#but anyway! please my loves i will wither away without music

[floralovebot]

winxers i am asking you hand in intolerable hand please help me i know you listen to music don't pretend !!

[lunacvte]

One of mammon's crows caused a ruckus while flying through the building mammon was in (doing a modeling job) trying to find him. When the crow finally did it reports to him that mc got attacked by some demons while they were out by themself, and now mammon is running out to go help them.

Hopefully that made sense. I'm not sure if this request is your cup of tea but I thought why not, if it isn't please ignore this. And I just read defending mammon and I really enjoyed reading it :D

GASP. my first request, i’m squealing from happiness right now i love you <3 ANYWAYS THIS REQUEST IS VERY MUCH MY CUP OF TEA, i already have such a good plot for it!! It also gives me an excuse to write more angst <3 thank you for the feedback on my first post as well!! 🫶🏻

I’ll keep you safe.

Warnings: language, use of demon power, worried mammon :( probably mentiones of some blood? Happy ending of coursee <3

Characters: Mammon, gn!reader

Fandom: Obey Me!

~

“I promise. I can go alone, i’m just walking around near the house, i’ll be okay!” You groaned, smiling to Lucifer who was overly worried about the human standing in front of him. Not to say he was afraid something would happen to you (at least not completely), but because he knew that if something were to happen to you, it would be Diavolo’s fault, and he wouldn’t do that to him.

“If only Mammon wasn’t away at some inconsistent, petty job. He could actually do as I’ve asked and watch over you.” He shook his head, flipping through the pages of a book he was reading, as the faint sound of classical music played in the background of the library.

“Well, i’ve got my D.D.D fully charged, if anything happens, you’ll be the first one to know. Now if you don’t mind, i would like some fresh air and peace for once since i’ve got here. Byeee” you sarcastically smiled before walking away from Lucifer, and out the door from the House of Lamentation.

You knew Lucifer was protective of you in his own way, you just didn’t know that he’d care enough to secretly send Mammons familiar, a crow, to look after you. If you were going to be in the woods of Hell, without anyone or some sort of protection, the least he could do was have a sort of messenger if something were to happen.

Lucifer knew you’d be too irresponsible or get too scared to actually text him fast enough.

————

Here you were, walking around the wooded area, the almost withered yet dark green leaves scattered around as your feet dragged. Like you promised, you were still close to the house, just far enough that you heard only the wind.

You were finally able to be alone, and you planned on embracing this moment. You hummed, reaching your hand out at a blue rose you passed by, realizing that Hell wasn’t as gruesome or terrifying as you were always told it was. There were somewhat beautiful parts about it too.

You practically jumped, looking all around you when you heard a few leaves and sticks crunch somewhere around you, like they had been stepped on, you swear it was right behind you. But to no surprise, there was nothing. You started feeling unsettled, but continued on walking nonetheless.

Once again, that crunch sound. Except this time when you looked behind you, something suddenly pushed you, making your knees buckle as you gasped, dropping your D.D.D. You swore under your breath as panic began to grow since your phone had slid out of your reach.

Before you even knew it, you were tackled from the back, pushing your chest to the ground, making you wail. What was doing this to you??

“So you’re the human everyone is talking so highly about, I don’t see what is so special.. you’re so weak and puny” the unfamiliar voice said.

“H-help.. HELP!!” You tried yelling out, but was automatically shut up again with the figure getting off of you and pulling you up, looking down at you, it was a demon; a lesser demon, if you were to be guessing.

All you could do was groan and bellow out from the bottom of your throat.

“It’s a silencing spell~ having trouble finding the right words for this particular moment?” The demon asked, getting closer to you.

You squeezed your eyes shut as the demons slim, cold fingers found their way to the back of your neck, keeping you from your constant squirming in attempt to get away, but the long nails only dug into your skin, creating multiple lines of torn skin, but still you couldn’t open your mouth to say anything. Your facial expression said it all though, your eyes wide and teary with pain and fear..

Your hands gripped onto the demons forearm, trying to pull him away, but he just laughed. “Man.. you humans are so weak, even when stricken with terror. And you still think you can take on a demon.. it annoys me.” He stated, you could already feel the blood trickling down your neck, then to the small of your back.

You wanted to cry. You wished that you had just listened to Lucifer and had someone come with you. You wanted this to be over.

_______

A certain crow in one of the trees high above you both happened to have been watching the entire thing happen, starting to caw furiously, flying all around to find his way around the woods and report to his owner, Mammon.

The same owner who was currently shooting a peace sign for a picture, modeling a jacket from a popular brand. Laughing all cocky and excited he’d finally be getting money after bothering his human about it. The photographer would tell Mammon to pose professionally and not like he’s on the cover of “cute anime girl magazine”, which he would then whine and complain about. “This is THE Avatar of Greed that you’re insulting! Do you know how powerful not just my powers are, but my looks too??” He fought back.

All while the demon and photographer were arguing, Mammons crow had already flown through a window in the back room, knocking down lights and pictures that were hung up, trying to spot his owner (if only his familiar had any more braincells than Mammon himself-)

The director of the photoshoot and modeling agency must have overheard when he yelled out for any one of his workers, trying to find out what in the hell (literally) was all the noise and disruption he was hearing was.

All concerns were answered when a crow came flying through the doors, aiming straight towards Mammon. Its not that his familiar wasn’t smart and protective, but he was sent to watch over you and make sure you were safe, to contact mammon if anything were to happen.

He cawed and cried out, almost like he was talking to Mammon, in which he understood him. The demons eyes went wide and his once playful attitude quickly diminished, hearing that his favorite and only human was being attacked, without any way to get help. And by a lowlife, lesser demon? He was furious. Screw this job, the money, the people, the person he secretly but not-so-secretly liked, needed him.

Quickly, he switched into his actual demon form, running right out of the building.

Mammon knows that the reason Lucifer entrusted him into watching the human was because he is known to run extremely fast, to the point that not even the most powerful demons such as Diavolo or Lucifer could match his speed. His powers also don’t drain quickly, making him the perfect guardian, even if he is dense and brainless at times.

His bat-like wings would flutter slightly the faster he ran, he was going such a shockingly fast pace that it was almost like he was quickly flying with ease, his crow right along his side as well. His eyebrows were furrowed and expression was angry, reaching the woods in under a few minutes. He stopped and panted once he got to the destination, looking around for any sign of you.

All he needed was to hear a muffled shout from far away to know exactly where you were. “Don’t you dare get hurt before I get there, MC.” He clenched his jaw, going back to running towards the noise. He quickly reached the two figures, quickly noticing you from your RAD uniform. “you damn animal.” He growled in irritation before jolting towards the lesser demon and easily tackling him off you.

You whimpered as you fell to the ground, backing away from the violent scene in front of you. You watched Mammon pull the other demon up by the neck, with just one hand, suddenly hearing your muffled noises. Looking back at you. You seemed more scared about the fight between him and the other demon than you were about the fact that you had nail marks dripping blood from the back of your neck and was just attacked.

He looked at the demon with almost hateful eyes but threw him down onto the dirt ground, only showing him mercy because of you. “Come on, human. I’m takin’ ya back to RAD and i’m not leavin you out of my sight again.” He said, saying something to his crow that made it fly towards the struggling demon, it’s wings out and ready made it look like it was ready for its prey and it was the predator.

Mammon spotted your D.D.D, picking it up and softly grabbed your arm, placing it over his shoulder so you had something to support your weight on and began walking the other way, back towards the large house.

You wanted to ask what Mammon said to the crow since hadn’t known about familiars and how that same crow was mammons, but you knew from the sound of yelling that something was probably going on with the other demon. But your neck hurt too much to turn it.

“I can’t believe this.. like- seriously?? A lower-power demon trying to kill my human?? He really doesn’t know his place, and i’m gonna make sure that scum get’s what he deserves..” mammon exclaimed, you could tell he was fuming, but couldn’t understand why. He also seemed worried. It was sweet.. despite what he had to do for you.

A little while later, you both finally reached the House of Lamentation, though as expected, all attention was drawn to you and Mammon, mostly because of him being in his demon form, and you looking rough and limping, everyone rushed towards you, smothering you and Mammon in questions about what happened. And yet, all you could do was hum out muffled words, your mouth wouldn’t even let you speak.

“Why.. why can’t MC talk? What is going on, Mammon?” Beelzebub asked him.

“I don’t know, it all happened just suddenly- somehow my familiar found MC and told me they were bein’ attacked in the woods near the house! I was doin’ a job so I had to rush to get all the way there but.. I think whatever demon attacked them, they hushed ‘em with a silencing spell. Got their neck and legs pretty wounded..” Mammon looked at you as you held onto him, hanging your head low from todays event’s.

“Poor sweetheart.. this is why you should just do what lucifer asks of you and watch over MC! You must be in so much pain and fear, aren’t you, love?“ Asmodeus cupped your cheeks carefully, giving a sympathetic look as if you could give him a response. (I love him ugh). Mammon only growled out of annoyance. “Don’t be gettin’ touchy with MC when they’re hurt! I’m the one who saved them, and as long as they’re with me, they’ll be fine!” He said, only exchanging dirty looks with his younger brother.

“Well luckily, I know just how to remove the spell, it couldn’t have been a strong one if this was just a stray demon.” Satan included, walking towards you and gently putting his hand over your mouth, mumbling a few words. And just like that, you could finally move your mouth, and speak. Your first and only impulse was to nuzzle your face in Mammons chest and wrap your arms around him, catching him completely by surprise. “Wh- Wha- MC what are you doing! H-hugging me in front of everyone like that…”

“Awwww~ don’t make me jealous MC~ envy isn’t a good look on me.. I want a huggg!” Asmo blushed, rubbing his arm and playfully pouting. (Your action even caused Leviathan to huff, only increasing his jealousy).

“Thank you.. thank you Mammon.” You said, sounding like you were out of breath from everything that happened. Usually you would have been too embarrassed to act so sappy and whatever in front of all the demon brothers, but if Mammon hadn’t came to your rescue or if he had been a minute too late.. you would have never gotten the chance to hug your demon again.

“Agh.. i told ya, human.. you don’t get die. Ever. Not when you’re with me.. The Great Mammon will keep ya safe” he grinned, letting out a happy giggle as he returned the hug you were giving him, making everyone but Asmo and Beel cringe at how soft Mammon was being with you. (Of course Asmo was tearing up and blushing over how precious and vulnerable MC was in this moment, and Beel was just too busy stuffing his 7th piece of pie into his mouth)

At the end of the day, Mammon took you to his bedroom and helped the deep cuts on the back of your neck, cleaning the blood and bandaging it up, even getting some ice for the bruises on your legs. He was more than relieved you were okay, and wished he could just tell you how he really feels, and how grateful he is that you didn’t get hurt, but that was all too much for you right now, you needed to rest.

“I meant what i said, i’m so sorry I even took that job.. if I woulda just stayed here, None of this would have happened.. but just know: from now on, i’ll always keep you safe…”

@yaboihack i hope you (and everyone else ofc!) enjoyed your request~! It took a while to write since i got so busy, but it was so so fun nonetheless <3 :)

Edit: I BEGAN WRITING THIS AT 2AM LAST NIGHT AND HAD TO FIX SO MANY SPELLING MISTAKES BC OF HOW TIRED I WAS- LIKE WHAT HAPPENED 😭

[malfoysstilinski]

Can you a Draco Smut where he gets bored and literally just decides to make out with and suck your clit slowly like lazily and teases you into an orgasm?

bored | draco malfoy smut 18+

draco malfoy x fem!reader

summary: draco’s bored so he decides to eat you out

warnings: 18+, smut, oral (female receiving), degradation?, really cute boyfriend!draco

word count: 2.1k

For some reason, lessons today felt like they had dragged on for far too long. Snape’s monotone voice had only drowned you deeper into a pit of boredom from where you sat at the back of his DADA lesson during the last period of the day, hoping that time would just speed up so you could spend your Friday evening with your boyfriend.

And finally the time came where Snape eventually dismissed the class, but not without a pile of homework and a stern message about the N.E.W.T exams quickly approaching. You didn’t even want to think about any of that right now; N.E.W.T level DADA would be the death of you, you were sure of that much.

“Come on pretty girl,” Draco whispered, his arm tucking around your shoulders, your head leaning on his shoulder slightly as you left the classroom. “You can nap in my room, or read - whatever you want.”

You smiled at that - you loved Draco’s room. He was a prefect, not to mention a Malfoy, so he got special privileges; one of them being a room all to himself. His double bed was far comfier than the single you had in your dormitory, which was where you found yourself five minutes later.

Your robe had been ditched; chucked somewhere onto the floor before Draco could even enter the room. You collapsed onto his bed, lying horizontally across the bottom half and staring up at the ceiling as you heard a huff come from Draco. You craned your head in time to see him swipe your uniform off the floor.

Draco didn’t even bother to scold you anymore - no matter how many times he said it, you always forgot his ‘nothing but feet on the floor’ policy. It sort of surprised you when you found out how tidy he was — much more organised than you, who couldn’t even be bothered to take your shoes off.

You wiggled your legs which were dangling off the end of the mattress and Draco rolled his eyes, finishing folding your robe and placing it on the back of his desk chair before moving over to your feet. His hand grabbed the back of your heel and he began to undo the laces of your school shoes, staring at you in amusement.

“You have me running around like a House-Elf for you,” he huffed.

You grinned up at him, lifting your head so you could see him properly. “I know,” you chirped.

Draco finally got both your shoes off, your toes wiggling in your tights as they thanked you for finally releasing them from their tight confidements. You watched your blond boyfriend move around the room to place your shoes neatly by the door before he peeled his robes and shoes off too, putting them away also tidily.

“You’re lucky you’re pretty, darling,” Draco muttered, shooting you a look as he climbed onto his bed, his back against the headboard as he grabbed his book off of the bedside table. “You gonna sleep?”

“No, just lay here,” you murmured back, your fingers fiddling with the detail of his silk bed covers. “I just want to… reflect on my day.”

“Oh, that meditation thing you’ve been doing?” Draco hummed, not lifting his eyes from his book as he stretched his legs out, them resting by your head from where you were curled up at the bottom of his bed.

“Reflecting is not necessarily meditating, Draco,” you reminded him for the hundredth time. “Just because you have no thoughts whatsoever.”

“I have no thoughts?” Draco glanced over, raising his eyebrows at you.

You giggled. “Yeah - I bet it’s just lift music in your head.”

“Lift music?” Draco repeated, confused.

Your eyes lit up - another fact you could give him. You loved how confused he looked whenever you told him about the other world he had grown up despising. You adored the way he asked questions and pretended not to be interested sometimes.

“A lift is a Muggle invention. It’s a metal box thing that replaces stairs sometimes; you get in, press which floor you want and it takes you up or down,” you explained to him, “And there is music inside it sometimes. And it’s really slow and…” You noticed the weird look on Draco’s face, your voice fading away. “Never mind.”

“I don’t get it,” Draco hummed before turning back to his book.

It made you giggle and shake your head. You closed your eyes soon after, just thinking. About Draco, about the homework Snape had set you, the Hogsmeade trip you planned to go on with Pansy next weekend…

You can feel his eyes on you.

Your own peel open and you turn to face him. “What?”

“My book’s shit,” he admitted.

“You’re halfway through it.”

“Yeah, and it’s shit.”

You frowned, your eyes moving from his face to the cover of said shit book. “I recommended that to you,” you pouted slightly.

“Which is why, as you can see, I’ve tried to like it - but I can’t,” Draco said, placing the book back down onto the bedside table. “It’s boring. And I’m bored.”

“How?” You cocked an eyebrow at him. “Classes literally ended twenty minutes ago max.”

Draco shot you a look. “So? I’m still bored.”

“Too bad, I’m -”

“You’re meditating, I know.”

“It’s not - Ugh, whatever. Yes, I’m meditating, so leave me alone,” you replied, rolling your eyes before closing them yet again.

There was more silence. Draco seemed to respect your wishes, not saying another word. All you could feel was the silk sheets beneath your body, all you could smell was Draco’s scent and the fresh fragrance of his bed covers, and all you could hear was the sound of your breathing and Draco’s - as well as the sound of him adjusting himself on the bed a little bit.

You wished you could stay like this forever. After the long day you’d just had, this was the perfect way to end it. Maybe some cuddles from Draco would make it better, but that could come a bit later, maybe after dinner.

Your thoughts were interrupted when you felt a weight above your legs. Your eyes cracked open and you glanced down, your brows furrowing at Draco. He wasn’t even looking at your face, he didn’t say a word, but he reached for your skirt and flipped it above your stomach, pulling your tights and panties down in one go.

“Draco -” You were cut off by his cold finger sliding up through your folds.

“Shh,” Draco muttered, still not even glancing at you, too focused on what was between your legs. “Go back to your meditating. I’m just… entertaining myself.”

You couldn’t complain with that. You found yourself complying, your head tilting back so you were facing the ceiling, your eyes closing. You weren’t really wet, much to Draco’s dismay, but you soon felt him spitting on your clit and felt it drip down your folds. His fingers slid it around, knocking purposefully at your bundle of nerves and causing arousal to spike through you.

When you felt yourself begin to get wet, your clit throbbing beneath his lazy, aimless touch, you couldn’t help but open your eyes, glancing down at him. He wasn’t even sitting between your legs - just beside you, his hand reaching for your cunt like he was half-heartedly playing some sort of game.

Draco’s silver eyes were entranced by your cunt, his fingers experimenting as they changed direction, moved about, all so agonisingly slow. After a minute of the torturous pace, his eyes flickered up to you and he lifted his hand towards your face.

“Wanna taste?” He asked as if he was talking about sharing food.

You opened your mouth anyway, two of Draco’s fingers slipping inside. You sucked around his digits, your tongue being invaded by your own taste - a taste that Draco insisted he could never get enough of. He pulled his hand away when you were done, looking back down at your cunt and beginning to rub again.

“Draco,” you whispered desperately as he hit the right place.

He glanced back up at you, smirking a little. “Does it feel good?” He murmured, voice deep and barely above a whisper.

“Mhm,” you mumbled back, eyes clenching shut again.

His mouth touching your cunt nearly made you jump. Everything about what he was doing was so lazy, as if he had all the time in the world and he wasn’t there to make you cum but to just satisfy his own boredom and curiosity. Maybe that was the only reason he was touching you like this, but either way, you liked it. You liked the teasing nature of the whole thing, even though it was tortuous how slowly his tongue came out to lick up your folds.

Everything inside you wanted to wither and grab at his hair and tug, begging him to go faster, but you refrained; your hands remained gripping the sheets beside you, your small whimpers that made Draco’s cock hard filling his bedroom.

His mouth was wet, a mixture of his own spit and your arousal, as it wrapped around your bundle of nerves, your back nearly arching as he began to suck softly. Your breath hitched, not used to the aimlessness of it all. It almost felt careless, but his hand on your thigh said otherwise as his thumb stroked circles against your skin.

Your lips pursed together, a moan threatening to leave your mouth as Draco sucked, his aristocratic-like lips working idly. His tongue peeked to swipe across you and this time your stomach clenched, your legs nearly clamping around his head. But Draco’s grip on your thigh tightened a bit in warning.

“Draco, please…” You whimpered, one hand going down to gently grasp at his platinum locks.

His head pulled away with your hand still in his hair, much to your dismay. He leaned his head against your thigh, staring down at your dripping cunt. His finger moved towards it and he circled your swollen clit, feeling your legs tremble slightly beneath him. Then his thumb came out and he rubbed it in small figure of eights, his breath still fanning you from where he used your thigh as a pillow.

“So pretty…” Draco muttered.

You swore if he didn’t start acting like his usual rough self then you were going to start crying. It was agonising, the way he seemed to not care. In a way, it felt degrading - like this was for him and not for you, and it only made you soak his fingers even further.

Draco’s mouth dived back in for your clit. It was like he was making out with it, his lips capturing it and sucking, his teeth grazing it slightly just to hear your small hisses and loud whimpers. His nose nuzzled against your mound, his hands still on your thighs.

When you looked down, all you could see was the slow bobbing of his head. His tongue was unmatched, skillful and taunting, slow and painful, and you would do anything to cum right now. Anything.

You could feel the tightening sensation in your stomach, your brain growing fuzzier and fuzzier as you acted with your hormones rather than your brain. Your hand gripped his hair tighter, your hips rolling for more, faster friction. You half-expected Draco to pull away from you and warn you to keep still, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m gonna cum,” you admitted breathlessly.

Draco hummed against you, the vibrations making you cry out a little. You lifted your head back up to look down at him, finding his eyes already concentrated on you as he sucked your clit, rolling the knot between his tongue gently. You moaned loudly.

“Fuck, I’m cumming,” you hissed quickly before your orgasm washed over you.

Draco helped you ride it out, his tongue lapping up every wave of arousal, his hands still brushing your thighs comfortingly. He even groaned around your clit, encouraging you as you rolled your hips, your legs trembling even harder. His name slipped past your lips several times as well as some curses, before you were left breathing heavily on the mattress.

A whine left you when Draco didn’t stop kissing your cunt. “Draco…” You jerked beneath him slightly. “I’m sensitive.”

“I’m bored,” he murmured back as he pulled away, his fingers working at your clit and making you yell out in a mixture of pain and pleasure.

You knew for certain now; this was never about pleasing you, it was always about satisfying himself - and you knew you weren’t going to be let off the hook anytime soon.

TAGLIST: @edithreads @abbott27 @Sweetvnlla @skaratjung @lolooo22 @yyoflam @fjorelaant @cpetrova @bby-gxrnet @draysslytherclaw @dawnmalfoy @miarivi @hpotter3390 @justfangirlthingies @fleurwands @hufflepuffsophie @riddleswh0r3crux @dracosathenaeum @weaselbrownie @Dracoscumwh0re @miraclesoflove @wh0re4blaise @ilovemoviekidd826 @drarrysimp

[afriendlyblackhottie]

Missed You

Summary: It’d been a long year with Chris gone, but he promised to become a better man for your family.

Pairings: Chris Evans x Black!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of jail time, smut, swearing, Chris calling the reader his bitch, daddy kink, breeding kink

(A/N: I saw this gif and got inspired. Anyway Chris and reader are mid 20’s in it. Feedback is like drugs for me so please.)

Tags: @titty-teetee, @harrysthiccthighss, @iam-laiya , @night-of-the-living-shred, @liquorlaughslove

Chris was bulkier than you remembered. The scrawny boy you’d crushed on in high school had been replaced by the man walking towards you. Through the many phone calls, letters he’d written to you, and the occasional visits it didn’t take long for you to realize there wasn’t much for him to do except read, eat, sleep, and workout. It paid off because damn he looked good.

You’d been waiting for this moment since he’d waved goodbye. Seeing him walk away from you was so hard. This hadn’t even been the first time he’d got in trouble with the law, it’s just that this time felt so different now that you had a one-year-old who was now about to turn three to take care of and had to hold everything down. Somehow you managed, not without help, but you made it through.

Now he was finally there. Trying to coerce you into letting him hit it even though he knew you had somewhere to be. His ma wanted to have a nice family dinner. Little Chris was already there, probably being fussed over by his grandma. All you were supposed to do was stop at home so he could shower and change and be on your way. He just couldn’t resist you in that dress.

He loved seeing you in sundresses and you knew that which is why you wore it. All he could think about once he saw you was seeing it bunched up around your waist since the moment he saw you. “Baby, we can’t,” you tried to reason with him, giggling as he kissed your neck. 

“C’mon. It’s been a year. I missed my girl,” he whispered into your ear before easily picking you up, to place you on the kitchen table. He’d just gotten out of the shower and had peeked into the kitchen to see you packing up some stuff you wanted to take to his mom’s. He hadn’t even gotten dressed because he knew what he was trying to do. Only his chain and the tattoos that were scattered along his body.

You looked up at him with a pout as he held you tightly against him. “Baby,” you groaned, trying to be serious. It was true, though. It had been a very long year. Your vibrator could only get you through so much. You didn’t want your first time together since he’d been home to be like this. Not a rush. You wanted to take your time.

The way he was kissing your neck let you know you were about to lose this battle. You shivered because fuck his lips did feel good. You touched his stomach, running your finger up and down the six pack that hadn’t been there last time.

What a fucking jerk. He knew what seeing him in the chain did to you for some reason. Especially with that fresh haircut. Fuck your man looked so yummy. 

He gripped your ass roughly, letting you know who the fuck was in charge right now. “Oh, no, Baby. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten. You know better.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” you sighed before tucking your bottom lip in between your teeth trying to look up at him all innocent.

“That’s my girl,” he groaned softly. He grabbed your hand placing it on his already hardening dick. He was so long and thick your hand could barely wrap around it. It was so damn fat. “I know you missed me, Baby.”

“I did.” You looked up at him as you now stroked his heavy cock. He put his thumb on your lips before greedily kissing you. 

It didn’t take long for him to pick you up again his muscles flexing against you as he made you wrap your legs around his waist. The whole time he’d carried you to the bedroom his dick was rubbing into your covered pussy.

He finally sat down on the bed with you in his lap. He laid back taking you with him your lips still on his. You pulled away so you could start taking your dress off, but he grabbed your hand to stop you. “Leave it on,” he said before smacking your ass.

You nodded, your eyes falling to his chest to that chain as you finally made out the script of the tattoo you’d never seen before. “Is - is that my name?” You asked tracing your finger over it.

He nodded leaning back with a smirk on his lips. “Mhm,” he said.

“Your mom is gonna kill you.” You grinned.

He shrugged. “You’re it for me, Baby. I want to become a better man for you.”

“Oh, Chris.” You teared up. He leaned up so he could reconnect your lips. You leaned down to him and he pushed your panties to the side so you could finally sink down onto his cock.

You hissed as your pussy was finally full of him after too long. You sat up straight so you could ride him properly. He grabbed onto your hips so he could fuck you with force. “So damn tight,” he groaned. “Fucking missed this pussy.” He looked so beautiful. His chain resting on his chest.“You missed me, huh, Baby? Missed my dick.”

His grip on your hips was tight as he made you bounce up and down his thick length. “Yes, Daddy.”

“No one else got to touch this pussy, right?” He groaned knowing the answer because you were his good girl. “It’s all mine?”

Your pussy felt so creamy on his cock. “Never. This is your pussy, Daddy.” You changed pace grinding your hips back and forth. He helped you move because even though you were on top, he was still in control.

“That’s right, Bitch. This is Daddy’s cunt.” You know you shouldn’t like your boyfriend calling you his bitch, but there was something about him degrading you that was so addicting.

Your dress had bunched up around your waist as you let him fuck into you. He almost felt like he was to much to take, but you were determined. You’d been daydreaming about this moment this whole year. Needing to feel him however he wanted to give it to you.

He looked between the two of you, to see your cream running down his length and making a mess on his pelvis. He was glad that you didn’t hate him. When it all first happened it’d been hard. The two of you getting close to splitting up, but somehow you managed to stick it out.

He’d felt like a piece of shit for putting you in that position. Not like it had been the first time, but after you got pregnant with Little Chris he’d done such a good job at staying out of trouble until he got cocky. Fucked around too much. It was okay. He was out now. You were back in his arms and on his dick. That was all that mattered.

Now he had your name tattooed to his chest because you’d be his girl forever. He wanted to grow old with you. Wanted to put more of his babies in you. He’d get his shit together and give you that ring he’d had hidden in his Ma’s house since last year. Then give you that big wedding he knew you wanted. That you deserved.

Just the way you were moaning while riding him was letting him know you deserved the world. He needed to treat you right. First, though, he needed to dick you down properly.

He got up still inside of you making you squeal. “Chris!” You squealed.

He chuckled before getting back onto the bed. He needed to feel your perfect cunt creaming for him over and over again while you withered underneath him. “Daddy!” You cried as he slammed into you again.

“That’s it, Bitch. Take this dick. Bet you didn’t even think about any other man, huh.”

You gasped as he rammed into you. You did love how he made you take him. How he stuffed you with his thick cock without any mercy. “Never! This is yours. I’m yours. This pussy is yours!”

“I’m gonna fill you up with my cum. Did you stop taking your birth control like I told you?” His voice broke and you could tell he was so close.

His chain was dangling in your face. You don’t know what came once you as you put your mouth on it. You nodded looking into his bright blue eyes. You clawed at his muscular shoulders, needing something to hold onto as your orgasm finally crashed onto you.

It didn’t even stop. The way he was fucking you through it made you swear that you could feel him in your stomach. All you could do was take it like he’d told you to. It was all you wanted.

“Daddy’s gonna put another baby in this pussy.” His hips stuttered, losing the rhythm he’d built up since now that you’d cum all he wanted was to flood your pussy with his seed. “You wanna give daddy another baby? Want me to fuck my baby into you?””

You nodded all blissed out, but still taking it because you wanted to be a good little wifey. “Get me pregnant,” you cried, falling back against the pillow with the taste of metal on your tongue.

It was like music to his ears and the final push he needed to finally reach his breaking point. He went in so deep as he finally unloaded into you. Painting your walls with his thick cum.

His Ma was gonna kill him and rightfully blame him for the two of you being late, but he couldn’t resist finally being with you after this long. He promised he’d get his shit together this time. Now that he’d hopefully have two babies to take care of. He didn’t want you to have to worry about anything ever again. He’d make sure you’d never have to lift a finger.

[you-did-well-moon]

Werewolf!Yunho meeting his mate

Type: Werewolf au, angst, fluff

Pairing: Werewolf!Yunho x HumanFemale!reader

Word count:  2,994

A/n: I know this took a long time, trust me, it felt like a long time for me too. With how I view Yunho, I expected this to be happier than it is. I was having a hard time while writing this, and it reflected on the story. Anyways please enjoy and stay safe!

TW: toxic relationship, financial struggle, deadlines, stressed reader, emotional and verbal pain, toxic masculinity, if I missed anything please tell me.

You sat at the foot of your bed, still not made, staring at the mirror resting against your dull colored wall with lifeless blank eyes. Your posture slouched as you finished tying the laces of your running shoes huffing and letting your arms flop to the ground. Looking at the mirror, you tried smiling, but it was meak and disappeared as soon as it appeared. 

You hadn’t smiled a real smile in so long, you forgot what it felt like. To smile. To be happy. The forgotten emotion was one you took for granted when it was easy to to bask in the warmth of it. Now it's just cold. Cold and empty. 

You looked away from the mirror with a tight feeling coiling in the base of your chest not being able to bear looking at the stranger staring back at you any longer. Your gaze fell to the laptop, abandoned, due to frustration on your desk in the forgotten corner of the room. The thought of unfinished drafts and incomplete sentences shook violently in your mind. Disappointment in yourself pooling in your gut remembering your editor’s words. 

“If you can’t give us at least a first draft by the end of the month, we’ll have to unfortunately let you and your novel go.”

How pathetic was it that you couldn’t even come up with a simple sentence. A description, dialogue, a metaphor. Nothing. Anytime you sat yourself in front of the desk, your mind went blank. The cursor blinking at the top of the page mocked you with the possibility of millions of words. Not one ever made its way onto the page.  

The end of the month was in two weeks. 

You felt tears of hopelessness stinging the corner of your eyes, and you abruptly stood up grabbing your wireless earbuds, phone, and bag. Making your way into the kitchen you grabbed the water in the fridge and placed it inside your back, nothing but a numb feeling alienating you from reality and its broken expectations. You heard the front door of your little apartment open and slam close shaking the thin walls of the building. 

Your heart lurched as you winced immediately feeling like you were walking on eggshells. You were usually quick enough to leave before he got home from work, but you had been a tad bit late this one time. You gripped the strap of your bag tightly hoping for it to ground you through whatever vile words came from the one person you should have been able to trust with your ugliest feelings. 

Trying to walk past your boyfriend, eyes trained on the chipped wood of the front door did no good when he kissed his teeth and huffed as soon as he caught sight of you.

“You’re never home when I get home from work, and the one time you are here, you run away not even saying hi to me? Not even a “hey honey how was work today” or maybe a “hi love what would you like for dinner?” and never a “you’ve worked hard would you like a massage?” It's the same shit every day. You treat me like nothing when I'm the reason you even have a roof over your head woman.”

You kept your mouth the whole time he rambled on trying to ignore the clear stench of beer being able to reach you even with all the distance separating you, and the feeling of disgust mixed with desperation pooling at the bottom of your gut at yourself for not speaking up for yourself. Opening your mouth instead of letting your voice be taken from you. A long time ago, you would always say you would rather die than be without your voice. In a sense, you had died a long time ago. 

Around three months after you had started dating. That had been two years ago. 

Your English degree really did you no good. Not having enough time to be an intern in college really screwed you over when no job would take a bright eyed girl with the same passion in her heart for writing as a Karen’s passion for business that wasn’t hers, but with no experience. Even if the apartment was under your name, you’d probably be kicked out in weeks time.

You hated all of it. Everything that made up both the small and big parts of your life, you hated it. You hated his greasy hair and beady eyes, the nasty rough stubble covering the lower part of his face as a result of his laziness. You hated the hesitation in leaving him because of the fear of the stack of bills piling up next to the fridge. You hated the editors who couldn’t find it in some part of their greedy selves to extend your deadline. You hated the empty drafts sitting in your laptop collecting what could only be dead dreams and despair. You hated the cold emptiness that was always present in the confines of your chest. 

You recoiled at the way he said “woman” the same way someone would talk about a bug. Small and insignificant. Patronizing and confident in the worst way. You set your mouth in a tight line not even being able to look at him. Shifting your feet, you crossed your arms and looked up to the sky as if calling out to some unknown being to get you out of this pathetic corner you were trapped in. You cursed under your breath looking at the dying flowers on the coffee table with distaste as they wilted towards you mocking you. 

“What was that?” His voice got rougher with the menacing edge of fanned masculinity and control. Something that could put you in a dangerous place in a very fast amount of time. You looked at him with dull eyes poking your cheek with your tongue as a cold feeling settled in your gut. 

Your hands fell limply to your side and you chuckled humorlessly. 

“Fuck you”.

Those two words were enough to set him off as you slowly blinked and looked at the ground feeling your heart falter when he abruptly got up. You tried to stand your ground, but the surge of confidence was quickly withering away with fear taking its place. 

Ethan was bigger than you. Even if he wasn’t that much taller than you, there was a noticeable difference in his frame and yours. Weirdly enough, you didn’t regret your curse at him. The words still burned brilliantly on the tip of your tongue. 

It was bittersweet of course. His nose flared, and his eyes bulged as he took large strides over to you knocking the coffee table over on his path to you.

“What did you say to me you-” his words were said through gritted teeth, brash and loud in the silent apartment.

 Maybe he was bigger and stronger than you, but you were faster.

You inhaled sharply reacting fast as your hand reached behind you, turning the knob and slipping around it slamming the door close. Your bag bumped against your back while you bolted to the door with the word “stairs” painted in big bold letters across it. You were already at the door when you heard your apartment door open and Ethan angrily called your name. Threatening to break your laptop if you didn’t go back right this instant. 

You couldn’t help but snicker at the weak attempt. It’s not like there were much but empty pages anyways. 

A heavy feeling soon settled on your chest as you went down the stairs. Your apartment was on the 4th floor, and the stairs weren’t the most taken care of, but it’s not like you had much of a choice anyways. It seemed these days you were always wanting to run away from something. 

Your heart felt a little lighter when the warm rays of sun met your skin and the fresh air outside flooded your senses. Your walk to the park went as usual. Cars racing to get where they needed to, people chattered about everything and nothing, and your thoughts wandered to a world far away from this one. 

A world that wasn’t as dark as this one. At the same time your mind became your executioner, it became your safe place. The sick contrast making a nasty feeling flood your chest.

You arrived at the park with a small smile. The normalcy of the day bringing a little comfort to your still racing heart. Kids ran around, laughter ringing in the air around them as their parents watched on benches gossiping among themselves. People raced fast either by foot, bicycle, or skateboard, a visible sheen on their necks. You looked for the kind old man who always looked after your bag while you ran. 

He owned a music store a few blocks away, and he always sat on the bench closest to the pond with his cute corgi and habitually feeding the ducks peas and lettuce leaves when finished  with a certain chapter of his book. You walked up to him with a small smile as he looked up and took the sight of you in with fatherly worry.  

“You look a little pale kid, everything alright?” 

You did your best to liven up and gave your best customer service smile which the older man immediately saw through.

“Of course Mr.Jung. Why wouldn’t it be? I’m just a little tired from the editors. They’re on my back more than usual”, you laughed nervously as he hummed in understanding.

“I hope that boy of yours isn’t giving you any problems. Hey kid, have you ever heard of the term “break up?” he looked so serious you had to compose your shocked face. 

You waved your hands rapidly “I promise Mr.Jung everything is fine there is...I...oh my” you took a shaky breath as he simply shrugged his shoulders and pet his smaller companion who was having a very serious stare down with a duck. 

You wiped your sweaty palms on your yoga pants while you looked around at the tacky named paths trying to decide which one to run today. 

“The Pupper Runner path looks particularly nice today,” he suggested. You looked at the path pursing your lips in thought. The path wasn’t one you ran frequently. Since it was one of the wider and flatter paths, there were more people such as families or people walking their dogs. You also didn’t like having run-ins with the cyclists who were grouchier around this time of day for some odd reason.

After contemplating it, you shrugged and decided why not. Getting run over by a ticking time bomb on wheels wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen today. With a small smile sent in Mr.Jungs way, you checked your shoe laces before starting out with a light jog making your way down the specific path.

There was nothing really different about today’s run than others. Just having to dodge the wheel demons and kids happily running ahead of their worried mothers. You were grateful for the distraction. It kept you from straying too far into your head. It was just you running. Running like you always did these days, your shoes slapping on the concrete path and Got7 blaring in your ears. 

The heat of the sun shone on your skin, but oddly you still felt cold. It was always cold these days. A light breeze fresh to your burning skin as desperate eyes caught yours, and you were once again bought out of your stupor. 

A small boy was kneeled down fingers clutching his untied shoelaces not far from his dad who was trying to calm a crying baby. You didn’t really have a strong adoration for kids, but his panicked pinched face compelled you to come to a slow stop in front of him. Your chest heaved as you bent down to his level sitting on your heels and wrapped your arms around your legs.

“Hey bud, you need some help there?”

The kid made a distraught sound as he nodded his face shaking his hair out of his eyes. He looked dumb founded as he stared at his shoe laces in search of answers they would never give.

“Mama said to make a bunny, but this looks more like my aunt Carol’s dog” he sadly told you.

You snorted reaching out gently to tie his laces with a double knot.

With a grin you looked up at him ruffling his hair and giving him a thumbs up which he happily returned with a toothy smile.

“It’s alright kid, you’ll eventually get it. Just keep trying yeah? Don’t settle or you might catch yourself tripping next time you go on a walk. You’ll get hurt. Wouldn’t want that would we”, you said, lips still stretched kindly upwards, but something in your words struck stingingly deep in your chest. 

As the kid nodded happily with a carefree laugh you were about to get up when you heard the air being split and a strained voice yelling “watch out!!”. 

You looked up, panicked, only to see a frisbee racing right in your direction with alarming speed. With the goal of protecting the small child, you quickly turned your body. Your shoes making a rough sound against the concrete as a startled light cry left the younger boy’s mouth.

With your hands ready, you easily caught the frisbee gasping at the shock of the situation. You quickly shook it off as you gripped the frisbee turning back to the child who profusely thanked you, his small hands shaking as they clutched onto the hem of your shirt. 

You simply smiled reassuringly tapping his shoe and ushering him back to his father who has begun to successfully calm the fussing baby down. 

With shaking knees you tried to get up only to wince and slightly waver at the sharp sting that hit your ankle area. You clenched your jaw feeling more than annoyed at the current situation in hand. 

You stood up grumbling under your breath as a tall figure jogged over to you. While he made his way toward you, your narrowed eyes met his wide, apologetic ones. 

You felt the world shift around you as a calming warmth shot through your body melding with the confusion and panic pooling in your gut, and his eyes widened impossibly as he stumbled managing to stabilize himself right in time in front of you. His figure standing just inches away from you as his hands trembled, and his lips slightly parted.

You got a slight whiff of cologne and mint, but more than anything, the weird feeling in your gut was making a way for the dreadful panic clouding around your heart. 

You felt warm. 

After feelings of feeling nothing but the hollow cold licking at your veins, there was a nice warmth settling in your chest. 

You were scared of it. 

With a heavy chest you slightly inched back left somewhat immobile due to the aching pain in your ankle. “What the hell?”, you immediately set off on questioning him leading him to shake his head frantically at you. 

“I’m so sorry, i really am.” He put his hand on his chest as if trying to prove his sincerity to you, but you breathlessly took a step back stunned by the intense feelings taking over your heart and mind. 

You tried shaking it off, but the warmth lingered. 

You weren’t sure you wanted it to go away. 

“There’s kids here”, you were so distracted by all the emotions circling your mind you couldn’t possibly put any effort into arguing with the young man. His lips parted to make way for his lips as he nodded his head in understanding. “I know, I'll be more careful next time. I promise.”

Somehow, you knew he was being truthful. You went to say something, possibly something dangerous, but you shook your head and waved your hand. 

You tried taking a step but lightly hissed at the sharp pain that shot from your ankle up your leg. The man instantly dove forward steadying you with a heavy hand between your shoulder blades, and the other hovering in worry near your collarbone. 

With wide eyes you looked at him as he realized his un-asked for touch and immediately went to back away. 

He couldn’t.  

Your hand was clutching the cloth of his shirt near his shoulder blades. Hands slowly uncurling, you smiled awkwardly, but he kept his hand where it was. At his touch, the warmth licking the insides of your body became all the more distracting. 

“Um, I don’t think you can go all the way back home like this”, he cleared his throat looking at you shily under his bangs. Flustered, you smiled at the ground before looking back up and timidly asking “I can't. Mind helping me out?”.

At your question he let out a beaming grin nodding eagerly. He went to stand in front of you, and he crouched down looking at you over his shoulder with soft brown eyes. You did a small jump, and were caught by his hands slightly gripping under your thighs. 

He gave a low chuckle that somehow was felt from where your chest was pressed up against his shoulder blades. “So...what’s your name?”. You let a light giggle escape, “Y/n, yours?”. You saw his jaw move with the syllables of your name whispering it to himself. 

“Yunho”, you smiled also sounding out the name on your own mouth. You gave a shuddering exhale, and you laid your head on his shoulder letting yourself really rest for what seemed like the first time in forever. 

That night you walked right past Ethan who was quick to begin yelling at you, and you tucked yourself under the safety of your blankets feeling the warmth still encasing your heart, so comforting and alive.  

[junicai]

NCT being whipped for miyazu aria for seven minutes ;

325,078 views • 07 Feb 2021 • uploaded by [haechanieski]

[ NCT 127 Takes a Friendship Test ; Glamour 2020 ]

offscreen: “So, what was your first impression of Aria?” 

Aria pressed herself into Doyoung’s side briefly, muttering a translation of the question into his ear. They had been briefed on the questions beforehand anyway, but she wanted to make sure he understood before he began answering - just in case he had forgotten.

Doyoung tilted his head down to Aria, a mischievous grin making its way onto his face; and it was only then, that Aria remembered exactly how the two had met in the first place. 

Aria started to flush, shaking her head rapidly and burying her face into her hands. “Oh god no,” she whined. 

Doyoung laughed at her, pulling her into his side with an arm over her shoulder and holding her there while he began speaking. 

“Ah, Aria? We met for the first time when Aria was still tiny - well, tinier,” 

“Hey!” 

“And,” Doyoung continued on, laughing, “I had left my jacket in one of the practice rooms. It was a gift from my hyung, so I had gone back to get it even though it was really late. But when I went in to get it, I found Aria, sitting on the floor in the dark with it over her lap instead.” 

At this point, Aria had fully buried her face into Doyoung’s chest, in a futile attempt to hide her reddened cheeks. “I thought it belonged to one of my friends,” she weakly protested, embarrassed by the laughs of the staff members behind the camera. “You scared me when you came in!” 

“You stole my jacket!” 

Aria sent a withering look to the camera. 

“Czennie. Doyoung-oppa doesn’t care if I freeze, I want you to remember this.”

Doyoung gaped at her, yanking her back into his arms with an offended gasp, “Yah, you brat that’s a lie.”

Aria began sliding to the floor, letting her arms go boneless and limp. “You don’t love me!”

Doyoung started to stop with her, trying to hold her up in his arms. “Aria, Aria don’t sit on the floor it’s dirty, get up-”

The music of the other idol groups played quietly through the green room’s speakers, a small television setup in the upper right hand corner allowing the idols inside to monitor the performances outside. 

Renjun tossed a half full water bottle over to Jisung, who was sitting on the floor beside the sofa where Jaemin, Jeno and Aria were; all three of them looking elated yet exhausted. 

Ridin’ was a choreography heavy dance, and although Aria hadn’t many lines in this particular song, she was still struggling to push through the residual pain in her lower back. She had strained it earlier on in the month, pushing herself too far with too little preparation during rehearsals and was paying the price for it.

Most of Aria’s time in the greenroom before their performance was spent ensuring the other boys that yes, she was ok to perform and no, she wasn’t going to sit this one out.

The boys begrudgingly accepted her protests; but that hadnt stopped Jeno ever-so-carefully tugging her onto the sofa once they returned to the greenroom post-performance, gently pushing her to lie her head down on Jaemin’s lap and bringing her legs up into Jeno’s. 

Jisung had wandered over later, eyes stuck to his phone screen but he willingly sacrificed his left hand to hold onto Aria’s when she hissed at the knot Jeno was trying to knead out of her lower back.

Jaemin shushed her softly, running a hand through her hair and untangling strands with his fingers. When Aria’s eyes had clenched shut and a whimper broke out from between her lips, Jeno’s hands froze in their movements, instantly bending closer to whisper apologizes.

“No, no it’s okay,” Aria said, attempting to prop herself up. 

Jaemin pressed her back down, her head staying in his lap. “Stop it, let Nono help.”

She knew that there was something more to say, but having awknowledged that their current circumstances were not the best to have such a discussion, he settled for carding a hand through her hair again. 

Aria let her eyes drift closed, hand still curled in Jisung’s, and legs pillowed in Jeno’s lap. 

Who’s name do you think matches their appearance? 

Kun pressed his lips together, thinking. 

“Hm, all of the members put a lot of thought into their stage names, so they all fit very well,” he hummed, eyes flickering between the paper and the camera. 

He took in a breath, clearly torn. 

“Ah!” he exclaimed, looking up to the camera. “Aria, her name fits her really well; Akari is such a beautiful name and it compliments her personality perfectly. She’s really like a fruit sometimes - she’s always cheerful and energetic, like she’s on a constant sugar rush. Very sweet.” the smile that overtook Kun’s features was nothing sort of soft. 

He quickly scribbled down Aria’s name in Hangul, before rolling the pen into the middle of his palm and straightening up again.

“Yiyang, is her Chinese name - she asked me to give her one last year. And you shouldn’t listen to Winwin, her full name is Qian Qiuyue, ok?”

Kun was laughing at himself now, picking back up the pen and moving to read the next question.

a/n: i know mr qian kun did NOT just say aria was fruity. 

aria nct lgbt sub-unit confirmed

Renjun was sat beside Aria on a single piano stool, shoulders pressed together as she leaned forwards to try and make sense of the notes written on the pages in front of her. 

“You know the basics, right?” Renjun questioned, hand coming out to flip forward in the music book a few pages. The single crotchet notes quickly turned into more complex rhythms, and from the side of his vision he could see Aria paling slightly.

He turned his head to look at her, “Riri, c’mon I know you know more than Mary had a Little Lamb, you can’t stay at beginner level forever.”

“Yes I can.” Aria sulked. 

Renjun sighed. “You were the one who asked me to teach you.” 

“Yes! When I thought it would be easier than this, my fingers just don’t do what they’re meant to do!”

“That’s why I’m here!” Renjun cut off her tirade. “I’m not going to laugh at you if you make mistakes - you’re learning, and everyone makes mistakes when they’re learning.”

“Promise?”

He ruffled her hair slightly, “Promise. Now here, look, this one isn’t difficult you’ll manage this one fine.”

“Injunnie.”

“Mm?”

“-nevermind, okay just. How do I?”

Renjun lifted his hands onto the keys of the piano, showing her the placement of her fingers and getting her to copy him. Aria did so, and then he was running her slowly, step-by-step through the first few bars of the piece, catching her when she played dud notes and clapping softly when she played through without stuttering. 

Soon enough, Aria was playing a simplistic but solid melody line with her right hand, basic accompanying chords with her left, and Renjun was staring at the side of her face; head tilted slightly to the left and a small, barely-there proud glint in his eye. 

 [BUBBLE UPDATE 210205 ]

ARIA~~

czennie

i heard about the tiny horse

do u think they’d let me get one

if i asked nicely??

“Jae, Jae! Jaehyun!” Aria coughed out the older boy’s name, throwing a glare over her shoulder. “If you insist on leaning your entire bodyweight on me, please don’t throttle me in the process.”

The man only sent a weak apologetic grin her way before his feet slid out from underneath him and he was left grappling at the small girl yet again. 

“You know when you said you wanted me to teach you ice-skating I didn’t know this was how you were planning on murdering me. If I have to die, I’d rather go out with a bang - ya’know? Not death by groupmate, that’s borinG-” Aria’s voice wobbled as she was pulled yet again. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Jaehyun apologized, going so far as to take his hands off her shoulders. “I think I’ve got it now.”

He made it another few steps forward before he was tossed off balance by an eight year old boy rushing past, startling him to the point of jumping backwards.

When Jaehyun’s legs went from underneath him, he flailed his arms in a futile attempt to regain his balance - one of the windmilling arms catching Aria’s extended hands in the process. 

Aria let out a shriek as her skates went as well, tumbling backwards. Her head would have made a harsh impact onto the ice - no arms ready to catch her fall - if it wasn’t for Jaehyun’s hand catching the back of her neck and taking the brunt of the impact. 

Lying on the ground, Jaehyun coughed out a laugh, Aria staring him down. 

All too soon though, Aria joined him in the laughter, head still pillowed on Jaehyun’s arm and the pair of them still lying on their backs on the ice.

“Hello everyone, today I’m with my favourite baby, say hi baby!”

Ten’s grin was audible in his words as he spoke to Aria, who waved before opening her mouth. “Your favourite baby?” 

Ten cooed, “Yes, my favourite baby,” while crossing the floor of the practice room to throw his arms around Aria. 

He rocked her side to side, pressing kisses to the top of her head. 

“And what makes me your favourite? You know Yangie won’t be pleased if he hears he’s been replaced,” Aria lifted her head to look up at Ten. 

“You accept the title of my baby, and are therefore my favourite. You don’t fight my love.” Ten shakes her dramatically side to side, mourning the one-sided relationship. 

Aria only patted his head in solace. “It’s ok. If it’s any consolation the only reason I don’t fight your hugs is because you’re faster than I am.”

Ten let out a pained gasp. “Betrayed by both my babies. How ever will I survive!”

Aria tried to pry his arms away from her shoulders that were shaking with barely-suppressed laughter, worming her way out from his embrace. Ten only tightened his hold, going limp and dragging her onto the floor.

“No...” Ten cried, “I’m dying...”

Aria’s laughter turned to shrieks when he began to tickle her stomach on the skin that was showing from where her t-shirt had lifted up from the movement. 

“No no no no stop Ten, TEN stop I’m sorry I take it back I take it baaack-” 

“Say it!” Ten demanded, unrelenting. 

“I’m your baby! I’m your baby I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Aria was rolling away from his hands, trying to escape but Ten only turned to lie flat on top of her. 

“Exactly.”

a/n: nct world 2.0 gave us so much content of the boys loving aria im :’( smth in the water made aria super cuddly this time around i think she’s after all of their hearts 

- aria collecting nct members like pokemon cards

Immediately after Jungwoo’s defeat, Aria sidestepped to behind Lucas where she fisted her hands in his shirt. 

“Aria! You’re next!” The presenter called out, and soon all the members in OFN has turned to face her. 

She poked her head around to see Yuta standing at the arm wrestling table already, tongue between teeth and grinning at her partially hidden form. 

Aria squeaked and ducked back behind Lucas. “Noo,” she moaned, already knowing what was going to happen.

To their credit, Johnny and Jungwoo tried their best to bolster her spirits before she emerged, but Aria still shuffled up to the table with her head tucked down, paying no attention to the calls of support from the boys behind her. 

Yuta rolled his sweater sleeve up again, and Aria looked up to meet his eyes.

“Onii-chan~” she tried, biting her lip to stop the laughter from bursting out. 

Yuta brought a hand up to his mouth before turning away, eyes wide. Aria could hear the cheers of cute! from her teammates behind her; Yuta’s teammates doing their level best to convince him not to cave under Aria’s widened eyes. 

“Onii-chan, you know I’m not very strong,” Aria made sure to heighten her voice’s register a bit, and stuck out her bottom lip, “Can you go easy on me?” 

Aria could hear Mark calling out to Yuta to not fall for it.

“Yah!” Aria dropped her voice back to her normal register, yelling out to Mark. “Stop it this is all I have!” 

The laughter was heard from across the field from the members in the tents, and Aria was left to sadly shuffle her way closer to the table and interlink her hand with Yuta’s. 

He sent her a consoling smile, the referee blew the whistle and then Aria was pushing with all her might against Yuta. Her legs came up like Renjun’s did, face scrunched up with the effort before the back of her hand met the plastic-covered table and Yuta was announced the victor. 

He quickly made his way around the table, wrapping Aria in a hug and picking her up to spin her around. Aria only giggled at him, sticking her tongue out at Ten who called Yuta out for fraternizing with the enemy.

Aria knew that a springboard worked off of your downward momentum, so it seemed perfectly logical to assume that if she barreled her bodyweight into the jump, then she would make it high enough to get over the 200cm vault. 

She’d made it over the previous heights with varying degrees of success, but the new towering height was throwing her off a bit. Cheers came from both her teammates sitting down beside the mat as well as the other members sitting in the shade. 

“Aria! Challenge accepted!” she called out, pumping her fist into the air. 

From the corner of her eye, Aria could see Johnny leaning forward with his hands on his knees, watching carefully as she ran up to the springboard. Lucas was in a similar position, was it not for the wide grin he sported.

Beginning her run she tried to use up as much speed as possible, sprinting to the vault before jumping with her feet together onto the springboard and allowing it to propel her up and over the vault.

However what she had failed to account for; was the length of her arms. 

Aria made it over the 190cm vault, but her fingertips barely scraped the top and it left her with a choice of either trying to become Superman and face-planting into the mat on the other side, or bringing her legs together prematurely and hope she didn’t lose a leg. 

She couldn’t hear the gasps that left everyone’s mouth once her hands missed the top of the vault, missing the way Lucas moved closer to the mat with a jerk forward. 

Bringing her legs closed, Aria swung her bodyweight forward and grappled behind her for the vault in a panic. A yelp left her mouth as her hand caught on the rung and she tucked it back into her body when her feet met the edge of the mat.

Unstable, Aria toppled backwards with her hands stretching out behind her again to prevent herself from falling. Her back landed against the vault, and she knocked it over, falling on top of the now-split pieces. 

Despite it all, Aria was laughing hysterically, hands coming up to cover her face as she tried to hide her flaming red cheeks. An arm extended to her and she hoisted herself out of the middle of the vault, soon coming to rub at her back.

“Does that count?” Aria could hear the presenters asking should she be disqualified for knocking over the vault even after landing, but she was more concentrated on the hand on her back that was guiding her to her other teammates, all clapping wilding and cheering. 

“You okay?” Lucas’ voice came in her ear, laughter but also concern audible in his tone. His hand was still rubbing slowly along her back, soothing the reddened skin underneath the t-shirt she was wearing. 

“Yeah I’m fine,” Aria let her head fall forwards as she laughed at the thought of the picture she must have looked, flailing as she barely made it over the vault. “I don’t know if I’ll make it over the next one though.”

“Ah it’s okay. I’ll knock it over too and then I can join you.”

The gate at the back end of the tunnel swung closed with a clang, everyone inside letting out a shout. 

Aria, having been standing in front of Johnny, tucked inside his coat while he back hugged her (she wasn’t built for the cold weather, and the denim jacket she wore was doing nothing to save her from hypothermia) let out a yelp and turned her face into Johnny’s chest.

Johnny pushed her behind him slightly as he turned around to look what had happened, and Aria clung to his waist while the others around them furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. 

Trapped?

a/n: and a bonus clip bc shes was so CUTE during mtopia i couldnt not 

In the emptied dining room, the SuperM members scattered around the different table set ups, searching for the coloured pieces of paper. Taeyong had wandered over to the food counter, while Ten had migrated towards the opposite end of the hall.

Baekhyun could see the other members in various locations; all apart from one. 

“Oh? Aria, where did you go?” 

The youngest member was no where to be found, and Baekhyun’s question gathered the attention of Taemin and Mark who were standing nearby. Mark tilted his head in a question, eyebrows lifted and then furrowed when he too looked around for the girl and couldn’t find her.

“I’m here!”

Baekhyun let out a small scream, jumping back from the table he was standing beside.

Beneath the tablecloth poked out Aria’s head, a sheepish smile on her face when she realized she’d scared her leader. 

“I thought there might be some clues underneath, so I wanted to check.” she explained, slowly shuffling out from underneath the table. 

“Baekhyun hyung did she scare you?” Jongin teased, as Taemin cooed over the adorable picture Aria made as she straightened up and brushed off the dust from her skirt. 

Baekhyun floundered, spluttering “What? No! I don’t get scared.” 

He puffed out his chest theatrically.

“Sorry oppa, I didn’t mean to scare you~” Aria said through suppressed laughter, coming over to hug him around the waist.

Baekhyun deflated slighty, “Ah, it’s okay,” he grumbled, petting her hair. 

thank you for watching ! - haechanieski

[rheawritessometimes]

Let’s Fall in Love for the Night

{ Kaeya x Reader }

{ Summary } Kaeya keeps you company for the night. A songfic based loosely on Let’s Fall in Love for the Night by FINNEAS.

{ Warnings } Yelling, Alcohol, Intoxication, Kissing, Mild Physical Intimacy, Possible Mild Angst, Swearing, Overuse of Commas.

{ Notes } Can be read as reader being gender neutral, some parts suggest them being a bit feminine, I think it’s just one detail, but just to be safe. Reader is implied to be shorter than Kaeya because this was self indulgent and I forget not everyone is short like me. Kaeya doesn’t wear an eyepatch and both eyes are functional. He said there was nothing wrong with his eye and Kaeya would never lie. Reader also briefly talks about something a little nerdy. Hot by Confetti is also mentioned in this fic, I recommend listening to that and Let’s Fall in Love for the Night, for a better idea of the vibes and also because they’re good songs. The lyrics written in don’t follow the song exactly, I just put them in where I felt they fit. This has not been beta read and it’s my first time ever writing a fanfiction so it’s not very good. Feel free to send me feedback, I’d really like tips on improvement. Seriously, I have no idea what I’m doing. Please let me know if there is anything that should be added to the warnings. Masterlist

{ Word Count } 4,117

It has been a few years now since you’ve gotten to know the Ragnvindr brothers. You had spent a lot of time together with the both of them, more so before the fallout between them. Things had become tense since then, but the friendship you had with each of them was maintained, if a little different now. Now you mostly spent time with the brothers separately, going out with Kaeya and staying in with Diluc. Every once in a while they were able to tolerate each other and you could all hang out for a little while, but it never seemed to last.

It had become somewhat of a tradition for you to go to the club Diluc worked at when he was bartending. The majority of the time, Kaeya would accompany you since Diluc usually worked later into the night than you liked to stay out. It was routine for Kaeya to take you home in Diluc’s stead, not to mention Kaeya could keep a better eye on you than his brother was able to while he was working. In this way, you could still hang out with both of them. Sort of.

Most nights Diluc worked the bar, you were there keeping him company and carrying light-hearted conversation through the night. It was no secret to Kaeya, or anyone who had seen you and Diluc together for that matter, that you had feelings for each other. With the way you got along with Diluc and how you spent most of your time together, Kaeya sensed it was only a matter of time before one of you confessed and made things official.

Kaeya had spent many nights observing you and Diluc in his peripheral, wanting to give you two some space without losing track of you. All those nights and not once had he heard Diluc shout at you like he was now, the menacing tone in his voice. As a matter of fact, he’d never witnessed Diluc yell at you at all. Even with the volume of his shouts, making out Diluc’s words was impossible for Kaeya given the mixture of music and conversation in the club. It didn’t matter to him what was being said anyway.

The way your eyes widened at the outburst and you stepped back away from the bar had Kaeya rising out of his seat. In a few quick strides, he was at your side and leaning over to place his nearly empty glass on the bar. With the intent of driving you home at the end of the night in mind, he’d avoided anything alcoholic, despite his appreciation for such beverages.

He felt you looking up at him once you realized his presence, but his gaze was fixed firmly on Diluc. Still, he threw an arm casually around your shoulder in a subtly protective gesture that caused the redhead to bristle. Kaeya took your lack of negative reaction as a sign of acceptance of the contact.

Kaeya wore a charming smile, but his icy eyes were narrowed at his brother, who fixed him with a withering glare in return. He smirked internally at having so easily gotten under Diluc’s skin. After a short beat passed with neither of the men saying anything, Kaeya looked down at you with a soft expression, eyes suddenly seeming much warmer. Kind of like how he always felt so much warmer around you.

“It’s getting late, darling. Want me to take you home?” he asked with a gentle tone, despite you two having arrived not long ago. He had noticed your eyes were glassy with unshed tears, his heart clenched at the sight, and he wanted to give Diluc a solid punch in the jaw for upsetting you. Asking you to leave was a sure way to piss Diluc off, so that would have to do for now. Ever since you had gotten closer with the man he seemed insistent on keeping you away from Kaeya as much as possible. He hardly tolerated Kaeya even bringing you to the club, even though you only went to spend time with Diluc.

I’m the boy that your boy hoped that you would avoid                            Don’t waste your eyes on jealous guys, fuck that noise.

“Don’t you dare leave with him,” Diluc growled out before you responded, not seeming to care if his raised voice drew the attention of the other patrons at this point. Kaeya could feel you tense under his arm and he clenched his jaw, restraining himself from giving in to his desire to break Diluc’s jaw. Well, maybe breaking it was a little much. A nice bruise would do.

“Yeah, I’m ready to go. Thanks, Kaeya,” you said, voice quiet with a nearly undetectable tremble. You looked up to him and gave a soft smile, but Kaeya would wager by the tension in your expression that the gesture was because you couldn’t bear to look at Diluc. As the angered man opened his mouth to speak, Kaeya turned on his heel and used his grip on your shoulder to quickly sweep you away from the bar and out of the club. He didn’t think you would want to listen to anything else Diluc had to say tonight.

As the cool night air greeted you both, Kaeya pulled you tighter into his side as a gesture of comfort. He cast his glance down to you while you made your way towards his car, but your gaze was focused straight ahead. Your eyes were still glassy, but it didn’t look like you had shed any tears, and your hands were fidgeting slightly, which made him frown.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” he asked gently once you were both inside the vehicle, brows drawn together with concern. At the shake of your head, he simply nodded in understanding. Kaeya hadn’t expected you to want to talk about it, certainly not so soon, but it seemed right to ask just in case.

As soon as the car was cruising comfortably down the road, Kaeya saw you lean forward to mess with the radio. The corners of his mouth quirked upwards at this subtle sign you were feeling a little better. He remained mostly focused on the road and the drive to your house continued without any conversation between you two. It was a comfortable quiet that Kaeya hoped would soothe you.

I like to push my luck                                                                                        So take my hand, let’s take a drive.

“Why don’t we keep driving around for a bit?” he asked after a few minutes, noticing you still had a troubled frown etched on your face as you neared your home. He imagined you were still thinking about what had happened between you and Diluc and he hated the thought of just dropping you off at home and leaving you alone like this.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Kaeya made an effort to keep to roads he knew didn’t see much traffic. He stuck to the scenic route, long winding roads with a view that you could just look out the window and enjoy the sunset. It wasn’t long before he found himself enjoying this quiet time with you despite no words being exchanged.

It seemed that you enjoyed the time too, at least Kaeya thought you looked a lot more at peace by your expression. He decided it was best to begin heading towards your house since you seemed to be in better spirits, not to mention the strange guilt he felt over keeping you around too long. It felt like he was betraying both you and Diluc, in a way.

Once he had parked in your driveway, Kaeya looked over to examine your condition. You still seemed to be fidgeting with your sleeve and he only noticed he’d been staring harder than he meant, entranced by you, when you paused standing in the ajar door of his car, looking down at him.

“Um, do you... do you want to stay for a while?” you asked meekly, rubbing the back of your neck.

“It’s just, I’m feeling a little,” you couldn’t explain your emotions to him, “Well, it’s been a while since we’ve spent some time together, just the two of us. I’ve, I’ve kind of missed it. And I kind of ruined your night out... Or, if you want to go home that’s fine, obviously-”

Kaeya cut you off with a light-hearted laugh, unbuckling his seatbelt. The rush of happiness he felt after hearing you wanted him to stay had him turning his head to hide his smile from you, certain he was grinning like a fool. Despite the way his heart surged, in his mind he knew better than to think you wanted anything more than comfort.

Let’s fall in love for the night                                                                         And forget in the mornin’.

“Darling, you didn’t ruin anything. How could I possibly pass up the opportunity to spend some time with you? It sounds like a far better way to spend my night, anyways,” he replied with a grin as he climbed out of the car. He came around to take your hand in his, leading you to the door. He was still smiling at you once you had both made your way inside.

Kaeya let go of your hand when you started to pull away and head towards the kitchen. He didn’t follow you, comfortable enough to head into your living room instead. It had been quite a while since he’d been over, but not much had changed in that time. Standing in the living room, Kaeya still felt a strong sense of you from the home as he looked around.

Hearing the wooden floorboards creak softly, Kaeya looked over to see you making your way into the living room. He smiled at the two bottles and a wine glass in your hands. One was a bottle of his favorite dandelion wine and the other was a cheap vodka. He could distinctly recall you saying you kept the vodka around because it gets the job done quickly, as you had put it. Keeping wine in your home was new to him, though. You never seemed to care for it very much in the past.

Unless you kept it here for him?

His smile fell a little as he shook the thought from his head, it was nothing more than wishful thinking. Kaeya scolded himself internally, he knew better than to hope for feelings from you. Even after the outburst tonight, you’d be back to Diluc in the morning. Kaeya knew that. You must have just developed a taste for it.

“Oh, does someone feel like partying?” he asked with a playful laugh.

“Well, I still feel bad you missed out on having some fun at the club tonight,” you said with a sheepish smile, proffering him the bottle of wine and glass. He noticed the lack of a glass for yourself and couldn’t help but think drinking straight from the bottle was more your style anyway.

“I always have fun when I’m with you,” he told you earnestly, “But I won’t say no to some good wine.” The way you laughed at his response had his heart skipping a beat as he took your offerings. He couldn’t help but smile in return.

Opening the bottle, he poured himself a generous glass of the dandelion wine, taking a moment to appreciate the aroma. When he looked back up to you after setting the bottle down, he observed you scrolling on your phone.

“What kind of music do you want to listen to?” you asked, not looking at him as you opened the appropriate app on your phone. He noticed the Bluetooth radio sitting on the side table next to the couch light up.

Play me a song that you like

“Put on whatever you want,” he answered, listening to you hum with indecision as he took a sip from the glass in his hand. Delicious.

You had picked your favorite playlist, letting it play quietly in the background while you caught up with Kaeya, who was leaning back into the couch and sipping on his wine. He wondered how long it had been since you guys just talked like this.

I love it when you talk that nerdy shit,                                                        We’re in our twenties talking thirties shit.

“Hey, did you know recombinant fusant yeasts are being studied to improve the flavor of cider while simultaneously lowering the alcohol content?” you asked absently as you looked at his glass of wine.

“Oh? I didn’t know that, maybe Diluc would know more,” he responded, not wanting to mention that he wasn’t entirely sure what you were saying. Diluc was the one who knew about alcohol, Kaeya just enjoyed it.

“Yeah, I was watching a documentary about it,” you continued, too busy recounting the details to notice Kaeya staring at you. He didn’t need to understand, he was more than happy to just listen to you talk. It wasn’t that he wasn’t paying attention, but you didn’t really explain the concepts he’d never even heard of.

It wasn’t long before the two of you were suitably drunk and lost deep in pleasant conversation. Things had become a bit derailed, moving on to far less complicated topics. It felt so easy, no doubt thanks to all the time you had spent getting familiar with one another in the past.

“Last weekend, Venti got so drunk he called me panicking over,” you paused to laugh some, “locking himself inside his car. He’s crying to me that he can’t get his door open and is sobbing to me about how he can’t afford to fix his window if he has to break it to get out. He was crying so loud about how he just wanted to get his jacket that he couldn’t even hear most of what I said trying to convince him not to break the windows. It took me thirty minutes to get him to calm down enough so that I could explain to him that he could unlock the car door from the inside. He suddenly goes real quiet and I hear a click and the door opening before he’s crying again about he’s so relieved I saved his life.”

Your laughter from telling the story was infectious and Kaeya thought it had been an awfully long time since he laughed so much. He couldn’t help but think he had been smiling an awful lot tonight, even before he was drunk.

“Wait, shh, I love this one,” you said suddenly, standing up and turning the volume of your radio up. His laughter was silenced and his heart sped up when you grabbed both his hands to pull him up with you. Once he was on his feet and his thoughts became a little more focused, he found you beginning to sway to the beat. You looked at him with such an expectant expression that he couldn’t deny you. Kaeya joined in, moving easily to the music as he roughly mimicked your style.

You can bet I’ll know every line.

Your eyes widened slightly when the first lyrics came and Kaeya began singing along with a casual ease. There was no way you were good for his heart, he found himself thinking with the way you had his heart skipping a beat when your eyes lit up and crinkle at the corners as you smiled in response to him knowing the song. When you joined in singing with him, he was sure you were no good for his heart.

Let’s fall in love for the night                                                                         And forget in the mornin’.

For a moment he closed his eyes, wishing he could spend forever in this moment with you. He was in love with your smile, the way you danced, the way you sang, he couldn’t think of anything he didn’t love. His heart ached at the knowledge it would be gone in the morning. Here you were dancing and singing with him, but once you sobered up your heart would be back with Diluc.

You won’t stay with me I know,

“Oh baby, take a look at me, Oh baby, do you like what you see? Oh baby, take a look at me, 'Cause I'm the hottest motherfucker that you've ever seen,” Kaeya sang, winking at you as he danced sexily.

He noticed at this that your voice no longer joined his, causing him to pause for a moment to scan your expression. You were still smiling at him in a way that had him all too aware of his heart pounding in his chest. Kaeya wasn’t sure he had ever felt like this before.

“It’s like this song was written with you in mind,” you laughed, taking both his hands and bringing them up to your face to brush a kiss against his knuckles. Such a simple action had all rational thought leaving his head in an instant, it helped that he was drunk too. He pulled you closer by your hands before dropping them to cup your cheeks in his hands and bring your lips to his.

But you can have your way with me until you go.

Your eager return of his kiss had his heart nearly pounding out of his chest, he was sure he would be going into cardiac arrest shortly. Worth it. He leaned into it, quick to match your energy and rhythm. Kaeya felt your hands on his chest and mindlessly allowed you to walk him back until the back of his legs hit your couch. The kiss broke as he fell back onto the cushions but as he opened his eyes he found you right there with him, now straddling his lap and reaching up to pull his face back to yours. His hands found your waist as you kissed him again, and despite the nagging feeling of this being wrong in the back of his mind, he found himself powerless to resist you.

And before your kisses turn to bruises, I’m a warning

Kaeya didn’t stop you when your lips moved down to kiss his jaw, trailing slowly down to his neck. All he could do was let his head fall back on the couch and sigh when you started to suck a bruise into the exposed skin. He knew he should stop you but this was what he had wanted so badly for so long. Not to mention his thoughts felt like they were passing in slow motion, head fuzzy from the combination of alcohol and you.

Let’s fall in love for the night                                                                         And forget in the mornin’.

Surely it was okay to indulge just once, especially when you would probably forget in the morning anyways.

When you pulled away and looked him in the eyes your face was flushed, more than he remembered it being just a few moments ago. He brought his head back up to look at you, gaze dropping to your lips for a moment, grip on your hips tightening almost imperceptibly. Your brows were furrowed and your expression was nervous as you gripped his shirt gently.

“Um, will you stay the night?” you asked, looking away from him shyly. He was about to turn you down but you hastily continued, “Not for anything else! I mean just to sleep! You, um, I don’t want… You were drinking and I don’t want you to drive home. If, uh, anything happened I don’t think I could ever forgive myself and-”

I know better than to call you mine.

“Hey, easy. I’ll stay,” he soothed, gently rubbing your sides, unable to deny you. He could have called a ride, but he wanted to stay with you. He convinced himself in his head that he could be gone before you woke up and leave you a text. Surely you’d forget about all of this in the morning. Even if you didn’t, surely you’d act like it never happened and be back to Diluc.

You nodded, smiling softly at him, “Thanks.”

It wasn’t very long after that Kaeya found himself in your room getting ready for bed. Initially, he had insisted on sleeping on the couch at first but you were so goddamn stubborn and he was so goddamn weak for you. Plus, you two had slept in the same bed before. Sure it was when you were still kids and hadn’t just been making out, but certainly this was the same. He wondered if you knew just how much you had him wrapped around your finger.

He sat on the edge of the bed lost in his thoughts, looking up when he heard you coming back in from the bathroom dressed in an oversized T-shirt and shorts. You had offered to find something more comfortable for him to wear but he assured you he was fine wearing what he had on. He couldn’t imagine you possibly having anything that would fit him, anyway.

You turned off the ceiling light on your way in but the soft glow of a bedside lamp still illuminated your figure. Kaeya found himself staring at you as you crawled into the bed on the side opposite him and was silently thankful that the dim lighting probably concealed his intense gaze.

“If you’re uncomfortable I can put some pillows between us,” you hesitantly offered once you had settled in your place. “But I promise I have no plan to jump you in the middle of the night.”

Your addition had Kaeya laughing softly, shaking his head, “No, it’s alright. I don’t think I would mind, either.” He winked at you, causing you to laugh too.

“Goodnight, Kaeya,” you said softly, leaning over to turn off the bedside lamp.

“Goodnight, love.”

It wasn’t long before Kaeya was beginning to drift off, the remnants of the alcohol in his system dragging him down. He was on the edge of unconsciousness when a sudden awareness swept through him. He found you had made your way into his arms and he could distinctly feel the weight of your head resting on his chest. He was gently stroking your hair and, now that he was somewhat conscious, praying that the pounding of his heart didn’t wake you up.

Let’s fall in love for the night                                                                         And forget in the mornin’.

Just for tonight, I’ll be gone before you wake up, he told himself as an excuse to allow himself to indulge. Just for tonight.

Kaeya woke up to a pounding headache, groaning lightly as he reluctantly opened his eyes. He found himself not in his room and with you sleeping in his arms. He stared down at you, unable to help himself, as he absently wondered what was going on. Oh, right. The memories of last night were quick to come back and they made his heart ache now that he had to let you go.

He began slowly trying to move you off him, being as cautious as possible to avoid waking you. Kaeya was just sliding out of bed thinking he had been successful when your eyes fluttered open, landing on him almost immediately. Your expression changed to one of thought and confusion, a frown crossing your face and Kaeya could only assume you were trying to remember last night.

“Good morning sleeping beauty. Want me to get you some water?” he was quick to ask, hoping to distract you from your thoughts. He offered you a charming smile, hoping all was forgotten so you didn’t regret anything.

“Kaeya, about last night...” Fuck. His heart sank at the words, the smile he had been wearing quickly disappearing, “I’m really sor-”

I know better than to ever call you mine.

“Hey, it’s okay. I get it, we were drunk. It was an accident,” he cut you off with a smile even he could tell wasn’t convincing. His heart couldn’t take hearing you tell him you regretted it, worse if you didn’t want to see him again.

“No, wait, no it- I mean… Well, um, I really shouldn’t have kissed you like that, especially without saying anything. But, I- Well I don’t really… want to call it a mistake,” your cheeks were bright red as you stammered, unable to look Kaeya in the eyes, instead keeping your head bowed to stare down at the sheets. Kaeya was silently thankful you weren’t looking at him because he didn’t think his surprised expression was a very good look for him.

“For a while, well, I really like you Kaeya. And I know we were drunk and I don’t expect you to feel the same, it just felt weird not to tell you after… that. And it’s okay that you don’t like me and I’d really like to still be friends but if you don’t want-”

Kaeya cut off your nervous babbling by gently holding your cheeks between his hands, making you look at him. The blush spread across your face deepened in color as you stared up in silence. The heat consuming you would only get more intense with his next words.

“I’m in love with you.”

[benedictscanvas]

etched in permanent marker - spencer reid x reader

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: This is so fluffy it might make you smile, fair warning

A/N: Well, I worked super hard on this today because my love @justkurotingz​ requested it and I couldn’t bear to leave her waiting! Also, I just ADORE this idea of hers and couldn’t wait to get started. Thank you for all your wonderful feedback and for inundating me with requests! I will get through them all as quickly as I can. Enjoy lovelies :)

---

(ways to say i love you) number 12 = “take my jacket, it’s cold outside & number 14 = “can I have this dance?”

“You just add a sprinkle of turmeric, Julie, it’ll change your life!”

There was a chorus of tinkling laughter around the group, and you joined in as best you could even though you felt like you were slowly withering away. Strauss had waved you over to this little circle when you had accidentally arrived much earlier than your team had agreed upon, and now you were stuck here until they arrived. Strauss insisted as she steered you through the crowds that were beginning to form in the hall that these would be vital contacts as you worked your way through the ranks at the bureau.

If these were the contacts you would need, then you didn’t think you wanted to make your way through the bureau in the first place. You were perfectly happy with the BAU, regardless.

There was suddenly a hand on your shoulder and you turned to shrug off whatever FBI hotshot wanted your attention now, but relaxed when you saw Morgan at your side.

“I’m so sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but I just need to whisk Y/N away for a moment,” he smiled that charming smile, before turning you away from them without giving them time to respond and leading you with his hand still on your shoulder towards the rest of the team, whispering as you went, “You owe me one.”

“I definitely do,” you replied readily, with a little chuckle, “You saved my ass back there, I think I was about to fall asleep on the spot.”

Derek laughed as you both arrived at the little circle the BAU team had made upon arrival.

“Y/N!” Emily greeted you with a hug, “You look incredible! You were here early, I assume?”

“I was,” you groaned, “I didn’t notice how early I was when I came in.”

“Strauss caught you?” Hotch asked, a small smirk on his face as you nodded, “Bad luck.”

“Yeah, well, I’m where I belong now,” you beamed, “And the plan still stands right? Form a circle for the night and not speak to anyone else?”

“That’s certainly my plan,” Rossi said with a grimace as he glanced around the room, already sipping a drink even though you had no idea where he got it from, “You’re the only people I can tolerate in this room.”

“We’re glad you tolerate us, Dave,” you said, making everyone laugh, before you noticed a specific absence from the group that you should have noticed sooner, “Wait, where’s Spencer?”

“We assumed he’d arrive with you,” JJ said pointedly, raising her eyebrows and you pressed your lips together to suppress your grin at her words. You and Spencer were still a relatively new item, but the feelings you had for each other were anything but new. The team had been invested in you being together for years. So had you, if you were honest.

“He offered to pick me up, but I decided it wouldn’t look great to everyone else who was here,” you said shrugging, checking the door in the hopes of seeing him arriving. He must be late.

“Since when have you cared what these people think of you?” Derek asked, confused, as Emily nodded her agreement. You rolled your eyes.

“I don’t, trust me,” you said grimly, “But I also can’t be bothered with the questions. You know what some of them are like.”

“What some of who are like?” a voice came from your beside your ear and you turned to see the only missing piece in the circle, your face brightening of its own accord. You wrapped your arm around his back lightly, not enough to draw attention to the two of you and pressed a kiss to his cheek in greeting. He was grinning already.

“You look handsome, Doctor,” you said teasingly, straightening his bowtie one hand, the other still resting on his back as you shuffled to allow him into your closed off circle in the corner of the large room. He always looked smart, but you weren’t sure you had ever seen him in an actual tuxedo before. This event was far too fancy for both of your tastes, but you couldn’t deny that it was a silver lining seeing him all dressed up. “And you look beautiful,” he murmured softly, looking down at you before his eyes met yours with a newfound glint in them, “I think red is my favourite colour on you.”

You tried not to look too pleased with his compliment, instead just looking away bashfully and squeezing his arm before returning both hands to your sides again. You had maybe worn the floor-length strappy red number for his benefit. When you returned your focus to your team, suddenly aware of their presence once again, all you saw were amused smiles on their faces and a very large grin on Garcia’s as she nudged Morgan beside her repeatedly.

“Where’d you get your drink, Dave?” you asked, in a thinly veiled attempt to change the subject which of course your extremely accomplished profiling friends saw right through. Luckily, they were willing to switch topics too, as Dave waved down one of the waiters and everyone grabbed their drinks from the tray.

You talked about every topic under the sun, except from work, which Emily swiftly banned once Hotch had begun speaking about your latest case. JJ and Hotch talked about raising their boys, Emily and Morgan had an argument that you couldn’t quite work out the origin of whilst you, Dave, Spencer and Garcia talked about what books you had been reading (or in Dave’s case, writing) recently.

When Garcia began asking Dave about his experiences with crazy fans and you and Spencer were merely listening, you felt his hand on your back and his breath on your ear.

“You want to get some fresh air?” he asked lowly and you merely nodded as the two of you excused yourselves and ignored any knowing looks from the rest of your team. Spencer’s hand on the small of your back led you through crowds that had multiplied significantly over the last hour. You hadn’t even noticed how many people were in this room, having been so wrapped up in your own team and avoiding everyone else, but now that you had noticed you were glad to be heading out for a little while.

Just as you and Spencer made it outside and the cool air hit your bare arms, he was shrugging off his suit jacket and draping it around your shoulders.

“Take my jacket, it’s cold outside,” he said kindly and you looked up at him with grateful eyes, adjusting the jacket. It swamped your shoulders luckily, and there was no chance of it slipping off. Now that you were outside, you grabbed hold of his hands and linked your fingers together, laughing as he swung your arms between the two of you as you took the few steps down from the building, until you were stood in the car park.

“Look,” you whispered, pointing upwards as you stared at the map of stars above your head, twinkling amongst the beautiful darkness. There wasn’t a time in your life that hadn’t been made better by a blanket of stars in a clear night’s sky.

“I didn’t realise we’d been here so long,” he mused, staring up just like you, pulling you into his side a little so that you and your jacket covered arm huddled against his sleeve. When you took your eyes off the stars and looked at him, the awe in his eyes brought out the awe in your own, but yours was directed at him. Always at him.

“Hey,” you said softly to get his attention, and he gave it instantly, looking down on you with soft eyes and a smile that warmed you more than any jacket ever would, “Can I have this dance?”

His brow furrowed and he tilted his head at you.

“What dance?” he asked genuinely, looking around the two of you, “Y/N, we’re in a parking lot.”

“Can’t you hear it?” you asked right back, encouraging him to strain, “There’s always music around if you listen hard enough.”

He looked even more confused at that statement.

“I’m not sure that’s strictly true, angel,” he said, clearly unsure but you simply let go of his hand and turned to face him properly. You slipped your arms into the sleeves of his jacket properly before running your hands up his arms and winding them around his neck.

“Just-” you sighed contently as his hands found your waist, arms wrapping around you just like they were meant to, “Dance with me anyway? Music or not?”

“You know I’ll do whatever you ask of me, right?” it was a rhetorical question, one that only made you pull him closer and press your cheek to his chest, listening to the slightly unsteady beat of his heart. It made you smile, a little proud smile that you were the reason his heart was beating faster than usual. Yours was too, but he couldn’t hear it and you were thankful. If he knew just how much of an effect he had on you, just how much he meant to you, you weren’t sure how he would take it.

You loved him. Naturally. You hadn’t told him yet, not because you didn’t want to say it first, or because you were scared he wouldn’t return the sentiment but mainly just because it was too early to be saying such things in any normal relationship. But when had your relationship with Spencer ever been normal?

It hadn’t been normal when he span you around in his desk chair at work wildly when it was just the two of you left in the office. It hadn’t been normal when he fell asleep with his head on your shoulder and you had gotten so excited that he had become so comfortable with you that you nearly cried. It hadn’t been normal when he kissed you out of the blue on a case just because you’d made an incredible breakthrough and then instantly looked like he’d made a horrible mistake.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves,” you said as you swayed together, still pressed against his chest with his chin resting on the top of your head gently, “William Shakespeare.”

“You know, that’s actually a misquote of Shakespeare,” he replied and you laughed into him, the feeling reverberated around his chest and leaving butterflies in its wake.

“Pretty misquote, though.”

“Yeah, it is pretty,” he agreed, moving his hands up from your waist and pulling your arms from around his neck, holding them both in his hands, “Not as pretty as you.”

He let go of one of your hands and held his arm up, laughing as you caught his drift and twirled underneath it, then returned to his arms like you’d never left.

With some coordination you didn’t really know he had, he span you out and away him, until you were stood at arms’ length to each other and staring into each others’ eyes, laughing the whole time, before he span you back into him, landing with your back to his chest. You returned to the swaying, with his arms wrapped around your waist and your hands resting on his arms as you closed your eyes and leaned your head back onto him.

“I love you, Spencer,” you said, sounding like you were in a dream, which part of you thought you might be. You never thought you’d say it first. There was a long drawn out silence and you panicked. Maybe you shouldn’t have said it first. Maybe Spencer wasn’t quite ready for you to love him yet.

Before you panicked for too long, which he could feel in the way you clutched his arms a little tighter, he turned you around on your heel so you were facing him and wrapped his arms tight around your waist, bringing you chest to chest and your feet almost off the floor.

“You stole the words right out of my mouth,” he mumbled, stealing a kiss, “I love you, angel. There’s no one else I’d dance in a parking lot with.”

“I know,” you giggled, leaning up to kiss him again, hands in his hair. He picked you up properly, a little surprised noise escaped which he swallowed with his kiss, pulling you as close as he could. When he set you back on your feet, everything felt like jelly and you were glad that he kept his tight grip on your waist.

“Any chance we can join you?”

It was Morgan. You looked over your shoulder, seeing as Spencer wasn’t letting go of you anytime soon and saw the entire team stood there, looking at the two of you with love in their eyes and, in JJ’s case, tears in their eyes as well. You shook your head at her as you laughed and she wiped them away with a laugh of her own.

“In our embrace?” you asked, eyebrows raised, “That would be a no.”

Morgan rolled his eyes fondly at you but Garcia took her phone out of her pocket and pressed a button. Soon, some smooth music began playing out of the phone speaker, which she turned up to the max volume and put in Morgan’s back pocket.

“Could we join the dancing then?” she asked excitedly and when you nodded, she grabbed Morgan in an instant and pulled him into a dance, slapping him playfully when he mouthed for you and Spencer to help him. He got into it quickly though, spinning Garcia around and laughing when she squealed with delight. You rested a hand on Spencer’s chest and leaned your head against his as you watched your friends.

Dave offered a hand to Emily, which she took with a teasing curtsy and they ended up in a very traditional waltz position which made Spencer giggle and you swatted him to stop him, whispering that it was cute.

Hotch was difficult to persuade, but JJ practically pulled him over to the others until he relented, and when he did, only you and Spencer saw his secret smile as he swayed with JJ. The two of you watched your friends for a few seconds, chuckling when they laughed and when they span. Eventually, Spencer turned you back to him.

“You see all this?” he made sure to speak softly so the others didn’t hear him, “Our whole team, even Hotch, are dancing to Garcia’s music under the stars in a parking lot because of you.”

You stared up at him and saw that same awe he held for the stars directed right at you. It was difficult not to just grin at him forever.

“I guess they are, yeah.”

“You know why?” he asked and you shook your head, “Because any regular day can be made so special just by you being there. It’s one of the reasons I love you.”

“One of the reasons?” you said, a little cheeky shimmer in your eye that made him kiss you chastely despite the rest of the team being right there. When he pulled away his eyes were a bit darker than they had been.

“I’ll tell you the rest when we get home,” he said lowly.

You giggled like a schoolgirl and kissed him again. But then you had a thought that made you pause.

“Spencer,” you said seriously, the tone shifting because you couldn’t help but say it, “Promise me you’ll keep this memory forever. That whenever I ask, you’ll be able to tell me every little detail.”

He grinned at you, beginning to sway to the music once again and revelling in the content sigh it earned him from you.

“Couldn’t forget it if I tried, angel.

[jaedore]

BINDING BONDS | 4

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parings: jung jaehyun x reader

genre: ceo!au, arranged marriage!au, consumption of alcohol, asshole/player Jaehyun, swearing

[ ◇ angst ]

note: BB deals with themes of mental and physical abuse, which can be upsetting for some readers. If you feel uncomfortable reading these types of plots, you are advised to not continue

a/n: just a little update before things get a lil crazy. i didn’t want the characters to go through so much so quickly, so enjoy this filler chpt!! also send me some feedback, i’d love to hear from you guys! ♡

[ 6.2 k ] 

You woke up to a throbbing headache and the sun shining in your face. You tried moving away from the light, but a firm pair of arms held you in place. Turning your head, you see Jaehyun sleeping peacefully behind you. You instantly jolt away from him, aghast that you two were in the same bed. 

Jaehyun stirs from the impact but immediately falls back asleep after mumbling incoherent words. Out of all the moments you’ve had with him, this is the first he held such placidity, you couldn’t help but see those features of his that everyone admires. Jaehyun’s skin coated with a honey tone that looked like it was made for a polished statue, the way his feather-like eyelashes kissed his cheeks, and the tint of his lips. It felt like you’ve done this before, admire him. 

Oh no, we didn’t...you looked down and realized you were wearing his shirt, clutching the black cotton between your fists. 

“You’re awake,” Jaehyun whispered, rubbing his eyes. 

“Uh yeah,” you avert your gaze elsewhere, even his morning voice made you jittery. 

“Don’t worry, we didn’t do anything,” he responded, looking at your disheveled state. 

Your hair was put in the worst bun possible, last night when Jaehyun was removing your makeup, your hair was all over your face so he had no choice but to put it up somehow. Since you slept in it, more hairs poked out making you look bizarre. The bare face you possessed brought out the puffiness of your cheeks and the swole in your lips. Jaehyun couldn’t help but look at you, who sat in his shirt. Considering that it was bigger on you, he noticed your shoulder poking out. Nervously, Jaehyun diverts his gaze elsewhere. 

“Then how did you get into my bed?” you asked, the last thing you remember was drinking to the sight of him and Chaeyoung at the after-party last night. 

“You wanted me to stay,” Jaehyun clarified. 

“And you listened to me?” you blurted, clearly frustrated with your actions. As you threw the blankets off, Jaehyun gently grasped your hand to stop you from leaving. 

“Y/n, please. About last night, I meant what I said at the Charity Ball,” he began.  

“I don’t know,” you brushed him off, standing up. 

“Please, just hear me out,” Jaehyun begged. 

You hesitated for a bit, what if he doesn’t mean his words? What if he just goes back to how he was? You inhaled enough air to inflate your lungs, making your decision. You sat back on your bed, crossing your legs, letting him continue. 

“I know what I did was wrong and nothing will ever justify it. I was just angry that I wasn’t allowed to find love for myself, I was angry that I couldn’t be with Chaeyoung. All of the words I said that tore you down, every action that I had done to hurt you, I take it all back. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that and I’m truly sorry. I know it’ll take a while for you to forgive me, but please, I want to apologize for everything.” Jaehyun looked up at you and you knew he genuinely meant what he said because you’ve never seen such misery in his eyes. 

You sat dazed in front of him, your mind couldn’t stop asking questions. Does he even mean all of this? “So what does this mean?” you looked up from your lap. 

“I don’t know, but I do want to try this out with you. I want to see if I can get there with you...no-” he shook his head, “-I want to get there with you and we can go as slow as you want!” 

You sat there thinking to yourself, you were so conflicted and guarded. Is this too soon? Is he just saying this to get in my head? 

“Please say something,” he pleaded, fiddling with his fingers. 

“I-“ you inhaled a sharp breath, “-I don’t know Jaehyun. We’ve been so hostile towards each other the entire time. This is toxic, this isn’t good and I don't want this.” you faltered. 

“Then what should I do?” Jaehyun asked, brows furrowed. As desperate as he sounded, he genuinely wanted to be better for you...and for himself. 

You didn’t know, you didn’t want to say anything because there was a lot that you wanted him to do, “Jaehyun,” you fumbled for the correct words, “I-your words really hurt me, don’t think I have the heart to trust and forgive you right now.”

“Oh,” he lowered his head, clearly disappointed. 

“I appreciate you apologizing though. I think it’s just going to take me some time to figure this out on my own.”

“Of course, take as much time as you needed,” he stood up and with soft steps, walked out of your room.

Why is he so sad in the way he walked? What happened yesterday and why is he suddenly acting differently? You threw your blankets aside and rested your hands on your propped up knees. Your pounding headache wouldn’t stop as you tried to recall the events that happened last night. You remember the vibrations of the blaring music, the flashing lights, the sheer coating of sweat on your body, Jaehyun dragging you away, the dried tears that stained your cheeks, and...you crying. Oh my gosh...you winced at your humiliating behavior as the conversation you had with Jaehyun came back. How can you be so stupid? Get your shit together, damn it y/n!

It took you a while to get yourself out of bed, you didn’t want to risk facing Jaehyun. Maybe that’s why he’s all apologetic now. You thought, citing your conversation with him from last night. When you finally heard the familiar sound of his door shutting, you got up to wash your face. It was then you realized you didn’t have any makeup on. Oh, he must’ve taken it off…

After getting yourself ready for the day, you walk downstairs and there’s a saturated aroma of savory breakfast food filling the air, “You made breakfast?” you walked down to see two sets of plates placed on the table filled with food. 

“Yes,” Jaehyun’s lips pressed together. 

“Oh, thank you.” 

“I’m sorry for not making you any last time,” he scratched the back of his head, “um, let’s eat.” 

If you were to be honest, the tension between you wasn’t exactly there, but it was just a little awkward. You sat across from each other in silence as you ate, the quietness was eating you alive so you took the courage to speak first.

“What happened last night?” you asked him, you just wanted confirmations of your thoughts. 

“Well” he began, “at the club, you got super drunk that you started dancing with one of my friends, Johnny Suh. So I took you home and...you started crying.” 

“Oh my gosh,” you rested your forehead on your palm, embarrassment washing over you, so everything I said was true. “Please don’t tell me what I said,” you held up a hand and continued eating your food. You already knew what you said, you just didn’t want to hear it from Jaehyun.

“Oh. Okay,” Jaehyun thought that maybe you were just embarrassed, but he also felt like you didn’t want to talk about how you truly felt. He figured he’d have to wait for you to be ready without being intoxicated. 

The day went on how it usually did, you both went to your rooms, this time leaving your doors opened a bit. Occasionally, you’d go to the kitchen to get a snack and you’d see him doing the same. Instead of just staring at each other with a void, a small nod would come.

It’s going to take time. Jaehyun reminded himself as he watched you go back up to your room.

You, on the other hand, you weren't handling it too well. You were so used to people coming and going as they pleased, that you’ve built yourself a wall. You’re just trying to be cautious because of the past and because of how Jaehyun regarded you. 

Your phone rang, interrupting you from your thoughts, “Hello?” 

“Hey, how are you doing?” Haewon asked. 

“I’m fine.” 

“You left me last night without telling me that you were leaving early with Jaehyun,” you knew your best friend was pouting on the other side. 

“I’m sorry, I was just really wasted,” you sighed, you needed to stop doing that. 

“Yeah I know, at least you got home safely,” Haewon commented, “he didn’t...yell at you again right?” 

“No.” 

“Oh really? What happened?” 

“Well this morning, Jaehyun apologized and said that he wanted to actually try. But I don’t know, Haewon. I really really don’t know what to do,” you faltered. 

“Really y/n? He apologized? And you’re going to really believe that? ” Haewon doubted. 

“I mean he sounded sincere,” you shrugged.

“Well, I don’t trust him at all! I hate the way he treats you. There’s no way he whole-heartedly meant it.” Haewon retorted. 

“We’ll see,” you huffed. 

“Anyways, I know you're still planning your collection for spring and summer, but I just wanted to check up on you. I hope you’re doing okay,” you felt her heartwarming smile melt your heart. 

“I’ll be okay,” you reassured her. 

“I’m serious, y/n! If he mistreats you again, Imma just have to come over and give him a little punching!” Haewon threatened. 

“No! Don’t!” you said in bewilderment, “Mark already did and it didn’t end looking good, so please, no more fights.” 

“What? Mark Lee? No way.”

You explained to her the situation of that morning, you still couldn’t erase the image of Jaehyun who looked defeated and contrite at the time. The way his full shoulders suddenly withered over his sturdy body, his firm hands collapsed beside him, and his eyes painted in poignant. The image stained your brain and no matter how much you tried forgetting it you couldn’t help but feel the slight twinge in your chest. 

You rushed the conversation, in hopes of ending the topic, “alright, it’s late and I have to get into the office early tomorrow. Goodnight, I’ll talk to you later,” you yawned. 

“Okay, love you,” Haewon replied. 

You hung up, feeling your stomach grumble. You’ve been in your room all day, you haven’t gone out to eat yet. You headed to the kitchen for a late snack and as you opened the fridge, you spotted a written note stuck to the top of a container.

[ I made some for dinner, but you seemed busy on the phone. Just heat it in the microwave until it’s the way you want it ] 

You took off the top, smelling the stir fry. You nodded, impressed that Jaehyun can actually cook. Once it was warm enough, you sat at the table and scrolled through emails.  You had more files that needed to be approved, hopefully, it wasn’t as much as the last round. Launching a new collection was definitely hard, especially when it’s for two seasons of the year, which meant two different concepts. You loved your job, but sometimes you wish that there were easier ways to approve things. 

“Good morning,” your mother greeted.

You pressed your lips together at the familiar sight on your desk. Once again, there were stacks of files sitting on your desk, so you had to literally move them to make room for yourself. As you sat down, you ordered the files from most urgent to least and immediately got to work. 

This time, you weren’t so harsh on yourself. You often took breaks and occasionally got food with your mother, you enjoyed the time you shared with her because it wasn’t often that you did. 

“How are you and Jaehyun?” 

“We’re...good,” you hummed, stirring the tea that sat before you. You watched as the tinted liquid swirled after your spoon in the glass cup, it went with the flow. Maybe I should too. 

“Honey, I know when you’re lying,” she took your hand in hers, almost as if she was trying to shield you from the dark world of being hurt. 

“Mother, really, we’re fine,” you sighed. You didn’t want to trouble her or stress her out, you both already have enough on your plate. 

“Just know that you can tell me anything, okay? I’m your mother.” 

“Of course,” you thinned your lips. 

When you came back to your office, you were persistent on finishing, so you worked hard until the series of words soon became blurred and your brain couldn’t absorb any more information. When you looked at the clock, it was suddenly 7pm. You felt the tension in your shoulders, rolling them back, you knew you needed to reward yourself before you started on another department. You strolled into the break room and brewed a cup of tea and sat at one of the closer tables, you heard a text from your phone. 

[ Jaek-ass: hey I made some food and stored it in the fridge again. Just reheat it when you come home ] 

You haven’t changed his name from your contacts, you were going to leave it at that for a bit. Of course, he was gentle in caring for you when you were wasted, you could still feel the warmth of his arms around you. Also when he apologized and when he made you dinner, but despite all that, you were so guarded. You know he was trying, but the hurt that he caused you was blocking you from accepting it. 

When you came home around 9, it seemed like Jaehyun was already in bed. He usually worked from home, but this week he was in the office. You envied how he always seemed to have it lucky, everything usually goes his way. You walked to the fridge to take out the container of food he prepared for you, this time it was macaroni and cheese. You chuckled as you set it in the microwave, you always ate this during your college days whenever you were pulling all-nighters. The taste brought you back to your old days. 

You found your mind wandering to Jaehyun and his old days. You wondered where he went to think and process his thoughts, who were the friends that made him laugh and formed those dimples of his, you didn’t know a lot of things. Did he talk to Chaeyoung yet? You sighed, they had so much history. You knew you were intruding into their relationship, but this was a situation that you couldn’t help. 

As you got ready for bed, you called Haewon for a little chat, before you moved in with Jaehyun, she would always come over and spend time with you. You missed her dearly, she was the crazy friend that always gave you a good time, but this time you wanted to talk seriously with her. You expressed to Haewon your concerns about letting your guards down and opening up to Jaehyun. She always knew you were guarded and always did her best to make you feel comfortable, but she felt like if you never let your walls down, there was going to be no one waiting for you. You huffed when she said that, all you wanted was to find someone for yourself… but maybe that person is you. 

“Well, I’m going to head to bed. You probably have a busy work schedule too, so go to bed, I’ll talk to you later. Love you.” Haewon bid. 

“You have no idea. Goodnight, love you,” you hung up the phone and threw yourself on the bed. It’s not like you can blame your parents for putting you in this position, this is all they know, they were put in this situation, and so were your grandparents. To be honest, it felt like a family curse.

When you woke up the next morning, Jaehyun had already left for work. Breakfast was stored and as you reheated it, you scrolled through your emails. The Designing Department had already sent digital images of rough drafts for the upcoming Spring-Summer collection. The designs didn’t look right, so you figured you’d have to go to their department today. You exhaled in annoyance, going down there meant that you weren’t able to work on the files, which means that everything you hoped to finish was going to be put back. 

“Morning sweetie,” your mother greeted from her desk. 

“Good morning mother, I have to go down to the Designing Department for a bit today, have my assistant call me if I'm needed.” you quickly set your bag and made your way.

You double-check your notes, making sure everything was ordered and organized. As the upcoming CEO, you had to have your life together. As the elevator doors open, you stride to the open doors that hold one of the most important assets of the company. 

“Good morning, Ms. y/l/n.” everyone greeted you. 

“Yes, good morning, everyone. Today we have a busy day, I went over the files that were sent to me and some adjustments need to be made. That being said, I want to work with the design processors first, we’ll get all of the designs done for the prototyping to begin today. Everyone, get to work!” You commanded, everyone dispersing into their job. 

You walked over to where the processors were, they were in charge of designing the outfits. The colors, patterns, print, and proportion were all done by them. Several of them had their head buried in their desk, Park Chaeyoung. There she was, sitting in her desk, solely focused on her designs. Her head perked up once you towered over her. 

“I heard you’re very good at designing-” you nodded at her drawings, “-may I take a look?”

“O-oh! Of course,” she handed you her stack of papers. 

You quickly scanned her sketches, her lines were delicately drawn with preciseness and the patterns complimented the outfit, she unexpectedly met your expectations. One thing that bothered you was that the colors didn’t harmonize well together, instead, they clashed. Nonetheless, you were still impressed. 

“They’re not bad,” you sighed, handing them back, “but I advise you not to play with the colors too much. The designs are very well drawn, but the colors clash too much. It makes it hard on the eye.” you advised her. 

“Yes, Ms. Y/l/n, thank you for the advice.” Chaeyoung bowed her head. 

You smiled back before drawing your attention to the rest of the team members. You went to each of them, making sure the designs were well correlated with the collection. You made sure to speak with every designer and ensure that everything corresponded. Every fabric, texture, detail, and sampling had to be perfect, there was no room to mess up. 

By lunchtime, you weren’t as close to finishing as you wanted to be, but you can tell that you lacked effort from the designing team. You huffed in annoyance, “alright, everyone, thirty-minute lunch, please. Be back as soon as possible!” you demanded. 

As you let the entire team to lunch, you sat and scanned over the designs again, ensuring everything was perfect enough to move on. You wrote corrections and notes here and there, so the processors knew what to revise and change.

Jaehyun sat in his office chair, fixated on the papers in front of him, his hair tousled, and his tie slightly loosened. Going over the accounting finances were a pain in the ass, he had to make sure everything was correct, and so far, they weren’t. The debits and credits were mixed up, even an elementary student could’ve figured it out. It wasn’t even better that he was meeting up with Chaeyoung at her place tonight. Jaehyun was going to clear things up with her and for once, he felt like he was doing the right thing. 

Back at Audace, as soon as the department was back, it was time to get to work. You gave the processors a few minutes before beginning the prototyping process. Not only was designing hard but so was sewing. Everything had to fit together, the fabric needed to be embedded, and it had to be the fabric that the outfit was designed for.  You glide the folded textile through the sewing machine, yarn connecting it into one. As you put the finished textile on the mannequin, you heard someone scolding. You turned your head to see the head department, Jieun, lecturing Chaeyoung as she held her head low. You walked over, hoping to alleviate the tension. 

“You should know better! Even if Ms. Y/l/n gives you thirty minutes, you only have twenty minutes! We are launching our Spring-Summer collection. We don’t have time to be flexible, we don’t even have time for lun-”

“Everything alright here Jieun?” You raised a brow. 

“Y-yes,-” she bowed, “-everything is okay.”

“Then let’s get back to work, we have a lot to do.” 

You led the Designing Department through the whole process in making the outfits. Textiles were sewn, fabrics were slipped on the mannequin, and outfits were completed. You sighed after completing a few, the department still had a few more to go and it was almost the end of everyone’s shift. Your fingers flowed through the silky fabrics of one of the blouses you put together, you were putting your whole heart and soul into this collection, you had to impress society that you were made to be the next CEO. A ring from your phone suddenly distracted you from your thoughts. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey y/n,” it was Jaehyun. 

“Hi, is everything okay?” It wasn’t usual for him to call you at all.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’m just letting you know that I won’t be home until later tonight,” he said. 

“Oh, ok-” you paused, “-do you want me to leave you some dinner?” 

“No, that’s okay. I know you’re busy with work, just get some sleep when you get home. I’ll eat when I’m done.” Jaehyun said. 

“Okay,” you bid him goodbye and hung up the phone. 

You could hear the fatigue and stress in his voice. Maybe he’s busy at work, hopefully, he gets some sleep. You didn’t want to meet an angry Jaehyun again. You eluded your thoughts and got back to work, you figured that you’d be working overtime also, so you did your best to rush with preciseness. 

Jaehyun cleaned his desk, he grabbed his bag, ready to leave for Chaeyoung place. He hadn’t figured out what he was going to say to her, but he had a clear idea. 

“Goodnight Mr. Jung,” his employees bowed as he passed them. 

Once Jaehyun was driving on the road, his mind strayed to you. He wondered if you were okay at work, if you had a lot, and if you were taking breaks often. Jaehyun didn’t exactly know you, but he knew how stubborn you were, especially when it comes to work. You liked to plow through the work, you liked to get things done. Jaehyun sighed as his palms tightened on the steering wheel, he was nervous to talk to Chaeyoung. So many ‘what if’ scenarios flashed through his mind.

When Jaehyun pulled into Chaeyoung's parking lot, he felt his palm sweat. Uneasiness settled in his bones, he didn’t want to break her heart, he didn’t want to break the woman he loves. He’s already broken you, he didn’t want to break another, especially Chaeyoung. Jaehyun timidly walked up to her door, quietly knocking on it, hoping that the hush of it was heard. 

“Jaehyun!” she pulled him in for a hug, shutting the door behind him. 

“Hey,” Jaehyun gently pulled her away, “we need to talk.” 

Chaeyoung pulled him to her couch, she sat and grasped his hand sensing the seriousness, “Is everything okay?” 

“I-” Jaehyun rubbed his face, hoping it’d release some of the tension behind his expression, “-we need to stop.” 

“What do you mean?” Chaeyoung’s voice quieted. 

“This,” he pointed back and forth between them, “we need to end this.” 

“W-why? Did I do something wrong?” Her voice weakened.

Silence drapes the room as Jaehyun sits across Chaeyoung. He knows he has to tell her the truth, that’s what she deserves, but her reaction made Jaehyun anxious. Would she hate me? What if she never wants to see me ever again? He couldn’t afford to lose her, but at the same time, the guilt ate him alive every time the image of you flashed in his head. 

Jaehyun tangled his fingers through his hair. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he exhales, “I’m engaged to someone.” 

“What?” Chaeyoung’s eyes widen, “who?”

There was a long pause before Jaehyun can speak up, “Y/l/n Y/n,” he lowers his gaze at his fiddling hands. 

“My boss? You’re engaged to my boss?” Chaeyoung stood up appalled. 

“Please sit,” he begged. 

She yanked her hand from his, “How? Why? Since when?” 

“Since a while ago, we won’t be getting married until the summer. It’s for business, but honestly, I just don’t think my dad wants me to marry you,” he quietly scoffed, “Jung Corporation is a joint company with Audace.” 

Chaeyoung’s head falls into the palm of her hand, “I hate you. How could you do this to me? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” 

“Because I wanted to be with you! But I’ve treated y/n like shit and now...I want to try this with her,” Jaehyun whispered the last part. 

Chaeyoung sits in silence, before she releases a long-awaited sigh, “Please go,” she points to the door. 

“Ch-Chaeyoung, please,” he pleaded. 

“Get out, Jaehyun!” 

So as much as Jaehyun wanted to stay he knew he had no choice but to leave, he knew that you were probably waiting at home for him. This is now over and he knows that it’s time to focus on fixing this up with you, but he can’t help but feel the pain in his chest. For such a long time, he’s waited for Chaeyoung to come back from the states and start a life with him. Of course, things never work out for him. 

Before he drove home, Jaehyun drove to the edge of a cliff. The twinkling lights that lit the city helped him overlook his problems, it helps remind him his problems were only small. Jaehyun rested his head on the steering wheel, a choked cry came out, which grew into sobs about everything he’s done. Jaehyun wanted out, he didn’t want to be put through this, not anymore, but thought of you always reminded him that he wanted to be better. Even though he had you, his heart hurt for Chaeyoung, the memory of her crying, pointing out the door, telling him that she hated him would resonate in his mind. 

When you got home, Jaehyun hadn’t made it back yet, usually, he’d be home around 5 if he was ever late. You shrugged it off, making your way to the kitchen making dinner, and turning on some music. You were making your favorite dish, pad thai. Hopefully, Jaehyun liked it too because you were going to pack a little for him. 

The rice noodles that sauteed with the sauce and vegetables filled the kitchen with a delectable aroma. You set yourself a plate and a container for Jaehyun, leaving it uncapped to cool down. You sat by the table, munching on your dinner as you scrolled through your phone. You replied to text messages and emails that required your approval. 

“Maybe I should just stay later,” you sighed. Since you spent the day in the Designing Department, you didn’t get the chance to work on any other department files. You rubbed your temples in frustration, you were going to have to bring them home. You were never fond of bringing work home, you cherished the moment you had after work because it was your time to relax and be at peace. Work was work and whatever work you had you left it in your office until the next day, but everything was so demanding now. 

You didn’t want to think about it anymore, you set your phone down to enjoy the food in front of you, but you shortly heard the door open and a tired Jaehyun walked in. His hair was tousled, his tie was loose, and a couple of buttons were undone. His eyes held dark bags and were stained red, was he crying? Jaehyun looked at you curiously, to him, you looked overworked, considering you were still in your work clothes. 

“I just got home,” you answered, it was like you read his mind, “I made some pad thai and packed it in the fridge, just give me a second-” you got up from your chair, making your way to the fridge, “-I’ll heat this up for you.” 

“O-oh, you don’t have to. I can do that, just come finish your food.” Jaehyun stuttered. 

“It’s okay,” you already had the pad thai on a plate and placed it in the microwave.

You set the warm food in front of Jaehyun who seated himself beside your chair. You watched him from the corner of your eye, you wanted to see his reaction. 

“This is really good,” his eyes widened. 

“You like it?” you asked. 

“Yes, what is this?” Jaehyun asked, taking another bite. 

“Pad thai,” you replied, “when I was younger, my family and I would often take trips to Thailand. One of the chefs taught me how to make it since I like it so much.” 

Jaehyun nodded, continuing to eat as you quietly sat and finished yours. You offered to clean up and let him get ready for bed, but he was persistent in doing the cleaning, so you let him. You walked up to your room to get ready to shower, hoping that the hot water would release the tension in your shoulders. As it did, you couldn’t help but feel unsettled, you were typically good at giving people the cold shoulder, especially to Jaehyun, so why were you suddenly being considerate of him? You dug into your subconscious to see where your feelings were with him. You convinced yourself it was going to take time to forgive him, but your actions already said that you did. Colliding with your thoughts, you didn’t know who to listen to. 

It was late and you wanted to leave for work early in the morning, but as you laid in bed, you couldn’t stop shuffling in your sheets. Your body was physically drained, but your mind was everywhere. Why did he come home late? Was he crying? Your brows furrowed. You remembered how he looked at you when he came in, for a split second you thought you saw heartbreak and regret in his eyes. Maybe he went to go talk to Chaeyoung. You sighed. Only your thoughts of tomorrow could confirm it. 

So there you were, 5am, sitting in your office going through the files. With your tea beside you, the shuffling of papers swayed the steam coming from the cup, almost cooling it down. 

By the time your mother came in, you had finished the Marketing Department’s files. “You’re here early. When did you come?” Your mother set her bag on her desk. 

“5,” you said, grabbing the files leaving the office. 

You stood alone in the elevator, employees coming and going. On the 5th floor, Chaeyoung stood wide-eyed as the doors opened to the sight of you. She bowed and quickly came in, standing a few feet from you, you saw how she tightly held onto the files in her hands. You figured she had to drop some paperwork off at another apartment, but your assumptions stood true, Chaeyoung’s eyes were swollen, bags shadowed beneath her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days, even though you saw her yesterday. 

The two of you stood silent until the 4th floor was met, you nodded to her and left for the Marketing Department. On your stroll there, you could hear whispers occurring as you passed by. The Marketing Department was notorious for gossiping, they knew many of the present trends and updated buzz. Usually, they spoke about you, but a familiar name was called and you slightly stiffened. 

“Did you see the pictures of Jaehyun at the after-party?” one of them said. 

“No, show me!” another begged.

“They’re blurry, but isn’t he handsome???” the girl gawked. 

“Who’s that girl he’s carrying?” another asked, frustration glazing her question. 

“I’m not sure, but I’ll figure it out. I always do,” the girl chuckled. 

Your eyes widened as you realized that girl they were referring to was you. You quicken your strides to the head office, you quickly drop it off to make your way back to your office, avoiding the girls. You panted as you fell into your chair, you weren’t aware that you were holding your breath through all of that. 

“Are you okay?” Your mother noticed your thwarted expression. 

“Yeah,” you sighed, getting back to work. 

As you worked on your files, you lost track of time as your focus was solely on completing them. Your mind was distracted the second your secretary stood in front of your desk. 

“Can I help you?” You asked, your focus not leaving the papers in front of you. 

“Ms. y/l/n, someone is here for you.” She said. 

“Unless they have an appointment, I don’t have time to talk.” 

“M-Ms. y/l/n,” your secretary hesitated, “it’s Mr. Jung.”

You sighed, looking at the clock. You hadn’t realized it was already noon. Why is Jaehyun here? “Let him in.” 

Your gaze avoided the door to your office, you didn’t want him to think you were waiting for him. When Jaehyun walked in, he was dressed in a dark grey suit, his tie well done, his hair slicked back, he looked rather composed, unlike last night. 

“Hi, I hope you’re not too busy,” Jaehyun walked up to your desk, you could smell the cologne he always wore. It held a clean, wood, and rich scent like it was made solely for him. 

“Just a little bit, is everything okay?” You quietly asked. 

“Yeah,” he sat down in one of the seats in front of you, “I was wondering if you have time for lunch.” He enjoyed the moment last night as you two ate, so he wanted to have lunch with you today. 

Oh...Your eyes slightly widen, you didn’t know if you were excited or surprised. “I have time,” you nodded. 

“Great, I don’t know what you like so I just brought some kimbap that I made,” Jaehyun’s lips pressed together. 

“That’s okay, I like it.” You reached to grab one and popped it in your mouth.

Before you could grab another, your mother marched in, “Honey, I’m ba-OH! Mr. Jung, I wasn’t aware you were coming. I’ll leave you two be.” she quickly ran out. 

“No, mother it’s okay!” You begged, anticipating the awkward tension between you two, but she was quick to leave. “Sorry about that,” you commented, lowering back into your seat. 

“That’s okay,” Jaehyun chuckled, you saw those dimples and his whiskers again, it sent jitters to your spine. “What are you working on?” he nodded at the papers in front of you.

“Um-” you looked at your files, “-just approving the departments’ files. We’re coming out with a new Spring-Summer collection, so they need my approval for several things.” 

“That’s a lot. When do they need it?” 

“By the end of the week, I usually finish by Thursday but it looks like I’m going to have to bring some home so I can just finish on time,” your smile fell when you realized who was standing at the door. 

Jaehyun picked up on your expression and turned around in his seat, “Ch-Chaeyoung.” 

It felt as if time had slowed down, the three of you stood still in your places. None of you said a word and let the unsettling feeling resonate in each other’s bones. The silence blanketed the room and brought tension between everyone. 

You held your breath before speaking up, “What is it Chaeyoung?” you asked.

“Your secretary wasn’t at her desk and I needed to drop these off as soon as possible, they need your approval.” She walked towards your desk and gently set them on your desk. 

You thank her as she bows and leaves, Jaehyun’s gaze never leaving her figure. You felt your stomach lightly drop, was it the kimbap? Or were you flustered, hot, and maybe a little jealous? Nope. 

You cleared your throat, earning Jaehyun’s attention, “I’m full and I have a lot to do, so I’ll see you at home.” you said, this was a way of forcing him out of your office. 

“Y/n,” Jaehyun’s head fell to the side.

“I don’t want to know Jaehyun. Whatever you have with her is your issue,” you opened the doors to your office, “please leave.” you did your best at keeping your composure together. 

“Y/n, I ended things with her.” Jaehyun’s palms fell in front of you in reason. 

“Please, Jaehyun,” you gulped, “go.” 

[professorthaddeus]

Out of Sight

This is a companion piece to @io-kj-cr‘s heartbreaking fic, Decisions, an AU of 2x128 where Caleb gives himself up to Trent. Would highly recommend checking it out!

also on ao3

—————————— 

They let him go. 

The chips were down, they were out of options with enemies at the door, Mama and Yeza and little Luc were not going to be trapped in a building with Icky-thong, and in that moment of weakness, they let him go.

“Cad, what do you see?” Fjord, grim. Caduceus is standing at the one window in the room, chosen for his keen ability to read people to keep an eye on the exchange.

The exchange. They’re selling Caleb back to the grossest person in the Empire, to his literal lifelong tormentor, and they’re just sitting here like it’s nothing. 

“They’re not hurting him. They’re just talking.” Caduceus’ voice rumbles in a steady cadence, ever the rock in the rapids. But Jester sees how his knuckles are clenched white around his staff. 

“Is he… how does he look?”

Veth, piping up from the floor, clutching Caleb’s spellbooks to her chest. Yeza’s holding her, Luc sitting uncharacteristically still by their side. He’s got a book in his hands as well. Jester’s heart thuds painfully when she recognizes the title as a collection of Zemnian fairy tales.

“He’s standing tall.”

Of course he is. They’ve all seen Caleb file away his fears and stitch himself together in the moments that really count. They’ve also seen him shake apart immediately afterwards.

This time, none of them are going to be there to help him pick up the pieces.

“This doesn’t sit well with me,” Yasha says quietly, fingers twitching toward her swords.

“Yeah, no shit.” Beau, pacing, coiled like she’s ready to pounce. “This was such a bad plan. I say we go ahead and attack them now. They’re busy with Caleb, so we could absolutely ambush them in a pincer move, or—“

“They’re gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?” Beau rushes to the window, where Caduceus is stepping aside. He leans back against the wall, looking lost in a way Jester hasn’t seen since his first time on the sea.

“I mean he and his friends stepped into a portal and disappeared.”

Beau’s jaw tightens. “They’re not his friends.”

“I don’t know,” Fjord murmurs, though Jester knows he would definitely be fuming as well if Beau wasn’t so close to the edge right now. “They did warn us they were coming.” He holds up his hands when Beau shoots him a withering look. “It could be a good thing. They might help us get him back.”

“With or without their help, I wasn’t kidding when I said our next step was going to be a jailbreak,” she mutters.

“Agreed.”

Veth lets out a shaky breath. “And he’ll be okay until then. He just has to hold on for one night, and we’ll go get him. He’s the smartest, most capable of us all; he’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, he’s way more powerful than them,” Jester adds, automatic. Something twists in her chest.

“Sure, except he doesn’t even have his fucking spellbooks.”

For once, Veth flinches instead of snapping a retort back at Beau.

“You keep these safe for me until I return, ja?”

“I don’t like this, Cay. There has to be another way.” There’s a tremor in Veth’s hands as she takes the books.

“There isn’t, and we are running out of time. Besides, he won’t kill me. He… ah, he has said many times already he simply wishes to talk.”

Jester winces. It’s going to be a long time before she forgets the haunted look that appeared in Caleb’s eyes every time Trent’s voice slithered into his ear today.

“Be good for your mother and father,” Caleb’s saying, ruffling Luc’s hair. 

He straightens to look at the rest of them, meeting their eyes one by one. Jester can almost hear him counting in his head. 

A wall slams down over his expression as he squares his shoulders.

“I am so sorry about all this.” He continues before any of them can protest. “Thank you all.”

Jester tries not to think it sounds like a goodbye.

She shoves the image of Caleb’s pale, determined face out of her head, swallowing the building lump in her throat. The last thing she needs—the last thing Mama needs—is for her to break down right now. 

“Well,” she hedges into the silence, “he’s got like, a really good memory, you guys. Maybe he doesn’t need them. Maybe he remembers all his spells.”

“I don’t—“ Beau starts, before taking a deep breath. Yasha’s hand is slipping into hers. She softens her tone. “I don’t think that’s how it works, Jes.”

“Oh.”

“Jester, I’m so sorry.” Mama speaks up from where she’s been sitting anxiously beside her. There’s so much regret in her face. “Your friend, he—”

“No, no, Mama, no.” She’s been so strong today, and Jester’s so, so proud of her for facing her fears, but she never should have been forced to do it. “This isn’t your fault at all. We brought them to you.”

Technically, she brought them here. Caleb can blame himself all he wants, but Jester’s the one who put a target on Nicodranas in that letter to Astrid all those months ago and the one who dropped Mama’s name into a conversation with an enemy guard just a few hours ago.

“Who… are they?”

“They’re, um.” Her voice wavers. She swallows again. “They’re bad people. Really, really bad people.”

“Oh, my Sapphire,” Mama hums, and it’s kind of crazy how those three words can sound like music from her lips. She reaches up to cup Jester’s cheek. “You and your friends are some of the most amazing people I’ve met. “And you,” she brushes her thumb gently across her skin, “are more creative than anyone in the world. You’ll find a way.”

Mama presses a kiss to the top of her head and then takes her hands. They’re smooth, warm. Jester looks down. Red and blue, just like when she was little, except now her hands can’t be fully covered by Mama’s. She’s grown up and stepped out of Mama’s arms and the sanctuary of their Chateau. Just like she always dreamed and plotted with Artie. It’s all she can do not to cry.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” she manages, tries for a watery smile.

“Jester,” Yasha ventures gingerly. “Can’t you talk to him?”

She shakes her head, blinking away the blurriness. “Not until tomorrow. I don’t have the energy left to cast a spell.” 

Caduceus clears his throat. “Good.” The rest of them look to him, startled. “Now there’s nothing to do but get some sleep so we’ll be ready for tomorrow. Mr. Wensforth, can you help us set something up for the night?”

The poor goblin looks up from where he’s been wringing his hands in the corner. Jester doesn’t blame him. 

Man, Yussa’s gonna be super pissed when he wakes up to find so many people in his tower.

She can’t imagine how she’s supposed to fall asleep, but Caduceus makes her drink some tea, and eventually she feels the tension of the day seep into her bones. Before it claims her consciousness, she brings the symbol of the Traveler to her chest.

“Artie, look out for him, okay?”

——— 

In the morning, Beau and Caduceus wake her and the others, careful not to disturb Mama, Yeza, or Luc.

Jester tucks the blanket around Mama a little more securely before heading out.

They all cluster together in a smaller room off of one of the tower’s winding stairwells. Caduceus starts passing around breakfast, but she declines, sitting in the middle of the floor instead and prepping a familiar spell. 

Fjord gives her an encouraging nod, holding ten fingers up at the ready. 

She focuses on the image of her friend, on the furrow in his brow as he wields magic like a weapon, on the way his eyes crinkle when he offers one of his soft, rare smiles. She fires up Sending.

“Caleb! Are you alright? Where are you? Are you hurt? Are you in Rexxentrum? I’m sorry, I had to wait until today to Send to reach you but we’re—”

Fjord’s nudging her, signaling the end of the spell. Jester blows a strand of hair out of her face, tapping her fingers against her knee.

She waits five seconds, ten, a minute. No response.

She bites her lip. “You guys—”

Beau’s there already, tugging her into a hug as Fjord gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Veth lets out a muffled noise of frustration.

“He could just not be in a place where he can talk freely right now, we don’t know,” Caduceus says evenly.

“Maybe I should try Astrid?”

Beau shifts, but she doesn’t let go. “I dunno, man, I don’t trust her.”

“She loves Caleb,” Veth says, but again, none of her usual ferocity is there.

“Yeah, maybe.” Beau’s face darkens. “And now she has him back.”

Her words hang heavy in the air.

Jester shakes herself. “Look, fuck it, I’m just going to do it.” She takes a deep breath.

“Astrid,” she chirps. “Is Caleb with you? Tell him to talk to me when he can. Oh also, if any of you hurt him, we’re totally gonna find you and make sure you never—”

“That’s it, Jester.”

“You should send another one. Let her hear the end of your threat,” Yasha says, and Jester swears she can hear thunder roll beneath the mild suggestion.

Fjord cracks something resembling a smile. “As entertaining as that would be, I think—“

Jester shushes them as Astrid’s voice comes back. 

Good morning, Jester. Bren is well and unharmed. He is here with us and under no restraints or compulsion. He is home now.

Jester growls. 

“What did she say?”

“That Caleb’s okay and like, he’s home, or some total bullshit. She’s wrong, obviously.” She has to be. Jester ignores the building pressure in her chest, flicks her wrist to cast again.

“Please, tell me something, tell me anything, tell me you’re fine, or dead, but please, we need to hear from you, we need to plan our next moves and we can get you out of there as long as you just—” Fjord squeezes her hand. Stupid, stupid spell with stupid word limits.

Nothing on the other end anyway. Her eyes sting, and this time, Jester doesn’t try to stop the sob in her throat.

“I’ll keep messaging you, please Caleb, we’re scared and worried, please tell us where you are, we can fix this, we can get you back!”

Finally, finally, Caleb speaks.

I am well, Jester; returning was my decision, and I am unharmed.

He sounds so tired.

I need you all to stay away. Stay safe. I am sorry.

Silence once more.

Jester’s messages have reached across thousands of miles, over oceans and barren wastelands and enemy lines. This is the first time she’s felt the yawning distance the magic has to travel.

She swipes at her eyes, glaring through her tears. 

She knows what he’s doing. It’s what he’s always done, protect and shield and give and give and give like it’s all he’s good for. But she’s also seen him start to unfurl, seen him laugh more and trust more and take one careful step after another out of the shadows of his past. He knows he’s part of their family. They just need to help him remember what that means.

“He said something,” Veth guesses.

“Something awful and self-sacrificing?” Beau mutters. 

“Yeah.” 

Jester pushes back her sleeves, and she can feel a breeze drift into the chamber, the rustle of a green cloak at her side.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re going to get him, now.”

[appleb0mb]

Twisted Wonderland x Date A Live (Outfit) - Vil Schoenheit

Art Process of Agapanthus here!

Poll for Future TWSTxDAL content here!

Purple Agapanthus - Represents beauty, love, strength, power and fertility. For purple, it symbolizes royalty - making the person who receives/represents the Agapanthus as valuable and priceless.

Crocus - Represents dignity, pride and success. Also represents joy and cheerfulness, and the return of spring. 

Previous: “Mm…I can tell that there’s something different about them, Roi de Poison.”  [ The Aphrodites ] here.

“Effort is critical and essential to reach your goal. The ruthless, the hopeless, the beautiful and the ugly have all done the same. Even if people dry up like potatoes, I will persevere - and I will NOT falter.”

(NOTE: This is absolutely free! But NOT free to steal credit from! PLEASE CREDIT MY ART AND MUSIC, AND ASK FOR PERMISSION FROM ME!!!)

If you’re into some Pomefiore plot, please - continue below~.

A word from appleb0mb:

The final and last track I’ll be ever be making 2020 (still December 31st, 2020 over here)- and the second track of Pomefiore, Agapanthus! 

I must say, this track is by the far the most difficult track to make musically and artistically! 

Also when I was doing the quote for Agapanthus I was thinking of “Even if people wither like flowers”, but I think that it contradicts Vil’s personality so I had to do “Even if people dry up like potatoes” XDDDDDD

If I’m going to be honest - I’m not really proud of this track and its art altogether - but I am absolutely proud of the effort I made! I really hope it gets recognized though.

But like all things - its temporary. It’ll pass away. 

The Concept of the Track - Agapanthus: 

Boy Agapanthus was a monster to make.

I was really frustrated from trying to depict Vil’s character musically. Since #1, Vil is barely known (since Pomefiore’s chapter just started), and #2 - Vil isn’t a favorite for me.

Though, I knew the ideas I was going for Vil - a waltz, regal kind of music (like battle music!). I also knew that I had to use some synths and instruments that were applied in The Aphrodites. I didn’t expect to use a Organ and a Glockenspiel though!

I wanted to achieve a powerful, posh kind of battle music showing Vil’s tenacity and upholding personality. But I realized everyone has a gentle and calming side - even Vil.

Not gonna lie, I thought this song was way too good for Vil that I almost pushed this as Vil’s Overblot Theme! But I realized that it’s too soft and serene for an Overblot, so I changed it (and I so glad that did!!! :D).

There was so many images flashing through my mind about this song - and in the end I loved it! I admire how it shows the strong and kinder signs of Vil. The soundtrack sounding loud - soft - then loud again (along with the soft parts helping out the loud bits!).

I also liked how the instruments from the loud and soft sections helped accentuate the last parts of the song - the ending leaving the song on an ominous note.

Anyways.

Imagery and Ideas From Listening to Agapanthus:

In the beginning of the song, I imagine Vil looking into a mirror at his reflection or waving his halos in battle until the lullaby parts. In those lullaby parts I imagine an image of Pomefiore in stained glass at a cathedral till the glitchy part, when later on we transition to him back at the mirror, the mirror shattering and no longer see a reflection of his own...or none at all.

And everything crashes down, and he’s holding his well-toned face in his beautiful hands; hiding his wet, newly-formed tears. Lost in a garden maze of his own creation - covering his face in his knees, trying to seal all those desires of someone helping him.

TWSTxDAL Plot - Continuation!

Warning - long reading ahead!

Hours later the two Spirits finally arrived at their destination, after travelling above the Earth’s calming seas.  

The wintery night transitioned into a scorching, blinding sunrise - forcing the lilac to shield his eyes from the early, morning rays of the sun. The blonde also did the same, pulling his hat to conceal the disturbing light that interrupted his view.

Pearly-white heels and marron, cardinal-ribbon boots stepped on the porcelain tile, the duo waiting patiently near the upstairs windowsill. Within a second, the composite windowsill opened; before hastily closing and securing the grand, sophisticated bedroom.

“Why did you two take so long? I couldn’t even start breakfast without you two.” A firm voice spoke.

“Well, fear not! I have some exciting news to share with you, Roi de Poison.” Rook replied excitedly.

“I see. Epel, head to your room and get dressed. I’ll be downstairs in time to properly start breakfast.”

Biting the bottom of his lip quietly, he silently headed left to his upstairs room; careful to not intervene in the older Spirits’ conversation.

As Epel exited the bedroom a fair-skinned, petite form sat on the lavender, chesterfield sofa; lightly tugging the knots and tangles out of his gorgeous hair.

“As I was saying, Epel and I have discovered some new information regarding some...Spirits.”

Eyes of sangria swiftly glanced at Rook, the figure momentarily halting to a stop.

“I’m listening.”

“When we went to the island for training, we met two Spirits and an Invidaé.”  

His eyes slightly widened in belief. “Hmpf. An Invidaé? Impossible. A human cannot last that long under such intense circumstances.” 

“That’s the thing - they’re human. Besides, they already lost consciousness as soon as we came near them. Luckily, I stepped in and offered a price that they could never deny.”

“What was the price, per say?”

“If they tell us all the information regarding Spirits - we will give them the antidote in return.”

“And the antidote was made by Epel?”

“Of course.”

Short locks of blondish-mauve covered his neck, and a lovely blanched tank top covered his well-toned muscles underneath. Well-cut fingernails were polished meticulously; the polish glittering sublimely under the glaring rays of the sun. Elongated, onyx sportswear perfectly shaped his curves - displaying his fit, and slender body.

A full-length oval mirror reflected eyes of sangria, showing a stunning and enticing figure of beauty.

“Excellent job, Rook - as expected of you. You can go now and get ready.” He paused. “And just a reminder - I don’t like waiting.”

Gracefully, he stood up from the plushy sofa - staring at his reflection before him. The morning light warmed his elegant complexion. 

A complexion of the most fairest and the most beautiful of them all - Vil Schoenheit. 

- End of Post -

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[bunnys-beetlejuice-blog]

bangs pots and pans together loudly FIC UPDATE COME GET YALL SOME JUICE

Apparently the vital, missing component to enjoying school was having a friend there. Go figure.

He and Kevin only have that first period class together, but they make the most of it, passing notes back and forth between the two of them, the teacher too tired that early in the morning to notice, or care. Lunch isn’t depressing anymore. They sit together under the shade tree, and Kevin does seem to also appreciate the view. “Can you even imagine working up a sweat, on purpose?” Betelgeuse pats his gut. “You know I can’t.”

“I can’t believe how little the track shorts are. That’s obscene. You think I’d look good in them?” “You join track and I’ll come to every meet, an’ it won’t be for th’ love of th’ sport.” He doesn’t think normal friends talk to each other like this, but he doesn’t actually know. Does everyone flirt with their friends? Are friends just cool people you wanna fuck but haven’t yet? Is it demon hormone bullshit, making him read into everything? Unclear.

It’s all going so good, until it isn’t, suddenly.

One lunch, two months into being there, Kevin pulls a huge and impressive old book from his backpack. “Look what I goooot,” he sing songs, waving it in Betelgeuse’s face, and he sneezes in response. “Smells old.” Emily and Lydia would love it. “It is. It’s very old,” Kevin confirms, and he moves so he’s sitting next to Betelgeuse, shoulder to shoulder, both their backs to the shade tree. “It’s about demons.”

Betelgeuse loses interest immediately, and focuses on not going pink at their shoulders touching, instead. “Z’at so?” he grunts. Kevin doesn’t seem to pick up on his moodiness, though. “It talks about all these ancient beings,” he explains, flipping pages. “Their summoning circles, their aspects,” he gives Betelgeuse a nudge at that, “all the things they can do for you, and the boons they grant.” He feels uncomfortable. “What’s with this? You obsessed with me, or somethin’?” He tries to play it as a joke, but that glint in Kevin’s eyes is back, and he doesn’t like it. “Of course, who wouldn’t be obsessed if they learned all this shit is actually true? It’s like there’s a whole secret world behind a locked door, and I’ve got the key.” Kevin looks back up at him.

He gets the feeling he’s the key. It’s not a good feeling.

“Where’d you even get this fuckin’ thing?” he lifts a finger, and the book slams closed in Kevin’s lap. His friend huffs. “Internet, of course.” “No, I mean… why were you lookin’ for somethin’ like this?” “I want to learn more. Don’t you?” Kev presses, and reopens the book. “I mean, what if there’s something amazing you can do, and you just don’t know, cause you’re not bothering to try?”

“So I’ll never know, so what?” Betelgeuse feels like this is a losing argument, but he tries anyways. “What’s so great about bein’ weird? You’re lucky you’re human.” “Dude, don’t even start with that. You can fly.” “So can humans,” he points out. “Wh- A plane and fucking levitating for fun are not the same, and you know it, BeetleJerk.” Kevin honestly can’t understand why he’s not excited over this. “I just mean… I’d rather be human, than this.” He blinks at his own words, because he’s never expressed that out loud before, ever. But it doesn’t feel untrue. “You’re out of your mind, more so than usual. Every human alive wants to feel special, and do the stuff you can do. Why are you acting like it’s so miserable all of a sudden? You use your powers all the time, I’ve seen you literally teleport five feet because you’re too lazy to walk.”

“You don’t get it.” He’s feeling sullen now, and he wiggles a little away from Kevin, and crosses his arms. “BJ, come on-” Betelgeuse teleports away to under the bleachers, and he eats his lunch there, until the bell rings.

He’s waiting for Emily after school, not feeling particularly friendly, when Kevin approaches. They stand there awkwardly. It feels tense, and weird, and he waits to see what the breather does. “Don’t be mad,” Kevin says, finally. “M’not mad.” “You sound mad.” “You know what mad on me looks like,” he finally turns to look at his friend, amber eyes burning with irritation. “First hand.”

Kevin looks down, and kicks at a rock that might not actually be there. “I thought you’d be excited. BJ, come on, I don’t wanna.. Not be friends over this.”

Betelgeuse signs, and scratches at the scruff on his chin. “It’s not like that,” he relents after a moment. “I just, I don’t care about that stuff. An’ I don’t wanna sit around, focusin’ on it. I don’t exactly like feelin’ different. Yeah, I do tricks an’ use my magic an’ stuff, but it’s hard to control. I lose my temper once an’ I could seriously destroy somethin’, or hurt my family. It doesn’t exactly feel good, knowin’ that. No one else my age can stand me, cause they can tell I’m weird. Before you, it was fuckin’ lonely, Kev.”

He feels a familiar pressure, because Kevin has taken his hand, and the human gives it a squeeze. He accepts it, melting a little against the other boy. “Still friends?” Kevin asks, and Betelgeuse purrs in response, resting his head on Kevin’s shoulder.

It’s not till later, at home, that he realizes Kevin never actually apologized.

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

It’s like that, for a while. He knows Kevin still has the book. He knows he’s reading it, and sometimes Kevin will bring up demon stuff, but Betelgeuse has almost exactly a minute and a half of patience for answering questions or hearing about it. Still, Kev doesn’t stop. He might feel angrier if the breather wasn’t so god damn cute.

The air is starting to go cold, and leaves are beginning to fall. October is settling in, getting comfortable, and mom’s starting to break out the Halloween décor. It’s the middle of a kind of gloomy, Autumn day, when things get weird.

Kevin has the book open, much to Betelgeuse’s annoyance, and he’s blabbing away about a demon that supposedly grants wealth- “Do you think you could do that?” -when Betelgeuse looks down at the book, and sees Juno looking back at him. It’s not really her, it’s an illustration, but he’d recognize the bitch anywhere. She’s ink, glaring up from the page, those same age lines etched into her face, confirming his private theory that she’d been an old hag even when she was young. The slit neck is prominent, and as he stares, he sees smoke billow out of it. Oh, fuck no.

He grabs the book and slams it shut, startling Kevin, and then he teleports it directly under them, a mile down in the rock of the earth. Kev blinks for a moment, confused, before looking at his friend. “Wh.. Dude, WHAT?”

“Possessed book,” he croaks out, feeling tense, because he can smell cigarette smoke. “And you’re afraid of it? Why? You are also a literal fucking demon!” “That’s why I’m not messin’ with it!” Betelgeuse stands up, uneasy. The ground around the tree feels weird, now. He doesn’t like it here anymore. “Cause I actually understand why it’s a bad fuckin’ idea! God, you should have instincts that tell you not to mess with this stuff! You’re deficient, Kev, seriously.”

“Me deficient? Seriously?” Kev snaps, which hurts in a new, unexpected way. “Whatever, asshole. Give me my book back.” Kevin stands up, too, but he’s not uneasy, he’s angry.

“It’s better off where it is.”

“Which is where?”

Betelgeuse glances down. The grass around the tree is starting to wither. Kevin follows his gaze, but doesn’t seem to notice the dying vegetation. “You buried it? Come on!”

“Leave it, Kev.”

“This isn’t just your cool secret, anymore, it’s mine too!” Kevin glares at him. “You can’t keep me out of it, BJ. That’s not fair. God, at this point, I know more than you! You should be listening to me!”

He feels his volatile temper flare.

“Ex-fuckin’-scuze me?”

He waits for Kevin to take it back. Instead, his friend doubles down. “Demons have to listen to humans,” Kevin crosses his arms. “If they’re summoned. It’s in the book.” “Nobody summoned me,” Betelgeuse snarls, letting his real snake eyes show, an intimidation tactic that works for about half a second. Kevin’s too used to him, at this point. “I’m up here on a deal.” “Bet I could do it. I bet I could summon you. Then you’d have to listen to me.” “Yeah? Well, good luck without your stupid book!” He storms off, leaving Kevin standing there.

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

The rest of the day sucks. He’s moody all day, annoyed in the car, grumpy in his room. He cranks metal and wishes he’d learned to play a guitar instead of his rinky, happy sounding ukulele. The instrument isn’t going to produce the noise he wants to express himself, right now. He throws it across the room, into a wall, where it smashes, and reforms a minute later, because… it’s still his favorite, after all. Even if it’s no good for expressing his teenage angst.

He can hear shuffling, and talking, outside his room, though he can’t make out what’s being said over the music. After a moment, though, there’s a knock at his door. “Hey, Bug?” Emily calls. “Can you come give me a hand with something?” He wants to tell her to piss off, go away, to leave him the hell alone, but.. It’s Emily. The CD player lets out a strangled choke and suddenly stops, and the door swings open, all without him moving from his flopped position on the bed. “Sup, ma?” he grunts. Emily peaks her head into the room, and smiles when she sees him, the expression radiating warmth and adoration and.. Oh, God/Satan, bless his sunbeam of a mother. “Just wondering if you’re free to do a little decorating?” She reaches behind her and grabs a fake severed bloody limb from the box he assumes she’s dragged into the hallway from the attic. “Don’t you worry it takes away from the “wow factor” to do Halloween twice a year?” He asks, standing and stretching, before apparating in the hallway behind her, and giving the decor box a nudge with his boot. “What? No way, there’s never enough Halloween!” Emily grins. “Get that, please.” The box floats along behind him as they head downstairs. They pause in the entryway, as Emily thinks out loud. “So, maybe the kitchen should be-” “Functional as a kitchen, please,” Charles calls from the living room. Emily rolls her eyes. “Okay, fine! Spoilsport! We’ll focus on the entryway for now,” she decides. “You wanna put up cobwebs in the rafters?” She gets on tiptoes to reach into the floating box, and he lowers it a bit for her, as she grabs the fake webbing. “I could just instantly decorate the whole room,” He takes to floating next to the box. “Could make sure it’s all normal human stuff, too,” He adds, before she can respond. “I know you can… But I like decorating,” Emily says brightly. “It’s not about getting it done quickly. It’s about, you know, doing it together.” “So why are dad and Lydia slacking?” Her smile doesn’t falter, but becomes softer. “It kinda felt like you needed some mom time, today,” She says simply. God, she can read him easier than Kev can read his stupid book. “We got in a fight,” he admits. She hums at that, because he only has one friend. It’s not hard to guess who he could possibly mean. “I’m sorry, Bug. What over?” He hesitates. So far he’s not let any of his family in on this book business. He’s been sort of hoping it could just go away on it’s own, and not be a thing. Kevin’s made it into a thing, though, and not telling even his mom feels… bad.

“He’s really into demons. Like, really, really into em,” He rasps, floating up and beginning to put up the spiderwebs, as his mother takes down the usual, sort of spooky wall hangings and trades them for her very intentionally spooky Halloween ones. “He’s got this book, an’ it’s all about demons an’ like, how to summon them, an’ their powers, an’ stuff… Sometimes th’ way he talks, it’s like.. Are we friends cause we’re friends, or friends cause you think I’m gonna be... useful?”

Maybe that doesn't make any sense, but that’s how it’s been feeling, like there’s an invisible shoe hanging midair, and it’s about to drop. His mother waits until he’s finished before looking up at him. “And you fought over that?” She prods. “Not exactly.” How the fuck can she even tell that, though? Damn her mom powers. He really, really didn’t want to talk about this, not to her, but… “I saw Juno. In th’ book,'' He lowers back down to the floor, and digs through the box, pulling out fake body parts. Back up he goes, to stick these in the fake webbing. “It was just a drawing of her, but it started like.. Billowing smoke-”

“From the neck,” His mother remembers, suppressing a shudder.

“Yeah. I could smell the smoke. So I got rid of the book, buried it in th’ school yard, but Kev got all pissy about it. He thinks he’s an expert on this shit, an’ he’s gonna mess with somethin’ big if he keeps this up.” “I’m sure you’ve told him that.” “He doesn’t listen. He gets this look in his eye, like it’s a game, or like… I dunno. Feels sometimes like he thinks he’s…” He searches for the words. “Like he thinks he oughta be the boss a’me, or somethin’.”

He rubs absentmindedly at the moss on his nose. It clings, stubborn as ever, same with the patches by his hairline, and he’s found it’s easier to just add another little layer to his glamour than try to do anything about it.

Maybe that’s indicative of a bigger problem. It’s easier to do a bit of magic and make everything look better than to actually fix the underlying problem. Ugh, introspection, how absolutely miserable. He wants to keep thoughts like that locked away tight, but they have a habit of slipping past his mental defenses and making him feel worse. Absolutely no one can make him feel shittier than he himself can. He sinks to the ground, going purple, and he’s instantly wrapped in his mother’s arms. “It’s okay, Beetlejuice,” Emily has both her hands on the back of his head, and he pushes his face into the crook of her neck. “I just.. I’ve only got the one friend,” he groans. “I don’t wanna stop bein’ his friend, but.. Fuck, ma.”

“I know.” Her voice is a soothing balm. She works her hands through the mess of purple hair at the back of his head. “I know, sweetheart. I know it’s lonely at school, but school isn’t forever,” she tries to assure him. “If your friend is treating you this way, well.. He’s not a very good friend. Do you want to be around someone who makes you feel this bad? Does it feel worth it, to you?”

He knows the correct answer is, “No,” but he’s not sure if his self esteem is high enough for that.

“I like him a lot,” He grumbles, and she hums again. “He’s handsome,” She says, and then pulls back far enough to pinch his nose. “But not as handsome as my son, of course,” and it’s silly enough to help knock away his mood, so that’s something, at least. “What should I do?” He doesn’t pull away from her, just soaks up the mom energy for as long as he can. “I think you need to have a talk,” Emily tells him. “Lay out how you’re feeling. Try to get his side of things, and make sure he hears your side, too. Then, at least you both tried, you know?”

It’s such a mom type answer. He groans again.

“I was worried you’d say some shit like that.” She fuzzes his hair, and he feels the tingle in his scalp that means it’s changed colors. Back to green, he assumes. “You know your moss changes color along with your hair? And your creepo-stache?” “Leave the stache alone, it’s tryin’ it’s best,” He pretends to be defensive.

“It makes you look like the founder of a forum for people who marry their cars,” Lydia offers, from the bottom step of the staircase, where she has apparently been just chilling and listening.

“Wh-! Mom, it’s not that bad, right?” Emily tilts her head to the side and gives what can only be described as a condescending smile. “Oh, you’re both in for it now.” He brings the various decor items to life to terrorize them, and then Charles joins his side, sympathizing with his son vis-à-vis bad teenage facial hair, and by the time the whole squabble is over, hardly any decorating has gotten done… But he does feel better. His family’s good like that.

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Monday rolls around, same as it always does, but there’s a weird feeling in the air. Halloween is a week away, barely missing getting a weekend date, but there’s some big Halloween bash the school is apparently throwing. There’s fliers for it everywhere, plastered all over lockers and bulletin boards. He’s not much of a participator, though, and his reaction to his locker being plastered over with invites to a party he doesn't care about is to snap his fingers. All the fliers on all the lockers up and down the hall, all instantly fall loose at once, littering the floor. A few students jump back, but no one looks his way, because why would they?

He’s grabbing his history textbook when he feels a tap on the shoulder, and when he turns, it’s a girl he recognizes, but her name is absolutely lost on him.

“You’re BJ, right?” Miffy askes, and he nods. “Yeah, s’right,” and Margo seems to wince at how gruff his voice is, before continuing. “Um, you and that guy Kevin, you’re like…” Milicent trails off, waiting for him to finish her thought, but sorry, baby, he can barely finish his own. “Like…?” He says, with his gravel voice copying her tone and inflection, and she huffs. “Together?” Marge asks, “Like, all of the time?”

He cocks his head, and squints at her, hands t-rexing at his sides, as Lydia likes to say.\

“Usually,” He concedes, and he gets the feeling he’s dragging this out much, much more than Mango clearly wants, because he spies a group of girls a little ways off, waiting for her. One of them is staring intently, more focused on him, but he pushes that thought aside.

“Look, okay, he’s gonna be out for a few days, and I’m just trying to see if you can take him his homework,” McGrubber has grown tired of having to stand here, talking to the chubby goth loser, apparently. “I’m a student aid in the office and they’re trying to make me do it, but I have track practice!” Thaaaat’s where he knows her from. She looks different, not bouncing and sweating and also not half a football field away. “Sure, fine, I’ll make sure Kev gets his work. Wouldn’t want you to miss out on running in a fuckin’ circle, Maria.” Her face sours. “It’s Blair.” So close. “Who fuckin’ cares,” He replies, and turns back to his locker. He can hear her rejoin her friend group, all of them fawning over her harrowing experience of having to speak to him in public. The last thing he hears from Blair is, “He’s just so goddamn weird,” and then the group rounds the corner.

He closes his locker harder than he maybe needs to.

Kevin isn’t in class that day, or the next, or even the one after. The shade tree has withered and died completely, it’s color sapped and gone, and even walking near it makes him feel uneasy. His new lonely lunch spot is under the bleachers, which feels even more voyeuristic of a spot to watch the track team, but even that activity feels tainted, somehow. He’s back to being lonely.

He can’t stand being lonely.

It gets so bad he contemplates sitting, wait for it, on the bleachers, and maybe even trying to strike up a conversation, but he’s too chicken shit. He’s been going to school with these kids for the past three years, and no one’s wanted to talk to him or chat with him in all that time. He can’t imagine that’s about to change.

Still, on Thursday, miserable and lonely, he gives it a try.

Sitting up here sucks. It’s just a hard metal seat on a gloomy day, and when he’d ventured up and sat down, other people had slowly moved away from him, until he was sitting by himself, all the breathers huddled in a different area, away from him. He'd tried talking, but hardly had a "Hey, how ya doin'?" grated out before the migration began.

Figures.

He finishes eating and lies on his back, resting his hands on his chest, eyes closed, and after a while he feels someone standing over him, and something laid over his hands. He opens his eyes. There’s the most beautiful girl staring down at him. She’s got long, bleach blonde hair, darker at the roots, which is hanging down in a halo around her face, and the biggest, clearest blue eyes he’s ever seen. He glances down, to see she’s placed a daisy over his hand. He looks back up at her, amber eyes questioning.

“You looked so still,” She smiles. Her voice is like music. He thinks he can hear harps. “With your hands folded like that. Kind of like an open casket.” He’d been forgetting to breathe, apparently, which happens sometimes. She thought he looked like a corpse, and she placed a flower over him.

“Sorry, if that’s weird. You’re.. BJ?” She asks, and he picks up the daisy, sits up, and nods. “Yeah, you’re…” “Barbara,” she fills him in. “You’re not so good with names.” “Mmm. Buffy tell you that?” He recognizes her now, from that group of girls. Barbara sits next to him, which makes zero sense. “It’s Blair,” she corrects him gently, but not without a giggle in her voice. “Oh, right.” Her name could be fuckin’ Moonpie and it’d make the same amount of difference to him, but he’d agree with anything Barbara said, if it meant she kept sitting there, talking to him. “Are you going to the Halloween party?” She asks. “Supposed to be pretty killer. It kind of seems like your scene.” “I’m not exactly a social butterfly,” which is the understatement of the god damn century, honestly, but she laughs and nudges her shoulder with his. “Well, I think you should come. I bet you’d have the coolest costume. Maybe think about it?”

“I guess, maybe..” He says lamely, because his brain is short circuiting from that small touch.

“Barb, come on!” someone calls to her from a ways away, on the track. Lunch is nearly over. She stands, and smooths down the long skirt she’s wearing, which is modest but flattering. “Later, BJ,” she smiles, and just like that, she’s gone, like an angel going back up to heaven in a beam of light, off to rejoin her friends. He can hear what she says to them, though. “You guys are mean, he’s not so bad. Just shy.”

He keeps the daisy in a little glass of water on his dresser, and strums love songs on his ukulele.

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Thinking about Barbara and her smile and the way she nudged him is a fun distraction, at least for a little while, but when it’s Saturday, and he still hasn’t heard from Kevin, he decides it’s time to demon up and see what the fuck is happening with him. He’s been just teleporting Kev’s homework inside his room, and he’s sure it’s falling into a pile on the floor each time and startling him, but no one ever said how he had to deliver it. Today though, emboldened by the pretty girl on the bleachers, he appears at Kevin’s front door instead, holding Friday’s work, and he knocks. It takes a moment, but Mr. Loh answers.

Betelgeuse hasn’t had much chance to interact with Kev’s dad. He looks like a normal, tired dad, wholly unimpressive, and kinda short. Chuck could wrestle this guy to the mat, no problem.

“Oh, BJ,” Mr. Loh says, and then glances at what’s in his hands. “Kevin’s homework? Thank you. He’s holed up in his room… won’t come out.. Maybe,” and he suddenly looks hopeful. “You two are friends. Maybe you can try talking to him?”

Well, that’s what he was there to do anyways, so sure. “I gotcha, Mr. L,” he nods, stepping inside, and heading up the stairs and down the hall to Kevin’s room. The closer he gets to the door, though, the weirder he feels. Something stinks, figuratively and literally. It smells like… It smells like the waiting room. It’s that same, veil is thin type air that he can smell on Halloween night, but how the fuck is he smelling it here? He bangs on Kevin’s door. “Hey, Kev, it’s the B-Man,” he calls, trying to keep his tone playful, but he feels like he’s doing a poor job. What the hell is going on? “Come on, man, open up!” He tries again, when he receives no response. He thinks he can hear a shuffle behind the door. “Dude, I will bust this fuckin’ door down,” He growls, all the play gone from his tone. “You know I will. Better yet-”

He appears inside the bedroom, just in time for Kevin to slam shut the closet door. Kevin turns to look at him, back pressed to the wood. There’s a beat, both teens staring at each other, wide eyed, Betelgeuse in that weird way he does, and Kevin looking frazzled. “What,” the demon grates out, “the fuck, are you getting up to in here? It smells like the netherworld, Kev.” Unfortunately, that makes Kevin’s face light up. “It does? Oh my god, that’s perfect! It must be starting to work!” He crosses the bedroom, going to his desk, where an old book is sitting open. It’s not the same one he took from his friend, it can’t be, that book is still a mile down in presumably solid rock. “Another musty ass tome, great,” he growls, but Kevin ignores him, flipping through the book.

He hates feeling ignored.

A black and white striped arm sprouts from Kevin’s desk, and slams the book shut, which makes the breather turn and glare at him. “Get out of my room, BJ,” is all Kevin says, and Betelgeuse ignores that, instead crossing the floor to get a look at that book. “Where th’ hell do you keep finding these fuckin’ things?”

“This one I bought from a one armed man living out of a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale,” Kevin recites. Betelgeuse squints at him, top teeth over bottom lip. “You’re too gay to know what that means,” he says, plainly, and Kevin shrugs. “He wouldn’t stop talking about his stupid car. I now know more about that antique than I know about geography.” It feels fun, for a second, like this drama isn’t happening, and they’re just having a conversation. It doesn’t last, though. He can’t let Kev off the hook.

“So you bought a second cursed book, this time from some amputee homeless guy, and you’re just, doing the rituals inside of it? And this seems like a super good idea to you?”

“I’m practicing,” Kevin replies.

“So what’s in the closet, Kevin?”

“Get out of my room, Betelgeuse.”

The way Kevin says his name is weird. It doesn’t feel like how it normally feels when a breather says the full thing. He shakes it off, and gives his friend a defiant look, before waving a hand and throwing open the closet door. There’s a cleared spot, in the middle of the closet floor, and a fucking summoning circle in what smells like, “Pig’s blood? Couldn’t get human?” He turns to look at Kevin, who is glaring at him intently. He matches the look.

“Betelgeuse Shoggoth, get out of my room.”

That gets his attention. It feels like an invisible hand is pushing him, and he stumbles back out of the room, confused. “W-what?” Kevin is just standing there, staring at him, and Betelgeuse stares back, eyes wild. “You motherfucker,” he hisses, eyes in snake slits, teeth sharp, claws extended. “You wanna do that “real name” bullshit with me? That the choice you’re makin’ here, Kev?”

Kevin doesn’t even look phased. “I’m working on gaining a bit more control, but looks like that works, for now.”

“You’re cracked!” Betelgeuse growls, absolutely furious. “You’re really tryin’ to summon me? Are you out of your head!?”

“You’re wasting your powers,” Kevin storms forward. “You’re a supernatural being, and you go to school and play your stupid ukulele, and don’t even try to do anything bigger. You could be stepping on everyone under you,” his former friend is going red in the face. “You could be leading, you could be ruling, but you just jerk off in your room and play pretend at being human. But someone might as well profit, here. Why not me?”

“I thought.. I thought we were friends,” is all the demon can say, lamely, and Kevin’s smile is the meanest thing he’s ever seen on a breather. “Once you’re fully listening to me, we can be friends again. Betelgeuse Shoggoth, get out of my house.”

He feels that same invisible pull, and he thinks maybe if he was stronger he could resist it, but a demon’s true name is like a lead on a dog, meant to control them, and unfortunately, Kevin has a tight hand on his leash. He makes it to the front door, and stumbles out, covering his face until he can calm himself enough to reapply his glamour.

Shit, he thinks, straightening up, and staring up at Kevin’s bedroom window. He is so fucked. ``````````````````````````````````````````````` Posted this chapter and another over at Ao3. You can read it right here

[redstainedsocks]

Plant Day!

Whumpblr, forgive me for this... xD this is either the best or silliest idea I've ever had and honestly? I think it might be both at once. Heed the tags but also just know nothing is as serious as it seems by the time you reach the end...

for @brutal-nemesis' whump of the month prompt: plant day.

Thank you @muddy-swamp-bitch for helping me work out how to tag this thing

Warnings: cutting, knives, scarification, body horror (???), corpse mutilation [!?], environmental whump, [mass] killing (???), multiple whumpers (but not at the same time), survivors guilt, curses, magical whump, whumpee with she/her pronouns, captured whumpee. Mentions of: eye whump, bugs/insects, slavery whump

The knife wasn’t sharp enough, not for this. It was a hack job, and it wasn’t going to heal pretty. It carved into her slowly, inch by torturous inch, scraping away the surface of her skin. She screamed, but no one seemed to care, it wasn’t like they spoke the same language.

The two people leaning over, peering at her, paused in their work.

I hope crows peck out your eyes

They talked and brushed away the carnage their knife wrought, tittered, went back to their work.

I hope your children never know love, or freedom

It hurt, digging deep into the fibres of her skin. Changing the surface of it forever. It was going to scar, these strange, crude letters forever marring her perfect form.

It was no worse than anything else she had suffered but she resented it all the same.

May bear excrement ruin your water source and wasps sting you to death

Her cries went unheard. And curses didn’t mean a wad of shit if no one observed them. She liked that word shit, she’d learned it from the humans long ago. Shit shit shit, it was all shit.

Long ago, in the days before, she had watched her people be slaughtered. Hacked down one by one, cut to pieces and their bodies heaved off by horses. Horses bound to do the humans bidding, such a wretched life, she thought, but they seemed happy, they hadn’t come to her aid when she called.

She had mourned and grieved her fallen brethren, watched their lifeless forms be stacked and chained together to be burned or put to some other nefarious use, and only hoped that her own pain would end so swiftly. But it was not to be. She had been left to witness, the pain hers alone to bear.

Long, long years passed, held captive in this barren, dying place. The colonies that tried to take up life in her people’s old home were uprooted, shunned. Nothing and no one could prosper here.

She waited a long time; long after the woodcutter, and the woodcutter's son, and the woodcutter’s son’s son…. and, well, she lost track of the generations a bit after that but it had been a while.

The sun was older, the earth quieter. She was cold, her joints creaked and ached and everything was heavy. She had been abandoned by her own people and the humans who had caused their destruction. She alone, left to weather the harsh… weather. Lashed with rain and beaten by the hot sun, no friends left to help give shelter. No happy little breeze now, just the violent waves of wind, unhindered.

Her eyes were cast ever skyward, and it hurt to look at the sky, but it was better than the memories that clung to the earth. She would weep, but it only made her feel sticky and sickly.

One day a mere mortal, not more than three score years and probably not even that—she noted his features were smooth and bare, no whiskers on this one— wandered by. He was dressed strangely but everything they did was strange so she didn’t pay it much attention. He laid a hand on her and she tried to shake it loose.

Stupid humans, no touching, dirty hands, ruinous hands

“What was that?” He murmured.

She thought he was a he, he had that air about him. Entitled. An extra trunk between his legs too, if her eyes weren’t mistaken.

Go back to your cities, cretin

His hand slid around her, feeling for… something. It brushed over the scar of the initials carved into her, that claiming mark.

“Tsk, this won’t do.”

He brought out a knife. Of course he did. Just like all the rest.

He cut into her and she wailed, throwing herself around and trying to get away but it was no use. He just kept on cutting, and though his work seemed like it had a purpose she couldn’t tell what it was. Her life force oozed out around the hole he was making as he cut chunks, stole away parts of her, until a hollow hole was left where part of her should be.

It felt… if not better, certainly different. They were good at change, these humans. She looked skyward again, only feeling a little better when she noticed the scarring marks were gone. He’d cut it away?

Well, more power to him, if he wanted a piece of ruined flesh so be it. She thought no more of it until he came back three moons later and talked to her again.

“I know what you are.”

Oh goodie, someone with some brains for once. Very pleased to meet you I’m sure

“I can hear you, you know.”

I doubt it

“I wouldn’t, if I were you. I know your secret, hiding in plain sight. But you can’t hide from me.”

She stayed silent, thinking, considering. If he was telling the truth…

“You’re no tree,” he murmured, stroking at her with his silly little furless paws. “You’re a wood nymph.”

Hmmph

“No, I said nymph.”

And you are a wizard, what do you want a pat on the back?

“No, just a conversation.”

She was taken aback, she hadn’t talked to anyone for years.

“You must be lonely.”

Obviously

“You’re very grumpy.”

I’ve been stuck in a tree for near three hundred years, you would be too

“There’s not enough magic left for you to get out.”

Congratulations on stating the obvious but there is nowhere I could go anyway

“I have somewhere.” He produced a small box from his pack and her heart—woody though it was—faltered. That was—

“Yes I made this from you.”

Thief!!

“Come now, it won’t be so bad. I have a wonderful collection of items, and creatures, you won’t be lonely.”

I won’t be free

“You’re not free now.”

I won’t go

“Oh yes you will.” He opened the lid of the box, ornately carved and beautifully made but still the desecrated corpse of part of her flesh. Disgusting, sickening. Very pretty but so macabre.

It was powerful magic, runes and other things that should be of no consequence but she was too weak to resist and had been for too long. She screamed, waved her branches, reached for the sky but no great eagle or eager buzzard came to her rescue as she was pulled down, down down into the tiny wooden prison made from her own bones.

“That wasn’t so bad was it?” He asked as he snapped the lid tightly shut.

The box rattled with the force of her rage but he wrapped it in cloth and she felt the slide of ropes twinning tightly about her. It was strange, feeling part of herself outside of herself, when it shouldn’t have been part of herself any longer. I was dark and cool inside the box, but that was about the only good thing she could say about it.

Let me out

“No.”

He slipped her into his satchel, and she bounced and shook as he walked further and further away from her home.

Curse you

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you. But no, you will be a blessing. A boon to long life, nymphs, if the books are correct. We’ll be happy together.”

I doubt it. Ridiculous boy with your toys and tools, I could never be happy with you

“Hush now, tree, or I’ll leave you in that box forever.”

Shoddy craftsmanship, you should be ashamed

He laughed. “At least I know you’re not going to sulk silently like some of my prizes. No, you’ll be more entertaining.”

She went silent, just to make a point.

“If you’re very good, maybe one day I’ll work out how to re-plant you and you can feel the mud between your toes again. Wouldn’t that be nice? A little glade, lots of life around you, plenty of growing things to watch over.”

She perked up at that, suddenly feeling… was that what hope had felt like? It had been a few decades since she’d last let herself feel it.

“See, I told you. Your old tree may wither and die without you, but you can be new and fresh as a spring bud. As long as you do what you can for me.”

So that was that, she was to be a slave? No worse than she deserved, after watching her people be killed and not able to do anything to stop it. Finally her long awaited fate had caught up to her, it was about time.

Do you have what the humans call television?

“Yes, why?”

I’ve wanted to see what it is, can’t I be curious?

“Well you won’t have eyes for a good long while until I know you can behave, but we could start with some music.”

Nature makes the best music

“You haven’t heard rock’n’roll, just wait.”

[My thought process for writing this was: hmm, plant day. Plant whump... what if... the plant was the thing that was whumped. Hahah, nah... unless 👀?

And I thought about that for like three weeks before finally churning out 1k the night before the event. Sexily unedited, just the raw chaos]

[samwpmarleau]

hi! can i just say i love your fics? also if i may request rhaenys x robb in 34? thanks either way!

34. meeting at a masquerade ball au

For this meme.

She would rather be anywhere but here. She’d rather be in the dungeons than here, rather be mucking out the stables. Anywhere but being on display like a well-bred cow at auction, the prize for one of the simpering fools that fill the ballroom. She wears a mask—they all wear masks—but between that red and black dragon accoutrement and her matching gown, her identity is no secret.

Which, she supposes, is the point. One of these men, if Father has his way, will by night’s end be her betrothed. Never mind that she’s met and discounted most of them.

Some have been handsome, some have been charming, some have been witty—most have been dreadful—but all want one thing: her crown. They don’t want her. They don’t even know her. The invitation to the ball had advised them all to choose masks that don’t give away their sigil, she presumes to increase the odds of her finding someone to her liking, but the majority have ignored that part. If they don’t have their sigil on full display, they’re wearing their house colors or tell her their name immediately.

“Princess?” asks the lord who has made no impression at all upon her.

“I’m very sorry,” she says by rote. She must have drifted. “Please excuse me.”

She leaves him there and seeks out her mother, seated in her gilded throne and talking animatedly with Ser Arthur of the Kingsguard. An old friend, one who never minds hearing her complaints. Father stands not far away, engrossed in a conversation of his own with Lords Tywin Lannister and Mace Tyrell.

“Mother, must we continue this tedium?” Rhaenys asks. “Surely it’s not too late. You can just tell them someone has already been found.”

Mother sighs. “Rhaenys, you are already two-and-twenty. I, too, wish there were another way, and do not normally agree with your father on such things, but you must be wed.”

“The young lads can’t all be terrible,” says Ser Arthur, sweeping his eyes around the room. He pauses, his gaze landing on Lord Frey. Which Lord Frey, Rhaenys can’t be sure—there are so many. “Or old lads.”

Rhaenys casts him a withering glare. “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to marry anyone.”

“You have your pick of the ball,” says Mother. “As you well know, if you do not choose, then the choice will be made for you.”

At the very least, she knows she must choose someone to dance with. The doors at the top of the stairs are shut, and there’s a growing sense of unrest filtering amongst the guests. She is the centerpiece of the ball, after all; without her mingling, the event is purposeless.

“Lord Renly is not a bad sort,” Mother continues, gesturing to a raven-haired lordling whose blue-green eyes peek out from behind an antlered black-and-gold mask. He is one of the many who eschewed the invitation’s parameters. “You could start with him.”

Rhaenys droops. Mother’s right, Lord Renly isn’t the worst. “Oh, very well. I’ll—”

She trails off at the echoing sound of the doors groaning open once more. A man stands at the top, clad in gray and white, and both conversation and music abruptly ceases. She knows instantly who the latecomer is, despite half his face being covered in a nondescript silver mask.

She’d hoped the amended announcement, that all people were welcome at her ball, never mind their station, would catch his attention. And it has.

It is Rhaenys’s distraction that Mother notices more than the man who had just entered. Her tone is careful, yet curious. “Who is that?”

Rhaenys has no answer for her other than a wide smile. She had prayed he would be here, this mysterious man she’d met in the woods, but had had no way of being certain he would. Especially not with what he’d told her of how his stepfather restricted his movements.

She pushes through the crowd as graciously as she can muster, and meets him at the base of the stairs. It’s quite unprincesslike to show her emotions so plainly, but she can’t help it. Ever since their meeting, she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him. She may as well show it.

“You came,” she says, gazing up at him. “I wasn’t sure you would.”

He is clearly uncomfortable in all his finery—wherever did he get that, anyway?—but there’s a sort of stunned confusion as well. “You’re Princess Rhaenys,” he remarks. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“If I had, would you have spoken to me as you did?” She could count on a blacksmith’s hand the number of people who would speak to her as candidly as him, and even less who wouldn’t have recognized her on sight.

“No, I suppose not.”

“Well, there’s your answer.” She holds out her hand. “Will you dance with me? Or have I scared you off, woodsman?”

“I’m not a woodsman,” he says, “and I don’t scare so easy.”

“A stranger then.”

She wants to know his name—she wants to know everything about him. But he’s not offered it yet, and she doubts he’d answer her truthfully if she asked. She nearly laughs aloud at what her mother’s face looks like right now. Even more so, Father’s. What they must think!

He takes her outstretched hand, puts his own around her waist. Yet more mystery: while he had shown up at the ball, she admittedly hadn’t expected that he would know how to dance, had thought she would need to guide him. It’s a pleasant surprise.

She tears her eyes away from his to signal the musicians, and they strike up a lively tune. Her gallant stranger begins to lead her into a dance, and for the first time tonight, her heart beats in double-time.

Mother, she thinks, you said I could choose my suitor. And I have.

[siriusly-addicted-to-writing]

BOO!

Pairing: George Weasley x Reader

Summary: [Y/N], George and Fred want to plan the perfect Halloween prank, but during all the planing, the twins decide to prank [Y/N].

Warning(s): “dead” George, unedited, angst, not my best work (read my other George fic for some quality writing haha)

masterlist

——————

A/N: This is for October 26 - ‘Spooky Pranks’ for ‘A Very Harry Potter Halloween’ writing challenge by @eleven-times-lively and @masterofthedarkness (please note that this isn’t my best work. I don’t feel that great about releasing this because I know I can do better. While writing this, it didn’t have my full attention. I was, and still currently am stressing about school and my... guy situation. I do apologize, and please forgive me). Also, I haven’t had any time to write and I’ve been very uninspired. It’s very sad, but I’ll try and get my inspiration and time back! Anyway, I do hope you enjoy, even if this isn’t my best work!

——————

Spooky season was among the students of Hogwarts. It didn’t help that Fred and George were wanting to cause some mischief on this already prank worth holiday.

Last year, the stunt they pulled was unlike any other. Pumpkins smashed everywhere, house elves dressed up as little ghosts, and even Dumbledore was in on it! It was quite a show, and people couldn’t wait to see what they came up with this year.

[Y/N], for one, was super excited because she’d be in on it this year. ‘One of the perks of dating a Weasley twin,’ she would joke. George was just as excited that [Y/N] would be joining the fun this year.

[Y/N] and George’s relationship started fast. They actually started talking after the great prank of Halloween. George met her for the first time as she was dodging a floating pumpkin. 

She was a sharp girl with a not so sharp aim. She nearly took George’s head off by mistake. She was aiming for a jack-o-lantern but narrowly missed George’s head. [Y/N] was so embarrassed, she apologized over and over again. 

George thought she was adorable and couldn’t get her smile off his mind. So days later he had to go and see her again. And again, and again.

Their relationship started fast and it was the best thing that happened to both of them.

For [Y/N], it helped her loosen up a bit. She was always studying and never let loose. They often said that Hermione and her were the same person, attitude wise. George changed all of that.

Now she can be just as crazy as George and Fred, but still buckle down and get her school work done.

Now, since meeting [Y/N], George and Fred’s grades have sky rocketed. Even though Mrs. Weasley hasn’t met [Y/N] yet, she already loves her.

So this years prank was doing to be incredible. [Y/N] was going to see to it.

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

“Fred! Have you seen George anywhere?” [Y/N] asks. Fred shakes his head to the side without looking up.

“Really? I’ve been looking for him everywhere!” Fred just shrugs his shoulders.

“Oh, well, do you know where Harry is?” Fred gestured with his head that Harry was up in his dormitory.

“Well, thank you, Fred. You’ve been very helpful.” Fred nods his head and continues tinkering with whatever new object he’s making. [Y/N] rolls her eyes at the twin before making her way upstairs.

[Y/N] was looking for George to finalize plans for next week. The big halloween prank was upon them, and she had a brilliant idea. One that would blow the socks off everyone.

Fred looks up and watches [Y/N] make her way up the stairs to Harry’s dormitory.

“Phase one, complete,” he mumbles to himself. His eyes follow her until she reaches the door.

She was in for a treat.

——————

“Harry?” [Y/N] says as she knocks on the door. After standing there for a few seconds, she knocks again. When no one answers, she sighs and opens the door.

Maybe they couldn’t hear her.

When she opens the door, the room is pitch black.

“Harry?” [Y/N] says, taking a step forward. Suddenly, the door behind her slams shut. She jumps in the air and spins back around.

“Haha, very funny guys.” She rolls her eyes and walks over to the door. She places her hand on the doorknob but jumps back. The knob shocked her.

Shocked her.

“What the...” she mumbles as she reaches forward again. She can feel the electrical pulse radiating off the doorknob. But she reaches at it again and turns it. Nothing happens but her hand starts burning.

[Y/N] rips her hand off the doorknob.

“What the actual heck?” She glares at the doorknob and measures her options.

Option one: she could knock on the door and scream for help.

Option two: she could try and magic her way out.

Option three: she can look around for anything to help her get out.

Option four: she can accept her fate and wither away in the darkness.

Well, [Y/N] was not about to do option four, so option two will have to do.

“What spell would allow me to get out without breaking anything?” she asks herself. From her knowledge, these doors will not break if she tries to bust them down. They can’t break. 

“Alohomora,” she whispers. Unfortunately, nothing seems to happen. Of course, she tries out a number of over spells, but nothing was working. “Why me?”

Option two didn’t work, so on to option three. 

The room is dark and the only source of light was the light coming from the window.

“The window! Of course!” she says as she runs over to the window. The window was sealed shut and looked like it hadn’t been opened in ages. It probably hadn’t been opened in ages.

[Y/N] tries to open the window but it won’t budge. 

BOOM!

[Y/N] spins around. “What was that?” She stares in the dark room, slowly backing up. When she hits the window she gasps and jumps back. 

“I’m being silly. I know this is only a prank. The twins are messing with me,” she laughs. There was no way that this was real. This was all a set up!

Yeah! 

A set up.

All she had to do now was figure out how to get out the window and summon her broom and she was-

BOOM!

[Y/N] spun around again. Was that just a figment of her imagination or did that chest just move? 

BOOM!

Nope, not a figment of her imagination. That chest jumped. 

It. Moved.

“Nope, not today.” [Y/N] says, moving back towards the door. Yes, the exact door that will not open.

BOOM!

The chest jumped completely in the air, and broke open. [Y/N] screams and closes her eyes. 

“[Y/N],” a faint voice whispers. 

“George?” [Y/N] asks, peeling her eyes open. She looks at the place the voice came and let out another scream. 

George, her George, looks about dead on the floor. 

“George!” she screams, rushing over to him. She falls to the floor beside him and grabs his hand. 

“[Y/N], I have to tell you something.” His voice barely comes out.

“Yes? What is it George?” she asks, grabbing his hand. Tears are violently rolling down her face. She can’t think straight. Her George is dying. 

Dying.

“I don’t love you. I never have,” he says, and takes some ragged breaths.

“No... no,” she stands up and backs up. She pulls out her wand and points it at George.

“Riddikulus,” she whispers. The George that was in front of her disappears. Once he said he didn’t love her, she knew he was faking. She knew that George loved her. She knew. She got the boggart into another chest and locked it in there.

Option one was the only one she hasn’t tried, that she was willing to try. So, she went and banged on the door. 

It took about five minutes until Hermione opened the door.

“[Y/N]? What are you doing in here?” she asks.

“I was locked in, so I wouldn’t recommend going in there.” [Y/N] says, pushing past her to find the twins.

Those twins that almost scared her to death.

“BOO!” they shout when she rounds the corner. The both had sheets over their heads and were dressed as ghosts.

“You two are unbelievable. How could you do that to me?” she nearly shouts.

“What do you mean? Locking you in the dormitory? We were only preparing,” one of the ghosts say.

“Yeah, and you thought leaving a boggart in there was a swell idea?” Tears threaten to fall down her face. George rips off his sheet and embraces her in a tight hug. 

“The boggart got out? We were going to use it for the Halloween prank! I never meant for it to get out,” he whispers, rubbing her back.

[Y/N] closes her eyes and embraces George tight.

“It’s okay, George. I know you didn’t mean it.” 

“We had another prank we were going to pull on you, but we won’t. You still look shaken up,” Fred says.

“Fred, you might want to move that boggart. It’s in Ron’s chest.”

“On it. Thanks for the heads up, [Y/N].”

“All we wanted was to pull a spooky prank on you,” George says. 

“Next year. Now let me tell you about my plans for Halloween.” 

George and [Y/N] walk over to a couch and sit down. George listens thoroughly to her plan and loves very detail. This was going to be the best prank yet.

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

Sorry, this was so bad, but I can’t get into the mindset of Halloween and writing in general.

I was actually listening to Christmas music writing this, haha!

[heartofether]

Bonus Episode #4 - Irene's Inauguration TRANSCRIPT

[You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or go to our “Listen” page if you’re on desktop.]

AUTOMATED VOICE

Please state your message.

[INTRO MUSIC PLAYS FOR SOME TIME BEFORE FADING OUT.]

[PHONE BEEP.]

[INT. THE BREAK ROOM, MIDDAY, AROUND LUNCH.]

[IRENE IS SITTING DOWN AT THE TABLE, WHILE ADEN IS LEANING OVER HER SHOULDER. THERE ARE VARIOUS OFFICE AMBIANCE NOISES HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND.]

IRENE

I don’t think I need your help setting it up, you know. I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to use an app.

ADEN

Sorry, sorry, I’m just—excited, you know? It feels like you’re about to take a big step, and I get to be the one to watch it happen.

IRENE

[SHE SCOFFS.] As if this is a major life milestone.

ADEN

Hey, I think it is! In a way. You know? It’s not common for someone your age to not be active on social media—

IRENE

Hey.

ADEN

Not that that’s a bad thing! You’re like, joining the masses though. It’s like an inauguration.

IRENE

Yeah, sure. Whatever.

ADEN

And, I’d also like to witness the outcome of my months of pestering you.

IRENE

Hey! I kept saying I was going to—

ADEN

So have you come up with a username yet?

IRENE

Um, not really? I’m guessing just irenegray is taken.

ADEN

Mmmm, probably. If it helps at all, I added a word to my username that I thought sounded nice. Kind of like, something cool and aesthetic, you know?

IRENE

See, that’s part of the problem. You actively have an aesthetic you’re trying to maintain. I’m just kind of, you know. [SHE VAGUELY MOTIONS.]

ADEN

Hey, I think that’s great that you're authentically yourself and you don’t adhere to any restrictive subcultures.

IRENE

If you wanna call it that… honestly though I just hadn’t thought about it. I mean, you know I’m mostly doing this for you, right?

ADEN

Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just pick a word you like and pair it with your name to see if it sounds nice! Maybe, like, an adjective?

IRENE

Hm. [SHE THINKS FOR A MOMENT, THEN] I kind of like the idea of it being something forest-themed.

ADEN

That would be cute! What if you did, like, the name of a tree? [BEAT] Ooh! You could do something like cedarirene, as in red cedars, you like those, right?

IRENE

[THINKING] I kind of like that, they’re pretty… [beat]

ADEN

[HE LAUGHS AT HIS OWN JOKE] Or you could do, like, irenefir, as in Douglas-fir? Those are pretty common in this part of the states.

IRENE

[SHE CHUCKLES, THEN, HUMS IN THOUGHT.] Yeah, I’m not sure I’m going for the Christmas tree route today.

ADEN

Hey, if you end up deciding you don’t like it, you can always change it later.

IRENE

That’s a good point. [BEAT] But I think cedarirene is good.

ADEN

I like it, too.

[A PAUSE AS SHE TYPES.]

ADEN

Then just add your email and password—don’t worry, I’ll look away for this part… [KEEPS TRAILING ON AS AN AFTERTHOUGHT WHILE IRENE TYPES] Even though I’m fairly certain it’s the same login info you use for everything… which you should really work on by the way, you know that really isn’t the most secure—

[MORE PHONE TYPING.]

IRENE

Got it.

ADEN

Then you’re done!

[A BEAT.]

IRENE

What do I do now?

ADEN

Now, you get to customize your profile. You know, add your name, your bio, a profile picture—oh, actually hold on, give me your phone real quick.

IRENE

Why?

ADEN

I want you to follow me! Here, just let me search for my username.

IRENE

[SHE CHUCKLES.] Sure. Go wild.

[ADEN IS HEARD TYPING IN THE BACKGROUND.]

ADEN

…and done. Oh, actually, while I’m here, I should have you follow Carol and Julia. [HE STARTS TYPING THEIR USERNAMES IN.]

IRENE

[IN SHOCK] Carol has Instagram?

ADEN

Uh, yeah.[beat] You seriously don’t understand just how behind you are, do you?

IRENE

[SHE GAPES IN FAUX-OFFENSE] You act like I’m withering away into a pile of dust just for not using social media.

ADEN

[GIGGLING] I’m kidding, Irene! I know lots of reasons why someone may want to go off the grid. I mean, social media can be kind of, er…

IRENE

A cruel and unjust place full of corporate marketing and unattainable standards?

ADEN

Yeah. Also, it can be kind of addicting for some people. So just, I mean I doubt you’ll have that problem since you don’t really seem to care, but just—be careful.

IRENE

Don’t worry, I doubt I’ll even use it that much.

ADEN

You better at least open the app every now and then. I want to send you stuff.

IRENE

[SHE LAUGHS.] I’ll keep notifications on for you, bud… If nothing else.

ADEN

Right, so, back to your profile. I’ll let you do whatever you want for this part. Oh, you should put your pronouns in your bio, though.

IRENE

Got it. [A PAUSE, THEN] Uh, what else should I put?

ADEN

Anything you want, really. Some people like to put their age, their job, sexuality, a fun fact about themselves.

IRENE

I mean, I don’t really want to share my entire personal life with the internet.

ADEN

Then don’t. Just put some totally random fun fact.

IRENE

Hm. Okay.

[A PAUSE AS IRENE TYPES.]

ADEN

Is that… did you actually drink three cups of coffee in less than one hour before?

IRENE

It was finals season.

ADEN

[CONCERNED] I can only drink one cup, and that still makes me shaky. Were you okay?

IRENE

Gonna be totally honest, I don’t remember a damn thing from those twenty-four hours.

[THERE’S A BRIEF PAUSE BEFORE THEY BOTH LAUGH FOR A FEW SECONDS.]

ADEN

[THROUGH FADING LAUGHTER] Okay, okay. Now you just need to set a profile pic.

IRENE

I mean, I don’t really take selfies ever.

ADEN

It doesn’t have to be a photo of your face. Do you have any pets?

IRENE

Not unless my dead betta fish from three years ago counts.

ADEN

Hm, okay. Some people just make it a color they like, or if you just have a nice photo in your camera roll you want to use, you could do that. Some people use characters they like, art pieces, pictures of buildings, yada, yada, yada. Just pick something.

IRENE

Where do you get all of your info about Instagram accounts, anyways?

ADEN

Oh, it was actually my minor in college. “Aesthetically Pleasing Profiles 101.”

[THEY BOTH LAUGH.]

ADEN

I’m joking, of course. It’s just…I don’t know, the internet was kind of a safe space for me for a while? When I first moved to Daughtler, I didn’t have many friends, and my constant state of anxiety was far from helpful. Online, I could be myself and find people with similar interests way easier than I could around town, without ever having to worry about my weird real-life mannerisms that might drive people away.

IRENE

[SINCERE] That makes a lot of sense. It’s good to have support like that. I, uh, probably could have used something like that in college, honestly. I just got kind of used to isolating myself after a while, I guess. [A BEAT.] Though, if it helps at all, I think you’re pretty cool offline, too.

ADEN

Thanks, Irene. [A BEAT.] So, about your profile pic.

IRENE

Do you think Carol would mind if I made it a picture of Mothman?

ADEN

I— [HE GIGGLES.] You know what? I think she’d think it’s cute. Do it.

[IRENE GIGGLES. SHE SETS THE PROFILE PIC.]

ADEN

Welcome to the digital world, Irene Gray.

IRENE

Please, I’m not a grandpa. I know how the internet works.

ADEN

I know, I know. I’m excited to see what you post, though.

IRENE

[THINKING] I honestly hadn’t given it much thought. I guess we’ll find out… if I remember to.

ADEN

Don’t think about it too hard, alright? Just be your authentic self.

IRENE

I’ll certainly try my best.

[PHONE BEEP.]

AUTOMATED VOICE

Today's quote is: "Love is a leash that goes both ways."

Becca De La Rosa in Mabel, Episode 36, 2019.

[OUTRO MUSIC AND CREDITS PLAY.]