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bunny-lily · 4 months

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Tether Me - Chapter 4

Pairing(s): Geto/Gojo/Reader

Summary: Sweet, cold, saintly watermelon spread over your tongue and you ascended, tilting your head back as you nursed the popsicle like it was the ambrosia of the gods themselves.

Satoru skewed over and dropped his head on your shoulder, making you lour at him. You very much did not need someone else’s muggy body heat worsening the already unbearably humid air.

“Fan me,” he demanded, and you poked his cheek with your popsicle, leaving a sticky spot behind.

“Fan yourself,” you rejected.

Suguru chuckled to himself. “You’ll get used to it and learn how to manage.”

“Has this house really been abandoned for only 20 years?” You grunted as you forced a scraper under a crumpled section of a newspaper that might as well have been glued to the ground on purpose. Your arms trembled from the strain, knuckles drained of blood, your hands fighting for their lives to finally free the paper of its wooden prison.

With a shallow yelp from you, the scraper came loose, only taking a quarter of the browned paper with it. The section ripped partially through the head of a baseball player, giving him a rather unfortunate face lift.

“That’s what everyone says,” Suguru confirmed as he worked on scrubbing a chunk of the floor like he was trying to avenge someone. His nose wrinkled in disgust when he lifted the rag and observed the dark grime stuck to it. “I asked my gran, she said that she can’t remember the family’s name, something starting on ‘Fu’. Father, mother, and their son. The mother was diagnosed with some sort of illness that the village doctor couldn’t manage, so they had to go to the city.”

“Oh,” you frowned as you sat back on your heels. “Did she survive?”

He shrugged, dipping the rag into the bucket of once clean water beside him. “No idea. They weren’t super close with any of the villagers here, so there weren’t any updates after they left. I assume she didn’t, since they never returned here.”

“That’s sad,” you spoke low as you tossed the piece of ew away in the bag beside you. “I hope they’re okay, one way or another.”

The two of you worked together in the living room, peeling useless bits of goo and gunk to clean the house inch by inch. You'd already finished with the first pass of the kitchen, hallway, and master bedroom. After getting the go-ahead from Uncle Han a bit ago (you felt weird calling him that, but he insisted), you decided to start indoors to spare yourselves from the ever rising sun. With summer approaching, the lawn had been dealt with promptly, the three of you moving through it surprisingly speedily with teamwork.

Satoru, for all his rich boy credit, was actually helping. You were honestly expecting him to maybe work for five minutes, then laze around and whine about being bored, but you were pleasantly surprised by his productivity.

For one, he’d been gathering various architecture and designer house catalogues; stuff that was in, stuff that was out, and everything in between. Whatever might strike your fancy, he was there to offer his input, whether asked or not. You could tell he was having fun showing off expensive house designs, even if it was way too early to be looking at paint colors and matching furniture. He was acting like it was his house that was getting renovated.

He was also helpful with the physical labor portion of fixing this mess up, putting those beefy biceps to good use. He’d done some wondrous work in the kitchen.

That’s not to say he didn’t whine about boredom and hardship and whatnot, but at least he was working while doing so.

Presently, he was in the smaller room opposite to the master bedroom, addressing the tatami issue. Said issue being that the material was practically cemented to the floor below, strangely crunchy for being stiff as a brick, and very much showing its age.

He was experimenting with various methods for prying it off, at his own assertion. It gave him the opportunity to lean into that primal urge to break shit, and who were you to take that away from him?

Every few minutes, you’d hear a muted thud, some strangled noises, and a delightful little swear here and there. You’d learned that he quite hated tatami as a kid, annoyed that he had to be careful with it. He was grumpy that he couldn’t run about and stomp his feet like the spoiled child he was because it’d get damaged, then his folks would get mad. Now, he had the perfect excuse to take all that pent up anger out on some actual tatami.

“You think he’s having fun in there?” You asked as you lifted off another slice of the paper, turning it around in the tight pinch you held it in. Most of the words had faded off or bled from whatever liquid got onto it years prior. You could barely make out a cut-off phrase that made you snort. Left fielder is short!

Suguru sneered at the floor. “I sure hope not.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not having fun, so he doesn’t get to have fun, either.”

You rubbed your cheek against your shoulder, fighting the desire to scratch at the itch with your grubby, dirty hands. “Are boys always at each other’s throats like this?”

“Yes,” he answered bluntly, earning a half-laugh, half-cough from you.

You smiled apologetically at him. “I’m sorry. You really don’t have to do this.”

He shook his head as he got up, stripping off his yellow rubber gloves. “I’m not going to back out now after saying I’d help you. I’m gonna keep my word to you. But, I will go grab a drink and think about my life choices outside for a few minutes.”

You breathed out through your nose and waved lazily at him as he stepped out of the open front door, disappearing behind the wall. It was his idea to bring some options for hydration with him, and you lauded him as a genius for it. Even if a quarter of the options were cheap beer.

Deciding you earned yourself a break, too, you tossed whatever else you managed to free from the floor away, along with your gloves, and got up, shaking out your numb legs with a wince. Ow.

Sure, you’d done next to nothing compared to Suguru, but, oh, your back and arms felt so sore. Poor you. He could forgive you, couldn’t he?

Figuring you should check on Satoru, you trod down the hallway and stopped in the open doorway of the room he was occupying. He was turned halfway towards you, hunched over as he scratched aggressively at the floor with something you could only tell was made of metal. Sweat stuck to his forehead in a thick layer, droplets beading and running down his temples and the curve of his jaw. White hairs were plastered to his cheeks and brow, pale lashes clumped together, lips pulled into a wide grin.

A shiver dashed up your spine.

He looked positively feral.

You should probably leave him be, you didn’t want to get caught in his crossfire, lest you end up the target of his destructive goal.

You began to creep away, easing off the doorframe, hoping to avoid–

“Mochi!”

Damnit.

“Heyyy, buddy,” you greeted cautiously, meeting his gaze. His winter blues were alight with an untamed sort of fervor, sunglasses folded into the collar of his button-up. Had the moisture on the small of your back always been there? “How’s it goin’ in here?”

“It’s fuckin’ stubborn, but look!” He waved frantically to a boxy pile of…something. Vaguely tan and clumpy and gross. Listen, you weren’t very peeved out by nasty stuff as a kid, but even child you wouldn’t dare touch it.

Gojo, meanwhile, looked ecstatic, seemingly having figured out a method that worked. More or less.

The corners of your lips twitched upwards into a watery smile. Mainly because you were afraid that he’d pounce on you with that brutish glint in his intense stare if you didn’t show the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for his hard work.

“Wow!” You exclaimed, a smidge stiffly. “You’re doing a great job!”

Satoru ate that shit up. He glowed, preening under your praise, even if it felt like you were talking to a six-year-old kiddo wielding a hammer.

“I know!” He cheered. “This is fun!”

You questioned how long that zeal would last. You also debated whether or not you should tell Suguru that the maniac was having fun. You were curious to see what would happen, but you didn’t want to get dragged into the potential brawl they’d have.

The boy in front of you was panting, the collar of his shirt dampened by the droplets of effort he wiped off with it, and the temperature outside was rapidly rising. As hot as this image was, minus the eugh-factor of your house, you weren’t keen on him dying of exhaustion and leaving you short one extra pair of hands.

How noble of you.

“Wanna come take a break with me and Suguru?” You asked.

He glanced at where he paused his work, back to you, the floor, then you one more time before nodding. “Yeaaah, I did a lot, I deserve a lil’ break.”

He groaned as he pushed on his knees and rose up, absently dusting the front of his pants. You rolled your eyes at his show of theatrics, what with him stretching and whining. Not like you were any better, though.

“C’mon, you big baby,” you stepped out of the doorway, rotating to make your way down the hall.

That was, until you noticed something on the wall beside you. A black dot, or speck you hadn't seen before. A stain, perhaps; a blotch, something dark stuck to the old paint. You could've gotten it dirty(ier) while you were cleaning at some point. You leaned closer to try and decipher it, squinting–

Legs.

Not two, four, or six. Eight legs.

With a gagged gasp, you screeched and immediately booked it out of the house, adrenaline pumping through your system at mach speed. You nearly slipped as you banked the corner, your sights set on the open front door.

The blinding white of day was burning into your retinas, but you couldn’t care, you needed to get the hell out!

Instinctively, you threw yourself into a surprised Suguru’s arms the moment you stepped past the threshold as he peeked into the house, concerned by the commotion. He stumbled back a few steps, eyes wide, then released a humorous chuckle as his arms wrapped protectively around you. Sturdy, strong, safe.

“There, there,” he soothed, stroking a hand up and down your back, fingertips pressing into pressure points along your vertebrae. It was easy enough for him to figure out what got you so panicked. “You’re alright, it’s just a spider. I’ll get rid of it for you.”

“Oh, my god!” You squealed and shook like a leaf, air whistling past your larynx. “Suguru! It’s giant!”

He cooed sweetly at you, obviously entertained by your frazzled state. “It won’t hurt you, you’re fine.”

“I am not fine!”

His laugh rumbled low in his chest, right under your ear as you squeezed the life out of him. “I can’t remove it for you if you don’t let me go, angel.”

You bared your teeth at him. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

Suguru opened his mouth to respond, only to get preemptively cut off by a girlish scream originating from within the house. Seconds later, Satoru was dashing out, colliding directly with you and Suguru. A mix of stifled noises of shock erupted, and all three of you toppled right over onto the hard-packed soil.

Suguru’s arms encased more firmly around your form when Satoru tackled you, one thick arm coming to cradle the back of your head while the other constricted your waist until you were pressed immovably to his front. He pillowed your fall, even though it meant taking the brunt force of the ground’s swift ascent by himself. Satoru collapsed on top of you, leaving you sandwiched between the pair.

This was not how you imagined you’d experience your first yukadon.

Cheek pillowed by a rigid tit. Spine crushed by a dense body. Lungs utterly squashed. Lavender, cypress, and musk overwhelming your olfactory senses. Super sexy.

“Are you fucking stupid, Satoru?” Suguru hissed out, voice strained with pain, compression, and thinly-veiled anger.

“It’s fuckin’ huge, Suguru!” Satoru shrieked back. “Massive! Like, a meter long!”

Amber eyes glared over your head, still clutched to his pec. “Get the hell off, you’re crushing her. And me. You’re heavy as fuck.”

Gojo lifted himself up enough to peer at you, blinked, then laid right back down on top of you. Your wheeze of suffering did nothing to deter him. “But this is so comfy.”

“I will castrate you,” your personal airbag threatened.

Cyan eyes filled with spite as he finally rolled off of you and to the side, allowing Geto to loosen his hold until you could breathe freely. While Satoru was busy grumbling to himself and looking for his glasses, the pair having been flung off in the clamor, Suguru gazed down at you with worry pooled in his softened hues.

“You okay?” He asked.

You wiggled your toes and fingers, then nodded. “Thanks to you. I should be asking you that.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” he put away your disquiet with a smile.

You frowned at his attempt at paying no heed to the subject. “That was a pretty bad fall.”

He snorted. “I work on a farm and grew up with Satoru. I’d hardly consider that a fall.”

“Oi!” Speak of the devil. The snow-haired boy had located his glasses, it seemed, as they were resting on the bridge of his nose, free of dirt and dust by some miracle. “Get up already, lovebirds.”

Fire exploded across your cheeks and the tips of your ears as you realized the position you were in – straddling your friend’s waist, chest-to-chest, his strong arms enclosing you to keep you close.

You yelped and scrambled out of his hold, keenly aware that you were only able to leap off of him and stagger away because he let you do so. He was laughing breathlessly as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, endeared by your embarrassed reaction. He grabbed the hand his best friend offered him, their palms clapping as he got tugged onto his feet.

Meanwhile, you were fanning your face in a hopeless attempt to cool the steam lifting from your head, swearing up and down that it was the budding summer heat and not because you got stacked like pancakes by two unreasonably attractive men.

Yeah, that’s what it was.

The sun.

The literal sun, not the sun incarnated in the form of a man that was currently busy brushing off his pants, aided by Satoru clearing his back of debris.

Thank the gods you had tossed the murderous stepping stones off to one corner of the house just a few days prior. You did not want to think about what would have happened to Suguru’s pretty body if you hadn’t.

“You sure you’re okay?” The above-mentioned man with said pretty body called out to you.

You startled in place and cried out the first thing that came to mind. “You’re hot!” Fuck. “I-I mean, it’s– it’s hot! Outside! Right now! We should, uh, stop here for the day!”

Good save.

Dumbass.

You would have smacked your own head with a brick if it wouldn’t attract their attention and make them think you were crazy. Or worse. Turned on.

Suguru and Satoru shared a glance, exchanging in a silent conversation, then Satoru was walking over to the bag of snacks the former brought along, digging around it for a can of soda. He retrieved a separate can of light booze for the other boy, passing it along as they both shortened the distance between you.

“You sure you wanna call it for the day?” Geto asked, his drink opening with an acute crack and tss, shortly followed by Gojo’s. Thank God they seemed to worn to tease you for your slip up.

Breathing deeply to settle your nerves, you dipped your head twice. “Yeah, it’s starting to get too hot for me.”

For too many damn reasons.

He hummed, sipping his drink as he peered at the chalk-haired boy, who took a sizable gulp in comparison. “Fine by me,” he ground out past the tingle of carbonation, fingers threading through damp, white tresses. “I don’t wanna die of heatstroke.”

“How about we head to the park, then?” Suguru suggested as he stepped away to shut the front door, like that’d prevent intruders or something. The extra security was unneeded, the house itself was enough of a deterrent. “We can stop at Granny’s on the way.”

“Sure,” you assented rather easily. You liked the park. Sitting in the shade, surrounded by the sweet fragrance of the flora there, sounded like a wonderful idea.

Satoru was not as keen. “In this heat? No way.”

His best friend patted his shoulder, gulping down a swig of his drink before responding. “You gotta touch grass at least once in a while, dude. C’mon, it won’t be so bad.”

“Fine. But if I die, I’m haunting you.”

“You’re not gonna die, don’t be a drama queen,” he said pragmatically.

You simpered to yourself as you went to grab Suguru’s backpack, zipping it up to keep everything inside. The last thing you needed was to embarrass yourself more by spilling everything. You grabbed one of the straps, ready to hoist it over your shoulder, just for a big hand to grab it by the top handle and tug it out of your palms.

You didn’t even get a second to prepare to fight for it, the coarse material easily slipping from your grip in a pathetic display of weakness. Your guard wasn’t up. You never stand a chance.

Your head snapped up to find Geto himself, his bag resting against his back as he held it by that same handle, fingers half-closed near his shoulder. He gave you a charming grin, eyes squinted from the squish of his cheeks.

“Hey!” You gaped, hopping up to your feet. “I can carry it, I’m not helpless!”

The hell you aren’t.

He tipped his head back to finish off his drink, his Adam’s apple bobbing and causing more sweat to form on your brow, then tucked the empty can into his pocket to properly toss out later. “You aren’t,” he agreed, ruffling your hair affectionately with his now free hand, “but what kind of gentleman would I be if I let the lovely lady do all the work?”

All the work? You barely did any work. But, you did like being called lovely, so you supposed you could let it go this once.

Satoru scoffed. “Gentleman? You watched Shoko lug a heavy ass box of shit up two flights of stairs just last week. Hardly call that gentlemanly.”

“You think I’m going anywhere near Shoko and her medical supplies?” Honey-toned irises shifted from you to him. “Hell no. She’d have my head on a pike if I even got close to them.”

“You won’t hold the door open for Utahime,” he accused.

“I’ve held the door for her before. The only person I wouldn’t hold the door for is you, Satoru,” Suguru’s hand drifted to rest below the nape of your neck, scorching the exposed skin there.

He pressed lightly, urging you to start walking with them in the direction of town.

The 6’3” child moped, his eyes drooping. “My own best friend hates me. Practically my brother, and he wants me to die.”

Geto rolled his eyes and bent down to stage-whisper to you. “Drama queen.”

“I heard that!” Satoru exclaimed.

“That was the point.”

You sighed with levity, shaking your head. “Could you two at least try to not kill each other until we get to Granny’s?”

“No promises,” they both responded in unison.

They bickered back and forth over your head, one using you as a shield while the other used you as an excuse to ‘behave’. Not that it stopped either of them from hurling immature threats and insults, each one making you think about how a butterfly felt more scary than either of them.

Or, your presence was taming them after all, and they were more vicious when they didn’t have someone standing guard. What would happen if you were on the other side of one of them? Would the result be the same?

Since when were you into psychology?

“Oi,” a finger jabbed into your cheek, bringing you back to the present, where your trio was crossing over the bridge. “Don’t zone out. Pay attention to me.”

You sent the offending boy a sidelong glance, meeting his intensely cobalt, insisting stare, yet he reveled in it all the same. Attention was attention.

“I’m not zoning out,” liar, “I’m just thinking.”

“About what? About us?” He teased, poking your cheek again.

He squawked and jumped back when you bluffed a strike at him, your teeth snapping dangerously close to his finger.

“Not like that!” He hissed, nursing his finger to his chest. He went as far as pressing the digit against the likely lukewarm can of soda he still had, exaggerating his obvious injury. You know, the one that didn’t exist.

Suguru barked out a laugh. “Like I said; drama queen.”

Satoru harrumphed, mumbling incoherent grievances as he pressed the rim of his drink to his lips, presumably to ‘politely’ muffle his quips with sips of carbonation.

You wanted to bully him a little more, ribbing him when you had the high ground was too much fun.

Geto would probably have more material for you to work with.

“Hey, Suguwu, do you–” you abruptly cut yourself off and slapped a hand over your mouth.

So much for high ground.

Satoru snorted his soda out through his nose and yowled, crying out in pain between guffaws as he clutched his hand over his lips in a hopeless attempt to catch any spare liquid.

Suguru raised a brow at you, a bemused smile spreading lazily across his face, turning his eyes into mirthful, mischievous crescents. “Pardon?”

Your entire face glowing a deep shade of vermillion. “I– can we just pretend–”

“Suguwu!” Gojo wheezed, arms coiling around his stomach, free hand grasping the side of his shirt for dear life. “Y’hear that, Suguwu? Think the lady has something to say, Suguwu. Hah!”

“Don't tease her so much, Satoru. I think it's cute,” he said, adjusting his backpack to hang on his back by one strap.

“Can you, please, just let me die now,” you grumbled, hiding your face with your hand placed flat along the side. You felt like you pulled the pin on a flashbang but forgot to throw it.

Gojo wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm, coughing out whatever liquid had gotten caught down the wrong pipe. You could hear him crooning at you, but you were trying desperately to focus on your destination as it came into view, hoping and praying that Granny would save you.

Or someone, anyone, else.

“Hello!”

Prayers answered! For once!

Your head perked up at the sound of a familiar voice as you approached the store, and you were immensely grateful for the divine timing of your arrival. Candied reprieve kissed your skin, easing your humiliation right away.

“Iori-san!” You called back, returning the wave she sent you in greeting. Spotting a head of brunette hair next to her, you shifted your attention to her companion, lighting up further with both relief and joy. “Oh, hey–”

“Aha!” Satoru jogged forward and spun around, throwing his arm around a less-than-amused Shoko’s shoulders. “This is Ieiri Shoko, she’s the doctor I warn– told you about!”

“Ah, we already met,” you grinned at Shoko, who gave you a ‘can you believe this shit?’ look.

“Wait, what?” He blinked at you. “Really?”

You nodded in confirmation. “Yeah. She called you an idiot.”

Suguru snorted into his palm, briskly facing away to poorly conceal his swallowed back laughter.

Satoru balked, blinking between you and your mutual friend when she shoved his arm off her. “When was this?”

“Uh…” You pressed your curved index against your chin, calculating. “Same day you and I met, actually.”

He looked completely aghast, utterly betrayed. “Wh– that was ages ago! Why didn’t you tell me!?”

You lifted and dropped your shoulders, grinning sheepishly. “Didn’t cross my mind?”

Deflating with a wispy wheeze that imitated a sad balloon, he pouted and turned his back on the entire group. “Can’t trust anyone around here. Keepin’ secrets, callin’ me a drama queen and an idiot.

Shoko rolled her eyes. “You are a drama queen and an idiot, Satoru,” she grunted and shook her head, then shot a relaxed smile your way. “Thanks for the macarons, by the way. They were delicious.”

“Yeah!” Utahime bobbed her head. “You’re an amazing baker.”

You scratched your neck with one hand and patted Satoru’s back with the other to comfort him. “I actually only know how to make macarons.”

Utahime shuffled closer to you, mouth parted with disbelief. “What? No way! I bet you’d make a great baker! Nothing like that idiot over there,” the bridge of her nose wrinkled with distaste as she sent the whining baby a scathing side-eye.

“I told you she bullies me!” He was looking your way in an instant. “It’s her fault I’m like this! How is any of this fair?”

“She’s older than you, so she gets to bully you,” Shoko stated. “Sibling rules.”

“We are not siblings!” Utahime shouted, nose and forehead flushed red with anger. “Shoko! How could you say that!”

Satoru took that statement and ran. “By that logic, I get to bully Suguru!”

“You already do,” Geto responded.

You blinked, and found a face unexpectedly very close to yours. “What about you, huh?” Ocean blues pierced into the depths of your soul. “You bully me a lot, too. Does that mean you’re older than me– agh!”

He clutched the back of his head where Iori had landed an expert hit, delivered with a precision mastered only after years of training. “Jerk! Don’t you know not to ask a woman her age!?”

“Why is everyone abusing me today? What did I do to any of you, huh?” He sniffled, bottom lip jutting out as he pinned his watery, puppy-dog eyes on you.

Okay, now you were starting to feel bad. Letting go of a shallow, defeated exhale, you opened your arms to him.

His expression changed to glee faster than you could realize, and within seconds, you were being crushed against his chest. You didn’t give consideration to how strong he was, woefully unaware that his forearms alone could exert enough pressure on your limbs to make a few joints pop.

“Yippee! I knew someone cared about me!” He stuck his tongue out at everyone else, then nuzzled himself deep into the crook of your neck.

Too hot, too hot, too hot!

“Yeah, yeah,” you hacked out, patting his back. “You can let me go, now.”

“No way,” he refused, breath tickling your collarbone. “This is the least I deserve.”

Shoko was in your peripheral, a wicked smirk on her lips as she stuck a cigarette between them. You mouthed help me to her, and gaped when she pretended to get distracted and miss your S.O.S. request.

Screw Shoko, Utahime was your favorite person now. She was by you in a snap, prying the arms of steel keeping you caged off of you. Her strength was impressive, especially given that Satoru was actively fighting her on it. There was a hand on your shoulder, coaxing you to duck down under their arms, and dash into the safe haven that was Granny’s shop.

Sweet, sweet AC.

You visibly shuddered as a blast of arctic air hit you. Heaven was in all the things easily taken for granted.

The chime of the bell summoned the old lady out of thin air – or it might have been her ‘you’ senses, she had a keen perception for when you’d be coming.

“Oh, hello!” She welcomed you warmly, wholly ignoring the second person with you as she scurried across the floor to reach you.

Granny grasped you by the shoulders and pulled you close, pressing a couple wet, loud kisses on your cheeks, right in front of your ears, making your eardrums pop. Your theory that the sound of kisses grew louder with age was gaining credence.

“How are you feeling, dear? You aren’t working too hard, are you?” She planted the back of her hand against your forehead, steamrolling right along and not giving you a chance to respond. “Oh, my, you’re so warm! Are you feeling feverish? Sick? I’m telling you, you should leave that house to the men who are used to working in those conditions.”

“Granny–”

“Sit, sit, let me get you some water,” she nudged you towards the familiar stool you’d taken respite on many times now, ready to zip away to retrieve that promised glass of water.

“Hey, Granny,” Suguru interrupted that plan by raising a hand in greeting, only to be subsequently pummeled by an angered grandmother. “Ow–”

“Some man you are, letting a lady get ill!” She shamed him.

You immediately hopped up, bolting to his rescue. “Granny! Granny, I’m not sick, it’s okay! It’s just hot outside today.”

She stopped her volley of attacks on the poor, innocent man to take in your appearance. She lifted your arms, eyeing down your figure carefully, then hmphed.

“My apologies, darling,” she reached up to pinch Suguru’s cheek, which somehow looked more painful than the fairly weak smacks she delivered earlier. She was easily able to tug him down to be eye-to-eye with her. “But you have been taking care of her, haven’t you?”

Still, he put on a smile and nodded. “Of course, I have been.”

She smiled broadly at him and released his cheek, patting it gently twice. “My, what a good boy you are. But, if I hear you’ve been mistreating her, I won’t hesitate to beat you with my geta and bury you beside that fish of yours.”

Suguru grimaced as he rubbed the tender spot she had pinched, rising back up to his full height. “Ouch, Granny. Don’t worry, I’ve been keeping an eye on her.”

You planted your hands on your hips, eye twitching with irritation. “I’m right here. And, I can take care of myself, you know?”

“I carry extra bottles of water because you always underestimate how thirsty you get,” he fired back. “You sweat it out faster than you think you do.”

You coughed into your fist. That was fucking embarrassing. Now you were worried you had a sweating problem. “Maybe I’m a little forgetful, but it’s not that bad.”

This time, Granny was on your ass. “You need to take better care of yourself!”

“Granny–”

“What if you didn’t have such a dependable, strong, young man to take care of you?” She tutted in disappointment. “What about when your husband is away at work?” – HUSBAND!? – “Will you forget to drink water then, too?”

You half-inhaled your spit, looking up towards Suguru for help in getting out of your pseudo-grandmother’s scolding–

You almost questioned if you were imagining the flashing dots outlining him – or, rather, where he used to be. A quick twist of your head proved he had already sauntered off somewhere towards the back of the store, if the thump of a fridge door was anything to go by.

“Are you listening to me, young lady?” Holy shit, for being an older woman, her pinches hurt.

“Ai– yes, I’m listening,” you assured her, wincing. Looks like you had no savior to get you out of this one. There was some muffled yelling outside the glass pane behind you, implying that the three that didn’t come in were too busy squabbling to see you getting reprimanded.

Though, knowing Satoru, he’d just use this as ammunition against you.

She jiggled your cheek. “Very good. You’re a beautiful woman, you need to take care of yourself. Lots of water, avoid direct sunlight, make sure you eat well, all that. Understood?”

“Understood,” you assented.

That good-natured smile of hers was back, and you were pulled into yet another hug. “D’aw, I can’t stay mad at you, you’re too sweet. Don’t go letting anyone take advantage of that.”

There was only so much of the embrace you could return when your arms were pinned to your sides by your unnaturally brawny kinda-grandma, leaving you to awkwardly prop your chin on her shoulder. “I know, Granny.”

That was a lesson you learned a long time ago.

You observed Suguru as he walked between the aisles while he grabbed some stuff, his head sticking out high above the shelves. When he emerged back out at the front, you were seated on the stool that basically belonged to you at this point. He carefully set his gathered spoils on the counter next to the cash register, then slipped past you to go behind the counter.

His hand briefly rubbed your knee, something you noticed he did from time to time. While he wasn’t nearly as touchy as Satoru, who didn’t know the definition of personal space, he did often give you comforting nudges like that.

You noted with curiosity how familiar he seemed with ringing up his products by himself, working swiftly to tally them. Based on Granny’s lack of reaction when she returned with a mug, she trusted him to pay properly.

Smooth ceramic was placed within your palms, and you brought it up to guzzle down the life-saving liquid within. Damn, Suguru was right, you had no idea how thirsty you were. In terms of hydration, anyway. You were painfully aware of your other shortcomings.

“How’s that house of yours coming along?” She asked, resting a weathered hand on your upper thigh.

You hummed past a gulp, then answered. “Good, I think. We’re still washing the floors, but we’ve already cleaned up a lot. Satoru’s been dealing with the tatami in one of the rooms. It’s been stubborn as hell so far.”

“Try soaking it for a while beforehand,” she suggested. “And ventilate well. Goodness knows what’s been in there.”

Comforting. “We have been, don’t worry. Suguru managed to get all the windows open, which has been a huge relief.”

The elder leaned in close to you, ‘whispering’ in what could have only been a singular decibel quieter than normal talking. “See? Reliable, strong man. He’d take good care of you, I’ve known him since he was a child. Very dependable.”

Wha–

Was she trying to set you up with him!?

You glared at him when you heard him laughing under his breath, having heard her suggestion. It’d be more shocking if he didn’t.

Instead of coming to dispel her wild offer, he stuffed his goods away into a bag and walked towards the exit. You got up to follow after hastily finishing your drink and letting her take the empty mug from you, fully intending to give them both a piece of your mind the next chance you got. “Thank you for the water, Granny. We’ll head out, now.”

“I left some extra cash for you, Granny,” Suguru said as he held the door open for you. “From my mom, paying you back.”

She clicked her tongue. “I told her not to worry about it. Be safe, you two. Suguru, tell your mother to sleep with one eye open.”

“Will do,” he agreed too easily for such a casual threat, pushing you out into the humid summer air, and you were tempted to return to the sanctity of her air-conditioned shop.

“You’re back! Thank God!” Utahime ushered you further away from your salvation, to which you whined and peered back at it forlornly. “Come with me to the shrine! I found more mythological history books recently, and you promised to tell me about Sne– sneguh– snah?”

“Snegurochka,” you corrected.

“Yeah! Her!”

A limb wrapped around your middle, drawing you back into a board chest. “No can do, Utahime!” Satoru shut her down cheerily, pressing his cheek against yours. “She already agreed to go on a date with me to the park.”

Utahime’s appalled expression was mirrored in your own. Her upper lip lifted in a snarl directed at your captor and…date, apparently.

“Like hell! I’m not letting you corrupt my friend!” She growled.

“Corrupt?” He pouted, playing the part of virtuous maiden. “Me? Why, I’d never.”

Suguru crossed his arms over his chest. “With us, Satoru. Don’t forget about me.”

“Hard to when your head is so big,” the other boy snapped in return.

You gawked at Geto, disbelieving. He was supposed to be your savior! “It is not a date! Don’t go making Iori-san and Shoko think the wrong things!”

“Welp, I gotta head back to the clinic,” Shoko said as her name was called, beginning to walk past. She patted your bicep on the way. “Good luck.”

“Shoko!” You cried out after her. “Come back here!”

She merely waved over her shoulder with her cigarette pinched between her fingers, blowing out a stream of smoke.

Utahime cupped your face in her hands, expression taut with seriousness. “Blink twice if they’re holding you prisoner.”

You heard ‘blink’ and went with it, batting your eyes as fast as you could.

“I knew it!” She bayed, tugging at Satoru’s arms – but she couldn’t free you. “Let go of her, you dog!”

He jerked his head towards the hill her shrine sat atop and gasped theatrically. “Oh, no! Is that a fire near your shrine?”

“What!?” She whirled around in horror, opening up the opportunity for him to tow you away, one arm staying around your waist while he led you into an unwilling sprint.

“Ohp, so sorry, guess I was wrong!” He yelled back, giggling at the rage painted all over her twisted expression.

“Satoru!” She shrieked, watching with grit teeth as Suguru jogged to catch up. “Yeah! Get him, Suguru–” Her jaw dropped when he grabbed your hand with his free one, making you run faster. “Oh, Heaven’s sake, not you, too!”

What the fuck! You didn’t agree to extra exercise today! And poor Utahime! You really hoped she wasn’t assuming things about your relationship with the men.

“Hey– guys! Slow down, damnit!” You heaved out. “Ugh! You two are awful!”

They simply laughed, hauling you right along to the park. Their long ass strides made this hell for you, and you were certain that if the park wasn’t so close, you would have eaten shit and died from the amount of times you stumbled. Their tight grips kept you from falling, and you partially wished they’d just let you collapse.

Pavement gave way to grass, the impact of your shoes becoming dulled. After running a few steps further, they finally gave you mercy and let go of you, slowing their gaits to a stop.

You slapped your hands against your knees, greedily sucking in air through the ache in your throat.

“You two–” pant, “really–” pant, “fucking–” pant, “suck.”

Satoru snickered and smoothed a hand over your messy tendrils, ignoring your death stare, finding it humorous in your current state. “Aww, come on! That was fun!”

“You’re gonna give Iori-san and Shoko the wrong idea,” you groaned, wiping wetness off your brow.

He feigned innocence. “What idea?”

Bastard.

“That we– tch,” you took in one more deep breath to catch your breath. “Nevermind. Shut up.”

“Don’t be like that!” He purred, right on your tail as you trudged to a nearby maple tree.

With the impromptu run, plus the season, the heat was finally getting to you. For all of Satoru’s bravado, you took solace in the fact that it also looked like the temperature was affecting him.

You flopped down under a maple tree you picked out and loafed back on your palms, trying to survive the immense wave of evil weather that chose to sweep across the valley. You felt like you were turning into a prune, or a sponge that got tossed into an oven set on broil, despite all the sweating. You weren’t a stranger to high summer temperatures, but this was asininity.

Somehow, you survived the trip to the park, mourning the glacial morning dew that had long since evaporated, leaving the grass tepid at best. But you’d take anything, whatever it cost to keep you from roasting like a fine crème brûlée.

Satoru dropped down beside you, not doing much better than you, and Suguru slumped against the bark of the hulking plant, taking respite under it.

The shrill songs of cicadas took presence everywhere, chirping and pestering the females in hopes of copulating and passing along their live-underground-for-17-years genes.

You were immensely happy that you managed to clear out most of your lawn before the true harshness of the season kicked into full swing. You would not have lived through that, and doing it at night would have been too dangerous.

Work was very far from what you wanted to think about, though.

“Why the fuck is Japan so hot in summer,” you lamented, lethargically fanning yourself with a slack hand. It did zilch to help. “How do you deal with this?”

You squealed when something chilly touched your forehead and squinted up to see Suguru holding out a popsicle to you. You grabbed it without a second thought and ripped off the plastic covering, stuffing the crumpled ball back in his awaiting hand.

Sweet, cold, saintly watermelon spread over your tongue and you ascended, tilting your head back as you nursed the popsicle like it was the ambrosia of the gods themselves.

Satoru skewed over and dropped his head on your shoulder, making you lour at him. You very much did not need someone else’s muggy body heat worsening the already unbearably humid air.

“Fan me,” he demanded, and you poked his cheek with your popsicle, leaving a sticky spot behind.

“Fan yourself,” you rejected.

Suguru chuckled to himself. “You’ll get used to it and learn how to manage.”

“Speak for yourself,” the man using your side as a bed snarked. “Been here my whole life and I still feel like I’m dying.”

You chomped off a bite of your snack with your molars, flinching at the slight sting, then relaxed as the chunk rested on your tongue. Bless Suguru and his mother hen tendencies. Towards you, anyway. He seemed to find humor in his best friend’s suffering up to a certain point.

The newly purchased, refrigerated, highly-sugary fizz he bought while at the store showed he did care at the end of the day.

Summer in rural Japan smelled nice. That was about all the praise you were capable of giving this hellish landscape when you were getting steamed like a damn dumpling. Winter you could deal with; in winter, you could just add extra clothes or blankets or whatever for more warmth. You could only get so naked in summer before you were melting into a gross puddle.

“I wanna skin myself,” you slurred around your icy treat.

Suguru snorted. “That’s morbid.”

You bored into him blankly, examining his clothes – light-colored long sleeves and full-length, loose pants versus your tank top and flappy shorts. “How the hell are you dealing with this so well?”

He simply shrugged and gave you that closed-eye smile that always had your insides doing funky things they flat-out were not allowed to do. “I’ve always preferred summer.”

Hm. It added up. You always associated him with the sun – warm, inviting, making you want to lay somewhere soft and bask in his glow. But that feeling was warmth, not sweltering fire making your muscles shed off your very bones.

“You’re a beast,” you mumbled, unsure if you were admiring or fearing him. “What ‘bout you, Toru?”

“Ehh?”

“Season.”

“What about it?”

You whined and placed your head on his. “Pay attention, idiot.”

“Well, excuse me, princess. I’m busy trying to not die of heatstroke over here,” he pinched your thigh, making you yelp.

You flicked the back of his hand in retaliation. “What’s your favorite season?”

“Oh,” he pried his limpid orbs open and eyed you from over the rim of his sunglasses. Those glistening, forget-me-not hues never failed to whisk your breath away. “Spring.”

“Good choice,” you approved.

Suguru bent down from the tree, angling his head to the side as he pointed a finger at himself. “Oh? Is my choice not good?”

“Ask me again when I don’t feel like I’m evaporating,” you muttered, taking another bite of your ice snack and plainting at the sharp pain radiating in your teeth for a few seconds. He merely laughed in the voice that had you feeling twice as flushed, instantly soothing the pain away.

“Don’t eat it like that if it just hurts you,” the silver-blond grumbled, his eyes already closed again as he fought to fend off the temperature mentally, if he couldn’t spare himself physically.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” you huffed pettishly.

You partially closed your eyes and lazed back on your free palm, absentmindedly licking up the melted drips before they landed on your hand and coated it in residue. More than they already had, anyway.

A welcomed breeze rustled through the leaves of the trees surrounding you, a relieving balm against scalding skin that had all three of you sighing in alleviation. It rustled the yellow of the leaves above your head, creating a mesmerizing show of dancing golden fans, their edges dipped in crimson.

The droning chirps of cicadas, the tweets of birds calling to their brooding mates as they brought back food from a successful hunt, the fragrance of blooming flowers being pollinated, having their nectar gathered in preparation for being turned into honey – all of it surrounded you in a deep serenity you didn’t know you were capable of feeling.

Your head was optimistically empty, merely taking in the ambiance in fine detail. The lush, fluffy grass underhand tickled your wrist and the back of your hand, and the pleasant silence with your closest friends made you…happy.

You’d been happy for a while now, but never stopped to notice it until this moment.

You found two idiots and two other kind-of-normal people to call friends, and you always ardently anticipated hanging out with them, rather than dreading it. You were pouty when they were busy, and ecstatic when you could all gather together.

Especially these two dumbasses, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. You spent most of your time with them, doing things that reminded you of the nostalgic highschool and college years you didn’t recall having.

You ruminated on how different your life would have been if you knew them from childhood; if you went to school with them, grew up as neighbors, mourned when Satoru left for his studies, celebrated when he returned. Would you have still ended up like this, a paranoid kite that was running out of thread to cut?

Or would you have been normal – or, at least, normal-adjacent? How would being raised in Japan differ from your home nation?

…

Home nation.

What was your home nation, again?

All that came to mind was here, now, with your best friends on either side of you. You knew where you were born, but that seemed so far away, now. You didn’t remember what the sky looked like over there – if you caught a glimpse of it at all in the first place.

Reflecting back left an odd emotion welling in your chest, like you were forgetting something. You wouldn’t say melancholy, nor yearning. It wasn’t nostalgia, either, seeing as you were semi-nomadic for a good portion of your life. You didn’t stay in one place long enough to form attachments to anyone or anything.

When you tried to think about your childhood friends, you saw Geto, Gojo, Ieiri, and Iori. The boys were smaller, childlike, with chubbier cheeks and brattier attitudes, but your boys regardless. You remembered how Satoru was the class clown that frequently set off your teachers, while Suguru egged him on from the backlines, purposefully getting on his nerves.

Shoko was there, too, watching with a shit-eating grin and not doing anything to help. Utahime at least tried.

And then there was you.

You didn’t really know if you were there or not. Just a spectator, possibly, but it didn’t seem like that. Not an empty, silent, emotionless observer, no. You couldn’t put your finger on it. What you were was there, on the tip of your tongue, you just didn’t know the word for it.

These memories weren’t real, you knew that. But it didn’t hurt to imagine they were, especially when they felt like they were.

You could see yourself growing up with them, spending days lazing under the shade just like you were now, losing half the water in your body under the unforgiving summer sun and turning into a sort of sad excuse for a cucumber. You could remember the sharp sting of a wadded up piece of paper hitting your temple from across the table, your head shooting up so you could glare at jubilant Satoru that concluded throwing notes at you from two feet away was a better use of his time than just whispering or, gods forbid, studying.

You were certain he did it specifically because it pissed you off, and because he was unafraid of repercussions from the teacher. Discipline didn’t exist in his dictionary. Suguru would grab the wad from your other side to toss it right back and nail his best friend in the center of his forehead, leading to a paper ball fight that you were, unfortunately, directly in the middle of.

Shoko and Utahime, the lucky bitches, were smart to choose seats a few tables back, safely out of the firing and collateral range.

You tried to join the two several times, yet the boys somehow always managed to sit you right back between them. You were their ‘mediator’, even though you tended to exhort them rather than soothe. You did calm them down, but only after you, Shoko, and Utahime had a good show. It was payback for all the times they dragged you into their messes.

Other memories filtered in bit by bit, sporadic sections popping up as they pleased; dying on the track field together, sparring against one another, learning vague concepts in a classroom that scarcely had anyone in it. You and Satoru would crack stupid jokes until you were both in stitches, Suguru would be there when your thoughts became too much to handle, Shoko was the one to mend you with a touch that felt both toasty and mellow at the same time.

There weren’t a lot of you, but you had each other, and that was all you needed. You had your friends by your side, and you were complete.

You were pulled from your woolgathering when you felt someone pluck your popsicle from your hand, your eyes flying open to gawp at Suguru in disbelief as he took a sizable bite out of it, then returned it innocently, as if he hadn’t just robbed you blind.

“Hey!” You cried out. “Thief! That was mine! You said you were fine in summer!”

“I said I prefer summer, not that I’m immune to it,” he corrected you, licking off a spot of juice from the corner of his mouth. Such a simple action from him legally wasn’t allowed to be that devastatingly attractive, yet here he was, casually breaking the law and sending you into disarray. “Besides, I paid for it.”

“Unfair,” you pouted, staring down at your now half-gone heatstroke preventer. “You can’t just give me something, then take it back.”

He chuckled and knelt beside you. “Relax, I’ll buy you another one.”

You instantly perked up. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Will you buy one for me, too, Suguwu?” Satoru flapped his long eyelashes and stuck out his lower lip.

“No.”

“What!?” He sprung upright. “Now that’s unfair! It’s favoritism!”

Suguru snorted and dropped the bag between your knee and Satoru’s, which the latter took to like a raccoon to a dumpster. He dug around inside the plastic until he located his drink and held it up like Arthur did with Excalibur.

Only Gojo could down this amount of sugar in a single day and not suffer the consequences, you mused, watching him greedily gulp at the borderline dessert. Maybe there was some merit to his body being godly, after all.

“Hey,” Gojo called out after chugging a solid 2/3rds of the soda. “What are those, uhhhh…maple syrup snow candies called?”

“I think they're just called maple syrup snow candies,” you filled in.

“Maple candy, or maple taffy,” Suguru enlightened you. “Popular treat in winter in Canada.”

Satoru gave a thumbs-up in appreciation. “Yeah, those. I want one of those.”

You lamented. “It’s the middle of summer.”

“But they sound so cold and good. Mm…I can taste it already. I just know they'd save me from this god awful heat. Thanks for the soda, by the way, Suguru.”

Geto hummed in acknowledgement.

An idea flittered into your mind and you sat ramrod straight, clapping your hands together and grabbing their attention. Satoru grunted, slipping partially off you. “Let’s go to the river!”

“Hm,” Suguru considered it. “Not a bad idea, might help us cool down.”

You celebrated at obtaining his approval and passed the rest of your popsicle to Satoru, who devoured it in a single chomp.

A large hand was offered to you in way of assistance and you grabbed it, getting pulled easily with a short ‘hup’ from your aide. He inspected your form for a moment, then plucked a fallen leaf from the top of your head, twisting it between his digits. When a gale lifted, he released it, letting the unseen hands of the sky carry it away.

Satoru was up on his feet, too, the plastic bag in his hand crinkling from the shift in position. “Let’s go!”

He took the lead, speed-walking through the park to reach the shallow slope that allowed easy access to the river. For someone who was about as dead as you minutes ago, he obtained an infectiously energetic zest out of nowhere. Motivation is a hell of a drug.

You caught up to him and skipped forward, unburdened by needing to carry anything like the pair. Already able to feel the refreshing bite of the water as it came into view, you picked up the pace, racing towards the cure to your ails.

You tore off your tank top in the process and threw it somewhere carelessly, stumbling out of your sandals as you neared upon the shoreline of the river. Leaving them behind on a boulder, you skidded down the bank to the icy waters and jumped in, dressed in your shorts and sports bra.

A shrill cry and jubilant hoot echoed in the valley as goosebumps coated your skin, prickling the hair on your arms and nape. Frigid liquid surrounded you, abruptly replacing torrid solstice with frozen tundra.

“Fuck, cold!”

Satoru was rolling up his pant legs, his own button-up having been disposed of like your top. Just as eager to experience the same liberation you did, he toed off his shoes and ripped off his socks, then he was kicking up water next to you as he joined you. The crystalline liquid came to about mid-thigh for him, but that didn’t stop you being able to see all the hairs on his body stand on end all at once.

“Cold!” He echoed you.

You laughed, running your wet hands through your hair. “That’s what I’m saying!”

Not wasting a second, he threw a handful of water onto you, making you twist your body to avoid the splash. You shrieked from the pellets of frost raining down on you, his icy-toned orbs brimming with mirth at your reaction.

Suguru was still on the shore, more composed and patient than either you or his best friend. He went about methodically locating both your and Satoru’s shirts, setting them down on the ground beside the bag and his backpack, then focused on his own clothes.

He slipped off his shoes and socks, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and legs of his pants, and stepped into the river.

Just to get grabbed and pulled further in by Satoru before he could get acclimated to the pressure of the running stream.

He took in a shallow breath, bounding forward to keep his balance and not fall splat into the rapid. “Satoru!”

“Come on!” Lanky fingers pushed back ivory hair. “Relax a bit, would ya?”

Chestnut eyes narrowed. “There’s a difference between relaxing and getting waterboarded.”

Gojo huffed. “Yeah? How would you know what getting waterboarded feels like?”

“How many times have you nearly drowned me in your hot spring?”

“I wasn’t trying to drown you.”

“So, you admit it’s waterboarding, then?”

The two were distracted, arguing about drowning technicalities, which meant they weren’t paying attention to you.

Perfect.

You sank down into the flowing water, shivering from the hibernal wet as it surrounded you. Once you were absolutely certain they had no idea what you were up to, you made your move.

Crawling along the riverbed, you let the flow guide you, using the sound of water breaking to further creep up on your companions.

You could hear the Jaws theme slowly ramping up in your mind, each beat growing louder as you neared. Trembles wracked your body, caused by a mesh of the nippy waters and budding adrenaline.

A little further, you were too far…still too far…almost…

“Rrah!” You jumped out the moment you were within range of your target, unleashing your fiercest battle roar as you threw yourself onto Satoru’s back and wrapped your arms around his neck.

The man choked in surprise, and based on the way he promptly lost balance and dropped like a rock into the waters with a heady splash, you could proudly say you caught him off guard. You both surfaced with deep gasps of breath, and you were on top of him as soon as he sat up.

Using your position of straddling his thighs to your advantage, you skipped past the torture and went straight for the kill.

Your fingers grabbed his sides and started lightly scratching at them.

Satoru hiccuped and howled, writhing and trying to shove you off him as you attacked him with endless tickles. “Wait! S-Stop, no! That tickles!”

“Give up your throne, Gojo Satoru!” You demanded, doubling down on the siege on his crown. “Name me king, or I will never stop!”

He easily turned into a blubbering mess despite his attempts to stay stoic and strong. “N-No way! Oh, god– stop! Please!”

“Not until you hand me your crown!”

“Never! I’ll–” you pinched his hip and he yowled. “Okay! Fuck, fine, it’s yours, just spare me! Please!”

“Yes!” You released him at long last and threw your arms in the air in victory. “I’m the king of this valley! Haha, suck it!”

You climbed off Satoru as he took deep breaths to calm himself, turning your focus on Suguru, who was losing his shit on the shoreline. Wheezes slipped past his lips, the boy barely getting a chance to inhale before he was cackling all over again.

Standing with your legs shoulder-width apart and one fist on your hip, you pointed at Geto authoritatively. “You! Surrender to me now or face the punishment of one thousand tickles for defying the king!

“Oh, god,” he heaved, arms clutching his ribs to keep himself together. Bunny lines formed on the bridge of his nose, brows pinched tight, tears springing to the corners of his amber eyes. “I can’t, the threat of tickles is too much. I surrender, I surrender!”

“The king is triumphant! All hail the king!” You thundered, throwing your head back to unleash a demonic chortle that soon turned into real laughter. “Mark my words, on this da–”

Powerful hands pushed against your side, and you went crashing unceremoniously into the river.

Poor Suguru was wiping away more tears at the point of you reemerging, flushed red from head to toe from the exertion.

“This is a coup!” Satoru announced. “I’m taking back the crown!”

“Wh– no fair!” You objected, wiping your face free of water. “I won that fair and square!”

He beamed down at you, summer skies reflected in his spring eyes. “Come and get it, then!”

An all-out war was waged then between you and Satoru, a motley of screams, hollers, and demands getting thrown back and forth at one another. The activity and sweltering sun kept your blood thermal within the oasis of the numbing waterway.

This pearl of time belonged to the three of you and the three of you alone. The seconds slowed infinitely, and though they never came to a true stop, they lasted longer than the birth, life, and death of a distant star. This, to you, was paradise. Your skin was frosty, but your heart was blooming as you skylarked and frisked with people you’d met only a short time ago, but treated like you’d known one another all your lives.

The limits of your joy seemed to shatter with each passing day, expanding more than you ever thought possible. Hell, you never so much as considered that experiencing exultation to this degree was possible in and of itself, but you basked in it all the same.

As long as it lasted, you would savor it.

The sun was beginning its descent when your trio chose to end your excursion, feeling sufficiently chilled.

“Brr,” you quivered as you made your way out, squeezing water out of your hair. “My fingers are like icicles.”

“Come on, ladybug,” Suguru offered you his hand, which you took gratefully, allowing him to guide you out of the river. “That’s enough for today, you’ll catch a cold. Let’s go get you warmed up.”

You moaned in complaint at the thought of having to walk all the way back home. You really should have considered it before deciding to take a dip. Curse your spontaneity. “I forgot, Satoru’s house is on that damn mountain.”

“We’re going to my place,” he corrected nonchalantly, as if it’d been long decided. “It’s closer, and my folks are out for the weekend.”

A hand towel was dropped on your face by Satoru, probably one Suguru brought with him when packing his backpack earlier in the day.

“Dry off, princess,” Satoru instructed you as he crouched down by Geto’s backpack, popping open a bottle of water to knock back. He tossed a second one towards the noiret, who caught it with ease.

He waited for you to finish rubbing as much water off your head as you could before he twisted the top of the bottle off and handed it to you with a pointed look. A veiled threat to drink before I make you.

Well, jokes on him, you actually did want to drink water.

You took it from him and gulped down half the fluid inside it without hesitation. By some boon, you had the self control to stop before you got sick, and returned the water with a thank-you. Suguru took it upon himself to finish the rest of it.

Satoru snatched the towel from you, replacing it with your tank top (also placed on your head). You blew him a raspberry and tugged it on, cringing at the feeling of your dry (sorta) clothing getting caught on your damp skin. Maybe you should have considered bringing a towel. You would have, if you’d known beforehand that you’d be making a stop at the river.

You hooked your fingers into the back straps of your sandals when they were handed to you, the other two following suit. The village was kept clean, so none of you were worried about stepping on anything concerning, especially since Suguru’s house was right nearby.

“Ready to go?” He asked you, and you nodded.

His palm had returned to its normal calidity, something you noticed as he helped you up the slope. The boy’s body ran like a damn furnace, even after playing in the stream for a couple hours with you. Granted, he somehow managed to keep himself dry above the knees, but regardless.

All three of you were tired out, and you were looking forward to unwinding for the evening. The two boys didn’t bicker much, some light teasing in quieter tones, and – as promised – the trip to Geto’s home was short. You were standing within the genkan of his house in no time, waiting patiently while he disappeared further in to grab a couple towels.

His house resembled the buildings around the middle of town, sitting on the side of the river your house did. There was a stretch of land behind it, but you didn’t get a chance to see much, having been ushered into the cozy abode.

Being a bit nosy, you peeked around. There was a staircase leading up that hugged the wall of a turn to your left, leaving only the bottom few steps visible to you. The hallway straight ahead was clean and minimalist, likely leading to a dining room, if you had to guess.

Each home had its own unique smell, and his smelled of spices and something faintly earthy, like fresh soil.

“Here we go,” Suguru announced his return, rounding the corner with a few towels in tow. He tossed one down at your feet above the genkan, motioning for you to step onto it. Obeying, you moved out of the pit, allowing him to layer a second towel around you before tossing the last one to Satoru.

“You can shower first,” he said to you.

You grabbed at the towel, pressing it into your hips and thighs to absorb the water that remained in your soaked bottoms. “Are you sure I can go first?”

He nodded. “You can take a bath, too, if you want.”

“Just a shower is fine, I think. I don’t want to take too long, since you two need to shower, too.”

Satoru sidled up to you, his smug ass grin coming into view as he hovered his chin over your shoulder. “Or, I could shower with you.”

Frankly, you were too drained to let that statement fluster you.

Suguru placed the tip of his index between Satoru’s brows and pushed his head away. “Leave her be, creep. Dry your legs, dude, you’re getting water everywhere.”

“You’re no fun,” the towhead pouted, but retreated anyway.

“Come on,” Geto settled his hand on your nape, guiding you inside. “Don’t be shy, the walls don’t bite.”

You snorted. “New fear unlocked.”

He snickered, shaking his head in amusement. “Relax, I won’t let any walls bite you.”

He took you around the bend, past the stairs, which opened up directly to the living room. While following a more traditional structural style, the interior was comfortably modern. A plush, gray couch was pushed against the wall, with side tables on either end. You immediately noticed that the place was littered with a bunch of plants. Some hung from the ceiling, a few were situated on floating shelves, and a potted shrub was situated near the flatscreen opposite to the couch.

You gawked around shamelessly with parted lips, intrigued by the domesticity of his home. “Your place is so nice, Suguru.”

He chuffed beside you. “Don't go making fun of me while you're my guest, now, angel.”

“I'm not!” You gasped, affronted. “I swear! I like it. Lots of plants.”

“My mom’s an avid plant parent,” he explained.

You hummed in appreciation. “It’s homely.”

He exhaled through his nose and pressed his thumb and first finger into your trapezius. “Thank you. Go shower; second door to your left down the hall. I'll lay out some clean clothes for you in a little bit.”

He pointed towards an open sliding door on the other side of the shrub, bumping you forward. You needed no further prompting, trotting off in the direction he showed.

Thankfully, you didn’t get lost on the way, his instructions easy to follow. Finding the bathroom, you went into it and closed the door. Your fingers hesitated over the lock on the knob, debating. He said he’d bring clothing, but didn’t mention where he’d put it…

You chose to leave it unlocked and hurriedly got to work shedding your drenched clothes. Placing the towel down on the sink counter, you unabashedly peeped the details of the bathroom while you dropped the pieces of your outfit onto the towel.

Just like the rest of his place, the bathroom was well taken care of, also adorned with a few plants, albeit smaller and out of the way. He wasn’t kidding when he said his mom liked plants.

The ceiling light gave off an inviting glow, subconsciously helping you relax. Naked, you fiddled around with the shower knobs until you got hot water to blast out. You squeaked in surprise, adjusted the temp to be your desired level, and hopped right in.

It felt like years of stress were dissolving right off you. His shower might not have been high-techy and super modern like the one you used back at Satoru’s, but the familiarity in its style brought you a kind of comfort you didn’t know you were missing. You melted into the rising steam, sighing deeply and simply doing nothing for a minute to unwind.

It was a good day, the chaos with Granny, Shoko, and Utahime included. You’d have to reassure those two later that Satoru and Suguru were just teasing. Well, Utahime. For Shoko, you’d probably have to convince her, and you didn’t have faith you’d succeed.

You glanced around, spotting a bottle of body wash that looked like it belonged to Suguru on an inset tile shelf. You grabbed it, hoping he wouldn’t mind you using it.

Reading over the label, you admired his choice in soap: lavender and green tea, both for scent and the benefits they provided.

You couldn’t help the giddy little burst of vim you got knowing you were about to smell like him, too.

You squeezed some onto your palm and lathered it between your hands, then started rubbing it onto your body. The day’s strain, dirt, grime, and weariness lifted with it, washing off in thin and slow waves of white streaks down your figure. You felt lighter and lighter with each pass over your chest, waist, hips, and thighs.

Tension thawed from your shoulders as you scrubbed your hands along them, muscles loosening with each bit of cleanliness you gained. It felt nice. Really nice, a calm time away to yourself to let go.

His shampoo also smelled like green tea, and you were occupied with massaging it into your hair when there was a knock on the door.

“Yeah?” You called out.

The door cracked open. “Just me,” Suguru responded. “Brought some clothes for you. I’ll leave them on the counter.”

“Oh, thank you!” What’d you do to deserve a friend like him?

There were some rustling noises as he spoke. “It’s no problem, I’m not gonna leave you hanging without something to change into. Do you mind if I take your clothes to toss in the wash?”

“That’s fine,” you permitted. “I’ll be out soon.”

“Don’t worry about it, take your time,” he said, and then the door was closed once more.

Even if he told you to, you still didn’t want to hog the shower to yourself, knowing that Satoru got just as river-bathed as you did, and he was wearing pants to boot.

You rinsed off the shampoo and followed it up with the matching conditioner, using your fingers to delicately comb out any tangles. Though they weren’t your own products, they felt amazing, making your tresses silky smooth. You would have to ask him where he got his products.

You were out as soon as you were done washing your hair. You cocooned yourself in the clean, fluffy towel he also provided, loving the texture. It was soft yet absorbent, coaxing away any droplets that clung to your curves and planes.

You wanted to steal it.

But, reluctant as you might have been, you refrained. You used it to dry your hair some, and folded it to set aside after you were sufficiently devoid of liquid. Checking the clothes Suguru provided you, you noted he gave you a pair of sweats with a drawstring, allowing you to adjust the waistline as needed. Ever the observant mother hen, you were grateful for his foresight.

You slipped on the t-shirt first, pleased by the material as it came to rest against your freshly washed skin. It was noticeably oversized, but in a sleepy-Sunday sort of way, big enough to be cute and snuggly.

The sweats were huge on you by comparison, what with his absurdly long limbs. You tugged the drawstring to your preferred tightness, then rolled up the legs until they were out of the way and you wouldn’t trip over them.

All dressed, you opened the door with your used towel in hand and walked out to find Suguru waiting for you, leaning against the wall beside the room. He smiled warmly at you and pushed himself off his support, holding out his hand to take the towel from you.

A quick sweep over your form showed he was appraising your outfit with an approving eye, pride undisguised. “That shirt looks good on you.”

You were probably imagining the hint of possessiveness in his tone.

“Ehehe,” you giggled fiendishly, channeling your inner menace as you lightly tugged at the fabric of the top. “Mine, now.”

His expression softened into a smile that had little cupid wings fluttering on your back, a smile you only ever saw him give you. “All yours, angel. You can go sit down in the living room, I’ll be right back.”

“Sure,” you nodded and followed his instructions, making your way back to the flora-infested room.

Settling down on the couch, you exhaled and closed your eyes. You heard the shower start up again before it became muffled by the door, presumably because of Satoru. You weren’t left waiting long, the five or so minutes you were alone flying by. The padding of feet signaled you to Suguru’s return, your eyes prying open halfway to peer languidly at him.

“Here,” he jutted his chin towards you. “Sit on the floor, I’ll do your hair.”

Finding no reason to object, you stood and let him take your place on the cushion before plopping yourself down between his legs. He tilted your head forward, then got to work. His touch was ever so gentle, fingers diligent in their movements as he treated your hair with a knowingness you didn’t expect him to have.

Amicable silence filled the space around you, just the shifting of clothes and the slick sound of leave-in as he spread it evenly through your tresses. It gave your mind the freedom to drift away undisturbed.

As he was carefully drying and styling your hair, you thought about how Suguru often reminded you of a cat, considering his tendency to groom you. Or a bird, like a crow or a raven, that liked to preen you.

If you were all some sort of animal hybrids, you could easily imagine him being either some sort of corvid, a vulpine, or a big cat. A black leopard, to be specific.

If Satoru was a big cat, he would be a snow leopard. You refused to take any other suggestions. The tall freak was touchy, cuddly, and so proficient in hiding himself within an environment that did not suit him that he could be breathing down your neck and you'd be none the wiser.

The more you thought about it, the more you could picture them as their respective animals. Satoru would undoubtedly sunbathe with his belly up, paws curled, tail flicking side to side happily, unafraid of showing his biggest weakness.

You compared and contrasted between your options for him. He did like to give you small, shiny things, and you'd never refuse because oooh, shiny! His hair reminded you of crow feathers when it caught the light from the sun. It bore a faint iridescence, a chrome that shifted between emerald and the time just between midnight and dawn, in the earliest hours of the morning where stars still sparkled brilliantly. You could picture him preening his feathers, plucking out the pins and fluffing the downy fuzz.

Though black leopard might have suited him better. He tended to rub his cheek against yours or the top of your head whenever you embraced. You could easily picture him loafing under the shade, licking his paw to smooth out his fur and ensure it matched the rest of his satiny complexion. He had the personality of a laid back, lazy feline that could turn from a sweet teeny baby kitten into a merciless predator in the blink of an eye.

You'd seen the way he behaved when he wanted something – the narrowing of his eyes, the set of his jaw, the concentration in his brow.

It made a tremor flit up your body, especially when he set his sights on you like that. He was capable of being a silent stalker, an expert in scaring the ever living shit out of you any chance he got, just like Satoru.

That soursop boy was surely the type to roll over and let others do things for him. Feed him, rub his belly, comb through his fur. You hadn’t seen him when he was prowling, searching for a meal to hunt down, but sometimes you got a flicker of something similar to it in his eyes. Like a passing rumination, where he considered if it was worth exhausting energy to chase down his prey.

…Could the reason you’d had yet to witness his hunt be because of his ability to camouflage? Because he didn’t want you to see?

The concept gave you chills.

You suppressed your reaction at the introspection, remembering that Suguru was behind you, gently drying your hair with tepid air and tender touches. You didn't want to embarrass yourself by giving him the impression that he was pleasuring you.

Which he undeniably was, but he didn't need to know about the prickles and tingles traveling all the way from your crown to your tailbone.

You continued your train of thought.

Satoru the Snow Leopard would spend his days grooming you endlessly, licking at your fur until it stuck out in all kinds of wild angles. After that, Suguru would mend the spiky hairs until you were glossy and sleek like him.

What did that make you in comparison to them?

Standing side by side with them, it was clear you were prey – unless you were a black-footed cat. But given your dynamic and how the two of them liked to coddle you, you doubted you'd resemble any kind of predator.

If you had to be prey, then what? A doe, or gazelle?

No, those were unfortunately too majestic, and you weren't nearly as graceful as those lovely creatures. Your habit of tripping over your own feet proved case enough.

Okay, so if you weren't either of those…you supposed you could still fit into the cervidae family. Pudu deer was a possibility.

You tried to imagine it, but sadly, you couldn't put yourself into deer hooves.

Were birds prey? Some of them had to be, like doves, right?

If you were a bird, then Suguru had to be, too. You only trusted him to primp and help you maintain your feathers. Satoru would just chomp on them.

Alright, so no-go on the birds, then. Field mouse?

No, too small. You were short, but not that short. They’d also likely accidentally swallow you whole if they tried to mend a stray whisker.

Fennec fox?

You contemplated it, then mentally shook your head. You weren't high-pitched and energetic enough to qualify for that. Satoru would beg to differ, and you’d let him, because it’d be funny. Also, they were predators, anyway.

A brief memory flashed in your mind of something Satoru said, back when you first met Suguru.

‘I don't know,’ he hummed in deliberation. ‘I prefer bunny. Or mochi.’

Bunny.

Bunny…

A rabbit with floppy ears and an upturned tail. Fuzzy and velvety, obviously small and squishy, as much as you grimaced at those choice words of his.

Flumped right between either of their front paws, or stuffed in the middle of their bodies when they curled up to nap. Or chilling on one of their backs, your little paws on their head to watch the world from an angle you could never see on your own.

Bunny fit perfectly, a glove with no rips in the stitch.

You three together would consist of a snow leopard, a black leopard, and a small rabbit that they decided to keep as a pet and not dinner. For whatever reason that could be. Fish are friends, not food.

You had no idea why you chose to start daydreaming about being animorphs. Imagining being squished by their hulking forms in the afternoon rays, or being wrapped up in their fluffy tails for warmth on autumn nights. They were fun images to entertain.

“You seem to be quite deep in thought,” Suguru's breath brushed against the shell of your ear, spooking you. You hadn't even noticed he was finished. “Care to let me in?”

“Eep!” You squeaked, rotating partially to give him the stink eye for doing the thing he and Satoru always did. No way were you going to let him in on your weird brain doing weird brain things. “It's nothing important, just fantasizing a bit. Zoned out.”

Ohp.

And there was that hungry gleam in his eye, the shimmer in his black tea hues. You hit the nail on the head with the black leopard comparison.

“Fantasizing about what?” He purred. Cat. “About me?”

Your lashes fluttered and you whipped your head back in the other direction, tucking your newly dry and enviously soft hair behind your ears. “N-No?”

Man.

You were such a bad liar.

He, merciful god that he is, elected to only tease you and not try to dive into the unreasonably bizarre pool of thoughts that swirled and whirled in your consciousness like the godsforsaken mess you were.

Nor ask about why most of them revolved around those two boys. Bless him, your hero. Satoru would have tormented you until you gave in out of desperation, just to make him shut up. Then, he'd tease you about those ideas for the rest of your days. Probably double down on the bunny related nicknames, poke right above your tailbone and make jokes about how he should make you wear a pair of bunny ears and a tail. And then make the tail option extremely not family friendly.

Heaven’s mercy spare you if you give him any more ideas beyond that. Like a skimpy outfit that barely covered your tits and had a crotch narrow enough to give you a wedgie-induced friction burn where friction burns did not belong and would not wish on your worst enemy.

Well, no, maybe you would, but that's besides the point.

You chuffed out your nose and let your head fall back against the cushion between Geto's legs. His fingers found their way back to your scalp, massaging and lightly scratching at it until you were pushing into his hands like a needy kitten.

“Comfortable?” He asked with an amused lilt in his voice, to which you chirped merrily in answer.

You really were. Limbs like jelly, squeaky clean, tired out after playing in the river with them. You felt good, truly and genuinely good.

Aversion to permanent routine or not, you’d welcome every day with open arms if they were like this. Peaceful contentment after a long stretch of sunlit hours, able to let loose and uncoil any strain in your body, it all sounded so…

Happy.

You were okay with being happy like this.

You were okay with forgetting your past and what drove you here in the first place. You didn’t mind having your eyes shift shut, lashes sweeping over the highs of your cheekbones. You were alright with one of your best friends playing idly with your hair, and you were fine with listening to him hum some melody to himself as he did so.

It was okay.

This was okay.

You were okay.

banner by cafekitsune ♥

taglist: @kimi01985

#Tether Me #gojo x reader #satoru x reader #gojo satoru x reader #satoru gojo x reader #geto x reader #suguru x reader #geto suguru x reader #suguru geto x reader #satosugu x reader #jjk x reader #chimera writes

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matchadobo · 11 months

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KIDD; biker kidd au

summary: fluffy stuff abt this hot headcanon of mine that he'll look so biteable as a biker WHAHDUAHDHS LMAO warning/s: borderline nsfw since some nsfw stuff are mentioned but not there is no occurrence of the actual thing, all fluff!!, super hot kidd ahead nGgghhhhHHh

just imagine, this fucking fridge of a man in a bike with a helmet

you'd always be delighted when he picks you up after work with the bike

he'd look so hot leaning on the bike while waiting for you

you'd have your own helmet and he loves putting it on for you, giving you a kiss before locking the helmet

he'd let you sit behind or in front of him, but he likes it when you're infront. he feels your ass more 😫. pros for behind is that he gets cuddles, would always have a hand on your leg

for the first time when you were shy enough to join him in his bike but is painfully required to hold onto him. you'd insist in holding the other edge of the bike even when he insists on you holding onto him, he'd fucking convince you so much to do so mf engineered for you to be in that position!! so when you would be too shy to comply, he'd start up the engine and move instantaneously a little so you can fucking fall behind him and subconsicously hold onto him. he'd be smirking and tightening your grip saying "hang tight, princess. don't want you falling further than you already have."

the feeling of the breeze on your skin while his arms are caging you and you have the free view of the road

he'd always do the thing where the bike goes vertically (IDK WHAT IT'S CALLED), you'll be scared at first but as he does it more often it's an adrenaline rush for both of you

his favorite position on the bike is when it's parked and you're sitting infront of him and facing him. he'll stare you down, lift your helmet, and give you a kiss that'd last a little too long

he'll love pretend-fucking you in the bike, where whenever it stops he'll just playfully thrust into you with a hand on your hip. always relishes on your flustered reaction, not knowing what to do with yourself. gives you a pat on your helmet after

you'd love to play on his bike, pretend like you'll drive it and leave him. mans will be pouting with that usual scowl

he likes taking you on mountains and parking it there on his previously mentioned favorite position, watching the view or doing something more than kissing 🤪

i just think this fits him so well than having a car, he metal like that

just imagine HIS ARMS while maneuvering that shit 😩

whenever you're in front of him, his titties are such a good cushion on the ride, it's so soft!! even when you're behind, you'll be clutching on them and squeezing

if you're down, he'll teach you how to ride the bike. just expect a very non-patient teacher 😞 so expect to get yelled at (affectionately). he'll even take you out to canvas on finding your own bike, secretly thrilled he'll have you as a biking partner

he loves customizing his bike, he fixes and replaces parts on his own. he'd love saying, "hey baby, look at my new fucking tires.", "look at my cool rims and headlights, love" with a proud, nerdy grin. always cooped up on his garage, tattered with grime and motor oil or some shit, always shirtless in the process. it'd be a hot spectacle tbfh!! you'd have to physically drag him out and ask him to take a bath.

he'd participate in races from time to time, bringing you as his little cheerleader. would use the cash prices for dates afterwards and use the remaining for bike work

would get your name somewhere in the design of his bike

during long trips, whenever there's a chance to stop due to traffic or stop lights, he'd let out a heavy breath and remove his hands from the clutches, you'd massage his shoulders and arms. he'd moan silently ij reliefwhile rubbing your thighs as a thank you, leaning his head down a bit on yours

he also loves (begrudgingly) when you ask him to bring you to places you need to go to. especially when you go out to your friends, he loves to show your friends that you bagged a fucking stud like him but more so show off his bike

omg i have been so absent AKASJDHAHD there was just a lot happening with my life plus this was the only hc i can properly execute, i don't want to post anything half-baked!! i hope this one somehow makes up for my absence ><

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unorchido · 14 days

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Another Narrator design who appeared in here

This is Benjamin, Timothy's Narrator and although he is turned into a damn statue he is still conscious, and while he can't move, speak or see, he can feel everything around him, so yea funsies

For context vvv

He was locked into the Parable because he was different from the others, and by different I mean he was infected with a type of program, also known as The Solver I may or may not have shown before, and if you're not familiar with Murder drones you pretty much don't know what that is all about. So, he has that Solver, and with that he can create things and destroy them, and that's when he made the Parable, Stanley and Timekeeper, also known as Timothy I've shown in a few of my arts (1, 2, 3, 4), and with making those two he "passed" the Solver to both of them, giving Timothy the ability to go into the void, teleport and gain ability to the settings. Similar thing goes to Stanley, but he only gained the ability to gain access to the player settings.

So then how did he turn into a statue? The skip button ending happened, he 'died' and then the Parable itself started dying with him. And because of that, the resets slowly died too, therefore there were no resets and well Stanley slowly went insane. He got back into the Parable and after realising there wouldn't be any resets he decided to do the zending one last time

Boom, drama! Although Stanley did die there, Benjamin is still alive, just in a state of coma where he can't move his body. His Curator is trying to find a way to bring him back, knowing it is possible, while Timothy gave up on him completly, unaware he didn't actually die. Tim started going through different dimensions, where he met Sebastian, who Timothy wanted to take advantage of at the start, but decided to keep his head because well he can't survive for long in other dimensions. He used Sebastian's body to keep himself alive, and by that yes I mean he got into Seb's body like Venom from Venom and with that, Timothy subconsciously spread the program to Sebastian and now he can do fun shit like lift things up with a hand movement, rotate them, destroy them, fun stuff.

Yeah, just watch Murder Drones if you want context for the Solver

Bonus

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scmg11 · 5 months

Text

HAILEE STEINFELD x READER - BODYGUARD (PART2)

PART 1

"You sure?" Hailee asked undure, wringing her hands as she switched her eyes from Y/N’s bandages to her eyes.

"I’m sure Hailee. You don’t need to keep feeling bad. I would have felt 10 times worse if this happened to you. So I’m glad it happened to me." Y/N admitted with honesty, trying with all her best to not think about what happened to her happening to Hailee.

"I know, but I still feel bad."

"Think about it this way, you patched me up. We’re even now."

"Okay, yeah, fine." Hailee smiled as she finally gave up in arguing with Y/N, but her smile dropped immediately when the bus swerved a bit and caused Hailee to loose her balance and crash into Y/N’s body, instinctively moving her hands to her front to stop her crash, only for them to come in contact with Y/N’s contracted abdomen, while Y/N’s right arm instinctively circled her waist to prevent her to fall.

"You okay?" Y/N asked in worry, only then noticing their faces got incredibly close.

"Y-yeah." Hailee cleared her throat when she felt her voice a little bit strained and hoarse, "thank you for saving me. Again."

"You’re welcome." Hailee had an hard time in trying to find the willpower to pull away from Y/N but she finally did when she realized her staring into Y/N’s eyes while her hand laid softly on her abdomen wasn’t exactly friendly nor professional.

"Did I hurt you?" Y/N smiled gently at Hailee’s thoughtfulness and shook her head softly, easing Hailee’s worries.

"No, don’t worry. Are you okay though?"

"Yeah, luckily you were with me." Hailee joked to try to calm her heartbeat down, fearing Y/N would hear it from her position and mustered a teasing smirk to tease Y/N too.

"Oh yeah, I’m becoming your hero!" Y/N cracked a joke too and made Hailee laugh heartily at her words, her chuckles warming Y/N’s heart and making her stomach do somersaults at that heavenly sound.

"Yeah! I will have to keep you, so you can stick around and save me whenever I need to be saved!" Hailee kept joking as she grinned mischievously at Y/N, watching her rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"Oh yeah! That sounds amazing! Oh wait- that’s my job actually!" Y/N kept joking, liking this new dynamic between them.

"Okay, yeah, whatever." Hailee rolled her eyes teasingly before smiling at her widely and winking at her back when Y/N winked at her continuing their friendly banter.

"Y’know what-." Y/N went to counter Hailee back but a voice over them echoed around the tour bus’ living room.

"Excuse me, miss Y/L/N. We are 12 miles away from the concert venue. We still need to tidy up all the stuff from the concert in the other bus, we left in a hurry. We need to stop."

"Do not move. We will continue this conversation." Y/N warned Hailee jokingly with her index finger pointed at her when they both lowered their heads after lifting them up to the bus’ roof at the voice speaking through the speakers and locked their gazes.

"Yeah, it’s not that hard since we are in a bus." Hailee joked back as she watched Y/N walk past her and make her way towards the driver, swallowing loudly when her eyes casted down on Y/N’s ass, more visible now that the shirt wasn’t covering it almost entirely. Jeez, get a grip on yourself Hailee.

"Okay, that was the last one. We can set off again." Stephen, one of the sound technicians, announced after setting everything in place in the second tour bus.

"We have just 2 hours of driving before arriving to the designated hotel in Tampa."

"Okay great! I’m exhausted." Y/N announced with a small yawn, trying to stretch her arms above her head slowly and softly to prevent the cut to open more and risking it to bleed again.

"How do you feel?" Hailee asked with worry in her brown irises, eyeing Y/N’s now covered lower stomach before meeting Y/N’s eyes with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Much better." Y/N smiled gently down at Hailee and caressed her bandaged and covered by her t-shirt cut softly and slowly. "Still hurts and stings but luckily a lot better since you helped me in patching me up."

"That’s good!" Hailee admitted gently, before starting to fidget on her spot while playing with the rings on her fingers. "Do- do you wanna stay in my tour bus tonight? Y-your bandages need to be replaced and I-I can help you."

Y/N smiled softly at the singer shyly explaining her reason for her to want her to stay with her, but it made her stomach flip excitedly nonetheless. "Are you offering to help me again?" Y/N asked with a small teasing lilt in her tone, watching delighted as a small blush appeared on Hailee’s cheeks and smiled warmly down at her at her sweet and cute reaction.

"Y-yeah. It’s the least I can do. And I-I mean, I promised to start over, so we can get to know each other more."

"I would like that." Y/N answered earnestly, deciding to have some mercy on the singer now resembling a tomato as her blush intensified while talking and watched amused as the blush intensified some more somehow as Hailee nodded in understanding.

"G-great!"

"Hey, Y/N! You coming?!" Y/N smiled politely at the driver as he made his way into the bus before turning towards the source of the voice calling her.

"Sorry guys, but I’m staying with Hailee tonight." Y/N announced apologetically, smiling sheepishly at her new friends and hoping they will not tease her about her statement.

"Oh yeah?" Jasmine asked innocently, but the smile she sent Y/N was far from being innocent and held a dangerous and teasing kind of mischief Y/N was afraid to witness but luckily Mick stopped her before she could keep talking.

"How are you Hailee? It must have been intense."

"A bit yeah. But thankfully Y/N was there." Y/N met Hailee’s gaze and smiled softly at her, mirroring the singer’s own grin after she finished talking before meeting Jasmine’s eyes and warned her to not talk.

"Yeah, that’s right. And you will have her with you tonight. You will be super safe." Y/N wanted to strangle her friend right then and there at the exaggerated tone she used to say ‘super safe’ but talked herself out of it when she darted her eyes towards Hailee and noticed the girl looked unfazed by Jasmine’s words, not really sure if Hailee caught on Jasmine’s innuendo or she let it slide. Y/N was grateful nonetheless.

"Sorry to interrupt Miss Steinfeld but we need to move or we will be late for our moving schedule."

"Yeah yeah. Goodnight guys!" Hailee nodded before waving at Jasmine and Mick with a big smile.

"Goodnight Hailee! Goodnight Y/N!" Mick was the first to bid them a goodnight then Jasmine butted in.

"Night Y/N! Night Hailee! Sweet dreams to you both!"

Y/N sent a withering glare at Jasmine before putting a polite smile on and waved at her friends, "goodnight guys!"

"Ugh, you don’t even know how good it is when I finally take my makeup off!" Hailee admitted after settling unceremoniously on the couch Y/N was sat in and groaned in fatigue.

"Yeah, I bet. I wear light makeup everyday and I get so happy when I take it off. I can’t even start to imagine you with all your stage makeup. It feels awful."

"It’s not that bad wearing it during the show, but after finishing the show I just want to take my makeup off, wear a pair of sweats and a hoodie and just lay down on the couch." Hailee admitted as she readjusted her body so she could look into Y/N’s eyes properly.

"It seems like my favorite kind of day." Y/N admitted with a warm smile, "no makeup, comfort food and comfy clothes."

"Ugh! We are definitely doing this one of these nights!" Hailee announced as she closed her eyes just a moment to let the fatigue of the night leave her body as she relaxed on the couch.

"It would be great. I’ll be there."

"You kinda have to." Hailee trailed off and snorted when Y/N looked at her confused, "y’know, for your job."

"Oh! Yeah, I have to stay with you because of my job, but I like spending time with you." Y/N felt the need to clarify after noticing the little sad smile Hailee was wearing and felt ten times lighter when she watched that sad smile morph into a big, genuine, brighter-than-the-sun smile.

"I like spending time with you too." Y/N felt her stomach flip at Hailee’s admission and smiled gently down at her, holding her breath when she watched the singer lean down on the couch and lay her feet clad in a pair of soft, grey socks on her lap comfortably.

"Comfy?" Y/N asked sarcastically with a wide grin and watched as Hailee adjusted her upper body to be as comfortable as possible before nodding at Y/N with a satisfied grin.

"Yeah, I’m really comfy after a long concert night, while becoming a nurse to patch your ass up in the meantime."

"Yeah that’s true. But you wouldn’t have become a nurse to patch my ass up if your stupid ass listened to my instructions."

"I just wanted to say hi to my fans!" Y/N smiled softly as she shook her head at Hailee’s reasoning before nodding gently at her as she couldn’t counter back her statement.

"Alright, but next time, behind me, please. I got scared that bottle could’ve hit you." Y/N admitted in a strained voice, pushing away the images of the moment she saw the broken bottle move fast towards Hailee and tried to suppress the feeling of dread when she thought she couldn’t have made that far to protect Hailee. Luckily she did save her.

"Noted boss."

"Don’t call me that." Y/N countered back with a snort, making Hailee chuckle alongside her after a beat of silence, "it makes me sound old and boring."

"Well, you kinda are." Hailee teased as she bit on her bottom lip to prevent her smile to crack her serious façade, but the incredulous face Y/N regarded her with was making it a really difficult task to complete for Hailee.

"What?! We’re the same age Hailee!"

"I know, I was talking about the boring part." Hailee let her wide smile free and it rolled on her beautiful features like the sun peeking out of the clouds in a cloudy day. It was a mesmerizing sight. Y/N almost got struck by the beauty and the radiance of it, so much so she almost forgot to pretend to be mad at Hailee for teasing her about her being boring.

"Unbelievable."

"It is what it is." Y/N shook her head in disbelief at Hailee’s smirk and pushed her gently on the shoulder when she heard her chuckle under her breath.

"Y’know what? I think I’m gonna go in my bus. I’m not welcomed here since I’m being mocked right now." Y/N countered back as she made the move to sit up just to tease Hailee back, a small smile almost twitching her lips up softly, but she didn’t relent.

"No! No, c’mon!" Hailee grabbed Y/N’s forearm and tugged her down gently, but when she didn’t budge one bit and continued to sit up from the couch, she yanked on Y/N’s forearm hard and pushed her back down on the couch, this time making her sit a bit closer to her from the harshness of her yanking on Y/N’s arm.

"Take that back."

"What?"

"You know what." Y/N lifted her left eyebrow in challenge when Hailee kept staring at her with clearly fake innocence, the small twitching of her lips giving her away immediately.

"I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about."

"I know for sure you do know. C’mon, I’m not boring!"

"Hm, we don’t know each other that much and we hardly hang out, so I am just relying on the small informations I gathered until now."

"Okay then, let’s get to know each other and you will see who’s the boring one."

"Please!"

"No."

"But- why not?" Y/N didn’t break her staring contest with Hailee, who pouted at Y/N as her eyes gleamed under her hotel bedroom’s lights.

"Because you can’t. I have clear instructions. No visiting fans detour during the event."

"But we’re friends! Friends help each other! You can bend some rules for me!"

"Hailee, those rules exist just for you and because of you!" Y/N countered back with incredulous wide eyes and an amused smile as she gazed at Hailee in entertainment, who pouted cutely at her.

"It’s not fair!" Y/N found extremely endearing Hailee stomping her right foot on the ground as she crossed her arms under her chest and deepened her pout at Y/N, but she didn’t mention it. "Why can’t I go to them to just say hi?"

"Because you are presenting a category. Around the end of the show. So you need to stay there until you need to go up the stage." Y/N explained patiently before lifting a curious eyebrow and directing it at Hailee, "I thought you were the star and I was the bodyguard. You should know these things. Not the way around."

"I know! But they had been waiting for so long. Just a couple of pictures. Please!" Y/N had to literally fight against herself from squishing Hailee’s cheeks when she batted her eyelashes at her with puppy dog eyes and the cutest pout she had ever seen to try to make her cave in her request, but she had to be strong.

"I’m sorry Hailee. No bending rules."

"Pretty please! You will be with me the whole time! You can even glue yourself on my back. Just please. I tweeted I would say hi to them!" Hailee quickly grabbed her phone and showed her previous tweet to Y/N, the tweet now having thousand and thousands of likes and retweets, not to mention the comments section full of fans freaking out over Hailee’s tweet.

Y/N sighed out loud and watched as a big smile overtook Hailee’s features as she realized she caved in her request. "Fine. But only for 5 minutes!"

Hailee squealed loudly before launching herself into Y/N’s arms and hugged her tightly, making Y/N’s stomach flip over itself at the sweet gesture as she reciprocated the hug just as enthusiastically, Hailee’s joy being contagious. "Deal!"

"Hailee! No! Hailee! Come here!" Y/N tried desperately to whisper yell at Hailee when she couldn’t grab her arm after the stretched her own arm over to stop her when she noticed the singer started to walk away from their designated spot in line to the Vanity Fair Oscar Afterparty.

"Relax. I’m gonna just take a walk around while you wait in line." Hailee announced as she turned around to inform Y/N still waiting in line, watching her with a mix of panic and anger, but she just smiled sweetly at her and winked playfully.

"Are you out of your mind?! Come here!"

"I will be back in a minute, relax."

"No! Hailee!" Y/N whisper-yelled again before sighing out loud dejectedly when Hailee turned around and walked away.

"Y/N! What are you doing here?!" Y/N turned around at the familiar voice and smiled widely in excitement when she got met with a pair of just as much excited brown eyes.

"Z! What a surprise!" The two girls exchanged a big hug before the brown haired girl excused herself to the other people in line and waited in line with Y/N.

"It’s a surprise finding you here. I thought us celebs were too much of a pain in the ass to work with." Y/N rolled her eyes good-naturedly at the words and pushed Zendaya gently on her left shoulder playfully.

"I didn’t say a pain in the ass."

"Oh no you did. I remember it vividly."

"Okay then, when did I say it?" Y/N countered back with a challenging but amused eyebrow arched up and smirked at her friend mischievously.

"MTV Awards. Two years ago. You said it when we were in line to get into the venue. I was right behind you and you commented ‘celebs are a fucking pain in the ass’-." Zendaya made quotation marks before continuing, "before adding I wasn’t in the list of those, and I quote, ‘annoying assholes’ and-."

"OKAY! I remember it. Thank you." Y/N stopped Zendaya after she made quotation marks two times in a row to tease Y/N some more and laughed heartily as she leaned over her friend for some stability before smirking knowingly at her as she calmed down from her chuckles.

"What made you change your mind?"

As if on cue, Hailee appeared out of nowhere and stopped right beside Zendaya, "oh my God Z!"

"Haiz! Hi!" Y/N watched silently as the two girls hugged tightly with big smiles that enlightened the whole room.

"What are you doing still here? I thought you were already inside!" Hailee asked after she pulled away from the hug, settling beside Y/N and right in front of Zendaya.

"Unfortunately not. I got here just around 5 minutes ago." Zendaya answered with a dramatic sigh before looking at Hailee curiously, "what about you?"

"Oh we got here around 20 minutes ago." Hailee answered with a soft and gentle voice, sweeping her eyes around the room for a few moments before settling her brown irises back on Zendaya.

"Oh, who did you come with?"

"Me actually." Y/N butted in with a wide smile, puffing her chest proudly jokingly before relaxing her pose.

"Oh so she’s the pain in the ass you have to watch over, uh?" Y/N widened her eyes and dropped her smile at Zendaya’s question and chanced a look at Hailee to gauge her reaction, finding her with her mouth wide open and annoyance clear on her face, probably at the fact that Zendaya pointed her thumb at Hailee and smirked knowingly at Y/N.

"Excuse me?!"

"No! Not like that Hailee!" Y/N was quick to clarify before sending Zendaya a withering glare.

"No?" Hailee asked indignantly, her nostrils flared and her eyes filled with rage at the words directed at her.

"No! It was a joke when I was body guarding another celeb that wasn’t listening to me at all. I said celebs are a pain in the ass to work with and Zendaya heard it. I never said it about you."

"Well when you said ‘celebs’, you meant it about me too y’know."

"Well I never met you. You are not like those celebs that act like you are their personal servant." Y/N tried to argue to make Hailee believe she wasn’t talking about her back then, but Hailee kept her annoyed frown on.

"You are just trying to save your ass now."

"No, I’m not. I swe-."

"Next please!"

"Haiz, let me-." Y/N tried to talk again but Hailee lifted her hand up with a stoic face on.

"Save it." With just these hard, quick words, Hailee dropped her hand and walked towards the entrance, not even glancing at Zendaya to say ‘goodbye’ to her.

"I’m so sorry Y/N! I meant it as a joke!" Zendaya grimaced in apology at Y/N, who just sighed out loud as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Don’t worry. Perhaps you could’ve shut the fuck up." Y/N spoke up with a little bit of an angry, strained voice and run away from Zendaya to follow Hailee into the venue, smiling at the guards controlling everyone before letting everyone in, thanking them when they told her she was ‘good to go’ and looked around the venue in search of Hailee, sweeping her eyes over the sea of people talking animatedly with each other over the soft but nonetheless loud music blasting out from the speakers above her head, locating the brunette not too far away from her, just a few feet ahead walking towards the bathroom. "Haiz!"

Y/N ran after Hailee when she didn’t turn around when she called her name, cursing under her breath at the singer hearing her perfectly but she was too much pissed off with her bodyguard and with Zendaya’s words echoing around her mind to care about turning around when Y/N called her name. "Hailee! Hey!" Hailee turned her head towards the source of the familiar voice and waved at the blonde and at the brunette smiling affectionately at them, mirroring their grin with a loving one of her own.

"Hey Tay! Hey Sel! I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick and I’ll join you guys!"

"Okay! We will be here!" Selena replied and nodded at her before refocusing her attention on whatever their conversation’s subject was about.

"Hailee! Please!" Y/N called once again as she tried to catch up with Hailee, who started speed-walking towards the bathroom as soon as she heard Y/N’s feet echo approaching her. "Hailee! C’mon!"

"Save it Y/N." Hailee turned around to face Y/N, who joined her in the bathroom a moment after she entered.

"Hailee please. Let me explain!"

"There is nothing to explain. You were pretty clear."

"Haiz. Please." Y/N tried again with a pleading tone, stopping right in front of the door to prevent Hailee to leave the bathroom and their needed conversation. "Let me explain. It’s not how it sounded like."

"I think it was. I am a pain in your ass. You can leave for all I care."

"Okay. If you want me to do that, I will. I can’t force you to have me here. But first, let me explain. But you have to listen. If you will still want me to leave, I will. But please, listen to me first."

"Okay, fine." Hailee sighed out loud, relenting to Y/N’s pleas, not really resisting her cute pout even if she was mad at her.

"Okay, great. First thing first, I’ve never thought you were a pain in the ass. Not even when you acted like a bitch the first few weeks." Y/N started but Hailee was quick to interrupt.

"What?" Hailee interrupted with a loud screech as she looked at Y/N stunned, not believing she really said those words. "I was not being a bitch." Hailee scoffed and crossed her arms indignantly and leveled Y/N with a challenging look.

"You kinda were Haiz. You never looked me in the eyes the first week. And for about the first 3 weeks you almost never talked to me, only if it was strictly necessary. Oh and you never listened to me. You always ran away from me purposefully, while I was just doing my job to protect you."

"Okay, I may admit I was mad at you for being my bodyguard, but I changed!"

"And I’m so glad you did, but only me getting hurt made you change. I wonder if that never happened if you were still being a bitch to me right now." Y/N wondered with a small smile and watched as a shy one appeared on Hailee’s features too, breaking up her deep, annoyed frown.

"I wouldn’t. We were already becoming friends." Hailee reassured Y/N with a soft smile, the Y/H/C girl doing the same. A few beats passed before Hailee spoke up again, "why did Zendaya say those words?" Hailee asked in an insecure voice, making Y/N’s heart swell into her chest as an urge to hug her became almost unbearable, but she stayed put. She needed to explain everything to Hailee.

"Because she witnessed what happened 2 years ago when I was body guarding a client during the MTV Awards. He just ran away from the line we were in to walk around the venue-." Hailee visibly swallowed at the similarities to the story Y/N was retelling to what she did not even half an hour ago, but stayed in silence and listened to Y/N carefully. "He was nowhere to be seen but then I heard a security guard communicating through the radio that he got caught fingering a fan in a ‘semi-deserted’ hallway of the venue. Needless to say I got fired that night and it almost costed me my great reputation as a bodyguard if it wasn’t for my best friend that owes the body guarding agency and for the clients I body guarded previously that defended me against that asshole. I owe them a lot."

"What?!" Hailee asked incredulously as her eyes widened comically, "are you fucking serious?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Y/N, I’m so sorry!" Y/N shook her head at Hailee’s apology and caressed her right shoulder with her left hand.

"You don’t need to apologize. It’s fine."

"But it’s not Y/N! He was a total asshole."

"And he got away with that. Do you want to know why I almost lost my job?" Hailee nodded gently at Y/N’s frustrated and angry tone, deciding on not interrupting her with a verbal answer and letting her continue almost right away, "he said to every interviewer that I was the one suggesting him on fingering that girl. He would’ve been kicked out of the event, so he lied about what he truly wanted to do. I was lucky enough every other celeb I body guarded stoop up for me when security wanted to kick me out. They kicked him out instead."

"Oh wait! I remember reading about something like that. I couldn’t attend that MTV Award because I was away shooting a movie."

"So yeah, that’s why I said that. Because I was pissed at him when he walked away, still not knowing what he would’ve done."

"Now I got it. I’m so sorry for overreacting." Y/N shook her head at Hailee’s apology and walked a bit closer to her.

"You don’t need to apologize Hailee. You had every right to be upset about how Zendaya put those words. You didn’t know the meaning behind it."

"Yeah. Z made it sound like you said that about me." Hailee joked before a small frown settled onto her features as insecurity flitted into her brown irises, "you didn’t, right?" Hailee asked in a small, shy tone and immediately skidded her eyes from Y/N’s intense stare to her hands, wringing them nervously while her heart beat loudly into her ears in anticipation.

"Of course not!" Y/N was quick to answer, maybe too quick, but she couldn’t help it. She felt the urge to let Hailee know she wasn’t a pain in the ass. Quite the contrary in fact. "Haiz you are one of the best celebrity I had work for."

"But I treated you like shit the first month or so."

"You had your reasons and I understood that. I’m not mad."

"No one should be excused for that shitty behavior Y/N/N." Y/N shook her head and went to take Hailee’s hand but changed her mind at the last second and placed her hand on her left bicep instead, not noticing the goosebumps she elicited from their skin-to-skin contact.

"You had your reasons Haiz. You are excused." Y/N repeated more firmly this time, using a tone that told Hailee there was no more room for arguing. "I never thought you were being a brat purposefully. You thought you didn’t need a bodyguard and acted like the independent woman that you are."

"Stop, you’re making me sound like I did nothing wrong."

"You didn’t?"

"Yeah, I did. I treated you like shit and you didn’t deserve it." Hailee replied with resolution, holding her head high with a fierce glint burning behind her brown eyes.

"Stop, okay? It’s in the past now." Y/N squeezed Hailee’s bicep gently and smiled softly at her with a small nod. "We are on the same page now."

"Yeah."

"You are still not listening to me when I tell you ‘to not move’ but overall we’re good now."

"I wanted to look around for my fans!"

"You could’ve waited with me in line and then, after getting our passes, we could’ve gone in search of your fans together!" Y/N explained with a fake exasperated voice that made Hailee laugh.

"Good point. Next time I will listen to you!"

"And here we are with the beautiful Hailee Steinfeld. How are you darling?"

"I’m good. How about you Paul?"

"Oh I’m doing great now that I have you with me!" The interviewer answered with a mischievous smile before winking at Hailee, then at the camera before chuckling under his breath.

"Oh Paul, you’re too nice!"

"So, tell me about your tour!"

"It’s going great! I am so so thankful for going around the States to perform to the best audience any singer could ask for, my fans." Y/N watched from afar as Hailee’s eyes shined with passion and affection as she talked about her fans and smiled softly, almost imperceptibly, at the singer’s endearing bond she had with her fans.

"Oh I bet. I would be excited too to see you on stage. I heard that there are a lot of interesting choreographies during the show." There it is. That annoying, disgusting smirk that made Y/N wanting nothing more than going there and punching that douchebag in the face. He was clearly flirting with Hailee. To Y/N’s mind it was still difficult to understand how a man being around 50 years or older could try to hit on a 26 years old girl. It was disgusting.

"Yeah. Michelle was a great addiction to my tour this year! She came up with all the choreographies. She is amazing!"

Y/N didn’t know if Hailee didn’t catch up with the flirting yet or if she was plainly avoiding it and talking about something else. Anyway, it was something that made Y/N proud of Hailee’s laid back composure. "Yeah yeah, are you excited for tonight?"

"He was such a pig. I swear if it wasn’t for Florence passing by and coming to hug me to say hi, he would’ve put his hands on my ass. I was ready to break them off his arms." Hailee commented with Y/N what happened a few hours prior as they were making their way outside towards their tour busses around 3 a.m., both tired from the busy night.

"I noticed. He tried to flirt with you during all your interview with him." Y/N made a disgusted face and reveled in the cute laugh leaving Hailee’s mouth.

"I ask myself why people like him still works."

"Because their bosses are just like them." Y/N pointed out with an annoyed face on and Hailee could only nod in agreement.

"Ugh, it makes me so mad!" Y/N watched as Hailee’s face furrowed in anger as she looked towards the direction of the approaching tour bus. "I don’t want to think about all those girls they 100% harassed. They surely groped them or something like that."

"I don’t want to think about it neither." Y/N shivered alongside Hailee as they approached her tour bus.

"Don’t worry about your every night check and inspection of the tour bus. It’s already late and we have to wake up early tomorrow. You had a pretty tiring night already."

"You sure? I should do a quick check." Y/N replied insecurely as she scratched the back of her head and looked pensively at the tour bus’ door.

"I’m sure. Go to sleep, Y/N/N."

"Okay, fine. You won." Y/N relented and tried to ignore the strange tingle she felt in her stomach at the million dollar smile Hailee sent her.

"Goodnight Y/N/N."

"Goodnight Haiz."

Y/N waited for Hailee until she entered the tour bus and closed its door before walking towards her own bus and entering it. "Hello Miss Steinfeld."

"Oh shit! What the- what the fuck are you doing here?!"

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to continue where we were unfortunately suddenly interrupted." Hailee swallowed imperceptibly and cursed herself for not letting Y/N in and check the tour bus. She didn’t know how Paul got into the bus, but she was going to kick him out quickly. Fortunately they didn’t start moving yet. "Don’t even trying to run away Miss Steinfeld. C’mon, now sit."

"Let me just go take off these heels. I’ll be right back." Hailee had to walk past him to go to her bedroom, but she made sure to walk by him as far as she could to prevent him to touch her unexpectedly and as soon as she was out of his sight, she grabbed her phone she was thankfully hiding in her dress and sent a quick text to Y/N, not really testing her chances by calling her. He could hear her voice and she doesn’t want to know what he would do if he ever heard her calling for help. She shivered in dread as she hit send, before getting rid of her heels, placing her phone back securely in her dress and walking back in the living room area. As she approached the interviewer she prayed for Y/N to have her phone in her hands and to come to her rescue soon.

"What the- fuck I need to go!" Y/N interrupted their conversation with the driver of Hailee’s bus and run towards Hailee’s bus quickly.

From Haiz 💕❤️: Paul is here. Help me. Use the back door. It’s open.

"So, Miss Steinfeld, I noticed you being all over me tonight. You had no right to look at me that way in public. It made me so hard." Y/N as quietly as she could opened the back door and walked furtively into the bus, walking on her tiptoes to not make a sound. She made a gagging face at the disgusting phrase she heard and as quietly as she could sneaked her head over the door that led into the living room area. She let out a sigh of relief when she noticed that pig had his back towards her, but her blood boiled over when she watched his hand traveling dangerously fast up Hailee’s exposed leg, "and this amazing dress! Do you want to see what seeing you in this dress makes me feel like?"

Y/N met Hailee’s worried and terrified eyes for just a second before nodding and tiptoeing towards that asshole and right before he could slip his hands between Hailee’s frozen legs, Y/N circled her arm around Paul’s neck, gripping tightly and pulling him up and off the chair, effectively pulling him away from Hailee, who breathed out in relief and moved as far away from him on the couch. "I don’t think so asshole."

"You- bitch!" Hailee breathed in and out deeply a few times before finally finding enough force to stand up, her legs still wobbly from the fear that pumped hard in her veins, and took her phone to call the police.

"Ah-ha. I would shut the fuck up if I were you. The more you talk, the more I will tighten my grip. And trust me, you don’t want to test me."

"Okay, police should be here in a minute." Hailee approached Y/N and immediately placed her hand on Y/N contracted back for some comfort, her body shaking a bit from everything that she went through the past 10 minutes. "They were at the awards."

"Are you okay?"

Hailee shook her head at Y/N to silently tell her ‘not now’ and Y/N nodded gently at her with a wistful smile. They heard a knock on the tour bus’ door right about a minute later. "They’re here."

"C’mon piece of trash, they came to pick you up." Y/N pulled Paul back with her tight grip once more before grabbing his left wrist and twisting his arm behind his back, eliciting a painful yelp from the blond man, then pushing his arm more behind his back and reveling in his sounds of pain as she pushed him towards the door Hailee just opened.

"He is right there. My bodyguard blocked him."

"Thank you Miss. We’ll take him from here. I just need to take both of your statements and we will go."

Everything went by with a blur for Hailee as they spoke to the police officers before they put Paul in their car and drove away. "Are you okay, Haiz?"

"I-I-." Hailee stammered her words before her eyes welled up with unshed tears and threw herself in Y/N’s arms, hugging her tightly. "Oh Y/N/N."

"Shh, Haiz. It’s okay. I’m here. You are okay. I’m here with you."

"I-I- t-thank you Y/N/N."

"You don’t need to thank me Haiz. I would’ve come to your rescue regardless of me being your bodyguard or not. I am your friend. I care about you."

"I-I don’t-." Y/N shook her head and shushed Hailee gently as she caressed her back tenderly.

"You don’t need to talk now Haiz." Y/N hugged Hailee closer as she nuzzled her face in her neck.

"Thank you." Y/N felt her stomach clench and her heart break when she heard Hailee’s strained voice as she whispered her broken words.

"You need to stop Haiz. Stop thanking me. Stop talking. Just- let me hold you and make you feel better."

"You are a-amazing." Hailee laid a small peck on Y/N’s left collarbone that got exposed from the collar of her shirt and Y/N had to restrain the goosebumps that were ready to form.

"I try." Y/N tried to joke to lift up Hailee’s spirits just a bit and got rewarded with a small giggle that warmed Y/N’s heart. "You’re laughing. It’s a good sign."

"You make me laugh. You make me smile." Hailee admitted earnestly a few beats later as she stared into Y/N’s eyes intensely.

"So I’m like a clown to you?" Y/N joked again, pulling another adorable giggle from Hailee’s throat, a big smile stretched over her beautiful lips.

"Aren’t we all in life?" Hailee countered back with a witty, funny remark and both girls bursted out in a loud laugh.

"Well your fans for sure. I see a lot of tweets about them calling themselves clowns."

"Ha-ha. Very funny bringing this up Y/N/N." Y/N snickered at Hailee’s fake annoyance and watched as she rolled her eyes at her reaction.

"Oh c’mon. They are cute when they do that. You tend to be a clown yourself." Y/N joked some more and Hailee gasped in indignation at Y/N’s statement.

"Okay, y’know what? You suck!"

"Oh no, I take that back. Come here!" Hailee squealed when, after freeing herself from Y/N’s grasp, Y/N circled her waist with her arms, hugged her tightly and pulled her back into her body.

"Y/N/N!" Hailee giggled at Y/N’s goofiness and both felt their stomaches flip over themselves at their banter.

"Here. Better. Much, much better."

"Thank you." Y/N looked at Hailee confused as she furrowed her brows when the girl spoke up after a few seconds of silence, pulling away from the hug but still standing close to Y/N for comfort.

"For what?"

"For making me laugh. I needed it."

"You don’t need to thank me." Y/N spoke up right after, smiling softly at Hailee. "It’s my pleasure, truly."

"Do I make you laugh just as much too?" Hailee asked insecurely as she played with a thumbnail standing up on her thumb, avoiding Y/N’s intense gaze as she tried to lock her Y/E/C irises with Hailee’s brown eyes.

"Of course. You are so funny Haiz!"

"You’re not just saying that because I’m literally your boss, right?"

"Of course! I am payed to say you are funny!" Y/N joked and made Hailee roll her eyes in fake annoyance.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny."

"I know, right?" Y/N pushed her Y/H/C hair over her left shoulder in fake superiority before smiling widely at Hailee, who was looking at her unimpressed.

"Unbelievable."

"Jokes aside, you are funny Haiz. You also have a witty sense of humor, which is rare nowadays." Hailee smiled widely at Y/N and without even thinking leaned over to hug her.

"Thank you Y/N/N." Hailee felt her stomach flip enthusiastically when Y/N reciprocated the hug with just as much eagerness before pulling away to not prolong the hug over what is considered friendly. "What?" Hailee asked curiously when she looked at Y/N and found her smiling widely.

"You called me by my nickname. It’s strange, cute." Y/N stated with a dopey smile and a dreamy tone on and Hailee smiled shyly at her.

"Yeah, I like it. Don’t you like me calling you with your nickname?"

"Of course! I love it!"

"You call me Haiz most of the time by now. I feel like calling you with your full name is too formal. I consider you a friend now more than a bodyguard. Especially after what you did for me tonight. I will never forget it and I will be forever grateful for it. I will forever be in debt with you."

"Oh please. You don’t owe me nothing back. I did it because I care for you and I wanted that asshole far, far away from you."

"He luckily got arrested."

"Yeah. But I would’ve wanted to send him in with a black eye." Y/N admitted through gritted teeth and fists clenched, staring behind Hailee’s left shoulder in space as anger boiled over.

"I would’ve paid to see that, but I am afraid you would’ve been arrested too. And I want you here with me, not in prison."

"But I would look hot in a prison suit." Hailee took a moment to let the image of Y/N wearing a dark blue prison suit unfold in her mind. Dark combat boots, only the bottom half of the suit on as she tied the arms of the top half around her waist, and a white, extremely tight top on that displayed deliciously her perfect arms with her well-defined biceps and triceps and a slight patch of her amazing, contracted abs showing just slightly from where her top rode up a little bit.

"Yeah." Hailee widened her eyes when she noticed she inadvertently answered out loud and hoped for the floor to swallow her whole as Y/N stared at her with a mischievous smile on her distracting lips.

"Oh really?"

"I-I mean-."

"Don’t worry. If it makes you feel any better, you would look hot too in a prison suit. Super hot."

"Really?" Hailee asked shyly and her blush exploded on her cheeks when Y/N nodded with a suggestive wiggling of her eyebrows and a lewd look in her Y/E/C eyes.

"Oh yeah."

After that banter, the charged air surrounding them kept charging day after day, making both of them question everything. "No Haiz. End of discussion."

"But- no one is gonna notice I left. I promise."

"No. Your manager texted me to ask me to make you go to the event and stay there through all of it."

"Ugh, that’s not fair." Hailee sighed as she typed away on her phone, hearing then Y/N do the same as she approached her in the middle of her tour bus living room.

"What are you doing?"

"Teaming up with someone to escape that boring event." Hailee replied absentmindedly as she typed away fast, making Y/N sigh out loud again.

"Haiz no. Give me the phone."

"No."

"Haiz, I’m serious."

"Nope."

"Okay. Desperate times call for desperate measures." Y/N then, without properly thinking about her actions, grabbed Hailee’s phone quickly and tried to shield it out of Hailee’s grasp, who obviously tried to take it back.

"Y/N!" Just when Hailee almost grabbed her phone from Y/N’s hands, Y/N did something that she only thought properly after she had done it. She slipped her phone in her pants, placing it right in front of her clothed crotch. "Y/N. You. Didn’t."

"Oh I did. Now you have my attention."

"You could’ve just asked for it, you know?"

"Where would the fun be then?" Y/N asked mischievously as she wiggled her eyebrows evilly.

"Ugh."

"Now, you have my attention." Y/N stated smugly as she eyed Hailee moving her eyes from her phone in Y/N’s pants to her face.

"All of this just because I was using my phone while you were talking to me?"

"No because you weren’t listening to me. You don’t want to go to the event. I was told you need to. But-." Y/N trailed off to lift a hand up to stop Hailee from arguing and silently ask her to let her speak first, "we could reach an agreement."

"What type of agreement?"

"You need to go to this event. But we can leave around 10 minutes in the event. How does that sound?"

"Y/N/N I didn’t peg you as a rule breaker!" Hailee smiled widely as her eyes glinted with happiness, looking at Y/N gratefully.

"Well sometimes I need to do what you ask so you can think you are in charge here." Y/N teased Hailee with a mischievous smirk on her lips and reveled in the singer opening her mouth in an ‘O’ shape as she gawked at her in disbelief.

"Ah! Take that back! I’m always in charge here. I’m your boss!"

"Yeah, I don’t think so."

"I am!" Hailee stressed her words out as her eyes widened comically at Y/N, who looked at her unimpressed. "I am!"

Y/N smirked at the whining tone Hailee used to repeat her words before shaking her head to keep teasing her for just a little bit more, "nope, I think you are not."

"Y/N/N!" Hailee whined again as she pushed on Y/N’s shoulder, making her stumble a bit as she chuckled amusedly.

"Okay fine, you are my boss. But only half of the time. Most of the time you do what I ask, which you do not and it’s stressful."

"Because I want to have fun!"

"I know but there are some rules you need to follow, especially when you have a bodyguard." Y/N countered back with the same amount of entertainment in her voice as Hailee as they had their usual banter. "Like listen to your bodyguard once in a while."

"I listen to you all the time!"

"3 minutes ago I had to take your phone from you because you weren’t listening to me!"

"I was texting my friend!"

"I was talking to you about a serious topic!" Y/N countered back in fake exasperation, moving her hands around frantically to add a more dramatic effect to Hailee’s and hers banter.

"I was texting my friend about a serious thing too!"

"Yeah, okay." Y/N rolled her eyes with a fond smile and Hailee did the same.

"It’s true! I was just texting her about our plans tonight." Hailee declared with an insecure voice as she looked down at her fingers as she picked at a thumbnail to avoid Y/N’s curious gaze.

"Haiz, you have the event tonight."

"I know! But you said I can’t go, right?!"

"No wait, I said you need to go. 10 minutes and we can go then." Y/N explained again as she shook her head softly at Hailee’s attempts to not go to the event she needed to go to at all.

"Ugh, okay fine! You won."

"Do not try to confuse me, because it won’t work." Y/N smirked triumphantly as she nodded down at Hailee, who sighed defeated.

"Ugh, I know!"

"C’mon. Only 10 minutes. You need to resist only 10 minutes."

Hailee bit on her bottom lip as she thought over her chances, "5 minutes?"

"No. 10 minutes." Y/N crossed her arms and stared at Hailee hard, "take it or leave it."

"Hm." Y/N watched as a pensive frown flitted over Hailee’s features as she hummed in thought, before a smirk full of mischief erupted on her plump, pink lips, "there is no space for negotiations, am I right?"

"Yeah, you’re right. I am already doing you a favor with not letting you stay throughout the whole event. So 10 minutes it is."

"There is no way I am not convincing you with letting me stay only 5 minutes, right?" Hailee tried again and Y/N didn’t know what to think. The brown haired girl was definitely up to something but Y/N didn’t know up to what.

"Haiz, I don’t know what game you’re trying to play, but these were your manager’s instructions and I’m not letting her down."

"No, no, you’re right. It’s just-. There is this party I want to go. It’s my friend’s birthday party and I want to go there. It’s right on the other side of the city, completely opposite from the event venue. Staying only 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes will make us spare 5 minutes to get across town to get to the party."

"Oh wow, you thought everything over."

"Yeah."

"I’m sorry but no."

"If I find a way to convince you, are you going to let me stay 5 minutes?" Y/N furrowed her eyebrows at Hailee’s confidence, but shook her anyway, even if she wanted to see where Hailee would’ve took her, making the singer sigh out dejectedly.

"Okay, then. Give me my phone back and I will stay for 5 minutes at the event."

"I’m not sure you know how to negotiate Haiz." Y/N laughed amusedly at Hailee’s attempt of confusing her to let win, but she didn’t relent.

"Oh I know perfectly how to negotiate." Y/N furrowed eyebrows, confused at Hailee’s statement.

"You should’ve said 10 minutes to induce me to say 5 minutes." Y/N explained as if Hailee needed some kind of explanation and smiled softly at her, knowing exactly she already won this argument and they will stay less than a minute at the event tonight. She is a gooner for Hailee and she would pretty much do anything she asked.

"Why waste time with one more step?" And with that Hailee slipped her hand into Y/N’s pants without warning and grabbed her phone, purposefully stopping her hand there as she reveled in Y/N’s hard intake of air as she gasped in shock at the bold gesture, "I already know you will say yes to anything I ask right about now to let me remove my hand. But I need my phone back. So I’m killing two birds with a stone. 5 minutes it is?"

"H-Haiz." Y/N stumbled out in a strained voice as she pleaded her throat to now let the moan she wanted to emit, roll out of it, so she gulped hard and gasped for air, miserably fumbling over her senses completely gone for Hailee. "2 minutes it is." Y/N let out the first coherent thing her brain was capable to form beside a lot of lewd words she wanted to moan out, not really realizing what she really said.

"Hm, I was only aiming for 5 minutes but this is so much better. Thank you Y/N/N." With her hand still in Y/N’s pants, Hailee leaned over and kissed Y/N’s cheek before pulling her hand out alongside her phone. "I need to get ready. It won’t take long. Stay here and choose a movie so we can chill until the event tonight."

As Hailee sauntered back into her en-suite, Y/N, still frozen in the middle of the bedroom, was sure of 3 things. One: Hailee swayed her ass way too much as she walked into the en-suite. Two: she kissed her cheek way too close to the left angle of her lips. And three, the most important one: Hailee purposefully angled her phone so that it would’ve teased her pulsating core over her already slightly wet underwear as she retrieved her iPhone from her pants. "Fuck."

"Ugh thank God we are out of there. You will see how much fun we’re gonna have at the party."

"Hm-hm." Y/N hummed out absentmindedly, her mind still in a haze after what happened a few hours prior in Hailee’s bedroom.

"Oh don’t worry about Theresa. She will understand, you’ll see!" Hailee waved Y/N off, not noticing the Y/H/C girl’s strange behavior, as both settled in the back of the car.

"Hm-yeah."

"Great! Let me text Vic we’re on our way."

"Hm-hm." Y/N couldn’t hear herself to let any more sound other than just a feeble ‘hm’, she was sure if she tried to form any other word her mind and body would explode.

"Ah we’re gonna have so much fun!" Y/N moved her eyes from staring away out of the window to Hailee jumping up and down in her seat as she smiled widely at her. "You can drink right? I know you are officially working right now, but I want to offer you a drink to say the umpteenth ‘thank you’ for what you did for me."

Y/N, after forcing her brain to work, thought about her options for a few seconds as she stared blankly at Hailee, not really wanting to drink since she was a professional and didn’t drink while working but a flashback from earlier flooded her mind and Hailee with her hand in her pants appeared. After forcing the thought out of her brain, she let out firmly, "you know what? A drink won’t hurt."

"YES!"

"What do you want Y/N/N?"

The club was packed and Hailee had to move closer to Y/N to scream into her left ear her question, causing her lips to brush Y/N’s ear shell and making a shiver run down Y/N’s spine, "a shot of vodka."

"Oh we are already going for the good stuff, uh?"

"Hm." Y/N nodded with a hum before knocking the shot as soon as the bartender left it in front of her and before he could walk away to serve another customer, Y/N asked for another one without asking Hailee if she wanted another one too, even if she didn’t even have time to drink the first one yet.

"Y/N/N, are you okay?"

"Peachy!" Y/N assured Hailee with a small sarcastic tilt in her tone, the alcohol giving a pleasurable sting to her throat.

"O-kay." Hailee smiled unsure at Y/N before downing her shot too, grimacing a bit at the strong taste and noticing how Y/N’s face was completely blank as she took her shots and she was unexpectedly but pleasantly surprised about the aspect of Y/N taking a shot of vodka without making a face.

"Do you want another one?"

"I think we should slow down for a bit, uh? We have all night for drinks."

"Alright." Y/N nodded again as she stared ahead of her, desperately trying to avoid Hailee’s gaze.

"Y/N/N, are you sure you are okay?"

"I’m fine Haiz."

"Okay." Y/N didn’t catch Hailee’s skeptic face as she downed another shot she asked to the bartender but when she went to lift her hand up to call him back for a proper drink this time, Hailee took her hand and placed it back on the counter, making Y/N shiver hard at the touch. "You should seriously slow down."

"I’m fine. I can handle a lot of alcohol Haiz."

"I don’t doubt that and I certainly don’t want to test it. But we just came here. We have all night to get wasted." Hailee reasoned and smiled softly at Y/N when she met her gaze for the first time that night, trying to convey through her eyes her worries about Y/N’s strange demeanor, but not speaking them out loud.

"Okay." Y/N sighed as she pushed the empty shot glass away and mirrored Hailee smile, although a bit uncertain, and watched delighted as Hailee’s grin broadened instantly.

"Great. Now let’s go dance!"

"What?!" Y/N didn’t have time to protest, or at least comprehend what was happening before Hailee grabbed her left hand again and pulled her off the stool she was sat on.

"C’mon!"

"No Haiz, I don’t dance."

"Oh don’t be an ass, dance with me. Please." And just like every other time Hailee asks something to Y/N, she pouted and batted her eyes at Y/N, making saying ‘no’ to her a lot difficult, almost impossible.

"I’m not being an ass, I’m just saying I don’t dance. Besides I am working."

"Not tonight. Tonight is your night off."

"I don’t get nights off with this job, Haiz."

"You do. I just decided so. And since I’m your boss, you will take the night off. End of discussion." Hailee nodded resolutely and crossed her arms as she looked at Y/N sternly, making the girl smile amusedly and affectionately at her.

"You do know how to be persuasive and convincing."

"I try to be." Hailee shrugged with a mischievous smile on and stretched her hand over as a silent offer and smiled widely when Y/N took her hand a second later with a fond roll of her eyes and a small grin stretched over her lips, sighing gently through her nose. "Are you gonna tell me what is wrong?"

"Nothing’s wrong."

"Yeah right." Y/N smiled sheepishly at Hailee’s words and scratched the back of her head as Hailee stared her down with sincere worry in her eyes.

"Are you sure you are okay? You seem worried about something."

"I swear I’m okay. You don’t need to worry about me, okay?"

"Okay, you just seemed a bit troubled about something and I wanted to help." Y/N felt her stomach flip over itself at Hailee’s clear worry about her and walked over to her, grabbed her biceps, initiating a contact since that evening, and caressed Hailee’s soft skin gently, swallowing down the wail ready to come out of her when she realized she was touching Hailee.

"You are amazing Haiz. But I’m fine. I was just thinking about a few things, but I’m not anymore. We are here to have fun!"

"That’s what I wanted to hear!"

"Yeah!" Y/N lifted her own hand up to mirror Hailee to high-five her and giggled cutely at the brown haired girl’s goofiness.

"You are a dork."

"Shut up!" Hailee giggled as she pushed on Y/N’s shoulders before hugging her out of nowhere. "I know you like it!"

Y/N fought over the butterflies flying like crazy around her stomach as she reciprocated the gesture with just as much affection and enthusiasm, if not more compared to Hailee, "can’t say I don’t!" Y/N admitted before smiling down at Hailee after they pulled away from the hug.

"That’s good!"

"Thank you." Y/N admitted out loud after staying in silence and staring intently into Hailee’s brown eyes, full of passion, of wit but also full of affection for Y/N.

"For what?"

"You know what. For everything."

"Oh you don’t need to thank me!"

"I know, but I feel the need to do it."

"Well in this case then I need to thank you too like a thousands times and more!"

"Oh I love this song, please Y/N/N come dance with me!" Y/N smiled softly at Hailee as she had been trying to make her dance with her all night long, but after what happened in Hailee’s hotel room a few hours prior she couldn’t. She didn’t know how much and how long she will resist without doing something she will definitely not regret but that will fuck everything up with Hailee with her job and with their friendship. She will not do that, especially not when she was more than a little tipsy. She wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t sober either, so she won’t risk anything and she will stay put in the corner of the VIP dancing area watching Hailee dance care-freely with her friends.

"Thank you for the offer again Haiz, but I can’t. I’m good here watching over you. Don’t worry about me."

"Please! Then we can leave, I don’t care. But, please, please dance with me!"

"I don’t know…" Y/N murmured loud enough for Hailee to hear, feeling already relenting with Hailee’s puppy dog eyes pleading her.

"Please!" Y/N looked a bit unsure for a few seconds before looking into Hailee’s pleading brown eyes again and with a soft sigh nodded gently, feeling her heart swell and her stomach flip at the small squeal of happiness Hailee emitted when she realized Y/N caved in.

"Okay, I will!"

"Yay! We are gonna be the best on the dance floor!"

"I wouldn’t be so sure, I do not dance that good!"

"Well, I will be the judge of that." Y/N smiled at Hailee’s stubbornness and gave in to her wishes, letting her lead her towards the dance floor and felt her grin broaden when Hailee squealed happily after stopping in front of her.

"I wouldn’t be so happy, especially when they will kick us out for dancing so badly."

"You’re just belittling yourself. I bet you are good." Hailee insisted and started swaying gently to the music blasting loudly above them from the club’s speakers. Hailee felt herself stop for a moment as she took in Y/N surrounded by the neon lights around them, feeling her breath catch in her throat at the Y/H/C girl’s ethereal beauty.

"What are you looking at Steinfeld?" Y/N asked with a smug face, covering up her nerves as her stomach flipped over itself at the singer’s gaze, full of something Y/N can’t exactly pinpoint.

Feeling bold after the alcohol she consumed, Hailee decided to be sincere and answered quickly, "you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You are beautiful. I was admiring your beauty and under these lights it’s like it’s highlighted." Y/N blushed hard at Hailee’s compliment, feeling her checks burn wildly as she tried to maintain her composure and not squeal like the dumbass that she is.

"Haiz, stop you’re making me blush. And you’re the one to talk. You are perfect. Your beauty is so- so breathtaking. And trust me I’ve met a lot of people in my life, but none of them were as beautiful inside and out like you are."

It was Hailee’s time to blush after she registered Y/N’s words, a warm, fuzzy feeling spreading all over her chest as she stared lovingly at the Y/E/C girl. She didn’t know when she started crushing on Y/N, but it wasn’t that important now, was it? The important thing was that she needed to act on her feelings soon, right after making sure Y/N felt the same. "Now I’m the one who’s blushing. Hard."

"Well, that’s wonderful. You look even more beautiful, not to mention cute."

"Y/N/N!" Hailee whined under her breath and leaned over her body to slot her face in Y/N’s neck and hide her face in the crook of her neck, taking advantage of their position to deeply breath Y/N’s perfume in.

"What? I’m being honest."

"I know, but stop it." Y/N smiled softly at the singer before moving on instinct and laying a soft kiss on Hailee’s head, making both of them froze at her gentle gesture.

"We were about to dance if I remember correctly."

"But I’m so comfy right now." Y/N was glad that Hailee decided not to mention her gesture, but couldn’t help but blush at the girl’s words. They were playing a dangerous game as they were letting their feelings for the other take over their actions, not really knowing if that way will lead them to kiss. They both hoped it would happen with all their hearts, but they weren’t sure.

"But now I want to dance."

"Okay, fine." Y/N chuckled under her breath when Hailee huffed out loud and made an effort to move from her comfy position cuddling Y/N, before taking her hand and walking the few steps back to not have too many people squishing them, stopping right in the middle of the dance floor after wading through the sea of people dancing care-freely.

"Hm, I like the fact that we are the only ones dancing here tonight. So cozy and not sweaty at all." Y/N cracked a joke and smiled warmly down at Hailee when the singer laughed heartily with her head leaned back.

"Just forget about them. Focus on me."

"Okay." Y/N took a deep breath as her stomach filled with butterflies at the request and at the intimacy it implied, knowing it won’t be a difficult request to fulfill.

"Okay." Hailee repeated Y/N’s words and grinned widely, her smile widening when she wrapped her arms around Y/N’s neck and leaned closer, Y/N shivering visibly at her gesture.

"Okay-hm." Y/N tried to make conversation to try to dampen the electrified air between them, but to no avail when she tried to swallow the lump that formed in her throat at her Y/E/C eyes meeting Hailee’s brown, magnetic ones.

"You are really good Y/N/N." Y/N tried to not show her blushing face to Hailee as she brain decided to interpret Hailee’s words with a double meaning, but if Hailee noticed it she didn’t show it, thankfully for Y/N. After that the Y/E/C girl decided to try to look like a functioning human being, even if it was proved to be a really difficult task with Hailee being so perfectly beautiful in front of her, and tried to not let her nerves show to her.

"Thank you. Although I’m not that convinced I’m good at dancing."

"Are you kidding me? You are doing great!"

"You think so?" Y/N asked a bit insecurely, still having doubts about her non-existent dancing skills.

"I know so! You are great babe, just let go. If you feel that insecure about your dancing skills, just follow my lead." At that Hailee boldly placed her right hand behind Y/N’s back and pushed her front to her own, flushing their bodies together, and didn’t miss Y/N visibly swallowing at the singer’s gesture, making the brown haired girl proud for letting herself go tonight and make a move on Y/N.

"O-Okay-hm."

"Feel the rhythm. Let our bodies melt together to it." Hailee whispered sultrily in Y/N’s ear, smirking mischievously when she watched goosebumps appear on the side of her neck and had to restrain herself from kissing under Y/N’s earlobe. She needed one more confirmation before doing what she had been craving for weeks now. "There, like that."

"Haiz-I-." Y/N stopped herself to swallow a whimper when Hailee leaned her face impossibly closer to hers, so close that their breaths mingled together and their noses brushed together gently, trying to find a resolution in her to resist Hailee and not kiss her right then and there, a resolution she might have lost that evening in Hailee’s hotel bedroom when she slipped her hand into her pants to retrieve her phone. Despite it being her most desired thing to do, it would be wrong and incredibly unprofessional, not to mention it would scare Hailee away, because she would never in a million years feel the same way about her, right? She was just her bodyguard.

"Y/N." Hailee moved just a little bit more closer, a hair width separating their lips now, but stopped before she could finally close the final gap to let Y/N stop her, "tell me to stop and I will." Y/N didn’t say a word for about 5 seconds. Only when her eyes strayed down to follow Hailee’s tongue slipping out to lick her own lips that Hailee had the confirmation she needed and with her heart beating loudly in her chest and ears, completely blurring the world around them, she leaned over and kissed her.

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bi-hop · 1 year

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why the vulture scene in atsv is pure horror (spoilers under the cut)

As promised, I now have the mental bandwidth to actually talk about Adriano Tumino aka the Medieval Vulture in Across the Spiderverse. This is a spoiler fest, so I'm putting everything under the cut. Enjoy!

So, at some point when I was younger, I first heard about Flatland. It's this satirical novella from 1884. When I was looking it up again last night to prepare myself to explain it to other people, I was SHOCKED to hear it was satire on Victorian society and class structures. I had only ever heard about it in science and horror spaces. As a work, it's mainly known now for exploring the idea of 4th dimensions before Einstein, but it also continues elements that are straight out of horror. So, instead of breaking down the whole thing, I'm going to be focusing on that stuff specifically.

Flatland is about A. Square (yes, that's his name), who is a square. As you can imagine, his entire world is two-dimensional and functions as such. There's a lot of worldbuilding, but just keep in mind that

The people in his world cannot conceive of a 3rd dimension, and any mention of such is heretical.

Circles are the highest ranked people in this world.

One day, he encounters what he thinks is a circle. Said character is actually a sphere. Even as said sphere fucks with his perception by looking like disks sliding in and out of reality and tells him about the 'truth' of the world, A. Square can't comprehend the third dimension until his teacher lifts him into it, into Spaceland. The square is enlightened! His mind has been opened! He tells the sphere, if his reality is false and there's truly a third dimension, what if there are more? What if a fourth dimension exists with fourth dimensional beings who cannot be accurately perceived?

His teacher immediately casts him back down into Flatland, where he is subsequently imprisoned. No one believes that the third dimension and Spaceland exist. He only is able to write the novella and hope that one day Flatland will be ready for this knowledge.

All of this to say that Adriano is A. Square.

I read a lot of dimension-based horror. Maybe it's because the multiverse has compelled me since I was a kid, or maybe it's because I've heard way too many thought experiments about how every person on the planet may see the world differently, and we just use the same language to describe fundamentally different visuals because we can't accurately verify anything. The horror of it all, for both readers and writers, isn't necessarily the idea of seeing things others can't. At least, it's not in the hands of someone sincerely thinking about the 'eldritch'. Instead, imagine a higher being grabbing you and exposing you to a whole new, weighty aspect of reality you could never conceive without actively being dragged into it. And then you're thrown back into your reality. It consumes you, drives you, and no one believes you. How can they, when it's something so alien to your reality that no one can even think of it unless shown?

Because of the ripple effects of the collider, Adriano Tumino is dragged into Earth-65, the home of Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy). We don't know a lot about his world. As far as I remember, we don't even get a number designation. But his design, dialogue, and track all communicate a great deal about him. Vulture Meets Culture as a track blends Gwen's theme with the sort of opera he might listen to back home. He's designed heavily on the aesthetics of Da Vinci notebooks. As he affects the world, you can even see notations a la research scribbles next to diagrams. From memory alone, disregarding the fact that he's Italian (though I'm sure the insistence on English in Earth-65 was probably disorientating if his entire world speaks Italian), he also finds this new reality to be abhorrent and lashes out. This alone, an exposure to new colors and strange art and even weirder people who look nothing like you and the rest of your world, would be hard enough to cope with.

And then Miguel, this Spider-Man from 2099, drags Adriano out into the modern day.

The thing with movies being in theaters is that I'm at the mercy of random people who film showings on their phone to get footage. Because everyone finds the helicopter scene directly after this more interesting (which is valid), I don't have a picture of this moment. But when Adriano is flying out into this future, when he lays his eyes on these towering skyscrapers alight with color, you can see his shock, perhaps even terror. It'd be rough enough being exposed to a version of Italy that's, say, his time period but in technicolor. But this is worse. This is his Spaceland moment. The opera builds almost mournfully.

Soon, he will be sent back to his reality. This will happen in an even more incomprehensible future dimension, with even more people who look nothing like him. Perhaps there's a version of his granddaughter there. Tiana Tumino? It doesn't matter. Imagine this though. Your grandfather is yanked out of existence. He comes back. And he tells you 'I have seen colors beyond the ones we live in. I have seen towers of glass and metal scraping the sky, all alight in these colors. I have seen art that contains more art, and it was hideous. No one understood me. Flying things neared me that were beyond anything even our greatest geniuses can make.'

Do you believe him? Can you even imagine it all, even if he describes it, even if he shows you drawings of what he witnessed?

What will you say?

#adriano tumino #across the spiderverse #spider man: across the spider verse #medieval vulture #marvel meta #earth 65 #miguel o'hara #gwen stacy #tiana toomes #okay enough fandom tags #ending off with that miles picture bc it's also his first time entering a dimension #and sure enough. shock and awe

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snootlestheangel · 1 year

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Shadow Company: Moose

Everyone blame @cod-dump for this (affectionately ofc) and this post specifically for this mess I'm in over Moose.

A short drabble about everyone's new favorite Shadow; Moose

Sometimes the Shadows get bored and start throwing or kicking a kickball at each other. The number of times they've gotten it stuck in the rafters is about to piss Graves off and make him ban it. The only reason he hasn't being it's hilarious to watch Moose lift the Shadow that got it stuck so they can get it down. It's great hearing a small "whee!" From the Shadow being lifted and even more funny to hear them curse when Moose inevitably just drops them.

They got him one of those hats with the moose antlers for Christmas one year and he wears it when it's cold. His excuse is that he doesn't own any other hats.

Also was given a pair of sweatpants and an ugly sweater designed to make him look like a Christmas tree. They referred to him solely as the Christmas Moose when he wore them the day he got them. No one has seen them since.

Is the base's resident Tall Person. Something stuck up high? "MOOSE!" Someone struggling to see over a tall fence? "Moose, I need help!"

Almost always has a Shadow on his back like a koala. Everyone is too afraid to ask Moose if he actually hates it. They don't want to make him angry after all. He secretly enjoys it cause it's a unique form of strength and endurance training, and because it helps him know he can easily carry any of his teammates should the worst happen.

His office space for doing his tech work is actually a lounge area because he got sick of the Shadows cramming themselves into the old space and then complaining about it not being cozy. They're especially awful when he's in one of the shops, either for the trucks or weaponry and working. They're messing with stuff and laying in his way all the damn time.

Yes he always tried telling them to leave if they weren't comfy but no they don't listen. They'd rather lay on the floor or stand awkwardly against him while he works. So he got sick of it and took over a lounge area so the Shadows can comfortably bother him while he works.

He'd rather die than admit he enjoys the company/attention.

Some of the Shadows have witnessed him snap his cool only a couple of times. Usually it's after a really long, grueling mission and then another week of him having to fix a bunch of stuff but unable to workout because he has an injury that's benched him for a couple of weeks. And by snapping it's more like he just suddenly starts yelling at all of them to piss off. They're always quick to give him some space after that and eventually he returns to normal and acts like nothing ever happened.

Graves has only witnessed this once. It was during a mission and several of the Shadows were trapped in a sticky situation with the risk of not making it out alive. Graves and Moose were really their only help. Sometimes Graves gets distracted when watching the boys train cause he thinks back to that night where Moose turned into a one man army and obliterated the enemy.

Of course, he did this just to get to the Shadows trapped and give a gruff "you dumbasses" as he carries two of them. Graves will never forget what he witnessed and sometimes when Moose makes eye contact with him, they both just know.

Graves never once again underestimated how dedicated Moose is to the company despite how much he might complain about his fellow Shadows.

Literally vanished the first day the 141 boys were on their base because they had to work together over something. Nobody could find Moose and some started to panic. They didn't know why or what caused him to vanish but he did and he clearly didn't want to be found.

They get their answer like 2 days later when he and Ghost, as the biggest guys around, had to transport something big and heavy. Moose was so pale and shaking the entire time. Everyone was concerned that he wasn't well enough to help but he shot them down every time. They get the thing moved with ease and Ghost gives a polite nod and a "good work, Moose"

Moose darted away after muttering something about work he has to do. Then it made sense: their big Moose was totally terrified of Ghost.

Its not that they didn't know he's such a coward. They do actually. So much in fact that's part of why they started calling him Moose. The animal itself isn't a coward, in fact they're known for being confrontational when threatened (or sometimes just because) and so for a big guy like him to be the opposite, what better name than Moose?

Once had to carry Graves to safety. That was an experience for the commander, to say the least.

Another reason they all love cuddling against him: he's a human furnace. Like runs so hot he's actually typically wearing shorts and tank tops rather than full pants or shirts. He's got a fan club dedicated to watching him workout. They're just really obsessed with their big ole Moose.

The other reason they love cuddling Moose: he might be tall, yeah but he's also a thick boy. He's got ass, arms, thighs, belly, you name it. There was a meme posted to the announcements board for like a week which was a picture of the animal moose with its back to the camera and the Shadow Moose's ass next to each other. You know the meme, "they're the same picture"

It was replaced with a picture of it on the board and a cryptic hand written message of "I will find the one that made this and you will pay. To the one who took the picture, give it back. -Moose". No one knows who took the picture, but the Shadow that made the meme itself got thrown under the bus so fast. The picture of Moose's ass just appeared in a Shadow group chat one day and no one knows who sent it. (It was Graves actually and Moose knows he took it. The "give it back" part is actually in reference to something completely unrelated)

Secretly was a scene kid in his teen years. This information will go to his grave with him.

#shadow company ocs #shadow company #Shadow Company Moose #moose is really sweet unless you make him genuinely angry #Shadow Company Moose headcanons #Our gentle giant

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n7punk · 1 year

Text

She-ra (2018) Official Merch

I've made a loooong post about She-ra merch and its weirdness, but I wanted to summarize it in the most comprehensive list of official merch for the 2018 Netflix reboot that I could assemble. I'm sure I've missed some stuff, though, so I'll update this if I find anything. Thanks to everyone who contributed, especially Clare and Tippen.

I did deep dives (with pictures and details) on con exclusive and promotion exclusive merch. Basic info on those is included below the read more of this post.

Everything with [L] at the end of its bulletpoint - or an * inside one - has a photo in the long post. I provided links to official photos/listings when possible, but most of them are defunct.

Pins/Accessories/Clothing (active):

A bunch of jewelry (necklaces, rings, earrings) and enamel pins from Han Cholo (+ one iron-on patch). I've seen resellers claim the chibi pins were exclusive to a convention, but they're up on the website. The long post* has pictures of these if they ever go down, and the actual convention-exclusive ones can be found in the con post.

Amazon print-on-demand clothing (+ tote bags and pop sockets) with a lot of different designs that are hidden on the site but still purchasable, see this post for details, and here's the direct link. Once you find a design you like, you can search its name in the regular search bar (for instance, there's a shirt design called "Power Stripes Catra," for that one you have to search just "Stripes Catra") to see all the kinds of items it comes on, usually a variety of tops/outerwear, maybe a tote, and sometimes pop sockets.

Bioworld also had licensed merch, but some designs are hidden on their store page, so the link shows everything available but includes both the reboot and the 80s original. As of writing, they have one lunchbox, two adult t-shirts, one adult crop top, and two youth shirts for the reboot.

Media (active):

A DVD of just the first three seasons (there's a box sleeve version that includes stickers and it's never clear in listings if this is the only version and they just don't show the sleeve or if they're two separate things). This is still for sale at multiple retailers, but there's no way we're ever getting a full boxset.

There were a couple of books: the Rebel Princess Guide, the Legend of the Fire Princess graphic novel, and then some small "novels." These are still available at multiple retailers, but the novels weren't made by the crew and at least some of these contradict basic facts from season one, so they're less canon than many fanfics despite being licensed.

Everything from this point on is out of production and only available via resale.

Toys/Figures (defunct):

Eight fashion dolls. The line had Adora, Glimmer, Bow, Catra, and She-ra (season one version), Battle Armor She-ra (2-pack with a model of Swift Wind featuring their Battle of Bright Moon looks), and a deluxe She-ra & Shadow Weaver 2-pack (SDCC 2019 exclusive). These dolls were supposed to be Target exclusive, but the rollout was botched and now they're collectors' items. There were also four cancelled dolls that were supposed to be part of the line.

Two Super7 action figures in a Catra & Adora 2-pack with limited articulation. They're rare collector's items too, though this time it's just because they were a limited run. [L]

A plastic toy Sword of Protection and shield sized for children. The sword lit up and said "For the honor of Grayskull!" when you lifted it. The gem was semi-transparent and had a picture of She-ra under it. This was a Target and Amazon exclusive (Mattel & Target are always holding hands 🤝). [L]

Clothes/Dress-up/Accessories (defunct):

Four licensed She-ra costumes (season one version) of varying quality: a Target-exclusive one in limited sizes, one from Disguise in a wider range of sizes, one from Party City (as well as a wig and Sword of Protection prop licensed under Classic Media) for children, and one from Rubie's Costume Company (with a season one Catra costume to match, as well as separate accessory packs and wigs for both characters) that was also available at Party City. [L]

Her Universe used their Netflix license to make three shirts, two jackets, an earring set, and a wallet. Photos in the long post* if these links go down (they are discontinued, after all). Bioworld (remember them?) are actually the producers of the earrings with their name rather than Her Universe's branding being found on the backing card.

Hot Topic made a few shirts (like, three. I don't have the primary link for the third design). [L]

Misc (defunct):

Zaks Design-A-Tumbler, a plastic see-through drink tumbler with a sticker sheet provided so you can place the character graphics inside as desired. Features the key character art seen on most other merch for the Best Friend Squad as well as the sword, the moonstone, Swift Wind for the horse girls, and some random sparkles and hearts to fill space. It was available via Amazon and Walmart.

Comcanroll made a Sword of Protection keychain, also defunct. [L]

Beneath the cut are con exclusives and promotional items that were not for sale (at all, or at least by themselves) but that you can still probably hunt down online. Also... still available apps.

I can't believe this is real but there are two apps. She-Ra Stickers is available on iOS and Android and is exactly what you expect: "stickers" (pngs) to send in texting conversations. She-ra Gems of Etheria (also still available on iOS and Android) is a match 3+ game. It doesn't have micro transactions or ads (since, you know, the whole thing is an ad) so it's actually better than most things on the app store.

@tippenfunkaport also made a post about "digital merch" (backgrounds, printed papercrafts, etc) that Dreamworks posted online.

Promotion Exclusives:

I made a separate post for promo-exclusive merch. Things marked with an [L] still have photos in the long post, but photos are better gathered for all of these things in the promo-exclusive post, so please look at that one if any of these interest you.

Lootcrate/Lootwear made a pair of socks, a notebook, and a tumbler all featuring the season one She-ra silhouette. These were only available as part of their subscription service and not for individual sale. [L]

A Sonic kids meal tie-in that featured: magnets of the characters, funko-esque She-ra and Hordak figures, Swift Wind & Imp "straw buddies," and a small inflatable toy Sword of Protection. [L]

The following is promotional material that was never available to the general public:

A statuette of She-ra sent out to family bloggers to promote season four. Very limited due to the tiny production and being fragile. [L]

An equally rare metal lunchbox was sent out exclusively to influencers to promote season one.

Media press kits included a number of items that made it to the public as con-exclusives (see below for more details): collectors cards, buttons, and a foam tiara.

Stickers plugging the Dreamworks Careers' socials were also produced, likely for recruitment. [L]

Gray zip-up hoodies with a small sword on the front (pocket area placement) and a larger logo on the back were made for the crew and never available outside of Dreamworks.

A shirt featuring a graphic of She-ra riding Swift Wind with the She-ra logo in the corner - distribution & source currently unknown. Looks similar but is distinct from an existing Amazon POD design. Best guess is it was given out at an event (con, reviewer promo, employee event, etc), but I'm putting it here since I have no clue where it was from.

Con exclusives (defunct):

I made a separate post for con-exclusive promo items. Some of these still have photos in the long post, but photos and details about which cons they were available at and such are gathered in the con-exclusive post.

Button pin sets (4 sets, 4 buttons each) were at comic cons. These were possibly also available on Amazon for a time but I can't find confirmation on that beyond a backing card logo that could just mean the backing card itself was produced by Amazon. They aren't for sale now either way.

A foam She-ra crown and flat plastic/foam Sword of Protection, handed out at multiple cons.

She-ra socks designed after her uniform (including a cape on the back) seem to have been given out at cons. Photos are only in the long post* because they aren't good and I ran out of room.

There's a number of official poster designs that were handed out (mostly as mini posters) at cons, but most listings online are reprints.

Collector's cards were handed out at cons, probably SDCC.

Temporary tattoos, stickers, bookmarks, and coloring sheets were handed out at Power-Con (years unknown) and possibly other locations, likely those that sold the Scholastic books. [L]

A plastic shopping bag, made to be a disposable advertisement, exclusive to Anime Expo 2019. This one also don't have a photo in the con exclusive post because it's just one of the poster designs already in there, but there is a (wrinkly) photo in the long post*.

#words and things #she ra #merch #spop meta #the fact that the concise post is itself long... listen there's a REASON i didnt add the photos here #it would have been nice and i considered sticking them under the read more but you cant format photos side-by-side on the dashboard view #so it would have ended up a mess that only looked clean on my blog itself #and i would have run out of room pretty much immediately anyway considering hitting the photo limit is why there's so many other posts #so yeah if this becomes a static page than photos can be added but the rebloggable version just has links #okay i think that's everything and all the links are right #welcome to my hell!

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the-spooky-children · 3 months

Note

do you have any random headcanons about characters that you’d like to share with the class (last time i did an ask game on my previous account nobody picked the numbers/characters i wanted so i’m just asking you cuz why not 😼)

Just gonna spew out a bunch of em here don't mind if I do

Skid: can speak Latin really well because his dad taught him

Pump: he first became friends with Skid by silently following him around and staring at him with huge eyes like a cat, repeated that until they realised they both like Halloween (they immediately became insane for each other)

Lila: Jaune was her first kiss

Susie: could beat the shit out of all 3 members of the Hatzgang while barely lifting a finger

Skid's dad: he made a time capsule for Skid right before he (dad) died containing an explanation of all the cult/Eyes stuff and buried it somewhere for him to find when he's older

Roy: he never grows taller than like 5ft 3

Ross: used to babysit Skid all the time when he was little

Robert: his parents are dead and he and his sister are mostly cared for by John and Radford

Robert's little sister: she sees Skid and Pump around town sometimes and actually thinks they're cool and funny and wants to be friends with them

Lucky: he has serious beef with Pump after he stole his lollipop, also often ends up being Skid and Pump's third wheel

Jaune: still has a crush on Lila

Aaron: selectively mute polyamorous king

Kevin: no matter how pissed he gets he would definitely kill for the spooky kids

Moloch: the furnace on his HS design is his molussy

Bob: his first two kills were his own parents

Gregor: (will probably be disproved in next episode) he doesn't die after encountering Eyes, instead he transforms his church into a place of worship for the cult

I might add on more later

#spooky month

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five-thousand-loaves-of-bread · 1 year

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want talk bit about different mobility aid give different access needs & limitations & barriers not all same just bc all mobility aid user

or mainly talk about canes & forearm crutch & manual wheelchair & powerchair because have not personal experience walker/rollator or others but people w walker welcome add.

n mainly talk about mobility aid itself because some thing mobility aid itself can theoretically do but some people disability or body cannot do n me not know all scenarios. n personal experience only, many variation within cane/crutch/manual wheelchair/powerchair. what may be true for say, my powerchair may not for other model powerchair.

canes small & easy get around space like tight space as long as body can fit cane can fit, and if there thing on ground like backpack on ground, it not super stop cane itself, can lift can put in tight space. can step over or go around small space (unless disability or body prevent)

but that much harder with wheelchair. there many space that even narrowest wheelchair not able fit—if manual wheelchair, even if chair itself may technically fit, functionally still not fit well because self propel scrape hand scrape arm. bariatric manual wheelchairs & most powerchairs tend be wider.

and wheelchair have much more limit for obstacle on path. if upper body strong in manual wheelchair, can pop wheelie over some obstacle like small curb (or rough terrain like grass n dirt), but even that have limit. like narrow path block by backpack on only path, cannot wheelie over that.

this issue in for example events with lots tables and (regular) chairs all over place and restaurants and stuff.

on road that slant to one side (left/right). canes itself not make unable do that, but again own disability may affect. slant road may feel weird with pair of crutches.

manual wheelchair probably most sensitive to slant road in my experience. even slightest tiniest smallest slant you cannot tell when walking, manual chair will slant toward the lower side instead go straight line. it very hard control. cannot stop mid way, even take hand quick second off wheels to brake is hard because chair move.

powerchair, at least more heavy ones not sure abt collapsible 50 lb ones, find actually easier time with slant. especially small slant like talk above, not really notice. can stop and just stay there and not slide.

BUT. if curb is slant, like straight road up until curb begin rise from middle of road to one side only, and only way go forward is go down curb. find manual chair okay handle, because more able control, but it will flip my power chair.

in general, personal find idea of flipping on side/over in powerchair lot lot scarier than manual chair. probably because powerchair bigger bulky heavier. also find many people who use those custom CRT powerchairs, flipping over will cause medical emergency because for lack better word, body already extreme fragile. many people in manual chair especially custom manual chair, tend have more abilities.

canes not inherent make you not able do stairs & escalators (although know many cane user who disability make hard do stairs).

wheelchairs, unless super fancy expensive rare insurance-won’t-cover stair climbing powerchair, cannot do stairs at all. need ramp.

some manual wheelchair user may be able do the trick to go on escalator, but that not possible for most if not all powerchair.

ambulatory wheelchair user maybe can get off and walk some. know some paraplegic who can get down n scotch up stairs. if in this catagory and use manual chair, maybe able drag or carry chair up stairs. but this tend be a lot more hard (unless like 10 people together) or downright impossible for heavy powerchairs.

many counters (like info desk, self serve dining, counter at bar, restroom sinks, etc) designed for typical height standing people. manual wheelchair & some power chair, not able reach. some powerchair have the rise function where can adjust height.

if have counter that shorter, may help wheelchair users (and probably people w dwarfism, but not have that cannot speak abt), but if that only option, know may cause issue for some people with cane who struggle bend back. unless have seat. but if have seat, know many wheelchair users prefer/can only stay in their wheelchair, so need move seat away.

and speak of seat. during time where limited seats and most people expect stand, wheelchair user bring own seat, so we actually fine. but know many people with cane n crutches, they the one need seat but not have one, so priority should go to them.

but seats on bus. don’t know how it like anywhere else, but place with public transportation bus i been at in US, most have the kneeling system (where they lower & put out ramp), seating in front where can lift up to fit wheelchair, and toward back there 1-3 step stairs up to more seating.

cane crutches not really limit you sit anywhere. if have trouble climb the 1-3 step stairs, then there still many seat before the stairs.

but wheelchair users. there only 1, at best 2, spot per bus for us, where driver have to lift up the seat. we cannot sit anywhere else. no place. situation like this is why have wheelchair priority and not just mobility aid priority.

for people who have both upper limbs & hands, and can use them. cane take up one, have one empty. crutches, if use pair, both hand taken. if self propel manual wheelchair, both hands (or alternative control, which may look like one hand wheelchair one hand white cane). if powerchair with joystick, one hand. for wheelchair user, have lap, but that vary in reliable depend on what is and different person & ability and condition of road (bumpy, etc).

in short is like. different mobility aid group have (some) different access needs & face (some) different barriers. sometimes when address barrier, sometimes need be specific about which mobility aid (eg wheelchair priority bus seating), because it may primarily affect some group of mobility aid and not the other.

in the wheelchair priority bus seating example give, where this is only place entire bus wheelchair users can sit, anyone who refuse move for wheelchair user is still take up space they shouldn’t, even if cane or crutches user. (if the rest of bus is full, & the cane/crutch user need seat, someone nondisabled need move seat).

#cripplepunk #cpunk #loaf screm #wheelchair user #wheelchair #mobility aid #cane #long post

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chronically-ghosted · 1 year

Text

Second Base.

rating: 18+

pairing: max phillips x f!reader

word count: 3712

summary: you try out second base; hand stuff only, but it changes things between you two, as much as you don't want it to.

warnings/tags: cute little outfits designed to drive max nuts, hand jobs (m and f receiving), more blood, fangs, one emotionally unavailable vampire

a/n: this contains one of my favorite lines i've ever written!

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Second base.

Because you aren’t actual sadists or masochists, after the first bite, your sex life with Max went back to normal. Well, as normal as sex with an immortal creature of the night ever was in the first place. Okay – as normal as sex with an immortal creature of the night who is Max Phillips ever was in the first place. Which is to say, often, hard, and loud. It had been weeks since you’d seen that worried look of consternation, that sweet vulnerability he expressed, as if feeding on you might be the thing that kills you and not being railed against your couch for the better part of an entire day. Sometimes you wished he had much respect for your ability to walk upright as he did your jugular vein.

On some level, you were aware that his recent overexuberance was in part due to that vulnerability. As if you might lift the curtain and find that the man behind it all might leave you wanting. Truly a frat boy at heart, Max struggled to express anything that couldn’t be summed up with the three “ings” – licking, sucking, and fucking, obviously – but now, he had been exposed as someone capable of those deeper feelings, as if he had been the one to split open a vein for you. And despite the heavenly glow you indulged in after the first bite, you really weren’t quite sure how you felt about it all. You hadn’t started dating Max with any illusions about who exactly he is. In fact, you might have started fucking him in the first place because it seemed wildly out of character that he or you would get attached at all – to anyone or anything. The dating thing just sort of happened, when you both came to the same conclusion at roughly the same time: no one else was really doing it for you, so why not? So what if you only directly referred to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend in the privacy of your own apartment, or his? So what if half of the office was entirely clueless about your relationship and the other half was actively placing “secret” bets about how long you two had been fucking? Annoyingly, Tim had been the one to be almost right: “six months ago, I’m telling you, man. That’s when he stopped eating secretaries and she got so much nicer.”

Technically, he stopped eating secretaries about a month into your relationship, and what Tim accidentally overheard was not him “eating” a “secretary”, but you weren’t about to correct him. But Max found it all hilarious: “he’s right, you’re so much nicer when that pussy has been taken care of. But I like it when you’re mean.”

You actively choose not to think about what he meant by a “deep emotional connection” last time.

Fine, Phillips, I’ll show you how mean I can be.

“Nope, no, uh uh.”

You put your hand just over the frilly blue lace on your hip. “I’m sorry, I don’t see the problem.”

It had been about a month since first base and while Max had gotten notably more relaxed around you seeing him eat – he now occasionally walked around your apartment with his food in an opaque smoothie tumbler with a straw – he was still very strict about moving onto second base.

Which, if left up to him, meant you’d be wearing a straight jacket and thick flannel pajamas.

“Max, if we’re ever going to do this thing for real, you’re going to have to get used to seeing me naked. I’m not letting you fuck me and bite me while I’m in riot gear.”

“Okay, but, baby,” he whines and he can’t help himself from rubbing the satin bow above your crotch between his fingers. “You look like a birthday cake.”

Is the baby blue lingerie with a strapless bra that catches around your biceps with white lace a bit overboard? Yes. But last time was ridiculous.

Max frowns, his visible pout morphing into something subtly dangerous as he realizes he can unpeel your bra with a string in the back. “Can’t I just fuck you normally in this and then we’ll try again later?”

You swat his hand away as it sneaks across your ribs.

“No.”

“You know, if I wasn’t already dead, I’d think you’re trying to kill me.” Smirking, he drops his hands down to your waist and, not so subtly, curves them around the mold of your ass. Distractedly, he slips one finger under the seam of your panties. You press your hands against his chest and blink up at him coyly.

“Whatever gave you that impression.”

He shakes his head, squeezing your ass once. “And I’m supposed to be the soulless demon with a heart of darkness.”

“So you’ll do this?”

With a sigh and his eyebrow jumping, he nods. “Yeah. Fine. Go get on the bed.”

Trying desperately not to squeal, you tear away from his arms and all but run and leap on top of the white towel. Max slips out of his shoes, and starts unbuttoning his shirt. You bite your lip, nerves humming in anticipation, as you sit up on your knees to watch him. To your enormous dismay, no matter how hard you worked, no matter how much spit or cum you used, you could not make him purr again. You’d had wet dreams on the idea alone of putting your head against his chest as he vibrated but he swore it was involuntary. “And,” he added as a way to soothe your ego, “I’m pretty sure it can only happen when I’m feeding.”

“Does it happen every time? Like with blood bags or back when you hunted people?”

“No,” was all he said about that.

Max slips his shirt off over his shoulders and goes to work unbuttoning his pants. When they slide off his hips, you frown.

“The boxers with the hole in the waist? Ooh, baby, I’m so turned on when you make such an effort.”

He rolls his eyes as he climbs in next to you. “Look, I didn’t think you’d be seeing my underwear and I need to do laundry.”

“You didn’t think I’d see your underwear in a situation where we’re going to specifically jerk each other off?”

Attempting some version of contrite, Max’s gaze falls from your face to your throat, to your clavicle, to your tits, pillowed up for him beneath the blue lace. He leans in as if pulled by magnets.

“I’m sorry if I thought we’d both be a little more preoccupied.”

His broad palm smooths across your thigh, around your hips, to just above your tailbone, his nose drawing indistinct lines from your shoulder to your ear. You sort of hate how quickly he can make you not irritated with him. You shift to take him into the cradle of your thighs, when he winds your panties up in his fingers and tugs. The gossamer material tightens just over the seam of your pussy, teasing your clit, you choke. That heated, teasing Max Phillips smirk spreads like hot butter across his lips.

“What are the rules again?”

“Max,” you whine as you drag your nails over his chest and up his shoulders. But he hesitates, his hand knotting your underwear in his fist. One move and it’ll rub against you again.

“I’ll stop,” he murmurs in a half-sing-song voice. You huff.

“Silver. Bad touch, on your skin. Lightheaded or dizzy, I use the safeword. And,” you sigh. He’s so painfully handsome sometimes it hurts. He’d set out candles again, as if he needed any help in his seduction of you and he just sort of glows. You don’t know if it’s your anticipation or some vampire illusion, but every line on him is blurred. Soft, as if he doesn’t have your pleasure literally in his hands. There it comes again, that small bit of light in his eyes, the emergence of the early morning sun over the horizon. The way he looks at you makes your chest heavy. “And . . . only hand stuff,” you grumble.

He chuckles, pouting at you in faux-sympathy as he reaches out, other hand wrapping around the back of your neck. “Only hand stuff, she’s so sad about it,” he whimpers into your cheek with a high, mocking voice.

Your fingers dig into the skin on his chest, daring to hold him away as he goes for your mouth. “I swear to god, Max –,”

In one single fluid motion, he pushes on your tailbone, and swings your hips forward as he tackles your mouth with his own, effectively yanking you under him. You huff in surprise, before pulling away to find menace and glee in his eyes. Grins again as he nips with flat teeth on the curve of your neck.

He plants wet, hot kisses across your chest, heat blooms against your ribs and tunnels down between your legs, as he tongues the softer places along the hollow of your throat, then up the other side of your throat, teasing your earlobe.

“I’m sorry,” he breathes, “that was mean. What can I do to make it up to you?”

Pressing your chest up against his, knowing he can feel the squish of your tits, you wrap your legs around his waist and pull him towards you. His hard cock rubs up against your seam and he lets loose with a muffled groan into your mouth. You roll your hips once with him between you and he turns his head to your jaw, as you both pant at the sensation.

“You know exactly what I want.”

His teeth graze you gently. This is an exercise in restraint for you as much as it is him. Given any other night, you’d have his pants off by now, on his back, or behind you, but you refrain. You can’t squeeze him like you want to and that only frustrates you more, makes you heated and ruffled, makes you want more of his skin on you, around you, as if he could smother you. You want to merge your bodies. Your knees dig into his ribs.

He whispers something, too low and fast for you to catch it, but it ends broken and uneasy as if you’re touching something delicate within him. Bending back with one hand, Max reaches between your legs and cups you, one finger barely pressing the wet material back inside you.

“Was this waiting for me under all those layers?” You nod as he pushes deeper, your mouth dropping open. He kisses your chin, before tucking his head under your jaw again. “No wonder you were burning up.”

He inhales as if his face was pressed right up against your cunt, two fingers rubbing up and down over that sodden material. It scraps against your clit and it burns. “I could eat you. Just like this.”

“Max, c’mon–,”

“I know, baby, I know.”

Smearing that pink little bow with the smell of you, he dips his hand under the line of your underwear, past your damp curls, and soothes your overheated sex by filling it with two thick fingers. You arch, brow furrowing, mouth open, fingers clamping down around his shoulders, arousal crawling up your spine, higher and higher the deeper he goes. Max likes the build up, the tease, it’s why his thumb only hovers above your clit, the heat doing half the work for him, as he pumps his fingers in and out of you, the wet squelching almost embarrassing. Behind his hand, his hips swing in time. He groans, deep, into your ear, breathless.

“Could come like this, baby, could come right like this.”

The bend of his cock bumps the back of his hand as he thrusts against nothing. You hitch your pelvis up, opening wider, pussy easier within reach, and you forgo any teasing for him, hand sliding right past his boxers, molding your grip around him. He’s hot and leaking all over your fingers.

“‘Ngh . . . shit, baby.” The arm holding him up shakes. You want to lick the salty precum but there has to be a rule about that, right? If you aren’t so desperate for that final fuck, you would have been a bit more careless. His fingers inside you press up into the places only he knows can send you into oblivion, as if grateful for tearing him apart. His wrist flicks quicker, faster into you, fingers plunging deeper, up to the knuckles, bouncing you as if you were on his cock. You match his speed with your own hand and Max hums, a dark sound verging on distressed.

You bite your bottom lip, eyes drooping, the rocking motion scraping against your pleasure again and again, like a match scratching against the box one stroke at a time. “Maaax –,” He adds a third finger and you keen, high-pitched and desperate, the width stretching you out for a cock he won’t let you have. You grind against his fingers, the bounce knocking loose every sane thought in your head.

Opening your eyes, you realize he’s been staring at your tits this whole time. His chest warm and glowing with sweat, his eyes track every bounce and jiggle, the cups of your bra putting them more on display than if you held them up yourself.

“Where do you want it, darling?” His voice is strained, softer than it should be with your cunt sucking up his fingers.

Max Phillips doesn’t do cutesy nicknames. Not during sex, not ever. Your his slut. His monsterfucker. Not –

Your already unspooling mind struggles to grasp at darling before it slips away.

His cock is throbbing against the palm of your hand. If you could see it, it would be flushed red, the vein at the base protruding. You pump him faster and his hips stutter. He’s so close and so are you.

But he’s not talking about that.

“On my tit, Max. Bite me on my tit.”

With a groan that is all growl, all tension and feral hunger, his arm collapses and he sinks his weight against you. He manages to get his hand out, but yours is still trapped there, pinned between your tender cunt and his painfully hard cock. You writhe. “Max–,”

His kiss against your lips is a starving sort of one, one that steals the breath from your lungs, wiping any lingering ache temporarily from your body. He licks the inside of your mouth, swallowing the moan that races from your throat into his. It’s all need, desire, a blistering familiarity that you didn’t realize existed between you two. He’s trying to say something with this kiss.

He doesn’t give you long to read into it, as he pulls back, sinking more into his knees as he mouths the skin under your neck, above your clavicle bone, and in between the valley of your tits. His weight shifts off you, enough to pull your hand out. You arch, pushing your chest deeper into his mouth, using the back of his neck to pull you higher, he groans and licks, and you yank the tie of your bra behind your back.

“Max, you can –,”

His hand claws at your cups, mouth consuming yours again, the ropes almost stinging your back as they are ripped so fast across your heated skin. Before you lie flat, his hand cups under you, fingers pressing into where the threads burned and forcing you to maintain that bend in your spine.

The moment is coming. You can feel it. It’s different from a rising orgasm, or the first time he ever sucked your nipple into his mouth. Your lizard brain is sending off warning flares, but you ignore it once again. Those flares arc and bend, your arousal now fire hot.

His tongue pressed flat, Max draws a long stripe of spit from under your breast, over the weight of it, and up your nipple, where he swirls it between his teeth. Whether Max Phillips was an ass or tits man depended on the day of the week, or whatever was blowing in the air, but he laved attention onto yours like they were the first pair he’d ever seen in his life. The skin on your other breast shines from where his fingers mold around it, smearing your wet juices all over your pebbled skin. He switches over and laps up that smell off you.

He’s wavering, caught between drawing it out and doing it so instantaneously he might black out and miss the whole thing. Your heart racing, skin almost too sensitive, you feel like you might shudder apart.

“Max, please –,”

He chooses the second approach.

Without warning, his fangs spring out and he latches onto the skin near the valley of your chest on your right breast.

You yelp in surprise, pain and pleasure zigzagging like rough scissors from his bite out through the rest of your body.

Okay, that hurts.

You gasp, bucking, yanking on his hair. “Baby, baby, gentler, be gentle–,”

He swallows and the ache lessens. Hot blood pools out of the spot where his fangs punctured you. It runs warm then cold, teasing like a feather, as it rolls down your stomach. It’s not a lot, but it's more than last time. It stains his chest too.

Slowly, that same sort of miraculous fog sinks down into your bones. The grip on his hair eases, softens, and soon you are petting him against you.

You swear you feel his fangs scrape your heart.

“That’s good, Max, that’s so good.” Your eyes roll lazily in your head and you nuzzle his hair. “God, how does this feel so good?”

As though determined to remind you he is more than just fangs, his hand pulls away from the mattress and slides back between your legs. You feel only one finger brush against your folds through your underwear – you’re almost disappointed, go back to using three, Max –

His finger plunges deep, deep inside of you, and you gasp, feet scrambling against the towel, as a swell of pleasure almost smothers you in an overwhelming wave. You nearly choke from the force of it. You were so overly sensitive but the gooey haze didn’t let you realize it until it was too late. You come hard, harder than you thought possible, seeing eons of galaxies and stars behind your eyes, with just one of his fingers inside you and his thumb distractedly circling your clit.

He feels you gush around his hand, wetting his wrist, and with a moan you can feel in your ribs, he spills in his boxers, the spend running down his thigh and smearing on yours.

Your entire body goes slack, as if someone had made all your bones disappear. His hips jerk slightly as if his orgasm is still trying to wring him dry before he stills and plucks his head from your chest, unplugging his fangs from the holes he made.

Blood immediately bubbles up from the wound and without his fangs there, it spills freely and violently over your tits, your ribs. The whiplash between your orgasmic high and a full-body weakness sends hot nausea swooping into your stomach and the room spins.

“M-m-ax,” you murmur, barely opening your mouth, your voice weak and thick as if stuffed with cotton balls.

“Fuck, sorry –,” you can’t quite see him clearly as he moves and suddenly there’s a warmth over your chest, comforting and heavy. The blood trickles to a stop and you breathe deeply. The darkness of the room stabilizes as you fully open your eyes. The room spins but this time pleasantly.

“Hmm, whoo, wow, ah, okay . . .”

You don’t realize he’s gotten off the bed until the mattress sags again and he’s cleaning you up with cold cotton balls.

“So, I’m going to take that mindless babbling as a good thing.” He smiles gently, but he’s holding something back. He keeps his head low like he doesn’t want you to see his face.

You wiggle your shoulders, as he delicately wipes you down. “What, you don’t wanna clean me up with your tongue? And why do you even use disinfectant – there’s no open wound.” You poke him in the shoulder with your toe. “And you didn’t even purr that time! I demand a refund!”

“Next time, okay?”

You frown. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just let me–,”

You sit up, the dried blood pinching your skin, and he pulls away. “Max, what is it?”

He pulls away so much, he’s on his feet by the dresser before you can touch him, the back of his arm tearing at his mouth to wipe it clean. Max is a lot of things but cold when you need aftercare is not one of them.

“It’s nothing.” The line of his shoulders is taught, tense. But he cracks his neck and takes the Gatorade from the dresser. He finally sits back down on the bed in front of you, offering the bottle to you. You take it, unease mounting, your fingers brush his, but this time he doesn’t retreat. Instead, gently, his fingertips ghost over your wrist, down the fine hairs on your arm, drop from your elbow and settle delicately on the blue material covering the crease of your hip. Where your blood had pooled, wet, and stained the blue to a deep magenta.

“I ruined your pretty underwear,” he says softly, forlorn.

You move closer to him, your knee touching his hip, but you refrain from seeking out the warmth of his hands.

“Max, I can get new ones, I don’t care about that. Please, talk to me. Did I do something wrong? Did I push you too far?”

His fingers flex around the towel, now also appropriately ruined. He shakes his head, more firmly this time. He snags his shirt off the floor, over his head, then moves towards the bedroom door.

“I don’t wanna talk about it. I’m sticky. I’m gonna take a shower. You wanna come?”

The invitation, it’s something, an encouragement you genuinely feared he might not give. Maybe it’s not you he wants to part from.

You didn’t enter into this for the emotional connection and neither did he. You have to remember that.

“Y-yeah. Of course.”

He invited you. He still wants you around.

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