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tartrazeen · 2 years ago

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Left 4 Dead 1+2: Tartra's Everyone-Is-Magic-Because-Zombies Headcanon

uwu

I've got a few chunks of my personal headcanons that I wanna share. They're all about my "everyone who's still alive has superpowers now" HC, and it breaks non-zombie humanity down into one of three groups:

- Pre-Infected: the people who haven't been exposed to the Green Flu yet

- Common Infected: people who are infected with a non-Special strain of the Green Flu

- Special Infected: people who are infected with one of the eight major mutations in the Green Flu

Pre-Infected folks are the single most dangerous group left in the world. They're a complete unknown, because they could - at any moment - suddenly be exposed and turn into a rampaging Tank or be completely asymptomatic. No one knows and no one wants to take that chance, so any survivor communities are built with the very clear understanding that they can't take any Pre-Infected in. It's a problem that's slowly solving itself anyway, 'cause the number of these guys is dropping hard and fast.

Common Infected are your typical normies. They are completely asymptomatic, or else so mildly mutated that it's basically a weird physical abnormality that could've totally existed before the Green Flu. In a world where Pre-Infected are disappearing, 'Carriers' and 'Immune' no longer hold any weight. You're not a zombie, so that's all that matters. This is obviously the bulk of every survivor; to borrow the game mechanics, the distribution of common infected to special infected is exactly what you'd see in a Normal campaign.

Commons don't really get any extra abilities, just like how the Uncommon construction workers simply happened to be wearing ear muffs. The most mutated aren't mutated enough to get a physical boost from it (sorry, Mudmen), so being one of these means you've got a pretty normal life ahead in the post-zombie apocalypse world. Technically they're all a bit stronger and more physically resistant than Pre-Infected, but since they all have that, there's no advantage if you compared them against each other.

And now we get into the Special Infected. :3

HOW THEY WORK

I made these up to borrow from the game mechanics, but also to keep things from getting way too overpowered. Part of my endless self-indulgence is keeping it from being too self-indulgent- except in the case of one, which I'll get to in a bit uwu

So each Special Infected gets the same abilities, with each person having a stronger or weaker variations based on just... well, people being different. But they also get drawbacks to keep them from being only "zombies but fully sentient and still hot" (by which I mean, up until they hit those drawbacks, they're literally just normal people with magical zombie powers uwu)

On average in this HC world, most survivors only survived because of one of two reasons:

1. They had a very large group of Common Infected survivors (like 40 or so) and simply powered through, losing numbers as they went, until they wound up somewhere safe

2. They had the right kind of Special Infected to help them survive

Because not all Special Infected are equally useful, and the very useful ones come with a hefty cost.

And that's my nod to the game: with only having four survivors on a team, the fact that we got to the end with seven out of eight still alive? That's the extremely lucky result of ALL our characters being Special Infected. When I have them finally show up to a community, they're hit with the standard bonding question of, "How many did you lose?" And hearing "one" or "oh, nobody" is absolutely mind-boggling, because not only is it lucky, but a lot of these Special Infected can be lethal combinations.

There are also a few that come with personality 'adjustments', so as the Special Infected started figuring their abilities out, they also realized there was a bit of a 'type' to go along with them. It's not "everyone who does X is immediately Y," but more "You're a Witch? Yeah, you seem like it."

A lot of that has to do with what makes that mutation kicks in. There's a certain physiological combination that has to happen that makes the Green Flu mutate in a person (which is different from there being different variations of the Green Flu); you've gotta have the right chemicals in your brain or body to trigger everything. You don't just get the "Smoker Strain" and automatically get spat out as a Smoker. You get the Green Flu outright, and then depending on whether you've got the right stuff, you'll end up as a Smoker as the Green Flu runs around your system. It happens at the same time as that "is this person gonna be a feral zombie or asymptomatic" point.

That's how I explain any zombies looking different between the first game and the second (whatever's in your body is based on regional differences) and how I handwave any further mutations (everyone's hot and isn't going to suddenly shapeshift into something different or grow claws or transform in any way). And that's how I explain why our survivors still look like themselves despite all this.

THE SURVIVORS

Don't @ me over which survivor gets what Special Infected. This is *my* self-indulgent HC and it's my birthday. 😤

Anyway, here it is!

- Coach = Charger

- Rochelle = Hunter

- Nick = Witch

- Ellis = Jockey

- Louis = Smoker

- Francis = Boomer

- Zoey = Spitter

- Bill = I don't like Bill. He's dead. 😤

WHAT THEY CAN DO

I'm not gonna go in the same order, sorry 😅

I'm going in order of benefit/liability to a team. In my HC, it's been at least four straight months (at the earliest) before our survivors find a community. I also make them link back up with each other, but I've got different HCs around the when and how. Usually it's at the three-month mark, so they get a whole month to be a team but there's still a thin line of "immediate family" and "our group": L4D1 guys stick to each other like the L4D2 do. Even though they intermingle and everything, it's like, "I was with these guys first. If we ever go our separate ways, I'm going with them" and "Hmm. We need to think about this. Okay, everyone go to your family meeting and we'll talk in ten."

So since then, the other survivors in thene communities have had hundreds of people with nothing to do but fight zombies and make observations. While doing that, they came up with a general consensus on how 'good' each Special Infected was, and also what 'symptoms' or behaviours each Special Infected tend to exhibit if you had to make an educated guess about someone.

In my head, someone actually put those notes together and made like a field manual that they hand out to folks and dump off in different cities. It's meant to teach other roaming survivors how to use their abilities (if they have any) well enough to survive and reach one of these communities.

All the rankings are out of 10, with a 1 being "Average Common Infected". :3

BOOMER

Benefit - 2

Liability - 1

The physically least resilient and the least superhumanly powered. Damn near a Common Infected themselves, really, and in no way mutated enough to projectile vomit bile - or even make the kind of bile that'd attract zombies.

What Boomers can do - which is very much appreciated, all early-apocalypse-things considered - is not smell bad.

That doesn't mean they don't stink. It means that even when you can smell their BO, they just weirdly don't smell bad. It's like something that you know is gross, but in such an interesting way that you kinda can't stop sniffing it. Very weird, the embodiment of both "shit doesn't stink" and "everyone likes their own brand," but not super useful unless you don't have access to deodorant.

'Cause of this, Boomers tend to be notably more chummy and sociable.

At the time of their infection, Boomers were - to some degree - drunk.

SMOKER

Benefit - 2

Liability - 2

Also pretty basic. They don't have extra tongues, they can't shoot one of their head, so the only thing they have going for them is that they can cough up some smoke.

Some Smokers can't turn that off, so it's like a constant 24/7 vape cloud, which is a problem in the same way as blowing cigarette smoke into the face of someone that doesn't smoke. It might not be a super thick cloud - maybe just a haze - but it'll linger.

Some luckier Smokers have to actively choose and try to get a smoke cloud going. These ones are better, because then at least you can hang out around them without coughing. But none of them (so far) have been able to produce a cloud as heavy as the actual zombie, so even that isn't good enough to use as a smokescreen unless it's already kind of cloudy around them. They're truly only useful at irritating other people's throats and lungs.

Which makes them very, very, very useful when it comes to dealing with an uncooperative Witch, and very, very, very dangerous around any kind of Tank. :3

'Cause of this, Smokers tend to be a little more apologetic and alert.

At the time of their infection, Smokers were - in some way - gassy.

SPITTER

Benefit - 3

Liability - 2

The last of the less-useful ones (I swear, I didn't put them all on the L4D1 side on purpose), Spitters - again - can't do nearly as much as the zombie can. They aren't drooling acid, but if they did spit on a napkin, there'd be a hole burned in after maybe two minutes of leaving it there. It makes making out with them kind of interesting. Mostly they're a liability to themselves, because there's also a weirdly sour taste in their mouths, their eyes sting from always feeling dry, and the polite ones usually have holes in the elbows of their sleeves from sneezing or coughing into them.

They don't seem to respond to their own acid, on the bright side, so their teeth seem to be doing okay, and they don't get any indigestion, food poisoning, or poisoning at all. Their stomachs seem to be triple-lined from the max of their physical mutation, so even if it'd take ten of them spitting on a lock to burn a door open, they can get through any kind of foodstuff like it was candy. Will rotten food still taste gross? Yes. But if rations are low and everybody's starving, you can can always dump the worst stuff onto the Spitter, who won't get sick and wouldn't like how the good food tastes sour to them anyway.

'Cause of this, Spitters tend to be a little more resentful and bitter.

At the time of their infection, Spitters were - in some way - nauseous.

HUNTER

Benefit - 5

Liability - 1

Aaaand here we go. :)

Survivors with the Hunter strain are one of the 'core' Special Infected to have on a team. They're almost always pure reward, no risk, and clear-headed (compared to the effects that other Special Infected strains have on people). They're also one of the first to have had a clear 'type' of person to turn into one. Instead of their abilites leading them to change their behaviour (like a Smoker starts to be on guard to apologize for making everyone cough), a Hunter was already 'like' that.

Although they aren't mutated enough to ever get those sweet jumps, the Hunters take right from the game mechanics: they can see, they can track, and they can identify.

If they're around a person long enough to know how that person sounds, walks, moves, and wanders, they'll be able to see what's effectively an 'aura' (read: outline) around that person regardless of where they are. The better Hunters will see a perfectly defined silhouette that'll even change in intensity or colour depending on how stressed or injured their friend is, while the weaker ones might only see a vague light patch, but they can all see these regardless of weather, light, or physical obstructions (e.g. they can see you poppin' a squat even through a brick wall). The theory's that it's a mutation in their ears *and* their eyes, and possibly even their nose and other various senses.

The same goes for zombies. If they know enough about a type of Special Infected, the stronger Hunters can see right through a wall to warn others that it's there in advance. It makes them excellent for navigating safely around a zombie-infested city or for actively tracking something down to get rid of it. They're the most likely to survive on their own and often credited as the reason many groups can make it to a safe community. Field teams in the later months consider Hunters so necessary, they're simply assumed to be a standard part of every single one.

The main liability of a Hunter is - again - mostly for themselves: they can't exactly cover their eyes and stop seeing what it is their Hunter sense is picking up on. That makes waking up at night pretty damn awkward when it's to see what two of your inappropriately-happy-blue-outlined teammates are doing in the other room. The liability for the team is that - uh... well.

Hunters are pretty much the gossips of the Special list. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Wonderfully ironic for the quietest zombie, but very reasonable for a person who is constantly seeing everybody's business.

'Cause of this, Hunters tend to *be* in everybody's business.

At the time of their infection, Hunters were focused on a single task by willfully suppressing their suite of adrenaline-fuelled flight/fight/freeze/appease responses (read: distractions).

CHARGER

Benefit - 6

Liability - 5

Chargers have a different sort of benefit/liability rating. Where the others mean "This is how much they'll help " versus "This is the damage they'll cause in return," the benefit of a Charger is that they *will* bring the pain. The liability is "okay, and when does that inconveniently run out?"

On the plus side, Chargers physically mutated to have some kind of armour. Their muscles have become dense enough that things can't pierce or crush them like the others, and their skin has thickened to stop many of the cuts they'd normally get. Even better, the Charger's superstrength is second only to the Tank, and at a fraction of the price (i.e. having to deal with a Tank).

Sometimes.

That density and 'thick skin' only comes from actively flexing and holding it. Since Chargers haven't mutated as much as the zombie to have a permanent flex (to the point that all the blood rushes into one arm and beefs it up to the size of a cow), they have to build it up and keep up that effort for as long as they tap into that ability. The process of flexing takes energy and releasing it - like you were holding your breath - means having to do it all over again if they release it.

This would be great if there were only a handful of zombies to get through. Unfortunately, there's a planet of them now, and Chargers often run out of superhuman steam at inopportune times.

'Cause of this, Chargers tend to be a little strict about sticking to a plan.

At the time of their infection, Chargers were straining to physically exert themselves - and suddenly getting a second wind.

JOCKEY

Benefit - 7

Liability - 6 to 8

Jockeys have one exceptional advantage over the other Special Infected: they have the most rounded, most complete package of abilities, and it is *always* in effect.

They aren't as strong as zombie Chargers - but unlike human Chargers, they always have that strength. Maybe they can't flip over a car like a Charger could (or throw it like a Tank), but they can lift up the front and keep it held for nearly a minute.

They can't jump as high as zombie Hunters - but unlike human Hunters, they can jump at all. The average height of a running jump is almost a full storey (yeah, a little under 14 feet), but the more practiced ones jump from wall to wall like they've seen zombie Hunters do. Even better, all Jockeys can land safely from a three-storey freefall. The better ones can land from four storeys. Five storeys is where injuries start to happen. That does *not* mean Jockeys won't do it.

They might not be so mutated as to have that infamous Jockey hump (or lipless grin), but they have fantastically solid hands and grip strength to rockclimb over any dilapidated building. In terms of getting around, that makes Jockeys unparalleled superhuman parkour wizards, who can scale a building, drop a rock to crush some threat, grab an injured friend for a piggyback ride, and then zip back out and over to a safe escape. They're an excellent combination to have with a Hunter, who can spot for them and talk out a route.

The drawbacks?

🙃

The drawbacks.

From here on out, the remaining zombies have what's called a 'feral state'. Technically every survivor has one, but many of the others' are hard to trigger or even stumble into. Jockeys have one, and it has to do with their strain's psychological effect.

Jockeys have an fairly uncontrollable attachment to one or two targets. With conscious permission, a Jockey can part with those targets for a few days. Beyond that, or taking those targets without that conscious permission, starts a quickly deteriorating state of paranoia, delirium, and exhaustion. This goes on until whatever's been lost comes back into their possession, or if it's finally been long enough that they can have their attachment redirected to something new. That can take days or weeks and is universally understood as a debilitating, miserable time - but also not much better than the frenzied, screaming, Jockey-hyena-laugh euphoria that comes whenever they get their 'stolen stuff' back, which can just as easily lead to destroying that very thing out of blind excitement.

The fortunate news about a Jockey accidentally destroying their own stuff is how it brings an immediate sense of feral closure; essentially, the Jockey resets and can pick a new target to fixate on. This does not, unfortunately, work for others destroying that stuff instead. At worst, it'll count as stolen and kick off the 'loss' cycle immediately. At best, it'll be done with the Jockey's permission, and kick off the cycle a few days later. And that's not getting into the very real, very human reaction the Jockey'll have towards that loss once they snap out of it. Fixating on and losing an inanimate object is one thing, but when that object was sentimental or even a *person*...

That was the good news.

The bad news is the feral state is not their liability. 🙃

When I said "the full package is always in effect," I meant it. Jockeys have serious attention issues - in that they've got way, way too much of it for whatever it is they're fixated on.

In the middle of a zombie swarm and running for your life and your Jockey notices they dropped their lucky keychain? "Oops - be right back :)"

Threw a pipebomb between your Jockey, a Tank, and their favourite, shiny rock? "NOOOOO *kicks the pipebomb out of the room and into another teammate's face*"

Have a Jockey at a critical moment of action at the same time that they notice you're leaving with their BFF? "🤔now where are they off to - *smashed in the head by a Volvo*"

The hugging is cute. Adorable even. And then it keeps going. And then it gets clingy. And then it's an anchor to wherever the Jockey wants their favourite thing in the world to be. The worst of the Jockeys will go full Rapunzel with their objects and keep it locked up - which is why they have quite a reputation among survivors as being threats. The 'reasonable' and less infected Jockeys will at least negotiate a schedule about where their stuff is allowed to go (and who's allowed to go with it). The 'good ones' - and all the implications of that term - will allow a clear, "Fuck *off*" to register in their head as, "I would like to borrow this please and thank you," buying everyone some time apart. Some.

In terms of awkward combinations, Jockeys and Chargers are a mixed bag. So long as the Jockey stays happy, the Charger has a perfect teammate on their hands. The instant that changes, every plan that Charger's made goes out the window.

Tanks, fairly obviously, are a bad choice.

On paper, a Jockey and Witch seem like a great pair. In practice, the Witch'll either have some company that can entertain itself or the nightmare situation of having to entertain *it*.

But yeah, beyond that, Jockeys are pretty good.

'Cause of that, Jockeys tend to be pretty active in exploring their abilities.

At the time of their infection, they were - in some degree - in withdrawal.

WITCH

Benefit: 0 or 9 to 10

Liability: 9

✨uwu ✨

Okay - bear with me. I said 'self-indulgent,' right? Here it is.

Witches can singggggggggggg!

And by singing, they get all the widdle zombies to synchronize their heartbeats to the song's intensityyyyyyyy!

And depending on the intensity of the song itself and the intent/delivery of the song, the zombies can be controlled en masse in an area to obey a specific urge that's being communicateddddddddd!

What kind of effects, you ask?

- Completely ignoring the Witch like they're invisible!

- Standing perfectly frozen so survivors can walk right through them!

- Clearing an area!

- Gathering at an area!

- Amplifying the song so more zombies from farther away can also be affected!

- Going into a frenzied state and killing each other!

- Death!

In terms of cutesy little details, Witches can be heard humming to themselves, only to insist that they weren't making any noise at all! And they're right! What they're doing is unconsciously ✨translating✨the sound of the zombies around them into a melody that resonates with them because it reminds them of a song they have a deep emotional connection to, and not necessarily a positive one!

And through their physical mutation of having many, many, many vocal chords, they can use that, the sounds of the zombies around them, and the power of ✨Tartra's Self-Indulgent Fuck You I Think It's Awesome✨, they can effectively create the sound of a studio recording with full instruments that sounds suspiciously like something off of Tartra's Spotify playlist and that has a magical effect on all the zombies who are synchronized to it! Not the humans though, of course, because they have the presence of mind to not get completely hypnotized by it but instead intentionally breathe at on a different rhythm so they can detach themselves from the effect!

my playlists are never just playlists ✨uwu✨

This is elaborating wildly on the game's musical cues. Witches can't use it like a Hunter can to track something down, but the first notes are enough to resonate in a way they can associate with a Special Infected and blah blah blah that's where it's from

Anyway, these are the important parts.

First, not all Witches are equal. They aren't just singing a random song, but specifically one that means enough to them to have any sort of effect - and then on top of that, one that has the desired effect, and then one that fits the rhythm of the zombies they're trying to affect. Either they piggyback off of that and force the zombies to lean into it (e.g. if they're all walking around, it's not that much harder to make them waddle out of the way entirely), or - if they're strong enough, have the right intent, have the right song, give the right performance, and maintain the right concentration - they can just plop a new beat into the mix and make all the zombies fall in line to this new rhythm.

That's why 'singing a zombie to death' is the rarest of the rare abilities; you'd have to all of that line up and be strong enough to have that brand-new urge come out of nowhere, since the zombies aren't currently dead and you're trying to sell them on that.

i know one witch that can do it uwu

It's also an extremely difficult ability to discover. I don't know if you folks are aware of this but - uhhhhh... L4D zombies are attracted to sounds. So if someone's randomly singing and that effect isn't kicking in sometime during it to convince all the zombies to do something other than rip your face apart, your face is quite likely to, in fact, be ripped apart.

Then there's the deal with zombie Special Infected, who are immune from many things the Common aren't. Again, there's a certain level of infection/power/intent/performance/concentration that has to line up, or else you're singing a Spitter a very nice tune to murder you to.

And then, after you find a way to make so much noise in the first place and have managed to practice enough to know what kind of song and ✨feeling✨ it needs, you then need to deal with post-singing crash that swoops in, which is roughly two-thirds of the way to a feral state.

That's right! If everything goes exactly as planned, Witches put themselves in their feral state - just for fun! Surprise, you get to deal with a temporarily-real-quasi-zombie Witch until they snap out of their funk and come back to reality!

Now - that may seem like a lot of limitations, and almost more work than it's worth. Almost, though. It's still someone who can effectively control zombies, and even though there are layers and layers of ifs and buts (and I haven't even gotten to the liabilities yet), you could still put enough precautionary measures together to get through it. Obviously, this is a 9 or 10 on the ol' benefit scale. The - uh... the 0 seems a little harsh, because that means "even less useful than a human Common Infected," but Common Infected zombies can't sing a song so sweet that a Boomer says, "Wow, a lot of emotions here, I'm gonna leave and write in my diary now, goodbye."

🙃🙂🙃

Here's the thing.

Witches, much like Boomers, Smokers, and Spitters, tend find their infection leads to a change in their behaviour. Their feral state is not something they enjoy experiencing, and as a result, they're a little reluctant to jump into it. Drinking helps to dull the aftereffects of singing, but at the cost of their effect's strength. A group of Witches (i call it a choir ✨uwu✨) can sort of pass the effect onto each other in a sort of musical chairs/hot potato of not being the last one to sing, because the next one singing effectively gives them something to distract from all their ✨feelings✨. Even so, it's still a band-aid over the emotional cannonball to their gut, so they shy away from it.

Much like Jockeys, the infection itself has had psychological changes on them. Witches are in a constant state of being sad. Some days are better than others, some days it comes out as rage and on others, apathy; and some days they don't want to think about it and turn to their attention towards how *fucking* ridiculous it is to have *these* many sewers to get through.

Unique to Witches, that singing is a face-to-face confrontation of whatever they're usually trying not to think about, ripped raw and made the centre of attention for how long it lasts. The post-song crash might be over in like ten or fifteen minutes, but the effects it has on the person themselves is why a lot of these folks now drink if they didn't before.

Last, and worse, much like Hunters...

... a *lot* of Witches had a certain 'attitude' from even before they got infected.

I think - uh...

I think you can kinda guess what sort of attitude I'd be referring to.

So take all of that - all of it, the reluctance, the sadness, the feral state, and their propensity towards being a dick when they're unhappy - and give them a power that could not only change the tide of whatever fight they're in, but is actively sought after as the single-most absurdly magical ability you could ask for, and you get a definitive Benefit™ rating of...

... a fucking 0. 🙃

"Yeah, screw you, what do I get out of it? No, no - I know what *you* get out of it, but what do I get? Really? That's your best offer? Haha - okay, I'm gonna hum a little tune that makes me invisible. Good luck, come back if you're not dead when you have something actually I want."

What are you going to do, ask another Witch? They're all like that. They're assholes. And out of hundreds and hundreds of survivors in a community, there's only like a handful of Witches there at all. Assuming they managed to get a handle on their abilities without dying during the practice, there's still the actual drawback they have to go through.

Yeah - we still weren't at the liabilities yet. That was *still* talking about the benefits.

Their liability is how long they get between feral states (spoiler: not very).

Witches are driven by emotion. Slap a poker face on it all you want, but underneath, there's a pre- and post-infection focus on their feelings. Specifically, bad ones. Specifically, ones they don't really wanna deal with 'cause it's a lot. *They're* a lot, so that makes sense.

Leave a Witch alone for long enough, and they'll have nothing to distract themselves. Without a distraction, the infection - and actual human reaction they have on top of that - makes all those bad feelings come centre stage. Leave those feelings on centre stage long enough, and their eyes start getting an oddly bright shine to 'em, they start getting a little dizzy and need to sit, they start breathing heavy as the anxiety kicks in, and come closer and closer to realizing that they are truly alone with their thoughts.

This is - pun very intended - pretty *startling* for them.

So now you've got a frenzied Witch running around and screaming. The good news is that if you - uh, catch them early enough after this, you can almost instantly 'distract them back' to reality again. You're gonna have to deal with a now very embarrassed Witch that lost control, who will absolutely turn their embarrassment into your problem, but something as quick as making eye contact as soon as they sprint into the room can reset their "Oh, haha, I wasn't abandoned after all :)" timer. Let them run off and continue being alone, and the longer they're away, the harder and slower it is to pull them back - until eventually, you can't. It's been too long. The full infection finally caught up.

For you, the not-Witch, this is the easier method, and an extremely good (if not equally dick-ish) answer to "What do I get out of it?"

Note: your Witch won't be too thrilled with this.

The harder method, and the true source of that 9 for Liability, is to check in on the Witch and reset their timer for 'how long it's been since I was by myself'. How is that harder than having to hunt down a Witch that panicked and ran screaming into the night?

Simple: 🙃 now the Witch is literally still there.

The less friendly, higher attitude, emotionally compromised mess that a Witch will be as they get closer and closer to the end of their Countdown Until They Snap can make for a distinctly unpleasant experience, as you're basically walking in on them while they're starting to hyperventilate. They might only have gone from 0 to 40 so far, and at the moment their timer runs out, they'll go from 40 to 100 in less than a second, but a Witch at a 40 is still in a shitty, stressed-out mood.

What about interrupting earlier, you say, before your Witch gets that bad in the first place?

I'll hit ya with the plot twist in a bit, but in short, that means checking in on them even more frequently. Now instead of dealing with a human Witch on the verge of going feral, you're dealing with a human asshole who's pretty goddamn sick of you showing up all the time.

What about just quietly sitting in the room with them? Would that work?

Yes! It would! And fun fact, that's the best and easiest way to stop the timer from counting down at all!

You now have to deal with this Witch on a continuous basis. And not just a Witch, but a Witch who is becoming increasingly more aware of just how trapped they are. Especially if up to this point, they were only ever *coincidentally* trapped by having to squeeze inside a tiny safe room with three other people to survive, and had been putting up with it under the assumption that it was all temporary.

You've gotta hope that Witch isn't someone who insists they prefer running solo and who doesn't hate relying on other people, or else they might get a little testy from how they're under even more surveillance than they'd be if they were just in prison. 🙃

(i sure hope no one in the group's a jockey uwu)

So on top of the risk that the everyone might just get trapped and separated for too long, and the power dynamic from knowing all the group has to do is lock their Witch outside to kill it, we've also got the kind of person who would very much like a *little* breathing space and probably will seek it out all by themselves.

Liability is a 9. Benefit is a 9 or a 10 or a 0.

Last little suckerpunch uwu

That timer? It's proportionate to how long the Witch can be by themselves without succumbing to the bad thoughts. On the bright side, a shorter timer means stronger bad thoughts and therefore stronger songs. On the not so bright side, the longest timer so far is four hours *with* drinking, and I gave Nick 37 minutes before he can't take it anymore uwu.

'Cause of that, Witches tend to be divas over every little minor thing.

At the time of their infection, Witches were experiencing the shock of grief.

TANK

Benefit: 2 or 0

Liability: 10

I don't have anyone assigned as a Tank so this won't be as long.

Tanks are... big. As a human Tank, they're the most physically mutated every time. Think Dwanye Johnson, and then think, "D'aww, that's cute." Pile on three more feet, disportionately large arms, and even though it's not as bad as a zombie Tank, a stupid amount of strength and muscle and bone growth to be a 'slighly shorter and still normal-faced giant.

Y'all ever seen The Umbrella Academy? Luther but bigger. Between that and a zombie Tank if its posture hadn't gone to hell.

The benefit of having a super strong monster like that on your side is hey, cool, lift this car for me. Smash open that door. Nice! The drawback and outright liability is, "No, no, no! Not too much! Deep breaths, deep breaths!"

That's right - we're working on Hulk rules here. Strap on your FitBit and hook up an EKG, because if you thought the Witch's feral state was complicated, you're in luck! The Tank's is super simple:

Heart rate go up? :)

Feral.

That's it.

There is no distinction between 'happy heart rate' and 'in danger heart rate'. Heart rate go up? Feral.

That's. *It*.

Lift a car? Yay! Lift it and got too impressed with yourself or someone said 'boo'? Feral.

Zombie Witches make you nervous? Feral.

Sex too good? Feral.

Hot guy over there? Feral.

Too spicy? Feral.

Technically, yes, having super strength on your side in a calm environment is great. But when physical exertion on its own to make heart-rate-go-up?-feral, there's probably a Jockey you can ask to help instead. Btw keep that Jockey away from the Tank in case it riles the Tank up too much oops too late i guess it's feral, it seems like the anxiety of potentially being riled up was enough to rile the Tank up anyway.

The good news is that unlike a Witch, who'll snap, run off, and then never come back, the Tank can use their rampage out into the wilderness to calm down, recentre themselves, and then meekly return to their group.

Assuming they didn't get completely lost.

Assuming they weren't put down in the midst of their rampage.

Assuming they don't heart-rate-go-up? while they're out there and feral even farther away.

Assuming they're allowed back in.

The Tank is not a welcome addition to survivor communities. If anything, they're welcomed even less than Pre-Infected, who have the potential of at least maybe *not* being a Tank.

'Cause of that, Tanks are unfailingly polite and forgiving in every social situation, and the ones that are anywhere in public have an undeniably relaxed, pleasant, and a cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor.

At the time of their infection, Tanks had hit their 'fight' button.

THE END!

That's it! This took like six hours to write on my phone, but hopefully that lays out everything you'd ever need to know about how I headcanon human survivors with distinct benefits from the Green Flu. Indulgences aside, I think it's pretty cool. The Witch is way overpowered, but that's just 'cause I find it personally hilarious.

And when I'm back for part two, we're gonna dive into why I specifically gave survivor their assigned strain - and wtf was going on with Nick uwu

#l4d2 #left 4 dead 2 #l4d #left 4 dead #l4d2 coach #l4d2 nick #l4d2 rochelle #l4d2 ellis #l4d louis #l4d francis #l4d zoey #my stuff #good job tartra

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beomglocks · 4 years ago

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unlikely allies ; txt x reader

part: one ,, next chapter / previous chapter

plot: when a zombie apocalypse breaks out in your town, you're forced to team up with a group of boys from very different social standards in your school.

genre: fluff, angst, horror i guess?, not really that scary but alright, some funny moments

w/c: 3.6K

warnings: blood, gruesome scenes (kind of really detailed), cursing, everyone hates each other, definitely some major injuries, zombies duh, everyone kinda pining for mc

︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵︵

he sighs looking at the both of you. "if we wanna make it out of here alive...we're gonna have to fight."

silence. the room was engulfed in silence, save for the growling and moaning of the monsters outside the door. you and yeonjun stared wide-eyed at taehyun who was mirroring your expressions.

"excuse me what?" yeonjun blurted. "we don't even know what those things are and you wanna go out there and risk getting torn to shreds like the nurse? are you crazy?" all you could do was shake your head in fear. you were still shaken up from watching someone get eaten alive.

"s-she...i saw her get eaten and then she just s-stood up? she came back to life somehow?" you questioned out loud. the boys looked at you with fear in their eyes. yeonjun stared at your shaken state and frowned turning to taehyun. "see? if go out there we're gonna die!"

"well do you have any other suggestions? if we stay here we starve to death or something like that, it's better to go out looking for help and finding others before more of them corner us here!" taehyun was making a lot of points right now but going out there? where you just saw a woman die and come back to life? that would happen to you guys if you weren't prepared.

you tried to calm yourself by taking a deep breath, "ok i agree with taehyun...but we need to be really prepared. we may not be capable of murder at this moment but we can take them on enough to get away right?"

taehyun nods but yeonjun just paces around the room anxiously. "you guys are insane. i can't believe i'm gonna die here of all places." you and taehyun watch yeonjun tug at his blonde hair. he suddenly pauses. "i have an idea. what if we don't actually try to take them on." he looked at you both expectedly.

"what do you mean?" you asked. he rolled his eyes, "we could try to just trap them in here and make our escape." taehyun nods at yeonjun's vague plan, "i get what you mean. before we start though we should take some stuff with us. we got lucky that we're in the nurse's office, we can take stuff in case we get injured."

all three of you split up around the office to pick up anything that might be helpful. "its a good thing i brought my bookbag with me," taehyun chuckles dryly. you pack up all the stuff you grabbed and help him zip up the bag. "ok so here's how we'll go forward with the plan."

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

yeonjun sighs shakily as he crouches behind the door. "this was my plan so why do i have to be the one to open the door?!" he angrily whispers to you. you're hiding behind the nurse's desk which is right beside the door, glaring at him, "just shut up and wait for taehyun's cue. if they hear you, we're screwed."

"will you two stop arguing. if anything i'm the one with the risker job," taehyun glares at you both. he's standing in the middle of the office, just a little bit away from the desk. "let's go over the plan just one more time so nothing unexpected happens," he's nervous and you can hear it in his voice. he's trying to act brave like earlier. yeonjun starts, "simple, i open the door letting the monsters in. they won't notice me since i'm crouched below the window." you sigh, continuing, "once the monsters come running in, i pull the stethoscope attached that chair other there as hard as i can. they'll trip over it sending them tumbling."

taehyun takes a deep breath, "and i'll be standing here as bait. once i see that they're both down, that should give me enough time to run out and shut the door on them." yeonjun bites his lip, "i hope this works...my heart is racing seriously."

since taehyun is now visible from the one lamp shining down on him, the monsters outside now have new adrenaline in them, viciously gnawing at the door's window. you don't realize it but you all take a deep breath.

"3″

"2″

"1!"

as soon as taehyun yells, yeonjun swings the door open. the zombies pretty much bum rush through it to get to taehyun as soon as a slither of it was cracked open, effectively managing to swing the door all the way to the wall. you watch it hit yeonjun's arm roughly and flinch. he tries to hold back a gasp and squeezes his eyes shut.

you turn your attention to your task and pull on the stethoscope. thankfully it's stretchy enough to cause the zombies to trip over it. they tumble over each other and skid across the floor. you get up to run out the door and pull yeonjun with you who's clutching his arm.

however, when you look back taehyun is not behind you, instead, he's scrambling to the nurse's closet. apparently you overestimated the recovery time of a simple stumble to the floor. they managed to get up quickly enough to chase after taehyun who thankfully was also quick enough to notice a flawed plan. "shit!" you yell out before you could think. the zombies turn their attention to you and yeonjun who are standing by the door.

they come running at you but you slam the door shut in their faces. great, now taehyun was in there and you both were out here. not to mention, he's the one with all the supplies.

"damn it!" yeonjun kicks the door in frustration. the zombies are tweaking out watching you both from inside the office. thankfully they don't notice the closet door slowly creep open.

taehyun sneaks out of the closet in a painfully slow manner, as to not get detected. he ducks behind the desk, holding his breath. he waits a moment before rising from his hiding spot and hurling a pack of unopened pens at where the cots are located. you watch the zombies whip their heads toward the sound and clamber in that direction. taehyun crawls out from behind the desk and runs toward the door. the lunch lady, who is behind the nurse, notices taehyun and runs toward him and at full blown speed.

your heart is pounding so fast, it genuinely feels like time is going in slow motion. the monster is only like a foot behind the red-haired boy. you throw the door open for taehyun and he launches himself like the outside hallway is home base. you and yeonjun once again slam the door closed on the zombie who face plants into it with a groan.

you let out a breath you didn't even know you were holding. sliding down to sit on the floor, you glance at taehyun. he's recovering from literally upper body diving out of the room but you figure he's fine since he's used to it from playing baseball so long. yeonjun seems fine too since he's not holding onto his arm anymore.

after a moment, you speak up, "are you ok?" it's not exactly a question directed at either of the two boys. you kind of are just asking yourself that but yeonjun answers anyways, "i think i'm ok, my arm is aching though. the door slammed on me pretty hard but im ok."

taehyun backs himself against the lockers opposite from you too. "i'm fine too." you examine him though you can't see him from the distance and the dimming hallway lights. his face is riddled in sweat and you can kind of see tears running down his face but he notices you staring and harshly wipes them away. he sighs letting his head rest on the lockers.

"i thought that would be easier...i thought i was gonna die back there. thanks for not leaving me," you feel like he means that so you make a noise of acknowledgment. yeonjun also nods at him but doesn't say anything.

it's dead silent in the hallway and you hope it's because the rest of the school is hiding not because they're dead. if you don't think of the circumstances you'd think it's somewhat peaceful.

taehyun breaks the silence, "what if there are other people in here in that same situation." he's not looking at you, he's looking into the abyss of darkness that is your school's hallway. once buzzing with students who you wished would shut the fuck up and move to their next class is now a ghost town. it's eerie and it leaves you with an unsettling feeling just thinking about what hides beyond the darkness.

"fuck no," yeonjun says. he's calm and you hope he doesn't lash out at what taehyun's suggesting. "taehyun..." you mumble. you don't want to say it out loud because you hate how it will sound. well, yeonjun says it for you, "did you hit your head on the way out. you almost died, dude! i know you're having some kind of epiphany about helping others and what not but think about this: those two zombie things aren't the only ones in this school. we could really die in here so we need to get o-"

"shut the fuck up!" taehyun spits. you can tell he's trying not to yell just in case there really are other zombies out here. "do you seriously only care about yourself? what if there really are other people waiting to be helped? we can't just leave them to die in this stupid ass school!" he gets up with some struggle, clutching his wrists again.

"look im not saying you have to help them but it would be really cool if you did...the more people that are alive the more likely we are to survive," with that he starts walking down into the darkness of the hallway. yeonjun scoffs and looks at you. you bite your lip. "i know it's risky...risking our lives for other people but i would feel like shit if i just let people die here while i run off like a coward."

yeonjun watches you run after taehyun. he's now left alone standing outside of the nurse's office. the zombies haven't quieted down and he wonders how much energy they have. he sighs dramatically, running after you both, "hey wait up!"

•·················•·················•

"so where are we headed?" your school isn't that big but it isn't that small either. there are three floors in total but most of the important rooms are on the first floor where you guys are located. taehyun clears his throat, "i was thinking we should get some weapons just in case. the gym's locker room/storage closet is where the team's baseball bats are located, we should be fine against those things if we manage to snag the metal ones."

once he answers you the silence surrounds you three again. you had been walking quite slowly since you didn't know if you'd encounter another zombie soon. it would be better if you could see but the power in the lights seemed to have died out. the school really did feel scarier when the lights were off.

"isn't it still day time outside?" yeonjun randomly asks. now that you think about it, he's right. if you were thinking about the time you took yeonjun to the nurse's office it was around 2 pm. "wait you're right," taehyun stops and turns around. "it was last period when you guys got to the nurse's office."

"damn it, i left my phone in my bookbag," you mumble. you thought it would be a quick trip to the nurse's office so you left it back in the class. yeonjun pats himself down and grumbles, "mine must've fallen out of my pocket during the fight. man, i fucking hate soobin! if i ever see him again he's dead."

you ignore yeonjun and look at taehyun expectantly, "sorry mines dead. i was playing with it while i was waiting for the nurse to come back," he answers sheepishly. you sigh, "we could've called for help since it's not late we could've called our parents or better yet, the police."

"don't worry, i'm sure they'll worry that we aren't coming back from school yet," yeonjun reassures. "i had practice today and my mom doesn't know i broke my wrist so she won't be expecting me home until after practice so i don't think she'll be worried until then."

yeonjun suddenly grabs taehyun's arm. you look at him in alarm because that was really random. this boy has just been full of spontaneous actions lately. "if you had practice today doesn't that mean the team would've been gathered in the gym by now?" a look of realization hits taehyun but he masks it quickly. "they're capable... they wouldn't have been turned into zombies, i'm sure there are some survivors," he sounds like he's trying to convince himself more than you guys.

as you're growing closer to the gym though, taehyun doesn't tell you that he's the best player on the team. he doesn't tell you that none of his other teammates can properly wield a bat. yes, any idiot can hold a bat but to properly swing it for the hit to have an impact takes real practice, practice that his teammates just haven't mastered. he doesn't tell you that he really doesn't think anyone in that gym has survived.

"you hear that?" yeonjun whispers stepping closer to the gym doors. there it goes again, the unmistakable moaning and groaning of the zombies. the sounds are harsher and louder being that there seem to be a lot of people in the gym at once. "damn that must be the team," you mutter. "there's no way anyone in there survived."

"we-we have to try and find out," taehyun tries. you eye him. you really don't think you'll get out of this one alive but you don't tell him that.

"we can cause some kind of distraction like last time," yeonjun suggests. "yeahhh no, im not doing that ever again," taehyun deadpans. "i think he means like what you did with the pens. that seemed to work...i think they react a lot to loud sounds."

there's a moment of silence where you all are just thinking. "your phone!" you turn to taehyun. he raises an eyebrow at you, "it's dead y/n." you shake your head, "look since it's dead and you really won't be needing it, we can just throw it somewhere in the gym. the impact of the phone hitting the wall will alert the zombies and they'll move. then we can maneuver ourselves through the darkness of the gym into the storage room to see if anyone's in there!"

both boys are staring at you with a weird look in their eyes but none of them say what they're really thinking. "that's... actually not a bad idea. the gym is big so there's no way we'll run into one. and since it looks like the lights are off they won't see us if we keep close to the walls," taehyun reiterates.

"ok so let's just get this over with," yeonjun mutters. you look at yeonjun who's staring into the gym, "you didn't have to come with us." you don't wanna sound rude but if he's just gonna complain the whole time then you'd rather be with just taehyun. "yeah right as if i'd venture off on my own in a school full of flesh-eating monsters," he rolls his eyes. "plus i'm the one who comes up with all the good plans, you guys need me."

"whatever," taehyun answers dryly. he's already starting to open the door to the gym, telling you guys that that's your cue to shut up. walking behind yeonjun, who's behind taehyun, you all crouch in a stealthy manner. you wouldn't call yourself the most athletic person but damn, why are your thighs starting to hurt? yeonjun cranes his neck to look back at you and when he sees you struggling to keep up, he slows down.

"what the fuck are you doing?" he whisper-yells. you don't know if the zombies can hear him but that sounded quite loud to you. you glare at him when the groans in the gym increase slightly in volume. "my thighs hurt, just- just leave me alone and tell taehyun to throw the damn phone." you see yeonjun purse his lips but turn to taehyun, telling him to get on with the plan. taehyun looks over to you with confusion and ?concern? written all over his face and all you do is nod at him.

he gets up slightly from his crouched position on the ground, still kind of in a half squat. he lets out a breath, preparing himself to pitch his phone. you watch in awe as you see taehyun get in the zone. you know this is a serious moment and everything but he looks good when he's focused.his eyes are trained on where he's made a mental target to throw to. even in this weird setting of a gym full of zombies of his own teammates, you can see that his breathing is steady. you wonder why you'd never been to any of the school's home baseball games when you realize that taehyun had somewhat of a cult following. right, just like yeonjun everyone liked him and you just figured it was for nothing or that he was overhyped but you can see why now.

drawing you out of your thoughts was the sound of taehyun's phone crashing against the gym's wall. at the moment in which you were daydreaming about him, he must've thrown it. "ok cmon we gotta hurry, that might not keep them that occupied," taehyun whispers. you turn to look at the zombies which, thankfully, fell for your trick. they were all gathered in the direction where taehyun had thrown his phone. you all rose from your crouched positions and ran the rest of the way to the gym's locker room.

once inside you all let out a breath. "i can't believe that worked," you sigh. "i'm glad it did," yeonjun also sighs. "ok let's go get those bats, once we have them then we might be safe," taehyun leads you both to where he knows they are. walking down the locker room's hallway is even creepier than walking down the normal hallway. there are no windows plus the lights are out so it's even darker in here. once again you're the behind yeonjun who's behind taehyun. you feel uncomfortable and almost feeling like there's an eerie presence behind you. you never liked to be last; the shiver you get through your spine from the mere thought of something following you was weird.

just then you whip your body around but you feel it before you see it. a zombie that must've been in the locker room before you got here hovering over you. you're not sure what happened but it must've flown at you hard enough to knock your body to the ground. it was snapping and snarling in your face trying to get a bite. your eyes were closed but all your other sensed were heightened and you could definitely hear yourself shrieking wildly. you weren't sure what taehyun and yeonjun were doing but you guessed they were standing and staring in shock and horror. you are surely gonna die here.

just then, the back of the zombie's skull was knocked in with so much force that it came out through the front, effectively landing on the upper half of your body and face. just like that, it was no longer trying to devour you, instead, slumping down onto you like a lifeless doll.

you wanted to throw up but you bit it back. you figured the image of you on the floor with blood and a bashed brain spilling out of a once alive human on you was enough.

the body was thrown off you in an instant and there stood choi beomgyu looking over you with so much concern that you were scared you turned into a zombie and were about to suffer the same fate as the corpse next to you. "oh my god y/n," his eyebrows are furrowed and his mouth is agape. he kneels down to wipe the brain remnants off you but he does it hastily and not that gentle really. you flinch and he pauses, "s-sorry its just that...well i don't know. i didn't think anyone else was alive and then i see you but you're about to get eaten so i mean-." you cut him off with a shaky hand lifted when you realize he's rambling.

he wants to go in to hug you and shout for joy that thankfully his crush- i mean... thankfully you are alive but yeonjun steps in, "dude oh my god y/n, are you okay?" you don't turn around to look at him or taehyun because frankly, you're too shaken up to even stand.

"thank you beomgyu," you whisper the expression and you kind of hope it sounds spiteful towards the other two boys for not really doing anything to help. taehyun looks down and bites his lip and yeonjun just looks at you. beomgyu smiles lightly and helps you stand and when you turn around you see the other two boys flinch at what you look like.

you know you must look horrifying with blood all over you and you want to cry. not because you look absolutely disgusting in front of the two of the most popular boys at your school but because you almost died in front of them. you let out a sob and taehyun steps forward but beomgyu is already ahead of him. "oh y/n... it's ok. look," he wipes your face with his shirt and you feel even worse. "we're alive, you're alive, it's gonna be ok."

✼ •• ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ •• ✼

taglist: @fxd-skz (send ask to be added!)

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sun-moon-stars-jedi · 4 years ago

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Batfam Ficrecs - Part 3

Don’t have anything to read during the holidays? No problem, here are some great Batfam fanfics. Most of them are fairly recent, so hopefully you’ll find something new. The focus is on fluffy and funny gen Batfam stories, but I also included a few H/C stories and two JayRoy ones.

My other Reclists for fluffy Batfam fics are here and here if you’re looking for even more. Have fun reading =D

Short and Sweet Stories:

How To Break Up A Knife Fight by RubyofRaven (Gen, 1.5K, Rated Gen): In which Alfred is away, Bruce has an emergency, and someone needs to be left in charge. Family fluff Batfam style with a perfect ending.

A Hindering Hand by collectivefandomstuff (Gen, 4.3K, Rated T): When Dick is refused the opportunity to coddle Damian, he decides to lavish his other siblings with his questionably helpful assistance. They are palpably ungrateful. Dick being an annoying older brother is hilarious and sweet at the same time. Good feel reading.

Halloween Wonder by alecmagnuslwb (M/M, 1.7K, Rated Gen): Jason and Roy take Lian trick or treating and she has a specific request for their costumes. Sweet JayRoy family fluff.

Get Out Of My Room by damthosefandoms (Gen, 2.2K, Rated Gen): Dick likes to mess with his little brother. Jason enjoys being a little shit to his older brother. Everyone always says they’ll get along when they get older. They’re not so sure about that. Sweet and funny story about Dick and Jason being brothers.

Have I Told You About Minnie? by Hinn_Raven (Gen, 4.5K, Rated T): After you’ve known Matches Malone long enough, you get used to him telling you about his kids. Not that his kids know about it. Bruce is a proud dad, even when he is undercover, and can’t stop telling everyone about his awesome kids. Nice focus on the relationship between Bruce and Stephanie.

Night at the (National History) Museum by collectivefandomstuff (Gen, 7.2K, Rated T): The Batbros cause havoc at a gala and it is hilarious.

Nutella by good_ho_mens (Gen, 1.7K, Rated T): Dick just wanted Nutella, and Jason didn't feel like getting shot today.

One Wrong Step by good_ho_mens (Gen, 3.0K, Rated Gen): Damian steps on a mine and Jason refuses to leave. Also, Tim worries. Batbrothers bonding during a crisis and it is so good.

Put On Your Mask (We're Going Shopping) by shanahane (Gen, 3.2K, Not Rated): It's been... some time since Bruce has done any sort of shopping. Still, somehow, miraculously, the trip to the supermarket is a not a complete disaster. One could even describe it as successful. Wholesome Batdad with his sons.

Friends That Say (You’re Not Alone) by ProsperDemeter (Gen, 3.5K, Rated Gen): Clark visits Wayne Manor during Christmas and sees a totally different side to Bruce in how he behaves around little Dick. Sweet and wholesome, good dad Bruce and little ray of sunshine Dickie.

siblings being siblings series by envysparkler (Gen, 12.3K+, Rated T): The Batkids notice that Bruce never confronts Jason about little mistakes and start to use him as a scapegoat. It spirals from there. Super funny, especially once Jason gets his revenge.

Hurt/Comfort Stories:

in doctor's office lighting (i didn't tell you i was scared) by good_ho_mens (Gen, 8.9K, Rated T): Tim gets meningitis and it isn’t pretty, but his family is there for him. A sickfic that goes pretty deep, including the first real look at how Tim’s missing spleen will influence his life. Hurt comfort done super well.

Tough Love by iselsis (Gen, 7.6K, Rated T): Jason finds his mother dead on the bathroom floor, but his grief is interrupted when a strange man breaks into his apartment and kidnaps him. The moment you get what is happening this story changes completely and it is so good.

Zoetic by PurpleArrowzandLeather (Gen, 4.2K, Rated T): Jason goes inside a burning building to save people who are trapped in their apartments. He doesn't come out. Emotional and sad, but so satisfying. (And Chapter 2 makes everything better again.)

Looking for Home by Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron (Gen, 11.8K, Rated T): Bruce and Jason are lost in the woods, not knowing how they got there, or even where they are. A little road trip even when there is no road is always good for bonding though. So, so great. Not gonna say more to avoid spoilers. Background Bruce/Clark, but that’s not really important.

Broken Bodies, Daisy Bloom Series by RandomReader13 (Gen, 15.6K+, Rated Gen to M): The Batfam during the zombie apocalypse. A very realistic take on how to survive the zombie apocalypse, with emotional family moments and the expected worst case scenario happening but with a twist.

Waylaid by Elya_Rho (Gen, 31.7K, Rated T): All Damian wanted was to spend the day alone with his father. Then Drake had to go and ruin everything by getting himself kidnapped... Damian pretending not to care about Tim while simultaneously doing everything possible to safe him is so good. Very nice Batbro story.

In Progress:

Keeping Score by Elya_Rho (Gen, 67.3K+, Rated T): Brothers can turn anything into a competition … including saving each other's lives. Don’t worry about it being a WIP, there are no unresolved cliffhangers. The individual missions are so good and get even better with each chapter. I reread all of them several times already, so definitely worth a try.

the thing with feathers by bacondoughnut (Gen, 16.3K+, Not Rated): When Dick and Bruce go missing and Tim can't find them on his own he turns to the only other person he can think of for help, Jason. He just hopes they can keep from killing each other long enough to save their family. Jason reluctantly helping Tim, great detective work and begrudging brotherly bonding, what more could you want?

Drink Deep in the Morning by GordandV (Gen, 4.0K+, Rated T): Robin era Jason talks Dick into taking him driving. Sweet Batbrothers in an interesting magical realism AU. A WIP with only one chapter, but the world is established in such an interesting way, it’s really worth a read.

A Change Of Scenery by Sun_Moon_Stars_Jedi (M/M, 18.5K+, Rated Gen): Jason finds himself stuck in the past while Roy has to deal with the fourteen year old version of his husband. Time travel is just so much fun! I’m shamelessly putting my own fic here, it’s fluffy and funny, so if you’d like to, give it a shot.

Epic Series:

Emotional Motion Sickness Series by Batbirdies (Gen, 348K+, Rated Gen to M): A series beginning with Bruce Wayne finally deciding to go to therapy, and the ripple effect afterwards. I can’t put into words how good this series is. If you like Bruce as a good dad, who makes up for his faults and is there for his kids, you absolutely have to read this!

Flightless Birds Series by Ionaperidot (Gen, 181K+, Not Rated): A Bruce without the Batkids meets one with them. Cue Batdad collecting abandoned kids from the multiverse. The progress Bruce and each of the kids makes is amazing, an absolute must read. Slight TimKon, but the pairing is not the focus of the stories.

In For a Pound Series by Cdelphiki (Gen, 248K+, Rated Gen): Talia gives Damian to Bruce when he is still a baby and it changes everything. I’m sure everyone has already read this amazing series, but on the off chance that you haven’t, go do it. Everything Cdelphiki writes makes you feel warm and happy, family fluff of the highest quality.

#batfam #jason todd #bruce wayne #dick grayson #damian wayne #tim drake #ficrec #batman ficrec

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screamingatanemptyroom · 5 years ago

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Please Fix the Story pt 2 - Zombie Apocalypse

Hey everyone, here is a continuation to the the fix it fic Reverse harem short story I posted a few days ago!

Part one linked here.

(FYI although it is a different world, the main character as well as Liam are the same people. As stated at the end of the first part, Liam cannot bring along any memories from prior worlds)

Enjoy!

__________________________

GRRRR!

I looked around at my surroundings as I arrived in the new world, trying to catch my bearings.

Broken down buildings, abandoned cars, no people around and zombies about to attack… yep, definitely a post-apocalyptic setting.

I was in the middle of a city road, surrounded on all sides by tall, buildings with shattered windows, exposed beams and hanging wires. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the unsettling atmosphere slowly settle over me. There was a strange silence to the world, the absence of people talking, cars honking, electronics beeping. There was just the wind, my breathing and silence…

GRRR.

…and the growls of the twenty or so zombies slowly approaching me.

I climbed up on an abandoned car, trying to catch my bearings. The movement tore at the four or five wounds that were scattered over my body, forcing out a groan of pain.

Multiple bruises, possible broken ribs, several cuts to arms and legs that still have broken bits of glass in them… it’s like I’ve been in a bar brawl.

It was always frustrating before I could accept the memories of my character and the world setting. I had no idea where I was, how I had gotten here, and more importantly what my mission was.

First things first, I need something to defend myself with.To my pleasant surprise, a quick survey of the area revealed a backpack that looked full and a sword resting on the ground nearby.

I jumped down, biting my lip to hold back a cry of pain at the motion, and quickly pulled the backpack on, unsheathing the sword and looking at it. It looked like something out of a museum, with an ornate gold plated hilt and a long, slightly curved blade. The weight and length were just at the limit of what this current body could bear, and I gave the sword a few practice swings with a grin.

Wonder how my character got a hold of a sword… this body doesn’t seem like one that practices fencing.

Putting my questions out of my mind, I held up my sword, centering my thoughts and bringing my heart into focus, just as I had trained in the past.

Fortunately, one of the previous story worlds I had lived through since the day I woke up without memories had been an assassin novel. The mission had been difficult; protecting the assassin’s guild from destruction after the hero left them behind to chase the heroine on an adventure. The author had regretted destroying his beloved family and guild members, and abandoned the novel. So I was tasked with spending years training weapons skills in the group, finally fighting against the rogue gang that attacked and defending the hero’s family in his place. Completing that mission had taken seven years in total, but on the bright side I had gained a good amount of fighting experience.

I closed my hand over the familiar weight of a sword in my palm. Time to start a new world.At the thought I felt a pang of loneliness and couldn’t help but close my eyes and smile bitterly. How is it that I’ve spent years and years in some of these worlds, and they still didn’t manage to move my heart as much as four weeks spent in a silly high school romance novel world?

“Liam.” I whispered quietly, opening my eyes with a sigh. He had so easily bypassed my defenses, making me care about him to the point that I had hesitated about moving on to the next world.

I have to keep moving forward, it’s my only hope of recovering my memories and going home.

Grrrr.

Thinking about the world and people I had left behind had depressed my mood, but thankfully, an outlet for my emotions had just presented itself on a silver platter.

“Time for some emotional therapy… by killing zombies.” With a smile I put away all stray thoughts and feelings, suppressed any sensation of pain or fear. There was only me, my sword, and the targets to destroy.

I was ready.

Silent, I sprang forward, my sword raised.

My first slash cut off the nearest zombies arm, the sword slicing through the rotten meat and brittle bones with ease.

Thud.

The arm hit the ground with a dull sound. The zombie’s wide, lidless eyes stared down at the detached limb for a few moments, as if confused, before turning back towards me with renewed energy.

GRRR.

Right, undead. Cutting off limbs won’t do much. So let’s try decapitation.

Ducking under the zombie’s remaining arm, I straightened up behind the monster and aimed this time for the neck.

This time both head and body fell to the ground, and became still.

Success!

The rotten blood and flesh dripped onto my hand from the stained blade. Disgusted, I swung the sword back and forth, which only served to scatter the remnants in the air, releasing a horrific smell. I gagged, forcing myself to breathe through my mouth and leaping at the nearest zombie with a snarl.

“This is so gross!”

SLICE! Two zombies fell to the ground on either side of me.

“I hate this world so much!”

Swish! Slice! THUD!

“WHAT IF THERE’S NO RUNNING WATER AND I CAN’T SHOWER?!!!”

A zombie’s growl cut off suddenly as the head flew out into the distance.

“I don’t even know what the mission is, but it already SUCKS!”

Letting out my frustration, I took out the remaining zombies, standing in place in a puddle of goo, my breaths coming in an out with a harsh gasping sound as my out of shape body tried to catch up with the practiced movements I had just put it through. My heart beat rapidly in my chest, breathing caused sharp pains as my broken ribs protested and made their presence known.

I was injured, I was tired, and I was covered in zombie guts.

I want to go home.

But I didn’t know where home was.

Feeling sorry for myself, I sat down on the ground, pulling out my phone and checking the mission.

“This better be a quick one.”

As I pulled up the familiar screen the first thing I noticed was a notification.

**** CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!****

“… Pardon?”

As you continue to complete world missions in an efficient and satisfactory manner, you will gain experience and level up the mission system, allowing you additional benefits and assistance.

A small experience bar glowed at the bottom of the notification, with only a sliver of the space filled in and a large number “2” next to it.

“It took TWELVE worlds for me to get to level 2?!” I fought the desire to throw my phone with rage, and continued to read.

With your new level, you have unlocked key character descriptions and world map in the mission app! As well as… other benefits!

“…” I stared at the screen silently. Why do I feel like this thing is just messing with me now?I’m just going to ignore this. It’s too rage inducing.

I clicked through the message and moved on to the mission description.

**** NEW WORLD: WAR OF THE UNDEAD ****

This post-apocalyptic zombie infested story follows Eric, a young man with a military background and the will to fight as he survives the end of the world. By his side is the love of his life Hannah, who holds his hand through the uneasy tides of crumbling social structures, horrifying monsters and evil villains.

Complaints about the story were rampant as the heroine of the novel was deemed “useless” with no discernable skills, often getting kidnapped and wreaking havoc for Eric to clean up after. Unable to balance the two main leads, the author finally gave up and never finished the story, leading to the world’s instability and eventual destruction.

The Author’s wish, and your mission, consists of two parts: First, help the heroine develop into a well-rounded character, able to stand on her own two feet instead of a two dimensional plot device designed to give the hero problems to solve. Second, help humanity establish a good foundation for a new society, leaving the story on a high note with hope for defending against the zombies.

**** DO YOU ACCEPT THIS MISSION?****

I glared at my screen, desperately wishing for a “decline” option.

HELP HUMANITY ESTABLISH A FOUNDATION?!!! HOW LONG IS THAT GOING TO TAKE??

I let out a sad moan, leaning against the broken car and staring up at the dull grey sky with a hopeless gaze.

How long do I have to live in this world and go without a hot shower?

I clicked Accept, my finger stabbing the screen angrily, accomplishing nothing other than a sore fingertip. The memories of my character rushed in, the splitting pain and confusion passing quickly as I accepted them with ease.

“… Well, I guess it could be worse.”

I was a small side character in this story, the spoiled princess of the hero’s group that caused trouble. Upon joining up with their team, she would constantly complain, wishing for luxury and pampering in a world where survival was the only priority. She was tolerated as she had brought with her a large bag of supplies from her family’s mansion, as well as an antique sword that she had taken off the wall as she left, but the goodwill of the hero and his friends quickly ran dry in the face of her spoiled personality and increasingly ridiculous demands.

Finally after several years and multiple fights, her character was kidnapped along with Hannah, the heroine. The hero was forced to choose one to save, and selected his loved one without hesitation. Even at the end her character believed she was too important to be killed, threatening her captors right up until they threw her into a pit of zombies.

It seemed as if I had started this world right after my character had abandoned her first team. They had gotten into a fight with a roaming bandit group, (which explained my current injuries) during which my character had escaped, leaving her teammates behind.

As the story moved on she would then meet up with the hero and his camp, joining and staying alongside them until her untimely demise.

Unfortunately it looks like one of the hero’s companions was a friend of this character, which will make it difficult to explain the large difference in the personality… Rubbing my headthoughtfully as I considered the problem, I finally gave up and sighed. Oh well, the apocalypse changes people, they’ll just have to accept it.

The phone in my hand vibrated once more, with surprise I glanced down at the new alert.

With your level up, you are able to change your character’s name to one of your choosing. All characters’ memories will be adjusted accordingly.

**** Select a character name? ****

I struggled internally with a sudden childish desire to name my character “ass-licker” or something equally stupid, just for the chance to hear everyone have to say it seriously.

But if I was going to spend a few years in this world… that would get old fast.

I slowly typed out a name, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

“Blaire.”

My favorite world so far.A memory I wanted to keep with me.

I wonder what happened to Liam after I left? Before I could consider that thought too closely, a panicked scream broke the silence of the city.

“HELP!”

Following the distressed sounds, I entered a nearby building. In a large open area filled with broken concrete and other debris, a single young man was cornered by three zombies. He held a metal bar in his hands, which he was swinging wildly, barely keeping the monsters at bay. They were slowly crowding him into a corner, but seemed unable to reach any closer. The man continued swinging, all the while a constant stream of half-intelligible cursing and complaints escaping from his mouth.

“Damned traitor…. Make him regret… snap his neck… no that’s too good for him! … boiling… oil… funnel…!”

For all that this is a life threatening situation, why do I get the feeling he seems… like he’s having fun?

Shaking off the wayward thought, I rushed in, sword drawn, striking the zombies down with a few swings. As their heads tumbled to the ground, I kneeled down, using their shredded clothes to carefully clean the blade. As I looked up, I saw the startled face of the man I saved, and felt a moment of panic.

“Liam?”

After staring silently a few moments, I shook my head sadly

It wasn’t him.

He was older, taller, with a slimmer build. His hair, though a similar dark shade, was longer and roughly cut. His face was not the one in my memories, with a slimmer nose and a more pointed chin, but his eyes… they were the exact same shade of dark blue as Liam in the previous world. It was the eyes that had initially caused me to call out, the amused light in them so familiar it was as if he were still right in front of me.

But he wasn’t. I had left that world, and therefore Liam, behind.

“I’m sorry, I mistook you for someone else.”

The man shook his head, his face still pale with shock. “Don’t be sorry! You saved my life!” He walked forward, holding out a trembling hand to shake. “I’m so glad you showed up when you did!”

I took his hand, trying to smile comfortingly. “Happy to help. Are you going to be okay? How’d you end up here all alone?”

“I got separated from my… friends.” He looked at me closely. “You’re such a strong person, I would have died without you! I know I’m weaker than you, and might be a burden but… would you… be willing to let me tag along until we get to camp?”

Poor guy, he still looks terrified.I patted him on the shoulder. “Of course.”

He sighed with relief. “Thank you. You’re my hero!”

I laughed at that. “Just call me Blaire.”

“I’m William! But you can call me Liam.”

“Liam?” I paused, unable to hold back from asking. “I’m sorry… but… have we met before?”

“Hmm… Unfortunately no, I would have definitely remembered you. But perhaps we were fated to meet?” His eyes were clear as he spoke, without any recognition. I frowned.

It can’t be the same person… but he’s just as weird as Liam from the other world, that’s for sure. Unable to shake the sense of familiarity, I sheathed my sword and gestured for him to follow.

“Let’s go.”

“Of course, savior of my life! I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth!”

“… Just to the camp is fine.”

As we stepped out into the street we were immediately confronted by the sight of a large group of tough-looking, scarred men, each carrying multiple weapons. As I tensed up, my hand on my sword hilt, the closest man in the group spotted us, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

“BOSS! You’re still alive!”

I glanced back at Liam, who looked mildly annoyed.

“Boss! We killed the traitor and brought back the weapons he stole from you!”

Tossing out a duffel bag, the zipper was open enough to spot multiple guns, grenades and other deadly weapons.

“…”

We all stared at the bag in silence for a few moments.

“Boss?” I finally asked.

He gave an awkward grin. “It’s just a friendly nickname.”

“So I’m guessing you won’t need my protection on the way to the nearest camp.” Feeling mildly disappointed, I stepped away, preparing to leave. Only to pause at Liam’s panicked shout.

“Wait, no!” He stepped closer, waving his arms frantically. “I definitely need your protection! These guys are just joking! I’m actually quite a weakling, and desperately need someone strong like you to look after me.”

“What are you saying boss?” One of the goons interrupted. “You’re probably the most deadly man alive…”

THUD

A stone flew through the air, striking the man between the eyes, and knocking him to the ground.

“Shut. Up.” Liam hissed,

“OUCH! That hurt!”

“Now you tell this beautiful woman who saved my life and has promised to protect me how weak and helpless I am!”

The large muscular men all turned towards me, terror in their eyes.

“Boss is the weakest!”

“Definitely weak!”

“He needs protection!”

“He’d die without you!”

“…” I gave Liam a look. Do you really think I’d buy this?

His response was a shameless smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t drag you down! I’ll cook for you!”

“…”

“Run errands!”

“…”

“Do housework!”

I finally spoke up. “Really? You’d do all that?”

“Yes, I…”

“You can’t expect the Boss to act like a servant!!” One of the men burst out angrily, only to fly back as another stone struck him in the face. Another burly, scarred thug took his place.

“Ahem. What my friend meant to say is, Boss is highly skilled in all of these tasks. He’s great husband material!”

Liam gave the man a thumbs up. “Shark, you’re a smart fellow. You’ve just been promoted to my new right hand man!”

“Thanks Boss!”

“Now take care of things while my life savior and hopefully future wife escorts me back!” He grabbed the duffel bag, offering the contents to me before choosing a small handgun and a grenade for himself and handing the rest to Shark.

The man took the remaining weapons with a terrifying smile. “Definitely!” With a sharp whistle, he and the other men quickly turned around and ran away, dragging the injured man who had protested Liam taking on cleaning duties behind them.

“…” I watched this all with confusion. How did the title of future wife get added on to a simple request to escort him to camp?I almost told him to go away, but hesitated. Faced with his almost puppy-like look of anticipation I swallowed the words I was about to say, helplessly turning back in the direction of the hero’s camp. “Let’s go.”

__________________________

We traveled together for a few days, and I found Liam to be an entertaining companion. At each stop he would light a fire, cook a meal, and arrange the camp. Any offers to help were met with stiff resistance.

“You’re the one doing me the favor.” He answered once with a smile. “I’m just trying to support you!”

“…”

“You know…” He added nervously. “If you think that I’m useful… I’d be happy to work for you full time in exchange for your protection.”

“…”

“For example, if we got married it would be super convenient to bring me along as your support husband.”

I sighed quietly, rubbing my head. “You know we’ve only known each other three days right?”

“The great thing about that concern is that it becomes less relevant the longer we’re together!” He grinned briefly, before putting on a serious expression.

“You asked me once if we met before… and even though I know we haven’t I can’t shake the feeling that I know you. As if there’s a voice shouting from the depths of my soul, telling me that if I lose you I’ll regret it forever, but if I can stay by your side I’ll be the happiest man alive.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head. He reminds me so much of Liam spouting his minion nonsense. But if he’s the same person… how did he follow me here?

“By the way… if you thought that sounded poetic, I would like to add ‘well-spoken’ and ‘artistic’ to the lists of attractive traits that I bring to the table as a potential husband or even just a good lackey.”

“…” Let’s just ignore him and get to camp as soon as possible.

__________________________

We arrived at the camp. Fortunately our path had been fairly clear, we met very few zombies on our way. As we walked up to the camp entrance, and attractive man and woman met us, their expressions somewhat guarded.

“Who are you and why are you here?” The man called out.

I paused a good distance away to avoid seeming to threatening, and studied him closely. He looked to be in his mid twenties, with close-cropped hair and classically handsome features. He had a gun at his hip, and a knife close to his hand, obviously ready to respond to any danger.

Smells like a male lead.

I held up my hands, showing that they were empty of weapons and tried to appear friendly.

“I’m Blaire. I’ve recently split from another roaming group and was hoping to join your camp here.” I carefully put my backpack of supplies on the ground and opened it, showing off the contents. “I’ll share some of my supplies. I’m also decent with a sword, and can add to your fighting force.”

The man looked both me and the bag over carefully. “I’m Eric.” He finally spoke up, his expression slightly more relaxed. He pointed at Liam who still stood next to me. “Who’s your friend?”

“I’m Liam, her lackey!” He announced before I could say something. “Also hopeful suitor.”

“Are you joining as well?”

“Of course!”

I glanced over at him. “What about your gang?”

“What gang?”

“…”

“… Those punks you met earlier? They’ll be fine.”

I sighed and turned back towards the hero of the story. “So what’s your answer?”

He watched us both, obviously thinking carefully. “On a trial basis.” He turned around, carefully protecting the delicate young woman next to him. She was petite, barely coming up to Eric’s shoulder, and had a fair complexion already turning red in the sun. Her eyes were large with an innocent light in them, as she stared at me with a nervous look.

This must be Hannah, our heroine. She definitely seems… easy to kidnap. So helping her become a well-rounded character is mission number one, huh? I followed behind them, my mind racing with plans to help turn her into a force to be reckoned with in this post-apocalyptic wasteland.

This is going to be fun!I rubbed my hands together, a villainous laugh escaping me.

Liam poked my arm, whispering. “Blaire, although I personally think your evil laugh is wonderful, and I could listen to it all day… I feel like I should warn you that you’re scaring the young girl over there.”

I paused, catching Hannah’s terrified expression, and tried to give her a reassuring smile. In response her face turned even more pale under her sunburn, and she hugged Eric tightly as if wanting to escape.

“Was my smile that terrifying?” I leaned over towards Liam and asked quietly.

“I’m the wrong person to ask. I find your strength and ability to intimidate the masses vastly reassuring.”

“Thanks… I guess.”

I followed the lead characters into the camp silently, Liam following close behind me.

It was time to save the story.

And… hopefully find a way to shower.

#writing #fantasy #world hopping #zombies #violence

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floralseokjin · 5 years ago

Text

;club zombie (m)

In a world overrun by zombies, you’d think everyone was a goner, but the reality is much different. A steady diet of brains lets a zombie exist as a fully functioning human. Just ignore the part where they’re technically dead… In fact, these days, the amount of zombies outweigh the humans. A lot jump at the chance to be turned. Beg for it.

Kim Seokjin controls the underground of Seoul. No one would dare cross him. That’s how most of the world goes these days. You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of a zombie now, would you? However, you don’t quite see it like that. Spending most nights dancing at the club he owns, you catch his eye. It’s never the wrong side if you’re underneath him, right…?

pairing; kim seokjin x reader genre/warnings; zombie! seokjin, mafia boss! seokjin, smut, oc has a ring kink (relatable), gets angsty two thirds in, some type of romance bc of course it gets fluffy towards the end lol words; 17,113

listen to; friction // 555

⇢ Part of the Deadly Intentions collaboration. With @btssmutgalore, @kpopfanfictrash, @underthejoon, @lamourche , @prolixitae and @taetaetrashhh, who organised the whole thing and created the moodboard!

Please forget everything you’ve ever known about most zombie portrayals in books, movies and tv series, because this is totally different. The idea and inspiration came from the television adaptation of iZombie. If you’ve watched it then you have a better vision of how the zombies in my story are portrayed. If not, then please just give it a go lol. It may sound wacky, but it’s Halloween! So here’s to the 🧟🍆!! I hope you enjoy!

You could hear Seokjin’s footsteps, boots clanking up the wooden stairs, and your stomach lurched in anticipation. He’d made you wait two frustratingly long hours, which was hell considering you hadn’t had time to be alone together all week. You were beyond excited for him to finally get his hands on you. Your body had long got used to craving him down to the very bone.

He came into sight, the image of you draped along his bed rooting him in his tracks. Your robe barely covered your modesty. Nipples visibly hard against the silk. Sometimes there was no need for underwear. Not when it got torn off most of the time. He needn’t waste his money anymore. You let a slow smirk stretch across your face. “How do you want me tonight, Sir?”

No need to greet him with a hello neither. What was the point? He’d told you to be in his home ready for him when he got back. Bedroom. He’d made that very specific. There was no need for pleasantries. Not when you knew greater ways to please him.

Him.

Kim Seokjin.

How did you get here again? So easily. So willingly. Like you’d wanted such a thing from the moment you’d laid your eyes on him. You had. Seokjin wasn’t your husband, nor boyfriend. He wasn’t even a casual hook up. In some ways he was more than any of the above. In others, he was less. It was an arrangement. The most simplest kind. Sex. With the city’s most dangerous man.

No one in Seoul would dare cross him. Hell, this whole country. Maybe it ran deeper than even that. No, what were you saying? It definitely did. You just didn’t want to know. You didn’t want to know the details. You didn’t even want to think about what they could be. To you, the man you shared yourself so openly with could never be what they all described him as. Not when he’d shared so much with you too. It was puzzling to think people actually feared him. He had never frightened you. In fact, you’d only ever known him as gentle. Even when he had his icy cold hands wrapped around your throat, fucking into you so hard his bed, amongst other things, were fit to break.

Yeah. This wasn’t the turn you thought your life would take. But then again, this world wasn’t exactly the same place it had been four years ago. The human race had to grow a thicker skin. Most changed completely. See, Seokjin wasn’t just your average crime lord. He was a rotter. So was over half the population.

Dead and rotten on the inside. Cold and smooth on the outside. The correct scientific term was Undead, but in simpler, more familiar terms, they were zombies. Not your average text fiction kind though. No flesh rots. No foul smell. No incoherent noises, that sent a bolt of terror and dread through your body. No, the undead were able to live as fully functioning humans for the most part. A reality that took a little while to make sense of, but as it did, the world everyone had known began to change. Drastically.

Unsure how it all started, although known to have been caused by some crazy scientist type, the disease, as it was called—now more of a lifestyle—had swept through most of America before their government and medicals could get to grips with it. It was as it was known in fiction. A zombie apocalypse. The whole world went into lockdown, flown into madness. Panic and strife were universal. The infected were destroyed and the potentially infected were quarantined. It was there they began to understand the infection.

The virus still burning through the veins of the innocent would be extremely difficult to handle. The were, by lack of knowledge back then, your “cannon” zombie. Unable to speak, unable to think, and their eyes sunken, black and lifeless. If given the chance, and some had been, they would tear at the flesh of the uninfected, feast on their brains. However, kept under a close eye, locked and controlled in a box room where they couldn’t see out but an array of people could see in, medicals soon discovered there were ways to quell the deep, ravenous need they had inside them. Portions. That was the key. Starved or gorged of human brain just turned them frenzied. The need as a fresh, baby zombie was insatiable but with a controlled diet the world became a little more normal again.

If you could ever call it normal. Human greed was at an all-time high. Who didn’t find it amazing that you could be a certified zombie while also retaining your human life? Who wouldn’t want to be dangerous? Feared? Who wouldn’t want to live potentially forever? The list went on, and that didn’t include countless governments’ motives. Soon the infection had spread willingly throughout the world. It caused fresh havoc. Some countries who hadn’t even wanted to get caught up in the mess, perished because they were too small or undeveloped. But most were smart, scheming. Here in the East a plan was concocted.

Somehow they found the individual who created the virus. Whether they went willingly or were forced no one would ever know. Their identity still remained a mystery even after all these years. Together some of the countries’ top scientists helped mutate the sickness into something “better”. Injected straight into the veins, there was no longer a fear of the infected losing control. The Undead were created. Just another form of human, but with a hunger for brains. It took a total of eighteen months for the world to be okay again.

Now that was all just a memory. Zombies were considered the norm, accepted into society long ago. A recent consensus found that just under 60% of the world’s population were undead. Humans the minority. They lived like humans, worked like humans and had families like humans. Although not in the traditional sense. The undead could still have sex. The men could still cum, by some grace of god, lucky them, but they were infertile. Women too. Reproductive system dead like the rest of them.

Of course, just because there were a lot of humane rotters, didn’t mean there weren’t bad ones amongst the mix. Like you said, humans were greedy. Mostly for power, and being a rotter in the right place, right time gave people tonnes of that. They weren’t truly immortal though. That was well known. A shot to their rotten brain would kill them. Nothing else. That’s where the infection resided.

To be turned there was a system. Applications, interviews, contracts…a waiting list for the injection that would alter your life forever. However, it didn’t work like that most of the time. The world wasn’t so perfect. Corrupt would be a better description. There were other, more simple, ways of turning. A bite or a scratch. Or even sexually transmitted within the first year of infection. There was nothing the government could do about it, and there were many illegal zombies rooming the country. And try all they might, no matter how many times, scientists couldn’t change the way infection took place.

They also couldn’t change the compulsion for brains. Yes, there was no lost control in the beginning, but starved of brains for too long, devolved them into the “cannon” zombie once again. It would take months of starvation, but after the deed was done, it was impossible to be reverted back. Thus they were destroyed. As you could guess, crime levels had not lowered. They had only gotten worse due to gluttony.

Donors now offered their brains up once dead, in a bid to keep portions up. There was complete control when it came to that, but again, that didn’t stop some rotters. Over the years, a lot more murder victims had been found missing a brain. But you digressed. It wasn’t all bad for the undead. They didn’t starve. They could still eat normal food, just oddly needed some extra spice. Their tastebuds has pretty much been destroyed after the turn, so hot sauce was their best friend. Scientists had also created “fake” brain. Think of it along the same vein as fake meat for vegetarians. A substitute. It didn’t give complete satisfaction, but it helped. In fact, they had quite an array of foods now, sold at any local convenience and grocery stores. For some reason brain sushi always made you laugh when you saw it. Surreal. Fast food stores had also caught on. Yes, Big Brain Mac was a thing now… What more did they want? As long as they had the real thing each month, life went on as normal.

They looked normal too. You’d forgotten to mention that one. Sometimes, with the help of hair dye and fake tan, they looked just like their past selves. There were a couple of giveaways though. If they weren’t high maintenance. Their eyes had changed an ice grey after the virus had taken hold, skin pale and cold, and hair turning white. Sometimes fully, but more often than not streaks or wisps of it. Oh, and their heart rate was ten beats per minute. They were dead after all. Pretty much. It was only when they lost themselves, did they turn into something horrific. Eyes black, sunken into their skull, cheeks gaunt, close to rotting. You’d heard they could also fall into a zombie trance when experiencing intense emotions. Depending on the situation it had different levels of severe. You had never seen this though. You knew very well, that was a benefit for certain zombies. A scare factor. Intimation factor. Like you said, there were many who used their rotter status for evil and crime…

Which put Seokjin in a very grey area.

He controlled the underground of this city. You hated using the word mafia, naïve to it all. Something fictional to you, but that’s exactly what was going on. An organised crime syndicate. The oldest son of a wealthy and corrupt family, Seokjin was always heir to the blood soaked throne. He was extremely powerful, even more so than the city’s law enforcement. Actually, you knew for a fact he worked side by side with them a lot of time. Probably called most of the shots. He’d been human in the beginning, when he’d first become in charge, not long before the virus began spreading, but of course that had soon changed. You’d heard stories of how his turn came to be, but you took those with a grain of salt. They were hearsay in your eyes. You’d never been one for rumours and gossip.

As it would have it, you’d only ever known him as undead. You started working at his club just over a year ago. How you got there wasn’t important, you just liked to dance, and dancing was a must at Club Zombie. Cheesy name, but it got the custom. It was almost a sort of tourist attraction. An after dark one. Humans and zombies alike. The dancers were both too. It could be a seedy place sometimes, but you didn’t mind dancing around a pole for men when their money was involved. The day was yours, the night was easy; just dancing, putting on a show. Besides, you were safe. Seokjin never let anything happen to the women that worked for him.

This was the place you could find him at the most, although strictly professional he never brought danger here. The rumours surrounding him were probably what made the club so popular to begin with. He wasn’t stupid. A zombie mob boss, what fiction was made of. Everyone lapped it up. Some nights he sat right up front, quite literally a throne on a podium, surveying the bar and dance platforms. It helped that he was extremely good looking. Got the humans with a kink all riled up. Such soft, movie star looks when you truly studied him. Jarring in a way. A white streak running along the front of his dark hair, parted at the forehead reminded you of what he was. That and his cold, grey eyes.

It was working at Club Zombie where he soon began to take an interest in you. It was glances your way at first. When you made your way to the dressing rooms, or more often than not, when your eyes met as you danced and twisted around the pole. You wouldn’t admit it back then, but it did send a thrill up your spine, fresh confidence washing over you. Even more so when the glances turned to smiles. They could be better described as flirtatious smirks if you didn’t know any better. Because why would anyone like Seokjin want you? He had this whole city at his feet. You were a no one. No, you were imagining the signs. He might’ve not even been looking at you.

But he was. Or course he was. You just couldn’t believe it. Not until one night when he’d asked you to join him for a drink. Halloween night, to be precise. Not that you cared for the holiday. It was just another day.

You were the last one to leave the club. Usually the first, you’d misplaced your cell phone. Took you twenty minutes to find it, fallen behind one of the sofas in the dressing room when you’d flung your jacket down in a hurry not a few hours ago. You were in a hurry when you made your way across the bar, heading for the exit, hand in your purse trying to now find your car keys. You didn’t want to keep Yunho, the barman, waiting any longer. But he wasn’t the one left.

Seokjin was stood behind the bar when you looked up at the call of your name. A peculiar sight. In all the time you’d been here you hadn’t once seen that. The fact he knew your name was even more mindboggling. You opened your mouth to apologise to him, presuming that was why he was asking for your attention, but you got no where. Not when the question he asked stunned you to silence.

“Care to join me for night cap?”

You weren’t one for drinking, never had been funnily enough, but you ended up agreeing. You told yourself it was because he was the boss. You couldn’t say no to him, but the racing of your heart as you sat down argued it was something different.

He drank straight whisky, poured you a glass of rosé you didn’t request. Did he see you as that kind of drinker? Classy. Unless it wasn’t classy at all because you knew nothing about alcohol. You thought he’d stay behind the bar, lord of the house, but to your surprise he came out to meet you. You heart beat even faster when he sat on the stool next to you. You prayed hard that rotters didn’t have an acute sense of hearing. Your knowledge was failing you, but logically, going by that dumb fucking fiction, you’d have to assume they did. He knew you were nervous mess right now. How embarrassing.

He bared his teeth and made a wincing sound as he took a swig of his drink. It was nice to know the burn still affected him, and you watched him tilt the tumbler this way and that, staring at the swirling amber liquid as he did so. Maybe he was giving you time to relax. Maybe he just wanted to sit in silence. Who knew. His rings clanked against the crystallised glass. He always wore them. Large silver bands, dark coloured jewels encased in the centre. He had beautiful hands now that you saw them up close. Wrists too. His shirt sleeves rolled up to the middle of his veiny forearms. The watch he wore was more expensive than anything you’d earn in five years. Maybe a lifetime. You were clueless.

Momentarily distracted, it took you those five minutes to realise you’d never so much as had one conversation with him. He was mostly the untouchable boss who was more like a statue to awe over than a person to share friendlies with. There were other men who worked closely for him here, woman too. Those were who you went to if there was a problem. A drunken customer. A shift you couldn’t make. An emergency you had to leave early for. In fact, even when you had gotten this job it wasn’t by his judgement. So this made the exchange even more awkward considering you’d never said so much as two words to him. You sipped on your wine for something to do. The taste wasn’t all that bad actually.

“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

You had been so used to the silence you jumped a little from your seat at the sound of his voice. He sounded curious, and you glanced his way to see him giving you his full attention now. Body angled to you; eyes so intense they made you a little unnerved. Fuck. He’d definitely heard the racing of your heart then. Mistaken it for something else.

“Afraid? No.” You decided to be honest. Or at least as honest as you could be. He didn’t need to know you were even more unsteady now than you had been not ten minutes ago. All because of…thoughts, that had entered your mind upon noticing his long, deft fingers. Not that you knew they were skilled, but it was just a hunch. You shrugged in what you hoped was a casual manner. Voice straining to be very much the same. “My nail technician is a zombie. My running buddy at the gym. My doctor.”

To your surprise he chuckled. Deeply amused by something. “I didn’t mean that.” Oh. Had you misunderstood? How embarrassing. “Are you afraid of me because of who I am?”

You blinked slowly. His status. That was what he was referring to. You slowly shook your head, making sure to hold his gaze as you replied. “No.” You shocked even yourself, because you really did mean it. Maybe you were reckless. Your parents had always said such words. You were drawn to the unknown. The excitement got you giddy, but this—he—was something new.

Your idea of living life on the edge was dancing in hardly anything, not warming to a man who discussed crime over breakfast like it was nothing. Did God knows what when he wasn’t sitting in this club.

He nodded in almost confirmation. “Thought not. Just wanted to be sure.” He spoke with a certainty. Like he already knew this information before you did. What vibes were you giving off here? Or was he always this confident and sure when it came to assuming others’ thoughts and feelings…

“Why?” It came out slightly more accusing than you meant it to.

It took him a moment to answer, taking a swig of his whiskey again. You thought he was going to ignore it all together. In a way he did. “Did you know that any human who fucks a rotter in the first year of their transformation gets infected too?”

You took a moment to let that sink in. The casualness of his tone cut with the crude language took you by surprise. You swallowed. “I did.” Everyone did. It was the largest cause of illegal turning. Even a condom wouldn’t save you.

He scoffed in amazement. “It’s amazing how biology works, even for someone dead like me.”

When someone described themselves as dead it never ceased to blow your mind. It was hard to believe that someone as handsome as Seokjin was rotten to the core on the inside. Black and decaying. You let a wry smile play at the corners of your mouth, replying before you took another mouthful of your drink. “This world isn’t what it used to be.”

He didn’t bother to agree, instead taking a moment of silence before he hit you with another question. “Did you also know that we don’t have any sexual urges for a while after we’ve been turned?”

This time it took you everything to hold it together. The shock close to becoming visible on your face. You suddenly thought of every time he had glanced your way in the past few weeks. Each smile he had given you. Just like the one he was giving you now as he waited for your reply. “I heard it varies from r-zombie to zombie.”

You stopped yourself at the R for Rotter. Yes, he had used the word not moments before, but it was always such a grey area. Mostly used as a derogatory term, by humans—usually the older generation—who couldn’t get their small, little brains around the reality of the world today, it had become increasingly popular over the past couple of years. Now, it was just accepted. Like everything else this day and age.

“Correct.” He continued to smile. If he noticed your slip-up he didn’t care to mention it. “This may be TMI but mine’s only recently appeared again.” Something squeezed in your gut. “A few months ago. Maybe longer. I don’t know. With work and the stress I think I ignored it for longer than I should have.”

“Oh.” That was… Yes, it was fact all sexual desire left when first turned. Most for a couple of months, maybe a little longer. You didn’t know the ins and outs, but three years seemed steep. He was a busy man, it made sense, but… Fuck. Who were you kidding? You were just distracting yourself with nonsense now. Anything to not have to acknowledge what was really going on here. But you had to. “Not to be rude Mr. Kim, but why are you telling me this?”

No one, and you mean no one, called him by his first name. Not anyone you knew anyway. It was easy to see him as none other than Seokjin, your Seokjin, now thinking back, but a few months ago he was just your boss with the intimating aura. The one who wouldn’t dare be interested in you. That all changed that fateful night.

His lips curled. You couldn’t tell if he was trying to be friendly or if he was greatly amused. Maybe both. “Seokjin. Call me Seokjin.”

You swallowed. His name felt foreign on your tongue, but you needed to press on. You needed him to confirm the hunch now coiled in your chest. “Seokjin, why are you telling this?”

A beat of silence followed. He actually glanced away from you as he went to speak. “I’m incredibly attracted to you.” You let out a shaky breath, unsure you could say anything back even if you tried. He chuckled awkwardly. Such a human reaction. You found your heart warming. “Forgive me. I’m rusty at this.”

He sounded way out of his depth, which was incredibly amusing for someone like him. You wondered how long he had been thinking of confessing this. How long he’d been trying… He’d taken his chance tonight.

“You’ve noticed me staring a lot?” His eyes were back on you now. You didn’t know if you were imagining it, but the harshness of the grey had begun to soften. The coldness, warming up.

“Yes,” you murmured. Your throat felt dry. You wouldn’t have described it as staring, but to say you hadn’t noticed would be an outright lie.

“I just can’t take my eyes off you,” he admitted with a slight sigh. “I love watching you dance because it’s the only form of interaction I have with you.” Without realising, you squeezed your legs together. Your face was flushing, you could feel the heat prickle your skin.

“My view gets obstructed a lot of the time, or my attention is needed elsewhere but I always try...” He cleared his throat. “I always try to admire you.”

His words bloomed against your skin, sending a warmth all over you. Call you weak, it didn’t matter. An attractive man was complimenting you. You did not question him. He was short and to the point with his words. No sugar-coating. You admired that.

You smirked his way, confidence washing over you. In a way, you felt like you had the upper hand here. He was the one who had confessed in uncertainty. “You should get better seats for the show.”

His eyes widened a little in shock at your brazenness. You’d surprised him, and his mouth stretched into a grin, a bewildered laugh leaving him as his browline furrowed. It was a glorious sound. “I really don’t scare you? Disgust you?”

“Of course not.” You replied so surely it would be difficult to doubt you. Maybe you were stupid. Maybe this was all part of his masterplan, but there was a small self-destructive part of you that didn’t even care. “Would I be working here otherwise?”

“You got me there,” he silked. Gaze holding yours.

The most deepest of desires began to come alive inside of you. Swirling around in your gut. Desires you’d held at bay because it was laughable to think you’d ever be in with a chance with someone like him. And perhaps a larger part of you was ashamed by your longings. Kim Seokjin was a bad person by definition. It didn’t matter how charming he was. How potentially misunderstood he was, or how secretly sensitive he was. Romanticised theories that should make you sick at yourself. This was wrong, a small voice whispered furiously in the back of your head, but when had that ever stopped you?

You hesitated but went for it anyway. It was too late. You’d made your decision. “If we’re confessing things... You’re way too pretty to be as dangerous as you are.” Half a glass of wine and you were already losing yourself.

He cocked a black, perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Pretty? That’s a new one.” He chuckled quietly before making a joke. “These genes come from my mom.” Such a normal thing to say. You wanted to believe he was just like anyone else. Or maybe you truly didn’t care…

“Mr. K–Seokjin,” you corrected yourself quickly. The concept of being on first name terms would take a while to get used to. You took a breath and went for it, fingers reaching for his hand that held his whiskey. What did you have to lose? His lust for you was real. The ball was in your court.

You circled patterns against the skin between his thumb and index finger. It was stone cold. A sensation you were still not too used to, or maybe it was because this touch meant so much more. Despite the ice, he was marble smooth. You looked at his face. True beauty. He was staring right back at you, holding his breath, waiting for you. Hunger roared inside your body now. You tried your best to keep it under control.

“I know it’s out of hours and I’m not really dressed for it anymore but... I could dance for you right now if you like?”

You tilted your head to match your question. He copied, giving you a small smile, tone teasing when he spoke. Low and oddly soothing. “Private dances aren’t allowed.”

“You’re the boss. You make the rules.” You watched him hesitate, mulling your suggestion over in his head. It was actually kind of cute. Had he not expected you to accept his advances so easily?

He pulled his hand from the tumbler, his fingers gingerly reaching for yours and you clasped onto them. “Mm?” You prodded, watching him all the way. He gave you a tight nod, and that was all you needed to continue.

Rising up from your seat and leaving your purse at the foot of the stool, he followed you as you guided him by the hand to a set of centre red plush sofas. They curled around a small table, in perfect view of the largest stage. Not two hours ago this place had been filled to the brim, this section worth a hell of a lot of money considering where it was placed, but now his club was empty, safe for you and him. The reminder sent a thrill up you.

You slowly pushed him down to sit, hand on his chest before you let go and stood over him. A grin on your face. “Best seat in the house. No obstructed view.”

He didn’t reply, but the look on his face was almost giddy. You spun on your feet, back to him as you slinked away, towards the centre pole, kicking off your shoes. You didn’t get much of a chance to dance with it, this place saved for the ones who had been here longer. So this was an added excitement.

“This would be highly unprofessional in business hours,” he called after you. His laughter fizzling off when you began to lift your sweater over your head. “What are you doing?”

You turned back to him, a shy smile on your face. “I can’t entertain you in this.” You threw the mustard knit to the floor. “Will it do?”

He scoffed. Eyes a little wide, pupils starting to blow out. “You could be in anything. I wouldn’t mind.”

You appreciated the sentiment, but you didn’t know if you agreed. You’d removed the showy lingerie you’d been wearing tonight in favour of something more comfortable; a black cotton bralette, and you still had your leggings on as you gripped the pole with both hands. It wasn’t your best outfit, but you hoped it sufficed.

How odd it was to swing and grind in front of your boss. A man you hadn’t had anything to do with until tonight. Dancing to no music was strange, too. You had to imagine the beats and sounds in your head, praying you didn’t look too wooden, but somehow it began to feel increasingly intimate. Seokjin was a silent spectator, but it didn’t bring you a sense of unease. Excitement coursed through your veins, but you didn’t dare look at him while you moved. This was a reality you still couldn’t get your head around.

You didn’t know how long you were at it for, lost to the soundless rhythm, but soon enough you needed to catch your breath. He was still sat where you placed him but his eyes were fully black now, trained on your figure. As if in a trance It took a moment for him to notice you had stopped. His legs were spread open, giving you a very great eyeful of his crotch. A couple of buttons on his dress shirt lied open that weren’t before. It gave him an almost bedraggled look. You say almost, because his hair was still perfectly parted at his forehead. You suddenly had the mental image of your fingers running through it, tugging at the ends as he fucked you into the very sofa he sat on. You blinked away the dirty thought, taking a few deep breaths.

He also blinked, albeit slowly, outstretching one hand to beckon you. “Come here.” He croaked; voice thick with something that made you burn up.

You smirked. “That’s against the rules.” Private dances were strictly forbidden.

“Am I not the boss?” That was so. You laughed, and obeyed instantly, descending the metal steps to make your way to him. “You move exquisitely,” he complimented as you did so. His voice a little more human now. His eyes however, were anything but. Close now, inches apart, you saw the light grey that ringed the dilated pupils. It made him look unreal. Showed him for he really was. Undead. However, fear was the last thing on your mind.

“Can I touch you?”

“I thought you made the rules?” This back and fore only thickened the desire in the room, but you truly did appreciate his manners. That, and you really wanted him to touch you. You wanted to touch him too.

Straddling him slowly, your knees pressing into the soft velvet of the sofa, his cold hands met your waist and you jumped in shock, giggling in reaction. He did nothing but hold on as you attempted to dance atop of him. You say attempted, because you were basically grinding on him by now. You wrapped your arms around his neck, loving the way his breathing was laboured. Chest rising and falling visibly.

You felt his erection quickly begin to from under you, and it wasn’t long before he acknowledged it. In his own way, of course. “Forgive me for being inappropriate.” He apologised in advance. You held your breath in curiosity. “But have you ever fucked a rotter?”

With a lack of oxygen you replied instantly. “No.”

He swallowed. His dick twitched in his expensive slacks. “Are you opposed to it?”

You replied with only truth, confidence and desire. “Not if you’re the one in question.”

The noise that tore from his throat was nothing you’d ever heard before. A man starved, finally given the chance of relief. He flew at your mouth, movements hasty and rough. You gladly matched them. Everything was cold, something you weren’t used to at all. Not like this anyway. His tongue like ice ran along your own, both wet but drastic in temperature. It was a contrast that sent your nerves into overdrive. Sensitivity at its highest peak. You clung to his shoulders, rolling your palms over the thick flesh and muscle, as you moaned quite shamelessly into his mouth.

His hands found your face, gripping you tight as he continued to kiss you furiously. You were close to burning up, heart pounding in your chest at your new reality. A groan from him puzzled your mind as he tore away. “Not here. Not yet,” he rasped, lips wet because of you. He tried to keep him distance but failed, falling into your mouth once again to taste you. “I won’t fuck you in a place like this. You deserve better than that.”

You clung to him now, deflation beginning to drop to your gut. You were riled up, ready for him, he couldn’t take it away now. Not when he was solid between your spread legs. You gasped when he took your bottom lip between his teeth, tugging it carefully. Everyone knew the dangers of a zombies’ teeth. One false move and it was game over. The risk just seemed to turn you on all the more. You were sick. Sick for him.

“But I want you so bad. I want to make you feel all the pleasure in the world,” he divulged. He sounded so passionate, so desperate, fresh waves of longing and need flooded your body. Heat pooled against his cock. “Will you let me do that right now? Just a little bit?”

“Yes,” you practically exclaimed. Overcome and out of breath. You didn’t know what that request pertained but you would take anything for even the slightest bit of relief.

You had a better understanding once you found yourself under his large, solid body. Spread out on the velvet like your tainted mind had imagined not fifteen minutes previous. He kissed down your neck, lapping at the skin like you could fill him up. A sensation that had your eyes closing, feeling powerless but loving it. Even more so when you felt him between your breasts. It was a wonderful fusion; to be boiling hot but feel his cool, marble touch all over your body. His hands roamed you, familiarising himself with the woman’s body. Every bump, curve and dip, your soft moans encouraging him, until he couldn’t take anymore.

You pulsed when you felt his long fingers curl behind the waistband of your leggings. “Can I take these off?” He looked you straight in the eyes as he spoke, as if he was reading your face for any hesitation. There was none. You nodded firmly, a trembled ‘yes’ leaving your throat.

He pulled you forward in one swift motion, propping you up against the plush backrests. He was out of breath, jaw slack and eyes still practically black as he crouched, beginning to tug down the black fabric, your legs thrown over one of his shoulders. You didn’t realise he’d strip you of your underwear too. You were very naked, very quickly. Your bra the only thing left.

“Beautiful.” He uttered, eyes between your legs before he looked up at you. “You’re beautiful.”

You smiled at him, something he couldn’t seem to be able to bear, because he was on your mouth again in a flash. He kissed you greedily, low moans escaping him in regular sequence. Spoiled, he made his way down your chest, finding the swell of your breasts to flirt between. It wasn’t long before the fabric was pulled down, one nipple in his mouth while he rubbed the other with the pad of his thumb. That had you moaning, your legs wrapping around his hips to keep him latched to you. Cramped on the sofa, cramped under his body, but loving it. Pleasure swirled and grew heavy in your stomach. Arousal beginning to pool between your legs. It wasn’t long before you were grinding yourself against his body uncontrollably, desperate for some relief down south.

He pulled away when you began whining, teeth lightly grazing the flushed peak as he went. You gasped. Maybe it really was the danger that turned you wanton. Seokjin grinned your way as he sunk to his knees on the floor. He knew it too. He was already learning. You watched with bated breath as he spread your legs, giving him a very intimate view. You’d be self-conscious by now, maybe even uncomfortable, but not tonight. Not with him.

You pulsed against his thumb as he touched you, and all you could do was watch as he carefully began to rub at your clitoris, feeling it engorge beneath his cold touch. You moaned softly, hips circling ever so slightly, enjoying the almost cruel pleasure. Your arousal spread, wet noises squelching under his skin, lewd in your ears.

He looked up at you, eyes black, ringed silver grey. They made you shiver. So did his words. “Can I taste you?” His hair had become out of place, finally, falling in his eyes, and you reached for it, running the white and black strands through your fingers before nodding.

He dived straight in, those plump, almost blue-red lips encompassing your clit. You gasped as he sucked, pushing into him and clutching his hair in your fist. His cool tongue laved you almost hesitantly at first, searching for what you liked and what made you moan, until he grew confidence. You forgot he was familiarising himself again after so long. Hazy with lust, his movements weren’t calculated. They were made with haste and a fervent urge; hands wrapping around the underside of your thighs to hold them and pull you closer. Letting him feast until his heart content.

He only pulled away to catch his breath, minutes later, face from the nose down shining with a colourless substance. The same substance coated the heat between your legs and apex of your thighs. Probably stained the sofas too. You were sticky and burning up. Not even the the touch of his cool finger could control it as he ran the digit down your folds. He stopped at your entrance, tip pushing in slowly. You throbbed around nothing, desperate to be filled. He noticed of course, and he made to remove his rings.

You stopped him. “Keep them on.” You’d already felt the cool metal of his rings against the inside of your thigh when he’d been enamoured with your centre and everything it had to offer. You wanted more. A hell of a lot more.

He raised his brows in surprise, pausing before shrugging. “Anything for you.” You tried to suppress your moan as he pushed his index finger inside you, palm up, cold metal pressed against your swollen folds. He shifted closer, curling the digit against your velvet-like walls. He seemed to like the feeling, humming to himself, before he studied your face closely. “When was the last time someone had you like this?”

You cocked an eyebrow, smirking. “What? Like this specifically? In this bar, spread out naked on the VIP suite? Never.”

He gave a low chuckle. It shot through your body. “You think you’re funny.” You tried snarking him back but he slipped a second finger inside you, straightening them as he went. “No but,” he began, slowing thrusting them in and out. Your jaw grew slack as you watched him, the quietest of strained moans leaving you. “I just want to know how many people I have to contend with.”

That made you laugh. But fine, if he was so curious. “It’s been a while. Nearly a year.” You’d been single since then, your last relationship ending badly, and hook up culture wasn’t what it was since the virus. You smirked his way. “So, no one at all.”

“That’s great for me then.” He laughed heartily, almost as if he wasn’t three knuckles deeps inside you, and wasting no time getting intimate between your legs again.

You came hard. Shaking all over when he finally relented his tongue. Covered in a sheen of sweat and out of breath. He continued the movement of his fingers at his leisure, looking up between your body. The tips of his hair were wet and clung together. It wasn’t him—the undead incapable of sweating—but your arousal, which he seemed to be unable to get enough of. In all honesty, it seemed it he was unable to get enough of you full stop. Still determined to please you.

He shot his fingers deep, ripping a moan from your chest as your back curled. “You’re still sucking me in. What a greedy cunt you have.” Your burned at his crude words, squeezing around his fingers. “Do you consider yourself greedy?” He spoke low and calm, but you could hear the slight quiver to his voice. It made you feel powerful. You hated that word. Greed. But for him… It was different.

“If it’s for a pleasure like that, then yes,” you laughed breathlessly.

He tutted, curling his fingers along the ridges of your insides. Coaxing you. Enjoying the way your lower body contorted. “You flatter me. I would say I’ve reverted to novice status again after all these years.”

You didn’t think so. Unless that was the reality of someone like Kim Seokjin between your legs. He got you coming so good, better than you had in a long time, so maybe it was both options shared. “Somethings you never forget,” you told him simply.

He didn’t reply, instead rising up, kneeling on the edge of the sofa instead. You lifted your legs to accommodate him. His fingers got deeper and you tightened around them again. “I’m greedy too, you know?” He almost warned, his free hand gripping the back of your neck to tilt your head. Ice. He was speaking as he held his breath, moaning slightly when you did. “I want you to cum again. Please.” He always remembered his manners, even when impatient.

You faltered. You didn’t know if you could. Yes, it still felt good to have him inside of you, but you were too exhausted to go again surely. He leant over your body, caging you with his solid one as he murmured into your ear. “I want the visual ingrained in my mind forever.” He snapped his wrist hard against you. The pleasure made your eyes roll back.

“O-kay–!” You gasped out, nodding your head eagerly, gripping onto his shoulders. It was a big fuck you to the exhaustion. You wanted to cum again too.

Your body withstood his vicious pace, walls clamping down on him every time he thrusted into you. You were hot and sweaty again, held down by his large build, which only added to your delight. You imagined he was fucking you. Desperate for the real thing.

“You trust me a lot,” he mused, your hands in his hair now. It was surprising to you that he let you touch it like this. You looked at him curiously, wondering what he could mean, and felt his movements slow. You realised just how hard you’d been holding your breath, gasping for it at the tiniest of reprieve. “One accidental scratch and that’s it, game over. You’re one of me.” He spoke in an almost disarming whisper. It did not frighten you.

You moaned at the dragging of his fingers, before smiling lazily. “You’re not so foolish.” You’d already taken note that his fingernails were perfectly trimmed when you’d admired his hands at the bar.

“Maybe not. But in other ways…” he drawled off, lips millimetres from yours. You wanted him to kiss you so bad. “I enjoyed being a fool between your legs. On my knees…” You moaned softly, enjoying his words, eyes still glued to his mouth. It moved away; your chest grew heavy in disappointment.

“Would you get on your knees for me?”

His question had you squeezing again. The smirk told you he felt it. “Right now?” You asked, maybe a little too eager.

“No.” He laughed. “Not right now. Tonight is about you. But next time...”

You took a shaky breath and nodded. “Gladly.”

“Good girl,” he smiled at you. The praise went to your head, somewhere else too, and he let go of your neck, readjusting himself to begin picking up the pace again. You watched down your body, lifting your folded legs nearer your chest so you could have a better look at his hand as it pleasured you. His veiny forearm tensing with the force of his thrusts. You were so wet you glistened in the overhead lighting—so did the dark jewel on one of his rings—and you squelched noisily around his fingers, sucking him in over and over again. Greedy, you were.

“Fuck.” Seokjin cursed under his breath, distracting you, and you found his eyes were locked between your legs too. Mesmerised. “Delectable, as ripe as a peach…” It didn’t take you much longer to cum again. You felt sorry to whoever would sit in the VIP lounge tomorrow night.

Afterwards, once you’d both calmed down—you, dressed but still quite shaky, and he, now composed but hair still in disarray—he asked if you’d accompany him for dinner at his house next time he was free. You agreed quite instantly. You knew what it meant, and you needed it. Needed him. You also agreed when he insisted he’d arrange for a car to take you home that night. You had your own, but you’d had something to drink, regardless how small, and that just didn’t sit right with him. He’d get someone to drop off your vehicle the next morning.

Before you left, he bid you goodnight with a kiss to the cheek and thanked you for a lovely night, emphasising just how much he was looking forward to dinner with you soon. Just the thought had you up for hours when you found yourself in bed, alone, but still warm and sated from your two orgasms.

Seokjin’s house was stunning. A far cry from from your dingy apartment on the tenth floor of an ancient tower block. You were used to it now, but back then you had felt very out of place in such a beautiful home. He arranged for a car to pick you up, very much like the one that had dropped you off home four nights ago. A sleek black thing, with darkened windows. You didn’t know the name, a car was a car, but again, way out of your league. Four days was a short time in someone else’s perspective, but to you it had dragged by. Especially having to see him every night since while you danced in the club. Glances and knowing smirks just made it harder. You understood though, he was a busy man. He called you in the morning, apologising for the short notice, but he’d found a break in his schedule. If you agreed not to be at the club tonight, he could arrange dinner at his place.

You hadn’t hesitated. Had been preparing all day. The longest soak in the bath you could manage without turning into udon. You even brought the wax strips out. Found the most elegant dress you owned in the back of your closet. A blood red, floor length piece.

His phone call had felt very formal, but that was him all over, you had only just started finding out. You weren’t 100% sure, but the 0.1% didn’t matter… You were going to have sex together tonight. The thought made you giddy. It was only the shock of his house that distracted you as you stepped inside. Large and elegantly decorated, it did not look at all like you’d imagined. Not that you’d tried to. It was impossible to wonder what an undead mobster’s home would look like, but as a bachelor, it definitely wasn’t this. It almost seemed lonely to have just one person living here. You kept those thoughts to yourself though and let him lead you into the lounge, where, and you assumed this, a butler of some kind handed you a glass of champagne. This was not your world.

He even had members of staff to cook for him. Food you knew for a fact belonged in michelin starred restaurants. His dining room was grand, the beautifully carved mahogany table able to fit six people. Perhaps this place was once his family home. It made sense. He sat at the head, while you were placed directly opposite him. The distance was a little unnerving, but he was able to converse in small talk exceptionally well. It was lighthearted and casual, and soon eased you up.

You found it intriguing when he doused everything he ate in hot sauce, unable to stop yourself from giggling and he looked up, confusion etched in his features before he realised what had amused you so. You had no idea the need was that bad.

“Nothing tastes good without a little kick,” he explained, putting the bottle down. “Even the brains.”

You laughed. “You must go through hot sauce by the gallon.”

He smiled before reaching for his glass of red wine. “Me being a rotter really doesn’t phase you, does it?” He still seemed to be unable to get over the surprise.

You gave him a small shrug, picking up your cutlery. “It’s the world we live in now.” You sounded like a broken record. That was your explanation for everything.

You waited for him to continue the conversation. There was a pause and then– “Thanks to your father.”

You froze, an instant sense of dread filling you at the casual remark. You swallowed, looking across at Seokjin. “H-how did you know?”

He raised a perfect eyebrow as he brought the glass to his mouth. You watched half the red liquid disappear. The clank as he put it down on the wood made you flinch, and your heart thudded as you waited for his reply. He gave you smile. It didn’t seem fully loaded. “Is that you undermining my power?”

Whatever his intentions were you panicked regardless. “No, I just–”

“Don’t worry, this isn’t some kind of trick. Some kind of revenge...” He interrupted with a quick chuckle. Relief flooded you. Not that you had thought such things explicitly, but Seokjin was the man he was… Your lust hadn’t made you forget that much. He had found out what you’d spent the last three years or so trying to hide after all…

“I have brought you here to fuck.” Despite your alarm, something squeezed in your gut and pulsed between your legs at his frankness. “I’m just curious... You hide it well. Why?”

Unsure what to do, you took a mouthful of food. The chewing letting you think for a moment. Did you really want to divulge your family affairs with him? He was a man of few words and considering what he was—dangerous and undead—you couldn’t be sure to trust his intentions. Maybe you’d made a mistake coming here. Letting his words and actions cajole you.

“Good?” He asked, watching you eat.

You looked at him and nodded. Wiping your face with the napkin placed on your lap you decided to give him some of the details. Not all. “It’s not something I want to be associated with.”

Seokjin frowned. “You don’t agree?”

You shook your head. That had come out wrong. “I don’t agree with my parents’ greed.”

When the zombie virus had hit four years ago your father, a highly gifted scientist, had been one of the first to try and recreate it. To produce something better. For what, you didn’t quite understand. He had no desire to turn himself or his family. No, you guessed it was for the fame, the money…the glory… In the end, it took a number of people to create such a thing, but yes, he’d been one of them… Your mother had been so proud. Sick. That was still what you thought now. Turning the world into undead creatures who needed human brains to survive seemed utterly bizarre. Disturbing… But like you said, the glory seemed to be their fuel…

You hadn’t spoke to either of them in two years and prior to that, conversations were few and far between. To cut them out of your life hadn’t been a sudden decision though. Your whole life you’d always felt like you didn’t belong. Born to the wrong family. Maybe that was a problem with you. An issue you didn’t want to give much thought about, but one thing was for certain, you didn’t think anything like them. You’d spend most of your life rebelling. Maybe you were still doing so… The club you worked at would see them foaming at the mouth. You, surrounded by the people your father helped create. And Seokjin… Seokjin was a man your parents would be horrified to see you with. That thought brought you great pleasure.

“You don’t get along?” You shook you head in reply. Surprisingly it was enough for him. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.” Or maybe he already knew that… He probably knew everything about you. He’d been humouring you all this time. For some reason that didn’t scare you like it should’ve. It was quite reassuring to know that despite everything, you were the one he wanted. Maybe your self esteem was shot to pieces. Maybe you were just an idiot.

You smiled. “Thanks.”

He jerked his head towards the direction of your plate. “Let’s not get distracted for too long. Dinner is getting cold.”

You ate with more small talk. He asked if you’d ever been out the country and when you’d replied yes, he insisted that you tell him all about Japan, like he’d never been there before. Maybe he hadn’t… You didn’t ask. In all honestly, you were positive he was trying his best to relax you again after his slight interrogation. It was endearing.

Once dinner was done and his staff had taken the used dishes away, you suddenly remembered what was to come next. You began to feel a little out of your depth. The night at the club had happened out of the blue, but this was pre-planned. Nerves itched at your skin, just wondering how this would go down now, but that didn’t mean you weren’t excited. Giddy.

“You really do look so beautiful tonight.” He praised quietly, admiring you from across the table. He had already told you that when he’d greeted you at his door, but you would never get enough. “I feel a little underdressed.”

You scoffed. “You look perfect. As always.” He was always found in a suit, so his attire for tonight was nothing new. Apart from the velvet suit jacket he wore. It was fancy, something you could never imagine him gracing the club with, and the cream embroidered shirt underneath suited him beautifully. His hair tonight was swept above his forehead, accentuating his breath-taking bone structure.

He closed his eyes as he smiled in silent thanks. When they opened you noticed they were getting darker, grey almost unnoticeable from where you sat. You suddenly thought about him between your legs. You squeezed them together under the table, trying to quell your dirty thoughts. You think he noticed, or maybe he was remembering back too.

“I’m surprised you can’t feel it,” he mused on cue.

“Feel what?” You sounded slightly shaky. Out of breath.

“My need for you is practically raging from my body,” he explained simply.

Something heavy dropped into your gut. Confidence began to wash over you again. It was nice to feel this powerful. “You hide it well.”

“Do I?” He laughed. “I must have more self control than I give myself credit for. I’ve been agitated ever since that night… Unable to stop imagining getting my hands on you again.”

You let out a tremble of a breath. More images flew around the forefront of your mind. The coldness of his hands caressing your body. The ice of his tongue inside your mouth, against your skin, laving against your… You closed your eyes, unable to cope. He murmured your name softly. As if he was desperate for you to look his way again. You obeyed. “I’m so incredibly attracted to you.”

You could hear your heart thudding against your ribcage. It almost felt strange, like it didn’t belong to you. When you chuckled, it didn’t sound like you either. Your lust for him was taking over. Time was nearing. “You already said, Seokjin.” You liked the sound of his name as it curled off your tongue.

He chuckled back. “Am I boring you? I thought flattery would be first protocol.”

You continued to laugh at his choice of words, shaking your head. “There’s no need. I’m here, aren’t I?”

He held your stare. It was almost like he was staring inside of you. “That you are.” He sounded like he still couldn’t believe his luck. He rolled his shoulders. “Well. I can still say what I like. It’s all true. I’m not trying to manipulate you here.” You chose to believe him. “Although... You don’t look like someone who falls victim to such things.” You shrugged, playing it casual. Maybe he was correct. You’d long stopped giving men the power to get inside your mind. You hoped it would hold with Seokjin.

“I’ll cut to the chase then.” He continued, realising you weren’t going to divulge anything that could confirm his assumptions. “One night won’t be enough. I want to enter a sexual relationship with you.”

Your eyes widened. Surprise visible on your face no doubt. Call you naïve, maybe clueless, but that possibility hadn’t crossed your mind. A one off was all you’d imagined. Seokjin had thirsted after you for months now, it seemed. Until he couldn’t ignore it any longer. In your head, one night would have been enough for him. What was so special about you? It seemed ludicrous he’d want something permanent. Taken aback, all you could do was listen to him.

“These,” he paused, “urges I have, they’ve been suppressed for far too long. I have curiosities. Maybe they’ve always been there, morphing with the passing months...years.” He shrugged, and you wondered why he had stifled himself for so long. You also wondered why you. Why were you so special? “It wasn’t until I noticed you that these thoughts...fantasies, became unbearable.”

You took his words like they were information at a business meeting. In fact, he was talking to you like such. It was strange. He was talking about imagining fucking you most probably, and here you were just nodding your head. You squeezed your legs under the table again. You were hot. Your excitement was building again and you were trying your best to control yourself. This wasn’t normal. You shouldn’t be here, but your desire for him seemed to have crept up and snaked its way around your throat.

“I don’t want to overwhelm you but I need things to be in black and white.”

“I understand.”

“You do?” He raised both eyebrows in surprise. You felt powerful with the knowledge you kept proving him wrong. “Your pleasure is my utmost importance. All of my fantasies include you enjoying yourself. Rest assured. However,” he looked down at the table. Was he flustered? Feeling awkward? How unusual. “There are some things I want to indulge in that aren’t to everyone’s taste. I do not wish to trap or force you into anything. If you don’t agree, then that’s that. No hard feelings. This isn’t a sweet or romantic joining. I don’t know if I’m truly capable of that…”

You puzzled in your head. What an odd thing to say. You hadn’t so much as thought about this being anything about romance. You knew where you stood. You hoped he wasn’t assuming that’s what you thought. You’d given up on love and romance a long fucking time ago. “I don’t expect it to be,” you added, wanting it to be clear.

He paused, smiled slightly and then chucked. “Then you understand I have this animalistic need to take you any which way I’m allowed.” He made sure your eyes were locked when he spoke. So he could see your reaction. It was hard tying to keep your expression neutral as you imagined just as he’d said. The corner of your mouth definitely twitched. Of course he saw. You could tell by the way he tried to suppress his smirk.

“I can be patient if you need more time.” He continued. “I am very much insistent that it’s you—there is no one else—however, if you disagree or discover I bring you no joy, I expect one day I’ll find another.” You admired his honesty. “Also. Selfish of me I know, but if you agree then there must be no other sexual partners during our attachment. Please.” “Seokjin...” You began, guessing he’d finished his proposition of sorts.

“I know.” He interrupted before you could say anything. “This is a lot to take in. You’re overwhelmed.”

“No,” you insisted. “I agree. I’m willing to give this a chance.”

He let your words marinate before swallowing. “What I’ve said doesn’t scare you?”

You scoffed. “No.” You’d already knew sex with him wouldn’t be conventional. You’d found that out from his very brazen attitude and mouth the night you were spread against the club’s VIP sofa. Your only mistake had been thinking it would be just once. You felt giddy knowing there would now be endless encounters. You craved him just like he craved you. It was a new sensation, something that had only been been simmering since you caught his eyes on you as you danced, but it was powerful and steadfast, and needed to be sated. Tonight.

He nodded to himself, seemingly deciding then and there to start taking action. “We’ll take it slow. Learn from one another.”

“That sounds good,” you agreed, unconsciously sitting up straighter, leaning in almost eagerly.

“Tonight,” he hushed. “Tonight I just want to feel you. Pleasure you. To become accustomed with your body and what you like.”

You let out a shaky breath. You could almost feel the impending pleasure running through your veins. You’d had a taste of it a few nights ago. “I feel very much the same. Tonight is just the beginning.”

He exhaled through his nose, jaw tensed before he looked you straight in the eyes. Raising his hand he beckoned you. “Come.” You were beginning to see a pattern, and just like that you obeyed. His tastes were of the dominate kind. You would gladly listen.

Rounding the corner you made your way over and stopped right in front of him. He scraped his chair back, making room between him and the table, and motioned you to slot in between.

“When you said you’d get on your knees for me…” He reminded you. A suggestion of sorts. Maybe it was put that way to soften the order.

Your eyes widened, looking at the door that lead into the kitchen. “Here?”

“Don’t worry.” He smiled, taking your hands. “No one will will come in. They shall be leaving soon anyway. They won’t interrupt us.”

You listened, finding yourself in his lap, dress crumpled around your middle, creasing to no end, but you couldn’t find it in you to care. Not when you could feel his erection pressing into you. You took initiative. Rising up to let your palm caress him. You’d been dying to get your hands on him ever since the night at the club. To feel him full and thick and long between your fist, in your mouth, in your– You reached to kiss him. He slipped his tongue inside your mouth like he’d been waiting for it, grunting when you gave his dick one quick squeeze.

“Seokjin,” you breathed, lips sticky as you pulled away. “Forgive my manners. I never confessed my attraction towards you too the other night.” It was easy to let him do all the talking, but you wanted to let him know you were 100% into this because you wanted him too. It didn’t go one way. You weren’t just agreeing to this for the hell of it.

He reached for your face, rubbing the apples of your cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “No need to flatter me,” he smiled, dropping one thumb to the edge of your mouth. He tugged your bottom lip down slightly and met the tip of your tongue. “I guess my tongue did the persuading, mm?”

You swiped across the cool flesh and pulled away with a grin. “Trust me, if there was no attraction that wouldn’t have happened.”

He laughed, genuinely amused, before grabbing you by the hips, pulling you into his chest. “Enough chit chat. I thought you were supposed to be sucking my dick?”

Just like the rest of him, his cock was cool. Something you had never experienced before. It was swollen, filled with blood, but ice cold. Impossible, yet here you were. Knelt between his spread legs, laving him against your tongue. You had the intense urge to please him as best you could. Show him what he’d been missing all this time and just worship the beautiful, pretty gift between his thighs. He seemed to be unable to get used to the hot, wet velvet of your mouth, eyes glued to you, watching every move you made with soundless gasps. His hands gripped the arms of the chair at first, knuckles purple, until he decided he couldn’t hold back any longer. Taking your hair in his fists, his rings cold against your scalp, he held on tight, finally letting himself moan when you slackened your jaw and slid him down your throat as far as you could take him.

He liked it when you choked on his dick. He froze every time, digging his fingers into your scalp. He liked when you slicked him with your fist, thumb circling the sensitive slit that pooled drops of precum all over the place. He really had fought off all sexual urges for so long it seemed. You wondered if he’d even attempted to pleasure himself? It wasn’t something you were brave enough to ask, but you were brave enough for other things…

You wanted him to experience all the pleasure he’d been missing over the years, tongue pointing and going south, licking thin but long lines up and across his scrotum. He gasped, the noise choking in his throat as he jerked, chair legs screeching against the tiled floor. You shuffled closer on your knees, holding his cock tall in your hand so you could slowly suck one of his balls into your mouth, softly caressing the cool encasing with your tongue. You made sure to look him in the eyes as you did so, feeding of the reactions he gave you. His mouth fallen open in a soundless groan.

You smirked as you pulled away, pleased with yourself, and began kissing up his length, swirling your tongue across the cool marble, pressing your plush lips in the flesh; getting him obscenely wet. His fingers found their way around the back of your neck, holding you firmly as you popped him back into your mouth, sucking intently on the head of his cock, your fist working the base of him, slick noises filling the air, mixed with his low, staccato moans.

When you began getting lower, hallowing your cheeks to accommodate him, your tongue tracing patterns along the underside of his thickness, his hands flew to the back of your head, fingers threading through your hair to stop you. You pulled back instantly, waiting for some kind of response from him. He was close. Dangerously close. You understood that.

“I want –” He cut himself short, voice gruff, and cleared his throat, hips jumping when you kissed the tip of his cock. He tried again, taking one hand to caress your face. “I want to cum on your face.” Your legs squeezed together. Excitement overcoming you. “Please.” He added that as an afterthought, forgetting his manners with the urge to cum.

You smiled, slowly taking his hand from your cheek to guide it to the base of his cock, exchanging yours with his. He gripped himself tightly, and you squeezed your palm over his fist. Giving him permission with a sordid whisper. “Be my guest.”

You waited for it on your knees, between his spread legs and watched as he raked his beautiful hand over his equally as beautiful cock. Slowly at first, exploring the pleasure and then he sped up, jerking the top in tight, quick motions, chair legs screeching across the floor again as raised up, tightening his hold on your head to keep you in place. His breathing laboured before a strangled roar left him.

You prepared yourself, closing your eyes as you felt the first spurt hit your nose and drip down your top lip. The second flew across your left cheek. Unlike the rest of him, this substance was searing hot, shocking you so much you gasped. The third spurt, stronger, landed in your mouth. You swallowed and savoured the taste. It wasn’t over. It just kept coming, coating your face and congealing in the air, as Seokjin furiously tried to get every last drop out. Savouring the pleasure, moaning in sweet relief until he grew weak from exertion, collapsing into his seat.

You peeled your eyes open, cum glooping from your right eyebrow and onto your eyelid and watched him with awe. All that filled the dining room was his rough breaths as he tried to get a hold of himself. He ran his clean hand through his hair, strands of white falling down, and finally took a look at you. He was silent for a long time, eyes still black, the crescents of silver sending a shiver up your spine. He leaned over, pulling some of your hair behind your ear, saving it from the mess that coated your face. He looked at you with wonder and amazement in his eyes, like he was trying to retain the image of you like this forever.

When he spoke, his voice sounded different. Softer, warmer. Weaker… “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on…” Two of his fingers ran along your bottom lip, spreading some of his cum along the way. “Like this…” He awed. “It takes my breath away.”

He reached behind you, his embroidered napkin coming into view. The set was probably more expensive than your outfit. He began cleaning your face up, and you let him obediently, still kneeling on the hard floor. It was all worth it though. For him. For what was to come.

When he was done, he threw the soiled cloth to the table. There was still some cum on his fingers, where he’d rubbed your lip, and he opened your mouth, dotting your tongue with the fluid before he stuck two fingers inside, holding the muscle down before he prodded you to suck them. You did so, mimicking how you had pleasured his cock, letting your tongue trail along the expanse of his rings. He groaned, the other hand cupping your face to make you look at him. He opened his mouth, sounded beside himself. “The things I want to do to you...”

You got no sleep that night. Fucking one another until the sun began to shine through his drapes, and then some more, letting him enjoy getting familiar with the sensation again, but also feeling a pleasure like no other yourself. No man you’d ever been with had been into sex this much, and his stamina, his strength, was like nothing you’d ever experienced before. He fucked you, quite literally, to glorious, pleasure-soaked tears. Three years really hadn’t hindered his skill at all, but he blamed it on his greed, incapable of taking a compliment. Nonsense, but you soon got used to that charming personality trait…

The weeks had rolled into months, and you continued just like that. Meeting and fucking any chance you got. It was him who called the shots. He was a busy man after all. You worked to his schedule. Fucked to his schedule, and luckily for you, you were in a position to drop work every time he called. Direct permission from the boss.

True to his word, you took it slow. Going further and further each time until your body was trained to him. His was trained to you too. What he liked, how he liked it and when to do it. You knew how to read his moods and work with it each time you met up for sex. There was a mutual trust between the two of you, and you would give your all if it meant pleasing him, because it brought you pleasure too.

Sex had always been just something you’d done. The guys got their rocks off and maybe if you were lucky, you’d get one orgasm, probably gifted by your own hands. Even when in love, sex hadn’t been this enjoyable nor exciting. It was all new with Seokjin. You lived for pushing yourself to the limit, finding something new and trying it. Greedy. Maybe that was the correct word, Seokjin had been right. You were greedy for one another. You’d be dammed. The desire and the pleasure you just knew you couldn’t get from anyone else. The chemistry was on a totally different level, and it just kept getting stronger.

Seokjin did have a softer appetite though. It wasn’t all hard and extreme. That was the beauty of it. He wasn’t a one-sided dom who used you as some kind of sex toy. He was gentle and caring, even when he had you tied to his bed, blindfolded and at his mercy. Sometimes he just wanted you. Raw and passionate. An unspoken vulnerable. You think in a way, even though you would never say it to his face, he sought comfort in you. On days when he was tired or stressed, he wanted you. Only you. There was a comfort there. And you gladly obeyed. How could you not? You were flattered he chose you to share this with. Touched, in a way.

Your bond only grew, until any awkwardness was a thing of the past. You could tease one another, joke around. It was surprising at first to find out someone like him could become embarrassed and shy when provoked about certain things. Like how he had been so formal in the beginning. He insisted it was because he was so awkward about his extended inexperience fighting head to head with the raging desire he had for you… It had sent him frenzied, until he had to do something about it. You were so glad he had…

Your relationship for the most part was left undetected. It was chosen that way, to keep things strictly professional at work, but also you suspected it was something more. He requested for you not to tell your friends or family, and the only one who knew about your arrangement on his side, was the driver who took you to and from his home. Seokjin’s line of work came with danger, and even though you didn’t voice it, you guessed that danger spread to anyone he was involved with; family, friends, lovers…

You say mostly undetected because of course there had been a slip up somewhere along the line. Working in such close proximity, perhaps you had been foolish. The club was always packed, someone was bound to pick up on it, and unluckily for you, it happened. Give you a major reality check to go with it.

You had been involved with Seokjin for near to three months when it did, juggling nights at work and nights spent with him. More often than not, both at the same time. That night wasn’t one though. He was away from the club altogether, so you got changed at your usual pace, surrounded by the rest of the human girls as they chatted. That night rotter talk filled the dressing room. There had been one watching one of the girls, Jaeha, dancing. He’d taken a shine to her and asked her out for dinner at closing time. She’d agreed, but now she was getting doubts, some of the other girls laying uncertainties in her head. Of course the conversation had turned to sex. It always did where men were concerned. But this was different. They were talking about having sex with a zombie. It was times like these you were thankful there was separate dressing rooms for the human and undead girls. Although some would probably still carry on the conversation regardless.

“What about you?”

You looked up, realising that Jaeha was directing the question your way. “Hm?” You played dumb, even though you had been listening to every word of the conversation. You just didn’t want to answer.

“What would you imagine it feels like being with a rotter?”

You gave a small shrug, realising you had no choice now and turned away as you replied. “I don’t know.”

“Wait. What was that?” She exclaimed excitedly and you inwardly sighed. You guess something about your body language hadn’t been believable. “You have?!” You gave another shrug but she wasn’t having any of it. “Look me in the eyes and say you haven’t!”

You faced her again, defeated, realising you had about half a dozen other pairs of eyes looking at you too. “Fine. I have.”

A couple others squealed. Maybe it was an age thing. You were a few years older than a handful of the girls. At twenty-two you had probably been easily excitable and naïve too. Scrap that. You definitely had been.

“Who?!”

Shit. She really wasn’t going to drop this, was she? You were hoping admitting to it would have been enough. You did up your jeans as you dismissed her. “It doesn’t matter who. It’s just sex. No different.”

“No different? But they’re cold,” she whined, shuddering at the thought. “Doesn’t that feel weird?”

You opened your mouth but found yourself stuck. This conversation was making you feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, a voice came to your rescue.

“You just get used to it.” You looked to your left to see Yeeun coming into view behind

the group of girls. She’d been here nearly the longest, your age, maybe a year older. She kept herself to herself most of the time, but you guessed she wanted to put this conversation to rest. That, and maybe put you out of your misery.

Jaeha turned and opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Yeeun spoke over her. “Jaeha, just make sure to be careful if you decide to go for dinner with that guy, yeah? Undead doesn’t mean he’s inherently bad but coming to a place like this should make you think. Keep your wits about you.”

Just like she’d wanted (and you) the conversation died. Everyone left soon after that, you close behind, but Yeeun was still getting changed, distracted by her phone. You stopped by the door as an afterthought, wanting to say something to her. “Thanks,” you called, waiting for her acknowledgment.

She slowly turned and smiled. “No problem.” You watched as she shoved her cell into her jacket pocket. “Um, you got a minute?”

You nodded, unable to guess what she wanted. She sighed, almost like she was psyching herself up. “First, this isn’t me trying to get up all in your business, alright?” You nodded again, slower this time. A sicky feeling in your stomach. “Everyone else may be clueless when it comes to who you’re fucking, but I’m not.”

You tensed. Maybe you’d misinterpreted her motives. She was trying to put you out of your misery yes, but it ran deeper than that. She was trying to save your skin. She knew. How? You were always careful to never talk in public with Seokjin. Yet… maybe your reluctance to leave early like you used to do roused suspicion from her. Maybe she’d seen you both leave together… Foolish. You panicked, played stupid. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She stared at you, calling your bluff. “Be careful, okay? You’re an adult, you can do whatever the hell you like, but just don’t forget who he is.” You kept quiet. There was no point denying it. “And I’m not on about him being undead. He’s...” She hesitated before deciding to go for it. “Just don’t forget he’s responsible for a lot of this city’s darkness.”

Unexplainable anger filled you. You didn’t like being judged, but more than that, the idea of someone judging Seokjin made your blood boil. She didn’t know him like you did. How kind he was when you were alone, how gentle… He wasn’t what people described him as behind closed doors. But what was the point? You knew you couldn’t tell her that. She’d just laugh at you, tell you how deluded you were. Maybe that’s what you were scared of... That you really were deluded. In over your head…

You watched her shrug on her jacket, her mind at ease now that she’d warned you. “You don’t have a problem working in his club though?”

She froze before pulling out a cigarette from her pocket and chuckling. “It’s money, babe.” She placed the rolled tube in between her lips and spoke through it. “We all need it, and at the end of the day, I’m not the one fucking him.” She finished with a casual shrug. As if she had no worries. You had plenty.

You swallowed, careful to keep your voice steady. “Well thanks for your concern. I’ll bear it in mind.” And the you left, wiping away a stray tear from your left eye.

You didn’t tell Seokjin about what happened that night, certain that Yeeun didn’t care enough to tell anyone. She wasn’t like that, hated gossip like you. You were also worried that if he found out, he’d do something. You didn’t want her to get fired. She said she’d needed the money after all. Maybe your worry went even further than that… You didn’t know. If Seokjin was as bad as everyone seemed to think, you really didn’t know…

So you kept it to yourself. But you couldn’t shake the exchange. Seokjin noticed there was something wrong with you instantly. You saw him two nights afterwards, seeking distraction in the only way you knew with him. Sex. He was tired after his “business trip” and you went along with it, using it as a way to explain your unusual behaviour, so the sex was quick but indulgent. Definitely needed. You clung to him because you’d missed him. You clung to him because you were beside yourself. Torn and unable to truly feel fine. You’d thought being reunited again would reassure you. But it didn’t.

“Smoking again?” You asked him after you were done, watching him reach for the pack of cigarettes he kept on the nightstand.

He chuckled, knowing you hated the dirty habit. The addiction. Maybe in a way you were a hypocrite. “My insides are rotten anyway. What can it do to me?” He was correct you supposed. Rotten to the core. He was untouchable.

However, to your surprise he put them back, wrapping his arm around you like it had been. Your head on his chest, protected from the chill by a fur blanket. His temperature always seemed to get you after sex, your own levelling out. Plus with the winter months now it was harder. He wasn’t the best to cuddle with after sex, an activity that seemed to be happening more often, so you had to separate your bodies with warmth. You let silence spread over you both, lost in your own head with a whirlwind of thoughts.

“Hey,” he prodded gently after a little while, wanting you to look at him. “You’re lying to me. You’re not tired.” You didn’t bother to deny it. He sounded hesitant when he carried on. “Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

You stayed silent for a moment. unsure how to begin, but you knew you couldn’t continue like this. You needed some type of reassurance from his mouth. Selfishly, you needed your conscience eased. You explained with a question, at least you hoped you did. “Do you like being who you are?”

Seokjin tensed under you, his expression becoming guarded and you instantly feared you’d crossed a line. He knew you were referring to his status, not his being. Something pretty much off limits. Discussed vaguely in the beginning, your joining was never about that. Now it seemed like a forbidden subject. You understood Seokjin saw you as an escape. He didn’t want to discuss work, and you didn’t want to hear it. Yet, it was looming over you, like an ominous presence. You needed something. You could live with who he was if he was as unsure of it as you were. You were positive. He just needed to be honest with you.

You waited patiently, and just as you resigned yourself to stone cold silence, he spoke.

“It was handed to me. I don’t particularly have a choice. It’s all I’ve ever known.” If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that was bitterness in his tone. “My father is frail now. I don’t know how long he has left. I want to make him proud, regardless of how stupid it sounds. It’s fucked up, I know that. Especially with life as it is now.”

You’d long given up trying to make your father proud, but you understood. Seokjin’s experiences were vastly different to yours, but you understood. His was a matter of life or death, you were sure of it. Yours was just the gradual estrangement from the people who had raised you. He confirmed the seriousness of his detriment in his next sentence.

“There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s my life. It’s expected of me. If I refused, said no... Ran away like a coward... God knows what would happen to me.”

Cruel of you maybe, but it was warming, reassuring to know he’d had such thoughts. Soothing to know in a lot of ways, he didn’t want this life. Selfish of you like you’d known. Trying to ease your own conscience, but here in his arms perhaps you really didn’t care. You didn’t care what Yeeun thought, what others would think if they ever found out. Your parents… None of it mattered because you knew that deep down, in his core, Seokjin was a good man. Rotten or not. He was good to you, and all that mattered. Yes, you were selfish, but you didn’t care.

“Fuck.” He cursed quietly, voice thick with emotion before he laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. “What a world we live in. When being a motherfucking zombie is considered normal and the least of your problems.”

You didn’t laugh along but kissed him softly. You think it stunned him, shutting him up instantly when you pulled away, until he exhaled, pulling you into another, longer, even sweeter kiss. He wrapped you in his arms tightly and you’d never felt safer. He got you onto your back, rolling on top of you, the fur separating your bodies, just, and your need for him burnt away inside your chest.

But he pulled away before you could do anything about it, opening his mouth to say something, expression hesitant. You cupped his cold face, trying your hardest to spread some of your warmth through his body, silently encouraging him to speak. He smiled thankfully. “I didn’t choose that either, by the way. This rotter body.”

Your forehead furrowed, trying to make sense of his words. “That shocks you,” he noted. “I know why. You think I wanted this, just like everyone else.” You opened your mouth to deny it, but what was the point? You hated gossip, like you’d said so many time before, never listened to it, but you had let it sink it’s way into your mind without realising.

Greed. You thought he was like all the rest. Seeking power. Your attraction to him overshot your distaste for the ghastly act of will, but maybe deep down, you’d hoped it wasn’t true.

“It’s okay,” he reassured, twisting slightly to kiss the palm of your hand. Then the tips of your fingers as you sought the touch. “I know what people say about me. They’re wrong though.”

“What happened?” You were whispering, asking without thinking. You didn’t want to pry but Seokjin had never shared this much before. You didn’t think he’d ever shared this much before. To anyone.

“A miscellaneous deal gone wrong. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was scratched.” Your eyes widened, heart ached for him. How wrong people were. How wrong you were. “I took it in my stride, still do. I guess in some ways it helped me, in others not so much... But,” he stopped himself, letting his eyes close as he kissed your fingertips again. When he opened them the grey looked sadder than usual. “Who will follow after me? The family name gone. Although maybe that isn’t a bad thing.” He added with an afterthought, chuckling humourlessly. “I would want no kid of mine doing this. I don’t know. What I’m trying to say is, if there was ever a cure, I’d take it in a heartbeat.” Your own heart beat loudly in your chest. “Wishful thinking, right?”

You were stunned to silence now, trying to make sense of everything. You wanted to reassure him. There was adoption, he needn’t have to dwell, but then it seemed like such a human, vulnerable thing to get hurt over. It made your throat tighten, eyes well up. You had never imagined his anguish over being undead. He always seemed so casual, so put together. His human life was stolen from him cruelly and he was just left to deal with it, alone. You didn’t care if that was his by choice or not. It made sense now, that in ways he had hidden from himself, and why. He was ashamed. He wasn’t greedy, he was lost.

“I don’t think so,” you murmured, caressing his face. “If they can mutate the disease and inject people with it, they can find an antidote.”

He smiled sadly. “Do you think they want that? This world is a corrupt place. Everyone has their own selfish reason’s for letting this disease take over.” He was correct. A cure would never be made by any official. But there could be other options. One day. Hope wasn’t lost.

“You can still live a normal life,” you insisted.

“I can never age. Who would want that? Amongst other things. I have everything against me.”

Something strong tore through your chest. It almost took your breath away, but you couldn’t voice it. You were too afraid. “I don’t think so.” You replied instead. It was hard to keep your voice stable. “What’s inside is more important.”

He chuckled sadly. “Angel, I’m rotten on the inside. Maybe on the outside too.”

His pet name warmed your heart, always did, but his words made it weep. You swallowed, coating your dry mouth and squeezed his face, clinging to him, hoping he’d understand what you were trying to say. “Not to me.”

He smiled, his eyes warming up and leant down to kiss you. “Thank you.” You held him close, sinking into his mouth. The cold was unnoticeable. He did understand. You could feel it in his kiss, taste it on his tongue.

He drew back slowly, just before he lost himself entirely. He had more to say before then. “I have never felt more comfortable with anyone than I have with you. More human...” He trailed off and laughed quietly. “Even when I was one.” He kissed you once more. Like he couldn’t keep away. Hands holding the sides of your face, he lingered, your breaths mingling.

“You care for me without judgement. That’s never happened before. I’ve never had that feeling.”

You squeezed his wrists in silent understanding, eyes glassy. You couldn’t speak if you tried. Couldn’t let him know you felt exactly the same, in fear of bursting into tears. He understood though. Of course he did.

And that’s where you were now. This present moment. The aftermath of such a confession only bringing you closer together. There were silent boundaries that had been made that night. Seokjin did not wish to go into detail about his days, nor did you want him to. You were at ease now, knowing you had been right about him, the others wrong. Yes, he wasn’t perfect. No one was. Yes, maybe if you knew the cold, hard facts, you wouldn’t be able to bear it, but you were happy being ignorant to that. It wasn’t greed that drove you, for Seokjin and all the pleasure he could give you. He had been wrong. You made him see that. It was a selfishness, and that was okay. It had to be. They were two different things. You were selfish for the happiness he made you feel, and likewise for him.

For the first time in your life, you were truly happy. Felt truly understood and not judged, and so did Seokjin. Despite your different life experiences, you were the same in your hearts; yours alive, his rotten, but it didn’t matter—and that’s why you’d been so drawn to him. Twin flames in this dark, overbearing world. You knew the weight of such words, but you didn’t care. Not when you had something good, something pure, and you were clinging to it with all your might.

As much as you had put him on a pedestal in the beginning, not quite believing he’d chosen you, wanted you. Potentially put your worth on his choice, it didn’t matter. Because he had done and felt the same. He had always been thankful you’d made the decision that you had. He was thankful that you wanted him. Still, even now. In ways, you had given him certain confidence and esteem that he’d been lacking. Similar to how he helped bloom yours too. Made you feel beautiful, sexy. It was not one sided with you two. It was real, and pure, and shared. Your admiration for one another. Your love…

Yes, this had been a simple arrangement. Sex. But it wasn’t so simple anymore. You both understood that. There would come a day when you’d have to acknowledge it, your feelings… It was potentially soon, or you could just keep hiding for a little while longer, but it would happen. Seokjin didn’t think he was capable of love after his turn. You remembered him saying something similar the first night you spent together, about romance. You knew now it was because he hated what he was. Undead. He had already lost so much of himself over the years, and to become infected only tore away more. But he was wrong. He was capable. You felt the love he gave you every day. Even if it was the silent kind. It shone from him, warmed you up when you clung to his ice cold flesh.

So yes, you were selfish, so was he. But you didn’t care. Not when you had one another to hide behind.

“How do you want me, Sir?” You silked the words, excitement bubbling away in the pit of your stomach. That was your little thing. What you called him sometimes. When he was in the mood for it.

He smiled at you, but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. You tensed, studying him almost intently now. Maybe there had been a reason he was delayed. You opened your mouth to ask if everything was okay, but he beat you to it.

“No need for that tonight.” He sounded exhausted, beaten. You realised how terribly you’d misread the signs, feeling a little guilty as you sat up, tightening your gown over your chest. He walked over to his bureau, steps heavy on the wooden floor. Long ago had you come to accept his insistence on wearing shoes indoors, but you watched him step out of his boots now. Loosening the red tie around his neck before removing it completely.

You waited politely for him to continue in some way. Not wanting to push an explanation for his depleted mood. He removed his rings one by one, dropping them into a glass bowl. That’s where he spoke to. “Today’s been hard. I–“ He stopped himself, unable or unwilling to go on. You wondered if you should press him. You realised keeping things bottled up like he did wasn’t good. But you were scared. Scared it could ruin things. You bit on your bottom lip, hard, stifling yourself.

He turned to you then, a longing in his eyes. You knew that look very well. It was a yearning for you. “I just need some solace.”

You nodded slowly, outstretching your arms for him to meet you. He rounded the corner of the bed in a few, quick strides and dove into you. His mouth finding yours in a deep, intense kiss. You wrapped your arms tightly around his shoulders, feeling him squeeze his around your chest, like he needed to make sure you were really there. He spoke no more and that was okay.

His mouth and tongue found your neck, kissing the skin like it could kiss back, until he ceased and held his face in the crook, hugging you tightly. You ran your fingers through his hair, unsure what else you could do. Your chest felt sad and heavy, his mood affecting you immediately. But you needed to be strong. You kissed at whatever part of his face you could reach, your turn to make him feel good. Make him feel loved.

Somehow your lips met again, tongues slipping together, going from slow to fast. His anguish over what was unknown to you, turned into an urge to forget. An urge to bury himself so deep inside you, he’d forget the outside world. If not just for tonight. You would gladly give him that. Give yourself that.

Your hands ran along the tops of his arms, squeezing the muscles as you went, moaning softly when his tongue slipped into your ear, the coolness sending a shiver up your spine. You quickly found the buttons of his shirt, undoing them in equal haste, revealing the expanse of his chest. His hands tugged at the tie of your gown, getting it to fall open and reveal your chest. He cupped your breasts softly, like you would break if he tried any harder and slowly got you onto your back. Your gown slipped open fully, rendering you bare to his eyes, and he let out a sweet sound of awe. He loved your body. Always had. Always would.

You tugged where his shirt tucked into his slacks, and he ripped it from his body, desperate to get as naked as you. It wasn’t long before he was, lying atop your body, staring into your eyes as he caressed your face. His heart was beating a little faster than usual, like it did when he was aroused, yet still not that of a human heart. It never would, but it had become oddly soothing these days.

“Not too cold?” He asked, voice thick with something that had you reaching for him, holding him close.

You smiled. “No. I like it.”

He returned the action, rubbing your noses together affectionately. Your heart swelled in your chest. Fit to burst. You closed your eyes and let yourself sink when his mouth began travelling your body. Your chest rising and falling visibly as he found his way between your legs, making love with his mouth.

In fact, out of the hundreds of times you’d had sex, tonight was the closest you’d ever gotten to such an act. It just felt different. More vulnerable than ever before. Sweeter. It filled your hole body, elevated you. Took you to places you’d never been before.

He pushed inside you slowly, indulging in your velvet warmth, and when he began to thrust it was to a tantric rhythm. Your back arched, your toes curled and all that you felt was warmth. No matter how cold his flesh was, his glow engulfed your body. You wanted it to never stop.

“Tell me you’ll always want me,” he rasped into your ear. Silver and black eyes burning into yours when he pulled back to view you. It was the most defenceless thing he’d ever requested of you. Exposed in the darkness, you shone, giving him the confidence to plead for such a thing.

You held his face tight, voice a hushed whisper, but it didn’t make it any less true. You didn’t know what the future held, nor what would unfold. But you were sure of one thing. There would never be a time when you didn’t want him. You were his, and he was yours.

“Always.”

#seokjin smut #bts smut #jin smut #bts fic #jin fic #fic:club zombie #floralseokjin:writings

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doyoufancyathought · 4 years ago

Text

Through The Utility Closet Part 3: Get Tested

Y/N had never been a fan of hospitals. In fact, she had gone above and beyond in her efforts to avoid going to them. She thought she could probably count all of her hospital visits on her fingers. Thankfully, she was a fairly healthy individual, so it wasn't hard for her to stay out of the Emergency room. They were too sterile, too clean, and everyone was always bustling and grumping around, and poking and prodding all the time. Y/N knew that the hospital wasn't supposed to be an enjoyable place to spend time, but she definitely was of the opinion that steps could be made to make it at least comfortable. Or hospitable, if you'll excuse the joke.

Still, she was in a new dimension, apparently, and so exceptions must be made when it comes to personal dislikes against institutions. She wanted to get home, after all, and this was a necessary step. In order for these scientists to send her back home, they must figure out where exactly she is from, otherwise they could end up sending her to a completely wrong place or time or what have you, and that would just be a disaster.

Once she was up on the exam table, Y/N did her best to appear friendly to the business-like nurse. She was quick and efficient as she hooked Y/N up to at least different machines, and tied a rubber band around her upper arm. For a moment, Y/N was worried that these strangers might be shooting her full of drugs, but then she remembered that this was simply routine for drawing blood. She hoped that medical procedures weren't too different in this world from her own.

Y/N was relieved when the nurse brought in a tray of empty vials and begin to explain what she was doing.

"I'm going to draw some blood so we can do some tests. I'll also need a hair sample, and I'm going to do a saliva swab as well, just so we can take a look at your DNA. How's that sound?"

"Invasive."

The nurse smiled. "I promise you'll barely feel a thing. The swab will be oral, same as checking for strep."

The nurse did her tests, and then let a few scientists in lab coats in. They pulled up chairs in front of the exam table and introduced themselves, although Y/N forgot their names as soon as she heard them.

"Okay, so I guess the first question is for you to introduce yourself and where you're from."

"My name is Y/N Y/L/N, and I'm from (hometown) in (country). I was working at one of my jobs when I fell through an inter dimensional portal and ended up here."

"Good start. Can you tell me about the planetary system from your home world?"

"I guess so." Y/N thought about it for a second, trying to remember those astronomy lessons from many years ago. "Earth is the third planet from the Sun, which is the centre of the system. Then there's Mercury, Mars, Earth, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto, and I think I'm missing some. I can't remember the order, sorry, I've never been good at planets."

"That's all right. Can you tell me how many days in a year?"

"365."

"And how old are you?"

"22."

"And how old do people usually live to be?"

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe anywhere from 70 to 90 years?" Should have paid for attention in stats class.

"How big are spiders in your world?"

"Some of them are super tiny, like you can barely see them. And then some of them are huge, like a dinner plate."

"I see. And how big are chickens?"

"What?"

"How big are chicken? I know it's a weird question, but some worlds have gigantic chickens that actually prey on humans."

"Thats, um, disturbing. But my chickens are normal size? Like small enough to fit in an oven."

"Ok, well that's good. "

There where more questions like this, some about history and some about geography and flora and fauna. When they were all done, the scientists discussed for a minute by themselves.

"Okay, well, from what we can tell, your world is incredibly similar to our own, with the major differences likely being social development. You say you don't have the Avengers in your world?"

"No, we don't have any superheroes or superpowers at all. I wish, though."

"Yeah, that makes sense. How much do you know about inter-dimensional portals?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Ok, well that's fair, it's a tough subject. So pretty much, each dimension has kind of bridges to reach out to other dimensions. When two bridges line up, there's a chance for people or things to cross over."

"Okay, that makes sense I guess."

"A lot of the time, these bridges go unnoticed. Some dimensions are connected permanently, some are connected cyclicly, and some are connected for less than a second at a time, which makes them extra hard to track. You with me so far?"

Y/N nodded.

"Don't worry if you don't get it. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that we might have a hard time tracking down your world."

"Okay, but how long do you think it'll take? How long does it normally take?"

The scientists shifted uncomfortably. "Well that's the thing. There is an infinite amount of universes you could be from, and it'll take a while to narrow it down to just the most likely. From there, we would have to figure out what kind of bridges they all have, and figure out how to predict it, and then figure out a way to send you back."

"Oh, that does sound complicated. So like a month?"

They glanced at each other. "We've never done this before, and we've never sent anyone back through a bridge."

"Two months?"

"Maybe a year."

"What?"

"I said, maybe a year?"

"I'm going to be here for a year."

"Maybe, like I said we've never done this before so we can't really give you an idea of how long it will take."

"Oh my God."

"We're very sorry. We'll give you some space."

The scientists left, and the nurse from before came back in and started unhooking Y/N from the monitors.

"We've run all the tests we need to, dear. Do you have any questions?"

"I have so many questions, I don't even know where to begin."

"That's understandable. We'll have your results back in a few hours, and that'll help the scientists get a head start on where you're from. I've got your clothes here, if you step through that door you'll be able to change in privacy."

Y/N nodded and jumped off of the table, gathering her clothes in her rooms and she quickly walked across the cold floor to the changing room. She pulled on her work clothes, which consisted of jeans and a black t-shirt, but opted to leave the apron and baseball cap off. There was no need to wear them here. Y/N put her shoes back on, simple canvas slip-ons, and reflected on what she had just learned. Here are the facts.

1. She had magically teleported through a door.

2. She was now stuck in a world that apparently had superheroes.

3. The superheroes had no idea how to get her back, or how long it would take to figure it out.

4. She was stuck.

Now, a normal person might cry when they considered this situation. But, Y/N was not a normal person. She had the fun meal-deal of anxiety and depression, and at this moment, she thanked her ill little brain for causing her to overthink every little scenario so she would be prepared for the worst to happen. Of course, none of those thoughts covered time and dimension travel, but they had covered a sudden zombie apocalypse, so it was just a matter of adjusting the survival strategy. Find shelter, find friends, and fight to live.

So far, Y/N had maybe found friends. The Avengers seemed like a friendly bunch, if oddly beautiful, and Sam had offered his basement as shelter. Now, all she had to do was figure out the day to day stuff. Get a job, live a life, and get back to her world.

So she stepped out of the changing room back into the hallway, and say the Avengers gathered around. They all turned to her as the door closed behind her.

"And what did you find out from the scientists, Y/N?" Vision asked.

"Well, they tried explaining how inter-dimensional portals work. That went way over my head. But basically, I'm gonna be stuck here for a while until they can figure out where I'm from and figure out how to get me back. So, I guess I'm going to need to find a job or something pretty quick."

Tony shook his head and stepped to the front of the group. "That won't be necessary. I'm loaded, and I'll make sure you're set up to not need anything."

"Why?"

"Because I want to? You just flew through outer space into a whole new world, and you're worried about getting a job? Come on, live a little! You look like you work too hard. What work do you do?"

"At which job?"

"Well how many do you have?"

"Three."

"Holy moly."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Y/N shrugged. "I get bored."

"So you work?"

"Beats sitting around on my ass."

"Fair point. Well anyways, enjoy the vacation for now, and in the future if you still want a job, we'll have to figure out the proper documents. For now, enjoy your vacation! I'm loaded, and this is the perfect opportunity to share, okay?"

"If you really want to, I mean, I don't mind working."

"Clearly, you have three jobs. Psycho. But no, I don't mind. In fact, I would be offended if you didn't accept my offer."

"Okay, well, then, thanks!"

"No problem. I already gave Sam a credit card for you, so you can go shopping on your way to his house. You do know how to work a credit card, right?"

Y/N grinned. "Yes, Tony, I know how to work a credit card. My world apparently isn't that different from this one, just a few small differences I guess."

"Good. Alright, well, roll out, team."

The Avengers dissipated until it was just Sam, Steve, and James standing around with Y/N.

"So you're still coming with us, right?" Sam asked.

Y/N shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. If you don't mind, of course."

"Not at all. It'll be nice having a girl in the house, for once."

The group of four started walking down the long hallway.

"So do you just collect strays, Sam?" Y/N asked, curious of why he was so eager to offer his spare room to a total stranger.

Before he could answer, Steve cut in. "Yeah, I mean, why else did you think we lived with him?"

"I don't know. I thought maybe you were in a band, or really good gym buddies, or maybe even a throuple."

Sam choked on a laugh, but Bucky and Steve looked confused. "What's a throuple?" James asked.

"It's like a couple, but instead of it being two people, it's three." Y/N explained.

"And you thought?" Steve almost looked offended.

"Look, sorry, I don't know what's normal for you here, and I didn't want to assume it was all platonic!"

Sam was dying laughing. "You thought -" he had to lean on a wall to keep standing upright. "Man, we're just good friends, and these two have absolutely no credit, so it's hard for them to find places to stay."

"Ah. I guess being a superhero might not pay well."

"Well, I mean there are other reasons too, but yeah let's go with that." Steve didn't exactly want to jump this poor girl with the fact that he was also over 100 years old and had been frozen for a while. She had enough to worry about.

Y/N didn't pursue the other reasons, because they had finally exited the building and she was looking around, comparing this new world to her own. It was dark out, because it was night. She looked down the street and saw a McDonalds sign, which made her smile. At least she could have her chicky nugs if things got too tough. Turns out this world was just like hers, just with a bit of a different history. A lot more violence, hence the need for superheroes.

They got into the car, and Sam drove them to a mall, where they spent an hour and a half hopping around to different stores to get stuff. Y/N got used to spending someone else's money, and she definitely took advantage of the three guys following her around who offered, nay, insisted on carrying her bags. However, she insisted on going into the drugstore alone so she could collect toiletries.

She grabbed a cart (and honestly who uses a cart in a drugstore unless you have serious money to spend) and spent about 45 minutes going up and down most of the aisles to find what she needed. Luckily, the products were exactly the same as she was used to, so it was only a matter of finding exactly what she needed.

When Y/N finally walked out, she spotted her new companions sitting down on one of those middle-of-the-mall benches that are intended for senior citizens and mothers with rowdy children and men waiting for women to finish their shopping.

"Got everything you need?" Sam asked as he stood up and stretched.

"Yup."

"Alright, let's head home. You feel like pizza for dinner?"

"What's pizza?" Y/N deadpanned, and the three guys looked shocked.

"You don't know what pizza is?" Steve asked.

"Nope, never heard that word before in my life."

"Seriously?"

"Why would I joke about it?"

"You've never had pizza before." James reiterated.

"Nope. What is it?"

"No, you gotta experience it." Sam smiled and started walking back the way they had come.

Steve and James were perfect gentleman, and oddly strong as well, but Y/N again did not complain when they grabbed her bags from the drugstore. She opened doors for them as they went out to the parking lot.

Once they were back in the car, Sam got on his phone and ordered pizza that would be delivered right as they got home, provided traffic cooperated. Y/N spent the drive looking out the window at all the lights and people she saw, and didn't pay much attention to the conversation the guys were having. Nothing looked too out of the ordinary, except for the whole superhero thing.

Once they got to Sam's house, a tidy little bungalow in a quiet neighbourhood, they unloaded the car and headed inside. Steve and James ran downstairs to put Y/N's bags in her room, while Sam gave her a tour.

As they were walking down a hallway, Y/N stopped to look at family pictures hanging on the wall.

"Is this your family?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's my sister and her two boys. They've grown a lot since that picture was taken though."

"They look like lots of fun."

"They're a handful, that's for sure."

"And these are your parents?"

"Yeah," Sam said quietly. "They passed a few years ago, that's the last picture we ever took of them both together."

"Oh I'm so sorry." Sam shook his head as Y/N reached out to touch his arm. "They have really kind eyes." She said, her gaze returning to the picture.

"They were the kindest people I've ever known." Sam said, and just then, the doorbell rang. "Sounds like the pizzas here."

Y/N could hear the two boys thundering back up the stairs as she followed Sam to the front door. She expected that he would need help carrying all the food in.

She was right. The delivery driver had to go back to his car to get a second load of pizza. Y/N brought the first load into the kitchen and got a few plates down from the cupboard.

"Oh, good, you found the plates!" Sam said as he walked into the kitchen a few minutes later.

"Yeah, lucky guess."

They set the table in silence as Steve and James washed up, and then they sat down for dinner.

Sam decided he wanted to know more about Y/N. "So, Y/N, tell us a little bit about yourself."

"Ok, well," Y/N hated this questions, because how do you boil yourself down to just a few facts? She just wished people would ask direct questions, because she could answer questions if they were clear. She hated vagueness. "I'm 22, I still live, or lived, with my parents. I like dogs. My favourite colour is yellow. I have three jobs, as a nanny, in retail, and also at a Bubble Tea shop in my hometown. What else do you want to know?"

"Well that's a lot. Why do you have three jobs?" Steve asked.

Y/N shrugged, having to explain her workaholic tendencies twice in a day. "I get bored. And I like working, keeps life interesting."

"I'll bet. What do you do for fun?"

"I read a lot. And I like to go to the lake. And crochet."

"What kind of books do you read?" Steve asked.

"It depends. Sometimes fantasy, sometimes mystery. I read a lot of those cheap drugstore romances."

"Wait, you crochet?" Sam asked. "What are you, a grandma?"

"Like a crazy, chaotic grandma, kinda. I drink a lot of tea and wear a lot of sweaters, sorry for being comfy!"

They went back and forth for a few minutes. "How do you like the pizza?" Sam asked.

"Well," Y/N waggled her head back and forth, debating how to break the ruse. "Not the best I've ever had, but it's close."

"Wait, you've had pizza before?"

"Yes."

"You said before though-"

"And you believed me?Rookie move, gentlemen."

"Why would you trick us?" They weren't mad, just a little confused. And amused. James hadn't really said much since they sat down for dinner, but he grinned and chuckled at the confused looks on his friends faces.

Y/N shrugged. "Gotta keep you guys on your toes, yaknow?" They all laughed. "But hey, tell me more about you guys. You're super soldiers? What does that even mean?"

Sam and Steve took turns explaining who they were, and how the Avengers came to be. They didn't touch too much on James, who excused himself fairly into the evening. He was a little shy and quiet around newcomers, apparently, but Y/N wasn't bothered. She had bigger things to worry about than someone being shy around her.

When the talking turned to yawns, Sam offered to show Y/N to her room. He took her down the stairs into the basement, which opened up into a spacious rec room. There was a massive TV and a pool table. Down a short hallway were the two previously spare rooms, both of which were now occupied by strays that Sam had picked up. The only bathroom was unfortunately across the basement, but Y/N didn't foresee any problems with that.

Sam explained how every room had it's own colours for sheets and towels and stuff, and Y/N was very impressed with how domestically organized he was turning out to be.

Sam went back upstairs, and Y/N took a few minutes to settle in. She would unpack and run her new clothes through the laundry tomorrow, but for now all she wanted was a hot shower and a good long nights sleep.

She went into the bathroom, and saw that James had already made space for her stuff in the shower caddy, on the towel rack, and in the medicine cabinet above the sink. With a smile on her face, she put her few new belongings in those empty spaces, then drug herself through the shower and fell into her bed, exhausted.

Before her eyes closed, Y/N considered what had happened to her today. In a new dimension, living with three strange yet wonderful men, something that would be sure to give her mother a heart attack. And yet, she was excited for the morning to come. Part of her hoped that when she opened her eyes again, she would wake up in her home world, and she would be surrounded by people she knew and recognized. That's what a normal person would hope for in this situation, right?

But as I've told you before, Y/N is no normal person, and the other part of her was wishing that when she woke up, she would still be here, in Sam's house. She wanted to opportunity to explore, so see what else was out there. Maybe she'd discover a new life, a new chance to be the person she had wished to be but never got the chance. Whatever happened, she knew that tomorrow would be full questions, and hopefully a few answers. She hoped, anyways.

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concealeddarkness13 · 4 years ago

Text

A New Dawn Part 17

In which the gang goes to Neo Dallas to meet Lily, Ivy, and Craw, and she experiences social anxiety and bad dreams. Tagging: @ratracechronicler and @merigreenleaf! Here is the post with links to the other parts!

No dreams overnight. I hadn’t had a dream about my past since we left Farsia. And I still didn’t know who that boy was in my previous dream. But everything was fine. I was with my new found family. I just had to not think about aliens. Everything was going to be fine.

Breakfast was amazing, as usual, and Rat complained again that I ate more than her, as if it was a competition. I still didn’t understand that. Afterwards, there was a call for Rex, so he went into another room to take the call. I just eyed the video game console while Rat, Eli, and I waited for him to return.

Noct was barking at the console as if she wanted to play too when Rex returned. He opened the hatch and stepped into the doorway, his forehead wrinkled. “So, uh…news. That was my gran who called. She wants me over by hers, stat. That usually means I get sucked up into some project—er—I can’t explain. It’s important, though.”

“Is she okay?” Rat asked.

“Yeah, yeah—it’s a good thing! Well, except it’s a sticky thing, see, cuz I can’t drag you along and we can’t stay around here for too long.” He sounded tough, but he looked nervous. This didn’t sound good, no matter what he said. What did he mean by “we” anyway?

“That’s okay—as long as it’s not an emergency or anything,” Eli said. “I’d like to meet her someday, maybe. You’ve got a nice family, Rex.” Rex snorted and shrugged at that. “We were planning on getting going soon, anyway.” We were?

“We’ll just have to hang out again some other time,” Rat added. Rex brightened, and he smiled. “We haven’t even gotten through half of your game collection, and I’ve got a big need to know what I missed throughout my childhood. All of us did, in fact.”

“Thin mash!” Rex grinned, but I frowned. What did that even mean? “You lot gotta catch up! It’s an important life skill you’re lacking, it is. You’d come back? Really?”

Eli nodded. “Absolutely.”

I looked at the console one last time. There went my hope to play more. But then I looked back at Rex with a smile. He was awesome. “It was great to meet you. Thanks for letting me play games with you.” Noct barked at him, as if she was thanking him too.

He leaned down to pet Noct as he spoke. “Thanks for joinin’, P2!”

I sighed in relief when Rex turned on the console, and we all played Galoshlimb one last time. I almost won once. It was good to get my mind off of the aliens. At least we didn’t have to leave yet.

While we were saying goodbye to Rex’s family, they kept dumping more and more food into my arms. I didn’t mind (actually their food was really good, so it was awesome), but I couldn’t see after they were done. Rat and Eli laughed and helped me stuff the food in the trunk, with some food going in the backseat for a snack. We all got in, Rat revved up the car, and we sped off to our next destination.

I immediately started munching on food. “Where are we going next?”

“Northwest-ish towards Neo Dallas, I think,” Eli said, looking through a street map. “That’s where the other twins are.”

Rat nodded. “My dearly beloathed nemeses,” she said pleasantly. “Lily and Ivy. We’ve tried so hard to kill each other. Failing that, we wound up joining forces. Lily’s more bark and Ivy’s more bite when it comes to strangers. No matter how sweet or innocent or sad she looks, it’s probably best not to trust Ivy. I still don’t. Not a millimeter. Not as far as I could throw her. Into the ocean. Affectionately, of course.”

I snorted. More nemeses. “At least, for once, we’ll be meeting your nemeses and not mine. Should I expect a fight?” My hand brushed over my knife concealed in my pocket.

“In Neo Dallas? Probably.” Rat winced. “Probably not from the sisters, though. I think. Uh. You any good with guns? Just in case.”

I shook my head. “Nah. Never used one. Maybe I could figure it out with my machine?”

“Knock yourself out, but you probably can’t learn it that fast. And I realize I don’t have any, anyway. We’ll have to wing it.”

Brilliant. I gripped my knife instead. She was being awfully non-expositiony as we got closer to the city we were headed to. “Any of your customary info dumps for this Neo Dallas?”

“My what?”

I rolled my eyes. She always had a lot to say about a city, but now she was being quiet? Eli spoke up, however. “I don’t think either of us have been there, and I haven’t heard much of anything about it except some bits of the accent when Lily lets herself use it.”

“I just know there’s tons of guns out there,” Rat said. “Lily and Ivy are smugglers, by the way, mostly for weapons. Well, Lily’s trying to be a surgeon, which’s just creative use of knives, anyway, and I don’t know what Ivy wants to be except maybe the last survivor of a zombie apocalypse or something. Eli, can you look up some interesting factaroonies on that screen thing?”

“I can check.” He paused as he looked at the map screen. “Huh. There are some skyscrapers, I guess. Not as cool as Fre Jac-Mac’s though.”

She laughed. “Filthy easterner. Alright, pals. Looks like we’re going in for a cold open. Brace yourselves.”

I shook my head and stared out the window, waiting to see the city. “Oh boy.”

It was certainly different from the other cities I had seen. Not as impressive or big as the others. There were even farms around the city! And it was dusty, not a lot of shade. It all looked older than the rest of the cities. It looked awesome!

While I was staring at the city, Eli took out his beacon and called Lily, by the look of the reflection of the screen on the window that I could totally read. She picked up and spoke. “Oh, check it, it’s the punk. Thought we shook your dust off our boots, we did. What do you want, eh?”

Eli was taken aback, and I had to stifle a laugh. I liked her already. “It’s Eli. And Rat, actually, but she’s driving. And—well, regardless of where we all stand about the extermination, I wanted to let you know we’re in Neo Dallas and wanted to ask whether you had any advice on the area for us. If you don’t want to help, I understand…”

After a pause, she snorted, but then a completely different, smoother voice spoke up. “Okay, you got me, officer. I can talk like her, but I don’t know thing one about this city, yet, either. I just got here a couple days ago—sounds like I’m not the only one who got bored of solo cruising!”

“I haven’t really tried it,” Eli replied, not seeming fazed at all. “Rat and I have been toge—you know, road tripping since the extermination and—”

“My eyebrows are dancing in a way that begs to question the suggestiveness of this—”

“—AND, we also have a new friend with us, and we’re all exploring the country together,” Eli interrupted back, and they kept interrupting each other for a little bit. I could just imagine Eli’s blush, and I couldn’t help but smirk that I wasn’t the only one who thought they should be a couple.

Craw tsked. “Well, I think it’s fantastic that you already figured out that we were supposed to stick together, plus I think we’re illegally obligated to welcome you to the posse. The sisters are out right now, though—please assume I’m guarding my dearly beloved’s beacon and that I haven’t stolen it for any purpose. You folks inbound off of Rue 8? Stay on that and you should come right upon the Westwind where we’re at. Hundredth floor. You’re welcome to join us if you’re loaded enough.”

Rat grinned. “We got the money. Luxury hotel time! I like the sound of this! Road trip’s about to get stylish!” My mind wandered to the things I could steal at a luxury hotel.

“And what’ve you been up to all this time?” Eli asked.

“Oh, crime,” he, she, they (?) answered pleasantly. “The usual. Causing civil unrest, fomenting rebellion, conspiring. Bit of theft here and there to keep things interesting.”

“Ah,” Eli sounded like he didn’t know what to say. “Good.”

“So much for that big, fancy, expensive reform exercise we had to go through,” Rat snickered.

“See you soon?” the person on the other side of the beacon said.

“Right,” Eli replied. “Take care.” He pocketed the beacon and looked back at me. “That’s our friend Craw. That’s his…”

“Guy voice,” Rat explained. “So his pronouns’re he—him and stuff right now. He’s genderfluid and outside of that he holds an identity like most of us can hold a wet bar of soap. Better at taking names than wallets, so you should be fine, but he will flirt with anyone vaguely humanoid, so be ready for that. So cool that he’s here too! Anyway, you got all that?”

I nodded. “He sounds cool.” I mean, if that intro was anything to go by. But I wouldn’t really be able to brace for flirting. It would just confuse me anyway. Oh well.

People stared as Rat drove through town, and I grinned as I looked around. This felt like home. Dusty, sunny, weapons that weren’t concealed. We stopped at a tall building, and Rat parked and ushered us in. She checked in, and we took the elevator up to the hundredth floor. I had to shove my hands in my pockets to keep from stealing something right away. It was just so…fancy. I had only seen something this fancy when I was pretending to be a rich person to steal from other rich people. Even Taeo’s apartment wasn’t this fancy.

We checked into our room, which actually had two rooms, so I had a room to myself, and while we were getting settled, there was a knock on our door.

I poked my head out of my room as Rat walked toward the door, but before she could open it, the person on the other side opened, and a person with dark, curly hair that went a little past his shoulders and tired eyes that I didn’t know the color of walked in. He was wearing baggy clothes that weren’t flashy, except for a black scarf around his neck. “You made it!” he gushed, and he hugged Rat, so he must have been their friend Craw.

“Intruder alert!” She pushed him away with a grin, and he moved on to shake Eli’s hand. Eli looked like he had been going for a hug, but he awkwardly shook Craw’s hand instead.

“Glad to see you all in one piece.” Craw smiled crookedly, but then his eyes flicked toward me, and he leaned against the doorframe. “And you must be the new friend. One I don’t recognize. Rat, how far did you have to go to find a gem like this before I’ve had the pleasure of making her acquaintance?”

Gem? Pleasure? Rat was right about him. And I still wasn’t prepared. I tried to introduce myself, but the words wouldn’t come out right. So, I just kind of fumbled and fell silent, not looking him in the eyes. He was intimidating.

“You can make her acquaintance from two meters away, smoothie.” Rat tugged at the back of his coat. I silently thanked her. “She doesn’t go in for fire. Cut the cute stuff.”

“It’s just how I talk,” he protested with a smile. “I’ll do my best. Narry a wink, even. I’ll even reign in the charming dimples.” He rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, angled away from me a little more. He looked over at me, still a little intimidating. “Can I have your name?”

“None of that fae shit, either!”

He laughed and buried his face in his jacket lapels. “You got her breaking out the old language! For saints’ sakes. Does the newcomer have a tag I can know? Do I have to get all of my information through her lawyer here?”

Rat looked over at me, and I ducked my head, fiddling with my hands. “I’m—I’m Kai. I’m not from around here…”

“Enchantée. Surely, these two have gossiped all about me by now. But yeah, I’m not from around here either.” He glanced over at Rat. “My, my. Is this getting too personal? Too saucy for your taste?”

“What’re you doing here, anyway? I thought you lived out east,” Rat said.

He shrugged. “Teaching some local geezers some pidgin. Standard revolution stuff.” He looked back at me, and I stiffened. “Can’t quite catch your dialect, by the way.”

“Classified,” Rat said haughtily.

“Guys! Someone left us snacks!” Eli called from another room.

Snacks? Awesome and a good excuse. I took a step toward Eli. I didn’t know how much Rat wanted to disclose anyway, but I might as well explain a little. “But I’m not really from around here. Tersatellus in general.” I walked over to Eli but still stayed in sight just in case they started discussing something important.

He held up a basket of vegetables with a grin. “I think I haven’t eaten, like, half of these…”

I smiled back but didn’t take anything just in case I chose one he hadn’t tried. “Craw’s intimidating.”

Eli looked thoughtful. “I can see how you’d feel that way. You haven’t even heard him imitate your voice yet.” That was cool but surprising. “That’s always startling, too. He’s very talented…” He looked up suddenly. “Do you think I’m intimidating at all?”

I shook my head immediately. He was always so kind and considerate. “No. You’re awesome.”

He relaxed. “Alright. Do you need us to do anything about Craw?”

I frowned. “I think Rat has it covered. Would he really back off if I told him I was aromantic and asexual?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure. Notice how he doesn’t try it on me.” Eli messed with the basket wrapping. “I’m…new to a lot of this, but as far as I understand it, well—it’s different from most of the rest of the world, too, but the vast majority of us—Tersatellans—are asexual. Including him, I think. He, uh, just goes in real big for the romance. A lot of cutouts do. Again, though, I’m not exactly an expert or anything.” He was blushing.

I nodded and relaxed. I didn’t need to be intimidated by him. He would back off if I could just find the words to explain myself.

We waited in the commons area of the hotel room, just talking, waiting for Lily and Ivy to arrive. I mostly didn’t talk because I still felt a little intimidated by Craw, but he was a cool guy. I just wasn’t the best at interacting with people.

There was a knock on the door, and Rat jumped up with Craw to open it, and Eli followed a little slower. I just poked my head out of the room to watch. I didn’t want to be too intimidated again like I was with Craw.

Craw opened the door, and two women who looked similar were standing there. One of them had long, dark gray hair and violet eyes, and she was a little taller than the other one. They had said that would be Lily. The other woman had shorter more silver hair, and lavender eyes, and I had an ominous feeling about her. So, this was Ivy.

Both Rat and Lily stiffened and frowned when they saw each other, and I frowned too. Weren’t they supposed to be kind of friends?

“Look what the cat dragged in. What kind of cheap tar here’s polluting our good streets?” Lily said.

Rat snarled back. “If these streets were ever good, your feet’d burn.”

Lily snorted and then laughed, full and happy. Oh. So they were acting. “You just come up with this on the fly, eh?” she whooped and walked inside. “Hope you don’t mind me breaking and entering.” Ivy walked in after Lily and closed the door behind her and just hovered in the doorway. That was a mood.

Lily’s eyes landed on Eli. “And you’re here. That’s fine.” She sounded a little awkward. Eli mumbled something as Lily’s eyes landed on me. She frowned. “Uh…”

I sucked in a breath and shuffled into the hallway, fully into view. I wasn’t going to sound as nervous as I had around Craw. “I’m Kai. And—and I’m not from around here. Rat and Eli picked me up and took me along on their roadtrip.”

“Oh, huh.” She looked a little baffled. “That’s jazz for you, isn’t it? You do any crime or what?”

I stuffed my hands in my pockets. “I’m a thief.”

“Oh, good.” Lily sighed. “Well, in case you haven’t heard, I’m Lily, and that’s my sister Ivy.” She gestured behind her where Ivy was still hovering near the door. “We’re mostly into smuggling, but if you need a fence, we can figure things out.”

I nodded as a smile tugged at my lips. Cool. “Thanks. I’ll let you know if I do.”

Lily hopped on the couch and sat with her boots up. She glanced over at Eli, who looked shocked. “You fishes look lost. Dirt gets around out here. First rule: feet stay anonymous.”

I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but I wasn’t going to ask. “She’s got a bunch of knowledge of the area,” Craw said appreciatively and sat down beside her. She made a face at him and snatched her beacon back.

“I hope the second rule’s got to do with food,” Rat said as she took off her boots and socks. I agreed with the food part. I was already hungry even after I ate some snacks.

“You are a vile little snake and I appreciate it,” Lily sneered. Rat made a heart with her hands back. This was an interesting relationship. “So you’ve really just been road tripping, huh? That innocent?”

“I’m a rehabilitated lady,” Rat said sweetly. I snorted.

Lily seemed to have the same opinion of Rat’s statement that I did. “My tail,” she scoffed.

“I think she’s at least committing a little less crime lately,” Eli pointed out. “But that might just be because of me. Or because we have less time.”

“There’s always time for crime,” Rat said. “I’ve just been doing too much partying instead. It’s the new year! Live it up! And I’m seeing as many of you ungrateful jacks as I can.” Lily pretended to be stabbed at that last sentence. “Yeah, yeah. I kind of imagined we’d all go buy a castle with our winnings and live together. I couldn’t believe you all had independent goals and dreams. Like—med school? Did Craw say that right?”

“I never misspeak.” Craw sounded offended.

“Yeah, but you gossip and lie.”

“Got me there, officer.”

“I said that’s what I’d be doing.” Lily paused. “…Did some camping and soul-searching awhile first. Got lost in a weird swamp. Fought off gritty creeps. Real good young adult experience.”

“Oh…good,” Rat said, and then she looked over at Ivy. “Hey, and how’re you, Ivy?”

“Fine.”

“………Well, fabulous.” They fell into an awkward silence, and I didn’t really know what to say to help out.

And after a few uncomfortable minutes, Noct decided to bark and trot in as if she knew how to break the silence. And everything slowed down as Lily pulled out a gun. I instinctively rushed forward and scooped Noct up in my hands before turning around and biting my lip. “Don’t shoot. I made her a few days ago.”

Lily lowered her gun, staring at me with a shocked expression. “That’s a…dog?”

I nodded, and I hunched down as I felt everyone’s eyes on me. Great. “Yeah. I made her from scraps at Steele’s house…”

“Oh? Oh! Are you his, uh, apprentice or something?”

I glanced over at Rat and Eli. Did he even have apprentices? “No? I just met him for a few days when we went to Farsia.”

“She’s just real smart and knows how to make stuff, too. Bit of a tinkerer,” Rat said. Eli smiled and nodded. I just flushed at the praise and sat back down.

Lily scoffed. “Pah, we got enough o’ you ought here. Wicked good on you for stealing from Steele, though. Knock that one down a peg.” She nodded at Rat, and I frowned at both of them. What, did she think I stole from him? That would be scary to actually try. “Decent dog, I’ll admit. On a thieving tour, are you?”

Pause. Rat responded. “No, we’re just kinda sightseeing—”

“Okay, this ducky ain’t much for conversation.” Lily sighed. And I just frowned. Ducky? “I got it. You and Ivy, you two’re gonna get along just fine.” She turned to Rat. “Want some grub?”

“Is that a date?” Rat raised an eyebrow.

Lily shrugged. “Figure you, me and Craw can be fun, hit the streets, knock some dust off some shelves while the shut-ins sit in their corners and entertain themselves.” She smiled a radiant smile, and her voice got all sweet like syrup on top of sugar. “Heaven knows I love nothing more than splitting us up into sides.”

“I’m fun,” Eli protested. “And so is Kai. You’re just confusing her. And she didn’t steal anything from my brother. We just visited. For fun. It was a good time.”

“Oh, for sure. Enough fun to knock the stains off the walls, I bet.” Lily stood up. “Anyone actually interested in gambling or grub? It’s getting dark, and I sleep from 4:00 to noon, no sooner. Who’s in?”

“I’ll check out the scene,” Rat said. She stood up and locked an arm around Lily’s with a dark smile. And Lily’s smile faltered. “And I’ll keep you in check.”

“There’s food here,” Eli said, eying both me and Rat. “I’ll stay with Kai.”

I smiled over at Eli and nodded, resisting the urge to eye Lily’s pockets. She had been rude to Eli, so I was going to be petty. “Sounds fun.”

“It’s a nice hotel—I think you’ll like it here,” Craw said as he joined the others.

“Babysit Ivy for me,” Lily added.

Rat glanced over at Ivy. “Hurt either of them and I eat your mainframe.”

“You are the sweetest monster I have ever met,” Ivy said faintly, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She slid onto the couch Lily left. Eli glared at her.

“If anyone asks, I was here all night,” Rat told Eli, holding up her beacon. “And if you ask, I’ll be back in minutes.” They smiled at each other before she turned to me. “And don’t go hunting without a buddy, sis.”

The aliens. I smirked back at her. I had learned my lesson by now. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

They headed out, and I leaned toward Eli. “Do you know what room Lily and Ivy are staying in?” I had decided against trying to steal directly from Lily’s pockets, so instead I was going to steal something unimportant from her room.

Eli shrugged, and Ivy looked over at us and tilted her head. “You’re going to steal from her, aren’t you?” Crap. She figured me out. After a pause, she pointed. “1017. Five doors to the right. She hides her special bag behind the curtains in the washroom.”

I grinned over at her and gave her a thumbs up before I ran out of the room while Eli stared after me with a bewildered expression. Lily had insulted both Eli and me. I wasn’t about to let that happen without payback.

I put on gloves (since I didn’t know if Lily somehow had fingerprint identification abilities) before I picked the lock to 1017, and I slipped in and found the bag right where Ivy said it would be. I shuffled through various wristwatches (she sure had a lot) and picked out a nice digital one that I could work on so that it would say a dumb message.

I put everything back where it was and slipped out of the room and back to ours. I ran back into the commons area and sat backwards in a chair as I started tinkering. Ivy was staring off into the distance while her eyes glowed, and Eli was playing fetch with Noct, using a paperclip as a stick.

I looked over at him, frowning. “I’m sorry that you stayed behind because of me.”

He looked up at me. “Oh. That’s alright.” He smiled. “It’s something I chose to do, so that makes it good, right?” He grimaced. “Well, that was vague. Sorry—I don’t always have the best words for things…”

I shrugged, thinking back on meeting Craw and Lily. “Me neither. But thanks for playing with Noct. I know she appreciates it.”

He smiled, and I looked back down at the wristwatch as I got into the wiring. I was getting close to changing the message that would show up when she turned it on. I had decided to make an inside joke. It would say “Alien malware detected”.

When Eli didn’t say anything, I looked back up, and the smile was still frozen on his face, but it wasn’t reaching his eyes. I frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Nononono,” he said quickly, blinking and raking a hand through his hair. “It’s fine. You’re fine.” He gestured at Noct. “It’s just…interesting…to…think about…Never mind.”

“Great. You’ve got him questioning him humanity,” Ivy sighed. I frowned deeper. Crap. I didn’t mean to make him feel bad.

“I am not. I’m just…waxing philosophical. Which is a perfectly fine and normal thing to do.”

Ivy shot him a doubtful look as her eyes stopped glowing. “You’ve got enough liquid lightning in your body to power this skyscraper for days. Nothing you do is normal.” She shrugged as his fists clenched, and I tensed. She seemed to say things that made the others unhappy so casually. “But yes, that’s still fine. It’s the perfectly normal people you have to be suspicious of, anyway.”

I decided to ignore her comment, since it had upset Eli. I set down the wristwatch and clasped my hands so that I wouldn’t fiddle with them as I turned completely toward him. “I’m sorry. If it makes you feel better, I didn’t program these emotions. She developed them all on her own.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re welcome.” He paused and nodded to himself. “I’m not entirely sure what opinion to attach to that fact, but I think it’s a good one. And I’m really impressed.” He smiled. “Just don’t tell my brother. Or my sister-in-law.” His smile fell. “Or Vastate. I wonder if you’ll meet him.”

“Why does it seem like Rat has free tickets to visit that freak show any time she wants?” Ivy frowned.

“Rat’s sneaky enough that it’s like she has free tickets to visit anywhere whenever she wants,” Eli said loudly.

“Are you burying something, punk?”

“It’s Eli. And are you digging for something?”

She stared blankly at him for a little bit before standing up. “That was me tactfully electing not to make a very cruel joke. I’ve spent the last of my social energy. Rat’s teaching you how to win conversations. I’m really impressed.” She glanced at me, and I frowned back. She seemed a little unnerving. “Nice meeting you.” A ghost of a smile crossed her lips before she walked off back to her own room.”

Eli watched her go then turned to me. “That went well, I think.”

I shrugged. “I guess. I’m…not sure about her.”

“That’s an appropriate judgment.”

We were mostly quiet the rest of the night as I finished up the wristwatch and waited for Rat to come back. She came back still full of energy and loud, and she told us about her time with a grin on her lips. But then she crashed quickly, and Eli and I went to our separate rooms, with Eli bringing Rat along to his room.

I fell asleep almost instantly, and of course, I had to have another dream.

“My dear, come with me.” Tila smiled and gestured for me to follow her, and of course I had to. I just followed at a distance so I wouldn’t have to feel the emotion dampening.

She led me to one of the rooms where they held their tests on us, and I froze. He was there. I couldn’t recall his name still, but that didn’t stop the rush of emotion. He was crumpled on the ground, bleeding from multiple cuts from their knives. There were already bruises forming on his face too.

I ran up to him, tears streaking down my cheeks. I was supposed to protect everyone. But I couldn’t. And the aliens knew it and loved it.

I looked him up and down when I reached him and searched his pockets for bandages I could use to wrap his wounds. I had to stop the blood flow. As I found them, Tila walked up behind me, but not close enough to affect my emotions.

“My dear, you should know by now that you are alone. They can’t save you, and you can’t save them. All that will happen is that they will get hurt because of you. You aren’t able to protect them. You are alone. Embrace it.”

I sucked in a breath and clenched my fists. “You don’t know anything! I won’t listen to you. They’re the closest I have to family.”

“They aren’t your family, and they never will be. They’re happy you’re taking all of the punishment for them. They might pretend that they feel bad, but they’re relieved they don’t have to get hurt. They aren’t appreciative. They’d rather you be hurt.”

The tears fell faster, and I probably tied one of his bandages too tight. “You’re—you’re wrong…”

“You’re alone, Kaira. And you always will be. We’re the only ones who will stay. The others would leave you in a heartbeat.”

A sob escaped my lips. I didn’t know what to believe. They would all be hurt because of me. It would be better if they left me and I was alone. I turned away from him, but he grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.

“Kai. We’re here for you. Don’t believe her.” He smiled weakly up at me, but Tila stomped up, close enough to affect my emotions. I sighed, and the tears stopped falling, but there was still a dull ache.

“Shut up,” she snarled and kicked him in the ribs. I flinched as he cried out in pain. “You’ve gotten too used to my powers anyway. You should be punished.” Her knife flashed, but I instinctively moved between him and her, and she caught me in the arm. I screamed, and she laughed.

I snapped awake, sitting up immediately as I tried to slow my breathing. Tears streaked down my cheeks, and my pillow was soaked from them. Alone. I had always been alone, at least from what I could remember. If these dreams were real, I had friends in the past. But I had left them, forgotten them. They probably hated me now. I was alone…

I shot up and opened the door of my room. I didn’t want to bother Rat and Eli, but I needed to see them. The thoughts and fragmented memories were weighing down on me too much.

I probably should have knocked on the door just in case they wanted some privacy, but I didn’t. I just slipped in. I didn’t want to wake them, just in case.

They were already awake though, and they both looked up when I slipped in. I sucked in a breath and clasped my hands. “Is it okay if I stay with you for a while?”

Rat nodded, her eyebrows raised, and Eli spoke quickly. “Yeah—please.”

I hated intruding, but… I slinked over to the bed and perched on the edge near them, but not too close. I kept trying to keep my breathing sounding normal, but it was still too heavy. I didn’t want to worry them. “Just a bad dream. I didn’t want to be alone…” I mumbled. Eli nodded, and Rat looked between us like she wanted to say something. I frowned. “I hope I’m not intruding on anything. Why were you two up?”

“Can’t sleep,” Eli whispered. Oh. Eli also needed someone right now.

“I’m still buzzing from my spin on town,” Rat said.

Eli hugged his knees tighter against his chest. “You don’t have to lie for me.” He fell quiet, and Rat put a hand on his arm. His hand trailed along his elbow, where I could barely see, through the machinery, a dark red glow through his skin. Also what looked like a scar. “Did we tell you why I’m…like this?” he murmured.

I frowned. Something about being dead? “I think so, if you don’t want to talk about it.” I didn’t want to talk about my dream yet, so I understood.

He nodded. “When I was…asleep…” His voice caught on the word. “It was dark. It was so dark all the time, and I couldn’t—I had to stay hidden. And it’s been months. But every time I try to sleep—every time I can’t see light—it feels like going back. To not breathing. It’s been months, but I still…” He looked around the darkened corners of the room, and he shivered and buried his face in his hands. Rat put an arm around his shoulders. “I understand the bad dreams. I understand not being alone.”

“And you’re not,” Rat said quietly.

My heart ached, and I moved over to the other side of Eli and half hugged him tentatively just in case he didn’t want to be hugged. “We’re family.” He gingerly returned the hug but didn’t say anything. Hopefully, that helped. I bit my lip. I didn’t want to make it about myself, but if he was willing to share, I should share too. “I’ve been having dreams about my past, most likely. And it seems that the aliens pursuing me have always been trying to convince me that I’m alone. And they were pretty successful in this last dream.” I flinched at the memory and hugged Eli tighter. They were wrong. I had a family, even on a different world.

“Since we’re right here, I’m guessing it’s the kind of alone that’s got nothing to do with who’s physically around but—the kind of alone in here?” Rat put a hand over her heart. “Feels like you can’t really be safe with anyone, can’t know them, can’t get known? Too dangerous, too risky, too hard and futile because there’s always something that’ll come between you? And it’s like…glass walls. Between you and the rest of the world, and you can watch and people can never really know or be there. That kind of alone?”

I nodded. “They said that anyone close to me would get hurt because of me.”

“That’s the worst.” Rat sounded genuinely sad. “I’m sorry, Kai.” She reached across Eli, her hand outstretched toward me.

I took her hand and closed my eyes. I actually felt safe. “Thank you for not leaving me alone.”

We just sat in silence like that for a while, and I leaned against Eli. I fell asleep next to them.

#writeblr #A New Dawn

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nellie-elizabeth · 4 years ago

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Grey's Anatomy: You'll Never Walk Alone (17x04)

Awww George! That was the best possible answer as to who was waiting for Meredith in the pseudo-afterlife. It was so amazing seeing him!

Cons:

I thought Maggie's boyfriend's thing with his dad was a little unrealistic in how blunt it was? Like, he saw his dad on a Zoom call and was immediately like "here is the major family drama that we have, let me explain it to the viewer and then sign off the call." It might have just been an issue of clunky writing.

Okay, Jo and Jackson... tread very, very lightly. I don't mind a good old fashioned friends with benefits situation, but that never seems to go the way we want it to, and I'm not about Jo/Jackson as an actual romantic pairing. This show has convinced me of weirder, but at the moment I just don't want them to pair up because they both happen to be single. Also, any storyline that touches on Jo healing from Alex just gives me visceral flashbacks to how stupid Alex's exit from the show truly was. It's hard to see past that.

Pros:

Okay, starting with a small thing, but I actually thought Nico and Levi's conversation was hilarious. I'm not aboard the ship for them anymore, after everything Nico put Levi through, but it's just occurred to me what the funniest and best way forward would be for them, if they keep this story going. What if Levi actually does a good job with boundaries, is totally emotionally over Nico, and really is just using him as a sex buddy, and then Nico catches overwhelming feelings and realizes how badly he screwed up? And Levi is just like... "nah, man. Thanks, but no thanks." I would watch the hell out of that. I just liked when Levi was like "I want to invite you over, but you and I were not good to each other and nothing's changed." And Nico's like "there's a global pandemic." And Levi's like "good point, let's go." It made me laugh.

While I have serious reservations about Jo and Jackson, I do think their friendship is really sweet, and I hope they continue to be able to lean on each other through the tough times. I'm all aboard the pandemic sex buddy agenda.

George and Meredith talking was so great! I loved how he described being dead, and not getting a choice, and regrets, and do regrets matter? It was so cute, when Meredith got all giggly, asking George if he haunted his mother sometimes. And George bringing up the way Meredith used to dance it out when she got stressed or sad. It was such a lovely callback to the earlier days of the show, the twisted sisters... I miss Cristina so much, I really do.

Giving the main character of the show Covid-19 makes a certain amount of sense from a dramatic perspective, but I was a little nervous going in that they were going to be disrespectful about it. It's still possible they could make some bad choices here, but so far I think the balance is working well. See, Meredith is hovering in this in-between place, and she gets to see Derek, she gets to see George, that's all well and good... but they aren't really implying that it's entirely Meredith's choice. This isn't some metaphysical decision about whether or not to live. She needs to have the will, but also, on the outside, she's sleeping all day and really sick, and her doctors and friends need to make medical decisions to save her life. If it's even possible.

Speaking of, I like the conflict we're setting up here with DeLuca, Teddy, and Richard all taking different roles in Meredith's healthcare. Obviously Andrew is pushing for a risky new trial, and Teddy backs him up, which seems to set Richard at ease... but it's still a big decision for him to make. If he puts her in the trial and she dies, will it be his fault? I loved the moment when we saw Richard come into the dream space with Meredith and George, that subtle blending of these two states of mind.

Amelia and Link for the win! I loved that Amelia lost her shit a little bit, but instead of devolving back into the Amelia of old, who would have totally spiraled and caused big drama, we got Link trying to be a good partner for her, and then telling her in no uncertain terms that he too needs support as he deals with the situation his own way, by not talking and processing, but by focusing on the good things and playing his damn guitar. Open communication for the win!

Poor Tom really cannot catch a break. If they kill him off in a "surprise, you thought Meredith was in danger but it's actually Tom" kind of way, I will be PISSED. The guy is acerbic, and kind of a jerk, but I honestly think he's a good person who tries his best, and he doesn't deserve the crap he's gone through. I'd love for some sort of hilarious reconciliation between Owen and Tom where they put aside their differences and become friends, and both leave Teddy behind in the dust. It's what she deserves, to be quite honest. In any case, I loved Helm and Tom talking about a zombie apocalypse game and doing simulations for COVID... I think this is based on a true story of something that happened in an MMORPG game, although I can't remember which one... probably WOW... it was used to test pandemic conditions.

Even though there was a bit of awkwardness in the writing, I still really love Maggie and her boyfriend. I like how chill and reasonable she's being about this, in a clear example of growth from... oh... all of Maggie's other plot threads! I hope that these two can stay together, and that their long distance relationship will continue to grow throughout the season. I think they're really cute!

I wasn't entirely sure what to think of Owen's racism plot at first, but ultimately I liked how it was portrayed, how you can't exactly hate Owen for making this mistake but at the same time, he needs to own his biases and do better. He says "there's no excuse" and then makes an excuse immediately... and Bailey calls him on it. Owen sucks and I don't like him, but I hope he learns from this mistake. I also liked the intern lady whose name I don't know, who wanted to talk to Owen about his mistake but couldn't figure out how to do it, and the fact that Nico did it for her, basically, telling Owen off in no uncertain terms. That was a good character beat for him.

As always, I feel fairly certain I'm missing someone. This show is just too huge, too many characters to juggle! For now, I'll end things there. This was a perfectly fine installment, it felt like filler for things to come, but I don't mind that! And we got to see George!

8/10

#review #grey's anatomy #grey's anatomy review #greys anatomy #greys anatomy review #grey's abc #greys abc

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jungnoir · 5 years ago

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nothing fucks with my baby;

lee minhyuk | inspired by prompt 6. “Just drive, I don’t care about the destination, just drive.” you remember him. he’s a good person, always has been and always will be. right? zombie apocalypse!au, exes to lovers!au. | 2.7k words. | dark, angst, romance, mentions of blood and violence and zombie stuff.

a/n: so, tumblr deleted the requester’s second ask clarifying which prompt they wanted (the one I intended to reply to), but this is for the anon who requested 6 with minhyuk! I tried something a bit different this time with the ending (and weirdly enough, I’m kind of itching to continue this. it won’t be fluffy, that’s for sure).

This new world was powerful. The stranger you’d meet tomorrow would become your executioner or your lifeline, your friend or your foe. You had been seasoned by the apocalypse, thinking yourself an expert on the souls of humans when there were so few humans left to know. You could tell by just the look in someone’s eye whether they’d rather put a bullet between your teeth or take one for you between their own, and very few of them fell into the category of the latter... except someone who might’ve done so for you once upon a time.

When you first saw him again, it was a rabid moment. You had just finished ravishing an abandoned shack for all the food it had to give when a few zombies found you by sound alone. You’d learned to be swift, to abandon what need be, if only to save your poor excuse of a life. It seemed that you hadn’t just alerted zombies, though.

The moment you’d thrown yourself out onto the dewy forest floor, ready to hightail it out of the dense forest once you made it out of the clearing, a horrible sound came from behind you. You had known it well because you’d been the cause of it many times before... a zombie’s existence had just come to an end, and it most definitely wasn’t due to anything other than another human being.

With your gained experience of this new world, you’d learned that the only thing worse than another zombie was another human. Zombies were pure in the way that they sought to infect and feed and nothing more. Humans... they were more complex. You would do yourself a great world of good if you could make it out of here without that human catching you, you thought. You didn’t need to try to make friends at this point, and you definitely didn’t need to be put in the situation of striking first. This new world was cruel, but you had yet to be broken down that much.

You had been ready to just run, but it had been so long. When was the last time you’d seen another person? Felt the warmth of another human being’s alongside your own? Maybe months; It had been nearly a year since the entire end of the world began.

Of course you looked back.

You weren’t sure what you expected, but if the last time you’d seen a human being was months ago, the last time you’d seen someone your age was even longer. The door to the shack was thrown open from your escape, so you could see in the small living room someone towering over a slumped body of a zombie, something long and shining in their hand. It dripped with crimson to the wooden floorboards, and the forest was silent. Whoever this was had taken them all out with expert speed. You really needed to go.

That someone’s head was lowered as they wiped the shining thing (a sword, you now realize) on the door frame, getting most of the blood off fairly well. Then, they stepped over the threshold and stood out on the porch, staring at you.

If you hadn’t known any better, the dead look in his eyes would have screamed “zombie” to you, but it was obvious by the color in his cheeks (though scattered in scars) and lack of unorthodox movement that he was very much still human. You’d also seen him before, enough to have his name spring forward to the front of your mind in an instant. However, he looked changed. This wasn’t the boy—man—you’d known before.

He must’ve recognized you too, because a switch seemed to flip in his brain and the defensive expression his face had been steeled into melts. Lips you’d known so intimately once before just barely quirk up into a smile, “Fancy seeing you here, (Y/N).”

You’re blanching, utterly lost on what to say to him. The last memory you had of Lee Minhyuk was when you were saying goodbye to him for what seemed like forever two years ago. Your relationship had seemed to have run its course and you had assumed that after college, you’d never have to see him again. It was a big city, and after the world went to shit, you’d had even lesser odds. Or so you’d thought.

He walks down the handful of steps to stand across from you, sheathing his sword in the leather scabbard at his side. You’d never seen Minhyuk hold a canister of mace, let alone a fucking sword. That instinct to determine if he was friend or foe bubbled back up again, though much more muddy. Everyone else was easy to read because you had no prior connections to them, but this... him...

“I guess if there was ever someone to steal my next raid, I’d have liked it to be you.” He says, crossing his arms across his chest with a weirdly nonchalant aura. “But my stomach says otherwise.”

At that moment, you seem to remember why you were here. Your backpack is almost overflowing with cans and supplies, all things that’d hopefully would get you to your next meal before you could collapse from malnourishment. “...your raid?”

Minhyuk sucks in a breath when you finally speak, like he had needed to hear your voice to confirm it was really you, “Yeah... I was planning to get the place on quieter terms. Imagine my surprise when I hear somebody gathering up an undead audience right outside. Imagine my even greater surprise upon realizing it was you... of all people.”

You would flush if you weren’t still reeling from the adrenaline rush of almost dying and seeing your ex-boyfriend all within the same minute. He doesn’t look totally the same, the changes prominent given the circumstances. His old wolf cut that you hated to love had now been trimmed military-style short in an attempt to look neat. Meanwhile, his once slender frame was now chiseling out with significant muscle. The only thing that really hadn’t changed about him was his eyes and the rather intense, unyielding look they were known for. They rarely gave anything away, which made sense for how unbothered he looked at the moment. They had been like that during your peaceful parting of ways two years ago too. How curious that you were both back here like that had never happened.

“I had no idea any one was in the area.” You say, slipping your backpack off one shoulder to unzip it some. You look at your wonderful haul and your heart aches at the thought that you’ll have to part with it. That meant you wouldn’t be given the luxury of loitering around the outskirts of town until you reached the next one. You’d have to go straight through, minding all the other scavengers and undead...

Minhyuk’s eyes light up some at this, the first emotion you’ve seen on his face in a while. He even accompanies it with a heart-stopping smile, “Means I’m getting good!” When he sees you fiddling with your bag, he stops smiling, “Hey,” his hand stops your own and you feel a shudder roll down your spine when his skin touches your own. It’s been so long, “don’t. You don’t have to. I’ll be in the next town before I know it. Maybe just spare me a can for the road or something.”

You blink at him, “But this was your raid.”

Minhyuk snorts, “Clearly not if you got in first. Seriously, keep your stash. I won’t lose my head over one lost raid.”

You could laugh at that. The irony that he could was evident. Instead, you hand him three cans and some bandages, “We’ll split it.”

Minhyuk stares at you again, expression unreadable. You don’t see a bag on him anywhere, and you start to wonder how he’s gotten this far without one if he’s still traveling. You doubted he’d camp close enough to a gaggle of zombies, so he had to be mobile. Before you can ask, he pushes the supplies back toward you, “Why don’t you come with me and we can share? Everything we find is ours.”

To join him... to join someone...

Of course you’d been asked to join a couple groups before on your journey, but your answer had always stayed starkly the same. You knew the danger of groups; what if you were to join one and they turned on you to save their own skin? At least out here on your own, every outcome was your doing alone. All those groups that had offered were full of people you could read, and each and every one of them had one priority higher than loyalty: to survive.

But Minhyuk wasn’t like that... right? Never had been. He was always the first to sacrifice himself for the greater good, always the first to protect you in lieu of himself. Always, always, always. It had been a long while since you’d last seen each other and despite all that had been altered skin-deep, you didn’t get the feeling much had changed inside.

He is as inviting as ever. When he points out his truck parked deep in the forest piled high with tools and supplies you could only dream of getting your hands on, you find that following him to the passenger seat is all too easy. It’s not the car he used to have, this one most likely stolen off someone when he had the chance judging by the paint job alone. It was a ghastly grey he wouldn’t have caught himself dead in. It didn’t fit his bursting personality.

Minhyuk pats the roof and pops open the door for you with ease, smiling gently at you as he ushers you to get in. “Watch your step, the bar is easy to slip on.” To emphasize his point, Minhyuk offers you a hand and braces the other at your back. If he could feel how rigid you became at his touch, he didn’t mention it.

Once you were in your seat, you dropped your hulking backpack to the floor and let out a sigh of relief. It was so easy to forget how long you’d been walking once you were actually sitting, let alone sitting somewhere you hadn’t had to check for remains or fecal matter.

Minhyuk shuts your door and jogs over to the backseat of the driver’s side, settling his sword on the floor. You take this moment to process what he has back there: the entire backseat is covered with different mismatched clothing and bags, some with things like bars of soap and toothpaste, others with nonperishables, and some full of such an array of weapons that you couldn’t possibly categorize them all. How had he gotten his hands on so much just on his own...?

When Minhyuk hops into the driver’s seat, he can see the clear question on your face. Perhaps you might’ve been too easy to read, or perhaps he was still so tuned into you like the old days. “Alright there?”

You swallow, clutching your backpack between your legs a little tighter. You’re reminded of your measly close-combat knives and clear your throat in an attempt to save face, “Yeah, sorry. The shock of this is just... erm... getting to me.”

“Hey, look at me,” Minhyuk is practically begging as you avoid his eyes, trying to look anywhere but at him. This is all so much and so soon. You hadn’t even the slightest thought that he might still be alive, let alone that he’d ever find you, and you couldn’t even go through the awkward post-breakup motions like you should have been able to because of this clusterfuck of a dystopia you lived in now, “seriously, look at me.”

What a gentle hand he still had, even after all the carnage he’d been through.

The touch-starved part of you leaves you shuddering at the way he arrests your chin between the pads of his fingers, warm and firm and kind. Minhyuk slowly moves your head until you’re facing him.

There were times when he’d kissed you this way. Oh, how you’d longed for someone to touch you the way he had just once more without the need to up and run away before they stabbed you in the back- “Well... still stunning as ever.”

Your eyes widen, “Huh?”

Minhyuk rolls his head to the side and laughs softly, brushing the hand on your chin along your skin until he’s dragging it back to himself, and mindlessly, you move your head to follow minutely. A little blaze in his eyes says more than he does, “Where would you like to go?”

“I thought you were headed to the next town.” Blinking, you look about you, “I’m just stumbling from place to place. I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“No one’s looking for you, either?” He questions, resting his chin on his fist. You shake your head immediately... to his silent delight.

“I’ve been traveling solo since the beginning and... nobody that would be looking for me is still alive, anyway.” You’d seen that much in the bodies of your family and friends in the early days, enough to mourn for a lifetime.

His tongue darts over his lips as he takes you in. Something like disbelief shines in the way he meets your eyes once more, “I’m awfully lucky to have found you again.”

He was lucky to have found you? You could practically cry from joy; not only was he someone you knew, trusted even, he was eons more skilled in this apocalypse than you. Those video games he loved so much had surely paid off for him in the end, it seemed.

Yet, here he was, watching you like you’d been what he needed to survive all along.

Instead of saying all that, you settle for your first genuine smile since all this had began. You don’t know how appealing it is behind cracked lips and bad breath, courtesy of the disrespect apocalypses have toward basic human hygiene, but Minhyuk seemed pretty charmed. With one wrist thrown over the steering wheel and his free hand starting the car, he tears his eyes away and soon enough, you’re moving. The jolt of the car is a welcome change to what you’d become used to out here. Why, you could just sink into your seat and doze off, even. Perhaps...

You rest your head tentatively against the glass of the passenger side window, watching the trees and dead bodies go by, calm despite it all. You know that the noise of the truck will draw out any other creepers hanging in the deep brush, but you know they’d never be fast enough to catch you. You can trust this. Him.

Slowly, you doze. It consumes you like a warmth and you can’t be assed to fight it. Minhyuk wouldn’t mind, you were mostly sure. Besides, he would wake you if he needed you. The next town wouldn’t be for miles.

There’s a slight twitch in Minhyuk’s hand as he watches you from his peripheral. It’d been so long since he’d last been this close with someone who wasn’t trying to eat him or kill him for his shit (intentions that were unsettlingly interchangeable between humans and zombies), and it’s you, too.

If he’d had any doubt that he was still madly into you all these years later, it had whipped up in a smoke the moment he’d seen you face to face. The tunnel vision he acquired whenever he dove his sword into flesh dissipated so quickly and he was grateful. He did not fathom in his mind that he’d need to be very cautious of who and what he struck down any longer, but he was glad he had been. You were strong—of course you were—and you made it back to him. How fateful.

You were the only person left alive who knew the old him, let alone the only person who had no clue what brand of cruel he had become. If you stayed with him long enough, you would.

All Minhyuk could pray for was that you’d understand... he was no longer a man who could feel remorse.

#there's a few ways i can spin this #lee minhyuk scenarios #lee minhyuk imagines #lee minhyuk x reader #lee minhyuk #monsta x scenarios #monsta x imagines #monsta x x reader #monsta x #majwrites #lee minhyuk angst #lee minhyuk au #monsta x angst #monsta x au

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heyyyharry · 5 years ago

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Chapter 10: Darlings

(from the Flatmate Trilogy: Two Hearts, One Home)

…in which Harry is excited but Y/N is worried.

Word count: 4.4k

Chapter 9: Three’s A Crowd - Harry learns a big lesson, and Y/N cannot tolerate his assistant.

Wattpad link

A/N: Please enjoy and spam my inbox. - Allie.

Y/N was pregnant.

The doctor had confirmed it. A pregnancy test stick had confirmed it. The morning sickness had confirmed it. So it was official. She was now positively pregnant.

Before all of this, she had been devastated and almost depressed thinking she and Harry might not have children of their own. Now that the universe had given them one, she fell into a state where she was constantly afraid and anxious. She'd blame it on the hormones and the way her body was changing. The baby was probably not even...a baby yet, and she had already come up with a bunch of different scenarios where she turned out to be an awful parent. It was not until now that she realized how strong her sister had been for bringing up baby Eleanor on her own. Y/N was lucky to have a loving husband, her family, and supportive friends by her side.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!"

Harry burst right through the door. He had just got back from work, still in his suit, and his face was white. But what he found was just Y/N and Layla sitting on the bed, blinking at him.

"Who just screamed?!"

"Layla did," said Y/N with a beam. "I just told her the news."

"I cannot believe I'm about to be a godmother!" Layla punched the air and then drop her smile to give Harry a questioning look. "Wait...why are you holding a frying pan?"

Y/N was in hysterics when her husband lowered his frying pan and rolled his eyes. "I didn't have time to choose my weapon when I heard you scream. I thought my babies were hurt."

"Ew?!"

"Not you, Layla. I meant Y/N and our actual baby."

Layla ignored him and turned back to Y/N. "He's gonna be using plural nouns from now on, isn't he?"

"He's been doing that since the doctor visit." Y/N gave her best friend a shrug and automatically lifted her face for Harry to kiss. Layla sighed in contentment as she watched them.

"I'm so excited for you guys and also for me! When I was little, I always wanted to be Cinderella and now, I, Layla Scott, is about to be the fairy godmother."

"Who says anything about—" All it took was one fierce glare from Layla for Harry to change his opinion in a heartbreak. "Yes! You're gonna be the best godmother! No doubt!"

"I'm sorry baby Styles," Layla leaned down and whispered to Y/N's nonexistent baby bump. "Your daddy's a fake."

"Well, your aunt Layla's a bully."

"Godmother! Ugh!"

Smirking as Layla jokingly flipped him off, Harry dropped his head to give Y/N a few more pecks, one hand under her chin, the other on her belly. "I'm gonna take a shower now. You ladies have fun without me."

"Don't worry," Layla gave him a lopsided grin. "We always have fun without you."

"Dick."

"Pussy."

"Real mature guys. I can totally see myself trusting you two with this child." Y/N snorted as Harry walked out with his 'weapon' after giving Layla a mocking face.

"Love you, darlings," he said. "And that plural noun doesn't include Layla!"

"Thank you, asshole!" Layla shouted at the closed door, making Y/N laugh even harder.

"He's very excited," Y/N said now that her husband was gone. Though smiling, the girl was subconsciously fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. And even such a little action couldn't get past Layla's eyes.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you upset?"

"What? I'm not!" Y/N scrunched up her face. "I'm perfectly fine."

"You don't look fine though. You blink a lot when you lie."

"I do not!"

"Here she goes again." Layla scoffed. "I don't get it though. You're finally pregnant. Harry's falling more in love with you, I didn't think it was possible, but I was just proven wrong." She stuck out her bottom lip and lifted her shoulders. "So maybe instead of looking constipated the second he turns away, you should be happy."

"I'm not unhappy, I'm just..." Y/N paused to search for the right word and then went with, "worried." Taking a deep breath, she continued, "what if I'm a terrible mother? What if Harry's the favorite parent and I'm the one my kid lies to and keeps secrets from? What if we're both terrible and our kid hates us?!"

"The kid's not even in there yet and you're already freaking out about him or her going through puberty?" Layla breathed as her eyes rolled upward. "Look, I don't hit pregnant women. But I'll slap the shit out of you if you say that again, ya hear me? This isn't you talking. This is the pregnancy hormones. Your anxiety isn't real, okay?" Quickly, she grabbed Y/N's shoulders and signaled the girl to copy her as she inhaled deeply and let go of that breath.

"Feel better?" she grinned. Y/N nodded once, looking less uneasy now. "Good. Just know that we're all here for you. You're gonna be fine."

As it turned out, Layla was right.

Soon the weekend arrived, and the young couple had grown used to the new rhythm of their life. Y/N had been paying more attention to her diet and taking vitamins regularly, so she didn't feel as terrible as she had for the first few days. This morning, Harry had a meeting with a client, so he wasn't there when she woke up. He'd left her breakfast on the kitchen table with a note saying he loved her and would miss her terribly until he came home. After everything that'd happened to them, he was making more effort to make sure she knew how much she meant to him. It began to feel like those college days again, and she wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

"Nope, I won't do it!"

"I'll pay you."

"You haven't even paid me for catsitting Tiger!"

Y/N brought Treasure toward Nam's desk and couldn't help but overhear his little argument with Stephanie. While the blonde was rambling on, Nam seemed pretty annoyed. That wasn't at all surprising, because Stephanie's only talent besides being a bitch, was being an annoying bitch. Y/N supposed it was mean to think about her neighbor like that. But that woman deserved to be called a bitch after all the things she'd said and done.

"Y/N!" Stephanie grabbed Y/N by the arm the second she saw her. "Tell him to babysit my niece for me!"

"Oh, now you're gonna drag Y/N into this?" Nam laughed wryly as he took the white cat from Y/N's arms. "Even if you promised me a fortune, the answer would still be no. I already know I wouldn't get a single penny from you. At least Treasure's parents pay me well."

Treasure meowed softly as he stroked her head. "Do you agree, my little furry baby? Tiger's parents are stingy white people, aren't they?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Well, cats, children, they're all the same."

"Well, thank God, you're not a mother." That was meant to be an insult, but Nam had unintentionally given Stephanie a new idea.

Her eyes lit up as she turned to Y/N. "Since you're about to be a parent, would you like some practice?"

"Oh, no! Leave Y/N alone!"

Stephanie completely ignored Nam as she went on before Y/N could say anything. "Don't worry, my niece's a good kid. Her parents go away on business trips all the time so she's very independent. All you need to do is to keep an eye on her until her mum picks her up."

"How old is she?"

"Y/N, you're not actually considering this!" Nam cried out.

Y/N gave him a shrug as she pursed her lips. "Tomorrow's Sunday, so why not? And I'm also good with kids."

"That's the spirit!" Stephanie smacked her on the arm, causing the poor girl to flinch. "She's five. The sweetest five-year-old you'll ever meet! Her name is Darling."

Y/N saw Nam hug Treasure and turn away as he muttered something, probably cursing Stephanie. But this time, it wasn't Stephanie's fault. Y/N simply thought this was a great opportunity for her and Harry to practice being parents. It was never too soon to get prepared for such a big change in their life.

Besides, with a name like Darling, the girl must be an angel. Now Y/N couldn't wait to talk to her husband about their new plan for Sunday.

"Babe, I still think you're really overthinking this."

"I'm not," Y/N shouted from the living room as she checked her watch. "Would you just hurry up?! We're gonna be late."

"Relax! They literally live just across the hall!" he said and finally stumbled out of their bedroom.

She stared at him, lifting an eyebrow in amusement. "Why are you carrying your laptop?"

"I gotta check my emails." He chuckled and pressed his lips to her temple. "Come on, babe. Let's go fake-parenting."

Laughing, she reached out to hold his hand.

They had never been in Mason and Stephanie's flat and had never intended to set foot in there, unless it was the only safe place in a zombie apocalypse. So when they entered 'the devil's home' for the very first time, their jaws nearly dropped to the floor.

The place was much cleaner and tidier than they'd imagined. Harry had often joked about his cousin's flat looking like a porn movie set, with sex toys hanging on the walls and adult magazines lying all over the place. At least that was how he imagined porn movie sets would look like. However, the flat was actually decent. Y/N amused herself with the thought that, those who had never met Mason and Stephanie would think they were a basic white couple named Kevin and Barbara, who baked cookies and went to church every Sunday. Lesson learned: never judge a book by its cover.

As Y/N went into the kitchen to check what Stephanie had left for them in the fridge, Harry made himself comfortable on the couch (after having made sure there wasn't a cum stain on it) and opened his laptop. They waited for about fifteen minutes when the doorbell rang, and Y/N rushed to it with a big smile on her face. She opened the door and was greeted by a tall woman slightly older than her.

"Hi! You must be Mary!"

"And you must be Y/N, the babysitter!" The lady returned a smile as she fixed her bucket hat that covered most of her bobbed blonde hair. Then, she turned back to call her daughter who was still idling in front of the lift. "Darling, come here, baby!"

The five-year-old pouted as she crossed her arms and waddled toward her mother and Y/N. She was as adorable as the image Y/N had created in her mind, with big bright eyes and brown straight hair that fell right past her tiny shoulders. The ladybug backpack she was wearing was too big for her body that it made her look even smaller. She could be the baby girl Y/N had always wanted. But then again, she shouldn't be. The girl might look like an angel, her attitude, however, said the opposite. Her little round face contorted as she shot Y/N a spiteful glare. Why?! They had only just met!

"Hello, Darling." Y/N crouched down with both hands on her knees despite the unwelcoming reaction. "My name's Y/N. And that—" she pointed at Harry who raised his hand and gave the child a wave "—is my husband, Harry. We're your babysitters for today!"

Darling looked at Y/N, and then Harry, and then back to Mary. She repeated that one more time before telling her mother, "please pick me up on time, mummy. Don't leave me too long with these strangers."

The mother gave a startled Y/N an apologetic grin before turning back to the child. "Of course," she said. "But you gotta promise to be nice and listen to Y/N and Harry, okay?"

Darling looked annoyed as she crossed her arms, still, she replied with a nod, said goodbye to her mum and followed Y/N into the living room.

"Okay." Y/N breathed as she shut the door. "Why don't we just start by getting to know each other?"

Darling shrugged off her backpack and spoke with a straight face, "I want to color."

"Oh, okay." As Y/N plastered a smile on her face, Harry was biting his knuckles so he wouldn't crack up. "I'll get us some paper and we'll color together—"

"I said I, not we."

"Wow..." Y/N heard her husband say, but she was too stunned to react. The kid hadn't broken that intense eye contact with her that made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

She swallowed hard, nodding her head. "S-sure. Why don't you wait on that couch with Harry?"

Darling didn't reply and dragged her backpack toward the couch to sit on the other end, as far away from Harry as she could. Now that his wife had left, Harry thought he should start a conversation to get to know this child. But before he could come up with anything to say, Darling was the one who broke the silence.

"Why do you wear so many rings? Are you married to many women?"

"No!" The man laughed, his eyebrows pulled together. He didn't know why he was nervous talking to this five-year-old when he'd never found it hard to speak to a girl before (Y/N had been a special case). He stuttered for a moment before adding to his answer, "this is my wedding band, see?" He showed her his ring finger, smiling proudly. "This is the only ring that matters."

He thought she would react in a different way, a more childlike and positive one. However, what he got was a hardened expression that seemed like she was silently judging him.

"Are you lying because you think I'm a child so I don't know what cheating is?"

He arched an eyebrow in doubt. "Do you know what cheating is?"

"Yeah, aunt Steph taught me that word," she said casually. "Cheating is when a husband or a wife sleeps with another person that's not their wife or husband."

"Jesus Christ!" His eyes widened as he straightened his back. "She taught you that?!"

"Yeah." Darling nodded once. "But I think she's wrong, because what if you want to have a sleepover with your friends? You have no choice but to sleep with them, right?"

"Right." He chuckled nervously.

Y/N soon returned with some paper, and Harry didn't think he'd ever felt so relieved. Talking to that girl was like being interrogated by the police. He'd never been interrogated by the police before, but in his imagination, this could probably be worse. He took advantage of Darling being distracted by her paper and crayons to drag Y/N to the kitchen, telling her to keep her voice down.

"Harry, we are not having sex while there's a kid in the other room!"

Her reaction made him chuckle as he held her arms. "Who says anything about sex?"

"I'm not sucking your dick either."

"I may be horny for you all the time, but I know my limits. I'm only here to tell you that the child scares me."

"Don't you think it's a little too late for that?" she asked, pointing to her belly.

"No, I mean Darling!"

"You mean what?"

He exhaled and rolled his eyes, but still found the little misunderstanding hilarious. "I was talking about Darling, the little girl."

"Just call her 'the little girl' from now on to avoid confusion."

"Got it." He snorted and proceeded to tell her about their previous conversation in the living room, adding, "I haven't seen her smile, isn't that strange?"

Y/N gave him a shrug. "Maybe she's a mini Wednesday Addams."

"Maybe she's a mini Layla."

"Okay, that's funny."

Harry tried to look as serious as he sounded but his own joke amused him. Smirking, he went on, "I bet she's out there drawing a picture of the two of us with our heads cut off."

"Harry, you're overreacting. She's only a baby," Y/N said and kissed him on the cheek.

Other than being an emo five-year-old, Darling was actually a good kid. She had been quiet the entire time while working on her drawings. She was using a lot of red, which reminded Y/N of what Harry had said earlier, and now she was afraid to see what those 'works of art' were about.

Soon it was lunch and Darling stopped coloring as she told Y/N she was hungry. Y/N wanted to be a good soon-to-be-mother, so she asked her husband to play with Darling while she made some sandwiches for the three of them.

"No, wait, I'll do it!"

Before Y/N could protest, Harry had already dashed into the kitchen. She knew he couldn't cook to save his life but didn't want to fight him on this, so she sat back on the couch and let him be their chef. It would take forever until they had something to eat if at all. So while waiting, Y/N used Harry's laptop to go on YouTube. Just when she thought she could finally relax and watch some funny cat compilations, Darling's loud squeal made her head turn shot up.

"What happened, dear?" Y/N put down the laptop and came to see what was wrong.

The little girl stuck out her bottom lip, her eyes welled up as she held the red crayon now broken in half in her little palm. Y/N squatted on the floor with her elbows on her knees as she gave Darling a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, you can still color with that."

"It's broken."

"Yeah but..." Y/N took the two halves, each in one hand. "Now you have two red crayons."

"Half a crayon doesn't make a new crayon."

"Who told you that?" Y/N asked, her eyebrows rose.

Darling pursed her tiny heart-shaped lips as she thought for a moment. She was probably trying to decide if she should tell Y/N what she'd never told anyone. Eventually, she confessed, "aunt Steph told mummy that mummy and daddy's marriage was a broken crayon. You can still color with it, but it'll make the picture ugly and messy."

Y/N was frozen by those words. A little girl should not have heard something like that about her parents, ever. Feeling a big lump in her throat, she tried to search for the right thing to say to Darling. It was only then that she looked around at the paintings scattered on the carpet. They weren't what she and Harry had assumed. They were just awful, messy, childish drawings of what any child would view as a happy family. Darling had used a lot of red to draw the hearts. There were so many hearts surrounding her, her mother and her dad. She'd even used that red color to cross out the face of another woman standing in the background, who, Y/N believed, was her father's mistress. That explained why she'd thought Harry was cheating. Her dad had done it, maybe all the men would too.

"Here." Y/N picked up one half of the red crayon as she sat down, crossing her legs. To Darling's confusion, she took a new sheet of paper and began to draw.

She'd been told by her niece Eleanor and Jamie, the boy she used to babysit during college, that she was good at drawing. That was what she loved about children. You didn't have to give it your best shot and they would still think you were extraordinary, simply because you were an adult. And she was right. Darling's mouth had formed an 'o' shape as her eyes followed every single movement of the crayon sliding across the paper. She was in awe to see Y/N quickly sketch a house with a nice garden, the fences, some trees, even a swimming pool. Y/N finished her 'masterpiece' with a family of two, a little cat, and an arrow pointing to the woman's belly as she wrote down the word 'BABY'.

"So this..." She sighed happily now that her work was done. "This is my family," she said, pointing to the picture. "This is Harry, this is me, and you can't see the baby because the baby's in my belly."

"Does your house look like this?" Darling asked, her eyes went round. It was the first time Y/N had seen her act like an actual five-year-old. And there was something so endearing about that. This was when Y/N's maternal instinct kicked in, she felt her heart flutter in a way that she'd only experienced when she was with Harry.

"Nah, we live right across the hall," she told Darling. "But this is our dream house."

"Why don't you buy it? It has a pool and everything!"

"We'll buy it someday. Right now, we want to stay here to be close to work and to our friends."

Darling clasped both hands in front of her chest. "Can I come visit when you finally buy this house?"

"Sure, love." Y/N nodded and handed her one half of the crayon. "Wanna draw yourself in?"

"Can I?!" she exclaimed with excitement, smiling from ear to ear. That was the first smile to be seen on her, and Y/N felt so proud knowing she was the reason for it.

"Sure, babe. You can put yourself next to me and the baby."

Harry finally returned with three (slightly burnt, but still edible) grilled cheese sandwiches. After having struggled in the kitchen for half an hour, he was now considering signing himself up for a cooking class so he wouldn't depend too much on his pregnant wife. But maybe he'd save this talk for later, because his mind went blank the moment he saw his wife...laughing with mini Layla.

"H-hey guys," he spoke, catching the girls' attention. "What...what are you guys doing?"

"Darling drew a picture of us. Wanna see?"

"Is my head still attached to my body?"

"Harry!"

"Alright, alright. Coming."

He put the plate down on the table and sat down with the girls on the floor. His reaction was the same one as Y/N had before when he saw what Darling had been drawing the entire time. It was far different from the horrendous scenario he'd painted in his head.

Excited, the girl stood up and raised her artwork to show it to her two audiences. "So this is you, this is Y/N, this is the baby. I made it a girl because I want a little sister."

Harry chuckled but Y/N shushed him so Darling could finish her presentation, "and this is me, the babysitter."

"She volunteered to be our babysitter," Y/N told her husband before he could ask.

"Told ya she's a mini Layla," said Harry as he waggled his eyebrows, making Y/N giggle and pushed him away.

For the rest of the afternoon, things had gotten much better for Harry and Y/N. They played a few games (that was how Harry discovered he gave great piggyback rides) and did some more coloring. Since Harry had accidentally ruined one picture by coloring outside the lines, the girls threatened to take away his crayons, but eventually agreed to let him color the insignificant details like the trees and the flowers in the background. Honestly, that was the most therapeutic activity he'd done in a long time. He didn't even bother to check his emails and chat with his clients and employees. All he cared about was this happy moment with his wife and their play-pretend family of three.

In nine months, this all would be real.

"I told you it'd be worth it," Y/N said contently as she followed Harry into their flat.

Darling had just left with her mum, who had been so surprised when her daughter appeared with a massive grin and showed her the picture she'd drawn with half a crayon. Y/N hoped Mary had understood and would try to do better for her little daughter. That was what that child deserved.

"I love to see you so happy," said Harry as he hugged her from behind, kissing the spot right below her ear as she held his face. "Told you you'd be a great mum. You've been acting like my mum since the first day we met."

She rolled her eyes, a corner of her mouth turned up. "I just realized that the personality of the child depended a lot on her parents' relationship."

"That's right." He nodded, holding her stomach with both hands. "Our baby's gonna be an angel, because we're in love. I love you, you love me, we're a happy family."

"I can't have a deep and serious talk with you if you keep quoting lyrics from Barney & Friends, H."

"You're so lame. Our baby would've loved that." He scrunched up his nose and tilted his head to kiss the corner of her mouth. Then, he brightened. "Hey, I think the name Darling is very cute and unique. Let's name our baby something similar, like Honey. Baby Honey sounds so cute!"

She raised an eyebrow at him, lips pressed together as she tried to contain her laughter.

"No? Okay, I'll come up with something else. But I will not give our baby some basic names like Kevin or Barbara."

She froze. "Wait, how d'you..."

"Did I say something wrong?" He gave her a confused smile as he didn't get why she seemed so shocked.

Y/N slowly shook her head and kissed the dimple on his cheek. "I almost forgot that we were like the same person sometimes. Is it weird that I want to marry you again?"

"Not at all. I would do it all over again with you." He beamed, holding her tighter. "Don't worry, love. I promise that I will be the most responsible father and role model—

"Harold!" Mason's voice on the other side of the door interrupted Harry at once. "Harold, I have your laptop!"

"Shit, my laptop!"

"Let's see what kind of porn you have in here!"

"Fuck you, Mason! Give it back right now!"

Y/N hadn't said a word but Harry had already chased his cousin down the hallway. With a gentle smile, she stared at the open door and said to their baby, as if it'd already been there, "we'll give your daddy another try tomorrow."

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