#couldn’t find vegan food

[nextstopwonderland]

July 2010 from Bryan Danielson’s blog

Yeah, I’m gonna need photos from that “beach party, no water plenty of sand” in which they DANCE, stat.

[a-walking-fandom-reference]

i hate change i hate when people change plans and don’t express that to me clearly i hate when people say they are going to the grocery store and what you want so now you are really wanting some things for a specific meal and then they decide they aren’t going and don’t tell you but realize they have to go to grab something so they go to a smaller grocery store that doesn’t have the things you wanted for the meal you wanted so now nothing sounds good and you can’t eat anything on top of being upset about it 😭😖

[my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction]

Banana Split

Steven Grant x GN!Reader • Rating: M •Masterlist• ao3• want to be tagged? | requestinfo• MK Bingo 2024 Masterlist• ko-fi •

Summary: You get an ice cream.

🌛For @moonknight-events MK Bingo Spring 2024 Event🌜

A/N: Last one for the MK bingo! I didn't quite get to finish the board (the other fics are just not in a good state to post, maybe I'll sort them out one day ^^)

Warnings: finger sucking, over use of italics, typos, not beta read, railroad sentences, please let me know if I've missed a warning!

Word Count: 638

It had started with a playful argument about banana splits when you were in Kaspas. 

You weren’t quite sure how the discussion had started, just that the aforementioned desert had been on the menu and Steven and Marc had gone at it. 

Their bickering was always playful, a kind of sparring match that they seemed to partake in mainly for sport, and not so much for actually arguing about a topic. 

Seventy percent of the time you were pretty sure that they only took opposite sides so that they could continue quarrelling. 

Steven had said that banana splits were invented in the UK. Marc said USA. Steven had gotten up the Wikipedia page. Marc had gloated about how he was right. Steven had countered with, ‘yeah, but it does say no one knows for sure, doesn’t it? So it could have been anywhere.’ Marc had complained Steven was a sore loser, and ‘that everyone that could have been credited with inventing it was from America. So he wins.’ Steven had added, ‘Technically, you can’t invent a food.’ Marc, his tone dripping with exasperation, ‘Oh, getting technical now, are we? Because you’re a sore loser?’ 

It had carried on from there.  

Somewhere in between laughing you hadn’t quite been paying attention to your own ice cream sundae and some of the strawberry sauce had worked its way along the spoon and onto your fingers. You’d tutted and wiped it with a napkin, and hadn’t thought much more of it. 

That was until later when you were walking through the park with Steven and your fingers kept brushing together and sticking. The sauce, even though on inspection you could see absolutely no trace of it, was there on some microscopic level. Catching and fusing your fingers together. You tried to wipe your skin clean on a spare tissue, and then your trousers to no avail. 

The sensation was driving you close to madness. The constant irritation. The unending catch and pull. You couldn’t stop them from sticking without holding your fingers apart at a weird angle that started to cramp your hand. 

You needed to find a toilet, a sink, hell, even a puddle. Anything to-

“Love? You okay?” Steven frowns sympathetically, looking down at your hand. 

You nod halfheartedly. “Fingers are sticky.” 

“From the sauce?” 

You nod again.

He gave you a sympathetic look, his eyes softening in that sweet expression. “Poor love.” He kisses your cheek, knowing about and understanding your detest for the sensory experience. 

“Here.” He takes your hand carefully, so as to not push your fingers together. “These two?” He points to your middle and forefinger. 

You barely get a chance to nod, your mouth open to speak, but the words die in your throat as Steven sticks your fingers in his mouth and sucks them clean.

For a brief moment, all thoughts drain out of your head. Your mind completely blank. You try not to stare, you really do. Your breathing hitches at the slide of his tongue, the warmth of his mouth, the way his eyes have closed. A spark of pleasure rushes down your spine. 

You really, really shouldn’t be enjoying this quite so much. 

He finishes. Taking your fingers out of his mouth with a pop, and smiles innocently. 

You stay staring. 

“Better?”

There is a pause before you remember how to speak. “I… erm…”

“Oh don’t worry!” He beams. “Strawberry sauce is vegan,” he waves a hand dismissively, but I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t.” 

You grab his arm, your skin burning with a deep heat, and begin to march him towards the park exit. If you didn’t get out of there in the next minute you were going to have to find some bushes to fuck him in.

“Love?” 

“We’re going home.” 

“What? Why?” 

Oh, he’d find out why.

____________________________________________

Thank you for reading!

@pleasurebuttonwrites @raven-rk @campingwiththecharmings @alexxavicry @whatthefishh @romanarose @strangerhands @saturn-rings-writes @lonelyisamyw-0love @queerponcho @steven-grants-world  @eyelessupdates @angel-of-the-moons @minigirl87 @lunar-ghoulie @silvernight-m @autismsupermusicalassassin @apesarecuul @reallyrallyauthor @basicalyrandom @alwaysmicado @mangoslushcrush @marc-spectorr @soft-girl-musings  @spxctorsslxt @novarosewood

If you'd like to be taken off the tag list please let me know here

[nmakii]

Hii! Hear me out on this, right, Alastor (in your current yandere husband au) has one-on-one bonding with our lovely Noah. (I have a cat named Noah...lowkey imagining him here.) Idk what dads do with kids but for the sake of plot I'm going to call it hunting. Reader is sitting quietly as Noah tells her all about his day in the forest and how he got to see his food before it was his food! She starts thinking that no amount of nurture can overpower someone's nature. Reader doesn't hate her son...but she's just worried and is trying her best, because in her mind, she's still a single mom and always will be. (Rightfully so) Alastor is egging this on and almost trying to get reader to lose it in front of Noah, to prove something. Other things ! Alastor is def not happy with one kid lmao. Seven years is a long age gap...better hurry up! He wants his Emilia....not because his mother is asking for it or anything like it! Speaking of his mother...god rest her soul man...i lowkey would just marry him for her to be my legal mother (in-law). Rip mom...fly high girl... (Ps, can i please hug you platonically, i literally love you and your writing so much. Please remember that you've made so many cool things and will continue to make cool things no matter which path you go. Love you girly (gn), a little more than Alastor's mom) - Charry Anon

WE’RE GONNA FLY AWAY FROM HERE

[before you read this, read the rest of the story!]

— the more and more alastor influences your son, the more he becomes just like his father. but, why stop at just one child?

— i love u i will make MORE yandere alastor bc hes now my fave

you hated this house. no matter how much alastor tried to hide it, the subtle scent of blood reeked from all over this house.

you oh, so desperately wanted to run away— hop on a train all the way to long island. but, it isn’t so simple anymore. you had a son to think of, a son who’s growing scarily closer to his father.

the thought of hurting noah might have never crossed alastor’s mind, but he wasn’t above threatening it to bring you back home. and above all that, you couldn’t leave him alone with this wolf.

and so, you stayed.

“and then, papa told me to stay quiet… and he shot the turkey! papa took me to his butcher room and showed how get the yummy turkey meat! y’know mama, papa has lots of meat in his butcher room.” your son rambled on, kneeling on a stool by the kitchen counter as you prepare for dinner. “lots of meat, you say?” you raised an eyebrow. “…that sounds really fun, baby.” you sighed.

it’s only been a month since he forced you back. and, noah’s already calling alastor ‘papa’. he tainted your sweet boy’s mind— ‘mama lied to you, she wanted to keep you all to herself. she’s really selfish, but then again, i can’t blame her!’

and, you couldn’t protest. if you did, if you broke the rose-tinted filter alastor created— he would hurt you. not physically, alastor is still a ‘gentleman’. he’d hurt you mentally, break your little mind until you can’t do anything but nod your head.

alastor would never strike his hand on noah. after all, deep down, there’s some part of him that’s still in love with you, albeit in his own twisted way. and, noah is apart of you, alastor couldn’t bear to hurt him, not unless he’s misbehaving…

“mama, can we have the turkey we hunted for dinner?!” noah asked excitedly, slamming his hands against the counter over and over again. “sure, baby… but, remember before..? you got in trouble with mr. yee because you released all his chickens…” you asked, quite desperate. this little boy, the one who finds hunting fun. he is nothing like the one who wanted to become vegan after he found out where chicken comes from, despite failing because of his love for chicken burgers.

“yeah, but papa showed me how fun hunting is!” he squealed. at the mention of papa, alastor laughed, carrying noah from behind, tickling his belly as he kissed your little boy’s head. “talking to mama about our little trip, huh?” alastor grinned.

“ah, alastor… dinner will be ready in a half hour.” you glared at him. “no worries, my love. it just means that i have a half hour to play with our beautiful son!” he smugly said. he saw the hatred in your eyes the moment he said ‘our’.

he was trying to make you lose your shit. make you seem like a hysterical woman. that way, if you even tried to divorce him, noah would be left in his care. now that you were older and wiser, you wouldn’t play into his little trap.

“alright, you two have fun.” you begrudgingly smiled. alastor’s eyes widened, showing his shock for just one split second. alastor nudged noah, “go on for a second. papa wants to talk with mama.”

oh god, what now?

once noah left, alastor went behind you, straddling your waist. “what is it, alastor?” you groaned. “i want another child, darling” he whispered against your ear. “i visited my mother with noah last week, she adored him, my love. she said she’d adore a granddaughter this time. she even picked out a name, emilia.” he rambled on. “as much as i love your mother, i don’t want another child, alastor.” you hissed out.

“oh, but it’s not just my mother, dear. little noah also wants a little brother or sister of his own.” at the thought of a little sister for noah, it would keep him busy, away from alastor, wouldn’t it? he’d gain those brotherly instincts that are so reminiscent of the soft hearted boy you raised.

“…alright…” you frowned. alastor’s grip on your hips tightened as he pressed kisses onto your neck. “good girl.” your head leaned back as you melted into his touch. as much as you didn’t want to, the warm sensation of his soft lips on your skin was to die for. “after dinner, darling.” he grinned, finally leaving you alone.

what had you done to be forsaken with this monster?

[lovelettersforthedamned]

Congrats on reaching 4000 followers!!! 🥳

Can I request "so tell me, what do you feel for me?" "you know the answer. you know it all." "i want to hear you say it." with Steven Grant? ❤ it could be end with smut if you're comfortable with it 🤭

Same Tradition, Different Approach

✮ steven grant x afab!reader

✮ word count: 1.4k

✮ summary: a late night confession opens both you and steven's hearts (and your legs).

✮ warnings: fluff, smut, language, mention of food, mentions of anxiety, kisses, hair pulling, oral (f! receiving), cunnilingus, MINORS DNI, 18+.

minors if you keep reading i will manifest you having lice :)

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

main masterlist ⋆ moon knight masterlist ⋆ four-hundred follower bash

gif by @magnusedom Every Friday night, you and Steven meet at his apartment for movie night. You guys have kept this tradition every week for the past few years that you’ve been friends. Laying in his bed, you both stare at the laptop screen, a comfortable silence falling upon you two. 

With the final scenes playing, you sit up and stretch. “That was good,” you look towards Steven, still lying comfortably under the blankets, “a little slow, but good.” He nods his head in response as you fold up your laptop, tossing it aside, and giving him your full attention. “I brought vegan cookie dough if you’re up to baking. I’m craving something sweet,” you begin to rise from the mattress, but Steven’s abnormal silence stops you in your tracks. 

Steven’s ability to constantly talk about anything was one of the things you loved about him, along with many other things, so his lack of words shocked you. You say his name, and it finally catches his attention, “You okay?” 

His eyes linger on yours for a second too long, and he quickly diverts them before responding. “Y–Yeah,” he clears his throat before sitting up, the blankets pooling on his lap, “just some things on my mind, love.” 

Your head tilts at his confession. Steven always had a nervous habit when dealing with tricky things, so when you see this, you’re puzzled. Your eyes dart to his constantly moving hands then back to his eyes. You reach a hand towards his anxious ones, placing yours there to ease his mind, “We can talk about it. Only if you want to, of course.” 

“It’s complicated, and I don’t want to bother you,” his demeanor visibly relaxes at the feeling of your touch. 

You let out a breathy laugh, “You never bother me, Steven, you know that.” Your thumb has started to rub the back of his hand, each movement making his heart flutter. 

“Just,” he starts before stopping, trying to find the right words, “don’t let what I say ruin our friendship. I value too much, and if I happen to fuck this up then stop me right now.” Your heart was racing at each word that Steven was rambling over. He was a nervous mess in front of you, and you could tell he was scaring himself. You kept quiet to see if he would continue, but when he remained flustered, you decided to jump the gun. Grabbing the sides of his face, you pulled him in for a kiss. 

Nerves racked your brain until he kissed back. His hands, previously folded over each other on his lap, are now at the sides of your waist, pulling you in closer. There’s a fit of passion between the two of you. All these years of unspoken love have finally escaped, and you couldn’t be more relieved. 

You try to pull away, but Steven keeps you in his touch with one of his hands coming to the side of your neck. His other hand makes its way down to the meat of your hip, squeezing it. You gasp at his actions, pulling away to look at him with a smile on your face. Steven’s face is bright red, his gaze focusing on your lips until you grab his chin, forcing him to look up at you, “So tell me, what do you feel for me?”

He’s already leaning in for another kiss, his body needs you. You lean back, forcing him to chase your lips before he responds, knowing that you won’t let him touch you unless he answers your question, “You know the answer, darling. You know it all.” 

He thought you were satisfied until you shook your head, still holding his chin as you leaned in as close as possible. Still not connecting your lips, you whisper, “I want to hear you say it, Steven.” 

You’re teasing him, and he knows it. “I love you.” he starts before taking a deep breath and looking into your eyes. “I love every part of you, and I can’t handle another second without your touch now that I’ve finally got it. So, please…Please let me kiss you, love.” 

The grin on your face widens before you close the gap between you and Steven. He moans into the kiss as if you’re the sweetest fruit he’s sunk his teeth in. The sound of his pleasure sends waves straight to your core, a feeling of desperation grows as the kiss progresses. 

“Lay down,” Steven mutters into your lips. Leaning back to fall onto the mattress, your lips never leave his. His arms cage you in as he hovers over your body, his lips moving to your neck. His lips suck on the supple skin right under your ear, eliciting a moan from you. Your hands immediately weave themselves in his hair. Lifting his head he says your name, catching your attention, “Let me take care of you, yeah?”

Not another second goes by before you nod your head, eager to see what happens next. His arms slide down your torso, his fingers catching on the hem of your pants and hooking under your panties in one swift motion. You open your legs for Steven, and he wastes no time placing himself between them. 

He first places delicate kisses on each thigh. Each one is higher than the last, and each one causes a shiver to run up your spine. The anticipation was killing you, “Steven, please stop teasing.” 

He nips at the skin before licking it and placing his head on your thigh, looking up at you with innocent eyes, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, love.” You whine in response, and he laughs. “Hey,” he finally comes face to face with your aching pussy, “I had to get back at you for teasing me. Now we’re even.” 

You start to talk back before you’re cut off by Steven’s warm mouth on you. He doesn’t waste any time before diving his tongue deep into you, a gasp of surprise echoes throughout the small apartment. He’s lapping at your juices, the taste makes him moan into your clit. “Fuck, Steven…,” you moan, your hands gripping at the sheets beside you. You’re not sure where he learned how to do this, but that’s honestly the last thing on your mind, especially when he keeps sucking on your clit. 

Steven can see how hard you’re gripping the sheets, and even though you two are touching, he misses your touch. He removes one of his hands off of your thighs and reaches for yours. You’re still a moaning mess when Steven intertwines your fingers, but you notice his actions, as you always have. 

He can’t get enough of you, and when you cum into his mouth, he stays there, making sure to get every single drop. “Steven–fuck,” you giggle at his eagerness to keep going, but you’re too overstimulated to keep going. With your free hand, you hold the side of his head before gently pulling him off of you. 

His lips and chin are glistening from your slick, and he has a shit-eating grin on his face. You couldn’t get enough of the sight in front of you. Sitting up, you pull Steven up for a kiss. The taste of you on his lips makes you whine. 

Reaching towards Steven’s cock, you pull away when you feel a wet spot and a soft cock in his pants. You look back up at him, his face bright red from embarrassment, “Shit. I’m sorry, love. That’s pathetic of me.”

“Hey,” you give him a small peck, “I think it’s kind of hot actually.” You smile at him before standing and walking towards the bathroom. You look over your shoulder to see Steven, still on the bed, admiring your half-naked form. You tease, “Do you want to join me in the shower, or are you going to keep staring at me?”

He perks up at the suggestion and immediately joins you. 

Your movie nights will continue to be a tradition, but now, a few kisses in between each scene won’t hurt. 

✮ author's note: EEEK STEVEN GRANT!!! i love this man so much it's unreal. thank you for requesting this and participating in my bash, @steven-grants-world !! if you guys want to join, click on the link at the top of this fic. don't forget to like, comment, and reblog if you enjoyed!! ok, bye ily 🫶

[deedeeznoots]

Let’s Stop Time For a Bit

➺ Characters: Suguru Geto, GN!Reader 

➺ Word Count: 1.5k

➺ Genre: Fluff 

➺ Content: American 80s!AU, Established Relationship, Burgers and Milkshakes (sorry to any vegan readers 🥲), Geto Smoking (kind of), Lots of Kisses, Swearing

➺ A/N: I really enjoyed writing this story so I hope people enjoy reading ❤️

➺ Synopsis: Dates at the local Diner with your loving partner Suguru Geto are always a hit! But what happens when your boyfriend, always eager to try new things, finds his eyes attatched to a small little speaker with microphones attached to each end?

The loud slurp from your milkshake as you take a sip fills your ears and distracts you from the various sounds of the Diner. The loud music playing on the jukebox, waiters taking orders, and people laughing and talking together. Sure, all together it was a little overwhelming and chaotic, but otherwise the place was perfect. 

Not only that, but the food was amazing as well. The flavor of the cold milkshake hitting your warm tongue as you took a sip brought nothing but absolute bliss to you. The burger in front of you that was nearly the size of your head right next to the large bucket of fries was no laughing matter either. Whenever you order from this Diner, you find yourself shocked by the sheer proportions. Still, you always end up finishing all your food anyways, so these thoughts are short lived.

“This Diner never misses. Don’t you agree, love?”

Plus… you always had a great partner who helped you just in case you couldn’t finish all the food on your own.

You looked at your boyfriend across from you. A bright smile plastered on his face as he looked back at you with heart eyes. Your gorgeous partner and high school sweetheart, Suguru Geto. It has been a few years now since graduation, and while you both have evolved since then, inside he’s still the same Suguru that you always knew. His kindness, his gorgeous eyes, and of course– his luscious long black hair. 

While lots of things drew you to Suguru, in hindsight it was probably his hair that stood out the most. During a time when hairspray is essentially injected into people’s veins, seeing Suguru opt for a simple bun in his teens to now allowing his hair to fall completely down, is one of the things that constantly hook you to him even through the present day.

“...Darling? Are you okay?” Suguru asks, his smile fading slightly and his features now painted with worry. 

“Huh? Oh– Sorry, haha,” you reply, swirling your milkshake around with your straw, “I was just lost in thought”. 

“Oh? About what?” Suguru asks, curious about what made you lose your focus so intensely. 

“Hmm… just about how much I love you” you say with a giggle. Suguru was taken aback by your answer, he had assumed the worst when you said you were lost in thought, but your soft smile fully convinced him otherwise. So he simply laughed back at your comment, “God, you’re so corny…” he chuckled. “Yeah but you love it” you reply, feeding him a fry that he readily accepts. 

Loud music filled up the entire Diner as you both laughed together and ate. No matter how big the crowd, when you and Suguru are together it truly feels like you two are the only ones in the room. Time feels fast, with hours feeling like seconds, but at the same time it feels like time decides to not move at all and simply stops. Still, in what feels like no time at all, you two are completely finished with your meal.

“Man, that was good” you sigh, a bit disappointed that the day has come to a close already, yet satisfied that you were able to have this day with your boyfriend nonetheless. Though, when you look at Suguru, you notice that he isn’t looking back at you. Instead, he’s looking behind you. You turn around and see it, a small radio with two microphones connected to each end, and a book of song lyrics right next to it.

“Absolutely not” you say abruptly, which catches your boyfriend’s attention. 

He pouts in disappointment “But…why?” his eyes grow bigger, pleading with you to at least consider singing on the karaoke machine with him. 

“B-Because there’s so many people here!” you cross your arms at him, shy at the idea of singing in front of so many eyes. It’s a Saturday night, meaning that the Diner was as crowded as ever. The thought of having to sing with such a full house made you shiver in your seat. 

“Come on…no one will even look at us” Suguru leaves his side of the table and kneels next to where you sat “...please?” he asks, grabbing your hand. To the average observer, it probably looked like he was about to propose. Shit…if he did, you would have probably said yes with how convincing he was as he looked up at you, his pleading eyes sparkling, like he’d give you the world if you just accepted it. God… you could never truly say no to him, even if you tried. So you begrudgingly took his hand and allowed him to lead you toward the machine. 

“You’ll love it, I promise!” he says with glee as he stands up, practically dragging you toward the mics. You keep his hand intertwined with yours as you take baby steps on the tile floor. You both walk past the bright out of place disco ball in the middle of the restaurant and the red couches filled to the brim with people. As you look at the crowds, they serve simply as a reminder of what you’re about to do. In the end though, you both make your way to the machine.

Suguru, ever the gentleman, hands you the mic and goes “Okay…what song should we do? It should be a love song, of course” he chuckles, but you remain distracted. Suguru frowns, “Hey, I’m sorry… we don’t have to do this if you really don’t want–”. 

“No! It’s not that it’s just…” you laugh nervously “Suguru…people are staring” you blush and scratch the back of your head as you look toward the crowd of people. You aren’t completely sure if they’re looking at you, but it sure feels like it.

Suguru cups your face, and as your eyes meet his own he makes sure to caress your cheeks gently. Leaning into your ear, he whispers, “Shh… that’s just your pesky nerves getting in the way. Plus, if they are staring they’re about to witness the greatest show of their lives”. 

You laugh and touch his lips with yours, completely forgetting about how nervous you were just a few seconds ago. You pick a song from the book and giggle as it starts on the radio. 

Now… neither you nor Suguru were singers by any means. In fact, you both likely leaned more toward the opposite end of the spectrum. Still, this was a performance just for the two of you, the off-key singing, silly dances, and voice cracks doing nothing but accentuating how much fun you both were having with each other throughout the whole song. To your glee and to the rest of the Diner’s dismay, you and Suguru spent a good hour singing various songs together on the machine before you were forced out by the restaurant staff. They say it was to give others a shot, but there didn’t seem to be many people waiting their turn, though there were most likely people just begging inside for the two of you to finally stop. 

“Whew!” you spin around in glee as you both exit the Diner, the bright light of the 24-hour sign casting your shadow during the dark night. Despite you both essentially getting kicked out, you had absolutely no shame, only looking at Suguru’s happy face. 

Suguru simply hummed as he took out a cigarette from his pocket. Just as he was about to light it though, he looked at you as your face dropped in sadness. You froze and looked at him, before looking away awkwardly. 

“Sorry, sorry…” he spat out the white stick, letting it fall to the ground. “I know I need to quit” he tucks the lighter in his pocket and wraps his arms around your body from behind you and kisses your neck, bringing your mood up once again. “Mmm… thank you for today” Suguru mumbles into your neck. “Aw… of course, baby” you turn around to face him and give him a passionate kiss that he gladly leans into. “I love you” you mumble into his lips, and he hums back at you. 

As you both pull back, Suguru quickly goes “I love you too!”, and as he finishes the phrase he suddenly lifts you up and spins you around the parking lot, causing you to let out a short scream in shock. “Suguru! What–”.

He laughs, cutting you off, “Sorry! Sorry! Did I scare you?”. He bounces your body around, his strong arms keeping you secure. 

You laugh “No, it’s fine but give me a warning sometimes!” you playfully slap his chest and smile, kissing his lips for the nth time today. “Sorry, sorry, sorry” he says again, if he could lift his arms up to the air as an act of peace, he would. “Let me carry you home though… to make it up to you, yeah?” he smiles. 

You roll your eyes sarcastically but go “Okay… let’s go” as you lean into his chest. 

Wrapping your arms around him, you think about the man carrying you. The man who constantly has you do crazy things like karaoke at the Diner until they’re forced to kick you both out, the man who always gets you out of your comfort zone, and the man who always makes sure to tell you how much he loves you during and after the fact. Yeah… that man… the man you’re in love with, and the man you’ll stay in love with for decades to come. 

[bluehoodiewoozi]

Dreamers

Lee Seokmin (DK) x fem!reader

Genre: mostly fluff, with a hint of anxiety

Word Count: 10.9k

Wanings: food mentions. adult language. a few parts may come off as suggestive, but not really. y/n is an environmentalist but not vegan.

[Series: Serenity Street 17] Sleepwalking is a nasty issue. You find yourself in the correct building but wrong apartment, sharing a room with a ridiculously cute boy who seems to find it amusing.

Note: This one goes out to all of my ambitious girlies! Keep working towards your dreams!

The moment you stepped onto the evening bus you regretted the decision. 

With a bright smile, Sunny greeted you, rushing to move her bags into her lap so you could take the seat next to her, all while never once taking her eyes off you. Her brows rose in a questioning manner. You cursed under your breath as your neighbour’s usual warm smile morphed into a look of disbelief when you sank into the seat next to her.

With a sigh, you raised a hand to silence her. “I know.”

But she didn’t take the hint. “When was the last time you slept? Did you sleep at all last night?”

“Why do you keep asking questions you already know the answer to?” you whined and hugged your bag close to your chest. “I’m sure you heard me showering at 3 am.”

“The bags under your eyes aren’t supposed to make it look like you have a black eye,” she told you as if she hadn’t heard you at all, still eyeing you in worry. “How much did you sleep? You look worse than Jeonghan when he thought I was mad at him.”

“Does it matter?” You huffed. “At least I’m getting some rest.” 

“I think it only counts as rest if you actually get 8 hours of sleep every once in a while,” she countered with a snicker, “which, by the looks of it,” she gave you a once-over, followed by a disappointed a sigh, “you haven’t had in years.”

“I sleep just fine. I’m healthy, I am productive,” you defended and tightened your hold on your bag. “Sleep is for the weak anyway.”

Sunny rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I wonder how you’re friends with me but not Jihoon. Your mentality is almost identical.”

“Listen, somebody has to do the work. And unlike some, I’d actually like my work to amount to something bigger than an average paycheck that barely covers my bills. I have ambitions. I want to make the world a better place.”

“Honey, at this rate you’re not gonna live long enough to see your ambitions come to life,” she grumbled under her breath and linked your arms. “It’s okay to rest every once in a while. Take a week off from work and actually just do something fun for a change.”

You grimaced. “I’d rather not. Messes with my groove.”

Sunny had no words left to say. She stared at you with a wide mouth for a moment before sputtering, “How– How are we friends?”

“Fate brought us together so you could nag me at all possible hours,” you joked, looking out the window now to avoid missing your stop. “But seriously, I don’t need to rest. I love my job and my colleagues and I’m making a change.”

“You should at least go to sleep early tonight.”

“Can’t. I have a big report due next week and I don’t want to miss my deadlines.”

Her gaze hardened immediately as she cursed, “Why, you little–”

“Hey!”

“I’m just worried about you,” she mumbled through a pout just as your bus arrived at your shared destination. With a begrudging sigh, she unlinked your arms and gave you an encouraging pat on the shoulder as the two of you stood up and walked over to the door “Well, I guess it’s your life. But I swear–” she pointed at your face, eyes squinted in a glare; she interrupted herself mid-sentence, “no, I vow that if you collapse under the stress, I’ll personally go and hand in a letter of resignation in your name.”

You scoffed at her empty promises, smiled, and stepped off the bus. You had no doubt you would be just fine and she was overreacting over nothing. She couldn’t wrap her mind around your work ethic and goals – she was built of an entirely different wood.

Then again, you couldn’t deny you often felt a little jealous of her. The nagging feeling hit once again when you looked up to find Jeonghan standing at the gate of your building, his smile widening the closer Sunny and you got to him. You envied that she had found – through trials and tribulations, you’d admit – a perfect man to brighten her days while you had no time to even contemplate romance.

“How was your day, my beautiful lady?” Jeonghan greeted your neighbour with a sweet kiss on her forehead before taking her bag and leading her inside with a hand on her back. He didn’t forget to offer you a welcoming smile and a friendly “good evening” as well, both of which you returned.

“Are you going to the 5th floor tonight?” you asked them as the three of you trudged up the stairs and they made no effort to walk to her apartment. 

Sunny nodded. “It’s movie night and he has the bigger TV.”

Jeonghan let out a loud ‘ha!’ and grinned at her victoriously. “So you admit it. My TV’s better than yours!”

“That’s–” She sighed deeply. “That is not the point right now–”

“How is it not?”

Unable to continue watching their lovers’ quarrel, you hummed and waved them goodbye before promptly unlocking your apartment, walking in, and quickly locking it again as if their bickering or cheesy nicknames could otherwise follow after you. 

You had far more important things to do, after all. 

With a tired sigh, you warmed up some of last night’s leftovers and opened your laptop. The familiar Times New Roman font on your screen prompted a soft groan, but still you squared your shoulders and got to work. 

If you were quick, you’d get this done way before the deadline. Maybe you could even go to work in the morning with a nearly finished report! You smiled at the thought. 

But life doesn’t always go as expected. 

You thought you were old enough to know this fact already. After all, when had life ever followed your expectations? It seemed to enjoy throwing curve balls right at your head.

You woke up with a splitting headache at 7 am, an hour before your usual alarm. It was strange – you concluded so as you stared at the time on your phone through a squint. With a soft huff, you let the phone drop back onto the mattress and your head onto the pillows.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” you then heard a voice.

Your eyes snapped open. There was someone in your room. 

The voice sounded apologetic as it continued in a whisper, “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to make any noise. Sorry. Let me just get my shirt and–”

You sat up abruptly to stare at the intruder – a handsome familiar-looking man shuffled around the walk-in closet. Worst of all – he was shirtless. You dreaded to think of what had happened the night before.

“Who– Who are you?” you stuttered out, instinctively lifting the blanket higher against your torso despite the fact that you were fully clothed. “Why are you in my apart–” 

Then it hit you. The worst of the worst realities. 

“Holy shit, this isn’t my apartment!” you screamed and jumped out of bed to apologise profusely. “I’m so so sorry! I had no idea! I don’t how–”

“Hey, hey!” The man – now wearing a crispy white button-up shirt – walked out of the closet hurriedly, a worried smile on his face as he rushed to comfort you with a gentle hand on your back, leading you to sit back on the bed. “It’s okay.” He let out a laugh. “I was going to let you sleep for a while more. It’s okay.”

You had no clue how he could be so calm about this. What the hell happened last night?!

You stuttered. You sputtered. You gasped for air like a fish out of the water. You were on the verge of a panic attack at 7 am in the morning and he was smiling, all while patting and rubbing your back like it was the most natural thing. 

“Why am I here?” you eventually managed to breathe out. You hated to admit that his calm and friendly nature was helping you adjust to the situation.

He raised a brow, his soothing movements stopping. “I was hoping you could answer that.” 

When you made no move to do so and only offered him a puzzled look, he shrugged. “I woke up to someone trying to unlock my door at 2 am. Almost cried, actually, but then I heard a knock and Mingyu telling me to open the door, so I did and you…” He gestured widely to his room. “Well, you came in and went straight to bed as if it was your own home. I didn’t know what to do but Mingyu and I figured you needed to rest.”

You stared at him with a dropped jaw. “You didn’t think to call the police?”

“Well,” he grimaced, “I was going to but you really looked like you needed to sleep.” He gave you a worried look, inspecting your face. “You still do, actually. Do you sleep at all, like, outside of my bed?”

“I sleep plenty,” you scoffed and got out of the bed, wiping your face with your sleeves as if to rid it of any evidence that might suggest otherwise. With an awkward look, you bowed and began heading out. “Well, thank you for… your hospitality. I’ll get going. I’m sorry for bothering you. This won’t happen again.”

Before he could say another word, you slammed the door shut behind you and began heading… where were you heading?

You looked around the hallway. It was still your building. You could recognise these hallways even in your sleep. A quick glance informed you that you had just stepped out of apartment 1D – the apartment directly below yours.

You groaned as the realisation sank in that you could never visit the first floor without feeling awkward again. With a sigh, you headed up the stairs to your own apartment.

“Isn’t that Seokmin’s apartment?” Sunny pointed out when you told her of your horrible adventure on the bus home from work later that day. She frowned a little as she tried to recall exactly who lived there. 

“Whoever it was, at least it wasn’t Jihoon.” You shuttered to even think about it.

Sunny grimaced. “Yeah, I’d be bailing you both out of jail right about now.” She then shrugged. “Yeah, I think that’s Seokmin’s apartment. He really just let you stay the night there?”

“Apparently?” You wanted to laugh at the insanity of the situation. “I have no recollection of what happened or how I ended up there. The last thing I remember is working on my report in my kitchen and then waking up in a shirtless man’s apartment.”

“Shirt–” She almost broke her neck at the speed she turned her head to look at you with wide eyes. “He was shirtless when you woke up?!”

“He was getting dressed for work–”

“Well, is he hot?!”

You had never wanted to throw someone out of a moving vehicle so much before. “Is this what you’re focusing on right now? I’m going through a crisis here!”

“Yeah but–”

“You literally have a boyfriend!”

“Yeah, but–” She paused mid-excuse and nodded her head in acknowledgement. “Right. You have a point there.”

“How did I possibly end up in his apartment at night without remembering it?” you contemplated, leaning your head back against the seat. “I can’t think of a single explanation.”

“It is weird,” Sunny hummed in agreement as the bus rolled to your stop. The two of you got off. 

“Where’s Jeonghan?” you wondered in surprise upon not seeing him all the way up to the second floor.

Sunny shrugged, still deep in thought about your predicament. “I don’t know. Probably causing trouble with Junhui again. Possibly getting on Joshua’s or Hyesoo’s nerves. Maybe he stole someone’s mail or took the hinges off someone’s door. Not my problem.”

You could only stare at her in absolute wonder. “He’s your boyfriend.”

“He’s his own person.” She then clapped her hands together in revelation, stopping in her steps in the middle of the hallway. “Didn’t you say you used to sleep-walk as a kid? I swear you mentioned it over coffee once.”

You nodded. “Yeah, but it hasn’t happened in a literal decade.”

“Who’s to say it didn’t happen again last night?” she suggested with a shrug. “By the way, do you wanna come over for coffee and cake? Jeonghan bought one on sale because the expiration date is today, but it’s sort of giant.”

After contemplating for a moment (more of a debate really, won by the grumbling of your stomach), you agreed and followed her into her apartment. 

As the two of you walked into the kitchen, she continued, “All I’m saying is that there’s a lot going on in your life right now and maybe it all worked together – the stress, the lack of sleep, you get the gist – and now you’re sleepwalking again.”

“I sincerely doubt it.”

“You should see a doctor about that,” Jeonghan suggested. You jumped in your spot before finding him sitting at the dining table, fully focused on assembling a lego set. He continued without a care in the world, “Sleepwalking can be a serious issue.”

Your eyes narrowed. “Why are you here?”

He finally glanced up to offer you an amused look and a chuckle. “I’m her boyfriend. Where else would I be?”

“I invited her over for coffee and cake,” Sunny informed him with a kiss on his cheek. “Play nice.”

“Yes, princess,” he spoke in reply before turning back to you. “But I would really go to the doctor if I was you. If it’s bad enough that you wake up in someone else’s apartment, it’s bad enough to warrant a doctor’s visit.”

You felt yourself pale, your blood running both ice cold and lava hot. “How– Why do you know that?”

“It’s the talk of the town,” he joked before waving his joke off. “Just kidding. I met Seokmin on my way to the store earlier and he told me. He seemed worried about you.”

“So it is Seokmin!” Sunny cheered victoriously. “I knew it! I told you!”

Jeonghan raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Good job.”

“Thanks.”

You sat down at the table and slumped in the chair. “But if I’m sleepwalking, why did I go to his apartment?”

“Isn’t it right below yours?” Jeonghan pointed out like it was obvious. “Asleep you probably thought you were going to your own apartment. You just mixed up the floors.”

“So,” you sighed and rubbed the bridge of your nose before meeting his eyes and maintaining eye contact, “what you’re suggesting is that I fell asleep–”

“Yes.”

“–in my apartment–”

“Mhm.”

“–then left my apartment for some reason–”

“That much seems obvious.”

“–and then went to Seokmin’s apartment–”

“For some reason, yes.”

“–one level below my own?”

Eyes widening, he hummed at the slight error in the logic. “You do have a point. Why would you leave your own apartment to go to your apartment?”

“My head hurts just listening to this,” Sunny informed the two of you while serving the cake. As a slice fell over on a plate she quickly assigned to Jeonghan, she suddenly suggested, “What if you thought you were going on a walk and then returned home?”

Jeonghan leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he began recounting, “So, what you think happened is that she fell asleep–”

“I’m going to kick the both of you out if you start again,” his girlfriend declared all of a sudden, pointing a knife in his direction. “I’m serious.”

“It is a reasonable guess though,” you decided as Sunny placed a plate of cake in front of you. “I do love going on walks when I’m stressed.”

“Then–”

A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. You watched in mild amusement as Sunny and Jeonghan silently argued over who should open the door and if they should open the door at all. Eventually, to your surprise, Jeonghan relented and got up with a slight groan. The moment he was out of the kitchen, Sunny stole his seat across from you.

“I think the worst part is that I don’t know how to face him again, like ever,” you started the conversation again while taking a bite of the cake. “It was so awkward.”

“Speaking of awkward,” Jeonghan announced and led the newest guest into the apartment. The now familiar feeling of both ice and lava in your veins made a new appearance as you recognised the visitor. Your spoon dropped back on the table.

Seokmin offered you a friendly smile and a wave. “Ah, so that’s where you are. I tried your door but no one answered so I wondered if I had the wrong place.”

“You–” That was the only syllable you managed to voice. Your brain was scattered, filled with pictures of the awkward morning as well as a single fluttering butterfly carrying an obnoxious sign that said ‘he cares’. You gulped. 

Thankfully, Sunny stepped in. She smiled brightly and ushered Seokmin to take a seat while she found an extra plate. 

“I wasn’t going to come and bother anyone–” he tried to reject the offer of cake, but failed to. He was too friendly for his own good – just like the rumours around the building often said. He sat in the seat Sunny had preoccupied just seconds ago, right across from you, and smiled at her. “Well, if you insist.”

“What can I do?” Jeonghan sighed and theatrically looked away as he started his monologue. “Everyone loves my girlfriend so much. How can I possibly keep her–”

“Stop being melodramatic and come eat, idiot,” Sunny laughed and took the seat next to you. “So, Seokmin, what brings you to my friend over here?”

Seokmin opened his mouth to reply before turning to you and softly asking, “Is it okay to talk about it here?”

Sunny chuckled. “About her waking up in your apartment? Go ahead. I think everyone in the building knows already.”

“Oh.” He offered you an awkward-looking smile. “Well, sorry about that. I only mentioned it to Mingyu and Jeonghan but I guess– Nevermind. I just wanted to tell you to not worry about it.” His smile brightened, genuine and full of warmth all of a sudden. “We all have rough days – and rough nights – and I’m just glad you got some rest.”

“I have one question,” Jeonghan raised his arm before asking, “where did you sleep?”

“Me?” Seokmin shrugged. “The sofa. There was a woman in my bed.”

You somehow felt both worse and better than before. At least you knew he didn’t hold a grudge – after all, he seeked you out just to tell you it had been fine – but at the same time: you made this poor man sleep on the sofa instead of his objectively comfortable bed.

“I’m so sorry–”

“I said it’s fine,” he laughed and reached out to pat your hand. “I really don’t mind. You looked like you were sleeping very well. But–” he tilted his head in thought, a slight frown appearing, “–is it possible you were sleepwalking? You didn’t react at all last night, to anything. You just… brushed past us like we weren’t even there. I don’t know if you even had your eyes open.”

Sunny all but slammed her spoon on the table to give you a haughty look. “Yep. Told you. You were sleepwalking.”

You frowned. “I guess it’s possible.”

“Should I…” Seokmin scrunched up his nose in thought. “Should I maybe keep a look out in case this happens again?”

Immediately you shook your head. “No. No need. It was a one-time thing. A fluke. It was nothing. Won’t happen again.” In your attempts to not look at him, you happened to eye the clock. Your jaw dropped. “Oh. I should go home. I have–”

“–a report due in a week and deadlines to meet,” Sunny finished for you with a laugh. “I know, I know. Go.”

Jeonghan spoke up as well, “Take the plate and another slice of cake before you go. I want to know you eat at least a little between your work.”

You did as you were told and made your escape without another word, not even a goodbye to Seokmin. 

You had no time to feel guilty or consider that your heart fluttered a little at the thought of him coming to find you. Once again, you buried your feelings into lines of Times New Roman in your report.

“Oh, you come here too?” you heard his voice just two days later at the grocery store. 

It was a little surprising to find him there: the store was a good mile further from the one closest to your building. Like a startled owl, you stared and blinked at him in the cereal aisle. 

As you opened your mouth to respond, he chuckled and looked away at the cereals. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to talk to me. I just needed to get some Fruit Loops and figured I might as well say hi.” He placed the cereal in question into his basket and offered you one more friendly smile and a playful wave. “So, hi!”

“Hi,” you managed to drag out as you lifted your hand in a wave. 

With a chuckle, he turned and headed away to the next aisle. You thought you were free from him for the day. 

But alas: you found him again when you went to get eggs. He seemed to be contemplating between two brands. You tried your best to go unnoticed as you searched for your favourite local free range brand. To you dismay, he stood right in front of the eggs you seeked. 

“Excuse me,” you started and tapped his shoulder when he didn’t seem to notice.

He smiled upon recognising you. “Yeah?”

“Could you move? I want those eggs.”

“The expensive ones?” He raised an eyebrow and handed you a carton. “They’re almost triple the price of the store brand.”

“But they’re free range and locally sourced. You should try them,” you explained with the slightest bit of enthusiasm before placing eggs into your cart and walking away in the direction you thought him least likely to follow. 

You truly thought you were free of him when you went to the checkout, but once again, as if tasked by god himself to be wherever you went, Seokmin was in front of you in queue, meticulously placing his items on the counter. As he turned to put away his basket, his eyes found yours and a bright smile appeared on his face. “Oh, it’s you again!”

“It’s me again,” you replied with an awkward laugh. 

“Are you leaving too?” he wondered while fishing his bag for his wallet. When you nodded, his eyes lit up. “Do you need a ride home?”

Your eyes widened. “A ride?” 

Why was he offering you a ride home? Why was he so friendly with you at all? You had broken into his apartment – in the eyes of the legal system anyway – and he was smiling at you like you were a beloved friend. 

“Of course. We should stick together, no? We’re neighbours, after all– Hold on,” he interrupted himself to respond to the cashier, “Yes, by card please.Thank you.”

“You might have to wait a moment then,” you finally relented when he turned to you once again, eyes resembling a puppy. His smile widened at your words and he nodded. 

The ride home was short and awkward. You greatly feared he would try to retaliate for the emotional damage you might’ve caused by sleeping in his apartment. To your relief, he did not such thing and only continued cheerfully chattering.

“–but I feel like a dog would be too much work, you know? I love dogs but I don’t have that kind of time.” He offered you a glance. “Do you have any pets?”

You scrunched up your face in thought as the car rolled to a stop in the parking lot of the building. “I have a cactus.”

“... Does it have a name?”

Eager to not disappoint, you blurted out the first name that came to mind: “Bertha.” You shut your eyes in shame.

But as the two of you got out of his small red car, he laughed. “Bertha? Sounds lovely. Is she high-maintenance?”

“Very.”

“Yeah?”

You decided you liked his laughter and the bright smile that came with. “Easier than a dog though.”

He laughed louder at that and handed you your grocery bags. “I bet. Maybe I should get a cactus too.”

“I highly recommend,” you chuckled, finding his laughter contagious. “It’s very fulfilling to watch it do absolutely nothing all-year-round.”

When the two of you got into the hallway, he paused in front of the staircase. As you were about to ask him about it, he asked, “Do you need help with your bags?”

“No, I’m–”

“They look heavy.” He frowned before holding up a single finger, jogging over to his door, dropping his singular bag in front of it, and running back to you. Before you could formally protest, he grabbed the bags from your hands and began the journey up the stairs. When you froze in your spot, he turned to ask, “Well, aren’t you coming? Or were you going to sleep at mine again?”

Your face burned at the teasing comment. You decided following after him was the lesser evil. 

“There we go,” he cheered when the two of you reached your door. He rubbed his hands against his thighs a few times, awkwardly like a schoolboy, before smiling and waving goodbye. “I guess this is goodbye for the day. It was nice talking to you.”

You didn’t manage to even thank him before he was already halfway down the stairs. Maybe you made him as nervous as you made him. As you went to sleep that night, you replayed the interaction over and over again in your head, failing to hide a smile at the memory.

The valley of the mattress had a hold over you. You had never been so comfortable waking up – well, with the exception of maybe once or twice. 

The pillows were the perfect temperature, the blanket hugged you just right, the big teddy bear you hugged to your chest smelled fresh out of the washing machine– 

“Since when do I have a teddy bear?” you grumbled in confusion and pried your eyes open. You felt all blood rush away from your face as you looked at the bear – light brown with a baby blue bow, its eyes shining up at you. 

You had never even seen this bear before.

Cursing under your breath, you glanced around the room. You were back in your very own personal hell full of flowing beige curtains, white unfamiliar sheets, and teddy bears: the hell known as Seokmin’s apartment.

The realisation brought tears of frustration to your eyes, but you were too stubborn to let them loose. It was barely 8 am but you were already on the verge of crying – what a joke.

Wiping your eyes, you all but slammed the bear down on the bed (you’ll never admit you did feel a little bad about it seconds later and gave it a little pat on the head) and stood up. You stumbled out of the bedroom and towards the front door. 

As you reached for the doorknob – the final obstacle on your journey out of hell –, you heard his voice, sweet as honey like always, “Oh, you’re not going to stay for breakfast?”

You froze.

“I made extra waffles and all,” he added, sounding a little dejected. You didn’t have the heart to tell him no, so you sighed softly and turned around to give him a tight-lipped not-quite-genuine smile. His own grin brightened at the sight. “Is that a yes? You’ll stay?”

“Only for the waffles,” you lied and took a seat at his table. 

He laughed and placed a plate of fresh food in front of you before taking the seat across from you. “Not because you don’t want me to feel bad?”

“No,” you grabbed a fork and began filling it with food, “I just don’t like food waste.”

“Oh, right! Minghao said you work for an environmental company. That sounds cool.”

“Yeah?” You swallowed your food. “What about you? What do you do for work?”

He cleared his throat as though the question had caught him by surprise and he was too shy to say. After a moment of silence, he bashfully admitted, “I’m a music teacher at primary school.”

You blinked in surprise. “A music teacher?”

“Well, I wanted to be a singer– a musical actor, actually,” he explained, his voice fluctuating in volume and his ears bright red, “but I’m a little too shy to audition. So I just stuck with teaching others to sing.”

“That’s so cool though,” you told him with a smile. “Are you good at singing?”

His ears seemed to turn an even deeper red. “My friends think so but I don’t know. I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

“Then why not audition? You only live once.”

He seemed thoughtful all of a sudden, watching your increasingly awkward self. You were just about ready to apologise for your possibly intrusive question when he softly asked, “Why not rest and live a little? You only live once, right?” 

The question felt awfully pointed and you didn’t fail to let him know with a glare. 

“I’m serious,” he declared, his lips pouting a little as if he was actually upset at your lack of self-care. “Whenever I see you, you’re always rushing somewhere. The only person you seem to be friends with is Sunny, and maybe Jeonghan by association.”

You opened your mouth to defend yourself. “I’m also friends with Minghao–”

“He barely even leaves his apartment. He doesn’t count.”

“He counts!”

“Do I count?”

“Of course you–” Your eyes widened as did his smile. 

“We’re friends now!” he declared while pointing an accusatory finger at you, his voice raising in excitement. You began to protest but he was having none of it. “No take-backs! We’re friends – you just said so!”

“I didn’t actually–”

“Nope. No. We’re friends.” He narrowed his eyes at you, his smile never fading. “Or do you just sleep in random guys’ beds?”

You wanted to protest, you really did, but there’s only so much you can say to defend yourself against such accusations. Besides, his bright smile at your defeated nod could’ve won awards.

Accidentally waking in his apartment didn’t end. No. In fact, it somehow got worse.

Once every week quickly turned into once every few days. You were tempted to start keeping track of how often you woke up in your own bed but one could assume the numbers wouldn’t be too impressive. 

You grew accustomed to the smell of his detergent and the smell of breakfast in the mornings. Was this what it might’ve been like to be in a relationship? 

“How come you’ve never dated anyone?” he wondered once over breakfast.

You shrugged. “I don’t have the time.”

“Too busy saving the world?” he teased like he often did. Over time you stopped finding it annoying (perhaps because he sounded almost genuinely proud of you every time he said it). 

“I assume you don’t get a lot of dates either,” you bit right back between bites of pancakes.

He seemed to be taken aback by your observation. “What makes you think that?”

“You sleep with a teddy bear, Seokmin,” you deadpanned. 

He pouted. “Fluffy is a premium sleep companion.”

You laughed. “Is he?”

“You steal him every other night!” he accused with a chuckle. “I’m sure you know how great he is by now.”

“He’s truly a– What did you say? A premium sleep companion?”

“That’s what the label said when I got him.”

“Maybe I should invest in a bear too,” you wondered thoughtfully between bites. 

Seokmin raised an eyebrow. “Then why don’t you?”

“No ti–”

“If you make the ‘no time’ excuse again, I will scream,” he said with in utmost seriousness. You promptly shut up: Seokmin’s lung capacity was well-known by everyone in the building.

After a moment of silence, he cleared his throat. “You know, if it’s physical contact that you need to sleep– Nevermind. How are the pancakes?”

Whether it was to save your or his dignity, you chose to ignore his first comment and answered only the last question, “Their colour is nicer than usual. I like the golden colour.”

“I guess the free range eggs really do make a difference,” Seokmin mused with a chuckle. When you offered him a surprised look, he hummed in confusion. “What?”

“You bought free range eggs? Didn’t you say they were too expensive last time?”

He shrugged. “I figured I might as well try to make some more ethical choices while shopping. Besides, you recommended them–”

Your eyes welled up a little. “You bought more expensive eggs because I recommended them?”

“And because I care for animals,” he added in a little too fast. 

You laughed and nodded. “For the animals, right. Me too.”

“Do you ever rest from your work?” he wondered after a moment. “What do you do outside of it?”

“I… don’t know. I read. I like to clean.”

“But what about going to festivals? Swimming? Cycling? Dancing?” He grew more and more desperate as you rejected every hobby he offered. “No wonder you’re so tired all of the time! You’re a workaholic.”

You snorted. “Sunny did say I’m similar to Jihoon.”

“I didn’t think it was this bad.”

“I think he’s worse though.”

“Oh, definitely, but he doesn’t go to sleep in his neighbours’ beds,” Seokmin pointed out with a look of worry. As he watched you for an exactly uncomfortable amount of time, his eyes eventually lit up again. “I have an idea. What are you doing tomorrow evening?”

“Working–”

“I swear if I hear that word one more time, I will scream.”

You, once again, promptly shut up. 

“Great,” he beamed and clapped his hands together, “I’ll text you to details later.”

“You’re not even going to tell me what we’re doing?”

You sighed in disappointment as he smiled brightly and shook his head ‘no’. 

A knock on your door notified you of his arrival. Despite being sure it wasn’t meant to be a date and knowing that Seokmin had seen you in far worse condition, you still took a deep breath and gave yourself a quick once-over at the mirror.

When you opened the door, he smiled at you brightly. “I see you’ve dressed up too.”

“I would hardly call this dressed up,” you told him rather sheepishly, suddenly even more aware of you appearance. “You look very dapper as well.”

“Yep, and do you want to know why?” 

“Why?”

His smile widened so much you worried for his cheeks. “Because you and I are going to the theatre.”

“The theatre?” You paled at the mention and looked down at your outfit. “I feel like I’m underdressed then.”

“You look fine,” he laughed and grabbed your hand. “Let’s go or we’ll be late. And trust me,” he widened his eyes for dramatic effect, “you don’t want to be late.”

You gave in begrudgingly and locked the door as fast as you could while he practically bounced at your side in excitement. 

“What are we going to watch then?” you finally remembered to ask when you entered the theatre less than 15 minutes later. “I swear, if you dragged me here to watch an opera–”

“It’s a musical, actually,” he admitted bashfully. “I love musicals and I don’t know much about other theatre performances so I thought– But if you don’t like musicals, that’s–”

“I don’t mind musicals,” you told him with a little laugh and pat on his shoulder. “But I have to admit, it has been ages since my last time at the theatre, and I haven’t seen a musical in a few years at least.”

“That’s fine. I’ll guide you through it.” And as if the last shy bone had left his body, he grabbed your hand and led you to your seats, all the while widely smiling at you and giving your hand periodical squeezes of encouragement. 

His hand never left yours for the duration of the musical, not even for intermission, not even when he ordered cake from the theatre café to hold you over until after the show. His hand remained warm in yours, fingers squeezing a little tighter every once in a while, his thumb running over the back of your hand. 

It was so warm, so comforting. Just his presence alone was enough to make you dizzy with the feeling of safety and happiness. His touch? You were floating on cloud 9 with zero regard for what was going on below – or on the stage, for that matter.

Frankly, you could barely remember to watch the musical because you were so busy marvelling at the feel of his hand in yours. 

“That was so good,” he excitedly told you as the two of you returned to your apartment. “The music was phenomenal.”

“The actors were very good.” And that was the only contribution you could make to the conversation because you definitely hadn’t paid any attention to the plot and your knowledge of music was simply not there.

But thankfully, that seemed to be far more than enough. His eyes gleamed as he sat onto your sofa and gestured widely while speaking, “Right? The leading woman was just– Incredible, fantastic. Her range! I’m a little jealous, actually.”

You took the seat next to him. To your surprise, his hand found yours once again, wasting no time in interlocking your fingers. And just like that, paying attention to anything else became difficult. 

Were you really developing a crush on him? Just like that? You refused. You were too busy to be pining after a man. 

But when slid closer to your side and looked at you like you were the most wonderful person to ever exist, you suddenly didn’t care about the lack of time. Screw it. You’d make time if it meant you got to see his star-filled eyes again. 

“... Sorry, what?” you coughed out when he paused and looked at you expectantly.

He laughed. “You’re so cute. I asked if you wanted to go see another musical with me someday.”

“I’d love to,” you blurted out without thinking. 

Yeah. Screw deadlines. 

“Okay, perfect!” His smile brightened up the entire room as he rested his head on your shoulder. “Because I heard they’re doing Excalibur next season and I desperately need a friend to go watch it with me. I saw the premise and heard a preview of one of the songs and they’re holding auditions next month and I am already obsessed–”

Your brain was barely functioning at all, and yet you could recall one single memory from the depths of it. A dream he had shared. “Then why don’t you audition?”

He sat up abruptly, looking at you as if you were insane. “I couldn’t possibly–”

“Why not?” you asked. “I heard you singing the other day. You’re really good. I think you could get any part pretty easily.”

His ears turned more red with every word you said. “You flatter me…”

“I’m serious, Seokmin!”

“I’m not that good. And I have zero acting experience, aside from a few courses I did in college. Why would they ever pick me?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” you countered and he scoffed.

“I can think of a few–”

“You never know if you don’t try,” you told him and raised your hand to brush a stray hair off his forehead. “I’m rooting for you.”

As your words faded into the night and your eyes met, you wondered if he could feel the sparks flying and bursting all around you as well. Did he also feel that overwhelming adoration for you? 

He sighed after a while, a bashful smile on his face. “You must be tired. It’s been a long night. Go to sleep.”

“I really should,” you yawned as if on cue. You shared a laugh at the timing.

He squeezed your hand one last time. “Well, good night then. I expect I’ll find you at my apartment in the morning–”

“Or you could stay here and we don’t have to worry about that,” you blurted without thinking. Your face flashed hot right after. 

Had there been any alcohol in that cake he bought for you? Why were you feeling so bold all of a sudden? 

“I–” He seemed speechless.

“I don’t know why I said that,” you rushed out and avoided his eyes. “I think I’m just really tired and work has been stressful and maybe my brain is just broke–”

He placed his hand behind your neck and led your head to rest against his chest as he rubbed comforting circles on your back. You could hear his body rumble with laughter as he held you. “I’d love to stay over. Besides,” he pushed you away just enough to look you in the eyes again, “I think it’s only fair that I get to sleep over this once, because you sleep over at my place a lot.”

You frowned and pouted. “It’s not like I mean to–”

“A lot,” he repeated with wide eyes and a teasing smile before pressing a soft kiss to your forehead. “But it’s okay. I don’t mind.”

When you recounted the half-embarrassing and yet half-lovestruck happenings of the previous night to Sunny on the way back from work, she stared at you in bafflement.

“You actually asked him to sleep over?” she gasped, hand over her heart as if she was a peasant woman of the 16th century hearing the most scandalous gossip. “You little vixen!”

“Nothing happened,” you insistently told her as the two of you stepped off the bus.

She huffed. “That’s honestly so boring. I mean, have you seen that man? What I wouldn’t give to–”

“I am once again reminding you that you already have a boyfriend.”

“You don’t know what we’re into in the bedroom,” she countered with a smirk.

You only now realised how much Jeonghan was rubbing off on her. She was becoming a second him, slowly but surely. Couple of the year.

“I’m taking away your friend privileges, Sunny,” you told her at that and rushed ahead to avoid hearing any more weirdly Jeonghan-like jokes from her. 

She laughed at that before running after you. “Okay, okay, no more dirty jokes.”

“Thank god,” you sighed towards the sky.

“So, did any sleepwalking occur?” she then asked before humming in thought. “Well, I imagine if it had, I would’ve heard about it by now. It would’ve been quite a sight to see Seokmin running after an asleep you towards his apartment at 2 am.”

“I didn’t sleepwalk.” 

And frankly, if you had, Seokmin must have done a very good job of getting you back to your own bed because you woke up exactly how and where you fell asleep – wrapped in his arms, head resting in the crook of his neck. 

Sunny suddenly stopped in spot. Her eyes wide, her lips parted. She pointed an accusatory finger at you, “Wait, does that mean you two are dating now?”

You weren’t sure you had the answer. And you wouldn’t have time to find the answer for a while.

“Good morning!” you heard Seokmin’s voice before you even opened your eyes.

Unlike the previous few times, disappointment filled you as realisation hit. You groaned and turned over to bury your face in his numerous pillows, hoping you could suffocate yourself out of a mildly infuriating nightmare.

Seokmin clicked his tongue. “Not quite the greeting I was expecting, especially considering I was greeted with a hug the last time we shared a bed.”

“Shut it.”

“Oh, you’re mean today.”

“Did I fall asleep mid-work again?” you sighed and slowly sat up to glare at nothing in particular. Seokmin went to great lengths to avoid whatever direction to directed your deadly look to. “God, I bet I didn’t even make it to the second graph– I’m not gonna have time to go to the office for work today.”

He stared at you curiously. “So, work from home? I mean, if you have the possibility.”

“Yeah, but then I’ll get distracted and then I still won’t end up doing anything,” you whined before falling back into the pillows. You wanted to cry just at the thought of that stupid report waiting on your idle laptop. 

“Why are you so stressed about this report anyway? I don’t think you were ever this upset over any other reports.”

“If this project report goes through, and we pull off this project – which I still have to plan, oh my god, I am so far behind–”

Seokmin laughed at your frantic movements and moved over to place his hands on your shoulders and keep you still. “Hey, hey, don’t get distracted. If the project goes through…?”

You took a deep breath. “If the project goes well, I will get a promotion. Less hours, better pay.” You sighed. “Then maybe I’ll be able to get a dog like I’ve always wanted.”

“That sounds wonderful! We should celebrate with breakfast,” he suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows. 

But as tempting as it sounded, you simply didn’t have any time to chat. You had work to do. And so, you stood up, fixed your hair, gave Seokmin an affectionate yet half-hearted pat on the back and headed for the door. 

You couldn’t wait to spend your day in complete lonely misery. At work you at least had friends to talk between sections. All you had in your apartment was Bertha and instant coffee.

And it was as if Seokmin knew it just from the way you spoke to him that morning. 

When the clock struck twelve, you heard a timid knock on your door. Confused at the noise and a little disoriented from the five pages of words you had written, you stood up and went to the door. 

Your heart grew three sizes when you saw him standing there, looking so awfully huggable in his large white hoodie and grey sweatpants, glasses on his nose accompanied by a kind smile. You were so surprised to find him there that you failed to consider why he came. 

He had to nudge you with the plastic bag he was holding for you to even notice it.

“Sorry,” you stammered and stepped aside to let him in, “I’m just a little-”

“Stress? Overworked? Confused because you’ve been staring at a 15-inch screen for the past three hours?” he suggested and brought the bag to the kitchen. “That’s okay. Don’t even mind me.” He smiled as he nodded towards your laptop. “Go on. Work waits. The sooner you get to it, the sooner it’ll be done.”

Disoriented as you were, you didn’t dare argue and slowly walked back to your previous seat at the coffee table, all the while watching him cautiously. 

As your fingers landed on the keyboard, he began lifting things out of the bag. You watched in awe as he stacked snacks and vegetables onto the counter. 

Feeling your eyes on him, he lifted his head to glare at you. “Work.”

“Work,” you repeated on instinct and turned back to your laptop. He laughed a little at your robotic tone. 

Some 20 minutes later, you felt a presence next to you. When you turned to face it, Seokmin was holding an fruit slice up at your lips. 

“Eat,” he told you softly. You did as told.

“What are you doing?” you asked between confused laughter and chewing. Your eyes landed on the bowl of fruits he had placed in front of you. 

He shrugged. “Taking care of you. You seemed so upset this morning… I thought it would be nice to spend my free day helping you.”

Your eyes widened. “It’s your free day? And you’re here? You should be resting!”

“Watching you is all the rest I need,” he winked playfully before lifting another fruit to your lips. “Now, eat up. This is lunch. I’ll make something better for dinner.”

“You don’t have to–” 

He took this chance to shove a piece of apple into your mouth, effectively interrupting your speech. “I will, and I don’t care what you say.”

He glanced around the apartment as you began to eat the fruits on your own. “When was the last time you opened a window?”

You watched curiously as he stood up (with a groan because his bones simply weren’t as nimble as they used to be) and headed over to the windows, opening a few to air out the room. As he did so, he told you, “They say that good airflow and fresh air help the thought process. We air out the classrooms between every lesson so the next students won’t get too tired.”

“I don’t think I’ve opened any windows in here since I first moved in,” you confessed before turning back to your laptop. Before you could your train of thought again, a soft fabric was placed on your shoulders. You looked up to find him smiling at you brightly. “So you won’t get cold.”

“What about you then?”

He shrugged and winked. “I’ll just consider this my daily walk in the park.” He then looked around the apartment again, as if looking for something to do. You couldn’t help but find it endearing. 

“Maybe… you could… make me a cup of tea?” you suggested.

He lit up at the idea. “Coming right up!”

Before heading to the kitchen, he leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead. It seemed almost like a reflex – like he didn’t even need to think about doing it. 

Relishing in the leftover warmth of his lips and the feel of his hoodie on your skin, your work took a backseat for a while. Instead of thinking about your project of a lifetime, your brain was drowning in one singular question. You glanced towards the kitchen to watch him, a smile appearing on your face as you did. 

“Seokmin?” you called out softly after a moment. 

He hummed in response immediately, eyes lifting from the cup he was preparing so he could offer you an encouraging smile. 

You took a deep breath. “What are we?”

He paused. “What do you mean?”

“You and I. What are we to each other?” you wondered, unable to look away from him. There was something you badly wanted to hear him say and yet feared at the same time. “What are you to me?”

The corners of his lips twitched. “I… I’ll be whatever you’d like me to be.”

“Whatever? A friend?”

“If that’s what you wish,” he breathed out, a little shakier than before.

“What about a lover?”

He smiled. “If you so wish.”

“Then… what do you want me to be?” you asked him quietly, a part of you praying your words would go missing in the incoming wind before they reached him. 

“I just…” He bit his lip in contemplation, ears turning red, and avoided your eyes.

“What do you want me to be to you, Seokmin?” you repeated your question, a little bolder this time, hope sparking in your heart.

He looked up again, into your eyes. “Mine.” You let out a breath – of relief or fear, you weren’t sure – but he didn’t hesitate when he repeated, “I want you to be mine.”

You felt guilty for the words you’d utter next. “But we don’t have the time for that…”

“That’s okay,” he assured you with a kind smile. “We’ll take it slow.”

“Slow? How slow do we take it?”

“As slow as you need. I’m not leaving.”

“I signed up for the auditions,” he told you over breakfast a few days later. “Jihoon’s helping me prepare.”

You were still neck-deep in your project, struggling to meet the deadlines and coordinate your team. This seemed to lead the asleep you to Seokmin’s apartment more often than not. It was almost like you woke up in his bed every morning now. 

But even in your despair, you couldn’t help but be excited for Seokmin.

Your eyes lit up and a squeal came out as you grabbed his hand over the table. “Really? You did?!”

He used his free hand to rub the back of his neck bashfully. “Well, you said I should give it a try, right? Who knows,” he shrugged, trying his best to seem nonchalant or even fake a little bit of confidence, “maybe they’ll give me a part.”

“I’m sure they will,” you insisted, squeezing his hand. “Your voice is amazing and you’re so handsome – the ladies are going to swoon when they see you on the stage.”

He laughed. “Will you be one of those ladies?”

“I’ll be in the front row,” you solemnly promised. “At every show. You’ll get sick of seeing me.”

“I could never,” he assured you.

Seokmin’s audition would take place two weeks later. You made sure the mark the day with a big red circle on your calendar – on all three of them, in fact. And now it was time.

Between your seemingly endless stream of project complications and Seokmin’s daytime job and audition preparations, you barely saw him. If it weren’t for your persistent sleepwalking problem, you wouldn’t have seen him at all. And so, the curse had became a blessing. 

“You’ll do great,” you assured him minutes after waking up in his bed. You made sure to give him the warmest hug before letting him leave the room. “I believe in you. And so does Jihoon, apparently.”

Seokmin pouted. “Did he say that or are you lying to make me feel better?”

“We talked yesterday,” you told him, appalled that he’d even accuse you of such atrocities. “He said he has complete faith that you’ll do well.”

“I don’t believe you but–”

“Do you want to fight me? Already?” You raised a brow and he shook his head immediately. “Exactly. Just accept the compliment. And don’t forget to call me when you finish, okay?”

“Of course,” he promised.

He kept that promise. Just as he stepped out of the theatre, his shaky hands picked up the phone and chose your number. 

You answered the call with prep in your voice. It had been a good day so far and you were expecting to hear his no-doubt joyous retellings of the audition.

What you weren’t expecting was: “Can you come get me? I think I might cry.”

“Why, why?” Despite your words, you didn’t hesitate to slam your laptop closed and grab your jacket. “Are you okay? Were they mean?”

“They weren’t mean,” he mumbled on the other side of the line, “but I don’t think I did well.”

“I’m sure you did wonderful,” you spoke while rushing down the street. Thankfully, the theatre was barely a five-minute walk from your office – half that at your current pace. “You’re just putting yourself down over nothing.”

Seokmin whined. “You’re seriously overestimating me.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“No, I’m serious. You overestimate me.”

As you crossed the street, you noticed a familiar figure dragging his feet along the pavement, head low and shoulders slumped. “Now why would I do that?”

“Because you like me a little more than you should,” he suggested while kicking a pebble. You could already hear his voice even without the phone. “I’m sure the directors think I’m a joke or something. God, I am so–”

“Don’t you dare say another bad word about yourself,” you scolded him with a gentle slap against the back of his head. 

He stared at you in bewilderment – both from the fact that you might as well have appeared from thin air and the fact that you just did that. 

But you were unrelenting in your affection for him. “Lee Seokmin, listen to me: you did absolutely great. You did your best. And even if you don’t get a part this time, they’ll value the fact that you now have experience with auditions. Take it in stride.”

Tears gathered in his eyes. Before long, he pulled you into his embrace, holding you impossibly tight. “You’re just saying that… Thank you.”

“That’s what I’m here for, silly,” you laughed and hugged him back just as tightly. “I think we should celebrate this occasion.”

“Even if I screwed up and don’t get the part?”

You scoffed. “Absolutely! A little cake can make everything better, no?”

He sighed. “I don’t think I can eat right now. I might throw up from the nerves.”

“Drink then?”

He contemplated and then straightened up. “I could go for some bubble tea…”

“There we go!” you cheered and gently pinched his cheeks, prompting a small giggle. “My treat because you did so well today and I’m so proud of you.”

This time it was you who grabbed his hand without any hesitation, more than happy to reassuringly squeeze it as you walked and talked. 

“When will you get the answer?” you wondered.

He sucked in a breath. “In about a week, they said. Or maybe never–”

“Seokmin,” you scolded.

“In a week,” he corrected himself with some enthusiasm. “I’ll get answers in a week. And then I might actually cry.”

“And I’ll be there when you cry tears of joy, darling.”

“Tears of joy?” He raised a brow and smiled in disbelief. “You seriously put too much faith in me.”

You nudged his side. “As if you haven’t been equally supportive about my promotion.”

“Oh, right,” Seokmin gasped, “won’t your promotion interview be in a week too?”

You would’ve preferred he didn’t remind you. Then again, you guessed it was only fair. 

“Will you come over to hold me when I cry too?”

“Tears of joy?” he teased and leaned over to kiss your temple. “I’ll be just a call away.”

The week somehow passed at both the pace of a snail and the pace of Junhui on a sugar rush. 

After finding you in his bed every single morning, Seokmin resorted to just sleeping over at your place, tightly cuddling you to keep you in place. He now had a whole drawer dedicated to his things in your bedroom. 

The day started okay. You were awoken not by a loud alarm like you had expected, but by Seokmin gently singing you awake. 

For a moment, you thought you had died and gone straight to heaven – maybe working so hard to save the environment had paid off after all, you thought. But no, it was just your reality. 

What a beautiful reality. You couldn’t help but smile as you cuddled into his chest.

“If you keep clinging onto me like that, I won’t be able to make my famous waffles for a lucky breakfast,” he whispered but made no attempt to push you away. 

The delicious breakfast was followed by an encouraging hug on the way out of the building, him to the school and you to the office. You wore a smile the entire time.

Up until you made it to your desk. Then the reality began sinking in. 

This was the day that could make or break your career. The day you had worked so hard for that you neglected your private life for so many years.

As the clock on the wall slowly ticked forward, your hands began to shake. Your throat was dry. Your head was fuzzy, full of nothing but anxiety. If someone had asked you about anything, you would’ve only been able to stare at them with a mouth wide open.

20 minutes until your scheduled interview. You were starting to feel sick. 

When another colleague came to give you a supportive pat on the back, you excused yourself and grabbed your phone to rush outside to the balcony. You sat on a chair and willed yourself to take deep breaths as you tapped on his number.

You wanted to slap yourself when you realised that you hadn’t even bothered to check if he was on break yet.

But he answered on the first ring. “Hey, what’s up? Did you have the interview alread–”

“Seokmin, I can’t do this,” you whimpered into the microphone. “I can’t do this. They’re gonna realise I’m an idiot and they’ll fire me and–”

“Woah, woah, what happened to your positive can-do attitude?” he wondered. “You’ll be fine.”

“No–”

“(Y/n),” he said your voice so firmly that your breath got caught in your throat. “(Y/n), you will be fine. You’ve worked there for so many years, you’ve achieved so many things. If they wanted to fire you, they would’ve done that by now.”

You took a shaky breath. “What if it’s an elaborate prank?”

“Why would– Baby, listen to me. You’ve worked hard. You put everything you had into that project – I was there, I saw it. You and your ideas are invaluable to your company. They’re going to ask you a few questions as a formality and they’re going to give that promotion and then you and I are going to go to a celebratory dinner and it’ll all be over.”

“And I can get a dog?” you whispered, a small smile tugging at your lips.

“You can get two dogs if you want, baby,” he laughed. “You deserve it. Don’t underestimate yourself. I believe in you and I’m sure your co-workers do as well.”

“How do you always know the right words to say?”

He laughed once again. “Baby, I’m a teacher. I’m literally trained to comfort people. I’m just glad I’m able to comfort you as well.”

“Thank you.”

“No need,” he responded, “just go and ace that interview. Okay?”

“And then you’ll come and wipe my happy tears?”

“You already know the answer to that question. But I expect the same treatment when I get my audition results.”

“Will do.”

“Go and get them, tiger.”

You weren’t sure what it was, but something about the conversation seemed to have lifted the weight off your shoulders. When you walked back to the office, the upcoming interview no longer felt as taunting. 

As the clock hit 2 pm, you squared your shoulders, took a deep breath and headed to your manager’s office.

When the day ended, you found Seokmin standing in front of the office building, a blinding smile on his face. 

“Well?” he asked expectantly, though the look in his eyes said that he had every faith that you would only give him good news. You were glad to prove him right. 

Your coy smile was replaced with joyous laughter as you ran to hug him and called out, “I got the job!”

“You got it? You got it!” he cheered with you, jumping up and down with you in his arms, not far from spinning you around in the air. “I knew you would! What did I tell you? Silly you,” he let you out of his hold to place his hands on your cheeks and pull your face closer to his own, “you thought you wouldn’t get the promotion. Look at you now. I’m so proud of you.”

You breathed out in relief. The smile seemed to never stop tugging on your cheeks. “I’m so relieved I could cry.”

“Then who will dry my happy tears?” he teased with a bright smile.

You tilted your head in confusion. “Wait–”

“I got the part,” he whispered, his smile only growing wider, eyes sparkling. “I’m going to become a musical actor, officially.”

“Oh my god!” you practically squealed and now it was your turn to hug him and jump. He was glad to join you, laughing in glee. “I knew you could do it! I knew it!”

As joy got the best of you – and who could blame you: this was the happiest day of your life so far –, you grabbed his face and pulled him closer to you to press your lips against his own. He melted into the gesture, arms wrapping around you tighter as if to will the moment to last forever. 

When you pulled back, just enough so that your noses touched, he laughed in disbelief. “I thought we were supposed to take it slow?”

“Screw taking it slow,” you whispered and kissed him again. “Might as well make it a triple celebration.”

“I like the sound of that.”

BONUS !

While practically leaning out of their open window to watch you and Seokmin kiss under the streetlights on your way home, Jeonghan and Sunny argued.

“I told you they would get together,” Sunny declared, her eyebrows raised as if to dare her boyfriend to prove her wrong. 

Jeonghan scoffed. “Please. They’re just kissing. It could be casual.”

“Just say you don’t want to owe me 20 bucks.”

“I don’t owe you 20 bucks! We have no confirmation!”

“Jeonghan, listen here–”

“No, no, you listen–”

“Both of you listen here!” Chan bellowed from the window above them. “If you don’t stop arguing right now, I will report you both to Jihoon’s parents! Some of us are trying to sleep!” Silence followed. “And pay her the 20 bucks, Jeonghan. They’re clearly together.”

Jeonghan grumbled and glared upwards before fishing a 20 out of his pocket and handing it to his smiling girlfriend.

[lucycola]

TOS!Spock x Fem!Reader; The Visitor Part 2

ON HIATUS FOR THE TIME BEING

Modern!AU where Spock is an alien who lands in the reader’s backyard and seeks shelter while repairing his ship. Eventual romance and smut.

In The Original Series it is said Spock is a vegetarian, not vegan, so I’m basing this part off of that information. 

WARNINGS: Mentions of blood and bodily harm. Awkwardness. Spock is tall and the Reader is not. Foot kink if you squint. Not proof read at all. PART ONE 

Part 2:  And the zipping white light beams disregarding bombs and satellites. That was the turning point- that was one lonely night

Sparse sun rays of a dreary morning ghosted through the curtains of your bedroom. The night was enveloped in sweaty tossing and turning. You remembered anxious nights before the first day of school where it took you hours to fall asleep and when you finally did you dreamt of still trying to fall asleep. You could never tell if you actually slept that way.

This night was no different.

It was easier to help your visitor into the house, as he wasn’t unconscious this time. He had leaned onto your shoulder and excused himself to the bathroom to change.

You hadn’t been sure what to do at that point, but directed him exhaustedly to a spare room. You had sealed most of the rooms to reserve heat to save money. You felt guilty for how cold it had been and thankfully the old heater in the corner worked.

You shut yourself up with your dog and lay with the fire poker for good measure. You were still equally spooked as you were tranced. Was it a dream? The green blood felt real, but it was so outlandish it couldn’t possibly be.

At some point Spaghetti was scratching the door so hard you let her out of the room. If she wanted her liver eaten, fine so be it.

When you were sure it was finally morning you roused from bed feeling your whole body ache.

You slowly pushed open the door wincing at the creak. His room was only a little down the hall. You ridiculously crawled on all fours until you came next to his doorframe. You swore you had left it closed but now it was just wide enough for your dog to push her way through.

You peeked in and saw he was lying under the two quilts you had placed atop him. Spaghetti was nestled into his side and you inwardly screeched. His head faced away from you as you slowly crept in. 

His chest rose and fell calmly. The pit of anxiety in your stomach unfurled into a sigh of relief. Spaghetti’s tail began to thump and you slowly crept back out. 

You dawdled to the den slowly and fumbled the fire poker back into its stand. 

You felt a chill slither down your back and absentmindedly you fiddled around for some kindling to make another fire. Despite not having cleaned out the ashes from the night before it caught easily. You would have to chop more before the weekend was over and fortunately for you the logs outside were protected with a tarp. Otherwise they would be soaking wet. 

You didn’t know why such a thing preoccupied your mind. There was a damn alien in your house and firewood was at the top of your list? 

You fell back into the couch. How long would he be here? Would his own kind come looking for him? Would your kind look for him? You desperately did not want the FBI knocking at your door. 

What the hell were you going to feed him? Could he eat Earth food? He did say he was half human-albeit he also said he was a vegetarian. What were you supposed to feed a vegetarian.

“Woof.”

“Dog,” you huffed in response, accustomed to your pet’s voice. 

“Human.”

You looked up to see your guest had risen, still in your grandfather’s clothes. He was a bit pale, but seemed alright for the most part. Spaghetti was at his side, tail still wagging. Damn dog. 

You stood immediately, “Did I wake you?”

“Yes, but it is of no consequence,” he replied, “I extend my gratitude for your assistance last night.”

You nodded, mouth feeling dry. You ran your fingers through your hair, finding a large knot. Your neck flushed. You must have looked awful. 

He himself endured the awkward silence. Spaghetti was the first to break it. 

“Breakfast,” you chirped, “I need to feed her. Are you hungry?”

You went into the kitchen, trying to smooth down your hair and retrieved her food bag from the pantry. If you didn’t keep it locked up she’d devour all of it in one day and probably die of an intestinal blockage. You almost learned that the hard way shortly after inheriting her and the house. 

Spaghetti trudged to you once her bowl was filled and began chomping away. 

Spock still stood at the corner of the rug, the left side of his frame bathed in little fire light. You avoided his gaze by ducking into the fridge.

“You said-eh-Vulcans don’t eat meat, right? Can Vulcans eat eggs and toast?” you asked, still feeling the heat at your neck and ears. 

“I suppose that will be acceptable.” 

His voice was much closer, causing you to jump and hit your head inside the refrigerator. You turned and found that indeed he was much closer than before. You hadn’t even heard his footsteps.

You had forgotten how tall he was. 

“Right!” you blurted, “I’ll get started on that. Do you drink coffee?”

He shook his head, “Although my mother has an affinity for it, Vulcans prefer tea.”

You nodded again, “I’ll see what I can do.” You began to rummage through the cupboard. 

“Could I be of assistance?” he asked, having taken a step back. Did he sense it-how you felt?

“No-no, please. You’re still hurt. Just sit down.”

He didn’t move to argue with you and did as instructed. He laid his hands atop the kitchen table, brushing off some crumbs from the placemat. 

Why were you so flustered by him? You didn’t feel that way helping him change or into bed. If anything you were wholly consumed by anxiety. 

What if you hadn’t stitched him properly? you remembered thinking, What if he bled to death in your house? 

He had developed a shiver about him that night so you layered him heavy with quilts, even pulling one off your bed for good measure. You had whispered fiercely into the old heater in the corner, threatening it with the dumpster if it didn’t turn on. Thankfully the old crystals rattled to life and filled the room with its orange glow. 

Now he was at your kitchen table politely and patiently waiting to be fed. Spaghetti was done with her own breakfast and settled at his feet. 

You scowled inwardly. That dog had never been that nice to you. You wondered if it was because of the scent of his clothes-reminding her of her old master. 

You managed to find some ancient tea your grandmother had in the cabinet and set the kettle to boil. You hoped to every and any holy entity it didn’t taste like shit. You fetched eggs from the fridge and procured a pan. 

“How do you like your eggs?” you asked. 

“I was not aware there were multiple ways to like them.”

“Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

“Am I to understand your kind consumes them?” he quipped.

You stifled a sigh, settling on whipping the eggs in a bowl, “No-we don’t eat cats. Well, some people might. I’ve never met one. It’s just an expression really.”

Neither had you seriously met someone seriously considering eating a feline either. You had only heard racists jokes, which was not something you wanted to unpack right now. 

While you were scrambling the eggs Spaghetti had managed to flip over her food bowl and began to whine. She sat sternly by it, despite the fact that it had long been empty and she knew how to flip it back. 

She whined loudly, wanting more kibble. 

“No,” you replied, “That’s all you get for now. Don’t indulge her-she’s just an asshole.”

Despite your order Spock was already crouching with the ghost of a wince on his features. He flipped the bowl back over. 

You were seriously considering eating dog. 

“Do your people have expressions?” you asked after depositing toast and eggs on a plate for the both of you. 

He settled back down at the table, his reply deterred by the sudden whistle of the kettle. You rushed to it, setting it off the eye. You poured the water in his cup, hoping the tea wasn’t awful. It almost looked like it dated nearly twenty years. When you had first moved in and were cleaning out the freezer you found frozen vegetable and meats dating even farther back. 

“Yes, but they are not as colorful as Terran ones I have found. I know a few from my mother, but none of the likes of which you shared today.”

You blushed again, “I’m sorry-it’s my raising I guess.” You set his plate and tea before him gingerly, avoid eye contact. You felt silly. 

You had a million questions. How far was Vulcan from Earth-what was it like? What was their language like? Did they all wear robes as he did or was that exclusively for travel? Were their more planets beyond Earth like Vulcan? Did all Vulcans have pointy ears?

“Do you have shame?” he asked. 

You were snapped out of your inner wondering. 

“What?” you sat across from him. 

“Your tone indicates your ‘raising’, as you put it, as an excuse rather than an explanation. It would seem you are shameful.”

You sighed for a moment and decided to be truthful, “Sometimes. Not for my grandparents or this house. I mean we weren’t the richest or the most sophisticated.”

He looked at his plate for a moment and picked up the fork, twisting it in his right hand. 

“I understand,” was all he offered. 

You normally ate a quick pace. Spaghetti had trained you that way. You had to be fast so she wouldn’t purposely drool all over your feet or lap. 

The visitor ate slowly, without an hint of whether he liked his breakfast or not. You flushed again at the sight of your empty plate and his still half full. 

He probably thought you were a pig. 

“Do you?” you blurted. 

“Pardon?” He glanced up from his ministrations. 

“Feel ashamed of your upbringing?” 

“Vulcans do not feel shame,” he stated plainly, resuming his meal. Spaghetti trudged over to him and began to slobber at his socks. He gently prodded her head to the side, not paying her much attention other than so.

“Why?” you asked incredulously. 

“Shame is a human emotion.”

“What-do Vulcans have their own set or something?” you snarked, allowing yourself to giggle. 

“Vulcans adhere to a practice in which we do not partake in such expression. Such is the philosophy of Surak.”

You stared at him. Like you were supposed to know what that meant.

“Who’s Surak?”

His right brow twitched ever so slightly. 

“A Vulcan philosopher.” He drank his tea, once again with no hint to whether it tasted good or bad. “One who taught that emotions makes one illogical and hindered the improvement and growth of a successful and peaceful society.”

You tapped your foot, beginning to feel the red swell on aggravation behind your lips.

“You have no shame, yet you understand it? How is that possible?”

“I was taught the history of my civilization. We were once like the humans-living rashly at the expense of survival-at the expense of our evolution to a greater society.” 

“So, what, you’re saying Vulcans are better than humans for that?”

He placed the utensil back down cleanly on the plate and moved his elbows to prop on the table. He steepled his long fingers and locked his eyes with yours.

“Once again you keep inferring from declarations I have not given.”

You crossed your arms, “Indirectly. You were once like humans and now that you’re not you’re better for it?”

“Once again-”

The shrill bell of the kitchen phone interrupted the tension, slicing through it with each ring.

You went to it quickly, leaving your breakfast alone. Please, God, don’t let it be the FBI. 

“Hello?” 

“Good mornin’!”

“Doctor Beltik!” you strained through clenched teeth. You instantly recognized the cheery voice, slowly deteriorating in sharpness from its age. 

The town veterinarian was as old nearly as the town itself-as old as your grandparents would be if they were still here. He was a good friend to them and Spaghetti’s mortal enemy. 

“Little lamb, how are ya?”

“I’m well.” 

You glanced back at Spock and mouthed an apology. He only nodded ever so slightly and continued his breakfast while coolly keeping your dog at bay with the heel of his foot. 

A fucking pro already. You chuckled at that. 

“And the ole girl?” 

You stifled a huff. You did not have time for old chit chat, as much as you loved the old vet. 

“She’s the same-Doctor Beltik I really-” you started but were cut off.

“I won’t keep ya long, lamb, I wanted to ask if your power went out last night. It was quite a storm-largest lightening strike we’ve seen since your ma was a wee thing! Darned thing lasted a long time, nearly blinded me! Not that I’m not already halfway there anyway.”

You paled a bit feeling the eggs churn in your belly. What if someone saw the crash or the ship? How foolish could you be to think anyone could really believe that that was lightening. The vet was a fossil and maybe a little silly, but anyone in their right mind-”

“Y/N?” the vet asked, “Ya still there?”

“Yes!” you sputtered, “It woke me up, but I didn’t have too much trouble going back to sleep. Bad weather is like white noise, y’know.”

“Did your power go out? All of downtown went black.”

Shit. 

“Wow, really? Uh-it did for a short time. Listen, doc-I’ve got biscuits in the oven-”

“That’s alright. Enjoy your Sunday, lamb!”

“Thankyou, Doctor Beltik.”

You hung up the phone and grumbled. You smoothed out your robe and turned around.

The table was empty. No spaceman. Spaghetti was sniffing at the back door after leaving a trail of drool from where Spock had sat to the doorframe. 

Great, just great. 

---

You were already half way out the door, tugging your rainboots when you spotted him at the tree line. 

“Spock!” you called, “What’re you doing?”

It had already began to sprinkle. You darted towards the tree line, the ache in your calves reminding you of the night before-both dragging and half carrying him. 

You nearly ran into him as he stopped so suddenly you had no time to slow down. He steadied you with a strong hand, fingers brushing the bare skin of your collar bone. Droplets of morning drizzled flecked his dark hair and you found yourself crooning your neck back to meet his gaze. 

“I must repair the ship,” he stated plainly, unmoved by your close proximity to him. 

You couldn’t speak. The pads of his fingers were warm at the base of your throat. You felt a chill run up the entirety of your body. 

“Breathe,” he commanded. 

You took in the damp morning air and felt your face go hot immediately. You hadn’t even realized you were holding your breath.

He let you go and you instinctively took a step back. Your brain was fuzzy. It kept shouting the same things over and over, as if arguing with itself. 

Friend. Predator. Stranger. Liver.  

You hated how tall he was. 

He turned curtly and began into the woods. You bumbled after him. 

“I hope no one saw the crash,” you informed him, shivering. “The vet over the phone saw the light from your ship and it knocked out the town’s power, not just my house last night!” 

“There was suitable cloud cover and I was able to move quietly under the detection of Earth’s authorities,” he replied, “Until the storm worsened. I was temporarily blinded and almost struck a metal structure- I believe it’s purpose is to provide the facilities to operate mobile communications.”

“You mean a cell tower?”

You stumbled over a root, sliding in the mud. You grabbed onto his sleeve without thinking. He locked his grip under your elbow and helped you along. You felt pathetic, but steadier. 

“Affirmative. Fortunately, I avoided it,” he explained, “But I was not so quick to avoid the trees up there.” 

He motioned with his hand and you saw the tops of the evergreens were indeed quite taken out. 

The ship loomed into view, sleek and colorless in design. It seemed smaller in the daytime. 

He stopped short of where the ramp used to be and pressed his fingers to the cool metal. The maw of the ship opened quietly and out streamed the light again. 

“The right side of the landing gear is damaged along with a small piece of the hull. Some of the infrastructure of the cargo bay has been warped,” he continued, still leading you carefully up the slick ramp. It’s almost like he knew how you had to crawl that night in order to keep from falling.

He was right. In the dark you had never seen it. Beams fashioned of the same white metal that crafted the cargo hold were indeed bent and some broken. One had been completely severed and was like a sharp pike. It sported a coat of dried green. 

You glanced at his right flank and back up at him. He did not acknowledge your expression of horror.

“What is unknown to me is how the sensors did not detect the cell tower.”

You realized he was still holding on to your elbow. 

“Maybe something was already broken?” you offered in a soft voice. 

He looked down at you and removed his hold. 

“I will investigate as I was not able to last evening,” he replied already starting up the ladder. “Then I must repair the ship and return to Vulcan.”

You followed after him carefully, not wanting to fall. “And how are you gonna do that? There’s not exactly many alien spaceship workshops around here.”

You poked your head through. The cockpit seemed to have the Tardis effect. Unlike the outside it seemed much bigger on the inside. Lines of soft light lined the elongated wind screen and the runway between seats. Spock was kneeling at the console. 

“Aboard each private Vulcan vessel are tools and minor parts for replacement. Although it will take me some time I should be able to repair it sufficiently to return me home.”

You ran your fingers gently along the railing along the bottom of the glass outlooking the forest. 

You finally registered what he had said and whipped around. 

“You can’t do that in the middle of the woods out here! Someone already noticed the ship’s light last night. Who knows that someone won’t come poking around here. You-” you sighed and rubbed your temples, “-you need somewhere to work.”

He stood, once again towering over you at too close distance. “I suppose you already have a space in mind?”

“Actually,” you tapped your finger against your lips, “I might. If it will fit. God willing.”

He eyes did not meet yours, but below. You didn’t realize it at first but his gaze was following your finger, right at your lips. You didn’t know if he knew it, but he had began to chew on his bottom lip. 

You felt heat blooming at your neck. 

“But-!” you interrupted your line of thinking, “I don’t think I can tow this thing with my truck. Can it fly anymore?”

He nodded, “That is something I can tend to now. Although it is still cloudy it might be preferrable if we perform this operation at night.”

“This thing already stands out like a sore thumb from the sky-I mean it’s straight chrome almost.”

Almost. Not nearly as silver. More delicate and duller. 

“Then I shall try now,” he said and rapidly moved back to the console, flipping switches and the like.

“Wait-wait-” you scrambled back to the ladder, “I don’t want to be on this thing when it moves.” 

You were already half way down when he murmured, 

“Humans. So peculiar.”

--

How it fit into your garage was nothing short of a miracle. You never kept the truck under there anyway. Most of your grandfather’s tools had been stuffed to the side. There’s used to be more vehicles,  but in your grandparents will you had been instructed to sell the car and boat to help you with your finances. You could sell the house if you wanted, but you didn’t. 

Not yet anyway. 

There was a large concrete pad in front of the double garage doors and you stood there in the raining morning, motioning with your hands for him to land there. From there on you guided him to slowly back in into place. It funnily reminded you of helping friends’ parents park at graduation. 

Instead of activating the ramp which if extended would destroy the stairs up into the rest of the house, he appeared from a sort of port hole near the back of the vessel. 

“This will do quite well, Y/N, thankyou,” he said.

You squeezed your arm and nodded. You looked up at the sound of Spaghetti scratching the basement door. 

“I-I need a shower,” you said, “Are you all set?”

“Affirmative.” 

He had already began to examine landing gear, having a sort of tool belt of sorts that resembled the ships lack of color and sleek design about his waist.

“I’ll be up stairs if you need anything. Just holler.”

“I will, pi’veh.”

You slipped out of your boots and left them at the base of the staircase. He glanced back at you as the creaking of your bare footsteps filled the room.

He turned back to his work, noting subconsciously that your nails were painted.

Peculiar indeed.

[cookiesupplier]

Every Rose Has Its Thorns - Part Thirty-Eight

pairing: Ricky Olson x ofc x Chris 'Motionless' Cerulli

warnings/tropes: slow burn, soulmates, strangers to enemies to lovers, betrayal, angst, fluff, smut, language, online bullying, panic attacks, stalking, mental health issues, conspiracy theories.

summary: In a world where soulmates inexplicably receive a tattoo that will match that of their soulmate the moment they turn eighteen years old, being famous and covered in very visible tattoos can make finding your true soulmate a questionable fate. For everyone involved.

author’s note: I'm struggling with my health, so motivation and writers block is hitting me, but, trying to keep up a little, enjoy!

To read from the beginning, check out the Masterlist Here!

tags: @tearfallpixie @cncohshit @jordynyingling0219 @faceless-mirror @nyxthedestroyerofworlds @wild-child-7747 @witchyweeb34 @black-damask1999 @jilliemiw86 @ilovesamkiszka @lyschko666 @lacktoesandtoddlerants @bngurngheart @collapsedglasshouses @laurpartyprogram @sunsshinesunny @malerieee @talialovesmiw @shilohrosechicken @thatchickwiththecamera @tamtam-elizabeth

Tag List is Open, please let me know if you would like to be added to it or in general.

What the hell was happening?!?

Chris was staring at his phone and trying not to freak out. Breath, just breath. What was he going to tall Ricky and Talia? This, this was, this was… what the hell was this? Let's be real, he didn’t know what to tell Ricky and Talia because he had no idea what the fuck this was himself! It wasn’t just beyond confusing. It was insane! Forget about not using that word because of the sensitive issue about the fact both Talia and himself had been committed, he had been trying to be careful about saying, thinking it.. But push come to shove, right now, this felt utterly insane. A man he had been getting to know for years, that he had had intense philosophical conversations with, conversations that changed how he saw the soulmate bonds completely at times, just seemed to completely, what.. What the fuck?

Nothing made sense about what had just happened. Micah wouldn’t have turned on him, because that was what it felt like, Micah turning on him almost, somehow, just, a little bit. Or was that all in his head, was he over thinking this? Was, was he just imagining things here? Was he paranoid in that phone call because of the changes with his tattoo and reading too much in what had just happened? Maybe Micah was having a bad day. Still, what was wrong, what was happening? Why couldn’t he call that number anymore, this was all just so very, deranged.

“Hey Chris, have you heard back from that scientist guy yet? Because I was just think-”

Rick walking into the kitchen he stopped in his tracks taking one look at him, maybe it was the look on his face, or the fact he had been in the middle of making his lunch and had stopped cold, and it was all out on the counter forgotten. Something very unlike Chris. Leaving food out and risking it spoiling when he had to deal with enough finding decent vegan food in the past, and literally taught himself to cook to make his own, Chris didn’t just randomly leave food out. Ricky knew that, everyone that knew Chris well enough knew that.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

Shit shit shit.. But honestly, Rick already had second thoughts about the scientists with his insistence on the testing elements, that much was obvious, and was getting the worst feeling now.. What was he supposed to say to him? Chris looking over at him after a moment, he swallowed, he didn’t know what to say, what could he say, that the hope he had for some answers had just gone down the drain.

Yes, they could wait and see if these tattoos could work themselves out on their own, but what if they didn���t? Would they be living with these effects for the rest of their lives? How would that work, at any moment it could affect them. Any moment, after what Ricky said he’d felt just from Chris kissing Talia, imagine Talia being in the middle of a tattoo and feeling him kissing Ricky out of the blue. That could have massive ramifications for her, and her client. 

“I, ah, heard from Micah, my scientist fr- guy.”

He wasn’t sure, were they friends right now, it made him feel sick to question it, when Chris trusted someone enough to call them his friend, it took a lot these days after everything. So to question it now, that hurt, and he hated himself just a little bit for it.

“Oh yeah? I'm guessing, from the look on your face, the news wasn’t great.”

Chris frowned, his brow furrowed slightly as he stared at Ricky for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, how to explain that conversation when he didn’t even know he could explain it to himself. So he decided to just say that, he didn’t know.

“I don’t know what it was. He got, cagey.”

“Cagey? What do you mean?”

Chris sighed, back to how to explain, start from the top he guessed.

“Well, I didn’t want to tell him about Talia, or you, because I didn’t want to risk anyone getting pulled into anything, so I spun a story about random soulmate stupid theories, and started sprouting off different random theories. All different ones, bits and pieces from other theories Rick, throwing this one into the mix. I didn’t even mention tattoos causing strange sensations, just changing, after, well, a soulmate died. Instantly this guy I’ve been talking to for years, that I’ve sent Christmas cards to, even birthday cards to his kids, starts getting fucking weird and cagey.” As he explained it, Chris went from being worried to actually being annoyed. Because, what the hell, what was going on?!

“Considering I was sufficiently freaked out by the time he was asking me if it was my tattoo that was changing, there was absolutely no way I was telling him, I hesitated. I might as well have screamed yes at the top of my lungs, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Now I feel completely fucked because then it got even creepier when he goes.”

Chris imitates a low raspy faux villian voice, they both know how good he is at changing his voice, it sounded nothing like Micah, but that was not the point of why he was using it. He just wanted to be anything but himself right then.

“Chris, whatever you do, don’t call this number again, I’ll be in touch. and then just hangs the hell up. What Ricky, what? Next thing I know, you're walking in. I trusted this man, what, what am I supposed to do, what if, shit, what if there is some conspiracy-”

“Hey, I’m the conspiracy-nut here, leave that job to me.”

Chris couldn’t help rolling his eyes at that with a scoff.

“This isn’t the time to joke Rick, I’m scared, my tattoo is changing, and someone I thought I could trust to ultimately listen and help me figure out what is happening to me eventually just-”

“Hey, hey,”

Swallowing, feeling Ricky’s hand on his arm.

“You know, whatever happens, I’m not going anywhere.”

Ricky squeezed his fingers around Chris’ arm. There was no way he was going to walk away from Chris dealing with this, not now, not ever, not even if Talia wanted to go home. She might be his original soulmate, but Chris was his best friend, and he’d already been through hell and back. Besides, while he couldn’t guarantee it, not by a long shot, he didn’t think Talia was the kind of person that would just talk away. Not if Chris really needed her. Yes, it was just a tattoo to most people, but theirs was affecting them on an entirely different level, he was sure if anyone could appreciate that, Talia could after what they’d already gone through. What she’d already been through. Considering Talia for that matter, 

“Would you like me to call Talia, we can disc-”

Before he even finished what he was saying, just thinking that they could talk about what they wanted to do from here, Chris’ phone suddenly alerted them to a message, causing the taller man to startle out of nowhere. They were really going to have to do something about Chris stress level. He had always been a perfectionist, but he was not dealing with any of this very well, and Ricky was starting to get worried about him going over the edge from all of this.

“For the love of-”

Waiting while Chris checked the message, a groan coming from the man.

“Well, that’s just the icing on the cake, look at this.”

Chris practically shoved his phone over to Ricky for him to take.

“It’s a message, from Micah, it's an unknown number, but that’s how he signs off all his texts.”

“Okay.”

Well, that, was curious. Considering the only part of the message that made any sense whatsoever was the end where Micah had signed it off according to Chris, it was interesting to say the least. The rest was some kind of jargon, the entire thing was written in some kind of code, letters, numbers, and for the life of him, there was something familiar about it. 

“Do you have a notepad and pen anywhere?”

Rick wanted to write this message long hand so he could work it out other than on the tiny little screen of the phone. Obviously, it had to be something that Micah thought that Chris might be able to figure out, or at least, hoped he would be able to find a way to be able to. If he wanted him to at all. Chris could be right, it could be a conspiracy, this could just be a wild goose chase that they were about to be sent on. There might be every chance that Ricky was about to jump down the rabbit hole pointlessly, or, alternatively, Chris had a friend that was trying to actually help him, and was honestly trying to warn him away. Ricky, while had been very pessimistic lately for Chris’ sake, was willing to hope on the latter.

At the very least, he wanted to know what this damn message meant.

Even if it was just a rabbit hole.

With Chris handing over a pen and notebook, Ricky sat down at the kitchen table while the singer went back to work on finishing making lunch, only this time he set to making something for both of them. Ricky sat there, muttering to himself over the numbers, and letters, working through the different combinations, and possibilities, and while he could be going online to look up different cyphers for codes, he didn’t want to risk it. This wasn’t some random puzzle, this was Chris’ life, this was their life, and if he couldn’t figure it out, then what was the point of the code at all?

Having finished their lunch, and multiple cups of coffee, Ricky was looking at Chris suddenly, blinking…

“Could it be that simple?”

Murmuring to himself, and ripped yet another piece of paper from the notebook and scrunched it up and tossed it to the bin.

He missed.

Again.

The utterance however seemed to have gotten Chris’ attention, looking up from his phone that he had been looking over. Ricky hadn’t been paying attention to what the other had been doing, just engrossed in the message.

“What is it?”

“Just a minute.”

Ricky was already scribbling away furiously on the fresh page of the notepad, a whole new set of the figures as he glanced back to the code that he’d written out cleanly still beside him on the table. So far it was working, so far, the new page, it was making sense. So far, it really was that simple, and he was kicking himself for having not considered it before. Of course, Micah being a scientist, he’d gone for that side for, idiot. Sighing, he shouldn’t have been focusing on the science, he should have been thinking like Chris, like himself, like a musician.

“He has sent instructions, basically, buy a burner phone, call this number, and only call it at a certain time of day.” Ricky flipped the paper around so that Chris could read what the message had said,

“And a warning, not to talk to anyone else about your tattoo changing.”

Looking down at the scrawled message on the paper. So Micah was trying to help him, that, terrified him even more, that someone out there could be out to get him. Maybe not just him, but what if they came for Talia and Rick too for being connected to him now? 

“Shit.”

Reading over the message that Micah sent for him, so he guessed he was going to have to go buy a burner phone. 

“Looks like I’ve got a trip to the store ahead of me.”

Glancing at his watch,

“And about an hour before the first chance to call, I’m going to go now.”

He was not going to waste time. Chris wanted to find out what the hell was going on here, why Micah had suddenly started freaking out on him, otherwise he was going to be a mess all night and he knew it.

“I don’t think I can handle another day of spy games.”

Standing up from the table, he didn’t trust just sending someone else to grab a phone for him when it came to this. Chris swallowed as he glanced at Rick when he immediately followed suit, standing right alongside him.

“I’m coming with you. Don’t look at me like that, Talia is safe at Vinny’s, and if anyone is at risk from whatever the hell could be going on, on the other end of that phone call, it's mostly you, Chris. So I’m not letting you out of my sight until we know what's happening.”

Chris sighed,

“Alright, but I’m driving, Road Kill.”

Smirking as Ricky rolled his eyes, he was never letting that go.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

[radioactive-leopard]

My first time at a big pride festival was this year, working at a food truck in the twin cities. I was there for over 18 hours, so here are my first impressions, keep in mind that I was confined in one area, so mileage may vary:

So many furries. I’m from a rural relatively conservative area, people aren’t exactly public about that here. I don’t think a single one ordered food, but that’s probably because fur suits are expensive and they didn’t want to stain them

Lots of people in various types of kink gear right next to strollers. And you know what the kids were most distressed about? Their parents not letting them eat until they throw up.

As accessible as possible for an outdoor festival with a fuck ton of people. There was a quiet zone for people if they were overstimulated, and lots of people with mobility aids. I didn’t see too many service dogs and I don’t think I saw a guide dog, but I think that’s because a dog would find it difficult to concentrate on their tasks. I saw people guiding their friends in leu of a guide dog or cane in a crowded space.

Dogs! So many!

What I said about accessibility doesn’t really apply to food however. The stereotypes of queer peoples dietary preferences are true, and there was really an untapped market. My stall was, to my knowledge, the only one offering vegan and gluten free meals. One meal was naturally gluten free (option 1), and the other one was easily swapped (option 2). I’d say about a third of option 2 were requests for the gluten free version. It’s a food truck, so we couldn’t guarantee 0 cross contamination but we did our best and people appreciated it.

There was an adult only area for more overtly sexual things, and there were events for kids and teens. No one was fucking in front of kids or whatever the conservative line is.

We couldn’t leave samples out because people got really concerned that someone forgot their food

I didn’t see too many cops, which is good considering the police history of oppressing the queer community . There were some, but from what I could see they were more directing traffic. Ideally there would be no cops but less is better than more I guess.

Pretty gnarly sunburns. Folks, wear sunscreen. I saw people wearing nothing on top but stickers over their nipples, and their entire body was burnt. Ouch.

[invisibleraven]

It's that time again: Inny prompts a Ray Is The Best Dad prompt because: keeping a few of their favorite snacks in the house for when they visit. makes me soft.

Grocery day was not Ray’s favourite day of the week. For one it was less fun without Rose who liked to race the charts, do silly puppets shows with the fruit when testing their ripeness, and indulged his love of trashy food.

For two, he had a lot more mouths to feed now.

Not that he minded the extra mouths, but it got to be a lot remembering all their restrictions, dislikes, and still keep their nutritional health in mind.

He started with the staples; bread, eggs, and milk. Making sure to get oat milk for Alex whose lactose intolerance he learned about in the worst way. Plus it was always handy to have on hand if Carrie and Willie decided they were vegan this week.

He stocked up on veggies-he had become an expert on hiding them in food so the gaggle of teenagers who frequented his home would eat them. He had better luck with fruit, and Luke loved to help him make weird smoothie combinations but hey, at least he was enthusiastic about that part of healthy eating.

He couldn’t say the same for Flynn who would survive on soda and pizza if she could. Though given her mother liked to brew up meatloaf containing wheatgrass and alfalfa sprouts, he didn’t really blame her.

Julie was easy to please, as she had started cooking for the group and gave him a list. She had been working on recreating some of Rose’s recipes to introduce her friends to Latin food, as well as the desserts. Ray was more than happy to be her guinea pig for those experiments.

Plus it made Carlos (and Victoria) from complaining about his spaghetti for the third day in a row.

At first Ray had thought Reggie was the easiest as he would happily eat anything and everything placed in front of him. That is until he found out that he probably wasn’t getting much to eat at home, and rarely indulged in buying food since he was saving up to move out as soon as he could.

Ray had offered him the guest room more than once, but kept getting denied. “Well can you at least tell me what you actually like to eat? We can even make it together.”

Reggie lit up at that. “Can you teach me to make ribs?”

Now Ray had never really attempted ribs-they weren’t a staple in the Molina household. “How about we learn together?”

The end results were pretty damn good if he said so himself, even if Reggie was far better at the grill than Ray was. With that in mind, Ray grabbed another pack-plus some chicken and impossible burgers and wondered if he could convince Reggie they should have a cook out this weekend.

With all the healthy options done, Ray gathered snacks; savoury and salty snacks for the boys, chocolate and candy for the girls, sour stuff for Carlos and a pack of cookies for himself-one he would be hiding because he learned the hard way about not doing so with seven teenagers in and out of the house.

He also grabbed some of those nasty rice cakes for Tori-just because she spent enough time with them, he wanted to have options.

He approached the register, hunting for his wallet-he knew Julie handed it to him after he couldn’t find it with the mail. It was in his jacket pocket, and within it there was a pile of coupons, courtesy of Flynn the Coupon Queen. Plus a points card that he knew belonged to Willie that gave Ray some savings and would give Willie a discount on the movie he wanted to take Alex to the weekend.

Ray shook his head softly and smiled at the weird situation he found himself in. Widowed and the father to eight kids, only two of which were his.

He wouldn’t trade any of them for the world though. Even if the bill after it all was starting to get ridiculous. But the kids-his kids were worth every penny.

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

I desperately want oblivious!Buddie to play out for just a LITTLE longer so we get some “off-screen” gems. As in, absolutely bonkers events and quirks that we don’t currently know, but slowly find out before the boys figure THEM out. Such as Buddie grocery shopping together, Buck knowing Chris’ (AND Eddie’s) SSN, Chris having Buck’s phone number memorized because he didn’t have a phone when they first met and would call him on the house phone like for the Hildy prank, Chris has called Buck his dad to one of the firefam or Carla, Buck and Abuela have weekly phone calls now that she lives in Texas, Eddie is Buck’s POA (and vice versa), Eddie has a second pair of keys to Buck’s Jeep (Buck doesn’t for Eddie’s truck ONLY because Eddie is a passenger princess and if he’s not the one driving his truck then he just hands his keys off to Buck anyway), as early as late season 3 Christopher was drawing Buck into his family portraits (bonus points if it’s before the well happened), Buck has Christopher’s drawings on his loft fridge, Buck uses the family calendar on Eddie’s fridge too, Eddie specifically doesn’t buy certain foods because Buck has a food restriction that the Diazes do NOT also have (canon vegan Buck anyone?), Buck picks Christopher up from school enough to be known to both the teachers AND administration, they have a shared google calendar that Eddie hates (technophobe) but Buck updates regularly, there hasn’t been a week where Buck hasn’t stayed the night at least once at the Diazes since the lawsuit (yes, even through the divorce arc idc, let me live).

The whole “didn’t know they were dating” thing is becoming more and more appealing to me for Buddie with every passing minute, and I just think it would be funny if we got Hen or Maddie or even Christopher to call them out on little things like this that they do that they didn’t really think hard enough about to realize it was partner shit, not best friend shit. Plus, I know a lot of people want Buddie NOW because of Buck being canonically bi, but I’m still happy to wait a little longer if it means giving both characters the patience and care their stories deserve. ABC making them canon the very first season after the network switch WOULD be iconic, but given that I’ve been both ecstatic and nervous about Buddie after last Thursday’s episode, I think they should pace it. Give them both full realizations about their sexualities, a lil crisis about it for each too, maybe a different man or two before each other, the jealousy they’re BOTH now famous for, just a pinch more therapy about the shock of it all, and then somebody or something to knock their heads together and make them realize that their partner has been right there all along.

Honestly, I won’t lie and say that some of these aren’t based off of fics I’ve read, but they’re also so basic to Buddie that I couldn’t tell you specific fics, and I also definitely tried to come up with some that aren’t from fics in my memory, but claim them if you want lol, I don’t mind

[sirianasims]

Chapter 32

Never Grow Up

Less than a year later, Samuel and I were married.

The wedding was everything I’d dreamed of. I’m sure our parents would happily have paid for an enormous wedding if we’d asked them to. But that wasn’t our style.

All I wanted was a small, intimate affair with our closest friends and family while I said ‘I do’ to the love of my life. We rented the Myshuno Observatory. It almost felt like my grandma Cora was with us in spirit.

Even Charlie showed up. I knew it meant a lot to Samuel, although his brother couldn’t stay for long.

At least he was there for the ceremony, and he came over to congratulate us afterwards.

He said he had a flight to catch, his band was on tour at the moment. I suspected that he was also trying to avoid talking to Colten and Kailani.

I wondered if Charlie actually preferred his solitude, or if he secretly wanted to be a bigger part of his family than he was.

I was grateful that I got along with my own family, especially my sister Grace. I couldn’t believe that she would be starting high school after the summer, it felt like yesterday that I’d taught her how to cross the monkey bars in our backyard.

By the time Grace and I headed inside for the reception, Charlie was gone and Kailani was talking to Jessica. Jessica had volunteered to do the decorations, beautiful blush-coloured roses everywhere, my favourite.

We kept the wedding alcohol-free for my dad, and Griffin and Daria had offered to do all the food for us as a wedding gift. It was impressive, the entire menu was vegan since Griffin had also stopped eating meat after his first visit to the cadaver lab during medical training. I didn’t blame him, it sounded horrific. Samuel hadn’t seemed as bothered.

Over by the cake, Conrad was making my dad and Cecilia crack up with outrageous anecdotes. It was strange to see my parents interact with each other. It had happened before, of course, they had celebrated my birthday together a few times when I was younger, but I couldn’t remember if they had been in the same room since my mom and Conrad moved to Del Sol Valley.

Looking at the four of them now, it was impossible to tell that things had ever been bad between my parents. Still, I couldn’t imagine two people less likely to work out. They both had a certain desperation to them, and they both needed someone to temper them, not stoke the flames.

Conrad, with his extravagant approach to life, gave my mother a safe outlet, a way to release all that intensity so she didn’t blow up.

Cecilia, kind but unwavering, calmed my father down and turned his particular brand of chaos into something less destructive.

But who was I?

Was I like my dad, prone to holding on in an attempt to do the right thing until I finally self-destructed?

Or was I more like my mother, desperately trying to make people love me until I gave up and left them in the dust?

I needed to do better than both of them. I wanted everything to work out. I shook my head lightly, trying to chase away the dark thoughts. This was my wedding day, why was I only thinking about disaster?

I went to find Samuel. He pulled me close and kissed me.

This was what I needed. My husband.

Samuel would temper me, like Conrad and Cecilia tempered my parents.

We would be fine.

By the time we were back in our bed that night, I was both exhausted and deliriously happy.

I took Samuel’s hand, marvelling at the ring on his finger.

“I can’t believe we’re actually married.”

He sent me a mischievous smile.

“Me neither. But you better let go of my hand. I need it for something.”

I was glad that we’d had some practice over the last year, otherwise I might have chickened out of my wedding night completely.

Samuel was gentle, always making sure that I was satisfied.

A small part of me wished he’d be a little less restrained, that he would lose himself in it, the same way he made me lose myself, but it was still good.

beginning / previous / next

[jamiedryssnail]

First Date

Golden Au

Fraser knew he had to impress the bedard sister with the first date. Hence why he showed up to her door with a bouquet full of flowers. He did make the bouquet himself claiming the pre made one’s are to expensive.

As Fraser rung the doorbell the nerves started. The door was opened by the one and only Connor Bedard. I mean it was almost Christmas time was he expecting him to not be there he thought to himself.

What made it even awkward was that Connor had no idea about the date. “Bud I didn’t know you were coming over” Connor said not realising the situation he had on his hands.

“Oh yeah actually” he was cut off by Connor pulling him into the house. “Where did you come from a date or something, why so fancy”. With that Fraser froze not sure what to say next.

As if on queue Minnie walked down the stairs looking as stunning as ever, or so Fraser thought. She was wearing a black mini skirt, white baby tee, and burgundy leather jacket. All tied together with a pair of black cowboy boots.

“We’re ya going miss Amelia” Connor teased still unaware of the situation. “Oh my god you are so dumb” she said hiding a laugh. “I got these for you” Fraser explained to the girl giving her the flowers. That’s when Connor finally put two and two towards. “Oh shit that’s gross guys, and you couldn’t have waited til new year so I could win the bet”.

“Ok we’ll anyways by Connor” Minnie said as she grabbed Fraser’s hand. As they walked down the front steps of the house Fraser sped up a little to open the door for minnie.

“Thanks fras” she said quietly her cheeks turning rosy. As they drove to the restaurant they laughed and talked the whole way. Fraser always knew how to make Minnie laugh.

They pulled up to the restaurant and Minnie could not believe her eyes. “Your joking, your joking I have been trying to get into this place for months”! She squealed with excitement.

Minnie was vegan and let’s just say Vancouver did not have a lot of options restaurant wise. Fraser did a ton of research for hours on end to find the best of the best for her. He did have to pay extra but he got in he had to for her.

There date went fantastic they talked for hours on end. He may have not liked the food but she absolutely loved it. It became one of there usuals after that. They drove home in peace, finally reaching the Bedard house. Fraser got out and opened Minnie’s door for her, walking her to the front door.

Already freezing from the cold evening temperature, Minnie was eager to get back inside and Fras to his car. But before that Fraser knew he had to go in for a kiss. Obviously he had to so he leaned in and they shared a magical first kiss. They knew there were many more of those coming.

[minigirl87]

Peaches & Cream with Marc.

Marc Spector X f!Reader mentions of Steven grant & Jake Lockley.

Edited by @melodygatesauthor ❤️

I really want to thank @melodygatesauthor for her help in editing and the encouragement to write fanfiction for the first time! And for putting up with my daft questions. You're a 🌟 so thank you again.

Please leave your feedback as it is appreciated ❤️

Word count: 491

Tags/warnings: NSFW, "no smut" & "sexual themes/implications"

Summary: Reader bakes some cakes for Marc and he doesn't mind the mess. Marc is cheeky in a fun way.

P.s I just love this piece of music and thought it would suit live with the boys.

As Marc slowly walked back to the flat, the sun shone down with a soft warmth, on his golden skin and bounced of his chocolate curls. London was unseasonably warm but comfortable, with the breeze wafting the smells of summer that only a big city can conjure.

To anyone walking by Marc, they wouldn’t notice anything amiss, except maybe his overly stoic expression. Internally, though, he was having a discussion with his alters, Steven and Jake, about Y/N and baking. All three loved your baked goods. Each for their on reasons Steven liked find different vegan recipes, Jake liked to make cultural foods, and Marc homemade felt like love to him.

When Marc opened the door to the flat, keys jingling to announce his arrival, He could hear soft jazz playing quietly, and you trying to hum along to melody. He could also sound of Steven’s old oven still trying to survive another day. Excitement surged through his nostrils. Peaches he smells peaches, he softly smiles and calls out to you, “Y/N Baby I’m home” as he walked into the small kitchen.

You jumped slightly as you felt his arms snake around your middle. When he kissed your shoulder, his chocolate curls tickled your ear as they brussed over your skin. You turned to face him still in his arms, He bent his head down to kiss you deeply. A small moan escapes from you both.

“You taste so sweet, Baby” he leaned in for another, to which you pulled away giggling

"If you like that, then you’ll love these.”

You pull away to go and, get one of your baking tins. You smiled remembering when Marc bought you the set in your favourite colour. Marc starts to comment on the mess and was about to ask about flour he saw on an inexplicably high corner of the kitchen wall, But then he noticed the cupcakes. His eyes go wide and he links his lips.

“I didn’t expect them to turn out like this” you said with another giggle. Marc stared at the vulva shaped cupcakes in awe, He groaned louder than expected at the familiar sight.He looks up at you as you smile innocently back at him.

“Do you or one of the boys want to try one?” You asked holdingone out to him.

He took it from your hand and he licked the peach first before eating it.

“Baby that’s amazing, can I have another one?” His eyes were pleading.

How could you say no? As you turned to pick up the tin again, nodding your head to say yes. Marc grabs you as you let out a squeal.

“what about your cupcake? Hm? He asked as he carried you to the bedroom. “You’ve already got the cake Baby and I’m bringing the cream.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. Steven and Jake groan, and Marc well he’s too in love to care, regardless of the mess.

[beaker1636]

C is for Cyber Sex - Justin

A/N: Here is C! Without sharing spoilers I would like Justin to give Ricky a hard one to finish for D because of how this one ends and the competitiveness that the boys now have, so any suggestions I will gladly accept! Also the end of this had me giggling on the couch making my husband give me some major side eye! Sorry it is slightly shorter than the rest but it will make sense when you read it!

“Why did we agree to leave early in the morning and show up the day we perform again? This kind of sucks,” Ryan groans, “We haven’t done this shit in years.”

“Because we all wanted to be back home as soon as we could and this is the consensus we settled on, remember?” Chris asks, grabbing his suitcase from the baggage claim, getting tired of listening to Ryan and Vinny bitch about this.

“Could be worse I guess, at least we leave tomorrow morning and make it back home, that will be nice,” Justin says as he watches everyone bicker back and forth.

“Too bad for you that your letter falls for today dude, only idea that seemed to work was Cybersex which still isn’t that great but I couldn’t come up with that much you could do so far away.” Ryan shrugs, everyone making their way out to the van that was waiting for them to take them to their hotel so they can drop things off before making their way to the festival.

“You act like that isn’t something that is normal for us anyways, with our job that really isn’t that weird,” Justin says, climbing into the van to take a seat, ignoring everyone's prying eyes.  “Oh you guys can’t tell me you’ve never video called or sent stuff to your girlfriends while we have been gone, we are gone at least half the fucking year.”

“Valid point, but no actually I haven’t done anything over facetime with Lottie, seems awkward to me,” Vinny says, looking out the window.

“Dude you accidentally sexted me once, so it’s not like you are completely innocent Vin,” Rick says shuddering. “I know we’ve all changed around each other but I am fine without seeing a photo of you like that again.”

Chris nearly spits out his coffee at this revelation, finding it absolutely hilarious that Vin did that to Rick one day, laughing his ass off from his seat.

They pull up to the hotel and drop their things off, Justin winds up rooming with Chris, which he figures could be worse.  Chris usually stays pretty much in his own world so it isn’t like he is stuck with Vinny who would be up his ass after the show.

About an hour later after getting changed they all meet in the hotel lobby, ready to get going and figuring that their makeup will get done right before the meet and greet at the festival in their green room area.  

When they all arrive that is just what happens, Angela getting to work on everyone's makeup except for Justin’s, he prefers to just do it himself and enjoys changing it up at the shows depending on his mood.

They all make their way through the meet and greet, they love getting to talk with all of the fans that they can meet, find out what the band means to them and how much they are loved for what they do.  Justin unfortunately still feels out of place, being the newest member he still doesn’t get acknowledged as much as others do unfortunately but he still enjoys being there and hearing everything.

Afterwards they all sit around for a little bit until it is their turn to hit the stage, all of them making their way out to play in front of a huge crowd that is singing their hearts out and headbanging with them, all of them energized as they come back off the stage, truly loving what they get to do every day.

After leaving they all get back to the hotel, hyped up from the show.

“Hey, I heard this bar down the street has great food, do you guys want to wander down and grab dinner with me? I heard they have vegan options Chris,” Rick says, pulling his phone out to show everyone before they make their way down to their rooms to clean up themselves from the show.

“I think I will pass, I just want to chill in the room for a little bit,” Justin says, not really wanting to go out at the moment, ready to just hang out and relax for a little bit. 

Everyone else agrees to go, which he silently is happy about as that gives him his chance to be alone to do this stupid challenge with you while the others are gone, he really wasn’t looking forward to having to hide in the bathroom while Chris was out there so this gives him his shot.

On Chris’ way out he turns towards Justin, “Don’t make too much a mess when you call Vanessa.” He winks at the other man as he walks out of the hotel room to meet the others, laughing on his way out.

Justin takes a minute to relax himself before he makes a facetime request with you, smiling when he sees you pick it up.

“Hey babe, how was the show today?” You ask, smiling at him through the phone screen.

“It was great, I love being up there and seeing everyone singing along with Chris and headbanging along, it is a lot of fun.  Hey, I’m going to be straight forward because I won’t have a lot of time, Ryan gave me our letter and as expected it’s Cybersex because we are away from home.  I got lucky and Chris went out to dinner so we have a window of time where I wouldn’t have to hide in the bathroom so….” He trails off, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So what? Tell me what you want me to do baby and I’ll do it,” you respond, no hesitation as you knew this was likely going to happen and you prepared yourself for it. “Want to see what I put on for you?” you ask shyly.

“Fuck, please,” Justin groans, moving to slide the sweatpants he changed into down his legs.

You smirk and slide your tank top off, showing that you were in his favorite black set of yours, the one that really makes your boobs look amazing.  You take your time making a show of it as you prop your phone up and also slide your shorts off giving him a view of the matching panties that adorn you.

“Are you trying to kill me when I can’t touch you, fuck.” He groans out, almost instantly hard at the sight of you in his favorite through the screen. “Fuck, baby I want to see you touch yourself, pretend your fingers are mine as they slide up your thigh, teasing you.”

You do as he says, teasing yourself as you barely run your fingers up your thigh, slowly toying with the hem of your panties as you start to tease yourself.  Smiling to yourself when you see him start to palm himself in his boxers as he watches you.

“Now what do you want me to do, tell me Justin please?” You beg, loving when he leads you along and takes charge, even when it's from a distance.

“Get the dildo I got you for when I’m gone out of the drawer, I want to watch you fuck yourself baby, please?” He groans, the thought alone getting to him as he patiently watches you pull it out of the drawer.

He watches as you tease yourself for a few seconds, making sure you get yourself wet before you sink it inside of you.  The sight clearly visible to him from where you set your phone at as he watches, starting to stoke himself as he watches.

“Does that feel good baby?” he asks with a groan as you begin working it inside of you, he can see the sheen of your wetness on the toy as it goes in and out of yourself.

“Yes, but I wish it was you.  You always feel better,” you let out a moan as you finish the sentence, getting a bit rougher with yourself as you can feel your orgasm building, watching him as he strokes himself a bit quicker.

“Are you imaging that it is me pounding inside of you, fucking you deep as you clench around me? Fuck I can’t wait to get home and fuck you myself,” he watches closely, the sight of you starting to fall apart in front of him really getting to him.

He is so distracted watching you that he doesn’t hear the door to the hotel room open.

“Hey the place was closed so we…. Oh fuck, shit I’m going to go to another room, sorry” Chris stammers out when he opens the door and sees that he walked in on Justin and you taking care of yourselves on camera by himself.

The second you hear his voice you panic, yanking the toy out and pulling a blanket from your bed over yourself as you see Justin quickly shuffle to cover himself up as well.

“Fuck, I thought we would have more time.  I’m so sorry,” Justin stammers, embarrassed as he sees the look that is now on your face at the fact that Chris walked in on any of that.  “I promise my phone wasn’t in a place that was visible so he didn’t see you.”

“It’s fine, you should probably go and calm yourself down before he comes back. Text me when shit is calmed down and figure out,” you say softly, not looking at the screen out of embarrassment.

“I love you, sorry baby.” Justin says softly, feeling awful when he sees how embarrassed you are.

“Love you too,” you respond before ending the call.

Justin takes a few minutes to let his hard on go down before messaging Chris to apologize and let him know that it is safe.

No shock to Justin everyone shows up when Chris comes back, all holding back grins when they do. 

“Well we brought back some food for you from the place we stopped at instead if you want it… but I think you may be hungry for something else,” Vinny says, holding back a laugh as he teases his friend about getting caught literally with his pants down.

“Dude did either of you at least get lucky enough to finish before I got back?” Chris asks teasingly as he glances at his embarrassed friend and bandmate on the bed.

Ryan and Rick didn’t even try to hide their amusement, both laughing when Justin groans and answers no, annoyed that he not only got caught but he was also the first one to be unable to finish a letter. 

“Yeah fuck off, can you guys go away so I can just go to bed? We can finish talking in the morning about what this means but for right now I am just done with this conversation,” Justin says, glaring at his friends.

The rest of the guys leave, leaving only Justin and Chris in the room as they get ready to go to sleep for the night, both pretty quiet.

“If it makes you feel slightly better Rick walked in on Mia and I one night, so it hasn’t only happened to you,” Chris says, holding his own laugh back as he tries to make his friend feel better.

“No it does not, goodnight,” Justin says as he shuts the last lamp off, sending you several texts apologizing before he shuts his phone off and goes to sleep for the night.