#but bring out a niche topic and i suddenly have shit to say

[traumatizeddfox]

Idk where I stand on the term narc abuse but 2 things to bring up.

First, the jury is out on if abuse via narcissistic tendencies (not related to npd inherently) via specifically the term "narc abuse" is real or not. Theres both official and unofficial sources, charities, University/medical journals, etc that acknowledge it as different from more common forms of abuse/how the abuse is brought on and why (someone being physically abused due to their abuser being on drugs and over-reacting to a small trigger vs someone getting physically abused due to percieved sin/religious undertones will have varying experiences, ones that reasonably involve different labels) this warrants a different label and plenty that do not and criticize it. I won't judge a terminology when even medical professionals can't seem to decide yay or nay. I just figured I'd mention it because the only way people know this term usually is TikTok but it's actually older than TikTok, they just picked it up. There is a difference between someone with npd and someone whose a narcissist in a non-medical/mood/personality disorder way and I do think the people trying to use the term should differentiate the two but to be fair, most people don't even know about npd and therefore would only be talking about egotistical people, not nessesarily pwnpd. I also think it's nessesary to bring up that Tumblr has obscure and hyper niche veiws on topics with zero room for conversation and just as plenty of pwnpd on Tumblr are adverse to the term, there also plenty of pwnpd on Tumblr and other platforms who acknowled/support it as a term, do not take offense and/or understand its usage and what it means without direct correlation to the disorder but more as a grouping of actions/beliefs with the label outside of medical contexts. The term narcissist and the actions associated have existed as a stand alone personality type (like sloth doesn't automatically mean someone with Chronic fatigue syndrome or Thief doesn't mean kleptomaniac) long before the disorder got its name and associations, plenty of people call egoists narcissists and it's not offensive suddenly. Understanding words have multiple meanings and contexts is important here, Rape dosent even automatically mean sexual assualt, sometimes it just means steal or kidnapping. All this to say it's budding mental health related language, it will take what already exists and expand upon it. Same as when the words triggers and gaslighting got popular then promptly died. Your free to take your stance, I'm not invalidating it, I'm just sharing some facts cause as a long time user of Tumblr, it seriously screwed my views of the world and narrowed them to a pin prick about what's acceptable and agreed upon and what isn't and should be shunned. Only after stepping outside the site did I learn just how little 90% of discourse here actually matters and affects the world at large. Consider this whole part devil's advocate but presenting only the people who side with you as evidence when this isn't a "is climate change real?" Sort of stance where 98% of the field agrees is disingenuous. The field is split here and very few people are actually considering this label to specifically mean pwnpd and more mean specific forms of mental and emotional abuse and neglect that usually comes from a place where the abuser sees themselves as better than others, see the victims as threats to their high standing and see others as means to their ends. Again, Idk if I support the term or not, I'm just relaying information.

Lastly, #2, trying to say that anyone who feels they are a victim of specifically "narc abuse" is just trying to "feel special" is fucking horrific and invalidating regardless of your feelings on the term. Regardless of the words they use to describe the abuse they experienced, they still experienced abuse and trying to imply they are lieing or attention-seeking is fundamentally abuse-apologist shit. The same shit gets said to every other victim of abuse and just because you don't like the label dose not mean they think they are special or different and what they describe is suddenly not fucking abuse. They are still actively victims even if they arnt perfect ones. I'm disabled, I'm fully aware if the term "disabled abuse" came out cause a few people got beat with grandma's cane or their disabled abuser used their mobility aid to hurt them I'd be fighting it cause that's not fair and disabled only means one thing, however, I would never EVER invalidate their trauma from that physical abuse. I would never say they never experienced any wrongs or they think they are special cause it was abuse from a disabled person. No matter where you stand, that was a fucking terrible thing to say and imply. You can shit on a label without invalidating real victims of real abuse. No one in this debate was questioning the victims until you just did, they only criticized the label they were using. You can get that victim-blaming perfect-victim shit and shove it up your ass. And no, I'm not a victim of that form of abuse, if it even exists, but I can see shit when I hear it and that was shit. Shame on you for that.

Okay first thing I want to say first is this. i am sorry if u read my post and misread it or misinterpreted what i was saying. i was not victim blaming anyone lmfao. I was NOT invalidating anyone when I said those who have been abused by narcissists think theyre special. what I was trying to say is that the language around narc abuse is that victims seem to talk about it like its a worse type of abuse. i see people say "if you have been abused by a narcissist its because they saw how special u are!!" and i think thats not ok to tell victims bc victims will romantizie why they were abused!! i remember believing my abuser (who does have npd btw) only abused me bc i was so special and he hated that!! but in reality, he abused me because he's an abuser. an abuser might be triggered by someone, they might hate someone and thats why they abuse. an abuser might have a disorder that can make them react abusively, but its because theyre an abuser. there are plenty of ppl without disorders who abuse, and there are those with npd who dont also abuse. its not a hive mind.

i do not understand why u think i was telling someone that they werent abused. if u spend more than 2 seconds on my blog u will know i validate everyone who has ever been a victim, and those who will become victims.

BUT my point was there are victims out there who seem to treat narc abuse like its a badge. we dont walk around and say ptsd abuse bc ppl would lose their shit if we ever did that. "Narc abuse" is not anything different than any other kind of abuse. can an abuser have npd? yes. can the npd make an abuser respond in a unique or different way? yes same with any pd. but narc abuse is just emotional abuse. ppl will say narc abuse and then go onto explain everything that an abuser does. "Theyre selfish" "They want control" yeah thats an abuser. i think the problem is people now look at symptoms of abuse and say narcissist. i literally see ppl call anyone a narcissist these days.

the issue i have with this as well is that i have seen and heard victims wonder if they are valid because their abuser doesnt have npd bc these victim spaces especially Tiktok have created this belief that abusers are narcissists and ONLY narcissists. can they be? yes. but can an abuser also be a neurotypical? yes.

abusers are just abusers. we dont need to slap some label on there. now is there different levels of abuse? yes ofc. emotional abuse, physical, spiritual, financial, etc are all different kinds of abuse. being abused by ur mother is different than being abused by ur teacher, or partner, etc. but it doesnt mean its worse. ofc there are SITUATIONS that can be considered "worse" in the eyes of the law but at the end of the day. abuse is abuse. a broken ankle is still a broken ankle no matter how it got broken.

victims are all on the same playing field but they try to fight each other and we need to stand together and realize that abusers are the issue!! i dont have any ISSUE or problem with victims who say they were abused by a narcissist but i do have an issue when ppl say narc abuse. and i know a lot of victims who say narc abuse might not even realize what theyre saying. i remember being that person until i started to talk to pwpd, espeically npd, did more research and realized how stigmatizing it is.

the MAIN issue with saying narc abuse is that what ur saying to people with npd that 1) they are not valid if they have been abused. 2) they are abusers. this is dangerous because its generalizing an entire group of those with a disorder that can not change or fix. a lot of victims worry if they have been the abuser bc abusers fuck with ur head thinking ur the bad guy, so if someone with npd sees a post that says all narcissists are abusers they might believe they are one when they arent. im speaking very general. every person with npd is a unique person and i dont SUPPORT every single person with npd bc ofc there are monsters out there who are also abusers , but i do support that people with npd get support and are also included when ppl say mental health matters, or believe all victims.

no one is saying that those with npd cant be abusers, what were trying to change is the language !!! before people believe everyone with schizophrenia was a violent killer until we learned that is not true. we need to do the same with personality disorders.

the history of the word rape does come from the meaning to steal, seize, or carry away but there is PLENTY of words we use in today that are not the same. just look up the history of the word "mother fucker" and you will never want to ever say that ever again. but i dont see what this has to do with ur point in mental health. no one would ever say rape when they mean "steal" we just dont use that word in that way anymore. but to add to this, its a great example as a way to change the meaning of narcissists to be only used for those with the disorder. (yeah ppl can have narcisstic tendencies, we ALL have some level of it, its how we survive but thats different than having a disorder.)

i know tumblr has always had weird takes, and some stuff is strictly an online discourse and doesnt happen irl, but that doesnt mean we cant change the way people view mental health. people have misused gaslighting, triggers, but that doesn't mean we cant stop or change that. most people learn to adapt.

but to finish, i understand where ur coming from and im sorry if u saw my post and were upset but when i see others with npd wishing they could die because they feel like a monster just because they have a diagnosis, it shatters me knowing they feel like there is no support. even therapists are sketchy with pwpd. i just think that we need to change the language around abuse. just say abuse idk why thats so hard!

[redhawtriot]

Baby Boom (Bakugou x Reader)

Tip Jar ☕- Not expected but always appreciated💞

I felt as though since this story had such a specific narrative (especially delving into the harsh world of modeling and the effects of discrimination) that it would reach out to a very specific niche of reader.

I was actually astonished by loud support this fic has obtained so for, so thank you so much! I cannot stress enough how much that means to me. 

HnM 💕

Tag-list: @steggy4ever​ @library-trash​ @watevermelon​ @glimmadora-ble​ @persephones24​ @dragonempress123​ @your-pri-ncess @broken-from-fandoms​ @hot-pocket01​ @tsukineho​

Month 1, Month 3

--Month 2--

No.

You looked at the stick of plastic in your hand with wide eyes as your mouth stuttered into a slack jaw—your breaths hardly making their way in and out of your lungs evenly.

You squeezed your eyes shut so hard that you saw white spots underneath your lids before you snapped them back open again, internally praying that you would wake up form whatever nightmare you were having.

However, you couldn’t blink away the big, fat smiley face that stared back up at you from the piece of purple and white plastic that sealed your fate.

No. No. No!

The sudden urge to puke came back with a vengeance and you threw yourself to the toilet, slamming your knees to the ground in the process. As your stomach lurched up into your chest, you couldn’t tell whether the tears forming in your eyes were from the harshness of the motion or something else entirely.

“Gah!” you loudly choked out as you pulled away from the mess in the toilet. 

Once the nausea became slightly less debilitating you leaned back against your bathtub, throwing your head up as you groaned to the ceiling, “No, no, no, nooo…” you softly sobbed. You tried your best to keep from bawling so you didn’t find yourself with your head back in the bowl, but you couldn’t help the stream of hot tears that spilled from your eyes as you stared at the vent in the ceiling.

How could this happen? How could you be… pr...

A sudden stirring in your gut made you swallow hard as you tried to keep your stomach out of your throat.

Don’t be an idiot, Y/N. You took sex education in high school. You put the condom on the banana and were scolded with constant threats of STDs and the fires of Hell like everybody else. So yeah. You know how it happened.

You sighed as you thought back to all the guys you had slept with recently-- which was luckily not too many within the past few months, and only one since your last period.

Fuck, you didn’t even remember what the damn fathe-- guy looked like.

Well, excluding his rippling muscles.

You threw your head into your hands as the uncanny image of a body builder newborn infiltrated your mind. Well, that didn’t fucking help at all. Grabbing your hair tightly as you stared at the tile between your legs, you cursed yourself, “You dumbass! How could you be so goddamn stupid!? Stupid, stupid, stupid!” you repeatedly knocked against your skull.

You reached into the recesses of your memory for any information you might have about the guy. Where was his apartment again...? On the other side of town somewhere right… Near Club 52? God, you didn’t even fucking know! and what did it matter anyway, huh? What were you gonna do? Storm up to his place, pregnancy tests a-blazin’, and tell the complete stranger that you were carrying his kid?!

With a weak and tired moan, you lifted yourself off of your bathroom floor and went to the sink to rinse your bile infested mouth out and wash the salty tears off of your cheeks.

But not before you got a good look at yourself in the mirror.

Swollen eyes.

Red nose.

Drying, teary snot pooling on the rim of your upper lip.

“You look like shit,” you harshly reprimanded yourself before turning the sink on and sticking your face into the cool water. Your hands blindly reached around your counter until you finally grabbed a nearby hand towel to bring to your face. As you patted your cheeks dry, your eyes wandered to the counter where three other positive pregnancy tests that you had taken earlier that morning resided.

The trio all sported a similar smug smile as they looked up to you as if to say ‘we told you so.’

The little shits.

“Shut up.” You quickly grabbed all four tests and with a hint of bitterness chucked them into a nearby trash bin before making your way to your bedroom across the hall.

Plopping down onto your screeching mattress, you took your phone out:

Boss Lady

[2:50 pm]

Hey, brat. I hope you’re doing better.

Don’t forget that we have that runway fitting next week. And the test shots. And the international scouting event.

Think. Thin.

No carbs. No red meats.

NO ALCOHOL!!!

Fucking no alcohol for nine whole months. You attempted to scoff at this, but what came out could have probably been mistaken for the last sounds of a dying animal.

Kimi:

[3:31 pm]

Hope you made it home safe last night!

As you read this text, a piece of you wished that maybe you hadn't made it home safe last night... Your brain briefly wandered into the dark territories of ‘what if’s’ as you imagined falling in front of the train at the subway, walking past a drug deal gone wrong, hell-- drowning on the water you took with your Pepto Bismol. You quickly brushed these thoughts away as you continued looking through your phone, 

Boss Lady

[4:45 pm]

Oh, also Deku just asked for a meeting with you personally.

You’re going of course. Glad you got his attention. Good girl.

Tomorrow.  5:00pm. El Vino’s downtown. (EAT LIGHTLY!)

Inches! Inches! Inches!

You slammed your phone down onto your mattress as you loudly sighed.

Inches. Your entire livelihood depended on your damn inches and now there was no way you could maintain the “golden ratio.” The thought made your blood churn.

Modeling… was all that you had. You didn’t have any other fucking talents—no quirk to depend on-- so when would your growing stomach steal your life away?

When do people even start ‘showing’? 

You haven’t come across many pregnant women, but all of the ones you have seen either looked like normal people or like freaking beach balls. For some reason your brain couldn’t conjure an intermediate.

Did they just blow up out of nowhere? If so, then when? How long could you pull a ruse off before your growing organ snitched on you? 5 months? 6 months? Next fucking week?

You realized then that you knew next to jack squat about pregnancy.

Or damn kids for that matter.

Okay so... abortion? For some reason, even just the thought of that word made an icky taste surge in your mouth—or maybe it was the leftover vomit, who knows?

To be honest, you had never really thought much on abortion before—it was one of the many topics filed into your brain under ‘that does not and will not pertain to me, so why the fuck should I care?’ Filtered out and forgotten, your feelings on abortion had yet to be developed.

Until now.

After a few beats, you opened your phone back up and began to dial Kimi, fearing that you might soon explode with the brunt of knowledge that weighed heavily upon your shoulders.

You paused.

Had you ever actually talked to her about anything that wasn’t exclusively work related? In the past two years of knowing her, have you ever actually learned anything about her, and she about you? Very suddenly, you were slapped in the face by a crude fact: Kimi was just a work-friend.

That was fucking fine and dandy up until now. You pretty much either worked, or drank, or showed up to work drunk. But now…

Shit.

Who the hell else could you call? You barely had any friends, and you hadn’t talked to your family in what felt like ages. Who was there for situations like this? If half of your life was working, and half of your life was drinking, and your work friends were a no go… what about your drinking friends? Your mind briefly fled to the stashes of your best buddies-- vodka and tequila-- that you kept in your kitchen.

But not even they could save you now.

Fuck you really were alone.

That night, you found yourself constantly flipping your pillow to find a new dry spot to assault with fresh tears. You hadn’t cried so much since you were a kid. Wait-- come to think of it, you couldn’t even remember the last time you had cried at all.

So, was it hormones? Pregnancy hormones?

The surreal thought made your tears fly down your face even more furiously.

The next evening there was practically no trace or evidence of your mental breakdown from the night before as you strolled up to El Vino’s. It was honestly kind of frightening how quickly you had managed to pull yourself together before this little meeting—but mostly, it was empowering.

Okay, Y/N. You fucking got this. Hormones or not, you were still a baddie to your very core.

Deku was easy enough to spot in the little Mediterranean themed restaurant—with the green-ass hair and all. You strolled up to the table with the warmest smile that you could muster, “Mr. Deku,” you quickly approached his table and gave a slight bow.  

“H-Hey!” You seemed to startle him with your sudden appearance. He jumped a bit in his seat and awkwardly shifted as you made your way to your own chair. His face was a bit red as you maintained your eyes on his shying expression. 

“Look, before you say anything. I just want to say sorry,” his shocked eyes suddenly snapped back up to yours as you continued, “I had no idea that the event was yours and I probably ruined the rest of the night for you. If you want me off the brand deal, then I completely understand, just... don’t blame Ainu’s agency.”

His mouth fumbled over itself for a moment, causing you to quirk an unsure eyebrow before he could finally speak up, “No t-that’s not what I am here for at all, Miss L/N.”

“Call me Y/N. please,” your smirk was a little less sure than usual and you prayed that he couldn’t detect how off he had thrown you. This was going much different than you had expected it to. For one, he wasn’t trying to ‘put you in your place for disrespecting him’ or bargain  sex ‘as an apology’ like most power hungry men in his position would.

“Okay, M-miss Y/N,” the blush that adorned his cheeks confused you even further and you felt the space between your eyebrows involuntarily tighten. That was another thing… He didn’t seem like a typical man in a position of power. He was… soft... you didn’t know how else to explain it other than unusual for a man of his size and stature.

“I actually wanted to apologize to you,” he spoke up once more and you were completely lost by then. You could only blink as he continued to speak, “You really got me thinking about things the other night-- you were totally right. The brand of my sneakers did lose its true meaning. I really meant to have it be a symbol for kids growing up without a quirk to enjoy—to give them hope, but it turned into more of an endorsement to myself. The whole thing. It was wrong. That’s why I have decided to give 100% of my personal Red Sneakers profits to establishing my Quirkless Youth Initiative,”

You looked around for any hidden cameras—any hidden agenda behind his motives before looking back to him with a stiff expression. You had to physically keep your face from scrunching, “And just how are you going to make a living out of a mindset like that?” you dared to call his bluff.

“It’s just gonna have to work. It’s what my mentor would have done—given 100%. Beyond actually.”

Holy shit. This man was being serious. ‘100% and beyond’ serious, to be exact. Your face scrunched up once more, “Why do you care so much anyway?” you cut back on your tone as you noticed his eyes widen a bit at your accusatory voice, “Not to be rude, but… what’s a strong hero like you doing caring about us quirkless?”

He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment or two. Contemplating on whether or not he was going to lie, you noticed, “I… I…  didn’t have a quirk until much later in life. I was 14. Growing up, I always wanted to be a hero, and I just wish that I had someone back then believe in me. I want to be the one that tells kid’s—with a smile-- that they can do it. That they have at least one person who believes in them.”

His name-- Deku-- it meant worthless. The puzzle pieces were finally coming together and things began to make sense. It was a name that either himself or others used to describe him when he was growing up probably, and the man had taken it and spun it around to make it his own. Even you had to admit--

“That’s pretty damn impressive,” you couldn’t help the curl that tugged into the corners of your lips as Deku bashfully looked away from you,

“It’s nothing, really!” he tried to deflect. You gave a small laugh before smoothly bringing up the glass of wine in front of you to your lips. As soon as the liquid rushed in your mouth, your eyes flew wide open with realization,

Shit! What the fuck were you doing?

You immediately spit the alcohol back into your cup and snapped your eyes back to Deku who had, thankfully, been too caught up in his own embarrassment to be paying attention to you. You gave a sigh of relief and sat the wine glass as far away from you as inconspicuously possible. 

“So,” you leaned into the table a bit to get his eyes back on you, “Tell me about this Quirkless Youth Initiative,” you smiled. 

From that point on, you and Deku actually found talking to each other relatively easy—okay, extremely easy. In fact, you stayed past the point of dinner and ended up talking at your table hours after the bill had been paid.

You talked about everything and nothing altogether and didn’t know just when to end the conversation. You lowered your borders for some reason. Well-- you knew the reason. It was because you had been dying to talk to someone since you found out that you were the ‘p-word.’

 He ended up walking you home. Past that, for the next two weeks you guys pretty much saw each other every other day or two and talked fairly regularly. Things became habitual.

In fact.

As you stood in the beaming light of the wardrobe, getting your makeup done, you found yourself stealing little glances here and there to your phone to text with your new friend, Deku. Every buzz of your phone left you with a giddy sense of excitement.

One of the models sharing the gigantic mirror with you quickly took notice of your demeanor, “What are you smiling at, Y/N?”

“She’s texting someone,” another spoke up as your friend/babysitter, Kimi strolled up next to you,

“What?! Y/N L/N texting someone back? Have we entered the Twilight Zone??” she joked. You only responded with poking your tongue out at her before your phone buzzed again, 

Deku:

[1:00 pm]

Good Luck on your runway thing today!

You:

More like run away thing🏃‍♀️💨

Deku:

I could help? Bring comfort snacks?

You:

Most of us haven’t eaten a full meal in days BB

You would literally be stampeded by women

Wait that sounded too good🤔

You will literally be stampeded by hungry women***

Deku:

You haven’t been eating?!

Since when?!

You:

That’s not what I said. 

Just pre-show prep to keep the waists snatched and the legends skinny💁‍♀️

Deku:

Sorry I don’t know how your job really works.

I’ll come over again tonight after your show and bring dinner!

If that’s okay. Sorry didn’t mean to sound pushy.

“Didn’t you hear? Her and Deku really hit it off on their date,”  Your attention was instantly snapped away from your phone screen.

You gave an ugly snort, “It wasn’t a date.” And you certainly weren’t lying. The friendly atmosphere between you and Izuku felt comfortable as best—nothing intimate about it.

You wouldn't have it any other way. It felt as though he was placed in your life to perfectly fill the holes in your boat just before you started sinking.

“Girl your phone is blowing up!” a co-worker exclaimed, loudly.

Kimi laughed as she pinched your cheeks, “Look at that smile on her face”

All of the commotion gathered the attention of Boss Lady, who was currently storming up to you with the ‘phone box’ (or phone cemetery as some of you liked to call it) in her hand. She liked to have this on her especially in big events like runways or show casings because some of the girls—you were guilty as charged—spent quite a bit of time on their phones behind the scenes, “Phone. Bin. Now.”

Usually, you would put up some type of argument or give a quick-witted remark, but this time around you only rushed to send one final text in before you threw your cellphone into the crate.

You:

[1:33pm]

I should get off at like 11 see you then broccoli boy🥦🤪

Kimi looked terrified as though she was the one who had just incurred Ainu’s wrath, “Still smiling, huh...?” 

You hadn’t even notice that you had been.

Talking to Deku really did make you happy when you needed it. Just like he spun ‘deku’ around and made it make sense, he had spun your life around and did the same. He made you feel like life was normal—whatever the hell that was. You’d never really been classified as normal anyway, but you had some impression that this resembled what it must feel like.

For a fleeting moment you think that maybe you should just sleep with Deku and pass this pregnancy off as his since you had yet to tell him-- or anyone-- about it. 

But the better half of you instantly slaps this thought out through your ears.

Hello? Welcome to psycho bitch incorporated. Seriously. What the fuck was wrong with you?

Damn, you had been separated from your phone (and Deku) for exactly 23 seconds and you were already outta your cot-damn mind. You get one friend and suddenly you don’t know how to act. 

You needed to somehow find “blond muscle man” and let him know what was up. Fuck, how were you supposed to do that when you didn’t even know his name?

The runway that night went pretty much how every single other runway went, except this time-- you opted not to attend any of the after parties. Instead, you went home and had Deku over, who delivered on his promise with sushi. 

You could smell the sushi as soon as he walked through the door and your mouth instantly watered. He really was god sent. 

The two of you settled quickly in your apartment, deciding to risk it all and eat on your living room couch to watch TV; however, you quickly noticed that the TV wasn’t the only thing that Izuku was watching. As soon as you turned to raise an eyebrow on him he feebly attempted to avert his gaze, but you caught him anyways, “What? You better stop sizing me up unless you wanna fight, Deku,” you sang as you popped another sushi roll into your mouth.

“W-what sizing you up?!”

You cackled at the sudden redness of his face, “I’m just joking. We both know I’d probably kick your ass!”

“You think so?” he actually sounded a bit nervous in his tone, causing you to roll your eyes. 

“Oh, I know so,” you shrugged with a growing smirk, “Anyway. What are you staring so hard at me for?”

The air became very still around the two of you as he looked down to think. This was something that became pretty expectant of him these past few week-- a funny little habit.

“It’s just… we’ve been hanging out a lot the past few weeks and I never really noticed it—your… dieting,” he seemed to fall into that last word a bit as if it wasn’t exactly the word that he had wanted to use. 

You knew that he meant to say ‘starving yourself’ but was too reserved for that level of bluntness. That was okay with you. You weren't particularly ready to open that can of worms, “Damn, and here I was thinkin’ I was looking pretty damn good,” you joked as the both of you began cleaning up your food mess.  

“No. That’s not what I meant I—”

“Joking! I’m just joking with you, Big D,” you found yourself using this nickname for him whenever you wanted to see his face fall into it’s deepest shades of red. It worked every single time,

“I have just been at this for a long time—modeling for Ainu’s agency. Since I was 15 actually,” you shook your head a little at the surge of nostalgia that wanted to bubble up your back. You clutched a nearby pillow and hugged it to your chest, “She scouted me at a mall food court. She changed my entire life—for the better of course. She is practically my mom... I owe her a lot,” you found yourself giving into the nostalgia a bit-- a small, fond smile tugging at your lips. You looked up after a few beats of silence filled the air and was met with Deku’s admiring stare, “What? You nerd!” you exclaimed with a giggle, chucking the pillow at him. 

“It’s nothing. I just like hearing about you. I feel like I have been doing a lot of talking about me since we have been hanging out.”

Yeah, he was a Cancer zodiac for sure. You pretty much knew his entire life’s story after only the first week of knowing him, “Are you kidding me?! Your life is straight out of a comic book, BB! I love hearing about it!” You began talking to him from out of the kitchen as you put your leftovers in the fridge,

“You went up against the League of Villains, the Vanguard Action Front and The Paranormal Liberation Front as a freshman?? You powered up from a quirkless crybaby! (Hey!) to an amazing, uprising, super considerate, overpowered crybaby on his way to number one! Your U.A. friends all seem like comic book characters, too. I love them already from what you tell me,” you closed the fridge, revealing his shocked expression.

“Really?” You nodded, igniting a spark in his eyes, “Well, I am actually having a little get together at my place for my friends if you wanna stop by.”

“Yeah sure. As long as my favorite character, Kaminari, is there,” Izuku seemed shocked and slightly offended by your choice in favorite, so you clarified, “He sounded really cool and all with his ‘chatty zappy’ thing going on,” you suddenly rolled your eyes as a bad taste emerged in your mouth, “Kacchan sounds like a little bitch baby though, no offense.”

“Y/N!”

“What?! Kacchan can ‘Kach’ these ‘hans’! Oh come on. Not even a pity laugh? A little one?” You apparently thought you were a lot funnier than Izuku did. 

“I think the two of you might actually get along. You’re very similar now that I think about it,” he trailed off on his last part, seemingly talking to himself as he grabbed his chin. 

You almost felt offended by his comparison, “Fuck that. Oppisites attract, Similars repel. Besides. Why would I wanna be friends with a little bitch baby that bullies and pisses on quirkless people?”

“Well, when you meet him next week you might like him…”

You clicked your tongue, “So now I am obligated to come, huh?” you smirked.

“N-no well that’s not what I meant but I would appreciate if you—”

You were only half paying attention to his freak out as the abrupt craving for orange juice infiltrated your mind and placed itself on the forefront of your thoughts, “Deku. I am joking!” you absentmindedly reminded him as you scoured your pantries for a wine glass. You had taken to drinking out of these instead of regular cups to at least maintain a semblance of your old self. 

Izuku’s eyes widened at the sight of your collection of wines and alcohols in one of your cupboards. You smirked at him-- throwing him  look that said ‘you ain’t seen nothin yet’ as you opened your freezer to reveal the insane hoard of alcohol you had stored.

His jaw practically dropped to the floor at the sight, “Holy woah, you have an entire liquor store in here!”

“Saving for a rainy day,” you almost immediately realized the error of your words as Izuku motions to one of the windows near you. The two of you sat in a beat of silence as the pitter-patter of rainfall splattered against the glass pane.

“It’s raining today,” he grinned excitedly. 

“No... I cant,” the way that the words fell out sounded about as convincing as a disguise with groucho glasses. You could really go for a drink right about now.

He looked to you a bit sadly, if not disappointed, “Y/N if this is about your diet… I am just saying, I don’t think one day will hurt too much.”

“No, I really shouldn't.” Understatement of the century. 

Izuku grabbed two glasses out of your cupboard with a soft smile gracing his features, “We’ll pour you just a little bit in case you change your mind—”

Maybe one glass wouldn't hurt... No. NO! God, you knew he meant well, but he is really fucking making this hard for you!! “I cant, I’m pregnant!!” you suddenly yelled. He immediately froze, 

“Wha...?”

“I’m pregnant...”

“Oh... Uhhh congratulations,” the most unconvincing thing to have ever come out of his mouth probably, “Who…”

“I don’t know,” the look of utter horror on his face had you instantly backtracking your answer, “Well—let me rephrase that. I do know who it is, but I don’t know his name. It was a umm.. ‘Wam. Bam. Thank you ma’am’ type deal.” Your face began burning as hot blood rushed into your cheeks. You literally couldn't have phrased that worse if you tried. What the hell was wrong with you? 

“You don’t look pregnant...” the horror on his face now registered into your mind as pure shock. 

“I sure as hell would hope not. I am like a month-ish along—I think.”

“You haven’t been to the doctor?”

“Uhh no...” He was right, you didn't even look pregnant. There was no way in hell that you needed to go to the doctor yet. Right?

“W-wait! Y/N the night we met! You were drinking alcohol!”

“So? I am probably only like a few weeks pregnant and I drank like two glasses. I am sure it didn’t do anything…?”

“Are you really sure? How can you know!? You have to go see a doctor!” he looked terrified. It was as if he suddenly was the embodiment every stressed emotion that you had been shoving away from you these past few weeks and the sight scared you. 

“You’re freaking me out, Deku.”

He instantly froze, “S-sorry,” he looked down to his shoes. Maybe you just might let him pour those drinks after all. He looked like he could use both of them right about now...

The next week dragged on for what felt like eons, as Izuku seemed to cautiously dance around the topic of your “preexisting condition.” It was quite obvious that every time the topic came up, a cloud of discomfort would come and sit on his shoulders; however, the man still made it a point to urge the fact that you needed to set up a doctor’s appointment.

Eventually, you caved in and scheduled for one at a local clinic, but they couldn't get you in for a few weeks anyway-- the joint was at maximum capacity, you guessed?  Apparently, there were more pregnant bitches waddling around than you thought.

Still, Deku urged you to read up and research some things prior to your appointment so that you could ask the doctor any questions that might pop up. It seemed like he was almost way too into this-- taking notes in a composition notepad that he dubbed “Baby Notes Vol 1″ and even mentioning coming along with you to your clinic visit.

It made things extremely real. 

Your little safe space with Deku had effectively been conquered and subjugated by the little parasite that took residence in your body. You shook your shoulders with a sigh as you neared Deku’s door for the party. 

*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK* 

When the door opened you couldn't help the way that your eyebrows flew up in surprise at the sight of a woman opening the door. Uhh... did you go to the wrong house?

The brown haired girl in front of you looked just as surprised as you-- if not even more so. 

Okay, you definitely went to the wrong house.

The sudden sound of Izuku’s voice coming deep from withing the apartment led you to breath easy. You deflated a little bit as you relaxed. You wouldn't have to make a mad dash in a lagged game of ‘ding dong ditch’ after all,  “Y/N L/N. Nice to meet you.”

A series of emotions flashed across her expression at your greeting: shocked, nervous, then... disappointed? “Y/N! I’ve heard... so so much about you!” the smile that stretched across her lips seemed almost painful, “I’m Ochako Uraraka! I... love your hair!” she threw out the last part like a rabbit would throw steak to wolves. 

“Thank’s...” you felt fucking awkward and she still hasn’t let you into the apartment, “I’ll make sure to thank the stylist and the bottle of dye she used.”

“That’s not your real hair color? It looks so healthy though!” she seemed heartbroken as she used a pitying tone and you could gauge that the pity was not for yourself. 

“Nah. My agency pretty much determines what hairstyles I wear...”  You made eye contact with Deku inside of the house as he made his way to the door... Thank god! you were saved from that terribly awkward interaction.

“Agency? Hero agency?”

“Modeling, actually. I’m not that badass,” you smirked before walking into the party.

Her figure deflated as if to say, ‘of fucking course’, “Oh. That’s cool!” You didn’t see much of Uraraka after that 

Meanwhile, Bakugou was just a tick away from being angry enough to kill. His roommates had all three convinced him to go to this get together over Deku’s house and they weren't even going to be there on time! 

He had honestly never been to a party with these losers without at least Shitty Hair being with him, so he wasn’t exactly sure how it would pan out and that really bothered him. He wasn’t exactly social at these events, but at least the three stooges kept him somewhat entertained (he would never admit this aloud).

What could those other losers possible do to entertain him?

“Whyyyyyyy?” he heard crying as he neared Deku’s home. His face scrunched in on itself even further than usual as he approached the whining noise. He scoffed at the inebriated mess in front of him,

“What the hell are you doing, round face?”

Uraraka, who was leaning against the edge of Izuku’s front patio looked up, causing Bakugou to deeply grimace at the germy snot that trailed down her red face, “Deku’s new girlfriend sure is cool. He deserves someone like her, right? She’s perfect!” Bakugou couldn't help the way that his face shriveled into itself in disgust. 

It wasn't too late. He could still turn around and go the fuck home and no one would even know he was here. Well, save for bubble cheeks here, but she probably wouldn't even remember to be honest. 

But as soon as Bakugou turned back around to make his escape Uraraka spoke up again, “She’s a model. They met at the Red Sneakers Event apparently,” Of course this piqued the man’s interest. There were only a few models branding the event and he just so happened to be searching for one of them. Uraraka continued with her drooling of words as Bakugou brushed past her and made his way into the house-- not bothering to knock,

“You know I am the one who gave him that idea in the first place? It’s kinda like. I set him up with his future wife!” she drunkenly cried to no one in particular as Bakugou stormed away.

He passed Iida on his way in, “Go get round face and shut her drunk ass up-- she’s outside,” he didn't bother on stopping to further explain before walking back to the commotion of the party.

 As soon as he entered the packed room, his eyes landed on you. It was like the Red Sneakers Event all over again. You were simply glowing-- hard to miss-- especially with the crowd of his old classmates hovering around you like some damn flies on shit-- especially Deku. He was way too close to you-- the rat bastard. 

“Oooh! You’ve been to Milan! That’s so cool, girl! So you must get to sight-see like a lot!”

The way that your shoulders leaned and swayed as you talked sent flutters into Bakugou’s heart. Fucking gross. He watched you speak very intently-- searching for the magic you had used to bewitch him, “Actually I was working a lot when I was there, so I really only got to see the sets and runways,” you made fleeting eye contact with him from across the room, furrowing your eye brows a bit at his stare before breaking the gaze. 

“Do you get to keep the outfits after the shoots?!”

“Pfft. Hell no! This loser still hasn’t sent me a pair of his red shoes. What happened to helping the quirkless, huh, broccoli boi?” The most primal urge of jealousy that Bakugou had ever felt sprinted through his body as you leaned over to playfully tap that shitty Deku in the arm. The feeling was so intense that he hadn’t even registered what you had said fully. 

“You’re quirkless?” Racoon Eyes inquired, snapping Bakugou out of his feral trance. His face fell a bit as he dutifully awaited your answer. 

“Yeah. It’s whatever,” you shrugged.

“The competition must be so difficult!” Momo spoke up as she placed and apologetic hand to her chest. The gesture made you tense up a bit, but you reminded yourself that she probably didn't mean it in a belittling way as she continued,  “I’ve been to a few magazine shoots myself and it is always girls with flashy quirks who end up in front and center!”

“Well, I compete well, I guess,” you knew that hero hero modeling and your fashion modelling were two completely different worlds. Designers saw you guys mostly as clothing racks and mannequins for their clothes, so usually they wanted their models to be as mundane as possible-- not to distract from their fabric art. So basically the perfect job for someone like you, “it’s no big deal. I get by like everybody else.”

“You just live your life like normal!”

“Awhhhh. Y/N. You’re an inspiration!”

Suddenly you felt extremely tired. You couldn't find the energy within  yourself to filter out and soften your next response, “Glad I could inspire you just by breathing I guess.” you gave the girls a slight smile as you shrugged, but the undertone of your comment had not gone unnoticed-- especially by Bakugou who found himself stifling a proud smirk.

You once again made eye contact with him in this moment-- this time not daring to backtrack your gaze until he did-- a warning sign to back he hell off with that staring shit.

As the night progressed you found yourself becoming more and more tired. The debilitating sense of sudden fatigue actually felt like it had taken over even your bones at this point as the aching structures weighed heavily inside of you skin. You decided after about an hour that you were gonna make an early trip back home.

“What, why!?” Deku scanned your face nervously-- he thought you had been having fun!

“Just really damn tired suddenly.”

“Oh...” he trailed off, but suddenly realized the hidden context of your words. Baby Notes vol 1 page 4 section 3: ‘prenatal fatigue’, “Ohhhhh okay! Right! Well Let me call you a taxi or something.”

“Nahh, I’ll walk,” you waved him off as you made your journey toward small crowds of his friends-- waving them goodbye. Deku followed you in your path around his house, 

“W-what? You can’t be serious! You shouldn’t do that!”

You turned around and threw your hand on his shoulder, causing him to instantly freeze up, “I’ll be fine,” you smirked throwing your hand up to his cheek to gently pat his face. Of course, he was left a shivering, blushing mess. It was a low blow, but, hey, it gave you a good opportunity to escape. 

You felt a wave of relief as soon as you made it a few steps outside of the apartment. You released a heavy sigh as you continued walking away. 

Finally. You internally planned the rest of the night in your head: orange juice, Netflix and sleeeep. You could finally just let yourself relax and--

“HEY!” you jumped out of your skin a little at the sudden loud shout. You whipped around to see that blond spikey-haired dude from Deku’s house attempting to close in on you. 

You rolled your eyes as he neared. Hardly throwing him a glance as he approached you to walk a little behind you, “God. You’re the weirdo that was staring at me all night,” you groaned, hoping he would catch your drift. 

“We need to talk!” 

One of you eyebrows instantly quirked up as your lips curled into a look of disgust. You whipped back around towards him, “Look, I am actually tired as hell, so excuse me for my bluntness, but FUCK OFF!” You only caught a glimpse of his flabbergasted expression before you spun back around to storm down the stairs entering the subway. 

“You really don’t know me?” he sounded pissed. 

That’s when it hit you. 

“Oh! it’s you!” you snapped your fingers at the sudden realization, 

“You’re Kacchan!” the look of disgust that hardened on his face intensified by ten fold when he heard you use that nickname. You continued regardless as you neared the train platform, “The asshole bully who likes to pick on quirkless kids. Yeah, well, I don’t give a damn how great you think you are, buddy. You can really fuck off now!” you spun once more to ditch him; however this time around your ankle twisted from underneath you, causing your body to fall down toward the ledge of the platform where underneath the tracks resided.

Bakugou cried out something like ‘you idiot!’ before grabbing you by the waist and yanking you into him before you could completely fall down the ledge. Everything happened so quickly that you hadn't even realized that you were holding your breath until you gasped heavily into his chest.

With a shocked expression you trailed up his neck to his face until you were met with his vermilion eyes, “Shit…” suddenly a wave of familiarity crashed into you. you breathed deeply, “I-It’s you...”

[intothemaddyverse]

A Master Returns

Chapter 2 of Reunited Series

Word Count: 2,307

Rating: Mature (nothing explicit, just a small bit of suggestive language/behavior)

I apologize for the long wait, I hope you enjoy! 

Okay hold on, you just need to get your wits about you and assess the situation quickly. This is either going to be very bad or just incredibly awkward. Maybe both, it all depends on how you react. You just have to pretend you don’t know who this man is. Maker, why is Din holding your shoulders in a death grip? He only does that when he’s both terrified and furious.  You’ve got to hurry up and say something, Din is looking at you like he’s about to beat the shit out of this man. Alright this’ll be fine. Just have to-

“What happened to her? I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name…you’re a Mandalorian right?”

Say something already.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

Din looks back at you, loosening his grip slightly but breathing heavily. “Do you-is he…” Din can’t even get a full sentence out, it’s almost as if he’s not here. As if he’s in a different place entirely, and just left a sliver of himself to protect you.

“Come on angel, you know me. It’s been a while since you were training with your-“

Those words, he chose those words. In that particular order.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL HER?”

You close your eyes and let out a deep exhale. You were waiting for the perfect time to tell Din, and this is definitely not it. So much happened while you and him were separated. There were hardly any Jedi left, learning that you were force sensitive during the height of Imperial rule was terrifying. You did what you felt was right in order to learn how to properly defend yourself.

“The only person who can call her angel is me. I suggest you turn around and go back to Niima Outpost before I drag you there personally.” Din is standing right in front of you, blocking the sun but also your view. “It’s alright Din, I feel better now. If you can just help me up I’ll handle this.” That doesn’t seem to make Din any more relaxed, but it at least brings you into the conversation. Sitting on the ground getting sand in your clothes was not going to do anyone any good. He reluctantly lets go of your hands once you’re standing upright, but stays close behind you. You’re still a tad woozy, but you had to convince Din you were strong enough to leave his grasp and confront the man he was about to strangle.

“I never thought I would see you again Master, especially like this…” At this particular moment you can only see Din slightly in your peripheral vision, but you most certainly can hear him. You can feel him. Maker, this is going to be so hard to explain later. The fact that this came back to haunt you is insanely frustrating but you know Din will understand…you hope he’ll understand. You proceed with caution, choosing your words carefully. For a second you think Din stopped breathing, but then you hear a long sigh and feel as though this is the right moment to continue.

“You? With a Mandalorian??” You forgot how chatty he is. His bedside manner clearly hasn’t gotten any better but at least no one has attempted to kill each other yet. “You forgot to stay hydrated didn’t you? You always worked at your training harder than anything, nothing else mattered until you finished…” You hear Din grunt and take step closer to you. You turn your head slightly, as if you are answering your former master but directing the response at Din. “Yes, finishing training was always my main focus, kept me distracted.” You place your hand on Din’s shoulder and give him a nod before turning to continue the cringe-worthy dialogue.  

“Master, do you remember how I would always talk about the boy who got away? This is him…”

You might as well have shot Din with his blaster, that just about killed him. He doesn’t know much about the intricacies of Jedi, but he can’t help but think that bringing up past feelings for someone isn’t something they would want you to do. Like Mandalorians, Jedi were given a specific purpose, a niche role in the galaxy. Different in principle, but not so distinct in action.

“Does he know?”

Shit. He helped you so much when you lost your family but he never knows when to read the situation and be quiet.

“He…I…it never came up…” Din takes a step towards you, placing his left arm around your waist. “I’m sorry Master. it was wonderful to see you again, but we have to pack up and start heading out soon.” Please let that be enough. Din’s grip tightens slightly, making your heart rate increase just as you were starting to feel calm again. Please, just leave. Noticing Din’s strong hold on you while you struggle to stand upright, he finally gets the hint.

“Always a pleasure to see you an-” 

With a sharp tilt of his head, Din tries to run past you but you stop him before he can. You close your eyes and take deep breath while keeping a firm grip on Din’s right forearm. “May the force be with you Master.”

He nods his head. “And also with you. Nice to meet you, um..”

“Mando” Din says, surprisingly not very harsh at all. He seems to be at peace with the notion that you clearly want him to leave. “Here, take this,” he says hesitantly, reaching out to Din with a canteen and small bag filled with tuanulberries and portion bread. “It’s not much, but it’ll surely help her regain the strength she needs to continue traveling.” He’s not wrong there. Din takes the water first, then the bag placing it on the ground beside him. “Thank you sir…”  

A quick smile in your direction is the last you will ever see of your old master. Din lets go of you for a brief moment, allowing a rush of exhaustion to drain the strength from your body. “SHIT! You lied to me!” Din says as he whips around to see you falling. Within a few seconds he practically catapults himself towards you, latching onto your upper body so that you don’t land face first in the sand. “I’m sorry Din,” you say as your lip begins to quiver. As rugged as he is, Din is very good at being gentle. It’s rather clumsy the way he sits on the ground, but that’s mainly due to your noodle-like state and his less than desirable positioning as he caught you. He slowly lowers himself to the ground, placing you delicately on top of him. You fit so perfectly in the contours of his body, your head resting on his armor as he wraps both arms around you.

“Din I’m sorry I lied, I didn’t mean to-”

“I wasn’t talking about him, I was talking about your health. We can’t figure out our next move until you’ve properly recovered.” Your eyes begin to well up with tears as Din places his hand on the back of your head. He slowly brushes your hair out of your face, the first tear of yours landing on his chest. “Hey,” Din whispers, using his gloved hand to cradle your head, the other still resting on your lower back. “You don’t have to explain now. When you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be ready to listen.”

***

How does one even begin a conversation on this topic. Imagine waking Din up and blurting out “you ready to hear about me being force sensitive??” That would send him into the next system. Actually…would it? The Jedi Order was long gone by the time you were both old enough to even grasp the concept of a Jedi. You never really were a Jedi, just trained by one.

He wasn’t even officially given the title of “Master”. Okay, you’re spiraling. Calm down. Like he said before you’re stuck with each other now, learning that you’re force sensitive won’t ruin anything. Ugh, will it though? No, NO. Maker, calm down. After all you have been through together, this small bit of information you left out will be nothing more than a new conversation to be had.

***

It almost feels like you’re floating. Sailing through the waves of an ocean with nothing but each other to hold on to. Din breathes so deeply when he sleeps. It could be the fact that you’re resting on top of him, or that the gravity of each day still weighs heavily on him while he’s asleep. Each breath he takes lifts your entire upper body, leaving you both suspended in the cool desert air for a brief moment before falling back down to the grains of sand concaving around Din’s large stature. Why doesn’t he at least take his boots off? It can’t be comfortable to sleep like that. But then again, who wants sand in between their toes?

***

The sun has completely disappeared by now. Hopefully when you reach the marketplace there will be a vendor selling clothes. You still have a good amount of credits stashed away, hopefully enough for a proper meal and a new jacket. You’re trying the best you can to control your shivering, but to no avail. A small grunt comes out through the modulator. “You’re cold aren’t you?” He tries to hug you tighter, but for some odd reason you feel like this is the right time.

“Din?” You say as you look up at him, studying the curves and sharp edges of his helmet with worry in your eyes. “I…I’m ready to tell you…”

His body suddenly tenses up. Great. Your mind is already running through a variety of ways this conversation could go, none of them ending well. You carefully place your hands on either side of Din to lift yourself up, arms still shaky.

“You poor thing…”  

He sounds awfully discouraged. The extent of your heat exhaustion was immense, clearly he must have known you wouldn’t be fully recovered at this point. “I hate seeing you like this…it scares me.” Did he just say it scares him? You weren’t around to witness the legendary bounty hunting you heard whispers of, but the descriptions of it made him sound like the most terrifying person in the galaxy. Surely there aren’t many things that legitimately scare him anymore. But then again, it’s been a long time.

“I’ll be alright Din, the fruit and water will help me a great deal.” Now sitting beside him, the fire he made crackling in the silence, you contemplate the best way to explain everything to him. Grogu has been napping practically all day, if it weren’t for a few soft coos coming from his pod you would definitely be worried.

“Okay so, um…do you know what force sensitivity is?” you say as a sudden wave of anxiety surges through you. Din lets out a sigh. Great, this is already going south.

“You need to calm down love, you know me. You’re marrying me. Sure, it’s been a while since we last saw each other on a regular basis, but I haven’t changed. I wish you had told me sooner but I’m not mad at you.” Okay, that’s good. You aren’t sure why you thought he would be upset, but the amount of relief you feel releases the tension from your body nonetheless. “I do not know what force sensitivity is, can you explain it to me?”

Oh Maker, that was the most endearing thing you’ve ever heard. What a sweetheart, and he’s yours.

“Actually, one quick question,” Din says with genuine curiosity. “Why did you call him Master? Doesn’t he have a name?”

“Yes, but it’s irrelevant. I use the term ‘Master’ as a sign of respect.” Din wraps his arm around you as you allow your hand to caress his inner thigh.

“STOP THAT” he exclaims while retracting his arm and turning his body away from you. “There’s no way I can intently listen and grasp what you’re telling me if you do that.” You let out a small, timid laugh. “Sorry,” you say while letting your shoulders fall and head droop downwards.

“Hey, it’s alright. Start again from the beginning. Can you describe to me what the force is?”

Oh no. You feel it coming and try with every ounce of energy you have to stop it, but it’s no use. You let out the loudest and longest yawn humanly possible. Before you can continue, your mind begins to wander. It’s so hard to create a proper response when you’re this tired. “Actually Din…please don’t be upset with me...” He tilts his head slightly as If he’s trying to read your mind. Maybe that’s how he thinks the force works.

“Can I tell you tomorrow instead? I can show you how I use my abilities in real life situations when necessary. I’ll be able to show you how I can connect with Grogu…”

“Really?? You woke me up only to change your mind?” Shit, there it is. He’s upset now. Hold on…did he really just gloss over you saying you can connect to Grogu??

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said anything, I-”

“I was joking. Yes, you can tell me tomorrow. Now get over here, I have two free arms that need an angel to hold on to.” You stand up slowly to prevent collapsing on top of him. He reaches for your hands and gives you the stability you need to lower yourself in between his legs. Holding you in a warm embrace, he whispers in your ear. The last words you hear before falling asleep make your heart do a summersault in your chest.

“I’m going to get you for that.”

[jjba-hell]

Fate and Fortune

Ok so this one I just HAD to do and you’ll see why in my next chapter. Might switch over to a Part every two days since y’know- life but here ya go.

For the moots: @fyre23 and @risottoneroo (you’ll like the end I promise)

Part 12

When they ended up in Saudi Arabia, the first trip Vera had to take was to the clothing shop. Out of customary respect she had to switch to a considerably more conservative choice of clothes, slipping out of the shop to meet Polnareff outside. “It must be boiling underneath. Are you alright?”

“Oh you’d be surprised how cool this fabric is.” She gave a twirl of black fabric. “Also, this isn’t my first time here, Avdol and I...” she forgot she needed to be mourning him in front of Polnareff.

He placed a gentle hand in her shoulder, giving his best sympathetic smile. “I understand you had many adventures while you waited for him to be your confirmed guardian?”

She nodded, wringing the strap of her bag over her shoulder. In truth she did miss him terribly, but unlike Polnareff she knew he was still breathing. “It was more trying to understand ourselves and helping developing stand users. Unfortunately the true niche of his research he kept even from me.”

The hopped in the car- Vera sliding into the front seat while the others were speaking on their next steps on the journey. She figured they’d have to cross the desert sooner or later but she still dreaded the intense heat they’d have to travel through- even though, she supposed, she was best accustomed to the heat.

Or at least she hoped.

After guzzling enough water to last her well into the night and smothering her face in sunscreen she lead the camel to its knees with a handful of grass and hopped on. Vera admittedly had some experience doing this but she wasn’t going to teach the others how to do it- it was, after all, so entertaining to watch Mr Joestar struggle a bit. “I’m sorry- I though you had experience with camels, Mr Joestar.”

She tossed an apple in front of her camel and hopped off to help- moving to Polnareff first. “Honestly Polnareff, I’ve taken trips to Paris- surely you’re aware of the state of the town isn’t that cleanly as you make it out to be.”

Vera wrapped the grey scarf around his head and neck loosely, letting him lure his own camel down. Once he was up she moved to Kakyoin who was constantly looking over his shoulder. “Do you feel... watched, by any chance?”

“I’m not sure- I kind of feel like my intution’s been thrown off since Pakistan. Everything feels kind of off- like I’m just constantly....phasing?”

His hand slid up her covered arm, brows knitting in concern. “Jotaro told me the night terrors were rough last night. Are you sure you wouldn’t ride with one of us?”

She bit back to wide of a small, playing with the extra fabric of the shawl on his shoulders. With a playful snap she pulled him a bit closer, standing on her tiptoes as she kissed his cheek.

His cheeks dusted a lovely pink color and she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re sweet but I’m still prideful- much like you.” She gazed up at him through her fluttering lashes before moving back to the task at hand.

If they were really being watched then she was hoping she just placed a target on her back. How much Dio was letting his minions know was still debatable but if they believed her to be vulnerable then that was all she needed.

To drive the point home she came to Jotaro who had seemed to manage just fine on his own- strapping the water to his steed in silence while Mr Joestar was floundering about. “You also feel watched?”

He only nodded, turning to look her head on. “I think Star would have seen something by now, wouldn’t he?”

It seemed the same thought crossed Jotaro’s mind- his gaze moving to look out over the horizon- as if he’d see what it was that was watching them.

Moving with Jotaro was slow but she took the moment to hold out her hand to him which he took, softly entertwining their fingers together as she moved to block her from view of the rest. “Are you sure you can make it through? I know you didn’t get much sleep in.”

She squeezed his hand, laughing at how both the boys thought she was only coming to them for aid. “I think I can handle myself just fine, JoJo.”

It was her turn to make the move- she squeezed his hand gently then moved in for a casual hug before moving on ahead with the journey.

Vera had believed she was used to the heat, that the sweltering fire beating down on her was normal and it would be over soon but the sun didn’t move. When they stopped a moment and realized the time she knew something was very very wrong. “Eight? As in 20 hundred?”

She moved closer to Jotaro to check and the realization hit her hard. “It must be a stand.”

“Vera, can’t you make it return to its user?” Polnareff asked but she was already off her camel and heading towards the rock nearby.

“No. Stands define Fortune.” Her back hit the rock with a thud and with a heavy swallow she tried to gather her thoughts. “It has to be short ranged- the power that thing holds is vile. So where could the user be?”

She materialized Fortune from her and allowed them to start walking straight ahead of them. Kakyoin used Hierophant Green to spread out and look as well.

She had to pull back quickly after Kakyoin got injured by the barrage of flames raining down on the group. And that’s how you ended up in the a hole in the ground sweating through your eyeballs.

“Jotaro- do you ever get tired of using Star Platinum vigorously?” She wondered out loud, laying down on her back. “Or haven’t you quite tried.”

“The latter. I know- waiting this out isn’t going to work out, is it?”

She shook her head- putting her feet up on the bigger water canteen she’d phased into the cave. If only her head would work long enough to think straight she could have come up with a solution but she couldn’t even turn back the time on their bodies.

When Kakyoin finally broke out in a laughing fit she thought she’d lose him. Then Jotaro joined and she knew it was too late. Vera sat up and tried to bring Fortune closer to reverse the possible brain damage from the heat but Kakyoin only took her wrist gently, pulling her snug against him and showing precisely what they were laughing at.

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” She had Fortune move out of the cave and toss the stone at the mirror they’d been looking out on and soon enough the sun was gone and the sparkling night sky took its place.

The second it was allowed she was first to March out of the cave after the stand user. “Motherfucker!” She shouted up at the sky at the sight of the user dislodged from his perfectly little air conditioned spot behind the mirror.

“Took the stand meaning a bit literal there, didn’t he?”

They made camp after the abused the residual heat from the stand battle before settling in for camp. Of course someone had to keep watch and none other the Jotaro volunteered.

Vera was glad Kakyoin and Jotaro seemed a bit less phased by her presence with one another than before. What she wasn’t expecting was finding Kakyoin leaving Jotaro’s look out spot- looking awfully disheveled and finding none other than Jotaro without a jacket.

It took everything out of Vera to not cackle out in glee- instead letting a smile crack through the facade as Jotaro tried to cover the hickeys on his neck with a palm. “I could heal that for you, or is too personal?”

He didn’t answer, almost looking as if he felt ashamed of what he had done until she stripped off her head dress and top to sit beside him in her tank top as well. “Hey, relax- I’ve messed around with more girls than guys anyway.”

Another quizzical look which earned him a shrug. “My boarding school’s divided- curiosity was bound to take over. Kind of realized I didn’t have a preference- boys are just a bit meaner though.”

Jotaro had to clear his throat to say, “I thought I knew until you came along. Girls annoy the shit out of me so I thought I knew but-“

He ran a hand over his hair, Vera only then noticing that his cap was missing. “I don’t know.” He growled in frustration. She moved in closer, touching his cheek to let him look at her. “I’m not mad, you know. I’m not asking answers either. All I ask is the same curtesy.”

It was a side-tracked idea she hadn’t considered in a long time but which one, if any, of the two she was in love with- she wasn’t sure- then they turn around and like each other and suddenly it seemed both less and more complicated. Could they all be content with a polycule. She hadn’t noticed she was overthinking until Jotaro brought both his hands to cup her face, looking her in the eye and asking. “Can I kiss you?”

She must have seemed shocked because he added, “Just so I can make sure?”

And in that moment it felt impersonal, as if they were just two idiots trying to traverse a topic neither one could think through. “Yeah.” Was all she answered as her hand wrapped around his left wrist and their lips met.

He was clumsy with his kiss, that was for sure. She couldn’t decide if it was the inexperience or simply because his face- and therefore lips- simply dwarfed her own but it was wet and all she could taste was mint cigarette and something fruity she couldn’t quite place.

When he moved away, they stared at each other in disbelief and she couldn’t help but sigh. “Please tell me I’m not the only one that liked that.”

[lunarjaunt]

man, I wish they kept the age gap between Tim and Damian because I always see it like this:

Damian started watching anime through AOT season 1 (under the influence of Jon) but he prefers reading shojo/josei stuff like Kaguya sama or even found family stuff like Fruit Basket or Spy x Family. He has attended Comic Con and that's it, he never attended the smaller cons. Manga started out as a way for Damian as a safe space for him to learn more about human connections because his real life is a dumpster fire.

Tim was definitely an anime fan from the older generation. He read the Inuyasha manga, he watched the cringy dude animes like Code Geass and Death Note and he most certainly kin Shinji. The least cringe anime/manga he watched was Hunterxhunter. He attended anime conventions with Ives and their friends when the paddle boards was still happening. He most definitely read and translated yaoi doujins on livejournal when he was still NOT figuring stuff out with Kon during his Titans days.

Damian and Tim are both anime fans, but the difference is that Damian likes rare-finds anime that are not well-known but are still a complete masterpiece, while Tim likes stuff like……….Attack on Titan, One Piece or BNHA.

[fairestcat]

We Did The Thing: Musings On the AO3, Wiscon, and Winning the Fandom Culture Wars

HOLY SHIT WE WON A MOTHERFUCKING HUGO.

Ahem.

More seriously - or at least more verbosely - I think we won the fandom culture wars. How weird is that?

This is a sort of rambly post. It's about the OTW and the AO3, but it's also about Wiscon, because that's the community I'm in where old-school SFF fandom and transformative works fandom collide, and it's where I've watched this transformation happen over the last decade.

Back in October I made a tumblr post about the history of the OTW/AO3: On the AO3 all these years later.

That post is mostly just quotes from the comments to @astolat's original post that started the AO3: An Archive Of One's Own - and quotes from the post I made back then linking to hers:  An Archive of One's Own, Or: Why Shouldn't We Ask For Everything We Want?

Those posts are from May 2007. I was on the OTW Finance Committee by that fall.

One year later, in May 2008, I went to my first Wiscon. I was on two panels: "Fanfic and Slash 201," and "Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works."

They were back to back on Saturday night. "Fanfic and Slash 201" from 9:00 to 10:15 and the OTW panel from 10:30 to 11:45. All fanworks panels at non fanworks-specific cons were late night panels back then. Or, occasionally, on Monday morning after half the con had gone home.

I don't remember who else was on the Fanfic 201 panel, but the OTW panel was me, @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon. The three of us had never met before that con. @oliviacirce and I had been in Chicago Friday night for a Panic! At the Disco concert and hadn't gotten back to Madison until 3am. I have no idea how we were even still coherent for a 10:30 PM panel.

None of us wrote the panel description, which reads even more impressively antagonistic in retrospect.

"The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), led by fanfic writers, fan vidders, and fan artists (including writer Naomi Novik) seeks to establish a new regime in copyright law, in which 'all fannish works are recognized as legal and transformative and are accepted as a legitimate creative activity.' Should there be an exception for fanfic under copyright? Is OTW a good idea? (Some fans are afraid that OTW's activities will end BigMedia's tolerance for fannish creations.) What does the law say? What's the viewpoint of those who create original works -- should authors lose control of their original creations, as long as fans claim protection under a fanfic exception? And what about OTW's commitment to offer protection for RPF (Real People Fanfic)?"

At the time I would have said it was a pretty good panel, and yet we spent a distressing percentage of the panel defending the mere right of fanworks to even exist.

I went back to Wiscon in 2009, which was an...eventful year. It was the first Wiscon post-Racefail and it sparked a lot of discussion of intersecting modes of fannishness and particularly online fandom vs. offline con-based fandom, which was at the time a much bigger divide.

Wiscon 2009 was also the year @ellen_fremedon went to a panel on historical fiction, and got jumped on by Ellen Klages, who was one of that year's Guests of Honor, for the sin of mentioning fanfic in her presence.

After that Wiscon I posted Wiscon, Media Fandom and The Larger Fannish Conversation, about my experience of that divide, particularly as a transformative works fan at Wiscon.

Here's the thing: online media and fanfic fandom is a vibrant, active community within broader SF fandom. [...] And to a large extent media fandom is where the young female fans are, the women who are the future of fandom. We're there at Wiscon too; I was amazed by the number of people from LJ fandom I saw at the con this year. And yet, when it comes to having a voice in larger fandom, we're still the embarrassing cousin shuffled off into the corner (or the hotel lobby). Even at Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention, we're mostly under the radar, carving out a tiny niche for ourselves.

Last year we had two general, broad-topic fanfic panels. This year we had a fanfic panel, a vidding panel and the media vs. book fandom panel, which was not explicitly a media fandom panel but had an audience heavily weighted towards media fandom participants. And I walked into those panels and I thought "Here! Here are my people!" But it was frustrating too. Why are we relegated to the corner, why are we willing to be relegated to the corner? The conversations we're having, the things we're doing, they don't exist in a vacuum, they're relevant to the larger fannish conversation, they're especially relevant, I think, to the conversation going on at Wiscon. And I think it's time we were a bigger, more open part of that conversation.

So, we set out to make that happen. The OTW and the AO3 were a big part of that. Everyone who was worried at the time that the OTW would bring too much attention to fandom was right to be afraid. And wrong to be afraid too. Because that attention was how everything started to change. The OTW was fandom coming out of the closet, and like any coming out it was a powerful, transformative moment for those involved.

In 2010, a group of fans held the first ever Wiscon Vid Party. 

At Wiscon in 2010, we held the first ever vid party in one of these hospitality suites on the Saturday night, from 9pm to 3am. That's six hours of vid programming! It was mostly unthemed, other than "here are some amazing vids!"[...] The general vibe of the party was loud, a little bit raucous, and pretty informal. We had a mixture of sofas and armchairs, stackable seating, and standing room. People came and went at will. We put a sign on the door asking people to keep conversations to a minimum, and it worked pretty well to keep chatter down while still allowing people to relax and have a good time. It was pretty much like a really big living room.

I missed that con due to the whole move to Canada and get married thing I did, but I remember my first Vid Party in 2012, looking around the party room and having this amazing feeling of being surrounded by my people.

I loved Wiscon, but it was always a fraught experience. There was always this worry that I'd say the wrong thing in the wrong place and suddenly get that disappointed, "oh, you're one of those fans," response. The vid party was the one place at the con that you could just walk in and that worry went away.

And then there started being more of those places. We started suggesting more and more fic and vid related panels.

In 2012, @oliviacirce and I were both on two transformative works panels. "What makes a great transformative work?" and "Fans Fix SF." In a step up from previous fanworks panels at Wiscon they were both during the day. But they were also both in the smallest panel rooms at the con, and both panels fit comfortably into those rooms. Conference 5, where "Fans Fix SF" was held, is still the only room Wiscon uses for programming that's so small it isn't wired for microphones.

And then in 2013 I suggested ten panels for Wiscon and nine of them ended up on the schedule. They weren't all explicitly transformative fandom panels, but a lot of them were, and most of the panel descriptions were informed by my experience in transformative works fandom. Looking back, that was a sea-change moment, because an interesting thing happened. There mostly stopped being transformative fandom-specific panels at Wiscon, because it started being okay, even expected, that fanfic and other transformative works might come up on any panel, from the audience or the panelists.

At Wiscon 2018, I went to a panel on #OwnVoices fiction. Every panelist was a published author and/or professional editor. In the course of the panel, every panelist mentioned fanfic in general or the AO3 in specific in an explicitly complementary fashion. I nearly burst into tears in the back of the panel room.

Afterwards, I met up with @oliviacirce and ellen_fremedon to flail about it, at which point we realized that it had been ten years since that first fateful OTW panel where we all met. And that ten years both felt like so long ago, and also so recent for everything to have changed so completely.

At Wiscon 2019, the three of us were on another panel together. We called it "Fanfic: Threat or Menace - Ten Years Later," and this time I wrote the description:

Do you remember a time before the AO3? Do you remember a time when mentioning fanfic at Wiscon risked a lecture on its illegality and/or immorality? We sure do! In 2008 we met on the panel “Fanfic Rising: The Organization for Transformative Works,” & spent most of our time defending the right of fanworks to exist. In 2018 we were amazed to realize just how much had changed. Let’s talk about how the perception & reception of fanworks have changed, both in fandom at large and right here at Wiscon.

We made it onto the schedule. They once again put us in the smallest panel room. We looked around the lobby on Thursday night and said, "yeah, that ain't happening." We eventually moved to one of the largest panel rooms.

It was almost completely full.

I started the panel by reading out the original panel description from 2008. There was laughter! revolutionaryjo came up afterwards and asked to take a picture of the description on my phone. There were so many people in that room who had no idea what the Wiscon of a decade previous had been like. It was amazing.

Best Related Work? The OTW and AO3 changed the nature of the relationship between fic readers and writers and the entirety of mainstream organized SFF fandom.

The Wiscon Vid Party is still happening, and it's still a marathon of amazing vids, but it's not a really big living room anymore. The Vid Party is the Friday night feature in the biggest panel room. There are Premieres. There’s a sing-a-long. People come who have never watched a vid outside of Wiscon. People come who've never even heard of vids outside of Wiscon. The first year the Vid Party was in the big room, I walked into the room just before the show started, looked around, and realized I didn't recognize ⅔ of the people in the room. And I was so happy. Because I no longer need the Vid Party as a safe space to let down my guard, the entire con is now that place.

We did that. We made that happen.

The OTW made that happen. The AO3 made that happen. But also, a whole lot of individual fans made that happen. We stepped out of our corner, we stepped out of our closet. We demanded a seat at the table. And now we have a motherfucking HUGO AWARD, and when Naomi Novik got on stage at the Hugos and asked everyone who felt that they were part of the AO3 to stand up to be acknowledged, a notable number of this year's other Hugo nominees were among the attendees who got to their feet.

[the-desolated-quill]

Sonic Vs Harley: Send In The Hedgehogs - Quill’s Scribbles

Unless you’ve been meditating in the desert for the past couple of weeks, you’ll know that there’s a bloody epidemic going on in the world right now. The coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed our very way of life for the foreseeable future, and us plebs have been having to get used to all these alien concepts such as social distancing, self isolation, vaccines being good and Gal Gadot murdering John Lennon with a tuneless rendition of ‘Imagine.’ These are scary and uncertain times we live in, and this goes double for the movie industry as productions are halted and/or delayed, and cinemas around the globe are shutting shop. This means that streaming services, initially dismissed by pompous filmmakers like Steven Spielberg as being lesser than cinema, has now become Hollywood’s saving grace. Oh the irony!

But I’m not here to talk about that. Today I’m here to talk about how a blue CGI hedgehog seems to be more profitable than Margot Robbie.

Jokes aside, this is actually a fascinating topic of discussion in my opinion. Both Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey (I categorically refuse to type the whole title because I’ve got better shit to be doing other than trying to remember how the fuck you spell ‘fantabulous’) were released within a week of each other just as the coronavirus outbreak was gathering steam, and yet the box office earnings of both films are poles apart. Sonic has now become the highest grossing video game movie of all time and is, at the time I’m typing this, the second highest grossing film of the year, beating even Disney Pixar’s new film Onward if you can believe it, whereas Birds Of Prey... well... it’s not exactly flopped as such. The film’s low budget protected it from that, but it’s hardly what you’d call a success, making just shy of the $200 million it would need to break even. How did this happen? Especially when you consider that public opinion of both films a year ago would have you believe that the opposite would have happened. Everyone was massively excited for Birds Of Prey, especially after the string of successes DC have had with Aquaman, Shazam and most recently Joker, whereas Sonic...

...yeah, lets not talk about that.

Now before we start, let me just make absolutely clear that this is just my opinion. Mu subjective opinion. Normally I’d expect my readers to be smart enough to know this, but I’m talking about a DC movie here and I know from personal experience how ‘passionate’ a certain tin foil hat wearing portion of that fanbase can be sometimes. You may recall back in 2016 I received rape and death threats when I had the gall to say that I didn’t enjoy watching Suicide Squad. You know? That beloved classic that nobody fucking remembers or talks about anymore? Also there was that time when Harley Quinn fans started spreading fake rumours that the Sonic movie was homophobic in the hopes of salvaging Birds Of Prey’s box office earnings. And yes, I know it’s not all DCEU fans that are like this, etc. etc., but considering that it only ever seems to be DC fans that pull shit like this, you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly in a very generous mood right now. Basically, if you’ve seen Birds Of Prey and liked it, that’s great. More power to you. I’m not even suggesting that Birds Of Prey is a bad movie. I’m just exploring the reasons why I think the film may have underperformed and why, possibly, Sonic The Hedgehog overtook them despite outside circumstances. This is not fact. This is just my opinion. It’s my opinion. An opinion. A subjective opinion. It’s my opinion. Okay? Okay.

Also I should point out that out of the two films, I’ve only seen Sonic, not Birds Of Prey. Believe it or not, this will be relevant later on. Again, this is not about the quality of either film. This is merely my subjective observations regarding their respective marketing and box office performance.

So why, according to the fans and the media, did Birds Of Prey underperform at the box office? There are three popular reasons for this. The first is obviously the coronavirus. Less people willing to leave the house and buy a ticket, therefore less box office earnings. Makes sense, but I don’t think that’s the whole story. Lets not forget, Sonic The Hedgehog came out a week after Birds Of Prey and practically steamrolled over the competition despite coronavirus fears. So I’m not entirely convinced of this. The second reason is that Birds Of Prey only has niche appeal because it’s based on a lesser known comic book property. Again, makes sense, but so was Guardians Of The Galaxy and Deadpool, and they were both hugely successful. Obviously I’m not saying Birds Of Prey needed to be as big as those movies. Even if it just made the same amount of money as Shazam did, it would have been successful, but it didn’t. The third reason is good old fashioned sexism, and yes, I agree that may have been a contributing factor, but I think it’s naive to place all the blame on the anti-SJWs who feel threatened by a gang of women kicking butt. Look at the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters for example. That film received a tirade of misogynistic comments from butthurt fanboys, but it still made roughly the same amount of money at the box office as the original Ghostbusters did. The reason it flopped wasn’t because of the fanboys, but because of Sony spending a stupid amount of money on the thing in the hopes of jumpstarting a shared universe. If Ghostbusters 2016 had the same budget as Birds Of Prey, Sony would be laughing their way to the bank right now.

No I think there’s a little bit more going on here. Lets bring Sonic into the discussion and explore it, shall we?

The most blatantly obvious reason for Sonic’s success and Birds Of Prey’s relative failure is the age rating. Sonic is a PG, family friendly film with a cuddly animal as its main character. The film even stars Jim Carrey being his usual goofy self. Kids love this shit and parents will no doubt be prepared to risk a zombie apocalypse to let their kids see it. Birds Of Prey, on the other hand, is a hard R. Strong bloody violence, sexual references, everyone says ‘fuck’ a lot. No kids allowed. Of course that hasn’t stopped films like Deadpool or Joker being such giant hits, but they didn’t have to contend with a global pandemic. Plus, according to what I’ve heard from certain critics, apparently Birds Of Prey’s R rating doesn’t seem wholly justified. That if you were to cut back on the swearing and the gore, it would make no difference to the film. Now you see this is something I’ve been afraid would happen ever since Deadpool’s surprise success back in 2016. That studios and filmmakers would take the wrong lessons from it and make their films R rated just for the sake of making them R rated. We see this with movie studios all the time. One studio finds success and suddenly everyone tries to copy it without considering why it was successful in the first place. The reason Deadpool as well as other R rated films like Logan and Joker worked is because the films justified their R ratings. You couldn’t have told the same story without that R rating. An R rated Harley Quinn doesn’t seem necessary, especially when you consider that there have been Harley Quinn adaptations before that did just as well without being strictly for adults. Hell, the original Harley Quinn story from the Batman animated series was PG rated. So the inclusion of a R rating feels less like a genuine artistic choice and more like trend chasing. And now that Joker has become the most profitable comic book movie ever made, I fear this is only going to get worse in the future.

Another factor that needs to be considered is audiences’ trust and expectation. Sonic The Hedgehog’s journey to the big screen has in some ways become the classic redemption story. After the initial reveal of Sonic the Manhog, fans were understandably pissed off that a beloved video game icon was given such a grotesque re-imagining for the sake of ‘realism’ (snort). As a result of the backlash, the director Jeff Fowler announced they would revise the design and the film was postponed for three months in order to fix it. The result was a Sonic design much closer to the games and this generated a lot of goodwill from the fans. Subsequent trailers were much better received and there was a lot more positive buzz around the movie. Birds Of Prey on the other hand demonstrated the inverse of this. Everyone was hugely excited, but as we got closer and closer to the date of release, audience anticipation began to wane. The trailers received little fanfare. In fact a lot of people were largely unimpressed by it. Why?

Well first we should address the elephant in the room. The fact of the matter is Sonic has a bigger and much more passionate fanbase than Harley does. That’s not to say Harley isn’t a popular character. She is. But I think Warner Bros and DC seriously overestimated how much people wanted to see Harley Quinn get her own movie. She may have been the best thing about Suicide Squad, but considering what a total trainwreck Suicide Squad was, that’s hardly saying much, is it? I mean the villain Sandman was the best thing about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. That doesn’t mean I want a whole movie based on him. It just means out of all the things I hated about Spider-Man 3, Sandman was the thing I hated least.

And that’s another thing. The fact that Birds Of Prey didn’t try to distance themselves from Suicide Squad I don’t think did them any favours. While Suicide Squad was a commercial success at the time, people haven’t exactly been kind to the film in subsequent years. I mean feel free to read my review of Suicide Squad for an exhaustive list of reasons why the film was less than enjoyable to sit through. One dimensional characters, poor editing, ugly colour palette, casual sexism, David Ayer trying desperately to look cool and edgy, I could go on. So when the first trailers for Birds Of Prey came out and we saw the neon colour scheme and Hot Topic wardrobes make a comeback, I can’t have been the only one who was slightly put off.

Which leads me to the biggest issue of all and that’s the stonking unoriginality of the whole thing. For all their boasting about how feminist and progressive they are, what is it about Birds Of Prey that makes it stand out from other comic book films? Granted Sonic wasn’t wholly original either, but at least they had the novelty of a blue CGI hedgehog to piggyback off of. Birds Of Prey really doesn’t have anything if you think about it. Here’s the impression I got from the trailers. It has the same aesthetics as Suicide Squad, so already I’m getting PTS style flashbacks, and its story doesn’t seem all that intriguing or unique. Think about it. A violent anti-hero has to protect a delinquent child from some sadistic big baddie. How many times have we seen that done in these films? Terminator 2, Deadpool 2, Logan, even Ghost Rider has told this story before. The fact that the characters in question happen to be women doesn’t change a damn thing. They even have Harley Quinn breaking the fourth wall. Like... guys, come on! Surely we can do something more original than this! It feels like the only thing Birds Of Prey has going for it is that its main protagonists are all women. But after the likes of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, that’s no longer a real selling point anymore. You need something else to entice people. Something that Birds Of Prey sorely lacks.

Now I’m sure any Birds Of Prey fans reading this must be getting pissed off at me, so I’d just like to remind everyone yet again that I’m not necessarily saying Birds Of Prey is a bad film. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen it. And that’s kind of my point. A week or so ago, my friend and I knew this was probably going to be our last opportunity to go to the cinema for quite some time, so we knew we had to make our choice of film count. We had a choice between Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey, and we ended up going to see Sonic. We don’t regret it. We had a good time watching Sonic. It was a fun movie, well made and surprisingly moving at points. (interesting to note, Sonic also has the main protagonist protecting a child plot, but unlike the films I mentioned, Sonic’s story is told from the perspective of the kid. It’s a little thing, but it’s enough to make the whole thing feel fresh and unique because it’s something not even the games tend to acknowledge. Sonic is a kid and the film plays around with that, which adds to its overall charm). Maybe Birds Of Prey is a better movie than Sonic. I don’t know. But that’s not what this is about. When picking which film we would watch, it was the factors I mentioned before that we considered and I suspect what many other people took into consideration too. Basically we looked at these two films and thought to ourselves which one would we be prepared to go outside and risk our health for in order to see it in a cinema. In the end, Sonic won because, out of the two films, it looked more exciting and more unique than Birds Of Prey, and ultimately we trusted that this film could deliver what it promised. Is that fair? Probably not, but sadly that’s often how these things play out. 

Birds Of Prey may have had a good critical reception, but it ultimately shot itself in the foot thanks to some of its creative and marketing decisions. And if studios take anything away from all this, it should be that relying solely on the gender of the main characters as a means to sell something just doesn’t cut it anymore.

[xmagicxshopx]

Moon Monsters - Chapter 7

Genre: Fantasy Adventure, Romance (smut later), Comedy Rating: PG-13 Warnings: none at this time Pairing: Jungkook x reader, Jimin x oc, Taehyung x oc Notes: werewolf!bts au. Not idol!bts. Same goes for GOT7. Single quote marks ‘ ‘ are for thoughts and double “ “ are for talking. Additional Notes: Sorry this took me so long, guys. Just had to find the right words. Please enjoy all the surprises I have stored in this chapter~

Tagging: @och-ako @jiminnies-baby @kfictionstories @justbangtanandjams @lizardsocial @breadcaaat @wordsturnintostories

Summary: You’re the CEO’s new personal assistant. But there’s something strange about him and the company you work for.

SERIES MASTERLIST

“Get off me! I have to make sure she’s okay!”

“Sir----Sir! Please! Calm down. She’s in good hands. The medics are looking at her now. But you need to be looked at too.”

“I’m fine! I just need to see her! She might need me!”

“Sir----We do not want to have to sedate you. But we will if we need to. For your own safety. Now, please, relax and let us take a look at you.”

If he hadn’t been so distraught and worried about you, Jungkook would have laughed in their faces. He may be labeled a young pup, but a wolf his size and with all his muscle, it would take some tranquilizer darts to put him down. No. He needed to get to his mate. She was hurt and that was unacceptable.

“I’ve got this one, sir. Go check on the other surrounding civilians to make sure they don’t have any major injuries.”

“Let me go! I----”

And suddenly, Jungkook was dragged inside the ambulance by a masked medic who was locking the doors. Ripping the mask off, it was none other than Namjoon. Turning to face his youngest pup, his eyes were full of sadness and sympathy.

“Hyung! I need to make sure she’s okay! Please! Let me out of here!”

“Kook, it’s visibly evident you’ve got a concussion and you’re bleeding all over the place. We need to take you back to the den and have Jin take a look at you.”

“Then bring her with you! I’m not leaving her side, hyung! I’m not!”

Jungkook was strong, but Namjoon was both strong and wise. So it only took a matter of seconds for the young male to try and swerve around his hyung for the doors of the ambulance, only for said hyung to find that perfect pressure point in Kook’s neck and just like that, his world went black as he felt limp in Namjoon’s arms.

“Dang he needs to stop working out. Freaking heavy.”

You woke up to the sound of an annoying beeping. It didn’t sound like your alarm and you didn’t recall changing your ringtone on your phone to such an annoying sound. God you ached. Everything hurt. Nothing made sense. What the hell was going on here? Trying to move even the slightest, it only brought on more confusion. That is......till you heard a familiar voice.

“Hey.....beautiful? You awake?”

“J--J--”

“Shh. Let me get you some water first.”

Cracking your eyes open, you realized you were in a dimly lit room. The beeping was more noticeable and upon looking up above you, it was plain to see you were in a bed of some sort and hooked up to a plethora of monitors. And it was that moment that everything came rushing back to you like a tidal wave.

The shopping trip, the car, the blast. It was all there. Your heart monitor picked up a bit as you tried to process everything. Good lord when was life going to slow down for you? When were things going to get back to normal again? And like a light in the darkness, you watched your roommate rush back over to you with a glass of water.

“Easy, princess. Just take deep breaths for me, okay?”

“Jungkook----You’re hurt.”

“Aish, woman. I said shush. Here.”

The next thing you knew, he was setting the glass of water down on the side table so that he could help shift you up into a better sitting position without aggravating any of your injuries. Sure Jungkook was injured too, but his wounds were going to heal a hell of a lot quicker than yours. You, his fragile mate who was still human and didn’t yet possess the healing properties that came with being a wolf.

“Take slow sips, babe. You don’t want to choke.”

Well he was making that difficult. The pet name did things to you. And that bloody heart monitor was giving you away as it bleeped a bit. Of course he noticed and looked at you with worry and concern etched deep in his facial expression. However, if he was going to ask you about it, he must have decided to spare you as he set the glass of water back down now that you were done with it.

“What happened? Why my car? What did I or my car ever do to anyone? And my stuff we bought? Is it----”

“Beautiful, Beautiful. Slow down, okay? I know this is overwhelming but the stress with slow down your healing progress. Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything.”

Well there wasn’t much to explain, really. While he carefully helped you back down into a laying position and making sure you were as comfortable as you could be, Jungkook thought about how to word what he was about to say. Truth was, he had a very serious talk with Namjoon and, honestly, it left Jungkook pretty spooked. The last thing anyone wanted was to make your nerves even more frazzled than they already were.

“You see, babe.......Namjoonie hyung and I think.....well......We’re beginning to wonder if.......If you’re being targeted.”

There really was no pretty way to say it but dang the male wish he hadn’t stuttered and faltered so much. It only revealed how nervous and scared he was and right now you needed him to be strong. He was your strong mate who was supposed to show no fear and protect you from harm. He watched a look of confusion cross over your face as you mumbled,

“I--I’m sorry, what? Targeted? Why? I didn’t do anything to anyone.”

“I know, love.”

Did he have to keep up with the pet names? And what was this weird feeling in your chest every time he used one? Good lord you didn’t have the energy for this. First your apartment goes up in flames where you lose everything to your name. Then your car gets stolen. Now said car gets graffiti spray painted all over it and blown to smithereens. What else could God possibly throw at you right now???

Maybe someone really was targeting you. But why?

“Kookie-----I’m scared. What if----”

Dear lord. That crack in your feeble voice. The welling of tears in your eyes. And those words. I’m scared. It was like pulling the trigger on a weapon. Something snapped inside the male and he suddenly took your hand in his that had the pulse and oxygen level reader on your finger and kissed the back of your scarred skin. In a hushed voice, he whispered soothingly,

“Hey, hey, hey. It’s going to be okay. Nothing is going to happen to you while I’m still living and breathing. All this bad luck shit is gonna end right here right now.”

“Jungkook---language.”

He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling as you laid there with red rimmed, watery eyes and a cute red nose to match; scolding him for his mild French. You looked so small, so tiny, laying in this stupid hospital bed when you should be resting on his couch next to him watching more cheesy Disney movies. Falling asleep in his arms after a long day of shopping.

But that didn’t happen. Because someone was trying to target you. His girl. His mate. It wasn’t you they were after.

It was Jungkook.

And they officially got his attention. Something the male would make sure they regretted.

“Kookie? You okay?”

Just as he was about to assure you he was fine, there was a soft couple knocks at the door and in came Hoseok. You always did like his bright smile. He was like a ray of sunshine when things got stressful at the office. You often wondered how he managed to stay so positive all the time.

“Jungkookie, Namjoon’s got something for you.”

The older male then laid eyes on you and smiled that bright smile that could light up the whole world and added,

“The girls are here. They’d like to see you. Feeling up to it?”

“Absolutely. Send them in, please.”

You looked over to see that serious expression on your roommate’s face once again. It was like he was in some serious and deep thought. But before you could question him, he suddenly lifted your hand again and kissed the back of it. Were you ever going to get used to that? Why was that even a question? God you couldn’t wait till the girls got in here. You needed some help. Girl help.

“I’ll be back, beautiful. Have fun with the girls.”

“O--Okay.”

No more had the door closed behind him, it busted right back open and two blubbering females came stumbling into the room. Widow got to you first as she flung herself onto you despite all the cords. Mama Bird quickly closed the door to give you three some privacy. Pulling up a chair while Widow sat in another, it was the petite one who said in a serious tone,

“Girlfriend----We need to have a talk.”

So they ‘sat you down’ and had a nice long talk with you. Lucky for them, you were all on the same wavelength because their topic of choice just happened to be the same as yours. You never imagined you’d be sitting with your small niche of girl friends discussing boy troubles.

“Girl, I’m telling you, he likes you. Like----Likes you likes you.”

“You should have seen him barreling through the hospital doors. He was almost out of his mind.”

“Yeah. It took almost every one of his coworkers to settle him down. He was really worried about you. It almost got him thrown out of the hospital.”

“Are we talking about the same guy here?”

You asked the question as you tried to soak up all the information they were giving you. Why would Jungkook be ‘out of his mind’ because you got hurt? What was so special about you? None of this was making any sense.

“Jungkook would have been that worried about anyone. He’s just a really nice boy is all.”

At the same exact time, as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times, they both shook their heads and said,

“Nah. He’s crushing on you.”

“Guuuyssss! That’s ridiculous! Why me!? There’s nothing special about me!”

“Jimin and Taehyung tell us he’s all the time staring at you while at work. And when that Jackson guy tried to hit on you at the club that night, Taehyung told me Kook was livid.”

You laid there in your bed chewing nervously on your bottom lip; feeling it flaking. What if they were right? What if this wasn’t just your coworker and roommate being a nice guy? What if there was more to the story? It would explain why he’s so affectionate with the skinship and all. And the pet names.

“Well.......He did.......Give me a lot of pet names a little bit ago.”

“See!!”

“Yah. You guys don’t have to be so in sync about it. It’s just----We aren’t even in the same league. I’m ground beef and he’s----he’s.......Prime Rib!”

“Doesn’t matter. He likes you. You like him. It’s----”

“Hey hey. Who said I liked him???”

They both gave you a look that clearly screamed they weren’t buying your bluff and all you could do was pout and huff in annoyance. Honestly, you weren’t sure how you felt. So much had happened in the last few days that you couldn’t think about boys and love right now. Or maybe you were just afraid to think about it.

“So what do you think I should do?”

“Hook up.” “Kiss him.”

It all sounded like a jumble of words as they had answered at the same exact time. So much so, that you couldn’t tell who gave which response. Regardless, both answers had you blushing like a teenager and the heart monitor had slightly picked up in beeping as your heart was doing gymnastics inside your chest.

“You two aren’t any help at all. Why again are we friends?”

“Because you love us.”

Meanwhile, Jungkook was standing huddled with the rest of the guys as the seven of them were in the waiting room. Fortunately it was just them since it was so late in the evening. The atmosphere was tense as the pack leader began to speak.

“We have evidence that leads us to believe it was another werewolf. A tuft of fur was found on the scene next to where her car was parked on the street the day her apartment was set on fire. The day it was stolen. I’ve got people trying to swipe the camera footage from other places of business that would have caught sight of the incident.”

“So then we agree she’s being targeted?”

“It’s not her they’re after.......It’s me.”

“Jungkook. I know you like to feel special and all because she’s your girl, but----”

Before his hyung could finish, the youngest pup interrupted him and explained in a surprisingly calm voice,

“I know who did it. It makes sense now. The werewolf fur, all of this happening right after the night at the club. Guys.......It’s so obvious now.”

He looked especially at Jimin and Taehyung. When the second youngest locked eyes, it was like watching the light bulb come on. With a soft curse, he stood up and muttered,

“Jackson. That son of a b---”

“Wait wait wait. Jackson? As in....Jackson of the Lucky Seven pack?”

“Yeah. That one. The dirt bag. I should have known he would be a sore loser.”

Before Taehyung could blow up any further, it was Namjoon who put the breaks on the situation as he put his hands up a bit and said softly,

“Whoa whoa whoa. Okay let’s back up here. Clearly we are not on the same page. Some of us are missing a chapter here. Kook, Tae, tell us what happened.”

So that’s when the two youngest of the pack started going over the events of the night they went out with you to the bar Jimin had recommended to help celebrate your first week in your new position. They talked about how Jackson had been messing with you for awhile now and that he had made an appearance at the same bar and was trying to make a move on you yet again.

After letting all of the details sink in, the leader of their little family sighed heavily and rubbed his face. This was great. Just great. Not only had the Bangtan Pack and Lucky Seven Pack gotten along for years, but just yesterday their leader and some of his boys were helping rebuild what you had lost. And now he was being told one of the members could have actually caused the damage in the first place?

“It all fits, Namjoon. This is payback for losing her to me. Because we all know how Jackson likes to go around and brag about how he never loses and always gets what he wants.”

It was silent for a moment. Or what felt like several moments. Surprisingly enough, it was Taehyung who was boiling while Jungkook remained cool as a cucumber. The second youngest just couldn’t help it. You were so special to him. You were like a sister-in-law already and you made his own mate extremely happy. And anything that made Black Widow happy left Taehyung a very happy puppy. And now someone was threatening that happiness. This wasn’t cool, bro. Not cool at all.

“Yoongi, start collecting the security footage of the office building. I want every second she and Jackson were together on film. If he really is harassing her, he’s going to have consequences for his actions in my company. Whether he’s targeting her and Jungkook or not, I will not allow harassment in my company.”

The leader then looked up at his pack and started giving more orders.

“Jin, see if you can get Jaebum on the line. We need to talk. Hoseok, see if you can get Mark to talk. I know he’s closer to Jackson than the rest of them. He could be an accomplice because I highly doubt Jackson could have possibly done this by himself. And you three.....”

He was eyeing the three youngest pups of his family and added with a little more warmth and gentleness,

“Go take care of your girls.”

“Oh we’re just fine. But we got plans for Kook here.”

All seven pairs of eyes looked up and Jungkook ended up turning around only to be face-to-face with two very mischievous looking young girls. Yikes. They were playing the part of she-wolves way too well and way too soon. Not a lot of things scared Jungkook. But when females got their heads together, now that was scary.

Not long after the girls left, you saw Jin coming in and tried to give a bow of your head to him. He was the vice president of the company you work for after all. He simply chuckled and waved his hand as if swatting at a fly and said casually,

“No need for the formalities, child. I’m here as a friend, not your second in command of a boss. How are you feeling?”

“Really sore. Where’s Jungkook? Is he okay? He looked......really stressed earlier when he left.”

“Kookie’s fine. Aside from the concussion, of course. Namjoon sent him home to freshen up but the little snot nosed brat promised that nothing was going to keep him away from here for long. I imagine he’ll be back soon.”

You tried not to blush at the information. Perhaps the girls weren’t exaggerating? Had your coworker and roommate really been that scared for you? How long had he been sitting next to your bedside? Clearing your now once again dry throat, you looked back up to see the male smiling in amusement and you pouted.

“Not you too???”

“Hey. I may be a man but I notice these things too. I’m not totally and completely clueless. Only when I don’t want to take orders from Namjoon. Then I act like the dumbest male on Earth. It gets me out of everything.”

The both of you laugh and even though it hurt in some places, you welcomed the entertainment. It felt like years since you had laughed but really it was just the weight of everything that made it seem that way. All of this bad luck could really get to a person.

“Thanks, Jin. I’ll be waiting for him.”

Indeed you waited. It felt like several hours but really it was only about three or four. Looking at the clock on your phone, you saw it was almost 9:00pm. The irrational part of your brain kept bringing up all the bad possibilities. What if he had decided to go home and just rest for the night? What if something happened to him next? What if he was trying to make his way here and got in a wreck because of his concussion? What if----

“Hey sorry I’m late, beautiful. It’s gonna sound really cliche but traffic was horrible. What are so many people doing out on a Sunday night is beyond me.”

He was only slightly out of breath as he carried his duffel bag over to the couch that was in your room. The hospital had moved you out of critical condition and now you were in a cozy little room that looked much more inviting despite it still being a hospital room.

“What’s with the bag?”

“Oh this? I’m staying the night. The doctor said you’ll be free to go home tomorrow once he makes sure you’ll be okay. He said you could go back to work Tuesday if you’re feeling up to it, but for now he’s keeping you here for observation. Typical doctor stuff.”

“Kookie. You don’t have to stay with me. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

“But I brought your favorite.”

Your eyes widened as he pulled something other than clothing out from his bag. It was a takeout box. You recognized the logo too. It was from your favorite restaurant. Turning extremely flustered, you asked with a stutter,

“H--How did you know it’s my favorite?”

“Widow told me.”

And suddenly it clicked for you. Narrowing your eyes in suspicion at him, you asked with folded arms; being careful of all the cords attached to you,

“Oh yeah? What else did she tell you?”

But the young male just chuckled and started taking out more boxes. Looks like he had grabbed a little of everything they had on the menu. You didn’t know how to feel at the moment. Things were starting to feel......intimate again. It was that same strange, almost intoxicating feeling again. You itched to hold his hand some more and you wanted him over next to your bed so badly you couldn’t stand it. So confusing.

Truth be told, Jungkook felt like he was dying right now. With it being so close to Monday, his heat was starting to kick in and you smelled like absolute Heaven right now. Your ovulation in full swing as you would approach your period not this week but next week. But he was going to go through with this. And then in the morning he’d be gone and leave you in the care of his pack. Well some.

A FEW HOURS AGO.....

“Namjoon......I need to go to the island for this one. It’s not safe for her to be so close to me. The cabin and chains aren’t going to cut it this time. I need to be across water and even that I fear may not be enough. Can Tae come along? Just to help keep me grounded from losing my mind.”

The two of them were in the boy’s apartment as he packed a few sets of clothing into a duffel bag while keeping another one for things like toiletries and other necessities. This week was going to be hell. He could already tell. Being just this far away from you was killing the poor boy. It was only a small taste of what was in store for him.

“Actually I think that’s a good idea. While I know we’re eventually going to have to talk to her, especially if Jackson is behind this, now definitely isn’t the best time. We don’t need her finding out what we are because of heat. How you holding up, by the way? You look a bit warm.”

“Honestly? I feel like I’m dying. It’s not even the whole being horny thing. It’s......My heart hurts, hyung. I need to be by her side. She’s hurt and in pain and I want to lick all her wounds clean and groom her and-----”

“Aigoo aigoo. Still a young pup trying to control his canine urges.”

Jungkook pouted like a child as his pack leader sat there in the desk chair and laughed at him. Of course it wasn’t in any mean way but still. He couldn’t help it. His inner wolf liked to try and take over when it came time for heat week as the young male liked to call it. However, the older between the two nodded once more and said casually,

“I’ll have the private jet ready for you in the morning and I’ll have Taehyung pick you up from the hospital where I will personally escort her home to your apartment. Sound good?”

“It sounds great, hyung. You’re the best pack leader I could ever hope for. Thank you so much for this.”

“Don’t mention it. But, Kook......do you think it wise to be spending the night there? You’re already starting to struggle with the tug.”

“I think I can deal with it till morning. It hurts and it’s painful but it’s not unbearable. In fact, I feel like being next to her might at least help with some of the pain.”

He added with a sigh and a nervous rub to the back of his head; looking completely stressed out as he stared at his two luggage bags,

“Besides.....The girls told me they’re getting tired of waiting on me.”

BACK TO THE PRESENT......

“You sneaked in dinner from my favorite restaurant?”

“Yep. Hope you don’t mind.”

You stared at him in complete disbelief. Not in a bad way. You weren’t ungrateful, no. Just......surprised? The hospital had already fed you dinner while your roommate was out but, one, you weren’t about to tell him that. And two, it sucked and this right here was going to be ten times better.

So after getting two pairs of disposable chopsticks out of the takeout bag, Jungkook carefully arranged all the food boxes on your nightstand and the two of you started to eat. You noticed he looked a little ragged. Wasn’t the whole point of going out was to freshen up?

“You okay, Jungkookie? Is it your injuries? Are they bothering you?”

Not wanting you to stress any more than you already were, he quickly shook his head while in mid-chewing and swallowed just as fast. Flashing you a wide smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, he replied casually,

“Oh no. No those are fine. Honestly they don’t even hurt anymore. No I just.......I wanted to be able to finish our day together somewhat like we planned, you know? We were supposed to go out and have di-dinner.”

Curse him for stuttering. Good lord how old was he? 16? He needed to man up and take control. But in his small defense, the smell of you was killing him and making it extremely hard to think straight. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. But he couldn’t leave you. Not yet. He wasn’t finished.

“So um......Princess......There’s something I want to talk about before I leave for vacation in the morning.”

“If you’re about to tell me to make sure I turn all the burners off and the oven off when I’m done in the kitchen, I think I can handle it, Kook.”

Honestly, you had completely forgotten about his vacation being this week. Your chest grew tight and you felt like your throat was closing up despite the joke you tried to pull. Jungkook had gotten you through the last few days and to think you’d suddenly be without him scared you a little. He was like your life jacket and now it was floating up river and out of your hands. You were going to drown without him. It was then that his soft chuckles calmed your frazzled nerves.

“Ani ani. I um.....It’s about......”

He took a deep breath and set his now empty box of takeout on the night stand and placed his hands in his lap. Staring up at you, he briefly bit his bottom lip before saying,

“I like you. A lot.”

Oh boy. This was it. Here we go. You knew something had to be up when he said Widow had told him about your favorite restaurant. Seeing him all cute and sweating over it, though, made you want to tease him a bit. Smiling what appeared to be an innocent smile, you said casually,

“Awes. I like you too, Kookie.”

“No that’s-----No that’s not what I-----Aish, woman. Don’t make me spell it out for you.”

Giggling behind your free hand that wasn’t holding the chopsticks, you watched him with crinkled eyes as he pouted with his shoulders slouched and sliding down a bit in his chair. He looked so cute all flustered like that.

“What if I want you to spell it out for me?”

“You’re evil. How long have you known?”

“For as long as the girls have kept bugging me about it. I kept trying to deflect them but today they were pretty persistent about it. They um......They said you were out of your mind with worry over me.”

“I was.”

You stared at him; now having set your chopsticks down in your takeout box which sat in your lap now that you were fulling sitting up in bed. His eyes were warm and soft like two chocolate orbs as they stared back at you. Trying not to gulp too loud, you watched him take your hand.

“I care about you so much, beautiful. The day we bumped into each other was cliche but I guess you could label me a hopeless romantic. I started hanging out with you and I just......I fell, baby. I fell so hard. You have no idea.”

You were an absolute blushing mess. You were a hot mess to be exact. It was true. Everything the girls had told you was true. Jungkook really did feel strong things for you. It just didn’t seem possible. But here he was, a fine specimen of a man was telling you he pretty much loves you. Or is at least in love with you.

“So......What do you say? Wanna be my girl?”

“On one condition.....”

You watched his face pale despite his rosy cheeks and light sheet of sweat making his skin shine in the dim lighting of the room. Grinning, you said,

“I get the last box of takeout.”

MEANWHILE......

“This is a very serious accusation you’re making.”

Jaebum, the COO of the company you work for and who had worked his tail off helping rebuild yesterday, was wearing a deep frown on his face as he stared at the three men in front of him. Namjoon was the first to respond while Jin and Yoongi were looking through the security footage.

“Jae, trust me. I don’t like this either. I don’t want to believe it. We shouldn’t have to be sitting here at nine forty-five at night on a Sunday looking through our own security footage but if our theory is right, one of our own could be in danger. More than one someone.”

The COO’s adams apple bobbed roughly as he swallowed hard. His dark, sharp eyes flickered over to the laptop screen and his jaw made a soft tick when he saw one of his pack brothers on the screen. Over and over again. Sometimes leaning against you; almost cornering you. Since there was sound, they could hear everything. Some of the things Jackson was saying to you made Jaebum ill. And almost every time, Jungkook was there to eventually save you. Making up some kind of excuse to get you out of Jackson’s clutches.

“The evidence doesn’t lie, Jae. Even if there’s a chance Jackson didn’t cause the fire or the car bombing, he’s been harassing her and it’s only going to be a matter of time before Jungkook runs out of patience. And he has every right. She is his mate and he will not hesitate to take out a threat.”

“I know. I just tried to call and he’s not answering.”

It was then that Yoongi spoke in his usual soft but smooth voice.

“Then he knows we’re on to him. We need to move. Now.”