#but i like them SO much that it doesn’t even matter. they’re still my number one

[schrijverr]

I Didn’t Mean to Say I Do, but I Do. I Do. 5

Chapter 5 out of 50

Secret marriage of convenience buddie slow burn AU, where Buck and Eddie have been married for years so Buck could adopt Chris and no one at the 118 knows.

In this chapter, Eddie and Evan decide to get married, so Eddie can go off to war. Evan has to deal with being a parent alone, with Helena judging his parenting. Not to mention Eddie getting send back injured.

On AO3.

Ships: Buddie (slowburn)

Warnings: ableism, emotionally abusive parents, insecurity, homophobia

~~~

Chapter 5: Mr. & Mr. Convenience

They’ve run over the numbers an unholy amount of times. If Evan’s senior year math teacher saw him now, she’d have a surprised induced medical emergency with the amount of calculations he’s done. No matter how they count, Eddie is right. He’s going to have to re-enlist.

When the reality sinks in, Evan feels a fear grip his throat and softly he asks: “What’s going to happen to me and Chris if you do? You know your mom is never going to let me stay with him.”

A part of him thinks, this is it. I have finally overstayed my welcome and Eddie is going to leave to fight a war and Chris will go to his grandparents and I am no longer useful. It hurts, these past few years have been hard, but they’ve been so good too. He doesn’t want to lose the best family he has ever had over medical bills, but it seems like that will be his life.

Before his thoughts can spiral into anything more depressing, Eddie says: “They can’t do shit if you’re his legal guardian. We can do paperwork about that, right?”

“You want me to adopt Chris?” Evan has to check, because that can’t be right. This is the part where people leave, not where people pull him closer.

“Do you- do you not want to? I mean, you don’t have to, I get-” Eddie stutters, suddenly realizing just what he is asking Evan to do. He has already done so much, it keeps surprising him every day that he is still here.

“Of course I want to,” Evan cuts him off. “Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“Evan, you’re basically his other dad. This will only make it official,” Eddie tells him as seriously and heartfelt as he can. He still isn’t great at emotions, but for Evan, for his family, he’s willing to try.

“Thank you,” Evan says, hugging him close, despite the awkward angle and the table digging into both their stomachs.

“No, thank you,” Eddie replies, glad that Evan starts crying so he doesn’t have to explain his own moist eyes.

He leaves Evan to go on a research binge about how to best tackle this, while he sits back, mentally trying to process what re-enlisting will mean. He’s going to have to say goodbye to Chris again. It seems even more difficult than it had been the first time around. They’re going to have to let his parents help again too.

As much as Eddie wishes he could, he knows Evan can’t take care of Chris by himself when he is gone. He is already doing way too much by trying. But Eddie is sure that if he lets Chris go to his parents now, he’ll never get him back. He can’t allow that to happen.

That helpless frustrated feeling is back and Eddie hates it. He needs to move. He wants to run away, but that isn’t possible. So, he makes a pot of coffee instead, it is already a late night and it’ll probably become a later one. He is used to it, but Evan is going to need the caffeine.

His own coffee is black, but Evan takes his with two sugars and way too much milk. Eddie thinks it is not how coffee is supposed to be drunk. No one likes the bitter taste, you just have to get used to it. However, he makes Evan his version of coffee without complaint.

When the coffee is done, he puts Evan’s mug next to him, taking a sip of his own as he leans his hand on the table, taking his place behind Evan’s chair to look over his shoulder to see what he’s doing, though not actually reading anything as he asks: “So, what did you find?”

Evan rubs his face with his hands as he takes a break from staring at the screen. He says: “All of them take a long time, too long for the timeline we’re working on with those bills. Unless you want to get married.”

Eddie can admit later that he chokes on the sip of coffee. However, he recovers in record time and actually thinks about it. He and Evan are a lot like a married couple when he thinks about it. They live together, raise a kid together, even sleep in the same bed (albeit practically never at the same time). He’s not gay and Evan has never mentioned being gay either, but you don’t have to be in love to be married. His marriage with Shannon wasn’t entirely out of pure love either. It’ll just be for convenience.

“Alright,” he says after a beat. “Let’s get married.”

“What? Are you serious?” Evan exclaims, giving Eddie wide eyes. He won’t mind being married to Eddie, even if it’s just so he can adopt Chris, but he never thought Mr. Toxic Masculinity Was My Childhood would go for it.

“Yeah, it’s legal right? And it’s the easiest. They don’t actually check if you fuck when you get married and take it from me, being divorced isn’t the end of the world either,” Eddie tells him.

A little feeling that Evan has been refusing to name feels a little crushed at the word ‘divorce’, but he doesn’t let it get to him. They’re friend. Best friends. And co-parents. He would withstand a lot for Chris, and it isn’t exactly a hardship to be married to Eddie. So he says: “Okay. Yeah. Sure. Let’s get married.”

“Cool,” Eddie smiles at him.

“Really? Cool?” Evan guffaws, playing it up to make Eddie laugh. “I don’t know if I’ll marry someone if their proposal consists of ‘cool,’ I’ll have you know.”

Eddie does, in fact, laugh, before dramatically dropping on one knee and saying: “Evan will you do me the honor of giving me tax benefits and parenting breaks.”

“You’re a fucking dork,” Evan informs him gleefully, though he’s unable to stop himself from blushing either.

“Is that an I do?” Eddie asks, leaning in and suddenly much closer than he has ever been.

Evan feels a little breathless as he nods: “Yeah, I- I guess it was.”

“Great,” Eddie smiles, then pulls back as he gets back up, groaning as he does so.

“You’re twenty-four, not eighty,” Evan rolls his eyes.

“Shut up,” Eddie retorts. “We should go to bed. We have a wedding to plan in the morning.”

He starts putting everything away and Evan follows suit in their familiar dance of doing the picking up. “We’re not actually going to plan a wedding, right? Or do you have your sights set on Chris being the ring bearer or something?”

“As adorable as that would be, we’re not actually going to plan a wedding. Do you have any idea how expensive those are?”

Evan doesn’t know how to feel about that exactly, but he lets it go for now. They get ready for bed together and get in. They’ve been sharing the bed for a long time now, but it’s feel weirdly different to lie next to each other now. Technically engaged.

After a few moments of them lying side by side staring at the ceiling, Eddie softly says: “You don’t have to, you know that right? It’s not as if my parents can come snatch him out of your hands.”

“I want to have the legal backing if I’m going to try and pick him up from Helena’s house after she babysits. I don’t think a kidnapping charge would look good on my record.”

“I know, I’m just saying that I won’t be mad if you change your mind or-”

“Shut up,” Evan hits him with his pillow, earning a squawk. “I want to, I’m going to. Now sleep, I have work in the morning.”

And that’s that.

They call the same lawyer that did Eddie’s divorce in the morning and Eddie goes over to get a prenup made, not wanting a repeat of having to sort everything like he had to do with Shannon, because this is just for now. This isn’t going to be permanent, at some point Evan is going to find someone he loves and marry her. Eddie doesn’t know why that thought stings.

He also gets the adoption paperwork ready for when they come over after their wedding. Doing that doesn’t leave the same weird feeling in his stomach, he just takes it to mean he’s making the right choice, letting Evan into his life more. If that’s even possible.

A week later they’re at a courthouse with only Chris as their witness. Both are unreasonably nervous and the press of lips feels weird, but also not. Neither can look the other in the eyes afterwards.

The people who work there take some pictures of them and it’s so ridiculous that it breaks the tension. The two of them, along with Chris, do some weird poses and they’re pretty happy with their wedding day photos, even if they’ll probably get stuffed in a drawer somewhere and then forgotten.

Neither of them think anything will really change, they tied the knot because it is convenient, not because they want to be married. It’s just the best solution they have for now.

This assumption is proven to be incorrect when they eat dinner the first day after they got married when Chris asks: “Did you have a good day, papi?”

Eddie startles a little and sends Evan a look to see if he knows what’s happening, because Eddie has always been daddy. By the looks of it, Evan is just as confused as he is. Eddie turns back to Chris and says: “It was good, mijo.”

“No, silly, not you,” Chris giggles. He is going through a phase where he likes the word silly, he thinks it sounds, you know, silly.

“Me?” Evan asks, eyes wide as he points at himself.

“Uh-huh,” Chris nods. “I told Ms. Jane you are married. She says you’re my daddy too. But daddy is already daddy.”

That makes a surprising amount of sense, but as much as Evan would adore being referred to as his dad by Chris, he doesn’t want the kid to do anything he doesn’t want to. “You don’t have to call me anything you don’t want to Chris. Not because Ms. Jane told you so.”

Eddie surprises him by adding: “But you are allowed to if you want to. You’re right. Evan is your other daddy.”

He meets Evan’s eyes when he says the last part, trying to imprint it onto him that he means it. If there is one thing he knows about Evan, it’s that he can be insecure. Like, they’re married and he’s still worried about overstepping.

Chris is quiet for a second, thinking, then he smiles: “Okay. I’m going to.” Before asking again: “So, did you have a good day, papi?”

“I did,” Evan smiles, thrilled at the development and endeared that Chris is asking him. He always asks the same when he comes home and it seems Chris has picked up on the habit.

Another thing that changes, is their relationship with Eddie’s parents. Evan doesn’t go with him to tell them he re-enlisted and Evan is taking care of Chris while he is away on tour. The news is not well received. Evan will swear he heard the yelling all the way back home.

When Eddie comes back, he looks about ten years older and Evan cautiously asks: “So, how did that go?”

“Well, let’s see,” Eddie sighs, rubbing his face, before ticking off on his hand. “If this were a real relationship, they’d never support it. They can’t believe I’d go this far to keep their grandchild from them. I’m a horrible father for leaving Chris. Again. Especially because I’m leaving him with you. But they are willing to work with us, for Chris’s sake.”

“That… That is a lot,” Evan says, processing what Eddie has just said.

“Yeah, it is.” Eddie throws himself on the couch next to him. “And I don’t trust their motives either, but it’s not like we have a choice.”

“No, we don’t,” Evan sighs, also slumping into the couch. “Beer?”

“Please.”

The Diaz parents knowing also has another side effect of their business being spread all over town, which half-helps against homophobes, because Ramon makes it very clear that his son is being a rebellious kid, who is making idiotic decisions and Evan is the queer villain, who is tricking their son and stealing their grandchild.

Not ideal rumors to have going around, but Evan has a lot of practice not letting things get to him and Chris is too happy of a presence and sadly also too used to whispers following him.

The whispers get worse when Eddie actually leaves, but Evan never tells him. He has enough to worry about in a war zone, he doesn’t need to deal with Evan’s hurt feelings. Unless they get to Chris, it’s not important.

God, Chris. Telling him daddy had to leave again is one of the hardest things either of them have ever had to do.

He screams and cries and refuses to let either of them go for days. Evan thinks he’ll never be able to forget Chris wailing: “No, daddy, no! You can’t go, because you come back, but then papi will leave, I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want either of you to leave.”

Evan hugs Chis close and promises: “Papi is never gonna go, sweetheart. I’m not going to leave you, even when daddy comes back. And he’s going to come, it’s not forever. And I’m going to be right here. Always. Okay? I promise.”

It’s the first time he ever referred to himself as papi, but he doesn’t even get to panic about it, too busy making sure Chris is okay. He teaches him the secret of the pinky promise, trying to ignore how Maddie didn’t keep her pinky promise to him. He vows that Chris will never have to learn that pinky promises are as meaningless as the normal ones.

When Eddie leaves, it is hard all over again. Evan and Chris drive him to the airport, Eddie in the backseat with Chris so they can cling to each other for as long as possible. Evan watches them fondly through the rear view mirror, heart aching and heavy, despite the fondness it is filled with.

He is about as ready as Chris is to drop Eddie off. He knows it’s for the best, did the math himself, then had someone more competent do the math as well. He would’ve offered to go instead in a heartbeat, but Eddie never would have let him. Evan knows he’s doing better for Chris, but sometimes it is so clear that he needs to be the man of the house. Needs to provide. So, here Evan is, having to let him go.

Evan doesn’t feel ready for it, but he supposes no parent feels ready to do it by themselves.

He’s seen how Shannon wasn’t ready and crumbled under it, seen the panic in Eddie’s eyes the day he realized he’d have to do it alone. He made sure Eddie never had to do it alone, but here he is and he is hoping with all he has that he’s not going to crumble like Shannon did. Chris won’t survive it if he does and he can’t do that to him. So he prays a little, even though he doesn’t really believe.

They park the car at the airport and Evan gets out alongside the others. Eddie unbuckles Chris, while Evan goes to grab his bags. Chris happily lets daddy carry him as far as he can, then tries to hold on for longer, hoping that if he can make him miss the flight, he won’t leave them.

It’s almost more heartbreaking than telling Chris when Evan has to pry his little fingers from Eddie’s clothes as Eddie backs up far enough that Chris can’t grab him again.

He holds Chris in his arms while he cries, pretty sure Eddie is crying too as he backs away further into the airport, still waving and refusing to turn his back on them until he absolutely has to. Evan wants to cry as well, but he keeps himself as strong as he can. For Chris. So, he takes Chris’s hand in his own and makes it wave, hoping that’ll be enough of something to make up for departure (he knows it won’t, nothing ever will).

The two of them stand there until Eddie has long since disappeared into the crowd. Neither of them are ready to leave yet. It’s almost as if they stand there long enough, Eddie will return.

Usually, it’s Eddie who makes the difficult calls, since he is Chris’s actual dad, no matter what the paperwork might tell you, so he has the final say. But now Evan is the one that has to make all the decisions, including the hard ones. So, he is the one that has to walk away.

Chris starts crying again the second he does and Evan doesn’t think he’ll ever feel like a worse person than he does in that moment, carrying a protesting, quivering, crying Chris back to the car and away from his dad.

Without Eddie there, the house is quiet. They lived alongside each other more than with each other for most of the time, but Evan is missing the little pockets of time he used to fill with Eddie.

It feels weirdly empty.

Lonely.

Especially the first few weeks when Chris doesn’t speak unless he has to. Evan knows Chris misses the empty spaces Eddie leaves more than him and he doesn’t blame the kid for being upset. It just hammers home how unprepared he is for this, how much he can’t do this alone, how he’ll never measure up to Eddie as a presence in Chris’s life.

However, Eddie calls. Evan can’t always be there when it happens and he knows it isn’t the same as having him there, but it gets Chris out of his shell again.

Those first weeks he only talks to Eddie, then he slowly starts talking to Evan again. A few days later, he talks to his grandparents too, something he learns because a smug Helena informs him of it when he comes to pick up Chris.

She is going to use it as a reason she should keep Chris there longer, since he is obviously more comfortable there. She hadn’t been able to sway Eddie before he left, but she has been trying again with Evan from the second they came back from the airport.

But, Buckley stubbornness is nothing to sniff at, so he just smiles pleasantly and says: “Good to hear he’s opened up here too. He was already talking at home a few days ago, but for a second there it seemed me and Eddie were the only ones that were going to hear his voice, it’s nice that he’s coming back to himself. Settling in again.” And Buckley pettiness is also pretty strong.

Helena’s face drops at that, twisting into something displeased as she replies: “Yes, with his sensibilities, it’s good that he’s recovering from the shock Eddie put him through.”

Talking to Helena always leaves a sour taste in his mouth and the time he spends talking with her has increased considerably since Eddie left. He specifically doesn’t like how she undermines Eddie and babies Chris. It gets on his nerves. His two Diaz boys are capable and she doesn’t get to decide they aren’t.

It makes his blood boil and he wants to fight her every single time he comes to pick up Chris. But he doesn’t want Chris to grow up around arguing, and neither does Eddie. It’s one of the things that they agreed on when it came up during the late nights when Eddie opened up about everything. How Chris has been around enough arguing already.

So, he tries to bite his tongue and scrounges up some sympathy to extend to Shannon for putting up with it for three years. Though, when he reflects, he’s also getting to the three years. He met Chris when he was three and birthday number six is coming up. It’s crazy how his short stop in El Paso for some more travel money devolved so quickly. Not that he regrets a thing.

With strained politeness, he forces out: “Chris is a strong kid and Eddie is caring for him, he knows that. He just has to adjust. Now, we need to go.” A little louder he calls out: “You got your stuff, Superman?”

“Yes, papi,” Chris calls back and he sees how Helena’s face sours even more at that.

She doesn’t like that he lets Chris walk to the car by himself and she certainly doesn’t like that he calls Evan papi. If it were up to her, Evan would’ve never met Chris or Eddie. He should have disappeared right alongside Shannon and the fact that he didn’t is quite the affront to her. Evan tries not to care, he’s used to parents not wanting to have him around, he can take it.

As Chris makes his way to the car, she can’t help but comment: “Be careful Chris that is dangerous, let Evan carry you.”

“Do you want to be carried, Chris?” Evan asks, before she can continue or Chris can reply.

“No, I can do it,” Chris says.

Evan shoots her a look that says ‘what can you do?’ not being very apologetic or genuine about it as he says: “He can do it.”

He allows himself those little petty moments. To stay sane. He can do a lot by himself, but with his hours he can’t pick up Chris from kindergarten, so he has to rely on Helena – and Ramon when he is in town – to do it for him and watch him until he is let off.

It’s not optimal, but he makes do. Eddie trusts him with his kid, Eddie married him, so Chris would be taken care of. That is so far beyond what anyone has ever granted Evan and he refuses to let him down. Even if school gets tense around him being in Chris and Eddie’s life like that and they have to switch where Chris does his PT.

Chris blows out his six birthday candles on a video call with daddy, surrounded by strained family relations. It’s not much better than his fifth, which he spend crying because mommy didn’t come back to celebrate. Evan hopes his seventh birthday will be better.

Evan tries his best to make it a good birthday, he saved up to buy him some nice presents, plays nice with Helena and Ramon, and showers Chris with as much love and attention as he can, trying to make up for the two missing parents.

He forces on cheer the whole day, infusing the birthday with as much love and happiness as he can, then tucks Chris in bed at the end of the night, crawls into his own and cries.

He cries, because he doesn’t want to do this alone, he can’t give Chris the childhood he deserves and he doesn’t know why Eddie trusts him with it, because he’s incompetent Evan. The child his parents don’t want, the idiot who couldn’t finish college and traveled all over to escape his failure and the disappointment. Who accidentally tripped into the best thing that has ever happened to him and is now ruining it.

Chris is old enough that he’ll remember this period. He’s likely not going to know much from Shannon’s struggles, but he’ll remember Evan’s. He will remember how much Evan can’t measure up against all the other people that care for him, how he lets Chris call him papi even though he doesn’t deserve the title at all.

Evan is probably fucking Chris over for life and he can’t stop, can’t walk away, because the only thing he can imagine that is worse than being bad at raising Chris, is not raising Chris at all.

Still, the overwhelming feeling of being insufficient and being lonely presses down on him and he cries a little more, silent tears rolling down his cheeks. That night he wishes Eddie would be there with them again and he is pretty sure Chris wished the same when he blew out those candles.

He regrets making that wish a few months later when he picks up the phone to find a very official voice asking if he is speaking to Evan Buckley, husband of Eddie Diaz.

It’s still weird to hear that said out loud, despite being married for almost a year now, because no one around him acknowledges it really. Not that’s real, beyond the fact that it is real. So he stumbles for a moment as he says: “Y- yeah, uhm, yes, that’s me.”

“We’re calling you, because of an incident involving your husband,” the person on the other end informs him and his stomach just drops, the world collapsing in on itself.

No. No.

This can’t be the call. His legs are jello and his lungs aren’t working.

The voice continues on: “He was injured in this incident and has been transported to Germany to recover, once he is stable enough to make the journey, we’ll bring him home to you,” which brings some relief, because he’s not dead, but Evan’s world is still off kilter, because Eddie is injured.

Eddie is injured. Eddie is badly injured. He isn’t stable enough to come home. He could have died out there.

There is a buzzing in his ears and he is perceiving at the world as if he’s looking through a layer of water. Dazed he makes it through the rest of the conversation with the military person about the state Eddie is in and the logistics of getting him home and getting into contact with him. He retains it all, because it’s important, but it doesn’t feel real. He doesn’t want it to be real.

Evan feels entirely disconnected from his body, because yeah, Eddie is alive. Eddie is probably going to be okay. But for a second there, Eddie might not have been. For a second Evan thought he was getting a very, very different call.

And that scares the shit out of him.

That moment wherein Eddie wasn’t coming back, wherein Evan wasn’t just taking care of Chris by himself until Eddie came back, but had to do it alone for the rest of his life, that scares him.

He keeps telling himself it scares him, because Chris would have been devastated by the news that daddy is never coming home. That it’s not about Evan, but about the kid that is his son, because Evan is just the guy that Eddie married so he wouldn’t have to fight his parents. Because Eddie will come back from war, divorce him and try to find stability without him. That Evan only has a place in his life, because he’s useful to Chris.

But he is realizing now that it isn’t just Chris, who has been waiting for a loved one to come home, it’s Evan too.

It’s a horrible thing, to finally name that thing you’ve been ignoring as nothing but a small crush as love. To realize it’s much more than a fleeting thing, that you’re in love with his best friend while he’s injured and on the other side of the world and you’re at home watching his kid, married to him, but not together.

So, he collapses, lets himself cry and grieve a relationship that will probably never be, then pulls himself back together again. He can’t break down, he still has to tell Chris daddy got hurt.

~~

A/N:

I am making up legalities for the fic, I do not actually know how to adopt a child easily and it can be wildly inaccurate, but I don’t care, bc it helps my plot xp

Also Chris would be hit harder with this additional third tour I’m giving Eddie, since he’s older and can process the leaving, especially after Shannon already left, so I’m hoping it’s not too out of character for people, since I do also love our resident sunshine boy :D

(in my mind he did a tour when Shannon was pregnant, then after she gave birth and now this one)

[starbuck]

Top five favorite fruits!!

oooooooooo, this is fun!!

1. Cherries

Literally just the best… I’m always SO happy when cherry season starts and go into mourning when it ends… But, every summer, i FEAST on a big ol’ bowl of them for lunch every single day. I like spitting out the pits too! It’s fun!

2. Peaches

If you can get one perfectly ripe and juicy and with good texture, a peach is DELICIOUS!!!!!! One of the best fruits out there, no doubt. I prefer yellow peaches because I tend to like tart things more than sweet, but I won’t turn down a good white peach either! Last year I ate one like an apple in a frenzy over the trash can with the juice spilling all over my fingers and going everywhere and it was a truly primal experience.

3. Strawberries

Don’t get to have these very often due to their terrible habit of rotting the day after you buy them, but they’re my favorite berry by far when they’re good! The perfect breakfast fruit.

4. Honeycrisp Apples

I’ll eat a couple other types of apples as well, but honeycrisps are ideal. Got introduced to them by my eighth grade gym teacher and haven’t looked back since. If anyone out there has never had one of these, you’ve GOTTA try ‘em. It’ll change your life.

5. Blueberries

Not my favorite fruit by far, but I’ve developed an affection for them due to their excellent track record for NOT rotting before I can eat them! I also appreciate how easy they are to “prepare” since you just have to rinse them off and then they’re set! No chopping or peeling! That’s something I can get behind when I’m tired in the morning or just short on time!

Thanks for asking, friend!!!! ❤️❤️

[thepixelelf]

and the universe said,

07 - "bro, chill"

genres/tags: soulmate au, idol au, comedy, romance, dumbassery relationship(s): ot13 x reader chapter warnings: coarse language. kithing. a liiitle svt on svt violence note: ik it's been a long time please be nice to me <3 (this isn't edited... I'll take a look at it when I have the time)

When soulmates are suddenly thrust upon the world, you are one in a million who wishes they weren’t – and that’s before you meet the person (people?!) making your life much harder than it needs to be. And before someone asks you to sign an NDA.

series masterlist

prev ⭒ chapter seven (4.0k) ⭒ next

“Where are they?” Myungjun asks as soon as Jihoon and Junhui enter the room they agreed upon.

Junhui braces both of his arms on the back of a chair. “What do you mean?”

“Your soulmate—” Cutting himself off with a sigh, Myungjun pinches the bridge of his nose and answers his own question. “You didn’t bring them.”

Yejung, who was sitting at a table with her laptop, shuts it with a frown. “Why not?”

Junhui shrugs. “I’m just here because Jihoon dragged me out.” He shifts between looking at the three other people in the room. “You guys know I just met my soulmate, right? I don’t like not having them here with me, either.”

“Well then why didn’t you—”

“They don’t know.” Jihoon cuts off Myungjun’s words, then pulls out a chair and drops himself in it. He stares at a random spot on the table. When he doesn’t elaborate any further, Yejung sends a furtive glance Myungjun’s way.

“Don’t know…” She leans her forearms on the table and scoots her chair closer. “...what? That you’re their soulmate? That there’s more than one of you? That you’re famous?”

Junhui snorts. “All of the above?”

At Junhui's quip and Jihoon's continued silence, Myungjun raises a cynical brow.

"You didn't tell them?" Yejung asks, softly shocked. "Why?"

Junhui's eyes skirt to Jihoon; he's unwilling to share his own reasons, though he doesn't quite understand this about himself, either.

Jihoon sighs. "I don't know. It's complicated. Things happened too fast the first time we—"

"The first time?" Myungjun echoes. "So you've been with them multiple times."

“Don’t say it like that.” Jihoon almost pouts, but the facial expression just makes him look angry. “Look. I ran into them when the vocal team was on the way to that radio show. We’d stopped by a cafe and there wasn’t much time and I was so out of my mind that I—” He cuts himself off. “It doesn’t matter. I got their number, and then they left. I asked to meet today and we did. Jun was already there for…” With his arms crossed, Jihoon looks over at Junhui, remembering that he still doesn’t really know what Junhui was doing at the same cafe you apparently frequent. Is this the same cat cafe Junhui is always talking about? “…some reason. Then someone started singing, and they told us their soulmate is stupid and annoying because their mark…”

“It’s not like ours,” Junhui finishes for Jihoon, though this only deepens the confusion written on Yejung and Myungjun’s faces.

“If it's not like yours, then how do you know they're your—”

“It's them, Hyung.” Jihoon can't help noticing the hopelessness in his own voice. It's you. He knows it's you.

But you don't know it's them— him.

And he's not sure you want to know.

“Their mark, like, grows,” Junhui explains. “Ours just stay on our hands, but when one of us sings, the notes go all over their arms and neck. Maybe other places — I don’t know — but they obviously don’t think it’s either of us since we weren’t singing when their mark did its thing.”

“So…” Myungjun crosses his arms and taps his finger on his bicep. “They don't like their mark.”

Junhui doesn't nod right away, but he does eventually.

Myungjun turns to Jihoon. “And you think that means they don't like you.”

Groaning and rubbing his hands over his face, Jihoon doesn't dignify that with a response. “Even if they did like their mark, it’s an insane situation. Thirteen soulmates? They’re gonna run for the hills when they find out.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Yejung says, to which Jihoon gives her a dry look and Junhui’s eyes light up. She clears her throat. “We just need to find a way to calmly inform them of the situation — preferably in a safe, comfortable environment.”

Myungjun recognizes a Yejung Game Plan brewing when he sees it. “Basically, what she’s saying is…”

“Let me talk to them.” Yejung opens her laptop again and begins typing away. “We just need to go about this in a calm, logical manner.” She gives a little nonchalant wave of her hand. “This’ll be easier than a design meeting.”

⭒

You’re sitting on the floor of your apartment, arms crossed, legs too, as you stare down at the shiny black credit card lying there between you and Heejun. His position mirrors yours, head tilted while he studies the card.

“It could be fake,” you say. Your knee bounces up and down, up and down.

Heejun lifts his head to give you a look. “Why would it be fake?”

“He said he doesn’t believe in banks.”

“It doesn’t look fake.” Heejun reaches out and takes the card, flipping it over in his fingers to read the back. “Looks like any other credit card. We should test it.”

You frown. “How?”

“Uh,” Heejun speaks like the answer is obvious. “Buy something?”

Okay, it is obvious, but the idea doesn’t sit too well with you. “Isn’t that stealing?”

“He gave you the card.”

“Yeah, but the police don’t know that,” you argue. “If I got charged for fraud, it would be his word against mine— no one would believe coffee guy just handed me his black card.”

Without moving his head, Heejun glances up from the card to look at you. "Why would he lie?"

"Um, because he already has? Who knows— maybe this card is connected to illicit activities and he planted it on me to implicate me."

“Which he would do because…?”

You throw your hands up in the air, then let them drop emphatically at your side. “I don’t know! Why did he do any of what he did?”

He raises a brow. “Because he’s a weirdo who likes you?”

“Okay but have you ever given your credit card to a person you’ve only met twice?”

Heejun’s shoulders rise in a shrug. “I’ve wanted to.”

“Seriously?” You can’t imagine your friend going that gaga over a crush, but then again, there was that girl in fourth grade whom he gave all his choco pies to. Heejun loves choco pies.

“Mine would decline though. It wouldn’t exactly impress.”

You lightly shove his shoulder. “Oh come on, it wouldn’t decline.”

“It would if they went over the limit. People only give people their credit cards for expensive stuff. You know that, right?”

The black card gleams up at you, almost tauntingly.

“Expensive stuff like what?”

He shrugs again. “Like a car?”

“You’ve been watching too many CEO dramas.” You exhale and place both hands on the floor with a pointed slam. Standing, you pick the credit card up and brush imaginary dirt off your pants.

“You won’t be so sarcastic when Park Seojoon tells you to keep that thing.”

You roll your eyes as you toss the card into the same trinket dish you keep your keys and other miscellaneous things in. “Isn’t that guy like six foot?”

“So was Huijun,” he counters.

“So are you. Is that all it takes to be a CEO nowadays?” you joke, pulling out your phone. “Height?”

Heejun scoffs, then frames his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “That and my devilish good looks.”

“Please.” You tap on a notification from an unknown number. “If that were true, you’d be the one handing out black…cards…”

At the way you trail off, Heejun furrows his brow and walks over to you. “What’s up? Did you fall for another online scam?”

Not this again. “Okay, first of all, that was not a scam, and I did not fall for it—”

“You didn’t fall for a not scam?”

“Shut up. What do you think this means?” You turn your phone towards him, and he takes it from your unsteady hand.

He reads aloud. “‘Hello, this is Shin Yejung of Pledis Entertainment.’ Did you apply there?”

“No,” you say, then shake your head and wave your hand. “I mean. I don’t know. Maybe. I applied to like five hundred places. But this isn’t that. Keep reading.”

Heejun takes a breath and starts reading like he’s holding a new edict. “‘It has come to my attention that you are in possession of one of my coworker’s bank cards.’ Oooooh, you’re in trouble.” He drags out the last syllable. “‘Please meet me at…’ whatever building, numbers numbers numbers… ‘so I can retrieve it. Please reply to this number for more information, and thank you for your time.’ Hm.”

“What do you think… am I getting arrested?”

Lowering your phone, Heejun gives you a seriously? look over it. “The cops are texting criminals now?”

“So you agree I’m a criminal.”

“You get annoying when you’re nervous, you know that?” When you roll your eyes, Heejun mirrors the expression and pokes your forehead long enough that he pushes you backward. “Look bub, you wanted to give the stupid thing back without using it, and now the opportunity has been handed right to you.” He waves your phone in the air like evidence. “The only question is why coffee guy didn’t just text you himself.”

You cross your arms. “Maybe he doesn’t like me as much as you thought.”

“One more self-deprecating comment out of you and I’m posting those pictures from your twentieth birthday.”

A gasp wrenches from your throat. “You wouldn’t!”

⭒

Joshua Hong doesn’t think he has that many unread messages on his phone.

He looks down.

Oof. 682.

Well, it’s not his worst.

Notifications fly by at the top of his screen.

[vernon] where is this guy

[chan] hyung this is important!!

[wonwoo] when have we known that guy to answer anything

[soonyoung] someone text yejung!!

It’s probably not that important, whoever they’re talking about. His members are likely just freaking out over this whole soulmate thing again.

Joshua lifts his hand and stares at his weird, natural — supernatural — tattoo. He still can’t bring himself to believe it.

Soulmates? Really? In this economy? This isn’t Tumblr.

At least… Joshua looks around the dance practice room… He’s pretty sure this isn’t Tumblr.

His phone rings, which is weird since he always has it on silent. Sliding the answer button, he brings the phone up to his ear. “Yejung?”

“Where are you?”

“The practice room,” Joshua answers plainly. “Isn’t this where we’re supposed to be today?”

Yejung sighs on the other end of the line. “I said in the group chat that we were dealing with soulmate stuff. Upstairs.”

Ah, so that’s what has everyone in a tizzy. “Alright, okay. Where am I going?”

“Room eight-thirteen—” He hangs up and starts to pack his things before Yejung can say, “Wait, no, nine-thirteen. We'll start when you arrive. Joshua? Hello?”

⭒

You check your phone for what must be upwards of the fifth time.

Yup, Shin Yejung of Pledis Entertainment definitely told you to meet her in room 813, and yet here you are. In room 813. Alone.

You shift on the leather couch. It’s a lounge-like room you’re in. You don’t really understand the purpose of such a room in an entertainment company, but whatever. You’re only here to return something you never should’ve had in the first place.

Although…

You turn the card over in your hand, watching the way the fancy lighting bounces off of it.

Why would Jihoon give it to you if he was just going to get it back like this?

Also, now that you really think about it, Jihoon did say something weird when he left yesterday with Huijun. Something about not letting “the rest” scare you off. Whatever that means.

The rest of what?

Or… whom?

You know Jihoon must work for the company in some capacity. The fact that both he and Huijun were wearing masks makes you think they could be artists…

Oh. Duh. Why didn’t you think of this earlier?

Switching apps, you tap the search bar and start typing. Just as you’re done with the last character of Jihoon HYBE, the door you entered through opens. You hastily slip your phone into your back pocket as you stand to greet the person coming in.

“Hello, you must be…” Your eyes scan over his face. He’s… delicate looking, until you move your gaze downwards a little, and his broad shoulders and thick arms are decidedly not delicate looking. “…Shin Yejung?”

You tilt your head. With no mask on the lower half of his face, he seems familiar. Now this guy must be an idol — you probably saw him on the walls when you were making your way through this maze of a building. 

He just raises a brow. “Who are you?”

“Oh, uh…” You stay standing in front of the couch as he approaches you, his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m just here to return this.” Lifting the black card up, you hold it out between you and the man. “It’s Jihoon’s.”

“Jihoon’s?” he echoes, then moves to take the card from you, pinched between his thumb and forefinger. 

You both see it at the same time.

His mark, five black lines, clear as day.

Yours, peeking out from where your sleeve is pulled halfway up your hand.

You look up from your not-really-joined hands, then look down again.

No fucking way. 

“Twinkle twinkle, little—” The notes, whatever they are, dance across his mark.

No fucking way. 

You meet his eyes. “...Songbird?”

He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. A few too many seconds.

Then, “So it’s you.”

“Holy—!”

At the same time as you try to jerk away, he attempts to turn your hand over and get a better look. Neither plan really works out. You stumble backwards, and with your hand in his, he gets pulled down with you onto the couch. His free hand shoots out to keep himself from slamming into you, but, persistent as the universe is, your faces end up very freaking close to each other anyway. Warmth from his knee on the couch cushion next to your thigh seeps through your clothing.

He doesn’t move. You don’t either.

For some reason, you feel stuck in place. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but… you just feel like you should be exactly where you are.

You’re almost too close to make real eye contact, so you just watch the way his eyes study yours.

“Songbird?” you whisper, though you have no idea what you’re trying to ask.

He stops analyzing you and finally looks at you. “Yeah?”

“…Are you leaning towards me on purpose?”

His lips (since when were you looking at those?) curl down at the corners. “Are you?”

Slowly, like your mind is trying to catch up to your body, you shake your head. “No…”

He drifts closer. Or you do. Or you both do.

Or something.

Your lips brush over his, and you feel just as much as you hear him whisper. “Then neither am I.”

In the span of a second, his free hand moves from the back of the couch to cradle your jaw, his thumb grazing gently just under your ear. He kisses you, lips moving over yours in a way you’ve felt before, but also in a way you’ve never felt before.

It’s strange.

Not bad strange, but strange in the way that it feels like you’ve just put the last of the groceries in the fridge. It’s like folding that final piece of laundry. Like coming home to the bed you made when you left in the morning.

It’s… satisfactory?

But that’s not the word people normally use when they think of putting their tongue in someone else’s mouth, right?

You’re running out of breath, but Songbird is insistent, and so are his lips, which you find yourself unable to get enough of. He pulls back for half a breath, registers your kiss me again or so help me facial expression, and dives right back in. He’s kissing you and you’re kissing him and you’re soulmates and…

Wait.

Soulmates?

“Wait,” you say, though it comes out more like, “Mmaem” Climbing both your hands up his — whoa — strong arms, you cup his cheeks in preparation to push him away, but he seems to like your touch. He covers the back of one of your hands with his warm palm, and he hums in a way that is not PG-13.

The sound has you melting, unfortunately.

Not for long though.

He’s ripped from you just as quickly as he fell onto you, pulled back by some guy with fluffy black hair, cozy attire head to toe, and… shit, a you’re in trouble glare the likes of which you’ve never seen before. He’s not even looking at you, yet you feel scolded.

“Yah!” he yells at your soulmate, who’s now on the floor. Then, after glancing at you for half a second and apparently finding zero more words to say, he shouts at him again. “Yah!”

Your soulmate opens his mouth, but then he turns to look at the now-open door, which leads you to do the same. A mob of prettyboys stands just outside, some with their jaws dropped and some looking like murder just got legalized and they’re on the prowl.

Someone’s despondent voice shouts, “Hyung!”

You feel like hiding under a blanket. Before your flight instinct kicks in, though, you recognize two familiar faces. “Jihoon?” His eyes meet yours when you say his name. “Huijun?”

One of the many boys among those you don't recognize echoes, “Huijun?” while sending him a weird look.

Someone pushes through the crowd — more like slinks through, occasionally nudging one of the other guys out of the way. His eyes stay firmly on you as he approaches, but you find no fear rising despite that. For some unknown reason, even as this completely unfamiliar man strides over to you with a frankly alarming amount of eye contact, you feel… safe.

Or at least, something close to it.

He kneels in front of where you're still seated on the leather couch, hand resting mere centimetres from leg. “Are you okay?” he asks, voice slightly nasal, but so, so gentle. 

“Uhh…” Self conscious, you wipe at the corner of your mouth with your sleeve. You spot your soulmate catch you doing so, and a look of hurt crosses his face. His own reaction, though, seems to startle him, and his hand rises to gently prod his shiny bottom lip with one of his fingers. He looks confused.

Well, that makes two of you.

Taking in the man right in front of you — pretty, lithe, concerned for you despite his unfamiliarity — you fail to answer his question. “Are… you Shin Yejung?”

He lets out a laugh, relieved, maybe, that you're not not okay. “Jeonghan,” he says simply.

You nod. “Jeonghan.”

At your voice echoing his name, the man’s eyes light up. “Yes?”

“Oh, uh…” You weren’t trying to call on him for anything, but as you study his gaze, you find yourself lost in his confident ease. Something in his eyes says that he knew this would happen.

Maybe not this, exactly — your soulmate has found a spot on the floor and has not stopped staring at it, while the rest of the strangers are still watching you — but taking up the same space as you, facing you, smiling at you with a soft quirk at the corners of his lips.

“Ugh!” A woman’s exasperated voice makes you look up at the crowd by the door. “Get— out of the way, you… ugh—” She breaks through, pushing aside a tall guy who looks like he’s about to cry. “—you men!”

Stumbling to her feet, she rights herself and brushes her bangs out of her face with a huff. “Now, what is—” She spots your soulmate still on his ass and mutters something you’re pretty sure can’t be aired on any broadcasting network. “...my life.”

Your eyes meet hers as she takes another breath. “Please tell me you’re Shin Yejung.”

“Yes, we spoke over the phone.”

“Thank god.” Shaking off all the weird feelings you’d accumulated in the last — what? Two minutes? — you stand from the couch and sidestep Jeonghan. The black card fell at some point during that lapse of judgement (aka kiss), so you swipe it up off the floor and hold it out to her with no preamble. “I swear I’m not a stalker fan or anything. And I didn’t use it, so…”

You glance over at Jihoon, whose expression gives off an oncoming panic. Is he scared to see you? Why? Huijun looks just fine, happy even, with you here. You can practically hear the ‘hello’ he wants to say out loud.

You clear your throat. “Anyway, um. I didn’t mean to, uh…” As you nervously cross your arms, you nod towards your soulmate. “I’m his— I mean, we are… sorry. This is… I wasn’t exactly expecting to find the person who’s…”

Maybe you shouldn’t say you’ve been annoyed by your soulmate since you got your stupid mark. At least not while he’s in the room.

“That’s actually what I brought you here to talk about,” Shin Yejung tells you, a bit like a doctor who’s about to deliver the bad news first. She doesn’t even take the card from you. “Would you like to take a seat?”

You scrunch your eyes shut for a second with a little shake of your head, trying to manual reset your brain because clearly it’s still muddled. “Sorry, what? You want to talk about…?”

The mob of men in the room get hidden from your vision as Yejung strategically places herself between them and you. “Soulmates,” she says.

You look down at the black card, then back up at her again. “Soulmates.”

“Yes. Your soulmates. I was hoping to talk to you alone first.” She sends a pointed look at the men behind her. “But it’s not exactly easy to get these guys to lis—”

“Sorry.” You wave a hand in the air to get her to stop, unable to comprehend any of her words after— “Did you say my soulmates? As in… mates, multiple? Mates with an S at the end? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

Remaining calm while your mind spins, Yejung nods. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

“Know what is a lot to take in?”

Yejung opens her mouth to answer, but a voice blurts out behind her, “We’re your soulmates!”

Maybe you haven’t known him long enough or talked to him that many times, but you recognize Jihoon’s voice, and something in your gut suddenly grows sharp. Not painful, but begging for you to feel it. Yejung shifts so your field of view is once again filled by men too pretty to be all in the same room. Jihoon’s standing there, fists clenched at his sides, out of breath for no discernable reason other than…

We’re your soulmates.

Seeing your hesitation, Jihoon huffs and tears a bandaid you never really noticed off the back of his right hand. Even before he completes the motion, you know what must be under the bandage. He holds his hand up, though, and the evidence is very near damning.

Next to him, Huijun smiles and lifts his arm, pointing to his own five lines with his opposite hand. 

Most of the guys behind them show you the same thing. Five lines on the smooth backs of their hands, near the base of the thumb. Dear lord, you don’t even know how many of them there are.

The angry one who pulled the man off of you earlier, at least, just looks lost, like he once had control and now has none. Relatable.

You stumble back a bit. Instinctively, you say, “Songbird?”

Though quite a few of the men seem to perk up at the nickname, only the one you already gave the moniker to truly reacts. Your soulmate — god, one of your soulmates? — looks up at you from the floor and answers, “Yeah?” before realizing he’s even doing it.

“Never mind,” you dismiss with a wave of your hand. “Ms Shin?”

“Yes?” She steps closer, a worried look on her face.

Jeonghan, too, moves toward you with a similar look on his face.

You try to take a steady breath and fail. “I think I’ll take that seat now.”

Swaying backward, your body falls onto the leather couch. 

You hear approximately ten panicked shouts as you go down.

prev ⭒ chapter seven (4.0k) ⭒ next

new chapters for atus are not on a schedule nor guaranteed. there is no taglist. thank you for reading!

[1moreff-creator]

DRDT Rulebreakers!

It has come to my attention that MonoTV seems to be lacking in its responsibilities as a killing game host, in particular regarding the punishment of vile, despicable rulebreakers. Apparently, it’s willing to let breaches of rules go if they’re, quote, “funny.” This is unacceptable.

So, since I was rewatching DRDT for other purposes anyways, I decided to make a list of every participant who’s broken a rule so far. You’d be surprised at how many there are, given there are only three rules they can break. “No violence against MonoTV”, “no sleeping outside the dorms during nighttime,” and “no significant property damage outside of murder.” And yet, all of them have been broken at least once. Here are all the instances of this happening.

Rule Number 5: “Nighttime” is from 10 pm to 8 am. During nighttime, sleeping outside of the dorms is prohibited.

Rulebreaker: Rose

To the surprise of no one, I imagine. If I’d given you three guesses as to who broke this one, your guesses should have been “Rose, Rose and Rose a third time.” Indeed, Ms Lacroix takes the dubious honor of being the first person to break a rule after the students were given their monopads. As in, she literally breaks the rule in the scene the rules are handed out, in CH1 EP2. Right after the nighttime announcement, she falls asleep while standing. For shame.

Thin Ice: Ace

(Ignore the numbers)

I mean. Top right does say nighttime, and he is in fact sleeping. I feel like we could forgive him for this one given the situation, but I suppose it’s up to the jury.

Rule Number 6: Violence towards MonoTV is prohibited.

Rulebreakers: Levi, Arei

Levi is the only person who actually got punished for breaking a rule, and that’s especially funny considering he is the only one who did it before the rules were actually presented to the students lol.

Arei, meanwhile, has no excuse. While strangling a robot that doesn’t require air to breathe is a generally unadvisable as a genuine method of inflicting harm, it’s still very much violence against MonoTV. I actually can see no reason why she wouldn’t be punished for this. I guess she must be the mastermind! /j

Thin Ice: Nico, Charles, J

Nico holding MonoTV by the tail wasn’t an inherently violent act, but it still could cause harm.

Charles, in a twist of fate, got jumped by MonoTV, which isn’t a violation in itself. However, if he fought back at all… it’s curtains. Unconfirmed, but possible violation, hence he’s on thin ice.

Finally, J didn’t actually attack MonoTV in a way that matters, but she basically attempted to murder it with her remote. Watch it, young lady.

Rule Number 7: Significant property damage is prohibited. This rule may be waived in the case of committing a murder.

Rulebreakers: Teruko, Xander, Whit

Teruko: Could anyone use this to commit a murder? The materials these things are made out of are really cheap. This hammer is plastic. Oops. I already broke it...

Whit: Jeez, you trip and faceplant into the wall once and [Charles] will never let you forget it.

Whit is the latest student to be confirmed a vile rulebreaker, and as you might expect, the reason this post exists. He admitted to face-planting on the computer lab wall, and MonoTV admitted it only let it slide because it was funny. This implies the rule was broken, meaning even small things like that count as “significant” property damage.

And with that, we can confirm Xander as a rulebreaker too. No surprise, he’s the Ultimate Rebel for a reason. He actually has multiple counts of breaking this rule, with the elevator doors, but the most straightforward case is the table he broke while arm-wrestling Ace.

Finally, we have Teruko, who has broken this rule in more situations than just one. I chose her breaking the plastic hammer provided to everyone (CH1 EP1) because it’s the most straightforward, but there’s also the icing gun which breaks in her hands when baking cake in CH1, possibly a plate later in the same scene, and probably more. See, this is why Xander was in the righ-

Thin Ice: Ace's Attacker/Nico

(Aka whoever actually broke the fan)

(I could get images without numbers. I'm not going to)

This one's an interesting grey area. The property damage rule can be waived "in the case of committing a murder," but what about attempted murder? Since the murder wasn't successful, should the person who broke the fan be punished for it? Up to interpretation.

———

And that’s as far as it goes (unless I missed something which I most likely did). So, while Ace, J, Charles, Nico, and maybe the Ace attacker (if they’re not just Nico) are all on thin ice, Rose, Levi, Arei, Teruko, Xander, and Whit, are all rulebreakers! And are hereby BANNED from the DAYCA-

Wrong fandom sorry.

These six are all rulebreakers, and are thus liable for execution and/or mastermind allegations. Do with this information what you will.

[astrologuzzy]

✿ MORE ASTRO OBSERVASHUNS ✿

I’m back to spill more astrology observations, lessgetit!!! ˃̵ᴗ˂̵

Also, quick reminder that these are just MY observations and opinions I’ve gathered, so take what resonates and leave what doesn’t! mwahhh 😽💋

☆ 𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 seem to really like physical displays of affection very much. Every Gemini I knew always loved giving hugs specifically lol. They may enjoy physical touch as a love language.

★ I often notice how 𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐎 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 aren’t scared to give their opinions no matter how controversial they may be. They don’t care if people agree, if they truly believe in it then they will share it and whoever disagrees can kiss their own ass. Which can seem intimidating to many especially with how much intensity and passion Scorpio brings to the table.

☆ I find it so easy to spot someone with 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒. You guys give a very mellow and grounded energy that is very specific to Earth signs. Y’all have that signature down to earth presence or a very firm/calm tone of voice that I recognize instantly even thru text lol.

★ Everyone wants to call Leos the most “cocky” sign but have y’all seen 𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈? They’re the real culprit here lol. These guys are number one fans of themselves (do I even need to make examples lol) and I respect it tbh.

☆ Speaking of 𝐋𝐄𝐎, they love to just disappear for like days or weeks straight out of absolutely nowhere and then come back like nothing happened and resume from where they left off. Like sir, are you not gonna explain why you just ghosted everybody? Lol like are you gonna explain where you was? (double points if that Leo has Sagittarius or Aquarius influences in chart cos they’re even more prone to going mia).

★ When people have 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 in their big 6 or heavy Mars influence in the chart I notice that they tend to sound/come across way ruder than they’re actually being lol. They can be very dominant and intimidating in conversations. You’d think they’re angry or being mean but they’re just asking you to pass them the water bottle lmao. Often I think they don’t even realize that themselves since they’re just built that way.

☆ People with 𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐎 & 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 in their big 3 together kinda scare me lol (in a good way). They usually are very into occult stuff and/or are strongly religious and showcase it very openly and firmly. Sometimes they just have a very intimidating aura/demeanor to them. I notice how they frequently tend to be very into dark colors and themes/styles too. They don’t f*ck around at all. Love y’all 💚

★ People with a 𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐒𝐔𝐍 usually have their Moon sign qualities be more noticeable. With Geminis I tend to catch onto their Moon sign behavior before I realize that they’re a Gemini. Could be a mutable thing where they’re versatile enough that their Moon qualities shine more than their sun sign qualities. Very frequently when I try to guess a Gemini’s sun sign I actually guess their Moon sign. They tend to act like their Moon more than other zodiac signs in my experience. They may not even notice it either.

☆ I hope I don’t offend anyone for this one but people with a 𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍 (frequently more moon) mother tend to have veryyyy chaotic childhood stories about her. Somehow these moms tend to often be pretty emotionally unhinged people (no offense but in my experience so many of my friends have a mom with a Pisces sun and/or Pisces moon and they all always tell me how their moms have crazy mood swings or a very erratic behavior). I’m honestly so sorry for anyone who had, or still has to deal with such an environment. 🫂💚

★ 𝐆𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈 & 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 are the best opposite sign duo in astrology imo. I’ve never seen many Geminis or Sags that say they dislike or don’t get that along with one another. We really click well and even I personally can testify that lol. These two always besties.

☆ Also 𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 loooove anything to do with 2D characters or just fictional stuff in general. They love their ffs, romance books, making fan arts or edits. Every Pisces I knew had some kind of obsession with multiple fictional characters or shows and each one of them had accounts dedicated to making art or edits about said characters/shows lol. No matter if it’s a manga, an anime, a video game, a song, a movie or a cartoon, a Pisces placement will most probably romanticize a character or wtv it is they feel resonates with them in some way. I know lotta people do that but Pisces are usually more prone to be very frequent and indulgent with it in my experience. Not judging anyone, just pointing it out lol.

That’s all for todayyy ☀︎

Also please don’t copy or claim my content without credit or consent ♡

[causenessus]

cold kisses

part 0.11. THINKING ABOUT ANOTHER MAN

PLAYING FROM KODZUKEN'S STREAM . . . picture in my mind by pinkpantheress & sam gellaitry

she recognizes him from a distance as she approaches the ice rink.

a sense of alarm kicks in before she tries to calm it down. to atsumu's credit, he’s been a lot better of a person since he found out she and kenma were dating and after the day he came to watch them. even though kenma hadn’t come to watch them since that day, he’s never flirted or blatantly done anything to make her uncomfortable.

still, she’s not sure he’s someone she’d like to be around outside of the time they’re required to stay together. she doesn't hate him as much as she used to, but she's not letting down her guard around him.

as she approaches the doors of the rink, she’s unsure of what to do; go inside immediately or stop and talk to him? he makes the decision for her when he pushes off the wall he’d been leaning on to greet her.

“hey, y/n,” he begins, looking down at her, “now that we’ve got an hour to kill what did ya plan on doing?”

“oh, i was just gonna go inside in practice, probably. i’m not sure yet,” she shrugs, turning her head to look at the doors instead of him.

“oh come on, do ya really want to do that? we have a whole four hours of that to look forward to later,” he sighs, stuffing his hands in his pockets and drawing her attention back to him. “did ya already eat?” he asks.

“oh,” she accidentally says aloud as the thoughts connect. she’d felt a little nauseous today but she’d assumed it was just because her schedule had been thrown off the rails. it was probably instead due to the fact that she hadn’t had time to eat since she came straight here. “no, i haven’t,” she answered, looking up at him.

“great,” he gave her a smile, using a hand to turn around and prompt her to start walking. she was so used to feeling him guide her on the ice it almost felt natural. “let’s go get something to eat, it's my treat.”

he sees her tweets and he’s not sure what he feels. whatever it is, it’s not good. it’s immediate repulsion, seeing anything related to miya atsumu followed by two other feelings. a sharp prick of nausea and anxiety like he’s jealous.

as soon as he labels it he tries to ignore the feeling. what was he thinking? he had no right to be upset about who she was around. they weren’t dating, he had to remind himself. he was just her friend. and roommate. and someone who she'd agreed to at least pretend to date. someone she may have started to like back, he'd thought.

the realization stings and kenma stares past his phone. his vision isn’t focused anywhere, everything just seems like a blur and it seems like his very body is shutting down at the thought that maybe she doesn’t like him.

it shouldn’t be anything new, or have this big of an effect on him. he’s dealt with his feelings for years and they’ve never affected him so badly. but what was their conversation earlier today? what was yesterday? was she just pretending? was he the one who had fallen even farther? had he stupidly started to interpret her feelings as something real?

he shuts off his phone and places it down.

he knows he shouldn't feel hurt because he knows her–at least he thinks he does. no matter if she was faking or not, it wouldn’t be her intention to mess with his feeling or go out with atsumu almost identically to how she had taken him out yesterday, bakery and all.

hell, she may not have even chosen the place. he couldn’t blame or assume anything about what she was doing, that would be unfair to her. 

the only way he would know what she was thinking–how she really felt about him was to talk to her. but he couldn’t do that for a number of reasons; because of his own anxieties and because it wasn’t a good time. he didn’t want to ruin anything for her or take her attention away from the olympics. he’d have to wait until after her performance or hope that maybe she’d say something to him first.

none of this helped calm down his thoughts because there was one thing he could ask that wasn’t an assumption or projection, why would she go anywhere with miya atsumu in the first place?

prev. | m.list | next

extras <3

this got split into two chapters AGAIN because I YAP TOO MUCH

but that's okay because i have way too many songs that go with this chapter

PICTURE IN MY MIND FITS PRETTY PERFECTLY THOUGH (it'll make even more sense next chapter <3)

not sure if i already said this but kenma is also so pinkpantheress coded

i also apologize bc like none of the chats could be screenshotted perfectly like there's a lot of repeated text in some of the screenshots yk 😔

yn obviously named the gc with ukai and atsumu

ukai at first was like "wtf" and then decided he did not care

atsumu just rolls with whatever she says what a suck up

ukai also tries his best to be professional but it always slowly disintegrates the more he talks to yn

he was definitely texting and driving in traffic because his motto is "u can do anything as long as u don't get caught ❤"

yn was not too keen on going anywhere with atsumu until he said he was paying

she decided she could deal with it and just thought about kenma the entire time they were out together

but she also felt awkward when he tagged her in a tweet so she tagged him back

at this point, bc he's acting more agreeable, fake or not, y/n's decided he's a pretty okay guy. like he was always talented he just sucked as a person but now he's okay

(atsumu took her to a bakery to get back at kenma bc he knew kenma was vague tweeting about him when he told everyone to back off)

i didn't say that you heard that from a bird or something

taglist: @rinheartshyunlix @kettlepop @eggyrocks @cr4yolaas @httpakkeiji @keioover @does-directions @calx-bdo @staygoldsquatchling02 @cherrypieyourface @iluv-ace @kitty-m30w @h3xi2g0n3 @mylahrins @thechaosoflonging @momoriii-i @localgaytrainwreck @a-pastel-edgelord @bugglesboop @polish-cereal @osakis-gf @phoenix-eclipses @faesix @ryeyeyer @skylarkalchemist @kunimix @sereniteav @kodzubaby @stayyyyyyyyyyyy21 @r0seandth0rns @gsyche @kitnootkat @seillarium @tamimemo @myromanempiree @coldcigarette @eclipticnikki @squiishymeow @vivian-555 @cryptictheseus @eclecticeggknightpsychic @kodzukein @kawaii-angelanne @luvly-writer @kodzuken-hoe @kodzuken88 @bookworm-center @theweirdfloatything @glitch-karma @spicana

[candycandy00]

The most hilarious thing in the world to me is watching all the right wing morons freaking out over X-Men 97 being “woke” and accidentally revealing that they have in fact never read an X-Men comic book and if they watched the old cartoon at all, it was only in passing and they never paid attention to it.

I’m not even talking about the fact that the X-Men have always met their definition of “woke”, even from the very beginning. No, I’m talking about the utterly baffling number of straight up factual errors I see them spouting. It’s absolutely embarrassing. They present themselves as fans, and are the exact type of guys who would gatekeep comics and assume any random woman in a comic store is a “fake fan”, but they have no clue about some of the most iconic elements from both the comics and the old cartoon!

I watched a video by a guy who had no idea Morph was a character in the old cartoon, and had never even heard of the Age of Apocalypse (one of the most famous X-Men stories in existence). I watched another by a guy freaking out over Storm’s Mohawk, not realizing it’s part of one of her most iconic looks from the 80’s. He showed a picture of her in her first costume from the comics (on a cover of X-Men Classic of all things) that looked way sexier than she was normally drawn when wearing that costume. Then said they “toned down” her look for the original cartoon, not knowing that her cartoon look was an exact replica of her look in the comics when the cartoon was made. They didn’t tone down anything. That was just what she looked like in the comics at the time.

The new cartoon is great. And I say this as a person who was totally obsessed with the old cartoon to the point that it worried my parents. To the point that I (a super calm and well behaved child) threw a massive tantrum when I realized the VCR had failed to record a new episode while I wasn’t home and cried on the couch for hours. To the point that my entire family still, to this day, knows every character’s name (and real name!) without ever watching the show because I talked about it so much.

I’ve never had a problem with “fake fans” of anything, because I figure if you fake something like that, odds are good that you’ll end up genuinely getting into whatever you’re pretending to like. And more fans of something is always a good thing in my book. But when those fake fans are actively trashing something I love just to grift to their narrow minded audiences, using completely false information, it’s ridiculous.

Honestly I wish I could just force these guys to read any storyline from Claremont’s 80’s run. It doesn’t even matter which one. They’re all solid gold. But maybe reading something so freaking great would open their tiny minds just a little bit.

[babyleostuff]

partner privileges | vocal unit

thank you guys for the ideas and help <3

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ YOON JEONGHAN 

Jeonghan takes great pride in his hair, and as much as he lets his members play and touch them, there would be one specific person he’d allow to do anything they want to them - his partner. I just know that he’d love to sit between his significant other legs and let them braid his hair, or do any type of hairstyle they’d want. He’d have different accessories and hair ties ready for them to use. Like, that would be a must activity on a stay-at-home date. Also, he’d love for his partner to run their fingers through his hair whenever he’d be cuddling them, or laying on their lap. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ HONG JOSHUA 

Being his number one. To me, Joshua is that type of guy that would do literally anything for his significant other (all of the boys would, but with Shua it hits extra hard). They would be his entire world, like they’d be the first thing he’d think about in the morning and the last in the evening. There wouldn’t be a thing Joshua wouldn’t do for his partner, and he would do them gladly. It’s just something about having that one person that you want to spend your entire life with, making sure they’re happy and safe.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ LEE JIHOON 

24/7 availability to the Universe Factory. And that’s the biggest privilege anyone could ever get, but no one except for his partner would be lucky enough to get it. People would usually have to ask if they wanted to enter it if he weren’t there, but he would let his significant other enter the place without asking. Like, that’s so obvious to him. I feel like he’d thrive off the fact that his partner would be there with him, and for him in case he needed a break, or if he wasn’t able to finish off a lyric, he could turn to his partner for some inspiration and comfort. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ LEE SEOKMIN

Being able to see every side of him - the good and the bad one. He is our sunshine and we love him, but he is one of those people that want to stay strong and smile, no matter how hard it gets. Sure, he’s not afraid to cry with people around, but that still doesn’t mean he’s showing “all” of him. His partner, on the other hand, would be one of the few people that’d get to see every part of him, no matter how ugly he thinks they are. When Seokmin trusts, he trusts with life, and his significant other would quickly become one of the most important people in his life. 

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ BOO SEUNGKWAN Seungkwan likes to tease his members and play fight with them, so it’s usually quite hard to get his attention when he’s busy with the bullying. When it comes to his partner though? Nah ah, they have his full attention, no matter what. A literal fire could be going on in the back, but if his significant other has something to say, they will be heard. Seungkwan would drop whatever he was doing the moment he’d hear his partner speak up, giving them all of his attention. Seungkwan’s eyes would be big, and he would constantly be nodding his head to encourage them to keep talking.

taglist (if you want to be added, check my masterlist): @weird-bookworm @sea-moon-star @hanniehaee @wonwooz1 @byprettymar @edgaralienpoe @staranghae @eightlightstar @itza-meee @immabecreepin @hyneyedfiz @honestlydopetree @dkswife

[lainiespicewrites]

Coach Syverson Part 2

I really didn't think I was going to finish writing this so soon but ya'll loved the first part! and I love writing this so here it is the final part with all the good stuff! Also it's 4 am and I probably should have proof read this. but I didn't. Iwas so excited to get it posted because You guys BLEW UP the first part so THANK YOU!!!

Warnings: SMUT at the end, Oral (m and f receiving), (p in v), lots of cusring in the end , so much praising because you know he would!!

Sy was in coach mode with the team as I looked over the sign in sheet and greeted the students that were traveling to watch the game. Most of the students were loaded onto the bus now. Thank God because I was so distracted by him. There was something about seeing him like this, he was so in charge and in control. He had their full attention and he never had to work to get it. He had those boys respect the first time he walked out to the field. But he earned it too. He was such a good coach. I loved listening to the way he spoke with them.

“Alright boys,” I listened as he pulled the team into a huddle before they got on the bus next to ours. “Listen first and foremost I want y’all to go out there and pay hard. That’s what we’ve been practicing. We’ve watched their tape. These guys are a little bigger than you but that doesn’t matter. We’re faster. You come at ‘em low and fast they’re gonna go down. Matt I need your eyes on that ball at all times man! We just about lost some points last week because of misdirection and we ain’t gonna let that happen again right?” 

“No, sir! I got you coach!”

“Atta boy! Derek, you keep throwing that ball like you’ve been in practice this week and we’ll be in good shape!” Derek just nodded. Sy smiled. “Alright, now boys I don’t want any messing around in the locker room. You go in, and be respectful, I want them talking about how great of character our team has just as much as they’re talking about how good we play, understood?”

“Yes coach!” The boys chanted in unison. 

“Alright, load up let’s go!” The boys started cheering. I smiled. I loved watching him with them. The way he got them all fired up. And he matched their energy. He was so adorable right now. Joking around with the boys and 

“Hey Miss Plummer!” right, I’m not a teenager watching my crush, I’m an adult, I have a job to do. 

“Hi Caitlyn! Are you ready for the game tonight?” I smiled at her. She was all decked out with the eye under eye black and Tyler's jersey number painted on her cheek in the school colors. She and a few of the other girls made t-shirts and were wearing them to support a few of the players they were friends with. 

“So ready!!” She squealed, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. She looked over toward the buses where the team was loading the bus with their equipment, where I had been staring off earlier. “He’s so cute isn’t he?” She said, I raised an eyebrow and smirked a little. 

“Are you excited to watch Tyler play?” I chuckled. 

“Yeah, But I meant coach Sy, are you two finally together? He totally likes you! Everyone knows it! And you two would be so cute together!! The students talk about it all the time. I mean you’re wearing his hoodie Miss Plummer!” Wow that girl talks fast. He likes… no. But if the students see it? Am I really that blind? He bought my dinner, He brings me coffee, he called me his work wife. But I’m not his body type. These things don’t happen. Are my insecurities really that deep rooted that I can’t take the advice I give my students? But still. When I was in school I remember rumors spreading about teachers seeing each other all the time and they usually…. Well actually. Now that I think about it. They normally ended up being true. Some of them were even scandals. I shook my head. 

“Slow down sweetheart,” I managed to let out a chuckle even though I kind of felt like I was having a crisis. “Coach Sy and I are friends, I’m just borrowing his sweatshirt because I didn’t have one. It’s sweet that you all care about us so much. I love that. I do. But well, that’s all it is, honey.” She nodded sadly. And looked back at the other bus and over at Sy. He caught us looking at him and smiled. 

“Miss Plummer,” She sighed exasperated, like me not understanding my own love life was exhausting for her.   “I don’t wanna over step but I overheard him and Mrs. Spencer talking. She came into his class at the end of the day Wednesday smiling and stuff. And like I wasn’t TRYING to eavesdrop but I heard them talk about you and I just couldn’t resist ya know? Anyway, she said she had this idea, she could back out of coming today so he could hang out with you and well…. Nevermind.” I raised an eyebrow. 

“Caitlyn, what have we said about gossiping?” I said. 

“Girl, It’s true though, that man’s got it bad for you Miss P.” I shook my head and smiled

“Get on the bus Caitlyn,”  

“Okay fine, But when you guys get married, can I be in the wedding?” I rolled my eyes. “Guess that’s a no.” She said and stepped on the bus. I looked over one last time. Sy was double checking something on his clipboard while the boys finished up. He looked up and we made eye contact. He winked and I blushed, giving him a little wave before I followed Caitlyn on to the bus. Things took off fast when we got to the other school. Sy took the boys straight to the locker room to gear up because we got a little stuck in traffic. Myself and the two other chaperones led the students to their section in the bleachers and about 15 minutes later we were at kick off. Sy was completely in his comfort zone out there. 

Our boys had the ball first. Sy had his couch voice on shouting a couple of corrections from the sidelines. The team made a good play but in the end the other boys were bigger and their defense was strong. We had to settle for three points instead of a touchdown. 

The whole first quarter of the game stayed that way. The boys managed to keep the other team out of the end zone. The start of the second quarter the other team had the ball. They made a play and when one of our boys Zach Owens went to tackle the player he lost his footing. It had rained earlier in the day and the  He slipped but still grabbed the player by the ankle. He got him down but he ended up at the bottom of a dog pile. Another player reached out to give Zach a hand to help him up, but he fell back immediately when he tried to stand. He was hurt. 

I immediately looked to Sy, I was on the first level of the bleachers standing against the railing. I was close enough to see him curse under his breath before running onto the field. The medic followed him out. I walked out to the sideline. Sy and the medic got Zach up but he couldn’t put any pressure on his left ankle. Everyone cheered for him while they walked him off the field. Poor kid was going to be out the rest of the game. 

“You’re gonna be alright man,” Sy said as they got him to the bench. “This guy’s gonna wrap that ankle and then you just chill here. Just breathe,” He clapped him on the shoulder and turned back to his place on the sidelines. The boys were starting the next play and already the other team scored a touchdown on us. I walked up to him hesitantly. He shouted something about tightening the defense. I jumped a little. I'd never been this close to him in coach mode. It was kinda hot though. What was I saying? I came up next to him brushing my shoulder against his.  He looked over and his shoulders relaxed a little and he smiled when he saw it was me. “Hey Sugar,”

“Is he gonna be okay?” I asked. He nodded. 

“Yeah, It’s not broken but he sprained it real good. He’s gonna be down at least a couple weeks. He’s our best tackle.” He sighed softly and his lips quirked up into a sad lopsided smile

“I know, that’s gonna kill us. But the boys can pull through. They’ve got you as a coach.” I smiled. He threw his arm around me and pulled me against his side squeezing my shoulder. 

“You’re so damn sweet,” he said. I blushed and turned into his shoulder to hide my face. “You’re freezing, darling,” He ran his hand up and down my arm for a minute “shit,” he mumbled. He pulled out a 10 dollar bill from his pocket “I told ya I pay for coffee tonight, meant to give this to you earlier.”  He looked down at me, his blue eyes briefly holding my gaze as he grinned. 

“Logan you don’t have to do that,” I said trying to push his hand away. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. 

“You say that an awful lot. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t want to. Now quit arguing with me and take it.” He narrowed his eyes at me and nodded down at the cash in his hand. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“You know, you can be a real diva when you don’t get you’re way.” I said taking it from him. 

“Are you complaining about free coffee?” He smirked and pulled me close to his side again keeping me warm. 

“No,” I chuckled softly. I looked back at the bleachers watching some of my kids for a second. A few of them were a little two close for comfort. “I’d better get back up there,” I said sadly. I really liked being next to him. 

“Yeah, I guess you should.” He left his arm around me a few seconds longer before he finally let me go. He was such a teddy bear sometimes. As I was making my way back to the bleachers I heard. A few of the boys on the team talking, 

“OOOOH Coach you look at you,” One of them said

“That was smooth. Can you teach me how to do that?” 

“You gonna be gettin some later coach.” The last one spoke. Logan’s voice was stern but still playful. 

“Y’all wanna match zach on the bench next week? I won’t hesitate. Watch it! What is that an extra 3 laps to the 5 you were already running on monday Tyler?” He smirked. 

“Damn Coach!! You Savage!” One of the other boys piped in. 

“You wanna join him, Jake?” He mused. 

“No Sir, I’m good!” He spoke quickly and I laughed to myself as I walked back up the bleachers. 

I sat with the students for a while breaking up a few young couples trying to get a little too close while they were away from mom and dad. I hated to be a buzzkill but they know the rules. 

Sy was back on high alert. At the start of the third quarter the boys were down by 10 points. They shouldn’t have been the refs missed and obvious penalty against the other team for shoving one of our guys. I was definitely part of the crowd that was screaming at that point. But right now Derek, our quarterback had gotten the boys down the field and they were set up for another touch down. They made the play. He threw a complete pass to tyler and they got the points! Every was cheering. With the extra kick good the boys only need one more touch down to get ahead. 

The rest of the quarter went by and then only 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter. The team was still down by 3 points. The clock was running out they had 45 seconds left we had the ball but we were only at the 40 yard line. We needed a miracle. But Sy taught our boys well. Derek found an opening and through a perfect pass down the field to Matt. The whole crowd was on their feet. He Caught the pass at the 20 yard line and ran the rest of the way down the field into the end zone with 10 seconds left. We got the touch down. The student section was shaking the bleachers jumping around. The game finished and we let the kids run down to wait by the gate to make  a tunnel for the team to run through. I walked down to the side lines to wait in a crowd of people to see the winning coach. 

While I looked over keeping an eye on the kids while they celebrated with the team. I held my coffe close to my chest too keep me and my hands warm. I loved seeing Sy like this. This is totally where he belonged. He looked famous talking with the other coaches and people asking him about what he was working on with the team. I over heard two ladies having a conversation a few feet infront of me.

“Their coach is so handsome,” The first one said. She was tall, Thin long blonde hair. Wearing some sporty leggings the looked super expensive and the other teams spirit wear.

“Oh I know! You think he’s single?” The other said she looked similar to the other woman but a little shorter and her hair was darker. 

“I don’t know I saw that lady with him earlier but, he’s gorgeous and well, I mean I don’t wanna sound rude but she seemed a little big to be his type.” The blonde said. 

“No I know what you mean when I saw him with his arm around here I was like… if that’s his wife… well he could’ve done better.” My heart dropped. I knew they were talking about me. I felt like I was going to be sick. I knew it. Everything, I’d always felt, every reason I told everyone they were wrong. These two just confirmed it. Logan would never see me as anything more than a friend. My insecurities just kept bubbling to the surface the way I felt about my body and what I’d worked on for years all came rushing back. I ran right passed them missing the shocked look on their faces. They hadn’t realized I’d been so close. It didn’t matter they were right. 

I didn’t hear him either. Excusing himself from the other men he’d been talking two and calling after me. I ran into the bathrooms locking the door behind me and took a deep breath. You’re not crying not here. You’re a big girl. Hold it in until you’re alone. I calmed myself down and took one last deep breath before walking back out. 

Logan was leaning on the wall outside the door waiting. 

“Hey Sugar, you alright? You looked like you were gonna be sick? Feeling okay?” Shit I didn’t even know he’d noticed me walk by. I nodded taking another deep breath and staring at the ground. 

“Yeah, just um, felt a little off for a second.” I said. “I’ll be alright. You’d better get back to the boys.” He put his hand on my shoulder and I shrugged him off. I looked up and saw the confused look in his eyes.

“I’m meeting the boys at the bus, it’s a late night so we’re headed straight back.” he stated. “You sure you’re okay sugar, why don’t you ride back with me, I can keep an eye on ya. And the boys wanna thank their good luck charm for being here.” he smiled. 

“No, I mean. No that’s sweet of them. And nice of you to offer but. It’s not fair to the others. I said I’d chaperone I can’t just leave them short like that.” I said. 

“They won’t be Carol will be …”he paused and groaned.

“What do you mean Carol will be there? She couldn’t come tonight.” I was confused now. 

“Damnit this isn’t how I wanted to do this. She was always going to be here. Uh she was helping me out… with…” 

“Caitlyn was right,” I cut him off. 

“I thought she was listening,” He chuckled and shook his head. “She told ya huh? Well cats out of the bag then, I uh,” He laughed and let out a shaky breath rubbing the back of his neck. “I really like you Darlin’, I have for a while.” He smiled sheepishly and bit his lip. My hands were shaking and all of a sudden I felt sick again. This is what I’d always wanted but I didn’t feel real. I couldn’t be here right now. Surely there was a punchline waiting there always was. This was a joke right. Those women from earlier are right around the corner somewhere recording. How could I be so stupid. I shook my head. Tears were welling up in my eyes. 

“I, I have to go, they’re gonna need my help loading the buses.” I said and ran past him toward the parking lot. He called after me but I kept walking. When I got to the parking lot only one of our buses was still there. I let out a slow breath and then sighed. “God I’m a fucking idiot,” I groaned. 

“I uh.. Sent the other bus ahead” I heard Sy say from behind me. I stood there for a second quietly and then just nodded. “Wait here, I gotta talk to the boys and then we’ll head out,” He said. 

I watched him walk over. Some of the boys started to whistle and holler. I couldn’t hear Logan but he shut it down quick. The boys loaded up into the bus and gestured for me to follow. He gave me a soft smile and followed me on sitting in the seat across from mine. Other than the boys celebrating the game in the back ground it was a silent ride home. How did I screw this up so bad. He planned out this whole thing. But, somehow I still don’t believe this. My phone lit up with a text from the girls. 

“How was the game? I saw you guys won!” Skyler sent. I needed them right now. I looked over at sy he was scrolling on his phone, or looking out the window, I didn’t know what to say right now. I texted the girls back. 

“The game was good, But I’m an idiot.” I replied. 

“How so?” Hayley texted back quickly. I poured out everything into the text. They knew why I felt he shouldn’t like me, even if I never said it. So I’m sure that was no surprise to them. I told them about what those women had said. And my little panic attack. Sy telling me how he felt and how I ran off. And when I finally clicked together that he had put this together so he could ask to take me out. And How I royally fucked it all up. 

“Oh Alayna, I’m sorry. That really sucks. But have you tried talking to him about any of this.”  Skyler said. 

“I didn’t have the time, and I can’t, He probably already hates me now and realizes I was never worth it anyway.”

“Stop it dude! I don’t wanna hear that from you. Clearly he thinks you are. He went through all that effort because he wanted to make sure he got the right opportunity. So he would care if you told him! You need to tell him what you’re feeling. I know it’s scary but you have to.” Hayley sent back. 

“She’s right Alayna, I know this is hard, but he’s not in this to hurt you, I know people have before but girl, You can’t believe for the rest of your life every man is the same. Pull him aside when you get back. You can fix this. We love you!!” 

I knew they were right. But I didn’t have much time to muster up the courage to do anything. When I looked up from my phone we were pulling back up to the school. The team got off the bus. “Alright boys! Get home safe, I’ll see you Monday morning for practice,” Sy said before letting them go. I grabbed my things from the bus and headed to my car. But when I got there I noticed something wasn’t right my shoulders slumped. I’d left a light on when I was searching for a jacket. God I hope it didn’t drain my battery. I got in and tried to start it. But of course. What’s that saying. If it can go wrong it will. I got out and slammed the door shut. “Fuck!” I shouted. I couldn’t help it now the damn broke and I couldn’t help but start crying “I’m so stupid!” I kicked at  tire and slammed my fist on the hood of my car. “Ow fuck!” I held my hand that was now throbbing. 

“Woah, Hey, What’s going on?” Sy asked coming up behind me quicking after hearing me shouting. 

“It’s nothing, I'm sorry. My… battery died. I left a light on. My car won’t start.” I hiccuped trying to control my breathing. He pulled me into his chest and hugged me.

“Okay, It’s gonna be alright. Breath. Good girl. Calm down.” He spoke softly. “Now,” he pulled away slightly to look at me in they eyes. “Do you have jumper cables?” I shook my head 

“No I, had some old ones and I threw them out and never replaced them I… forgot.” he nodded. And let go leaving me against his car to go check the tool box in the back of his truck.

“Shoot. Yeah, I thought so,” He mumbled to himself, “Sorry, sugar. I left mine in my garage.” He said. I nodded. “It’ll be fine here tonight, I can take you home.” Again I just nodded. I heard him let out a deep breath. “Did I,” He paused. “Did I do something wrong? I, I just thought... Maybe I was reading it wrong. I was just sure that you felt…”

“I do,” I said cutting him off. “ I do feel the same. I just don’t understand why, you feel the way you do. I …” I didn’t know what else to say I just kept staring at the pavement.

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I? You’re gorgeous. Shit, I’ve been flirtin’ with you since I met you. You really couldn’t see it?” I shook my head. 

“No,” I said finally looking up at him. “I wanted to. I really wanted to, but I just couldn’t believe that a guy as good looking as you would find me attractive.” I said. He chuckled softly. “Don’t laugh at me!” I pouted. 

“I’m not, it’s just, baby, you might just be the dumbest smart girl i’ve ever met. Seriously, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. And I coach teenage boys!” I smiled a little. “There she is. You wanna tell me what’s goin on in that pretty little head of yours? He asked. I took a deep breath. It’s now or never. 

“I was waiting to talk to you after the game, and I heard these women talking. They were talking about how handsome you are. And if you were single. One of them had said they’d seen me with you on the sidelines. She made a comment about my weight and that there was no way I would be your type. And The other girl said some things too. I felt really insecure. I already didn’t believe that you would be into me but when I heard someone else say it, it solidified it for me. And then when you told me how you felt. It felt like a joke. I felt like I was in high school again and everyone was going to gather around and start laughing. And to be honest. My experiences since then haven’t been great. I haven’t been with good guys. I just I was afraid I was going to be hurt. Honestly sometimes I don’t even know how I do this job because I can’t even take my own advice.” I looked down again. It was a relief to let it all out but if I looked him in the eye I was going to start crying again. I was already weak enough in this moment. 

Sy stepped back around the car to where I was standing. He gently put his hands on my hips and pulled against him. He brought one hand up brushing the hair out of my face and resting it on my cheek. “I wish you could understand how wrong they are. I know you don’t not right now. But I’m gonna help you see yourself the way I do Sugar,” He didn’t hesitate any longer. He pressed us further against the car and leaned down pressing his lips to mine. His lips were soft and his body was warm against mine. He kissed me slowly and soft his beard tickling against my jaw. I snaked my hands around his neck pulling him closer. And I felt him smile against my lips. He pulled away slowly eyes fluttering open still holding me against him. “Baby you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that. I don’t know what other people have said to you. Or what you’ve been through. But when I tell you you’re beautiful I mean it. And when say I wanna take you home with me, it aint no joke baby. Do you trust me?” He askes staring down at me holding my face in his hands. 

“I trust you Logan, so much that is scares me.” I admitted. 

“I’d never hurt you like that Darlin’ that’s a promise.” I pulled him down and kissed him again. Harder this time. He groaned against my lips and squeezed my hip pulling me closer. He slid his hand into my hair holding me there as he started to gently suck on my bottom lip. We pulled away to catch our breath and had big goofy grin on his face as he leaned his forehead against mine.  “I’d love to do this all night baby,” He chuckled. “But its late and its only gonna get colder out here, I need to get you home.” I blushed. 

“Yeah, it’s almost midnight. We really should get going.” 

He  opened the passenger door of the truck for me and made sure I got in okay before he shut the door and got in on the other side. He started the truck and we pulled out of the parking lot. 

“Sy?” I spoke softy. 

“Yeah baby?” He looked over just for a second to let me know he was listening. 

“Did you mean it, when you said you wanted to take me home with you?” I asked. He literally snorted. 

“What do you think?” He smirked taking one hand of the wheel and resting it on my thigh. I could feel my heart rate speed up and I was blushing. How the hell was it so easy for him to turn me on?

“I want to.” I said. He looked like he was about to choke. 

“Yeah? You don’t have to Sugar, I didn’t mean… I mean I want you to. But I don’t want you to fee like I’m pressuring you or anything. Shit I ain’t even taken you out yet. Not really.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it softly. 

“Logan, I really want to.” I said. He just smiled. 

“Alright, baby.” 

He drove us back to his place parking the truck in his drive way. “Right this way Darlin,” He smirked leading me up the front steps and unlocking the door. I followed him inside and he quickly shut the door behind him backing me up against it. “You really have no idea what your doing to me do you baby?” He licked his lips looking me up an down hungrily. I’d never seen him like this. The look in his eye was almost, animalistic. And it was so. Fucking. Hot. “Here I was thinking you were an innocent little thing.” He pinned my against the door holding me there in his hands. He leaned down crushing his lips against mine. This was different than the kisses we’d shared earlier , slow and sensual, this was hungry, needy. “Practically begging me to bring you home. You know how long I’ve been thinking about this? Getting you home with me? Under me? Fuck.” he breathed

He pulled me away from the wall and pulled at the bottom of his hoodie I was still wearing. I lited my arms and let him pull it over my head along with my shirt leaving them in a pile on the floor. We walked a little farther into the house. He pulled his shirt off tossing it next to us as he pulled me into his lap on the couch. I leaned back to admire his toned chest running my fingers throught the soft curls there. He slid his hand into my hair groaning into my mouth as he pulled me in for another kiss. He bit my bottom lip slowly dragging it between his teeth. He started. Peppering kisses down my jaw before leaving wet kisses along my neck. 

His hands were everywhere roaming over bra squeezing my breasts, running them down my sides and around grabbing my ass. I felt his hand move around my back plaing with the clasp of my bra. “Need this off baby.” He mumbled against my chest. He managed to undo it and I let it fall tossing it to the floor. “Mm fuck yes,” He moaned dipping his head down taking one of my nipples into his mouth and teasing the other with his thumb. I moaned and rolled my hips against his. I could feel his hard cock straining aginst his jeans. He groaned against me giving the other nipple attention. 

“You’re so fucking gorgeous.” He said stood from the couch picking me up and wrapping my legs around his waist. 

“Sy!” I Squealed. He carried me to his bedroom setting me on his bed. He crawled on top of me. His hands were already on the waist band of my leggings. 

“Is this okay,” He paused. I nodded eagerly and he chuckled. “Good girl.” He pulled them down swiftly with my panties leaving me completely bare infront of him. “Fucking beautful” he said as he starting kissng down my stomach. He nipped at my thigh leaving wet kisses there.  He pushed my legs open a little further and pulled me to the end of the bed. I was completely exposed to him but I didn’t care. I trusted him completely. He met my gazed and ran his and up my thigh before brushing his fingers through my folds. I moaned as his fingers brushed across my clit “God damn baby, all this for me? Fuckin soaked. “ He smirked He pressed his thumb to my clit rubbing in rough circles. 

“Fuck!” I moaned “Logan please!” I grabed his wrist the sensation already feeling overstimulating. It’s been so long. 

“We’ll get there baby.” He teased. Finally he kissed down my inner thigh and brushed his tongue against my clit.

“Oh my god!” I whimpered ran my fingers over his hair as he sucked on my clit. He slid two finger inside me pumping slowly. I squirmed against him but he used his other hand to hold my hips down. God he was so strong. 

“Keep still sugar. Don’t make me tell ya again,” He said before going back to work on my clit and curving his fingers in side me pumping them a little faster. I was seeing starts. I pushed his head down holding him there. 

“Oh my god, don’t stop!” I moaned. I came hard around his fingers and he slid them out and licked them clean. 

“Mm you taste so good baby. So fuckin’ sweet.” He stood up from the bed finally ridding himself of his jeans and boxers. His hard cock rested against his stomach. He was huge. I bit my lip and he chuckled. 

“I’ll go easy on you baby,” he said as he started crawling on top of me again.

“Mm wait,” He stopped raising an eye brow. I pushed him back against the pillows and kisses his lips softly. I kissed down his chest and finally settled between his legs. I bit my lip and looked up at him innocently “Just wanna taste it,”  He smirked. 

“Dirty little girl ain’t ya, mm” he pulled my hair back guiding me down. I licked the length of his cock. He groaned softly. I loved the sounds he made. So deep and almost feral. I finally took the tip in my mouth and slowly started to suck him off. I took him as far as I could letting him hit the back of my throat. He growled. “That’s it baby, good girl.” I kept bobbing my head on his cock and wrapped my and around the base where I couldn’t fit him in. I felt him tug on my hair and pull me up. “That feels amazing baby but I’m not gonna last if you keep that up.” 

He kissed me again and laid me down pulling leg over his shoulder. He ran the head of his cock up and down my folds getting it nice and wet. “You ready baby girl?” I nodded. He slowly pushed in. He held him self up bracing him self on one arm. He pushed in slow inch by inch letting me adjust to him. When he bottomed out he stayed there for a minute. “You okay baby?”

“Logan, it’s sweet that you’re asking but please fuck me.”  He let out a low growl and pulled almost all the way snapping his hips back into me. I moaned feeling him deep inside me. He grabbed my hip pulling me closer and kept thrusting into me. He moaned as he reached between us finding my clit with his thumb. The rythem of his thrusts and hitting just the right spot had me seeing stars. I came again around him moaning his name and other obscenities falling from my lips. “That’s it good girl.” He pulled out and flipped me over onto my stomach. He pushed back inside of me this new angle hitting that spot over and over again but I was so sensitive. 

“Come on baby, you got another one for me?” He growled against my ear. 

“Mm I can’t sy, It’s too much,” He reached around rubbing my clit in cirlces with his thumb.

“One more baby, please for me?” He picked up his pace hitting that spot over and over. I Moaned pulling at the sheets beneath me. 

“Fuck I’m cumming!” I moaned letting go around him

“That’s my good girl, cum on my cock.” His thrusts were becoming erratic and he stilled and groan cumming inside me. He kissed my shoulder and layed down beside me. He pulled out slowly and pulled me to lay on his chest. “Holy shit,” He breathed. He fingertips brushed up and down my back. He smiled down at me. “You’re incredible. I don’t deserve you.”

“Shut up Logan,” I blushed Hiding my face against his chest.

“I mean it, your too good for this world Darlin’,” He smiled and kissed my head. “I’m gonna marry you someday, I know I haven’t even really taken you on a date yet. But baby when you know, you know,” 

“Yeah?” I smiled  “I think I know what you mean.” He pulled the blankets up over us and held me for a while. 

“Good, now get some rest Darlin’” He said running his fingers through my hair. I smiled snuggling up against him. 

“Goodnight Sy,” I smiled. 

“Goodnight sugar.”

[xoxochb]

I saw you were taking ‘Leo x reader’ requests so I thought I’d throw some ideas out there!!! :D (they’re random ideas I’ve been writing in my notes app so sorry they’re not too planned and specific…)

1.) (rivals-to-lovers) Fighting over music on the Argo II with him. Either over aux or they’re neighbors on the ship and he plays his music loud so reader does the same to drown it out… and then it turns into a little petty loud music battle.

2.) (???-to-lovers) Reader is cold so they go to his room for an extra blanket because he’s a human furnace so chances are he sleeps without one. He doesn’t have any but offers to cuddle with them. Others find out and snap a photo in the morning.

3.) Reader spends money on him (paying for food, buying something he was looking at, etc.) and Leo starts crying because he hasn’t had someone do that for him since his mom. With a fluff ending

4.) Like number 3 but with a surprise brithday party, maybe a confession at the end or maybe it’s already an established relationship?

5.) (friends-to-lovers) Percy and Leo are joking about who is more charming/attractive and the reader picks Leo. One of the others is like “Percy obviously, he’s everyone’s type, literally almost everyone has had a crush on him or found him attractive at first”. And the reader is like “Speak for yourself.” Everyone just looks over at them, even Leo is shocked lol. Maybe he gets flirty with them after and teases about it.

6.) Same as 6 but it’s some other camper making fun of him and the reader stands up for him. Maybe they fake date or something?

7.) Leo and reader are on counsler duty helping younger campers for arts and crafts. Reader makes him a friendship bracelet and he wears it all the time.

I know there’s a lot, but I just wanted to throw stuff out there for if you’re ever in a writing block, you don’t have to reply to this either any of the requests if they aren’t something you’re interested in! I just love your work (sersiouly your writing is so good omg) so I thought I’d brain dump ideas!!!

🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

⋆·˚ ༘ * he built a fire just to keep me warm

warnings: one sexual reference

pairing: leo valdez x fem! reader

right side, left side, back, stomach, sitting up. no matter how you slept it was still insanely freezing in your cabin. you’re three blankets were not enough to radiate warmth through your body. you lie awake for gods know how long, staring at the ceiling, then back at the clock, a repeating cycle between the two. you take another look at the clock: 1:58 it reads

great, so you’ve been awake almost the whole night and now it’s yesterdays tomorrow. an idea, an idea, you scan your brain for a genius idea that will help you sleep the rest of the night. would another blanket do? no it won’t because five minutes after you’re still cold. turn up the heat? then it will be too hot and there’s a possibility your siblings will complain. you’re left with only one option: get a fourth blanket. you’ve run out of blankets, your three currently being used, however you know the perfect boy who would be glad to give you one of his, and it’s your human furnace of a best friend leo valdez

he had told you many times that he sleeps with only one singular blanket since he tends to overheat with any more than that amount. he had said however that if you ever needed an extra he would be happy to give up his one for the sake of your happiness

you remove the three blankets from your body, standing up and unfortunately embracing the cold of your cabin. you slide your slippers on and throw one of leo’s sweatshirts on- another thing he had offered to you one night at a campfire, you recall it almost vividly, and the faint scent of fire still lingers on it

you had began to make your way to cabin nine, the cold air of night almost worse than your cabin, but nonetheless you power through it. once arrived at your much anticipated destination you open the door slowly, the warmth of the cabin warming you up instantly; you don’t know what you would’ve done if leo wasn’t a child of hephaestus

you make your way to his bed just fine, having spent many mornings taking this path to wake him for breakfast. you stand on the side, watching him sleep so peacefully, you hated to wake him from his sleep, he never got much of it. perhaps it was creepy to be staring as he slept, your worries got the best of you though, you felt terrible waking up for a problem of your own

“perverted much?”

you swore you saw the underworld for a moment, a hand flies to your chest and you breathe heavily. you watch as leo sits up in his bed

“oh my gods” you take a large breath “I’m sorry, I don’t- jeez- uhm, could I use your blanket? It’s freezing in my cabin”

the moment the words fall from your mouth you realize he has no blanket. a frown forms on your lips almost instantly

“I threw my blanket in the closet for the summer, haven’t taken it out yet” there’s a long pause before he speaks again “you could sleep with me though?”

sleep with leo? only your fantasies were privileged enough to be granted that honor. just sleeping right? this can’t be that bad. just go to sleep, that’s it

you crush and best friend leo valdez is asking you to sleep with him? this can’t be right

“are you sure?” you ask

“of course” he moves over to make room for you to lay, you gladly do so, eager to get warm

It’s awkward for a moment. side by side you feel his warmth through his shirt, was there any way he could just simply give it to you? probably not, you’re only option was to get any closer if that was possible, you push away this thought though, he was your best friend not your boyfriend

for a while this was how it went, you assume he fell asleep shortly after you joined him. was it the heat? your sleepiness? were you possessed? you’re unsure how it happened but you find yourself cozying up to leo, a position much to couple-y for best friends. soon enough a warm arm is wrapped around your waist, sending you into a deep sleep

you would say this was the best night of your life. the many campers taking photos in the morning would agree

[hoshinoyozora]

Poor, Unfortunate Soul(s)

🖤 Pairing: Yandere! Self-aware! Twisted Wonderland x Female! Reader

💛 Word Count: 1,3k+

❤ Warnings: -

[Edited]

Do not re-upload my writing to another website or use it without my permission. Also, don’t ask for a sequel unless I like the story enough to write one. Please reblog so other people can see my stories!

***

Just a lil scenario about MC who ‘dismisses’ their existences aka me lmao.

“They’re just a bunch of game characters, anyway. Why should I care so much about them?”

You laughed, unaware of the hearts that you broke within the screen. The thin yet sturdy piece of glass that separated you from the people who thought of you as their world. Their everything. Your friend chuckled, adding salt to the injury. Had she didn’t ask you why you hadn’t logged into the game for days, weeks even, maybe they wouldn’t be so humiliated and disappointed.

But did that mean they wouldn’t know your true opinion on them otherwise?

Maybe ignorance was bliss, because, then, they would’ve kept holding onto the hope for you to come back. To still want them the same way they wanted you. In this world of codes and numbers, you were the one real thing in their lives. You were human. Warm, fleshy, and expressive. And yet, you dismissed their existences so easily just because you both lived in two different worlds.

Did they really mean nothing for you? Were all of your reactions towards them merely a façade? Or a memory so insignificant you forgot about it in the next day?

“Maybe I should just delete the app. It feels like a chore to open it nowadays.”

The sky darkened, the ground trembled, and the thunder rumbled as the result of a certain dragon fae. Was this your true self? Then again, NRC was a school of villains. They shouldn’t be surprised if you, the Player, turned out to be the biggest villain of all. Not even Malleus Draconia could hold a candle to you. Your words alone had the ability to mold and break their spirits. Your touch alone could move them somewhere else and show them how beautiful Twisted Wonderland was with you by their side. And your presence alone gave them a reason to live.

If you were to disappear, wouldn’t that be comparable to death? A slow, painful death where everyone lost themselves in depression and rage, and ultimately, destroyed themselves. In a moment of morbid curiosity, they wondered if that was what you wanted all along. You toyed with their hearts, and when you got bored, you moved onto their lives.

“We… we can’t just let her leave!” A boyish voice, thick with desperation and an even desperate attempt to recompose, shattered the mournful silence. Everyone recognized him as Ace Trappola, one of Yuu’s enviable first friends and troublemakers from Heartslabyul. “We need to stop her! Come on, guys. Are we really going to stop now, after everything we’ve done to reach her?”

“But how?” Leona asked, sounding even more listless somehow. Despite his pride and consent, you’d taken a peek into his past and remained amicable with him. It didn’t matter that it was for the sake of the plot, your vessel, Yuu, still approached him and asked for his help during Octavinelle’s story. Didn’t that mean something for you? For him? “Just because we’ve managed to hack into her phone doesn’t mean we can drag her here. There’s only so much we can do to make her stay.”

Ace flinched, unprepared for the reality to slap him twice.

“I-I don’t know.” He turned to face the Diasomnia gang who, with the exception of the sniffling Sebek, looked as somber as a funeral guest. “Malleus-senpai, Lilia-senpai, you guys gotta know something about bringing someone from another world, right? You guys are the strongest of the strongest. I don’t care if it’s forbidden. There… there has to be a way!”

For a moment, they were silent as though reluctant to admit their lack of knowledge. Ace wilted, his buckling knees threatening to collapse once the severity of the situation settled in.

That is, until Lilia opened his mouth.

“… There is, actually.” he murmured. “But for every soul that moves here, another has to replace them.”

Some of the characters lit up, but the others remained skeptical.

“And I assume it’s for the sake of balance?” Vil mused, crossing his arms.

Lilia’s glance confirmed his suspicion.

“T-then, what are we waiting for?” In a burst of hope, Azul momentarily stopped sobbing. “Let’s sacrifice that person.”

“But who’s gonna be that person?” Jamil retorted.

Everyone fell quiet again, unwilling to be the lamb in the altar of your capricious existence.

“The NPCs ‘live’ when the story is moving.” Idia mumbled through the floating device. His shyness and reluctance for a face-to-face interaction was customary, but nobody could truly see the underworld his sanity was falling at a rapid pace. Still, it didn’t change the fact that he still wanted to see you living among them. Literally. “That means she has to play again if we want to sacrifice one of them.”

“I, for one, would be more than willing to help ‘convincing’ her, if that’s what it takes.” Jade simpered with his eyes closed and a hand over his chest.

“Oui! It’d be a splendid day to see her sublime face gracing us again. The sun would shine warmly, the flowers would grow tastefully, and the birds would chirp merrily!” Rook enthused, jabbing at Malleus’s inadvertent use of magic.

Riddle wiped his teary eyes with the sleeve of his uniform and straightened up.

“Seeing that our Player has slackened in her responsibility to watch over us, it is our duty to set her right.” he declared. “Heartslabyul students, I order you to find this person and bring him here!”

“I-I agree…!” Sebek piped up, still loud as always despite his trembling voice and runny nose. “I shall seize him and send him to that world at once!”

Ever the dutiful one, Silver gripped his baton and nodded. As long as it wasn’t murder without a cause, he’d gladly perform any task like a true knight would.

“Well, if Riddle ordered us like this, who are we to disobey him?” Cater laughed, trying to hide the shakiness of his voice.

Trey pushed his glasses, foggy from the upcoming tears.

“Indeed. But I won’t lie, this is something that I’m looking forward to carry out.”

“For once, you did something right, Ace!” Deuce beamed proudly.

“Oi!”

Jamil glanced at Kalim, who reluctantly nodded. He hated to see people throwing away their lives carelessly, after all the assassination attempts that he suffered through the story. But if it was for the sake of seeing you with them, who was he to stop them?

Floyd grinned happily, but the anger of being abandoned by you darkened his eyes.

“Once she gets here, I’ll be sure to give her a nice, long squeeze as a welcome~”

“Well, Leona-san?” Ruggie asked, crossing his hands behind his head. “Are we gonna boost their morale or something?”

Leona sighed, lacking the irritated exhaustion he usually had. Even he wasn’t immune to the hope that Lilia brought to them, no matter how annoying it was to trust him.

“You better not be disappointing us, Lilia.” he growled. “And you, too, Radish Sprout.”

“I don’t like this.” Jack murmured. “But if this is what it takes to make the Player fulfill her role again, then I’ll do my best to live up to the expectations!”

“I… I will join as well!” Epel stated, clenching his fists resolutely.

“Look, Brother!” Ortho chirped. “You managed to bring them all together. That’s so cool!”

Idia muttered something, but the younger boy was too engrossed in their touching cooperation to notice.

Sunlight finally dispersed the dark clouds, mirroring their spirit. Malleus took a step forward with his chin raised in determination.

“Then, I shall assist Lilia with the magic.”

You said you didn’t care about them?

Well, they would make you care.

[agooddaytoscream]

LONG POST: About the situation in Inner Mongolia, Tuva, Kalmykia and Buryatia:

See this red piece of land here?

It’s almost as big as the actual country of Mongolia right?

…Wanna know why?

IT’S STOLEN LAND.

I am a Mongolian person from Outer Mongolia, it pains me to see my fellow siblings being subjected to a cultural genocide right now in China.

ALMOST NOBODY is talking about this.

Go ahead and search “Inner Mongolia” on any social media platform, see anything loosely related to it being stolen, or the eradication of the Mongolian language and culture in schools by the CCP?

Not much or close to none, right?

Unlike Tibet and Uyghurs, the other two biggest ethnic minorities in China, which have a number of campaigns/gofundmes/articles about the situation, there’s only a few articles about Inner Mongolia.

Do you want to know why you don’t hear about Inner Mongolia? Censorship and oppression.

Remember Tibet? And how China oppresses Tibetan Buddhism as a result, resulting in His Holiness, the Dalai Lama to leave his people’s homeland and reside in India? The biggest religion practiced in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism.

I currently cannot find ANY campaigns aiming for a free Inner Mongolia, much less any recognizing what’s going on.

The Mongolic people have been the victims of genocide multiple times.

I’ve heard numerous negative opinions from foreigners online and in real life about the Mongol Empire and how “Mongolians deserve to be oppressed, China is doing them a favor, Traditional Mongolian script is used in Inner Mongolia and has a higher GDP, Outer Mongolia only uses Cyrillic.”

( Mongolia was colonized by the Soviet Union, and subjected to communism, do you know what it feels like for your own family members, brainwashed by communist propaganda during childhood, even now swearing up and down that Russians are superior and everything they do is correct. And when asked whether the innocent Mongolian Buddhist monks deserved to die at the hands of Russians, they said it was deserved?! This is how insane propaganda can get, nobody is immune)

Do you realize how fucked up that is?? To hear so many say your people deserve this??

“Mongolian is our mother language! We are Mongolian until death!” shouted ethnic-Mongolian students in China’s Inner Mongolia, in opposition to a government policy, ending bilingual education. Critics of this policy see it as the latest move in a decades’ long campaign aimed at erasing the Mongolian culture.

- PLEASE READ THESE ARTICLES, they’re not the most recent, but they tell the truth.

Why critics are asking if Inner Mongolia is the next Tibet or Xinjiang This is from 2023.

Inner Mongolia in 'War-Like State' This article is from 2011, however the events that were reported are still happening.

Mongolians in China Face 'Cultural Genocide' as Language, Culture Swept Aside: Group

This article is from 2021. It’s recent enough.

This goes without saying, but xenophobia is also extremely prevalent in China against ethnic minorities.

I highly recommend reading this specific tumblr post. I am also apart of many fandoms surrounding chinese media. OP makes many valid points and I cannot support them enough.

From personal experiences, I have also read about my people and Central Asians being portrayed as brutal, savage, uncivilized barbarians in many Chinese-American novels. It’s heartbreaking.

I despise how the world turns a blind eye to my brothers and sisters suffering, just because the severity of what my people endured is less than other groups, doesn’t mean that we should only focus on helping one minority, support all groups under oppression and colonialism no matter the severity of their situations.

I just found this Youtube video detailing the situation in Inner Mongolia, it’s beautifully done. PLEASE PLEASE WATCH THE FULL VIDEO, Beginning to End.

Why China Doesn’t Want You To Know About This Place.

Not to mention, the countries of Tuva, Buryatia, and Kalmykia are stolen by Russia just like Inner Mongolia. Throughout its history, Russia has seized foreign lands, colonizing indigenous peoples and destroying their national identity.

Note: I am not talking about the Sakha (Yakutia) because I am personally not apart of their community and will not talk over Yakut voices regarding Yakutia such as: https://www.instagram.com/verona.petrova?igsh=MXkyMHY3NDVoZjZxMg==

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2iRvYqvu1M/?igsh=MTFucHg5aDdjaDFocA==

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VERONIKA PETROVA (@verona.petrova)

The Tuvans are a Turkic group with their own language however, they share many cultural aspects with Mongolians. Tuva is the most poverty stricken place in Russia with the lowest standards of living.

The Buryats are an ethnic minority of Siberia whose population of around half a million largely follow a blend of Buddhism and Shamanism.

They are closely related to the Mongols, and the two groups share similar histories, cultures, religious beliefs, and lifestyles.

The Buryat language is considered one of the world’s most endangered languages.

Soldiers from Tuva and Buryatia have the highest casualty rates per 100,000 for Russia in the Ukraine war.

“These are some of Russia’s poorest regions: places where many young men see the army as their only chance to earn a decent living. And it’s these places that are now paying a disproportionately high price as Russian war casualties continue to rise.”

Please see: Free Buryatia Foundation, Buryat Liberation Movement, Mass Deportation and Ethnic cleansing of Kalmykia, The Kalmyk Deportations of 1943. Ukraine war: Tuva and Buryatia pay the highest price, but latest BBC Russian casualty figures show poverty not ethnicity the key factor.

Free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Kurdistan, Armenia, Haiti, Yemen, Tigray, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Arakan, Tamil, Eelam, Western Sahara, West Papua, Kashmir, Canary Islands, & everyone undergoing genocide / colonialism.

Spread awareness about the femicides in Kazakhstan:

The Rise of Non-Consensual Bride Kidnapping in Kazakhstan: Developing a Culturally-Informed and Gender-Sensitive Response

Kazakh Activists Urge Authorities To Toughen Punishment For Domestic Violence

Can An Ex-Minister's Arrest In His Wife's Brutal Killing Finally Bring Protections To Kazakh Women?

EurasiaChat: Gender-based violence rears its ugly head again

YOU DON'T NEED TO GO OUT AND PROTEST, SIMPLY REBLOGING, LIKING, SPREADING AWARENESS, AND REPLYING HELPS AS WELL!!!

[dreamwatch]

Looking California, Feeling Indiana

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest

Day #28 - Prompt: Back To Indiana | Word Count: 999 | Rating: T | CW: chronic illness | POV: Eddie | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: pre-Steddie, broken dreams, band break up

(I’m laptop-less tonight so hoping typos etc aren’t too bad - I’ll fix them tomorrow 😆)

The logistics of getting home are left to Jeff. They have a van that might get them from California to Indiana, a station wagon that should get them there, but six years worth of possessions and equipment into a van and station wagon doesn’t go. They sell a load of their shit before heading home. It’s not like they need most of it anyway.

It’s a sombre journey, so different to the one they made to Los Angeles six years ago, so full of hope and excitement, one step closer to their dream. They could have stayed and just built lives there, grounded ones, sensible jobs, sensible hours, sensible lives. But Eddie needed to go back, even if it was just for a few months; he’s twenty seven in a few weeks and he feels like a seventy year old. New aches over old hurts, mystery illnesses slowing him down.

(He knows they’re Upside Down related, knows no one can do anything about them, and knows they’re getting worse. He hates knowing things.)

The Welcome To Hawkins sign looks new; Wayne said it still gets vandalised from time to time, a new one in its place the next morning, reckons they’re buying them in bulk.

Jeff drops Eddie off first because Wayne’s waiting around to see him and get his shit inside before he has to get to work. He’s sixty five now. He shouldn’t be working in that fucking plant anymore. How many times did Eddie say one day Wayne, you’ll see. Useless fucking liar.

They hug, they eat, Wayne looks him over with a sigh; he’s too thin, too pale, leaning on that cane a little too heavily. Eddie knows it comes from love but it’s a lot.

Wayne grabs his keys and his lunch box. “Steve called, by the way. Numbers on the fridge.” There’s a kiss to the top of his head. “It’s good to have you home, Bub.”

Bub. Wayne hasn’t called him that in years, and Eddie smiles to himself, surprised at how much he missed it.

He calls Steve, yeah journey was okay, no roads were fine, yeah all settled in. Steve tells him he’s coming to get him, they’re going for dinner, no arguments and he finds he has in fact no intention of arguing.

Steve looks good. He seems broader, hair is longer which thrills Eddie, and the wire rimmed glasses are like a glacé cherry on the cake that is Steve Harrington.

He gets a whistle stop tour of his friend’s lives, Steve so proud of all their achievements. Tells him Hawkins is different now, friendlier, more welcoming. Happier.

They pick at fries, Steve pushing his pickles to the side of the plate for Eddie. Eddie does his best to hide his smile.

“How are you? You look…”

“‘Tired and too thin’ according to my dear, beloved uncle.”

“I was going to say ‘good’, actually, asshole.”

He grabs a fry from Steve’s plate, drags it through Steve’s milkshake. “Don’t lie to me, Steven.”

“Wayne told me, about your health, the band splitting up. I’m really sorry, man. That fucking blows.”

“Thanks,” he says with a wan smile. “It does indeed blow.”

“You know you probably just need some rest. Give it six months, and you’ll all be back in LA, tearing the place up. You were so close, man.”

He snorts, a humourless laugh. “Yeah, not so much actually.”

Steve leans back in the booth, arm hooked over the back

“Bullshit. You had label guys there just a couple of months ago, and it’s slow, remember you said yourself, it takes time, you don’t just get signed overnight.”

“Steve,” and he says it gently, because Steve means well, and he’s supported them, financially at times, when he was too embarrassed to call Wayne. Steve would send a check or wire him money. And even thinking about that makes this so much harder. 

“There was no label guy. There’s never been a label guy. Or girl, for that matter.”

Steve frowns at him, confused. “I don’t understand.”

And this is it, isn’t it? This is the moment he has to release it into the world.

“I’m going to tell you something nobody else knows. Not even Wayne.”

Steve leans forward, arms crossed on the table. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“We failed, Steve. We failed. The last gig we played was about nine months ago, some frat house party Gareth found for us. It was shit. Because we were shit.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true, Steve. We didn’t have a hope in fucking hell. Do you know how many bands there are in LA? How few of those ever get a sniff of a record deal.” He shrugs, casual. The sting from the hurt doesn’t burn quite as much as it used to. “We just weren’t good enough, that’s all.”

Eddie watches as the cogs in Steve’s head turn, trying to lock into place. “But your health…”

“Is not great. I didn’t lie about that. But, I leant into it. It’s easier to blame a bum leg and chest infections than admit you’ll never achieve your dream because you’re not talented enough and you’re fucking delusional.”

“You are talented,”

“We’re not. Or, not enough, anyway.”

“What are you gonna do? What are they gonna do?” 

“Wayne’s trying to find me work at the plant. Jeff is talking about community college. Matt will probably go work for his dad. Gareth’s probably going to go to Indy, find a band there. Good luck to him.”

Steve drives him home, actual home now, not that dirty little apartment in LA, but a place where he’ll always be wanted. Will always be good enough. 

They pull up outside the trailer, and Steve reaches over, grabbing Eddie’s hand. It’s clumsy and awkward, but the intent is clear. Trying to pick things up where they left them.

“It’s good to have you home, man.”

“It’s good to be home.”

He’s surprised to find he means it.

[cjsoleil]

Fallen Like Stars and Raindrops (Seungmin x Reader)

Summary: Seungmin is the baseball star at their university and his girlfriend loves him more than anything, even though she doesn’t like the sport.

Warnings: Smut

Authors note: So I wrote this just because there are a lot of works that perceive Seungmin as more mean, which is fine, but I wanted to write him being soft and sweet with a lot of fluff. Enjoy.

Baseball is one of the most boring sports in the world. Well, for Y/N, all sports are boring, but especially baseball. When she tells people this, they always ask the same question.

“How could you say that?”

Their shock is understandable, she is dating the star baseball player at their university. Y/N responds with,

“Watching baseball is boring. Watching Seungmin play baseball is not. It’s an entirely different thing.” It doesn’t make much sense, but watching Seungmin play baseball is really just watching him do something he loves. If Seungmin loved to watch paint dry, Y/N would be right beside him, enjoying herself as the glisten of the walls disappeared.

Despite not loving the sport, Y/N loves going to all of Seungmin’s games. Loves how happy he is, loves the way he looks for his girl in the crowd, clad in his old jersey that is too big for her with his number 07 on the back. Seungmin grins at her and she rolls her eyes with a smile. Seungmin always looks for her after a good pitch or when he returns to home base. Like a dog looking to his owner for praise. Y/N holds up her camera, taking a picture before blowing a kiss and waving him off.

At the end of the game and after Seungmin finishes changing, he runs back out to meet up with Y/N. He will either hug her quickly, since neither of them love public affection, and tell her that he and the team are going out to celebrate their win. He’ll invite her to come and maybe she will, depending on her mood. Or he will choose to ditch the team to hang out with her instead, not that they mind. Today it’s the latter.

“Next time you drive.” Y/N comments from behind the wheel of her car, “You only learn by practicing, baby.” She’s been teaching Seungmin to drive. He hates driving, but she insists it’s a necessary skill. Her hand lays on top of Seungmin’s on the stick shift. It’s for muscle memory she tells him, when they both know she really just wants to hold his hand.

“So you had a good game? I saw you won.” Seungmin nods.

“Yeah.” He shifts in his seat, “I kind of wish it lasted longer.”

“Still full of energy?” He hums in agreement. Seungmin is a person who is very calm, but can be very restless at times. Y/N taps her fingers on the wheel a few times as an idea pops into her head.

“I know a way to help you with that.”

Y/N is not athletic. She does not play sports, she doesn’t like sports. Despite this, she finds herself in this situation a lot.

“Come here, pretty lady.” Seungmin smiles and gestures for his girlfriend to come to him with his hand. When she gets close enough, he wraps his arms around her waist from behind. They’re at an empty park, throwing around a baseball. It was Y/N’s idea, Seungmin loves playing with her. She knows because she asked him a while back,

“Baby, you’re my favourite person to play with.”

“What a sweetheart, but you don’t have to lie.” He smacked the back of her head very lightly.

“Don’t be a brat.”

Y/N will always let Seungmin teach her how to throw or to use a bat for the hundredth time. It makes him happy, never frustrated or even annoyed no matter how many times he needs to show her how to do something.

Seungmin places a firm kiss on her cheek.

“Like this.” He uses his foot to move her legs apart slightly and puts her into a good throwing position, “You’re getting better, but you need more power to your throws.” He holds her hand with the ball and imitates the motion of throwing it multiple times.

“You don’t need to make excuses to get your hands on me Min.” She teases, tilting her head up to look at him. He rolls his eyes and pulls away, rustling Y/N’s hair before putting his baseball hat on her head. When he’s far enough away, she throws the ball the same way a pitcher would, a really bad pitcher, and he catches it easily.

“That was good right?” Y/N asks as she goes up to him and he shrugs.

“Good for you.”

“Excuse me?”

“Generally you're pretty bad-“ Y/N dramatically gasps, cutting him off.

“Ouch. Feels like you stabbed me in the heart Kim Seungmin.” He frowns at her bad acting. They stay at the park until a few drops of rain start to fall, “Looks like it might storm.” Y/N comments, looking at the gray clouds in the sky. She’s happy it didn’t start to rain until after Seungmin’s game, he hates it when they’re canceled, “Let’s go home. Don’t want you to smell like a wet dog.” She failed to dodge the baseball he threw at her.

“Abuse.”

“Idiot.”

Y/N taps her fingers on the steering wheel, listening to Seungmin as he starts to sing along softly to the song. It’s heavy downpour coming down, they’re lucky it didn’t start until after his game. Seungmin’s also lucky, since he got out of driving for the day.

“If baseball doesn’t work out, you could always become an idol.” Y/N tells him after a few minutes, making him laugh, “I’m serious Minnie. Beautiful voice with a face to match. Any company would be lucky to have you.”

“Stop it.” He blushes, looking out the window.

“We wouldn’t be able to be together publicly though. At least not until you went solo. I guess the forbidden, secret romance could be fun at first. But I’d miss you too much. I’d probably have to become a manager just so I could follow you around. Maybe a stylist, I’d make you look so cute, not that you don’t already but-” Seungmin listens as she goes on about the fake scenario.

“Maybe in another life.” He tells her, and seeing they stopped at a red light, he lifts her hand and kisses her palm.

“You think we would still be together?”

“We would.” He answers like it’s obvious, “In whatever fictional or hypothetical lives you make up for us, I love you in every one.” He pauses, before continuing, “If I were to be stuck in a world without you in it, I think I would rather not be there at all.”

“For someone who doesn’t believe in fate, you sure talk like you do.”

“You’re my universe, of course I am with you in every one. ”

The girl shakes her head and pats Seungmin’s hand,

“Shut up before I crash the car.”

Their apartment is small, but it’s enough for the two of them. They used to live on residence, but decided to move in together before the start of third year. They each have their own bedrooms, but Seungmin is the one with a bigger bed. His room is less cluttered as well. On his bed, Y/N lays on her back with Seungmin resting between her legs, head on her stomach. She scrolls on her phone with one hand, running the other one through Seungmin’s fluffy black hair.

“Your stomach is loud.” He tells her, and Y/N pulls his hair in response but doesn’t do anything more. He pulls up her, really his jersey, kisses the bare skin of her stomach.

Y/N reached over to place her phone on the bedside table, knowing where this will lead.

“I won my game today.” He kisses her hip bone, biting softly.

“I know, and I’m proud.” Moving up, he faces Y/N and kisses her for a few seconds before pulling back, smiling against her lips.

“Don’t you think I deserve a prize?” He whispers against her lips, eyes fluttering closed.

“Calling me a prize?” She grins, watching as Seungmin blushes, “You know how to charm me, Min.” Laughing softly, she cups his face,

“Whatever you want, baby.”

She can hear Seungmin inhale sharply, and it’s endearing how flustered he still gets with her. Taking off his sweater first, he reveals his lean torso.

“My eyes are up here.” He teases when he sees Y/N’s stare. She grabs the hem of the jersey she’s wearing, but her hands are pulled away before she can take it off,

“Leave it on.”

“Possessive.” Seungmin can’t defend himself because it’s true. He likes having his girl to herself, and he gets a little jealous when he sees her with her teammates at times, even though he will never admit it.

The athlete moves back to his original position, arms wrapped around Y/N’s waist as he kisses and nips along her stomach. When he eventually gets frustrated with the barriers between them, he stands up. In just a few seconds Seungmin is left in only his boxers, Y/N in only a jersey. When he’s back on top of her, he kisses along her neck, leaving a few marks as he moves along. Licking a stripe up her jaw before kissing her lips even after they turn bright red.

“Pretty.” He mumbles, more to himself than to Y/N, “My pretty girl.” Bringing his hands behind her back, he traces the number on the jersey as he has so many times before. It’s long enough to almost reach the girl’s knees, giving a false sense of modesty.

“I love it when you wear my jersey.”

“I like-“ Her breath hitches, feeling Seungmin’s hands wander further down, blunt nails scratching lightly against her lower back, “Like it when you wear them too.” Seungmin smiles as she presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, ignoring the fluttering feeling he gets in his stomach from a simple compliment.

Seungmin sits up and moves off of the girl, resting his back against the headboard. Y/N follows him, sitting on his lap with her arms around his neck and his hands find their place on her waist. He can’t see it, but he can feel her dampening his boxers, making him moan and rest his head on the girl’s shoulder.

“Fuck baby.” He groans, and it’s almost funny to hear him swear since he doesn’t do so often. His right hand moves down her waist with a feather-like touch until he reaches the intimate spot between Y/N’s legs.

“Minnie-“

“You’re so hot.” Seungmin interrupts, and Y/N can’t tell if he is referring to the way she looks or the actual heat that’s coming from her skin. Probably both.

He’s gentle as he coats a finger in Y/N’s wetness, as he pushes it inside her hole and swallows every sound she makes. He adds another, scissoring his fingers to stretch her out.

“Seungmin.” She pants out, digging her nails into the man’s shoulders when he just grazed that spot inside her, “Min, love, please I’m-“

“Wait.” He adds another finger. moans when he feels her tightening around them,

“Just wait, baby. Just a second.” His fingers slips out of her and he grabs her hips to lift her up slightly. With Y/N’s aid and some awkward shifting, Seungmin manages to remove his last piece of clothing.

“Lay down.” He tells her, pushing her slightly. Once she’s on her back, Seungmin leans over and grabs a condom from the bedside table, putting it on before he moves back between her legs. With a steady hold on himself, he slowly pushes into Y/N. They moan in unison as he does.

“Tell me when you’re ready, pretty.” After a minute, Y/N taps his back.

“I’m good.”

“You sure?”

“I wouldn’t lie.” Nodding, Seungmin plants his forearms on each side of Y/N’s head and moves his hips slowly.

She tilts her head back, eyes closed as Seungmin starts to build a slow rhythm.

“Love you.” He whispers against her neck, kissing the skin there right after.

“Min, faster?” She asks even though she knows what his answer will probably be.

“No.” He pants softly, mouthing at her jaw before kissing her earlobe, “No just- let me go slow.” He grabs one of her hands, intertwining their fingers he repeats,

“Let’s go slow baby.” Y/N whimpers as he hits that special spot head on, but still smiles softly.

Sometimes Seungmin is the opposite of this, fast and almost desperate with his movements. Or he will act as if he has all the time in the world, going painstakingly slow just to be a tease.

Right now though, it’s him being sentimental. Trying to convey the love he has for his girl with every movement of his hips, touch of his fingers and graze of his lips.

Y/N feels a warmth cover the side of her face, thumb rubbing against her cheek.

“Look at me.” It’s easier said than done, but she manages to open her eyes to admire the sight above her. Seungmin’s hair sticks to his forehead, skin flushed and shining with a thin layer of sweat.

“Good girl.” He whispers and Y/N runs her fingers over Seungmin’s chest and stomach making him shiver slightly. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, pulling the athlete closer so they’re chest to chest. It really only takes a few more minutes for Seungmin to start to lose his restraint. Despite his previous words, he starts to move faster, practically knocking the breath out of Y/N when he does.

“Seungmin I’m-“ she’s cut off as his mouth covers her’s. Both their lips must be swollen by now and it hurts when Seungmin softly bites her lower one. After pulling away, he shoves his face in Y/N’s neck, bringing one hand down to rub at her clit.

“Oh fuck!” Y/N cries while throwing her head back on the pillow, eyes rolling back, “Min!” She feels his hand grab hers, intertwining their fingers. He gasps her name and goes a little harder, squeezing her hand.

“Come, please.” He tells her, lifting his head from her neck, “So pretty when you come.” Seungmin slurs out his words and rubs her more harshly, making Y/N jerk her hips and dig her nails into Seungmin’s hand as she falls over the edge, vision going blurry.

With a few quick thrusts, Seungmin finishes with a quiet whimper. He allows himself to rest on top of Y/N, kissing her neck and up her jaw softly. Y/N runs a hand through his hair, before lifting his chin and bringing his lips to hers. After a few moments, having slightly caught his breath, Seungmin pulls out and throws out the condom before falling on his back beside his girl. The two pant whilst staring at the ceiling.

“How are you?” Seungmin asks Y/N, shifting and wrapping his arm around her waist, “Need anything? Want something?” She moves a little, resting her head on his chest and giving him a quick kiss there.

“I’m fine.” Her voice is almost covered because of the rain pelting the windows. She’s lying, she actually is pretty hungry, just unwilling to move. Seungmin runs a hand through her hair just like how she did to him earlier. As he expected, Y/N’s breaths start to steady, indicating that she is almost asleep. He pulls her a little closer to his chest, bending his neck down to peck her shoulder.

“Goodnight my love.” Seungmin whispers before closing his eyes, allowing the sound of rain hitting the window along with the warmth his girl is giving him to lull him to sleep.

“Night Minnie.”

[juleswritesstuff]

Girl got a gun

What happens when a particularly dangerous situation forces you to face your feelings for the man that was only supposed to be your arranged husband?

MafiaBoss!RegulusBlack x MafiaBoss!Reader

Warnings: blood, slightly descriptive murder, gun violence.

Nothing is really described in too much detail, but I thought best to put some warnings anyway. Enjoy 💗

Clink.

Clink.

Clink.

That was the only noise resonating in the air. The heels of your shoes making contact with the marble floor of your house. 

Your shoulders slouched just the tiniest bit as you stepped foot in the living room.

You were tired of dealing with stupid men all day.

Men that didn’t recognize your position in the business. 

‘I'm really sorry Mrs Black, but we were told that your husband would've been the one hosting the meeting.’

‘Well, it’s my properties we are discussing here. And Mr Black was busy’

‘But Mrs Black-’

‘It’s Miss Y/l/n, Mr Malfoy. I didn't take my husband's name, and I never will.’ you said coldly.

Silence fell in the room.

‘It doesn’t matter Miss, you’re part of the Black family now, therefore all your belongings are now in the hands of Mr Black’

You were starting to get pissed, your expression hard.

You took out your phone with a sigh and started dialing a number that became very familiar in the span of the past two years.

Behind you James and Remus exchanged a knowing glance. 

They had been with you for the past seven years and they knew you like the back of their hand.

They knew shit was about to go down.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three rings.

‘Yes, darling ?’

That voice made everyone freeze, sitting straight like he was there with them. 

Their eyes now held a veil of worry and fear.

The corners of your mouth perked up a little, but, at the same time, a feeling of anger settled in the pit of your stomach. 

Why couldn’t they respect you like they respected your husband ?

You quickly let the feeling fade, it wasn’t the time.

‘Sorry to bother, Regulus dear. These gentlemen here are asking why you’re not the one hosting the meeting. They’re saying that since I'm married to you all my properties and belongings are now yours.’

You said looking straight at Lucius Malfoy. You were too kind to tell him the exact names of the people that were making your day very difficult, otherwise you knew Regulus would’ve done something about it. But you needed all of them to be alive and with all four limbs so that the business would run smoothly.

‘Well, love, even if you’re married to me your family businesses and properties are still yours. I don't have any desire to steal your righteous spot as the head of the Y/l/n family. Everything is and will remain under your name. That is why you are the one hosting the meeting, as you righteously should’

The smirk on your lips turned into a pleased smile.

Before you could add something else and say goodbye his voice filled the vast room again.

‘Why ? Do these gentlemen have a problem with that ?’ he asked in a firm tone, sharp at the edges.

Your smile grew seeing the panic in their eyes.

They started to vehemently shake their heads.

‘No, honey. Don’t worry. Just a quick explanation to clear any doubt.’

Their shoulders relaxed a bit after the words left your mouth, but the look of anxiety never fully disappeared from their eyes.

‘Sorry if I bothered you, I’ll go now. Let you focus on your work’

A light chuckle could be heard from the other line.

‘You could never bother me, love’ he said warmly. You could hear the soft smile on his lips.

The curve on your mouth was now a little timid, but you made sure not to let the men in front of you see that.

‘I'll leave you to it now. See you at home, dear’ you said, your tone a bit softer despite yourself.

‘See you later, baby’

The pet name made your stomach churn, but, again, you pretended like nothing happened.

You were about to hang up when he spoke again.

‘Oh, before I forget, I suggest to all the gentlemen present in the room not to question my wife ever again. Or I promise there will be consequences‘ his voice now completely firm and intimidating.

And with that he hung up.

Mr Malfoy visibly swallowed.

But he clearly wasn’t the only one being affected by Regulus’ words.

No one dared to utter a word after the call, and the meeting went on smoothly.

Two years ago you would’ve never thought of getting married.

You were only twenty, the only thing on your mind was to finish college and then enter the family business.

But being part of one of the most powerful families in England was a tough job.

You were the youngest child, so, technically, you weren’t expected to run the business, but life, as you were about to learn, never went as you planned to.

In the span of two years you lost both your brother and your father.

Your mother had died when you were five. You didn’t remember a lot of it, but there was an image stuck in your brain of a bullet being shot in her head right in front of you and, blood everywhere. At least it was a recurring dream, but you could swear you remembered the sensation of your skin and clothes being covered in the red, metallic liquid.

Your father had always tried to convince you that it was just a dream, a nightmare, but you could see the pain in your brother’s face every time you talked about it. 

You were young but you weren’t stupid.

Your father spoiled you growing up, he gave you everything you wanted, you just had to mention it. But toys, clothes and jewelry weren't things you really wanted.

You wanted to be part of the family business and not be just a spoiled, little girl who came from a rich and powerful family.

Your brother trained you for this. You had asked him the day of your 14th birthday. Surprisingly he agreed. He thought you needed to know how to defend yourself, and he also knew that your brain could be a wonderful weapon. 

What you didn’t expect was your brother being taken away from you when you were eighteen. 

His body was found in the back of one of the casinos your family owned, his head split in two by a bullet and his throat slit. An execution.

At that time the world collapsed on you, your main firm point had been killed and you were lost. He had always been by your side, no matter what. And now he just wasn’t here anymore.

Getting back up wasn’t an easy task, but you were a Y/l/n and you needed to pull your shit back together.

Luckily, James and Remus were there for you. They had been your bodyguards for four years, and they became a constant in your life. Even though they were so young, the same age as you really, they were the best at their job.

They helped you with your training when your brother died, just like your father had instructed them. You spent so much time with them that you considered them your friends more than your bodyguards.

Things started to get better after some time, but just as you thought you were finally doing fine, the news of your father's illness made all of your hopes crumble.

A few months before he passed away he had called you in his room and to give you the news.

He wanted you to get married.

To the youngest of the Blacks.

You knew about the Ancient and most Noble House of Black, everyone knew who they were.

One of the most influential and powerful families in England, if not in the whole United Kingdom.

You had refused, at first. Marriage wasn’t on your mind at that moment, especially not an arranged one.

But your father had begged you.

‘Y/n, please think about it. I am dying, this is the reality and everything will be in your hands when the day comes’

‘So you don’t think that I could make it on my own ?’

‘Oh, sweetie, I'm more than sure of it’ 

He said with a proud but tired smile.

‘Then why ?’

‘I want you to be safe, and he could be a big help with that’

‘I know how to defend myself, dad. And i also have Remus and James’

‘I don’t mean safe in that way’

A confused frown appeared in your face

‘Y/n, this…business is dangerous. I didn't expect you to be in the middle of it at all. Your brother was meant to take over one day, but unfortunately the day never came and it will never come, so it’s your turn now. And I know that you will do a wonderful job, but I can't let you do it alone. You need someone on your side, someone who you can trust blindly when I cannot be there anymore.’

‘And you think Regulus Black could be that person ?’

Saying that you were skeptical was an understatement.

‘Yes, I firmly believe that. He’s been one of my most trusted collaborators, I am sure he will treat you right. He promised me.’

Your head snapped up, eyes on him.

‘You talked to him before talking to me ?’

Your father sighed.

‘I had to. I had to make sure he would accept and that he would be the right choice’

You stared at him in disbelief.

‘And he agreed ?’ you asked bewildered.

‘He did. Without hesitation’

‘So this is already decided’ you sighed, defeated.

‘I am sorry, sweetheart. I must make sure that you are safe and protected under all aspects’

So that's how you found yourself betrothed to Regulus Black.

At the beginning you hated the idea, but then you gave it some thought. 

You knew how the mafia world worked. Everything was about respect and power. Regulus Black had both, while you were just a spoiled little girl who had just inherited all of her father's businesses. 

In the end, you decided, you could’ve used his help.

The first time you met was a week after your talk with your father.

You knew Regulus by fame. He was the youngest of his family, being only 23 years old, but he was the one ruling it, taking Sirius Black's, his older brother, place as he,  apparently, had a very smart brain and an inclination to persuasion. He was clever, ambitious and incredibly resourceful. He was a rouler, a king. 

You had also heard about his looks. His appearance being the center of a lot of the  gossip you heard in the clubs. Voices of ebony black curls and eyes that resembled the coldest and grayest of storms.

So you had expected someone good looking.

What you had not expected was that he was more than good looking.

The man in front of you was handsome, gorgeous even. 

He looked like he could’ve been part of the most majestic of frescos if he hadn’t been right in front of your eyes in flesh and bones at that moment.

But you didn’t let his appearance deceive you. It didn’t matter if you found the man beautiful, you needed to trust him above all.

‘Miss Y/l/n it’s a pleasure to meet you’

His voice was smooth and almost honey-like, very calm and composed. 

‘Please, you can drop the formalities Mr Black, we’re gonna be married soon anyway. You can call me Y/n’ you said, extending your hand for him to shake. A formal greeting.

‘I believe this is the reason you wanted to meet. Oh, and, please, call me Regulus’

He took your hand in his, shaking gently. The smile on his face could only be described as sincere.

His hands were delicate and smooth with slender fingers adorned by several rings.

Certainly not what you expected from the hands of a mafia leader.

‘Yes, there are certain things that I would like to discuss with you before the wedding. If i am allowed’

A curious expression appeared on his face as he tilted his head slightly to the side.

‘You are always allowed to say whatever is on your mind Miss Y/l/n’

Your eyebrows lifted the slightest bit in surprise. You hadn’t expected the youngest of the Blacks to be this…polite.

You had expected a young, spoiled brat who had too much power and liked to play with it. You thought he would tell you to follow his rules and nothing more.

You certainly didn’t expect him to be this condescending.

‘I accept to become your bride…’ you started, but he sensed that you probably weren’t finished.

‘But…’ he added.

He definitely understood that there was something more.

So you went on.

‘But...there are conditions’ 

You met his eyes and you were surprised to find them already focused on you. 

They were calm, collected, if not a little warm. A stark contrast with their gray hue.

‘Please tell me. I’ll do whatever is in my power to make sure your needs are met’

For a moment you just stared at him, studying him. And you were surprised to find nothing but honesty in his eyes.

So you went back to talking.

‘I want to keep my family name’

That was important for you. You were about to become the head of the family, and you didn’t want anyone else's name on the properties. It was also the only thing that would keep you connected to your family after the wedding. Officially you would’ve become part of Noble house of Black, but you still wanted to have power over what was yours. Which brought you the second point.

‘And i will maintain the power over my businesses’

Another important thing was maintaining your position as the boss. The main reason you accepted to get married was because he would help you maintain your status, not to give your title to him. That was not negotiable.

After that you remained silent. You wanted to let him think, but not even ten seconds later he spoke.

‘Is that all ?’ 

He asked calmly, with genuine curiosity in his voice. His hand propped under his chin supporting his head, elbow on the table. The stance made him look even more attractive than he already was.

Then his eyes landed on yours and he gave a tiny nod.

‘I agree to both’

Your eyes widened a little as the words left his mouth. Of course you hadn’t expected him to just refuse on the spot, but those were requests that could cost him some of his power and possibly the loyalty of some of his collaborators, especially as the head of the family, and a loss of properties. And yet he didn’t hesitate to agree.

Maybe your father was right. Regulus Black could be trusted.

You could see the faces of the men accompanying Regulus behind him, and they seemed rather amused by the whole thing.

Suddenly a phone started ringing.

Regulus patted the left side of his jacket to fish out a phone from the inner pocket .

Looking at the contact name his face changed radically.

His soft and gentle features hardened, jaw tense and eyes suddenly cold.

Only when his gaze landed on your figure they softened the tiniest bit.

‘Excuse me Miss Y/l/n, apparently my brother needs me’ 

You nodded and he brought the phone to his ear.

‘Sirius. Yes. Ok. Then find a solution. Fine, I'll be there in twenty. Try to handle it while I’m on the way’

And then he hung up.

‘I’m really sorry Y/n, but there is an important matter that suddenly came up’

‘Of course, i understand’

You both stood up and with a handshake you said your goodbyes.

But before he could walk out of the room you called his name.

‘Regulus ?’

He turned around.

‘Yes ?’

‘I am putting my trust in you. Don’t make me regret it’

A small smile appeared on his lips. His eyes held a warm look. 

‘I promise you won’t, Y/n’

And with that he left.

The day of your wedding wasn’t how you had expected it. Just a small ceremony with the Black family and the Y/L/N family, or what remained of it, united. No vows, no kissing the bride, no big ceremony.

Just a formula pronounced by the priest and then the blood oath. A union that could not be broken. Both you and Regulus cut the palm of your hands with a sacred knife, then shook hands so that your blood could mix together and form a bond stronger than any ring.

That was the day your life changed.

For the better or for the worse you couldn’t tell.

You started taking care of the family business, attending meetings, keeping everything on track, lots of travels to go and meet all of your father’s international collaborators and, apart from the occasional fights that happened at the clubs and people (men) constantly questioning your position as boss just because you were a young woman, you were handling it well.

What you weren’t handling the best way was your role as a wife.

You and Regulus started to get to know one another by force of things. Living in the same house you couldn’t ignore each other for too long, and it sure wasn’t your intention. You were married to him, you couldn't ignore each other till the end of your days.

And so thought he.

At the beginning it was a bit awkward. 

Sharing space with a person you didn’t really know was less than pleasing, but with the passing of time it became easier. You slowly learned each other’s habits and routines, likes and dislikes, for example how he loved his coffee black with two spoons of sugar, because despite being a cold hearted mafia boss he had a huge sweet tooth, or how when he was stressed he started rubbing his left temple. Never the right, always the left. 

Or how he fidgeted with his rings when he was thinking.

For you, sleeping was especially uncomfortable. You had always slept alone, so suddenly sharing a bed with another person made you feel slightly uneasy. You didn’t sleep much during the first month, only being able to fall asleep out of exhaustion after a week of staying up every night.

But then you got used to his presence beside you, almost turning the tables because after nine months of living together the only nights you couldn’t sleep were the one where he was out dealing with his business.

During those nights you missed the feeling of having him by your side, telling you how his day had been, or when your arms would brush by mistake, sending shivers down your spine.

Your relationship was peculiar, to say the least.

At the beginning of your marriage you decided to adopt a strategy so that anyone would believe that you were a close-knit couple. And that’s how the pet names started.

What better way to show somebody that you were in love ?

At the top of the list there would’ve been physical touch, but neither you nor Regulus were fans of PDA, so pet names would do.

You used them especially during calls. It was rare for you to be both at the same meeting, but when you needed each other's opinion a call was more than welcome.

At the beginning they didn't affect you, it was just a strategy to show that you were close and powerful together, that now you were one.

But when you started to get to know Regulus things changed. 

Your feelings changed.

Because he was the first to actually take your thoughts and opinions to consideration, he was the first one to ask for your ideas. You discussed things together, you were equals.

Your view of him started to change.

He was kind to you, he always made sure that you were comfortable and understood, he had the kind of sarcasm that would make you laugh so hard that you couldn’t even feel your cheeks.

So it wasn't a surprise to you when you started to feel a certain warmth when he called you ‘baby’ or ‘love’ or any other endearment, or when you were in the kitchen and he lightly put his hand on the small of your back to pass behind you, or when you stared at each other for a little too long, or when his hand found yours during dinner and galas to make sure that you were always by his side.

Small touches became ordinary, an everyday thing, a sign that you were more than comfortable with the other's presence.

One thing you never did in two years of marriage, though, was kissing.

Your lips never touched, not even at the altar.

Both of you knew that what was between you two wasn't a marriage of convenience anymore. The things you both felt for the other were definitely something more than that, the little touches, the longing stares, the need to protect each other. It was more than what it used to be.

But, no matter what, you had never kissed. It felt like crossing a line of some sort, and, apparently, neither of you was ready for that.

The leaders of two of the most powerful mafia families of the United Kingdom acted like middle schoolers around each other because they were both cowards.

Funny, wasn’t it ?

The good thing was that now, you considered the house you shared together your home.

At first it was hard. It was a new place for you, and you had to share it with a person  you didn't really know. It felt more like hell on earth. But after two years you could finally consider the place your home.

The same home you had just returned to. With your shoulders slightly slouched because of the anger and tension of your meeting with all those shitty businessmen that couldn't seem to respect you, you took off your heels, feeling the cold floor beneath your feet. You headed to your bedroom to take off the dress you were wearing, and to put on something more comfortable.

Looking at the clock on your nightstand you noticed it was way past eight. Regulus’ meeting was supposed to end at seven forty. You furrowed your eyebrows.

He must have stayed a little bit longer to talk with the Prewett siblings who were close friends of yours.

You walked to the kitchen, deciding to cook something.

You were starving and you were sure Regulus was too.

As soon as you started chopping the vegetables you heard the door open.

Regulus was home.

"Hey Y/n" he said. His voice was unusually breathless and almost pained.

You turned around still chopping the carrot on your tray.

"Hi, I'm making something to eat so-"

The words died in your throat when you took in his figure and noticed his state.

He was covered in blood.

It was on his shirt, his pants, jacket and shoes.

Even his face hadn’t been spared as the little stains and smudges of red blood contrasted with the fair complection of his skin.

Your heart stopped beating for a second.

"Oh fuck, Reggie" you didn’t even notice the nickname leaving your lips, breath knocked out of your lungs as you dropped the knife and ran to him.

"What happened ? Are you hurt ?" 

You didn't even let him speak, you started analyzing his body looking for wounds, scratches, bullet holes, even the smallest of paper cuts would’ve sent you spiraling in that moment.

You hoped to find none of those.

"Hey, hey" he stopped your hands from roaming his chest, taking them in his.

"Hey, look at me"

His voice was rather calm for the situation you were in.

You locked eyes with him, saying nothing and everything at the same time.

"I’m fine" he assured you, keeping eye contact.

"But, the blood-"

"The blood is not mine, love. Don’t worry" 

The endearment would've made you blush if he hadn't been dripping blood on your floor.

But that was not the main focus at that moment.

"Did someone attack you ?" you asked.

It wasn't uncommon for some rival families to organize attacks to the clubs you owned or to some of your minor collaborators, but no one ever tried to attack the head of the clan. It would’ve been too risky, too reckless. Basically a suicide.

Apparently things were changing.

He nodded to your question.

"An ambush" 

You sighed.

"Where ?" 

"We were on the road, no specific place"

"Any pattern that could lead to a specific clan ?" 

"None that i noticed" 

"Did they follow you ?"

"Almost certainly" 

"Are you hurt ?" you asked, blood pumping fast in your veins. You knew there were people on their way to come and kill both of you probably, but you needed to make sure that he was alright.

"Y/n that's not-"

"Are you hurt ?" you asked again a little louder. Your tone firm and steady.

"No, i am not hurt" he answered, looking straight into your eyes, hands on your cheeks as his thumbs started stroking gently.

"Ok, we need to hide before-"

Regulus never managed to finish his sentence because bullets started flying right into your kitchen.

You both ducked under the furniture, hoping it would protect you just long enough to get your weapons out.

"Third drawer on the left !” you shouted.

Regulus stood a little bit, just enough to move his feet and drag himself near the drawer, taking out your only chance of survival.

"Baby !" he shouted above the sound of bullets flying above your heads, throwing you a gun.

You didn't pay too much attention to the pet name, your lives were at risk.

He took a gun as well and put two loaders in the pockets of his pants, throwing you two more.

You both loaded your guns and then all hell broke loose.

You shot two men right in the head, wounded another one on the shoulder while Regulus finished him, then killed two other men.

But they were too many for just two people, even if the people were as skilled as you and your husband.

"We need cover !" Regulus screamed.

He was right, you would've never come out alive if it was just you two.

You hoped James and Remus had their phones with them.

Lucky for you James answered immediately.

"Miss Y/l/n, is everything alright ?" he asked. 

Jesus, how many times did you have to tell him to drop the formalities ? 

"Not really, James. They’re shooting us."

"Hang in there, Y/n. Remus and I are coming" 

"Hurry up, please. We're running out of ammos" 

"Give us five minutes"

"You have three" 

And then you hung up.

You turned to Regulus who had just dodged a bullet and had planted another two in one of the man's head.

This wasn't exactly how you imagined your day would end, covered in blood and with bullets risking to kill you every five seconds.

You were so lost in your thoughts for a moment that you hadn't noticed a gun pointed directly at you from afar. 

The only thing you heard was the sound of a bullet being fired, but it never came.

Regulus’ inhumanly fast reflexes prevented you from being hit.

He launched himself onto you, tackling you on the floor right behind the island of the kitchen.

As soon as you understood what had happened, you turned to your husband who was now sitting beside you.

"Shit, Reggie, are you hurt ? Did he get you ?" you asked frantically, panic in your eyes and voice as you cradled his face in your hands, tracing his cheeks with your thumb in a frenzy.

He looked at you with a look that you couldn't read, he was staring directly at your soul. 

He didn't say anything, didn’t talk.

He just took your hands in his and placed them on his chest, right above his heart.

A confused look adorned your features.

“No” he breathed simply “no, they didn’t”

And it felt like you could breathe again.

You let out a long exhale, and you could feel your eyes start to water, tears threatening to roll down your cheeks at the mere thought of losing Regulus.

But he was fine.

He was in front of you, and he was fine. 

He was alive.

And then, like he was hit by a sudden epiphany, he lifted his arms to gently stroke your cheeks, before crashing your lips together in the most urgent, earth shattering kiss you had ever had.

Your brain didn’t have time to process what was happening because your body responded first, and what could you do if not kiss him back, just as strongly, just as fiercely, like it could be your last kiss ever.

You couldn’t hear guns shooting anymore, there were no more bullets flying around, evrything was suddenly muted, just white noise surrounding the two of you. 

It could’ve been the end of the world and wouldn’t have given less than a shit. 

There were just his lips on yours, his hand on your cheek and your hearts beating together.

When you pulled back the world started spinning again, the noise and the battle surrounding you filling your ears, but his hands never left your face.

"I’m sorry. I had to do it, even just once, before I died" he said, eyes still glued to yours.

“Don’t you even dare say that word Regulus, don’t you even fucking think about it” you said through gritted teeth, voice shaking.

The hand on your cheek went to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear as his thumb stroked your cheekbone softly.

“You have nothing to worry about, my love. I just decided I can't die before I get to taste your lips again” he whispered with a smile on his face.

You let out an incredulous chuckle, your shoulders shaking despite yourself.

“I hate you” you said, not an ounce of hatred in your voice.

“And i love you” he said, like it was the easiest thing in the world, like you weren’t surrounded by people who wanted you dead, like the place you had started to consoder your home wasn’t being destroyed by bullets and guns.

You were almost sure you heard James and Remus shout your name, a clear sign that they had arrived.

And yet you couldn’t focus on anything else that wasn’t the man in front of you, a man you never expected to fall in love with. He hadn’t been part of your perfectly programmed life before everything went to shit. He was brought into your exitence when you needed him the most, and now you weren’t sure if there was even a life without him in it.

You liked to think that your father knew what he was doing when he chose him to be your future husband. He had always had a talent for reading people.

“I love you, too” you said, just like that. As simple as a breath of fresh air.

Such a mob boss thing to do, confessing your feelings in the middle of flying bullets and blood.

But it didn’t matter, because Regulus' eyes became the softes you had ever witnessed, and the smile on his face was genuine. Just for you.

It died down quickly when you heard the gunfire getting closer to you.

His face lost every trace of softness, becoming cold, calculating and focused.

“Stay here and give me cover. Don’t let them see you” he said, kissing your cheek before sliding smoothly on the other side of the kitchen island.

You nodded.

“I swear, if you die I'm gonna kill you” you told him, looking him directly in the eyes.

“Doesn’t sound very logical, baby. But I'll try my best not to” he said as the corner of his lips lifted up in a smirk, before firing his gun and diving back into the battle.

A man appeared next to you, and, before he could even breathe, you put a bullet through his head. 

You located another one aming right at Regulus with his weapon. You took the knife you had been using to cut the vegetables mere minutes earlier and shoved it right in his throat before he could pull the trigger.

You preferred bladed weapons over anything, but they weren’t really useful when your opponent had a gun.

You could see Remus and James taking out eight men at once, joined by Regulus’ bodyguards Barty and Evan.

You threw the knife right at a man’s heart, and shot two others right in their skull.

And then everything turned quiet.

No more shooting, no more screaming.

Just silence broke by your ragged breathing, and a bunch of bodies covered in blood on your floor.

For a heartbeat or two everything was silent, except for the ring in your ears and the furious thumping of your heart in your chest.

Suddenly you heard the bang of a gun.

You could see James and Remus in front of you, alive and breathing.

Barty and Evan were a few steps away.

Regulus-

Regulus.

Your blood ran cold.

Your world stopped.

No.

No no no no no no no no.

You turned around so fast that your neck might've as well snapped.

But you didn't care because you had to see, you had to make sure that-

“Next time you try to kill my wife think twice about it”

Regulus was alive.

He was alive.

And he wasn't bleeding.

He wasn't injured.

He was fine.

He was breathing.

Only then air filled your lungs again.

He was standing next to a man, hovering above him in all his height.

His gun was smoking and pointing at the man's arm which was now bleeding on the floor and stretched in your direction. He had tried to shoot you.

Regulus’ foot was right on his throat, expensive black shoe covered in red and pushing mercilessly down, making all the little bones crack.

His face was stone cold, not a sign of emotion in his features.

“Actually, how about you never think again at all”

With a swift motion Regulus directed the gun to the man's head, then pulled the trigger.

And, finally, everything was over.

There was blood everywhere, corpses on the floor, and you would clearly have to move from that house seeing the wreckage that was left of it.

But for now you didn't care.

For now everything that mattered was that Regulus was in front of you, just a few feet away.

Alive and breathing.

And that was enough.

You immediately dropped the gun you had been holding.

It fell with a loud ‘tunk’ as you ran towards the man that had stolen your heart without even trying to.

Your body collided with his in a desperate hug. Your arms flying to circle his neck, hands diving in his soft, ebony locks.

His arms were around your waist, holding you tight, like he never wanted to let you go.

And, well, neither did you.

You let go just enough to step back a little, to look into his eyes that were a color as cold as ice, but held so much warmth for you.

Your hands caressed his face, his found home on your hips, and in a flash, your lips collided.

And it was everything.

It was fireworks. The bloom of spring. The first summer rain. The taste of happiness.

The feeling of love.

All in a mouth so soft and sweet, and, at the same time, so urgent and needy.

Regulus’ mouth.

You wanted to melt, and maybe you did a little.

When your lips parted and your head tilted back a little, you were met with the most love-struck gaze you ever had the pleasure to witness.

A gaze you were sure matched with yours.

“Are you ok ?” he asked, running his eyes all over your face, and stepping back to check your body too.

“I'm fine, Reg, don't worry. Just some little scratches here and there” you reassured him, taking his hand into yours and slotting your fingers together “how about you ?”

“Me too, nothing to worry about” he said as he tightened the hold on your hand just the slightest bit.

‘I'm fine’ the gesture is meant to say ‘we are fine’.

And that was all you needed .

“I meant that” he suddenly spoke up, stopping in front of you.

Your eyebrow slightly furrowed in confusion.

Your hands were still laced together when your foreheads met with a gentle touch.

“When I told you that I love you. I mean that, I really do” his voice was barely a whisper, and it made you smile how vulnerable he sounded.

“I do, too. So much” you told him with the most sincere expression on your face.

He broke into a tiny smile.

You did, too.

And then you were kissing again.

And it got better every time.

“I can't believe it took you a near death experience to confess your love for each other” you heard Barty mumble from across the room.

“I suggest you shut up if you wanna keep your job Crouch” Regulus warned him, but his voice lacked the bite completely.

Barty just rolled his eyes, as both you and your husband dived right back into a kiss.

“I need a raise” you heard Remus sigh, defeated, before everything tuned out.

Everything, except Regulus’ lips on yours.

[fohatic]

(manip by me, original poster by art chantry)

welp there's a (short!) fic now 😏

for the "kink: condoms are fun!" square of my @cap-ironman stony bingo round 2 card, 1.5k, rated E:

Like so many 21st-century notions that most modern folks took for granted, getting Steve Rogers onboard with the idea of condoms for gay sex was yet another concept that required some getting used to. As ever, Tony was more than willing to help him adjust to it -- was particularly eager, in fact, to demonstrate it for him. 

So he took Steve’s hesitant objections in stride. Though he conceded that STDs weren't actually an issue between them, Tony still felt obligated to get Steve up-to-date on one of the primary functions of using protection. He didn’t blame the poor guy for assuming that “VD” was only something that men contracted from women, given how the sex-ed propaganda of Steve’s time pointedly ignored the existence of homosexuals at every turn (yes, Tony had become quite the WWII-era culture buff ever since he and Steve got together). “Rubbers,” ergo, were only used to prevent pregnancy and war effort-undermining cooties from ‘loose women,’ as far as Steve was concerned.

He hadn’t yet learned about the AIDS epidemic. He hadn’t learned anything at all, really, about homosexuality, aside from what little he’d gleaned from his limited exposure to different cultures and social norms during his stint as a soldier. Just getting him to come out of his internalized-homophobic shell even a little bit after Tony had finally figured out that the tension between them stemmed from a sex thing rather than the other kind of dick-versus-asshole thing was a huge challenge all on its own; one which Tony had only persevered through because he was already way too far-gone on the guy by then to consider giving up. 

But now— after way too much dithering and denial and a gradually-dawning acceptance of the earth-shattering truth of the matter— they were finally fucking each other. Enthusiastically, and often. Tony’s patience had won out big time, and his rewards just kept on coming. And coming. And coming.

Turns out, Steve has a refractory period that’s basically non-existent. One of the many benefits of being serum-enhanced. Truly, Tony has no complaints on that score, considering his own notoriously rabid sex drive. Match made in heaven, in all honesty. It would seem that Steve is intent on making up for lost time, and Tony is only too happy to oblige him at every opportunity—

—which is where the condom thing comes in. Tony doesn’t mind that they’re fucking like rabbits now. It’s great! Amazing! Best thing that’s ever happened to him, really! But honestly— it can get kinda messy, given how Steve seems determined to fuck on every conceivable surface he can think of -- and often during moments that might not be entirely convenient, such as in the immediate aftermath of a mission; be that during touchdown at SHIELD headquarters when he and Tony are still suited up, or even on the freshly-vacated Quinjet on a number of occasions... -- occasions which their teammates definitely weren’t as oblivious to as Steve had been quick to assume in his lust-clouded fever (Tony had seen Nat’s knowing look after Steve had asserted his captain’s voice to tell him, “Stark: hang back a moment. There’s something I need to discuss with you in private.”) He was so disastrously conspicuous sometimes, but Tony wasn't bothered by it. He just found it ridiculously charming. 

So Tony’s started carrying condoms around with him at all times now, knowing that Steve’s delightfully unhinged libido could strike at any moment. It's his privilege to always be ready for him. 

The first time Tony fished one of these out of his pocket and pressed it against Steve’s big, warm chest during a heated make-out session in the locker room, Steve frowned down at the little packet with the most adorably confused expression Tony had ever seen on a full-grown human. 

“...A rubber?”

“Uh huh,” Tony had breathed out, eagerly rolling his hips against the massive thigh still shoved between his legs. 

“What for?”

It was actually really funny, just how nonplussed his face looked in that moment. Tony bit back his reaction to laugh, though, knowing how sensitive Steve could be when he thought Tony was laughing at him. 

“For sex,” Tony grinned, deliberately pressing his hard-on against the larger man and feeling a little giddy with how much he wanted exactly that, pronto. “What else?”

“We’re both fellas, though,” Steve needlessly pointed out, getting that deep furrow between his brows as a particularly splotchy flush spread over his face -- Tony knew by now that these together were more of an indication of embarrassment than arousal. Uh oh. 

It was sometimes a bit of a tightrope walk, maintaining a modern homosexual relationship with a man as complicated as Steve Rogers. Tony was still learning how to navigate his changeable moods and specific triggers, but it was a task he was surprised to find himself more than willing to put up with. It was actually kind of thrilling, the way he was always keeping Tony on his toes.

So that first, clumsy attempt in the locker room hadn’t convinced Steve that condoms were a convenient means of mitigating the messier aspects of assfucking, which in retrospect was Tony’s bad: Steve wasn’t wrong when he'd pointed out that the showers were right there.

Then later that week, when Tony tried again by attempting to argue that condoms were actually “fun,” Steve had gotten a bit petulant when he'd mistakenly jumped to the very erroneous conclusion that Tony didn’t actually like getting pumped full of an unholy amount of hot supersoldier jizz on the regular. On the contrary, it was something he often enjoyed with a zeal that bordered on some kind of perversion… Only, there was a time and place for indulging in what basically amounted to a serious cum-inflation kink, which—in his modest opinion—was best enjoyed in the comfort of an actual bedroom. 

Later, ensconced in the privacy of said bedroom, he explained this to Steve. In so much detail. He made sure to be very clear about what he liked and when/where he liked it, ensuring that there would be no doubt as to how sincerely he meant it by encouraging Steve to properly fill him up right there on his oversized bed. Then—just because Steve seemed to really appreciate these sorts of practical demonstrations—Tony made it very clear what occurred afterwards, illustrating this by strutting naked around the bedroom and letting Steve’s jizz drip down between his legs while he continued to elaborate on the pros and cons of letting Steve put him in such a state while out in public. He definitely had Steve’s rapt attention, this time.

Still, he didn’t fully sell his argument until the following weekend, when they’d been out together at that gala all night in their well-tailored formalwear, making eyes at each other in between all the endless schmoozing and sipping from champagne flutes and munching on canapes. 

Steve found a little secluded balcony that wasn’t in use, because of course he did. Say what you will about him being a late bloomer; there was no denying that the guy had quite the aptitude for arranging semi-covert assignations at a moment’s notice. 

He wasn’t wearing his utility belt, though, which meant that he didn’t have his handy dandy lube tube that he’d taken to carrying around these days. So when Tony caught him trying to spit on his fingers after getting a hand down Tony's pants and squeezing Tony’s ass in a signal he’d come to recognize as Steve’s signature “I wanna fuck you right now” move, he intercepted him just in time to demonstrate the magic of 21st-century lubricated condoms.

Getting to bend Tony over the railing like that and have at him at the drop of his $3000 pants with no prep required—then coming profusely into Tony’s grateful ass without spilling a single drop of superspunk on either of their very nice garments—was something of an eye-opening experience for Steve Rogers. 

He could admit, afterwards— as they righted their clothing and kissed like they’d been waiting all night to get their mouths on each other in order to finally breathe properly— that Tony might’ve actually had a point about the “rubbers.” 

“They’re fun, aren’t they?” Tony smirked as he smoothed his hands down the fine weave of Steve’s black dinner jacket, continually enamored with the way that all that broadness narrowed down to such a grabbable little waist. “...Anytime, anywhere.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, looking at Tony with a fondness that couldn’t possibly have just been about the whole condom thing. Sometimes when Steve looked at him like that, it felt like his insides were melting; like Steve could reduce him to literal goo with just a look. Quite the superpower, that one. 

Steve’s eyes did that funny thing where they grew impossibly warmer as he reached to fix Tony’s hair with gentle fingers, telling him, “I think I’m coming around to the idea.”

♡