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nightowlwriting · 3 years ago

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summary: fjord takes care of the mighty nein. you take care of fjord. (part 4/13 of the kindness series, a thematically connected series of c2/exu imagines)

word count: 2.7k

warnings: mentions of self-hatred, bullying, lack of self-confidence

note: idk why this one took me so long and, honestly, it was almost super nsfw lmfao

masterlist - request - support my work? - ao3

Fjord is a man who appears to know exactly what he needs and when he needs it. You’re not so sure. You tend to hang back when the group talks to people, or finds jobs for coin, just to watch. That’s what you like to do - get information, tuck it away, use it later.

It just happens that sometimes you end up watching Fjord. There’s no reason, not really. He’s the leader by default, no matter how much Nott will say that it’s Caleb. He does most of the talk, smiling all coy and leaning against things to charm the party’s way through whatever Gods forsaken situation you end up in. It mostly works, with some exceptions. There are things you begin to notice in the nights after Fjord has failed to charm someone with a well-placed wink, or a sir or a ma’am. He makes the fire just a little bit larger, stacking logs and kindling and using his flint so that Caleb doesn’t have to use his magic. He cooks heartier food, sometimes even disappearing and coming back with a skewered animal from the forest to add to the pot of simmering soup. He takes the first watch and doesn’t wake anyone until halfway through the second watch so that everyone can sleep longer, even if it makes him crabby the morning after.

You come to a conclusion. Fjord takes care of people when he feels like he’s not enough. He overcompensates in his acts of kindness when something he does fails - but why? To make you all stay? To make sure you know his worth in the group? To make up for whatever he sees as a downfall? Honestly, you’re worried it’s a little bit of all three. You’re not really sure about how the mind works - that would be more for Molly, or Caleb honestly - but growing up in an orphanage with children who pick and prod at your every physical characteristic cannot be good for a person. Especially with Fjord insisting that he doesn’t have a last name, despite the times that he introduces himself and you see it die on his lips before he can say it. There’s something there, but you won’t pry. People deserve their secrets. They deserve to keep something for themselves.

If he wants to keep his last name, that’s fine with you. If he wants to keep the self-loathing inside of him until he explodes, well, that’s not fine with you. That’s why when you realize that he decompresses by making himself useful, as if the group might dismiss him just because a few people were immune to his charms, you decide to do something. No amount of reassurance from anyone will convince him otherwise and the rest of the group tends to shrug away from his slightly overbearing kindness when something goes south. Caleb, Beau, and Molly are just uncomfortable with it while Jester is usually too engrossed in journaling, Tusk Love, or talking to the Traveler. Nott is somewhere between Caleb and Yasha (uncomfortable and straight-up not around to be doted on.) And… Well, that leaves you.

It’s not that you mind Fjord’s constant doting after he perceives something to have gone wrong, but it’s hard to let him in. Your life before the Mighty Nein wasn’t exactly peaches and cream, either, but you know that he needs this. He needs to feel like he’s doing something for someone or he’ll break. You only notice that, though, after a particularly rough, rainy day of trying to get information out of people for a job. Fjord had forgotten something important which threw off the communication and sent everyone you were working with into an angry tizzy. By the time you make it back to the tavern, everyone is soaked to the bone and cranky, even you - and you tried your best to avoid getting out in the rain. What you really want to do is go back to your room and change out of your wet clothes and then go to fucking bed, but you hold back. The group disperses one by one until it’s just you and Fjord left at the bar, and before you can make your leave you see his hands shaking. His hands, which are large and calloused and strong, are shaking like a leaf in the wind. There’s no other outward sign that he’s feeling stressed or upset, and that surprises you. It also worries you. This is not how Fjord acts when something goes wrong. He doesn’t sit at the bar and brood over an ale - he mother-hens his friends until they’re sick to death of hearing his deep, drawling voice.

The combination of these things is probably what makes you pause halfway out of your seat, eyes narrow and trained on him. He makes eye contact for a brief second before looking back down to his drink. You know that approaching and asking him if he’s okay will get you nowhere but you can’t leave him alone at the bar, not when you know he’s stewing on every mistake, every misstep, whether they really happened or he’s just overanalyzing his movements. He’s your… He’s more than a friend to you, despite the fact that he doesn’t know that and you don’t show it outwardly. Fjord means too much to you to be able to let him sit and spiral into a funnel of self-doubt. You know that it will be weird to put your pride to the side and ask for help, but you also know that you don’t really need help.

But asking Fjord for help means that he’ll feel better and you think that’s a very good reason to shelf your pride for a night.

He barely looks up at you when you approach, still dripping all over the tavern’s floors and hesitant to speak. He doesn’t speak, either, just takes another long pull from his ale to bide his time until you leave. (Probably.) You take the leap first and say his name. “Fjord.” He doesn’t look at you. “I know we’ve all had a bad day,”

“You can say that again,” He snorts.

“We have,” You stress, one hand finding the hilt of the dagger on your waist for some sort of comfort. You’re wildly uncomfortable and can feel the urge to run, get away, flee building up in your gut. If you’re not careful, it’ll spill out your mouth and you’ll be forced out of the tavern for the night in humiliation and self-preservation. “It has been one hell of a day today. I do not want to be alone.” Your sentence cuts off briskly and Fjord looks up in surprise. Your face mirrors his - untamed surprise. You had really opened your mouth to ask if he wanted to find a table and listen to your vent but what came out was I do not want to be alone. You blink and think what the fuck? Before Fjord is shaking off his surprise and standing.

“I suppose I can give Molly the room for the night.” He extends an arm towards you but doesn’t look at you. He’s doing a much better job of hiding how strange you’re acting than you are but still, you’re not going to let this opportunity pass. You wrap your own arm around Fjord’s and he begins to lead you toward the stairs. “Anything specific bothering you?”

“Nothing really,” You hum as you respond, hoping that by allowing him past your walls that it will help him, “Today is just a bad day.” Fjord halfheartedly agrees and your nerves shoot through the roof when he leaves you at your door, explaining that he’s going to warn Molly that he won’t be in the room tonight. You nod at him and slip into your own room, leaving the door cracked so that he won’t feel awkward about entering. Your laundry is everywhere and you grit your teeth, doing your best to hold back a scream. God damnit, you’re about to have the man that you have a crush on in your room and today is the day you threw your laundry all over?

It doesn’t even matter that he’s traveled with you in carts where there is no possible way to not overlap on laundry slash unmentionables. You still dash about, shoving your laundry into a pile in the corner and covering it with your weapons and shield just before Fjord raps his knuckles against the door frame, calling your name. You shiver and invite him in, wringing your hands as you stand in front of the unlit fireplace. “Are you okay?” He’s so earnest and it makes you feel… A little bad. You don’t want to say no to having Fjord be with you overnight because his presence is so calming, but it’s also… He’s not in your room because…

Ugh. “Fjord,” You say before you can stop yourself, “Okay, so, you can’t be mad but I noticed when things go wrong you’re really, really hard on yourself and you shouldn’t be. And I also noticed that when you’re hard on yourself you dive into taking care of other people because, I don’t know, maybe it feels like you’re doing something good? I’m not sure, but I really meant to ask if you wanted to talk but then that came out instead but I can’t let you stay in here if you don’t know why I asked.” He stands there, taking in what you’ve said, and then shakes his head. Your room is dark - too dark for you to see whether or not the small smile on his face is actually there or if you’re imagining it. When he chuckles, you’re more apt to believe that Fjord is actually smiling even after the day he’s had. “Um,” You finally cut the silence, “Please say something.”

“You mean to tell me,” He drawls, stepping slowly closer and removing his chest plate. It’s like his mood has gone a full 180 from where it was when he left you outside of your room, “That you looked so awkward and like a li’l kicked puppy because you wanted to help me feel better?” He sets his chest plate on the table, coming into your sight as your vision begins to adjust. You don’t get a good look at what’s happening on his face because you look away very quickly, setting your jaw.

“Well, when you put it that way,” You grumble and cross your arms, “You just like to help people - it makes you feel better.”

Fjord comes to a stop in front of you and sighs, but doesn’t say anything. Your hands begin to shake and honestly, you regret your stupid fucking decision to try and help Fjord out. You wouldn’t be here, standing in front of him and purely humiliated, if you didn’t look at him and notice so much. He finally responds, one of his hands coming up to touch at your bicep and then trails up until he’s cupping your shoulder. “I do like to help people,” He’s speaking more from his chest than his mouth, and you can almost feel the rumble through the grip he has on your shoulder. It’s not tight but it’s there, heavy and comforting. “I didn’t think anyone noticed.”

“I notice a lot,” You supply, tugging your chin away when Fjord tries to use the other hand to make you look at him. It’s only after he says your name in a soft voice that you look. You’re surprised to see that he looks soft… Soft and fond. “Please,” You whisper, uncrossing your arms to grab both of his wrists. You’re not even sure what you’re asking for but the way that you whispered please is the closest to begging that you’ve ever gotten.

“Please?” Fjord says, sounding incredibly confused but soft at the same time. You shake your head, trying again to look away from him. He ducks down, catching your eyes again, “It’s just me, remember? This is why you asked me here, isn’t it? To help you feel better?”

To your horror, you feel yourself mist up. “I invited you here so you could feel better, Fjord. I don’t want you to be so hard on yourself, and the only time I’ve seen you calm down after a bad day is when you’re taking care of one of us. I thought… Even if I don’t really need to be taken care of, that would help you. I just want… I want you to feel better.” He steps closer toward you, caging you into the rough stone of the fireplace but doesn’t speak. You’re almost worried that Fjord is going to cold clock you, but then he does something that you expected even less.

He surges forward and kisses you. Every part of him nearly engulfs you - the hand on your shoulder moves to the back of your neck, anchoring you to him, while he groans deep in the back of his throat. Your hands scramble for some purchase to express your surprise, landing on his hearty shoulders, clenching in the fabric of his shirt. You sigh into Fjord’s groan, and press as close as possible to his body heat. No matter how much you don’t want to admit it, you’ve been craving this: closeness with another person, pressing tight against their body… You’d be lying if you didn’t admit that when you thought of that, of intimacy, that you pictured Fjord. You just didn’t think he pictured you.

Fjord surges forward again, and you feel the soft scrape of tusks against you when he opens his mouth to breathe, keeping his nose pressed tightly to yours. “I didn’t think,” He says, accent thinner than you’ve heard previously, “I never dreamed that you would feel…”

“Oh, I feel,” You tell him, slowly moving your hands until you can intertwine your fingers behind his neck, “I feel so much, Fjord.”

“You never said…” He sneaks another kiss between his words, dropping his hands to squeeze at your waist, “You never even let on that you see me this way.”

“I do a lot of looking and not a lot of showing,” You remind him - it was something he had said to you when you first joined his group. I always catch you lookin’, but you never show. It’s terribly funny because he’d said it while the Mighty Nein were all naked, sudsy, and sharing a bathhouse at Molly’s insistence. The group had a field day with that and still does. The memory is apparently still fresh in Fjord’s head because a blush creeps high over his cheeks and he looks away, flustered. “You’re strong and pretty and beautiful and you take care of us so well. Even when you’ve had a bad day. I look up to you so much, but at the same time I want, perhaps selfishly, to take care of you in ways that you might not take care of the group.” He almost looks surprised at what you’ve said, but then it melts into a look of soft adoration. Fjord kisses you again and then drags his lips lightly over the arch of your cheek before he rests his head on your shoulder where he inhales deeply, his breath tickling your throat. You can feel his hands contracting against your waist, like he wants to touch and feel but is settling for keeping them where they are and feeling the soft give of your flesh. You know your heart is spinning at what feels like a million miles per hour, and you know that he can probably hear it, too. You can’t find anything in you that cares, though, because you’re so close to Fjord. He smells like saltwater, you realize. Not in a way that it seems like he’s been coughing it up again, or in the ocean, but just sort of… Naturally. Like he’s always smelled that way. Like you’ve always known he smelled that way. Like you were always meant to know and to find comfort in it. You pull yourself closer, relishing in the way that you hold each other, and Fjord sighs. You can feel the way that he relaxes underneath your hold and you relax, too.

This… This is the way that it’s supposed to be. This is how you can do for Fjord what he’s done for your team - except different. Except more.

#critical role imagine #c2 imagine #cr imagine #fjord stone imagine #fjord imagine #fjord stone x reader #fjord x reader #fjord stone / reader #fjord / reader #campaign 2 imagine #critfic

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servingy-nneeds · 4 years ago

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PROMPT:HOW WOULD THEY REACT WITH A BIG BREASTED S/O: VILLAIN EDITION

Dabi

“You got them big tits” he said nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders when you were first introduced in the League of Villains

He would notice your above average breast but that’s it

Honestly doesn’t see the appeal with boobs, as he would put it, tits are tits.

Although, he understands your charms and has used you multiple times as an information gatherer mainly on male Pro heroes, other times on female pro heroes

Lets you wear whatever makes you feel comfortable; You want to wear baggy shirts and pants go for it. Wanted to wear badass clothes that shows of your curves? Hell go for it. He ain’t gonna guilt trip you into hiding your assets, if you have it, “fuckin flaunt it” as he say

When you first started dating he was still aloof with you, however was quick to avert you away from the League of Villains whenever you want to mingle with them. His reason was that “they aren’t the most sane people to be around”

Quite the prick when someone tries to hit on you

Namely going behind you and groping your knockers in front of the poor soul who decided his luck with you. He does this every damn time just to point out that yes you belong to him and yes he better be damn jealous of Dabi’s privilege

And if being dense was the offender’s choice of action. Well, cremation awaits for the other guys/girls, his hands ain’t rated E for nuthin’

It irritates him when one of his companion, most likely Shigaraki, stares at your tits for a second too long. He was rude to him to no end for the whole week. Doesn’t trust Shigaraki enough to leave you with him alone

Jests that you stay with him in order to scare off potential perverts. He was after all your ‘big bad boyfriend’

It doesn’t matter on how you two went to sleep that night, you always wake up to an arm under your breast or a hand exactly at your boob

You caught him sometimes staring at a mirror tracing his scars and then back at you wondering if you would finally realized you’re too good for a nobody like him

He KNOWS he has a shitty personality and looks and isn’t the best boyfriend out there for you

You learned that he responds well at cuddling and surrounding him with positive affirmations

BONUS✨: You tried surprising him with the whole concept of only wearing his coat with nothing underneath it. You think he appreciates the thought, but really, if your rearing to go just ask him.

Shigaraki

When you were first introduced to the League of Villains he didn’t even greet you and openly staring down under your chin never meeting your eyes. Thus, your first impression of him was pervert and imprudent, how is he the boss anyway?.

He just openly stared at your breasts until somebody pointed it out Dabi and Kurogiri

“Boss I think it goes dinner first eye fuckin later yeah?“

“I think this person would appreciate if you stopped undressing them with your eyes Shigaraki”

Unlike Dabi, this man would be obsessed with your boobs

One time you wore a low cut shirt and he had the audacity of blaming you for distracting him.

You kneed him in the gut for that comment followed by scampering off for your dear life

He would like to think he is sneaky with his glances

But honestly EVERYONE knows he’s ogling your breast

Doesn’t had a lot as a child which explains why he is quite childish and selfish with you when you two started going out

Would literally kill someone for you, LITERALLY

Someone just happened to look at you? boom dust. Someone just asked for direction and he didn’t liked the way the stranger looked at you? boom ashes

One time you heard him mutter a “+5 points” for wearing a round collared neck shirts and a “+30 points” for wearing the low cut shirt

Please someone tell this man that breasts are actually fragile and not some stress ball

A night with him results in sore breasts littered with bruises and bite marks

BONUS✨: Loves being babied resting his head on your breast. Doesn’t care if you were taking nap, nor does he care that he was trespassing on your room and privacy. Your breasts are open for naps? boom there his head goes. “Honestly, stop flaunting them” he argued to you one day.

Mr. Compress

When you were introduced to the League of Villains for the first time he low key hinted that he needs assistant for his magic tricks and you just so happened to be quite his type the distraction he needed

Another ‘all tits are tits’ kind of man

He may want all the applause of the world but lives for your amusement

Reserves all his pretty tricks for you

Is canonically a showman at heart so don’t take it the wrong way when he said that you were the center of attention, “it’s a compliment” he argues

Has a love hate relationship with the idea of you being the center of attention

He loves that everyone is staring at a glory that is you

Hates the idea that everyone is staring lecherously at you

Uses the phrase “You’re so cute I wish I can keep you inside my pockets all the time” quite literally

One time you got sent together with him at a public area, say the mall, to gather intels on pro heroes where you went separate ways. When he went back to you lo and behold you were being surrounded by horny males who just wants to get sum of that piece

He was quite flashy with distracting them, he called it a magician’s trick, but really all he did was asked you to be his assistant and then the next minute you were in his breast pocket no where to be seen

You threw a fit after you were decompressed

He apologized for doing his parlor tricks unto you without consent. Lowkey would do it again if ever you were in trouble or he’s just downright jealous

Would love for you to wear a magician’s assistant garb; the one with the top hat, corset, long coat and really anything that allows for an easy misdirection of tricks for his advantage.

BONUS✨:Wearing his costume or anything of his turns it on for him. One time he made you wear his top hat and only his top hat while he was scrambling up your guts.

Twice

When you were first introduced to the League of Villains he greeted you with “You look fuckin hot to bed” “ or to Wed”

Being teamed up with him was both exhausting and amusing at the same time

He would likely drop some random conversations like “You know we could be fucking each other at this time?” “Remember to focus at our mission, ‘mkay?”

Although his multiple personalities often clash with each other, protecting you is always their top priority.

You have to be really patient and understanding when dating this man. His shifts from hot to cold personality, so some days he would be praising you, and then some other days he is giving you the cold shoulder

“I could do better than you” “You’re literally my whole world”

Poor man was lonely to death and gets a lot more unstable when you leave him alone. Like he would cry a river and put up some kinda tantrum if you’re not there with him to accompany him

You caught him one day with a clone version of you cuddling him to sleep. You weren’t sure if you call this cheating or cry that he was so lonely he even considered cloning you to be with him.

However when you cleared your throat announcing your return, his expression was a mixture of shock, relief and a hint of embarrassment

Though he immediately rushed over to you once he saw the real you standing at the doorway. “Why did you leave me all alone?!” “I never missed you, you know?”

Both you and the clone was standing there awkwardly with Jin still clinging at your side

“Are my boobs really that big?” you asked trying to break the tension

He would just grab them saying “It’s humongous!” then removing his hands and inspecting said boobs the very next seconds saying “Nah they’re perfect for me”

Eventually the clone returned to being a mud and both of you agreed to never clone yourself again unless he’s really really desperate

BONUS✨: Is very spontaneous with his affection one minute the two of you would be 6 feet apart watching some kid’s cartoon the next minute he would be crawling all over you asking you to suffocate him hold his head dearly against your bosoms

#bnha x reader #imagines #dabi x reader #shigaraki x reader #twice x reader #mr compress x reader #reader insert #bnha imagines #bnha villain #servingy/nneeds

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moonbeamwritings · 4 years ago

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Imagine a scenario based off a dream I had, modern AU where DIO is like 28 a single father, Lawyer to the Stars on the Coast of California with little 7 year old Giorno.

The Reader, Tired- maybe coming off an over night shift, half asleep is casually walking down the busy sidewalk, catches sight of a distracted Giorno not waiting at the cross walk (on his Gameboy or something) and in an instantly the reader pulls Giogio out of the way of an on passing car.

Boom. Dio saw it all and starts scolding Gio. I woke up after that bit.

Point is... I wonder what would have happened next 🤔😕😳

this is cool as hell, anon. cool. as. hell. i’m here for it and i will definitely try to deliver !! it got very out of hand, but i hope you enjoy!!

part 2

Your day had been long, having worked open to close at the coffee shop down the street from your apartment. As your shift came to an end, you blearily worked through the closer checklist, puttering around the store as you cleaned and closed everything down. With one last turn of a key, you finally, finally, began your trek home.

As you came up to the crosswalk, you noticed a little boy toddling along, gaming system in hand as he went. He was so wrapped up in his game that he barely gave the busy street a second thought as he stepped a foot off the curb.

It was like you were watching the situation in slow motion, his foot moving at a snail’s pace right in front of a moving car. Acting on adrenaline alone, suddenly far more awake than you’d ever felt in your life, you gripped the handle of his backpack to yank him up and into your arms.

With him back on the sidewalk, you placed him back on his feet as you knelt in front of him. “Jeez kiddo, you alright? You have to pay better attention around here.”

As the small boy opened his mouth to say something, a man with a thick british accent came hustling over. “Giorno! How many times do I have to tell you to put that thing away when you’re walking?”

The man, who you could only assume was his father, pulled the device from the boy’s hand before lifting him up into his arms. “Don’t do that again.”

His son nodded meekly, eyes shifting down to his father’s shoes.

“I’m sorry about him. I thought he was right next to me.”

You waved the man off as your gaze finally moved to meet his. He was handsome, like something out of a fairytale, all muscle with perfectly styled blond hair and an impeccable, no doubt expensive, suit. In the back of your mind, you felt as if you’d seen him before, but, being unable to place it, you brushed the thought away.

Saving yourself the embarrassment of ogling at the man for too much longer, you excused yourself. “It’s no problem. Have a nice night you two.”

With the situation over with, you continued your walk home.

Upon your arrival, you did everything you could to decompress: showering, changing, and situating yourself on your couch to watch mindless television. As you flicked through channel after channel, you finally landed on a celebrity gossip station, half listening as the host worked through this week’s hot topics.

You rolled your eyes.

She went on to describe yet another celebrity’s messy divorce, among other criminal charges apparently. Your attention was quickly piqued, though, when a familiar face flashed onto your screen. There he was a perfect combination of muscle, confidence, and style.

Dio Brando.

The man whose child you’d saved, who you’d embarrassingly checked out in a tired stupor, was Dio Brando. It took everything in you not to bring a hand up to smack at your own forehead. No wonder you’d recognized him, he was any celebrity’s dream lawyer and had his own fair share of scandals and nonsense.

Yikes.

With one final look at the man in question, you changed the channel, hardly able to bear the gritty details of a court case you didn’t care about.

The whole incident with him and his son became nothing more than a blip in your day-to-day life, telling a few work friends and leaving it at that. Did you sometimes check Dio’s Instagram out of what you explained away as genuine curiosity? Well, yeah, but you were only human after all.

The weekend after your run-in with the famous lawyer, you were tasked with another long shift slaving over coffee orders and dealing with rude customers. The moment the morning rush ended, you jumped at the chance to take your lunch break, situating yourself in a corner of the café. You watched as only a few customers filtered in and out, thankful that the worst of the day was now over.

Losing yourself in your Twitter feed, you mindlessly sipped at a cup of tea as the remaining time of your break ticked away, only snapping back to reality at the sound of a familiar voice.

“Mind if I join you?” Looking up from your phone, you locked eyes with Dio.

“Oh! Uh, sure!”

You watched as he delicately sat himself in the chair across from you, ankle perched on his knee as he shot you an unwavering smirk. As he got situated, he stuck a hand in your direction.

“Dio Brando.”

Biting back a snarky quip about how narcissistic his introduction alone made him seem, you gently placed your hand in his as you gave him your name.

“I wanted to thank you again for what you did for my son.”

“It’s really no problem. I think anyone would have done the same.”

He eyed you carefully, fingers dancing against the mug in front of him. “So, what do you want?”

“Excuse me?”

“As repayment.” He explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Do you want money?” Dio leaned across the table to mumble, “Sex, maybe? I don’t like leaving debts unpaid.”

A look of disgust crossed your face as you put both your phone and drink down on the table, moving to sit on your hands to resist the urge to smack him upside the head. “What are you talking about? I don’t want anything. I was being nice. You don’t need to pay anyone off for being nice.”

“Hmm,” He seemed deep in thought, eyes drifting up and down your face, lingering on your lips for only a split second, “nothing at all? You do know who I am, don’t you?”

With your break coming to an end and your patience wearing thin, you started to collect your things. “Look, pretty boy, I don’t really care who you are. You’re honestly kind of insufferable. I helped your son because he was in trouble. I don’t want your money and I don’t want to have sex with you.”

You hadn’t meant to be quite that biting, but you couldn’t help yourself. How dare he come into your work, assume that he owed you something, and then have the audacity to tease you about it? What the fuck?

“Pretty boy?”

“I need to get back to work. I’d really appreciate it if you didn't come back in here if you’re just going to pull more of this shit.”

Without sparing him a second glance, you made your way back behind the counter, placing your stuff in the back before returning to your place at the register. By the time you returned, he was gone. Good riddance.

You could only assume how warped his worldview was if he genuinely thought he needed to pay you off for helping his son. A creeping feeling of sympathy worked its way into your brain, but was quickly swatted away by the image of his smug smile.

You didn’t see him again for another week, this time armed with a grin that was a little less playful and a little more genuine, almost sheepish.

Taking his order with little fuss, you got to work pouring his coffee and adding specific ingredients. He attempted to make idle conversation with you, asking about your day and how you’d been doing with work. You humored him, if only to be polite, answering his questions with little enthusiasm.

Days passed much the same way. Dio would come in, make small talk, and then leave. No further incidents like that first meeting, no more overt attempts at getting in your pants. Nothing.

It was all… strange, to put it simply. It was like dealing with two different people: the overconfident, well-dressed Dio Brando versus the charming single dad Dio. You were left conflicted, wrestling the two images in your mind to decide how you truly saw Dio.

One night, he’d offered to walk you home after another of your late shifts with the promise that he’d get up to no funny business, as you’d put it. The conversation had lulled as you both became enraptured with the noises of the city, your faces bathed in warm neon lights. The silence was nice, welcomed even, as you thought about how to phrase your feelings.

You’d come to like Dio, in your own silly little way. You had memorized his order, knew more about his job and his son, knew him more intimately than you had ever expected to, but one question remained. One question loomed in your brain, clouding any positive thoughts you may otherwise have: Why? Why did he suddenly come into your work? Why did he take such a liking to you? Was it all a ruse, a sick way of finally repaying you?

“You look like you’re about to throw up.” He commented lightly, watching as a crease formed between your eyebrows, as your face twisted in discomfort.

“I-” You took a deep breath, looking anywhere but at him in order to actually get the question out. “Dio, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” He spoke earnestly, eyes still tracing over your side profile.

“Why?”

“Why what? You’re going to need to be more specific.”

“Why would you keep coming into the store after I told you off? I just can’t shake this feeling that you’re still… ugh,” you groaned as the words left your mouth, deciding that this was actually a very bad idea, “I don’t know, buttering me up. Like this is all some dream where I’ll wake up to you laughing in my face, telling me that you were only being nice to me to repay me or sleep with me or something.”

Wordlessly, Dio grasped your arm and led you under the awning of a nearby business, not really wanting to stop sidewalk traffic with whatever confession he may find himself making. He looked deathly serious, like you’d just promised to ruin his entire life. Maybe, with all of your questioning, you had.

“Look,” he sighed, “Did I initially come in with the intention of repaying you by whatever means necessary? Yes and I think we both know that, but it’s different now.”

He paused, clearly choosing his next words very carefully. “You’re one of the only people to actually try to put me in my place, to show me that I was being an asshole. It’s different with you. Hell, you kept me up that night. I couldn’t get you out of my head. It was like you were haunting me, driving me crazy. I had to get to the bottom of why I was so taken with you.”

You felt your mouth drop open at his admission, feeling as though your feet were swept right out from under you, sending you tumbling, “Oh.”

“Oh.” Dio mimicked, his voice lilting up to tease you. “Does that answer your question?”

“Uh, I-... Yeah, I guess it does.”

“Good then let’s go.” He tugged you along, guiding you back out onto the sidewalk and towards your apartment. Dio’s hand didn’t leave yours until you arrived at your doorstep.

“Goodnight.” It was quick, uttered as soon as his hand left yours as he moved to turn around and make his own way home.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Home. I have a kid, remember?”

“Well, of course I remember, but don’t you want to hear what I have to say?”

The smile that graced his face was nothing short of teasing, a small quirk of his lips as he looked you up and down. “Only if it’s interesting.”

“Ugh,” you grumbled, stomping down the stairs of your apartment complex to come face-to-face with Dio, “you’re relentless.”

“So I’ve been told.” He watches as your lip twitches in annoyance. God, did he love to push your buttons. “Spit it out, then. What’s still on your mind? Eager to ask me more questions?”

In lieu of a verbal retort, you took his face in your hands and all but yanked him down to connect your lips with his, eager to finally shut him up. His response was immediate, moving his lips against yours as a hand weaved around your waist, another resting just above your ass.

As you moved to break away, his lips followed yours, pressing another needy kiss to your mouth. Finally satiated, he pulled back to take in the dazed expression on your face.

“I do have one question.”

Dio let out a barking laugh that had him pulling you closer, gripping at your waist, “What is it?”

“Is sex off the table now that you’re not trying to repay me or-?”

He rolled his eyes, leaning in so his lips barely touched yours as he spoke. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”

#moonbeam answers #dio brando x reader #dio brando imagine #dio x reader #dio imagine #jjba x reader #jjba imagine #thank you for sending in!!#all of my dio fics end up being too long #a curse #this fic was purely a lady gaga fueled fever dream im so sorry

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ilikemesometaetaes · 4 years ago

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Don’t Hold Your Breath ~ jjk

Prologue

•••> Author: @ilikemesometaetaes

•••> Summary: As the CEO of an international government security company, you have the world at your fingertips. Living life lavishly and extravagantly has become the norm. Behind closed doors, however, you host a past that renders you lonely and, quite frankly, miserable. It’s only a matter of time before your past comes back to bite you right in the ass.

•••> Pairing(s): Jungkook/Reader

•••> Inspo: This fic is inspired by the song “SAVAGE ANTHEM” by PARTYNEXTDOOR. Thank you to @btssmutgalore for everything you’ve done to help me! You’re amazing!

•••> Word Count: 2.3k

•••> Rating: 18+ • Please do not read if you are below the age of 18. I do not condone minors reading my work. Of course, I cannot stop you.

•••> Warnings: a boatload of angst, heartbreak, cursing, pining, kissing, depression. Warnings are written specifically to chapter. Refer to the DHYB Main Page for the full rundown.

Note: I don’t have a beta reader so please forgive any mistakes I may have missed. Also, if you are confused by the italics, refer to the DHYB Main Page for info on that.

Taglist: @apurpledheart

If you’d like to be added to the taglist, add a comment to this chapter or the DHYB Main Page!

NAVIGATION: | > Chapter One (M) –> Mini-Masterlist -> Series Masterlist

~#~

NOW.

The bed was cold around you.

You felt yourself breathe. You felt your heart beating in your chest. You felt the evidence of physical life within your body.

But you couldn’t help the withdrawn and frigid feeling of death laced into your mind.

You felt alone. You felt longing. You felt numb yet riddled with too many emotions to comprehend all at once.

Overwhelmed with confusion, you went to the moment that brought you calm. It brought you peace and happiness despite the things lost.

The beautiful dream-like vision of butterflies and a certain meadow filled your memory as you laid in the darkness. Sighing with content, you let yourself remember.

“Fuck Jimin and his girlfriend. We can have all the fun on our own.” He sneered in his Satoori accent. After years of knowing you, Jungkook slipped from his proper accent whenever the two of you were alone. All you could do was chuckle at his harsh words.

The blanket laid out before you was a pristine sky blue. Jungkook had gathered small stones to hold it down at the corners.

“What have you been up to today?” You asked with a hint of breathlessness due to the trek the two of you had made to get to the peak of the large hill. Turning your head to look at him while you spoke, you noticed that his head was craned upwards, gaze locked on the sky.

In response to your query, he collapsed back onto the blanket, allowing his white t-shirt to slightly ride up, revealing a small sliver of the skin on his stomach in the process. The white reflected the sun in your eyes almost painfully, but not enough to take away from the angel-like glow that it gave him.

“Nothing much. Played video games for an hour or so. Cooked and made breakfast.” He angled his head slightly to look at you. "Finished up my essay for my philosophy class. You?”

“Oh, just the usual. Didn’t finish my calc assignment by noon so I’m only going to get partial credit for that.”

Your reply reminded you of how different the two of you were when it came to school. His alone time spent in his dorms went one of two ways; he either played video games with Taehyung or studied- there was no other. His scoff broke you out of your brief thoughts.

“You know, you’re going to end up falling behind this semester, and then we won’t have the same class for our last semester as college students.” His pout that accompanied his statement had your eyes flicking to his bottom lip which shined with a slight sheen of saliva, accentuating the plumpness of it.

It was no secret that you found Jungkook attractive. Hell, even Yoongi found him attractive and Yoongi was quite impassive. Even now, with his eyes squinting under the light of the sun, his hair messy, and a thin layer of sweat covering his skin, you found him absolutely breathtaking.

You remembered how the two of you met.

Shared classes brought you closer together. Ever since you had first met him during your sophomore year when you became part of a foreign exchange program in South Korea, the two of you clicked. Realizing that he spoke English- rough English- had you giddy and eager to teach him to perfect his language skills in return for helping you with your Korean. Needless to say, you learned Korean a bit quicker than he learned English seeing as one of your majors was dedicated to the language learning.

After you decided to stay in Korea and finish the requirements for one of your degrees at your other university online, the two of you grew close in the process of mutual education. When you decided to stay was when you actually got to know him.

He was pursuing a degree in music, specializing in vocal performance, while you were working towards a double major in political science and language studies with a minor in business. Although you were packed full of classes, your work ethic was definitely capable of improvement despite having helped you survive to senior year.

“I know, Kook, but I honestly don’t know why math is required for my major anyway. I just want to be done with it.” You grumbled and adjusted your clothes before laying beside him.

He sighed wistfully, signifying his state of relaxation and calm, which you found yourself fighting a smile for. Of all of the time you had been around Jungkook, he was always emotionally charged or stressed. There was never a time you knew him to be absolutely at peace or silent in the way he acted. To hear him decompress was still a relatively new concept to you and had you giddy to relax with him in hopes that he would open up to you.

A few moments of silence rested between you both, effectively ending the previous conversation.

“Do you think about him anymore?” He voiced, distracting you from eyeing a cloud as it covered the sun. The break from sunlight was welcome on your straining brows.

It took you a moment to respond, caught off guard by the loaded question. He knew of your situation because you were open with him. But why did he care? “Sometimes. I know that he wasn’t good for me. I know that I gave him too much slack and that’s why he lied to me.” You sighed.

“Yeah,” He chuckled dryly. “That dude was an asshole.”

“I still don’t get it. I told him that everything he did was okay. I told him all he had to be was honest and that I wouldn’t be mad at him.” The frustration of your breakup with your ex-boyfriend was nowhere close to being gone. Eleven months of lies and deceit despite the good memories was difficult to remove from your conscience.

He had used drugs, something you weren’t a fan of. Despite this, on top of the fact that it was illegal, you knew that it helped his depression and you loved him throughout his questionable choices on how to treat himself. All you had asked for was his honesty; all you wanted was for him to tell you when he used.

Jungkook sat up to look at you. He frowned and then reached towards you to brush away some of the hair that fell over your forehead.

“I get that he did you wrong. Believe me. I get it. But the fact that you still think about it is irritating. It’s been a year, right?” His scowl made him look adorable.

“Something like that.” You sighed.

“And you haven’t moved on?” He asked, concerned. You were about to reply in defense before he cut in again. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I know you don’t have those types of feelings for him anymore, but you haven’t moved on from the situation?”

Your reply was curt. “I’ve moved on. I’m just annoyed.”

He sighed and looked down at his hand that he wasn’t leaning on, toying with the fabric of the blanket, before laying back down with an elongated exhale. He knew this conversation was over.

After a while of laying down in the sun in comfortable silence, you noticed that the clouds were starting to roll in more frequently, accompanied by a cooler breeze. When you craned your head back to look upwind, you saw the darkness of a storm system crawling across the sky.

“Hey Jungkook. I think we-“ Snore.

You cut yourself off at the sound, quickly snapping your head to survey the sleeping boy beside you. Eyebrows completely relaxed and lips slightly parted, he was a sight to behold. His hair had fallen over his eyes slightly, urging you to return the favor in brushing it out of the way. He stirred slightly before settling back down and sighing. What a sight to behold indeed.

The deep rumbling of thunder is what caused you both to jump and look at the sky. “Jesus.” He croaked while abruptly sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. “How long was I out?”

“I’m not sure. I only realized you were sleeping a few seconds ago.” You began picking up your things whilst he picked up the blanket, draping it over his arm.

The first few raindrops of the storm had only just begun; a light pitter-patter at random places in the grass began slowly at first, gradually picking up pace as you and Jungkook were packing up the last of your things.

You giggled as the rain started hitting your face. It reminded you of tiny, cold kisses. Jungkook, on the other hand, used the blanket to shield his head after slinging his backpack onto one shoulder. His face was scrunched up in an unconscious attempt to keep the rain out of his eyes.

“Let’s get out of here.” He huffed tiredly.

“Good idea.” You laughed.

The trek down the hill and back to Jungkook’s old truck accelerated to a jog following the increased pattern of raindrops hitting the ground. Before long, even you were seeking shelter under the blanket he was holding over his head. After a few minutes of laughing breathlessly and bumping into each other on the path back to the truck, you had decided to hold the other end of the blanket since he wasn’t really holding it over your head effectively. His free arm consequently ended up slung over your shoulders while your free arm draped over his.

The tan truck came into view after your twenty-minute journey back. By this point, the blanket had soaked through and both of you were drenched. Making quick work of the passenger side door, he slid in first to cross the seat while you followed suit with a huff.

“Well…” Jungkook trailed off, placing his bag and the wet blanket between you before running his fingers through his long and very wet hair in order to push it away from his eyes. “Shit.” He looked at you with finality and a small grin gracing his face.

You gazed at his beauty, glancing at his lips as he spoke, before meeting his chocolate brown gaze. Want filled your body as the adrenaline from the past few minutes surged through your veins, rendering you mute. Heartbeat running absolutely erratic and breath suddenly short, you became acutely aware of how tight of a space the two of you were in and how quiet the cabin of the truck became.

Oh, how you wanted to kiss him.

The seconds seemed to pass like hours. The mood in the truck morphed from playful and light to something else. Something thicker. Headier. Heavier.

The pressure of the moments passing by bristled you with tremors as your previous levels of adrenaline spiked almost uncontrollably. You didn’t miss the way his bottom lip twitched in the slightest of movement.

His eyes glanced at your lips for a split second, giving you no time to adjust to the quick movement, before his hand was on the back of your neck to usher you to him in a messy kiss. Heat flooded your body as the taste of his breath caressed your tongue.

“Y/N.” He breathed after momentarily pulling away. His dark eyes were filled with passionate fire, pupils dilated almost scarily. “You-” His lips reattached to yours before he could finish speaking, illuminating just how shocked and pleased he was with your kiss.

His lips were as soft as silk as they glid against your own, slotting perfectly in shape. His warm breath tasted mildly of morning breath- not that you minded- but mostly blueberry as you came to discover that he had slipped a jolly rancher into his mouth sometime during your journey back to the truck. You giggled at the thought of how much he loved candy, earning a smile from him as he continued to press his lips to your own.

There was no way you’d be able to pull away just to speak. Speaking was so unnecessary. Words were irrelevant in that moment.

Why speak when you could kiss him? When you could feel the way his lips moved against yours in ways they could never move when speaking? When they conveyed more emotions than any word could ever express? Why would you even bother ever speaking anymore when you could spend the rest of your life kissing Jeon Jungkook?

You answered your own questions as his arm lopped around your waist to pull your body closer to his: you wouldn’t.

Of course, those were thoughts in the heat of the moment. Simpler times called for simpler feelings. The pure and innocent ardor of love and adoration paired with the excitement of new attraction was a welcome sensation in contrast to the empty and cold feeling of your everyday life. You were sick of feeling numb.

Too many years were spent in emotional solitary confinement. Keeping your emotions at bay began affecting your health, causing your hair to thin and your skin to wither like paper. It took looking at yourself in the mirror after mulling over a photo of you and Jungkook before you noticed the difference. You hadn’t even noticed that you lost a considerable amount of weight.

Therapy had helped for a little while, but it didn’t assist you when you began seeing his face on news articles and TV once your sessions ended.

Even after the things that he had done, you were no stranger to the feeling of longing that you had for him- for the echoes of what used to be.

In your cold, companionless room, tears ran down your cheeks in mourning.

Of course, it was too good to last.

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doctorthreephds · 4 years ago

Text

Synapses: Part 4

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

WC: 6.4k

TW: Death, sickness, blood, violence, typical Criminal Minds stuff, specifically from the episode “Amplification”

Summary: You find yourself falling deeper and deeper in love with Spencer as your relationship grows. But, the calm is just before the storm and your job puts you in more danger than you signed up for.

Masterlist

Taglist: @obsssedwithjustaboutanything @green-intervention @eevee0722

Spencer made it easy to fall in love. You had little knowledge of romantic relationships besides a couple of elementary and middle school “relationships” that were barely romantic, just a couple of kids attempting to find their way in the world. Your experience with relationships, in general, had been difficult. Your father was estranged growing up and your mother was loving but constantly busy with work and her duties as a diplomat. She made time for you, though, and in the end, you wish you had made more time for her.

Death is a fickle thing, it is the only thing that makes life worth living, and yet even as a forensic scientist, you wanted to figure out how to evade it. When your mother died, your relationship with death was complicated because you felt cheated. That she deserved so many more years of life and that you should have done more to help. You know that in your heart, you feel a deep passion for Spencer, that you want to get to know him and to cherish him as he should be cherished, but death still loomed overhead and it terrified you. So you hold Spencer at an arm’s length. While he had no problem hugging you and holding your hand occasionally, you made sure he remains cordial and platonic with you. Such a task was difficult, though.

Your feet ache as you walk over to the elevator, sniffling in an attempt to calm your runny nose. Spring had officially set in and so had your allergies; it seemed as if all the pollen in the world was coming for your sinuses. Pulling out a tissue to blow your nose, you barely register Spencer standing next to you.

“I’m going to see Ponyo in theaters tonight, it’s a limited run and they’re playing it in Japanese. You could come with me, I could even simultaneously translate it to you,” he states and you jump slightly in surprise, not having expected him to be there.

“Sounds like fun, but I desperately need Claritin and I wouldn’t want you to miss the screening,” your voice is nasal as you speak, the pressure in your head making it pound with every step you take once you exit the elevator.

“It’s no problem, we can both head home and I’ll just pick you up with my car,” he suggests, and you look over suspiciously.

“You hate driving.”

“But I’d drive for you,” you sigh as the two of you make it out of the building and start toward the metro. “I’d just really like to see it with you, I think you’d enjoy it.”

You huff as the breeze picks up slightly, hitting you with another face full of pollen. Looking over at Spencer, his eyes were bright and full of mischief. He holds onto the strap of his bag as the two of you walk down the stairs and you try your best to read his face. Only pure content and joy, oh how this man has ruined you.

“Fine. Only if you pay for dinner,” you mumble, blowing your nose into another tissue as the train approaches.

“Of course, it’s my turn anyway,” he states, a satisfied look on his face. The two of you often paid for each other when it came to food, remaining constantly indebted to each other. But this way, you always knew he would come back. Because he owed you.

Getting home was a relief, it truly serves as a place to escape and decompress. After being stuffy all day and having to work through several reports as you reviewed the evidence and possible threats, it had truly been a test of your patience. After taking Claritin and changing into something a little more suited to the weather, Spencer arrives right on time. The rest of the night goes off with a hitch and more often than not do you find yourself looking over at Spencer as his eyes take in every single little detail of the movie. True to his word, the two of you order cheap nachos and pizza from the movie theater and munch on it during the movie. He speaks translations to you in a low whisper, adding intonation and inflection to distinguish between the characters. Spencer never ceases to amaze you and while you love Ponyo, there’s just something so alluring about watching Spencer talk about things that interest him. At the end of the movie, he continues to process and talk about every little detail left to his whim.

“While Ponyo is essentially a movie about a child’s innocence and familial love, there is an underlying theme that comments on the pollution of our oceans, as seen in the character of Fujimoto who is afraid of humans and constantly criticizes them,” Spencer says as the two of you walk into the foyer.

“The ramen looked amazing, though. It makes me hungry for some real food,” you state as the smell of popcorn makes you crave even more food.

“Food in film, specifically films directed by Hayao Miyazaki, are a tool to show togetherness and family as well as human nature. The details of the food tell their own story in many of the other movies. We’ll have to check them out if they even come to the theater,” he continues and you smile, shaking your head.

“Or we can just watch them at my apartment. I’ll buy the whole box set and we’ll just have a whole binge,” you tell him as the two of you make it out onto the street, walking back to his car.

“That’s also good too,” he says as you bark out a laugh. “It’s a date.”

While such trivial words shouldn’t insight fear inside of you, it doesn’t stop you from spending the rest of the night thinking about it after Spencer drops you back home. It remains in your mind the next day when you go to work and find your way to the BAU during lunch, only to find that they were called away on a case. So, the rest of the week is spent thinking about the words “it’s a date.” Obviously, he meant a physical date, like the one on a calendar. But what if he wasn’t? He hadn’t been over to your apartment before and you had never gone to his. It was like a platonic line the two of you hadn’t crossed so that your relationship would stay strictly on the down-low. What did it mean that he wanted to come over to your apartment, then? On a so-called “date?” There wasn’t even an actual day you planned to have your movie marathon on, so technically it couldn’t even be considered a date. Just a plan.

That Friday, you were getting ready to go home and crash on the couch after ordering take out when Penelope texts you.

From Penelope (5:46 PM):

I’m gonna need some reinforcements up here, the team is just getting back.

To Penelope (5:46 PM):

Hard case?

From Penelope (5:47 PM):

Like you can’t even imagine.

Sighing, you get up out of your chair and head to the elevator, going a couple of floors up to the BAU. When you get out, Penelope stands there with a face of anticipation as she sees you walk out.

“Oh good, they’re almost here. Spencer’s not doing too hot,” she says and you frown, turning to face the elevator.

As if they were summoned, the second elevator opens up to reveal the team in several different states of fatigue and disappointment. Spencer stands in the back, hunched over slightly as he frowns and follows the rest of them out once the doors are fully open. You smile at your dad and pat him on the shoulder as he leans down.

“The gelato place downtown is still open,” he whispers and kisses your cheek before walking into the offices. You walk in front of Spencer and gently bump into him to break him from his stupor.

“Hey, what’s going on?” you ask and look up at him, seeing the furrow in his brow and the dark circles under his eyes that look even darker.

“Nothing, I have to work on my reports,” he mumbles and walks past into the offices.

“Why don’t we go get food and you can come back, just to help clear your mind,” you insist, following him as he collapses into his office chair, rubbing his temples to relieve a bit of the stress built up over the past couple days.

“I have too much to work on,” he brushes you off and turns to stare at all the papers stacked up on his desk.

“You can work on them this weekend,” you state and push the spinny chair so that he faces you. “I know something is wrong, we’ve known each other for several months and I can tell when something is bothering you. Now, I’m not going to ask, but I do know that you can complete reports faster than everyone here and that you can take them home. So, I declare today backwards day. Let’s go grab some ice cream.”

You smile your biggest smile in hopes of breaking him out of his spiral and the reference to Ponyo definitely helps. He smiles slightly, although it doesn’t reach his eyes, and shoves a couple of folders into his satchel before standing.

“Lead the way,” you smile at him and loop your arm around his in hopes of helping to keep him grounded. The two of you walk out of the BAU in silence, but you can feel a change in Spencer already. Hunting the worst types of people every single day as a job constantly gets to you, especially when it comes to this team who constantly look at the mind of unidentified subjects to catch them. With your father, he deals with it through good old compartmentalization and expensive alcohol. For Spencer, you would guess it’s not as easy. His mind was endlessly thinking and analyzing so any mistake made would be remembered and replayed. The best you can do is let him know that there’s a world around him other than everything going on in his head.

After getting on the metro, you engage in simple conversation, telling him about what you’ve had the luxury of working on and the most recent book you had been reading: The Awakening by Kate Chopin. When you see the stop for downtown, you pull him off the train and begin to walk toward your favorite family-owned gelato establishment.

“Where are we going?” he asks, looking around at the nightlife of D.C.

“It’s a surprise,” you wink and pull him toward a small shop full of freezers filled with gelato. His eyes light up at the sight of the gaudy decorations that are over the top depictions of Florence and Rome.

“Gelato?”

“It’s backwards day!” you remark and order a medium stracciatella.

“I’ll get a medium mint chip,” he asks and you reach out hand over your card before Spencer can get to the cashier.

When the both of you have your gelato in hand, you both slowly meander down the street as you devour into your delicious treat.

“Did you know that the word stracciatella comes from the Italian word ‘stracciare’ and is also the name of the famed soup that is popular in the Lazio region of central Italy? The same technique is applied to the ice cream but instead of chocolate and ice cream, it’s broth and an egg-based mixture. It’s a western variation of the Chinese egg drop soup,” he gets out before spooning some of the gelato into his mouth. You can only smile at him as you admire how beautiful he looks in the dim lighting, rambling on and effectively getting him away from the horrors of the world, even if for a moment. He continues to talk about soup and how often eastern traditions are westernized and taken over, but all you can do is stare at him and think about how head over heels you are for him.

Perhaps it is love. But your heart is stored in a box away from harm. Its defenses were weakening, though. Every word spoken by Spencer was like a small chisel working away at the precious marble box, artistic and masterful. You love him, yet in your mind, keeping it from him meant keeping him safe. Or, keeping yourself safe.

Quiet weeks are always appreciated at the FBI. Quiet weeks for you meant simple research and few reports, just enough to keep yourself busy. Quiet weeks for the BAU were just simple consultations and writing up all their fieldwork into manageable reports. But, before a tsunami, the ocean always rears its ugly face.

You knew something was wrong when your director called you before dawn. A shrill noise jerked you from your sleep and you pull your phone to your ear even before checking the caller.

“Agent Montgomery,” you reply groggily, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes as you check your digital clock.

“There’s a suspected attack, we’re sending an agent to pick you up. The FBI is under strict media blackout rules so do not inform anyone,” Director Chase states. “There’s Cipro for you on arrival.”

Your heart beats out of your chest at the mention of anthrax. You had just started college when the Amerithrax attacks happened, it had been one of the reasons you wanted to become a toxicologist. Never in your life did you ever expect to face an actual anthrax attack head-on.

Getting ready is a blur, you pull on suitable clothes and meet the other agent when they arrive. During the drive, you are given a very quick debrief. Last night, twenty-five people checked into emergency rooms with black lesions and lung failure after they had all been at the same park after 2 p.m. The strain of anthrax used was weaponized and reduced to a respiral ideal that attacks deep in the lungs, odorless and invisible. At the moment, there are eleven dead with the number quickly rising. All remaining patients were moved to a special wing in Walter Reed Hospital with Dr. Linda Kimura from the CDC and her team overseeing the treatment of all victims. You memorize this information and how you would apply your skills, finding any evidence and analyzing it. The thought of working with the BAU is both exciting and terrifying. Your father would be at risk, and so would Spencer. The only peace of mind is the fact that you would be working with them so any harm that comes to them would go through you first.

Once at the Bureau, you swallow the Cipro dry and take the elevator up to the BAU where several military scientists have gathered and move around the busy offices. Your director approaches you as you enter and glance around at all the chaos.

“Dr. Kimura’s already in the conference room with Agent Jareau and Agent Hotchner. You’ll be accompanying them to any possible active sites to try and gather a sample as well as oversee the response,” he states and you nod, climbing up the stairs and trying not to throw up the pills you just swallowed. Seeing JJ and Hotch helps to ground you a little but your heart still beats quickly.

“Dr. Kimura, it’s nice to meet you,” you smile weakly and shake her hand.

“You too, I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances,” she replies and you nod, turning to look at the file full of evidence. It was unlike anything you had ever seen, less than twenty-four hours and already fourteen people were dead.

The rest of the team shuffles in and you meet Spencer’s gaze, seeing the worry build up in his eyes like tiny storms. You were sure that your face shared the same fear. As they are debriefed, you find yourself looking through at the lesions and pictures shared, trying not to grimace at the sight. College had its fair share of gross photos, but those people were either dead or safe. Time was not your friend.

“Reid, go with Dr. Kimura and Dr. Montgomery to the hospital, interview the victims,” you tune in at your name and look up at Hotch as he delivers assignments. “There’s Cipro. Everybody needs to take it before we go.”

“We don’t know if it’s effective against this strain, but it’s something,” Dr. Kimura huffs out as she raises the tray for everyone to take.

“This is really happening?” Emily asks. That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Can such a weapon be real?

“We knew this could happen. We’ve done our homework. We’ve prepared for this. This is it,” Hotch speaks the words as if they are a mantra as if the FBI knows everything. And while he’s right, the FBI does not know everything about this strain of anthrax. The unknown kills people, you just hope you can get to it before it kills more civilians.

“Jin dan,” your father says. “May you live one hundred years.”

Your jaw clenches as you watch both your father and Spencer takes the pills. Your father is on the older side, you know that and he’s lived through a lot, but something like this would take him out in a matter of hours. And Spencer, he’s young and healthy, but this spore had killed fourteen people. What was another victim?

As you follow Dr. Kimura and Spencer out of the conference room, your mind is full of statistics and chemical concoctions that could help you. It moves quickly and swiftly, distracting you from the escalation of the current situation.

“Why didn’t you take the Cipro?” Spencer asks as you stand in the office.

“I took it when I arrived, I was here before you,” you respond monotonously, sighing as you turn and give him a reluctant smile. “Sorry, I’m just nervous. Never really been ‘in the field’ before.”

“You’ll be great,” he offers you a look of encouragement and squeezes your hand as you follow Dr. Kimura to the cars, waiting for Spencer as he grabs files from JJ.

The car ride is spent talking about treatments and other specific details. You focus on trying to break down the creation of the spores as well as possible antidotes to combat it. Because there are no know samples just yet, you work through from the other angle. How does one weaponize a regular bacteria? Well, increasing its ability to quickly become activated and multiply would do the trick. To fight against it, our white blood cells would need to work just as quickly to get rid of the foreign bacteria that attacks our immune system, therefore an antidote would be able to target this bacteria and destroy it at the same rate. Just as a vaccine would. Arriving at the hospital is a bit jarring, you walk with Dr. Kimura and Spencer up to the wing where you break off and look at blood and toxin reports to fully understand what parts of the body are being attacks as well as what kind of chemicals makes up this specific toxin.

“What’s causing her aphasia?” Spencer asks as they make their way back over to you. This piques your interest as you take notes on a separate piece of paper, jotting down everything you can think of to help understand.

“The poison is infecting the parietal lobe, impairing her speech. Some of the other patients displayed the same symptoms shortly before they died,” she states solemnly, and you sigh as you speak out.

“The only thing that can help them is if we find the antidote because unless we do a molecular analysis of the specific strain, we’re unable to understand how this works,” you grumble, the want to lash out angrily growing. “This can’t be his first attack, especially if he was a scientist. You run small trials before getting to human subjects.”

You continue to work with Spencer, sifting through ideas as Dr. Kimura makes calls and inquires about possible previous victims. It made sense in your little science brain, that one would not test on a bigger group before ensuring it was deadly with a smaller group--like vaccine or drug trials. As Dr. Kimura brings over a list of other patients, Spencer goes into another area to call the team as you cross-reference your notes with her.

“So far, all we know is that this is anthrax. Do you think I can use blood and tissue samples in your lab for analysis? Maybe I can refine the strain and get an antidote or perhaps see how quickly it multiplies,” you ask and she nods.

“Of course,” she calls over another nurse and asks for blood and tissue samples from an already deceased victim and asks for it to be delivered to your lab.

As Spencer steps out of the closet, you look over at him and try to memorize every part of him. The revolver that sticks out of his hip, the badge, the long unruly hair, his violet shirt, just everything that makes him Spencer. Your heart was racing with nerves and all you wanted to do was take him out of harm’s way.

“How are you feeling?” he inquires as you shake your head.

“I feel useless. I’m no medical doctor nor am I any closer to finding the antidote,” you mumble and look up at the ceiling to try and stave off the tears.

“You’re doing great. It’s a waiting game until we get more answers about the profile, you’re doing the best you can,” he reaches out and wraps an arm around you as you hug him, sighing as you deeply inhale his cologne.

“Yet my best can’t stop all these people from dying,” you look over at the young girl that Spencer was talking to, watching as every breath in her lungs feels like the last.

“You’re one person. And I know that when it gets down to it, you’ll be brilliant,” the two of you pull away slightly and you look up at him, your noses almost touching. You could kiss him right now if your lives weren’t being threatened, but the voice of Dr. Kimura breaks the two of you apart.

“How’s she doing?” Spencer asks as the three of you walk over to the window, Dr. Kimura pulling up her charts.

“She’s a fighter. She’s held on this long because she’s young and strong. But she’s started to bleed into her lungs,” Dr. Kimura states and you stare through the glass, wanting to will this young girl to live.

“One of four left,” you mumble and look over at Spencer.

“We’re running into another problem. When next of kin have questions, what do we tell them about cause of death?” you look back through the glass as you ponder another unanswerable question.

Once the samples are ready, you and Spencer go down to the hospital lab where you try to isolate the spore in each of the samples and look at them underneath the microscope as well as streak them on Petri dishes. Spencer helps with tools and supplies so you aren’t running around, but the most that the microscope tells you is that it is anthrax and the dishes won’t be ready for analysis any time soon because they need to incubate. Once done, you clean and sterilize everything before sitting down on one of the chairs and looking up at the fluorescent lights of the hospital.

“This is useless,” you mutter and shake your head.

“No, it’s not. They’re delivering the profile right now and then we’ll be able to find a suspect,” Spencer tells you as you look over at him, a small smile on your face.

“Are you always this optimistic, Dr. Statistics?” you ask as he chuckles.

“No, because I’m usually running and forming statistics, but you distract me enough from the looming threat of death,” your eyes widen as he speaks as you let out a short laugh before his phone begins to ring. The conversation is short, but you gather that you finally have a suspect worthy of bringing in.

“That was Morgan, we’re going to a suspect’s house. His name is Dr. Lawrence Nichols and he tried to lobby for money to fund his anthrax preparedness plan but failed because it wasn’t feasible,” he says as the two of you grab your things and make your way down to the bottom floor, Derek meeting you as the three of you take off toward his house. He fills you in on Dr. Nichols’ past, his adamancy about wanting all families to have protection against anthrax as well as his inevitable job termination. Your hands shake with nerves as you think about having to be around people, specifically people that could potentially pose a threat to your life. This wasn’t what you did, nor was it who you were. You were far out of your comfort zone, but at least you could be helpful instead of sitting around in a lab.

The three of you wait outside the small suburban house, waiting as the hazmat team goes through and ensures that there are no traces of anthrax that could threaten your life.

“This guy just had people over for a charity event last month,” Derek states and you look over at the house, it was painted a robin blue. You would never suspect a serial killer to live in such a normal house.

“We should probably take a look around anyway,” Spencer suggests as the three of you head toward the garage and behind the house.

You stayed quiet and observed from a scientific view, looking over at the rose bushes and reaching over to touch the delicate flower. Though even the most beautiful flowers have thorns and you wince as a sharp point pricks your finger. Following Spencer, you stick the finger in your mouth to get rid of the blood.

As you maneuver around the many plants, Derek’s phone rings and he puts Penelope on speaker as Spencer listens in. You, on the other hand, continue to look around for any evidence pointing toward him being the suspect. Perhaps a lab of some sorts. As you enter the smaller building behind the house, you instantly see the makings of a lab with the fumes hood and the surplus of beakers and Petri dishes. Stepping into the lab, your heart jumps in your chest when you see a shattered test tube on the floor with white powder.

Behind you, Spencer calls out your name and you rush over the door to close it, the chill of the air conditioning blasting behind you.

“Spencer, get back! Get back right now,” you fumble with the lock, shutting yourself into the lab with the vial.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” he asks and pushes against the door.

“No, please, Spencer. Get away from the door,” you beg, tears forming in your eyes.

“What’s wrong? Open the door,” he persists as he stares at you through the glass. Was it enough? Was he infected? You couldn’t know for sure.

“I’m so sorry, Spencer,” you mutter, a tear dripping down your cheek as you step back from the door.

“Kid, what’s going on?” you hear Derek call out from behind Spencer as he backs up from the door.

“Call Hotch. Call an ambulance. Call everyone,” he tells Derek as the fear fills your veins. Your hands are so cold, why are they so cold? Spencer’s sweet voice isn’t enough to talk you down from the anxiety building up. This was the tsunami and you were caught in the tidal wave.

Spencer stands away from the door as you wrap your arms around yourself, staring silently out at him. Your phone rings as he calls you and you put it on speaker.

“Tell me what’s going on, everyone’s on their way. You need to describe everything to me,” you can see Spencer’s mind going a million miles an hour and you could see the blame he put on himself. This wasn’t him, this was all you. At least you were right about anthrax getting through you before it did him.

“There’s a body here, I think it’s Nichols, and he’s dead. There’s also a tube that’s shattered. It’s full of white powder, I’m pretty sure it’s anthrax--Spencer,” you pause, staring straight at him. “I don’t want to die, please I’m so scared.”

You hear all the sirens as they approach and you shake your head, more tears falling down your cheeks.

“Sh, you’re okay. You’re gonna be okay,” he says and you can see that all he wants to do is wrap his arms around you. “This is where you can help, remember? It’s your turn to be the hero.”

You look up to him, the tears blurring his figure as you wipe them from your cheeks, nodding.

“You’re right,” you mumble and take a deep breath before beginning to go through the lab. “You’re right.”

First, the body.

Reaching down, you feel the skin of Dr. Nichols and see the blue-ish tint to his skin as well as the way his blood has pooled. He appears to be dead at least for a day or two, Livor mortis has already set in.

“Spence, he’s been dead for maybe one to two days. Blunt force trauma to his head,” you say just as Hotch and another man join Spencer and Derek.

“Doctor, we need to get you to the hospital,” Hotch speaks and you shake your head.

“No, I can help. I’m the only one who can work the case here. I’m already exposed, there’s nothing they can do but give me morphine. I can do this,” you state and turn to the lab, looking around for any important information.

“Just get out of there, you need to go to the hospital,” Spencer insists as you continue to search his desk.

“She’s already infected. Now if Nichols created the strain, he may have also created the cure,” the general says and you grab the papers off his desk, reading through his notes.

“If I’m in here, I can find the cure, or I can make it. If I figure out how he made this strain then I can make the antidote with his notes,” you reply, hearing Spencer sigh with exasperation. “I can also try to see who killed Dr. Nichols, the answer is in here somewhere.”

“Say something to her, order her. She can’t stay in there,” Spencer’s voice cracks and you shake your head, now was not the time to get distracted.

“She’s right, her best chance is to be inside,” Hotch replies and you set your phone down as you read through his writing. “We’re gonna get a suit and mask in to you right away.”

“Don’t bother, I’m already infected,” you mumble and break apart all his lab reports.

“Your dad is going to kill me,” Hotch tells you and you sigh, shaking your head.

“He does his job, I do mine.”

Your mind reels at the information, but you force yourself to focus and read through the reports and how Dr. Nichols managed to make such a potent spore. In your mind, your best bet is a combination antibiotic and antibody treatment to combat the toxins and ensure that any remaining bacteria is killed off.

“I think there was a struggle, there’s glass spread out and clutter all over,” you tell them, looking around and finding another desk in the corner. “There’s also another desk in the corner that’s smaller and organized. It appears there are two sets of handwriting as well as instructions on how to sterilize and transfer spores.”

“Nichols would know all that,” the general states.

“He has a partner, maybe even a protege,” Spencer suggests as Hotch and the general run off to go follow that lead. Your phone begins to vibrate and you see that your father is calling you. Picking up, you put the phone to your ear.

“Papa, I’m so sorry,” you mumble, feeling the tears well up once more. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sh, piccolo. This is not your fault. How are you doing?” he asks and you inhale deeply, beginning to feel sharp pains in your chest.

“I’m fine. I’m working,” you let out a sad laugh and shake your head. “I’m scared.”

“You’re going to be okay,” he tells you and he says it with such conviction that you almost believe him.

“If I’m not--”

“Don’t talk like that,” he cuts you off and you shake your head, wiping the tears from your cheeks.

“If I’m not okay, I just want to tell you that you were the best dad in the whole world and that I love you so much. I’ll tell mom ‘hi’ for you,” you hold in a sob as he begins to protest. “I love you.”

You hang up the phone and sob into your hand, breathing in as deeply as possible to try and stay afloat. Quickly, you call up Penelope as something crosses your mind.

“Hey, you,” Penelope mumbles solemnly.

“No funny quip?” you bite your lip nervously as she sighs.

“I can’t be my sparkly self when you are where you are,” she says.

“Hey, Penny. Do you think you can record something for me?” you ask, glancing out the window to where Spencer is staring in.

“Anything,” you hear her type. “Alright, you’re good.”

“Hey, Spence,” you bite back another sob as it shakes through your chest. “This isn’t how I intended for you to hear this, but here it goes. I love you. So much. And I’m such a coward for not saying it to your face, but, if I’m gone then I want you to know that your brain and your smarts are so incredible, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I love you so much.”

A woman in an orange suit steps into the room and you quickly hang up your phone, smiling at Dr. Kimura.

“Dr. Montgomery,” she says as does her best to walk in the suit.

“You look nice,” you say and let out a shaky laugh. “How is everyone else doing?”

“Let’s worry about you,” she states and you nod as Spencer calls you back. You answer and put him on speaker.

“Hey, it’s me and Garcia,” he tells you as a tickle in your throat bubbles up and makes you cough. “I think the cure is in there somewhere. Dr. Nichols was a former military scientist so he’s secretive and paranoid. Prentiss and Rossi don’t think the partner was a coworker.”

“Can you look for the cure while I help them?” you ask Dr. Kimura and she nods as you look around the room. “I’ve been through everything, Spence.”

“I know you’re not thinking straight,” his voice cracks. “But, we need you.”

You clear your throat and nod.

“You’re right,” you rush over to his desk and look through his items. “There’s a picture of him teaching and a syllabus.”

You think back to the instructions and think for a moment.

“Hold on,” you run over to the other desk and look at the content. “It’s a student, it has to be if he went through the trouble of writing lab procedures.”

Picking up the thick stack of paper, you instantly recognize it as some sort of thesis. Years of curating your own, you would never forget it.

“A thesis, his partner was a doctoral student,” sweat drips down your hairline as you sift through the papers.

“He wouldn’t have let just anyone in there so perhaps he opened his lab to a student,” Spencer formulates as you read through the paper. “Check the sciences.”

“Uh, cross-checking with names of former employees or customers with grievances at the bookstore.” Penelope types away at her keyboard as you read through the paper, it mentions things like preparedness and less about the spores itself as well as scientific findings. “Nothing, my doves.”

“This doesn’t sound like a science student, this is all about city preparedness, and response,” you cough and try not to stress about the taste of blood in your mouth.

“Check the social studies,” Spencer states. “Public policy, urban planning.”

“Hot to trot. There’s a Chad Brown, School of Public Policy at U. of M. matches a Chad Brown, former employee at the book front. I’ll tell Hotch,” Penelope hangs up as you stifle another cough, the pain in your chest worsening.

“You did it, now get out of there,” Spencer says and you turn to Dr. Kimura as you let out another cough. Blood splatters on your hand and you wipe it on your pants.

“You said the cure would be hidden somewhere we wouldn’t suspect. What about Nichols’ inhaler?” she walks up with the inhaler as you put Spencer on speaker.

“Sounds perfect. I’ll see you out here,” he says and you hang up as the two of you walk out of the lab and into the tent where people are ready to spray you down. You let the tears flow freely now that you’re out and the water rolls over you in an attempt to get rid of all the powder that might have stuck. Spencer is outside the tent speaking to Hotch and your father as you get naked and hosed down. Once they’re finished, you’re toweled down and put into a gown as you get on the gurney and are wheeled off to the ambulance.

“Hey, you,” you mutter weakly to Spencer as he walks alongside you. Another cough bursts out of your chest.

“I’m seeing you off to the hospital, the team doesn’t need me,” he states and you nod, taking his hand as they get you into the ambulance. There is a sharp pain in your lungs every time that you move and you cough up blood more and more. The lights in the ambulance are too bright and you feel so hot as Dr. Kimura places her stethoscope on your chest.

“How are you feeling, Dr. Montgomery?” she asks as you fail to hold back another cough.

“I’m obey,” your eyes widen as the words in your head fail to come out of your mouth. “Obey. I fleel fin.”

Your eyes water as you look over at her and then at Spencer who watches you in terror.

“Okay, that’s okay,” she mutters to you before calling out to the driver. “Driver, faster.”

The sound of your heart beating echoes in your head is nausea and dizziness loom over you, making you close your eyes. All the sounds, including Spencer who seems to be calling out to you, dissipate as you drift off into the darkness. At least he would know.

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #emily prentiss #jj #Jennifer Jareau #david rossi #aaron hotchner #Penelope Garcia #derek morgan #Criminal Minds #Criminal Minds Fanfiction

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sunsetinmyvein · 4 years ago

Text

You Pick a Fight - P2

Eyyyyy it’s prompt time. I have since forgotten what prompt’s @imagine-that-100 gave me from the prompt list for this part two, but hopefully you enjoy it anyway. :P

And I was right, because it wasn’t over. The pool incident was just the start of much more bickering and fighting over nothing that was set to come during the months between Matty and I. We hadn’t known each other all that well prior to that day, but it definitely set the bar for future interactions. Being argumentative and stubborn was just a habit neither of us could break, much to all of our mutual friend’s annoyance. It might’ve been on the verge of immature, since we were both pushing thirty, but neither of us cared. And we never really meant it. Grudges about stolen floaties were not held for long. It was a rare occasion that we genuinely made up and said sorry, but typically by the end of the day we had either forgotten about it or played some prank on the other to feel avenged about our wrong doing. Over the course of many months of arguing and pranking, Matty and I inevitably became closer. Realistically, Matty was probably one of my best friends by this point in my life. We saw each other at least a couple of times a week for various reasons and I enjoyed his company (mostly). But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to constantly one-up him and make sure I destroy him any time he challenges me to anything. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You gotta know your opponent’s weaknesses to best exploit them.

However, tonight was our regularly scheduled movie night. So, more than likely no arguing would be occurring tonight. The movie had already been picked by democratic vote by the group, which meant there would be no debates about that. Everyone was bringing their own snacks, nothing to fight over. And we rotated who hosted, so no arguments there either. This week it was Matty’s turn. Last week when it had been at my flat, we had picked a comedy movie to watch and ended up receiving a noise complaint from my neighbour about us being “too rambunctious”. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have the same issue to deal with this week given Matty’s much thicker walls. I was cutting up a tray of brownies that I was graciously bringing to share - one of which may or may not have been spiked with cayenne pepper just to spite Matty for last week when he mixed my bag of skittles with m+m’s - while I replayed the events of last week. The details of the movie were actually a bit of a blur, because after the few drinks that I had downed after a rough day at work, I recalled falling asleep. When I woke up, I found myself snoring on Matty’s shoulder. God, that was utterly embarrassing. Other than my snoring, to wake up cosying up to Matty? I’d rather be caught dead. But I must have been too distracted by these memories, because as I was cutting, I slipped and managed to slice open my thumb with my new knife.

I felt the cut the instant it happened, bracing myself for what I might see before I looked down. Sure as shit, all I saw was a lot of red. The first thought to run through my head was that my brownie plan was ruined. I couldn’t serve brownies that had been doused in blood. The second was that I absolutely needed to seal this wound as soon as possible. I raced to the bathroom, grabbing a roll of gauze and wrapping it around my thumb as tightly as I could. Do I call an ambulance? No, this wasn’t an ambulance sort of emergency. Emergency, though. I should go to the emergency room. Now. But I had to let the guys know I wasn’t coming. I could see the gauze starting to turn red as I searched my phone for Matty’s contact. Fuck, I felt so bad for bailing on this movie night given it was our regular thing, but this was really not good. Really, really not good. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

“Hey-”

“Look, I need to go to emergency.” I interrupted in a garbled rush.

“What?” He shouted down the line.

“I need to go to hospital, so I’m not gonna make it tonight.” I explained, slightly slower.

“What did you do?” He asked in an incredulous tone.

“I sliced my thumb open cutting brownies.” I just heard him laughing. “It’s not funny, Matty. I need stitches.” I frowned as I started to grab my essentials. What if they wanted to keep me in overnight? Oh my god, I was absolutely not prepared for something like this. I should have a go bag. Is that a thing normal people did? Have a go bag in case they accidentally injure themselves? Maybe smart people did.

“Do you need me to drive you?” He offered as I was contemplating what exactly I would put in a go bag.

“What? Uh, no. I’m okay. I think.” I rattled off.

“I’ll meet you there.” I heard him say. He what? Why would he want to come to the hospital?

“Wait. No, you don’t-” But he’d already hung up.

Before I left the house, I slapped another few layers of bandage over the gauze on my thumb to try and put some pressure on this cut that was apparently bleeding like a tap by the rate it was turning things red. Driving to the hospital with a thumb as fat as mine was with all the bandages wrapped around it was not easy to say the least, but I managed to get there in one piece. Once I had gotten there, paid for my parking, and then managed to check myself into the ER, I was able to take a seat and decompress slightly. But, the peace and quiet didn’t last long, because not even five minutes after I sat down a familiar face entered through the sliding glass doors.

“Good job.” Matty said as he approached, with a slow clap for emphasis.

“Don’t patronise me.” I scoffed.

“Show me.” He said as he took a seat in the uncomfortable plastic chair next to my own.

“It’s okay-”

“Just show me what you did.” He dismissed.

“I mean, I can’t really take this stuff off-” I gestured to my half blood-soaked bandages, “-or it’ll bleed worse.”

He let out a low whistle as he raked a hand through his curls. “Bloody hell.” He muttered under his breath, before glancing up at me. “Pardon the pun.” He added with a smirk.

“Shut up. It’s really not as bad as it looks.” I lied. I was trying to play it down, to pretend like I hadn’t briefly seen how deep that knife went, but I knew that this was definitely very vital that I see a doctor very fucking soon.

He met my gaze, clearly seeing the stress I was trying to hide. “You’re not very convincing.” He chuckled.

Despite my protests about him wanting to wait with me, Matty continued to ramble on about what he had done earlier in the day while we sat in the crowded waiting room. He also told me not to worry about cancelling on the movie night, and thanked me for trying to make brownies. If only he had known what his brownie was going to taste like. But at least he was distracting me from the weird sensation in my thumb. After about half an hour, I was called through to be seen by the nurse - which realistically just meant that I sat and waited in another room for a further ten minutes until I was finally seen by someone. When she walked in, she introduced herself and asked for a run down of the situation as she started gathering some supplies. After I had explained what I had done, she started moving towards my giant wad of bloody fabric.

“I’m gonna look away.” I warned the nurse, she just nodded in response. I felt her unravelling the bandages on my thumb, trying really hard to busy myself by studying the vision tester chart on the wall. She let out a quiet hum as she analysed the situation.

“All right. I am going to put some glue on this now to hold it, but we are going to need to anaesthetise you to properly sort this out. Is that okay?” She asked in a calm tone. They were going to knock me out? It was bad enough to need to be knocked out for?? Holy shit.

“Um, yep.” I nodded. “I suppose it’ll have to be.” I added with a nervous laugh. “When will that be?”

“As soon as they can get you in. Likely in the next few hours.” She answered.

When I came back out of the nurse’s station, I sat back down and told Matty what they had said.

“They need to sedate you?” He asked in shock.

“I’ve apparently done quite a number on myself.” I could feel the stress building up as the realisation set in. Oh my god. I had cut off my thumb. I had cut off my thumb and now they needed to reattach it. Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

“Hey, calm down.” He reassured, placing his hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

“But what if it’s too late? What if I cut too far? What if-”

Thankfully, Matty interrupted my downward spiral of anxiety. “They would’ve told you if that were the case. They’re going to operate, so it must be fine.” He moved to take my good hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing mind as I nodded in agreement. At least one of us was the voice of reason right now. “When are you going in?” He questioned, seeming genuinely sympathetic.

“They said as soon as possible. I just have to wait here until a theatre frees up.” I replied. He just nodded thoughtfully. “You should go back to the movie night.” I said, eventually feeling guilty that he’d already been sat waiting here for an hour.

“No.” He shook his head as he rifled through his pocket. “You want some gum?” He asked, holding a packet out in my direction.

I looked down at them apprehensively. “They’re not some ridiculous flavour, are they?”

He laughed loudly. “No, I threw the wasabi ones out.”

It was another hour before I was finally called through to get ready for theatre. Now I was genuinely feeling pretty awful that Matty had been here this whole time. We had well and truly pushed past dinner time, he’d missed the movie, our friends were all sat at his place without him. He can’t have been having a good time stuck here with me.

“Okay, I gotta go in.” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll be here when you wake up.” He smiled up at me from his seat.

“Just go home, I’ll be fine.” I said as I gestured to the door.

“No.” He grinned.

“Go.”

“No.” His dark brown eyes bore into mine, clearly challenging me to push him further on the subject.

“I hate you, so much.” I grumbled as I heard the nurse call my name again.

“I love you, too.” He said, blowing a kiss for emphasis as I walked off.

The doctors all reassured me that the operation was going to be quick and easy. Knock me out, stitch me up, wake me up fifteen minutes later. Easy peasy. I had never had any issues with operations, being knocked out was easy. It was the stuff you had to be awake for that was hard. True to their word, when I saw the clock when I started coming to, it had been no more than half an hour than when I last checked the time. But my god I felt groggy. My brain felt like it had been replaced with a bunch of cotton balls and my eyelids might as well have been made of lead. I glanced down at my thumb, seeing a much smaller pile of bandages on there, that were now thankfully not soaked in blood. That was nice. I then caught sight of the man sat next to my bed.

“Hey, you’re up.” Matty said quietly as he stepped over. As soon as he leaned over the bed frame, the fluorescent lights above him just illuminated his dark, curly hair. Holy shit. It looked borderline angelic. “How’re you feeling?”

“Your hair…” I mumbled as I reached out my good hand to touch it.

He seemed surprised by my actions at first, before letting my run a hand through it. “What about it?” He asked with a quiet laugh.

“It’s really soft.” I answered, genuinely quite surprised by how nice it felt. “Has it always been that soft?” I felt like I had been missing out. I could’ve been touching this hair for nearly a year now and instead I had been swapping his shampoo for ranch dressing and perfume.

Matty seemed keen to indulge my anaesthesia haze, letting me bother him with all of my weird questions about his hair. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy. I did a lot of mean shit to him and here he was, sat with me in emergency all evening instead of hanging out with his friends. After the pranks I’d pulled, I likely didn’t deserve a friend like him. But he’d pulled them on me too. We were a pretty good pair, I suppose. And I had no idea if it was this lighting or what, but dare I say, Matty was looking pretty attractive today. Had I really just been so focused on butting heads with him that I never noticed these things before?

“Are you sure you really look this good? I feel like I must still be dreaming.” I said, pretending to shield my eyes.

He frowned, before the realisation dawned on him and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Are you flirting with me?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Don’t use cheesy pickup lines on me.” He chuckled.

“How else am I meant to pick you up?” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

“Are you trying to?” He asked as a smile slowly made its way onto his face.

“Maaaaybe.” I said in an attempt to be non-committal, but then my curiosity got the better of me. “Is it working?”

“I’m gonna remind you of this when you’re properly out of the anaesthetic.” He just looked amused. Not the reaction I had hoped for. But I was too tired to keep trying to come up with clever lines.

“Okay.” I muttered, nodding softly. “Gon’ sleep now, though.” I added.

“Rest up.” He agreed. “You’re gonna need all the energy you can get to deal with me giving you shit for this tomorrow.”

Part one

Part three

#Matthew Healy x Reader #Matty Healy x Reader #Sunsetinymvein #Sunsetinmyvein prompts #Sunsetinymvein requests

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shibarirobot · 4 years ago

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Aizawa Fic - CH2 - Entrapment

+18 Only SFW (for now)

Shouta Aizawa x Villain!OC/Reader (?)

CH1

Above is the link to the first chapter that I wrote for this fic. Please read that one first if you havent, but I’ll give a quick summary anyways.

The main character is a villain holding up a bar that seems to have shady activites being facilitated out of it. Their crew is indisposed at the moment. Eraser Head has just shown up. - That’s basically all. Also their quirk has to do with electro magnetic frequencies.

(italics are other characters thoughts)

Enjoy!~

I suck in a breath behind parted lips. I wasn’t expecting this. I know I should be sweating. Someone who won't easily fall prey to my cerebral attacks, but instead I can't help the trace of a smile on my face. A real smile. I might actually get hurt here. Neither of us speak for an extended moment as we assess each other. I’m watching the black hair floating around his head and framing his furrowed brow, when I notice something about myself, the ringing has stopped. The pulse behind my eyes, the one that never stops, has vanished completely. There is a void in my head where the tangle of noise and thoughts had once lived. I’m taken aback and that's all he needs to launch at me. Jumping at me and shooting his capture weapon out to grip my limbs at the same time.

I don’t get the foreboding sense that I usually have, nothing to predict his movements. He’s in my face quicker than I could have imagined, but I’m still quick enough to throw myself backwards immediately. My back hits the wall and it seems as if I’m cornered. A helpless animal caught in a trap. The hardened scarf around his neck didn’t have the chance to grip onto me, yet the material still nicked into the skin at my wrists, drawing warm blood to the surface. I hiss, but am otherwise unfazed. Blood is blood. Nothing I haven’t seen before. My weapon however, skitters to the ground, out of my reach. I look into his eyes, so close and draw my knee up quickly, connecting it with his chin and kicking him away in two quick movements. I don't have much upper body strength, but I have a practiced kick style that works for me when I do have to fight, hence the weighted boots, helps with impact. For the most part I don’t have to use it. My quirk takes care of most of my hero encounters. But this is no encounter, this is a battle with Erasure Head.

Eraser Head stumbles back slightly, but quickly regains his footing, shifting and lunging at me once more. I push myself off the wall at an angle, hoping to dodge past him to the left, but he’s too fast. His scarf snakes out to the side and wraps up, around my calf. I slam to the ground and grunt, the wind knocked from my lungs. Fuck, I think I heard a crack. I wheeze and roll to my side, pushing myself back onto my feet with one hand. He’s ready for that though. The scarf wrapping around my neck and holding me in the air. I'm completely at his mercy and I can feel my rib throb, I definitely broke one of them. My smirk is back, teasing myself at this precarious situation. My fingers come up and slide across the hard material protruding from my throat, languidly stroking back and forth. “You like choking me?” His glowing eyes widen for half a second, but his face remains hard, barely letting me know he’s affected. “You do, don’t you?” He breathes slowly, air pushed out of this decompressing lungs. “Yeah. You do.” I say it matter of factly. It’s a statement. He likes choking me. “Choke me harder.” As soon as the last syllable rolls off my tongue the scarf squeezes tight, actually blocking my blood flow, but not crushing my windpipe, it’s so hot. I moan. I don’t mean to really, it's just so right. I close my eyes and let the light, airy feeling of oxygen deprivation wash over me, the smirk still plastered on my face, resigning myself to being captured.

That’s when it happens, all the pain that had fallen from my head comes crashing back to me, the roar of noise that had grown normal immediately etching away the placid contentment that had taken me just moments before. I scream back to life and force myself into his mind, my feet falling back to the ground as my eyes slowly open again, tears leaking down the side. It had been so quiet. He’s leaning against the wall, eyes screwed shut. I wanna fry his brain, screw him up so bad that he’ll never form coherent sentences again, but then I look at him for real. His hair is playing across his painstricken face and I just wanna reach out and rub my hand across the scruff on his jaw. I want to feel him. He’s the only reason the pain has ever stopped. An urge like the one with the necklace, one I can’t ignore because it comes to me so quickly, raptures my body and I slide my hand up his neck and onto the side of his face. His eyes are still closed as he focuses on staying upright against the wall. My thumb trails over his bottom lip and even I’m stunned at how bold this feels. I lean up close to him, my chest inches from his, and whisper near his neck. “For the record, I liked it too.” I push off the wall and run out into the alley, sprinting towards the street, desperate to get into a crowd and disappear.

A tingle runs down my spine. He’s chasing me. My cheeks tighten as I smile wider. I must be important if he’s abandoning the room full of citizens and a slumped hero to chase after one villain. I've barely even made a name for myself. My reputation must be growing quickly if they’re this persistent. I flick my wrist out, using a street lamp to swing myself around, facing the direction I had just been running from. If I keep running, he’ll capture me. I know I’m fast, but Eraser Head is so much faster. I see a flash of white and spring sideways, his capture weapon tunnels into the asphalt where I had just been standing. My eyes widen, that would have gone straight through me if I hadn’t moved. I whip my head in his direction, or in the general direction of where I assume he would be considering the angle at which the scarf shot at me. “Hey!! That could have killed m-“ I am unprepared to see him right in front of my face, dropping from the roof overlooking the alley, he had been above me the whole time. My words are cut off as a hard fist makes contact with the side of my jaw and I’m thrown into the brick wall next to me with so much force my eyes cross a little. Damn, I must have really pissed this fucker off. A quiet, involuntary groan pushes itself from my lungs, bringing me back to my surroundings and I can feel that damn capture weapon coiling around my body and squeezing me tightly. I’m bound and unable to move, but it’s not painful, like being caught in a hug by someone a little too excited to see you. I wiggle a little, knowing it’s in vain, then let my head fall to the side, resigned.

He still has me facing the wall, but I can feel his presence behind me. The noise has gone again and I know that means his eyes are glued to me, I feel suddenly vulnerable. I feel his body warmth behind me, the only indication that he’s close to me, he doesn’t even have a smell. My head lulls to the other side and I giggle deep in the back of my throat when I feel long, adept fingers tangle into the hair at the back of my neck. He spins me in his arm and now I’m staring into his glowing eyes. He’s so close, so close and all I want to do is roll my body against his. I’m not sure why, but I’m so drawn to him, so enamored by the cruelty he shows toward me. My hips buck on their own, trying to get closer to him. My body is still wrapped up tight, so I barely move, just enough for him to see my motive and the grating hunger behind my eyes. He still hasn’t said a word and it feels like my lungs are on fire, not wanting to breathe and break the moment, our eyes are locked together and I swear I see something in them. Something changes, like he stopped looking through me and finally sees me for the first time. That… something vanishes as quickly as it came and he’s looking at me like a villain again, a low down scumbag.

His flat hand comes speeding at me from thin air and there’s a loud, hollow ‘smack’ that hangs in the air as my cheek blooms with pain. Ow. He just hit my face. I wasn’t prepared for that and I release a mewl that sounds utterly ridiculous, so needy and weak. This is not me, I don’t beg anymore, I take. I can’t start begging for this man in a back alleyway, even if I can feel my body warming from my core. He slaps me again, softer time, just to get my attention. “Who do you work for?” His voice is low and threatening. A chill runs down my spine and settles below my stomach, landing in a strange place that prompts me to wet my lips and stare into his eyes even more intensely.

‘Who do you work for?’ He asks. He doesn’t know. That’s good at least, the pros don’t know. They know nothing about me or my motivation. They must not even know why I’m here. I pocket that information and smirk again. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Eraser?” It’s a question, but rhetorical. He just grunts and hits me again, still not very hard, but forcing me to blink a few times as my eyes refocus. “Hit me again.” He does, hard. I hadn’t expected him to listen to me. A real moan drops from my lips, one you would probably hear in an adult film, it's loud and sensual, ripping from my vocal box. “Fuuuuck. Maybe we should fight more often.” My tongue slips out to lick my lip and I watch his eyes follow the trail of saliva that it leaves on my flesh. His eyes darting to my lips, then back to my eyes, and down again. His hand raises, like he’s going to hit me again, but he stalls. I suck in a breath, tensing in anticipation for the slap, it doesn’t come. It does, however, wait until I have unclenched my jaw, hurling at the swelling flesh faster than the first one did. That one really does something to me because my neck can no longer hold my head up, I feel like a bobble head as the only thing keeping my eye connected to his is the hand fisted into the nape of my neck, gripping the hair there so tightly I’m surprised it hasn’t been ripped out of my head. He asks me again.

My eyes refocus, taking longer than it did last time to make his facial features clear. I’m about to tell him to fuck off when I see something just past his right shoulder. About damn time. My eyes flicker back to his face with a knowing smirk back on mine and he looks behind him in time to see a bald man with bat wings drop down into the alley with us. He has tattoos scrawled over every inch of exposed skin and a simple wife beater on. “I didn’t get your signal, looks like I was right to drop in.” He says it casually, like he’s just a friend stopping by my apartment for lunch, giving no indication that we're actually in the middle of a back alley brawl. The ringing in my skull is still vacant as Eraser Head evades this winged man’s attacks. He must still be looking at me somehow, but it seems impossible while he’s bouncing around the tight space between two brick walls. I’m behind him. “Stay still!” My getaway yells at Eraser Head, as if telling him to do so would actually make it happen. That's when I see the mirror, one for trucks to see around corners, that's how he’s still looking at me. I can barely move, but I can still reach my pocket and pull a tiny silver marble out. I keep it there to play with when I can feel my anxiety rising. I roll it between my fingers for a moment, loving the way it glints off the sun and reflects the colors around it, then flick it straight towards the mirror. The battle in front of me doesn’t stop as they try to hit each other, both stellar at evasive maneuvers, but it comes to a spectacular halt as the glass shatters and I’m released from Eraser Head’s hold. My splitting headache tears through me again, but it doesn’t throw me off like it did before. I’m ready for it this time.

Eraser drops to one knee, trying to push himself back up with the one arm on the ground below him. I lessen the frequency that I’m forcing into his brain and his shoulders relax a bit, not enough to let him stand, but enough that I know he’s paying attention to me now. I reach one hand out and push his long hair to the side, it's softer than I expected and there are small, loose curls here and there, mixed in with the overall weft of waves that tumble from his head. It’s beautiful. I lean down, pressing my body against his, my chest flush to his back and his shoulders tense up again, as if I’m hurting him. I run my fingers through the soft hair at the base of his neck again and press my lips to the side of his throat. “I can’t wait to see you again.” I breathe in one more time and drag my nails down the back of his neck, raising goosebumps, but now I actually do smell something. A slight scent of bergamot and… something else, faintly clinging to his neck. I thought he had no scent, but I was wrong and my nostrils flare. This man is hellbent on making me feral isn’t he? I let out a gravelly grunt from the back of my throat and instinctively sink my teeth into the skin playing at my lips, not hard enough to bleed, but leave a mark that will have people questioning what he does in his free time.

When I pull away, the eyes of the bat man are focused on me, a pink twinge in his cheeks as if he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to.

Lucky bastard. That bite was so hot. My dick is getting hard.

I scowl at him and walk towards his side of the alley, hooking my elbow around his neck and the other around his torso, fastening myself to his side. “Fly.” One word is all I say, black wings stretching to the side and propelling us up.

Fuck. We’re touching. Fuck. My dick. Fuck.

Reproachful.

He falters and I look down at the ground below us. Eraser Head is still gripping himself in pain, but one eye is open and glowing, stalling my getaway. We start to drop, losing momentum. I stare down at Eraser Head and scream into him so loud he falls over immediately, barely catching himself on the wall and vomiting profusely. Our elevation is lifted again as we proceed with the getaway. “Faster!” I scream over the pressurized wind in my ears. We fly past at least a dozen buildings before landing on a tall rooftop. I drop to my feet and push off from the bat as soon as I can. What a vile creature. I look out over the city, feeling the flash drive still in my jacket pocket with my fingers. I know his eyes are on me, that stupid fucking bat. I can hear him, feel him. You would think people would be more careful with their thoughts.

Wow. That ass. I saved that ass. That ass owes me. Just a feel.

I reach out and grab his wrist just before his clammy hand touches my soft flesh. Never looking away from the sun starting to ride low on the horizon. “You have terrible manners.” I say slow and matter of fact. I can feel the panic in him, I can practically see the bulging of his eyes. “If you want to keep that hand, I suggest you leave right now.” I let go of his wrist, still looking out peacefully. Neither of us move for a moment and I start to think he will leave, but alas.

Rude bitch. You owe me!

He reaches out, foregoing my ass and grabbing my hip, trying to yank me back towards him, but instead I spin, grabbing his shoulder and tossing him off the side of the building. We both know he has wings, he can fly, he’s unharmed and a cocky grin pulls his lips apart showing off his teeth. He would be handsome if he wasn’t an absolute prick. He starts to launch for me again when a cocky grin of my own appears on my face. His drops and suddenly so does he as I rip his brain in two, I don’t even try to make it easy on him. I crank up the frequency so high I'm sure I’ve passed dog whistle territory. We’re so high up all I can do is watch him plummet, falling so quickly to the concrete below us you would think he’s a magnet. Then I think to myself, and make it happen. I magnetize him and the ground below the surface, he falls faster, hitting the ground like a meteor, creating a crater in the street so deep the ground shakes and pipes burst. People on the street start to look up and I take that as my cue to disappear.

Thank you for reading! Hopefully you liked it? Enough to leave a note? Reblog? Comment?

lol anyways...

I will be updating this shortly, within the next couple of days. Thanks again!

CH3

#mr aizawa #aizawa x reader #bnha shouta aizawa #aizawa shouta #my hero academia #my hero fanfic #my hero x reader #bnha x reader #bnha oc #this is starting to get into my kinks #dw it will get so much worse #semi insprired by bound by aizawa on ao3 #read that shit

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kpoptrashibnida · 4 years ago

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Enough Pt.18 (Final)

A/N: Everyone! Thank you so much for all the support! It means soo much to me! And I am so sorry for the delay, it took me much longer than anticipated to write and edit it. Thank you for being patient with me and I hope it’s worth all the wait. As always, feedback is always appreciated! Happy reading!

Your heart was beating a mile a minute the second the familiar building came into view. You were taking deep breaths and trying to regulate your heartbeat. What if this was a mistake? What if Jaehyun was with someone else already? He is very handsome and a great human, so that would not be surprising. Or worse, what if he hates your guts and he refuses to see you?

‘Stop it! Stop thinking about all the bad things that can happen to you and focus. You can do this.’

You give yourself a pep talk that sort of works. Your hands are still trembling but at least your breathing was more even now. Taking a deep breath, you enter the building that for almost a year you called home. You were overwhelmed with emotions the second you stepped through the threshold, mind flooded with a flurry of memories and you felt like you were going to break down right then and there.

“Noona? Is that you?!” You hear an excited voice exclaim from the elevators, gaining your attention.

“Mark!” You exclaim happily, forgetting your previous worries.

Mark comes up to you in a rush and gives you a hug, spinning you around and making you dizzy.

“I can’t believe you’re here noona! Johnny! Noona is here!” Mark screams across the lobby, gaining the attention of many.

“Oh! Noona!” Johnny yells back excitedly, running towards you and gives you a hug as well.

“Are you moving back to work here?” Johnny asks once he’s let go of you.

“Um, no I am not.” You say, taking a deep breath for courage and hoping you don’t look like a fool for what you’re about to ask.

“Is Jaehyun here?” You ask, scared of what the answer might be.

“Oh…” Both Mark and Johnny say awkwardly, your heart instantly sinking to your stomach. This did not sound good.

“He isn’t here anymore.” Mark starts, awkwardly looking away from your piercing gaze.

“Oh. Did he quit?” You ask, hoping you can perhaps track him down somewhere in New York.

“He moved to Japan.” Johnny explains, placing a hand on your shoulder.

You felt like someone punched you in the gut and you swore your heart stopped beating for a couple of seconds. Japan? You crossed the Pacific ocean just to find out he was much closer than you thought.

“Oh, I see. Well, I’m sure he is having a good time in Japan.” You say with a forced smile, really hoping they couldn’t tell how upset you were.

“Yeah…” Johnny trailed off, a little uncomfortable. “Hey, do you have any plans? Maybe the three of us should go and get lunch together.” He suggested, hoping to ease up the mood.

“Yeah! Let’s get some New York pizza noona!” Mark suggested excitedly.

“Of course! I’d love to get pizza with you guys.” You agree, missing the delicious New York staple.

“Great! Would you like to meet at Central Park?” Johnny asks, remembering where your favorite pizza place is.

“Of course. See you guys there at noon.” You agree, giving them a hug and leaving the building.

You had a few hours to kill so you decided to walk to Central Park. It was going to take about an hour or so to get there and you really needed the alone time to decompress before meeting Johnny and Mark.

You were overwhelmed by the nostalgia you felt by the familiar streets of New York, remembering all the fond memories you had of the city. You were busy enjoying the brisk New York winter air that you had not noticed the hot tears rolling down your face. You quickly wiped them away, not wanting to attract any attention to yourself. You knew people in New York were like the people in Seoul, they minded their own business and didn’t pay attention to the people around them. Even so, you did not want to be the weird lady crying down the street. You could not believe that Jaehyun was in Japan now, your trip to New York was useless now. Of course, catching up with Mark and Johnny was going to be nice, you missed them; but it wasn’t the main reason you came to New York.

‘What if he met someone else? Maybe he does not want to know about me anymore. He must have moved on now, I haven’t talked to him for months, he probably doesn’t want to know anything about me.’ You thought, hating yourself for groveling in your self-pity. If Jaehyun had moved on and was with someone else, it was entirely your fault.

You finally get to Central Park and find your favorite snack cart and buy yourself a soft pretzel. You walk aimlessly for a while, enjoying the smell of the crisp air. You watch in silence as kids throw rocks at the frozen pond in the middle of the park. You smile at the sight of moms hurriedly grabbing their children away from the edge of the pond. You decide that some coffee might make you feel better, especially with all the mixed emotions you were feeling. Mark and Johnny would be arriving in about 20 minutes and you want to be more composed for their arrival. You walk into Le Pain Quotidien and order a coffee, sitting in the outdoor chairs, texting Mark to let him know your exact location.

Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath and try to hold in your tears. You could not believe you had completely ruined the best thing that had ever happened to you because you were stupid and you let a stupid man make you doubt your feelings.

“Hey noona!” Mark said excitedly, waking you from your reverie. You saw him waving at you and you smiled at him, standing up and greeting them with a hug.

“You ready to pig out on the best pizza ever?” Johnny jokes, wrapping an arm around you.

“You know it!” You agree with a laugh, feeling the ominous cloud above your head lift, even if it’s momentary.

“I can’t wait to go into a food coma!” Mark says excitedly, making you shake your head at his antics.

Once at the pizza place, you guys order your pies and make small talk, enjoying each other's presence.

“So how long are you staying in New York for noona?” Mark asks, taking a bite from his slice.

“I am actually leaving the day after tomorrow.” You confess, making both men look at you in surprise.

“What? Why so soon?” Johnny asks, confused that you came all the way to New York just to be here for two days.

“Yeah, I only have a week off, so I need to go back. I missed you guys, so I’m happy I get to spend time with the two of you.” You say, hoping they would buy it.

“Oh…” They let out in unison, changing the subject to much lighter conversation and enjoying the food.

After paying for lunch, much to your insistence, you hugged your two friends and bid them goodbye. They were very adamant on walking you to your hotel, but you refused. You had a lot of time to kill and wanted to visit some of your favorite spots and do some shopping. You did agree, however, to let them take you to the airport for your flight since it was an overnight flight and they had enough time to take you after work.

You waited until you saw their taxi take off to start your slow journey back to your hotel.

Taking advantage of the fact that you’re in New York to do some sight seeing would have been a smart thing to do; however, you were not in the right mindset to revisit all the places you had gone to with Jaehyun.

The aimless walking through the crowded streets of the busy city was helping your tattered heart feel distracted from its incessant sadness. The small smile that graced your face could not be helped as you watched a flock of kindergarteners exiting their school and rushing towards their parents. Sighing heavily, you pushed away the memories of you and Jaehyun talking about kids; how he used to say he wanted kids and seeing his face light up every time he would see a cute kid whenever you’d take afternoon strolls through Central Park. He never specified if he wanted to have kids with you specifically, but the way he would say it would make you feel like that’s what he meant.

You brush away the stray tear that rolled down your face, blaming it on the chilly winter wind even though you knew that was a lie.

By the time you got to your hotel it was well past four pm; you did not realize you had wandered around for that long until you plopped on your bed and could feel your feet ache and your face tingle as your cold skin thawed out. You turned the TV on so you could have some background noise during your shower, not wanting to be completely alone with your thoughts.

You were grateful for the warm water caressing your skin, as it was blending with the tears that were streaming down your face. In the confines of your hotel room, you could no longer hold back how you were feeling. You were crushed, devastated at the fact that Jaehyun was gone. It really felt like now he was out of your life forever. You hiccuped a sob, not wanting to hold back any longer. Your body trembled as you cried, heart-breaking sobs leaving your body. Pounding on the tiled wall, you whispered broken apologies to Jaehyun, knowing that this was all your fault. You held your arms in front of you, supporting your weight against the tiled walls of the shower. The water had run cold by now and your body started shivering all over again. Turning off the water, you wrapped your body in one of the fluffy hotel towels, seeking their warmth. After putting on some pajamas, you burrowed under the warm covers of the bed; the heaviness in your heart and eyelids outweighed the grumbling of your stomach. You fell asleep before you knew it, Jaehyun’s face was the last conscious thought you had.

You were startled awake by the sound of an obnoxious alarm, groaning in realization that it was morning time. You got dressed for the uneventful day and decided to change your flight to tonight, since you did not have any other reason to stay another day. The person you came to look for was not in New York and you only had lunch plans with Johnny and Mark. Sighing, you decided to order room service instead of going to the dining hall, not in the mood to be around people.

Markie: Hey noona, we want to see if you’re down to get some Indian food today for lunch?

You looked away from the romcom on the tv to read Mark’s message, smiling at his choice, sending him a quick reply as your agreement. It was already eleven am and you should probably start heading over there before you’re late.

The sun was breaking through the dark clouds of the cold morning, warming up your face. You welcomed the warmth it gave you, making you feel like maybe, just maybe, everything will be okay. You grab a cup of coffee from the coffee shop near your hotel,needing something a little better than the instant packets from the hotel. You had already checked out and had your carry on with you, so taking a taxi to meet Mark and Johnny was the smarter choice.

You met both men outside the office building, deciding to walk together to the restaurant since it was close by. Both of them were surprised to see you with your suitcase since they thought you were leaving the next day. You shrugged it off, telling them that you had to head back sooner than expected. If they didn’t believe your lie, they did not call you out on it. Instead, they fought over who would carry your bag for you. Their childish banter made you laugh with gusto, something you have not done in months. This was the first time you genuinely laughed and it felt so good you could almost cry. Johnny ended up being the winner and you walked arm in arm with Mark, hearing all about the success of the store and a lot more juicy office gossip.

“Noona, I really can’t believe you’re leaving.” Mark whines, tugging your suitcase behind him as you all exit the restaurant after lunch.

“I know, I wish I could stay longer.” You say, ruffling the hair on top of his head.

“Mark, leave her alone. Go get her a cab.” Johnny chastises, pushing the younger man towards the curb of the street.

“So,” Johnny says, looking over at you, “The only reason you came to New York was to look for Jaehyun, right?” Johnny asks, peering over at you from the corner of his eye.

You stayed silent for a few seconds, deciding that it was no use to lie.

“Yeah. It was the only reason. I guess it was stupid of me to hope he would still be here.” You say, looking away from Johnny and you hope he can’t see the tears welling in your water line.

“I think you should reach out to him. I don’t think he has moved on either.” Johnny says in a calm voice, gauging your reaction.

You scoff, rolling your eyes at the absurdity of it all. “As much as I’d like to believe that’s true, I don’t think Jaehyun would wait for someone like me.” You sigh, closing your eyes at the pain that’s fast returning to your chest.

“Hey. Don’t say that. Don’t discredit Jaehyun either. We both know he is a good guy and he really cared for you. You won’t know how he feels unless you ask him. You don’t want to stay in the ‘what if’ limbo forever.” He nudges you, glancing at the cab that pulled up to the curb.

“Noona, your cab is here!” Mark announced, making his way over to you.

He gave you a big hug goodbye and made you promise to text him once you made it safely to the airport and back to Korea. You smiled at his worry and made him promise to visit you soon.

You gave Johnny a small, tight smile before enveloping him in a hug.

“I texted you his new number. Trust me, just call him.” He whispered before letting you go and nudging you towards the cab.

You smiled at both of them and waved, the lights becoming blurry as your tears rolled down your cheeks.

_______________

With bleary eyes, you take your phone out of your pocket and get a cab to take you back to your place. Once inside the cab you tell the driver your address and you lay back. Closing your eyes, you sigh at the slight sting. You were consumed with thoughts of your conversation with Johnny and sleep completely evaded you. Even if you tried to get some shut eye in your comfortable first class seat, sleep would not come and it made you very irritable. Thankfully the flight attendant was very nice and kept bringing you coffee or tea and that helped you feel better. You were just looking forward to being home and sleeping on your comfortable bed. Looking at your phone screen you debate whether or not you should call Jaehyun. You saved his number last night at the airport and you’d be lying if you said your heart was not beating erratically at the sight of it. You could not decide whether or not it was a good idea to contact him; Johnny was very convincing but he could be wrong. After everything that has happened, you didn’t know if he would take kindly to you calling him. Deciding that it was now or never, you take a deep breath and press the call button, secretly hoping that he does not answer. You don’t know whether to be happy or disappointed when the call went to voicemail. You sigh, hoping your heart will stop beating so erratically when you notice the cab is turning into your street.

Thanking the cab driver, you head to your building and think about what you’re going to have for lunch after your shower and the much needed nap. What you were not expecting was seeing a tall figure standing outside your apartment door.

“Hey, can we talk?” Chanyeol asks, his nervous eyes pleading.

You sigh deeply and close your eyes. All you wanted to do was shower, sleep, eat and cry. But this was impossible since Chanyeol once again shows up and does whatever he pleases.

“Okay.” You say, typing your code on your door. You don’t miss the way Chanyeol eyes your appearance and your suitcase, making you more annoyed than you already felt.

Walking inside, you leave the suitcase near your door and Chanyeol silently follows behind you, feeling awkward.

“Would you like some tea or coffee?” You ask, your manners still showing up even though you’d rather not be doing this right now.

“Coffee sounds great, thanks.” Chanyeol says, standing awkwardly in the middle of your living room.

“You know you can take a seat, right?” You say, a small amount of humor in your voice due to the funny sight.

“Oh.” He lets out in embarrassment, taking a seat on your couch and hating how awkward he’s acting.

You finish brewing the coffee and place it on the coffee table in front of chanyeol, taking a seat in the far corner of the couch.

“So,” you start. “What do you want to talk about?” You ask, wanting to get this over with because you really needed that shower.

“Did you go somewhere?” He asks, looking over at the suitcase by the door.

Eyebrow raised, you look into his eyes as an involuntary scoff leaves your lips. “Is that what you wanted to talk about? Because if it is, I have other things to do and I’d appreciate it if you leave.” You say, outraged at the fact that Chanyeol thinks he can come to your home and question you when he is the one who cheated.

“No! No it’s not. I’m sorry, I’m just a little nervous.” He fidgets and you relax on your seat. Feeling a little bad about snapping at him but your patience was running thin.

“Okay, well then speak please.” You prod, needing this to be over.

“I’m sorry for hurting you. I know that I have messed up and I have run out of second chances. I’m not asking you to take me back, I’m just asking you to forgive me for hurting you and cheating on you.” He says, sincerity in his eyes and voice.

“Well, I’m glad you’re mature enough to see what you did is wrong. I forgive you.” You say, surprised at how you actually meant it.

“Thank you. I really am sorry. I was a selfish jerk and I realized that I still have a lot to work on. Thank you for listening to me even though I’m sure you hate me.” He says, taking a sip from his coffee.

“I don’t hate you.” You say with a small smile, “I just hope that you don’t do that to anyone else.” You threaten, making him chuckle.

“Of course!” He put his hands up in surrender, making you smile. “So, did you find him?” He asks, taking you by surprise.

“Find who?” You ask, playing dumb.

“Jaehyun. I tried to find you when I came back from Japan and Suho told me that you went to New York. I kind of figured that you went to look for him.” He explains. You sigh deeply, the exhaustion from your trip and the time difference catching up to you.

“No, I did not. He doesn’t live in New York anymore.” You answer in a monotone voice, not really wanting to talk about your feelings to Chanyeol.

“I’m sorry. I know you still love him. I hope you can find him and work things out. I really do.” Chanyeol says sincerely, making you smile and give him a small nod.

“Thanks.” You say, enjoying the pleasant moment of understanding between you and Chanyeol.

“Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time, I’m sure you’re tired from your trip. Good luck with everything.” He says and leaves your apartment, leaving you in a deeper hole of emotions.

You could not believe what had just happened in the last 72 hours. You found out the love of your life moved to a country that is much closer to you than you thought. You were cheated on, and said cheating ex hunted you down until he found you and apologized for his horrible actions. That shower and greasy food were definitely needed now.

______________________

After catching up on some much needed sleep over the weekend and girl talk with Mina to let her know what happened on your short trip to New York, you were ready to tackle the new work week. Well, new work week for you. You decided to cut your time off short and returned to work a couple days early and it just happened to be Wednesday. You were not complaining though, at least your work week was going to be short. You never got a call back from Jaehyun or heard from him, so you decided to wait a few more days before calling again. Of course, you didn’t leave a message and it’s obnoxious of you to think that he still kept your number even though he changed his. Knowing Jaehyun he was not going to return the call to an unknown number that left no message. Taking another long sip of your coffee you exit the elevator to your floor and check your phone for any new messages from Namjoon. The current project you were working on was a little behind schedule because you left Jimin in charge when you left and he got injured and was now out of commission. Namjoon trusted that you could catch up and therefore he was blowing up your phone with updates and scheduled meetings in order to catch up. You were so entranced with the message you were reading that you did not notice the group of people headed your way.

“Noona! You’re back!” You hear Jungkook exclaim from in front of you, his puppy energy never failing to make your day.

“Hey Kook, I’m back….” You trailed off as you looked up. Voice catching in your throat at the sight of Jungkook with Jaehyun and two members of the PR team. You most likely looked like a deer caught in headlights and as pale as someone who just saw a ghost. You stood there for what felt like an eternity but was probably just a few seconds, enchanted by those beautiful brown eyes that you love so much. Jungkook was going to introduce Jaehyun to you but you quickly cut him off, saying some nonsense about needing to go into your office to make a phone call.

Rushing into your office, you slam the door shut and press your shaking body against it, your erratic breathing not slowing down.

“Fuck. Oh fuck.” You whisper to yourself, moving away from your office door so you could take a sip of water, your throat becoming very dry. You did not realize you were crying until you felt the wet trail on your cheeks, wiping them with a shaky hand.

You hear your office door open, thinking it’s Jungkook checking in on you because of your odd behavior.

“Kookie, I can’t talk to you right now.” You say in a shaky voice, back facking him because you don’t want him to see you crying.

“I’m not Jungkook.” The smooth velvety voice says behind you, your back stiffening at the sound of it.

Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath before turning around and facing the one person you did not expect to see. The love of your life and the reason why you went across the world. You could not believe he was in front of you right now. Staring into his eyes, you wait to see his reaction, not wanting to act in a haste.

“You know, it was pretty rude of you to cut off that poor kid when he was trying to do his job and introduce us.” Jaehyun says, beautiful brown eyes looking into yours. He didn’t look angry or upset, his face neutral of emotion and even more handsome than you remember.

“Yeah, I uh… I had a phone call to take.” You lie, still not believing your eyes.

“You are still a bad liar.” Jaehyun chuckles, slowly walking towards you.

You try to be strong and hold your tears in, but you could no longer hold back. They freely fell from your eyes and you turned around, your shaking body moving away from Jaehyun because you were embarrassed for losing it in front of him.

“Hey, it’s okay. Don't cry.” Jaehyun says in a soothing voice, slowly walking towards you, not wanting to spook you.

You didn’t answer, trying hard to swallow back your sobs. You didn’t want the whole floor to hear you crying and you also didn’t want Jaehyun to see you in your current state, but he wasn’t leaving

He came up behind you and gently turned you around, looking into your eyes and taking in your tear-stained cheeks. His heart clenched at the sight of you crying and he could not help himself when he pulled you by the arm and into his embrace. He could almost cry of happiness at the feeling of you in his arms once again. It seems like you felt the same way because as soon as you were in his arms, the tears doubled and your body shook from all the emotions you were feeling at that moment. You could not believe that the love of your life was right in front of you and you were embracing him. It almost felt like you were in a lucid dream and you prayed to God that it wasn’t the case because that would be too cruel. After a few minutes of being held by Jaehyun you are finally able to regulate your breathing and you stopped crying. You muster up the courage to look up at him, extremely embarrassed for breaking down in front of him.

“Hey.” He says softly, meeting your eyes with a soft smile that makes you want to cry all over again. Oh how you’ve missed that smile.

“Hi.” You squeak out, voice hoarse from crying.

“I’ve missed you.” He whispers, looking into your eyes, hands cradling your face.

“I’ve missed you so much too.” You say, eyes welling up all over again.

“I have to go before Jungkook tries to find me. I told him I was going to the bathroom. But I want to catch up. Are you available after work?” He asks, a sweet and hopeful look on his face.

“Yes, of course.” You say, head spinning from everything you’re feeling right now.

“Great, I’ll see you then.” He gives you a small kiss on the forehead before he leaves your office, hoping Jungkook doesn’t find him.

You plop down on your chair, shaky hands covering your face. You could not believe what just happened, that Jaehyun is in Korea and working in the same building as you. You were both excited and nervous for your meeting with Jaehyun this evening because even though he told you he missed you and gave you a kiss, you still don’t know how he feels about you and what your dynamic was going to be. For all you know, he could just mean he missed you as a friend and has no romantic feelings for you and has a girlfriend that he really loves.

Shaking your head, you decide to focus on the work that awaits you instead of further spiraling into an anxiety attack. Everything is going to be fine….. You hope.

_________________________

You finished sending out the updated project to Namjoon, hoping that it was good enough to submit. You stretch your tired back trying to loosen your tense muscles when you hear a knock on your door.

“Come in.” You say, turning your computer off and expecting to see Namjoon coming in to ask you what the latest update on your project is.

“Hey, are you all done?” Jaehyun asks, coming into your office.

You stare at him dumbfounded. You could still not get used to the fact that he was here, in the flesh. You had a busy day so you spent your lunch hour in your office, munching away on a sandwich while you simultaneously tried to work on your latest project. It seems like Jaehyun also had a busy lunch because Jungkook kept texting you about how much fun he was having at lunch with Jaehyun and a bunch of the ladies from PR. It doesn’t surprise you because Jaehyun is extremely handsome and he is a good person, so you really can’t blame them for taking him out to lunch.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m all done.” You finally reply, blushing at the small smirk Jaehyun gives you.

“So, did you want to go to a restaurant or order some takeout and have it delivered to your place?” Jaehyun asks, taking you by surprise.

Being in a public place might help ease your nerves but it won’t give you much privacy to talk about everything Jaehyuin wanted to speak to you about. But if you were to go to your house, you’re afraid that you might want to jump his bones and won’t hold back.

Deciding that privacy was going to be more important, you make your choice and hope you won’t regret it.

“Let’s get takeout and eat it at my place.” You offer, not missing the glint in his eyes at your suggestion. “Anything you’re craving?” You ask, taking your phone out to look for a delivery app.

“Jjajangmyun.” Jaehyun says, making you laugh at the suggestion of such a simple dish.

“Okay. I’ll order it once we get to my place. There’s a restaurant right down the street and it takes them no time to deliver.” You say, gathering your coat and purse so you can walk out with Jaehyun.

Thankfully it seems like everyone is gone because the hallways are empty. You didn’t want to attract attention to the fact that you’re leaving with Jaehyun because your breakup with Chanyeol is still recent and it was very public. Normally you would not care, but you don’t want to put Jaehyun in a position where people would bad-mouth him. Lord knows some of the women in the company don’t like you because you were dating Loey and they seemed pretty happy at the fact that he cheated on you. Jaehyun was too sweet to have to go through any of that, especially since you’ve already put him through so much.

You decide to take a taxi to your place and it was spent mostly in silence, but thankfully it wasn’t awkward. Once the taxi turned into your street, you ordered the food so you wouldn’t have to wait long. You don’t know why you were so nervous, but your heart was beating a mile a minute. The elevator ride was awkward, with you staying silent and your back facing Jaehyun. You hated feeling this way because you once felt so comfortable around him that never in a million years you would think that you'd ever feel like this.

“Here’s my place.” You say, opening the door to your apartment.

Jaehyun takes in your place as he takes his shoes off, admiring your cozy yet somewhat minimalist decor.

“Nice place. It’s different from your New York apartment, but it’s nice.” He comments, walking into your living room.

“Thanks.” You smile at the compliment, “would you like anything to drink?” You ask, hoping to ease your nerves.

“Yeah, I would love a soda if you have any.” He says, hesitating by your kitchen island. You smile at how cute he looks and at how polite he is.

You tell him to sit down when the door rang. You went to get the noodles from the delivery person and placed them on the kitchen island, setting out chopsticks for the both of you.

You start to eat in silence and after a few bites you can’t take it anymore. Jaehyun looks at you confused when he sees you put down your utensils.

“Okay. I don’t want to seem rude, but I can’t take this anymore. I need to know everything.” You finally say, seeing the look of surprise on his face.

“Okay.” He starts, wiping some of the sauce off his face. “Where do you want to start?” He asks.

“Do you hate me?” You ask right away. It was the one thing you wanted to know for sure before you continued.

“What? No! Of course I don’t. If I did, I wouldn’t have asked you to dinner tonight. Why would I hate you?” He asks, genuinely hurt that you would think he could ever hate you.

“Because I was the biggest bitch and I let myself question my feelings for you over something that was extremely stupid and insignificant.” You explain, not seeing why he couldn’t understand why you’d think he’d hate you.

“Okay, first of all, you’re not a bitch. Second of all, I wanted you to be 100% sure about us and have no doubts.” He answers, making you smile.

“Okay. Well now I feel bad because I interrupted our dinner. Let’s finish eating and we can continue the conversation.” You suggest and he agrees, digging back into his food.

After dinner, which seems like the both of you ate at a rapid speed, you made some tea and the both of you made your way to your living room, sitting on opposite sides of the couch. Why did today make you feel a strange sense of deja vu? You shrug off the feeling and take a deep breath, steely nerves ready to let everything out.

“So, when did you leave New York?” You ask, getting right into it.

“Oh yeah, I heard that you went to New York. Jungkook told me.” Jaehyun says, a teasing tone to his voice. You made a mental note to kill Kookie next time you see him for running his mouth unnecessarily. “But I actually left about a month after the Gala. I couldn’t stay there anymore because everything reminded me of you.” He said sheepishly, your heart wrenching painfully. Man, you really are a bitch.

“Sorry if I was a jerk and avoided you that night. I just couldn’t handle being that close to you yet so far away at the same time.” He continues but you wish he’d stop, hearing those words from him is very painful.

“You do not have to apologize. I’m the one that should be apologizing for hurting you.” You say, tears threatening to spill all over again.

“So when did you decide to move to Korea?” You ask, changing the subject to something else you wanted to know.

“A few weeks ago. I saw that the Korea branch had a spot open for the PR President position and I decided to apply. I wanted to come back because I miss my family but also because I missed you. Plus, I saw all the scandalous articles and photos of Chanyeol and Arisa’s…. Entanglement. So I wanted to make sure you were okay.” He says, looking into your eyes.

“You are way too nice.” You say in a shaky voice, tears finally rolling down your cheeks.

“If I’m being honest, the whole time I was with Chanyeol I realized that I had made a huge mistake. There wasn’t a second where I didn’t wish that I could be with you. I tried many times to call you, but I would chicken out and decide to not call you. I didn’t know if you hated me or not and I didn’t want to find out because I still love you. I never stopped.” You finally let out between sobs, the sadness you felt in your chest slowly going away. “And then I went to New York because I realized that if I didn’t at least try, I would regret it for the rest of my life. Even if you rejected me and spat at my face, at least I would know for sure. But I couldn’t bear to live with the what-ifs. Then Johnny tells me that you had moved to Japan and I felt like it was over all over again. He gave me your phone number and I mustered the courage to call you but like a coward, I didn’t leave a voicemail. I knew that you wouldn’t call back a number that you did not have saved on your phone.” You further explain.

“Well that’s where you’re wrong.” Jaehyun says, wiping away your tears. You had not noticed him move closer to you on the couch, but he was next to you now.

“I saved your number on my new phone. I had it in case I also mustered the courage to call you. I didn’t want to push you though, because I didn’t know how you were coping with Chanyeol’s indecency. When I saw your name pop up on my screen, my heart stopped. I thought I was seeing things but Johnny called me to tell me that you had gone to New York and he gave you my number. I decided to wait to speak to you until I saw you in person. I never stopped loving you either, I just hoped that we would find each other again before it was too late.” Jaehyun explains, your heart beating so fast you swore Jaehyun could hear it.

Your sobs had finally died down and all that was left were hiccups, but you were glad that you were having this conversation with Jaehyun. The relief you felt at knowing that Jaehyun still loves you is indescribable; the pain you had been suffering for the last few months could cease now.

“You know, even though I briefly dated Chanyeol, nothing happened between us.” You confess, feeling the need to let Jaehyun know.

“What do you mean?” Jaehyun asked, confused. He had a vague idea as to what you meant but did not want to jump to conclusions.

“I mean that aside from a kiss here or there, nothing else happened between us. I didn’t sleep with him.” You elaborate, wanting him to know.

Jaehyun exhaled loudly, passing a hand over his face.

“I would not have judged you at all if you had. But you have no idea how relieved I am to hear that.” He says, shaking his head in disbelief.

You chuckle at his relief, but you would be lying if you said you were not intrigued to know whether or not he had been with someone else. You didn’t want to be intrusive and ask him because you still felt like you didn’t deserve anything from him.

“I never dated anyone while we were broken up. Nor did I sleep around either.” He says, looking into your eyes.

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” You say, placing your hand on his cheek. You were not going to make it known how relieved you are.

“I know, but it’s only fair I tell you if I had or not.” He says, kissing your palm.

“I love you so much. I know it might take some time, but I would love it if we could work things out and get back together.” You say, not seeing the need to be coy. You love him and you want to be with him, nothing was going to get in your way now.

“I love you too.” He says, wiping the tear stains from your cheeks. “I want to be with you too, so why waste time?” He says, holding your hands. You smile at him, feeling happiness bubble inside your chest. You had not felt this happy in the longest time and you did not want the feeling to go away. Not being able to hold back, you launch yourself to Jaehyun in a tight hug, loving the feeling of his arms embracing your body. You finally felt like you were home, where you belong.

The both of you stayed that way for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feeling of being together again. Jaehyun pulled away, giving you a kiss on the forehead.

“I have to get going, it’s getting pretty late.” He says, standing up from the couch.

“You don’t want to spend the night? You ask, really wanting his company… and some other stuff too.

“I would love to my love, but I have to go and deal with some stuff at my place.” He vaguely explains.

“Oh. Everything okay?” You ask, if he had issues with his place, he could stay here.

“Yeah, there’s just a lot of unpacking to do. Along with other cosmetic stuff.” He replies, smiling as he grabs his coat.

His answer was very vague but you decided to not worry about it. After all, Jaehyun has proven time and time again that he’s worthy of your trust. Not wanting to dwell, you smile and give him a nod, agreeing that you’ll see him at work tomorrow.

“Good night.” He says, standing at your door.

“Night.” You say, walking him out.

He gives you another hug and goes to kiss your cheek when you turn your head, his lips landing on yours.

He was startled at first, not expecting to feel the soft skin of your lips but he was not complaining. You wrap your arms around his neck, bringing him closer to you. His arms wrap around your waist, grunting at the feel of your body in his arms. The kiss was getting more intense as your hands roamed his body, still not believing that he was here in the flesh.

“Okay, I better go.” Jaehyun chuckles, pulling away from the hot kiss knowing that if he doesn’t go he will stay ravishing you all night.

You whisper your goodbye as you watch him enter the elevator where he sends a wink and a kiss your way.

You close the door to your apartment and place a hand over your chest, not believing that everything that has happened in the last couple of hours is real. Jaehyun is finally back into your life and you would not allow anything to change that from now on.

________________

The next morning you enter your work building and you head to the elevators, greeting a few of your coworkers with a goodmorning and a smile. You were patiently waiting for the elevator to arrive in silence when you noticed that all the women around you started to whisper excitedly. You were confused as to what was causing the commotion and that’s when you felt a shoulder bump into you.

“Hey, good morning.” Jaehyun greeted you with a smile, his handsome face making you blush due to his close proximity.

“Hi.” You say back, noticing that all the whispers had stopped all of a sudden.

“I got you coffee. Almond latte, right?” He asks, handing you a coffee cup that you did not see him carrying at first.

“Oh, yeah. Thank you.” You thank him for his sweet gesture, surprised that he remembers your coffee order. You internally cringe when you realize the exchange is happening in front of a lot of the female staff, already dreading the inevitable gossip.

The elevator finally arrives and everyone scurries inside, packing into the elevator and you end up being pushed up against Jaehyun. He smiles down to you and you felt the blush cover your face once again. It felt like you were falling in love with him all over again even though you never stopped. Getting off at your floor, you were surprised to see that Jaehyun was walking the same direction as you.

“Where are you going? Isn’t your office on the east wing?” You ask, ignoring the glances you get from your coworkers.

“Yeah but I want to walk you to your office this morning.” He explains, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Oh, well thanks. Everyone here must think that I don’t waste time trying to bag the hot new guy.” You joke, trying to hide your burning cheeks as you took a sip of the coffee Jaehyun got you.

“Maybe the new guy didn’t want to waste time to bag you.” He teases, stopping when you pause in front of your office door.

“Cute.” You laugh, opening your door and turning around to say goodbye to Jaehyun. He took you by surprise when he leaned in and planted a quick kiss on your lips, making you blush like a schoolgirl. You quickly said bye and entered your office, shaking your head when you heard Jaehyun’s laugh outside your door. That man is going to be the death of you.

_________

You walked to a cute little cafe that is close to your work; meeting Mina for lunch, you were both nervous and excited to let her know what was going on in your life for the past 24 hours.

“Hey! I ordered you a lemonade, I hope that’s okay.” Mina greets you, sitting on one of the outdoor tables.

“Yes, that’s fine. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” You say, sitting down and looking at the menu.

“Nope. So, tell me. Why did you seem so eager to meet? Do you miss me that much?” She asks, direct as always.

“Of course! But I have some news.” You say but were interrupted by the waiter. He took your orders and excused himself.

“What news?” Mina asked, taking a sip from her drink.

“I’m back with Jaehyun.” You blurt out, not wanting to beat around the bush.

Her eyes became the size of saucers, coughing when her drink went down the wrong way.

“I thought you said he moved to Japan?” She asks, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“He had, but when I came back to work he was here. He moved to the Korea branch because there was a position open and because he heard about Chanyeol and Arisa and wanted to make sure I was okay.” You explain, warmth filling your chest at the thought of how sweet Jaehyun is.

“Wow. That’s insane. Look, I am so happy for you because I know that you never stopped loving him. But don’t you think you’re moving too fast?” She asks, genuinely concerned.

Before you could answer, your food was brought out and placed in front of you.

“What do you mean? I messed up once and I thought I had forever lost the love of my life. Now that I have gotten a second chance, I don’t want to mess it up.” You say, not understanding her point. Moving too fast? No way. Jaehyun was back in your life by the grace of the universe and you were not going to mess that up. You wanted him in your life and nothing is going to stop that from happening.

“I know, I know. I’m not judging. I just want to make sure you are both sure that this is what you want.” She says, eyeing you wearily as she took a bite of her food.

“It is. He told me himself that he loves me and that he missed me the time we were apart. I never slept with Chanyeol and he was never with anyone either. We both acted stupidly but we never stopped loving each other. I don’t want to lose this second chance that we got.” You say, willing the tears to go away.

Mina gave you a sympathetic look and a knowing smile, slightly nodding her head.

“Well, I guess if I was in your shoes, I’d feel the same way. I can’t imagine my life without Suho and if that’s how you feel about Jaehyun, then who am I to say anything?” She says, placing a comforting hand on your arm and giving you a small squeeze.

“Thanks.” You smile, happy at the fact that your best friend understood where you were coming from.

“Well since he’s in Korea now, I think it’s time I finally meet this guy.” She says, wanting to meet the guy she’s heard so much about.

“Of course! I will set something up. Are both you and Suho available this weekend?” You ask, mentally checking your calendar.

“We are free, so if you want to do something, let me know.” She agrees.

The two of you continue to eat as you talk about other things as well as all the new things Minjun has learned to do.

“Hey, how was your lunch date?” Jaehyun asks as he enters your office, it seems like this was going to be a new habit of his.

“It was good! Mina is happy for the both of us and she wants to meet you. Do you want to hang out with them on Saturday?” You ask, hoping you didn’t jump the gun and he has plans already.

“Yeah that’s fine. Can it be early in the day though? I wanted to go out to Namsan tower with you to see the lights at night.” He says, holding your hand as the two of you walk out.

“Okay! Maybe we can do lunch then? I’ll text her to make sure that’s okay with them.” You offer, excited at the thought of the important people of your life meeting.

“Sounds great.” He says, giving you a devilish smile.

________________

“Noona. I am very disappointed in you.” Jungkook says, entering your office unannounced and plopping down on one of the chairs.

“Yes, come in.” You say sarcastically, making a note to reprimand him for his bad manners. “Why are you disappointed in me?” You ask, raising your eyebrow.

“Because you did not tell me you’re hooking up with the new guy!” Jungkook says in mock astonishment, sounding like a total gossip girl.

“That’s because I’m not.” You answer, giving him a pointed look.

“But I saw you guys leave together yesterday holding hands.” He protests, knowing that he isn’t going crazy and seeing things.

“That is correct. But I’m not ‘hooking up’ with him. He’s the guy from New York I told you about.” You confess, knowing that he had no idea.

Jungkook was surprised, to say the least. You spend the next thirty minutes telling him how you didn’t find him in New York, how you thought he was still living in Japan and up until the day you returned and were not expecting to see him here. Jungkook laughed at that fact because now he knew why you acted so weird that day.

“And he is finally going to meet my best friend Mina tomorrow. We are having lunch at her house.” You tell him, feeling even more excited about it now since you’ve reiterated this story twice. Namjoon called you into his office earlier to ask you about your relationship to Jaehyun because he has heard a lot of whispering going around about the two of you. Namjoon was also very happy for you when you told him who Jaehyun was to you and he told you to ignore all the jealous ladies in the building.

“That’s awesome! I hope you’re going to wear something nice.” Jungkook says in his best judgemental voice, making you laugh.

“Of course Kookie, who do you take me for?” You tease, laughing at his exaggerated eye roll.

He says his goodbyes because he knows Namjoon will yell at him if he finds him in your office gossiping again.

______________

You kept looking in the mirror, hoping that your dress was cute enough. It was a pretty cotton dress that stopped right above your knee, it had slightly puffy sleeves and a square neckline. You were having a picnic at Mina’s house and you wanted to look cute especially since Jaehyun had plans for the two of you.

Your doorbell rang and you grabbed your purse and light jacket, making your way out to meet Jaehyun.

“You look beautiful.” Jaehyun greets you as you open the door, giving you his signature dimpled smile.

“You’re one to talk.” You say, taking in his black skinny jeans and white button up that was tucked into his jeans. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he looked so good you almost wanted to drag him back into your apartment and have your way with him. Yesterday he dropped you off at home and ate dinner with you but left soon after. You wanted him to stay the night but he once again said he needed to go. He was still being a little evasive about his living situation but you decided not to push.

“Where does Mina live?” Jaehyun asks once you’re inside his car.

You told him her address, which is a nice neighborhood filled with cute starter homes. You fell in comfortable conversation on the drive to Mina’s house. You told him about the conversation you had yesterday with Jungkook and he laughed at the funny story.

“He reminds me of Mark a little bit. It seems like you have a loyal dongsaeng in New York and another one here in Korea.” He teases, parking his car in front of Mina’s house.

The drive went by so quickly that you hadn’t realized you had arrived, especially since you just took notice of the fact that Jaehyun never turned on the GPS system. He was already out of the car before you could ask him anything, so you follow his lead and make your way to her door.

“Hey! Glad you guys are here! Come in!” Suho greets, opening the door.

“You must be Jaehyun! So nice to meet you.” Suho says, shaking your boyfriend’s hand.

“Nice to meet you too.” Jaehyun says, returning the smile. Suho sends a sly wink your way and you can feel your cheeks heat up a bit.

“Minjun look! Aunty is here!” Mina says to her toddler, greeting you with a kiss.

“You must be Jaehyun! So nice to finally meet the man I have heard so much of for the last year or so!” Mina exclaims, embarrassing you completely especially because Jaehyun looked at you with a knowing smile.

“Oh? She talks about me? Good to know.” Jaehyun teases, making you elbow him.

“Where’s Minjun? He’s the only one here that loves me.” You mumble, looking for your favorite toddler.

Little Minjun came running towards you, arms outstretched and chubby cheeks rounded with a huge smile. You lifted him into your arms and spun him around, his happy laughter making you smile. You were entertained with Minjun therefore you did not notice the longing look on Jaehyun’s face when he saw you interacting with the toddler. His face was a clear reflection of want and fortunately for you, Mina saw it and all her worries melted away.

“Okay guys! Food is out in the backyard, let’s go eat!” Mina herds you all to the yard to enjoy the big spread of food she spent most of the day preparing.

To say you were delighted would be an understatement. Today was just a perfect day because the most important people in your life finally met and they’re getting along great! Mina seems to like Jaehyun and you can see a difference in her interacting with him as to how she used to interact with Chanyeol. Suho has a lot in common with Jaehyun and they kept exchanging college stories and talking about other things they had in common. Thankfully Minjun loved Jaehyun too; he would run up to Jaehyun and play with him and the sight warmed your heart. The sight of Jaehyun holding and playing with Minjun made your heart twist in a beautifully painful way. He was so good with him and his face lit up the whole time he was playing with the toddler. The amount of love you felt in that moment was so overwhelming that it almost made you cry.

“Thank you so much for coming today!” Mina said to the both of you as she finished loading the dishes to the washer.

“Thank you for having us.” Jaehyun said, cradling the sleeping baby.

“Thanks for coming guys! We have to do this again soon.” Suho agrees, taking the baby from Jaehyuns’ arms.

You exchanged goodbyes and headed out of Mina’s house hand in hand with the love of your life. You had such a great time at Mina’s place that you had completely forgotten about the fact that Jaehyun had other plans for the two of you. It was close to sunset time, so the view from the Namsan tower is going to be great.

Jaehyun was quiet on the drive over, so you just assumed he was tired from entertaining a toddler all afternoon.

“Did you have a good time?” You ask, breaking the silence.

“Yes I did. They’re such nice people and that baby is the cutest thing in the world.” He says, smiling at the memory of the toddler.

“Minjun is the cutest thing ever.” You agreed, proud of how cute your nephew is.

“Our baby is going to be cuter though.” Jaehyun says absentmindedly, eyes still focused on the road.

He did not know the impact his words have on you because even though things are going great right now, you did not know if he saw more of a future with you. But with what he just said, it’s clear to you that he does see a future with you and that made you so happy you felt like you were going to cry again.

Jaehyun must have sensed your inner turmoil because he grabbed your hand and gave you a light squeeze, the action alone letting you know how he felt.

The image of a mini Jaehyun running around filled your mind and it’s all you wanted now. No matter how long it will take to get there, you could not wait to have his children.

You finally arrived at Namsan tower and you were delighted to see that there weren't a lot of people around. You got there at the perfect time because it's almost sunset and by the time you get to the top of the tower the view will be spectacular.

Once again Jaehyun was a little quiet but that did not bother you because you were happy to be there with him, hand in hand.

“Wow, it’s so beautiful.” You say, admiring the view of the city from such a high point.

“Let’s buy a lock to put on the railing.” Jaehyun suggests, making you clap your hands in excitement like a little girl.

He lets you choose the lock and since you were feeling cheesy, you got a heart shaped one. Jaehyun smiled in approval of your choice in lock and said that he wanted to write on it. You pouted playfully, saying that you wanted to write on it but Jehyun just stuck his tongue out at you and said he was going to because he paid for it. You rolled your eyes but complied, thinking his behavior was rather endearing. After writing on the lock, he grabs your hand and leads you back outside to the railing.

“Here you go, why don’t you place it on the railing?” He asks, placing the lock in your hand with the inscription facing down.

“Sure!” You agree, excited to be able to choose where it goes.

You walk up to the railing and intently look around to find the perfect spot for your lock. You can feel Jaehyun behind you but you paid no attention as you looked for a spot. Once you found it, you quickly placed your lock and then you remembered that in your excitement you never read the inscription that Jaehyun wrote. You grab the lock and flip it over, stunned by what you saw. It was his initials plus your initials and underneath it was a drawing of a ring. You were confused as to what that meant and the second you turned around to ask him, it all made sense. Jaehyun was down on one knee, giving you a smile that made your heart stop.

“My beautiful darling. I know we have had our ups and downs and the time spent apart was unbearable for me. I’m so happy that we have a second chance and I don’t want it to ever end. Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?” He asks, opening the small velvet box you didn’t realize he was holding. In the box there was a gorgeous ring that sparkled under the light of the sunset. It was a gorgeous oval diamond on a plain light gold band. You were so mesmerized by it that you forgot where you were and what was happening in front of you, but thanks to the sounds of camera shutters going off you were able to come back to. You look back at Jaehyun’s face, seeing the love and hopefulness in his eyes, tears welling up in your eyes.

“Are you serious?” You whisper, throat closed off with tears.

“Yes my love.” He chuckles, his own heart racing a mile a minute.

“Yes. Of course I do.” You sob, tears running down your face as Jaehyun puts the ring on your finger with shaky hands. He stands up and embraces you in a hug, kissing the tear stains from your cheeks. You pulled apart when you heard the cheering of the people around you and you felt your cheeks heat up due to the PDA.

“Let’s go, I have another surprise.” Jaehyun says, taking your hand.

“Oh god, I don’t know if I can handle any more surprises today.” You giggle, wiping the tears from your cheeks.

“I’m sure you’ll love this one.” He says, giving you a peck on your lips.

“More than being engaged to you? I hardly believe that.” You quip, admiring the gorgeous ring on your finger.

“So, when did you decide to propose to me?” You ask once you were back in his car and on your way to the next location.

“It was when I helped you get groceries that first time in New York.” He says, giving you a sly smile.

“What?!” But we had barely known each other!” You say, not understanding that it could have been that moment.

“I know, but I had never felt about anyone the way I felt about you the second I saw you. I hoped that you’d end up loving me the way I love you.” He says, reaching over and grabbing your hand, squeezing it slightly.

“I love you.” You say, squeezing his hand as well. “When did you get the ring?” You ask, trying to figure out that fact.

“Well, I actually bought it when I went to Connecticut to visit my old friends. I wanted it to be a surprise and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.” He explains, laughing at the dumbfounded look on your face.

“Really? Were you going to propose to me in the states?” You ask, completely surprised by this new information.

“Yes. Actually do you remember the dinner date we had when you told me that Namjoon wanted you to come back to Korea? I was going to propose to you that night but the news sort of ruined my plan.” He explains.

You stare at him in complete shock, his odd behavior from that time now making a lot of sense. He was so nervous about asking you to marry him that he was acting strange so he would not lose his nerves.

“So you just held on to the ring this whole time?” You ask, voice cracking with emotion.

“Yes. I knew that we were going to end up together no matter what. I was ready to wait as long as necessary if it meant we were going to end up together.” He says, a small blush caressing his beautiful face.

Your heart was hammering in your chest and you looked out the window, not wanting Jaehyun to see the tears welling up in your eyes.

You were so immersed in your conversation that you had not been paying attention to the route to your next destination.

“Wait. Are we going back to Mina’s house?” You ask, noticing the familiar streets passing you by.

“Nope.” He says with a smirk but offers no other information.

The mystery is killing you but now that you are engaged to him, you trust him more than you did before; you trust him with your life and you know that whatever he has up his sleeve is going to be worth it.

“Here we are.” Jaehyun says, parking on the street in front of some cute starter homes.

“What are we doing here?” You ask, confused as to what is going on as you get out of the car.

“You’ll see.” He says, taking your hand and walking up the path to one of the houses.

Was he going to introduce you to his parents? Right now? But you wanted to look more presentable when you met his family! And you don’t even have a gift prepared for them! They’re going to think you have no manners and won’t want you as their daughter-in-law!

Before you could spiral even further, Jaehyun opened the front door to the house and guided you in.

“Are your parents not home?” You ask, noticing the quiet and dark house. The only light was coming from a soft light that was on in the kitchen, but that was enough to see the interior of the house. It was very clean and simple, more of a minimalist style of decor but still cozy.

“This is not my parents home.” He says, walking in further into the house and turning on the light, illuminating the place.

You look at him confused because if it’s not his parents house then whose house is it?

Jaehyun chuckles at your expression and takes your face in his hands, placing a quick kiss to your lips.

“This is our house. I bought it for us” He says, arms outstretched to emphasize his point.

“But… but… our...what...huh?” You sputter, at a loss for words for the second time today. “When? When did you…” You trailed off, looking around the house in awe.

“Remember that time right before we… we separated, how I spent a lot of time at my place instead of yours?” He asks, not really liking to talk about that time you two broke up.

“Yeah….” You trail off, also hating the memory.

“Well the reason I was spending time apart was because I was in the process of buying this house. I was on a lot of phone calls and video calls with my family and realtor agents, looking for a house. I wanted it to be a surprise so that’s why I spend so much time at my place. Even though I put my proposal on a halt, I bought the house because I planned on moving to Korea with you. I wanted to be with you no matter what.” Jaehyun explains, your heart hammering in your chest at his explanation. He did all this to be with you? Gosh you had messed up so badly but you were eternally grateful that you got this second chance.

“Is that why you wouldn’t invite me to stay at your place” You ask, the pieces finally coming together.

“Yes.” He chuckles, feeling guilty for being so evasive with you. “I wanted to make sure that the place was clean and ready for when I finally brought you over here.” Jaehyun explains

“You sly guy.” You say, hugging your fiance and reeling at the fact that all this is happening. The proposal, the house, everything. He was yours and that was not going to change, ever. He is the love of your life and he will become your family, and you were going to be together forever. And that’s more than enough.

A/N: Omg its over now! Thank you so much to all of you that have been here since day 1, your support and feedback were my driving force to keep writing! I’m sad that it’s over but you all made this whole process so enjoyable! I was thinking of doing like a little spin off one shot showing their married life but idk. Let me know if that’s something you guys would be in to!

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hoaqins-funk-house · 4 years ago

Text

Hoaqin/White

Yandere

Part 4; Finale

Standing next to Rak (you learned his actual name before arriving), you look over at Hoaqin. "He's gotten bigger." You absentmindedly mention, Hoaqin's eyes snapping over to you as you speak, the scowl on his face quickly replaced by a grin.

Having focused on your face first, it took a couple seconds for him to notice the change in clothing. And with it, he saw the scars.

While he did enjoy the view, your past injuries were far too numerous for him to ignore.

"Wait, Y/N, how did your clothes get ripped like that?!" He asks. He could question you about the scars later.

"Oh. Rak threw his spear at me because I wanted to test my defense. I forgot that my clothes aren't as protected as my body." You scratch your cheek, hearing his sigh.

"Well, either way, come over here."

"Uh-" Your answer gets cut off as the announcer guy begins to speak, making Hoaqin huff.

"Let's begin the last round of the Dallar Show! The name of it is-"

He gets cut off as a familiar girl floats next to him. "Wait, you forgot to mention something. The most important participant, me."

She says, you looking up at her. "Hey, it's her."

Looking down at you, she smiles, waving.

Hoaqin looks at you, confused. "You know her?"

"Not really, to be honest. She is your last sibling, though."

"That is correct." She confirms.

"No way! She looks nothing like any of my siblings! Y/N, are you sure about that?" He asks, looking to you as you shrug.

"I mean, I figured it out because I sensed her power."

"Hmm…" He looks back up at her, brows still furrowed. Seeing as he was actually trying, he could sense her power, but still, he didn't like how friendly she was acting with you. She might even try and take you for her own.

You could tell by the look on his face that he was misinterpreting something or other relating to you, that jealous spark in his eyes unmistakable.

She flickers over next to Viole, leaning over his shoulder. "You're facing him, huh? A Slayer Candidate…"

As Khun and Rak begin to shout at her, she flickers in front of you, Hoaqin's eyes narrowing into a glare.

"And you, the one he's interested in."

She glances back at him, his expression making her smile grow wider. She flickers back up to the announcer guy, lifting her finger to her lips. "I guess I'll watch the game and hop in to help whoever I like. That would be okay, right?"

Hoaqin scoffs indignantly. "You're my last clone, right?! Why wouldn't you help me?!"

"Shut up. That's minus five points for you."

"What?!"

Your expression shows your small struggle to refrain from making any noises of amusement, managing to calm yourself down in time for the announcer guy to allow her intrusion.

"Now, let's begin the final game of the Dallar Show; Go to Hell!" He calls, a ringed circle much like the one you were standing on appearing on the screen behind him.

You stare up at the screen, entertained by the name.

As he begins to explain the rules, you do your normal thing and zone out, especially uninterested in a game you wouldn't even be participating in.

"As a final note- there will be two surprise hostages, one from each team! They will be introduced in the second round!"

That was pretty much the only part you caught as you and the others in Viole's party moved up to the next layer.

Yura was a small bit away from you, not looking at you and instead focusing on the ball Rachel was in, which Khun had entered as well.

"Hey, Dragon." You start, him looking over at you. "Can you decompress, put your spear down, and hold your arms out like this?" You ask, holding your arms out like you were holding a large chest.

Confused, he does so, you taking the chance to leap up into his arms. Promptly, you fall asleep.

"Blank Turtle! Hey! You tricked me!" Rak huffs, looking back down at the match to see Hoaqin glaring at him.

Rak pays no mind to the bloodlust that radiates off of Hoaqin, most of it gliding off of his tough skin and exceptionally smooth brain.

Prince gets dropped, falling lower and lower.

Hoaqin doesn't move as Viole waits for the right chance, soon launching off and into the center pipe. He paid out 30 Dallars as he did so, Hoaqin's unamused eyes following him down.

He calls out to Khun, the submarine door popping open and letting the purple-haired boy tumble out and into Viole's arms.

"Saved! Viole's team successfully saved their hostage!"

Prince floats out of Viole's arms and onto the platform that you and the rest of Viole's group was as he returns to where he began, the announcer sending the next person down.

Hoaqin chuckles, a mean grin on his face. "You're the type to try and save everyone, huh? I can tell. You know, Viole…"

Abruptly, he launches forward, bringing down his sword as Viole tries to block it, the sword slashing into his arm either way. "You're exactly the type of person I hate!"

Hoaqin blocks the main passage from Viole's view, his grin more of a snarl. "You always do everything for everyone! That stupid altruistic mentality of yours really gets on my nerves!"

He laughs as Viole attempts to round him on his blue platform, leaping up to send him back to the ground. "You should really try and be a little more selfish!" He laughs again, louder, as Viole picks himself up, glaring.

"Why would I want to be as heartless as you?" He asks, gritting his teeth as Buelsar continues falling, his path blocked by the prior Slayer.

"It just makes life… so fun! At this point, there's only two things I truly care about." Hoaqin's expression grows sly as Viole continues to try and get past him, failing and getting more and more damaged with each slash.

“Ah...I have a story for you.” His grin continues to grow as he sends more slashes towards Viole, who grows more distraught as Buelsar falls further and further. “Before I got trapped here, I ruled over two lands, as their king.”

He continues to tell his story to the stricken boy, whose blood was beginning to pool around his feet. Buelsar continued to fall, and Viole continued trying his damnedest to get into the pipe, continually getting blocked by the white-clad man. “It truly is a shame about the one in the submarine, but if I am going to be the pinnacle, I needn’t worry myself with such disposable peons.”

“Disposable…?” Viole’s breaths pick up as he glares at Hoaqin, the Thorn flaring up. “He put his life on the line to fight for you, and you call him disposable?! You truly are worse than scum! I can’t imagine living a day in which I think of those around me as disposable!”

“Oh well. You just aren’t cut out for being a Slayer, then.” He sighs, his expression neutral.

Viole rushes forward, faster than before, but still not quite fast enough. Hoaqin sends him flying back with one strike.

“I… don’t want to be a Slayer! I’ve already told you this! And if you truly see him as disposable, or a peon, why won’t you-”

“Let you save him? It’s simple.”

Hoaqin’s face breaks into a wide smirk, his eyes glowing underneath the shadow of his bangs. “You and your team annoy me; I wanted to watch you squirm as you tried and tried to save someone, only to fail and fail, over and over, until they were gone from this world. And look! I succeeded in that, didn’t I?” He throws back his head, letting out a mad laugh as Viole stands, rushing past and leaping into the pipe. “Jump down there! I’ll let you. No matter what you try, you won’t make it in time.”

Peering into the deep passage, he watches with twisted amusement as Viole rushes down, faster and faster, before stepping back, already knowing of his hostage’s fate. Viole’s injuries slow him down, ribbons of blood flying through the air behind him as he hopelessly descends.

“Three, two, one…” He counts down on his fingers, ending with the announcer. “Zero.”

“H-Hoaqin’s team has failed to save their hostage.” The announcer shakily states. “Any spent Dallars will be lost.”

Viole floats up no less than a minute later, his face dark as he glares at Hoaqin, the Thorn blazing behind him.

“A-at the moment, Hoaqin has 24 Dallars remaining, and Jue Viole Grace has 67. The second round will begin now!”

Hoaqin looks up at him, his playful grin making the announcer sweat. “We will now be introducing the surprise hostage from Jue Viole Grace’s team!”

Hoaqin glances back at you as he hears you wheeze, having lost your breath when you hit the floor. “Damn, wasn’t expecting that.” You mumble, using the railing to pick yourself back up. You look around behind you, trying to find the reptilian. “Rak? Oh, was he the surprise…?”

Sighing, you lean on the bar, eyes half-lidded as you watch the submarine plunge down. You close them, propping your head up on your hand.

You didn’t want to watch.

“Jue Viole Grace. You can go after him if you’d like, this time I won’t stop you.” Hoaqin smirks, stepping around to get on the opposite side of him. “As a matter of fact-” He rushes forward, Viole preparing for a slash. “I encourage it!” His eyes widen as the white-haired man reels the opposite arm to his sword arm back, bringing it into his crossed arms and sending him flying back, his heels digging into the floor as he tries to slow down.

By the time he manages to, he stands less than a foot away from the edge, listening to the announcer before paying out and leaping down. Hoaqin laughs loudly, not seeing your grimace, as you had barely opened your eyes to see what was happening.

You knew from the start that Hoaqin, that White, was a cruel person. That by standing by him, you were standing on the wrong side.

He held you there.

If you ran, he would follow right behind.

If you hid, he would find you.

You didn’t take him seriously enough in the beginning, and now you were paying the price; he never lied when he told you, “You’re mine.”

Opening your eyes to escape from your thoughts, you look over Viole’s group, noticing an extra person. A purple-haired kid, who was clearly trying to calm himself down. Your eyes move back to the arena, watching Hoaqin’s last clone as she stared down at her origin, disgust and anger coursing through her gaze.

“Jue Viole Grace has successfully saved his hostage!”

Viole called out for Khun, and Rak was saved. He was returned to your side soon after, sweat nearly pouring off of him. You pat his head, him looking up at you briefly before his eyes go wide.

“Blank Turtle!” He shouts, whipping his head around.

You had vanished.

You sigh, the restraints binding you to the submarine wall. “Of course it was me.”

Hoaqin glances over to where you should be, only seeing the crocodile as he looked for you. His eyes widen as he looks over at the submarine, soon glaring up at the announcer. “The surprise hostage from Hoaqin’s team has been selected!”

The second the round starts, Hoaqin pays out 10 Dallars, slashing at and subsequently knocking Viole down before jumping down, boosting his speed. He got to the correct height a few seconds later, Viole unable to stand up in time. He winces as his various cuts bleed, stinging against the air.

“Woman! Open the submarine!” Hoaqin shouts, Rachel doing so right after. The door shoots open, and you fall straight into his arms, slightly disoriented.

“Ugh, that didn’t feel good.” You lightly complain, feeling Hoaqin’s grip on you tighten, ever so slightly. He looks down at you, the sharp panic that had risen in his throat giving way to a broiling anger as he glances at his last clone and Viole. His eyes blaze, only relenting as he gets an idea, letting out a scheming hum.

“Hoaqin has saved his hostage!”

You notice a blue light surrounding you as you reach the top platform, hearing Hoaqin’s chuckle. “I said I wouldn’t be dying, now it looks like you need to make the same promise.”

You yawn. “Yeah yeah, even if I hit the acid I’d at least survive for a couple minutes.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Oh, so now you’re-” You get cut off as you get transported back to the group, Hoaqin laughing.

You huff, a small pout on your lips as Hoaqin grins, eyes on you.

He looks back at Viole, expression growing vicious. “Even if you don’t want to become a Slayer, you’re in this battle with me. And I expect a fun fight! No more throwing yourself at my blade, make this entertaining!”

Pointing his sword at the injured boy, Hoaqin stares down his arm as if measuring. He hums as Viole pants, still winded. His vision was fuzzy, and lightheadedness was beginning to strike him. His head pulsed with pain.

“You’ve barely used that Thorn of yours. Are you even trying?” He asks, tilting his head mockingly. “Well, I can find out your capabilities next round, I suppose.”

“Hoaqin has a total of 24 Dallars remaining, and Jue Viole Grace has 67! We will begin the next round! Viole’s hostage will be dropped now!”

Grinning, Hoaqin pays out 10 Dallars and follows Viole in jumping down, Viole turning in mid-air to face him, grimacing.

“Now, let’s make this fun!” Hoaqin calls, lifting his sword above his head before swinging it down, his Arie heritage clearly showing as many slashes happen synchronously. Viole brings his arms up before Shinsu pours into the air, swirling into orbs before streaking around Hoaqin, leaving trails as they whirl around. Abruptly, they fly up, homing in on the prior Slayer and flying directly at him.

He dispels them with a single swing, glaring down at Viole as he jets down. Hoaqin sneers, raising his sword above his head once more, gathering a massive amount of energy. Now, his plan would go into action.

He swings down, releasing the energy burst before following behind it, hiding himself among the light.

Seeing the sword being thrown, he reveals himself for less than a second, knocking it out of the way.

His last piece, having had their intervention denied, teleports down in order to block his attack from hitting Viole, who had a young girl in his arms. Holding out her arms, she begins to form a shield, only for a hand to burst forth, roughly grabbing her arm and pulling her into the attack.

The energy dissipates as Hoaqin ignores its stability, grinning at his now hurt last piece. “You… you have so many souls within you. They all look… so tasty…”

She was unable to teleport away as a bright light surrounded her and him.

Every spectator watched with some form of horror, you feeling the creeping dread climb your back as your future reality sets in.

“Ah, finally.” His voice appears before he does. “I'll be getting off this stuffy train in no time."

Viole looks up, eyes wide as he stares at the Slayer. White’s gaze meets his, a grin forming on his lips. “Ah yes, you. I’ll savor your soul, so don’t worry about going to waste. Get back on the main platform. The next hostage is about to fall, after all.”

Viole slowly ascends, Miseng disappearing from his arms as he lands himself.

“Now…” Pointing his sword at Viole, he tilts his head. “I can’t have you winning this game, now can I? Spend all your Dallars on the next descent.”

The second Viole takes a step forward, White points his blade towards Viole’s group. A drop of sweat drips down his face, his body aching even with the adrenaline that coursed through him.

“H-hoaqin’s hostage will be dropped now!”

Grinning, White gestures towards the center pipe.

Begrudgingly, Viole pays out 37 Dallars, leaping down after the submarine.

“Pfft. Is he planning to save the hostage? He knows about the spell, does he not? It’s useless.”

He chuckles quietly.

“Hoaqin has s-saved his hostage! Jue Viole G-grace has no more Dallars to compete with, so he is... disqualified! Hoaqin wins!”

Humming, he waits for Viole to return to his level, holding Angel with shaking arms. He had lost so much blood, it was really a wonder how he hadn’t collapsed yet. “I’m impressed, Jue Viole Grace. I think I’ll eat you now, instead of waiting for the spell.”

Viole turns to him as Angel disappears, eyes dully glaring. He breaks into a sloppy run, jumping as he tries to land a punch, reinforced by Shinsu.

White lifts his arm.

Viole stops, held in the air by a sword that crackled with energy. He chokes, coughing out large amounts of blood as he grabs the sword right where it entered his body.

“Still struggling, hmm? It’s no use.” White levels the sword, staring at the Slayer Candidate.

Weakly, Viole shoves himself off the blade, falling to the ground. His chest heaves as he tries to stand, unable to put weight on legs without his knees going out.

His quivering arms hold up his torso, more blood pooling in and dripping out of his mouth.

“You’ve fought well, Jue Viole Grace.” White stands above him, sword hovering over the black-haired male’s spine. “But not well enough.”

He brings the sword down, Viole gasping out a last breath before all life drained from his eyes, face growing gaunt as his soul was consumed.

White’s eyes widen as his power surges, flaring up around him. Looking back down at Viole, his brows furrow. “An Irregular…” He kneels, picking up the compressed Thorn and pocketing it.

He sighs, stretching his limbs and dispelling his sword as Khun runs up to Viole, kneeling at his side and lifting his torso up, getting a better look at what had happened.

His body quakes, looking up at White with a snarl on his face. “You....” He growls.

White meets his gaze, amusement showing through his glowing eyes. He looks away, paying the Lightbearer no mind as he begins to walk forward, cloak fluttering behind him.

Khun lays Viole down gently, standing up with rage seeping into his heavy breaths and clenching hands. He takes a few heavy steps, soon advancing to a full-on charge as he whips out his dagger, about to run the soon-to-be High Ranker through. White whips around, seizing his wrist with enough force to nearly snap it. “Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one? You should know it's less painful for you to simply die to the spell.”

“I don’t care about pain! If I’m about to die, I might as well go down fighting!”

Looking to the side, you watch as Rak reels his arm back, decompressing and throwing the spear before jumping down next to Khun. White easily blocks it, releasing Khun as the spear bounces off, letting Rak grab it once more.

It didn’t take long for the rest of Viole’s comrades to join him, Rachel and Yura standing somewhat off to the side.

You, however, stood still. Watching from above.

“Blue Turtle is right!” Rak shouts. “The best way to go out is with a struggle!”

Your brows furrow.

A chorus of agreement passes over the group as they ready their weapons and abilities.

You bite the inside of your lip.

“Hmph. I suppose I can reward you all for your courage with a quick death.” Lifting his arm, his lips twitch up as he notices your grip tighten on the rails. Shinsu emanates from his hand, extending in a beam as he forms the beginnings of a sword. He sees your expression grow more conflicted, the group in front of him approaching cautiously.

He laughs, letting go of his gathered Shinsu, seemingly vanishing from in front of them.

A chill travels up your spine as hands grab the railing beside your own, your back pressed into a chest and a head resting on your shoulder. “You were going to jump in.” He claims, a drop of sweat running down your cheek. “You know I won’t allow you to get hurt.”

One hand traces a scar on your stomach, making you shiver at his cold fingers and light touch. “Especially now that I know how hurt you used to get. You could probably survive a couple hits, but after that, it would be over.”

“Hey! Leave Blank Turtle alone!” Rak shouts, waving his spear at White.

He looks down at the reptile and the rest of the group, the hand he had moved now stationed around your waist. Raising an eyebrow, the corner of his lips twitch up. “Hey, Y/N. Do I kill them now, or activate the spell?”

Your lips open shakily, closing without a word escaping your mouth.

White hums. “Alright then. I suppose I’ll choose for you.”

He grins, his other hand placing itself on top of your own before his fingers slip in between yours. “Killing them all would be a bit too tedious for my tastes. I’ll activate the spell.” He leans more into you, eyes closing.

“Even with your defense, you would die to this if I wasn’t here.” His face breaks into a satisfied smile. “I’d close your eyes. You still may be knocked out though; the attempt to rip out your soul will be rather taxing physically.”

“I... could guess.” Your drab voice makes White’s smile droop a bit.

He could see it in your eyes, that returning blankness.

Was he not enough?

Or was it them, for even getting close enough to you for you to care if they died?

He quietly scoffs, feeling the collection wave begin from the caboose, quickly advancing along. “Well, the collection starts now.”

You hum, monotonous.

“Blank Turtle!” Rak shouts, leaping up and reeling back his arm, spear in hand. He throws it, and everything seems to slow as it approaches.

Did you lower your defense? Let it strike you down?

Did you redirect it? Try to hit White?

Did you-

“It’s no use.”

Of course. It didn’t matter.

White holds his hand up, catching the spear by its head. He smirks, tossing it to the side.

Suddenly, the group leaps up, readying their attacks as Khun, at the front, uses his Lighthouses to form a path, running up to the next lexel. His dagger is in his hands, face serious as he leads the last ditch attack. Before he could come into contact with the amused White, he ducks to the side, slipping around White and passing something to you.

You felt the cold metal in your hands, knowing what you had to do.

White faces the group as they attack him, blocking Khun from getting any slashes in with his dagger and keeping the wide range of blasts from the group at bay. Rak, who had managed to grab his spear, jumps up, pointing the spear towards the Slayer as he descends, White looking up to block him.

You take your chance.

Whipping around, you drive the Heavenly Mirror into his chest.

A hand grips your own as you attempt to pierce his heart, silver eyes narrowed. A mean sneer takes its place on his lips. “Hmph. You almost got me. Still, that knife only stores someone if it pierces their heart, correct?”

He rips the knife out of your hands and his chest, throwing it without care at the group, whose attacks had ceased.

“How cruel.”

His eyes shift to the wall, feeling the wave as it gets closer and closer.

Rak swings his spear, White ducking and grabbing its length, snapping it in two.

Khun again charges, White grabbing him by the neck.

“Don’t you ever give up? You’re annoying.” He throws the Lightbearer at the group as well, ignoring their startled reaction and Rak’s shout.

“Ah, whatever. The wave is here.”

Everyone turns their attention to the wall as a bright light slips through the cracks, eventually overtaking the room. Clenching your eyes shut, you feel two arms encircle you, pulling you closer before your consciousness disappears.

When your eyes open, bleary and unfocused, you could tell that you were in a different room.

Blinking, a quiet groan escapes your lips as you sit up, hand against your forehead as a dull pain pulses through it. The sheets that covered you fell, pooling around your waist and revealing the same tattered clothes.

You sigh, looking around the room with a tired, unsure gaze.

You tense as you feel arms snake around your waist, a head nestling in the crook of your neck. He practically deflates with a breath, leaning into you.

“How long I have waited for this…” He mumbles, his hold on you tightening as he lifts his head, placing a kiss on your neck, just below your jaw. “I’ve regained my status and power, and you are by my side.”

He smiles, pulling you into his lap. “As it should be; perfect.”

Everything worked out exactly as he wanted.

He places another kiss on your neck, just below the previous.

“Truly perfect.”

@astrxrism

I am willing to tag if you ask :)

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doverly · 4 years ago

Text

For a Soul

A young soul-eater comes across what it thinks is a perfect target. After a bit of observation it decides that the time has come to make a deal.

~3k

After school Ria liked to decompress, I learned that quickly. Taking off her shoes, lying on her bed still all dolled up and just taking a moment to exist. Her parents thought that she was just procrastinating on starting her homework, but I could see that for Ria it was a necessary process.

The day I made contact with her she was doing just that. Lying in bed, backpack out of sight, out of mind under her bed, just scrolling through Instagram. And while she was technically unwinding, Ria was anything but relaxed. It was the jealousy, that burning envy that made Ria fume that afternoon. Every girl or guy she followed seemed hotter, happier, more skilled, more successful. That was the reason she followed them after all, because they seemed so much better than her. So unreachably amazing that she just couldn’t take her eyes off of them. One post especially got Ria’s blood boiling. A woman, a black woman just like her, standing in front of a store. She owned it, she had just opened her own business.

“Of course,” Ria scoffed to herself, she didn’t really like letting anyone in her bedroom, “Look at her, pretty, well connected, I bet she’s fucking ivy league. Black girl magic? Fuck her, if I had everything she had I could do that too.”

Ria hearted the post and continued scrolling, each posting evoking this kind of response from her. Eventually she turned her phone off and got out her backpack, finally getting to her homework. It was crunch time, as her dad called it. She put her blonde wig up into a bun and sat down at her desk. Five minutes choosing what song to listen to and then she actually got started. A shaky start sure but it was a start. If someone knocked on her door now she would have to stop for the day, her concentration broken. Ria secretly hoped someone would.

But no one did, her mom wasn’t back from work yet and her older brother was probably practicing for the chess tournament that weekend. Her dad was sleeping, he worked nights so he had to get his sleep. Ria wondered as she was filling out graphs for math, what would happen if she woke him up. He would probably yell at her and that would be another excuse not to do her homework. She didn’t though, dinner was already going to be hard so why would she make it harder.

Dinner eventually came, it was nothing special just leftover pasta from the previous day. Ria’s mom came back from work, her dad woke up to have his before work meal, and her and her brother left their rooms. Ria was done with math and science, but she hadn’t even begun to tackle her history yet. Picking out a new playlist to listen to had taken up a lot of time so by the time dinner was ready Ria wasn’t even close to done.

The dining table was crammed into the entryway between the stairs and the front door, somewhere more for guests than for the Bryan family. There was a table in the kitchen that they usually ate at but Ria’s mom had been on a family unity kick, that’s why they were even having dinner together in the first place. Ria hoped that her mom moved onto something else soon, maybe that anti-sugar thing that took over her mind every couple of months, because she hated sitting around the table. They all barely had anything in common so it was silent most of the time.

Ria ate her pasta quickly, school lunch was terrible so she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. The pasta was good, red sauce that wasn’t spicy, box pasta that wasn’t overcooked. But the green cushions on the chairs were cold and the atmosphere at the table awkward in a suffocating way. Ria definitely wasn’t getting seconds.

“Do you need a ride to the tournament on Saturday?” Ria’s dad asked her brother.

“No,” Samuel responded, “Lin and I are doing a carpool, she’s picking everyone up.”

Their dad nodded and everyone continued eating their meal in silence. Their dad because he was thinking of work, their mom because she was tired from work, Samuel because he was thinking of the tournament, and Ria because she just didn’t have anything to say.

“Have y’all finished your homework?” their mom asked?

Samuel responded yes immediately, like it was an insult to ask him. While Ria took another forkful of pasta and realized that she had never in her life said ya'll.

“Have you?” her mom asked again.

Ria thought about how to phrase it, “I just have history left.”

Her mom shook her head, “You need to be more proactive, you can’t do extra credit if you don’t do all your homework. If you work harder this semester you can get all As, colleges will be looking at your grades Ria.”

Her dad joined in but Ria wasn’t listening, she had become a master at tuning out lectures. In middle school it had been get better grades, join the debate team, join the soccer team, you need to prepare for college. And now in highschool it’s been get better grades, do more volunteer work, join an honor society, prepare for college. When the lecture ended, with Samuel saying nothing, Ria nodded and said that she would work harder. She finished dinner, not too fast, she didn’t want them to think she was mad at them, and then went upstairs. Her parents thought that she was going to do the rest of her homework, but she had already resolved to do it in the morning. Her parents berating her had already provided her the perfect excuse not to do her homework.

Instead she plopped down on her bed and started scrolling through Instagram. I got to see the pattern in who she was following then. Models, students, hiking pages, along with a lot of flower arrangers. That made a lot of sense, Ria cared a lot about her appearance and even though she hated doing her homework she wished that she was a better student. And while she wasn’t on instagram she was hiking through the woods behind her house, looking for flowers she thought was neat.

Between the study inspo and the delicate vases of flowers Ria came upon one of her favorite influencers. A girl, a senior in highschool in fact, living in New York City. She was holding up a college acceptance letter, several in fact. Columbia, Harvard, Yale, this girl was definitely Ivy League. “Guess my hard work is paying off lol, don’t worry with a little dedication I’ll see you guys there soon!”

This caption put Ria over the edge. She didn’t throw her phone across the room, her parents wouldn’t pay if she broke it, but she closed the app and put it down slowly. Head on her knees she started laughing, those angry, jealous, emotional tears were running down her face.

“Hard work?” Ria yelled just quiet enough that her family wouldn’t hear her, “Hard work? Bitch your parents are engineers, you live in New York City and you’re skinny as fuck. Hard work? Give me a fucking break! If I could just, if I just had....”

Ria was crying too much to rage anymore, her envy at the Instagram girl and her anger at her own poor performance spilling over into just pure emotion.

I had been keeping track of her for a while and I had decided that it was time for us to make our deal. She was bunched up on her bed so I manifested a form I thought she would like and came up behind her, brushing her shoulders in a way that I hoped was reassuring. Ria turned around quickly, as anyone might turn around when someone touched them when they thought they were alone.

Finding no one behind her, Ria just faced forward again and was about to continue crying. And she almost did, until she saw me. Ria didn’t cry out immediately, I had a calming effect on people by design, instead while I studied her up close she studied me. Watching people on the metaphysical plane was nice but it tended to blur out some of the color, some of the details of looking at people with eyes. Now that I was actually standing in front of her I could see that her long curly wig was dirty blonde, and her eyeliner was running. She sniffled and tried to clean up her smudged lip-gloss, taking all of me in. My form was a bunch of Instagram models that Ria had seen with skin darker than hers and short curly black hair. Ria started playing with her hair, and I laughed. It was adorable that she found me attractive.

I sat down on the foot of her bed and smiled, “What if you could.”

The mixture of her attraction to me and my natural calming factor was working wonders, “Could what?”

“If you could have that, if you could do that, if you could be that?” I asked her, “What would you do then?”

Ria sniffled but I think she got it, “I would relax.”

Relax, she wanted to relax. I resisted the urge to smirk. If she wished to relax then there would be a lot of room to play around with that. Have her sleep forever, in a coma that is, like sleeping beauty? Or maybe I could just kill her and take her soul that way. After all death is eternal rest.

“I can give you that, you’ll be able to relax as long as you want.”

Ria thought for a second then shook her head, “I don’t want to just relax, I want to be able to relax. To not have to work hard, to just be able to relax and still excel in life. I don’t want to have to break myself in order to succeed.”

I cocked my head a bit, “But working hard gets you what you want in life, you need to work hard in order to succeed.”

“Do you think half the millionaires in this world worked hard!?” Ria exploded, “Why do they get to relax and have everything while I need to. I need to work 10 times as hard in order to just get a fraction of what they have! Mom works 50 hours a week and I never see Dad during the day.” Ria’s tears were hot and free flowing by this point. I scooted closer to her and rubbed her back a bit, “Samuel never has time to hike with me anymore, he says he needs to constantly be practicing in order to be captain of the chess team. And the only thing Jonathan can say about law school is how little he sleeps nowadays.”

I could infer that Jonathan was her oldest brother, already in law school while his little siblings were still in highschool. I wondered what the story was about that. Ria dissolved into tears, tears for her family that didn’t have time for her anymore, tears for her parents that were working hard for a daughter that didn’t want to, and tears for her siblings that were missing out on life.

She leaned into my chest, she must have been really sad. From what I understood the targets normally didn’t let their guards down that much.

“I can’t do it, I can’t do it,” she whispered, “I wish I could but I can’t. Mom always tells me to work hard and Dad is already suggesting majors to me. I don’t want to be the disappointment, that’s why I still get As, but I can’t keep doing this.”

“Tell me what you want, Ria.” I whispered into her ear, I was fully hugging her at this point, “Tell me and I can give it to you.”

She broke away from me at this point, her cheeks were wet but the black shirt I was wearing wasn’t. This I think tipped her off, but still somehow she wasn’t panicking.

“Who are you?” she said softly, I think all of the crying had worn away at her voice.

I petted her head, listing what I was could be scary and I wanted to keep her relaxed in my presence.

“I am the eyes you know are in the darkness, the teeth in the shadows, the one watching you from the starless sky.” I said softly, and she didn’t seem to panic, “I am the thing in the darkness and I know you.”

“How do you know me,” her dark brown eyes looked into mine. In that moment I put something behind the infinite darkness of my eyes. I wondered if she would ever stare long enough to find out what it was.

I laughed a bit, trying to get her to think I was a little embarrassed, “I’ve been watching you for about a week now Ria, I noticed that you have something that you really wanted in life and I wanted to give that to you.”

She pulled on her hair, it seems like she really was embarrassed, “You didn’t need to do that, you could have just asked me a week ago.”

I brushed her face with my hand, it was still wet and a little sticky but she had stopped crying at least, “I wanted to get to know you Ria. And now I do. What do you want, tell me and I can give it to you.”

She thought for a second, it was more like she was thinking about how to phrase it. Ria already knew what she wanted, she just didn’t know how to wish for it.

While she was thinking her mom came upstairs, wanted to ask her if she had finished her homework. With just a thought I put some darkness around the door, nothing big, just enough to deter any normal human being from approaching it. I wished that I could control her mind, manipulate her limbs, or make her just disappear. But at this point I was still a young soul-eater, Ria would be my first soul. Once I had eaten her soul I would get more power, and it seemed like I was almost there.

“I want to be irresistible and for everything I make or put effort into be irresistible as well.” I smiled, she had really put some thought into it, “I want everything to give me what I want and think of me positively. This goes especially for job and college applications as well, no matter what I always want to be accepted.”

That sounded like hell, how would you know if you are actually good at something or if it was just the wish? I didn’t even need to put a negative spin on Ria’s wish, give it three months and she would be begging me to take away her soul. An amazing deal for a brand new-soul eater. I had worked hard to become who I was, and I knew that without hard work, without that feeling of accomplishment life would be nothing.

“Alright,” I said, “I can give you that. But I do need one thing from you.”

“What is it?”

This was where I could lose her, “It's really the promise that I need. The energy of you promising something important to me is what will give me the energy to grant your wish. Don’t think too hard about the sticker price, think instead about what you will be getting.”

She nodded, “What do you need me to promise you for it to work?”

Again I petted her hair and the look she gave me was so trusting. I guess an attractive wish granter promising the world, promising everything she knew could never happen, would put anyone in a state of complete bliss.

Technically what I told her was true, the energy from her promise would power the wish. But what I didn’t tell her was that I needed to eventually get her soul. The potential energy needed to be converted to kinetic energy for it all to work. I would need to get her soul. She hadn’t thought enough about her wish, I could almost feel the slippery, sunlit energy of her soul.

“I need your soul, Ria.”

I must have done a good job talking to her, she didn’t jump away from me just looked a little concerned. Like she had cracked her phone screen and was worried about the price.

“But what will I do without a soul?” she asked.

I shook my head and for good measure laughed, “It's just a promise remember. Like how even though Audible could take away your books for any reason it doesn’t. Think of it like signing a contract, it's just paper. Don’t worry, just think about how great your life will be. No need to work for anything, you’ll have the space to relax.”

This seemed to bolster her confidence, “Alright, you can have my soul-”

She stopped and for a second I thought she had rethought everything, “Actually what’s your name?”

I knew that some of the older soul-eaters had names, names that would send shivers down your spine, names that would blind you just for thinking of them, names that would make you melt. But when Ria asked me that I didn’t have anything to say to her.

“Call me whatever you wish, Ria.” I smiled.

“Alright,” she said, but she didn’t even suggest any names, “I’m ready to promise me your soul.”

As much as I wanted her soul I was shocked and intrigued at how little she was thinking of this. What was she thinking? Was I missing something? It was my first deal I didn’t want to get tricked.

“Would you really promise your soul just so you don’t have to work hard?” I asked her, then, pushing the boundaries a bit I cupped her face, “You’re smart, you’re pretty, you could get far in life if you worked hard. Is this promise worth it for you?”

She laughed bitterly, her sadness having seamlessly converted to anger, “Nathaniel’s in law school now. He doesn’t have friends, he has connections, he’s studying 12 hours a day after his 5 hours of classes, he has like two side hustles. And I know that he thinks it's worth it, but I don’t. I don’t want to be exhausted when I grow up, I want to live, not just hustle.”

Even if she didn’t want to be exhausted I thought that she was underestimating how much the satisfaction of hard work played in her life. She was angry, just thinking about what she didn’t want instead of what she actually wanted her life to be. I could have talked her down, could have reminded her how amazing life could be with that satisfaction. But I wasn’t there to be her therapist, I was there to get her soul.

“Alright, how long do you want the wish to last?” I asked her, in order for it to work every promise would need to have a time limit. Some predestined date where all of the potential energy would start to convert.

“Forever,” Ria responded.

I laughed, “Nothing can last forever, Ria.” And then seeing that she was getting apprehensive again I decided to go for a compromise, “But things can last a lifetime, things can last ten years, however long you wish Ria.”

She nodded, “Alright I want it to last the rest of my life.”

I had the promise, the time frame, and what she wanted. It was ready, I could almost taste her soul. Before Ria had any more time to think I grabbed her face, sinking my fingers into her cheeks. I looked deep into her eyes, deeper than any human could. Her retinas, her optic nerve, I saw her brain. When I could see the lighting jumping between her neurons the deal was sealed and I disappeared.

Ria was left lying on her bed, feet dangling over the edge, with a light buzzing in her head. She got up to do her homework, wondering if it had all been real.

I recently read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and it kind of inspired this story. I’m trying to put more emotion into my stories. Please tell me if Ria’s character felt believable or if I got her emotions across. Have an amazing weekend!

#amwriting #writing #creative writing #short story #writers #My writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #demon #deal #original #story #My Story #My characters #historical fiction #original writing #original fiction #Original Work #etddivine

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nalgenewhore · 5 years ago

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A rogue storm had her presumed dead and stranded on the red planet. Left on her own, astronaut Aelin Galathynius has four years to make it to the next drop-site, some two thousand miles. Armed with her smarts and dwindling supplies, Aelin attempts to survive on an inhospitable planet, when the nearest help is only millions of miles away.

masterlist - ao3 - next chapter

Fuck this entire planet, Aelin Galathynius thought to herself as yet another bead of sweat trickled down between her shoulder blades. She wished she could wipe her brow, the stupid cooling system in her space suit was nothing in comparison to the blazing sun. Stupid planet, stupid planet with no atmosphere.

It wasn’t just the sun, the piece of machinery she held was worth more than her entire life and with Fenrys Marama cracking jokes over the comms, she was not paying as much attention as she should. “I really hope that penetration test goes well for you, Ace. Is the core still soft?”

Despite herself, she huffed a laugh, “I’ll have you know that the CPT is no joke and this is serious science.”

“Oh, please,” his cocky voice crackled through the headset, “you’re a dirt engineer.”

Lorcan Salvaterre, from where he was helping Aelin steady the drill for the core penetration test, rolled his eyes but stayed silent, wanting to know where the argument was leading. The blonde astronaut was quick to reply, “Geotechnical and it’s soil, Mr. Fancy Aerospace Engineer. Isn’t your job today confirming that the FAV is still upright?”

Dry laughter was heard from their other crew members and Fenrys bit back, “Actually, it’s visual inspection of mission vehicles.” He paused for a second, “I’m very happy to report that on base inspection, the FAV is in good shape and yes, it’s still upright, dipshit.”

Before Aelin could speak, their commander cut in, “If you guys stopped leaving your comms open, we could all be exempt from the truly witty commentary.”

She frowned down at Lorcan Salvaterre, the mission leader and mechanical engineer, sticking her tongue out at her friend who smirked in response. A gentle, cool voice spoke up, “Happy to shut them off from here, Salvaterre.”

The golden-haired man child squawked in protest, “Hey! Radios are our only way of communication on this inhospitable planet-“

“Shut them off, Faliq.” The next thing Aelin heard was a slight static and then complete silence. “Oh, this is nice,” Lorcan said, the only person who could speak now. “We need fifty samples, G, one hundred grams each.”

Since her radio had been cut, she could only give him a thumbs up and focused on the task at hand. After a few minutes, the radio crackled back to life, Nesryn’s voice tight with worry, “Commander… you’re gonna want to see this.”

Lorcan’s head lifted up and he turned to look at the surface habitat, like their mission’s system operator could see him, “What is it, Faliq?”

A shiver of nervous energy straightened Aelin’s spine and she stopped the drill, her brow furrowing and her hands becoming clammy.

“Mission update. Storm warning.”

“I saw that on this morning’s briefing, we’ll be inside before it hits.”

“Storm’s gonna be a lot worse, estimate says to prepare for emergency departure.” Aelin breathed sharply as Lorcan exhaled, turning to look over her head at the horizon, his dark eyes calculating. “Commander?”

When his eyes slid to Aelin’s, she felt her heart drop. They were fucked. “Everyone inside the hab. Now.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

All crowded around Nesryn’s computer, staring at the screen where the words, ‘Abort mission’ flashed across it underneath the storm estimate, tension was high. Hardly anybody dared to breathe as the dark-haired computer engineer read the update, “…eleven-hundred kilometres in diameter…”

“That’s heading straight for us,” said Rowan Whitethorn, the mission doctor, tapping his finger on the screen and tracing the trajectory. “What’s the estimate force, Nes?”

The beginnings of the storm shook the structure and Aelin saw Elide Lochan’s - resident chemist - eyes narrow for a second before a mask of indifference settled over her features, even as she hooked her pinky around Lorcan’s, the black diamond ring on her left-hand glinting. They shared a small smile that made Aelin’s heart ache, but now wasn’t the time to be thinking of such things. They had a mission to worry about, she could fret over her aching soul later, Aelin chastised herself as her gaze flicked to the green-eyed man across the desk from her.

“Ninety-two thousand Newtons,” Nesryn all but whispered, her voice aghast.

Lorcan swore, tangling the remainder of his fingers with Elide’s and squeezing, “What’s the abort force?”

“Seventy-five thousand,” Fenrys read, his brows wrinkled with worry as he ran his hand over his short hair, brushing it forward into the wave pattern like he did when he was stressed, “any higher and the FAV will tip.”

“We’re scrubbed?” asked Aelin, worrying her bottom lip, the voice of her mother telling her not to do that sounding in her mind. All her life’s work, the whole crew’s life’s work just gone. The mission they’d worked themselves ragged for, over. Just like that. She wasn’t ashamed of the tears that pricked her eyes.

Red letters flashed across the screen, Prepare for emergency departure.

Elide’s calming voice brought the crew back, as she stepped away from Lorcan and leaned over the computer, analyzing what was on the screen, “Maybe it won’t be as bad as they say, they’re estimating a significant margin of error.”

Everyone turned to Lorcan, in the end – it was his call to make. Aelin nodded in agreement with Elide’s words, “Let’s wait it out.” His face was emotionless as his eyes shuttered, that mind of his running through each scenario he could think of. “Let’s wait it out,” she repeated.

They waited with bated breath until Lorcan shook his head once, “Prepare for emergency departure.”

“But-“

“That’s an order, G.” No one commented on the barely heard words, a look of mourning on Lorcan’s face. “We’re scrubbed.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Debris struck the sides of the airlock tunnel as Nesryn pulled down the latch of the door, “Ready, Commander.”

Everyone turned to Lorcan, their suits and headlamps on. “Visibility is almost zero, stay together and if you get lost, follow my suit’s telemetry,” he indicated the bio-monitor on his arm with which they could home in on each other’s location and other various functions, “Wind picks up further from the hab, so be prepared.”

The airlock door opened and the six astronauts struggled further into the sandstorm, each step requiring full body effort. The three women tucked behind the men, keeping close, hands on oxygen regulators.

Through the screaming sound of the storm, they heard metal creaking – the Farnor Ascent Vehicle. Aelin stepped out from behind Lorcan, barely able to see her fellow crew members. “We need to shore up the FAV,” she yelled, hardly able to hear her own voice. If it somehow tipped, without them in it to launch, they would never get it up again.

“How,” Fenrys asked, his voice straining above the storm as he pushed along, Elide close behind him.

“We can-“ Aelin screamed as something ripped free from the habitat structure and crashed into her, lifting her off the ground and throwing her out of sight.

“Aelin!” Elide’s scream pierced the monotony of the whirling debris. Everyone froze, looking to where they had last seen her.

“What happened?”

“Something hit her and she was just gone, she flew west,” Elide cried, her voice shaking. That was her oldest friend, her sister-

“Galathynius, report.”

Nothing but static. Nesryn looked down at her bio-monitor, pressing on Aelin’s suit button. “Her suit’s offline, I don’t know-“

“Galathynius, report,” Lorcan’s voice broke and again, nobody answered him.

“Her decompression alarm went off,” Rowan said, “she has less than a minute.”

Lorcan’s stomach dropped, “Shit, ok, ok, Marama, get to the FAV and prepare for launch, everyone else, home in on Lochan.”

As Fenrys took off to the rocket, leaving Elide to face the storm herself, she stumbled, “I can’t see anything.” Slowly, too slowly, the remaining crew members struggled their way to her and huddled together.

“We’re gonna line up and walk west. Small steps, she’s probably prone and we don’t want to step on her,” said Lorcan, his voice raised. They nodded, confirming the plan and set out, eyes wide open, hands out as precaution in case… they tripped over her body. “Doc, report on Galathynius.”

Rowan read the information on his suit’s computer, “Faliq, her bio-monitor sent something, a ‘raw packet’-“

“Yeah, I got that,” Nesryn confirmed, reading what the others couldn’t. “BP 0, PR 0, TP 36.2.”

“Copy. Blood pressure, 0, pulse rate, 0, temperature, 32.6.”

“Temp’s normal,” Elide commented, confusion clouding her mind, “why is her temp normal.” It wasn’t a question.

As realization set in, Rowan paled, “It takes a while for, it takes a while for the body to… cool. Blood’s still hot.” At that, everyone stopped, whirling to Rowan where he flanked Nesryn and Elide.

“Commander,” Fenrys’ voice crackled over the radio, “we’re tilting to nine degrees, with wind pushing to eleven. It’ll tip at twelve.”

“If it tips, can you launch before it hits the ground?”

The pilot hesitated, “Uh… yes, sir, I can take manual control.”

“Copy that, everyone, get to Marama. Prepare for launch.”

Nesryn started, “What about you, Commander?”

“I’m going to keep looking, get to the FAV.” Nobody moved, Elide’s eyes wider than ever before and filled with tears. “Now.”

“You really think I’m leaving you behind,” Fenrys asked, his voice breaking. “Lor-“

“I just ordered you to, now get moving,” Lorcan said, in a tone that brook no arguments. When they still didn’t move, he cursed, “Fucking hell, I said go.”

With that, Nesryn and Elide tucked behind Rowan as they made their way to the FAV.

Once they were in the airlock and had pressurized the vehicle, Elide swore, low and in Blackbeak, “Dilo, what is he doing.” She was the first up into the cabin next to Fenrys, eyes on her fiancé’s telemetry, “He’s going too slow, he won’t be able to find her in time.” Nesryn and Rowan climbed up into the cabin and the silver-haired man was nearly shaking, eyes wide.

“Commander, we’re at 11.5 degrees, you need to get back here-“

“Faliq, can you use the proximity radar to find her?”

“It only works for metal, there’s not a single piece of metal on any of our suits.” Defeat bled through her voice.

“Copy. Give it a try,” Lorcan told her, still determined to leave no being behind.

“Lorcan, I know you don’t want to hear this,” said Elide, “but Galathy… Aelin’s dead.”

“Try the fucking radar.”

Fenrys shot Elide a look, “The fuck is wrong with you, Lochan?”

Her dark eyes were unreadable and she strapped herself into her acceleration seat, “My sister is dead, I don’t want my fiancé dead too.”

Their pilot went silent at that and turned his eyes back to the controls, “Negative on the radar, Commander.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Lorcan muttered, groaning in frustration and desperation. He was grasping at straws; they all knew it. “Nothing?”

Rowan had gone silent in his seat next to Elide and he offered her a bleak look, tight-lipped, when she reached over and squeezed his hand, no words to say. Everyone knew what had been between Aelin and Rowan, except for maybe themselves. Nesryn shook her head, “It can barely see the hab, there’s not enough-“

The FAV let out a screeching sound as it tipped more and Fenrys barked out, “Commander, you need to get back to the ship now. I got one more trick and then we’re fucked.”

Silence on the comms. Fenrys tried again, “Commander-“

“Copy that,” Lorcan bit out. “How far?”

“11.9”

Elide spoke, “Salvaterre, Galathynius is gone. We need to get out of here.”

Lorcan said not a word. Finally, Nesryn pleaded, “Lorcan, she’s gone, ok? We need you here.”

“Roger that,” his voice was defeated, “on my way.”

Despite themselves, they all let out a relieved sigh, breath they didn’t know they were holding. Maybe a minute later, the airlock whooshed and Lorcan appeared, staying dead silent and not meeting anyone’s eyes as he strapped himself in next to Fenrys. “Prepared for launch.”

“Roger that, Commander.”

The ship began to shake as Fenrys blasted the jets, pulling them up and out of the storm. The only words spoken were from the control system, marking every one-hundred metre mark they reached.

Half an hour later, they were docking on their rocket station, named The Lani, after the goddess of dreams – their expedition The Matron , phase two of a three-part mission. Once they had completed the post-boarding instructions, Lorcan spoke, rubbing his eyes as his shoulders slumped, “We’re done for the day, don’t worry about logs or the mission. I’ll, um, I’ll send a report.”

Everyone nodded and dispersed, grim looks on their faces. Lorcan stayed behind, leaning against the wall of the airlock. Elide waited by him, cupping the side of his neck and stroking her thumb over his jaw as it feathered and he dragged his eyes to hers. “I’m sorry.”

She just shook her head, indicating she wouldn’t speak of it now, “Not now, love.” Her lip trembled, her face crumpling before Lorcan tugged her against him and cradled the back of her head. She cried silently into his chest, her tears soaking through his shirt. All he could do was bury his face in her hair and whisper his apology, his heart splintering in his chest.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

It was late. The other crew members were in their sleep-cabins, mourning the loss of their friend, no. Not friend, family. Their family was broken now. Lorcan was still up, sitting in the central area, staring at the blinking cursor on the computer.

With a heavy sigh, he began to type the report to the flight and crew director, Manon Blackbeak.

Blackbeak,

Mission Specialist Aelin Galathynius is presumed dead after being struck by debris during the storm late this afternoon on Farnor, day 18 of our 31-day stay. The remaining crewmembers were forced to abort the mission. Awaiting mission directions.

Commander Salvaterre

After sending it, anger sparked in his chest, indignation of the fucking unfairness of it. With a snarl, he slammed the laptop shut and stalked to the window, looking down at the planet until his eyes blurred and stung but still he watched, eyes roving over the red dirt as if he would be able to spot her body.

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#supernova #supernova chapter one #the martian au #rowaelin #rowan x aelin #aelin ashryver galathynius #rowan whitethorn #elorcan #elide x lorcan #elide lochan #lorcan salvaterre #fenrys moonbeam #nesryn faliq #isa writes #nalgenewhore

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