what happened between her and Kameron.
“No…we drunkenly hooked up but it meant nothing to me. It only happened once and I regretted it as soon as it happened…but she started following me around constantly and wouldn’t stop so I told her to leave me alone and then she left.” Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock as she tried to process the two bits of information; Brooke had in fact hooked up with Kameron, but Kameron was also a crazy stalker…Vanessa was not expecting that.
“Why didn’t you tell me about that, B? I thought we had something going on here but you didn’t even tell me about her…” Vanessa was now more upset than she was jealous. She was surprised she wasn’t angry and yelling at Brooke but she took this as a sign that she was maturing in being able to express her emotions.
“Come on, V, it’s not like we were dating and I cheated on you or something. I didn’t think I had to tell you because it meant so little to me.” Brooke explained and hoped that she was getting the point across to Vanessa as sincerely as she meant it.
Vanessa broke eye contact with Brooke to stare at the ground again. Deep down she knew that she shouldn’t be as upset about Kameron as she was but there was that little piece of her that was so insecure about it that she just couldn’t let it go.
“I regret everything I did with her, Nessa. I never had any feelings for her, I only did what I did to actually try and feel something because I was suffering so much mentally. She’s nothing compared to you, V, I’m so sorry.” Brooke had a few tears rolling down her cheeks and Vanessa used her thumb to gently wipe them away.
“I’m sorry for overreacting, Brooke, I was just mad that I didn’t know about it…not mad that it happened. It was over a year ago, it’s in the past. Let’s just forget about it, okay?” Vanessa said with a soft smile on her face which Brooke returned as she nodded happily. Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke’s neck and they hugged each other tightly. Brooke felt all the panic and anxiety that had been in her body for the last hour melt away from Vanessa’s touch.
“What do you think about me calling Dorota to bring the picnic basket here? The day isn’t completely ruined yet!” Vanessa said excitedly and Brooke agreed straight away. Vanessa took out her phone and called Dorota, who was there in less than fifteen minutes with the picnic basket that Vanessa had prepared earlier.
Brooke was completely relaxed again and was back to being her usual self which made Vanessa really happy. But Brooke could tell that something was still bothering Vanessa, despite how she was trying to put on a brave face. She decided to question her about it now instead of waiting so they could try and enjoy their day with absolutely no more problems.
“Is everything okay, V? You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but—”
“No, I’m fine, I just…Brooke, she knows about me now. That I like girls,” Vanessa said, whispering the last part just in case anyone in the empty park would overhear her. “Nobody knows, my parents don’t know, Silky and Akeria don’t know…what if she tells everyone? I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” Brooke took her hand and stroked it with her thumb.
“Can I ask why you don’t want anyone to know?” Brooke asked tenderly.
“I just…I don’t know how my mom would react. She didn’t take it well when my dad came out and they divorced and I know that’s a completely different situation than mine but…I don’t know, B. I’m scared about what people will think.” Vanessa explained with an apprehensive and tense tone to her voice.
“You don’t think your mom would support you?” Brooke was surprised that Vanessa felt that way. She had always seen Mrs Mateo as a fun and loving mother to Vanessa, she never thought that she wouldn’t support Vanessa in who she decided to loved.
“I truly don’t know, Brooke. It scares me too much to even think about it.” Vanessa’s eyes were starting to fill with tears again and Brooke’s heart couldn’t bear it. Vanessa lay down so that her head was resting on Brooke’s lap and Brooke played with her hair delicately.
“I’ll be here for you no matter what happens, Ness. I promise. But I don’t think Kameron would do that to you. She was a nice girl before all this happened. I think she’d try and get back at me because I’m the one that hurt her, not you.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…thanks, B.” Vanessa leaned up and quickly stole a kiss from Brooke’s lips before returning back to her place of rest on Brooke’s lap. If Brooke didn’t know any better, she would think that Vanessa was about to fall asleep in her lap. But she didn’t mind, if it meant that Vanessa would be happy, she would sacrifice sitting in an uncomfortable position in the cold for her.
Later on that night, Kameron was still in a rage.
She couldn’t believe that Brooke Lynn had kicked her out. She was so used to getting what she wanted that when Brooke had said no to her, yet again, she was outraged…and all her mind could focus on was revenge.
She was happy that she had spent the last couple of weeks following Brooke around since she had moved back to New York. She had gotten to learn who Brooke spent her time with and where her favourite places were. All of these things would be important for when she eventually won Brooke back. But she had really struck gold when she followed Brooke to Central Park in the rain and Vanessa had shown up.
She remembered Brooke mentioning how closeted Vanessa was when they were in boarding school and Kameron hoped that had not changed. When she saw Brooke and Vanessa kiss, she knew she had to get a picture. So she took out her camera phone and got her evidence.
Now, all she had to do was send that picture in to Gossip Girl and Vanessa’s little secret would be out for the whole world to know. Vanessa would shut Brooke out of her life and try to deny the fact that she was gay so she could save her reputation, and Kameron could swoop in and be there for Brooke when she inevitably had her heart broken.
As she pressed “send”, she smiled to herself and daydreamed about when she would have Brooke all to herself…she always got what she wanted.
Ring the alarm bells! Gossip Girl here, and wow, do I have some major news for you. And believe me, this is gonna change everything. Stand by, Upper East Siders. You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl
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bright-molina · 5 years ago
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a/n I did it y’all, I finished a fic for the first time in a billion years! Sidenote, I wrote this literally waaaay back when season 2 first came out so it’s outdated, yeah, but hey a fic is a fic right? Also: that middle gif isn’t mine, just wanna put that out there. Also, also: lowkey if y’all want more steve fics hmu
*
Your eyes were narrowed at the screen of the TV. You had no idea what was going on in whatever show happened to be playing but if looks could kill then those actors would be dead ten times over. It was date night and Steve had bailed on you for the third week in a row. To make matters worse it was your anniversary and he was now avoiding you. Usually, you had Nancy to talk to about it but even she had disappeared without a word two days ago. It took you longer than you cared to admit to connect the dots but you finally had. There was something going on and you were determined to find out exactly what that was. 
You picked up the phone with a new purpose and started dialing numbers. There was no answer at Steve’s house which you had expected and so you tried Nancy one last time. Mrs. Wheeler gave you the same response she had given you the night before, one which you were now sure was a lie. You dialed a few more numbers but none of them led you anywhere. It was then that you got the idea to try Jonathan’s. If your best friend was anywhere it would be with him. After a few rings, somebody finally picked up the phone. It just wasn’t who you were expecting it to be. 
“Hello?” 
“Mike?” You weren’t too surprised to find Mike on the phone. You had, afterall, lived right next door to the Wheeler’s your entire life. You had honestly spent a fair amount of time with the party and you knew how close Mike was to Will Byers in particular. 
“Y/N?”
“Shit!” 
“Was that Steve?” You sat up in your seat and were surprised to find out that the Byer’s house is where your boyfriend was hiding. You could hear Steve telling Mike to tell you that he wasn’t there. You couldn’t help but sigh and roll your eyes at his desperate attempt to throw you off.
“Uh, n-no. He’s not here.”
“Don’t lie to me, Mike. I can literally hear him talking.” You could hear the sound of muffled shouting on the other end of the line. Their voices became clear and Steve answered the phone himself this time. 
“Hey, babe”
“Steve Harrington!” You immediately scolded, practically being able to see the way he was most likely wincing on the other end. “You bailed on me again!” 
“I know, I know. I’m sorry—“
“Sorry isn’t going to help when I kick your ass!” You shouted. You were mostly angry at him but also a little hurt. For as long as you could remember, the two of you told each other everything. And now, just as you thought you and Steve were at your best so far, he started hiding things from you. More than anything you wanted answers. “You better have a good explanation for ditching me because I swear to god, Steve, I told you last time that —” 
“Monster hunting!” He quickly responded, yelling a little bit in the process. He knew he couldn’t lie to you any longer. If he hadn’t told you than he was sure you would get it out of one of the boys, all of whom adored you. 
You wished you could say that Steve’s claim of ‘monster hunting’ surprised you but it really didn’t. The year before you had fought off a demogorgon alongside him, Nancy and Jonathan. When Will had gone missing you refused to sit still. And when there turned out to be a monster from another dimension you didn’t hesitate to help your friends get rid of it. Needless to say, it was quite the bonding experience and you and Steve had gotten to know each other a lot better since then. 
“Look,” Steve’s voice lowered and you could tell he was worried. Your anger dissipated almost completely upon finding out all his sneaking around came from needing to know you were safe. “Just promise me you’ll stay home, okay? I’ll explain later, promise.”
“No need,” You couldn’t sit back, a fact which Steve knew very well. Not another moment passed before you were standing up from the couch and looking for your things. “I’ll be there in ten.”
*
“Great, you see what you little shit’s did? Now Y/N is going to show up and she’s pissed at me which is never a good thing” Steve sighed as he ran his hands through his hair, not that it budged at all. He had spent a few minutes debating what exactly he was going to tell you when you got there. Finally he had come to the conclusion that he would just wing it, maybe he’d get lucky and you’d let it go because of unexpected circumstances. 
“Dude, you’re the one who bailed on her again,” Mike shook his head. He could recall the many times before when he overheard you telling Nancy everything that had happened. And then the following day’s conversation when you would tell her how he had made it up to you. Usually involving details he wished he could unhear. “That’s not cool.” 
“And on your anniversary?” Dustin was the next one to criticise him. “You know, you’re not really coming off as the best boyfriend at the moment. No offense.” 
“You guys are supposed to be on my side,” Steve mumbled as he rolled his eyes at their comments. He had to admit though, they weren’t totally wrong. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about you, of course he did, more than anything. Which was why he had opted in keeping you out of the loop this time around. 
“Wait, wasn’t Y/N the one who killed the demogorgon last year?” Lucas questioned. They could all recall your telling of the events perfectly and if there was anyone they believed, well it was you. “So wouldn’t it have made sense that she help us out?” 
There was a chorus of agreements from the rest of the party while Steve rolled his eyes at them. “Technically we all killed it a little. As you know, my girlfriend is a badass and she just so happened to be the one to deliver the killing blow that got it stuck in the trap. But we all got some hits in, okay?” 
“So basically she killed it” Max put it simply and the boys unanimously agreed while Steve tried to argue his point. A laugh rang through the room over their debating. 
“You bet your ass I killed that thing.” 
When they turned they found you standing in the doorway while leaning on your own nail covered bat. Steve watched as you greeted each of the boys and introduced yourself to Max. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of you listening to them recounting everything that had happened the past couple of days. It wasn’t until you turned to look at him with a glare that his smile fell. 
“We have to talk don’t we?” He asked even though he knew the answer perfectly well. 
“Kitchen” Was all you replied with before walking past him without another glance. 
*
“It’s all Dustin’s fault!” Steve immediately told you. Both of you pretended not to hear the ‘no it wasn’t!’ from the other room. “I was on my way to see you but you weren’t home and he ambushed me. They all did. It was the kids fault! And then there was a junkyard and these lizard things and shit and,” He sighed heavily and it was then that you noticed just how tired he was. “It’s been a long day.” 
“And you were planning on fighting those things alone?” You asked, not surprised at all by the fact. 
“Not exactly,” He knew when he saw the look on your face that he had to elaborate. “Mrs. Byers is with the kid in the room and Jonathan, Nancy, and Hopper are clearing out the shed. We have a plan.” 
“Why did nobody think to tell me what was going on!” You sighed in exasperation as you propped yourself up on the table. A shot of fear ran through you as you realized that until now it had been just Steve and the kids and you had no clue what they were up to at the time.
“You were the first person I said we should go to!” 
“Yeah, same!” 
“Hey, dickheads, this is a private conversation” Steve rolled his eyes at Lucas and Dustin before turning back to you. He sighed when he saw the way your arms were crossed while frowning. You felt him wrap his arms around you, holding you as close to him as possible. “It was my idea not to call you. I’m sorry.” It simply wasn’t possible for you to stay mad at him. A soft smile made its way onto your face and before you knew it you were kissing him for the first time in what felt like ages. “You know I love you, right?” 
You gave a small laugh before kissing him, a little harder and a little longer this time, muttering I love you’s in between. “You know,” You were short of breath as you hopped off the counter and tried to compose yourself. Steve watched as you turned towards him again and your smile very subtly turned into a smirk. Your face was flushed and you were both just a little disheveled and he could swear he fell in love with you even more just then. “I had a little surprise planned just for you tonight,” Your voice was low and suggestive and if he wasn’t flustered and bothered before than he definitely was now. You placed one last soft kiss on his lips and flashed a smile before turning around again and making your way out of the room. “I guess now you’ll never know what it was.”
“Wait!” Steve tried calling after you but you were already gone. He let out a frustrated sigh as he ran his hands through his hair again. His imagination ran rampant with all the possibilities of what you had been implying. He spent another few minutes pacing the kitchen in an attempt to calm down a little. One thing was certain. He had missed out on spending time with you and if they didn’t die that night he was definitely going to kill Dustin. 
*
A week later you sat in your living room once again. This time however you had company. 
“Please baby,” Steve whined as he placed soft kisses up and down your neck. He had pulled you into his lap and was trying to convince you to elaborate on the little comment you had made at the Byer’s the week before. Meanwhile, you were watching a rerun of Ghostbusters. You were stubborn though and refused to tell him. For the time being at least. 
After another ten minutes of Steve trying to get your attention you finally huffed and turned to face him, straddling his lap in the process. The action caught him by surprise and he moaned a little when you kissed him just to get him to stop talking. 
“You really want to know?” You whispered against his lips as you tangled your hands in his hair. He gave you a small nod and gulped a little. “Well first,” His attention was focused completely on you and your every move as you kissed along his jaw. “You let me finish watching Ghostbusters.” 
Your laugh rang through the room when Steve threw his head back, rolled his eyes, and groaned loudly. In a flash you had changed positions, you now had your back against the couch while Steve straddled you. “You really suck, you know that?” You simply hummed in response as he kissed you again. 
The moment was short lived. Before you could process what was happening the front door swung wide open and you were met with a chorus of shouting. 
“You two are disgusting!” 
“What the hell guys!” 
“Seriously, get a room!” 
“Everyone avert your eyes!” 
The two of you sat up on the couch, Steve reluctantly and with a heavy sigh. You, on the other hand, gave him your I-told-you-so face. You had very specifically reminded him that it was game night and the party would be there soon. Evidently he hadn’t heard you. 
“Can we help you?” Steve looked at them, only slightly annoyed at their sudden intrusion. 
“We called tonight,” Mike complained first, motioning towards the plethora of junk food piled on the table that you had bought for everyone earlier. “In case you hadn’t noticed.” 
“And you guys couldn’t have knocked? We were,” Steve paused for a second and debated his next choice of words. “A little preoccupied.” 
“You know what,” Dustin interrupted before anyone could argue any further. “Just because we’re good people, and kind of owe you both, we’ll postpone for tomorrow. Just, you know, sanitize the place or something.”
He had a point and they all figured it was better safe than sorry. You let them leave all the things they had brought with piled on the floor and soon you were left alone with Steve again. 
“I knew he was my favorite for a reason.” Steve made sure the front door was locked before walking back over and offering you his hand. 
“What?” Your smile was wide, already knowing what he was planning. Or hoping you had planned still. “You don’t really want to pick up again after that do you?” 
“Why not?” His grin matched yours and there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Just in case, we’re safer in your room. C’mon.”
You spared one last glance at the door before taking his hand and letting him lead you upstairs, knowing you were in for a blissfully long night. 
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pokemaniac1 · 4 years ago
Text
To Grant a Wish - Part 1
Written for @tilltheendwilliwrite​‘s 7.7k Celebration (Covid Sucks) Challenge. This got waaaay away from me and ended up being almost three times longer than I thought it was going to be. It was originally going to be a oneshot but i’m going to have to post the second half in a few days due to the flu. :( 
Check it out on Ao3 Here
My prompt was this image:
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Summary: After trying and failing to set an appointment to meet with Iron Man, Make-A-Wish Foundation worker, Eliza Elliot, has no idea how she's going to help her kids fulfil their wish to 'Meet a real life superhero'.  
However, thanks to an online video, some determination, and a pair of chaotic interns, Eliza manages to pull it off.
Warnings: Childhood illnesses, references to terminal illnesses, hospitals, possible inaccuracies in the job description tbh, cat calling, getting cornered by drunk guys, threatened assault, car crash, (almost)getting run over by a car,
------
Saturday evening had Eliza rubbing her eyes tiredly and glaring at the phone in her hand. The number to the Stark Industries' head office flashed briefly on her phone’s screen before going black.
She had been trying to get in touch with the events' coordinator of the company, or someone who could help her, for the past 3 months, but she'd been shunted off from one person to the next with seemingly no end in sight.
She noted the time, seeing 8:26pm, and sighed. Closing her notepad, she was about to place it back in her bag and head off for the night when her phone buzzed on the counter. She looked at the number and, seeing one of the numbers she had spent over an hour on hold with today, she scrambled to pick it up. She almost lost her mug - empty but for a few left over coffee grinds laying at the bottom - off the side of her desk in her haste but managed to catch it just as she pressed the 'Accept Call' button. She placed it back on the teetering pile of papers that sat on the edge of her desk, its weight balancing out the whole pile and preventing an avalanche that was one day inevitable.
"Hello! This is Eliza Elliot." She said to the phone, her best Customer Service Voice(TM) in place. She hoped briefly that she didn't sound too frantic.
"Ah, Miss Elliott. This is Michael Walters, I'm the deputy events manager at Stark Industries." Came the clipped voice from the other end. "I'm calling to follow up with you regarding your calls over the last few months." "It's great to hear from you Mr. Walters." Again, Eliza did her best to sound calm, hope rising in her chest. Three months and finally a response. "I was told you were one of the best people to speak to in regards to setting up an appointment with Iron Man." Him and like 20 others. "That's correct, I'm one of those in charge of approving Mr. Stark's events." he said, sounding like he had his nose pointed to the ceiling.
The haughtiness in his tone was hard to miss and Eliza felt her own nose wrinkle in distaste. Just get through this conversation Eliza. You've waited 3 months for this opportunity. She took a deep breath and jumped right into it.
"Great! As you're most likely aware from my previous calls, I'm calling on behalf of the Make-A-Wish foundation. I'm looking to set up a meet and greet with Mr. Stark and some of the children who would love to meet their hero." Her rehearsed line came out in a single breath and quickly enough it almost sounded like a single word. Thankfully, it was understandable, but it was a close thing. Pinching herself slightly, she forced herself to take a deep breath. Here next words came out a tad more controlled. "What would be involved....."
"Miss Elliott." Came the abrupt reply, cutting off her off. "I'm calling to inform you that, unfortunately, we can't approve of an event held at your location." Eliza's breath caught in her throat.
"Oh, well thank you for getting back to me and letting me know. Is it because of security for Mr. Stark?" She asked once she could breathe again, figuring that that would be a valid concern considering everything that the Avengers deal with on an almost weekly basis. It's not like a small (government funded) hospital in the middle of New Jersey would have the kind of security needed to prevent those risks. "We're happy to book an approved venue if that's what it takes."
"Ah wonderful, we can put you on the waiting list then." Walters said. The snobbish tone was still present and it rubbed Eliza up the wrong way. Do it for the kids, Eliza. Jeremy and Zeki have been waiting for this. She heard papers shuffle in the background. "It appears our next available booking is in 18 months at the..."
Her heart plummeted, a heavy rock forming in the pit of her stomach not even hearing where the venue was. She found her voice after a moment and was quite proud of the fact that there was no waver to it.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Walker. I know this may be a lot to ask, but is there any chance we can get an earlier time slot?" She asked. A pause on the other end had her palms sweating. She rushed to fill the silence. "It's just that, we have a couple of kids who have been waiting a really long time already and we're working on fast-tracking a few select wishes due to the nature of their illnesses." Fuck. Did I just violate HIPAA by saying that? Shit fuck. Too late now. "They're really looking forward to seeing their heroes."
"Miss Elliott," He started, a harsh edge to his voice. "I certainly cannot rush you up the queue. If we let anyone just push ahead, especially those looking for handouts, then we wouldn't be the industry leaders we are. Your organisation will wait your turn regardless of whatever sob story you have lined up."
Eliza was stunned silent momentarily, not quite sure how to respond.
She wasn't the best with social cues, but she was pretty sure that the man's response was entirely uncalled for. Even if she was trying to get a foot in the door to meeting her superhero for personal reasons, surely they had enough resources to do a background check on everyone who was trying to get a meeting? Wouldn't that be enough to see that she was who she said she was?
He clearly knew she was with the Make-A-Wish Foundation though. He mentioned looking for handouts, was this because they were a charity? Why would they have a problem with that though? Tony Stark and Stark Industries was famous for having one of the most influential charities in the country in the Maria Stark Foundation. Surely they'd be understanding in helping another charity? This sort of thing is what they did, right?
Mr. Walker had continued talking throughout her minor existential crisis.
"It's also come to my attention that you have made over a dozen calls to our office just in the past month." He said in his imperious tone.
She didn't need to look at her notes to know that, yes, she had indeed called them over a dozen times this month. Twenty-six times to be exact. Though, to be fair, most of those were to the Maria Stark Foundation rather than Stark Industries itself and all of those were because they couldn't seem to decide who was in charge of organising a meeting with Iron Man.
"I have booked you in for the next available appointment in 18 months. Our event team will be in touch with the details in the next 48 hours. From now on, please refrain from excessive phone calls, otherwise we will be forced to pursue legal action on the grounds of harrassment. I hope you have a lovely evening Miss Elliott."
At the sudden beep signalling the end of the call, Eliza could only stare at the phone, the number again flashing on the screen before going dark. After what felt like an eternity, she placed the phone down on the counter and collapsed her head onto her arms.
What the fuck was that?
--------------------
Two days later on Monday morning, Eliza walked into the children's wing of the hospital, the laughs and chatter that greeted upon her entry making her smile. Despite everything that they were going through, the kids always managed to have smiles on their faces.
Her job as a Wish Granter with the Make-a-Wish Foundation had her scheduled to come in to socialise with her assigned children at least three days a week. She adored seeing her honorary children whenever she was scheduled; it was a  part of her job description that was a bonus she was very happy to take advantage of.
They were so often such a joy to speak with as the distinctive resilience of children was plain as day in almost all of the kids in the hospital. Whether they're hospitalised because of cancer, a birth defect, or even a degenerative disease, the vast majority of the time they're playing and laughing as much as they were able just like any regular kids.
Her job could be really difficult though. Sometimes, it was heart wrenching to look at all the tiny faces in the children's wing of the hospital and know that for some of them, their stay in the hospital would be ongoing for the remainder of their lives.
There were also days where certain children had a particularly painful day. It could be a flair up, a seizure, or a day after a surgery. The days that she had to watch the almost lifeless forms of usually energetic children weighed heavily on her heart.
Thankfully, that day seemed to be one of the good days.
When we she walked through the door to the ward one of her children were assigned to, she was almost bowled over by a bright blur at waist height. She only just managed to stay standing by reaching out and snagging the doorframe with one of her hands, steadying both herself and the little barnacle that was now attached to her legs.
She looked down and her face brightened in happiness at seeing the excited face of one of the kids looking up at her. Her concerns of the previous night's talk were put on pause and sent to the back of her mind as she went to chat the tiny ray of sunshine.
"Carly!" She exclaimed, taking in the little 6 year old dressed in her favourite summer dress, even though it could be considered sweater temperature in the air conditioned room. "It's good to see you, sweetie! I see you're up and moving about like a little tornado."
That got a giggle from the little girl and another squeeze before she let go and stepped back from Eliza.
"I'm super fast today!" Carly giggled. "I totally surprised you just then, didn't I?"
"You sure did." Eliza laughed, taking a step back into the room and making space in the doorway for a mum coming in. "What have you been up to today with all this energy?" The question seemed to remind the girl of something and she quickly grabbed hold of Eliza's hand again, tugging her towards a bed at the back of the ward and chattering so fast Eliza couldn't keep up with what she was saying.
As she was dragged walking past, several parents who were sitting beside beds – some carefully trying to avoid any wires or IV cords their young children had - looked up and smiled in greeting at her. They were doing remarkably well at managing the kids considering most of them seemed to have caught whatever spurt of energy Carly was displaying. She'd be worried if it weren't such a refreshing sight to see.
The children in this ward ranged in ages from five to ten years old and while most of those in the children's wing stayed maybe a couple of nights at a time, this ward and the ones either side of it were where those with some of the more serious conditions were staying. These were the kids who tended to come in more frequently for operations or observations and for longer periods.
For example, Carly, who wasn't one of the children whose Wish she was organising but was hard to ignore even on one of her bad days, was there that day on observation after a scare that her leukemia was returning. She'd recently had her third chemotherapy treatment so she was still in the early stages of treatment. Despite this, she rarely stayed still for very long, and was on her feet as often as she was physically able to be, much to her parents' distress.  
It hurt sometimes to know that such young children were going through such terrible experiences, but they always maintained such positive outlooks on their lives, it was difficult to remain too upset around them.
Eliza noted, with no small amount of amusement, that the bed she was being led to was almost completely covered with pillows. It was an impressive stack to say the least. It had been covered from the very top to the very end in pillows of varying sizes and was roughly five layers high all the way across, even six layers in some places. If Eliza had to guess, she'd say there was easily fifty pillows just on that one bed alone. Beside her, Carly was chatting away happily, informing Eliza that they had plans for today and that they needed her help with a very important task.
"Mummy said we weren't allowed to start until you got here, so now that you're here you, me and Zeki can play princes and princesses! Buuut...." the drawn out word was punctuated with another fierce little tug to her arm. "we need a castle!"
Eliza huffed out a laugh and traded an amused glance with Carly's mother who was watching everything from a chair by the window.
Zeki, a young boy with polymicrogyria and a smile with an intensity set to outshine his hardships, was standing beside a tower to the pillow gods, practically vibrating with excitement. He was one of the two children whose wish Eliza was organising and he happened to be one of Carly's best friends in the ward. The two of them were practically inseparable when they were staying in the hospital at the same time.
Due to his condition, his brain hadn't developed correctly in the womb and led to Zeki being born deaf, having a lot of trouble with coordination, and often experiencing seizures. It was a severe condition that was progressively getting worse. This condition, paired with an underdeveloped heart, had led to far too many close calls for comfort and a great deal of uncertainty of his survival with each seizure (hence Eliza's urgency to get in touch with Iron Man).
Kids being kids though, that didn't stop either of them from playing their hardest. With an excited wave at Eliza when he saw her, he pointed at the pillows and started signing even more wildly. She didn't know much sign language but it looked like a pillow fort construction was in the near future. She was proven correct a moment later.
"He says we're going to be building a Pillow Castle Fort, 'liza!" Carly almost shouted her Big Reveal as they came up to him. "Ooohh! That sounds fun!" Eliza said with enthusiasm. "That's a lot of pillows you have there. Where did you get them all?" "His mummy brought most of them and my mummy brought some of the others! We needed at least a hundred pillows for the castle!" She said with a serious nod to her head. "Let's go!"
"I'd love to help, Carly. But, aren't you supposed to be resting today?" Eliza asked, pausing by the bed and giving the girl what she hoped was a disapproving face. She apparently needed to work on her disapproving looks because Carly just grinned, ignored her, and started helping Zeki move the pillows from the bed to the floor. Eliza sighed. "Fine, but once we finish, you're going to bed, little miss."
And with that, the three of them got to work. With a chuckle and an amused glance at the two troublemakers Eliza focused on following the appointed princess' directions.
She wasn't surprised when, after only a minute and in a moment of frustration and mischief, as they were taking the main pile off the bed, Carly decided that the easiest way to bring them down was via the avalanche method; i.e. Grab a couple from the bottom of the pile and rip them out to bring the rest of the pillows down on top of them. Zeki let out a squeal of surprise and then a loud giggle as the pillows tumbled down around them.
Once that excitement was over, the castle was started by using the bed as a foundation with the pillows propped up against the legs and built around it. Carly obviously had a vision as to how her castle needed to be designed because she took over directions almost immediately and was very fastidious about the placement of each pillow.
She wasn't sure exactly what she was signing to Zeki, but her playful comments to Eliza along the lines of "'Liza, make sure that pillow is exactly this far away from the one next to it! No, no, no! This far!", or the very serious "No, 'Liza. We can't just make it two floors high! It has to be three floors! The princess and the prince are going to have the best room we can make." while Zeki giggled and wiggled at their side made her think they were talking smack about her in their secret language. The cheeky little things.
It was an hour later and the pillow castle was well on its way to completion when Eliza's other charge came to greet her.
Jeremy was a little boy for his 10 years of age and he came almost crashing into the ward through the door and bounding, not quickly but still energetically, over to her when he saw her. He had a massive smile on his face as his momentum, and lack of coordination, brought him crashing into her where she was crouching on the floor. Luckily for the castle, they fell to the side and away from the pillows, however, it wasn't so lucky for Eliza's elbow, which caught the tiled floor as she turned to catch the small bundle of energy flying into her. She chuckled as she sat up, ignoring the slight flare of a soon-to-be bruise, and picked up the squirming child from her lap.
"Hi Jeremy. How are you going today, kiddo?" She asked with a grin.
The garbled noises she got in return, paired with an excited wave of an Iron Man toy she had just noticed in his hand made her smile widen further, though a ball of sadness curled low in her belly.
Jeremy had an enzyme deficiency (the name of which was more a rearrangement of the alphabet to Eliza than an actual word) which caused a variety of issues for him. Besides being unable to communicate verbally, he also had various bone malformations, and had to have enzyme replacements each week. These appointments meant he was hooked up to a bunch of machinery for 8 hours every Monday, and while not a cure for his condition, did a lot to slow down its progression.
Having just arrived for his appointment, he was in high spirits and was excited to see all of his friends again. It was also apparent, he was keen to show off his new toy.
"Oh wow! That's an awesome Iron Man toy!" She told him excitedly. "Is he new?"
He nodded frantically in return and pulled out his mobile phone. He pulled up his communication app and started typing.
She waited patiently for him as she fixed the base of the castle fort and once he was done she read what he showed her. Carly and Zeki were excitedly starting to crawl through the castle and test its integrity so Eliza knew she had a moment to chat with her second charge. Carly was gingerly pulling herself up to the bed level while Zeki was exploring the base level, the one securely on the ground and the one with the most 'rooms' able to be huddled together.
'We were buying a present for my friend's birthday and mum got it for me!' He'd typed.
"Ooh! That's awesome!" She exclaimed. Grinning, she looked down at his shirt with a big screen print of the Ironman armour on it and his light up Ironman glow shoes. "Iron Man's your favourite superhero too isn't he?" She knew the answer but he always got excited when he spoke about Ironman.
As she expected, he started writing frantically on his app, telling her all about the trip to the store and the fact that he got to play in the park after it, and even meeting one of his school friends there!
'It even comes with 2 extra armour sets!' He went on to type. 'When I get home, I'm going to be putting on one of them! It's like a puzzle!'
She grinned. "Woah Iron Man puzzles!?" She started nodding her head thoughtfully while smiling. "They are the best kind of puzzles."
As Jeremy started typing on his phone once again, and Carly and Zeki started playing princes and princesses among the pillows, her thoughts drifted to the disastrous conversation with Mr. Walters on the phone the day prior. She hadn't yet received the confirmation email he said she'd receive but she still had roughly a day or so before she had to follow up.
Iron Man was Eliza's first choice of hero to contact for Jeremy and Zeki's shared wish of 'meeting a superhero' because of Jeremy's absolute adoration for the hero as well as the hero's very public identity. Zeki hadn't really shown a preference for any hero in particular as he reacted with the same vigorous energy to all the heroes when she'd asked and when they came on tv. So as long as they were in their suits, he'd be happy.
Getting in touch with the heroes was the biggest hurdle that Eliza had to face, made only slightly easier by the fact that Stark Industries had made a public method of setting up fundraising or social events. She'd seen pictures of Mr. Stark in his Iron Man suit taking publicity shots with people, both adults and kids, at other hospitals around the country, sometimes even the world, and she figured it would have been easy to get through to the self proclaimed Philanthropist. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Steve Rogers, Captain America, was also contactable through Stark Industries according to their website, but she didn't hold out much hope for reaching him if she couldn't get past the first stage of reaching Iron Man.
How was she even supposed to get in touch with another hero? It's not like all the heroes essentially had a hotline to contact them for meet and greets.
A tug on her shirt pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked down again at Jeremy, only to have his phone jammed in her face in his excitement.
'Spiderman was with Iron Man Yesterday in New York! There were super cool pictures and videos on Youtube of them fighting the big robot! Iron Man got really close and Spider Man even ran right past! They're so cool!'
Eliza raised her eyebrows in surprise, "When did this happen? I didn't hear about any fights that the Avengers were called to over the weekend." Though, I was working for half of it trying to get in touch with said hero and then staring despondently at Netflix for the rest of it when I couldn't.
After a few moments of typing, he replied. 'Saturday!! I can show you the video'
At Eliza's nod, he started searching YouTube for it. She took a moment to glance again at Zeki and Carly who were still playing Princes and Princesses. They'd moved from playing hide-and-seek through the castle to a royal tea party in the main room on the 'second floor' (i.e. on the bed rather than the floor).  
It didn't take long before Jeremy had found his video and her attention was brought back to him.
It was a very shaky shot at first, all blurred and out of focus. It was equally likely that the cameraman was either in a rush to get away from the danger, or in a hurry to catch some of the action (self preservation more often than not came after taking the chance to catch the action for the chance of a viral video of the heroes). After a few seconds of the of the blurred sidewalk, the camera's view shifted to a smoky version of the New York skyline, with Stark Tower reaching towards the sky and the Empire State Building in the distance. Rubble from nearby buildings littered the roads and people took shelter in various shops, nooks, and crannies around the street for what seemed to be an almost monthly occurrence at this point.
For a moment, the only sounds that could be made out were voices calling out to take cover or directions for the closest shelter, but then a low whine could be heard getting louder. The camera turned towards the sound and a dark spot in the sky could be seen getting larger, presumably as whatever it was got closer and closer coming from the direction of Stark Tower.
Suddenly, a loud crack and groan drew the cameraman's attention to the right, causing the camera to jostle and then move in that direction. The crack had been from the impact of a large body being thrown into a mess of steel frames outlining a construction site, which, by itself, was disturbing enough despite it having reptilian features and being almost twice the size of a human. Anything described as reptilian while being the size that it was had no business being in this century, let alone taking down construction sites.
As soon as the figure was there, it was gone. A brief shout from the cameraman and a pan to the left showed it had been yanked away and stuck to a wall across the street by what appeared to be a spider's web. A blue and red clad figure swung through the air in the direction of the disturbing lizard-man.
The camera was able to get a surprisingly good view of the swinging form as it passed. For the briefest of moments, it captured the black webbed pattern through the red and blue, and even managed to pick up a few fuzzy tears in the fabric wear blood seeped through. Again, almost as soon as the figure was there, it was gone, swinging up to meet the bad guy of the day head on.
Right behind him, a reddish-gold blur followed, streaking through the air and leaving a trail of smoke behind it. It went by too fast to get a good look at it, but as it got closer to Spider Man and the lizard-man on the side of the structure, it slowed down enough to make out the shape of a very humanoid robot.
The video ended on a frame of Spider Man swinging through the air just as the lizard-man broke free and launched himself up and into the air, Iron Man close behind the newer hero and ready to lend a hand.
It was still quite grainy but a really picturesque screenshot nonetheless and Eliza figured it would be used as a lock screen by many of the superheroes' fans around the world.
Ironman’s assistance brought up a question that she had actually been meaning to find out.
"Does this mean that Spider Man's an Avenger?" She asked the little fan.
After some frantic typing, Jeremy answered, 'No, he just stays in New York. Iron Man offered but he said no :('. At this, Eliza just hummed.
Then, an idea.
New York was Spider Man's base of operations? Perfect.
She'd just found her next contact.
------------------
Her Friday morning found her on a bus to New York City.
The trip to New York was a long and tedious one.
The bus routes from New Jersey to Manhattan were all painfully convoluted and each had their fair share of congestion issues so the total trip took 3 bus changes and roughly five and a half hours.
She'd planned on arriving at the city midmorning so that she'd have a greater chance to walk around and spot the vigilante throughout the day, but she ended up arriving after lunch thanks to a particularly nasty pile up on the freeway just outside the city.
Tumbling out of the bus, she thanked whatever god was around that day that the ride was finished.
She had just spent four and a half hours, shoved right next to a guy who looked like he had spent a night out on the town and smelt of piss, vomit and other bodily fluid she really didn't want to think about. To make it worse, the woman in front of her turned out to be a very loud Karen who had decided that this was to be the bus trip where it would be most beneficial to inform everyone in her general vicinity of the conspiracy theories she had heard of recently. God forbid anyone try to correct her though. Oh no, that would send her on a rant lasting another one of the four hours they were all stuck together and Eliza prayed fervently that no one made that mistake again.
Then, she started to declare that she was being discriminated against because the elderly woman in one of the front rows didn't give Karen the seat and the lady 'had a walker with her so surely she could sit on that!'.
Frick that lady.
Anyway, thankfully that ride from hell was over.
Standing in the middle of the bustling New York sidewalk, however, she realised that she forgot to think of a very important detail.
She had no idea how exactly she was going to go about contacting Spiderman.
Theoretically, she knew that he stayed around the queens area, but that only narrowed it down to about a hundred square miles of the city.
Thankfully her last bus had taken her right into the centre of Queens so she decided to wander around for a bit at least. She hadn't been to New York city before so she figured she'd do a bit of sight seeing and hope to see Spidey at some stage.
This method proved to be enjoyable for a time, and she had great fun taking pictures of 'Queens: Home of the Amazing Spiderman'. However, after three hours of seeing the sights but not seeing any signs of Spider Man, she was starting to get a bit antsy.
She had realised before she'd even set out that she most likely wouldn't see him on the first day, after all it was barely four o'clock in the afternoon and she was pretty certain he had a day job that took up his daylight hours. She'd hyped herself up for the encounter for most of the day though, and it was still a bit of a disappointment regardless of the logic.
Six hours of wandering later she admitted defeat. Friday was a bust, but she had high hopes for the weekend.
Sadly, Saturday turned out similarly to the previous day; some lovely sightseeing and tourist opportunities she hadn't had time for the previous day and no Spidey sighting. She had tried asking people around the area if they knew how or where she could find Spiderman but they'd mostly given her a brief, very judgy, once-over and a very generalised 'He sticks to Queens mostly.', or 'he's usually out around this time.', or the most useful one of all; 'if you need him, he'll find you.'
She couldn't say she blamed them for being hesitant to explain. She was a somewhat short, gangly, woman, who looked more like a teenager with her scruffy backpack and wide rimmed glasses than her actual 22 years, and very obviously not from New York. Hell, the locals probably got fangirls that looked similar to her looking for Spiderman on a weekly basis.
Honestly, she admired their loyalty to their local vigilante, it just made it a bit more difficult to do what she came there for. She hadn't lasted 3 months, over 20 phone calls, an eternity on the bus ride from hell, and two days of wandering around, just to be stumped by some city searching though, so she marched on.
It was late Sunday afternoon and many glances down suspicious alleyways later that Eliza had a breakthrough in her search for the local vigilante. It came in the form of a group of drunk guys and an ignored catcall (which the aforementioned drunk guys apparently took as a challenge).
She hadn't thought much of just ignoring the tottering group as she'd passed them, it was after all an unfortunately common experience and not the first time that day, let alone weekend. What wasn't a common experience, however, was the sound of uneven foot steps and increasingly boisterous attempts at getting her attention as she moved down the street.
It wasn't quite dark yet but it didn't take away from the rising sense of panic that sped up both her heartrate and her steps. Interestingly enough, her increased speed didn't deter the group, if anything it seemed to encourage them. She cursed her lack of knowledge of the area, avoiding looking at Google maps in order to keep her eyes on her environment.
After a few blocks of power walking, an ill-timed red light and road work stopped her in her tracks and allowed the group to catch up with her.
"Heey girl!" One drawled.  "Come on, we just wanna say hi."
His friend stumbled along beside him slurring "Yeah, why ya gotta be so ru-ude? Juss' tryna give a compl'm-nt!" He hiccoughed and slumped just a bit more on another in the group.
She kept her eyes trained forward, directed to the traffic light but just out of focus enough to observe the drunken antics on her peripheral. She knew New York city was famous for its creeps but this was getting out of hand. Just the situation she was hoping to avoid; Alone at night with a group of men following her.
Sure, Spider Man patrolled this area, but she'd seen neither hide nor hair – nor web – of the guy in the days she'd been here and she wasn't too thrilled about putting her safety on the line to just have a slim chance of seeing him.
Her silence seemed to just egg the guys on, encouraging them to get closer and more obnoxious. What had previously been at a distance was now up close and within reach. Her hands tightened on her bag straps and her breath stuttered as she noticed their movements tilting towards her, stopping just short of actually touching.
Everything was just slightly out of focus as the sun was almost completely gone by now, leaving only the glow of the street lights and the pin-pricked lights of the passing cars to provide an eerie illumination of her entourage. It put her on edge more than it would have in the daylight, even if there were just as many people lining the street. No one had come to her aid, and most likely wouldn't have in the daylight either, so she resigned herself to tensely waiting for the change of traffic signal. The feeling of hyperawareness was a feeling that would linger and probably leave her too agitated to sleep that night.
"C'mon girl!" A third guy crooned patronisingly, propping his drooping friend up from a stumble. "Just give us a smile!"
Just to spite him, she scowled.
"Awww! Look! She can hear us!" Another hollered. "Smile! C'mon, smile! You'd look soooo much prettier! At leeast say hellloooo!"
The beeping of the crosswalk signal was her saviour in that moment and as soon as she heard it, she was off, practically jogging across the road. Unfortunately, that just happened to be the moment that someone decided that they were above the road rules for driving and that they needed to run a red light. Directly towards the crosswalk she was running across.
She was two steps off the sidewalk and mid-step when she heard a scream behind her and caught a brief glimpse of headlights to her left before she realised her mistake. Years of listening to her mother drill into her to look both directions before crossing the road flashed in her mind.
Everything seemed to fall into slow motion as she turned her head towards the light, the dark shadow behind the lights loomed closer and closer. She felt her eyes widen and her foot move through the air as if through molasses for split second and she had only a moment before a thought flashed through her mind.
Well...damn.  
A sudden weight crashing into her diaphragm punched the air from her lungs and caused her head to snap forward and her legs to trail in her wake as she flew through the air. She instinctively shut her eyes and tensed at the impact, the pain from the car taking a moment to register to her shocked mind, though the wind at her back as she flew through the air was mildly soothing. She was pretty sure that when she crashed into the ground, the pain would come through and be even worse.
A few seconds passed and, when she didn't feel the jagged impact on the ground and the wind continued to whistle past her ears and whip up her hair into what was going to be a definite birds nest, she realised  that the impact she had felt wasn't the front bumper of a car but instead an arm. It was an arm that had apparently swung out of nowhere and was still wrapped securely around her torso as it, or rather they, swung through the air and away from the middle of the street she was nearly flattened in.
She looked down at the arm and saw a sliver of red and blue...just before her eyes noted the fact that they were approximately four to five storeys above the ground and going faster than the cars below them. She would have screamed but her breath caught in her throat as they started dropping and getting closer and closer to the pavement below so she contented herself with clutching at the only lifeline she had. She briefly hoped that she hadn't left finger shaped bruises on her saviour's arm in her panic (as she was sure that would be poor rescue etiquette) but she realised later that, considering he dealt with troublemakers such as the Rhino and Electro, bruises would most likely be fine, if not non-existent.  
As they swung, she could faintly hear a consistent stream of chatter coming from behind her. The voice sounded young, excited and carefree.
"It's ok ma'am, I got you. Just hold on and we'll be on the ground before you know it." He whooped when they crested another swing - contrasting her own urge to either puke or scream - and continued the stream of babble as the wind rushed past her ears. She thought she heard a few questions, but she didn't answer on account of the mild terror thrumming through her veins.
They touched down in front of a well lit strip mall surprisingly lightly considering they were going over 30 miles an hour less than a minute beforehand. Eliza was glad for the iron grip maintaining its hold on her after their landing as she knew she would be a shaky puddle on the floor had she been placed down and let go of immediately. She locked her knees to prevent them from crumpling and took a moment to breathe and mentally kiss the ground beneath her.
The arm around her slowly pulled away when she stayed standing so she slowly turned around to make eye contact with her rescuer. Well... Eye-to-mask eye contact. Her heart practically beat out of her chest from nerves and whether it was because of the drunk guys, the near death experience, or from simply meeting one of the famous heroes, she wasn't sure. Truth be told, the combination of all three would probably give her a heart attack if she took the time to think about it.
She had barely turned around before she was being spoken to by the figure in the famous red and blue costume, his hands coming up to steady her as she stumbled back slightly from being closer then she'd thought.
"Oh my gosh! That was a close one! That car came out of nowhere, are you ok?" She nodded, tongue still stuck on the roof of her mouth, not that it seemed to matter to the superhero. He seemed pretty content to talk a million miles an hour even without her input. "You look alright. I mean, the swinging can be a bit terrifying the first time you do it, but better that than being hit by the car." The eyes on his mask narrowed a bit and he tilted his head slightly to the side. "Actually, you look a bit pale and Karen says yo-I mean, I think you might be going into shock. Here sit down for a bit."
She was gently nudged to a set of stairs and she sat down gratefully.
"Thanks Spider Man." She sighed and relaxed as much as she could onto the cold concrete.
"No problem!" He replied. She couldn't really tell because of his mask, but it sounded like he was grinning.
"Bloody hell." Eliza sighed again, dropping her head into her hands and resting her elbows on her knees. "That's the last time I cross the road without looking, even if I do need to get away from creeps."
"Yeah, checking the road is always a good idea." Spider Man agreed. "As for the creeps, you could try carrying around some pepper spray?" She snorted.
"Yeah, like looking down and rummaging through my bag is a good idea when surrounded. Aren't you supposed to suggest I keep my eyes and ears alert, avoid badly lit locations, and always walk with a friend?"
Now it was his turn to splutter. "W-well yeah... I guess that would kinda defeat the purpose of keeping your eyes on your surroundings." He scratched his head almost sheepishly before continuing, his tone turning fervent. "It is useful if you happen to be able to get it though! I once saw this lady spray this guy in the face and he was still rolling on the ground after I came back to check on him after I walked the lady home! I didn't realise how useful the pepper sprays were until that day!"  
Eliza could only grin at his earnestness. She could already feel the erratic beat of her heart calm into a more sedate pace and her breathing even out as they spoke. It was great to see someone trying their best to help and give advice on staying safe, all hints of superiority absent in his tone.
"If you're feeling better, would you like me to walk you home?" He asked suddenly. The offer made Eliza release some extra tension she didn't realised she still had.
She nodded. "That would be great actually. I'm staying in a hotel somewhere around here."
"Cool, I can definitely take you back!" He was already standing and excitedly bouncing. Geez, he had a lot of energy. "What hotel are you staying in?" When she told him, he nodded again. "Ok, that's not far from here. Do you feel alright enough to start walking?"
"Sure. I could do with a really hot bath right about now." Eliza said, taking Spider Man's hand he offered as she spoke. She idly ran her hand through her tangled hair. "And a brush by the feels of it."
Spider Man laughed and they started walking down the street.
"So where are you from?" He asked.  
"I'm visiting from New Jersey." She paused, realising suddenly that this is her chance. She took a deep breath. "I, uh, actually came to New York to find out if you could help me with something." Spider Man turned to her and with his face covered she couldn’t tell if he wanted her to continue or not. So she too another breath and continued anyway. "You see, I've been trying to get in touch with a superhero, any superhero, for a few months now and I haven't had any luck. I've met you though today so... yay!" Jazz hands added for good measure. "I could have done without the almost-getting-run-over part, but hey, if it means I get to finally ask you about seeing the kids then I'll take it I suppose."
She really could have done without the 'almost getting assaulted and then flattened' part of the evening but considering he hadn't outright declined immediately, she was counting it as a win.
He continued to stare at her, making Eliza desperate for a verbal response as she could not read his reactions with his bloody mask on. "Well, it'll depend what it is. If you want my help to take over the world, I'm sorry, but you'll have to find someone else." He said playfully. Eliza laughed, almost in relief.
"No nothing like that." She said waving her hand. "Just want some help making a couple of kids' remaining years enjoyable."  At this, Spider Man seemed to take more of a keen interest so she elaborated. "I work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and I have a couple of kids who would love to meet a superhero." Her tone had turned soft as it usually did when she was talking about the kids.
He seemed to perk up even more, if that was even possible. "Oh really? That's so cool! I mean, it's really cool that you thought of me! I'd love to meet the kids! I'd have to run it by Mr. Sta- I mean, Tony, but it should be fine!" He was almost shaking now and she could practically see the excitement rolling off him in waves. When his words registered though, she couldn't help but sag a little in relief.
"Awesome. It's been a long few days." she said with a chuckle, rubbing her temples while trying to keep her eyes on him just in case he disappeared. "You're really hard to find."
Spiderman tilted his head to the side as they walked, "Really? I thought there was, like, an Instagram or Facebook page following me?" He said, making it sound more like a question than a statement. Eliza stared at him for a moment and he rubbed his head. "I can't remember if there's a twitter page, but I know for certain that there's an Instagram page that likes to keep up with me and they do a surprisingly good job of it too." Eliza mentally facepalmed. Of course social media would have the answers. Spidey fans have some of the best content and the most up-to-date info on their hero (second only to Tony Stark and that's only because Mr. Stark's been around longer and is a literal billionaire) since the Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman is so directly active in his community.
"Oh. Right. I completely forgot about that." Came her tired sigh. "Geez, I feel like such a failure of a millenial. I mean, what kind of millennial forgets about bloody Twitter and Instagram?"  
Spider Man laughed quietly, "It's fine. I know a few people at sc-work... who aren't on social media. Not many, but a few." After a moment, he asked, "So what are the kids like? Is Spider Man their favourite Superhero? I know I'm only kind of an Avenger, so it's cool they want to meet me!"
She snorted, "Are you kidding? Only 'kind of an Avenger'? Your battle last week with the lizard guy was on Youtube and you were working so well with Iron Man! One of the kids was practically vibrating out of his seat in excitement when he was showing me."
"Oh, you mean the one with both Mr. Stark and me going past? Yeah, that was a pretty good shot of us, we looked so cool at the end, it even stopped on a cool pose!"
As he continued enthusiastically, Eliza giggled. He almost reminded her of some of the kids. Energetic, easy to entertain and constantly bouncing between topics. Idly, she wondered how old Spider Man was. He didn't sound much older than her, and his energy....
"You know, Mr. Stark might be interested in meeting them too. I know he goes to a lot of charity functions." Eliza thought she heard him mumble, "He sure complains about them often enough." But she wasn't sure.
The comment made her crash back into the present. She felt her shoulders slump.
"Yeah. I tried getting in touch with him through the Maria Stark Foundation, but it didn't work out."
Spider Man seemed to frown at her tone, made obvious only by the slight narrowing of his eye lens things. "Really? How come?"
Sighing, she recounted her long and overly complicated phone journey through the bureaucratic chain of the Maria Stark Foundation and Stark Industries, followed by her brief but greatly disappointing interaction with Mr. Michael Walters. She was pretty positive this was going well and she could see her hotel across the street now so she let herself relax a bit. Suddenly feeling drained and really tired, she had to stop herself from stumbling the last of the distance to the building.
"I mean, it's understandable I suppose, the security that is. I get that Mr. Stark has a lot of enemies and I want what's best for the kids, so the safer the better." As she finished, she realised she probably sounded a bit whiny to one of the superheros that the safety protocols directly affected. At this point of the night however, she didn't have it in her to care all that much, not to mention, Spider Man was nodding encouragingly beside her. "At the same time though, I'm on a...bit of a time limit, you could say."
"What do you mean?"
"It's just, one of the kids I'm organising the meeting for has a progressive illness and, to be honest..." She paused, sadness filling her as she fiddled with the frayed end of her jacket's sleeve.
They'd come up to the main entrance to her hotel by now and she momentarily contemplated if it was really a good idea to bring it up, but she was fast running out of fucks to give and desperately wanted something good to come out of this hell-trip, "it's just...not very likely he'd make it the 18 months Mr. Walters said we had to wait. If anything, we're not sure if he'll make it to the end of this month."
Silence.
She looked at him and she saw him staring at her, lenses wide and standing eerily still beside her, his head cocked to the side.
After a moment, all he said was, "You know what? I'll talk to Mr. Stark. I'll see what we can do." And he swung away. Staring at the empty space beside her, it took a second for her to realise she was suddenly alone again. She hadn't even given him her number.
Still in shock and with fatigue starting to sit heavily on her bones, she shook herself and made her way toward the door, numbly figuring she was going to have to think of a different way to meet another superhero.
Eliza only had to wait two days before her life-risking journey paid off.
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the-y-generation · 5 years ago
Text
Not My Type (Chapter 5)
Summary: “Do you know how you stop a craving? You give in to it.”
When she signed on to be a road manager, she had no idea it was going to be for one of the biggest bands in the world, much less how they were going to turn her life upside down, nor how she was about to flip theirs too. Especially one irritating frequently-late vocalist who knew exactly how charming he could be.
Pairing: Idol!Jimin / Manager!Original Character (I personally haven’t written in “y/n” format, so I just gave the reader a name, but barely even mention it)
Genre/Themes: fluff, angst, friends with benefits, friends to lovers
Rating: M for this chapter
Warnings: Unprotected sex (be smart, kids!), oral (female receiving), JIMIN (let’s face it, he’s a warning all on his own!)
Status: Ongoing (Masterlist)
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Just like that, without anyone noticing, not even her, a year went by in the blink of an eye.
Her one year anniversary with the band was spent waiting in the wings with near-deaf ears, watching them serenade a sold-out stadium of screaming fans. It was like any other day, and she barely realized it until Manager Sejin congratulated her on surviving. The day started and ended business as usual - Jimin rolled out of her bed in the morning, she rounded them up for breakfast, and ushered them through interviews, rehearsals, then the show. It was a good day.
Since the Grammys, things have exploded for the band, which is ridiculous to fathom considering that they were already the biggest boyband in the world. They were splattered across Times Square, their Twitter crashed from a surge of followers (again), their songs streamed by the millions across every platform, and the band appeared on every major talk show and network in various continents. 
And since the Grammys, they didn’t talk about it, like most things between the road manager and Jimin. The night he, for whatever reason, rushed back to the hotel just to watch Netflix and fall asleep next to her. But it did happen, and it sat like an elephant in the room sometimes. 
An elephant that sat on her throat and made its presence felt every time Jimin placed a gentle hand on the small of her back. Every time he’d whisper some inside joke, his breath ghosting warmly on the shell of her ear. Every time he’d put a few extra fries on her plate, even when she insists she isn’t hungry because he just knows she wants them (and he’s always right). Every time he’d compliment her over the littlest thing - for looking beautiful even without makeup, for not losing her patience when something took too long, for being scary good at her job and not letting him get off too easy.
Every time she caught herself looking at him too long, entranced by some small detail about him. Sometimes he’d catch her staring.
Just like now.
They were in his hotel room tonight, having decided to finish the series they began watching some two countries or so ago. At times like this, she’d marvel at the difference a year can make.
When she first started, she and Jimin had a strictly professional relationship that bordered on begrudging tolerance. There were countless arguments, cold shoulders, and rough tugs in an effort to get his stubborn ass in line. But now, Jimin was like the slow song that put her into a peaceful sleep. He was sunshine and morning dew. 
Granted, as his road manager, he was still a pain in the ass. But once they were off the clock, he was the closest thing to home. 
Anna lay on top of the covers, feeling slightly gross as she was still in her “work” clothes while he sat diagonal from her, fresh-faced and showered. Even in this state, he was beautiful, and painfully so. His hair was freshly cut and colored, making him look damn near edible and immaculate. 
“Yah.” Jimin softly called out, snapping her out of her reverie.
She blinked her hazy eyes back into attention, averting her gaze back to the TV. “Sorry.” She muttered.
“You were staring for a while.” He remarked casually, but she knew him enough not to miss the teasing tone that underscored his words. “I know I’m sexy, but…”
She rolled her eyes and sighed at him. “Shut up. I’ve just been on edge these days.”
“Why’s that?” Jimin absently asked, crawling from his cross-legged position to lay down next to her. There was enough space between them to wiggle around without actually touching each other.
“I dunno,” She shrugged, settling into the bed and closing her eyes. “Maybe it’s been too long since I’ve had sex.”
It’s not a maybe, it’s a fact. It’s been waaaay too long since she’s had some, and hey, a girl has needs too! She used to be able to tide herself over on her own. But in recent months, the itch became too much for her to fix by herself. In the showers, or nights when Jimin wouldn’t insist on invading her bed space, she’d try to chase the high with her hands. But each orgasm became less and less satisfying, her body only reacting to stimulus instead of real pleasure.
Jimin didn’t answer right away, She didn’t really expect him to. The words easily fell from her lips, and passed between them along with the onscreen dialogue. It still surprised her sometimes how nothing seemed to intimate or intimidating to be shared with Jimin.
“Well, why haven’t you had sex?” He chimed in. Enough time had passed that she turned to look at him, mildly confused that that was where his mind was still at.
“Um, hello? You realize I have a 24/7 job, right?” She smirked sarcastically at him. “It’s not like I have a lot of time to go out on dates, or at least find a decent one night stand.”
“You have off-days.” Jimin countered.
“Which I spend sleeping.” She huffed. “And anyway, I’m not you. I don’t have an endless line of people wanting to fuck me.”
“But men do want to fuck you.” He answered casually, almost crassly, that she lifted an eyebrow at him. He chuckled and looked back at the TV. “Don’t look at me like that. You’re gorgeous; even a blind person would say so.”
“Pfft.” She childishly replied. “You’re just being nice. And besides, I’m resigned to my sexless life while I work for you-”
“With us.”
He hates insinuations that she, or anyone for that matter, is inferior to him.
“Ugh! With you, fine.” She waves him away. “But the point is, no guy in their right mind would want to sleep with me. Being on the road with 7 of Korea’s most attractive men, surrounded by males 24/7, doesn’t exactly call all the boys to my yard.”
In the middle of her little rant, she caught the way Jimin’s eyes rake over her body slowly and registered the strange direction of the conversation. 
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable by staring at you, okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize I was staring.” She apologized, looking away again. “I wish I had hormones to blame, but it’s not that time of the month. I’m just really...craving, I guess.”
Jimin smirked, turning on his side to face her. “Do you know the best way to stop a craving?”
She shook her head. 
“You give in to it.” He said, a devilish grin tugging the side of his lips. There was something in his tone that sounded an alarm in her head, but she simply looked back at him, confused.
“Duh, genius. But haven’t you been listening? The problem is, who am I supposed to have sex with?” She challenged.
Jimin simply stared at her, his eyes getting darker by the second with amusement and a tinge of something she couldn’t decipher.
“What?” She asked, unnerved by his stare and his silence. But he maintained his wordless gaze, patiently waiting for the pieces to click in her head.
Eventually, they did. 
“Are you-?” She began, her mind slowly arriving at a conclusion. “No, wait a minute. What are you implying?”
“What do you think I’m implying?” He bit his plump lower lip in an effort to keep a straight face.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I’m not playing this game with you.”
Jimin laughed out loud, pushing his head into the pillow as his eyes disappeared into crescents and mouth hidden behind his hand. She tried not to take offense at his apparent joke and salvaged her pride by ignoring him. But when the laughter subsided, Jimin’s eyes became serious again, glinting with mischief that tickled something below her navel. 
“You know what I’m trying to say.” He said, voice low and gravelly. Her breath caught in her throat, but she managed to save face.
“Actually, no, I don’t because you haven't said anything.” She bit back.
He laughed again, earning a glare from her.
“Okay, okay.” He managed to wheeze out between chuckles. “What I’m saying is...if you have a craving, I’d be a willing participant.”
She let his words sink in, settling heavy between them. He watched her turn his offer over in her head, and then-
“That doesn’t make any sense.” She replied. “That won’t work. You don’t even find me attractive.”
“Are you crazy?! I just called you gorgeous!” He argued, mock offended.
“That doesn’t mean you want to have sex with me!”
“For your information, I have thought about having sex with you.”
Whatever argument she had died in her throat, thoughts chased away by his revelation. Jimin smirked cockily at her, evidently pleased at his ability to render her speechless. 
“And I know you’ve thought about it too.” He continued, referencing the earlier fact that he caught her staring.
This smug prick.
“No, thank you. I don’t want your pity fuck.” She scowled. It angered her that any reaction just seemed to amuse him more.
“It’s not pity. There’s something in it for me too.” Jimin said softly.
The shift in his tone prompted her to look him, finding only sincerity and, if his blown pupils were anything to go by, simmering arousal. 
“You’re serious.” She remarked, more of a statement than a question.
Jimin chuckled, the sound deliciously reverberating from his chest, as he rolled over to cut the distance between them. He landed right next to her, on his stomach and propped up on his elbows to look down at her.
“I thought it would be an easy choice. Should I be offended that you’re taking so long to decide?” He teased, close enough now that she felt the warmth of his body next to hers.
She pondered his offer again, schooling her face in careful nonchalance just in case he doubled back and admitted to playing a joke on her. But the other shoe didn’t drop. Instead, he peered at her with wide eyes.
"But...why?" She couldn't help but ask. The logic didn't add up in her head. 
"Why not?" Jimin smiled, brushing her hair from her eyes. He had done this before, but in the context of their situation, she shivered at his touch. "We're two consenting adults with needs. I'm attracted to you - no, don't even fight me on this - and you're attracted to me. What's there to think about?"
She bit her lip, turning his proposition in her head. On one hand, it made sense. People have this sort of arrangement all the time, and they both seemed up for it, so why not? It’s not like she had better options, and let’s face it - even if she did, can she really do any better than Jimin? But on the other hand, it could go terribly wrong. He was her good friend, maybe even best friend if she was feeling extremely sentimental. Engaging in...extra-curricular activities...with him might endanger the relationship they had worked so hard to build over the past year.
But the optimism in Jimin’s face was infectious and altogether confident that she couldn’t help but believe that he knew what he was doing.
“You have to promise me that things between us won’t change?” 
“I promise.” He nodded dramatically. “This is for biology.”
“Pinky promise.” She demanded, raising a pinky at him.
At the sound of his pained groan, she smirked, knowing how he hated any allusions to his pinky. But nonetheless, he gave in and intertwined his pinky with hers.
With the promise sealed, she looked at him expectantly, unsure how to proceed. Do they go at it now? Should they schedule something? 
To her surprise, Jimin rolled over and jumped out of bed. When she looked up, he leveled her with a gaze that shot electricity down her spine. It was a look that made countless hearts race, tore excited screams from hundreds of throats, and even made hetero men question their sexuality. But in the stillness of the hotel room, with no one else around and the inevitable hanging in the air, Jimin was even more potent and dangerous. 
“And...is this just one time or…?” She asked as he sauntered out of sight. She looked down and fiddled with her hands, immediately regretting having asked the follow-up question.
Her ears perked up at the sound of a latch clicking into place. The door was now double locked.
Then the lights switched off, leaving only the bedside lamps to bathe the room in a warm incandescent glow.
“I’ll guess we’ll find out,” Jimin replied, making his way back to her. His graceful gait was effortlessly fluid as if every particle of his being was meant to stir desire. She watched him with a racing pulse, blood roaring in her ears in anticipation of what was to come. The room was suddenly a million degrees, yet her skin itched to be touched.
Standing at the foot of the bed, Jimin gestured to her, wordlessly prompting her to come to him. She sucked in a calming breath, trying her best to maintain composure as she stood up and made her way to him. She stopped before him, just a breath away, holding his dark eyes. The way he hypnotized her, it was almost like he could already see all of her, despite both still being fully clothed.
Sparks danced on her skin as Jimin cupped her cheek, thumb tracing her lips until they parted for him. Before she could say the words he could just feel were trapped in her throat, he dived in and cut the remaining inches between them.
His sigh ticked the back of her throat as she latched onto his mouth, succumbing to his direction. He gripped her firmly, an arm around her waist and the other tangled in her hair, gripping her head to his as he controlled the fervent kiss. She let him lead, melting instinctively against him, allowing the initial spark to develop into a full blaze that ignited her core with need.
While she reciprocated timidly, there was no hesitation or doubt. Her hands clasped the front of his shirt like an anchor, keeping her flush against his chest to keep her knees from giving out under her. Jimin, to his credit, was patient. He set the bar then remained steady, giving her time to adjust and catch up to his pace. 
Logic threatened to break her trance, but with a swipe of his tongue over hers, all thought disappeared. The world narrowed into a single room, and there was now only Jimin. Fear and adrenaline coursed through her veins, but fuck, he left her breathless with the exhilarating and mind-numbing things he did to her mouth. She let her hands wander - one reached up to lace a hand through his snow-smooth hair, while the other ran low to wound to his back. She marveled at the feel of his body beneath her fingers, muscles moving and contracting, reacting to her touch.
Feeling her compliant and at ease with him, Jimin tugged at her blouse, easing it out from its perfect tuck in her jeans. Once the material was loose, he moved his hands up, momentarily cupping her jaw before traveling south. Jimin pulled away slowly, leaving her with one, two, three pecks until he was far enough for her eyes to gain focus on him.
Her lips were pink and swollen from his needy sucks, her pupils dilated with unfiltered want. She looked absolutely delicious, and the sight of her licked the flames below his gut. 
Jimin’s intentions were clear, his desire apparent and digging into her hip, but he looked her in the eyes as his fingers traveled down her collarbones, giving her the chance to plead out before he went any further. But she gave him no indication that she wanted him to stop. She grabbed him by the collar and locked her lips on his, kicking his senses into overdrive. Throwing caution to the wind, Jimin nimbly undid her blouse buttons, and she wasted no time in discarding the material once it was fully open. 
Tossing the garment to the side, she grabbed at the end of his shirt and greedily pulled it up, needing his skin on hers. Needing him as open and vulnerable as she was. Jimin seemed to be thinking the same thing, breaking the kiss to help her tug it off in one fluid movement. She stole a quick look at him, unable to stifle the soft gasp that escaped without consent.
See, the thing is Jimin is hot. That’s old news. Yes, he has a toned chest, and abs, and a v-cut that ran low into his pants to make the imagination run wild. That’s all well and good, and common knowledge since the early days of BTS.
But what struck her was how truly beautiful he was. Jimin was a stunning shade of moonlight, with tantalizing lines and curves that begged to be ravished and kissed. He was soft and smooth to the touch, neither too muscular or lean, but perfect. 
Jimin grabbed her by the waist, momentarily startling her at the contact with her bare skin, pulling her flush against his torso. He was warm, and she wanted to burn in him. Her thighs clenched as a flame tickled sensually below her navel, and her pulse roared in her ears.
He reached down and made quick work of her pants, undoing the button and zipper. He gently eased it off her waist and ass, moving away briefly to allow her to step out of the material. When she straightened back up, Jimin melted her to him again. He ducked his head to suck at a tender spot under her jaw, and she felt him chuckle smugly against her skin when this earned a needy whine from her.
She scratched at his back, hands moving lower to slip into his sweatpants, palms resting on the curves of his ass. She tugged him closer so he stumbled forward, pressing his length against her to warrant a lusty groan.
Without needing to be told, he moved quickly moved out of his sweatpants, leaving them both in their underwear. As she kissed along the length of his throat, Jimin maneuvered them back until her knees hit the bed. He pushed her gently down into the mattress and crawled over her, feasting on the skin of her neck and collar with wet sucks and gentle nips.
Her nerves set in again at the realization that they were now in bed, almost completely bare to each other. Her muscles seize when Jimin reached behind her to unclip her bra. Feeling her tense against him, he pulled back, hands still on her back, to look at her imploringly. But her worries were quickly squashed by the blazing concern in his eyes. 
Not wanting him to stop, she leaned up to capture his mouth in another searing kiss, thrusting her hips up to grind against him, to chase his concern away. Once her chest was bare to him, Jimin slipped downwards, taking a peak into his eager mouth while gently kneading the other. He relished at her moan that ghosted across his hairline. 
Without thinking, in between moans, she pressed a feather-light kiss on his forehead. Jimin tried his best to ignore the pleasurable pain that twisted in his chest at the gesture. 
Unable to keep his restraint any longer, Jimin reached a hand down between their bodies to wriggle out of his boxers, eager to feel her flesh on his. 
Her eyes widened as he sprung free, her mind still processing that this was all real. Before he could settle over her, she pushed at his shoulder, prompting him to turn them over so that he lay on his back this time. Straddling him, she balanced a hand on the side of his head while the other reached between them to take him in her hand.
Uncertain of herself but wanting to at least try, she furrowed her brows in concentration as she pumped her fist around him, reveling in the sinful sounds that rumbled from his chest and throat. She looked up to find him staring at her, jaw slack and gorgeous lips parted as he breathed heavily through his pleasure.
His hips twitched and Jimin thrust in her hand, simultaneously bending upwards to pepper kisses on her chest and breast. Perhaps it really had just been a while, or perhaps because it was Jimin. But she swore that the sight of his needy, beautiful man underneath her may be enough to make her climax. 
"God, I need to be inside you." Jimin groaned, abruptly stopping and flipping them over so that he was on all fours over her. 
He slipped his thumbs under the waistband of her underwear, and with stunning patience, he slowly slipped them off her thighs, knees, and feet. 
Feeling the cold rush of air sweep over her bare skin, she instinctively felt self-conscious at her nakedness. But there was something about the way Jimin looked at her, feral and hungry, at made her feel powerful and beautiful in her exposed state. 
Jimin moved back up to cover her body with his, and now, completely feeling his flesh on hers, her entire body was aflame with his heat and desire. A small part of her brain worried at what he must think of her, visibly vibrating in pleasure and need as he traveled south of her body again, licking and sucking his way over her breast, stomach, abdomen. When she realized what he intended to do, she hastily grasped at his shoulder.
"You don't have to." She said. He peered up, lips already at her hip bone, to give her a curious glance. "If you don't want to."
He smirked up at her, resuming downwards.
"Haven't you ever had this done to you before?" Jimin murmured hotly against her skin. He hovered over her center, breath ghosting hotly over her flesh. Despite her many worries, her body was reacting to him well, her center glistening with her need. 
"I have but-" She choked on the rest of her words, feeling him press a finger on her receptive bud. She moaned gracelessly, shamelessly, as he stroked her gently.
"But?" He paused his fingers between her thighs, waiting for her to continue.
"But they never seemed to want to." She admitted, chest heaving from the sudden on-and-off of sensation.
Jimin smiled slyly, and she watched as a devilish expression took over his handsome features. "Don't worry. I want to."
She should have been embarrassed at the guttural sound that ripped itself from her chest when his lips met her center. Her fingers threaded into his hair, hips quivering to chase and deepen his ministrations. She hissed when he slipped a finger inside her, helping her prepare for him.
"Fuck, you're so tight." Jimin groaned as he circled a digit inside her. It wasn't meant to be dirty talk, it was a fact. Her walls were clenched at a fever pitch around his finger.
"Like I said," She gasped. "It's been a while."
Jimin opened his eyes and slowly made his way back up locking onto her mouth again, letting her taste herself on his tongue. He felt her clench around his finger, practically suffocating it, when he pressed his thumb over her most sensitive spot. He could already tell that she was going to feel fucking fantastic, but he wants her to enjoy this too. 
Jimin wrapped her legs around his waist, stretching her wider for him, and slipped a second finger inside her. He shoved his impatience aside and ignored his throbbing length, praying to whatever deity there may be to help her relax. After a few long minutes of her delicious sighs, Jimin felt her unclench around him, and decided he had done all he could to prepare her. 
Pulling his fingers out, Jimin aligned himself over her entrance. He locked his eyes on her as she wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him on. 
"Go slow." She requested, leaning up to steal a chaste, calming kiss from him. Jimin nodded, understanding just how much she had given him in that moment.
"Trust me?" He asked, locking his eyes on her as he rubbed comforting circles on her side. 
"I trust you." She replied.
He finally entered her, unable to help his velvety hiss as she dragged him in. All sensation rushed south that he barely registered his nails digging into his back. He was right; she was wet and tight, and it felt blindly fantastic. But the uncomfortable way she bit her lip was like a shot of cold water in his veins.
"Relax." Jimin breathed, pressing his forehead against hers. "I got you."
He knew that she needed time to adjust, so he reigned in his urges and forced himself to hold still. He pressed his lips against the sensitive spot under her jaw, remembering how she moaned when he sucked there earlier. She sighed against him, panic slowly leaving her body as she succumbed to the pleasure of his touch.
Jimin carefully eased in and out, giving her time to get used to the sensation, until her nails eased up from his back.
Sensing she was alright now, he quickened his pace gradually. She began to lose concentration as the pain subsided, replaced only by the swell of desire in her gut. With each stroke, getting deeper and harder, Jimin fanned a flame inside her, and she thrust her hips up to meet him there, eager for more. He lifted his head, hovering his mouth over hers, tasting her breath on his tongue as he pushed into her. 
Their glazed gazes locked as she felt the knot in her gut swell and tingle.
"Are you close?" Jimin asked, his heaving chest brushing against her breast.
Too lost in a haze, she could only nod at him. Jimin snaked an arm around her waist and sat up, bringing her up with him. He rested back on his haunches as she fell flush against his chest. He adjusted them to the new angle, holding her head to kiss her fervently, like a madman in need of oxygen. He rocked his hips against hers quickly, barely pulling out now, knowing it would rub against her bud. 
The room was filled with her dulcet moans and his pleasured grunts, the sounds of skin on skin, as he freckled open-mouthed kisses over her chest and breasts. Her hammering heart beneath his lips, and her quivering walls around him told Jimin that she was close. Reaching up, he pushed her hair back, needing to see her come undone for him.
The knot in her navel snapped, and she sputtered out a cry as heat exploded from her core all the way to her fingertips. Her insides clenched around him, and it took everything Jimin had not to let go at the sensation. She shook in his arms, allowing the tides to consume her, barely registering Jimin's tight grip on her waist as the waves washed over. 
With a few more pounds of his hips, Jimin knew he wouldn't last any longer. He quickly rested her back down on the mattress and pulled out of her. She shuddered at the loss of contact, still light-headed from her orgasm. With hooded eyes, she absently stroked his back and hair as she peeked to see him take himself in his hand.
With a few purposeful pumps, he let go too and pour himself over her mound and abdomen. He was hot on her skin, but she didn't mind, too lost in the wonder in his eyes as pleasure overtook him. She soothed him as he muffled his growl in her neck, body shaking as he rode out his high and he nuzzled his face against her when he came back down. 
When the buzz began to fade and his breathing calmed, Jimin's limbs were suddenly lead-heavy. He let himself rest his weight on her, as she stroked easy patterns on his back. He was weak in her arms and they rested their heads together as she trickled lazy kisses over his shoulders, allowing the comfortable silence to envelop them. 
When he had gathered some strength, Jimin disentangled himself from her and began to roll away.
"You don't have to hurry." She whispered quietly, almost as if she hadn't meant for him to hear her. The way she nervously chewed on her lip made him wonder what she meant by that, but something inside him told him it wasn't the right time to ask.
"I just need to clean up." He replied, gesturing to the mess he made over her skin.
"Oh, right." 
He didn't say anything, but Jimin could swear it was relief he saw in her eyes. So for that reason, and that reason alone, he leaned over to press a quick kiss to her lips before he bolted to the bathroom. He returned with a warm washcloth to clean herself up with.
Once that was done, Jimin turned off the bedside lamps and climbed back into bed, absently pulling the covers over them both. Now that their bodies and nerves have settled, the cold of the room began to seep into their bare skin.
Jimin turned to her when he had settled, observing the nervous girl next to him as her eyes fluttered and she bit her lip again. An awkward silence seemed just around the corner, and he waited patiently for her to explain herself.
"Do you want me to go?" 
Her question stunned him, and Jimin found himself opening and closing his mouth several times, unable to provide a quick answer. Contrary to the perception of easy fucks and one night stands, he had never been asked to leave nor asked anyone to leave. Sure, mornings after can be awkward, but never so much as to avoid staying the night altogether. 
On the other hand, they were different. He's had sex with strangers and acquaintances, but never someone he considered a friend. Best friend even. And there's no handbook that tells you what to do when you go from friends to friends-who-fucked in the pan of a night. 
He took too long to answer.
She took his silence as a yes, and smiled sadly, trying her best to maintain composure as she began to roll out of bed. At her movement, Jimin panicked and grabbed her wrist.
"Stay." He gasped out, tugging her gently back under the covers.
She looked at him in confusion but complied. When she rested back down, the truth slipped from his lips. "I always sleep better with you."
She smiled softly, and relief flooded his system. The spike of panic drained from him, and he absentmindedly brushed her hair away from her eyes as he let out a long yawn.
"Rest now." She whispered, tracing his brows with a gentle finger. "You have a 10am interview tomorrow."
He chuckled lightly, finding humor in the fact that she still managed to remember their schedule despite having just been fucked senseless. But the waves of drowsiness pulled him in and sleep stole Jimin before he could respond.
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daydream-hobii · 6 years ago
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Shadows & Wolfsbane | Chapter 10
Genre: Poly!AU; Werewolf!AU; Shapeshifter!AU; Fluff; Angst
Pairing: BTS x Female!Reader; Alpha!Reader, Beta!Seokjin, Alpha!Yoongi, Alpha!Hoseok, Alpha!Namjoon, Omega!Jimin, Beta!Taehyung, Beta!Jungkook
Summary: Y/N is the youngest Alpha in her compound, owning a whole village. She was born by two Omegas, and originally wanted to be killed, but things were changing in her universe. At the end of the year, each Alpha can pick up to 30 new warriors, wolves that have been training, and the youngest always starts. Y/N never really chooses, asks for the ones who were unwanted such as the old or disabled. This time, she picks the strongest seven players among the warriors, and the other Alphas aren’t too happy, but she chose them for other reasons…. Hopefully, they’ll help her with the predicament she’s found herself in….
Warning: Mentions of Abuse, Sexual Assault, Depression, Anxiety; Suggestions of Smut; Read with caution <3
Word Count: 902 (Bit of a shorter one, but the next one will be a bit longer and waaaay more intense~~~~~ Good luck~)
// Previous // Next //
Author’s Note: Welcome to Chapter 10! Please let me know what you think of this chapter, I love getting feedback! I hope you enjoyed it!!! ^_^
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       I slowly woke up to the sun in my eyes, keeping them closed to avoid the brightness. My cheek was on a bare chest, arms around a naked body. The events from last night came rushing through my mind and I opened my eyes wide.
       I shoved Seokjin away from me, standing up and running to my bathroom. When I looked in the mirror at my bare form, there were marks covering my body. The entirety of it had large bruises from a mouth as well as long scratches from the claws he had.
       I stood there for a minute, wide eyed and thinking. Before I could do anything, my mouth opened, a long and loud scream coming from my mouth. I continued to scream as I put on my robe, walking out and snapping my mouth shut.
       When I entered my room once more, the other six boys were there. Some were smirking, others were wide eyed in surprise. A couple boys had a hidden jealousy behind there eyes, but for who, I didn’t know.
       “What the fuck?!” I screamed, staring at Seokjin. I could feel my canines growing in anger.
       “You seem a lot angrier than I thought you would,” Seokjin said, paling slightly.
       “Of course I’m angry! We had sex, Jin! That’s cheating on them!” I yelled, pointing to the other boys.
       “Is it technically cheating if we all wanted to do it?” Namjoon asked, raising an eyebrow.
       “Oh my God, Louis,” I said, wide eyed. As if on cue, my phone started to ring, my heart dropping to my stomach. I quickly grabbed it, seeing Louis’ contact and frowning. I was quick on my feet, answering it fast.
       “Hi, Louis,” I said, rasping my voice out.
       “Hey, Y/n, are you alright?” He asked. Was that genuine concern?
       “Yeah, no, I’m so sorry. I think I’ve come down with something, I can’t make it to the arrangements today,” I said, coughing to make it seem real.
       “Oh, well,” He said, disappointment evident in his voice. “Well, you shouldn’t have gotten sick! This is a big day for me and I need you here. I’ll let you off, this time.” A slight growl went through the phone. There he was.
       “Alright, I’m sorry again,” I said. He hung up, making me sigh in relief and close my phone.
       “Why didn’t you go?” Jungkook asked, blinking innocently.
       “Because I reek of someone who isn’t my fiance,” I said, glaring at Seokjin. He now had boxers on and was sitting on the bed. “Jin, do you realize how bad this is?”
       “Then why’d you do it?” Yoongi asked, stepping forward. His eyes were dark, a sort of frustration to them.
       “What?” I asked, blinking in surprise.
       “Why’d you let him? He obviously came onto you, why’d you go along with it?” Yoongi asked, growling. “He has just as many, if not more, marks than you.”
       “I… don’t know,” I replied, frowning and furrowing my brow, remembering the emotions I felt. “It was like I couldn’t control myself. Like a hunger that I couldn’t fill on my own.”
       “That’s what being an Alpha is,” Namjoon said. “We’ve all felt that hunger. Most Alphas who aren’t the leader of a village do since they can find their mates naturally.”
       “What?” I asked, blinking again, shaking my head.
       “You wanted to mark him, right?” Hoseok asked, eyeing me and stepping forward. “Wanted to show the world he was yours?”
       “How did you…” I started, before getting cut off by Yoongi.
       “Because we’ve all felt it,” Yoongi replied. “Namjoon, Hoseok, and I have towards the others as well as each other. You’re falling in love with us. You’re already emotionally attached to Taehyung, that’s mating. You marked up Jin, that’s mating.”
       “Wait, she mated to me?” Taehyung asked, wide eyed.
       “Not now, Tae,” Namjoon said, gently. “What we’re trying to say is… you’re our mate, and we’re yours….”
       “Impossible,” I replied, walking over to the window and staring outside. Everyone was up and about, starting their days. They had no idea about the turmoil happening in my home.
       “It’s not impossible, look at yourself,” Yoongi said, getting more and more frustrated. “We’ve all fallen in love with you, can’t you see that.”
       “Can’t you see I’m saving your lives!” I shouted, twisting around and walking towards him. Seokjin was fully dressed, standing with the three youngest. “If I went today and Louis saw me, he’d know it was Jin. He’d tell the council and Jin would die, don’t you get that? I’m not taking you away from each other!”
       “So we have to sit around and watch you marry someone else?” Hoseok asked, glaring. “Do you get how painful that is?”
       “Unfortunately, I do now,” I said, closing my eyes and relaxing a bit. “You don’t want me… trust me. Just be happy you have each other.”
       “Y/n, please,” Jimin begged, gripping my hand. An electric current went through my nerves, but I ripped my hand away, holding it as if it was injured.
       “I don’t want you staying here anymore,” I commanded. “You’ll only accompany me when I leave this building or for meetings. That’s it.”
       “Y/n…” Seokjin said, eyes filled with a hurt that made my heart ache.
       “No,” I warned, eyes flashing yellow. “This is ending now. The wedding is going to happen and we’re all going to move on.”
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awkwardlyflustered · 5 years ago
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The Competition
A/N: This is a fic for @speedykidprofessorexpert, I really hope that you enjoy this. I’m actually pretty proud of this one, I really hope you like it. Sorry it’s so long and badly written. Also, sorry for the awful ending.
The Hargreeve family was sitting in their living room playing some board game that was going on forever. 
“Ugh, are we almost done here? I have other things I could be doing,” Five complained.
“Oh come on, this is fun,” Allison tried to reason with Five. While this little banter was going on Klaus slipped a couple hundreds into his stack, hoping no one noticed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for him.
“Hey, cheater!” Diego exclaimed after Klaus stole the fake money, poking his side in the process, causing Klaus to let out a squeak.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot you were ticklish,” Luther said moving towards Klaus. Five smirks and sits still, a little jealous that Klaus got to get tickled and not him. While Five was having this little train of thought Luther had pinned Klaus down (with very few protests) and the other three were approaching him slowly. Diego looked a little sadistic, Allison had a loving look in her eyes, and Vanya looking a little scared and excited at the same time. Once they made it to Klaus Diego sat on his legs, Allison went on the left side of his torso and Vanya went onto his right. Vanya poked his side earning them another squeak. Diego held up three fingers and counted down with them, and on one they launched the attack. Klaus shrieked and curved his body upward trying to escape the tickly feelings. While all of this was happening Five had been staring off into nothing. Five quickly snapped out of his trance when he heard his name.
“Wait, what? Did someone say my name?”
“Yeah, I was saying that we might have actually found someone more ticklish than you,” Diego replied, causing both Five and Klaus to turn cherry red.
“THERERERES NOHOHOHOO WAAAAY,” Klaus said through his laughter.
“Please, there’s no way I’m more ti-sensitive than you.”
“Aw, look at him, he can’t even say the word,” Allison cooed causing Five to adopt an even darker shade of red onto his face.
“WAAAAIT BEN SAAAAAYYYYS HEEE HAAAAAS AAAAN IDEAAAAA.” After hearing this, the other three stopped tickling him and let Klaus catch his breath so he could conjure up Ben. After a few seconds of heavy breathing Klaus got to his feet and closed his eyes in concentration. Klaus let out a small huff and Ben appeared in front of everyone’s eyes. After everyone said a quick hello to Ben and gave him a hug Ben share his idea.
“Alright, so since this is obviously going to be a fight, why don’t we just have a competition? Luther can hold them both down and they each pick girl and one guy to be on their ‘team’ or opposing team depending on how you think about it. The four of us tickle one spot at a time, but we tickle them both at the same time and whoever has the stronger reaction ‘wins’ that round, or loses depending on how you think about it. Then whoever has the stronger reaction on the most spots in the end ‘wins’ or-”
“Loses depending on how you think about it,” the rest of the family finishes for him.
“Exactly.”
“Sounds good to me, Five, Klaus, rock paper scissors to see who gets to pick first,” Allison commanded. The boys did the game, and Klaus came out on top.
“Alright, Vanya, you’re on my team.”
“Okay, then Ben, I want you,” Five said pointing at said boy. The two Hargreeves hurried over to their respective sides, quickly followed by Allison going to Five and Diego going to Klaus because the rules stated, one boy, one girl on each team. Five and Klaus both looked at each other and said a nervous good luck then laid on their backs with their arms above their heads. Luther was quick to scoop up both pairs of wrists and firmly pin them down. 
“So start on neck?” Vanya asked, walking towards Klaus’ head without waiting for an answer. The other three complied stationing themselves at their respective “teammate’s” neck. 
“Okay, 3, 2, 1, go!” Luther announced, unleashing a flurry of fingers onto the necks. Five merely giggled and tried to scrunch up his shoulders, nothing much. Klaus on the other hand… Oh boy, Klaus practically shrieked then fell into loud belly laughter.
“Hmm, I wonder who wins, what do you guys think?” Ben asked
“SHUUUUUT UUUUP BEHEHEHEN” Klaus tried to sound mad, but let’s be honest, in what world can you sound mad while being tickled? The four ticklers took their time to draw to a slow stop that still had Klaus giggling. 
“Okay, so it’s 1-0, underarms next?” Allison asked. They all nodded and Luther counted down again and once again, it began. Five writhed around from side to side and giggled at a loud volume. But once again, then there was Klaus, Klaus was practically shooting into the air, but only giggling. Everyone thought it was quite endearing, how his body was betraying his voice or vice versa depending on how you think about it (Ben’s partial thought process). 
“Well, they’re both only giggling, but Five’s giggles are louder,” Ben observed causing Five to blush crimson.
“Yeah, but Klaus is squirming around a lot more than Five,” Diego commented, digging in more to Klaus causing him to yelp.
“Stooop teeeeeaaaasing,” Five and Klaus said in unison. Everyone just laughed at their brothers, glad to see them laughing.
“Geez, Klaus, that’s 2-0, are you even going to give Five a chance?” Ben taunted his buddy.
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with,” Klaus said trying to hide his blush in his arms. 
“Your wish is my command, what do you say guys, ribs next?” Everyone quietly agreed, well almost everyone.
“No!” Five squeaked out, his face visibly paler than the last time.
“Sorry Five, you don’t really get a say in this,” Allison said, placing her hands on Five’s ribs making him squeak.
“Aw, he’s so cute, did you hear the squeak?” Vanya gushed over her younger (ish) brother. 
“I’d stop teasing him if I were you, I don’t think his face can go any redder, and I think he’s gonna blow up if it does get any redder,” Ben said also placing his hand onto Five’s ribs.
“Sh-shut up.” As soon as the words left his mouth Five regretted it, both Allison and Ben fug into his ribs at the same time. Shortly followed by Diego and Vanya copying the action on Klaus. Five felt like his stomach was about to touch the roof with how high he arched his back. Five immediately came crashing trying to evade the tickly feelings invading his ribs.
“GAAAAAAH STAHAHAHAHAP,” Five squealed, not really wanting it to stop, but he wanted to put on a show for them. Meanwhile, Klaus was merely giggling once again at the tingling he felt at his ribs. The rib tickling continues on for a couple more minutes before they all conclude that Five is the winner.
“Alright, 2-1, you’re catching up Five,” Diego said, giving him a quick pat on the shoulder making Five cringe. “Alright, let’s continue this, sides next?” The two “victims” just sat there in silence not wanting to waste energy. Luther started up the countdowns again, but even before that both Klaus and Five were already squirming and giggling.
“We haven’t even touched you guys yet,” Allison said astounded.
“They’re just that ticklish,” Ben answered digging into Five’s sides causing the same reactions that had ensued with the rib tickling. Klaus, however, had a much different reaction than what happened with the rib tickling. Klaus had about the same reaction as Five was having right at this moment. He was thrashing every which way and laughing just about as hard as he possibly could.
“Hmm, well they both seem to be pretty ticklish here, so why don’t we try something a little stronger,” Diego suggested with a wave of his eyebrows. Everyone nodded and started leaning their heads downward.
“NOHOHOHO, NAHAHAHAT FAHAHAHAIR,” Five said trying to move away from the incoming pairs of lips.
“IIIIIIII AGREEEEEEEE.” The four of them didn’t listen, all at once they all blew a raspberry into Five’s and Klaus’ sides. Five arched his back to the point that it looked like it was going to break, shrieked, then fell into silent laughter, slamming back down onto the ground writhing around like a worm. Klaus, simply fell into silent laughter, not having enough energy to fight back. After both of their faces turned blue everyone stopped and let them sit up and take a break.
“You guys having fun?” Vanya asked rubbing Five and Klaus’ backs.
“No,” they both said in unison a little too quickly. Everyone just smiled at the two lovingly. 
“Are you guys ready to continue yet? We only have two spots left, right guys?” Allison asked.
“Yeah, I think so, unless of course they tie, in which case we have three,” Ben responds. Five and Klaus groan, but still lay down side by side with their arms above their heads. Allison was first to speak,
“Stomach then?” Everyone nodded and waited for Luther to count down. On three all hell broke loose, Klaus was screaming with laughter and bucking like a bronco. Five wasn’t handling it much better, he was bouncing around from side to side, also screaming with laughter, but squeaking and snorting along with it every couple of seconds. Everyone already knew who had won, but they couldn’t help but continue.
“Alright, guys, we know who won, they’re turning blue again,” Luther input, not wanting to kill his siblings. Everyone stopped and repositioned themselves down at the boys’ feet.
“Alright boys, 3-2, Five made his comeback Klaus, unless you tie it here, Five wins,” Diego said smirking, knowing very well that Klaus’ feet were almost as ticklish as his were.
“You know, you’re just being mean at this point,” Klaus attempted to pout, but he couldn’t break the smile on his face. Luther started the countdown for the fifth time now and they started the attack on the guys’ feet. Five quietly giggled and slightly moved side to side, the tickling not really affecting him that much seeing as how his feet weren’t that ticklish. Klaus, on the other hand, was squirming around so much that Luther almost lost his grip on him. 
“OKAHAHAHAY, THAHAHAHAT’S ENOUGH, TIE BREAKER!” Everyone backed off the two and cuddled to discuss what the tie breaker should be. Once they returned Ben started in a very loud and quite obnoxious voice,
“Since it is 3-3 we have decided that the tie breaker shall be, wait for it, the knees! Bum bum bum!” Five’s face just drained of all color, he knew he could barely take someone barely touching his knees, but two people? He would absolutely going to die. Everyone just cooed and/or laughed at him.
“Aw, what’s wrong Five? Is the little baby just too tickwish on his knees?” Diego teased, a fake pout ever so present on his face. Five merely mumbled something that sounded awfully close to, “fucker, teasing me.” Klaus, just happily layed down and got comfortable, wearing a cocky smirk throughout the process. He knew he had it in the bag, his knees were about as ticklish as Five’s feet. Five begrudingly laid down, mumbling about how this was, “biased as fuck,” and that they were “setting him up to ‘win.’” Luther counted down for the final time and the tickling began. Five immediately began to fail like mad. His laughter had gone up about three octaves and was so loud they were sure the neighbors were going to call the cops. On top of all that he was making every noise in the book, squeak, squeal, hiccup, snort, you name it, he was doing it. Everyone thought it was so adorable that they abandoned Klaus (who was barely giggling, and kind of twitching) to go help tickle Klaus. As soon as Klaus got the ghost feelings out of his feet (which were still there, that’s how tickling Klaus’ feet are) he went over to help as well. Five was silently laughing in a matter of seconds. Two people were bad enough, but five people! He couldn’t take it. Five was desperately trying to get words to form in his mouth, but he couldn’t it was impossible to make a word, much less a sentence. Thankfully after about half a minute of this new form of torture they all stopped and got off of Five. Diego swooped into the protective brother roll, 
“You okay bud? Did we take it too far?” Diego started to gently massage Five’s shoulders after he stopped the heavy breathing causing little giggles to fall out of his mouth.
“Nohoho, it was okahahay.�� Everyone smiled lovingly at Five for about the millionth time for that day. 
“Well I guess we know who’s more ticklish then,” Vanya said giving a little poke to Five’s side causing him to squeak.
“Yup, it’s our baby brother,” Allison teased, ghosting her fingers over Five’s neck.
“I’m ohoholder thahahan you,” Five said trying to glare, but failing miserably.
“Yeah Five’s more ticklish, but Klaus isn’t far behind,” Ben stated copying Vanya’s action onto Klaus. Klaus just weakly giggled and pawed at Ben’s hand.
“Alright, I think they’ve had enough for today and we’re running out of food. I’m gonna go to the store. Anyone wanna come with?” Luther asked digging in his pocket for the care keys.
“I will, I need more mascara,” Allison volunteered.
“Yeah me too, but I’m coming to make sure you,” Vanya said playfullying waving a finger at Luther, “Don’t forget anything like you do every time.” 
“Good idea.” The three of them got up waving a quick goodbye to the remaining four. Diego started to stand up when Klaus stopped him, his face bright red
“Um D-diego, c-could you maybe ti-tickle me a little more?” Diego didn’t even need to think about it he immediately pounced on Klaus going straight for his neck. Klaus was in hysterics in seconds. Five stared longingly at Klaus and Diego, his bottom out in a pout. This didn’t go unnoticed by Ben. 
“Five, do you want me to tickle you some more?” Ben asked. Five nodded, his face redder than Klaus’ was,
“Y-yes please.”
“I’d be happy to, where? Knees?”
“N-no I c-can’t take an-anymore of th-that tonight, m-maybe my sides?” Ben just nodded and pulled Five so close to him he was practically in his lap. Ben went from lightly tracing patterns making Five squirm around and giggle to digging into his sides, making him thrash around and belly laugh. Klaus was having just as much fun with Diego. Diego had slipped his hands under Klaus’ shirt and into the hollows of his arms. Klaus had shot his arms down as soon as this happened trapping Diego’s hands.
“DIEEEGOHOHO, NAHAHAHA, STOHOHOP.”
“Well I would bud, but you have trapped my hands under your arms, they’re stuck.” Klaus couldn’t even respond to the teasing, he had gone into silent laughter. Diego started to retract his hands when he heard Five shriek. Ben had lifted up his shirt and started blowing raspberry after raspberry into his stomach
“BEHEHEN NOHOHO, I CAHAHAN’T TAAAAAAKE IIIIIIT.” Ben just laughed into Five stomach and blew another raspberry making Five pound his fists into the couch. Diego looked over at Klaus evilly.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Klaus said trying to sound serious but failing horribly.
“But it looks so fun,” Diego said, slowly coming towards Klaus. Klaus got up and ran up the stairs, Diego hot on his heels. Ben and Five shortly thereafter heard a thud followed by Klaus’ shrieking.
“I guess Diego caught him,” Ben said removing his hands from Five’s torso.
“Yeah, I’m sure Klaus doesn’t mind that much, I know I didn’t,” Five replied his face a dark shade of red, “Hey, and thanks for doing that for me.”
“It was my pleasure,” Ben said gently squeezing Five’s knee making Five laugh.
“Nohoho, you said yohohou wohohouldn’t.”
“When?”
“I dohohon’t knohohow.”
“Exactly, I didn’t.” For the next half an hour, the Hargreeve household was filled with loud, happy, boisterous laughter.
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writingdolans · 6 years ago
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This Is Me Starting Over - Part Two: We met for a reason, either you are a blessing or a lesson. [Grayson Mini-Series]
Hello guys! First of all, I wanted to say thank you for all of the positive feedback I got for the first part of “This Is Me Starting Over”. It makes me so happy to read what you guys thought of it and to see how much you love this series. It makes my heart so happy!
Also, I wanted to say thank you for letting me take this long break! I know it was longer than people thought it would be, waaaay longer than I thought it would be as well, but it was necessary for me. But lately, I’ve been wanting to get back to writing this series and finish off the story I wanted to tell.
This part is going to be where the series really starts. So everything that happens from now on is one year after Grayson wrote that letter; so in total, it’s been 4 years since Y/N left and they are both 21. Now, without further ado, here is part two! Enjoy!
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ PART ONE OF THE SEQUEL, CLICK HERE . 
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS MINI SERIES, CLICK HERE.  YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON IF YOU DON’T READ THE FIRST PART OF THIS SERIES! 
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 
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“Katie please let Mr. and Mrs. Masters know we need a decision on the venue they want for their 50th-anniversary celebration” 
“Right away Y/N” 
After thanking Katie, my secretary, I leaned back on my chair as she left the room in a hurry. Letting out a long sigh, I looked over to the clock. 4:30. Just a little longer till I’m back where I belong; on my warm, comfortable bed. 
Once I was finished with the last bit of my work and the clock struck five, I packed my belongings and began heading out. Others might call this sad but the amount of excitement I was feeling at the thought of taking my heels off and watching Netflix for the rest of the day was overwhelming. That excitement died down way too soon though as I heard my name be called just as I reached the elevator
I turned around and was met by my boss and very pregnant friend, Mia, waddling over to me. 
“Y/N has anyone ever told you-you're a sight for sore eyes?” Mia asked.
I rolled my eyes and laughed as I shook my head slightly, “You’re using flattery huh? That means you must want something so spit it out, will you? I’m ready to get home to my two best friends, Ben & Jerry.”
For a second Mia acted offended, putting a hand over her heart and a pout on her face, but then she rolled her eyes and dropped the act. “You know me so well. Come with me to my office, I gotta talk to you about something.”
I shrugged in response and began heading to her office but was stopped as she pulled me back by the arm. “And sorry but as one of your closest friends, I must tell you that this is a very sad life you’re living for a 21-year-old.”
“I’m suddenly starting to reconsider this friendship,” I replied as a look of annoyance began to fill my face.
“Okay cranky, to my office we go,” Mia said before turning around and leading me to the inside of her office.
I grabbed a candy bar from a jar on her desk and slumped down on one of the chairs in front of it, “So what’s up? What do you need?”
She waddled around the desk and put her hand on her back as she slowly sat down, “well as you can see, I’m very pregnant.”
I nodded and waited for her to continue since she had just stated the obvious.
“My back has been killing me all day Y/N/N and I just feel like crap but I have a client’s event to go to today. Do you think you could go for me instead and make sure everything runs smoothly?”
A part of me wanted to cry as the thought of my Netflix and Ice cream filled afternoon began to fade away, but because I am such a good friend, I couldn’t say no to the puppy dog eyes Mia was giving me.
“Fine! But I call being Godmom to the little thing you have inside your belly” I replied.
“Consider it do- hey! That’s my baby you’re calling a thing by the way!” She said as she threw a candy wrapper at me.
“Anyway, this will help you out with tonight’s event. It’s a birthday party some couple is throwing for their daughter. Apparently, she’s coming into town to visit so we gotta make it extra special.” She explained as she handed me her work binder. “Everything has been decorated and should be ready to go so you just need to show up looking pretty and make sure everything works out perfectly. Got it?”
I nodded and looked over the binder’s pages. Mia’s attention to detail never ceased to amaze me, this is why she was so good at what she did. She was a perfectionist. “Got it, boss, you go home and get some rest.”
“I owe you one okay?” She said as she gathered her things.
I nodded and smiled as she pulled me into a hug. “And by the way, I meant it when I said you need to be looking pretty tonight. So go home and change.” I rolled my eyes and pulled away from the hug.
“This is why we can’t have good things in life Mia; you ruin them”
She waved off my snarky reply and we said our goodbyes.
—————————————————————
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I honked my horn. I looked at the time and sat back as the cars around me slowly moved due to traffic. I glanced around and saw a guy laughing as a girl beside him sang her heart out to what I assumed was her favorite song. I let out a smile at the sight and sighed as I looked back to the car in front of me.
I couldn’t help but think about how much had changed in the last four years. After what happened with Grayson, I had moved back home to live with my parents for a while. I decided to continue my studies and was able to graduate from my University a year early. I got a job in the company I was interning for earlier on in the year and was saving up to get my own place. I guess you could say I had everything going for me. But if someone were to ask me right now, on the spot, if I was happy, I wouldn’t know how to answer that.
Some might call me stupid for it but I can’t truly say I am happy. Is there a chance that it is because I haven’t fully moved on? I don’t believe so. I consider that part of my life to be over. But I can’t say that from time to time I don’t think about it because I do, and it still stings a bit. Even if it is the smallest bit. But I never dwell on it and I won’t start now, because like my favorite quote says, we met for a reason, either you are a blessing or a lesson. 
And for me, he was my lesson. 
I brought myself out of my thoughts as I parked the car and headed inside. Mia and I had different definitions of what “looking pretty” meant. If it was up to me, I would wear jeans and a shirt and be on my way; but since this is Mia we are talking about, I guess a dress or a skirt with a blouse it is.
—————————————————————
I walked around the venue, binder in hand, and spoke with the people Mia had hired for the night about their respective jobs. Everything was going smoothly, just as she said it would. The guests were all here and the family seemed to be happy with the outcome. I sighed in content at the thought of almost being done for the night.
After speaking with some of the guests, I walked over to one of the waiters and got a drink from her tray, “Thank you.”
She nodded and kept walking around the crowd of people. A few moments later, I noticed the crowd began to move to one particular side of the venue. My brows furrowed as I heard gasps and noticed people were whispering to one another. I began making my way into the crowd, worrying something had gone wrong. Once I was further into it, I could hear a man speaking. It seemed he was making a speech of some sort.
You would think I would have relaxed after seeing nothing out of the ordinary was going on, but instead, my body tensed up and my heart began to race at an abnormal pace. My vision began to blur as I focused on the two people standing in the center of the crowd.
There was a couple embracing one another as if both their lives depended on it; and once they pulled apart after what felt like forever, the girl standing before us waved her hand in the air, beaming as she showed off the sparkling diamond on her wedding ring finger. Everyone around me moved to congratulate the couple as I stood still. Because it wasn’t until my eyes met those of the newly engaged man that I was brought out of my trance.
“Grayson.”
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... Please don’t hate me! Hope you enjoyed reading part two and tell me what you think is going to happen on this sequel.  
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lordsicheng · 6 years ago
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“Maybe? Perhaps, Possibly.”
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Park Jihoon x OC
g: fluff, friends to lovers au
summary: for years you and Jihoon have been very close friends, but other people seem to think otherwise. this makes Jihoon a little bit confused on what he truly feels about you– he just doesn’t know that you may feel the same way too
word count: 2.1k
You’ve seen all of your friends get into their own romantic endeavors—dating casually, dating exclusively, one time flings, even one couple you know who are definitely planning on getting married. You, on the other hand, haven’t even had one boyfriend or someone that caught your eye specifically. Not that you weren’t interested either, rather you were just a little bit too naïve to have to make the first move. It’s the 21st century, dating is much more different than it was before.
“Y/n.” someone called out, seated in front of you. But you were too immersed on spinning the straw on your tall glass of iced tea
“Ya, y/n.” he waved his hand in front of you this time, making you shake your head and look at him
“Sorry.” you cleared your throat and leaned on your chair
“Are we going to the party tonight or not?”
“Jihoon, you know I have something to do with mom tonight.”
He nodded in reply, looking at his phone after to check the time.
Jihoon was one of your closest friends since childhood. Just like you, he was also a bit shyer when it came to the topic of love. Though, he had a girlfriend once and even told you first about it than everyone else in your circle. But then again, his lack of experience made him a bit too aloof from the girl he dated and they naturally just grew apart. Not that he fell out of love, he was just not sure of how to express his feelings properly. Good thing was they still became friends after it all.
“Text me tonight, though.” you smiled and stood up, grabbing your purse
“Alright. See you.” he said and waved goodbye as you walked away, sighing and looking to the side to see a couple that seemed very happy just as they linked arms
-
“Mom, I’m done with the laundry.” you said as you grabbed the last basket of dried clothes from the backyard and put them by the kitchen counter
“Okay. Are you done with all your chores?” she asked as she finished washing the dishes
“Yeah, these are the last ones.” you grabbed on the basket and nodded
“Alright, you can go to the party.” she smiled as she grabbed the basket
“Wait, how did you know about the party?” you raised a brow, crossing your arms
“Jihoon told me.” she shrugged, walking away
“I trust him on taking care of you and getting you home before midnight.”
Trust. Something you never really heard much from your own mom. She has trust in Jihoon? It made you wonder for a while at how long you’ve known Jihoon all your life. You were also surprised your mom let you go to the party since you didn’t tell her you were to go, but you figured maybe Jihoon was very eager on letting you go. You’d ask yourself why over and over while picking out an appropriate outfit, pursing your lips as you try to decide on going or not. Your phone suddenly rings and you turn to look at it, knowing it was Jihoon since you had a different ringtone for him. Grabbing your phone, you pick up the call and lie on your bed, looking at the ceiling
“So, are you going?” Jihoon asked, sounding a bit excited
“You really want me to go, huh?” you chuckled as you put your hand on your forehead
“Come on! You’ll have fun. I promise.”
-
Jihoon decided to pick you up at your place, having a taxi wait at the street as he walked over to your front door. You were quick enough to open the door before your mom could, seeing Jihoon widen his eyes as he saw you wear a girly spaghetti dress and a cardigan, pairing it with some comfy flats. You wore a headband and very light makeup, mainly because you weren’t good at it and you weren’t into it either. You literally just looked fresh and girly, which kind of gotten Jihoon a bit taken aback because he was used to the casual you
“Ready?” he asked, putting his hands in his pockets
“I guess.” you shrugged, walking out of the house
“Be home before 12!” your mom yelled
“Don’t worry I’ll take her back here before 11 if I can!” Jihoon said as he closed the door, walking with you back to the taxi that was waiting
Both of you were quiet all throughout the night, but it wasn’t awkward either. You both just were either excited and not for the party, arriving just a little over ten minutes after. As you both arrived the party, you could already tell that the house party was organized by someone you knew. Most of the guests you saw were from your year, and it kind of surprised you that even the more quiet ones that didn’t do much to stand out from the crowd were there and it caught your attention that they were pretty chill all around. You walked your way to the living room to look at the place, where the house was pretty much almost close to a design of a mansion. It wasn’t too big but the interior was pretty spot on and elegant.
“Jihoon!” someone called from afar, making you both turn towards the direction where the voice was from
“Yo, Mark!” he smiled, giving his friend a hug
“Ah, y/n. Good to see you.” Mark gave a nod
“….good to see you too?” you raised your shoulders in uncertainty
“You don’t know me, don’t you?” he chuckled, making you feel even more embarrassed
“He’s from another section. Me and Mark go waaaay back. This is his party.” Jihoon put his arm on his friend’s shoulders, making Mark smile at him and then to you
“Oh. Um, doesn’t it seem weird that a stranger came to your party?” you gave a straight face, crossing your arms
“It’s alright, I know you. I mean, Jihoon-“ he paused, feeling Jihoon’s nudge on his side
“Hmm?” you raised a brow, looking back and forth between them
“Huh, Jihoon just told me you both were really close. That’s all.” Mark shrugged
“I see. I’ll take that.” you turned to the right to see your friend, Hara, smiling from afar
“If you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna go to my friend over there.” you gave a small wave as you moved
“Nooo it’s alright, you go! Girl…” Mark raised his arm as if he cheered for you, suddenly feeling awkward as he looked at Jihoon
“Seriously, bro.” Jihoon sighed
“I thought you both were on a mutual understanding?” Mark whispered, pulling Jihoon to the side
“I haven’t….” Jihoon paused, making Mark raise a brow
“You haven’t confessed?” Mark frowned, making Jihoon feel the heat on his cheeks
“I mean I have to find the right time!” Jihoon shrugged and raised his arms a bit, turning to look at you having a good time talking to your other friends and having a glass of punch
“So is the timing gonna be anytime soon?” Mark asked, turning as well to look at you with a smile
“Maybe.”
As the night continued on and the party was getting more enjoyable, you found yourself having fun with your friends and not noticing you weren’t looking for Jihoon. He wasn’t looking for you either, so you figured he was just having fun on his own with his other friends probably outside by the pool at the back.
“Hey, y/n. I’ve been meaning to ask but… are you and Jihoon…?” Hara prolonged, making you take the time to realize what she really meant
“Oh, me and Jihoon? Noooo.” you waved your hand off
“I see. Well, he seems like a nice guy. I mean, he seems to take care of you really well too.” she smiled, brushing your hair lightly
“Am I that high maintenance to take care of?” you joked, making Hara snicker
“But really. You don’t see him as like a brother figure, right?” she asked, this time in a bit of a more curious tone
“N-no, definitely not.” you shook your head, turning to the direction of where the back door was to see Jihoon walk inside, looking at his phone
“Think of it this way: he can be someone you can rely on for your problems. He doesn’t seem like the type to say no to you either-“
“Oh, Hara. If you only knew how we bicker.” you laughed
“Shh, wait! I’m not done! I mean, you’re cute. He’s cute. You together? Super cute.” she nodded and crossed her arms, seemingly very approving of her words
“Do you really think we’d end up together, like one day? I’m not saying it’s possible but…” you pursed your lips, turning to Hara
“I mean, do you feel more for Jihoon? Like, more than a friend?” she asked, and you just turned again to look to the food table where Jihoon was eating and chatting with Mark.
A smile formed on your lips the more you looked at him turning to Hara again as she had a smile on her face as well, noticing you take a glance at Jihoon. She knew how to read you since she was also one of your close girl friends and you were scared of even telling everything you kind of felt that night to her
“Well? Is there or is there not?” she grinned
“Perhaps.” you bit your bottom lip and looked down, already feeling like you were blushing really hard and made sure to not let anyone else see
Without realizing, it was already 11pm. You weren’t in a rush or anything but you didn’t want to upset your mom on getting home late. Jihoon approached you and had two brownie pops in a form of a heart, making you squint a bit to look at them and then back to Jihoon
“They ran out of the other ones, so…” he shrugged, giving you the other one
“It’s fine. Hearts are cute.” you smiled and stood up, grabbing the lollipop from his hand
“Ready to go home?” he asked
“Let’s just walk to the station. I’m not in a hurry.” you nodded
“What if your mom gets mad for you arriving a little late?” he questioned again worriedly
“It’s fine. As long as she knows you’re the one taking me home.”
-
You and Jihoon walked your way to the station, rather in a slow pace. You already assured Jihoon that you’ll be fine and aren’t in a hurry but he was still concerned. He stole glances to look at you and suddenly felt his heart beat faster and you totally noticed this but decided to not just budge or do anything to scare him away of what he felt. After a while, you decided to look at him and at the same time, he was to steal a glance at you. You both somehow ended up looking at each other before you could chuckle, looking down and continuing to walk
“Ah, whatever is on your mind Park Jihoon just spit it out.” you grinned
“I mean, I just wanted to see if you had a good time at the party.” he felt his heartbeat rate go up again, trying to look away
“I had a great time.” you assured
“That’s good.”
You both fell silent again, and it was you getting nervous all over this time. Jihoon suddenly stopped walking, making you stop just after a couple of steps ahead of him
“Y/n.” he called in a serious but shaky tone
“Yes?” you raised a brow
“If I confessed to you how much I’ve fallen for you over the years from now would you somehow run away from me?” he suddenly blurted out, and you felt shivers from what he just said
“Um, no. It’s too dangerous to run at this time.” you joked, walking up to him
You both just nodded and continued to walk, and Jihoon suddenly burst out laughing. You looked at him with a raised brow and he just grinned and looked at you
“So does that mean you feel the same for me?” he asked out of the blue, which made you chuckle
You grabbed his hand and clasped your fingers with his, leaning your head a bit on his shoulder as you both walked towards the station that was already nearby
“Possibly.”
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