#crying at 7am i’m so so heartbroken

[ashstfu]

farewell, maggie smith

[dracofknmalfoy]

write #12 for the one word prompt list!!

stranger; george weasley

one word prompt list; 12 — “stranger”

summary: after george ends his and y/n’s relationship so causally, the next morning she pretends as if she had never met him.

warnings: swearing, not proofread, fem reader!

it had been a wednesday evening. 8pm at night, deep within the confines of george’s dorm stood y/n — tears streaked across her cheeks and hair strewn around her face, hands shaking and mouth agape in shout. george, standing opposite her, looked similar. his freckled cheeks were speckled with fresh streaks of tears as he too, shouted in response of y/n’s.

“this was the fourth detention you’ve got me in over the past 2 weeks, george!” she exclaimed, chest heaving with anger as he stood opposite her, retaining her words.

“fourth! i don’t have fucking time to be sitting polishing plaques — i have exams to be studying for! or, did you just forget about them too? along with every other responsibility you have!” her hands were waving around as she spoke and george only grew angrier at her words. spitting back a response as a tear dripped down his jaw.

he was angry. “of course i haven’t forgot!” he retaliated, “why do you always act like you’re so high and fucking mighty?!”

they had fought for hours, with george being the one to close the argument — and the one to end the relationship.

“i can’t fucking do this anymore!” she yelled, before she was taking a breath to collect herself and looking at him, “all we do is fight. i’m sick of it.”

george looked at her in that moment, a good look — he took in the way her eyes were sunken with stress and her chest heaving, and decided that this had to be it.

“then leave.”

she looked at him with her mouth agape in shock. “just like that? just ‘leave?” she said, her words full of genuine disbelief at the way he could just throw the idea of the end of their relationship around as if it meant nothing.

she scoffed. “yeah? alright then, congratulations” she said, hurriedly grabbing her bag that she had thrown onto his bed before he could stop her.

she slung it over her shoulder, sparing him a final glance. the words, “fuck you, george” fell from her lips with so much distain she was almost unsure how she had managed it. she didn’t slam the door behind her, opting to let the sound of the lock clicking to be the indication of her goodbye.

~~

the next morning as george awoke — his whole body was riddled with regret. as he readied himself for his day, he was tripping over his feet as he made his way down to the common room, swinging the portrait open and stepping out.

it was 7am. the tables within the great hall were bustling with students who were happily tucking into different arrays of fruits and cereals. y/n was amongst them. he could see her as he rounded the corner of the hall — sitting, mid conversation with her friends; her eyes sunken and dark, she looked completely heartbroken.

she was.

as he walked over to the table, running over what he was going to say to apologise, when he got there — his mind was blank. she noticed his presence and as she looked up at him, her stomach dropped.

her face remained unchanged— masked.

he stumbled over his words under her gaze, “y/n, can we please talk about last night?” he asked, “i’m so sorry, can we go to my dorm and talk?”

the blank expression she gave in response spoke for itself. and with that, she rose from her seat and looked her ex boyfriend straight in his dark eyes.

“no” was all she said, brushing past him and leaving his tall frame to gawk over her words. what he couldn’t see, however, were the tears that were falling from her face.

as he turned, he followed her out hastily— hot on her heels. “you can’t act like this, y/n” he pleaded, “please just slow down and talk to me”

after the words had fallen from his lips — she stopped abruptly. “i cant act like what, george?” she asked, angry tears now streaming freely down her face.

“angry? hurt? sick to my stomach at the fact that you can just sweep this whole thing under the rug?” she exclaimed. “you broke up with me — you ended this whole thing last night so casually it makes me wonder why i was ever with you”

her words cut through him like a knife and as he went to respond, she cut him off. “you broke my heart into a million pieces last night and now you think it’s okay to just ask to sort it all out?” she said, amusement at his stupidity running through her voice.

“no. i refuse. i’m sick of the fighting and the silent treatments and the crying and the constant detentions — i can’t do it, george”

she continued, “you chose this last y when you ended it — so consider it done. consider us finished and from now on, we don’t fucking know eachother, yeah?” she said as she took a step back, a tear roaming freely down her cheek.

“simple as that,” she breathed, “i’ll be a stranger”

before george could stop her, she had turned and gripped her books so tightly her knuckles had flushed white as she sniffed and made her way along the corridor to her first class. george leaned against the wall in defeat and kicking himself due to his foolish and unthought actions.

a singular tear fell from his eyes and splashed on the floor, a small ‘fuck’ echoing around the hall as it escaped his lips.

he had fucked it. all of it.

aaaa thank u so much for the number! i’m half asleep rn but i wanna publish something and i’m sorry it was so sad homegirl is going thru a hard time rn can u tell i’m going thru a breakup LMAO i hope u enjoyed !!!!

tags: @amityyyjade @horrorxweasley @hufflepuff5972 @youralternantpersonality @aesthetic-dark @whoreforgeorgeandfred @adnaweasley @pandaxnienke

fill out the form here to be added to my taglist!

[curly-bangtan]

Heatwave Drabble #9: sweet night (M)

[Heatwave // Godless // Heatwave Drabbles] <- must read first!

Pairing: Taehyung x reader

Summary: After a series of miscommunications and immaturity that lead to a rip through both your friendship and ambiguous relationship, this last turn of events could be the deciding factor of whether or not you’ve lost each other from your lives forever.

Genre: angst, smut, fwb au, roommate au, f2l

Warnings: SO much angst and feels, slight slow burner and a lot of build up, unprotected sex, hot tub, oral (m&f), food play, crying, i don’t want to give too much away eeee

Word count: 23.8k a monster i know ;-;

A/N: The end is finally here!! It’s late but trust me when I say I worked all day on this and did not do an ounce of revision today because I wanted to get this done. I’ve been writing this series, and this ending in particular, for so long and have been so nervous about getting this perfect. So please enjoy~

(quite a few ppl also couldn’t be tagged from the taglist and it’s 3am so i honestly dk how to fix it ;-;)

.

You used to think heartbreak was for the weak, after all you can only hurt as much as you let yourself be hurt. So... maybe you are weak. Because that ever-constricting ache in your chest has not diminished even a bit since that day you left him.

Four weeks. Not a word to each other.

It’s a hollowing feeling - someone you’ve had in your life every day for the past few years, a constant companion, suddenly completely absent in a blink of an eye. You don’t think you could put it into words even if you tried how this affected you. Life feels so foreign, your personality dulls.

The anger you felt for him dissipated quicker than you’d anticipated, but the anger at yourself only grew. No matter how you look at it now, you can only see it as being your fault.

But the decision to part ways was for the best, you have to keep reminding yourself. You shouldn’t be around each other anymore.

Whenever you see him around campus, you spin around and speed off the other way, hoping that he doesn’t see you too. Okay, you are weak, okay. But your heart twists at the sign of him, not just squeezes but twists into thorned knots. It’s the sort of pain that takes from you, makes you a different person unrecognisable to yourself.

You had moved in with Lotta. When she asked you what happened, all you had said was that you two had a massive fight and fell out. She knew better than to prod further from the telltale signs that you were close to tears from a simple question: the trembling throat, pursed lips, uncharacteristically quiet voice. And you were grateful because you knew you couldn’t afford to be asked about him without breaking.

The bed feels awfully cold in the nights of early February. And every night, you stare at his name on the screen of your phone, contemplating. One tap and you can hear his voice. One tap and your longing could be absolved. You always almost give in to this overpowering urge itching within your fingers. But you wouldn’t even know what to say to him.

Hi. How are you. I miss you like crazy and I think about you everyday but I know we should keep our distance but I’m just so sorry for everything.

You liked to think that maybe this break is just temporary, you both need space from each other because the toxicity built up so quickly that neither of you could think or breathe. But the longer time is spent away from him, the more you convince yourself that it wasn’t meant to be. It was never going to work; you knew this from the start but had been too optimistic.

And the mistakes you both made… You can’t forget them and the scars you’ve left on each other; you don’t think he’d be able to forgive you, not any time soon anyway.

You wonder if he’s doing the same, if he too is agonising over every wrong step he took to lead you two to this state, or if he’s cursing you for destroying everything. For his sake, you hope he’s moving on. Because that, for some reason, feels so much better than knowing that he’s crying over you.

The strange thing is that you had been the one to break things off. The look of lostness in his red-rimmed eyes laced with an unmissable reluctance will always be an enigma to you. Because he was furious, distraught. So why was he shocked by your ending? How was he not done with you?

That day you left, he wordlessly stood next to you as you packed your things. When you handed him his grey hoodie, the one you had gradually claimed as your own under mutual tacit agreement over your months together, it had truly felt like the end.

“Are... Are you sure? I don’t mind if you keep it.” He had said, voice raw from the arguing but also the tears he was fighting back.

You couldn’t look at him, you knew you would fall apart if you did. “I think it’s best if you take it back.” Why did he want you to keep it anyway?

Something was missing in both your voices when you spoke to each other, reflective of the heart-shaped void you had carved into the other. Everytime you think back to that moment, you want to kick yourself. You could have at least kept the hoodie - that way you could at least have a piece of him to cling onto in your lonely desperate nights.

Because now you have nothing. Nothing of his in your life, no reminder at all that he ever existed with you except the memories embedded so deeply in your heart that it hurts.

No one ever mentions him to you; you think they got the hint from Lotta not to. He’s a ghost.

Haunting you with his heartbroken eyes that shattered at the sight of Jimin. You’ll never forget that.

Sometimes, you’ll just be having dinner with her, and you’ll be crushed with this suffocating wave of missing him. It knocks the breath out of you. Because you can momentarily forget that it’s over, and mistaken Lotta as him. So when you look up and realise that it isn’t him, he’s not here, it’s as if someone is digging their nails into your scabbing wound and releasing the blood of your heartache once more.

And Lotta would look up and ask you, “What? Is the rice overcooked?” And you would want to cry because he would always overcook the rice.

And sometimes, you would just want to blurt it all out to her, right then and there. Tell her everything that had happened with you and him, because - god - keeping it inside is exhausting. But the words get trapped at your throat, unable to be enunciated. Which is just your forte, isn’t it? Not being able to say how you feel...

You are a competitive person, that has never been a secret. You are used to winning at everything you wish to win at, it is in your nature.

So losing Taehyung has been the biggest loss of your life. It had been a gamble from the start, whether it would work or not. There were so many signs pointing in the direction of yes, this is going to work, you love each other so much. Because still to this day, you believe that you are soulmates, and you were one step, three words, away from a happy ending. But then, caught up in this game you played, you hadn’t realised that he had been yours from the very start if you had only just accepted him. And that was your downfall: your failure to see his love for you in the form of his actions, rather than the words of validation you were seeking.

And thus, you had lost your lover, your best friend, your other half, completely of your own doing.

The realisation haunts you every night.

.

It’s Galentine’s Day. In this household, you don’t say the V word.

Lotta has booked a weekend trip to celebrate your mutual [forever alone] relationship status. Some strawberry farm in the countryside for friends to pick berries and make jam and bond over their mutual loneliness. Apparently that’s a thing nowadays.

It would have excited you before, a trip like this. The idea sounds much like a sweet attempt from her to cheer you up, (you haven’t been trying to hide how down you’ve been), so as much as you wanted to just wallow on this shitty holiday, you agreed to go with her.

And to be honest, this might be exactly what you need. A weekend away with your best friend away from the city could heal you. Best friend? Should you call her that? You’re not sure because that title has always referred to someone else previously, someone you shouldn’t be thinking about.

To your credit, you’ve been doing better. You think about him less and less each day; you stopped crying after the first week. You’ve always been a progressor with astounding growth. It’s not to say that you’re doing fine - that would be a reach - because small things such as a cup of hot chocolate would still remind you of him and the string of memories that come with it. But you think your heart is finally slowly starting to stitch itself back together.

Galentine’s weekend just so happened to fall on the weekend of Lotta’s Geophysics trip to Barcelona, as inconvenient as it is. But, rather than letting this disrupt her plans, Lotta had been adamant about going.

“My flight lands at 7am. That’s two hours before we are supposed to meet and depart from the coach station. That’s plenty of time.” She had waved away your concern when this topic of discussion came up last week.

“You never know with flight timings. We could just blow it off and have just as nice of a weekend at home watching movies.” Strawberry picking sounds great for the soul, but so does Netflix and ice cream. “We could have a Saw marathon like we’ve been wanting to.”

“Saw marathon on Valentine’s day?” Lotta scoffed at your suggestion

You blinked. “What’s wrong with that? We love scary films, it’s our thing.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ve already paid for the trip and it’s non-refundable.”

“I’ll subsidise the cost, there’s no point forcing this trip if it won’t work with your schedule. You haven’t even let me pay you back for my half of the trip yet.” Lotta is like that with money, overly generous when completely unasked for. If you don’t mention paying her back, she would never have asked you to.

“It’s my treat to you, shut up. Just trust me, Y/N, I’ll make it to the coach on time, I always make it on time.” She shook you by the shoulders. “We’ll make our separate ways to the meeting point Saturday morning and everything else will go smoothly. There’s no reason to cancel the trip. Plus, V day is on Sunday, so do you really want to see all those shitty ass rom-com Netflix suggestions or would you rather be enjoying the great outdoors? Trust, we need a break in the countryside. It’s going to be an amazing weekend, you’ll thank me later.”

Right now, as you make a final check through your lightly-packed bag before you leave the house, you find yourself agreeing. You do need the fresh naturally strawberry-scented air to expel all these negativity from you. You want to feel yourself again, be happy and loud and excitable.

Collecting for your trip ticket that Lotta had left on your desk before she went to Barcelona, you decide right now that: yes, this will be an amazing weekend. Law of attraction and power of manifestation. Lotta’s flight will be punctual and you will make some fond memories together.

You’ll be okay.

You arrive at the meeting spot twenty minutes early because you are known to be prone to tardiness. The tour guide welcomes you keenly. He is a young, twenty-something you reckon, tall man, graced with dimples and honey skin. You think you would find him attractive in different circumstances, but you haven’t gotten to the stage of feeling attraction for anyone else yet.

“Your ticket with the barcode, miss?” His smile is charming, you guess. It’s more an observation than an enticing quality. You hand it over to him wordlessly and watch him scan the creased piece of paper. “Great, that’s perfect. And your partner?”

“Partner?” You frown, but realise what he means. This is a Galentine’s programme, of course he expects you not to be alone. “Oh, she should be coming, we came separately because she’s just getting off a flight right now.”

“Oh! That’s very sweet of her to rush back to spend this weekend with you.” The endearment in his smile heightens.

“Yeah… She’s the best.” There’s no particular reason for your awkwardness. You’ve always been a social butterfly, yet lately, you’re keeping more to yourself, avoiding unnecessary conversations because your mind is always too preoccupied.

“I am Jae, by the way, and I’ll be your guide for the weekend. I hope you have a wonderful time with us this Valentine's day. Hop on board.” Giving him a polite nod, you climb onto the empty bus, noting the swirly hearts beside the large red words ‘STRAWBERRY LOVE’ on the side of the big white vehicle. Kind of tacky, but the idea of this programme is kind of cute so you guess it’s suiting. After assessing row after row, you plop down at a window seat you deem worthy and settle your bag on the seat beside you, head leaning on the glass as you await your partner.

Dear partner, please don’t be late, you text her.

Soon, other participants of this trip start arriving, filing a crooked queue in front of the tour guide to register. You don’t pay much attention to them except to examine for Lotta’s face. The coach is set to leave at 9:00 on the dot in order to arrive at the farm at noon, it is now 8:56 and Lotta is still not here. You don’t want to lose faith in manifestation magic, but worry is settling in. If it comes down to it, you will beg Jae to wait for you. With your texts unread, you decide to phone her.

Come on… Just let this one weekend go smoothly for you.

Nervously playing with the ends of your hair, you exhale in relief when she picks up. “Oh thank god, Lotta. Where are you? The coach is leaving in like two minutes. You’ve landed right? I’m not sure if I can convince the people to wait for you that long but worse comes to worse, I could ask for the address of the farm and you can commute there yourself. ” A silence replies after your slur of panicked words. “Hello? Dude, hurry.”

“Wait, so he’s not there yet?” She asks hesitantly.

“Who? The tour guide? No, he’s here. Where are you?” Just then you hear a thunder of running footsteps. Expectantly, you look out the bus window for your friend’s arrival, only to find…

“Wait, Lotta… What the fuck did you do?” Something drops in your stomach.

“Look Y/N, don’t be mad. This is for your own good, you need this.” You can practically hear her stealthy smile through the phone.

An icy chill strikes down your spine. You simply cannot believe what you are seeing out the window. She-

“Lotta…”

“Trust me, okay? You have been so fucking depressed the past month. You need to fix this problem, please. I hate seeing you like this, so if not for yourself, then do it for me.” There’s some guilt in her tone, you’ll give her that. But you are in a state of utter disbelief, borderline shell-shocked, the groves of your brain tangled in itself.

“Lotta, where are you? Are you even fucking coming?” Absolute mortification fills your chest to the brim at your gradual realisation of her ploy.

This can’t be happening.

“I promise, this is all for your own good. Please have a great weekend. I love you. Bye!” And with that she hangs up, leaving you wide-eyed, jaw-dropped, staring out the window...

At a panting, slightly sweat-beaded Taehyung handing his crumpled ticket to Jae.

“Made it just in time, mate.” You can just about make out Jae’s words from the shape of his mouth as he greets Taehyung and proceeds to recite his ‘I’m your tour guide for the trip’ speech. Taehyung nods interestedly, reciprocating with that sheepish smile of his as he scratches the back of his bedhead.

What did your best friend do? Did she just… set you up…? As you hear his loud unmissable steps stomping up onto the coach, you know you’re doomed. It’s over for you. You might as well fling yourself off a cliff.

Looking around the bus, you realise that it of course is completely full except for the seat beside you.

The power of manifestation is fucking bullshit. You’re stuck with this bad luck for the rest of your life.

And this weekend, you’re going to die.

You see him as a blur at the start of the aisleway, a mere figure in swatches of peach and brown and black. You hear pounding, a booming pulse in your ear.

It’s Taehyung. Taehyung. Your, but also not your, Taehyung.

Each step he takes approaching the only available seat he sees, you shrink lower in yours and keep your eyes pressed shut, but for what reason you’re not entirely sure. There’s no hiding now.

Your confrontation is inevitable, a few steps away. Then he finally sees you.

“Y-Y/N?”

Your heart soars to your throat at the sound of his voice as everything around you vanishes. This can’t be real.

Slowly, you turn up to face him. When your eyes meet, it’s like someone has driven a sharp object into your chest and twisted. His face is exactly how you remember, but also not quite. His big brown eyes are wide with surprise in a pitiful expression of bewilderment. His sleep rumpled hair, grown out to almost cover his eyes, yet still very much permed in the style you loved. His lips are jutting out, slightly parted in confusion at your unexpected presence that reminds you of how it felt to kiss him.

And the look of disgust that you had expected - absent.

You want to throw your arms around him. There is always a warmth emitting from Taehyung - the kind of warmth you feel when you enter your house on a snow ridden day and the gust of heat accompanied by the smell of home simply swallows you like a wave. But there is also something different, unfamiliar almost, about him. He is rougher round the edges, hints of facial hair dotted below his nose, dressed in slacks that he only usually wore strictly as pyjamas and never to go outside in.

As your eyes fall to the rest of him, you notice his fists tighten around the straps of his backpack, the balls of his knuckles whitening.

“Taehyung-” Saying his name feels like a release. A rush of satisfaction at the way the syllables roll off your tongue so naturally, then a flood of emotion that comes with all the memories his name invokes.

Then you’re at a loss for words again. You are so utterly unprepared for this situation because you didn’t think you would meet him again so soon, not until you’ve moved on. You’re not ready to face him.

What do you say? How are you meant to act around him?

He looks equally as lost, though you read him easily. There’s a flash of hurt in his eyes, the same that you’re sure you had. But it dissolves much quicker with him, almost into relief and content as if he’s glad to see you.

You know from the slight downward angle his brows are pointing that he has definitely missed you. Perhaps in a completely different way from you missing him, but he’s missed you.

“If I could just have everybody's attention!” Jae’s voice booms from the speaker, startling every passenger. “Young man over there, please be seated.” You quickly snatch your bag into your lap to let Taehyung sit next to you. The seats aren’t the most spacious; despite pressing your side against the window as much as you can, Taehyung’s shoulder comes brushing past yours as he settles into his own seat. Your heart flutters. “As all our participants are now present, our ride will begin immediately. The duration of the ride will be three hours, but a pitstop will be made at around halfway for a quick snack or toilet break. Please ensure all seatbelts are fastened during the entirety of our journey...” He drones on.

Three hours, you bristle. Everything is happening all at once and your mind can’t catch up. You’re going to be stuck on this coach for three hours next to Taehyung. No, worse. You’re stuck with Taehyung for this whole weekend in a strawberry farm.

Glancing over, his lips are pressed into a thin line, no doubt with the same chaotic thoughts racing through his mind. There isn’t much leg room, and though his thighs are purposely clamped together to avoid touching you, you know he can’t keep them clamped this tightly for three hours without cramping. Your legs are going to touch at some point.

God, why are you even losing your mind over something so juvenile? You’ve been reduced to a pre-teen girl so easily flustered by the thought of touching thighs amidst this turn of events.

Everything is gonna be okay, you tell yourself. This is gonna be fine. You don’t have to speak to each other. Just put in your earphones and fall asleep against the window.

But you have so many questions, for Lotta, for Taehyung. Did she plan this? How did she know that he’d be here? Hell, did he know you’d be here? No, there’s no way. The shock on his face was genuine.

He stares ahead, though visibly extremely puzzled. You suppress the urge to glance over at him every second to check that it’s really him.

“Thank you everyone for joining us so promptly. As you already know, I am Jae and I will be the guide to your trip to our beautiful strawberry farm over this Valentine’s weekend.” You pause. Right, this is a Valentine’s weekend trip, you had momentarily forgotten. And you’re stuck with Taehyung here. Two days, two nights. You’re not sure if you could withstand his presence for that long. Will you ignore each other for the entirety of this trip? You would be fine with that, and in all honesty, you think you might prefer it over speaking to him because that would only sprinkle salt on your wound.

A sharp pain in your palm reminds you that you’ve been gripping onto the programme leaflet that was handed to you. You smooth out the creases of the paper and flip it open to skim through what you have to tackle ahead of you.

Day 1: Go strawberry picking with your partner at our scenic farm in the lovely spring weather while the sun is out. A heavenly spa awaits you afterwards to wind down and indulge together. For an amorous evening, go stargazing under our cloudless skies...

Alarm bells start ringing immediately, from the cursive font of the strangely-worded phrases, to the shades of reds and pinks of the background. You skim further down the page, the kernel of anxiety growing exponentially at your throat.

Day 2: Make delicious strawberry jam and learn our signature recipe for a splendid strawberry tart. When dusk falls, enjoy a romantic candlelit dinner with your partner amidst the symphonies of our string quartet.

Fuck. Wait, what the fuck.

You flip back to the front page.

Strawberry Love: The Perfect Couple’s Romantic Getaway Valentine’s Weekend

Strawberry… Love…

“What the fucking shit?” You can’t help but cry out loud. Lotta- She-

The passengers of the bus all turn to shoot you at look of concern at your outburst, Taehyung included. His eyes dart around the features of your face to search for an answer. “What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong… What’s wrong…? What isn’t wrong at this point?

You feel defeated, absolutely fucking defeated that you don’t even have it in your to be shocked or angry. There is no way you can ignore him for the whole weekend when the programme of your trip - a couple’s Valentine’s trip - obligates you to spend time with him. The thought of making stupid little strawberry tarts with Taehyung… Your blood can’t even boil, you’re just fucking speechless.

Lotta, that conniving genius that is your best friend. How did she manage to pull this all off? Galentine’s trip your fucking ass. She tricked you into a romantic holiday with Taehyung, fucking hell...

But that means - she knows. The mortification hammers into your stomach. There’s no reason for her to do this other than for the purpose of getting you two to make up. Lotta fucking knew about you and Taehyung.

How? For how long? And why does she think that this will benefit you in any way? You and Taehyung are over and you were slowly (fine, excruciatingly slowly) moving on. Until now.

Letting out a huff of your frustration, you turn to look at Taehyung, properly look him in the eye for the first time. You can’t stop your chest from constricting. He regards you with that confused expression of his, eyes holding your glare but barely just, bashful from your sudden undivided attention channeled towards him. “I need to know what you’re doing here first.” It comes out harsher than you mean for it to, but it stems from your desperation to stay inert while your emotional sanity is precariously threatened right now.

“Me? I… Well, Lotta told me that she had a ticket for this weekend-trip to a strawberry farm type thing that she couldn’t go to anymore, so she asked if I wanted to go in her place because she knows that I like strawberries.” He furrows his brows. “Okay, that sounds really stupid out loud but I swear I didn’t know that you were gonna be here.” He throws his hands up, nothing but honesty flooding his chocolate eyes.

But of course, Taehyung doesn’t lie, you are sure from the times you’ve witnessed him not being able to muster up an excuse to get rid of an annoying relative on the phone. What’s more convincing of his truth is that he would not be the most difficult person to fall victim to Lotta’s scheme - drizzle in mentions of food and he is completely your pawn. You almost feel bad for this unsuspecting fool; he still has no idea.

But Lotta, that sly bitch… You are going to wrangle her when you get back.

“Taehyung… She lied to you.” You sigh, watching his features slowly contort in deeper confusion.

“Wait what? So we’re not going to a strawberry farm?” He sits up in alarm, looking around the bus as if that would grant him any insight whatsoever. You almost laugh at his naivety because as much as you want to uphold your cold exterior, something about him, his ever present innocent boyishness maybe, never fails to penetrate through to you.

“No, that’s not what I meant. She lied to me too; she told me that this would be a girl’s trip because we’re both single and bitter for Valentine’s. Get it? It was just a setup. For you and me.”  As the clockwork finally turns as he processes your words, a visibly distressed grimace forms. “Look at the programme, Taehyung, it freaking says: Strawberry Love: The Perfect Couple’s Romantic Getaway Valentine’s Weekend!”

As those words resonate from your mouth and the realisation finally dawns on him, dread settles itself in the pit of your stomach, cold, dry and coarse. Saying it aloud somehow finalises it - this is actually happening, you’re going to have to spend this weekend with the one person you’d least like to be stranded with right now.

“Lotta… But why would she…?” Deep red roses effloresce across the apples of his cheeks, and you feel yourself unconsciously mirroring his reaction as your mind flashes back to the planned activities of this tour. You’ll be made to pick berries and bake pastries together. And the romantic candlelit dinner… You can’t even finish that thought. Because even now, you find your eyes roaming every inch of his face, trying to memorise his details because it’s been so long.

This isn’t healthy for your heart. You were on a path of recovery, a path of forgetting him and forgiving yourself, and now you’ve been flung back to square one.

The bus jolts. His leg lightly knocks into yours and both your attentions momentarily divert to the touch, glaring at where the thick grey material of his joggers meets the thin cotton of your trousers. A long second passes before Taehyung lifts it away from you.

“I don’t know why she’d do this. All I told her was that we had a massive falling out.” You mutter. Except you do know, you know her very well. This was no mistake, but the result of careful planning. She knew exactly what she was doing.

“So maybe she’s trying to get us to reconcile?”

As soon as those words come out, you both seem to freeze in your spots, blinking in bewilderment at the slightest mention of the elephant in the room. It might be wishful thinking but you hear a sliver of hope in his question, and you think he hears how it came out too.

Reconcile.

Could the two of you reconcile after everything you put each other through in your last few days together? The thought tears you apart emotionally. Of course you want to reconcile, of course you want to be with him. But haven’t you proven enough that what you had didn’t work? Afterall, everything you had together came crumbling down at the smallest hitch in your path. What is there to reconcile but a dysfunctional relationship?

And how could either of you forget the torment you endured? The noises of Taehyung with another woman through the thin walls, your betrayal of his heart when you mistakenly slept with Jimin.

Reconciliation doesn’t seem possible in the foreseeable future.

“N-not reconcile in that way, I mean, like, for us to make up.” Taehyung stammers, hand waving about in his nervous state. “I mean- no, not make up, but like… make… peace. Yeah, make peace. Sorry.” He winces timorously at his spectacular fumble of words. It’s surprising how nervous and timid he is acting. He should be brutish to you, savage and hostile. But he isn’t.

“Yeah, I got what you mean… Don’t worry.” You can’t stop the corners of your lips from turning up, just a fraction. “But yeah, I think she wants us to make peace.” You conveniently do not bring up how you’re certain that she knows about your history and that this holiday she booked for you and Taehyung is most definitely for the purpose of reconciliation in that way.

“Right.” His bottom lip pinched between his teeth in a manner that makes it feel as though it’s a sight you shouldn’t be looking at, Taehyung’s attention shifts down to avoid your eye. Though, there’s a clear glimmer of expectation as he asks, “So… do you want to talk it out?”

The bus bounces, violently this time, as it drives over what must be a pebble. It rattles your thoughts so physically that you have to grip onto your trousers for support.

This is the deciding moment. Now is when you can choose how you go about this which will determine the rest of your weekend together.

Do you want to talk it out?

The painful memory of the last time you had tried to “talk it out” rakes its claws down your back. All the yelling, the hurtful accusations hurled both ways, the reluctance to accept blame… It haunts you so much so that your voices still ring in your mind, echoes embedding the misery you had both felt and inflicted deep in your bones.

The three stages of your fight painted clairvoyantly in your mind.

One: The Hurting Each Other.

You fuck guys without learning their names.

Two: The Guilt-Tripping.

I didn’t sleep with her. I couldn’t even kiss her for more than a minute on her bed because it felt so wrong it made me fucking sick. I stayed on her couch and thought about you all fucking night. Happy?

Three: The Falling Apart

I… I thought it was clear how I felt…

Always replaying in a loop.

“I’m not sure what there is to talk out.” You say, hating how callous you sound but knowing that it’s a necessary evil to convey your intent. That was in the past. Taehyung is your past. Talking about it would only drag you back into that perpetual cycle and there’s not much left in you to afford that. You look out the window at the open plains of grassland to avoid the hurt you know he can’t hide on his face. “I think it’s better if we keep our distance as much as possible and not make it difficult for ourselves.”

“Okay.” You hear him reply, but only a quiet mumble. From the faint reflection of the window, you see him tighten his jaw and fit his Airpods into his ears. The monster that is your guilt and bitterness sinking its fangs into your throat.

It’s better this way.

And so the bus continues to speed off to the countryside, driving you further and further from civilization and your chance of escape from this doomed weekend with the boy you’re trying to stop loving.

.

You wake up to someone gently shaking your shoulders. “Miss…” You jolt upright.

The first thing that elucidates in your sleep-fogged vision is your tour guide’s kind face smiling down at you. The second, when you come to your senses, is that you are leaning against Taehyung’s frame, his shoulders much harder than you remember them to be. The boy himself is fast asleep beside you, arm loosely linked with yours because you know he has a habit of holding things in his sleep. You hastily pull away.

“We’ve arrived, Miss.” Jae says politely, that humoured glow in his pupils eliciting a bashful blush from you.

“Oh right.” You look around to find the coach empty except for the three of you. “That’s embarrassing, I’m sorry.” The last thing you remember was the angry texts you spammed Lotta with before the songs in your playlist all blurred into one.

“No worries. Forgive me, I’m still learning names.” The heat of the sun is seeping through the glass of the windowpane, licking tenderly at your skin to rouse you awake. “I’ve tried to wake your partner, but it seems...”

“I’m Y/N. And don’t worry, he’s impossible to wake up.” You pause. There is a chance for you to rectify his misconception that you and Taehyung are a couple, except it would probably require some explaining or white-lying and now is not a great time if you’re holding up the whole group. “I’ll do it.”

Despite the conversation being had right over him, Taehyung shows no sign of his slumber being disturbed. His head is tipped back, mouth hanging open with a small dribble of drool beading at the corner of his mouth. Still the same deep-sleeping idiot.

“Oi.” You nudge his ribcage, scaring Jae with your coarseness. “Wake up, Taehyung.”

Nothing but heavy breathing.

“Dude, we’re here.” You grab his face between your harsh fingers and begin shaking vigorously.

Not even a stir. You remember how you used to like to joke that Taehyung could sleep through a burglary, and just to prove your point, you woke up in the middle of the night one time and screamed at the top of your lungs. He did not even move a toe.

“Uh-” There is a hint of worry in Jae’s face; perhaps he thinks that Taehyung has a health condition.

“It’s okay, I’ve got the trick.” This time, you pinch his nose with considerable force and clamp your palm over his mouth, ignoring the smoothness of his skin under your touch and the feeling of his lips skimming your palm. You glance up to find Jae’s eyes almost bulging out of their sockets, swaying uneasily at your method to wake him. “Don’t worry, it works every time.”

But true to your word, in a few seconds, Taehyung is sputtering for breath, eyes flying open in befuddlement, scrambling to sit up. You let go of his nose and smile at your tour guide only to find him petrified.

“What?” In disarray, Taehyung wipes at the corner of his mouth and pats his hair back down from its messy temperment. His heavy body no longer slumped against yours, you feel a weight lifted off your chest, though the fact that you had fallen asleep on each other plays at your mind, lingering to taunt you.

“We’ve arrived.” Jae winces.

You stare at the patterned seats of the coach, trying not to pay attention to Taehyung’s embarrassed apology and explanation on what a deep sleeper he is. You’re not going to think about Taehyung and sleeping. Mindlessly, you trail behind the banter men off the vehicle. You’re not going to think about how good it feels to sleep beside him.

The sun greeting you when you step foot onto ground instantly refreshes your mood, banishing away those thoughts that were slipping through the cracks. There’s something so healing about the air of the countryside, fresh and unpolluted and full of the pleasant crisp scent that one would associate with green and yellow. Staring back at you is a seemingly endless field of bushes dotted with red, the sweet berry smell already perfusing into your nose.

You ignore the crunch of gravel sounding from Taehyung’s steps not far from you and proceed to join the waiting crowd, their phones out to capture the stunning scenery.

As everyone gathers, it’s difficult to concentrate on Jae’s briefing of the weekend planned ahead, starting with an introduction to the farm which you frankly do not care to learn about. You try not to glance over at Taehyung at the corner of your eye, at how his hair is still sticking out awkwardly in the back, his eyes slightly swollen from sleep. You try not to notice his hesitancy, standing a distance from you despite everyone else standing in their couples.

It’s like a buzzing in the back of your mind, a constant tug at your consciousness, not allowing you to relax as much as you want to in this serene environment. You want to stop thinking about him but you can’t.

“In February, the weather is set to be nice and warm during the day and slightly chilly in the evenings, so I do hope that you have packed sufficiently as stated in the email. Now, if you look to your left...” Jae’s monologue drones on like white noise, because all you can focus on is not focusing on Taehyung.

Lotta has not replied to your hounding messages with anything of use, no answers to your plethora of questions. Just relax. Stop making such a big deal out of it, grow up and make up with him because you clearly aren’t over him. You wanted to tell her that things are not that simple, she doesn’t know how badly you both fucked up. Yet, you know her response would only be some pretentiously worded reply full of the condescending wisdom it always contains when she’s telling you off.

You’ll admit it, as stubborn as you are, Lotta’s advice is right 9 times out of 10. She was right when she said you shouldn’t have gone with Taehyung to Mykonos within two weeks of knowing him because he could have been a killer or psychopath. She was right when she pointed out that you act like Taehyung annoys the living shit out of you but you secretly care deeply for him.

But she’s definitely not right this time, you are adamant about it. It would be a miracle if you and Taehyung could even be friends within the next six months, let alone… And if anything were to happen, setting you two up on a romantic holiday together is certainly the wrong way to go about it. It feels so inorganic, like you’re forced to spend time with each other.

Out of habit, you steal a glance at him. It’s not a surprise to find him not paying an ounce of attention to Jae either. Taehyung is staring off into the strawberry field, face angled away from you such that the sunlight is hitting his skin in all the right places to glaze a golden aura over him.

It’s strange to see such a permanent sadness in his eyes, a melancholic nostalgia. You hate yourself - you did this to him, you broke him. Does he hate you? Resent you? You think you’d rather he did.

Soon, the group of you are whisked away down a pebbly path to a rustic looking hotel beside the farm where you will all stay in. It’s not the old run-down type of rustic, but more the luxurious kind that very evidently serves an aesthetic purpose. And that’s when you begin to notice, this “farm” is not really a farm at all, but more a boujee farm-themed resort. This trip could certainly not have been cheap. As much as you are here against your will, you can’t help but feel immense gratitude to Lotta for her willingness to spend such money on you.

You are stopped at a grand lobby, the style of which resembling a small piazza of Southern Italy - warm neutral-toned Roman concrete walls with a green flourish of vines and bushes. It’s absolutely stunning, a surreal setting that you only see in movies. It’s impossible not to feel the air of romance circulating this architecture. You glance over to find him, stood an awkwardly respectful distance away from you, gaping around at the interior of the building in awe. He is a sucker for art, especially architecture. You almost wish you were friends again only to hear him gush about the beauty of this place.

When Jae begins to hand out room keys, it suddenly occurs to you, perhaps the worst aspect of your predicament this weekend - you are sharing a room with Taehyung.

You are sharing a…

Heart sinking, you look over again to see if the same thought has dawned on him. It has. His eyes are fixed on Jae in an eerily blank way, his jaw tense, a single bead of sweat trickling down the side of his forehead which you will excuse as the heat.

When Jae approaches you, Taehyung automatically joins your side in a dazed worry. Eye contact made was brief, not enough for you two to communicate whether or not you tell Jae that this was all a mistake and you would much rather be apart.

“Here you go, Y/N.” Your guide flashes you that charming grin of his as he waves your keycards before you. Instinctively, you receive it in your palm. “You guys have got the deluxe suite - wonderful choice.”

“We-” You begin, but he doesn’t seem to take notice. You’re starting to notice that he perhaps likes the sound of his own voice a bit too much.

“As I said, strawberry-picking will start at half past so that gives you a bit of time to drop off your luggage and freshen up after the long ride.” He continues. This will probably be the only chance you get to tell him that you and Taehyung aren’t a couple before it becomes too late, and you’re going to miss this opportunity because of another one of his monologues. The desperate itch in your chest grows an uncomfortable size. “Please meet here at the reception on time. And as for your luggage - oh, I see you two are lightly-packed. Low maintenance, my favourite type of people. In that case, your room is on the ground floor, if you follow that lovely couple down that corridor over there.”

And just like that, he smiles, retracts his extended arm pointing towards the direction of your room and turns to guide another couple.

“Wai-” You call after him weakly, but he has once again launched into the same speech he’d recited to you to a new audience.

And there goes your chance of rectifying this weekend.

You stand there for a good minute, mind trying to piece together how, just how, you will manage to survive this weekend. Taehyung is quiet beside you, equally as baffled at what to do.

“Should we head to our room then…” He mutters after too long a moment of unmoving stature. “I kinda want to change into some lighter clothes and we don’t have that long.”

You nod without looking at him. Because you can’t stand looking at his face right now, the face that you’ll be stuck with for these two days, the face that you love.

Silence between you now grows more familiar as you walk wordlessly to your room, the round corner of the plastic keycard digging hard into your palm. It’s painfully awkward. Your echoing steps provide the only stable rhythm against the storm between you.

Beep. The door opens at your will with a swipe of the card.

You weren’t prepared for what exactly the deluxe room entails. Its size could easily be a tiny studio apartment: a small seating area consisting of a pearly white sofa and a glass coffee table so delicately built that you would not trust yourself near; a mini-kitchen on the left side of the room accompanied by a generously stocked beverage bar; a king-sized bed in the far right wine-red in colour and excessively buried in frivolous cushions. But the belle of the ball is really the glass panelled-wall at the back of the room that you face as you enter, spanning from ceiling to floor, opening up to the patio hand-plucked out of your dreams. Rose bushes, circular beige woven garden daybed, and not to mention the hot tub.

You are completely in awe. Your mind instantly flashes to Mykonos. This luxury is the furthest from a farm experience whatsoever. It really explains how every couple on this trip looks like the child of a wealthy politician with their finely manicured hands and sickly cologne.

“Woah.” An octave deeper than usual, Taehyung expresses his wonder as he surveys the extravagance that is your room. “This… How much must this have cost?”

“I have no idea.” You whisper, still in your state of near speechlessness while your feet take you to the glass wall.

This is a place of romantic films, a place for honeymoons. Everything is in a rose-gold tint, glistening almost mockingly under the soft February sun. Why are you here? You almost hear the slabs of sandstone ask.

Behind you, you hear him huff out the marvel that he is submerged in. His backpack slides off his shoulder, swung carelessly towards the loveseat. And plop he goes, starfished onto the bed.

Then the fear returns, reclaims its usual residence in your throat. As you pry your eyes away from the opulence of the veranda to look at Taehyung, his head lifts up at the same moment. The short-lived mist that clouded over your reality finally disperses.

You blink again at his sprawled out limbs. He blinks back.

It is as if a switch has flipped, the speed at which he jumps back onto his two feet, fright jarring his mouth agape. “I’llsleeponthesofa.” The slur of his words are unintelligible to your ears, but his display of alarm is almost comical, threatening a smile from the corners of your lips at the hysteria of your situation despite the same alarm you are experiencing.

“What?”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa.” His voice is firmer the second time he says it, tilting his chin up as if to reassure you of his confidence.

“It’s okay, I’ll sleep on the sofa.” You sigh because you know how much Taehyung is bursting to sleep in a king-sized bed. It was his first time in Mykonos, and you had not heard the end of how it was the best sleep he’s had in his lifetime. So imagine him now.

He bristles, a genuine look of offence fleets. “Of course not, I can’t allow that.”

“Why not?” Your tone with him is foreign, lacking the playfulness it once had - just an aloof callousness.

“‘Coz! I’m not gonna let you take the couch while I sleep on this massive bed.” He gestures at the couch for emphasis, letting his arm dangle afterwards. He is less different with you than you are with him, you note.

“You just answered my question with the very statement I was questioning you on.” You cross your arms and lean against the glass, allowing the warmth to bask through your shirt.

Taehyung frowns and mirrors your action, the muscle of his bicep flexing more than usual from the agitation in his motion. “‘Coz you’re a light sleeper. Just stop being stubborn and take the bed.”

You’re not quite sure why, of all things, ‘you’re a light sleeper’ is what moves you. The consideration he still holds for you inhibits any protest you wish to sound.

He cares about you, he clearly still does. Just like how you would willingly give up the bed for him.

God, you don’t want to fucking be here. You wish it didn’t have to be so painful, every single little interaction between you just reminding you again and again of how much you loved and hurt each other.

Taehyung takes your silence as compliance and begins to unpack, ruffling through his bag for a change of cooler clothes with his shoulders tense in discomfort. You know what the mature person in you should say: we can just share the bed. But you can’t think of a single reason why that would be a good idea.

With this Valentine’s trip completely planned for you two, it feels like the universe presenting you with an undeniable temptation. Everything around you is telling you to just get back with him, to give in to your inhibitions and fall back into him. You’ve got the champagne in the cooler, hot tub in the patio, rose petalled bed all laid out in front of you at your disposal. An inner voice chanting make up, make up, make up. Because what’s stopping you?

What’s stopping you is that look on his face when he saw Jimin fixing the back of his shoe beside you as you were walking him out. What’s stopping you is the sound of another girl moaning his name right down the hall from you.

So maybe some could see it as strength for resisting the yearning, for being able to put up a front and speak to him so indifferently. But you see it as weakness, because you still cannot move on.

.

Despite the sun blazing down your back, the cool gust of spring weather eases what otherwise would have been scorching heat. Never would you anticipate that you would be spending this weekend sifting through strawberry bushes to find large red ripe summer fruit, yet here you are. You don’t even think it’s strawberry season.

You’ve never been a country girl, but the dirt feels strangely comforting under your nails. Well, comforting is perhaps not the best word to describe your state of mind right now. As much tranquility as this farm is bringing you, with Taehyung always no more than two metres away from you, you don’t think you could ever relax.

In black sports shorts, plucking his own berries on the other side of the same very row of bushes, sweat trickling along the veins of his neck… Of course your attention is scattered.

Not to mention, you keep catching his shifting eyes. You thought you ought to say something, but what exactly? The awkwardness is prominent as it is.

A heavy exhale. You find a particularly large berry, leaves curling upwards to indicate its ripeness as the strawberry expert (yes, strawberry expert) had taught you. Pluck. And off it goes into your basket.

This is definitely therapeutic. You imagine every strawberry to be your feelings for Taehyung. This one over here shall symbolise his musky scent that you fall asleep to. Pluck. This one, his stupidly attractive perm, so long that even you would tell him to trim it because it’s covering his eyes. Pluck. His eyes… Especially when he’s confused as he makes that wide-eyed puppy dog face, which is very often. Pluck.

You glance up, you can’t help it.

And he’s already looking at you. Caught red-handed, literally red-handed because his hands are somehow stained with strawberry juice. Instantly he whips his head back down at his basket that is rested by his crouching knees, though there is not much in there for him to look at.

“Stop making this weirder than it already is.” He almost jumps when you speak, clearly not expecting any sort of interaction from your end.

Slowly, he glances back up at you, dark wavy fringe swaying from the slow tilt of his head. “I- Sorry, I wasn’t- Um, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

There’s something quite breathtaking about Taehyung under the sun, the way the rays reflect off his honey-tan skin to give an effulgent finish like a marble statue of some Ancient Roman God worshipped by priests and maidens. The coat of sweat gathered at his cupid’s bow could possibly be your undoing.

You love him, despite all the strawberries symbolic of his traits that you were picking.

And you hate yourself for that. You don’t want to feel like this anymore. You’re so sick of this heavily-hearted feeling of being dragged down by your emotions all the fucking time. You want to be able to look at him and feel nothing, look at him and not be intruded by the echoes of that night.

It makes you sick, the thought of him inside someone else. Physically sick to the core.

“Well, you are. So stop looking at me.” You state coldly. You just want to forget everything and let go of him, but his presence is not letting you do so. If being a bitch is what it takes, you’ll gladly be a bitch

“No, you have dirt on your face.”

Embarrassment slams into you like a wave, wielding you to shut your eyes and take a deep breath of humiliation. It’s instant karma for being a bitch. “Oh.” You say, carelessly wiping all over your cheeks with the back of your wrist, more with the intention of hiding the rush of blood to your face than to actually clean. You keep your eyes trained on a tiny pale berry in the bush, hoping that he’ll look away from you.

But he doesn’t. “You’re smearing it.” You look up to find his lips drawn in a tight line in attempt to hide his amusement. Everything is just working out wonderfully for you, isn’t it? Yet before your mind can process it, he rises from his crouch and leans over the short bushes.

When his thumb meets your cheek, it almost sears you. As his eyes are focused on the dirt on your face he’s brushing away, yours are locked on his gaze - gentle, warm, familiar. The collar of his shirt droops low, exposing his chiseled collar bones, protruding so enticingly as if for the sole purpose to catch your attention and remind you that it was one of your favourite places to bury your nose in.

Taehyung’s touch is heartbreakingly gentle; the rest of his fingers come under the side of your jaw for support, though only fleetingly. The whole exchange is brief, the dirt brushed away as swiftly as your relationship had crumpled.

You feel it in your nose first, that overwhelming wave of sadness, and then behind your eyes. You want to cry. You want to cry as he pulls away, as he realises that he has unconsciously acted out of familiarity, as a shyness reaches his eyes when he meets your glare.

It was only a mindless sweep of his thumb on your face, yet its impact is explosive under your skin, reminiscent of a time when such a touch had different implications, elicited a different response.

You quickly blink it away - the tears, but not the heartache. That wretched feeling in your throat does not permit you to thank him, so you just stare at each other, the world around you a mere blur of blues and greens. You watch his chest rise as he sucks in for air, wondering if the same memories are now visiting, no, haunting, him.

You can’t do this because you’re not strong enough. For you whole act of indifference in front of him, your constant resisting against the urge to fall back into him, you’re still not strong enough.

But to your surprise, or perhaps even gratitude, he’s the one who picks up his basket and paces away without another word. You watch the back of his calves, the slosh of his overgrown hair, as he walks away.

.

You stare out the glass door at the patio. It’s dark, you can scarcely see a thing with the lights outside switched off. It acts as a perfect canvas for your imagination, for scenes of your past together to materialise before you.

It’s not been a full day yet, and you already feel so drained. This is impossible. You want to call Lotta to pick you up, but upon deeper consideration, you don’t think you have the heart to. This must have cost her a considerable amount of money to book. She had the full intention that this will bring you and Taehyung back together, yet it is doing everything but. You don’t want to imagine her disappointment when you return in streams of tears.

After the session of strawberry-picking, your baskets were handed over for your fruits to be washed and prepared for your baking class tomorrow. Following that is your free time, when you are left to your own devices, at liberty to roam around the farm, dine at their organic restaurant by the hotel. Taehyung had taken Jae’s recommendation of visiting the spa; you opted to stroll (sulk) about, as far away from him as possible.

It’s unhealthy, this continuous bombardment of thoughts of him. Your month’s worth of progress has reduced to ashes.

Maybe you don’t even actually have feelings for him anymore. It could purely be a deception of the closeness you’ve developed for each other that you mistaken for love. You had spent almost every single day of the past two and a half years together, under the same roof, sharing a bed towards the last few months. It’s the safety and intimacy that your brain associates him with that forbids you from moving on.

Maybe you’re actually over him romantically. But the wanting, the missing him as your best friend still lingers.

The door to your room opens abruptly. Hair damp, Taehyung strolls inside in a white bathrobe and slippers, his clothes bunched up under his arm. Tiny beads of moisture dot the sparse view of his chest you have.

“Oh, you’re here.” He says, his step faltering at your clearly unanticipated presence. Or perhaps the sight of you, staring out into the dark, completely alone in this room is just awfully strange. “I thought you’d be eating at this time.” Eyes dropping to the ground as the door shuts behind him, his movements are clearly timid and weary, an rare expression on Taehyung.

“Not that hungry.” You mutter. “How was…” You ask out of habit, but immediately catch yourself. Quick eye contact before you both look away like docile animals. It’s too late for you to take back the question now anyway. “How was the spa?” And to make it appear that you don’t really care and was just asking out of courtesy, you turn back around to face out to the patio.

Completely unnecessary and petty move, whatever.

Except you see his reflection on the glass from the illuminated room all too well. Visibly easing that you’ve looked away, he plops his clothes down at the end of the bed and trails into the bathroom to fetch a towel for his hair. “Was really nice, they give good massages. You should give it a go at some point.”

“Okay.” He gives his head a good shake before drying with the towel. It feels creepy that he doesn’t know you are watching his reflection, so your eyes drop to your feet. You wonder if his masseuse was female. Not that it matters at all.

“What time are we meant to meet them for stargazing again?” He is speaking a lot - well, relatively. It saddens you that his usual tone of endearment when he would speak to you is now missing. It’s like speaking to a stranger, but worse, a stranger who takes a stab at your heart after every word.

“At 9, so that’s in…” You raise your wrist to find your watch absent from where it usually sits on your wrist. Right, you had removed it before strawberry-picking so it doesn’t get dirty and left it on the coffee table. Just as you turn around to retrieve it, you are met with Taehyung slipping his robe off. Your eyes widen.

The fluffy material glides down his shoulders like he’s made of gold, revealing the sculpture of his upper body that you scarcely recognise because he never used to be this toned. You thank any higher power there is that he is wearing his boxers, but they do nothing to conceal the faintest V at his hips and the bulk of his thighs. He isn’t bursting with muscle, but body definitely more well-defined than you remember.

“Have you been working out?” It just slips out. You wish, as the heat floods to dizzy your mind, that you had the capability of holding your tongue for once in your life.

Taehyung hesitates, Adam’s apple bobbing at his jugular. That shy awkwardness returns when your eyes meet. “Yeah. I mean a little, here and there…” Self-consciously, he brings his arm across his chest to rub at his bicep, but the gesture only flexes the muscle he has gained.

Your knees feel slightly weak. It’s the lack of dinner, you tell yourself. It’s not just your knees that feel weak though, your heart is thumping haphazardly into arrhythmia.

“But you hate exercise.” The stability in your voice surprises you.

“Yeah I did, but Seojoon said it’d help me take my mind off… things.” Lip between his teeth, Taehyung searches around for a top. Sheepishness in the form of a soft pink tint on his round cheeks turns you soft.

‘Things’, meaning you.

When you realise you’ve been staring, you immediately look down, fingers fiddling with each other like you’re some virgin freshly exposed to the spectacle of the male body. You’re anything but yourself, and so is he. Taehyung exercising? You almost scoff.

“You don’t have to… You’ve seen me naked, you know.” Taehyung mumbles, finally locating the sweatshirt he intends to wear. When you hear him pull it over himself, you sag in relief, the immense weight that his starkness strangely bestowed on you finally alleviated.

“Yeah, but it’s different now.” Now that we’re not together anymore. Not that we were ever together.

You know he feels it too, the sting of those words. The hurt in his eyes fill you with a sort of bitter self-resentment that you cannot wrap your head around. Stop looking at me like that. Stop making me feel like a bitch. Just stop hurting me.

“Yeah, it is.” But for some reason, it stings even more when he says it. His agreement should be a triumph, yet it feels more like the acknowledgement of the broken bridges between you.

When it comes from your mouth, it’s you convincing yourself more than anything. When it comes from his, it sounds like the truth.

.

Of the many things that are slowly killing Taehyung this weekend, the painfully awkward silence is among the most unbearable. It’s the loud kind of silence that he hates where there is clearly so much to say to each other yet none of it is coming out. There’s a vast ocean between you, roaring waves engulfing any sort of message he wishes to communicate.

This has to be one of the strangest experiences of his life - being set up by your friend on a couple’s trip to a resort disguised as a strawberry farm for Valentine’s day with you - and he has experienced a lot of weird shit in his life.

To be honest, he hasn’t been doing so great the past few weeks.

All the anger and bitterness had taken two days to melt away into miserable wretchedness. Two days, that’s all it took for him to not be angry with you anymore because there was one person he was angrier at - himself.

Because Taehyung was quick to realise that losing you is miles, miles, worse than what you had done to him. It was a sudden sort of realisation, the kind that hits you in the middle of doing something. What had he done?

The way he yelled at you, the things he said. His chest always sinks at the rememberance.

You didn’t know it was Jimin, you truly didn’t. But he exploded on you nonetheless, impermeable to your explanation. That wasn’t him. That raging bellowing man wasn’t him. If only he had just calmed down and talked it through with you, maybe he wouldn’t have been sleeping alone in your bed that your scent still clung on to.

And when he thinks about how you had heard him with that girl from the club, the bar, wherever his inebriated state took him that he doesn’t even remember…

Taehyung regrets everything.

How you got to this point was so extremely stupid. He should have just confessed to you, simple and easy, no complications needed. You are a commitment-phobe, he always knew he’d have to be the one to say it first. So why didn’t he? What the fuck was holding him back?

All he had to say was to not go on that date with Junho. That’s all you wanted. Why why why didn’t he just say how he felt?

Taehyung never knew himself to be a crier before this. He had shed a tear or two when he found out about Ryujin’s cheating and his friends’ betrayal; that was a stab in the back that left him gutted from the inside. Yet still, he got by, he survived because he found you. And he had naively thought, I managed to bear through this so nothing can really be worse than this now can it?

It can, and it did.

Once it starts, it won’t stop. The tears. A great tempest swallowing him whole and dragging him under until all he could hear was his own pounding heart. It is always before bed, when he would have the time to himself to truly think and reflect. But sometimes it comes during the day as well. He will be doing something as mundane as washing his hair in the shower, and he would suddenly break down because you had left him your shampoo that you would always get annoyed at him for using.

The house just feels empty. The absence of your voice, your warmth, your lips pressed on his neck every morning before his eyes even fully opened. Gone.

Yet, every corner is etched with the memories you share, your ghost lingering by the sofa that you adore whenever he’s watching TV, or curled up beside him every night in bed. It’s impossible to forget you.

Even as Seojoon moved in to fill your vacated room and help with the rent, the place was cold. It will never be the same because nothing could ever replace you. Everything he had and cherished - swept away just like that by none other than his own mistakes.

Yes, you had hurt him a lot. At the time, that pain felt insurmountable, like the worst thing you could ever do to him. But ultimately, upon the endless nights of thinking, he has realised that what hurt him the most was not you, but losing you. Not Jimin, not Junho, but how what could have been between you two fell apart so quickly by the poor choices you both made.

“Now if you look up to your left, you might be able to see one of our February constellations, the Pictor.” Jae announces, voice full of an enthusiasm that Taehyung could only envy as he guides the tour group towards the centre of a large plain field behind the hotel where you will all be stargazing. It is a lovely, breezy, cloudless night. You are several paces ahead of Taehyung, keenly reading the constellation manual leaflet lit up by your phone; he knows just how much of an astronomy geek you are. “It consists of four stars, as shown on your Star Guide, that are actually very dim and usually not easily spotted. The name Pictor means the Painter’s easel.”

Taehyung stops. Despite the darkness, he sees your shoulders tense too.

The easel you had gifted him on his birthday sits in his closet, stowed away from being a constant reminder of how much you loved him and how much he should have held on. It just sits there, collecting dust, untouched since the day you left.

The halt in Jae’s walking indicates your arrival to the intended location. “Here we are. Let’s settle down, love birds. I’ll set up this gorgeous telescope for anyone who wants to explore the sky in greater focus which I highly recommend.”

Spreading across the field, the group unrolls the picnic blankets you’ve all been given, dropping down to rest atop the covered grass.

No time is wasted from everyone else to snuggle up to their boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives. The atmosphere is sickly, even for Taehyung. The couples around him have done little to hide their affection for each other since the beginning of the trip. It is a romantic vacation after all, but is it really so necessary to display your love so publicly?

You stand static and poker-faced on the other side of the mat, clear signs of reluctance to participate plastered all over you.

Taehyung has never stargazed before, let alone in this context. The stiffness in your movement as you sink down onto your knees and lie down in discomfort makes him wince. He realises now that neither of you have a choice but to put away any ill feelings and lay beside each other.

As he gets down next to you, his head nearly tumbles out his chest at the sudden proximity that he has grown so unused to. In the dark, your scent washes up to him like a timid tide lapping at the shore, hair swaying off your shoulders as you get onto your back. The size of the mat does not permit him elsewhere other than immediately beside you, no more than five inches from touching shoulders. Five inches from touching.

Truthbetold, Taehyung feels himself going insane. It started from the moment he saw you on the bus, your wide eyes, parted lips, so pretty despite the look of terror you wore. He didn’t think he would have the chance to see you any time soon. He hadn’t truly comprehended the magnitude at which he missed you until he saw you again.

And he has been spiralling since. Every gesture making his senses scream in agony, the desire to just talk to you mangling at him. He misses you like crazy. Not necessarily in that way, but just your presence, your funny comments, your feign annoyance when he annoys you. He misses the companionship.

You are both on your back now, the blanket feeling either slightly damp or too cold for comfort. The star-speckled sky hanging above you both is endless, a panoramic painting from east to west. You stare at the sky like it’s your lover, so Taehyung does the same. Astronomy doesn’t interest him as much as the meaning and purpose behind the act of stargazing. The people he’s with and the memories he makes.

Wordless, you stare at the sky, ignorant to his presence. The soft hum of everyone else’s whispers accentuates that frustrating silence between you. Taehyung is so fucking tired of the silence because he’s bursting with things to say to you, to ask you.

“Are we just not going to speak?”

His question startles you for you almost, almost, turn to look at him. The slight angling of your head before you catch yourself does not go unmissed by him.

“What do you want to speak about?” Taehyung hates the coldness in your voice. The unfeeling sounds so real. Why are you being this way? Do you seriously want nothing to do with him? That possibility scares him above all else.

Someone giggles a few yards from you two. On this large grassland, the couples are dispersed in their own little bubble of sweet affection, but not enough for his ears to not pick up these little sounds that send courses of envy through his vessel.

“What do you think?” The four weeks you spent apart were four weeks of lamenting over all the things he should have said, and all that he shouldn’t. And Taehyung’s is done with regretting unspoken words. He just wants to get everything out in the open, out of his system, so he can move on.

“I mean-”

“Look, Y/N. This is stupid, the whole ignoring each other thing. Don’t you just want to say your piece and get that weight off your chest?” In the distance, crickets chirp faintly. The discomfort shuddering in the five-inch area between your shoulders is screaming volumes. Taehyung doesn’t turn away from the sky for the fear of the expression he would see you wear.

He expects a note of irritation in your voice, for you to start arguing with him which he truthfully doesn’t mind because that is at least progress. But instead he gets a quiet defeat. “I don’t want to reopen wounds that are already ripping open, Taehyung.”

It wrenches his soul, truly. He doesn’t recognise you when you speak anymore, both with the things you say, and the way you say it. “Talking will help it heal.” Because that’s both your final goals here - to heal, to be cured of the ailment that is heartbreak.

“How exactly is it going to change anything?”

“I don’t know. We’ve had time to calm down and think and I think we should have some closure so we end on a good note.”

It’s funny now, how Taehyung is the one pleading to speak to you when he should be the one who’s angry at you because you were the one to commit the last and biggest fault. He doesn’t see it like that though, that’s all in the past. To be friends with you again, that’s all he wishes for, he doesn’t care about anything else at this point.

“So this is about amicability to you? You want to end on good terms.” Neither of you still dare to look at the other, eyes locked on the stars but somewhere distant.

“Well, yeah. Do you not?” He asks. He hadn’t expected you to be this uneasy, he thought you would have liked the idea of peace amongst you. “Everything towards the end happened so quickly, wouldn’t you like some closure?

“I would rather take my time and heal in my own way. To be honest, I don’t have anything to say to you about that topic except that I’m sorry, but I’m sure you’re sick of hearing that. It’s pointless.”

You’re coping with this differently, Taehyung understands. But it doesn’t take much effort to be pleasant towards each other, to smile and greet each other like normal people instead of scrambling away from every eye contact. How do you suppose you’d be able to move on like that?

“So not even friends right now?” He tries one last time. A soft breeze washes over you, wafting your scent towards him.

“No, I don’t want to be friends right now.”

Your bluntness stings. Taehyung finally gives in and turns to face you. Your striking profile greets him, your eyes still stubbornly glued to the sky. Your unwillingness to budge or compromise even a little bit is frustrating.

“We were best friends for the past two and a half years. More than best friends, we were literally two peas in a pod; we lived together, ate together, studied together, slept together. And now we don’t even talk. You’re okay with losing that? You’re telling me that I’m the only one who misses it more than anything else?” His angry whisper sounds ridiculous as he tries to keep his volume down, conscious of the setting he’s in.

But then he sees you blink, hard. Then blink again. Your pursed lip trembles. Another two consecutive blinks. When you look at him, your eyes are so glassy that they reflect the entirety of the galaxy above. “How am I supposed to be your friend right now when I can’t even look at you without feeling this great pang of sadness every time?” Taehyung immediately wishes he hadn’t pushed you.

“I… just would rather have you in my life as a friend than not have you at all.” His voice softens to a tone more apologetic. He is the reason for the tears you’re holding back right now and he despises it.

“I would rather not have you in my life at all while I slowly get over you than have you as just a friend because my heart can’t take this constant torture. I just want to be over you but I can’t do that if I have to pretend to be okay around you. And I just don’t get it Taehyung. How are you so willing to be friends again? After what I did, how could you look at me and not hate me?”

Taehyung frowns at you because he doesn’t see how you can’t understand it’s not about that anymore. It’s not about the blame, the who did what to who. He doesn’t care anymore but the fact that you do is alarming. You still can’t let it go.

“Okay, so is this about you not forgiving yourself?” He prods, and watches the brief flash of confusion on your face.

“I-” You’re quick to dispute but stop. Because it’s the truth.

A long silence ensures. You stare at the collar of his sweatshirt, zoned out. Taehyung knows you’re in deep contemplation, you know his points have strong grounds. There is no reason for hostility or callousness between you because it would only hurt each other more.

“Look,” He takes a deep breath. “I just think that it’s unhealthy for you to act like this. You’re burying and burying what you’re feeling without actually facing it. Trying to be friends is a good first step in accepting that we’re not together anymore; being cold to each other isn’t. Think about it.”

Another long pause. He watches you blink, watches your chest rise and fall at every breath.

“I understand your point, I know my coping mechanism isn’t healthy but it’s all that I know right now. We’re different, we’re hurting differently and healing differently. I’m sorry for acting out on you when it’s myself who I want to punish. But I seriously don’t have the strength to be your friend right now, I wish I did but I really don’t. Just give me time.” The fact that you’re not arguing with him says a lot; you have both matured from this experience. It’s sad that this is what it took for you to do so.

“Okay. I respect that.” Taehyung says. “I’m sorry for pushing this onto you, it’s selfish of me, sorry. I just… I don’t know, I guess I’m pathetic. You were my best friend and I want to salvage it as much as I can. I just miss you, that’s all.”

You don’t say anything, but Taehyung is okay with that. Because he knows you miss him too, you miss the friendship, the having each other to lean on.

The difference between you and him is that you can’t compartmentalise your lingering feelings for him and put that aside right now, whereas he can. You need to rid those feelings before you can be his friend, and he’s okay with that.

He stares at Pictor, it’s four weak stars that dim beside much brighter constellations yet somehow call to him. And he almost smiles.

.

You stare at your own reflection in the mirror.

That conversation with Taehyung resonates with you more than you’d care to let on. You let every single word he said sink in, your inner turmoil contemplating the points he made. Because he definitely has a point.

What resonates with you most is the word closure.

He’s right, everything between you ended so quickly that there was no time to process and accept it until it was already over. Maybe that’s why you’re finding it so hard to let go. If you were to be friends again, you could at least normalise his presence and gradually move past this.

Twisting the faucet on, you splash some water on your face to clear this dilemma from your head. And after wiping yourself dry, you exit the bathroom into your room with a great sigh.

Taehyung is wearing the grey hoodie - that’s the first thing you notice. As in the grey hoodie you would always claim as your own because of how soft its material is. The grey hoodie that you regret giving back to him. The grey hoodie that he would always wear when you guys gamed at midnight and it would always end with you on his lap, his locks tangled in your fingers while his mouth explored yours.

You take it back, fuck being friends, you’re back to square one.

He glances up in the dark, eyes surveying your silhouette from head to toe as he places a pillow on one end of the couch. Ever since that conversation, there’s the most subtle difference in his permanent expression - his lips look inclined to smile, his eyes hold an understanding for you that makes you feel vulnerable.

And, god, it makes you want to try. He deserves it, to have his best friend back in his life even if that best friend is you, the person he trusted the most in the world only to turn around and impale him in the chest with those stupid decisions of yours.

The omnipresence of your awkwardness hasn’t faltered though. “Taehyung, I said I would take the couch.” You protest, though you’re starting to see that it’s futile. You may be the more stubborn one between the pair, but there are certain things that Taehyung would never back down from.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen, Y/N.” The corner of his lip turns up properly now, like he’s silently snickering at a joke he thought of. “That’s just - not gonna happen.”

“What’s so funny?” Switching the bathroom lights off behind you, you ask. You hadn’t packed well for this trip, you are only in a flimsy camisole and a pair of sweats, the cold air coaxes goosebumps on your skin. His gaze follows you as you draw the curtains shut over the glass wall, leaving only a strip of moonlight streaming in.

“Nothing.” Taehyung places both hands on the top of his head, an action that causes his hoodie to slightly ride up his torso. You fix your eyes on the floor as you approach him and the sofa. “It’s just funny how you think I’d ever let you sleep on the couch while I sleep on the bed.”

There is a dead end down this path you’re going, neither of you would let the other win. So you simply ignore him and situate yourself on the couch, stretching your legs to span it wholly. “Good night.” Fixing the pillow he had placed, you shut your eyes.

“What, no.” You can hear the smile wipe off his face, almost making you chuckle out loud. “Y/N, get up.” Hastily he hovers over you. But when you show no sign of acknowledgement, he shuffles away. A moment later, you feel a great gust of air, then the softest silkiest duvet landing over you.

Your eyes fly open. And there Taehyung stands with his arms crossed smugly. “If you take the couch, you also take the covers.”

“No! You’ll be cold.”

“You’ll be cold. You’re not wearing enough.”

You give up. “Oh, for god’s sake, Taehyung. Fine. Let’s both sleep on the bed, okay?” His entire expression dilates. He doesn’t even blink as you get off the couch and cross your arms back at him. “Problem solved.”

Taking his wrist in one hand, dragging the plush duvet in the other, you walk to the bed and sit him down. No noise of protest emits from him, so you go back to retrieve the pillow from the couch in a huff.

“Are you sure?” His voice is suddenly timid, unsure. And he’s right to be so, because you’re quaking on the inside as well at the prospect of sleeping beside him.

It’s not going to be good for your heart, you know that definitely. But like he said, you need to face this. If you touch a paper cut enough times, it stops hurting. “It’s just sleeping, it’s no big deal.” You lie. “You want to be friends right? Well let’s start with this. Let’s stop being stupid and childish.” You can’t look him in the eye as you rearrange the bedding back to its original state before Taehyung messed it up.

His reply merely a quiet yeah… before you both hesitantly crawl under the covers and tuck in. Heat flushes to your face as you do so because the action feels so familiar, yet everything about it is different.

Absolute silence. Backs facing each other. An arm's length or two between you but it feels like more. You don’t even shut your eyes because why pretend that you’ll fall asleep?

Your own palpitation is so vigorous that it’s audible. The thoughts whizzing around in your head are unstoppable, a persistent prodding at your skull. His scent is strong, that sweet honey musk that used to seduce you to sleep now the very thing that’s keeping you up.

It must be, what, ten? twenty minutes? of just laying there as you ponder your future with Taehyung, if you want a future at all. He’s right, you miss his friendship above all else. As much as you love Lotta, there is an intangible quality missing between you, that extra spark that existed between Taehyung which boosted your dynamic up to an incomparable level. You understood each other without having to speak, care about each other more than yourselves - that love was almost familial. Losing that has been too much.

Then you hear Taehyung shift onto his back. “Y/N?” Your heart skips a beat.

“Yeah?” You answer after a pause, mind racing through all the possibilities of what he could say. You hate this permanent uncertainty of what he’s thinking.

Silence follows for a short while, the endless possibility of what he’s going to say flooding your mind. Then, “You know how I can’t sleep without holding something?”

You stop breathing.

Because you see very clearly where this is going, and it’s down a road that you don’t know if you can withstand.

He can’t sleep without holding you. Holding you.

You take a deep breath and clamp down on your lip, grateful that your back is facing him so he can’t see the pathetic weakness on your face. Can you do this?

Can you do this without wanting to cry? Can you do this without succumbing to your momentary desire to just turn around and kiss him because you won’t be able to think straight with his arms around you? You’re really not sure.

“Yes…?”

“Can I…” Something rustles the covers, perhaps his arm, or maybe he’s inching closer. In the pitch black night, every movement feels amplified, more impactful. “You know…”

“Can you what?” You’re not being difficult, you’re giving him the chance to take back on this request. To just say nevermind and turn back around. Because you’re not equipped for his touch; you don’t want it, you don’t want the pain that comes with it.

Another pause. Take the chance, please. But his deep hesitant voice sounds in the dark, “Can I hold you please?”

You shut your eyes. That feeling in your nose again, that rush. Hold it in, don’t cry, stupid emotional bitch, don’t cry. What’s there to cry about? You wonder if this torment will end, and you wonder if you could ever stop feeling this much for him.

“I swear I’m not trying anything, I genuinely can’t sleep.” His voice has a way of penetrating deep into your bones, begging you even if it’s not his intention to.

You could say no, right? Just say no.

But that isn’t facing it, that isn’t overcoming your heartbreak. If your goal of this trip is to come out of this weekend completely devoid of feelings for him, then you need to let him stop affecting you.

“Okay. Please don’t make it weird.” You whisper, not daring to move a muscle.

Taehyung sags in relief, the bed dipping with his weight. “I won’t, I promise.” The sound of him shuffling closer to you constricts your throat. You close your eyes, awaiting the warmth of his front to meet your back, counting down in your head for that dreaded moment to come. “Come closer.” He murmurs.

When his hand fits around your waist, you know it’s an act of unconscious habit rather than intent. Slowly, he drags you into the enclosure of his chest, his scent and heat enshrouding you until you are completely engulfed by him.

He exhales, the fingertips of his breath caressing your hair ever so gently.

Every fibre in your body is tensing, eyes firmly shut and toes curled inwards. His hand feels enormous on your waist, holding you the only way he has ever known how to. With a unique type of affection that is so pure and devoted, yet also with a hint of protectiveness and possession.

Taehyung lets go of your waist only to encircle his arms around you entirely, his legs curling up under yours until you’re both cocooned together.

“You okay?” The back of your neck feels tender, sensual even, from the tickling heat of his breath. You’re too keenly aware of how close your heads are positioned, of the searing sensations that his hands are causing.

No, you’re not okay. Your skin has been lit on fire. Memories that you’ve long since tried to bury are surging back at full force, slamming into you one after the other. He’s too close, he’s everywhere. There is no distance separating you right now, yet you still feel miles away from him; you can’t comprehend his intentions nor decipher his thoughts. The fit of the crook of your back into his chest is perfect, a heartbreaking kind of perfect. This feels so so familiar. This is exactly what you had yearned and dreamt for every night for the past month - to be in his arms again. So why does it hurt even more than being alone?

Instead, you nod, “Mmm, yeah.”

A compulsion is yanking at you to lean back into him.

Taehyung exhales again and rests his cheek on the back of your shoulder where he always used to perch. If you were naked right now, he would be speckling this shoulder with soft dainty petal kisses. You hate that there is still a part of you, and mind you a very significant part, that wants it.

Your hands are inches away from touching each other; just one lift of your wrist and your fingers can clasp. The urge indunates you.

It would be so easy right now to just succumb - let your hand crawl into his because you know he would hold it, turn around and start kissing up his jaw until your tongues are tangled. You think it’s purely physical, these impulses, at least that’s what you want them to be. You just miss the intimacy, that’s all. But then why does it feel like you’ve swallowed a kaleidoscope of butterflies? Except their wings are made of glass, and everytime they flutter, you feel the shards scratch along your insides. There is desire laced in the pain. You don’t know which one is worse.

What baffles you the most is how he is alright with this, how he initiated this. He said he wants to at least be your friend, but this surely feels like a breach of friendship to anyone. Holding each other in bed is not being friends. But then again, you both have always had a warped perception of what friends should be doing.

You don’t understand how it’s so different for him. How the areas where you are touching, even if separated by layers of clothes, doesn’t tear through his sanity. If he doesn’t feel the same crack in his heart, then what does he feel?

With every heavy breath he takes, you take a silent one, eyes shut and praying to be swept away by the sleep that you don’t believe will reach you. You haven’t slept well since that night. Taehyung, on the other hand, you know is instantly sound asleep. It never used to take him more than five minutes as long as you were in his clutch.

But then, maybe there is a soothing essence in his presence with his overwhelming pleasant scent and rhythmic breathing, or maybe you’ve just exhausted your body with constant overthinking, a hazy fog drifts over your consciousness. You’re so tired, physically and mentally drained... And Taehyung feels so warm and snug around you...

The last thought you have before you drift off into reverie is that you feel his fingers slide between yours, holding not firmly but with intent. And you don’t know if it was you or him who moved it so.

You wake up from the damp heat gathered in all your crevices, the thin coat of sweat mildly irritating your skin. You are facing the glass door to the patio, and though the curtains conceal much of the windows, strips of sunlight topple past the cracks and unfurl into your room.

Taehyung’s arm is around you. Still.

After these years of living together, you know everything about Taehyung like that back of your hand. You can tell whether he’s awake or not from his breathing. And he’s most definitely asleep, though only lightly.

You look down and examine your position. In the course of the night, his forearm has travelled progressively higher until it is just about cradling your breasts. One of his legs is thrown over yours, entrapping you in his embrace. In his tangle of limbs, you slowly try to twist onto your back while prying him off.

He stirs, pulls you in tighter.

Which lands your rear in the unfortunate position of right atop his crotch. His crotch that is very much awake and way too excited.

Lethargy immediately expelled, your eyes open wide.

Morning wood is a usual occurrence for Taehyung, especially after a night of merciless teasing, but randomly a lot of the times. You shouldn’t be as surprised as you are, nor aroused. He has mentioned before how uncomfortable it can be, a blaring hard presence, a sore tension waking him up in an unforgiving manner. Which means that he can precariously wake any second n-

“Mmmm.” Voice an octave deeper than its norm, he hums, announcing his returning consciousness.

Taehyung’s morning wood and morning voice. You are being tested right now.

Your concupiscence has been gradually building up in the last few weeks from the lack of any sexual activity save for your own fingers and toys. It’s human nature, and completely goes against your will - but you feel the old friend that goes by the name lust stirring at the pit of your stomach.

At your proximity, the tip of his member digs deep between your cheeks, prodding at your entrance incontestably. Your whole body stiffens as the slowly waking Taehyung nuzzles his face in the crook of your neck habitually, arm tensing around you. Ever so slowly, you look back to steal a glance. His wildly curly hair falls over his forehead gracefully, lashes fanned out from his closed lids. He’s too beautiful for his own good.

Your core dampens and you quickly turn back around.

Fuck, please, no. You can’t be thinking about him like that. It’s so wrong. But his erection burrowed between your ass is banishing any clarity or sense from your head.

But God, you fucking miss this.

You’re going mad from deprivation. The dry spell of the past month had been voluntary, on the basis that you knew it wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism because you would only picture Taehyung over the faces of those nameless men. And because you knew no one knows you as well as he does, thus no one will succeed in satisfying you as well as him. Your sex drive was non-existent right after the break-up; sex simply didn’t cross your mind once while you were nursing your broken heart. And then it came ebbing back, though faintly and infrequently, you regained your libido and would find yourself fantasising on some lonesome nights.

But now, the situation at hand is that: you’ve allowed Taehyung to cuddle you in his sleep and you’ve consequently woken up to his undeniably hard cock poking between your legs. And he is seconds away from fully waking up as well.

So what now?

“Taehyung.” You say firmly, pushing his arm away from your breasts. It’s best if you call him out for it now rather than let it hang awkwardly in the air unsaid.

“Hmmmm..?” He rumbles sleepily. You don’t have to turn around to be able to envision his face, eyes slowly blinking open but reluctant as ever, true to his deep sleeper title.

“Taehyung.” This time you nudge back gently for emphasis. What it achieves is additional friction. Your whole lower half achse to grind back onto him, to slide over his hardened cock, to reach back and pump it in your hands.

Fuck.

You can’t.

You could, so easily, but you shouldn’t. You and Taehyung are completely over in every sense of your relationship. You can’t let this moment of weakness strip away all your efforts in moving on.

“Wha…” He mumbles, finally peeling his arm off you to stretch out. A loud yawn ensues. You take the opportunity of his loosened hold around you to twist back and pin him with a glare, hoping that your thirst is masked.

“You’re hard.”

Eyes still puffy, he stops mid-stretch at those two words. And looks down.

Did he… not notice? Or did he, in his morning hazy, momentarily get the situation confused and forget that you weren’t together?

Taehyung scrambles away from you so abruptly that he almost falls off the bed. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t- It just- I can’t control it, Y/N, you know I can’t.” His stammering is followed by his jerky movements to readjust his bulge as discreetly as one can allow in such situation. The detonation of terror on his face exacerbates your embarrassment. Because you simply don’t know what to do with yourself - with your core tingling in arousal simultaneously as your brow twitches in annoyance. When your vexed eyes meet his, you see another wave of panic crash onto him.

How did you get in this situation in the first place? If only you had just slept on the couch last night…

“Yeah, I know, stop reacting like that. Don’t make it weirder than it already is.” You berate, yanking the covers with all your strength over your shoulder and roll away from him. The distance is more for your own good. You can’t be near him right now, you can’t think about his fucking cock slipping into you.

You want to fuck. You want to fuck Taehy-

Stop that fucking thought.

“I’m sorry.” His morning voice, oh god. Burying your face into the pillow does little against the fluid pooling in your panties.

“Can you go to the toilet and… fix yourself.” When the words leave your mouth, the imagery of him fixing himself flashes before your eyes. And something pulses violently down there. Fucking fuck.

“Um, okay, sorry.” You try to not peek at him as he gets up from the bed, slightly limping as he makes his way to the toilet. But you succumb nonetheless.

His cheeks are scarlet, veins bulging on the side of his forehead, and you’re not sure if it’s from his embarrassment or the discomfort of the boner. Your eyes drop from his profile because his morning face has always been one of your weaknesses, except unfortunately for you, your eyes land on his bulge.

Another pulse down there.

You hate yourself. You feel dirty for even thinking about him like that because it’s so wrong. But then again, he’s probably thinking about you like that as well, hence the raging erection.

When the bathroom door shuts behind him, you let out a sigh. You don’t know how long you can keep hold of your sanity for like this. You’re swimming in a sea of confusing emotions: the constant melancholy you have of missing him and missing the way things were before you had fucked it up; the desperation to move on and understand that he was only a chapter of your life that is now closed; the bitter resentment that you have for yourself as a consequence of not being able to do so; and now the inescapable desire aching between your thighs because of how inherent these memories are of how he would fuck you until you cry like nobody else could.

What doesn’t help is the hint of a slow pumping rhythm from the toilet, and Taehyung’s ragged breathing.

Fuck.

You don’t want to think about how he’s jerking off on the other side of the wall right now, gripping his cock as he leans against the sink, head thrown back. But that’s exactly what you’re thinking about.

Is he thinking of you as he’s doing it? You’re not sure if you want him to, because while you wish he wouldn’t, you also hope that this lust you feel is reciprocated still, that you’re not the only one going crazy with arousal.

Your hand almost trails down to your core when his pace quickens, but his sharp inhale strikes at your inner righteousness. You stop, sit up and rush out to the patio for some fresh air.

Happy Valentine’s Sunday indeed.

.

The dough feels sticky in your hand despite the layers of flour you’ve doused your fingertips in. Baking has never been your forte, you simply don’t have the patience or precision for such a crafty hobby. You glance over to check on Taehyung’s progress at the other half of the counter.

He has the easy job. Of course, when it came to allocating roles between the pair of you in this baking session, the jam-making landed on him because there’s no way he would succeed in making the strawberry tart.

You can’t help but smile at the way his lips are puckered and brows drawn in concentration as he chops the berries as finely as he could. But the way the top half of his hair is pulled back into a little sprout of a ponytail… You gulp.

Neither of you have spoken a word of this morning’s awkward event; it had been a tacit agreement not to as soon as you made eye contact when he stepped out of the bathroom. It has set a lewd tone for the rest of your day. At every blank moment where your mind isn’t preoccupied, especially when you’re doing something as frivolous and kneading dough, your thoughts would wander to the memories of his warm rigid-

You stop yourself. You’re in public and he’s chopping strawberries right next to you.

You’ve noticed how, every time you’d have those sinful thoughts, your mood would lighten a little. The pang in your heart that used to always plague you would profoundly diminish. Of all things, of course sex is what eases your sadness the most, that’s just so characterisitic of you isn’t it?

“Is everything going well?” One of the baking assistants comes over to your counter for the seventh time now (yes you’re counting). She is a petite, rather pretty, pleasant looking girl. And you have not failed to notice how every time she checks up on you two, her attention is always solely on Taehyung. Here you are struggling with your asscheek of dough yet she only cares to ask how Taehyung, the strawberry chopper, fares?

“Yup.” Taehyung spares her a brief glance before dumping the diced pieces of fruit into the saucepan.

“Would you like some more flour?” You almost scoff out loud. You’re the one working with flour over here! Why is she asking him?

“No, thanks.” He doesn’t look up this time.

The assistant smiles to herself as if he’d said something particularly sweet to her. Until her eyes land on you. “Uh- What about you, ma’am?”

“All.” You land a punch on the buttery dough, death glare and all. “Good.” Another punch. Eyes not once wavering. She has the brains to scramble away.

You don’t have the right to assert this sort of possessiveness over Taehyung. But it’s the principle. This is a couple’s romantic holiday; she must be under the presumption that you and Taehyung are together, so how does she still dare to ogle over him like that?

“She’s flirting with you.” You rumble when she’s out of earshot.

Taehyung looks up at you from stirring his jam mixture, his lips still slightly pouted from his focus. “What? Who?”

“That baking assistant who came over just now.” You grit, trying to suppress this irrational vexation.

“Oh. Really?” Clueless, he scans across the room. “Was that the blonde or the brunette one?”

It’s a relief how truly oblivious he is that you don’t bother answering his question. It’s also completely unlike him. Since when did Kim Taehyung not notice when a girl takes interest in him? How fascinating must those strawberries be to capture his undivided attention like that?

“Would you like some flour?” You mimic, batting your lashes at him.

A wide grin spreads across his cheeks. To be honest, you don’t know what prompted you to display such friendliness to him all of a sudden. Perhaps what happened this morning, or even the fact that you slept on the same bed last night, breached one of the walls towering between you. It’s progress.

“You’ve got flour on your face.”

Fuck, again? You need to stop handling stuff like dirt and flour because they keep ending up on your face. “Ugh.” You huff, trying to let the embarrassment brush off. “Where?”

From the mischievous smirk that his grin morphed into, you should’ve known. Before you could suspect, Taehyung dabs one of his fingers into a small pile of flour and smears it down your cheek. “There.”

“You-!” You gasp, your own finger already caked in flour flying for a counter attack at his face.

But his reflexes are fast as he catches your wrist in lightning speed and tugs you towards him, his other hand simultaneously slathering another streak of white down the bridge of your nose. You tumble into him, foolish grin on your face as you twist your wrist out of his grip and manage to smear your floury thumb onto his chin.

Taehyung catches you before you could trip over your feet, smiling so wide for the first time this weekend that you can’t help but giggle. His grip on your waist feels warm. You’re close enough that you have to crane your neck to see him, close enough to see the individual hairs of his brows.

Yes, something has definitely shifted since last night.

The desire is a flame, devouring all your other senses until all you can focus on is his touch, his molten chocolate eyes, his tongue swiping out to wet his lips. You just want to…

Kiss him.

You admit it, you want to kiss him so fucking badly.

Ignition in his eyes, he stares at your lips too, smile slowly faltering. The hammering of your spastic heart cancels out all other noise in the room; you don’t see anything else except him. He doesn’t move, and neither do you. That lustful monster in your mind screams, Damn the consequences. Just kiss. Fuck being friends and fuck being strangers. Kiss him.

“Alright, lovebirds over there. These pastries won’t make themselves. Let’s get cracking!” Both of you jump and the sound of the head chef calling.

A bucket of ice cold water showers over you, extinguishing that prosperous flame. And reality materialises once again around you.

Not just the physical reality, but the reality of your situation as well - you can’t, you shouldn’t be acting like this around each other. There’s being friends, and then there’s this. The line is fine, it has always been.

It’s difficult to separate the weeds of these conglomerated emotions. You miss each other, want to kiss each other. You want the hurting to end, he wants to be friends. Your break up had been too messy for either of you to have a clear vision of what you need to do to overcome this.

Except maybe there is a cure-all solution to this.

You return to your ball of dough as Taehyung goes back to stirring his boiling jam. Yet your attention is now scattered, because a seed of an idea, most probably a very bad one, has been sown in your head.

.

It is most definitely a reckless idea, one that has the potential of going very south.

You bring it up during dinner, the supposed “romantic candlelit dinner with a string quartet” which neither of you are remotely dressed well enough for. “Taehyung, you know how you talked about closure and all that yesterday?”

Taehyung pauses, forkful of tenderloin steak stopped in midair. “Yeah..?” The hope in his voice is infused with an uncertain hesitation.

“I think we should have sex. One last time. For closure.”

The violin strikes a particularly high pitch in the background. Taehyung doesn’t move a hair for at least a good ten seconds before he blinks at you. This was definitely not what he’d anticipated from you, you can tell. But well, of course it isn’t. The idea surprised yourself.

“What? I think I heard something else, say that again?”

Oh boy. “No, you heard it right. I said I think we should sleep together for closure.” You sound unsteady to your own ears. “Release all this pent up sexual frustration we have for each other one last time and then be done with this. You said you want to be friends, right? I actually think it’s going to work for me, I’ll be able to move on afterwards, I’m almost certain.”

Frowning, Taehyung puts his fork down. “Really…? You want to have sex?”

“Yes.” You’re not even going to be shy about it at this point. You weren’t sure how this scene was going to play out but you’d envisioned it to go much smoother than this. “Do you want to?”

“I mean…” Colour of wine stains his cheeks. “Yeah… But are you sure? You were just saying last night how you can’t look at me without hurting. Do you understand why this is confusing for me?”

“I know it sounds contradictory and counterproductive, but-” You halt when you realise that there is no but. You don’t know how to verbalise the explanation that convinced you in your head. “Look at it as break up sex. It’s a common thing because it works. Like you said, we ended so quickly, in a blink of an eye. Just see this as the closing chapter of our relationship. If you don’t want to do it, just say it. I just had to throw it out there.”

Worry drips down your throat when his blank expression remains unchanged - worry that you’ve made a fatally wrong move to make things irreparably awkward now, if he so wishes not to follow through with your suggestion.

But then he nods, ponderously and maybe not entirely convinced, but you’ll take it. “I think you have a point… The thing about closure and ending this better than we did the first time round.”

“So… You’re down.”

“Down.”

So, the rest of dinner flies by with the two of you wolfing down your meal as hastily as you can. The entire time, your mind is buzzing with a strange sort of excitement for you are confident that this is necessary in accelerating your process of recovery.

You and Taehyung started with sex, so naturally, you should end with sex.

If you are eating cookies from a jar and that jar is suddenly taken away from you, you would be overcome with a surge of anger and unjust. You will always remember that awful person who took it from you. But if you are told that the jar will be taken away and the cookie in your hand is the last one you can ever have, you will cherish this last cookie and take your time eating it. It would taste different from all the other cookies you’ve had in the past - better, sweeter, because you know that it’s the last one.

Taehyung is quiet, indecipherable as you stroll back to the room. You understand his doubt, you really do. Because a night ago, if he’d have offered you the same suggestion, you would’ve thought he’s insane. But after the incident this morning, and the sparse flirtation throughout the day, there is a clear indication of unresolved sexual tension on both ends.

End this once and for all with a bang.

“Are you really up for it, Taehyung?” You check one last time, swiping the keycard at the door. “If you’re not comfortable, then we shouldn’t.”

When you look back as you push open the door, you catch his eyes, filled with purpose and trust. “No, you’re right. We need the closure.”

As the door closes behind you after you enter, it feels final - your fate is sealed, this is happening. You both stop in the middle of the room, facing each other. Shoulders tense and fists clenched. The bed has been made from this morning, a strawberry gift basket sitting on the coffee table in the corner of your eye.

Your breath feels shaky.

“So…”

“So…”

His throat is trembling too.

You break into a smile at how pathetic you’ve both become around each other, and once you do, Taehyung observably loosens up. “What are we being so nervous for?”

He smiles too, and takes a step towards you. “I don’t know.”

Bittersweet. It’s the best way to describe how you feel right now. Because this is it.

“Do you want to get in the hot tub? It feels like a waste if we don’t use it before we go. It’s our last night here.” The buzzing beneath your skin grows as you ask, and a spark lights up in his eyes at your idea.

“Say no more.” He presses a kiss on your forehead. It’s utterly out of the blue and fleeting, but enough to make your heart leap, both from the bewilderment and the knowledge that this will be one of your last acts of affection.

Taehyung walks past you towards the glass door, peeling off his shirt in the meantime to reveal the new tone of muscle on his back that he’s acquired in the past month. “I’m going to get some alcohol.” You maunder.

Your fingers are shaking as you rummage through the wine cooled for the drink you best see suitable. A strawberry champagne catches your eye. How fitting.

You can’t explain how jittery you feel as you completely strip off your clothes. This is the last time with Taehyung. The profound significance, the pressure, the emotions, tide after tide hitting you.

Two glasses of champagne in your hand, you inhale sharply, and let it all out.

This is it. This is the conclusive ending you asked for.

Warm water bubbling up to his chest, you find him seated in the hot tub awaiting you. The boxers discarded by the side implies that it was a last minute decision of his to go completely naked. And when he notices your nude form strutting out to the patio to join him, he sucks in. The way his eyes rake down your body then back up to your face sends flutters to you core, but also a nostalgic pang.

Eye contact does not break for a second as you climb into the hot tub and sit yourself adjacent to him. The chilly evening breeze with the heated effervescing water provides the perfect ambient temperature. Taehyung accepts the champagne you hand him, finger brushing over yours in a way that could only be intentional. He’s savouring every touch.

“To Mykonos, to the heatwave, to us and our last time.” You toast. The lump in your throat almost doesn’t permit the words to be said.

“To Mykonos, to the heatwave, to us and our last time.” He repeats after you. Clink. And down the drink goes.

A sigh, from both of you. The champagne is bittersweet, too. And you feel that surge behind your nose again, the sting behind your eyes.

“Isn’t it funny how the universe plays out?” Taehyung says, gaze falling to your lips, then your neck, then collar. He slides closer to you. “The first time we kissed was in water, the Mediterranean Sea. And now, the last time will be in water too.”

You don’t say anything for you need a moment to collect the tears. Then you place your glass on the edge of the tub and waddle through the water until you are perched on his lap. He receives you like you’re made of glass, gentle hands coming around your bare back to pull you down onto him. You brush away his dark untamed curls from his face, appreciating the thickness of his hair between your fingers because you don’t think you’ll get to touch it again. His hands trail low to the small of your back; you feel yourself brush up against his member, already hard and poised.

You want to tell him that you love him, that you will always always love him. But you know you would break if you say it.

So you just lean down to kiss him.

People like to describe their kisses like electricity, fire, a bolt of lightning striking down their spine. But for you, it really isn’t like that at all. When your lips meet, it feels like your first sip of cocoa on the first day of winter warm but not hot enough to burn, feels as though you’re interlocking fingers in a crowd of busy bodies and his thumb brushes over yours to tell you it’s okay, I’m right here and I won’t let go.

And you both pull away at the same time, a string of saliva between your mouths.

Because you both feel it, and it’s too much.

But this is the last time, you remind yourselves. Last time.

So your lips fall back onto him, fuelled by a passion you’ve never felt before. His mouth is velvet, fitting over yours so perfectly that it hurts. His hand finds your face, wet from being submerged, and he holds you more tenderly than he would an infant. Your chest is imploding from every ragged breath you take between hot kisses and you just let it.

Arousal pulling at your strings, your hand snakes down his front, dips into the water and wraps around his cock. “Ah…” Taehyung groans into your mouth. Your touch swipes across his tip. “Fuck, baby.”

Baby.

That is your undoing.

His teeth find your breasts, taking your nipple and teasing it until you’re whimpering in need. The roughness of his tongue tingles your sensitive bud so much that your eyes roll back and your vision is black and dotted with stars. The water providing you with a newfound ease, you pump him relentlessly, sitting up so you can slide his tip over your clit and along your folds. Because neither of you can wait, you’re cutting to the chase. Anything else can wait until subsequent rounds.

Every time his head brushes past your clit, a convulsion shoots up you. Your thighs quiver around him as he digs his fingers into the flesh of your ass. And when you inch by inch sink down onto his cock, the euphoric stretch in your walls numbs all other sensation.

You have missed this so much. It’s been so long.

“Fuck, you’re tight.” Taehyung’s voice is shaky, breath hitched.

“It’s ‘coz I haven’t…”

You don’t have to finish the sentence for him to understand and reply, “Me neither.”

The boost of reassurance and confidence that it grants you makes you roll your hips over his. From the absence of sex the past month, your cunt has grown unaccustomed to his size. Your entire core aches, but in the best way you could ask for. The water sloshes as you gain a steady rhythm. You have to bite down onto his ear to stop the volume at which you want to cry out because you remember that you are outdoors.

Taehyung’s face burrows into your neck, panting hard, but thrusting harder. You think back to every single one of your times together, from beginning to now. Your arms encircle tighter around him as you kiss the shell of his ear.

The initial pain in your walls is beginning to trickle away, leaving in its wake the claws of pleasure running up and down your body. Taehyung’s cock performs wonders on you that no one else can - it’s just a fact that you have to accept now. Nothing will compare.

Yet you can come to terms with it. You can gladly accept that Taehyung will be the best thing you’ll ever have.

But then you feel the dampness. At first, you mistaken it as droplets of water splattering onto you so you ignore it. And amidst you bouncing onto him, you don’t notice how Taehyung’s shoulders are shuddering.

You stop.

And feel the streaks of his tears running down your neck from where his face is pressed onto.

You can’t describe the shattering in your heart when you look down to find him crying into you. You can’t speak, can’t move, can’t even cry back at him.

It leaves you in wreckages, how he’s holding you close to him still, clinging on despite your how you’ve stopped, muffled sobs cracking out of this throat.

It takes a while for you to regain your voice, but his tears are still ceaseless. “Taehyung…”

When he looks up, you’re struck with another ammunition of distraught. The redness of his eyes, the sad distortion of his beautiful features, the endless endless tears...

“Y/N, I can’t. I really can’t.” His voice is hoarse, as if he’s been screaming silently.

“I-I’m sorry, you should’ve said. I’m so sorry I didn’t realise.” You’re stupefied from the horrendous sight of a completely broken Taehyung underneath you. You immediately climb off him.

“I-” He sniffs. “I love you so fucking much. I love you more than I love myself and I can only ever love you more each day.” You feel it again, the surge in your nose, the sting behind your eyes. You’re choked up, speechless, resenting yourself for putting him through this. You want to bury your head in the water and cry until you pass out. 

“Y/N, I didn’t ever want to lose you because I know I would lose myself. But then I lost you. And I lost myself.” His sobs strangle you by the throat.

“Taehyung, I’m sorry. About everything I’ve done. It’s all my fault and I will always hate myself for hurting you so much.” A single tear rolls down your face, you can’t hold it in anymore. Then a second, third. At the unstoppable oceans pouring from his eyes, you feel destroyed.

“I don’t even care about that! I’m not hurt by Junho or Jimin, I don’t care. Having to wake up every day knowing that you’re not beside me has been the most painful thing I’ve had to deal with. You are my home, Y/N. I don’t want to live in a life that you’re not a part of. I just can’t live without you and I can’t stand it. I can’t- I can’t...”

“Then don’t.”

Confusion draws his browns into a frown. “What?” His face is still warped in pain. You can’t stand it anymore either.

“Then don’t live without me.”

Your teeth dig into your lip to stop your own bawling.

All this conflict back and forth has taken such a toll on you and what for? At the end of the day, one unwavering fact stands true and untested: you love each other no matte what. So why should you let mistakes of the past keep you apart?

“What?” He says again, though understanding starts to seep through.

“I love you, Taehyung. I can’t not love you. I’m not myself if I don’t. So let’s stop this bullshit. I can’t live without you and you can’t live without me. So then let’s not leave each other again.”

You stare at each other, on this cool February night, warm water gurgling up to your collars, the cloudless night sky flaunting it’s collection of stars. And you promise to stay by each other for as long as you live.

“Okay.” That’s all Taehyung can muster.

“I’m yours, Taehyung. My heart is completely yours forever.��� His violent flow of tears subside into gentle trickles.

“Okay.” He stands up in the tub, and you mirror his action. Water weeps off your skin, inviting the cold to infiltrate.

Nothing more needs to be said. Your mouths find each other the way they always do, the crashing of your lips, scraping of your teeth. A new tear rolls off Taehyung’s face and onto your fused lips, but it’s different this time. They’re tears of insuppressable joy, knowing that the taste of your tongue is entirely his, the porcelain of your skin is entirely his. You’re shivering from the temperature of the night, but you don’t feel the cold.

His hands come behind your thighs and lift you up to his face level, wrapping your legs around your torso the way he did in Mykonos. With careful steps, he carries you back into the room, past the bed, that poor couch that was collateral damage to your mutual pining, and sets you down onto the bathroom countertop.

When he finally breaks away from the kiss and takes in your beauty under the bright light of the room, there is no less than absolute adoration in his eyes. Never anything less. “I love you and I’m yours.”

Taehyung wraps the only massive white towel he can find around your wet naked body, disregarding the cold attacking his own. You frown at him, hooking him between your legs so you can fling the towel over his shoulders as well.

“I love you and I’m yours.” You say back, blotting his body dry. It’s such a simple statement, yet the meaning it holds for the two of you is so heavy. They’re the very words that you have never found the strength to say to each other, until now.

“Say that again.” You melt under his smile, not a single trace of worry to be found in your brain.

“I love you. And I’m yours.”

You twist your neck back to follow his glare at reflection in the mirror of your huddled bodies under the towel. Cheeks pushed up from glee, heads leaning against each other, and just like that - all your heartache vanishes without a trace.

“Mine?” Taehyung pecks your brow, still smiling.

“Yours.” Legs clamping around him tighter, you turn to face him. “And how are you this hard again already?” His cock’s ability to stay erect is astounding, truly.

“Don’t you know? You could breathe and my cock would be hard.” Laughter erupts both your chests and it’s the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard.

Allowing the towel to drop around you, your hand slips between your bodies to clutch onto his length. Responsiveness ripples through his toned abdomen. “I want to suck…” You nuzzle your nose to his, your breaths amalgamating.

Taehyung sighs into your mouth. “But I want to-” Your grip tightens around him as you drag out a pump, eyes wide with feign innocence. “Okay, what the fuck, that’s not fair.”

“You’ll get to do whatever you want to me after.” You trail your mouth along his jaw.

“F-Fine.”

He lets you slide off the marble counter with the skin of his neck pinched between your teeth. When he realises that you’re marking him in clouds of purple, his head falls back and gives himself up as your canvas. You understand the appeal of hickeys now. For you two, it’s an agreement, a promise, an exchange of trust. You continue down his front, teeth grazing his nipples, lower and lower, kissing along the protrusion of his pelvic bone. Until you arrive at his cock.

“Do you remember the whole ice cube thing during the heatwave?” You run your finger up his length, over his oozing slit. The heatwave feels like an eon ago, but also like just yesterday.

Stiffening, Taehyung looks down. “Yes…”

“How about I pay you back for that one?” You take his shut eyes and sparse nod as compliance because you know he’s not capable of words right now.

You dash away to collect a glass of ice from the drink cooler, but on your way find something even better. Something you’ve always wanted to try.

Taehyung is slowly touching himself when you return, mildly surprised by the second item you brought back with you. “Whipped cream? Isn’t that from the gift basket?”

“You up for it?” A smirk stretches.

“Very up and very hard.” He lets go of his member and watches you drop to your knees.

To moisten him first, you slowly lap circles around his head, applying considerable pressure and letting the tip of your tongue tease at his sensitive opening. You look up when he moans, and takes his girth into your mouth, sliding his cock further and further down your throat until he pokes the back. Then you pull up with a pop, echoing within the walls of the bathroom.

You take two ice cubes from the glass, one placed between your lips, and the other to massage over your clit. The icy sensation strikes a numbing sensation into your core when it touches your bud of nerves. The cube in your mouth, you begin to trace slowly from the base of his shaft all the way up.

A string of profanities leaves Taehyung at the temperature, and seeds a satisfaction between your legs.

The ice is melting quickly from the heat of your mouth so you waste no time to guide it down to his scrotum resting on your palm. “Fuck.” He whines, his whole length twitching.

When this cube dissolves into nothing but a puddle of your tongue, you take another, ruthlessly educing those curses from him. His tip is the most sensitive part of him, so that’s where you focus on, smearing the edges of the cube around the curve of his head. His thighs tense in euphoric spasms.

The whipped cream comes next. With a few shakes of the canister, you hold his cock pointed towards yourself and view the spiral of white untainted cream unfold onto his head.

“Ah!” Taehyung yelps.

“You good?” You glance up to check that he still has a rein on his sanity.

“It just scared me.” You chuckle and place a kiss on his shaft.

“You should be scared.”

Eyes lock on his, you watch him watch you vulgarly smear the cream all over his cock with your lips. Its sweetness oozes into your mouth and sinks into your tongue. “Mmm.” You hum at the pleasant taste. Then you start to suck, the cream providing you with a lubrication that your spit has never been able to replicate. His cock glides into your mouth with such little resistance that you gag around him.

“Oh fuck, that feels so good.” He can’t look away from you, your hollowed out cheeks and large eyes as you bob your head deeper and deeper. Ribald wet sloppy noises squeaking from your mouth. “Uh fuck.”

Taehyung’s fingers entangle in your hair, guiding your motion in and out. The cream swirls in your mouth, the taste prompting you to suck harder until your mouth adheres like a second skin to his cock. He’s soon panting, even as you come up for air and to spray more cream on him.

“Yeah, keep going. Can I come in your mouth?” His eyes are almost screwed shut, but still open to keep watching. The rise and fall of his chest, and the bulging vein down the side of his cock - he’s close.

You keep sucking, relishing in the taste of the cream, the ease at which his tip glides along your throat, your own fluid dripping from your cunt.

“Fuc- Ah!” Gripping your hair tight, he thrusts hard into you as he cums, ribbons of his own cream mixing in your mouth. Taehyung’s dick pulses violently at the shaft. You watch his jaw fall open, brows pinch together, as the liquid dribbles down your throat.

You pull his length out of you with a great gasp and swallow all the remnants. “Shit. How was that?” Out of breath, you wipe the mess around your mouth with the dropped towel.

“Give me a second to recover from that, baby.” Arms on the countertop to support him, Taehyung lets his head droop back so far that his hair touches his elbows. You wet the towel at the sink and clean his slowly limping member. “Fuck that was…”

When his eyes open again, there is a fury that you know to be afraid of. He hauls you up onto your two feet and latch onto your lips, not caring about the filthy things they’ve just done to him.

“I need to be inside you.” He grumbles. “Give me five, ten minutes and I'll be ready again.”

“Hmm.” Arms sliding around his neck, you let him walk you onto the bed, hovering over you while his hands fondle your breasts that have become lonely. The insides of your thighs are slick with your arousal - that doesn’t go unnoticed.

Scissoring your folds open with his long digits, this thumb finds your clit, bulging and throbbing with desire. The vibrations coursing into you as he starts to rub compels you to arch back. You are really just a plaything when under his touch, as malleable as dough.

“Taehyung!” And for some reason, you calling out his name flips an animalistic switch in him.

With your neck fully exposed, he ceases the opportunity to nibble all over your unmarred skin, leaving angry blotches in return of your marks on him. This thumb is working quickly, the pressure at your clit superimposing second by second.

“Wait.” He lifts his head up abruptly, though fingers still going. “Do you want to sit on my face?”

Your heart jolts in excitement at the mere mention of it. “Didn’t even have to ask.” It has always been something you’ve wanted to try but never gotten around to.

Swapping positions, Taehyung reclines onto his back while you situate your knees on either side of his face. His hands grip onto your waist, guiding your descent onto his thrill-teeming face.

An incredible shock of pleasure fires up your spine when he takes your clit between his lips and sucks. This position grants him an unobstructed access to your pussy, no awkward angle, no cramping neck. So the assail he commences is totally, and unfortunately for your lucidity, merciless. His hands grapple onto your freely hanging breasts, rolling your nipples between fingertips.

Crying aloud from the ecstatic twisting sensation, you feel your eyes water. It’s almost too much, the mind warping accumulation of tension in your cunt. “Like that, Taehyung.”

One of his hands leaves your breast only to insert his digits into your dripping slit. Your thighs are aching, close to giving way; you don’t think you can withstand this tremendous stimulation.

His tongue doesn’t stop and neither do his fingers. Breathing through his nose heavily, he continues to coil your core into loops and loops of hypertension

You’re so close, so close.

And you’re there.

The pulsing waves of your orgasm sweep you away. You don’t even hear your own moans, just the roaring of your blood in your ears. Your whole body writhes above Taehyung, but your muscles don’t permit you to move off him while so ransacked by this high.

It last long, nearing half a minute before your senses come back to you.

And finally, you sag and topple over, trusting Taehyung to catch you and roll you onto your back.

“What the fuck.” You pant, low frequency pulsations still resonating down your legs, in awe of how he never fails to tip you over the edge. And the striking difference between the male and female orgasm is that, unlike Taehyung, you immediately want more when you’re done. “Taehyung, please, I need you to fuck me.”

His reply startles you. “No.” You open your eyes and find him regarding you with such reverence that only confuses you more.

“No?”

Cupping your face in his palm as he props himself on his elbow over you, Taehyung leans down and kisses your nose. Then your mouth. “Y/N.” Your temple. “I want to.” Your ear. “Make love to you.”

He paints a constellation of wet kisses all over you.

“How does that sound, baby?”

You immediately pull him back onto your own lips, a desperate craving as you kiss him back hard. “I love you.” You really do. It’s the one thing you’re the most certain about in this world.

“Ahhh.” Readjusting over you yet still keeping the close distance between your faces, he takes his cock in his hand and pumps. “You know you do to me when you say those words?” He kisses you again, so softly that his lips feel like rose petals. As he lines his tips along your entrance, you shut your eyes and prepare for it.

“I love you.” You repeat. And he sinks in.

It feels different, so entirely different from the previous time tonight. There is not an ounce of concern, of doubt, of hesitancy. You feel safe underneath him, secure.

His tender moans unravelling into songs of vulnerability. “I love you, too.” He whispers into your ear, and you understand what he means by how much these three words have an effect because them alone are almost enough to capsize you again.

His thrust, though lacking its usual roughness, does not lack in anything else. Every time he plummets into you, his mouth finds yours. Your hands are interlocked, pinned down onto the pillow. The surprising intimacy of that act overflowing to the brim. And you swear you could see heaven right then and there.

You feel nothing but love and devotion throughout.

He makes love to you over and over again this night, Valentine’s night. And despite your usual preferences, the sensations between your legs, in your chest, in your mind, are unrivaled.

Transcendental.

When it’s all over, when you’re nothing more than sweaty skin, damp hair, and hearts full of love for each other, you spend your time taking in each other’s details. His unblemished complexion. The beauty mark under the lashes of his right eye. The perfect shape of his cupid's bow that doesn’t seem humanly possible. Everything.

“What we had didn’t work, but we’re not going to repeat those mistakes again, I won’t hurt you again, I promise.” You whisper softly as you caress his cheek. “It’s all or nothing. And you have all of me.”

The glaze over his sincere eyes hasn’t left yet, though you don’t suppose your eyes are completely dry either.

You continue, “Seeing you break down like that today was… the hardest thing for me to witness. So much worse that our stupid pointless fights, and the nights where I would cry myself to sleep. And I can’t apologise enough for causing you that much pain.”

Taehyung’s eyes trailing down bashfully, and you almost worry that he’d cry again.. “I… I can’t believe the day finally came where I cried during sex…” You let out a round of laughter at what he chooses to dwell on.

“I love you so much that it makes me sick. I’m honestly disgusted and mortified by myself.” You snicker in his hair.

“Look, what about me? I love you so much that I cried during sex. Not even just a tear either. Full on sobs. I think I’m the bigger loser here.” The fact that he can joke about the situation reassures you that he’s over it. The mood once again lightens.

“All this just because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants during a heatwave.”

He pulls you closer into his rumbling chest, laughing to himself as he toys with your earlobe between his teeth.

You fall asleep in each other’s arms, for the first time as each other’s lovers. And for the rest of the nights that come after.

.

A/N: Alexa, play ‘Fuck it I love you’ by Lana Del Rey.

Thank you everyone for the incredible love and support you’ve unfailingly shown Heatwave. As my first fic, I am of course so very attached to these characters and ending this series is such a bittersweet feeling. It’s been such a lovely journey to write this couple and although I don’t plan on writing anything for them in the next few months, I won’t close off that possibility completely.

Love you!

- Kristy

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27/04/20

© Copyright 2020

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[softluci]

omg, hey, how r u, hi, so nice to see u; welcome to my 3AM (now 6AM bc miss hellsite deleted everything) ramblings (which i will try to make as close to the original as possible); this one’s gonna be a Doozy

now that ap testing is over and i have more time to care about literally everything else, i realize that i . i am So Bad at taking care of myself. like, so bad. and i actually realized this months ago but i didn't have this account months ago and i didn't think of this months ago so—

((i was debating whether or not to limit this to gen z but i know it isn't just us who do this; or maybe that’s wishful thinking and it Is just us, but idk, man,, i feel like millennials be doing this too))

sometimes, a lot of the time i just . don't eat . and i don't have a bad or difficult relationship to food or an eating disorder or anything like that, i just Don't Do It because i either legitimately forgot or i didn't feel hungry even if i hadn't eaten for a significant period of time (6-18hrs, we'll say, because i do lose track). like,, when quarantine started, i was in my room, door Locked, for 15 to 19 hours a day + i wouldn't leave unless i had to use the bathroom or shower. i only started eating and leaving my room more because my mom had to ask me to. oh, and this should be obvious, but i don't sit and eat dinner with my family either.

additionally, and this is Much More Frequent, i don't sleep. i know i don't sleep because i slept for nine hours today and woke up dazed and confused. when we had school, i would either sleep for 1-6 hours or just not at all. and then i'd go to school and not pack anything to eat :p. i actually think the longest i've gone without sleep is a full day. and i don’t have insomnia or anything like that, i just be Staying Up

so, with those things in mind, i've been wondering, like,, like how the boys would react to an m/c like that, you know?

like, okay, first of all,, there's No Way mammon is gonna let mc sit alone in their room all day. his emotional support human?? alone without him??? unacceptable. it just isn't happening. he would Literally break mc's door down if they tried to keep him out, unless they, for some reason, really, really, really needed to be alone, and even then it is a Tossup. and then not sleeping or eating? hello, what do you think this is? he would accommodate them for a little while by bringing them food and making sure they slept but after a while he would literally drag them out of their room because there is no way. there is No Way he’s letting them turn into levi. not on his watch 

an mc like this would give luci an ulcer. a literal ulcer. why are you a human and playing with the limits of your body?? who are you, do you think you’re made of metal? do you realize you have classes to attend and that you’re surrounded by demons literally All The Time? you cannot be caught lacking (i.e. feeling faint or fatigued because you haven’t eaten in seventeen hours or slept in a day). he would bring food to your room so he could make sure you ate, but when it came to sleeping? get ready to literally be dragged/carried out of your room and into his because he has work to do and he needs to keep an eye on you because Clearly you cannot be trusted to take care of yourself. he would probably go as far as to stop doing work and go to bed so you have nothing to hold against him. can’t sleep at a regular time because of your nonexistent sleep schedule? that’s okay because, beloved, He Is Putting You To Sleep. how he does so is up to you; and if you try to play like you’re Fine?? 

“mc, it’s seven pm, when was the last time you ate?” “five.” “am or pm?” “...” “well, when was the last time you slept?” “i haven’t.” “MC.” 

you haven’t slept in just over a day? baby, levi’s record is three. he would be absolutely terrible for an m/c like this; he would enable them So Hard. maybe he would bring them food (and that’s Snacks, not actual food), and Maybe he would tell them to go to sleep once or twice, but Other Than That? he can’t take care of himself for Shit either, sorry you had to hear it from me, leviastans <3

asmo,, you are worrying this man Sick. you haven’t eaten in fifteen hours? are you on a diet? no? you Forgot To Eat? how many hours of sleep have you gotten? one? you Think? oh, Maybe it was two? ah, yes, mc, because that is So Much Better. seriously, though, if you won’t eat, fine, but if there’s one thing you’re doing, it’s sleeping. you can’t sleep at a decent time because you have no concept of a sleeping schedule? sweetie. beloved. he is putting you to sleep, be it through relaxing self care or something else, darling, you are knocking out. and when you wake up, he’ll have a full course meal ready and he will literally feed it to you himself.

what’s that? you haven’t eaten since Yesterday and it’s three in the afternoon? oh,, you sweet summer child, beel is heartbroken. keep insisting that you aren’t hungry while you can barely stand and his eyes will fill with tears. you don’t wanna leave your room? fine, but that is the only thing keeping him from throwing you over his shoulder and going to the kitchen. he would literally bring you as much food as he could carry and only eat a little bit on the way back to your room. can’t sleep? not a problem, wait there while he gets belphie to charm your pillow. do Not worry, teddy bear beel always has your back MUAH

speaking of belphie,, tell that man you haven’t slept in a day and he’s stopping what he’s doing, dragging you to the nearest cushioned surface, and laying down with you; you’ll be out in No Time. and once you’re up?? he’s dragging you to the kitchen and you’re eating any and everything he puts in front of you, and he’s not leaving you alone until you’re functioning like a human and not a gremlin, or so help him, you’ll die a second time. 

you’re like, op,, y did u put satan last?? i couldn’t think of anything for him until now, i Swear i love him, okay, Anyway, you haven’t eaten in almost a day? do all humans do that? no?? why can you Barely Stand??? do you need to be carried to the kitchen? he is so confused as to why you just Haven’t Eaten when that is a basic function that humans need to complete or else they literally die; now wait in your room while he brings you something to eat. you can’t sleep?? do Not worry, that man will curl up with you and read to you until you’re Knocked Out, which won’t take long because he has a calming presence and a soothing voice, sweetheart, u r in good hands

ok it’s 7AM and i’m contemplating doing the undateables,, should i do the undateables? i’m gonna do the undateables. 

oh my god,, if luke finds out that you haven’t eaten in, eighteen hours and you haven’t slept in like twenty,, the way you’re gonna have to put in Work to convince him that you did those things of your own volition and the demons you live with aren’t starving or overworking you and No they aren’t forcing you to lie about anything. after you’ve done that, he is seeing to it that you eat something right away; it does not matter where you are, you are a human and you’re feeling Faint around literal demons, are you Dumb? are you Dumb of Ass?? come with him immediately before you hurt yourself or get hurt, he is feeding you and then you’re sleeping in his room and he’s Not taking no for an answer; don’t even think about telling him no, he’ll cry at you. 

you cannot tell me simeon is not the doting/fussing type, okay, and he is appalled. Appalled. what did you just say. the reason why you don’t look so good is because you’ve been up since Yesterday and you haven’t eaten since then either? why? what do you mean you forgot to eat; what kind of human Forgets To Eat? oh, you didn’t forget? you just didn’t feel like getting up? you’re gonna give him an ulcer. if he doesn’t do anything else, he is getting you something to eat, you literally just activated every older sibling/parental instinct he has from luke being an angel. he will literally take you to the closest place with food, sit you down, and buy you whatever you want, and if you say you don’t want anything, he’ll buy you one of everything and give the leftovers to beel, do Not test him. and when you’re done eating, you’re taking a nap. where? anywhere. no one will disturb you so long as he’s there, you’ll sleep perfectly fine <33

dia is half horrified and half intrigued. you haven’t slept in how long? are humans supposed to do that?? NO??? like,, part of him wants to see how long you can last without sleep or food just to see the limits of the average human and part of him wants to feed you and make sure you sleep immediately. he would have to fight every urge to do the former, but once he did, you are eating everything he finds and you are sleeping for however long his Humans 101 manual says you should sleep for. 

i am so thoroughly convinced that solomon literally would not care at all you have No Idea- 

like,,, i just feel like he’d ask you if you were alright because you looked a little off and you’d tell him you hadn’t slept or eaten in a while and he’d first look at you like you were literally out of your mind and then depending on where you were, Maybe keep you company (read: make sure nothing happens to you) while you take a nap, or Maybe buy you food, or take you to the house or purgatory hall (whichever’s closer) because he wouldn’t leave you alone,, surrounded by demons, ever; let alone in your current state. ok wow maybe he does care what a sweetie

barbatos would literally. he would keep his ^_^ cool facade, but on the inside he would be Screaming. full throttle internal screaming that has been going on for centuries just got several notches louder because you can’t take care of yourself, i hope ure happy. you haven’t slept since yesterday? one notch. you didn’t eat breakfast or lunch? another notch. you feel faint? oH WOW REALLY??? I FUCKING WONDER WHY another notch. come with him. please come with him before he blows a fuse for the first time in 400 years because you think you’re an exception to the rules of being a human. he’s feeding you and putting you to sleep whether you think you’re fine or not; don’t argue with him, he already takes care of his immortal boss who is the equivalent of an excited child on most days or a troublesome teenager on others and he Does Not Lose Arguments. 

ok it’s almost 11am goodnight now <3

[lexa-kom-skaikru]

Can you give some hosie fics recommendations ? 🥰🥰🥰

These are some of my current favorites. I won’t post more rn because I need to organize my AO3 history so I can do this properly. I will eventually do a post with a bunch of recommendations but these are a good start.

can you blame me for wanting a little bit more? by avengerskye (in progress)

Summary: Soul marks are one of those rare things that barely never happens in the supernatural world anymore. They appear when the soulmates are 16, and it takes the form of their soulmate’s name in their handwriting.

Hope finds the beautiful letters of Josie’s name tattooed on her skin the morning of her 16th birthday and she kinda freaks out.

Opinion: From someone who doesn’t like Soulmate AUs, I am freaking in love with this fic. Honestly, anything by this author is amazing.

it’s a date (the only problem is it’s fake) by avengerskye (completed)

Summary: After Landon breaks up with Hope, she’s left heartbroken and with her pride deeply wounded. So Hope’s best friend comes up with a plan to make Landon jealous and show him what he lost.

Opinion: This is a good ol’ slowburn. It’s an AU but doesn’t feel like an AU if that makes any sense lol This is the last of this author that I’m gonna mention because if I listed everything this post would just be even bigger. So, just go to the authors page and just go through their fics and I’ll guarantee you will get a good read.

I Want You to Want Me by Strutter654 (in progress)

Summary: It was at that moment that Hope’s brain had a thought: If Josie Saltzman didn’t remember that she had a crush on Hope, then Hope would make her remember. Not by bringing back everybody’s memories, no, she didn’t even know if that was possible, but by making her crush all over again, and as soon as she thought it, she knew it was a terrible idea.

Opinion: The reasoning behind Hope’s actions confused me a bit in the beginning lol but it’s such an amazing and entertaining fic that I still really love it and get excited for new updates.

Maybe, Someday by DAgron01 (completed)

Summary: Hope figures she owes it to her father to find some peace for both of them. But first, she feels compelled to help Josie find hers. Because that’s what it means to be a good friend, right?

or

The one where Josie was never just Hope’s friend, it just takes Hope a while to realize it.

Opinion: This is the fic that had me awake till 7am lol I am still reading it, only in chapter 3 because it’s really long and so far it’s really amazing - not just as a Hosie shipper but it’s great for some Hope BrOTPs too.

The Consequences of an Impending Curse by BloodDrinker1864 (completed)

Summary: As the days tick by Josie knows that her only way out of merging with her sister is to become a vampire, so she enlists the help of Hope to help her turn.

Opinion: Still haven’t finished this one but it’s intense. If you want all the feels, this is a good fic for you.

the more things change (the more they stay the same) by dandelionlighters (in progress)

Summary: “Our project for this semester will be dealing with desiderio potum, otherwise known as the desire drink. However, you guys might more commonly recognize it as the supernatural world’s love potion.”Dorian removes the thin material covering the flask that you noticed earlier, and the entire class sits up straighter. The aroma you’ve been smelling since you walked into the room is more prominent now, and you can’t help the inhale that escapes you. A unique scent of a mixture of vanilla, cinnamon rolls, and green tea fills your nostrils, causing you to breathe deeply again.Josie shifts in the seat next to you—your supernatural hearing automatically adjusting to discern her breathing pattern. It’s somewhat normal, and combined with her radiating magic and body heat you feel oddly hot. Your hand trembles underneath the desk, and the heart convulsing beneath your chest quivers with a quickness you can’t explain.

Opinion: Legit a Top 3 for me. This one is a must read. I love it so much.

If I Get My Way by acchica2527 (completed)

Summary: Set at the end of ep 1x06 / inspiration from the Little Mix song “If I Get My Way”

Josie can’t fall asleep after all of the events of their birthday, Hope can’t stop thinking about how they could have lost Josie.

Hope’s there when Josie needs a shoulder to cry on but Hope wants to be more than that for her.

Opinion: A goof mash of angsty feelings and cuteness overload.

Fic recommendations PART 2

[shewritestheblues]

Old Thing Back (1)

Erik Killmonger x Reader 

Erik runs into is high school girlfriend and realizes how much love her still has for her.

Warnings: none, just some awkwardness

--------

There’s nothing like a morning run. Just before the humidity hits with that cool morning breeze. At 7am, the birds are chirping loudly. Their chirps bring a sense of peace around the usual LA city sounds of cars and nagging people. There are a few other morning runners but for the most part it’s still pretty quiet.

Erik missed this. He hadn’t been for his morning run since returning from Wakanda. Since the Outreach Center had opened, he’s been knee deep in work. He loved his work and being a helping hand in the very community he grew up in, but he needed some me time. His morning runs were just that.

The park near his newly built home was perfect for getting back into the swing of things. Erik sported black basketball shorts and grey compression pants underneath for flexibility. He decided against a shirt, figuring he’d want to take it off anyways. He put his AirPods in, setting a clock on his kimoyo beads and began a slow pacing jog at the entrance of the park.

Two miles in, he had worked up a small sweat that mimicked a spray of mist over his studded chest. Future’s, Life is Good, blast through his ear buds insisting him as he zoned out of reality’s obstacles and he found himself swimming deep into his own thoughts. He internally began mapping out new ideas for the Center. Creating a mental vision board that blocked his vision of the woman ahead of him who had suddenly stopped running just before him.

You had dropped one of your earbuds and halted to look for it. As your eyes searched and scanned the parks ground, a brick wall of a man nearly knocked you faced first into the cement. The only thing stopping you from meeting your bloody fate are the sweaty fingertips of the muscle man gripping your arm.

“Oh shit. I’m so sorry.” Erik held on to your arm to make sure you didn’t fall. “I was zoned out. I didn’t mean—“

You held your chest, feeling your heart beat a million beats per second. You finally looked up to see the man apologizing and the way he stared at you almost scared you more than him clashing into you. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Y/N?” He spoke like he was unsure.

How did this man know you? You studied his features. His smooth brown skin and plump lips. The way he rolled his lips revealed two deep dimples. Then it hit you. ERIK. STEVENS. Your mouth dropped.

“Erik…”

The corners of his mouth curled up into a smile. That smile sent an electric current through your chest. You couldn’t believe it, your ex—no, your first… everything was standing right here in front of you. You looked him up and down. This was not the 16 year old Erik Stevens you remembered.

“Damn girl. Of all the people I could’ve stumbled into.”

“Stumbled into?” you chuckle innocently, “More like you almost knocked me into my grave.”

“My bad. I’m really sorry about that. I was in my own head.”

The way his eyes traveled up your form made you wrap your arms around yourself. You felt like a schoolgirl when her crush noticed her for the first time. Which was weird. You once knew Erik… very well. “You’re good. I should’ve been more aware.” You looked around your feet. “I dropped an ear bud.”

“I’ll help you find it.”

Before you could protest, Erik was already searching near the edge of the grass. You joined him in the search before you stepped on it, cracking it.

“I found it.”

You pick up your now broken earbud, feeling defeated. You had only had them for three days.

“Thanks for helping me, I guess.” you say, releasing a long sigh.

There’s an awkward beat of silence between the two of you. You pretend to be looking around the park when he breaks the silence.

“So, you’ve been good? You lookin’ good.” his eyes trail over you again.

You clear your throat. “Um, yeah. Thanks. I’ve been good. Can’t complain. You?”

He nods, “Yeah. I’ve been pretty good. Just been working and shit.”

He wants to say more. You can tell. But were you really interested in what he had to say after 15 years? The awkwardness between the two of you grew thicker and thicker the more you stood there. It was suffocating.

“Well,” you begin, “It was good seeing you.”

Erik opened his mouth to say something but your movements were quick. You turned and began power walking away. You couldn’t explain the way you were feeling. You were nervous, excited, sad and maybe a little angry if you were going to be honest. It really was good to see him. Being that he really glowed up over the years. He looked good. But you couldn’t shake how awkward the air was between you two. Granite, this was the first time you had seen or talked to Erik after he embarrassed you in front of your entire group of friends, 15 years ago.

*** 15 years ago ***

You and your best friend, Kelly had created a fool proof plan. It was the end of summer and with school coming back in just a short week, an end of the summer party was happening that night and y’all had to be there. Chase, Erik’s best friend, was throwing the party. You told your mom you would be staying the weekend at Kelly’s and her sister, Chrissy would drop y’all off and pick y’all up. Everything was perfect.

Except one thing…

You hadn’t heard from your boyfriend, Erik in two days. You tried to not worry yourself about it. You knew he had tough moments in the current foster family he was with and he often needed some space. You chalked it up to that. He would definitely be at the party. He would never miss a Chase party. You’d see your man and things would be good.

When you and Kelly arrived at the party, you were met with another member of your friend group, Tony. He greeted the two of you with hugs and pushed y’all toward the kitchen. He offered to pour you some spiked juice. From the sound of the music and voices, everyone was in the backyard. Kelly flirted with Tony while you tried to peak outside of the sliding door to see if you could see Erik. You spot him wearing a purple tank and cargo shorts and make your way to walk out the door. Kelly watches as Tony rushes to you, asking if you wanted some snacks.

“Why are you acting so weird?” you asked.

Tony scoffs. “I’m not acting weird.”

“Yeah, you are.” Kelly chimed in.

“I’m just trying to make sure my favorite best friends are good. That’s all.”

Kelly links her arm around yours. “We’re good, Tony.” She leads the two of you outside into the party.

“Hey!” y’all shout over the music. Your group of friends all greet you. One by one, you do your rounds, hugging everyone until you get to Erik. He’s being standoff-ish. He holds his head down as he speaks to you.

“Sup, baby?”

“Hey.” you can’t control your smile. You reach for a hug and that’s when you see it. You see why he’s acting weird. You see why he’s trying to keep his head low. His neck is covered in deep, purple hickies. You take a step back, glaring at him.

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

Your voice booming over everyone else’s causing the group to all go silent. All eyes are on you and Erik. He doesn’t say anything but judging from his face, he knew he was in trouble.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now, Erik?”

“Y/N... “ he tried to grab your hand. You snatch it away.

“Is this why I haven’t heard from you in two days?”

“Let’s go in the house.” He reaches for your hand again.

“NO! Fuck You!” You throw your cup of juice at him and storm off.

He starts after you when Kelly stops him. “Nah. You leave her alone. I told you not to hurt my best friend. But you do it anyway. Fuck you, Erik. You ain’t shit.”

Kelly finds you standing in front of Chase’s house with face in the palm of your hands. She doesn’t say anything. She just hugs you and allows you to cry. She slowly guides to two of you to the sidewalk to begin your walk back to her house. You needed the walk to cool off. Like the amazing best friend that Kelly is, she does her digging to find the girl that painted Erik’s neck in bruises. She fills you in on everything by the end of the night.

You were heartbroken. For the last year, you had been Erik’s girlfriend. His first love and he was yours. Just months before, you had lost your virginity to him. Everyone knew of y’all relationship. Many in your friend’s group had deemed y’all ‘class couple.’ But now, all of that was ruined. You were hurt. You were embarrassed. It made sense why Tony was acting so strange.

You blocked Erik’s number and did your best to mentally plan how you would avoid him when school started next week. But when classes returned, Erik didn’t.

Tags: @shaekingshitup @abeautifulmindexposed @lostennyc @tip222u @janelledarling @lushloaded @chaneajoyyy @thadelightfulone @raysunshine78 @toniilaney @purpleskiesxhopefuldreams @elaindeereads @lyniya @fd-writes @mygirlrenee @ajspencer1892 @yoyolovesbucky @greatpandagladiator-blog @shanyphantom @sinfully-dope @dessianna1 @ljstraightnochaser @alexundefined @elaindeereads @tgigoldie @soufcakmistress @ohliyaxoxo @steampunkprincess147 @soulfxll @dangerous-history @itsjustshanie @keiva1000 @rbhp @ohliyaxoxo @sheisexcellent1

*If I forgot your tag, let me know so I can update my tag list:)

[kittyprincessofcats]

GPF Torino - Day 2

I'm going to continue what I did yesterday and write down my thoughts of the day before going to sleep. Small warning: While I feel better now compared to earlier, I'm still heartbroken about Rika, so if I sound sad/angry/bitter in this post, that's why.

- We watched the Ladies, Pairs and Men's practices this morning, which was amazing. I'm honestly enjoying the practices more than the actual competiton. Maybe because there's no stupid judges and no points to worry and stress about during the practices. I can just lean back and enjoy the skating.

- Yuzuru went for the 4A in practice 3 times. One the one hand it was pretty epic to see those attempts. But on the other hand, he fell pretty hard of all of them, and I don't want him to injure himself before the free skate.

- Nothing to do with the GPF, but we went to eat Sushi for lunch and it was delicious.

- Here's my story of trying to deliver my cat plushie to Rika: I asked one of the security guys where the gift boxes for skaters are (because the website said there'd be some, and because it's hard to throw a plush toy from all the way up there. I also wrote letters to Rika and Yuzu and you can't really throw those on the ice.) The man told me it's not allowed to throw stuff from all the way up there anyway, but he didn't know anything about the gift boxes and just told me to "ask downstairs". I went to one of the organizers downstairs and asked. She didn't know either and went to get her collegue. The collegue asked if I speak Italian. I don't. They finally told me that there is no gift boxes, but that I could leave the toy with them and put Rika's name on it and they'd give it to whoever's responsible for delivering fan presents. I left it with them and now I can only hope it'll actually get to Rika. I guess I'll have to look for that plush cat in her Instagram present photos later :D

- Junior Ladies: As someone who's neither a big fan of Kamila nor of Alysa, I'd say that based just on these skates the placements were fair. I also have to say that both of them impressed me with their performanes here. The one placement I don't agree with is Daria's bronze medal - I'd have given that to Ksenia.

- Funny moment:

Alysa: *jumps "4Lz" in the warmup*

My dad: How many rotations were that?

Me: The judges will say 4.

My dad: I counted like... 3 and a bit?

Me: Yup, that's about right.

My dad: Good, I thought my eyes were deceiving me.

- Though one thing I have to say is that I did kind of start rooting for Alysa halfway through just because there was some really obnoxious Russian fans sitting close to us. They screamed like crazy at the Russian skaters, didn't bother clapping for anyone else, one man was shouting things all the time, and the only time they cheered for Alysa was when the announcer said the words "second place". And that wasn't a "Well done, second place is a great achievement" cheer, it was a "Yay, we're glad you're not in first" cheer. And later I felt like Alysa was kind of left on her own during the victory ceremony while the two Russian girls had each other (kind of like Rika at the NHK ceremony). So yeah, I felt pretty bad for Alysa here.

- I don't understand much about Ice Dance tbh, but P/C were really fun to watch. My dad keeps calling him "giraffe man" because of his long neck.

- Ladies SP: a.k.a. the moment my mood went from good to absolutely awful :( I don't even want to say much more, I'm just really sad. The free is where Trusova is planning 5 quads and Shcherbakova 3, so the short really is where Rika should have placed ahead of them to have a chance at a medal. I kept doing the maths in my head and even if she skates a clean free now, it's not going to be enough for anything more than 5th unless some others make mistakes (which is also thanks to Shcherbakova and Zagitova being overscored here).

- And just to be clear: I don't hold this against Rika at all. She's injured, jetlagged and nervous and I saw how much better she was in practice. Anyone who says anything rude about her will catch these hands.

- Also the scoring was awful again. No edge calls from what I've heard. Even with this performance Rika should have been ahead of Trusova and arguably Tennell as well. Scores for Shcherbakova and Zagitova were too high. Alyona Kostornaia was amazing - I'd have given her a few points less, but only 1 or 2.

- This honestly made me way sadder than Yuzu yesterday. Mostly because 1) Yuzu has already achieved everything and has nothing left to prove, 2) Everyone and their mom is a Yuzu stan so it's not like he's lacking fan support, and 3) ... I'll honestly admit that I'm a Rika stan first and a Fanyu second.

- After Yuma Kagiyama and Haein Lee yesterday, I asked if my faves placing last in the SP was going to be a trend - guess I shouldn't have said that.

- One thing that made it better, though: I loved seeing all the fan support for Rika! From what I could hear while cheering myself, the cheers for her weren't any quieter than the ones for the 3A. And she got so many presents thrown on the ice! That was really lovely to see.

- Sweet moment:

Me: I wish there was other Rika fans sitting next to me.

My dad: Hey! I'm right here!

- My dad brought his huge camera and he's taking pictures of all the skaters. He's at over 6000 pictures now. When we get home, I'll delete the bad ones and post the really nice ones here.

- The two girls sitting next to us saw some of my dad's pictures and asked if he has any of Yuzu. He sent them over 15 pictures from practice. Which would have been cute and all if this hadn't been right after the Ladies short and if I hadn't been sitting between them feeling like crying.

- I tried to enjoy pairs after that, and I kind of did. I'm happy for Sui/Han, though their performance was far from what they're able to do. I'm thrilled for Peng/Jin - that's my two favourite Pairs of the competition winning gold and silver, so that's nice.

- The Ladies FS is last tomorrow, and I genuinely suggested just leaving after Rika's performance - because I really don't care about the ET girl showdown. Obviously Kostornaia is better than the other 3 and should win hands down, but I'm not invested enough in even that to sit through the outrageous scores the others are sure to get. But my dad thought it would be rude to just leave - as if the skaters will notice 2 people more or less in the audience.

- The men's practice is at 7AM tomorrow and whoever made that decision is my enemy. I hope I'll be able to get up that early, since I'd really love to be there for practice on Yuzuru's b-day, but I might oversleep :/

- Even though my BiB nails didn't seem to have helped, I'll still do IAoP nail polish tomorrow.

- I'm starting to think that Rika should go for the 4S. Not like she has anything left to lose now. Except, of course, if risking a quad could make her injury worse - in that case I wouldn't do it and just focus on making it through the comp without worsening her condition.

[msjr0119]

Hold On

Part 4- New York

Nobody got injured at the Homecoming ball, they all get separated into different safe houses- for safety.

Riley and Drake had confirmed that they had feelings for each other, however Drake believed Riley should be with Liam. Heartbroken, she moves back to New York. Only keeping in touch with Hana, Maxwell and Olivia.

Riley meets lawyer, Nate Cooper and begins a relationship with him. In Cordonia, Drake begins to court Kiara.

Nine months after Riley had left Cordonia- there is a reunion, but not the reunion the friends had hoped for.

Tags- @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @drakesensworld @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bbrandy2002 @butindeed @bascmve01 @drakewalker04 @pedudley @captain-kingliamsqueen @duchessemersynwalker @insideamirage @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @kozabaji @texaskitten30 @ibldw-main @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @dangerouseggseagleartisan @gnatbrain @walker7519

*Characters belong to Pixelberry*

If you are under 18 please do not read this series. If you do you are consenting that you are over the age.

Series warnings: Suicide, domestic abuse, swearing, stabbing. If any of these triggers affect you do not read!

*****

“Liv! You can’t go to Boston. It will fuck it up for Riley.”

Olivia’s eyebrows rose up at Leo, whilst folding her arms. She wasn’t going to give up on defending her friends.

“Watch me Leo! I’m going. Don’t you dare try and stop me! Just say to the others I had to return home- or so help me!”

Leo knew he wasn’t to argue with a Nevrakis so just nodded and bowed to the Duchess- she snuck out of the hospital without the others noticing- researching the quickest way to get to Boston. Leo walked back into the waiting room, seeing his friends reactions broke his heart. Riley meant the world to each of them- if only she knew.

“Hey, Liv has had to return to her Duchy. She said she will be back as soon as possible. You guys can go in now if you want.”

Bertrand looked at Maxwell and Hana and encouraged them to go in next.

******

The pair walked into the room, holding hands- supporting each other. They both began to cry- seeing their friend lifeless, attached to the machines.

“Why would she do this? We have to take her home Max.”

“I.. I don’t know Hana? She is a Beaumont even if not by blood. We will look after her. I can’t believe it. It’s all my fault. I brought her to Cordonia and let her leave.”

They comforted each other, still in shock. They both knew that she had miscarried, if she hadn’t have lost her baby she would now be introducing them to their niece/nephew. They both positioned themselves at each side of the bed- each taking hold of one of Riley’s hands, squeezing her gently.

Hana thought back to the last conversation she had with Riley.

“Hi Hana!”

“Hey Ri, are you okay?”

“Yeah brilliant thanks. What about you?”

“Are you sure? I know you don’t want to talk about it, but it was your due date a few weeks ago. I’m always here for you Ri, it’s not been the same without you.”

“Hana, it’s fine. I’m fine. I will always love the baby- it just wasn’t meant to be. But I can be a mom again- someday. Just not right now. I’ve got a partner who loves me, a nice apartment, a job. I’ve got my old life back. Obviously I miss you all like crazy, I’ll come and visit one day.”

“Maybe you could come for a mini break? Rather than just one day? We can do things together with the Beaumont’s and Liv?”

“Yeah! I’ve got annual leave soon. I’ll book a flight soon- I promise. It’ll be like old times. I love you Han, I need to get to work. Looking forward to coming back for my mini break.”

“Oh Ri. Why couldn’t you ask for help? Was you even coming back? I love you. Please come back to us. I need to see that beautiful smile of yours.”

Maxwell thought back to his last conversation with Riley.

“Hi Blossom, it’s so good to hear your voice! How’s life in the Big Apple?”

“Maxi! My life is brill- although I miss you all. The Big Apple is busy as usual. How’s little Apple Cordonia?”

“Glad to hear it! It’s boring without you here. We all miss you. Hana said you was thinking about coming back?”

“Yeah! You better organise a Beaumont bash for my return! I’ve got annual leave, and it’ll be great to return for a few days. Like the old days. I wouldn’t shut you out of my life Max, you could come and visit here too! You’re my brother. I love you and miss you.”

“Hell yeah!!! And ditto Ri.”

“Blossom, we all love you and want you back. You’re my sister. I can’t lose you.”

Just after Max, said those words to Riley- Hana’s hand immediately let go and flew back as if she had been shocked by an electric shock.

“Max! Say that again... repeat what you’ve just said....”

“Why?”

“I... I... she just moved! Say it again...”

*****

In Cordonia, there was still the silent atmosphere- it was like a ghost town. Liam for the last couple of days had been contacting everyone- even Leo and Riley. There was no response. It was 7am, and he had been drinking scotch for half an hour. Where were they all he wondered? He felt now that he had lost Riley forever, he shouldn’t have text her what he did- but he needed to see that she was okay. She was his friend, and still the woman he loved.

Riley, it’s Li. I hope you are well. I keep wondering what wonderful things you are doing with your life. I wished that you was still here. We all miss you. You’re my friend, I miss talking to you. I hope you’ll respond. I love you x

There was a knock at his study door- Drake entered. Liam couldn’t get those words out of his mind - or have you fucked her over like you did Riley?

“Li?”

“Drake. What can I do for you? It’s early.”

“No one is here.... You’re avoiding me now.....What have I done? I can’t sleep.”

Liam couldn’t deal with Drake being all melancholy, the world didn’t revolve all him. He handed his friend a tumbler of whiskey. Drake accepted the drink but hesitated drinking it due to the time that it was- he then saw Liam drink three shots in a flash.

“I’m not avoiding you. I’m the King, I have duties- I’m busy!”

“Busy? Busy getting drunk? My ass Li, you always made time for us all. Since Brooks and everyone else has disappeared you’ve been avoiding me!”

“This is not all about them or you! But I do have one question.... What happened between you and Riley?”

“Li, I love her. I never... I never fucked her over like Liv suggested. I told her to be with you before she left. We kissed, we slept together the one time. I’m sorry Liam..”

Liam now felt guilty for disregarding his friend, but he was still pissed off that he would sleep with her only one time then end it.

“Why? Why would you do that if you love her?”

“Because you deserve her. This country deserved her as their Queen. She came here for you, she was your girl first. I’m a nobody.”

“Are you using Kiara?” - Liam thought that Kiara would possibly be a rebound if Drake couldn’t have Riley. No matter how much he was hurting ‘giving’ Riley up- Kiara didn’t deserve that.

“No. Not using her. I have feelings for her. But they will never compare to those for Riley. I’ll leave you alone, but if you hear from anyone please let me know. I’m worried sick about them all- even Liv and that is saying something.”

Drake left the study, his words lingered in Liam’s mind, along with Olivia’s. He slept with her, then dumped her assuming she’d jump back in my arms? Liam immediately shouted Bastien into the room, he was drunk so needed to use his famous stoic expression- even though Bastien would see straight through him.

“Your majesty?”

“Bastien? I need to cancel my meetings for the next few days. Can you get the Royal Jet ready to leave as soon as possible?”

“Yes Sir. Why?”

“We are going to New York!”

[how-much-gayer-could-it-get]

Christmas One Shot

Pairing: Logince past Roceit and Loceit

Word count: 1445

Prompt: “I know we hate each other but it’s Christmas Eve and your flight was cancelled please come inside.”

Summary: Roman is the barista at the airport cafe that always gets Logan’s name wrong as revenge for Logan stealing his boyfriend in high school.

Yes, Roman would be that petty.

Warnings: swearing

-

Roman loudly calls out a name to the mildly crowded cafe. A young lady comes up and takes the cup from him. He winks at her.

He’s on the evening shift again, the worst one for Christmas eve. He would so much rather be home watching It’s A Wonderful Life again, but that’s just how life is sometimes. He pauses to take a sip from the peppermint latte he’s been nursing for half an hour now before he steps over to serve the next customer. He really shouldn’t have stayed up facetiming Virgil until 4 am.

The next customer walks into the shop and Roman audibly groans. He steps up to the counter and puts on a cheery grin. “Hello, Logang, is it? I remember you.”

Logan sighs, resolved not to fight Roman today. This day has been long enough already, and he doesn’t need to argue with him. “Hello, Roman. I just need a black coffee.” He pulls out a bunch of change and a dollar bill from his pocket.

“Tall, Grande, or Venti?” Roman looks a little worried about the normally very neat Logan just dropping money on the counter.

“Whatever’s cheapest.” Logan pinches the bridge of his nose. He wishes his flight would just be called already. He’s got a migraine coming on, and he just wants to sleep.

“Gotcha, coming right up.” Roman starts to grab a cup then the announcer comes on the intercom.

“Flight 17345 has been cancelled due to bad weather. Flight 17345 cancelled due to weather.” Logan looks about ready to cry. This was the worst possible thing that could happen. Logan’s phone was dead, and Patton was probably asleep.

Roman frowns and grabs a grande cup and makes Logan’s drink. He charges him for a tall, and hands him the cup directly. “Microsoft Nerd” is written in his scrawling cursive on the side.

Logan manages a weak smile and shuffles over to a corner table, the events of his day weighing down on him.

-

Normally, if a customer is taking up a table for more than an hour, Roman has to go ask them to hurry up so the seat can be opened up for other customers. It’s really just a stupid policy. But he lets Logan sleep until the end of his shift. His- now cold- coffee is only half empty.

Remy looks at Roman weird when he sees Logan asleep in the corner of the shop.

“Sorry, Rem. He came in and his flight was cancelled. I figured he needed a rest.” Roman rubs the back of his neck, hoping he wouldn’t be told off for not following policy.

“No, you’re fine. I know him, he’s my brother Patton’s best friend. Just wake him up and give him a ride home, okay?”

“That’s the plan. We hate each other, but it’s Christmas Eve. He doesn’t deserve to spend the night here.” Roman takes off his apron after making a new cup of coffee for Logan. “Take this out of my paycheck if you feel the need to. Cold coffee tastes horrible.”

“You’re fine, I agree. I’ll use my free coffee for this shift on it. I have ten dollars in my pocket that Emile insisted I take.” Remy waves him off.

“Wow, a perfect boyfriend.” Roman heads over to Logan and sets the coffee cup down. He throws away the cold one.

“Hey, Logan. Wake up.” He gently touches his shoulder. “It’s the end of my shift.”

“Huh?” Logan sits up quickly, glasses askew. He bumps the top of his head into Roman’s chin.

“Ouch! Damn, you don’t need to attack me.”

“Sorry… How long have I been out?” He feels his coffee cup. It’s still warm.

“Around four hours now. I got you a new coffee. Do you need a ride home?” Roman rubs his chin, sitting across from Logan.

“Um, sure.” He reaches beside his chair. ‘Wait, where’s my bag?” He looks obviously panicked.

“Hey, easy. I put it in the break room with my stuff. I didn’t want anyone to steal it.”

Logan sighs. “You did not need to do that for me.”

“I wanted to. I’ll go get our stuff, then I’ll give you a ride home.” Roman gets up and walks into the tiny break area.

-

The snow is heavy, and Roman can practically feel the chill, even with his heater on full blast. He can hardly see, even with his windshield wipers at the top speed.

“Hey, Logan? I’m pretty close to my house and the snow is really bad. I think we’re gonna get snowed in.”

“That’s fine, I’ll just walk.”

“Um? No? Logan, I know we hate each other but it’s Christmas Eve and your flight was cancelled please, you have to come inside.” Roman turns onto his street, leaning forward to see his house.

“Just because I accepted a ride home and you were nice to me once does not mean I’m going to accept staying in your house.” Logan crosses his arms.

“Please. I really don’t want you to get hypothermia trying to walk home.”

“Like you care. You’re still mad about me dating Dexter after he dumped you."

“He hadn’t dumped me when you said yes! He was still dating me for another two months until I saw you two kissing at school. I dumped his sorry ass myself.”

“O-Oh.” Logan looks away. “Then why did you blame me?”

“I was pissed off. We were friends, all three of us. You, me, and Patton. You broke my trust by not telling me he asked you out and betrayed me when you found out and Patton took your side because Dexter told you both lies. No one thought to ask me the truth.”

“He said you would lie. That you were just heartbroken because he finally moved on from you.”

“And you believed him.” Roman pulls into his driveway. “Let’s go inside. We have some things to work through.”

“We truly do.” Logan gets out of the car and follows Roman to the front door.

-

Roman puts the last log on the fire. “There, that should burn for a while.” He stands and walks over to the couch.

“I didn’t know you knew how to build a fire.”

“I actually did listen to you sometimes, Logan.” Roman sits next to him on the couch, cuddling under a blanket. “Is your headache feeling any better?”

“Yes, the aspirin has taken effect, and that nap earlier helped immensely.” Logan yawns.

“That’s good… So what have you been doing since high school? Are you and Patton still friends?”

“We are, we live together. I work at my dad’s company. I prefer working IT, but I’m in training for CEO. I’m considering telling him I’m not taking over the company.”

“If you aren’t happy, that’s what you should do.” Roman leans on his shoulder. “I missed this.”

Logan tenses up, unused to being show affection by anyone other than Patton. “I suppose. I don’t remember the last time we actually hung out without Patton.”

“It was before I broke up with Dexter. We watched The Theory of Everything together. We fell asleep on the couch at my house and my moms took pictures.” Roman sighs softly.

“They thought we were dating, right?”

“Yeah, I didn’t tell them about Dexter at all until I came home crying because of him. They’re still convinced those pictures prove we are meant to be. I haven’t had the heart to tell them how I’ve treated you. I’m sorry, by the way.”

“I forgive you. You didn’t really do much, honestly. I just hold onto grudges.” Logan shifts to wrap his arm around Roman.

“I understand that. Me too.” Roman looks up at him.

“Can we prove your moms right?” Logan bites his lip, nervous.

“They love it when they’re right.” Roman leans up and kisses him, one hand on his cheek.

Logan kisses back.

-

Roman’s phone rings at 7am sharp on Christmas morning. He answers it sleepily. Virgil’s face pops up on screen.

“Merry Christmas!” Virgil grins, obviously not out of bed yet either.

“Merry Christmas, Virge.” Roman chuckles and shifts the angle to a more comfortable one for his arm.

“Did you have a one night stand, or is this some new boyfriend I don’t know about?” Virgil raises an eyebrow.

Logan smiles slightly. “Who are you as well?”

“Virgil, this is Logan, my boyfriend and the best Christmas present ever. Logan, this is Virgil, my queerplatonic partner. He’s single if we want to set Patton up.”

“Nice to meet you, Virgil. It sounds like a plan.”

“New year’s sound good for a visit, Virgil?”

“Heck yeah.”

fin.

-

@softestvirgil

[prettywordsyouleft]

Alphabet Tag

I was tagged by @jinyoungmoans - thank you lovely!

RULES: Answer the questions in a new post and tag some blogs you would like to get to know better.

A: Age

32

B: Birthplace

New Zealand

C: Current Time

1:56pm

D: Drink You Last Had

Water

E: Easiest Person to Talk To

Probably @ongsung - Ash and I can discuss literally anything and everything with ease! 

My best friend lives with me and I would say I can talk to @this-song-thats-only-for-you with ease too... but I tend to bottle my emotions too well in person, which is frustrating for her and me. We get there in the end though XD

F: Favorite Song

My favourite song changes a lot... but probably Icarus - JJ Project. I can listen to it on repeat and never grow bored. 

G: Grossest Memory

Ahh... I’m so old and I can’t think of anything that really grosses me out (minus the thought of my leg when it was broken, that just did my head in)... but recently Octavia unfortunately had a bout of diarrhoea whilst I was out doing groceries in her crate and well, it went EVERYWHERE. Cleaning that up was fun times since she had it on her, on the bedding, on the walls. She’s talented, I guess >_< 

H: Hogwarts House

Hufflepuff. At first I was devastated, but as time goes by, I find Hufflepuff really interesting. << Same as Nik, I always wanted to be Ravenclaw but am stuck in Hufflepuff.

I: In Love

Sure, I’m in love with a bunch of idols that have no idea I exist so ... forever alone XD

J: Jealous of People

I get jealous irrationally over people ... more so due to feeling inferior? So my jealousy stems from my own self-doubt and not the real situation. It’s something I am working on improving and realising I am worth people putting their attention on me. 

I used to judge myself against my peers and why was my life different but I’m too old to care about that now and like what I have mostly.

K: Killed Someone

If The Sims count, then yes. Once I let Daehyun drown in a pool on The Sims 3 because for some reason, the stairs wouldn’t let him out. My poorly constructed pool design >_> Thank god for save points and the Reset Sim option - my Sim would have been heartbroken to lose her fiance hahaha.

L: Love at First Sight or Should I Walk By Again?

Lust at First Sight is what I believe in. Loving someone comes from connection, so they’d have to walk by a few times haha. I definitely believe that connections can happen quickly with the right people. Even so, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I do believe love needs time... Lust can be automatic and very fulfilling until love settles in. 

M: Middle Name

Joy. 

N: Number of Siblings

1 younger brother and 1 baby sister we essentially adopted (thanks anon for pointing my error!)

O: One Wish

For my family to stop struggling this year and fulfil all their goals they’re actively seeking out.

P: Person You Called Last

The people who owned the land our horses live on... their horse had no water. (So we gave him some since no one was home)

Q: Question You are Always Asked

From family: “when do you plan to stop making those fake babies and get married and have real ones?” / “when are you going to go get pregnant?” 

From tumblr: “when are you going to stop denying Park Jinyoung?” -- I already have :)

From my sister: “can I have more internet time?”

R: Reason to Smile

My family, friends, pets, creativity, kpop/k-dramas and a few more.

S: Song You Sang Last

All Night - ASTRO cos it’s literally playing right now and I failed MJ’s note haha.

T: Time You Woke Up

7am today.

U: Underwear Colour

Blue with white stripes. Yes I checked.

V: Vacation Destination

The entire Italian peninsula, even though I’m pretty sure I’d just be eating nonstop salads the entire time. I want to see the places I invested 5 years of study into.

W: Worst Habit

Overeating. I tend to feel guilty if there’s food left behind and will eat more than my share if it’s good too. I have to be pretty mindful when eating cos I can snack and not realise I ate more than I should have. 

Also, I try to take responsibility for things even when it should be up to another person, because I’d prefer to just get it sorted and control the situation again... I’m improving on this, but now people see me as giving no fucks about them so it’s kind of annoying.

X: X-rays

I’ve had so many in my lifetime, I could fill an entire bookcase shelf easily >_<

Y: Your Favourite Food

Chocolate. What shouldn’t I be eating anymore? Sugar. Sigh. I can do gluten free, but chocolate is just... so hard to give up. My goal is to be very successful in being gluten free and then go processed sugars free. Hahahaha future Chelle is crying already. 

Jokes aside, I love Chicken Katsudon, and Sesame Chicken. Both which are my favourite dishes to make. 

Z: Zodiac Sign

The other day I learned I’m not a Gemini, but a Gemini - Cancer cusp even though everything basically calls me a Gemini. After reading THIS ARTICLE I have never felt so connected to a piece of astrology facts until now. 

I have to go pick up my sister from school now, so I just tag whoever wants to do this Xxx

[ff15trashgoldenslumbers]

just found your blog and i spent all night going through all the posts. this is a QUALITY blog my friend! would you please have the chocobros S/O getting in an argument with them,and being unable to speak to them for a month since they left on a mission. on the last day when their supposed to be back, the S/O set up a romantic dinner as an apology, but by 3 am their still not back and they go to bed crying. Wake up the next morning being spooned to death. (its a lot i know but im a sad snowflake

There shall be no sad snowflakes on my watch! NONE!!! Only happy ones!  Also guys make sure to sleep! I love sleep as much, maybe even more, than Noctis does, rest. Lol

~~~

You smiled as you sat the plates on the table for tonight’s dinner. You sweethearts favorite and it actually looked and smelled delicious, a soft hum coming from your chest. Before you darling left, you both had a horrible fight, one that left you so angry you didn’t even sleep in your shared bed the first week he was gone.

After week two you finally moved back into your bedroom and cuddles his pillow something fierce, missing him. Often spending hours draped in his clothing or wearing something of his out. You wished so bad that you would be able to text or call him to apologize but he was gone on a mission and cellphone use was rather difficult to use. So you had to wait, and give him the proper apology when he returned home.

At 6:48pm you set the plates on the table waiting for him to come home, give him a big kiss and show him the nice little dress you purchased just for him, that you hoped would be on the floor by the end of the evening.

At 9:12pm dinner sat on the table untouched, and your phone rested in your hand awaiting a text, he should have been home 3 hours ago.

At midnight, you put out the candles on the table and the wine back into the fridge. The ice in the wine bucket melt hours ago.

At 2:56am, you phone finally died, so you sat at the table in the dark, your mind racing with the horrid last conversation you had. You didn’t even tell him that you loved him when he left, or give him his goodbye kiss.  Maybe this was it, you no longer had him.

At 3:03am, your dress was on the floor not in the way you wished, one of his t-shirts covering your body. You clung tightly to his pillow as you let your tears fall until you finally fell asleep.

~~~~~

Noctis

When the Prince stepped into the apartment, he had flowers at the ready. Have talked it over with Ignis, and the man suggests that the two of you sit down and talk it over. Only for the man to stop and stare at the kitchen table and seeing the two plates waiting there, neither touched and long cold.

The prince moved through the apartment, it was already 7am, you would have more than likely already gotten up to get ready for the day. Or maybe you left…

He panicked, tearing through the apartment, only to come to the bedroom, and finding you in the middle of the bed holding tightly to his pillow and wearing his t-shirt. He nearly tripped over the dress on the floor as he began to undress before crawling into bed and holding you impossibly close.

“I’m sorry.”  He whispered pressing a kiss to your forehead.

You wheezed as you felt something laying directly on your chest, you hardly ever slept on your back, and this extra weight made it feel like you had a courel on your chest. You moaned weakly, opening your eyes only to be greeted by spikes of navy in your mouth and nose.

“Noct…”

You were greeted by a huff.

“Noct, sweetie.”

A nuzzle to your shoulder and a tighter hold.

“Noct let me roll over.”

You were given a small window, but in that window, you managed to roll and cuddle the man, so that he nuzzled comfortably within your chest. Your arms wrapped tightly around the man.

“I’m sorry.” You whispered pressing a kiss to his forehead, pleased to have him in your arms again.

~~~~~

Prompto

He was so sleepy, but still, he dragged in that cute little Moogle doll he found dressed as a Chocobo, Prompto seriously made Ignis do a U-turn so he could pick it up.

It was rare that either of you got into a fight, this actually being the third one the two of you had since you started dating since high school. He was so upset that he couldn’t reach out to the entire time they were gone and apologize. He honestly felt tears start to fall when he saw dinner waiting for him, and your untouched plate beside it.

He quickly rushed into the bedroom, finding you in the bed, holding tightly to one of the large stuffed animals you both owned. Pulling the plush from your arms, he replaced it quickly, fully dressed in his travel attire, littering your face with kisses as he held you close.

You huffed and snorted, pulling back as you felt the assault only to be greeted by the tear-stained face of your boyfriend. “Pompom?”

“I…i’m sorry.”

You reached up wiping his tears away, only for them to start falling from your eyes, “I’m sorry too.”

The two of you smiled weakly, as you clung tightly to each other, pressing lazy kisses to each other before falling back asleep.

~~~~~

Gladiolus

“Babe?” Gladiolus called as he entered the house at 5am, you’d normally be getting up to go jogging. “Babe?” He called again, did you already leave?

He stopped looking into the kitchen, only to find your plates on the table. You wouldn’t leave the house like this while going out. “Babe, Y/N? You here?”

As he moved through the house, the man slowly removed his clothes, he would need a shower. Moving into the bedroom to get something else to wear to bed he stopped finding you curled up on his side of the bed, laying on his pillow much how you would the man should you both share the bed.

As he moved over to the bed, he noticed the slight wheeze you’d give when your nose was stuffy and mascara running down your face.

“Babe…”

He felt so heartbroken that he let you go to bed crying for more than a month, and you made him a large meal and he didn’t even show up. You were absolute perfection and look at what he did. He went to move you into his arms, only to stop, he really, really needed that shower before he could touch you.

Five minutes! It took him five minutes to wash and dry, his hair still wet and he may not have dried all the way off, and he’d deal with a shirt later, he needs you in his arms now! As softly as possible, he managed to clean your face, and adjust you to his chest.

“I love you so much.” He whispered a kiss to the top of your head.

“Gladdy.”

He maneuvered slightly only to find you still asleep.

You huffed, snorting yourself awake, only to notice the heavy weight around your waist and squeezing. You reached out tapping at Gladiolus pecs, tapping out, only to have the arms release you as you panted softly.

“Sorry babe.”

You smiled giving him a loving pet from where you had to tap out from his aggressive cuddles, “Welcome home.”

Gladiolus hummed, dragging you up to kiss you, “So I saw that little number on the floor.”

“Yeah, guess you’ll have to take me out so that you can rip it off me, big guy.” You purred as he moved to your shoulders, exposed underneath one of his tanks.

“Tonight then, because all day, we’re not leaving this room.” He smirked as he heard you moan softly.

Apology accepted.

~~~~~

Ignis

Ignis was the last one home, he had some last minute items to handle at the Citadel. Plus he wanted to find something for you, he hadn’t gotten a chance to apologize before he left, so by the time he returned home, the sun had begun to peak above the horizon. He expected for you to be long asleep.

As he moved into the kitchen to put the food he would use to spoil you tonight, he stopped to see your body at the kitchen table, head resting on your arms, one of his old button ups on your body, two plates covered with a cloche.

“Oh, my love.” Ignis crooned as he placed down the groceries in the fridge before moving over to you. Moving your chair back, as he leaned forward pulling you into his arms, cradling you close as he pressed a kiss to your temple, making his way to the bedroom, stopping as he looked to the beautiful dress on the bed, nicely pressed and waiting to be put on.

He maneuvered you to one arm, holding you impossibly close out of fear of dropping you as well, as he picked up the dress, hanging it on the back of the door, before moving you to the bed, only for you to awaken.

“Iggy?” You muttered weakly.

“Hello, My love.” He smiled, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

“Iggy.” You cooed reaching up to hold him close, pulling him into a hug.

“Allow me just a moment to undress.”

You gave a playful whine, but released the man with a kiss, as you settled into bed. Only to be pulled into his embrace the moment he reached the bed, your eyes closing, as pressed another kiss to your forehead.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

[piercing-bullets]

Drafts

I wish I was in a powerful position in life where I could tell my story and people actually cared . Where my testimony made a difference in someone else’s life.

2015 I dropped out of college because nobody wanted to help me pay. I literally begged everyone from my dad to my grandparents. Nothing.

I moved back home. Worked 2 jobs 7am-5pm then 6pm-1am every day almost. I worked my ass off no sleep literally to save 10k to go back to school. I walked into the bank with ones, fives , tens all from my tips and paychecks. (Not a stripper) . It was my shinning moment .. Then I met this guy.

He threw me off my goals. Even my body knew he wasn’t right for me. I got sick. He eased my pain with drugs and sex. Then I got pregnant. I failed the semester I worked so hard to pay for . I quit my jobs. I was losing my mind.

My pregnancy was so hard. I didn’t like it one bit. That’s when he mentally broke me. I found condoms in his house. Here I was 6 months pregnant and he broke me. Pregnant, heartbroken and jobless the life right?

We… honestly I tried so hard to make it work to prevent a broken family for my baby. I stayed for the baby & I was miserable. Years of holes in the walls, fights, and crying. I checked out. My escape plan was to stay with to my grandma.. then sis died on me. Literally on me. I watched her take her last breathe as I walked her to her bed. I couldn’t go back to my dads he kicked us out. So I took my baby and started life alone.

For a year I was happy I felt myself coming back. Then.. I opened the door one last time. I let him back into my life. Nothing changed . He broke up with me for a girl he fell in love with on tinder … spoiler alert! It was me. I catfished him and watched him ignore my text to text her. He had to go. My abandonment issues caused me to sleep with him again after all his apologies . Guess what happened next … I got pregnant. If I knew I was pregnant I wouldn’t have kept her. When I found out I was already 2 months and sis had a heartbeat. The thought out being stuck with him again sicken me. I used to tell him my goals and dreams & he would shoot them down every time. “Why you need a college degree? We don’t have time for that we have kids” he was content with the $17/ hr we made but I wanted more.

I begged God to release me from these shackles. So he did. Biggest fight we’ve ever had ended with him moving out. Freedom bells ringing. Once he left . The ideal to fin for myself and my babies scared me . I’ve watched so many women become single moms I didn’t want to fall into the lifestyle but I did and honestly it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Here it is 2022 2 almost 3 years without him, I’m rich in credit, got my degree and a great paying job. I allowed this one person to try to ruin my life but I overcame. God needed me to remove him out my life to receive my blessings . I did . I’m free .

[harviekeith]

raindrops

What a gloomy, after-rain morning it is. You know, I kind of looked forward to this kind of weather these past few days, because then people and things will seem to move so slowly, and I will finally have more time to myself, to reflect and think. But now, as I'm writing this with my coffee while I listen to my carefully-formed playlist, this gloomy, after-rain morning has made me gloomy myself.

Staring blankly outside, as raindrops race down the window pane, a memory came rushing back to my mind, forcing itself to be my current thought. A painting I made yesterday for someone I like...this guy I met from Art Twitter. I think that is where this desolation started. You can't just blame it on anyone if the same energy is not reciprocated. You liked someone and you acted on that feeling with so much passion, it is not your fault. And it's not their fault as well if they don't feel the same way. It is best to not put the blame on anyone or anything, just accept it and move on. But in my case, I could not move on. I have always been the kind of person who gets attached easily and invest so much. (an on-point description of me). And that guy I'm talking about, we haven't even talked that much, the only conversation we had was when I showed him the painting, then he thanked me, and I was kind of testing the waters and trying to keep the conversation going but it felt like he wanted to end it already. So, there's that...

I don't know why, but I always paint the people I like, I love. Maybe because it doesn't cost anything but means so much. The first time I painted someone was back in 2017, to this guy I consider my first love. They say your first love is someone who broke your heart and hurt you the worst. Well, this guy definitely hurt me the worst so far. (by the way, this is another one of those annoying unreciprocated, putting-meaning-to-everything-kind-of love story, but please continue...xoxo). But unlike that Art Twitter guy, this one, let's just call him Blue, we had moments. Moments which really got me thinking, "Does he like me, too? Yeah, he likes me too. But maybe not? I don't know".

Blue was my classmate throughout college and I've liked him all throughout college too. We'd talk every night reviewing for our quizzes the next day and though we have 7am class, we'd still talk until midnight. But it's the complete opposite when we're in class. He wasn't confessing or making any moves which made me think that maybe he does not like me. Then came Valentine's day 2017, I met up with him one night near his house and gave him sunflowers, a painting I made and a poetry I wrote. I was too afraid to confess but I think it was obvious with what I just did on a Valentine's day, yet nothing from him still. Though our late night conversations still continued. Then September 2018, there was this music festival at our school. We went and we had fun. It was raining, then my friend said he saw Blue kissed some other guy. My heart dropped with the music and my tears fell with the rain. One moment I was shouting in joy, then the next, I was shouting in pain. I was just glad it was raining and I was with my friends, because I could not stop crying that night, especially on the walk home. I can clearly remember it all. My friends comforted me in my misery and the rain hugged me in my every step. So that same night at our place, I messaged him and confessed. But he said, he appreciates the regard but he only sees me as a friend. So, there's also that...

I was so heartbroken. I had to see him in class everyday and pretended I was okay (which, thankfully, I was so good at). I don't even know if I've fully healed from that. I still kind of miss him. Especially when it rains, I think about him a lot. I still write letters to him, which I don't send of course, I just read them whenever it rains, because that's when my heart died, yet I still have love for him. And I can only wish he sees them everytime I post online. I wonder if he wonders about me wondering about him, or if I'm doing fine. (If your reading this, Blue, I'm doing fine, but since then, I'm no longer okay.)

This gloomy morning, this rain, what a comfort its sound is, yet what a damn time machine. It felt like every raindrop, its sound carries a memory.  But I'd still read the letters whenever it rains, hoping they'll relay the message to him, for I know that wherever he is, the rain will be there too.

[meaningtotellyou]

Okay I'm gonna get emotional and kind of serious again. I just want to say that by Tuesday afternoon, I had completely given up the hope that I would be able to attend my secret session that next day. I spent the 5 days before that heartbroken. I couldn't sleep, hardly eat, I was crying so much. THAT'S how hard it hit me. But then something clicked. I tried one more option for transportation, and it actually WORKED. I had a ride. I have never moved so fast in my life as I did to call TN back and get the last bit of details I needed. Taylor stalked me that night, too, as if just to make it that much better.. my things were the last she liked before going offline. I was up at 7am on Wednesday, and in Rhode Island at our location by 3pm. The rest of the night goes as you can imagine.

I just want to say that.. I'm so happy I didn't give up. I'm so happy I pushed that last little bit to get this dream fulfilled. I got to meet some of my friends. I now have two pictures with Taylor when I thought I would have zero. I had the best night of my life and I'm so, so, so happy that things worked out the way they did. If the opportunity falls into your lap, don't let it pass. This opportunity will come for so many more of you, I feel it.

[atombombbibunny]

I Know Part Two

Word count: 2749 

Summary: Waking up to banging at the door

Wanring: Annnnnngst, smuuuuuuuuut.

A/N: OKAY! I just want to thank everyone again! You all have made me tear up, I never would have thought my writing would get any notes, you guys are all amazing with your reblogs and thank you so much for following me those that have. I’ve so nervous on sharing this as the first part has soooo much pressure one this one and I’m not great on writing smut, haha…(Update) I was never the biggest fan of this chapter so a lot has changed. I hope you take the time to read it and I really hope you enjoy it. Thanks!

Okay..I’ll shut up.

Yo shout out to @merrahonthawall for helping me with the rewriting! 

Tags: @serkewen12 @juggiejuggs @probably-bianca @shamagangster @musicalmoriarty @ginnemer @getupoffathatthing-blog @the-sad-but-happy-person @schizophrenina @dontcallmehelpless @nadialinett14 @scum-fairy @sarcastic-ohohoh @astudentsnightmare @merrahonthawall @elisethepensivewriter @scrabblesense @doodleshorty @followingnaturespath @danielsharaman @bumbleliv @mzqueentina @autistic-alien @imdreedinglife (So sorry if I missed anyone! Let me know if I did)

Your legs felt weak and heavy with every step you took towards your door; you were emotionally drained and wanted to get inside your house before you broke down. After getting in you walked blindly into your bedroom, throwing your shoes off you landed with a loud thump onto the comfort of your bed.

You sat silently for a few moments before your tears finally broke free. You laid still as the hot tears burned down your face, sob after sob burst through your aching throat. The embarrassment tore through your body as you pulled your knees to your chest.

You were an embarrassment to yourself.

 Would you be able to show your face to anyone ever again?

 Has Daveed told anyone

 Does he hate you now…?

 The painful anxious questions repeated in your mind, it was 3am and you were still wide awake, the guilt sat heavily in your heart and pumped through your veins as you stared blankly at your bedroom wall.

You felt some exhaustion, but you felt that it would be unfair to get any sleep, god knows Daveed was awake.

How you wished that you could call him, to hear his voice… But you were probably the last person he wanted to talk to at this moment.

As the minutes slipped by your burning tender eyes began to blur, your body ached from the hours of crying. You had heard your phone buzz a few times but chose to ignore it.

You knew Rafael had some sense of your feelings for Daveed, you could see it in his eyes after Daveed brought up how he had told him of his plans to propose, you saw the fear and guilt as he looked back at you.

You felt so stupid at that moment, one second you felt you could tell him anything and the next he had betrayed you.

Groaning you pulled your pillow over your head, you felt so selfish for your thoughts and actions you hated yourself for it.

As more minutes ticked by sleep finally found you, drifting off, you hoped that this night was nothing more than a nightmare.

Your body jolted awake around 7am, the sun beamed down over your face, you opened your sore eyes to the morning and groaned as your head pounded roughly. Unfortunately, the memories of last night were still alive and well in your mind, as your stomach churned at the thought of your mistakes your body shivered with nausea. You bolted from your bed to your bathroom and released the whiskey from the previous night.

You spent an hour glued to the cold bathroom floor, cooling your face and regretting everything that happened, every time you blinked you could see Daveed’s lost heartbroken face and your heart tensed.

Finally forcing yourself up you changed from your dress into your pajamas and headed to the kitchen for water.

The hours flew by like minutes, barely keeping track of the time. The only thing that would get your attention would be the buzzing coming from your phone every once and a while. Though you ignored it completely it was the only thing that brought you back from your swimming thoughts and emotions.

By some miracle the day was over as 1am came around and you were still seated on the couch, exhaustion plagued your body, as you were about to completely pass out a loud knock had your body jumping and your heart pounding with adrenaline.

The knock became pounding which continued with every step, when you reached for your doorknob you took in a deep breath before turning it.

Swinging the door open you froze, just like last night, Daveed stood in front of you. His face was tired, he was still in the clothes from the night before and he looked hurt, but mostly angry.

You attempted to slam the door shut, you’d listen to him banging on the door all night if you had too, it would be better than talking to him right this second. But his hand smacked roughly against the closing door forcing it open once more, he moved fast as he walked past you and inside your house.

Taking a shaky breath, you muttered. “Get out.” From the still open door. You turned to face him; he was just staring at you. “I said get out!” You shouted; your voice echoing into the empty street. He was suddenly in front of you once more causing you to move back and close the door with you, his hands rested on either side of you. “So, what you’re just going to ignore me?” He questioned; his voice was hoarse. You refused to look at him, his hand slammed against the door causing you to jump as he pushed himself away from you. “Dammit, Y/N. You cannot just do this to me!”  He barked as he sat on your couch putting his face in his hands and kicking at your coffee table.

“Then leave.” You offered; he ignored your words as he pulled his hair back. “Why did you do this to me?” Before you could defend yourself, he exploded once more. “I haven’t slept, eaten, anything since last night! I have barely spoken two words to Lauren and its your fault!” He accused. You let out a scoff. “I didn’t plan this Daveed.” You snapped back at him. “You may not have planned it.” He growled. “But you’ve ruined my life.” You could feel your heart pound violently in your chest, it hurt, not as much as his words though. “I wasn’t the one who kissed you!” You shouted. “You kissed me!” Pointing at him angrily. “Why didn’t you just let me leave!?” Tears pricked at your eyes, it felt like glass cutting into you. “You tell me!” He seethed clenching his fists. “You tell me why you acted like that!” You shook your head wishing this would all just end. “Daveed just get the hell out, go back to Lauren.”

“I said tell me!” He ordered standing from the couch. “Because I love you, you fucking idiot!” You snapped, he took a step forward, as you went to back up you realized there was nowhere to go. “No, you don’t.” He argued, you scoffed in disbelief. “No, you’re right, I just did it to ruin your night.” He continued to step towards you. “That’s sure what it felt like, what is it you hate Lauren?” Shaking your head, you closed your eyes, tears slipped down your cheeks. “I don’t hate her.” You mumbled. “Then what? You hate me? You hate to see me happy, don’t you?” You sobbed as he threw insults at you. “You’re selfish Y/N!”

“Yes, I know that! And I’m sorry!” You screamed back. “And you know that, so why the fuck are you here!?” Daveed stopped moving as he stared at your shaking body. “Why couldn’t you have told me sooner.” You felt your heart tense in the moment, glancing up to look into his eyes. His anger still sat in them, but heartbreak was visible as he stared down at you. “Daveed.” He wiped the stream of tears falling on your cheeks before his hand slipped behind your neck, pulling you into an intense kiss. His bitterness lingered on his tongue as it danced with yours, you could feel him pushing you harder into the door making it impossible for you to move. Goosebumps spread across your skin like wildfire as his fingers gripped into your neck. He moved back to give you some room to breathe. “Daveed.” You barely whispered. “Shut up.” He begged lowly; he was still frustrated but desperation dripped in his words.

His lips hungrily met yours as his hands cupped your cheeks gently, you wanted to live in this moment forever. You could feel his heart beating rapidly against your chest as he pulled you up against him.

Your mind began to go blank as his hands slid to your waist and his lips moved down your neck, your hands instinctively grasped onto his biceps as your waist was pulled to his, you bit back a moan but allowed it to shiver down your spine. You could feel his lips curve up slightly and his hands gripped into your waist harder.

His fingers slid up and around the elastic band of your pajama shorts, you cursed yourself for being caught in this outfit but loved the feeling of his fingers on the bare skin of your lower stomach.

He swiftly spun the two of you over and began backing into your bedroom, the seconds between the front door and your room felt like one step as you were soon knocked down onto your bed. His fingers slid the left strap of your shirt down as he placed soft kisses, you shivered from his touch. His lips glided up your neck once more. “Kitten.” He muttered against your skin. This time you couldn’t hold back the moan that slipped from your lips. His hands left your body as he began to undo his day old dress shirt, you watched in awe as it was quickly off and discarded into the corner of your room, he moved and sat beside you, his hands began to grip the sides of your waist you instinctively moved your legs to sit in his lap.

You knew this was going to make things worse, you knew exactly how wrong this was. But as his hand slid under your top you couldn’t help but move to his instruction and remove it. He sucked in a breath as his eyes slid over your naked torso, you felt self conscious, but his lips found yours once more and his hand slid down your side causing your hips to grind to his touch. Both thumbs were in the elastic of the shorts and rubbing your hips, you could barely breathe as you moved your hips up for them to slide off and down your legs.

Before you had the chance for a thought you felt a finger slide in and massage you, your head was thrown back, and a breathy moan broke through. You tried to find some words to say but all you could do was inhale and exhale deeply as his finger moved, teasing you.

Your head fell forward once more, hair falling in your face, your lips met lightly as your hand slipped down to find his belt, Daveed exhaled a groan while your hand grazed against him. Unbuckling it you quickly undid the rest of the buttons and zipper. Daveed wrapped an arm around your back and he lifted up and slid them and his boxers down. Your heart pounded roughly in your chest as you knew there was absolutely no going back to how things were.

He lowered the two of you back down and your hand went to wrap around him, he let out a hot breath on your neck his tongue soon grazing your skin. The two of you were stuck in a different world as he nuzzled into you harder. “Please, Y/N.” You slowly lowered your body, your arms wrapped around his neck and just as you felt him enter, you let out a breathy exhale. Your fingers gripped into his skin harder. Daveed groaned his fingers still on your waist. His lips locked onto your neck as you began to grind in rhythm with one another.

He sucked harder as his hands moved with your hips, rocking you back and forth as you rode him. “Damn.” Was all he could hiss as you continued to regain your breath with every thrust. You could feel his teeth grazing the skin of your neck as you moved a little faster on his hips.

“Fuck.” He grumbled his nails digging into your skin. You whimpered as you felt a familiar pressure beginning to grow in the pit of your stomach. Daveed’s breathing changed to hotter and heavier and you knew he could feel it too, you could feel as you tightened around him and him letting out a throaty groan told you that he was enjoying every movement you made.

“Y-Y/N” He stuttered out as he began to move into you faster. You could only nod as you let out a moan your body bouncing against his. Your knuckles tightened as you grabbed at his hair. Daveed’s hands moved to your back as he peppered your chest with deep gnawing kisses, his nails sliding down your back, pulling your hair slightly.

You pulled your head back as you placed your hands on your thighs and moved slow and deep onto him. “Oh god, I’m going-“ You ground down once more and felt as he crashed into you, his final thrust had waves of pleasure rippling through every vein in your naked body. Your moan came out stifled as your head fell forward into the crook of his neck. Both of you fell backwards, you adjusted yourself to lay next to him and soon sleep overtook you.

You were unsure when Daveed fell asleep, or if he had slept.

You awoke to the faint noises coming from outside your bedroom, your eyes opened to almost the same burning sensation as yesterday. Your body ached from the odd position you fell asleep in and almost instantly you felt the lack of a body next to you.

Leaning up on your elbows you scanned the room, other than your clothes laying on the floor below, it was empty.

You moved slowly as your legs felt like rusted metal. You pulled on the pajamas on the floor and exited the room, walking down the hallway it was eerily quiet and when the kitchen came into view you saw Daveed leaning over a mug of what you assumed was coffee.

He must have heard your feet dragging on the floor as he soon turned around to face you, his expression looked to be filled with fear and deep sunken bags sat under his eyes. You opened your mouth before realizing you didn’t actually know what you wanted to say. The two of you stood in absolute silence.

Daveed’s fingers tapped nervously against the counter. “I should go.” He grumbled out. “You’re not serious.” You argued with a light scoff. “I shouldn’t have come here last night.” Daveed said looking around like he was missing something, you knew he was just avoiding more eye contact. “Then why did you?” You questioned your arm grasped at the other, the sight of him avoiding you was breaking you.

“I-I, don’t know Y/N, okay? I don’t know.” He pushed his hair away from his face. “You can’t just do this to me!” You shouted; it took the both of you to do what happened last night. “I’m getting married, Y/N.” Your nails dug into your arm; the sharp pain couldn’t stop your eyes from welling up. “I haven’t forgotten Daveed.” The bitter words fell out. “So, what do you want me to say?” A single tear burned down your cheek. “Nothing, I expect nothing from you.” You snapped, Daveed stopped his movements to finally remake eye contact. “What does that mean?” You couldn’t help but scoff. “Just get out Daveed.” He took a step towards you, but you moved backwards, just like the night of the engagement party. “Don’t try to touch me.” You warned staring him down. “Get out, I don’t want to see you again.” Daveed ignored your command and stepped forward again. “Daveed get out!” You yelled, you wanted nothing more for him to caress your cheek like he did last night, but you couldn’t stay in the fairy-tale any longer. As he took another step towards you, you grabbed the empty coffee mug in threw it in his direction. “I said get out!” Your voice trembled as the mug smashed on the ground shattering across your floor.

Daveed paused for a moment before moving towards the door. Your face was red as the tears slid down your cheeks, you were so tired of crying, so tired of yelling, so tired. Daveed stopped at the door, ready to turn the knob, he froze for a second, most likely waiting for you to stop him. As it became clear that that wasn’t going to be happening, he looked back at you. “I’m not coming back.” He muttered. You swallowed the knot in your throat before letting out a broken. “Good.” From your lips.

The door was quickly opened, then quickly closed.

[eldaryalltheway]

How you the boys feel if Candy/ Guardienne left without a trace?

It’s the fourth time I try to write this.

Also, I don’t get notifications about the requests I’m ???

Well, but I hope you like it! I was a bit clueless about what to do with this one :v

Lots of love

MCL:

Nathaniel:

Nath would be a bit clueless and broken?

Like yesterday you were smiling and loving him

And then he wakes up and you’re not there

He tries to wait for you but then notices some of your clothes are gone, your phone, computer… everything.

There was no ticket or an explanation, you just left.

He would feel so empty and confuse, was it something he did? Or were you suffering in silence?

He would try his best not to freak out and call to your family and friends, but they had no idea you left.

He will definitely report it to the police

Life without you wasn’t the same, he didn’t know what to feel, say or do. He was devasted,

Castiel:

Castiel would feel so betrayed like, he trusted you everything and loved you with all his heart and you just left him without an explanation or even a talk?

He couldn’t trust anyone but you so in the end he cries a lot.

Probably overthinks about this, has insomnia, doesn’t even eat.

Will also contact your friends and family

Would risk his life to search for you

This guy is pretty stubborn so I kinda doubt he will stop searching for you soon.

He just wants you in his arms again ):

Lysandre/Lysander/Lysandro:

Would probably be clueless and didn’t even care at the beginning. 

He thought that you left to go shopping or something so he didn’t pay THAT attention.

But the time passes and he notices some of your things are gone and like?? You didn’t even call

Tries to call you but it doesn’t even ring

Starts to get worried and calls your friends, family, the school and maybe the hospital

And then he gets desesperate, notice your clothes aren’t even there

How did he not notice? But mostly, how didn’t he notice that you weren’t okay?

Heartbroken seriously.

Maybe will try to search for you and tell the police, but will accept your will to go and give up.

Armin:

He wouldn’t also notice at first. Since he’s a bit of an air head he thought that you probably told him where you went but he forgot.

He messages you, but if after like 7 hours you don’t reply/call he will be worried.

Called you, but it didn’t ring.

Called your family but they didn’t knew anything about you in days.

Starts to get worried and looks in the house: your favourite perfume? not there! your clothes? gone! letters? no where to be found!

Thinks that he did something wrong, probably crying, not too much.

Tries to search for clues but then remembers he can try to localize you through your phone signal!

He runs to the place the signal caught you lastly, is devasted to see that you’re not there.

Can’t find a clue about you, tries to run through the roads and forests and in the end, he just gives hope, but never loses the hope that one day you’ll be back. In the first months whenever Alexy unlocks the door, he thinks that it’s you, but you’re never there.

Heartbroken, sad.

Kentin:

This boy would notice just from feeling that the bed was too cold!

Goes to the kitchen, bathroom, garden, living room, attic… And gets a bit desesperated! You always tell him where are you going before leaving! 

Also, 7am? You would never wake up that early, he knows it!

Any of your clothes were there, nor shoes, jewelry, computer.

Tries to call you, he does ring but no one answers.

Would freak out and call the police.

Will remember after to call your parents and friends, but they don’t know anything.

CRIES A LOT POOR CHILD

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!

Never gives up, he will find you one day and he stills is very positive about that!

Will cry himself to sleep.

Is really heartbroken.

ELDARYA:

Nevra:

Would def. be worried like, where do you think you went alone lady?

Would ask EVERYONE if they have seen you, probably gets answers like “no” and “I was searching for her too”.

Asks the guards if they have seen you leaving the gates, but they say they don’t.

GETS MAD

“Oh so she flew?”

Thinks you were kidnapped by someone! Makes everything he can to find clues of anything!

Tries to find you by your smell, steps that ended in the middle of nowhere, like did you fucking fly?

He’s so worried and sad, but also a bit salty you didn’t told him anything, like he fucking trusted you what the hell.

The Shadow Guard (idk) will defenitely be searching for you if the Light Guard didn’t want to.

Would be so hurt, you didn’t even said anything…

NEVER gives up.

Ezarel:

Searches for you, doesn’t find you, gets mad at you, stops.

You had things to do with him today.

Random people start asking him if he has seen you and he’s like “I thought she was with you????”

Searches for you even in the damn toilet!

His heart is beating so fast, he’s not joking anymore!

Starts screaming for your name, sends his pet to search you in all places he can!

Searches the forest alone and with help of the guard.

Tries to make a potion that can find you, will probably make the absynthe guard help him do it. (like you drop it on the floor and you can see X people steps)

Everyone is like ???, specially his guard because he’s normally so chill he’s never mad or anything so they really obey him and try to satisfy him.

SISTAR’s Alone mood for sure: “Walks alone, cries alone, gets drunk alone, and cries and cries again, can’t sleep because of you”.

He’s half heartbroken and half mad.

Loses hope but out of nowhere he finds random clues that gives him 7 minutes of hope.

Valkyon:

Oh Dear, I have no idea about you Valk.

Would be sad, heartbroken and desesperate like the others where!

Would try to be a detective and find clues, but fails.

Reports this to Miiko after making sure everyone in his Guard and his “close friends” like the boys, kero, ykhar where already informed and asked to search for you with him.

Half of him gives up, but the other one doesn’t.

Is really stubborn about anything.

Thinks if he didn’t say anything that might hurt you.

THINKS YOU COMMITED SUICIDE AND IS OVERTHINKING BECAUSE “HOW DID I NOT NOTICE IM TERRIBLE”

w o r r i e d (people do this sometimes, it seemed cool so I did it too :|)

Can’t sleep correctly.

You should’ve stayed with him.

FIGHTS OVER YOUR ASS.

Doesn’t accept *inserts annoying voice* “we did everything we could” like stfu and keep searching.