#but i come upon the above sentence and i let out the ugliest laugh

[jyuanka]

"his lips tasted like ice and sin"

[pikapegasus]

#86 from One Hundred Ways to Say ‘I Love You’ for Starmora please?

86. “You’re important, too.”

or, the one where peter and gamora have made it through the honeymoon phase and have to evaluate whether or not they’re strong enough to actually work out in the long run ;))) yay, angst lmao

send me a ship + a number for a way to say “I love you”!!!!!

Peter fucked up.

Though he may not as easily admit to others, he recognizes,within himself, that he’s somewhat at fault for the fight that had transpiredbetween him and Gamora earlier. They’d been out on a mission that, of course,spun out of control and led to a shoot-out with some (surprisingly organized)thugs, which resulted in everyone returning to the Milano a little worse forwear.

By the time they’d later returned to the Quadrant, Peter realizedhe was a bit more injured than he’dinitially thought (or let on to the others), and when he attempted to downplayit, all hell broke loose.

Specifically, between him and Gamora.

Their fights are known for being epic among the team, as Peter oftenconsiders Gamora his rival in stubbornness. They’re two individuals witha death wish for the sake of protecting their loved ones; the moment one ofthem calls the other out on it, since it sometimes leads to dumb decisions on the battlefield, things go awry between them for a few days.

But now things are different, which Peter knows is whyGamora was so quick to react negatively this time. Ego isn’t quite a distant memory for them yet, andneither is Peter and Gamora’s “unspoken thing” making its way to the realm ofopen, honest acknowledgement. What once felt like a dream now feels like thecold claws of reality trying to rip them apart.

Basically, a lot of weird things and feelings are happeningwithin the team right now, and Peter’s not really sure what to do about it.

So, rather than sleep on it, like Gamora had advised him tooafter grumpily treating the deep blaster graze on his arm (yet, her hands remainedas careful and delicate as ever throughout the procedure, though she was thrilled to give him an earful theentire time), Peter decides to wander around the Quadrant with his Zune, justthinking over things.

He turns the corner toward the cockpit, deciding the bestplace to space out is, well, where he can see space.

Then the pilot’s chair swivels toward him to reveal—of freakin’ course—Gamora.

Though Peter’s somewhat startled, he’s not surprised. He pullsthe earbuds out of his ears. “Hey.”

She presses her lips together. “Why aren’t you asleep? Yourarm—“

“—is fine,” he finishes for her, even moving it a bit toshow her. (He regrets it immediately, wincing a bit as it falls back intoplace, but he tries to internalize it as much as poss—okay, nope, Gamora definitely noticed, dammit.) “I just needed to mellow out for a bit. Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I just wanted to check on things.” She crosses her armsover her chest in her typical Gamora-fashion.

“Isn’t it Kraglin’s shift tonight?”

“I took over for him.”

He pauses, studying her for a moment. “Why?”

She shrugs, rotating the chair back to facing the front ofthe ship.

That’s about as good of an answer he knows he’ll get out ofher for that, so he decides to let go of itfor now. He’s too busy taking in her appearance, anyway; her eyes look heavierthan usual, her hair dangerously close to looking straight-up disheveled, which is enough for him toidentify something is wrong.

The answer’s obvious, though. He walks up to the chair,standing beside her. “So…this is the most we’ve exchanged words since earlier,so I’m assuming the silent treatment is over?”

She glares up at him, but it’s noticeably softer than hours before.“You say that as if I was the only participant.”

And she’s not wrong; he’d been holding up his end of the stubbornsilence just as much as she had for the past several hours. He sighs. “I didn’tmean it like that.”

When she doesn’t respond, he continues, “We equally held upour ends in the silent treatment. There, I acknowledged it. Can we move past itnow?”

But she shakes her head, her steely expression finallycrumbling a bit. “I don’t know, Peter. I’m not sure this is a good ideaanymore.”

“The silent treatment is always a horrible idea—“

“No, I mean, this,”she says vaguely, gesturing between them. “Us, our unspoken-but-now-spoken thing, the guy andthe girl and the…TV ratings? Either way, every time we have an argument…”

She trails off, but he understands where she’s coming from.Honestly, he thought finally beginning a “relationship”—or whatever they arenow—would prevent them from having these stupid squabbles like they’ve hadsince day one.

But, of course, that’s not the case. They’re still Peter andGamora, just now together in a unit.That hasn’t changed their individual selves and personalities, which meant they’dinevitably remain on somewhat of a collision course over certain things.

And Peter draws further upon his extended knowledge ofTerran TV programming for an explanation. “We’re out of the honeymoon phase.”

Confusion replaces the sadness and frustration in Gamora’sexpression. “The what?”

“On Terra, after people get married, they go on a specialvacation alone to celebrate called a ‘honeymoon.’ Since they just got married, they’re so busy beinghappy and stuff to really notice any big problems that they’ll probably end upfacing later in their marriage,” he explains. “So when two people are dating,or courting, or whatever, there’sthis part in the beginning, right after they first got together, where it feelslike everything’s perfect, nothing could go wrong, things will for sure improve, but…” He gestures between them, as she hadmoments before. “Then it eventually ends because the reality that, hey, you’restill not going to always get along with this person and agree with them on everything, inevitably sets in.”

Just as it has now.

“So, yeah, we’ve finally come face-to-face with the realitythat us being together isn’t the perfect endgame to every problem, I guess,” hecontinues carefully.

(He tries to ignore the nervousness expanding in his chestat the direction the conversation’s going, because, honestly, despite theirepic argument earlier, he’s somewhat convinced himself that being with Gamorais one of the coolest things ever,but it’s because he respects her that he can’t force her to feel the same way.)

(Because if she wants to call it quits…he respects her too much to stop her.)

She considers his words for several, silent moments.

“So…we are no longer as perfect of a couple as we initiallybelieved ourselves to be.”

“Yeah.” He nods. “This is usually the make-it-or-break-itpart of the relationship. At least, that’s what’d happened on TV. This is whenpeople figure out if they should stay together.”

“Have you figured the answer out for yourself yet?” sheasks.

“I…have,” he replies cautiously, trying to gauge herresponse. “And you…?”

“I have.” She stands up then, grasping his hands and pullinghim closer to her. “I want to keep fighting.”

“You want us to keep arguingforever?” 

“No, not like that,” she corrects with a small smile. “Iwant to keep fighting to stay with you, which means persevering in a galaxythat occasionally seems to want us dead.”

He laughs andsqueezes her hands, feeling his muscles relax and heartbeat slow. “Oh, good, Iwas a little worried there for a sec.”

“If we are goingto be in a…’relationship,’ or what have you, now, we should probably try to resolve our arguments more efficiently,” she says softly. “Weshould talk about what happened earlier.”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your injury?” she asks, hertone careful to exclude anger.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal?” he tries, butshe maintains her hard, calculated gaze. “Well, okay, yes, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but that’s ‘causebefore…before Ego happened, it wouldn’thave been, since I was still part…well, you know.”

And that’s the ugly, terrifying truth Peter’s been trying toevade for hours now. Before they killed Ego and he was still part-Celestial,Peter had actually been able to escape serious injury a lot more easily. He’d recover quickly enough for injuries (like theone he’d suffered today) to practically disappear overnight.

But now he’s “normal,” or whatever, which has now knockedhim down a few pegs, physically speaking.

He briefly recalls his argument with Gamora back on Ego’splanet, and judging by her thoughtful expression, he has a feeling she is, too,especially when the first thing she says is, “I never thought of you as the ‘weaklink,’ or anything of the sort. More physically disadvantaged than the rest ofus, perhaps, because of your Terran background, but never weak.”

“I’m sorry I said all those things,” he murmurs, feelingguilt claw at his heart. Their fight on Ego’s planet had been one of theirugliest, but their usual post-argument routine (which typically consisted of the silenttreatment, snide comments, disagreeing on literally everything else, or any combination of all of the above) had beenskipped entirely because the next thing Peter knew, he was being used as a battery forEgo.

“It’s okay,” she reassures him. “Ego is, actually, part ofthe reason I reacted the way I did earlier as well. It’s just…I almost lost youback there, on Ego’s planet, and I just haven’t been able to shake this fear—“

Days after the events on Ego’s planet had taken place,Gamora had briefly mentioned what had happened when Mantis actually managedto touch her, how it had woken up a fear that she’d managed to bury so deeplyfor so long. But ever since Mantis’ touch, coupled with everything that hadhappened back there, Gamora’s been a bit more shaken up than usual.

“It’s okay to be afraid,” Peter reassures her when she neverpicks the sentence back up.

“It’s childish,” Gamora insists quietly, almost ashamed. “It’snot important.”

“But you’reimportant, Gamora,” he reminds her, releasing her hands so he can embrace her. “Notonly to me, but to everyone else on this ship. Your feelings matter.”

She hugs him back, breathing a sigh into his shoulder. “You’reimportant, too, Peter. That’s why I get upset when you downplay things likethis.”

“Well, I’ll try to work on that,” he says earnestly,because, honestly? Gamora deserves the effort, so he’s willing to try. “You’reright. This honest communication thing works a lot better than the silent treatment.”

She laughs at that. “Thank you, Peter.”

He breaks the hug then, meeting her eyes. “Can you work onsomething for me, too?”

“Yes?”

“Just letting me know when you’re…upset,” he says. “Whenever you’re sad or scared or whatever, you cantalk to me about it. I want to bethere for you, because you’re always there for me.”

“I’ll try,” she murmurs, a bit uncertainly, but he knowsher, and Gamora never puts less than100% effort into anything she does. He trusts her.

“We’ve successfully survived past the honeymoon phase!” heannounces. She smiles at that, but rolls her eyes when his attempt to raise hisarms in a true victory pose endsabruptly with a string of muttered curses over the pain.

“Can you please gosleep off your injury now?”

send me a ship + a number from this **new** list (pls specify it’s the new list tho)!!!!

[millcdaze]

☂ want it 0:0 at worst | jinkook | t+ | 1,426w  10 genre ficlet challenge: 3. crack/(crude!!) humour—jinkook basically an extended dick joke because dick jokes are the epitome of comedy

❀

It has been one day since Jungkook has been told to eat a dick and zero days since he has eaten a dick. Conversely, it has been zero days since Seokjin has both been told to and eaten a dick. This scoreboard is kept on a little magnetic white board stuck to the door of their refrigerator where anyone who walks into their apartment can see it. Consequently, upon seeing this board, their friends gag violently and either throw themselves onto the couch or out the door.

But that sounds like their problem.

This is all beside the point. The point is that Jungkook has a reputation to keep, a personal goal to maintain. This is why when he rolls out of bed, stumbles into the kitchen to get a glass of water, and sees the ‘one day ago’ in his Go Eat A Dick column, he knows what he must do. He downs half the glass, gargles with the rest, and hums do re mi on his way back to their room.

When Seokjin drew up the scoreboard it was with the intention of encouraging Jungkook to be less of a little shit. Sadly, for Seokjin, it only encourages Jungkook to go above and beyond in his efforts, which in turn encourages Seokjin, and now they’re both insufferable.

If Seokjin really wanted Jungkook to return to his average levels of shittiness then he would take down the scoreboard. Instead he encourages Jungkook half the time and laughs over it all the time. This is partially his fault.

He eases the door open and slinks into bed as quietly as he can. Usually, Jungkook sleeps after Seokjin and wakes up after him, so it’s a wonder to see Seokjin still asleep. That means Seokjin must be goddamn tired, and he’s going to hate Jungkook for waking him up. Perfect. Jungkook presses himself against Seokjin’s back, leans over his shoulder to trail a finger through his hair at his nape and licks his ear, which has Seokjin whining and trying to shake him off.

“It’s Friday,” Jungkook says quietly, and when Seokjin hums in response he continues, “do you have work today?”

It’s quiet save for the hum of the air conditioner and the sound of Seokjin’s breathing evening out. It sounds like Seokjin’s asleep again until he sucks in a breath and rasps, “Sadly.”

“Then you’re late.” Seokjin huffs and mumbles some plan to shirk the blame, so Jungkook gets comfortable on Seokjin and starts singing in his ear, “How can you see into my eyes like open doors?”

Seokjin groans immediately and hisses, “Amy Lee sings it so much better,” which means Jungkook is successfully pissing him off and waking him up. Jungkook continues.

To Seokjin’s credit, he diligently ignores Jungkook’s prodding and singing, right up until the chorus when Jungkook takes a deep breath. Seokjin’s eyes fly open on cue and Jungkook rolls onto Seokjin, effectively trapping and crushing him into the bed with his weight, yelling into his ear, “Wake me up!”

Seokjin thrashes and cusses him out, but Jungkook clings to him until Seokjin spits out the magic words, “Eat a dick, I fucking hate you-” Seokjin’s voice catches in his throat as he twists suddenly, fitting his palm against Jungkook’s face with a great huff but pushing weakly. “Get off me!” He manages to shake Jungkook off because Jungkook is too busy laughing to stop him. The irritation flushes Seokjin’s skin red, from the high of his cheeks to the plane of his chest, and, and- How could he yell all that in one breath then throw himself from the bed to the bathroom in such a smooth rage?

Five minutes later Seokjin has locked Jungkook out of the bathroom and Jungkook erases the one from the board, replacing it with a perfectly rounded zero. His eyes burn and try to glue themselves shut as he shivers in the kitchen’s 6am cold, but he already feels accomplished for the day.

❀

When Seokjin strides into the kitchen, feeding his agent some elaborate (unbelievable) lie that perfectly explains why he’ll be ten minutes late then shoving his phone into his pocket, Jungkook is sitting on the counter that's only warm because it's absorbing half of his body heat, swinging his legs as he slurps the last of his cereal.

“Just cereal for breakfast?”

“The breakfast of champions.”

“Not under this roof,” Seokjin leans in for a kiss, stealing one when Jungkook makes a face over the cereal comment. “Get something else later.”

“What about you, think I don’t know how often you skip?” Exhibit A: right now. Seokjin is going to be out the door within ten minutes.

“I always make up for it, Kookie. I get paid to look good.”

“You always look good,” Jungkook huffs, pressing his mouth to Seokjin’s hard enough that their teeth knock together painfully; Seokjin hisses but doesn’t pull away. That wasn’t the intent so Jungkook makes up for it with careful pecks to Seokjin’s bottom lip, both lips, the corner of his mouth. “Do you have a shoot today?”

“Yeah.” Jungkook twists his face into the ugliest frown he can muster and Seokjin almost doubles over, which would have led to him dunking his beautiful face into Jungkook’s beautiful bowl of cereal. That would be such a good look; if that's not a runway look, what is? Seokjin catches himself with a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder and his whole face smooths out with his big, breathtaking smile that leaves Jungkook feeling like a lost, lovestruck boy all over again. “Don't make that face. It'll be fine.”

“Better be,” Jungkook means to sound every bit as petulant as it comes out, but Seokjin just laughs and slides his hand from Jungkook’s shoulder up along his neck to push his fingers into Jungkook’s hair, curling and uncurling them against his nape over and over. Jungkook leans into the warmth of his hand as much as he can. He almost forgets about his cereal. “They think I can't find them? I'm the best sniper I know.”

“Of course you are.”

Jungkook fixes Seokjin with a sharp look and Seokjin cocks a brow. “I am.”

“Don't worry your pretty little head. Yoongi’s in charge of today's shoot.” That's promising. Jungkook breaks into a grin, just thinking of messing with Yoongi makes him want to retract maybe a fraction of his threats. Only a minuscule fraction because messing with Yoongi is fun. Seokjin ruffles his hair then taps him on his forehead. “See? It'll be as fine as can be.”

“Okay, okay. Get your ass to work.”

“Not without my goodbye kiss,” Seokjin somehow puckers his lips mid-sentence so Jungkook pinches his nose and presses a quick kiss to his lips before letting go with a grin. Seokjin rubs his nose and jams the thumb of his free hand into the corner of Jungkook’s grin. “Good enough, brat.”

Jungkook only grins wider. His cheeks hurt with it and Seokjin’s thumb slides into his mouth so Jungkook bites it the way any loving boyfriend would. Seokjin pulls his hand away, wiping the spit off his thumb on his jeans, and Jungkook snorts. “Get outta here, old man.”

“Love you, li’l shit.” Seokjin glides towards the door, all grace, stopping only to look at their scoreboard and flip Jungkook off. “Change that zero to a minus one because you can go eat a dick instead of that damn cereal.”

“Math almost sucks as much as you do.” Jungkook brings his bowl to his mouth to slurp some milk and Seokjin rolls his eyes, grabbing his bag and pulling the door open. “Bye, baby. Love you too,” Jungkook finishes and Seokjin flashes him a grin as he shuts the door.

This is unheard of. Waking up before Seokjin and earning two points in the same morning? Is Jungkook, like, a god now? He deserves a reward. He’s going to lie in bed all day and play Seokjin’s MapleStory file because Seokjin is selfish and over-levelled.

Half an hour later Jungkook’s phone beeps like a Mario power-up and when he pauses the game he sees a message from Seokjin flash onscreen:

I'm serious. Order takeout or smth. Btw do u want bbq for dinner?

Suddenly, replying to this text is incredibly important: Bbq and smth else ;)Two seconds later Seokjin responds with: Deleting u.

That period means Seokjin is serious. Wait!! I can change, pls :”( 

Sry bby break’s over. Go eat.Actual food.

Fine. Always so bossy. Loving, but bossy. Love u 2. ♡